#unfortunately keeping up to date with the ~scene~ is part of my job

[thatgirlwhokeepsreading]

Me, every time I buy my season ticket for the state theatre company: urgh like $250 eight play package comes out to $32 per show, and that’s for the Under 30 concession, like no wonder it’s just industry peeps and old people who see theatre these days

Me, deciding I’m finally going to see some ballet and opera this year: okay, so the season package is… Jesus Christ Why Is This Twice The Money For Half The Shows. Why does the opera not have Under 30 or even youth tickets. You’re breaking the cost down by show, you’re showing it to me, why is this one where the music is prerecorded twice the price of this one where music live half the time and the same price as one where it’s only recorded music for matinee. Are instrumentalists not your biggest cost?? Is personnel not your biggest cost?????

#NOTICE FOR IF THIS POST BREACHES CONTAINMENT: I work in + am getting PhD in performing arts #unfortunately keeping up to date with the ~scene~ is part of my job #with that said #to be fair and balanced I got a further discount on my shows bc I got a refund from last years cancelations which means #*refund on my theatre package #five ballet shows was exactly double the price I paid #(once I’d gotten the U30 discount which was not initially visible) #and the children’s ballet (so cheapest) was still $45!! #pros of opera: season package allows you the same % discount on whatever type of seat #(ballet it’s 15-20% off second tier tickets which does make it marginally cheaper than just getting the worst tier seats but like… c’mon ) #so opera was four shows for around $50 a piece BUT they were all me picking the worst tier of seating and being full time student #and again they played the mind came of knocking $10-20 off when I got to the end and said of was a student (i.e. tickets were $60-70) #*mind game #also at my state theatre company if you have the full eight show package you can basically call and be like ‘🥺 can I move my ticket’ #and they’ll just do it #in my experience ballet is like ‘you paid $90 for a student ticket but fuck you’ #(to be clear I mean move the date you’re seeing the show) #and where the company has teired seating the season tickets get the best seats for their night on a first come first served basis #anyway capitalism was a mistake UBI now and subsidise the arts #(like these are all the state companies so I guess I mean Subsidise It More) #it me

[cinnamostar]

three dates to fall in love

part one. part two. part three. part four. part five (here). part six (coming soon).

pairing : hyunjin x gn!reader

summary : after a two year long unspoken hatred, hyunjin and you are forced to be costars in a romantic series, but when it comes to filming any of the romance scenes, you both utterly fail and are unable to get through your lines. the director threatens to take your roles away if you two aren't able to get past this within the next week, which spawns the genius idea from both your managers: can you learn to (fake) fall in love in seven dates and save your careers?

wc : 2.5k

cw : actor!au, enemies to lovers ?!, slowburn , not proofread, nothing crazy :)

a/n : im back from my hiatus and omggg i graduated from my masters program wahoooo! here's part five. let me know what you think! theres not much going on here to be honest........ its pretty chill

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“Yo,” Changbin answers from the other end of the line, his heavy breaths echoing through the call.

“Are you still working out?” Hyunjin asks incredulously, pulling the phone back to check the time, “You said you were going to the gym two hours ago and you’re still there?”

“Gotta keep these bad boys in shape, ya know?” Changbin teases, a giggle ringing through as he is most, (and he is), checking himself out in the mirror, “What’s up though? Did you just get home?”

“At this point, you look more like a bodyguard than my manager.”

“I take that as a compliment! Thank you very much, but I believe you have something to discuss with me, hm?”

“I mean, it went well?” Hyunjin responds with uncertainty in his voice, causing Changbin to sigh from the other end of the line.

“Is that all..? Are you just going to call me every time to tell me only that?” Changbin asks with annoyance, unable to understand the actor’s unwillingness to share anything more about the arrangement he found himself in. “You know, I’ll just end up calling Chan and hearing it from him instead…”

“Huh?”

Changbin smirks to himself, knowing that would capture the younger’s attention, “Yeah, you know, Y/N has a lot to say. I know all about it. It’s the only way I know how things are going.”

“What do they say?”

“Why do you care?”

“I just do.”

“And I should tell you because…?”

Hyunjin frowns at the back-and-forth, feeling peeved Changbin, his manager, wasn’t divulging any information upfront, “Because I’m the one going on dates with them and I should probably know…?”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me how today went.”

“It went well, I already told you that.”

“Tough luck, buddy, that won’t do. How unfair, especially when Y/N has sooo much to say,” Changbin dramatically mocks a sob, “Yet you, oh, you have so little to offer. It’s like you’re not enjoying any of it.”

Hyunjin rolls his eyes at his antics, frustration bubbling within him, “I am enjoying it and it is going well. Is that good enough for you?”

“Nope.”

“Okay.”

“Okay… So, can I hang up now?”

“No.”

“So you want me to stay on the phone in silence with you?” Changbin asks, a smirk still plastered on his face because he knew, eventually, Hyunjin would relent to Changbin’s teasing. It was always like this, Hyunjin was hard to read and never shared much with Changbin, which honestly makes his job as his manager a lot more difficult than he’d like. The only times Hyunjin would be transparent with him about his emotions was when he was complaining about something, or the time he panickedly called him after his very unfortunate date with you, and how he realized what a big mistake he had made. Other than that, Hyunjin lips were always sealed tight. Either because he was a private person or was bad at vocalizing his feelings, Channgbin didn’t know, but he was getting annoyed at Hyunjin calling him after every day with the same three words every time. ‘It went well.’ God, those words were pissing him off and he felt like his time was being wasted because now, he had to call Chan and find out from him what was going on. After another few moments of silence, Changbin sighs once more, “Okay, I’m hanging up now —”

“N-no, wait!” Hyunjin interrupts him, a slight tremor in his voice.

“Okay, now I’m waiting.”

“Today went well, and I know I already said that, let me finish,” rambles Hyunjin, the words slowly clawing their wait up his throat, “It’s just… it’s a lot nicer than I thought it would have been. They’re super kind and welcoming to me even though I was a complete asshole to them.”

Changbin smiles victoriously to himself, ecstatic to finally hear this simple, yet salient confession out of the younger boy, “Oh, that’s good then. Sounds like they’re doing their best to make it work.”

“Yes, but I also… feel really bad about it too,” Hyunjin grimaces at the guilt he had been trying to ignore, it sneaking up to the forefront of his mouth as he speaks, “I really don’t think I deserve any of this from them, but they’re treating me sorta like nothing ever happened before and it’s a little weird to get use to this side of them. The more I realize how wrong I was about them, the shittier I feel.”

“Man, I don’t blame you, but I think you gotta give yourself some credit. It sounds like you both are handling this weird situation the best you can. Have you told them this?”

“Yeah, and that’s what makes this feel worse. They were so sweet about it, they comforted me when I was the one who hurt them,” groans Hyunjin, pinching the bridge of his nose as he squeezes his eyes shut, “And they… they said they need time to forgive me, which is fine! I get that entirely, but… I don’t think I’ll be able to forgive myself until they do?”

“Mhm, I understand what you’re feeling isn’t easy, but don’t you think you should at least try to be nicer to yourself? I mean… It sounds like Y/N cares about you enough, and if they want you to feel better about the situation, shouldn’t you try for their sake?”

“I guess, but it’s not that easy, Changbin –”

“I never said it was easy,” Changbin responds pointedly, “But wallowing up in guilt is no way to be living either, I’m sure Y/N knows that too and doesn’t want you beating yourself up this much about it when you’re both trying to move forward.”

“I don’t know…”

“Just give it a try, it won’t hurt. You can hold yourself accountable and still be nice to yourself. Alright, but I have to go now, so byeee!”

Hyunjin frowns, “Wait, no, you’re supposed to tell me–” only for him to be cut off by the sound of the call ending, “... what Y/N said…”

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Hyunjin decided to take both yours and Changbin’s advice to heart and do his very best to practice compassion, yet he forgot how terribly difficult that was until the next day arrived. In theory, it should be simple to just be nicer to himself, but his heart kept contorting and aching with guilt throughout the day, it becoming too much to bear as he tried to figure out how to control that emotion. He had to eventually learn to be in your presence without that harrowing, bottomless pit that would form in his stomach, especially if you two were going to be costars for the rest of filming.

So here he was, his face and ears tinged with red as he sat across you on a picnic blanket, an assortment of foods between you two, and a gentle breeze causing locks of your hair to dance. Despite the chilly weather, Hyunjin could feel himself being covered in what he can only describe as a cold sweat while his stomach flipped onto himself. He was nervous, anxious even, and he had zero clue on how to deal with what he called guilt, shame, humiliation. He wasn’t sure which word was the best descriptor for this very moment, but he could barely sit still, constantly fidgeting as he tried to turn his gaze away from you, hoping the blues of the lake would ease his nerves that had not stopped rapid firing since noon. 

“You okay?” You ask, lifting a sushi piece to your mouth as you eyed Hyunjin with a cocked up eyebrow.

He freezes up for a moment, before forcing a nervous smile with a nod, “Oh, yeah, I’m fine!” He tries to force his voice into a more cheery tone, but he can tell you could see right through him. Somehow, you could read the faintest microexpressions from him, but he’s thankful to see you shrug your shoulders and not press on any further. It was almost as if you had the ability to read his mind, knowing when it was right to question his behavior or just let him revel in his own thoughts.

“Well, you should eat some more! I need some help finishing all this food Changbin ordered for us,” you laugh, picking up a piece of sushi between your chopsticks and lifting it towards him, “Here, open up!” you say in a teasing tone.

He rolls his eyes, “You know, I can feed myself,” but he felt his stomach bubble up with inexorable nerves, his words almost getting caught in his throat. You playfully pout at his words, “Oh, c’mon, just eat it! I know you want to.” You wiggle the sushi in front of his face in some poor attempt to entice him, but it was only causing him to become uncomfortably warm as he did his best to look anywhere that wasn’t your face. “Fine, fine,” he responds, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible as he opens his mouth as you plop the sushi into it, the beating of his heart thumping loudly in his ears. 

“Good, right?” You smile.

He nods his head, his eyes crinkling at the overwhelming flavor as hums in agreement, “Wow, yeah, which one was that?” 

“Mmm, I think that one is toro salmon? I’m not sure,” you giggle at his reaction, feeling pleased with yourself that you managed to whittle away at the awkwardness he wore around you. Hyunjin was constantly on edge around you, the nerves obvious in the frown lines of his forehead, and while you could understand why, you were hoping he would start to loosen up around you as time went on. Despite everything that has occurred over the past two years, you were starting to yearn for the friendship you and Hyunjin once had and wished to be able to return to that comforting time. 

However, it was never that simple, as your desire for his friendship was often overshadowed with memories of his cruel words, how easily he spat them out to you without a moment of hesitation. A moment of innocent banter could just take you back to that time because somehow, his banter and cruelty shared a similar inflection, just enough to cause your eyes to prick with tears if you noticed it. The lasting impact his words had on you was a stark reminder for you to not so easily forgive him, to not forget what he was once capable of. But no matter how hard you tried to look past it and solely focus on your friendship with him, there was this inexplicable rift between you two, a hurdle neither you could just quite jump over, though perhaps it was this mutual understanding that allowed you both to understand each others’ quietness. It was strange, you two had become strangers that understood the language your souls’ whispered, but neither retained that fluency and were struggling to recall the words you once spoke.

The silence returns, enveloping you both as the wind hushedly howls, the sounds of birds chirping filling in the empty pages of dialogue as you each continue to eat. Every now and then someone would comment on the food, how good it tasted and thanking God for letting Changbin set up such a delicious day, finishing the last bits of sashimi that was left on the plate.

“Oh jeez, I’m so full,” you mutter, sleepiness slowly creeping its way into your body, “Ah, but we gotta take pictures, I don’t wanna deal with a whiny Changbin.”

Hyunjin snorts, knowing all too well the fit his manager would throw if his date plans were not followed through, especially when he made it clear to the both of you that he wanted proof that you two actually did take those pictures. All he wanted was for each of you to take photos of the other, a mini photoshoot by the lake, while also insisting it would be a great post for either of your instagrams. “Yeah, let's not do that to ourselves.” He lifts himself up from the floor, anxiously offering a hand to help you up, quickly retracting after you stood while ignoring the electric nerves bouncing at the palm of his hands. 

“I’ll take your pictures first, okay?” You say, your phone already in hand as you gesture to him to stand in front of the lake, “Luckily, the sun is out, so maybe we will get some nice photos to post,” you add on. Meanwhile, Hyunjin, very stiffly, stood ahead of you, unsure what to do with his body and how to pose. Normally, he is good at this kind of stuff, he has done plenty of photoshoots in the past, but he was terrified at the thought of embarrassing himself in front of you. Before, he had never once had this concern, this worry, he didn’t know why these thoughts kept forming each time he thought of you. It clouded his mind, preventing him from seeing any logic or reason. “Alright, model boy, do your thing, I know you know how to work the camera,” you call out, snapping Hyunjin out of his trance. 

If he wasn’t sweating before, he most definitely was now as he body overheated under the sudden pressure he put onto himself as he robotically posed, and you, as always, couldn’t help but notice the lack of elegance he usually carried himself with. “Oh, c’mon, what’s up with you today?” 

“I… I don’t know, I’m just nervous… I think?”

“Well, I can see that,” you sigh, placing a hand on your hip, “But, you got no reason to be! It’s just me!”

“I think it being you is the issue,” he murmurs out, not really meaning for the words to slip out his mouth.

You press your lips into a straight line, “Right, I get that. Sooo, how about you pretend it’s not me taking the pictures, but Changbin?”

Hyunjin breathes out a sarcastic laugh, “Oh, yea, that will totally work, you make a very convincing Changbin.”

“Oh, right, let me just-” you roll up the sleeves of your shirt, exposing your biceps as you make a poor attempt to flex them, “How about now, is this working?”

Hyunjin found himself laughing loudly at your very sudden and unexpected antics, his stomach flipping onto itself as a flurry of affection rushed over him. You looked absolutely ridiculous, yet something about it was incredibly endearing despite the goofiness that radiated off of you. However, the sound of the camera shuttering from your phone quickly made him pause his laughter. “Hm, I think you look pretty cute in this,” you smile, turning the screen towards him to see you had captured a photo of him in the midst of his giddiness. He felt his cheek flush at your words, the shyness that had temporarily disappeared made its presence known. “I guess it’s not bad, just… a little different from what I usually post online.”

“Good different, right?” You ask, a smile still gracing features as the sun kisses your features, the wind gently brushing through your hair. 

“Definitely a good different.”

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taglist (closed): @kopikokrunch @icouldntcareless22 @kidrauhlschik @hhwangsmoon @lestayzone @cupidcures @sleepyxxhead @pinkpunkdynamite @kaiyaba @palindrome969 @aokiss @annybah @tigerroarsinthelight @bubbly-moon @nattisbored @jin-from-the-block @hyuneyeon

#cinnamostar writes #skz x reader #stray kids x reader #skz fanfic #skz imagines #hyunjin x reader #hwang hyunjin #stray kids hyunjin #hyunjin imagines #hwang hyunjin fanfic #hwang hyunjin x reader #skz scenarios #skz hyunjin #stray kids scenarios

[justanotherdrfan]

Ladies and gentlemen the last instalment of DTS BREAKDOWN!

Spoiler below, open as you will!

S6E10 (Red or Black) 🔴⚫️♥️♠️♦️♣️

Charles in the snow (he is the snow angel)

HOLY SHIT CARLOS 🥵

They are quite literally fire and ice at Ferrari

It’s Mercedes vs Ferrari (but let’s use the Red Bull car for the pitstop intro because remembers it’s always RED BULL)

GUENTHERR ♥️

Red Bull have the best driver content

Look Danica I know, we know your full of shit when you say ‘there is so much put into the race’ (yeah just not in the drain covers to keep them screwed down)

Ohh you came to Vegas before with your bestfriends did you Charles? ( I do recall you went with Daniel so he’s a bestie then) 👬

Not Christian giving Daniel shit about leading a race for once

Daniel mentions Vegas and you can see him look off recalling the time with Charles in his memory (fortunately or unfortunately Charles can’t recall his time there 😂)

Not Lando and Pierre talking about Charles losing on the tables 😂

MAXIEL ❤️💙

FRED’S BACKKKK

They are Fred who that think is the most vain team principle (Fred doesn’t even get to ask before DTS is already faded the scene and in comes Toto) like clearly you know the answer

Oh look practice 1 has arrived (cue drain fucking shit up)

IT’S MAXX THEY FINALLY INTERVIEWED MAX (like it’s not like he dominated the season)

SHIT THAT DRAIN REALLY COULD HAVE DONE PERMANENT DAMAGE

There is no waiver. (Hold the fuck up let me put my non-existent glasses on and get real. If a car gets damaged due to a track issue (aka drain cover) F1 should cover the teams cost and all replacement parts should not be taken from team allocations set for the year. And no penalties should be applied. It’s quite simple. It’s not bad luck. It’s F1 and the circuit providers duty to have a safe, functioning and up to date track. Full stop.)

Cue press conference dialogue:

Tom Clarkson: ‘Well, let’s look bigger picture because….’(Enter Fred smack down time).

Fred: ‘But this one is a good one. I don’t need to have a bigger picture than this one.’ Tom: Okay. But, Fred, I did want to ask you about this event, if we can just talk about the Las Vegas Grand Prix.’ Fred: ‘Yeah, guys, but I [chuckles] I’m not sure this is the topic for me today. Not, uhh…We had a very tough FP1. This will cost us a fortune. With a fucked-up decision for Carlos. But we have to change the chassis, half of the car, or two-thirds of the car. Okay, the show is the show and everything is going well, but, uh I think it’s just unacceptable from the F1 today.’

Tom: ‘Okay, well, this is the last..’

Toto: ‘Fred is upset.’

Fred: ‘I am, Toto, but you would be upset in my situation.’

Tom: ‘ Fred, let’s look at 2024 as a whole, okay? Your first year as team principal of ferrari.’ (Mate will you fucking quit hounding Fred)

Toto: ‘Your putting yourself into more trouble. No, I can tell you. I’ve known him for 20 years. He has…’

Tom: ‘Fred, can we just…’

Fred: ‘Can I leave now or..’

Tom: ‘Can we reflect on the year?’

Fred: ‘No.Ask a question to Toto about something.’

Tom: ‘All right. Well, look, we’ll come back to you, Fred. We’ll come back to you. (NO YOU WILL NOT TOM, NO YOU WILL FUCKING NOT)

Fred: ‘Sure.’ (It’s giving very fuck around and find out mentality)

End press conference.

Also bat of king Fred don’t take shit from no one. I’m glad I wrote my opinion before I got to this part and Fred sounded off in the press conference.

THEY PUT CHARLES POLE POSITION ON THE DOME (I fucking forgot about the bloody thing) 😂

Look George I understand your good but Charles is the qualifying king

Toto chatting shit about naysayers to some lady (probably on some Las Vegas council or something). Mate you spend most of your time being the naysayer for everything or do you not remember the porpoising drama?

Will Charles convert pole to win (we all know the your ratio) but you do a hell of a job of damage limitation 👏🏽

Abu Dhabi grid school photo time

Ohh look Daniel flirting with Charles in front of Max (he’s such a attention baby girl) 😂❤️💙

Lawerence stroll looking like bad Santa

George why are so dramatic?

McLaren fuck up Lando’s pitstop (cue me clacking)

Not all the teams congratulating their drivers on the year and where the team sits in the constructor

Cue Hass at the bottom and bottom

Ferrari being a killjoy and won’t let Charles do burnouts (he just wants to go play with his bestie Max) 🥺

Ohh Charles you deserve better your too pretty not to

Lawerence was that you wheeling and dealing with James?

Here we go Max’s wrap sheet for the year! (Yes boy you one the whole damn thing on your own. No teammate needed!)

Ohh his last ‘Hi Gene.’

And they left his seat empty to end🥺

#should have been called red or black but really it’s blue #now just imagine Fred and Daniel on the same team 😂 #f1 #formula 1 #formula one #red bull racing #forza ferrari #Ferrari #Mercedes #charles leclerc #carlos sainz #lewis hamilton #george russell #daniel ricciardo #because why the hell not #guenther steiner #toto wolff #fred vasseur #dts s6 #DTS #DTS S6E10 #end scene #until next year #christian horner #max verstappen #super max #maxiel

[berkmansimagines]

Karma

A/N: Barry is finally back!!!!

Summary: You try to sneak away from a work thing to spend the night with Barry.

Pairing: Barry Berkman x hitman!girlfriend reader

tw: smoking, violence, mentions sexual assault & suicide

You’re out at a nightclub. The place is owned by your handler, Diane. Clubbing isn’t really your scene but it’s opening night and Diane asked you to help out. If there are any problems, it’s your job to discreetly fix them. 

You went to the club alone. The only reason you didn’t invite Barry is because you don’t want Diane to know that you two are dating. Your handler has a strict rule about you not having relationships with anyone from work and you broke that rule for Barry. As far as Diane knows, you haven’t seen Barry since you completed a hit together a few months ago. You’d prefer to keep it that way for now. She’ll be pissed when she finds out the truth.

Although Barry isn’t here, you’ve been secretly texting him all night. You miss him. You soon realized that you’d rather be with your boyfriend than out at the club, so you decided to leave early. Diane is having a good time schmoozing and boozing. She probably won’t even notice that you’re gone…

When you told Barry you wanted to sneak away, he volunteered to pick you up. He’s on his way to get you now. While waiting for Barry, you go outside to the alley. The club is packed and the music is loud, you just want a quiet moment to yourself. 

You lean against the wall and light a cigarette. As you exhale, your entire body relaxes. You know that smoking is bad for you but it feels so good. It’s a nasty habit you hope to quit one day.

You take another puff from your cigarette, when the club’s side door abruptly opens. A man and woman stumble outside. The woman looks very drunk and can barely stand up straight. The guy has his arm snaked around the girl’s shoulder, holding her up. He tries leading her down the alley.

You furrow your eyebrows, immediately suspicious. You have a gut feeling that something isn’t right. The woman is too drunk to even stand, let alone consent to anything. Unfortunately this is a situation you are all too familiar with. 

You’ve been in this woman’s shoes before. One time some creep slipped something in your drink at a bar and Barry had to intervene. Your boyfriend stopped the guy from taking advantage. You were grateful that he was there to help. You know that not everyone is so lucky…

Years ago, before you moved out to LA, your childhood best friend was in this position. But nobody was there to step in. She was violently assaulted and never recovered from what happened. She became severely depressed and ended up taking her own life. Not being there to help your best friend is one of the biggest regrets of your life. You could not let something like that happen again. You need to intervene.

You toss your cigarette to the ground and step in front of the creepy man and drunk woman, blocking their way.

“Hey! What’s going on here?” you question the guy.

“My girlfriend got too drunk…” he answers.

He’s lying. You can smell his bullshit a mile away. And then-

“I… I don’t know this guy,” the drunk girl mumbles.

You cross your arms against your chest. 

“How can she be your girlfriend if she doesn’t know who you are?” you continue grilling the guy.

“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I’m taking her home,” he shrugs. He tries moving past you.

You shake your head and keep blocking his way.

“Nah. That’s not gonna happen,” you say coolly.

You try pulling the drunk girl away from the creep but he shoves you off with full force. You stumble back and almost lose your footing.  As soon as you regain composure, you punch the guy in the mouth. He drops the drunk woman and you catch her before she hits the ground. She whimpers in your arms.

“It’s okay! I’ve got you,” you reassure the woman.

The man keels over and spits out a tooth. His lip is bleeding. Part of you just wants to beat the shit out of him but your hands aren’t free. And you know that making sure this drunk woman is safe is more important. 

“Get out of here,” you order in a low, serious voice. 

Then you turn to walk away. You’re leading the woman towards the door when the creep roughly grabs you by the shoulder.  He forces you to turn around and face him.

“What’s your problem, bitch?” he confronts you.

“Let go of me!” you scream.

You’re struggling to fight this guy off while holding the unconscious drunk woman. The creep raises hand, about to strike you, when-

Barry comes out of seemingly nowhere and aggressively shoves your attacker to the ground.

“Barry,” you breathe. You knew he was on his way to pick you up, but you’re still kind of in shock that he’s here right now.

Barry coldly stares the creep down. The guy is unconscious. He must've hit his head on the ground when Barry pushed him. You raise your eyebrows at Barry, impressed. Fuck yeah, that’s my boyfriend!

Barry turns to you and his face softens. He steps towards you.

“Are you okay?” he asks with concern. 

Before you have time to answer, you hear a familiar voice call out your name.

“Y/N! What the fuck is going on?” 

You and Barry turn and see your handler standing by the door. Barry immediately backs away from you. The two of you need to act like you’re not dating so Diane doesn’t get suspicious.

“Diane! Hey, how’s it going?” you stammer.

Diane puts her hand on her hips, rocking a power pose.

“Who is that woman?” she questions you, then eyes Barry, “And is that Barry Berkman?! What are you doing here?”

You sigh, shaking your head.

“I don’t know her name. I was just outside having a smoke break and some creep was trying to leave with her. She looked really drunk so I intervened.”

“Shit,” Diane shrugs.

Diane pops her head back inside the club and calls for a bouncer. One of the bouncers comes outside.

“Get this woman an Uber home,” she instructs the bouncer.

“I saw the people she came here with. They’re looking for her. I’ll bring her back to her friends,” the bouncer replies.

The bouncer approaches you and takes the drunk woman out of your arms. Then he carries the woman back inside the club -  leaving you, Barry and Diane outside. 

“Ok so that explains the woman. And I assume that guy passed out on the ground over there is the creep. But I still don’t understand what he's doing here…” 

Diane’s eyes narrow in on your boyfriend.

“I just had drinks with a buddy at a bar nearby. I was walking back to my car and I heard something going on in the alley. I wanted to help,” Barry lies convincingly. In his line of work, he’s used to coming up with an alibi on the fly.

“Barry was actually the one that knocked that guy out!” you tell Diane, “I couldn’t really fight because I was holding the drunk girl. He really saved my ass back there.”

“Mhmm. Who knew he had it in him?” Diane scoffs.

“Thanks Barry,” you give him an appreciative nod, “It’s good to see you again. It’s been a while...”

Barry nods back, going along with the lie.

“Yeah, uh, not since that job we did together. How have you been? You look really great.”

You shyly smile at Barry and then look down at your feet, trying to hide a blush from Diane. Diane rolls her eyes. She’s no longer interested in this conversation.

“Well I guess all I can say is thank you, Barry.” Diane shrugs and then, “I’d invite you into the club but you aren’t properly dressed. You would never get past the bouncer.”

Barry sighs, defeated. You give Barry a sympathetic look. Diane takes your arm.

“Let’s go back inside, Y/N. I want to introduce you to my art thief friend from Paris. He’s gorgeous and just your type.”

Diane drags you by the arm toward the door. You won’t be able to sneak away with Barry after all. You’re disappointed that your plan didn’t work out. You feel like the universe is working against you. It’s karma. This is what you get for lying to Diane about your relationship. Yeah, bad karma’s a bitch.

You look back longingly at your boyfriend.

“I’m sorry,” you mouth to Barry.

Barry’s face drops as he watches you go inside. The door to the club slams shut, leaving Barry all alone in the alley. He is totally deflated. You should be going home with him right now, not talking with some other guy.

“Art thief?” Barry mutters to himself in disbelief.

Barry leaves the alley and heads back toward his car. While walking, Barry’s phone vibrates in his pocket. He takes his phone out and reads the notification. It’s a text message from you:

Hey babe! I’m so sorry. I don’t know when I’ll be able to sneak out again...

A second message comes through:

You don't need to wait for me

Barry takes a deep breath, trying to figure out how to respond. His mind suddenly flashes to you in the club. Some hot guy is flirting with you and rests his hand on the small of your back. Barry clenches his jaw at the thought.

He texts you back:

I’ll wait

#barry #barry hbo #barry berkman #bill hader #barry berkman imagine #barry berkman x reader #barry berkman x hitman!wife #bbhw

[epithetical]

2024 UPDATE (OFFICIAL)

Hey, everyone. Longtime no talk. Despite being weirdly active on this account, I haven't really made any textposts since high school. So I've decided to fix this by giving a gigantic update post about my very busy 2023. If you're new and don't know anything about me, or knew me as a teen and are wondering what I'm up to now: buckle up.

TL;DR:

Dropped out of art school. Released an award-nominated(???) dating sim, ValiDate. Killed the Golden Girls Take Manhattan DX. Conquered Jaw Explosion Disease. Hung out with some friends. (Also, a lot of NDA shit that I can’t talk about.)

ART-SCHOOL DROPOUT

From 2021 to 2022, I was attending a prestigious and overly-expensive art school for their (brand new!) game design program. When I first graduated from high school, this college was my dream choice, and coming off the success of my early game dev career, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to polish my skills while I kept working on the side. My first commercial game was still in development, but we were feeling comfortable, and I felt like getting greedy.

Pride before the fall. Full Icarus mode. You know how it goes.

The school itself was…alright. Satellite campus, mid-pandemic, hybrid learning. Close enough to commute comfortably, classes just long enough for masks to not give me a headache, and the handful of remote courses helped keep my medical problems at bay. Problems that the school was a little unequipped to help with, though the disability office did their best. I had to drop a class because my body, at the time, couldn’t handle eight hours of classes without some Crazy Side Effects. 

(Keep in mind that every class was, minimum, four hours. And I had to take at least five a semester. Each class also saw me make an entire game from scratch. My body was already at its limit.)

If you knew me in high school, you’re probably waiting for the shoe to drop: I was, famously, the worst at academics. Never did homework, rarely finished projects, slept through first period at least once a week. Surprise, though: I was fucking great at this. My GPA doubled. Turns out that going to school for a discipline you already have a career in, and are kinda obsessed with, kinda does wonders for you. Unfortunately, I picked the worst time to care about school, since my commercial game’s release was the same exact night that my five school games were due.

TL;DR, I didn’t sleep for a week, almost fucked both up, and got burnout so bad that I couldn’t do anything for a calendar year. So I dropped out! Now, about a year of job hunting later (the game’s industry is imploding right now, and the only studios that considered me were… questionable, to say the least), the expensive art school wants me back. So badly. Turns out the whole school is so broke and understaffed right now that they’re basically chomping at the bit for that tuition money. Got a week to decide. Jury’s still out.

VALIDATE POST-MORTEM

So, if you couldn’t tell from the above section, we released a game in 2022!  I was supposed to write a post-mortem for it, but… burnout from the above, combined with general “post-release depression,” and I didn’t feel like touching it. 

Part of me still doesn’t! 

Yet I kinda think the feeling of me not wanting to talk about ValiDate is still worth discussing, so here we go:

For those of you that aren’t aware, I was a head dev on ValiDate, a dating sim that released in 2022. Volume 1 (of 3) did, anyway.

Did a lot of music, did a lot of writing, created some characters people really care about, created some characters people really want to fuck, made a couple Tweets that my boss hated, got accused of being reverse racist a few times. It was truly one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life. And, yes, we’re still working on Vol. 2 behind the scenes. 

That’s actually the reason why it’s kinda hard to talk about Vol. 1!

It was my first commercial game, my first publicly released game, and I think there’s always gonna be a… natural embarrassment toward your first “real” project. Combine that with my natural “if you stare at me for too long, I will kill myself” tendencies, and the game’s release was a special type of torture. It’s one thing to watch people play through a game that you poured your blood, sweat, and tears into, knowing full well that they might hate it (or just misunderstand it), but shit gets so much worse when you know that you could have done better. 

It’s a very special kind of psychological torture to have creative decisions you feel were mistakes, things you half-assed because of burnout or deadlines, or things you did wrong because you just didn’t know any better! The embarrassment was overwhelming, so I just… dipped for a while. Didn’t watch gameplay or read reviews, didn’t do much of anything.

Took me a while to realize that me being embarrassed about the project isn’t because ValiDate was bad or anything. I was embarrassed because it was an incredible learning opportunity for me. The amount that I picked up on game design, community management, leadership, marketing, pitching, porting, etc. in two years is more than any school could teach you in four. Volume 1 was a game made by amateurs, still wet behind the ears, trying to build something from grassroots. 

But Volume 2 is a game-ass game. 

And having done all the work we have on Vol. 2 (which, while I can’t talk about it publicly, is a lot!), looking back at our first release feels like… revisiting your awkward middle school photos. Sometimes it’s hard to not feel contempt for who you were when your biggest struggle was becoming, but learning to choke down that shame? It taught me to feel grateful for the you of yesterday, who clawed their way through uncertainty so that you, today, can stand on sturdier ground. Growing up is embarrassing, and it turns out you keep doing it well into your twenties! Sucks. 

For the past few days, Dani and I have been watching a Twitch streamer play through Volume 1. We’ve been so deep in planning for the future that we figured, hey, may as well revisit the past. Detached from all that embarrassment of becoming, I gotta admit: we made a fun little dating sim. People like it. Hell, I like it. Sure, I know all of its flaws and shortcuts, and I have my fair share of critiques… but fact of the matter is, if I have a problem with something, I can just fix it. 

Admittedly, In the past, that attitude of mine has actually been more of a problem than a solution. “I can fix this myself!” is all fine and good when you’re a solo dev trying to throw something together, but it turns out taking on excess responsibility in a collaborative setting is a way to make shit suck for you and your team. During the Kickstarter demo era, I was literally on every team besides art. Writing, programming, music, I got my fingers in all those pies. It was fun to me, and more importantly, it was sustainable. 

Until it wasn’t.

Volume 1 coinciding with my tenure at [art school], using a (finicky and, frankly, shitty) new game engine, being much larger in scope, introducing minigames (which, surprise, I was team lead on)... I pretty much killed myself trying to get it all done. Honestly, I blame half of our day-one bugfixes on me specifically. Every single one of them was an oversight made because I was pulling the classic “I’m unmedicated so crunching is the only way I can feel alive” type shit. 

Except for the OST. That one sucked because art school sucks all the joy out of creating.

Happy to say that our workflow for Volume 2 has been much more sustainable for me, even if I’ve officially broken my “no art” rule for it. Yeah, turns out I’m finally making use of that animation major. Sucks.

Self reflection over. Except for one last note:

If you’ve followed ValiDate, played our demo, donated to the Kickstarter, replied to our Tweets, played our second demo, bought our game, or just talked about us to a friend… I am so, so grateful. Beyond what words could possibly describe. It’s been my dream for as long as I can remember become a game developer, and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you guys. Vd8 wasn’t what I expected the cornerstone of my career to be, but honestly? I couldn’t have asked for a better one. We have Vriska in our game. How many people can possibly say that?

And to those of you still waiting for Volume 2:

You haven’t seen anything yet.

GAYMING AWARDS

Speaking of ValiDate… Did you hear we were nominated for some Gayming Awards last year? We were! 

Three other head Vd8 devs (Dani: Production, Alexis: Art, Cam: Code) flew out to beautiful New York City for the award show last March, which was actually our first time actually meeting up IRL. Really funny how I’ve known Dani since I was fifteen, but here we were, a decade later, finally meeting face to face. She’s so much taller in person. I’m still taller, but barely.

Meeting up with internet friends is one thing (and more on that later!), but meeting up with internet coworkers? It’s interesting. This was the first moment that ValiDate felt “real,” seeing as it was suddenly important enough to give us comp’d flights and a hotel room, but more than that: the people I’ve been working with for years exist? We’re all hanging out together? We’re wandering through Manhattan all day? We’re eating the most disgusting food at Junior’s in Times Square? We’re trying to figure out what this mystery liquid is? How much did this food cost again? (Seriously, my onion rings were 90% dough and 10% onion.)

While I won’t bore you with the minutiae—I think my friends would prefer the privacy anyway—the entire trip to NYC was fun, exhausting, and a dream-come-true.

Except for that goddamn award show. Jesus CHRIST, what a trainwreck.

No, I’m not saying that just because we lost. We did lose, though. (Personally, I was fine with it, but I also had to travel the least distance to get there. So…) I’m saying that because the entire Gayming Awards industrial complex was, uh, kinda busted this year?

So imagine, you’re us: bunch of twenty-somethings on your Sex and the City shit. Big award show tonight, formal attire. We’re talking high heels, long dresses, full suits, the whole nine yards. Now what do you do in Manhattan? Walk. Sure, we weren’t walking in formal attire the entire time, but it was still a good five blocks to the award center where—wait, what do you mean they relocated the ceremony? The hall they rented is closed for mysterious reasons? Where the hell are we doing the award show?

If you answered “the drag bar where the afterparty was supposed to take place,” congrats, here’s $20. Way further away from our hotel, which meant more walking, and also a way smaller venue with a lot less… formality, let’s say. But we’re young gay people, we don’t care about formalities, who gives a shit! As long as it can seat all of us, then—oh there’s no seating. Ohhhh. Oh! Okay.

I’ll admit, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. There were a handful of couches, VIPs only. Realizing quickly that, oh shit, we’re VIPs, we managed to snag some front-seat couches before any of the pesky old people could. (We’re young! We deserve to sit! You’ve had your entire lives to sit, established games industry people! Let the new generation have a turn!) Unfortunately, when I got up to cash in my free-drink voucher, my seat was stolen by some white lady. 

So I sat on the floor.

March 2023. You, sitting at home, have decided to tune into the Gayming Awards “live” on Twitch, curious to see what Britain’s premiere gayming magazine had to say about, uh, esports. 

This is important to you. 

Fortunately, this year you’re watching a decently shot and scripted award show filmed in a (noticeably claustrophobic) little bar, complete with charming presenters (many of whom are local drag queens) and a myriad of corporate sponsors. You can hardly tell that the entire show was uprooted and moved hours prior!

Yet, for some reason, whenever the cameras cut to the audience… There’s some large man, right in front of the crowd, slumped down on the floor as if he’s bleeding out. With every award given, his clapping grows weaker. The more the camera cuts to him, the more life drains from his body, as if his existence itself is anathema to “gayming.”

Imagine, for a moment, that this man is nominated for an award. 

Imagine that he, after a lifetime of potassium deficiency, has been teetering on the edge of a Charlie Horse Reckoning for hours.

Imagine that the microsecond that his game’s name is called as a nominee, the Reckoning begins. 

Now imagine a world where he wins that award. 

A world where he is forced to stand—from his corpse’s rightful place on the ground!—in front of his peers and superiors, pretending as if he’s not afflicted with a life-ending muscle cramp.

So, yeah. I was pretty fine with losing.

Later, we ditched the “afterparty” to drink at Applebees. (Turns out “green tea shots” don’t have any green tea in ‘em?)

EULOGY FOR THE GOLDEN GIRLS TAKE MANHATTAN DX

Big announcement! I was a team lead on The Golden Girls Take Manhattan DX, a certified Tumblr Gold™ fan-project (by the immortal Grawly) about the eponymous Gold Girls in a Persona-esque parody game! 

Slightly bigger announcement! The game got cancelled. Sorry.

Feels a little weird talking about this, since the year-ish I spent working on the game passed in the blink of an eye, and I’m not going to lie and say that I was an instrumental piece of the team or whatever. I was lucky enough to lead a very talented team, and to play with some very fun devtools, but the game was definitely more important to me than I was to it. (Grawly, if by some off-chance you’re reading this, please click off now. You can peek back in at the Jaw Explosion Disease subheader. I promise I’m very nice and respectful.)

I was in high school when I was first made aware of TGGTMDX. My friend group was very into Persona (in the pre-P5 days), and one of our favorite video subgenres was “videogame UI on top of sitcom scenes.” It didn’t take us long to stumble onto early-build footage of TGGTMDX on Tumblr, and what spawned was a years-long fascination. I’d even consider it one of my many… game dev awakenings? The idea that the only thing stopping me from making “American Persona”—one of my many white whales—was commitment to the bit. Just one of the many things that fueled my teenaged suicidal overconfidence.

Speaking of suicidal overconfidence, about a decade later, I was invited to work on the game! Coming fresh off ValiDate, I was desperate for a chance to make a real portfolio piece (visual novels, while popular, will never get you a job), and this sort of opportunity only presents itself once in a lifetime. Fulfilling a teenage dream while furthering your career? What could possibly go wrong!

That makes it seem like there was some explosive drama behind the scenes that ruined everything. Sorry to say that most game cancellations aren’t that exciting, and that this game’s death was by a thousand microscopic cuts. Most of which are not my place to talk about: this game wasn’t my baby, and cancelling it wasn’t my choice to make! Many people worked on this for much, much longer than I even knew how to code, and they deserve to have their feelings prioritized. Whenever that post mortem gets published, I’ll be the first to reblog it, trust me. 

Instead, I’d prefer to talk a little about this as being my first real “loss” as a game dev. Certainly not my first project to go under, and I’ve had my fair share of shelved prototypes, but something about this cancellation was… different. Working on your dream project is all fun and games until you feel partially responsible for it dying, y’know? It felt Sisyphean at a point, like trying to dig a hole in the sand with a pitchfork. I would work at the game, and work at the game, but nothing I did felt like it made a dent. 

Part of me knew I wasn’t giving it my all, between the school-based burnout (above), jaw explosion disease (below), and ValiDate (omnipresent), it’s not like I could’ve afforded to put more of myself into it. Besides, I was literally a team lead, half my job was telling other people what to do. But the spectre of “you’re not doing enough” was hard to shake. Even when all these other responsibilities ebbed and I could afford to give this game my all, the difference felt minimal. 

We spend a lot of time pitying Sisyphus for having to push that boulder uphill over and over, but none of us ask ourselves “could we even move that big fucking rock in the first place?” Apparently, I couldn’t.

I wasn’t the only one that felt that way, it turned out. In fact, pretty much all the friends I made on the project felt the same. If there’s any “real” reason why the project got cancelled, it’s that. No big falling out, Disney didn’t give us a cease and desist, no secret rebrand going on in the background. Just a bunch of lads getting sick of pushing a boulder. Hell, Grawly’s been doing it for a decade. Let him rest.

Not too much rest, though: we’re already working on a different game together (Date Knight: check it out if you haven’t!), and some of us ex-Golden Girls devs have some ideas for what else we can cook up. 

For money, this time.

JAW EXPLOSION DISEASE

Probably the biggest “development” of 2023 was my sudden horrible nerve pain in July, which started as a sinus infection on the left side of my face, and soon became a horrific jaw pain. Long after my sinus infection healed, the jaw pain remained, which is a pretty bad hand to draw when a considerable portion of your day is spent “talking,” or “eating.” So, for the back half of 2023, I didn’t do much of either.

Instead, I had to take a considerable amount of ibuprofen, visit one doctor, three dentists, two hospitals, and four oral surgeons to figure out what the hell is wrong with me. The dentists discovered an exposed nerve, caused by wisdom tooth removal complications (sick!), the oral surgeons went “okay, we can fix that,” got me all numbed up. But it turns out that my left jaw is immune to local anesthesia! Thinking this was an infection, they kept putting me on antibiotics over and over in the hopes that it’d suddenly work. Took a note from my childhood dentist explaining that, “no, he’s always been like this” to find a surgeon willing to put me all the way under. (And then, the first time they tried, I woke up in the middle anyway! I got a full refund on the copay, at least.) 

Ultimately, I found a very nice surgeon in December that treated me same-day, and did it perfectly, but the damage to my liver from all that ibuprofen was… bad. But it turns out that livers just… regenerate naturally? So, give it a few months, I’ll be at 100%. Hopefully.

OOMFCON

Hilariously, six months after we met up for the Gayming Awards, Dani and Alexis found their way back to NYC for a little combination meet-up/vacation we affectionately titled “Oomfcon 2023.” This time, with bonus friends! Our entire friend server, whose name I’ve been advised not to post publicly, had rented an AirBnB for anyone willing to drop everything and go to Brooklyn. 

It took about a year of planning (mostly by Alexis) to get us all out there, but Jesus Christ, it actually worked.

Admittedly I’m a bit hesitant to talk at length about “taking a vacation”—even though I’m already… from here?—but it really was the highlight of my year. First for actually happening, when most friend groups I’ve had would have written the idea off as a pipedream, but mostly for being a really good time. A lot of walking, a lot of talking, a lot of drinking, a lot of dining. (This was during Jaw Explosion Disease, so you can imagine how my body took most of that.)

To Dani, Alexis, Miles, Haven, Grim, Xtine, and Ty: thanks for coming up here! The city is a lot more boring without you guys in it. I promise to have less health issues when we do this again!

And to everyone else outside the groupchat that I met and bored with my job hunt stories: Nice meeting you guys! Sorry that fate decided every single one of you is forced to keep in touch with me. (And I didn’t even get the shitty corporate job!)

#save. #this is a lot longer than i wanted it to be; but i had a lot to say. #turns out i actually have a lot of tumblr followers. so. time to actually engage with them.

[thegreencanary]

Evil is Everywhere (2)

Okay here is Chapter 2! You can read Chapter 1 here for the background on the story. And Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5

A/N: This is my work and I don’t give anyone the permission to post it anywhere claiming to be someone else’s. I worked hard on this, if you enjoy it please interact. Requests are open.

TW: Kidnapping, Abuse, Language, Drugs, Drinking, Torture. MINORS YOU KNOW ITS A DNI GO FIND STEVE.

This one is going to be a lot more intense than chapter 1 so buckle up buttercup. Please take the TW’s seriously. Mental health is more important. Take care of you boo

Summary: Just because Vecna was destroyed doesn’t mean Hawkins is still safe. Humans can be just as scary as demigorgons.

The damn clock kept ticking in the garage, Billy stopped into work to pick up his paycheck and they roped him into to helping fix a few cars. He’d planned on taking you out to celebrate your new job, because of course you’d get it. He was a little surprised you hadn’t gone looking for him yet, since it was about 5 hours after you said your goodbyes on the phone. He had this…feeling in his stomach but part of him thought it was just nerves. Billy finally realized he was in love with you and he was going to tell you tonight.

“Hey…Bill…why don’t you come into the office. We’ve gotta…talk.”

His boss seemed, anxious and uncomfortable. Super unusual for him, so Billy looked in the office and saw your father sitting inside. Immediately his heart dropped. Something was wrong; while your father wasn’t the BIGGEST fan of Billy, he saw that the Cali boy was trying. Genuinely trying to make you happy and do what was best for you. Looking up, your father sighed at the sight of your boyfriend. He looked how your dad felt.

“Look. I’m not going to drag this out. We don’t have time. Y/N was kidnapped from the mini mart this morning. She never made it to her interview and the cops found blood outside of my car. The door was open and all the groceries were dropped on the ground.”

Your father woke up to chief Hopper knocking on his door. Hopper had recognized the scene from the last missing kid and immediately alerted him. Your dad had no idea what to do, so he went to Billy. Unfortunately because your dad worked so much he didn’t know much about you in your teen years. He knew you were dating and you were head over heels for this boy, so maybe he could help.

Billy stood in the office, completely numb. He heard everything but nothing registered. You…you were fine, right? He’d just talked to you about tonight…he was going to pick you up after your interview…but now you’re…

“God. DAMN IT.”

Billy grabbed the small table of next to the chair that your dad was in and threw it at the wall. He was FUROUS. Why did you go out by yourself when the whole town was on high alert?? He was at Harringtons for fucks sake you could have taken 5 fucking minutes to get him and he would have gone with you. *God…shit…fucking…FUCK!*

His boss didn’t even stop him when Billy stormed out. Your dad completely understanding Billy’s emotions. He felt the same way. Billy’s car roared to life as he sped to Steve’s…only to find a police car in the driveway. Steve and Max were talking to Hopper and they both looked distraught. Billy damn near jumped out of his car and Hopper nodded at him.

“Hey kid. I’m assuming you saw her dad today.”

Billy nodded and tried his best to keep from screaming at the chief for standing outside this house instead of looking for you.

“Look. I know you kids. If I ask you guys to stay out of the investigation, will you? Will you just trust me?”

“No.” Billy, Max and Steve damn near created a choir with their instant response.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so. Alright. Have everyone meet me at the cabin in a few hours. The less children involved the better.”

He looked at Max and she gave back a look that would make anyone shiver. Hopper just rolled his eyes and got in his car.

“Give me 3 hours. I’ll fill you all in then.”

The police car took off and Billy felt Steve and Max hug him from behind. He didn’t want to turn around. He didn’t want it to be real.

“We’re gonna get her back Billy”

Max said it more to calm herself down. She knew that Billy would never stop looking for you. If he found you dead, he’d never stop hunting the person who killed you.

“I know. We have no other option.”

———————-

You hated rats, I mean they were kind of cute and all but being chained up and watching them scurry around waiting to eat you made you hate rats. The wack to the back of your head left you groggy as hell but you still tried to do your best to figure out where you were.

Definitely deep in the woods, possibly underground? It was too dark to tell but it was damp and there was water dripping. You couldn’t speak, there was a gag tied tightly around your mouth. The chains on your hand, feet and neck kept you in a fairly restrained position. Maintaining stead breaths you tried to remain calm, the Upside Down was worse than this. You could handle this…right?

A sharp pain hit you as you pulled against all your restraints. Someone just kicked you in the face.

“Wakey wakey. Welcome to hell.”

You rolled your eyes. You’d been to hell, this was just some twisted idiots fantasy.

“Y/N, I’ve been waiting for you.”

That voice…it sounded so familiar. You were too disoriented to place it. You tried to speak but this time a hot, burning hot, iron was dug into your shoulder.

“You’re mine now pig. I have you all to myself. I ditched the others so I can focus all of my energy on you.”

Andy Johnson?? You remember him being one Jason Carver’s little sheep but Jason was usually the one creeping on you. There were rumors of what happened to Jason after the earthquakes, but Andy?. You knew he went crazy after everything, but it was only a topic for about a week. He’d been checked into a mental hospital in Indianapolis…no one had said anything about him getting out.

“You’re going to love me Y/N. We’re going to be in love. You’re going to love me.”

Yep. He was still fucking crazy. You gasped for air when he took the gag off but it was quickly taken from you as he crashed his lips onto yours in the most violent and painful kiss. He bit down hard on your lip and you screamed out. That prompted a swift punch to your ribs and you leaned forward, vomiting.

“That’s right. Expel all the unclean spirits. I’ll make you perfect. Then we can be together forever.”

Holy fucking shit. *Billy…please God save me Billy.*

———————

Hopper was late. Everyone else was at the cabin, even Joyce. You’d done such a good job of bringing everyone together during the final stages of the Venca invasion; it pissed Billy off that you weren’t there to see how much everyone cared about you.

Eddie was trying the lighten the mood for the kids by doing some dumb DND comparison to you being a princess trapped in a tower. Billy didn’t pay attention to it, he just stared at the door; willing Hopper to come in with you in his arms. Eventually Hopper opened the door; be he looked worse than before.

“Sorry I’m late. We had some bodies turn up.”

Billy froze. Everyone else gasped.

“Not Y/N! She’s still missing. It’s the other missing kids that turned up. They’re all…”

“Jesus hop! You can’t scare us like that!”

Joyce cut him of before he could mention all the dead kids. Billy viably relaxed but he didn’t know if he was going to make it through this. You were his rock, Thinking if you being dead or hurting…it was almost too much for him; almost. Right now, you needed him.

“Cut the bullshit. What do you know?”

A few hours and some large pizzas later everyone was filled in. The good news was you hadn’t been gone for very long. The other victims had been missing for 3-5 days before they turned up dead. The bad news was the torture, starvation and dehydration. Billy excused himself for a cigarette and sat outside in silence for a moment. Eddie wordlessly joined him and they smoked quietly for a few minutes. Eddie was one that Billy had gotten close with just because of the fact that they both died and came back. It was a calm reminder to Billy that you had a good chance of survival, you were a fighter.

Before Eddie went back inside he placed a hand on Billy’s shoulder and squeezed it gently. Then without a word he went back in. You were going to be found. Billy was going to bring you home.

——————

A/N: That’s chapter 2! The build up is going to be longer with this so just bear with me. It’s gonna get intense here soon!

Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5

Tag list: @innercreationflower

#billy hargrove #billy hargrove x reader #billy stranger things #billy x reader #billy could have been saved #billy hargrove x female reader #billy x you #stranger things #billy deserved better #billy hargrove x you #:read more:

[ejzah]

The Agent and the Fireman, Part 7

***

“Hey lady,” Kensi greeted Nell when she got back to the mission. She looked around at the empty bullpen. “Where is everybody?”

“Hey! Callen and Sam decided to reinterview some of the witnesses and employees connected with the previous fires,” Nell replied, turning around with her tablet in hand. “And so far I haven’t been able to find anything of interest. Though Eric and I have have combed through hours of security feed at this point. Again.”

“Well, I doubt there’ll be much from the new scene.”

“That is unfortunate. So, give me the details on the Lieutenant,” Nell said, turning around completely and settling her chin on her folded hands with an eager expression.

“It was strictly a professional meeting,” Kensi insisted, leaving out the part where she’d been a few seconds away from finding out what Marty Deeks’ lips taste like. She cleared her throat. “He’s very dedicated to his job.”

“Oh, I’m sure it was.” Nell pressed her lips together, leaning forward. “But I was actually talking about the date. I haven’t seen you that dressed up since you had to seduce that foreign dignitary..”

“Yeah, well there wasn’t any seducing tonight,” Kensi said with mild bitterness.

“Who’s seducing somebody?” Callen asked right on cue as he and Sam sauntered through the sliding doors.

“Kensi,” Nell answered before Kensi could.

“I see. What did your fireman have to say?” Callen asked.

“Deeks is not my firefighter,” Kensi protested heatedly.

“Well, he’s certainly not mine.”

“And no one seduced anyone.” Unfortunately.

“I could take him off your hands,” Nell muttered from her work station. She shrugged innocently when everyone in the room frowned or glared at her. “What, I’ve always had a soft spot for a man in yellow.”

“Or a man who poses shirtless for calendars,” Callen quipped.

“Yeah, I bet Lieutenant Deeks has made lots of money for charity.”

“Which month is he, Kensi?”

“Is he holding puppies?”

“Ooh, I saw one with baby goats,” Nell offered.

“You guys keep this up and I’m going to bring out the video from that charity auction you did a few years ago,” Kensi threatened.

“Moving on,” Callen said quickly. “Ok, what did you learn at the new site?”

“Lieutenant Deeks couldn’t tell me a lot. The infrastructure is too unstable for them to investigate thoroughly, but he did say that there was more damage this time than in any of the other burn sites.”

“But he thinks it’s the same MO?”

“Likely. The building’s probably going to be a complete loss though, so I’m not sure how much evidence there’ll be.” Kensi explained.

“Huh, so that means you’ll have to go back and talk to him again,” Sam surmised. “Very clever.”

“I’m sure Deeks regards his job too seriously to delay the process,” Kensi objected, offended on his behalf. “What about your interviews?”

“The business manager from the second fire reported that one of her employees belatedly reported a missing ID tag a couple days before the fire,” Callen told them.

“So, anybody who had access to the building could have stolen it.”

“Exactly.

“We’ll have to refigure possible suspects,” Sam added.

“Fantastic,” Kensi muttered, reaching for her phone as it started to buzz in her pocket. “It’s Deeks.”

“Ooh, already has number in her phone book,” Callen joked in an undertone.

She glared at him before answering. “Hey, this is Kensi.” She turned partially away, a little self-conscious though she was certain Deeks was calling in a professional manner.

“Kensi,” Deeks responded, her name clipped and no hint of playfulness in his tone. “I just finished a walk through of the building and—hey, you’re not authorized to in here!”

Kensi frowned as his voice grew fainter.

“Deeks, is everything ok?”

“Stop!”

There was distant sound of footprints and muffled static that made Kensi think Deeks was suddenly on the move. She jerked as a gunshot rang out over the speaker.

“Oh my god, Deeks,” she whispered.

#ncis la fanfiction #marty deeks #kensi blye #densi #fireman au #firefighter deeks #hot Deeks #the agent and the fireman #part 7 #ejzah fanfiction

[lady-maracas]

Hot boy

Pairing: Brian May x Reader

Word count: 0.8k

Warnings: Very short, might do part two, if you’d like. I was too lazy to find a name for the friend so Y/Bsf/N means your best friend’s name:)

Masterlist

//

Another endless day at work. I had to keep my job to pay for everything a boring adult needs to pay. Rent, car, groceries, you name it.

I hate my job but at least my coworkers are amazing. I can share everything with them. It feels like we're a little family. Me and my best friend, Y/Bsf/N always work at the same time. Today is not different, we got there early in the morning and had to watch every unfortunate soul who had nothing better to do than go record shopping.

That's right, I worked in a record store.

"That bloke just bought an Elvis record, how boring," I heard Y/Bsf/N say, 'always judging a book by its cover'.

We had nothing better to do, so we judged people based on what they were listening.

"Leave the poor man be, will you? Not everyone has the same taste, you know?" I told her, matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, well not everyone should bother sharing their taste. Ugh" I honestly got used to her complaining, she is the sweetest when you get to know her. But she might seem like a bitch at first.

And with that, I went on with my day. Unpacking new records we received earlier this week, and eventually placing them in alphabetical order.

"Pstt"

I got pulled out of my thoughts, and my (oh, so) important work. Only to look back and see my best friend beckoning me over.

"What's up?"

"Hot boy's here,"

"Who?"

"Hot boy," she looked over my shoulder like a stalker. She grabbed my shoulders and turned me around so I could see the same thing as her.

And then I saw him. 'Oh he is beauty' I thought. He was tall, over 6 foot tall at least. He was skinny it was a wonder the wind didn't knock him over when he got here. His hair, beautiful, curly hair that shaped his face perfectly. His face, he looked like an angel.

"Oh" that's all I could say, I mean I was breath-taken by the stranger.

"Mhm, I know right.?" She said with a satisfied smile.

"It's not the first time you've seen him?"

"No he came here a couple times last week. No one knows his name so we just called him Hot Boy because...well for obvious reasons-."

"Mhm"

"And he's just so...mysterious but in the good way, you know?"

"Yeah" 'should I go talk to him?' God no you dumbass you're just gonna make a fool outta yourself.

I was left alone with my thoughts, we had to be subtle, right? It's not like we've been staring at him for the past 10 minutes.

I tried my best to act as normal as possible while he was here, going through the records on display. 'Is he even real?'.

Little did I know that while I was clearly overthinking, he was making his way towards me. Okay, what do I do? Try to stay calm don't be a fool. Y/Bsf/N is watching the whole scene with way too much amusement.

"Hey" oh even his voice is attractive.

"Hi," I try my not to blush. What is wrong with me? "Your total is 23£, will that be all?"

"Yes,...actually no."

"Hm?"

"I'd like your phone number with that." He said with a sheepish smile.

I heard my best friend gasp and looking at me, amazed.

And me, well I was staring at him like a deer in headlights. Am I dreaming?

"I- I mean, yeah sure," I took a small piece of paper and wrote my number on it and gave it to him.

He took it with no hesitation and kept looking at me. Was he blushing?

"When do you get off work?"

"At 6pm"

"Great, I'll pick you up then, we're going out" he's nothing like I imagined him to be, he's way more straight forward but still so polite about it.

"Sure, I'll see you then"

"I'm Brian by the way," and a beautiful name,

"I'm Y/N"

"Great Y/N, I'll see you later"

"See you later" I added without really knowing where all that courage came from. I would never even dare to accept a date with a stranger let alone share my number with them. But he, he was different.

Slowly, my dear best friend made her way to my side, looking at him leaving before he turned around one last time and winked at me.

"Score" I heard her say.

"Yeah,"

//

#queen #queen band #brian may #brian may x reader #writing #what is that #help plz

[straycalamities]

no for real the onceler fandom when i was a huge part of it (2015/2016) was so fuckin toxic half the people left bc everyone was praising one or two blogs and acting like everyone else was dirt. it was super discouraging and i ran about 3 blogs and the only interactions i ever got was from people starting drama :(

im not sure what the askblog scene looks like today but im HOPING and PRAYING its better

eughh im sorry that sounds like absolute hell...i barely dipped my toes in because i was recovering from Stuff (stuff that took me to this year to get over enough to even make another personal blog) so i wasnt Too up-to-date with what was going on in the fandom from 2015 tooo 2019?ish? even if i popped in on entre's blog time to time, but i've heard stuff from others and friends

i think the askblog scene is A LOT more chill these days. a lot more lax and there's sooo much just...Less of everything that it makes things easier to like take in stride at least to me compared to 2012-2014 days where everything was so intense, extreme, and constant

there's still the like ghosts of the same issues that've been present since day one but its like...on a MUCH lesser scale. i honestly think it's pretty good all things considered :) the only thing that makes it rly hard for me compared to past eras is how split the fandom is uhhh app/site-wise (like its very much spread across tiktok, tumblr, twitter, discord, maybe more...idk) and so it feels like im missing out if i dont keep up everywhere LMAO and each location comes with its own issues either population-wise or site/app-wise

i miss how centralized it used to be to tumblr u_u and obviously having more content to look at back in the day, i got very spoiled on it so when i peruse the fandom content its like a lot less to look at but thats honestly GOOD FOR ME BC I HAVE NO TIME NOW LMAOOOO but its just like strange bc im like woah i dont have to scroll for an hour on entres dash anymore to catch up

well i do, but that's bc i have no time to check it on work days and so it piles up for when i do sit and take the time. cant imagine the hell i'd be in if it was 2012-era activity

ppl who had full-time jobs in the fandom in 2012 damn...i salute you.

unfortunately with a fandom as niche as this, it kinda cooks up the same issues over and over again and it makes me wish there was some sort of disclaimer that popped up as soon as you wanted to join the fandom to give you a rundown on how the culture is, who the people are, what the past drama was (so dont bring it up again), and all that LMFAO like a onceler fandom 101 that was just beamed into your device when you were like hmm what if i joined the onceler fandom LMAO

i kinda wanna do something like that specifically for askblogs? like a dos and donts. or "things i wish i knew when i started an askblog" type of thing but alas..no time. bc i see other mods go through the same obstacles/difficulties i went through and learned to either change my thinking on, or something else to either help me get past it/over it or at least cope better and id wanna pass that on if the fandoms gonna keep getting revived every two or so years and then cave in on itself from the same rehashed drama/problems it always has :sob emoji:

#asks #Anonymous

[blurredcolour]

OMG CHAPTER 4!!!!! I am screaming crying throwing up. And it was all because of good stuff until the end >.> Trust (hehehe see what I did there? I'm sorry) me, we'll get to that.

Their letters to each other were so freaking adorable. I love them, your Honor. But I will admit, I positively swooned when Bucky signed off with "your satellite". RIP me. And him calling her the sun and the center of his universe just AAAAAA I love outer space and stars and constellations and what have you, so I ✨ felt ✨ that one.

You need to tell me if he planned that date and kept all the details to himself or if he had it peer-reviewed. Did he go to the British officers to ask for tips? Did he tell Vi and Ruth what he planned to see if they thought reader would like it? Did he sit Buck (poor lad) down and give him an hour-by-hour bullet point presentation of the day he planned to see if his friend had any suggestions? Or did he keep the whole thing to himself, wanting it to be something just for the two of them?

And it's been weeks since they've seen each other 😭 But when they do again they are so in sync that it's like no time has passed at all 🥹

Thank you for the boat scene. I could picture the whole thing with Blond!Callum so fresh in my mind from The Boys In The Boat. And when I tell you I laughed, hard, when those condoms went flying from reader's purse. RIP her, poor girlie. If it had happened to me, I would have died on the spot. 100%.

I have nothing to say of their afternoon/night together other than it was absolutely perfect. No notes. 10/10. Make them do it again. And then they both said the L word, and she called him by his given name and I LOVE THEM YOUR HONOR!!!!

But then >.>

Like, I knew the phone call would be heartbreaking because we all love Buck (exasperated version or not), but this man dared to be so rude to reader. And not only that! Now that she's in planning, I really felt like at some level he was holding her responsible for what happened. And even if he'll come to his senses and see that reader is not to blame for Buck's misfortune, I will meet Bucky in the Walmart parking lot and I will fight him for making reader sad (and desolate once news of his plane crashing in nazi Germany reach her).

Seriously don't even know what to wait for for part 5. Can't wait 😍

Beatriz!!!! This ask is positively breathtaking 🥰. I adore you and am happy to answer all your questions below the cut!

Ok firstly - our man is not much of a writer but he goes for big impact! And with the use of stars and constellations in aviation I feel like this reference really would come from him?! Ugh so sweet ❤️

The date! He definitely got his hands on a leave guide, they produced them for soldiers planning to visit London, and also did a lot of *listening* to the stories of other people who had just come back from time there. He had planned on taking you out for drinks and dinner and to a show too but well, the universe had other intentions 🤭

In terms of peer review, it was definitely something he kept close to the vest, just for the two of you, though he certainly asked some leading questions of Vi, Ruth, and Mary. I feel like rowboats came from your love of Jane Austen books or something similar 😂

And seriously, how could I resist putting him in a boat with rolled-up sleeves, come on!!!

But yes then we get to the phone call…

On a rational level, Bucky knows you have nothing to do with choosing the targets. That you are tasked with documenting the [poor] decisions of the generals in that room, but his ugly grieving self was in the driver’s seat in that unfortunate moment.

And while your offer to beat him up is hilarious, it’s unnecessary, as he will be doing a very thorough job of it himself 🥺

#asks answered #thinking bucky thoughts #trust universe

[revivemyreverie]

Hii, congrats on reaching another of your milestone goals! How've you been doing? I wanted to say something but you can skip this if this makes you uncomfortable or oversteps boundaries.

It's been awhile since I last visited ur blog, but DAMN—UR ART JUST KEEPS EVOLVING!!! I said this in a previous ask, but your colors holds both vibrancy yet natural flow that draws attention to the focal point but also gives love to the details (especially w/lighting and shadows (Caldera's fire glow effect still lives rent free in my head, but I also saw PL cards and THE SMOOTH SHINE OF LOTISE AND LUCERO'S HAIR THAT'S JUST ADDS DEPTH&CONTRAST TO THE BACKGROUND, THE SUBTLE GLOW OF THEIR EYE CLOSETS(probably saturation but it's making me feral) HOW THE SATURATION OF COLORS DON'T CLASH BUT WORK PERFECTLY TOGETHER AND STILL DRAW DISTINCT ATTENTION TO THE SCENE AND THE DETAILS—)). The way you draw characters, I feel like there is a lot more flexibility and freedom in dynamically angles and posing for them! I still feel a lot of anime nostalgia but also a uniqueness in how aesthetic shows up in design (toytoria dorm room has roblox royal high nostalgia for me hsksj). THAT COMIC YOU POSTED FOR TOYTORIA ANNIVERSARY THO, THE FLOW OF THE COMIC IS JUST INCREDIBLY WELL DONE!!! It really does feel like a small glimpse into a natural interaction between characters. For characters, I unfortunately am not up to date but from what I've so far, ur characters are expressive in this dynamic way that comes across so well when writing dialouge or from their perspective. I feel like your sense of direction w/the lore you want to establish is even more refined and I think you do a mind-blowing job in conveying it (show don't tell vibe). I still enjoy and look forward to seeing how chaotic and mentally ill/j you make ur characters. I'm extremely elated to see just how much you've grown despite not knowing the full picture.

I apologize for the lengthy ramble and the suddenness of this, and I understand if I am being overly familiar. Don't forget to take a break and rest + hydrate and eat—your health comes first!

Hope your week is good to you!!!

ANOOONNN????? THIS IS SO SWEET OF YOU HELLO#$??#$

WAA im surprised u noticed the details in my rendering that i threw into the playful land cards😭 im ngl i was playing around with the add/glow layer on it FOREVER lmao. That and well. ya my old Caldera sprites rlly helped me get a hold on lighting AKDSJHAHJDJH. IM HAPPY THAT YOU FIND MY WORK SO VIBRANT YET HARMONIC.... the flexible comment too...just this whole ask AUGH CRIES

You'd be right on the Roblox Royale High part IUKASDJHJAS i still play it...it still leaks into my designs....BUT TEEHEE it becomes a nice aesthetic as u said!!! AND MY COMIC AUGHHHHHHHH TYSM.....im so picky with my comics and their dialogue in fear ill b messing up the whole vibe SO IM HAPPY MY FLOW IS WORKING WELL ATM!!!! SAME FOR SHOW/DONT TELL i consider that 2 b like. one of the major requirements in any sort of storytelling💀THEN ITS NOT YUMMY YK??

TY AGAIN FOR SUCH A NICE COMMENT...holds it like its my newborn😭😭😭 DONT APOLOGIZE FOR THE LENGTH ILL EAT IT UP NONETHELESS. i hope ur week goes well too!!!

#pins to skull #ty again cries and sobs #saw the note too cries harder #revs rambling

[juleskelleybooks]

Year-End Wrap Up 2023

Thank you to literally everyone who has engaged with the work I've managed to put out despite everything. It was all carved out of me at great cost and with great love, and sharing it brings me joy and is why I keep doing it. Below are some numbers and some thoughts just to quantify things, but thanks.

Stats:

Words Published - 92,122 Words Written - Estimated somewhere in the 50k range Works Published - 2 Units Sold - 399 (self published titles only, includes free downloads) Milestones - Got to sign my physical book in a local bookstore and be featured on their social media as a local author; entered my book to be judged as part of the Lambda Literary Awards

Goals for Next Year:

Actually start keeping track of sales per title etc.

Start tracking words written

Thoughts:

This is mostly for myself, because I have a hard time with things like "accomplishments" and "chronological time" and "object permanency", and because I'm always looking ahead at what I want to have done, like I'm climbing uphill, and all progress feels slow. Sometimes it's good to look back at how far you've come.

At the end of last year, I parted professional ways with my agent (lovely person though she is), so this year was already a bit new in a lot of ways.

In April, Night Is For Hunting released. It's the second Moonrise book, and was intended to be the middle in a trilogy, but the final book has since been canceled (at my request) because I realized that the third book is not within timely reach for me. Still kind of feeling the sting of that. I'm also not super happy with parts of NIFH, as I pushed through places in order to hit (an already extended) deadline. I had grand plans for sections of the book that I just didn't have time to wrangle.

That's kind of a theme for this year, is that I'm learning that being disabled does unfortunately mean that I am less able to do things on the schedule or to the intensity or degree that I wish that I could. The whole reason I went fully self-pub without my lovely agent was because I knew I couldn't have both work that at least approaches my standards and also a standardized publishing schedule. Not at this point in my life, anyway.

In July, Stars Still Fall was released. I wrote what I consider the pivotal scene in that story back in 2018, and have been obsessed with it ever since, so finishing it was accomplishing a major goal. I let myself take my time to get really indulgent with the prose in places, which I enjoyed a lot. I keep poking at it to see if there's any places I'm unhappy with, that I want to change, and so far I haven't found any. (This isn't, of course, to say that it's above criticism. I'm sure it isn't all to everyone's taste. But I'm happy.) I may update the cover at some point to change the typography for the title, because I think it could be better and do better justice to the actual art.

Looking Ahead:

Blackthorn (low-tech space western, bi4bi m/f) seems to have pulled ahead out of the primordial soup of WIPs for now and is rattling full steam ahead. I'm not going to set a due date until I'm closer to the end, but with any luck, I might manage to finish it within two years?

Other projects that are starting to solidify are A Touch of Magic (witchy single dad whose daughter casts a love spell to try to save his job), A Time For Us (completely reworked reissue of M Jules Aedin title Windows in Time featuring a modern-day person helping ghosts from the 1940s at the risk of his own happiness), and whatever I end up renaming Late Blooming (gray-ace middle school teacher finds out he's same-sex attracted shortly after his 40th birthday and a lot of things start making sense, but his crush on the uncle of one of his students is not one of those things).

Thank you, and happy new year!

#wrap up

[inevitablysomber-dark]

Hopping on the rafe x Pogue reader bandwagon. Where they're arguing and he says. "I can think of better things for you to do with that mouth."

I did my best and went for a demurer concept in terms of arguments.

Warning: Undertones of Dubious Consent. MATURE AUDIENCES ONL, MINORS DNI.

Summary: Rafe gets jealous, and you get punished

"I don't understand why you had to make a scene," you say, trying not to raise your voice so Rafe wouldn't get upset with you.

You were at the country club with Rafe, Topper, and Kelce, and some random Touron started flirting with you.

Before you could even think to reject him, Rafe was already in front of you, acting as some kind of pseudo-knight in shining armor, telling the guy to back off.

And though you didn't like his methods, they worked. Unfortunately, your issue with the interaction had been Rafe's unwillingness to drop it after the flirtatious perpetrator backed off. Going on to follow him to the golf course and beating him up.

Despite delivering his own form of retribution, at your own retraction, Rafe was still heated. So he cut the day short, dragged you to his house, and pulled you into his room.

"And I don't understand why you didn't turn him down as soon as he opened his mouth." Rafe bites back. "It's like you love seeing me pissed off."

Your relationship with Rafe was a complicated one.

You used to work for Ward as a part-time housekeeper. The Camerons were rarely home, and the gig paid well enough.

Last summer, the Camerons went on a 2 month's vacation to the Bahamas. You invited a few friends over for a mini party, but one of your more light-fingered friends had taken an artifact from the mansion and tried to sell it to Barry's pawn shop.

Rafe found out from Barry and retrieved it. Of course, he came back to you and threatened to get you fired, calling you all sorts of means things before giving you an ultimatum.

He would go to his father unless you do as he says.

At first, it was small things like getting the remote or making him some lemonade. Then he expected you to start waiting on him hand and foot.

When things quickly began crossing over to more sexual favors, you quit, thinking that your job wasn't worth your dignity.

Rafe, however, hunted you down and made sure you knew that he could destroy more than just your reputation.

You had family and friends you loved and cared about, and he would make sure you would be all alone to prove a point.

Now, you were going on dates with the Kook prince, trying to keep him unagitated, so he doesn't blow up on you.

You were frustrated at his behavior and attitude, which became more erratic as you spent more time with him.

"I was going to; you just didn't give me a chance," you say. "Why can't you just fuck off?"

You cover your mouth, not expecting that last part to come out. You were definitely thinking it; you just didn't mean to say it out loud.

"He squints his eyes at you, a fire lit behind his baby blues, getting in your face, a look on his own reflecting his unhappiness with you.

"I can think of much better things for you to do with that mouth than talk back," he says, his voice calm, eyes boring into you.

"Rafe-." you start

He unbuckles his belt and undoes his fly before settling into his desk chair and giving you an expectant look.

"Well, sweetheart." he says, "I'm waiting."

#Drabble #dark drabble #dark! rafe cameron #dub con #dubcon #dark! rafe cmaron x reader #dubious consent #dark! rafe cameron x pogue! reader

[realitiesedge]

So I posted these last night to my personal account but I wanted to upload them here too along with some information on these characters! ^^

Pauline: Pauline is an interdimensional being. She lives in the Hyperverse and works at the ITC (interdimensional traveling company) as a security guard! She loves everything pink and girly. She is seen by others as a stereotypical bimbo who’s always bubbly and sweet, but she does her job quite well and can stand up for herself easily. Despite how others see her she is independent and incredibly smart. She’s currently dating Oliver (will post him later), the IT guy for the ITC.

Callus: Callus is a villain and also a part of The Next. He is a Centrite ( avian demons basically). He was a royal, meaning he was very vain, cruel, and.. a little stupid. Most royals don’t do anything for themselves and are incredibly sheltered, so they never really learn many life skills (if any). Callus is especially cruel in particular, however. He doesn’t care for anyone or anything besides himself and money or power. He will do ANYTHING to get what he wants. And I mean ANYTHING.

Jinx: Jinx is a part of Wick’s theater ( not pictured). She is a background character and doesn’t really have significance in the story, but she still does have a story of her own. She is one of the younger actors only being 19. She got lucky since her aunt is a costume and clothes designer for his theater. She is an incredible singer and actor, however she is often ignored unfortunately. She still does play in most of the plays, but she never gets any main parts (thanks to Charlotte since her damn DaDdY is secretly threatening Wick to give her anything she wants).

Red: Red is one of the main characters for RE. He is an alien from a planet called Floris. Red has MANY accomplishments, including but not limited to:

- veteran

- guardian ( Hyperverse protector)

- inventor

- scientist ( biology and anthropology is his specialty)

- Architect of knowledge ( basically the gods who made EVERYTHING)

- has two spouses and 14 children, as well as 1 grandchild

- freed his planet’s god, Alcemedy

And much more. He is known to be a workaholic and doesn’t know when to quit. I will keep the rest of his story a secret :)

Beatrice: Bea is the last one on this list. She is also a background character and doesn’t have any significance to the main story, but she’s still an interesting character. She is also from Floris. She is a part of a group who wants to live their lives as humans and stay on Earth permanently. She is the youngest of this group being 19 years old. She loves music, especially scene music or anything good to dance to. She tries to fit in but it can be difficult at times (especially when she only mainly speaks Floris). Thanks to Red she can stay human as long as she wears the flower in her hair.

#my ocs #oc stuff #my oc art #original content #oc ask blog #book teaser #new books #indie books #books and reading #bookblr #booklr #books #bookworm #indie artist #indie author #indie #oc lore #lore #oc artwork #ocs #oc #oc art #original writing #original art #original character #original post #original book

[outrunningthedark]

My real big problem with BuckTaylor is him wanting to date Taylor in the first place despite knowing what she almost did during the brownies accident, which also happened briefly in Season 2 until he decided to be with Ali because seriously, it just makes him look very stupid in comparison when he can be more than that. The only real acknowledgement to Taykay's behavior from the firefam that I remember of is that during Jonah's investigation via Chim and Hen's silent gesture, the same episode we're seeing her "true nature anyway" so it's redundant and Athena talking about her to Lou which does not go anywhere and she does nothing with it afterwards.

Babying Buck or not, Taykay's writing is riddled with stupid, stupid decisions one after another.

Look, it's really easy for us as viewers to question the choice to bring TayKay back as a real LI and then never truly address her previous behavior, but (IMO) we would have a better understanding if we thought like a show runner.

*LI is going to be temporary, mostly to fill the void left by Maddie (one woman leaves, another is available) and Madney as a couple. What would be faster/easier? Creating a whole new character, or reinserting someone the audience doesn't have to get to know? *LI's career should have some sort of connection to the first responder life so she can fill those gaps in screen time, but not be important enough where her presence or absence affects the overall story. TayKay is a reporter whose segments meant crossing paths with the firefam, but once the narrative shifted she was easily swapped out for another voice (they don't even need to be seen!) who could do the exact same job. *Not atoning for prior actions served two purposes: keep any newer members of the audience (s4 was when the fandom *really* took off, I think) from dwelling on a past version of a character they never knew, and hope that by not having Buck or any of his friends question why he'd get involved with her again, the audience wouldn't think twice about his change of heart. And for the most part, it seemed to work, especially around here. We've seen the gifsets about #charactergrowth after 4x11 when she made her "celebration" at Buck's about solving two cases rather than a promotion. Hook, line, and sinker. (Good thing those edits don't circulate anymore!) *Her work didn't negatively impact the people in Buck's life (this part is important - those of us who always saw TayKay for what she was had no problem criticizing her obsession with solving the husband and wife murder plot or how she tells other people's stories to hide from her own, but none of that hurt anyone directly connected to her bf) until it was time to end the relationship. When her quest for the truth crossed the line for the second time, Buck realized she was never truly going to prioritize their relationship or his trust in her over a chance to make headlines. Does it make sense? Not to people who over-analyze and assume the show runners like to have some grand plan at all times. But remember what Kristen said after 5A - TayKay wasn't even supposed to be in as many scenes as she got that first half despite being a reporter. She was always meant to be a "for now" option, not "forever", and the writing had to reflect that. (Unfortunately, not everyone could see the story for what it was, hence the panic over trying to legitimize her as Buck's future from Buddie fandom and then the BeeTees claiming the show switched things up last minute because they couldn't handle the idea that their fave was made "better" until the show brought all the mains back where they belong.)

#anonymous #tina speaks #i'm not actually insulting taylor in this so not tagging as such #tv: 911 #tv: 9-1-1 #evan buckley

[winderlylandchime]

First of i would like to apologize because unfortunately i have to sent this in two parts.. the hetero brother was on a roll. Anyway 1/2:

I legit walked into the living room to find my brother standing with the intro paused and him going ‘cmon loser, we got work to do!’ So here is the 2x02 report: ‘oh he’s going to Brian?! That’s right Jenny Jen, you are not stopi- wait THATS THE FUCKE- oh it’s a dream, we’re good! I mean he isn’t but boy, i was worried for a sec, oh poor baby! Wait, he hates being touched, i forgot! But he hugged my-i mena our man Bri Bri!’ ‘OH ITS MY BOY BRI BRI! oh damn i forgot that no more David means Michael stays..ugh, you win some you lose some’ that’s where I wanted to give a helping hand to Mikey so i said well technically he is one of the leads and he immediately scoffed at me and went ‘i think me, Brian and Justin would like to disagree with that terribly inaccurate statement, now shush!’ He is once again groaning at Mikey ‘really dude?! I mean i hate you but come on! And of course he liked dancing with Justin! Who wouldnt? i need him gone. Either the writers did a great job at writing him annoying and he’s really good at acting OR the guy sucks and im picking up on his vibesss either way, stop it’ ‘duty as a father to build a swing set? Wait..did we have a swing set? I gotta talk to dad about that bc he never got us a swing!’ He is currently very sad over the Jen/Deb scene but hes still mad at Jen so he keeps scoffing at her. ‘that’s right Deb! Someone else! BRIAN! FFS! Not after what happened?! Was Brian the one swinging the bat? No. if there was no Brian, justin would be dead! And WHY IS DEBBIE NOT CALLING HER OUT ON HER BLAMING BRIAN?! WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE PROTECTING HIM?! This is a very hard job for me! It’s only my 5th day here and I’m on drugs and in pain. But fuck it, Bri Bri needs me! Hit play again, im ready’ and we got to the loft scene and he hid under his hands bc it’s just like the dream. ‘Wait it’s my man Bri!! Oh no! Oh no! justin this isnt him talking to you! It’s your mothers fault. He wants you there i swear he told me himself, i mean not really but like the way he looked at you in the last episode said everything, you just didnt see it bc they had you looking away in the script’ (is this the point where i start worrying about his mental state?) ‘OH HE FIGURED IT OUT! He knows its your fault jenny! My boy took a bat to his head but he still knows that 1+1= his mom being a lil bitch. OH SHIT IS SHE OKAY? Damn i feel conflicted now, nvm she’s okay’. My favorite part is now coming up that ive been dying to see his reaction to and ofc it did not disappoint ‘OH ITS JEN! And my boy BRI! Now what does she want? She wants a favor? What is he red cross? She wants him to TAKE HIM? Take him where? Like take him to LA (narrators note: bless his heart) or like what? What other way can he be taken? What is she sayin- thank you Bri for asking bc she wasn’t listening to me! “Standing there helpless, do you know what it feels like?” GIRL IS WATER WET?! OFC HE KNOWS HE WATCHED HIM ALMOST DIE! Jenny what are you saying touch him, make more sen-oh wait..oh no, oh wait is she asking him to fuck Justin?! JENNY IS THAT WHAT YOURE ASKING?….do you think mom would pimp me out like that? Although the last date she set me up on the girl started praying before eating (cue me saying i mean thats not THAT bad) IT IS WHEN ITS IN MCDONALDS.. she wants him to fuck him oh god, i mean I’m down and so are they! Lets go..im tired’

Okay dear sweet anon and brother anon. I just got to my office and I have TEARS streaming down my face from laughing so hard. Luckily, my office is therapy office so there are tissues. I gotta pull myself together.

I’m going to post your messages without comment because I go into back to back meetings soon and I cannot without them from the world.

So 1/3.

#ask winderlylandchime #dear sweet anon #a straight man watches qaf us 2000 in the year of our lord 2023