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dandelionprints · 1 year

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‘Dear Thomas…’

Pairing: Tommy Shelby x Y/N

Summary: When a deal between Tommy Shelby and Oswald Mosley is made, Y/N and Tommy have to come up with a plan of their own to keep her safe whilst on her trip to Scotland. With no outside protection from the blinders allowed, what will the husband and wife do to give each other information in secret?

Warnings: mention of threats of SA/murder/violence, bad language. Reader discretion is advised, only read if you are comfortable with that kind of content.

Word Count: 4300

A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this and coming up with the concept! I’m actually quite proud of myself for finally completing this, I really hope you enjoy reading it!

Dear Thomas,

How are you my love? I hope you’re well, I’m missing you dearly although I am delighted that you took Mr. Mosley up on his offer for me to come away to Scotland for a month with him and Lady Diana. It’s such a lovely treat to get to take a break from the fast pace of everyday life back home. It’s so peaceful and quiet with no one around for miles. I need to make sure I thank them at the end of the trip.

We should come here together one day. I think that it would be good for your sanity and wellbeing when things get too stressful. I know you refuse the help but I think it would do you the world of good.

Mr Mosley has been ever so kind and has offered only the best when it comes to the views, food and days out. Everything is perfect. I could see me losing myself here! Caught up in the scenic views and fresh air, how beautiful it is.

How is Arthur doing? I know it’s only been a week since I left but his troubles have been playing on my mind slightly, I just hope he has the patience to see them through.

I know he can do it, especially with the support he has from you and Ada. I do wish you could have joined me on this trip but I know that Arthur needs you more, his habits are getting far too out of hand now. He has the best brothers and sister in the world, he said so himself.

There’s a young stableboy here too, he reminds me a lot of John. Poor John. I’m sorry to bring him up but I like to think that he’s still around, showing himself through other people. I will make sure to have a drink for him tonight.

The stableboy is called George. He has a wicked sense of humour and a laugh that could kill you just from the sheer hilarity of the sound it makes.

Before you start getting worried, he’s eighteen, so way too young for me. Besides, if I’m correct in thinking this, I have a pretty incredible man waiting for me when I get home. (That’s you by the way).

I’m sorry if you find this letter is too long but I miss you and I hope you don’t mind that I’m prattling on, it’s almost like by writing you a letter I’m actually getting to talk to you as if you were sitting right next to me. You with your bottle of whiskey and newspaper, and me with my cup of tea and a book.

I had a memory of you this morning too, remember when we were young and you would deliver my parents the daily newspaper each day because you knew how much my father liked to keep up with what was going on in the world? You always were so sweet. It’s funny what you remember when you’re on your own and have time to think, isn’t it?

Part of me wishes we could go back in time, even just for a day, to chase through the streets of Birmingham barefoot and run riot without a care in the world.

I remember when we made a deal with Arthur to go skinny dipping in the river and see who could last in the freezing temperatures the longest. Just as he’d stripped right down to his underwear, the old lady who lived in the house nearby came out with her walking stick waving in the air which soon had us all scurrying away. We were all so frightened within an inch of our lives that Arthur didn’t even bother to grab the clothes he’d taken off.

As much as I’d love to carry on writing this letter, I know you’re probably busy either looking after Arthur or working so I’ll leave you to it. As for me, I’m the next person to be having their hair done for the charity ball tonight so I’d best be off.

I know it’s only been a week and I really am enjoying my time here, but the next three weeks seem so long to wait to see you. I wish it were only a matter of days.

Please say hello to Polly and Ada for me. I’d love for them to come here too one day if we ever take a trip. Okay, I’d really better start getting ready, you know how long it takes me. I’ve never been good at getting dressed up quickly.

I’ll send you another letter in a couple of days, darling. I hope to see you soon. I love you.

Yours, always, Y/N.

——

Tommy’s eyes lingered on the handwritten paper in his hands long after he’d finished reading it. A hint of sadness sitting in the pit of his stomach, his heart aching at the thought that she’d been holding the very pages that he held now only a matter of hours before.

Tommy hated making her go on a trip with the narcissistic, arrogant prick that was Sir Oswald Mosley for a whole month, though he was given no choice. He had to stay and she had to go, alone.

It was hard convincing her to go, she’d hated the fascist bastard from the moment she set eyes on him. His anti-semetic and racist views were enough to make her feel nauseous, his grimy hands landing on her hips when he insisted they danced the first time they met made her skin crawl.

Tommy had been forced to stay behind, Mosley telling him to give the excuse that he needed to be around for Arthur, which wasn’t entirely a lie, and that there were things he needed to do to help the cause back in London.

“If she doesn’t come along and you don’t stay put then I’ll make sure that all of your family are slaughtered, one by one. Just like little lambs”, Mosley had snickered, knowing that the threat would have hit a nerve.

“And why does my wife have to come along with you? Why can she not stay here with me?” Tommys mind was racing trying to think of any possible reasons before Mosley could muster up a shitty excuse.

“I fear she may become too much of a distraction for you, Mr. Shelby. I need you here in London, getting the biggest names in politics, the socialite world, maybe even Mr. Churchill while you’re at it, to join our cause. I could do it myself of course but I believe you have the right… tactics should I say, to get people on our side. Besides, it’ll be nice to get to know Mrs. Shelby better if we’re to be working alongside each other. I expect we’ll all be spending a lot of time together over the years and I have a feeling that she and Diana will hit it off extremely well. Diana is always looking for new friends.”

There was a glint in Mosley’s eyes that Tommy didn’t like, it was almost unsettling.

“So Mr. Shelby. Do you agree to this or shall I just have someone come and kill your entire family right now?” Mosley took a seat in Tommy’s desk chair, reclining his body back and placing both hands together across his chest.

Tommy thought for a moment, leaning against the wooden panelling on the wall, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it almost on autopilot. He inhaled deeply letting the smoke fill his lungs before slowly releasing it out into the room.

“If I can get the biggest names both in politics and the socialite world, do you agree to keep my wife safe through every endeavour we encounter on this business journey together Mr. Mosley? I’m aware that in business things can always turn sour, especially when politics are involved. I need to know that my wife will always be safe, untouched”, he looked him straight in the eye with every word said, the hue of his blue eyes deepening with the word ‘untouched’.

Of course there were other things he could ask for in return for doing the dirty work, but above all he needed her to be safe. Nothing else mattered if she wasn’t.

As if almost to tease Tommy, Mosley faked a grimace, comically stroking his chin as he pondered on the words just spoken.

“Hmm, I suppose that’s not too much to ask. Rest assured Mr. Shelby, as long as you can get me those names then your wife will be safe throughout our entire journey together”, he finally retorted, standing from the chair and making his way to where Tommy stood, their noses only inches away from one another, ”However, if you do not deliver what you have promised then I can assure you I’ll make sure that she suffers and it’ll be at my own hands. I have no doubt in my mind that I’ll take great pleasure in doing as I please before I finally sink the blade into her chest too”

Tommy felt his chest tighten with the rage that was now enveloping him, his fists began to clench at his sides and he had to take a moment to clear the red mist that was developing over his eyes.

Finally he coughed, clearing his throat, “we have a deal, Mr. Mosley”

“Ah good! Now, tell your wife that she is to be picked up tomorrow morning at eight A.M sharp. A car will arrive at your marital home and she shall be taken to Scotland where she will be greeted ever so delightfully by myself and Diana. We will ensure that she has a wonderful month with us”

A whole month. Just hearing it spoken out loud was enough to make Tommy shiver. The thought of her being practically alone without any of the blinders protection she was used to with a man who couldn’t keep his hands to himself. A man who would have his way with her as and when he pleased no matter who she was married to. It made him feel sick to his stomach.

“I shall see you when I return, Mr. Shelby, and I shall telephone you every week for updates. As for your wife, she may send you letters, all of which will be checked by one of my trusted members of staff before being sent to ensure neither one of you are plotting against me, but that is all. No telephone calls, no visitors from your ‘Peaky boys’ as I’ve heard them be referred to, only letters. Do I make myself clear?”

Tommy could only nod in response. Too afraid at what he might do if he did anything else.

“Good. Oh and by the way, you have two weeks to successfully secure at least three people into our organisation. If you take any longer than that, I’m afraid I shall become angry, and who knows what I’ll do in retaliation”, Mosley gave a sly smirk in Tommy’s direction, “good day, Mr. Shelby”.

Tommy watched as the pompous prick headed for the door, his hand quivering above the gun he had hidden in his pocket. He wanted nothing more than to shoot the bastard right there and then on the spot but what good would that do him?

“FUCK!” He shouted as he heard the footsteps of Mosley growing silent in the distance.

——

She’d pleaded with him that night to not make her go, her eyes visibly glassy and an expression on her face that was enough to make his heart sink. He cupped either side of her face with his hands, gently using his thumbs to stroke her cheeks.

“It’ll make a good impression”, he insisted, “please, love. I need you to go and get all the information you can, I need to know what his real plan is. I know he’s going to try and fuck me over at some point so the sooner I know what he’s up to the better”

His hands moved from her face as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She let her head fall on his chest where they stood, soft cries making her chest wrack up and down. Tommy hated that he had to put her through this especially with Mosley's reputation of not keeping his hands to himself, but he had no choice.

“Sh sh love, it’s okay”, he soothed, stroking the back of her head, her hair so soft and the scent of jasmine drifting towards him as he bent his head down to rest on hers.

“But it’s not, Tommy! You know what Mosley’s like, he’s a pig! He’ll try and fuck me the first chance he gets whether I like it or not and you know it! I’ve seen what he does to other women, seen the way he looks at me, it’s disgusting!” She pushed back from him then, her hands falling to her side with a huff of desperation.

He knew she was right. Fuck, he hated that she was right. What he hated even more was that he couldn’t be there to stop it, to keep that creep as far away from her as possible. Back in Birmingham with the protection of the blinders would be more to his liking.

Tommy took a step towards her, closing the gap between them and brought a finger to her chin, lifting it slightly so that his striking blue eyes met hers, the tears still ever present.

“Y/N, I know this situation isn’t ideal in any fucking possible way, I know that, okay? But I really need you to go, if you don’t then he’s going to go on a killing rampage, all of my family will be dead by the end of tomorrow. Polly, Arthur, Ada, Finn… you”, he paused as he felt a lump form in his throat, trying to hold back the tears he knew were willing to flow.

This time it was her turn to bring her hands up to either side of his face, ready to brush away any tears that might fall. She sighed heavily with the weight of the situation weighing on her chest, why the fuck did she have to go on her own?

“Why can’t you come with me? Why have you got to stay here?”

“You mustn’t tell him I’ve told you this, he’ll retaliate if he knows that I have. He’ll tell you that I’m to get people onboard for our cause, which is true. Another reason I was to use for me not coming is that I need to be here for Arthur. What Mosley won’t tell you is that if you don’t go with him to Scotland, on your own, that he’ll kill the whole family. He made sure to mention that he’d do as he pleased with you too if I didn’t get him at least three major politicians or socialites onboard within two weeks, before taking a blade and killing you himself. I have to get those names, Y/N. If I don’t, I’ll lose you and I can’t let that happen.”

A single tear fell from his eyes then, a sight that was rare when it came to Tommy Shelby.

“Okay, Tom. I’ll go”, she paused briefly, the sadness in his eyes was almost too overwhelming, “I’ll go, but if he lays a single finger on me I won’t hold back, he’ll get every single scratch, kick and punch he deserves”

Tommy chuckled then. That’s my girl, he thought. His hands found themselves on top of Y/N’s as he gently removed them from his face and onto his chest.

“I don’t want you to do anything less, you do what you need to do to stay safe. I’m going to give you a pistol to hide in your undergarments, he touches you and you don’t hesitate to blow his fuckin’ brains out, alright?”

She nodded in agreement, the use of a weapon was something that she was more than accustomed to. Tommy had taught her how to fire her first shot at the age of 8. The pistol his father kept in his dresser along with a few pellets. The weight of the cool metal felt right in her hand even back then which she knew it probably shouldn’t. Maybe she was always destined for this life alongside Tommy Shelby?

“Good, there’s also the issue about contact. He said you’re not to telephone me and no visitors are allowed, only letters which will be checked by his members of staff before they’re sent. We’ve got to find a way to get messages across to each other without anyone noticing”, he took a small step back, lowering his hands down to reach into his pocket and find the carton of cigarettes inside.

He took two out, lit one and handed it to Y/N who was clearly deep in thought as she nearly didn’t notice his outstretched hand and it’s contents. She paced towards the window, cigarette now in her mouth and eyebrows furrowed. It was only when she saw the moon outside the window that it hit her.

“Wait! We’re fucking idiots, this should have been the first thought that came into our heads!” She exclaimed, sounding equally excited and frustrated at their lack of being able to remember the obvious.

“What? What should we have thought of?”, Tommy had moved to sit on the edge of the bed, knees slightly spread apart so that his elbows could rest on either one of them.

“Remember how when we were teenagers and I got sent away that summer cos mum and dad found out we’d slept together?”, she began.

Tommy let out a snicker of laughter that made him exhale sharply out of his nose, a grin appearing on his face, “yeah I remember, I don’t think either of our parents were too pleased with us”

She giggled at the memory, if only their parents had seen that it wasn’t just puppy love that brought the two together.

“Well”, she continued, “We both made the agreement to write each other letters every night when the moon came out with hidden messages inside cos we knew they’d check them, didn’t we? So, why don’t we do that this time too?!”

The grin that spread across her face was enough to make his stomach flip, he loved seeing her look so happy and excited, she was beautiful at all times to Tommy Shelby but something about that smile did things to him.

“You know, I think you may be the true brains in the Shelby family. You’re fucking brilliant”, the smile that was forming on his own face made his eyes crinkle slightly in the corners, his cheekbones showing their true definition.

Y/N made her way over to Tommy and gently straddled his lap, placing a soft kiss on his lips.

“Brains and the beauty you mean?” She joked, taking the cigarette from his fingers and taking a pull, her own cigarette now burnt out.

“Exactly that, Mrs. Shelby”

He took the cigarette back from her, finishing off the last of the tobacco filled contents before stubbing it out in the ashtray next to him.

“There’s one thing I want you to do differently this time though”, he said, a slightly more serious look on his face now.

“Oh? What’s that?”

“I want you to start off the letter with, “Dear Thomas”, if you’re in danger. Only use Tommy if it’s just a normal letter telling me about your time there or if there’s information you think I should know about. I need to make sure you’re safe at all times. The letters you send will arrive to me quickly. Mosley’s got his own messenger boy who will make sure any letters get to the recipient within a few hours. If you’re in danger I’ll be able to create a plan and get to you as quickly as possible. Deal?”

Her face now mimicked the serious look on his as she grasped the gravity of the situation that she was about to go into all over again.

A trip to Scotland with a fascist and his mistress probably wouldn’t sound too awful to anyone with the same mindset as them, but both Y/N and Tommy knew just the kind of things that Sir Oswald Mosley was capable of. They couldn’t take the chances of underestimating him.

“Deal”, she said, nodding her head in agreement.

The air felt heavy around them as they both wrapped their arms around each other, Tommys fingers gripping that extra bit tighter to her frame, too afraid to let go.

——

He’d almost forgotten about their plan when he received the letter, the excitement of seeing words written by the love of his life overwhelming the importance of the contents of it. Snapping himself out of his mindless trance upon finishing the letter, that’s when he noticed it.

‘Dear Thomas…’

“Shit”

Panic set in as he raced his eyes across her words once more, not really taking anything in due to the lack of calm that was now engulfing him.

“Fuck, what’s she fucking hidden in here?!” He said aloud to himself, a hand frantically brushing his hair backwards.

Whiskey. He needed whiskey. That was always something that he believed helped to calm the nerves.

Grabbing the bottle from his desk he quickly poured the amber liquid into the glass next to it, spilling some onto the wooden surface as he did so.

He threw it back just as quickly as he’d poured it and took a deep breath in, exhaling slowly. A lit cigarette now took the place of the whiskey glass in his hand and he made sure to have a long pull on it before focusing his eyes back onto the pages again.

‘Look for the hidden words, look for the fucking hidden words’

‘Dear Thomas…’

His fingers gently swept across the pages trying to make it easier for his eyes to notice any changes in her writing.

“There!” He shouted out loud to no one but himself.

How could he have been so stupid to not notice it before? She’d done exactly what she’d said she’d do, just like she had all those years ago. The hidden words were ever so slightly slanted, only enough for the person reading it to notice if they knew what they were looking for.

Opening the drawer in his desk he pulled out an old notebook and pen and began writing down each tilted word.

‘I need your help. Mosley is losing his patience, he has said he will kill me if you don’t deliver on your part of the deal within the next three days. Please come quickly.

Yours, always, Y/N’

That fucking traitor. He knew that he should have known better than to take Mosley’s word on giving him two weeks to get the names he wanted. The bastard had only been gone for one week and was already tired of keeping up his end of the bargain.

There was no way in fucking hell he was going to let that monster touch his wife, his innocent fucking wife. He knew in his mind ever since the agreement was made that if Mosley so much as grazed her delicate skin with his sinful hands that he’d make sure to cut the weasels fingers off one by one.

He shot up from his chair and ran toward his office door not wanting to waste another second just sitting there, grabbing his coat and peaked cap along the way.

“Frances! I’m going to Scotland for a few days, tell Ada she needs to look after Arthur on her own, she can bring him here if it’s better suited”

The maid stood stuck to the spot as Tommy rushed past her, barely making eye contact on his way across the tiled flooring.

“Yes Mr. Shelby”

He wasted no time in getting into his car, fumbling with his keys as he tried to get them into the ignition. The engine started up and his foot was down on the accelerator faster than a racehorse on a track, causing the car to go speeding off down the long driveway out of Arrow House. His heart pounding with every metre of ground covered.

The phone in Tommy’s office began to ring, each chime of the bell reverberating around the room. Frances made her way through the already open door that Tommy had failed to close on his way out and over to his desk, taking the phone off the receiver and placing it to her ear.

“Arrow House”, she stated.

Had Tommy only waited a few minutes more, he might’ve been the one to answer and hear the words that would change everything.

“Hello, this is Sir Oswald Mosley. I regret to inform you that I have something unfortunate to tell you about Mr. Shelby’s wife…”

——

Thank you for reading, I hope you liked the element of a hidden message within the letter! It was something that I was so excited to include in this fic and the basis of the whole story idea, it was so much fun trying to find ways to include all of the words I needed to!

Please let me know your thoughts via likes, reblogs, comments and/or asks! It really does make a writers day when a reader lets us know what they thought of our work❤️

If you’d like to join my tag list to keep up to date with my work, please click here

Tagged: @peakypoet @moral-terpitude @lyarr24 @cillmequick @mrkdvidal1989 @shelbydelrey @alasya16 @tommystargirl @elenavampire21 @adaydreamaway08 @slaypussypop-21 (unable to tag) @bluesongbird @zablife

#tommy shelby #peaky blinders #tommy shelby imagine #tommy shelby x reader #tommy shelby x y/n #tommy shelby one shot #tommy shelby x you #tommy shelby fanfic #cillian murphy

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presumenothing · 6 months

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hi! I really need some more zhou shen content, and am wondering if you can help me out. which are his best variety shows (that aren't singing comps, I think I've seen all those)? I loved youth periplous and keep running, and don't know what to watch next.

ok i'm gonna have to turn to crowdsourcing for this one because my attention span for watching shows esp general variety is basically Zero (0) so aside from a few exceptions the most i've seen is random clips of each. non-exhaustive list below shamelessly stolen off wikipedia, zhou shen tag friends please DO chip in with your sage advice

(also disclaimer that i have no idea about the eng sub availability and/or quality for any of these at all rip)

EDIT: comment party in the replies!! come drop in

music (regular):

声入人心/super vocal s1: the classic, probably everyone has seen this

我们的歌/our song: the new(?) classic. iconic showstopping etc

歌手·当打之年/singer 2020: need i say more

创造营/chuang 2021: dance dance revolution (polyglot edition)

天赐的声音/the treasured voice s3: still not over that 调查中 duet!! also shoutout to studio for solid rehearsal!shen vlog content

时光音乐会/time concert s2: A++ performances and vibes all around, including the game/dinner extras. also possibly still my favourite arrangement of 光亮

舞台2023/the next: lovely backstage bits of him working with contestants + nerding out over music with arai-sensei. plus that (literally) lit 人是＿ performance, we love to see it

music (guest):

蒙面唱将猜猜猜/masked singer: another classic

一起乐队吧/let's band: a rare 周浅 appears aww back when he would wince at people addressing him as laoshi

唱给世界听/sing tour: first appearance in a mentor role! though i don't think i've watched this one at all actually

这! 就是原创/chuang: remember when he actually broke a sweat over high Cs lmao. anyway tang hanxiao's skillz amirite

经典咏流传/everlasting classics s3: i need to listen to 情是何物 another 100000 times again actually?? also hiiii liao-laoshi

流淌的歌声/flowing melodies s2: the way everyone was just treating him like a walking jukebox on this one LOL 1000/10 valid

明日之子SUPER BAND: hey. hey lang lang you should bring this bean along to your appearances more often. please

乐队的夏天/the big band: that entire backstage footage of him and muma pls

上线吧! 华彩少年/bravo youngsters: ok i'll be honest i have no impression of what the actual show was about but the backstage clips were so fun

2060: mandatory mention simply because of that 浓情淡如你 performance aaaaaaaa

non-music (regular):

了不起的长城/the great wall

青春环游记/youth periplous s2: hilariously i'm pretty certain that everyone has watched more of this than i have

新手驾到/go newbies: the closest i will ever get to a driving license

令人心动的offer/an exciting offer s2-3: shenshen AND shuangbei (aka the he jiong + sa beining combo). what more could you ask for

开始推理吧/the truth: the only one of these i've watched in full (mostly). aka ZHOU KEKE my tiny beaaaaannnn 🥺🥺🥺

奔跑吧/keep running

non-music (guest):

出发吧，师傅!/shifu go go go: makes the list simply out of sheer hilarity

王牌对王牌/ace vs ace: that sa dingding duet!! aka instance no.??? of "let's elevate this non-music show to Concert Hall Levels"

天天向上/day day up: the one where he dubbed frozen live

向往的生活/back to field: hi maomao!

明星大侦探/who's the murderer NZND concert: aka Spooky Hours

奇妙之城/marvelous city: so nice to see him back home! also 10000/10 cave concert when

念念青春/searching for youth: A+ wardrobe choices no notes

种地吧: ditto (snuggly grey sweater!!)

你好生活 s4: aka the one where he nearly gave sa beining an aneurysm lmao

快乐大本营/happy camp and 你好星期六/hello saturday: hiiii he-laoshi!! also nezha!zs hahaha

#zhou shen #周深 #asks #anonymous #long post #the ones in blue are just my personal faves/ones i've watched more of #but yeah basically my solution to 'lack of zs' is nearly always to just go bilibili and inevitably discover 293842 vids i hadn't yet seen

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stranger-rants · 2 years

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I saw this new one the other day. Apparently we're not supposed to view Billy as a complex character. The hilarity of antis saying that Billy is not a "fleshed out character" and that Billy is a one-dimensional antagonist that we're not supposed to care this much about. Babes... I know the critical thinking is near zero, but y'all really are telling the world you failed literature and language arts at this point.

Billy's got more on screen development than most characters in the show. Not only does he share many parallels with your beloved Will Byers, we know more details about his home life than Steve. We know his birthday, and that's more you can say for most characters. There's a freaking book with even more information about him and his family. He has a complete character arc on the show with internal and external conflicts. He serves multiple narrative roles beyond antagonist including the tragic hero of season 3.

...but yeah, let's actually talk about the parallels with Will. There's the obvious fact that they were both possessed. There's also the fact that their birthdays bookend season 4, and they were both born in March. There's the fact that they were both abused by their fathers, and they were both called f****ts by them, the contrast being that Joyce stayed and protected her son while Billy's mother abandoned him. Then there's the somehow less obvious fact that they're both named William. (How do people still not know that they share a name?) I know this could all be coincidence because The Duffers really do suck at their jobs but these are also too glaringly obvious to be mistakes.

It may have very well been accidental and/or due to the efforts of Dacre Montgomery to make Billy a less one-dimensional "human antagonist" but Billy is one of the most fleshed out, complex characters on the show. I know more about Billy and his life than most of the main cast which is saying a lot since most of them have been on the show longer than him. He's got very little to do with Max and Lucas' relationship beyond a couple scenes, and it's funny to say he was there to just show "Lucas' struggles with being a black boy in Hawkins" when the Duffers have done f*ck all to give Lucas a meaningful story line about his race (Racism being a systemic issue, btw. Not one caused by a single person from out of town that goes away when that one person goes away.)

Y'all really need to stop judging Billy based on a character The Duffers didn't end up actually writing and putting on screen, and realize that whether you love him or hate him Billy has some of the richest character development. It is not our faults we recognize that and write really good meta on it while you're stuck writing only headcanons about the most basic details of your faves lives because four seasons in The Duffers can't be bothered to focus on characterization over plot.

#billy hargrove #fandom critical

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thatscarletflycatcher · 2 months

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I watched Man Up (2015) a couple weeks ago, and I have been wanting to write a post about it ever since, because... how can I put this.

Man Up is a romcom that is structured in surprisingly classical ways. The action happens within roughly 24 hours. There's good twists and turns you don't expect. It has sweet quiet moments complemented by high emotion moments. The casting is really good in its aim for naturalism in both looks and performances.

But then... the movie shoots itself on the foot with...

sex and alcohol.

And you'll say "Scarlet, you are a prude!!!" Yes, I kinda am, but the fascinating thing is that it isn't about that? I don't think I've ever watched a romcom where these were problems at the level of plot and characterization in such an obvious, stark way.

Let's talk alcohol first because it will help me explain the plot at the same time.

We open with our main character, Nancy, trying to gather the courage to go to an engagement party. She gives up and orders some food and drinks from the minibar. She ends up going to the party where she has at least two mojitos. The next morning she has a mild hungover, and takes the train home for her parents' 40th wedding anniversary.

She accidentally meets Jack and they go on a date. They chat and drink beers and eat chips. He then takes her to a Mexican cantina where they do tequila shots and chat some more. Then he takes her to a bowling alley where they do bowling, eat some snacks, and drink some beers. Then they go back to the cantina, and bump into Jack's ex and her new partner. They have more beer, whiskey, and another tequila shot. Nancy then goes home to her parents' party, and Jack goes on another date, where he, of course, drinks another beer.

Even at these point and to the end, both characters look and behave completely sober.

Meanwhile, Nancy's sister, her husband, and their parents are preparing for the pary by... you got it... going to the store to purchase booze! An important part of a scene is about setting up the white wine sofa and the red wine sofa.

Looking for Nancy, Jack mistakenly crashes on a teen house party, where there's, of course, alcohol, and he holds a girl's hair while she vomits and he tells her of a hungover cure.

And I'm here like... it's not only a bit ridiculous that apparently Jack's alcohol resistance is over 2L of beer and 4 tequila shots combined, and he doesn't need to go to the bathroom and is perfectly capable of the fade-to-black sex at the end, but... what was the point? Why does this movie focus so much on alcohol and then never says anything about it? It's not a commentary on modern day hopelessness, addiction or consummerism or anything like that.

At what point of your screenplay writing you stop and think "mmm, isn't all this drinking becoming a little repetitive?" IDK. If it has no meaning, maybe switch the first date thing for ice-cream. Maybe they only have food at the Mexican cantina the first time they go there. IDK. But as it is, it is distracting.

Then, sex. The first one is classic and well known: the sex joke that is not a joke. The "writer thinks people saying embarrassing sex things in a public setting constitutes a joke". It's a truth universally acknowledged that a joke must have a set up and a punchline and that the relationship between those two must have a degree of absurdity to it that causes hilarity. "This situation IRL would make people laugh nervously because they'd be uncomfortable" does not constitute a joke, and is, as a general rule, not funny. Putting it several times into the story won't make it funny either.

Then there's... the stalker. Nancy has a stalker, and the movie attempts to play it for laughs. They went to school together. He knows where her parents live. He knows she has no social media. He's taken pictures of her in her bedroom that she didn't know of. He attempts to blackmail her into giving him sexual favors. THIS MOVIE TREATS THIS AS FUNNY IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 2015.

Jack and Nancy are presented as opposites -Nancy is cynical, Jack is the hopeless romantic that opens his notebook in the middle of the date to write her name and surround it with heart doodles. No, that happens in the movie, really. There's also a running gag that whenever they dance his hands automatically go to her butt. He then grabs it in the middle of her parents' wedding anniversary party. In front of everyone. WHILE EVERYONE IS SPECIFICALLY LOOKING AT THEM. That's... that's not very character consistent, movie.

And then there's... the ending. There's this whole tension throughout the movie about how Nancy is supposed to be at her parents' wedding anniversary instead of her date with Jack. They lose each other when she's too quiet inviting him and he's too distracted to notice that she's inviting him to go with her. Her dad wonders if she'll bring him to the party and if the date won't be their anniversary as well. When Nancy's stalker pretends he's Jake, Nancy is framed as feeling alienated from the party. She comes back to herself to give her speech, and then Jack storms in the middle of it.

All this set up is building the importance of this family and this community as the framework where the kind of committed, trusting, vulnerable relationship Jack seeks and Nancy wants but is afraid of can flourish. Nancy's parents have been together for 40 years and they are happy and they have friends and family they love and are loved by! But the movie doesn't end with Jack being welcomed into this circle.

It ends with Jack and Nancy leaving the party to go have sex in a bathroom, and Nancy telling her stalker that she'll send him pictures. I kid you not. It's just so jarringly anticlimactic that way.

It was such a strange experience, because we often talk of the sex scene or sex-related scene that is there just to have it, but that contributes nothing to the plot and could have been cut without the movie losing anything, but in this case it actually made it a less cohesive, less consistent, less focused story just by being included. That's something alright.

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munamania · 4 months

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hi everyone this feels wildly self centered and silly but i made a guide to my dyke drama/lore that i talk about in barely coded but convoluted terms. i love internet safety. doing this at the request of exactly one person and for the rest of u it's under the cut if youre curious and feel so inclined hashtag close friends <3 i highlighted my previous ways of referring to these people and important notes bc otherwise i just rambled soooo bad <3 and as much as im maybe romanticizing in some ways here i do genuinely care for and love (most of) these people outside of my weirdofreak brain and try my best to do well by them in our relationships. and maybe i just wanted to write beautiful things about my friends whatever

lydia: they're on here we met on here and now we're roommates. we met bc we were two of the only bitches posting in the muna tag and she was brave enough to reply to my one naomi video. and i was like um ok... FREAK.. and then yk we were mutuals but i was always paranoid they'd somehow know film girl or my roommates (or just. other ppl) bc i was being insane so that was awk but then i had a mental breakdown a little bit one night on here about my childhood and decorating for holidays and they offered to meet on campus and give me some leaves for my window and i was like aww (and we used them this year to decorate our shared apartment :')) and i remember i was wearing my black and white sweatshirt that i wore to go see dan live that ive since given away i think but it feels like. a sign u know.. or whatever.. and we do have mutual friends in weird circles including one that connects to steve (see later notes) so it's like chances are we couldve met in person but this just made it really special. we beef bad. but with sooo much love. and i do think we're better for knowing each other or whatever...

film girl: this was bad. i have a tag dedicated to anything i remembered to tag as part of the saga but it was so bad and beyond anything words can say... i'd give her another name but she could never be anything but film girl. it's like if u were there u know. if u weren't... let's just say i was crazy insane mentally ill bonkers jeff buckley lover you shouldve come over i know it's over. maroon 5 even about it. bad. but consider she leaned into me like she did her bf for their first kiss, said our night together when we went to our friend's party where she had dressed up as jennifer check (i showed her the movie it was a whole thing) and danced with me and talked right against my neck and grabbed onto me while walking and said she was maybe bi and i deserved someone really nice and im so swaggy etc and then going back to her place and making me food and watching himym on the floor (oct. 21st u will go down in herstory...) made her the 'happiest person in the world,' stayed over at my apartment until the following morning more than once, unwrapped her bruised hand and held it out to me to see/touch (absolute freaks moment like kill me actually. and that was the day i perioded myself. to use pj of bottoms' terms.) was just generally engaging in psychosexual warfare with me all the time. and we didn't even fuck. or kiss. and she had a boyfriend. who looked like a girlfriend (not that i personally had in february of last year but regardless..) i mean come on she was a straight woman she wasnt even allowed to say slay.. i genuinely still think we need to kill each other but it doesn't matter. how is she still linked to my life? well. we had a class this semester with steve and stede and lydia and scully (prof im in love with. this name is hilar), sort of friends with cool artsy queer girl group (hometown friends, one her best friend i almost met up with at muna concert (with her) one who looks a bit like jackie kennedy. ok not really but that's the one my one friend josh (woman) made out with last semester), had a class with steve and sam last semester with dave, our shared prof that steve told details of our first date and etc to.

steve: this is gonna be ex situationship from beginning of this semester - mid october. gets this name bc they're obsessed w that pirate show so like stede but i simply wont name them that and at this point im annoyed enough w their taste in things that steve feels fitting. anyway. was genuinely very kind and sweet but also got clingy soo fast and we were on very different pages. we'd met last fall (when they had a gf) and worked together on sets and in a couple classes, they kind of got caught up in my triangulation of desire for jane at her birthday party.. and i had fun flirting! um and they were genuinely again very very considerate and sweet but like. seemed to struggle to have a personality outside of their ex and maybe their siblings a bit. idk. just very passive. sowwy. also they were not a very good kisser. i do remember back in may being vindicated bc they also commented on film girl and bf

jane: naming her jane in a gay way. a jane austen way. in that i think we should write lifelong love letters to each other. holy shit shut up. so this is always 'friend im in love with' or 'a little in love with' or whatever. she is also girl with cool short hair and piercings and tattoos and a bookbag with tits on it so god forbid my infatuation. and i just love her voice and i think she's brilliant and so good at what she does and all around just like an awesome person she inspires me to be better and whatever. and she always dresses so cool and used to host house shows (i still never made it to one) (film girl did once) and when we first started talking we were at a film event and were supposed to be networking or whatever but instead we stood by the drinks together and talked abt how we both wanted to be friends in our writing class but never said it and thought the other hated each other a little bit but we were both just awkward and so we'd always make eye contact and laugh and banter together in class and i rlly was just in love with her. and this summer was crazyyy we were on steve's set together and i was a little freak just so obviously enamored with her but the thing is she was obnoxious too so i didnt even feel like a loser. she asked me to massage her arms once and said my half assed attempt was lame and we leg wrestled (also w steve. kinda funny. like yeah u would) and exchanged drunk stories and she said i needed better ones and then i beat her at stack cup at her bday and gave her her card and she hugged me and her lips were wet from the beer she just drank from and right on my arm and i was like wow. her kingdom (surrounded by people who she loved and loved her) for a kiss upon my shoulder. if u will. and i had to have a middle school Look Away moment bc she stripped in front of a few of us that night and i was far too intoxicated to not like lose my mind. also she was supposed to give me a book on set once but never did and im still bummed. and one random night she texted asking if id found a place to live and when i answered she never followed up and i still wonder what that was abt. if anything. um but she does have a boyfriend of like 5 or 6 years. from high school. the worst part is hes a semi cool dude but it's just like really. let her fuck a woman! just once even! jk they are both genuinely cool people first and i think it's great they found each other in this life. but also like fuck off ugh. yk. not to romanticize my life and friendships i just think in another life we were soulmates or maybe in a way we are now. but we also only knew each other for a brief time so maybe something else. we could've done backstreets

sam: friend i just mentioned recently who has a crazy name we shant get into it. i do have a different actual friend named sam but i havent seen her in forever. so i met them working on steve's senior film set and thought they were cool and they were one of the only ones to make it out to our post-wrap dinner/drinks and then we had two classes together this semester. and so we became sort of allies we'd meet up to go to the museum together and send each other the attendance and i went to see fnaf when he rented out a theater for a huge group lol and he helped on my film which meant a lot even if it was only for a bit cause of you know. the everything that was going on. with steve and etc. it wasnt easy to get there so like bless their heart. they also came up with the name for my film and we had that moment around the fire and well i do hope i'll continue to see them just as a friend even, and they're genuinely just the coolest they do a lot of drag and character/costume design and are genuinely just one of the funniest most down to earth ppl i know and they always have the coolest fucking outfits and hats and shit and omg they looked so good in their doc. just something abt the posture and the whimsy and the earnestness and look overall. woah. um when we were on steve's set my friend jackie leaned over and said 'i thought they were film girl for a second' so basically i need to redacted. but it's not like that bad of a resemblance. once again has a partner cause im cursed forever to sleep on a twin size mattress maybe or whatever. i havent even listened to that song more than like once but maybe it is real for me. anyway they were also in the class with steve and film girl with dave.

stede: im sorry this is so funny to me bc this person and steve go by the same name irl but spelled differently or whatever. we met and had a very energetic chat in the hallway at the beginning of this semester jim thought we knew each other lol. they're real cute and endearing and like i said kind of give butch. and we had two classes together but i had so much shit going on man i just. yeah. seemed like they were maybe a little into me but whatever. and well i think we should have a fling but who said that

jim: my buddy prof he's my buddy :-) he helped me so much sophomore spring as i was trying rlly hard to produce our class films and insane already over film girl (he didnt know that but it was omnipresent) and so close to dropping out and is just the coolest guy. he's a little bit like a father figure what who said that. i remind him of his youngest daughter a lot and ive lived in the same buildings as his older one. so just funny connections. i go to his office hours and such a lot with the film friends

grace: one of my film friends. (i just realized i do know a girl in film named grace but it's not her so anyway.) i am in awe of the way she commits to stuff and motivates people around her. she is just so game for anything to make the best of a situation. shes studying abroad this semester so ive only seen her on video chats/texted and missed the one day she came back for her bf's bday. well and she was the friend who said 'no he can keep himself busy' when we went to go see x together so she didnt make me hang out w her not even lame bf at first which was so nice. cause then i eventually actually did want to meet him. and theyre the least annoying couple ive ever met. and shes bi <3

jackie: another film friend. also love her dearly another stoner so we'd smoke together before class sometimes and just went on a walk with our other friend one night around the woods and stuff that was fun. i usually refer to grace and jackie collectively as 'the film friends.' we met in that spring of sophomore year (same class as film girl and jim). this one did have steve produce her senior film after they said they wouldn't work on mine bc of the ""situation"" i was a little sour that was an awkward um situation but it's whatever. i sometimes say film friends and mean a larger group of these ppl/a few extended but whatever

frank: ive just called him frank hes frank hes the coolest dude in the world i think everyone would be obsessed with him and i just think like man hes lived such a life. he's my short cool professor whos just so good at what he does. he's met so many people and done so many things. his van is so him he has a suction cup to pull his windows up in the winter and random albums in the front seat. im gonna try to work w him next semester. i was in that van last night feeling like i was in a gta level to go pick up pizza for our final class.

scully: my film comedy and tv analysis professor she is so everything to me... she loves women and evil women and gay people and camp and horror and comedy and tv and sex and just weirdo freak shit and shes so intelligent and quick on her feet and charming and just. an amazing lecturer. she said be gay do violence once. i felt seen. she said she used to pull her friends (favorite characters) out of the tv and carry them around in her pocket and i knew she understood... she saw bottoms and emailed me and lydia right away. and she's seen willow. and ofc so many other things. and she'll go 'this seems like the type of person/film/etc that you would be inspired by..' OK QUEEN I LOVE U. i want to do cocaine with her. huh. im taking gender and film with her next semester :333 im so excited

claire: friend from high school friend group who ended up ditching me and our other friend a lot that one summer and we almost lived together and we're just always kinda weird around each other but we were some of the only ppl the other hung out with fall semester 2020 so like.

drake and josh: i almost always refer to them together they're codependent a little bit roommates and i love them dearly and i met them thru claire sophomore year but ive hung out with them alone and stayed at their place when i got too drunk and that night i fell down the stairs. me and drake act a little homoerotic sometimes for fun. i cried at dinner over film girl once to her it was embarrassing. i miss going hammocking with them <3

dave: i had him last fall he's really cool he got me on a shoot w the mayor (and steve and jane) and was so cool about me not ocming to class a lot bc i kept in touch w him and hes my homie. film girl had a class w him then too and then last semester was the like news class that crew had together. and steve told dave all abt our first date and etc and got date ideas from him and i was like oh wow... ok lol

couch: couch roommate. theyre not relevant in my life enough to make a name but the couch story was stupid as hell and this one also left ground beef in the sink that one time and had a thing for a rugby girl that steve had a little fling with

jean: if i say 'one of my masc gfs' i probably mean them. sort of friends with couch like she was in my apartment once last year but um. yeah. had a crush on them for like a month at one point and we follow each other on insta and talked when we saw each other on campus the first time and thats like it. chances r ill forget abt this fake name and still just throw that in if i ever see her

#well. that said 👍#abby talks

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be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie · 10 months

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Longass Crop Circles Notes (for Lately, I've Been Thinking and I Don't Think I've Changed Chapter One

Finally delivered to @spicymiilk our king. My apologies that these longass notes are not as detailed as last time. I shall endeavor to get more detailed as I read more of the fic. I will post my rage thoughts on chapter eight of for the nights and days of life by @mochalottie tomorrow though, and that shit will be novel length. Anyways:

Lately, I've Been Thinking:

-Me when Andrei says Spider will have a bad time: but does he ever have a good time for you??

-NORM CONTENT. *airhorn blares*

-I gotta love the tragic Shameless vibes you bring into my Spider fics, man.

-Retweet, Spider, we all hate men. We are all scared of men.

-Rip Paz, the fandom tries to tell me you weren’t a bitch but I don’t buy it. You totally were. Justice for Trudy, who was way cooler.

-Wait, did Spider do drugs too? The needles are around his bed? Or did he steal his moms bed?

-Lol, Paz is in and out, there is SO MUCH Shameless in this story. You can't hide from me, bastard.

-YESS, THE FAST FOOD AU.

-Also, Andrei, what is it about beating the natural joy and zest for life out of Spider that gets u off?

-Neteyam will lOVE fixing this guy tho. Spider is his wet dream at this point.

-I actually know a kid in my grade who was placed with one of my family friends when he was seventeen, he is fantastic. He’s the oldest of like, seven kids and the littlest ones go to the elementary school I work at now. My mom works there too and she always says you can tell when this kid is home because the little ones are showered and on time, and he takes them to get haircuts and stuff. He used to walk 45 minutes to work every day. He’s a great guy but he doesn’t stay. He doesn’t let them drag him down. :/

-Spider, on the brink of death, unloved and abused and neglected, dirty and with one single tangle of hair: hi

Neteyam: that is my soulmate.

I Don't Think I've Changed Chapter One:

-WHATS YOUR DAMAGE THE FIC? That’s the one line I quote more from any other type of media. Every day I go “WHAT IS YOUR CHILDHOOD TRAUMA??”

-N E T E Y A M VS SELF ESTEEM. MAN MANAGES TO HATE HIMSELF EVEN IN THE FACE OF SPIDER.

-Also the fear I felt when I saw Miles and Norm are best friends actually, I’m comforting myself like “no no, he meant Spider it’s okay.”

-The hilarity of getting rid of Lo’ak and Kiri who are the canonically closest to Spider and leaving us with Tuk and Neteyam and Jeytiri. That excited me lITERALLY SO MUCH. The fast food au did start with only Tuk and Neteyam, and that’s juicy. We are forced to develop and explore relationships that are underdeveloped in canon and are harder to justify as instant sparks. You took away his natural in canon support systems so he has to learn to develop even faster with the other Sully's and that is a banger idea.

-W H E E L C H A I R J A K E. God I love wheelchair Jake aus, I love making them positive because I don’t like the way the first movie just fixed his disability. Give me Jake Sully being a positive disabled male father figure in his kids lives, just as present and happy and in love with his wife while paralyzed then he would be with mobility. What creative stuff has changed in their lives to accomidate? I need to know.

-Delighted by this Neytiri pov, my god. I feel like less people than I need in my life just let Neytiri have no bad blood at all with Spider in modern aus. She would be all over a neglected child.

-GET THE STICKY TOYS, thats so cute. And useful, I need him to get the magnets some kids got stuck to the ceiling in the gym at my work.

-Tuk is already bullying Neteyam about liking Spider and he isn’t even there yet. I’m lOVING the little bits of the fast food au I spot. She is going to be a menace. And clearly Neteyam is a lovesick clown.

-He is indeed about to get the shit loved out of him, and that is what every Spider Sully writer says before writing their fic.

-WHAT DID THE MCCOSKERS DO SPIDER, NORM SHOULD KNOW, THEN HE WON’T PLACE OTHER KIDS WITH THEM BUDDY.

-Love the descriptions of how Spider feels when Norm’s body relaxes, just noting the way he backs off. So specific and accurate to any abused child. That tension and hypersensitivity to anyone's emotions, even people you implicitly trust, like never goes away.

-Norm thinking someone didn’t let Spider pee in the bathroom is so tragic and funny I feel bad for laughing.

-Spider: heart palpitations upon seeing Neteyam

Spider: NORM YOU DIDN’T TELL ME YOU WERE WINGMANNING ME?

I am picturing Norm and Tuk in the back of a Burger King setting up an elaborate plan while Neteyam sighs and watches Spider from a booth while writing Neteyam Socorro on all of his notebooks.

-i am cACKLING. You’ve never seen rizz as strong or as intense as “MILES??” and “WHOS THAT? WHAT’S SCHOOL, I DON’T KNWO WHAT THAT IS?” Their dumb clown asses belong together.

-In all seriousness though, I can't imagine how humiliating it would feel to Spider to know some random acquaintance at school was now privy to all your personal problems and business.

-I want to know how often Neteyam frequents the local Burger King. He's probably so embarrassed at how ready he was to big brother this kid. He's gonna be like "looking hot today, uh, I mean, did you need help with your homework champ???"

-This is now like To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Neteyam can call Kiri and Lo’ak on the phone and gossip about boy problems

-JAKE INTRODUCING HIMSELF AS A MILITARY MAN TO EVERY CHILD THAT GETS BROUGHT INTO THEIR HOUSE, NO ONE VETOED THAT SHIT?? Kiri hasn't been like "sTOP TELLING EVERYONE YOU LOVE THE MILITARY, YOU ARE EMBARASSING US."

-Also wow does Norm not know Spider’s dad was former military and he way not vibe with that at all?

-The way that Neteyam is still stalking Spider at McDonalds Or Burger King we can’t be sure. The mention of both places has sent me to space because it makes it seem like Spider used to work at McDonalds and then switched to Burger King and deeply obsessed stalker Neteyam Sully switched establishments to frequent.

-Spider’s fear of Tuk is hilarious and deeply sad, that is your bestie.

-I LOVE love the idea of Kiri and Neteyam watching video essays. I love video essays, I wish my brothers did gOD. Also love a late night owl Neteyam head canon.

-Spider really is a wet rat. Have you ever actually seen a wet rat? The saying is so accurate. Kid was fed properly for the first time in years and then it killed him. Love kills Spider at first, as we have learned from all Spider Sully fics. He's like a dog eating chocolate, it's good, but at what cost.

#spent the whole beach week with my in the closet gay cousin andrew and thought of u king #names close enough #he's quoted in my insta bio because once he said to me #“i don't understand lesbians won't they get in each others way in the kitchen?”#pay me money to get me to believe lo'ak hasn't said that to kiri #i hope u enjoyed tho audience and andrei #i am back from vacation and missing my gay cousin aj and i'm ready to spend my entire day tomorrow catching up on fics and posting #brace urselves #if you have any more asks or want me to post another of those otp ask things now would be a good time #miles spider socorro #spider socorro #neteyam sully #nocorro #norm spellman #neytiri sully #jake sully #jeytiri #tuktirey sully #lo'ak sully #kiri sully #paz socorro #avatar #avatar the way of water #james cameron avatar #melissa og #melissa on avatar (cameron)#fic recs

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roses-in-the-shade · 1 year

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What DO the public masses and the government think and do about Ingo now? Please tell me they are told the truth the sheer hilarity would be incredible. Would Ingo be considered his brother's age or three years old.

...Would Ingo have any problems interacting with people, considering he never really interacted with anyone outside of Emmet in his formative years and he lived on a mountain for the first 3 years of his life? That can't have been good for his development. Even when he did talk to people he just needed to act like Emmet and now he needs to be his own person (yay! But that seems like it would seem terrifying at first.).

OOH how do the depot agents react? They already interacted with Ingo, though they had no idea.

This is probably one of my favorite asks so far, because it gave me so much to think about. Which is also why it's taken me a bit longer to answer. I am trying to answer asks on a first come, first serve basis. To the best of my ability! Thank you for the ask!

Anyway, this post is VERRRRRY long, absolutely monstrous by my criteria, so under the read more it goes. You have been warned. I apparently can not shut up, lol.

So, the government. It doesn't take long for everyone to realize that Ingo, legally, does not exist. Without any identifications, there's a lot that you can't do that is important for thriving in modern society. So, yeah, they need to tell Unova's governing body the whole truth so that they can get Ingo on the fast track to the living life.

And unfortunately, the first destination on that journey is the hospital. Because Ingo spent the first three years of his new life in Sinnoh, a few centuries in the past. Man's health is either Not Good, or it's about to be. Which creates a lot of confusion for the health department, because. Well. Because. The explanation that this random haggard man needs all of his vaccines because he lived in the past for three years and didn't even have a corporeal body before that is a lot to take in, you know? And then there's the fact that the only existing documentation for this Mr. Ingo is a death certificate dated back to 28 years ago(?!?!?!).

The first solution they come up with to solve this conundrum is to do a DNA test and compare to other living family for proof of relation, and to just. Make sure they're not being made a clown.

Fun fact. When Arceus created Ingo's new body, he basically copy pasted Emmet's DNA, attached it to Ingo's soul with cosmic super glue, and called it a day. They're already twins, it's fine. :)

Yeah, they weren't ready for it when the results for Ingo's and Emmet's DNA results came out as a definitively exact match. Actually, they don't know what they were expecting.

During the few weeks that Ingo spends hospitalized for both acclimating and quarantine purposes, the identifications services go into a flurry of action to create documents for this new human adult person that spawned into existence from Arceus knows where. (See what I did there.)

Fun times. The government workers will literally never forget this for their entire lives. They will remember it as the most bizarre event they've ever experienced, bar none.

As for his official age now, since Ingo's body is physically 28, same as his brother, and he is mentally the same age, they just kinda shrug and say, yeah, sure, he's 28 years old. Never mind the fact that he's only been alive for three. Actually, don't think too hard on it. Don't.

Now, the depot agents. lmao

The day Emmet brings in Ingo for retraining and to "reinstate" him is a day of absolute chaos.

Emmet's first instinct, when he's formally introducing his brother to their employees during a meeting, is to gaslight them all into thinking Ingo had been their other boss the entire time three years ago. (When going into technicalities, it's hard to say if that's true or not. Which is the best part.)

"I am Emmet. I am getting down to business. Today, we will welcoming back Ingo to our work force. He went missing three years ago. He is back now. We will be resuming standard operating procedures with Ingo as the Subway Boss on the singles line again. Any questions?"

(Ingo, not having been forewarned of Emmet's plans, blinks and stares at his brother for a few moments, before mentally sighing and face-palming. He quickly decides to let Emmet get away with this, however. He's not immune to following along Emmet's whims, and he's not disinterested to see how this falls out.)

...

"A NEW SUBWAY BOSS?!

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN AGAIN?!"

"HE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE YOU, WHO IS HE?!"

"How rude! I am offended for Ingo. You forgot about him! Unforgivable. Yup! This is verrrry sad. Terrrrrible. Ingo is my twin brother. I was in grief over his absence for three years. I am disappointed you did not notice."

"I didn't forget, Boss Emmet! I've never set a foot out of Gear Station my entire life, so of course I remember Boss Ingo! We loved working with Boss Ingo, I don't know how anyone could forget a kind and jovial man like him!"

(Depot Agent Jackie is most definitely in on it.)

All of the depot agents are reeling at this new reality that they have to force their brains to get used to. Some would keep swearing up and down that there was never a Boss Ingo, but then Emmet would wave around the proof of employment (that he typed up literally an hour before the meeting) and they'd just be reduced to a state of mental sputtering and questioning reality. Many are a flustered mess whenever they end up interacting with Ingo himself.

Emmet and Ingo let the depot agents stew in this prank for just the one day, at least until Ingo finally convinces Emmet to hold another meeting the next day to tell the agents the full truth and allow the poor guys some peace of mind. (Ingo does scold Emmet a little for being so mean-spirited with this particular joke, though it doesn't last too long when Emmet points out that Ingo didn't stop him.)

Funny enough, the truth ended up being even more of a bombshell than the prank had been. Who woulda thought.

From then on, the twins and the depot agents do their best to stay professional and help ease Ingo back into the work routine as something like a Deputy Subway Boss, and they're pretty successful! It doesn't take too long to get Ingo fully instated as an official Subway Boss, Ingo being as enthusiastic and dedicated to the job as he is, and, over time, the agents slowly realize that they did miss him without ever knowing it. Three years ago, they really did notice his disappearance, ironically enough. Ingo's "personality" was suddenly gone, Emmet was never the same, and the work environment changed. It's weird, but in the end, they all end up thinking, "I'm glad he's back."

The day of Ingo's official promotion, the depot agents throw him a party and make sure to tell him this:

"Welcome back. We missed you."

The public's reaction to Ingo is a mixed bag, predictably.

The day of Ingo's reintroduction to Gear Station, the official Battle Subway PokeTwitter account announces: "Attention all passengers! Starting today, a new Deputy Subway Boss will be conducting us to our destination on the Singles Line! Deputy Boss Ingo looks forward to future travels with challengers. Will you go on to victory or defeat? All aboard!" (Attached is a picture of Ingo in the signature point and call pose, right hand pointing forward and left hand out to the side pointing down.)

Most responses to the announcement are basically either, "isn't that just Emmet?", or "I had no idea Emmet has a twin brother!". There's a lot of chipper "Welcome!" and "All aboard!" comments and some competitive "Can't wait to see what he's made of!" remarks, so the reception is generally a mix of confusion and enthusiasm.

And then it all came crashing down when one person says, "Isn't this the same guy who ran the singles line years ago, tho? Did he come back?"

One person unintentionally does what Emmet did to the depot agents to an entire social media community. Thus restarts the conspiracy theories again, much to Ingo's and Emmet's exasperation. If they weren't already practically celebrities by this point, then they definitely are now.

Emmet ends up using his personal account to address questions and clear it up as much as he can, while skirting around the full truth as much as possible, sometimes even outright dodging certain inquiries altogether. Ultimately, he and Ingo had decided it was best to keep it private knowledge that only certain people would know. Emmet's best efforts certainly couldn't stop rumors from sprouting all together, but it did help to placate the internet riots and calm them down. It only took about a week before the twins were no longer all PokeTwitter could talk about.

Now, interestingly enough, Ingo himself isn't doing too bad, socially. Sure, he did live on a mountain for a few years, but he also visited Jubilife Village often! He assisted at the training grounds, helped teach the villagers to befriend and battle with pokemon, often did any needed shopping there. He made sure to check in with the Pearl Clan regularly, it'd be rude to essentially go AWOL on them when they took him in and bestowed him a position as important as warden of their Lady Sneasler.

Point being, Ingo got past most of his social struggles during his displacement in Hisui. Learning how to human when in an entirely unfamiliar setting and without his memories was a huge challenge for Ingo, but he gradually settled into the new experience. Which is why going to modern day Nimbasa is such a huge culture shock. There's so many more people, ranging from incredibly kind to brutish in behavior, sometimes critical, sometimes indifferent. Despite this, Ingo has been able to be himself without question, without backlash, without fear, and it's a marvel.

The people that Emmet and Ingo had surrounded themselves with never failed to make Ingo feel encouraged and supported, including Emmet himself. Especially Emmet. Ingo has no idea what he would do without Emmet. He loves and appreciates his brother immensely. With all the assistance Ingo has, he may be nervous about meeting his new future, but he's determined to do it. Stubbornly optimistic, even. No matter what set backs or adversities Ingo may face, he has the greatest safety net holding him up.

(If Emmet ever finds anyone antagonizing Ingo, he will most definitely give them a traumatic beat down in a pokemon battle, and terrify the living daylight out of them by promising them eternal despair if he ever sees them near Ingo ever again.

Basically, Ingo: sunshine, Emmet: sunshine protector.

I am right, and I should say it. Luckily for everyone, it doesn't happen often. Nobody in their right mind would want to be mean to Ingo.)

#submas #ingo #emmet #subway boss emmet #subway boss ingo #subway master ingo #subway master emmet #pokemon #born by death au #holy WOW this took me hours to type out #it was fun!#i sure hope i didn't miss anything #im tired from a long day at work too so i hope there's no major typos #late night posting GO

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lilmissnatcat24 · 7 months

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📓

m'love, thank you so much for this.

so basically it's a heist fic, post me1. (slight canon divergence because i know technically garrus and wrex weren't on the normandy when the collector ship attacked) but it flips back and forth between the moments before and during the collector attack and the past 2 weeks, where shepard and her crew have no memory.

they have no memory because!!! they were contacted by a woman named jack of diamonds (super cool and super eyepatch and super hot, in that order... also she's named jack of diamonds after my favorite campfire song from red dead 2 and this is like a little bit of a crossover inspiration fic) to steal this prothean device from a space station that could be used as a super weapon because it uses the same technology that sovereign used to turn humans into husks. this woman works for cerberus but shep is like?? ok with that?? (tbf she doesn't really know what cerberus is just yet so she's just like huh okay i guess i'll do it, also she has no reason to believe that cerberus would make a husk army becasue THAT lil chestnut doesnt happen for like 3 years) but the only way she'll let shep do it is if she and her crew implant a memory chip to their omnitools that will wipe their memory completely afterwards (this is the one thing i don't have worked out yet like maybe she has something on shep like she's blackmailing her for something??? yeah this is shaky tbd)

so shep and co have to steal this device. fullblown heist at some swanky party a la the capitol scene from catching fire. WREX IS HEISTING. GARRUS IS HEISTING. LIARA IS HEISTING. ashley and tali are like bffs (and maybe b plot they fuck? tbd) and of COURSE shakarian because how can i not. but sheppy is still a lil upset cuz kaidan is dead and she's had feelings for garrus but is afraid to do anything becasue she doesn't want to see another person she cares about killed but garrus is like huh i literally don't care if i live or die i want to tap that so desperately and also i love you. but of course he's a nerd so he can never just say that. cue hilarity and pining and fluff.

so they klep the device for jack of diamonds and drop it off and shes like hey thanks!!!! ily shep!!!!! except shep is super suspicious and is like hmmm this is weird. this jack lady is weird. we need to STEAL IT BACK because apparently she was going to target a colony with it and turn a bunch of innocent people into husks so that cerberus could study them (again this is a detail that has not been ironed out yet sorry if it sounds a lil sus just now)

and of course before this suicide run there's the steamiest and fluffiest sex scene known to man. you know what im like. they get into this big fight and shes like garry youre a COWARD you only tell me you have a thing for me when we know this memory chip is going to wipe our memories??? garrus tries to kiss shep and shes like NO PLEASE I CANT CARE ABOUT YOU and then exactly 2 seconds later shes like actually? lets fuck

so they steal the device back. they know their memories are going to be erased so they just kindve? dont care if they do something atrocious? because they wont remember? and i get so wet thinking about morally ambiguous shepard who is like super renegade (or at least paragade)??? anyways jack of diamonds is like hey you shouldnt trust cerberus this was their plan all along and shep is like literally i do not care bang bang bang ur dead xoxo

so yeah the plot is still a lil iffy. BUT I HAVE THE END ALL PLANNED OUT AND IM SUPER PROUD OF IT. that it's NOT some prothean device, it was tim doing his lil illusive thing. it was his plan to get shepard killed so that he could test out the tech used to revive her, and the device is actually a honing beacon for the collectors (because i literally never understood how the collectors found the normandy in the first place they had their stealth cores up and its never explained how theyre found and it's a plothole that PISSES ME OFF so this fic is literally made out of spite to explain it)

so yeah shep and co wake up after not knowing what happened, that lil love confession between shep and garrus doesnt happen, and shepard dies. so its sad? but not because then me2 happens and everyone is reunited and shakarian still happens yayayayya

so yeah typing it out like this also tells me i need to steam out the details a little bit more but i want to write this so badly and turn left is taking all of my energy so i think im going to try to double fist these two fics and see if i pop our sane.

anyways thank you!!!!!

#mass effect fanfiction #shakarian #shepard x garrus #ao3 fanfic

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quinloki · 3 months

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omg it's so hard to be a responsible adult and not stay up and have my little daydreams while I listen to music xD and I unfortunately have to work tomorrow since our company doesn't consider it a holiday T_T I'm glad I could send you something in return to kill you bc you always kill me <333

I think I can officially say I got the sabo brainrot, damn (jk)

omg okay so I was also thinking how you'd meet ace and I'm like duh school a man like whitebeard would prolly want his sons to go out and experience the world especially if they're running a major business! and I'm like omg imagine ace in college it opens up so many dumb shenanigans that you both have so much dirt on eachother and you really give him a good wack when you find everything out because you overlooked so much it made you mad! like ace would always treat for meals or drinks and you obvi talked about his job after college, but he never mentioned WHERE he was going to work in a mailroom!! or that it was his dad's company!! that bastard

lolol and for some (mild) tension you meet shanks and he is just like heavyyyyyy flirting and izou finds it hilarous how annoyed sabo and marco look (and pops is like leave my future daughter in law alone xDDDD)

the tension in that hotel room after everyone is aware of the shower xD throw in a little bickering over who should sleep where, bc obvi you're so shaken up right? and they argue over who's bed you should sleep in so they can comfort you >>

the polycule would be interesting I won't lie idk how the dynamics with those two in particular would be tho bc honestly they give me such similar vibes sometimes. I mean I read sabo/reader/ace sometimes but ace is a puppy dog so it's a different dynamic >>

I could picture like, sabo does the more dangerous work, so you're officialy dating marco the ceo and you get dressed up and go to events with him but sometimes his little brother offers to take you home bc you're soooo tired from interacting with all those business peeps and sabo is just such a good younger brother to take care of his bro's girlfriend such a gentleman (nvm that you're going back to sabo's room and not marco's) like rather than a poly they just both share bc you couldn't pick they're just both too good IDK MAN I JUST WANT THEM BOTH SO BAD T_T

ok but the riskiest part of being the weakness is the fact that pops basically parades you around and calls you his daughter in law and nobody can figure out exactly what it is that got him to favor you so much but you run with it when you need to (like when ace/luffy are being a little shit)

also random thought before anyone officially starts dating, you start going to events with ace bc you get hired for the company or something (maybe ceo's secretary >> since ace is gonna be the boss someday!!) and people just assume you're dating and when pops calls you the daughter in law they're like oh congrats to the lovely couple and you both just look at eachother disgusted bc ew, no (like you'd also rather lick his face than anything romantic bc you've seen him eat food off a bar floor and other disgusting habits and absolutely not) and then everyone is just confused (incoming shanks flirting at that moment sounds perfect xD) then you realize getting called the daughter in law means pops has some idea of what's going on and now you have to figure how much and how mortified you should be

So there's a comic out there called something like Him & Him & Him, that's basically a girl and three guys (an uncle and twin nephews), and it's porn with a dash of plot, but I like the way it was done. That comic makes me think of what Sabo x Marco x Reader would be.

Which, to make it concise, in the comic, the lady marries the uncle legally, but all of them live together, and it's like you were saying "Oh what a good brother he is, looking out for Marco's fiance like that."

So yes, yes I like that head canon very much. We were going to split this into two different Pick One endings, but fully polycule works too.

It certainly turns into Two Against One though, cause in this situation the reader is the puppy dog >.>

Gods the kink and dynamics I could explore....

heck, Kaz, HECK I already have plenty to work on but this is killing me. Marco brainrot is real, and Sabo is just rushing the gates I swear, and now all this - ALL THIS DELICIOUS chatter and idea swapping and head canoning and world building KAZ I NEED TO WRITE THIS.

The world can blame you, I'm making notes, it's going into the primary rotation. I'll finishing Birds of a Feather and put this in its spot and I hope you're happy (affectionate).

I love the secretary idea too and the misunderstandings XD

And I think Pops likes the reader because she's a capable fighter, and not afraid to defend people, and also his sons want to protect her and he's like "Yeah, no, I get it." but less romantic and more "This smol creature reminds me of Ace and I love them both." sort of thing XD

#quin answers #quin muses #kazieai #I just need a title for this thing so I can start tagging it better.

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thatdemiboymess · 2 years

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I want to experience humanity. I want to experience all the love, and kindness, and compassion, and hilarity, and understanding that we as a species are capable of. I want to experience it more than anything, right now. I am crying from the sheer weight of my yearning to experience the positive aspects of humanity again, just once again, please. I want to once again experience human joy, and passion, and kindness, and love, and creativity, and awkwardness, and laughter. I want companionship, and understanding, and enjoyment, and happiness. I want to create, and heal, and thrive. I want to watch others create, heal, and thrive. All of this, free of worry and hardship - just people being people in the most glorious and jubilant of ways. And I'm so distraught because it feels like I'll never get to experience any of this ever again. It's just been so long. Too long, it feels like, and I'm so very lonely. I want to go on casually intimate late night walks with a friend where we talk about our day, our night, our problems, anything and everything, just as long as we're together. I want to stop at a cheap 24/7 fast food place at midnight with someone and eat outside with them in comfortable silence and stare at the sky side by side. I want to sit around a computer with people I care about and laugh at dumb memes or find weird things to watch with them that we might leave playing if we leave because we weren't really paying attention to it, anyways. I want to go on late night errands with someone so we can experience the calm of a liminal space together while getting things done. I want to sit inside while everyone in the room plays their own game, or does their own thing, and occasionally share bits of what we're doing with each other. I want to lie in bed with people I love and care about side by side until we all fall asleep. I want to order cheap food to the apartment so we can all have something we like that we can eat together while we talk. I want to be there to hold someone important to me when they need it. I want to window shop with someone even if neither of us can afford anything just because we want to spend time together and that was the first thing we thought of. I want to have someone I can be human with, again. Yet, at the same time, I want to know how to stop missing people. How do you stop missing doing inane, casually intimate, things with people who used to be your friends but who drifted away or cut you out of their lives? I'm tired of yearning for people who haven't been in my life for years, now, but I swear it still feels like I was still talking to them just yesterday, sometimes, and I'm so so lonely when I remember that that isn't the case because we haven't spoke in years. Even though there's a chance they don't even think about me anymore I still think about them so very often and I yearn for them and the stupid things we did together and I don't know how to let go and make it stop. How do you let go? How do I make this stop?

#venting a lil bit #emotional venting #personal vent #vent #vent post #yearning #grief

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termytheantisocialbutterfly · 1 year

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Honestly can't get over the hilarity of my middle sister (23 now) deciding she believes everything some toxic guy has to say about our mom every 2-3 years. Like she'll be fine for a while and then get into a toxic relationship and just start parroting the most ridiculous shit. These days it's that our mom apparently had severe post partum and would make us go outside all day and not even let us back inside for meals.

Having lived it, mom sent us out to play so she could do chores in the house without us under foot all day. We were constantly in and out of the house and only rarely were we punished with the age old "go to bed without dinner" (I mean literally maybe 2 times and both times she felt so guilty afterwards that she woke us up to give us food). Our mom straight up cried and backed down on every punishment she ever tried to give us, let us do whatever we wanted all the time forever, but clearly she was regularly starving us. 🙄

This all from our old neighbor that my sister's obsessed with for whatever reason. For context, some notable things this neighbor did:

Rent to people who broke into our house, stole our dogs and sold them, and broke a bunch of shit

Stole one of my sister's favorite stuffies from OUR front yard and put it in the mouth of a wolf head he kept on his wall to teach a 5yrold that she's not allowed to keep her own toys in her own yard

Told me (at 16yrsold) that I couldn't wear skirts that didn't touch the ground when I was on my knees. He had no response when asked why I needed to be on my knees.

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archonate-seorwen · 1 year

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In Medias Res: A KOTOR Fanfiction - Chapter Four

Night had practically fallen. I was walking silently through the streets of a relatively posh area near the neighbourhood where Carth and I had settled. On this evening, which was likely to be a very special one, it had been agreed that I should get rid of some of the clothes that might too easily suggest my commitment to the Republic.

The gathering I was supposed to infiltrate may indeed have hosted a few handfuls of Republic officials, but my attire reflected anything but a civilian look. It was crucial that I never betrayed my affiliation with the Republican armed forces. Consequently, Carth and I had to thoroughly search the apartment we were occupying for any clothing that would allow me to go unnoticed. The task was by no means easy, as our shelter had obviously been deserted for a long time and had little to spare apart from a dark jacket, which was intended to be relatively dressy, but not luxuriously made. It was impossible to know how long this garment had been lying around, but it was obvious that it needed some alterations. So I had taken a moment to do a quick but effective cleaning, thus avoiding the need to wait hours for the fabric to dry. At the same time, I had also taken the opportunity to give myself a quick wash. When I had finally left the apartment to head for the reception, I was wearing the so-called jacket over my black undershirt, the collar of which went up to the base of my neck, together with a pair of ordinary straight trousers and Carth's pair of boots, which looked considerably less martial than my own.

When I put on each of these clothes, I figured that such an outfit would attract much more attention than my regular suit. However, against all expectations, I had to admit that the result was not as disastrous as I had pictured. I could even say that I felt rather elegant.

As I made my way to the position indicated by the data, I spotted small groups of people here and there seemingly going to the same place as I was. I couldn't tell if these people were Sith, Republic officials, or last minute invitees like I was. Or rather like Carth.

I suddenly felt a particularly discomforting pressure building up in my throat. What a story I was getting into. I, an amnesiac linguist. Stuck on a planet that was being gridded by the Sith, trying to come up with the most absurd solutions to find a Jedi woman considered by many to be a living legend. I slowed my pace and slipped my hand under my jacket, then used my index and middle fingers to check the small pocket in my undershirt, sewn between my left armpit and pectoral. I could feel a thin relief, which I then pinched with two fingers, as if to make sure it was really there. It was the card that Sarna had given to Carth today. The key to the celebrations.

As I was still unconsciously pinching the item, I got jostled by one of the small groups of people, pacing the street. Instinctively I put my hand flat against my pocket to prevent the card from falling out, then turned to face the cause of the collision. Behind me were two people, two women, staring at me with a look of both regret and hilarity. One, a human with particularly dark brown hair, who was probably in her late thirties, seemed to be trying to regain some form of seriousness. The other, a small blue-skinned Twi'lek, was definitely not about to leave her perfectly joyful disposition. These two women were apparently already in a fairly festive mood, and looked somewhat uninhibited without being particularly drunk, which was rather reassuring as I suspected the Twi'lek to be in her teens. They were obviously two friends embarking on a wild night out. I removed my hand from my jacket and kept observing the women, both looking more and more embarrassed. The human took a quick glance at her friend, took a step closer to me, and with her hand landing on my arm, she began to talk:

« I beg your pardon, Sir. » She spoke in a voice filled with the playfulness attitude she couldn't quite shake off, but nevertheless sounded sincere. « We weren't careful enough. Did we hurt you? »

I made no immediate reply. I cast an eye over the young Twi'lek, watching her friend with great curiosity and clearly fighting back the urge to laugh.

« No, don't worry. I'm okay. » I eventually stated, returning my eyes to the female human. I gave a slight nod, and then, ready to get back on my way, I finished:

« Have a nice time, ladies. »

I turned around and carried on, but kept an ear out for what was whispering behind my back. The two women were still standing at the same place and seemed to be chatting away. I could hardly make out what was being said, and the further away I got, the more inaudible their words became. However, between two bursts of laughter, I managed to catch a few snatches of sentences:

« ...I told you so... Come on! Hurry up! ... is leaving! »

As I got further away from the two friends, my mind went back to its primary task: the reception, finding a way to get to the lower town safely and... legally, if possible. I had to be clever and cautious. I had no idea what to expect from such an event. And the more time passed, the more I feared that I would be left without a solution when I got back to Carth.

« Wait! »

I paused and looked back in the direction of the voice that had just called out to me. A few steps away, I could see the human jogging to me, outpacing her young friend, who wasn't in much of a hurry.

« How can I help you? » I asked.

The woman interrupted her run a couple of steps away from me and fixed her gaze on me awkwardly. She looked as if she wanted to speak to me, but the words were obviously not coming out. I gave her some time - time that allowed me to have a better examination of her. She was dressed in a sort of dark green suit, and held in her right hand a small pouch of a similar shade. Her almost black hair, waving generously over her shoulders and upper back, enhanced her particularly white skin and pale eyes, whose precise colour I could not define in the darkness of the falling night. This woman certainly had a strong poise, there was no denying it. An appearance that reminded me of Commander Shan. However, the woman in front of me radiated an uncertainty that the female Jedi did not display at all. While my eyes wandered clumsily over her features, I briefly paused at her left wrist, which, under the sleeve of her jacket, presented a flesh-coloured bandage. A shade usually chosen to keep the bandage as inconspicuous as possible. Yet on the woman's pale skin it was particularly striking. I could not focus on this detail for long, however, as her other hand reached out and tugged the sleeve over the bandage. I lifted my eyes to hers. This time she was staring at me with a manner that I found almost threatening. Realising that my somewhat sustained observation had offended her, I tried to calm her down:

« I hope it's nothing too serious. » I said with a demure smile that was meant to be friendly.

At once her gaze softened and she responded to my smile timidly. Perhaps she was even somewhat moved by my concern.

« No. » She replied, still quite embarrassed. « Nothing at all. I don't like sores, I just wanted to cover that scratch. » During our interaction, I noted that the little Twi'lek had moved much closer to us, but she kept a respectable distance.

« I guess I didn't get it right. » The human concluded beneath some artificial laughter.

« I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. » I spoke.

« No, I am just too attached to how I look. » She responded with sudden cheerfulness.

« We have a reception tonight, and I wanted to present properly. »

It was strange. Couldn't stand the sight of a wound, or did she want to look presentable? These two arguments in themselves could work, but not sequentially in such a short period of time. I was certainly a bit lost in all this, but that didn't make me a complete and utter idiot. This woman was hiding something from me. I was sure she was trying to make a fool of me. I had to be careful. In the meantime, I had to keep playing with her.

« You don't present well? » I questioned rhetorically.

The woman shot me a surprised look, and then gave a generous smile, to which I responded. A series of beeps brought us out of this moment of what could finally be described as a sort of flirtation. I looked up in the direction of these sounds, and could tell that they were coming from the teenager a little further away. The woman also turned her attention to her. The small Twi'lek busied herself energetically and pulled a communicator out of a small satchel on her belt that seemed to have been cobbled together from spare materials. The very young woman then stepped away from us and took the call. From where we were, it was impossible to overhear. The human turned to me again and grinned again as she shrugged her shoulders.

« Are you going to the reception too? » She asked me expectantly.

« Yes, I am. » I replied, looking warily at the Twi'lek before regaining the woman in front of me. « I am Amon. » I added, holding out my hand, which she quickly grasped.

« Sivir. » She revealed with a broad smile. « I am a civil servant. I was in charge of security matters in the nearby sectors. »

I widened my eyes. But I made sure to regain a composed stance, so as not to awake any suspicion of the new interest I might now have in her. If only she wasn't lying to me.

« You were? » I stressed as I finally released Sivir's hand.

« Yes, when the Sith arrived, they took over our facilities and made themselves in charge of everything. » She said with some measure of irritation. « Oh, no worries, I still have a job! » She added. « But we're given less freedom than before. »

I nodded absently. For all the problems she apparently had to face, this meeting might turn out to be miraculous. This woman could perhaps help me. I just had to buy more time and demonstrate to her that I was trustworthy. I needed to remain vigilant though, because I couldn't be sure who I was truly dealing with.

Was she really trustworthy? After all, she might be spending her days with the Sith, and she was invited to a reception originally organised between unscrupulous Republicans and those very same Sith. And I had the feeling that she and her young friend were playing with me. What an odd pair they were.

« What about you? You've been invited to the reception ? » Sivir questioned in a curious voice. I glanced back at her and, just as I was about to stammer out a few sentences, a shrill whistle ravaged our ears, and those of the other pedestrians walking down the street. It was the Twi'lek again. Sivir spun in her direction. The teenager raised her right hand boldly and waved at her friend; a gesture so highly perched that the sleeve of her blouse rolled down to her elbow, revealing a series of countless trinkets hanging from her wrist. Sivir responded with a knowing nod. The very young woman waved again, more conventionally and hurried away.

« How curious. » I thought, following the girl with my eyes.

« Her boyfriend must have woken up. » Sivir said. « Friends come after boys, that's how it is at her age. »

It made sense. But I couldn't help but wonder.

« Amon ? » The woman called out. I finally turned my attention back to her.

« Yes... er... » I tried before replying more calmly.

« I'll be very honest with you. I have absolutely no good reason to be at the reception. » I saw the young woman's forehead wrinkle as I was explaining myself. « I am a lecturer. Last night I went for a drink with a colleague in a local cantina. A slightly drunk woman came up to us and gave us a pass to the reception here. Nothing more. »

The young woman blinked repeatedly before answering.

« Why are you alone then? »

« My friend is lucky to have a family life. » I replied in a voice feigning bitterness. « And I only arrived on Taris recently, I don't have anyone besides my colleagues. I thought that this party could be an opportunity to meet people. » I added, my gaze locked firmly on Sivir, so much so that I could see her cheeks beginning to redden.

« It certainly looks promising. » She answered, with renewed self-control. I held out my arm, and with a seductive smile on my lips, I offered:

« Will you come with me? »

Sivir threw an almost delighted glance at me, as if she had been waiting for this since the beginning of our interaction. She grabbed my arm with a delicate hand and said warmly:

« I'd love to. »

Together we headed for the reception location. I was not quite proud of what I was doing. It wasn't in my nature to toy with people as I was doing just now. But the situation required this kind of actions. And I must admit that a part of me was not completely unaffected by Sivir's allure. Nevertheless, I had to bear in mind my short and long term objectives: the lower city, to find Bastila Shan.

We walked for another ten minutes or so before reaching the party. I needed to demonstrate enough ingenuity and subtlety to keep my lies alive. I had made up a whole new life for myself, a whole new career. Of course, I had not been spared the worst possible questions: which institution I was attached to, where was I before that, etc. I then pretended to be a temporary lecturer, so that I could remain fairly vague about the places I was working in. I was now officially a teacher at the beginning of his career, with a background in literary translation, a very ungrateful field in which I had never managed to break through, hence my supposed decision to switch to teaching. She didn't look suspicious about my story, quite the opposite. She appeared genuinely sorry for me, that I had not been able to make a living from what was meant to be one of my greatest interests.

The place where the reception was held was a huge mansion, overlooking the whole area we had just passed through. The building was at least three storeys high, and its façade consisted of gigantic white stone columns which ended in a red roof similar to havod. An elegant shade, particularly valued by the wealthier classes.

We didn't particularly struggle to get into the building. A security guard had merely checked my pass, not paying attention to the number of guests it mentioned. Sivir and I were both allowed in without attracting any attention. I reasonably assumed that her possible status as a civil servant in a structure as valuable as Security made her a known personality. Or at least vaguely recognisable. In any case, I was inside. There was no need to bother with these questions. Now it was a matter of collecting useful information, if not practical solutions.

At the very beginning of this night, Sivir and I stayed with each other, continuing our talks as we wandered through the maze of rooms that this huge mansion housed. Strangely enough, I felt her much less interested in me than when we were outside. Deciding not to pay any more attention to these concerns, I took advantage of my wanderings to observe our surroundings, and I had to admit that nothing really caught my eye. It was a conventional reception: countless small groups of people talking about everything and nothing, a glass of alcohol in hand. How was I going to find my way through this mess? How was I going to carry out my assignment? As we made our way to another crowded room, I decided to interrogate Sivir, who certainly could provide me with some useful information.

« You said you were working for...? » I started, waiting for her to finish my question.

She gave me a surprised pout. Her gaze shifted and she brought the glass that had just been handed to her and sipped a very small amount of her drink.

« Department of Security. » She replied dryly, her lips still brushing the glass.

So she was acting on several fronts. That was the only reason for her sudden aloofness, or rather coldness. It didn't matter, I had to question her more about what she was doing. I took a sip of the same drink that had been given to me. It was apparently a sugary wine. Not unpleasant. I took a second sip, then resumed my attempts at interrogation.

« It must be quite stressful, I guess. » I said beneath a subdued and rather unauthentic laugh.

« Indeed. » The woman responded without further elaboration.

I sighed wearily, awkwardly. I decided to stop talking for the moment. I just watched the young woman. Not only had she gone completely mute, but she wasn't even looking at me. I noticed that she was much more interested in the guests than she was in me. And as I went through the reverse chain of thought, I realised that she had been scanning every room we had passed through. Or rather, every room she had walked through while I was following her.

It was now quite obvious. There was no desire on her part to share a lovely evening by my side. She had got inside, and had very soon undertaken a thorough examination of every room in the mansion. My presence was at best irrelevant, at worst deeply annoying. I couldn't help but feel upset, even though I was playing a similar game after all, although perhaps with greater naivety. I didn't know what she was up to here, but I could tell that she wasn't here to enjoy mundanities. So what should I do? Split up and resume the course of my own quest as originally planned, alone? Or try to confront her with what she was hiding? The second option looked far more appealing to me, despite the fact that it was far from reasonable.

Never mind.

« How long have you been planning to sneak into this party? » I asked in a whisper.

Suddenly, Sivir took her eyes off the crowd and, for the first time since we got there, she met my gaze, and she clearly could not suppress her shock at such an unexpected question. I went on less discreetly:

« You could have just told me about it instead of making eyes at me. »

Sivir cast a few peeks around us, no doubt to make sure we were not drawing any attention. Then she regained my gaze and, in an authoritative tone, she replied:

« A lecture from a false teacher who has no business being here is pretty entertaining. »

It was my turn to be caught off guard. I stared at the woman with my eyes so wide open that more would have been painful. My expression provoked her to laugh in satisfaction.

« You obviously don't know the instructional policies here. Taris has not recruited any temporary teachers since the last three revolutions. Here, things are done by competitive examination only, and these are only open to people who have followed the curriculum offered in the universities of Taris. In other words, nothing you have told me makes sense. I'm up to date on a lot of things. »

She sipped some more wine, with the same contented look, and continued:

« But I really enjoyed your tales of being in difficult classrooms. It was worth the effort. It was like being there. Now, let me handle my own business, and I'll let you handle yours. »

With that, she finished her drink and warned me in a controlled voice:

« Be careful. The Sith do not treat the survivors of the Republican cruiser lightly. »

Sivir then walked out of the room, leaving me like a perfect fool standing in a corner holding, my drink. I breathed heavily. How could she have known I was on the Endar Spire? I discreetly inspected my outfit, looking for the slightest clue revealing this reality that had to remain hidden. As much as I looked at every square inch of my clothes, of my appearance, I could not find any indication of this. How did she know? Who was she? And what about the young Twi'lek who had run away after a curious call? What were those two up to? I had to keep an eye on her. At least we shared some kind of secret intention. Perhaps she could still be useful in my business.

The night went on without much progress on my part. The more time passed, the more my confidence faded. I was obviously not the man for such a situation. In the space of a couple of minutes I had succeeded in being spotted by an utter stranger, so what could I expect from my acting performance among Sith officials?

Each of my attempts to join a group had sometimes ended in friendly embraces, but mainly with nothing useful to report. How could I get anything out of these people without raising suspicion?

I now found myself grafted onto another small group of Sith, and just as I was beginning to seriously consider ending my seemingly time-consuming infiltration, they brought up topics that finally caught my attention. Indeed, alongside these few people, I had been able to learn a little more about the gangs that were operating in the lower city. Two groups were leading in these conflicts between scoundrels and criminals: the Hidden Beks and the Black Vulkars. The first was led by a guy named Gadon Thek, while the other was under the governance of a guy named Brejik. The gangs were giving the newly arrived Sith a hard time. The reverse was also true. It was said that some of the Beks had the habit of going up to the upper city by devious, and sometimes particularly acrobatic, routes. I didn't know what it was all about, but I assumed that it was a matter of rather sporty infiltration. This meant that it was possible to get to the lower city by circumventing Sith security. But how to get in touch with a Hidden Bek?

« We're trying to seal the cracks, but that's just not possible. » I heard from one of the guests. « This vermin can sneak in anywhere. As soon as you cut off their access, you can be sure they'll find another one within the hour. »

« They know their city, Musthar. » Another person replied calmly. « We've only been here a short time. We couldn't expect anything else. And the Republic has done a disastrous job in repressing these gangs. »

« Oh, we're not getting any help, that's for sure. » The man ended as he brought his glass to his lips.

As silence fell in the group, I forced myself to dare to ask a question that could be perceived suspiciously:

« But then... » I began, faking naive curiosity. « How can you spot a Hidden Bek among the regular population? »

The few Sith all gave me a look that I couldn't describe. What was real, however, was my violent surge of nervousness, which I tried my best to repress. Seeing that my question had obviously caught the attention of my very temporary party mates, I allowed myself a few more words:

« Sorry. » I said with a falsely uncomfortable countenance. « I'm a tradesman, and your arrival has somewhat affected my business trips. I wasn't supposed to be here this long. »

Musthar and most of his colleagues gave an understanding smile, and then they returned to their initial attitude. However, the woman who had spoken to the man did not take her eyes off me.

« The Hidden Beks are not so good at hiding. » The man finally replied. « These dummies perform a barbaric ritual of red-hot branding every new member. A luminous idea coming from their leader. Souvenir of the Mandalorian Wars, it is said. They all have some sort of little cross on the underside of their right wrist. »

On the underside of the wrist? Suddenly an image of my evening came back to me. Sivir. The flesh-coloured bandage. And her very young friend, who wore an impressive array of trinkets around her wrist. Was it the right one? I couldn't remember. The little Twi'lek had gone so quickly that I hadn't had time to think about such a detail. However, a lot of things seemed to make sense. I knew for sure that these two young women were up to something. Sivir had used me to infiltrate the party, and hadn't waited long before going about her own business, leaving me out of the loop.

« How did a simple tradesman get invited to this party? »

I looked up at the person who had just asked this question so sternly that my blood froze in the next second. It was this woman, who had always kept her eyes on me. She was definitely distrustful of me. And I couldn't blame her.

« Play it smart for once. » I thought.

I glanced down for a moment and sighed defeatedly, which appeared to feed the woman's distrust of me. I raised my head, and, staring resolutely at her, said:

« Well, to be perfectly frank with you. » I dared. « I met a colleague of yours today in the Market District cantina. She offered me to have a drink with her and her friends. I accepted, and... » I paused and reached into my pocket for the tiny card that had enabled me to be here tonight, then handed it to the female Sith.

« ...she gave me this. »

The Sith extended her hand and seized the card, inserting it into a small data pad which she took out of a satchel. As she inspected the contents of the card, I continued:

« I'm sorry, I know I have no business here. I was just curious to be part of an event like this. »

The woman carried on looking at the data for a while. Then I cast a glance at her colleagues. Musthar and another Sith looked quite entertained by the moment, whilst the other two shared awkward stares. I assumed that those looks were mostly due to the woman's unfriendly demeanour. Suddenly my attention was caught by the woman again, she sighed slightly, removed the card from the pad and held it out to me again. I immediately grabbed it and shot the Sith a questioning look.

« I told you that we should make a clean sweep of our workforce. » She said to her colleagues. « Our men and women can' t do anything better than hang out in the cantinas and get drunk out of their skulls. Here's what we get. »

She added, gesturing at me with a rather condescending nod. The men around her now glanced at her in shock at what she was saying and in approval, which was expected of them. Slowly, the group appeared to be trying to disengage from me, and began to pace towards another room. Before leaving me for good, the woman threw me a warning:

« Don't be overly curious, if you don't want trouble. »

Then they all disappeared into the maze of rooms of the massive edifice. I was alone again, but with some interesting information. This rather uncomfortable encounter with these people prompted me not to hang around here any longer. I had somehow been spotted. It was unwise to repeat the process with others. I had to start thinking about leaving this place. I quietly cleared my throat and placed my glass on the edge of what looked like a fireplace. With a confident step, I walked through several halls, heading for the exit. Several dozen meters from there, I slowed my pace until I stopped, having caught sight of Sivir out of the corner of my eye as she looked to be following a Sith with whom she had obviously been in the midst of some sort of exchange. The way the man was staring at her left no room for questioning: he had some kind of plan in his head.

She must have known exactly what she was doing. I didn't have to worry about what was going to happen between these two. I walked back in the direction of the exit. However, I couldn't help but think that this woman could be of some help to us. I paused again, and turned my head back to Sivir and the man. Hardly had I noticed that they were about to walk up a staircase. I glanced back at the exit and sighed.

« Damn it. » I muttered.

With no further delay, I swung round and headed for the stairs that the two party companions had just climbed. Down here, I could perceive some female laughter which left little doubt about the identity of the one responsible for it. I went up the steps and reached a wide corridor. A few inebriated people were wandering around. I walked down the corridor, at a measured pace, in search of Sivir and the Sith. A few dozen metres further on, the corridor opened up into a large room where several couples were seemingly engaged in pleasures that would have deserved a little more privacy from my perspective. I searched the room for Sivir, who I eventually spotted at the other end, and saw her going through a door into another room. Resolutely I started down the path to what I hoped would be the last room, when I was suddenly gripped by the arm. I spun round and saw a woman, clearly quite altered, clinging awkwardly to me.

« Will you take me, handsome? » She asked, as lustful as she was drunk. I gently laid my hand on her own arm, intending to lead her to a seat without rushing her.

« Not tonight, I'm really sorry. » I lied as I settled her on the bench. She showed an exaggeratedly disappointed pout which provoked me to laugh with amusement.

« Too bad for you then! » She added, before breaking into a fit of laughter in response to mine.

« Too bad for me. » I finished warmly.

I eventually headed back to the room that Sivir and the Sith had entered. When I got there, I leaned forward and listened for a while. I could not hear anything in particular. I had to go in and find out. Just as I was about to pull the handle, a scream broke out in the room. A high-pitched voice. Sivir's. I quickly opened the door and ran straight into the room. A few metres away I saw the young woman in a visibly bad position against the man. Her jacket was lying miserably on the floor, and the top she was wearing underneath showed several cuts. I also noticed that her so-called bandage was partially unstuck. But this was not the time to examine the room thoroughly, I needed to neutralise this man who was obviously abusing the woman. I moved towards the Sith without him even noticing my presence. I grabbed him hard by the collar and brought him up behind me so that he no longer had any direct access to Sivir. The man looked totally bewildered by my presence. But I did not give him a chance to recover, for almost instinctively I delivered a hook with all my weight. I could feel and hear a cracking sound which clearly indicated that I had just broken some bones. The man immediately collapsed into a state of deep unconsciousness.

I turned back to the woman, who was looking at me in awe, her arms folded against her very partially exposed chest. A few seconds passed and Sivir finally broke out of her daze, rushing towards the Sith. Thinking then that I had misjudged the scene I had witnessed, I spoke a few words:

« I'm sorry, Sivir. I thought he was after you. »

The young woman remained silent and worked on the unconscious man. I took a step in their direction, and then used the moment to check Sivir's wrist. She obviously noticed, because only a second later she moved her head towards me and tore off the rest of her bandage, revealing a small cross on her pale skin.

« Yes, it does hide what you think! That's why he went crazy! » She barked. « Happy ? »

Without waiting for an answer, she took her eyes off me and focused her attention back on the Sith. She was searching him. Within a dozen seconds, she picked up a small data pad and inspected it thoroughly. After a few manipulations, she stood up, the pad in her hands, and turned back to me:

« We need to leave now, before he wakes up and reports us. »

« That's fine with me. » I replied.

« I don't care whether it's fine with you or not! » She stormed out angrily. « We're leaving, end of story. We're leaving together, just like we came in earlier. Once we're out, you do what you want, I'm getting back in the lower city. »

« Don't you think it would be wiser under the circumstances if you didn't try to return down there? If the guy wakes up soon, he's going to alert every Sith in the area. Security will be strengthened without delay. »

The young woman made no response. She looked pensive.

« A colleague and I are occupying an apartment in a nearby neighbourhood. You will be safe there for the night. » I added.

Sivir sighed. Then she cast me a troubled look.

« I have no more viable option. » She said defeatedly. « Okay, I'll come with you. »

I nodded. Then I took a few steps aside, picked up the woman's jacket and handed it to her:

« Here, put it back on, and let's run away. »

She complied. Within a few short minutes Sivir and I had left the reception and we headed for the apartment where we were to meet Carth.

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Chapter Five here!

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