#this needs a proper sitcom name

[babybluebex]

long lost love: after | joseph quinn x fem!reader

summary: part two of two! eight years after you break up with joseph, you reunite with him, and you grapple with the decision of if you want to get back with him and become a household name like him, or if you want to lose him again. pairing: joseph quinn x fem!reader (rpf - don't like, don't read) tags: accusations of infidelity, lovesick joey, wes makes several appearances AGAIN, mentions of smut (but no actual smut lol sorry), brief mention of vomit author's note: thank you for your patience with this fic! i don't deserve y'all, and i love y'all so much!! thanks for reading this fic, and i hope you enjoy the end!

“Oh my god, babe,” your coworker started, leaning over to wipe down a table. She was young, a girl named Anna that was still in uni, and you liked her a lot, enough that you called her your work-sister. Yes, you were doing what you had to do; roles had washed up, and you needed to pay the bills somehow, so you were waiting tables at a little restaurant in the heart of London. It was a hellish job and you hated it, but you had no other choice.

After your short stint on the sitcom right out of LAMDA, you had auditioned and sent in tape after tape, but nothing really came to fruition. You weren’t as lucky as other people were, and you sometimes thought about going to uni proper so that you could get a meaningful degree and get a real job and give up on the whole acting thing, but you couldn’t possibly do that to yourself. Your pride was too strong and, after Joe, you were determined not to sabotage your own life again. You didn’t date, and you continued to send in tapes. “You’ll never guess who just walked in.” 

“Is it Kate and William?” you chuckled, wiping the bread crumbs from your own table. “No, wait— It’s Meg and Harry.”

“No,” Anna laughed. “Do you watch Stranger Things?” 

You shrugged. “I mean, I watched the first season,” you said. “I know the fourth one just came out.” 

“Yeah, well, Steve and Eddie from Stranger Things just walked in,” Anna said. She could barely contain her excitement, and you rolled your eyes as you laughed. “Will you take that table from me? I can’t serve them, I’m too nervous.” 

“Sure,” you said; it was a slow lunch hour, and a table meant money. Especially if these guys were on a Netflix show. “But you’re taking my next table that comes in.” 

“Deal,” Anna said. 

You smiled at her as you tightened your apron around your middle, and you approached the only filled table in the whole place. Two men occupied it, one facing you and the other facing away. The one facing you, you recognized— He was Steve, you remembered from when you watched the first season. With his head of good hair, it was impossible to mistake him, but you had no idea what his name was. The other guy— well, you couldn’t make him out too well, not from the back of his head. “Hi there, gents,” you welcomed them, smiling first at “Steve” and then turning your attention to the other man. “Welcome to—“ 

You dropped your pen, your breath sticking in your chest. Joseph. It was Joseph. He looked equally as shocked to see you, dark eyes big and wide, his cheeks pale, and tears started to well in your eyes. “Oh my God,” you whispered. You couldn’t breathe, your heart ramming inside your chest. It was actually him. He was here.

“I actually get that a lot,” “Steve” laughed. 

“Oh my… Wow,” Joseph said, a grin crossing his face. “H-How are you, how have you been?” 

“I’m fine,” you told Joseph, and he stood up to envelop you in a hug. You threw your arms around his neck and hugged him back, hand on the nape of his neck, appreciating how eight years could change a person. He smelled different, felt different against your body, he even seemed to carry himself differently. His hair looked darker, he had a bit of stubble on his chin, he had small wrinkles next to his eyes— but he still had his beautiful brown eyes, the same ones that had drawn you in, back all those years ago. “I’ve been fine, how are you?” 

“Yeah, I’m good,” Joseph said with a breathy chuckle. “It’s been— What? Eight years? Time flies, huh?” 

“Definitely,” you agreed. You couldn’t believe it. Right in front of you was your biggest regret, smiling at you and staring you in the face, and you could only manage to be cordial. You wanted to be childish, to break down at his feet and beg for him to take you back, but all you managed to say was, “Sorry for not keeping in touch.” 

“Oh, it’s—” Joseph said, and he dismissively waved his hand around.”Right after Dickensian happened, I had to change my phone number, so it’s probably my fault.” 

“Crazed fan?” you asked and laughed, and Joseph pulled a face, his eyes wide and eyebrows raised as he gnawed on his lip. 

“You’d be surprised,” he said. “Here, actually, I’ve had to change my number again since Stranger Things aired, let me give you my new number.”

“You’re blowing through phone numbers,” you chuckled. “That many crazed fans?”

“Well, this time I changed it because my old number was linked to my Hinge account,” Joseph said with an embarrassed flush in his cheeks, and your heart skipped. Had he been using dating apps? Jesus, even the thought made you ill. You hadn’t dated anybody since him, and you wondered how prolific he had been in the wake of his success, but then you stopped that line of thought. It was your fault he was single in the first place. “And I didn’t want people to find that account so… I changed it.” 

“Smart,” you nodded. “Yeah, I don’t have my phone on me right now— against the rules— so just, umm—”

“Give me your number,” Joseph said quickly. “I’ll text you instead.” He gave you a crooked smile, the same crooked smile that he had given you that first day, when he still had his braces on, and it made your heart melt. You were a little glad that the onus was on Joseph to contact you instead of the other way around; you never would have texted him, too afraid of messing everything up again. “I’m not in London for very much longer, but maybe we could grab a drink before I head to Santa Monica.”

“Yeah, for sure,” you said. Joseph handed you his phone, open to a new contact card, and you quickly typed in your name and number, then hesitated before adding a small heart after your name. That would tell him what he needed to know without actually saying it, you hoped. “I’d like that a lot. Oh, how’s Wes?”

“Wes is doing good,” Joseph told you, pocketing his phone swiftly. “He and Liam got married a few years ago, in 2018.”

“Oh my God!” you exclaimed. “Oh, good for them! I remember Wes telling me all about how he thought Liam was ‘the one’ when they first started dating.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Joseph laughed. “They’re still obsessed with each other, it makes me sick.” 

“They always were a little into PDA,” you smiled, reminiscing on movie nights with the pair. “But they were cute.” 

“You know…” Joseph started. “I was going to grab drinks with Wes tonight, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you joined. He was just talking about you the other day, wondering what was going on and everything.” 

“Yeah,” you said quickly. “I’d actually love that, I’ve been wondering how he is too. I haven’t been able to find him on social media. Or you either, for that matter.” 

“Yeah, I had Twitter for a bit, but I gave up on it,” Joseph admitted. “I just… I don’t know, I think I’m too old for that sorta stuff. I don’t know how it works or anything; I have an Instagram but my mate runs it for me, and only because Netflix basically forced me to get it. I don’t even know the password to it.” He laughed, and so did you, and you caught “Steve” out of the corner of your eye, suddenly remembering that he was there too. “Oh, fuck, sorry, where are my manners? Y/N, this is Joe Keery, he plays Steve. Joe, this is Y/N, she’s my… Well, it’s a long story, but we went to LAMDA together.” 

Wow. What a way to simplify your relationship. Although, you suppose it was easier than explaining “We used to date and then she broke up with me because she thought I cheated, which I didn’t, but she knows that now”. Long story, indeed. “We were pretty much best mates,” you added. “But after we graduated, we just… Drifted apart.” 

“What a shame too,” Joseph mumbled, then, before you could react, added, “I’ll text you about tonight, yeah? Time and place and all.” 

“Alright,” you said. “I’m looking forward to it.” 

You ended up introducing Anna to Joe and Joseph, telling her that they were good people and would tip her well, and you excused yourself to the server alley. Your hands were shaking as you sat down on a cardboard box and buried your head in your hands, and you tried to control your breathing. Joseph. No longer was he the awkward, blond, braces-and-glasses thing that he had been— he had matured nicely, luckily seemingly keeping his sense of humor that you adored, and you sniffled as you extracted your phone. You saw a text from an unknown number that just said “Joey” with a heart, and you frowned it away as you went to Instagram and typed in his name. Sure enough, his account was the first one to pop up, only one post so far, of a heavily made-up Joseph. He wore a long wig, giving the camera his best Blue Steel look, looking more serious and deadly than you had ever seen him before. Apparently, according to Anna, this was Eddie. 

Before you could do any more research into Eddie or Joseph, a new text came through from the same unknown number, Joey’s number. Wes and I are meeting at Soho House at 8 o’clock, he texted. I’ll be there a few minutes early, to make sure that you can get in.

You had heard of the exclusive Soho House before, although you had never been in it, and your heart skipped. Joseph had definitely moved up in the world. Cool, you answered back. I can’t wait. 

Wes says he’s excited to see you, Joseph told you. It’s been a while, huh?

Yeah, for sure, you answered. And you stopped, debating what to say next. Should you apologize?  Would he even know what you were apologizing for? Maybe you should wait to apologize and explain yourself in person. But Wes would be there, you wouldn’t be able to say exactly what you wanted. You wished that you could be alone with Joseph and talk, but you would take drinks. You would take anything that he decided to give you. 

You went home after your shift and instantly started to fret as you got dressed. Would it be awkward? Would you even enjoy the drinks with your old lover and friend? Or was tonight bound to be a disaster? You decided to try to look at it with as much positivity as you could— if he was inviting you out for drinks, he couldn’t hate you that much, right? Maybe he had forgiven you. Maybe he was still in love with you. 

No. Put that thought away. He was not in love with you. He had been dating since you, and probably had had girlfriends since you. He probably had a girlfriend now. He was the ultimate full package, kind and thoughtful and smart and funny and handsome and interesting, he was everything, girls should swoon over him. He should be absolutely rolling in women; there was no way that he still had feelings for you. 

When you arrived at Soho House, you saw him sitting outside instantly. He was looking as handsome as ever, smoking a cigarette and sipping on a drink in a short tumbler, and he took your breath away in a brown suit. God, had he grown even more handsome in your years apart? It didn’t feel real. “Joe!” you grinned as you approached him, and he smiled back at you, putting his cigarette out in an ashtray. 

“Hello!” he crooned, opening his arms for you. In an instant, almost as if you were drawn magnetically, you fell into his arms, hugging him tightly and pressing your head into his neck to smell his warm and earthy cologne. Joseph rubbed your back as he hugged you, just the same way he always used to, and, when you pulled away from the hug, Joseph gave you a warm, blushed smile. “Well, darling, you look stunning.” 

“Thank you,” you laughed breathlessly. “Says you! You— Fuck, you grew up! You look so good!” 

“Aw, well,” Joseph shrugged bashfully, tugging at the thin silver chain around his neck. “I mean, a lot can change in eight years.” 

“True,” you said. “But… A lot can stay the same… I’m sorry.” 

“What for?” Joseph asked, his eyebrows furrowing. 

“I…” you started. “For… You know what for. Don’t make me say it. It was humiliating enough the first time around.” 

“Let’s not have this talk here,” Joseph said softly. “Just come home with me later, we can talk there.” 

“Okay,” you agreed softly. “Can I just ask one thing?” Joseph nodded, and you carefully took his hands in yours, pressing your palms against his. You were scared to even ask, knowing that he would reject you, but you kept your resolve. “I know I hurt you. I know you probably want nothing to do with me, but… Please, if there’s any part of you that doesn’t hate me, just tell me. You are the best thing I’ve ever had in my life and I ruined it, and—”

Before you could say more, Joseph leaned down and pressed his lips to yours. It was quick, you could hardly call it a kiss, but your heart pounded in your chest like it did with your first kiss with Joe, all those years ago. You sighed and laced your fingers with Joe’s as he broke the kiss, and you started, “Does that mean—”

“Yes,” Joe whispered. “I never stopped loving you, sweetheart. You hurt me, but I never let you go.”

“Okay,” you said softly. “Good. Umm… Let’s go. Is Wes inside?” 

“Yeah,” Joe said. “He won’t stop talking about you.” With a hand on your back, he led you inside the exclusive club. You felt lightheaded even walking beside him again, and you couldn’t help the grin that covered your face when you saw Wes. He looked exactly the same, and you hugged him tightly. Wes’s arms were just as tight around you as he laughed, and he said, “Well, well, if it isn’t Miss Y/N. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah,” you shrugged. “Sorry.”

Joe helped you sit down on one of the tall stools, his hand still on your back, and he kissed your hair as he mumbled something about going to the restroom, and he slipped away as Wes showed you his hand and the gleaming silver band. “Liam and I got hitched,” Wes smiled as you squealed in excitement. 

“Oh, Wes, I’m so happy for you!” you told him. 

Wes hesitated for a second, looking over his shoulder at Joe retreating as he showed restraint that you didn’t remember him having, and he finally said, “Joe will never tell you, but you really did a number on him.”

“I know I did,” you cringed. 

“No, like,” Wes started. “He was going to ask you to marry him. He had the ring in his sock drawer and everything. When you broke up with him, I came home to find him on the floor, sobbing. He cried so hard he threw up. He was inconsolable for weeks. Didn’t do anything other than go to work and lay in bed. He was depressed, love. I thought he’d be like that forever.”

A ring. Marriage. The thought that you had ruined that made you sick. You rubbed the hem of your shirt between your fingers as you nodded at your lap, and you mumbled, “What got him out of that?” 

“Honestly?” Wes asked. “I don’t think he ever got out of it. I think working helps him, but he didn’t figure that out for a while. He did Dickensian, then didn’t work again for, like, a year, and he got really bad. He still really only works and goes home. I had to twist his arm to even get him to agree to this. ”

“Is it really your place to be telling me this?” you asked, halfway-jokingly, and Wes smiled. 

“It’s definitely not,” Wes said humorlessly. “But you deserve to know how he reacted when you broke up with him. It ruined him. He deserves better than that, and if you’re going to hurt him again, then don’t even bother.” 

“What makes you think that we’re gonna get back together?” you asked. “He wants nothing to do with me.” 

“That’s not what that kiss outside said,” Wes shrugged. “Just… Don’t let him down. Like I said, he’s been hurt enough by you.” 

You felt thoroughly shaken by that, but you nodded and righted yourself as Joe came back to the table, resting his hand on your shoulder. “What do you want to drink?” he asked. “I’ll get it for you.” 

“Oh, umm,” you started. “I can get it. Sit down, visit with Wes, I’ll be right back…” Quickly, before he could ask questions, you stood up and made your way to the bar. You needed a second alone to absorb everything Wes had just told you, but Joe had his own idea, taking the back of your shirt in a gentle grip and following you to the bar. 

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Joe said firmly. 

“Nothing,” you told him. “Everything’s fine.”

“Did Wes say something?” Joe asked. 

“No,” you insisted. “I just… This was a bad idea, all of this was a terrible… I’m going home.” 

“No, wait,” Joe said quickly. “Talk to me, darling, tell me what’s wrong.” 

“I’m not your darling,” you said quickly, edging past him towards the door. “Not anymore, I fucked that up so long ago—”

“You didn’t fuck anything up,” Joe told you, following you once again, out onto the street. 

“We could have been married by now, Joe!” you exclaimed. “We could’ve had kids by now! We could have had entirely different lives, the lives we always wanted, if it weren’t for me and-and my— I was an idiot, I was stupid and I thought I saw the signs and—”

“Hey, easy,” Joe said softly, shushing you as he pulled you into his arms. “You’re right, our lives could be completely different, but you weren’t the only one in the breakup. I could have tried to explain myself, I could have done a million things to keep you, but I didn’t, and I’ve fucking regretted it every day since then. You were the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and, if I could, I’d snap my fingers and have everything change, but I can’t do that. All I can do is beg you, please, come back to me.”

“But I did so wrong by you,” you whimpered. “Why do you still want me?” 

“Because I love you,” Joe told you. “I’ve loved you since I met you, and every morning, I wake up without you next to me and it fucking hurts. I want this to stop hurting. Please.” His eyes were big and wet, pleading and begging with every inch of himself, and you sniffled as you pressed your hand to his cheek. 

“Joey,” you said on shaky breaths. “I want you back too, but I can’t… I’ll just hurt you again.” 

“How are you sure?” Joe asked. “You don’t know that. Maybe we needed the few years apart to find ourselves, so when we came back together, we’d be more mature and… Darling, please. What do you need me to do? Get on my knees? I’ll do whatever you need me to. I just need you back in my life, please.” 

“Baby, please,” you sighed. “Stop begging. I’m… It’s such a terrible idea. How the actual fuck are we supposed to go back to being together like nothing happened? I’ll always feel guilty about the things I did to you.”

“But you don’t need to be,” Joe said. “You made the best decision you could have with the information you had. If I had the same evidence, I would have done the same. My girl, please.” 

You squeezed your eyes shut as your tears fell, and you mumbled, “Everything in me is telling me not to do this, but… I’ll do it. Maybe we can do a trial run, a few weeks together casually, and if that works, we can… We can be together fully.” 

“I’ll take it,” Joe said quickly. He nodded quickly, putting his hands on your waist, and he said, “I leave London the day after tomorrow for the MTV Awards, but-but, yes, a trial run would be amazing.” 

“MTV?” you asked, furrowing your eyebrows. “Were you nominated for something?” 

“Well, no,” Joe started. “But me and a few other guys from Stranger Things are presenting an award.”

“My famous actor,” you chuckled lightly, knocking his chin playfully with your knuckle, and Joe flushed. “I’m proud of you.” 

“Thank you, darling,” Joe said softly. “I’ve always dreamed of hearing you say that.”

The rest of the night went by better than you expected. Joe convinced you to go back inside Soho House with Wes, and the three of you threw back drinks and laughed like old times. It felt like no time had passed, all of the same old jokes coming back to you and making you laugh as hard as the first time, all of the “Remember when Joe…” or “Do you still…”, and Joe’s hand rested on your thigh all night, inching further and further up as the night went on. Eventually, as his thumb rubbed your inner thigh about half past eleven, you sighed and put down your glass. “Well, gents,” you said. “This has been just lovely, but I need to get going. I open at work tomorrow, which means I’ve gotta wake up early.” 

“No!” Wes sighed. “Don’t leave!” 

“I have to!” you giggled, pulling your purse around your body. “Bye, Wessy, it was so nice to see you!” 

“Wait,” Wes said, standing up and drawing you into a tight hug. You smiled into his shoulder as he embraced you, and, when he pulled away, he said, “Okay, now you can go.” 

“Alright,” you chuckled. Then, you turned to Joe, unsure of how to depart, and he stood up too. 

“I’ll walk you outside,” Joe said. “Have to make sure my woman gets home safe.” 

“Your woman?” you scoffed. 

“Won’t have anyone touch my woman,” Joe mumbled, grabbing his suit jacket from the back of the seat and tossing it over his shoulders. You smiled as he put a hand on your back and led you outside, the city bustling now, and, once you were outside, you hugged Joe tightly, hand on the nape of his neck. 

“Thank you, Joey,” you said. “Maybe we can see each other again before you leave for Santa Monica.” 

“Come home with me,” Joe said quickly. “Please?” 

“Cheeky bloke,” you grinned. “S’that all you want from me? Just a little fuck?” 

“No!” Joe huffed. “I mean, yes. I mean…” He laughed a little, and he said, “Are you drunk?” 

“A little,” you admitted. 

“Me too,” Joe cringed. “This is a terrible idea, isn’t it? I should let you go home and go to work tomorrow, and we can save this for when I come back.” 

“Or,” you started, then lowered your voice, tangling your finger in the silver chain around his neck. “You can take me home, we don’t fuck, but we can do all of that other stuff anyway.” 

“I could do with a cuddle or two,” Joe mumbled, rubbing his jaw with his hand, jokingly thoughtful. “But you have work tomorrow.” 

“So I’ll call in sick,” you said. “We can spend all day together tomorrow, catching up and everything.” 

“That sounds tempting,” Joe said. “Can we fuck tomorrow, when we’re both sober?” 

“Yes,” you told him. “Now, call a cab, and take me home.” 

It was the same flat that Joe and Wes used to live in. You still remembered your way around and all of the motions you used to go through, setting your purse on the dining table and toeing off your shoes at the door— it even smelled the same as it used to, laundry soap and cigarettes, and you giggled as Joe led you into his bedroom. The things in it had changed, a different bed frame and different photographs and different curtains, but the bed felt the same as you laid on your back, looking up at the same ceiling that you used to. Everything was so different, but so similar, and you watched as Joe shrugged out of his suit jacket and let it crumple to the floor as he went for his belt. At least that hadn’t changed. Your messy little Joey. 

“Joey?” you whispered, and Joe looked at you with big eyes, waiting for you to say more. You wanted to tell him that you loved him, that you had never stopped loving him, that you would always love him, but all that came out was, “You said something about cuddles?” 

“I did,” Joe said softly. “Let me get undressed, love.” 

You sat up and moved over to meet him by the closet door, and you nudged his hands away in favor of your own hands undoing his belt. “Let me…” you mumbled, feeling the buckle loosen, and it fell away in an instant. Joe sighed, his hand coming up to cradle the back of your head, and he pressed his lips to your forehead as you tugged his belt out of the loops. 

“I missed you,” Joe whispered, and you frowned. 

“I’m so sorry, Joey,” you told him. “I was so stupid, I should have just listened to you.”

“It’s okay,” Joe told you. “At least you came back to me.” 

“I love you,” you whispered, and Joe smoothed down your hair gently. 

“I love you so much,” Joe mumbled. His hand fell from your hair and went to the bottom of your shirt, and he tugged it up and off. You undressed each other with gentle love, stealing kisses and stepping back towards the bed, and you cuddled close into Joe’s warm chest as he laid down next to you. He was left only in his boxers, you in your panties, and his arm went around you, squeezing you for a moment. “Oh, my girl… I never thought I’d get to hold you again.” 

“I’m right here,” you told him, gently kissing his chest. “I’ll never leave again.”

The night passed with comfort, bundled up in Joe’s safe arms. He fell asleep quickly, just like he always used to, and you slept well in his grip. You only woke up at around 7 in the morning, with your phone going off across the room, and you groaned and wiped sleepily at your eyes. Joe was still holding you in a death grip in his sleep, and you pried yourself out of his arms and carefully crossed the room to retrieve your buzzing phone. Your mum was calling. Oh God. 

You slipped out of the bedroom, carefully shutting the door behind you, before you answered the phone. “Hey, Mum,” you said, wrapping your arms around yourself. It was cold, especially with your level of undress, and you went to the small laundry room to try to find a shirt or something. “Why’re you calling me so early?” 

“I was looking at the news as I had my coffee,” your mum began, and you flipped up a t-shirt that was sitting in the dryer. It smelled clean, like Joe, and unwrinkled, and you slipped it up over your head as your mum spoke. “And I saw an interesting article.”

“Oh, yeah?” you asked absently. 

“Yes,” your mum said. “It was a series of pictures of you and that Joseph boy on the street, snogging away without a care in the world.”

“What?” you said sharply. “Where did you see this? Send it to me! There’s a news article about us?” 

“I thought that you and Joseph broke up years ago,” your mum said. You were fully awake now, setting her on speakerphone as you went to Google and searched up Joseph’s name. Just as your mother said, there was a news article, some ratty gossip mag, your picture splayed across the front of the website: WHO IS STRANGER THINGS’S EDDIE DATING? It was a paparazzi picture from last night, of you and Joseph at nightfall, kissing and smiling, and your heart fell deep into your stomach. “Are you back together?” 

“Umm, it’s complicated,” you answered. You could hardly even register the hangover in your skull with the rapid panic of your heartbeat, and you went back into the bedroom to find Joe now awake, squinting as he looked at his phone screen without his contacts in. “Kinda? It-It’s hard to explain.” 

“Did you see—” Joe started to ask, and you frowned as you nodded. “Shit, darling, I didn’t think—”

“Well, explain it,” your mum told you. “Tell me what’s going on.”

You sighed. “Joe and I are back together,” you said. “But he’s leaving the country tomorrow and won’t be back for a while, so it’s a lot more… Casual, than I think either of us want it to be.” 

“But I thought he cheated on you?” your mum asked.

“I can call my publicist and see what we can do about getting this removed,” Joe started. “Do you want me to do that?” 

You felt sick. Everyone talking to you at once, the upset in your chest, an odd feeling of betrayal— it was too much. “Joe, stop, please,” you said quickly. “No, Mum, Joe didn’t cheat on me. I thought he did, but he didn’t. I-I have to go and sort this out, I’m sorry. Bye.” You hung up the phone and sighed, and you sank down onto the bed and covered your face with your hands. 

“Darling?” Joe asked. “What can I do?” 

“I didn’t even think that there would be paparazzi,” you admitted. “I’m so stupid, of course there were paparazzi around…”

“Stop, love, don’t do that,” Joe said quickly. “I should have warned you that it was a possibility. I didn’t think about how… I’m still getting used to being a celebrity, I’m afraid.” 

“Oh, God,” you mumbled. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this. This might be more than I’m cut out for.” 

“No, what?” Joe asked. “Darling, no, don’t say that. Just because we were outed by a trashy website doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be together. I-I think we were made for each other, don’t let this little thing discourage you.” 

“It’s not a little thing, though!” you said, your voice wavering. “It-It’s a big thing! I was okay living in anonymity, but this is— I was fine not being well known, but you— You’re the most talked-about guy on the planet right now! I’m not sure I’m meant to be Joseph Quinn’s girlfriend, maybe it was good that we broke up before you got super famous.” 

“What do you mean?” Joe asked. He looked hurt, like a little puppy, and he said, “Do you not want this?” 

“I want this more than anything!” you said. “But I’ve only ever had a handful of acting jobs before, I’m a fucking server for God’s sake, I don’t think I’m ready to give that up! Right now, my options are to date you and lose my anonymity, or keep it but lose you!”

Joe sighed, shaking his head. “Well, love, I can’t make that decision for you,” he said. “What do you think is best?” 

You sniffled. “I don’t want to lose you again,” you whimpered. “But I… I don’t know.”

Joe was quiet, and he took your hand in his, rubbing his thumb across your palm, and he finally said, “Let me make some calls and see what I can do about getting those pictures taken down.”

“No,” you sniffled. “Leave them up. I want everyone to know that you’re the man I love. I’m not ashamed of that.” 

Joe nodded quickly. “Darling,” he started. “I don’t want to leave tomorrow if you’re this upset.” 

“I’m not upset,” you told him. “Not anymore. It’s not something that either of us can control, so why bother being upset about it? Or at least I can try to believe that… I don’t want you to leave either.” 

“What if I don’t leave?” Joe asked. “What if I cancelled and stayed here with you?”

“No, you can’t cancel the day before,” you said softly. “I wish there was some way I could… I don’t know, go with you. So that we didn’t have to leave each other right now.” 

Joe’s eyes lit up, and he said, “Actually… There might be a way. When I was first asked to present the award, they asked if I had a date, and I said no, but I wonder if it’s too late to say yes.” 

“The day before?” you cringed. “They’d have to shuffle around so much shit. And so would you. And I don’t have a dress or anything to wear, and I’m awful at doing my makeup—”

“Let me call my team,” Joe asked. “I wonder if Fabio can put something together for you, and my makeup artist might be able to… Don’t count this out, let me call my manager and see what we can do.”

Whether Joe had a silver tongue or what, you had no idea, but, by the time you had called into work to ask for the day (and next few ones) off, you were officially a guest at the MTV Awards. He had managed to secure you a spot— “you may not be sitting next to us, but you’ll be there”— and he was calling his stylist as you slipped out of the flat to go back to yours to pack. You couldn’t remember the last time you had done something spontaneous like this, and your heart thumped when you returned to Joe’s flat, luggage in hand. He was still in his boxers, although now he wore a t-shirt, and he smiled and opened his arms to you. “Tell me I’m the best boyfriend ever,” he said.

“Why?” you asked. 

“My stylist, Fabio, said that he got permission from Valentino to loan him a dress for you last minute,” Joe told you, and you gasped. “I’m wearing Valentino, and now, so are you. I still have to call my makeup artist and see if she can do anything for us, but, baby—“

You jumped forward and hugged Joe tightly, laughing and smiling along with him. It felt like a dream, and you could hardly believe your luck as you pressed your lips to Joe’s. You got to kiss him again. You got to hug him again. You were the luckiest girly in the world. He sighed as he kissed you, gentle and loving, and his lips parted from yours all too soon for your liking. “Let me make more calls,” he whispered, his eyes intensely watching you. You didn’t feel small or inferior under his gaze, only loved, and he kissed your forehead before he parted from the hug. “See what I can do for you.” 

“I love you,” you told him, and Joe’s ears tinged pink as he blushed. “You’re amazing.” 

“I love you too,” Joe said. “I… Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but I was… I was in a bad place when you left me. It was… I didn’t eat. I hardly slept. I could only think about how badly I had fucked up.” 

“Stop,” you said, shaking your head. “You did nothing wrong at all. You’re literally the least guilty person in this situation, you did nothing at all, and I was… I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. And I will, for as long as you want me to. I didn’t listen to you or let you speak when it happened, and you were right to, like, cut me off and out and shit, I would have done the same, and you’re remarkable for forgiving me and wanting me back, and then bending over backwards to help me so I can wreck your plans. I don’t deserve you.” 

Joe stepped back close to you, and he wrapped his arms around you and touched his nose against yours. “All I’ve ever wanted is you,” he told you. “And now I have you again.” 

You thought about what Wes had told you, how Joe was so close to proposing all those years ago, and you whispered, “Did you… Keep it?” 

“Keep what?” Joe asked. 

“The ring,” you said, and you swallowed thickly. “Do you still have it?” 

Joe nodded slowly. “I always thought that, one day, I’d have you back to wear it,” he said. “Do you want to see it?” 

“I’d like to wear it this weekend,” you told him, your heart beating up in your throat and nearly choking you. “If that’s okay with you.”

“That’s…” Joe started,, and he scoffed and smiled that movie-star smile. “That’s more than okay. I’d love nothing more. Let me go get it, a-and if you end up hating it, we can find a new one for you.”

“I’m sure I’ll love it,” you told him, and Joe nearly tripped on himself as he hurried out of the living room and back into his bedroom. You followed him, albeit at a slower pace, and you leaned against the doorframe as you watched him rummage in his closet. He checked the topmost shelf, pushing his hand all the way back to the wall, and he finally closed his fingers around a small box, dragging it out of its hiding spot. The velvet on the outside of the box was a little dusty from eight years in his closet, and he blew on it and gave you a sheepish grin as he handed you the box. 

You cracked it open and was met face to face with a silver diamond ring, not gaudy but big enough for it to be obvious that a large chunk of money went into purchasing it. Your mouth fell open, and you gasped softly at the sight of it, and you frowned instantly. “Joe—”

“Oh, you hate it,” he whispered. “It’s too big, isn’t it? I can get you something smaller.”

“No, no, I love it,” you said quickly. “It’s just… You kept it this whole time?”

“I told you,” Joe said. “I always thought that you’d come back and want to wear it.” 

“Well, you were right,” you chuckled. “Put it on me, darling?” 

Joe stepped forward, and he took the ring box from your hand and carefully lifted the ring from its velvet home. He took your hand in his and carefully slid the ring onto your finger, and you held it out for both of you to admire. “What kinda ring is this?” you asked. “A promise ring, or… More?”

“It’s whatever you want it to be,” Joe told you. 

“Can I be honest?” you asked, and Joe nodded, and you finally let your thick throat win, and you began to cry. “The thought of you being with any other girls makes me sick. I get so jealous a-and I know it’s not healthy, but I need to be your only one.”

“Have you dated since me?” Joe asked, and you shook your head. “I told you that I’ve been on dating apps, but it… I was chasing something like what you gave me, and I could only find your kind of love with you. I don’t want anybody else’s love, just yours. So… This ring?” 

“I’d marry you in an instant,” you told him, pressing your hands to his cheeks. “My sweet, amazing Joe.”

You helped Joe finish packing that day as he finished his phone calls, securing a makeup artist for you the next night, and he didn’t answer his publicist’s hounding for a response to the articles. Your flight left early in the morning for Santa Monica, and you spent every second with Joe. It felt nice to be surrounded by him again, and, before you slept that night, you gave him a kiss and bundled up in his arms. 

The day felt like a whirlwind. You barely had a second to breathe, and you followed Joe blindly the entire time, holding his hand and letting him take you wherever he needed to. It was good to be able to blindly trust someone again, especially after spending so long apart from each other; the fact that you were able to slip right back into that meant the world to you. Finally, you reached the hotel where preparations were being made for the awards show, and you met Joe’s favorite stylist, Fabio. Fabio was kind and silly, joking all the time and making you feel right at home, and he dressed you in a dark brown dress that complimented Joe’s suit. You smiled, watching your lover get dressed and get confused by the long scarf-like accessory attached to the shirt, and you held him close as his publicist nearly demanded to take pictures by the large window. He buried a kiss in your styled hair, and you grinned as you presented the ring to the camera. It felt special to be able to share your love with everyone now, and, as you held Joe’s hand as you approached the red carpet later that night, you felt like your heart would burst. 

You had to run the gauntlet of photographers and interviewers before you could go inside and escape the sunshine, and Joe held you firmly, cringing in the sunlight but smiling at you. You were very aware of the photographers calling your name, only knowing it because of the most last-minute change to the guest list, and you grinned as best as you could with your professionally-done makeup and soft lipstick smile. Your heart was lodged anxiously in your throat for the entire time (which was really only maybe 5 minutes, but felt like hours), and you sighed as Joe approached the first woman with a microphone. You tried to step away from the camera, to give him the limelight and let the focus be on him, but his arm snaked around your middle and kept you close to him. 

“Mister Joe Quinn!” The interviewer smiled as he approached. “What a sight you are! How’s your night so far?” 

“Oh, God, bless you,” Joe chuckled. “I-It’s alright. Stressful, but good.” 

“And who is this?” she asked, and Joe looked at you with his gaze playful, a look you recognized, even years on.

“This is my wife,” Joe said, and you laughed, squeezing your eyes shut. 

The interviewer grinned at you. “You’re married to the most desired man in the world right now,” she said. “How’s it feel?” 

You stammered over your words as you spoke, acutely aware that whatever you said would be broadcast all over the world. Your few roles had the same effect, but this was something different. “I-I can hardly believe it,” you said. “When I first met Joey, we were kids, and he wasn’t… Watching him grow and mature and become what he’s always dreamt of being, it’s rewarding. I love this cheeky bloke, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

“And what do you think of Eddie?” she asked. “Did you like him?”

If you were lying already… “Well, someone didn’t warn me about the ending,” you chuckled. “And that would have been nice.” 

“I told you you’d cry,” Joe scoffed. 

“Well…” you sighed, and you smiled at the interviewer. “I loved Eddie. He’s my favorite thing Joe’s ever done.” 

“So, Joe,” the interviewer said. “What’s next for you?” 

Joe shrugged, pouting his lips. “I’m not too worried about what comes next,” he said. “I’m gonna sit in this sun and bask for a while.” 

You leaned in and softly whispered, “You deserve it.” Joe looked at you with a small smile, and he kissed your cheek softly. 

“Alright, well, you’ve got a long night, so don’t let me keep you too long,” the interviewer said. “It was nice to meet you.”

“You too, love,” Joe said kindly, and you smiled and waved at her as you stepped forward towards the next well-dressed interviewer and camera. 

“Wife?” you mumbled through a smile, and Joe nodded. 

“I’m off the market,” Joe shrugged. “Is that so bad?” 

“Not at all,” you said. “I like you being off the market.” 

“Good,” Joe said. “I like you being off the market.”

“My man,” you hummed, and you leaned forward and kissed him. “Thank you. For absolutely everything.” 

“Thank you for giving me someone to give everything to,” Joe said. “I love you.” 

“I love you too.”

-

taglist: @corrodedarchiv, @faeriemunson14, @steddieloverrr, @wordscomehither, @harley1608, @ellolovely22, @birdysaturne, @freakymunson, @miserybeans, @3rd-conchord

#joseph quinn x reader #joe quinn x reader #joseph quinn x you #joe quinn x you #joseph quinn rpf

[trollprincess]

So my hometown is building a community center, and some people are livid there’s going to be an LGBTQ+ presence. Since I’m not sure I trust my hometown newspaper to publish the letter to the editor I just wrote, I’m going to post it here with some names and whatnot redacted.

*

Dear Editor,

I am writing this letter in regards to the proposed community center, and the response which appeared in your newspaper.

My name is Jennifer. Many of you know me well. You went to school with me, you’ve worked with me, you know my parents or my brother. You know me as the bookworm who learned to cross the street just to get to the library, the bundled-up woman walking her barky beagle mix down Main Street, the friendly girl with the colorful hair who tries to smile at everyone she meets.

I grew up here. I remember buying penny candy and comic books in a store which burned down years ago, picking up groceries for my grandmother in another store which is now just a public eyesore, and writing my self-published novel in a cafe which changes hands only to fail every oher year. I have spent the vast majority of my life living in [this town].

I’m also bisexual.

The proper term may be more like pansexual. As described by a character on a certain sitcom, “I like the wine and not the label.” It’s the person I love, not the body parts. And in part, that might make me demisexual as well, meaning that I am only attracted to people after I get to know them well.

That last paragraph might be confusing to some of you. It’s not hard. I don’t like everybody, but I keep my options open. Better?

I questioned for years whether or not I was bisexual or pansexual or straight, but I was never - not once in my entire life - afraid that if I told my parents I was not straight they would hate me or reject me. I’ve got great parents. My mom and dad love me more than any words I could summon up can describe. And what’s upsetting for me right now is how many people in this town I thought felt the same about me, or about their own children, don’t.

I don’t remember when the people here became so cruel. Am I just seeing the past through rose-colored glasses? Probably. I don’t think I remember anyone here being so cruel and filled with hate, and then I recall my high school years in the 90s, when “gay” was the worst slur you could call someone. I don’t want to think that people I’ve known since I was in kindergarten have been bigoted all this time, but then a memory will slip through of some racist comment or grumbled slur someone I thought was a nice person I could trust said.

Now, sometimes, I’m afraid in my own hometown.

I shouldn’t have to be. No one should have to be. Hence, the community center.

Putting aside the LGBTQ+ community, this town needs somewhere where kids and teens can go. I grew up here and every time we came close to having somewhere to go, it would be snatched away in a heartbeat, only for the adults to wonder why teens were out kicking out the slats in the gazebo or burning the playground equipment. Go outside and play! Just don’t hang out here, or there, and definitely not downtown, and nowhere around people. And God forbid, not in groups.

A community center is something this town has desperately needed for decades. Decades. A place where we can go in the rain, where kids can go to hang out safely with our friends, and where we can learn about each other’s differences.

I’m sick of the cruelty I’ve seen in this town - from older folks, from people with inflammatory bumper stickers on their car, even from members of the town council. I’m sick of that cruelty not being called out by others around them because those people “grew up in a different time” or “are my friends, I can’t tell them not to say that.” I’m sick of living in fear of the cruelty of my own neighbors. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Why is it important that LGBTQ+ people be included in the community center? For the same reason non-Christians should be included, and people of color, and others who are different. Because some of you are so ill-informed you think gay people are recruiting (we’re really not, although we appreciate you think we can agree on a grocery list, much less an agenda), that we’re grooming children to molest them (oh, if anything cut down the possibility kids in this town would get molested, it was tearing down most of the churches), and that transgender people are going to go around forcing people to be a different gender and cutting off people’s genitals (please stop thinking about other people’s genitals, it’s rude and gross).

Talk to us. Listen to us. We’re actually pretty nice. And not just us, but other people who have different life experiences than you. That’s the whole point of a community center - to learn, and to grow, and to become a better person by correcting the harmful beliefs you carry with you.

I’m going to close my letter with a quote from Waymond Wang, a character from “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” He said, "The only thing I do know is that we have to be kind. Please, be kind. Especially when we don't know what's going on.”

Thank you.

[Yours truly, fuckos.]

#lgbtqia #lgbtqia+

[soulntes]

SHAMELESS - PROLOGUE

[SHAMELESS MASTERLIST] CHAPTER 1 : THE ARRANGEMENT

a shame.

there are various forms of shame.

on pandora, there's no such thing when it's about mating and forming a bond with someone you truly love to spend the rest of your life with. it's a moment that every young na'vi awaits to experience something so special and sacred even before you know the sensation of how much that person cares and loves you when you bond.

the stories told to them by their parents the importance of choosing a proper mate who'll provide love and give you life.

humans can not experience that innocent and sacred feeling.

a bond that becomes a whole significant difference when sharing the feelings of thoughts, touches, and emotions from who they genuinely love.

ever since she passed through the eye of eywa, her whole entire life change. her body is different and weird as it's now a permanent deed that she'll never regret.. starting to see the wonders and beauty of pandora. her emotions switched more sensitive and fierce and capable of understanding of what was taught to her.

given a once in a life time thing that was granted to her in order to be connected with eywa.. and stay close to jake. her dearest friend.

since she met jake sully her life altered spending majority of their time together when arriving to pandora. she didn't treat him as someone who needed assistance all the time or perceived him a jarhead or a disabled, retired soldier. jake didn't treat her like a fragile woman with a pretty face to get into her pants and found her a reliable and trusting person he's met.

they spent their days together telling their depressing stories and who they were back on earth with getting here to now on pandora. laughed at each other's reenactments of old sitcoms and comedies to lighten up the mood. cried in their vulnerable moments which lead on thing to another. they never regret it. it's treasured and remembered of their intimate relationship. brought a sense of comfort when things got rough with dealing their shifts, jake was studied by the omatikayans in training him to become one of them and her with reports to the colonel and parker about the latest information on jake's progress and helping her avatar progress in her training.

until.. she noticed the sudden change of the man in front of her. the short calls on the other line, sometimes he reassures her that he forgets because of his exhaustion when she doesn't receive one in a day or two.

his behavior change. it's like he wasn't the old jake anymore.

someone that was hidden under his pretend character, unmasking in front of her whenever he talks about the woman who was training him.

neytiri.

that was her name.

the woman who brought life back into the lost man.

she was a beautiful creature. a fierce woman and powerful being she's ever encountered. her strong facial features were the embodiment of femininity as a warrior. she'll never be upset with her because neytiri is a wonderful woman and a suitable mate for her friend and she brings light wherever she goes. you can say she developed a tiny crush on her.

she's known it was going to happen even if it hurt the most to witness the sparkle in his eyes when she brought up the woman.

there was no them or anything that indicates they were a possible couple since the beginning. she decided having a serious conversation with him that they shouldn't involve in any kind of sexual activity if he is in love with the na'vi woman. they can remain friends without sexual pleasure involved.

jake felt defeated at her request. he did love neytiri when they spent time alone in the forest throughout his iknimaya and having those beautiful moments act on upon their recuperation. but he loved her as well so much that he tried putting those feelings aside. in the end, they got on the right foot. jake respected her wishes.

they stayed friends.

that same day of calling it quits, the colonel got involved watching her alone in the cafeteria, drinking her sorrows away with a stained face of dried tears.

just like jake, one thing led to another.. she found herself in the arms of another man, cruel as a demonic monster and controlling, wrapped in his sheets in his quarters. the depressive moment she went through got the colonel taking action of landing a gorgeous woman in his bed where he wanted to know that drove jake sully to slowly stop sending valuable information.

the colonel kept her in arms reach and she goes back to fill the hole in her heart that can never be filled other than her body by this man, using each other for their own satisfaction and wishes.

her calls with jake became less frequent and the affair with miles was daily. whatever she received from jake, the colonel checked through in exchange of providing nights to forget her worries.

it didn't work. everytime she saw jake.. she felt disgust and rethinking her choices.

for her it was an eternal love that could never be broken but hopes the best for her jake.

until came the announcement for the destruction of home tree. the woman immediately sided with jake and the na'vi to save their home even going against the monster with his demonic army alone. she gave jake her support which ended the life of a secret she wished to keep to herself.

after everything they went through and sent the humans back to earth.. she wanted to leave because jake has a life far different than hers.

that is when neytiri came to her. the na'vi woman asked of her to stay with them, that jake deserves his friend with him and she was looking forward meeting his dear friend.

she got along with neytiri. she couldn't never hate her when she opened her heart once again to those who were loyal to the na'vi. they became sisters. a bond between sisters.

the day came for her decision of transferring her life to a new one. it's an experience she'd do again if it meant to start a new life where the people taught her about eywa and the balance of life. she felt free.

all of them did.

it didn't matter that her love is one sided while being a warrior to toruk makto and neytiri, she cares for them.

next thing she knows, jake became a father of four blessed children and a loving home. she felt happy and proud of coming so far. jake felt joyful with her around his kids and mate. never a problem occured since this new life they have is an opportunity to live it to the fullest.

for years it was like this but a new star sparkled in the night sky as it increased it's size and it meant.. sky people were returning.

a war that they were afraid would come back to haunt them and cause hurt once again.

and it did.

they lost neytiri.

they were slowly losing their happiness and home but they're going to fight against the disease so it'll be kept from spreading.

and with that disease came with a past to be birthed with immortality that'll bring a curse.

a curse of the past.

of a human who is dead.

the dead with an immense amount of love coming back.

TAGLIST

@hazelwebsterboo @babyduk213

#jake sully #miles quaritch #colonel miles quaritch #jake sully x oc #miles quaritch x oc #quaritch x oc #na'vi quaritch #navi oc #na'vi oc #miles quaritch avatar #recom quaritch #quaritch smut #miles quaritch fluff #quaritch fanfic #angst #jake sully smut #jake sully angst #jake sully fluff #jake sully fanfiction #avatar 2009 #avatar 2022 #omatikaya #neytiri #pandora #avatar #blog post

[70s-show-diary]

If I was in charge if That 70s Show, I would've given Eric two older brothers named John and Billy. John and Billy would've been in college, and they would've treated Eric better. They would've called out Red and Laurie, since they didn't like their younger brother being bullied. Who does?

Nobody knows what it’s like to be Eric Forman! Nobody knows what it’s like to have a dad and a sister who hate you for no reason! The creators of that show didn’t know anything about healthy familial relationships!

Thank you for this ask! I apologize that it took me so long to get to it; I’ve been very busy the last several months and wanted to dedicate the proper time to composing my answer for you!

I have never really given much thought to an AU where Eric has more/different siblings other than just Laurie, and with whom he has a different relationship with. I think that if Eric had really supportive siblings growing up, he might’ve been a very different character on That ‘70s Show. On the other hand,he might not have been that different because Eric does have people his age who are really supportive, mainly Hyde who is like a brother to him, and Donna, who has always supported and stood up for Eric, even before they started dating.

I don’t think I would go as far as saying that Red or Laurie “hate” Eric, though. Eric and Laurie definitely have that contemptuous brother-sister sibling relationship that is common to many sitcoms. It is an exaggeration of what a real-world relationship between brothers and sisters might look like in some families, with the intent of humor that is sometimes funny, but also sometimes not. But I do think that her relationship with Eric is more of your stereotypical sibling rivalry and contempt, not blind hate.

I definitely don’t think that Red hates Eric either. Red has his flaws, just like every character on the show. While his style of parenting certainly has its red flags, especially by today’s standards, I do think he means well and loves and cares for Eric and the rest of his family. His style of parenting was not uncommon for the 1970s, and was often considered the ‘right way’ to parent during that time period. Red parented in the way that he was conditioned to believe was the right way to be a parent. Had he had the awareness and knowledge that we have about parenting today, I believe he would’ve approached raising his son a little differently, because all he wants is to support his children and give them what they need to be successful.

But I also agree with you that there are times when the show takes it a bit too far (with Red and Laurie, as well as many other characters), and this is often done for the sake of humor. But I consider these moments to be largely OOC. I believe the creators of the show were often willing to sacrifice consistent characterization for the sake of a punchline, which, in my opinion, is the show’s greatest flaw.

I also think its important to note, however, that conflict is necessary for storytelling. If Eric had perfect relationships with his parents, siblings, friends, etc., there would be no story to tell, and there would be no That ‘70s Show.

#those are just my quick thoughts on the subject #That ‘70s Show #Eric Forman #Red Forman #Laurie Forman #T7S #That 70s Show #ask

[thewaltcrew]

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Fantasmic! and the recent reopening of the show in Hollywood Studios last month, let’s give a spotlight to three people who were pivotal in its creation: director Barnette Ricci, art director Tom Butsch, and composer and music producer Bruce Healey.

Fantasmic! was created as a stopgap attraction between the releases of Splash Mountain in 1989 and Toontown in 1993. Michael Eisner liked the idea of having a show in the Rivers of America to pack the restaurants along the riverfront, and possible ideas for what could kind of nighttime show could occupy the river were thrown about for years before it developed into a celebration of Disney’s animated feature films. But figuring out how to be able to project scenes from the films turned out to be a big problem, for raising and lowering traditional projection screens would not only be a clunky process on the river but also a slow one that would break the momentum of a show. Luckily, Barnette Ricci, a long-time show director for the Disney Parks who would be named a Disney Legend in 2019, found the solution on a research trip to Paris: she discovered a piece of tech developed and patented by a French company named Aquatique Show. The “water screens,” as they were called, used high-pressure nozzles to create fans of mist onto which the film clips could be projected through rear projection.

Ricci: By layering the dancing water fountains, special lighting, lasers, pyrotechnics and black light, along with live performers on watercraft and this new way to project animation on water, I was convinced all of these elements combined would create a rather exciting show! …It took months of searching through Disney film footage to find the right clips for the storyline and to create the film elements so they would look great on the water.

The Rivers of America was drained and reconstructed to accommodate the infrastructure that would be needed for Fantasmic!. The team was on a time crunch to be able to get the show done to serve as a proper stopgap between Splash Mountain and Toontown. Ricci wrote the script (as well as the lyrics to the song “Imagination”) and continued to re-edit it as Bruce Healey re-scored the iconic music from these films, but according to Tom Butsch, the story and spirit of Fantasmic! hardly strayed from Barnette Ricci’s initial vision.

Tom Bustch originally worked as a set designer in theater and then moved onto sitcoms before finding work set decorating on shows and seasonal attractions at the Disney Parks, where he would work for over 20 years. He storyboarded the entirety of Fantasmic! and materialized Ricci’s vision and brought it to life through the many set pieces used in the show. With a limited budget, his team made Fantasmic! economical as they could without ever sacrificing quality or scale. When they found that they were unable to afford the technology required to animate their Maleficent dragon, Butsch devised it so that a mechanical head would be raised on a genie lift (cherry picker) rigged with chains for the wings which would be flapped by performers (this dragon would eventually be replaced with a fully mechanical dragon in 2009).

Bruce Healey is famous for having reportedly produced every musical score in every parade and show at Disneyland between 1984 and 2017, but he’s done work across Disney Parks around the world and has been a composer, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor on everything from nighttime shows to television specials during his tenure. But out of the hundreds and hundreds of projects he’s worked on, Fantasmic!, on which he not only arranged and rescored the classic music from Disney films but also composed the main iconic theme to the show, is the work he says he is most proud of.

Healey: Fantasmic! still tops the list. I’m grateful for the chance to do some of my best work on that show.

It is more important to me that people around know and enjoy the music I’ve created and produced. If I’m not well known, but my music is well known because it’s part of the Disney legacy in some way, then that is great with me.

Fantasmic! was only supposed to run for a few years, but its enduring popularity has allowed it to become a classic staple of Disneyland and, with its recent renovation and reopening, will likely play on for many more years to come.

research and photo sources [x][x][x][x][x][x][x][x]

#fantasmic #disneyland #disneyedit #bruce healey #tom butsch #barnette ricci #my edit #music #artist #technician #director #disney parks #imagineer

[vazelbeak]

Forever gonna be sad that it seems like Sloth was centered on laziness when if you do research it was so much more than that Lovesart23 covered it herself but when you read up on the sins Sloth was a very hard to define sin because of everything it encapsulated. In Dantes Inferno Vergil describes sloth as the effect of an insufficient amount of love, and in some versions its described as "an unwillingness to do what must be done." And can take this form through other vices. It also encapsulated refusing to act and keep to your word making it much more than just laziness but instead appears more along the lines of apathy and indifference.

I also find this would've fit very well with a hospital being in Sloth. I have multiple family members who have been in the medical field and worked in hospitals and they often describe it as a very labor intensive job (which contradicts the laziness idea), however due to the weight of being responsible for and sometimes losing a life, its common for doctors and nurses to actually fall into developing drinking problems and other such means to cope with this as well as develop apathy and indifference to patients with less extreme symptoms or issues overall.

The problem with the portrayal is its hard to find Blitzø funny for being mad at a nurse for not being able to read when this (unintentional or not especially with the lack of understanding the O in Blitzøs name is silent sounding like dyslexia) appears to be someone who's infact nice to Blitzø making him seem like a jerk. (And maybe don't make a joke about the r slur.)

I could see room for it being a joke Blitzø is in the waiting room and while he waits he sees other demons faking more extreme injuries to get seen sooner. When Blitzø brings this up to the nurse playing games on her phone, she tells him Loona is not nearly as urgent of a patient as the others. He can't leave of his appointment will be cancelled so Blitzø has to be smart. He sees a janitors closet left open and gets an idea. He grabs something from it it, drags Loona into the bathroom and we hear a scuffle for about 3 beats. We then cut to the nurse playing a game on her phone as Blitzø flings himself to the front desk and with ad much over the top panic he can muster shouts "oh my god!- my daughter needs help! She's caught a flesh eating bacteria from the human world and its making her skin slough off!"

We then see Loona, wrapped in toilet paper and splattered with some red liquid from the left open janitors closet.

Perhaps have them pop into the same shot asking "has anyone seen my floor cleaner?" And have Blitzo quickly dismisses it with "no.- anyways...-clears throat- Look at how much shes bleeding!" Or as the nurse comments Loona smelling like cleaning supplies in suspicion, Blitzø plays it up as "Oh god! Its turning her flesh into soap like bleach!". I think the idea of Blitzø playing up being dramatic just to get seen for a vaccine could both make fun of how doctors can be so apathetic they only pay attention to the most extreme cases, and in a way keep continuity between season 2 episode 2 by suggesting being on the sitcom set and validated gave Blitzø the confidence to believe he can act which may have been something holding him back from performing.

Blitzø and Loona then get rushed back to a room and when they take the bandages off and as a doctor walks in Blitzø jumps into action again with "Oh you must be mistaken. My daughter is just here for a hellbies shot...are you implying you don't keep track of your own patients?"

Blitzø got past the waiting room, now he just has to convince the doctor they made the mistake.

This makes the doctor think they made a mistake and with the undertone of being threatened for not keeping proper track of patient information and medical history they cave and insist they would never. Potentially this means the doctor who came in to treat Loona wasn't actually someone who administers vaccines to hellhounds but being pressured by Blitzø to do commit to doing it and that's why they struggle to handle Loona.

Really i just think you could make it a little more fitting because dulling sloth down to laziness gives a distasteful implication you think doctors are lazy which is not so much a problem as doctors growing apathetic and only treating the most urgent cases as important which is a real problem.

[hartro-owns-my-heart-ro]

I’m here to ask about a random oc :) I love other peoples ocs

alright! you get to hear about hotshot (proper name pending or i might just get attached to her wip nickname) :3

so essentially she’s this tough acting gangly little butch who loves guns, action movies, and being the next Bear Grylls but feels very lost and unfulfilled with her life on earth, so when a group of researchers needs a guard while they do work on another planet (contact with aliens and interplanetary travel has already become commonplace on this earth), she takes the job. This is a pretty intense decision to make out of nowhere especially in her 20’s, as time dilation can seriously mess up the stability of the life you made on earth if you ever return.

while i haven’t made much for it, the main plot would be a sort of episodic sitcom of hotshot reacting to the researchers’ pretentious and unhinged antics (somewhat guillermo-esque in this regard) as she gets caught up in the wacky antics of her own job too, with occasional more serious focuses on her emotional difficulties and the things that lead her to leave earth in the first place.

attaching for you my first proper drawing of her and some doodly i did just now :3 the researchers like their 24/7 breakcore livestreams

#grem originals #asks #art #thanky for sending in an ask alex! this was fun to answer :) #hope you’re doing well!! ✨

[vanaglori-ah]

INTRODUCING...LAN !!!

full name: lanfei tsai

preferred name: lan

age: 25

pronouns: she / they

sexual orientation: bisexual

ethnicity: east asian, taiwanese

hometown: london (south london specifically)

current occupation: actress

height: 1.73 m / 5 feet 9 inches

personality: lan is often defined by her friends and family as a workaholic, blunt, and sometimes mean spirited. they carry themselves with intense nihilism, no doubt partially caused by the industry they currently work in. lan is often seen as the realist among her friends, saying things without any sort of sugar coating. their nihilism creates for caution and intense distrust in individuals. things are too good to be true most of the time so they hold onto the reality that things will get worse. lan also works a lot, mostly because she is afraid of not having enough money for her basic necessities. streaming and social media have really prevented her from making acting her only source of income so she must take on multiple jobs, such as being a part time influencer and an ambassador for multiple beauty brands. lan has an avoidant attachment style meaning they keep people at an arm’s length. it is very hard to get to know them and takes a lot of work. this explains their deep distrust in most people. if you manage to go beneath the exterior, then you will find that lan is very kind and understanding. she’s always there when you need her and she’ll throw everything out the window for you. despite her clear annoyance with, well, everything, lan is actually a very patient person. they don’t get angry or irritated. their irritation and annoyance is usually out of fun. though their initial impression of being intimidating and mean tends to trump everything in regards for people’s perception of her. and sometimes, they let that initial impression ruin their interaction with lan.

hobbies: cosplay, fashion design, art

family: father (in contact), younger brother (in contact)

bio: lan was raised by a single father in south london with her younger brother. she was known to be a tomboy and enjoyed experimenting with her gender expression at a young age. when they were about ten, they got scouted by a talent scout for a chinese company. lan was offered an opportunity to become a c-pop idol. they decided to take the chance if they could help their father out with the bills. however, after about three months, lan quit. lan hated the restriction they felt under the company’s thumb and how the company wanted to push a certain image of femininity onto them. during secondary school, lan discovered a love for acting and started in school plays and community theater. eventually, they decided to branch out into commercials before landing a main role in a teen drama called black daisies. at the age of 16, lan received critical acclaim for their performance and started reaching out for more projects including blockbuster movies, indie movies, sitcoms, west end theater productions, and soap operas. she decided to attend college while working as an actress and received her degree. she also completed her post-graduate studies as well and thus received her masters.

education: university of the arts london

ba - film and television

ma - film

quirks

lan is a polyglot. she can speak english, mandarin (albeit how taiwanese people speak it which makes her scrutinized among “proper” mandarin speakers), cantonese, french, and italian.

lan took a few courses in fashion design and uses it mostly for their cosplay hobby.

lan enjoys cosplaying male characters and has a different social media account for their cosplays. some of the popular ones have been: baizhu and zhongli from genshin impact, tengen uzui from demon slayer, kurapika from hxh, and kieran valentine from monster high.

you can find lan on instagram at tsailan. their cosplay account is tsaiplay.

lan is also on tik tok at lanlanfei and it’s a mix of regular tik tok videos and their cosplays.

lan prefers to present masculine. they don’t wear swim suits often.

#litg #litg oc #litg oc: lan #litg s5 #litg ex in the villa

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Further update in the running thread of “I Like Vinay Joshi, the Radio X producer, even though early on the frequent interference from radio producers annoyed me, and I realized it was because fundamentally they were trying to mould the comedy chat into a radio show and I just want it to be a comedy show, but since Vin took over I’ve found it less annoying, I mean obviously he’s still moulding things into proper radio because that’s his job, but he also tends to be slower to shut down the comedy riffs and lets it unfold a bit more naturally, plus his own interjections tend to be a lot funnier than ones from other people, and every once in a while he’ll make a comedy reference that makes me think the reason it works so well with him is he is also inclined toward comedy and can see where they’re going with something more easily” – I have a further update in that running thread: He just made a reference to Simon Amstell’s stand-up that went over even John’s head, even though John Robins has mentioned several times being a fan of the sitcom Grandma’s House, so you’d think he’d know that. Also, I wouldn’t have had to actually hear John Robins say he really likes the sitcom Grandma’s House, I could have just assumed that based on everything else about John Robins. But in the episode I'm listening to now, John did not pick up on Vin's fairly subtle dig at Amstell’s penchant for confusing drugs-based stand-up stories, a reference that I appreciated because despite also being a fan of Grandma’s House and most of Amstell’s stand-up, I also find the drug stories annoying.

Anyway, I’m down to thirty episodes left in the Radio X years. I think I’ll get to episode 240, then do the audiobook, then do episodes 241-264, which will be all that’s left. Though the number 264 is misleading because there have been so many bonus episodes, I think there are about 320 episodes in the XFM/Radio X years in total.

And then I guess there will be the BBC years, which is relevant to this post because there will be no more Producer Vin. I have also seen those years described as having “the edges smoothed out”, I’m not sure how that’ll work given that them on Radio X already is comedy with the edges smoothed out, given Ofcom rules. I mean it’s fine, I don’t actually need to hear a comedian say the word “cunt” to be funny, and it frequently is funny to hear them come up with creative alternatives to swear words in the moment. And as some of John’s stand-up has shown, it’s possible that there might be a nice balance somewhere between “not allowed to actually say the word ‘sex’ so they have to imply it in the vaguest possible sense and skirt way around the issue if they want to talk about it, usually best to just avoid any story that references sex entirely”, and “telling me in graphic detail about your bodily fluids being inside a specific other person whose name I know and whose face I see on TV”. The amount of edginess I like lies somewhere between those two things. But I definitely don’t listen to them on Radio X and think I wish this could have its edges smoothed out.

And I don't understand the format of the BBC episodes. It seems like they put out highlights of one radio show, and then do a separate episode with outtakes? I think. I don't like that as much. I know the Radio X episodes have been chopped up into highlights from the full radio show (which I already don't like, I liked having those episodes of the Howard/Richardson show that are the entire thing with only news and songs removed), but at least I think they're in chronological order and basically follow what happened in the show. I don't want to hear random other bits totally out of context. Which I think might be entirely whatever they're doing now, but that's 300 episodes away so I don't need to figure that out yet.

Also, here’s a thing that I think will probably be fine but I don’t really want it to come up – I broadly agree with John Robins on most political things that I’ve heard him mention, they’re supposed to avoid giving too clear political opinions on the radio show so it’s not like I know all the details, but obviously political issues affect everything so sometimes it comes out. I admire his genuine love of the tax system, for one thing. I like how difficult he found it to adhere to the “no explicitly stating your political views” when he was furious the day after the Brexit vote. There are some instances when he’ll say something and I’ll think I disagree with the specifics of that point, but it’s always about specifics, not a difference in broad value issues. Which is fine with me, because contrary to what people say about leftists, I can like people just fine if we don’t agree on every single point of every single issue. As long as I think they’re basically on side with the broad value things like whether poor people deserve to live and racism and misogyny are bad (it’s just that that shockingly low bar is too high for a shocking number of people). And he seems basically fine.

Except on one thing, which I try to ignore every time be brings it up, which is how much he admire police. And I know it’s not like he’s thinking “I hate racialized and mentally ill people and I’m glad cops hurt them.” It’s related to his overall weirdly rigid obsession with following rules to the letter. And every once in a while, while going on about how great cops are, he will throw in a caveat of “And of course sometimes they get it wrong or there are corrupt ones and of course we should get rid of those.” But mostly I just try to ignore it when he talks about that. And given this, I’m not sure I want to hear what John Robins has to say during the summer of 2020, when the widespread horrifying issues with policing were all over international news to the point where it would be hard not to mention them. I’m just not totally sure if I want to hear what John Robins had to say during that, because my mental health is being held together by too few threads for me to risk losing my ability to enjoy listening to John Robins.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get one episode into the BBC 5 Live era and say “actually this is exactly the same as before and it’s fine”. Which brings me to my next point, which is that apparently the RSS feed is deleting old ones! I swear I opened their BBC show on my podcast app just a couple of weeks ago, to make sure it was all there, and it went back to episode 1. Now I’ve gone back to look again, and they start at episode 24. I got on my laptop and went to the websites I normally use for downloading like Podbean, and it was the same everywhere. It’s not some issue with my mobile app, the whole feed’s cut the first 23 episodes.

Luckily I found that they’re all still available on the BBC Sounds website, so I immediately downloaded the first 23. That took too long, because I’m not as good as I’d like to be with this sort of thing, so I manually downloaded each one with Jdownloader, then converted them from mp4 to mp3 in a different program (I’m almost sure there’s a way to get Jdownloader to just download audio only, but I’ve never bothered to work it out), then had to name them all with the dates and episode numbers and titles. I’m now worried that they’re going to delete more old episodes, so I’d really like to just download all of the BBC episodes, and for that matter wouldn’t mind doing the XFM/Radio X episodes, because this weekend has reminded me that sometimes things disappear from RSS feeds, and also I just wouldn’t mind having all those as mp3s, will make it easier to cut out clips and stuff.

So I’ve spent several hours today trying to learn how to use the various programs that allow you to automate downloading a whole podcast, but my understanding of tech things is, I think, about 1.5 levels too low to be able to actually do it. I’m pretty good at data hoarding but as soon as I have to start messing around in the Command Prompt I get confused. It would take forever to do it all manually though, so I’ll see if I can figure it out. In the meantime – and now I finally come to the actual purpose of this post – if anyone knows how to do that, or just has mp3s of John Robins + Elis James podcasts, please let me know.

This post started out complaining about annoying Simon Amstell routines and has come a long way around since then. I've let this radio show consume my entire daily routine and I don't like change. But it will be fine.

[thebitchofadeadpoet]

6, 12 and 25 for the ask game please <3

6- which shows do you think are underrated and need more love?

I think Frasier is one of the best sitcoms ever and even though it was famous then, it is not as known as, for example, friends, which is similar. Also, Frasier's humour is much better and I think it deserves a bit more of recognition

12- have you ever watched a show just for a specific actor? did you enjoy it?

I watch most of them because of the actors.

House because of Robert Sean Leonard

Once Upon a Time because of Jennifer Morrison

Absentia because of Stana Katić

Loved them all

25- do you prefer proper opening credits, or a simple title card?

I gotta say I am the biggest opening credits fan. Really. Title cards like in Castle, OuAT or Killing Eve are okay and even fun but nothing NOTHING can be like opening credits like House or Arcane or Lois and Clark, with a song and the names and aaaaa it's super cool

#askssssss #talking about title cards Absentia has one and there's an off voice that says in a super deep tone ABSENTIA and it's hilarious and scary af

[sparrow-stunned]

I can just imagine zhongli's child going to osial and beisht since I know that beisht is not actually dead I don't know about osial tbh after the whole jade chamber thing but anyways imagine his baby going to them for marriage advice between god's as the two of them are the only god's she knows that are married in the current day of age essentially seeing as how it is a good one for beisht to want to take vengeance

Or because of the lantern rite this year darling bring Venti to celebrate as newly weds when all papa Zhongli wanted was to enjoy the holiday with his little one and try to find more loop holes he can use to get them away from Venti only to see him with his baby as well doing something he never wanted to see handholding and kissing and I can only pray for Venti if he talked about him and darling wanting to start a family of their own Zhongli is going to pass out again

ohhh god, that's just rubbing salt into beisht/osial's wounds. not only were they defeated not by adepti/gods, but by puny mortals and a stupid sky rock, now their mortal enemies' child come to them looking for love advice??

so beisht is just minding her business after that humiliating defeat, licking her wounds while trying to avoid liyue so that she can build up her strength and take revenge. then all of a sudden pops out zhongli's spawn.

darling: hi beisht... so i know that you're mad because of the whole stabbing your husband with stone spears, AND dumping the jade chamber on him... anyway. you have a good relationship with osial right? if you went so far to attack liyue to take revenge for him

beisht: feral growling noises from all three of her heads, eyes just like "what the hell are you talking about, spawn of morax??"

darling waves their hand and just keeps going: yeah, i know you're mad. but i need to know how you're supposed to deal with your parent hating your husband. i mean, i just want them to get along, since i love them both too much to pick a side... not that i can, because venti will probably be impaled by my father immediately if i abandon him

i'm imagining darling just rambling on and on about their marriage life, and beisht, after realizing the godling means no harm and IS actually just there to talk, starts nodding along. complains about her own marital problems—do you know how hard it is to visit your husband when he's in prison, morax is so stingy with visitor hours, osial never remembers our anniversary, etc. etc.

when darling mentions that venti never gave them a ring, beisht just growls: why are you with this waste of space. he sounds like a tool. you can do so much better.

and that's the story of how beisht and darling became besties, by bonding over family issues.

meanwhile, it's the lantern rites, where venti and zhongli have to grudgingly get along until darling gets back from their trip. they don't know any details, but darling had glared at them and said if they don't get along darling's going to never speak to them again—"and that includes you, father! don't murder him..." a pause "too much."

zhongli, immediately after darling leaves, pulls out a thick ass tome of liyue's legal code, trying to intimidate venti into thinking their marriage is invalid (it's not, yanfei did their paperworks). venti nodding along, chills down his back from the gleam in zhongli's eyes, silently praying for darling to get back quicker because otherwise, you might be widowed by the time you come back

and then zhongli starts talking about boundaries that need to be set. seeing his child and venti do couple-y things like handholding—or archons forbid, kissing—is going to make him either throw up or get another aneurysm.

so the rules: 1. no touching darling when i'm here. 2. no talking to them. 3. no looking at them. 4. don't even breathe in their direction. 5. ten metres apart at all time

venti's there like... ehe, zhongli... that sounds more like a restraining order more than anything else. zhongli gives him a deadpan stare and says flatly, "so you're not as stupid as i thought you were."

(bonus:

when venti accidentally mentions wanting to start a family and have children with darling, zhongli just stops breathing. "child-children?" he says, foaming at the mouth. eyes blank out and roll up in the back of his head. fingers start twitching. just turns to stone.

venti looks on with horror, thinking about whether he should just run for it. but then xiao and ganyu pop out of nowhere. looks at each other and sighs. "again?" they'll say, giving venti the stink eye, and then dump zhonngli's unresponsive body away in a wheelbarrow, so they can get madame ping to revive him.)

#psyche.answers #anonymous asks #platonic zhongli x reader #beisht becoming darling's therapist #of course she also talks shit about venti #that man sounds even worse than my own deadbeat absentee husband #besties with beisht sounds kinda fun ngl #imagine all the murder and mayhem #ganyu and xiao are zhongli's emotional support team #zhongli likes the thought of grandkids but he's imagining just a small army of ventis strumming their lyres and rhyming everything #single dad zhongli and his vendetta against son-in-law venti seems to be a running series now #this needs a proper sitcom name #my overbearing dragon father

[lokiondisneyplus]

'Loki' takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"  

Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.

Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.

"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."

His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."

Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.  

There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.

"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."

Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."  

Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.  

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.  

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

Credit: Charlie Gray for EW

When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.

"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."

As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."

Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.  

The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."

To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."

Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.

"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"

Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in 'Loki.'| Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."

As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.

"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.

Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."

#Tom Hiddleston #Loki #Disney+ #interview

[t00turnttrauma]

Second Time’s A Charm-sfk

Inspired by @sammykiszkasunusedshoes and a post that they made. 

Sam was completely taken away when he first saw her. He could have sworn he fell in love in an instant, watching how she walked through the bar like she owned it. Turns out, she did. She also owned the apartment upstairs. Paired with the drinks they’d shared at the bar, it was the perfect equation, resulting in pregnancy.

They tried to work it out at first. For the six months after she called him, Sam put his career on hold, trying to prepare himself to be a father. He was stressed. He’d felt like he was ditching his three brothers by leaving them to work on the album alone. They assured their younger brother that he had to focus on his family life for a while. The once mysterious woman became too close for comfort. They spent many nights talking it through. They decided on a plan, a name and expressed both of their desires. They both wanted to raise Henry as co-parents. They didn’t have to be a couple, but they decided to live together. Things were well until she dropped the bomb on him. She wanted Sam to quit the band, find a ‘normal’, socially acceptable job, and focus on being a family man. He could handle fatherhood and he could handle domestic life, but the idea of quitting music was off the table, in fact, it was never in the room. 

The disagreement sparked multiple fights until the day the stork delivered the bundle of joy. Despite disliking the mother of his child, he loved the little boy with all his heart. They split up soon after and she didn’t argue when he said he would look after baby Henry. She no longer had the desire to be a mother. She’d struggled to bond with him. He was a fussy child, refusing to latch when he was hungry and cried when someone else besides Sam held him. Postpartum depression hadn’t hit her, but she now no longer had a want or need for children. So, she signed away her parental rights, the letter notarized by an official right there in the hallway of the hospital and tucked with her discharge papers. 

It was fun for the first thirty minutes of having an official tour baby, then he got hungry and whiny. Henry’s mother had simply ghosted the two of them, but she sent a child support check to his bank account every month. While he thought he knew what a sleepless night was, one caused by a newborn was completely different. It felt like overnight he’d gone from a party animal to becoming his parents. He’d catch himself scolding his brothers when they came home drunk, already fixing hangover cures that they could pull from the fridge in the morning.

The bond between Henry and Sam was a strong one. They shared many things in common like a love for music and television. The two spent every hour together for the first two years of his life. He sat in the wings, watching the shows from the side. Sam tried not to rely on his brothers to babysit. This was his son and he was going to raise him. It also scared him to think of leaving his son for long periods of time. He didn’t even want to think of Henry having to stay in his hometown with the elder generation of Kiszkas so he could have proper schooling that wasn’t inside of a bus.

When Henry turned three, Danny was concerned. His godson’s terrible twos had passed and Sam no longer had much of a social circle outside of Henry, his brothers, and the mommy and me classes he’d joined for support. So he did was any sensible friend from a sitcom would do and set him up on a blind date.

Sam was terrified to go on a date for multiple reasons. His surface reason was leaving Henry for the night. That was actually the least of his worries. The last time he went on a semi-date, he ended up with a son. He hadn’t been on one in almost four years.

Josh held his nephew. “Tell dad that he’ll be okay and that he can relax, you’re with uncle Josh, right?”

Henry repeated his uncle as best as he could with the pacifier in his mouth.

“And you remember the advice we’d given you?” Jake asked, walking around the counter with a massive plate of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.

Sam regurgitated the advice they’d dropped on him. Danny was unsure how this friend felt about kids. He’d also read that many parents avoided telling people about their kids on the first date. He then pulled the condom from the inside chest pocket of his coat. “And if things go well, I use this.”

“Good,” Josh nodded. “Now go get ‘em, tiger.”

Sam arrived at the restaurant about fifteen minutes early. Ten minutes later, the hostess walked his date to the table. He stood up, greeting her with a handshake and pulling the chair out for her to sit in. She graciously thanked him and asked him to sit down again. The conversation was going well, drifting back and forth from careers to how they both knew Danny and to their personal lives.

“My son, Henry, is so funny. He does this thing where he-“ Sam caught himself. He’d already gone against the one piece of advice he’d been given.

“You have a son?” She asked, wiping her lips with her napkin.

Sam swallowed thickly. “I do. I hope that’s not a problem.”

She shook her head. “Of course not! I’m not going to push as your son should come first.” He appreciated that, and made sure that she knew it. “You can keep talking about him if you’d like. I would love to hear about him.”

In that moment, Sam knew that he’d caught a good one this time.

#sam gvf #sam kiszka #sam #sam kiszka gvf #sam x reader #greta van fleet #gretavanfleet #greta van fleet x reader #greta van fleet fanfic #josh gvf #gvf #danny gvf #gvf fanfiction #jake kiszka #jake #jacob kiszka #jake gvf #jake kiszka x reader #josh kiszka #joshua kiszka #josh kiska x reader

[n0bamak1s]

mutual - mai zenin x reader

request: “Could you write mai x non-binary s/o, where mai is realizing that she has a crush on s/o, it'd be funny to see her reaction when the s/o get asked by todo before they spar, abt the kind of woman s/o like, and s/o just shrug and answer 'mai, i guess'.” - @814519

summary: reader seems to take a liking to mai, who refuses to acknowledge her schoolgirl crush on them, and todo somehow manages to be the one to get them to stop dancing around their feelings for each other. (genre: fluff, mutual pining, slice of life-y)

warnings: swearing, mentions of fighting, mostly just fluff

word count: 2.7k

a/n: i’m sorry to take a long ass hiatus again but i have some fics i’m working on rn!! thank you all sm for being so patient with how slow i can be T_T btw this one includes some very mild miwa x reader as well just as a heads up lol!

when you first transferred schools in order to master your cursed technique, your first instinct was to raise an eyebrow at your classmates. the lineup of students in your school consisted of a boy who might as well be a bodybuilder, a blonde girl whose hair seemed to defy gravity, an awkward looking stoic boy clad in traditional clothing, a girl with a gun holster on the side of her baggy pants who wore a bored expression as her gaze met yours, and a normal looking blue haired girl standing next to some rusty looking robot. with all their strange hairstyles and odd clothing choices, combined with how nonchalant they were about their mechanical companion, they might as well be the cast of some forgotten sitcom from the 80s.

after introducing yourself to your stiff new classmates, you were whisked away to be led to your dorm by the blue haired girl (would you call her a “bluenette”?) who you learned was called miwa. as you walked, you asked her questions about her cursed technique, to which she sheepishly smiled and explained how she was the most “useless” of the students.

in response to her shameless self deprecation, you simply scoffed and sent an easy smile her way. “you really shouldn’t beat yourself up like that miwa, if you do it’ll be much easier for your opponents to.” despite the teasing nature of your words, you really did hope you’d managed to encourage her a bit.

miwa turned to you with bright eyes and a sincere smile. “that means a lot, really! it’ll be so nice to have an upperclassman here who isn’t so intimidating. i’m always so nervous to ask mai for help with stuff, so it’s nice to know you believe in me!”

her smile was infectious as you mirrored your junior’s facial expression. “there’s no need to be scared of them you know, believe me, just because they’re older doesn’t mean they have any idea what they’re doing.”

she shrugged in response. “i guess you might be right, this morning mai was practically shaking in her boots about getting to meet you, so maybe it’s all just a tough facade!”

you thought back to the girl who had introduced herself as mai.

what first caught your eye was the way she carried herself. while next to her other classmates as she introduced herself to you, arms crossed over her chest and back straight, as if it was an attempt to look high and mighty. rather than a proper introduction, she simply told you her name, before looking away boredly. the both of you chose to ignore the way todo teased her, before turning to introduce himself with a smug smile. he opened his mouth to seemingly ask you something, but was quickly cut off by mai stomping on his foot, sending him a harsh look. she glanced back at you with a slightly softer expression and a monotone apology for “his idiocy.”

you chuckled quietly at the idea of the girl who presented herself as so blunt and cold getting all nervous at the idea of your arrival.

breaking you out of your reminiscence, miwa waved her hands in front of her nervously as she turned to you. “just please don’t tell her i said that!” her guilty expression rivaled that of a kid who’d been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

before she could continue in her nervous exclamation about how intimidated she was by her senior, you grabbed her hands that had been motioning wildly to match her words. “don’t worry miwa, i’d never sell you out like that.” you let out a small chuckle as you examined the genuine worry on her face, to which she just sheepishly smiled. it was funny to you how scared she seemed of her seniors, but it couldn’t help you from getting an odd urge to want to protect the small girl.

“besides,” your smile turned sly “, if what you say is true, i bet mai would be too shy to even talk to me!” a loud laugh escaped your lips as you continued your way down the dorm halls with long strides. behind you, miwa sped up when remembering she was supposed to be the one escorting you to your dorm.

“come on, that’s not fair to hang it over my head like that!” she whined as she managed to match your pace.

as miwa trailed ever so slightly behind you, you caught sight of a newly familiar head of dark hair (under the fluorescent lighting you couldn’t entirely tell whether it was green or black.)

“mai!” you called out to the girl you’d been newly acquainted with, raising one hand in greeting and slinging the other around your very embarrassed looking juniors shoulders.

the girl you’d shouted to turned to you with heavy lidded eyes that gave her face a bored, almost annoyed, expression. her turning your way was quickly followed by todo, who you guessed had been standing next to her, glancing over the hallway corner to meet your gaze. those two made an odd pair, from what you could tell. in contrast to mai’s impassive greeting, todo had introduced himself with booming confidence, before going on to complain to utahime that he’d have to leave in order to make it back to his dorm to score tickets for a concert featuring takeda. in the moment, you had to stifle a laugh at the memory of such an intimidating looking dude having a huge crush on an idol with absolutely no shame about it.

mai opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly cut off by todos roaring voice. “hey new kid!” his demeanor had been as confident as you remember, despite the fact that you were pretty sure he’d forgotten your name in the short time from when you had left to see your dorm. you gave him a smile and a lopsided wave in response.

“did you snag those tickets you were worried about earlier todo?”

“easily.” he bragged as if you cared about getting a pair of tickets for yourself. “however, earlier i meant to ask you a question, but SHE,” he pointed a thumb annoyedly at his companion, “very rudely interrupted me by stepping on my foot.”

“todo…” mai’s tone seemed warning as her eyes flickered between you and him.

“as much as i would LOVE to hear what your question is todo, i really do have to go unpack” you smiled abashedly, pulling miwa to your side, who nodded with wide eyes at how unphased you were.

“it might be better to ask when we spar later.” he shrugged. “that way i can really hear your impulse answer.” he crossed his arms, clearly to look intimidating.

“works for me! i’ll see you then too, mai.” you winked at her as you tugged miwa along behind you. mai huffed at your embarrassing show of flirtatiousness, but you didn’t miss the slight flush of her cheeks as she turned from you while rounding the corner.

even as you were close to the door of your dorm at the end of the hall, you could still hear mai berating todo for how embarrassing he was.

“i think she likes me.” a cat like grin overtook your face as you stopped in front of your dorm.

“utahime said your uniform would be folded on your bed, once you’re changed you can join us for sparring.” miwa smiled bashful smile. she’d probably chosen to ignore your previous statement in hopes of not being dragged into any drama.

“thanks miwa!” you grinned and gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder, to which she simply looked away timidly.

“it’s no problem, really.” she waved off your appreciation. “but between the two of us, i think you may be right about mai liking you.”

she bowed before running off, probably to get ready for sparring, leaving you grinning like an idiot in response to her revelation.

maybe the feeling was kinda mutual.

you were quick to change into your all black uniform pants and jacket, then breaking into a stride to the yard where sparring took place. that was, until you realized you were wandering rather aimlessly considering, you know, you didn’t really know where the yard was yet. peering around the hallway, your eye caught on an oh so familiar girl adorned in baggy black pants.

“hey mai!” you almost had it in you to feel bad for approaching her yet again.

almost.

“i’m kinda lost, d’you think i could walk with you?”

she nodded a yes in response, motioning with a hand for you to follow her.

after a one too many moments of awkward silence, you decided you’d have to be the one to bite the bullet and break it. “you know that thing todo was saying earlier about having a question he needed to ask me?” she looked up in a way that made her seem as if she’d just been brought out of being lost in her thoughts.

“what of it?”

“do you happen to know what it was? he seemed pretty serious about it.” well, as serious as todo could get.

to your surprise, mai attempted to stifle a chuckle, before a laugh managed to slip past her.

“it’s this totally dumb thing he likes to do.” she tilted her head slightly back so she looked at the ceiling as she talked. “to size people up, he likes to ask them what their type in women is.”

you let out a snort as you laughed, though you couldn’t say you were surprised.

“he seems like such a hopeless romantic, it’s hilarious.”

“yeah.” a soft smile painted her face. “but you’d better get an answer ready, if he thinks you’re too boring he’ll beat your ass.”

“really now?” you raised an eyebrow, to which she nodded in confirmation. “what does he classify as ‘boring’?”

she shrugged. “depends. whenever someone prefers personality he either beats the shit out of them or starts crying.” it was clear in her tone how exasperated her friend made her.

“what did you say? when he asked you?” you turned to face her fully, which made her realize how close together your faces were. for just a beat, she paused to examine your expression. despite your earlier teasing, you seemed sincere in your question. either you were oblivious to the blush spreading across her face, or you chose not to tease her for it.

before an answer could leave her parted open lips, she was interrupted by a voice calling both of your names.

“hey toshinori!” you smiled at the stone faced boy in front of you as you used mai’s shoulder as an armrest.

“it’s noritoshi.” the monotony in his voice made you stifle a laugh. “and you guys are running late for sparring, what were you even doing?”

her eyes glowered in his direction, clearly not in the mood to play hall monitor with him. “i was just being welcoming to our new classmate.”

he ignored her passive aggressive response and turned to you. “todo keeps asking where you are, so you might wanna hurry up.” with a swift turn, he began walking down the hallway with long strides.

once he seemed out of earshot, you burst into laughter, and from your arm you could feel mai’s shoulders shake from repressing a giggle.

“he walks like a goddamn penguin!” you referred to how his arms were wide at his sides and his stiff steps.

“him and mechamaru walk the exact same way, i’m starting to think he might just be a more advanced robot.” her dry tone was combatted by the way the corners of her mouth turned up in a lopsided grin.

“though, we should probably get going, even if i get a pass for being new here, i’m not sure how utahime would react to you being late.”

you didn’t notice how her eyes softened at your concern for her as you beckoned for her to lead the way.

“i don’t think she’d mind, after all utahime loves me for my pep and bubbly spirit.” her voice oozed with sarcasm while you smiled to yourself about how you’d managed to get her to loosen up.

the walk to the sparring field was quick, and it made you wonder how much time you two had taken just talking at the end of the hallway. you were greeted by the sight of your strangely styled classmates (plus the literal robot) beginning to split into pairs. before you could turn to mai with the question of partnering up, you were greeted by a todo with a firm hand on your shoulder.

“we’re partnering up, new kid!” it was more of a declaration than an offer. you smiled awkwardly as his shadow enveloped your figure, seeing mai be whisked away by momo out of the corner of your eye. if you’d looked close enough, you’d have been able to see the annoyed look mai sent at todo and the smug smile momo flashed at mai and her obvious display of jealousy.

you planted your feet on the ground that was caked in dust and prepared yourself into a fighting stance, with fists raised and legs steady. though it seemed you’d gotten prepared to defend from an attack that wasn’t coming. instead, todo marched over to you confidently. mai glanced over from her sparring, knowing exactly what was coming.

he called your name in his usual booming voice, which you were surprised he actually knew.

“what is your type in women?” he towered over you, his expression dead serious despite his absolutely ridiculous question.

feeling mai’s eyes trailing you, you glanced over to her. she mouthed something to you about not saying personality. you failed to hold back a chuckle, which seemed to snap todo out of his intimidating glower.

his gaze followed yours, which was still focused on mai for the briefest of moments.

“ohhhh i get it…you’ve got a thing for mai, huh?” he sounded like a child about to blackmail their sibling.

a furious blush overtook mai’s face practically instantly, while momo covered her mouth with a hand to suppress a laugh. you glanced between a boastful looking todo and a tomato looking mai.

���yeah i guess you could say she’s my type.” you shrugged nonchalantly, to which you could hear mai sputtering something about how you were just trying to embarrass her. miwa had a sheepish look on her face as she walked over to check on mai, though it only seemed to make her more flustered when miwa asked if she wanted to go to the nurse.

while witnessing the admittedly charming trainwreck happening in front of you, there was a moment for you to look back at todo.

“are you CRYING?”

“i have no shame in it. it’s like mai is my daughter and i’m walking her down the aisle at her wedding.”

“it’s absolutely nothing like that, todo.”

he ignored your blatant confusion at his reaction. “young love is so beautiful. you have my full blessing to date mai.” he sniffles and wiped his nose, then held it out for you to shake, to which you scrunched your nose in disgust.

“thanks for the ‘blessing’ and all, but now that we’re done with that, i think i should go spar with lover girl over there.” you threw your thumb over your shoulder to point to mai.

“you guys should join me and takeda for a double date! we can arrange a date once she finally answers my calls.” todo had a large grin, shameless about his tear stained cheeks.

“how about it?” you raised an eyebrow at mai, who had become significantly more composed in the time you hadn’t been looking in her direction.

“absolutely not.” she deadpanned, though her impassive look didn’t last very long as she leaned over to whisper in your ear, cracking a small smile reserved for you. “i’d rather we just hang out without that oaf, you know it’s embarrassing for them to see how you get me acting like a schoolgirl with her first crush.”

the moment paused for a split second for her to glance at todo, who was staring you down like a disapproving father.

“plus lord knows takeda isn’t answering him anytime soon.”

“I HEARD THAT!”

#mai zenin x reader #mai zenin imagine #mai zenin x you #zenin mai x reader #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk headcanons #mai zenin #zenin mai #jjk imagines

[meetevieinthehallway]

hi! here’s a crappy old blurb that i had sitting in the drafts!

in which lovie is sick and stressed from uni at one in the morning and harry finds her hyperventilating.

harry was absolutely exhausted.

per usual— but there was a specific ache in his back today, one that had accompanied him from morning to night—he told his love they needed a new mattress, she told him he needed to stop laying twisted to her chest (he refuses to do so, pouting every time she suggests it)—and it’s pulsing at the top of his spine and making him wince in certain positions. 

his hair at this point was ultimately unruly and unkempt from the amount of times his fingers ran through, pulling and tugging in frustration, as if he could rip new ideas out of his scalp.

his hands were sore, too, from gentle plucks of the guitar he had toyed this afternoon, praying that the indents in his fingertips would bring about motivation, inspiration— god, that it would bring anything.

he’s desperate to get out of this block.

nevertheless, he cranked out two songs today, making him ultimately beaming and his throat a bit raw and tired.

he stumbled through the door with heavy feet and an unzipped coat, his nose pink from the cold circulating in the outside air. his beanie had been pulled down to the middle of his forehead from the time he walked from inside the studio to his awaiting driver, who he last-minute remembered possessed a peculiar hatred for artificial heating. so, correspondingly, harry’s body never warmed up in the fifteen minute drive, causing his toes to go numb and his teeth to chatter lightly. he would never ask him to crank the heat, because it’s bad enough he has to drive around a famous stranger all day— harry wasn’t gonna torture the guy with something he specifically despised. (no matter how fucking weird it was). 

his boots clunked as he passed through the doorway, wrinkling his nose up and closing the door behind him with his back. a wince, a sharp inhale, then a slow exhale, eyes closed. it was a solid minute before he cracked his eyes open— but he swore he could have fallen asleep standing. 

his love had reduced the lighting significantly, the lamps dimmed and several candles lit around the room. it was close to dark, matching the scene outside, and the warmth wrapped his body and nuzzled him. he smiled lazily, his hand carding up and taking the beanie off his hair, curls bouncing out as he shivered. she lit that vanilla candle he likes, and he can feel the sleepiness start to settle further into his veins.

“angel? where are ye, bub?” harry’s voice was a soft coo and his dimples appeared as he leaned his hand against the wall.

he kicked his shoes off, throwing his coat on a chair nearby as he hummed his way down the foyer. he craved for his girl like he craved the warmth to envelop him; he wanted her wrapped around and within his soul, caressing his skin until he was lulled to sleep. he couldn’t wait to bury his face in her neck and stay there for a while, his lips caressing her own and her skin for a time before he found the energy to carry her to bed. he always told her to stop waiting up for him, but she would kiss her teeth and roll her eyes and tell him shut up, and that was that. 

stubborn little thing she was— and he loved every ounce of it.

harry pondered what she could be doing on his search for her, thinking about how she may be sleeping with a book on her chest in the den or giggling at a sitcom in the living room; either way, she’d be cozy and wrapped in a blanket—maybe, hopefully, in his shirt, maybe even with no pants on and—

oh.

he was completely wrong.

he turned a corner with a half smile, hearing her laptop keys being softly pressed, but his face sank and his eyebrows furrowed quickly, his lips slowly pronouncing her name.

she was sat on the floor in a ball, papers scattered around her frame and closing in on her body, her face in her hands and a bun wrapped on the top of her head. she was sniffling softly and her breaths were deep— yet shaky. he could hear her mumbling to herself, yet not responding to her name.

“angel?”

she jumped, looking up at him and harry frowned at her red-rimmed eyes and red nose. the sweet thing looked so sad and worn, eyes wide and teary.

“what’s goin’ on, baby?” he padded towards her, her head shaking as she started to begin typing again. “hey hey—” he mumbled, starting to sink to the floor.

she’s continuing to type, not ignoring him as much as she’s so out of it he doesn’t know if she’s here, but he grabs at her hands to stop typing, pulling them towards him. she whines, shooing him away, and his concern deepens. “angel.” he murmurs, tilting his head, starting to pull her body towards him. she barely turns her face away from the screen, but his thumbs still move to pad away her fallen tears as she writhed to get out of his hold. “hey.” he said, “now wait just a mo’, bub—”

“jus’ let me finish—”

“it’s one in the morning.”

she’s typing again, hitting a few keys before he grabs at her hands, stronger, pulling them toward his chest. 

“why are you writing at this hour?”

she finally meets his eyes, and she’s snapped back to reality. and once she sees the concern swimming in his irises, it breaks her. she’s sobbing once more, harsher than how she has all night, whining and whimpering as she tried to get back to her laptop. he shakes his head, picking her up, placing her bum on his thigh and draping her legs across his own. she immediately falls into his chest, and she feels fragile. 

“stop.” he murmured, pinning her hands down with his own, right on her lap. his thumbs run over her wrists. “take a breath, baby— ’s not good for you. tell me what’s wrong.”

she whimpered then, taking her sleeves and wiping her face, sniffling and shaking, her breathing trembling. “’m so tired.” she cried, wiping her nose and keeping her palms to her eyes.

“you need sleep. why the fuck are you doing work this late, hm?” he’s petting at her hair. “you’re so overwhelmed—” he pauses, to press his lips to her forehead, but he inhales sharply when he felt the heat resonating from her skin. “oh, angel. we definitely need to get you to bed, you are burning up—”

“can’t!”

he flinched as she said it in frustration and sadness, in between a sob; she hastily, in a blur of quick movements, reaches and grabs her computer again, settling it on her thighs before furiously typing.

“stupid paper for my stupid professor on a topic i hate and he made it due at two a-and i just don’t feel well—”

her mumbling broke into cries but she kept going, and harry couldn’t understand how she was simultaneously describing her frustration while continuing sentences about god-knows-what-topic. she was frantic, tears still falling and if she didn’t slow down harry swore she was going to pass out.

“have you been writing this all day?” his hand rubbed at her back.

she sniffled, shaking her head. “been sick and gross all day and i completely forgot. ‘m so fucking stupid and now i jus’ wanna be done—” she gasped for air and broke completely, her voice choking on sobs. her trembling hands pressed to her eyes, cries escaping her lips and her head shaking. “it doesn’t even make sense. can’t focus. ’ve been throwin’ up all day and i jus’ wanna sleep, but—”

“woah, what?” he sputtered. “you didn’t think to call me?” he asked incredulously.

her head fell forward in time with her shoulders, the jumper on her body sliding off her collarbones. her head was absolutely throbbing, pulsing with need and making her dizzy. she looked up and her eyes closed tight, weeping more intensely. her sleeves came to her eyes slowly, pitifully, and harry realized that him scolding her was not what she needed right now. he grabbed her and pulled her back to his chest, her sobs increasing and her will to fight against him diminishing.

“okay, okay, okay.” harry mumbled as his hand came to the back of her head, his thumb stroking the base of her neck. she completely collapsed into his collarbones, her forehead heated and her eyes squeezed closed, a trembling jaw and sniffly nose pressed to him. she was a proper mess. “—hey hey.”

his love whined once, then sniffed, blinking her eyes open to view her fumbling fingers. she sighed, hiccuping, sitting up to look harry in the eyes. he frowned when he saw her flushed cheeks and watery lashes, his knuckles gently coming up to brush at her skin. she smiled sadly, her lips quivering.

“’m sorry i didn’t call.” she swiped at her eyelid, breath staggered. “didn’t wanna disturb you.” he gazed at her with sad eyes and frowned. “a-and... you— ….” she whimpered, shaking her head and gazing at him. “you just walked through the door ’nd you’re like— not even settled and—” her breath hitched and more tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, and harry cooed. her eyebrows furrowed and her soaked sleeves came to her lips, covering them and shaking her head. “’m sorry—” she whispered.

“no no no.” he murmured, brushing her loose strands of hair away. “no apologies, love, okay?”

she sniffled, leaning forward until she was in his neck again, whimpering. harry’s face sunk, his lips kissing the top of her head as he rubbed her spine.

“i hafta finish.” she whimpered, shaking her head. harry kissed her forehead and sighed, shaking his own.

“no. we are going to email your professor and if he has a problem, he can speak to me and—”

“can’t!” she cried, “no exceptions, must be turned in on time.” her voice dropped several octaves to mock her asshole of a professor, and harry shook his head.

“don’t care.”

she hiccuped, eyes sad. “h—”

“i don’t care about his stupid rules.” he gruffed. “you’re sick as hell and your health comes before anything. understand?” his voice is deep and monotonous, frustrated, but not at her. harry wasn’t going to let this teacher make his girl feel as if she must finish a stupid paper when she’s most likely got the stomach flu.

“please, angel. let me get you settled and i will email him, kay?”

she sniffled. she stared up at him with weepy eyes and saw his desperation in his irises. her head was spinning and her throat was sore, but he gazed at her like she spun the stars into their orientations. even with teary eyes, skin irritated and red, he looked at her with such care and awe. 

she looks down momentarily and suddenly realizes how bright her laptop seemed, and how the words on her page looked garbled and wrong. even if she wanted to keep going, she doesn’t think she physically could. 

she wiped her nose, eyes fluttering around his face. she nodded slowly. “okay” she murmured, shoulders deflating a bit. 

harry smiled small and placed a wet kiss to her nose, mumbling an “atta girl”. 

she stood slowly, knees cracking as harry’s jumper fell to her the middle of her thighs, the bunched up socks coating her ankles and feet falling off. she was utterly adorable to him, even with teary eyes and a sad frown. 

“c’mere, i’ll carry you to bed, angel.”

god did she love him.

he bent slowly, and she draped her weight over his spine, lazily putting her arms around his neck. harry’s hurting back was no longer important to him, because her breath was soft and hitting the back of his neck and the top of his arm, and he swears heaven has continuously blessed him. 

“thank you, harry.” she mumbles it as she slides off his back once they are next to their bed, and he presses his lips to her forehead, then her cheeks. he lays her down, pulling the covers over her, stroking her hair back from her eyelids. she catches his hand and holds it to her cheek, her eyes looking at him.

“sleep, pretty girl. i’ll be in bed soon.” 

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