#also adam's outfits were really hard to keep straight and i mixed them up a bit on accident but it's okay

[almondcroissantsandink]

hark! it's the cringefail loser squad from on high

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel fanart #lute hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel adam #art #artists on tumblr #animation #illustration #digital art #digital illustration #csp #clip studio paint #i admire how in it to win i they were lmao #like they did NOT need to be operating at the level they were but they did it anyway #also adam's outfits were really hard to keep straight and i mixed them up a bit on accident but it's okay #ALSO their helmets really kind of scared me at first like they are quite spooky #i also thought that was...their faces? until they took them off and then it was like oh okay phew lmao #also last thing i really really like how adam's wings sort of hang low and tuck around his sides?? it looks really nice and fun

[obae-me]

Comforting Nights

Oneshot Fic

Words: 2034

Description: The demon of pride finds you in quite an unprideful state after you’ve had a nightmare.

Author’s Note: I’ve had a rough few days, so for me and anyone else who’s going through a tough time, here’s some unapologetic fluff.

You were unaware of what time it was at this point. The endless starry sky and eternal soft moonlight was making it difficult for you to determine how many hours were left until the brothers would be waking up. Everyone was going to have another long day at RAD and Lucifer was adamant on making sure everyone got adequate rest. You had tried to get some sleep like he wanted, and yet here you were, restless and riddled with anxiety on the roof of the House of Lamentation.

The bedroom you had grown accustomed to was much too stuffy and, at the moment, being inside left a weird feeling on your skin. Signs pointed to the nightmare you had experienced, bordering on the line of a night terror. The sweat on your skin and the heat of your breath after you gasped back into consciousness persuaded you to get some fresh air. The roof was as good a place as any. The venue provided an unobscured view of the Devildom sky and city outline.

With your knees tucked to your chest, you went back to picking out constellations, names and shapes much different than the ones you knew in the human realm. The stars were little multi-colorful orbs that proved time and time again to take your breath away. Even with all the light coming from the city, they refused to let themselves be blocked out. They didn’t twinkle though, not like the stars you knew. You could hear Satan’s voice in your mind’s eye as he explained about the reason why. Something about how the stars twinkle in the human realm because of the atmosphere.

However, not even the stars nor the sights of the city from your perch could stop the burning in your body, the fight or flight response still tremendously strong. A little noise escaped from your mouth as you hugged your own body, curling up against your legs as you tried to erase the dream from your mind. Blood, screams, flashes of teeth and bone against a shape so inhuman you didn’t even know how to describe it other than with one word. Demonic. Whatever it was had torn you apart and done it with no mercy, no hesitation. Your flesh and bone was rendered into scraps, and the only thing louder than the creatures growls was the shrieking of your own voice. When you woke up you could still feel lingering pain pulsate throughout your entire body, your throat dry and sore. This wasn’t the first time you experienced this turmoil either, for some reason it had been plaguing you every night for the past week. You were exhausted, you didn’t remember the last time you had gotten a good night’s rest, and you were starting to wonder if you’d ever sleep peacefully again. Your nerves were fried, your chest tight. You felt like such a child letting something as simple as a shadow in a dream to have you so frazzled.

Your mind was so abuzz with worries you didn’t notice the sound of someone taking soft steps towards you in the darkness. The figure didn’t speak your name or give away any announcement, they only placed a gentle hand on your shoulder. You quickly snapped your head back, much too quickly, the reaction of someone who was on edge.

The eldest brother, the demon of pride, the forceful Lucifer was in his full form behind you, wings folded against his back, his horns sticking out from a head of messy hair. His usual resplendent clothes were replaced with silken pajamas. Just a quick glance down let you see red fluffy house slippers, ones you had bought him just a few weeks before, the same ones he always wears at night now.

His outfit mixed with his bed-head and sleepy circles under his lids put you surprisingly at ease. Lucifer squeezed your shoulder, blinking away remnants of drowsiness from his eyes.

“MC, what’re you doing up here at a time like this? Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you?” He moved his hand, standing up straight and crossing his arms. He frowned and shook his head, black tendrils of his hair falling in front of his red irises. “Why aren’t you in your room? I was worried something had happened.” His unusually soft expression and the comforting sight of having someone there let some tension ebb from your lungs. It flowed out of you through your eyes, silent tears drifting down your cheeks. Your handle on your emotions weakened by your fervent fatigue. Lucifer was taken aback, hesitating by your sudden state for only a second before getting to his knees to check you over, worried you were hurt somehow. “What’s wrong, what’s happened?”

You chuckled a bit, your lip slightly quivering. “Just a bad dream...it’s…” You wanted to tell him how haunting it was, but you stopped yourself. “It’s stupid, nothing to be worried about, nothing to be crying about.” You lifted your arm to brush your own tears away, turning your head away from his gaze in embarrassment. Surely the prideful firstborn would ridicule the idea of being so distraught over subconscious hallucinations. With a soft hand large enough to cover your whole cheek, he brought your face to look back into his.

“I noticed something has been going on with you for a while. Why didn’t you come tell me? Coming straight to me would’ve been a much easier solution than searching the house for you in the dead of night.” With a hand under your arm, he brought you to your feet, holding you by the shoulders to keep you steady. Rubbing the sides of your arms gently to try to cease the convulsions in your chest. His grip was just addicting enough to encourage you to stay in his touch further.

“I’m not a child, Lucifer,” you mumbled under your breath. “I don’t need to run to someone over a bad dream. I can handle this alone.” You had to bite the inside of your cheek to keep you focused. You wanted to handle it alone, you wanted to prove to yourself and the other brothers that you were stronger than they gave you credit for. At the same time you also yearned for them to take care of you, that finally you could be vulnerable and they wouldn’t judge you for it because, after all, you were only a human.

“Alright, you’re not a child. So I take it you don’t want me to put you to bed? I can ensure you have no more nightmares.” One of his eyebrows raised, his hand cupping your chin as he finished drying your eyes.

You had to focus to keep from squirming, your jaw clenched, your heart fluttering. The last thing you wanted to admit is when you awoke, the first thing you wanted to do was tell someone, to have them wrap you in their arms and tell you it was okay. You had paced back and forth in front of Lucifer’s bedroom door for a good five minutes before heading up to the roof. “I…”

“Hm?”

He really was going to make you say it. Of course he knew what you were thinking, what you really wanted. He possessed an inhuman sense of observation, as well as a desire to see you flustered. He acts like he’s the bigger man compared to his brothers, but there was no hiding his mischief. “I want to go to bed.”

“Alone?” The sleep was fully gone from his vision, you could fully see a glint in there, something behind his eyes that wasn’t the rays from the moon. Something taunting, leering, but hopeful, expectant. If you didn’t know any better, he wanted you as much as you wanted him. But god, how he just loved to push you.

His glare almost made you want to cry more, but you could no longer find the strength to tear up or fight your own longing any longer. “Can I...sleep with you?”

That was all he needed to hear, the confirming words to the fact he already knew. Hearing it come out of your mouth was music to his ears. He’ll take you by the hand, his skin warm in comparison with the chilly nip of the air outside. With long calm strides in his slippers, he’ll lead you to his room. It’s so warm and cozy in here, vastly different compared to the cold and hard demon that had first invited you to the Devildom. It was almost poetic in its metaphor. With a little time and patience, and admittedly some close scrapes with death, you got to know a whole new side of Lucifer. He had music playing from a record player above his fireplace, the sound of a somber piano already lulling you into peace. Lucifer folded back his sheets, letting you crawl in first before he got in beside you, eyes bright, resembling the expression some kids had whenever their parents told them they would be taking them to an amusement park. He was excited, but he didn’t need to tell you, you could feel the rush of blood pulsing through his body.

He wasted no time with his embrace. He brushed the hair away from your face before pulling you close to his body. Each of his grand wings extended to fold around you both, trapping the two of you in between a sea of ebony feathers. They were impossibly soft, brushing against your skin like gentle whispers. Instinctively you let out a surprised squeak. In return you felt a supportive hand protect the back of your neck. His other pressed against the small of your back, the fingertips gently kneading your body in comforting patterns. He’d make sure you felt like both of you were the only living beings in the world, that anything that dared threaten you would have to go through him first. You’d feel his face come in close near the top of your head, his breathing slowly syncing up with your heartbeat. A soft, silent melody would emanate deep in his throat only just loud enough for you to hear inside the cocoon he had created. A consoling concert just for your ears, the echoes of the peaceful sounds drowning out whatever worries you had held deep within your heart.

You buried your face in his chest, making a mental apology for wrinkling his pajamas as you gripped them in your hands. You shut your eyes, feeling the back of your mind tug at your consciousness as it threatened to let you slip under. Before you let it take you, you let out a relieved sigh, the air on your breath coming out in shudders, the prickles the nightmare had left on you were far gone. Even now you couldn’t even recall the shadow creature that had scared you so. A blur of a figment already forgotten. The only thing occupying your thoughts was the rumble of Lucifer’s voice, the texture of his wings against your skin, and the solace in his every touch.

The notes in the tune led you to where you needed to go, Lucifer looking at your tranquil state as you slumbered in his arms. He pressed his lips gently to your forehead, a silly gesture he had once been told would ward away torment in the night. With his eyes shining like the stars outside, he melted into you before going back to sleep, searching for you in his dreams.

It was the best sleep you had ever gotten, and now your only worry was having to get used to sleeping alone in your quiet bedroom. However, you were unaware that Lucifer was already making plans to ensure that for the rest of your stay you would be sleeping in his room, under his blankets, right next to him. You had no idea that just your presence gave him the most comforting and fulfilling rest he had ever had in his long life, and he wasn’t about to let it go now. He wasn’t about to let you go.

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me headcanons #obey me imagines #obey me lucifer #obey me lucifer x mc #obey me lucifer x reader

[fmdhyeju]

headcanon 001: thoughts on lily’s title tracks word count: 1,300 words note(s): decided to hop on the train. this is all new writing and song titles are not included in the word count.

into the new world

hyeju believes you’re lying if you don’t believe that lily has the best debut song. she’s not sure if she can perform the track now and give off the same vibes and feelings, but this song feels like home to her. or whatever home should feel like. it’s energetic with a touch of hope; a song that can make you jump on your feet but also bring tears to your eyes. whatever was in this song when it was made, it helped create a truly iconic debut track

gee

if someone were to ask hyeju to perform gee now, she’d probably give them an expression that says hell no. she thinks the girls that performed gee then probably couldn’t perform it now and give it the same results. the fact that it was given to them so early on in their career is why they could pull it off. nineteen year-old hyeju had no problem performing it and actually found the song very addicting. twenty-seven year-old min hyeju, on the other hand, would not like to be subjected to colorful skinny jeans and made to crab walk side to side

nonono

the song is cute to say the least. another track that hyeju finds more difficulty performing now than she did back when it was released. nevertheless what she thinks about the song doesn’t change the fact that she thinks it was a nice song released at the right time in lily’s career. it’s just not a song that exactly stays on hyeju’s personal playlist

tell me

this song is fun. for something released so early in lily’s career, hyeju can proudly say that she can indeed perform this song without cringing up so much. she really only got to sing the same chorus over and over again, but that said chorus was so catchy and easy to sing along with that she has no complaints. the outfits could have been better though

mr. chu

a continuation to nonono and a song that hyeju thinks was released out of order. it probably should have come after tell me. again, she’s not a big fan of such concepts because she’s not like minhee and minah where she can come off as naturally cute. it was fine with her back when lily first released it but nine years into her career, she’s not sure how much she wants to be singing about some imaginary dude named mr. chu

oh!

if someone were to ask hyeju what her least favorite title track is so far, it would be oh. sure, the girls looked great and she’s sure their fans had a blast with the song, but it’s personally not one that she enjoyed performing then nor does she enjoy having to perform again now (though they don’t have to do so these days). probably the first song where hyeju really had to try to keep a smile throughout the whole performance, but she’s always been honest about how she disliked both the song and concept 

run devil run

now if someone were to ask hyeju what her least favorite outfit concept was, it’d be run devil run. she doesn’t have a lot of problems with the song itself though she doesn’t think it’s very impactful. she wouldn’t use the word boring because it has its elements that she thinks is catchy, but she just thinks it’s something that’s been done before. and she hates leather. any kind of leather. it’s so hard to dance in and sweat never dries out

nobody

lily’s back with the retro concept and if it wasn’t for the sparkly outfits and mic stands, she thinks she’d have liked it more. however, the song does feel like bce’s attempt at trying to remake gee. the repeated chorus lines and everything following a specific formula just makes the song nothing special to hyeju

genie (tell me your wish)

a great comeback to come after nobody and also one of hyeju’s favorite songs that lily has released so far into their career. it’s one of those songs that she’s confident will continue to remain in people’s memories years and years later because of how good it is. the sailor outfits were absolutely adorable too and she enjoyed pretty much everything about this era

hoot

has hyeju mentioned that she’s not a huge fan of puffed hair? the whole james bond girl thing that was going on with their outfits during this time wasn’t all that great in her mind, but the song isn’t too bad. it’s not that great either. it’s just kind of forgetful to her especially because of where it falls in their discography

the boys

though the song isn’t up in her usual lane, she thinks the entire concept around this title track totally makes up for it. the sort of royalty vibes they had with their outfits definitely made her feel like a queen, and it’s a song that she thinks only the lily girls can properly pull off. no offense to any juniors that tried. she’s not a huge fan of the beat or the song in general, but she enjoyed the overall promotional period because of how powerful they looked

i got a boy

okay, the song itself definitely gives hyeju a headache because of how many genres are involved with it. however, she thinks it’s a pretty genius song. one of those songs that she can’t see anybody else doing well unless they’re lily themselves. the energetic dance is probably her favorite part of the song though. it’s the kind of choreography that hyeju wishes they got a little more of

be my baby

while the song isn’t terrible, hyeju thinks she could have choreographed the song better herself. who points out a literal baby while dancing to a song called be my baby? she thinks it’s corny, and it’s also something she disliked with run devil run (where the girls had to literally pretend to run). overall, the song’s a little forgetful and there are times when hyeju honestly forgets they even released it

only one

the song wasn’t their most popular, but only one is a song that hyeju likes. she just likes it. there’s no specific reasons behind it, but it’s a nice song to listen to and just hum along to. some may argue that it’s boring, but she thinks the melody line is really good and the chill vibes behind it all feels very much like something that was made for her

luv and five and remember

if you ask hyeju, she’ll say that all three of these eras pretty much blurred into one. they felt like a continuation of one another to the point where sometimes she can’t tell which song is being played. put them on during a random play dance section and she’ll have to ask what’s what. however, if she were to rank them she thinks they’d go luv > remember >>>> five 

mr. mr. 

this is the song that lily should have made a comeback with after only one. they went down a sort of romantic, mature vibe and then went straight back to their sort of innocent and gentle vibe. not that she’s against such concepts, but she thinks it becomes jarring if it gets mixed up like that. the suits with mr. mr. make the song bearable despite the song not being the best song they’ve released as a group. it’s proof that styling can really make a song seem better than it actually is

i’m so sick

hyeju isn’t really adamant on lily having to abandon their old concept and go straight into a super mature one, but she thinks i’m so sick is a step into the right direction. everything about the song is kind of simple in her mind (choreography especially), but she definitely enjoys getting to have ad-libbed the do you love me part with minhee for each music show. she’s not huge on the song itself, but it’s not bad. she’s pretty indifferent towards it

#( ✧ — headcanon. )

[sobi-fans]

Thoughts on TROS

So I’ve received a few asks asking about my thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker, and I haven’t replied because I have many thoughts and I’m still processing stuff. But yesterday @riselioness messaged me to ask the same, so I thought it was time to try and organise them on a page.Yes, I am very, very late to this party. 

Obviously spoilers, so I’ll put it under a cut. Also, I’ve only seen the movie once, and that was back in December, so my memory might be a little hazy. I probably need to see it again.

For the sake of context, I have no OTP for the sequel trilogy, but I have been known to read Reylo and Damerey on occasion. (And randomly Gingerflower – aka Hux/Rose – purely because of that TLJ deleted scene where she bites him!) Let me tell you, being on the outside of the shipping wars has been very interesting, and it seems abundantly clear to me that your enjoyment of TROS depends greatly on who you ship, or whether you ship at all. I would have been happy if Finnrose endured or Stormpilot became a thing, but ah well. Onwards!

I’ll try and keep this somewhat cohesive, but I feel like it’s going to be all over the place. Apologies.

Let’s start simple. Stuff I liked that doesn’t have a ‘but’ attached:

- Lando (where’s he been all this time?)

- Wedge (where’s he been all this time?)

- Finn being able to show his individuality with clothing and hair that’s his choice

- Purely for shallow reasons, Poe’s outfit

- Poe and Rey channelling Han and Leia with their bickering at the start

- The Force bond stuff was visually stunning with the dual locations

- Luke’s expression after he raises the X-wing, like ‘Yeah, finally nailed it!’

- Ben Solo channelling his father – also Adam Driver in general for making Ben so very different from Kylo with just body language and facial expressions alone. He literally moved like a huge weight had been lifted from him, and it was pretty amazing to watch

- The fact that Rey’s mother is Villanelle from Killing Eve

- Kaydel looking like Endor Leia at the end

- LGBTQ representation!

- Seeing young Luke and Leia

The stuff with Leia was very poignant and emotional, but I can’t exactly say it was good. It’s tricky. I don’t feel like I’ve separated Leia from Carrie in my mind, so it’s really hard to look at it objectively. I do know that when Chewie howled after Leia’s death, I teared up pretty much immediately!

I have mixed feelings about the trio interaction. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to see them together, and I love their banter, BUT it felt incredibly forced. Shoving them together for the sake of them being together does a disservice to all three characters. This was the last movie. They should all have been developing their individual stories at that point. Rey with her Jedi stuff, (which she does get to go off and do, but not without Finn traipsing after her like a lost puppy), Poe finding his feet as a leader of the Resistance, and Finn doing literally anything else other than running after Rey yelling her name all the time.

There was a lot of stuff that I wanted to like, but mostly it came across as missed opportunities. Such as:

- Jannah and the other former stormtroopers – this would have been such an interesting idea to develop, and would have given Finn a cool storyline of his own that didn’t involve Rey. I would have liked to see Finn reaching out to current stormtroopers, persuading them that they had other options. That would have been cool. A stormtrooper revolution turning the tide of the final battle!

- Finn’s Force sensitivity – where did this come from? Okay, so maybe it was hinted at in TFA, but it wasn’t carried over to TLJ, and JJ should have respected that in the interest of cohesive storytelling. And as interesting as it could have been to see, it doesn’t take any strength away from Finn to have him not be Force sensitive.

- Hux being the spy – this is such an interesting idea, and it’s hilarious to me that he would go to such lengths to be petty towards Kylo, but it was executed in a rush, much like a lot of other stuff in this movie. They could have made Rose his handler, which would have been a nice change in their dynamic after TLJ.

Stuff I did not like: (warning, rants ahead)

- Completely unnecessary new characters – elaborated below

- Pryde – what was the point of him? Hux could have easily fulfilled that role if they didn’t want to develop his spy storyline.

- Zorri – could have been cool, but seemed shoehorned in to remind us that Poe Dameron is straight, thank you very much!

- Poe being a former spice runner – just why? Poe already had a perfectly good back story.

- Palpatine being back – I know opinions vary on this, but I’m not a fan. Doesn’t it just cheapen Anakin’s entire story arc? (This is not to take anything away from Ian McDiarmid’s performance, which was amazing as always.) Also the complete lack of a reasonable explanation for how he returned. In fact, doesn’t someone even use the word ‘somehow’ at some point?

- Rey Palpatine – again, I know opinions vary, but I hated this so much. I’ve been team Rey No One since the beginning! This is our first female protagonist, and in my opinion the thought that she came from completely humble beginnings was fascinating. To link her to a powerful name – a powerful male name, at that – and for it to be literally stated that her power comes from him was just kind of deflating, to be honest. Also, it makes no sense. Are we expected to believe that Luke there-is-good-in-Vader Skywalker writes off his own nephew because of his potential darkness but is A-OK being a mentor to Rey Palpatine?

- Leia knowing that Rey is a Palpatine – this makes no sense either to me. Leia accepts and nurtures Rey despite her bloodline, sensing that there is good in her, yet thinks that her own son is irredeemable? The sense of ‘we had a bad child, but we found a better one’ is just…ugh. And this happens throughout the ST, even with all the Jedi standing behind Rey having abandoned Ben for years. Even if you believe that Rey is more deserving of that attention, the callousness just doesn’t seem very Jedi-like to me.

- Leia’s reasons for giving up her Jedi training made no sense.

- The sidelining of Rose – it seems painfully clear that JJ had no idea what to do with her character, so she’s just kind of…there. I refuse to believe that they couldn’t have come up with something, even if it was just her accompanying Finn or Poe on their storylines. That wouldn’t have given her a whole lot of agency, but it would have been something.

- Rey ending up alone on a desert planet, exactly where she started. Yes, I know she’s likely not going to live there, but visually the movie is showing us that nothing has really changed. We know Rey wants a family, and the hug with Finn and Poe was lovely to see, but to have the last image of her be her alone on a desert planet is actually kind of depressing.

- Rey calling herself a Skywalker – like the Palpatine thing, it’s linking her to someone else’s legacy. I think it would have been more powerful for her to declare herself ‘Just Rey’. No one’s on at Finn to declare his surname, are they?

Now on to the big one. Bendemption and Reylo.

I have been hoping for Bendemption from the beginning, because redemption, compassion and forgiveness were key themes of the OT for me. But I had a feeling that if Kylo did get redeemed, he’d be doomed to die, because as we know, JJ likes to follow the exact same patterns that we’ve already seen before. I have issues with Vader’s ‘redemption’ on the grounds of it being a ridiculously quick turnaround, (quicker than Kylo’s, even), plus he gets an easy way out just returning to the Light and then dying straight after. Lo and behold, the exact same thing happens here. What would have been really interesting to see, in my opinion, is Ben living to atone for what he’s done. That would have been true redemption, and I think the same is true for Anakin too.

Now, as we know, Kylo is much worse than Vader, even though Vader spent literally half his life on the Dark Side, murdered thousands of people, including children, chopped off his son’s hand, tortured his daughter and her future husband. We know this because Kylo killed Han Solo, the fanboys’ favourite. Therefore, he is much worse, despite only having been on the Dark Side for about six years after being mentally manipulated from birth by the most evil man in existence. Don’t get me wrong, I am not apologising for Kylo. I’m aware he did terrible things, hence why Ben should have lived to atone, but I do believe that he gets an unfair level of hatred, largely stemming from killing Han.

As mentioned above, I have occasionally delved into Reylo fics to see what was out there. I’ve always been a supporter of watching their story play out, because enemies to lovers was something new for a Star Wars movie, and it’s a cool idea to explore. We’d previously seen it with Luke and Mara in Legends. (Mara, incidentally, being someone who was redeemed and lived to make up for her bad deeds.) I loved Ben Solo for the short amount of time we got to see him. The interactions between him and Rey over the bond were so cool to watch. Ultimately, though, I don’t feel like their story was particularly well handled in this movie. I buy it because Adam and Daisy were so brilliant, but I can’t help but feel that Ben’s death was a giant cop-out.

I have mixed feelings about Rey facing Palpatine alone. I can see that there’s some kind of strength to her battling alone there. (Except she wasn’t, because she had every Jedi standing metaphorically behind her.) That said, to have Ben out of the fight felt…weird. Since TFA certain people have said that Rey and Ben/Kylo were two halves of one protagonist, which makes me think that he should have been present there instead of tossed into a pit. Also, after the mental mind games that Palpatine has been playing for his entire life, he pretty much deserved to be. But I don’t know. I think I need to watch it again and see how I feel.

This ended up being super long and ranty, sorry. I’ve probably missed a lot. Maybe I’ll change my mind on a few things when I see it again. I thought writing this out might help to organise my thoughts, but I’m not sure it has!

[sunflowerstrays]

best friends // mark lee au

anon requested this:  Hello! I like your writing style a lot and was wondering if you could write a one-shot with mark(nct). A fluffy swimmer!au where he’s in the schools swim team and the reader is his friends and spends her lunch while watching him train or does her hw and she’s really supportive of him when he’s in a competition. You can choose the plot😊 There’s no pressure so take your time and thank you so much for your time! I hope you have a nice day! first of all this was literally one of the nicest requests i’ve ever received and put me in such a good mood for writing it, so thank you my love! i hope you enjoy this as much as i enjoyed writing it, it was so cute to write!

swimmer! mark lee x reader.

words: 4k (!!!!).

genre: fluff, a big of angst (if you squint your eyes and look at it through a microscope i guess??)

Mark was late to the pool again. That wasn't a surprise, seeing as he had forgotten his homework for maths again and was already below average for the class, but it still saddened you to see everyone but him in the pool. However when he dashed around the corner of the pool, launching himself from the changing room and diving into the pool at approximately ninety miles per hour, you couldn't help but laugh at how stupid your best friend was.

This is how your lunchtimes had been for two years, now. Mark had taken up swimming just as an extracurricular activity to fill his spare time and make some new friends - because whilst he had you, he had no friends that were like him. You were quiet, intelligent, a wallflower and Mark was loud, sporty and the life and soul of a party. The two of you had been inseparable since the day you were born; your mothers, who had also been best friends for such a long time, had gone into labour the same day as each other, and you were older than Mark by a few mere hours.

That title held a lot of value in your friendship when you were younger, but now it just meant that the two of you did everything together.

It was the reason why you had given up every lunchtime at school over two years for Mark. You loved to see him grow as a person; when he had first jumped into the pool, skinny and slim and pale, you had wondered how long he would actually keep this up. Now, broad and muscular and tan from spending hours at the beach practising, Mark was your successful best friend who had even swum in national competitions and was preparing for international heats now.

He had devoted half his life to swimming, and the other half was devoted to you.

Because whilst his original intention was to join the swim team to ‘get fit’ and ‘make friends with people my own size’, he had never forgotten you. You were the first person he called to tell the news of him making it to the national competitions, you were the only reason he had attended any parties - he refused to go without you, after all - and every time he hung out with his swimming mates, you were invited along.

So naturally you had grown close with Jeno, Jaemin and Chenle, three more boys from the swim team. You knew they had their own friendship circle, which was even bigger with Donghyuck, Jisung and Renjun as well, including a group chat that you were in but never spoke on, but they had never left you out. When you had been ditched to last years prom, the whole group - yes, all seven of them - had taken you as their date and insisted that you had had the best evening of your life. Of course you spent the majority of that evening beside Mark because he was the only one who you were truly comfortable around for a long period time.

And so you guessed you ought to be thankful of Mark and his swimming team. They had brought you a lot of comfort in times of stress and anxiety, like when you almost failed one of your finals last year because you were so sick you could barely stand. They had also offered you, some one with very little social interaction known to their name, a safety net of friendship. And for that, you were thankful.

But sitting here today, with Chenle - who had opted not to swim this lunch seeing as he had an interview after school and didn’t want to smell of chlorine - beside you quietly eating his lunch, you had to laugh at the situation. Mark tried so hard to be in so many places at once, but his one focus was always swimming. Even though he only had maybe twenty minutes left to swim, he would squeeze in this practise if he could. Jeno and Jaemin were chuckling hysterically in the pool as Mark power lapped around the pool, his muscles working overtime.

“Have you been asked to the mid-year dance yet, y/n?” Chenle asks, picking apart his food and fishing out the fruits in his salad and rice mix that he doesn’t eat, putting them into the lid and offering them to you. You smiled as you took the pepper between your fingers and set down your book.

“No. I doubt I’ll go, to be honest with you Chenle,” you say, tucking your loose strands of hair back behind your ear, before opting to tie your hair up again. Chenle’s face drops as he shakes his head.

“You have to come! It wouldn’t be the same without you!” He exclaims, picking out more of the fruit for you. “I asked Jisung to come as my date. He said no, so then I asked Lucas who said he’d come just for a laugh. Because face it, you are the only girl any of us talk to.”

“Lucas is coming?” You ask with a loud laugh, making Chenle giggle himself and the three boys in the pool look at the two of you. “Maybe that will make it worth attending.”

“Please come along!” Chenle says once he’s gathered his breath, wiping a tear from his eye. “We can even go outfit shopping together, it will be so much fun.”

“Chenle I don’t have a date, and I’m not redoing prom,” you say, smiling sweetly at him, “because whilst going with the seven of you was incredible, I still had to go through the tears of being ditched in the first place. Which was really, really hard.”

“Then go with one of us!” Chenle squeaks, making you roll your eyes at him. You knew he was only trying to help, and you did appreciate it, but you weren’t sure if he was aware of how much you hated big social interactions. Hanging out with the seven boys one weekend was enough to shatter you for a month, and that would always be in the comfort of Mark’s living room, where you had spent half your life in.

But in the school gym, you were exposed to the hundreds of eyes within your school, in a setting that you hated naturally anyway, and didn’t want to be. So, whilst you loved the idea of getting dressed up and going out for one evening, you didn’t think you could do it.

“I know you really hate it, y/n,” Chenle says softly, and rests a hand on your knee. “But it would mean a lot to Mark as well, knowing it’s his last mid-year dance. I really think you should consider it more.”

With that the conversation is brought to a close, because Mark, Jaemin and Jeno are climbing the stairs to where the two of you are sat, bearing bright smiles but also confused glances. Chenle explains the laughter from the pair of you, and the mention of the dance makes all three boys lighten up.

“I asked the girl I wanted to go with and she rejected me for someone off of the football team, so I think it’s a no from me,” Jaemin says glumly, resting his chin on his fist as he sits opposite you. “What about you, y/n? Have you got a date?”

“I don’t think I’m going to go,” you shrug, opening your textbook again and wishing your maths homework would eat you up. Chenle explains the rest of the conversation, making all of the boys exclaim.

“You have to come, y/n! It would be so awful without you!” Jeno exclaims, Mark nodding with him. “I’d ask you to come with me, but I kind of already asked the girl I wanted to go with.”

“Likewise,” Mark says, making everyone raise an eyebrow. “What? Why else did you think I was late to swim practise this afternoon?”

“Because you forgot your maths homework and had a meeting with Mr Park?” You ask, making Mark’s face drop as he launches himself to his feet and mumbles a profanity, running towards the stairs. “Right. Organised as ever.”

The three remaining boys laugh as they see Mark run out of the big pool room, probably running straight into a detention with one of your most belittling and intimidating teachers. You return your attention to your homework for the final ten minutes of lunch whilst the boys continue discussing the dance.

Suddenly there's a hand closing your textbook, and Jaemin is giving you his brightest smile. You frown at him, wiggling your hands out and pulling the textbook close to your chest. His smile reminds you of warmth and comfort, and it’s one of the first times you’ve been alone with more than one of the other boys without Mark and still felt okay about being there.

“Come to the dance with me,” Jaemin asks, making Chenle drop his box of food and Jeno drop his jaw. “We can just go as friends, I don’t mind. But I wouldn’t want you spending one of your last school dances at home, or with some jerk that we don’t trust.”

“But didn’t you want to ask that other student?” You frown, making Jaemin chuckle to himself. He adjusts his school tie before resting his hands on his knees.

“I did, but she seemed very adamant about going with that other guy, and I don’t want to end up going with Donghyuck again,” Jaemin rolls his eyes, making you smile. There’s a little warmth in your chest that makes you feel all tingly and weird, but you roll with it as you nod.

“I guess so. If it makes you guys happy,” you smile, and the three boys cheer loudly. Jaemin leans across and hugs you awkwardly, before letting go of you. The lunch-bell rings and the four of you are forced to go and find Mark to drag him to your final classes of the day, in which you are rather looking forward to telling him you will be going to the dance with someone who isn’t him.

“So… you and Jaemin?” Mark asks as the two of you walk home together. To get to your house, you have to pass Mark’s, and so the two of you have walked home together every day since you started school. “Going to the dance together?”

“As friends,” you clarify, making Mark chuckle. The whole situation had happened so fast at lunch that you were a little shocked about what had happened the whole of your last few lessons. It had only just hit you in science last period that Mark had asked another girl out, and hadn’t even mentioned it to you. 

You weren’t upset because he had picked someone over you - you were, in fact, over the moon for him - but rather that he hadn’t asked your opinion about it first. He asked for your opinion on everything; clothes, albums, even what he should eat for lunch. Yet here you were, shocked by him.

“It’s cute, Jaemin got lucky,” Mark says, knocking your elbow with his as the two of you hold on the straps of your rucksacks. “Really lucky, in fact.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You ask, but Mark just shrugs and changes the topic of conversation instantly. This makes you frown because Mark was suddenly acting so out of character, and you hated sudden change more than most things in life.

“I have a swimming competition the day before the dance,” Mark says, which was just over a week away. Your heart lifts from it’s sad shelf slightly as you wait for him to ask you to come along with him. “I was thinking of inviting HeeJin. You wouldn’t mind her going, right?”

This was like a stack of bricks to the stomach. Change, all of it happening too fast. It was like Mark and HeeJin were getting married in a month, with the rate this was all moving at. But still, you put on a brave smile and nodded; the worst that would happen is that the two of you would discuss Mark for a while, she would confess her undying love for him, and then you’d fall silent and watch her cheer Mark to victory.

“It’ll be nice to speak to her properly before the dance, I guess,” you shrug casually, hiding your fears behind normal social behaviours. Mark comes to a stop outside of his house, rubbing the back of his neck as he avoids looking anywhere but you.

“I actually… I was only going to take her. I was going to take her out for a date afterwards, maybe,” Mark stutters out, looking awkward for the first time in forever. Mark Lee was many things, but awkward was something he rarely was.

“Oh,” you say, already letting your feet begin carrying you home, “oh, okay. Yeah that’s fine. Have fun, I’ll see you tomorrow,” and with that, you spin and practically run the final five minutes home, ready to cry.

This was too much change.

Your mother noticed your bad mood the second you stepped in the house, opening her arms and letting you collapse in them. You tell her about Mark and HeeJin going to the dance together, and clarify that you were happy for him about that. Then you tell her about the swimming competition, and this is where she frowns.

“But why can’t you still go with them?” She asks, running a hand over your thick hair and shaking her head. “You could easily catch a bus home. You’ve never missed a competition of Mark’s, even when you’ve been half-dead with illness.”

“Exactly,” you say, finally wiping away the last of your tears, “I just don’t like this sudden change. Why would he do this?”

“I really don’t know,” your mother says, kissing your forehead once before smiling at you, “want me to talk to his mum?”

“No!” You exclaim, making her chuckle, “I’ll just see how it goes. Oh, we aren’t doing anything Saturday, right? Because Chenle, Jeno and Jaemin are taking me dress shopping-”

“You are so going!” Your mother finishes for you, making you smile. You leave her side after continuing the chat a little longer to finish your homework, but don’t expect to see your phone full of messages.

Usually your phone is buzzing like mad because of the group chat, but tonight that is eerily quiet. Instead Mark and Jaemin have both sent you two messages each, both containing very different content. Mark is questioning why you had run off so soon after school, and sends a second apologising if he had done anything to offend you. You ignore those and swap to Jaemin’s messages instead, smiling at his mad ways.

Nana: I’m thinking purple for the dance? It would look so pretty on me- and you, I guess~

You giggle as you type back a response, then switch your phone off for the evening to get on with work. You figured that burying yourself in some maths work would make everything a little easier to think through, but by the end of the homework - which you emotionally power work through - you are even more confused and hurt than before.

“You guys went shopping without me?” Mark asks as he drops his books beside you in maths, earning a warning cough from your teacher. You twirl your pencil in your fingers, homework prepared to hand in. Mark curses as he realises there was homework due, and begins to scribble down answers on the sheet. He manages to sign his name off at the bottom of it just as the teacher announces he will be collecting the sheets, making Mark breathe out.

“You didn’t answer the messages in the chat,” you shrug, beginning to take the notes from today’s lesson. Mark frowns, opening his phone to check through the messages. He lets out a soft ‘oh’ sound, swiping away a message from HeeJin before turning his attention back to you.

“Oh well, did you have a nice time?” He asks, making you smile. “I’m so proud of you for hanging out with them without me, you know.”

“It was really nice,” you shrug, brushing your hair behind your ear. “They aren’t nearly as bad as I thought they were when I gave them the task of shutting up and finding me the prettiest dress they could find, although Renjun has no fashion sense for love nor money.”

“He’s pretty wild,” Mark chuckles, and for the remainder of the lesson it’s as if nothing had ever happened. Perhaps nothing had happened; perhaps you were being over dramatic when you needn’t be. Whatever the circumstances, you want to forget about the last few days of emotional torture you’ve put yourself through.

So it goes back to normal, almost. At lunch times you are much more chatty with the boys, and sit beside Jaemin rather than Mark almost every lunch for the following week. They invite you out for dinner Wednesday night, and take you to a dingy restaurant downtown that normally you would never dream of walking inside of. It’s maddening to think that only a week ago you could barely spend a few hours with all seven boys, relying on Mark like an anchor, and now you are happily hanging out with them all day, with or without Mark.

It’s almost as if Mark had replaced you with HeeJin, and you had replaced Mark with Mark and his friends instead.

Life is very bliss and happy for the remainder of that week. Mark chats about HeeJin maybe too much, but you let it slide and be happy for your best friend. He deserved happy after looking after you for so long. And in the meantime, your friendship with Jaemin would develop into something special as well, something cute and fluffy that you had never felt with another boy before. When you spoke to Mark about this though, he got very protective and warned you about Jaemin, almost bad-mouthing his younger friend to protect you.

It’s Friday night when the whole week of bliss shatters around you; or Mark, rather, and that has a knock-on effect on you. He calls you at eight in the evening, something he never does; if he were to speak to you, he would walk all the way round to your house to talk to you in person. You had been laying in bed, happily texting both Chenle and Jaemin separately about tomorrow, whilst also Snapchatting Lucas photos of your dress.

“Y/n?” Mark sounds heartbroken, and for the life of you you don’t know why. He had been so happy this lunchtime when you had seen him, boasting about the competition tomorrow - there was basically no competition as Mark was destined to win - and then the dance tomorrow night, where he had even brought a tie to match HeeJin’s dress without her knowing. You had not figured within the space of a few hours that Mark’s mood would change so drastically, but you let him cry into the phone for as long as he needs until you can finally get to the root of the problem.

“She’s not coming with me. It had all been a set up, or something, with her friends; she’s cancelled on me, and now I have no one to go with,” Mark finally answers you, getting to the root of his problems. “I can’t possibly go now, y/n, this just ruins everything. Everyone has a date but me!”

You are torn; you want to step up, offer for him to tag along with Jaemin and you and for the three of you to do a redo of prom last year, but in Mark’s honour instead. But on the other hand, you want to be a little bit selfish for once and spend the night with Jaemin; he was, strictly, your date after all, and he had even gone as far as getting his haircut and suit tailored properly for the event. You knew it would probably upset Jaemin as much as it was upsetting you if you invited Mark along, but he was your best friend after all.

“Just come along with the group,” you say light heartedly, “Chenle is bringing Lucas, Jisung and Donghyuck are coming together and Renjun is just showing up because he can.”

“But I wanted it to be special,” Mark says tiredly, finally having finished crying. “For our last one, y/n, I wanted it to be special.”

You feel guilt hit the bottom of your stomach, and you aren’t even sure you’ll be able to get yourself out of bed tomorrow morning seeing as it is that heavy in your gut. Swallowing, you offer your last piece of advice to your best friend.

“Just show up tomorrow, you never know what it might bring.”

You had managed to talk Jaemin into going to the competition with you; he had sweetly taken your hand when he had picked you up - admittedly, by his father’s taxi service - and had only let go when the two of you climbed back out. 

You were now sat, shoulders touching, cheering on Mark in the competition. It was a very intense one, and it was one of those races that made you feel tired watching Mark swim. But you did as you always did and supported him unconditionally, without doubting that he’d win.

Naturally, he did amazing and pulled up first place without an issue, but he looked so glum collecting his rewards that you wanted to run down the steps and hug him tightly, so much so that you could squeeze the sadness out of him.

Jaemin and you had waited outside the swimming pool for Mark to leave, and you spotted him from a mile away. You practically launched yourself into his arms and hugged him tightly, cheering him so loudly that you couldn’t hear his exclamations of surprise.

“Y/n?” He says when you finally stand on the ground again. By this point, Jaemin has joined you with a sparkle in his eyes, and you are blushing for such a loud reaction. “You came to see me?”

“Of course I did, silly!” You say, making Mark blush. He runs his hands through his hair, making it even curlier as it dries in the afternoon sun, “I’ve never missed a swimming competition, right?”

“Even that time you were dying with the flu,” Mark explains the situation to Jaemin, who laughs at you whilst you roll your eyes at the two boys who were laughing at your misfortune.

It was the dance. You were terrified. You were walking by Jaemin’s side, enjoying the way your lilac dress swished around you and the sound of your shoes on the floor. You felt powerful, but also tiny. Jaemin was so broad and looked so beautiful tonight that you knew there would be a lot of eyes on him.

Thankfully, they wouldn’t be on you though. You were only showing up with Jaemin, then Mark was your date for the rest of the night. You had hate the way things had worked out for an hour this afternoon, but now you were rolling with it.

It was Jaemin that had suggested it after all. He told you to go to the dance with Mark, that he'd hang out with his other friends but you and Mark deserved a proper final mid-year dance together. And so that was where you were.

You were nervous; you could see Mark standing at the entrance to the school, straightening his tie - that he had borrowed from Jaemin - and checking the time on his phone. All nervous habits that your best friend always did, things he had adopted from you over time.

“Ready, princess?” Jaemin asks as you climb the short flight of stairs to the gym. You giggle at his name for you before nodding, not entirely sure what tonight will bring. 

Mark hears Jaemin’s voice, looks up and spots the two of you walking towards him. His face breaks out into the brightest grin you’ve ever seen him wear, entire body relaxing as you stand opposite him. You swap Jaemin’s arm for Mark’s, let Jaemin take a photo of the two of you before disappear ahead of you to go and find someone to annoy naturally.

“You look so beautiful,” Mark says softly, his eyes slightly watery as the two of you walk through the decorated school. “I’m so proud of you for tonight, and happy we got to go to it together.”

Nerves were threatening to make your knees buckle, you knew that despite the nervous feeling in your gut, it will be okay. Mark will be right there, supporting you every step of the way through every dance, saving you from disastrous social interactions and giving you a dance to remember, just as you were dragging his sorry self to the dance because he deserved a good one. Because he was your best friend, and that’s what best friends did for each other.

#nct #nct dream #nct 127 #nct u #mark lee #nct writing #nct fanfic #nct fluff #nct imagine #nct scenario #nct dream writing #mark lee writing #mark lee fanfic #mark lee x reader #nct requests #nct au #renjun #chenle #jaemin #jeno #lucas #jisung

[omgericzimmermann]

Queer Eye for the Recently Out NHL Player

hi, I’m back.

You can also read this on AO3

Jack regretted agreeing to this the moment his doorbell rang. He shoved Puck behind his knees and opened the door to a crowd of five men – four of whom would be good on defence – and a handful of cameras.

“Hi Jack!” the small, adorable blond said, grabbing his hand and forcing him to shake it. Jack shook it and tried to shoo Puck back into the apartment, since she was trying to get out into the hall to sniff all the guys and the camera men. “And who’s this?”

“Um, this is Puck,” Jack said, letting go of the unfairly cute one’s hand and stooping to wrap his arms around Puck’s legs. He hoisted her off the ground and stepped back to let them all into the apartment. Puck wagged her tail happily. “She’s a rescue.”

“She’s got just the prettiest eyes,” the cute one said, continuing to stroke Puck’s head and getting a tongue to the face for his efforts. To Jack’s relief, he laughed.

“This is – this is how you live?” the redhead asked, scanning the apartment. When Jack answered in the affirmative, he turned and immediately started petting Puck as well rather than look at Jack’s apartment. It wasn’t that he was a slob – Jack knew he wasn’t a slob – but…

Well, it had been five years and he hadn’t unpacked.

“Okay, Bitty, Dex, can I borrow Jack for a tour of his closet?”

Justin. His name was Justin. Jack had learned their names – had been conclusively lectured on their names and their personalities and their skillsets by Tater – but they’d vanished from his head the second the Fab Five walked in the door.

Bitty – who was, unfairly, cuter in person than on TV – stepped back from Puck and ducked into the kitchen with one of the cameras following him. Dex turned to look at the living room like it was causing him personal distress. Jack followed Justin down the hall.

“I don’t think we need Puck for this part of the tour,” Justin said, gently.

Jack looked down and realised he was still carrying his dog. Suddenly very aware there were cameras on him, he set her down and followed Justin into the bedroom. He heard the tell-tale tacking of Puck’s claws on the wood floor while she sought out her favourite toy to show to the new people in the house.

“Okay, so we know from all your interviews and post-game videos that you know how to dress yourself for formal events,” Justin said, gesturing at the suits that lined half of Jack’s closet. “So we know there’s the potential for greatness somewhere in there. What we’ve got to deal with is the every day.”

His eyes flicked over Jack’s outfit and Jack felt like shrinking.

“Is this what you wear when you’re going out?” Justin asked, gesturing at all of Jack.

He correctly interpreted Jack’s silence as confirmation.

“So, babe, you look like you’re dressed to rob a Burger King,” Justin told him gently, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “And now, I know it’s hard, I really do, my husband spent half his childhood in Iowa. It can be a hard habit to break, but if I can break him, you can believe I’m going to break you.”

Jack stared at him, and then nodded slowly.

“Tell us Jack, what do you do for fun?” Adam asked, flipping through the stack of coffee table books Dex had unearthed somewhere in one of Jack’s boxes. “Because we watched a lot of your interviews in preparation for this episode, and you don’t give the fans a lot to work with.”

“I keep pretty private,” Jack said.

“Sure,” Adam said. “But the thing is, according to your teammates who put you up for this, you keep pretty private from them too, and you’re supposed to be friends. How do you spend a Saturday night?”

“Usually at a game,” Jack said.

“If you don’t have a game,” Adam prompted. “Okay, maybe not at night. What do you do with a day off?”

“Go to the park with Puck,” Jack said. At her name, she came trotting up and leaned against his leg, presenting her head for scratches. Jack obliged.

“And you run, and throw the frisbee,” Adam supplied. “Anything else?”

“Look at birds,” Jack heard himself say. “I did some photography in college.”

Adam smiled and adjusted his glasses. “See? Now we’re getting somewhere.”

To Jack’s dismay, he walked into the kitchen in time to see Bitty open the pantry, stare at the mostly barren shelves in complete silence for the count of five, and then close the doors. He shook his head like a doctor declaring a patient dead, and then turned around. When he saw Jack standing there, he jumped and pressed a hand to his chest over his pineapple printed shirt.

“Lord, you gave me a fright there, Mr Zimmermann. I didn’t hear you come in,” Bitty said.

“Is my pantry that bad?” Jack asked.

“Honey, the only thing you’ve got in there is protein powder,” Bitty said, not unkindly, but like he was going to cry. Jack, stricken, tried to apologise. “No, sweet pea, you don’t need to apologise. It’s not your fault you’ve been an athlete all your life. We’re just gonna have to go grocery shopping. Get all the basics in place, and then I can teach you some nice, easy recipes to mix in with your chicken and broccoli. How’s that sound?”

Jack thought it sounded boring, but fine. He left out the boring comment.

“How do you spend your time at home?” Dex asked, although he wasn’t looking at Jack. He had a measuring tape out and was taking down the dimensions of the sunken living space. With his plain – although Jack felt sure they were designer – jeans, white t-shirt, and the pencil behind his ear, Dex seemed like he was the most straight-laced in every sense of the word. The only outward indication that he belonged in the crew of a show called Queer Eye was the fact that instead of a belt, his jeans were held up with rainbow suspenders, and he’d cuffed the sleeves of his shirt.

“Reading or watching Netflix,” Jack said, and wondered if that made him incredibly boring.

“Sounds like me,” Dex said. He stood and slid his tape measure into his pocket. “Quick question though. Did you buy all six pieces of furniture you own at Ikea?”

Jack was evicted from his apartment by Justin and Derek at the crack of dawn on day two.

“Tell me about the look, Jack,” Derek requested. “Because it almost looks like you just haven’t cut it from playoffs yet, but you’ve clearly shaved so…”

Jack awkwardly ran a hand through his hair. It was fluffy, and had always been fluffy. The only time it did anything useful was when it was wet.

“Oh, um,” Jack said. “I just never really know what to do with it.”

“Right,” Derek said. “And this week, we’ve all agreed, is about helping you feel comfortable enough and settled enough to make a connection with the place you live, and the people you spend time with. But you also need to work on making a connection with yourself, right? It’s okay to look in the mirror and think you look good.”

Jack squirmed. “Mostly I look in the mirror and think I look like my dad.”

“Nah, you’re way hotter than your dad ever was,” Justin said from the driver’s seat.

Jack snorted.

“Was that a laugh?” Justin asked, delighted.

“Bro, I think it totally was,” Derek said. “Okay. Let’s fix your hair, man.”

After he finished getting his haircut, and listening to Derek’s lectures on his personal grooming routines and the importance of moisturiser, and after he’d finished clothes shopping with Justin – which was a harrowing experience – he was passed off to Adam.

“So Jack,” Adam said, taking him on a walk through the park near his house. Adam had collected Puck - or the film crew had, Jack didn’t know and didn’t ask - and Jack’s camera and although Jack didn’t normally take pictures when other people were around, he experimented with the idea of feeling comfortable enough to loop Puck’s leash around his wrist and snap a few photos of the sunlight filtering through the leaves, and of a small child attempting to clean melted ice cream off her wrist.

“You’re not big on being in front of a camera,” Adam said.

“I’ve been in front of a camera my whole life,” Jack replied.

“Right,” Adam agreed. “I know. I’ve been a huge hockey fan since I was a kid. I even played in juniors, believe it or not.”

“Really?” Jack asked. “When and where?”

“I was in the USHL, Waterloo, Iowa. We would’ve never met,” Adam said. “But I knew who you were. Everyone did. Is that why you did it?”

Jack shrugged. He’d never answered directly the question of why.

“I guess,” Jack said. “It was...I guess I figured there was a chance it might carry more weight if it was me who went first.”

Adam nodded like this made sense and Jack raised his camera to take another picture. By the end of the trail, Bitty was lounging in the sun, letting the rays soak into his golden skin and his near glowing hair, his chin tipped back to get even more sun directly on his face, although his eyes were hidden behind sunglasses Jack felt sure were designer. Jack snapped the picture.

“And that’s why you decided to be on our show?” Adam asked.

“I figured as the first openly LGBTQ+ male hockey player, I owed it to my community to represent,” Jack said, deadpan. There was a beat, and then Adam burst out laughing. “Also because Tater and Thirdy more or less made me.”

Adam clapped him on the shoulder. “It seems to me - if I may - that you’ve been on a bit of a quest to be authentically yourself for a few years, probably since you started planning your coming out. And that’s what we want to do with you this week. We want to help you get to the point where you can really be yourself with your teammates. We’ve figured that maybe you could have some of them over for dinner on Saturday as your final event. Does that sound reasonable?”

Jack had been over to Tater’s apartment a lot, and to Thirdy and Marty’s houses, and most of them had been over to his apartment once or twice, but usually just to stop by and pick him up for something else. Having them in his apartment for a whole dinner seemed like a lot, and also like it was probably a good goal. To be himself, genuinely, with the teammates he was closest to, in a space that he intended to settle into.

“Yeah,” he said. “That sounds good.”

Adam nodded and clapped him on the shoulder again, before depositing him in front of Bitty.

“So, mister, are you ready to go grocery shopping?” Bitty asked, springing to his feet with a sunny grin aimed in Jack’s direction.

to be continued

#the ghost ship scribbles #queer eye au #i'm back from the dead very briefly #zimbits #of course #it had to be done

[kitsunebellproductions]

Thoughts on Voltron Season 7

SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY! Things that annoyed/angered/saddened/frustrated me: *Kuron still being treated as though he was nothing more than some evil monster and convenient spare parts for Shiro. I am still nauseated by the whole thing. This poor precious baby boy deserved so much better. *Shiro’s hair -I mean come on, his fringe was pure white before but now it’s grey? What, did the whole process leach colour from the rest of his hair yet restore some to his fringe?! I will just assume it’s meant to be white but they felt this particular shade of white/grey worked best aesthetically with his outfits etc. *Too little Shiro for too many episodes. *Too much Keef. (Sorry, fandom has completely ruined this character for me, he’s not a bad character but I am repulsed by his mere name thanks to the toxicity in this fandom. I wish I could go back to the beginning of watching Voltron when he was just another decent character that I felt neither yay nor nay about, but it is what it is.) *That weird game show -if it was some magical space mage mumbo jumbo thingy that just transported their consciousness, why wasn’t Shiro there? And the whole ‘comedy family’ shtick with the Galra... I mean, it was a bit funny but... mostly weird tbh. The funniest parts were the commercials. *Way too little background/interaction with Shiro and Adam. *Also Adam’s design -like, why do you make an entirely new character that looks a lot like a mix of two other characters who are father and son (Matt and Sam)? You could have done literally anything to his design but you went safe and way too familiar? I mean holy moly did you see Kinkade? Fuck yeah what a gorgeous design, that is exactly what my hopeful heart pictured for Shiro’s boyfriend but nope. Give us generic floppy-hair glasses boy with a generic medium brown palette, it’s so fresh and new and interesting. Not. *Adam FUCKING DYING before Shiro even got back to Earth. You could have at least let the poor boy have a reunion with someone waiting for him on Earth before burying some more gays, but no. He must suffer. *Shiro getting like three seconds to mourn Adam. 

*Speaking of burying your gays... (not to mention a delightful dash of the ‘evil lesbians’ trope): Ezor and Zethrid. Yayy on their relationship, nay on them being presumably killed off (I mean killing 3 out of 4 queer characters while keeping the straight characters safe is not a good way to show how queer friendly your show is. And no the ‘we had to show how dark and dangerous war is’ excuse doesn’t work when the only characters you kill are the queer ones. There were plenty of characters back on Earth we’d have felt just as deeply about -or more even- considering we’ve heard about the other paladins’ families back on Earth but we’d never heard of Adam until now. Just imagine if Veronica had died -that would have been intensely emotional and really had gone to show all that you wanted about the dangers of war -especially as I don’t doubt for a second that Lance would have gotten an entire episode at least to mourn her while Shiro got like three seconds. Because Shiro is apparently not allowed to mourn). *And isn’t it funny how the most alien-looking Galra women are the evil ones, while the ‘good’ ones look more or less like lavender-skinned human women (and are also very pretty, petite and with slender, ‘sexy’ bodies.) Like, seriously... *Not to mention how creepy it is that Keef’s Galra mom and the other ‘good’ Galra woman (Acxa, who for whatever reason the show tried to force some out-of-the-blue yucky heteromance together with Keef) look disturbingly much alike (and they look to be the same age too more or less. So sick and tired of the ‘hot young-looking mom’ trope in media but especially animated shows. And especially when the kids end up banging girls looking to be more or less the same age as their mom). *Shiro not reacting when Ezor and Zethrid went for Pidge -he’s consistently been shown to be very protective and self-sacrificing, yet here he barely bats an eye. I get it was a scene framed to lift Lance, but it felt extremely ooc for Shiro to not at least try to help. *Ezor and Zethrid’s relationship being honestly way more explicitly stated than Shiro and Adam’s (which was the relationship hailed as the big lgbtq+ rep for this season). No, they definitely didn’t need to get back together for Shiro to still be considered lgbtq+ rep -you don’t need a partner to be lgbtq+! But when you wave a specific relationship around as a big banner of glorious lgbtq+ rep to come and then barely even hint at it in the show... well... not so much of a rep then, is it? *Not showing Shiro in that worldwide message of ‘these are our beloved brave heroes from Earth’. Like, this boy was kidnapped by aliens, spent a year being tortured, brainwashed, cloned, dismembered, pretty much violated in every concievable way, then immediately after escaping (with a shitload of PTSD in the baggage) he was sent back out into space and chosen to lead some war against seemingly impossible odds, a war that really wasn’t his war to fight, a war he still fought bravely and selflessly despite his physical and mental issues, a war he died in, but meh I guess he wasn’t worthy of mention. (And I don’t know why Keef wasn’t mentioned either, but maybe being half Galra makes you too much alien to be considered part of the world you were born and grew up in *heavy sarcasm*). *Shiro’s bond with the Black Lion and his role as the Black Paladin being pretty much erased/retconned -it’s like Keef gets to sit his ass comfortably down in the seat Shiro shed blood sweat and tears for and struggled so hard for, easily just gliding along on what Shiro has paved the road for but without acknowledging the huge role Shiro had in it all. Shiro was the one who brought out the wings for Keef in the end of the last season because Keef was unable to do it himself, because Keef had never bonded with her the way Shiro did -Shiro and the Black Lion found and saved each other in so many ways, and the Black Lion loved Shiro so much she saved his ‘essence’ inside herself, yet now we’re supposed to just accept that Shiro is old news and no longer worthy of being considered part of the ‘mighty Paladins of Voltron’. Myeah, did not like the feeling I got of this saturating this entire season. Keef can still be a big hero -or even your new main character- without grinding Shiro down into the dirt on the way. *That arm... it’s so big and clumsy-looking it makes him look weirdly lopsided. The comically large arm works for Sendak, considering his ‘evil sadist who loves crushing people with his alien prosthetic’ shtick, but for Shiro it just looks too big to be practical. If it was intentionally meant to imply that Allura just grabbed a prosthetic modelled after someone bigger than Shiro and remade it, and that’s why it’s so big on Shiro, that’s fine. But it feels impractical for anything other than fighting evil alien generals. *Shiro not getting to fulfil his arc as the abused victim and underdog by overcoming and defeating the evils pushing him down, but instead being forced to take the backset to a character forced into a leadership role for what seems like nothing more than a desperate clinging to nostalgia. It is mindboggling that everything Shiro has worked so incredibly hard for, everything he’s struggled and fought for is being taken from him and he’s supposed to be satisfied with a consolation prize. Yeah, Shiro going full Magical Girl Princess was amazing but he didn’t even get to deliver the final blow in any fight -not even his personal fight with Sendak- because apparently Shiro is not allowed any victories at all. *The whole sense of Shiro being punished for choosing his life’s dream over becoming the obedient house wife of his ex -he had only a short few years left to fulfil his dreams, and yet he’s painted as the bad guy for ‘abandoning’ his boyfriend (who was the one that left Shiro, actually). Yes, Adam had the right to choose to not want to separate for so long -during what was likely the last few years Shiro had enough mobility to do all the fun things couples dream of doing together- he had the right to say ‘I’m sorry but I can’t put my life on hold, and I wasn’t really prepared to go straight to caring for someone with a debilitating disease without a few more years of fun in between, I want to break up’. That still doesn’t make Shiro’s choice to follow his dreams any less valid than Adam’s choice to not wait for him. I bet Adam had an exciting bucket list waiting to start ticking off as a consolation when Shiro was denied the role of pilot for the Kerberos mission -I doubt he’d expected Shiro to actually be allowed to go and that probably seriously stumped him- but it’s incredibly cruel and selfish (and ableist) to expect a person to sacrifice their last few years of being able to fulfil their dreams just so their able-bodied partner can fulfil their small dreams and wishes of things they want to do for the last few of that person’s fully mobile years. And yet everything about Shiro’s arc paints a very very grim and ableist story of ‘you chose your own dreams over bending to your partner’s will, now let us show you what a horrible decision that was by torturing you relentlessly throughout the rest of this series without ever letting up. You will never be allowed happiness again because this is your punishment.’ I agree with other people that the way Shiro’s been treated throughout this series -constantly tormented without ever getting a single break or getting a real chance to fight and overcome his demons- seems way too much like torture porn. *The feeling that Shiro’s Magical Girl Moment was only there to blind us to the fact that him being probably the only one able to transform the Atlas means he’ll be conveniently grounded next season, forced to stay on Earth to ‘protect his home’ while the rest of them get to go off being the ‘amazing Defenders of the Universe’, leaving both Shiro and his legacy behind, unsung. I hope I’m wrong, but I get an overwhelming feeling that Shiro is being pushed into the background because they never intended for him to be the hero of the series but by the time they realised that’s exactly what they’d created with him it was too late to take it back, so now they’re trying their hardest to push him back into some mentor/backseat role in a sneaky enough way that they hope people won’t notice because they’ll be dazzled by the shine of his ‘new role’. ... Things that made me happy/excited/pleased: *The animation level. I mean holy mamacita Shiro is so beautiful he glows in like every single frame. *HUNK. Love this big gentle boy and love that he got to show more of who he is and what he has to give this season. *Seeing the families we’ve heard so much of. Seeing them reunited. Seeing flashbacks to happier times with the families. *Pidge finally getting her entire family back together. *The designs of all the alien/Earth tech. Gorgeous. *The design of some of the new characters <3 *So many new Galra characters with faces and personalities even if we only saw them for a few seconds. *All the ‘Earth preparing for alien invasion’ scenes/episodes. *Finally getting to know more about Iverson and who he is as a person. *Sam and Colleen. *Shiro being the new Princess of the new Castle ship. *Shiro fucking transcending being the Princess and transforming the entire Castle ship Atlas into a new Voltron type battle robot. *The Atlas being this beefy paladin type knight on top but t h i c c femme legs on tippy toes/high heels on the bottom. 10/10 what a beauty. *White Lion Shiro... I mean, I’m certainly not the only one thinking it, right? *Just Shiro. Wow. What a strong, beautiful, good person who cares about everybody else above himself. Someone give this poor traumatised boy hero a fucking vacation with the softest bed surrounded by therapy animals. Perfect cinnamonroll too pure for this world. *Shiro fighting Sendak hand-to-hand on top of a fucking space ship free-falling (read: CRASHING) to Earth instead of trying to escape I mean this boy *Keef fucking anime-slicing Sendak in twaine for daring to try to hurt the person he loves like a brother (bloodless and nice for the young’uns of course, but still). *Hunk carrying Shiro. *@ anyone claiming Lance ‘never gets screentime or development’ -fuck you. Look at this brave, strong boy who started out as a self-centered antagonistic jerk yet has grown into such a good and mature person. I may loathe the Lance I see portrayed in the fandom, but in the show he’s still such a good character. *Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man <3 *The mice and Kosmo the space wolf for MVP *Kaltenecker, most chill character in the entire universe. *Shiro’s prosthetic not being attached -at first I was like ‘noooo’, but then I realised... fuck yeah this is exactly what people in fandom need to stop erasing disabled characters. It is way too common for people in fandoms to claim that a person having any kind of high-tech or magical prosthetic that makes their disability less visible (For example Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist) isn’t actually disabled at all ‘because it’s like they have normal limbs’. Having a prosthetic arm that has a big void between itself and the shoulder attachment makes it impossible to ignore the fact that Shiro is missing a whole arm. (And maybe, just maybe, people will finally stop with the shitty ‘he’s got a full sleeve of tattoos instead of a missing arm in this AU fanfic because erasing disabilities is super cool’ trope.) *The entire Shiro/Atlas transformation scene -ugh so beautiful <3 ... Phew, that got long! (=A=;;) I’ve probably forgotten a lot of things -but it’s been a few days since I watched it so it isn’t as fresh in my mind as I’d have liked, however I don’t have the time to rewatch it right now to refresh my memory so it’ll have to do. These are just my personal thoughts -things I found negative might be things someone else found positive, and things I found positive might be things someone else found negative. This isn’t meant to be a debate or attack -just a way for me to put my thoughts down and remember them for the future. And one last thing -please remember to be kind to each other -and don’t go attacking cast or crew -most of them have no real say in what happens on the show anyway, and harrassing and threatening castmembers to the point where they’re scared to even show up at cons is not the way to make the higher-ups listen to your complaints -however legitimate they might be. Now I guess we’ll just have to brace ourselves for season 8...

#voltron spoilers #both negative and positive thoughts on this season #voltron season 7 #takashi shirogane

[shippingk8]

An argument for Freezerburn (Part 1) - Connections and Parallels

As the Freezerburn ship has been gaining more steam @toomuchfreetyme2 and myself have decided to put out there our long running argument for a Weiss and Yang pairing. (For recent and die hard shippers, or just anyone who likes to read a good RWBY theory)

Disclaimer: This argument is not us saying that we don’t like or think bumblebee isn’t a viable ship or relationship. It has it’s own song, sooo yeah…. not really wanting to go there. Nor can anyone but the writers say whether any of the three are queer or are even interested in each other. This is just us making a case for a ship. So if you’re just here to defend your favorite ship, troll, or hate the freezerburn ship, then move along this post isn’t for you. (Warning minor V5 spoilers)

It makes for a better story

1. A love triangle with Blake, Yang, and Weiss would add more drama and complications. Thus providing the writers with a potentially more interesting story to tell. This would not exclude the possibility of a Bumblebee relationship, but would create more obstacles for either pairing to overcome. If you want to argue that RWBY isn’t a love drama that is a fair point, but this could be a series long undercurrent in the story that gets resolved towards the end. We are fans of the slow burn romance anyhow. *cough* “Recovery” fanfic *cough cough* Shameless plug aside, it is sort of unavoidable that as they grow up some of them will want to take romantic partners. IF the advancement of years in the story keeps the same pace then eventually they will be in their mid-twenties by the time all of this wraps up. It would be odd if most of them didn’t end up in a relationship of some sort after that much time, whether that would be a short thing or a more sustained relationship.

2. Additionally, a love triangle would involve the whole team. If Blake and Yang end up being a thing then that is a single love interest. Obviously there would be turmoil that the two would have to work through, but that would mainly be dealt with through those two specific characters. Ruby and Weiss would probably put in their two sense or be a shoulder to cry on, but otherwise it would be mostly a Blake/Yang problem. If Weiss was thrown into the romantic mix then that would cause even more conflict. To the point that, as the leader, Ruby would have to do something. In addition it would be her sister and her partner/best friend potentially being involved, which would be a lot more awkward for her than just having to deal with it being with another member of her team. 

3. It is a great Team STRQ parallel. As far as parallels go, the colors and personalities (as far as we know) match up really well. Yang (yellow) is obviously Taiyang who had a relationship with Summer and Raven. Blake (black) is obviously Raven with their similar tactic of runny away and being the quite literal dark and brooding types. We could even use Blake’s association to the White Fang and her sense of duty and responsibility towards the organization as a very direct parallel to Raven’s loyalty to her bandit tribe. We are pairing Ruby and Qrow, no not Ruby and her mom, sorry it seems a bit too on the nose for us and doesn’t seem to work for multiple reasons. The main one being that as time has gone on we have seen just how similar Ruby is to Qrow, in addition to the fact that she sees him as her mentor. This is an instance of their colors not matching up directly, but there is a similarity in the color scheme used in their character designs. Ruby being dressed in reds, blacks and dark greys. Qrow has light Grey, but also implements black and red in his outfit. Design aside, Ruby even has the same very rare weapon type as her uncle. That would leave Weiss’s parallel to be Summer (White). We don’t know a lot about Summer, but it would make the most sense. While we don’t know how Taiyang and Summer ended up together, we can make some logical assumptions from the context given. It is most likely that Winter was always there for Taiyang and had feelings for him, and when Raven left Tai finally realized what Summer meant to him. We do also know that Yang calls Summer super mom, she baked cookies and was really great mom, but also was an expert huntress. Sounds like a certain heiress that usually has to be perfect at everything and wants to be a huntress and an heiress at the same time, yet still cares about their group like a family even though she isn’t the leader who has the job of keeping everyone together. A final thought on the parallels (a big assumption, but interesting nonetheless), Tai and Summer were probably the only two not lone wolfing it in team STRQ. Ruby and Blake are always going off on her own, much like we imagine a young Qrow and Raven might have been. 

4. Lastly, it is almost weird how often Weiss and Yang always seem to end up paired together. Volume 1 they were together for hours off screen while they were searching for Blake. Volume 2 they were together for, again, many hours as they planned the dance together. Volume 3 they would have had to have spent lots of extra time together as they trained for the doubles match. And finally in Volume 5, who are the first two of team RWBY to meet back up again? Weiss and Yang. It’s like the writers can’t stop pairing them up off screen. And I feel like all this time together has started to show. In Volume 5 Weiss has had quite a bit of physical contact and familiarity with Yang. It is yet to be seen if this will be extended to the rest of the crew, but it is interesting coming from the ‘ice queen’ of the group.

Opposite Attract (Yin and “Yang”)

1. There is the Opposites Attract trope, which in itself is a fun trope. However the show itself not only uses this trope in a lot of their on screen relationships, but uses the theme of opposites and balance a lot. We have the gods of light and dark, the classic battle of good and evil, humanity versus monsters, even nature vs technology. The theme even follows into our traditionally paired characters: Arkos had the bad ass and… well Juane. We have Raven, the kickass and stubborn bandit queen who can literally teleport across the the globe with Tai the maternal cargo-pants dad that seems to stay stuck in one place. The most blatant one is Ren and Nora, the zen ninja that can cast “Calm Emotions”, and Nora the ‘charged up’ and hyper warrior/tank. So the argument and theme of opposites is an important one, and even more so is the balance the two are supposed to achieve. 

2.  Weiss and Yang are very stereotypical opposites, but also have many subtle similarities. This argument could and has been made for Blake and Yang already, but the Weiss and Yang pairing takes it to a pretty clear cut and tropie level. Which feels fitting for the show.

3. Opposites - They are literally fire and ice, warm and cold temperaments on the surface, common and upper class, street smart and academic, happy but nontraditional close family and unhappy distant nuclear family, open minded and close minded (initially), happy-go-lucky and tsundere.

4. Commonalities - stubborn, loyal, expert/ best fighters on their team due to rigorous training, have an unknown or unreachable path but just want to be fighters. They’re also very maternal, but in opposite ways. Where Yang is encouraging and doting, Weiss is quick to pick up on her team mate’s issues and force them to address the problem. (Ex: Blake in Vol. 2 and in Vol. 5 with Yang)

5. In our opinion this lends itself to the two being a very interesting couple. Bumblebee has a claim on this argument as well; the ‘opposites attract trope,’ but Freezerburn’s claim is just as good.

Internal Issues (Psychological Trauma)

1. Weiss has been and would probably always be there for Yang. When she saw Yang in danger during the doubles match she threw herself into a lava geyser. Despite witnessing Yang attack Mercury she immediately and fervently defended her saying, “Yang would never do that!” Finally in a recent episodes we have seen Weiss be openly affectionate and supportive of Yang and the things she is dealing with. Blake is hurt and frankly traumatized by Adam. She sees the similarities between him and Yang: They’re both charismatic, popular, have similar abilities, and quick to anger. It would be odd for her character not to notice these things, like she did. But it also makes it difficult (not impossible) for her to build true trust with Yang. 

2. Which leads to the goliath in the room, Yang clearly has abandonment issues. This means that she would do best with someone who is consistent and maybe even overly protective and caring. And not to harsh on Blake, but as they have written her so far, she is very much NOT that. She is, well… a cat. She comes and goes and her affection while there is not always glaringly obvious. This isn’t to say that a Blake and Yang pairing couldn’t work things out. But it would be rather ignorant to think that after all the times Blake has left, Yang wouldn’t always be waiting for the shoe to drop, in some corner of her mind. Again we are not saying that it would be impossible for them to work through that, but given Yang’s history and the way that Blake left it would take time to build back up such a seriously damaged trust.

Relationship Equality

1. The only person to benefit in the bumblebee relationship, SO FAR, has been Blake. Time and again Yang has been there to support Blake and try to protect her, but the opposite can’t be said. When Yang was accused of misconduct she said, “I WANT to trust you.” And it wasn’t till the rest of her team spoke in her defense, and Yang almost crying in front of her, that she said she would. When Yang was at her lowest most vulnerable point, and had lost a limb because she was trying to save her partner, Blake left. I get that leaving is sort of Blake’s thing for right now, but she didn’t even leave a note or a message with anyone. She just straight up bolted. Now in fairness to Blake she had just seen someone (potentially romantically) close to her almost get killed by her abusive ex-partner. She was placed in a worst case nightmare scenario, and because of that she fell back on her instincts and ran away. She has openly stated that she regrets her choices, and that she wanted to keep the rest of her team safe. Given what Adam wants to do to Blake this volume…. she might not have been all that wrong. (Still a note would have been nice.)

2. Weiss and Yang are likely to have a stable and equal relationship. Yang needs someone consistent and almost overly caring, and Weiss needs someone less uptight than her cold family that is patient and warm enough to break down her walls. They are also both stubborn enough that they would call each other out on their shit all the time… mostly in a good way. Lastly they have been seen to have a close bond and Weiss has been quiet supportive towards Yang throughout, while Yang has been patient with Weiss while she learns to be a better person.

End Game

1. If we use foreshadowing, it would seem like Blake will end up being the new leader of the White Fang, Weiss will end up running the SDC, and Ruby and Yang will most likely be huntresses and/or teachers at a school. Blake being a leader would keep her away from combat and adventure most of the time, and to that end I don’t think Blake actually enjoys fighting all that much. 

I will admit that a Yang and Blake pairing would send a great message about equality between the races. But if Blake were the leader of the White Fang it would mean that either Yang would have to be okay being stuck by Blake’s side during political meeting and bureaucracy, or that Yang would go off on missions and not be around all that much. Given what we know about Yang I don’t know that either of those would be what she would want, but we could be wrong. Now you might say Weiss would be in the same exact boat. But we would point out that her grandfather ran the SDC and was out discovering new dust mines all the time, and Weiss has more than once said that she wanted to restore her family name by being a huntress. Meaning she would probably jump at every single opportunity to get out the office and go kill some grimm and restore the honor of her family’s name by being with the people instead of lording power over them. Which in our opinion would make Yang a great distraction… sorry we meant partner in crime, lol. So even if Weiss did have to ‘run’ the company and sit in board meetings, we feel like Yang would be there to knock on the window and say, “It’s time for a little adventure princess.”

So that is our argument. Take it or leave it, but since there are so many people that have been jumping on the Freezerburn ship lately we thought we would put our long running discussion out there. We hope it sparked some thoughts or spurs some discussions, but mostly we just hope you enjoyed it.

Other Freezerburn Theories & Things

An Argument for Freezerburn Part 2

Is Freezerburn the untapped Korrasami of RWBY?

Freezerburn Volume 4 Fan Fiction - Recovery

Freezerburn AU Fan Fiction - A Business Proposal 

Freezerburn Drabbles

Freezerburn Ship Meme

RWBY Gay Alignment Chart

***Team STRQ and Team RWBY photos were obtained from the RWBY Wiki website. (cropped and edited together by author)

#freezerburn #rwby theory #rwby ships #rwby #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #Blake Belladonna #team strq #rwby analysis

[lunakinesis]

Taking Credit

I once had a friend – Amber was her name – who never did anything for herself, never earned anything of her own accord, and never achieved anything from her own work and effort. Everything she had come from someone else:

Her parents – who were not in any way rich, they certainly weren't poor but they weren't middle class either – who did everything around the house for her, who she threw tantrums at to get her own way, who she manipulated into complaining to the school every time a teacher noticed she hadn't done her own work or was failing or being disruptive.

Her siblings, whom she domineered over. She blackmailed and bribed them into doing her chores and every other task she didn't feel like doing. She's the youngest of three, I should mention.

Her classmates, whom she bullied. The smart kids were forced into doing her homework or letting her copy, the same went for classwork. Anyone the slightest bit 'different' was basically a gazelle to a lion with her, and with her leading the charge the general popular crowd-sheep soon followed in their teasing that quickly escalated.

Her teachers, who were powerless to do anything against her lest she raise all hell and cry to her parents. I don't begrudge them for barely doing a thing about her, they had bills to pay and most had kids to feed and they couldn't afford to lose their jobs.

I could go on, but I'm sure it's clear now just what kind of person this friend was. Now I imagine you're wondering why I'd be friends with someone like that in the first place. I can tell you it wasn't really a choice I had, our families were friends going back to our great-grandparents. Whether I liked it or not – and believe me, I didn't – I had to socialise with this girl during joint family vacations, barbecues, parties, the works. My parents knew what a little witch she was, but they dared not ruin a friendship spanning generations by bringing it up to her folks.

So my little sister and I had to endure this human parasite that fed on other peoples' ideas, influence and achievements. For the most part I was spared her bullshit, I think she had been wary of sparking a family feud...not that that seems in line with how she generally was, but it's the only reason I can think of.

For whatever reason, she decided the countless innocents at her mercy were not enough and she needed to add me into the mix. She couldn't do it in her usual, obvious way. No, instead she decided to be as sly as she could manage.

She stole my journal.

Now, this wasn't a journal full of my private thoughts and secrets that she planned to blackmail me with; I fortunately did not have one of those, though what was stolen from me in its pages is arguably just as bad in a different sort of way.

My ideas.

I used the journal for world and character building, as well as setting up the plot for a story I wanted to write. A story I hoped to publish. I wrote it out because it was precious to me, and I was always worried my laptop would die and I'd be unable to recover it. I'd already drafted up a few of the early chapters too, once I was happy with them, I planned on typing them up.

I didn't get a chance.

She took it. Took MY ideas, MY hard work and passed it off as her own. She used it for our creative writing class at first, I didn't know until the teacher passed around copies she'd made as an 'example' for us. That's when I saw my characters, my plot...a piece of my heart and soul, on the page before me.

I could feel tears prickling in my eyes when I realised what had happened. I hadn't even realised the journal was gone; I'd been too busy with homework in the days before to write in it.

There was nothing I could do about it in class; it was my word against hers even if the teachers knew what she was like. They all bent to her will in the end. All I did was raise my hand and say I didn't feel well, I think the fact I was on the verge of tears added to the lie and I was excused.

The school nurse let me go home with what she presumed was a 24-hour stomach bug.

I wanted to tell my parents but at the same time, I didn't. I didn't want to be the one to blame for tearing apart our families, even if it was really her fault. So I kept it inside, cried in my room. My parents just thought it was because of whatever bug I had. I hadn't been sick before, but letting it bubble up within me gave me knots in my stomach that turned into me vomiting into a bucket my mom left beside my bed.

My parents kept me home from school the next day. I thought maybe I'd get over it, maybe it'd be better the next day and I could tell them and get my notebook back. Until a friend sent me a text:

Hey. Amber gave Ms. Temple more of that story. Think she wants to put it in the school magazine!

I don't know what happened to me as I read that, but I knew something broke. A mixture of anger, frustration and sadness flooded me. Hot fury mixed with heartbreak.

I couldn't tell my parents. Not now. It wouldn't be enough.

A plan was forming in my mind as I lay in bed crying. It wouldn't be something I could do overnight, but it'd be worth it.

Let me tell you that years’ worth of cosplay experience was invaluable to my plan. I could dress up as pretty much anyone or anything with the right amount of effort and materials, and I already knew what I intended to do once my outfit was complete.

She wanted to steal from me? Fine. I'd get even.

You see, Amber had this boy she liked. His name is Adam. Adam was...kind of a pig. A pig not interested in her, much to her frustration. No, his interests lay in Mrs. Winter and her 'E's'. Though I'm pretty sure – like all assholes – they'd somehow drift together; that's my experience with these sorts of things anyway.

That's where my plans come in. Now, Amber and I are the same height with the same fair complexion; however she has blonde hair and green eyes, whilst I have auburn hair and blue eyes. These traits were easily fixed by a long, wavy wig and a set of my innumerable contact lenses.

The one other difference was that I was 'blessed with a chest', as it were. A fact I'm sure he'd overlook...or be too preoccupied with staring at to pay much attention to anything else. I did have a plan in mind for that too if I was questioned. Amber always got her way; it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine she'd convinced her parents to let her get a boob job.

I knew he tended to hang out in the alley beside the local arcade, blowing out smoke like he was some 'cool dude' from the 50s or something. He thought the games were too 'dumb' and 'for kids' so stayed there whilst his friends played. As if it somehow made his douchebag self more mature.

I was waiting for him as he swaggered down the alley; the shaded passage was helpful in concealing my identity. It was a good disguise, but not fool proof. The dark helped with that.

"Hey, Adam!" I called out, trying to up the pitch of my voice to the sickeningly-sweet tone Amber had. He barely looked up from his phone as he approached, unlit cigarette held between his lips.

"Hey...Emma...right?"

"Amber."

"Close enough."

I managed to laugh. If it was anyone else I'm sure Amber would've thrown a hissy fit, but with this creep she'd let anything slide. Idiot.

"Think I could bum one of those off of you?" I asked, nodding towards the cigarette.

"What's it worth?" His eyes were trained on my chest as he spoke. Ew, teenage boys.

"What? You want a free grab or something?" I felt gross just uttering those words. Now, I have no issue with any guy or girl messing around however they want. It was just sickening humouring this waste of oxygen.

"If you're offering."

I really wasn't, but needs must and all.

"Fine, but I want that smoke first."

He sighed, but stepped forward, putting his phone away and pulling out the box instead. "Here. You women always want it your own way."

If I had been me, I would've responded to that casual bit of sexism, but I had to keep up the act for just a little while longer. "That's because I know what I want." I said, batting my eyelashes.

It was true; I did know what I wanted. But it certainly wasn't to let this ass fondle my chest whilst he came in his pants.

As he stepped closer I clutched at the purse hanging from my shoulder. Amber and I both had always made sure to carry large ones around, so it didn't look out of place on me here. We also happened to have an identical pair. Fancy that.

Milliseconds passed like hours to me as he drew within touching distance.

Closer, closer...

"I'm sorry."

"Wha-"

My bag came down over his head and Adam fell to the floor.  

I was knocked off balance, stumbling due to the weight of my weapon into the wall. Adam didn't move, he didn't even grumble or swear or any of the other things I assumed a person would do when smacked over the head with a concealed brick.

I took a breath and straightened myself before finally looking back at Adam properly, my body was shaking. His head was bleeding, unsurprisingly, but it wasn't just bleeding on the side I hit it. He'd manage to crack his head on a step leading into a back entrance of the arcade.

He was staring up with blank eyes, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as well as his head wounds. The one from the step was deeper than my hit. I was sure I could see his skull, but the blood was pumping through my body so hard and fast I couldn't be sure.

I'd done too good of a job, but no going back now.

When my legs stopped shaking so much, I ran. As I had always intended to do. Back past the building site where I'd picked up the brick and taking it back from my bag and returning it, straight back into my house and into my room. From there, into my en suite.

Costume dumped on the floor, I let the still-cold water of the shower wash over me. It was done. I couldn't take it back. But it had gone even better than planned, really.

I feigned shock when my parents sat me down the next day and broke the news to me that one of my schoolmates had been murdered. I forced out tears when they told me CCTV footage had caught Amber in the act.

A part of me was proud, I was so convincingly disguised that even my own parents didn't recognise me.

"We'll be keeping you off school for a while, honey."

"If you need to go lie down, Maddy, that's okay. The police might be back to talk to you about Amber but you don't have to talk until you're ready."

I sniffled and stood to hug them both before retreating to my room. Oh, I was ready. But I had to play the part of the shocked childhood friend who couldn't understand how someone who was practically a sister to her could do something so heinous.

Yes, she'd always been prone to aggressive outbursts but they were like a toddler's temper tantrums, she never physically hurt anyone...Well yes, she did prey on some of the meeker kids that were easy targets for bullying but it just seemed like typical teenage assholery, nothing really malicious.

Now that you mention it...she did have a crush on that boy and has never liked being told no. Maybe she snapped. I don't know. He parents could never really discipline her, she walked all over them...she definitely had some issues.

I had it all planned out and delivered my lines flawlessly when a pair of officers came to our home to ask a few questions. Amber's reputation was fuel against her. Even her parents who had understandably been trying to defend their child's innocence ended up questioning it and exactly what she was capable of.

Our families grew apart with the weight of the trial on Amber's parents' backs, but my parents were distantly supportive in their own way even if things were tense and awkward.

Amber continued to deny it even after the 'Guilty' verdict was given. I'm told she was sobbing, pleading with the judge and jury, with her parents, begging everyone to believe she was innocence, that it wasn't her.

Poor, poor Amber. She liked to take credit for work that was not hers, so I made sure she got the credit for my greatest work yet.

#stories #scary stories #horror stories #horror #writers on tumblr #my work #HERE YOU GO GUYS #FINALLY

[coppolafrancis]

How Do Stars Get To Wear All Those Jewels? Celebrity Stylist Michael O’Connor Tells All!

As we mentioned in an earlier blog, Oscar night is to jewelry what Fashion Week is to clothing. But celebrities need to accessorize for many other appearances too. Unless they get snapped (or in current parlance, “papped”) at the airport or out for a run, most celebrity outfits you see in photos are the result of a stylist’s help. 

In the early 2000s, some celebrities started to seek out colored gemstones to accompany their red carpet looks. Whether to modernize their look to keep up with color in fashion—or potentially resulting from the movie Blood Diamond in 2006—colored gemstones started to become much more fashionable for celebrities to accessorize with. In 2008, Heidi Klum chose massive red and pink gemstone earrings from Mouawad instead of diamonds (she is a design collaborator for the brand); and in 2009 Angelina Jolie leapfrogged everyone and created a huge surge of interest in color when she wore a large pair of emerald-only earrings. That same year, Amy Adams wore a vintage Fred Leighton necklace comprised of a variety of colored gemstones.

The focus on earrings remained a red-carpet rule for many years, but larger bracelets and bracelet stacks became an important focus with celebrities too. Madonna led the way there at the Oscars in 1991.

In the early 2000s, some celebrities started to seek out colored gemstones to accompany their red carpet looks. Whether to modernize their look to keep up with color in fashion—or potentially resulting from the movie Blood Diamond in 2006—colored gemstones started to become much more fashionable for celebrities to accessorize with. In 2008, Heidi Klum chose massive red and pink gemstone earrings from Mouawad instead of diamonds (she is a design collaborator for the brand); and in 2009 Angelina Jolie leapfrogged everyone and created a huge surge of interest in color when she wore a large pair of emerald-only earrings. That same year, Amy Adams wore a vintage Fred Leighton necklace comprised of a variety of colored gemstones.

By 2009 the necklace was gaining importance again. Although in 1999 Gwyneth Paltrow paired her sugar-pink Ralph Lauren gown with a 40-carat diamond choker from Harry Winston to accept her Oscar for Shakespeare In Love, the necklace was still rarely seen again until 2009 when it magically seemed to gain favor again with the Amy Adams necklace and Nicole Kidman’s very large draped necklace. Today it seems that the necklace is again a favored red carpet item: this year it was seen on everyone from Lady Gaga (Tiffany & Co., where she is a design collaborator) to Charlize Theron (Bvlgari) and Laura Harrier (Bvlgari), among many others.

Worthy: Apart from the major awards, when celebrities are photographed wearing jewelry at other events or just out and about, is it their own or borrowed?

O’Connor: For major events and photo shoots, it’s unlikely that celebrities are wearing their own jewelry. The desire to be seen and photographed in pieces that are new and different, and rarely repeated, is huge. Therefore, when given the option of borrowing from the world’s biggest jewelry brands or to choose pieces from a plethora of designers, it’s easy to understand why the idea of borrowing jewels of that caliber is so appealing.

Worthy: Do any celebrities own much fine jewelry since they can borrow whatever they need at the time they need it?

O’Connor: Having worked with, and known, many celebrities over the years, I’m constantly reminded that they are ‘just like us!’ Many have jewelry—big pieces, small pieces, valuable pieces, costume pieces—that have been given to them over the years, self-purchased, or handed down in their family. There are some who love jewelry and have large collections and there are some for whom jewelry is the last item that they think of when they’re getting dressed and going out. It’s really a mixed bag.

Worthy: Other than Liz Taylor who was famous for her jewels, what other celebrities are passionate jewelry collectors or jewelry lovers who have a substantial collection of their own?

O’Connor: I was fortunate enough to know and work with Joan Rivers for many years. Not only was she a lovely lady, but she had a significant jewelry collection comprised of everything from the most important jewelry houses to costume jewelry.

Although I’ve never seen it, I’m told that Oprah Winfrey is an avid jewelry collector with a collection worth millions of dollars. It’s often noted in Hollywood that she does not borrow jewelry at all and prefers to only wear her own pieces.

Model Kate Moss is another celebrity who is said to have amassed a significant collection of pieces over the years. I’ve also heard that Elton John has been a collector for years as well.

When I was first in New York and in the jewelry business, I had the opportunity to meet actor Rex Harrison (of Dr. Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins fame) at his home. He had one of the most impressive collections of cufflinks that I had ever seen!

Worthy: What’s the general process of getting jewelry onto a celebrity? Do brands pay agencies to pitch stylists or do they go straight to the stylists or a mix of both?

O’Connor: There are no set rules. Sometimes a celebrity will have seen and like a particular designer, or a store’s aesthetic, and will want to wear those pieces. In some cases, the celebrity or stylist will have a look they’re trying to achieve and will reach out to various designers to fulfill that look. At times, brands will approach me and want to be exposed to celebrities with the goal of potentially being worn.

Regarding pay, it’s much more common these days that stylists and celebrities are asking for fees to ensure wear of product. Some brands will approach stylists and agents with an offer. In all cases, one must know who they are dealing with, because there is a lot of misrepresentation and falsities in claims on what can be done and how much it will cost.

Worthy: Who picks the pieces the celebrity wears? The stylist or the celebrity?

O’Connor: The actual choice of pieces is a balancing act. As a stylist, fortunately I’ve developed a very good reputation over the years I’ve been doing this, so celebrities who come to me know that my goal is to make THEM look good. I’ve told many a celebrity that a certain gown or piece of jewelry would not be right for them, and many have grown to trust my guidance. Sometimes a celebrity will have a very definite thought on a piece and that can be hard to sway. Also, even though a stylist may have a definite opinion on what works with what, it’s important to remember that the celebrity is the one who is going to be seen, and THEY are the one that needs to be comfortable! You guide the decision, but you shouldn’t dictate the decision.

Worthy: Are celebrities paid to wear jewelry or is the press exposure considered payment enough?

O’Connor: More and more celebrities are being approached with an offer of payment for wearing pieces. So many designers feel that this is the “magic bullet” that will skyrocket them to fame and therefore, many celebrities are starting to seek a fee to be seen in the jewelry. However, there are still many, many celebrities who are more interested in ensuring that the total look is right and they go to stylists who they trust to make that happen. In those cases, they don’t expect payment, and the benefit for the designer is the press exposure.

That said, I’m often asked by certain brands to place their pieces on certain celebrities who may have financial or promotional arrangements with other brands, which makes it impossible. When a celebrity wears a particular brand over and over, it does raise the question, “Are they being paid for this?”

Worthy: Are situations like the Sharon Stone/Harry Winston misunderstanding (where she thought a necklace was a gift, not a loan), common? Or are there very firm contracts that spell out ownership of the jewelry?

O’Connor: Usually when I work with a celebrity there is a very definite contract and understanding on the loan, the purpose, the timing, and what security measures need to be adhered to. Although there have been a couple of ‘misunderstandings’ on the timing etc., I’ve never had a celebrity feel that they were receiving the piece as a gift.

Worthy: How often does a celebrity end up buying the pieces she or he has been styled in?

O’Connor: I always tell the designers and brands that I’m working with not to expect a purchase. However, in my 15+ years of doing this, I’ve been asked approximately 10 or so times by the celebrity, if the designer would be willing to sell them the pieces. Therefore, although it should not be expected, it’s not uncommon. It’s never uncommon to love and want something that makes you look great!

Worthy: Do any “regular” jewelry brands—the kind that anyone can buy at a local jewelry store—ever get big red-carpet moments, or is it all limited to the big jewelry houses or acknowledged “celebrity jewelers?”

O’Connor: Absolutely! Many a great designer and even retailer—many of whom I’ve worked with—have enjoyed the glamour and coverage of being on the red carpet at an awards show. Erica Courtney, Susan Eisen, Farah Khan, Elyse Fine Jewelers, Christopher Designs, Shaftel Diamond Company, Fei Liu, and Leeza Braun, to name a few. There are so many celebrities and they can’t all be seen in the same brands. (Editor’s note: Forevermark, Le Vian, Hearts On Fire, and Belle Étoile are more brands frequently seen on celebrities).

Worthy: Last, but not least, if a woman is selling a lot of jewelry she doesn’t wear and she wants to use the proceeds for something she will wear, what would you advise she invest in first?

O’Connor: The fact that jewelry maintains value and a person can sell it when needed is a wonderful thing. Although I always tell people that the investment in jewelry is primarily for its beauty and durability, there are very few other tangible goods that give you the option that jewelry does: to sell it, pass it down to future generations, or to modify its style later on. Therefore, a reinvestment in jewelry is still, in my opinion, the best idea.

However, there are many personal needs that might be greater when selling jewelry, such as an investment in higher education or housing. If that’s the case, then I think those elements should take priority. Rose gold is a subtle, romantic color of gold that translates into romantic, elegant fine jewelry and engagement rings. We love creating designs in rose gold, and look forward to creating the perfect rose gold wedding rings, or fine jewelry piece for you.

[wrestlewriting]

Insolence, Pt. 11 [Adam Cole]

Title: Insolence, Part Eleven of ? (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten)

Characters: Adam Cole/OC(Brenna)

Genre: Fluff. Sexy Times.

Length: ~4,800

Warnings: Language. Somewhat rated-M shenanigans (what?! Yes! It’s true!)

Summary/Inspo: “No star is ever lost we once have seen; we always may be what we might have been.” - Adelaide Anne Procter

“Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time. It’s easy. All you need is love.” - The Beatles

@catie-kaboom @libby-rose-2016 @legitlunatic @valeonmars @superkixbaybay @danapotterwwe @alexahood21 @rollinstrash @covergirlcollarbones  @hiitsmecharlie  @tearsropsandtiedye @thedeboniardevistation @ily-zaddy @wweismyguiltypleasure @darwarsnoam @bulletbaybay @megan-monroe @pjanina13

AUTHOR NOTE: I am sooooo not a smut writer. But here’s my loving attempt at it all the same. So this isn’t really smut but like, happy sexy times? (Please, 1000x over, let me know your thoughts on this one! So out of my comfort zone. Also, just in general, what’s up? Good stuff? Only a chapter or two left sooo…..)

These are the days we’ve been waiting for. Neither of us knows what’s in store. You just roll your window down and place your bets. These are the days we won’t regret. These are the days we will never forget!

“So what exactly are we doing?” Adam inquired, watching you from the doorway of the bathroom as you did your hair; two braids coming from the front, meeting at the back of your head, where you were pinning them to rest over your hair that was down.

“Regretting letting me plan today?” you asked, throwing a coy but mocking smile at him quickly, before focusing back on your appearance.

“Nah, I’m sure you’re not getting me killed or anything,” he stated with a chuckle, leaning against the door-frame.

“You don’t know that,” you argued, looking at him through the mirror. “I could totally have gotten in contact with the mob already. Or Jay.”

“…too soon,” Adam grumbled, making you giggle. “Can we not talk about him?”

“We’re gonna have to face it eventually,” you pointed out, finishing with your hair, turning to face him.

“Yea, eventually. But not now. Today and tomorrow…this is us, just us, OK?”

“Got it,” you agreed, walking to him, standing up straight to kiss him briefly “You and me.”

“You and me.”

“Now let’s go so I can date the hell out of you,” you declared, causing him to laugh outright, as you walked past him out of the bathroom.

“Oh, is that what this is?” he asked amused, turning and watching you as you grabbed your shoes, and sat down on the bed to put them on.

“Yes,” you answered, tying your red low top shoes. “Because we did this whole thing ass backwards.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong,” he conceded. “But we also haven’t exactly had time with each other that didn’t also involve work.”

“Well, now we do. So we’re gonna be normal,” you explained, standing up. You fixed the flowy black shirt you were wearing, which was over a light pair of jean capris. Adam was similarly dressed in a jeans and a t-shirt. Las Vegas wasn’t sweltering at this time in the day, but it was warm enough for you to just bring a light sweater and be fine.

After getting back from the show last night, the both of you had realized you hadn’t made actual plans for the next two days. So it had been determined, with a coin toss, that you would be in charge of today’s activities, and Adam was to plan tomorrow.

This morning you had slept in together, enjoying a lazy morning in bed with the TV. Adam had, courteously, kept his own hotel room booked for the days, but you were happy to wake up beside him, and told him as much.

Once the day had turned to afternoon, you went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for lunch. It was just shy of 4PM now, and you were finally heading out for the other activities you’d chosen. Which you were keeping secret from Adam.

Though, to be fair, he hadn’t told you what he planned for tomorrow.

Making sure you both had any needed items from the room, you went downstairs and out to the car. Adam, begrudgingly, let you drive. You had to give him points for thinking you’d let him and he could figure out the plans that way.

Las Vegas traffic was a bitch, even later on a Sunday. But you eventually arrived to your pre-planned destination. The same venue you’d had Ring of Honor shows at this weekend; Sam Town’s Live.

“…what?” Adam asked, his eyes scanning over the building. “We’ve been here for the last two nights. Why are we back?”

“How many times have we been here, like in total?” you responded, parking the car.

“I don’t know. Probably ten? Maybe?”

“And none of those times did any of us ever do any of the fun stuff that’s here,” you specified. “We’ve talked about it on plenty of occasions, just never did it.” The two of you got out of the vehicle, meeting at the trunk. “So, we’re gonna see a movie and get dinner and then I am so kicking your ass at bowling.”

“You are taking this ‘normal’ date plan very seriously,” Adam observed with a chuckle. You just grinned cheekily at him, took his hand, and made sure he was coming along with you into the building.

You found it was easier to just be you when it was only Adam. There was no worrying over what others thought or said or saw. There was little opportunity for your mind to go elsewhere. Adam was engaging, fun, entirely aware of you…you’d forgotten part of that somewhere along the way it seemed. But if you thought about it, it was what attracted you to him. Your friendship way back when had started with him because of these things.

Adam was beyond excited that you’d picked the movie Fist Fight to see. You giggled at his enthusiasm, and internally praised yourself for the choice.  To be fair, it was also a movie you wanted to see.

It was about 6PM when you left the theater, still laughing and going over your favorite parts of the movie. You grabbed dinner at the in-building steakhouse, which was full of genuine catching up with one another; talk of each other’s families, Adam asking about your other job, you asking about his recent time in Japan, and his upcoming trip to England.

By the time you headed over to the bowling alley, a couple hours later, you were slightly tipsy. Not drunk, but feeling a bit looser.

The man working the counter was a big wrestling fan you found out. So after some talking, a couple autographs and pictures, he gave you what would essentially be free games for the night. After many assurances it wasn’t necessary, and then thanks, you headed over to get your bowling shoes.

“How come they haven’t made cuter shoes by now?”

“I don’t know,” Adam answered, picking up his pair from the counter.

“Like, this does not match my outfit, at all,” you disapproved.

“Well, that’s the joy of bowling, isn’t it? You get to wear stupid shoes and throw things at other things,” he detailed, as you finally reached your assigned lane.

“I do like throwing things,” you conceded almost dreamily, causing him to chuckle. Sitting down on one of the plastic benches, stowing your purse underneath, you took off your shoes and put on the tan and red shoes.

“Do I look good, or do I look good?” you asked jokingly, standing up and striking a dramatic pose to show off your temporary footwear.

“Sexiest you’ve ever looked,” Adam established.

The first two games went by quickly, leaving you each with one win. Jokes and trash talk were exchanged throughout. Adam attempted to distract you by sneaking up behind you, and you attempted to throw him off his game by teasingly pulling up your shirt a few inches.

“I will return with more drinks,” you decided, kissing his cheek, and standing up after the second game had ended, and the waitress circling around hadn’t been seen in a while.

“Alright,” Adam said, and you could feel his gaze on you as you walked away.

Making your way to the bar, you leaned your forearms against it, waiting for the bartender to notice you. She was currently filling a larger order, so you knew it would take a moment. In the interim, you let your eyes scan around, casually people watching. Vegas sure brought out an eclectic grouping of people; from families to couples to girls getting drunk together, to dudes trying to hit on those girls. It was an interesting mixture, and entertaining to observe.

“Who knew a Sunday night would be so busy?” Looking over, you found a man standing beside you. He was cute enough, in the conventional preppy-boy style; wearing a graphic tee and jeans. He had to be in his mid-20s you figured, around your age.

“Vegas never sleeps,” you replied.

“Can’t really blame it,” he stated. “It’s not for a lack of anything to do.”

“This is true,” you agreed, your eyes trying to catch that of the bartender’s.

“Are you here on vacation?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, I’m Nate,” he introduced himself.

“Nice to meet you.”

“No name for you?”

“I’m a mystery,” you identified, your voice monotone. You could chit-chat with the best of them, if their intentions seemed innocent or sweet. But something in this man’s posture, presentation, told you he wasn’t either of these things. And that made him unwelcome to you.

“I bet I can figure you out,” Nate decreed, suggestively. You continued to stare at the bartender, in hopes she’d come over soon.

Thankfully, she did. You ordered another round of liquor for you and Adam, watching as she walked off to make the drinks.

“Didn’t take you for a vodka girl,” Nate commented.

“Eavesdropping is rude,” you highlighted.

“Feisty.” You had to work very hard to restrain yourself from rolling your eyes, and giving him a piece of your mind. “Don’t girls usually like their cute little mixed drinks?”

“Anyone can like a good mixed drink whenever they choose to,” you explained, your tone biting. “I don’t recall drink menus coming with gender assignments.”

“Hey.” Adam’s voice was music to your ears. Not that you couldn’t handle yourself, you had for years. But backup was always welcomed. Especially when you just weren’t in the mood to handle pushy men.

“Hi,” you turned you hip against the bar, allowing him to come to your side, an arm going around your waist. You didn’t miss that his kiss was a little bit more possessive than usual. You guessed he’d been watching you at the bar, and had read the situation the same way you had.

“Have you even ordered yet?” Adam inquired.

“Yes.”

“Good.” From the corner of your eye, you noticed the scowl on Nate’s face beside you. Adam turned his gaze to the man, and you could almost feel the cockiness, protectiveness, radiating from him. “Hey, man.”

“Hey,” the other reciprocated. “Busy night, huh?”

“Definitely,” Adam granted, his stare never leaving Nate’s. “But my girlfriend and I are having fun all the same.”

Your heart skipped a beat at his statement.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Nate, begrudgingly, said. “Well, keep enjoying your night.”

“You too,” Adam replied, before coming closer to the bar, turning himself enough to keep Nate from being able to fully see you. The bartender came back a moment later with your drinks, each of you picking up yours. You took a long drink from the glass.

“Girlfriend, huh?” you questioned, looking up at Adam. He appeared unfazed on the surface about your inquiry, but his eyes told a different story.

“Too far?”

“Just right,” you ensured, kissing him shortly, before walking away and back to the lane you had been assigned. Honestly, you were still trying to process through his sudden declaration and use of defined terms for what you were. While you appreciated it, liked it, you still hadn’t expected it. It did sound nice to hear. But was it too much? Too soon?

Not seconds later did you feel Adam’s hand on your hip, stopping you from punching in for your third game to start on the computer.

“Bren, I’m serious,” he stated, his voice close to your ear, as you set your drink down on the table. “I need you to tell me if that was too far.”

Apparently Insecure Adam was making another, rare, appearance. It would probably never cease to surprise you any time you heard worry or uncertainty in his tone. But you preferred this to Insolent Adam any day of the week.

“Do you regret saying it?”

“What? No.”

“Then…what’s the issue?” You turned yourself enough to face him. “You told me you weren’t messing around with me. And I’m clearly not looking to be with anyone else. So…what else would we call this? Friends with benefits?”

“…what benefits?”

“Don’t be an ass,” you demanded, causing the suggestive smirk to fall from his face after his ill-timed joked.

“Hey, Bren, you’re right,” Adam conceded gently. “I just…don’t want you to think I’m pushing you towards something you’re not ready for.”

“I’ve literally told my best friends to get fucked. I’m in Vegas alone with you. These are my choices,” you confirmed. “I know I haven’t been the best at being open about what I want and what’s in my head before. But I’m trying to be better. I’m trying to not second-guess and hesitate and worry. I’m trying to just do what feels right.”

“And this does?”

“Do you think I would be here if it didn’t?” you challenged.

“No.”

“So, then, boyfriend, can we get back to me kicking your ass at bowling?”

“We’re tied.”

“Not for long.”

Before you could turn back to the lane screen, Adam pulled you to him, kissing you. It wasn’t deep in the physical sense, but you knew it was meaningful. He needed you to feel, know, he meant this. There was now structure, titles, boundaries, instilled in your relationship. While part of you was still very nervous, the other part of you was thrilled. And you were trying your best to let the happy part overshadow anything else.

“My date today is gonna be so better than yours.”

“Excuse me?” You couldn’t decide what you wanted to be more offended by; the fact that he thought he had a better plan than you, or that he basically implied your date day had been bad.

“I’m just sayin’,” he shrugged, grinning over at you. You didn’t smile back.

“So yesterday sucked then?”

“What? No.”

“Then explain yourself.”

“I had fun yesterday, of course I did. I didn’t mean… I was just joking, Jesus,” he finally got out, looking entirely uncomfortable under your stare.

“Mmhmm,” you murmured, looking him up and down once, before turning to gaze out the cab’s window. You struggled to keep the smile from coming to your face as you felt him glancing over at you. Giving Adam a hard time was quickly becoming a new hobby for you. When he took your hand in his, lifting it to kiss the back of it, you broke and let out a giggle.

Your day had been another lazy one. Another lunch in the hotel. An afternoon nap. Some day-drinks in the hotel room.

Now that you found yourself driving away from the hotel, you already had a good idea that his plans for the night were far different than yours. The fact that he had told you to wear the short ruffled nude-gold dress and heels gave enough away to tell you that you wouldn’t be hanging at a bowling alley and bar tonight.

So when you pulled up to the Mirage hotel, you weren’t entirely shocked. But you were still very curious as to what you’d be doing here.

Adam was quick to take care of the cab and lead you in to the hotel. It was beautiful inside, you had to say; full of trees and different places to veer off to. You followed beside Adam into the hotel and along the side, arriving at a restaurant called Japonais. It was darker in atmosphere; mysterious, sexy, cool.

The hostess sat the two of you quickly, at a small table against the wall further inside. Within moments a waiter came over to welcome you, as well as take your drink order. You felt adventurous, trying one of their specialty cocktails, while Adam had settled on a Japanese beer.

Dinner was incredibly enjoyable. The food, specifically sushi, was amazing; the conversation flowing with ease. You and Adam spoke about your dreams for your careers, you worries about accomplishing these things. Hopes for your lives beyond wrestling; kids a desire for the both of you, along with a quiet suburban life.

You realized how many things you had known about him before, and how many you still had to learn.

Adam eventually informed you that you needed to leave to make the next event he had planned, which came sooner than you anticipated. Time had seemingly flown during dinner. Downing your third drink, he paid, before you headed back out in to the hotel. Walking with your arm tucked in to his, you eventually came upon a theater.

The words ‘The Beatles, Cirque Du Soleil’ read across the marquee.

“Adam, oh my god,” you gasped, taking in the large British flag projected on the ceiling above you.

“I figured you’d like this.”

“You should like it too,” you resolved, looking to him.

“It’s The Beatles. Who the hell doesn’t like The Beatles?”

“Fair,” you said with a giggle. Pulling him closer, you stood up straight to kiss him lightly a few times. “This is awesome. Thank you.”

“Anything to see you happy.” A blush came to your face almost instantly at his declaration. After giving your tickets, you made your way to your seats, to enjoy the show.

The show ended up being incredible. Every part of it amazed you. While you were fairly athletic as a wrestler, acrobats took the cake as far as flexibility and physical skill. You wished you could do many of the things they did. The music, the colors, the movements…it was absolutely breathtaking.

It ended far too soon in your opinion. You could have watched hours and hours more of it.

Adam guided you out of the theater, and back into the hotels’ atrium. He took you over to one of the bars, which was surrounded by palm trees and other bits of outdoorsy-décor. Sitting at a table, a waiter came over and took your drink orders.

You gushed to Adam about the show over drinks, how much you had enjoyed the entire experience, the entire night to be honest. Conversation changed to other topics; other bands you loved, concerts you’d been to, concerts you wanted to go to. Drinks continued to come, as topics in your talks changed to movies and friends and places you wanted to travel to.

A loud collection of people broke your concentration on one another as they made their way in to the bar just shy of midnight. Based on the short white dress, and the sloppy way a man hung on her, kissing her, you had one guess as to what had happened.

“I can’t believe people actually do that,” you commented, watching the couple giddily ordering drinks at the bar with their friends, some of their loud voices commenting on the ‘crazy wedding’ that had just occurred.

“To each their own,” Adam shrugged, looking amused at the drunken party of people. “How come you and Evan never got married?”

“Didn’t get around to it,” you replied, taking a strong drink from your glass, as he faced you again. The mention of your former love, surprisingly, didn’t hurt as much as you thought it would. “We didn’t want it to be all crazy and stressful, more than it had to be anyways. So we were just waiting for, I guess, my life and career to settle a bit. It never mattered to us though. I called him my husband more often than not.”

“You guys were engaged for a while….”

“Almost three years,” you clarified. “We waited until he was done with college for that part. But like I said, it just wasn’t a huge thing for us that we felt we had to do. We were together, everything was good as it was. Words and titles and legalities weren’t important then.”

“I genuinely didn’t know you guys weren’t married more than once,” Adam stated, causing a bittersweet grin to come to your face.

“A lot of people didn’t; still don’t probably. It just got easier to tell people we were than explain what we actually were. I mean, I didn’t even wear my ring a lot because I was always afraid of losing it on the road.”

“You do lose things, a lot.”

“So much,” you admitted, with a laugh. “Ya know, I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to talk about exes on dates.”

“…we’re really shitty at this.”

“The worst,” you grinned, and after a pause, spoke again. “So, Kelsey….”

“Ha, fucking, ha,” Adam muttered, taking his own long drink from his glass.

“Kidding!” You smiled widely at him, causing him to give you a fake, short smirk of his own, before a genuine smile came to his lips. The conversation fell off for a minute, as you each sipped more at your drinks. While it had been easy to talk about Evan, and joke about Adam’s past relationship, you knew that it also brought up feelings for both of you. Things that didn’t really need to be relevant right now. Things that shouldn’t be bothered with at this time.

“So, good couple days?”

“Great couple days,” you corrected, grateful for the subject change. “I needed this. We needed this.”

“Yea,” Adam agreed, his eyes catching yours. “I’m not ready for it to end, honestly.”

“We’ve still got tonight…and the morning,” you replied, biting at your lip. You knew your statement held promise, suggestion.

It was intentional.

“Let me know when you’re ready to head back,” he offered, his tone equally indicative of more to come.

“After this drink?”

“Sounds good.”

There was a solid chance you put some hurry into finishing your liquor. After closing out the tab, Adam tucked you into his side, heading out front to get a cab. Throughout the ride back to your hotel, you stayed against his side, your hand resting on his thigh.

Heading up to your room seemed to take longer than you wanted.

As soon as the door was closed, you had your shoes off, kicked somewhere against the wall. You reached behind yourself, sloppily tugging at the zipper on your dress.

“Help me,” you pouted, looking over your shoulder at Adam, who was slowly making his way in to the room, observing you. After toeing off his shoes, he eventually came to you, his hands gently pulling down the zipper, exposing your back to him.

Turning towards him, you immediately put your hands on his cheeks, pulling him into a strong kiss. Adam seemed to take a second to take stock of the situation, before his hands rested against your hips, pulling you flush against him.

It was barely moments before the kiss turned to tongue and teeth, emotion and urgency flowing between the two of you.

“Bren….” Your name was practically a breath from him as he parted slightly from you.

“Adam, don’t,” you requested, your hands slowly sliding down his shoulders, his torso, stopping as they met the waistband of his pants. “If I didn’t want this, I wouldn’t do this. You have to know that by now.”

“…I do,” he assured. “I just….”

“Don’t turn in to a gentleman now,” you smirked.

“I will always be that way to you,” Adam affirmed, his seriousness catching you off guard.

“…I know,” you recovered. “Which is why I’m confident in this. I trust you. I’m safe with you, right?”

“Always.”

“Then kiss me. And get this dress off of me,” you declared, your fingers curling into his belt, pulling him further into you. “Trust me when I say I want this.”

Instead of replying, Adam placed his mouth against yours. You had enough sense about you to reciprocate the action, your mouths opening quickly, tongues meeting the others. You felt his hands move up to the straps of your dress, pushing them down your arms, letting the material fall down your body.

Trying to keep things equal, you had your hands working open his belt within a moment, unbuttoning his pants, causing them to hang loosely on his hips. You let go of him, and moved your arms out of your dress, the clothing bunching at your hips. Adam moved his hands to continue pushing your dress down, as you put your hands so they cradled his jaw, pressing his lips closer into yours. You barely acknowledged the feeling of your dress falling to your feet, but you stepped out of it all the same, leaving you in just your lingerie.

While his mouth traveled down your cheek to your neck, you worked at unbuttoning his shirt. It seemed to happen far faster than you could comprehend; he slid out of his shirt, you got off your bra, he moved you so the back of your legs met the bed. He made sure you were eventually on your back, your feet just dangling over the edge of the mattress. Adam was above you quickly, his lips working smoothly down your chest, to your stomach.

When his kisses made it below your belly button, you stopped him, with a hand to his head gently, your stomach flexing tightly.

“…don’t,” you murmured, causing his eyes to come up and meet yours, his breath hot against your skin. “Don’t.”

“Sweetheart….”

“I just want you right now.”

Pushing yourself up onto your elbows, you guided Adam back up to meet you in a kiss. Gliding your hands down as far as you could, you pushed at his pants that were still hanging on to his body. He lifted himself from the bed, finishing what you started, leaving himself naked. Reaching towards you, he gently pulled at your panties, sliding them down your legs, leaving you equally exposed.

Your breath caught as you realized the situation. This had gotten really real. And as much as you wanted this, you couldn’t help but feel a miniscule amount of hesitance. This was a significant step, for you personally, and for the both of you in this relationship.

“Hey,” Adam got your attention, sensing your mood as he settled himself above you, causing your eyes to go to his. “It’s me, Bren.”

“That’s the issue,” you chuckled humorlessly. “How the fuck did you get so into my head?”

“Because I wanted to,” Adam stated. “But mostly because you let me.”

With that, and a high-pressured kiss, you felt him finally slide his way into you. It had been over a year now since you’d last had sex, and your body was certainly reminding your brain of that as he entered you. You knew the alcohol was dulling some of your feelings, but you were highly aware all the same.

What you knew, above it all, was that you did want this. And really, really liked this. Adam had the good grace to pause a moment, but when you let out a breath, he stopped being still. He felt really good moving within you, and when he put his thumb on your clit, you immediately arched up in to him, a moan bubbling up your throat.

“Shit,” you hummed, your nails involuntarily biting in to the skin of his shoulder.

“Yea?”

“Yes,” you gasped, screwing your eyes shut, as he increased the movement of his thumb. His lips found your neck again as you met him thrust for thrust.

You never wanted to forget what this felt like. You felt warm, tingly, all over; pleasantly taut physically but relaxed emotionally. Adam’s mouth on you, hands on you, body on you…you felt wanted, safe, cherished.

God, he was good.

“Bren…” his voice was broken, lust-loaded, as he came back up to kiss you deeply.

“Adam,” you practically whimpered.

“I got you, gorgeous,” he comforted, pushing in deeper somehow.

It was minutes later you felt your core tightening, as your hips pushed up firmly against his. Adam finished not too long after.

After each of you caught your breath, Adam moved himself to your side, your shoulders pressed against each other’s. Your heart was still beating fast, and you still felt small tingles trickling through your body. Adam seemed equally effected still beside you.

“Fuck,” you realized, breaking the silence. “I totally just put out after only the second date.”

“Slut.”

“Right back atcha,” you asserted. Adam laughed, turning his head, to which you moved your own, meeting his eyes.

“You were right; we’re shit at this.”

“At least we’re in it together?”

“Exactly,” he concurred. You couldn’t help but giggle, as a smile formed on Adam’s face. He moved closer, kissing you gently, before pulling you into his side, your head going to his chest.

This had been a busy two days. A lot have been done, a lot of been discussed, and a lot had changed. You were in a relationship. With a really good person. In spite of all the changes and what such things usually did to you, you felt calm. Content. Happy. You didn’t feel questioning and panicky like you tended to do.

This felt…right.

You never wanted to leave the bubble you’d made in Vegas with Adam.

I never saw it happening. I’d given up and given in. I just couldn’t take the hurt again - What a feeling. I didn’t have the strength to fight. Suddenly, you seemed so right. Me and you - What a feeling. What a feeling in my soul - Love burns brighter than sunshine. It’s brighter than sunshine.

Let the rain fall, I don’t care. I’m yours, and suddenly you’re mine. Suddenly, you’re mine.

UPDATE: Chapter Twelve is up.

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