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#i literally just saw someone names Maya after writing this
mountsies · 2 years
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favorite person
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summary: the one where mason loves your daughter and she is more than happy to have him as her father.
warnings: fem!reader x mason mount, english is not my first language, none at all just pure fluff, established relationship, stepdad!mason
word counting: 4,1k 
authors note: hello guys!! this is my first time writing for mason and my first time ever publishing something of mine, so please be kind and if you like let me know, any feedback is appreciated! hope you enjoy it!
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“Mummy, can we have pancakes?”
You snorted as you struggled to find your keys without dropping the little girl in your arms. As you finally managed to crack the apartment door open, you scrunched down to let Maya run straight to the living room. 
“No pancakes sweetheart, it’s almost dinner time.” You said leaving your and your daughter’s nursery bag on the couch, leaning down at her height when you saw her pouted lips. “We can have them for breakfast tomorrow, what do you think?”
Maya smiled big, nodding her head and you felt your heart swell at that sight. Almost five years and you still couldn’t believe that you managed to create the most beautiful and amazing child. It was difficult at the beginning, being just you and the baby you find out you were expecting from a man that clearly wanted nothing to do with you too. So many times you thought of giving up, but just looking at your daughter’s features and that feeling would go away in a second. 
Being a single mom was really difficult, but you were glad you had the support you needed from your family and loved ones.
“Can I watch The Little Mermaid?” Maya asked, her big emerald eyes looking at you just like a lost puppy, and to that you couldn’t say no. 
“Of course baby, but let’s get changed first.”
After you changed Maya and yourself in comfortable clothes, you put her favorite movie on TV and went to the kitchen to start preparing dinner. You got carried away humming the songs from Little Mermaid that you already knew by heart and smiling listening to your daughter singing along too. Your attention was caught by your phone vibrating in the kitchen island, and when you saw your boyfriend's name popping up on the screen your smile just got bigger.
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After that quickly chit chat with Mason, you focused on cutting the vegetables again. And after twenty minutes, you could hear the front door unlocking and Maya fussing in the living room, running straight to greet her favorite person.
“Masey!” She screamed in happiness, hugging his legs with her small arms.
Mason managed to scrunch down with the supermarket bags still in his hands, almost falling when Maya jumped to hug him tightly. A breathy laugh leaving his lips, hugging her back sideways with his free arm. “Hello princess, how are you?” You felt your stomach flutter with butterflies when you saw his brown chocolate eyes shining with pure love while talking to your babygirl. 
You’ve met Mason a few years ago, Declan was the one to introduce you both. It didn’t take too much for you to fall for him, his charm and beautiful smile along with his cocky and funny jokes was enough to make your heart beat a little faster. But you also learned he could be a little shy, just when he asked you out for the first time and stuttered between his words and that made you fall for him even more. 
At that time, you were really scared to be involved with someone else having a three year old to take care of, you were afraid to introduce new people into Maya’s life, mainly men - even if you haven’t been with anyone since her birth. But Mason was a prince from your dreams, literally. Still to this day you remembered how his eyes shined when he first met your daughter, how caring he was to her, always asking what she liked to do and to watch, and for Maya it wasn't different. She loved him from the beginning; they were attached to the hip, she loved to see him playing football, running around with him saying she would be a footballer just like him. 
You couldn’t wish for someone better, Mason was really the man from your dreams and you loved him with your entire heart. And you knew, just by the look in his eyes, that the feeling was reciprocated. 
“I drew you in class today!” Maya said with her biggest grin, “Do you wanna see it?” She was jumping excitedly.
“Of course I wanna see it!” He beamed at her, and not long enough Maya ran to her room looking for her drawing.
With that, Mason walked over to you, his lips tucked in a smile that made your knees weak. Leaving the bags on the counter top, he approached you sliding his arms around your waist and leaning a few inches closer to your face, his eyes scanning your features and making your cheeks blush a little. “Well, hello to you too, pretty girl.”
“Hi, Mase.” You said with a grin before leaning and pressing your lips to his in a sweet kiss, the tip of his tongue pressing around your lower lip and you let him deepen the kiss, your arms locking around his shoulders as your hands found his short locks. You hummed in content, letting you get distracted by your boyfriend kissing you. “Missed you.” You whispered after parting your lips from his.
“I missed you too, babe.” He pouted and you smiled, peppering kisses along his face, hearing him laugh and squeeze your waist. 
Mason had a crazy schedule being a footballer and with you not working from home everyday tended to be quite hard to see each other every other day, especially since you haven’t moved in with him yet.  That was something both of you discussed a few times, Mason would always ask why you haven’t moved to his house already, claiming that the house was too big for him and he needed you and Maya there with him. You never gave him a full answer, because even if you knew him completely for over two years and loved him as much as you do, you were still scared of something that even yourself couldn’t tell right what it was.
 You were both interrupted by a very excited Maya running back from her room, her drawing already in her hands as she pointed to it. “Masey, look! I draw you, me and mummy!” Mason stepped away from you, groaning a little while lifting the little girl in his arms, the smile never leaving his face. 
“Wow, it looks amazing!” He gasped, looking in awe at the paper in his hands as if it was the most beautiful peace of art he ever saw.. “Aren’t you an artist yourself, Miss Maya?”
She squeaked and laughed when Mason tickled her side, “Did you like it?” Your daughter dared to ask, looking anxious for his answer. 
“Of course, baby, I loved it. Can I keep it?” 
“Yes!” She almost yelled, clapping her hands and making the three of you laugh. 
You walked over to the counter top, back to finish cutting the vegetables and some ingredients so you could finally eat dinner. You could hear Mason and Maya chatting about their days, your daughter telling him about how she learned new things at school and your boyfriend always being so attentive to what she was saying. They kept talking until your little girl asked if he could play with her, and he immediately said yes. She ran to her room again to gather her toys and you felt Mason’s arms wrapped around your waist and you leaned your back against his chest.
“How was your day?” He asked softly, kissing your neck and making you shivered against his lips.
“Mhmm, it was good. Didn’t have too much paperwork to do, so it was kinda peaceful.” You answered, maneuvering some pans to the stove. “How about yours?”
“Tiring.” He sighed dramatically, which made you snort. “But I managed to nutmeg Reece for the first time in my life, so I guess it was good.” 
You both laughed at that, and after you finished the dishes you turned around, your arms wrapping around his shoulders again. “What an achievement!” You said with sarcasm in your voice and he rolled his eyes.
“Actually, it is a big achievement, so I deserve a reward.” Mason grinned and that was your time to roll your eyes at him.
“A reward? For nutmeg Reece?” You raised your eyebrows and just scoffed at him, trying to turn around to the stove but Mason was faster placing his hands at the kitchen counter, on the both sides of your hips, locking you there.
“Please?” He asked you with a put on his lips and the puppy eyes he knew you couldn’t resist.
Another eye roll from you but this time with a breathy laugh, as you leaned in pressing your lips against his in a chaste kiss. He frowned at you when you parted, making you laugh. “I gave you a reward, so now let me go so I can finish dinner.”
“That was not the reward I was talking about.” The smirk on Mason’s lips and the way his eyes darkened a little was enough to understand what he was talking about. You gasped at his words, slapping his arm and moving away from him.
“Get out you perv,” Mason laughed at you, giving your bum a squeeze and you turned to him with eyes widened. “Mason!”
“Sorry babes, it’s just hard to resist.” You narrowed your eyes at him, ignoring the way your heart beat fastened and your cheeks blushing, trying not to get worked up at the wrong moment.
Neither one of you said anything anymore as Maya came back with her toys in hand, demanding that Mason go to the living room to play with her. You just smiled seeing your boyfriend agree with your girl and went play with her as you worked on finishing dinner. It didn’t take and the dinner was ready, the three of you eating together and making small talks between the meal. Maya excitedly talked about going to the park the next morning just as you planned all week.
After finishing dinner, all three of you now were cuddling on the sofa while watching some film that wasn’t The Little Mermaid anymore. Maya was already fast asleep in Mason’s lap, her head resting against his chest and his arm around her, while you had your head resting against his shoulder. You took a look at your daughter, your heart swelling at the sight of Mason holding her so safe. It always made you feel things when Mason was holding Maya, the way he was so caring and attentive to her was one of the many reasons you fell harder for him every passing day.
“I should put her in bed, “ You began whispering, already getting up from your spot but Mason Just Shook his head.
“Stay Y/N/N, I’ll do it.” He whispered back, a sweet smile on his lips. 
And just as Mason was about to get up from his position, Maya sensed the change of positions and stiffed in his arms, gripping his hoodie with her small hands. But what made you two completely froze in spot was when you heard her soft voice saying, “Daddy, no.”
Mason looked at you with eyes widened, his heart beating faster in his chest, you stood there in the same shock as him, not sure what to say or do. He cleared his throat after what it was two or three minutes, caressing her hair in assurance. “It’s okay princess, just going to put you in bed, okay?” At that, Maya just hummed and got back to her peaceful sleep and Mason managed to get up with her, smiling at you before walking to your daughter’s bedroom.
You sat back on the sofa, your heartbeat a little faster than usual as you tried to comprehend what just happened. Ever since you found out you were pregnant, Maya’s progenitor didn’t want anything to do with your pregnancy, he rejected you and your daughter, and you knew it would be hard to raise a child on your own, but you never gave up. Maya knew she wasn’t like other kids that had a mum and dad at home, and you struggle to not let your daughter down because she didn’t have a father figure in her life. That’s why it took you months to introduce Mason into her life, because if he was like other men you got involved with, it had no point in that.
But Maya was intelligent for someone so little, although sometimes she asked you why she didn’t have a dad, it never took a toll on her. You worked hard to give your daughter everything she needed, even if you had to be mum and dad at the same time. But you knew sometimes she missed it, even if didn’t show it directly to you. 
When Mason came into Maya’s life you knew something changed, for all the three of you. It wasn’t the same to have a dad and mum, but she had Masey to hold her hand when she needed, to swing her in the park, to build a snowman when winter comes around, someone you know that both of you could trust with your heart and soul. Knowing Maya was starting to see Mason as a father figure made you emotional, because the fact that she loved and trusted him enough for that made you also relieved. 
Relieved because you knew Mason was the man of your life. Two years together was enough for you to know that you wanted a life and so much more by his side.
“She’s a light sleeper, isn’t she?” Mason’s voice startled you, as you were so lost in your thoughts to notice he was back. He smiled at you, seating comfortably by your side and opening his arms for you to cuddle him.
You smiled and hummed, cuddling on his side, your head leaned on his chest as one of his arms were around your waist and the other caressed your hair. Both of you stayed in silence for a few minutes, the film still playing but none of you paying attention to it.
“Did she just call me daddy?” Mason asked in a small voice, making you shift slightly to look up at him. Looking from close, you could see his eyes tearing up a little and that made your chest swell at his reaction. “I’m sorry, it’s just-” He was about to excuse himself when you kissed his lips.
“Mase… It’s okay,” You ran your fingers against his jaw, feeling his beard tickle you a little. You were not sure what to say, so you leaned to kiss him again this time more passionately. Your mouth opened so he could deepen the kiss, feeling his soft against yours and making your stomach flutter. 
He gave you a few more kisses, making you both smile between them. “I liked it.” He whispered, eyes looking into yours.
“What?”
“That she called me her daddy.” He said, his cheeks turning slightly pink. “I always dreamed of having a girl, you know. And I love her, just as much as I love you.” He caressed your cheeks this time, making you give in to his touch.
“We love you too.” You whispered, “So much.” You kissed him again, earning a chuckle from him. “And I think she likes having a daddy, too.”
The next morning, you woke up at giggles and plates rattling in the kitchen. You soon got up from bed, not wanting your kitchen to turn into a warzone as you knew Mason and Maya had no cooking skills. When you entered the kitchen, Maya was standing in a stool with Mason behind her, securing for her not to fall whilst your daughter tried hard to mix the ingredients for pancakes in a bowl. You couldn’t resist the need to capture this moment, so you took some photos of them with your phone before Maya noticed you in the room.
“Mummy!” She exclaimed excitedly, asking Mason to put her down and she came running to you. “We’re making pancakes!” 
You scrunched down to hold her in your arms, hugging her tight and giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Good morning baby, did you sleep well?” You beamed at her when she kissed your cheek back. 
“Yes I did,” She looked at you with her big emerald eyes, shining with joy. “Masey is teaching me how to make pancakes.” Maya exclaimed with a big grin, looking between you and Mason.
When you looked at him with raised eyebrows, it seemed like she forgot what happened that night, but none of you said anything. “Well, is he teaching you right?” 
Maya nodded fiercely, making both of you laugh a little as you put her back in the stool and went to give your boyfriend a good morning kiss. “Slept well, babe?” He asked you in a sweet tone and you nodded, giving him another kiss.
The three of you spent the morning making various pancake flavors, with fruits and chocolate, until Maya started asking what time you were going to the park. After giving her a shower and choosing a comfortable outfit for the day, you too got in comfortable clothes and asked Maya to gather the toys she wanted to take with her. 
“Are you okay?” You managed to ask Mason when he was waiting for you in the living room, seeming a bit off this morning.
“Yeah babe, I’m fine.” He smiled at you and kissed your cheek, but you could sense that something was off. And you knew it was because of the way Maya called him this morning.
You sighed but your thoughts were interrupted when Maya came back from her room with her bag of legos in one hand and football in another. That made you laugh a little, and when Mason turned to see why he let a breathy laugh escaped his lips.
“Is that all, honey?” You asked, already taking your purse from the sofa.
“Yes, mummy!”
And with that the three of you managed to leave your flat, Mason driving to the park that was near to your neighborhood. 
The day went more than satisfying, Maya played with all of the other kids at the park and when she got tired of them she asked if Mason could play football with her, and to that he obviously said yes. You captured some pics and videos of them playing, laughing when your daughter managed to score goals against your boyfriend, and he turned out to be more competitive than you thought he would, scoring goals against Maya making her whining in protest. 
And when evening came and Maya started to whine about wanting to go home, you and Mason gathered her toys and he drove back to your flat, stopping at a drive thru to get something so you all could have lunch at home. 
The three of you were now seated on the living room floor, eating the take outs Mason had bought from the way home. Maya was having the time of her life while eating her chips, and when Mason stole one of her she looked at him and frowned. He laughed and stole another one, making your daughter whine in protest.
“Daddy, stop stealing my chips!”
And there it was again, his heart beating faster as he stopped in his place. You look up at him, his eyes watering again as he just stood there not knowing what to say. Silence took place and Maya felt that something had changed, because when she looked up at Mason and saw his tearing eyes she shrugged and looked back at you.
“Did I say something wrong?” She asked in a small voice, looking between you and Mason searching for an answer.
“No baby, of course not.” Mason said, reaching for the little girl and holding her in his lap. “You didn’t say anything wrong, don’t worry.” He gave her a reassuring smile.
“But why are you crying?” She asked, her eyebrows frowned still not understanding. 
Mason looked at you, searching for help as he didn’t know how to speak to Maya about that. You smiled at him and sat closer to both of them, your hands caressing your baby girl hair.
“Baby, would you like Mase to be your dad?” You asked softly, but feeling your heart beat faster too when Maya gave you the most beautiful smile you had ever seen in her face.
“Yes!” She squeaked, clapping her hands whilst shifting in Mason’s lap to look up at him. “Masey, would you like to be my daddy?” She asked him, her emerald eyes shining with the idea of having him as her father. Mason looked at you, this time the tears running down his cheeks as he nodded to Maya.
“Of course princess, I would love that!” Maya yelled with such excitement, hugging Mason tightly and he didn’t waste any time in reciprocate, hugging her just as tight. The look he gave you made your knees weak and the butterflies in your stomach flutter in. You could feel the tears running down your cheeks too, and you went to hug them too. 
Maya was only four years old but she was more intelligent than other people, and that evening she proved it to you one more time. She knew Mason wasn’t her biological father, but the bond they had built within those last two years of your relationship was enough for you to know that he was the one designed to be her father. 
The three of you spent the evening watching films and playing around, Maya was more than happy every time she said “daddy, look!” to something that caught her attention and Mason giving his attention straight to her.
That night, Mason tucked her in bed again, having a small conversation with Maya whilst rearranging her blankets in the small bed. You leaned against the door frame, watching them both with your heart at ease with the sight of the man of your life with your bundle of joy.
“Yeah, I promise I’ll pick you up from school next week.” He said to her, a lovingly smile on his face when Maya grinned. “Now go to sleep honey, it’s already past bedtime.”
“Good night daddy, I love you.” Maya said with a small voice, eyes already closing. 
Mason kissed her forehead, tucking her hair behind her ear and saying “Good night princess, I love you too.”
After tucking Maya in bed, you and Mason went to your bedroom and as soon as he closed the door, he let out a breathy laugh and shook his head. “I’m the most lucky man in the whole fucking world.” He said and you laughed, shaking your head while finishing your skincare night routine.
Mason hugged you from behind, peppering kisses along your shoulder and neck. “I love you so much.” He whispered, and you smiled, turning around and not wasting time in kissing him properly.
Your hands found his hair and his hands found your hips, squeezing it when he felt your tongue against his. You hummed in response, pushing him closer to you whilst your hands traveled up and down caressing his back. “I love you too, Mase.” You whispered when you two parted, appreciating his beautiful features.
“Move in with me, please Y/N,” Mason pleaded you, his forehead against yours as your heart missed one beat. “I can’t live without you anymore.” His tone made you shiver, and at the moment when you noticed that he was talking about you and your daughter, all of your worries disappeared in one motion.
“Okay.” You whispered to him, smiling when he pulled away to look in your eyes. “I move in with you. We can’t live without you anymore either.” The smile he gave you made your whole night.
He started peppering kisses along your face, your cheeks, your nose, your jaw, your eyes, and all you could do was laugh. Mason laid you on bed, fitting between your legs and still kissing everywhere he could get.
“Thank you, thank you so much.” His voice was so sweet and that made you feel giddy, opening your eyes to look at his brown chocolate ones.
“Thank you Mase, for making us so happy.”
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maybankstarkey · 2 years
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Hey I have an idea for a Joseph Quinn fic. Kinda getting bored of seeing only actress x Joseph Quinn one shots, so could you do one where Joseph is obviously new to the set and there is a girl in another department (literally anything but cast member, Camera girl, VFX coordinator, PA ((that would be a fun one tbh)). And she has been on the show since season 1, and she is good friends with everyone pretty much. I think it would be cool if he was just checking her out and too shy to really say anything, then after joe keery comes to talk to you about something Joseph then gets the courage and asks joe to introduce y’all, can it lead to smut? Can that be? It’s your writing and preference, so if it doesn’t it’s all good, I just want a JQ fanfic who is a crew member and not an actress lmao
New on Set
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— pairing: Joseph Quinn x CrewMember!Reader
— type: fluff
— summary: Joseph is new to set and finds himself falling for you, the Production Assistant on set.
— a/n: i don’t write smut, but i did follow the rest of the request. i hope that’s fine with you !
— warnings: mentions of drinking
Today was the first day of filming season 4 of “Stranger Things”. Joseph was new to set, but he had become acquainted with a few of his cast mates over the months leading up to filming.
Joseph was sent to hair and make-up immediately upon arrival, speaking with Joe Keery briefly in the make-up trailer while they were getting prepared to begin filming.
The crew wasn’t quite ready to film, so Joe just waited in his trailer until it was time to head to set.
He heard the door open and turned to see who had entered, but he was met with the most beautiful being to ever exist. He could have sworn that he heard angels singing as you entered the room.
“Joseph Quinn? You’re needed on set in 5” you threw him a smile before walking out of the trailer.
You intrigued Joe. He hadn’t seen you at the table read all those months ago, which meant you weren’t a cast member, unfortunately. Joe decided to head out moments after you left.
Upon entering the set where he would be filming, Joe met up with Joe Keery once again, as well as Maya Hawke and Natalia Dyer. In the corner of his eye, he saw someone enter the room. As soon as he noticed it was you, Joe Keery shouted your name and ran to you.
“Y/n!” Joe ran up to you and gave you a quick hug and spoke to you about how good it felt to be back on set.
Joseph watched the interaction and smiled as you laughed at something Joe had said. Moments later, Joe returned a continued his conversation with the trio.
“Who was that?” Joseph asked Joe.
“Oh Y/n? She’s one of the PAs on the show. She’s pretty cool. I could introduce you guys, if you want” Joe smiled. Joseph watched as you spoke to the Duffers about todays shoot.
There was no doubt in Joseph’s mind that you were absolutely gorgeous.
“That’d be great” Joe led Joseph to you.
“Y/n, I’d like you to meet Joseph. He’s new on set, and I thought you’d be the perfect person to show him around and stuff” You immediately stuck your hand out to shake Joseph’s.
“Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize you were new to set! So sorry about that. Well I’m Y/n, and welcome to the cast!” You threw Joseph a smile and he felt his heart skip a beat. He reached out to fill the empty space between your hands.
“You’re fine, don’t worry, love.” There was some sort of tension between the two of you, and it was strong. You looked in his eyes and you immediately felt captivated.
- Time skip… 4 days later -
It was now about 5 days into filming season 4. You and Joseph had talked a bit more, slowly becoming more comfortable with one another.
You had found yourself getting nervous around him, and Joseph could say the same. He constantly felt butterflies when he was around you, but did his best to disguise them.
After filming was over for the night, you were about to head into your car when you heard your name being shouted.
“Y/n! Wait!” The voice was Joseph’s. You turned around and gave him that beautiful smile of yours.
“What’s up?” You leaned against your car as he spoke.
“I was wondering if you had any plans for tonight? Maybe we could get a drink or something, or if you don’t want to that’s totally fine. I don’t want you to feel like you’re being forc-“ Joseph was rambling.
“Joe, I’d be glad to go get drinks with you” you smiled, cutting off his ramble.
“Oh- okay then. Let’s get going then, shall we?”
I really need to learn how to do good endings😭 anyways i may rewrite this soon.
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specialshoesclub · 3 years
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Idk if this is a neurodivergent thing or a religious trauma thing but my pattern recognition is often triggered at my job as a receptionist. I see like 300 names a day but if I see two people named Maya I'm gripped by the intense feeling that that means something.
Numbers too. I'll be like, it seems like certain birthdays keep showing up. And maybe birthdays are kinda clustered but mostly it's just random. I'm smart enough to notice and remember certain dates that I arbitrarily started noticing and assigning significance to but not smart enough to accurately analyze this much data. I'm just sitting here processing names and numbers all day and it drives me a little crazy.
But I also know that my emotional associations with numbers are why I'm so good at remembering them which helps me type fast and be good at my job so i dk.
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rivalsforlife · 3 years
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Phoenix Wright: The Truth Reborn: Oh No We’re Doing This Again
hi.
Nearly two months ago, I wrote an essay summarizing and making very wild conclusions about the second Takarazuka Musical. I did this about two and a half years after watching the first Takarazuka musical. As such I did not have the full context for many things from the musical and was relying mostly on my memory, which blocked many things from this musical for my own safety. However, just this week, I decided to rewatch it, because I enjoy tormenting myself. I said I wouldn’t write anything on it. Here I am writing something on it.
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Here’s the youtube thumbnail so that you know what you’re getting yourself into. And here, of course, is the link. This is the HD version which may be slightly more pleasant to watch. Maybe.
It was not quite as cringe in a funny way as the second musical to me, and therefore this essay may be less funny, but I feel like I’m doing a disservice to people by providing a summary of the second musical while completely neglecting the first. Quite possibly doing this is even more of a disservice. I just eagerly await the day that the third musical is translated because *that* will be the day that I finally shuffle off this mortal coil. Either way, I want to write this stuff down so that I never have to watch the musical again out of curiosity.
The following essay will contain major spoilers for both the first and second Phoenix Wright Takarazuka musicals, as I will be using many points from this musical to argue my thesis of the second musical. ... like you were going to watch them anyways. 
This one broke 8k. I’m dead inside.
Introducing The Director
Again another disclaimer that I don’t have anything against the actresses or the theatre troupe. I DO have something against Suzuki Kei, who I recently learned is the writer and director of all three of the Ace Attorney Takarazuka musicals, and is quite possibly my mortal nemesis.
This man is the one who brought this monstrosity into the world.
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This man, allegedly, cleared the first four ace attorney games *seven times* before sitting down to write these musicals. He played these goddamn games seven times and did not take in a single word. The man clicked through them mindlessly while watching a badly written legal romance drama in the background and got them completely confused. I genuinely have no idea how this man could have played these games more times than even me and yet managed to get so many characters (MAYA!!!!) completely and utterly wrong. This haunts me every day, truly.
This man played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney seven times. SEVEN TIMES EACH!! and was told to create a musical based on the series. He played these games seven times each and you know what he said?? You know what he said?? “This sucks, I’m getting rid of all of Phoenix’s backstory, butchering half the characters, and writing Phoenix/Lana fanfiction, but also rewriting all of Lana’s backstory so that she was Phoenix’s childhood friend, and you know what, I’m changing her name for good measure.”
I think this man played the games seven times each and then hated it so much and was so sick of it he tried to write something that destroyed as much of the series as possible while still being vaguely recognizable. And then somehow it became a massive hit because people like me see this and go “what the actual hell” and watch it, or people who haven’t played the games see this and go “wow what a great musical!” and then he wrote TWO MORE, destroying EVEN MORE every time in his wake, until finally, finally, he stopped after making Edgeworth straight and time traveling into the past to face off against a corrupt Gregory. I guess that was the last straw.
I have to issue a disclaimer here that for legal reasons this is a joke. I don’t actually hate this man and would not punch him in the face if I met him because that would be rude, and he is entitled to his wrong interpretation of the games. I don’t know what his thought process was. But allegedly he did play the games seven times according to the wiki. This whole essay here is satire and not slander and I don’t want to offend this guy if he somehow stumbles across my nonsense tumblr post. At the same time: Suzuki Kei blink twice if you need help.
Anyways half the reason that I’m making this essay is because I want to share my fake ao3 page for this musical. The other half will become apparent later.
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Sorry if that’s illegible because of tumblr quality it’s not really important. All you really need to know is that it’s a fake ao3 screenshot for the musical. Also in the author’s note I said he played the games four times but it was actually seven I just remembered wrong because I didn’t want to believe it.
at this point you may be like “Grace shut up and get to the actual musical” and okay, fine, let’s start this nonsense. Also note that I may be referencing things from my essay on the second musical very frequently; I’m not going to force you to go read that though because the fact that you’re reading this is enough of a torment already.
The Musical Begins
Unlike the second musical, this one opens with some narration from Phoenix.
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Transcript:
Phoenix: I’m reviewing a particular case at the moment. To me, this case... is one I’ll never forget.
Immediately I think this is important because it establishes that this whole musical takes place in a flashback that Phoenix is reflecting on. Why is this important? Because we know, by the time of the second musical which takes place three years later, Leona is dead.
Knowing that Leona is inherently doomed to die of her Sad Woman Disease paints this whole musical in a different light. It’s not Phoenix reflecting on how he got back together with his lover; it’s Phoenix dwelling on their past together, and the opportunities they had, before her life was so cruelly and inexplicably taken away. We don’t know if Phoenix’s reminiscing takes place before or after Leona’s death... but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was after.
Phoenix, still in the present, starts to sing. “A wave appears on the horizon like a mirage, it trembles, then vanishes. Your voice, carried upon the waves, fades upon the shore, erasing the splendor of the past.”
This line actually shows up in the second musical, sung by Lucia about her imprisoned fiance quite possibly. It’s kind of hard to tell what the meaning of these songs even are. They’re too abstract for me I think. But this line appears very frequently in the first musical when Phoenix is thinking about Leona.
Then we enter the flashback time.
Phoenix inexplicably yells at a newspaper saleswoman. This is not relevant to anything whatsoever. Then Larry barges in to the office, looking for Maya. Phoenix describes him as “A real trouble maker, but you just can’t hate the guy”, the latter part of which I think many people would disagree with. 
Well, afterwards, Maya comes in. Phoenix describes her like this while making exaggerated “can you believe this shit” gestures.
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Transcript:
Phoenix: She’s as ditzy as they come. Oh, and about the outfit... Apparently she comes from a family of spirit mediums. Try not to make fun of her, okay?
Suzuki Kei personally has it out for Maya and I can never forgive him for it. Maya in these musicals is here for pure comedic relief but it’s not even comedic because I just get so angry. How can you play the trilogy seven times and think this about her?? The girl who figured out DL-6?? The girl who told Phoenix to sacrifice her life in order to find the truth?? The girl who put on a brave smile in order to try and cheer up her younger cousin even after she saw her own mother murdered right in front of her eyes?? That Maya Fey?? Ditzy as they come??????
Ugh. Moving on.
Maya and Larry run off, leaving Phoenix to watch the American Broadcast.
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Important things to note here are the Godot mug, the little line up of what I think are the messed up little ace attorney figurines beneath the screen, and the fact that while this broadcast is supposedly from and to America the screen is actually not at all showing America. Like literally almost everywhere in the world except North and South America.
The broadcast says that Leona Clyde, age 24, was arrested for murdering the senator Robert Cole! Leona Clyde -- that’s Phoenix’s ex-girlfriend! He runs off to the detention center.
She is not happy to see him.
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Leona: Mr. Wright... I’m not the woman you once knew.
Let’s Play A Matching Game
Sorry for the abundance of screenshots that are going to be throughout this section. Phoenix convinces Leona to let him defend her. Some of the conversation seems... familiar.
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Leona: No one would defend someone who admits to killing a senator. I’m waiting for a court-appointed attorney.
Edgeworth: Every defense attorney I’ve talked to has turned me down.
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Phoenix: In that case, let me defend you.
Game Phoenix: Let me defend you.
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Leona: Don’t be ridiculous!
Edgeworth: Don’t be ridiculous.
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Phoenix: I’ll never accept that you’re a murderer. Let me prove your innocence!
Game Phoenix: Huh? Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to prove that Miles Edgeworth is innocent.
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Leona: I’ve already confessed my guilt.
Gumshoe: He confessed that he did it! In court!
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Leona: It’s foolish to think you can win this case.
Edgeworth: My case is near hopeless, Wright.
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Leona: (in response to phoenix offering to defend her) No you won’t! Don’t ever come here again.
Edgeworth: Look, just go away, and leave me alone!
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Phoenix: You of all people should know. Once I decide to do something, I see it through to the end.
Edgeworth: Once you start on something, you always see it through, don’t you?
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Leona: I never thought that you’d be representing me.
Phoenix: Ah, who could have guessed this day would come?
Edgeworth: Not me.
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Phoenix: You believed in me. You saved me. And this time, I swear... I swear I’ll save you!
Game Phoenix: Edgeworth believed in me, and I believe in him. I’m the only one who knows the real Edgeworth. I’m the only one who can help him.
I could’ve done a few more, but tumblr is already threatening to murder my laptop.
So long story short, Phoenix manages to convince his lover to let him be the defense on the case. Then immediately after swearing to save Leona, he starts singing a song, which I’m not screencapping because this is enough:
“As long as there are people in this world, there’s only one path I will follow! As long as there is love in this world, there’s only one path I will believe in!”
Edgeworth sings this in the second musical after saying that he returned to California because of Phoenix. Phoenix sings it now after swearing to defend Leona. You draw your own conclusions.
And then we finally get the opening credits. Eleven minutes in.
Just Pretend This Is Narumitsu Fanfiction
Following the credits, we see a beautiful beach. Couples (exclusively heterosexual, of course,) dance and embrace in the background for some time, before revealing Phoenix and Leona, in the Even Further Past, before the LSATs or whatever the ace attorney universe’s excuse for law school exams are.
Phoenix establishes his absolute hatred of change, an important characterization moment.
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Phoenix: The view here never changes, huh?
Phoenix reminisces on when they were kids. Leona’s parents were both lawyers (they’re both lawyers) and sometimes they would be like lawyers with her when she was a kid. This inspired her to also become a lawyer after their tragic death of Sickness. They never specify what the sickness is that caused two people who must be relatively young to die while Leona was in her early twenties at the latest. It may be whatever sickness claimed Leona’s life later. Sad Woman Disease. (Sad Man Disease for her father, I guess?)
Phoenix also talks about why he’s becoming a lawyer.
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Phoenix: Watching you chase your dream inspired me to become a lawyer too.
So, it’s not “my childhood friend looked sad in a newspaper” because I guess that makes no sense or is too gay or something. But this is another important piece of Phoenix characterization. His entire life so far has been focused around Leona. They’ve been friends since they were kids, and then Phoenix decided to become a lawyer solely because Leona was becoming a lawyer. Not even to try and get back into contact with her after she moved away or anything; just because he’s so obsessed with her that he wants to have the same career as her, then they can run a Mom & Pop Law Firm or something, years in the future, after years of happy marriage and a few children or like whatever the hell.
Well, there’s a few steps they’ll need to get to that. At this point Phoenix still hasn’t confessed his feelings for Leona. He does so here, on this beach.
Leona tries to protest.
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Leona: But I’m pushy, selfish, and only care about my goals... You’d get fed up with me.
Phoenix: That’s what I’ve always admired about you. That’s who I’ve been chasing all these years. That’s the only person... I love.
Sooo, Phoenix, your type is pushy selfish people who only care about their goals...? In the first, older lower-quality video translation it was “only care about my work”, too. Hm. Things to think about.
They sing a little duet together. Then we go back to present-day of what’s technically still a flashback. Whatever. Murder is happening.
Back To The Murder
So some plot things to establish: Leona is the legal counsel of Governor Miller, who is running for president in the AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. After the flashback so that Phoenix has some time to change clothes, they show an interview of him talking about the murder.
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Governor Miller: I vow to forge a peaceful country with my own two hands, and to prepare myself for whatever may lie ahead.
Reporters: Through thick and thin, he’s a friend of the people!
The Takarazuka musicals are not very good at hiding their killers.
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Phoenix: Oh yeah... It’s almost time for the presidential election, isn’t it?
NEVER FORGET, WRIGHT. THIS IS AMERICA. LAND OF THE FREE! god what even was that line.
Anyways, we meet Gumshoe, who is incompetent once again. Maya runs around the crime scene, picks up the murder weapon, puts her fingerprints all over everything, moves things around, all while Phoenix is like “lol get a load of the world’s stupidest girl” or whatever. But who cares about that.
It’s time to get to the only valid part of this musical.
Edgeworth’s Gay Little Villain Solo
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You may have seen this one before.
Edgeworth arrives, but not really. It’s like Phoenix heard Edgeworth was prosecuting and immediately entered a dream-like state, where Edgeworth is heralded by the sound of trumpets in Great Revival. He’s played by a different actress than in the other two musicals, since I think she retired in between the six or so months from this musical to the second. She still plays the role well, though, or as well as can be when you’re written in an ace attorney Takarazuka musical.
Shrouded in scarlet solitude... it’s Edgeworth.
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Yes, those are six Edgeworths. Yes, they pick Phoenix up and carry him around and dance with him. Yes, it was probably not meant to be at all homoerotic.
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He sings a song that’s called “My rule”. I only figured this out later, but it’s loosely based on a “catchphrase” of his in the Japanese version - in game 1 he says something along the lines of “All I can do is get every defendant declared guilty! So I make that my policy.” In DD in his dramatic anime introduction before the trial, he says “I intend to question the defendant with all I have. For that is a part of my creed.” “So I make that my policy” and “For that is a part of my creed”, to my understanding, are both translated from the same line, which I think is like, “sore ga watashi no ruru”, “That is my rule.” (If I’m wrong, please correct me.) In this song he sings about how he’ll reduce all criminals to ash and such, basically talks about his game 1 prosecuting strategy as “my rule”. 
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It’s very fun and probably if you want to only watch one number of this musical, it can be this one. It starts about 26:10 in the video I linked.
Once the musical number is done, Phoenix and Edgeworth stare at each other, and the background fades into the courtroom, so court begins. I feel like I should note that Phoenix has not picked up any evidence or talked to any witnesses in this investigation except for Gumshoe, since Maya just moved some things around and then Phoenix had some weird fever dream about Edgeworth which presumably took up the rest of the day.
The Trial, Day 1
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Edgeworth: Consider it a prelude to the poignant Greek tragedy that’s about to unfold.
Maya: The real tragedy’s your pompous attitude!
Those are the only screenshots I took of this trial day. Here’s a summary, though:
The trial starts off with Leona confessing, Phoenix says “no I think she’s innocent”, and since ace attorney doesn’t care about the defendant’s wishes he’s allowed to proceed. For some reason Leona lets him do this without complaint. 
Gumshoe is the first witness, he claims to have caught Leona red-handed at the scene of the crime, standing over the corpse. Phoenix tries to claim that since Gumshoe didn’t see Leona committing the crime, he didn’t actually catch her red-handed, to which Edgeworth responds “What do you think being caught red-handed means?” 
Once Gumshoe is dismissed, Lotta takes the stand. She has a photo of the actual moment of the crime, where Leona is holding a knife in the air in front of the victim. 
The Takarazuka musicals like to do this thing where the image is blurry and zoomed out, but then Phoenix will go “I’VE NOTICED A CONTRADICTION” and it zooms in really far as the resolution increases drastically in order to show you the contradiction that is impossible to spot for yourself, because they don’t want people figuring out the mystery in this musical based off of a video game where you have to solve the mystery yourself. Anyways Phoenix zooms in on this photo and sees that there’s blood on Leona’s hand, presumably before she stabbed the victim. How did it get there?
Edgeworth suggests the victim was stabbed multiple times. Phoenix says the autopsy report contradicts that. Edgeworth, uncharacteristically, does not update it to suit his argument. 
Phoenix concludes that this photo is not showing the moment Leona stabbed the victim, but the moment Leona removed the knife! ... Which somehow casts doubt on her having been the one to stab the victim. Because as everyone knows, anyone wanting to kill someone would never remove a knife, it’s not like they’d bleed out faster that way, or anything.
And this whole contradiction is confusing because presumably if the victim was stabbed and then the knife was removed, they’d know that happened, because then the knife would not be found stuck in the victim’s body, since the victim was only stabbed once. So this shouldn’t be news to the prosecution that someone removed the knife after stabbing. But the investigation was headed by the most incompetent version of Gumshoe ever, so. sure. I guess no one knew.
That at least manages to extend the trial another day.
This Totally Has To Be Illegal
After the trial, Phoenix goes to talk to Governor Miller, aka Mr. Totally The Real Killer. Phoenix asks him why he decided to hire Leona as his legal advisor.
Basically, it’s because her parents were both renowned lawyers. Her father was a Chief Prosecutor, and her mother was a defense attorney. ... a prosecutor and a defense attorney couple... who does that remind us of...
Phoenix points out that just because her parents were good lawyers, it doesn’t mean she’d necessarily be one. Miller says that, sure, but she is actually really talented, and her law school marks were spectacular. Phoenix says “WHY WERE YOU LOOKING AT HER LAW SCHOOL MARKS”, like it’s somehow? suspicious? for a government official hiring legal counsel to look at their law school marks?
Apparently it IS suspicious because Governor Miller freaks out and asks if this is an interrogation. Before Phoenix can press much further, he gets a phone call, and leaves Phoenix alone in a big room.
So naturally Phoenix behaves like a fully grown adult running a law firm.
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If all he did was sit in the chair, lift up a desk lamp, and poke his finger on a pen, that’s one thing. But then he leans over, OPENS THE GOVERNOR’S DESK DRAWER, and finds a knife that’s just sitting there casually. It looks like a butter knife. It’s not anything major. Maybe the dude just wanted to butter his toast?
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I mean I know Phoenix will dig around in stuff whenever in the games, but he has no reason to suspect Governor Miller at all, much less dig through his drawer probably full of confidential government documents to lift up a knife that he thinks is suspicious. It’s not even covered in blood or anything?
Naturally Governor Miller’s assistant comes in just then, and Phoenix puts the knife. in his breast pocket. 
bud. It may look like a butter knife, but putting knives up against your chest is not a great idea. Much less stealing a knife from a governor? 
Well, in his panic, he accidentally knocks over a bunch of books on the desk. The governor’s assistant helps him pick them up, and they find a photo. Look a little familiar?
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The photo has the assistant, the victim Robert Cole, Governor Miller, and the victim’s brother who died in an incident two years ago. He’s the “Neil Marshall” of this musical, and he died in what was essentially the SL-9 incident. Same general premise, except it occurred in the courthouse, and the names are different.
AND FINALLY WE REACH THE END OF ACT 1. They do a musical number here which is a weird sort of mashup of the main opening credits song, Edgeworth’s Villain Solo, and the love duet between Phoenix and Leona. They are all such different songs that it sounds a little weird.
ACT 2, FINALLY
The act begins on a sour note with Maya playing with the knife and showing off her characterization, which is one of the most infuriating Maya characterizations you’ll sometimes see around the fandom by people who don’t like Maya.
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Maya: Let me whip up my special spirit channeler hamburgers!
sigh.
But then we’re saved (?) by the arrival of EDGEWORTH, who is presumably just here to chat. He asks Phoenix if he’s defending Leona in hopes of winning her back, then says to keep out of it, since it’s a very important case and he can’t understand the gravity of it.
Then Phoenix says this.
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Phoenix: Would you be saying that if you were the one on trial? The defendant is in a dark prison, reaching out for hope... Can you imagine the loneliness and sorrow of being ostracized?
CAN YOU IMAGINE IT, EDGEWORTH? CAN YOU IMAGINE IF YOU WERE ON TRIAL AND I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO WOULD DEFEND YOU AND BELIEVED IN YOUR INNOCENCE??
Edgeworth responds to this by essentially rehashing his speech in Turnabout Sisters about how he needs to find all defendants guilty because he can’t guarantee their innocence and all that. Maya gets upset and leaves so that Phoenix and Edgeworth can talk about their childhood in private.
Phoenix once again complains about how people change since nine years old.
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Phoenix then says that he has something Edgeworth doesn’t: the POWER TO BELIEVE! Then Maya comes in and tries to spike Edgeworth’s coffee, so he leaves.
The Class Trial
Phoenix explains a bit about Edgeworth and his backstory to Maya. Namely, the class trial. Phoenix was accused of stealing lunch money, Edgeworth stood up for him, but instead of Larry, Leona stood up for him. I guess Suzuki Kei thought “oh the class trial, if Leona stood up for him, it would be so romantic, because she’s a woman, and he’s a man”, or something like that. 
Edgeworth wanted to become a Great Lawyer Like His Father! But then he turned cold as ice.
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Phoenix: His father got too deeply involved in a case... and paid for it with his life. Edgeworth saw him murdered. He was never the same again. I bet he couldn’t forgive the criminal.
Yeah I bet he couldn’t ever forgive the person he thought killed his father all these years, Phoenix. I bet he really hates that person, Phoenix. I bet he has nightmares about that person killing his father or something, Phoenix.
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Phoenix: He vanished, then returned without his mercy or compassion. He had become a monster. When he lost his father, he also lost the ability to believe in others.
So like... one of the most chilling things about this musical is that they never actually solve DL-6. This probably roughly takes place 15 years after DL-6, since they were about the same age when the class trial started, and at least Leona is 24 now. The next musical takes place three years from now, and in it, Edgeworth refers to von Karma as his mentor, implying he’s still around and doing things.
So, in addition to everything else going wrong with this musical, DL-6 still happens, but von Karma never frames Edgeworth for it fifteen years later. The statute of limitations runs out, and von Karma forever gets away with his crime. And Edgeworth has no idea.
What changes did they make to DL-6, though, you may ask? I’m desperate to know as well. In the third musical, which I’ve watched because I hate myself but am unable to fully understand because I don’t know much Japanese, there is a scene where Miles flashbacks to DL-6. It’s abstract, but he makes gun-throwing motions at Gregory, followed by a gunshot sound.
Therefore, in this musical’s internal canon, either Miles Edgeworth shot his father, or he believes he did for the rest of his life.
... moving on.
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Phoenix: But he still has his humanity. It’s still there, deep down inside!
At least, if nothing else, Phoenix still believes in him. Even this Takarazuka Musical couldn’t touch that.
The Feenie Sweater
Right after this, Larry barges in, and Phoenix leaves him alone with Maya. The musical tries teasing Larry/Maya, but fortunately, Maya’s having none of it.
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Maya: You’re barking up the wrong tree.
Props to this musical for not being as bad as it could have been.
After this, the two sit down on the couch, and Maya asks for more gossip on Phoenix and Leona. Larry launches into a story, which turns into a flashback that ends up being narrated by Phoenix halfway through. This one’s about Phoenix and Leona’s relationship.
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This is an interesting line in here, “I’ll guide you to the future”, for it loosely referencing the sort of love ballad Phoenix sings with Lucia in the second musical which is about “I’ll take you to that radiant future”, and he later sings to the memory of Leona right around the time of his big spiral into despair.
I’m sorry if you haven’t read my other essay and just said “wait what” to what I just typed.
Leona was getting ready to move to New York to defend the weak “in the big city”. This is rather strange wording because it implies that California does not in fact have a big city. She says some things in her conversation with Phoenix that probably plant some of his later issues.
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Leona: This is the first time we’ll be apart since we were kids.
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Leona: We promised we’d always be together.
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Leona: I’ll be waiting. Waiting for you to come to me.
Haha. Sure would be a shame... if something were to happen... and they wouldn’t be able to be together anymore...
So some dancers wearing black come in and take off their outer jackets, to symbolize the passage of time. They circle around Phoenix and Leona. In this, you can just barely see, Phoenix is wearing a pink sweater beneath his jacket.
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“Oh,” I think to myself, “Is that the Feenie sweater? Are they including it here as a reference to the games?”
Then the dancers keep moving.
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THAT IS NOT THE FEENIE SWEATER. That is a pink sweater with a sexily drawn woman on it.
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This is the other half of the reason why I decided to go through with making this essay. 
This is so incredibly funny to me. Suzuki Kei Who Has Played The Games Seven Times has seen the hand-knit bright pink sweater with a giant red heart on it seven times. The sweater Iris, Phoenix’s girlfriend, lovingly knit for him that he wears all the time even though it is one of the tackiest, cheesiest items of clothing to ever exist. And so, when the costume designers were designing the clothes for College Phoenix Wright, they asked themselves: “Should we include the Feenie sweater?”
and “NO,” someone must have shouted, “NO, we can NOT include the Feenie sweater, it is PINK and it has a HEART on it and it’s TOO GIRLY. Phoenix Wright is a MANLY MAN. He would not EVER wear something PINK with a HEART on it.”
“BUT,” someone else said, “it’s a REFERENCE to the original games, where he DID wear a pink sweater with a heart on it! We MUST include it to pander to the fans!”
“WAIT,” a third person interjected. “I have a BRILLIANT IDEA. We can keep the pink... But to make it VERY CLEAR he is a heterosexual, masculine male... we put a sexy woman on it.”
And Person Three Got A Raise.
Thank god we’re finally halfway done this musical.
We Just Have To Go On With Our Lives Now
There’s plot or something happening. Leona breaks up with Phoenix inexplicably over the phone. Probably because of that freaking sweater. Imagine wearing that. God.
Eventually we go back to Phoenix talking to Leona, and he asks about the Jack Lyon case, which is the rip-off version of the Joe Darke case. Leona is pretty cagey about it, but Phoenix proves that she was there in the gallery that day. Leona refuses to answer, claims again that she killed the victim in her case, and leaves.
This makes Phoenix sad, so he starts singing.
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Phoenix: I want to bring you back! I believe in you.
If this sounds familiar, it’s the part where I started absolutely losing my mind in the second musical because this line had never shown up before then, I’d forgotten it was in this musical, and Phoenix was screaming it alone in a red room, so I thought he was like desperately resorting to a necromancy ritual in hopes of bringing Leona back to life.
Instead, this line actually has CONTEXT, though it does just end up enforcing my theory. This is Phoenix mourning what he used to have with Leona, wanting to bring the “old her” back, because he’s devastated that people sometimes change. There are several flashbacks of their college days where he’s wearing his Sexy Woman Sweater. He does succeed in winning her back at the end of this musical. Before she dies, of course.
Phoenix in musical 2 still believes that he can bring back what he used to have with Leona... even beyond death. That’s something affirmed by this musical. I’m very grateful to it for somehow managing to enforce my nonsensical theory.
Doctor Ema
After this, Phoenix returns to his office, and meets with someone new.
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That’s right! Only now, halfway through the musical, do we actually get to meet the Ema-equivalent to Leona’s Lana-equivalent. Her name is Monica Clyde. She has little rainbow heart stickers on her briefcase, which is the closest thing this musical has to acknowledging that gay people exist.
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But what does this little briefcase contain, you may ask? Scientific investigation tools? No.
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A full surgical toolset. Because you never know when someone’ll get sick, or when someone will need an entire operation in front of you. I guess.
So yes, Monica Clyde is not a forensic scientist in training, but a doctor! She decided to become a doctor because of her parents, who passed away of The Sickness, and so became a doctor in order to save lives like theirs.
Once more this has much darker and deeper implications than the musical is even aware of, because Monica is so anxious about treating sick people that she carries a full surgical toolset around with her at all times, scared to lose someone like she lost her parents... and then sometime in the next three years, Leona, her big sister, is going to die.
Of what? The strange Sickness that claimed her parents? A car accident? A botched spur-of-the-moment surgery? Whatever it is, Monica was unable to save her, even when she’d been training her entire life for it.
Monica is not mentioned at all throughout the second musical. It’s as if she does not exist.
Because unlike Ema of Rise From The Ashes, Monica is not at the heart of this story. She is, primarily, a plot device here to make Leona not trust Phoenix so that he can angst about their relationship. 
What a mess this world is.
The Trial, Part 2
Rather than try to prove Leona’s innocence, Phoenix wants to link the current case to not-SL-9, the Jack Lyon case. He does this by showing this picture.
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Senator Cole, the victim, is in this picture. His younger brother whose name I’ve forgotten, the victim of not-SL-9, is also in this picture. They are brothers. It is apparently novel that they are in the same picture, and somehow makes their cases linked.
As well, Governor Miller is in the picture. I guess you could say like... Governor Miller’s legal counsel is the defendant, so that’s another link? Even though the Governor would presumably know a Senator, so this isn’t an unusual group. Right now Phoenix has absolutely nothing to prove that these two cases are linked other than “hey, these two victims are brothers”, but apparently it works. So they spend a lot of time talking about not-SL-9, since Leona has confessed to the murder on day 1 and there is absolutely nothing indicating that she can’t be immediately declared guilty.
They hid the fact that Monica was a hostage in this not-SL-9, meaning that some of the case records were forged. Here’s Edgeworth’s reaction when this comes out.
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Edgeworth: This is an outrage! I’m the most influential prosecutor in America! There’s nothing I don’t know!
In RFTA, when Edgeworth learns he’d been using forged evidence to give a man the death penalty, he is devastated, his entire worldview is shaken, he sees himself as a monster who could end up becoming horribly corrupt if he isn’t stopped.
Musical Edgeworth goes “I DIDN’T KNOW SOMETHING???”
It’s certainly strange characterization, but I guess Edgeworth is further behind in his character arc than in RFTA, so... ugh. Fine. 
Phoenix calls Monica out as a witness to prove she was involved in the case. This causes Leona to panic, and try to dismiss Phoenix as her attorney, like Lana in RFTA, but Edgeworth interjects to call Monica in anyways. He and Phoenix have a little moment.
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Edgeworth: You said to believe in others. I suppose I’ll try believing in you. Try to keep up.
Phoenix: Edgeworth!
So Monica comes to the stand to testify. We get to see this picture of Monica being held hostage, and not-Joe-Darke’s incredible eyeliner.
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Lots of it is very similar to the actual RFTA, except instead of the victim being stabbed on the knight with the giant knife, he’s instead stabbed with a regular old knife. Leona still refuses to admit to what really happened, until Edgeworth convinces her to believe in Phoenix.
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Edgeworth: Your attorney is a runaway train with a one-track mind. Yet he placed all of his faith in you. Believe in him. You owe him that much.
Leona testifies, and says that when she found the victim, he was stabbed with a scalpel.
Here is where things get weird.
Scalpels Can’t Kill People
So basically earlier in this trial, they talk about how Leona knew that the knife that stabbed the victim was double-edged despite being buried in his chest. The judge questions if this means Leona killed him, but Phoenix is quick to say no, she was searched when she entered the courthouse and couldn’t have concealed a knife.
Yet, Monica was able to bring in her surgical toolkit which contains several sharp knives, scalpels, scissors, etc.
This is the first major contradiction.
Leona continues to say that when she found Monica, and the scalpel stabbed in the victim, she also ran into Governor Miller, who if you haven’t been able to tell yet is the Gant-equivalent of this musical. He offered to help her with the cover-up, etc.
The next bit goes a lot like RFTA. Phoenix accuses Governor Miller, who barges in, says Phoenix has the decisive evidence in his pocket. This is the “butter knife” that Phoenix took from his office when he dug around in confidential documents and stole it for no particular reason. It has Monica’s fingerprints on it! ... And Phoenix’s and Maya’s too probably because they were handling it without gloves, but they don’t mention that part.
Leona cries about how she shouldn’t have trusted Phoenix because he was apparently now blaming Monica, Monica looks terrified, she and Leona have some good sister moments but it’s not as good as it could be if the story was actually about Leona and Monica like how RFTA was about Lana and Ema. But Phoenix has the decisive piece of evidence that can turn this around.
It is this:
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Phoenix: Scalpels are made for medical incisions, not stabbings. So how did it stab the victim?
...
...
...
... What?
So like. Yes, scalpels are made for medical incisions. Medical incisions often involve cutting through flesh, very easily. As a result, they are sharp. Extremely sharp. As in: their purpose is literally to stab people, very specifically.
Yes, they’re easier to control, so that surgeons don’t regularly stab people how they’re not supposed to be stabbed, but it’s not like, impossible to stab someone in a killing way with a scalpel? Admittedly, I have never tried to kill someone using a scalpel. And I do not have experience using a scalpel for surgeries because I am not a surgeon. But I’m pretty sure, if you take a sharp scalpel, and you stab someone in the chest with it with a reasonable amount of force... they die.
Like, is this a particular kind of scalpel that is not very sharp? Is the problem that the blade doesn’t match up with the initial wound? But even then, we don’t have the original unforged autopsy report or even a picture, so how would Phoenix know what the original wound looked like to say it didn’t match up? And even then why wouldn’t Phoenix say that instead of SCALPELS CAN’T STAB PEOPLE???
This is his decisive contradiction and it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE TO ME!!!
Well Darn I Guess Scalpels Can’t Kill People
This is such a decisive piece of evidence, that scalpels can’t kill people, coming from the man who thought “caught red-handed” does not involve being caught standing over a corpse with blood on your hands, that it causes Governor Miller to confess.
Unlike Gant, who created the murder with Neil Marshall both to ensure that there was decisive evidence to convict Joe Darke, a serial killer who had not left any decisive evidence behind, and gain control over the prosecutor’s office in order to pull similar stunts to get criminals convicted using false evidence, Governor Miller does not have that as his motive. After all, he’s not a police officer. Instead, he ended up accidentally killing not-Joe-Darke, and then set up the incident in order to get Leona on his side. As her parents were both influential lawyers and very respectable, having her and her parents’ reputation on his side could help him become President of America Where This Takes Place.
So, let’s just take a moment to run over some of the things that made the original Rise From The Ashes great, in my opinion. Just for fun.
1 - The heart of the story between the Skye sisters. Lana closing off to protect Ema, Ema wanting to get through to her sister and get back to the way things used to be. Phoenix, in this story, is more of a bystander to this plotline rather than in the heart of it himself.
2 - Edgeworth’s Character Development. Basically RFTA creates an interesting transition between Turnabout Goodbyes and JFA. It causes Edgeworth to re-evaluate everything he knows about being a prosecutor. So quickly on the heels of Turnabout Goodbyes, it crushes the last bit of hope in him. It compares him to Gant, who also hates criminals, and forces him to wonder if his hatred of crime will one day lead to him being a criminal himself. He’s already convicted one person on forged evidence; how many others could there be?
3 - The Ends Justify The Means. ... wait come back, don’t leave. What I found neat about this case was also Gant’s motive. At one point he was presumably an honest person who hated crime and wanted to stop criminals. But over time in the police force, he became corrupted. He wanted to have all criminals convicted. So what do you do when you don’t have the evidence to convict them? Joe Darke was a serial killer who has killed several people and may have killed more if he’d gone free. The only way to stop and convict him was by using forged evidence. Other criminals could hide evidence to get away with their crimes, so people like Gant would make it up to catch them; but then when do you stop? What happens if there’s no evidence because someone is truly innocent? When does the line between “this person is a criminal and I want to stop them” and “I just want to convict everyone I’m dealing with” become blurred? This is also something he shares with Edgeworth and helps to advance his character.
All three of these things are either lessened or outright ignored in this musical. Leona and Monica’s story takes a backseat to Phoenix and Leona’s Love Story, with Monica only showing up halfway through, and mainly as an excuse as to why Leona is withdrawn. Edgeworth doesn’t seem to blame himself for the forged evidence he used, and doesn’t have a crisis questioning his morality over it. And Governor Miller’s motive is purely power. Unlike Gant, who would have become Chief of Police whether he solved SL-9 or not, Miller needed Leona to win the presidency. And instead of asking her to help him with his campaign like a normal person, he just blackmailed her instead.
... How do you play the games seven times and miss this much?
The Case Finally Ends
god. we’re almost there.
The case ends, Leona is declared not guilty but will still face trial for covering up murders and such. Probably less of a sentence than Lana because she was not involved in ongoing police corruption? Either way she’s dead in three years, so she’s got something a bit more concerning coming up.
She’s led away. Phoenix sings a bit about Leona before being interrupted by Edgeworth... who has something important to tell him.
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Edgeworth: You awakened within me those once-cherished emotions I had discarded. I see visions of a distant, nostalgic past.
So basically this is the unnecessary feelings of the musical. Something along the lines of “seeing you again and fighting for my former ideals is making me question many things about myself.”
How does Phoenix respond?
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Phoenix: Edgeworth... Try talking normally for a chance.
Sure, we were all thinking it, but that’s a little cold, Phoenix.
Edgeworth tries a smooth recovery.
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Edgeworth: I don’t do... idle chit-chat.
This doesn’t accomplish much. So he leaves to allow Leona to visit with Phoenix alone. He’s got to go change for something more important coming up.
Leona and Phoenix decide that they’re going to get back together once Leona is done her sentence! They make a promise that is very funny if you know she’ll be dead in three years.
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Phoenix: I’ll be waiting. For you.
There are a lot of hugs here, I’m not screencapping them all. There are also several moments where their faces get very close together and like, their nose brushes the other’s cheek or something, but they never actually kiss. Is it because the actresses weren’t comfortable with it (valid), or they thought kissing would be too much for the musical (sure, whatever), or since both characters are played by women the show staff did not want two women kissing on stage (probably the real answer)? I don’t like watching kisses, but I kept bracing myself for one and then it never happened, so.
Phoenix ends the main part of the musical with one last musical number starring my personal favourite piece:
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Phoenix: I want to bring you back! I believe in you.
I like to think that at this point, this is present-day Phoenix, after finishing his reminiscing, still desperately wishing he could bring Leona back from death.
But alas, he cannot. And so, after one last daydream of them dancing together on the beaches of California, singing about their love, the musical ends.
Dance Time!
This starts at exactly the two hour mark, if you’re interested in watching what is, once again, one of the only fun parts of this musical.
Seriously, Edgeworth’s actress kills it here, when I first saw this I went “oh, this is why I saw so many people being gay for her on twitter.”
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Edgeworth’s song is an encore of “My Rule”, so it’s lots of fun. Afterwards Phoenix gets another fun piece.
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Then we get to the love ballad part, which I can probably overanalyze, I feel like I haven’t done enough ridiculous over-analyzing in this essay in comparison to the other.
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Uhhh so the fog represents how Phoenix feels lost in this world without Leona. You can see it in the second screenshot separating the two of them, representing the barrier of death between the two of them. Idk it’s midnight I’m getting worn out from having to think about this musical for so long.
But his mourning over Leona’s death becomes even more apparent in the credits, where Phoenix sings that one line again:
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Phoenix: I want to bring you back! I believe in you.
I’m not fixing that screenshot, I think it’s oddly fitting, in a way. That’s me right now.
Then at the very end, he sings this song.
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Phoenix: I’ll spend... this eternal life... soaring through... the heavens!
Technically, this refers to his name Phoenix, but let’s dig a little deeper. He spends the rest of his life soaring through the heavens... the heavens that Leona went to after her untimely death, perhaps?
Overall, the musical becomes much more interesting when you just see it as a prequel to the second musical. This musical establishes many core concepts of Phoenix’s character: his refusal to believe in the concept of things changing, for one, and also his extreme dependency on Leona who he was never separated from since they were kids and where he based his entire life around her dreams and ideals. All he can think about is her. And in the end, he promises to wait for her in California.
Yet, to paraphrase Miles Edgeworth, all that is waiting for him is her death. Their dream of opening up a Mom & Pop Law Firm will never come true.
Thanks again for bearing with me even though this wasn’t as funny!
145 notes · View notes
minghaocouture · 3 years
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Pairing: Lee Jihoon x Fem!Reader Genre: Collage AU, Fluff, the tiniest angst Warning: Minor self esteem issues (from reader), Language WC: 2.9K
A/N: @woozisnoots​​ my sweetie baby! This is your Holiday gift from me!! I wub yoooou and i hope you like this <333 The song mentioned in the fic is Tell me you love me by Bolbbalgan4 and i actually just kept listening to it on repeat while writing this lol, it’s such a cute song, and all the italic words are song lyrics (the english translations)! Also yes i shamelessly name dropped our friend group in this, don’t judge me
“You don’t accept my hi as usual I know you’re popular and handsome  but you’ve always given the cold shoulder Only to me.” 
The lyrics flowed easily from your lips and into the microphone, eyes closed as you felt the vibes of the chorus and attempted to put the right layers of emotion into the song as you did so. The instrumental paused just as the chorus ended you heard the familiar sound of your partner through the headphones.
“Can you run that one more time. Hold that last note a bit longer, and make the staccato in the first beginning a bit sharper.” On the other side of the glass sat Lee Jihoon, and the brains behind the operation despite this being a partnered project. At the beginning of this, you never would have thought that the two of you would have been working together so well. Not with how the project began. 
You gave him an affirmation of your understanding and he began from the end of the pre-chorus, letting the melody and his test vocals fill your ears just before you began again.
When you had first been assigned partners, you were less than enthused. Sure, you had a major crush on Jihoon, his passion for music inspired you and you always loved watching him in class when he would perform. But, he was notoriously a rather critical partner. During the last partnered project in class a close friend of yours, Binu, had been assigned to work with him. She ended up confessing that she didn’t really get too much of a say on anything and that Jihoon did the project mostly by himself. Needless to say, she was much happier with this project being partnered with your mutual friend Mar. 
The recording session wrapped up nicely and you began packing your things as you realized how late it was in the evening and your friends would start to get concerned if they didn’t hear back from you. So you pulled your phone from your bag and quickly messaged your group chat to let them know the situation. As you went to place your bag over your shoulder you heard the familiar sound of a stomach growling.
Your eyes quickly scanned the room and watched Jihoon sigh and sit back down at the recording booth, his laptop still open but he didn’t look like he had any intention of leaving to get sustenance. Much to your own surprise you decided to speak up.
“Hey, I was planning on grabbing some dinner. Did...you wanna come too? We’ve been here for a while and we could probably use some food.” You suggested, an inviting smile plastered itself onto your face. You hoped it didn’t seem fake, after all you had invited Jihoon to eat before and he had always denied the offer. 
Much like all previous times, you saw his rather small head shake in denial.
“Nah, I’ve got some stuff to finish up here. I’ll probably grab something before heading back to my dorms...or maybe I’ll ask Mingyu to pick me up some dinner.” You’d heard about Mingyu before, his roommate who he says he tolerates but you can tell that he does really care about the guy from how he talks about it. 
Most people say that Jihoon is hard to read and closed off, but you know they’re wrong. He just...emotes differently, he has his own ways of showing affection and you can see it in his eyes and the little things he does and says. Being around him like this has honestly only made your crush worse. 
“Well, alright, but you better eat something and go home tonight. I don’t wanna come back here tomorrow and see you in this same outfit cause you haven’t gone home.” Which...had happened on more than one occasion during this project.
He shrugged, not turning back to face you.
“I brought extra clothes this time.”
***
“Seriously? I can’t believe he said no again! Ugh, I hate him and you deserve better than to pine after that short stack!” Rolling your eyes as you listened to Krys ranting once again. 
Since Jihoon refuted your invitation you decided to invite out your best friends. The 5 of you heading to a nearby fried chicken place, crowding into the booth that your friend group had basically claimed (when it was available at least) 
“It’s fine Krys, he’s just really into his work. He’s probably going to be in the studio editing until all hours of the morning.” You explained before shoving some of the complimentary salad into your mouth as you took a break from the chicken itself. “I might even take him some food before I head back to the dorms.”
“Nu-uh! I’m not letting you! That boy doesn’t even talk to you outside of class, he doesn’t deserve your time or your energy!” Krys exclaimed.
“I mean, he kinda does. Talk to her, I mean he waved at her last week.” Maya brought up in between her unsuccessful attempts at stealing the rest of the table’s pickled radish. “We were walking to the lounge and she saw him and waved at him, and he finally waved back.”
“Oh what, after ignoring her for a whole semester? Real nice of him. My best friend deserves better!” She declared, aggressively taking another bite of her chicken before continuing. “If I weren’t already dating the best man in the whole world, I would just date you myself.”
This brought the rest of the table another fit of laughter. It was never a dull moment in your friend group and you were always grateful that you had them in your life. 
“This just in, Krys won’t leave big dick Wonwoo so her best friend can have a good relationship.” Mar joked, cackling at the thought. The laughter seemed to get worse when she realized that Wonwoo himself had just walked up to the table to set down a drink refill for Binu. The male’s face was flushed red, obviously having heard the conversation. Which prompted another round of joyful laughter from the group.
It was a good night, but your mind still drifted back to Jihoon, who was most likely still sitting alone in the studio, hungry yet still hard at work. As the conversation drifted away from you finally, you got Wonwoo’s attention and ordered a small meal for take out with a plan to deliver the food before returning home. Even if Krys would give you shit for it.
***
“Jihoon, it’s me” You knocked on the studio door as you entered, assuming you wouldn’t be interrupting anything since you saw the light on but heard now sounds from inside. Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly, you got no response as you entered. Simply making your way in despite any acknowledgement.
The more surprising thing was what you found once you entered. There, still sitting in the rolly chair with his head firmly planted on the desk in front of his work laptop was Lee Jihoon. Fast asleep, small snores leaving his frame as he dreamed. It would honestly be pretty cute if it weren’t for the fact that you knew this was probably happening because of how much he overworked himself. 
You let out a small sigh, placing the bag on the small coffee table in the room (you didn’t want to set it on the desk with all the equipment) and grabbed his jacket that he had tossed onto the nearby sofa before draping it over his shoulders. You couldn’t really do much more for him without lifting the male up and transferring him to the couch, and you were pretty sure he would wake up if you even attempted that. 
“Night Jihoon.” With that final goodbye you exited the room and returned back to your dorm to get some homework done for a few of your other classes.
It was about 2:30 the next morning when your phone vibrated, indicating a message. Sparing a glance to the device you read the familiar name ‘Lee Jihoon’ as the sender. The message was no more than a simple “Thank you.” but that was good enough for you.
***
As you expected, even being the harmony vocals for the song Jihoon’s talent far outshined your main vocals. You weren’t upset or anything, but you were definitely starting to regret letting him talk you into the main vocal position for this project. You didn’t even really have any commentary to or feedback to give him. His voice fit the song perfectly and you could feel the emotion in his words as he sang. 
When he exited the booth and took a seat on the sofa to take a break you spoke up.
“Are you sure you shouldn’t be the one leading the song?” You questioned, head tilted to the side a bit as you watched him gulp down a bottle of water. Your words took him off guard and he fixed you with a rather confused look, so you continued. “I mean, you have such a great voice and I really think you capture the emotion in the song better than I do. So like…”
“What are you talking about?” He cut off your ramblings before you could continue, his eyes staring intently into your own. “You have an amazing voice, I’m literally blown away anytime you step into the booth. It’s part of the reason I was glad we got partnered for this project.”
It was almost as if your brain had short circuited, you didn’t know what to say. He had never spoken about your singing like that before, much less admit that he was...glad you were his partner. A part of you worried that he was lying just to spare your feelings, but the logical part knew that Jihoon wasn’t someone who would waste the energy to do that. 
“Let me put it this way,” he began again. “If I didn’t think you were doing a good job, if i thought your vocals would get us points docked off, then I wouldn’t have let you sing the Main. Got it?” His gaze seemed to pierce right to your very soul and you couldn’t find it in yourself to argue back and decided to just take his word for it. So you simply nodded a response.
It seemed that Jihoon wasn’t done surprising you tonight, as a smile so tender made its way onto his face. Your heart skipped a beat as you looked into his eyes, you could feel the heat rushing to your face and you prayed that he couldn’t hear the loud throbbing of your heart as he watched you. 
The moment was soon broken by the loud blaring of a familiar pop song, Jihoon’s face dropping at the sound. He quickly grabbed his phone off of the coffee table and put it up to his ear. You decided to be polite and at least try not to listen in, pulling out your own phone and messaging the group chat to see what was up.
“What do you want, Mingyu?” He began, definitely sounding more irritated than before he had taken the call. You couldn’t hear the voice on the other end but from the gumbling that left Jihoon’s lips you wouldn’t have been surprised if his roommate was pushing his buttons for whatever reason.
“No. I’m not and you need to stop asking. I’m working right now.” He paused for a moment, his voice lowering to almost a whisper as if that would make you unable to hear him. “Yes, she’s here too, so stop asking. Mingy-” He groaned as the male on the other end seemed to cut him off, you weren’t too sure with what but now you could vaguely hear the loud voice of his roommate on the line and couldn’t help laughing softly. The sound causing Jihoon’s eyes to flicker over to you, causing your heart to skip a beat as you quickly tried to make it seem like you were just laughing at something on your phone. 
“Shut it. We’ll talk when I get home...yes i’m coming back tonight!” With an irritated sigh, Jihoon ended the call. You weren’t sure he gave Mingyu any time to give a farewell but if you were being honest the conversation had been pretty amusing. 
Setting his phone down on the couch, Jihoon let out a sigh and ran a hand through his thick black locks. A silence falling over the two of you as you typed away on your phone, trying not to make eye contact again. You were so engrossed with your act you didn’t even hear when Jihoon stood from the couch and made his way over to the chair you were currently occupying. 
“Before we call it, could you re-record from the bridge to the end. When I was editing it last night there was some feedback so I wanted to get a better recording.”
“Oh, um yeah sure!” You weren’t sure why he hadn’t mentioned that before, and you didn’t recall hearing any feedback from your vocals when he was recording. But still, you took him at his word and entered the small recording booth once again. 
“I’ll start from just before the bridge.” He said over the speakers once your headphones were pulled snuggly over your ears. You cleared your throat and took a deep breath before nodding and signaling him to start.
“I really like you a lot But do you think we can’t be together? I feel small in my school uniform skirt Looking big on me, Yeah The tall, pretty girls are all around you.  Oh whoa~”
Getting through the bridge you poured your emotions into it. Thinking about your feelings for Jihoon and the longing for him to feel the same for you. Honestly, through this whole process the song the two of you had written was so...cathartic for you. Expressing things you never verbalized, how despite your attempts Jihoon never really spoke to you outside of class but he always seemed so kind when you were working. Or how, because of his looks and his talent he seemed to be surrounded by girls who thought he was wonderful. 
“If you like me, or you love me Just say yes, yes, yes And then I’m your girlfriend And your my boyfriend Tell me you like me.”
The last few chords streamed through your headphones and a silence fell over the room. Just as you were about to take the headphones off you heard a voice come through, the familiar voice of your partner and crush.
“I like you...a lot.” 
You froze like a deer in headlights, almost positive that you had misheard him. Eyes quickly landing on him, watching him through the glass. You couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but through the tint you could see the soft pink dusting his cheeks and the tips of his ears as his eyes stared down at the desk.
“Don’t say anything. I just...wanted to let you know. The reason I didn’t want to sing the main vocals is because I was worried you would be able to tell.” He continued, eyes still not lifting from the table to meet your gaze. “All of the lyrics I added were about you. I just...changed the pronouns.” 
It was unbelievable to think that Lee Jihoon could possibly love you back. He was too...wonderful, and the fact that the both of you had used this song to express those feelings was almost unreal. 
Thinking back on it, on all the interactions you had attempted to have with him outside of class. You realized that he wasn’t ignoring you, his eyes had always met your own but he was just uncertain.  He had lacked the confidence to speak to you despite your obvious interest in him. It made your pinning seem silly now. 
You still honored his wishes and said nothing, simply taking the headphones off and draping them onto the music stand before exiting the booth. Stopping right next to the object of your affections.
“Jihoon, look at me? Please?” Hesitantly, his gaze turned to you and he looked flustered, more flustered than you had ever seen him. “I like you too, a whole lot.” 
Your words had his eyes lighting up, a look of disbelief crossing his face as you continued.
“Could I...would it be alright if I kiss you?” Before today, you had only ever imagined kissing Jihoon. What it would be like had been nothing more than a small fantasy that you thought about, but seeing him nod looking away still flustered, it almost seemed to good to be anything more than a dream. 
Hesitantly, you reached out a hand to caress his cheek, your heart speeding up as he lifted a hand to press over your own. When your lips met, it was like the stars had aligned. 
It wasn’t a perfect kiss, it was shy and soft but the emotion you felt simply from his lips pressing back against your own was enough to cause your heart to soar. It was like two puzzle pieces finding one another how well his lips felt against your own. You decided in that moment that he would get to hear everyday how much you absolutely loved him, he would never need to ask or hesitate again. Cause that’s what kind of love you wanted to give him, and all you needed to do was say it. 
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soyouthinkucanwrite · 3 years
Text
Chapter 4 – A new day
Synopsys: The name of the series is super random, don't mind me. Reader is a postgraduate student at NYU, made a docuseries on her research, and the show got picked up by Netflix. She goes on a press tour and meets Tom on a ‘chat show’. They get together and she decides to stay for a few days in London with him. This could be an amazing few days or more? It’s been interesting writing how they’ll deal with distance and tight schedules once ‘honeymoon’ is over...
Heads up: my first language is Portuguese, so that might explain some things here - of course, I wrote thinking about myself hahaha
Warnings for the series: mention of illicit drugs, angst caused by distance, smut (next chapters, very explicit), anxiety caused by paparazzi, and rude random people taking photos.
Other than that, this is just my guilty pleasure writing so lots of caring sweet Tom and fluffiness.
Chapter 1 - A new city
Chapter 2 - Show time
Chapter 3 - Unexpected texts
Chapter 4 - A new day
This is 1.8k words (approximately)
A while after overthinking it you closed your eyes and next thing you knew you were opening them at the sound of your alarm clock. Shit. ‘Should’ve sleept more’ was your first thought but then you remembered why you didn’t. You checked your phone. There was one text from “Tom Holland”, you just loved the quotation markes there, they reminded you of the mess it was your first interaction.
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Did he really just Google-translated ‘beautiful’? And are you really swooning over that?
You got up from bed smiling like an idiot and went to get ready for the day. You were getting breakfast with David at the hotel so you had to hurry cause the Breakfast show begins at 7. It was supposed to be a bright sunny (and hot) summer day, which you knew was rare in London. But it was still a work commitment, so you decided on pants and maybe you could change before going to wherever you were going with Tom. Tom! Should you reply to him?
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Ok. Play it cool. Now, focus on why you’re here in the first place, will you? You wore capri pants, a t-shirt tucked in with a belt and some stylish shoes. It looked cool, you were comfortable and that’s the best we can expect in a situation like this. No one’s expecting you to show up ready for a red carpet or anything like that anyway. You texted David and he was already downstairs getting some food, so you just went to meet him.
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“Good morning” You greeted David at the buffet.
“Someone’s in a good mood. Good morning” He was in a good mood too, probably cause you’ll be going home today. Your good mood had nothing to do with that. If you’re honest, that was a reason for ruining your spirit.
“Uh-hum” You agreed.
“So, I was looking and I think I can change our tickets. You know, for earlier.” He told you as you were sitting in a table at the corner and you couldn’t help but look at him like he was saying something absurd. “Ok, you don’t look so happy about it.”
“No, I was just hoping to see the city today. You know, enjoy it a little bit before going back.” As you said that your phone lit up on the table, it was a text from Tom.
“The city. Right” David smirked at you.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You laughed at him and smiled when you saw the texts.
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“Is that ok?” You heard David talking.
“Hum? Sorry?” You were smiling.
“Gosh I can’t with you. I said I might just change my own ticket, would that be ok with you?”
“Oh yeah! Go ahead. I’ll be fine. I have all my flight info.” He looked at you suspiciously.
“Just…please be in New York next week? The meeting is on Friday afternoon”
“What?” You laughed. “Of course I’ll be there. Why wouldn’t I?” He just shook his head and laughed at you.
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You finished your breakfast and went back to the room to brush your teeth and get your stuff. 15 minutes later, you were in a cab with David going to the Radio One studios. On the way, you snapped a pic to send him, you know, keep the conversation going.
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You rolled your eyes at him but still couldn’t help but agree.
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The breakfast show was from 7 to 10 am, but your interview was not until 8 am. So you and David just hang out in the studio in the meantime. “The first hour is mainly for music”, the girl that welcomed you guys explained. Soon after, Greg James walked out to the little reception and greeted you and David. “Hey guys! Thank you for coming! I’m Greg, nice to meet you.” He offered.
“Hi! Thank you for having us! I’m (y/n), this is David.” You replied and gave him a quick hug.
“Hey! How’s it going?” David said and gave him a man’s hug/handshake. Boys.
“So this is basically standard, since it’s a live interview, I like to ask if there’s any topic you want to avoid or something you’d like to talk specially about?” He asked you.
“Oh…I don’t know. No? Just…let’s talk about how great the show is so people want to watch it and we can keep making more” You laughed.
“And it IS great! I’ve seen it, really loved. Congrats!”
“That’s kind of you. Thank you!”
“No problem, so…I guess I’ll just direct it towards the interviews you did, you can tell me some funny stories? Awkward ones preferably.”
“You got it! I’ll give you my worst embarrassment stories, you know, for the good of entertainment” You laughed.
--
A little while later you were sitting in the studio with Greg on the other side of the table. You told him about the show and some embarrassing stories as well.
“So, what are the plans now? Will we be seeing more seasons of the show? Maybe in other cities, London perhaps?”
“Well, I can’t say”
“Oh come on! Is Netflix the next Marvel on terms of keeping secrets?”
“No, I mean, I don’t know. I literally can’t say because I don’t know what the future looks like for us. It’s been so great to go out and talk about the show, and see how much people liked it but I’m kind of just enjoying while I can.”
“No! Don’t say that! They won’t let you get away like that!”
“I hope not! If they want us, I’m all in! I’d love to make 10 more seasons and in other cities, even! Can you imagine?"
“Now that’s more like it! Let’s make a deal, if Netflix don’t renew with you, BBC will take it!”
“Ok! Sure! Are you in charge of it?”
“No really, but that’s just a technicality” He laughed. “Alright, so we’ll play some music and when we come back we’re going to hear some unpopular opinions! Are you ready for it Ana?”
“Sure, yeah! I love the theme song, let’s do it!”
“Do you really? You listen to the show?”
“Yes! I really do, I’m a fan since when I was learning English! I genuinely love Radio 1”
“No way! Just for that, I’ll let you choose the next song"
--
When the song died over it was time for the game.
“Hey! If you need a job, you can just come work here with us as international music sommelier, what you think about it?”
“Oh don’t even joke. That’s my dream job, honestly!”
“It’s settled them” The interview was going really well, and it was almost ending. “Alright, so our time is almost over. Shall we hear some unpopular opinions and send you all to the weekend with a pinch of wrath?”
“Yes please! Let’s hear them” The theme song started to play and you sang along. “Come and give us your unpopular opinion, something up to know you’ve been scared to say”
“That was great! And in the first try! You really are a listener!”
“Told you!”
“Ok so, first on the line we have Maya. Hello Maya? What’s your unpopular opinion?”
“Calling people bestie is cringe” The girl on the line said.
“Uh agreed” You said.
“You agree with her?” Greg asked you.
“Yeah. If it’s not ironically, it’s very cringe. Like calling your husband hubby”
“To be fair, most pet names are cringe” Greg offered.
“True, very true. Hey, love is cheesy. Nothing wrong with that. People in love are just not cool, have you ever met a couple that was genuinely cool?”
“No, I have not. Well, I mean…the Beckhams are cool.”
“Uh good one. I stand corrected. But can you imagine Victoria calling Dave ‘hubby’ or the other spice girls ‘bestie’?”
“Definitely not.” You guys laughed together, you were just being silly. “Good one Maya! Alright, next call is Kyle. Hello Kyle?”
“Hi! Flat watered down soda tastes good.”
“What?” You yelped. “Are you ok, Kyle?”
“And that’s why we call this segment ‘unpopular opinions’” Greg laughed. “Do you want to defend yourself there Kyle?”
“Not really, I just prefer it like that.” Kyle said and you and Greg laughed.
“You know what Kyle? You keep doing you. You might want to try some juice or iced tea, though. But you do you man.” You joked and Greg cracked up.
“That was great, I love it!” Greg said. “That will be all for today, don’t forget to check (y/n)'s new show this weekend and spam Netflix about how much we need more seasons!! And bring (y/n) to London Netflix!”
“Oh my god I loved it! Thank you so much for having me, I had the best time!” You thanked him. Music started to play and you took off your headphones. “Thank you, really. I was great!” You said directly to Greg.
“Oh don’t thank me! I really hope we’ll see you more! Come back always to promote the next seasons and projects!” He offered.
You got out of the studio and greeted David. “That was so much fun!” You told him.
“You’re killing it there ! Mission accomplished, finally! Are you coming back to the hotel or are you meeting with ‘the city’ from here?” He asked you using air quotes for ‘the city’ and smirking.
“I’m coming back to the hotel, thank you very much.” You rolled your eyes, but you knew he was just teasing you.
Chapter 5 it's fluffly london date and it was so much fun writing it, can't wait for you to read!
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birdy-bat-writes · 4 years
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Final Conclusions
A/N: So Fish and I came up with this Dad!Constantine concept while talking about this one OC I created and a few OC’s she created. The one I created is named Maya. The premise of her story is that she’s a love interest for Damian and she treats John like a mentor/father figure since he’s teaching her to control her magic. This plot is basically what has sprouted any of the Dad/Uncle/Mentor Constantine content I’ve created. Fish has contributed a lot and I love her so much. The basis for this interaction is that John finds a lot of amusement in the fact that Damian likes Maya and he just hates John so much. Even though it’s based on an OC, I’m going to write it x reader style with the reader having the same powers as my OC. So now that there’s context let’s begin!
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 It’s the opening night of the Gotham Academy’s festival of the arts. The night where young artists and musicians show off their talent in the galleries and performances, and two people who never show up to these things- like ever- both happened to be here at the same time for the same reason. You. And it irked them to no end.
Both John and Damian arrived at 6:30 pm on the dot. Damian looked so irritated to see John there. Why is he even there? He doesn’t even like going to these things. But then again, neither did Damian. He decided to put his irritation aside and began to walk into the building with John. He had to admit, John stepped up for the occasion.
John cleaned up, did his hair, shaved and actually wore a jacket that was not his usual beige trench coat, all to attend some crummy high school art show. But he did it anyway because it was your work that was being displayed. The disdain he felt towards these events was replaced with a sense of pride he had in you. He sported a grey blazer and black shirt with matching slacks, that contrasted Damian’s black suit.
“Nice to see you here, Damian.”
“Likewise.” The conversation stayed stagnant for a while as they looked around at the different works displayed. Neither of them walked around much. The silence was broken when you walked up to them, looking elegant as ever in your green dress.
“Hey, guys! I’m so happy you both could come.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Damian said sweetly. And that was a rare sight for John to see. Damian being sweet?!
“Do you want to see my display?” They both excitedly nodded “yes” and followed you to a wall at the end of the hall. You cautiously cut through the crowd and pointed. “Tada!”
“That looks amazing, Y/N. You’re more talented than you know.”
“Not bad, kiddo. It’s the best thing I’ve seen from you since that chicken you managed to turn green.”, John said ruffling your hair. Thank goodness you left it down. If it was done up, it would have taken ages to fix, but since you knew john was coming, you took the precaution. He had a habit of doing that when he was proud of you, and it made your day every time.
“Thank you. I’m just going to check out the ceramic displays, you guys want to come?”
“No thanks, dear.”
“I’ll just wait here.”
“Okay, see you in a bit. I’m so happy you both are here.” You chimed. You had that little gleam in your eye that you always did when you were happy, and Damian didn’t fail to notice. He lingered on it. Just as he did with your smile, and the soft glow on your cheeks. He was regrettably brought out of his love-trance by the sound of John’s voice.
“Does that look like ketchup on paper to you too? Or is it just me?” Damian wanted to roll his eyes and say something snarky, but instead, looked up at the painting john was talking about. It really did just look like a glob of red paint.
“I can’t even tell what that’s supposed to be. If it’s abstract, they did a good job.”
“To be honest, I don’t really get this ‘art’ thing. Half of these canvases look like something a two-year-old could muster.” John said, and Damian sighed in return.
“You have to look beyond the surface. Art is about the emotion behind the paint and pencil.”
“Alright, Picasso, what’s that one about then?” Damian stayed silent. “I thought you were an artist; you don’t get art?”
“I sketch sometimes but that doesn’t make me an artist.”
“Ah, damaged closet-artist.” Damian groaned lowly.
“There isn’t anything in that piece to understand. It’s just paint splatters. Half of these can only be admired for their technical skill; there’s no emotion behind them. If there is one, it’s not one that I understand.
“Whose work do you like then?” Damian gave that one some thought,
“I like the classics, I suppose. The only current artist whose work I’ve liked is Y/N.”
“Interesting, so, what emotion do you get from her work?” John had his trademark devilish grin plastered upon his face. He knew Damian was head over heels for you, and it sure was fun to get a rise out of him with that. Damian was trying not to let his mind wander off to the charcoal sketches he has framed in his room. You drew them for him and left them in his room one day. They were all sketches of Titus, Batcow, Alfred the cat and his personal favorite, a charcoal rendition of a polaroid you took. It was the two of you at the beach with the family, and Damian was smiling. It was rare and reserved just for you, so he couldn’t help but think the emotion he got from it was love. That photo stayed between the two of you, and the drawing wasn’t shown to anyone but him. John doesn’t get the luxury of knowing that. Why did he even ask? Why is he even here?
“Why did you come here?” Damian asked.
“Y/N invited me.”
“You don’t like going to these events. Why’d you say yes?”
“Same reason as you mate, I care about her more than I hate the rest of society.”
Damian gave a light nod that anyone would have missed if they weren’t’ looking for it. “What about you? It’s not like you enjoy school activities and such.” Damian looked a little flustered.
“I wanted to support my friend and classmate. It’s important to her.”
“Right, you wanted to support your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend!”
“Aye, but you want her to be.” John said with a smirk.
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t give me that. Its plain as day that you like her.” Damian scoffed and looked down for a while.”
“How did you come to that conclusion?” He tried to play it off like sarcasm, but that didn’t really go as planned.
“You hate people and yet you love being around her. You’re an artist and can’t understand anyone’s art but hers. You want to protect her from anyone who you think isn’t good enough for her, myself included. The signs are pretty obvious.” Damian looked a little flushed but remained speechless. “And besides, she’s pretty easy to fall in love with, I hear. My home phone gets calls from boys on the daily.”
“What?! From who?!?”
“Hehe, and that’s how I came to that conclusion.”
“Constan-!”
“There you guys are! I’ve been looking for you. Art awards are going to be announced soon. Want to go find a seat?” You had just found the boys and were ready to take them into the auditorium for the Art Awards.
“Sure thing.”, John said cheerily.
John smiled and Damian just returned a cold glare.
***
They were seated next to each other and chose not to complain about it. Instead, opting to tense over the fact that they were nearing the end of the awards ceremony and your name hadn’t yet been called. This meant one of two things: Either you were about to win one of the top cash prizes or you weren’t going to win anything. And the thought of the latter had both John and Damian gripping the arm rests of their seats tight enough to dent them. The anticipation was building in all of you, but it flooded away from you when you turned and looked at the boys. They looked more stressed than you did, and it made you want to laugh. Of course, you stifled it. This is what you liked to call “Chaotic caring energy”. And truth be told, these two were awfully similar for a pair of people who can’t stand each other.
It was down to second place. You had lost hope and accepted you wouldn’t win anything. The boys hadn’t, though. They were literally at the edge of their seats, and you swear you saw Damian grab John’s shoulder at one point. Just then, you heard your name called. First place, Y/N L/N, 8th grade.
“Yes! I’m so proud of you!”
“Well done, N/N! I knew you’d be up there!” They could be heard over the Loud cheering from the rest of the audience. You walked up and received your award and you waved at them from the stage. John looked at you with a genuine smile and adoration in his eyes. He knew you were talented, and he was so proud of you for working so hard for this. You had finally gotten the recognition you deserved and the look in his eyes reflected how happy he was about it. Damian noticed too. John really cared about you. Damian saw it now. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad mentor for you after all.
While leaving the hall, the three of you saw Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim and Alfred waiting by the doors. They congratulated you and showered you with hugs. They had seen the ceremony as well, but they watched it from the auditorium balcony. While you were off showing your plaque to everyone, Damian took an opportunity to say something he felt he needed to say.
“Hey, John?”
“Hm?’
“When you said I want to protect Y/N from people who aren’t good enough… I don’t consider you to be someone I should protect her from. You’re a good mentor.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that.” They shared a look of agreement. Perhaps they had finally settled a truce. “And of course, I’m a good mentor for her. I’m the master of my craft.” John added smugly.
“I saw you light your tie on fire once.”
“Who said that was an accident?” They shared a chuckle. Meanwhile, Bruce and Alfred were making celebratory dinner plans, and you were standing flabbergasted with the boys because Damian and John were smiling at each other??? They walked up to you and overhearing Bruce’s discussion about dinner, Damian took the liberty of inviting John to join you.
You choked on your saliva, Tim looked beyond concerned and when John said he’d be delighted, everyone freaked. Bruce looked terrified, Dick squinted, and Jason was about to take a picture while Alfred just stared.
“Are they smiling at each other?”
“No, that’s not possible.”
“Um, they’re walking side by side and talking without grimacing.”
Y/N looks like she’s about to pass out. Someone catch her.”
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Dad Tim & Uncle Rhys Part 12
Literally right after I finished writing this I saw a thing that said Ava is 18, but we’re going to pretend she’s in her younger teens because this is a fic and I’m in charge now?? Anyway, here’s a new entry into this! 
“Timothy? Are you listening to me?”
Tim glanced up with the kind of guilt that announced he absolutely had not been listening to Rhys. Rhys sighed, realizing he was going to have to repeat his whole story.
“You’re not eating, either,” Rhys pointed out, deciding it’d be a waste to bother repeating the story if Tim hadn’t managed to focus the first time.
He’d invited Tim to come spend his lunch in the office. He’d needed Tim to sign some paperwork, and sometimes it was nice to just sit and talk. Despite his stunted social skills after what he’d been through, Tim could be surprisingly hilarious when he told stories. 
Now, though, he just kept glancing at his son. Phoenix and Zer0 were trying to build up a structure out of playing cards together, Phoenix laughing every time it fell down onto Zer0’s lap.
“Something wrong with Phoenix?” Rhys asked.
“What? No, he’s fine,” Tim said. “Just…” He sighed. “I took him to the park last night to play. There were a few kids there already. They invited him to join a game, but he hid behind me and refused to move or speak. I told them he wasn’t feeling well enough to play right then.”
“Uh...he always gets like that around people,” Rhys said.
“I know. But he’s getting better,” Tim said, glancing at him again. “Only around adults, though. Last night made me realize Phoenix has never actually played with another kid in his life. Hell, he’s never even talked to another kid before. He grew up surrounded by adults fighting to survive. Then I get him out and he ends up surrounded by corporate adults.”
Rhys hadn’t really thought about that before. And Tim had already said he didn’t plan to have any other kids, so it’s not like Phoenix would even have a sibling to play with. 
“Why not set up a playdate with someone here?” Rhys offered. “A lot of the employees have kids.”
“I dunno. Phoenix is a bit...much,” Tim said, frowning. “He’s a good kid. But he has no idea how to interact with, well, normal kids. I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t want to set up a playdate and then have other kids tell him he’s weird, or make fun of him.” 
Rhys thought for a moment. “Hey, what about the vault hunters? Don’t they have a kid with them? Um, I mean, I think she’s a teenager, but still younger than the people he hangs out with here. And if she’s with them, I doubt she’ll think a little boy who knows how to use a gun will be weird.”
Tim brightened with tentative hope. “Oh, yea! They did mention something about that. You think she’d be willing to, I dunno, just play with him for a little?”
“No clue,” Rhys admitted. “But it can’t hurt to explain the situation and ask. Your son is playing with an assassin, Tim. It really, really can’t hurt to ask.”
“I’ll get in touch with them tonight,” Tim said. “I just...want him to learn how to play with other kids. That’s all. Even if she’s older than him, it’s a start.”
With that settled, he seemed a lot more at ease. Rhys decided to retell his story, pleased when Tim actually paid attention this time. But they both found their eyes slipping to Phoenix, realizing just how at ease he was playing with an adult assassin.
Definitely couldn’t hurt to ask a kid to play with him.
***
There was a knock on the door. Rhys called for them to come in without looking up from his computer.
When the door opened, he glanced over, then had to do a double take. He stood up hastily.
“Zane,” he said.
“Still rockin’ the beautiful mustache!” Zane said cheerfully. A girl stood next to him, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else. “Timothy got a hold of us last night. Where is the lad and his little lad?”
“I’m not a babysitter!” the girl said.
“Ah, hush, Ava,” Zane said. “Kid’s a fun one. Kinda cute, too, if you squint.”
“Don’t let Tim hear you say that,” Rhys said. Then, because he felt compelled to defend Phoenix, “He is a pretty cute kid. It’s just the messy hair that throws the look off. Tim should be here any minute. He had to go over some stuff with me.”
“Heard the boy’s gotten quite fond of you,” Zane said, throwing himself into the nearest chair. 
“I’m still not sure how,” Rhys said. “He is a good kid, though. I’m helping him learn how to read because he thinks if he can read, he can help Tim get work done faster.”
Zane opened his mouth to reply, but the door opened. Tim came in, Phoenix in his arms and a file of papers in his hand. He paused, eyes going wide at the sight of Zane and Ava.
“Oh,” he said at last.
“Dad,” Phoenix whispered urgently. “That’s the guy who talks funny.”
Tim laughed a little. “Yea, pal, it is. His name is Zane, remember?”
“I’m Zane, and this lass here is Ava,” Zane said, gesturing to her.
She was eyeing Tim and Phoenix, trying to look disinterested. But curiosity slipped onto her face, especially as she noticed Phoenix’s eye.
“Did he- inherit that from Jack?” she said in confusion.
Tim tightened his hold on Phoenix a little. “I was given DNA injections. Guess it permanently altered me more than I guessed. Uh, right. This is Phoenix, and I’m Timothy. Thanks for coming.”
Tim set Phoenix down, but Phoenix immediately gripped his shirt, tensing up and trying to hide behind Tim’s legs. Tim nudged him back out.
“Timothy! Wanna talk to ya a minute,” Zane said, getting up. “Nothin’ serious, I promise. Let the kids get to know each other while we chat.”
Phoenix tightened his hold on Tim. Tim had to pry his hand off, ruffling his hair.
“I’ll be right back. Rhys is here with you. You’ll be fine,” Tim assured. 
“Dad!” Phoenix said, but Zane pulled Tim out of the room.
“Uh...he’s not good with people,” Rhys said.
“They warned me,” Ava said. “Hey, kid, quit staring at the door. Zane isn’t going to hurt Timothy. He helped save you guys, remember?”
Phoenix didn’t speak, just backed cautiously towards Rhys, eyes on Ava now. Without everyone watching her now, she dropped the bored teenager act, sitting on the ground and looking more curious than anything.
“Zane said you had a gun when they found you,” she said. “You can shoot?”
Phoenix hugged his bear to his chest and gave a stiff nod. “Mom and dad taught me.”
To Rhys’ surprise, she grinned at him. “That’s awesome. Zane said you shot at them. You’re kinda badass, kid.”
Phoenix’s shoulders eased, just the slightest. “They had my dad. ‘Course I shot ‘em.”
“Hey, good for you,” she said. Her expression shifted to something sad, pained. “Gotta protect the people you love before you lose them.”
Phoenix inched forward, just a little. “Did someone you love die? That sucks.”
“Yea. Yea, she did,” Ava said, shaking herself a little. “So, I’m stuck here with you for a bit. What do you do for fun?”
“I…” He bit his lip, glancing at Rhys, who nodded encouragingly. “I, um, I like to look at the pictures in books.”
“Do you know how to read?” Ava asked.
“Kinda.” He was blushing a little, dropping his gaze. “I’m still learning. Boss guy and dad help me.”
Ava went over to the bookshelf in the room, looking over the titles there. “Whoa, hey! You have a book about Sirens?!”
“Oh, uh, it’s just a lot of guesswork. Interesting theories, but little facts,” Rhys said.
“So? That’s still awesome. C’mere, kid, let’s read this.” Ava pulled it from the shelf and sat down with it, gesturing Phoenix over. “Do you know anything about Sirens?”
Phoenix frowned, but his love of books had him cautiously moving closer to her to peek at the cover. “Nu-uh. I met one. She was really cool.”
“Amara, right?” Ava rolled her sleeve up, showing her Siren tattoo to Phoenix. His eyes widened and he drifted even closer to look it over. “I’m a Siren, too. My...My friend passed her powers to me when she...Well, she believed in me, and I cherish that. Looks cool, huh?”
He reached out, but caught himself in time and jerked his hand away. Ava just moved her arm closer to him, though.
“You can touch my arm,” she said, then narrowed her eyes. “But don’t be weird about it. And I’m ticklish.”
He pressed his fingers lightly to her arm, staring at the tattoos. He pulled his hand away after a moment and pointed at the book.
“Can you read it?” he asked.
“That’s the plan.” She pat the spot next to her. “Let’s learn about Sirens. Man, the stories I could tell you about Maya! Talk about a badass.”
She began to read the book to Phoenix. It was clear he didn’t understand a lot of the words in it, but every time he started to look bored or frustrated, Ava would pause in her reading to tell him a story about Maya and the use of her powers. Those sucked Phoenix right back in, and he eagerly pressed Ava for all the- often gruesome -details of Maya’s battle history. 
By the time Tim and Zane reentered the room, Phoenix was squealing with laughter as Ava told him an exaggerated story about Maya juggling bandits with her powers. Tim froze in the doorway, eyes wide as he watched his son.
A wide, relieved smile broke out on Tim’s face and he slumped against the doorframe in relief. Rhys couldn’t help but smile at the sight.
Phoenix noticed him and waved. “Dad, dad! Ya gotta hear this! Ava’s friend was a funny badass!”
“Tell me about it when we get home tonight, alright? I don’t want to interrupt you guys,” Tim said, sitting at Rhys’ desk. 
“M’kay, I will!” Phoenix promised before turning his excited attention back to Ava. “What’d she do next? Did she crush ‘em?”
“Much more talkative than when we met him,” Zane said, sitting next to Tim.
“He’s come a really long way,” Tim said, that smile still on his face. “God, he’s come so far. I never imagined I could leave him alone in a room with a total stranger and come back to find him laughing. And he didn’t even run for me this time.”
“He was nervous at first, but she drew him out of his shell,” Rhys said. “Uh, they’ve mostly been talking about fights and Siren abilities, but he’s having a good time.”
“She was the perfect choice to get him used to younger people without making him self conscious,” Tim said. “Thank you, Rhys. He and I would be lost without you. Hopefully they can...ya know, do normal kid stuff at some point. I’m just glad to see him so happy.”
“Have to take him to Sanctuary to hang out with Ava sometime!” Zane said. “Lass could use the company of a kid. They’ve both been through too much to be normal kids, but they still deserve childhoods.”
Tim nodded. “Yea. Thanks for bringing Ava here, Zane. Hell, thanks for getting us out of that casino. I owe you guys my life and his life.” 
“Ah, pay me back with a pint later,” Zane said, clapping Tim on the back. 
Rhys looked up at the kids. Phoenix had leapt to his feet, firing finger guns at Ava. Ava ducked behind the bookcase and pretended to return fire on him with her own finger guns, the two engaging in their pretend war, their laughter filling the room.
“Huh, never seen her just...play,” Zane said as he watched. 
“Then it was good for both of them,” Tim said. “I’m glad.”
He was smiling so wide it looked like it hurt his face. Rhys put a hand on his shoulder and they watched the kids play, all of them relieved to see two kids who’d gone through so much in their short lives get to just have fun for once.
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katdvs · 4 years
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When Riley Matthews was in high school her life changed, now as a professional dancer she’s got a new challenge when she’s paired with professional football player Lucas Friar on the latest season. Can they win the season, or will their past get in the way?
Cross Posted to FFN & AO3
Chapter One | 
Author Note: Hi, how is everyone? I’m glad to be back. I’m writing this as I go, I know where I want it to go, but let’s hope that’s where we end up. Thanks for all the reviews on the first chapter. XOXO
Chapter Two:
“Eyes on me.” Riley reminded Lucas as she paused the music that they would dance to on live television tomorrow night. This season the network had decided to keep everything secret, except with Pros were returning They figured it would keep people guessing and have them tune in to see who made it.
Lucas nodded, “Okay.” He got into the hold he needed to be in for the dance, following her lead, the cues she had taught him over the last couple of weeks.
Riley felt Lucas lead her around the dance floor, feeling like they were as ready as they could be for the live show. Whatever happened out on the dance floor tomorrow night, live in front of all of America, was what was meant to be.
“We’ve got this Riley.” Lucas told her with a smile as he broke away to grab his water bottle.
“I certainly hope so.” She couldn’t recall the last time she was this nervous before the dress rehearsal. She was just thankful she hadn’t had to do most of the pre-show press that they normally had,
Lucas watched her, amazed he could notice something so subtle, “You’re nervous, aren’t you?”
“Yeah I am.” She confessed, feeling the cameras zooming in on her. Never in all her years on the show had she admitted it, no one had called her out on it.
He took a few steps towards her, “We’re going to be fine.” He saw the shadow of something cross her eyes, and he realized what she was more nervous about, once the world knew that he was on the show, that they’re partners, it would take them from the bubble of this studio.
“I’m glad you have confidence.” She went to grab her water bottle.
Lucas stopped her, “I do have confidence because you have confidence. Don’t let it fade. We’re gonna win this.”
Riley cocked an eyebrow at him, “You realize this is more then one night right, we hopefully have weeks of this.”
“I know, and I know that next week we’ll crush it and we will each week, because you’re my teacher, my partner, and I believe in you.”
Damn they made great TV, Riley knew right now the executives watching the feeds and later the dailies would love this stuff. “Grab your stuff, we’ve got to get to the studio for the final dress rehearsal.”
“Whatever you say, you’re the boss.” He smirked.
***
Riley hated the costumes that had been picked for them this week. The song choice had been bad enough, but she was literally here in a cheerleader shirt and top, with fringe. Lucas was in a sparkly varsity jacket, and to make it even worse it just happened to be their high school colors.
She was on the stage right now, the lights out as they crew set up during what would’ve been a commercial break. She could hear the banter between the hosts and then the start of the package. She glanced at the monitor, their was for the whole world to see, her falling into his arms. Then of course clips of them dancing over the last few weeks, teaching him the moves, and what had to be a last-minute edit, the two of them just a few hours ago.
She shook it off as the music swelled and she made her moves towards Lucas as everything started to fall into place on the stage. He kept his eyes on her during the entire dance, though he lost his footing on the final move, and stumbled a little bit.
“It’s only a rehearsal, you got it out of the way.” Riley told him afterwards, as they pretended to get scores from Judges that weren’t present.
As they moved off stage Lucas leaned in close, “Did you suggest these costumes in these colors?”
“Nope, I don’t know why they decided on these, but I’m just going along with it until the waltz next week.” She stood tall as she stopped at the monitor to watch Zay and his partner dance. “That’s what we need to be worried about.”
Lucas watched as Zay danced with Connie Patrick, a sitcom star that Lucas had run into occasionally at charity events. She also came with a major social media following.
“They’re good.” Lucas admitted.
“Yeah, Zay has won several times, he could win again.”
“Not this season, we’re going to win.” He told her and he moved towards the dressing trailers.
“Riley, Lucas!” Sheryl was rushing towards them, “Tomorrow night you’re going on last.”
Riley froze, “What?”
“Yeah, you’ll be our final dancers of the night.” She smiled, “America is going to fall in love with the two of you tomorrow night.”
“Is that good or bad?” Lucas wondered.
Riley looked at her first love, “Well, you won’t be able to go off the grid until after the show ends.”
***
Riley sat on her bed, replaying everything that happened today. She knew the storyline that the show was going for. They saw the chemistry between Riley and Lucas. They would be fools not to play into it.
She would just have to get through the next night, and then at least the first week would be behind them. They would move on to the next dance, the next song. Another week of grueling rehearsals during the day, at night she was plotting the choreography for the next network musical, she had one more number to do and in a few weeks, rehearsals would start for that. When they did, she would be beyond busy if Lucas didn’t get eliminated.
Picking up her phone she began scrolling through social media. A lot of guesses about who her dance partner would be this season, none of them correct. A few of the names were on the show this season, but no one she saw was mentioning Lucas. Probably a good thing.
As she moved through her feed on Instagram she stopped when she saw a picture of Maya, her former best friend. She was showing off a ring. She realized it was a picture that Farkle had posted, and tagged Lucas in.
She felt her stomach sink as she read the caption, “#SheSaidYes to my good buddy @LucasFriar. She’s so excited for their journey together, she insisted I buy her champagne.”
If Lucas were involved with Maya, when did he propose, he’d been here in LA for the last few weeks in the bedroom next to hers.
“My only comment is that I am not engaged to Maya Hart.” Lucas’ voice carried from his balcony, “I’m not dating her. I didn’t propose. What picture are you talking about?”
Riley opened her door and saw him pacing as he spoke on the phone.
“Jerry, you know I’m in LA. The show is tomorrow night. I don’t know what game Maya is playing this time, maybe her sales are slow again, I don’t know.”
Riley attempted to wave to get his attention when he turned around in his pacing, she waved her cell phone at him and he leaned as close as the edge of the balcony would allow.
“I’m calling Farkle and finding out why this is happening, okay. I have no idea where she got that ring, but I didn’t give it to her. I have never dated Maya Hart. I will never date Maya Hart, she can keep trying to make it happen, but it hasn’t worked since middle school, it’s time for a new game.” Lucas growled before ending the call.
“I take it you’re not actually engaged to Maya.” Riley enlarged the photo, something about the ring was familiar, but how different were gaudy giant diamonds from one another?
“I would rather get trampled by a bull.” He sighed as he scrolled through his phone, “She keeps doing this, anytime she can she uses my name to get hers out there. Farkle keeps going along with her on this, I don’t know why, I’m not sure I want to know why.”
Riley pretended to understand, she wasn’t sure she understood the dynamic of her former friends. “I was confused when I saw the post, it’s the kind of thing you probably would’ve mentioned.”
“Yeah, if it were true.” He sighed looking out to the ocean, the moonlight reflecting on the waves. “You two were best friends at one point, but once you and Zay went on tour, she changed. It was like whatever anchored her was gone. But at the same time, no one could ever expect you to spend your entire life being the good angel on her shoulder.”
Riley hadn’t realized just how much she needed to hear that; years of guilt washed away from her. “I’ve always felt like I abandoned her, but Zay and me, we had to do this.” She smiled, “Do I wish somethings had worked out a little differently, maybe, but I love my life, I love my job, I could never really be Riley if I spent my life keeping Maya out of trouble. I lost part of myself doing that once, I couldn’t imagine still doing that now.”
“I’m glad you found something that makes you happy.” Lucas confessed, catching the moonlight reflecting off her messy bun as he looked over to her.
“Are you happy, playing football? I always thought you would be a baseball star.”
Lucas sighed, “Football paid for college, and then I got drafted. I’ve made good money; I get to do stuff for the community. Is it the path I expected to take, not at all? Did I ever expect to be dancing with my first love on national TV, no.”
“Goes for me as well.” She chuckled, “You know once it’s revealed that we’re partners, how long do you think before our past is revealed?”
“Depends on who tweets during the show. If someone who remembers us as together from high school, maybe ten minutes. If not, maybe a day, if we’re lucky.”
“Well hopefully we’re lucky.” Riley breathed in the ocean air one last time, “You, bed.”
“Oh Riley, I thought you’d never ask.” He teased, watching her roll her eyes, “I get it, I need to sleep. I should call Farkle and get the picture taken down.”
“Let it stay up. Maya is probably selling a story about how you proposed right, the date, the restaurant, all of that, when you and I dance together tomorrow night, she’ll be scrambling, and you can get the truth out.”
“You think?”
“Yeah.” Riley told him as she clutched her cell phone in her hand. “Good night Lucas. We’ve got a big day tomorrow. America is either going to love us or hate us.”
“How could America not love you Riley?”
She shrugged as she went back into her room, “sweet dreams.” She called out before looking at the picture again. She pinched it open to enlarge the ring, exactly as she suspected. She looked back to make sure her door was closed before she dialed the number, she’d saved for years but hadn’t used since high school.
“The number you’re calling using a screening service, please say who you are and why you’re calling.”
“Riley Matthews for Farkle Minkus, I was just wondering why Maya was wearing his mothers ring in the photo announcing her engagement to Lucas.” She felt her stomach knot as she waited to see if the call connected, it didn’t.
She turned her ringer off, putting her phone on the charger before she went to take a shower.
***
Farkle Minkus often wondered why he went along with Maya’s schemes, her little teasers to the press. Lucas rarely spoke to him anymore because of them, and he had a feeling he wouldn’t speak to him anytime soon after the latest one.
How had Maya even figured out his Instagram login? Farkle hadn’t used it for anything more then charity promotions in ages. For a genius, he sure could be a dum-dum at times.
He was sitting on the balcony of his New York penthouse, the city alive below him while an odd sense of serenity surrounded him. No stars visible in the night sky, but he knew exactly where certain constellations were at any moment.
He was waiting for Lucas to call, asking for him to take the picture down. At least then he could explain he hadn’t willingly posted it. This was Maya looking for attention.
Lucas had stopped giving into these whims in college, perhaps being across the country had mad it easier. Maybe Farkle gave in because Maya was the only friend, he really had left. Riley and Zay had long gone so many years ago, Lucas became a big football star, Maya held on to him, while Smackle found her way to a new Biodome project in the south west.
When his phone rang from an unknown number, he tapped the screen call option. As the message came in, he couldn’t believe it. He sat in shock, holding his bourbon close to his lips but not drinking it, frozen and missing a chance to take the call.
His eyes scanned the transcription. Riley called him. She reached out because she knew Maya was lying.
Maybe it was possible these games would end. If Riley could tell from an Instagram picture, then the world had to know that Maya and Lucas weren’t a couple. Perhaps there was a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.
He finally took a sip of his drink, starting to feel that perhaps a weight was being lifted off his shoulders he never intended to carry.
***
Lucas was oddly energized as he’d spent the last half an hour pacing in his trailer, waiting to be called to set to be ready to dance live on television. He’d ignored his phone all day after his morning call with his mother, it was the only way he could focus.
He stood backstage now, waiting for the cue, watching Zay dance on the monitor. His friend was amazing, he’d always known that. He had always had an idea that this might just be where Zay ended up, and he’d been right. Lucas had never anticipated Riley would be with him, not until the night he watched them dance at the talent show.
He shook away the memory as he watched Zay and Connie get their scores a six, seven, and another six. Not bad at all for the first night from what Zay had explained to him the other day. Lucas could only hope he and Riley did that well, but he believed they could.
The introduction package played as he and Riley took the stage, the lights down as the video showed their “first meeting” and the pep-talk he’d given her the day before.
“Lucas Friar and Riley!” The announcer declared before the music filled the soundstage, the lights went up and Lucas did every step Riley had taught him as best he could as they moved to the music. Each step she had drilled into him, his eyes on her as they danced to a song about love, while dressed in ridiculous high school themed costumes.
As the dance ended, he didn’t stumble this time, they twirled together before ending with a dip.
The audience applauded, at the very least they had impressed them. That was a good start. His heart was racing as they got feedback from the judges. Riley had told him to expect exactly what they were saying. She knew what his weakness was, and already zeroing in on it.
The scores came in, seven, seven, seven, the highest score of the night. Riley was hugging him as the hosts asked for viewers to cast their votes online.
“You did amazing Lucas, I’m proud of you. Tomorrow, we waltz!” She told him as they made their way off stage.
“Riley Matthews.” Sheryl was right behind them, her tone let Riley knew she had to stop.
“Yes, boss?”
“Why didn’t you tell me the two of you went to high school together?”
“We didn’t think it mattered to the show. We haven’t seen each other since Riley and Zay started touring.” Lucas answered.
“Besides, aren’t surprises more fun?” Riley chewed her lower lip.
Sheryl looked at the two of them, “And you didn’t want me to exploit that you were high school sweethearts, huh?”
“No comment.” Riley told her as they walked towards the dressing trailers, “Hey Sheryl, hope we’ve got good music next week.”
“I make no promises.” Sherly laughed as she watched them walk away, setting her eyes on Zay. If anyone knew the story, it would be him.
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lady-griffin · 4 years
Text
So, I finally watched the finale of The Good Place.
I didn’t want to watch it, because I didn’t want what has become one of my favorite shows to end – which is very fitting with the subject matter of the last episode.
But my Janet was it satisfying.
I don’t think I have ever been that satisfied or at peace with a show’s ending before, but my goodness did they do it. I have one problem, but really it was just  so wonderful that I hardly call it a problem, just a difference of opinion. 
The Good
Shawn
Shawn’s little evil, but trying to be sincere moment, was just so funny. 
Vicky
Her talking about acting and being so pretentious, she was always such a delight. I hope I’ll see Tiya Sircar in more things, she was fantastic. 
Mindy St. Claire
I just loved how she was grateful that Elenaor cared about her and her afterlife as she didn’t. It was just sweet and of course a bit pervy with those two, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 
Derek
Hilarious as always.
The Second Gang – Simone, John and Brent
It was nice seeing them again. Just the quickness of it, was good. Simone hanging out with Chidi and Eleanor and people she might not have hang out with before was good.
That last bit of gossip from John.
And Brent still going through the test.
Maybe their moments were too short, but I would rather have a short few seconds with them in the end then cut anything away from the main gang.
The Judge
Now listening to podcasts. Maya Rudolph is always a treasure.
The Doorman.
I love the transition of him basically being alone when we first saw him to being the center point of the afterlife that was very nice. Especially seeing him being surrounded by frogs and being so happy, to being bored and annoyed by all the frogs, to him getting a real frog.
I love Mr. Jumpy Legs
I didn’t know that was something I even wanted, but my gosh was that precious and such a nice microcosm of the overall afterlife affect.
Team Cockroach
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Tahani
Tahani and her being with her family was so very touching and her living with her sister (it looked like) and them being sisters and friends to her accomplishing everything on her list and still realizing there’s more for her to do was just so damn wonderful.
I’m really happy with how her story ended, or I guess how we left her. Her not going through the door, but her finding something else to do and finding satisfaction with that was good.
Michael
Michael becoming human. That’s perfect. That’s so nice for him and Ted Dansen’s real-life wife playing his guitar teacher was so sweet and lovely.
Also, Michael trying to go through the door and it not working, was hilarious.
Such a charming former fire squid who deserves only the best.
Also Michael Realman being is actual name on earth, is hilarious and forking fantastic. 
The Bowtie
Michael giving Tahani the first bowtie we ever saw him in. That was super touching. I hope either Jameela or Ted got to keep it or stole it from set.
Janet
I love Janet. I mean Janet being a constant and experiencing all of time at once is just so Janet.
My favorite not a robot and not a girl there ever was. And I am so in love with Manny stealing the necklace and giving it to her. 
Hello and Goodbyes – Janet and Michael
I love how Michael’s and Janet’s first lines were greetings and their last lines were farewells. That’s just very nice and fitting. 
Janet and Michael’s relationship was just the best friendship ever. And Michael making sure Janet knew she could be sad and that she could always talk to him and Janet fretting over Michael in his human form, they are just the best.
Jason
Jason was very sweet. 
Him waiting for Janet to come back and him knowing that all the other Janets he saw weren’t his not-a-girl. That was very touching. And even though Jason was ready to go, him waiting and being at peace with it and just thinking about life and Janet was truly satisfying. He truly became a monk. 
And of course, Jason’s first line being about waiting for Eleanor to him actually waiting several eternities for Janet and telling Chidi to wait up was so nice. 
Chidi & Eleanor
OMG. These two. What can I even say about these two. I love them so much, these two will probably be in my top 10 ships forever.
I legit started to cry when Eleanor was so desperate to keep Chidi and telling him she didn’t want to be alone and she’d been alone her whole life. Then Chidi saying he’ll stay with her, because he loves her and Chidi never wants to make Eleanor sad.
His literal moment of peace happened when Eleanor received maternal affection and love from both his mother and her own.
I mean come on.
But of course, Chidi is ready to and wants to leave. And Eleanor realizing that letting him leave is the best thing for Chidi, no matter how sad it might make her feel, is the right thing to do.
Eleanor has grown so much from the first episode.
I mean, from someone who basically entrapped Chidi to lying for her to letting him go because it’s the best thing for him (a selfless act), she really has grown so much. And Chidi, Chidi being ready to go and being comfortable with the biggest choice of his life without a second of hesitation. My boy has grown.
It’s so forking satisfying.
And when he left her that calendar, it was so funny and sweet and stupid and just wonderful. And oddly is very fitting with this show and how it makes you feel.
The Not So Good
Honestly, nothing was bad in the finale for me. I was truly satisfied by it.
I do wish the last thing in the show, was just Eleanor walking through the door and the sound of waves being the last thing we hear.
To me that would’ve been a bit more fitting and satisfying. 
At least for me.
There’s something about a show that is literally about the afterlife and the final episode being about how we have no idea what is going to happen in the end, is just so excellent to me.
I love that so much. 
There being no definitive answer, is oddly the most satisfying thing this show could’ve done with what happens after you go through the final door.
That being said, I do really like and love the idea that after you choose to leave the afterlife - a bit of you becomes a moment, a little voice to another to do the right thing. 
Fitting with Eleanor’s journey and the whole, what do we owe one another question.
And just the idea that the world is becoming a better place, with the good place residents being allowed to leave and becoming said moments on earth and the bad place residents being allowed to try, try again until they get it right. 
So, I really don’t have a problem with the ending and I do really love it. 
I would’ve just ended it with Eleanor walking through the door and the sound of waves. 
I personally just like the question not being answered in the end. 
But by goodness, did they end this show with perfection. It’s hard to write about my so called problem, because I did love the ending we got, even if I might’ve done it a bit differently. 
What a truly lovely and satisfying show, that has beat my expectations every single time. 
Just a truly well-made, well-acted, wonderful and lovely show with a lovely and wonderfully diverse and talented cast.
I love The Good Place.
And while I hate to see it go, I loved watching it leave.  
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sdottkrames · 3 years
Text
I Was Aiming For the Sky (I know, I Know)
@comfortember prompt 10: Crying
Summary: Peter can’t save everyone. MJ picks up the pieces.
Inspired by this post. I literally cried when I saw this and was so inspired I decided to write a fic on it. So, thanks for the inspiration!
Trigger Warnings: Fire. A little girl loses her dad in said fire, so minor character death. Be safe, lovelies!
Read on AO3: here
Peter was a procrastinator. His aunt has been getting on him for months about being better at finding gifts, and he’d been trying to listen to her. Holidays had a way of sneaking up on him. He always debated on gifts, going back and forth, never feeling like anything was good enough. And then it was too late.
So, Peter had been paying attention. He’d been watching his aunt for months to get some ideas on what to get her for Christmas, and he noticed that she always sighed dreamily whenever she saw Pandora jewelry. He saved up enough to get his aunt something from the overly expensive store, and walked in on a mission. He’d even left his suit at home to keep it from tempting him to patrol. Getting his aunt a gift was the sole purpose of his visit that day.
He looked around at the various necklaces and bracelets, the bright lights under the counter giving him a headache.
“Are you looking for anything in particular?” A kind woman asked from behind the counter. She was around his age, and Peter was pretty sure every single piece of jewelry she was wearing was from the store. He wondered if the store loaned them to her or if she really made that much money to spend it all on jewelry. Or maybe they had killer employee discounts?
He shook off his train of thought and answered her. “Uh, yeah. I’m looking for a Christmas present for my aunt. She loves the jewelry but-” he stopped himself from saying we couldn’t ever afford it. “She never buys that kind of stuff for herself.”
The lady smiled kindly. “Well, is she a necklace kind of person? Or would you want to look at the bracelets?”
Upon seeing the bracelets and charms were sold separately, too expensive to buy both, he decided to look at the necklaces. A delicate silver chain with a sparkly daisy charm caught his eye. May loved daisies.
“This one! This is perfect,” he said.
The lady rang him up, and Peter headed out the door, the tingle of the bell announcing his departure.
He was feeling so good about the day's adventure, he decided to look for other Christmas presents. Mentally calculating each stop to determine the shortest course, he decided to go to the toy store first. Morgan would love the new LEGO Spider-Man set. 
The LEGO store near Rockefeller Center may have been out of his way, but Peter really liked that particular one. The dragon made of legos that spanned the whole store never ceased to amaze him, even if he was a teenager. He walked in, all wide eyed with wonder, and determined to bring Ned back here. It’d been awhile since they’d gone together. Peter refrained from his desire to buy the entire store (with the credit card Tony had given to him, he probably could), and found the perfect set for Morgan. 
He walked out of that store practically glowing. Something about getting all this done just made him feel great. And he’d gotten all his homework done in homeroom, so he was scotch free to enjoy his day. He decided to get one more present, this one for MJ. It required two stops.
The first one was the Lindt truffle store. There was one close by, one of the only ones that he knew of anywhere, and he nearly moaned when he walked in and was washed over with the sweet, delicious, take-your-worries-away scent of chocolate. He ate the free sample they gave him, then walked around the small, fairly crowded store until he found just the right truffles for MJ (and a few for himself, of course).
He should’ve known the amazing mood wouldn’t last long. After all, Parker luck was practically the story of Peter’s life.
He was walking down Broadway, eating a Hazelnut truffle and savoring every bite, when a scream caught his attention. He cursed his former self for stupidly leaving his suit at home.
It didn’t take long for him to find the source of the commotion. An apartment building was on fire, a young woman screaming for her husband and little girl who were evidently still inside. The firemen were busy getting other people out.
Without really stopping to think (the women reminded him of May and it clouded his thinking), Peter snuck behind the reporters and fire engines. It was distracting enough to let him hide his purchases in a bush and slip into the building’s open back door unnoticed. He wished he’d brought his suit to help with the smoke inhalation and the lack of ability to see, but his super hearing was there, at least. He could hear someone calling for help.
Peter knew it was stupid of him to barge in with no protection. He was superhuman, but still human. However, he didn’t care. He just wanted to help the woman and her family.
Coughing with every step, his lungs burning, he pressed on. The little girl and her dad were counting on him. He just had to get to them.
A board fell down somewhere close by, Peter’s sixth sense helping him flip out of the way just in time. He didn’t need to be a genius to know the building was close to collapsing. He had to get to the people and get out of there quick. 
Hearing the cries for help get louder, Peter moved a little quicker.
He wasn’t prepared for the sight that met his eyes when he could finally see the two.
The little girl was crying, calling for her father who had collapsed on the ground. Peter only heard one heartbeat. 
Forcing back the memories of Ben and Tony (Tony had survived, but him nearly dying had been enough) and tried to focus on the little girl.
“Hey, sweetheart. Let’s get out of here, huh?”
She recoiled at the sight of him. “I want my daddy and my mommy!” She yelled.
Peter spoke as gently as he could, though his heart was pounding and he couldn’t keep all the desperation and urgency out of his voice. “I know. Your mommy’s outside, and I’ll carry your daddy out, okay?” The little girl nodded, and a wave of relief washed over peter. “You’re gonna have to be very brave, okay. Think you can hold onto my shirt and follow me out?” The girl nodded again, and Peter picked up the body of her father as the girl twisted his shirt into a knot.
Peter had nightmares of having to carry Ben’s body back to May. Or Tony’s back to Pepper. They hadn’t been very heavy thanks to his super strength, but they had seemed to weigh a ton. Maybe that had just been the weight in his heart.
This felt like living that nightmare.
Sure, he didn’t know this man or the little girl, but Peter has failed. He’d failed Ben and he’d failed this man. He tried to keep his sobs quiet and kept talking to the little girl, Maya, she told him her name was, as they slowly made their way to the window. 
They were on the second story. It didn’t take much for Peter to break the glass, gulping air greedily and helping Maya get some too. The firefighters quickly jumped into action, using the ladder to reach them. 
Maya went first, Peter insisted, then her dad’s body. Peter waited for his turn, watching the fire carefully as it got closer and closer. He seriously thought about jumping. He wouldn’t get seriously hurt, but it would definitely expose his superhero identity.
Suddenly, a shock went down his spine, and then the world exploded. 
Peter was thrown backwards by the force of the blast. His shoulder seared with pain as he hit the side of the wall, which was quickly joined by the pain in his side as it scraped against the broken glass of the window. And then he was falling. He tried to use his webs to catch his fall, forget about secret identity, but there wasn’t anything there. He closed his eyes and braces to hit the concrete.
Instead, his stomach jolted as he landed on a well-placed trampoline and bounced once, then twice before coming to a stop.
Gulping in breaths, trying to reconcile the last 15 minutes that had seemed like 15 lifetimes, Peter sat there. He was numb, unable to move or think or do anything but answer quietly when emergency responders asked him his name and other basic questions as they bandaged his arm, side, face.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat there. Once he’d been patched up and determined to have no concussion, he was left alone in favor of other more pressing matters, his only company the images of Maya’s dead Father, whose face morphed back and forth between his own and Ben’s and Tony’s.
Suddenly, a voice caught his attention and broke through the macabre thoughts.
“Peter!”
It was MJ. Her eyes were wide as she approached him. She slowly, carefully wrapped her arms around Peter, seeming to understand without words what he needed.
And that was all it took for the dam to break.
MJ didn’t shy away from his tears. She held him as he sobbed, broken words breaking through.
“Fire...little girl...couldn’t save...widow...Ben, Tony...failed.”
MJ just tightened her hold, patient and unmoving as stone, and moved her hand from its tight, grounding grip on his back to his curls to rub his soothing circles into his scalp. 
“I was trying...and I couldn’t-“
“I know, I know,” she soothed, her heart aching for him. “I came because I saw an alert on my phone about the fire, and I just knew that you would be brave and stupid enough to run in. Even though you told me you didn’t have your suit today.”
Peter gave a small, watery chuckle that tickled her shoulder. 
“You are not responsible to save everyone, Peter. It is not your fault. Don’t beat yourself up for this.”
Peter nodded, and MJ kissed his forehead.
“I’ll be back,” she whispered. She walked over to the fire fighters. “Listen, I'm going to take him to his doctor. He has some...specific medical needs that he needs to see a specialist for. Is he free to go?” They reluctantly agreed, and MJ thanked them before pulling out her phone and making a call. “Happy? Yeah, code red. Can you come get us?” 
She’d made Peter give her the driver’s phone number after her boyfriend had showed up covered in blood and freaked her out. He’d called Happy, and she’d gotten his number in case anything like that happened again. 
MJ held him all the way to the compound after they retrieved his stuff, all the way to the medbay and through getting checked up by Dr. Cho (with Tony hovering like a worried mother hen), and the entire time as they watched a movie, cuddled together in a pile of love and support with Tony and May. 
She knew the emotional scars took longer to heal than the physical ones, and there would be rough times as they dealt with those. But she was happy to hold him through it all; she wasn’t letting go any time soon.
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queen-of-bel · 4 years
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i think someone already asked for paz and kaz?? if not then them, in case someone asked for them, kandori and maki for the hc meme!
MY TWO FAVE DUOS EVER. i’ll do them all bc i could fill out a hundred prompts about them
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Persona 1, Persona 2EP, general Metal Gear spoilers incoming
Putting under a read more because it is loooong (sorry in advance)
Kandori
realistic: Oh, Kandori was absolutely the one who alerted Nanjo to his existence in p2ep. I’ve written multiple posts on Kandori’s motivations, but bottom line, Kandori wanted to work against Nyarlathotep’s plans as much as he believed his fate would allow him to. Kandori had infinite strength and should have been the impenetrable stronghold that kept Tatsuzou safe. He is the only boss in the entire game to not have a low health stance, and he resists everything. He’s able to catch Tatsuya’s sword with one hand, as Tatsuya says:
“Kandori tilts his face out of the way, and when my blade grazes his ear, he grabs it with his left hand. All I have to do is pull back, and it’ll cost him his fingers. He gives me a broad, natural smile. However, even when I yank it with all my strength, my sword doesn’t move a centimeter. It’s like it’s caught in a vise.”
Kandori’s revival should not have been found out by anyone (especially since everyone watched him die the first time). But somehow, the word leaked back to Nanjo. It’s not impossible to think that it was Togashi who leaked the information, but there’s a line of Kandori’s that really makes me think Kandori himself was the source.
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Once Maya et. al + Tatsuya arrive on the Nichinmaru, Kandori says that “all the players are in place”, implying that he’s the one who brought them all together like this. This was a very meticulously crafted plan, and it only could’ve worked if Nanjo heard of Kandori’s revival, which leads me to believe that it was Kandori, not Togashi, who spread the rumors of his own revival.
while it may not be realistic, it is hilarious: Due to the high levels of contempt he feels for Tatsuzou, I’d love to think that Kandori just fucks with Tatsuzou constantly. He’ll move all the furniture in Tatsuzou’s office just a few inches to the left, or he’ll swap the position of some of the books on his shelf. It’s infuriating to Tatsuzou bc Kandori’s antics are just enough that he knows something is off, but he can never pinpoint exactly what it is. Kandori, meanwhile, insists that nothing is wrong, and convinces Tatsuzou that it’s just his old age getting to him.
heart-crushing and awful: I bet Kandori kept tabs on the P1 crew during his time under Tatsuzou. While he’s said to have an obsession with Tatsuya, there’s no reason to believe that the care he showed for Maki in P1 went away, and he’s grateful to the P1 cast for saving her. I like to think that Kandori found out that Reiji’s going to have a child, and stashed away a large amount of money (bonus points if he embezzled from Tatsuzou) to send to him, especially since Reiji’s girlfriend’s house collapsed. Kandori doesn’t sign his name on it or anything, so the money arrives to Reiji in an unmarked envelope, with only Reiji’s name written on it.
Reiji first thinks that it might have been Nanjo who sent the money (because that envelope is packed, and Nanjo is the only person he knows rich enough to send that much). Nanjo denies this, and after a while, the two of them come to the conclusion that the only other possible person could have been Kandori. Reiji thankfully accepts the money, and this whole incident reinforces in his mind that “Takashi” was the right name to choose for his son.
unrealistic: In order to cope with the boredom and emptiness he felt as SEBEC’s Mikage-Cho branch president, Kandori set up a secret room in SEBEC filled with video game consoles. During the height of his depression, Kandori would just be so engrossed in his games that he would forget he has actual meetings to go to. Cue Takeda apologizing profusely to clients, saying that Kandori’s running a bit late, and Takeda has to practically drag Kandori by the collar out of the little gamer den that he’s created for himself.
Maki
realistic: After her training under Eriko, she realizes that she misses painting and wants to pick it up again. She eventually incorporates that into her profession, becoming an art therapist.
while it may not be realistic, it is hilarious: Maki really wants to be good at baking, but she’s terrible at it. You know, like this:
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She knows that she’s created a monstrosity but at least it’s still edible, right? So she brings these to P1 cast reunions. Nanjo is just appalled, and has to excuse himself because he knows he’s just going to be too blunt (prompting Mark to call him a “dickweed” again). Yuka, having no filter, just straight up says how horrible they look, but then she offers to teach Maki how to bake, since she’s pretty damn good at it herself.
heart-crushing and awful: Maki definitely regrets not accompanying Maya to the Nichinmaru. She doesn’t blame Nanjo/Eriko for not being able to save Kandori, but ever since she heard that Kandori was alive again, she’s wanted nothing more than to talk to him again.
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She thinks that if she were there at the undersea ruins, maybe she could have convinced him to come along with her. This regret is just going to add to the massive amounts of guilt she feels over the Mikage-Cho incident.
unrealistic: It took ideal Maki a while to perfect her “cringe” negotiation. When she first tried it, she would burst out laughing too much, absolutely ruining it, and angering a lot of demons along the way.
Paz
realistic: Kaz has constantly asked her to come feed treats to Nuke with him. She’s always agreed, because that’s the role she’s supposed to play, but she really hates it at first. Eventually, as she comes to like Kaz more, it becomes the highlight of her day, and she begins to really look forward to it. She finds herself prolonging Nuke’s feeding sessions, just so she can spend more time with Nuke and Kaz.
while it may not be realistic, it is hilarious: So you know how Paz couldn’t stand Kaz at first? She wasn’t exactly subtle about it, so everyone at MSF knew that Paz thought Kaz was an enormous idiot. Cecile was so happy to find someone else who felt that way about Kaz (and she’s always wanted a reason to get closer to Paz), so she goes to Paz to air her grievances about what a pest Monsieur Miller is being. Paz, meanwhile, does not give a single shit. She still thinks Cecile is just a ditz, and now she’s irritated that she has to deal with both Kaz and Cecile’s annoying antics.
heart-crushing and awful: I’ve thought about this for a long time. I really have. But there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can be any more awful than what we got in canon. I have a lot of characters that fall under the “deserved better” category, but Paz takes the top of that list.
Paz is a unique character in Metal Gear in that she was not supposed to have anything to do with war. Other characters’ lives in the series were intertwined with war, whether by choice or by fate. Even characters like Chico or Sunny were born into it, given their parents and upbringing. 
It’s never clear how Zero was able to come in contact with Paz, but I think it was intentional to never specify it. It’s not important to know how Zero found Paz, because fundamentally, Paz is not an important person. She’s nobody special. She was literally just some random orphan living in the US, and Zero went out of his way to drag her into his plans.
To me, Paz’s character parallels the child soldiers in Zanzibar Land. They’re both representative of how ruthless Zero and Big Boss were in their quests to fulfill their interpretations of the Boss’ will. Zero and Big Boss were both willing to employ any tactic possible to reach this end goal, and they didn’t care about the pain and destruction they left in their path.
But I digress...
That being said, I think Paz felt sick when she saw MSF soldiers playing with the mini remote-controlled ZEKE that Huey had built. For her, it was just a reminder of the duty that she had to carry out. She wasn’t allowed to be happy at MSF, and she eventually would have to fight to the death with Snake.
unrealistic: Writing Love Deterrence with Kaz and Zadornov made her want to learn how to play the guitar. In my totally self-indulgent “Zero and Skull Face both get brain aneurysms and drop dead 4 days before Peace Day” AU, Paz approaches Kaz and asks him to give her guitar lessons.
Kaz
realistic: The morning after the monthly birthday party at MSF (you know, where Kaz invited everyone to see the real Kazuhira Miller?), he’s embarrassed as hell. He been so protective of Paz the entire night, and it turned out he was the crudest person at the party. He goes to apologize to Paz, and can barely look her in the eyes as he’s doing so. Paz, meanwhile, can’t stop laughing. Her opinion of Kaz had been softening ever since he visited her when she was sick, but interacting with him during the party had really made her like him. Kaz still feels a bit of shame, but upon seeing Paz genuinely laugh for the first time, he can’t help but feel so publicly embarrassing himself was all worth it.
while it may not be realistic, it is hilarious: MORE 90S FOXHOUND PETTINESS
The first year that both Big Boss and Kaz are at FOXHOUND, Kaz bakes a cake for BB’s birthday. As BB accepts the cake, he wonders if Kaz has forgiven him, but then he looks down at it and sees
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And these are the cheapest, shittiest cigarettes that Kaz could make, because you know his petty ass rolled them himself. BB picks up a cigarette and it’s so sloppily rolled that it immediately falls apart and the tobacco spills all over the cake and the floor and BB looks up to Kaz and Kaz is just smiling back like
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heart-crushing and awful: Ohoho, I have many thoughts as to Master Miller’s life post-Zanzibar Land and his final moments. Now that Big Boss is finally dead, Kaz’s life loses all meaning. Skull Face, Huey, Big Boss, they’re all dead, and suddenly, the decades of anger he carried with him has nowhere to channel itself to. I think he becomes an empty shell of a man, just sort of running on autopilot.
So when Ocelot breaks into Kaz’s house to kill him, you absolutely know that Ocelot wasn’t discrete about it. There’s no way that Ocelot’s overdramatic cowboy ass didn’t gloat about it, to show that he was able to get the upper hand in the end.
Kaz just doesn’t care.
Kaz’s life is plagued with regrets. While none of it was intentional, his impulsivity and short-sightedness has really screwed over a lot of people and absolutely destroyed so many people’s lives. I think when Ocelot came to kill Kaz (and I’m going to toss in a bit of torture, just because Ocelot’s petty ass remembers Kaz complaining about Ocelot’s getting “too many kicks from his ‘art of interrogation’”), Kaz just resigned and doesn’t even attempt to fight back. He knows that this is a sad and undignified way to die, but he believes that this is karma and he deserves it.
unrealistic: Okay I’ve talked about this a little, but I want to add to it.
Kaz absolutely kept a Burn Book like in Mean Girls.
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After MGSV, Big Boss and Ocelot make their way in the book as well. Underneath Ocelot’s picture, Kaz writes “Too gay to function. Also, cowboys are stupid.” BB has got 5 whole pages dedicated to him, but the line that Kaz is most proud of is “Didn't shower for a month... during SUMMER, and to this day still hasn't washed his hair.”
Thank you for asking!
send me a character and i’ll give you some headcanons
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monstersandmaw · 5 years
Text
Modern orc boy x female reader (nsfw)
Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.
So this idea came up a few days ago, namely that a big boy in a grey suit was spotted, and it sparked the idea for an orc in a suit. I cannot resist an orc in a suit, and wrote this! He was given the name Dragh by the person who sent in the original ask, and I have their permission to post it and tag them now! So, @slashersheadcannoandimagines I hope you enjoy your idea in a story!
This one hasn’t been previewed on my Patreon, unlike literally all other big stories that get posted on here, because it’s for/inspired by someone on here. I realise it’s also been a while since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been in creative hibernation for a while, but I’m slowly emerging. Anyway, here’s 4.5k words of tattooed orc boy, running a sophisticated vineyard! Featuring satyr bestie, a half-orc half-sister, a blue-haired tiefling, a centaur, and a lilac-skinned goblin, all of whom I need to write stories of their own for one day!
___
“So… my friend runs this gorgeous vineyard out in the country, and they do wine tastings and stuff…”
“Yes,” you said slowly, drawing out the vowel and feeling the slow stretch of a smile creep across your lips and light up the corners of your eyes. Tam was always up for an evening of boozing, and honestly, you weren’t exactly one to say no to fun either.
The satyr grinned, knowing he’d got your attention already. “Well, this friend of mine just so happens to be a really big orc…”
You cocked an eyebrow sky wards and folded your arms. “Male orc, by any chance?”
“How did you guess?” Tam grinned cheekily, his curly, nut brown hair quivering as he laughed and shook his head. His thick, knobbly horns curled tightly around his elongated ears, chunky as ram’s horns, and his hooves danced in amusement. 
Currently he was wearing little more than a soft grey hoodie, his caprine lower half bare, the end of the hoodie just crinkling up over the white flash of his tail, and though you were a little more covered up, you were dressed in similarly casual clothes, lounging on your sofa with a glass of wine in your hand at the end of a working week.
“So, just why are you telling me about this massive male orc who runs a vineyard?” you asked, letting the pale liquid swirl around the glass in your hand.
Tam chuckled and spoke more normally again, leaning back against the sofa cushions and tucking his relatively big hooves up beside him. “Dragh had some kind of fancy hen party booked in for tomorrow, but they cancelled on him last minute. He’d got everything prepped and ready to go, but the wedding is called off, and they cancelled. They lost their deposit, and instead of just cutting his losses there, he’s invited a small group of us over to enjoy it all instead.”
“That’s very nice of him,” you said, frowning.
“Yeah, well, that’s Dragh,” Tam snorted. “He’s always been one to treat his friends…”
“How come you’ve never introduced me before?” you asked. “I mean, we’ve been best friends since Uni, and you’re only now thinking of taking me along - obviously with the intention of setting me up with this orc, I might add - after all this time?”
Tam’s pretty face split into a wicked grin. “You never asked if I knew any handsome orc boys!” he laughed. “Besides, I thought I was your one and only…”
“Tam,” you said seriously. “You are about as gay as I am straight.”
He took a sip of his wine and then mimed stabbing himself through the heart. “Alas, woe is me,” he mock-wailed. “I am consigned once again to the role of gay best friend…”
You simply raised your eyebrow at him again and took a deep draw of your wine.
“Honestly, it never really came up. Anyway, you were with Tomas for so long…” he said, his gaze flickering towards you at the mention of your ex. “I know him through a friend. You know, Seymour?”
“Tiefling, long blue hair, more graceful than God?”
“That’s the one and only,” he said, starting to speak even more quickly than usual as his excitement mounted. “I’ll tell him you said that. Anyway, yeah, I know Dragh through Seymour, who actually knows Dragh’s half-sister better than he knows Dragh himself, and now you’ll know him through me. You are coming with me tomorrow, right?”
“Am I invited?” you asked.
“I’m inviting you…”
“Does he know?”
“Sweetheart, if anyone deserves a day of boozing in a fancy vineyard, it’s you,” he said, tossing you a meaningful glance. Your last relationship had ended badly, well over three months ago, and you still found yourself lamenting the large, minotaur-sized gap in your life, but you’d moved on as best you could. It hadn’t been right, and both of you had seen it coming. Still, that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to end things.
The next morning you picked Tam and Seymour up and drove them about an hour out into the countryside. Rolling, south-facing hills were sparsely dotted with farmhouses, and as the summer sun climbed, you began to relax a little, leaving the stress of the city behind.
Seymour was tall and almost silent, but he allowed Tam to natter away at him in the back seat while you wound the window down and inhaled great lungfuls of the fresh air. Yes, it was nice to be out of the city. Perhaps you did need a change of scene after all. Dammit, Tam was always right…
You’d picked your nicest summer dress, though you remained perhaps a little self conscious about the curve of your hips and the extra weight you’d put on around the middle in the last six months or so. Taking a deep breath, you decided that you weren’t going to let even that dampen your mood, and as you drew up at the main stone gates of the old vineyard, you caught sight of an engraved slate sign set into the warm, golden stone wall of the vineyard. Garlanded at the base with summer meadow flowers, it read: Three Oaks Vineyard, and through the wide mouth of the entrance gateposts, visible on the hill opposite at the end of the snaking, downward sloping drive, you could see the three ancient oaks that gave the land its name.
“It’s gorgeous here,” you murmured as you drew up five minutes later in the gravel courtyard behind the old farmhouse buildings and cut the engine.
“Yup,” Tam giggled, slithering out and shaking the stiffness out of his compact muscles after being crammed in the back of the car for over an hour. Seymour sighed and stretched, rolling his neck out, his long, cobalt blue hair falling down his back in a thick ponytail. They both had hoofed feet, which was less common for tieflings, though Seymour’s legs were more like those of a deer than Tam’s chunky goat legs, and Seymour’s long tail, leonine hung behind him in a graceful curve like a cat’s, as though balancing him perfectly.
You admired your two lovely friends for just a moment before the door to what was clearly the reception area opened and a half-orc stepped out of the former storage and cellars building, and beamed broadly at the three of you.
“Seymour!” she said, spreading her muscular arms wide. She wore a form-fitting, but not obscenely tight, pencil skirt and a pale, loose-fitting, sleeveless blouse that showed off her gorgeous, strong figure just perfectly. Her skin was a pale, almost apple green, and you saw as she approached that she had a smattering of darker green freckles across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her plum coloured lipstick set her other minimal makeup off perfectly, and she threw her arms around the elegant tiefling and drew him into a warm, familiar embrace. “So good to see you. I’m so glad you came.”
He turned and waved a hand to introduce you first, and then he turned back to face her and added, “Shell, I believe you already know Tam.”
“Yeah, we’ve met once or twice,” she said. “How are you?”
“Oh, I’m good,” Tam said. “Listen, thanks for letting us take over this failed hen-do or whatever…”
She laughed. “Dragh’s been wanting to do something with just a few friends for a while - this turned out to be the perfect opportunity.”
“So who else is coming?” Tam asked as you all followed her towards the main building, an old French style farmhouse in crumbling sandstone, with sage green shutters flung wide to let in the summer light.
“Maya said she would come,” she said, holding the modern glass door open for you all to file inside. “And Fern too.”
“Perfect,” Tam said, though you knew neither of the names. Seeing this, Tam added with a glance back over his shoulder to you, “Maya is Shell’s girlfriend,” he explained. “A big-ass beautiful centaur, and Fern is a friend of hers, I think?”
The half-orc nodded, but if she said anything after that, you lost it in the white noise that filled your brain at the sight of the orc that was standing  in the reception room beyond.
He wore a pale, silver-grey suit, and a white shirt beneath, unbuttoned just enough to be casual without being obscene, and the tattooed black feathers which you could just glimpse beneath his collar made you want to see the full extent of the artwork immediately. His black hair, perhaps unusually for an orc, was buzzed close above his thick, tapering ears, and cut relatively short over the top, though with enough length to create a soft wave that was just begging to have fingers run through it. There was an attractive flash of white that ran from the middle of his widow’s peak and was swept back over his head as well. He was certainly unusual looking in all the best ways.
He smiled as you entered, and approached you with his enormous hand extended. “Welcome,” he smiled. “I’m so glad you all came.”
You shook his hand - though it might have been more accurate to have said that his hand engulfed yours and you watched it disappear while trying not to let yourself groan aloud. His skin was a deeper olive green than his half-sister’s, but there was a similarity to them about the eyes, namely the warm brown colour and the little crinkle at the corner that hinted at mischief and a cracking-good sense of humour. You introduced yourself and said you hoped he didn’t mind you tagging along.
“Mind?” he chuckled, “Quite the contrary, I assure you,” he said. He had a rich, deep, warm bass voice, and a slight, lyrical accent you couldn’t quite place. “Come through, all of you. I’ve got some welcome drinks and nibbles prepared for you already.”
“A man after my own heart,” Tam grinned, elbowing you in the ribs.
The back of the farmhouse had been converted into a beautiful, glass and steel space. The small, intimate restaurant area had perhaps only four or five tables, and a wall of glass overlooked the sloping lawns of the garden and the vineyard beyond. Your feet faltered as you saw the gorgeous scenery beyond, stuffed full of verdant plants, and while the others headed over to the bar, which was made of a huge, vintage wine barrel and a stunning slab of polished heartwood, you stepped over to the window and gazed out, entranced.
A quiet footstep beside you preceded the appearance of the hulking form of Dragh in the periphery of your vision, and you jumped softly and laughed.
“Sorry,” he chuckled. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Here,” and he held out a glass of sparkling wine in an elegant flute, explaining a little about what it was. He gently chinked his glass against yours, and said quietly, “I’m glad you came along.”
“It’s so beautiful here,” you murmured, and he nodded. “How long have you had the place?”
He took a deep breath and smiled, his conker-brown eyes drifting off towards the sunny horizon. “A long time now,” he said. “I inherited it from parents when I was just eighteen. You can imagine how well a big city orc doing a business degree at university took that…”
You cocked an eyebrow, not wanting to make assumptions.
“Yeah, not well,” he chuckled. “Luckily Shell is older and wiser than me, and I gave her half of the shares of the place, and she took care of it for me til I finished studying. I’ve been working here with her ever since.”
“You’ve clearly put a lot of heart into the place,” you said. Your eyes snagged on a few buildings at the edge of the vineyard, and you nodded at them. “What’s down there?”
He smiled. “Shell’s idea - we needed to diversify a little, so we’ve got guest accommodation too. We do bed and breakfast from Fridays to Mondays.”
“Wow, what a place to stay,” you smiled.
“I’ll show you the cottages on the tour of the grounds in a minute. Come,” he said, stepping back and placing his hand lightly on your back, his huge palm resting politely between your shoulder blades and making you shiver at the warmth of it.
You headed over to the beautiful array of canapes and chatted with the others for a while, but honestly, it was Dragh who held your attention most. You found, interestingly, that his eyes often found their way to your face, and when they did, you found your cheeks heating, but all he would do would be to offer you a gorgeous smile, and continue his conversation politely. Damn though, his shoulders looked incredible in that silvery grey suit, and you could tell his biceps beneath were as solid as stone.
It was only when you realised he was looking at you again, and that everyone else has gone quiet, that you knew you’d zoned out and missed something. “I’m sorry,” you blushed, “I was miles away. What’d I miss?”
Dragh chuckled kindly, eyes twinkling. “I suggested a tour; you ready?”
You nodded, humiliated at your absentminded behaviour, and followed everyone else out into the dry heat of the summer day. Dragh walked beside you as he took you to the various parts of the vineyard, showing you the vines growing, the grapes almost ready for harvesting, and telling you stories of protecting them from late frosts with the help of a local witch in the middle of the night.
You never tired of his beautiful voice and his gentle gestures, and while Seymour and Tam wandered off with Shell to greet the others, you stayed with Dragh in the lower vineyards.
“Let me show you the cottages,” he said. “We redid them not long ago, and I’m really proud of them.”
“Sure, lead the way,” you smiled.
They were indeed gorgeous, with modern, cosy furnishings and white-washed yet warm interiors. Compact log burners promised heat in winter, and the thick stone walls provided welcome shelter from the strong summer sun outside. “I can see why you love them,” you said.
“If you want to stay after today,” he said, “You’re more than welcome. I know said he Seymour was going to drive you back, but if you like, you could stay here and I could drive you tomorrow…”
“Really? But… I… I couldn’t afford to -”
“No,” he laughed, “I wouldn’t ask you to pay for it!” he snorted. “No, I’m offering it to you. My gift.”
“Why?” you blurted, which only made him rumble that deep-chested laugh again.
“Can’t you tell?”
You flushed and he offered you a quiet smile.
“But if it’s too much, I’ll back off. I can be a bit much, I know, but… I like you, and if you go back tonight, I might not get another chance…”
“Chance to what?”
“Flirt with you,” he grinned, his tusks flashing.
“Oh,” and then you began to giggle. “I’m sorry,” you said when he started to look first confused, and then a little hurt. “No, I’m sorry, I’m just… out of practice, clearly. I broke up with my boyfriend about three months ago, and we were together for four years, so… I’m rusty. I’m sorry. I’d like that.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” he said, still smiling. “C’mon. You came here to taste wine, not listen to me bumble my way through flirting with you.”
He steered you back up to the main house, where you all spent the remainder of the afternoon lounging around, laughing, chatting, tasting small glasses of incredible wines, and nibbling local cheeses and handmade snacks. Maya joined you with Shell mid-way through the afternoon, her large, fetlocked hooves clopping on the patio as she moved about. Fern turned out to be a waif of a goblin, with thin limbs, pale lilac skin, and enormous ears and eyes. He grinned cheekily at you though and you liked him instantly.
But it was Dragh who held your attention the most. As the sun began to set, Shell started up a barbecue, and you ate and talked until you felt your eyelids beginning to get heavy. Seymour and Tam said they were going to head back, and asked if you were ready to go, but you blushed and said that Dragh had offered you a bed for the night in one of the cottages.
“Oh did he now?” Tam chuckled quietly as you stood at the edge of the ring of firelight on the patio, the central fire pit casting flickering shadows around the gathered group of mellow friends, new and old. “Good.” The short satyr gave you a hug and tugged Seymour away once they’d said their goodnights.
Maya and Shell slipped away not long after, with Fern practically vanishing into the dusk at their heels, leaving just you and Dragh alone.
“Did you have a good time?” he asked as he checked that the barbecue coals were cool enough to leave.
“I did, thank you.”
“Not too much to drink?” he asked, casting you a sideways glance.
You shook your head. “You paced it perfectly,” you smiled. “And that elderflower cordial that Maya brought was beautiful.”
“She brought it for Seymour because he doesn’t drink, and she didn’t want him to feel left out.”
“I was surprised that he came along when I found out he’s t-total…”
Dragh shrugged and then laughed, “There is more to this place than the wine, you know…?”
You tilted your head up, exposing your neck as you gazed at the summer stars above you, and hummed softly. “Mmm, so I see,” you said.
When you looked back at him, he was staring fixedly at your throat. “Gods,” he murmured. “You’re so beautiful…”
Your lips hitched into a nervous smile, and he set down the wineglass he’d been holding in one hand, and rose gracefully to come and tower over you. He leaned in close, giving you every opportunity to back away or ask him to stop, but when you did nothing but gaze up into his endlessly warm eyes, he closed the distance between you and pressed a kiss to your lips.
He tasted of wine, but then again so did you, and he slid his fingers around to the back of your neck and cupped your head as he kissed you, his eyelids fluttering shut. His lips were firm and confident, but the kiss ended all too soon as he pulled himself upright. He held out his hand to you, and you slid eagerly enough off the wall where you’d been perched, letting him pull you to your feet.
He walked you back down the slope towards the cottage, and at the door he hesitated. He was still wearing that beautiful suit, and you licked your lips as you stepped over the threshold and turned back to face him. “You coming in?” you asked, and he waited just long enough for you to smile again before following you inside.
Dragh nudged you gently against the wall as he kissed you again, his hands roving over your body, savouring the softness of you and moaning beneath the kisses. He shifted his attention and began to kiss down your neck, his tusks digging in almost painfully as he mouthed gently at you.
His hips rocked against yours and you felt how hard he was getting the longer he lavished attention on you. His breath left his lungs in uneven rasps, and he set his hands on your hips and drew back a little to look at you. His pupils were blown wide and he stared at you with glassy eyes. “Tell me you want this,” he growled. “If you don’t want it, I’ll stop, but if I keep going much longer, I might not be able to…” His ears shifted slightly, not being as expressive as a goblin or elf’s, but still showing a little of his uncertainty.
You reached your hand for his rough, if shaven, jawline and caressed his cheek with your thumb. He purred another growl into the quiet space between you, his eyes rolling closed with a groan.
“I want this,” you whispered.
He lost no time in herding you into the bedroom and pressing you down into the bed. He sloughed off his jacket and tossed it over a chair, and you felt the breath leave your chest at the sight of his taut body beneath. Muscles strained attractively against the fabric of his shirt, and as he smiled almost shyly at you, he began to unbutton the shirt. Frustrated, he pulled it over his head, and you gasped audibly when you saw the tattoos beneath.
A massive gryphon stretched from his left pec, over his shoulder, and its inky wings came to rest halfway down his forearms.
“Wow,” you murmured, and he smiled.
“You like it?”
“Yeah. It must have hurt like a bitch though,” you said, glimpsing the ink on his waist too where the gryphon’s taloned hind feet finished. “Turn around?” you asked, and he did, looking back at you over his colossal shoulder, watching you admiring him.
“That’s a sight I could get used to,” he rumbled softly.
“What?” you asked, shuffling up the bed as he turned back around and came to lie down beside you, trailing his fingertips up your leg and making you shiver with a touch light as a spider’s shadow.
Dragh smiled, a slow, lazy, adoring smile, and you bit your lip. “I could get used to you looking at me like that,” he clarified.
“I don’t think I would ever get used to the sight of you though,” you rasped. “You’re gorgeous.”
“Thanks,” he smiled, laughing a deep and genuine laugh. “I work hard…” he went on, kissing your shoulder almost affectionately. “Most folks think orcs are just born looking like this, and yeah,” he added, causally sliding his huge hand beneath the fabric of your dress and enveloping your entire thigh in his grasp, “We have it easier than most do, but…” he parted your legs with a gentle gesture, and you just lay back and let him, finding it hard to concentrate on what he was saying now. “But I do take care of myself.” He lowered his lips to your inner thigh and kissed you. “Let me take care of you now…?” he asked.
You gasped as his tusks dug into your thick thighs, and your head lolled backwards as pleasure swept over your whole body, sliding beneath your skin and setting every inch of you tingling. “Yes!” you whispered, breathing hard.
He had you naked in a matter of seconds, laying you back down tenderly and gazing at you until you nearly barked at him to stop staring. He leaned forwards and cupped your breast in his hand and kneaded it gently, moving his mouth to your nipple and kissing, sucking, and tugging on it until you were almost in tears from how good it felt.
Dragh ran both his hands down your body, leaving your nipples cold and overly sensitive in the cool air of the bedroom, and he sank his flat, orcish nose to your sex and nudged against your throbbing clit before lapping over you with his thick tongue. The sound that escaped him as he tasted you was like no sound you’d ever heard before, and as he returned his attentions to your wet folds, he made it again and again. He circled you and laved his tongue up and down over you until you were giddy and breathless, begging for more.
“Please,” you gasped.
“You want me inside you?” he asked, and you risked a glance down to see just how big he was as he sat up a moment. When you nodded, he grinned. “Gimme a second then.” You turned your head to watch as he drew out a condom and ripped into it. He rolled it slowly down his weeping, thick length, and you groaned as you watched him handling himself. He was huge, as most orcs apparently were, with a thick vein running along the length, and as he turned back to face you, he grinned. “Ready?”
An inarticulate grunt and a nod were all you could manage, but he smiled and lined himself up, rocking his hips teasingly back and forth to stretch you, rubbing the tip of his cock against your clit until you thought you might just come from that alone. Almost, but not quite.
“Please,” you hissed, and he smiled.
“You tell me to stop if I’m too much, ok?” he crooned, bracing one hand beside your head and sliding himself into you. He stretched you gloriously wide, but he didn’t know you’d been in a relationship with a minotaur before this, and were more than used to taking a big cock. Even so, the feel of him left you gasping. “Oh gods, you’re perfect,” he crooned suddenly as he sank all the way in, hilt deep. The girth of his cock stretched you until you thought you might break, but when you bucked upwards into him, he took it as a sign that you were ready, and he began to move his hips again.
He picked up a steady rhythm, growling and grunting with pleasure as his cock filled you and you clenched tightly around him. He shifted his thumb to your clit and stroked you in time with his thrusts, feeling you tightening around him with each pounding heartbeat, until you grabbed his muscular neck and came hard, waves of sparking pleasure sweeping through you.
You came so hard you drew his own orgasm from him, and he emptied into you a moment later with a bellow and a roar that left your ears ringing. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, his consonants slurring, his eyelids heavy with pleasure as he tried to look at you through the daze of his orgasm. “Is this real?” he added a moment later.
You laughed, and he withdrew, rolling onto his back and sorting himself out while you lay there and let your eyes drift closed for a moment. Deep contentment washed through you, and you took a steadying breath. You felt him leave to slip into the bathroom, but were barely aware of him returning. The mattress dipped as he sat on the edge and laid his hand on your thigh. He murmured your name, and you opened your eyes groggily to see him sitting there, now wearing his tight, black boxer briefs again.
“You want me to go?” he asked in a whisper.
You shook your head, and he smiled, climbing into bed beside you and pulling the sheets over both of you.
You drifted off to sleep not long after that, with his body pressed tightly around yours.
___________________________
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shy-petty-weirdo · 4 years
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Can I go on a Rant about Netflix's Tall Girl? *LONG POST*
*Note* The charator's names are not the same as in the movie, as the movie is unclear about what their names are, I even had subtitles on, and honestly can not tell you their names, non-the-less how to spell them
*Note 2* I am bad at spell, don't have my glasses and it's late, so bare with the middle-school spelling(also the color and the spacing are to not only help me keep track of what I'm writing, but anyone who has a hard time reading long things)
*Note 3* SPOILERS duh
Okay, so I am in no way 'tall' I'm barley the hight to be an astronaut, so I don't have much say in 'how it's so hard to be a tall girl'
Non the less I thought this would be a fun movie to watch with my best friend, who is a year younger than me, but taller, (The only friends I have that aren't taller than me, are the children I watch)
We are both in highschool, and have watch Netflix's orignal teen romcoms before, and loved the ones we watch, little cheesy, but still a good watch for weekly movie night.
I knew from the description of the movie before it came out, it was going to be an overload of cheesy-ness, but it seemed like a good laugh, like the kid of movies one watches for the pure stupid 'hello fellow kids' stuff.
The opening scene itself was something we thought was funny, from the color coded library (I use to volunteer at a library, so I def noticed it) to the fact that the girl who is suppose to be torrmentted for being tall, isn't reconized by not one, but TWO boys who go to HER school until she stands up.
We thought this was just cheesy fun, and her older brother even sat down to watch some of the begining, just to see if they asked her, what the weather was like up there, which they did, atleast five time, and was almost the only thing the 'bullies' actually bullied her about
I want to be clear I am extremly ANTI-bully, and so is my friends, her brother got bullied when he was young, and would get beat up, and even among their younger sibblings, bullying is NOT allowed.
So, there is some stuff behind when I say, Tall Girl wasn't really bullied, but more so teased. Now I know how small comments can over take someone's life, but the way that Tall Girl put it, she was more of a bully to her self than anyone else.
The 'iconic' scene of Tall Girl walking down the hall had us all stop, while my friend's brother pointed out she was literally friends with some one who is a minority (and later shown to be pressured at home to follow a strict life path and not one they want to) And my friend explained how, if Tall Girl wanted to make her life seem worse via shoe size, that she should have gone with a different brand, since Nike makes their shoes bigger, (Now that I think of it, this is def product placement)
Through out the movie Tall girl drags her friends through the mud, and yet plays the victem card the entire time, even though there are bigger issues that could be addressed, such as, the competing her sister does, and the pressure that is placed on her to be more, The social differenaces for the Transfer Student, the Beauty standards placed on girls, ANYTHING ELSE.
The way Tall Girl acts is nothing like any teen I have ever seen, it felt like a terrible 80s teen movie that died before production. I understand that they were trying to 'break' the teen romcom 'code' by making the mean girl not a dumb blonde, and have Tall Girl not get back with Transfer Student at the end, but they ended up with the exact opposite.
Most teens are not looking for a S.O.
Being tall is not a major hinder on a highschooler's life (espically being 6ft 1.5 inches)
Physical things that can not be changed are not something that most people even notice, non the less complain about on OTHER PEOPLE
Teens are more concerned about the STATE OF THE WORLD than any of the 2d personallity traits given to the main character
The most realistic/likeable character(s) were
1. Girl with glasses
2. Boy in the background of the scene in the science class balancing a pencil on his face
3.Tall Girl's father, who does everything he could think of to make his daughter happy and "normal"
4. Tall Girl's O.T. who was actually cultured in the world, really liked the Transfer Student, didn't know about him cheating, tried to be a good wing-girl to her best friend, even after he said that Tall Girl was hotter
5.Dudly(?) Crate-Boy who despite being possesive over Tall Girl in the movie scene, tells Transfer Student to do the right thing, which not just is so Tall Girl won't get the guy, but so Transfer Student doen't lead on the Multi-lingual Girl, which is solid advise anyway
6. Maya Hart, aka Tall Girl's sister. Through-out the movie we see Maya continusly working hard to acheive her personal goals, and simply try to be a good big sister. Though her advice to Tall Girl to fight for Transfer Student isn't the kind a rational person would give to someone, who just kissed a person in a relationship, we can really see how hard Maya is working towards her goals, and how much she wants to help her sister, as seen in the I Liked It When You Needed Me scene
7. Even though Pink hair girl doen't get a personallity in the script besides being into fashion and being an awesome amazing friend, She deserves better by Tall Girl, and her out burst at Tall Girl throwing her-self a pitty party, even though Tall Girl has all the tools to succesed in life, all the support, and everything she needs, except for a romance that, even Tall Girl's sister said was doomed from the begining
The begining of the film, gave off B-rated fun, but slowly moved down hill, as if this was the rock that us teens are forced to push up hill in this afterlife.
Tall Girl, herself slowly but steadly became more and more toxic, not only to herself, as she was in the start, but to her friends, family and classmates too.
At the start, her toxicity was contained in self pitty, which would have been a wonderful plot for the movie, being a tall inscure highschool girl, who finds her place in life, with her friends ad family, learning to love herself. Unfortunitly that's not what happened.
Tall Girl puts all of her energy and worth into finding a boyfriend, and I can't stress this enough, WHILE IN HIGHSCHOOL! I know everyone has heard it before, but the highschool years, though they seem all important, aren't that important, Humans are living into their 100s now, 4 akward years, where people just like you are trying to surive aren't going to make as big of a dent in your life as they use to make. Her friends, would probably be the only thing that she would take past the highschool years, if she wasn't so toxic
Tall Girl reminded me very much so of early 2010-2013, which may not seem like a long time ago, but it is almost 2020. Many of the traits Tall Girl showed are traits that many people stopped exibiting in 2016.
The only emotional smart charactors are Glasses and Dad,
While it IS a teen romcom, and so one would expect many 'crazy' ideas and things, This doesn't mean modern teens can't tell what toxic behavior is. I know the closer one is to the person, the hard the traits are to reconize, but just being aware of other people, and a general nice person one can see where the toxic traits are, even, if not more so in ones-self
The only time this movie seemed aware of the differance between the real world and the movie was the mother stating that her hardships in highschool was turning down all the boys that asked her to prom, and then Tall Girl rolls her eyes, and there is a very obvisous nod to the fact that being to popular is not really that much of a hardship to face
Many people often look on the 'Crate-Boy uses the crate to kiss Tall Girl' scene as romantic, and I will not tell them they are wrong for believing so, as everyone has their own perspective. I for one though saw it as Tall Girl still getting undeserved attention, and what she wanted.
The Prom scene is a prime example of this. Tall Girl doesn't like that Multi-Lingul Girl and Transfer Student are prom king & queen, and so, instead of letting them have their 15 sec of fame, she goes on stage, unanounced, Which I believe is not allowed at most proms, and make a speech, (usally these speaches show how the main charactor has changed for the better, and will not be forced to be what they are not)
This speach how ever, comes across as an ego boost, espically if one keeps in mind the very first scene where the two boy in her school didn't even know who she was. She goes on stage an makes a speach about how she is impowered by being tall and no one will make her feel bad about it.
This on paper sounds like it would be a real turning point, except THE MAIN CHARACTOR DOESN'T LEARN
Tall Girl faces no conciqueses for pushing her best friend (pink hair) to the side and using her as an emotional punching bag, she 'gets the guy' that she treated the EXACT SAME WAY SHE DIDN'T want to be treated, and nor is her self-pitty problem solved
All in all, this movie was insufferable, unrealistic, made my friend and I root for the 'villians' and side charators, and somehow make a film where it would be better off with the main charator being a side charator
I would really love to meet the writers and see the teens they are around, to see how they possible could have though such a toxic thing was okay to show to teens, espically the way they try to frame it as 'Goals'
***This is in no way against the actors/actresses that played in the film, nor those who helped backstage, (ex makeup, sets, etc) this is more aimed towards the writers of the script, and whoever thought that this was something good for teens.
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i have so many theories!!! theyre all screaming at me!!! i must write out them all!!!!! 
so here’s one that’s been knocking around my head since finals week began:
the Writing 3 Playlist on Spotify 
I think this bad boy is a hint at the game’s timeline
maybe not 100% explanatory, but I think we can guess certain parts of the game through this
and i just wanna tell y’all now, almost all of this is speculation, as honestly im 90% sure the playlist was created bc it had borderlands-y songs in it (although the last few have me scratching my head)
lemme explain why im writing this, though I’m very thirsty for lore
tl;dr: game goes like this: lilith powers stolen. go to promethea, go to jungle, find brick mordy and tina, get into a fight, lose fight, go find other VHs, get into another fight, Krieg shows up to save Maya, maya die. (oh no she ded), the twins have their we are GODS moment, the VHs get summoned to the Eridian homeworld, there’s a huge ass final battle, someone attempts to create an end-of-the-world scenario
so the playlist itself was created to help one of the authors of the game get into their borderlands jam 
it starts with a Cage the Elephant song, “Trouble”, the band of which we all know wrote the first song used in BL1. Not really much else to say here, but we do know the opening cutscene of the game involves our current team of Vault Hunters being attacked by the Children of the Vault. this is, of course, not indicative of any songs used in bl3, but we can assume it captures the general feeling of the game.
Second song: “Fire” by Barns Courtney (holy shit I love this guy so fucking much!! if you’ve never listened to his music, PLEASE do so! I really recommend “Rather Die”- I am in the process of making a bl3 animatic to it actually lmao). 
So anyway, I’m just sayin’, the lyrics of this song...
“Oh, a thousand faces staring at me Thousand times I've fallen Thousand voices dead at my feet Now I'm gone... And my mother told me son let it be Sold my soul to the calling Sold my soul to a sweet melody Now I'm gone... Oh gimme that fire ...”
Honestly, I would not be surprised if this song was about Lilith’s loss of her powers. I mean, she used to call herself the Firehawk because she burned the shit outta bandits. c’monnn.
The man, the myth, the legend himself even says that "[The song is] quite defiant as well, like this cannot be how it ends, it cannot be my situation."
Mooooving on
“Majesty” by Apashe and Wasiu
holy fuck i love this song so much. and its so very obviously about the Calypso Twins- at the very least its Tyreen.
“All the stars and galaxies address me as your majesty So better say your majesty, I might react erratically Throw you in a fire, purify you I'm the sire, my empire's on the rise You better find yourself a place to hide Your place to find, but say it twice My name divine, I'm aimin' high Don't look in my face or eyes Take a bow and save your life Glory to the emperor, my temperature is risin' Always hot, it's getting violent”
I mean come on if its not when we meet the twins for the first time after they steal lily’s powers, then its definitely when they do something absolutely badass and really show us why they’re revered as gods. Possibly related to the Holy Broadcasting Center?
“The Way I Do” by Bishopp Briggs 
this one honestly had got me stumped as to its purpose, i lowkey kinda think its getting Sanctuary 3 up and running (and possibly meeting Maya for the first time- still not sure about that). I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a whole thing for Scooter and this song fits pretty well. I imagine we also meet Vaughn and the Children at some point, so maybe here?
“Greeting the Menace” by Zack Hemsey 
yeah i uhhhh dunno. This sounds like a song about a dude getting tortured which scares me a bit lmao. 
I thought maybe this song and the next 2 could be VH-based songs, as the next 2 have no lyrics whatsoever and the third is called “Best Friends”, but who knows... If this is the case I could make the argument this is about Zane or Moze, leaning towards Zane cuz he’s pretty covered up, plus I think “Best Friends” would be more Moze’s style lmao
I could also see this being a song about Troy... could explain all the ‘body mods’ and the missing arm.
“ProtoVision” by Kavinsky
If we’re going with the idea that these next few songs are about the Vault Hunters, then I imagine this would be Fl4k’s. It’s got that synth and some guitar which I think fits perfectly with his robo-hobo aesthetic lol
Other than that, I truly have no idea what part of the story this song could reference since there aren’t any lyrics. Maybe Promethea’s city? I could kinda see it, it sounds pretty high-tech
Similarly, “diatribe.” by Oliver Michael
the beginning gives me a whole meditation vibe which I kinda associate with Amara and her phasecast skill which “sends out an astral projection” of herself. 
Then again, this could be the outskirts of the Promethean city... I could see myself wandering around the huge ass foliage and discovering an abandoned research base to this song idk
“Best Friends” by grandson
aaahh i love grandson. I think this could be a Moze-based song. I just get that vibe from her leather jacket... anyway
I also could totally see this as discovering Brick, Mordecai, and Tina in the research base (if that truly is where they are). Cause we saw them in the trailer hanging out there. 
tbh the lyrics themselves kinda remind me of pre-Tales Rhys and Fiona and all their friends
“All of my best friends Like to go and get fucked up Then they talk about all the lives they never got to live Oh, they're still waiting for some sort of invitation It's never coming along, oh no, you'll get just what you give”
but idk if that’s what its meant for
“Bap U” by Party Favor
hmm another ‘lyricless’ song. not really lyric-less but uhhh the lyrics are pretty nonsensical lol
I could see there being a fight scene with Brick Tina and Mordy as AIs helping out here, maybe exploring the abandoned research base?
“Not Human” by elegant slims 
oh you know what im going to say here hahaha
monster troy p l e a s e
i wouldn’t be surprised if Tyreen started accumulating more powers here, like perhaps the previous fight scene was over the Vault on Promethea and the twins were able to access it before us? and Tyreen gives the Vault Monster the succ
“Crack in the seams You're breaking through The animal inside of you You're not human anymore... Your eyes go black electric blue The animal inside of you Life on a string Watch it swing Hide your teeth”
and one (or both) of the twins start going feral lol
“Way Down We Go” by KALEO
one (1) fear and that’s that someone dies during the scene that corresponds to this song
hopefully its just the boys being depressed over a loss instead of a victory, but oof
anyway, you know what they say: “sometimes you gotta fall before you make it big” ;) thats a typhon deleon quote
“I’m a Wanted Man” by Royal Deluxe
I want to believe these next few songs are us recruiting the rest of the Vault Hunters not seen yet
I kinda associate this one with Axton since his whole History with DAHL, but who knows! It could be Gaige, too. or Maya since she looks like she’s being incredibly gay criminal on the Maliwan Monastery planet. Maybe both Axton and Gaige? I would love that
“The Devil You Know” by X Ambassadors 
Could also be Axton! I lowkey think its Salvador or Timothy Lawrence. The reason I think its Timothy is cuz the whole song gives me huge Handsome Jack vibes, but it could also be Sal cuz I totally imagine him becoming a bounty hunter to fund his gun addiction lmao
“00000 Million” by Ella Vos
this one also gives off Maya vibes imo. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one is about her and the introduction of Little Blue. I could also see Athena and Janey here, just living their lives out in a cottage somewhere. awww
“Jungle” by Tash Sultana
Ahh a love song [pukes] Hopefully this one is about Athena and Janey, cuz there is a depressing lack of both of them in all the trailers we’ve seen! It sounds lowkey sad, though. I hope nothing happened to them D:
“Don’t Wait Up” by Dustbowl Revival
this one gives me very big Fiona and Sasha vibes. 
Of course, there’s also the fact that the song is about a dad, and we still don’t know who the heck “the Father” is on all those Calypsos posters. We also dunno who in the heck “Mother” is, either. Sounds like Father left the cult, though, oof, and Mother stuck around. Wonder what that’s all about, maybe he felt like the twins were working fast/efficient enough and left to do things himself? Very lost on this idea tbh. the song seems very out of place, but it has to connect to something, yknow?
“Dies Irae” by Apashe and Black Prez
For those of you who don’t speak fluent Latin (the fuck guys?? lmao jk), the title means "Day of Wrath". Nice, nice, nice. 
the lyrics, you might be asking:
“'Cause I'ma beast. Where you at? I've been unleashed. Whatchu doin'? Sink my teeth. Y'all can't fathom I'ma beast”
me: [vibrating in my seat] monster twins monster twins monster twins monster twins
at the very least this is definitely a fight scene here. Probably with the twins again (hopefully). Maybe they found some way to imbue the cultists with fucked up powers and are sending them against the VHs as giant demon things and as we fight through the temple (apparently with some Guardians) we realize the final one is Troy and/or Tyreen?
I like to imagine this is where Maya gets her powers stolen, if only because the next few songs... I think she’s around because she’s now the only person with Siren powers on the side of the Crimson Raiders, so they might need her help with the Vault in some way
“RAMPAGE” by GRAVEDGR
y’all wonder why I seemingly forgot about Krieg in the above songs? Well, this is why. 
The only lyric for this entire song is “Bitch, I'm on a rampage- mask on my damn face”
I mean come on, Krieg with his psycho mask on, the fact his action skill is literally called “Buzz Axe Rampage”, the fact he loves Maya as shown in his introductory trailer... it’d be so perfect. And I bet badass psycho Krieg would be the only thing able to beat back whatever’s attacking at the moment. I’m just imagining him smashing down a wall and going apeshit
“Black Out Days” by Phantograms
Another song I think is about Krieg and Maya. I don’t think Maya does too hot in this game, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if she gets the Roland treatment if you know what I’m saying. I wonder if this causes Krieg to devolve back into insanity cause the whole song seems to focus around that. I hope not D:
“Hide the sun I will leave your face out of my mind You should save your eyes A thousand voices howling in my head Speak in tongues I don't even recognize your face Mirror on the wall Tell me all the ways to stay away”
To be honest I could also see it being that Maya gets her powers stolen and thoughtlock-ed by the twins to fight on their side (as she’s seen fighting with the big demon elemental things), and maybe we have to kill her or hurt her in some way to get her to stop attacking us. God I hope not.
Let’s hope this is someway about the twins and definitely not about our favorite Siren and/or Psycho
“The Finishing” by Stavroz
oof i think somebody dies... If its not Maya, my best guess is Krieg or Lilith. Maybe Mordecai or Brick? Oh I hope not, I love both of them way too much for it to be healthy. But, hey, at least Tina learned some coping mechanisms :(
“Intro” and “Apocalypse Please” by Muse
merged these into 1 because Intro is like 15 seconds long and is literally the introduction to Apocalypse Please. 
Definitely reaching the end of the game here... 
“And it's time we saw a miracle Come on, it's time for something biblical To pull us through And pull us through And this is the end This is the end Of the world Proclaim eternal victory Come on and change the cause of history And pull us through”
I think the twins (or whoever may have become the main villain- perhaps the Eridians?) have claimed victory/gotten the ultimate power in one way or another, and/or this is the Crimson Raiders getting themselves ready for a final stand-off with the big bad evil guy. 
I would really love if there’s a scene right at the end of this where the Twins have their huge “BOW TO ME” moment and then they just get COMPLETELY obliterated by a new villain. Just absolutely decimated.
New villain, like if they opened a Vault and whatever was being imprisoned there just wipes the floor with them (something like the Destroyer, if not the Destroyer itself), or fuck shit maybe even Tannis? or the Eridians looking for help in the war. or the Eridians bringing war. Who knows!
Again, could just be the Twins having gotten their hands on the end-game material, like realizing they can turn troy into big demon fuck (no i am not letting this one go) and we are kinda fucked now.
“Free Animal” by Foreign Air
I... have no idea lol
maybe Krieg getting rescued, maybe (one of?) the twins getting recruited by the Raiders for the final fight? It could fit into the ‘Beast’ imagery. Fuck, maybe even rescuing/finding Typhon or something? Idk, im kinda in the party that Typhon is going to be coming back some way or another lol, I’d love to meet the guy
“Dreams” by ZHU and Nero
This definitely sounds like a new BBEG has just been introduced or the big bads just entered the final phase of their plan, like the Crimson Raiders just learned about something life-changing and this is their “oh shit” moment
i wanna believe that the Eridians or another alien race (like the Seraphs!) are going to come in at the ‘end’ of the game and the Watcher is gonna be like “bitch did you really think I thought these dumbass ECHOnet streamers were the epitome of War??” I imagine we’d be on the side of the Eridians here, since y’know, the Watcher came to us for help.
Of course, the twins could still be the BBEG and have gotten their hands on that universe-destroying power that was described on the website (”to recover a map to ancient Vaults and prevent a universe-destroying power from falling into the wrong hands”) so maybe the Eridians called us in in order to meet and get help against the COV?
“Beyond the Fray” by Cassandra Violet
personally i think this one is about the Eridian homeworld
“I'll mark the day When we can meet beyond the fray Don't lose the will to see your home You find the way so we can meet beyond the fray I'll fight to see that you get home Consider this small clue Look beyond your point of view Make a space for honesty hide“
Wouldn’t even be surprised if someone made a sacrifice so we could get there... I imagine its hidden somewhere in the alternate dimension or wherever the Vaults lead to so it couldn’t be found, so maybe Lilith’s got her powers back at this point and she sacrifices herself to send us there?
idk...
“Outside the Realm” by Big Giant Circles
ah yes, another reason I think the end of the game involves the Eridian homeworld in some way. Have you heard this?? huge “we just stumbled upon a long-lost-alien-planet” vibe. I love it. Maybe even just a shot of Sanctuary III slowly gliding over the giant planet, having just exited phasewalk. God yes
“Battle Royale” by Apashe
another reason i think the final fight is some giant battlefield/wave fight instead of just against 1 or 2 enemies. not to mention the fact that the VH skills we’ve seen so far are crowd control based instead of raid boss focused. 
Its likely the VHs against the Cult of the Vault, but if we defeat the Twins halfway through the game, then the Cult will dissolve on its own. Either way, I really really really really really want a huge fight against an army. I don’t care if its against the Children of the Vault, the Eridians/some Guardians, or if its against the Seraphs or a new set of aliens we’re gonna get (maybe whatever the Destroyer was/is?). idk idc i just want a huge battle. I imagine we’re on the Eridians’ side, as I said above, but who knows, maybe the Watcher went rogue. 
oh and also, the next song:
“Doomsday” by NERO
oh hey, I recognize this song, it’s giving me major BL2 flashbacks lmao
Also the last song in the playlist, which is giving me the big fear (tm)
I imagine that we wouldn’t have been brought to the Eridian homeworld if it wasn’t kind of a huge deal, and what’s more of a huge deal than the end of the universe?!
that’s what i’d call doomsday, anyway.
could be the reason the Eridians are coming out of hiding after all this time. Either to stop our dumb human asses from opening the Vaults, or to get help against these alien fucks because our dumb human asses keep destroying their first line of defense- the Vault Monsters.
If the twins actually DO remain the main villains throughout the whole game, then I imagine this is them prepping to destroy the universe
but maaaan i really want some aliens... maybe the universe destroying power IS the aliens? aw hell yeah
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stokan · 5 years
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Top 20 Things of 2018
1.) Beychella How do you make a long awaited surprise album between two of the biggest names in music that is also one of the year’s best feel like complete afterthought? Set the bar as high as Beyonce’s Coachella appearance.
First awards show performances, then music videos, now music festival gigs: is there anything that Beyonce CAN’T turn into high art?
2.) Explained by Vox The most exciting development in the world of television in 2018 was radically breaking the rules on episodes length. We saw 30 minute dramas, and hour long comedies. We got shows like Maniac where episodes were as long as 49 minutes and as short as 27 minutes. Now television creators can tell exactly the stories they want to tell in however much time they want to tell them in. And perhaps nowhere were these loosened restrictions taken better advantage than Explained, Vox’s documentary series for Netflix. Many topics cant sustain a full length documentary, but, say, 14 minutes explaining cryptocurrency to me? Sure! 17 minutes on designer DNA? Sounds great! 20 minutes on the origins of K-Pop? How do you say “yes please” in Korean? Every episode has a different narrator, a different look, a different feel, and varies wildly in subject matter. Yet they are all exactly the length they need to be. The only thing left I really need explained to me is why no one thought to make this series before.
3.) Serial Season 3 If Explained was a great example of the latest evolution in television, then the new season of Serial is at the front line of the evolution of our newest artistic medium: podcasts. Serial’s third season was nothing like its second, which was in turn nothing like its first. It’s a series still figuring out what it CAN be, while now defining forever what it NEEDS to be. Serial this year explained a deeply important topic in a way that wouldn’t have been possible through any other medium. They always say if you’re a writer you have to ask yourself what form of writing your idea needs to be. Don’t write a play that’s really a TV show, or a movie that should be a book. And now we can add to that don’t make a TV series that’s really a podcast. As Homecoming proved this year, the two mediums are very different and better equipped to tell different stories. And after hearing Serial Season Three I can’t imagine there will ever be a better way to explore the current American criminal justice system. It was 2018’s version of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. It may not change national food safety standards, but it hopefully will do something perhaps even more important: it will make us never again take lightly the election of local judges and sheriffs. It was a podcast for the heart, the head, and the time capsule.
4.) Black Mirror - “Hang the DJ” I know this technically came out December 29th 2017 but I’m counting it here because nothing was more 2018 than this. The sadness, the isolation, the uncertainty, the living in a world you don’t understand the rules of anymore, the unfairness of modern life, but the ultimate perseverance of hope and love: it’s all there in the best episode of Black Mirror’s third season. It made me cry out of sadness and happiness in equal measure. Could anything be more 2018 than that?
5.) Kesha at the Grammys Ok so maybe one thing was more 2018.
The Grammys, an organization led by Neil Portnow, a man who said this year that “women need to step up”, and an organization that didn’t offer its one female Album of the Year nominee a solo performance spot, also offered us 2018’s most powerful show of female solidarity and one of the most moving moments of the Me Too era. It all amounted to the perfect encapsulation of this year. Kesha scream crying and then collapsing into a sea of strong supportive women WAS 2018.
6.) Eighth Grade My favorite movie of the year was also the year’s best horror movie. It was so real, and visceral, and intense, and frightening that at times I literally had to remind myself to breathe. I watched at least half the movie through my fingers and on the edge of my seat. Proving what everyone who has lived through it already knows: there’s nothing in the world more terrifying than being in junior high.
7.) Big Mouth Speaking of junior high, the other side of the pain and trauma of growing up is humor, so why it took this long for someone to make a comedy series explicitly about puberty is beyond me. I guess, of course, making a show like this work is a fine needle to thread. It wouldn’t work without being animated and being on a streaming service that lets them go as far as they did. It wouldn’t work without writing that is both laugh out loud funny and deeply compassionate and human in equal measure. And it wouldn’t work without one of the best voice casts on TV, including a true tour de force from Maya Rudolph. But work does it ever. In a just world junior high health class homework would be simply watching this show.
8.) Emma Gonzalez speech Here’s how long 2018 was: this was from 2018.
Finishing off my personal 2018 Growing Up Trifecta is the most powerful 12 minutes of the year. That high school students could be more inspiring, articulate, and better leaders than the President of the United States is sadly, at this point, a given. But that they are now more effective and efficient than him at starting genuine political movements still feels revolutionary. The kids are our future, and our future has never looked brighter.
9.) Childish Gambino - “This is America” video 100 years from now if theres only one cultural artifact that still exists and is still remembered from 2018 this will be it. A “you know where you were the first time you saw it” level cultural event. No song will ever be more closely associated with its music video, and no music video will ever be more of an avatar for an entire cultural moment than this. THIS is, of course, a truly shocking and horrifying (in a good way) music video from the former fifth lead of the TV show Community. A profound and brilliant piece of art underscored by a fun-sounding dance song. The year’s most complex and important social-political message delivered in 4 minutes via YouTube. This is America indeed.
10.) Drake - “God’s Plan” video While Donald Glover may have perfected the music video as art form, it goes without saying that long ago Drake mastered the music video as promotional tool. And in that sense the music video for “God’s Plan” seems like minor failure. It seemed to sort of come and go from the culture, especially in light of the success of the In My Feelings Challenge. But for me, there was nothing more heartwarming and human this year than watching Drake give away almost a million dollars to strangers. It was an idea so simple it’s shocking no one had ever done it before. And so affecting I was shocked it didn’t seem to penetrate the public consciousness more. There’s so much going on at all times now it’s hard for anything to truly break through all the noise, but this really deserved to. It’s impossible to watch this without smiling, and is there anything 2018 needed more than that?
11.) Nanette The dumbest debate this year was whether or not Nanette was stand up. Form and genre aren’t delineators still worth discussing in 2018. It’s now only about the message and the messenger, everything else is just details. An important fresh voice, the most timely, and sadly, timeless message imaginable, delivered in a way that reached and deeply affected seemingly every person you knew? What is there to debate? Nanette may or may not be stand up comedy, but it’s definitely RISE UP comedy. And in the end, that’s all that matters.
12.) Amber Says What Please click on the link above. The final two minutes are by far the best comedy of 2018. It still makes me laugh so hard that it causes me physical pain. You’ve been warned.
13.) A Star is Born trailers A Star is Born is maybe a perfect film. The performances, the songs, the direction, the fact that there’s literally no human being on earth who could have played her part and made the movie work like it did other than Lady Gaga. It was all perfect. But there was actually something better than watching A Star is Born: anticipating watching a A Star is Born. Before the first A Star is Born trailer came out I thought the whole project sounded dumb and unnecessary. After I finished watching the first trailer I knew I was going to see A Star is Born opening night. True story: I was at a movie where the same A Star is Born trailer got played three times in a row for some reason. And it was riveting every time. There was no grumbling at all in the audience, and I for one was sad when it didn’t replay a fourth time. So as much as I loved A Star is Born what I would really love is be able to still want to see A Star is Born for the first time.
14.) Ariana Grande - “thank u, next” It’s genuinely impressive that a song released in November could be the song I listened to by far the most this year. Somehow it took less than two months for this song to feel completely ubiquitous. Hell, even the PHRASE “thank u, next” is omnipresent now. Forget Song of the Summer, this was maybe our first Song of the Winter. Which is perfect because has a hit pop song ever sounded more winter? It’s cold, but it keeps you warm. It’s the sadness of the holidays with the life reaffirming joy of the holiday season. It’s a sweater for you to wear on the dance floor. And it’s clearly exactly the song so many of us needed. No matter how many times I’ve heard it (and as I said, I’ve listened to it, uh, A LOT) its existence feels like a holiday miracle. Having a new and fresh take on the breakup song in the year 2018? That shit IS amazing.
15.) The proposal at the Emmys This is literally the only thing anyone remembers about this year’s Emmys. It was amazing, and special, and made anyone who watched it believe in true love. But for me it still cant touch the most heart-melting awards show moment of all time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJrku4fSxk
(Was this whole entry just an excuse to link to one of my absolute favorite YouTube clips? Perhaps.)
16.) Succession When I saw the promos for Succession I literally made the sound UGH out loud. The last thing the world needs is another show about rich white people behaving badly, I thought. How could there possibly be anything original left to say on that topic? Who on earth is still greenlighting shows like this in The Year of our Lord 2018?
People much smarter than I am clearly, that’s who.
Because from writing, acting, production design, direction - whatever element you want to focus on - this was the best and most exciting new show of 2018 by a wide margin. People have been saying for years that TV is the new movies; this show made movies look like the old TV. It was the most vibrant and perfectly crafted big budget feature film of 2018, stretched out over 8 episodes on HBO. Did it have anything new and important to say about the world? Probably not. And turns out, I couldn’t have cared less. The phrase compulsively watchable might have been invented just to describe the world these actors and writers created. I would watch the team involved with this show dry paint. 
17.) Angels in America on Broadway Angels in America is the best play of the past 30 years and its not even close. So the fact that it would get a production that’s this good is just unfair for everyone else on this planet who makes theater. It was so good it made all other plays I’ve seen since seem small and cheap and unimportant. It was such a towering achievement that it has made the entire rest of theater as an art form seem insignificant by comparison. When you hear old people talk about seeing Brando in Streetcar or watching the original production of Death of Salesman I now can relate to what they are talking about. I’ll be thinking about Andrew Garfield’s final monologue for the rest of my life. It was unfair that we the audience had to all leave the theater when the lights finally came up and that we couldn’t all just live in that feeling forever. The eight hours I spent watching this play are what art is all about.
18.) Jesse Plemons in Game Night If dying is easy, and comedy is hard, then they should cancel the Oscars and give Jesse Plemmons Best Supporting Actor right now for his work in Game Night. And ok, maybe it wasn’t the BEST performance of 2018, but it was DEFINITELY the best performance relative to what it needed to be. It should have been a dumb throwaway part in a big-budget mainstream ensemble comedy. But Jesse Plemmons crafted a performance so strange and singular and memorable that it elevated the entire movie into something way better than I’m sure even its creators expected. I legitimately don’t know how everyone didn’t break in every one of his scenes. It’s a master class in the comedic power of silence. It should be studied in acting classes everywhere. And 20 years from now when Game Night is considered a comedy classic, Jesse Plemmons will be the main reason why. You heard it here first.
19.) The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships Saxophones? Electric guitar solos? Backing choirs? A concept album about being uncomfortable with the internet? Dumb pretentious song titles? This album couldn’t be any more in my wheelhouse if I made it myself. Its best song is basically a modern reimagining of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” for God’s sake!
For me this wasn’t just an album, it was an experience. It was big music to get lost inside of. And I did. At age 36 it’s nice to know that sometimes I can still feel 16. And it’s fitting that a band named The 1975 would be the ones to make music that’s so transporting.
20.) Emma Stone Ok so as someone who once argued in this very space that Emma Stone deserved an Oscar nomination for Easy A, it’s clear I’m pretty deep in the tank for Emma Stone. But even an Emma Stone hater would have to admit than this was a banner year for Emma Stone. Signing up for the insane acting challenge that was Maniac and completely acing it while totally exposing two-time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill in the process? Going toe to toe with Olivia Colman in the battle of the best acting performances of the year in The Favourite? Coming across as more charming than Jennifer freaking Lawrence ?!?
2018 was Emma Stone’s year, we were all just living in it.
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