#'gays have such good sense of style' uh huh explain them two

[qcomicsy]

THERES NO WAY BERNARD GAVE TIM A NECKLACE WITH HIS INITIAL IN IT

#fucking early 2000's nightmare #THIS IS SO FUCKING CHEESY #'gays have such good sense of style' uh huh explain them two #gay rights except for tim and his corny ass boyfriend #troy bolton variant #jk jk the issue was adorable I'm happy for them #Bernard disown your own parents the both suck ass #timbern #Tim Drake: Robin #Tim Drake #Bernard Dowd #q rambles #q talks comics #can't believe i have to say that but do not sexualize any of them under this post

[1ddotdhq]

Sun 31 Jan ‘21 

Happy Walls Dayyy!!!!!! Today was the first anniversary of our #1 fave debut album of 2020, and we all celebrated, Louis included! Last but best thing first: WE GOT A DEMO!! Louis ended the day by publishing a dreamy clip of a demo of the title song ‘Walls’. His clear voice croons over beautiful sliding electric guitars and background reverberance- if that’s his FIRST draft then he is, as we knew, a GENIUS! AND, the King Himself came on twitter to interact with his “loyal” (his words) subjects (that’s us!). He popped up at first to say that his tour, when it comes around, will be “fucking unbelievable...this is our day!”, and talked about his favorite part of the last year (“the two shows I played”), what he noticed most when performing solo the first times (“the space on stage” ughhhh all the tears), what he was looking forward to after COVID (“everything”) and getting through these times- “remember that everything is going to be better when normality sets back in.” He also explained that while he was gonna put out merch today, he “didn’t want to market the day”, but rather make it “a celebration just for us”. But, uh, the merch will be coming eventually! He then replied that there were “too many greedy fuckers out there” who try turn celebratory events into a “cash grab” (to quote the fan), and harries then got mad at that because THEY were like this must be about Harry (lol uhhhh) and assumed he was shading him and Jeff rather than, I don’t know, his OWN FORMER LABEL?? Cool cool cool, but it’s still Harry’s moth on Spotify, so cope. He told us that his proudest moment on the album was recording the strings for the Walls the Single, that he wouldn’t have approached the process differently because he’s still really proud of the album, that he was most looking forward to us hearing KMM or Walls, that Doncaster is his fav place (to no one’s surprise lmao), and, asked what song he likes to rock out to off HIS ALBUM was like oh hey have I got a rec for you: “Maybe Tomorrow” by the Stereophonics. It goes, “think I'll walk me outside and buy a rainbow smile, but be free” and “maybe tomorrow I’ll find my way home” (huh is there something happening tomorrow that could be linked to... OH. Right. Huh. Well all that is just a coincidence I’m sure, it’s not like Louis ever said he likes to rec songs because he wants us to read into the lyrics or anything... oh wait.)    

LTHQ did a insta quiz over on their stories (I only got two questions wrong!) and they did the promised virtual listening party and tweeted along to each song and retweeted fans’ reactions (and all the usernames, larries everywhere, we SEE YOU). Friends of Louis joined in the celebration- Only The Poets, Ashton Irwin of 5SoS fame, Helene Hornyck (“all the love,” she said!), Isaac Anderson and more, and All On The Board made one of their lovely Frankenstein poems which mashing up a bunch of LT1 songs, but in keeping with the theme of the day (and COVID I GUESS) did it as fanart rather than the usual in person board. And all of that was the BORING part of the day, can you BELIEVE?? The FUN part was the Walls Fanart that was chosen to be the new Spotify cards on the official Walls album. As in, they are up right now if you want to go check them out, but I’m gonna tell you straight up: they’re half Harry tats! The Defenseless card, especially, as it is just straight up fanart of Harry’s moth tattoo, especially fun when he had JUST got us talking about its Papillion origin with his finsta! The artist had been worried that Louis would be mad at them for submitting ‘Larry art’, and was overjoyed to learn that, uh... apparently, he was NOT. That was not all! The ‘Too Young’ art card is H’s rose tattoo, ‘Habit’ and ‘Fearless’ were both different variations of H’s anatomical heart tat (the ‘Habit’ one even included the word kind :{) ), and the We Made It rainbow wheel did, in fact, make it to Spotify, just like we thought! “Perfect Now” was Louis standing under a rainbow spotlight—they made that one black and white for spotify but the artist shared the original version. Harries were beside themselves, and tagged Jeff (Azoff), Ben Winston, and Gemma Styles (what?), demanding that they make Louis take the art down because it was clearly Harry art, which 1.) how much more blatant can you be if even ANTIS are noticing and 2.) what sort of control do they think Jeff, Ben, and Gemma have over Louis seeing as, uh, none of them currently work for him??? Weird, are they thinking there might be some kind of link... between Harry and his team and Louis... tell me more antis, truly, I’m fascinated!

One would think that’s more than enough for one day but WAIT THERE’S MORE Zayn is in EXCELLENT quirky Zayn form having fun with his own merch—he posted a gremlin (from the old RL Stine movie ‘Gremlins’) in a NIL beanie captioned “one size fits all humanoid shaped heads” late last night, haaaaa. Yes, I agree! The red stitching really makes the gremlin’s red eyes pop, and his fangs have never looked this good! And the question arose, is Harry’s finsta actually just his side account for following nothing but gay meme accounts? Evidence—the discovery of a second follow, of the openlygayanimals account-- would suggest yes! Well that’s valid, imagine having to not only navigate the internet AS HARRY but also without funny memes of your choice, that’s no life to lead. And Niall complained on twitter that people didn’t understand his sense of humor because SARCASM! He also tweeted about golf, which I’m sure was cool for people who understand it.

#louis tomlinson #zayn #harry styles #niall horan #lmao @ all the people who were like LOUIS JUST SHADED HSHQ #like uh NO HE DIDNT YOU DID #lajdflkdajfsd #also COULD LOUIS BE MORE ON LA TIME??? NO HE COULDNT #i love this today was fun and much needed! #to celebrate im gonna rewatch the liveshow tonight! #anyways! #song of the day! #maybe tomorrow by the stereophonics! bc LOUIS

[oakleaf--bearer]

@jonmartinweek day two - injury!

also on ao3

When dealing with matters of the heart, Jon was about the furthest from a natural that there could be. 

He was... rusty to say the least. Awkward was a generous way to put it. Completely and utterly useless was far more accurate. 

So when Georgie had laughed and asked when he and Martin had started dating, he had been understandably taken aback and politely asked her what she meant by that. ("Georgie, what the fuck?" had been his exact wording). She'd shrugged and patted his knee, telling him that he should probably talk to Martin as soon as he got back to the Institute. 

He stared down at the ring sat on the table, a frown creasing his forehead. It had been something of a whim purchase. He had bought it several years ago after reading about the concept online, and he'd just....not taken it off. Every time it left his hand, he'd itched to put it back on as soon as possible. 

And now, a blistering burn mark on his hand was stopping him from putting it back on. A small, mostly insignificant piece of his identity stripped back and taken away from him. 

A gentle knock at the door startled him out of his quiet contemplation. 

"Hello." Martin poked his head around the door. "Tea?"

"Thank you, Martin."

Martin smiled, and Jon remembered Georgie's assumption. Would he? It wasn't the most unimaginable thing in the world. Martin was friendly. Charming, comfortable, welcoming. But dating? Maybe... But Jon had done dating before. He'd explained what the ring in the table meant to enough people that he was tired. Tired of the assumptions, the questions, the idea that there was one person out there who would change his mind, all he needed was a good- 

Martin wasn't that person. When Jon ran through the mental 'relationship checklist', he could imagine so many different aspects with Martin. Holding hands, going on dates, even waking up next to each other, but that particular facet of a relationship was completely unimaginable. It wasn't that Martin was unattractive, simply that Jon just didn't see the attractiveness like that. 

"What's that?" Martin gestured to the ring. 

"Oh, uh, nothing." Jon covered it with his good hand. "Just a- nothing."

"Riiight." Martin placed the tea on his desk, in easy reach. "Keep your secrets then."

"Hmm." Jon hummed, still examining Martin's face. 

"Jon? You alright?" 

"Oh!" Jon realised he was staring and quickly looked away. "Sorry." 

"It's okay." Martin said with an audible smile that made Jon's heart do something ridiculous. 

"Martin..." Jon didn't really know what he was going to say. "Are you- I- Hmm." 

"Take your time."

"Have lunch with me. That is, if you want to, please don't feel like I'm pressuring you, you can say no if you-"

"Jon." Martin put a hand on his desk, gentle, a calming reminder of a calming man. "I'd love to." 

Jon stared at the hand. It was larger than his own. When he'd arrived back in the archives, trailing blood and exhaustion behind him, Martin had sat and re-wrapped the clumsy bandages he had put on it, patiently telling him off for not going to a doctor and getting it checked. Jon hadn't been able to look away from his hands then either, just gazing at them with sleepy eyes, his mind fixed on the image of Martin taking care of him. Carefully picking up the pieces he had left flung about the place and putting them back together, gently slotting them back into place.

Martin took him to a sandwich place around the corner from the institute. Jon stared at the menu, trying to decipher the swirling font. The letters swam slightly as he read them, the words jumbling together. 

“Jon?” Martin bumped their shoulders together lightly, bending down to Jon's height to compensate for the difference. “What are you going to order?”

 “I-  What do you recommend?” 

Martin smiled. “Hmm. How about the tuna and sweetcorn? It’s a classic, you know?”

“Sure.” 

Martin ordered for them and nudged Jon towards a table in the corner. Jon went willingly, content to listen to Martin chatter away about the wait times and the various bouts of  people-watching he had gotten up to in this cafe. Despite Jon’s lack of contributions, Martin seemed to be fine carrying the conversation on his own. A couple of people gave them odd glances, no doubt wondering what Martin, kind, gentle-looking Martin, was doing with a grumpy sack of exhaustion. Externally, they didn't match. They were diametrically opposed, two entities that shouldn't exist in the same space without causing some kind of epoch changing event. 

But the more Jon pondered it, the more he realised that he wanted to be here, sat opposite Martin, listening to him talk, letting him order his sandwiches and hold his hand-

Jon’s brain skipped a beat. 

Martin had placed his hand over Jon’s where it rested on the table and was staring at him, concern across his face. “Jon? You okay?”

‘I care about him’, Jon realised with a start. ‘This is my friend.’

Martin nudged his hand around so that he could properly take it in his own. The motion dislodged the ring that Jon still held clutched in his bandaged fingers. It clattered out, its black outline stark against the faded beige of the tabletop. 

“Oh, sorry.” Martin picked it up to hand it back to Jon. “You might want to be a bit more careful. You don't want to lose this.”

“What?” Jon stared down at Martin’s hand. It felt ridiculous to see Martin holding out his ring and for Jon to feel this weightless. The gentle curl of Martin’s fingers around the band set Jon’s mind whirling down avenues lined with graffiti reading ‘Just tell him’ and ‘Maybe it will go well’. 

Jon took a deep breath and took the plunge. 

“I’m sorry, Martin.”

Martin blinked. “R-right? What for?”

“All of it.” Jon reached out and covered Martin’s, still holding Jon’s ace ring up in front of them. “You were always- I’m glad you're here. With me.” He carefully took the ring and let go of Martin’s hand. It looked shockingly sad sitting in the palm of Jon’s bandaged hand. Another piece of who he was now associated with pain. An uncomfortably familiar reality that Jon was steadily becoming used to. 

Martin reached across the table and gave Jon’s hand a quick squeeze. Jon hissed at the jolt of pain lacing up his arm. 

“Oh god, Jon, I’m so sorry, I didnt- I didnt think, that was stupid of me-” Martin’s hands fluttered in the air around Jon’s. “God, that was awful of me, I’m really sorry-”

“It’s okay,” Jon said, grabbing at Martin with his uninjured hand. “It’s fine, it's already passed.” 

Martin gave him an apologetic smile, but didn’t argue. “That’s important to you, huh?”

“Hmm?”

“The ring. I’ve seen you wear it a lot. Does it mean something?”

“Oh.” Jon hadn't considered the possibility that Martin might be aware of the ring's existence. In his head, it existed in a bubble, separate from work and his colleagues. It made sense, he supposed, that Martin was able to see into that bubble, since its edges had been bumping against Jon’s perception of Martin for a little while now. “It, ah, its a- Its a sexuality thing.”

To Martin’s credit, he didn’t even blink at the idea that Jon might not be straight, just nodded and smiled encouragingly. “I thought so. Asexuality, right?” 

“Wha- Yes.” Jon had been gearing up to explain the intricacies of asexuality, not for Martin to already have that knowledge. 

“It came up when I was doing research trying to figure out my own sexuality.”

That caught Jon off guard. For some reason, throughout all of his deliberations trying to figure out where on Jon’s internal spectrum Martin sat, he had failed to consider the actual real life possibility of Martin’s queerness. “You’re-”

“Oh, I’m not ace.” Martin shook his head. “At least, I don't think so. Labels,” he chuckled. “Confusing stuff. I usually just go with gay and trans to sum me up.” 

A small, overlooked lightbulb in the back of Jon’s mind flickered to life as a couple of pieces of information fell into place with a quiet ‘oh!’

“I saw the ring but I didn't want to ask in case it was just a style thing. A lot of people don't know about this stuff and it's sometimes hard to tell, you know?”

“Right.”

“I guess the bandages stop you wearing it, right?” It was a non-sentence, a piece of idle observation that Martin was making. But it still stung. 

“It feels somewhat ridiculous to say but- I think I’m going to miss it. It’s just a ring, it's not my entire sexuality, I’ll still be ace without wearing it, but I’m still- It feels like I’m missing a piece of something that I was trying to hold onto, you know?”

Martin nodded. “I understand. Here-” he reached up and unclasped a thin chain that had been hanging around his neck. “You can borrow this. I’ll take these off for now.” He slipped off a couple of charms that had been hanging on it. Smiling, he held out the chain.

“You- You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” Martin wiggled the chain in the air between them slightly. “You can give it back when your hand is better.”

Wordlessly, Jon took the chain and looped the ring onto it. He lifted to try and fix the clasp around his neck, but he couldn't get the clasp open. Martin pushed his chair back, coming to stand behind Jon, taking the chain out of his hands and closing the clasp for Jon. 

“There.” Martin smoothed Jon’s collar down. “That looks nice!”

“Thank you.” Jon whispered, then louder, “Thank you, Martin. This- This means a lot.” 

Martin shrugged a little awkwardly, cheeks turning red. “No trouble. It means a lot to you, so, you know, you should be able to carry it with you.”

He smiled down at Jon, and once again Jon felt the small jolt of recognition, of comfort. The bubble in his mind fully merged with Martin, creating something new that, at least for a few more long, exhausting months, Jon didn't know to call love.

#tma #the magnus archives #my fics

[enbyleighlines]

Okay it's not a shippy prompt but I would love some bffs nhs&wwx. Maybe a little good natured teasing from wwx about how nhs could possibly fall for his snappy grumpy baby bro?

Yeeeeee yes I love this idea, thank you! Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang’s friendship is so important to me

Oh, and please be aware that there is some suggestive talk in this one

I hope you enjoy!

—

Wei Wuxian was bound to find out eventually. Still, Nie Huaisang feels like the universe could have given them a little more time to prepare.

The two of them are in the middle of enjoying their weekly “Hump Day Ritual.” It involves some wine, reruns of a show from their childhood playing in the background, and a deck of cards. They use the time to catch up, to swap stories about the grind of daily life, and most importantly, to reminisce about the good old days.

In truth, Nie Huaisang should have had plenty of time to prepare. But Huaisang so enjoys their Wednesday evening get togethers, and in their anticipation they had overlooked the fact that this will be their first time seeing Wei Wuxian since they went on a couple of dates with their Didi, Jiang Cheng. Hence, it will mean telling Wei Wuxian about the dates. And Huaisang doesn’t know how their friend will react.

So when Wei Wuxian asks, “What’s new with you?” Nie Huaisang freezes.

There’s a split second where Nie Huaisang considers lying. They wouldn’t keep this a secret forever, of course, just put it off a little longer. But that would be an insult to their friendship.

So Huaisang answers, “Ah, well... I went on a date.”

Wei Wuxian reacts with exaggerated surprise. “What! You went on a date? And I’m just hearing about it now? Is it someone I know?”

“Yes,” Huaisang admits, “It’s... someone you know very well, in fact. Your, uh, Didi.”

“Huh?” Wei Wuxian blinks, his face blank. “My Didi?” It seemingly takes him a moment to process the meaning of Huaisang’s words. And then his mind finishes buffering, evident by the way his eyes nearly pop out if his skull. “You don’t mean... J-Jiang Cheng?!”

“Do you have another Didi I don’t know about?” Huaisang demands.

“No, but— Jiang Cheng?” Wei Wuxian waves his hands in a complicated manner, like he’s speaking gibberish in sign language. “My straight, thick-headed Didi? That Jiang Cheng?”

Huaisang finds themself smiling despite their annoyance. “Yes, that Jiang Cheng.”

“How did that happen?”

And so Huaisang tells Wei Wuxian the story: “I approached him at Jin Zixuan and your Jiejie’s wedding. I told him I had feelings for him, and a few days later, he texted me and asked me out on a date. Two, in fact. One to the zoo and one to a botanical garden.”

“Wait, wait, hold up.” Wei Wuxian holds his hand up like a stop sign. “Since when do you have feelings for my Didi?”

Huaisang avoids looking at Wei Wuxian’s face as they answer, “A while. I think it started in... sophomore year of high school. You convinced me to come watch your soccer game, and I saw him playing for the first time.”

Wei Wuxian does not immediately reply. When Nie Huaisang glances back, Wuxian is just staring mutely into space.

“That was... six or seven years ago,” Wei Wuxian says at long last.

“Yes,” Huaisang confirms.

“Six or seven years,” Wei Wuxian repeats. He sounds absolutely confounded. “You’ve liked my Didi for that long? And you never told me?”

Huaisang winces. This is the reaction that they were afraid of.

“To be fair,” Huaisang says, “I was afraid you would accidentally mention it in front of him. You’ve always been really bad at keeping secrets. Do you remember when we used to go to Wen Ning’s house sometimes, and you’d do that obnoxious nudge-nudge wink-wink think to Jiang Cheng every time Wen Qing came into the room?”

Wei Wuxian continues to stare for a second. But then he recovers, and starts to laugh. “Did I really do that?”

“Yes, you did.”

Wei Wuxian gives another laugh. He doesn’t seem particularly remorseful. Then he says, “But wait. What about Wen Qing? I thought the two of them were— well, not dating, but...”

“Yeah,” Huaisang hums, “I still don’t know exactly what’s going on between them. I think it’s some sort of friends with benefits situation? In any case, yes, they’re still seeing each other. And yes, before you ask, Wen Qing knows that Jiang Cheng and I have been going out on dates.”

“Oh wow, okay.” Wei Wuxian is frowning. “I didn’t take my Didi for the type of guy to sleep around like that.”

“It’s not like that,” Huaisang scrambles to explain, their face no doubt taking on a bright pink hue, “Jiang Cheng has been a perfect gentleman! It’s not— it’s not about sex.”

“So he’s taking you out on dates and then going home to hook up with Wen Qing?” Wei Wuxian shakes his head. “That... doesn’t sound right. Also, I thought Jiang Cheng was straight. I know that I’m still a baby gay, and I don’t have the best gaydar, but I did not ping him as bisexual.”

At that last part, Huaisang shrugs. “We’re still figuring this whole thing out,” they admit, “Jiang Cheng doesn’t know why he’s attracted to me, or if that makes him bisexual. And honestly, I don’t care if he’s still hooking up with Wen Qing. I’ve never been a conventional person, so I don’t mind having a nonconventional relationship. I mean, it’s 2015. Monogamy isn’t the only option. I’m just glad for the chance to get closer to Jiang Cheng. Maybe it won’t work out, in the end. But I want to give it a try anyway.”

“Oh.” Wei Wuxian takes a moment to digest Huaisang’s words. Slowly, gradually, a smile begins to unfold across his face. “Wow,” he says.

“What?”

Wei Wuxian’s grin takes on a mischievous curl at the side of his mouth. “Huaisang,” he coos, “You really like him, don’t you?”

Huaisang rolls their eyes. “Yes. I already told you that.”

“But you really like him,” Wei Wuxian presses, “Tell me, do you like him in spite of the fact that he’s a grumpy troll, or because he’s a grumpy troll?”

Huaisang’s face warms. “I’m not answering that,” they say.

“You don’t have to,” Wei Wuxian teases, “I can see it on your face. You like that he’s a big grumpy grouch, don’t you? That’s right— you always did like tsundere characters the best. So you’re a sucker for that kind of guy, right?”

Huaisang almost aims a throw pillow at Wei Wuxian’s head, despite the high probability that it’ll just cause him to spill his wine all over the couch. Instead, they shout, “Stop it!”

“No, no, this makes perfect sense to me now!” Wei Wuxian spins the wine around in his glass, all while sporting a deviously triumphant smile. “I don’t know why I didn’t guess it earlier. And now I know why you kept coming to my soccer games, even though you hate sports. It was never about supporting me, was it? You just came to gawk at my tsundere Didi.”

“Don’t forget that I can give you the same treatment,” Huaisang warns their friend, “I know who you have a crush on.”

“Yeah, so?” Wei Wuxian lounges back further, not looking threatened in the least. “I’m not ashamed to say I have a crush on Lan Wangji. He’s a talented man. He’s probably got heaps of admirers. But my Didi— you know, my Da-yima used to call him unmatchable? There was this smart period of time when my Da-yima was obsessed with matchmaking. She set Jiang Cheng up on so many blind dates, and he kept scaring all the girls away.”

“Ah, I remember that!” Huaisang giggles, the memories flooding back into their mind’s eye. “Jiang Cheng complained about it nonstop!”

“I know! None of them were stylish ever enough, according to his impossible standards. He just kept critiquing their clothes and makeup, until they went away. Which, now that I think about it, is weird. Wen Qing’s not a fashionista, but he still loves her.”

Huaisang shrugs, not finding it quite so strange. “I mean, her sense of style is casual, but it’s not bad,” they point out, “She knows what looks good on her. But more importantly, she makes it look effortless. Jiang Cheng appreciates understated beauty. His aesthetic taste is real picky that way. He likes a woman to look beautiful, but he doesn’t want her to look like she spends too much time making herself beautiful. In other words, he wants a natural beauty.”

By the time Huaisang finishes their little spiel, Wei Wuxian is arching an eyebrow at them.

“Unfortunately, I can never be that,” Huaisang adds, with no small touch of sorrow seeping into their voice, “In order to keep up the illusion of androgyny, I need makeup and accessories. There’s no telling if Jiang Cheng will still find me attractive underneath the countour.”

“If he doesn’t, I’ll beat him up.”

Nie Huaisang snorts. “I appreciate the offer, but Jiang Cheng won’t be able to help how he feels. Like I said before, I’m just happy to get this chance in the first place.”

“That’s true, but still.” Wei Wuxian puts his wine glass on the coffee table, and adds, “I wouldn’t worry too much, Huaisang. I mean, I once saw Jiang Cheng kiss Wen Qing when her face was all splotchy and snotty from the flu. And I’ve also seen you without makeup. Trust me when I say that your naked face is far prettier than a feverish Wen Qing.”

The mental image of Jiang Cheng caring for a sick Wen Qing has Nie Huaisang smiling. He would have such a concerned face, which for Jiang Cheng means that he would be scowling like usual, with the addition of pain wrinkling the skin around his eyes.

“Oh man, you really do have it bad,” Wei Wuxian says with a whistle, “Look at you, swooning like a schoolgirl.”

Nie Huaisang lightly slaps Wuxian’s arm. “Yes, yes, I’m a lovesick fool,” they whine, digging into their thespian past to amp up the melodrama, “Haven’t you teased me enough, Xian-xiong?”

“No.” After years of friendship, Wei Wuxian is completely unaffected by Nie Huaisang’s little act. “I think it’s cute. Oh— have you ever tried to make Jiang Cheng angry on purpose? Just to see how he’ll react? Be honest.”

“Ah,” Huaisang says, “Maybe... I don’t remember.”

Wei Wuxian gives them a knowing look. “Uh-huh, sure you don’t,” he replies, tapping his nose, “I won’t blame you, if you did. Jiang Cheng can have some really funny reactions. But, of course, I prefer Lan Wangji’s reactions! It’s so hard to make him lose his temper, but when he does!” Wei Wuxian clasps both hands over his heart. “I honestly don’t know why I love it so much. Maybe I’m a sadist? Is there a word for wanting to see your crush angry all the time?”

Huaisang laughs, and immediately reaches for their phone to look it up. A cursory search doesn’t turn up much, however. “It’s probably some kind of BDSM thing,” they decide.

“Probably,” Wei Wuxian agrees, “I’ll keep that in mind for later.”

“Hmm,” Nie Huaisang says.

“Oh!” Wei Wuxian jolts forward. “Oh no, I just realized something.”

Fearing the worst, Nie Huaisang takes a deep inhale. Then, carefully, they ask, “And what is that?”

And sure enough, Wei Wuxian doesn’t disappoint. “You won’t be able to tell me about all your fun sexcapades,” he blurts out, “I mean, you could, but I don’t want to hear about my Didi’s sex life, so please don’t.”

Huaisang is caught somewhere between amusement and horror. “And why is that a problem?”

“Because I bet you’re a real freak,” Wei Wuxian puts it bluntly, “And don’t try to deny it. I’ve known you for a long time. I know you hide a devious mind underneath that timid exterior. I bet you’re even more of a freak than I am. But since I’m probably not going to get laid anytime within the next decade, I was hoping to live vicariously through you, whenever you finally began dating.”

“At least you’re honest,” Nie Huaisang says with a roll of their eyes. They carefully do not deny Wuxian’s claims.

“I guess we’ll just have to keep all date talk PG for now,” Wei Wuxian decides glumly. But, in the usual Wei Wuxian manner, he doesn’t stay down for long. He perks up and adds, “But I’m still going to tease you about having a crush on a real-life tsundere.”

“I know,” Huaisang sighs, “I know.”

#asks #anon #mo dao zu shi #mdzs modern au #anonymous #drabbles #leigh’s writing #sangcheng #wangxian

[squidbatts]

your funny mouth to the clouds

Or: Fabian stresses, confesses, and gets some kisses in

((The last couple of Fantasy High episodes have been Buckwild but IN THIS HOUSE we ignore current canon happenings to write about fabian wanting to kiss ragh and then getting to kiss ragh!!! because i crave ragh/fabian content even if i have to Do Everything Myself))

{ao3}

Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill Seacaster, knows he’s hot; it’s kind of his whole thing, being a charming, roguish pirate, as dangerous as he is dashing. So, obviously, it makes complete sense that he and Gorgug would be Ragh’s dream makeout partners. They’re all hot athletes and they spend a decent amount of time together, he gets it.

It shouldn’t even be a thing.

Except that Fabian can’t stop thinking about it. When Ragh lances a demon through the eye and then turns to grin at Fabian, manic, muscles straining his letterman jacket, he thinks about it; when Fabian’s trying to teach the party literally anything about the sea and Ragh slides in right next to him, body a point of warmth on Fabian’s left side as he points at completely the wrong part of the map, he thinks about it; when Ragh tears off his shirt and leaps into the water with Fabian, throws a glistening and sea-wet arm over Fabian’s bare shoulders, tugs Fabian into his sculpted chest as he laughs-

The point is, Fabian keeps thinking about it.

Which is why he thinks he should be excused for asking Kristen for advice; she is, after all, their “token gay friend"; the rest of his close friends are straight, so she’s really the only one he can ask.

“Kristen,“ Fabian starts one afternoon when it’s just the two of them on the roof, “You know about gay stuff, right?“

Kristen lights up. “I don’t know if you know this-“

“I do, you say it all the time-“

“-but I’m gay!“ Kristen finishes like she doesn’t come out over breakfast every morning. “So yeah, I do.“

“Awesome, great, listen, I have a question. Have you ever- hm.“ Fabian cuts himself off with a hum as he attempts to word it correctly. He decides to try another route. “Do you think Ragh is attracted to me?“

“Oh, for sure,“ Kristen says and, even though he already knew that, Fabian chokes on air in surprise at her surety. “He’s really into the whole ’straight boy jock’ thing and, I’m a lesbian, but even I know that you’re objectively the hottest person in our party. You and Fig are the hot ones.“

“Obviously,“ Fabian replies, kneejerk.

“Yeah, so, duh. Why do you ask?“ Kristen asks, and Fabian-

Fabian falters because, obviously, he wants to get to the bottom of why he can’t just forget about Ragh’s proposition like Gorgug has, but the idea of talking about it, of telling Kristen makes his stomach twist. Something about it makes him feel weird, the same way he feels weird whenever he thinks about Ragh wanting to kiss him.

“He just said something and I-“ Fabian waves a hand dismissively. “Nevermind, it doesn’t matter.“

Kristen’s eyebrows furrow and she places a hand on Fabian’s arm, firm but still kind. “If you’re uncomfortable with a gay man simply being attracted to you, you’re the asshole here. But listen, Jawbone has some pamphlets about it and we can totally work this out-“

“I’m not uncomfortable, I just wanted to know if he had said anything to you,“ Fabian says, the words quick and awkward in his mouth. Maybe I am uncomfortable, He considers. Maybe the twisting how of his gut and the heating of his face are merely symptoms of his discomfort. He’s always been fine with Kristen and Tracker, he was fine with Ragh when he told them about Dane, but maybe he just thought he wasn’t homophobic until it directly affected him.

Kristen stares at him silently for a second, tilting her head as her eyebrows raise. “Huh. Never would’ve guessed that.“ She says, then, “Well, actually, I maybe would’ve because you’re like, supernaturally obsessed with your appearance, but stereotyping is bad and all that.“

“What are you talking about?“ Fabian snaps, irritated with her vagueness. He realizes that he should’ve just gone to Adaine for help, she reads books and knows about a great many things, not to mention that it certainly would’ve been less of a tax on his patience than dealing with Kristen at her… Kristen-est.

“I think… I think you should talk to Ragh,“ Kristen says, and then continues on quickly before Fabian can get the horrified Absolutely not out of his mouth. “No, listen, this is really something that would go best if you just, like, talked to Ragh about it, I think. And like, I rolled a seventeen on persuasion, so you kind of have to.”

Fabian, not blessed in wisdom, fails his saving throw and has to admit that Kristen’s point is pretty compelling. Still, “I don’t even know where Ragh is right now.”

Kristen gives him a look that clearly says We all live in the same vanboat, you have to know that he’s less than three minutes away. She leans away from Fabian and, still holding eye contact, yells into the van, "Hey, Ragh, Fabian wants to talk to you!"

"Kristen, no," Fabian hisses. Kristen just grins back at him.

"Kristen, yes!" She says, "You will so thank me for this."

Fabian is still cursing Kristen's name when Ragh climbs up to join them on the roof. He's wearing his normal jeans but has elected to leave his letterman jacket in the van. Probably a good idea, Fabian thinks, eyes involuntarily drawn to the sheen of sweat over Ragh's biceps as Ragh stretches before he sits. It's been hot all day, but Fabian would bet gold that it's gotten hotter in the past five minutes. He certainly feels rather feverish, suddenly.

"What's the problem, bro?" Ragh asks when he settles down. Kristen makes a face at him from behind Ragh's back and mouths Take my advice!!!! When he pretends not to notice and instead stares pointedly at the sea, she huffs loudly.

"Well, I'm going to go back into the van, I'm real tired," She says, obnoxiously obvious. Fabian makes a face back at her when Ragh turns towards her. "I'll, uh,see you guys later. Don't even worry about everyone else, I'll keep 'em down there."

Fabian tries to infuse enough That is absolutely not what I want! and Don't leave us alone! into a single glare to make her stay, but she just winks at him, like she's a bard or something, which of course makes Ragh turns back to Fabian, puzzled.

"What was all that about?"

"It's nothing, really," Fabian says, forcing lightness into his voice as he waves a hand, as though all this awkwardness could be as easily dispelled as Fig's cigarette smoke. "Kristen is just being dramatic."

Ragh frowns, his dark eyes are stormily serious. Fabian's heart skips a beat. "We're bros. And bros don't have to lie about their feelings, right?"

"... Right."

"Dude." Ragh says as he punches Fabian's arm, clearly about to get started on the Jawbone taught me emotional vulnerability and now I think everyone should do it spiel. Fabian's already heard it at least one time apiece from Kristen and Adaine, and he still thinks he's good on the emotions front, thank you very much. Still, his stomach flips even now with nerves, and he thinks of how Kristen thought that talking with Ragh would sort him out. As truly awful as he imagines it will be, he wonders if Kristen has a point, just this once.

"Alright, alright!" He concedes, "I suppose we can talk about my feelings."

"Awesome!" Ragh grins lopsidedly, shifting to sit lotus style, his full attention on Fabian. "Now, what's up?"

A feeling rises in Fabian's chest, like his ribcage is stuck in a vice, and he feels nearly sick with guilt. Here Ragh is, so kindly and sincerely devoting his attention to Fabian, and Fabian's body can't even relax enough to appreciate it.

"I think I owe you an apology," Fabian says, and before Ragh can respond, he rushes on with, "I think I might be homophobic, but I'm going to work on it and be a better friend for you and Kristen, and I'm very sorry."

Ragh's opens and closes his mouth wordlessly a few times, tusks catching on his upper lip. "I- what?"

Fabian sighs huffily and explains, how he's felt weird and off-kilter since Ragh's proposition and Kristen's offered explanation. Ragh listens thoughtfully, brow furrowed and a hand on his chin. He's still frowning as Fabian finishes his tale and Fabian fights the urge to fidget under the scrutiny.

"I don't think you're homophobic, dude," Ragh says, eventually. He sounds like he's choosing his words carefully, like he's walking on eggshells, and Fabian aches to think that he's made Ragh think that he has to do that.

"Of course I am, what else could it be?" Fabian asks, and Ragh screws up half of his face. "See! I made you uncomfortable with my- weirdness. I'm sorry."

"No, no, I'm not uncomfortable, I'm just trying to… Reconcile some things. Sort stuff out in the old noggin." Fabian tries not to look too doubtful but Ragh must've aced his insight check because he sighs and continues, "Listen, this has got to be weird for you too, I mean, obviously it is if you think you're a homophobe, but I think there's a pretty easy way to figure out what your discomfort means."

"And what would that be?" Fabian asks snipily, turning away. He doesn't like apologizing in the first place, much less when the other person won't just accept it.

"Feel free to say no, but I figured you could just try kissing me." Ragh says, and Fabian’s head whips back to him. Ragh lifts up his hands defensively. “Full disclosure, I think you’re super hot so I'm definitely getting something out of this, but if you can't stop thinking about it… It couldn't hurt, could it?"

Ragh shrugs as he lays his offer down and Fabian-

Fabian's heart pounds like he's in the middle of a Bloodrush play as heat pools in his face and his stomach. He hadn't ever considered actually kissing Ragh, but now that it's on the table, something deep within him twists with want.

"One kiss?" Fabian asks, trying to will away his blush, "I wouldn't be… Opposed."

"Uh-uh, none of that. I need a definite yes or no, bro," Ragh says, "I don't want to pressure you into this."

Fabian feels his flush flare hotter and squeezes his eyes shut. The deep buried part of him has rapidly expanded and spread throughout his body, leaving his fingers twitching towards Ragh and his lips tingling with anticipation. He can't imagine saying no, but to say yes also seems almost insurmountable. He opens his eyes, sees how softly Ragh smiles and the patience in his eyes, and it feels like someone's reached into Fabian's chest and twisted. Fabian nods, excessively, embarrassingly, then says, "Yes, yes, I'd like to try it-" before Ragh is upon him like the tide on a beach.

It's different from kissing Aelwyn; there's no bitter taste of alcohol or sticky-sweet lipgloss, no, Ragh's lips are chapped and he tastes of salt from days at sea, but it's still so much. Ragh cups Fabian's head, gentle, but presses his mouth insistently forward, easily leading Fabian through the sweeping movements of a makeout. Fabian's heartbeat still thuds in his ears, but he can also hear Ragh's slow and steady breaths, feel how he nips Fabian's lips and smiles against Fabian's mouth. When it's over, when Ragh pulls back and Fabian embarrassingly chases after him for half a second, Fabian is breathing like he's been near-drowned.

"Still think you're homophobic?" Ragh asks, teeth flashing in the ocean sunlight, lips slick from Fabian. Fabian burns brightly.

"I have," Fabian clears his throat awkwardly. "A few other theories now."

Ragh laughs, full and perfect, throwing his head back. Fabian looks at the vast muscled expanse of his neck, realizes that the twist of his gut just means that he wants to press a kiss to the juncture of Ragh's jawline and neck, and thinks, Huh.

"Well, that was super fun," Ragh says, clapping Fabian on the back, "Always down to help a fellow Owlbear with a sexuality crisis, dude, just let me know if you wanna do that again."

Ragh heads back into the vanboat, whistling cheerfully, and Fabian waits until he's absolutely out of sight to raise a shaking hand to his lips. He feels a smile giddily crawling over his face and he buries his face in his hands rather than risk someone seeing him like that. He wonders, in a corner of his mind that's not fully busy simply rejoicing over getting his kisses in, if having a boyfriend is much different than having a girlfriend.

#fantasy high #ragh barkrock #fabian seacaster #fabragh #One shot

[blurglesmurfklaine]

Cornelia Street (8/9)

(+ an interlude i thought of after reading “Reeni”s comment. Idk who you are bc it was a guest comment, but thank you!)

A/N: oh my god they were quarantined

yes. It’s one of those fics.

AU, obvs

I’m posting as I go and idk how many parts this is going to be, likely won’t be very long but I literally don’t know what I’m doing and should i be starting yet another WIP? definitely not but fuck it lets fucking go

Title is from T-swizzles Lover album, I’m OBSESSED

Summary: Three years ago, Kurt and Blaine went on a disaster of a date and never quite got off on the right foot. Now, just before they graduate from NYADA, there’s a national outbreak and they’re both self-quarantined in a mutual friend’s apartment.

Read On AO3

On Tumblr: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Interlude

QueenJCedes replied to your story!

Kurt bites back a dopey grin when he opens Mercedes’s snapchat message. It’s a photo of her looking dubiously at the camera, a single eyebrow pointed up, with the caption: Quarantine buddies, huh?

He snaps back a quick photo of himself, eyes rolled upwards. What can I say, he won me over.

She sends back just a message this time—

Mercedes: Yeah, clearly. Mercedes: Head over feet, Alanis style!

—and then a bitmoji of Kurt falling through the air.

Kurt: I mean… You’re not wrong Kurt: He’s sort of everything Kurt: AND a fantastic kisser

Mercedes: OMG REALLY? I was just teasing, but if this is legit, I’m so happy for you!!!

He can’t help but giggle excitedly as he types a reply. 

Kurt: Yeah. me too.

*

New Snap from setroutymouth

Blaine rolls his eyes but still can't school the smile on his face into a neutral expression. This is going to be a lot, he already knows, but nevertheless, he swipes his thumb across the screen to unlock his phone.

Sam’s pacing through Mercedes’s childhood home in Ohio, phone in selfie mode, already rambling at a hundred miles a minute that Blaine’s sure he cut off a few words.

“—cedes just showed me Kurt’s snapchat story and I AM LOSING IT! Did something happen between you two? Oh my god, something totally happened, didn’t it!? BLAINE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED MERCEDES WON’T TELL ME AND I ALREADY FINISHED EVERY BINGABLE SHOW ON NETFLI—”

As expected, it was a lot. But still not enough to burst his happy little bubble. He doesn’t think anything could, at this point.

Through his smiles, he snaps back a picture of himself shrugging, trying to look as clueless as possible, and adds the caption: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

It’s not even a full moment before he gets another video back.

“BLAINE ANDERSON I AM BEGGING YOU—”

Blaine locks his phone shut, mostly because he knows it’ll drive Sam crazy. He can respond later. Right now, there are more important matters at hand.

*

Blaine’s in the kitchen, putting away what was left of the carton of Cookie Two-Step ice cream they’d demolished while watching another Netflix romcom, when Kurt’s phone lights up.

New Message: From: Adam I saw your sc story You know you could just be *my* quarantine buddy When are you coming?

Kurt actually growls as he types out a reply. How did he put up with this for nearly three years?

New Message: To: Adam I’m not.

Kurt. We both know how this ends.

Not this time. I meant it. We’re done.

Okay, whatever you say I’ll check in with you later When you change your mind

Kurt doesn’t even warrant that with a response, he’s too seething mad to even formulate one with enough bite to put Adam in his place.

But then the door opens, Blaine’s beaming at him, and Adam is completely irrelevant.

“I was just thinking,” Blaine muses aloud, slipping under the covers and snuggling up next to him in a way that Kurt knows will be way too easy for him to get used to. “Do you remember our Junior year when we had to partner up during Stagefighting for that Musical Choregraphy project?”

Kurt explodes into laughter. “Uh, yeah, that was pretty ridiculous. I remember hearing from Matthew that you said I dance like a pigeon that’d been chewed up and spit out by a cat.”

“What!?” Blaine exclaims, shocked. “I swear I never said that. Though, I do remember going on a tangent about how I didn’t know how I was supposed to concentrate when you insisted on wearing those pants with that tight fitted shirt and…”

He trails off, and Kurt can feel color rising to his cheeks. “Oh, that explains it, actually.”

“Explains what?”

“Matthew. He had a huge crush on you.”

Blaine’s eyes double in size. “He what!?”

Kurt lets out a chuckle. “You seriously didn’t know?”

“No! Nobody told me!”

“That’s not how crushes work, Blaine,” Kurt says through a stream of giggles. 

“Okay, why does it make more sense for me to just take a wild guess about how people feel about me instead of them telling me, or acting on it? Like, if you hadn’t have kissed me earlier, I would have never known how you felt and kissed you back.”

Kurt opens his mouth to argue that logic, but… he seriously cannot get over how oblivious Blaine is. “So you’re saying that if I hadn't accidentally kissed you then you really wouldn’t have known how I feel?”

“Yeah. And I would most definitely not have acted on my crush.”

“Aw,” Kurt teases. “You used to have a crush on me. That’s embarrassing.”

“And you watch too much Parks and Rec.” 

“I’m gonna kiss you again, now,” he announces.

Blaine just grins, eyes crinkling at the sides. “I think that’s a great idea.”

There wasn’t much of a choice because of the shelter in place, but based on the bright spark forming in his chest when their skin meets, Kurt could definitely get used to this living situation.

*

Blaine finally pulls away reluctantly. If he could stay attached to Kurt forever, stay connected to him, he would. He roams his eyes over Kurt’s face, like he could memorize it if he really, really tried, and notices a scar just above his eyebrow. It would be invisible to anyone else, anyone who wasn’t trying to intentionally map out the image of Kurt.

The scar doesn’t bother Blaine, but the idea that someone ever hurt Kurt bad enough to leave physical evidence that refuses to leave tugs achingly at his heart. Instinctively, he takes his hand from where it rests on the side of Kurt’s face, and gently traces over the scar with the pad of his index finger soothingly, as if it hasn’t been healed for years.

“Sophomore year… two years ago,” Kurt’s murmuring refocuses his attention.

That was a hazy time for Blaine, but he does have a vague memory of hearing from a friend of a friend that Kurt spent some time in the hospital, and he definitely remembers his rival-slash-partner being missing from their stage acting class for a while.

“What happened?” He asks.

Kurt is so calm, so steady when he answers. It leaves him in awe. “It was when all those gay bashings were happening…” he pauses, and Blaine immediately feels sick to his stomach because he knows where this is heading. “I was on my way home from school and saw these guys attacking some teenager, and… I had to help. I ran over and started shoving them, I guess. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but the kid got away. I didn’t. The last thing I remember after that was what I think might’ve been a brick hitting my head.”

“Jesus,” Blaine breathes. His initial reaction is to say I’m sorry, but something tells him that Kurt isn’t sorry about it at all. Instead, he says, “I had no idea. That–that was really brave of you.”

Kurt snorts out a laugh. “I’m glad you think so. I spent most of my hospital stay being berated by my dad about how irresponsible it was.”

“No,” Blaine shakes his head. “If anything it was over-responsible.”

“I’m not convinced that’s a word.”

“Me neither,” Blaine says breathlessly, amber gaze fixed on the boy lying across from him.

He really just can’t help but pull them together again. 

Blaine thinks Kurt is opening his mouth to deepen the kiss and, well, he’s certainly not going to complain. Until Kurt sucks in a deep breath and turns his head, chuckling through his yawn.

“Sorry, I really thought I could hold that yawn in.”

Blaine lets out a laugh of his own and glances over at the analog clock on the nightstand. “It’s only midnight, you grandpa,” he teases.

“Hey! Doing nothing all day is seriously draining.”

“I wouldn’t call what we did nothing,” Blaine says cheekily, causing Kurt to flush.

“I’m going to shower before I head to bed,” Kurt responds, sitting up and lifting his arms up over his head and exposing an inch or so of his midriff.

Blaine is trying so hard not to stare. Nevertheless, he can’t help it as he watches Kurt saunter off to the restroom. 

He tosses his head back onto the pillow with a satisfied grin on his face. Global crisis it may be, but if he got Kurt Hummel out of it… he could complain about worse things.

A bright ding from his right interrupts his thoughts. Blaine turns his head and sees the screen of Kurt’s phone light up, resting there on the nightstand.

He’s not snooping. He’s really not. It’s just sort of instinct to look in the direction of the sounds.

Then, he sees the succession of messages that make his stomach churn.

New Message: From: Adam Hurry and finish up with the rebound already I miss you Text me when you’re on your way

He stares at the screen for a few seconds before it fades back to black, feeling absolutely sick to his stomach. Of course Kurt was going to run back to his ex the first chance he got. It’s exactly what he did three years ago and Blaine was just kidding himself. This was all too good to be true.

Turns out it wasn’t.

Before he knows it, he’s grabbing his duffel bag and dialing Quinn’s number. 

He’s always welcomed there and New Haven isn’t all that far, after all.

Part 9

#klaine #glee #kurt hummel #blaine anderson #klaine fanfiction #wow look at me im writing! #cornelia street

[raventhekittycat]

Prompt: In which Character A is searching for a cat, and Character B has found a cat around their windowsill

An attempted at romcom and to make readers feel maybe a bit of second hand embarrassment. The prompt screamed romcom at me so I went with it. Tried alternating POVs for the first time and also tried a different style of writing thoughts. I think it’s a little choppy but wanted to try and keep the spacing even? I dunno. Not very satisfied with how the thoughts always turned out though….  Unbetaed. Tagging prompt deciders @sup-poki and @mintchocolateleaves

Edit: Italics are fixed.

It was late. Not unreasonably so but still late enough that it was a little odd to hear anyone making a lot of noise, at least here in a residential area. So Shiho was a little surprised to hear someone calling out at regular intervals. As she opened her window for some fresh air, now that clouds and humidity had cleared, two things happened. First a cat hopped up. Second, she heard the person calling again and with the window open she was able to understand why they were making such a noise at this time of night.

“Tora, come here Tora.”

Looking down at the orange tabby that had hopped up on her windowsill and was happily accepting her idle petting, Shiho figured this was the cat in question they were looking for. Deciding that the best thing for all parties involved, neighbors included, was to bring the cat indoors and grab it’s owner, she gently lifted the cat and set it down on the floor inside before closing her window. The breeze could wait.

After taking a quick photo on her phone of the cat to show the owner for confirmation so they wouldn’t have to traipse back to her house unnecessarily if it wasn’t the right cat, she set out. Stepping outside her door and listening until she heard them call again, she ascertained which direction to head. Every once in a while after hearing them call for the cat she corrected her path but thankfully was able to reach them in only a few minutes.

———

Masumi was bored. She had to be bored if what she was doing was searching for a lost cat. No one had hired her in weeks and so when a classmate requested she find their cat which had escaped the previous day she agreed to help them out as a favor.

After getting the basic details—a picture of the cat, any way he liked to be called, treats he liked, etc., Masumi remembered that they had moved recently. After finding out where they had lived previously (thankfully only a few stops over on the subway in an area she was familiar with, having been looking for a new apartment), she decided to start looking around there. Cats were known for their ridiculously good sense of direction after all.

Calling out the cat’s name every so often, Masumi regretted that she hadn’t been able to get over a little earlier in the day. She knew she was being noisy, but there was no helping it. Starting to get tired and frustrated with her task Masumi was about ready to call it quits when she heard an “Excuse me” from behind her back.

Turning around all Masumi could think was a string of crap crap crap running through her head. Here she was making noise later at night than she should and who should she annoy? A cute girl who could end up being a future neighbor. She was doomed. That was one way to make an impression on your neighbors. There was no way this conversation could go well.

———

Shiho had caught up to the person looking for their cat. From behind, they appeared to be a college age boy, only a little younger than her, but when they turned around she reassessed. They might be a college age girl a little younger than her. Either way the faint tinge of red that cut across their cheeks after they had turned around was a surprise.

“Are you looking for a cat?” They seemed mildly relieved when she asked that. Ahh, they must have thought I was going to criticize them for being as loud as they were. Akemi did always tell her she had a stern face.

Nodding, they replied so quickly they almost tripped over their words, “Yeah I’m looking for an orange striped cat. His name is Tora.” After a beat they followed up, “Have you seen him?”

Well it sounded like the cat that Shiho had let into and left in her apartment. Pulling out her phone, she quickly pulled up the photo she had taken. “Is this him?”

———

Internally, Masumi was thanking her lucky stars. The cat in the photo was Tora, and the cute girl standing in front of her didn’t already hate her. That was lucky if they were going to be in the same neighborhood.

“Yeah that’s him. That’s a better shot of him than I have, even.” She had to admit that he looked almost as cute as this girl did but she was cuter. She was a dog person after all.

“Are you hitting on me?”

Huh? Oh shit did I say that out loud?

———

Well that settled it. The person in front of her was a guy. Only a college age male would try that kind of pick up line on someone they just met. Shiho watched as the guy turned bright red. Or maybe not.

“No I uh I’m not, I’m not hitting on you. I mean I’m not trying to, but uh, I guess that was? I don’t know, I mean, I didn’t mean to say anything?”

Shiho listened as they stumbled over their words and excuses. She was a little surprised that after delivering the line so smoothly that they had backed off so quickly and lost the initial confidence they had seemed to have. Usually the boys that tried to hit on her when she did go out would follow through. As she started to half tune them out, mentally signing over the situation she had found herself in she caught the very quiet tail end of apology. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I’m just really gay sometimes.”

Oh.

Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter if I take her back to get the cat. She didn’t seem to mean it.

———

Whatever lucky stars had shone on her earlier had clearly all disappeared behind the clouds and Masumi cursed herself. Way to be an idiot and fuck up you useless brain. As she stood there embarrassed and wishing the ground would swallow her up, she hoped that at least the girl would tell her where she last saw the cat so she could just get this day over with.

Standing there, waiting for the verdict, the girl spoke again after a moment. She watched the girl sigh after seeming to come to some sort of conclusion. “Shall we collect your cat? I let him inside my place, after I heard you calling for him.”

Maybe there was a God. The girl in front of her didn’t seem to care about her accidental comment or that she was gay. As they walked towards her home, Masumi thanked her for grabbing him and explained that the cat was her classmates who just moved away. After reaching her place Masumi decided to push her luck just a little bit more. The stars did seem to be shining brightly this evening.

“In case this happens again, can I have your name and number so my classmate can contact you?”

“That’s a lie, but fine. However since I rather deal with you who’ve I met rather than a stranger, you have to give me yours as well.”

The reply was a bit gruff but Masumi could only reach one conclusion. Yup, the stars were shining brightly indeed.

Shiho and Masumi may be my ship but it wasn’t the only reasons I picked them. I knew Shiho had to be the one to find the cat because she likes animals and I wanted Masumi to be an embarrassed mess of a lesbian because I thought it was likely the easiest way to attempt romcom. Shiho has no interest in Masumi in this one at this point. I also made Shiho a few years older but that doesn’t really come across. I decided I wanted them out of high school for a change for no particular reason. Also Akemi’s alive here but that’s not important to this…

(i can’t believe that I wrote over a thousand words for this one.... the heartbreaker one isn’t even half the length of this one O.o )

#Detective Conan #dcmk #DCMKEmogust2019 #fanfic #Sera Masumi #Miyano Shiho #prompt

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

I found a WIP post about 11x07 in the depths of my laptop, I’ll copy&paste it here so I won’t feel bad about deleting the file :p

Have a look if you want to be astral projected back into November 2015, I guess?

Man on TV: This is their second drive in overtime, with both teams having possessed the ball. The next score wins.

This is their second round at the Apocalypse, this time in the era after the Kripke one.

Both teams have had sexual relations with Dean Winchester.

The next person that will get Dean’s heart will win him. There will be Amara trying to get Dean, but the person that will “score” is Cas, clearly. Also see the double meaning of score *sly face*.

Man: Every play becomes…

What’s the endgame?

Oh!

[ Sighs ]

We aren’t going to get the endgame any soon. (well, it’s called endgame for a reason.)

Man: 1st and 10 from the 32-yard line. 8:21 in O.T…

I don’t know how this game works lol so I don't know if there’s some specific meaning to this line. What I know is that 1 - 10 - 3 - 2: either 1x10 Asylum and 3x02 The Kids Are Alright, or 1x03 Dead In Water and 10x02 Reichenbach. In the first case, we’re talking about an episode where Dean and Sam aren’t “alright”, they are not in a good moment of their relationship, and well, literally an episode called “the kids aren't alright’, aka Dean and Sam have something wrong with them right now. In the second case, we have two episodes dealing with death, water (sea/ocean symbology?) and falling (or better, jumping yourself) and corruption of soul.

8x21 is The Great Escapist. Dean is escaping, he’s playing dead like a possum, he’s telling Sam to just ignore the visions and do nothing, he’s the one fear makes do nothing. But it’s over the time to do nothing, it’s too late, they’re in too deep. (“What do you wanna do? Sit back? Ignore him? Do nothing?” “No, that's — that's not what I'm saying.” aka yes, that’s what he’s saying…)

Stan! Can you take out the trash?

Winchester brothers! Can you take the toxic elements out of your relationship and your lives?

[ Sighs ]

He is running left. Ohh! He gets…

Dean is running to the devil’s side, aka the gay side! Ohh! He gets [angel cake *cough*]

Stinks to high heaven.

Speaking of angel cake, he’s not really an angel anymore, because he doesn’t belong to heaven. Heaven stinks.

[ Lowered voice ] It's your cooking that stinks.

No Castiel, it’s your Dean Winchester that is just a mud monkey.

[ Dish thuds ] What was that, honey?

What did you say about Dean? *goes in ‘flower meme’ mode*

Nothing, dear.

Ehm, nothing, nothing, Castiel. *sweats nervously*

2nd and…

Who’s on second? What is second?

The game's in O.T., can't it wait?

We’re already in season 11, but the endgame still isn't close. We’re getting at least a season 12 I guess.

...backs him into center, slowly defends...

Dean is backing to the center, he tries to defend himself, but the “defensive center” is the clear area at the center of the smoke.

[ Speaks indistinctly ] [ Sighs ] [ Grunting ] [ Crowd cheering ] [ Groans ] [ Men speaking indistinctly ] [ Door creaks ] [ Men continue speaking indistinctly ] [ Door creaks ] [ Rattling and clinking ] [ Lid bangs ] [ Dog barking in distance ] [ Rattling and clinking ] [ Door creaks open ]

Hey, hon, bring me another brewski.

Rude. Cas goes getting the brewskis himself.

[ Door closes ] [ Refrigerator door opens, bottles clink ] [ Refrigerator door closes ]

He's flushed out of the pocket.

I don’t know what this means lol. Is it something about getting sent out from the field or something? Is it Cas, that is now currently away from the bunker, or Dean, who’s “flushing” himself out of the battlefield?

Hey, thanks, babe.

Who brings you a brewski is you babe.

He's got a man open…

Cas has made Dean open up. It’s also a pun about stabbing the guy, I know, which is also a pun for ～stabbing a guy～… I mean, I guess “get a man open” has different meanings…)

[ Gasps ]

Throws… And it's caught by… [ Cheering, whistle blows ]

Dean throws himself to damnation, but he gets caught by Cas — every time.

[ Glass shatters ]

Uhh! Don't need possum traps, huh?

The possum is Dean, and apparently someone believes there’s no need to trap him, although the lady thinks so. The lady is Dean here I guess, the one that takes out the trash, albeit reluctantly, but who doesn’t trust himself and prefers to “do nothing”, keep himself in check, “trap” himself in a corner. Or the lady is Sam, trying to take out the trash, but who deep down doesn’t trust Dean, thinks he should be kept in check, or will think Dean should be kept in check after he finds out about his “bond” with Amara.

[ Lid bangs, glass clinks ] [ Screaming ] [ Squishing ] [ Groaning ] [ Screams ]

————

So, uh… on the off chance that you're actually listening, uh…  Uh, I gotta be real honest. The visions aren't making a whole lot of sense to me. Truth is… I don't know what's what. Please. [ Exhales sharply ] What are you trying to say? [ Exhales ]

I don’t know you, but I find this hilarious. “Send me a message please” *gets incomprehensible message* “What the fuck god”

Really? I mean, really?

I think Dean is scared of Sam contacting God. God is the John Winchester on a macroscopic level, and he makes Dean uneasy. When you need his help, he doesn’t show. You’re dying and you call him for help, he doesn’t show, and you have to save your life yourself. You’re upset and afraid and he doesn’t even drop a word, and you have to face your fears alone. Dean feels abandoned and betrayed by God just like he felt abandoned and betrayed by John, except John did show up now and then and upset Dean, while God never shows up and that allows Dean to talk badly of him, because he feels safe to do so. He didn’t feel safe criticizing John, of course, because John might have been absent when Dean would need his help, but he’d always be present when it came to mistreat Dean. And Dean is afraid that if God shows up, it’ll be the same — God will punish him, humiliate him, force him to be someone else than he really is and do something he doesn’t really want to do.

You ever hear of privacy?

Sam feels more and more suffocated by Dean’s presence. He feels like the bunker is too small for the two of them, so to speak. He’s always lived in a car or in motel rooms with no privacy at all, now he’s been dangled the piece of meat in front of his face, and now he’s gotten… fond of privacy. He’s been craving privacy for his whole life, and now that he can have it, he’s quite “possessive” of it.

Hey, you want privacy, close your door.

@domlerrys and I laughed at this because we’d just commented the same thing right before Dean said it himself.

It’s not a good thing for their relationship in the short term, but a good thing in the long term. Closing the door means isolating yourself from the other, which is not a good thing to do now that they’re neck deep in huge problems (both external and of communication between the two of them), but it’ll be a good thing eventually because they need to stop being “conjoined twins” and live their own autonomous lives.

Thought we talked about this.

Dean, you talked to Sam about this. Sam has no intention of believing you, and will continue believing the visions are coming from God… until it’ll be too late and he’ll pay the price of his ingenuity.

Yeah, we did, Dean. But why is it so hard to believe that God could be sending me visions about the darkness?

Because the visions are not about the Darkness in the slightest and you know it, dumbass. But at the end of the episode Sam admits it to Dean — the visions are about the Cage, not the Darkness.

You kidding me? He didn't feel the need to show up for the Apocalypse. Why would he give a crap now?

“Dad didn’t show up when we were working that case in Lawrence, he didn’t show up when I was dying of heart failure, he didn’t show up so many times when we needed him. God is the same, Sammy. I know a thing or two about absent fathers.”

There’s also a Destiel element — Dean feels strongly that God is like John because he and Cas first bonded deeply over absent fathers, thus the connection between their fathers that has formed in Dean’s mind.

I don't know. Maybe because she's his sister? What do you wanna do? Sit back? Ignore him? Do nothing?

Well, that’s exactly what Dean is doing. The episode later tells us that it’s because fear is paralyzing him, but I think it’s not just about that. Dean has a keen sense of self-preservation — apparently that happens when you’re abused as a kid — and it only looks like he hasn’t because he fights against them because he cares too much about others and always puts others first. The first episodes of season 10 showed this quite clearly — when he was a demon and he didn’t care about others, his self-preservation instincts ran free and he even tried to kill Sam to protect himself from getting pulled into the “family business” again.

No, that's — that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, don't count on God. Okay? Count on us.

I suspect Dean is highly right here…

Right. Oh, this is everything Cas dug up in Gaza, every last bit of pre-biblical lore.

“Where do we put Cas now that the brothers are in the bunker? We can’t stick him in front of the tv set, because if Dean is present he doesn’t stare at a screen, he stares at Dean.” “Let’s have him help from outside of the bunker.” “Why would he? The lore is inside the bunker.” “Then let’s have him seek out further lore… directly from the source!” It makes sense. And it is useful to explain why Cas isn't around for more than one episode — he’s traveling the world doing research. And since he doesn’t have functioning wings, he can’t just make a quick detour like he did to Jerusalem in Free to Be You and Me. He needs to take planes. I believe there’s no doubt about it, he’s traveling human-style.

Hmm.

Half of it I couldn't read. It's in Aramaic. And the other half… [ Cell phone rings ] Nada. [ Ring ] Not a single mention of the darkness, so… [ Ring ]

Miscommunication happens because Sam and Dean are speaking different languages, metaphorically speaking. And even when they speak the same language… still nada, like when Sam confesses the visions are about the Cage — Dean shuts him off because he’s too scared to deal with what Sam has just told him.

Well, I'll be damned. [ Cell phone beeps ] Huh? Donna, what's shakin’?

[ Lowered voice ] Fat sucker Donna?

Dean is much closer to Donna than Sam is, although Dean hasn’t really spent more time with her than Sam has. But Dean has connected with her deeply, while Sam hasn’t, because Donna is female Dean, pretty much.

What do you mean “Killer bunny”?

#spn 11x07 #my spn thoughts #spn

[tornrose24]

What the animation rivalries must have been for 2017 in a nutshell

Disney: We got two of our movies nominated for an Oscar and one of them won! We don’t have any films lined up for this year, but our live action Beauty and the Beast is going to make a KILLING!

Dreamworks Animation: LOL. But thanks to the success of Trolls–which also got nominated–we now have a franchise that appeals to most of our girl consumers to rival your stupid ‘Frozen’ franchise.

Pixar: Well, we have Cars 3 coming out–

Most everyone: LAME!

Pixar: But we want to tell a story about how it’s good to pass on the torch, rather than say ‘Oh these new youngsters are going to destroy everything as we know it!’

Illumination: DESPICABLE ME 3, YO!

Most everyone: Yeaaaaaaah, wasn’t that the Minion Movie?

Dreamworks Animation: Well we’re releasing the Boss Baby–

Most everyone: WTF is this? Is this a joke, Dreamworks? We don’t want another film that’s only good for memes and YTPs!

Dreamworks Animation: But we are also doing a film adaption of Captain Underpants! See this image from the film? We are honoring the art style and–

CU fans: *Screams of joy and happy childhood nostalgia* SHUT UP AND TAKE OUR MONEY!

Dreamworks Animation:–and good cast. BUT we gave it a budget of under 40 million and we decided to release it on the same day as Wonder Woman instead of in March. The Boss Baby is taking the March slot.

CU fans:.... Are you kidding me?

Someone in Disney: The live action Beauty and the Beast is going to have our first official gay character!

A bunch of dumb complainers: HATE! BAN IT! GIVE IT AN R RATING!

Dreamworks Animation: *Recalls that one of the characters in Captain Underpants is canonically gay and decides to keep mouth shut about that while trusting more intelligent people to discover that on their own.* Yeah, we don’t want to take that risk. Also–HOLY CRUD! BOSS BABY BEAT BEAUTY AND THE BEAST AT THE BOX OFFICE IN IT’S THIRD OR FOURTH WEEK!

CU fans: Why aren’t you advertising CU as much as Boss Baby?

Random viewer: Actually, the film was surprisingly better than I thought. Not Dreamworks’ best, but still good.

Kids at local book fairs and Barnes and Noble, or access to internet: OMG! CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS MOVIE! HECK YES!

Sony: OMG GUYZ! EMOJIS AND PHONES ARE POPULAR! WE’RE GOING TO MAKE A MOVIE OFF OF IT FOR A SHAMELESS CASH GRAB!

Disney and Pixar:... We recognize plot points from our films, Sony.

Everyone: HATE! HATE! HAAAAAAATE!

Someone: Why is it required to have one animated film that sucks every year?

DIsney: Well, for our Wreck It Ralph sequel next year, we are going to have EVERY Disney princess we ever made in one scene.

Everyone: *minds explode five times over*

Disney: ....And our Jack and the Beanstalk film is dead now. Sorry.

Those who wanted to see Gigantic:..... *grabs the pitchforks*

Then come summer....

CU fans: THIS WAS AWESOME! :D :D :D Thank you Dreamworks, even though your sense of timing was awful! You actually gave us a film adaption that stayed faithful to the soul of the books and took the best parts to help weave a good, funny and heartfelt story! Unlike MOST book to film adaptions.

Dreamworks Animation: You’re welcome ;)

CU fans: You’ll give us a sequel, right? :D Or at least an animated show on netflix? :D :D

Dreamworks Animation: Uh... well, we ARE planning on making a Boss Baby 2... a Trolls 2... a Croods 2.... Not anytime soon, even though you are demanding it, sorry.

Viewers: Hey, Cars 3 was actually pretty good! It redeems Cars 2 and it was visually beautiful!

Other Viewers: Despicable Me 3 was actually pretty good too!

South Park fan: Though I couldn’t stop hearing Cartman through Trey Parker’s voice.

*Only few people watch the Emoji Movie. Those who do, do as a joke and give money to Sony to make more instantly hated films*

Certain people: WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT POP-EYE FILM?! DARN YOU SONY FOR RUINING A PROMISING MOVIE!

Disney: Well, most of the other animated films are ‘eh’–

Dreamworks Animation: Unless they go see that one film with the bull because of John Cena.

Pixar: Well, we have until next year to finally release The Incredibles 2.

Incredibles fans: *screams of joy and delight*

Pixar: Also, we are happy to release Coco this November. We really want to honor the culture that is being represented and we are happy to see that it is doing well in Mexico. It makes us feel proud of what we have accomplished–

Disney: Great! Now you’re going to tack on this ‘Frozen’ short which will make more money through it’s merch than your film’s merch! Pretty sure most people will see your film just for that like when we did it to the live action Cinderella!

Pixar:…. *not happy about this* Great. Ok. 

*and, if the Coco novel is to believe, they get revenge by making a commentary about how a song can get overused to the point that it’s annoying as heck. I should not have to explain this one.*

Dreamworks Animation: Well, we got both our films submitted for Oscar nominations!

Pixar: Us too for both films!

Illumination: Huh... us too. Neat!

Sony: EMOJI MOVIE GOT SUBMITTED!

Disney:....

Pixar:....

Dreamworks Animation:....

Illumination:....

Pixar: Well, it was hated by all, so I think we can agree that we don’t have to compete with THAT!

#animation #illumination #disney animation #disney #dreamworks animation #sony #pixar #the boss baby #cars 3 #beauty and the beast 2017 #coco #captain underpants: the first epic movie #captain underpants #despicable me 3 #the emoji movie #the incredibles #wreck it ralph 2 #disney's gigantic #frozen

[sophygurl]

WisCon 42 panel Black Lightning

Black Lightning panel description: 

The CW, host of DCTV shows Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow, is now the network to go to for the television adaptation of the classic comic Black Lightning! The show focuses on a black family—the father, a retired superhero and current high school principal, dons his supersuit once more to protect his daughters. It seems at least one of the daughters are developing powers of theirs own. One of the daughters is a lesbian, adding more intersecting identities that are rarely see on TV. This show seems to be a smart, funny, political, action-packed family drama - with super powers. Let's celebrate, discuss, and critique this exciting new show!

Moderator Inda Lauryn with panelists Jennifer Cross, JP Fairfield, Alex Jennings, and Krys. 

Reminder that these panel notes are only my own recollections and the things I managed to write down - my notes are incomplete and likely faulty in places. Corrections and additions are always welcome. Especially please do correct me if I get names or pronouns wrong!

Also I name panelists as that’s publicly available information but not audience members unless requested by that person to have their named added.

[Ugh this was my first panel of the morning and my handwriting is extra-bad. I’ll be skipping chunks in which I can’t make out what I meant to write!]

Inda started the panelist intros off with the question of what DC comic character they’d like to see on TV.

JP answered with Nubia, Wonder Woman’s sister. Krys said Static. Jennifer replied with Monica Rambeau. Alex said Static might in fact end up on Black Lightning but gave his answer as Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern, but if Hal was black. Inda answered saying she’d like a proper Vixen live action show. 

Alex talked about how Black Lightning is standing up well so far against the comics, which he has been a fan of for awhile. He says BL is the linchpin for the black sector of DC comics. The daughters become part of the Titans for awhile, etc.

One thing Alex does not want to see on the show is Jefferson acting as a villain for an extended period of time as being undercover with the Outsiders.

Jennifer really liked the depiction of Freeland in the show as it’s own character, and showing black life in their own cities.

Alex explained that in the comics, it’s a black neighborhood in Metropolis. 

Inda said that technically, right now, BL is separate from the rest of the DCTV universe. Jennifer said there was that line about Black Canary, though. JP said they’ve waffled about it. She wants it to be part of the overall universe (even though Black Lightning is better written than the other shows), to deal with the intersectional issues of all these white vigilantes and how they fit in with police oppression of black neighborhoods. 

Jennifer said that Arrow had a storyline about police oppression but they All Live Mattered it. She added - let’s just keep the rich white man away. 

JP said BL could teach them how to be superheroes though, since they’re all a bunch of screw-ups. They’d have to pay him though! 

Krys said that Supergirl never addresses race.

Alex said the most recent Supergirl episode kind of dealt with it, but Flash never addresses it even though two of the main characters are black.

I asked from the audience - what if only James Olsen got to interact with the BL world (thinking maybe it’d help him to have some actual black people to talk to about these things?), and JP answered - oh they’d have to finally give him something to do?

JP wants Jefferson to “taser punch” Ollie.

Inda asked the panelists what they would change about the show.

JP wants more representation of black families, and not just one kind. She likes that they’re giving them room to grow and that the two daughters have different world views. She doesn’t like some of Jefferson’s respectability politics, however. 

Alex agrees and hopes the show will address that. He said the comic origins of BL are frankly hard to read - for example he puts on an afro wig when he dresses as BL.

Jennifer said the reason - not an excuse - that Jefferson has those respectability politics is that he is trying to help the kids in his community learn to code switch so that they can leave if they want to. 

Krys talked about the history with Jefferson and his powers and how that explains a lot of his worldview. She doesn’t like it, but she understands where he’s coming from.

JP added - but he low-key looks down on his own community.

Jennifer said that was addressed somewhat when Khalil comes back. She doesn’t like Khalil, but appreciated that he said what he did to Jefferson. 

There was an audience question about queerness - I didn’t get down the exact question.

Inda said they were going there - she was going to talk about the women on the show next, so let’s start with Anissa.

JP said all the women have different goals and needs in their life and they can disagree with each other and still support one another. Also with Anissa - her family is okay with her and her being gay is a non-issue for them, which is nice.

Jennifer said she likes to think it was intentional that it’s not addressed within the show - the family’s reaction to Anissa coming out could have been different, but the show starting with them accepting her destroys the stereotype about black people being inherently homophobic. She also likes that Anissa is openly gay, but that’s not the focus of who she is as a character.

Krys likes how involved Anissa is in the community and how that’s an important part of her character.

Inda wanted more of Grace once we met her, but is hoping there will be more of her in the next season.

JP liked that the minute Khalil got creepy, Jennifer got away from him. It didn’t turn into one of those “oh but I love him!” stories.

Inda said she did teenager well because she wanted to smack her around a bit.

Jennifer’s issue with Grace was that because she’s not black, there is a component of black queer love missing on her TV. Anissa leaving a black woman for Grace hurt a little bit because of the issue of black women being seen as the least desirable. 

Inda said she loved Lady Eve as a villain and hated the way she died, but at least she kept a sense of being human through to the end. JP said they should have kept her as the Big Bad for the whole season. Alex said - she’ll get better. (lol - this then became a repeated a line about any character that had died)

Jennifer talked about Tobias as being the literal embodiment of internalized anti-blackness. She loves a good villain who gets his own hands dirty, and loved that they chose an actor with albinism. 

Inda liked Tobias and that they gave him a good villain backstory. One of the best villains on DCTV.

Alex said he likes that Tobias is played by a pretty decent rapper. He likes the proper gravitas that he brings to the role, as well. He does wish that instead of intimidating his underlings, he’d have explained his worldview about how the world needs them - especially with respectability politics on the other side of things. He also loved the tattooed guy.

Inda brought up the music on the show. JP loved the music. Krys loved the mix of older songs and newer ones to match specific scenes, themes, and events.

Jennifer liked the aspect of multi-generational music and how it captured the themes. She gave a lot of examples that I was apparently too tired to write down beyond “lots of examples” - sorry about that. She also talked about how she wants the show to use it’s platform to feature more new artists like it did in the pilot. 

Inda liked when the show used music humorously. An audience member brought up the scene with Stairway to Heaven and how weird and confusing it was - lots of laughing about it. 

JP still wanted Lady Eve as the main villain and wanted to see her fight Tobias. 

Jennifer said to get rid of Syonide - she serves no purpose. “Why are you here? Are you our Becky translator?” 

JP liked that there were two dimensional white characters - it was the opposite of mainly white shows having two dimensional black characters and felt appropriate. 

Alex said some of the minor villains are “wack” - Khalil as painkiller for example. He hated him in the comics and his name makes no sense. (lol)

There was a whole discussion about black character’s hair and how quickly they change from one style to the other getting into costume and how ridiculous it is. Jennifer did love Anissa’s battle hair, though.

Jennifer also talked about loving the father-daughter relationships. She and Krys both had similar stories as Jennifer’s roller rink fight. 

Inda is thankful they already changed Anissa’s super suit. Then said that the show has been renewed for another season, and asked the panelists what they’d like to see next.

JP said Anissa and Jen kicking ass together. Krys said Jennifer getting a suit and training and generally coming into her powers. 

Jennifer said she’d like to see how these characters do time management? Anissa, especially, does a lot - how is she doing it all? Jefferson, too. This is an issue she was with superhero universes in general. (uh-huh)

Alex wants to see Jakeem Thunder introduced into the show as it would also introduce the universe to aspects of magic. 

Inda would like a little less addressing of police brutality in the future. More hero/villain stuff - but she does like that Freeland is a microcosm.

JP added that police brutality is not usually the focus of black lives - it’s just something that happens while going about their lives.

Krys wants more followup with the kids and the green lightning and Jefferson possibly being a mentor to them.

Jennifer wants more family stuff. Also Tobias showing some remorse - he got over his sister’s death really fast. She also feels they rushed Khalil’s origin story. As someone who is unapologetically Team Killmonger, she wants more complexity in her villains. 

JP said the story really missed out on the treatment of Tobias and his relationship with his sister. They established their relationship to the point of her even searching for their father so he could kill him. 

Alex interjected with “you don’t think Tobias will bring her back?!” An audience member said they should bring her back to save the actress from the Tyler Perry show she moved on to. Panelists all agree with this assessment. 

Someone from the audience asked about the role of the afterlife, as well as the Vice Principal character.

JP discussed how they brought back LaLa, so maybe they will explore that a little more. As far as the VP - she never trusted her. At first she thought she was after his job, then after him, then turns out she’s an agent. There were all of these different angles of trying to get closer to him, but the fact that she doesn’t want to believe Jefferson is BL indicates some of those feelings might have been real.

Jennifer said she doesn’t want to go on a rant about those mismatched wigs but... that character is shady but also conflicted. As “Big Bad Chad” pointed out, she was spending a lot of time with Jefferson. Is she compromised? Yea, she is. Jennifer would prefer the character not come back unless they give her something else to do, however. 

As far as the afterlife, Jennifer liked that the show is using subtle notes of black folklore and what people she knows have been raised with. She added “sorry white people, but this show knows it is not for you.” 

Alex said the afterlife stuff only makes sense if spirits are real with the tattoo guy. Maybe the guy Tobias paid to bring him back didn’t tell him that part, and that there is magic involved. 

Krys noted that the spiritual stuff in the show seemed personalized to each character.

An audience member asked about the sister’s different approaches to their powers. 

Inda said that Jennifer just freaked out and didn’t want them, but did use them to save her father’s life. She saw how it could be a good thing, and now she is on a journey of acceptance.

JP added that she’s not all into her powers, but sees the benefits of them - she’s like a battery for her father!

Jennifer talked about Anissa accepting her powers right away because she’s always been about wanting to help her community and so she immediately saw her powers in that light. Jennifer didn’t initially want them - but when it came to her family, she stepped up. She might struggle with having powers, but when she has to use them, she’ll do it.

JP asked Alex if in the comics, it turns out Jennifer is the most powerful in the family. He said yes - and also that they can use their powers together in interesting ways.

An audience member brought up an article about black heroes and that the powers they have tend to be elemental - earth, wind, fire.

Alex said this is true even in other media, such as Captain Planet. It happens a lot, even now. He would like to see more tech-based powers.

Jennifer said but we are on planet earth, and she loved Storm and how she could literally turn the earth against people. She would like to move away from the Magical Negro trope but also likes the idea of having earth-based powers at their disposal. 

More talk about issues of hair and fighting. Jennifer said you really don’t want loose hair when fighting. But the hairstyle Anissa chooses is an ode to Ashanti warrior women. It’s not practical, however. 

Inda talked about the suspension of disbelief as far as people not being able to recognize them with just masks over their eyes. An audience member said that they explained this at least with BL that it hurts to look directly at him. Inda said that was only in a conversation between the daughters, so it’s possible it has to do with their own powers and isn’t a function of BL’s powers alone.

Jennifer said she would like more investigation into green light and the vaccine and the organization behind it all.

JP said - let’s talk about Gambi and his guilt about being a part of the whole thing. 

Jennifer said she is tired of this trope of the the white guy who somehow didn’t know that this covert agency he was a part of was going to do some dirty shit. It’s almost better if he’s just guilty because he knew what he was getting into but wants to do better now. She lost interest in Gambi when Lady Eve died.

JP didn’t want Jefferson to forgive him so easily. Maybe he did it because they had to work together but she wants him to still be mad about what happened.

Inda mentioned the impulse for shows to give us white redemption.

Jennifer added that it might be more of a white-passing issue than white because of his actual last name being Esposito. 

Inda liked having a white character in that role because “we don’t question white people in our spaces” so he could have easily moved in those communities doing what he did. 

[And that’s all I got. Lovely, lively panel with gobs of info and just lots of fun!]

#wiscon #wiscon 42 #black lightning

[johnnythirteenguns]

just seen justice league (this isnt spoiler free at all)

also went to thor: ragnarok for the third time to wash the taste out.

so i went to go see it for miller, momoa, and mera in that order. i was super impressed with mera. i thought they were gonna go the like easy way and give her an Accent like the amazons, but they didnt. even though her cadence was different like idk man i know very little about dc but i picked up a one-shot earlier this year where mera neatly beats the fuck out of the justice league on her own and she’s a semi-jerk who kind of hates surface dwellers and you know what for the thirty seconds we had her onscreen i believed it and she was powerful and felt like a character with backstory and i COMPLETELY didnt hear what aquaman was saying i just heard her side of the conversation

man ben affleck really doesnt wanna be here huh anyway we should recast him at the earliest convenience

also why was batman 90% CGI like fine i get it no one can be a gymnast in a 50 lb rubber suit but like every single one of his moves that required any bending had to have been cgi

speaking of which the cgi isnt like bad in and of itself it’s just typical like it’s the cgi youre used to seeing. it doesnt blend seamlessly into anything and the characters dont blend seamlessly into it. the cornfield looks fake as can fucking be and i dont really know why? what else there was another fucking weird cgi moment. anyway, steppenwolf is ugly as sin and has no emotion and is all one color and is??? generally weird looking

speaking of which. he is not frightening at all. the New Gods isnt something casual dc fans are gonna be familiar with (i am barely familiar with it) and like? apparently, darkseid was supposed to have scenes in this but didnt? anyway go see thor ragnarok which features 1) a horned villain that is legitimately terrifying and powerful, that you fully believe can do the things she does, and who is beautifully designed and 2) features glow-y eyed masses of disposable soldiers that are cool but goofy and dont take themselves too seriously but were still frightening and made for thrilling fights because you believed they could actually pose a threat to the characters they were attacking

the beginning... uh i think like three scenes of the film looked pretty good, but they looked like cutscenes. very GOOD cutscenes, but honestly... if i wanted it to look like this id have played... a video game. like, i want it to look like a real place even if it’s heavily stylized. uh but the first showdown where batman is luring a parademon out looks beautiful if fake as shit. the scene with wondy in the bank (which features a group of girls from an all-girls school... at a bank?) and terrorists wearing cheap pinstripe suits (like, this is fine! it’s nonsensical and stupid but fine it’s a comic book movie) was kind of cool because for once i felt like... maybe diana was a creative person who goes in wit ha strategy? like picking the dude up with the lasso and holding him up was fun i was like oh!!! thats not something a typical movie would do! it was the first time she felt like Wonder Woman to me (ive seen the wondy movie itself, it was... eh). uh and idk what was up with the standing on the scales of justice or whatever idk the hilarity of gal gadot on that statue which sits on top of a bank like. it was funny.

hey question what the uh... fuck was the “what are you” “a believer” line about it made zero sense in context at all

dont quote me on the order of scenes i dont remember fuck all of this movie in order because literally, the pacing was so weird. so... it was very obvious there were parts missing from the movie. not like, cuts made where you could be like oh there was something there or maybe there'll be a deleted scene no like you Knew there was stuff that was necessary that was gone. the football scenes with victor from the trailers were gone!!! i think the movie was trying to set up a really strong friendship with wonder woman and cyborg but it never really went anywhere? and i suspect because it all got cut! and i dont understand why because ray did a really good job and he sold cyborg to me so well i loved his take! 

also... i dont know if theyre saving it for the aquaman movie next year but did Arthur get a bunch of his stuff cut too? because i like jason momoa, and i like his arthur and so im sort of torn because, like, he didnt have much to do. like, he has the bit where he sits on wonder woman’s lasso of thruth and tells them all this stuff but you dont know enough about him for any of it to land? but i really wanted to know more (at some point i did give up on, this was a very passive viewing experience). my friend was saying that like literally why did they try to make arthur so Cool he’s already jason momoa he is by default cool now you can do whatever you want with him we’re all going to love him.

speaking of the lasso scene... was the entire last half of the movie re-writen and re-shot by whedon because like? the lasso scene is a whedon. the bit at the end where wondy goes “children. i work with children” is a whedon (THERE’S NO REASON FOR HER TO SAY THIS? I THINK THIS WHEN SHE HAS TWO TEAM MEMBERS LIKE LAYING ON THE GROUND AFTER NEARLY BEING BLON UP? IT WAS FUCKING WEIRD). i genuinely cant tell if all of barry’s dialogue was written by whedon or if that was ezra improvising but uh... man he’s... he needs to practice if that’s hm. if it’s just whedon i mean fine but he also doesnt have the shitty RDJ quality thats let’s him say those lines with believability.

speaking of which, going to see barry was my priority because apparently im gay for miller rn so like. uh. man he wasnt funny like there were a couple parts where he was cute and the line landed and it was fine but generally he just... wasnt funny? because the movie wasnt funny? like... idk man ezra really acting his heart out and ive said like cool i wanna follow his career and see if he does good stuff and gets even better at his stupid art but maybe he peaked with credence barebone i dont know. the first scene where we meet barry, with the flash pad and the pizza, that was good, that was funny. the bit at the prison was good. he has very soft eyes and thats nice. the panic attack is cute in the clip and the beginning like rhrgrh moment he has is good but then idk the pacing falls apart again

why is his character like this? i just dont think ezra’s... funny enough yet. (tbh i think he takes it too seriously even if he’s trying to be light-hearted man sometimes jokes is just jokes). there’s a bit where theyre digging up superman’s body and it’s JUST HIM AND CYBORG FOR UH? SOME REASON? maybe they explained why they sent the two babies but i didnt hear it and it’s literally just them two. and he tries to fistbump victor but vic is like “no” and tbh barry is annoying? like maybe u think he’s cute and an audience member but he’s uh... you can tell he’s annoying in the story and anyway then the flash says “right, racially charged” ABOUT A FISTBUMP? WHICH? LITERALLY MADE NO SENSE? WAS THIS LINE IMPROVISED? WAS IT WRITTEN? IM GONNA PUT MONEY ON IMPROVISED BECAUSE HE IS EXACTLY THAT KIND OF STUPID BITCH

if they were breaking into the lab why even bother going through the front door? barry drives the thing in (theyre trying to smuggle superman’s body into star labs) disguised a soldier (the literally most unconvincing thing, not to me as an audience member, because it was cute and funny to me,, but that a guy with THAT FACE is military like yeah sure, why did that guard believe him) but then they get to like the normal ass parking inside and the other three are standing there in full costume in full grey DC-brand daylight? are you telling me between 5/6ths of the justice league they couldnt sneak in a fucking pine box when wonder woman can lift a fucking tank on her own? like.

speaking of which uh.... superman is stupidly overpowered. like i said i read an issue of JL where mera hands every one of the justice league members their own gently roasted ass in hand on her fucking own. diana regularly kicks superman in the head. why was she not able to take him down? when theyre fighting steppenwolf for real it’s not until superman shows up that they even have a real fighting chance. they dont fight as team, they dont even fight as people casually unified in a common cause. theyre playing high-stakes legos and cyborg gets pulled away from them like three times?? and it gets fucking annoying? and then supes shows up and literally wipes the floor with him. it is so completely bizarre and stupid.

here’s a problem i still have with wonder woman: why is she so thin? the other amazons (except Hippolyta and maybe one other one) look built as FUCK? LIKE THESE WOMEN COULD EASILY TOSS ME ACROSS THE ROOM. wonder woman has serious fucking arms, where are they

also those amazon bikinis were bad. the whole styling of this movie is bad, but especially the amazons. everything is red and gold, for some reasons? the outfits dont looks heavy like armor, they look heavy like bullshit material. there is no reason for the fucking bikinis. the gold cloak hippolyta wears is??? heavy and looks like? like drapes like window dressing like thats the weight of it. additionally, there is no reason for their hair to be SO STYLED. it’s really like prom night hair it’s like shiny and muss free and always loose and in perfect clearly salon-styled curls. also, why are they so heavily made up? it’s really prominent. wondy herself has the same issue going on, she looks much more heavily made up (why is everyone’s blush so PINK, like it's distracting, is this a side effect of the recoloring process) and her hair isnt loose and doing its thing like in BVS or Wonder Woman it’s like... idk she looks really. Pretty when she’s on the field and it makes no sense.

the amazon fighting style is still ugly and makes no sense ive never seen such a wasteful fighting style it made sense exactly once during Wonder Woman

why is themyscira entirely the ugliest cgi i have ever fucking scene

why does the camera INSIST ON MOVING LIKE THAT. the action is super hard to track, the cgi is ugly as fuck (it really cannot be overstated)... i made it to about... i want to say when theyre on the way to the big fight and then the combined everything gave me a heaache that o had for the rest of the movie

i mentioned earlier that the pacing is weird the transitions are also weird. you get cuts to and from places that never fade into each other, it’s always a hard jump cut but it’s never the right cut to make? like, in thor ragnarok for example, there are a bunch of scene changes that happen via the bifrost, via people going through doors. there are wide shots that jump to wide shots in other places, so youre not suddenly on a close-up. there are a lot of people emerging from something into view, and there are a lof of people being alone in the center of the frame. it’s a very smooth and easy to watch movie. JL is the opposite of this in every way. I SUSPECT. AGAIN. THAT WHILE THIS WOULDNT HAVE BEEN FIXED ENTIRELY. THAT THOSE EXTRA TWENTY MINUTES THAT WERE CUT WERE PROBABLY REALLY IMPORTANT

the lois lane bit where she calms supes down just reminded me of the age of ultron and i quoted “sun’s going down” at my friends who were with me and they shit themselves laughing

ma kent calls lois lane “thirsty” in a Hilarious Teen Humor Gag thanks joss whedon you fucking hack

bruce wayne is fucking useless he could have got barry ANY JOB EVER and like... my god whatever.

also i still dont understand how how voice sounds like that when he’s batmanuh the after after credits scene is setting up, according to my friend, a sinister six movie. deathstroke isnt played by manu bennett so it’s fucking usless thanks for coming to my ted talk

[beebosbitchh]

1-65 ;)

holy heck ! thank you sophiw i lov u 🍒

1. Do you ever doubt the existence of others than you?

i dont understand this question?? like sometimes i doubt my own existence and other times i doubt that i exist to certain ppl? ya?

2. On a scale of 1-5, how afraid of the dark are you?

2,, normal amount? like good for sleep but pitch black is scaryy but not to the point i need the escape ?? if that makes sense??

3. The person you would never want to meet?

guy fieri, i dont think i need to know if hes actually real ? like is he real and from this dimension or from flavortown (which he has a very scarily detailed description of)?? thats not something i need to know

4. What is your favorite word?

hmm, probably ‘fam’ obviously

5. If you were a type of tree, what would you be?

a willow tree !!!!!!!!!! i just talked to my mom about this :-0

6. When you looked in the mirror this morning what was the first thing you thought?

ngl but i dont look in the mirror anymore unless its lip syncing along to a song sung by a guy/someone w a deeper voice bc i feel like it suits me better! gotta love coping w dysphoria!

7. What shirt are you wearing?

baseball tee, gay

8. What do you label yourself as?

nb, lesbian, fool

9. Bright room or dark room?

dark room

10. What were you doing at midnight last night?

slepe

11. Favorite age you’ve been so far?

10-11 when i was in 5th grade. i still only had two friends but i was way more extroverted and everything was so carefree and i was very invested in adventure time and art. i think that was the most of a childhood i got? i honestly did not do much as a kid and i wish i had..

12. Who told you they loved you last?

sophiw ! tumblr user almightyportraits ! the loml !

13. Your worst enemy?

x

14. What is your current desktop picture?

one from apple called ‘abstract shapes’ its very orange but also blue which is my fave color pairing atm so its perfect

15. Do you like someone?

tumblr user vahilla

16. The last song you listened to?

megan played ‘marceline’ by willow in her car ! a song i suggested to her a few months ago and it makes me very happy that she likes it especially bc we bonded over adventure time in 6th grade :-)

17. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up?

mmyy seelfff ??

18. Who would you really like to just punch in the face?

mmmyseyyffelllff ??

19. If anyone could be your slave for a day, who would it be and what would they have to do? 

eh whats the point

20. What is your best physical attribute? (showing said attribute is optional)

n o ne ? 

21. If you were the opposite sex for one day, what would you look like and what would you do?

what is the opposite of nb,, i feel like if i was opposite of how i present id be a girl, which is a verryyy weird thought for me, pass

22. Do you have a secret talent? If yes, what is it?

no :-/

23. What is one unique thing you’re afraid of?

uh first of all blood, like, ill pass out,, second of all,, literally everything worries me

24. You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your disposal.

jimmy johns #16, turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, NO MAYO

25. You just found $100! How are you going to spend it?

im a very practical person so the least boring answer i can come up w is more art supplies

26. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world, but you have to leave immediately. Where are you going to go?

denmark

27. An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice. “Be brand-specific” it says. Man! What are you gonna say about that? Even if you don’t drink booze there’s something you can figure out… so what’s it gonna be?

fukcing , acetoNe

28. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?

i think a FIRST rule would have to be pretty IMPORTANT so probably smt like how ~WE THE PEOPLE~ are all EQUAL would be a pretty good start and pretty UNDENIABLE and STRAIGHT FORWARD especially if it was the FIRST thing in this,, hmm lets call it the CONSTITUTION, in the completely hypothetical society

29. What is your favorite expletive?

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuk cufck ufc kfuck 

30. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don’t worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what’s the one thing you’re going to save from that blazing inferno?

sunglasses??!!! that shit gotta be bright huh>?? gotta protect my retinas 

31. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

i wanna say my first relationship made me a better person but that shit was rreeeaaallyyyy fucking awful and 4 months (+recovery months) that i will never get back and i think ? maybe ?? i wouldve been ok without it ? idk just a thought

32. You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit… you can move to anywhere else in the world! 

spain ?!?!? why not + i sorta know the language? thatd b cool

33. The Celestial Gates Of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn’t think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person/etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back?

zoey my dog :-( i miss her a lot, this month it will have been two years oh my god i miss her so much

34. What was your last dream about?

the last one i remember was a nightmare about someone tryna murder me i was very scared

36. Have you ever been admitted to the hospital?

i think so , when i was two i got really really sick and couldve died ?

37. Have you ever built a snowman?

ahh yes ! we gave hhimm,, fruit snack nipples, please forgive me fathr

38. What is the color of your socks? 

grey w blue n orange stripes ( again i lov blue n orange together, my shirt is teal and i have an orange hat on wow)

39. What type of music do you like?

all! i had to train this new guy at work and im sooo awkward but once why started talking about music it was easy for me to talk bc it was smt we both really like !!! i felt like i could actually communicate w feeling a disconnect it was nice ! we talked mostly about rap which was cool and unexpected but i could do it ? i really love music and i love being able to know enough to talk about it ,, isk 

40. Do you prefer sunrises or sunsets?

sunrises, ive been pushing myself to wake up unreasonably early to have more time to myself and i get to watch the sunrise most days which is nice

41. What is your favorite milkshake flavor?

chocolate 

42. What football team do you support? (I will answer in terms of American football as well as soccer)

whom?

44. What do you want to be when you graduate?

college? god i dont even know… smt w art.. by an illustrator or art teacher or freelance artist or graphic designer ,, i really dont know

45. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

one thing ?!!?!? i wish i was neurotypical

46. Are you reliable?

yes? i try hard to be? i hope so ?

47. If you could ask your future self one question, what would it be?

u still a lil bitch ?

48. Do you hold grudges? 

nope i try not to, ive had too many toxic petty people in my life that i dont need to be one myself.. now this is grudges w/o reason, but if ive given people several ‘second chances’ and theyre still (thumbs down) then ill avoid them but w/i reason?

49. If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature, what new animal would you create?

DOG HORSES BIG DOGs

50. What is the most unusual conversation you’ve ever had?

mm probably smt w my lab partner from last year. she always sends me weird quotes from a fanfiction shes reading and its weird but i really appreciate that she still talks to me or talks to me at all tbh

51. Are you a good liar?

nooo ?? i try not to lie? mb not tell the full truth but idk , i feel like id feel too guilty

52. How long could you go without talking?

uhh literally days like i already fucking do.. i m taking this as verbally but i dont get texts so like, it would not be hard

53. What has been you worst haircut/style?

before i went to short hair i used to alllwaayyys wear a tight ponytail every single day bc i wasnt girly enough to do anything w it and it was really really gross like thank god i cut it all off

54. Have you ever baked your own cake?

heck yeah

55. Can you do any accents other than your own?

*clears throat*

h-

hewwo?

56. What do you like on your toast?

butter and jam

57. What is the last thing you drew a picture of?

x

58. What would be you dream car?

razor scooter

59. Do you sing in the shower? Or do anything unusual in the shower? Explain.

sometimes im just too physically or emotionally exhausted to stand so ill just,, lay down? ive fallen asleep in the shower before ha

60. Do you believe in aliens?

yup

61. Do you often read your horoscope?

whenever it comes up but i dont ,, seek it out

62. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet?

Q

63. Which is cooler: dinosaurs or dragons?

dragons tf

64. What do you think about babies?

evil, ugly, dont see the appeal. open ur eyes ppl !!!! bbs are n Ot cute !!

65. Freebie! Ask anything interesting you can think of.

x

#long post / #mention of dysphoria / #ask #thenk yoy sophiw #this took 4ever but worth it bc it got me to calm down?? coolc ool cool

[loveisblindfanfiction]

Chapter Twenty-Two

I wasn’t quite sure what motivated me to dress the way I did for the SAG awards.

Part of it was because I wanted to shake up my look a little bit. I was always stylish at the events I went to, but if I was being honest, I was a little conservative in my style and it didn’t make sense to be dressing like that when I was famously known for wearing lingerie.

Modes were notoriously known for showing a little bit of skin on the red carpet. So it made sense that I would wear something a little sexier than normal.

But a small part. A part so tiny that I would not admit to anyone wanted to feel wanted. Not just by anyone, I wanted to be wanted by Kit.

If my last encounter with him was anything to go by, I knew I still had feelings for him. I also knew that he had not moved on from me just like I had not moved on from him. Yet every time I saw him, he seemed to be so controlled. He was not affected by my presence like I was affected by his.

So I wanted to test that control. I wanted to look irresistible because I wanted to get a reaction out of him.

I rationalized it with myself that I was simply following Selena’s advice in that I was looking good and showing him how happy I was as a way to stick it to him the way she stuck it to Justin every time she saw him. But I wasn’t feeling that vindictive it was more a test.

If I could look sexy and desirable and he had no reaction to me, it would mean he was truly over me and then I would have no choice but to move on from him. If he wasn’t… well I would cross that bridge when I came to it.

I wore a black Alexander McQueen Embellished Jersey gown with a plunging neckline and a pair of Stella McCartney Black Silk Satin sandals with my Eddie Parker ‘High Maintenance’ clutch.

I looked amazing. Even Paul, who was my date for the night and unquestionably gay commented on how sexy I looked.

Such sentiments were echoed on the red carpet when I stood posing for photos I also received several cat calls and wolf whistles. Not that I didn’t normally receive them but this time they were all a little more insistent. A little louder and a lot more frequent.

During the SAG awards, drink after drink was sent over to me from my admirers of the night. I couldn’t say who won awards that night only that by the time James and myself rolled up to the after party, I was well and truly drunk.

James was also a little worse for wear, though not as bad as me.

We’d barely been inside for five minutes before James dragged me out onto the dance floor because a song by one of his favourite bands was playing; Fifth Harmony’s ‘Worth It’.

‘Uh huh you see me in the spot like, "Ooh I love your style"…’

“You got to clap that’s what they do in the video.” He instructed as we danced.

‘Uh huh show me what you got, 'Cause I don't wanna waste my time…’

“How am I supposed to know that?” I asked as he proceeded to grab my hands and make me clap.

‘Uh huh see me in the spot like, "Ooh I love your style"…’

“Oh right cause your blind.” Giggled James.

I giggled in response, I was blind! It was funny.

‘Uh huh show me what you got, now come and make it worth my while…’

“Now you gotta put your hand over your head and swing it side to side.” He instructed as he grabbed my hand and pulled it above my head.

‘Give it to me, I'm worth it. Baby I'm worth it. Uh huh I'm worth it…’

“This dance is very repetitive.” I observed as we continued to dance.

‘Gimme gimme I'm worth it. Give it to me, I'm worth it…’

“Shut up its Fifth Harmony and they slay.” He replied.

‘Baby I'm worth it. Uh huh I'm worth it…’

I giggled as we continued dancing and James grabbed my hands and swinging them from side to side, “A lot of people are looking at us.” He commented.

“Like who?”

‘Gimme gimme I'm worth it…’

“Kit. He hasn’t taken his eyes off you all night.” He said as the song finished.

“Kit!” I said suddenly delighted, “take me over to him.”

Kit was so uptight and boring sometimes, he’d never dance with me. So I suddenly had the over whelming urge to make him.

“Mr. Harington!” I proclaimed as James steered me over to him by holding me by the shoulders from behind.

“Miss Trinket.” He greeted, “What can I do for you?”

“You!” I said, pointing an accusatory finger at me, “Are going to come dance with me!”

“Am I just?” he asked sounding amused.

“Yes! You are!” I said as I flipped my finger into an outstretched hand as Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ began to play, “May I have this dance?” I asked in my best British accented voice.

‘I stay up too late, got nothing in my brain…’

Laughing Kit placed his hand in mine and lead me out onto the dance floor.

‘That's what people say hmm, that's what people say hmm…’

“Wait for me!” called James as he grabbed my other hand and followed us.

‘I go on too many dates, but I can't make 'em stay…’

I could tell we were on the dance floor and I raised both my hands to twirl my respective dance partners.

‘At least that's what people say hmm, that's what people say hmm…’

For a moment I danced with the two of them, swaying from side to side before James hand slipped from mine.

‘But I keep cruising, can't stop, won't stop moving…’

Kit pulled me to him, I could tell it was him by the feel of his chest and the way he smelled as he laced our fingers together and wrapped his hand around my waist.

‘It's like I got this music in my body and it's gonna be alright…’

He rocked us from side to side for a moment, dipping our joined hands then pulling them upright and I smiled.

‘'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play…’

Tightening his grip around my waist I felt the floor disappear from under me as Kit lifted me slightly off the ground and spun me around. I laughed gleefully as he placed me back on the ground.

‘And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate…’

Pulling our joined hands above my head, I spun around, still laughing.

‘Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake…’

Then Kit grabbed me and pulled me to him before he dipped me down, his hand supporting my back.

‘I shake it off, I shake it off…’

I laughed as he pulled me back up and began to move our joined hands up and down again in a rocking motion.

‘Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break…’

For someone normally so shy, Kit was really committed to dancing with me. That was so nice. He was so nice. This was such a great song. Was James having as much fun as I was?

‘And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake…’

“Where’s James?” I asked, was he ok?

“I think he went outside.” Replied Kit.

‘Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake…’

“Take me to him?” I asked.

Taking my hand Kit lead me off the dance floor to a door, which I heard swing open and the cool air hit me and I realized we were outside.  

‘I shake it off, I shake it off…’

“James?” I asked as I heard the sounds of cars in the distance. Judging by the wind and the elevator ride we had taken to get to the after party, I guessed we were outside on the balcony.

“Here.” Groaned a voice.

I walked in the direction on his voice, stretching my hands out until they encountered the cool railing of the balcony. I slid my hands along it until I found James’s hunched form, leaning over the railing.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” He groaned.

“Over the side of the balcony?” I giggled, “Well do me a favour, aim away from the dress and go for distance.” I laughed.

I heard Kit chuckle behind me. I’d completely forgotten he was here!

“Hey Kit can you get them to bring our car around, I think we’re done for the night.” I explained.

“Sure.” He said.

I stood with James, rubbing his back soothingly as he groaned and I couldn’t help but laugh. It was just so funny! What exactly that was I couldn’t tell but whatever it was, it was funny.

                                                         …

The following morning, I felt like absolute crap.

My head felt as if someone was smashing it with a hammer with every beat of my heart and my stomach was churning. Even my feet, which normally coped well with high heels were aching because of how carelessly I had been walking.

I was hung over. Well and truly hung over and I planned to spend the entire day on the couch chugging coffee and water. I didn’t dare risk food with how sick I was feeling. I just wanted to lay on the couch in my pyjamas all day and wait for the painkillers I had taken to kick in. James was in a similar state and had a similar plan.

“Hey you two, I just found something interesting online.” Proclaimed Paul in what sounded like a far too cheerful voice.

James and myself both groaned in response. He could have found a video that showed proof of life on Mars and I couldn’t have cared less at that point, my head was so sore!

“MTV has done a piece on you and Kit Harington, Gerty.” He said.

I raised my head mildly interested.

Paul cleared his throat before he began to read, “Last night was the SAG Awards and while we are happy for the winners, they are not who are making headlines this morning. Last night model Gertrude Trinket slayed on the carpet in a stylish black number, which earned her an almost unanimously voted best dressed award, it was what occurred at the after party that has everyone talking.”

I winced as I began to contemplate what embarrassing things I had done at the after party that they would be talking about…

“Thanks to the beautiful world of snapchat, MTV captured footage of Miss Trinket busting a couple of moves on the dance floor with none other than Game of Thrones Actor Kit Harington. The two looked as if they were having a blast on the dancefloor together and sources reveal that it was Gerty who asked Kit to dance.” Read Paul.

I had danced with Kit last night? I had vague memories of dancing on the dancefloor but I couldn’t remember who I was with. I thought it had just been James. Why had I danced with Kit? That was unlike me. Things between the two of us were… strange. We definitely weren’t up to the friendly stage where we could dance with each other yet. Why had I done that?

I knew why; I had been drunk.  

“But this isn’t the first time these two have encountered each other. MTV has a slide show of what we hope will become the epic love story of Kerty. Or Git. We haven’t decided yet.” He read.

“Oh no. There’s a slide show?” I groaned.  

“First picture shows Gerty strutting herself at the Victoria Secret Fashion show and you can see in both times Miss Trinket walked the cat walk, Kit kept a very close eye on her.” He read.

“Hmm, that’s true.” Said James thinking for the first time, “I saw the footage. He doesn’t take his eyes off you the entire time.”

I kept my eyes closed. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with that knowledge. Or how it made me feel.

“Next there is a picture of the two at the Brit Awards. Gerty was originally seated to another Game of Thrones alumni Emilia Clarke when Kit came to speak to Gerty at her table, the two look quite happy to be talking to each other in the picture.” Said Paul.

I kept my eyes closed and tried desperately not to think. It hurt my head and my feelings were all… fuzzy.

“Next is a picture of Sarah Hyland at the Golden Globes. But if you look in the background you can see Kit and Gerty talking to each other at the bar. Gerty’s seeing eye dog (who broke the internet when he made his red carpet debut) is with her. And those famous dark locks could belong no other than Jon Snow.” Read Paul.

Was I feeling so fuzzy because I was confused about my feelings for Kit or because I was hungover?

“Then we have the SAG awards footage. Last night Miss Trinket had many admirers for obvious reasons and apparently she shot down more than one hopeful bachelor hoping to spend some time with the sought after Supermodel. Kit Harington was obviously then envy of every guy in the room when he got to dance with her.” He read, “Is this the start of a beautiful relationship? We hope so.”

“Huh.” Said James and Paul finished reading.  

“Now Miss Trinket, what do you have to say about that?” asked Paul, sounding smug.

“My head hurts and I feel sick.” I stated before I slumped back down on the couch.

“Well, you have been seeing Kit and awful lot these days.” Commented James.

“Technically I don’t see anyone.” I said lazily.

James shoved me in response.

“Going to the same event is not the same as seeing each other. I’m not actively seeking him out to spend time with him.” I explained. That was too many words. Words were hurting my head.

“Are you going to see him again?” asked Paul curiously.

“No.” I said snuggling down onto the couch, “I’ve got fashion month coming up. So I’m not planning to go to any other events where he might be.” I explained, this conversation was annoying me for some reason, “And I’m done talking about this.” I announced.

I wasn’t annoyed at them. I was annoyed at myself.

Memories from last night had come flooding back and I remembered dancing with Kit. I remember how light hearted and uncomplicated things had been between us while I was drunk. But mostly I remembered how much fun I had with him.

I didn’t realize how much I had missed him and the good times we had together I had been so focused on the how and why our relationship ended. But now that I was reminded of how much fun the two of us had together, I found myself missing him terribly.

But I wasn’t going to give in to such feelings. It was just because I was hung over and feeling sorry for myself. Nothing more.

Fashion month was starting in a week and I would be far too busy working to think let alone miss him. I wouldn’t be seeing him anytime soon either. Which, I reasoned, was a good thing; it would leave no time to brood on the strange feelings I had towards Kit that I was still struggling to identify.

                                                    …

At the start of February, I was reunited with Astrid and Karlie for the first Fashion month of 2017. I was so happy to be with the two of them again after having been so busy since the Victoria Secret Fashion show.

The first week started in New York and nothing much of interest happened, we all worked too hard and looked absolutely beautiful despite our exhaustion. Though towards the end of the week, on Valentine’s Day, something of interest did happen.

Lots of the girls received flowers from their boyfriends.

Along with Astrid I was one of the only single girls modelling in fashion week so I didn’t expect to get anything. That was until a someone approached me, smelling strongly of something floral, “Gertrude Trinket?” asked a voice.

I didn’t open my eyes as my make-up artist continued to pain my face, “Right here!” I called raising my hand.

“These are for you.” He proclaimed.

I heard the rustling of paper as something was placed down on the table in front of me.

“Oh Gerty, someone got you flowers.” Said Astrid next to me.

“What kind of flowers?” I frowned.

“Red and white flowers.” Said Astrid, “You know what they mean?”

“Flowers mean things?”

“Yeah. White roses mean ‘I’m worthy of you’ and red roses mean ‘love’.” She told me.

I’m worthy of you and romance? By that logic, the message was clear, though I wondered if there was an actual card amongst the flowers.

“Hey Stephanie, can you check if there is a card with the flowers?” I asked my make-up artist.

“Yep.” She chirped, as she took her brush away from my face, “There’s no message, it just says ‘from Mr. Christopher Catesby’.” She said.

I blinked in shock at the name. Christopher Catesby. That had been the name Kit told me when we first met. Which, technically wasn’t a lie, I found out later that it was his legal name and that Kit Harington was his stage name.

“Whose Christopher Catesby?” asked Astrid, “Do you know him?”

“I thought I did.” I said, feeling a little dazed.

Kit had sent me flowers. I wasn’t sure what to do with that information. But like the first time, I felt flattered. I’d only ever received flowers two times in my life and they had both been from Kit, out of the blue with no prompting from me, to show that he cared. That he was thinking about me…

“What do you mean you used to? Did something happen?” she asked sounding curious.

“It’s complicated.” I told her.

“Doesn’t sound complicated. The guy sent you flowers on valentine’s day.” Commented Stephanie as she went back to painting my face.

She had a point. The action itself was not complicated. Our past was though.

Thinking about my situation with Kit was already giving me a headache. The flowers clearly had a romantic intention and I was flattered and a little shocked, he still had romantic intentions towards me after all this time? How did that make me feel? How did I feel about him?  

That was the million-dollar question; how did I feel about Kit?

Now that I had forgiven him the previous hostility and tension I had harboured towards him was gone. So did that once again mean that he was a viable dating option? I wasn’t sure. I may have forgiven him, but I could not forget our history.

I could not forget how great it had been before it turned bad.

My headache was intensifying as I thought about him. So I simply pushed it to the back of my mind and began to mentally prepare myself for the upcoming fashion show, my photoshoot tomorrow, my interviews tomorrow night, the ad campaigns the day after that…

                                                          …

On the seventeenth of February Astrid, Karlie, myself and a bunch of other fashion related people headed to London for fashion week there.

Astrid and myself were lucky enough to be invited to travel in the Chanel Jet by Karl Lagerfield. We were able to get a few precious hours sleep before we were thrust into make-up chairs once more and made ready for a fashion show.

Midway through the week, I really hadn’t had time to think about Kit or my situation with him. I was so tired. Astrid and myself had begun speaking to each other in the form of grunts with different pitches, too tired to speak.

But that night, we were required to dress up and attempt to resemble human life as there was a VIP after party that we had to mingle at. I was wearing a light pink cornelli bralet crop top with a Balmain Lace-up leather mini skirt. All tied together with a pair of metallic Giuseppe Zanotti heels.

The fact that I was so tired meant that I wasn’t really paying attention to who I was talking to. I thought it might have been some photographer who wanted to do a shoot with me, Sarah was doing most of the talking when the man we were talking to suddenly sad something that broke through my wall of tiredness, “Ah Kit, there you are.”

I froze, my entire body tensing as I realized he was near me. I gripped Koko’s lead tightly. The excited feeling that passed through me at knowing he was near took me completely by surprise. I expected to feel the familiar anger and hate that I had been holding onto for the past couple of months, but it never came.  

“Hi Wesley.” Replied Kit.

“You know Gerty it was actually Kit here who suggested you for the photoshoot.” Said Wesley conversationally.

What photoshoot? What? Kit had suggested me for a job?

“Did he just?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah. Said he wouldn’t do the shoot without you.” Said Wesley happily.

I narrowed my eyes, Kit had wanted me to do a photoshoot with him? Why?

“Well I think it’s a brilliant opportunity.” Said Sarah, “Calvin Klein is a great brand. We’ve had a partnership with them for a long time.”

Calvin Klein? That was underwear. I’d just been signed up by Sarah to do an underwear shoot with Kit.

That son of a bitch.

I was blind, so I’d never know for sure, but I was willing to be quite a bit of money to state that Kit was grinning smugly.

I would have to do a photoshoot together in our underwear.

Having walked the Victoria Secret catwalk, I was not shy or nervous about being in my underwear around people. I was however nervous about being in my underwear around Kit. Given our history.

The last time we were in our underwear together, we were having sex. My stomach clenched at the thought and my heart jumped up into my throat. If my mind had made the connection, I knew his would and I wasn’t sure how I felt about being in such close proximity to him again whilst near naked.  

“Do you two mind if I borrow Gerty for a moment? A friend of mine wants to meet her.” Said Kit smoothly.

“By all means.” Said Sarah happily.

I felt a familiar hand grab my own and lead me through the crowd. I surprised even myself by going with him willingly.

The flowers were one thing, but now he had demanded we do a photoshoot together? What was he playing at? I had forgiven him sure; but did he think that meant that he was in with a chance for us to be together once more?

The fact that I didn’t dismiss that very thought out rightly really answered the question.

“Is there really a friend who wants to see me or did you just want to get me alone?” I asked, I wasn’t sure what to expect at this point.

“Yes there is.” He assured me.

We walked in silence, Kit holding one of my hands, Koko’s lead in the other. My mind was in turmoil and I wasn’t sure how to feel, let alone what to say or do. I was painfully reminded of the last time we had been together, I was drunk and had been dancing with him.

All my inhibitions had been gone. The past didn’t matter; it was just about enjoying each other’s company.

Then I was reminded that our dancing together had not been the last point of contact between us. As if he was reading my mind, Kit spoke, “Did you get my flowers?”

“Yes, I did.” I said carefully, “They were very nice. Thankyou.”

What was it about receiving flowers of him that just made me feel so… special. It was such a thoughtful gesture, made doubly so by the fact that he had sent them to me on valentine’s day. A day where single women were made to feel doubly inconsequential.  

A part of me knew I wasn’t supposed to like it. That I wasn’t supposed to feel as flattered as I did, given who they were from. But I could help it, when I had forgiven him, all those malicious feelings had melted away and he was no longer a liar. He went back to simply being Kit.

Kit who had sent me flowers.  

“Gerty, this is my friend Richard.” Announced Kit.

“Richard Madden, the guy from Game of Thrones?” I asked curiously.

“That would be me.” Said a Scottish accented voice.

I felt Kit pull my hand forward and place it into the waiting hand of another man, who shook it, “Gerty, it’s so nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.” He told me.

“All bad I’m sure.” I smiled.

“Oh yes, he told me you were absolutely beautiful. Which was a terrible understatement, your gorgeous.” He told me.

“Smooth.” I commented with a smile.

“Alright Richard, stop flirting and ask your question.” Said Kit pointedly.

“Oh no, I’m enjoying the flirting.” I told Kit with a smile, “Tell me, are your eyes as blue as they say?” I asked thinking to the many times James had bemoaned his ‘romance novel stare’.

“Bluer.” He told me.

I laughed. I was enjoying the flirting not because I had any interest in Richard Madden but because I could feel Kit radiating tension from my side out of obvious jealousy.

“Alright enough you two.” Said Kit seeming irritated.  

“And how can I help you Mr. Madden?” I asked curiously.

“Do you know the model for the Maybelline mascara add?” he asked be curiously.

I blinked in shock, “What an odd question.”

“Well you see, like myself, the girl in it has the most beautiful eyes and that’s the problem.” He explained.

“It is?”

“Yes. Because I’ve only seen her eyes. I’m dying to know what the rest of her looks like and Kit here thinks you might know who the model might be and can make an introduction.” He explained.

“Awfully presumptuous of Mr. Harington.” I commented.

“It’s an excuse. He just wanted to talk to you.” Said Richard pointedly.

“Thanks Rich.” Said Kit dryly.

I smiled in amusement, “Well it just so happens I do know the model for the 2017 Maybelline campaign.” I answered.

“Great. Do you think you could introduce me to her?” asked Richard.

“Certainly. Last I checked, she was over at the bar.” I replied, “Kit if you could take me over to Astrid Burgess, I’ll make the introductions.”

Kit threaded his arm through mine and led me through the crowd.

“Gerty darling.” Greeted Astrid’s voice, “I see you’ve got company.” She said, sounding surprised when she saw who was on my arm.

“Astrid, this is Kit. The guy I was telling you about.” I said pleasantly.

I felt Kit tense beside me.

“Kit,” said Astrid sounding absolutely delighted, “I’ve heard nothing but terrible things about you.” She said happily, “To what do I owe this displeasure?”

I heard Kit sigh deeply next to me. I was enjoying his uncomfortableness just a little too much and I couldn’t help the grin that had spread across my face, “A friend of Kit wants to meet you.” I said in way of explanation.

It was then I felt Richard step forward from behind me.

“Astrid, this is Richard. Richard this is Astrid.” I said making the introduction.

“Nice to meet you. I hope your nicer than the friends you keep.” Said Astrid, though I could hear the interest in her voice as she beheld Richard.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” Said Richard, I could hear the smile in his voice.  

“Now tell me Astrid, are his eyes as really as blue as they say?” I asked with a smile.

I could hear the mutual interest in Astrid and Richard’s voice and I wanted to play matchmaker.

“Bluer.” She said after a moment.

“Told you.” Said Richard smugly.

The two then dissolved into conversation. Patting Koko’s head absently, I turned my attention to Kit, knowing the two of them would not be paying any attention to us as they were so focused on each other.

“Awfully nice of you to help your friend out.” I commented lightly, “Almost as nice as you recommending me for a job.”

“Well I don’t know many models and you were the first one that came to mind.” He said lightly.

He wasn’t fooling me. He’d wanted me specifically to model with him and I was beginning to understand why, “I know what you’re doing.”

“What?”

“Your forcing me to spend time with you.” I accused.

“Am I?” he asked innocently, “Why on earth would I do that?”

I narrowed my eyes, he was up to something. I wasn’t sure what but I knew he was planning something.

“You said you’d forgiven me. I thought we could take a step towards being friends again.” He said simply, “Friends work together all the time.”

I thought through the implication of his words before I spoke, realizing something about our previous relationship as I did, “Were we ever just friends?” I asked curiously.

“For a little time we were. Before we got together.” He explained.

“Are you hoping for history to repeat itself?” I guessed.

“I’m just wanting to work with a friend. Nothing more.” He said innocently.

I didn’t believe him. The flowers and him showing up to this event were one thing. But him demanding we work together? That was another.

I couldn’t be sure and I was hesitant to make such an intuitive leap but I thought, maybe, he was trying to win me back.

As if sensing the tone of my thoughts he added, “You look beautiful by the way.”

Oh yes. He was definitely trying to win me back.

That knowledge did strange things to me.

I thought it would strengthen my resolve, make me refuse to fall victim to his charms but instead, I felt his perseverance and whit slowly chipping away at my icy exterior.

It was dangerous for me to be around him. The more time I spent in his company, the more I was reminded of my old feelings for him. I began to fear my feelings that despite my insistence that I was over him, demanded to be heard.

I also feared that history would indeed repeat itself.

#chapters #fanfiction #fanfic #real person fanfiction #love is blind #Kit Harington #mastermind #Richard Madden