#but i read some transcripts for another set and was like ... oh
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ੈ✩‧₊˚ CRASH LANDING (LN4)
pairing: lando norris x f!reader
summary: lando accidentally hits a stranger with his car — the internet can’t stop referring to it as a meet cute. (un)fortunately for lando, mclaren agree.
genre: comedy, fluffy
authors note: a continuation of the ending to beached! you don’t need to have read that to understand this, however it will give some insight to the mclaren matchmaker jokes <3 also in light of that, this is set a few races in the future! *oscarsgf user refers to the character in beached!
*faceclaim: keeahwah on ig (but please imagine her as you see fit!)
landonorris posted a tweet ੈ✩‧₊˚
tmz posted a tweet ੈ✩‧₊˚
landonorris posted tweets ੈ✩‧₊˚
lando’s texts with y/n ੈ✩‧₊˚
landonorris just posted ੈ✩‧₊˚
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landonorris practicing safe driving
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user you are so unserious sir
user SOOOO IS THAT THE GIRL HE HIT BC
user no clue but she’s CUTE
oscarpiastri @/fia look here
landonorris i will literally remind your girlfriend of your murder attempts when you first met
user it’s giving meet cute
user i’d read a fic on it
yourusername you literally drove off BEFORE I WAS EVEN IN THE CAR
landonorris IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I WAS DISTRACTED
user ASSUMING THIS IS HER???
user @/user CLICKING ON HER ACCOUNT IT DEFINITELY IS
yourusername just posted a photo ੈ✩‧₊˚
liked by bestfriend, landonorris and 3,907 others
yourusername monaco recap🇲🇨 successfully didn’t get hit by too many cars!
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user AS IF LANDO HIT THE HOTTEST PERSON IVE EVER SEEN
user nah this is actually a full meet cute i’m sorry this is the shit you see in romcoms
bestfriend still can’t believe you didn’t take compensation but accepted a lunch date instead
yourusername can you blame me
user @/yourusername oh girl no one can you are so real for that
friend1 wait till everyone finds out you’re only there for another 4 days
user WHAT. i can’t have them separated already😶
user parasocial relationship with lando ended y/n is my new idol now
twitter reacts ੈ✩‧₊˚
yourusername just posted stories ੈ✩‧₊˚
[captions:
photo 1: lando paid for me to get my nails done !!!
photo 2: :D
photo 3: ur all romanticizing my life rn but this is my view in a fancy ass restaurant]
texts with your best friend ੈ✩‧₊˚
yourusername just posted a photo ੈ✩‧₊˚
liked by landonorris and 11,276 others
yourusername final days in heaven. i’ll miss so much about this place
👤 tagged bestfriend, landonorris
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user wait she doesn’t live in monaco?? she’s leaving??? just after i’ve gotten attached to her and lando???
bestfriend please come back to visit asap i cannot go too long without my y/n cuddles
landonorris seconded
user um lando sir,,, seconded the whole thing? cuddles included?
user this cannot be the end of the meet cute i refuse to
landonorris just posted a photo ੈ✩‧₊˚
liked by oscarpiastri and 286,425 others
landonorris safe to say i’ve had a pretty good break between races
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user a whole post dedicated to her with THAT caption? oh yep they’re whipped
user please tell me y’all are going to stay in contact?
user my heart is shattering already
mclaren 🧡
user MCLAREN PLEASE YOU’VE DONE IT ONCE BEFORE
texts with lando ੈ✩‧₊˚
mclaren interview ੈ✩‧₊˚
[transcript:
o: safe to say you’ve had a pretty interesting break before this race
l: hey let me remind you what happened for you over winter break!
o: okay but i didn’t literally hit my girlfriend with my car!
l: oh so you finally asked her out officially?
o: stop deflecting!
l: okay okay! yeah safe to say i had a nice time. always need a bit of a change in life!
o: so how are things going now?
l: (awkwardly) well you know how it’s… yeah
o: ah i get it. quite literally been there done that got the t shirt. but hey you did say all that when i got my big moment about mclaren—
l: no no no don’t give them any ideas! they’re listening!]
mclaren just posted a photo ੈ✩‧₊˚
liked by 203,467 people
mclaren the boys are back! don’t forget to check out the new interview on our channel where lando and oscar talk all things hopes for the second half of the season, workouts and… girls?
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user mclaren. mclaren look at me. you know what you have to do
mclaren 👀
user when oscar asked him about y/n… i wanted to cry he looked so sad are things over between them?
oscarsgf @/oscarpiastri you’re such a gossip
oscarpiastri you love me for it
oscarsgf @/oscarpiastri you know what i’m thinking?
oscarpiastri @/oscarsgf plotting?
oscarsgf @/oscarpiastri plotting!
user what on earth is going on…
yourusername just posted a photo ੈ✩‧₊˚
liked by oscarsgf and 29,481 others
yourusername lately :)
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user you are so ! gorgeous !
user i can see why lando is obsessed
user speaking of… where is our favorite brit in the likes☹️
oscarsgf pretty girl!!!
yourusername oh?!? thank u cutie!!!
user ^ oh their plotting is in progress???
mclaren you’d look good in orange👀🧡
landonorris posted a tweet ੈ✩‧₊˚
an email from mclaren ੈ✩‧₊˚
yourusername just posted stories ੈ✩‧₊˚
mclaren just posted a photo ੈ✩‧₊˚
liked by 287,456 people
mclaren it’s race day🫡
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user WHO IS THE GIRL
user IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS
user PLEASE TELL ME THATS Y/N
user LOOK AT HER STORIES ITS DEFINITELY HER
user SOMEONE WHO IS THERE KEEP US UPDATED PLEASE
user just posted a thread ੈ✩‧₊˚
yourusername just posted a photo ੈ✩‧₊˚
liked by landonorris, oscarpiastri and 106,544 others
yourusername i don’t know guys, do you think he’s cute?
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user OH MY GOD FINALLY
landonorris i will hit you with my car again
yourusername is that a challenge mr. norris?
landonorris @/yourusername oh you better run fast
yourusername @/landonorris well duh cause you don’t know how to do the speed limit
user i love them. i love them so much.
oscarsgf omg can we force the boys to do mclaren double dates
landonorris leave this comment section now
yourusername @/landonorris too late we’re already texting
landonorris just posted a photo ੈ✩‧₊˚
liked by yourusername, mclaren and 300,091 others
landonorris we are successful victims of mclarens matchmaking services
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user THEYVE DONE IT AGAINNN
user new fav couple fr
oscarpiastri oh how quickly you all forget me
user @/oscarpiastri WE COULD NEVER
user clearly i need to work for mclaren to get a cute gf
oscarpiastri @/oscarsgf is the second photo giving you flashbacks as well
oscarsgf they’re stealing our thing
yourusername thank you for posting the nice park date photo of me
landonorris well in all the others you’re mid cartwheel
mclaren glad to be of service🧡 anyone else? @/patriciooward how are you doing?
landonorris i’m gonna stop you right there
———————
a/n: WELL. hello friends. i said i wasn’t gonna post a one shot for a while, then this happened. i just hope its up to standard! i’m a little rusty in my writing considering everything!
in regards to new works, gonna be working on getting my wips out soon, and maybe popping some new smaus out at the same time as they’re easy and quick-ish for me to work on considering everything going on! do forgive me if i do some random family orientated stuff — pregnancy hormones are giving me baby fever for everything (is it still baby fever if you’re having a baby?)
let me know your thoughts in the comments/reblogs/asks — i’ve missed talking to you all sm! i have anon emojis available if people wanna chat too🤍
for the first time in a very long time,,, love, giselle xx
taglist (found here): @idkiwantchocolatee @vellicora @alessioayla @bborra @crimeshowjunkie @minkyungseokie @paolexsstuff @celestialpato @champagnelovers101 @loxbbg @hobiismyhopeu @tsukishitm-a @moonypixel @champagneproblems17 @ironmaiden1313 @lqvesoph @sunflower-golden-vol6 @six-call @skatingiswalkingincursive @peqch-pie @m0cha-bunny @woozarts @he6rtshaker @iluvvmeeee @goldenalbon @izzy-marvel @lucyysthings @lichterfee @tallrock35 @treehouse-house @iloveyou3000morgan @scopeiguess @amaranthineghost @gwginnyweasley @hetfieldd @sweetbabygirlsworld @wittywhispers @dark-night-sky-99 @namgification @casperlikej @marshmummy @geniusalpaca
tags for this post: @the-untamed-soul @itsprashimusic @purplephantomwolf @jasminesacademia
#f1 x reader#f1#lando norris#lando norris x reader#lando norris au#lando norris imagine#mclaren#lando norris blurb#lando norris smau#lando norris scenario#lando norris one shot
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Training Wheels | Coriolanus Snow | iv.
Your mother's macabre work never appealed to you as you always preferred the comfort of your books, but when her apprentice takes a special interest in you, your safe, quiet world is flipped upside down.
Warnings: DUB-CON, NON-CON, Gaul!Reader, Shy Reader, Manipulation, Parental Neglect, Drinking, Peer Pressure, Hazing, University set, Loss of Virginity, Dumbification, Insecurities, Abusive Relationship, Degradation, Suicide Attempt
This is a dark story. Heed warnings before reading under the cut.
𝖘𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖒𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙
“Oh, do you mind if we take a little break?” Clemensia asks almost as soon as you’ve begun working on the task she gave you. You blink, a little confused as your gaze roams across the table. There’s still so much to do. You’re not sure if the girls are just that slow but it’s clear that it will take at least a few hours to get all of it done.
But Clemensia is in charge of the ball committee. You don’t picture yourself telling her what to do or how to do it. After all, you are an outsider. A foreign element infiltrating their ecosystem. You have to play by their rules.
If they want to take a break, who are you to argue with that?
You begin to rise.
“Oh, a break, sure…”
Clemensia’s lips pinch as you try to follow them. “It’s just that…we’ve been doing this for so long, all by ourselves. I even broke a nail.” She pouts, showing you her hands. “But it needs to be finished today.” She nibbles her bottom lip and sighs, eyes pleading yours. “If no one stays behind…”
You mull it over. While you’re not thrilled over the idea of working on the decorations by yourself, you did just get here. You suppose you could hold the fort while they stretch their legs…or whatever Clemensia and her friends like to do when they hang out.
“I guess I could stay,” you concede.
Clemensia flashes you a broad grin.
“You’re so sweet,” she chimes. “Thank you. We won’t be long, promise. Ten minutes tops.”
You shrug and return to your chair. Ten minutes. That sounds reasonable. You pick up the scissors and start cutting more of the tree shapes.
“No problem.”
But one issue arises.
The promised ten minutes expand into thirty. Then an hour. Then two. At first, you don’t let your mind dissect it too hard. It’s a stupid thing to overthink, isn’t it? A silly thing to chop into pieces until your mind bleeds with doubt and insecurity. You surmise it was more of an approximation. People do that all the time, say something while meaning another. At least you believe they do. Besides, you find ways to keep yourself busy, even getting started on the sparkly globes lying on the side of the room. You figure out how to use most of the tools on your own and get wrapped in your own bubble of quietness.
Silence is a familiar companion, the one constant that never judged you, never asked for more of you. In your Silence, you get to be you. Nothing more; nothing less. So you let yourself sink in its warm, snug embrace.
Still, somewhere in the back of your mind, thoughts meander passively… What is taking them so long? You steal a glance outside the window. Orange and purple hues are already bleeding into the sky, a sign of the evening nearing its end.
You retrieve your pocket watch from inside your skirt. A frown wrinkles your brow. At a time like this, you would usually be home, curled up with Walter on your bed as you go over your notes for the week. It often takes you hours just to decipher the course transcripts.
“Wow, you did such a great job,” Clemensia whistles from behind you.
You gasp and whirl. All smiles, the girls fill your sight.
They approach the table and examine some of the decorations you put together on your own. Realization sweeps through you as the fog of your thoughts clear. It didn’t hit you before, not until you absorbed the current state of the crafts table, brimming with the results of your solitary labor. You’ve been busy. Spinning crystal balls, pine cones, silvery garlands and a heap of snowflakes meant to hang on the walls and ceiling. Clemensia admires your handiwork, seemingly impressed.
A little peeved, you point out, “I mean…had you guys even started? Most of the decorations needed to be cut, glued or assembled…”
“I have delicate hands,” Livia sighs, examining her manicured nails.
“I’m very slow, sorry,” Ivy says apologetically.
Your frown deepens. Was this whole thing a setup? You sacrificed precious time to be here and you shudder to think the entire purpose of your presence is some kind of childish prank.
Coriolanus’ words echo in your mind. He argued the girls weren’t like that and that they left the immature tricks back at the Academy. You truly want to believe that none of this is designed to embarrass you, that perhaps, again, all of this is in your head. But your aching fingers, sore from doing crafts most of the afternoon, suggestotherwise.
Unleashing a sigh, you gather your satchel and head towards the exit.
Clemensia obstructs your path, holding up her hands in apology.
“I know we should have been back earlier. I’m so sorry. We ran into the Dean and it turned into a whole thing.” She seizes your hands, remorse twisting her pretty features. “I feel so horrible. I invited you so we could do it together as friends.”
Your shoulders slump. As you soak in the look of genuine contrition on her face, doubts lurk inside you. Your confidence about being the victim of some prank wavers. Perhaps, you overreacted. Incidents happen. Besides, the chances of you joining Clemmie’s committee are slim, as you’re already swamped with assignments. A promise was made and you kept it. But this likely will be a one time thing. School dances are at the bottom of your priority list right now.
So you discard it all with a wave of your hand and a contrived smile.
“It’s okay. No apology needed. It’s not your fault.” You note how much darker it’s gotten outside. “I should go back home though. It’s already so late-”
Clemensia stops you again, her hand tightening around yours as she offers excitedly, “Wait, you should come to game night at Liv’s.”
“What?” Livia snickers. Clemensia shoots her a withering glare and the blonde clears her throat, correcting herself, “I mean…yeah, you totally should come.”
You fidget and adjust the strap of your satchel. You may have heard whispers of those game nights. Mystique surrounds them as only a few chosen people are invited to attend. You, of course, were never invited. And it isn’t hard to gather how Livia feels about you coming from her reaction. Why force your way into places where you aren’t wanted?
“I’m already behind on my revising for the day. If I don’t go over my Molecular-”
“Boring,” Ivy sings sarcastically.
“Don’t be mean, Ivy,” Clemensia scolds, elbowing her in the rib.
Clemensia tilts her head, her tone turning beseeching.
“Please…I really want to get to know you better.” She huffs out a long breath as she seems to sense your hesitation. The brunette leans closer, hands clutching your forearms. Sympathy twinkles in her onyx orbs. “You know, I used to be a lot like you. Always striving to be the best at everything I do.” A hollow giggle slips through her lips. “It’s how I got in trouble with your mother actually…I wanted to win so badly and she decided to teach me a lesson.” Sadness pinches her delicate features. “But by always striving for greatness, you miss out on life. I learnt that during the Games...”
“...Surviving isn’t living.”
She studies you before saying, “And it’s what you’re doing, isn’t it? Surviving.”
Eyes on the ground, you chew on your lip. You never imagined someone like Clemensia Dovecote - the most beautiful, popular girl at the University - could feel this way…let alone relate to you.
“Clemmie…”
She hunkers a little so your eyes meet.
“Come on, I really want to make up for today.” She laughs. “Show you I’m not a bitch.”
“I don’t think you’re a bitch,” you say.
She places her palm on your cheek. “See? You’re so nice. That’s why I want us to be friends.” She bends over your ear, the words she mutters almost too quiet to be heard, “I can barely stand those two on most days, but appearances must be kept.”
Your gaze swings upward, shock pulsing through you.
She beams at you. “It’ll be an intimate gathering of just a select group, close friends. We play cards, chat, and have a few drinks. That’s it.”
Your forehead creases.
“I don’t drink.”
Squeezing your shoulders, she assures you, “Then I’ll make sure not a drop of alcohol passes your lips. Promise.”
“It’s casual, I swear. You can even leave early if you want.”
This grabs your attention, as you aren’t sure you’ll make it through the night without craving to return to the safe, familiarity of your apartment. The potential for escape makes the offer far more enticing.
Obviously, Clemensia cares about you showing up. While you don’t fully grasp why, you also never had anyone go out of their way to spend time with you. During the Academy days, everyone avoided you like the plague, either finding you odd or fearing you were as terrifying as your mother. The University doesn’t seem much different so far, groups having already formed from previous camaraderie. Bonds that were forged years ago and cemented over time while you endured in the back of the class. The forgotten one. And you always figured it is the most you can aspire for. Being ignored and left alone.
Until now.
“Really?”
Clemensia’s smile widens.
“Yes. You can stay as long as you want and leave.”
“I don’t have anything to wear to a party,” you muse, pursing your lips. Your tiny, limited wardrobe has always prioritized function over fashion. There are your Academy uniforms, a few loose, unflattering clothes you rotate between. A single formal dress more suited for a funeral than a game night. Nothing impressive because you never had anyone to impress.
You also have no sense of fashion, the trends shifting too quickly for you to keep up. So you’ve stopped trying to.
“Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out,” she chimes. “The girls and I always get ready at each other’s house anyway. And you’re one of the girls now.”
You peer down at you and Clemensia’s entwined hands. One of the girls. No one’s ever spoken about you that way. As if your mere presence made something better, uplifting it instead of leading it to its ruin. As if you were solid, more than a wisp of air, a waste of breath. As if you mattered. So, despite the sizzling weight of Livia’s blue eyes on you, you smile back at Clemmie and give a bashful nod.
Your eyes feast on every detail of Clemensia’s living room as you enter her home. Her parents’ apartment is every bit as large and opulent as you imagined. Every exquisite detail screams wealth. The unabashed, showy kind that stoked the embers of bitter unfairness in the Districts, leading the Capitol to where it is today. A city risen from the ashes. Your attention lingers on the expensive artwork exposed in glass cabinets. A lot of it appears to be memorabilia from before the war. You’re willing to bet the combined value of every overpriced trinket in the house could feed an entire District. Paintings of Clemmie’s illustrious ancestors hang over the damask walls, their stern stares seeming to follow you. Almost as if they were ready to leap from the eroded gilded frames and berate you for being an intruder in their family home.
Clemensia tugs you along.
“What are you dawdling for? Come on,” she urges.
You trail behind her as she takes you to her bedroom. You smile when you see it. The somber, tasteful hues are so very her. The hinges of her wardrobe whine as she opens the large, wooden doors. A vertiginous row of clothes crowd your sight. You gawk, a little amazed but also slightly terrified. Who needs this many clothes? A sour expression scrunches her features.
“I know,” she sighs, placing a hand on her hip. “This is a little embarrassing. Most of these are soo last season.”
You tilt your head at her dizzying collection of shoes, clothes, accessories…the kind a legion of girls would kill for.
“Right,” you blindly agree. Nevermind you can’t even tell the difference. You glance around. “Shouldn’t Livia and Ivy be here too?”
Her brow twitches as she sits on her massive canopy bed. She pats the spot next to her and you awkwardly plop down. The plush silk and soft mattress dip under your weight.
“We decided to meet later,” she reveals. She pauses, a heavy sigh fluttering through her painted red lips before adding, “Besides, I told them to be nicer to you and they got upset and pretended not to know what I was talking about.”
“I’m sorry,” you mumble.
She waves her manicured hand dismissively.
“No, don’t be. This isn’t your fault.” Clemensia licks her lips, her face etched with reflection, as if she were assessing the weight of her words before releasing them. Her hand settles on your arm.
“Look, here’s the thing. Livia’s had a crush on Coriolanus since he returned and they had a sort of fling.” Your mouth drops open. This is news to you. You didn’t catch any hint of lingering longing between the two back at their lunch table. But now that you’re mulling it over, perhaps…Perhaps, Livia’s eyes kept seeking Coriolanus’, while his treaded their own path, never crossing hers. “Things were going pretty well...for a little while. But then, you came along.”
Your brows furrow. “What does this have to do with anything?”
Clemensia’s bell-like laughter resonates in the room.
“God, you’re a sweet thing…just like Snow said.” She beams at you. “Don’t worry. Liv will get over it. She’s all bark and no bite, trust me.”
Her attention travels to the dark fabric peeking from your bag.
“What’s that?” she asks, pulling out the garment.
“The only dress I have.”
She inspects it with a displeased frown.
“Were you planning on wearing this?” She shakes her head as your mouth clamps shut. “Oh, this will not do.”
She takes your hand and drags you to her wardrobe. Brow wrinkled in concentration, she rummages through a numberless heap of garments.
“I have some clothes that my cousin left,” she explains while frantically searching. After a while, victory flares in her orbs. She unhooks a sleek, crimson dress with a tight bodice and flowing sleeves from a hanger. She holds it against your body, chiming, “She’s about your size so they should fit you.”
“I can’t accept this, Clemmie.”
You attempt to push her hands away but the brunette shoves it in your arms, insisting on you at least trying it on. You press the soft fabric between your fingers. It’s more revealing and form-fitting than you’re used to. You gather it would cling to your body like a second skin…one you aren’t used to wearing. Still, you must admit that it’s a lovely dress. One that could look good even on you. Temptation claws at your resolve, digging deeper and deeper grooves, right into every insecurity you ever had. That thing other girls had that always eluded you. That little secret you were never privy to. The key to that door that never opened. The dress is the key. And you find yourself unable to resist turning the lock to find out what secrets lie beyond that mysterious door.
Beneath Clemmie’s eager stare, you remove your clothes and slip on the dress.
Smug satisfaction hovers on her lips as you peer at your reflection. Words fizzle out on your tongue. You are looking at a complete stranger.
Clemmie rests her chin on your shoulder. “See? I knew it.”
She then has you sit at her vanity to help you do your makeup. Do your makeup…The words sound alien even in the private confines of your thoughts.
As she draws a neat black line over your eyelids, she says, “It hasn’t been long since makeup’s returned to the Capitol again. It used to be near impossible to find.” When she’s done, she turns you towards the vanity mirror. “Those colors will bring out your eye shape and color.”
The air leaves your lungs in a quick rush. You lean closer to the mirror, once again in disbelief that you are truly looking at your own face.
Fingers twisting the delicate fabric of the dress, you pivot to Clemmie.
“Why are you so nice to me?” you blurt out.
Her eyes widen briefly before her expression softens.
“You remind me of me.”
Confusion surges through you. There is an ocean of glaring differences between you and Clemmie, one you couldn’t swim through if you tried.
“What?”
“Believe it or not, I wasn’t always this confident.”
Your brows knit, Clemmie’s statement making little sense. If confidence wore a face and had a name, it’d be Clemensia Dovecote’s.
Gripping your shoulders, she turns your focus back onto your dolled-up appearance.
“Alright. Look in the mirror, what do you see?”
You blink. You see a girl playing dress-up, pretending, but you don’t utter those words aloud. They sound lame, even in your own head.
“Nothing,” you tritely respond, dipping your head.
She lifts your chin, moving her head to disagree.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Her eyes twinkle. “I see infinite potential. So stop selling yourself short.” Covering her mouth, she laughs. “His jaw is going to drop.”
“Whose jaw?”
She smirks at you. “You know whose jaw.”
Heat sneaks inside your face.
You fidget in the chair. It’s not like what he thinks matters, right? He is no one to you, just that boy with the unsettling blue stare who won’t leave you be for some strange reason.
So why is there a tiny shiver of excitement coursing through your veins when the thought of him seeing you like that permeates your brain?
A vigorous gust of common sense sweeps away your wayward musings.
You don’t care what he thinks. Of course you don’t.
“I-It’s not really my style,” you stammer as you get to your feet.
The sparkle in her onyx orbs doesn’t waver.
“Sweetheart, you don’t have a style yet…so how would you even know?”
“Shouldn’t we be at Livia’s already?” you ask, hoping to steer the conversation in another direction.
She considers you as if you were the most endearing thing in the world. She grabs your hands. “Here’s another rule. Never be on time for anything.” A haughty smirk creeps upon her red lips. “Make them wait for you, not the other way around.” She cocks her head. “One of the things about confidence is knowing that you are the sun, and standing in your orbit is a rare privilege.” She scoffs, “People should feel lucky you even bothered showing up.”
She approaches you and touches up parts of your hair, visibly elated with the result.
“Perfect,” she trills. “Like I said…potential.”
She herself finishes getting ready. As you absently meander about her room, the doorbell chimes.
Clemmie pauses as she applies powder on her face. She sets aside her makeup tools and escorts you to the lobby, arm threaded with yours.
“Must be our chauffeur,” she states.
Your eyes round. “You have a chauffeur?”
She cloisters herself in cryptic silence, humming as she drags you along.
When the brunette swings the door open, a towering, familiar figure darkening her doorway, time hangs still for a few seconds.
Your mouth opens wide enough to catch flies.
A smug smile unfurls on his lips.
“Angel,” he greets, gaze locking with yours as he completely ignores Clemmie.
Her sharp irritated tone shatters the spell.
“You’re late, Snow.”
Coriolanus snickers.
“As if you’re ever on time.”
You trail behind Clemmie as she and Coriolanus keep bantering, his presence still swaddling you in sheer shock. When she tries to take the passenger seat, he drapes a placating hand over hers.
She rolls her eyes and begrudgingly heads to the back of the car.
He opens the car door for you. Recalling the fruitlessness of arguing with him, you climb into the seat. Still, saying you feel awkward riding in the front while the brunette is sulking in the backseat would be a massive understatement.
Few words can accurately describe how peculiar all of this is for you.
“You look surprised,” Coriolanus notes as he takes his own seat and slams the door shut. Your heart misses a beat when his hot breath caresses your earshell. “I did say I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
You look down at your lap. Breathing is laborious, the air in the vehicle coated with the lingering smell of his pricey cologne. You are literally choking on Coriolanus Snow with every breath you take.
“Will you just drive, Snow?” Clemmie snaps, crossing her arms.
“Relax. Patience is a virtue,” he says, not sparing her a glance, zeroing in on you instead. The drumming of your heart swells to an uproar in your ears when he reaches across your body. You hold still while he ties your seatbelt for you. Blue eyes rake over your form in brazen appraisal, his deep voice lowering. “And good things come to those who wait.”
#dark!coriolanus snow#coriolanus snow#coriolanus snow x reader#the ballad of songbirds and snakes#hunger games#tbosas fanfiction#dark!coriolanus snow x reader
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David and Michael in the interview with Ali Plumb for BBC Radio 1, 10th July 2023
I compared it with it's podcast version and there are some bits that are cut out in the video 👀 but I added them into the transcript ❤ 🐍😊 .
AP: If you're thinking I'm the kind of guy that rocks up to a Good Omens interview with...
Michael: With the book.
David: Oh, well done.
Michael: We'd be correct.
AP: Yeah.
[GOS2 Promo]
AP: So after such a successful and well received first series, what gives you guys?
David: Why risk it?
AP: Why risk it.
Michael: What gives you the right?!
AP: What gives you the cojones to do another one?
Michael: I know.
AP: How dare you?
Michael: It's terrible. When I wrote it.... Well, no, I mean, that's the thing, really, I mean, it's Neil and Terry's baby. And we'd always known that they'd gone beyond the world of the first book. In fact, there's stuff that's not in the first book, in the first series. So Gabriel is a character, you know, who's not there. So we'd always known that there was a lot more.
David: The ideas, the threads.
Michael: Exactly. And they even had a name for a sequel. 668: The Neighbour of the Beast. Which is hilarious.
[A cut out part that is not in the video, but you can listen to in the podcast version of it:
AP: Just take, write the joke and then work it out later.
Michael: The best Good Omens joke isn't even in the Good Omens book.
David: Yeah.
Michael: And so we knew there was all that. So I think given that, that gave certainly us the confidence to know that we were in, you know, safe hands.
David: Yeah.
Michael: And I think gave Neil the sense that it was worth exploring, going further, because I think without that, he would never have done it. If he didn't feel that Terry was part of that ride as well, then I don't think he would have gone on it.
]
AP: At the risk of reading from the scripture, this is what's in the hardback copy of Good Omens: 'Why isn't there a sequel? Neil: Well, we know how the sequel goes. We played around with the idea whilst we were on tour. We even discussed a few scenes, but we could never quite work up the enthusiasm. It'd have been fun. We'd split the cash. But we both had other things to do'.
Michael: Yes. It's very much how we felt, isn't it? We'll split the cash.
David: Yeah.
AP: And run.
Michael: You know, and if we got nothing else on.
David: Well, yeah.
Ap: And you kind of enjoy each other's company?
Michael: I mean, enjoy is a strong word.
David: We're very good at faking it.
AP: Actors. I love it.
David: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Michael: Yeah, exactly.
AP: When, outside of a show's context or the film's context, have you felt physically, visually the silliest? Because I think in this show there have to be moments. Green screen, full orange wig hair, that you go, no one take a photo of me right now.
David: The opening scene of Season Two is set in space and we're dressed as sort of old fashioned-
Michael: That makes it sound like sort of an episode of Blakes 7 or something, it's not Sci-Fi space, is it?
David: There's nothing wrong with that.
Michael: No, there's nothing... I mean I love it.
David: Jesus,
AP: Are you stepping up saying Sci-Fi's rubbish at this-
Michael: No, no, no! Of course not! No. But what I'm saying is-
David: I don't know who this is
Michael: David is making it sound like it's like Aziraphale and Crowley are in a rocket ship.
David: It is set in space!
Michael: Well, yeah.
David: First series set in space! You can't... it's just factual.
Michael: But not like space 1999.
David: Just space.
AP: It's pure, undiluted space.
David: It's set in space. In fact, it is undiluted space. And for that, we were dressed as a traditional angel in a sort of nighties...
Michael: Yes, we weren't in silver spandex.
David: We were in nighties.
Michael: We were.
David: And we were strapped to make this floating in space - and they didn't have this on Blakes 7 - we were strapped onto these gurneys and moved up and down.
[hehe bonus pic :)]
Michael: I had a jetpack.
[again, cut out in the video but present in the podcast version
David: I mean, it looks beautiful. The finished, the finished piece.
Michael: It was very odd, wasn't it? Yes. We were both sort of just like.
David: Yes.
Michael: Hovering around each other.
David: And it was, it was ignoble. Some of the being strapped in and out.
Michael: It was. Yeah.
]
AP: At least it's not Jon Hamming into a room... full Hamm.
[GOS2 Promo]
[again, cut out in the video but present in the podcast version
David: The naked Hamm? The naked Hamm was... yeah. He seemed pretty...
Michael: He seemed very relaxed.
AP: He insisted on spending more scenes in that costume.
]
Michael: That was never in the script.
David: No, he just turned up on set.
Michael: That's how he showed up.
David: I had an idea, guys!
Michael: Yes. No, there's lots to look forward to.
AP bursts out laughing: Sorry.
Michael: And lots to look back on.
AP: This second series, having a little bit more wiggle room in terms of where you might be able to take the characters, I think it's fair enough to say. Do you feel more active input.
[again, cut out in the video but present in the podcast version
AP: Into where they might go? Because to me, they strike as having a very strong Woody and Buzz factor of...
David: Right.
AP: Bear with me here. You're both not very good at your jobs.
David: How dare you?
AP: It's true. One's no angel. One's far from evil.
David: That's true.
AP: And you kind of are fudging it constantly.
]
AP: Do you feel you have more room to kind of fudge here and fudge there and really muck about with the characters now?
Michael: I mean, I every day when we start, I like to first of all say, Neil, I've got no interest in hearing what you're going to say. This is what I think should happen.
David: Yeah.
Michael: I mean, the thing is, when you've got Neil Gaiman writing it-
David: Yeah.
Michael: -you should have just go, off you go, mate.
David: The last thing you want to do is start putting in your ideas. You don't want to limit anything that's going to come out.
Michael: It's like brain. It's like when Ringo says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
AP: Yesterday, I have notes.
Michael: Listen, listen to what I've come up with.
AP: There's too much guitar in this.
David: Yeah.
AP: More drums.
David: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah. I think one of the things about Neil that is so wonderful is that he is so open and generous with ideas,
David: Yes.
Michael: and he's so not precious about what he's written. He is very respectful of what he and Terry created and is probably a bigger fan than any other fan, but he's not precious about it and he's very open to collaboration. In fact, he's probably the most collaborative
David: Yes.
Michael: I'd ever come across in my life.
David: Yes, absolutely.
Michael: So he loves watching what other people bring to the table, not just actors, but, you know, designers, everyone. And then I think he takes from that and is influenced by that. So it's very collaborative in that sense.
David: Yes. But if we influenced where the characters went in season two, it was sort of circumstantially.
AP: Right.
Michael: Yeah.
David: It was sort of by the act of what happened during season one and getting to know Neil and getting to know each other. But the great joy for us is turning up to these wonderful scripts and going, oh, I get to take this character here now. What a lark.
[again, cut out in the video but present in the podcast version
Michael: I mean, I wrote some very stern emails to him.
David: Yeah.
Michael: Which I was glad to see that he totally ignored.
AP: Screen time for me.
Michael: Yes, exactly.
AP: I like to think the 'I was right, or rather, you were right and I was wrong' dance was organic in the moment, not in the script. And could you give us a quick how might I recreate that beautiful...
David: Absolutely not. No. I worked with the choreographer for some days.
Michael: It's true.
David: Yeah.
Michael: It's true. And am I right in saying that... I wonder if this exists? But when we were filming it, didn't I, on the last take, I made you do it once with you thinking that you were doing it for real, but actually it wasn't for real. It was just so I could do.
David: It was so you could have-
Michael: So I could Strictly Come Dancing [british dance contest]-
David: Exactly that. Does it exist? I think it does exist.
Michael: It must have actually built... I had cards made with scores on them and David, God bless him, came in and did the whole thing again, thinking that he was doing it for the filming. And in fact, it was literally just so at the end I could go, 'SEVEEEEEEN'! [It was filmed, hehe, see here :)]
David: Yeah. But I don't want Amazon to think we're wasting your production...
AP: Money and time. No.
David: And it will show up on a blooper reel somewhere.
Michael: There was no film. There was no film.
AP: It was definitely not a waste of time. No, absolutely not.
]
AP: What would you say the fans have responded most to from the first series when you meet them at comic cons or on social media or what have you? Are there moments from the first series where they love talking about that scene?
Michael: Well, I think people really enjoy the going through history stuff, don't they? I mean, we thoroughly.
David: We certainly do. There's just something about the characters and their relationship, though, that seems to have just caught fire. I mean the amount of...
AP :I won’t read some ot the stories I’ve glanced upon.
David: Right.
AP: Yes. Fanfiction is quite….
David: Oh, I see. Oh that is not for us to read.
Michael: Oh I read it all.
AP: Oh you should. You write most of it, right?
Michael: I write most of it.
David: But it's lovely to see. And I have seen more than I can count. Aziraphale and Crowleys showing up. People dressed and always in twos, always in pairs.
Michael: Yes.
David: You know, and that's lovely. And that seems to absolutely encapsulate what the whole show is about, I think.
AP: Tattoos, fan art.
David: Definitely, yes. Seen a couple of tattoos.
Michael: Yeah.
AP: Yeah. Do you get fans in the street quoting lines or just pointing and staring? Because you two together can't really walk down the street.
David: Michael doesn't walk anywhere.
Michael: Those days are long gone.
AP: Jackpack.
David: Yeah.
Micheal: Yeah.
AP: Yeah, that's fair.
Michael: Well, I get a lot of ‘To the world’.
David: Oh, yes. Nice.
Michael: People like to… yeah.
David: Yeah.
Michael: And 'You go too fast, Crowley.’
David: Ooh.
Michael: There’s a lot of that. That gets jumped around.
AP: What about... and this is a kind of BAFTA winning question, so just send it my way.
David: Wow.
AP: Would you say these characters are in your top three most fun characters you've ever played? Because they strike me as being... I'd probably play these characters forever if I could.
Michael and David: Yeah.
Michael: This is like on what's that show when people have to say whether they want to date each other again? You go first. Top three?
David: I mean...
AP: Number two...one?
David: It'd be a weird scenario to say it wasn't.
AP: Yeah, I agree.
David: In this situation.
AP: Yeah.
David: To start something: well, I mean, it's sort in the little twenties. But... No, we did have an irresponsible amount of fun.
Michael: Yes. Not really like working.
AP: No.
Michael: I mean, I very much hope that we eventually get to, in one way or another, in one form or another,
David: Yeah.
Michael: get to play them just very, very old. And it may well be... I mean, we joke about doing a theatrical tour.
AP: And swapping.
David: I'm not joking. I'm not joking about that.
Michael: No.
David: It's a lovely little retirement plan.
Michael: I know.
AP: I'm dead keen on Good Omens 666. I think...
Michael: Oh!
AP: It's just there.
Michael: Yes.
David: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
AP: Think about it. Post apocalyptic...
Michael: Part, like Good Omens 1, 2, 3, all the way up to 666. I mean, that's a long running series. That's longer than Frasier.
AP: Big words. If a bad joke's worth telling. 666.
Michael: Telling over and over again.
AP: Over and over and over.
David: Yeah.
AP: Guys, I'm going to ask you one last favour as I wrap things up, which is I have at the front of this book, one Mr. Neil Gaiman.
[shows a copy of Good Omens signed by Neil Gaiman].
AP: He signed it and he said as he often does: Ali, have a good doomsday. Would you care to deface?
Michael: I heard the other day that someone went to interview George Harrison and the person who interviewed him said, would you mind signing this record? Whatever it know, the white album, whatever. And he went, do you want them all? And they used to all write each other's name, all sign each other's names.
David: Wow.
Michael: Because they had to do it so much.
David: Do you want to do mine?
Michael: Just get Neil to do that.
AP: Could you please sign as your man? I'll be very lucky.
Michael: On a different page.
AP: You pick your own page, deface as you will.
Michael: Yeah. Look at that. I do a little halo.
David: Oh, that's given me an idea.
Michael: Oh look at that, yeah.
AP: And then while I'm here, I'm going to do the super unprofessional thing of asking for a photograph, if that's allowed.
David: Yeah.
Michael: Oh, look at that.
David: That's perfect.
Michael: That's nice, isn't it?
AP: Beautiful. Would you mind helping me out?
David: Do you see what we've done there, Ali?
AP: Oh, thank you!
Michael: And yours is D for...
AP: I'm going to kneel behind you.
David: Sure.
Michael: I thought I should turn my M into wings.
David: Oooh.
Michael: This is, this is...
AP: Guys, as you may have worked out, big fan.
David: Cheers, Ali.
#good omens#gos2#season 2#david tennant#michael sheen#ali plumb#david and michael#dm#interview#michael interview#david interview#videos#ali plumb 2023#neil gaiman#terry pratchett#2ep1#2i1i1#video interview#long post#s2 interview#transcripts
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Forever's Entire Proposal to BadBoyHalo
q!BBH Analysis + Transcript below the cut.
Before I start, I want to make clear this is from BBH's perspective + mentality, and I do not speak Portuguese, as well as none of this is intended as character writing criticism. I really like the direction both of these characters are going in, I just want to highlight how much of a horror show this scene is! I'm starting much earlier than what's shown in the clip at the top, unfortunately Tumblr's file limits exist :/ Timestamp for the entire clip I'm using is at here in BBH's vod.
Some preface for everything going on in this scene and context:
For one, Forever's current drugged arc has continued references to the Vargas Era in Brazilian history, which, to heavily oversimplify, is a period when culture was suppressed by Getúlio Vargas, a 1930's Brazilian dictator, and made to look very perfected to the outside world to cover up the many issues from the government at the time. (I really recommend looking more into the Vargas Era on your own, I can say I've found every reading on this topic to be both interesting, as well as gives Forever's current arc a really good layer of historical reference with his presidency. It's a good topic to look into!)
Mostly, it's a representation of how fucked Forever's mental state currently is. Not only is he erratic from the drugs he was put under - He's actively been washed over with nationalistic propaganda. That's fucking horrifying for the President of the island to be under! It gains another layer of horror as well, because to all of the islanders, Forever is the only community member with any perceived sort of power. Him becoming erratic - pulling a gun on Phil, forcing other people to sign up for the drugs and medical procedure he went under - it's something that carries weight in terms of the island being united and working together, and is currently reinforcing the concerns the French group had with seeing him as unfit for power, with BBH included in all of these presidential coup meetings as being a sort of "honorary french" deal.
On Bad's side, however, is the known fact he finds marriage overrated, and meta-wise cc!BBH has mentioned he's playing a "more aromantic approach" because he doesn't want to be another character stuck in the shipping boat. (This isn't a knock against shipping, I just think it's good knowledge to have about q!BBH's character/stance on romance going into this.) And then finally, when the link timestamp starts, but before Forever has truly begun his serious conversation, BBH does this:
He switches out his regular Totem of Undying to specifically a Death totem. It's very quick, but I think it sets up his mentality going into this... I think he expected Forever's final reaction.
Forever: Here, Bad.
BadBoyHalo: Hello.
F: Hello!
F & BBH, simultaneously: So, uh -
BBH: Do you know where any of the kids are?
F: I know where Richarlyson is, but, oh uh maybe we should go a little bit further there's a translator screen.
BBH: Okay.
F: Otherwise, I want my chat to know what we're talking about.
[Break for when they move the benches again]
F: Here, nice, nice, nice.
F: OH! It's even better!
BBH: Yay.
F: It's perfect, I would say!
BBH: So, you don't -
F: Yeah, I don't know where the eggs are, Bad, but I'm really - there's something I know, okay?
BBH: Uh-huh.
F: I can tell you.
BBH: Tell me.
F: They are just good and fine, okay?
BBH: What do you mean?
F: They're fine! They're well!
BBH: Look, what do you want, Forever?
F: Ah, I want to get married!
BBH: No, I mean, like, what do you want?
F: Why?
BBH: Like, if you know what happened to the -
F: Why… don't we just get married!
BBH: Do you know what happened to the eggs? Do you know where they are?
F: Let's get married.
BBH: What's happening, Forever?
Etoiles: [mumbling]
Fit: Hooray.
Tina: Hip Hip Hooray!
F: Let's - Let's just get married.
Fit: Hooray.
Tina: Hip Hip Hooray!
Fit: Hooray. Wooooooo.
Tina: He saved us. That's crazy!
BBH: Okay. Oh, hey Etoiles. You - You're not focused, Forever.
Tina: It's probably the most beautiful battle ever! Of all time! In a rose field!
F: Yeah, I'm totally focused! I'm happy!
Etoiles: Thank you, Tina!
Tina: Yes!
BBH: No - No, you're focused on the wrong thing -
Etoiles: You see, I clicked well! I clicked well!
F: Guys, can you give me and Bad a moment, please? -
Tina: [Overlapping with Forever] I'm so sorry -
F: - We are having a deep conversation, I am asking him to get married!
Tina: - I'm so sorry Mr. President, I didn't know.
Etoiles: Okay! Okay, Forever, what I, Forever, I - I don't understand, like, there's the code who's attacking us, and you don't give a shit, but you are the president?
F: Where - Where is the codes? I want to help you guys! Everything will be perfect! Tell me.
Pierre: Congratulations Badboy and Mr. President, congratulations
F: If the codes are not here right now, Etoiles, you are just being inconvenient, because I want to get married, and you are just in the way, man -
Etoiles: Okay -
F: - Go away, please!
Etoiles: Okay, okay, I will go away. Okay, okay.
F: If the codes show up, you will tell me, okay?
BBH: [short confused laugh]
F: [cheering as Etoiles walks away] YES!
BBH: [looking around at the sky]
F: See, Bad? This is how we solve problems. Isn't that perfect?
Pierre: Can I be your best man for the wedding?
BBH: What? No? There's not gonna be a wedding -
F: He asks me for drugs all the time, Bad, he just asks me for drugs.
BBH: - okay?
F: [laughing]
Pierre: Huh?
BBH: He's obviously not in his right mind, AyPierre.
Pierre: Yes, look at this smile! Must use a lot of uh…
BBH: A smile doesn't mean a whole lot.
F: Pierre, I will, I will tell Cucurucho, man, I told you already.
Pierre: Yes, I want to be happy…
F: Cucurucho will come to you and he will put the smile on your face!
Pierre: Yes!
F: Now go away, I want to get married.
Pierre: I want it!
F: (Portuguese as Pierre leaves)
F: Oh my god, finally some silence. So Bad,
BBH: mhm.
F: Don't you think this place looks beautiful?
BBH: I guess.
F: Oh my god, they're still around so the translator is just crazy. Let's change it again please. Sorry, but -
F: (Portuguese, I am assuming it is more ooc focused, my apologies. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me!)
[Break for when they move locations, this is where the clip above begins.]
F: So Bad,
BBH: Yes?
F: What is it going to be? Are you going to get married, or not?
BBH: Why do you want to get married?
F: Yeah, because everything's perfect, right? A marriage would be perfect, as well!
BBH: Why do you think everything's perfect?
F: Why don't you think everything's perfect?
BBH: Because we don't have our kids, Forever. They're gone.
F: No, no they're just fine, man! You are not seeing the world the way you should, Bad, and I'm going to tell you -
BBH: How should I be seeing it?
F: I'm here for you, buddy. I'm here for you, buddy, okay?
BBH: Is anyone here for you?
F: And I'm going to tell Cucurucho that he should help you! Like he did to me.
BBH: I don't want his help.
F: You need his help, Bad. Just -
BBH: I don't need his help, Forever.
F: - Bad, you are looking bad, Bad, -
BBH: I feel fine.
F: - you know?
BBH: You know what would help me, Forever?
F: So let's get married!
BBH: Forever. You know what would help me?
F: Hm? What?
BBH: Tell that white puffball to give me my son back. To bring back all of our kids.
F: White puffball? What does that mean?
BBH: Cucurucho.
F: Okay.
BBH: What does he want? What does he want, Forever? Does he want diamonds?
F: Why do you think Cucurucho is the one with the eggs? Why do you think Cucurucho is the one with your child?
BBH: I know it was him, Forever.
F: What are you guys getting from exploding the whole city? Why did I become the president that's trying to help everyone, and you guys are just exploding everything? This is funny man, this is perfect. [laughs] You know? You guys are just too crazy! [laughs] Man, you guys are exploding stuff, and you all are saying that I need help? [laughs] That's funny, man, that's funny!
BBH: We need our kids back, Forever. That's why. We'll stop, all Cucurucho has to do is return the eggs. I want Dapper back, I want Pomme back, all the kids back.
F: Why do you think Cucurucho is the one with the eggs?
BBH: He obviously is the one with the eggs, okay?
F: What proof do you have?
BBH: Remember -
F: Cucurucho's great, Bad.
BBH: - I saw -
F: Uh huh.
BBH: - It was a strange person in the federation building, Mysterioso or whatever his name was?
F: [laughs] Yeah, he doesn't like [I cannot figure out what he says here]
BBH: I saw him at the federation building. I bet that's the same person who gave Sofia's plans to Maximus.
F: [laughing]
BBH: That means the Federation was responsible for Sofia.
F: Okay, okay.
BBH: That means they're behind everything! There's not anything they don't know about.
F: Did Maximus tell you that that man is the same one that gave Sofia to him.
BBH: He said it was a mysterious hooded figure, and there's only one -
F: There's only - Can only be one -
BBH: - mysterious hooded figure.
F: - It can only be one.
BBH: If the federation does not - did not take the kids, they know who did, and they know where they are -
F: Ohh.
BBH: - I just want them back, that's it.
F: Yeah.
BBH: What do they want - What do they want, Forever? Mr. President? You're in contact with them, what do they want?
F: Well, Bad, I can tell you something, you know? This is actually quite funny, this is actually quite funny.
BBH: What's funny about it?
F: So everyone on the island thinks that I, being the president - me, being the president - means that I'm working for the Federation, but do you know what you guys don't see?
BBH: What?
F: I am the only one working for you guys! A favor(?), you know, the federation does what they want. I'm the only one that tried to represent the people of the island.
BBH: So you're trying to get our kids back?
F: Oh, they're just fine right now.
BBH: Where are they?
F: I don't know, sleeping maybe?
BBH: How do you they're fine?
F: Cucurucho said it's classified! Isn't that funny?
BBH: Do you believe it?
F: That it's classified? I don't know, is there anything to believe in that?
BBH: [sighs]
BBH: What happened to you, Forever?
F: What?
BBH: What happened to you? What did they do to you?
F: Uh, I don't know what you're talking about, Bad. I'm just feeling so good, 'cuz everything's so good man.
BBH: This isn't like you. You're not acting like yourself.
F: Why? Why, I'm happy? I'm not happy? You say I'm not a happy person?
BBH: That's just it Forever, you wouldn't be this happy with Richarlyson missing.
F: Richarlyson's okay, he's just -
BBH: Is he? Is he?
F: - sleeping a lot.
BBH: Has he gotten up? Has he danced around? Has he put any signs down? Has he said anything to you? Have you built any projects with him recently? Have you done anything with him at all?
F: [Deep sigh that turns into a laugh] No, no.
BBH: Then how is he fine?
F: [long pause] Bad, I have something I would like to show you. Or maybe test on you.
BBH: What?
F: You know, you guys are just so funny with that clock joke.
BBH: Clock joke?
F: Yeah, I want to test something.
F: Don't you want to get married?
BBH: I want my son back. I want Dapper, Pomme,
F: [begins launching mines]
BBH: [evades, throws health potions]
F: STOP THAT FUCKING CLOCK NOISE.
BBH: You like your mines, Forever?
BBH: It won't bring Richarlyson back.
To start from the beginning, BBH is under no pretenses that this would be a marriage proposal of all things. All he is aware of is that Forever wants to have a serious discussion with him. He's also gone out of his way to put himself on a Death totem, meaning he has every possibility to be downed if Forever were to successfully attack him.
With Forever's current mental state and reinforcing a societal idealism & a desired performance of aggressive happiness and "normalcy" - his character now desiring something like a marriage can be read multiple ways. For one, an imitation of how one of his closest friends, his ex-husband no less, was recently married and is currently considered one of the best federation workers (albeit begrudging on Cellbit's part). For two, a marriage is a pretty huge symbol of a plastique performance of a perfect life. Especially in this context, it's saccharine, it's a status symbol, everyone wants it. With the medication as well, we don't truly know if Forever genuinely feels strongly about BBH to want to marry him, or if he feels he has to be in a marriage for a "perfect" life with BBH being "the best option" as a spouse. (Again, this is not a criticism of Forever's character, this is a very symbolically rich move for him to do, and I, personally, cannot get enough of it.)
Now back to BBH, this is a guy who is admittedly not looking for romance, not trying to romance anyone, and is currently in the middle of a character arc having to do with how pissed he is at Forever for not running the government in a way he approves, and then getting wrongfully jailed by Forever. I do not think BBH is in any way afraid of Forever as a person, but I do think BBH has concerns about what he may be forced to do in an attempt to get his children back. BBH as a character in general has very, very little regard for his own life, watch a pov of himself in a dungeon and just see how many totems pop, but he does care about his kids more than anything else in the world. The way his character goes about his care for his kids isn't something that often occurs in more masculine-presented characters like him either, frankly I think a lot of more ship oriented readings of him end up hyper-feminizing him* because of this "maternal" archetype.
In a return to Forever's saccharine performance of perfectionism, I find the moments Forever makes the both of them move across the rose field - The rose field, previously quite literally stained by blood as Etoiles had just finished another battle with the code there, tensions are running high and everyone is still distressed from the eggs going missing - I realize it's because cc!Forever ooc wanted to move to not have the chatbox be interrupted by other people speaking, but it's just so good thematically. He keeps moving to have a better view of roses. It's never perfect enough. They have to keep moving. They have to be alone. Nobody else is allowed to be around when he corners BBH with the marriage proposal. Nobody can get in the way.
Speaking of people interrupting, the other members appearing in the middle of the conversation adds to the fridge horror that's been subtly happening all the way through. Nobody pauses and makes sure BBH is okay throughout this scene, everybody is extremely sure that he is fine and can handle himself. The only person to even make a criticism of Forever is Etoiles, over being somewhat irritated that it looks like Forever has been doing little to nothing as President to aid new members or former islanders (despite this technically not being true, Etoiles has seen none of it, and has been giving new players items continuously in an effort to help them, as well as has had little time to do anything except fight code entities).
And then onto the rejection, BBH never agrees to the marriage at all, because why would he? I've seen quite a lot of discussion thus far that he doesn't reject Forever outright, but I disagree, it's a little moment in there, and I couldn't get it in the video posted itself, but he explicitly tells Pierre "there's not gonna be a wedding," and then is cut off by Forever. It's quiet, I don't think many people heard it outright, but BBH is right in his assertion Forever isn't in his right mind to be asking for marriage in the first place.
The other side of that, however, is that BBH is very well aware Forever didn't want to hear an outright rejection either. BBH knows what Forever is capable of, and he knows this version of Forever is not his usual self. It's not an easy situation, especially when he's fully under the impression Forever does have some power with the Federation, and fully believes the Federation has the eggs. Whether or not this is actually true doesn't really matter to Bad's perspective here, he's deadset in this belief. With that belief in mind, how is someone supposed to respond to being cornered about marriage - a concept he has little interest in - but the person cornering him is 1. known to be volatile due to recent events, 2. potentially has some form of contact to the people currently holding the eggs captive, and potentially put his children more at risk than they already are, 3. the literal only person in power on the island.
I don't think BBH ever believed he had the option to outright tell Forever no, he's in a depressed state as is, his kids might be dead for all he knows, and he has the impression Forever could bring harm to them.
Admittedly it is interesting how many outright untrue facts BBH holds onto, but cannot change his belief in them. His opinion and perspective of Forever is one thing, but it's much, much more obvious when he brings up the connection between the new Mysterioso and the previous masked person who gave the plans for Sofia to Maxo, those were two separate unknown figures as we know as the audience, but Bad does not know this, and does make assumptions and connect dots in his own right, tending to his own detriment. This is all intended here, he's wrong about Forever factually, but to his knowledge he's acting in the best way he can. He's under the impression Forever is just not telling the full truth to him about everything with the eggs disappearing, and believes the federation is lying. I think it's made even more obvious he's prioritizing the eggs over everything else here, especially with his final statement about Richarlyson. BBH believes the eggs are the only true way to every player's heart, and blatantly ignores the actual romance aspect of what marriage implies, because romance genuinely does not matter to him at all. He doesn't have time to worry about being in a relationship if his son might be dead.
Mostly, I find this scene to be a great relationship horror set up, because damn if I haven't been on dates like this, where I feel like I can't say no or something might happen. I understand the paranoia and anxiety surrounding q!BBH's mindset in the moment. It isn't a rational response by any means, no, but it is a very aggressively human response to this situation for a demon to have.
Basically, I don't think BBH is a fundamentally romantic character in the first place, nor do I think he'd ever be happy in a cutesy marriage position anyway, he never once responds romantically to any of this, and solely prioritizes the eggs, the final Richarlyson line cements this fact. It's not a dig at how Forever will never have BBH romantically - it's a dig at Forever based on what BBH's priority is, his kids.
*I want to be clear this statement is meant to be a neutral fact, it's just worth mentioning in an analysis like this that BBH as a character is more typically set on the feminine side by the fanbase, and how his character's interpretations are influenced by that reading.
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Part 2 of this. @endlesslogo tagging you in case you wanna read part 2 of the story inspired by your art
Donnie stared down at his chiming phone. A number he didn’t recognise lit up the top. After the third ring, he turned off his phone and pocketed it. If it’s anything truly important, the caller could just leave a message. He turned back to his project and continued soldering.
The clock on his vambrace screen reads nearly 3am. He wonders if Leo had managed to go to sleep. He hasn’t come in to pester him all night long. Good. It’s always a good sign when Leo finally gets to sleep. Hopefully he’s getting a restful sleep and peaceful dreams.
Yet..something in the back of his mind is nagging at him.
The notification for a voicemail sounded in his pocket. Guess whoever was calling had something important to say. Likelihoods of what it could be played in his mind as he set down the solder and pulled out his phone again. He opened it and went into his voicemail. He tapped on the transcript.
Donnie. Donnie, please, come get me.
..huh?
I don’t know where I am or how I got here, but…
Donnie tapped the play button and put it on speaker. There was silence and some sort of static at first.
“Donnie.”
The soft shell’s blood ran cold. Leo? Donnie listened to the message that was transcribed, still as a statue. Leo sounded terrified. His voice shook and was hushed as though he were hiding from something.
“-or-or how I got here, but-“
A deep rumble that almost sounded like thunder emitted, pulling a gasp out of his brother. A pause that felt like an hour long stretched out. Then, a horrific scream. It chilled Donnie to the bone and made him want to hide deep inside a hole. Another scream joined in; Donnie realised with horror that it’s Leo screaming. A loud crash, and the voicemail cut out.
Ear-splitting silence settled. Donnie sat paralysed. He jolted and swiped at his vambrace. The trackers blipped on screen, and he immediately searched for Leo’s.
…wait, what?
His tracker is in his room. That’s not possible. Unless…
Donnie dashed out of his lab, leaping down stairs and hurdling over unpacked boxes. Leo’s room soon came into sight; he slid in front of the door and threw it open.
“Leo?!”
He quickly scanned the room. His eyes landed on the sleeping form of his twin. Confusion settled in his mind like sticky, melted marshmallow. What the fuck? Leo’s here? But the voicemail…
Annoyance bubbled. He stomped into Leo’s room.
“Nardo, if this is some kind of sick prank, I’m really not in the mood.” Donnie shook his allegedly sleeping brother. “Come on, dum-dum, I know you’re not actually asleep. What the hell was that voicemail?” He shook him harder. Annoyance built. “Nardo! Leo, wake up!” He still doesn’t stir. Donnie scoffed and pulled Leo onto his back. The slider’s eyes remain closed, his face slack. The elder pulled the younger’s eyelids apart. Donnie’s eyes widened. That’s…not normal.
The pupil in Leo’s eye had blown so wide he could hardly see the reddish iris. Donnie let go of the eyelids and opened the other eye. Same thing. This.. this cannot be good. He pulled out his phone, turned on the flashlight and shone it in Leo’s eye. It didn’t react. Oh, this is definitely not good. Donnie chewed on his lip as he tested Leo’s other eye, getting the same result. What to do, what to do.
Leo is alive, thankfully. He’ll have to check his vitals to be sure he’s truly alright, however. Donnie glanced at the time on his phone screen. Nearly 3:30am. Raph won’t be up for another 3 to 4 hours. Donnie took in a breath, cornered a resolve, and scooped Leo up from his bed. The soft shell trotted down to the med bay, his stomach twisting at how limp his brother is. He shouldered his way into the med bay and set Leo down on the bed. His heart pounded as he tested Leo’s vitals. With each one that passes, he feels a little better but at the same time worse.
Donnie slapped a wrist monitor on him and fell into a nearby chair. His vision zeroed in on the monitor until it was all he could see. Resting heart rate is normal. Rhythm is normal. He instinctively slipped his hand into his sweater pocket and pulled out his phone. He reopened the phone app; he stared at the number Leo called from. He tapped on it and brought it up to his ear.
“The number you have reached-“
It didn’t even ring.
Donnie hung up. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and stared hard at the wrist monitor. Leo’s stupid heart mockingly beat at its normal rhythm. Donnie’s pocket buzzed and burst out into song.
The soft shell yanked his phone out and stared at the unknown number on the screen. His heart pounded. His hands trembled. He hit the green button and held it to his ear.
“…hello?”
“Ohmigosh thank the spirits you picked up!” Leo’s unmistakable voice came through the speaker. “You got my voicemail, right??”
Donnie swallowed against the confusion and fear as he stared at his comatose twin in front of him.
“I did.”
“Great! So you guys are on your way, right?”
Donnie stared at his brother’s still form.
“Don? You guys are coming to get me, right?”
“Uh…”
“Donnie?” Panic edged Leo’s voice. Donnie took a breath.
“We…can’t find you.”
“…what?”
Donnie gnawed on the inside of his cheek.
“I mean, something’s up with your tracker. I can’t pinpoint your location.” Donnie’s leg bounced a hundred times a second. “Can you see any landmarks where you are?”
“Uhhhh.” Leo’s voice faded some as Donnie imagined him moving away from the phone to look. “Not really. It’s mostly trees, streetlights, and an empty road.”
“That’s not much to go off on...” Donnie muttered. His eyes flicked up, and his heart seized at the sight of his unconscious brother. Right, his actual brother is in front of him. But what about the one on the phone..?
He could try to trace the call, but what if it only points to the Leo in the med bed? Only one way to find out…
“Stay on the line, Leo, I’m going to try and trace this call.” Donnie pressed his phone between his head and shoulder as he typed on his vambrace.
“I ain’t going any-“ A distant rumbling sound cut him off. “Shit. On second thought, I gotta run. I’ll try to find another phone.” Click.
Donnie sat in silence. His fingers hovered over the vambrace screen. It blinked at him. His eyes stayed glued to the screen. His mind spun every which way in baffled attempts to explain. This…it’s not possible. He looked once more at his comatose brother. What have you gotten yourself into, Leo? On his vambrace, the screen continued blinking as a dot pinged over the med bay.
#rottmnt#rise of the tmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#rottmnt leo#leonardo#rise leo#rottmnt donnie#donatello#rise donnie#fanfic#my fanfiction
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First bit of replicant AU concept art.
How I'm thinking the buttons I mentioned the other day would work.
It's about 2 inches [~5 cm], give or take. A little smaller than the width of your average smartphone.
You hold down for a few seconds and then can either use it like a touch screen or give voice commands. Once the outer ring fills, the AI performer's body will freeze in place. Both to prevent them from interfering and to act as a restraint method should one of them ever get too wild (read, violent [mostly just a comedic hypothetical]). They can still talk and move their heads, and will unfreeze after someone navigates back to the default screen. The button will automatically return to that screen after 5 minutes of no one touching the screen or using a voice command.
The AI's can't interact with their own buttons, including removing them, but can activate the other's. They don't have much reason to, though, as they can do most of what the button can do on their own.
A few options include the snooze, which essentially puts the AI to sleep, but if Pomni were to interact with them, or they were to see/hear something that they're obligated to assist with/investigate. Such as hearing a scream or seeing Pomni with some kind of injury.
The tracker, which allows the user to find where the other AI's are located in the circus.
And of course, tech support. Which sends an alert to Caine and will try to trouble shoot the issue. If the problem is severe enough, it will call Caine to assist.
It can also display error messages and tell you if the AI is buffering.
Image text transcript:
The buttons:
Interaction button
default display
icon
name of the folder where the AI is housed - CAINE_AI_copy_05_J
AI's name - "Jax"
Snooze
set snooze
15 min, 1 hour, 8 hours, 24 hours, until button is pressed again
Tracker
Gangle
Error
an error has occurred and [JAX] is unable to respond. Please call Caine or another AI friend for assistance.
0X0000001A
Tech support
please describe your issue
A friend is being violent and won't stop
A friend is missing and does not appear on the tracker
A friend is not moving
A friend is staring [for too long]
Comic
AI 05 JAX
"Hold your finger over the screen until the outer ring fills to bring up additional options. It'll respond to voice commands after that"
"So, I just-" TING
FREEZE
"You good?"
"Of course! It's just some temporary paralysis to keep us from moving while you adjust the settings!"
"O-Oh..."
#digital art#fanart#the amazing digital circus#au#tadc#tadc au#replicant au#new robot friend comes with a smartwatch strapped to their chest#cept it doesn't have any games#or internet access#also doesn't tell time#probably does have a calculator though#replicant concept art#TADC replicant art
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I have opinions. On jaune. (Shipping wise)
To clarify this is just my opinion. And my opinion is
garbage
But I want to talk about my favorite noodle so stfu Im talking.
And this is not me going "oh this is how jaune should be treated in every single shiping fic". This is just me acting like I have a huge dick and stating my terrible, terrible opinions.
Let's start.
1: jaune doesn't get bitches. The Bitches, get him.
Not to some of you I know you're all kicking screaming vomiting and crying because "obobobo b-but jaune has to pull bitches! I-its the only way I can escape this cr-"
SHUT
First, Jaune is not a self insert nor is he a character we project ourselves on. he is a character who has flaws and has his own personality.
He's an idiot and most of the times is a pessimist trying to be an optimist.
He gets things wrong, and he does really dumb stuff like faking his transcripts. He's not you, he's not me, he's not anyone else aside from Jaune
So when I say he doesn't get bitches, that's not being mean it's just kind of the truth, Jaune does not have a lot of confidence and when he does flirt he does it in really terrible ways, (just ask V1-3 Weiss)
But that's not everything I say because I also made sure to add that the bitches get him. Jaune is the kind of character who fails when he's trying because hes trying to seem like he's got things under control, he's going overboard which results in him comically failing, but when he's just being himself being a genuine person he does things really well. He is very much terrible at flirting and man has no skill with women, and he lacks confidence. Which leads to number 2.
2: Jaune is not cool. (In a good way)
Look I love my noodle man but even I can admit he is cringy. He does things to the max when he sets his mind to it which will fail. Because when he does those things he doesn't have either the confidence or the understanding he needs to do it. Take literally any attempt with Weiss he's tried asking her out, he's failed constantly because one he tries to impress which with Weiss makes him seem like he's just another fake face, after her heart for her name (which he isn't, it's just due to misunderstanding) he runs head first without the context or the confidence. He tries to impress but he comes off awkward like he doesn't know what he's doing. (Like that one time he tried asking her to the dance by playing the guitar and FAILING miserably.)
But just because jaune doesn't have the confidence or understanding doesn't mean he can't be cool.
He just can't be cool all the time. Jaune is a terrible liar and he's just upfront alot of the time. He's genuine and he is metaphorically unable to actually hurt people without getting welled up with emotions.
He's only killed ONE person, ONE actual person and we all know what that did to me. He broke and he was probably horribly traumatized.
Next is number 3
3: JAUNE IS NOT A SEX PRO.
Do I even need to elaborate on this? Please I don't want to elaborate on this!
I have to? Oh god... Ok FINE I'll elaborate
There are many, MANY jaune fics that I don't like in certain aspects. And if their smut expecting to see atleast one thing.
Jaune not being a Dom. Or you know, not having experience.
Jaune.. is a idiot and he's... He's not skilled in a lot of things. And one thing that just BURNS me is jaune switching up and being all dominant and aggressive (that's one of the things I wanna avoid writing jaune as)
Just let the noodle be tender or Inexperienced, At least if this is his first time.
And on a semi-related note I remember reading this one nightshade fanfic that I really liked, where it had Blake asking Weiss for advice on Jaune when it came to sex and in the fic Blake had experience meanwhile jaune didn't and was nervous if they did fuck he wouldnt reach a vague standard he put. It was a really good fic, it was really hot as well and I can't find it and it drives me up the fuckin wall because I really wanna read it again because it helped prove my point when it comes to jaune having sex and it's just- UGH. (Please if you know what the fick is just message me the link I beg you, PLEASE of you find send it to ME!)
Look I just REALLY like jaune (to a concerning degree even) and I just REALLY wanna talk about how I view him and I just... I just can't cause I suck at writing essays cause my brains just-
"ok I'm gonna write this- OH I GOT A NEW IDEA IM GONNA WRITE THIS- oh but theres also this and- BUNNY RABBIT"
Ugh I hate my brain and my attention span.
Anyway my trashy opinions on my second favorite character aside. Have a golden day and cheers.
Rock on till ya drop tata mothafuckers 🤘
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The Fairest of All Stars Should Be Your Next Read: a presentation by Di, the author
The Fairest of All Stars is my most recent project! A sapphic romance, pirates, sirens--god, what else can someone ask for?
Stars is a fun, short novel. It's currently only being posted on Patreon, but you'll be able to read it for free soon(ish). This isn't an ad for my Patreon, I promise. It's just my system.
If you're not super into fantasy but like some elements from the genre--this is good for you. There's no big magic systems or other worlds, but there is lore behind the sirens.
You'll be able to read it for free in 2024:
On Patreon (join for free)
On AO3
Right here on Tumblr!
It'll be a good time.
Transcript of presentation under cut:
What's it about?
Are you in the mood for some lesbian pirate/siren romance? Of course you are! When are you not?
So, listen, we have Andy. Everyone’s favorite gremlin. She’s the captain of a pirate ship, recovering from not so great tropical fever that wiped out a good chunk of her crew.
One night, her ship comes across a siren tangled in fishing net, not doing so hot. Andy takes her aboard and while the siren recovers, learns a lot about her.
But uh-oh Andy is wanted by a Navy Captain, and he manages to find her ship after years of hunting.
--
Okay tell me about Andy and Syan
Andy:
Never meant to be pirate captain but here she is. Living the dream (not really).
Andy trusts very few people. Despite being brilliant, a brutal fighter and cutthroat at sea, she has a hard time running her crew.
Syan:
The runt of the litter. Not as strong as the rest of her choir, she got left behind during an encounter with fishermen.
She’s curious but prone to bad moods. She’s a loner looking for a place to belong.
--
More about them
Andy panicked years ago while cornered by Captain Bettridge and stabbed him through the hand. She’s been hoping to get her knife back ever since. Bettridge really wants her dead, though, so she has to be careful.
Syan and Andy would be pretty badass in normal circumstances but they’re poor little meow meows in this story
There’s another cool guy. His name is Pinkey. He’s the ship’s gunner. You guys will like him, I promise. He’s Syan’s bff.
Syan and Andy are immediately attracted to each other. Andy is a monster-fucker and Syan is into messy women who are hoarders and misplace everything under piles of junk.
--
Okay but tell me more about the story
Set in the Golden Age of Piracy, Andy and her crew come face to face with danger--mythical and imperialistic. There’ll be sword fighting and gun-wielding and all sorts of adventure.
It’s not really found-family, either, it’s more of like found tolerance.
Is this well-researched? No. Not really. But it’s fantasy, and it’s fun. We can make some excuses here and there.
--
*whispers* is there lesbian sex?
yes of course there’s lesbian sex you think Andy is going to pass up on that opportunity?
--
Can I read this anywhere?
Right now, the only place to read bi-weekly updates is my Patreon--but I promise this isn’t an ad for my Patreon.
I’ll be posting it for free once a substantial amount is up on Patreon. You’ll be able to find it on AO3, Tumblr, and you’ll be able to see it for free on Patreon once I made it public.
Keep your eye out for it! btw, you can also join my Patreon for free and get notifications for when the story goes public.
#writeblr#writblr#original writing#queer fiction#writing#writing community#original work#andy and syan#the fairest of all stars
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A Conversation with My Twin About Not Me and Twinship
My twin sister @porridgefeast and I had a discussion over chat about our thoughts on Not Me and how it handled issues of twinship. This is a transcript of our conversation. It's been tidied up a bit and we left out some personal tangents and stuff, but it's still a chat transcript, so there's crosstalk and stuff. I've added some explanatory notes using asterisks here and there. Our tumblr handles have been shortened and color-coded for ease of reading.
This is long! If you don't have the setting enabled where long posts get shortened in your feed, you might be scrolling for a while.
Porridge and I have both done a lot of thinking and had a lot of discussions about twinship over the years, including the portrayal of twins in media. I'm also a mother of twins, which gives me another perspective on this stuff. We're both avid BL watchers but Porridge is more knowledgeable about Thai BL than I am.
emotionallychargedtowel (“towel”) I think I have a pretty good starting question. To what extent is Not Me a singleton* fantasy about twinship vs. an actual portrayal of twinship? What are the most authentic-seeming bits?
*a singleton is a person who was born from a single pregnancy, i.e., someone who isn't a twin, triplet, etc.
porridgefeast (“porridge”) There are definitely aspects that are the bedrock of the story that are singleton fantasy, no question.
towel Personally I think a lot of it is more along the lines of a singleton fantasy but I was surprised by some moments that touched on twin stuff that seldom gets talked about in media.
porridge Much of the time I don't care to scratch below the surface too much on this sort of thing, because I liked that I enjoyed the experience of watching the show. But if I were actively interrogating the show I would have one major question.
towel You know, I was thinking about the whole thing where twinship intersects with romantic and/or sexual relationships in this show, and I realized that when I was thinking about that before it was all about Sean but I was forgetting about Black's girlfriend
porridge And that would be: in Not Me universe, do all twins have psychic connections? Or just some? Or just White & Black?
towel That's a good question. At the very least it doesn't seem like something non-twins are aware of. I guess if it was universal, maybe they would.
porridge Also, I'm guessing they don't have the connection *because of* the earlier near-drowning. Because their parents say something after that along the lines of “We can't let this keep happening.” IIRC
towel I'd have to circle back but I think there was supposed to be some precedent for it before the near-drowning incident. Right!
porridge Is it because they're extra close? Because their parents suck? It just seems like it could be an interesting area to explore. Like, for the show to have explored.
towel That's a good question. My guess is that the show would say that's just their magical connection, but who knows?
One thing that I think appeals to singletons about the psychic twins trope
porridge I think the incredibly vague implication is "because special."
towel If on some level they're thinking of twins as two halves of one person, then it makes intuitive sense that they would be able to communicate their thoughts and feelings. It's sort of like two people with one brain. Like, the fantasy of two people who are separate but also not works better if they communicate their feelings/thoughts.
porridge Yeah, I think twins seem interesting to singletons because they're paradoxical to them—two people who are kind of one person and kind of not.
towel But also it's a fantasy, though not always a pleasant one. A fantasy of oneness but also a fantasy of the horror of...I guess you could say losing one's individuality.
porridge Yeah, it can feel like singletons think twins are exotic but also kind of gross.
towel Oh, definitely. It's funny because it's related to a real struggle that twins have but singletons don't get it at all.
porridge Occasionally it feels like they feel superior. And it's like uh what? Because you're an individual? Guess what, me too.
towel Yeah, I think that's true.
porridge You're just as much a slave to your genetics as I am, bub.
towel Right!
porridge Like, singletons don't have anything I don't have except for a lack of, like, people acting confused at them.
towel I always think about that girl who told me how much she'd always wanted a twin in high school. “Someone just like me, who I'd have everything in common with. We'd never fight.”
porridge Hopefully that person eventually grew up and became less of a goober.
towel Ridiculous but I appreciate that she was so lacking in the filter department that she voiced what I think plenty of singletons think on some level/at some times.
porridge That's one thing about singletons' thoughts about twinship. I get that they haven't examined a lot of their assumptions and of course I can relate to that when it comes to other things in my own life. But you just want to go “Stop. Think about it for literally ten seconds.”
towel So often they clearly haven't. Like that person who asked when my birthday was and then asked when yours was. And was then like, “Wow, what a coincidence!” when I said they were the same. (They figured it out but it took, like, a minute or two)
porridge I think when some singletons put themselves in twins' shoes, they don't put *themselves* in our shoes. They put some imaginary magical twin version of themselves in our shoes.
towel Definitely.
Well, it tends to be really polarized. Either being a twin is this lovely sense of communion with another human being or it's a terrifying thing where someone is going to steal your life
And then there are the times they don't put themselves in our shoes and just find us scary.
porridge I often prefer media depictions of the latter simply because I want so badly to correct for the former. Oh for sure. This is part of why I like that movie Adaptation so much.
towel Though that brings up something that happens in Not Me as well, one singleton actor playing twin characters.
That's something at least. There's a part of me that wants to say, “No more singletons playing twins. Get some danged twins. Or make them fraternal.”
porridge To go back to your question a little. I think the elevator pitch and general concept is a singleton fantasy, but at least some elements of the actual events are more like reality. It felt like somebody actually bothered to think through what that would be like.
towel Yeah, same here.
porridge Like, as I said when I wrote about it, the part where White is like Black won't come back, he's let me have my place in this group and we both know we can't both be part of it.
towel Yeah, there's that quote, “Nobody wants to live in another person's shadow” or something to that effect. I find it both sort of insightful and ridiculous at the same time. Like “everybody knows two twins can't both be in the same activist cell.” Uh, no.
But yeah, sometimes it seems like you can't be in the same space or group in certain ways
porridge Yeah that's not true. It's just that White now has closer relationships with each of those people.
towel And it may be true, though it's almost never entirely clear.
porridge It's not impossible for twins to be part of the same close group, but it's not always easy either. And that's partly because of the people around them.
towel And it depends so much on circumstances. Yes! And the other people involved.
[conversation ensues about people from school trying to get Porridge to make Towel talk less in class]
towel I was thinking about how polarized White and Black are. To me that's a bit of a red flag, when twins are even sort of opposites. And it's not true that White is perfect or that Black is evil but White is mostly right about things, mostly nice, occasionally cranky but that's about it, and Black is very hostile, clearly not in a great mental health place, etc.
They're closer to being all good and all bad than I'd like
porridge Yeah, I may have let that go partly because it wasn't quite as bad as I might have feared. But it's not ideal either.
towel It definitely could be worse. But it reminded me of the "which one are you" thing, which you certainly remember but I'm going to lay it out here for posterity.
"Are you the smart one or the [ableist word for unintelligent] one?" "Are you the nice one or the mean one?" and so forth. I used to blame the Sweet Valley High books and they certainly didn't help, but the twins-as-opposites thing is everywhere.
porridge Being at summer camp and me being "the brave one." I'm not sure what that made you exactly? If the description were correct it would have been "the homesick one," but there wasn't enough subtlety for that. Really it was the one who cries and the one who doesn't cry even when kicked by a horse. But that second part was just because in the fight/flight/freeze department, I'm a freezer.
towel Same, usually. I've tried to figure out why that is so appealing to singletons. My best guess is that maybe they like the idea of splitting a person into good and bad and then running the bad half out of town, so to speak.
It's a bit like that Buffy episode, actually. The Replacement. [There's a monster/wizard dude who wants to turn Buffy into a strong half and a weak half so he can kill the weak half and get rid of her entirely, but he hits Xander with his magic beam thingy instead.] It's worth noting that that's one of the only examples I can think of where instead of having one actor play twins they had Nicholas Brendon's twin brother play his double. I mean, it's one of the only examples I can think of where they had twins play a person and their double.
porridge There's arguably a whole separate treatise to write about the doppelganger concept and why it's compelling.
towel Yep
porridge For whatever reason I don't feel able to touch on it briefly, I can only go full tangent or kind of wave in its general direction.
towel I'm OK with either. I mean, a big part of the doppelganger thing is the fear that if someone resembles you they'll be able to take your entire life away from you.
porridge It's one of those things that has some perceptions-of-twins mixed up in it, but seems more about identity from the POV of singletons than anything else.
Yep. And that's the entire crux of that Buffy episode.
towel I do think their assumptions inform the doppelganger thing and twin stuff in a similar way.
porridge Yeah, it's from the point of view of singletons, thrilling themselves with fear that a nefarious twin could appear.
towel There's also the whole question of, like, if people met your double and did know it wasn't you, what would they be perceiving? How would that work? Do people have some kind of essence to them that we can distinguish?
I mean, obviously in reality the difference would be that person's behavior. And that comes up in Not Me.
porridge Seems like a lost opportunity that AFAIK nobody's ever made a body-snatcher film where a twin is a plot point.
But like I said when I wrote about the show,* as twins we know that people would just think the person they know is being weird for a very long time before they would go to a twin as an explanation. At least if those twins look as much alike as White & Black do.
*Check out the older post Porridge is talking about here.
towel Yeah, that's true. I think if Sean had figured it out sooner that would have really bothered me, for that exact reason.
porridge I mean, I say this as somebody who took ages to realize a friend was psychotic because I was convinced he was just really mad at me for a few months.
towel That's just human nature, though. We keep using the heuristics that worked for us for a long time. And most of the time that's the right thing to do.
porridge All I needed was for somebody to say "So [friend], do you think maybe..." without finishing the question before I was like yes. Shit!
towel When Sean asked if Black had a twin brother, a part of me felt kind of impressed that he figured it out. I can't decide if it's actually realistic or not. Like, would it ever occur to me, if someone started acting really different, that they might have a secret twin?
porridge Even then it was partly because of something somebody else said.*
*Porridge thought she remembered something to this effect, but so far neither of us has been able to track down the quote she remembered, or thought she remembered. But neither of us has fully rewatched Not Me since this discussion, so maybe it's there and we just didn't find it.
towel Still, it's either that Sean was really astute there, to a potentially unrealistic degree, or he had a theory that would have been incredibly dopey except that it happened to be true. I guess it's kind of both? He was astute and the theory would be dopey most of the time.*
*Since this conversation, I (Towel) have had some more thoughts about this that I'll put in another post soon.
porridge I guess that's one area where the implausibility sort of cycles back to making the plot make sense.
towel Heh, right.
porridge It makes more sense that he figured it out because they are so different. That's kind of a fantasy too. Like, "the person who loves me would definitely know if I wasn't me."
That reminds me of something I could ask you.
Wondering if you had a similar reaction to something. When Sean finds White (out of his Black drag), I had an unexpected rush of emotion. I was glad they were going to talk (presumably) with the twin stuff out in the open but it wasn't just that. I almost didn't care about Sean, but the fact that he was seeing White-as-White made it more real that yeah, this is actually White. White is getting to be himself now. It was like gender euphoria I guess only it was individuality euphoria.
towel That's interesting. I think I might try to peek at that scene real quick if that's OK.
porridge I think it was also because prior to that we'd only seen Black for a while.
towel I think I'm almost at the right spot but in the meantime, the recap for the part I pulled up included the whole denying he's a twin thing ("Twin, my ass!") immediately followed by "Stop messing with my little brother!"
Omg, Black's bitchy face when he throws the handcuff key away.
I don't identify with Black a whole lot and he's honestly a bit incoherent as a character, like somebody's pushing faders up and down with his various traits depending on what they need to have happen plotwise. But even though I don't want him to keep White away from Sean & the others I still kinda feel for him there.
That's pretty true. Well, I think they're kind of deciding if he needs to be the opposite right now or if he needs to be someone who cares for White and/or their cause.
porridge Bit of a damn right moment.
towel Yeah, there are a few relatable things there.
Being protective of your twin is real, of course. And he doesn't like Sean and probably has seen a really bad side of him because of how contentious their relationship is. There's also an element of feeling jealous and/or threatened by your twin's romantic relationships, which I found was more of a thing when we were younger. It's something that's pretty embarrassing so it's hard to talk about and I think often gets swept under the rug, but it's real and it's understandable. I wonder if there's a homophobia and/or gender role thing going on there. Like, does Black perceive White as being in a more vulnerable or feminine position in his relationship with Sean and if so does that seem more like Sean is taking advantage of him somehow?
porridge Could be. We know from earlier events that Black is very protective of White.
I don't feel strongly that I know the motivation there.
But I could make one argument for a possible interpretation. It could be that Black wants to protect White from Sean because he doesn't like Sean, but mostly he wants to protect White from their radical activities, keep him away from lawbreaking and risks.
towel It's kind of perfect that when Sean finds White-not-dressed-up-as-Black he not only has his glasses on (which seem to symbolize White being White for a lot of the remainder of the show) but a white t-shirt, something that gets dirty easily and wouldn't hold up well in Black's style of life.
porridge And he could resent Sean that much more as a result for keeping White tied to them in another way.
towel That's true.
porridge That interpretation is sort of optimistic in the sense of giving the writers a lot of credit. But I think it's plausible.
Even if Black isn't consciously homophobic, there's a subtler kind of gender thing / homophobia-lite factor that could be in play. Where that person suddenly seems more vulnerable than if they were with a girl.
towel Yeah, I think so. And I think they may seem more vulnerable than if they were perceived as being "the man" in that relationship
porridge And he's smaller, etc. He's new to the group and to their risk-taking, etc. Bunch of things connect. But of course the gender piece isn't rational or correct. It's just the sort of residue of homophobia that gets in people's brains.
towel I'm trying to remember that meme or whatever it is. About the horror of being known versus...well, the appeal of things that require that you are known
That meme is what came to mind watching this scene where Sean meets White as himself.
porridge One more thing about that scene. I also liked how relieved Sean seems when he learns White's name. That seemed meaningful. No idea how much of that is me looking through my twin lens.
towel I guess it's "the mortifying ordeal of being known." I think White is very much having the mortifying ordeal in that scene. I just went back to the scene and that's where I was, at the point where Sean asks White his name.
It's a remarkable thing to have fallen in love with a person and not to know their real name but you can imagine how much you would want to know.
[discussion of doctoral program practica and names]
porridge Yeah. Watching back a little and a big part of Sean's epiphany is that Black doesn't catch him in a trust fall. Just looks at him like he's an idiot. A big part at that moment; it's clearly a test so he already suspects.
towel Good point. It's remarkable that after Black has already behaved this way he still does that trust fall without holding back.
I thought it was interesting when they had White think, in voiceover, that he was surprised that he could feel so close to Sean, that he thought he could only feel that close to his twin. I go back and forth on what I think about that. I'm not super fond of the comparison because it's such a different type of connection. But I guess I can relate to it in some ways. Especially when you're young, it can be surprising when anyone can be close to you in a way that's even sort of comparable to your twin. Okey doke. How about a silly question to mull over?
porridge Yeah sure
towel If we were in a world that operated under Not Me universe rules
Who would I have to sleep with to make you wake up from a coma? I tried to think of a real [porridge] nemesis and the only person who came to mind was someone who used to work in your office whose name starts with a [letter].
porridge HA
towel I wouldn't go near her with a ten-foot pole except maybe if it would bring you back to life. Works for me!
[Porridge’s answer is somebody she was very close to at one time who she then had a sort of friend breakup with. then we talk about emotionally unavailable people and those who are attracted to them.]
Lemme see here. I was trying to remember what happened with White and Eugene. I spaced out a little at that part and I wonder if it's because I was getting pretty uncomfortable with the idea of White pretending to be Black with Eugene. I think they kissed? And I was like, please get out of this situation. But I think I spaced out on the show in an avoidant way at that point because I can't remember if anything else happened between them or if he got away and if so, how.
porridge He actually drugs her which is not great...
towel Gracious
porridge He's in a position where he's trying to avoid a lot of things while trying to get some information from her about what happened to Black, and he doesn't do anything to her while she's knocked out. But it's not an okay thing to do by any means.
towel I was going to look up the Eugene scene and I went to the window where I had been watching the episode 12 part where Sean sees White as White, and there was an interesting line. Sean said he had had a feeling because Black seemed so different, and White said, "Your feeling was pretty slow!" Kind of resentful that it took him as long as it did, even though at the time he wouldn't have wanted him to figure it out.
porridge If you read between the lines / fill in some blanks yourself you could say that while we saw White being generally relieved the others didn't work out that he's not Black, he wasn't always completely happy about it and about pretending. The more involved he becomes, and certainly the more he cares about Sean and is invested in something between them.
His feelings aren't made apparent after that initial relief.
towel Do you think White kind of gets a bit softer after Black comes back? Like, that he seems to become more of a contrast to Black? Maybe it just seems a bit like that to me because of the contrast. Black coming back also just leads to some emotional scenes, so we see more of Sean doing things like crying as well.
I'm going to mention something for later because I'm scared of forgetting: there were a few times when Black and White broke some "twin rules" I have for myself and I was like, "you can't do that!" but the biggest one was White getting Black's tattoos. They show his arm getting tattooed during the opening credits and every time I'd see it I would cringe so hard. You can't get the same tattoo as your twin unless you get intentional bro tats!
Of course then I found myself thinking about how much harder it would be for me to simulate your tattoos. Not just because there are more of them but because they're much more complex. And I think one might be in the same spot as one of mine?
porridge That to me is so kinda preposterous to begin with that I didn't get to the point where I was like "that's not allowed." A new tattoo doesn't look like an older tattoo so unless Black got his a month ago it's ridiculous.
But I agree, that's against the rules.
towel Oh gosh, I couldn't stop thinking about how his tattoo and the piercings weren't going to look right because they were still healing
In a way, the next day the tattoo might look more correct than it would a week later when you get that layer of skin falling off
porridge To return to your earlier point, it's confusing because if White seems a bit gentler and softer, is that the comparison? Is it an intentional choice among the filmmakers and Gun to contrast them? Did White maybe relax in his efforts to seem like Black once he felt accepted?
Also, maybe White is occasionally grumpy and seems more Black-ish and that has factored in at some points.
It would help if Black were a more nuanced character, though he is SOMETIMES nuanced.
towel I feel like those are all possible. Some of it is just the comparison and the events of the story at the time, but I also think that the writers/director were probably playing up the differences at least to some extent. And as you point out, Gun probably was too.
I feel like Black has the most depth when it comes to Eugene, but it's fleeting and not that nuanced.
porridge Having had an ear piercing since I first saw the show, I feel more like the piercings are plausible because he doesn't change posts. In the case of those, the main thing that would be visible would be some swelling for the first week or two and the gang likely wouldn't notice that.
I'm not sure whether Black has more depth with Eugene or if she's tied with White and Todd for interactions with actual feelings.
Black's Todd-related emotions include a lot of anger and rage, but in a way IMO where you can tell Black has actually let Todd into his world and has confided in him in a way he may not have done with the gang or others in his life. Maybe because they go back so far.
towel That's true. You can see why people ship Black and Todd, write fic about them, etc. I mean, I don't think there's actually something going on there in the show but he feels more strongly about Todd than almost anyone. He shows more emotion interacting with Todd than he does interacting with White.
porridge It feels like he's guarded with White partly out of protectiveness, though it's also clear that he's not eager to open up to White hugely. He cares about White but he really just wants White to do what he says, and hearing more about White's feelings and thoughts won't help with that.
towel Anytime one twin feels responsible for their twin's safety, it's bound to have some big downsides when it comes to their abilities to be emotionally authentic with each other. That's what I associate with it, anyway
porridge And they've been apart, but Black has maintained his childhood scheme for their relationship.
towel Because the person protecting is overloaded (they aren't supposed to have to take on this responsibility) so they're bound to be reactive to the protectee being distressed.
porridge As a protective twin and kinda parentified caregiver toward my twin (at some times in some ways), I didn't want to boss you around but when I felt you were in danger it was incredibly difficult not to feel like I could do anything about it.
towel I know that must be a feeling that comes up a lot--like, the horrible powerless feeling when someone you love is in an abusive relationship.* But I'm sure there are unique aspects of it and a lot of intensity when it's your twin..
I was looking for some other parts of the show to comment on and I found when White sees Black for the first time and I thought it was interesting that he says that unlike all the times he imagined this moment, it's "surprisingly frightening" (I think that was the wording. I find it remarkable that he says it's "like seeing my doppelganger." Because Black isn't the doppelganger. White is! "I stole my brother's entire life and he wanted it back. Such a doppelganger.")
*I (Towel) was in an abusive relationship for most of my 20s. Naturally, this was really hard for Porridge.
porridge You're right, but that experience (as I imagine it, having not gone more than like 9 months without seeing my own twin) would be uncanny to anybody in a way where you would lose all perspective about like recent events.
towel That's true. I guess I feel like the narrative kind of lets White off for his actions a little too much. I mean, his replacing-Black actions. There's very little time spent on the fact that Black doesn't like that he did that and it's not like he had his consent. His motivation to protect his brother matters but it doesn't negate everything completely. And of course Todd is nudging him along the whole way because it's in his interest for the anti-Tawi stuff to continue.
porridge I get what you're saying but I don't think that’s in service of making White out to be so perfect, I think it's more about keeping the narrative clean. There's a hypothetical version of the show that uses that to interesting ends.
towel I guess it just seems kind of lazy to me, or convenient
porridge And Black does tell White that the others won't want him around once they discover he's been lying to them. And White thinks (voiceovers) the same about Sean specifically.
towel I'm probably more interested in those implications because I'm actually a twin.
It's kind of wild how readily they're okay with it, the group, I mean. Maybe people are more likely to forgive that sort of thing if your twin is a huge butthole.
porridge If I wanted to explain that I would say that on some level they already knew.
towel I was wondering what you thought about the whole separating twins as children thing. I'll explain just a bit.
You pointed out that it doesn't really make sense for White's and Black's parents to think that separating them is going to change their psychic connection and I agree. There's no justification for that. But it reminded me of other ideas about how somehow twins being "too" close is going to be bad for them. I forget if I sent you a link to that recent article* but I remember I definitely shared a passage from it. This woman is kind of musing about her relationship with her twin and some of it is kind of self-indulgent but there are some good bits, and my favorite is where she talks about separation.
She talks about this case where an adoption agency separated a bunch of twins and adopted them out to families, never telling the families or the kids that they had twins. And there was a researcher kind of in cahoots with them who interviewed the families and the kids over the years to observe them, looking at the twinship angle but pretending it was for other purposes. It's all incredibly unethical.
But the justification was that being dependent on one another is unhealthy so twins are better off apart.
I wonder if that's part of what singletons find scary about twins. Maybe it would be better to say it’s a thing that scares them when they see it (or think they see it) in twins. And that's dependency, or more accurately, interdependence. Of course, that's kind of a culture-bound reaction. But in an individualistic culture like we have in the U.S., being sort of born into an interdependent relationship could seem horrifying.
*The article I'm referencing here is Giving Away My Twin by Jean Garnett, which came out on 7/10/23 in the New Yorker
porridge That's horrible. Would be even if they were non-twin siblings.
towel Yeah. Some of the saddest examples were from a book by Anna Freud's partner* talking about kids she observed when they ran a place for kids who were sent out of London during the Blitz.
*Anna Freud's partner's name was Dorothy Burlingham and her book was called Twins: A Study of Three Pairs of Identical Twins with 30 Charts
porridge The thing is, and I'm not saying there isn't any closeness kind of inherent to twinship. But yeah, any siblings can be closely dependent but when you add that to the appearance of twins people get wigged out.
Though I do know of kids being punished for being too close to their siblings, referred to negatively because of it, etc. Non-twin siblings.
towel I do think that being the same age increases the chances of being close or relying on one another.
porridge Yeah I don't discount that.
towel But yeah, it could happen at other ages and is totally penalized in some families.
porridge But I'm saying do the people outside that relationship perceive the additional closeness or do they just perceive closeness plus twin appearance
towel I do think that they overestimate it a lot based on twins looking similar.
But it gets kind of chicken-and-egg there, because part of what makes you closer is everyone treating you like you're a) weird, b) a unit with this other person, c) unbelievably similar to them, etc. Like, you know that closeness is expected, and you can get excluded by others because of their perceptions of your twinship.
Well, I was going to say that separating twins for no reason like that adoption agency is something I think most people would find disturbing. And separating twins the way White and Black were separated would probably seem like a bad idea to a lot of folks. But there are smaller examples of this that are really normalized. Like, I remember feeling really surprised, almost startled, when I found out that there's no empirical basis for [the idea that it’s] better for twins to be in different classes at school.
And I really think that became a convention because of that thing where twins being close--or just the prospect that they might be--freaks singletons out.
Maybe even more so when you're talking about adults who are considering a set of twin children. I know in our family of origin it was sometimes implied or even directly stated that our relationship somehow undermined the parents' authority.
And that's sad, because what you're talking about is children’s ability to provide each other comfort. Like, these are adults who basically resent that you have an ally who will make it harder to break your spirit.
porridge And you shouldn't be dependent on your children being ineffectual to parent.
towel Well, I think it's interesting how their separation is dealt with in the show. I'm tempted to go back and look at that part again, actually.
It's both treated as more and less of a big deal than I expected.
Like, it's not treated like it's nothing, which I think they could easily have done. But if they were going to acknowledge that it was painful, I wish they'd acknowledge it more.
At this point we got sidetracked and trailed off. Of course, this post is long enough as it is! That said, I do have some additional thoughts about Sean figuring out the twin thing, as I noted above. I'll be posting about that soon. And I wouldn't be surprised if Porridge and I end up having other thoughts about all of this down the road.
#not me the series#not me meta#twinship in BL#seanwhite#offgun#off jumpol#gun atthaphan#twins#twinship#twinship in media
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thank you very much one person who likes my random post LMAOO
another drabble, sun-focused, introducing some new lore/plot
tw sun is violent, and he's accidentally in a cult, and hes very much manipulated
not beta read i. no no wanna
cut just in case
~~~
“What are you doing?”
The voice makes you jump in surprise. You slam the drawer closed and shoot up as you straighten your back, eyes widening. You’d been caught red-handed. Sun stands in the doorway, his blue eyes narrowed and his smile thin. His upper lip twitches and it’s silent for a long moment. The heavy robes colored like sunsets drape over his shoulders and down, and when his arm moves you see the fabric sway, nearly dragging along the ground. You don’t get a chance to explain yourself before Sun steps farther into the room, polished black shoes tapping on the stone floor, and the door clicks shut behind him.
“Snooping is very against the rules, friend.” He says, his chipper voice grating on your senses. One of his hands isn’t visible as it rests behind his back. You keep the desk between you as he steps closer. “May I ask what exactly you were looking for? It must be very important if you were willing to risk your future for it.” He hisses, the venom in his voice not trying to be concealed.
“A book,” You say, partially a lie, and a shitty one at that, and you think you momentarily see Sun’s eyebrow twitch up in annoyance. Shit. “I thought maybe you had it.”
“A book?” He echoes, incredulous. His face lights up, disarming you momentarily, and as he attempts to round the desk to get closer to you again, you barely skirt past him. His robes brush you and he hums, a displeased glance in your direction as his hand shoots down to unlock a drawer with his moon-shaped necklace. Your heart sinks as he pulls out exactly what you were looking for. “This, I assume? How strange! What would someone Like you need with the receipts of the month?”
Sun opens the notebook with a soft twhip of the paper, deft fingers licked as he turns the page several times. Your eyes narrow into a glare as he shifts his weight to one foot, the glint of the silver dagger strapped to his side a reminder that you are not expendable. Moon needs you for this mission- and he doesn’t know it yet, but Sun needs you too.
“We ordered from overseas, bought and sold a few horses, visited the masonry… ah, here it is,” He says, tapping the page and dragging one of his pale yellow fingers down the page. You can hear the paper rip along the perforated edge. A cheap book they used to hide records from the transcript.
A cheap book to use as a bible.
“An order for war equipment. Canons, bows, firearms… And of course, a special set of armor, just for you. The king really likes you, doesn’t he? You’re his new favorite,” Sun says it with an almost disgusted tone. To be honest, you’re disgusted at the thought of the king attempting to spoil you as well. You feel ice in your belly as his cold blue eyes meet yours. Usually, the freckles that dot across his cheeks and temples but spare his nose are cute- today, they remind you of eyes. He feigns a saddened sigh, looking back at the paper, and easily rips it and folds it in a smooth motion, handing it to you as if he were a teacher disappointed with your grade. You know better than to reach out and take it when you see his fingers twitch with their iron grip.
“He’d be very disappointed to find out you were helping the rebellion,” Sun says, tutting and shaking his head. He draws the paper back and crumples it. You know there was more on that paper than what he oh-so-graciously told you, and you hate that you’ll never know as he tosses it into the fireplace. “But he’d be very much pleased with me if I turned you in-“
“He’s lying to you,” You spit, and you watch Sun’s rays twitch for just a moment in surprise. He grits his teeth. “He’s tricking you. He’s poisoning the kingdom. Haven’t you noticed? New rules, increased guard, separated families- this is getting out of hand.”
Sun frowns deeply, and this time you don’t get a chance to move before he is dragging you closer to the table by the wrist. You feel your wrist pop and hiss as it’s twisted, forcing you against the desk. It is forced backward by the rough movement and Sun lifts his knee to the surface to avoid losing any balance. You are reminded of the glow in his eyes as he stares at you, his lips pulled taut into a saccharine smile.
“Eclipse wants what is best for us,” He says, roughly. His hand shakes with the restraint to not snap your wrist right off. “He is keeping us safe. Under control.”
“You’re blind,” You spit, and Sun’s rays shrink at the venom in your voice, eyes narrowing. You don’t usually stand up to him. “You’re either to far gone, or you’re trying to keep your ignorance for the sake of his approval. But I know you’ve seen it. When’s the last time you’ve seen Cassie? Did you even notice she was gone? Or did you just blame it on ‘the rebellion’ and move on.”
You can’t move that wrist out of his grip, but you can move your other arm. Your moves and he attempts to stop you from grabbing for his dagger- but you don’t even reach for it, clasping your hand around the moon pendant that dangles from his neck and seizing it, ripping it off. Round beads, gray and blue, clatter to the ground and shatter. Sun’s eyes widen and for just a moment, he looks genuinely distressed. You wrench your hand out of his loosened grip and snap the crescent in half between your palms. Sun lets out a strangled sound, still half across the table, eyes flashing completely white.
For only a moment, things are silent and peaceful. And then Sun is launching himself over the desk to snatch the broken halves from you, shoving you away without a second thought and anxiously smoothing his thumb over the broken pieces, glancing around for glue or tape or something- anything- that will hold the memories of his brother back.
“Sun,” Your voice lowers as he holds the pieces broken edged together, spinning around the room, searching and searching. It’s sad to watch. You raise your voice when you say his name again, watching as he knocks a lamp off of the desk and the room is devoid of light except for the orange glow of the fireplace. The yellow edges of his faceplate are visible as his head snaps to you, eyes pale in the darkness. You can only barely see where his body peeks out of the robe- head, neck, wrists, and hands. The rest of him is blacked out.
“What’s going on?” He whispers, conspiratorially. His voice is shaking. You can hear the tick, tick, tick of his rays as they shrink in and out of his head. “Eclipse said that when the necklace broke-“
“That all the memories of Moon hurting you would come back?” You ask. You almost feel sorry for him. You take a step back towards the door. The sound of his rays stop. “I just told you, he’s lying to you. Those bad memories of him aren’t real. He used Cassie to put the dreams of him in your head, and then banished her so she couldn’t tell you. Sun, you have to calm down-“
“No,” He hisses, roughly. He separates the blue pieces of the crescent in his hand and taps them back together several insistent times, his movements frantic. “No, no, no, no, no. He wouldn’t lie. Not to me. Moon is dead. He tried to kill me, and Eclipse-“ He looks back up at you. His eyes are black with small white rings in them. “Eclipse is protecting me. Protecting me from people like you.”
He shouts as he lunges. The door flies open and knocks you forward, into his chest, and there’s the sound of a dagger clattering away and a sword being drawn. You feel the soft fur on your ankles before you can push yourself up and away.
The silver edge of a sword captures Sun’s head and tilts it up. Sun’s face is deadpan. You can hear his internal systems shutting down. Moon’s cloak falls and he kneels, pushing you off of Sun, gently scooping the unconscious advisor into his arms. He stares at the crumpled heap in his arms for a moment before looking back up at you.
“Go. Go make a distraction. I’ll take him back to base through the left garden.”
“Got it.” You turn automatically to dash away, only glancing back once just in time to see Moon scoop a few of the unbroken necklace beads from the floor and put them in his pocket with the broken pendant. You look forward again and run straight for the throne room as Moon throws the end of the rug into the fireplace.
You throw the doors open and the court stops as the force of the giant mahogany doors caused an armor stand to fall over. You point back just in time to see the room go up in flames.
“Fire!”
~~~~
ends like that because i plan to have fire maybe be a chapter name thats misleading, like the others are all war themed and then suddenly its like "they're (rebellion) getting somewhere and aren't being crushed by Eclipse..."
#fnaf dca#fnaf x reader#eclipse x reader#moon x reader#sun x reader#dca fandom#dca au#fnaf au#i like writing for sun this is like my third time#for this au at least#he's mean right here its kinda sloppily written beacause. no planning#but i swear he's a little menace
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Hello! I am a molecular biologist, and I was wondering if I could get your opinion on some of my theories on Gallifreyans.
I haven't read through everything on your blog yet, but I'm working my way through it (lol). So some of this may not be quite accurate with what you have set up thus far.
Basically, I want to briefly discuss alternative splicing! Anyway, in metazoans, alternative splicing outcomes can be regulated in a time and tissue specific manner by legitimately hundreds of biomolecules such as RNA binding proteins, chromatin remodelers, hormones, etc etc. It is subject to epigenetic regulation as alternative splicing and transcription are coupled (and splicing largely occurs cotranscriptionally), so details such as DNA methylation, nucleosome positioning, histone modifications, etc can change the balance of different mRNA isoforms. This is largely because these factors will either help recruit splicing factors (or inhibit their recruitment) or because it will slow RNA Polymerase II elongation.
Onto my theories. I have been thinking for a little while that the lindos hormone can perhaps modulate splicing, triggering the production of regeneration-specific isoforms. Perhaps their bodies work so fast that isoforms promoting totipotency trigger a temporary transition away from the cells' differentiated states.
I also think it could be possible that they have some novel ability to, say, "unsplice," which humans cannot do. This could potentially allow them to use already made transcripts and then completely change them to produce unique proteins without needing to transcribe another mRNA. This could feasibly allow them to rapidly change what proteins are in each cell (perhaps quick enough that it occurs within the regeneration itself). Although, there would be some instability while now unused proteins get degraded or the splicing/unsplicing ratio stabilizes (the molding period). This would require intense regulation as well as unsplicing and resplicing would now be posttranscriptional, but I digress.
Sorry to bother you with the long post, I just had too many nerdy ideas going through my head. Thanks!
-gallifreyanhotfive
Molecular Biology: 'Unsplicing'
Oh, you thrill me with your biology talk! Molecular biology is not a speciality so apologies in advance for any limited response.
🔬 Lindos and Its Variations
Something to be covered in the new Anatomy and Physiology guide is a wider look at the role of Lindos in Time Lords, so we're hitting the nail on the head here.
Under stress, injury, or during the process of regeneration, the lindal gland significantly increases its production of the hormone Lindoneogen like a caffeine-fueled scientist, resulting in a corresponding surge in lindos cell production. There are several forms of lindos cells, including:
Lindopoetic Progenitor Cells (LPCs): Dormant cells that spring into action upon Lindoneogen stimulation.
Lindopoietic Stem Cells (LSCs): Residing in the yellow bone marrow, ready to differentiate under the guidance of Lindoneogen and the catalytic influence of artron, into ...
Lindoblasts and Phagolindotropes: Specialised cells responsible for regenerating tissue and recycling cellular components from the previous incarnation.
Haemolindocytes: Circulating cells that endow Gallifreyan blood with its regenerative properties.
💡Splicing and Lindoneogen
Lindoneogen could play a key role in alternative splicing, creating specific mRNA isoforms vital for regeneration. This implies that Lindoneogen is not just a cellular signal but also a molecular tool for crafting the necessary protein portfolio for regeneration. So Lindoneogen may trigger the production of specific mRNA isoforms that are vital for the regeneration process, which could lead to the expression of proteins that facilitate the transition of cells into a more pluripotent state.
🖇️Unsplicing
Love this idea. 'Unsplicing' as your concept presents would be particularly relevant during regeneration. It could allow cells to quickly alter their protein expression profiles without the lag of new mRNA transcription. This rapid adaptation would be pretty handy for the efficient transition of cells to suit the requirements of the new incarnation.
🔗Integrating with Lindos Cells
This concept of 'unsplicing' could be particularly prominent in the function of phagolindotropes. As these cells are responsible for consuming the previous incarnation’s cells and replacing them with new ones, their ability to 'unsplice' and rapidly change protein expression would be pretty useful. This mechanism might also support the functions of lindoblasts and haemolindocytes in tissue regeneration and blood adaptability.
🏫 So ...
The addition of splicing and unsplicing mechanisms to the lindos theory suggests a more complex and dynamic process than simple cellular proliferation and differentiation, with dynamic genetic adaptations at the molecular level highlighting the advanced biological capabilities of Gallifreyans. Good work, Batman!
→🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (WIP)
→⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine/Monitoring Guides
→📝Source list (WIP)
-------------------------------------------------------
》📫Got a question / submission?
》😆Jokes |🫀Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts
》📚Complete list of Q+A
》📜Masterpost
If you like what GIL does, please consider buying a coffee or tipping below to help make future projects, including complete biology and language guides.
#doctor who#gil#gallifrey institute for learning#dr who#dw eu#gallifrey#gallifreyan biology#gil biology#gallifreyans#ask answered
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Family don't end in blood - chapter 7
Summary: Things finally seem to look up for Y/N and she's looking forward to the little break from filming, she's closing in on the first semester and life is just good, but an unexpected appearance threatens to break down everything she's worked on the past months...
Pairing: Jensen Ackles x foster!daughter reader
Word count: very close to 5,000
Warnings: mentions of abuse, protective!Jensen, angst, so much angst, nightmares, Danneel is honestly the only sane person here
Transcription - Y/M/L - your mother language, Y/H/C - your home country
A/N: This is where things start to build up...
You were finally settling into the routine, the filming, school work, life in general. You finally found balance in your everyday life, and you can definitely thank Jensen for helping you with everything that came up along the way.
You were excitedly counting down the days until you get to go back to Austin and be there for the twins' birthday. You haven't been that excited about something in a long time.
But as of now, you, Jensen, Jared, and Misha are walking to get some lunch. Of course, Jared was being Jared and pulled yet another prank on Misha. And of course, taking in the fact how serious y'all are, Richard got sick and tired of y'alls bullshit and sent you to have some lunch and cool off before continuing with filming, for sake of his as much as yours.
"You are a monster!" Misha exclaimed, Jared laughing,
"I can't believe that what, 12 years later, you still fall for his stupid pranks," Jensen said, all three of you giggling as Misha groaned,
"I just might ask craft and supplies to buy me some popcorn for next time, cause you guys are my favorite movie to watch," you laughed, Jensen's phone ringing,
"Oh, it's Dee. Get me some steak and salad, kiddo. I'll catch up with you guys."
"I'm so gonna put something spicy in his meal," Jared giggled evily,
"Jared Tristan Padalecki woke up and chose violence," you said, Misha rolling his eyes,
"That's his default setting, kid," he stated, Jared nudging his arm playfully,
"Oh I love you too," Jared stated, taking his phone out, "I gotta check in with Gen. I'll take my meal when I make it. You keep a seat for me, kid," he said, ruffling your hair and drifting away as well,
"I'll just drop by and give Sarah my trench coat so that she can wash it up since this is not presentable anymore," Misha said, "Keep me a seat too! Preferably as far from Jared as possible," he called out from the distance, making you giggle as you showed him a thumbs-up, leaving to get some food.
While you were walking to the catering, you pulled your phone out to read over all the texts your friend, well, more sister, sent you. The time zones are kind of messing with your friendship but oh well, it's not like she's a night owl anyways, so you get to text very often. You caught up with all the texts from her and swapped to discord, where you had a group of close friends you'd study with whenever you needed company.
As you were walking you bumped into something, or someone. You immediately turned around after bumping into whatever it was, wanting to apologize for being a clumsy idiot if it was a person you bumped into.
But when you lifted your eyes up from the phone, you froze.
"Watch your steps, whore," a voice called you out, making you gulp. You swore you felt all will to live drained from your body and soul right there and now, as you stared at the person you'd never expect to see here. You were speechless, hands shaking as they put the phone back into your pocket. The person smiled at you evily, making your blood run cold, "Awww, what's the matter? Are you scared of your own mom?" you clenched your jaw, all the anger accumulating in you slowly but surely.
If she left from set without a bloody nose she should consider herself lucky. Everything was coming down but you still didn't know what to do. Do you attack, talk back, run away?
"Since when do you speak English? You don't even speak Y/M/L properly."
"I want to show you that everything is possible. Even me learning this filthy language," she began, "To prove you that you could have done exactly the same. You could have studied and become a scientist in Russia and-"
"Did you seriously travel for more than 30 hours just to tell me all of that shit over again?" you asked, huffing a laugh, "I can't believe this. You're still living in the past. I'm done," you pointed out, "I'm done being a puppet you control. I'm done being a punching bag you take all of your anger out on. I'm done being your daughter. I'm done being related to you. For all I know, I shouldn't be talking to a stranger."
"Drop the bullshit, bitch," she spat out,
"No, I'm not gonna drop it. I've had it up to here with you," you said, gesturing, "I'm done being manipulated and controlled, I'm done being beaten and hurt and called out. I don't deserve what you've done to me. You brought me into this world only to blame me for everything that has ever happened and to make me into this robot you control. I'm not supposed to be what you want me to be. I'm supposed to build my own future and make my own choices, whether right or wrong."
"I see you're still blind," she responded, "Me controlling you? How can you stay blind after all these years? I'm giving you a future!"
"A future?" you huffed, "This is my future. For the next few months, this is my future. My future is to finish high school, to make my own choices and be my own person. My future is to heal from everything you've fed me with. But then, you don't know of the term mental health, so you wouldn't know what I'm talking about."
"Stop being a bitch or I make you shut that filthy mouth of yours," she said, taking a step towards you, making you take a step back as you flinched,
"Yeah, that's how you deal with everything. Beat Y/N up. That's the only card you know how to play."
"You little blind bitch. I'm trying to secure your future, to make you successful!"
"And I can't do that by myself, in a branch I choose? I can't be a successful actress, or a video game designer, or a mathematician or a musician? It has to be medicine, biology, whatever the fuck the thing is on your mind? You are not doing anything but wanting to make me into this super famous person so you can show off to others how smart your daughter is. That same daughter you beat behind closed doors. Have you ever bragged about that? How gentle of a mother you are?"
"KIDDO!" Dean Winchester's voice in full swing echoed in the air and you felt a stone rolling off your heart as you saw him run towards you. He immediately grabbed you for your arm and pulled you aside. Though it was rough, it wasn't meant for hurting you, but for quickly moving you back behind him, where you were safe and out of reach for your mother,
"Oh great. The old fuck."
"Who the hell are you?" Jensen asked,
"Oh, you don't know!" your mother exclaimed, taking a step back. You grabbed at Jensen's flannel and pulled him three steps back with you. Jensen looked you in the eye and you must have had such a scared expression that he immediately dropped the attention on your mother and immediately turned to you,
"Kiddo, who is that?"
"My-my mother," you breathed, feeling your chest tighten up, "She's-she's my mother."
It took Jensen one swift motion to pick you up and settle you on his hip, same way Dean did to your character numerous of times before,
"You're safe. As long as my arms are around you, you're safe. I promise," he whispered.
You couldn't do much but lean your head against his shoulder as you tried to take deep breaths and not go into a panic attack,
"I want you to leave," Jensen spoke up, turning to face your mother, "You have no business being here. Go your own way."
"Oh, but she is my business," your mother spoke up. You shook your head and Jensen squeezed you tighter,
"Oh, look how gentle and soft you are with her. That's how you raise a whiny bastard. My methods haven't worked quite well, unfortunately, as she's still a whiny little bitch."
"Yeah, when you beat your daughter up with whatever comes to hand she craves for a soft touch, something that won't hurt her," he responded,
"What I was doing was raising a strong independent woman. Now, only thing I have left is to kick that bitchy attitude out of her and make her into a scientist so she can finally contribute to this family and be useful for once."
"Oh no, you're not coming near her," Jensen shook his head, "You aren't taking her anywhere."
"Oh sweetie, that's not your decision to make. Besides, I have no problem showing you a few moves I've used on her. I'm sure she'll obey after she revises them with me."
"No," you spoke up, Jensen still holding you tightly, "You're not going to hurt him."
"You be a grown-up and talk to your mother!" she exclaimed. You looked at Jensen, nodding. He gulped, letting you down but tightly holding you, your back pressing against his chest, "Now, about the parenting preferences. Don't you have three kids of your own? You should start using some belt on them if you want them to grow up strong and independent."
"Oh you don't tell me how to raise my children," Jensen growled, "I'm never going to hurt my kids. Whatever they do, I'd never hurt them."
"Oh, you're making a big mistake."
"Yeah, whatever makes you sleep better at night," he responded, "Children cannot in any way be responsible for whatever is happening in your life. Yes, they might break a glass, shatter a window, spill milk, crack their head open, but they are never doing things on purpose and when mistakes happen, you talk to them. You don't 'cure it' with a belt."
"Please, as far as I can tell, Y/N's grateful for my parenting preferences. Right?" you gulped,
"What's going on here?" Misha's voice rang, your mom groaning,
"You fuckers don't know what manners are, do you?" she asked, turning around to face Misha, "Don't interrupt a lady when she talks," Misha looked at her and Jensen was fast to drop on his knees and turn you to face him. You heard Misha talk back but all you were focused on was Jensen,
"Kiddo, hey, you're safe," he told you and you nod, "She's not gonna come near you. Did she hit you?" you shook your head, "You sure?" you nod, "Okay, that's good. How did she find you?"
"I-I don't know. I bumped into her when-when I was walking to-to get food," you stammered,
"Okay, we'll take care of it. Do you trust me?" you nod, "Good. Now, I'm here, and so is Mish, Jared will stumble up here as well. You're safe. We won't let her get you. Okay?" you nod again and he stood up, both returning to the pose you had before Misha showed up.
You could now tell Misha was in a heated argument with your mother.
"STOP!" Jensen exclaimed, Misha moving to stand right next to you. It seemed like he realized who she was and he took a protective pose in front of you as well.
"You know what, I should have hit you harder," your mother spoke, Misha gulping as he looked down to you for a second before looking back up,
"Yeah, mother of the year right here people!" he shot back,
"She's a sixteen year old child. She's got all the rights to be loved and to want a hug and to feel safe. Every single person, no matter their age, should be granted as much."
"She can't even do the right thing to save her life! That's where your gentle parenting bullshit leads. Now, I'm sure she's pretty useless here. Might as well hand it back to me."
"She's not an it," Jensen growled,
"Yeah!" Jared's voice rang and you turned around just in time for him to voluntarily pick you up and settle you on his hip, "She's our kid! So you might as well drop whatever plans you have with her because you'll have to walk over our dead bodies to get her."
"Wow," your mother huffed, "So despearate in need of a dad, you found three! But you never once cared about me, did you? I had to be alone for my entire life because of you! You drove your father away and I never got to be loved!"
"I was never responsible for anything that happened between you two," you yelled out, "Why didn't you abort me if he already didn't want me and you knew he was going to kick you out?"
"Well, I figured to make up for it by making you into a successful scientist and then we can go to him and-"
"So that is your brilliant plan? Rub it in? Do you understand that he has a wife and a daughter he loves. He doesn't care about you or me. And I'm sorry you went through that, but you had options and you chose to give birth to me. I had nothing to do with you and him. I was born and instead of being loved, I was all these years used as a puppet in your master plan of rubbing it in to him."
"What is it that you want?" Misha asked, obviously missing some context,
"Well, that idiot there is coming with me or she's going to suffer."
"I ain't letting her go," Jared spoke up, "So you might as well cross that off your to-do list and reschedule it for never."
"You've got a chance to fix all this," your mother warned you, "I won't beat you hard too."
"No," you spoke, "I'm happy where I'm standing right now and I'm not coming with you."
"Well, you had your choice. I can't wait to see you suffer," she responded, "The exact same way you made me suffer."
"She made you suffer? Because she wants to live her own life, make her own decisions? Or is it because she wants to be loved and cared for?"
"Don't you want what's best for your child?" she countered,
"We all do," Jared said, "But your definition of best seems to drift off from ours."
"We want our children to have a good life. But we don't dictate them," Jensen began, "We don't plan it all out for them. We let them be kids, let them play, learn, enjoy life, fuck up and slam against the wall and help them get back up. They are never going to have a plan they so blindly have to follow. What you wanted to do to Y/N, it's not fair. It's inhumane."
"Why won't you shut that ugly mouth of yours or I make you," she threatened, huffing, "No wonder you fit so well. Shit goes with more shit."
"You keep them out of your dirty mouth," you growled, "You wanna trash talk about me? Do it. Make the whole universe hear how bad of a daughter I am. But you don't dare talk about them like that. You don't know them."
"Oh, and you do? They'll just use you to get popular and then throw you out. That's when it'll hit you and you'll beg to come back," her mother began, "But I won't take you in then. You have one chance, and it's now."
"No."
Your mother gasped, fully not expecting the answer even though she's been given the same answer multiple times,
"W-What?"
"I said no," you repeated, "I told you I'm done. I'm not coming with you. This is where I stand, and I like it here. I'm done with you and your plans for me, for revenge on my father. It's over," you said, "We were getting lunch, guys," you spoke, the three nodding and walking away, brushing past your mother, but not without resistance. She jumped at you, presumably, but Jensen was in the way and had no problem grabbing her and pulling her away while Jared moved quickly, still holding you in his arms and Misha bolted, probably for security.
"You are not," he began, locking arms around her, her long nails scratching his skin, "Going to," he picked her up, "Come near my kid," he took a step back, "Ever again." he growled in her ear, dragging the two of them away, "You wanna make her suffer?" Jensen asked, letting her mother go and she immediately maintained a safe distance from him, "Huh? You wanna make a little kid suffer?" he repeated, your mother bolting to attack him again, long nails managing to get to his face before he grabbed her wrists, "Bad idea. Cause if you touch her, you have a lot of people breathing on your neck. And I am the first one," he said, going into her face. Only thing your mother could do is hysterically scream into Jensen's face until the security showed up and they dragged her away.
As soon as she's being dragged away, Jensen is running to you and Jared and you caught Misha with the corner of your eye. You couldn't be fooled, as all three had terrified expressions on their face,
"She's okay," Jared spoke up as soon as Jensen was within arms length. He took you from Jared's arms and hugged you tightly. You couldn't do much but return the hug and let both of you calm down from your high.
"How did she get through the security?" Misha spoke up,
"She-She probably paid her way in," you responded, going to hug Misha and then Jared, "I'm sorry for causing a scene."
"There's nothing to apologize for, munckhin," Jared shook his head as he squeezed you tightly, giving you one of his famous moose hugs,
"I scared you. All three of you," you responded, looking back at Jensen, "And she hurt you too."
"What's important is that she didn't hurt you," Jensen responded, smiling weakly for you, "Don't apologize. You didn't pick your mother."
"But still-"
"Don't," Misha shook his head, "We're all okay. And Jensen's right. What matters is that you're not hurt."
"What in the ever-loving fuck happened?!" Richard exclaimed as he walked up to you,
"My mother somehow managed to break through the security."
"She's fucking mental!" he exclaimed, "Are you guys okay?"
"More or less," Jensen responded,
"Oh man, get someone to clean that up," Rich frowned, "Listen, if she broke through the security that means we have a rat somewhere around."
"I'll fire the current security and ask Cliff to make me a list of most trusted ones," Jensen said, "I'll set it all up."
"But until that's set up, we're taking a break," Richard said, "I gotta look around people here too. I don't know who she might be working with. I'll need time."
"Guys, really, you don't have to-"
"All of our safety is compromised with that mental bitch loose. Yes, she'll be held for 72 hours or something, and yes we'll press charges, but whatever is the outcome, I have to go through all these people. I have to work with people I know are safe. I don't want insane parents breaking into the set and murders happening, and neither do Jensen and Danneel."
"But we'll fall back with filming," you pointed out,
"We'll be fine. Filming is postponed until February 1st. We have a few episode waiting for production. I order y'all to go home and take a break. You heard me kiddie?" you nod, looking down, not expecting Richard to come up and hug you, "Hey, I'm not mad at you. I can't be mad at you. She's the mental idiot, not you. I'm just glad you're safe."
"Thanks," you whispered, returning the hug,
"Don't thank me. Now go home, all of you."
The first thing Jensen did as he opened the door to his trailer was lead you to the couch and grab a bottle of water sitting on the counter, handing it to you. You took it quietly, your head bowing down.
"Kiddo," he whispered, crouching in front of you, "Kiddo, look at me," he tried but you shook your head.
How can I look at you? I put you in danger. I shouldn't be here.
"Kiddo, this isn't on you."
You gulped.
Of course he knew what's going on in your head. Of course he knew you'd be blaming yourself. And you still couldn't wrap your head around the fact that nobody is blaming you.
But then, they might be as well lying to you.
"We're going back to Austin," he stated and you shook your head,
"I'm not going."
"Yes you are."
"No I'm not," you began, finally looking up, "She's going to be out in 72 hours. She's coming after me. Save yourself and go. I'll find a place here and keep quiet until we return to film."
"No," Jensen shook his head, "You're coming with me. You're way safer in Austin than here. Either we both go or we both stay."
"Jensen-"
"No," he said sternly, "I'm not leaving you here."
"Jensen, you heard her. Are you seriously willing to sacrifice the safety of your family just for one person?"
"Yes," he responded, taking you back with it, "Cliff is in Austin. I'll ask him to watch over our place."
"Jensen you don't know her and the lengths she's ready to go. Just let her have her way with me and she'll be gone when she's done."
"Not knowing how far she can go is the exact thing I'm scared of," he pointed out, "You're coming. We're gonna keep you safe, and we'll have fun and think of how to get rid of her, besides suing her."
"I don't want to sue her," you spoke up, Jensen now confused, "I just want her to go back to Y/H/C as soon as possible. Besides, she's most likely not going to show up at the court anyways."
"Okay, but Chaos Machine is suing her, so she'll have some problems up her ass," Jensen said, "Now, we'll go home and pack. We need time to figure things out and if nothing, I'll feel better if all my kids are within arms reach."
"And that's exactly what I meant when I said I don't want to come. I want you to be safe. I want them to be safe. Jensen, I can't afford to be close to you now."
"She can be the queen of England and I still wouldn't give a flying fuck. She's not going to hurt me, nor you nor anyone."
"Y-You can't promise me that, Jense."
"You're scared of her," Jensen sighed, "Which is completely okay. But you're forgetting something. That is, you have me. You have Jared, Misha, you have Dee and little ones back in Austin. We're not going to let her win, kiddo."
"She will win. I know she will. Jense, she has ways and mind twisted like no one else. How far she's ready to go to make someone suffer..."
"Well she isn't counting on you having us and she sure as hell doesn't know I'd go even further to protect you, so she can stick it up where the Sun shines," Jensen said, kissing your temple, "Let's just pack up and go home."
12 hours later
When you step out of the car you are greeted by Danneel's arms wrapping around you to give you a hug. Your brain is such a wreck that you don't even flinch. You just return the hug numbly, everything in your head just too much to handle. Jensen gets a hug as well and you follow the two to the living room where they sit you down.
"Honey, you're safe here. She's not going to come near you again," Danneel tried to assure you,
"I shouldn't be here," you whispered, "I should go to a motel or something. I'm putting you in danger. How can you not see?" you asked, looking up with tears in your eyes, "I don't want to put you in danger. I don't want to put the kids in danger. Why aren't you getting rid of me?"
"Because you're family," Danneel responded, "No matter what she does, we'll go through it together."
"I shouldn't have left you alone," Jensen murmured, totally out of the current conversation,
"No," you spoke up, standing up to go after him after he began walking up and down the room, grabbing his hand and stopping him to look at you, "You don't do that. You don't blame yourself. It's not your fault she's insane."
"It's neither of yours fault," Danneel corrected you as she approached you, "So stop blaming yourselves. She's her own person, she has her own brain with questionable thoughts in it and you cannot in any way make her do anything because she's calling the shots. Now you," she turned to Jensen, grabbing his other hand, "I know you'd probably wipe Y/N from her mother's memories if you'd had the chance to, but you can't. So don't blame yourself for something that you didn't see coming. You can't see into the future. And you," she turned to you, "You're just a child and you're not at fault for having a crazy mother. So don't eat yourself over what happened and don't think about what's to come either. Whatever happens has its own reasons why and we'll go through it together, like a family. Now, I think a nice, warm bath will help you relax. What do you think?" you nod,
"Thanks," you whispered, looking at Jensen who wore the famous 'Dean feels guilty for something he had no control over' face. You shook his hand and he looked down at you, "It's okay."
When you're done with your bath, Danneel was waiting for you with a cup of hot cocoa,
"Here's something to warm up a little before going to sleep."
"I can't sleep."
"I know. I think Jensen's right there with you," she responded, opening the door to their bedroom where Jensen was seated against the headboard, playing with the blanket over him, "How about you two have some alone time and in the morning you'll fill me up?" she said and Jensen nod, taking your hand in his and sitting you down next to him,
"Thanks honey," he whispered, Danneel smiling as she leaned down to kiss his lips,
"Don't thank me," she smiled, planting a kiss to your temple as well before walking away and closing the door behind her.
The two of you sat in pure silence. You didn't know what to say, what could you possibly say to make this whole situation better. You knew Jensen wasn't going to get rid of you, and as much as you appreciated it, part of you really wanted to go and keep him and his family safe.
And Jensen obviously had problems forming sentences since all he did was hug you tightly. And you'd lie if you said you didn't need it. Everything he did the past 24 hours, he and Jared and Misha. You didn't think a loving touch could make all the worst things hurt a little less.
You didn't even realize you were crying until Jensen shushed you gently, assuring you that it's okay to cry. You were so unaware of your own body, surroundings, everything. This all put you back to square one, at the bottom of the hill again. You didn't know how were you going to climb up to the top this time. You didn't think you had energy in you.
"That's what that feeling was," he murmured, "Like you felt her coming, but you didn't know it was her."
"I wish I knew," you responded, sniffling, "I-I wish I knew so I could have avoided her. I'm scared."
"I know, and that's completely okay. We'll keep you safe. She won't get you."
The very next thing you know is you're jumping awake from a nightmare, panting and sweating.
"Kiddo, you're safe," Jensen spoke up, making you whip your head around and gasp at the scars on his face, "You're safe."
"She-she hurt you," you breathed, "No."
"Kiddo, you gotta breathe," Jensen tried, getting ahold of your shoulders, "Look me in the eye and follow my breathing. In. Out."
After a few minutes you came down from your high, still staring at Jensen,
"What was it about?"
"She... She hurt you," you breathed, tears welling up in your eyes, "She-she hit you. Same way she hit me. And-and I was there but I-I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything."
"Shit kiddo," Jensen breathed, "I'm safe. I'm okay. She didn't hurt me. It was just a bad dream. I promise I'm fine. Okay?" you nod, looking down, "Here, drink some water," he handed you the bottle and you gladly took it, downing the content in record time, "You need to take it easy these next few days, okay? No school or anything. You have to put yourself first."
"How do I do that?" you breathed,
"We'll do it together. We still have a few days before the twins birthday. We'll help Dee set it all up and we'll do a lot of movie nights and play and talk. Okay?" you nod, "I think the kids are up. Wanna go say hi to your favorite Ackles?" you smiled,
"Sure."
#jensen ackles fanfiction#jackles#jensen ackles x reader#jensen ackles#jensen ackles series#jensen ackles x y/n
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if you haven't already, be sure to check out sid's interview with mark madden from today! some fun tidbits about his europe trip in there, some sid laughs, some talk of sid's grays.
transcript is under the 'read more' but i was a little sleepy while editing this tonight, so sorry if there are any errors! feel free to shoot me an ask if you see anything you'd like me to fix.
Mark Madden:
Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby. Uh, yo, are you now the crazy old guy who fights in preseason games? I mean, I get it, but it was still a shock what happened there?
Sidney Crosby:
Haha, I guess that's what it's come to. Uh, I don't know. I think it's just one of those things that, you know, I look back, I didn't really see the whole play. I just saw three guys on the ice that looked both had hit Tanger. And I didn't know if one got him high one low or anything like that, but, you know, just trying to just stick up for one another.
And obviously you don't like, you know, you don't like to see that happen, especially in pre-season. So I think it was just a reactionary thing and you know, it's just so happen to be preseason, but that's that's part of the game.
Mark Madden:
No I think it's great example set certainly. Now, this game against Connor Bedard tomorrow night- the opener. It's got to remind you of your first game in your rookie year. What kind of memories does this dredge up?
Sidney Crosby:
Oh, a lot. I mean, it's, you know, it's something that I can relate to. And, you know, I think everybody, you know, your first NHL game is something that everybody remembers and just all the feelings, the emotions that go into it. Your dream coming true with playing NHL. But I think, you know, for him, even more so just with all the pressure and expectations that have been on his shoulders for a while now.
So I can relate to all that and uh, and know what he’s going through. But I also know how exciting it is, regardless of all that stuff, to just be playing in your first game.
Mark Madden:
If you could give eighteen year old Sidney Crosby any advice now as a 36 year old, what would it be?
Sidney Crosby:
Probably just say no a little bit more. As far as just the off-ice stuff, I mean, that's that's one thing I look back on and it was just- it was pretty hectic and I think it's easier said, you know, said than done. I think at that point, though, there is just so much going on. We were coming out of a lockout.
You know, I think there's a lot of expectations on and off the ice as far as, you know, doing doing your part as a young player and trying to help the league and stuff like that. So I think that, you know, it's easy to say that now, but at the time I think it was it was the right thing.
It's just it was it was a busy year. It was a lot. And I think you you know, you feel that pressure, You feel that expectation. And he'll go through that. But he's got great people around him and his family and his team will be there to help them out and help them through it.
Mark Madden:
Stats don't mean a lot to you. You've told me that. And I'm I know that's a very sincere feeling on your part, but you've averaged over a point per game every season you've played in the league. I think that consistency means something to you.
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah, it does. I mean, it's like you said, it's numbers, but, you know, I think the the streak of being in the playoffs and that sort of thing, that's something that, you know, I think for the guys who are part of that, we're we're really proud of that. But you know a point per game. Yeah it's great.
I think it just comes down to you know want the opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup when you know, when playoff time rolls around. So I think I, I think about more of that than anything. But, you know, consistency has always been something I take really serious and it's a long season. And you know, you go through ups and downs of a season.
You want to be someone that can be relied on every night. And I've always I've always tried to have that mentality.
Mark Madden:
I feel like it got one more hundred points season left in you. What do you think?
Sidney Crosby:
Haha, I like the sounds of it. I mean, I'd love to. It's not easy. That's that's a tough mark to get to. And it's been it's been a few years since I've gotten to that. But yeah, I'd love to get that mark. I think that would be that'll be good for our team too. So maybe we'll get to that. So we'll see.
Mark Madden:
What have you not done in hockey, Sid, that you still want to do?
Sidney Crosby:
I'd love to win the Stanley Cup at home. I know that's get pretty particular, but you know, that's something that I don't think that's ever been done in the history of our team. You know, that's something that, you know, and, you know, you dream of winning the Stanley Cup. It doesn't matter where it is.
But I've been fortunate enough to do it. But I think to be able to do that at home would be pretty cool.
Mark Madden:
I remember you told me as a kid when they just announced the new building was going to get ground broken. You wanted to win one at Mellon Arena before we left, and I kind of smirked. But you were very sincere and you did it. That was a big deal.
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was I think everyone kind of looked at, you know, the age of our team and the expectations and, you know, thought it would take a little bit longer than it did. But I think, you know, our mentality was we thought we were we were close to being able to do it and hope that we were able to do it there anywhere really.
But it was nice. So we were able to do that before switching buildings.
Mark Madden:
Do you yet consider your context, your place in Hockey's history, top five, stuff like that. And I know you're going to say you don't, but come on by now, you gotta.
Sidney Crosby:
I don't, haha. Why would I? I mean there's- I mean that's a debate, you know for other people, not me, but I yeah I don't really there's no reason for me to really think about that. And obviously there's a ton of reasons and things you could debate. So there's not much point in me going there.
Mark Madden:
Yeah, I mean, I don't want you to declare yourself like top five. Like, like I do on your behalf, but. But I just wonder if privately. You wonder? Not at all, huh?
Sidney Crosby:
No, I don't. I mean, it's not. I mean, it's a compliment when your name is, you know, with so many great players and you're put in that category. But really I love the game and I respect all the players who've, you know, played before and what they've accomplished. And I don't really need to do that as far as, you know, for my own for my own self.
I don't really need to figure out what that is or have that number in mind. It really doesn't change. You know, how I feel about the game or how I feel about, you know, what I've done in hockey. It's not really about that.
Mark Madden:
Okay. You've had training camp. Where's this team at? It's an older group. How far can an older group go in a league that's so fast and play so many games?
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah, I mean, I guess we'll have to, you know, we'll have to see. But I think that definitely there's there's experience with us, which I think will help. I think one thing, you know, last year we were guilty of is not being able to hold on to leads. So I like to think, you know, with an experienced group, that's something that, you know, should be a bit of a strength as far as understanding situations that and making sure that, you know, when you do get a lead, specially late games that, you know, you find a way to hold on to it or at least, you know, grab points.
And we were probably guilty of, you know, not just losing leads but losing points a number of times, which ends up being the difference. So I think just that experience will hopefully help in a lot of areas. But yeah, I think that that's something, you know, whether it's depth or, you know, hold on to leads or just understanding situation, experience goes a long way.
Mark Madden:
You got Karlsson. You guys have always been a very offensive risk taking team. He's certainly going to add to that in a positive way. And you know, Sid, I've suggested sometimes that you guys should play more defensively and slow it down. And as a lifelong penguin guy, maybe I was stupid because it's very apparent what you guys are.
It's in your DNA, it pre-dates you even it goes all the way back to Mario. I mean, you guys have maintained the way the Penguins were. Boy, destined to play. Sounds corny, but it's kind of worked out that way.
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah. I mean, you've got to find that balance. And I you know, you look at the league, you know, there's there's a lot of goals being scored. You know, teams are putting up a lot every night. And, you know, you've got to be able to score. So that's obviously a big part. I think the defensive side is something that, you know, you can't trade, but at the same time, you got to be able to score goals.
And, you know, with Karl, he's a guy that, you know, can change the game with one play. There could be nothing really happening just to make something out of nothing. So that's, you know, that's pretty good to have back there. And, you know, I think as far as offense, he's going to just add to that. And we already have a good group, I think.
So he'll be able to add to that. And I think it'll just be a matter of, you know, making sure that on the defensive side that, like I say, we don't we don't trade off.
Mark Madden:
We're talking to Sidney Crosby on the home of the Penguins 105 90 X. Sid, Your off ice workout routine has always been incredibly intense, but at 36, where's it at or are there times now it's maybe more important to rest than to do extra?
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah, I wouldn't say that. I think it's just, you know, you just manage things a little bit different. Some things are a little bit harder on your body, you know, now than they used to be. So just being aware of what that is. And as you said, rest too. I mean, you got to find time to do that and make sure that you're able to go out there physically perform at the level you need to.
But it's it's constantly kind of a balancing act. I think it's something that you just try to, you know, listen to your body and understand at times in the schedule or training, as you mentioned, you know, when you might need to back off a little bit. But then when there's opportunities to go hard, you got to make sure you go hard to get the most out of it, too.
So it's just a critical balancing and understanding what you need to do. And it's it's still a learning process even at this point. But I think it's something that's that's important. If you want to have success.
Mark Madden:
Do you ever just sit on the couch and watch TV and eat junk food?
Sidney Crosby:
Pretty much Sunday off days. That's what it is.
Mark Madden:
That that makes me feel a lot better about myself to hear that.
Sidney Crosby:
Exactly.
Mark Madden:
Although I probably do that more often than Sunday. Hey, you guys had that great thing back home for you in Nova Scotia. I thought that was terrific. How was that for you to experience that? And does anybody up there not like you? It was an amazing love fest. It was like 100% all Sid.
Sidney Crosby:
You know, it's just really nice. I never thought I would ever have a chance to do something like that. We played there in 07 and it was pretty quick trip. We were in and out. We went had a game and left right after. So just have all the guys there to have my family be a part of it have everyone home, you know, show the support that they did.
Yeah, it was all it was all just really unique and something I didn't think I'd ever have an opportunity to do. So just really grateful that we were able to do it. It's a pretty busy schedule. So to get, you know, three or four days there be able to show everybody around and just get together with the group during training camp and just see a lot of new faces and things like that.
I thought it was it was a lot of fun. And yeah, I you know, as far as everything went, it was it was awesome. It would be nice to get the win. But other than that, it was it was a great experience, really.
Mark Madden:
I'm just glad you didn't fight. Now you've been in Pittsburgh 18 years at 19 now this season. I think everybody here loves you, too. I mean, this has really worked out great here. I mean, not just the hockey either.
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah, it's you know, it's a great place. I mean, you know, people love sports. And you know what? From day one, they've been so supportive and obviously they have high expectations of of all teams, especially us as the years have gone on. But they just couldn't be more supportive. It's a great place to live. And, you know, thinking about the situation I came into being able to, you know, play with Mario, live with him, be able to be surrounded by the young guys that were part of our team coming in and learn with all of them and to still be playing with two of them to this day.
Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm pretty grateful. The place, the people, the situation, the organization very, very lucky.
Mark Madden:
Well, that kind of jumped to my next question. What's this like to go the distance with Malkin and Letang? Because now it's apparent. I mean, I don't know if you guys are all going to finish up at the same time, but you're going to play the length of your careers together is as far as it can go.
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah. I mean, you know, you never know. In hockey, obviously you don't want to take anything for granted, but to be able to to go this long and hopefully be able to go a few more years, that would be incredible. It's been a pretty amazing ride to this point. And to be able to have those guys around to, you know, go through the experiences, we have, to see their drive at this point in their career and what they've accomplished.
I think it's something that, you know, we all push each other and know we all have really high expectations, but they're driven, they care, they're competitive. And it's really fun to see that, you know, after all these years, that hasn't changed.
Mark Madden:
Now you've won all you can win in international hockey. You scored arguably Canada's biggest goal ever. You and Paul Henderson probably deadlocked in that regard. Do you want to play in one more Olympics, which would be in 2026? And that would mean at least one more year of NHL hockey beyond your contract, have you thought about that at all?
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah. I mean, you know, it's- with the Olympics, it's too bad that it hasn't worked out. We haven't been able to, you know, to get there in prior years. But you know, if there's something that's worked out that'd be a great opportunity. I'd love to. And, you know, I've had some some great experiences playing for Team Canada. And it's, you know, as far as the level of hockey and just the product, I don't think you're going to see any better hockey than Olympic hockey.
So yeah, that that would be amazing. So I got to make sure I take care of myself and I'm playing at a high level, but I'd love to be a part of that.
Mark Madden:
This is a dumb question. Trick question But what would you rather win a gold medal or another Stanley Cup?
Sidney Crosby:
No, I'm not answering that one.
Mark Madden:
Okay. Sorry. Let's just skip ahead. Where did you go this summer? You take some great vacations. I didn't ask you when I saw you because I wanted to save it for the show.
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah. This year I actually went to Norway and toured around there a little bit. I went to Norway and Ireland. So it's been a few years since I've been over to Europe with the early exit. There is a little bit more time, so that was, that was pretty neat. I got to golf a little bit in Ireland and then it was a bit of a hiking trip in Norway so got to see a new place, a place that I always want to see.
And it was beautiful weather, it's great. It was a long offseason though, so I'm happy to be back and getting ready to play.
Mark Madden:
Yeah, unusually long, but that's the point. You missed the playoffs. You want it to last longer this time. Did anybody recognize you in Ireland or Norway?
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah, a little bit. I mean, in Ireland there is a lot of like bus tours and things like that. So I ran into some Canadian tours over there and then in Norway I was surprised. It's not a big hockey country, but, you know, they definitely know hockey a little bit. So I ran into some people there, but they were really friendly and you have both beautiful places and that was that was a cool experience to be able to just see a different part of the world.
Mark Madden:
What's the last movie you saw and do you anticipate seeing The Exorcist reboot?
Sidney Crosby:
I'm not going to see The Exorcist reboot, but the most recent one was Oppenheimer, The long one.
Mark Madden:
I haven't seen that yet. Is it good?
Sidney Crosby:
Really good. Yeah. They mentioned Halifax, Nova Scotia, too, so it doesn't hurt.
Mark Madden:
Well, why no exorcist? Too scary?
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah. Not really a scary movie guy.
Mark Madden:
Okay, fair enough. I saw the original. I had nightmares for for two weeks and I was 14 and I. You know, I just. I'm soft, you know that now.
And as is tradition. Before we wrap up, are you engaged, married or is anyone expecting?
Sidney Crosby:
Nope. Nothing to report there.
Mark Madden:
Okay. Well, I feel obligated to ask. And finally and I think this is a good thing to wrap up with. You are very comfortable with your age, aren't you, at this point in your life and career at 36, even the gray hair, I don't think it fazes you at all. Am I right or wrong?
Sidney Crosby:
Yeah. No, I mean, what would faze me about my age?
Mark Madden:
You tell me, coach. I mean, I didn't. I didn't figure it would, but I wanted to ask, like, because you and I talked a bit about dyeing your hair, which you have no intent to do. And I'm sorry, I didn't, but I mean.
Sidney Crosby:
Well I might have to if I keep going out, everybody keeps coming up to me and chirping my grays. So I might have to just eliminate that conversation starter. [Not entirely 100% about the first portion of this sentence, it was hard for me to parse out exactly what he said!]
Mark Madden:
No, don't give in to people like me. Do what you want. My God, you're Sidney Crosby for Christ sakes.
Sidney Crosby:
Haha, yeah, I know. I don't worry about age.
Mark Madden:
Well, no, if I were you and played the way you still do and everything you got going I wouldn't either.
Hey, listen, this was great. As always. I appreciate you taking the time. And we'll see you tomorrow night. You going to fight Bedard?
Sidney Crosby:
No, no. You don't have to worry about that.
Mark Madden:
I kind of wanted to see it. Sid, thanks again. I'll see you tomorrow.
Sidney Crosby:
Okay. Thanks for having me. Have a good one.
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i've been meaning to draw this goober for a while now... ANYWAYS say hello to zavier
i have a dumb explanation for the creation of this fella (as well as the transcript of the image) below the cut vvv
this doll appeared in a dream i had 3 months ago around. i remember that in the dream i was watching the movie with my sister and for some reason it showed a made-up scene of lou and the backup singers etc setting up for 'ugly truth'. so you have lou, the triple fry backup singers, and another doll with purple and blonde hair wandering around, seeming super exhausted. in the dream i believe he was a backup singer from a older batch, but after i drew him and showed him to my sister, she said he looks like a drummer. so he's a drummer now i guess lol. i remember in the dream as well i said "imma make some headcanons of this guy" and then i did. yipee
i never intended to make an oc, so my dreams did it for me uh.
oh also i slightly redesigned rhidian to be more 'imperfect'.
and to expand on the last bullet point, the two weren't allowed in the gauntlet due to being 'imperfect', so they snuck into the crowd of prettydolls doing the gauntlet without lou knowing. lou is a mixture of anger and surprise, as they actually end up being pretty good at dodging the obstacles together. that is until the robot dog arrives, and shit hits the fan.
anywho, here's the transcript:
Zavier:
(the scribbled text: fuelled on caffeine and loud music)
Flaws: mix-matched hair, always tired
Role: Drummer
From an older batch of dolls (to expand on this: I'd say after Ox and Mandy but before Nolan)(EDIT: I'M CHANGING IT SO HE WAS MADE BEFORE OX AND MANDY AND NOLAN AND-- because it makes more sense. if Rhidian was in the same batch with Zavier, and Ox blocked off recycling after he left Lou, then Rhidian won't be able to be recycled cause. ya know. it's blocked off. so they a real early batch. ...not sure if the spy girls will be there though. not sure how long they've been around. maybe they are in the same batch as Zavier and Rhidian... hm)(yes im making a whole-ass story for these two i have grown attached to their pain)
Was given the Institute's cone of shame (the 'UGLY!' sign) with Rhidian. They became friends because of it. (uglies gotta stick together)
VERY protective of Rhidian
Thinks Lou is full of crap
Sleeps during lessons
Him and Rhidian sneak into the gauntlet to show that even imperfect dolls can leave for the big world. Backfired majorly.
also the scribbled text for Rhidian reads:
the customising machine malfunctioned. ...quite badly (ripped uniform, random stitches everywhere
#art#uglydolls#uglydolls oc#uglydolls rhidian#uglydolls zavier#oc#oc art#digital art#character art#digital fanart#fanart#character fanart#fandom oc#fan character#dollpurgatoryart
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[ This post was made using Showfall Media Video-To-Text--now with employee-differentiating color-coding technology! If you believe there's been an error and would like to end Showfall Media Video-To-Text, please say 'End transcript' or turn your recording device off.
[The footage begins with the recording device moving somewhat swiftly down a long stretch of hallway. Several pairs of footsteps can be made out behind it.]
Manager#0: Hmm. 65, why don’t you set down the brooms over there? Oh, and 24, would you maybe head back downstairs and grab us some more scotch tape? I’m worried we didn’t bring enough.
Employee#24-87: Of course, sir.
Manager#0: Awesome! Thanks for all your help. [His hand is registered giving the employee a thumbs up, despite their back already being turned to go retrieve the item.]
[The camera turns back to the rest of the employees, now six of them, who are all standing completely still, facing Manager#0.]
Manager#0: What are you all waiting for? Come on, guys. Hop to it. We’ve gotta figure out what’s salvageable around here.
[Immediately, like tugged by strings, the employees spread out, beginning to inspect different storefronts and peek their heads into certain ones, presumably to assess the deterioration.]
[Manager#0 himself approaches a nearby store, running a hand over the smooth, unbroken glass, which appears to be the only one in nearly this pristine of a condition. The camera pauses, lingering on the interior of the store. The display cases inside are still in decent condition, despite the shelves being emptied. The vague reflection of the HALO glows back at him.]
[Suddenly, there’s a distant crash off to the right of the camera.]
[The camera swivels in the direction of the sound, a store that appears to be darker than all the others. The sign has long since flickered out, and the chain screen that was once in place for closing times is now rusted and hanging somewhat haphazardly from where it’s held in the top of the entrance.]
Manager#0: Was that just me?
Employee#33-9: No, sir.
Manager#0: Hm.
[There’s a crunching of glass from the shattered windows underfoot as the camera passes through what’s left of the doorway, lowering a bit as he ducks under the chain screen. Manager#0’s hand lingers on the doorframe for a moment as the camera pans across the room, dusty shelves scattered with debris littering the room. On the back wall, there’s a door just barely hanging on by its hinges, swung wide to reveal the thick darkness beyond.]
[There’s another small crash, much further into the store.]
[Slowly, the camera begins in the direction of the sound, lower to the ground than before. As it crosses the threshold, the footage is nearly enveloped in black, though the glow of the HALO offers a few feet of dim light. Manager#0 clicks his tongue once, then twice, the sound echoing just a bit. He hums for a moment before letting the silence reclaim its lost ground.]
[As he continues his slow stalk through the rooms, more of the same is revealed--more shelves, more of them upright than near the front of the store, but ransacked just the same. Manager#0 runs a finger along one of the shelves and audibly grimaces at the thick layer of dust now coating it.]
[Suddenly, there’s a very loud crash from the left.]
[The camera snaps in the direction, and illuminated in the light from the HALO is a figure wearing a torn-up suit. Their mask is dingy, and parts of the decal are scratched off, making it impossible to read who it is.]
Employee-??: Wait, wait! Don’t- [They hold their hands up in front of their face as if to shield their eyes from the light. Their voice is muffled by the mask.] I-I’m not- with them.
Manager#0: [The camera tilts slightly to the side.] With who?
Employee-??: [They swallow audibly, hands shaking.] I’m- I was captured. By a group of rebels. Um. Two months ago. Th-They made me come with them so I would tell them th-things about the company, and the building. They left me here when they heard your whole, uhm, big group coming.
Manager#0: [Voice a bit softer.] What did you tell them?
Employee-??: N-Nothing. But they kept me with, since, uhm, they thought eventually I might speak up. B-But I didn’t. I would never disobey the company.
Manager#0: Of course not. [The camera takes a move towards the employee, and they seem to tense up.] Any idea where they went?
Employee-??: No! They just, ah, ran away! L-Like that! Completely abandoned me! [Laughter, registered as strained.]
[There’s a brief pause. Somewhere, distantly, an air conditioner turns on.]
Employee-??: I’m- I’m sorry for not- not coming to get someone sooner, uh, sir.
Manager#0: No, no, it’s quite alright. You did what you could given the circumstances. Now. [He approaches the employee further, who turns to face slightly away from him as he pats them on the back.] Why don’t we get you back to your post?
Employee-??: [Their shoulders slump, just slightly.] …Yes, of… of course.
Manager#0: [Audible smile.] Perfect! What department are you from?
[The camera starts forward towards the exit of the store, footsteps picking up somewhere behind it as the employee presumably follows.]
Employee-??: J-Just an intern. I was on, uhm. Meatgrinder duty. Usually.
Manager#0: Oh, exciting. They had me in there for a while back when I had your job. [Good-natured laughter.] Always risky, though. Getting your clothes, or, y’know, fingers caught in the gears is never fun. Plus, you never know when someone might… see something too overwhelming and become… irrational, right?
Employee-??: …
[The two continue on in silence for several seconds.]
Manager#0: Of course, I’m sure you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? Poor thing. “Kidnapped by rebels.”
[There’s a mix of desperation and rage in the employee’s voice as they let out a wail akin to a battle cry. The camera spins around just in time to watch as what appears to be a length of metal pipe is swung straight at the camera. The footage blurs before there’s a crash as Manager#0 falls to the floor.]
[The lighting suddenly disappears, leaving the footage swallowed by the black as there’s a rustling and then a loud clang of metal against concrete, like it’s missing its target. Light engulfs the scene again, this time in red, revealing that Manager#0 is upright again and the employee is facing him, breathing heavily. They take a wavering step back, and then stumble, and the camera rushes forward to meet them.]
[They shriek and swing with the pipe again, missing as he ducks and then grabs it, holding it in place as they struggle to go for another blow. Forgetting the pipe entirely, they let go, leaving it in Manager#0’s hands as they punch him square in the face, jostling the camera.]
[Manager#0 immediately drops the pipe, turning back to them to catch them looking at it in presumed confusion before he swings, a loud crack echoing as it connects with their mask. They stumble backwards, a bit of a mouth now exposed as a shard of the mask falls to the floor. They reach up to clutch their jaw with a cry of pain.]
Employee-??: What the fuck, what THE FUCK-
[He grabs them by the lapels of their suit and throws them to the floor, another audible crack this time as their head hits the concrete. They scramble to get up again and nearly succeed before Manager#0 is tackling them.]
[They fight desperately to shove him away, before he digs his fingers hard into their abdomen and they scream in pain, any ounce of determination in their voice gone in an instant and replaced by blubbering agony. His hands rake across their chest like claws, something dark beginning to pour from their now shredded button-up shirt and chest underneath it and onto the floor.]
[That is until they reach up and grab the HALO, and, fingers slipping from the viscera, manage to pull him to the ground.]
[The employee trembles to a stand, stumbling a few steps away before letting out a horrific, choked noise as a loud splattering follows it. They clutch their stomach in what appears to be unbridled agony, folding over with a frantic, guttural whine.]
[Slowly, the camera rises to a stand.]
[The employee doesn’t seem to notice him until he’s already grabbed them by the hair and begun to drag them towards the nearest wall.]
Employee-??: [Barely a raspy whisper.] N- No, no, no no no-
[Manager#0, wordlessly, rests their forehead against the wall for a single, serene moment. Somewhere, distantly, an air conditioner unit turns off again.]
[He pulls their head back by their hair and slams their face into the wall.]
[They shriek as he repeats the action, pleading turning to incoherent sobbing turning to screams as their mask is shattered against the wall, again and again and again and again, wailing dwindling into barely audible crying before lapsing into silence rather suddenly. There’s another wet crack of sound as he slams them into the concrete a final time before letting go. They fall to the floor in a limp heap. He ignores the dark stain on the wall containing what’s left of their face.]
[Slowly, the red lights stop strobing, and the camera stays on the body for a few moments before Manager#0’s hands rise into frame.]
[From the tips of his fingers sprout small shards of metal, coated deeper red than the rest of his hands. A scrap of cloth clings to one. His fingers appear to be bent slightly out of shape.]
[A pair of matching metallic clacks comes from a distance behind Manager#0, starting slow but quickly speeding up.]
[The footage blurs as the camera spins around, Manager#0 inhaling sharply as he does so. His hands almost curl into fists but then quickly splay out again as he presumably remembers the state they’re in.]
[A few feet away a woman with bright red hair is clapping with all four hands. Her single open bright red eye is staring right at Manager#0 while the other stays shut. Instead of skin she has tan metal plates making up her body, with glimpses of dark red cables between joints. She’s wearing a cropped sleeveless black suit jacket with a low cut red crop top and very short jean shorts. The panels that make up her face extend outwards in a ripple before snapping back to into place.]
[Employee identified! IR-15 {Security Dept}]
IR-15: [Still clapping.] Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good fight like that!
Manager#0: [He breathes out, seemingly in relief.] You- Miss Iris??
IR-15: [Both sets of arms stop clapping and move to rest on her hips.] The one and only!
Manager#0: I’m- I- How long have you- Nevermind. I. I don’t. [His hand reaches towards his face as if he’s going to rub his temple, but stills abruptly as it comes into frame and then awkwardly falls back to his side.] Hello. That was my… uh. First time. Taking care of one of them. I’m not exactly an expert yet. [Somewhat hollow sounding laugh. The HALO’s lights slowly fade back to their usual white.]
IR-15: Really? I wouldn’t have guessed that was your first time! You did pretty good!
Manager#0: …Yes, I, uh. Suppose I did. [The camera briefly flicks towards the body again.]
IR-15: Mhm! They thought they had you down, but BAM [All four of her arms make a gesture mimicking an explosion] and of course the trick with your hands? Ah, it was all so cool! [She bounces on her feet a few times, face plates once again rippling.]
Manager#0: [Sounds slightly less shaken. Almost hopeful.] You think so? [He begins to readjust the cuffs of his jacket without appearing to realize he’s doing it.] Well, I’m… glad it was a good performance, then, haha. Uh. May I ask what you’re… doing in this… fine place?? [The camera pans around for a moment, pausing on a nearby wall which has a large hole rotted through it.]
IR-15: Well, there’s this rogue Security, killed one of the PR members just for being a bit noisy around it or something. And I… have still not been able to find it. So I’m looking in as many nooks and crannies the Mall has to offer.
Manager#0: Rogue Security?? [The camera tilts slightly.] I haven’t heard anything about a rogue Security.
IR-15: [One of her hands raises in the air, pointing up before freezing in place.] Oh my fucking god I knew I was forgetting to file something.
[There’s a snort, and the back of his hand rises into frame as if to cover his mouth.]
Manager#0: It’s… quite alright. It happens a lot. Well. Uh. With the rogues in general. Uhm.
IR-15: [The hand still frozen in the air waves dismissively.] Yeah, yeah. But enough about that boring stuff, you just personally took care of a rebel for the first time!
Manager#0: Yeah. Yeah! I’m excited. [The camera does not look in the direction of the body.] Mr. CEO’s going to be very proud, I’m sure.
IR-15: Oh yeah, he’s still here, isn’t he. Yeah I’m sure he’ll be very happy or whatever it is you want from him!
Manager#0: Of course I want him to be happy. It’s kind of the thing my job hinges on. Haha. But yes! He’s going to be here for the foreseeable future until we’ve got this… problem under control. Speaking of which… [He makes a sound of sucking air in through his teeth.] I really should have asked them where their little friends ran off to before…
IR-15: Couldn’t have gotten very far, the rebel you got seemed pretty reckless, which also means pretty desperate. Which… probably means you need to keep an eye on any areas that might have anything even a bit edible. Or at least, that’s my expert opinion! [Her red eye shuts, and the other eye, which is an amber color, briefly cracks open.]
Manager#0: [A light laugh.] I’ll trust your judgement. I can probably get Mi- uh, Security 855 to hang out around the staff lounge later. I’m a bit lost on where else they’re finding resources, though, if I’m honest. The food court’s out in the open, and I know for a fact we’ve made sure they’re disposing of any food waste in an area someone can keep an eye on it, especially with the renewed disloyalty policies… bah.
IR-15: That’s why I said edible, not food. Desperate people will eat anything if it’ll fill their stomachs and won’t kill them. Including themselves, which only makes them easier to catch.
Manager#0: Seems… counterproductive. Good for us, though. [Pause.] I assume you know this from experience with them.
IR-15: You’d be shocked how often it happens. Although it’s always fun to see where they go for first.
Manager#0: Sounds like I could learn a thing or two! [He reaches up to swip a stray hair out of the camera’s view and then pauses and seems to attempt to pull it away, to no avail.] Oh no.
IR-15: [She steps closer to the camera and raises her upper set of hands.] Oh don’t touch your hair with bloody hands, it’s a bitch to ge-- Oh. Oohhh those look like they need some repair.
Manager#0: [He finally manages to pull his hand away, making a peeved sound at the few strands of dark hair that cling to the claws.] No, no, it’s… I think this was intentional. I think. HR didn’t… tell me about it, but you know how they are. They do everything for a reason. [Brief pause.] Would be nice if these didn’t appear to be so permanent, though. Typing is going to be a nightmare later.
[IR-15 finishes approaching the camera and takes Manager#0’s hands into her top set, lifting them up close to her face. In the white light, it’s a bit easier to see how jagged the metal is, like it was snapped apart for it to be able to surface through the skin--some of which is still hanging loosely from a few of his fingertips. His hands are also completely coated red.]
IR-15: Hmm, I mean it definitely needs some cleaning up… but I mean if they can tear through a guy, it’ll probably be just like typing with long nails, but in reverse!
Manager#0: I’ve never typed with long nails.
IR-15: [She, once again, waves a hand dismissively.] Oh you’ll get the hang of it in no time! Just like how you got the hang of using them! [Her eye flicks down to where the dead body is laying.]
Manager#0: [He makes a whine and pulls his hands away, shaking them briefly before dropping them back to his sides.] But…
[IR-15 reaches forward and above the camera and some light taps can be heard before she pulls her arm back.]
IR-15: Don’t worry, I thought having two sets of arms would be hard to adjust to, too! But now I’m working with them just fine, it’s weirder when I don’t have them.
Manager#0: [There’s a rustling sound as he attempts to cross his arms while keeping his hands away from the rest of his body.] I can just go to HR and ask them to fix me up. Right? That’s their job. They’d do that for me. [The camera tilts down slightly, revealing the fact that his shirt is also covered in blood.] Oh.
IR-15: Oh yeah, probably. I don’t know exactly how the HR guys around here work, but I’m sure they’d help you out. That’s their job after all.
Manager#0: …Yeah.
[There’s a pause for a few seconds.]
Manager#0: I should. Probably get, uh, them, back to HR. This is our first actual time catching one of them, so. Expect the decor in the main room to get a little different from now on. [Laugh.]
IR-15: [She briefly claps with all four hands again.] Ohhh! Sounds exciting! And I need to get back to looking for the rogue Security, but it was nice to talk to you again! And get to see your first successful hunt!
Manager#0: Oh. [The camera droops slightly.] I mean, I wouldn’t want to interrupt your hunt. But. You could always come with me back to my group? We were, uh, sort of. Looking for areas of the mall that aren’t too messed up so the company can expand into them. Maybe flush out some rebels on the way. Uh.
IR-15: [She lets out a hum that is mixed with a buzz of static.] I mean… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have more eyes for a bit, plus maybe you can point me towards some areas I haven’t thought to check yet!
Manager#0: Really? I mean, uh. Yay! That’s… good, actually, because, uh. It might be a bit hard for me to drag them back on my own. If I could… maybe get your help.
IR-15: [She does jazz hands.] Well I have four perfectly free hands right here!
Manager#0: [Audible grin.] Awesome. To HR, then!!
[He reaches towards the camera, and, fumbling a bit, manages to hit the recording button.]
Transcript has been ended. Thank you for using Showfall Media Video-To-Text! Posting... ]
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@thebrixtons
Symphony Manor, Holan (5:35pm)
*door knocked*
Alfie: Come in.
Alfie: Oh, hey. What’s up?
Catalina: Nothing. I just want to check on you.
Alfie: I’m not doing much. Just reading some papers mum gave me for the tour.
Catalina: Can I see them too?
Alfie: Yeah, of course. Come here. I was going to give them to you anyway.
Catalina: Is this all?
Alfie: Nope. Mia said she’ll come over with another set. These ones are for the first two weeks.
Catalina: I see...
Catalina: Whoa, we’re going for a charity run too? That sounds fun.
Alfie: Mhm. And after that we’ll visit Seri Palace in Britania. Did you know that our capital used to be there?
Catalina: Yup. I read that they changed the capital because Ahtolia is much more developed than Britania.
Alfie: Smart girl. But did you know my family’s official residence also changed?
Catalina: Wait, I thought the official residence was always in Ahtolia?
Alfie: Nope. Grammy said that Seri Palace was our first official residence. But then my great-grandfather, King Albert, moved to our current palace because there were threats coming from Astor. Allegedly.
Catalina: Is that why you and Leon didn't get along?
Alfie: Not really. He was just an asshole to me.
Catalina: So it’s not because of family rivalry?
Alfie: *scoffs* Nope. At least not that I am aware of.
Catalina: Are you sure? I read that King Maximus II banned Windasians from going to Astor until his death.
Alfie: Oh, that. I heard he did it because he was angry at my great-grandfather for rejecting his proposal. He wanted grammy to marry his son, Julian.
Catalina: But isn’t Julian the heir?
Alfie: Yeah. There’s a theory that he wanted grammy to marry Julian so they could unite Astor and Windasia and take control of our country.
Catalina: Damn, you and Leon could’ve been cousins if that happened.
Alfie: Either that, or I wouldn't exist at all.
Catalina: I guess...
Alfie: *chuckles* I see you’ve been studying a lot.
Catalina: What? You thought I wasn’t doing anything?
Alfie: Maybe. I thought you were just resting and maybe helping our moms with the wedding preparations.
Catalina: *scoffs* Well, Mr. Frederick, I’m a lot busier than you think.
Alfie: Oh, really? What did you do?
Catalina: I study about Windasia's history and I also have a business to run. Remember I told you last year mama wants me to take over her business?
Alfie: Yeah?
Catalina: Well, mama just confirmed to me that I’ll be taking an Executive position in her clothing company. You’re now talking to the new CEO of People Outfitter.
Alfie: Oh my god! Are you for real?
Catalina: Mhm! But mama said I can work remotely since I’ll be staying here permanently.
Alfie: This is great news, Lina! I’m so happy for you!
Catalina: *laughs* Thank you. I’m happy too.
Alfie: We should celebrate this. Do you want to do anything tonight? Maybe we can go out for a celebratory dinner?
Catalina: I don’t really feel like going out tonight. I’m thinking about celebrating at home.
Alfie: Oh really? What do you have in mind, Miss Beauchamp?
Catalina: I don’t know~ Maybe you can help me out, Mr. Frederick?
Alfie: *chuckles* I can think of many ways to help you. But what will I get in return?
Catalina: Hmm...what do you want?
Alfie: I want you. All to myself tonight.
Catalina: That can be arranged.
*door knocked*
Mia (outside the room): Your highness? Can I come in?
Catalina: *gasps* Mia’s here.
Alfie: If we keep quiet, she’ll leave.
Catalina: No! Are you crazy? She’s here for work.
Alfie: Urgh, fine.
Alfie: Come in.
Mia: Did I, uh...come at a wrong time?
Alfie: Ye—
Catalina: *smacks Alfie’s head*
Alfie: Ow! Hey!
Catalina: Be serious, Alfie. Don’t waste her time.
Catalina: Sorry you had to see that, Mia.
Mia: It’s okay, ma’am.
Mia: Anyway, um, here’s the other half of the schedule and list of staff that’ll be with us during the tour. There’ll be two new staff members to assist the Princess. You’ve already met Rowena, right ma’am?
Catalina: Yes. I have. She’s been helping me around after the engagement.
Mia: Correct. Queen Sofia has considered making her your private secretary but Miss Anna applied to become your secretary too.
Catalina: Oh dear. So what now?
Mia: Both candidates have potential, so Queen Sofia allowed them to join the tour to assist you. By the end of the tour, you can choose yourself who you feel is more compatible to work with you.
Catalina: But...what’s going to happen to the other person?
Mia: They’ll be transferred to a different department. So don’t worry about it.
Alfie: Understood. Thank you, Mia.
Mia: I’ll take my leave now. Have a good evening, your highnesses.
*door opens and closes*
Alfie: Hey, you okay?
Catalina: I’m fine. Just a bit worried.
Alfie: Don’t be. It’s not like one of them will die if you didn’t choose them. They’ll be transferred to someone else.
Catalina: Yeah, I guess.
Alfie: Now, where were we?
Catalina: You want to do it right here?
Alfie: Well, do you want to do it somewhere else?
Catalina: *chuckles* God, I can’t believe this. Come here you.
#sims story#sims storytelling#ts4 story#sims 4 story#ts4 storytelling#sims 4 storytelling#ts4 royal#ts4 legacy#ts4#ts4 edit#ts4 roleplay#ts4 screenshots#ts4 simblr#WRTStory#WRTCollab#WRT: Part 3#Story Arc: One Step Closer#WRTCollab: Alfina#Sim: Alfie#Sim: Catalina
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