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pensat-i-fet · 1 year

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A not so soft launch (Pablo Gavi x Reader)

**@dohmeti suggested I could do a part 2 for Dealing with the enemy where both of them have to be on the red carpet and I thought it was a great idea. So after some brainstorming, this is what I came up with. This can be read on its own but reading part 1 definetely adds nice context for the characters. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for the love for part 1 ❤️**

Word count: 1342

Masterlist

Wattpad

"I'm going to follow you on Instagram".

"Why?"

"To kick start our soft launch".

"Our what?"

Your boyfriend's confusion was hilarious.

"A soft launch is when you leave hints on like social media to let people know we are together. And then we do the hard launch".

"Which is?"

"Posting together, Pablo. What else?"

You keep walking around the room, phone in hand, nervous about this moment. While he just lays down in bed not understanding what a big deal this is.

"It sounds like a lot of work".

"Says the guy who spends 90 minutes running around the pitch like a headless chicken. Liking a couple of posts won't be that tiring".

"But why can't we just say we are together?"

"Because that's not how things are done nowadays. We need to do this and maybe mention something in interviews if we are asked. That type of thing".

He shakes his head and keeps scrolling on his phone while you sit on the edge of the bed, index finger hovering over your phone screen.

"Imagine it's a handbag".

"What?"

"Instead of the follow button, imagine it's the buy button for one of those handbags you love so much. You don't hesitate to press that button…at all".

"I hate you".

He reaches to you to grab you by the waist and take you closer to him.

"It'll be fine when people know about us. Stop worrying".

"But what if I lose my Madrid season ticket? Imagine the scandal".

"I'll give you one for the better team. Swapping Madrid for Barça will be an even better decision than dating me".

"Never!"

You take the phone back and press follow.

"Done!"

"So proud of you, baby", he teases, kissing your head.

"Shouldn't you be happy? You were begging me to follow you on Instagram for ages".

"Until you said yes to my offer to be my girlfriend on the first attempt. That's much better than a follow. And I know you stalk my profile anyways".

"I do not stalk your Instagram".

"And my fan accounts".

"I don't even check those. Stop lying".

"How about that time I saw you watching a video from one of them?"

"It was recommended on my explore page, Gavira".

"The explore page that recommends similar content to the one you search…makes sense".

You get up, taking the clothes you had picked before.

"I'm going to take a shower and you're not invited to join me for being an annoying idiot".

"You still love me!"

"I might change my mind about that!"

After your follow, several media outlets posted about why you would follow a Barça player on Instagram and most just assume you had your eye on him. Well, they weren't completely wrong.

There were also comments about it on Gavi's fan pages. You know, those ones you didn't check…while he was around and could see you doing it. They have great photos of him and you liked looking at them when you missed him.

"Maybe you can comment something on my new photo".

"Like what?"

You go to your Instagram to find the photo you posted a couple of hours ago. It was a behind-the-scenes shot of your show.

"I got it", he says. But he doesn't let you look at what he is writing.

A notification on your phone alerts you he had sent it and so you check it to see what he came up with.

Smart. Just a comment about work. It gets people talking without being too obvious.

"You're good at this. Ok, what should I answer?"

"How about the zipper emoji?"

"Wait. You're too good at this. I think I've found you a career for when you retire".

Throwback to when I got to celebrate my birthday on set with my absolute favourite humans!

Pablogavi: when is season 3 out?? I need it now!

Yourusername: 🤐🤐

"There are already comments from people who noticed our interaction. Perfect!", you said, pleased.

"What's next?"

“I have an interview tomorrow. I’ll suggest I might be seeing someone. And I’ll share my location too. So people can wonder why I spend so much time in Barcelona”.

He shakes his head, muttering. “So much work”.

"I've been invited to the movie premiere you are going to".

"Why?"

"I don't know", he shrugs. "I just have. I get invited to a lot of things but refuse to go. I don't want people to think I'm not focused on my career because they see me at parties".

"Makes sense", you say, cuddling to his side. "Why are you telling me about the invitation then?"

"I thought we could go together".

You think about it for a second and yes, it is a good idea. But it also feels too soon. You had only been doing the soft launch for two weeks.

"I don't know…".

"Come on. It's perfect. We show up together on the red carpet and we don't need to do anything else".

"Can I think about it?"

He nods but you could tell he was unhappy you had refused. So you mentally proceed to do a list of pros and cons.

"I don't think it's a good idea".

"Well", says Gavi, getting up and leaving you on the sofa alone. "I'm going anyway. The movie sounds fun".

Saying you feel bad would be an understatement but it is what feels like the right decision at the moment.

There had been some tension in the days prior to the premiere and Gavi uses your not wanting to be seen with him as an excuse to leave in a different car to the event.

So when you get there, you see him already attending the press. He had gone through a couple of groups of journalists and now it is your time to be interviewed by them.

"Oh my God! You look stunning. Tell us who you are wearing tonight".

"Valentino. When I saw this dress at the fitting, I didn't need to see more".

Rehearsed answers are always a winner.

"Have you seen who's here at the premiere?"

"A lot of people, I would assume", you laugh nervously, knowing who they meant.

"Well, you see, we noticed you following Gavi on Instagram a couple of weeks ago and now he's here. Maybe you'll have a chat with him? Even if he is the enemy?"

"Maybe".

You move to the next groups of reporters and, of course, there are more questions about the footballer that was getting all the attention tonight.

Too much attention, if you were to be asked. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see a group of women surrounding him. Their flirty giggles were so annoying. Could they be more obvious?

You try not to roll your eyes while you keep talking to the press.

But then, one of them really pushes her luck, offering her arm so your boyfriend can take her to the red carpet to pose with her. And he accepts her offer. Obviously, she doesn't know he has a girlfriend but what the heck?

While you wait your turn to go to the carpet, you see her getting closer to him. And then…she kisses his cheek when the photographers asked her to do it!

"Oh no she didn't!"

You walk to where they are posing and when Gavi sees it is you approaching them, he starts to smirk.

"Excuse me", you tell the girl who is still holding onto his arm. "That's my boyfriend so I would appreciate it if you stopped touching him".

She looks at you, shocked, and does as you told her.

“I think you scared her”.

“Good!”

"But what are you doing here? I thought you didn't want anyone seeing us together".

"Oh shut up!"

You grab his face with your hands and kiss him, causing all photographers to move to where you two are standing so they can get the best photo.

Gavi immediately grabs your waist and deepens the kiss. His plan to make you jealous had worked perfectly.

"There is your hard launch".

#pablo gavi #gavi #pablo gavi imagine #pablo gavi one shot #pablo gavi fluff #pablo gavi angst #footballer imagine #footballer one shot #footballer fluff #footballers angst

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love-killed-the-superstar · 2 months

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The Last Ronin 2: Re-Evolution Issue #1 LIVEBLOG

SPOILERS ABOUND. I'M NOT GOING TO BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS IT'LL PROBABLY GET SUPER LONG

Okay so Casey Marie's muscles are something I'm never going to get over. SHE LOOKS GOOD!!!!! Her getup is feeling a little too reminiscent of a cape-wielding superhero for my tastes to be honest - I really loved the more practical outfits she wore in TLR Lost Years, especially in issue 4 when she was running the training mission for the kids. But ah well, I'm sure this will grow on me. It may not be practical (edna's law of no capes is coming to mind, also PLEASE TIE YOUR HAIR UP WHEN YOU'RE FIGHTING GIRL!!!) but it's very cunty anyway which I appreciate

Straight up thought she killed this guy - what was that sound effect if he's still able to walk??? I fr thought she snapped his neck

IDK if we needed a whole 8 pages of punching and kicking to exposition dump what we kinda already knew from what's been shown in the lost years (esp the lost day special) but IT'S FINE IG... NOW ONTO THE BABIES

SORRY, SORRY. TEENAGERS NOW.

GIGGLING KICKING MY FEET. We're ALREADY getting the leo-v-raph adjacent dynamic with these two and I'm living for it. if one of them drops a stone cold 'fearless leader' jab i will lose my shit

HI? HELLO, EXCUSE ME, MIND-TALKING? PICTURES IN HEAD? ARE WE A FAMILY THAT LUCID DREAMS OR SOMETHING?!?? I DON'T REMEMBER THIS BEING SOMETHING THEY COULD DO?? every new speech bubble here is like a punch to the gut, wdym telepathy wdym secret lair wdym honouring everything master splinter taught you???? (although i'm proud that when this panel dropped on news sites i was immediately like THAT ISN'T THE KITCHEN FROM LOST YEARS. turns out it was a Secret Lair TM)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Seance -- TURTLES COUNT IT OFF!!

not gonna screenshot the whole backstory but they're basically doing a telepathic puppet show explaining the backstory and it's pretty much the mirage origins with a bit of extra tlr flair. as always it HURTS ME seeing the turtles dying so thanks for that tlr2 :'')) icb these kids watch a mind movie of their uncles dying every fucking night. yall are messy

SOBBING AND CRYING,, I WISH YOU'D ALL HAD THE CHANCE TO KNOW HIM TOO!!!!!! I WISH YOU'D GOTTEN TO KNOW ALL OF THEM!!!!! (tlr splinter doesnt count tho because hes a dick)

there was a cool sequence of them rooftop hopping n stuff but i wont cover it bc we already saw it in a bunch of news articles weeks ago

i just did the SHARPEST INHALE. casey marie you and your beautiful muscular arms have aged like the finest wine

YI NO!!!!!

lmaooo moja is JUDGING your taste in women u two

lots of text... blah blah blah jobs, crimerates, blah blah... jiro in pig uniform jumpscare.. casey marie i thought u were going to fix him :(((

YESSSSS KIDS ARE GOING ON A MISSION WITH THEIR MOM, LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

MY BABIES ARE KICKING ASS!!!!!

....,.HUH

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY BABY BOY ODIE!!!!!!!!!!! WHO DID THIS TO HIM!!!!!!???? WHAT??!???? HUH/1?!!? EXCUSE ME????

I'M . LIKE WHAT DO I EVEN SAY TO THIS. IT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE??? WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

dude that first issue was wordy but the kids were ON POINT. they were so fun!! their dialogue is fun and they kick ass.

i loved yi announcing the punishment for casey while the others were like NOO SHE DIDNT MEAN THAT DONT LISTEN TO HER. we're getting more of their personalities and it's great!! it was a nice throwback to issue 2 of lost years when they were cleaning - yi refused to help because of how strictly she was following instructions. im picking up that she might be neurodivergent but i did get that from the lost years too - only doing things within strict instructions, getting frustrated at teaching odyn chess, not because of him playing horseys with the knights but that it was Against The Rules Of Chess - and now not picking up on some social cues. It's nice to see!! I love her very much, but it feels like besides rehashing the origin story she took a bit of a backseat to the other three.

i want to know more about why uno said being a rebel was moja's 'thing', since she didn't seem to be any more rebellious than the other three in this issue. we didn't get any unique interactions between her and casey marie which is what i felt was lacking from lost years but i wonder if this is hinting towards a more turbulent mother-daughter dynamic with them... I REALLY HOPE SO!! her and uno butting heads in a leo-raph way is very fun - i don't mind one or two prior group dynamics leaking into the new turtle siblings because they're all so different from the original 4.

uno seems to be taking on slightly more of a leader role than moja so i think he won the title of fearless leader. which is fine, i think it'll be fun to see and he's definitely less of an asshole now than when he was growing up in lost years. still picking on odyn a bit but seems to snipe at moja just as much. even when he was commenting on yi's storytelling he didn't make fun of her, though - i think she may have inherited the 2k3 don ability of being Completely Unbullyable.

i was really pleased that odyn felt more involved!! i feel like he took the backseat a few times in lost years - it was fun seeing more of his personality shine through! he and yi seem to get on the best, and i giggled at them rolling their eyes at moja and uno's raph-leo schtick. i didn't expect him to TURN TO FUCKING STONE THOUGH, so i'm nervous about that. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHO DID THIS TO MY BOY? IS HE GOING TO TURN BACK NEXT CHAPTER OR IS HE OUT OF COMMISSION UNTIL THE END OF THE RUN??? (if it's the latter i'll be a bit annoyed - don't take odyn away from the equation please!!)

I do wonder if by introducing casually that they can PSYCHICALLY CONNECT, the turtles will use that as a technique to reach odyn's mind to make sure he's still in there and piece together what's happened to him. i mean, their casual telepathy has gotta be some sort of chekhov's gun right?

and shit.... april was so fucking mad casey took the babies out so she's going to EXPLODE when she finds out what happened to her baby boy, her beloved favourite, her baby odyn :''(( im giggling rubbing my hands together waiting for the fallout but also if she cries i might cry too. speaking of april, she seems to be working on a new project and i saw nano particles mentioned - are we going to have a roninverse version of nano in this run???? I NEED MY ROBOT SON

as always, casey marie... u have aged like fine wine. u are stunning. disappointed that ur still believing that jiro can do good as a cop when their entire police force and government is corrupt as fuck. just feels very naive of her. i'm excited to see her break down at the concept of losing odyn - in fact i need everyone to mourn this beautiful kid. they tell us so much that shes a super clingy helicopter mom and i am picking up on the strict part, but it would be nice to see more of her just... hugging her kids. holding them. i get why she didnt in this issue but id love more mama casey squishing their cheeks and kissing their foreheads.

i have zero fucking clue what's going on with odyn. im wondering if it's somehow related to nano, or to whatever project April is working on - she says it's to do with clearing the tunnels, but I''m not convinced. who knows, there might be some ulterior motive happening.

Anyway, that's the end of my liveblog!! thanks for reading all the way to the end... go read it wherever you read ur comics!!!

#the last ronin #the last ronin 2 #the last ronin 2 spoilers #tlr #tlr2 spoilers

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hopetorun · 6 months

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tagged by @bropunzeling and @postoperation 💕

Rules: Go to your published works on AO3 and list the first fic you ever published there, the last fic you published, any fic that you wrote for a fandom/ship only once, your favorite fic you wrote in the fandom/ship that has the most works, the fic you wish more people read, the fic you agonized over the most, the fic that sprang fully formed from your mind without any effort, and a work you are proud of—for whatever reason.

first fic (on ao3): perspective, a star wars (legends) eu rarepair fic that i wrote for yuletide in 2011 that honestly was like pulling teeth at the time and i don’t think i’ve ever reread. i crossposted and then deleted some social network fic but i honestly don’t remember if i ever backdated any of it correctly anyway so this is probably the first one regardless since i got an ao3 specifically to participate in yuletide in 2011

last fic: make a better mistake, the brady/quinn home by now timestamp i put on here the other day. i don’t have much to say about this really except that it was fun to write out one of the bits of their backstory, which i have a lot of thoughts and feelings about

fic for a fandom/ship i only wrote once: don’t read the last page, broadchurch pornography i wrote in the year of someone’s lord 2021 after rewatching because my mom hadn’t seen it and wanted to. i wrote so much het porn in 2021 and yet i still can barely bring myself to write any of the common slang terms for vagina 💀

favorite fic in the fandom/ship with the most works: well in the summer of 2012 i was possessed by demons and wrote two then-avengers/now-mcu fics but i can’t say i like either of them. i guess i think this one is better, if pressed. honestly i don't feel a need to delete them but i am glad that no one ever seems to read them lol

fic i wish more people read: the sky is big enough, which i feel like i've said before! i really like how it came together but dropping 15k unannounced and unheralded on a medium-sized fandom and peacing out isn't exactly the best way to attract readers 😂 at least it exists for me to pretend is part of the game of thrones canon

fic you agonized over the most: this is kind of a toss-up. on the one hand, it took me the better part of six months to write preference, which clocks in at a not actually all that long 37k, because for mysterious reasons it was just a really slow story for me to pick through and i had to put a lot of thought into what i could do with each scene since the structure (which i imposed on myself btw. i made this problem) is so limiting. on the other hand the actual writing sessions for home by now were easy and productive but the story took ten whole entire months of my life, a major characterization revision just under halfway through, and a major pacing evening-out three quarters of the way through. both involved a lot of crying about whether the story was actually good.

fic that sprang fully formed from my mind without any effort: okay this is a throwback and also such a rarepair as in the only fic in the tag but years ago i wrote jt compher/his college teammate kevin lohan and it was just such an enjoyable story to write because i had a clear vision of the arc and it came together neatly and the non-linear structure meant i got to play with some fun juxtaposition. anyway: instructions for dancing

a story i'm proud of: this is not the end. was this a ridiculous thing to write in any year, much less the year 2020? sure. but write it i did, and it was the first novel-length story i ever successfully wrote, much less completed and edited and posted. and i think it's a nice story! proud of myself for getting over the long story hump and proud of myself for doing it while also doing graduate school. and proud of myself for finding something to do with my time so that my entire life didn't just become work and grad school in 2020.

#i'm not tagging anyone bc idr who's already been tagged but if you feel moved you can pretend i tagged you #my fic

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yourimagines · 3 months

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Your life on camera p.7

* English is not my first language I apologise

* Triggers: Swearing, Sadness, Angst, Fluff

It’s been 2,5 years after you two first met

Shorter one

Y/n POV

It’s been 5 months since I saw Nate, it was on his birthday party and after that I didn’t saw him, we texted and called each other but ever since his documentary was released I was very busy, people wanted to work with me, even Nick asked if I wanted to work for him but I’m not like that, stealing clients from others. So I’m in Europe now, making a video for red bulls rising young star Max Verstappen. “Just be yourself Max.” I said and he smiled towards the camera. “You sure?” I gave him some thumbs up and he starts to do his thing.

I went back to my hotel room and lay down in bed with a big sigh. ‘What a day….’ I grabbed my phone and checked instagram, Nick had posted a picture of himself and Kay, both looking happy at the camera. ‘I miss them…’ I liked the picture and went to Nate’s page, scrolling slowly through his page. A picture of us together popped up and loneliness filled my heart. ‘I wish I had the courage to tell him back in the day I liked him.’ I stared at the picture for a while before my phone turned off by itself.

Natediaz209

Liked by; y/n209, Nickdiaz209 and 14k others

Tagged; y/n209

Making this thing 👊🏻 📷

Show all 352 comments

Killshotmma: lookin fresh 🔥

Diazbrothers209: can’t wait 💪🏻 🔥

Rondarousy: deserved 👊🏻

Y/n209: who made this picture 🙈

Kay209 replied: girl me 💕

Y/n209 replied: 😘 🙈

Diazfan209: are you guys together?

MMAsports: looking cute tho

Nickdiaz209: 🔥

Nate POV

I was lying in bed, scrolling through my instagram feed, Nick posted a photo with him and Kay, Chris posted a throwback picture and Jose posted a video about some treatment for fighters. My mind was slowly drifting off to y/n, she’s been doing great, just like I thought, making that big name for herself. I miss her and I wouldn’t never thought about that but I really do. I typed in her name and scrolled through her page, looking at the pictures she posted through the years. One picture captured my attention, it was a picture that we took together on the beach, before Jake came along and ruined it. ‘I wish I just kissed her…’

Y/n209

Liked by natediaz209, Gilbertmelendez and 330 others

Tagged: natediaz209

Beach trip 🏖️ 📸

Show all 22 comments

Jakeshields: great weather for a walk on the beach 🏖️

Y/n209 replied: it’s always good weather to take a walk on the beach 😎

Gilbertmelendez: stealing our guy 🤨

Y/n209 replied: I’ll bring him back on time 😊

Natediaz209: ❤️

Y/n209 replied: 🙈 ❤️

I smiled and went to our text messages, the last one I send was one week ago, it was a goodnight text. ‘Maybe it’s too late for us, she busy with her career and so am I.’ I turned my phone off and got out of bed, getting ready to go to the gym and train for the next fight what was coming up next week.

—— fight night ——

I was sitting in my locker room, waiting for my turn. “You good?” Jake asks as he sits down next to me. “I’m good.” He nods and helps to wrap my hands. “Do you still talk to her?” He asks me. “Sometimes, you?” She softy laughs and shook his head. “No, when she left she told me that she’s not interested in me.” ‘Oh shit.’ I looked up and he smiled painfully at me. “That’s life, I already knew it but I was hoping my gut feeling was wrong. But it wasn’t.” Something in me felt bad for him but on the other side it made me feel better knowing she wasn’t into him at all. “She likes you even when you treated her like shit.” He looked down at my hands again. “But it’s fine, you didn’t get her in the end as well because you were too scared to make a move on her and now you’re too late, she’s taken.” My heart dropped as he just told me she’s taken. “With who?” I asked, he shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know who but I heard she dating one of the racers.” I felt my heart slowly breaking in millions of pieces. ‘She’s taken…’ he tapped my hands and stood up. “Done, let’s go get them.” I nodded and tried to think about something else but I couldn’t. ‘I’m too late…’

Y/n POV

I was rushing through the building, praying that I’m not too late for his fight. I flew back home to be there for him as his brother isn’t allowed to be here. I heard his walk out song and I hurried to my seat, close to the ring. “Hey y/n.” Some people greeted me and politely smiled back at them. ‘I made it.’ I sat down next to Cole and greeted him quickly.

His fight was difficult but he won, I was cheering for him and Jake saw me, I waved but he turned his back on me. ‘Rude.’ I quickly texted Nate, hoping he would read it in his locker room. “You’re not joining them?” Cole miller asked me. “No, I’m not with them anymore.” He looked surprised. “Oh, I thought you and Nate were a thing.” A blush formed on my cheeks and I shyly shook my head. “No, I was his videographer, nothing more than that.” “Ahh, that’s a shame, you guys looked good together.” ‘We did?’ “Thanks.” Cole and I went together back to the lobby, he made sure I was safe and sound out of that building. “We should hangout sometime, I like our day at the convention.” “Yeah me too, I really like that.”

Nate POV

I was in my locker, grabbing my stuff as I just finished the press conference. “Let’s go out.” Jake says as I checked my phone, y/n texted me. A picture of her and Cole, with the octagon behind them. “Y/n is here.” “Really?” Chris asks as Jake sighs. “Yes, I need to see her.” I said and swing my bag over my shoulder, afraid that I would miss her if I didn’t hurry up. “She probably gone Nate.” Jake says but I ignored him and went back to the lobby as I was texting her back. Chris was walking behind me and nudged me. “There.” He pointed at her direction, she already found Nick and Kay. I froze on my spot and got scared as she turned around and saw me. ‘She’s taken.’ I swallowed my lump down and walked over to them. “Hi.” Her voice still sounded so sweet. “Hey.” I rubbed the back of my neck and smiled at her. “Congratulations on the fight.” “Thanks.” Our interaction was awkward and I didn’t know what to do so I greeted my brother and his girlfriend Kay, leaving her with Cole as I left with the rest with a very heavy heart weighing on me.

#nate diaz x reader #nate diaz imagine #nate x reader #ufc imagine #ufc imagines #ufc x reader #mma x reader #mma imagine #y/n x character #y/n imagines #reader x character #x you #x y/n #x reader #imagine #imagines #fluff #sad imagines #light angst

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metaphysicpareidolic · 8 months

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OPINION TIME because i need to know i'm not the only one who feels this way:

i'm gonna be perfectly honest and many of you might hate me for this but. i. did not like good omens season 2. so if you don't want to read, i'll just write my essay under the break dlsjfdh

OKAY.

i mean i understand why people like it, the two (mostly) male-presenting characters that everyone has been smashing together like barbie dolls for decades finally get a canon kiss, great. yeah, as a trans gay guy, i can't deny that i love seeing any kind of queer representation, especially from such a popular show, from such an influential author. but this? did not. feel good to watch. and it's not just because of the soul-destroying cliffhanger ending.

i lived and breathed good omens when the show first came out, it was one of the most intense hyperfixations of my life, i was completely obsessed with it and i recommended it to everyone i knew, both the show and the book. it's the entire reason i got tumblr in the first place and the first fandom i actually participated in. quite a good portion of my waking thoughts were consumed by the ineffable husbands and all the other characters. i was a young teenager at the time and this story shaped my view of the world for over a year, and i will always love it. but even then, i hoped to god (ha) that they wouldn't make a second season. but inevitably, they did.

i went into the first episode hoping i was wrong, and i finished it just feeling disappointed. i kept watching and got through the whole thing, hoping it would get better as the season went on, but it just got worse and worse. granted, i did enjoy the little historical throwbacks (i think the entire second season should have just been aziraphale and crowley through the centuries with michael and david improvising the whole thing like that one post) but the actual plot was bland, the characters had lost all their depth, and on top of that the budget was obviously cut by a lot so the rich visuals that were so captivating in the first season were gone, as well. that and issues with sound, which probably were more noticeable cause i was wearing headphones, but this is one of the most popular and profitable shows on a leading streaming service owned by one of the biggest fucking companies in the world. shouldn't they be putting money into it?

i'm not upset that beelzebub was recast. i'm upset that their entire character and personality was forgotten in favour of a romantic side plot, which exists, why? again?? to somehow emphasize a point already made by the other rushed romantic side plot?? that has barely anything to do with the actual story other than being accidentally dragged into it by aziraphale, whose entire character development from the first season has been entirely pushed aside because we need a third season, because we want more money! hehe they are kissing, gay people kissing ooh look, give us your money and attention so you can see them kiss consensually this time! i could continue but i will spare you the entirety of my spiel because i could write. PAGES. about how much this season hurt my soul not because Oh No They Broke Up but because i believed in this world and i believed in these characters and i don't like seeing them like this, wrung out and milked for cash and fanservice. everything that made the first season good is dampened by the knowledge that i now have to consider this fucking thing canon, that this is what the story turns into.

neil gaiman i love you but for the love of god get off of tumblr. he just wrote a fucking fanfiction of his and terry pratchett's work because he knew he would get money from it. and we are eating it up, because we love the story, we love the characters, and we love the author and we always want more. if you want more, draw fanart. write fanfiction. create your own version of a story. please, don't give your money to a company just because it's Officially Legit Canon when you could create a much better, more compelling, and more satisfying ending for yourself, for free. i lied earlier, i don't understand the appeal of this season. i don't understand why people like it. it feels fake. it feels wrong. it feels like an entirely different universe than the first season, and the book, and that wouldn't necessarily even be a bad thing if it was at least done with some level of concern for quality and consistency.

i know not everyone wants to be critical of their favourite show and would prefer to just enjoy it for what it is. i understand that, at least. i don't want to ruin anyone's fun. if you enjoyed this season, good. i'm glad you did and i love seeing all the fanart and fanfictions happening everywhere. i just really wanted to talk about this and maybe spark a little discussion if anyone's interested. anyways if you read all of this, thank you.

tl;dr: i hate capitalism, i hate streaming services

#good omens #good omens spoilers #good omens 2 #good omens 2 spoilers #neil gaiman #good omens season 2 #also i don't understand. did it get explained why sister mary loquacious now owns a cafe and goes by nina #is this an inside joke i'm not aware of???#was i just supposed to not notice?????#is it supposed to be a subtle nod?? oh look nina sosanya is back because we can't reasonably find a way to bring back her previous characte #cool??#i don't get it i don't understand somebody explain it to me i don't. understand #AM I JUST STUPID I FEEL LIKE I'M JUST STUPID THEY WOULDN'T HAVE JUST. DONE THAT WITHOUT EXPLAINING IT RIGHT???#i was paying attention i swear #okay i googled it and neil just. likes her a lot i guess.#okay?#alright wes anderson but maybe like. put her in sandman or something #i stg i thought i was going insane half the time

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seconds-not-decades · 2 years

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Time and Chase

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Fem! OC

Author's Note: Hello and welcome. This is a major throwback but we are kicking off my TUA series of fics all the way from season one so that this story actually makes sense. Or about as much sense as it can be. I will be posting daily. *Please note that I am well aware that Elliot Page portrays Viktor, but due to season one being before his transition, that is why his character is still Vanya. I am not deadnaming him and I sincerely hope I don't come across as such. I will transition when I write season three.*

Warnings: mentions of blood, cursing, and violence.

Previous | Next

*Gif credits to its original source/creator*

Man On The Moon

~ * ~

On the first day of October, 1989, forty-three women around the world simultaneously gave birth. None of the women showed any prior signs of pregnancy. Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and playboy adventurer, made it his personal mission to find and adopt as many of these children as possible.

He got seven of them.

~ * ~

Karina finished wrapping her side and headed out the door to go find Five. She was halfway through the main room when Pogo saw her.

"Mrs. Hargreeves, this is a surprise. How are you doing, my dear?" he asked her.

Karina was a bit taken back, not used to being addressed so formally. "Me? Um…I'm all right."

"I see. Are you sure you should be walking around? You were severely injured after all."

Karina waved it off. "Later. Right now, I have a husband to track down and berate."

"Master Luther and Master Diego are currently looking for him actually."

"Did they say where they were going?"

"I believe something about trying to find his van."

Karina nodded. "I know where they are. Thank you."

"Of course. Please be careful."

Karina smiled and quickly left the mansion, heading off to the alleyway across from the prosthetic building. In the distance, she saw and heard Luther and Diego hurrying towards the van.

"This is it. He's still here. This is Five's van," Luther spoke. "Go. Go." He went to open the door, rattling the handle. He sighed.

Diego stepped forward and picked the lock, opening the door. After he opened it, the two tried to go in at the same time.

"I'm One," Luther remarked to Diego.

Diego resisted an eye roll and slid the back door open.

"Damn it," Luther grunted as he slipped inside.

"What are you two up to?" Karina went up to them, watching the two rustle around the van.

"I thought you'd be resting after last night," Diego told her.

"Rested as I can be, anyway. Have you found anything?" she leaned on the van.

"Not yet. I'm surprised to see you here instead of with him," Luther was skimming through the glove box.

"He dropped me off last night and that was the last time I saw him."

"So, even you have no clue where he is? You're his wife," Luther frowned.

Karina shrugged. "We all have secrets I suppose."

"Still can't believe he's the first brother to get hitched amongst us," Diego mumbled.

Karina sighed, deciding to help them in their search. They all looked around for a good ten minutes, still finding nothing. Diego picked up a small notebook and skimmed through it.

He whistled, catching the attention of Luther and Karina. "I know where to find Five," he held up the notebook page.

~ * ~

The three of them made their way to a library. They went inside and looked around.

"Let's split up," Luther suggested.

Diego shot him a look. "Wow. Good thinking."

The three split up and searched around the entire library, along with its multiple floors, but circled back to one another on the top floor with no luck.

"Anything?" Luther asked them.

"No," Karina bit her lip and Diego sighed.

"You wanna know why I left?" Diego stopped Luther in his tracks.

"What? What are you talking about?" he slowly came back over.

"Why I left the Academy."

"Yeah, 'cause you couldn't handle me being Number One."

Karina held back from an exasperated eye roll, wondering where the nearest escape was as she leaned on the wall.

"No. Because that's what you do when you're 17. You move out, become your own person, grow up," Diego lowly said.

"Oh, yeah. You're a real grown-up," Luther shot.

"At least I make my own decisions," Diego shot back, looking at him. "You've never had to hold down a job. Pay bills. You ever even been with a girl?"

Oh Lord, help me Karina thought in exasperation. She crossed her arms and looked up at the ceiling, shaking her head.

"I…" Luther cleared his throat almost awkwardly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Diego gave a chuckle of disbelief. "Look, you wanna blame me, blame us for leaving…that's okay. But maybe you're asking yourself the wrong question. Maybe it's not about why we left. Maybe it's about why you stayed," he pointed out.

"I stayed because the world needed me," Luther went over to his side.

"You stayed because you couldn't let go of the way things used to be. The Academy. Dad. With Allison," Diego gave him a meaningful look. "Dad's dead. Mom too, now. We're orphans again, dude."

An elevator bell dinged and Karina began to walk off.

"And things are never gonna go back to the way they used to…be," Diego finished.

Karina heard women laughing.

"Do you ever stop talking?" Luther questioned.

"Where are his parents?" a lady asked and Karina perked up, hurrying in that direction.

"Wow, that was easy," Luther commented as they followed her.

"I'm gonna call security," a blonde walked past Karina.

Diego and Luther halted when they saw the scene. Five was on the ground, snoring, with a bottle of liquor in one hand and his other arm lazily slung around Delores. Karina scoffed as she knelt down to feel his forehead.

"Is he, um…?" Luther strung out.

"Drunk as a skunk," Diego was mildly amused.

Karina glanced up at them, curious to hear their next best course of action as the bottle slipped from Five's grasp. She just sighed, knowing they were in for a long night.

Luther scooped up Five and Delores, the three of them quietly exiting the library.

~ * ~

The alleyway was dark and damp, but, the four really had no idea where there was a safe option to go.

"Well, we can't go back to the house. It's not secure. Those psychopaths could come back at any moment," Luther pointed out.

"I don't have enough room, otherwise I would have offered," Karina softly spoke.

"My place is closer. No one will look for him there," Diego returned.

Five burped and Luther sighed. "If you vomit on me…" he warned the boy.

"You know what's funny?" Five slurred out. "Aah! I'm going through puberty." He scoffed. "Huh. Twice. And I-" He abruptly chuckled. "I drank that whole bottle, didn't I?"

"Afraid so," Karina replied flatly.

"Hiya, wifey," Five's head lulled as he gazed at her drunkenly. "That's what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye. Poof, it's gone." He flailed to take her arm. "What are you guys talkin' about?" He shifted to look at Karina. "And what happened to your pretty face?"

Diego sighed. "Two masked intruders attacked the Academy last night. They came looking for you, and if you need anything more astounding to make you listen to me, they hurt Karina pretty badly. So I need you to focus. What do they want?" he cut to the chase.

"Hazel and Cha-Cha," Five replied.

"Who?" Diego looked back at him.

"You know, I hate code names," Luther added.

"Ah, the best of the best. Except for me, of course," Five chuckled.

"The best of what?" Luther looked down at him.

"You know, Rina always said she hated when I drink. She said it made me surly…" Five rambled, trying to kiss her.

"Hey!" Diego snapped.

"Hm?" Five looked at him. "Yeah?"

"I need you to focus," Diego stopped and turned to face him. "What do this Hazel and Cha-Cha want?"

Five broke out into a snarky grin.

"We just wanna protect you," Diego continued gently.

"Protect me. I don't need your protection, Diego," Five remarked. "Do you have any idea how many people I've killed?"

"No," Diego's voice was low.

"I'm the Four frickin' Horsemen. The apocalypse is coming," Five turned in Luther's arms and vomited behind him.

Luther looked up in alarm and Diego turned away. Karina winced in disgust.

"Will you kiss me yet? I miss you," Five gazed up at her.

"After you're sober and brushed your teeth," she tried not to choke from his breath.

So with that, Diego led them off to his place to lay low for the night.

~ * ~

Diego guided everyone through the gym and into his place. Luther gently laid Five down on the bed, who was deep asleep. Karina perched next to him and she smiled when he subconsciously found her hand and clung to it. She gently brushed some fallen hair out of his peaceful face.

Diego and Luther were watching them thoughtfully.

"Funny. If I didn't know he was such a prick, I'd say he looks almost adorable in his sleep," Diego commented sarcastically.

"Well, don't worry. He'll sober up eventually," Karina returned softly.

"Be back to his normal, unpleasant self," Luther added.

"Yeah, I can't wait that long," Diego walked away a few steps. "I need to find out what his connection is with these lunatics before someone else dies. All that stuff he was saying before-" He paused when everyone heard thumping overhead.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Luther wanted to know.

Outside in the hall, the sound of footsteps approached. Luther and Diego shared a look. Diego unsheathed a knife and quietly crept to the door.

"You throw another one of those goddamn knives at me, I'm pressin' charges!" Al threatened when Diego abruptly swung open the door.

"What do you want, Al?" Diego asked.

Al stepped into the doorway. "I ain't your secretary."

"Yeah," Diego mumbled and headed down the stairs.

"Some lady called for you, said she needs your help."

"What lady?"

"I dunno. Some, uh, detective. I think she said her name was, uh, Blotch or somethin'."

"Patch?" Diego corrected and Al shrugged. He began to grin. "She needs my help."

"She needs you to meet her at that motel, a dump on Calhoun," Al informed him as he came up the stairs and looked at the note Al scribbled down. Luther slowly came over.

"When?" Diego questioned.

"About half an hour ago. Uh, said she found your brother," Al left the room.

The two boys looked at Five in confusion.

"Well, that didn't make sense," Diego commented.

"Klaus," they both drew out in realization.

"Go. I'll wait here with-" Luther stopped himself when Diego ran out and the door slammed shut. "Them," he sighed.

Karina nervously fiddled with her necklace, anxiously awaiting for Diego to return. Luther looked down at Delores in the chair and awkwardly patted her head.

~ * ~

#the umbrella academy #five hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #allison hargreeves #ben hargreeves #diego hargreeves #luther hargreeves #tua #viktor hargreeves #aidan gallagher #tua s1 #tua season one #tua fandom #tua fanfic

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chorusfm · 3 months

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Liner Notes (January 27th, 2024)

Another week, another newsletter. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here. If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here. A Few Things * I’ve begun the process of building my project to move the newsletter from Substack into my own homegrown system. I have a good idea for how I want to do it, leveraging the same code I use to send the forum email notifications and building the publication portion directly into WordPress (goal: check the Newsletter category, publish, and it auto sends), I think I can build a cost-effective solution for sending a few thousand extra emails per month this way. The hard part is finding the time to sit down and write this and all the extra little things I need to build out myself (sign-up form, unsubscribe flow, an actual email template to use). But, the building blocks are being put in place. However, I think the next feature I want to work on is fixing the auto-embed situation in the forum first. Twitter (er, X?) has gone downhill in so many ways, and one of them is that their embed code for posts works extremely poorly now. They often leak memory, so if multiple are on a page, it can crash the browser session. This is most often seen on mobile devices. I want to create a way for there to be a preference for auto embeds so that you can turn off the embeds completely or just on mobile to improve the experience. I want the embeds to then be tappable to load, but we’ll see if I can get that done in the first version. Just getting an option to disable these is step one. It’s pretty annoying since, for years, everything worked just fine, but I simply can’t rely on Twitter to ever fix these issues, and this is my best option before I just pull Twitter completely from being able to embed itself in posts. In Case You Missed It * Review: Green Day – Saviors * Blink-182’s Untitled Record Gets Special Vinyl Pressing * Alkaline Trio – “Break” Video * Jimmy Eat World Play Halftime Show * Bayside Announce New Tour * Justin Timberlake Announces Tour * Avril Lavigne Announces Greatest Hits Tour * Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties Announce Tour * The Killers Announce Vegas Residency * Albums in Stores – Jan 26th, 2024 Music Thoughts * Alkaline Trio released their new album this week, and, in my opinion, it’s top tier Trio. Catchy, awesome riffs, and just top to bottom full of no misses. Easily my favorite since Crimson. * A few albums came out last week that I spent quite a bit of time with over the past week; this includes The Odorants’ Love Songs Never Die, which has a nice throwback punk feel to it. It could fit right in with the early 90s bands. Simple harmonies and fun as hell. The Speakeasy also released an album last week, and this one is a little more of your early Gaslight Anthem/Lawerence Arms kind of punk sound. Faster, but built to sing-a-long. The cover of “Johnny B Goode” is a highlight. * The Smile’s new album is pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. Good. Interesting. Drags for me a tad in the middle. And it really just makes me want new Radiohead. * Ghost Atlas’ Dust of the Human Shape should be right in the wheelhouse for anyone craving that Cove era Saosin sound. There are some great songs on here. * Sara Jarosz’s latest, Polaroid Lovers, is a jaunty walk between singer-songwriter and bending a tad into that country twang. * Charlotte Sands’ debut full length is finally available everywhere, and I’ve been singing its praises for a few months now. I expect it to see even more play when it starts to warm up a little. It’s absolutely worth checking out. * Laura Jane Grace’s new album comes out in early February. The first three songs released from it are a pretty good indication of what it sounds like. It’s good, raw, and the underlying power and talent of Laura’s songwriting is on full display. I still haven’t had any of the solo work hit me as hard as Transgender Dysphoria… https://chorus.fm/features/articles/liner-notes-january-27th-2024/

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lindsaywesker · 6 months

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Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to Throwback Thursday!

Many thanks to everyone that got involved with ‘Wednesday Words’. Many thanks to @lisataylor for suggesting we resurrect it. It’s probably best we do it every month, so that people can have a month to come up with good ideas. Yesterday’s selection of words was top drawer and I can see that you all enjoyed them. By the end of the day, @chericlass had attracted the most likes by quoting the Stevie Wonder song ‘As’. No surprise, really. Show me someone that doesn’t love that song!

On this page, ‘Throwback Thursday’ is all about memories. So, what do you remember? If I was to say the word BIRTHDAY, what immediately comes to mind?

My last big birthday party was a brilliant night we had The White Lion for my 60th. My mum came up to London for that. That’s the last time she was in London. She sat in her seat all night and people just thronged around her like she was a superstar, looking to get selfies. She looked so bloody happy and talks about it to this day. Since that 60th birthday, I have lost two of my favourite women. They were a big part of my life and I think about them a lot. I have countless photos of them in my Pictures folder and, every now and then, I reminisce.

The big birthday party before that was my 54th (don’t ask me why) and, again, between 54-60, I lost two important female friends. Between 60-70 … I dread to think who I’ll lose! Having said that, if I make it to 70, that will be some achievement! So, when I think of the word ‘birthday’ – and maybe I’m being morbid? – I think about those that will never celebrate another birthday.

So, on this Throwback Thursday, what kind of memories, thoughts or emotions does the word BIRTHDAY conjure up for you?

Today is MY birthday. I am 64 years old. That’s a big old number but I am very grateful to be alive. Matthew Perry was ten years younger than me and passed away last Saturday, so I am mightily grateful to have reached this ripe old age. Fortunately, I feel good. Really energized!

What am I doing on my birthday? Working. What else would you expect? I like working. I might have a few drinks tomorrow night but, today, I will be speaking to my students.

On Saturday, I have a bigger day planned. After my radio show, I’ll be heading down to The White Lion for The Big Scorpio Saturday Night. We’re in Scorpio Season, baby! Host Stevie Dundee is a Scottish Scorp and he’s rounded-up his fellow Scorps for what will be a very busy night. I know a number of very beautiful people that are popping in so, if you’re in the vicinity, it would be lovely to see you.

Have a throbbing and thrusting Thursday (with hopefully a few thrills through your thoroughfare?) I love you all.

#mixcloud #mi soul #dj #music #new blog #lockdown #coronavirus #books #weekend #democracy

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coeurdastronaute · 3 years

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Essays in Existentialism: Plus One, Ch. 2

Previously on Plus One

It oscillated every other minute between being an amazing idea, but also being the worst idea of all time, and Lexa was mostly exhausted of bouncing back and forth. It might be easier, she decided, if she just got herself on board with it being a good idea, but a deep, gnawing hole seemed to manifest itself in her gut at the very thought of seeing her ex.

As she went through the motions of finishing the day, of doing inventory because it was Wednesday, Lexa tried not to distract herself with the thoughts of her impending trip. In just forty-eight hours, she’d be face to face with Costia, who she hadn’t seen in months, who she avoided before occasionally running awkwardly into each other at mutual friends’ events. She’d come face to face with her ex who was getting married.

And she was going to do it with a complete stranger on her arm.

With a heavy sigh, Lexa tossed her clipboard on her tiny desk in the storage closet and plopped down in the squeaky chair, tipping it back with a wail. Her sister was the worst.

It was quiet in the shop, closed for just a handful of hours, Lexa always took a day to inventory and repair the damage of the week. She enjoyed the late evening work, when her workers were gone, and the shop was empty and full of dreams. No one knew how the cabinets stayed so clean, or how the scratches on table tops got sanded and fixed, or how the wobbly table by the window was miraculous cured one day, or how the ceiling fans got dusted, just that it all happened, and Lexa was off, meaning she didn’t come in until at least ten, the following morning.

But Lexa sat in the chair and let her brain do the same mental gymnastics it always seemed to do in the new quiet she found herself craving. She opened her laptop and ignored the awaiting spreadsheet, and instead opted to look over the answer Clarke had given her to the “Know your partner” quiz Clarke googled and made them both do. A mix of basic information and Newlywed Game style innuendos, Lexa filled hers out after a bottle of wine and anxiously waited for Clarke’s.

That was what started the daydreaming. She scrolled through Clarke’s answers and furrowed, doing her best to memorizing all that she could, as if she’d be tested on it all, as if it’d be impossible to believe she could be happy with someone like Clarke.

And when those thoughts started to seep into her brain, Lexa leaned back again and dug the tips of her fingers into her eyes.

In a week it’d be over.

And with that and a deep, heavy sigh, Lexa looked at the screen again and went about learning Clarke.

She started professionally, of course, looking at her corporate page and resume, because this was, if not anything, simply a business transaction and Lexa thought it was easier to parse a person if she didn’t actually have to fall for her.

A graphic designer at Anya’s firm, Clarke held accolades and a long list of references. The link to her work showed a wide range of commercial campaigns and a certain amount of talent evident by her list of upcoming projects. A graduate of a small, private, liberal arts university, her academics leaned heavily scientific, which was a surprise until Lexa read some of the answers in the survey about a degree in physics given up for art.

Lexa promised that she wouldn’t have looked at Clarke’s Instagram if Clarke hadn’t requested her first. She wasn’t someone who lurked, or at least she thought she wasn’t. She didn’t want to be someone who snuck around, digging through someone’s past, analyzing every filter and caption like a private investigator. But then Clarke appeared.

And there were pictures of Clarke with friends getting drinks on a rooftop. And then the one with her laughing and baking. Or the Christmas party where she was on a corporate Santa’s lap, smiling so wide her eyes were shut. Despite herself Lexa found herself smiling along with the girl in the pictures. The one who went hiking with a pack of dogs, and the one who seemed to always be eating something. The one who had a lot of friends and enjoyed making them smile and laugh. The girl who posted storie about her morning run, and the girl who seemed to have a healthy work life balance.

Lexa closed the webpages and stared at her inventory for exactly two seconds before curiosity won again and Lexa started looking at Costia’s account. There were the standard pictures of her pre-wedding planning. There was Costia working out. There was her new bride-to-be, happy and smiling at a gift for her birthday.

And then a throwback that made Lexa’s stomach drop as she stared at a familiar image of Costia smiling in a bikini on a beach. It was from the last trip they took. Lexa was the one behind the camera.

Three weeks after that picture was taken, Lexa walked in on Costia and a girl in the middle of the afternoon. Right in their own bed. Only to then discover it’d been going on for months. And it wasn’t the first. And then, Lexa didn’t remember much except that she moved into the apartment above her coffee shop and woke up one morning alone on sheets that weren’t familiar, in a room full of boxes.

It seemed even more difficult to start inventory after that shot to the gut.

But her phone went off, and Lexa leaned back in her chair after shutting the laptop again, wondering if that sinking feeling ever went away when it came to someone you love, or loved, or once loved, even for a moment. She didn’t have anything to compare it to, and she didn’t have any idea what love really was.

It felt like a deep wound was scratched open, the scab pulled back, and a burning numbness gnawing at the bottom of her spine. It felt like it would swallow her whole, and Lexa hated, more than anything, giving anyone the power to do anything as such over her.

Hey! Do you think this will go with your outfit?

An image came next, of Clarke in a dressing room wearing a very pretty dress, with very messy hair with her tongue sticking out. Lexa didn’t notice the gnawing feeling disappear.

We don’t have to match completely.

We do! Don’t you know how to date?

Not really.

Another picture of another dress came a moment later. Clarke was pretty. She was happy and silly and kind. It felt oddly normal, for as crazy as the whole scheme actually was.

I like that one, Lexa wrote, making sure to add a heart-eyed emoji to emphasize her point. Maybe that was flirting. Maybe she was allowed. She definitely needed more rules.

Good, I do too. It matches your tie, you know? And these heels will still leave you a little taller than me.

Sounds good to me!

Kind of excited. I guess I’ll see you at the airport tomorrow.

I’ll be the one at the bar.

I’ve heard it’s possible to find your soulmate at the airport. Something about the crossing of paths and time and space.

If my soulmate is a bottle of wine, then I reckon I might.

A love story for the ages.

Lexa smiled once more at her phone before tossing it to the side and letting her head drop to the desk. With a groan she growled into her hands and broke it down. She just needed to make it seventy-two hours. That was it. She could sleep for about twenty of those. She could drink for another twenty or more, if she really tried.

But this was it. This was the end.

And regardless of the weight of everything else, there was something satisfying about knowing it was almost over.

XXXXXXXXXX

The airport was absolutely teaming with bodies and people, weaving their way through the swelling crowds, loading and unloading the terminals at a constant, steady thumping rate, so regular one could set a watch to the heartbeat of the building.

Clarke adjusted her bag on her shoulder and tapped the ticket against her thigh as she moved through the security line. The nerves were coming for some reason. That was why she was at the airport three hours before the flight. She was anxious and needed a stiff drink and a few moments to catch her breath. She needed to escape the whirlwind she’d allowed herself to create.

Carefully, she made her way through the airport, checking the boards and finding her way to a seat in the empty waiting room. Not even an attendant waited at the kiosk.

Once again, she let herself awkwardly scroll on her phone, learning everything she could about her future date and weekend plans.

Lexa was nearly non-existent online. She didn’t have any pictures of herself. She rarely posted anything on her personal account, and when she did, it was just a book or a coffee or from a trip. She wasn’t one to enjoy being the center of attention, but when it came to her shop, she made sure to post almost daily, highlighting her employees and their recommendations, she made share to highlight events, she made sure to be as active as possible.

Anya had already warned Clarke that her sister was devoted to her work. She’d poured all of her effort into being successful and part of the community, and Clarke admired it, she just wished that there was more for her to see.

And so, once more, she flipped back to the long line of questions they’d filled out before giving up and gazing out the window at the planes coming and going.

For a moment, she allowed herself to think that she was doing something nice and good. It was an act of charity. It was the shake up Clarke needed and was selfishly trying to package as benevolent.

“You beat me, and I’m usually the first one here for a flight,” Lexa observed, walking up to Clarke, stealing her from her reverie.

“I like airports. Just waiting for true love to stroll up and introduce themselves.”

Lexa shoved her hands in her pockets, her bag balanced on her shoulder as she cautiously looked around, surveying the empty terminal slowly. Clarke watched her look around, smiled at the innocence of it. Enjoyed the way she ran her hand through her hair, mussing it up a bit and tossing it to another side.

“No one likes airports,” Lexa shook her head before taking the seat beside her.

“I do. They’re romantic.”

“Romantic?”

“You can get onto a plane, and a few hours later, you’re hundred of miles away, and it’s different weather, and it’s a different time zone. You can go to sleep in a different state. How can you not be romantic about that.”

“It’s a tin can filled with recycle air.”

“But there are peanuts.”

That did it. Lexa cracked a smile to herself and relaxed a little.

“I was going to be the first one here. Surprise you with coffee, but you beat me to it.”

“You are quite a good girlfriend. Someone clearly trained you well.”

Lexa shook her head, somewhat bashful, somewhat reserved. There was always something right there, just below the surface, obfuscated by a kind of resolve to never give anything away, not at any price. Clarke read it between words in their texts and emails, a glaring finality in the simple pixel of a period.

“Can I get you a coffee? Two creams, two sugar right?”

“You don’t have to--”

“It’s early and I’m trying to be charming. Allow me to somewhat repay you for this whole endeavour.”

“Sounds good. Thanks, darling.”

With the term of endearment, Lexa nodded, grinning into her chest as she stood and made her way across the terminal in search of sustenance. Clarke watched her take out her phone, texting her sister no doubt.

Once more, Clarke resumed the digging on her own, scrolling on her own phone at old pictures on Lexa’s profile. She was ready for fun, and she was ready to crack at that facade.

“I don’t know if this will help,” Lexa sighed as she sat down. “I didn’t sleep a wink last night.”

“Oh this won’t be good for me either,” Clarke said as she took a sip. “I’m a fairly nervous flyer.”

“And yet you let me get us both coffee.”

“You made a good point, and I’m prepared to be paid back all weekend.”

With another grin, Lexa leaned back, her arm going on the back of the chair that Clarke inhabited, naturally, with ease, with a level of comfort.

“Are you ready to tell me the story?”

“Which one is that?” Clarke turned to look at her date, returned from an absent moment.

“How we met.”

“How we met,” she nodded, her smile bordering on mischievous. “That’s simple. Don’t you remember? It was a very blustery Tuesday, and I was trying to escape the wind and rain. I almost tripped coming into your coffee shop, but you happened to be sweeping, and were kind enough to catch me.”

“You’re severely overestimating my reflexes.”

“Fine. I ran you over and we both ended up on our asses in the middle of the coffee shop. Coffee everywhere.”

“Sounds pretty likely.”

“And I knew right there, I was hooked. Those eyes, all angry and annoyed at me for not looking where I was going, despite my persistent defense that I’d been assaulted by the weather.”

“Why do I have to be the angry one?”

“Wouldn’t you be though?” Clarke returned, daring her to be contradicted.

“Maybe,” Lexa agreed over the lid of her cup, fretting with it nervously.

“So I crashed into you, and you bought be a coffee. I turned up every day after that until I finally asked you out. You took longer than I would have liked to answer me, but I accepted it anyway, and we’ve been madly in love ever since.”

“And when was this?”

“About eight months ago.”

“How’s it going so far?”

“Splendidly. I’ve already met your sister, who it happens that I work with, which is super convenient for everyone.”

Quietly, Lexa sat there, going over the story, going over all of the past eight months of apparent bliss in her head. Clarke watched her furrow before softening, her eyes not seeing, but rather looking through the window as a plane took off and another landed. The softening of her features was soon met with a perplexion, a slight, gentle contortion of the brow and the lips, a tightening as a kind of confusion overtook the ease of the entire story.

“Is it that easy?” Lexa asked quietly, turning her head toward her date. Clarke cocked her head, waiting for more. “Is all of it… just… a wind? Waiting for someone to just ask you out? Is it that easy? Does that happen to people?”

“It can. How does anything happen in the world? It just… does. The universe is just a series of things happening, all of the time, right?”

“But is it that easy?”

To her credit, Clarke thought about it. She flexed her jaw and took a deep breath before slowing letting it go as she wondered if it really was.

“I don’t know. Maybe it can be.”

“How?”

“I guess there has to be a balance to making things happen and letting things happen.”

“I don’t know if I’m good at either of those things,” Lexa confessed. She sat up straighter a moment later, afraid of her honesty, and surprised more by how easily it came out.

“I think you can be.”

“That’s probably too kind.”

“We’ll see.”

Clarke rubbed Lexa’s shoulder, rubbed the middle of her back between her shoulder blades until she reached the collar of her shirt, where she massaged her neck. She tensed before relaxing, and Clarke didn’t stop, just rubbed there gently, slowly until she knew it was enough and she trailed her palm back toward the seat.

It was right there, they just didn’t know it.

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goddamnalientourists · 3 years

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Random bits of Lorien Legacies fandom history I remember:

- Everyone thinking Five was going to be a girl before The Fall of Five came out and people living their truth writing all those self inserts and oc girl fives who always ended up smooching Nine (who didn't love a good self insert?)

- all those anti Five memes after TFOF which were like "i am number four fans counting to ten 1 2 3 4 not you 6 7 8 9 10"

- that facebook game about mark james that may or may not have been a fever dream

- everyone calling setrakus ra mousetraps for some reason. I don't remember why.

- the fandom making Eight's sole character trait pizza because he referenced it one time. Also whitewashing him with Robert Sheehan edits.

- that time I was really into crack ships and someone took one look at a Nine/Marina fic I wrote bluescreened and did a whole essay on how ridiculous ships made them quit the fandom and everyone called them out on it

- Sam/Six ship being named Stormchaser

- When John/Six/Sam love triangle was going on and everyone went out of their way to hate on Sarah (and also that time everyone thought she was a traitor?? I forgot how that worked out my brain is telling me Setrakus shapeshifted into her but i haven't read it for ages so idk)

- the iconic fic I read once where the fic author didn't like Sarah so they included a scene where her head exploded and she was secretly a robot the whole time to get her out of the picture go bold or go home

- the time everyone started liking Sarah and making critiques of John's character and the series shitty writing #SarahHartDeservedBetter

- the time @officialpittacuslore rocked up, pointed at John and Nine and said "yes, I'll have some more of whatever those two have going on", dug a pit, labelled it 'Stohn' and everyone jumped in overnight (gay alien pit throwback uwu)

- astohnymous sending everyone in the fandom incorrect quotes on anon

- Six/Marina rising in popularity. Sirina supremacy. There is no heterosexual explanation for dreaming about seeing a girl on the beach that's soulmate energy right there.

- sandor/devektra/crayton/lexa fics and edits were a big thing for a while and devektra was always taylor swift

- the period before the revenge of seven was released where there was a countdown centred around celebration of fan content creation where everyone wrote fics and did art and edits for a certain theme!

- the time I got so annoyed by this random guy named Devdan just disappearing and never being mentioned again I made a whole detailed theory involving alternate timelines to make it so Devdan is Eight from a bad!future. I still think this is a cool theory and better than the actual explanation, bad and lazy writing.

- one time I ran a secret santa for the fandom and legend says I still haven't removed the page from my blog because I just forgot to for years. Literally. It's still on my blog. Wth?? Shameful 😔 my blog is terrible but what do you expect i dont get paid

- the shittacuslore and setracrapra RP blogs

- also I have a Malcolm roleplay sideblog I hardly ever used don't know if that counts as a significant moment of fandom history but I just find it funny how out of all characters I could have RPd I chose him. Could have picked a character with cool powers and telekinesis but I pointed at the local traumatised amnesia dad and was like "yes, I will be him", made 3 posts and never used it again.

- I've been an Adam stan since I first joined this fandom and the first thing I contributed to this fandom was a coloured pencil drawing of One wjth a surfboard, and it's been glorious watching Adam rise from 'character people are vaguely aware of but most haven't read the side-stories so they don't know about him to care enough' to 'fan favourite who deserves everything in the world and also look at him he's depressed and queer' (no I am not projecting ok maybe i am but can you blame me) anyway shoutout to Knave for all the Adam content over the years it feeds me

- The time people were coming up with shipnames for fun and I said Kevy for Kelly/Five and everyone rolled with it but it was actually a typo the whole time and doesn't even make sense when you look at it but it was too late to go back no i don't remember why we were discussing shipping kelly/five

- That solid week and a half everyone aggressively shipped Malcolm and Henri

- when legacies reborn came out and there was a resurgence of energy and theories around all the new characters

Anyway I joined the tumblr fandom ~2013 but I've been in this fandom since 2011, before The Rise of Nine was even released. Also what the actual bleeping heck it is 2021 and 2011 was TEN YEARS AGO?? A WHOLE DECADE????? Help

#lorien legacies #i felt like i had to make this for important historical record #also for fun :)#i've been in this fandom a decade hoo boi I'M OLD

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pinktintedmonocle · 3 years

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The Pin-Up - A Cobra Kai Lawrusso Fanfic - Explicit / NSFW

In which Johnny does post his thirst trap photos after all, and Daniel just can’t stop thinking about them.

Written for this prompt on the Cobra Kai kink meme:

Since Cobra Kai made Billy Zabka's thirst trap photos canon, I desperately need a fanfic of Daniel reacting to them. Maybe they were published when Johnny first did the photoshoot, and Daniel just happened to see them on the cover of the magazine. Or maybe Miguel eventually caved and posted them to Johnny's facebook as a Throwback Thursday kinda thing, and Amanda liked them. I really need a fic of Daniel reacting to those photos. Please!

“Hey kids, bananarama chocolate chip pancakes are up!” called Daniel, flipping them over in the pan. He glanced across at Amanda, sitting at the table scrolling through her phone.

“You want some, honey?” he asked.

Amanda didn’t seem to hear him, eyes transfixed to the screen. Daniel put the pancakes into a serving dish and took them over to the table.

“Earth to Amanda”, he said, placing the dish down and waving a hand in front of her face.

Amanda blinked and looked up. “Sorry babe.” She noticed the food. “Ooo, pancakes!” She transferred two pancakes from the dish to her own plate and went back to staring at her phone.

“What are you looking at?” asked Daniel, digging into his own breakfast. “Whatever it is, it’s clearly more interesting than me.”

Amanda smirked. “Johnny Lawrence. He’s – ah – posted some photos of himself on Facebook.”

“So?” asked Daniel, frowning. “What’s so distracting about that? You see him almost every day at the dojo.”

“Not like this”, said Amanda. She turned her phone around so her husband could see the screen and Daniel nearly choked on a mouthful of pancake.

The first photo was of a young Johnny on a beach, kneeling in the waves in a pair of tight low rise jeans. His hair was damp and messy and the sunlight glinted off his smooth chest and perfect abs.

Daniel swallowed painfully. “What the hell is that?” he asked, reaching for a glass of water.

Amanda grinned. “Apparently he did some modelling work in the eighties and nineties. He posted them this morning for a throwback Thursday thing.” She stood up, smoothing down her dress and grabbed her phone. “I gotta get to the dealership, get a head start on some paperwork.” She leant over and gave Daniel a kiss. “I’ll see you there later, let you look at the rest of Johnny’s pictures in private.”

Daniel pulled a face. “I have no desire to look at Johnny Lawrence’s modelling photos, believe me.”

“Whatever you say, babe”, Amanda teased, walking out of the room.

Daniel huffed and continued to eat his pancakes, trying to think of anything except the photographs. He failed miserably, and after a minute he pulled out his own phone and navigated to Johnny’s Facebook page.

The second photo was of Johnny leaning against rocks wearing white pants, his black headband and nothing else. His hair was a little longer in this one, and it curled up in fluffy blonde tufts. His chest was tanned and more muscular than in the photo on the beach, his pecs well defined and glistening with oil. Daniel licked his lips, wondering vaguely why his mouth suddenly felt so dry. At least in the third photo Johnny was sort of wearing a shirt, even if it wasn’t doing a particularly good job of covering anything. Daniel tugged at his collar, feeling quite hot for some reason.

“Hey dad”, said Sam, coming into the kitchen and causing Daniel to snap of his reverie and drop his fork. She frowned. “You OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine”, said Daniel, wincing as his voice came out low and raspy. He took another gulp of water and then stood up quickly, adjusting his suit and sliding his phone into his pocket. “I’ve got to get to work, but I’ll see you later. Have a good day at school, sweetheart.” He dropped a kiss into her hair as he passed before leaving the house and getting into his car, the pictures still lingering in his mind as he drove to the dealership.

**********************************************************************************

Daniel found it hard to focus on work. He had back-to-back meetings for most of the day, but he barely heard anything that was said in them, instead letting Amanda take the reins. He managed to escape outside for five minutes over lunch and found himself opening up Facebook automatically and staring at the photos, biting his lip as he took in Johnny’s golden locks and chiselled abs. As he was looking, his phone rang and Johnny’s name flashed up on the screen. Daniel nearly dropped the phone in shock before answering the call.

“What do you want, Johnny?”

“Hello to you too, LaRusso. Look, can you give me a ride to training tonight? Can’t get the engine started on my car.”

“You mean my car, which you effectively stole form the chop shop and never returned to the dealership?”

“Yeah, that one”, said Johnny, unfazed.

Daniel sighed. “Yeah, sure Johnny. I’ll be round at six.”

“Alright. Hey, sure you’re OK, LaRusso? Your voice sounds strange.”

“I’m fine”, Daniel snapped, hanging up. He took a moment to breathe deeply before heading back inside the dealership.

“You OK, hon?” asked Amanda, looking at him with a frown.

“Yeah, I’m OK, why does everyone keep asking me that?”

Amanda raised an eyebrow. “Alright, calm down Mr.” She gestured towards his mouth. “It’s just that your lip is bleeding. What, did you manage to get into a fight in the trading lot just now?”

Daniel touched his lip gingerly and winced. “It’s nothing, I just bit it. Anyway, ready for the next meeting? Who’s this one with, marketing?”

Amanda stared at him with a look of concern. “No, we had the meeting with marketing his morning. You were there for all forty minutes of it. Are you sure you’re OK, Daniel?”

Daniel thought of the photographs again, of Johnny Lawrence’s perfect body. He shook his head.

“I’m fine”, he said, smiling tightly. “Really I am.”

Amanda looked unconvinced, but mercifully didn’t say anything else as she steered Daniel towards the meeting room.

**********************************************************************************

At 6pm Daniel knocked sharply on the door of the apartment in Reseda.

“Alright, I’m coming”, yelled Johnny. “Just don’t kick your way in this time, LaRusso.”

Daniel rolled his eyes and a few seconds later Johnny opened the door and ushered Daniel inside.

“You coming to practice like that?” asked Daniel, gesturing towards a robe-clad Johnny.

“I just had a shower, LaRusso, don’t get your panties in a twist. Let me get changed and then we’ll go.”

Johnny disappeared into the bedroom and Daniel sighed and sat down on the couch. Amongst the discarded cans of Coors Banquet and Slim Jim wrappers on the coffee table there was an old shoebox with a few pieces of paper poking out at the sides. He glanced towards the bedroom to check Johnny was still occupied before flipping the lid open, curious to see what was inside. He sucked in a sharp breath when he saw the photos. He picked up the one with Johnny in the white pants and the black headband and swallowed thickly, thumb grazing over Johnny’s torso.

“Alright, I’m ready”, called Johnny, emerging from the bedroom. Daniel quickly put the pictures back into the box and closed it. However, as Johnny rounded the corner he realised he was still clutching the white pants photo in one hand. He stuffed it in his pocket and stood up.

“OK”, Daniel said, desperately trying to act casual. “Let’s go.”

**********************************************************************************

Daniel had the house to himself on Friday night; Amanda was out with friends and both Sam and Anthony had sleepovers. He considered going out himself, calling Louise or Anoush and seeing if they wanted to go for a drink, but it had been a long week and he wasn’t sure he had the energy to deal with either of them. You could call Johnny, said a little voice in his head, but he ignored it. Getting drunk with Johnny was probably not a good idea, not so soon after the incident with the photographs. He thought about the one he had stolen, now shoved down the side of the drawer in his nightstand, and he licked his lips.

No, he told himself firmly, pouring out another glass of wine. I’m not thinking about that picture. He sat down on the couch and started flicking through channels on the TV, trying to find something to take his mind off it.

After three more glasses of wine and an hour of a particularly dull documentary, Daniel found himself in the bedroom, looking at the picture of Johnny. God, he was gorgeous. He wondered if Johnny still looked a little like that under his clothes, or if he was a bit softer now. It was hard to tell; he was clearly still in shape, but maybe not quite that in shape. Daniel shook his head. This had to stop. His concentration span was shot to pieces and Amanda had been giving him increasingly concerned looks for the past two days. He just needed to find a way to get these feelings out of his system.

He glanced down at his watch. 9pm. It would probably be hours before Amanda arrived home, so he had plenty of time. And really, what choice did he have? He needed to clear his head and regain his focus so he could concentrate on both his business and training his and Johnny’s students so they could win the tournament. One time only, and that would be it.

Without further ado he pulled off his sweatpants and underwear, fished a bottle of lube out of his nightstand and lay down on the bed. He looked at the photo and bit his lip hard, tasting the copper tang of blood. He imagined running his hands over that firm chest, imagined Johnny’s large, rough hands on his own slim waist and felt himself start to harden.

He squirted a generous amount of lube into one hand and took hold of his cock, running his hand up and down the shaft as he became erect. He pictured himself burying his face in Johnny’s neck, breathing in his scent of sweat and oil and felling wisps of blonde hair tickle his lips. Daniel moaned, arching his back as his cock leaked. He thought about pulling down Johnny’s white pants and rubbing their cocks together. Then Johnny would press Daniel into the rocks before kneeling down and taking Daniel in his mouth, and as Daniel gasped in pleasure he would grab a handful of Johnny’s hair to steady himself as he bucked his hips, encouraging Johnny to suck him harder and faster.

On the bed, Daniel was close to orgasm. He realised he wanted to make this last, to spend more time in this fantasy, but he was far too aroused to last much longer. He imagined coming in Johnny’s mouth and the blonde swallowing before standing up and kissing Daniel and Daniel tasting himself on Johnny’s tongue.

Daniel came hard, hand still working his cock frantically as he rode out his orgasm, vision blurring. When he was done his body relaxed, boneless and sated, sinking into the soft bed. The photograph was lying on his chest and he picked it up, smearing cum across Johnny’s torso as he did so. He swore under his breath and picked up a tissue from the nightstand, trying to wipe the photo clean. He got most of it off, but there was still a suspicious looking stain over Johnny’s abs; he definitely couldn’t give the photo back now. The sensible thing to do would be to rip it into tiny pieces and put it in the garbage disposal, but Daniel didn’t quite have the heart to do that. Not yet.

Instead he stood up and wiped himself down before picking up a book from beside the bed that he’d been reading on and off for several months. He tucked the photo in the dust jacket and put it back down before padding across to the bathroom for a shower.

He may not actually look at the photo again, he reasoned, but surely there was no harm in keeping it?

Just in case.

#cobra kai #cobrakaifanfic #cobrakaifanfiction #Daniel LaRusso #Johnny Lawrence #lawrusso

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ediths · 4 years

Text

Arrangement

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Word Count: 6.1k+ (I AM SO SORRY THAT IT’S SO LONG)

Summary: Tom gives you an offer you can’t refuse

Warning(s): It’s not edited, sorry.

A/N: This is my submission for the throwback writing challenge that @naturallytom is doing! I hope you enjoy!!

Add yourself to my taglist here

Masterlist

How did I end up in this situation? You ask yourself as you stand arm in arm with the one and only Tom Holland. There were flashing lights all around you, temporarily blinding you. There was nothing that you could possibly focus on. Nothing at all, except for the way that he held you to keep you steady.

Oh, yeah, I’m crazy. You think as you begin to walk slightly farther down the red carpet in a dress that costs more than you make in an entire year at your job. But are you really crazy? Who in their right mind would turn down an offer like the one that he gave you? You couldn’t think of a single person, which made you feel slightly better about the situation.

It had started as a normal Saturday.

Your alarm went off at seven a.m. sharp. Your eyes snapped open, slightly disturbed by the blaring noise. There were broken rays of sunlight flowing into your room, making everything way brighter than it needed to be. You groaned to yourself, dreading the day you had ahead.

You groggily pulled yourself out of bed, almost tripping over your own feet a million times. You stumbled around your room, finding everything you needed to take a quick shower. Once you found all the necessities, you quickly went to the bathroom to clean yourself and try to get you looking presentable. You stepped out of the shower less than 15 minutes later, having washed your hair and your body in record time, while also remembering to shave since your uniform consisted of a short sleeve shirt and a skirt - since the weather had turned almost unbearably hot.

Your brain wasn’t even fully functioning yet, you were just going through the motions, doing what you do every morning when you have to go into work for an early shift.

With a cup of freshly brewed coffee and your keys in hand, you rushed out the door. You didn’t want to be caught in traffic, knowing that it would set you back by at least 30 minutes, which would in turn make you late for work. Traffic always ruined perfectly good mornings, and you wanted today to be a good day.

You got to the small, corner side cafe where you work almost twenty minutes before your shift was scheduled to start, so you sat down at a table and pulled out your laptop to get some writing done. You barely have any time to write, so when you did, you seized the opportunity. You had been working on the same piece for weeks, and you were beginning to lose hope in ever finishing it, so having this time to work on your piece made your day just that much better.

You had gotten almost four pages of the story done when your manager walked up in front of you, carrying herself like she was the best person in the world. Her face held her signature smirk, letting you know that the day was about to take a turn for the worse, at least until she left in a few hours.

“Time to clock in, y/n. Wouldn’t want to be late. You heard what the boss said if you’re late again.” You shut your laptop and put it away carefully in your bag.

You are completely aware of what he said to you. If you’re late one more time, whether it be because of traffic or not, you’re fired. He doesn’t care if you live forever away and the traffic sucks, he even went so far as to suggest that you find a job closer to home.

After you clocked in and laid your computer in the back room, you went to the schedule to see where they had you working for the day. You were assigned to man the cashier, which you normally wouldn’t complain about, but there were barely any customers. Within the first four hours that you were on the clock, maybe ten customers walked in and ordered something. And the last five were together. There were barely any orders, which meant that you spent the majority of your time at work wiping things down, making sure that everything was spotless, until a customer came in.

It’s going to be a really uneventful day, You thought to yourself. Days like these always were. They were the kinds of days that wore you down and made you feel even more tired after a shift than if you had been running around all day

Little did you know, this was not going to be one of those days.

Less than an hour before close, a man walked in. At first, you paid absolutely no attention to him. You were still wiping off a counter, waiting for him to come up to the register so that you could take his order. You had barely even looked up, just paying attention to how far away he was from the front counter.

But when you actually did look at him, the air was knocked out of your lungs.

Harrison Osterfield was standing right in front of you.

It took everything in your entire being to make your voice not shake when you asked, “What can I get for you today?”

He flashed you his award winning smile and rattled off his order. Surprisingly enough, it was quite simple. You quickly typed it into the register, assuming that the coffee would be the only thing he ordered seeing as he was alone. Before you could tell him his total however, he stopped you.

“One second, love. My mate, Tom is coming too. Just got the text, let me get a tea for him, yeah?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Will that be all for today?” There was a slight shake in your voice that time, you having no luck concealing it. Tom Holland? Thomas Stanley Holland was about to walk into the small cafe that you work in? What are the odds?

“Yeah, that’s all, love. Thank you.” He hands you a fifty dollar bill and says, “Keep the change. Buy yourself something that’s almost as lovely as you are.”

You couldn’t help but blush as he walked away. Usually, you would take this as an insult, but the way he worded it made it seem like less of one. Usually the guys that left you tips were old men that either took pity on you or waited around after one of your shifts to see if you’d sleep with him because he gave you an extra five bucks.

But this was Harrison Osterfield, he wasn’t that kind of guy. Or at least, he seemed to not be that kind of guy.

A few moments later, their drinks were ready and you carried them out to Harrison so he wouldn’t have to get up again. You didn’t usually do this, but come on, these drinks are for two of the best actors you had ever come across.

“Thanks, sweetheart.” He says with a smile as you sit down the drinks.

“No problem.” You all but mumble as you turn around, slightly intimidated by his presence. You keep your eyes trained on the floor so that nobody can see how much you're blushing. Maybe it’s how he’s literally one of the most attractive guys on the planet, or maybe it’s because of the accent, but everything that he says seems to be getting to you today.

That wasn’t your brightest idea, however, looking at the floor in a cafe when you should be watching where you were going. Before you knew it, you bumped into something hard.

You look up, expecting it to be a wall, since it didn’t move one bit. You’re pretty clumsy.

As soon as your eyes lock with the chocolate colored ones attached to the brunette in front of you, you wish it was a wall that you had run into. That would have been a lot less embarrassing.

“Are you alright, darling?” Tom asks you, putting his, rather large, hands on your shoulders, ensuring that you’re steady and won’t trip in any way.

“Uh, yeah. Sorry, I should’ve been watching where I was going.” You look down at the floor, embarrassed that you were clumsy enough to foolishly run into someone as important as him.

He chuckles, making your eyes shoot back up to meet his. Great, now he’s laughing at you.

It seems almost idiotic of you to think that today was going to be a great day. Yeah, it had started out that way, but all great days can change in an instant.

“No, no, it’s all on me. I was blinded by how gorgeous you are. Should’ve been focusing on not running into you and ruining my first impression.” His cheeks immediately turn a slight shade of pink, making him look even cuter than he already is. For a moment, you find it hard to believe that someone as perfect as him could be blushing and calling someone like you gorgeous.

“Oh, please, you could never ruin your first impression. I mean, just look at you.” You compliment, hoping you’re not being too forward, not wanting to scare him off when you just met him.

“Why, thank you, darling. I’m Tom.” God, that accent will be the death of you.

“I’m y/n. It’s nice to see that you still introduce yourself to people.” Most famous people that walked into this cafe expected everyone to know exactly who they were, even if they had only been in two episodes of a TV show or one film.

“Of course I introduce myself, I can’t automatically expect you to know who I am. For all I know, you hate movies.” He has a shy smile on his face, kind of like he was hoping you did like movies.

“Well, Tom, I do, in fact, like movies. But it’s sweet that you’re so humble about your major role in the film industry.”

“It’s not that major, love. I’m just Spider-Man.” He talks about the role like it’s not that big of a deal, but you can see the way his eyes light up and the large smile that comes to his face.

“You are not just Spider-Man. Sorry if I’m being too direct here, but, in my opinion, Spider-Man will forever be the best superhero.” It’s your turn for your cheeks to tint pink. You can’t begin to process why you’re being this forward, this flirtatious. It’s the accent. Has to be.

“Is that so?” He smirks.

Oh what you would give to know what he was thinking at that exact moment. You may never know, however, because your boss interrupts the conversation you’re having.

“Y/N come back here, we have other customers than the Holland kid.” You roll your eyes at her and flash Tom an apologetic smile before reluctantly walking back to the counter.

There was not another customer in sight. There were barely any cars in the parking lot or on the street surrounding the cafe. Sounds about right, your manager had a long list of crazy rules for when she was the highest authority in the store. One of the biggest was that you’re not supposed to mingle with the customers for too long. She could have at least come up with a better excuse, though. Maybe Tom had liked your little cafe, and because of the rude comment, never wanted to come back.

The store is about five minutes from closing when Tom walks up to the register.

“When’s your shift over, darling?” He has a cheeky smile on his face. For a split second, you let yourself internally groan. You had hoped he was different, that he wasn’t like every other guy that tried to pick you up after shifts.

But then you realized, this was Tom Holland. There was no way in the world that he was like that.

“Try to be more subtle, Holland. The directness doesn’t look too good on you.” You joke, knowing full well that it looks great on him. And honestly, if that’s what he had been asking, you would have pushed aside the part of you that was internally groaning and went right with him. Because, come on, it would be crazy to say no.

“I don’t want to sleep with you, love. I want to talk to you about something.” He smirks, obviously amused that you assumed he wanted to take you home with him.

You blush at that, embarrassment setting in. “I get off in less than five minutes.”

“Alright, sweetheart, my mate and I will be waiting in the car.” He points to an Audi sitting out front. “Meet us there. I’ll make Harrison sit in the back.”

“Alrighty, Tom, I’ll see you in five.” You give him a sweet smile, although you were extremely confused as to why you would be meeting him in his car.

Was he going to kidnap you? Who cares? He’s hot.

He turns and walks out the door as you rush to get everything done.

When your area is cleaned, you all but sprint to the back to get your laptop bag.

“Bye, everyone. Have a good night!” You yell, making sure everyone hears you. You always tell everyone goodbye before you leave, it’s just something that you’ve grown accustomed to. You started it the day that you began working at the cafe, and everyone liked the idea of it. So, it just kinda stuck.

You walk out of the cafe and head to the sleek, obviously expensive, silver car awaiting your presence. You open the passenger door and slip into the seat.

“Hello, love.” Tom greets you at the same time as Harrison says, “Dang, I owe you.”

“Hello, Tom. Harrison, why do you owe Tom?” The confusion is written all over your face as you look between the boys for an answer.

Harrison visibly gulps before replying, “I bet Tom that he scared you away and that you weren’t going to show.”

“Well, he was quite forward, but what person in their right mind would be told to come meet you two and not show up to, at least, see what it was you needed to talk about?” You sure couldn’t imagine someone turning down the offer.

“Exactly, Harrison. But, love, we do need to talk to you.” Tom says, turning your attention back to the actual reason that you are sitting in a car that costs more than probably three years worth of paychecks, with two very handsome men.

“Alright, fire away. What is it?” You’re more curious than ever, wondering what could be so important.

“So, my management is pushing me to find someone that will attend events with me.” His face contorts in embarrassment, already seeming to regret his decision of asking you anything. “They say that ‘a young bachelor like me will draw more attention if I am seen with a pretty lady by my side.’” He doesn’t exactly look embarrassed anymore, it’s more of a look filled with disgust at how his management team worded their statement. “Something about being more desirable if I’m taken. I don’t know. However, I do want to please my management, no matter how stupid they sound. And when I was talking to you in the cafe, you seemed to be sweet. And you’re gorgeous. And I felt like our conversation just kind of flowed.” He hesitates for a second, as if to see if you were following along or if you were lost.

He continued after you nodded for him to do so. “So basically, y/n, what I’m asking is, for the proper compensation, would you be that girl for me?”

“Wait, wait, wait. You, Tom Holland, are asking me, y/f/n y/l/n, to be the girl you take to major events?” You’re trying your best to wrap your head around the situation.

“Well, not just that.” Harrison pipes up hesitantly.

“What else could there be?” Your voice is laced with confusion, and you know by the way that he places his arm on your leg to calm you, that Tom hears it.

“You would have to stay with me for a little while. Don’t worry though, if you say yes, we have guest rooms, so it wouldn’t be too invasive.” You can tell that he’s trying his best to make you as comfortable as possible with this. “You would need to go places with me, outside of these events. Nobody could know that the relationship is fake. Which means that our families and friends will have to be involved. Everyone, besides my management, and the three of us, would have to believe that it was real.” He avoids eye contact with you for a second, as if he was embarrassed to be asking something like this.

You understand, though. He’s 23, he shouldn’t have to be tied down by a woman just because of his management. He should have the ability to choose what he wants to do with his life, especially the romantic aspect of it.

“You can say no, of course.” Harrison says from behind you. “We wouldn’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do.”

“Yeah, there’s no need for you to do this if you don’t wan-” Tom begins, reaching a hand behind him to scratch his neck.

“I’ll do it.” you interrupt, surprising both of the boys in the car.

“Wait, really. That easy?” Tom asks.

“You seem surprised, Holland.” It wasn’t like you had anything better to do. You worked at a corner side cafe for a manager that absolutely hated you, and you had no relationships, so you were completely free.

“Well, I kind of am, love. I didn’t expect for you to say yes that fast. If at all. I expected for you to have to think about it for a few days. And then ultimately say no. But, alright. I’ll set up a meeting with my management so we can go over a contract and what your payment should be.” He pulls out his phone to put everything in his calendar.

“There’s no need for payment. I don’t need your money. I’m just here to help.” In reality, you probably could use the money, but that wasn’t the kind of person that you are. You like to help people, and you never, ever ask for anything in return.

“You really know how to pick the perfect girl, don’t you mate?” Harrison says. You look back at him and he has a smile on his face. He doesn’t seem to be joking. That thought makes your stomach storm with butterflies and your cheeks instantly heat up.

“Seems like it. Everyone else would’ve wanted my money. You just seem like you’re doing this to benefit me. Nobody seems to be that genuine these days.” Tom says, his eyes never leaving yours. Of course you’re genuine. Just because he’s famous doesn’t mean that he’s any less of a human being. You would help anyone in a situation like this. If they needed you, you wouldn’t hesitate to be their fake girlfriend for a week or two.

At least, that’s what you tell yourself. But would you really say yes to just anyone? Probably not. At this point, though, you’re just telling yourself whatever helps you sleep at night.

“Well, I just figured that you could find someone worse than me. And if you really need this, who am I to make this hard for you? Plus, I don’t need your money. I have a job that I really like and it pays the bills.” You’re surprised that they seem to think so highly of you already. They don’t even know you. It’s nice to have someone think of you as more than an employee to boss around. Although, with this whole thing, you’ll basically be working for Tom. Just with less money and more touching.

“You’re about to have more than enough money. You won’t be needing to pay rent if you’re staying with me. If you want, you can move the stuff that you really need or want with you to my house. And the rest, we can put in storage if you want, it’s up to you.”

“That sounds alright to me. I can start packing tomorrow if you’d like.”

“Yeah, yeah, if you send me your address, I can come help you. Harrison would probably come as well, if he isn’t busy.” Tom says, looking back at Harrison for confirmation.

“I have a meeting in the morning, but I can come after lunch.” The blonde says from the back seat.

“Tom?” You say, getting his attention again.

“Yes, love?” He looks at you instantly, his eyes trace your face over and over, looking for any sign that you changed your mind.

“I don’t have your number. I can’t send you my address without it.” You smile, and place your hand atop of his, which was still on your thigh.

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Hand me your phone darling.” You do as he says and he enters his number. “Text me the address and then anytime that you need anything.”

“Sure thing, now if you two gentlemen don’t mind, I think I’m going to head home. I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

“See you then, darling.” Tom says, watching you get out of the car.

“Goodbye, y/n.” you hear Harrison call before you shut the door.

You spend your drive home thinking about what in the world you just got yourself into.

Over the next few days, you had gotten closer to Tom. Your entire apartment had been packed up. You sent the things from your bedroom and other things that you wanted to make sure were with you to Tom’s house. The rest of your belongings went into a storage building that he wouldn’t stop pestering you until he got to pay for. That man was the most persistent person that you had ever met.

You refused to let him pay for anything else, however. You didn’t need his money. And you didn’t want him to think that you only took his offer for the financial aspect. You genuinely just wanted to help him.

You hadn’t started with your outings yet. You first had to have a meeting with his managers and some lawyers so that you could sign a nondisclosure agreement. Basically you just had to say that you wouldn’t tell anyone about this agreement with anyone. The whole thing would just end up blowing up in both of your faces.

You could see the headlines now if this were to ever leak.

‘Tom Holland, 23 Year Old Heartthrob has to PAY for his Girlfriends!’

‘Y/N, Just Another Golddigger’

There was no way in the entire world that you would ever tell someone about the fakeness of the whole thing. The consequences would be catastrophic. And you could not be the reason that Tom’s career fell apart.

A week later, the NDA had been signed and you were hanging out in Tom’s living room. You were talking about absolutely nothing,but the conversation still flowed as if you were talking about something important. He was giggling at something that was on his phone when you had an idea.

“Let’s go out. To lunch. You know, like a date.” You look down at your hands, embarrassed for some reason. It’s not like you were actually dating him. This shouldn’t be scary. But it is. This is Tom Holland.

What if you mess up? What if his fans hate the two of you together? What if his management regrets this decision? What if he regrets this decision?

That’s what’s running through your head as you wait for his answer. The silence that is radiating from him seems to be an uncomfortable one. The entire mood has shifted, and you hate the feeling of it.

“You-You’re asking me on a date?” You look up and he’s shocked. He’s looking at you like he can’t believe that you would ask him such a thing.

“Yeah, Tom. The public has to be introduced to me at some point. And it’s probably better to do some outings before the first event that you’re going to drag me to.” You try to explain, hoping that you thought right.

“Yeah, yeah, of course. I’ll go on a date with you, love. Where do you want to go?” He questions.

“I’m not sure. Where will we get the most exposure?” You’re trying your best to get this out there without having to do something like him posting it on Instagram.

You’re just trying to help him get this moving so that his managers have absolutely no reason to gripe at him.

“Doesn’t matter. What’s your favorite place to get food?” He brushes the exposure idea aside, making it seem as if he really just wants this date to be just that, a date.

Now you’re thinking crazy y/n, you think to yourself.

“Well it’s not really a restaurant, but I’m kind of a sucker for the Gains Bowls from the Body Energy Club.”

“I have to say that I have never been there, or even really heard of it.”

“You wouldn’t have. It’s over in the states. California.”

“Is that where you’re from?” He seems genuinely interested in the answer, so you answer honestly.

“Yeah. Born and Raised. I moved out here to London so that I could stay with my best friend. He moved over here to go to college and I thought that was what I wanted too.”

“What do you mean, you thought?”

“I really just wanted to be a writer.”

“Do I get to meet this best friend of yours?”

“Oh, no, that won’t happen.” You want to leave it at that, as it is a sore subject for you, but you know that Tom’s going to ask why so you continue with, “We stopped being friends when he decided that my dreams were stupid. Told me that I would never make it as a writer.”

“Well, forget about him. You can be whatever you want to be. Don’t ever let anyone come in the way of what you want the most. I know the perfect place. But first, we need to get you into a dress.”

“Are we matching?” You ask, wanting to know if you should coordinate with what he was wearing or not.

“No, not on dates, that would seem too staged.”

“Alright.” With that, you leave to go find a dress.

When you signed the contract, you were also given a new wardrobe. Two, actually. One for dates that required dresses and one for non formal events that a dress should still be worn to.

The major events would have more extravagant dresses, of course.

So, you walk over to the rack in your room that holds all the ‘date dresses’ and you immediately pick the one that had been holding your eye since you got it.

It’s a blue high neck, lace cocktail dress. There’s a bow around the waist. It stops around mid thigh. You hope that Tom will like it. You remember him rambling about absolutely nothing in particular and accidentally telling you that his favorite color was blue.

You walk out of your room after fixing your hair and getting the rest of the things that you need.

Tom is standing in the living room in a white shirt, black blazer, and dress pants. Simple, yet perfect at the same time. How the hell can someone look that good? How the hell did you get so lucky? You know he isn’t really yours, but it’s a privilege just to be around him.

“You look ravishing, darling.” His voice breaks you out of your thoughts.

“You look really, really handsome. Like, wow.” He chuckles at this, and your cheeks immediately heat up.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed, love. I’m not the best at taking compliments, that’s all. Now, would you like to get going?” Tom says, trying to calm the nerves he can not only sense, but see due to the tint that has made its way to your burning cheeks.

You walk outside with him and get in the car. The ride to the restaurant is pretty quiet, the nerves having silenced you.

“Darling, are you all right?” Tom asks, looking over to me when we came to a stop at a red light.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine Tom. Just nervous about it all.” You say, looking down at your hands.

“What are you nervous about, sweetheart?” He looks over at you, concern evident in his voice.

“What if someone sees us and then they take pictures? I mean, I know that’s the point and all,” you swallow the lump in your throat, “but what if your fans hate me? What if they hate us together?” You’re completely out of breath now, the nerves not allowing you to get the proper amount of oxygen into your lungs.

“My fans will be fine with you, love. You’re gorgeous. We look great together. Plus,” he reaches over for your hand and gives it a light squeeze, “we don’t have to look at what they’re saying. They’ll warm up to the idea if they don’t instantly love you.”

His words do little to soothe your insecurities that have made their way to the surface, but you give him a smile anyway.

He gives your hand another squeeze. He can tell that you’re still on edge.

“We can just go home if you want.” He suggests, just wanting you to be comfortable.

“No, no, it’s fine. I promise.” You assure him.

After that, the car ride goes back to being silent, but it’s no longer tense or awkward.

It’s comfortable.

When you arrive at the little restaurant he brought you to, you look over at him.

“I’m gonna get out and get your door, alright love? Just breathe, you’ve got this.” He says, trying to reassure you.

He does as he said he would. He opens his door and grabs your hand, bringing it to his lips and giving it a warm kiss.

“Such a gentleman.” You coo at him, causing him to give you a sweet smile.

“I try.” He smirks at you, letting you know that he knows exactly what he’s doing, making your heart flutter lie nobody has been able to do in a long time.

You make your way into the restaurant, being seated almost immediately and then having someone bring your drinks of choice.

“I miss moments like these.” Tom admits, although you don’t know what he means at first.

“Moments like what, Holland?” You question, wanting him to elaborate.

“Moments when I can be myself and not worry about saying the wrong thing because I know that someone is writing everything down.” This makes your heart swell, knowing that he feels this calm and open with you.

“Well, I’m not writing anything down, darling. You can tell me anything you want and nobody will ever hear a word about it.” This makes him genuinely smile, and you can tell how happy he is to know that.

“Well, what do you wanna know, love?”

“Hmm, what’s your story?”

“That is such a cliche question!” He giggles.

“I know, I know, but I’m genuinely curious. The whole world knows Tom Holland: Spider-Man, but I just want to know Tom Holland: the person.”

“Well, there’s not much to tell darling.”

“That’s nonsense-” You were in the middle of your thought when the waiter came back up to you to take your food orders.

After he leaves, Tom looks at you and begins, “That’s not nonsense, there’s nothing exciting about me that you probably don’t already know.”

“Hmm, well, because of the media, I know that you have three brothers, all younger. You have a dog named Tessa. Two loving parents. You used to dance and you play golf sometimes.” He gives you a look that radiates surprise that you even know anything about him in the slightest. “However, I do not know your birthday, your favorite color, what made you want to be an actor.

“I don’t know what your favorite pastime is - unless it’s golf of course. I don’t know the little things.” He’s giving you a look of pure adoration, and you let yourself wonder for a second what this would be like if it was real.

“Not a lot of people take the time to get to know me like that anymore.” He says, barely above a whisper. You know instantly that it wasn’t meant to be heard, so you say nothing and let him continue. “If you must know, my birthday is June 1, my favorite color is blue, I was born an actor, darling, there wasn’t a question of whether I wanted to or not.”

You giggled at that before motioning for him to continue.

“And, honestly, unless it’s just hanging with Haz, golf probably is my favorite pastime.”

“See? It wasn’t that hard to tell your story.”

“That’s not a story, y/n. That’s just details.”

“Details make the story, Holland.”

After you finish eating, he insists on paying, which you end up letting him do. But only because he brought up the fact that you were on a ‘date’ and no man in their right mind was going to make their girl pay, especially on the first date.

You’re on your way back out to his car, both laughing about nothing, when you get the sudden feeling that this may have been the best decision that you ever made.

A week later, you’re in a whirlwind of stylists, makeup artists, and managers. All getting you ready for some red carpet event that Tom was invited to.

They’ve picked out an extravagant dress for you, one to match Tom’s suit. It’s a maroon, flowy dress. Very modest, neckline not showing too much, legs completely covered. But you still look like a princess, at least that’s what you think.

“You look ravishing, darling.” Tom says from behind you, shamelessly looking you up and down.

You turn to look at him and all of the air is knocked from your lungs. “You look really handsome, Tommy.”

He smiles at that. The first time you called him by that nickname, he seemed hesitant, thought it was too childish, but the name on your lips made it perfect.

“Thank you, darling. Are you ready to head out?”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go show the world how absolutely amazing that Mr. Holland looks tonight.”

“Don’t forget that we have to show them how I’m the luckiest man in the world.”

You cock your head to the side, wondering what he means by that.

“I get to have someone as stunning as you accompany me, I don’t know how I got so lucky.” You can’t stop the blush that appears on your cheeks.

You stand arm in arm with him. There were flashing lights all around you, temporarily blinding you. There was nothing that you could possibly focus on. Nothing at all, except for the way that he held you to keep you steady.

There’s something about the way that he’s holding on to you, his arm slightly tighter around your waist than it needs to be, that makes your heart flutter, even though you know that there’s nothing going on between the two of you.

Right?

You push the thought fro your mind, almost completely. Although you can’t stop yourself from wanting to do something. Something that you’ve been trying your best not to do since the night you met him.

When he puts his arm back around you, you put your hand on his shoulder and lean up, giving him a kiss on the cheek, letting it linger there for a second before pulling away.

He looks shocked, and you begin to wonder if you made a mistake, moved too fast.

“I-I’m sorry. Was that too much?” He’s blushing profusely, and you begin to see that he’s trying to suppress a smile.

He leans down to your ear and whispers, “No, no, not at all darling. Remember, we’re madly in love, so it’s alright to kiss me anytime you feel like it.”

And with that, all those little butterflies in your stomach multiply. And there’s no stopping them now.

Permanent Taglist: @spideygirl2003, @jackiehollanderr, @scarletsoldierrr, @thewayilookatbacon, @parker-barnes-af, @lost-in-the-stars03, @kisses-holland, @josiemara, @god-knows-what-am-i-doing, @fanficscuziranout, @babebenhardy, @akila-stilinski

Tom Holland Taglist: @cyrusandhiscollaredahirts, @averyfosterthoughts, @thorsangel,

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space-kitten-606 · 4 years

Text

Saeyoung finding out about Mc posting doujins about them on a social media site

Yes you can! This was a super cute idea! Thank you so much for requesting @living-by-style! I hope you enjoy ^-^

Saeyoung was just going about his day when he saw someone had shared a couples’ doujin on his timeline

he read through it, chuckling to himself

the situations displayed were quite adorable, and very relatable even.

if he was being quite honest, the couple in the doujin even kind of reminded him of himself and Mc

intrigued by what he had seen, he went to the OP’s page and looked up the link they put on the post in question

it looked like the story they told was in no specific order

In the artist’s description was a disclaimer, saying that all situations depicted on their site were things that happened to them and their partner irl

Saeyoung scrolled through their page, reading one little stand alone piece after the other

after reading quite a bunch of them, he sent Mc a link to the artist’s page

“I think you gotta read that stuff!”, he put without a second thought

Mc answered him within seconds

“How did you find that?”

“Idk lol someone shared it to my timeline. Aren’t they so much like us?”

Instead of answering, Mc came sprinting into the living room and pulled the phone out of his hands

“Hey! What’s that all about?!”

“Who?? Who did that??”, she screeched, her finger swiping over his screen so quickly, he was surprised Mc was even able to recognize anything

“HA!”, she exclaimed when she found the post in question, “and who exactly are they??”

“I- I don’t know? I don’t know the person who shared it personally. Why’re you so hung up about that anyway?”

Mc glared at him, only feeding into his confusion

Why was she acting so strange?

Apparently she knew about these doujins already, but that begged the question why she never showed him.

Did she think he was going to judge her for consuming such content? And if so, why?

As Mc kept obsessively scrolling through that stranger’s posts, Saeyoung’s mind kept running in circles.

It took a while, but when it hit him, it hit hard.

The reason why these doujins seemed so familiar and relatable was not because they displayed situations similar to what happened to him and Mc

but because it was a pretty exact retelling of several moments in their relationship

that also explained why the two main characters looked so similar to them as well

the only thing that was different were their names

His look of surprise quickly faded and he started grinning instead

“Oh, Mc.”, he cooed, “Mc, Mc, Mc…”

“No. Don’t you dare say anything!”

Her hissed warning only made the shit eating grin on his face grow even wider

“Oh my fucking god, Saeyoung. No. Just no.”

“Have you posted some dirty doujins of us as well?”

Mc’s cheeks turned deep red. If it was from anger, shame or just the image of his proposal, he was not sure.

“NO! SAEYOUNG CHOI!”

“Come on, can you really blame me for being curious? That seems to be a fair question!”, he countered.

Mc tightened her jaw, glaring at him, before she rolled her eyes and dropped on the sofa next to him with a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry. I probably should have told you but I thought you’d either find it lame or embarrassing or something.”

Saeyoung stared at her in disbelief.

She was kidding right?!

“No way.” Saeyoung shook his head. “I find them very cute actually! They’re a nice throwback to all the fun things we’ve been through.”

“You really think so?”

He nodded.

“Hey, if you like I can help you come up with some more things to include in your little retelling.”

Mc went silent for a moment, considering his words.

Then, a soft smile lit up her face.

“That sounds pretty good if you ask me.”

Excited to have Mc’s permission to take part in her project, he threw his arms into the air and let out a joyous cheer.

“Want to hear my first idea???”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Personally, I think this just now would make quite the moment to show to the people, don’t you agree?”

Laughing at the suggestion, Mc agreed and immediately got up to get her tablet.

He couldn’t wait to document all the wonderful things Mc had left out so far, and to see all the future moments they would share with her readers.

#mystic messenger #mystic messenger saeyoung choi #mystic messenger 707 #707xmc #707xreader #my writing #living-by-style

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introvertguide · 3 years

Text

Chinatown (1974); AFI #21

The next movie that we reviewed was a very dark example of neo-noir film directed by Roman Polanski, Chinatown (1974). This film was a throwback to very dark crime thrillers that reflected the outlook of a Great Depression followed by world war. Polanski was experiencing a very dark period since he had just moved to America to get married and immediately lost his wife and unborn son in a horrific murder. The film was well received by critics and audiences, but it could not stand against the award winning juggernaut which was The Godfather Part 2. Polanski’s film was nominated for 11 Academy awards but only took one home for best original screenplay, a category that didn’t include The Godfather Part 2. It is hard to describe how incredibly down beat this film is without spoiling too early, so let me give the breakdown with the standard warning:

SPOILER ALERT!!! THIS IS A MURDER MYSTERY SO THE PLOT IS ABOUT TO BE WELL SPOILED!!! IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE FILM FIRST, NOW IS THE TIME TO STEP AWAY!!! COME BACK AFTER YOU SEE THE FILM!!!

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In 1937, a woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray hires private investigator J. J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) to follow her husband, Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Gittes tails him, hears him publicly refuse to create a new reservoir that would be unsafe, and shoots photographs of him with a young woman, which are published on the front page of the following day's paper. Back at his office, Gittes is confronted by a woman who informs him she is the real Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) and that he can expect a lawsuit.

Realizing he was set up, Gittes assumes that Hollis Mulwray is the real target. Before he can question him, Lieutenant Lou Escobar fishes Mr. Mulwray, drowned, from a reservoir. Under retainer to Mrs. Mulwray, Gittes investigates with suspicions of murder and notices that although there is a drought, huge quantities of water are being released from the reservoir every night. Gittes is warned off by Water Department Security Chief Claude Mulvihill and a henchman (Roman Polanski) who slashes one of Gittes' nostrils. Back at his office, Gittes receives a call from Ida Sessions, who identifies herself as the imposter Mrs. Mulwray. She is afraid to identify her employer but tells Gittes to check the day's obituaries.

Gittes learns that Mulwray was once the business partner of Evelyn's wealthy father, Noah Cross (John Huston). Over lunch at his personal club, Cross warns Gittes that he does not understand the forces at work, and offers to double Gittes' fee to search for Mulwray's missing mistress. At the hall of records, Gittes discovers that much of the Northwest Valley has recently changed ownership. Investigating the valley, he is attacked by angry landowners who believe he is an agent of the water department attempting to force them out by sabotaging their water supply.

Gittes deduces that the water department is drying up the land so it can be bought at a reduced price and that Mulwray was murdered when he discovered the plan. He discovers that a recently deceased retirement home resident is one of the valley's new landowners and seemingly purchased the property a week after his death. Gittes and Evelyn bluff their way into the home and confirm that the real-estate deals were surreptitiously completed in the names of several of the home's residents. Their visit is interrupted by the suspicious retirement-home director, who has called Mulvihill.

After fleeing Mulvihill and his thugs, Gittes and Evelyn hide at Evelyn's house and sleep together. During the night, Evelyn gets a phone call and must leave suddenly; she warns Gittes that her father is dangerous. Gittes follows Evelyn's car to a house, where he spies her through the windows comforting Mulwray's mistress, Katherine. He accuses Evelyn of holding the woman against her will, but she says Katherine is her sister.

The next day, an anonymous call draws Gittes to Ida Sessions' apartment, where he finds her murdered and Escobar waiting for Gittes' arrival. Escobar tells him the coroner's report found salt water in Mulwray's lungs, indicating that he did not drown in the fresh water of the reservoir. Escobar suspects Evelyn of the murder and tells Gittes to produce her quickly. At Evelyn's mansion, Gittes finds her servants packing her things. He realizes her garden pond is salt water and discovers a pair of bifocals in it. He confronts Evelyn about Katherine, whom Evelyn now claims is her daughter. After Gittes slaps her (a lot), she tells him that Katherine is her sister and her daughter; her father raped her when she was 15. She says that the glasses are not Mulwray's, as he did not wear bifocals.

Gittes arranges for the women to flee to Mexico and instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's home in Chinatown. He summons Cross to the Mulwray home to settle their deal. Cross admits his intention to annex the Northwest Valley into the City of Los Angeles, then irrigate and develop it. Gittes accuses Cross of murdering Mulwray. Cross has Mulvihill take the bifocals at gunpoint, and they force Gittes to drive them to the women. When they reach the Chinatown address, the police are already there and detain Gittes. When Cross approaches Katherine, Evelyn shoots him in the arm and starts to drive away with Katherine. The police open fire, killing Evelyn. Cross clutches Katherine and leads her away, while Escobar orders Gittes released. Lawrence Walsh, one of Gittes' associates, tells him: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

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I really cannot emphasize how much of a bummer ending this film has. It is right up there (down there) with Sophie’s Choice. A man who pays to dump water so that he can purchase cheap farm land, kills his partner who threatens to tell, and rapes his own 15-year-old daughter is the antagonist. In the end, he is released to take custody of his young granddaughter without punishment after the police shoot the daughter that he raped. The investigator who tried to help and solved the mystery is left with no say and a slit nostril for his troubles. Polanski later said in interviews that he wanted to emphasize the futility of trying to find justice in Los Angeles. Both his life and this movie really proved that as a fact. It is funny that the screenwriter who won the academy award wanted Cross to die and Evelyn to live, but Polanski insisted and the dark tone is what pushed the award in their favor.

There was some discussion about finding an actor that was willing to be the lead with a bandaged face or prosthetic injury for most of the movie. It was still all about face time and dialogue, so most lead actors didn’t want to cover up their face. Nicholson was not actually known for his good looks as much as other actors, so he was more willing to take on the role. Actually, it was Nicholson who wanted to work on a project with Polanski and suggested the script in the first place. Also, Nicholson really connected with Polanski at the time and was not afraid to play dark roles. Jon Huston was not as keen on the heavy pedophile incest role since he had a lovely young daughter of his own (actress Angelica Huston). It turned out to be a good choice for all the actors involved.

Something that came up during the viewing with my housemates was reactions to the scene when Jack Nicholson is slapping Faye Dunaway when she is admitting that the girl she visits is both her sister and her daughter. She keeps alternating between “she’s my sister” and “she’s my daughter” and each statement is punctuated with a slap in the face by Jack Nicholson. It is supposed to be deeply serious and a major reveal in the movie, but we were laughing so hard at the absurdity. It was truly unrealistic and more of a trope of film noir than anything else (slapping a hysterical woman). It truly was a throwback to 40s and 50s style Hollywood and some of the standards of film story telling at that time were a bit silly.

I have reviewed this move in more ways than I thought because I realized on this viewing that the video game L.A. Noir borrows very heavily from this film. So many aspects, from the locations to the situations to the soundtrack, were all put into the video game. I have spent many hours of my life playing through that game a number of times and I am shocked each time. I am curious if Rockstar Games had to pay any money to Roman Polanski for such a close similarity to the film? I tried to look it up but didn’t find anything, so probably not.

So should this film by on the AFI to 100? For sure. It is an Old Hollywood story about even older Hollywood. It stands out as one of the darkest endings that I have ever experienced. It has major star power and surrounded by amazing stories of Hollywood. Would I recommend it? I sure would. It is a great trip around old Hollywood with some of America’s greatest actors. I think just as interesting is the story of Roman Polanski (who I did an article on as well) and why his head space was so dark during the production of this film. Definitely worth a watch and a background deep dive.

#introvert #introverts #chinatown #jack nicholson #faye dunaway #roman polanski #movie review #top 100 #70s #Film Criticism

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