#I dunno how fair it would be necessarily but it SOUNDS fun to me

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Roxy and Bonnie unleashing the horde of mini music men upon Fazerblast during an active (not guests, just the animatronics) game

(The mini music men are fine, they have fazerblasters as well)

(This went on a bit so it's under a read more. I got carried away whoops! I've also tagged almost all the animatronics because they're all relevant okay stay with me on this)

Okay. So. My first thought was Bonnie getting Roxy involved under false pretenses and then getting the others involved by using her involvement as proof it was fair and totally not a prank... but honestly, he could never break Roxy's trust like that. She would be very upset with him whether it was fun or not. And that set-up would have led to a worse game and post overall so we're not doing that.

Moving on!

So they're both in on this. Bonnie came up with an idea to swarm the Fazerblast Arena with the Minis, but only a few actually like him, so he got Roxy in on it, who, once convinced it would be funny and a good game for everyone involved, got the word spread to all the Minis. Anyone that wanted to participate was to meet up with her and she'd make some makeshift laser guns for everyone and use some spare sensors and shit so they could properly play. She's done it a few times before with Bobbin, Poppet, Glowstick and Tippy, (the four she's closest with) but nothing on this scale before so it's gonna take some work.

Meanwhile, Bonnie spends this time convincing everyone else to join the game once it's ready. He admits to Roxy that he sorta used her involvement to convince them it wasn't some nefarious scheme, but honestly, so long as they know and are expecting the unexpected, she's fine with this. She wouldn't trust this notorius cheater and prankster with a new game either lmao. Bonnie also puts himself in charge of creating a new game program in the Fazerblast system so they can you know... make it playable on the system. His other task, comes before Roxy even agrees to this, or gets the Minis involved. He has to convince Freddy to let him and Roxy design a new Fazerblast game for everyone. With the beef between Freddy and Roxy that's a hell of a task, but Bonnie can be convincing and if Freddy will cave to anyone, it'll be Bonnie. He's committed enough. He'll get through to him soon enough.

So you have a team here! Bonnie is working to make it playable on the systems, and make it as entertaining as possible (and also trying to very heavily stack it in the Minis favour more than it already is) and Roxy is there to make sure it functions mechanically with the guns and shit, the Minis are getting their say (she trusts him but he has a habit of steamrolling the conversation so she's making sure that doesn't happen) and to make sure the game isn't horribly rigged. This is a pretty rare occurence honestly. Normally these two are knee deep in stupid shit, very often involving some of the others as well with no intent to get out of it lmao so when one of them actually pulls the breaks and thinks about it? Yeah you know it's gonna be fun. And also not likely to get them into trouble. Another, equally rare occurence.

Anyway, Bonnie succeeds in getting everyone involved, and as was Roxy's idea, Bonnie is put into the game too. He knows what to expect of course, but with Roxy behind the scenes directing a shit ton of the Minis with their own plans, they thought it would add to the confusion if Bonnie was also in there getting spooked and confused.

The game starts.

No one except Bonnie has any idea what's gonna happen once the game begins. Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Monty, maybe Foxy if he's here too, and Sunny and Moon (still in one body of course) enter the arena. As per the plan, they understand that all they have to do is defeat Roxy. This part was Bonnie's idea of course. None of them have seen Roxy since she disappeared to get ready before the game. She's normally banned from the Fazerblast arena due to her eyes - and her and Freddy's personal beef - so they're not sure how Bonnie could possibly have convinced her to even want to play the game again. X-ray eyes are pretty unfair after all and Roxy hates that! He reassures them that it's gonna be fair and fun, but with the odds naturally stacked against them because Roxy is oh so good at this game! (Yes, he's building her up as best he can it's his favourite job to do)

There's a long period of them just sneaking around, not a lot happening. Bonnie was supposed to get them to split up, but Chica suggested it first. They don't know what these two have planned, but if Roxy is up to something cool, they're gonna need to split up to find her. The place is huge after all! So they split up. And suddenly it's a lot more scary.

With so many of the Minis, and Roxy now having control of the rarely used fog machines, the team are hearing quick footsteps in the mist, but can't tell where they're coming from. They hear the occasional item fall, or the thud of something bouncing off the wall. They're a little nervous to say the least!

They lure each half of the team to the two towers. Once they're both in position, the ambush begins! The Minis are suddenly on the attack! They scare the absolute shit out of everyone! Roxy is laughing her ass off above the maze, directing the Minis where to go and who to target. They've practiced this a few times, so it's going real smoothely. A little bit further in, with everyone having scattered from the attack, Roxy comes onto the intercom pretending to be the leader of the Miniature Spider Army and briefly explains the game to them, while also acting as if Bonnie is her traiterous advisor that went rogue. Each Mini has three lives. Once they've been hit three times, they're out of the game. The team they've just scared the shit out of don't have lives, but instead, a points system. They get points by shooting the sensors on the Minis, but lose them, if they get shot. If they get enough points by the end of the time limit, they win, but they better be careful! If too many of her underlings are killed, there'll be consequecnes! That's all she tells them. The Minis immediately resume the attack, having backed off a bit so she could explain the game.

As soon as she finishes talking, the others are fucking pumped up for this. Monty and Chica are on the hunt to get as many Minis out as possible. They wanna see what the 'consequences' are if they beat too many of them! Freddy is pretty curious as well, but he's trying to play this cleverly. He's sneaking around, trying to work out where the Minis are and using his indepth knowledge of the maze to try and figure out where they're hiding. It was Roxy's idea to have the Minis just. Not go anywhere near him. There's maybe two or three that are tailing him to mess with him the entire time. Unfortunately for Freddy, Roxy is also playing it smart and knows that given this is his attraction and he has the most experience, knowledge and skill here, she needs to give him as few opportunities to score points as possible. Hence, there are three or four Minis sneaking around him, giving him brief glimpses and confusing him as they lure him away from the rest of his team. He'll catch on eventually he's being led in circles, but it takes him longer than he'll care to admit. Sunny is very loudly running around screaming as loud as possible. The Minis are giving him every opportunity and he's having a blast even if he's failing miserably to hit the sometimes completely stationary targets. The Minis are also loving it. He's very funny in his panicked gun flailing whenever one gets the jump on him. When Moon comes out at the halfway point, they somewhat back off since Moon is much more focused on winning than Sunny is. Moon does not appreciate being messed with so hard by a bunch of spiders and he knows Roxy is laughing her ass off at him and he's gonna kill her for this he fucking swears-

He won't of course, he is enjoying it. He's just going to glare at her over inviting and aiding in the Minis fucking with him with a fog machine. And LOUDLY complain to DJ. Just a little. He loves it though he thinks this was such a fun way to do it, he just doesn't like being on the receiving end of the spooks. If Foxy is here, he's talking to himself and loudly threatening every source of noise he's ever heard. He hears footsteps behind him and he spins around, shooting blindly like "OH YE THINK YER FUNNY DO YA?! OH I'LL SHOW YA FUNNY YA MANGEY MENACES!!" He's talking big but he's maybe hit them like. Four times in the span of a one hour game. They're giving him opportunities of course! He's just a yap first, shoot later kinda guy and its costing him points lmao

Bonnie of course, wasn't that freaked out by them, but this is his downfall. Roxy knows him too well. He was in on all of this, so he seems to think that he'll be able to have some sway in how the Minis operate. He tries bargaining with them not to shoot him, trying to convince them that "heeeeeyyy I'm on your side man!! I can tell you where the others are!" but they know the play. If he can convince them to go easy on him because this was his idea and he and Roxy worked together to make this happen, he can sneak potshots when their backs are turned for free points and not get shot in the process. Oh yes, Roxy had him figured out from the get go lmao. He's a serial cheat, she knew he'd try that the second he got a chance, so the Minis have been advised to go all out on him. He's the weakest link in the chain, and he's gonna be what wins them the game. She was right as well! At the end, they looked at the stats and Bonnie literally gained the least amount of points, but lost more than the rest of the team combined lmao he'll be sulking about her 'betrayal' for a long time. She ruined his game plan!! How could she!!

He did kind of expect her to figure it out but he was really relying on her just. Not. He didn't really think about the plan B if she did figure it out and pass it onto the Minis lmao that's on him. He knew and he was still banking on it like a FOOL

But yeah, the Minis are treating Chica and Monty as a team since they're together the most throughout the game. One the Minis heard them saying they were gonna try and find out what the consequences for beating enough Minis were and passed that onto Roxy, who passed it onto the rest of the team of Minis. Since she's played Fazerblast with everyone else maybe like. Three times ever due to many reasons, she doesn't really know how everyone is inside of the arena, but she did need to know who would be gunning for kills rather than points. So, Bonnie suggested that if any Minis heard anyone talking about it, or figured out who was aiming for that, they should relay it back to her. She was initially against this, since she's struggling to keep the game fair already, but the Minis assured her that if they know who is trying to get them out of the game, more of them can get out, and Roxy can enact the 'consequences' part of the game. She agrees, but under the condition that if they ever get to do this again, if that rigs things too much, they don't ever do it again.

So Chica and Monty are actually making headway. They really didn't need to pass the message onto Roxy what they were trying to do so they could give them the best game they can. They're having a blast running from the Minis when they've been hit, running into battle screaming whilst firing at random and are loving this hide and seek style swarm game. They're the reason they're gonna win this. If Freddy figures out the tricks being played on him, he'll contribute a lot as well, but he also needs to find the other groups of Minis which is easier said than done given they've all decided to go spooky hard mode on him lmao they gotta give him a challenge, right? And boy are they challenging him.

But anyway, Freddy figures out the deception and has started making headway on points, while Chica and Monty are leading the charge. Sunny is getting a good few points, while Bonnie has teamed up with Foxy and Bonnie is getting peppered almost constantly while Foxy comes up with more and more creative, laser themed threats. At the halfway point, Moon joins Monty and Chica's team and when there's only fifteen minutes left, Freddy meets up with Bonnie and Foxy. With a significant amount of Minis out of the game, Roxy's voice comes back over the intercom, once again in character. How dare they kill so many of her team!! They had families ya know!! Ohhh they've really done it now!! It's about time they got what's really coming for 'em!!

Now, Freddy and Foxy immediately ask Bonnie what that means. He says, either she's sending a second wave of Minis to overwhelm them, but he's not sure if enough of them joined the game for that, or she's gonna double the amount of points the Minis take when they land a hit or some other stat altering thing like increasing the Minis' lives. He's guessing it's gonna be the lives and points thing. Freddy and Foxy are immediately like "oh okay so we just have to stop you from getting shot every five seconds. Okay. That's doable." He's offended, but also yeah that's fair.

Roxy does neither of those things. Instead, she does a secret, third thing. Poppet and Glowstick had been insistent on this and the other Minis had all agreed it would be really fun, even if they never got to do it like this again. She'd agreed, but had made some tweaks to make it more interesting and so the team wasn't just immediately slaughtered.

In the maze, the amount of Minis seems to have dwindled. There's a few, but they don't seem to be pushing the offensive anymore. They seem to have gone back to being spooky instead, maybe even luring them around, but they won't fall for it again. Well, Chica, Monty and Moon might, but that's not the intention here. They suddenly hear something a bit different in the mist. Maybe a lot of Minis at once?? They're not sure. They can defnitely hear cymbals crashing though. They follow it of course. They only have so much time left and they haven't got enough points to win yet! What's going on? What's Roxy gonna throw at them this time?

It's herself. A blindfolded Roxy is lose in the Fazerblast maze, with the Minis music boxes, cymbals, and footstamping as her guides. Poppet and Bobbin are in her hair and on her shoulder giving her more precise guidance, and are acting as her little turrets. Roxy has some sensors on her worth double the points, but given she's running full speed in full dog mode on her fours around the maze, chasing them down and then disappearing into the fog by direction of the Minis, she's really fucking hard to hit lmao. She's literally just one big curveball that's running around, covering the Minis and the distracting the others by simple existing in the maze, and she's made it so much harder but god damn are they loving this. Bonnie fucking screamed when she leapt out of the fog towards him he was not expecting that sfdsfdsfs

But yeah, thanks to Roxy being blindfolded and unable to really change her strategy based on who and what she can see, the Minis are now the strategists. They're the ones in charge of Roxy and are now coordinating on what she's doing, rather than the other way around. This makes them a bit more open to getting shot since they've got to focus on multiple things at once, but Roxy approaching at alarming speeds it's more than enough to keep that level lmao and with the amount of sensors on her with the double points, the others were still easily able to get enough points to win. Roxy had a blast running around listening to their joyful terror, and she and the Minis play games like this all the time, so she was able to completely stun the others with how easily she and the Minis worked together like this. Like, they're amazed she was running around the maze that fast when all of them have witnessed her crashing face first into a glass wall more than once. The added panicking and noises from the others made it harder to follow the Minis' instructions too so it was a challenge for her as well, and really, that's what she was aiming for in terms of making the game fun with Bonnie. Something new and challenging for them all.

It was fun, and Roxy congratulated them on defeating the swarm and her. Bonnie rattles her for scaring the shit out of him like that and they all get one hell of a laugh out of everyone recounting what had happened. There's some feedback tossed around on how to make the game better, and they brainstorm some changes and what not. Roxy admits it was pretty heavily stacked against them, but Bonnie had insisted on making sure it felt like they were the underdogs fighting the unrelenting Spider Horde. She just worked on making sure it was actually winnable with the points and lives system.

Freddy, explains this obviously can't get pushed out to the public (which she and Bonnie already knew because obviously an army of Mini Music Men that are varying levels of beat up and broken that the public doesn't know about isn't going to fly) but that he wouldn't be against them hosting more games like this. It was fun and though he drags his feet on it, he admits that Roxy and the Minis were able to give him a challenging game. They're smug about it for weeks.

And there you go! That's what happened when Roxy and Bonnie teamed up to unleash the Minis on the Fazerblast arena on their unsuspecting friends! They all had a great time and will absolutely be playing it again many times in the future!

#fnaf security breach #roxanne wolf #glamrock bonnie #lil music man #lil music men #mini music men #glamrock freddy #glamrock chica #montgomery gator #glamrock foxy #fnaf sunny #fnaf moon #the daycare attendant #this was fun ngl #that'd be a hell of a stacked game honestly #I dunno how fair it would be necessarily but it SOUNDS fun to me #and the minis deliberately messing with freddy? because they're on roxy's side of their problems??? #never!!! #it was all part of the strategy!! that was totally the ONLY reason they had for doing it like that #lmao they had fun #I like to think Bonnie getting shot so much cause he kept trying to cheat led to him screaming 'IM BEING BULLIED' as loud as possible #so dramatic over being forced to play the game lmao #anyway that's it #byyyeee #pop rox answers

[goldenheartstudios]

I wanna share some headcanons for funsies

  Disclaimer: I like putting disclaimers in my rants but I dunno what to put for this one, so I’ll just state the obvious: as the title suggests, these are headcanons, so don’t take them too seriously

  Alright, now it’s time for a rant introduction

  You see, headcanons are fun. They don’t hurt anyone, and it’s interesting to see many people having a similar headcanon for a thing, or to read some headcanons you didn’t see before

  And, well, my way of headcanoning something is by building from canon. I like to reinterpret things that we’ve seen and develop those things in a way that doesn’t necessarily contradict what we know. And I do have some headcanon ideas for this show that I find neat and I wanna share

  And if there was someone who thought of something similar or likes an idea I wrote, I would love to know! Sharing impressions in a positive/lighthearted way is always fun

  With that out of the way, I guess I can start!

1. The NinjaNomicon’s advice on friendship 

  Gonna start with a small headcanon

  If you don’t remember, there was an episode where Randy asked the Nomicon for advice on how to balance friendship and ninja business, and this is the advice it gave: “Friendship is a weight the ninja cannot carry.”

  This doesn’t sound like a fair thing, right? Since it kind of leads to the meaning of the Nomicon telling Randy that a ninja has to sacrifice friendship for duty

  Or at least that’s how Randy interpreted it, which is not unusual for him to misunderstand the Nomicon

  I personally think that what Nomicon said was true. As a ninja, Randy can’t take care of his friendships because he has other important duties

  But Randy, as a person, can

  You see, the Nomicon mainly gives advice on the ninja role, where only later it started giving life advice as well (which to be fair, were still connected to the ninja role). When Randy asked for friendship advice, the Nomicon gave it into the ninja’s perspective, but it didn’t tell him to quit his friendship with Howard

  I headcanon that the Nomicon implied that this is a duty for Randy, not for ninja. That he can’t ask for ninja advice, because this is not a ninja’s responsibility, it’s his

  Because his personal life is different from his ninja life, and he’s the only one who knows how to handle it

2. The NinjaNomicon’s way of learning

  This can be related with the other headcanon so i think it’s fitting to talk about this one

  We’ve seen different ways that the Nomicon acts: he can be harsh, understanding, confusing, etc. But with time, its tone starts to become.. almost parental. Like, it doesn’t only help Randy be a good ninja, it also helps him become a better person by teaching him things that could be considered mundane, or reminding him of not crossing the line

  Hell, it even helps him with his friendships later on, which is something that shouldn’t be a ninja’s responsibility. But he seems to still do that in order to help Randy

  So my headcanon for that is that the Nomicon readjusted itself for him. The more it spent time with Randy, the more it learned about him, and with that it learned what he needs to learn

  This could be a general thing it does, or this could be a thing it did for Randy, by probably learning from the past generations’ mistakes

3. The NinjaNomicon’s possible character development

  Okay, hear me out on this. One thing that bugged me is the reason why Mac Antfee was a ninja for a longer time than four years, and he lost his title only because he was abusing it. Why was he a ninja for longer than usual? And why did the Nomicon allow him to be a ninja for that long if he was terrible at his job? We’ve seen with Randy that the moment he showed signs of abusing his ninja powers, he took them until he proved himself worthy

  How does the ninja passing system work really?

  Well, based on the ninja’s duty to watch over the Sorcerer, I came up with this headcanon history:

  The moment the First Ninja trapped the Sorcerer, it became clear that the ninja had to be constantly around him to be able to supervise. And with time he was able to do that, but he eventually needed to pass on the ninja role, most likely because he wanted to finally rest. But with time, a school was formed over the Sorcerer, which this gave the opportunity to come of with a simple passing system: a new ninja is chosen once the current one graduates and leaves the school

  It was chosen to be a student because a teacher would make things complicated. But Mac Antfee found a way to abuse this system by repeating classes. If he didn’t graduate, then he could still keep his ninja title. But at prom he did a big mistake: he didn’t do the job he was literally assigned to do

  Because of that, the Nomicon decided it was enough and immediately took his powers, but this was a mistake from the Nomicon as Mac flee before he could get his memories wiped

  So a more readjusted system was created: the four years rule, where the Nomicon gets to be more strict with the user if necessary. But I believe that with Randy, it learned to give more care to the user, and try to do something the moment a possible bad habit can form

  I could almost imply that NinjaNomicon became a parental figure for the kid, which is funny to think about since it’s literally a book

  But this actually leads to a question: since the Sorcerer is now gone, the ninja doesn’t need to be tied to the school anymore, so technically a ninja doesn’t need to pass on the title after graduation. So, what does that mean for Randy’s future? Well, this is something I could elaborate on a future rant, especially if there are people interested in this idea

4. Randy’s ancestry

  Oh this is a fun one

  You see, it’s very obvious that the series took a lot of inspiration from Japanese culture. But there’s no.. confirmed Japanese character (to my knowledge), even if the town’s past seems to be even more tied to Japanese culture

  So that’s why I like to come up with this fun headcanon that I personally think it fits: Randy being half Japanese

  Let me explain. It would fit with the show since the show itself has eastern and western culture in it, and it could bring an opportunity to explore more about Japanese culture later on

  This doesn’t contradict anything we know about his parents because of this simple fact: we don’t even know what his parents look like. Heck, they could be British for all we know, the only thing we know for certain is the fact that they exist, plus some standard parent behavior

  His lack of knowledge of Japan could be explained by this idea: he was surrounded by American culture ever since he was born, so in consequence this is the thing he knows about

  You could make it that his mother is American (and the family took her surname), and his father is Japanese, and that the father is not around much because of his job (explaining the episode where Randy went only to his mom to tell her he was sick). This also has the opportunity to explore the struggles of a biracial person:

  How is it like to be a stranger from one of your cultures? If you’ve grown up surrounded by a group, can you even say that you belong to the other, just because you have a parent from that group? And how does that group feel about you, how different they treat you? Do they have any expectations about you? How difficult would it be to learn about another culture? What if you find problems about it? Does that make you even more of an “alien” to that group?

  There are many possibilities to this idea, which it makes it fun to think about (and honestly, that’s why I actually like the fact that we barely know anything about his parents, since it has a lot of room for headcanons)

5. Howard’s ancestry

  Alright, it’s basically confirmed that Howard is Jewish because of the Hanukkah episode, but I also like to headcanon that he’s half American for these reasons:

it would make sense for his strong American culture as well

it would make sense why he prefers Christmas and doesn’t know anything about Hanukkah

it would be a nice parallel to Randy’s headcanon if Howard’s mother is American

it would be nice if both of them are half American, since they would complete each other

  And you could also explore different ways of handling this topic with this headcanon idea: I imagine Howard would  not mind the fact that he’s barely connected to his heritage. He can always bring up the excuse of “not living in that culture” and take only the things he likes. Also, I would say that he did get familiar to the Jewish culture, but he personally chose it’s not his thing

  On the other hand, if we go with Randy being half Japanese headcanon, I would say that things will be different for him once the problem is brought up (maybe by visiting Japan?): he would get bothered by the possible expectations from others or negative treatment, maybe to a point where he becomes defensive. I believe that between the two, he will be the one who’s most conflicted by the heritage he’s barely familiar with, which could be very interesting to explore. Maybe you could even make a connection with the ninja history with this premise, because this would be an opportunity to learn more about the Japanese culture as well

  So yeah, these are what I have in mind! I like thinking about possibilities and ways to expand on things that the canon didn’t. If you have some headcanons yourself that you wanna share, I would love to know, because these are really fun!

  I’ll end the rant with one last headcanon: the “what the juice” and “honking” phrases are clearly a substitute for real swear words. So you can count them and see how many times a character would swear if they weren’t in a kids cartoon

  Aka, Randy would definitely say “what the fuck”

#randy cunningham 9th grade ninja #rc9gn #rc9gn nomicon #rc9gn randy #rc9gn howard #gh rant #my head is full of thoughts and this is a good place to share them #also it sure is a miracle that I posted something only days after the last rant huh

[vitaminwaterreviews]

G-Dragon - Coup d'Etat

I mean … Good, not great. Curious what the average rating is so let’s see: 7.5. Yeah that feels about right.

I definitely went into this album with expectations. I don’t know much BigBang, but I know enough about their history and G-Dragon’s role in the industry to expect something incredible out of this album. Instead I got … something good. I liked the variety of sounds, but I didn’t necessarily like all of the sounds. I also am not sure if I like his voice very much. I do think that the dubstep and rock elements were used really well, but I kind of expected more interesting lyricism out of him.

Like, if I had to choose between this album and D-Day, I’d choose D-day every time. It’s not totally a fair comparison, but I’d say it’s a reasonable one.

- I’ve actually had this on my list for quite a while now. I’ve finally got a bit of free time, and the motivation to do it, so let’s check it out.

Coup d’Etat

No lyrics for this one because I wanna watch the MV

But maybe I should’ve gone with lyrics instead

I actually don’t know how I feel about this song. It’s super dramatic, very YG in that sense

Very underwhelmed

Honestly maybe this is just the album intro? But it has an MV, so it’s definitely a title track of some sort

I think I’d like it more if it was half as long and pitched as an intro

7/10

Niliria

Lol okay this is not what I expected after the first song

But I’m here for it

That was actually really good?

9/10

R.O.D.

Ride Or Die

Tell you what, I’m not actually sure I like G-Dragon’s voice that much

Lol wait the dubstep bass in the chorus here

Okay well the chorus totally just made me love this

I dunno about the line “me and my girlfriend,” the world “girlfriend” in this context feels super out of touch

Okay, here’s the outro we wanted

I mean it was very enjoyable to listen to, I could see a world where this is my favorite song on the album one day

8/10

Black

With Jennie

Hip hop piano is such a mood

Jennie sounds Very good here

Still feels kinda melodramatic - although I suspect that’ll be a common theme in this album

7/10

Who You?

Well this is poppy as hell

Dudududududududdu lmaooo

Ooohohoohohohhhhh

7/10, certainly surprised by this

Shake the World

Back to dubstep, mkay

What on earth is that Noise?

Also I dunno what genre this is, bc it’s way more trap than dubstep

7/10

MichiGO

Today I’m crazy, GO

So, like, Crazy, by 4minute

Haha what’s with all the dubstep on this album?

Wikipedia somehow neglects to mention any form of EDM when it lists the genres of this album

heundeulGO, like in Catallena?? Lmao

8/10 let’s say, this was fun but still nothing special

Crooked

I’ve definitely heard this intro somewhere, or at least it sounds an awful lot like something

I’m enjoying this one a lot. It feels like, punk rock or something

Like, very early 2000’s

8/10

Niliria (G-Dragon Ver.)

Actually imma skip this, no need to listen to the same song twice

Runaway

Well if the last one was punk rock, then this is … also punk rock

I thought that the lyrics would be more important for this album. I am not sure that’s true

However, it’s good to get some more actual kpop rock music

Not quite an Nmixx moment, but similar feeling

Ah yes, a guitar solo

8/10

I Love It

Lol what is this I wonder

It is Zion.T, so I guess it would be more r&b

I do quite like the bass, but I am not convinced by the sound overall

Actually by virtue of the bass I’m getting more funk than r&b

The piano feels So odd though

7/10

You Do

7/10

#album #kpop #G-Dragon

[twigstarpikachutroll22]

2, 5, 9, 10, 18, 20, 23

2: Vampires or werewolves?

First fictional vampire that comes to my mind is the Master from the Wayward Children series who is an evil controlling possessive manipulator, and first fictional werewolf that comes to my mind is Jasper Kaylock from The Glass Scientists who is an absolute cinnamon roll, so I'm kinda leaning towards werewolves.

"Interesting metric."

I feel like werewolves don't scare me as much as vampires in general because like. I dunno, being a vampire is a full-time thing and vampires I see in fiction are more likely to wholeheartedly embrace the whole bloodsucking thing, whereas werewolves can just be a totally normal and maybe even really nice person except for those few nights a month where they turn into a monster that may or may not be hostile and if it is hostile there's a possibly it might not be them in their right mind--which is a whole 'nother thing.

"Yeah, that's fair. Me, I'm torn between saying werewolves for the reasons you just listed and saying vampires just for the aesthetic."

They ARE very aesthetic, I'll give them that.

"And we do love the Vampair series by Daria Cohen."

We absolutely do.

5: Costumes or movies?

*in unison* COSTUMES!!

9: Fun haunted houses or really haunted houses?

Are these not the same thing?

"Really haunted houses ARE the fun haunted houses imo. Plus they're the ones where my fight response won't necessarily spoil the whole thing or get regular people upset at me."

10: Ghosts or skeletons?

Ghosts. I dunno, the fact that they're more likely to be, y'know, actual people kinda makes them more interesting to me?

"Friendly or vengeful or anything in between--and the variety is also great--they've always got a good story to tell. Cooler powersets too."

18: Live in a witch's house or a vampire's castle?

"Question, is the witch or vampire in question still living there? Is this solely a question of what kind of living space you'd prefer, or do we have to factor in a spooky roommate too?"

And how friendly or unfriendly said spooky roommate might be?

"Let's just assume that they might be anywhere on the morality spectrum in general but can't or won't seriously harm or otherwise do evil things to us."

Okay. That makes this a lot better.

"If it's a roommate scenario, I think I might go with the witch. We could bond over magic stuff. If it's solely a question of living space, I dunno. Witchy cottage and gothic castle are both very good aesthetics."

Yeah.

I think I might lean towards witch's house either way tbh.

"Yeah."

20: Be haunted or possessed?

Haunted. I do NOT want somecreature else or someTHING else using my body, thanks.

"Seconded. Me being possessed in particular would be especially bad, not just for me. Do you KNOW how much magical power is stored in this body? If somecreature else or something else got in my body, they could just go gorilla cupcakes with ALLLLLL of that, and if they didn't have the best intentions that'd be a serious danger to everycreature and everything."

23: Know when you will die or know how you will die?

I feel like either one of those would stress me the heck out. If you know WHEN you'll die then you have a greater awareness of the ticking clock that hangs over you on that, and if you know HOW you'll die, you can try your best to prevent that but it sounds like in this scenario it's kinda set in stone so you know it'll eventually happen anyway. Say you know you'll die by choking on a certain food. You'd stay the heck away from that food from then on, but you'd still know that like, eventually, somehow, you're gonna wind up eating that food anyway and choking on it. My instinct is to say know how I'll die because then I could possibly try to avoid what might be my cause of death and at least feel like I was able to do something for awhile to prevent or at least delay my death, but. I don't know. Either of these would be terrible for me tbh.

"I'd say know when I'll die. I could make peace with it in advance and try to make sure I'm like, ready. When that time comes."

[nat-20s]

 Part 8 of the wonderful! Au: the boys answer some questions! Up to you to decide if they actually clarify anything!

(also on AO3)

~*~

Martin: Hey everyone! I know what some of you are thinking right now: it's not Tuesday, why is this episode in my feed? I know significantly more of you are thinking: I don't consistently keep up with podcast releases, how much free time do you think I have, buddy? To answer your queries: this is a bonus episode! We're answering listener questions to clear the air and/or have fun. Also, I don't know, around 20 to 40 minutes a week, as that is the average amount of time per episode? Maybe during your commute? My husband's omnipotence has been gone for five years, we just have to guess at that sort of thing now.

Jon: For legal reasons, that last statement was a joke. In fact, to cover all of our bases, we do not guarantee that any of our responses are genuine.

Martin: Just because we say we'll answer things doesn't mean we'll answer truthfully. Though, honestly, I think we might make it more enjoyable if we do tell the truth. Like, I don't necessarily have a fun lie prepared for our first question from konspiracyking97: "What's their fuckin deal anyway?"

Jon: Is this referring to the oblique references  we've made about being from a parallel reality and only ending up here as a consequence of ending one apocalypse and potentially starting another or the general premise of the show?

Martin: Oh, it's gotta be general premise, yeah?

Jon: In that case, I'm Jon, the other voice you're hearing is Martin, we're married, and we talk about things that are..nice? Good? Usually generally but occasionally rather specifically pleasant.

Martin: That pretty much covers it. It's not a complicated show. Uhh, next question comes from Shane: are either or both of you aliens? Nope!

Jon: Well..

Martin: No. We are 100% human people from Earth, we are under no definition extraterrestrial.

Jon: Eh..

Martin: Okay, first off, I know the tone of that 'eh' and "not fully human" is not synonymous with alien, so even if 100% is being a bit generous, we're still from the same planet as our listeners.

Jon:..

Jon: But. We sort of aren't though. Technically speaking.

Martin: No no no no no. I don't care if it's parallel, Earth is Earth is Earth, regardless of whatever nonsense metaphysics might be occurring.

Jon: So what you're saying is that if you got sucked through a portal and landed on an Earth where dinosaurs were still the predominant species, you wouldn't consider yourself to be an alien?

Martin: Nope!

Jon: I'm certain that they would consider you an alien. All of their mammals are probably shrew sized.

Martin: Sounds like a them problem.

Jon: Sounds like a-?! You know what, no, this will be an off the record debate, for now, I suppose I concede that the two Earths and our physiologies are similar enough that we might, maybe, not count as aliens.

Martin: Thank you. Anyway, our next question is from anonymous, and asks, "Is all of this an ARG?"

Jon: A whomst?

Martin: Alternate reality game. It's a method of storytelling that's interactive with audience, and usually has, I dunno, a certain suspension of disbelief to it where it pretends to be something actually happening in the real world until a dramatic reveal. A lot times it was used as a marketing gimmick, but others have done it just for fun. I can show you some examples after the show?

Jon: So it's in essence a more involved creepypasta?

Martin, delighted: Aw, babe, I'm never going to have a handle on what pop culture you are and aren't aware of, huh?

Jon: We were born within a year of each other, and I've told you that I was a deeply morbid teenager, you should probably be able to intuit some of things, love.

Martin: This coming from a man who has yet to see "It's a Wonderful Life", but has seen every film in the "Banjo Cannibals" franchise, including the Easter special. Jesus doesn't exist in the Banjo Cannibals universe, why does it have an Easter special?

Jon: The movies are rather shoddily translated from Russian, so I'm fairly certain the Easter component of that special was invented wholesale in the English version.

Martin: You say that like it answers more questions than it raises.

Jon: Yes, because it does. Oh, and to answer anonymous's question, no, this isn't an ARG. From my understanding of it, if it were, it'd be a poorly constructed one, as there's no real game element to any of this.

Martin: Hmm. Well, sometimes the game component is just trying to figure out what's going on with the story, or if there's any deeper content, and people are definitely doing that with this show.

Jon: That's not by design though. It's more a side effect of us having poor brain to mouth filters, I'd say.

Martin: Harsh, but fair. Oh, this next one is from Zac, no K, who asks, "Are you two actually even married?"

Jon, flat: We are, but it's under false names because this whole thing is an elaborate insurance scam.

Jon, incredulous: Yes, obviously, we're married. What did you hear in this podcast that would make you wonder otherwise, and how do we rectify it?

Martin: Clearly we need to up our quota for how "disgustingly in love" and "horrifically sappy" we are per episode. Which segues nicely into the next question from Gwen, "What's your favourite wonderful thing you've brought so far?" My answer: my husband. He's kind of my favourite in most things, you know?

Jon: Boooooo

Martin: Why, what's your favourite thing?

[Jon reluctantly sighs]

Jon, indulgent: being married.

Martin: A: serves you right for trying to pretend you're the less horrifically sappy and romantic one even though earlier today someone put a love note in the lunch they packed for me-

Jon:- Lies and slander! I have never, in my life, done that, even once.

Martin: Oh, sure, not even once. And you definitely don't reserve the lilac sticky notes specifically for my lunches because you know I like the colour. 

Jon: I..I don't.. you're rather ruining my image here.

[Martin snorts]

Martin: Can't have the audience think that you are, on occasion, an incredibly doting husband-

Jon: -A title I would argue we both share-

Martin: - which is obviously why, even with it being your favourite thing you've brought, being married to me is just a small wonder-

Jon, audibly rolling his eyes: As I already explained-

[A Pause}

Jon: Actually, you're right-

Martin: Wait-

Jon:- I really should have brought it as a larger wonder-

Martin: Wait-

Jon: though I should warn you, I think I'd have far too much material for just one little segment-

Martin: No no no no no-

Jon:- In fact, I think I might have too much material for just one little episode-

Martin: Joo-oon-

Jon: I might have to do a whole series! Where would I even start? I mean I could talk about how every day I get to watch the early morning sun highlight your curls when I get up first, or hear you quietly humming and shuffling around the kitchen when you do, or I could talk about how the lunch notes only started in the first place as retaliation to the notes you would leave on the mirror for me to find, or how every time I get to see you at ease in a way that you aren't with anyone else, it takes my breath away, or I could talk about how cute I find the lines between your eyebrows that you only get when you're thinking something petty, but you know it's petty so you don't want to say anything-

Martin: Okay, okay, Christ, I give !up I surrender, and will cease my teasing on this particular topic.

Jon, probably making the :3 face: You don't have to stop. I mean, I could also discuss how very, very attractive I find your voice when it takes on a teasi-mmph!

[There's a pleased hum, then a pause.]

[The audio quality is slightly changed, as if the recording has been stopped and then started later]

Martin, giddy: Uh, heh, anyway, Eric asked what the least favourite thing we've brought was, and because of Jon's attempt to embarrass me live-

Jon, overlapping: It's definitely not live-

Martin:- on air, I'm gonna say it's my husband.

[Jon scoffs]

Jon : If the past few minutes are any sort of indication, I'm going to go ahead and saying that you are lying.

Martin, sighing contentedly: Maybe a bit, but how was I supposed to resist when your indigance gives you that adorable little nose scrunch? In reality, my least favourite thing was probably, um, mini golf? Which, I still don't think is inherently bad, definitely superior to regular golf, but when it's the only thing a next door two year old wants to do with you, the charm begins to wear off a bit.

Jon: Wow. A rather scathing review of a toddler.

Martin: Not so much a scathing review of a toddler as it's a scathing review of minigolf's inability to keep its appeal after the third time in the same week.

Jon: Mmm, the sound effects rather quickly go from part of the atmosphere to part of the irritation, don't they?

Martin: So what's your least favorite thing we've covered here?

Jon: Oh, love, I'm not going to pretend to have nearly enough memory of what we've covered so far to have a least favorite.

Martin: Really? Nothing that you regret or rescind?

Jon: Well, regret, certainly. It was one of the weeks where you went first, and your second item was mutual aid funds, and what they can do for marginalized communities, and I had to follow it with fucking Slapchop.

Martin, poorly suppressing laughter: In your defence, Slapchop, or whatever offbrand we have, is pretty useful, especially when either your scar or my arthritis is acting up.

Jon: I'm still not convinced you didn't somehow see my notes for the recording and decided you get revenge for the first year that we knew each other.

Martin, no longer suppressing his laughter: Yep, you got me! This marriage wasn't an act of insurance fraud, but it was a near decade long con to humiliate you on a podcast that about twenty people listen to. I'll draft up the divorce papers immediately, and then we can finally go our separate ways. 

Jon: I'm glad you've at last admitted it. Such a weight off of my shoulders. Goodbye forever then.

Martin: Right.

Jon: Right.

[A beat.]

[There's a pfft from one of them, before both dissolve into giggles that lasts a good 30 seconds.]

Martin, slightly out of breath: I can't believe we're the kind of people that talk this much about speciality kitchen gadgets.

Jon: Sorry about that.

Martin: God, don't apologize. I'm, like, deliriously happy with our varying degrees of useful cooking ware filled life. If you had told 25 year old me that one day he'd be debating the merits of getting a tortilla press with his husband, he'd have wept, I tell you.

Jon: Funny, if you told 25 year old me the same thing, he would've said "You don't know the future,piss off" and then quietly have a bit of a panic at 3 am that night.

Martin: I bet you were insufferable in your mid-twenties.

Jon: First of all, who isn't, secondly, I was fresh out of Oxford, and third, I was insufferable in my late twenties, as you can attest to, and I'm insufferable now, as you can further attest to, so extrapolation would indicate that, yes, I was insufferable back then.

Martin: Probably a different kind of insufferable, though.

Jon: There are different kinds?

Martin: Of course! You used to be "prick boss" insufferable and now you're "smug in a way that I can't admit I find hot or it will go straight to your head" insufferable.

Jon, in the aforementioned smug tone: Oh, really?

Martin: See, see! Straight to your head.

Jon: Well straight is probably the wrong descriptor-

Martin: Oof, 4 out of 10 joke, babe.

Jon: That would be a far more convincing rating if you weren't grinning right now.

Martin: It's a genuine review, I'm just well known to be a sucker.

Jon: You and me both, darling.

Martin: Okay, if you're pulling out darling, you're clearly in too giddy of a mood to be focused on recording. Last question, from Jess, "You two mentioned meeting at work, but how did you actually end up together?" That's easy, Jon pulled me out of a hell dimension and then we went on the lam together to Scotland.

Jon: If that's not the way to tell a cute boy you like him, I don't know what is.

Martin: All right, that wraps up this bonus episode, and as the old saying goes, hiding from murderers in a cottage is more conducive to romance than suggesting you gouge out your eyes together.

Jon, cut off: Hey-!

#tma #jonmartin #jon sims #martin blackwood #post canon #wonderful! au #my fic

[keyboardink]

“truths and dares”

Kairi plays matchmaker for you, trying to set you up with everyone except herself. A game of "Truth or Dare" exposes your inexperience and your crush on her.

pairing: kairi “valkyrie” imahara x reader / media: apex legends

genre: eventual fluff / word count: 2k / rating: pg-13 / warnings: swearing and mentions of alcohol

a/n: another little friends to lovers thing with less angst. if you have any requests, feel free to shoot me an ask. if you like this, check out more of my writing here!

Kairi sat across from you, cross-legged on the rug in her apartment's living room. She took a sip of a slightly spiked drink before she asked, "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," you replied. You wanted to play it safe around her; you know how mischievous she could be. Last time you two had a sleepover like this, she almost made you borrow her jets to jump off the building. When you refused, she then promptly proceeded to do it herself, making a big show out of flying as you watched. She said she would've caught you if you had jumped, but you knew you would've turned into a mess of shaky hands and tumbling words in her arms. Just the thought of her being that close to you, of her saving you like that was enough to make your cheeks flush.

"How was your date yesterday?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Maybe you should've picked dare.

This was the subject you had been avoiding for the last 34 hours. She asked about it every time she got the chance, and you were running out of ways to avoid the subject. Every single text from her in the past day asked you about this date, which you had only gone on because Kairi had set you up with a mystery girl. "She's a babe," Kairi had said. "You two would be amazing together. Total power couple." She said the same thing about the past four girls before.

She always tried to matchmake you with others, but little did she know the only person you wanted to go on dates with was her. You were crushing on your wingman.

You looked at the floor, suddenly interested by a chip crumb that you assumed must've dropped while you guys were snacking earlier. You didn't want to tell her that you had softly rejected this mystery girl almost as soon as you two sat down at the café. You didn't want to tell her that none of these dates were ever going to work out, because the only person you wanted to be with was her. You didn't want her to find out how inexperienced you were, how you'd never even kissed a girl before, how--

"Hello? Earth to [Y/N]?" She waved a hand in front of your face, snapping you back to the conversation. "You can't avoid it forever, you know." She spoke as if she had read your mind.

"It was fine," you said with a shrug.

"Oh, c'mon!" She kicked her leg out, lightly hitting your knee. "You've been avoiding it for days and that's all you give me? I need details!" She leaned forward, returning to the criss-cross position. She rested her chin in her hands with her elbows propped up on her knees, like she was about to watch a movie she had waited her whole life for. Her eyes glimmered with interest and intent. You shifted under her gaze, suddenly aware of how the corners of her lips were turned up, how her shirt was starting to slip down and expose more of her collarbone, how she looked at you. "Pleeease?" She whined, pouting and giving you puppy-dog eyes.

"It was nothing special. Just like all of the other dates you set me up with."

"You didn't even think she was cute?"

"She was cute, just... not my type."

"Bullshit." She leaned back, taking another sip.

"I'm serious!" Defensiveness caused your voice to crack.

"Okay, you know what? I take back my Truth for you," she said.

"You can't do that. You already asked me the question, and I answered it! So it's my turn."

"Your answer was wimpy, so that means I get a do-over."

"Kai, that's so not fair," you protested.

"Your new question is: why do you hate all the chicks I try to set you up with?"

"No." You crossed your arms over your chest. "I'm not answering that. You get one question per turn, and it's my turn to ask you."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. Shoot."

"Truth or dare?" You asked, planning your next statement like a strategic attack. If she picked dare, you'd dare her to stop setting you up with random girls, and she always picked dare.

"Truth," she said with an ounce of arrogance. Okay, maybe she didn't always pick dare. She just wanted to be difficult. Classic Kairi.

You paused for a second, rethinking your plan before speaking again. "Why do you keep trying to set me up with people?"

She drummed her fingers against her leg, thinking the answer through. Your eyes were drawn to her thighs, the way her fingers pressed against her own skin and seemed to sink in like it was a pillow, the way her shorts were riding up from her moving around. You swallowed hard and forced your attention to return to her face, hoping she hadn't noticed you staring.

"Because you're hot shit," she said. "You deserve some hot girl to have fun with, you know?"

"Why don't you focus on getting yourself a date? I don't hear anything about you finding a hot girl to have fun with." You scrutinized her answer, genuinely curious as to why her own logic didn't apply to herself.

She shook her head. "Nope, one question per turn, right?" You groaned at the rule you had so adamantly enforced a minute ago. She smiled at your annoyance. "So, my question from earlier. Why do you hate everyone I try to set you up with?"

You searched your brain for an excuse, for anything that would cloak the real reason behind it all. "I'm not good at dating," you answered. It wasn't necessarily a lie, just an attempt at hiding that you hadn't ever had a real date before.

She saw right through it.

Her eyes widened. "Oh," she whispered. "You haven't-"

"Hey, one question per turn, right?" You cut her off, the words spilling out almost frantically. Your abruptness surprised both of you.

She was still quiet from the realization. You could only hope she hadn't also put together the whole "crush" aspect of it, and that she thought this was only about your inexperience. She nodded and leaned back, going easy on you. She could tell you weren't too fond of this conversation and decided to leave it be for the moment.

"Truth or dare?" you asked, shifting your legs.

"Dare."

You tried to think of something that would yield ridiculous results, something that would completely redirect the topic. "Show me the last thing in your search history."

"Oh, God," she laughed, pulling out her phone. She opened it to her most recent webpage and showed it to you. There was a page of results underneath the search-bar's heading which read "how to remove pasta sauce stains from blankets".

"Oh my God, Kairi!" you exclaimed, giggling.

"I was just eating on my bed! I was lazy, okay? Don't judge me."

You two shared a moment of laughter, and you let your worries and insecurities slip away for the time being. In that moment, you were just friends, laughing your asses off over a game of "truth or dare." There were no risks to be taken, no secrets to hide. Then, your giggles eventually dissolved and the truths came rushing back to you. You glanced at Kairi, who felt the nervous tension in the air, but she wasn't one to drop things completely.

"Hey," she said comfortingly, reaching over to place a hand on your leg. Your skin felt electrified upon her touch. "I'm sorry if I crossed a line, but it's okay to be inexperienced, you know. We all start somewhere. And sometimes, some of us don't go too far after our first. Some people find the love of their life right away and don't ever touch another person on the planet after that. Some of us like to have a bit more fun." She winked.

"Like you?" you asked, your voice sounding innocent and lost, like a hand stretching out for guidance.

"I used to." Her voice was casual as she leaned back on her hands. "I dunno, haven't really been feeling the fun life anymore. Kinda waiting for that special someone, you know?"

You nodded, understanding. You shared that feeling. It was part of the reason why you didn't want to go around messing with other girls, why you avoided all of the dates she set up for you. You two sat in comfortable silence, soaking in the air of the moment and listening to the cars outside.

After a minute, Kairi spoke again. "It's my turn, isn't it?"

"Mhm." You tried to conceal any leftover nerves that hadn't been calmed by her words, but the idea of her getting your last secret out of you made your heart race quicken.

"Well, truth or dare?"

"Dare," you replied. You suddenly felt somewhat courageous, but part of you also just wanted to avoid any more questions about your nonexistent love life and any possibility of revealing the crush you had on her.

She looked at you and smiled. There was a hint of something in the way her eyes sparkled, but you couldn't discern what it was. "I dare you to kiss me."

Your heart leapt into your throat. You couldn't say anything in response. She spoke up to fill the silence and ease your nerves. "You can just use it as practice for the next girl. I'll teach you how to do it, all right?"

"But I..." You tried to still your racing thoughts, but they were a carousel too fast for you to get off of. "I- I thought you were, uh, waiting?  For that special someone, right? Wasn't that what you said?"

"Yup." Her expression didn't change. Her gaze flickered down to your lips, making your heart beat even faster.

"But, Kairi, I-"

"[Y/N], you are that special someone," she said. She cupped your cheek in her palm. Your hand reached up to hers in surprise, touching it to make sure that this wasn't a dream like the ones you'd imagined this whole time. You relaxed against her touch. You felt your body slow down, soaking in her touch and every romantic bit of the moment. She could tell by the way you melted in her hands that you felt the same way about her. This wasn't going to be practice for the next girl. There wasn't even going to be a next girl. You both knew it was only about you and her.

She leaned in with a smile, your faces only inches apart. "So, are you taking the dare or  chickening out?"

You puckered and kissed her harder than you intended, causing a slight ache to start where your inner lips collided against your own teeth. You immediately pulled away, shocked and embarrassed, and mumbled out some apologies. She slid her hand down your cheek so that it was under your chin. She tilted your chin upwards, forcing you to focus on her.

"Look at me. Follow my lead, okay?"

She leaned in again, meeting you since you were now nervous to make the first move. You watched as she parted her lips slightly, allowing yours to sink in the gap between them. You parted yours as well, making the kiss sweeter and softer than just a puckered peck. She tugged gently on your cheek, pulling you towards her just enough to close any spaces between your mouths. She moved her lips against yours after a few moments, starting a second kiss without ever breaking the first. You couldn't tell where her mouth ended and yours began as they melted into one another seamlessly.

You pulled away when it got hard to breathe through your nose. She giggled at your gasp, another small sign of inexperience, and smiled at you. "How was that?" she asked.

You were breathless, both literally and figuratively. You felt like you were floating, completely in a daze after what just happened. "It was really, really good. Thank you."

She blushed at your compliment, but laughed at your innocence. "I'm honored to have been your first," she replied with pride. "You're a fast learner. Not bad at all."

Your cheeks flushed. "Oh, I don't know about that."

"Hmm, I think I'll be the judge of that," she said as she leaned in to kiss you again.

#inkwrites #idk how i feel about this one but anyway. enjoy! #valkyrie x reader #apex legends fic #valkyrie fic #apex legends #apex valkyrie #apex legends valkyrie #valkyrie #lesbian valkyrie #lesbian #wlw #first kiss #truth or dare #inexperienced #inexperienced reader #fluff #fic #fanfic #fanfiction #friends to lovers #best friends to lovers

[septicstories]

Big Life in a Small Town (Part 1)

A/N: This is based on the song "Santa Fe (Prologue)" from the Newsies musical! It's not based on the plot of the musical. The song will be altered a tad, but not too much! In the next part though, I'll have to do some edits. But for now, you've got this... mess? I dunno, I'm writing this before it's done. This is post-X-men Apocalypse, so Peter is in his late 20's.

Genre: Bittersweet fluff

Warnings: alcohol, drinking, mentions of broken limbs, daddy issues, no beta reader, minimal editing

Word count: 1.3k (1,385 words)

The X-mansion was quiet, the cool midnight air only changing currents occasionally when a silver blur sprinted around.

Pietro had his younger brother in his arms, running around. Peter injured his leg a while ago, stuck on crutches. ANd it was killing the young speedster.

And Pietro noticed.

So he scooped his younger brother up out of his room, running him around the mansion's vast yard until he smiled. That's when he brought him up to one of the rooftop balconies of the mansion.

The two siblings weren't the only ones in their family who lived in the mansion. Pietro's twin, Wanda, was fast asleep, her room near the balcony.

Pietro, as immature as he may seem, was wise beyond his years. He'd seen more things than he ever would have wanted to for a 35-year-old man. Hell, anyone would be unsettled when you find your mother died of sickness, and your father was out of the picture when your younger brother was born a few years after.

Pietro and Peter sat on the balcony, a case of beer between the two, a sudden scoff came from the older speedster.

"What's up, you alright?" Peter asked, looking at his brother.

Pietro's eyes were glued to the ground below them, a sour expression on his face.

"Those streets down there," Pietro began, a dry laugh leaving his lips. "They sucked the life right out of our old man. Well, they aren't doing that to me."

Peter pursed his lips, watching as his older brother took a swig of his beer.

Pietro has always hated staying in one place for too long. The mansion hadn't really ever been his favorite place. Staying at their aunt's house in D.C. was something he looked forward to every summer. But, even then, he could only stay there for a few days before needing to go somewhere else. Not just from his need to move, but the U.S. government still wasn't absolutely fond of mutants.

"But everyone wants to come to New York," Peter let out a small chuckle. To an outsider, it'd sound like he was in disbelief, but he understood how Pietro felt.

Staying in one place was hard. But Peter also managed to make himself a family here at the mansion as he grew up. He met the ever-sweet Jean Grey when he was 20 years old. The poor girl had some trauma that no one but Chuck knew about. He got to meet Hank, and Raven, and all of the other younger kids. He thought of them all as his younger siblings.

He couldn't leave.

"You keep your small life in the big city. Give me a big life in a small town."

Pietro's words snapped Peter out of his thoughts, looking to his older brother. Pietro's eyes had lifted from the ground, looking up to the sky.

"They say folks are dying to get here."

"What about you, Piet?"

"Me? I'm dying to get away... to a little town out west that's spankin' new," Pietro said with a grin. "And while I've never been there, I can see it clear as day! If you want, I bet you, you could see it, too.

Peter has always had a particular question on his mind, that he always knew the answer to.

Then why haven't you gone? What's stopping you?

But, as always, Peter kept his mouth shut. He didn't want Wanda and Pietro to leave, as dumb as it may be. They were the only family he had left. Well, that he knew of and that knew of him.

Erik was another person he'd address when he had the courage.

But not...

Not now.

"Close your eyes."

Peter looked at his brother again, who was staring back at him. Honestly, he was waiting for his brother to snap in his face and use what became his favorite phrase after a few movie nights: "Hello, McFly?"

"Come with me, where it's clean and green and pretty, and they went and made a city out of clay."

Clay? A city out of clay? That sounds... odd. Peter hasn't stayed too long in other parts of the world, opting to stick to the Northeast area of the U.S. Occasionally, he'll go further South or a little bit further West. But never past Kansas.

"Why, the minute that you get there, folks will walk right up and say, 'Welcome home, son. Welcome home to Santa Fe!'"

Being called son was something the Maximoff boys wanted more than they would ever elude to. Their father? Out of the picture for the most part, up until they realized he was a terrorist. And he didn't even know about Peter.

Of course, the townsfolk of Santa Fe may not call you "son" as soon as you land on the premise. But, two bastard sons can dream, can't they?

"Planting crops. Splitting rails. Swapping tales around the fire," Pietro's grin grew as he spoke. He really thought about this a lot, didn't he? "Except for Sunday when you lie around all day."

Peter didn't know how much Pietro truly thought about leaving. Pietro's mind was full of places to go and see, places where he could take his family and live without having to deal with attacks from the U.S. government.

Santa Fe was where they'd go next in the U.S., but Sokovia was certainly the next best option. The U.S. government wouldn't come looking for them in Sokovia.

Right?

"Soon your friends are more like family, and they're begging you to stay! Isn't that neat?" Pietro asked as Peter took a large sip from his beer. "Living sweet in Santa Fe."

Pietro trailed off, almost in a dream-like state, making Peter flinch. He really fucking wanted out, huh?

"Hey, no one worries about a bad leg in Santa Fe. You just hop on a palomino, you'll ride in style!" Pietro joked, knocking his shoulder into his brother's.

"Feature me, ridin' in style," Peter giggled, taking a swig of his beer again.

"Hey, I bet a few months of clean air, you could toss that crutch for good!"

"Santa Fe," Peter and Pietro mumbled in unison, one happy and the other more tired. "You can bet, we won't let those bastards beat us. We won't beg anyone to treat us fair and square. There's a life that's worth the living, and I'm gonna do my share."

"Work the land, chase the sun." Pietro ran his hands through his hair, standing up.

"Swim the whole Rio Grande just for fun!" Pietro and Peter shouted together. The two had massive grins spreading across their faces, just happy to see the other smiling.

"Watch me stand!" Peter stood up quickly, only to feel a sharp pain jolt through his bad leg. His hands flew to the balcony railing, gripping it tightly as he let out a choked noise of pain.

"Watch me run..."

Pietro frowned when he saw his brother's grimace, watching Peter set himself down into a sitting position. The poor kid was gritting his teeth and sucking in harsh breaths as he set himself down.

"Hey, hey..." Pietro began softly, sitting down beside his brother before slapping a hand on his shoulder. "Don't you know that we're a family?"

Peter's eyes met Pietro's, painting over his grimace with a weak grin. "Yeah, b--"

"Would I let you down?" Pietro asked.

Peter let out a weak laugh as his brother continued.

"No way. Just hold on, kid, until that train makes Santa Fe."

The younger speedster let out a yawn, leaning his head on his brother's shoulder.

"Let's get you to bed, okay?" Pietro said, only getting a nod from Peter.

Pietro scooped his younger brother up in his arms, speeding through the mansion into Peter's room before setting him down.

"Good night, Peter."

"Good night, Pietro."

Pietro sped out of Peter's room, only to be stopped when he passed Wanda's room. His sleepy twin gave him a look, one that he didn't see often, and it concerned him.

"Pietro, we're being called to Sokovia," Wanda whispered sleepily.

"What? Why? All three of us?"

"No. Peter needs to stay here. He's got a broken leg, Pietro. Just you and I."

Pietro took in a quick breath before nodding.

"When do we leave?"

"... you didn't see that coming..."

A/N: Haha, cliffhangers are fun, ain't they? Okay, but, here's what you have for now! The other one is already in my drafts, and I've got plans for that! So, I'll get all that shit out, and we'll be good! I've got so much shit in my drafts, holy shit. Okay, uh... I don't have much to say, so thank you for reading! I don't necessarily have a tag list for this sort of stuff, so if you want to be on a tag list, let me know! And please let me know if you find a typo or something that doesn't make sense. Like I said, there's minimal editing.

#septic's stories #quicksilver #pietro maximoff #peter maximoff #wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #marvel fanfiction #x-men fanfiction #marvel #x-men

[blockgamepirate]

I dunno if I've said this before even though I've been thinking it basically since I even started posting here regularly.

I feel like the biggest problem with Dream SMP is/was that they started to take the roleplay a bit too seriously (and I know how hypocritical this sounds like to say considering how many serious analysis posts I've made but I swear it isn't)

I feel like they saw all those cool animatics (particularly SAD-ist's) and they got a bit too into the idea of playing into that? Which is fair but like SAD-ist and the others never needed them to take it that seriously to make cool and epic fanworks out of it. The war of independence was dramatic but also goofy as shit and the first SAD-ist animatic came out badass anyway.

Also I think the fandom kinda bears some blame for it too since the fans were just making fun of the creators for breaking the 4th wall or even just making jokes. Like any time Techno said anything remotely funny EVEN IF IT WAS 100% IN CHARACTER people would call it "not roleplaying". Like guys, you know people can just... roleplay as funny characters? Characters can have a sense of humour??

I'm not saying they couldn't have still had basically the same plot and themes, just that the tone didn't need to get this heavy. The Doomsday streams in particular were pretty much unwatchable for me except for Techno and Phil's which were great. Everybody else's were so dreary. The "Finale" had like 2.5 cool moments and otherwise it was just not fun to watch at all. Like honestly thank god for the few jokes from Tubbo and the Skeppy cage for lightening the mood at least a little bit. (I mean the Skeppy cage thing was both hilarious and horrifying, that was good shit)

I'm glad they've seemed to dial it back lately, although there still seems to be a bit of a split between "lore" and actually fun content. And that really shouldn't be there. The lore should be fun too! I mean it can be angsty sure but it shouldn't ALL be angsty, that's just exhausting.

Like even if you're writing a straight up tragedy it shouldn't be angsty all the time, that's just boring. And IMO the best kinds of tragedies have a sense of humour. Like, Hamlet is hilarious actually when it chooses to be, that's my favourite thing about it. And of course I'm a huge fan of Les Mis which is funny as hell whenever it's not being upsetting. That's kinda what makes it so upsetting because you're actually enjoying reading it and then it hits you with the inherent tragedy of social injustice.

I mean I think some of the streamers have a good balance, but others just have these jarring tonal shifts that take me out of the experience because the funny bits don't relate to the serious bits at all. And that just makes me resent one or the other, or both.

Idk, this is a bit of a rambly and not necessarily the best thought out post but whatever, I need to at least try to put this into words.

#dream smp

[daantaat]

twu s2 thoughts even though nobody asked <3 just a brain dump and it’s quite long so I tried to separate my commentary by categories but it’s still a mess unfortunately. Spoilers under the cut!

General

Overall, I enjoyed season 1 more than season 2. I’ve watched season 2 three times now, and I do think it had some good parts that I definitely overlooked during my first watch (probably because I was preoccupied with Charlotte x Shona 😶😅). My initial reaction to this season was like ‘hmm so that happened and I’m not sure what to think’ but then I rewatched it and tbh I think my complaints are mostly to do with the time jump between seasons and the pacing...

Like yeah there’s only so much to touch on in six 25-minute episodes but!!! I finished the season wanting a bit more, because I thought that some of the things that were introduced were either not explained fully/well or they just dropped off completely and didn’t really have an effect other than me asking questions after the season was over, like it felt as though there were missing scenes— more on that later (though maybe they will be addressed in season 3??? If there is one? How soon do shows get renewed? Idk). Though I guess the audience does have to do some interpretation of their own but still... Idk! Idk. And the assumption that certain events/plot points mentioned in a character’s dialogue would be enough for context had me kinda “:///” y’know? Like don’t tell me, show me?? I’d like the full course please!!

Charlotte x Shona (+ Vish I guess)

I think it was really jarring to see their relationship grow from colleague/business partners to friends and then finally to something more in season 1 only to see them awkwardly handle their unresolved feelings in the workplace with nothing to show for their actual relationship besides a mention of “a week-long gay safari” + the brief flashes of a sex scene that was intermingled with Shona and Vish’s cyber sex session, which in itself is 😐😐😐 like yes it shows that Shona still thinks about/fancies Charlotte in some capacity, but if I were to choose between that sex fantasy/flashback or a flashback of Charlotte and Shona together (like Charlotte telling Shona she was falling for her!!!!)... I think I’d choose the latter? I was just disappointed that we didn’t really get to see Charlotte and Shona being all cute and romantic with each other this season :(

ALSO I wished we got to see more of jealous!Shona; I was super hyped to see that since that scene was included in the trailer. It was nice to see her want the best for Charlotte because she’s “great” but the jealousy part of knowing Charlotte is dating someone great got settled pretty quickly and instead we got Shona evaluating her commitment to Vish and considering the idea of having kids after learning she has a womb of a 39-year-old (😐) and it felt.... like a lot!! It was definitely different from season 1 Shona (”I actually don’t want kids” “I genuinely, I genuinely don’t, you know, it’s not a big deal. Just never have” in 1x04) but if this was to show her dealing with comphet or internalized homophobia or just simply running away from her feelings then... idk what to think of it! I really don’t. I think this is where things could have been written differently because using an affair with Charlotte like that (an affair that we didn’t even get to see besides the stolen kisses at the finance event) was so... ugh, I’m suffering here

Anyway, I think their office scenes were definitely highlights of the season, like Indira and Sharon really gave those scenes their all!! Even though it hurts to see Charlotte so heartbroken and Shona running away from her feelings and hurting Charlotte in the process, I live for the angst lol. I will say though, the 180 that happened after their convo outside Charlotte’s office was a bit “🤔” considering Charlotte had talked to her therapist about Shona for 4 months. Like one hungover feeling dump from Shona and they can move on? Hmm communication is connection, huh. And I guess they were just excited that the article got good results? But how cute that they got each other gifts of their picture in the article??? Wtffff I love my “unfunny and obvious” gal pals even though I’m in pain

As for the voice note... omg, so many questions. Like did Charlotte try to reach out to Shona after she abruptly ended their call to check if she sent the voice note to Vish?? Was that gonna be the first time Charlotte heard Shona say “I love you” to her? What was the reason Shona said “I love you” anyway??? Is she, you know 👀 Also do y’all think Vish will listen to the entire voice note since it was clear it was meant for Charlotte? And who knows maybe Vish’s phone died and he can’t turn it back on or check his WhatsApp or whatever. I’m in denial lmao. But also I think he's a pretty good guy, like when he sent biscuits over to the house when Shona wanted some and him saying what’s the point of having fun in New York when she's not there with him... :/ but he was also a bit weird about her putting a nail in a wall or leaving out the egg duck or whatever as a display item in their house though I suppose that’s not a huge problem so like idk man idk!!! I'm just saying season 3 better not have a time jump I need to see what happens and not just in exposition

Shona and Aine

Love them :) I wish they had more scenes together (if that's possible??) but I liked the somewhat change in dynamic seeing Aine a bit worried about Shona (asking her if she’s okay when she mentions she’s thinking of getting a fringe lmao and again asking if she’s okay when they’re unpacking in Vish’s house). And of course Shona is still very protective and worrisome but seeing Aine just miserably lounging around her apartment over the weekend and getting in her bike accident after Shona wasn’t too supportive of her and James’s business idea made me so sad :( like Shona was so shitty about her not typing up everything in the notes for the meeting! And not even reading James's CV... big yikes. Anyway I thought it was odd that we didn’t get a follow up on the voice note Aine left Shona after getting into the bike accident... like she sounded soooo shaky and out of it :((( what luck Shona was sick and didn’t see Aine with a missing tooth before she got it fixed

Anyhow, Aine was right when she said Shona needs to talk to her and talk about her feelings more!! AND this is part of where my complaint about the pacing and the missing scenes comes into play! I think we should have seen Aine and Shona fighting about Shona’s affair and leaving Vish the voice note. The audience knows Aine cares about Vish and I’m not entirely sure where her relationship with Charlotte stands since Charlotte told Freddie about her being in rehab (on the assumption that he knew, as Aine’s ex-boyfriend) but!!! Just cutting to them on the floor waiting for Vish’s flight to land was not as hard hitting as it could have been

Aine x Bradley (+ Richard)

OKAYYY. Cute!!! I definitely overlooked the signs during my first watch here but yeah they were definitely there during my rewatch(es)!! I quite liked seeing Bradley try to get Aine to stop talking negatively about herself and just try to treat herself better in general like exercising and actually eating off of a plate :’) and the comparisons between Bradley and Richard have me like 👀📝 Bradley saying he likes how much Aine talks vs. Richard’s friend Mark saying she talks a lot and how he wasn’t expecting a whole show to which Richard replies he thought that at first too but she “calms down” like brooo... alright. Anyway Bradley going with her to Tom’s funeral/service made sense since he actually met Tom (though Aine did vaguely talk about him and his drinking problem to Richard in 1x05) and the fact that she told Bradley about PACT and her time there but she didn’t tell Richard (to be fair she was thinking about telling him) hmm 👀 Also Bradley saying “Sometimes it would just be nice to be with someone you could just relax with as yourself” yeah I’m on board with them

Loneliness, COVID, Communication is Connection

Initially I thought these themes could have come across a little stronger but after rewatching... hmm. Yes, Shona was lonely in the house by herself; she even asked Anil to stay for dinner, had her own “pile of shit” boyfriend on her bed (which she did clear off), and told Vish that nobody had time for her. Also after the business meeting she asked Aine what she was doing during the weekend (which Aine also spent alone anyway), but I dunno... oh yeah her hen/bachelorette party was a bit lonely since places were starting to go into lockdown and not everybody could attend, but I think the COVID element entered a bit too late into this season? I’m not sure it really added much in terms of the loneliness. Maybe it did add to the uncertainty of things though

“Communication is Connection” was there but I thought it kind of fell flat as well, but maybe that was the intention— to highlight the mess that a lack of communication can cause? Shona apparently writing off Charlotte’s feelings and them not necessarily talking about their relationship/feelings until their convo outside Charlotte’s office... Shona talking to Seema saying she’s never really asked what Vish wanted (regarding kids) and Seema saying that’s a convo for her and Vish to have... Aine not telling Richard she overheard him and Mark talking about her... Richard not consulting Aine about telling Etienne about them and just getting a new tutor for him... hmm. What does it mean. What does it all mean

Other stuff I’m still thinking about/have questions about

Shona mentioning it’s “annoying” how Aine talks like she’s the only person to ever get sad in episode 1 but still telling Aine she’s fine and then in episode 6 Shona saying she only has two emotions or whatever so she doesn’t need to talk to Aine about her feelings as much -____- istg we need to get Shona to talk to a therapist in season 3!!!

I also liked that Shona, Aine, and Eileen talked more. I’m still a little disappointed that the fact Eileen leaving Shona for three months when she was a baby was not mentioned at all. Yeah it was a secret but when Eileen said “well, you should never lie. You’ll always get caught out.” I— HELLO? If anything, that secret seeing daylight could have had something to do with Shona's sadness + loneliness this season. Also could you imagine that becoming a fear of Shona’s, like what if she doesn’t want kids because she’s afraid of doing the same thing to hers if she has any??

Jim asking Charlotte if she’s straight and Shona immediately going “what does that have to do with anything” or something like that and apologizing to Charlotte after Jim left— I’m not sure how I should have read that??? Did Shona mention to Jim that Charlotte is a lesbian?? When he started to ask, he was still looking at Shona (yeah I’m reading too much into this I know)

Marcia figuring out that Aine and Richard were seeing each other (after he touched her hand on his way out to get a taxi)— what was the purpose? Other than Marcia obviously feeling bad for Etienne, whom I assume she sees as a son of her own (based on the Mom Instinct™ snooping when she was doing housekeeping + her convo with Aine when he came back from France). She didn’t talk to either Aine or Richard about it, just told Aine to have a good time when they were leaving the house to go to their “separate” events. I guess it wasn't her place to say anything, but hm. Speaking of Etienne, it was obvious he had a schoolboy crush on Aine (or at least he was vying for her attention) in season 1 and it’s really too bad we didn’t get to see his reaction to suddenly getting a new tutor or dealing with Aine and Richard’s relationship other than him looking at them hugging while the new tutor was teaching him. He deserved some more screen time this season :(

Hmm so that was all very incoherent but if you made it this far thank youuu <3 here are some last silly comments:

Absolutely loved Julie!! I want to know what she knows about Charlotte and Shona 👀 girl give me the scoop on the last 4 months at the office

Super sad we didn’t get to see Charlotte’s cat (I’m always gonna be vocal about this 🗣🗣🗣) or know who her new girlfriend was but at the very least we were introduced to one of the most important side characters of all: Charlotte’s stompy boots <33333 she really wore those around the office with a blazer/blouse/leather skirt! We love that lesbian attire

#aka me: grasping for straws #also hulu changed the description for episode 6. interesting #this way up spoilers #this way up #spoilers #my post #k.txt #this is so long i'm sorry

[chilling-seavey]

Passchendaele WW2 Extension - Pre-War Training

A/N This is unedited and I hate it anyway but I needed to get some blurb out and I’ve been doing research for the continuation of the Passchendaele universe when WW2 comes around. I’m set for this extension timeline now I think!

Mum, Dad, and Evelyn,

Four months have gone by quickly but as my previous letters have expressed, it’s still not any easier. Training is fair and I can feel myself getting stronger with each passing day but it’s strange circumstances we find ourselves in. I can’t speak much to the status of the country, as if I could even speak to it at all since us boys know just about what you lot back home do. Oh well. Richie and I are just holding onto the few weeks we have left. Holding you to that nice roast beef dinner for when I return, Mum. Evening are still calm here; a few of the boys from our platoon have started a bit of a band in the evenings and I play piano with them once or twice – but usually only when they get a beer or two in me first, you know how my stage fright is. Anyway, I must go now as lunch is soon and then we have more training. I think today is climbing courses. All my love to you three.

Charlie

August 23, 1939

Richard set his tray on the wood table and sat down beside Charlie with a sigh, adjusting his trousers that were a size too small but he was too shy to bother alerting the higher ups that he needed a new uniform. After four months at the training camp, Richard and Charles same to see how tight military rules were and the younger of the two would be damned if he had to speak up against the officers. There was no room for error.

“The longer you wait, the worse your ridicule is going to be when you finally ask for new trousers.” Charlie said.

“I’m fine.” Richard grumbled and picked up his fork.

“You might be, but how are your future children?” Charlie teased, earning a punch on his arm from his best friend.

“Just eat your bloody lunch and mind your business.” Richard said through his small laugh himself too.

Small groups seemed to have formed throughout the countryside training camp but Charlie and Richard were enough company for each other. The young men were all around the same age and they were civil enough but the two boys just liked to keep to themselves a bit more. A few of the officers noticed and complimented them on this; stating that keeping distance was the best way to prevent it hurting more in the case of losing one of them. The new recruits didn’t want to necessarily think about that concept…arguing silently that there still wasn’t a war and that they were still going to be going home.

Corbyn was right in the sense that food was absolute rubbish and both of them had become so accustomed to their mothers’ cooking in the last twenty years of their lives, meaning they both lost a few good pounds within the first few weeks at the camp from not eating as much. They made sure to write home plenty and share their wishes for good food and comfortable beds, still counting down their six-month deployment to training before they could return home. Only two to go.

“Climbing at 13:00 today?” Richard confirmed after a few moments of silence.

Charles nodded through his bite of lukewarm peas, “Climbing range at 13:00 and if it goes well, we’ll get an extra ration so you better put your ass into it. I don’t want to sneak extras under the table to you again. I’d get my ass kicked for that if they found out.”

“I know, I know.” Richard grumbled. “I’m just not very good at climbing.”

“You never have been.” Charles chuckled.

“Maybe if I’m so shitty at this then they’ll send me go home.” Richard huffed, pushing his peas around his plate with his fork.

“We’re gong home anyway so who really cares.” Charles shrugged. He stood up from the table, pausing to lean down and steal a scoop of his best friend’s peas, and then returned his mess tray to the proper spot by the dish pit. Richard followed after him, having only finished half of his lunch, but they headed out to their barracks before they had to report for afternoon training exercises.

They shared a bunk bed in one of the single-story buildings, sharing the space with the other 24 men in their platoon, all in pairs on metal framed bunks with a trunk each for personal belongings. They were required to keep their space spotless and if even one man let his bunk become a mess, the entire platoon had to run laps around the camp no matter the weather. They learned that the hard way, but they learned it early on.

A few men were already in the bunks getting ready for their climbing exercises that afternoon and the young twenty-somethings all greeted each other casually. Richard bent down to grab his boots, grunting lightly in his tight trousers and Charlie chuckled under his breath at him.

“Mate…you’re really putting yourself through it.”

“Just two more months.” Richard said strongly.

“I dunno about that.” one of the other men said from the bunk across the aisle from theirs. “I’ve heard that Germany’s planning to invade Poland.”

“Shit luck for Poland then, ain’t it?” another man from farther down retorted.

“Shit luck for us too, mate. Britain’s got a defence pact with Poland.” the first man said. “If Germany doesn’t back the hell off, we’re going to be actually using our training.”

Richard and Charlie glanced at each other before turning back to getting their equipment together, listening into the conversations.

“Hitler’s been in discussion with the Prime Minister about negotiations.”

“Chamberlain is gonna fold under him.”

“Hitler certainly won’t. That bloke is a bloody machine.”

“I say war by Christmas. Hitler won’t listen to a measly island saying ‘no’ and we’ll have no choice by to declare war.”

“It’s more honourable to declare war rather than being invaded however.”

“Christ…I don’t want to get bloody invaded.”

“And certainly not by the Germans.”

“I wouldn’t mind taking up arms against them.”

One of the men jumped up on his trunk and clicked his tongue to imitate cocking his rifle as he held the firearm in his hands, “Show ‘em that England doesn’t give up as fast as the French did.”

The young men chipped into eager conversation about the war that seemed to be incoming but yet not phasing them and even Charlie and Richie join into their joking. The naivety of the nineteen to twenty-three year olds was obvious but perhaps that the only thing keeping them someone sane under the fact that they were being trained how to kill and survive.

On the way towards the climbing course, one of the other men rushed up beside Charles and Richard, “Do you know what branch you wanna join if war breaks out?”

“Branch of what?” Charles asked.

“Military. Army, navy, air force?”

“I didn’t know we had a choice.” Charles said.

“We do. I’m thinking navy. On the water and nice and far away from everything.” the young man smiled to himself as they trekked across camp.

“Air force sounds fun.” Richard spoke after a moment. “I’ve always wanted to fly.”

“Me too. I remember we had toy planes as boys.” Charlie smiles at the memories of them running around each other’s backyards with their small plastic planes in hand and making up all sorts of stories and games.

“That was fun until you didn’t look where you were running and crashed into a tree and got a bloody nose.” Richard teased, making their comrade laugh.

“Well hopefully you’d be a better fighter pilot than a recreational one, Seavey.” he said, slapping Charles on the arm before rushing off after their group to the course.

Richard and Charles fell into momentary silence in their memories as they joined up with he group and fell into formation in front of their commanding officer. He scowled at them for being the latest arrivals, “Gossip on your own time, gentlemen.”

“Sorry, sir.” they said at the same time, shifting to feet should width apart and hands behind their backs at attention. The roar of fighter jets streaked across the sky above them and they both looked up discreetly to watch the few planes fly over the camp, twisting right up into the clouds, unbothered in the last few weeks without war. No one knew what was to come.

#✉ #daniel seavey #corbyn besson #why dont we

[mithranqueersmusings]

Before This Dance Is Through VIII

Chapter: 8/16

Rating: U

Summary: Ringo's being going through a dry spell for the last year or so and when he regretfully tells his best friend John, he insists on taking them to an all-male strip club for some "fun". Ringo isn't sure whether it's the alcohol, his desperation or a mixture of the two but he thinks he might be falling in love with a stripper.

Tags: AU - Strippers, Modern Setting, Smut, Slow Burn

Pairings: George Harrison/Ringo Starr, John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AO3 link here / Fic masterlist here

Ringo led the two of them to a bar himself and John had been to a few times, at first he was worried about picking somewhere a little seedy but then remembered Spike was probably used to that atmosphere, while that didn't meant he necessarily liked it. The amount of people was dwindling, by this point in the night people had either headed off to a club or retreated back home, but there were still a few people dotted about. Ringo led them over to a booth, as much as it might've given out the wrong idea he figured Spike wanted to be as far away from people as possible right now. They hadn't spoken too much on the walk over but it hadn't been awkward, neither of them really seemed to know what to say.

"Do you come here a lot?" Spike asked as he looked around, it didn't have the benefit of darkness to hide its flaws like The Helter Skelter did.

"Not by choice." Ringo chuckled as he shed off his jacket on the seat "John usually drags me out here. I'll get us some drinks, what'll you have?"

"Whiskey, please. A double if you would." Spike's lips curled a little "Feel like I'm gonna need more than a beer after all that."

"Whiskey it is." Ringo slammed his hand onto the table before getting up and heading off.

Ringo tried to collect his thoughts at the bar but his mind was hazy, he wasn't sure if it was the vodka or the headbutt that was doing it. When he returned Spike was scrolling away on his phone, but he slid it back into his pocket as soon as he noticed Ringo standing there with the drinks.

"Thanks." Spike accepted the drink gladly, drinking almost half of it before putting it back down.

Ringo just smiled and nodded in response, taking a sip of his own drink, it had gotten to the point where he couldn't even taste the alcohol in it anymore.

"So." Spike began, knitting his hands together into fists on the table "I take it John isn't your boyfriend then, considering his deal with Paul. Unless you're just in a very open relationship."

"No, no." Ringo laughed "We're just good friends, practically known him my whole life. I'm not with anyone at the moment."

"Fair enough." Spike went to take another sip of his drink.

"What about you? Are you wi-" Ringo began.

"I don't date my customers." Spike interrupted bluntly, it was a little harsh but the look in his eyes was gentle.

"Oh, no. I wasn't-" Ringo scrambled desperately.

"It's fine. I just thought I had to put that out there." Spike explained behind his glass.

"What if I just stopped going to the club? I wouldn't be your customer then." Ringo felt the alcohol speaking for him.

"Funny." Spike chuckled softly, but Ringo was far from joking "Dating as a stripper is hard enough, it's even harder dating someone you've stripped for."

"Why's that?" Ringo asked, he wanted to do as little talking as possible to not risk saying the wrong thing.

"Well what's the use in getting naked for someone for free when there's people out there who will pay a shit-ton to see it?" Spike snickered.

"I never thought about that. What a terrible business decision." Ringo joined in with the laughter.

"In all seriousness though, it always goes the same way. I date someone and they say they don't mind the stripping but flash forward a few months and suddenly its 'Well you don't need to strip, do you?' and expect me to make a decision." Spike explained "In the end I always choose stripping, because I like it far more than anyone I've ever met."

"Geez, that must be rough." Ringo had already almost finished his drink, but he couldn't remember drinking it.

"Well what's your excuse?" Spike asked, a glimmer behind his eyes.

"Excuse?" Ringo raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you single? You're not a stripper I take it, but I bet you'd make quite a good one." Spike began to grin.

"Uh- Well if I knew the answer to that I wouldn't be single." Ringo laughed nervously, there was too much there for his drunk mind to unpack.

"And here we are with empty glasses. I'll get the next round." Spike didn't give Ringo time to protest, not that he intended to, as he was already heading off to the bar.

Ringo had to calm himself down. The worst thing to do in this situation was to read too much into what Spike was saying. Even if he was flirting, it didn't mean anything. He practically got paid to flirt, more importantly to flirt without giving any real satisfaction. This was nothing more than a one-off thing, Spike clearly needed someone to take his mind off of what had happened earlier and Ringo just happened to be that person. That's all it was, nothing more. Spike returned quickly, Ringo noticed he'd ordered him a double without even asking.

"Are you alright? After what happened in the club, I mean." Ringo softened his tone a little.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's not like it's the first time it's ever happened." Spike sighed.

"Does it happen a lot?" Ringo asked.

"Not that often. I'll get quite a lot of grabs or slaps on the arse and stuff, but nothing major happens that frequently." Spike answered, his voice was getting a little distant.

"That's awful." Ringo tutted.

"Yeah, well... Customers are twats no matter what job you're in." Spike forced a smile.

"How long have you been doing it?" Ringo tried to slow his drinking down, after all Spike was practically sober.

"Three years, round about. Never done anything else." Spike explained "What about you?"

"Oh, I'm a drum teacher. Nothing too exciting." Ringo smiled abashedly.

"Don't expect you get a lot of arse slaps in that field." Spike began to smile too.

"Not as many as I'd like." Ringo regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, but they couldn't have been that bad because Spike laughed in response.

"Maybe we should swap for the day." Spike suggested, still laughing.

"I dunno... I don't think I could do what you do."

"Why not?"

"Not enough rhythm." Ringo chuckled "Or confidence for that matter."

"Not enough rhythm?" Spike repeated "You're a fucking drum teacher."

"It's not the same really. My drum timing is impeccable, if I may be so bold. But my dancing isn't great, and it definitely isn't sexy."

"You think my dancing's sexy, then?" Spike leaned forward on one of his arms, pressing the hand against his cheek.

"Well- I wouldn't pay you if I didn't." Ringo tried to sound calm, he didn't know whether it worked or not.

"I thought you said you didn't pay me, John did." Spike stated, Ringo didn't want to think too much about the fact that he'd remembered their encounter so vividly.

"I guess that's true." Ringo felt himself warming up a little "That isn't to say I don't like your dancing or anything, it was just John's idea is all."

"I'm only teasing." Spike's grin grew "You're so easy to wind up, you know that?"

"I wouldn't have been able to be friends with John for so long if that were true." Ringo couldn't bring himself to look Spike in the eye "I guess you just know what buttons to press."

"All part of the job description." Spike winked and Ringo was glad he hadn't been looking directly at him, because it probably would've made him wince.

"Why do you like it so much?" Ringo asked, he took another long sip even though he knew he shouldn't.

"What, teasing you?" Spike almost purred and Ringo almost blew bubbles into his drink.

"No, the- Er. The stripping." Ringo began tapping his foot under the table to try and channel the anxiety out.

"I'm good at it and it pays well. Why do you teach drumming?" Spike seemed very adept at switching his tone, making Ringo question if he even interpreted the previous sentence correctly.

"I'm good at it and it pays well." Ringo repeated with a smile "Probably doesn't pay as well as stripping, mind."

"No, probably not. Money isn't everything though, which is something people with a lot of money love to say." The glimmer in Spike's eye was back.

"Drinks are on you then, eh?" Ringo raised his glass a little, it was emptier than he expected it to be.

"Well I'm supposed to be the one thanking you, so it's only fair. If I can get pissed at the same time then it's just a win-win." Spike raised his glass too, then paused and his eyes widened "I just realised, I don't even know your name."

Ringo paused for a moment too then laughed, of course he'd failed to properly introduce himself "It's Ringo."

Spike let out a rushed laugh "And I thought my name was weird. Is that your real name?"

"No, it's Richard. Got the nickname when I started wearing these, and the name just stuck." He wiggled his fingers demonstrably, and couldn't help thinking about how Spike had ran his fingers along them "What about yours?"

"Now that would be telling." Spike took a final sip of his drink "What a convenient time for me to get another round."

"I haven't even finished this one." Ringo laughed, holding up his half-empty glass.

"Not my problem." Spike winked again before slinking off back to the bar.

Ringo found himself staring at Spike as he left and while he stood at the bar waiting to be served. He was surprised at how well he was handling the whole thing, it actually felt surprisingly normal. It made Ringo sad to think that when this night was over it'd just go back to how it was before, only being able to see him in the club or on his phone. The more he drank the more beautiful he thought Spike was, even when his eye makeup had smudged from his eyes watering or the messiness of his hair which had a mixture of sweat and product twisting it around. He was gorgeous. Why did he have to be so gorgeous? It wasn't making things any easier on Ringo, that was for sure. As if his mysterious demeanour wasn't enticing enough, with his unreadable face for one second and then blunt words in the next. He didn't even stop himself from staring when Spike returned with the drinks, he didn't really see much point, and he didn't think it went unnoticed.

"They're closing up soon." Spike said as he sat back down.

"Really? What time is it?" Ringo rummaged around for his phone, when he unlocked the screen he saw multiple messages from John but they were nothing urgent - mostly him demanding answers for what was going on "At least neither of us have to get up early for work tomorrow."

"Perks of the job." Spike agreed "Not quite sure the last time I got up before 11."

"You're living the dream." Ringo smiled.

"Try telling that to my parents." Spike scoffed, when he saw Ringo looking at him expectantly he continued "At least it made being gay not a big deal, silver lining I suppose."

"Are all the strippers at the club gay?" Ringo asked, he wasn't sure where the question came from.

"Erm, I think so. Why? You got your eye on someone?" Spike made his words sound playful.

"No, no I was just wondering." Ringo felt like he had to quickly explain himself but he wasn't sure why "Would be kinda funny if they weren't."

"How did you know I was?" Spike began running his finger over the rim of his glass absentmindedly.

"I didn't, until you said it just now." Ringo answered.

"Just hoped then?" Spike's sharp teeth came into view as he smiled.

"Huh? I- Wh-" Ringo stuttered "You're teasing me again, aren't you?"

"Maybe. Why, do you want me to?" Spike leaned forward a little and Ringo gulped, then he laughed "Now I'm teasing you."

"God, you're evil." Ringo laughed too but he couldn't hide his nervousness.

"So I've been told." Spike took a long sip of his drink.

"Do you live nearby?" Ringo asked then quickly amended "Not because I'm trying to shag you."

"What other reason could there be?" Spike's voice began melting into that smooth tone.

"Cause if you live far I'll get you an Uber, if not I'll walk you back; if you wanted me to, course." Ringo explained, he was regaining his confidence somewhat.

"Aren't you a proper gentleman. Makes a nice change." Spike murmured "I don't live too far away, I wouldn't turn down a chaperone. What are the chances of me getting assaulted two nights in a row?"

"I'd rather you didn't find out." Ringo meant for it to sound jokey but it came across as serious.

"Well should we head out after these?" Spike swirled his drink around in his glass "The bar's cut off anyway."

"Sure thing." Ringo suddenly felt the urge to not take another sip.

Ringo found himself dissecting the details of Spike's face: the way his cheeks sank in slightly, the faint hairs between his eyebrows, how his ears stuck out a little. He only hoped that Spike wasn't inspecting him so thoroughly, though he imagined he wasn't, as he currently didn't look his best. For those final moments they didn't talk, a sad kind of silence grew around them as the two of them gradually took small sips from their drinks. Yet neither of them looked away, at least not for too long. Not until their drinks were empty and they both slammed the glasses down on the table did the atmosphere return to normal. It had been a weird moment, Ringo had felt like he had started dreaming for a second.

"Is that a real fur coat?" Ringo asked as Spike pulled the item in question back over himself.

"God, no. I don't even eat animals, let alone wear them." Spike scoffed with a smile.

"You're a vegetarian?" Ringo asked, he felt satisfied with every piece of information he gathered.

"Sure am. You're not then, I take it." Spike led the way out of the bar, Ringo followed closely behind.

"No, I wanna be though. Can never seem to stick to it." Ringo admitted as he braced himself against the cold.

"Fair enough." Spike's cold demeanour seemed to be returning, he began walking down the street and pulled out a cigarette "Want one?"

Ringo accepted it with a quiet thanks. He couldn't think of anything to say, well he could but all the things he wanted to say were either totally inappropriate or completely embarrassing. Was this really over already? He felt like he hadn't taken advantage of it, not as much as he could've. That was probably the reason he'd been single for so long, not seizing opportunities enough, but this wasn't the way he wanted to find that out. Spike seemed a little melancholy, Ringo wasn't sure whether it was the alcohol lulling him into a mood or that he simply was sick of Ringo's company - he really hoped it wasn't the latter, but he feared that it was. They passed The Helter Skelter as they walked, the bouncer greeted Spike and he reciprocated unenthusiastically. Ringo hoped John was alright, he'd be sure to check his phone the minute he was alone.

"I don't do this very often." Spike broke the heavy silence unexpectedly as they turned a corner.

"Do what?" Ringo asked.

"Let people walk me home, I don't really like people knowing where I live." Spike just looked on ahead, smoking his cigarette.

"Is that because you don't let them or because people don't offer?" Ringo pried cautiously.

"If I knew the answer to that, maybe I wouldn't be single." Spike let out a soft laugh, it was almost silent.

"I don't have to take you up to the door if you don't want me to. I won't be offended." Ringo assured, he wondered whether Spike's change in mood had been because of this.

"I'd prefer that." Spike said then added after a pause "Thanks."

They continued walked in silence for several minutes, nothing but the sound of their shoes against the pavement and the distant hum of the city. When they came to the next corner, Spike stopped suddenly and stubbed out his cigarette. Ringo took longer to notice that Spike wasn't beside him than he wished he had, but it at least made Spike laugh a little.

"This is me." Spike said somewhat mockingly, using such a cliché.

"Alright. Well, I best be finding out whether John's still at the club or passed out in a gutter somewhere." Ringo found himself feeling more awkward than ever.

"What a good friend you are." Spike breathed out sharply, it appeared that the feeling was mutual.

"I try." Ringo smiled nervously "You gonna be alright? '

"Unless my 65 year old neighbour is planning on jumping me, I think I can handle it." Spike smiled too, he looked almost scared Ringo thought.

"I'll get out of your hair then. Goodnight." Ringo held his hand up and curled his lips inwards, then turned to leave.

"George." He blurted out.

"What?" Ringo turned back around, for a moment he thought Spike had forgotten his name.

"My name's George." He explained, letting out a heavy breath after.

Ringo felt a smile spreading across his face "Well, goodnight George."

"Night, Ringo." George had been the one to turn to leave now, a small smile creeping onto his lips as he left.

Ringo stood there for a moment or two, just watching him walk away, before he realised how creepy that might look and quickly hurried down the street where he'd come from. He knew that none of this was going to sink in until the morning, or more accurately the late afternoon when his hangover had finally subsided. The initial plan had been to spend the night at John's but Ringo thought he had to be alone for the time being, but that didn't stop him from sending a text asking him where he was and whether he was still conscious. While he waited for a reply he walked back in the direction of the club, he'd give it five or so minutes before he ordered an Uber home for himself - he'd learned the hard way that waiting around for John to respond on a night like this could waste hours of his time.

The smile never left his face as he walked. What a beautiful name that was. George. Ringo supposed he would've thought any name he had, he would've found beautiful. It was a definite improvement on Spike to say the least. Why George had told him his real name, Ringo didn't know but he figured it wasn't best to question it right now, rather he should bask in the happiness that the small piece of information gave him. Knowing his name was one step closer to something, although Ringo wasn't sure what, but it was a step and that was all that mattered. A step closer to him perhaps, to lovely George.

#the beatles #beatles #beatles fanfic #the beatles fanfic #beatles fanfiction #ringo starr/george harrison #george harrison/ringo starr #ringo starrxgeorge harrison #george harrisonxringo starr #starrison #i forgot to post this for days oops #also i lost all my beatles pics :///// im pissed

[just-my-sickly-pride]

Problem-Solver || Roger Taylor x fem!Reader & Brian May x fem!Reader

summary || you thought that brian and roger would be able to share, but their jealousy starts to get the better of them. maybe having a friends-with-benefits arrangement with two guys who live in the same house was a bad idea.

rating || some heavily implied sexual content, but that’s all. plenty of talking about feelings, though.

word count || 4.7k

author’s notes || and finally, another instalment in the try series! although this can be read on its own. i do a lot of changing and shifting with timeline stuff as i edit, so if there’s so discrepancies in that regard, please let me know! it’s hard to keep track of it. this instalment is more of an exposition-y thing, but i liked writing it, and it needs to be posted for the upcoming instalments to make sense.

masterlist

     “You’re what?”

    You took a sip of wine, nodding. “Yeah.”

    Veronica stared at you with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. Then she laughed, a high-pitched, disbelieving laugh. “You’re sleeping with both of them.”

    “Yep.”

    “Brian and Roger.”

    “Uh-huh.”

    Veronica laughed again. “I– How? I mean, I know how you and Brian… Well, I know that you and Brian were – doing that, but I found that out from Roger. Who told everyone because he was making fun of you.”

    You hummed in thought, taking another sip of wine. “As if turns out, Roger was making fun of us because he was jealous.”

    “And how on Earth did you find that out?”

    “I slept with him.”

    Veronica made a strangled sound of surprise, and then leant back on the couch, shaking her head. “I am… shocked. Absolutely shocked.”

    “Are you, though?” you said.

    Veronica’s eyes went even wider. “Yes, I’m shocked! You’re casually sleeping with two of your friends. Who live together.”

    “That’s not that weird, is it?”

    “It’s fairly unusual, yeah!” Veronica sighed heavily, and gulped her wine. You waited in silence, letting her process it. 

    She looked to you. “Do they know about it?”

    “Does who know about it?”

    “Does Brian know that you have this thing with Roger, and vice versa?”

    “Oh, yeah, of course,” you said with a shrug. “It’d be ridiculous to try to hide it from them. Schedule clashes, y’know? Couldn’t exactly hide why I’m over at their place from the other person either. And anyway, the way I wound up sleeping with Roger in the first place is because Brian and I decided that I should try to. To find out if he… was jealous or not.”

    “Blimey,” Veronica muttered into her wine, shaking her head. “Honestly, I find one boy is enough to keep me busy. I can’t imagine two.”

    “Yeah, but Deaky’s your boyfriend, that’s different,” you said. “There isn’t that extra emotional stuff. I don’t have to worry about date night or meeting the parents or anything like that. It’s just casual sex.”

    “How do you even have the time?”

    “I figure it out somehow. And Brian and I do some of the same subjects, so he helps me study.” Not that all of those study sessions wind up being that productive, you thought to yourself with a smile.

    “Well, is it going all right, then?” Veronica asked. “They’re not fighting over you?”

    You sighed. “Uh… For the two weeks, it was fine, no problems. A bit of negotiation around who I see and when, but it settled down well enough by the second week. Then after that, things started getting a little… I don’t know.”

    “Wait, how long has this been going on for?” Veronica interjected.

    “Me and Brian?” you said. “About, um, almost six months? And Roger, a month-ish. Just under.”

    “And you’re only just telling me?”

    You pouted. “Yes, I know, I’m sorry.”

    Veronica tutted. “Okay, well, go on.”

    “They’re not… fighting over me,” you said. “It’s not that, like, territorial. Ugh. It’s more like they’re – I dunno – unsure? Like they don’t know how to deal with everything? I don’t know if they talk about any of it in private, but right now, when the three of us are in the same room together, even if other people are there, it feels like there’s this big, huge elephant in the room. I don’t expect them to talk about it or anything, but I’m just hoping it doesn’t become a bigger problem. I’m more than happy to discuss whatever they like, and we do these check-ins where we ask each other how we’re doing, like, emotionally and stuff, which Roger took some getting used to, honestly, but it’s always only in relation to each other and the friends-with-benefits arrangement. Not with anything else, you know? So Brian’s name wouldn’t come up in a check-in with Roger, for instance, because it’s more about what’s between me and Roger in that moment. Yeah?”

    “Yeah,” Veronica said slowly. “But what if Brian’s this sort of unspoken thing between you, and Roger just hasn’t said anything? Or the other way around?”

    You frowned. “Usually we’re all pretty good with check-ins. I’ve never had reason to doubt their honesty before.”

    “It’s not being dishonest, necessarily,” Veronica said. “Just… I don’t know. I’d be wary if the tension between them got any worse. Just be careful, okay?”

    “I am being careful,” you said.

    Veronica chewed on her bottom lip, staring at you with a mixture of caution and curiosity.

    “What?” you said.

    “Roger said that you, um… you and Brian – the whole ‘Daddy’ thing? Is that really true?”

    “Ah,” you said, setting down your glass. “Well, um…”

    “You don’t have to tell me,” Veronica said quickly. “It’s just curiosity.”

    You sighed. “Um, no, it’s true. It’s a little more complicated than that, but, uh, yeah, we do that sometimes.” You hesitated, and then added with a cheeky smile, “Turns out Roger was pretty jealous of that, too.”

    “Oh my fucking…” Veronica said. She laughed. “You astound me.”

    “Oh, why, thank you,” you said, picking up your glass again to gesture to her in thanks. “But this stays between you and me, all right? Don’t tell John about any of this. God forbid the boys find out that I’ve been gossiping about them behind their backs, and then they’ll be asking all these dumb questions like, ‘Did you tell her how big my dick is?’, ‘Did she tell you any whack, freaky shit about Deaky?’”

    Veronica snorted. “No. John and I have tried a few things here and there, but I’m sure we’re as tame as can be in comparison to whatever wild shit you three get up to.”

    “‘You three’,” you scoffed. “You make it sound like we’re all sleeping together at the same time. That is not happening.”

    Veronica quirked an eyebrow. “Isn’t it?”

    It was moments like these that you could see why she and John were such a good match. “It isn’t, thank you, you snide cow,” you said, and Veronica giggled.

    “Oh, we’ll see,” she said.

    “Fuck off!” You shoved at her, and she cackled. “As if Brian and Roger would ever willingly see each other naked.”

    “That’s your only barrier?” Veronica said. “Not the whole try-to-handle-two-guys-at-once thing? The fact that you don’t think they’d be down for it?”

    You scoffed at her, pushing her knee, more lightly than before. “Stop twisting my words.”

    “You still haven’t denied it.”

    “Ronnie!” you exclaimed indignantly.

    “Say no! Look me in the eye and say you’ve never thought about it.”

    “Get fucked.”

    “You can’t. You can’t do it. You’ve so thought about it.”

    You opened and closed your mouth a few times, and then, far too belatedly, said, “I have not.”

    Veronica grinned at you. “And have you mentioned it to either Brian or Roger that this is on your mind?”

    You gave her a look. “No! Of course I haven’t, are you mad?”

    “It’s a fair question.”

    You shook your head. “You’re unbelievable.”

    “Me?” Veronica cried. “You’re the one with this whole… business!”

    You clicked your tongue at her. “Can we drop this now?”

    “You brought it up.”

    “And now I’m ending it.”

    Veronica rolled her eyes. “You’re so dramatic.”

    You raised your eyebrows at her. “Yeah, well, what are you gonna do about it?”

    She laughed, and curled her legs up against her chest. “Okay, gosh, message received. Can we watch this stupid movie now?”

    “Yes, please,” you said, leaning forward and pressing the space bar on your laptop. The Kissing Booth began to play.

    A few nights later, you had a small get-together at your place, just with Veronica, the boys, and a couple of uni friends. You didn’t want to say you’d jinxed anything in your conversation with Veronica, but it was hard not to think it when you noticed Roger and Brian getting increasingly testy with each other as the night went on. Every time you were alone for more than two seconds with one of them, the other would find an excuse to barge in. You weren’t even looking to hook up tonight, and they both knew it, but apparently, having a one-on-one conversation was too much to bear.

    It was royally pissing you off.

    Your other guests started to notice, too – especially Veronica, who kept giving you smug, knowing looks, which weren’t helping your increasingly sour mood.

    But you let it slide for tonight. It wasn’t unusual for Brian and Roger to bicker, and, although you did seem to be the root cause of their fighting, you decided to give them the benefit of the doubt, just this once.

    The next week, it was your night with Roger. Wednesday nights were Veronica and John’s date night, Freddie had a class that went late and he always went to the pub with his classmates afterwards, and Brian had a study session. So you and Roger made use of the empty house, making out on the couch. Neither of you were in a hurry to escalate things at this point – Roger seemed far more invested in trying to find your most ticklish spot with his tongue, making you laugh.

    “Oh, wait,” he gasped. “Can you lie down?”

    “Flat?” you said, shifting into position, Roger standing up to give you room.

    “Yeah. Like that.”

    You gave him a look. “Okay. And?”

    “I knew a girl once who had a really weird thing…” He held your hip, and began curiously prodding the flesh around your hipbone with his thumb.

    “What weird thing?”

    “She was really ticklish, like, here?” He pressed his thumb hard into you, and you yelped far too loudly, batting his arm away.

    Roger laughed. “You’re ticklish there too!”

    “I – I never knew,” you said, laughing, but deeply confused. “Wait, do it again.”

    He did, and, sure enough, your nerves went wild, and you squeaked. “Oh, whoa,” you said, looking down at your hip with wide eyes. “That’s so weird.”

    “I know, right?” Roger said. He grinned, waggling his eyebrows, and knelt on the couch, slotting his knee between your thighs. “Can crack that one open later.”

    “Sure, if you want to take me completely out of the mood,” you said dryly.

    “Tickling can be sexy, can’t it?”

    “Not to me. Why, do you find it sexy?”

    “If I can watch you and another equally hot woman to tickle each other while in your underwear, sure.”

    You slapped his thigh. “Arsehole.”

    “I’m joking, I’m joking,” Roger said. “I don’t mind it sometimes, but I can’t say it really gets me going, personally.”

    “So we agree.”

    Roger hummed, and lent forward, hovering above you, the conversation clearly already forgotten. “Do you ever get tied to the bed?”

    “Yeah, all the time.”

    “And we haven’t tried it yet?” Roger shook his head. “Despicable.”

    “Have you ever been tied to the bed?”

    Roger’s eyes went dark, and he sucked in a breath. “No.”

    You bit your lip, slipping your hands under his shirt. “Well.”

    Roger hummed again, a thoughtful noise, and leant down to kiss you softly.

    You were just getting lost in the kiss when there was the sound of keys in the door. You and Roger barely had time to react, scrambling away from each other, when the door slammed open, and Brian strode in.

    “Oh,” he said, far too casually for how aggressively he’d opened the door. “Hey, guys.”

    You sighed in relief. You didn’t really ever want to get caught in a situation where you’d have to explain your arrangements to Freddie or John. That being said, you weren’t all too pleased about interrupted, either.

    Brian gestured vaguely between the two of you. “Forgot you two, uh… Forgot it was your night.” He closed the door firmly behind him, and tossed his keys onto the kitchen table. They clattered against the wood.

    Roger cleared his throat. “Well, yeah, it’s our night, so.”

    “Yep.”

    “So you’re heading out again soon, I assume.”

    “Uh.” Brian cocked his head, thinking. “Mm, nope, don’t think so.” He seemed a little out of breath, like he’d hurried home.

    “Well, that’s fine with me,” Roger said sharply, reaching for you. “We’ll just continue where we left off. You don’t mind, Brian, do you?”

    “Rog,” you said lowly. “Let’s go to your room, yeah?”

    Roger seemed all too happy to give you his attention, although it seemed a little too attentive to be entirely natural. “Sure, sweetheart, whatever you like.”

    You both got to your feet, and Roger took your hand and started leading you to his room.

    You could feel Brian’s heavy gaze on the both of you, but, luckily, he stayed silent.

    On Friday, it was your night with Brian. You should have guessed that a similar event would have happened as on Wednesday, but it didn’t occur to you until Roger kicked the door open, his arms loaded with a twenty-four pack of beer. “Hey guys,” he said amicably. “Sorry, I assumed you’d be in Brian’s room by now. Taking your time tonight, are we, Brian?”

    As it was, you and Brian were sitting on the couch, just chatting. You liked to play with Brian’s hands on nights like these, liked to see Brian’s eyes drink in your face. Liked to let the tension build.

    But the tension was gone now, like a burst balloon.

    A dark cloud swept over Brian’s face. “Fuck off, will you?” he said to Roger.

    “Just making conversation, mate.” Roger set the case down on the table. “Either of you want a beer?”

    Brian sighed, and turned to Roger. “Can you just bloody leave us alone?”

    Roger raised his eyebrows. “Oh, sorry, it’s all right when you do it…”

    “I’ll have a beer,” you cut in sharply.

    Brian gave you a quizzical look, and it gave you an idea.

    Maybe it was time to nip this whole stupid thing in the bud. “Actually, Roger, why don’t you join us?” you said.

    Roger paused, taken aback. “Huh?”

    “What are you doing?” Brian whispered.

    “Yeah, come on,” you said, waving Roger over. “Grab us a couple beers.”

    Roger’s gaze flicked between you and Brian, and then he said, “Um. Ye– All right, yeah.” He tore open the case and grabbed three cans.

    He sat down on the single couch, and handed out the beers.

    You cracked yours open and took a big gulp. “Cheers,” you said, licking your lips. Your heart was hammering away with nerves – you didn’t quite know why you were so nervous, but perhaps it was the prospect of a big argument breaking out – and you took another drink to calm yourself.

    Neither Brian nor Roger had opened their drinks, staring at you unsurely.

    “Well, go on, then,” you urged them, and, mechanically, they both opened their beers and started drinking.

    “So,” you said with a contented sigh, “how was your day, Rog?”

    The boys slowly warmed up to the idea of just sitting and having a drink and a chat. You could still feel Brian’s frowns on your face – he probably felt a little cheated out of the evening that he’d pictured – but you were able to ignore it well enough.

    The beer helped lubricate the conversation.

    After an hour, you wondered if you could genuinely get away with avoiding a big talk about everything. Maybe Roger and Brian were fine. They seemed to be getting along perfectly well now. Maybe they’d just been having a rough time, or maybe they’d been in disagreement about something else and that was leaking into their arrangements with you, maybe–

    “So what kind of stuff have you two done?” Roger said, gesturing between you and Brian with his beer. “Y’know, the weird freaky shit?”

    You swallowed an exasperated groan.

    “I don’t think that’s any of your business, actually,” Brian said tersely.

    “Nah, come on. We’ve done so much already, haven’t we? And it’s only been a month.”

    “Roger,” Brian sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, “we have clearly done far more than you two would have done. By far. It’s not even a competition.”

    “You’ve just been fucking for longer,” Roger said. “Doesn’t count. You have to go from the first month. No, the three weeks, even. Just the first three weeks.”

    “I can’t remember all the stuff we did in the first three weeks,” Brian said. “It was so long ago. Because we’ve been fucking for so long.”

    “I bet, in the three weeks we’ve been fucking, we’ve done just as much as you have in your five months of fucking.”

    “God,” you muttered into your drink.

    “Six, actually,” Brian said. “And I bet you haven’t.”

    “I bet we have.”

    “Bet she hasn’t fucked you up the arse yet.”

    Roger’s mouth fell open. “She what?”

    You gave Brian a bewildered look. “Brian!”

    “With a strap-on,” Brian said proudly.

    Roger turned to you, a look of betrayal on his face. “Why haven’t you fucked me up the arse yet?” he protested. “I’d be so good at it, I promise.”

    Jesus Christ. “I di– I haven’t fucked anyone up the arse, thank you,” you said, shooting a pointed look to Brian. “Brian’s just lying.”

    “I’m not lying,” Brian said.

    “She just said she hasn’t fucked you up the arse when you said she did,” Roger said.

    “We’ve talked about it,” Brian said. “Right? We’ve talked about it.”

    “We… Well, yes, we have,” you muttered. “But that’s very different to actually doing it.”

    “Have to talked about it with Roger?”

    “Maybe,” Roger jumped in. “We– We might’ve. Maybe? Have we? I think we have.”

    “Can we stop?” you said. “Please? This is already weird and uncomfortable.”

    “I can’t believe you,” Roger shot at Brian. “You’ve made her uncomfortable.”

    “She wasn’t talking about me, clearly,” Brian said.

    “And can you both stop talking about me as if I’m not here?” you snapped. “‘She’ the cat’s fucking mother.”

    The boys fell silent.

    You sighed, rubbing your temple. “Of course there are going to be – differences. Between my… relationship with you, Brian, and my relationship with you, Roger. It wouldn’t make any sense if they were the same, because you two are not the same, and how I – how I interact with you and… what makes me feel – makes us feel happy and comfortable and all that good stuff is different for each of you. With each of you. You’re not in contest with each other, all right?”

    Brian and Roger glanced at each other.

    “I can’t believe I even have to spell this out for you,” you added, and, oh dear, here comes the big talk. “I thought it would be – manageable, at least, to have this sort of relationship with the two of you, because I thought you both would be mature enough to handle it. Honestly, my only thoughts were how you both – how we all would deal with the risk of getting in too deep, emotionally, rather than you two squaring off like– like some kind of animal. Like…” You shook your head. “Whatever… Whatever male animals fight each other in the wild. Moose. Do male moose fight each other?”

    You looked to them, and they stared blankly at you.

    It took them a second to realise they expected an answer, and they both spoke at the same time.

    “I– I dunno,” Roger said.

    “Yes, they do,” Brian said.

    “You’re like a pair of… mooses. Mooses?”

    “Moose,” Brian supplied. “You just said it before.”

    “Whatever.” You sat back on the couch, and raised your eyebrows at the boys. “Honestly, right now, I’m struggling to understand why I could be bothered to deal with any of this. We’ve had a good run, right? Maybe it’s time we all let this go.”

    Brian and Roger spoke at the same time again.

    “Whoa, hey, let’s not…”

    “That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?”

    You shrugged. “Friends-with-benefits are temporary, anyway. We all knew that going into this. Maybe I want to start looking for an actual partner, y’know? Actually date someone.”

    “But do you?” Brian said. “Or are you just tired to us fighting?”

    You chewed on your bottom lip.

    If nothing else, he could read you like a book.

    “If that’s really what you want,” Roger said carefully, “then we’ll respect that–”

    “Of course,” Brian said, nodding emphatically.

    “–but, I don’t know, we haven’t even tried talking it out.”

    “This is starting to sound awfully like an actual relationship,” you muttered.

    “But it’s not,” Roger said. “Because I… We don’t…” He looked to Brian, lost.

    Brian watched you with soft eyes. “Check-in,” he murmured.

    You matched his gaze, and sighed. “Honestly? No, I don’t have feelings for you, and I never have. Same with you, Rog. But I don’t know if I’m entirely happy with how things are right now. It’s been more stress than I want, or need.”

    Brian nodded once. “Okay,” he said. “I don’t have feelings for you, either. But I care about you deeply. You’re one of my closest friends, and I really enjoy the time we spend together. No matter what we’re doing. And…” He took a breath. “And I admit that I have been feeling jealous of Roger lately. Irrationally so. I think part of me thought that you started your arrangement with Roger because you were growing bored of me, or I wasn’t good enough in some way, and instead of talking to me about it, you’d decided to start sleeping with my flatmate. To…” He swallowed, dropping his gaze to his hands in his lap. “To annoy me, maybe. Even though I know – I know that’s something you wouldn’t do, because you care about me, and you’ve been extremely open with your feelings since day one, which is something I respect. A lot.”

    Veronica had hit the nail on the head, it seemed. “How long have you been feeling like that?” you asked.

    Brian hesitated. “A while. Not at first, but maybe after a week or so.”

    “So during our check-ins, you were, what, lying? About how you were feeling?”

    “I wasn’t… lying,” Brian said. “I just wasn’t saying the whole truth. And I’m sorry. That wasn’t right, or fair, and it wasn’t respecting our rules, I understand that.”

    You sighed, thinking this over. Your eyes flicked to Roger. “Rog?” you said. “What about you?”

    Roger drummed a frantic beat on his knees. “Uh…” He cleared his throat. “Yeah, that’s– I’ve been jealous of Brian. I know how much history you two have, and I – I think I wanted that, maybe? Or felt like I had to live up to it somehow? I… I guess I just felt that I’d never be able to compete with that, so you’d ditch me soon enough. Guess I wasn’t really thinking about the fact that what we have is so different from what you and him have.” He rubbed the back his neck. “I’m sorry.”

    You nodded to yourself, then took a drink. You swallowed, felt it slide down your throat, a faint coolness brushing down the centre of your chest. You could feel two pairs of eyes watching you, like skittish horses eyeing up a snake.

    You set the can down on the coffee table, and then said, “Okay. Well. At least we’re all being honest now. About fucking time.”

    “So… what’s next?” Roger said.

    You thought for a moment. “I’m not sure,” you admitted. “But I think you two should apologise to each other, for starters.”

    Roger and Brian looked to each other, and then away, both muttering apologies.

    “Properly,” you said. “Haven’t you two ever apologised to each other before?”

    “I don’t think so, no,” Brian said.

    You couldn’t help but laugh. “Jesus, that explains a lot.” You nodded towards them. “Go on, then. Kiss and make up.”

    They met each other’s eyes. “Sorry,” Brian said.

    “Sorry too,” Roger said.

    They looked to you.

    You stared back. “Don’t look at me,” you said bluntly. “What am I, your mother?”

    Roger sighed, and turned to Brian again. “I’m sorry for being a prick,” he said. “I was acting out when I should’ve – talked about how I was feeling. You’re my mate, and you’re all right most of the time, and it wasn’t right of me. So I’m sorry.”

    Brian’s face softened. “I’m sorry too,” he said, and he sounded so sincere that you saw a blush of embarrassment crawl up Roger’s neck.

    Good Lord, they truly hadn’t ever properly apologised to each other.

    “I was being just as much of a prick as you,” Brian continued. “I wasn’t thinking about how you would’ve been feeling in this situation, and that was shitty of me. I should’ve talked about it, too. And I’m sorry that it’s taken someone else’s intervention for us to actually properly apologise to each other for the first time literally the whole time we’ve been friends.”

    “Yeah,” Roger said with a chuckle. “We should… We should work on that.”

    “Yeah, probably,” Brian said.

    You couldn’t help but smile. “Doesn’t that feel better?”

    “Feels gross, actually,” Roger said, screwing up his nose, and you laughed.

    “It does feel… It feels good,” Brian said. He patted Roger on the knee, slightly awkwardly. “I… I care about you, Rog,” he said. “You’re a good mate, and I’m lucky to have you around.”

    “Oh, shut up,” Roger said. “Bloody sentimental old man.”

    Brian laughed.

    It was time to help lighten the mood. “Now kiss and make up.”

    “We just did,” Brian said.

    You waggled your eyebrows. “No,” you said slowly, “kiss and make up.”

    Both boys took a moment to understand your meaning, and then they broke out into spluttering and stuttering, leaning as far away from each other as they could, shaking their heads dramatically, both of their faces turning red.

    “I’m joking!” you exclaimed. “I’m joking, I’m joking. Jeez. Sorry for making such an offensive suggestion.”

    “It’s not offensive,” Brian said. “It’s just–”

    “Weird and disgusting,” Roger said. He looked to Brian. “No offence, mate. You’re just not my type.”

    “Oh, none taken,” Brian said. He shook his head at you. “You’re filthy.”

    Your mouth fell open as Roger laughed. “Brian! I was just making a joke, you pig!”

    “I knew you were into some weird shit, but watching your two male friends kiss each other…”

    “I was joking.” Aw, fuck. You’d really walked right into this one.

    “This is what you were leading up to the whole time, weren’t you?” Roger said. “I knew it. You couldn’t help yourself. Brian and I are just too bloody delicious for you to resist.”

    Brian burst out laughing. “Eugh, don’t call me delicious!”

    “I’m not calling you that, I’m saying that–”

    “You just called me that!”

    “I called us both that, Brian, I didn’t just sit here and call you delicious.”

    “That’s what you did!”

    “I di– We’re on the same side here, you fucking bastard!”

    You were laughing, hard, but the tense ball of anxiety had just relaxed in the pit of your stomach, and the beer was starting to get to your head, so you couldn’t help it if you laughed a bit more than the banter really warranted.

    sorry we didn’t really have the night u were expecting, you texted Brian the next day. did u want to make up for it?

    It’s all right, he replied an hour later. It was a night that needed to happen. And I always like spending time with you, so I count it as a night well spent, regardless.

    You smiled to yourself. i think it needed to happen too. i’m glad it did. can u two legit talk about shit if it starts getting in the way again? please?

    Yes. I’m sorry you had to do that.

     it’s fine, I just don’t want to have to make a habit of it ok?

    I completely understand. But thank you, anyway.

    it’s ok.

    You went to put your phone away, but then it buzzed once more.

    Not to go back on what I just said, but can I show you how grateful I am? Brian had texted. Or perhaps tell you over the phone tonight?

    A thrill bubbled through you. I think I can make time for that.

    I’m glad to hear it. I’ll text you later.

    You grinned, and pocketed your phone.

#try verse #brian may x reader #roger taylor x reader #rpf #mine

[phobiadeficient]

Speeding bullet - scout being really braggy and boastful while 'trying' to get sniper into bed and when sniper finally agrees Scout is rlly fuckin insecure bc he didn't think it would work

scout tf2 all “ooh i got big dick energy” until he’s gotta get his dick out. ft. trans sniper because i fuckin feel like it

-

It was only half-joking, yeah, but that still meant that half of it was a joke.

It mostly started as just… an extension of what Scout was already kind of doing. It had started on him trying to get Snioer to laugh, and when it turned out he liked doing that, he’d worked hard to dig up all sorts of material. Puns and lame dad jokes and stuff, mostly. Then when he’d run low on those, he moved on to cheesy pickup lines. Then eventually he moved on to just regular pickup lines, then it somehow morphed into straight up flirting.

Kissy faces at Sniper across the room when he was trying to focus on a different conversation and pretending he hadn’t been doing anything when the other person looked was one of them that he had fun with for a while. Offhandedly saying “hot” when Sniper did normal, regular things, because to be fair, Sniper was a real attractive dude. Sniper occasionally bopping him on the shoulder for a sassy remark, to which Scout would make a dramatic noise and go “harder” just to make Sniper blush. Casually calling Sniper “babe” or “hon” when he wasn’t really paying attention just to see him sputter a bit.

He didn’t think it was ever gonna go anywhere, not just on the basis of it mostly being a joke, but also because Sniper was wayyy out of Scout’s league, as far as he was concerned. Mysterious Australian marksman, tall and handsome, real sweet and awfully polite in a way that made him the exact kind of guy Scout would’ve wanted to bring home to his Ma back when he lived in Boston and was still trying to date for real.

And he knew Sniper was into dudes, had gathered as much when Sniper one day quietly murmured some remark about an ex-boyfriend and promptly tried to brush past it. But that didn’t necessarily mean he was into Scout.

But he liked the way Sniper’s mouth ticked up at the corner when he hit him with a really good pick up line. Liked the way Sniper would sometimes roll his eyes, sometimes flush, sometimes sputter and smack his shoulder. It was nice, the thing they had going. Friends, but better than coworker friends, but kind of different than friends. It was a weird dynamic they had going on.

They were in Scout’s room one day, playing checkers on the shitty little board Scout had picked up from a thrift store at some point and never gotten around to throwing away. Sitting across from each other with the board between them on Scout’s bed, Scout criss-cross and Sniper half-lounged against the wall.

Sniper finished off his last two pieces in a double jump, and Scout swore, having lost track of the piece responsible.

“You suck, dude,” Scout complained, picking up the pieces and stacking them with the rest of his own.

“Mate, you suck,” Sniper corrected.

“Only on weekends,” Scout shot back, only a second delayed, and winked. “But hey, I can make exceptions.”

“Is that right?” Sniper asked.

This was a new bit. Sniper didn’t usually push the joke forward, or prompt him for more. Scout rolled with it. “Yeah, man,” he laughed. “I can start taking walk-in appointments for a nice face.”

“How far do you schedule in advance?” Sniper asked next, raising an eyebrow.

“Not too busy these days,” Scout shrugged.

“Might be able to say you’re able to… squeeze someone in?” Sniper asked, and Scout’s heart hammered, even as he burst into laughter.

“Aw, fuck, that’s a good line. Jesus, I’m mad I didn’t think of that first,” he managed, and Sniper was smiling too, looked away after a second.

“Thanks, mate,” he replied, looking satisfied. He shifted, not looking back. “You’d think there’d be a waiting list a mile long.”

“Fuckin’ tell me about it,” Scout groaned, leaning back to get a bit more comfortable. “I mean, seriously. There’s like nobody out here. Unless I wanna dick down on some sand or whatever, I’m shit outta luck. And most of the people in town are way too old for me, and the people that ain’t are like, either taken or super weird or just not interested. And yeah, one or two are all clear, everything’s fine, but the second the word relationship crops up, poof, gone, smoke cloud, fuckin’ witness protection levels of disappeared. What’s a guy gotta do to get appreciated a little around here, y’know?”

Sniper nodded and hummed sympathetically. “Well, I’m sure there’s one or two people around who can tell a good thing when they see it,” he said, tilting his head.

“We talkin’ besides you?” Scout asked, grinning and starting to gesture at himself. “I mean, look at this, look at all’a this! No duh, I know you’ve got two workin’ eyes and at least a little bit of taste. Even if your food is fucked up and weird.”

Sniper rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “Humble, are we?”

“What, am I supposed to be?” Scout asked, cheeky and unapologetic.

“It’s alright. It’s cute,” Sniper replied, glancing him up and down.

Scout flushed. The tables weren’t usually turned like this, and it was taking surprisingly little to fluster him. “Thanks,” was all he could think of. He cursed himself for not having a better line. “I mean, yeah. Of course I am. Uh, it is. Fuck.”

Sniper chuckled, and sat up. “Thought you usually hate it when people call you cute,” he pointed out, tilting his head back and forth to stretch his neck where he’d been sitting weird.

“I mean, it’s okay if it’s… you,” Scout said, words slowing as he realized how sappy that sounded. “I—I’d be okay with—“

He stammered a little, distracted by the visual of Sniper pulling off his shades, which he almost never did, and folding them up, setting them off to one side and fixing him with a look, eyes sharp and overwhelming now that they were uncovered and Scout was faced with the absolute brunt of them.

“—I mean I-I-I’d be okay with all sorts of things,” he said, a little desperate to turn the conversation back to their standard flirty jokes. He felt way out of his depth all of a sudden and it made him a little uncomfortable.

Then every muscle in Scout’s body froze as Sniper moved forward.

He knocked over their little stacks of checker chips with his knee, sending a few in a lazy topple down off the bed towards the floor, and a gentle push to Scout’s shoulder was all it took to make him fall back onto his back, and then Sniper was over him, on top of him, inside of his thigh against the outside of Scout’s propped up on his arms.

“What sorts of things?” Sniper prompted quietly.

Scout’s breath caught, staring up at Sniper with wide eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, Sniper’s eyebrows started to furrow. “You awright, mate?” he asked gently.

“Yeah! Yeah, for sure,” Scout said right away, fumbling to try and find a good place to put his hands, settling on Sniper’s shoulders despite the awkward bend it put into his elbows between them.

“Are you… not ready, to…?” he started to ask next, trailing a little, and Scout was faced with a series of concepts. That Sniper thought their arrangement was one where Scout could be ready for this. That Sniper thought they had some kind of arrangement. That Sniper wanted him.

The last one buzzed around in his head hard enough that Scout didn’t even remember to respond.

“We can stop,” Sniper said next, and Scout fumbled for a good reply.

“No! No, I’m good. It’s good,” he said, trying to calm his hammering pulse.

Sniper sat up a little, glancing him up and down again. “It just seems like you’re nervous is all,” he said.

And he was, and he was sure his hands would be shaking if they weren’t holding on to Sniper’s shoulders. “I’m good,” he said anyways. “I just—I dunno what you, what you like, what you want.”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Sniper replied, and Scout had to fight hard not to jump at the feeling of Sniper trailing a hand down his side. “What do you want to do?”

Scout swallowed hard. “Can,” he started to ask, and he didn’t know how he could be reading this wrong but he was sure that he was, had to be, felt this was an insane thing to be able to request but Sniper had asked so he tried anyways, “can I touch you?”

Sniper shrugged, sitting up just slightly further, squaring his shoulders to open himself up. “Go ahead,” he prompted, and Scout did.

He managed to undo the buttons of Sniper’s shirt, pushing it down his shoulders a little ways before he realized he had an undershirt on and that it would need to go as well. A glance up at Sniper, and Sniper chuckled, sat back slightly, pulled off his shirt and undershirt both before he leaned back forward within range of Scout’s hands.

Scout traced across all the scars he could find with gentle fingers, trailing them momentarily over two large scars there at Sniper’s pecs. “How’d you get these?” he asked, glanced up at Sniper.

Sniper frowned. “Mate, I’ve told you already,” he said quietly, and Scout took a good few moments to realize what Sniper meant, then looked down again with wide eyes.

Somehow the words “top surgery” hadn’t brought him the mental image of big, wide scars. Suddenly he was all the more impressed with Sniper. “Oh yeah,” he said, tracing over them again. “Huh.”

Sniper fixed him with a befuddled smile, the sort of fond “are you serious, how’d you forget that?” look he tended to get from people who actually liked him, and Scout could only smile back sheepishly. Finally Sniper rolled his eyes and plucked on Scout’s shirt. “Planning on ever taking this off?” he asked, and Scout quickly nodded, trying to wrestle himself free of the shirt as fast as he could. “Easy, mate. No time limit, here.”

“I know!” Scout said a little defensively, finally getting the shirt off over his head, and Sniper smoothed down the hair on one side of his head where it was probably sticking up and looking dumb.

God, he probably looked so dumb. There lying beneath a big, cool guy like Sniper, all… scrawny and already flushing and not a single cool scar to speak of—

“Mate, it’s alright if you’re nervous,” Sniper said, worry increasing.

“No I’m not nervous why would I be nervous I’m totally cool,” Scout said all in a rush.

Sniper raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

“I mean, maybe a little a little nervous, but just because I—“ And he realized it in the same moment he fished through his head for an excuse. “I just don’t have anything to… y’know, stuff we might need.”

Sniper stared, waiting for him to elaborate.

“I don’t have any condoms or anything on me,” Scout finally admitted, surely flushed down to his chest.

Sniper’s lips parted around a silent “oh”, and he nodded. “Awright. Well, that’s fine, still plenty we can do,” he decided aloud after a second. “How’s about I tug you off, you do the same for me?”

Scout didn’t know how he was in a situation where it was acceptable to ask the thing he blurted a second later, but thank god that he was. “Can I go down on you?” he asked, not entirely sure what words he would use in the specific and not wanting to be super rude and ask.

Sniper laughed, grinning. “Sure, mate. If you want,” he nodded. Another look up and down. “Mind if I get you off first, though? I’ll admit, I’ve, er, been looking forward to the chance a bit.”

“Go ahead,” Scout said weakly, and Sniper’s grin widened, and he moved to work Scout’s pants open in simple, confident motions.

It was a little embarrassing that he was so hard already, and he had to look away from Sniper, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling. Sniper hummed, and then spit into his hand, and then he was jacking Scout off, steady and nice.

“How’s that?” he prompted softly into Scout’s collarbone when all Scout did for a while was pant and gasp quietly.

“S’good,” he managed, voice shaky. “Real good. Real fuckin’ good.”

So good that he felt a moan rising up in his chest and pressed his hand against his mouth, biting down on the meaty part of his palm to try to stifle it.

“Oh, no,” Sniper chided, voice a growl, taking Scout’s wrist and pinning it just to one side of him, grinning. “I wanna hear you.”

Scout started to protest, but then Sniper squeezed nice nice nice over the head and it made his lashes flutter, his back arch, his mouth fall open in a gasp trailed by a moan, and his face was absolutely on fire.

“There’s a beauty,” Sniper purred, and pulled his hand back to spit in it a second time before he returned, picking up speed and apparently greatly enjoying the way Scout squirmed, the noises that rose up in his throat. “There you go. Nice, aren’t it?”

“Yeah,” Scout agreed, and he wished he could shut up, wished he could shut his big fuckin’ mouth for a minute before he embarrassed himself, but he couldn’t, could only whimper out praises and pleads as Sniper drew him closer to, and finally over, the edge, heralded by a weak groan and Sniper’s name.

He came back down to earth to the feeling of lips and stubble against his cheek, his jaw. Scout blindly fumbled with his newly-freed hand towards his dresser, managing to find the tissues and mop himself off, still flushed, thoroughly embarrassed.

“Cute,” Sniper hummed, looking down at him, and Scout groaned, head falling back for a second to finish collecting himself.

“Uh,” he tried to say, blinked once or twice, looked at Sniper. “Hey, let me hit you with somethin’ real quick.”

“Mm?” Sniper asked, mildly intrigued.

“How about you, uh.” And usually he was so much smoother, way cooler, but Sniper had him frazzled in a way that most people didn’t, not even that really hot guy he met the year after he graduated, the one with the leather jacket and the cologne that made him practically lightheaded. He fumbled for a way to phrase it that was hot, but couldn’t seem to find anything, and just sighed, spitting it out and cutting the bullshit. “How about you sit on my face?”

Because in a cursory glance, he’d noticed that while Sniper was smiling, movements languid and smooth in a way that meant he was very much into the proceedings, he didn’t seem to have a bulge in his pants, there being no hardness to speak of when he ground his hips forward into Scout’s thigh. And apparently he’d made the right call, because Sniper  chuckled and agreed.

And to be honest, he didn’t remember much after that. It was mostly a haze, movement and heat, Sniper’s husky voice dripping into his ears much in the same way that slickness dropped down Scout’s chin and cheeks. All he knew was that Sniper was gorgeous, and seemed to like what Scout could do with his mouth—and damn right he did, he had enough experience that he would be a little insulted otherwise. All he knew was that halfway through he found himself outright hard again, and wound up jerking himself off desperately with his free even as he continued trying to wring noises out of Sniper with mouth and fingers, muffled groans escaping him as Sniper decided to tease him about it in that low raspy voice he was starting to get addicted to.

Sniper finished first, and the rush he got feeling Sniper’s legs close right around his head drove him over the edge, bucking and making Sniper roll forward slightly and prolonging things for him.

And finally Sniper was leaning up onto his knees, reaching for the same tissues Scout had gone for earlier and laughing at the picture Scout made. His hair was all stuck up on one side again, he was pretty sure, and his face was red and shiny with wetness, lips swollen and parted as he panted, staring up at Sniper with bright eyes.

“We gotta do this again some time,” Scout said before Sniper was even done wiping himself down.

And Sniper laughed. “Sure, mate. Any day of the week.”

#//sniperscout #//trans characters #//tenderness

[theorynexus]

68 will be my second post, this morning. I wonder if it will start section 8 of the Meat Epilogue.

Oh darn it. I forgot to make a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy/Meaning of Life reference on Meat 42. At least we’re back to a 43, and things might therefore be luckier. Maybe.    (I am very silly when it comes to superstitions regarding numbers, sometimes, even though I don’t really believe them.)

MY TIMING SENSES WERE TINGLING!!!

Hmm. Well, strategy meetings and investigations are important.  (Also:  I am again reminded of the dreadful likelihood that Terezi went with Dirk, which continues to be a disturbing thought.)

Hmm.  For some reason, I have the impression that he does indeed have a vague idea where he’s going, but he may not actually know where/how to find it, yet. That seems pretty likely.  Thus, Roxy would be partially correct. (On that note: Interesting that Jake didn’t actually come with. I thought for sure he’d have snuck aboard at the last moment, or something, as a stow-away.)

Eh, I’d say it goes a little beyond “prove a point,” but it’s also probably incomprehensible to you, right now.  I guess we’ll all have to be patient before we can more thoroughly sort through his insanity in that regard. As for Jane...   I don’t know. It might be more trouble than it’s worth to contact her.  The fact that Dirk has her as a seemingly important part of his plans suggest that it could essentially be springing a trap on yourself. I wonder how she’ll react to finding out that Dirk’s been mind controlling people and that that probably invalidates the actual results of her election, in the sense that it dramatically undermined the democratic process. (That is a really complicated issue that is somewhat entangled with real life politics, though, so I don’t want to get into a deep and proper discussion of what determines electoral legitimacy on a philosophical or political level here.)

It is a very interesting choice on Alt!Calliope’s call to focus on incestuous questions and Dave being awkward, rather than to follow tat important call.

Dirk is so twisted at this point that I’d almost not put it past him, but at the same time, why, Dave, do you have to assume that the motivations are sexual in nature?   (I mean, honestly, it could be the fact that Dirk was trying to force him to have sex with Karkat that gave him the impression that Dirk was [and he is, but maybe not to that extent] way too carnally-minded and motivated.)   Honestly, Dirk’s head is way too concerned with philosophical matters, and if anything he’s probably going to make a clone of himself to have sex with or something stupid like that, if he REALLY has to engage in some sort of tension-releasing copulation that isn’t masturbatory in the way that having sex with someone you’ve brainwashed and twisted into being your personal object of amusement is.   Therefore, I juuust can’t quite see Dirk having sex with Rose/her new robot body.  (Gosh, I hate that I feel compelled to address this.)

I honestly quite agree with Karkat, and now understand a little bit more about why our focus strayed where it did--- though it would have been nice to receive some sort of narration to indicate that.  And yes, it’s sad that Kanaya’s being put on hold, I guess. A little bit.  (Not really. I understand politicians in places of power can get quite busy, and it may not even be Jane’s decision to have her on hold... though if it is, I can most certainly affirm that that is quite rude.)

I mean... to be fair, Karkat, it’s rooted in biology.  Humans not having a Mother Grub means that the don’t have a natural means to reduce the genetic load that would be caused by related populations interbreeding and therefore dangerously duplicating genes.  Thus, it is not actually arbitrary, which I am sure you would know if you had spent a bit more time acting like the “geneticist” your troll handle suggests you happen to be (yes, I know it means to refer to his ectobiological frog wrangling/recombination; even so, the point stands).

I take it that Karkat’s dejection about the election has kept him a bit preoccupied and out of the loop, lately.

This is horrible (Karkat’s part, I mean).    Roxy’s new new outfit sounds like something I would be very interested in seeing fan art of.   A pink-looking slightly more effeminate Dave look sounds aesthetically striking (and I’m not even a fan of pink). But yeah, good on her for not giving up in frustration for people confusing them, I guess.   ***shrug***

And we return to this awkward and slightly funny subject. Considering it was not resolved last time, I guess that’s reasonable.   (Some day, maybe I’ll write a post analyzing Roxy’s trans-iness and/or how they/he seems to have been affected by those around he/them in his/their path to figuring it all out.  This sort of issue is always a bit difficult to properly tackle without raising some people’s hackles, so to speak, though, so I am not sure if I’ll end up doing it.  Regardless, it’ll have to be quite some time in the future, should I do so, after I’m at least done reading both sides of the epilogues. I’m sure Roxy’s interactions with John will have some important light to shed on the matter.)   It’s sortof nice that Dave and Roxy can joke about this without it becoming too uncomfortable (apparently) for either of them.

...   Is revealing this something they’ve discussed before now?  I mean, doing this in front of friends and family could be sortof... bad for things between them, if Karkat’s still trying to figure out how he feels about it and whether he wants to press on vs throttle back?  I mean, just calling each other boyfriends is not something either of them were comfortable with, and just because Dave is now doesn’t mean Karkat necessarily will be.   I dunno.  I feel conflicted on the matter, despite the fact that it is on the border of being cute.

Yeah, see, this is what I meant:  Awwwwkwaaard.

Yeah, it definitely did serve as a good distraction, at the very least. ~~~ Jane either not knowing or not being willing to tell (we’ll have to wait for a perspective shift to her to be certain) is no surprise.

Gah. FINALLY.  If Roxy weren’t such a Void-y ball of fun, everyone would have known this for some time, by now.  (Also: This is another reason why I am quite certain that Dirk was responsible for at least the way that John died. He didn’t want him to be a threat to him.  [I wonder, though: will Candy John potentially pose that problem, in the future, given the fact that he will likely be able to traverse the two different timelines, should he become aware of them?   Heck, this could be the reason why one had to die in the first place. Or one reason.])

This is what you get when you    A S S   U   M E. Also, Terezi would really be useful due to her Seer powers in particular.

Well. That is a useful compromise. Good on you for finally figuring something out to bridge the gap between your morals and Dirk’s amorality.  (Also, that presents interesting potential conflict in the future, insofar as there might be a point where Calliope has to decide whether to allow them to take Jade with or not.)

Has little Timmy fallen down a well?   O: <

This is funny because it’s like that one time where Jade was sleeping and Dave couldn’t get in touch with her. That time his weird fursona came up. Tightest butt in the jungle, or some stupid nonsense like that.

Dave is smarter than Dirk would give him credit for, calling him the dumbest of the Stralondes, by the way.

Not only do they need one of his ships, but it is quite reasonable to assume that they might be able to entice him to follow with them to where Dirk is going.  This is a potentially dangerous gambit, like bringing Gamzee along anywhere, but I think it could pay off in the end.  I think that, as I suggested earlier, Jake’s probably going to be the one to end up killing Dirk, in spite of all the underestimation that and horrific invective that had been directed his way.   In all honesty, this would really seem to be the direction that Jake’s been being pushed in all along, considering all the failed opportunities to interject him into a place of importance in the story.  

Considering his level of devotion and love for Dirk, now, he very strongly reminds me of that one old clown story that AH wrote... the one where the clown was never able to pull himself away from the service of his abusive, evil master. I bring that up specifically to suggest that Jake WILL succeed, however.  I believe that, counter to the example that I just cited, and contrary to all of the deterministic forces that Homestuck has seen in play, the power of Hope will be what is necessary to do the impossible.  A Page has a long, pain-filled story arc, but when it finally blossoms into the great behemoth that its seed of potential suggested it was from the very beginning, amazing things can happen. A Page of Hope is perhaps one of the most potent Classpect-endowed figures that Paradox Space could conjure up.  I have come now to see that this turn on Dirk’s part was probably planned from the beginning, as was the fact that Dirk’s abandonment of him was likely meant to be the catalyst for the eventual realization of Jake’s full potential. Obviously, this will not likely happen in the near future, much to our short-term misfortune. Dirk, if you ever see this, know your folly:  Jake English is just the force you would need to break free of the shackles of the reality you live in---   if only you believed in the him that believes in you.   Instead, your Rage will consume you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love this dramatic comedy.

Honestly... this is great. From a writing stand-point, this is excellent. The decision to have Dirk drag Terezi along brings more significant stakes to things and drama for the future, especially with the fact that we DO know that he can be brought back to life, now, despite Dirk’s statement to the contrary. Despite all of my pathos earlier, the way this story (the story of Homestuck) is ending is actually getting me excited and washing away the scars that came from the darkest hour of the path previous.     I really like the mechanic of Dirk having reality warping powers and Alt!Calliope being able to counter them, but only in close proximity. With the speed of his ship being a factor, especially, this sets up for some really interesting potential action in the further development of the story, as well.                    That Hussie was able to so masterfully navigate these emotional waters and string me along to this point was brilliant too.    In sum:  WOW, GUYS, I’M PUMPED!!! ... But... while this would actually serve as an excellent, fully complete and enticing epilogue in and of itself, the fact remains... there is yet more. Not only in the Postscript, but in Candy.      This throws many spanners into the works, and I honestly don’t know how to feel about all that!     If this weren’t Andrew Hussie we were talking about, I would be incredibly afraid that what is to come would throw everything off and make the eventual follow-up in Homestuck^2 (which I know he’s at least directing, though he’s not quite as involved in the story as he was in Homestuck, apparently?!) potentially quite messy and of a much lesser quality than I might expect. Given this IS Andrew Hussie we are talking about, however, I actually am quite confident that eventually, it will work out splendidly, and raise his literary accomplishments to even greater heights. Though... I am filled with a bit of trepidation. That “eventually” will be so far in the future. ***laughs awkwardly*** ... Buuuuutttt there’s still more left, even on this page, so I had better get to that. ...

It is very interesting that she’s been enveloped in that blanket of space so thickly and constantly that she’s come to find it comforting. That said:  How is it possible for her to withdraw and still let narration continue, supposedly without source or accountability, as she states?   Is this meant to suggest that the passive forces of Paradox Space will naturally fill in the gap if there is no one manning the ship, so to speak?   This feels a bit unlikely, considering the lack of content for years of the characters’ lives, and Dirk’s suggestion that “God had abandoned them,” or however the heck he put it. This is all veerrry curious, indeed.  (I do like her commentary on narration. A lot.) ~~~ Woooooo!!!~    It’s really nice to finish this at--   Dangit, time, why do you have to keep ticking into the future?!       Well, even though it’s not 3:14, anymore, it’s still very nice to finish the Meat Epilogue on 02/02/2020.   :’)

#Meat Epilogue #Homestuck Epilogue #Homestuck Spoilers #Homestuck Liveblog #To Be Continued #Homestuck^2 #Author Intent #Planning #Andrew Hussie #Excellent Writing #Skill #Wonder #Hope Aspect #Jake English #Dirk Strider #Alt!Calliope #Alternate Calliope #Page of Hope #Destiny #Choice #References #Themes #02/02/2020

[johannas-motivational-insults]

She-Ra season 2 episodes, ranked

All right, I have a lot of feelings about She-Ra season 2 and what was good and not so good. I’ve been doing a lot of shitposting but this is legit analysis/meta, or at least it wants to be.

To be fair, though I’m trying to rank these as objectively as possible, it will be influenced by what I care most about and find most interesting in the series. I stan Catra and the Superpal Trio and think Adora is a loveable mess, and I really can’t stand Swift Wind. So, take this with a grain of salt. Needless to say, SPOILERS AHEAD.

7. 2x03 “Signals”

I would rank this episode higher, except the A plot was so meh. It felt like it should have been a Halloween special, and if it was I’d give it a pass, but I found it so thoroughly disinteresting I all but tuned out. Of course, people who stan the Best Friend Squad might have still loved it, but their dynamic isn’t as interesting for me anymore because we’ve seen so much of it, and this episode didn’t do much to change it other than add Swift Wind in (and he really, really annoys me). The only real thing it did to move the plot forward was introduce the subplot about the mysterious transmissions, and it didn’t do anything characterization wise. Ultimately, it’s a set up episode, and to be fair it might be more interesting in retrospect once we get some payoff and see where that whole thing is going. But I dunno, I kinda doubt it.

It’s mostly a set up episode in the other subplots too, but I enjoyed watching the political machinations in the Horde because there were real, tangible stakes and important power shifts. Catra learning that having power and authority is not all it’s cracked up to be was a crucial bit of character development. That bit of her getting the air sucked out of her lungs was more genuinely scary than the creepy ghost holograms by far. You felt her desperation trying to save face with Hordak and regain her sense of power and safety after that terrifying threat, and watching Shadow Weaver tune in to and play with her insecurities was a good bit of development for and insight into their relationship. It also foreshadows how easily Shadow Weaver is able to manipulate Catra later in the season.

Meanwhile, Entrapta’s excursions and work with Hordak supplied some comic relief (which I think the A plot also tried and failed to do) and also made the Horde plot take an interesting turn. This is the episode where Catra really starts to lose power, and meanwhile Entrapta gains a lot without even meaning to. She just wanted to fix the problem with Hordak’s experiment, dear girl. On that note, I did not expect to enjoy watching Hordak and Entrapta so much, but one thing this show does really well is throw together unexpected combinations of characters and make an amazing dynamic (e.g. the Superpal Trio, Scorpia and Seahawk, Catra and Glimmer and Bow).

The Entrapta subplot was the most interesting of the episode and unfortunately it was relegated to the C plot. This episode would have been way better if they’d put more focus on the Horde side of things and/or given the “Best Friend Quad” something with more substance.

6. 2x01 “The Frozen Forest”

This episode was fine, but it didn’t do much to stand out. It was important, of course, to follow up on the end of season 1, and if they had skipped this episode entirely it would have left a huge gap. But with the two main groups of characters not interacting at all in person, there was little reason to be emotionally invested in the fight scenes. We don’t really care if Horde bots get destroyed. It would have been more interesting to see the Superpal Trio directly fighting the Princess Alliance, but on the other hand it did set up just how big a role Entrapta’s tech knowledge was going to play this season. The stuff with the princess alliance was cute, I always enjoy seeing more of Mermista, and they did some character work (which I can always appreciate) with Glimmer and Frosta. But since we only see the princesses once more this season, it hasn’t had much of a chance to pay off yet.

The highlight of this episode was Adora fighting Catra in the simulation and her ensuing conversation with Light Hope. (“There. There.” and “I also have buttons” were two of my favorite one-liners of the season.) The simulated fight was very cute, and I definitely screamed when Catra grabbed Adora’s hand while delivering her customary “Hey Adora,” right before taking her down. And look, the fact that Catra was flirting so hard with Adora in that simulation means that an AI with very poor social awareness has picked up on their sexual/romantic tension, and that’s hilarious.

The Horde side of things gave us more time with the Superpal Trio, who are always delightful, but not a ton happened over there either. This episode established that Entrapta has fully moved in to the Fright Zone and Catra is comfortably leading the Horde’s advances and has respect from Hordak and the Horde’s soldiers. It also foreshadows how impressed Hordak is going to become with Entrapta’s work (and unimpressed with Catra’s) when her EKS bots steal the show in that meeting. Finally, the episode introduced the shifted dynamic between Catra and Shadow Weaver now that the power position has flipped. That ongoing subplot was possibly the saddest part of the season, and this one scene did a good job of setting that up.

Overall, this was a good and necessary setup episode, but because it had all that exposition and setup to do we didn’t get a ton of good character/relationship moments (Frosta/Glimmer and Catra/Shadow Weaver being the notable exceptions). So yeah, it was fine. But there were definitely stronger episodes, which we will now get into...

5. 2x04 “Roll With It”

This was a very cute episode, a fun one to watch. The reason I ranked it fifth is because there are three very strong episodes this season and 2x07 had higher stakes, being the season (mid-season, lbr) finale. On the Horde side of things, I loved seeing more of Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio. Lonnie really shined this episode and I keep waiting for someone to realize how smart and capable she is and promote her. And of course, Scorpia. Darling oblivious Scorpia who just wants to impress her crush. She’s not very smart but she’s earnest af and can pack a punch, and this is the first episode where she really stands out.

The planning session in the rebellion camp was really fun to watch, though I’m sure I missed a ton of jokes because I’ve never played D&D. The chaotic way the princesses all play off each other was more evident here than in 2x01, which made for some great gags. The different approaches they each take and the different aninmation styles used to portray them were a lot of fun. Glimmer’s noir hero fantasies were my favorite, personally. (And apparently she sees Catra as a very sexy villain? I need more on this, please.)

Adora’s monologue about the worst possible secenario revealed all her insecurities, and it was one of the highlights of the season. Her anxiety issues and messiah complex have been touched on before many times, but this is the first time they’ve really come bubbling to the surface this season. It was really nice to see the whole group reassure her that she isn’t in this alone, much like Bow and Glimmer did before the Battle of Bright Moon. And while it’s been hinted at before, this episode really solidified her obsession with Catra. And Scorpia’s too, as I mentioned above.

It’s easy to forget that Catra wasn’t actually in this episode (AJ Michalka was, but her character was not, not for real) because you felt her presence everywhere. The bit with all the princesses’ different renditions of her was hilarious. But you know, it was nice to see the show put together such a strong episode without Catra. Having the emotional focus on Adora again was a nice change of pace.

4. 2x07 “Reunion”

This episode gave us what 2x03 lacked: it made the Best Friend Squad interesting again. That group is most compelling to watch when there’s conflict among them, like in the stretches of 1x01-1x02 and 1x08-1x10. They weren’t in an actual fight this time, but Glimmer and Adora being so thrown by Bow’s secret family life meant that things didn’t feel “as usual.” Glimmer’s insecurity about not meaning that much to Bow resurfaced, and Bow’s “coming out” scene was extremely moving. But thankfully there was comic relief, too. Adora mispronouncing words to try and sound scholarly was a great ongoing gag, and the eventual fight between the Best Friend Squad and the elemental was really fun because it was so chaotic with Bow’s dads being extremely confused.

Okay and look, Bow’s dads. Finally we get to see why Bow is the most well-adjusted person in the group. His parents aren’t perfect, but they did way less to fill their kids with insecurities than Angella or Shadow Weaver. Angella’s not a bad mom but it’s easy to see why Glimmer feels so inadequate. And Shadow Weaver is, well, Shadow Weaver.

This episode was sort of oddly structured for what is essentially a mid-season finale in the sense that the A plot was about relationships more than the overarching plot, but that’s not necessarily bad. And they tied the plot back in at the end with the reveal about the Crimson Waste, setting us up to finally move forward in this transmissions subplot in season 3.

There wasn’t a lot of time for Horde stuff this episode, but Scorpia forcibly loving Catra and turning her into a burrito was one of my favorite scenes of the season (maybe I will do a Top 10 later on). Catra opening up to Scorpia about her problems for the second episode in a row was huge, especially after experiencing a heart-shattering betrayal in the previous episode. Catra’s final scene where she gets exposed as a liar and choked out felt a bit truncated to me... like after they set that up as this terrifying threat in 2x03, they lingered a lot less in the terror of that moment in this episode. So that was kind of disappointing, but it still worked well as half of the cliffhanger (the weaker half, imo, but it was still extremely nerve-wracking).

It was hard to pick between #4 and 5 on this list, but ultimately the amazing cliffhanger was what put this one over the top. Both our protagonists are in danger, at the mercy of our two worst villains, and even though I knew what was coming as soon as I saw Adora sleeping, the shot of Shadow Weaver standing over her bed made me scream. I hate this show for leaving me hanging here, so they did it right.

3. 2x02 “Ties That Bind”

Ranking this one so high may be an unpopular opinion, but I personally loved this episode. I didn’t care much for the B plot except it was good insight into Adora, but the A plot was so delightful it made up for it. Mixing members of the Superpal Trio and Best Friend Squad almost always results in something good... maybe not for the characters, but for the audience. Watching Catra and Glimmer play off each other’s insecurites was great, and it was sweet watching Bow attempting to befriend Catra, just like he did with Adora. The conflict between him and Glimmer about how to treat their hostage felt very in-character, a good callback to the beginning of season 1.

Of course, Catra is a much more annoying hostage than Adora was. Her being a little shit and doing everything she could to get on their nerves was amazing, and I would have gladly watched a full hour episode just of that. The sassiness and manipulation we see from her in this episode balances nicely with the deep emotional stuff she goes through this season in her fight to win approval and prove her worth. It also produced my favorite joke of the season: “How are you such a nightmare?!?”/”Eh, years of practice.” I felt that in my soul as a youngest child. I also loved all the cat mannerisms they incorporated in this episode, it was very cute.

There is a bit of emotional meat to that story, with Catra and Glimmer’s confrontation at the end after Glimmer says Adora ran away from Catra, not the Horde (rude, btw). But the real emotional moment comes when Bow and Glimmer find out Entrapta stayed willingly with the Horde. That was heart-breaking. Heart-shattering, even. Especially because Bow and Glimmer feel such guilt for her being left there in the first place. I wish there had been more follow-up on this major emotional beat, but that’s not a weakness of this episode itself. This was my favorite Entrapta scene of the season, even though there were a lot of other great ones.

Like I said, the B plot was... okay, but not amazing? The bits with Light Hope glitching were funny, if a bit creepy. (But she’s always creepy, so.) Swift Wind annoys the hell out of me when he’s being hyper, but seeing his eventual heart-to-heart with Adora gave him some good depth and development. Plus, this episode does a really good job of illustrating not only how uptight Adora is, but why. There’s that messiah complex again (which I don’t blame her for btw, that’s Shadow Weaver’s fault). I like episodes that focus on Adora emotionally, and separating her from Glimmer and Bow meant her storyline got to be a bit more serious and in-depth. I just wish it hadn’t been opposite Swift Wind... not because it wasn’t effective, but because Adora’s arc was good but I have little desire to rewatch it if it means I have to watch more of him. Sorry, I guess I’m an anti.

2. 2x05 “White Out”

As I’ve said before, this episode is the highlight of season 2. Once again, that has a lot to do with the dynamics that occur whenever we mix members of the Best Friend Squad and Superpal Trio, and this time we got all of them in one place! And they added Seahawk to the mix too, which I didn’t expect to like because he tends to get on my nerves, but pairing him with Scorpia was a move of pure brilliance.

Scorpia and Sea Hawk’s little heart-to-heart about feeling unappreciated and Drunk Adora validating and encouraging them was so so cute and heartwarming. All the Drunk Adora and Scorpia stuff was great, actually. It was funny but also made very textual how much Catradora is an insecurity for Scorpia and how she’s afraid she’ll never be able to live up to that and Catra will never open up to her the same way. And Adora actually seems to genuinely like Scorpia when she’s not focused on the evils of the Horde, so that’s good to know moving forward. And yeah, that pairing also brought us “Girls night in!” and the closet joke, another highlight of the season.

In the other mixed grouping, Catra and Glimmer renewed their rivalry, and that’s always fun to watch. Entrapta continued to be her usual chaotic self, and any time we see her interacting with Bow it tends to be a great scene. The reveal at the end that she had the tech all along but didn’t tell Catra because she liked hanging out in this remote place with her friends was really, really cute.

I would be amiss to not mention the Catradora of it all in this episode, because holy shit this is actually the only time they interact in person all season. That is just wrong, by the way, but I did thoroughly enjoy what we got. It’s very clear they still have an emotional hold over each other despite their attempts to “let go,” between Adora’s overly-focused anger and Catra’s expressions whenever she hears or sees Adora. Adora actually kind of hates Catra right now and I think that caught Catra off guard. Catra’s panic when Evil She-Ra almost killed her was a great moment of vulnerability, how she tried to appeal to the Adora inside. She dropped the act for a moment and genuinely tried to connect with Adora, and maybe it made me tear up a little.

Along those same lines, the one thing that pissed me off about this episode was that we didn’t get to see Catra interacting with Drunk Adora. That would have allowed Adora to interact with Catra in a vulnerable state too, and in general it just would have been amazing. And the trailer kinda suggested we would get to see that, so that made it extra disappointing. Can’t these two just talk about their feelings and actually hear each other and communicate properly, please? Ugh. Still, despite these frustrations, I loved the Catradora content.

But the real highlight of the episode was Scorptra. The scene where Scorpia tried to ask Catra out on a date was amazing and so freaking cute. Of course there’s also the stuff I mentioned where her insecurities about Adora came spilling out. And the look on Catra’s face when Scorpia aborted a mission to save her life and then whisked her away despite her protests... that was a huge moment. She doesn’t think of herself as worth saving, but someone else does. And despite the fact that Scorpia disobeyed direct orders, I think this is where Catra really comes to trust her. It’s certainly where she comes to respect her. And then they shared a blanket! God, this was so cute. I expected to enjoy the Catradora stuff more but a) there wasn’t all that much of it and b) this was so incredibly pure and sweet, watching Scorpia finally make some headway and Catra finally open up to someone again, even if it was only a little bit. I am a multi-shipper now, I can’t help it.

1. 2x06 “Light Spinner”

It was hard choosing between this and White Out for top spot, but I’m a slut for villain backstories. This episode was the less entertaining of the two, and I think I’d have to say White Out is my subjective favorite, but objectively I do think this is the better episode. Why? Character development.

Shadow Weaver was a bit too twirly-moustache of a villain at times in season 1, so seeing how she became what she is now did a lot for her character. Seeing how a desire to do good mixing with a thirst for power can drive someone to make mistakes and turn evil was very interesting, and having Micah be part of the backstory made it all the more compelling.

The ways Shadow Weaver tries to mold people with more intrinsic power than her so she can use that power was a crucial new insight, one we’ve never seen before. It explains why she’s so obessed with Adora, which was never really explained in season 1. And it also suggests that part of Shadow Weaver’s dislike for Catra came from Adora’s connection to and therefore influence over her. Shadow Weaver wanted Adora’s loyalty to be to her above all, even above the Horde, and Adora having a close friend (who’s a rebellious loose cannon, to boot) was a danger to that goal.

This episode is essentially about Shadow Weaver and Catra, both separately and together, and it does a great job of drawing parallels between them even before Shadow Weaver outright tells Catra that they are the same. They both go off on a rant about how no matter what they do, no one listens to or respects them. Shadow Weaver seems to have a bit of a self-loathing streak that she took out on Catra, too... kinda like Glimmer being annoyed by all her worst qualities manifesting in Frosta.

As for Catra, it shocked me that she was so upset about Shadow Weaver being sent away to die. Though she obviously still craved Shadow Weaver’s approval, I didn’t expect her to react so badly to this. Clearly Scorpia didn’t either, and her trying to tease Catra’s reasons out of her was sweet. It was nice to see Catra continuing to open up to Scorpia after that moment with the blanket at the end of White Out, but there’s still a lot she’s holding inside. She still genuinely cares about Shadow Weaver despite how she’s been trying to hurt her for revenge and her own satisfaction... that sound familiar?

And unfortunately, Catra’s connection to Shadow Weaver and her need for maternal love and approval was her downfall. After she mocked the rebellion for their bleeding hearts and how easily manipulated they are, mind you. This is where Catra’s tendency to sympathize with Shadow Weaver (which we saw at least twice in season 1) finally came back to bite her in the ass. It was terribly sad because Catra actually has a big heart and Shadow Weaver knew that and took advantage of it.

It’s hard to say how much Shadow Weaver meant of what she said to Catra when they had their big confrontation. It wasn’t clear whether or not she had seen her badge hidden in the food, whether she was only trying to manipulate Catra or if she was being earnest about any of it. Was the physical affection she gave her genuine, her way of making up for things and saying goodbye, or was she just fucking with Catra? I dunno, but either way this betrayal she pulled was awful, and if she was trying to be nice she would’ve been better off holding Catra at a distance than letting her get her hopes up. For real, Catra’s reaction when she realized Shadow Weaver had used and betrayed her was gut-wrenching, one of the rawest moments we’ve seen from her. I might have cried, a lot. She let herself be vulnerable in a way she rarely does, and for that she got absolutely obliterated emotionally. Again.

So yeah, this wasn’t a particularly fun episode, but it was a very strong episode of television and it did a lot to make Shadow Weaver more fleshed out and interesting. It finally brought one of the show’s most fraught relationships into the spotlight and let it combust in front of us, and as painful as it was to watch, I can’t help rewatching the Catra and Shadow Weaver scenes again and again. I never expected Catra to so openly ask Shadow Weaver why she was never good enough for her and what she did to deserve all the abuse. It was an incredibly rewarding scene to watch with great emotional payoff. And for a stan like me, that made it the best episode of the season.

#spop #she-ra #she ra #meta #season 2 #spoilers #episode rankings #scorptra #catra and shadow weaver #catradora #best friend squad #superpal trio #superpal duo #scorpia and catra #catra/scorpia #catra #adora #scorpia #entrapta #shadow weaver #screencaps #pics

[retrauxpunk]

sv 6.04

spoiler-filled recap post under the cut

WHAT THE FUCK

i swear every single episode is gonna have me feeling like that because IT’S SO INTENSE i think i’ve forgotten how intense this show is because it’s prior to the release of s6 it’s been 2 years since i watched new episodes? and so i just know the storylines quite well and am familiar with everything?

but jesus christ!!

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

okay let’s start at the beginning:

FUCK ethan!!

WHAT THE FUCK

I had the vague inkling of a feeling that bringing on ethan would be the same as bringing on the carver, russ hanneman, jack barker, etc. in that it would seem to be good at first and then it would magnificently blow up AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED WHAT THE FUCK

there were so many intertwined storylines in this episode? i feel like there were more than usual? there was: richard and his conflict with ethan; gavin’s book thing; monica’s misadventures with feminism; gilfoyle’s budding friendship with john stafford (I STAN); jared’s story with his parents and gwart

THERE WAS SO MUCH.

last episode my fingers couldn’t keep up with my thoughts because it was such an amazing uplifting kickass episode, but this time i just feel, i dunno, kind of clogged with feelings/thoughts because there was a lot that happened in this episode and it was................ MOSTLY SAD????? mostly unpleasant?????? like it was a great episode but all the things that happened to the characters were like ... real shitty

HOLY SHIT the guy who plays ethan is SO GOOD at playing the role of the emotionally manipulative jackass prick who mistreats you and then acts like you’re the shitty one if you don’t ‘play along with the fun’ and so on like HOLY MOTHERFUCKER those types of people are the fucking worst and god i wish richard’s punch hand gotten him in the mouth instead or something (more on that later)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he was so terrible to richard! it fucking hurt! i was with dinesh! i watched richard’s balls getting kicked and my balls hurt in solidarity!! fuck!!

????!

richard what are you doing

it was, no lie, a little nice and fuzzy and heartwarming to see dinesh like sticking up for richard and trying to help him

even if it’s through the ‘dumbest thing i’ve ever seen’, that alpha male video. 

WHAT WAS THAT

THAT WAS LEGIT like something out of IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA what the FUCK

i don’t object to it being in the show because, y’know, it’s within the bounds of the absurdities of the show and so on, but

WHAT! that had the exact same energy as the fight milk ads!!

i really like that richard’s initial reaction was ‘this is the dumbest thing i’ve ever seen’. what a shame he succumbed to it!!! ........but at least it wasn’t something worse that he succumbed too i guess???

POOR RICHARD

this is one of those episodes where i am entirely on richard’s side and have no complaints about him, he didn’t do anything wrong

omg i just remembered when he caught ethan’s eye in the opening scene and waved him in because of ‘dumb social shit’ (#relatable) ................WAS THAT BECAUSE HE WAS REFLEXIVELY REGRESSING TO HIS DOWNTRODDEN WAYS from when he was ethan’s report and was consistently having to defer to him and put up with his shit? and that’s why when ethan motions to like invite himself into richard’s office, that’s why richard just invites him in?

yeah that’s my opinion now

........

IT HURTS

IT HURTS WATCHING RICHARD GET KICKED AROUND BY ETHAN

WHAT THE FUCK DUDE

this is one of those times when richard’s like, trying to do a good/right thing and be nice and so on WHEN HE SHOULDN’T BE. like when he was ‘trying to respect’ erlich by refusing to hire jared patakian despite erlich giving him his blessing. and (to a lesser extent) when he went to have those chats with seth after gilfoyle stole the endframe login credentials, and when he gifted laurie some pied piper credits (where they credits? don’t remember the word)

UGH he was trying to be ~chill~ and not so uptight and so on BUT NO THIS IS NOT THE TIME RICHARD and no this is not what being a cool/nice person is! it is not putting up with this kind of shit!

i just felt so bad for him!!!

WHAT THE FUCK IS ETHAN’S PROBLEM

god what a cock

I’M SO GLAD RICHARD PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE and honestly??? i wish the punch had fucking landed!! for once i’m sick of richard being an ineffectual klutz! i want him to try to kick ass and succeed!!! god!!

that’s what i want out of season 6, one (1) time when richard tries to do something physically badass like socking a deserving douchebag in the face and actually succeeds

can’t fucking believe he bought into dinesh’s dumbfuck alpha male video. UGH RICHARD

i mean at..........at least it makes him........feel better? idk

(in my personal hc richard manages to watch that fucking always sunny style video and not develop misogynistic tendencies as consequence because that would be lame if it happened)

I JUST HAD TO TAKE A BREAK FROM WRITING THIS RECAP BECAUSE IT WAS SUCH AN INTENSE EPISODE

6.3 was intense in the same way that like an adrenaline-fuelled ultimately victorious battle is intense, or like, idk, the lovechild of MDMA and acid???

6.4 is intense like the COMEDOWN. god

IT IS THE COMEDOWN, it’s the terrible fucking low that occurs in the wake of the soaring high of buying hooli!! fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay so that’s the richard storyline covered

um

y’know i was suspicious when ethan wanted to move things onto hooliphones, i thought it was maybe some kind of thing to sabotage pied piper in some way? but now i see maybe it’s just a way to get himself a job. and the bullying of richard is a way to soothe his own fragile ego i guess? hmm

gilfoyle’s friendship with john stafford! I LOVE IT! i love that the guy from the underground pits of jack barker’s box plan has returned! and he announces each hooliphone the way he announced each box ... excellent callback. AND THEY PLAY CHESS! AND HE BEAT GILFOYLE EVERY SINGLE TIME! YES!!! 

GILFOYLE WHY DID YOU DELETE HIS FRIEND REQUEST

YOU WERE GONNA ACCEPT IT

YOUR CURSOR WAS HOVERING

WHY THE FUCK

some kind of lame-as-fuck attempt to maintain an idea of power in the dynamic? viewing the vulnerability of accepting a friend request as somehow being weak/lame?? just upset because he lost so many chess games??

hope it’s the the last one becaues that’s the least lame/sad of the three i thinkkkk

also his fucking feed full of dinesh hate. what a loser lmao perfectly suited to dinesh

i want them to kiss

ummmmmmmm monica!! lmao i enjoyed how they made her a female character who is successful but not actually personally interested in being a feminist activist, because i think that’s a thing that’s pretty real/relatable. like, you can be a woman who believes in gender equality but who doesn’t actually do stuff to actively advocate for it, and i think that’s a lot of people, and honestly i don’t think i’m quite like monica (i wouldn’t say the things she said about foxhole HAHAHHA) but i relate to it! i’m not a very politically active person at all, my ~activism is limited to being generally educated on stuff and calling out/discussing shitty things if friends/colleagues say them. so i guess i felt seen? #guiltyfeminist

when monica went to the panel........... and then priyanka totally outshone her ........ i felt a little bad for monica but she was pawning off foxhole to priyanka entirely selfishly because she herself didn’t want to be involved and so i didn’t feel too bad for her :pp

good on priyanka! all that stuff  she’s doing sounds awesome!

except the beginning where she referenced her ‘network of awesome women coders’ or something like that, i found that phrasing uhhhhhhh cringey. cliquey. didn’t like it, but that’s just my subjective feeling. also i suspect it was meant to be a little satirical of uberwokeness so fair :P

richard giving monica foxhole ‘for optics’ and then doing the handwavey ‘just make it work, for women’ ........ a brilliant sad-funny representation of extremely superficial and empty meaningless ‘feminism’

laurie lasering in on gwart because she’s also eating that vegetable in a weird way! nice.

OKAY JARED? JARED

FUCK

we see him set up in pied piper’s offices meaning he at least took up richard’s offer which is nice

his parents?

fuck ‘em

they deserve to rot, obviously

sociopaths

i............................... it was an upsetting scene, i’m not sure why it’s in the show............ perhaps to give rise to jared’s whole ‘i must have rejected them and rejected everyone else who’s been kind’ thing that he’s doing in a desperate bid to understand/make sense of his suffering ....... which gives rise to his thing about rejecting richard...

i guess maybe he’s doing that thing where he’s repeating past cycles of trauma/abandonment? that’s what’s (at least partially) driving his stubborn refusal to rejoin richard? is it that he (on some not-necessarily-conscious level) believes himself unworthy of happiness and self-sabotages? and all of that mixes with his fear of fucking up pied piper with his feelings (the way he did in 6.1) and that keeps him away from richard?

I DON’T KNOW IT’S COMPLICATED AND MAKES ME SAD

that thing he said about how he has to stay with gwart . .............. god this stupid entirely arbitrary rule he’s set for himself, it’s so fucking painful

ETHAN’S REPENTANCE WAS DUE TO THREAT FROM HOLDEN? WOW

um

good on you holden i guess!! .....?

i HATE the whole ‘jared threatening holden and emotionally abusing him into the perfect assistant for richard’ arc because that was painful and i feel like it was played for laughs but i didn’t find it funny or good at all

so in this case it was kinda vindicating to see holden no longer terrified of jared and kind of sassing him (’don’t you have somewhere to be’)

..............what was with the end of the cold open where richard’s like ‘holden i wanted water’??? or something? didn’t holden give him the water partway through ethan’s presentation? ugH

GWART FIRING JARED

FUCK YES! THANK YOU GWART

JARED TALKING ABOUT HOW HE’S FREE TO GO WITH RICHARD

HOLY FUCK

YEAH SO OF COURSE OUR BOY JARED WANTS TO BE WITH RICHARD and now that gwart (his temporarily chosen ‘leader’/person to be devoted to) has given him orders (and therefore permission) to fuck off, he CAN BE WITH RICHARD without feeling like he’s, i dunno, being disloyal.

HURRAH

so the episode ENDS on jared asserting that there is a space for him to be with richard? homg seems like 6.5 is gonna go HEAVY ON THE JARRICH again?????

HNNNG

this was a tense episode and i’m upset

like it was a decent episode, i didn’t think it was bad quality, i’m just sad

#rain watches sv s6 #sv s6 #sv s6 spoilers #silicon valley spoilers #silicon valley #sv squad #my sv text posts #precipitation