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sweetbans29 · 23 days

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Hey You - CC

Pairing: Caitlin Clark x reader

Summary: You and Caitlin have a history - from growing up together to dating in high school. You both decided that it would be best to end things before going to college and that's what you did. Little did you know that seeing each other nearly four years later would have you both admitting things should have been different.

Warnings: You are looking at some angst, some suggestive themes and some fluff, nothing too crazy ;) mentions of head injury

Word Count: 6.0k

Hey You PART 2

Sweetbans Masterlist

AN: Hi and welcome! This is my first writing and would love any feedback or ideas! I hope you enjoy!

You were sitting in the backseat of your friend's car rubbing your hands on your jeans. Your friend Jamie was driving you and two other friends to the women's NCAA basketball game in Cleveland. All of you attended a university in Pittsburgh and thought it would be a fun girls' day to go watch the championship game. It was going to be iconic and deep down, you knew you wouldn't miss it for the world. You had been following the teams closely this year despite the squeeze to your heart that came with seeing her name. Looking out the window you continue to rub your hands on your pants.

Your friends all knew Iowa was home for you and that you played basketball growing up. They knew you had friends who ended up playing college ball but an injury you suffered junior year of high school caused you to shift gears when it came to college. They also knew that you and Caitlin Clark had played high school ball together - but that was all they knew on the subject. They didn't know you had grown up together and had been best friends since the first day of sixth grade or that she held your heart in high school and may or may not hold it today.

As you look out the window your mind begins to wander back to when you were young...

It was the first day of sixth grade and your family had just moved to Des Moines, IA for your dad's job. Starting at a new school at the start of junior high was not ideal but you were determined to make the best of it. As you entered homeroom - you took a seat next to another girl who wasn't completely dolled up due to it being the first day. You didn't say anything as you sat down and pulled out a notebook that was completely covered in NBA stickers. The girl next to you perked up when she looked over and saw several familiar faces, even some of her favorites.

She leans over and points to one of the players and says, "That is one of my favorites." I look up at her with a huge smile and reply, "He is great but not as great as Kobe." She nods in agreement and we continue talking about other players who made their spotlight on your Fivestar notebook.

Fast forward to freshman year of high school - you and Caitlin are at pre-season training. Both of you had a single goal in mind which was making varsity. You knew she would make it no problem, but for you, it was going to take a little more. The two of you put in the work, when you weren't at training you were either at a park practicing or at her house training. When you found out you both made varsity after all those hours of hard work you went out to get froyo to celebrate. The night ended with a sleepover at yours that included a movie marathon and many many snacks.

When you snap back to being present with your friends, you realize you are already at the arena. You take a deep breath and get out of the car with your friends to brave the lines to enter the stadium. It was amazing to see the attention women's college basketball has gotten during March Madness this year. The spotlight on all the teams in the Sweet Sixteen, then the Elite Eight to the Final Four all leading to today had brought a lot of attention to the sport and the players. Not only the spotlight on the teams but the spotlight put on Caitlin was something that never really surprised you as you knew how incredible she was and is. Seeing how much she had blown up made you proud of the player she had become but also rattled the box you had put her in that lived in the deepest part of your heart. As you are standing in line to get in, your mind takes you back again...

It was the summer before junior year and your mom and dad just surprised you with your own car. You freaked out and couldn't stop thanking them. Of course, it was their pleasure as you were almost the perfect child. Caitlin was already on her way over as you had plans to go out to get food before having a lazy day. The two of you always worked hard but on the other side of that, you both had major lazy days throughout your friendship. These lazy days consisted of movie marathons, pillow forts, naps, and all the snacks you could ever imagine. The beginning of these days stemmed from making plans one day but you were both so tired you ended up napping on the floor in Caitlin's living room, never seeing the light of day.

Caitlin pulls in and you come running out pointing at the car in the driveway. She jumps out of her car and you both freak out and jump right in. After grabbing food you headed back to yours and settled into the pillow fort you had set up before she got there. You throw on Princess Diaries and you both are knocked out within the first 20 minutes.

When you feel yourself come back to consciousness, you notice the only light in the room is coming from the TV screen. You also felt extremely hot. As you begin to move you feel a squeeze around your torso. Looking down, a smile appears on your face as you realize Caitlin is cuddled into your side and hugging you as if you were a teddy bear. Your arm is draped around her back as her head is nestled into your neck. Her breath is steady - inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. It was slightly comedic as she has a solid few inches on you but when she was curled up into your side she looked like a little girl. You slowly start to rub her back and you hear her groan and bury herself deeper into you and butterflies erupt in your stomach.

This wasn't the first time that you both had ended up cuddling next to each other on a lazy day. It had become more common over the last few months than it had been before. You noticed it was typically Caitlin who ended up cuddled into your side but every blue moon you ended up in her arms. Once one of you woke up, you would usually break apart almost immediately - secretly both wishing it would last longer. It all felt so natural that neither of you questioned it. Due to how dedicated you both were to your sport neither of you really had time for boys or relationships so you both just leaned into each other.

You continue to rub her back until you feel her fingers play with the backside of your shirt - this is your signal that she is no longer asleep. Neither of you made a move to untangle yourselves from the other and that was when you knew that the feelings you were pushing down for your best friend might be reciprocated and that alone was enough to hold her even tighter.

Later that night you took your new car and went to get ice cream. You both sat there for hours talking and laughing. That night held your first kiss with Caitlin. It was in the parking lot of your local grocery store, a pint of ice cream in the center console. It was nothing crazy but as you drove back home with her hand in your hand, neither of you could wipe the smile off of your face.

You are brought back to reality when your friend nudged you for the tickets as you were next to get them scanned. While you didn't have to worry about the drive, you were tasked with getting the tickets. Grabbing your phone, you open up your tickets for the guy to scan. As you all pass through security at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, you make your way to your seats before braving the sea of spectators to grab yourself some food and a drink (there was no way you were getting through this whole event without a drink by your side).

The usher directed you to where your seats were and you were insanely grateful that you were the one to choose where you all sat. You choose the same section you always supported Caitlin in your senior year of high school...

It was the championship game junior year of high school and you were in the starting lineup. The game was going to be a tough one but you had no doubt in your mind that it wasn't yours for the taking. Everything was perfect. You were already talking to a couple schools to play in college. Caitlin and you had been dating for a few months and you were going to ask her to be your girlfriend your next lazy day which so happened to be tomorrow. Everything seemed it was going your way.

The seconds were counting down in the second quarter and the score was 38-38. If there was one thing you knew, it was that you were not going into halftime tied. You were passed the ball as the seconds ticked away. The other team had just scored, which gave your team possession with just enough time to make something happen. As you made your way down the court you scoped out the scene in front of you. The other team was doing everything in their power to avoid yours from scoring.

Your first vision played out was getting the ball to Caitlin, knowing she could make it happen but the girl defending her was doing a damn good job of keeping her just out of reach. You then scanned to my other teammate Jada who you knew was great at getting the ball where it needed to go in the nick of time. As you were about to pass it her way you took one final look at the clock and realized that time was just about out. You made the decision to take it up the middle, faking the defender that was covering you and going for a quick layup on the left side. As your last foot left the ground, before you knew it you were back against the ground with a pulsing head and pain shooting everywhere.

You don't dare move, you have no idea what just happened. There is a ringing in both of your ears and your vision is blurry and the pain - the pain has your body shutting down to protect itself. Your eyes start to close slowly as you faintly feel someone grab your arm as someone appears in your sight. It takes you a second to realize it is Caitlin - you give a small smile. Then everything goes black.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. That is the first thing you hear as you start to regain consciousness. Confusion hits almost immediately as the last thing you remember is getting ready to play the championship game. You begin to wiggle your fingers and they feel sore, now that you start to feel more - everything is sore.

Before you decide to open your eyes you try to take a deep breath. Yet another thing that is painful to do. You decide you need to open your eyes to figure out where you are and what has happened. As your eyes open, it takes a few blinks to get a clear picture of what is in front of you. You are in the hospital, in a hospital bed. The sun is shining in through the window and you start to look around to see if you can find any clues as to what has happened. There are no casts or bandages that you can see but when you make a minor move in the bed it felt like you got hit by a truck.

Your mom was in the room reading a book. When you began to move, you let out a groan which caused her to look up and quickly make her way to your side. As she gets to your bedside, your dad makes his way through the doorway.

"Baby girl, oh baby girl," your mom begins as she gives you a hug which really only causes more pain to shoot around your body but you weren't going to push her away. Your dad comes and sits on your other side and takes hold of your hand.

"Hi sweetie," your dad says. You look up at him and with your eyes try and get him to explain what had happened, knowing your mom wasn't in a state to do so.

"You were taken out seconds before the halftime buzzer went off," he began. Your eyes lay intently on him. He takes a moment before continuing. "You were going for a layup to put your team ahead going into halftime and a girl from the other team misjudged your movement and body slammed you causing you to go head-first into the ground."

It then all started coming back to you, the pain that shot straight to your head and trying to not pass out. You let go of his hand and start to feel around your head. It had a wrap around it which you didn't even think about when you were making your first assessment of what had happened. Your dad continued.

"You were rushed to the hospital due to your ears bleeding and you not waking up. The doctors determined you had a skull fracture and took you to an emergency surgery. Everything went smoothly and you are recovering well," your father says with sad eyes. If there is anything you know about your dad it is that he shares your dream of going to a D1 school to play basketball in college. The way he was looking at you right now, you immediately knew that even though the surgery went well, everything you had hoped and dreamed about was all about to change.

You continued to listen to how your parents were so happy you were alive and okay and that you should make a full recovery - even though you knew deep down that it truly wouldn't be full. You had learned that it has been almost 2 days since the game. Your parents step out of the room to give you some time to rest - even though you couldn't look at a screen that just left you sitting there with life-changing news. You looked around to see if you could find your phone to text or call Caitlin when she made her way through the door.

She looks just as beat up as you feel. As she walks up to you, she avoids eye contact which you so desperately wanted. Without saying a word, she comes up to your bedside and slowly makes her way into the hospital bed with you. You lift your arm and allow her to curl up by your side. A deep breath finally escapes your body and as you exhale you can feel her body release silent sobs.

All you can do is rub her back. Lying there with her has jogged your memory that she was the last face you saw before you blacked out on the court. Knowing her, these past two days were probably a living hell. You muster up all the strength you have to lean down and kiss the top of her head.

Not many people knew about your relationship. It was really only family and your coaches. Being on the same team, you both decided it would be best to keep your relationship between the two of you. It was a challenge at times but everyone knew the two of you were best friends so there were a lot of things that you did that people wouldn't look twice at.

One thing about Caitlin was that certain things were enhanced when you two started dating. Most of the things didn't affect your day-to-day like the amount of sweatshirts she stole doubled (which didn't bother you as you would just steal hers to replace the ones she had taken, it got to the point where it started a playful argument over a sweatshirt that she swore was here but was actually originally yours). Another that affected her more than either of us really realized was how protective she had become.

You first realized this when you got fouled at practice and Caitlin got all up into her space yelling at her. You had to grab her and pull her away which then led your coach to call for everyone to do suicide sprints. You don't even want to think about the girl who fouled you in the game and caused you to be hospitalized.

"Hey you," you say as it had sort of become your way of saying 'hey babe' without the world knowing. You feel her shift in your arms as she brings her hand up to wipe away her tears.

"You scared me," is all she says before letting out a few more silent sobs. You continue to rub her back and give her shoulder a little squeeze.

"You can't get rid of me that easily," you respond with a laugh. The laugh hurts but decide to keep quite about your pain, only quiet to Caitlin, never your doctors.

The two of you spend the rest of the afternoon cuddled up on the hospital bed. When the sun starts to go down you tell Caitlin she should head home to get some rest. She protests, of course, but ultimately folds to your request. She comes over and gives you a quick peck which leaves you unsatisfied. You grab her hand and pull her back to give her a proper kiss. As your lips part you mumble a breathy 'I love you'. It was the first time it had been said between the two of you in a manner that wasn't referring to your friendship. The smile that spread across her face lifted your soul.

"I love you," she replies as she leans down pressing her lips against yours. "Well not I REALLY don't want to go," she says with a laugh.

"One night won't hurt anyone - also you need a shower," you say making a face to try and sell the fact that you just called your girlfriend smelly. She scoffs and waves you off.

Following getting out of the hospital, it was a hard reality to face that you weren't going to be able to play ball for a long while. The journey ahead was a long one and you couldn't be more thankful that Caitlin was right by your side.

Two of your friends were coming back with beers when you snapped back to where you were. It was just about time for the athletes to come out and begin their warm-ups. Your heart began to race as you heard the announcer call the teams out.

As both teams make their way onto the floor, your eyes scan for her. As much as you didn't want to, you couldn't help yourself. It took about a whole 5 seconds to find her. Your heart stops and it feels like time slows as you see her running out and making her way to warm up. The first thing you notice is how even after four years, she starts warming up from the same spot. She is on the opposite side of the court facing where you are sitting getting ready to start her pregame ritual. You then notice, how her upper body has filled out a little more as she has matured and increased her strength training. Her hair is in a neatly pulled-back pony with a headband to catch her flyaways. She was as cool as a cucumber.

There were so many things that amazed you about Caitlin but one of the biggest ones was how calm she was before a game. Especially a game like today.

She was completely mesmerizing. You couldn't help but smile, knowing that she was living her dream. You watched her as she continued to warm up and couldn't wait to cheer her on.

The seats you had chosen were right across from Iowa's bench. every game you watched your senior year of high school was from this exact location.

As the warm-ups come to an end and they are just about to announce the starting lineup, your heartbeat begins to quicken...

Going into senior year, your relationship with Caitlin was better than ever. It was a tough journey to come to face the fact that you weren't going to play ball your senior year but you put all that extra energy into loving and supporting Caitlin. You still went to practice and your coach sort of brought you on as an assistant coach. It was great still being a part of the team.

You decided to play the role of the supportive girlfriend during games rather than sitting on the bench with the other players and coaches. It wasn't that you couldn't sit on the bench, rather it came from knowing how competitive Caitlin gets. She didn't need another person telling her how things could have been different or better, she needed someone who was going to cheer her on no matter what and get her out of her head when she got tunnel vision. She was the hardest person on herself.

Before every game when they called her name in the lineup as starting point guard and she made her way down the line of girls she got to the end and pointed to you with a smile. Then at the end of every game, you would wait down the hall of the girls' locker room and greet her when the team got out of their post-game meeting. It became your guys' things.

You weren't expecting it. It didn't even occur to you but when they announce her name and she makes her way down the court and at the end of the line she points directly in your direction and smiles. Your heart stops and she stops in her tracks, her smile dropping immediately. She does a double-take and just stares at you for a second. A small smile starts to creep onto your face and her eyes are on yours. You give her a little nod and she finally breaks away shaking her head with a smile growing on her face. She joins her team for their first huddle of the game.

Your heart feels like it is beating out of its chest. You had imagined it a thousand times since your friends mentioned wanting to go to the championship game. It was the reason you chose these seats. Even in all of the fantasizing about seeing her - you didn't imagine it to actually happen. There were thousands of people in this arena and her eyes found yours.

As the team is in their huddle, she stands up and looks back over at you. A smile now playing on her lips in full view as she can't stop glancing over to the familiar spot.

You want to go down to her and tell her to focus on her coach. Her head needs to be in this game and not turning to look up at you. Although the frequency of her looks brings butterflies to your stomach with every glance.

Once they break, the game begins and you can see Caitlin lock into the game. You cheer with all the other fans as the final game of her college career is underway.

The game is a complete nail-biter. There were times when Caitlin absolutely was killing the game, shooting her signature threes and playmaking. At other times, she let the ball slip and you knew that she would hold onto that but never let anyone see how much it truly affected her. She was really good at shaking off her mistakes in the eyes of others but you knew her too well.

As the game begins to come to an end and you can see the victory slip away from Iowa, your eyes focus on your girl. She is staying composed but you know she is feeling it. In the final minute of the game, Caitlin makes her way to the bench, hugging each one of her coaches then takes a seat with a blank stare.

Your eyes try to stay away from her but she naturally draws your attention. In the final seconds of the game, as South Carolina begins to celebrate Caitlin's eyes make their way to yours. You only hold them for a second but that was all you needed to know she was hurting.

The game ends and you see the team head into the locker rooms. Your friends decide to head to the floor to see if they can talk to any of the players (more like the player's brothers), You use this time to sneak away and try to find the Iowa locker room. You know there is no way they would let you in but you start sweet-talking the security guard. In less than 2 minutes, you were pacing in the same spot you would always wait for Caitlin after a game. As you wait for her, your nerves pick up as your mind continues to take you down memory lane...

You and Caitlin had just graduated high school and you were celebrating in your favorite fashion, with her curled up in your side. The plans the two of you had for the summer were laid out on the floor next to you. It was going to be the best summer and indeed it was until it wasn't.

It was a few days before Caitlin needed to head off for off-season training at the University of Iowa. You were hanging out at her house in her gym. You both had been avoiding the elephant in the room.

It was a conversation you both knew you needed but didn't want to have. You knew that Caitlin's only commitment was to play D1 ball which was once your dream too. You also know to do that, she couldn't have anything holding her back.

The two of you finish some conditioning which leaves you both panting and sitting on the floor.

"As much as I love you, I hate doing cardio," you say in between breaths.

"Ya well, my favorite form of cardio involves a lot less running and a lot more of you..." she says with a smile. "Caitlin!" You gasp and push her over as she bursts out laughing.

You let out a few laughs yourself but then hear her quiet down. Looking over at her, you see her whole mood shifts. She comes in and hugs your torso, burying her face in you. You scoot closer to hold her, knowing what is about to come next. It feels like hours pass before you decide to speak.

"Caitlin, you know I love you. And I want the world for you. You are and will always be my best friend," you say rubbing her back. She squeezes you even more. "We both know where your head needs to be when you head to training. You will always be my person but in this next season you need to be your teams' person."

Silence fills the space again. Your eyes begin to fill with tears and you swallow the sobs that taunt your lips. Then she finally speaks.

"You are my person," she says just above a whisper, you almost miss it.

"This doesn't mean I will stop being your person. Like I said, I will always be your person. We both knew this was coming and we have done a really good job of putting it off," you try to lighten the mood. She doesn't budge.

She lets go of you and sits up. You wipe away her tears. They just keep falling.

"I just don't like the idea of losing you," she says as she starts playing with a piece of your hair. "You aren't losing me, babe," you reply but both of you knew that wasn't true.

"This was always the plan," you start. "And I will always be cheering you on," you say with the best smile you could muster. No matter how much it would hurt you would support her until your last breath.

"So that means you will be at the championship game when I take Iowa to the NCAA championship?" her question lightening the mood.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," you say as you give her one last kiss.

You are pulled back to reality when you hear some of the players head out. Caitlin was typically the last one out of the lockers and with the way you knew she was feeling it was going to be a minute.

It is about another 15 minutes of you pacing in the hallway for the door to open again. Your head whips around to see her coming out. She looks completely defeated. She would never show this side of her to the press.

As you turn to face her, she looks up. You say the only thing that felt right.

"Hey, you."

She immediately makes her way to you. Your arms wrap around her as her head buries its way into your neck. Despite her being taller, Caitlin loved to be held as if she was the shorter one. Your heels were definitely helping.

"I really wanted that," she mumbles into you after a few moments. You rub her back like you always used to. "I know...I know."

"Your legacy is so much more than that one game and I am so beyond proud of everything you have accomplished," you begin. "And with that, I know this was one of your dreams." Caitlin stays quiet and sinks into being held by you.

The two of you finally break apart, her hand doesn't leave your arm and you can't complain. You missed her touch so much. You missed her. She keeps rubbing your arm and you feel like you will melt.

"I have to head into a press meeting, but can we catch up later? Are you staying in town?" Caitlin asks.

"I came into town with some friends, we are staying at a hotel a few blocks away. Call me when you are done with press?" You reply hopeful.

"I'll call you the second I am out," she ways with a smile. Oh how you missed that smile.

You head back to the hotel you are staying at to change into something a little more casual. Your friends checked in and told you they were going out to a bar and wanted you to meet up with them. You let them know you were catching up with an old friend and that they shouldn't wait up for you. You get ready to meet up with Caitlin - changing your shirt and shoes into something more comfortable, keeping the jeans you wore to the game. Right after you finish changing your phone begins to ring.

"Hey you," you answer as you begin to gather a few things in your purse.

"Hey babe," Caitlin responds causing your cheeks to blush and your stomach to fly. A smile is plastered on your face. "I am out of press and am going to head to my hotel, would you be up for meeting me there?"

"Of course, just shoot over the address and I will head that way," you say as your phone pings. She was already sending it as you asked.

"I will see you in a few," she says before you both hang up.

You make your way to her hotel which is surprisingly only a 10-minute walk. You follow her directions on how to get up to her room and knock on the door. The nerves begin to build up and you feel like you are back in high school. Your hands make their way to rub against your jeans, a familiar place for them today.

Caitlin opens the door with a huge smile on her face as she moves away to let you in. "I thought it would be better to meet here, a little more privacy," she says as she closes the door.

The two of you spend the next 4 hours catching up on life and how college has been. She talks about all the records she has broken and how she can finally start looking at what comes after college ball. She talks about her family and how much they miss you. You follow her by also mentioning how your parents are so proud of her and miss her as well. You continue by talking about how you are going full-time with the company you are working for post-graduation. You talk about all the traveling you have been able to do and she gets to pitch in with the travels that she has done. It was like no time as passed, I mean above all you were best friends.

As the conversation begins to die down you realize how close the two of you became. You are sitting on a couch with your legs hanging over her lap and her hands on your knee.

A sigh escapes your lips as you close your eyes and take in the moment. You feel her hand begin to make its way to your thigh.

"Seeing you in the crowd today was something else," Caitlin begins. You cut her off, "Well I made a promise once to be there if a certain someone that if they made it to the championship, I would be there."

"If???" Caitlin yells with a fake offended tone and slaps your knee. You let out a little yelp, "Okay, okay, when." Your eyes roll as she starts to draw patterns on your leg.

After another long pause, Caitlin speaks again.

"I think we made a mistake," she says not daring to look you in the eye.

If you were going to be honest, you never wanted to end things when you went to college but you weren't going to make things harder than they had to be. Long distance wouldn't have worked for the two of you. You would have managed but with her schedule and yours, it would have done more damage than good. So you didn't fight her but there were numerous times that you wish would would have fought for her on ending things.

"I think I made a mistake," she continues as she finally looks up at you. You take her hands in yours and reply, "It was the right decision at the time. We didn't know better, we were young."

You continue. "But that was then and here we are now," touching her arm and giving it a little squeeze. After seeing her and how she has filled out, you have been waiting to get your hands on her arms. "And we are both about to graduate and my plan was to come back to Iowa..."

"There is no one like you," she says as she leans closer to you. You let out a little laugh.

"No Caitlin, there is no one like you," you say as your hand comes up to cup her face. You both smile as your lips meet. It is like no time has passed, her lips are still so familiar.

After a few more kisses, you both moved to the bed. She curled up into your side and your arms made their around her. You are her home and she is yours.

"I love you," you whispered as you kissed her head.

"And I love you," she responds as you both drift to sleep, more at peace than either of you have felt over the past four years.

AN: TADA! Let me know your thoughts! And as always, thank you for your love and support 🤍

Now go check out PART 2!

#caitlin clark #cc #caitlin clark x reader #iowa hawkeyes #caitlin clark imagine #iowa wbb

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kmartinswife · 2 months

Text

kate martin x reader

heyy!

this is my first ever post on tumblr after being on here for 2 years... this is also my first attempt at a one shot/fic so please give me any pointers or critiques!!

———

words - 1050

a bit angstyyy but not really

warnings? just maybe alcohol and kissing.

Two weeks had passed since the end of your undefined relationship with Kate, and it had taken a toll on you. While spending countless hours together, flirting and being more than friends, it suddenly came to an end over some miscommunication. You didn't understand why she flipped out over nothing, and the pure dramatics she showed scared you from trying to reconcile. Both of you decided whatever you had was done and assumed it was over.

Since both of you play for the Iowa Hawkeyes, you see her every single day. To the best of your knowledge, the rest of the team never caught on to the shared laughs, sneaking around, and secret glances. Your eyes still linger on Kate longer than anyone else, especially when she's laughing it up with Caitlin and Gabbie for what feels like hours. You wished it was you that was making her eyes light up and her smile wide, not Caitlin.

You had tried to stay upbeat and confident, but it was hard when Kate paid no more than necessary attention to you. All you wanted was to reverse back 14 days and fix your fight. Apologize. Make her listen. Anything to get her back laughing with you and hanging out whenever you didn't have classes or basketball.

At the 20 day mark, Iowa had come back winners from a home game, and the team decided a karaoke bar was the best idea for celebrating. You had played an amazing game, putting up your best numbers of the season. Kate hadn't even batted an eye. The press conference was a joke to you, reporters congratulating you and asking you how good it felt, but in all honesty you felt like shit over an ex-situationship.

Hannah had to practically force you into coming to the bar after telling the team you had too much homework to party. This is how you ended up in your tiniest top and best-fitting jeans slouched on the bar alone, watching Kate flirt with a random girl. Jealousy filled you. Could she not do this another time? Why did it have to be when you were watching?

"You played pretty amazing out there tonight," Gabbie approached you and took a seat, "and it's clear you dressed up a bit more than usual, but you're still sulking in a corner. Tell me what's up. Please?"

You sighed and turned to look her in the eyes. Her eyes looked soft back at you as you stayed silent. You slowly gazed away and back toward Kate and her new girl. Gabby must've caught on.

"Caitlin and I know about you two. She wants you back, if you can't tell," Gabby told you, "she was a mess before the game tonight. She's been a mess."

You guys discussed it, and you both were going to keep it a secret, you don't understand why she told multiple people. You finally found your voice, "It doesn't seem like she gives a fuck about me anymore. Look at her. I don't know if I ever made her as happy as that random drunk girl is," you stated.

"Come on, you know she missed you. She regrets walking away like that. Just talk to her, please?" Gabbie pleaded.

Kate had left the girl and was now standing alone at the bar. She was leaned up against it, staring at Gabbie and you, displaying an unreadable expression. She was wearing dark black jeans, and a tight halter tank. Kate's hair was in a low bun, with chunks pulled out to frame her face. She looked hot. No wonder that girl flirted with her, Kate was astonishing tonight.

"Gabbie, she's ignored me for the past few weeks. What do I even say to her?" You asked, nervous because of Gabbie's pressure.

"Tell her how you feel. I am one hundred percent sure she will open up to you. I hate seeing you both like this," Gabbie replied.

"Okay," you replied, and Gabbie gave your back a quick tap before turning away to play a drinking game with most of your teammates.

You sat with your thoughts for a moment. Of course you forgave her, she was Kate after all, and it was really just a heated moment. Neither of you made a move to sit beside the other. There was a good chunk of room separating the pair of you, far enough you could hardly see her in your peripheral vision. You didn't believe you had the confidence to face her right now.

Busy in your thoughts, you didn't realize Kate had plunked herself down right beside you. Neither of you looked at each other, rather choosing to remain cold and stare directly forward. She nested a rum and coke in her left hand, slowly pushing it around, revealing her rings decorating her fingers. The rings you used to love so dearly.

“I should have stayed,” she started, “I’m sorry.”

You sat with it for a moment. Not daring to look at her. You knew you forgave her, so why was it so hard to get the words out?

“I really disliked not being listened to, Kate. It really hurt,” you said. You felt mature, putting your feelings out for show, “I want to understand you, that's all I ever wanted. But I cannot understand why you stormed out.”

She turned to you, “In the moment, I was upset. I've run it through my head hundreds of times. I was unsure of what to do, so I left. I don't think I was ready to have a relationship-level fight with you. I just didn't want to hurt us. I want us back to normal — actually, I want more than normal with you, I don't want us to be a secret.”

You huffed and took a sip of your drink, “I understand. Thank you for apologizing,” you replied and turned toward her, looking into her caring blue eyes, “oh my goodness, I have missed you.”

You leaned in for a hug and Kate accepted gratefully. You both missed each other so much. The embrace lasted as you were reminded of her simple, yet perfect, perfume, and the warmth of her skin. God did you miss her.

“You played so well tonight, it was amazing. You're amazing,” she told you as you leaned out of her embrace.

A wide smile grew onto your features and you knew you were back on track, “Want to get out of here?”

#iowa wbb #kate martin #kate martin x reader #iowa hawkeyes

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unforth · 4 months

Text

We are one Iowa caucus into the absolute shitshow that is going to be the US 2024 elections, and I'm already sick of seeing takes downplaying the risk that Trump and his fascist followers represent.

Look. Around 1900, my mother's grandparents immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York City. They brought with them children born in Europe (Poland? Ukraine? which country they were in depends on what year we're talking about) - we're not 100% sure they were THEIR children, even, but there were three, and they were young, and they came. But my great-grandparents had siblings, parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, huge families. And while my understanding is that an attempt was made to convince those folks to move to the US, none of them ultimately opted to.

They all kept in touch as they were able, exchanging letters and pictures, but through World War 1, through the 20s, through the Great Depression, through the worsening situation in Europe in the 1930s, my entire extended family who chose not to immigrate...continued to stay.

I think we all know how this story ends.

I have an entire family photo album of people whose names I will never know, because after every single one of them died in the Holocaust, my great-grandparents and grandparents couldn't bear to even label them. And they were PEOPLE, poor, vibrant, eager to maintain connections with their loved ones abroad. One was a Klezmer musician, and we have photos of him with all the different instruments he played. They're so real on the page, and they all ended in ashes.

And you know how that started? Fascism started with every inch allowed, with every well-intentioned moderate who tried to maintain a middle position even as the whole ground shifted right beneath their feet and even "middle" became extreme, every "no that change isn't coming fast enough, I want instant full improvement NOW" liberal who felt that doing nothing was better than accepting a slower improvement in the (truly awful!) post-World War 1 living situation in Germany.

Most of the members of my extended family also downplayed the risks. They never imagined that the worst could happen to them. They never fathomed how bad things could become.

And now I have their example always before me to know and to scream:

I KNOW HOW BAD THINGS CAN BECOME. I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FAMILY THEN.

I WILL NOT LET THAT HAPPEN TO MY FAMILY NOW.

People look at me like I'm crazy when I say I've got our passports ready (and have had since before the 2020 election).

Look. I don't know what will happen if Trump is elected, but there's a very real possibility he will, and he's been extremely clear about saying what he'll do. He did a lot of the things he said he'd do last time. I expect he'll continue to do the things he says he'll do. And the things he say he'll do will lead to the deaths of more people than we can imagine - in the US, in Palestine, throughout the world.

Don't tell me there's a middle ground here. Don't tell me I'm over-reacting. Don't tell me the worst won't happen. Don't tell me the risk is mild. Don't tell me we're safe.

We. Are. Not. Safe.

The lives of dozens, hundreds, of members of family were lost in the 1940s amid the horrifying statistic "6,000,000 dead Jews."

I will not let my life (as a Jew), my wife's life (as a disabled woman), my son's life (as a biracial boy), my daughter's life (as a biracial trans girl), be part of the statistics that come from our a second Trump presidency.

If you won't vote like YOUR life depends on it, vote like someone ELSE'S life depends on it, because IT DOES.

And if you can't even do that much, at least shut the fuck up and stop spreading your poison around. You're wrong. The danger is real. Downplaying it now won't make your conscience feel any clearer when it actually happens, and comforting everyone else downplaying it will just make you that much more complicit.

#unforth rambles #politics #us politics #genocide #genocide tw #i don't know how to tag this #i wish the album was here instead of at my mom's #i want every one of you who think this doesn't matter #to stare at the smiling faces of my long-dead relatives #and see these people who were shot and stabbed and burned and raped and destroyed #who died in rebellion or despair in hopelessness or desperation #no matter how much or how little they fought #they're all ashes now and nothing will bring them back #i have no family in europe #not a single person survived #i won't let my family be the ones who stay too long because we don't take it seriously #and neither should you

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astrophileous · 1 year

Text

Love Bugs (Pt. 02)

Pairing: Derek Morgan x Female Reader

Synopsis: You and Derek Morgan have an arrangement. At work, your relationship is strictly business. Under the sheets, it's all about pleasure. Nothing more, nothing less. Until, of course, your feelings start to get involved. Your situation is complicated enough without the unexpexted predicament that suddenly befalls upon you. But with a maniac serial killer on the loose, will you ever get the chance to make everything right?

Warning(s): allusions to sex, graphic descriptions of murder, violent use of knife, vomiting, curse words, miscommunication, Derek says one cruel sentence but that's it I promise

Word Count: 2800-ish

Author's Note: here's the part two I promised! I'll be making a masterlist shortly after posting this so stay tuned I actually ended up making the masterlist ahead of time lol but yeah you can access it below xx as always, don't forget to like/comment/reblog or send me messages/asks if you wanna talk! :)

Love Bugs Masterlist / Criminal Minds Masterlist

After that one fateful night, falling in bed with Derek Morgan only became that much easier.

The morning after that first time, you had slipped out of bed and prepared breakfast for two with the intention of sitting Derek down for a talk.

What did last night mean?

Does it seem like something you want to explore further?

Where do you see this heading in the future?

The mental list of questions just kept growing and growing as you continued scrambling the eggs. Derek emerged from the bedroom right around the time you were putting toasts on the plates.

And at that same second, Derek's phone began to ring.

"Hey, baby girl," he greeted quickly. "Okay. Alright, I'll be right there."

"Penelope?" you asked once he hung up the call.

"Uh huh."

"Is it a case?"

Before he could answer, your own phone started ringing on the kitchen counter, showing the contact name of one "Best Tech Fairy in the World".

"Yup." Derek smiled apologetically. "They want us in thirty."

You never did end up eating breakfast that day.

With the team's hectic schedule of flying, moving around, and profiling, it seemed as if you couldn't find the right time to pull Derek aside and talk about that night. Although in all honesty, you knew deep down that was merely an excuse for you to put off talking to him due to your own fears.

What if that night meant something different to him?

What if there was nothing he wanted to explore further?

What if he doesn't see this heading anywhere in the future?

The horror of these new questions tormented you every single second of every day. The prospect of losing Derek before you could have him, before anything could even happen between the two of you, was far too heartbreaking than any compromise you had to make just to have whatever little part of himself you were allowed to keep.

So when one particular night, during a particular case, you heard muffled knocking on the door to your hotel room, only to find Derek standing there in the hallway, you didn't even hesitate to let him in.

Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. The little charade you had with Derek just kept on going. At night, when everybody was fast asleep and there was no one to tell your secrets, Derek was all yours. But during the day, you kept it professional in front of everyone else. Just like the two oceans in the Gulf of Alaska, you made sure that these two sides of your life continued to remain as separated as possible.

But as you previously had predicted, something was always bound to go wrong in these circumstances.

"He's cute," Emily noted loudly from beside you.

"What?"You furrowed your forehead at the brunette, momentarily dragging your attention away from the file at hand.

The BAU team had been called in to assist on a case in a small town just around the outskirts of Iowa. Early investigation had your team believing that the case was somehow connected to a series of disappearances that happened in the 90s. So while Rossi and Hotch went to the crime scene where your latest victim was found, and JJ and Reid were running around to chase other potential leads, you, Emily, and Derek seemed to have pulled the shortest ends of the sticks and were now stuck delving into the endless stacks of case files from the 90s cases.

Emily raised an eyebrow at the confusion across your face. "Don't play dumb with me."

"I'm not playing. I'm just dumb."

Your fellow agent rolled her eyes at your retort. "Deputy Wolff got the hots for you."

You tore your eyes away from Emily's smirk and followed her gaze towards Deputy Wolff, who was just there to distribute the files you had requested from the disappearance cases. He was the youngest sherriff deputy in the department, lean build and tall with a kind face and driven eyes. He had been very helpful to everyone ever since your team had landed just the day prior.

"You're seeing things," you ended up saying to Emily, denying her claim once and for all.

"I'm not! He gets all flustered when you're around. Wait for him to come by again and then see for yourself. Or--" Emily's eyes flickered over to Derek, who had chosen to keep his silence from the other side of the table, "--you can ask the witnesses. Hey, Morgan. I'm right, aren't I?"

Derek lifted his head and met Emily's expectant stare. "About?"

"About how Deputy Wolff is totally in love with her and she should ask him for his number."

Derek's eyes briskly moved over to you. It was only for the shortest of seconds, but the gravity behind them had you staying rooted in place.

"I think she should do whatever she wants."

You tried not to let the lack of emotion in his reply affect you, but it was easier said than done. And for the next few hours, you caught yourself chancing a few glances in Derek's direction when you were sure that no one else was looking.

That same night, just like many other nights before, you found Derek standing in front of your door.

What transpired next had become muscle memory for you. Stripping you both of your clothes was a habitual routine. The feeling of his skin, the delicious stretch of his length inside of you, every detail surrounding the elusive Derek Morgan had forever been ingrained in the most intricate corners of your brain.

In those precious moments of delirium, you could almost pretend that Derek was yours as much as you were exclusively his.

"I saw Deputy Wolff talking to JJ this afternoon," Derek spoke up out of the blue into the quietness of your hotel room.

You exited the bathroom and looked at the direction where he was sitting against the headboard. "Oh?"

"He was asking about you."

"Was he?"

You picked up the discarded T-shirt on the floor before quickly putting it on, aware of the pair of eyes that followed every inch of your movement the entire time.

"He's gonna ask you out," Derek spoke again. There was a beat of silence before he continued, "Will you?"

"Will I what?"

"Go out with him."

The question lingered in the air.

The most truthful answer would be no. You were not going to go out with Deputy Wolff, or anyone else for that matter. You hadn't even been going on dates since you started joining the BAU. There was only one person you were interested in going on a date with at that moment, and he was the one lying on your bed asking stupid questions about your interest in other men.

Derek seemed to assume your extensive silence as your partiality to the idea. "You're considering it."

Your attention snapped back towards him.

"Don't go out with him," he later added.

That last statement fueled an incredulous fire inside your chest. "Why not?"

"Because--" Derek sat up straighter on the bed, searching his mind for the right reason to say but coming up empty, "--just because."

And that one simple reason just wasn't good enough for you.

"What happened to I should do whatever the hell I want, huh?" you shot back, recalling the words he had said at the station. "I don't know what I'd do yet. I'll have to think about it."

"There's nothing to think about." Derek's voice was harder now, more bitter. He threw the covers off his legs and started putting his boxer back on. "Why would you go out with him, anyway?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

Silence.

You ignored the earth-shattering sound of your heart breaking in that deafening quietness.

You knew deep down what it was you wanted Derek to say. You wanted him to tell you that he didn't want you to go out with Deputy Wolff, or any other man ever again, because he wanted to be the only one to take you out from that point forward. You wanted him to assure you that the frightening feeling brewing in your chest was the same one that was also blooming in his. That the prospect of something new and exciting growing between the two of you wasn't just another product of your inane fantasies.

You wanted him to let you know that as much as your heart belonged to him, his heart had always belonged to you, too.

But Derek continued to let that silence linger. It settled heavily in the center of the room, mocking the ticking bomb between the two of you that was imminent to explode.

"So, you will go out with him then?" Derek said through gritted teeth.

"What is it to you?"

"Do you think he would still want to go out with you when he finds out I've been fucking you on the side for months?"

Derek knew it as soon as the sentence left his mouth, but it was too late. Your eyes were red, an ironic metaphor to the blazing rage that had clawed its way out of your chest. He began to move towards you, wanting to make right the wrong he had caused over his hurtful words, but your stern palm stopped him before he even got the chance to take half a step.

"I want you to leave," you seethed.

"Bug, I didn't mean to--"

"Leave, Derek." You gathered his clothes from the floor, making sure to shove every single item right into his arms. "Out. Now."

Derek didn't bother to put the rest of his clothing back on, and you didn't trouble yourself in casting one last glance at Derek's retreating figure before he slammed the door upon his exit.

In the painful aftermath of Derek's absence, you let yourself cry until the exhaustion brought you to sleep.

You hadn't talked to Derek again since that fight.

Technically, it wasn't entirely true. You did still talk to him at work. About the case. Or during the occasional team gatherings at the bar or at Rossi's house.

But beyond the necessary interactions you had to endure as coworkers, you and Derek had never been as far apart as possible.

The late night visits had stopped. So did the flirtatious, harmless banters that started long before your little arrangement. Missing him was your new constant, and it made you feel so foolish because Derek was always there, so near yet so out of reach at the same time.

Hence why, in an attempt to distract yourself from wallowing further into your misery--or to dwell too much over the fact that you had been sexually frustrated over the past few weeks--you chose to throw yourself completely into your work.

The team's latest attention had been preoccupied by a series of murders in Arlington. The targets were all women in their 20s to mid 30s who lived alone and had similar physical appearances to one another. The UnSub had kidnapped the women in their homes, taken them somewhere else, and kept them for no more than two weeks before murdering them and dumping their bodies at various locations around town.

At the latest dumping site, the UnSub had left a taunting message specifically addressed to the BAU unit.

"The UnSub obviously craves attention," Emily pointed out. "And he's patient, organized, which means he's highly intelligent. He most likely has a steady job that requires competence but lacking the sense of importance to satiate his needs."

"Well, that just narrows it down to every 9-to-5 worker in the entire city," JJ remarked.

"Nevertheless, it's the best lead we've got so far," Hotch said. "Let's deliver the profile. Reid, you go ahead and review the case files again. See if they missed anything in the initial investigation. And (Y/L/N), I want you to deliver the profile to the press for this one."

"Me?"

"Yes. You fit into his victimology. Hopefully, you'll attract his intrigue and make him slip something up."

Before you could utter your response, a deep voice spoke up from behind you, "Hotch, I don't think it's such a good idea."

You turned around and locked eyes with Derek, who had now gained the attention of the other members of the team.

"I beg your pardon?"

"It's too risky, Hotch. We might as well just draw a target on her forehead by letting her give the profile," Derek argued.

The entire room stood still. It was one thing to question Hotch's decisions, but it was another to straight-up disagree with his call. A part of you felt warm at the knowledge that Derek still cared enough to be concerned about your safety, but the other part--the much larger one that was still reeling in the fallout of his rejection--was enraged because he didn't have any rights to speak on your behalf that way.

"I assure you, Morgan, we won't let anything happen to her," Hotch responded calmly. "But, (Y/L/N), it's your decision. You can refuse if you don't feel comfortable."

"No, I'll do it," you interjected quickly, casting a look in Derek's direction just for the sake of being spiteful. "I'll deliver the profile."

As it turned out, Hotch's prediction was correct.

A few days after the press conference, the BAU received a package courtesy of an anonymous sender. Inside, there was a single video tape with a paper containing the names of each member of the team glued on the top.

"That's our latest victim," Rossi noted as soon as the tape started playing on the projector.

It was a video of the victim whose body had been discovered just a day prior. Only in the tape, she was still very much alive. She looked bruised and beaten up, mostly delirious in her tied up position on the chair. Suddenly, she started to become hysterical just as a disguised figure walked into the frame.

"No sound," Reid thought out loud upon realizing that there was no audio in the tape.

"He's taunting us," you pondered before glancing at Hotch. "He must've seen the press conference."

"We'll get this tape to Garcia. See if she can analyze it for anything that can help us catch this UnSub," Hotch instructed.

Everyone's eyes returned towards the screen, seeing that the UnSub had moved to stand behind the victim. Despite having no audio, the look of pure terror on her face had successfully caused chills to run down your spine. Without any foreseen warning, the UnSub grabbed the victim's head and drove his knife straight into the juncture of her neck.

She was still fully conscious when he stabbed her. And in some twisted way, you were thankful that the psychopath had chosen to send the tape with no sound, because you truthfully didn't think that you were capable of sitting there silently while listening to the very last painful moments of another human being's life on this earth.

When he brought his knife across the curve of her neck, spurting an insane amount of blood that some of it even tainted the camera lense, you decided that you couldn't take it anymore.

"Excuse me," you mumbled quickly before rushing out of the room.

Your feet carried you towards the restroom, where you found the nearest empty cubicle and immediately dropped to your knees before emptying the content of your stomach into the toilet bowl.

When you reemerged from the stall, you were taken aback to see JJ already standing beside the hand dryer.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Hm." You nodded absentmindedly before turning on the faucet to wash your hands. "Sorry. It was just brutal, that's all."

"No need to apologize. I get it. It was awful," JJ agreed. "Sadly, not much different than what we've all seen before on our daily basis."

You caught JJ's eyes in the mirror, breaking the eye contact the moment her true implications dawned on you.

"(Y/N), what's going on with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been acting strange."

"Have I?"

You passed by the blonde woman and headed for the door, but JJ's hand on your forearm stopped you before you could go any further.

"You'll tell me if something's up, right?"

Your gut started to churn in guilt. JJ had been amazing since the first time you joined the team. In a way, she was the sister that you never had, and you knew that she was merely looking out for your well-being.

Unfortunately, this particular storm you were facing was something that you needed to figure out on your own. At least, for a little while. Perhaps in the future, you would tell JJ everything. About Derek, about you, your feelings, and the little suspicion that had been nagging at the back of your head for the last couple of days. But in the meantime, the most you could offer her were empty promises and little white lies.

"Of course, J," you told her as you took her hand in yours, squeezing affectionately. "Always."

#derek morgan #derek morgan x reader #derek morgan x you #derek morgan x y/n #derek morgan fic #derek morgan fanfiction #derek morgan smut #derek morgan fluff #criminal minds #criminal minds fandom #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds x you #criminal minds x y/n #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds smut #criminal minds fluff #shemar moore #love bugs

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dira333 · 7 months

Text

the manly cold

Bones x reader

The first time you meet Leonard McCoy you are in your third year in the Academy and it’s almost a year after Jim Kirk, the troublemaker, has managed to find you yet again.

The first time you meet Leonard McCoy is when Jim, the whiny idiot, manages to call both of you for help at the same time and when you show up in your sweaty work out clothes there’s this handsome guy where your nuisance of a friend from Iowa should be.

“Who are you?” You ask each other at exactly the same time.

“I asked first,” he’s just a tiny bit faster than you.

“Y/N,” you wipe your hand on your trousers and offer it to him, “The girl that beat his ass eleven times in a row.”

“Ah,” he says and in the way he lifts the left corner of his mouth, just the tiniest bit tells you that Jim’s told him about you. That sucker.

“And you?” You ask when he doesn’t speak quick enough for your liking.

“Leonard McCoy. The one guy he keeps pestering.”

“Ah,” you smile and grab his hand to shake it, “You’re the doctor that threw up on him.”

He forces a smile and pulls back his hand and you realize that yes, your flirting skills are indeed hopeless.

If you had hoped for Jim’s charm to step in where you lacked in basically everything, you should have known better. Especially on a day like this, when he had summoned you with nothing more but an “I’m dying!” text, a clear sign that he was getting sick.

And as you shove open the door to his room with your regular dose of impatience, he barely lifts his head from his pillow to groan.

“I can’t breathe!” He gasps, his stuffy nose contorting his voice.

“Oh, shut up, that’s just a cold,” Dr. McCoy announces from behind you and steps forward.

“It’s the manly cold,” you explain, making your way over into the small kitchen, “And the only remedies I know are homemade soup and a lot of attention,” You call over your head but stop short when you hear a pained groan.

“I believe in a more advanced therapy,” the Doctor says as he pulls the hypospray away from Jim’s neck.

You smirk. “Who said Doctor’s aren’t worth anything?”

“I don’t know,” he answers calmly, “Who said that?”

Yeah, you definitely need to work on your social skills.

A bit more than a year later you graduate from the Academy, leaving behind nothing more but a soup recipe taped to Jim’s fridge and a rather stiff hug.

“Don’t forget to keep in touch,” Jim reminds you.

“I tried that when I left Iowa and you tracked me down anyway,” you joke, “I don’t dare to try it again.”

“I could become your new captain,” he jokes and you hiss in exaggerated shock.

A part of you wants to say goodbye to his friend too. The good-looking, funny in his one way, Doctor friend whose presence has you make a fool of yourself every single time. But then again, it’s probably better this way.

“Tell the Doctor, I said hi,” you tell Jim instead and clap him on the shoulder, “Don’t annoy him too much.”

“He’s gonna have to make my soup.”

“Or you just gonna learn how to do it yourself.”

He rolls his eyes at you. “Just leave.”

And that could have been it. That could have been the quirky story you tell over drinks when you go on shore leave about the way you sucked at flirting when you were young.

But Jim had to be Jim. A bit of an ass most of the time, but a genius one.

He called you once a month to complain about the Academy, his workload, a girl that dumped him or just about anything else. His natural charm and the fact that you kind of missed him made it easy to just talk and joke and laugh for the better part of an hour until it was time to hang up and every single time he called it turned out that McCoy had been in the room, out of your sight but always close enough to listen to.

“Don’t call me when you have a friend over,” you chastised him, but he grinned and winked and you knew that he knew that- yeah, better not talk about it.

And that could have been it. That could have been your friend from the Academy that tried to set you up with a cute guy in the worst way possible.

But Jim had to be Jim. A total genius with ideas that made him a magnet for everything crazy.

First he almost got thrown out, then he was suddenly on the Enterprise, then he got thrown out - literally - but from the Enterprise and not the Academy and then, you always got that a bit mixed in your head, no matter how many times he told you the story, he met the future self of that green-blooded guy from his ship, but in old and from another timeline… or something like that.

And in a way that only Jim could, he saved the world, his Captain’s life and got, almost like by accident, not only his place in the academy back, but also the position of the Captain, on the Enterprise of all ships.

“I could hire you,” he had told you right away in your next phone call, “You get over here from that murky cold system you’re currently traveling through and work for me. I mean Cupcake’s doing a good job, but I can use more people in Security who can effectively kick my ass.”

“I have a good job here,” you tell him, sparing yourself the Cupcake story for another time.

“I’m sure Bones would like to have you here too,” Jim tried and you glared at him.

“Ask me again when you can be a Captain that doesn’t try to annoy me every five seconds.”

“Deal.”

And that could have been it.

But Jim had to be Jim.

And when you picked up another call, it wasn’t his voice coming through, but that of McCoy.

“Listen,” he said with urgency in his voice, “We need you here.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Kid just broke more laws than I can count right now and lied about it in his report. If we’re lucky, he’s going to get a reprimand, but I think he’s running out of luck.”

“I can take my break,” you said, “And be in San Francisco in a week.”

He sighed and you closed your eyes, savoring the fact that this conversation might have a terrible topic, but you wouldn’t have thought of the two of you talking like this to be possible. He seemed to think the same thing.

“Looks like you can talk normally around me after all,” he tried to joke and you can’t help but grunt.

“Looks like you don’t make me that nervous when you’re not standing in the same room as me.”

You bite your tongue and close your eyes in pain.

No, your flirting skills will probably never improve.

“I gotta go, ask for my break. See you… maybe, someday, I don’t know, bye.”

But when you show up in San Francisco, you’ve come too late.

The one guy that’s actually willing to tell you something is Jim’s Chief Engineer, Scotty something, who talks a lot and drinks even more.

He lets you sit there, shocked and speechless, as he tells you what has happened, things Jim hasn’t even bothered to mention.

The fact that Christopher Pike died. That Jim went out for revenge.

That, just by a hair’s breadth, none of them would have survived.

And that Jim had not just died but had come back to life again because of some crazy blood thing. Scotty something explained that working with Jim’s sheer amount of luck and the crazy talent their CMO must have.

“Can I go see him?” Are the first words you get out and you’re not entirely sure if you’re only talking about Jim.

“Sure thing, Lassie, just go up and tell them Scotty’s sent you.”

When Leonard steps out of Jim’s room, he can’t remember the last time he’s had sleep, but that he needs coffee, urgently. But then he sees you sitting on one of the terrible chairs in the hallways, shoulders slumped, a bag next to your feet.

You jump up the moment you notice him, cross the hallway and hug him with a strength that probably shouldn’t surprise him. You work in security, after all.

“I am so so so so glad he has you as a friend,” you breathe into his shoulder and step back immediately, “I made soup. I know it’s not the manly cold, but it usually helps when Jim complains about being sick and-”

“He’s going to be fine. I hope. I wish. I don’t know, I just…” He lets out a breath. “You make me nervous too.”

He doesn’t know how he expects you to react. You surprise him anyway.

“I don’t know if my soup helps with that too,” you tell him, a smile on your lips, “But if you leave Jim at least half of it, we can try.”

Now that could have been it. A story about getting together, just as quirky as each part of the couple itself.

But Jim just had to be Jim.

And now you’re stuck with your husband in a cabin in the middle of snowy nowhere in something that was supposed to be a cozy holiday.

Cozy, because Jim had taken everything medical looking away from Leonard, telling him to relax during his shore leave.

And what had Leonard done?

He had gotten a cold. A manly cold.

“Soup’s ready!” You call from the kitchen and the groaning from the bedroom sounds just the tiniest bit less like dying whale and more like a happy whale.

Well, you’ve got your experience with manly colds, after all.

#my writing #Star Trek x reader #Star Trek AOS #Bones AOS #Bones x reader #leonard mccoy #leonard mccoy x reader

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sagesolsticewrites · 2 months

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Hiya could you do Harry Crosby + “ if you asked me to marry you tomorrow, i'd say yes. “ “ what about today?” from one of your drabble prompt lists please and thanks 💛

Thank you so much for requesting, Nonnie! I’ve adored these Masters of the Air requests, especially getting to write for Harry my love!! Our favorite navigator 🥰

Quick warning that there is a nonzero chance of historical inaccuracies here, and the timeline may be a little off, but I did actual research for this one y’all! New additions to the ever-growing Useless Knowledge section of my brain: knowing where Lt. Harry Crosby studied for college (he was working on his graduate degree at the University of Iowa when the Pearl Harbor attack occurred; he went back to finish his degree there in 1947 and earned his PhD from Stanford University in 1953!), when and why he joined the Army Air Forces (paused his studies at U of I to enlist after Pearl Harbor), and where he was sent for his training (Mathers Field, California) before being stationed in Idaho, and eventually at East Anglia. Look at me go lol 🤪 Anyway, I hope y’all enjoy!

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction based off the portrayal by the actors in the Apple TV+ series. I hold nothing but respect for the real life individuals referenced within.

a/n: well, that’ll teach me not to try to format my fics on mobile 😂 I guess the Harry fic’s coming out today! Hope you like it Nonnie <3

Masterlist

Just Say Yes

You waited anxiously under the maple tree at the edge of the campus courtyard, fiddling with the worn, creased paper in your hands — Harry’s last letter, telling you that this next visit home would likely be his last before he was transferred to Idaho, and then to who knows where.

I’ll meet you under our tree, pretty girl, the letter had read, Saturday, our usual time?

The tree— the very maple tree you stood in the shade of now— was where you had met often when you were both students at the University of Iowa, studying English. The tradition had started when you were paired up for a project, and Harry asked if you would mind working outside.

“I think better in the fresh air,” he had said, almost apologetically, and you had agreed almost instantly, captivated by the quiet but clearly very smart boy who sat next to you in class.

Even after the project was over and graded, you continued to meet under that tree nearly every day at 2 o’clock after class to compare class notes or exchange feedback on essays.

And after nearly four months of meeting and working together, it was under that tree where Harry Crosby finally asked you out on a date.

Leaning back against the tree, you were jolted out of your trip down memory lane by a familiar voice calling your name.

Grinning, you turned to see Harry strolling towards you, dapper in his dress uniform, one arm raised in greeting, the other cradling a bouquet of tulips— your favorite.

You pushed off from the tree, unable to wait a single second longer, and sprinted to meet him, uncaring of the students staring at the crazy lady running across their campus.

He opened his arms as the distance between you lessened until you crashed into him, burying your head in his chest. He stumbled back a bit, absorbing your momentum, but he was quick to embrace you, quicker still to turn your momentum into a dizzying, joyous twirl, lifting your feet off the ground.

You let out a gleeful laugh as the world spun around you, and pulled him in for a long-overdue kiss once your feet were firmly back on the ground.

After the two of you reluctantly pulled apart, you cupped his face in your hands, drinking him in: lips stained red from your lipstick, hat knocked askew, uniform now more than a little wrinkled, and best of all, those warm brown eyes you had missed so much overflowing with love.

He looked as dapper as ever.

“Hey, pretty girl,” he murmured with a smile, a greeting for your ears only.

It had been so long since you’d heard those words from his lips, and all you could do was blink back the tears that sprang to your eyes as you replied with a simple, tender “Hi.”

Understanding filled his eyes, and he pulled you into a hug, pressing a kiss to your forehead and allowing you a moment to compose yourself before the two of you headed back towards your tree.

“Oh!” He said, holding the bouquet out to you as if he just now remembered he had it, “For you, m’lady.”

You took the bouquet, fingering the delicate pink and yellow petals. “They’re beautiful, Harry,” you smiled up at him, “Thank you.”

“Anything for my girl,” he said, gesturing for you to sit and make yourself comfortable first before he settled next to you in the shade.

“So,” he said, wrapping an arm around you, “Tell me everything. What have I missed? How’d that paper go that you were telling me about?”

You couldn’t help but light up at the mention of your latest paper— your pride and joy, your best work yet if you didn’t say so yourself— and at Harry’s encouraging smile, you rambled on about themes and motifs and parallels, Harry occasionally chiming in with a suggestion that made the connections you had made even clearer.

Despite the plethora of letters you had sent each other, each doing your best to keep the other updated, you and Harry never seemed to run out of things to talk about: the conversation flowed from your latest paper to how Harry had been giving the guys some book recommendations based on your suggestions, to the small bookshop you had taken to visiting, compiling a list of titles for him that you thought he’d enjoy. Harry mentioned that some of his comrades had set up a small library of sorts in the barracks, running on the honor system, but they’d likely need to shut it down soon, with people moving to their more permanent placements.

“Oh that reminds me,” Harry said, digging in his pocket for a moment before triumphantly revealing a scrap of paper with his distinctive scrawl.

“Plenty of the guys are getting letters from their wives and sweethearts,” he said, slipping you the small piece of paper with the address of his next assignment in Boise, “I wanna make sure I’m one of ‘em.”

“Getting letters from your wife, or your sweetheart?” You asked playfully, tucking the slip of paper safely in your pocket.

“Uh.. Well, I mean…” Harry stammered, trying very hard not to think about the small box in his pocket.

“Hey,” you pause to assure him, “I was just kidding.” Under the shade of your tree, you rested your head on his shoulder, looking out at the courtyard. “I know we’re a little young, but…” You took a deep breath, entwining your fingers with his, “If you asked me to marry you tomorrow, I’d say yes.”

You caught the barest hint of movement out of the corner of your eye, and you glanced over to see a small box held out to you.

A box in Harry’s hand that was open to reveal a delicate gold ring.

“What about today?” Harry asked softly, close enough that his breath brushed your cheek.

“I— Harry—” You were speechless, your world zeroing in on that small gold band before realizing that you had been silent for far too long.

You nodded furiously, turning to kiss him before you could even get the words out.

“Is that a—”

Harry’s tentative question was cut short by your lips crashing onto his. His hands came up to cup your cheeks, kissing you back with equal fervor, the ring box left in your lap.

You both eventually pulled away, gasping for air. Harry’s forehead remained pressed to yours, chocolate brown eyes locked on you.

“Was that a yes?” He asked, lips still just barely brushing yours, and you could feel him trying not to smile.

You were an English major. There were a thousand words you could have said, a thousand speeches of acceptance and love and devotion you could have made.

Only one word mattered to you just then.

“Yes.”

#sage answers #my writing #harry crosby #lt harry crosby #masters of the air #masters of the air x reader #harry crosby x reader #anthony boyle #anthony boyle harry crosby #anthony boyle lt harry crosby #anthony boyle x reader

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francesderwent · 3 months

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my brain is fried i'm so overtired I've cried spontaneously at least once a day for the past three days will you please help a girl out with a soft cozy wholesome movie recc please and thank you

I’m so sorry my dear!! I dug to the depths of a bunch of old tag games and my film tag and this is what I came up with!

when I’m strung out I tend to gravitate to movies that will make me happy-cry so this list will at moments tend in that direction. I tried to sort by what was available to stream now, and the sub-lists are in no particular order

if you have amazon prime (the basic package):

Penelope (2006). highly recommend, a funny little modern fairy tale about a lonely young girl searching for a way to break her curse. this one heals something in my heart

Stardust. also highly recommend! a chaotic fairy tale about true love and what a person would do for it.

Street Gang. the Sesame Street documentary. sometimes people are good and they’re trying to make the world a better place and they’re doing it with their friends.

How To Train Your Dragon. it’s a perfectly executed film and the score and animation is gorgeous. (also available on netflix)

if you have netflix:

Feel the Beat. a dance flick about a seemingly cold-hearted ambitious young woman becoming a dance teacher in her hometown

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. so so so rewatchable.

She’s the Man. the funniest movie on this list and possibly of all time. I have never shown this movie to a person who didn’t end up loving it. it’s Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at boarding school as a soccer movie

if you have tubi?? you might not need a membership I don’t know how tubi works??

The Music Man. some of the best costumes and choreography my favorite age of movie musicals had to offer. a con man comes to a small Iowa town and starts to want to believe in the beautiful lie he’s selling.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. this movie was written by Roald Dahl and it is buck wild. widowed inventor and his two children buy a broken down racing car and?? hijinks and musical numbers ensue

if you have disney plus:

Princess Diaries (1&2). we know them, we love them.

Sky High. if you haven’t seen this, I highly recommend it because it is silly fun but it understands the genre it’s playing with.

Newsies (1992). scrappy newsboys form a union, sing songs, punch each other, ???, profit

Holes. the single best adapted book to film ever? the cast commentary is also hilarious

Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella (1997). absolutely delightful. Whitney Houston as the godmother! Jason Alexander as the butler! Brandy as Cinderella! Bernadette Peters as the stepmother!

if you feel up for a trip to the library, things to look for:

The Hundred Foot Journey. I only saw this one once but it’s about a family who opens up an Indian restaurant across from a Michelin-starred French restaurant and it’s gorgeous

A League of Their Own (1992). sisters! best friends! married women and their disreputable drunk coach friends!

The Secret Garden (1993). highly recommend! this one fixes me down to my bones.

This Beautiful Fantastic. also highly recommend! a woman who’s afraid of the world falls in love with it.

Secondhand Lions. also highly recommend!! a boy gets dropped off with his great-uncles for the summer, hears possibly made-up stories of their wild and adventurous youth

August Rush. a young musical prodigy searches for his parents.

Sense and Sensibility (1995). if you need Austen energy, this is the one.

Cinderella (2015). this movie is so gentle and so lovely.

Little Women (1994). life is gonna be hard and sad but it’s gonna be beautiful and the love will endure!!!

I hope this helps and I hope you feel better! ❤️❤️

#I didn’t put Far From the Madding Crowd on here because it gets a little fraught in the middle there #but the ending is so so so comforting to me #I didn’t put love and monsters or speed on here because they are full of love BUT they are stressful #more so than the stuff here #asks

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hit-the-dirt-and-get-back-on · 11 months

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#selfie #my face #me #iowa girl #iowa #single iowa girl #your blogger

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blackphanto · 22 days

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Chucky predictions

SPOILER WARNING FOR CHUCKY S3E5!

I wanna make Chucky theories so bad, but I can't think of any! This show is so crazy that I can't even predict or speculate on what could happen next. There are some people teasing on twitter though and all they've been doing is making me even more hyped for how this season is going to end. So here are some of my predictions based on everything that's been teased so far.

Jake will enter the spirit realm:

I don't think he's necessarily going to die, but he's so fixated on ending Chucky for good to the point where he refused to run away from it all like Devon suggested. And we've heard the doctor, the only way you get to the spirit realm is by dying, but what if you didn't need to die? I believe that thanks to all the supernatural shit occurring there, the White House will become some sort of passage between the two realms. Jake will cross it to try and destroy Charles' soul, but if he will fail or succeed is still debatable...

Caroline helps Chucky get young again:

If Jake fails in permanently killing Chucky, Caroline will come to the rescue. We know she'll be back, but what role will she play in this mess? When she'll return, all hell already would've broken loose and she'll just make it worse. Her sudden entrance at the White House will cause quite the emotional reunion for Lexi and her. Yet, Caroline didn't come alone. Armed with the Voodoo for Dummies book, sure, but she brought another friend, who's none other than the Good Guy Doll creator played by John Waters. He came with a new doll, a new vessel for Charles and with Caroline's newfound knowledge of Voodooism, she'll get Damaballa's blessings and give Chucky a new body, a new chance to not disappoint the almighty Iowa and if he plays his cards right, he might even become forever young.

Grant will survive:

I don't have any evidence to back this up, I just like him and think it's unfair that Lexy always has to say goodbye to someone she loves each season and I just don't want it to happen again. From a psychology standpoint it just desensitized her and would lead to her not getting attached to anyone else besides Jake & Devon next season, in fear of someone else always having to die because of her. And from a writing perspective it just gets repetitive, predictable and boring. So please Don Mancini don't kill him, also I love Jackson Kelly.

The past will haunt everyone:

Charles Lee Ray isn't the only ghost the Terror Trio will have to deal with in the newly supernatural possessed White House. We've seen the past of the Collins family haunt them time and time again, we've seen Henry talk about ghosts and fearing what they told him almost every single episode. Why would that stop at Joseph or Charles? Wouldn't it be horrible for our trio to be faced with the lives they lost thanks to a doll they couldn't stop? How would Jake react upon seeing his father again, disappointed at him for being gay. And Lexy, the poor girl, facing Junior, the boy she watched die, trying to save her... Not making at least one ghost of the past come back would be a wasted opportunity.

Tiffany will survive, but Jennifer's body might not:

Tiffany's possible death has been brought up in every interview Jennifer Tilly made following the comeback of Chucky season 3. At this point it even became a ‘will they, won't they’ situation. Does Mancini really have the guts to kill off a cult favorite character and actress he loves so much? Or will we just say goodbye to seeing Tilly on screen and welcome only her voice? I mean the trailer kinda made it clear for me that this isn't the end of Tiffany's story, but maybe that of Jennifer's body.

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palmtreepalmtree · 1 month

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Alright, here it is, the totally unasked for review of Irish Wish from a woman who does not have the time to be doing it but can't stop thinking about it SO HERE WE ARE.

The Worst Movie on Netflix right now is Lindsay Lohan in Irish Wish.

Alright, so if you don't know the premise, I will recap for you. Lindsay plays Maddie, a book editor who has edited a bestselling novel on behalf of this uber wealthy and allegedly Irish dude Paul Kennedy who is a bestseller (whether he was a bestseller before or after Maddie helped him on this, his second book, is unclear, but I refuse to debate it). She has a huge adult lady girl crush on this man, but has not told him yet.

Our movie, such as it is, begins at his book launch where Maddie is girding her loins to try to tell him how she feels---and instead he winds up vibing with her gal pal Emma. FAST FORWARD and Emma and Paul are getting married. And Maddie is miserable and still pining. So she manages to make a wish to a wish-granting (Catholic?*) Saint Bridget that she wishes she were marrying Paul instead. AND THEN HIJINKS ENSUE.

Here's the CRAZY thing -- that there is a world-altering wish granted by some random Irishy fairy/saint is the least logically offensive thing to happen in this insane, inhuman, bizarre series of events that we're calling a "movie."

I mean less than 5 minutes into the movie, Maddie is having a speakerphone conversation with her mom in the bathroom of the book launch where she is openly speaking about her feelings for Paul.

What is she a boomer!? BUT ALSO you hope your mom in fucking IOWA (Jane Seymour, cashing checks) has not told anyone about your feelings for Paul that you are discussing on SPEAKERPHONE in the bathroom AT PAUL'S BOOK LAUNCH!?

Not two seconds later, a pair of extras leave the bathroom stalls and exit the bathroom behind her. And she doesn't react in any concerned way. She does not react at all. Is she not worried about who just overheard her? Is she not embarrassed? Maybe these are friends of Paul who would be interested to know that his Editor has a crush on him!? We are in fact at his book launch!? This is a startlingly weird lack of reaction! Like......... we are less than 5 minutes into this movie and I am already wondering where basic human logic just went. WAS THERE NOT A SINGLE HUMAN PERSON ON SET OR IN THE EDITING ROOM WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A PROBLEM!?

Alright, somehow, I have to get further into this movie than 3 minutes and 55 seconds.

So Maddie's gearing up to tell Paul her feelings and as soon as he sees her, he says he wants to talk to her about something important. And when they sit down together, he takes her by the hand, gazes deeply into her eyes with the sincere, smoldering look above, and says this: I feel like it's time we take our relationship to the next level. And she lights up. CAUSE THIS IS HER MOMENT AND SHE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING OR RISK ANYTHING! But then Paul just asks her to work with him on his next book. And she is devastated.

But here's the thing. WHO FUCKING SAYS THAT!? What man does that? THAT IS A TRASH MAN, MADDIE! He is obviously manipulating her to get what he wants. GET OUT OF THERE, MADDIE! GET OUT OF THERE!

The thing is the movie does not reckon or deal with this moment at all (because it is not a movie it is just a semblance of scenes). When the movie fasts forward and Paul is marrying Emma, we're meant to believe that Maddie is still friends with him, works with him, and admires him. The MOVIE ITSELF never questions this---is Paul a sincere authentic dude who was just oblivious to how he was coming over? Or was he screwing her over!?

I don't need a fucking idiotic Saltburn-style reveal, but the movie should have a fucking opinion about this and it should be reflected in it. It should be there in the mise-en-scene, the costuming, the subtext, SOMEWHERE. But this is not a movie, it is just a semblance of scenes.

I have written many words, and I am 7 minutes into the movie. So I am going to take a break and come back to his.

============= LUNCH BREAK ============

Alright, look, there are about 90 more minutes left in this movie and there are just dozens and dozens more moments like this where people do things and say things that just defy logic or are otherwise untreated and unacknowledged by the narrative. Parts of this movie approximate real life, but they don't come near it.

Rachel Handler over at Vulture does a granular breakdown (and still misses things cause omg this movie is a mess!) that you can check out here. She suggests that this movie could only have been written by AI. I get where she's coming from.

So much of this movie includes rom-com tropes like it's ticking off boxes rather than adding value to the overall story. For example, Maddie is repeatedly portrayed as a klutz---tripping over things, nearly breaking things. Why? I'm too tired to even be mad about this. Just.... why?!

The common wisdom is that gorgeous actresses need to be more relatable to audiences and making them klutzy is an easy shorthand for relatability.

The thing is this trope---and so many rom-com tropes---are deeply offensive to the women who make up much of the target audience. I mean JFC, gorgeous women can be single! For so.many.reasons. And I don't know about you, but I don't need an absurd narrative justification for why that might be that diminishes the main character and makes her look silly.

I mean, I'm a fuckup, but I don't get into a tug-of-war battle at the airport over luggage. (wtf, why didn't she just look at the fucking bag tag? This is insane behavior! Is this a sad little attempt at humor!? Barely 11 minutes into the movie now!).

The theme of this movie, to the extent there is one, (TO THE EXTENT THIS IS A MOVIE AT ALL) is that Maddie needs to learn to speak up for herself to get the things she actually wants. But she spends half the movie saying MY MOM WILL FIX IT! Just wait until my mom gets here!

Again, how is this a likeable or interesting character trait? It's one thing for a character to need to speak up for themselves. But there is something remarkably juvenile about a character who repeatedly says her mom will fix it.

In her review, Handler notes how unbelievably sexless this movie is and I 100% agree and noticed it immediately. To the extent that Maddie suddenly wakes up in the exact world she wants, she is remarkably embarrassed about getting the thing---THE MAN---she wants. She seems obviously afraid to kiss him, and "accidentally" (massive side-eye) kicks the shit out of him when she finds him in her bed.

It's like the movie doesn't want her to want anything. While simultaneously telling us she doesn't ask for the things she wants.

By the way, this is an insane contrast to the recent Netflix movie Players in which Gina Rodriguez spends the whole movie asking for the things she wants, pursuing it, and getting it. Fuck yeah, Gina.

I'm not saying a movie has to be sexual to be romantic or to work or anything like that. I'm saying don't be so fucking coy about it that you're inadvertently telling women that sex is NOT a part of love or that you're telling women they should be ashamed of desiring someone emotionally and physically. That's fucking ridiculous puritan SHIT.

Alright, this is the rare review that I have not thoughtfully organized in humorous stages. There's really just too much here to mine. There are the absurd accents that Seamas O'Reilly noted and understands much better than me in his review for the Irish Examiner here.

He also noted the uncanny valley of the location that feels totally phony the whole way through. And probably for good reason. I mean, first of all, we're supposed to believe that this candy pink dock is a real fucking place in Ireland??????

(Allegedly the lake is real, but fuck me I hope the dock is fake!!)

And honestly, of course it's fucking FAKE. Not sure if you can see the planter of flowers that are supposed to be just wild in the landscape, but I sure could.

But you don't really need evidence to tell you that everything about this movie is a contrived, fake, phony mess.

And here, ultimately is the problem.

Irish Wish is an objectively bad movie. I mean, I don't really care that there are always going to be tons of people whining about how 'it's a fun movie!' and 'it's just not that deep!' Like FUCK OFF. HAVE SOME FUCKING STANDARDS IN YOUR LIFE. It's a bad movie.

But there's almost zero way for this to impact Netflix's assessment of what works and what doesn't on their network and what they should invest in moving forward.

According to some sources, Players (a perfectly fine, predictable movie with good actors, okay writing, and actual production values) had 16.3 million views on the first week. Irish Wish had 19.5 million. Netflix has no way to determine whether one is of better quality than the other. It rewards the shitty writing, shitty production, equally, if not more.

I didn't get so mad after watching Irish Wish that I canceled my subscription. No, I just recognized that, 'oh hey, Physical 100 has a new season out next week.' So I just waited for that and watched the next thing on Netflix.

Sigh. And honestly, Irish Wish is so bad it's kind of fucking hilarious to watch, so maybe that's worth something here. Hard to argue with that.

I don't want to declare a genre dead, but we're running so hard in the wrong direction in the world of rom-com, that it's becoming painful to love these movies. It doesn't help that critics constantly give low ratings to rom-coms because of their predictability instead of understanding that being predictable is an essential part of the genre. But there's still a stark difference between Players and Irish Wish and I don't think that's properly reflected in a 4% audience score differential on Rotten Tomatoes. Like... what are we even doing here guys!? HAVE SOME STANDARDS, I AM BEGGING YOU.

But I do love this genre. I really do. I love these movies. I don't know what it's going to take to save them. But I can tell you one thing.

We can't count on Lindsay Lohan doing it for us.

*I am not getting into the religious implications here cause I'm an atheist Jew, so leave me out of this.

#ptpt reviews #fucking hell this is a #long post #sorry i guess #don't @ me #i honestly do not care #players is good #not nearly as good as someone like you #but gina rodriguez is still super charming #i feel like there are a lot more tags for this that i am forgetting #but i gotta get back to work #so over everything

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rubykgrant · 9 months

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(The Freelancers are just there and OK, don’t worry about it, everybody is alive and friends in this scenario, it’s fine)

-Florida makes everybody Uncomfortable... plus, he and Sarge start this REALLY awkward flirt-fight thing, where maybe they’re dating Romeo/Juliet/forbidden-love-style, maybe they also wanna stab each other, maybe both (this is the equivalent of two single dads that get together, and it embarrasses the heck of the kids “Gross! Old people love”)

-Florida also keeps halfway flirting with Church (like maybe not, but also kinda yes) in his very specific creepy way, and Church is just like “Uh... no thank you???”, and then Sarge calls him a home-wrecker

-York vibes with Grif, and keeps helping him rig snack machines to spill free goodies. Also, he intentionally sets-up Donut to say all kinds of innuendos. York totally encourages the bad puns and double-entendres (if it makes everybody else groan, that means he won)

-Flowers and Donut are a whole SPECTACLE for the others to hear

-South and Kai become this unstoppable FORCE OF CHAOS, and their bros are over there begging them to be normal for 5 minutes

-South also gets along with Donut, she likes that he knows all the drama, and he likes how mean-funny she is

-North and York both LOVE being overly-supportive of Wash, he’ll be doing something normal like getting a bowl of cereal or whatever, and they’ll be cheering “Look at our boy gooooo!” etc like embarrassing parents at a soccer game

-Wash loves hanging out with the Triplets again, and people start calling them the Quartet

-Everybody gave Wyoming the silent treatment for almost 2 whole months, which drove him crazy

-When they finally acknowledged his existence, he started having all kinds of arguments with Sarge (it is a nightmare to listen to them; Sarge is a yee-haw and Wyoming is like the evil-version of Bert from Mary Poppins)

-Other people keep taking the “Grifshot” and hiding it somewhere Maine can find find it, and he ALWAYS gives it back to Grif... who is like a timid little bunny rabbit in that situation

-Maine will also just stand around and watch Tucker do stuff. Tucker feels like this is some kind of INTIMIDATION act, but Maine literally just thinks Tucker is cool

-Lopez was initially indifferent to all these extra morons he has to hang out with, but Connie actually pays attention to him and is the only one who knows how to chill, so they get along really well

-People were surprised that Tucker wasn’t immediately flirting with the new girls, but he honestly assumed that South and Connie were a couple and he was trying to be a good ally-bro (they start playing it up, and... maybe they ARE a couple???)

-He DID try to hit on Ohio, which everybody thought was hilarious

-Kai is less subtle; who’s single and what are you into?

-Iowa for some reason decided Simmons is the coolest dude and always wants to know what he’s doing and help with projects (he messes things up a lot, but Simmons enjoys the attention)

-Idaho is a naturally good helper for Doc, they both like assisting with bandages and what-not, and they’re both “list-makers” (they make categories and lists for everything, from important supplies, to favorite movies). Idaho also is a great friend to O’Malley; whenever he speaks up, Idaho instantly plays up the role of “evil assistant” and goes along with the bit (they don’t do anything actually “bad”, they just like. sneak all the ice cream and them blame it on somebody else)

-Grif and Simmons get really into playing word-games with the Triplets, they have endless conversations about nonsense

-Carolina had to try REALLY hard to convince them “No seriously guys, I can relax now!”

-Tex, Carolina, and Church have their own weird little dysfunctional-family thing going on; whenever they get snippy with each other, he tries to be the peace-maker, and it ticks them both off. If they ignore him for too long, he starts bothering them until they finally crack to yell at him (and that means success). Sometimes Carolina and Tex will whisper to each other while glancing at Church and giggling, so he KNOWS they’re talking about HIM, but when he asks they just go “Nothing~”. Carolina is a total enabler when it comes to Church mouthing-off to somebody (she just encourages him to rant more). Tex will throw Church over he shoulder like a sack of potatoes sometimes and just walk away with him. He likes it

-Tex just kind of decided that Locus is going to be her friend, and while he doesn’t understand why she even likes him, he enjoys her company (still thinks he doesn’t “deserve friendship”, but he’s getting better). They like going to events like motorcycle races together

-Whenever Caboose asks a question, North takes the time to explain stuff to him (so does York, but York doesn’t know what the fudge he’s talking about and just makes stuff up. not in a mean-lying-way, he’s just a dink)

-Iowa and Caboose will wander off to look at rocks or whatever, but also just have a whole ADVENTURE (they might have accidentally gone to Narnia at one point)

-Kai and York are united in a “f*ck the law” attitude, and will engage in some “creative vandalism” from time to time (they wreck advertisements all over the place)

-Doc and Maine hung out together for several days before even discussing stuff about O’Malley and the Meta... nobody is entirely sure what was said (which is fine if they want to keep it private), and this seems to have resulted in Doc having absolutely NO fear of Maine (even when other people still get intimidated), and Maine has all these inside-jokes with O’Malley

-Sarge called dibs on Maine, South, and York. He truly feels like they are integral to some kind of grand scheme that makes no sense to anybody else. Maine is fine with it, he likes the Reds. South immediately jumps on the SUCK IT BLUES band-wagon (because guess which side her bro got absorbed into). York hams it up, like woe is me, I am on the opposing side of a feud from my dear friends, knowing full well this does not matter

-Locus is one of the few people who kinda just has default respect for Flowers? It seems as if he genuinely doesn’t notice how weird Flowers is (he does, Locus just likes the way this messes with everybody else). Meanwhile, Flowers is at least nice enough to avoid giving Locus “orders”, and instead invite him to join activities like baking or knitting/crochet

-South scares Simmons to death, she’s everything that terrified him about Carolina times a thousand, but she loves listening to him when he snaps and gets all uppity

-Tex and Connie have their own chill moments together, kind of reconnecting their friendship, and sharing stuff they have in common (they like similar books and what-not)

-North started having a whole control-trip, not intentionally trying to be a jerk exactly, but he doesn’t know how to NOT be the one who takes care of everybody else, and if nobody listens to him, he kinda has a panic attack and becomes insufferable... as a result, Tucker gets into arguments with North, kind of a LOT. They don’t “hate” each other or anything, but North makes a lot of incorrect assumptions about how immature Tucker acts (not fully realizing how capable and clever Tucker can be), so Tucker feels the need to one-up North and take him down a notch. Tucker finally made North see there are different ways to care for people. They eventually are on better terms, and can jokingly argue without it being a whole thing, because North genuinely respects Tucker

-When Maine seems to be getting especially “isolated”, it’s actually Locus who knows how to gently approach him and pull the guy into a different train of thought (both having once felt like they were “just weapons”, and learning how to be people again). Maine returns the favor, but with a different method; when Locus is in a self-destructive and depressed mood, Maine will just pick him up, then go pick up somebody else, like Wash or Caboose or whoever might be right for the moment, and they have a Friendship Adventure (which usually involves watching cartoons)

-Kai gets all the ladies together for a PARTY NIGHT! Sometimes it’s just them staying in, eating their favorite food and watching TV, sometimes it’s going to a club for dancing, sometimes they have an entire action movie adventure that results in a show-down with some bad guys at an abandoned amusement park. You know, fun stuff

-Connie and Wash like going out for friend lunches together, they enjoy a lot of the same kinds of food. They also both dress like dads on vacation to the beach, and will complete the fun with bowling

-York doesn’t get totally DRUNK like he used to, but he’ll get a bit buzzed occasionally, and while he’s up for hanging out with anybody, his favorite person to be around like that is Lopez. The robot might sound “stoic”, but he’s clearly amused by loopy York... who speaks Spanish, and catches all the funny comments Lopez makes (Lopez will also help steer York when they walk around so he doesn’t trip and fall)

-Church personally gives Wyoming a reality-check whenever the guy gets too full of himself, and it’s weirdly not with his usual explosive fury of swears; it will be very quiet and kind of chilling. Wyoming is genuinely unnerved, and tries in vain to win Church over with compliments (Simmons calls him a loser and a suck-up). Doc joins in, being a mean little smart-mouth with Church

-Ohio is the only one who isn’t afraid of Carolina’s hyper competitiveness when it comes to video games, they’re BOTH super headstrong about playing

#red vs blue #rvb

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justinspoliticalcorner · 15 days

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John Russell at LGBTQ Nation:

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed 13 Republican bills on Tuesday, including one that LGBTQ+ advocates say would have erased transgender people from legal recognition in the state. Senate Bill 1628, the so-called “Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights,” was introduced by state Sen. Sine Kerr (R) in February. Similar to laws introduced in other states like Indiana and Iowa, it would have removed the word “gender” from state law, replacing it with the word “sex,” which it defined strictly according to biology. The proposed law defined gendered terms like “boy,” “girl,” “man,” “woman,” “mother,” and “father” according to biological sex and would have banned trans people from single-sex environments like bathrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, and domestic violence shelters that do not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. Critics said the bill would have erased trans and nonbinary people from public life in Arizona. “This effort to erase trans people and try to force them to fit into boxes that they don’t fit into is totally unacceptable to me,” state Sen. Eva Burch (D) told the Arizona Senate Health and Human Services Committee in February. “I’m not afraid of trans people, I’m afraid of what’s going to happen to them if we keep treating them like this.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona’s Hugo Polanco warned that S.B. 1628 would have also prevented trans people from obtaining legal documents like IDs that accurately reflect their gender identity. “This bill would force transgender people to live a lie and put them at risk of harm by disclosing the sex they were assigned at birth on documents like drivers’ licenses, marriage licenses, school records and burial paperwork,” Polanco said in February. “All of us, including transgender people, need accurate and consistent identity documents that reflect who we are. That’s what IDs are for.” Arizona’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved the bill in a 31–28 vote along party lines earlier this month, KJZZ reported. The bill was then sent to Hobbs, who had previously said she opposed it.

Brilliant news from Arizona: Governor Katie Hobbs (D) vetoes trans erasure bill deceitfully called the "Women's Bill of Rights" bill SB1628.

#Arizona #Transgender Erasure #Anti Trans Extremism #Katie Hobbs #Arizona SB1628 #Sine Kerr #Women's Bill Of Rights #Transgender

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in-death-we-fall · 10 months

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Wham, Glam, Thank You Mam…

Kerrang 910, June 29 2002

The unmasked Joey Jordison’s Murderdolls are not Slipknot Mark II. Can you imagine the Clown wearing make-up and stack-heels?...

Oh Kerrang, we absolutely can... but that's not the point here

Words: Joshua Sindell Photos: P R Brown, Lisa Johnson

(drive link)

In a dimly lit room at the Sunset Marquis hotel, five heavily mascara’d men in black leather, each with immaculately back-combed hair, pose and purse their lips for a photographer’s lens. Only a single white curtain against the window protects their pale skin from the outside sun’s piercing rays. Last night’s expedition to famed strip club Crazy Girls has left some of them feeling bleary and achy, but, as the band Junkyard once sang so sagely, ‘That’s life in Hollywood’. Yes, this is LA, the home of all things tawdry and torrid, where giants in spandex so famously used to stride down the Strip. But this is not 1986. These events are happening in June of 2002. And one of these pouting prima donnas happens to be a member of Slipknot.

Murderdolls are the new baby of Joey Jordison – Slipknot’s diminutive drummer – but in stark contrast to his unrelentingly intense day job, their music is a trashy pastiche of glam-rock, New York punk circa 1977, schlock-horror, and heavy metal. Jordison has swapped his mask for make-up and his sticks for a guitar, and has created a band that embody practically everything you don’t ever hear on the radio these days. Alongside him are Static-X guitarist Tripp Eisen, singer Wednesday 13 who previously fronted the Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 and two friends of Tripp from LA – bassist Erik Griffin and appropriately-named drummer Ben Graves.

Just one listen to the Murderdolls’ debut album will be enough to have a legion of Slipknot fans chomping on their home-made boiler suits in confusion. Cheesy songs about grave robbing? Tributes to ‘The Exorcist’’s possessed devil-doll Linda Blair? Zombies? Mad scientists? Ghouls? What the hell is going on?

Jordison, barely five-foot-five even in his new stack heels, allows himself a sly smile.

“This is so far removed from Slipknot that it’s actually the best thing about it,” he says. “When we play, it’s just so fucking funny. We’re very serious about not being serious.”

To change gears from the testosterone-filled, uncontrolled anger of ‘Iowa’ to the sexually charged grind of Murderdolls is certainly something of a role-reversal. Butt Tripp Eisen, who, like Jordison, is also on shore leave from his day job, finds the turn-around almost hilarious.

“It’s kind of like being bisexual,” he jokes. “You’re doing a guy for now, but you’re not giving up on the ‘girl’ thing.”

The seeds of this project were sown years ago, in the mind and garage of Joey Jordison, under the name The Rejects. This was long before Slipknot and nu-metal’s all-conquering domination of the rock scene. The Rejects would eventually morph into Murderdolls, and to Joey, this is no mere side-project.

“I just feel that there’s no point in doing anything that’s even remotely similar to Slipknot,” he reasons, seated at a small table inside the cool, dark hotel room. “For me, it’s a chance to play guitar, which I played long before I played drums.”

Murderdolls began to become more than just a figment of Joey’s imagination three years ago when Slipknot toured with New Yorkers Dope, who had Eisen in their line-up at the time. The two bonded over a mutual love of such bands as Manowar, The Ramones and The Plasmatics.

“I had spent my whole life being kind of a glam guy, but also digging the heavy, heavy music,” says Tripp, a soft-spoken man with dreadlocks that sprout from his head like drooping asparagus. “It’s rare to find someone who can relate to both, and that’s what drew me to Joey. He’s into Slayer and Twisted Sister with equal intensity, and there’s not many people like that.”

To Tripp, there’s not all that much difference between the two. Both metal and glam are escapist and theatrical in nature, and he points out that Mötley Crüe and Slayer both used pentagrams on their albums.

Together, during the off time from their respective bands, Joey and Tripp dug up some of Joey’s old Rejects songs and dusted them off. They discovered a voice in North Carolina native Wednesday 13, and he brought several of his own songs with him. Then, after the album was finished, the band’s line-up was completed by Griffin and Graves.

The record itself is an absolute blast. Roaring guitars, skull-rattling drums and sneering, screaming vocals, all set to fast-paced tunes of terror and turmoil. Imagine the Ramones, the Misfits and the Dead Boys wearing long-haired wigs and goofing on love, lust and comic books. Add to the mix a soupçon of Marilyn Manson, plus a few screaming metal electric guitar leads, and stir. What pours out ain’t pretty, but it will certainly raise some eyebrows.

Joey couldn’t be more excited at the prospect of his Slipknot fans lending Murderdolls an ear.

“Not to take anything away from Slipknot, because I love that band and I’m still very much in it. But playing the guitar is not the same as playing the drums. Wearing make-up and trashy clothes is not the same as wearing coveralls and a mask.”

But what is to become of that famed Slipknot ‘mystique’? Won’t it forever be ruined by the fact that Joey is the first of them to go mask-less? Joey downplays the importance of his decision, saying that the internet has basically removed whatever secrecy Slipknot had tried to maintain anyway.

“We meet and talk to the kids without our masks every day,” he points out. He also says that Slipknot’s singer Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root will soon be performing sans masks in their own side-project, Stone Sour.

“I’ve said this a million times before, but wearing the masks is what the music ‘made’ us do,” says Joey. “It was not to just hide our faces. After knowing what Kiss looked like without their make-up for so many years, when I went to see them on their reunion tour, I didn’t give a fuck if I knew what they looked like under their make-up. When I saw them in make-up, I said, ‘That’s fuckin’ Kiss’.”

Scheduling the Murderdolls sessions and upcoming tour was never an issue with Slipknot either. All of the nine members decided that their loving maggots could allow them a few months’ rest, and many of them are pursuing solo projects.

“It was a mutual decision,” says Joey, “It wasn’t like we all needed the time away from one another. I told them that I felt that this stuff was worthy of being put out on a record. I think that it’s worthy for people to see it live as well. I’ve been spinning upside-down on a drum riser for the past 10 months, and now I’m going to go jam with this other band for a while, and they were totally cool with that. They knew from the start, even before the first Slipknot record, that I was going to do this, so it was no surprise to them.”

As for the other members, this much is known. Tripp Eisen says he’s still very much a part of Static-X, who are just about ready to wrap up their touring scenario for 2002 and will immediately begin writing their third album. Singer Wednesday 13, recruited to replace Rejects singer Dizzy, is an aficionado of ‘80s glam acts like Pretty Boy Gloyd and Tuff, and claims, quite horrifically, to have the soundtrack albums to every one of Sylvester Stalone’s movies – including ‘Over The Top’ and ‘Rhinestone’. Wednesday, who speaks in a warm southern drawl, plays a big role in the band’s theme and sound. He explains the song ‘Dawn Of The Dead’.

“I’ve always loved that movie,” he says, “and I thought, ‘How great would it be to have a Quiet Riot, ‘Cum On Feel Tha Noize’-type chorus for a song like that?’.” The singer described the sound of Murderdolls as a “Frankenstein monster we stitched together.”

The two newest members are Ben and Erik, friends of Tripp’s from LA. They do not play on the record, and both were struggling musicians who felt left out by the onslaught of post-grunge blandness and down-tuned rap-rock. Secretly, they wished they’d get hired to play just this kind of balls-out rock that just didn’t seem to exist outside of their old CD collections. They were working in shops on trendy Melrose Avenue when Tripp gave them a call.

“Once we all agreed that Nikki Sixx was God, we knew they were the right guys,” observes Wednesday.

Joey is loath to describe the band’s sound as metal or punk, though clearly it has elements of both, as well as some of the more frenzied moments of Marilyn Manson’s catalogue. In particular, ‘Dead In Hollywood’ truly sounds as if the God Of Fuck was somewhere in the mix, lending a helping shout. As it turns out, Joey asked the man himself to contribute, but not on any of the songs that have turned up on the record.

“Marilyn’s a friend of mine and we’ve always helped each other out,” says Joey. “I played some guitar for him and hooked him up with a remix, which he just recently used on the ‘Resident Evil’ soundtrack. He said that he’s going to sing on one of our songs now.” Unfortunately, what with his own deadline looming shortly, Manson’s tracks – either ‘People Hate Me’ or ‘Nineteen Seventy 666’ – may have to wait until after the release of the new Manson disc.

If all this sleaze and disorderly conduct sounds a little backward thinking, it is no accident. Even Trip agrees that the ‘Dolls pay tribute to a bygone time.

“I feel that kids today don’t know about what we grew up on, and I think that we’re trying to bring the whole package to them. The Union Underground and Sinisstar are similar in the respect that they’re bringing trashy rock back, but we just feel like we can do it better.”

Wednesday speaks with an endearing confidence that borders on pride.

“Nobody’s done it to the extent that we will,” he brags. “There were bands like Buckcherry and Beautiful Creatures who were doing the whole Guns N’Roses rock thing, but nobody’s done it at the level that we’re going to.”

Without too much Slipknot business to attend to, aside from the upcoming Reading and Leeds appearances this summer, Joey is clearly basking in his new-found freedom. Returning from the bathroom after applying his make-up, he jokes that posing for photos in Slipknot is so much easier than this current Murderdolls shoot. “You just throw on a mask and make hand gestures!”

Joey says that he’s looking forward to sharing his band with the world, and playing guitar live.

“I think that we’re original, but we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” he muses. “I think that in Slipknot, we broke down a lot of doors. I’m very proud of that, and I’m very fulfilled there. This is just another way to keep the glass full.”

Murderdolls release their debut album, ‘Beneath (sic) The Valley Of The Murderdolls’, on August 19 via Roadrunner.

Doll Parts

Joey Jordison’s guide to his new bandmates…

Ben Graves Joey: “Again, Tripp found him. Does he look like Twiggy Ramirez? Absolutely no comment.”

Wednesday 13 Joey: “He and I wrote all the music and the lyrics together. It’s fun when we’re singing about grave robbing. It’s much more tongue-in-cheek than anything Slipknot’s ever done.”

Erik Griffin Joey: “Tripp brought him into the band. I saw a video that Tripp did of them jamming, and he looked right for the band.”

Tripp Eisen Joey: “When we met, we instantly knew that we had the same taste in music. I really love his leads on the album. Live he’s great, and he’s a great friend.”

#if you want anything else from this scanned lemme know #hey if you're new here and don't know why nobody talks about tripp (beyond being in the band very briefly)#his wikipedia immediately gets right straight to the point #murderdolls #joey jordison #wednesday 13 #ben graves #eric griffin #tripp eisen #interview #kerrang 910 jun 29 02 #that time eric decided to spell his name with a k i guess?#i had the power to scan the two page spread in one piece but 1. there was a white line and 2. i thought it was funny tripp was cut in half #DROOPING ASPARAGUS almost makes up for the diminutive incident #there's some old website features and a page of stickers in the drive folder! and i'm shutting the fuck up now

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