#maybe one day i will learn to use layers on my phone

[sunyot]

Must See T.V. Moments - Invincible 2024

*****SPOILERS for SEASON 2: EPISODE 6*****

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I'm in my T.V. Phase now...

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*******I MEAN IT. SPOILERS AHEAD******

The 'parasitic alien' remains a classic Super Hero villain. My personal first introduction to this villain came from watching Batman Beyond. In a two-episode Saga, Terry gets the opportunity to fight alongside The Justice League of his era. Naturally, he finds discord only to discover... well you get the idea.

This concept plays on one of our fears as people: being controlled. As gamers, we're so used to being puppetiers. Yet imagine Being the puppet. Imagine further maintaining a small hint of consciousness; an out of body experience where you watch your every action taking place. We might wonder if we'd still feel pain? Would we feel anything at all? The parasite would probably have a total lack of self-preservation, and that scares us.

This show still reigns as one of the best-written shows on television. Robert Kirkman handles tension so well. I'm avoiding reading the comics, but when I see an episode as good as this one it's very tempting. The series integrates so many layers, adding a density to the storytelling. Amazing story craft like this, in my opinion, is the cause of fiction withdrawal. I know the feeling well.

Sometimes, a series feels like it's speaking to you personally. It becomes a drug that taps directly into your veins. I keep a list of shows on my phone that give me this feeling. Maybe one day I'll share them. Really, I keep them to remind myself which shows give me the true feeling I'm searching for. I do this in the hopes of limiting my sometimes lengthy searches for new entertainment.

Let's start with the obvious.

Do you Ship 'Mark X Amber' or 'Invincible X Atom Eve'?

Fans of the series remain vocal about their preferences. And I get it. They prefer for Mark to spend the majority of his time as Invincible, the superhero. They want to see him at his most powerful, going on adventures, fighting alongside a crew, and receiving the admiration of beautiful potential partners. Seeing Mark in a more ordinary human life could feel less fun. And Amber is, in a way, a representation of that. Her groundedness reminds Mark, and the audience, that he's still just a guy. This can cause conflict between the audience and certain characters. Protagonists often serve a cathartic outlets for viewers. Fans of Twilight want to see the quiet, studious, normal young lady swept up into an extraordinary series of events. Seeing someone like themselves, allows them to live vicariously through the plot.

Likewise, superheroes serve as one of our culture's best self-insert fantasies...

This is good. This is healthy, I'd argue. Being able to explore yourself in an idealized fashion can help people create fragments of identity which can sometimes become the sparks of our moral centers. All that said, writers like Kirkman, understand that stitching these fantasies to universal human experiences are what make them memorable. It's the filtering of the wild through the boring that make our stories sing.

In real life, we have relationship problems. We screw up. We do poorly in school. We fail at our obligations time and time again, while the world forces us to push onward because our obligations are always with us. As Mark continues to try and do the right thing, his humanity outshines his Viltrumite heritage.

*****SPOILERS for SEASON 2: EPISODE 6*****

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Rexsplosion reads Home Decor Magazines - Invincible 2024

"I actually thought Rex died..."

This series plays with tension brilliantly. It also avoids having too many moments of relief. When the immediate danger fades, the characters still live in a state of worry. They're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. We learn something quirky about Rex, but only because he almost died. This semi-sweet moment humanizes him, yet emphasizes the ominous nature of the series. Our heroes have to take their happy moments when they can get them. The Team, now scattered, became a question mark. This world cannot afford uncertainty surrounding its heroes. We saw their near demise in Mark's absence.

And with a few quick scenes of Mark's loved ones, we're of where he's most vulnerable.

This brings me to my favorite aspect of the episode:

- The Fiction inside the fiction -

This will always be one of my favorite methods of storytelling. Seeing characters in fiction read or watch their own fiction lets us see how they relate to their world. Sometimes it's done through myths and legends. Sometimes in other clever ways...

When Mark receives a box of science fiction stories (stories written by his father) we are able to more directly relate to the character.

This look of wonder and skepticism on his face. This is all of us...

My father introduced me to Star Wars. He had the original trilogy on VHS tapes. He recorded the movies when one of the major networks aired them without commercials. I wore those tapes out, watching until my imagination expanded to the vastness of any epic tale; spilling over into my daily life sunshine I could carry in my pockets.

At this moment in the show, I am Mark. I'm sitting on my bed, hearing my father's voice as the story plays out on the pages and in my mind. And I'd wager, I'm not the only one.

In dramatic fashion, we now get to go on the journey inside this new universe. This fiction within a fiction is crucial as it becomes the notion of creation from the perspective of beings we know to be created. How funny is that. Funnier still, to Mark this tale plays as cinema. Whereas to us, it's still animated; which is a wild concept when thinking of sentience.

Even the title 'The Man with the Invincible Gun' ...feels like foreshadowing to me.

*****SPOILERS for SEASON 2: EPISODE 6*****

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I'm sure most of you caught on quick, realizing that these stories are based on Mark's Father's real adventures. I think it's funny seeing a character like Mark, superhero, space traveler, one of the strongest beings in the Universe, forget all that, and lose himself in the story. Again, this character trait displays Mark's humanity. Of course, he eventually realizes that these stories are far from lore.

Knowing his father, it's probably safe to assume these were not heroic journeys of an idealistic space explorer. More than likely they were unsuccessful Viltrumite invasions of unsuspecting alien inhabitants. I also think we'll at some point get to meet some of these aliens and learn the truth of these encounters. But still, it's fun to dream.

This episode makes me want to read a good book...

It also makes me want to write. It's been a while since I've done that either.

A few more things. Seeing the Seth Rogan alien makes me wonder when I'm going to be able to hear him as his own character because every time he talks, all I hear is Seth Rogan. His is the only character that does that to me. I'm hoping my brain eventually adjusts.

Also, let's readdress the title screen.

What does it mean this season? In Season 1, the answer felt obvious. The blood splattered across the title showed the surprising violence of the heroes world, which slowly dragged Mark deeper into its depths. In this season, the classic 'Invincible' logo cracks away to reveal a red one.

What's the meaning, I wonder. Mark might be one bad event away from turning into Omniman, a true Viltrumite warrior, like the Mark of the other Universe. And speaking of other Universes...

Our friend Giant-Brain-Outside-My-Body-Man returns to get a bespoke suit from a tailor with four arms.

This tells me that no matter the universe, timeline, or year, nothing feels better than wearing a fresh new suit. We also get to see him do a little multi-dimensional hopping.

I wonder which Universe this could be...

Cryston

#sunyot #sunyotmedia #invincible #nolan grayson #omni man #debbie grayson #invincible show #viltrumite #amazon #amazon prime #amazon prime video #prime video #robert kirkman #tv stills #steven yeun #invincible season 2 #invincible spoilers

[plantsarepeopletoo]

The Jo Chan Hyun Ick

from Jun & Jun

So at first I thought Jo Chan Hyun just wanted to get close to Jun to eventually date him. You get those types, usually good people, ya know, the guys you get second lead syndrome from.

I don't think Jo Chan Hyun is like that, I mean he does want Jun, but I think there is another layer to it. The kind of thing that will only get worse if he was actually dating Jun.

Jo Chan Hyun wants Lee Jun to be completely dependent on him and wants Lee Jun to think that he's helpless with out his guidance.

EP1

Here it isn't too bad, everything Jo Chan Hyun does can be seen as a guy who wants to help his long time crush. The phone calls, the reminders, telling him to be there before the director.

Except, the comment about not letting Jun eat made me cautious. Telling him to eat, and not skip, like Jun was prone to skipping breakfast, but we saw he was already at the convince store. It's the start of the implied ineptitude of Jun.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Jo Chan Hyun is the one who made Jun think he NEEDED to return favors. He at least is using the idea of favors to get closer to Jun.

In the elevator, Lee Jun brings up the favor thing with Choi Jun, saying he owes Choi a lot of favors.

We learn Jo Chan Hyun helped when Jun was struggling and got Jun the job. Jun says he needs to also return the favor for the information about the director being punctual.

But who demands, expects, or allows close friends/brothers to return favors for things like that? That's just a "thank you"

EP2

Really? Did Jun need help? I guess this could be seen as helpful and nice. But the next scene in the coffee shop gave me the ick.

Lee Jun is ordering the coffees just fine, honestly. Then Hyun pulls this stunt and starts rattling off orders. To impress Jun? To make Jun feel off balance?

Seriously who does this?

I missed that comment last time, reminiscing?

Jun seems like he's used to other people paying, so he forgets to pull out the credit card. Fair, but Hyun I think over reacts here, talking to Jun like he's a child.

And here it is:

Jun didn't do anything wrong, really, but Hyun put it in Jun's head that he's inadequate.

I'm not seeing this as teasing at all. Now he gets to ask Jun out to eat, and make it so that Jun feels obligated to go. We see it with Lee Jun responding "I'm free" after thinking he needed to return favors to Choi Jun.

Ep3

Who just carries around chocolate milk. I joked that Hyon carries around an insulated bag with an ice pack for Jun's chocolate milk. Honestly maybe, just to get a favor in return.

Bonus for dealing with my thoughts:

Yes all of this probably didn't need to be said, but I wanted to go back and see if I was imagining everything. Maybe I am reading entirely too much into this, let me know? @rocketturtle4 I don't know if you're watching this. @lurkingteapot and @bengiyo I hope you don't mind. I kept thinking about this all day.

#jun and jun #jun & jun #jun & jun the series #Plant Jun thoughts #I hope i didn't actually mess up anyones names #plant thoughts

[bunny-lou]

The Black Phone details, part 2

Warnings for a discussion of a film/short story called The Black Phone, which deals with a young boy being abducted and abused by a much older man. This response discusses the abuse toward the young boy.

My thoughts on The Black Phone, part 1

Just saw The Black Phone for the second time today and I brought in some paper and a pen to jot down all the little details we get and things to discuss.

I missed the baseball scene the first time I saw the film. I ended up walking in right as Bruce is riding his bike. I’m glad to catch it this time because it’s such a good opening scene

Intro to just how strong Finney is when he wants to be. He whips that ball hard.

Gwen is in the bleachers cheering him on, showing their good relationship from the very beginning. We also see her with a group of friends, showing that she is more social than her brother

I believe we see Terrence drinking in one shot at the game, but I can't be sure

Finney's jersey number is #3. The front of his jersey says 'Front Range' or maybe 'Front Ranger

We also get the iconic 'your arm is mint' line from Bruce

Gwen is a fan of Happy Days, she says one of her friends wants to marry Potsy, but she prefers Danny from The Partridge Family

Finney and Gwen's last name is Blake, not Shaw. I'm not sure where the last name 'Shaw' comes from. Even the movie synopsis lists Finney's last name is Shaw. I read some online articles that say it's the Grabber's last name, but I can't confirm it.

Several hints that Finney enjoys space. He sets off a rocket after his baseball game, they are learning about the layers of the earth in science, he doodles about NASA in his notebook, his pen is the shape of a rocket, he has space themed pajamas and he has rocket models on the dresser by his bed

There's also a poster for science club on the classroom door, but no indication if Finney is a part of it

The bullies use different insults at Finney, like 'noid' (which I think means 'geek) and 'dickweed'. They also use two homophobic slurs at him throughout the film. Finney ends up being taken by another man, but Finney himself has a crush on a girl, so I think this is just from the bullies being jerks.

Finney's line in the bathroom when Robin asks the bullies what's happening is 'keeping on keeping on'. Finney isn't about to admit he gets his ass kicked, even when it's so obvious. Also a parallel to how he and Gwen don’t tell anyone about their abusive father.

Gwen stays the night at Susie's every Friday, so Finney is left to take care of their dad, who drinks until he passes out

After he is done beating Gwen with a belt and she runs into the living room, the dad points at Finney and says 'the same goes for you'. We don't get clarification of this line, but I think it's to mean the dad is worried Finney has weird dreams/special abilities like Gwen does and Finney needs to learn he's not special.

When Finney is taken, he sees the black balloons in the van, but while we the audience know that black balloons are a sign of the Grabber, there's no scene that says Finney knows that. We see Gwen talking about the black balloons to police, but we don't see her mention it to Finney, which is why he doesn't run.

The Grabber says "nothing bad is gonna happen here, on that, I give my word, Johnny". The film never explains why he calls Finney 'Johnny', but John Finney is Finney's real name in the original short story, so I think it's an odd call back to that.

The mattress Finney has is bolted to the floor. Not only did the Grabber bring the mattress into the basement, he had the forethought to secure it to the floor.

Or one of the other boys tried to move it to the window to get help, like Finney did, so then the Grabber had to secure it

Finney wakes up to find the Grabber staring at him but the Grabber is facing his back, which is very odd. When Finney asks the Grabber why he's down there, the Grabber says 'just to look at you. I just wanted to look at you', but wasn't even able to see Finney's face from where he sat.

I think it’s a sign of how the Grabber wants some kind of ‘intimacy’ or for someone to be defenseless around him. If Finney sleeps with his back to him, the Grabber can convince himself that it’s because Finney isn’t scared of him.

Finney says he's hungry but the Grabber can't bring him food yet (because Max is upstairs). With the other boys, the Grabber likely didn't have that issue and could feed them when/if he wanted. It sounds like most of the boys, he killed right away and didn't have to worry about feeding them. Finney is being denied food when the other boys probably weren't. (We'll come back to the food issue.)

We later see Finney drinking out of the back of the toilet when he’s trying to bust through the wall. The Grabber didn’t have to provide constant drinks or water to the other boys, he doesn’t even think about it with Finney

The drink Finney is given is 'lemon sprite' in glass bottles. We never see Finney try to use the bottles as a weapon, even though Vance and his rage later shatters them against the wall

Gwen ends up taking a nap in the nurse's office and has a dream of Finney banging on the front door, which never actually happens. Later, we see her having a dream of Vance kicking the fence to the Grabber's house, which never actually happened. Her dreams aren't just visions of things that happen, but also like...metaphors I guess for what has happened. She knows Finney is locked away somewhere and she knows Vance wants revenge for his death

She's also taking a nap in a brightly lit room right by the nurse's desk. That can't be comfortable.

Later, when she talks to their father about their mother, Gwen is told her mother was 'special'. 'Special' is a term used to describe Finney in the movie as well, notably by the Grabber and I think Robin in one scene. Gwen is special because of her dreams. The specialness that Finney and Gwen have that allow them to survive seems to have come from the parent they lost.

Also, Gwen's line of how she loved her mom 'how she was' is so precious.

Finney has blood on his right hand his whole time he's in the basement, between his thumb and index finger. I'm not sure what it comes from, but it never goes away, so I'm thinking it's an injury, maybe a rug burn from the carpets or the cord he kept throwing.

The Grabber tells Finney he never knows the names of the boys he takes, but it doesn't matter because the newspaper gives him all the information, including 'what you boys like'. Not only does he know Finney's name, he probably knows about Gwen and his dead mother and his love of space and baseball

The fake name Finney gives the Grabber is 'Taylor Mullin'. I feel like that has to be a reference to something but I'm not sure

The Grabber punishes Finney for lying by dropping his food and depriving him of a meal. There are only two times we see the Grabber feed Finney and this is one of those times. Not only do the meals come randomly and sparingly, but now the food is used as a punishment for Finney disobeying. We later see Finney picking the food up off the ground (and presumably eating it) because he's so hungry

This is where we learn the game is called 'Naughty Boy' and the Grabber can't keep going if Finney doesn't play. I talked about it in one of my other ramblings, but the line of how the Grabber beats them until they pass out is significant, especially in this scene. This implies the Grabber doesn't try anything sexual until the boys are beaten and unconscious. He can't do the next part if Finney doesn't play the game and let the Grabber beat him until he passes out.

During this scene, some kid who was way too young to be watching this movie just goes 'oh no, that's not good'.

Finney finally participates in Naughty Boy when he tries to escape. That scene had me on edge a second time and the acting between Mason Thames and Ethan Hawke can not be overstated. The Grabber tackling Finney and his line about gutting him like a pig is chilling. He hits Finney in the head and says 'night night, naughty boy' because he can finally move on to the next part, but he doesn't get to beat Finney because of Max.

Also noteworthy is how the Grabber carries Finney this time around. He hauls Finney over his shoulder and tosses him on the bed, much less nice and caring than the first time he brings Finney to the basement

We get Vance's flashback and see Finney was present that day Vance got in a fight in the convenience story (why was there a pinball machine in the store as if it's an arcade anyway?), but he's also the one that holds the door open for the police as they drag Vance out. I didn't catch that the first time around.

The scene with Finney crying in the corner after he can’t break through the freezer...damn. Mason Thames was incredible. I felt so sorry for him and I already knew how the movie ended. He really sold this coming of age film and learning to stand up for yourself, but also the aspect of his character being an actual fucking child going through so much trauma at once. His mom kills herself, his dad is abusive, his best friend gets taken, he’s thrown in a basement and starved and he’s waiting to be killed. I just wanted to hug him.

Later, we get Finney's amazing phone call with Robin, where Robin says he has been with Finney the whole time. He knows Finn has been crying, even when he denies it. I imagine after defending Finn from bullies, he has seen Finn cry and Robin just knows.

We also learn Robin's father died in Vietnam and Robin can't leave his friend behind because of this.

As Max is beginning to piece things together, we see the Grabber buying supplies to kill Finney. He buys tarp from Floro Supply Store

It's a small moment, but we see Finney rubbing his arms in the basement to keep warm. It's raining outside as we can see from the window and he hasn't been getting fed properly, only twice over a few days. His strength is starting to go and he's losing weight and body heat. Another clue that the Grabber doesn't keep the boys very long, as he didn't have to provide blankets or warm clothing for the others.

We see a couple of time, especially towards the end, that it almost looks like the phone is breathing. It swells and shrinks certain times Finney looks at it. Maybe a hint that the phone is the last connection the dead boys have to the living world?

That fight scene is just as intense the second time around. Like, the whole movie built up to such a climatic ending.

The hole Finney dug was Bruce's idea, the grate at the bottom of the hole that breaks the Grabber's ankle was what Billy helped him get, the phone is Robin's plan, Vance's idea of breaking through the freezer is how Finney gets past the dog and he gets out the front door with the combination Griffin gave him.

After Finney escapes, the first word he says is 'basement' to the police. He can't even say anything to Gwen but hug her.

Robin is the only person who calls Finney just 'Finn'. Finn's last line of the movie is 'call me Finn' as to show he has learnt to stand up for himself and more mature, it's also a nice callback to his friendship with Robin.

Ending with Donna also shows Finn is more confident in himself, he’s less shy. If he can survive a serial killer, he can talk to his crush.

#the black phone #the grabber #finney blake #gwen blake #robin arellano #vance hopper #bruce yamada #billy the black phone #billy scholt #griffin stagg

[divinctions]

✿ ━━━━ songs from a bedroom : ep .

a chill they couldn't place and burning lungs like she'd ran a marathon that never happened haunted them from the moment they stepped off the plane. the amount of layers and numbers of deep breaths she took did nothing to quell the all consuming ailments. as days turned into weeks they wondered if it would always be like this. if her body was rejecting the change as much as a part of their heart did. there were too many eyes on them then. she couldn't turn back if they wanted to ( on nights where not even a brown leather jacket brought her comfort, oh did they w a n t to ). they owed it to their parents. to her sister who put her life on pause to help luna push theirs forward. they owed it to themselves. she wouldn't turn back. but they couldn't ignore the ache in their chest either. their needed to be a release. so they picked up their guitar, sat down at a keyboard, pressed record on a camera and used the mic to support the words they always found hard to say. there was a total of eight songs written before luna felt better. they weren't healed. some days were still worst than others, but she was better. better was a start. dropped quietly with little warning. nothing more than muted videos on an instagram story alluding to something coming, but never getting details on what. but over 4 months it had become completed projected. they were ready to let it go. these are those eight songs. / ( @santainspohq )

angel / beabadoobee

it's quiet. a darkened room illuminated by candlelight and a sniffle start the video recording as luna shifts in her bed. " it's two am and i just got off the phone with my mom. " a pause. they're unsure if they would begin to cry again, but it passes. quietly, but not without taking another piece of her voice. " it wasn't anything bad, i don't know why i'm so ⸻ " they felt the silence judging them, and so begun a delicate strum of a simple melody. anyway. she was telling me how proud she is and my dad is and my abuela is and my tia too, and my tia's novio and down the list " there's something of a laugh that slips through a mixture of gratefulness and guilt. " i should be happy, i am happy. but i think i'm also scared. very scared. "

you're not as brave as you may seem i'm scared of life it's in my blood so i blame myself i blame myself

the way i spoke / beabadoobee

imposter syndrome made itself comfortable in the depth of her ribcage. it was tearing them from the inside out. days consisted of wondering if they could really become a folklorist. if they could go down a path that wasn't previously paved by their father or their mother. perhaps it was subconsciously, or maybe they were aware that it was a fantasy. but they swore she had seen him. even if it was fiction, it was enough. pressure wound so tightly around her heart lessened for a moment. it carried them through their day. through the front door of her apartment, and too their bedroom window. it helped them pick up their guitar again, sit by the rain patterned window and hit record again, but the guilt wouldn't let them speak. so they just sat strumming, humming, singing until the thought of what they'd done wouldn't let her anymore.

the sky was dark in sight the moon was out but the sun was in your eyes no one talked, but i did you listened you said you liked the way i spoke

lug / juliet ivy

acting coaches only worked for pretending to be someone else. not a better version of yourself. luna learned that the hard way. worry from family and friends, pestering questions about how they were feeling when she was trying to bury in the closet where they found themselves hitting record on a friday night trying to pretend that she wasn't home. " i don't want to talk so i don't know why i turned this on. " voice is a whisper as they peeped to the door, frightened itzel might have found them out. " maybe that's what i should write next, but it's just ten minutes of white noise. " it might not have ten minutes, and it wasn't white noise either but luna spent the weekend locked in her room working on the song focused on how much she just didn't want to speak.

i rip off the zipper off my back and hide it so i'll never have to know what lives inside it even though, i'm the one who packed it i don't wanna face my decisions even though i'm the one who did this

tired / beabadoobe

living but their life wasn't theirs; it was routine. lug was meant to release the things she couldn't say out loud but all it did was cram them into the back of their throat and make it hard to breathe. she'd take care of nymph, spend time with their spiders, attend their classes, and not much else. monotony was scary. another night in the bed she hardly left. she pressed record but the words were like gotten in their mouth so they strummed instead, letting the things that scared them most to say find their way through a melody.

you haven't felt right for days is it the fact you never say what comes in your mind that day? maybe it's time to shut away cause i've never really felt okay

soren / beabadoobee

the same night rough cut of their heart was put into tired, luna returned to the same position. eyes were red from crying and their throat was dry, but they hit record anyway. " i've been trying to record this since i got to here actually. " her voice was hoarse; hands slightly shaking. being honest with themselves quietly was a lot different than being honest with themselves out loud. " i think i knew i would start to feel better if i recorded it ⸻ if i got it off my chest and i don't think i deserve that. i don't think i should feel better after what i did but i don't know. i don't think he would want me to think that, and i think he deserves to hear this even if he doesn't hear it right away. "

if there was a place that i had to choose or a memory that fades that i cannot lose if there was a place that i could call home before i'd die, you'd ought to know it'd be in your arms tonight

bestfriend / juliet ivy

trying was made easy with one carmen hernandez. from impromtu exploring and unintentional sleep overs; luna found a new home in her faster than in the apartment she was renting. it was with her that they produce the instrumental; trying to make it as upbeat as carmen. she wanted it to feel like a ray of sunshine because that what carmen was. the lyrics came later, an excited click of the record button and a small laugh. " these are probably corniest lyrics i've ever written. " the thought turning a small laugh into a joyous cackle.

i'm not under any obligation i just love you without hesitation when i'm with you i don't have to fake it fall asleep in my bed and i'll hold you cause you're my best friend

ceilings / beabadoobe

it had been weeks since the last song. the room she'd spent so much time in they knew how many wood panels lined her floor had hardly seen them. they'd began attending campus club meetings, meeting with teaching assistants, making new friends, and conversing with locals about their favorite myths. it was the first day they settled by their window with a guitar in hand. there was no record button near, but she knew they'd remember. they'd sing for themselves first, and share it later.

love me like a book that has no name let the birds sing let the fish swim and appreciate the life you live

we're all eating each other / juliet ivy

" i think death is very comforting. " it was surely the start the recording. " i just mean in the sense that the universe doesn't care about us, and we're literally all going to end up in the ground one day. none of us our important so why do we need to put so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect? for what? for who? we're all going to decompose and be used to grow trees or flowers or crops and then the generation after us and the ones after that will feed on those things. we're all eating each other. who gives a shit ? i think that's the most motivational thing i could ever thing of. "

cause we're all gonna die decompose into daffodils and dandelions the bees will use our flowers for whatever they like make the honey that our grandkids will put inside their morning tea it's the thing of life we're all eating each other

#I DONT THINKKKKKK luna would share the recorded bits with the ep BUT I STILL THOUGHT IT WAS FUN TO SEE WHAT/WHERE SHE WAS THEY INSPIRED WHAT #IDK I JUST HAVE A LOT OF LUNA THOUGHTS #THIS IS LONG FOR NO REASON #DFIJOKSDFIJSOFK #XOXOXO #smhqinspo #⸻ ✿ luna dominguez herrera ❮ creation ❯

[canirove]

Red & Blue | Chapter 2

Author’s note: First of all: thank you. Thank for reading that first chapter and for all the reblogs, likes and comments. Like, wow. I wasn't expecting it. At all. Especially because when I first shared this story with a friend to have a second opinion, I thought it was a weak first chapter 😅 So, again, thank you very much, and like I said yesterday on the new chapter of Declan's story, welcome to all the new people who started following me! 💜

There are things on this chapter similar to the ones we've currently seeing with both the men and women's teams at St. George's Park, but it is just a coincidence, I wrote this weeks ago. Did I manifest it? Maybe 👀😂 Anyway, thanks for reading, and hope you like it! 💜

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Masterlist

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“Hello there” Emily says, opening the door of my car.

“Hello” I reply, getting out and giving her a hug.

“It’s so nice to have you back. We missed you last time.”

“I missed you too. And hello everyone” I say to Eddie, the photographer, and the camera men who are filming the arrivals.

“Oh, someone else is here” Emily says, moving towards the car that just arrived behind mine. “One sec.”

“No problem” I say, focusing on getting all my things from the car and not forgetting anything.

“Mason!” I hear Emily say behind me.

“Fuck” I whisper, the bag with my boots falling from my hands as the driver gives it to me.

“It’s alright, miss” he says, helping me pick them up.

“Do you need any help?” Emily asks behind us.

“We are fine. Just clumsy” I reply with a nervous laugh. “Thank you very much, sir” I say to the driver, moving towards the door. But before I can ignore Mason, he is standing next to me.

“Hi” he smiles. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

“Yeah” I mutter, trying to smile and not look like an idiot.

“Ok, passports” Emily says when we are inside the building. “And you don’t know how things work now, do you?” she asks me.

“Leah has told me a bit about it.”

“Oh, good. You’ll see that nothing much has changed. And...” she says, looking out the door “someone else just arrived, I better go. Mason, why don’t you show her around?”

“Sure. I’ll be her tour guide” he says to Emily before she leaves.

“You don’t have to do it. You probably want to meet the others.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. I’ll have plenty of time to see them during these days” he smiles again. Damn it, he’s so handsome when he smiles. “Shall we?” he asks, gesturing towards the corridor in front of us.

“Wait, before you leave” Eddie says behind us. “Can I get a photo of you two together? You are two fan favorites.”

“For the fans then” Mason laughs while grabbing me by the waist, his touch making me feel things despite the layers of clothing.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“Did you have the basketball court last time you were here?” Mason asks when we walk pass it.

“No, we didn’t.”

“Do you play?”

“I actually do, yes.”

“Then we must have a little game when we all are free. Let’s see if your hands are as talented as your feet” he says with a smirk.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“I can’t believe Eddie made you pose together” Leah says, laying on my bed while checking all the photos from today, picking one to post on her Instagram. “I’m sure he also ships you.”

“Definitely” I say, rolling my eyes.

“I wonder what his fans will say when they see it. Will they go wild? Will they ship you? Will they hate you?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon. He just posted it” I say, showing Leah my phone.

“Let the games begin!” she laughs.

“Speaking of games” I say, putting my phone down and not wanting to look at it until tomorrow. “He asked me to play basketball with him later when we are free. Will you join us? I’m sure Declan will be there too.”

“Bffs vs. bffs? I’m in” she says with a mischievous smile.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“Where did you learn to play like that?” Declan asks, lying on the floor.

“My mum used to play when she was younger and she taught me” I say, shooting another basket.

“And it goes in clean. Again. I can’t believe it” Mason laughs next to me.

“Annoying, isn’t it?” Leah says, sitting next to Declan.

“Very” he replies, still lying on the floor. “Let’s try again tomorrow. I’m not leaving St. George’s without winning against you at least once.”

“Good luck with that” I say, shooting again, the ball easily going in.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“Wow, someone had a bad day yesterday” I say the next day, finally checking my notifications.

“Mason fan?”

“That’s what she says. Stay away from him, you filthy gunner bitch. Go suck Arteta’s ****. And yes, whoever this was, censored that last word.”

“No way” Leah laughs. “But why him? He isn’t your coach or anything.”

“Who knows. Maybe he is the only one from Arsenal this person knew” I shrug. “But whoever this is, just got blocked.”

“Good. Is anyone shipping you with Mason?”

“You are so funny” I say, throwing a pillow to her face as someone knocks on the door.

“I’ll answer” Leah says, throwing the pillow back at me.

“Hello girls” says Hannah, our team’s social media manager. “I’m afraid there’s been a change of plans and you won’t be having a free morning. There is some content that we didn’t have time to finish yesterday and that must be shot today. I’ll meet you downstairs in 5 minutes.”

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“Leah, you’ll be doing a TikTok challenge with some others over there” Hannah says, pointing to a table set at the other side of the pitch. “And you will be filming a game for YouTube with Mason.”

“With Mason?” Leah and I say at the same time, she definitely more excited than me.

“Is there any problem with it?” Hannah asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Not at all” Leah says with a big smile.

“What’s the game about?” I ask Hannah as I follow her to where Mason is already waiting.

“Remember the one Chilly and Declan did, the one about the food?”

“How could I. That winner was an insult to everyone who loves food” I laugh. And it isn’t as if I’ve watched it way too many times because Ben looked stupidly handsome. Declan too, not gonna lie.

“This one is about Marvel characters, trying to pick the best super hero” Hannah explains.

“That sounds fun.”

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“I can’t believe Wanda didn’t make it to the final” I say to Mason once we’ve finished the game. “She definitely was the most powerful one! And you chose Thor!”

“Because he is a God!”

“Wanda was able to destroy one of the infinity stones!”

“And then she went nuts. I wouldn’t put my life in her hands.”

“Ok, that’s rude. She was grieving”.

“Sorry” he shrugs. “But at least we agree on the winner.”

“Kind of” I say. “I still think it’s a tie between Spiderman and Captain America.”

“But if it was the end of the world, what could Captain America do for you? Spiderman could fly you away, take you somewhere safe. And he is as strong as Steve.”

“I know, I know. But only if there are trees or buildings around. In the desert they both would be equal.”

“Fine” Mason says, rolling his eyes. “You are a stubborn one, aren’t you?”

“She’s very stubborn” Aaron says, showing up out of nowhere.

“Where did you come from?” I say. “You scared me!”

“I was filming over there. If you didn’t see me, it was because you were too busy with Mason” he smiles. I give him my most murderous look in return, but his smile just goes wider.

“Anyway, I better go find Leah” I say, looking for an excuse to escape from them.

“Are we still playing basketball later today?” Mason asks as I leave.

“Yeah, sure” I say.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

When Leah and I go downstairs, Mason and Declan are already waiting. Them, and Aaron and Ben.

“What are you two doing here?” I ask them.

“We wanted to be part of the fun” Aaron says.

“Meaning that he wanted to see Mase and I being destroyed by you” Declan says.

“That too” Aaron replies with one of his smiles.

“So you are not playing?” Leah asks. “Cowards.”

“We play together all the time. Let them be the ones to suffer” Ben says, not lifting his eyes from his phone.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

“C’mon Mase, you can do it!” Reece says, cheering for his teammate. A little crowd has formed around us, most of them cheering for Leah and I and making fun of Mason and Declan. Eddie is taking photos while someone else is filming, already planning to upload this to YouTube.

“That was so bad, Declan!” Coady yells, he and Mings laughing like crazy.

“If this one goes in, we win” I say, looking at Mason.

“First you’ll have to get pass me” he smirks, already in position to defend.

“There she goes!” Aaron yells as I attack.

“And it goes in!” Leah screams behind me. Everyone around us starts cheering, while Declan dramatically falls to the floor, Mason standing with his arms on his hips.

“Sorry” I say, giving him my best smile. He just shakes his head while licking his lips, and I find myself staring until someone comes to congratulate me and bring me back to reality.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━    

The rest of the days with the national team go by quickly. It’s mostly training, playing the friendly games and enjoying our free time. Turns out that mixing both teams has been a great idea.

“My tagged photos on Instagram are all Mason” I say to Leah on the car back home.

“He isn’t that bad, is he?”

“He isn’t, he is really nice. You and Aaron were right about that. But look, it’s like I am on his account, not mine” I say, showing her my phone.

“That happens when you spend all your free time with him and Eddie is around” she says with a big smile.

“We are just friends” I say, rolling my eyes.

“For now.”

#mason mount #mason mount x reader #mason mount fanfic #mason mount imagine #football imagine #football fanfic

[adelaidedrubman]

wip well it’s. a day 

i was tagged for wip wednesday by @socially-awkward-skeleton and @direwombat, thank you dears! belatedly passing along whenever tags to @henbased @florbelles @unholymilf @roofgeese @corvosattano @poetikat @derelictheretic @confidentandgood @jackiesarch @ishwaris @a-far-cry-from-my-main @shallow-gravy @voidika @purplehairsecretlair @fourlittleseedlings @nuclearstorms @i-am-the-balancing-point @inafieldofdaisies

i was going to skip this week in the name of preserving a full enough chapter for posting next week, but fuck it in honor of my absolution audiobook listen here’s a scene of john smoking Double Cigarettes. (prommy this was written before i ever listened and not born as a meme.) 

warnings for drug use and brief + very non-explicit internal dialogue re past sex

John studied the orange glow of embers at the end of the cigarette resting on the balcony railing as he inhaled around the one between his fingers, tapping it to knock ash loose.

Tobacco cigarettes weren’t exactly encouraged in the Project, either — but it was a small and common enough transgression, something easily chalked up to ‘everyone is human’ by faithful looking the other way for one another. And the nicotine covered up the smell of the pot well enough, served as an easy false flag. 

A trick he’d learned with the Duncans — misdirection, a small sin clumsily exposed in concealment of a more serious one. 

He spun the cigarette on the railing with his index, so that the smoldering tip faced him, sighed with heavy longing at the flickering red and orange light of it. 

And if he were being honest, the sin he was truly trying to bury was layers deeper still than the weed he took another hit from. 

Jessie. 

Days, and there still hadn’t been a moment her name didn’t blare in his mind, that his insides didn’t twist and gnaw with pain at her absence — as if his heart was being constantly torn further from his chest from some distant tugging by her from all those miles away. Not a single hour he couldn’t hear that darling, nasally little voice rasp ‘you’re all mine’ to him just how she had that night, feel the fresh flush of warmth at the memory, crave the embrace of how good the prospect had felt. To be hers, entirely, if only for a moment. 

But currently, the echo of her voice bouncing around his skull was drowned out by the shrill ring of his landline, managing to pierce his eardrums even muffled behind the walls of his office. 

As expected, it was followed closely behind with the padding of footsteps up the stairs. John stamped the butt of his joint against the iron on cue, dropping it into his jacket pocket and hurrying to bring the spare cigarette on the railing to his lips to take a puff. 

He cleared his throat, feigned an embarrassed smile and a rushed effort to toss the cigarette off the balcony. 

He pictured the exaggerated roll that amber eyes would have flashed at the artifice, the way they’d glint solid gold with his reflection, a sparkling, penetrating light that always left him feeling so fully seen and exposed down to his very soul. That powerful stare of hers that made him wonder if he’d ever really understood what it was to have a soul before she’d looked at him. 

For now he was only met with the dull, muddy hazels widened with silent questioning from the man who passed.  

John nodded, angling his head in the direction of the office continuing to overflow with the piercing ring of the telephone. “Would you?”

“Certainly, Brother John, but —” he gave a slight bow of his head. “Maybe it’s not my place…” Really, was this one that much of a teetotaler as to take issue with a single cigarette? “But the phone’s been ringing nonstop again today. I think the Father really wants to speak with you.”

“And it pains me deeply not to be able to take his calls myself.” It did. Depriving himself of Joseph’s company had been the most painful part of the past few days by far, but he just needed a little more time. “But I’m afraid I do have to rush off and attend to the logistics of the Pumpkin Farm recapture.” He spun on his heels, waving a friendly goodbye as he jogged towards the stairs. “But send him my best when you pass along the update!”

#wip

[roryfuckedurmum]

Songbird #1 Star Girl

Co-written with my dear friend L.L. Valentine

Masterlist

Pairings: handsome jack x female singer!oc

Summary: Theia is a singer invited to audition for the Handsome Jackpot, little does she know she has a fan.

crossposted to ao3

Theia had been playing her piano most of the day, well. When she said her piano she meant the one her boss allowed her to use. She was a singer at heart and always had been, who wanted to talk about their feelings in such a factual manner when they could express it much better through song. Of course singing in random bars on Pandora wasn’t the most lucrative of professions however and she’d had to eventually grow up and move on from her dream, taking a receptionist job on Helios. Maybe she should have gone to school, learned to code or how to do accounting or something. That would be better pay and much more steady employment. But she hadn’t. Her heart had been set on singing.

If Theia couldn’t sing she couldn’t breathe. That’s why she started sneaking into the Helios night club during their closed hours, using the piano or the stage to sing to her empty audience. She’d been caught of course, not as sneaky as she liked to pretend she was. But luckily the manager had liked what he’d heard and gave her a job. This must have been how she was known by people working high enough up in the company to get the phone call. Theia was about to audition to move to the Handsome Jackpot to sing in their cabaret bar. Cabaret singing was her dream and she’d be damned if she passed up this chance

Her nerves were high as she stepped off the shuttle, all of her belongings reduced to the suitcase she carried once again. Theia hadn���t owned this little since she first moved to Helios and had to leave behind the sentimental junk and trinkets she had been lugging around Pandora.

Another new start. To be honest she was sick of fresh starts after leaving home, leaving her planet, and now leaving Helios. Theia hoped this would be her home for good. But she knew Handsome Jack was a hard man to please. Not that she ever expected to meet him but, if she was unsatisfactory she was sure news would reach him resulting in her being fired, if she was lucky and he was having a good day. She stepped onto the landing bay, bag in hand to see the man himself stood waiting.

"You're one of the Talents I sent for right? The Pandoran Song Bird. I'm actually really excited to meet you." He said as his eyes grew wide. He was expecting some stuffed suit coming to give back some of the money he paid them. This however was a pleasant surprise. He approached her taking her hand and kissing it. His eyes kept locked with hers as he let her hand go, quickly snapping his fingers at a man in uniform standing close by.

Here he was, the infamous man she had heard so much about, kissing her hand. How gentlemanly. Looking at him up close, she realised he really did live up to his name, his greying hair, the faint imperfections on the skin peeking out from under his mask. And my god was he built well, the perfect height that she could reach his lips but still got to look up at him, his broad shoulders perfect for cuddling. If only she wasn’t terrified of him, she may have been attracted to him.

"You, bell boy gather miss Theia's luggage and take it to the Talents’ quarters. If she tells me that anything missing, I will deal with you myself. Understood?" The bell boy nodded quickly and scurried gathering Theia’s suitcase before taking off.

“Oh I apologise for my appearance sir I wasn’t aware I’d be meeting you.” she commented, suddenly very conscious of the rehearsal outfit of layered dance clothes she wore as she watched the bell boy disappearing with her luggage “It’s a pleasure to meet the great Mr Hyperion.” Theia tried to feign all the courage she could with her teasing tone.

"Please, Theia, it’s Jack. Only the fanatics call me Mr. Hyperion and you're more complex than that, aren’t you?" His question had a slight upward incline as did his eyebrows as he watched her. The question was meant for her to ponder. What did she think of herself? Then just as fast as his tone was serious, it was joyous again. "You seem to be the first to arrive. Or at least as far as I've seen. Let me buy your first meal on The Handsome Jackpot.”

A pink dusting grew across her pale face as he insisted on being so casual with her, of all the stories she’d heard he was a man to be feared but here he was being so kind. She looked up at his much taller frame as she began to speak, “That’s sweet of you si- Jack,” she corrected herself, still afraid of him “but don’t you want to wait for the others?”.

Jack shook his head with a smirk on his face. "Ohh you think I came down to greet the talent. You got lucky sweetheart. And what can I say, I think you would look great on my arm, so I'd like to get to know you." Jack winked at her and extended his hand. "What do you say?”

She looked up at him, her face now as red as her polished nails as she tried her best to form a sentence, sure he was attractive but that wasn’t what made her nervous. Handsome Jack was terrifying in every sense of the word. His masked face, his trigger happy demeanour, and yet she couldn’t help but oblige, a smile on her face no less “That sounds lovely Jack, I better go and get changed though, I feel so underdressed next to you,”.

Jack shook his head. "Theia, if you stood next to me, all dressed up, everyone would just start calling me Ordinary Jack. Wait till I can compete. Plus you must be famished from your trip. Are you really going to tell Handsome Jack no?" He grinned still offering her his hand.

Her hand was shaking as she placed it in his “How could I?” she giggled unconvincingly. Maybe this would be fun. As scary as he was he seemed to be treating her better than well and she sure wouldn’t mind gazing into those mismatched eyes a little longer, even if she had to go in her rehearsal clothes.

With a slight performative bow he took her hand, gently leading her away from the shuttles.

The restaurant he took her to was surprisingly quaint for Jack. The man behind the counter was very obviously afraid of him, but he seemed to be less so than the other patrons. As Jack pulled the chair out for Theia, he couldn't help but grin at all the people watching her, asking themselves, who was this mystery girl sat with The Handsome jack? She felt the eyes on her, imagining they were probably wondering what someone who looked so rough was doing at lunch with this high company.

“Can I just ask why you’re being so sweet to me Jack?”

Jack sighed. "Honestly Kiddo, it's because of the way your eyes lit up when you saw the space port. I want to know what's behind that sparkle. So tell me about yourself." Jack smiled sitting beside her at the table and turning to her.

She couldn’t help but smile softly at his answer ”Well I grew up on Pandora,” her voice quiet at the name of her home, “sneaking out at night to go and watch gigs and I just always felt so jealous of the singers because they got to create this art every night. When I grew up I started working in bars as a way to get my own gigs but money got tight and I took a receptionist job on Helios to make ends meet. Lucky for me though I got caught by your talent scouts when I was practicing on the big piano in the night club and I got asked to come and try out here.” she explained.

"Right your dosier said you were Pandoran. Tell me Pumpkin, did you ever see yourself above the world you once called home? Did you ever think you'd get this far?" Jack asked as he took a drink of the amazing smelling liquid in his glass. His eyes locked with hers, almost as if her was intentionally intimidating, interrogating her.

”I haven’t always had the most self confidence but I always dreamed of singing up here amongst the stars.” she smiled as she looked up at nothing, imagining what celestial views she might get to see living up here.

"Well Theia you are in the right place to take your first step into the universe. Let me be the first to welcome you."

Jack gave her a genuine smile, happy to hear she wasn't just all make up and no brains. Given everything from birth and ready to be just another pretty face, not that she wasn't pretty. She was actually quite beautiful, bright eyes and dark hair seemed to be just his type after all. He raised his glass toward her.

"To you Sweetheart. And may the universe accept you into its stars."

She barely noticed the look on his face, barely. The split second of genuine smile she caught had filled her stomach with butterflies and emptied her mind of all thought.

“And to you Jack and to all the vaults you’ll conquer,”

She chuckled warmly as she lifted her own glass, she shouldn’t get involved with such a dangerous man right? But he was so kind to her, perhaps the rumours of his cruelty were just that. Rumours.

Jack tipped the glass to his lips taking a drink before setting it back down. His eyes were drawn like flies to hers as the time passed. Their food soon arrived and they were halfway through the meal when Jack relaxed back looking at her as she sat distracted.

Theia followed suit, taking a sip of her bourbon as the food arrived. She ate happily as she relaxed into the comfort of silence, finally beginning to let go of her fear. That was of course until he spoke again.

"Tomorrow you’ll be brought in to one of our small stages. My judges will observe your performance, and if you meet their standards, you'll get a real offer."

Jack said, so robotically. It was almost as if he didn’t like the idea that she may not be hired on contract.

Auditions were the one time Theia got stressed while singing. She could easily perform to thousands a night without a second thought, but singing to a small panel of judges was beyond terrifying. Even more so than the man sat across from her.

“And what if I fail? You gonna send me home? Shoot me?”

She spoke, aggression tainting her tone like a frightened dog.

"Noooo, of course not. If you want to stay there are a lot of stages n the Jackpot. The one you're auditioning for tomorrow is the main event. The little stages are still a decent size, but the big stage makes the most money. Has the best crowd. And it's only for Musicians..." Jack looked around the room before back to Theia. "Just sing your heart out Kiddo. I'm sure you'll do great." His eyes kept fluttering back to her as he finished his meal.

She sat still for a moment thinking, maybe he was right and it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Jack why are you singling me out of everyone else here to audition, why did you decide to take me to lunch?” she asked him, her voice equally curious and nervous.

Jack looked back to Theia and his smile lessened slightly. He didn't like repeating himself.

"Listen Kiddo. I said it once already, I didn't single you out. You showed up on the transport when I was walking by, I liked the way your eyes sparkled when you looked around at my spaceport. I like the adventure in your eyes. So I invited you to lunch. If you don't want to be here with me, you're free to leave." He said as he relaxed back in his chair. His smile tapered to a light line. "You might be special Pumpkin. You might be the next great star to this galaxy. It might start right here in that chair, but you're going to have to earn it."

His eyes focused intensely on hers now. She was beautiful. Her eyes were kind. He really did hope she was as good at singing as his scouts said.

Meanwhile, she couldn’t help but allow her eyes to drift to his stiff, masked lips as he spoke, feeling more worked up and confident the more he spoke.

“I guess you’ll have to watch me then,”

the girl teased as she stood up from the table, turning back to send him a wink before walking away, swaying her little ass with each step as she felt his eyes burning into her.

Why did she do that? She thought. Was she running because she was scared or was she teasing him? Time to focus on the audition she told herself, heading to her personal room to pick out a suitable outfit and practice a little.

Jack watched her intensely. She was destined for great things for sure. And she was going to drive him crazy. He already felt drawn to her. Already wanted to chase her. He was about to when she stepped out the door and the sleezeball that had been chatting up uncomfortable women by the bar caught sight of her. Jack rose as the man made his way after her.

As the man followed behind he was oblivious to Jack, only a few paces behind. The man was about to take a corner toward the main halls of the jackpot when Jack grabbed the back of his collar.

"Easy there scum bucket. That lady wants nothing to do with you. Much like everyone else."

The man struggled pathetically in Jack's grip. Muttering something about being the governor of somewhere or the other and spending so much blah blah. He could only imagine his hands on Theia as she said no. Before he knew what happened the man's grey matter painted the wall behind him the red in Jack's eyes fading slowly. Jack really did like this girl.

Unaware of what had transpired after she had left the restaurant, Niamh has spent her evening practicing for her audition before settling on the perfect song and drifting off to sleep.

#fanfic #borderlands #handsome jack x reader #handsome jack is babygirl confirmed #handsome jack

[speaking-from-the-abyss]

Some random thoughts on Obey Me! Nightbringer up to lesson 10 (with LOTS of spoilers)

If you ask why I'm making a post like this in this blog is cause I will defend that this is a queer coded game to my last breath –and cause is my blog and I do what I want.

Full disclosure: I'm not done with the first game yet so no spoilers for that one please. I'm guessing I'll get spoiled by Nightbringer anyways as the story progresses, and I already did lol, but I wanna gush about this game because I love it so much already.

Starting with the title screen, oh my gosh the art is beautiful. 10/10 would definitely buy a poster of this.

They continue using they/them for MC and that's a thing we all gotta appreciate. Thank u.

The layout and the art of the game is just SO PRETTY in general. Definitely an upgrade from the first game, credits to the designers and artists.

It's a rhythm game!! I like it, the gameplay is easy enough and in classic Obey Me fashion you gotta be really precise when you click or else, which adds a good layer of difficulty.

We don't have 8 different types of support items, just 4, which makes it easier to keep count of how many we have. I am still broke in-game to buy them tho.

WE CAN GET DEVIL POINTS BY COMPLETING LEVELS THANK U SO MUCH. In contrast, I feel like they give less materials when you clear a stage? I mean, they gotta balance it I guess, or maybe is just me.

The game was lagging like hell when I first started playing tho. Idk if it was the game or my phone that couldn't run it or what, but it's fixed now.

I love the fact they're using the character songs for the levels!!! I was waiting for the unit songs and they took a while, but they're there too. The remixes are fun and I can't believe how good they sound.

Speaking of sound, this game's ost is SO GOOD like huh? I was kinda expecting it cause it's a big production and all but bruh. Every now and then I end up having to stop because I gotta appreciate the bgm. There was this one funny song where a banjo started playing and I straight up laughed out loud. 10/10

MK is that you?

Coming back to the layout and the designs: THERE'S SO MUCH RURI HANA IN HERE!!!!!! Love it. 20/10. Best thing ever. Whoever decided to add that I hope they're having an amazing day.

Also, is that a Ruri Hana Miss Em?? Gosh I love this game.

And I'm not done gushing about the designs yet cause LOOK AT HIM!!! LOOK!!!! He's so cute!!!!🧡🧡🧡

HE'S SO PRECIOUS JUST LOOK AT HIM!!!!! 🧡🧡🧡

The art for the cards is really pretty and I need more Levi cards so badly asap

Also, there's a shit ton of extra content, wow. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole 3D models yet (mostly cause my phone only gives me bad renditions of them) but the extra content is slice of life funny bits. I like that they're voice acted, they're good.

Hey so y'know how you can click on the characters and get voice messages in the home screen and how you interact with them in the surprise guest screen? In neither of those I can click on Levi's tail and I consider that a crime against all Levi stans.

OKAY SO when this game was announced and as time went on and we got little pieces of the plot, not gonna lie I was worried. When it comes to time and time travel this franchise has a, well, a record. I'm still worried how it's gonna develop but for now I really like the things they're showing in the main story regarding the characters and the plot. Just, y'know, fingers crossed it doesn't become a mess.

Honestly the timeline is a mess already as it is. We met Luke and he has apparently just started learning how to bake, but in the first game he says he's been doing it for about 300 years, so it's been only 300 years between the end of the Celestial War and the beginning of the first game? Shouldn't the time be at least a few thousand years?? I'm solving this by doing a headcanon that time moves differently in different worlds cause otherwise the lack of coherence bothers me too much.

I'm so intrigued about Nightbringer himself. You think the prologue is giving us a red herring about who he is? Will it be a new character? An old one? Us from the future? They did a good job in implementing the mystery and I can't wait.

I was rereading this chat we have with them at the beginning of the game and something caught my eye:

Do you think maybe we'll start jumping between time as the story continues? So that we'll be at and see different time periods with different characters?? 🤔

This guy has an omurice for an icon when we all know he can't cook to save his life and I find that so ironic xD I like how much he's getting involved in the story so far too

I still don't know who gave them the right to go THIS HARD on a rhythm otome game. I love this thing what the hell. I wish I went this hard with my own projects.

That's all, I'll be waiting for more lessons to drop✌️

#obey me #obey me! #obey me! nightbringer #obey me nightbringer #nightbringer spoilers #spoilers ahead #om! nightbringer #queer

[westerosoliviapope]

Theon Greyjoy - A Day in the Life

I loved this Theon segment so much, I want to give it room to breathe outside the other shenanigans in my latest update.

From Warrior in a Suit (Scandal Westeros - Finale) on A03

"That's the one."

Gods, Theon thinks. Don't let it be the expensive one. He flips the view on his phone so Sansa can inspect the selection of rings on the tray.

"Far right. 1.5 carat, round cut, white gold," she says. "It looks just like the one on her Pinterest board."

Of course.

He nods to Sabitha, the smiling saleswoman behind the counter. A mere six months ago, those tits peeking through her scandalously-buttoned white shirt would have compelled him to give her something more fleeting than the healthy commission she's about to collect.

He's in love, not blind—but neither Sabitha's turnips nor the significant dent in his credit card can cool the warmth in his chest imagining Jeyne's face when she sees this ring.

Theon Greyjoy. Betrothed. He's tempted to pinch himself.

You learn a thing or two watching your best mate spin out from a broken heart. Namely, you don't want to be the bloke who lets the girl—the One—get away.

Day two of their trip to wine country, having dinner on a balcony at Redwyne Family Vineyards as the sun set over rows of red grapes as far as the eye could see, when the light caught whatever Jeyne put on her face that evening to make her cheeks shimmer and all of a sudden he couldn't breathe, Theon knew.

He was done for. Over. So long to the Sabithas of the world.

Maestro, you can cue the wedding march…

The Riverlands' rains don't bother him —a walk in the park compared to the icy storms he grew up with. As far as he's concerned, it's 70 degrees and sunny as he whips his Tesla through the Capitol nodding to the sounds of Jaero Hovys. He became a fan while stationed in Tyrosh, sharing a base with Braavosi soldiers who couldn't get enough of Jae's layered, braggadocious rhymes. When you spent your days trying not to get your cock blown off by landmines, you took confidence where you could get it. For Theon, that meant chanting lines like "I will not lose" and "allow me to re-introduce myself" while waiting in the fields, rifle at the ready.

He generally prefers the earlier stuff to the recent releases with his wife, Bellegere Otherys. Since taking Jeyne to see the pair in concert, however, he appreciates the newer tracks. He doesn't even skip when "Boss" thumps out of his custom speakers.

"Everybody's bosses/ till it's time to pay for the office—"

Fucking hell. How does the phone always know to ring right before the best part of the song? His frustration is quickly replaced with a shit-eating grin when he sees the name flashing across his dashboard.

"Ms. Poole," he answers. He swears he can feel the ring burning a hole in his pocket, even though it's locked in his safe at home. She has no idea… he thinks. Or does she? Bloody hell, if Sansa spoiled the surprise—

"Are you seeing this thing with Arya and your uncle?"

He tries—actively—not to see anything about anyone in his family, except maybe Asha. But keeping the Greyjoy name out of his feeds is difficult of late. What with Euron emerging from bumfuck Asshai and casting himself as Westeros' new main character. Running around with Cersei Lannister. Going viral for shitposting celebrities and the government. Now, apparently he's arguing with Arya on Twitter.

Once he's at his desk, Theon goes through the tweets. All 319 of them. Arya listed the 318 victims of the 2002 Bear Island Attack, a name per tweet, and ended the thread with:

"The media wants you to forget, so they can use the theatrics of a suspected terrorist to boost their ratings. Please think of your Northern neighbors before you platform/share/boost Euron Greyjoy. Time changes many things—it doesn't bring back the loved ones we lost at Bear Island. #TheNorthRemembers."

587k retweets

In reply, Euron posted a photo from Robb's campaign with Theon featured prominently among the Stark siblings.

"Seems you aren't triggered by all Greyjoys. Just the ones who don't kiss your 'honorable' arses. Westerosi elites use every trick in the book to censor me because I tell the truth. Don't let the sob stories fool you.

869k retweets

How long before his phone starts buzzing with requests for comment? Theon gives it two, three hours tops.

When he left Pyke to join the armed services at 18, he thought his days of explaining his family ties were over. He enlisted as Theon Harlaw with no plans to return to the western shores of the Narrow Sea. Once the Three Daughters' conflict settled, he'd find a local Tyroshi girl—a buxom waitress, bartender, or the like—and have a stable full of blue-haired sons who'd never hear their family name associated with words like "extremist," or "cult."

He was in Tyrosh a year when a new crop of cadets came over from the Military Academy at Storm's End, and the name "STARK" appeared over one of the bunks in his unit.

When the Bear Island Courthouse fell, he and Asha were already emancipated, having won their freedom with the assistance of their Uncle Rodrik. The national media knew of Balon Greyjoy, the Iron Islands governor who didn't publicly support the Church of the Drowned God, but—conveniently—never brought the full force of the law down on its extremist sect. They knew the masterminds behind the attack, and applied the term to Aeron and Victarion without irony. And they knew of the enigmatic Greyjoy brother whose "business" took him to Qarth—known drug and money laundering capital of the world—a month before the attack.

They knew little of the wife who divorced Balon ten years prior on grounds of spousal abuse. Or the pair of teenage orphans left to fend for themselves when she died.

His mother's surname let him and Robb coexist peacefully when he first arrived. As the legend of the Young Wolf spread, Theon stayed cordial, but distant. They worked together when duty called. Otherwise, Theon spent his leisure time with the Braavosi unit. With their music, brashness, and penchant for good liquor, they were more his speed than the boy scouts from the Military Academy.

Leave it to Balon to blow it to shit.

News of his father's stroke came via letter. Addressed to "Theon Greyjoy." Like it was bloody designed for shouting in the unit for everyone to hear.

Theon learned three things that day.

One: He wouldn't receive a penny of his trust fund without the Greyjoy name.

Two: Robb has literal bricks for hands.

Three: A fist fight can be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Moments like tonight—watching his name turn into a trending topic because he didn't just have "a" crazy uncle, but came from a family of hucksters who amassed power by deluding an impoverished region with the fantasy of subjugating women, never paying taxes, and attacking merchant ships in the Sunset Sea like a band of old time pirates—makes him wonder if being a Greyjoy is worth the money.

Hovys said it best. Take the good with the bad or throw the baby out with that bath water. Theon Harlaw couldn't drop $21k on an engagement ring.

Fuck waiting out the storm. He may as well steer into it. Smother this baby in the crib before it hits Robb's radar and turns into a real shit show. It's the last thing they need after that Westerling business.

And yes. Perhaps, somewhere in the back of his mind, Theon liked the idea of eye candy in the office when that bloke from the Lorathi embassy gave him her resume. How was he supposed to know Robb would lose his godsdamned head?

Before Jeyne—his Jeyne—not Slutty Fanfic Jeyne…

Well. Okay. Theon would've done the same. Or at least tried. But he didn't unzip Robb's pants and stick his cock in the girl. So, not his fault.

"WNTH. How may I help you?"

"Theon Greyjoy for Wylla Manderly."

Hound that she is, Wylla barely lets the phone ring. Gods save anyone standing between her and an exclusive. "Your uncle has half the republic calling you 'Theon Sheepboy.' Care to comment?"

Sheepboy? Oh. Wolves. Sheep. "Charming," Theon retorts, tapping his pen on his desk.

Time to earn his keep as comms director.

"I'd like to say, on the record, that I have been honored by the gracious warmth and welcome I've found within the Stark family, and stand ardently with them in support of the families and victims of the Bear Island Attack. Euron Greyjoy is a photo on a mantle in a house I barely remember. And I'd like to keep it that way."

"Got it."

"One more thing, Wylla…"

"Aye?"

"The headline is me and my uncle. The family's been through enough without Euron goading them into a brawl." Better Euron's army of bots calling him "sheepboy" than whatever vile shit they'll say to Arya.

"Careful, Greyjoy. People might start thinking you're galant."

"Me?" Theon smiles. "Never."

#scandal westeros #theon greyjoy #modern theon au #modern westeros #modern westeros au

[newgenog]

REVENGE

Notes: This is part three of chapter five. If you're just stumbling across this, and haven't already done so, please stop and start by reading part one of chapter one.

This #Batwoman AU is based on the ABC tv series #Revenge. In this fic, Ryan Wilder leading with her heart means making those responsible for her mother's death pay for their choices, no matter what it costs her.

This part is smaller than the other two because I want to save the good stuff for the conclusion.

CHAPTER FIVE - CHARADE (Part Three)

Ryan’s double life continues to challenge her as she’s confronted with the realities of her choices, and the potential for everything she’s worked for to slip through her fingers. 

FRIDAY, JULY 7TH, 12:00 PM THE LOFT

Luke: “Hey boss, do you think it’s possible for us to eat today?”

Ryan looks at Luke like he’s being dramatic for implying she was a slave driver. 

Ryan: “Just because I’m not hungry, that doesn’t mean you have to starve. Why don’t you order something or run out?”

Luke: “Ryan, you can’t survive on coffee alone. You should at least try to eat something, and maybe take a nap. The bags under your eyes have bags.” 

Ryan: “Shut up. And I'm drinking water, too. Ever heard of fasting? This isn’t going to kill me.” 

She’d showered and given herself a once over. Her eyes were more sunken than bagged…nothing a few layers of concealer wouldn’t handle if necessary. She would not be moved. 

Luke: “You know, The Hold Up has those fries you love. I bet they’ll make them fresh to order for you.”

She looks at him like he’s lost his mind. 

Ryan: “You want me to go down there, and order some fries…after everything I told you and how we’ve spent the last two days? You’re crazy.” 

Luke: “One, as you’re aware, I’m running this program to break further into the Crow’s servers, and I’m too close to have anything go wrong without me being here to catch it, now. So I can’t just walk away. Two, you can’t avoid her forever, and disappearing out of her life only makes you more suspicious.” 

Ryan: “Luke…I can’t.” 

For every single reason, she knows she’s not ready to come face to face with Sophie, the most immediate being that she suddenly has more information about the last decade of Sophie’s life than she’d ever wanted to consume. Her justification was that if Sophie was going to learn about her, she might as well even out the playing field. 

She did still try to prioritize her focus, though. She spent most of her time on career mentions, accolades, and cases Sophie had worked. She was trying to understand Sophie’s style, to see if she could head her off before she found the right path to Ryan. Still, spending this much effort on researching her, and then facing her…she needed time to compartmentalize before she had to deal with that.

Luke: “You’re assuming she’s even there. She has a life, too, you know. Just go get us some food. Get out of this box. See sunlight from a different angle, and faces besides mine.”

Ryan: “You know she’s there…Ooh! I can ask Jordan to bring my order up to me.”  

Luke: “You have Jordan’s number?” 

Ryan shrugs, nonchalantly. They’d had so many instances with Selina ending up at Ryan’s that Jordan had asked for her number to just verify that’s where the cat was instead of worrying about her, and Ryan didn’t see the harm. She got the feeling Sophie didn’t know that had occurred between them, and decided to go along with it. Ryan picks up her phone, and prepares to text Jordan. 

Ryan: “So, if the fries are for me, what are you eating?”

Luke: “I think I’m in.” 

He starts furiously typing and clicking. He finds Tyler’s shared drive folder, but doesn’t see anything with Sophie’s name on it. He assumes Tyler has been feeding her information, and clicks into it. There are a lot of folders, and he’s bucketed them by year that he started investigating. Luke clicks into 2023, and finds less than 10 folders, each named after a person of interest. He recognizes four names right away. He clicks into each one, and after a minute of scanning, he frowns. 

Luke: “Yeah, this isn’t great.” 

Ryan gets up and walks around to see what he’s looking at. He’s got files open with lots of redacted fields, videos with additional encryption and password protections. They’ve really locked everything down, which is surprising considering that Luke has mimicked Tyler’s credentials. 

Ryan: “What’s happening.” 

Luke: “For one, we do have a problem. They’ve started to put together that Arthur Brown, Roman Sionis, and Candice Long are somehow related. Second, there is a file on Robyn Wilde. And, third, we won’t know exactly what Sophie knows unless I can get that level of clearance, because evidently, that’s not Tyler, and there’s nothing on the Crow’s databases that links back to her. They’re not taking any chances with this.” 

Ryan: “Dammit. What about my folder?”

Luke: “There’s really not much in there. I can see why they asked for Sophie’s help if this guy is second in command. He was never going to get anywhere with what he dug up.” 

She walks back over to her chair and plops down. All of this effort, and she feels no closer than she was. 

Ryan: “So what’s next?”

Luke: “I think you need to start preparing me to be a spy. I was already thinking I might need to do that, but I wanted to at least try this way, first.”

Ryan: “What are you talking about?”

Luke: “I’m going to have to get Jacob Kane’s prints, a retinal scan, and mimic his access from his computer when I’m at their house on Sunday, and I need you to help make sure I don’t get caught.”

~~~~~

FRIDAY, JULY 7TH, 5:00 PM, TYLER'S CAR

Tyler watches as Angelique enters the bar. He remembers her arriving at the same time as Sophie's sister the first day they started working together, but also recalls Sophie mentioning that it was for training. He knew of Angelique because she'd been brought in for questioning on an investigation on Penguin's Ice Lounge, when it was suspected of covering up a drug ring while she was bartending there, but that was his only encounter with her before she'd moved away. He's glad his instincts are right, and that she'd be the scheduled closing bartender for a weekend night. 

He's surprised when she doesn't go straight into work, since it's just after five, and she appears to be flushed, most likely due to being late for work. She notices an unremarkable black car, and walks towards it, opening the door and getting into the passenger seat without hesitation. She's there for less than 5 minutes before she leaves looking defeated.

Then, she walks into The Hold Up, in a rush, and he doesn't see her again for almost five hours. When she steps outside, she's texting someone, with that same beaten expression. Someone calls her phone, and she clearly defends herself with a hushed, but frustrated voice.

The next time he sees her, she's locking up the bar, and heading to her car. While she was working, and after there were no other cars or people in the area, he'd gone to her car and placed both a tracker on the outside of it, and he'd found his way inside to bug it with a mic. If she had even a single conversation with Robyn, he'd catch it. He did still tail her home, by watching the tracker, so he didn't have to get too close. Her apartment building is impressive, given a bartender's earnings.

He settles in for what's going to be a long night. He doesn't want to lose her if she decides to go somewhere besides work. A light flicks on in one of the windows, behind the fire escape, on the top floor. The brunette walks past the window, and he makes a note to find his way up there at some point when she's at work, so he can bug her apartment. Then he props his GoPro up on his dashboard and angles it in that direction, just in case he can catch anything worth documenting. He'd printed the files Tavaroff had saved, and now plans to spend the night looking through all of them. 

He returns to the yearbook page and sees that Angelique attended Gotham City High School. From his phone, he Googles and finds a digital copy of the full yearbook from that year. He flips through the pages and doesn't see any candid or student club shots of Angelique, but he does find one of Sophie Moore, who was in ROTC, and a listing of her with students who'd received top honors in AP classes. He makes a mental note of the fact that they attended the same school. 

Based on Angelique's detention records, she didn't even complete her freshman year. She was sentenced by late spring. Though, that wasn't her first time in trouble. She'd had plenty of absences, been in several fights, and had even been caught for petty theft. Perhaps Sophie hiring her at The Hold Up was a kindness. Something tells him that kindness will end up being a weakness that Angelique uses against her.

~~~~~

SATURDAY, JULY 8TH, 9AM, THE FASHION DISTRICT

Tommy: “I can’t believe you have me out here before breakfast, on a Saturday, shopping.” 

Evan: “Listen, it’s us, or Catherine. And I know she’s your sugar mentor, but trust me when I say playing dress up with her is not actually fun. So, drink your coffee, and be a sweetie, and I promise you’ll be rewarded for playing nice later.”

Mary: “You two are pretty nauseating, so I’m kind of glad we’re doing this on an empty stomach.”

Sophie and Jordan walk through the door of the boutique clothing store Mooney Couture. Sophie’s concealer and foundation aren’t quite covering up the dark circles that have formed under her eyes, suggesting that she’s not super rested. And Jordan seems anxious, fiddling with the pendant looped onto the thin gold chain around her neck. 

Sophie: “Hey gang! This turned into a thing…” 

She looks over at Mary, purposefully.

Mary: “Heeeeyyy… I mean, you know this is something me and Evan do, and now that Tommy’s coming to the brunch too, it just kinda made sense to do it together.” 

She looks mildly remorseful, but is also fighting back a smile that makes it hard for Sophie to pretend to be upset. She finds Mary’s jovialness endearing. Mary sees the forgiveness, and smiles more freely. Then she opens her arms up towards Jordan, expecting her to come in for a hug. Jordan walks over and leans into her, letting Mary wrap her arms around her. 

Jordan: “Thanks for doing this. I guess this is another thing I have in common with my sister. Shopping, especially for fancy clothes, is definitely not my thing.” 

Mary: “Nor should it be when you have me. Sophie stopped worrying about this a while ago. I love it when people just let me do what I do. And, it helps to know what my goals are. Obviously, I know you’re coming to my house tomorrow, which is really cool for me since Kate’s not coming, and that was going to suck, but also a bit strange, because Beth invited you? Like, what’s the story there…?”

Mary releases Jordan to look at her, and Jordan shoots a glance at Sophie who shrugs her shoulders, indicating it was up to her to share or not. 

Jordan: “She invited Tatiana, and Tatiana invited me.” 

Jordan looks sheepishly at Mary, who distinctly recalls telling her how similar she was to her sister when it came to girls. 

Mary: “Wait. So you are a thing?!” 

Sophie: “That’s TBD. So, can you make my sister look amazing so we can have a conclusion to this story?”

Mary: “On it!” 

They all start perusing, and then Tommy realizes what Mary just said. 

Tommy: “Hold on, did you say Kate’s not coming?”

Mary: “Oh, yeah…I guess that wasn’t public knowledge, yet. What's going on with you two? She said something offhanded about you and my mom, and then said she wasn’t going shortly after.” 

Evan grimaces, and then walks over to a clothing wrack to start looking through it with determination. 

Tommy: “Well, she sort of overheard me telling Evan that I accepted an internship with your mom, and I don’t think she’s in love with that idea, or how she learned about it. We haven’t been in the same room together since, and I guess I wasn’t imagining that it’s on purpose.” 

Mary: “Well, I know she’s not exactly in love with my mom right now, but it seems a little silly to take that out on you…” 

Tommy: “Um…she might also be peeved at me for suggesting that Robyn shouldn’t be trusted.” 

All three women stop and stare at him with utter shock. 

Sophie: “Why would you say that?”

Tommy: “No surprise that would piss you off too.”

Sophie: “Excuse me?”

Mary: “All friends here, remember?”

Tommy: “It’s fine. She’s just making my point for me. That woman has you all wrapped around her little finger, and where did she even come from?”

Sophie: “How is that any of your business? I know you’re some long lost friend of Kate’s but that doesn’t give you jurisdiction over who she befriends now, and definitely not over who the rest of us care about.” 

Tommy: “Are you defending Kate, or Robyn, because it’s unclear who you actually care about.” 

Sophie steps a little closer, her chest puffing up, and Mary tries to stand her ground between them.

Mary: “Guys-”

Sophie: “Again, who are you? I don’t know you, and don’t owe you any explanations.” 

Tommy takes a step forward too, not at all intimidated by Sophie's tone of authority. Evan walks over and takes Tommy’s hand. 

Evan: “Babe, I reeeaaally like this store, and want to be welcomed back. Can you come look at these two-piece suits with me, please?”

Mary: “Great idea! Jordan, I see a tangerine dress over there that you absolutely have to try on.” 

She takes both Sophie and Jordan’s hands and drags them in the opposite direction of her other friends. Sophie’s fist is clenched, and Jordan is totally humored staring at her. 

Jordan: “Take a deep breath, sis.”

Sophie: “That guy has always rubbed me the wrong way. No wonder Kate never mentioned him.”

Mary: “I never imagined I’d see you this pissed off on Kate’s behalf.”

Jordan laughs, outloud, and her enjoyment makes her an outlier compared to the entire group.

Jordan: “Oh, all that fire has nothing to do with Kate.” 

Sophie shoots her a warning glare, and she tries to stifle her smile, but fails.

Mary: “Wait, what am I missing? Jesus, why do I feel like I’m the last to know about absolutely everything right now?”

Sophie and Jordan eye each other for a moment, and then Sophie shakes her head, and walks over to a wrack to busy herself, essentially permitting her sister to tell the story.

Jordan: “So…I think you know Sophie finally got Robyn’s number on the 4th of July, and she actually decided to text her to come have a drink with her, and Robyn did show up, and they almost had a moment. But Kate had come to Robyn’s loft drunk, before Sophie had invited her down, and she’d passed out on her couch. Of course she woke up, came down to the bar, and interrupted them. Robyn chased after Kate, and I’m going to guess they haven’t spoken since… Did I miss anything Soph?”

She answers without turning around to face them.

Sophie: “Nope, that about covers it.” 

Mary: “OH. My. GAWD! Sophie?! I don’t know if I’m more geeked that you finally went for it, or hurt that this is how I’m finding out. And I guess I understand a lot more about what’s going on with Kate now too…”

Sophie looks over her shoulder apologetically, but it's also clear she's feeling let down herself.

Jordan: “Yeah…talk about hurt. Robyn’s not looking too great since the whole thing went down, either, if you ask me.” 

That’s enough to make Sophie turn around and focus.

Sophie: “You saw her?”

Jordan: “Uh, yeah…you’ve been in your office a lot lately…She asked me to bring her up an order of food yesterday. Luke was hanging out with her, though.”

Which meant he’d probably heard the story by now too. Sophie feels like the whole world is watching her all of the sudden. 

Mary: “So, how exactly did you guys leave things?”

Sophie looks guilty and frustrated at the same time. She’d wondered if Robyn was beating herself up, and this might have been confirmation of that. She had opened up her phone a couple of times, wanting to text her, but also talking herself out of it for one reason or another. Considering she’d told Robyn she’d go looking for her if she went missing again, she was starting to regret taking so long to reach out.

Sophie: "She texted me saying she was going to call it a night after she ran out. She did apologize for cutting us short, and thanked me…"

Jordan: "SOPHIE! I didn't realize you hadn't said anything to her since then. What are you doing? And after my story…?

She pierces her lips together, letting that thought settle in. Maybe she could have handled this differently. In her defense, she had been really wrapped up in Jacob Kane's case, but she also knew that was a bit of a cop out.

Mary: "Jordan's right. And I'm saying this with love, but if you lose this girl, it's going to be on you. She's probably thinking you hate her for leaving you, and we all know that's not true. She's totally caught up in the middle of you and Kate's drama, just like the rest of us if we're being real, and it's not fair for her to think whatever she's thinking right now because you're, what, ghosting her?"

Sophie: "How am I ghosting her?"

Jordan: "She sent the last text right? And you probably left her on read."

She didn't consider that might be how Robyn would experience her not following up yet… She just throws her hands up in defeat. She accepts that they're probably right, and isn't going to argue anymore.

Mary: "You should probably pull your phone out asap, if it's not already too late." 

She walks away, pulling out her phone, and starts a text. 

Sophie Cell: Hey!! Sorry it's taken me so long to check in. Things got a little crazy around here, but that doesn't mean you haven't crossed my mind. When they settle down, I want a redo. And I'm going to make sure it's in some way where we won't be interrupted again. 😉

She sees the dots that tell you when someone is writing a response. Then they stop, and nothing is sent. She sighs, realizing she might actually be too late. She starts to put her phone away, so she can turn around and face the criticism of her judges, but then it vibrates. She looks, and there's a heart reaction from Robyn. 

~~~~~

SUNDAY, JULY 9TH, 1:00 PM, KANE MANSION

All of Catherine and Jacob’s guests sit at an oblong table. As much as it was intended as a family celebration, their daughters had never obliged their wishes to eat as a family, alone. So, their parents were used to additions at their table, and took it as an opportunity to assess the company their kids kept. Once or twice, they’d been able to sniff out wannabes or leaches, and scare them away with the right set of questions. Sometimes, their guests would realize they weren’t cut out for this life, and would simply fall away. The ones that stayed over time, like Tommy, became welcomed as extended members of the family. 

Tension was higher at this brunch, by default, because Kate’s absence was impossible to ignore. Tatiana and Jordan were also surprise guests that Beth conveniently omitted. Evan was actually included in this meal for a change, and they were antsy, commenting under their breath about how things were being handled without their involvement. And Catherine kept staring at Luke like she was sizing up his eligibility to date her daughter. 

This mixed up bunch doesn't know where to start in terms of conversation, so the salad forks clanking against the plates sound amplified. When entrees are placed in front of everyone, Tommy decides to break the silence and compliment everything.

Tommy: "Mrs. Hamilton, Mr. Kane, I must say this is one of the most delightful brunches I've had the pleasure of dining at. You truly know how to pull together a lovely endeavor."

There were a few quiet agreements and nods around the table, and one obvious eye roll. 

Catherine: "Thank you Tommy. It's certainly wonderful to be able to gather as a family for this occasion, even if not everyone chose to be present today. We appreciate you all for being here, especially some of our newer faces."

Jacob: "Agreed. Now Ms. Moore, I'm very familiar with your older sister - she's quite impressive - but I didn't realize you were friends with my daughter."

Beth: "She came with Tatiana. I'm pretty sure Jordan hates me."

Jacob: "Pardon me? Why would you invite someone who hates you to our anniversary?"

Jordan quickly looks over at Jacob Kane, defensively. 

Jordan: "I don't hate her!"

She turns to Tatiana to clarify. 

Jordan: "Hate is a really strong emotion to feel towards someone I barely know."

Then she looks and speaks directly at Beth. 

Jordan: "But let's not pretend you've ever been kind to me, or my family, or given me any reason to like you."

Beth: "It's okay Daddy. She's not wrong, but I wanted her to come so that she and Tatiana could finally go out on a date. I've been watching Tatiana crush on her for weeks, and Jordan pretend not to know because she's been in denial about having feelings for her too, and I figured they could use a little push. Consider it my good deed for the summer." 

She sips her mimosa, proud of herself, and Tatiana wraps her hand around Jordan's under the table, empathetically. Jordan looks at her, a mix of appreciation and anxiety. Luke sets his shock aside, because he doesn't like Jordan being picked on, and changes the subject.

Luke: "So where is Kate? She didn't mention any conflicting plans to me."

Mary: "She wasn't feeling very well, and decided to do a little self-care today, instead."

Beth: "Yeah, the thought of being around our parents was making her want to hurl, so a little alone time was preferable. And, who could blame her really?"

Jonathan laughs into his drink at everyone's stunned expressions, and Beth smiles, happy to have entertained him. Jordan and Luke look at each other from across the table, grateful to be there together, and Mary looks as exhausted as ever. Catherine takes a deep breath, and decides to ignore Beth, as she often does. 

Catherine: "How are things at Wayne, Luke? Have you been able to step into your father's shoes?"

Luke: "Can't say that was the goal. His would be some very big shoes to fill, but I do think I'm making my own impact."

Catherine: "Well, Kate has certainly become as fond of you as Bruce was of Lucius. So that must be an indication of how well you're doing."

Luke: "Thanks for that…"

He reaches over to grab his glass of water and as he picks it up it slides out of his hand and into his lap. He jumps up startled, and knocks some neighboring glasses over. Mary tries to wipe his pants down with a napkin, but then realizes that she feels awkward doing so, and looks up embarrassed. He addresses her before the rest of the table.

Luke: "It's fine. Forgive me, everyone. I'll just head to the little boys room and try to dry myself off."

Catherine: "Of course! I believe you know where it is."

Luke nods and then quickly disappears behind a wall. He walks all the way to the bathroom, but loops back as soon as he's confident he's alone and out of earshot. He taps the earpiece that was almost buried in his ear, and whispers.

Luke: "Wingman to Ghost Girl do you copy?"

Ryan: "Are these code names really necessary?"

Luke: "Absolutely."

Ryan: "Then can we come up with something better, because these are weak?"

Luke: "I thought you loved Ghost Kid growing up?"

Ryan: "I'm not a kid or a girl. I'm a grown ass woman!"

Luke: "Okay then, Ghost Woman is that better?"

Ryan: "Whatever. Let's get this over with."

Luke: "Okay do you have their surveillance up?" 

Ryan: "Yup, I see you and them. Remember, you typically have about 5 minutes before people start to get anxious, and wonder if you are all right. By the 7th minute, they're going to consider coming to look for you. And, you've already wasted one minute with me. Their house is a bit of a maze, but that's a good thing because it gives you options to get to Jacob's office. You're going to want to go through the backyard door attached to the kitchen. The cook is pretty focused on the stove, and the servers are cleaning up your mess. So, you should be good to slide behind him without notice. Then you can enter his office from his exterior door. You're going to have to move quickly."

He'd been making his way down the hall while she was instructing him, and had already peered into the kitchen, confirming everything she'd explained. The chef doesn't budge when he walks past, and exits, assuming he was just one of the servers shuffling around. Luckily, no one is outside, and he makes it into Jacob's office, undetected.

Luke: "Jackpot."

Jacob's laptop is sitting pretty, with a screensaver of a family portrait up. He'd left a glass of what smelled like Scotch next to it, and there was still a little unmelted ice in the glass. So he'd obviously been pregaming before brunch, and that's also probably why the housekeepers had not cleaned up after him yet. Luke sticks the USB drive with his enhanced mimic program into the computer, pulls gloves out of his inside jacket pocket, puts them on, and then starts working on the glass. 

Ryan: "Don't forget, you want to spray it far enough away that it mists like an aerosol. And when the glass appears to be completely dry, gently slide your fingers over it like you are feeling around for a perforated piece of scotch tape."

He does as she says, and is able to slowly peel a fine piece of gelatin textured film off of the glass. He pulls what looks like a rectangular makeup compact out of his pants pocket, opens it, and lays the film strip onto the mini scanner inside. The tiny screen located where a mirror would be confirms a perfect replica of Jacob Kane's thumb print.

Luke: "Got it GW."

Ryan: "GW?"

Luke: "Ghost Woman."

Ryan: "We've had these names for 5 minutes and you're already abbreviating?"

Luke: "Did you not say that time was of the essence?"

Ryan: "Speaking of, you're at the 5 minute mark, and the servers are done straightening up your mess. It looked like Mary might have asked one of them to go check on you, probably to see if you needed any help."

Luke: "Well, my pants aren't dry, that's for sure."

Luke had just finished peeling off film from the other side of the glass, and now he was verifying he had all 5 prints.

Ryan: "You're out of time Luke. A server is staring into an empty bathroom. When you get outside, go two doors down, instead. You can walk through that room, and there's a small door that's probably a linen closet in the hallway. You can tell them you went searching for towels. Did you get the retinal scans?"

He'd stored the gel prints in a different thin case, and taken the USB out of the computer. He makes his way outside, and speed walks to the door Ryan sent him to, looking around before entering.

Luke: "Yes. I shook his hand before taking my seat at brunch. I'm wearing glasses that have a built-in camera. When I sincerely thanked him for having me in his home, he made direct eye contact, and I was able to get it then. I think I'm in Mary's room. It smells like her perfume."

Ryan: "Okay…first, you're her plus one to this thing, and now you have her scent memorized. Is that who you went on a date with a while back? Also, you've got company, about 15 seconds away."

He walks straight to the closet when he leaves her room and opens the door, looking for a hand towel. He whispers his response to her question.

Luke: "No time…Delete the footage of me, and run the loop."

He taps the earpiece to disconnect from Ryan just as the server walks up and speaks to him.

Server: "Mr. Fox? Are you finding everything okay?"

He closes the door and meets a shorter, older, round woman, who could be the mom of a teenager. He shows her the towel he'd used for less than a second on his pants.

Luke: "Yes! I didn't want to use anything that was intended for decoration in that bathroom."

Server: "Of course. There were towels underneath the sink, though."

Luke: "It probably would have made sense to check there first."

Server: "It's no problem."

Luke has continued to pat himself while standing in front of her. He's made a little progress, and decides it's enough.

Luke: "Well, I think I'm good now. What should I do with this?"

Server: "I can take care of it."

He hands the towel to her. She takes it, and then he puts his hands together like he's about to pray, and leans forward in a bow of thanks. He walks away from her, to return to the least fun brunch he's ever participated in, noting that this was something he might have to learn to get used to.

~~~~~

To be continued...

I made this part small because I intended to put the conclusion on Ao3, and just wasn't quite ready. So, the next time we meet will be there for the conclusion. Would love your thoughts on how everything's moving along. 😉

For #PrideMonth, the #SaveBatwoman campaign has all kinds of fun topics to chat about on Twitter. Join the conversation.

#wmw23 #wildmoore week #wildmoore #batwoman #fanfic #ryan wilder #ryan x sophie #sophie moore #save batwoman #lgbtq #pride month

[sleepy-truper]

"Sorry I'm a bit awkward (◞‸◟ㆀ) but like I need to ask you something"

"Before that tho I just need to say I was scrolling through the köing tag and found you and like GOD DAMN your art is edible!!!! Like you draw köing so pretty!??!!?(koing + cat is just adorable) And so I wonder if I could ask like, how did you learn to draw? Maybe where, when, even why(I hope it doesn't come off as offensive Im just curious ^^') and if you don't mind like advice or yk a tips and tricks type of stuff. Idk man like the thing that I love the most is probably the line weight like it's so good?? There's a lot of other stuff but I ain't gonna ramble (this person spent too much time watching art videos instead of actually drawing) Alr thats about it!

Uh idk how to end this off so like if you respond to this then ty ^^ it's fine too if you don't!!"

(im scared to mess it up, it's my first submission and I don't know how to reply SOS)

When I read it my face was all like 🥺 it's so sweet! I'm so happy you like my artwork so much. 😊 (finally logged on my phone and can use emojis, how fun is this?)

As for your question when, how and why I started ro draw, I begun my hobby when I was very little, carefully drawing Disney Princesses from my crayon box :)! I've been drawing for about 14 years (as long as I can remember) and why, I guess it soothes me? The idea of being creative and making my fantasies come true on the paper/screen is so great.

My advice for you (as requested) is to keep going no matter what! Practice is the only way you can improve, be it with or without tutorials. The way I see it, you can't go back in art. Once you develop a skill and you keep on polishing it, you'll achieve what you've always dreamed of.

Small tips and tricks from me? Put on a fun playlist, find a brush that suits you best and try drawing on one layer, slowly erasing unnecessary, messy lines and adding smoother ones. Keep playing with values by adding shadows and texture (random lines on clothing, for example) and in general, have fun!❤️

Once again thank you for such kind words, it made my day sweetheart🥺

#submission #you can tell why i love koing by the tone of my submission #x.x

[alarajrogers]

The black box gave me a present!

So when I was about maybe 5, up until being I guess 23 or so, I could write music. It was never under my control. Music would just come into my head. It wasn't even music I thought was the best music; it was way too heavily influenced by show tunes, and I don't know how to handle any part of the music aside from the melodic line.

The last thing I wrote was probably the best thing I ever wrote. It was definitely a rock song, not folk or show tune or whatever. It was a tune I liked, and one that leaves room for maybe some instrumental parts in the middle. The lyrics were allegorical and layered and made references to Faust and Tezcatlipoca. It was also a song for the only fandom I've ever officially retired from, for an AU I never wrote, and makes no fucking sense without knowing the backstory.

And then I lost the ability to compose. I'd never taken control of the black box, you see. For writing, I busted my ass. I spent years writing very bad fiction in order to learn how to write fiction that wasn't actually bad. But the music, I never had control of. Music showed up, I sang it, I didn't learn how to properly compose it in multiple instruments, I only even know piano and never learned anything else. So I lost it.

The other day, the black box gave me something back.

I was dreaming, and I was singing a song. And when I woke up, on the bleary edge between sleep and waking, I still remembered it, so I grabbed my phone, hit record, and sang into it, twice. Which was a good thing, because within half an hour, it was gone.

I've never had a lot of luck holding onto the songs. I used to have to immediately make up shitty lyrics to hold on to the tune (this is why I have a song that goes, "Ingrain in your brain, ingrain in your brain, ingrain in your brain, ingrain in your brain"...), and there was no way I could have done that half asleep, but I was able to turn on my phone. And I saved it. It's real music. I can listen to it again anytime I want to, and maybe I can make it into a real song.

Is there any chance the black box will wake up and give me more music? I don't know. Maybe that was a one-off because the dream engine can tap any of my creative black boxes it wants. But maybe I need take time to learn how to write music and score it the way I want, in case it comes back for real.

[croszukis]

Too much snow, thank goodness for hunky neighbor who keeps helping me shovel out my car

Every winter, without fail, Zhenya wondered why he decided to move here at all. Once upon a time he might’ve said he liked the idea of snow, he was Russian after all. But he quickly learned what was too much fucking snow. 

And to top it off, somewhere in the move to his new house he’d lost his snow scraper and kept forgetting to pick up a new one.  

“Fuck,” he muttered as he stood in front of his car that was currently buried under the six inches they got overnight. He was definitely eating into the marginal time he added to his commute to accommodate for the road conditions that would surely make him late otherwise. 

The past few days, when it had just been a little bit of snow, he simply trudged back into his house to try to find something, anything, to fill in as a makeshift scraper. He was about to do this again when his neighbor from the house to his left jogged up to him. 

“Hey, need a hand?” 

Zhenya blinked. He hadn’t been introduced to this neighbor yet, they had only seen each other coming and going from work. Zhenya’s neighbor had cheeks flushed red from the cold, sparkling eyes, and shoulders that looked incredibly broad underneath his snow jacket. 

He was still formulating an answer that wasn’t Hand in marriage? Yes when Hot Neighbor (it seemed like a suitable name for him in Zhenya’s mind until he could learn his name, he would learn his name) explained, “I’ve seen you try to scrape your car with random stuff this whole week.” 

Hot Neighbor laughed and it sent a big puff of his breath clouding in front of him, “I think you tried to use a spatula yesterday.” 

Zhenya’s mouth finally started working again, “Oh yes. Keep forgetting to buy one after work.” 

He held up his own combination ice scraper and snow brush for a second before moving towards Zhenya’s car. He nodded permission at Hot Neighbor, still a bit in disbelief even as he watched him swiftly scrape off the layer of snow. 

His experience is much different in this new neighborhood than the one he moved from. His last neighbor, Mr. Wilkinson, would actually tip over Zhenya’s trashcans if he “stole” the street parking that was supposed to be shared between their two properties. He thinks Mr. Wilkinson would rather break his own leg than help Zhenya shovel out his car at seven in the morning.

Zhenya felt awkward while he just stood there doing nothing. Maybe he should’ve offered to do it himself? 

“I’m Evgeni, just move here.” 

Hot Neighbor was leaning to reach the other edge of the hood and Zhenya almost swallowed his own tongue seeing the curve of his ass through his dress pants. He turned around to look back at Zhenya, “Sid. And I know, sorry I haven’t had a chance to introduce myself yet.” 

“Busy time of year,” he excused Sid who was a hell of an upgrade from Mr. Wilkinson. 

“Have you been added to the neighborhood group yet?” Sid was already making his way through the windshield of his car and Zhenya found himself wishing it had snowed more.

“No, don’t think so?” 

Sid paused to dig out his phone from his pants pocket, which also drew Zhenya’s attention to his thighs which were just as drool worthy as the ass. He unlocked the phone and handed it over to Zhenya, their icy hands brushed briefly, “Here give me your contact info and I’ll add you. I think the Johnsons are hosting a wine night next week. You should come.” 

By the time Zhenya’s created a contact for himself and typed his number approximately 3 times (his frozen fingers weren’t registering on the screen) Sid was finished with his car. 

“Thank you,” he smiled at Sid before he reached for the door handle. Sid just stood there, his hand shoved into his coat pocket, as he smiled back. “Really you do too much.” 

“No problem,” he laughed again, “consider it your welcome to the neighborhood gift.” 

Zhenya couldn’t believe it. Had he somehow stumbled into some 1950s American suburbia propaganda? He was going to check what his HOA fees were again, there had to be a catch somewhere. 

*

Sid texted him around lunch time. It was a link to download an app to join their neighborhood group there. Zhenya downloaded it between meetings at his desk and created a profile. Upon joining he was greeted by numerous people. He recognized a few of the names, but there were also quite a few new ones. 

Sid: So are you coming to wine night?  

Zhenya: Yes ))

Sid: Cool, see you there :) 

Sid: But it’s my neighborly duty to warn you about Miriam’s crab dip. One year five people got food poisoning and one even had to go to the ER. She insists on bringing it every year to prove it wasn’t from her dip. But trust me, don’t go anywhere near it. 

*

The Johnson’s house is actually one street over and Zhenya showed up in a simple blue sweater (yes he thought about seeing Sid when he picked it out) with a box of pastries from his favorite Russian bakery. 

He gets introduced to everyone in person. Someone decided to give him the nickname ‘Geno’ which he’s fine to play along with, he guessed. They seemed like nice people at least, not a Mr. Wilkinson type in sight. Sid pointed out the dubious crab dip and Zhenya stifled a laugh when he noticed that the surface of it hadn’t been disturbed at all. 

Halfway through the evening, Zhenya was tucked into a corner with Sid and apparently whoever else he was closest with of all the neighbors. Jennifer Johnson off-handedly commented to Zhenya, “I’m glad you were able to join the neighborhood group, Geno.” 

“Sid text me invitation the other day.” 

That made Jennifer tilt her head a little and she glanced a look at Sid, who sipped at his wine glass under her scrutiny. “You don’t need to be invited, you can just look up the neighborhood name on the app.” 

Zhenya watched Sid as his face turned from sheepish to blushing. 

“Where you just trying to get my number, Sid?” Zhenya is absolutely gleeful. 

“Maybe,” Sid admits but the redness of his cheeks hadn’t disappeared yet. 

“It’s okay. Would be happy to give number to hot neighbor who shovel car out of snow for me.”  

“I didn’t shovel your car out.” He was smiling though, the corners of his eyes crinkling and Zhenya could see all sorts of possibilities for them.

“You would though, for hot neighbor.”  

*

Zhenya gets his official welcome to the neighborhood gift. It’s an ice scraper. 

#i'm not sure what i'm doing w these yet but here's another #holiday drabbles #*fic #i live in the tropics if theres wildly inaccurate things about snow and cars here sorry #hrpf #hockey rpf #pairing: sidgeno

[redrobin-detective]

lipstick on your cape

“Robbie?” Tabitha looked up from the phone she wasn’t supposed to have on patrol at Nightwing. Hopefully Peg wouldn’t tattle on her to Bruce. “You got a little something on your cape. I think it’s that dark red lipstick they can probably see from the Watchtower.”

Beth examined her cape and, sure enough, there were some mysterious red smudges on the inner yellow lining, just past the right shoulder. She scrubbed at it with her gloves, how’d that even get there? Alfred would have a fit if this stained. Peg grunted as she sat down next to Tab on the edge of the building.

“So, do you wanna talk about it?” Peg asked, deceptively casual.

“About what?” Beth questioned.

“About why you’ve been sporting colored lips the last week,” Peg said softly. “I mean it’s pretty and all but its very,“ she paused. “It’s grownup. Are you trying to impress someone? I know things with you and Arianna are over but maybe someone on your team?”

“No, it’s not like that!” Beth blushed. “I don’t know, I thought it looked nice?”

“You’re 15 baby girl,” Peg said with a little frown. “You don’t need to look nice, you just need to be yourself. Especially as Robin.”

“I am being myself. I don’t have a reason, okay! I just thought it would be fun. I don’t know, I like girly stuff I guess. Its a safety risk to wear fun earrings or necklaces on patrol so, I don’t know, the other day I put on some lipstick and thought it looked cute so I kept doing it.”

Her mother had been a tomboy, more at home in the dirt than society but Tabitha had always been impressed at how she could transform. The nights they were home, when they had to play the part of the Drakes, were special. Mom would do her hair, nails and make-up just so and become someone else. She went from Tab’s flighty, distracted but stubborn mom to a princess. Her smiles were calculated, her posture perfect and she could glide across a ballroom in six inch heels and a sleek dress like she was born for it. And she had been but she’d rejected it for her dad and archeology but mostly archeology.

Tabitha loved computers and skateboards and comics and cars but she’d spent so many hours learning to style her hair in different ways, to paint her nails like a pro and to layer her lipstick like she was ready for murder. It was a side she hadn’t indulged in much lately. Being Robin was it’s own sort of freedom but it had its restrictions as well.

“I didn’t know you were into that sort of thing,” Peg said thoughtfully, leaning back to look up at the moon. “I guess Jan and I set a bit of a precedent huh?” Robins were crime fighters. They laughed at criminals and fought against the worst of the worst. They were efficient, practical and inspiring. They didn’t wear lipstick. Beth brought a glove to cover her mouth.

“Sorry, I guess it’s not really appropriate, is it? I think I have some make up remover wipes in my belt.” Peg grabbed a hold of her wrist.

“No, no, keep it on,” Peg insisted. “It does look nice, you did a good job and it really compliments the red of your suit.” She shifted so they were holding hands. “My mom used to do me up in makeup before shows, so the audience could see our faces. I can still feel her fingertips running over my cheeks.” She said with a soft voice, eyes closed in memory. “Moving in with B, I couldn’t do makeup that extravagant. I had to make a good impression and then, as I got older, I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong impression from lipstick and eye shadow.” 

“It’s such a burden to be beautiful,” Tabitha said with an eye roll even though it kind of was. She saw the way people ogled Peg at events. Tab had tripped one particularly creepy guy right into the punch bowl. Bruce had given her a thumbs up across the hall.

“You’re not Jan, no one expects you to be,” Peg said softly. “We just want you to be yourself. That’s the beauty of being Robin, you get to be whoever you want to be.”

“And what about B?” Beth questioned.

“You introduced yourself by breaking B’s rules,” Peg said with a grin, breaking the hand hold to ruffle Tab’s hair. She angrily straightened her clip and re-fluffed her bangs. Just because Nightwing just had a simple ponytail doesn’t mean some vigilantes didn’t care about merging style and function. “I think you’ll be fine.”

“Hmm, okay,” Beth said, scooting over to lean on Peggy’s shoulder. She loved her mom, missed her a lot but having a big sister was pretty great too. “You could add a little color to your lips too if you want.”

“I think I’ll pass. I’ve seen the colors you wear, baby bird,” Peg chuckled.

“Well how about your hair?” Tab asked, sitting up. “I could teach you how to do a simple french braid, or more fancy if you’d like. Still be functional but adds a little bit of style.”

“Tomorrow, my place, my hands always cramp after too long using the grapples. I’ll order some of that disgusting pizza you like,” Peg grinned. Tabitha grinned, her lips a dark ruby red under the Gotham moonlight.

Robin didn’t do her make up every night. Some nights she was running late, finishing clipping on her cape as she ran to the Batmobile. Other times she was too tired, too pained, just not in the mood for such frivolities. But other nights, she sculpted her eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil. She rubbed primer, foundation, blush, sealant on her face that could hold up against wind, rain and rogues. She poured over her ever growing collection of lipsticks and lipstains and picked a color that spoke to her.

Red was for when she was feeling daring, bold, she had many different variations of the color but deliberately shied away from Joker red. When Spoiler took to the streets she acquired all sorts of different purples to complement the laughing boy’s costume. Pink was for when she felt soft but strong, when she was making a statement to the worst of Gotham that it couldn’t change her. Black was only to be used on the nights she knew would be bad. Bart got her a glittery gold one that she loved but used sparingly because it caught the light easily. Peg had laughed when when Tab shown up once with Nightwing blue lips, her braided hair dancing in the breeze.

She was Robin, she was a hero, a role model, a symbol. But she was also a girl, a girl who loved dresses that flared out when she spun and lots of shiny, sparkly dangles and doodads and she loved the taste of matte lipstick as she jumped into the fight. Sometimes people were just a pile of different things all mushed together. And the rest of the world was going to just have to get over it.

#wayne girls au #been a while since I used that tag #I never properly stop thinking of my girl Robins they just go to sleep and occasionally strangle me #please Do Not turn this into a make-up arguement #I treat it as a fun thing to do when I want to and inspired by me wearing this dark purple lipstick on Tues and feeling divine #(I project so much onto Tabitha don't look at me) #I think Tab would have an interesting relationship within femininity and Robin #Neither Peg nor Jan were into it so she's in a way breaking out of the mold by expressing herself in that manner #but she does become the go to for traditional make up (even B and the boys) #I also have strong feelings on Beth giving Nightwing the braid that would become her signature #sisterly bonding and Peg embracing a little bit more of that femininity she'd sort of abandoned trying to fir into society/male hero society #I have so much gd lore and headcanons for these bitches its insane #they go to sleep but then I pull them out and take like 5 minutes to download all the bs I've come up with #(Peg was originally Rachel and I'll always be thankful for Lox pointing out that Peg is a MUCH better Fem Dick name) #anyway I love ridiculous lipstick colors and it amuses me to think this baby lil teen shows up to a crime scene with dayglow purple lips #my 90s babe shops at Clairs and buys the most obnoxious jewelery and does wild nail polish colors and is a pretty punk princess #I'm love her so much #blorbo from my self projections

[oofurixmas]

Sharing a hobby

To: Omer    From: Nyuuuuuko

Summary: “Photos?” Abe quirked his head in confusion, raising an eyebrow.

(Hi! I was your Oofuri Secret Santa! I hope you enjoy it! –Nyuuuuuko on AO3)

“Photos?” Abe quirked his head in confusion, raising an eyebrow.

“Y-Yeah…I’ve kind of always had a hobby of it…b-but don’t worry, Abe! It doesn’t get in the way of practicing!”

“You’d better not be spending every minute practicing regardless, I think you know how I feel about you overworking your arm.”

After a quick squeak, Mihashi backpedaled. “Y-Yeah! I like t-taking photos!”

“And you’re taking them at your cousin’s wedding?”

“Y-Yeah…I wanted to give her some sort of gift but I don’t really have any money…”

“Huh…” Abe grunted in interest, “are they any good?”

“Um-!” Mihashi fidgeted. What now?! He loved his photos, but he didn’t want to sound arrogant! “W-Well-! H-how about-! I…just…show…you…?”

“Sure.” Came the quick reply. A brief moment passed before he spoke up again. “Well? Go get it if you wanna show me.” 

Another tiny squeak before Mihashi jumped up and ran upstairs, reemerging a few seconds later with a worn camera bag. The camera he pulled out was a bit on the older side, but it was nice. Definitely capable of taking some pretty decent pictures. It was no flip-phone camera, that was for sure. After watching him fumble with the switch on the top and turn it on, he clicked a few buttons and started flicking through them. “T-These haven’t been edited yet, so they’re moreso half-done…” He mumbled, handing Abe the camera.

“You edit your photos?” He asked, taking the camera from calloused, boney hands into softer, larger ones. 

“Sometimes…I only really play with color and exposure, mostly…”

The photos themselves were beautiful, even without any editing. He could tell some had been taken around Nishiura’s campus, turning sights he’d see every day into a portrait that almost made him want to go back just to see if he could find it as beautiful as Mihashi had made it.

“How do you take these pictures?” He found himself asking. 

“Well…” Mihashi switched back to photo taking mode on the camera and looked around for something to take a picture of. “I guess we can just use these books as an example…” He gestured to the pile of untouched books that Hanai had mentioned during their study session at his house. A gentle layer of dust covered them, reflecting the gentle light of the window whenever agitated. 

“The lighting in this shot isn’t too bad, but maybe I could make it better real quick…” Mihashi’s eyes glazed over in focus. Abe was a bit shocked. It was really similar to the look Tajima gave when he was doing something baseball related. Suddenly very serious and very confident. The shorter moved a small desk lamp around, trying a few angles and deciding on placing it to the side of the pile. 

“Alright, now for the camera settings. I want a low f-stop so that can work to my advantage–”

“Hold on, what’s an F-stop?”

“...and then the ISO can be set pretty low, though I do want a bit of a higher shutter speed, so I guess I’ll have to–”

“Mihashi!”

Finally, the pitcher squeaked and flinched out of his extremely focused mindset. “Y-Yes, Abe-!”

“I was asking you a question! I don’t know what any of that means!”

“Um…f-stop is…t-the amount of light let in through t-the lens…” 

Abe sat through Mihashi quietly explaining the different functions of the camera as the dirty blonde started resetting them all. Eventually, he kneeled in front of the desk. “Alright…” He waved his hand a bit so some of the dust would kick up and Abe heard the lens snap. He watched Mihashi sit up and start examining the picture he took. “...Well, it’s not perfect, but something like that.” 

“How did you learn all about this, anyway? I had no idea you were so…” So what, he thought, capable?

“My dad always loved taking pictures when I was younger, he showed me all I know…this is his old camera, actually. He always sends me pictures from his business trips.

“Well, uh…that’s really…” Abe bit back a sigh. He hated lowering his guard to compliment people.

“I know, I’m sorry–”

“Incredible, Mihashi.”

“Huh?”

“I said they’re incredible. You should keep taking pictures.”

No one had ever said something like that to Mihashi before. Then again, he never really shared this hobby with anyone. Abe had to stifle a laugh at the happy fidgeting from the shorter.

#Fic #oofurixmas2022 #oofuri #abemiha #ookiku furikabutte #omer

[prettytoxix]

Watergate pt2

Part one

Eddie Munson x Reader pairing

A/n: I’m not like overly proud of this but I still wanted to post it while I’m working on another Steve blurb :)

Summary: Y/n and the gang try to attack Vecna in the upside down (story spanning from episodes 8 and 9)

Word count: 3900

We were woke up by 7:30. Everyone was awake except for Eddie and me, so they were making quite a ruckus in the kitchen trying to find something to eat. Eddie and I make our way out of the bedroom and take our places on the couch where the group is now sitting. Nancy sat in front of all of us as she explained what she saw.

“He showed me things that haven't happened yet…” Nancy begins. “The most awful things.” She started. “I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins…downtown on fire…dead soldiers… and this… this giant creature with a gaping mouth. The creature wasn’t alone. there were so many monsters. An army…And they were coming into Hawkins. Our neighborhoods, our homes. And then he showed me my mom, Holly, Mike and they.. they were all….” she trails off with tears streaming down her face.

“He’s just trying to scare you, Nance.” Steve ensures her. “Right? I mean it’s not real.”

“Not yet. But there was something else. It showed me the gates. Four gates spreading across Hawkins and these gates…they looked like the one here, at Eddie’s trailer, but it didn’t stop growing. This wasn’t upside down Hawkins…this was our Hawkins” She warns.

“Four chimes.” Max jumps in. “The clock always chimes four times, exactly. He’s been telling us his plan this whole time.” She concludes, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Four kills,” Lucas says. “Four gates. End of the world.”

“If that's true he’s only one kill away,” Dustin states the obvious.

“Jesus Christ!” Eddie swears.

“Try them again!” Steve commands Max. Max gets up and tries to dial the Byers' house again. But not by surprise, no one picks up. She tries again thinking maybe the number could have been dialed wrong but still no one answered.

We try to think about the logic behind the Byers not answering their phone. I suggested that it could be because of Joyce’s new job. I mean, she is a telemarketer now so I’d assume she’d be on the phone for quite a while but Max brings up the point that the line wouldn’t be constantly busy for three days. Whatever is happening here in Hawkins is somehow happening in Lenora.

“But Vecna can’t hurt them…not if he’s dead. We have to go back in there!” Nancy states.

“No! No! No! NO!” Steve, Robin, Eddie, and I all say in response to her crazy idea.

“Why not?”

“Because we barely made it out in one piece!”

“Because we weren’t prepared! This time we’ll be ready! We’ll get weapons and protection and we’ll go through the gate, find his layer, and kill him!”

“Or help kill us! The only reason you survived was because he wanted you to! He’s not scared of us!”

“And for good reason!” Robin adds, “We learned something new about Henry/Vecna/One. He’s a number just like Eleven…only evil and child-murdering with really bad skin. He’s super powerful. He could turn us inside out with the snap of his fingers… it’s not a fair fight!”

“So why fight fair?” Dustin says. “you’re right, he’s like Eleven. So that gives us the upper hand. We know her strengths and weaknesses.” Dustin concludes by explaining that when El travels remotely she’s in a trance-like state. That explains what Vecna was doing in the attack of the old Victor Creel house. He was in a trance-like state in the upside-down attacking his victims remotely. He’ll be vulnerable next time he’s attacking. We’ll need a distraction in order to get to Vecna.

Max offers herself as bait claiming that she’s still tagged by Vecna. Still cursed by him. She says that she’ll be able to distract him while the others find him and chop his head off. I feel bad for her, she’s talked to me before about some of the things that upset her. So I can only imagine the memories she’s seeing due to Vecna.

“Whatever it is…whatever you do… try not to miss.” She says.

Eddie tells the group that he knows where we can get weapons. He searches for the phone book located somewhere in the messy trailer. When he finally locates it he sets it down and flips it to the page he had in mind while we all gather around him.

“Check this out! Warzone. I’ve been there once. It's huge. They got everything you need for uh killing things basically…” Eddie explains

“How is this even legal?” I ask.

“Well lucky for us, it just is.” He says. “This place is just far enough outside of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of main roads we oughta avoid cops and angry hicks.”

“I think if we’re trying to avoid angry hicks we shouldn’t be going to a place called ‘The Warzone.’” Erica suggests.

“Normally I’d agree but we need the weapons.” Nancy starts. “So I think it’s worth the risk.”

“It’s gonna take all day on bikes.” Dustin brings up.

“Oh, we’re not using bikes,” Eddie smirks.

“Oh, you got some secret car we don’t know about, Munson?” Steve asks.

“It’s not exactly a car and it’s not exactly mine... But uhh it’ll do.” Eddie says awkwardly. He directs his attention toward Max. “Hey, red, you gotta ski mask, or a bandanna or something in your trailer I can use?”

“Yeah, I have something that could work.” Max runs over to the trailer next door and grabs a Halloween mask. “Will this suffice?” She asks Eddie.

“That'll do the trick!” Eddie slips on the mask and urges us to follow behind him. He peaks around each trailer until he finds exactly what he was looking for. He tries to be stealthy, but it’s hard to be stealthy when you’re in a group so large. He runs up to an RV parked near all the trailers and jumps inside one of the windows.

The first thing he does when he gets inside the stranger's RV is take off the mask and rush to the front. He complains about how hard it is to breathe in that mask and I can’t help but laugh at him quietly. I’m second into the RV while everyone else follows quickly.

Once Eddie is sitting down in the front seat he reaches for the wires under the steering wheel. He cuts them with a pair of pliers while Steve and I watch. He starts to rub the cut wires together.

“Where did you learn how to do this?” Steve asks, more concerned than wanting to actually know.

“Well, while all the other kids were out learning how to fish or play ball, my old man was teaching me how to hot wire,” Eddie informs him.

“I’m not sure I really like the idea of you driving this thing.” I tell Eddie, fully aware of how he is with driving because I’ve been in his van with him and it wasn’t too pleasant. But driving a big RV with about 10 people or so in it sounds much worse.

“Oh don’t worry. I’m just starting this sucker. Harrington’s got her, don't you big boy?” The RV starts and Eddie quickly moves out of the front seat to make room for Steve. Steve struggles to accept the fact that he’s gonna be the one driving but after it sets in he starts to drive.

The owners of the RV notice and start to get very angry. Steve is going relatively slow so we all yell at him to speed it up. He floors it towards the road and Dustin notes that they look pissed at us.

“Well, it’s not very day you lose your house and your car in one fell swoop.” I announce.

And just like that, we’re on the road. Steve struggles to gain control at first. He’s definitely not used to driving such a large vehicle so it takes him a moment to figure it out exactly. But once he’s got the hang of it we’re set. It’s just a straight shot from this road to The Warzone.

Nancy takes the passenger seat next to Steve while the rest of us sit in the back. I’m practically on Eddie’s lap as we can all barely fit in there. My hands find their way to his hair as Nancy and Steve are talking in the front. Lucas goes to the very back to talk with Max. And I try to have my own conversation with Eddie.

“I’m going back in there,” I inform him.

“you’re going back where, sweetheart?” He asks, genuinely confused. Not really putting two and two together.

“…The upside down,” I say.

“No! No way! You and I staying up here! We can help in some other way, but I’m not going to put your life at risk!” Eddie looks at me with the most unsettled eyes I have ever seen. It hurts to see him worry about me like this but I know that I have to help my friends more than anything…even if it means risking my life.

“Eddie-” I start to say but he interrupts me.

“Y/n, I can’t let you go there… I can’t risk losing you over…over some monster!”

“Eddie, please listen to me, okay?” I stare into his eyes waiting for him to say something but he says nothing. I finish my thought. “This time we are prepared. We’ll have weapons this time, we can actually protect ourselves and fight them off. Vecna won’t be able to hurt me if he’s focused on Max.”

“I don’t like this, y/n. Not at all…” he sighs out loudly. “But I know I won’t be able to stop you. No matter how much I protest you’ve already made up your mind.” He looks defeated and it breaks my heart.

Steve pulls into Warzone and everyone leaves the RV to go inside except for Eddie, Lucas, Max, and I. We’re sitting there talking about Steve and Nancy. We start placing more bets on whether or not they’ll get back together before this whole thing ends. Lucas and Eddie say they won’t but Max and I say they will. Each winner gets $10, $5 from each loser.

While these are frustrating times it’s nice to be able to laugh as a group again. Not having to think about the possibility of death and worrying about our other friends. Steve bursts into the RV and announces that we have to go. The rest of the group follows him in and Erica tells us that Jason was inside. Steve leaves the parking lot as fast as he can without raising concern among the shoppers.

After driving for about 20 awkward minutes we find a suitable plot of empty land to start working on our weapons. Eddie Dustin and I stick together and make our “Shields” out of trash can lids and long nails.

Eddie places one foot on the crate he was using and puts on a production for Dustin and me. “Light but durable. Deadly but reliable... Hear me now! There will be no more retreating from Eddie the banished!”

“You’re really ready for bat-tle!” Dustin chortles. I can’t help but snort at that pun. It was a bad pun, don’t get me wrong. But it was actually kinda funny. Eddie looks over at me with this blank look on his face like he can’t believe I actually snorted at something so stupid.

“Do you get it?” Dustin asks Eddie. “B-a-t. Bat-tle?”

“Yeah, I get it, dude.” Eddie informs him un-enthused. Abruptly Eddie starts to tackle Dustin and they start to wrestle in the middle of this random field. It’s kind of nice to see them happily play but I can’t help but feel a little embarrassed.

“Is that really necessary?” I ask, not exactly annoyed but more exasperated. I look over to see if anyone else is watching them and see that Robin has glanced over while talking to Steve by the RV. “Sinclairs! How are those spears coming along?” I don’t want to pay any attention to Eddie and Dustin.

Lucas gives me a big thumbs up and I take that as a good sign. The thumbs-up is followed by the sound of the brother and sister starting to bicker. Dustin and Eddie continue to play fight as they bring their shields into the playful matter. They urge me to join them but I politely decline as I continue to put more nails into mine.

We all pile back into the RV and Steve starts driving to the Victor Creel house. The ride there is silent because we all know what’s about to happen. We don’t bother trying to cheer each other up with jokes or anything. We accept that this could be the last time we see each other healthy.

when we pull up to the house Max, Lucas, and Erica get out of the RV. We watch them walk up to the door before driving away. Our main target is Eddie’s trailer, where the gate is. We all go over the plan before even entering the trailer.

“We’re gonna run through it one more time, alright?” Nancy directs. “Phase one.”

I answer this one. “We meet Erica at the playground. She’ll signal Max and Lucas when we’re ready.”

“Phase two.”

“Max baits Vecna. He’ll go after her in his trance.”

“Phase three.”

“Dustin, y/n, and I lead the bats away.” Eddie answers.

“Four.”

“We go into the hopefully bat-free lair and flambe.”

“Nobody deviates from the plan no matter what, got it?” We all reply with understanding and then head into the trailer.

Steve goes up the sheet rope through the gate first and gets the mattress ready for everyone. We all put our gear through the gate and make it through safely. Once we’ve all made it through we start to go outside and Steve stops us.

“Listen if anything starts to go south at all? Abort. Got it? Draw the attention to the bats. Don’t try to be heroes, you’re just decoys.” Steve tells us.

“It’s alright, Steve. You can be the hero.” I tell him.

“I mean look at us,” Eddie says. “we are…not heroes.”

We all start to go our separate ways as the three others diverge into the woods off to Victor Creels house. Dustin, Eddie, and I start to use all the scrap metal we can find in order to make a cage-looking thing around the trailer for our protection.

“Not bad,” Eddie says.

“Not bad at all!” Dustin responds.

“Now for the fun part,” I say, elbowing Eddie who gets the hint after a moment. He rushes inside and just stands in awe at his guitar for a minute. “Jesus…” he mutters. “It’s like she was made for an alternate dimension.” He grabs his guitar off the wall and slings it over his shoulder.

“What do you say, y/n? Are you ready for the most metal concert in the history of the world?”

“Is that rhetorical?”

“Let’s do this thing!” We grab the amps and pedals and get them all connected on the roof of the trailer to make sure the noise travels further and louder. Now we just wait for the queue to start this thing. We sit on the roof dodging the fact that we could die. Just like the drive in the RV, we don’t try to make each other laugh or anything. We just talk.

“We’re gonna be fine, right?” Dustin asks me.

“Yeah, we’re all gonna be fine. We have weapons to protect us this time so there’s nothing to worry about” I try to convince him, but I can’t even convince myself of that fact.

“I wouldn’t place any bets, y/l/n,” Eddie says.

“I won’t let anything happen to either of you. I promise.” Now that was easy to believe. I can even convince myself of that because it’s true. I would do anything for either of them.

“Let's hope that's not the case,” Eddie says downward. I can tell he’s scared, that he’s not mentally prepared for this battle.

We get the signal that it’s time for us to begin our distraction. Eddie plugs in his guitar to the amp and begins.

“Chrissy, this is for you!” He starts strumming the chords of Master of Puppets by Metallica. I can’t help but mouth the lyrics as he plays along. He’s starting to get really into it as he starts banging his head along with the song.

“Eddie! Gotta lockdown in T-minus 30 seconds!” I tell him.

“T-minus 20!” Eddie starts to play the riff, and I’m very impressed but can’t say anything. I’m too focused on these bats to compliment him.

“T-minus 10!”

“Five!”

“One!”

We rush inside the trailer where we make it to safety and the bat-like creatures can’t get us.

“Eddie! That was amazing! Most. Metal. Ever!!” Dustin and I coo. Eddie bows and waves mouthing “thank you, thank you.”

We hear the bat-like creatures trying to find their way inside from the top of the trailer. We think we’re fine but we keep our guard up. Suddenly a bat starts to come out of the vent and into the trailer. Dustin and I go after it quickly with our spears.

“There’s no other vents, right?” Dustin intrigues.

Bats start to swarm into the trailer with no warning. We somehow make it into the next room over and shut the door behind but it’s obviously not going to hold out against the major swarm of bats. I urge Dustin and Eddie to go up the sheet rope and they make it through successfully. I’m about to go through when I think of a way to protect them. To lure the bats away from the gate. When I start to turn around Eddie and Dustin start yelling at me.

“Y/n! Y/n come on! What are you doing?!” I cut the sheet rope to make sure they don’t follow me.

“I’m buying us more time.” I move the mattress from under the gate to the side of the wall.

“Y/n no! Stop! Stop! What are you doing!”

I run outside of the trailer and hop on a bike that was placed conveniently on the side of Eddie’s trailer from before. I ride it as fast and as hard as I can. The bats chase me at a rate that ensures they’re no longer at the trailer.

I get far enough away that I can kind of slow down my pace just a bit, only to be knocked off of my bike by one of the bat-like creatures. I successfully protect myself from the bats that try to attack me while I’m on the ground. The spear was really useful in that matter. But once I’m up off the ground, the bats start to swarm harder around me. Attacking me faster than I can fight back. And just like that, I’m on the ground again. I feel the bats biting my limbs and several deep wounds starting to form.

“Y/n!” I hear Eddie calling.

For no reason known to me, the bats drop dead around me. I’m left laying there as Eddie runs up to me as fast as he can. Dustin follows shortly after him. Eddie kneels beside me and holds me while trying to convince me there’s not a lot of blood and that I’m fine. I can feel blood running out of my mouth though.

“You’re an idiot you know that, right?” Eddie informs me.

“Yeah, but I’m your idiot.” I try to laugh but more blood ends up spilling out of my mouth. Eddie puts his hand on my head and pushes my hair back.

“You’re gonna be fine. Do you hear me? Let’s try to get up, alright?” He places his arm under my arm to try and support me standing up but it feels wrong.

“I just…I need to…catch my breath.”

“Okay, no rush. Take your time. Take your time, y/n.” Everything starts to go black. It’s getting hard to see. My heart rate feels normal, but I just feel…tired. I close my eyes and everything is pitch black.

---

I can hear Eddie speaking. “Chapter 5, Riddles in the Dark… When Bilbo opened his eyes, he wondered if he had; for it was just as dark as with them shut. No one was anywhere near him. Just imagine his fright! He could hear nothing, see nothing, and he could feel nothing except the stone of the floor.”

When I open my eyes again I’m in an unfamiliar place. The room is white with light blue curtains over the windows. The lights are uncomfortably bright. I’m in a very uncomfortable bed and I can feel all the bandages around me. I look to my side and see Eddie, still reading aloud. Unaware that I’m awake.

“…Very slowly he got up and groped about on all fours, till he-” He looks up, and his gaze holds mine. I can see the light spark in his eyes as soon as they meet mine. “Oh my god! You’re awake! Y/n, you’re so stupid!” He comes to my side quickly, taking my hand in his own and kissing it gently. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling…sore. Kinda heroic.” I joke. Eddie laughs just happy to see I’m okay. “How long have I been…ya know?”

“About three days or so…” He breathes out heavily and hangs his head low before raising it back up. “I’m glad you’re awake and all but you’re gonna get a stern talking to when you’re feeling better. Steve was not too pleased with you when he found out.”

“That reminds me… did Steve and Nancy get back together?”

He laughs, like a real gut laugh before answering my question. “No, uh Jonathan or whatshisface came back from California.”

“Are you serious? I owe you $5 now?”

“You sure do.” He says proudly.

“Can you keep reading?” I plead with him.

“Of course I can,” he picks up the book and flips it to where he left off. “Very slowly he got up and groped about on all fours, till he touched the wall of the tunnel; but neither up nor down it could he find anything: nothing at all, no sign of goblins…”

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