#like people are SO quick to throw him under the bus

[theagenes]

This is a late night rant about 2014 Sebastian Vettel, not my usual type of content at all but I had to get it out of my system. 🎀

I would have not particularly written this but I heard a comment about Sebastian's 2014 season and it bugged me, then I saw something very similar later that day and just thought about doing this.

Then what is it about ? Well initially, what I heard came from a commentator discussing George Russel and Lewis Hamilton's dynamic at Mercedes, and how, in their first moment driving against one another, the younger one tended to force the elder into driving a bit more desperately : to commit mistakes to try and beat their younger teammate. To this, the commentator also put the example of 2014 Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, which the former had seen as a threat, and as a result, had been pressured into driving poorly in 2014.

The problem I have with this is that it just highlights how little people know, and on the contrary, how much people assume, about Sebastian's 2014 season — which, arguably, is probably one of his most overlooked. It is not so much that he had a poor season that year, more than why — and you will find that it is the combinaison of many factors, most of them I thought people knew very well, but as it turns out, not so much.

Why was it such a terrible season for him then ?

First things first, I'd like to put this into perspective : we view 2014 as an “awful” season for him, if not by sheer, automatic contrast to 2013. It's not easy to have both your best and worst season follow each other in a 2 years' spawn : is it really though— his worst season ? Because it's not. Sebastian finished 5th in the driver championship that year, and stepped on a few podiums — some of them he even shared with his teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Here he is in Singapore 2014, lifting his trophy at venue which has never failed him. 🥸

Now 5th isn't so bad, especially considering there were more drivers competing in the championship, as well as a fiercer competition. Why does it stick in our minds as such a forgettable season for him then ? Well, as we saw, 2013 was his most dominant form ever, and there is nothing more humiliating than losing a Grand Prix with the “ 1 ” sticker branded onto your every belonging : car, caps, race suit, garage ; right next to your own name.

But once that this a priori is out of the way, you will find that his 2014 season – although nowhere near his last four championship-winning years – was not simply Sebastian making silly mistakes, in the heap of the moment or born out of a rage to prove himself, because he felt threatened by his new teammate.

There are reasons behind 2014, and there are numerous.

An obvious reason, although going slightly in the same direction than what the commentator was saying – without ever reaching the same conclusion though – was that the 2014 season was all about changes for Sebastian : new regulations, new engines, new cars, new teammate : new dynamic. A change to which he adapted pretty poorly, that's undeniable, but which does not warrant for such a drastic drop of performance — when compared to 2013 or 2011, his most dominant years, but even 2012, one of the hardest fought championship he ever won, or 2010 or 2009, two championships to which he teethed and clawed at, for two very different outcomes. What I mean is that you simply do not go from breaking and setting new, unheard-of records (still unbroken, as I write this), winning 13 races out of 19, and only missing out on 2 podium finishes in an entire season, to climbing on the top of a few, scarce podiums the very next year — or at least, not without a justification.

This justification, you will find, comes into a much simpler, intertwined reason than you might think. To put it very simply, I would say “Ferrari” on one side, and “Michael Schumacher” on the other. Don't forget where we stand, and where we are : this is 2014. A few month prior, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian's greatest hero, friend and counsellor, had been drastically injured in a skying accident.

This might seem a bit foreign to us nowadays, and although we all know about his accident, do we always remember the precise date ? December 29 2013, during the winter break and somehow, both at the same time, a moment of joy and celebration for Sebastian, as well as sorrow and grief. How do you celebrate your greatest achievement in the sport of your dream, when a primordial component of this very childhood dream, your hero, fights for his life in a remote hospital ? And it's no well-hidden secret that Michael's accident dealt a terrible blow to Sebastian's mental health — he talked about it himself in interviews saying that the period which followed was one of the toughest of his life. The 2014 season cannot be extracted from its context, and the driver that got into his car this year was a man grieving, constantly ; persistently.

The third reason is very much linked to the second, as Michael Schumacher had a great impact over Sebastian's dream of ever driving shed in red. 2014 is also a turning point in Sebastian's career : both a pivot and a fulcrum, to later become an unsteady keystone. The thing is, the discussions over Sebastian ever joining Red Bull had started as early as 2008, although at this time, he had chosen to commit to Red Bull. The movement from Red Bull to Ferrari did not happen in one day, and it surely did not pop into Sebastian's mind over the spawn of a few month. It must have been there for years, simmering until he finally crossed the threshold and took a step. A move he had to make without any word of advise from the person who had made him want to join Ferrari in the first place.

The 2014 season was not so much his last year with Red Bull, more than a springboard-year before his first season with Ferrari. It was never going to be a year where Sebastian would fight for a championship, not even for wins or podiums : on the contrary, not winning with Red Bull was the only remaining necessity. His contract with Red Bull was set until the 2015-2016 season, and as we've seen in the past, a driver leaving his team is always legally managed by a contract : in order for this to happen, there has to be a clause which can break their pre-existing contract. It was the case with Daniel Ricciardo last year (2022) who was kindly thanked by McLaren in exchange of a good sum of money : that was the mandatory loophole in the contract for it to work. Similarly with Sebastian in 2014, the loophole in his contract was all about championship points. Helmut Marko talked about it after Sebastian's move from one team to the other, saying that this transaction had not came as a backstab at all, simply because it had been done in full knowledge of their team.

What do we think about it, as a whole ? Of course, I have no purpose to cast a shadow on Daniel Ricciardo's very good season in 2014 : his victories were his and he didn't rob anyone of them, nor his podiums. What I am trying to say is that there is no correlation between those two chains of event : in the same way that Sebastian losing did not help Daniel winning, Daniel winning did not make Sebastian lose. I don't think this 2014 season should be summed up as Sebastian feeling pressured by a younger teammate into making mistakes after mistakes — all the more considering his sheer streak of unluckiness and the unavoidable DNF's, engine and car failures he had no role into. Wouldn't it be pretty simplist, to link Daniel's victories to Sebastian, and wouldn't it take a bit from them ? I sincerely think that they are not linked, and that his – arguably weaker, although 5th position in the championship is no small feat if it is regarded as your very worst, considering most drivers never even win a Grand Prix, let alone make it to the top 5 of the WDC – 2014 season was about something else entirely.

Perhaps that it was less about being beaten by a teammate than saying farewell to a former team in the smoothest way possible ; for once losing sight of the championship to achieve something bigger, to try and reach for a childhood dream.

Pictures are from Motorsport Images (cr: Vettel 2014 Portrait) / Alfred Guillou - Adieu ! / - Lora Mathis - If There's A Way Out I'lI Take It / Edward John Poynter - The corner of the villa / Franz Ludwig Catel - Porch of a Church in a lunar landscape / The Guardian / Witold Pruszkowki - Falling Star / Patrick Gale - Notes from an exhibition, p.36 / Sebastian Vettel for the Daily Telegraph / Dr Helmut Marko for Sky Sports / Johan Christian Dahl - View of Dresden by Moonlight.

#web weaving #I say web weaving when really it's a RANT #‎^•ﻌ•^ฅWebweaving #sorry I got upset #I never do rants but 2014 seb is special to me #like people are SO quick to throw him under the bus #when will people get that 2014 was such a rough season for him but not for the reason they think :') #i will defend him with my life #sebastian vettel #f1 #formula 1 #red bull racing #red bull seb #red bull f1 #daniel ricciardo #red bull daniel

[hecateslore]

💌

supervisor!simon

this one's a little hefty.

When you get home you throw your bag on the couch and let out a sigh. Your phone rings in your pocket, pull it out quickly answering it noticing the companies number, “Simon I swear to god-” 

“It’s not Simon.” Johnny’s voice was heard through the, “Johnny!” your eyes widen, you wipe the snot from under your nose. “Are you okay?” his voice thick with concern, you could almost see his thick brows furrowing as he spoke. “Yeah, I’m good.” You say, nose stuffy.  “Didn’t look too good when you left.” he chuckles. 

“I uh, I quit.” you purse your lips awaiting his response. “Oh.” you shut your eyes tightly at his response, “ What are you gonna do about work?” smacking yourself on the forehead, what are you going to do? You didn’t think you were gonna quit this early, with no response from your bestie's manager, anxiety started to build. “That’s a wonderful question.”  you let out a nervous laugh. “Also, how’d you get my number?” you stand with your hand on your hip, phone held between your cheek and shoulder, “Linda.” You felt like you just pushed your firstborn in front of a bus, leaving the beauty that she is. 

“Oh, Linda.” You feel the tears well in your eyes. God Simon was such an ass, to You, to Victor, to the old hires. “I’ll text you later, I gotta go.” Johnny says in a quick hushed tone. You hear the phone click and you wipe your eyes. You sit on the couch trying to figure out what your next move is. 

You're one step ahead, done with the emotional taxing job. Now you need to find a job, you remember the hot pink flier that said “now hiring” in the supermarket. Only downside is that it doesn't pay much. But you need a job now. Only until you can find something with better pay. 

There’s that cafe around the corner, but not too many people go in there.That one furniture store that always says they’re going out of business. You groan and put your head in your hands. 

- 

Simon walked past your empty desk wondering when would be a good time to reach out so you can gather your things, also so he could maybe apologize. Your knick-knacks sat on your desk, the pen where you left it. It was all Johnny's fault. He distracted you. Simon felt like you and him were getting somewhere. Like when you told him you weren’t going to quit (oh he’s delu). 

He had a chance to turn it all around, you were starting to get the hang of things. Not wearing your headphones, talking to him a little. Sometimes saying hi. He’d see Johnny making goo goo eyes at you. The way you two would joke around, and how you would slightly push his arm when he made an inappropriate joke. 

Simon’s eyes skimmed the office, Johnny sat at his desk ducking behind his screen on the phone. Simon wasn’t dumb, Simon’s observant. Narrowing his eyes he could hear Johnny’s voice speaking lowly, light chuckles and he swears he can almost hear you on the other end. 

Feeling like he wants to run over to his desk, Simon walks quietly to Johnny's desk hoping to catch him on the phone. Pale blue eyes catch onto Simon and Johnny hangs up the phone quickly. “Who’s that?” Simon asks. “Just some customer.” Simon only nods, “What’d they want?” Simon quizzed. “Uh life insurance” Simon raises his eyebrows, “Why’d you hang up?” 

“They didn’t need it.” Johnny tried his best to sound convincing. “They didn’t need life insurance?” Simon could only smirk at his answer, “Why don’t  they need life insurance anymore?” Simon knew what he was doing, trying to get Johnny to confess. He used to do it all the time.

He’d try to break people down with the most simple questions, making them stumble over their words, back track. He’d make them really think. Simon knew it was you on the phone. He saw the way Johnny's eyes followed you out of the office. The way his body language changed after you left. “You know the people and the policies Si.” Johnny chuckled. 

“And you couldn’t find them a better plan?” He could see the gears turning in the poor guy’s head. “They didn’t want to hear it.” Johnny falters. “I’m sure.” He sighed. “I’ll let you get back to it then.” 

-

Tuesday Simon sat at his desk with his door wide open, watching Johnny answer phone calls, Seeing him twist the phone cord and chuckle. Sometimes ducking his head every time he needed to have a laugh. Johnny was smart, but not as smart as Simon. He knew what you two were up to. He knew every time you called. So he decided to catch Johnny in a little trap. 

Simon checked your work file, getting your number he dials it on the company phone. Your phone rings only once before you answer, “Johnny, you’re gonna get in trouble-” Simon almost wants to gag. “So you’re the one calling about life insurance?” Simon taunts. Dead silence is heard on your end, “Why’re you calling.” You sound mad and He notes your tone, it's bitter and spiteful. “Cause your stuff is here.” He smirks, kicking his feet up on his desk. 

-

On the other side of the phone you’re laying in bed on your computer filling out applications. “I'll pick it up on friday.” You roll your eyes, hoping he can hear it. “Why not today?” Simon’s voice deep on the phone. Which is very different from Johnny's. Johnny goofs around a lot, poking fun at people from your old job, laughing at the text messages you send. Johnny’s lighthearted. He’s cutesy, Simon’s not. Simon’s like that Itch you can’t scratch. That stray cat you feed, who won’t stay with you but wants your food. 

“I have stuff to do” You huff. “Like what?” His gravelly voice makes a weird feeling in your stomach. “Like, none of your business.” Simon only laughs at your response. “Why’d you call?” You grumble. “Because you need to pick up your stuff.” 

“That’s not happening today.” Simon only hums at your answer. “So it’s happening Friday?” You pull the phone away from your face to roll your eyes yet again, “Yes, Simon.” you answer annoyed. You both are silent for a moment, “You know you could come back whenever you want, right?” Simon confesses. “I’m not.” You say and hear Simon's deep breath on the other end. 

“Is that all?” Annoyance still in your voice. “That’s all.” (okay miranda priestly!!!!) Simon says and the phone clicks. You let out a deep sigh. You feel hot from the phone call (great simon, now my chussy’s wet!) His voice sounded so deep, like he’d been napping all day. That was the downside of quitting, no more eye candy. Simon was so handsome until he opened that mouth of his. He was so smooth sometimes. Like when there’d be something wrong with your computer and he’d hover over you to fix it. Just effortlessly handsome. He was so mean to you though. Maybe he didn’t mean it, maybe that’s who he was because of the military. Or maybe he was just that way because he just is.

Your phone rings again, the supermarket’s number on your screen. You’d been emailing the store's manager, going back and forth about a potential position for you. The best they could do was a cashier which you thanked whatever God that was out there. 

“When’s the earliest you can come in?” The lady on the other line asked, “Is Thursday okay?” you ask , “That’s the earliest for you?” the lady’s voice monotone. “Uh,y-yeah.” you stammer a bit. “Uniforms a black shirt and black pants come in at 7. I’ll have someone to train you.” You almost jump off your bed, a temporary job secured. Step two is now in motion. 

“Okay thank you!” You say cheesing extremely hard. Once you hear the other end click, you flop on your bed face first, squealing into your mattress. 

-

Wednesday, Simon walked into the office with a wide grin on his face. Saying hello and good morning to everyone. An evil plan to monitor the workplace, or in this instance, monitor Johnny. 

Standing with a mug full of black tea. He stood by Victor's desk where he had a full view of Johnny's screen and back. Johnny could feel Simon’s eyes but he chose to ignore him. Simon walked around the office slowly, pacing himself, waiting for your phone call. Simon sat at your desk, pretending he has interest in what Linda is saying, making ooh’s and Ah’s at some random story. He always wondered how you had so much patience with her nonsense, she just went on and on. His body language aligns with Linda but his ears listen for Johnny's hushed voice. 

That’s when the phone rings and Johnny’s eyes shoot at Simon, and from Simon’s peripheral he can see Johnny bring the phone to his ear slowly. Simon excuses himself from the conversation, remembering “he left his tea” by Victor's desk. Johnny shifts in his seat angling the phone away from Simon's vision.  

Simon picks up victors phone dialing “* # 55” and puts it to his ear hearing your boisterous laugh. “Johnny don’t say that!” you warn. Simon pays attention to Victor's screen. “What? I'm just joking.” He says casually, “ but I do think he’s obsessed with you.” he chuckles lowly. 

You let out another laugh, and all Simon could think is corny. “He’s probably listening as we speak.” Johnny ribbed. You giggle at His lousy joke, Simon only rolls his eyes, “Aren’t you two friends?” you say, “I mean, yeah. “ Johnny scratches the back of his neck. “Not as close as we used to be.” he shrugs, grabbing a notepad he draws random shapes. “When are you getting your stuff?” he asks, “Friday.” you answer, “Maybe we can grab lunch?” you suggest, “That’s what got us in trouble in the first place.” Johnny laughs. Simon puts the phone on the hook, not wanting to hear the rest of the conversation. 

Simon walks past Johnny, and he could hear him whispering he’s got to go and that he’ll let you know what time his lunch is on friday. Simon goes back to his office, he sits in his chair going through all of the forms Victor managed to fuck up while he listened to Johnny and yours conversation. 

-

Thursday arrives and you're sitting outside waiting for the supermarket to open, you can see your old office in the distance, all your old coworkers entering the building. “You’re the new hire?” A man with a name tag that says “kyle” on it asks you. “Yeah.” you say standing from the chairs on the store patio. “I’m kyle.” he shakes your hand. You introduce yourself and you both walk into the store. “Are you training me?” you question, “Oh no, that’s Ashley, she’s waiting for you in the break room, she wanted me to come get you.” He answers. “Oh cool,.” you follow him to the back of the store. “What do you do here? If you don’t mind me asking.” 

“I’m one of the butchers.” he smiles. “Oh.” you say smile fading a bit, “I just cut and trim the meat.” he chuckles. “Oh I thought-” 

“I know what you mean.” he says as he opens the break room door for you. “You’re set.” 

-

Down a couple of buildings, Simon stares at the vending machine, nothing looks appealing. Simon noticed all the Snapples left behind. He knew you liked those, you were the only one who’d buy them. He wonders what you’re up to. Simon kind of wants to call you and bother you about your stuff, just to hear your voice. He likes to frustrate you, and the way you groan every time he asks a dumb question on purpose. 

There was still thirty minutes til opening time, he could run down to the supermarket and grab something to eat, maybe another box of tea. Simon looks down at his watch, he’s the supervisor, he can manage to be a little late. 

So Simon put his coat on and walked out of the front door. A lonely walk to the supermarket, It was pretty quiet, not a lot of people out this early. Simon walked through the automatic doors, lo and behold there you stood behind the register, refreshing your memory. Simon saw you joking with the lady that was training you, making jokes about how slow you were moving and you both laughed at the way you opened the cash register slowly. Simon wanted to walk up and say something, but he took a glance at his watch and just pretended he didn’t see you. 

Simon walked up and down the aisle trying to find something that would please him, so he settled for two granola bars, a cup of yogurt, and a new box of black tea since he was running low.  

-

You finished ringing up the teenage girl who bought four packs of gum and tried to buy a pack of cigarettes. You see a familiar figure bending to the lowest shelf to grab something. You felt your eyes may be deceiving you, you kind of been paranoid hoping you wouldn’t run into any of your old coworkers. 

And maybe you had a sixth sense. Self check out wasn’t open and you were the only person on the registers. You could hurl. There he was standing with two granola bars, a yogurt cup all in one hand and the box of black tea in the other. Simon walked towards your register placing the items on the conveyor belt. The items move towards you slowly. You both watched the items closely.

“Well this is awkward.” 

#supervisor!simon #simon ghost riley #simon riley x reader #simon riley x you #simon ghost x reader #simon riley imagine #simon riley #ghost x reader #ghost mw2 #ghost cod #cod mw2 #cod mw3 #john soap mactavish #johnny soap mactavish #soap x reader #soap mw2 #cod #kyle gaz garrick #gaz cod #cod 141

[inkdrinkerworld]

my personal dick hcs 🗣️

dick's the kinda guy to put his hand over the table corner so you don't hit your head(( dick's the kinda guy to not know how to use tiktok bc hes so busy he never had time to learn 😭 dick's the kinda guy make you go to a football game with him even if you know nothing ab the sport

dick's the kinda guy cover a price tag whenever your shopping together so you don't worry about the price when he buys it for you( dick's the kinda guy to buy you a secret engagement ring like 10 months after dating because HE KNOWS you're soulmates 😭😭😭

Omg the last one??? Dick’s conversation with his brothers about you after showing them the ring.

“You’re crazier than I thought, Grayson.” Damien says and Dick shrugs.

“It’s been ten months, you can’t just get married.” Jason says, but he knows if Dick really wanted to you’d have the ring tomorrow.

“Why not? People have gotten married after less months together.” Dick says, eyes on the ring and there’s a throng of images playing behind his eyes of how he would propose and how you’d look with the ring on.

Damien rolls his eyes. “She’s nice but have you thought about this fully? What if her personality switches? What if she’s not who she says she is.” Always the pessimist, his little brother.

“I already know you ran background checks on her Damien, she checks out. She’s exactly who she says she is, and I love her. It’s inevitable that we get married.” Dick defends you and throws his brother a little under the bus.

Dick looks at Jason waiting for another objection. “It’s your life, if you think she’s the one, do it.” Is what Jason says and honestly the smile that splits Dick’s face is worth the support- even if ten months is crazy to Jason.

Dick spends the rest of the afternoon planning just how he’s going to ask the question… he knows you want a spring wedding so he’s going to need to be quick.

#dickgrayson #dick grayson #dick grayson one shot #dick grayson imagine #dick grayson fanfiction #dick grayson fluff #dick grayson blurb #dick grayson fic #dick grayson drabble #dick grayson x black reader #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson x you #dick grayson x yn #dick grayson x gender neutral reader #dick grayson x y/n #dick grayson x female!reader

[neptunedivine]

astro observations pt. ii

hi! I hope you’re doing well! I know it's been a while. I have a lot of things I wanna talk about. But for now, here are some observations I've noted since I've been gone. I hope you enjoy the read!

mutable signs and intelligence ✧ ALL MUTABLE PLACEMENTS SHOULD BE KNOWN FOR THEIR INTELLIGENCE. Since Virgo and Gemini are both ruled by mercury, I feel like this is a given. Sagittarius rules the 9H which controls higher education, so the same thing can be said for them. But then people throw Pisces under the bus…as if Virgo isn’t their sister sign. I feel like people see sister signs as opposites of each other, but in reality, they have their sister’s traits in subtlety.

As a Pisces sun and mercury myself, I understand the anxiety my Virgo homies get, it’s f*cking intense. But will I ever feel it full throttle? I don’t think so and I’m thankful for it.

But yeah, Pisces placements are not airheads, their smart too. I just think their intelligence is out of the ordinary or just not palatable like the other signs.

9H suns ✧ Kind of an addendum to my last bullet, but a lot of 9H and 12H sun celebrities are really smart. I’ve noticed this with Kendrick Lamar because he’s a 9H sun (in Gemini @ 9° -- damn), and he’s considered a conscious rapper (a subgenre of hip-hop that focuses on creating awareness and imparting knowledge). When I think of him, his words always have meaning, they’re not said just because. The same thing can be said about SZA (9H Scorpio sun @ 16°) and Frank Ocean (12H Scorpio sun 4°).

I'm noticing that they're both Scorpio suns at a Cancer degree, I might investigate that more in the future.

When they put out a project, I get annoyed when people immediately have a response (in all I think I get annoyed when this happens to any long-awaited album), because with the lyricism they have, let the words marinate. Their words are never just face value, there's always a deeper meaning.

SZA is also just smart period. She went on this little biology rant a couple of weeks ago. I was shocked but I loved it. Idk sometimes I forget that celebrities have other traits because they choose what they present to their audience and a lot of the time that isn’t intelligence.

✧ Do any other Pisces mercuries talk in funny voices or accents a lot? Like an unhealthy amount? Just me? Okay.

✧ Undeveloped Pisces placements want yes men to their delusions.

LGBTQIA+ ✧ Having mutable + Aquarius Venus/Mars placements and/or aspects could be an indicator of identifying as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Mutable placements are used to changing their mind a lot, so when it comes to who they’re interested in, they might not have a fixed answer. With aqua placements, they’re not used to sticking to the traditional. So going against the grain with who they’re romantically/sexually involved with is a common manifestation.

mars-jupiter and clumsiness ✧ Those with Mars-Jupiter aspects can be clumsy. Maybe because Mars can rule the physical body and Jupiter expands, they may be overestimating their range of motion.

aries/1H mars and headaches ✧ These placements can be prone to headaches, yes because Mars rules the physical body and anger, and Aries rules the head. But you guys are also quick to anger, so you kind of set yourself up for it. Breathe please, I don’t like seeing you stressed out babes.

aries/scorpio placements and tattoos ✧ Speaking of Aries placements, Aries and Scorpio placements, in general, could like tattoos, whether they want some themselves, have them, or just like the look of them. I feel like Venus and Mars placements are attracted to those who have tattoos, while Mercury placements could have the desire to tattoo people/become tattoo artists. If you have Aries/Scoripo in your midheaven, this could be a good career for you!

that’s all for now! I hope you enjoyed the post, see you later!

#astro observations #astrology #astrology observations #astrology opinions #astro notes #astroblr #astrology notes #pisces #pisces placements #virgo #virgo placements #sagittarius #sagittarius placements #gemini #gemini placements #mutable signs #aquarius #aquarius placements #mars placements #jupiter placements #aries #scorpio #aries placements #scorpio placements #9th house #1st house

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Dirty Work 11

Warnings: this fic will include dark content such as bullying, familial discord/abuse, and possible untagged elements. My warnings are not exhaustive, enter at your own risk.

This is a dark!fic and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: You start a new gig and find one of your clients to be hard to please.

Characters: Loki

Note: Alright, another double duty day.

As per usual, I humbly request your thoughts! Reblogs are always appreciated and welcomed, not only do I see them easier but it lets other people see my work. I will do my best to answer all I can. I’m trying to get better at keeping up so thanks everyone for staying with me.

Your feedback will help in this and future works (and WiPs, I haven’t forgotten those!)

I love you all immensely. Take care. 💖

Her name is Leslie. The nurse with her graying brown hair and square jaw arrives just before eight. You tell her your father’s still in bed as you show her around; you go through the meals you prepped in the fridge and where his meds are and everything else. Still you feel like you’re forgetting something.

“I’ll go get him up,” you say.

“Miss, that’s my job,” she insists.

“Oh.”

“Don’t you worry, I’ve got twenty years under my belt. I’m certain you can see,” she touches the silver along her hairline, “we’ll get him up and at ‘em.”

“Mm, well.. He… isn’t much of a morning person. He can be a bit grumpy,” you warn her.

“That’s for me to worry about. I earn my money, hon. You look like you’re in a hurry,” she puts a hand on her hip, “you can call me and check in, huh? I know it’s hard when you’ve been a caretaker for so long. It’s not easy handing over the reins.”

You falter. Caretaker? You never really thought of it like that. You’re his daughter. You care for him sure, but that’s just what you do. It isn’t the control, it’s feeling like you’re pawning him off on someone else. Like you’re shrugging off responsibility.

“I just… worry about him,” you say.

“That means you’re a good daughter,” she praises, “now off with you. Look at you, all dressed for work. Promise, we’ll send an update at lunch time. By then, I’ve usually got a handle on things.”

You pout and wet your lips with the tip of your tongue, “thank you.”

“It’s my job, and I love it,” she assures you.

You feel a little better as you put your shoes on and say a final goodbye. You can’t help but be nervous. What if she calls you before you can even get to work? What if your dad chases her off? He can be downright nasty when he means to.

You head off with your big leather bag, your body on autopilot as your mind races a thousand miles ahead of you. Everything happened so fast. Your phone call turned into an email and a quick placement. You can’t believe how simple it all was. That’s what puts you on edge. Nothing is ever that easy.

You shudder as you step onto the bus. There’s worry behind you and before you. Certain not to be late again, you take the earlier route. It’s a different driver. The whole change throws you off.

You get to the stop well before your shift begins. You saw a cafe just before the last stop. You teeter, wondering if you have time, or even the money. Your first check cleared and you’ve doled it out almost to the cent. Just a little left for yourself.

You retrace the route to the cafe nestled beside the park and the library. The residential area borders on the more elite properties like Mr. Laufeyson. You can only dream of living in a neighbourhood like this, where you can walk without looking over your shoulder.

The cafe is mostly empty as you enter. You don’t really go to places like this. There’s been a few times you got a tea from MacDonald’s but nothing like this. You look at the menu handwritten in chalk and squint as if trying to solve a puzzle.

“What are we looking at today, miss?” The barista greets. You can’t find the teas anywhere.

“Erm, I wanted some tea, please,” you step up to the counter.

“Sure thing. What kind?” She points to the little board beside her till. Oh.

You read the options; they all sound fancy but you prefer what you know. 

“Earl grey, please,” you order.

“Of course. Would you like a fog or plain?”

“Um, I… don’t know,” you cringe.

“No worries, fog is a latte, we steam it up and all that.”

“Uh,” you rub your neck, “I guess I could try it.”

“Alright, plain dairy?”

“Milk, yeah,” you confirm awkwardly as you dig out your coin purse.

You wait patiently after paying. Your cheeks are on fire and you take your drink with a thank you before fleeing. Another place you don’t fit. You inhale the scent of the tea but don’t taste it as the temperature burns your hand through the cardboard.

You already regret the indulgence. You don’t know why you had the thought. The idea of being so early put you off and lingering outside like a creep didn’t sound any better. You set off back towards the Laufeyson abode and blow the steam away as it sleep through the small slotted lid

The gate code, the pathway along the side of the house, the flapping birds and buzzing bees, the smell of pollen and the rustle of leaves. You leave the spring behind you as you let yourself in the back door into the grey silence. You leave your shoes on the mat and wander down the hall.

You’re met by a shadow that appears from around the staircase, almost as if expecting you. You slide to a stop in only your socks as Mr. Laufeyson wears his usual discerning expression. You grip the cup tight as foam seeps through the slot. He looks you up and down.

“That does not belong in the library,” he taps the lid.

You stare at the cup. You should’ve thought about that. You can’t have that around the nice furniture and all those books.

“Yes, Mr. Laufeyson, of course,” you accept.

“So…” he glares at the cup.

“Er, Mr. Laufeyson, may I have this in the kitchen? I’m early–”

“Very well,” he allows. “I need to be mindful of time today, yes.”

You nod and retreat, surprised as he follows you into the kitchen. You set your bag at your feet and rest the cup on the counter. You take off the lid to let the heat out.

“I am to be away. I’ll need a bag packed,” he instructs, “your duties will continue in my absence, yes?”

“Mr. Laufeyson,” you put your hand to the side of the cup.

He sighs as he glances at the tea again, “finish that then report to me. I’ve a list.”

“Yes, Mr. Laufeyson.”

He leaves you just as abruptly. You turn to the foamy tea and frown. You’ve not even begun the day and somehow it feels like you’ve already messed up.

🧹

The suitcase awaits you at the door of Mr. Laufeyson’s room. You near and stop before the leather bag, reminded of your venture beyond that door. The disaster of your entry and frantic flight that followed. 

You try to shake it off as you grab the suitcase, the list pressing against the handle as it crinkles. You enter and peer around the space. The deja vu nearly chases you out. You cross to the bed and put the bag on top, flipping it open to begin the task.

You want this done as quickly as possible, just as Mr. Laufeyson directed. You smooth out the paper to find his long cursive in neat lines. You can admire the artistry of his hand. Your own writing would look juvenile in comparison.

In the bathroom, you gather up the noted toiletries into a pouch that matches the luggage. It feels intrusive but you try not to think. It’s simple, like an inventory. Nothing deeper than that. The rich scent wafts from the little vial of cologne as you slip it through the zipper, clinging to your fingertips even as you seal it up.

You take the little bag into the room and start on gathering the clothes. A number of shirts and slacks, socks and briefs, ties and cuff links, even shoes. There is no specification of which ones. You slide open the closet and peruse the varying dark shades, only a few crisp white shirts to break the tone, though the ties and pocket square have more diversity.

You’re overwhelmed by the selection. Your own dresser contains as many shirts and pants as you can count. Your newly bought work clothes have proven troublesome as you don’t have anywhere to store them. His own wardrobe is extravagant in both quality and quantity when compared to your own.

You take out a deep blue shirt. It’s satiny and sleek. You’re not sure it’s fit for a family visit. You can assume that’s where he’s off to, though he didn’t confirm it outright. He just handed you the list and shooed you away.

You trade it for a plainer fabric but a similar hue. You take out three as noted on the page and lay them out neatly. Next the trousers. Those will have to match the tops. You hadn’t thought of that though the list is more helpful in this manner; only two pairs, one brown and one black. 

Right, but what shade of brown? Tan or dark or somewhere in the middle. Or those ones with the light blue plaid pattern. It’s a bit warm for wool so definitely not that. No tweed either. You grab a black pair and turn back to solve the riddle of what shade of brown to choose.

As you move the hangers slowly over the rod, a scuff from the hallway interrupts your browsing. You don’t look over as you assume it’s own Mr. Laufeyson on his way to his study. You’re surprised as instead he sweeps into the room without announcement, muttering to himself as he does.

“One thing after another,” he murmurs as he tugs on his tie, tearing it loose completely to toss it towards the bed. You’re completely stunned by his entrance, “I swear…”

He nears as if you aren’t even there, his long fingers fleetly unbuttoning his shirt. You blink and back away, averting your eyes from the wet spots spattered across the evergreen linen. You clear your throat and scuttle towards the bed.

“Sorry,” you babble as you try to sidle past him. Flashbacks of that day tinge your memory once more. This time the bed does not obscure your sight.

“You will have someone tend to that damnable sink,” he demands.

“Yes, Mr. Laufeyson,” you answer without looking back as you hurry to the door.

“Not this moment, you’re not done packing,” he snaps, “where are you going?”

“Mr. Laufeyson, I just–” you peek at him as he unbuttons his cuffs and rips the shirt down his shoulders. You get a glimpse of his muscles chest and thick arms, “I can come back.”

“You will finish what you started,” he shakes his head as he dumps the shirt onto the bed and turns to face the closet. His back is just as finely formed. You try not to notice as you put your focus to the floor. “I only need a new shirt.”

He flicks through the hangers and pulls out a new piece, shaking it out before slipping his arms into it. You return to the bed and pick up the list. The brown slacks. He doesn’t budge as he buttons his new shirt. 

“I do intend to leave today so do not tarry,” he girds.

You flinch and near him. He does not move as you come up to the closet and grab the first pair of brown pants you see. He catches your hand, squeezing it around the hanger as he tisks.

“Not those ones,” he guides your arm as he rehooks the hang on the bar. He draws your grasp off and leads it to another pair, “these will do.”

He lets you go as your hand tingles. As his shirt remains only half-buttoned, it feels strangely intimate. You take the pants and swiftly back away. You go to the bed again and focus on fitting everything into the bag.

You sense him lingering behind you. You hear his fingers work at the buttons then the soft tuck of his shirt tails into his pants, the clink of his buckle as he adjusts his belt. You take the list again, half-pretending to read it. 

“I put thought to it,” he stands at the foot of the bed, watching you. The weight of his gaze is like the blazing heat of an open fire. It makes you want to melt. “The gazebo. I would like to have an assessment. If it proves salvageable, then let it be restored.”

You nod as you turn to find the socks noted on the list in the small drawer of the tall dresser. You count them out and spin back. He lowers himself onto the bed, bending one leg up as leans on one hand.

“Have a carpenter in and have them leave an estimate. We’ll review on my return.”

“Yes, Mr. Laufeyson,” you gulp.

He makes no move to leave. He remains, his gaze unwavering. Is this some test? Is it suspicion? You peek over as he pulls his arm back and tugs his cuff over the black and blue watch. Does he think you’ll secret away a silk tie or a pair of socks?

You keep on, with no other option. You have nothing to prove, you know you’re an honest person. You move the pouch into the bag as he hums thoughtfully. You keep your hands moving as you try to fit everything neatly inside. 

You look up at him, steeling yourself as you find his green eyes pinpointed on you, “Have I forgotten something, Mr. Laufeyson?”

You stop your hands, clutching tight the fabric in them. He smirks and his eyes fall down. You follow them and find yourself grasping a pair of his briefs. Your lips part and you quickly tuck them in with the rest.

“No, I think you’ve been quite thorough,” he slithers and rises from the bed, “I will be off in an hour, I expect to find my bag by the door.”

“Yes, Mr. Laufeyson.”

#loki #dark loki #dark!loki #loki x reader #fic #dark fic #dark!fic #dirty work #au #maid au #series #avengers #thor #mcu #marvel

[tobi-smp]

[looks left, looks right]

I've been holding this one back until people got cool with a lot of things very quickly but I think nows the time

lets have a quick examination of c!allium off the top of my head

1: ranboo joins the server and is immediately heckled by dream

2: that same day he meets tommy and they have the famous exchange where tommy asks ranboo if he likes flowers (to rib him) and ranboo accidentally punches him trying to give it to him. this is cute on its own, but of course we Know that tommy loves flowers, that he covered his house in them, that he sung to the plants in l'manberg

3: and importantly, that he took the flower

4: tommy immediately taking ranboo under his wing and running off to Do A Prank with him. this is really important because this is tommy trying to go back to the way that things were Before. the way that he'd had fun with his family and what he did when he felt safe and secure. this is tommy being silly with a new person he might consider a friend, but it's Also him trying to reconnect with that happy Free feeling he'd had before

5: they'd made a bunker specifically to plan out their prank, and he'd put the allium that ranboo gave him into a chest hidden for safe keeping. And That Allium Survived. he kept it and it survived

6: when they're caught not because what they did was Actually out of line (griefing was an every day occurrence, even and Especially between l'manberg and dream's territory), tommy Deliberately Did Not Throw Ranboo Under The Bus.

he didn't take it seriously, he made fun of everyone because the situation was ridiculous, but he Never implicated ranboo. and in fact, he only started Admitting to the crime When Ranboo Was Being Implicated. he Deliberately Took The Fall For Him.

(and it's worth noting that the evidence that was used to tie to tommy to the crime in the first place were signs that Ranboo wrote).

7: and in return Ranboo Stood Up For Tommy. ranboo is a character defined by his conflict avoidance and lack of spine, But He Stood Up For Him. he admitted to being a part of it, and he pointed Out that tommy was taking the fall to try to protect him, and he did so Specifically to counter tommy being called selfish.

8: then in between the trial and exile day tommy opened up to ranboo, both about being afraid of his relationship with tubbo falling apart AND with his relationship with wilbur. admitting to having nightmares and admitting that this fear of losing tubbo is tied to having lost wilbur. this is something he'd never said out loud to anybody at this point, and it'd be Many Many more months until he'd open up about it to anybody else.

9: while there Were people who visited tommy in exile multiple times, ranboo was undeniably the most consistent (outside of ghostbur, until well. dream tried to kill him)

he visited him in person And he wrote to him regularly. dream saw this as a threat so explicitly that he tried to sabotage their writing, to which ranboo circumvented it.

he'd regularly talk to tommy and try to help him while he was breaking down. he's on the of the only people on the entire server to have a full picture of what happened and it ate at him.

10: he was Also the first person after techno to find out that tommy was still Alive.

11: ranboo's "dream is the reason" being intrinsically tied to how he's Seen dream hurt tommy and rip him apart from his friends.

12: His Speech At The Green Festival. "why can't you guys just choose PEOPLE" not direct at tommy but to Defend Him. why didn't they defend him because he was their Friend? why did the politics Matter when they all knew what was happening was wrong? (of course, we know the answer to that. but ranboo wasn't there to see it. he didn't know)

13: ranboo being there at doomsday, despite everything he was there. I Think About It

14: Ranboo Being There At The Disc War Finale, Finally Putting Himself Between Tommy And Dream. Dream Specifically Looking At Him In A Crowd Of People. I Think About It I Think About It.

15: Tommy's Death, My Fucking God Tommy's Death. him finding the allium and realizing that tommy had kept it. him openly furious at the way the server treated him, how nobody saved him and how all of this could've been prevented if people had just Acted, if they'd Cared. everyone including himself.

chewing out sam for leaving him, sam talking to him bluntly about exile, I Think About It I Think About It I Think About It

16: ranboo and tubbo shadowing tommy after his revival. killing mobs for him, putting blocks under him while he's walking, watching to make sure that he's okay. Trying To Help Him Be Okay. doing therapy with him, talking with him. so afraid that he'll just disappear. "does he make you happy?" I think about it

17: tommy having a place in the mansion, even if he'd never moved in, he was supposed to be there

18: a major part of ranboo's struggle with his enderwalking not Just being about the fear of it happening at all, But The Realization That He Might've Hurt Tommy and how it absolutely Ate Him Up Inside

In Conclusion: if beeduo marriage hadn't happened I fully believe people would've started shipping c!ranboo and c!tommy and all of the discourse about rpf would've happened about them instead, and then years later tommy would've dropped his own actual rpf featuring his real self. this alternate timeline is way funnier

#dream smp #dsmp #tommyinnit #ranboo #allium duo #for the record #in my opinion canon benchtrio is that post about a polycule except one of them is just there #tommy isn't dating any of them but he's there #again this is because this is funny to me

[pedgito]

Hey! I'm very awkward when it comes to requesting stuff but I'm shooting my idea and if you decide to write it, awesome, if not, I'll still adore you and your work. Anyway, what about a reader that's always been kinda there and around but Eddie never noticed her. Maybe she lives in the trailer park as well and one day Wayne orders Eddie to help out neighbors with something and Eddie gets surprised by her existence or something...

I dunno, I just like the "falling for someone who was already there all the time" trope...

Thanks xx

author’s note: this has full fic potential and i love it, but enjoy what little drabble my brain could handle. <3

cw: sfw, neighbors/meet-cutes, set in 86, reader and eddie run in different circles, wayne is such a dad he can’t help it, this isn’t really fluffy exactly, but it’s very sweet

word count: 2k

Living near the Munson’s had always been, for a better lack of words, eventful. You move in six years prior, the world being ushered into a new era of the 80s, a quaint but rundown neighborhood that looked normal, and a new school to throw yourself into, again—your parents were also never really home.

So, as a result, you’d learn to care for yourself. It wasn’t their fault—things were tough, money needed to be made, and you were at the perfect age to manage keeping yourself alive and fed, regardless if it was done in a justifiable or acceptable manner. And the neighbors were nice—most of them, at least.

You’d learned pretty quickly that it was a place for the older residents of Hawkins, men and women in their late 50s alongside a couple small families—a young woman with a small toddler, another family of four, and right next door; an older gentleman and his son.

You never spoke to him, not once. Wayne, the older man in question, only finally spoke to you when he caught you outside on an early morning taking out the trash, parents having already left for the day.

He worked nights, so he had just come home from a very long shift, a cigarette perched upon his lips. He was nice, polite—but obviously exhausted.

“You alright, kid?” He asks suddenly, though his voice is calm.

He wasn’t oblivious to the fact that you were almost always on your own, driveway empty of cars or even a bike, leaving you chasing down the bus or walking to school most mornings.

You shrug honestly, offering a small smile.

“I’m managing.” You tell him, meaning it. “Thanks for asking.”

After that, it becomes a regular thing. Wayne checks up on you when he can, quick and fleeting conversations in the early mornings when the sun is just starting to come up.

You learn that his son isn’t actually his son, rather his nephew. He’s a couple years older then, trudging his way through the beginnings of a tumultuous freshman year—and you don’t see him often, only by coincidence in the halls where he doesn’t even glance your way.

He’s awkward, tall and lanky, hair in the weird stage of being too long and too short all at once—he’s probably growing it out, you think. It’s a wild next of curls that is nothing a brush couldn’t fix, but it didn’t seem like he owned one. Eddie, that is.

Wayne calls him Edward when he’s mad, coming home too late, being loud when he’s so desperately trying to sleep—you can hear all of it, the walls of your trailer are so thin that nothing is safe.

And life is busy; those six years pass in a breeze, but things are still the same. You’ve never spoken a word to Eddie, your parents are still gone most of the time, if not more now that you’re of age, and Wayne still looks as tired as before, though less buried under the weight of scourging for cash.

Eddie must have some type of job, or something—and he’s extremely loud, always playing with his guitar on the weekends when he’s home, amp placed under the bedroom window adjacent to yours. It’s not like you can really complain, it’s broad daylight, most people are out living their lives, but you’re stuck at home.

He can sing, you’ll give him that. So, it’s not all bad.

He drives too, a clunky piece of junk as Wayne calls it, but to Eddie, it’s his beloved. Wayne almost offers to ask Eddie if he’ll give you lifts to school, but you’re adamant in your refusal.

“I like walking, it’s fine.” You assure him. “I wouldn’t want to bother him.”

“Boy’s like my son, he’ll do it if I ask.” Wayne says, eyes flicking up toward Eddie’s bedroom, his shadow crossing the window. “You two would get along, you know.”

“I dunno,” You disagree, “we don’t exactly run in similar crowds.”

Wayne makes a noise, a small huff of acknowledgment.

“He’s struggling,” Wayne admits, “on his third try at graduating and I’m starting to think it’d be easier to pull him out and help him get his GED.”

You knew that much—Eddie should’ve graduated already, yet he was still stuck at the same lunch table for those following years, preaching to young minds of the susceptible D&D nerds.

“Maybe—“ You agree, but Wayne quickly cuts you off.

“Hey, you’re smart,” Wayne assumes, but he’s seen the textbooks you’ve brought home, levels above the classes Eddie takes, “got good grades?”

“Mostly A’s,” You admit, “m’trying to get into a good college and AP classes look good on paper.”

Wayne thinks for a moment, falling silent as he flicks the ashes away from his cigarette, “Think you can do me a solid?”

And Wayne’s never steered you wrong, even offering you dinner when your parents forget to buy groceries for the week, making sure your belly is just as full as his. He constantly grumbles about how careless you parents were, similar to Eddie’s—you never pried on that matter, feeling like it was none of your business.

“I can try.”

“How do you feel about tutoring Eddie?” He asks curiously, “He’s a good kid, I swear—he just can’t focus for shit.”

“I…don’t know.” You reply wearily, “I don’t think he wants to take that stuff seriously—“

“He does, he does,” Wayne insists, “it’s hard for him to learn in that type of setting, I think he needs the one on one. I understand if you don’t want to, I just think it might be worth tryin’.”

Wayne senses your hesitance.

“I’m sorry for asking, you don’t have to—“

“I will,” You respond quickly, not harping on it any longer, “I mean, I can.”

And maybe this was the biggest mistake you’ve ever made, but you wouldn’t know if you didn’t try.

You knock on the trailer door a couple days later, in the earlier hours on a Saturday morning, a book clutched to your chest and a tired smile on your face—but when the door opens, you’re not met with the same expression.

If anything, it’s surprise that’s riddling his face.

Wayne must not have said anything, which is just as mortifying.

“Who—“ Eddie stops himself, eyeing you carefully, “are you—don’t I have a class with you?”

You nod slowly, “Econ, yeah.”

“How do you know where I live?” Eddie asks, though he doesn’t sound offended, more amused if anything. “Did Dustin put you up to this?”

Henderson was a little shit, you knew that much—but you’d never spoken a word to him either.

“Eddie,” He’s just as shocked you know his name, eyes raking over your carefully, “I live next door.”

Eddie’s brows furrow, door cleaning open to peek at the trailer beside him, gaze quickly flicking back toward you. And suddenly it’s all clicking in his head, though slowly.

“You must be the reason I have to make an extra plate of dinner, right?” Eddie asks with a soft smile.

Whatever earlier assumptions you had about him dissipated into nothing, melted by the grin on his face and the subtle dimple in his cheek.

“It’s not my doing—Wayne worries about me.” You tell him, hoping he’ll understand. “Food’s good though, better than what I could make.”

Eddie widens the door silently, without question really, allowing you to step inside. It’s as barren as it is cluttered, random knick knacks on the shelves, counters, but devoid of trash.

“Wait, holy shit—you’re friend’s with Buckley, aren’t you?”

It’s startling, but you nod. You were—also in band with her, along with a long list of extracurriculars—why that one stood out the most to him, you’d never understand. You weren’t even aware Eddie knew you existed.

“Sort of,” You land on, “We’ve got a lot of classes together.”

And as if you weren’t already taken off-guard, Eddie speaks again.

“You play…trumpet?” He asks, snapping his fingers in celebration when you nod. “And piano?”

“How do you—no one knows that.”

“Oh,” Eddie says, genuinely confused, “I saw you playing a couple months ago—I was on the way to Hellfire and you were by yourself, I thought you were practicing for something—“

“You watched me play?” You ask curiously.

“Yeah, yeah—you’re really fuckin’ good.” Eddie admits, “It’s not really my style but I love music, so—“

And he’s mentally beating himself up over not recognizing you sooner, feeling like a complete ass.

“Well, I don’t know if Wayne told you, but he asked me to help tutor you.” You explain, “I get it you want to kick me out, I’m just trying to do good by your uncle, you know?”

Eddie shrugs carelessly, “We can try, but I’m not promising it’ll help.”

“Are you sure you have the time?” You ask, knowing his weekends were usually occupied by something a lot more distracting and loud. “No guitar practice today?”

Eddie snorts at that, “Shit, yeah—I’m sorry about that.”

“I’ve listened to it for six years, I’m used to it.”

Eddie gawks at that, feeling even worse.

“Hey, it’s fine—I wouldn’t notice me either.”

He smiles slightly, “It’s not that.”

You plead with him silently, following him to the small table tucked in the corner of his trailer, two chairs on either side.

“Kinda thought you were a ghost, honestly—“ Eddie admits, “or just like, figment of my imagination.”

You scrunch your nose in confusion, taking a seat across from him.

“I swear I’ve never seen you around here—that’s mostly my fault, I’m not home often.” Eddie tells you, “but I remembered your face when I’d see you at school, didn’t know your name—I mean, I still don’t but—“

You snort softly, offering him your name with a quiet interjection. He nods knowingly, grin growing wider.

“I feel like an asshole for not realizing you’ve been my neighbor for that long—Wayne always talked about you, kind of in passing, but I never thought anything of it.”

“I’m not offended, Eddie.” You tell him, hoping he’d understand.

And it’s not that Eddie didn’t remember your face, he just couldn’t believe it was real, that you were real. He could’ve sworn you didn’t exist at all, like he’s been making you up in his mind.

“Can we make a deal?” Eddie asks suddenly.

“Depends.” You counter, smile pulling at your face.

“If this works, will you teach me some stuff on the piano?”

Eddie was the definition of never judging someone at first glance, his interesting style contrasting his personality in the best ways. He’s always came off as dark, pensive, similar to his uncle in the way he always had a cigarette between his lips or a scowl on his face.

“If this works—sure.” You agree with ease.

“God, I feel like a total ass.” Eddie admits, slamming his fist against the table softly, “Six years, are you sure?”

“It’s not for lack of trying, Eddie.” You tell him, “If I wanted to be noticed you would’ve known. I’m really good at blending in, unfortunately.”

It still doesn’t change how he feels.

“Besides, you never realize how much people reveal about themselves when they don’t know you’re around.” You add shyly, eyes connecting with him briefly.

Eddie laughs slightly, leaning forward to flip the textbook open.

“We can circle back to that,” Eddie teases, “I won’t forget.”

There’s not a day that passes following where Eddie hasn’t wedged himself into your existence, determined to discover everything that he’s missed out on.

And it’s startling how much you like him, the fact of him being right out of reach for so long—it’s bittersweet.

Please consider a reblog if you enjoyed this fic! It’s makes a huge difference. ♡

#eddie munson headcanons #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson blurb #eddie munson #my writing

[k-dokja]

IT’S NO BIG DEAL — It's a little Big Deal actually.

Summary: You should meet his new friends... all two of them.

"What the hell is this?"

Arguably, he doesn't know if you'd look scarier or less scary without the huge knife you're waving. He has seen you beating people, some of them go out cold with only a kick to the face.

"Not only you went out and got caught up in gang fights, but you also brought back your unruly cohorts to my kitchen? Do you have no fear of death?"

Brad whispers next to him, "She called us unruly cohorts."

"She was raised well," Jake whispers back, "her vocabulary is more developed than us."

"I'm more terrified of the fact that she got us on our knees immediately," Jason hushes back at them, "Who is this girl? Why have you brought us to our deaths?"

Jake throws him a glance with a small smirk on his lips, "She's my future wife. Be nice to her, she'll be your future boss lady."

Jason opens his mouth but snaps it shut when you speak up. "Will you three stop whispering among each other and answer me already?"

With a pacifying smile, Jake raises his hand and gives you an imploring look. "We were hanging out after school and I mentioned to them how I often helped you cook. Hence..."

"Hence you brought them here to freeload?" You raise the knife and Jake flinches back. He knows he's in no real danger, but on some base levels of instinct, his mind's screaming at him to cower and run.

"When you put it like that, it sounds bad," his grin is strained, and he feels cold sweat running down his neck, "you mentioned wanting to test new recipes and I brought you new test subjects, that's all."

Immediately, Jason whips his head to stare at him. "That sounds even worse!"

Jake only grins further, like he didn't throw his friends under the bus a moment earlier. At least, you no longer look mad. You're mulling over his suggestion even, that look on your face when you contemplate is adorable.

Then you glare at him again, "Fine, but you better pull your weight," you say, "I'm not feeding you lots for free."

Brad and Jason are both staring at him now, but he ignores their wide eyes and gets back up on his feet. "As you command, my lady," Jake nods at his friends to follow his lead. After some reluctance, they follow.

You are quick with your delegation around the kitchen, he guesses that comes from your experience commanding him. He doesn't mind, making it go smoother without any unnecessary bickering. After listening to your precise instructions, Jason begins to dice the vegetables while Brad works to season the meat.

Jake has the easier task of helping you knead some dough. "What are we making?" He asks midway through his task, vaguely realizing he doesn't know what he's working on.

"I was going to make pot roast but since your friends probably want to eat sooner, I'm going to make roasted beef with vegetables," you say, "I'm reheating the stew I made yesterday and the rice only needs to be fried, I'll make tuna salad later. That should be quick to prepare."

He snorts. Even with your earlier scolding, you are making enough food to feed the three of them anyway. "Then what are these dough for?"

You throw him a perfunctory glance, "What else? Desserts."

Jake snickers but says nothing in response. Maybe he should have because his silence only leaves space for Jason to butt in. “So, how long have you two been dating?”

He can hear the record scratching in your head. From your expression alone, he knows your head must’ve blanked the moment you heard the question. Unlike you, Jake has no problem with the question. He could’ve taken the initiative to answer it, but he didn’t. Selfishly, he wants to hear the answer from you, even if it’s a denial.

“We aren’t dating,” you frown, “what gives you that impression?”

Jason fumbles, “Well, Jake said—”

Jake coughs loudly, cutting in. “It’s easy to misunderstand, the two of us often spend time with each other,” he hopes his explanation would temper any unfortunate outcome for him, “others can get the wrong idea.”

“Really?” You ask, nonplussed. Somehow, he’s disappointed by your quick recovery from the shock of the situation. “Guess that makes sense.”

Jake, on another hand, turns to Jason and pantomimes zipping his lips shut. He puts on a pleasant smile when you turn back with the pot of stew in your hands, his face is the picture of innocence. In his peripheral vision, he notices Brad clasping his hands in prayers. For who, he can't tell.

Thankfully, you notice none of that and what remains of the cooking session goes on without another noticeable hitch.

There are two things Jake predicted when he brought Jason and Brad over to your place. One of them is that they will see you and fall in love within three seconds because if that happened to him, then no reason why they should be infallible to your wily charm. The second thing is more plausible and amusing all the same, all it takes is for them to eat one bite of your cooking and they'd be heads over heels for you too.

He wouldn't blame them if they never want to leave afterwards. You're simply that irresistible.

Since the previous outcome didn't happen due to your unbridled rage, Jake has a pleased smile on his lips when the boys change their entire demeanour the moment they begin to eat. It's like watching someone actualizing their enlightenment in real-time. Fascinating and wild in equal measure, he can't say he doesn't enjoy watching it.

"So?" Jake asks the question you want to ask but is too polite to mention. You focus on your food, but he knows you're listening because there's a small smile on your lips when Jason answers.

"Holy shit," Jason gawks at him, "you get to eat like this every day?"

Jake grins, "Only when she feels generous enough to grace me with her blessing."

You stick your tongue out at him but the smile on your face when you look back down at your food tells him all. It has been a nice idea bringing Brad and Jason over, even if he did spring it on you out of nowhere.

He could've spent the remainder of the meal watching you, but he knows there are far more productive things he can do. Jake turns to Brad, who has been silent the whole time. Getting his opinion would be a good idea, too. Even if—

"Hey! Eat faster! Brad is eating everything!"

By the end of the meal, Jason and Brad have volunteered for dishes and cleaning duty. You sit at the dining table to monitor them, if only because you don't want anything to happen to your family's chinas. Jake takes the chance to sit back, too. He would love to lend a helping hand, but three would be a crowd.

Besides, he enjoys the chance to talk with you without the interlopers.

"You don't mind?"

He nods at his new friends milling around the kitchen. It'd be a moment before you give him your answer, but the wait is worth it because he's warm all over now. "Not really," you say, "I'd have preferred you giving me a head up so I can prepare better but... it's nice to see you hanging out with friends. You've been hanging out alone for so long."

Jake snorts, "I wasn't hanging out alone, I had you."

"I can't be your only friend, Jake," you chuckle, "'sides, we don't even go to the same school or study in the same grade, it's nice to see you having friends who have more in common with you."

"You and I have plenty in common," he says, "like... we live in the same neighbourhood."

You roll your eyes but your smile is affectionate when you look at him, "Yeah, and once you moved away after you finished school, we'll no longer be friends?"

"You make it sound bad," he laughs softly, "I won't let that happen."

"Mhm, whatever," you hum. "They seem nice, I hope the three of you will stay friends for long. It's better to have many people watching your back since you get into trouble all the time."

He can't help but grin, "Do I seem that unruly in your eyes?"

You arch an eyebrow at him, "Do you want to hear the truth? It will hurt your feeling."

"Please spare me then, my fair lady," he pleads mockingly, "I can only take so much of your cruelty."

Caught in the little bubble he has made with you, Jake fails to overhear the conversation his new friends are making behind his back. All the better because if either of you heard it, he wouldn't know how to play it off without lying.

"...He's whipped."

"He's definitely whipped."

#jake kim #jake kim x reader #lookism #lookism x reader #fics

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

Why are you and twinanimatronics spreading misinformation that Solar just calls himself cousin as a joke? I don't care what y'all ship, just at least don't spread misinformation like that. Proven in today's LAES episode, Lunar was quick to consider Solar as sibling despite Earth clarifying that he's a cousin. Point is, Solar wasn't joking about that.

Earth literally said that Solar isn't a cousin and gave him a title cause she likes giving a title for things.

They have clarified this at least a total of two times in their reaction episodes. And I really think it's the VA's way of saying "Ship what you like."

I say "joke" because Solar did call himself a cousin as a joke in the Christmas Episode. "Who's gonna give a gift to good ol' cousin Solar -he laughs- "

It's the only time he's referred to himself as such.

Every other time he's felt awkward about it every time Earth tends to bring it up.

I did not view Solar as a cousin LONG before Earth made a cute little title for him. She even acts like it's a non-official thing. And I still don't. I do not view Solar a sibling either.

I ship them as AU and not related.

I do not view Solar as related. I do not view him as a sibling. I do not view him as a distant relative either.

People who don't support SolarMoon Ship SunEclipse all the time.

Eclipse and Solar are literally the same person from a different dimention.

So Sun can be shipped with an Eclipse?

But Solar Can't?

What kinda weird logic is that?

By that Logic, Every single Sun and Moon themed animatronic is related.

Is Solar and Ruin shipped together incest?

Is Ruin and Eclipse shipped together incest?

Is shipping Gemini with Lunar Pedophila because one is a star being and the other is a robot????

What if Eclipse has a redemption arc and then Told Sun and Moon he wanted to be THEIR BROTHER... WHAT THEN?!?!?! WHAT THEN?! I'm curious actually. As an Eclipse x Sun shipper, what would you do then?!?!?

Earth and Lunar even joked that their family tree is basically nonexistant.

I think we need to normalize people Just saying "This ship isn't for me" and stop trying to pull a "GOTCHA" and trying to find an excuse things are morally reprehensible or throw people under the bus because they just liked the idea or possibilities of seeing two animatronic robots kiss.

#This is not even going to the ship tags #I am so tired man #I already cried last night about my real life #I don't need this #danachan's replies #danachan's asks #louder in the tags for the back: I DO NOT SHIP THEM AS RELATED #End discussion

[genericpuff]

Lore Olympus Art Analysis - Getting to the Bottom of It

For ages now it's been a common point of discussion - what's the process involved in Rachel's creation of Lore Olympus?

As a community, we've all discussed and speculated Rachel's process among herself and her assistants and how it seems to result in cheaper art each week. Same face syndrome, the overuse of the multiply tool, the dull backgrounds that often enter nightmare fuel territory, the lack of color vibrancy compared to Season 1, the repetitive poses and shots, the theories that different assistants are handling different aspects of individual panels, the clear lack of buffer, the list goes on and on.

But I think we've finally gotten to the bottom of what's going on. Or at least, deeper than we've gotten before and it feels like now we're closer to fully understanding Rachel's process than ever before.

Normally, I wouldn't care this much about dissecting the steps of creating a comic. Everyone's process is different, and when you're working with a team, that can introduce a whole new layer of understanding. I've worked with my own assistants in the past, trained to work in the animation industry which relies on coordination between people, and fully understand what's required to go into making a finalized piece of work put together by multiple people. All that's to say, having assistants doesn't necessarily mean you do less work.

When it comes to LO, though, I do feel this compulsion to tear into it more because Rachel seems to completely lack this understanding, and it shows in her work.

Before I continue, I want to throw in a quick disclaimer - when we criticize Rachel's art, it's not to throw any of her assistants under the bus. All of her assistants are incredibly skilled in their own right. When I criticize Rachel's art as a whole - regardless of who helped shape it into its final form - I'm criticizing not just the art itself, but her direction. Rachel is, essentially, a director of a team, and how she manages that team reflects how her work looks in the end after it's all been put together. I will be showing pieces of art from her assistants in this essay, none of this is to promote any shame or hate towards these people. This is purely an essay speculating on Rachel's directing capability and how she manages her team and is not meant to be taken as objective fact beyond what I am capable of proving as an outsider looking in. I consider her assistants people who are just being hired to do a job, I do not condone holding them responsible for the nosedive Lore Olympus has taken in quality over the past few years. These are simply points and speculations that myself and the ULO community came to after discussing it at length.

Alright, so, where to begin?

This essay started with me having a simple conversation with @loreolympusminoredits over on Instagram. They had pointed out a couple panels from a recent free episode where you could see the texturing wasn't being applied properly. You have to look really closely, but once you spot it, you can clearly see the outline of a square where the texturing block wasn't repeated.

It's VERY obvious in this last panel of Hades, look along the back of his shirt, you can clearly see the color warping from the texture block overlaid on top of him.

Now, I have a few theories for this on its own, it really depends on what drawing program these assistants are using. Some of them use Clip Studio. Others use Procreate. There is no consistent requirement in workstations or software among the team, which is Rachel's first mistake. There's a reason why the animation and film industry requires everyone to be using Adobe products whether they like it or not - because it keeps things consistent across the board. It doesn't matter how good you are at Clip Studio or how much you like Procreate, you need to be on the same software and hardware as everyone else to ensure that you can access the same tools, brushes, and workflow as the rest of the team. No one wants to have someone working primarily in Clip Studio who can't access the same brushes or files as the people working in Adobe. As much as I personally hate working in Photoshop, if I were to get an industry job, I would be expected to work in Photoshop, no questions asked. It's part of the job.

Moving on from that, this led me to wonder which assistant was doing these panels, because it's clear that this texturing problem is mostly at the end of Episode 242 during the Persephone / Hades conversation. There's also one stand-out feature that tells us it's the same person making these panels - the bobblehead necks.

Bobblehead necks have been a very noticeable feature in the comic's art decline over the past while. They typically happen when a character - especially a female one - is being drawn from the front. They're usually also defined with noticeable jugular and collarbone lines.

So, which assistant is it drawing the bobblehead necks?

Rachel's art team switches up a lot. Sometimes she has 3, sometimes she has as many as 8. Some assistants tag in, others are consistent.

So far the most noticeably consistent assistants in terms of participation since S2.2 (i.e. post-time skip S2) are Dnaeri, HardHeadedWoman, AmyKing89, and HeyItsJaki (as credited on their episodes). They're the usual team credited at the end of episodes, with the exception of maybe one artist not being present or an extra artist tagging in.

Upon checking their Instagrams, I am becoming way more certain of who does what and how Rachel does her process.

Let's start with HeyItsJaki:

Very thick lineart, distinguished collarbones, defined fingernails/fingers. Thick shading underneath the neck. Sometimes pouty lips if the expression calls for it.

Now let's look at HardHeadedWoman:

Very Disney/Warner Bros reminiscent art, with most notably, thick necks and distinguished jawline features on guys and hourglass figures/thin wrists/thin fingers on women.

And then we have Dnaeri:

It's harder to pin down her style because she seems to just draw whatever she's feeling like, but most notably are how she draws hands and collarbones, very similarly to Jaki, but with one noticeable difference - softer and rounder lines and shapes.

The irony is that Dnaeri and HeyItsJaki both have the same name - Jaki - so them having similar tells in their styles is just something I wanted to point out. Just a funny thought.

That said, Dnaeri DID post a drawing of Persephone once in her own style/interpretation, and there are definitely things to note here.

The collarbone distinction. The anatomy of the fingers and toes. The lighter lineart. The little 'dip' along the edge of the smile.

Moving on. Let's talk about the last assistant who I feel deserves a specific mention - AmyKim89.

You see, Amy is what I'm going to call the smoking gun. All thanks to this post:

Recognize that panel? That's the flat of Dream Persephone from Episode 204.

And this is what the final panel looked like.

Now, Webtoons cropping aside (don't mind the seam running through Persephone's chest) this confirms multiple things for us.

1. AmyKim89 was not the one to shade this panel.

2. The assistants are working purely off Rachel's sketches.

3. The assistants can be in charge of their own lining, which would explain the inconsistent lineart throughout each episode.

4. There are no backgrounds present meaning someone else is in charge of the backgrounds.

5. Flats can be changed and added to after the assistant has already done their job.

To talk about #5 first, notice the pantyhose that were added that make her legs disappear into her cloak. The baby's face changing. The added flower and necklace. Her eyes changing direction.

Regarding #1, look at how the shading makes the art so much more dull. The previous version of this panel with just the flats genuinely looks so much better than the finished piece.

This was, as I'm sure you can imagine, a pretty big find. While I'm sure Amy would probably not be happy to see me using her innocent post as proof for my hyperfocused ramblings tearing apart Rachel's process, I'm glad she posted it nonetheless because it finally shows us a smidge of what the process might be like during production.

Going back to the shading really quick - Amy was not the one who shaded that panel. But I did notice that out of every little inconsistent thing in LO, the shading is some of the most consistent, and it's consistently awful. Dull muddy tones, lack of consideration of space or lighting, clearly the multiply tool being used even when it really shouldn't be, placement of shading primarily under the eyes even when it makes the face look too dim to look good.

It's always being done with the same watercolor-like brush, with the same multiplied tones, and the same 'edges' along where the shading hits the light.

We also know that Rachel eyedrops her colors.

I don't think it's farfetched to believe that her assistants likely do too to a degree. Or they're working off color palettes from previous episodes they've done before which is resulting in this color dissonance where characters change colors, sometimes in between panels.

Considering the constant muddy shading, and the fact that the assistants may not be doing it, I believe it's Rachel doing the shading in the post-production. If you need more proof, here's a reel of her shading in Hades with the exact same techniques seen in finalized panels.

Otherwise, if it's not Rachel doing the shading, it could very likely be Dnaeri, as they're one of the longest-running assistants on the team (they came on during S1).

Moving on from that, let's circle back to AmyKim89's drawing of Persephone. She specifies she did the flats and lines for that panel, working off Rachel's sketches. But one noticeable thing is that there's no background.

This lead a bunch of us in ULO to speculate that Rachel is also the one throwing in the background and throwing PNG's of the characters on top.

Proof? How about the fact that there are panels out there with crunchy characters and pristine backgrounds?

I already suspected that the character was zoomed in and the background wasn't, but Amy's post confirms more than that - that the assistants are essentially drawing PNG's which don't get backgrounds until Rachel - or another one of her assistants - adds them.

Here's another panel that I strongly suspect was done by Amy judging by the colors (but the lineart feels like it could be Jaki):

Look at how she's floating in empty space. This wasn't drawn background first and Hestia second, this was drawn with Hestia first and they slapped a background behind her.

It would also explain why we get panels of characters missing their bottom halves or their limbs - because the backgrounds ended up being larger than they were anticipating in the final shot.

There are a whole bunch of things we can speculate on here knowing what we know from past essays and what I've laid out here.

Rachel may only be involved in the beginning and end of these episodes. She does the roughs, hands the sketches out to her assistants, which they flat and line, and she puts in the shading, dialogue/speech bubbles, texturing, and last details after they're all handed in. This would also explain why there are so many typos - lack of time to edit/proofread - and why sometimes there will be characters speaking but their mouths won't be open.

Rachel hands out the sketches to her assistants individually who flat and line it and hand them back. Sometimes they're handed individual panels, other times they're handed entire pages with a few panels on them. This would explain why we can go an entire scene with a character looking one way and then looking completely different by the next.

Think back to all those previous essays. Everything we've learned so far - that Rachel's buffer is miniscule, that she's shading with the multiply tool, that she's clearly only contributing the roughs and few panels that she makes from random drawings she did on a whim and waits until she can find a chance to shoehorn it into the comic.

Rachel started off drawing this comic just on her own. When she took on assistants, there were only two - AmbitiousIcarus and Madd_Joey.

But eventually, she took on more and more. Two became three, three became five, and nowadays, she maintains a consistent art team of 4-6 people per episode, not including herself or the rotating artists who come and go every now and then.

This has been happening steadily since the Episode 50's range of S1.

The summer when Lore Olympus' licensing rights for animation were sold to the Jim Henson Company.

I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that the assistants were the downfall of LO. I think they're all amazing artists, each in their own right - but their art is clearly failing to shine through in the wake of Rachel's poor management and organization. Rather than delegating single people to single roles - lines, flats, shading, texturing, etc. - she's handing things out panel by panel as she sketches them out... and considering how poor her time management is as we've all seen, it's not hard to come to the conclusion that these assistants are all being put in positions where they have to rush out lower quality work. Rachel is haphazardly dividing up the work between more people all the while contributing less and less on her own end in pre-production, post-production, and quality checking as time goes on. The final episodes weren't immediately noticeably bad as soon as she started taking on more assistants, but it's clear Rachel's involvement in the comic and its quality control has been declining rapidly since the Jim Henson purchase.

Again, this isn't to point fingers or assume the worst of anyone, but it really is food for thought. I hope that this was, at the very least, informative for those of us who've wondered over the years what Rachel's process is like. It definitely seems messy from what we can tell on the surface and frankly, if I could be in the same room as Rachel, I'd be using all this as an example of why she needs to manage her team and her time better. But that's not my place to do so. All I can do is speculate on it and spend way too much time writing an essay about it LMAO None of what I've written here is 'proof' of anything, as I'm not in the position to be able to do such a thing - that's reserved solely for Rachel and her assistants - but it's becoming plainly obvious what the workflow looks like and why the comic looks shittier and shittier every week.

All that said, I don't feel like her assistants get nearly enough credit for the work they do for Rachel. She can't even be bothered to remember the name of the guy who edited the books for her (it's Edwin, by the way) and you never see her bring up her assistants when she talks on interviews about how hard she works or how difficult it is to make a webcomic. At this point, Rachel may as well be the Queen of England - all the pomp and reward and credit, with nothing to show for leadership or actual work ethic.

It's not your work we're seeing each week - it's the work of people who are rushing to meet your deadlines, win your awards, and do your homework.

You are the sum of the parts you utilize in your workflow. You are not here purely of your own efforts. It can barely be called 'your work' at this point. Lore Olympus has become the Ship of Theseus - barely recognizable for what it once was after being haphazardly pieced together by the efforts of others.

And that's all I'm gonna say on that.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #antiloreolympus #anti lore olympus

[shannankle]

Color in DFF: Part 2

Okay so here I have a post where I run down some of the way DFF is using color in the past (at least for ep 5-6). But there's even more to unpack in episodes 1-4. I'll have to return to color when more episodes are out cause I'm sure there'll be more clarity and layers to add. But for now let's jump to the present!

Shout out again to @slayerkitty for brainstorming with me!

In part 1 I came to this conclusion:

There are basically 3 groups of colors.

Blue=the friend group, conformity, those trying to harm or coerce others

Red=Non, poverty, outsiders and those with stigma

Yellow=A third category, not in lock step with the group, outliers

So what about the present?!

There's a lot going on with color:

-It show's the character's flaws and desires

-It signals romantic pairing(s)

-It conveys group dynamics and insider/outsider status

On top of that we have people changing colors and exchanging them

Importantly in the present we start getting more than just the strict primary colors groups. Our group is less in sync and now that they've had time to grow up and be apart there's less conformity and cohesion, more fracture. We could argue that more of their own colors are able to come out rather than be subsumed in just blue (though a few characters definitely stick to blue still).

Let's start at the beginning. For a number of these boys their color represents their worse traits and fatal flaws:

Por is in a pale green. This clearly represents his VERY deep relationship with nature (sorry not sorry). It also can represent rebirth which means he isn't dead yet.

Okay, joking aside, green can can represent greed and jealousy. Certainly things relevant to Por who both has it all and still constantly wants and needs more (especially affection from his father) and is willing to take credit from Non to get it. This greed obviously contributed to the way everything spiraled in the past.

Green can also indicate sickness, nausea, and disgust. Por often expresses disgust towards Non, wiping his hand off after touching him. We even get him and Top reacting with disgust in the opening scenes when Fluke is puking.

On one more note, there are cultures that would group green and blue in as the same color so perhaps we can still see him as not so separate from the group as we might think.

Tee and Top are still in blue. These two are dedicated to hiding the truth and protecting themselves. Blue can also indicate loyalty and trust as well as confidence. Tee clearly has an issue with loyalty in both the past and the present. He's quick to throw his friends under the bus but does so while hiding this to still fit in. In the present he struggles with whether to abandon White or protect him. Top on the other hand is over confident, constantly wanting fame and attention.

Tee in particular is interesting because of his tie die shirts. They always mix blue with another color, just like he mixed blue with red in the past. Now it's a pink. Perhaps this means his money troubles have lessened or that he mentally feels less of an outsider or weirdo than when he added red in the past. Or perhaps it shows his strained loyalty to White, containing a color other than blue but not quite orange.

This is certainly the case in a later episode when he changes his t-shirt to blue and orange. I'll mention this later but White is introduced in orange. So Tee's colors show his dedication to the group, his continued attempts to hide secrets that harm people, and his battle between running or staying to protect White.

While Tee switches to orange and blue, Top switches to yellow and white. He makes the switch before he goes off with Tan and returns to kill Por. The yellow is a stark change. Unlike Tee who retains his blue, Top loses it completely. He's in yellow, marking him as an outlier. Is he possessed? Drugged? In any case he is operating without any affinity to the group at this point.

We don't know much about Tan yet, but he's also in blue. He starts in a blue button up and then switches to darker blue with gray underneath. This is a bit odd since he's the most vocal about pushing the old group to reveal what happened in the past. Yet he isn't wearing orange (Phi and White), red (Non), or yellow (outlier). In fact, unlike our other characters he doesn't mix in other colors or change his color at all. It feels very sterile, as if he is operating under different rules. So either he is just part of the group and likely fodder, working with Phi, or up to his own plan. Regardless I think at this point he is probably hiding his color, or rather the show is hiding his color from us for a later reveal of some kind.

Fluke is in purple. It's a balanced mix of blue and red, marking the way he acts as a bystander. He is in the group but not necessarily at the center of it. It also represents ambition, which Fluke clearly has in spades. So much so that as he tries to protect his ambitions, he makes things so much worse.

Interestingly, when Fluke changes clothes he still chooses purple, but his collar has a stripe of red. This of course is what he wears as he starts to crack, ultimately confronting Tee about what happened to Non. The blood on Fluke's hand adds more red.

Jin is in pink and a dark blue or grey. He later switches to a dark blue shirt. So part of him is still attached to the group (blue) but he also operates in a faded pink. Pink can represent love and compassion. We know that Jin acts as the kind one of the group generally. Interestingly this is quite a faded pink, perhaps representing how Jin, despite being kind (or at least having a kind exterior) is quite jaded. He's lost his rose-tinted glasses and they've become a washed out pink.

He no longer is in yellow. Does this mean at some point he failed to push back on the group in an important way? Why is he still with the group and wearing blue/gray colors? Does the fact he's wearing pink, a faded red mean he's still dedicated to Non?

Clown theory: Non was in pink in the preview for episode 7, so does this mark Jin as a romantic pairing with Phi? Does it mean Non died and possessed Jin's body (🤡)?

Phi and White both have orange to start with. They're odd ones out. Interestingly, Phi also has on a denim shirt, making him outwardly seem to match Tee and Top, but the orange shows his true colors. This is very fitting given we know he's up to something (most likely revenge) and not genuinely trying to be a part of the group.

Orange is also partway between red and yellow. If we go by the past, Phi has had something going on with both Non (red) and Jin (yellow, past). Interestingly in this opening shot Phi's backpack moves from blue (his disguised allegiance to the group) to orange (his outsider status) and red (his allegiance to Non). But he is also next to Jin whose pink could be seen as a version of red.

White has orange but like Phi he has blue as well. Does this mean that White is aligned with Phi or is it just a way to signal that White is also a newbie to the group? If so why is Tan not in orange too? Is White Non's brother?

Both Phi and White remove their orange as things progress. Interestingly they both keep the same touches of blue but change to neutral white/light gray tones. They're blending in now, either by force of the situation or in order to hide their intentions. But compared to Tan, we at least see them operating in other colors first.

One last thing of note here. Phi wraps his outer shirt around Jin to brace his shoulder. This completely removes the blue from Phi and gives it to Jin. Is this a color exchange? But blue isn't Phi's color, so does is this an act of protection or is Phi marking Jin as a target?

And what does it mean that Phi is now purely in white--an absence of color? Or is white his color? If so, then what about White?

We've gone from 3 primary colors in the past to a mix of colors in the present. On top of that we have white too, an interesting contrast? pairing? with the black of the mask costume.

Okay this has been equally as much analysis as questions. I'm excited to revisit this when we have even more episodes and information to see what the patterns are here!

#dff the series #dead friend forever #dff meta #my meta #my posts

[aledethanlast]

Seriously, how are those FBI agents doing in that Baltimore hotel for the David Wesninski AU? They signed up for none of this, yet here they are, dealing with the craziest family drama any of them have ever witnessed. Honestly, their faces when it gets confirmed that Wymack is the identical twin of this serial killer must be priceless

The first thing you need to understand about fbi ops is, you don't just write those up on a whim. Theres investigations and plans and preparations. They were prepared for the Hatfords to push the agreed boundaries and kill against orders. That's why they were contacted in the first place. They were prepared for the cleanup, and the inquiries, and to throw the Hatfords under the bus as an excuse to begin what was sure to be a years-long investigation into Nathan Wesninski's network.

The second thing you need to understand about law enforcement operations is that you're either going shit shit shit shit shit when things are going according to plan and fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck when they aren't.

So, on the whole? It was a shitty night. The whole thing got pushed back by like two hours because of an alleged break in, and then by three more hours after a fight with op command on how much can they look over the police's shoulder without tipping their hand. And then it all goes down, and there's corpses everywhere, and it's all gone to shit...

And then Junior is on the front lawn.

Which, first of all, how are you not dead? Rhetorical question, clearly Nathan tried. Second, no seriously, how are you not dead. The fuck you mean it's a secret bitch I will [redacted]-

But it's fine. It's fine. Actually, hold on, this is great. They get to skip years of investigation all it costs is some witness protection. The kid seems like a real shithead but once they get him talking...

And then Towns says "We gotta talk about his team."

Oh right, them. "Once they calm down we'll give them a basic rundown of what's happening and send them home. Considering what they said so far it doesn't sound like they know much."

But Towns shakes his head. "You don't know who they are, do you?" Browning raises a brow. "Palmetto State Foxes?" Nope. "Edgar Allen. The ravens." Nope. "Kevin Day?"

That does sound familiar, but Browning knows he doesn't get the points for that. "Sure, one of the other players, no?" He never cared for exy, personally, and while he gets that people get excited about college sports he's always believed in some healthy iconoclasm. He shakes his head.

Towns grumbles. Then out of nowhere, he says, "Call Suzie."

"What?"

"Call her. Right now. Put her on speaker."

She should be at lunch, so Browning obliges, but he really doesn't see what his teenage daughter has to do with...

Click. Suzie's high, confident voice. "Daddy?"

"Hey Suzie, it's Freddie, your dad's pal from work," Towns says.

"Oh. Um. Hey?" Suzie sounds nervous suddenly. "Is my dad okay?"

They both suddenly realize what this call must look like, especially after Browning hadn't come home last night, and they both rush to reassure her that he's fine. "We've just had a long night," he reassures her. "No, I'm just calling because...hey Freddie, why am I calling?"

It's Towns' turn to raise an eyebrow, as if to say watch this. "Nah, I was just wanted a reminder, what's your husband's name again?"

Silence. A quick, sharp inhale, and in his mind's eye Browning can see his daughter's eyes focus like an eagles. "Well, first of all, it's future husband, because daddy says that the law says I have to be 18 to get married..."

Ohhhhh.

Fuck.

"But his name is Kevin Day. He's the world's best exy player, even after he had an accident last year. A lot of people abandoned him but I'm never gonna because when a mom and a dad love each other very much..."

A thousand dinner conversations run through Browning's head line an electric current as he opens his phone browser and searches the name. The results look nothing like the bruised shell of a man his colleagues have stuck in a hotel room, but they look like every poster on Suzie's wall. A terrible, terrible thought strikes him. "What about his friend. The, um, the short one."

The response is automatic. "Neil is cute too I guess. There aren't as many good posters of him, but Jessica from biology did her binder from shots she printed from youtube. Her dad yelled at her for wasting the ink."

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

#david wesninski au #aftg #browning gets back home from work to find his daughter ready to murder him for arresting Jessica's husband #browning: I thought we didn't even like jessica? #suzie: WE DON'T BUT IM GONNA MEET KEVIN AT THEIR ENGAGEMENT PARTY AND HOW DOES THAT WORK IF HE'S IN JAIL

[agentrouka-blog]

This is such a small thing to be mad about, but Ned being all 'oh sansa you can't go to the tourney' in AGOT pissed me off. What do you MEAN you won't 'subject your daughters to this folly???' It's a tourney, fool! A special event that Sansa (as a highborn lady, daughter to the Hand AND the prince's bethrothed to boot!) would've been required to go anyways! It would've been an insult and weird af if she DIDN'T go! Just because you know its a waste of money doesn't mean Sansa has to suffer for it, the tourney's gonna happen no matter what, just let her have fun.

Gah, the more I think about the Sansa Ned stuff in AGOT the more I'm surprised Sansa didn't throw a tantrum especially at that age. Girly has more grace and patience than I ever could have.

It's painful to witness.

It's politically inept, making himself invisible to the public in this way. He's isolated at court. There's already been a violent incident and a rift between him and the king and the Lannisters. He won't attend the tourney in his own name. He's making them all look weak and irrelevant. He gathers no support, and the common people gobble up the idea that he commited treason later on. He made Sansa's life his cover story, he killed her wolf over it, and he's not even taking it seriously for his investigation, let alone its impact on Sansa at any level.

It's also so emotionally myopic, disregarding the one thing Sansa gets excited about since he murdered her wolf. Instead of trying to repair their relationship - instead of realizing it needs repairing! - he keeps taking his general frustration out on her. So slow to let her enjoy something, so quick to yell.

The Hound literally threatens to kill her at the end of the first day of the tourney. The daughter of the Hand of the King. Betrothed of the crown prince. Threatened and manhandled by an alcoholic child killer. Alone outside at night with no witnesses, no protection. Because she had no escort but one unreliable septa. At an event of this scale. And Ned couldn't be bothered to go with her. That's how weak they are.

And she never even tells Ned. Because she already internalized he would find a way to yell at her about it, cut her off from something she cares about, or maybe not do anything at all anyway.

And just look at when she actually does throw a tantrum out of sheer despair of being treated like an object. Does he finally try to talk to her, just once, just for a second? Of course not. He has important business to do walking into a trap.

The man set out to do a thing (solve Jon Arryn's murder), he was so determined that he sacrificed Sansa at the altar of this mission in every way, and he so objectively failed at it, it's almost hard to believe.

People act like Ned choosing to save Sansa's life at the end is somehow this super noble act. As opposed to once again throwing her under the bus? Literally letting her be killed for his honor this time, instead of Lady? Yeah, he chose not to do that. Wow. Dad of the year.

#sansa stark #anti eddard stark #eddard stark critical #parenting fail #no he was not a good politician #being a beloved leader in the north doesn't make him a good politician

[messrsbyler]

imagine in s5 after mike and nancy have had their confrontation and big fight, things have been said, hugs have been hugged, they have opened the door for a new path to share between them, a way to walk together and see where it leads them.

and then, one night, both siblings are on patrol duty while the rest is asleep as they are camping in the woods or the upside down or whatever. and they have a wholesome moment.

the end of the world is a lot, but someone mike has still managed to have most of his thoughts occupied on something else. on someone, more like. and now that the world has been cracked open and the air is filled with ashes and spores, now that the world has taken a 180 degree spin and thrown them all off their feet, maybe it’s only fitting for mike to start questioning things he never before dared to question before.

and it’s only the two of them there, and for once mike isn’t sure he can be the leader and figure this one on his own. so, before he looses his courage, mike straightens his back, sucks in a breath that leaves a copper taste in his moth, and asks: “nance?”

her sister turns to look at him with a frantic stare in her eyes. mike doesn’t miss the way her hands grip the gun sitting on her lap a bit tighter and how her shoulders clamp a little. “what is it? did you hear something?”

mike is quick to shake his head. “no! no, it’s not that.”

“gosh, mike. you scared the shit out of me.”

“i just…” suddenly he’s not sure what to do with his hands. he tries clasping them on his lap but they feel silly there, a brush away from his own cold and heavy gun. mike already feels petrified trying to get the words out and having that weapon near him isn’t helping his case. he fits his hand under his legs in the end, but there’s no helping the bouncing of his leg. “i wanted to ask you… something.”

nancy looks at him, eyes clocking his leg and then climbing up to his face. something in his sister’s expression shifts. the lines are still hard around her eyes and mouth, edged with her sense of alert. but there’s also a softness in her eyes as she stares at mike, something he’s not used to find in nancy but that now is undoubtedly directed at him and only him.

“sure. what is it?”

this is the moment. no room for hesitation now. mike tells himself he can dance around the words, can control how much he lets nancy see. he can stay in the surface of the deep pit that’s consuming his every thought and sanity. if anything, at least nancy will think mike is talking about el. nancy will think he’s still mopping over their break up. he won’t see right through mike’s schemes.

“you… you are with jonathan, right?”

nancy’s lips pull into a tight line, and mike knows he’s said the wrong thing. he braces himself for the scowl nancy usually throws at him and for the words ‘that’s none of your business, mike!’, but they never come. instead, silence settles between them as nancy ponders on the question.

“i guess i am,” she says in the end, her voice distant. and mike knows his sister is dealing with her own pit and questions. “it’s a bit more complicated than that, but… yeah, i’m with him.”

mike nods, knowing not to push for more than what nancy is offering him. “right. because… because you love him, right?”

the rather bittersweet expression is replaced by a soft smile. “well, that’s not complicated at all. yes, i love him.”

mike fills his lungs again. his insides swell with butterflies and nerves and a buzzing starts right underneath his skin as a pair of hazel eyes flash in the back of his mind.

“how… uhm, how did you know? that you loved jonathan, i mean.”

“know?”

“yes. how were you sure? how did you know it was that type of love?”

nancy scans him for a second, and mike keeps himself from gulping all the spit pooling in his mouth. something like that would surely throw him under the bus in front of nancy who is so good at keeping people’s expressions in check just to extract whatever information can be gathered from them.

“well,” nancy starts, “it’s… okay, this is going to sound so cliché but… you just know.” mike purses his lips and that must send nancy the message that he’s not understanding what she means. “it’s like… like one day you wake up and realise that you love someone, because the feelings are there. but if you try to think back to pin down the moment you started feeling like that, you realise there is not one moment. it’s more that those feelings have been growing inside of you, slowly, until you lose sight of when you first felt them. they just… become a part of you until you can’t remember a time you didn’t feel that way, even if just a little.”

mike doesn’t say anything. he just looks at nancy, barely blinking. his eyes feel hot and his throat is tied in a knot. and his heart, his heart is beating inside his chest, loud and full and so hard it’s almost like it wants to jump out of mike’s mouth just to say ‘yes! that! that’s how we feel!’

the silence stretches between them, but not in a defeating type of way. it’s not comfortable, because mike is losing his breath with every second that passes by, but it’s still… safe, the way nancy is giving him room to process her words, and how she is looking at him, as if she knew how mike was at the brink of a big moment.

“nance?” mike finally says. his voice a little wavy and a little breathless. there’s a coldness that stirs in his stomach, a pinch of fear that makes him push his nails in the underside of his thighs.

“yes, mike?”

mike bits his bottom lip and looks up at his sister. he breathes in one more time and makes the air in his lungs extinguish loose grip fear has on him.

“i think… i think i love will,” mike says.

the words come out and the world pours down mike’s back like cold water. if he was restless before, mike is on the edge of his seat now. his leg bounces faster and his teeth dig into his lip until pain grounds him to this moment and to the words he just allowed out of his mouth.

and nancy… nancy just smiles at him in a way she hasn’t in many years. she smiles at him like when mike was little and would sneak inside her room in the middle of the night because he just had a nightmare, or like when the both of them would hide in the basement while their parents had a fight, or when they would meet after school for mike first year and walk back home together. nancy smiles at mike as if saying ‘you are my little brother. mine. and i love you.’

and the wheelers, they are not good with words, so when mike starts sobbing nancy doesn’t say anything. she just swings her gun on its lace to her back and shelters mike in a hug. and mike… he melts into it, knowing that his big sister is finally there for him.

#it’s 3 am i should be asleep #i need mike and nancy to fight but also to have a bonding moment #i just need it okay? #byler #byler tumblr #mike wheeler #stranger things #will byers #byler endgame #nancy wheeler

[pokerface-9597]

Quick question and bare in mind I myself, I am also shipper a die hard jikook shipper since 2016.

But I have a question why do jikookers hate pjms so much and describe them like some sort of villains when they are just a dedicated group of people who go hard for jimin. Like right now they are the ones carrying jimin on charts on the US. So why are they hated so much because every post I've seen from a fellow jikooker about pjms is just how horrible they are.

But the same energy is not returned to jjks. Who are constantly throwing jimin under the bus picking on him and dragging him. I'm not saying pjms are innocent and they don't drag jungkook but 90% of the time jjks are the ones that start any type of nonsense and pjms just be giving the same energy back.

So why is it that pjms are the hated ones. It's okay to say you don't like solos but why are you deluding yourself into believing that solos are useless when pjms are carrying jimin's streams right now like it or not they are the ones carrying jimin right and have been carrying him since the second chapter began.

Again why are pjms hated by most of us jikookers but not jjks is it because you guys are also jjks at heart because a lot of y'all are jungkook biased so it wouldn't be surprising.

But I'm not insinuating anything I'm just asking because this has been something I've been asking myself for a very long and has been afraid to voice it out because I don't want to be dragged or anything. But can someone balance me real quick

#jikook #jikookers #pjms #jjks #solo stans

[thequeervampiric]

imagine the Voices and Princesses playing among us. Paranoid would try to play but he'd get too freaked out while Big Brain-ing things and the others would have to be like, "I promise it's not that serious. maybe you should sit this one out"

the Beast as an imposter. the Beast as an imposter. none of them would know what hit them. she also likes to follow people around to make them nervous even if she's not imposter.

Contrarian is so down to third imposter it's insane. (if you don't know what third imposter-ing is, it's when a regular crewmate decides to go along with the imposters and defend them for shits and giggles.) also quick to throw whoever's making an accusation under the bus.

Hero, of course, is a truth seeker, and if he gets imposter he's so anxious it's hilarious.

Cold is also super down for third impostering, or, offering the imposter the chance to kill him.

Hunted always wants to use the buddy system. sus of everyone at every point. slinks around the map by himself, nervous in large groups. is the one to say "nonono!" when someone enters the room while he's in the middle of a task.

Smitten is always dedicated to Damsel, whether she's imposter or not, whether she wants to kill him or not. ...god, Damsel would be bad at imposter-ing. Smitten admires when the others say that they've been together all round, so they can attest to each other's innocence. could they both be imposter? who cares! the romance of it all! it's just the two of them against the world!

Princess trusts no bitch. only rarely offers to buddy up with someone. cold blooded when it comes to voting off someone that she thinks is imposter. mischievous when she's imposter, always speaking to someone or having a friendly conversation with them before killing them. careful when deciding to let someone live while they're alone with her, for a future voucher of her innocence.

sdfgjlk I don't know if Broken could do it. he'd offer himself to be voted out as imposter if things got heated. just accepts his fate every time he finds himself alone with someone else. he gets imposter? I think he'd just give up and couldn't bring himself to kill anyone. if he did, he'd beat himself up over it.

Adversary is so bright and snarky with anyone who says she's sus. likes to taunt and insult the others whether she's imposter or not.

Specter dies first sdfgjlk. jk, mostly. also sus of everyone, but more deadpan snarky about it. also surprisingly down to third imposter. she just wants to watch the world burn.

Tower is the Leader. she always declares in meetings who she thinks is sus and who she thinks is innocent. people tend to go along with her ideas. goes up to 1-2 people alone in a room and asks them what they're doing. a ruthless imposter.

again, Damsel. I just think she'd be a disaster as imposter. either that, or she's a quiet one; the last person you'd suspect before she kills you in cold blood. tends to partner up with Smitten, sometimes with a third person as well, and go along with whoever they're voting for or whoever they sus out.

Wraith is sharp-tongued, throwing anyone who she perceives to have been rude or betrayed her in a past round under the bus. has a soft spot for Damsel. waits for the middle/end of a full conversation with someone before fucking slaughtering them.

#i had fun with this #slay the princess #long post