#well it’s obvious why rhett wants to see that

[casperghosty]

I'm only 5 minutes in and Rhett is already trying to get phallic objects into Link's mouth

#why sir?? #why #well it’s obvious why rhett wants to see that #that last tag was just suggested and its funny how it fits #Rhett knows what size things fit in Link's mouth #rhink

[unhinged-nymph]

The boys’ piss kink has reentered the chat

#they just can’t help but talk about holding their pee #and seeing what link looked like when he was trying to hold it during the longest pee video? #well it’s obvious why rhett wants to see that #someone needs to make a piss compilation of all the times they’ve fucked with each other’s pee and/or bladders lol #rhink #lmao soz #rhett and link #good mythical marathon #gmm #goog caps

[asherlockstudy]

I am screaming rn

Okay something happened in the latest Ear Biscuit and I am freaking losing my mind. It might sound a little obnoxious but it is out of genuine enthusiasm. If you are following, you know how I love to analyse stuff, like feelings and situations. And I feel that something that was discussed in this episode was great vindication / validation for my efforts to understand these two men.

I am talking about the EB where they were given various scenarios in which each had to predict the other’s reaction. My point of interest was the second scenario; what Link would choose to do if he was invisible for a day. During all these scenarios, I was playing along, trying to imagine what they would do too. So in this one, an answer came quite quickly to me and it was the following:

“Link”, I thought, “ would immediately go to Rhett’s house or where Rhett is anyway and try to figure out whether Rhett’s love / care for him is genuine. I am not sure how he would do it though, probably he would check how Rhett interacts with Jessie in private or how they talk about him behind his back or what Rhett tells Jessie about Link.” END OF THOUGHT

A little context before I continue. I have written many times before about how Link’s root of his frustration with Rhett, with all the anger bursts and nasty jokes, is his uncertainty about Rhett’s feelings. Link does not take Rhett’s feelings for granted at all, in fact he has doubts about them, and he loathes that Rhett has (seemingly) zero doubts about Link’s love for him. Whether Link’s concern is any founded at all or he is acting all possessive (don’t forget his widely acknowledged abandonment issues) I cannot decide yet. Also, the reason I believe Link wants to use Jessie as a meter for this is… well… obvious. I know some people don’t like this but it doesn’t take much to see that Link is antagonistic towards Jessie. Let's...let's be real for a sec, okay? I am just an eye and an ear. Don't shoot the eye or the ear.

And now that we’re done with the context, here’s what Link himself said he would do:

Link: Gain access to. Information. And, um, I decided to invest the limited time I have in - as an invisible - to learn what people think about me. Really. Like, I wanna put myself in positions where people -

Rhett: Give me an example.

Link: Like, every relationship that I have, I'm talking work relationships, friend relationships... I mean, it was a quick answer but-

(...)

Link (after some non-significant joke part initiated by Rhett ): I feel like I know what Christy thinks about me. I don't feel like it would be fair to spy on my wife.

Rhett: But I feel like maybe you can predict what all these people say about you without you being there...

Link: Yeah... maybe there's not much to learn and maybe it's only... maybe I don't want to learn it.

Rhett makes it less significant again.

You see why I am screaming? Link essentially said just. that. Of course he said "people" and "all my relationships... work relationships...friendships" and he might mean it for more people, sure, but first and foremost he said it about Rhett. He tried to generalize in order to not be exposed or not offend Rhett in particular. Rhett indeed became quite inquisitive, probably in order to figure out what exactly Link meant by this. Link backtracked quickly, waving it off as a quick answer or that it didn't make much sense but it actually makes. perfect. sense. Link is not the first of us to question what his closest people really feel about him. But Link backpedalled because otherwise he would expose himself.

Still, Link did try to pass the message to Rhett, somewhat. He hinted at it when he said all his friendships and work relationships, by only excluding Christy (not taking into account the kids here). Well, what's next and not excluded? Rhett. So, Rhett's the very first. Rhett was either innocent or cunning enough to not ask about himself. But, not to sound like a broken record, he was not excluded and I doubt Link cares more what Chase thinks deep inside or a friend he sees once per month for a hike. Sorry to say this but I don't think Link cares THAT much what his employees think of him as long as he ticks off all his responsibilities as an employer and boss. Or at least, not in the way Rhett imagined it (with sending a stupid text to an employee and checking their reactions and all). Rhett probably intentionally tried to turn Link's answer into a joke in order to disorientate the viewers, however he also looked genuinely baffled and I don't get why he would be baffled about such a honest and maybe even common answer.

Here's what makes me suspicious; Rhett makes the quite strange remark that Link should maybe predict what all these people think about him in his absence. I am SO confused with this. Why? Why should he be able to predict it? Don't we all have similar concerns? Should we be able to predict what others truly think about us? Most of us just take leaps of faith. Rhett's argument literally makes no sense whatsoever. And yet Link quickly agrees, not questioning it in the slightest. My best guess is that either Rhett was trying to save Link from the hole he (and Rhett) were both digging for him by focusing only on the employees out of fear of being exposed, even though Link's true answer wasn't about them, not mostly at least. Or it was Rhett's own veiled answer, a " you should be sure about what I feel / think of you, even when you 're not there", which is why Link quickly retreated , because this could lead to a fight or Rhett feeling hurt. Maybe both guesses apply actually.

Another interesting moment is how Link says he wouldn't spy on Christie. While this is a reasonable choice to not throw his wife under the bus, it's very interesting that he says "it wouldn't be fair". He doesn't say it's out of solid trust. He does say he thinks he knows how she feels but still, the fact that he wouldn't do it because it wouldn't be fair is a very interesting choice of word for me. It's almost like saying, when you give someone your all, you also expect their all in an equal, fair relationship, but when you give someone like, your 50%, it wouldn't be fair to demand their 100%. You know?

In the end, after agreeing with Rhett it's insignificant and that it should be obvious what others feel about him (no it isn't? wtf), Link essentially shoots this down by saying it would be a poor choice, not for the aforementioned arguments, but because perhaps Link would eventually regret learning what others truly feel about him. And somehow I doubt this is about twinkle fingers. It could be about him too but it's not about him first and foremost.

#rhink #rhett and link #r&l #rhett mclaughlin #link neal #ebs #ear biscuits #eb 373 #mythical

[lallyloo]

Jealousy

(So @imincognitohere and I were talking about EB recs, and porn, and how Link’s entire porn collection would consist of a dark haired guy with glasses and a John Mayer lookalike. Then we imagined Rhett finding Link’s JM porn collection and crying, and then just railing Link. And now we’re here.)

*

He’s not really supposed to be on Link’s laptop, but Link’s running behind and Rhett really needs the May 2022 Ear Biscuits schedule now.

He silently curses himself for not keeping the schedule on his own laptop, or even his phone, but Link’s the one who types during planning sessions and they’re always together, so it’s never mattered before.

But today Link’s stuck in traffic on the way to the creative house, and Stevie’s trying to book their first guest in nearly two years, and Rhett needs the info now.

And they have each other’s passwords for this very reason.

So Rhett waits for the sign-in screen to appear, and he types Link’s password.

RaisinCRUNCH1984!

And he’s in.

 The desktop is just a line of neatly organized folders against a backdrop of some douche playing guitar.

Rhett stares at the douche for a second.

He knows his name is John Mayer.

But in Rhett’s mind he’s just ‘douche’.

Link’s crazy about his music but Rhett’s not, and the guy seems like a tool anyway.

And why does Link need him on his desktop? Why not Christy? Or the kids? Or hell, why not him and Rhett? Would that be too much? No.

And sure, Rhett’s desktop is a silhouetted photo of himself in Death Valley, but that’s neither here nor there. It was a great trip, and it’s a great photo, and it’s not just some random musician guy.

Rhett tears his gaze away from the background and scans the labels on the desktop folders, stopping when his eyes hit one called ‘May’. It seems to be the most obvious choice, likely full of schedule info, brainstorming, personal appointment times, etc.

To Rhett’s surprise, the files inside seem to have much more random names than the desktop folders.

It doesn’t seem like Link at all, and Rhett is a bit flummoxed as he reads down the list of random letters and numbers jumbled together.

He settles on a file called 324_eB_32_MMdrmfanta.

He’s in such a hurry he doesn’t pay attention to the file type, and Rhett realizes it’s a mistake as soon as he clicks it.

It’s not a list of dates or information. It’s not a schedule.

It’s a video.

And it looks like porn.

There’s a room. An office maybe? The camera pans and there’s a desk and a chair and a window.. and a bed. Yep, it’s porn.

The camera pans to socked feet, and up bare legs, over a little red speedo, to a bare chest, up to the face of someone who looks a bit like a younger Link.

Dark hair, blue eyes, glasses.

There’s a knocking sound in the video, someone at the door, and Rhett is curious to see who might walk in. It’ll be a blonde woman, he assumes. A Christy lookalike.

“Link you dirty dog..”

He’s invested now, curious to see what kind of fantasies Link is into. He knows Link and Christy’s relationship has its ups and downs, and Link’s blue balls have been an ongoing joke for years, and maybe he’s invading their privacy a bit by watching this video.. But it’s not actually Link and Christy. It’s just porn. Just a fantasy Link has. And they’ve talked about fantasies before. Hell, Rhett told him about the first time he ever jerked off. Watching a little porn video is nothing.

The guy with the glasses heads for the door and Rhett is enraptured as the scene unfolds – slipping off the chain lock, a hand on the doorknob, turning it slowly. Rhett wonders what the woman’s going to be wearing. What she’s going to say. What they’re going to do. How they’re going to fuck.

On screen, the door opens and Rhett pulls back a bit, surprised, when he realizes there’s a man on the other side of it. Another brunette, with longer hair – not as long as Rhett’s, but longer than Link’s. And flowy. The guy’s kinda pretty.

Huh. Maybe it’s a threesome video? Two guys and a girl? The guy with the glasses looks surprised but pleased, and Rhett stares at the screen, wondering when the girl will show up.

The other guy says something Rhett doesn’t register, and then he steps into the room, wraps the glasses guy up in his arms, and shoves his tongue down his throat.

The unmistakable sound of a porn sax overdub echoes through Link’s office, and Rhett pulls himself out of it. He clicks through the video, skipping ahead, his eyes growing wide as he gets quick glimpses of erections, blow jobs, sloppy kisses, a finger in a butthole, AND IS THAT HIS TONGUE?? And fucking, so much fucking, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Rhett skips to the end to see the long-haired guy trailing his tongue over the glasses guy’s dick, licking up every messy drop of cum.

And. Oh.

The girl never showed up.

Rhett closes the video.

So Link watches porn. Gay porn.

And he’s never told him.

Rhett can’t help but feel a little confused. And a little jealous.

Why hasn’t Link told him? Why haven’t they talked about it?

Does Link like guys?

Rhett’s never been into guys. Not once, like ever.

Well, sure, he’s thought about Link once in awhile. What it might be like to touch him. Kiss him. Maybe more.

But that doesn’t count. Because it’s Link.

It’s Link!

Rhett’s not into guys. Link doesn’t count.

And if Link is into guys he clearly doesn’t want to tell Rhett yet. And that’s fine.

Isn’t it?

Rhett is a little hurt, but he’s alright with letting Link tell him in his own time. That’s what best friends are for. They’re cool and they’re understanding and they’re patient. And Rhett is all of those things.

He closes the folder, and his eyes fall to the desktop again.

To that douche.

With the familiar face.

Why does he suddenly seem so familiar?

Rhett stares at him for a moment and his blood runs cold.

The video.

The guy at the door with the stupid floppy hair.

Rhett quickly opens the folder again, choosing another file at random.

Cheesy porn music starts and Rhett watches another slightly geeky dark-haired guy with glasses flirt with a dark-haired flop. Rhett skips ahead quickly. There are blowjobs, and the flop is lifting the cute geeky guy, kissing him, spreading his cheeks as the glasses guy gasps–

Rhett closes that video, and clicks another one, and moans fill Link’s office as the video starts right in the middle of a fucking scene. Two guys. Another cute eyeglassed guy with dark hair, and some long-haired jerk. As Rhett watches, he catches sight of a guitar in the background and his face burns hot.

“Rhett?”

Rhett fumbles with the laptop, slamming it closed, but the video keeps playing and the moans of two guys echo through the room as Rhett turns towards the door.

“Link!”

Link looks furious.

“Dude, what’re you doing??”

“I was just looking for– ”

“You’re snooping on my laptop??” Link pushes past him and opens his computer, typing in his password.

“No! I wasn’t! I was just– ”

Link clicks the little x in the top corner of the video and the room falls quiet as he turns back to Rhett.

“That’s my private stuff.”

“I was looking for the Ear Biscuits schedule!”

“And you thought you’d just watch some of my porn while you were in there?”

“It said May! I thought it meant the month!”

“Well it doesn’t mean that!”

“I know that now!”

Link looks at him for a moment and then rolls his eyes. “It’s a stupid name. I’ll.. rename it.. and hide it, I guess.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“What if you need somethin’ else in the future?”

“Well I’ll know not to look in the John Mayer folder.”

Link makes a sound, something akin to a squawk. “What??”

“That’s what it is, right?”

“It’s– I mean, it’s..” Link stutters, unable to look at him. “NO.”

“Oh, come on.”

“It’s not.”

Rhett gestures to the laptop, which still sits open on the desk. “You’re tellin’ me all those dudes with the long hair don’t make you think of… him?”

Link doesn’t answer the question, he just frowns. “I should’a called it something else.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. PORN maybe?? THIS IS MY PORN RHETT DON’T LOOK AT IT?? Does it need to be that obvious?”

Rhett can’t help but laugh, “That wouldn’t help at all. You know it’d only make me more curious.”

“True.” Link says, and he’s smiling now at least. “So fine, I’ll call it something you won’t care about.”

“Like what?”

“Well I’m not gonna tell you, ya dummy.”

Rhett raises his hands in defeat, “fine, fine.”

The room is quiet for a moment as they look at each other, and Rhett can’t help it when his gaze moves from Link’s face down to the idiot on the screen.

He’s so smug. So full of himself. He writes stupid lyrics and people just swoon over him. Link swoons over him.

But Rhett writes lyrics too. And he sings. What’s wrong with his songs?

“What’s John Mayer got that I ain’t got?”

Link’s eyes nearly bug out of his head. “WHAT?”

“I didn’t even know you liked guys,” Rhett says quietly, “and now you’re into HIM of all people.”

“What’s wrong with HIM?”

“Well, for starters, he’s a– ” Rhett stops himself from calling the guy a name. Yeah he’s a stupid dumb idiot who steals the affection of certain best friends, but Rhett doesn’t need to say that to Link. He doesn’t need to make him more upset. “He’s not.. ”

“I know you think he’s not cool,” Link rolls his eyes again. “I don’t care.”

“It’s not that.��

“Well what is it??”

“He’s not.. me.” Rhett can feel his face start to burn the moment the words are out of his mouth. It’s stupid. He’s stupid. What is this? What’s he even doing?

“Not you??” Link laughs. “Dude, don’t tell me you’re jealous of John Mayer now too.”

“Well, I wasn’t,” Rhett says, and Link shoots him a skeptical look. “I mean, maybe just a bit. But now...”

“Now what?”

“After I saw those videos..” Rhett chokes out. “Link, why’re you thinkin’ about him and not me?”

“Rhett, you’re not into guys!”

“And you are??” Rhett can’t seem to help the hysterical tone in his voice.

“Well, yeah, man.”

“Since when??”

“Since.. always, I think.”

“What about Christy?”

“Christy knows,” Link shrugs, “she’s okay with it.”

“Oh.”

Rhett thinks of his own wife and how she’d react if it were him.

Lately Jessie’s been more open-minded than anyone, more willing to learn and explore and grow. Would she be okay if he were.. if he liked..

And he already knows the answer – has heard her say a hundred times, a hundred ways, ‘we’re not who we used to be.. so whatever that means for you and Link, that’s fine by me. The four of us can figure it out.’

Rhett hadn’t questioned her at the time. Hadn’t realized what she meant.

“So, look, you found my porn,” Link is saying, “but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about this whole jealousy thing you’ve got going on. I’m not gonna stop watching it just because your feelings are hurt.”

“But..”

“But what??” Link asks, exasperated.

“I want you to think of me.”

“Look,” Link sighs and takes off his glasses, rubbing a hand over his eyes, “I used to think of you..”

“When??”

Link shrugs. “Awhile ago. Years.”

“Why’d you stop??”

“Rhett, listen, I knew it was never gonna happen with you so I made myself stop.”

“And it’s gonna happen with John Mayer??”

“No,” Link laughs, “it’s just a.. just a stupid fantasy.”

“So let me be your fantasy.” Rhett hates himself the moment it’s out of his mouth – he’s never said anything more embarrassing – and Link just gives him an odd look.

“Dude..”

Rhett cringes, “I know.”

“I’m not gonna fantasize about my straight best friend.”

“But I want..”

“Rhett, WHAT.”

“I’m not into guys,” Rhett tries to explain, feeling like an idiot, “but I’m into you.”

“Well, I’m a guy.”

“I know, but you’re – ”

Link steps forward, and before Rhett can say anything more Link leans in and kisses him. It seems to be a test at first, gentle, and then Link slips his tongue out, pressing against Rhett’s lips, encouraging Rhett to open for him.

And Rhett does. He doesn’t even question it. His brain just screams, yes! Finally! And he’s kissing Link, soft and wet, and an ache shoots through his body, straight to his dick.

When Link pulls away, Rhett’s still got his eyes closed, his head tilted, with a smile plastered to his mouth.

“Did you like that?” Link asks.

“Yeahhh,” Rhett sighs dreamily.

“Then you’re into guys, you dummy. The percentage don’t matter.”

Rhett’s eyes snap open. “Okay, I’m into guys.”

Link looks at him, wide-eyed, and smiles. “So kiss me again then.”

Rhett does, taking hold of Link’s face and kissing him, and he knows he’s supposed to be doing something else. He came in this room for a reason. A file or something.

But none of that matters because he’s kissing Link and Link’s kissing him back, and as Rhett pushes Link up against the desk they bump the cable on Link’s laptop and it beeps to notify them that it’s come unplugged.

“Hold on,” Link mumbles, pulling away to plug the cable back in, and Rhett’s eyes are fixed to the photo on the desktop.

Stupid John Mayer douche.

He’ll never have Link.

“What’re you lookin’ at?”

Rhett glances up to find Link watching him curiously.

“What?”

“You’re staring at my laptop like you wanna murder it.”

“What,” Rhett sputters, “no I’m not.”

“You really are jealous, huh?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“Link, I’m fine.”

“Guess I’ll just leave it open then,” Link smirks. “Since it’s not botherin’ you.”

Rhett reaches past him and slams the laptop shut. “No.”

Link laughs. “You’re like a jealous girlfriend.”

“Boyfriend.”

“Oh, you’re my boyfriend now?”

“Maybe,” Rhett says, and he’s dying. Literally dying. Link’s never going to let him live this down.

But Link kisses him again and suddenly Rhett doesn’t care. They’re kissing and Link is touching him. Link’s hands move down to unbutton his shirt, so Rhett grabs hold of Link’s shirt and tugs it up and over his head.

“What ones did you watch?”

“What what?”

“The videos, which ones.”

Rhett nearly chokes, looking away, and Link takes him by the chin and pulls his gaze back.

“You can tell me.”

“I don’t know,” Rhett admits, “I just skimmed a few.”

“Well what’d they do in them?”

“Blowjobs,” Rhett says, replaying the scenes in his mind, “lots of fingers everywhere. Fucking.”

“Fucking?”

“Yeah, tons of it.”

Link’s fingers slide down Rhett’s belly, stopping at his belt, and the buckle clinks as Link undoes it. “You wanna act it out?”

“Act it out??” Rhett feels like he might actually scream.

“Yeah.”

“DO I HAVE TO BE JOHN MAYER?”

“No!” Link laughs and shuts him up with another kiss. “Just be you, dummy.”

“You want me to– ” Rhett stammers, speaking against Link’s lips, “Want me to go to the door?”

“The door? Why?”

“To knock? Like in the video?”

Link laughs again, and at least Rhett’s managed that. If nothing else, he can always make Link laugh.

“You watched the dorm fantasy video?”

“I don’t know.”

“Guy studying? Red speedo?”

“Ohh, yeah, that one.”

“And how’d it end?”

Rhett’s eyes go wide. “Fucking.”

“Right,” Link says, smiling back at him. “So you wanna just skip to that?”

Rhett’s died. He’s a corpse.

But he manages to breathe out, “Yes.”

Link opens a drawer and tosses a bottle of lube on his desk, and he’s saying “come on, come on,” and Rhett’s brain finally returns to him, because if there’s one thing he’s good at it’s using his dick.

He’s not quite sure of the next step because he’s never done THIS. But Link walks him through the lube and the prep, and god, his ass is beautiful, and now Rhett gets to fuck it, and when Link’s hand slips over Rhett’s dick, slicking him up good, Rhett’s knees nearly give out.

Then Link’s turning away, still talking to him, teasing, asking, “You gonna fuck me better than John Mayer would?” and Rhett grips his hips and slides in slow, easing in deep, gasping at how tight Link is around him.

And Link groans,“Oh god.. fuck, you’re in..

And moans, “Rhett, do it.”

And Rhett does.

He fucks the hell out of Link.

Plows him into the desk.

Tries to fuck John Mayer right out of his mind.

Just rails him.

And Link keeps gasping, “Yeah, like that, yeah, Rhett, fuck me like that,” and when he breathes out “better than John Mayer ever could..” Rhett stops and grabs hold of him, turning him around, needing to see him, wanting Link to see who’s fucking him and giving it to him so good.

Link goes easily, seemingly happy about it, and when Link is bare-assed on the desk with his dick in his hand, Rhett hooks his arms under his knees and fucks in again.

“Tell me,” Rhett sputters as he fucks with everything he’s got.

“Tell you what?” Link is looking up at him, dazed, and they both know Link’s teasing.

“Tell me I’m better.”

“Better than who?”

“You know who,” Rhett grits out, and he’s going to come. Soon. Real soon. And he needs to hear it so bad. “HIM.”

“Oh..” Link grins, and his voice catches in his throat as he says, “John Mayer?”

Rhett can only nod, silently begging Link to give him what he needs.

“You’re better,” Link smiles up at him, his breath stuttering, and Rhett can feel him tighten around his cock. “You’re so good, Rhett, fuck, you fuck me better than anyone.”

“Yeah,” Rhett gasps, pulling Link’s knees up higher, fucking in tighter, harder, faster, and he nearly folds Link in half when he leans in to kiss him again.

And Link breathes against Rhett’s mouth, “No one fucks me like you..” and he comes, shooting hot between them, and Rhett groans and stills, coming hard inside Link.

“Fuck, yeah, so much better than him,” Link sighs, “You’re bigger too.”

And Rhett’s pretty sure he passes out.

When he comes to, he’s still holding onto Link, and he lets go slowly, easing his legs down.

“You alright?” Link’s asking, with a little worried expression on his face.

“Yeah,” Rhett says, “was I out long?”

“You were out??” Link sits up quickly, getting a better look at him.

“I think so,” Rhett shrugs, “I dunno. Maybe it was just too good.”

Link laughs, “Dude, stop.”

Rhett stares down at him, looking hurt.

“What, you’re sayin’ it wasn’t good?”

“Rhett– ”

And Rhett knows he’s teasing again, and he knows it was good, but Rhett pushes against his chest anyway, encouraging Link to lie back down on the desk.

And Rhett leans over and licks up every messy drop of cum from Link’s chest, and sucks his dick clean too.

He’s clearly better than John Mayer.

And he definitely likes guys. Especially Link.

#rhink #fic #rhink fic #my fic #jealous rhett #i apologize for the formatting #tumblr hates when i post from my laptop

[katatty]

Recap: Pleasantview Round 5 (Summer)

The romance of Spring certainly went to a few heads in Pleasantview - the suburb is in the midst of quite the baby boom. But now Summer is here, and school is out! Parents are scrambling to sort out childcare, teenagers are reveling in their freedom, and with the sun shining, the mood in the neighbourhood is pretty great.

But are the families as happy as they seem? Or are some on the brink of collapse? What secrets lurk in their hearts?

The round began with newcomers Tiffany Sampson and Kevin Beare getting settled in. They adopted a puppy, got new jobs, and got to know the neighbours.

Then as Tiffany finished her first day of work in the Education career, she learned she was already pregnant!

They had a quick, slightly rushed wedding before the baby arrived.

Baby Harvey was born, but it already looks like she might be expecting again.

The round ended on a happy note, with the couple already nicely established as a family in town with a few friends!

The Dreamer family started out just as well, but things quickly started to deteriorate.

Due to a combination of bad mental health, recurring nightmares and possible haunting, Brandi Broke isn’t in a good place. Her relationship with Darren suffers for it, too.

Meanwhile Cassandra’s marriage with Don is falling apart, and Darren can’t help being sympathetic. Perhaps a little too much so.

Mia Broke, obsessed with the paranormal, gets herself abducted by aliens, much to her mom’s dismay.

She’s also eager to discuss her theories about the spooky sounds in their yard, but Brandi shuts it down.

Mia goes on a date with Benedick Monty, but it’s kind of a mixed bag.

Back home, Mia and Darren eventually talk about the possible hauntings at home. He admits to her seeing Darleen’s ghost, from time to time.

Brandi also opens up to Mia about her father, Skip.

And Mia is vindicated to finally some ghosts herself!

I played the Lotharios next since I was interested in what was going on with Cassandra.

Cassandra and Don’s relationship has had its ups and downs - neither of them has been 100% faithful, but they’re dealing with it. Maybe? Between raising the twins and focusing on their careers there hasn’t been a ton of time for marriage counselling.

Don’s been feeling a bit isolated, recently. Outside of his family and his coworkers, he doesn’t really have a lot of friends. That’s been deliberate, to an extent. The fewer people around him, the fewer temptations to stray outside of the marriage.

For the most part, it’s been working. But a chance meeting with Nina Caliente has him feeling… confused.

The kids are doing fine, the parents not so much.

She’s always in low aspiration, lately, ever since her Dad passed away. It’s been hard getting on her feet since then, and Don going on about needing “me time” doesn’t help. She needs his support right now more than ever! Why doesn’t he get that?

They don’t talk about it, but both of them are feeling very alone, and starting to lose faith in each other...

Meanwhile, the boys age up. Bernado’s a popularity sim and Cassimiro’s knowledge.

Eventually, things in the marriage finally explode and Cassandra tells Don about Darren, trying to get a rise out of him.

Don immediately retaliates by woohooing with Sharon Wirth on a grocery-run.

After a cool-off day, they agree to break things off, and Don moves out.

He moves in, temporarily, with Bella. Who is insistant that he and Cassie try and patch things up!

He’s more interested in exploring new options, though.

Bella is devestated to lose her job as a party guest.

Meanwhile Oliver Goth (Dina and Mortimer’s son) gets his first kiss with Ariel Capp! Later he goes on a date with Tommy Ottomas, too.

At one of Bella’s parties, Cassandra and Don keep things civil, but Cassandra evidently isn’t doing well.

Bella goes on a date with Gilbert Jacquet. It’s not really all that serious between them, and Bella still misses Mortimer dreadfully, but Gilbert is charming and handsome enough to take her mind of her worries.

Things with Bella and Don also seem to be getting a little heavy, and Don concludes he needs to move out before things cross a line. Bella reluctantly agrees, it’s obvious her plan to get him and Cassie back together hasn’t worked

Don moves to Strangetown!

Next up are the Ramaswami family, a nice breath of fresh air after all the drama.

Priya befriends some of the other mothers in town, becoming especially close to Kaylynn.

And baby Ravi gows into maybe the coolest toddler ever?

Sanjay survives a near death experience.

And Priya finds out she’s expecting again!

Divorced once and with the girls having just graduated college, Daniel Pleasant didn’t expect to be engaged again with a kid on the way as he approached retirement age, doing it all over again. He’s far from unhappy about it, though. Mary Sue always had an independent streak, but Kaylynn adores him. Maybe it’s a bit selfish, but it feels so good to be needed.

Kaylynn knows some people in the neighbourhood look down on her, think her naive, call her a homewrecker… that’s fine. If they worked as a cleaner for years and years maybe they’d consider packing it in and settling into an easy life, too. What’s wrong with wanting to be taken care of?

Notably (and much to my horror) during the Pleasant round, Brandi and John start up their affair again.

Kaylynn finally gives birth, to a baby boy they call Jeffery Pleasant, after Daniel’s father. Daniel’s really pleased!

Jennifer’s eager to meet her new nephew. She and Kaylynn get off to a rocky start, but eventually start to bond.

She’s closest friends with Brandi Broke, though. The two have become inseperable, with Brandi visiting all the time.

Daniel invites both of the girls over to meet their little brother, but Angela is the only twin who shows. Whether that’s because they have a better relationship, or because Lilith was just busy is anyone’s guess.

Then it turns out Kaylynn’s pregnant again already?

Kaylynn and Daniel tie the knot!

Nina and Don also reconcile at the wedding.

Kaylynn gives birth to another baby boy, Luke!

And Jeff ages upp!

Daniel ages up, too. It’s finally time for him to retire, soon...

Daniel’s definitely a bit of a dirty old man, but Kaylynn doesn’t seem entirely oblivious to that side of him, and figures as long as she keeps his needs met they should be fine. We’ll see if that holds up.

Then it was time to catch up with the Shoreharts, who moved here form Widespot for a fresh start.

A retired chef, Sandy’s enjoying her retirement a lot more than she ever enjoyed being a stay at home mom. Granted, all this free time has her a little restless, but it’s nothing a bit of time outdoors and excercise can’t fix. She hopes.

They were honestly pretty chill! Rhett’s taken to the whole marriage thing suprisingly well, for a romance sim. Turns out, as long as he’s getting lovin’ on a regular basis he doesn’t really care if it’s with one woman or several. It’s never boring with Sandy, and he intends to keep her as happy as he can for the rest of her days. That’ll show her shit-heel of an ex-husband.

Mostly they just spend a lot of time with family.

Sandy’s very generious with the backrubs, but nothing goes too far.

Mimi is definitely at least a little anxious about her parents’ marriage though, because she spends some of the round reading up on Couple’s Councelling.

Then it’s time for her to age up! She grows into a rather cute romance sim.

Then at the party the house of cards starts to crumble, as Sandy gives her ex-husband Hamilton a kiss, right in front of Mimi and Rocky.

Mimi agrees not to tell her Dad, but isn’t happy. She spends a lot of time out of the house.

With Sandy keeping her indescretion quiet, I’m not sure what they have in store in the future!

Regardless, next are the Ramirez family.

Tessa’s spent a lot of time looking afte rthe baby and she’s sick of it! So she spends some time Downtown with friends.

She later takes Bernardo on a date, although he’s not sure if he likes her as more than a friend. Bernardo likes the idea of falling in love with Tessa, who he’s always admired! But he’s a little hesitant at the same time, especially with his parents’ divorce still being so recent.

Checo has a bit of a wandering eye, but mostly he keeps himself in check.

Checo might be a bit of a flirt, but at least he’s not a hypocrite. When Lisa was dancing with Skye he didn’t even bat an eye. Or maybe he just doesn’t see an old man as much of a threat…

Ugh, God, I forgot this happened

Baby Sofia grew up super cute!

Anyway, that’s all from them!

The Oldies weren’t too eventful, mostly just focused on hobbies!

They did finally meet Mary’Sue’s new partner, which went... poorly.

But they did have a nice meeting with their grandaughter later, and a fun night out!

Then it was the Burbs! John’s recent indescretions with Brandi aside, things seemed to be going well.

At least, until he made out with Coral Oldie :/

Oblivious to thins, Jennifer was starting to trust John again.

They had dinner with Jen’s brother Dan and his new wife...

And Jennifer discovered she was pregnant again!

Lucy headed away for college...

And baby James grew up, leaving the Burb round complete and Pleasantview all done & dusted!

#Pleasantview Plus #Hood: Pleasantview #pp: recap

[cellard0ors]

Fic: Movement (2/?)

Still dedicated to the wonderful @peachworthy. you read part one than you know - GMM Rhink AU - College Student Link/Pornstar Rhett AU

“Got it right again, man! You’re going to ace this test!” Rhett crows as he tosses down another notecard and Link pumps his arms in triumph. The two of them are settled in the kitchen, piles of books and notecards spread around as well as few bottles of beers and some bowls of chips.

Link picks up one chip and pops it into his mouth, grinning at his roommate fondly, “Well, couldn’t’ve done it without you, pal. You are, without a doubt, the best study buddy I’ve ever had.”

“Aw shucks, gonna make me blush,” Rhett laughs even though it’s Link who feels his cheeks actually grow warm, his friend’s laughter a common cause of the occurrence.

They’ve been living together for over a month now and it’s been beyond amazing. Link would’ve never guessed a guy like Rhett and a guy like him would work so well together.

It’s like they’re the world’s weirdest, most convoluted puzzle yet all the pieces click together to form a full picture that is nothing short of a masterpiece. True, there’s a lot about Rhett Link doesn’t know yet (and gosh is there a lot he wants to know) but their friendship is running smoothly.

Well, smoothly save for the massive crush Link has on the guy, albeit he’s doing his damned best to squash it. Yes, Rhett’s attractive and yes, he’s the first guy Link’s ever met that he’s felt a real zing for, but the fact of the matter is – Link would much rather have him as a friend and roommate than lose him as a…well, Link’s not sure if he’d lose him, but the mere possibility keeps Link’s lips sealed.

Besides, it’s okay to crush on someone and never act on it. People do it all the time. Not to mention that it’s a bit…odd to crush on someone in Rhett’s line of work. Isn’t it?

Link can’t think of too many people who will admit to crushing on an adult film star. Regular, mainstream film stars, sure – but adult film stars?

Yeah…

Although, to be frank, Link’s sure there are some that do. And, hopefully, some of them are not the creepy internet troll-y kind of people, but genuine salt of the earth folks like himself. Because, okay, he is crushing on one so…

Rhett is toying with the cards, maybe looking for the next question to quiz Link on when he asks idly, “Y’know, Link – I gotta say, I admire your stamina.”

That remarks makes Link choke on the drink he’s just been consuming, a cough clearing it up some as he croaks, “I’m-I’m sorry?”

Rhett hums noncommittally, as if not noticing the gaffe, “You’ve had yet to grill me about my job. Normally, once folks hear about it, that’s all they want to talk about.”

“Oh,” Link breathes out loosely, “Well, ah-? It-? It just…seemed rude to-to ask…”

“Been over a month living with me now. You telling me you ain’t interested?”

“I didn’t say that!” Link quips back much quicker than he would like, but Rhett just gives him the most perfect smile. All sincere and warm beneath his beard and remember, Link, you’re doing you’re best not to crush on him!

Rhett is still toying with the cards, eyelashes downcast, the very visual definition of shy as he murmurs, “Just sayin’…I don’t mind if you wanna ask some stuff.”

Link’s eyebrows rise in such a way as to damn near bump his glasses off, “Y-You sure?”

Rhett draws in a deep inhale and then sits the cards down. He crosses his arms and leans back in his seat, looking quite serious even despite the casual red flannel and jeans, as if this was more of an interview (or perhaps an interrogation?) than anything else, “Shoot.”

The a million and one questions that Link has kept at bay about Rhett’s job and more personal life threaten to cave his skull in as they crash about in his mind. However, he has to go with the obvious, “Know this’ll be predictable, but…why?”

Rhett just bobs his head in an understanding nod even as Link pushes on, “Why and how?”

Rhett sucks on his teeth before picking up his own beer and taking a fortifying sip before continuing, “The two are kinda interconnected to be honest. Had a fallin’ out with my family. Think I mentioned it in passin’ to you once. But, to clarify; they weren’t too happy with my chosen living destination nor with the fact that I’d come to terms with the notion that I’m attracted to both the ladies and the gents.”

Link’s mind immediately (and joyously) clings to ‘the gents’ remark, bookmarking it for future reference, even as Rhett continues his tale, “You grew up where we did. So you get it.”

Link does. And then, to nail the point home, Rhett adds, “Probably get it a lot more than others. If my…instincts are to be believed.”

Shit.

SHIT.

Link’s whole body immediately bursts into flame, the tips of his ears so hot he’s sure they’re glowing bright red.

Rhett knows I’m gay. He knows. I thought having a radar for that kind of thing was bullhonkey, but he knows and oh, lord, oh lord – do I give off some sorta vibe? I know that girl in my screenwriting class, Stevie, she teased me about being an A-Level twink or something, but I didn’t think-!

Rhett’s laughter carves right through Link’s insecurities, “Take a breath, brother! Look like you’re about to pop!”

Link does and Rhett just shakes his head, still grinning, “Point being – I was pretty much a babe in the woods when I came to LA. Not two nickels to my name, so I took whatever gigs I could get. Managed to snag a few commercials and things of that nature, but you know the drill. Jobs are hard to come by. And a guy of my height?”

He blows out a big breath and tosses all of those luxurious curls about with a rueful head shake, “Yeah, most people fingered me for a baller, so – again – jobs were hard to come by. But then, wouldn’t you know it? A friend of a friend of a contact told me about this part they thought I’d be perfect for.”

Another deep barrel chested chuckle emerges as he reminiscences, “Mighta been nice of ‘em to let me know it was actually a part of me they thought would be perfect.”

Do not zero in on his crotch! Do NOT zero in on his crotch! Charles Lincoln Neal the Third DO NOT-!

Link keeps his eyes so steadfastly forward he probably looks like some bug eyed zombie. If Rhett notices, he doesn't comment, “Anyway, when I found out what the role was, I had planned to politely decline but, y’know, the money they offered…”

There’s an easy shrug and this Link can look at. He looks at Rhett, who looks a bit sheepish as he scratches at one side of his beard, “I mean, again, you grew up where I did. So, you know how the whole ‘wait until marriage’ thing was drilled into your head, but I figured it wasn’t like anybody would know. My family’d cut me off, my friends were few and far in between, and the people on set…”

Now he looks a bit happier and Link can’t help but smile along with him, “The people on set were all right. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the kind of stories people tend to spin – the exploitation, the drug abuse, other questionable stuff…place I was at wasn’t like that. I mean, maybe I just lucked out or something, but it was…”

Another shrug and he goes for his beer again. Link figures this is as good a time as any to get in another question, “So, you did that and then you…? Just kept going?”

Rhett nods as he drinks, the bottle leaving his mouth with an obscene pop that Link is going to do his best to forget all about right now and certainly not recall at any point in the future (and most certainly NOT when he’s jacking off later), “Yeah, I did the one and the director really liked me. He pull me aside and told me about this company he was trying to set up with a couple of buddies of his. They wanted to go in a classier direction – know how funny that sounds, but he was serious.”

“So, what? No, like, blockbuster porno knock offs? Like ‘Sex in The City and ON the City’ or ‘Arma-get-it-on’?”

“Think you stole that last one from an episode of CSI.”

“I did, doesn’t change the question.”

They’re both smiling like a couple of fools, but the mood is good and the atmosphere light as Rhett sighs, “Yeah, nothing like that. I’ve actually worked with a few female directors, shot some things with great budgets, nice lighting, good costumes…”

“Oooo, costumes,” Link teases in the silliest voice and Rhett swats out at him. Link avoids the hit even as Rhett rolls his eyes, “I’m serious, dude. Some of the things that department pumps out looks better than anything you’d see in Hollywood.”

“Hmm, some kinda wood,” Link snickers and this time Rhett’s swat makes impact, brushing Link’s shoulder and Link would be embarrassed by the giggle he lets out, if it weren’t for the way Rhett’s nose is all scrunched up, making him look beyond adorable, “You’re sucha brat!”

Link sticks out his tongue and Rhett just laughs. They turn their attention to the drinks and chips for awhile before Link circles around to another question, “You like it then?”

“It’s a living,” Rhett confirms, not really answering one way or another, “Like I said – make great money, work with some really nice people.”

“Uh,” Link scratches behind one ear, “Hate to ask, but, um…clean people?”

Rhett doesn’t seem offended, “You bet. Have to be. Another reason I’ve done this as long as I have. Money's great, but the safety is even better. I’m currently under contract with that same company I told you about – the one that director brought me under. On top of wanting to,” he air quotes his next words, “be classier’-”

He drops the quotes, “They wanted to provide an excellent work environment. Heck, me and the other actors and actresses probably have a cleaner bill of health than the entire state. Can’t shoot scene one until you’ve got the A-Okay.”

“Huh,” Link absorbs that with some surprise, but then, he supposes it really shouldn’t be. The adult film industry is a big lumbering beast right alongside it’s more recognized counterpart. No reason one shouldn’t be as cautious as the other. If anything, one has more right to be cautious.

Thinking on this, Link suddenly feels an odd pang. It’s a shame in one way that’s one viewed as more reckless than the other, more questionable. But, when viewed through a mostly puritan lens…

Not wanting to get too philosophical, Link switches gears, “You been in a lot of films?”

“My fair share.”

Another dodge, but Link will let him have it. However, he can practically feel devil horns rise as he asks with a naughty gleam to his eye, “Win any awards?”

Rhett’s practically preening, “Several.”

“Really?” Link asks with some surprise, but Rhett suddenly looks quite naughty himself. Naughty and…a bit too hot for Link’s liking as the heat that always seems to surround him when he’s near Rhett rises and woo boy, he’s really failing at this squashing-the-crush thing.

“If you’re a good boy, maybe I’ll show you one of my trophies some time…”

Everything in Link melts into a puddle and he’s not sure what expression he’s wearing, but it’s one that makes Rhett’s whole face light up, “…or maybe, just maybe, I’ll show you a little somethin’ else…”

If it’s possible for a melted puddle to also explode, then Link’s just done it. Rhett bursts into guffaws as he reaches forward and, very smoothly, pushes Link’s jaw up because Link’s jaw? It dropped. He didn’t even feel it drop.

And then, to just add more fuel to the fire, Rhett rubs the pad of his thumb along the bottom of Link’s chin, right below his lip, “Damn, son…you’re just too much for words.”

“I…”

That’s it.

That’s all that Link can offer.

Just one sound, one vowel.

Silent and stunned and Rhett draws back, looking like the cat that ate the canary as he lets him go and rises up from his seat, “Think you need a moment. I’ll be back in a bit.”

And – just like that – Rhett saunters out of the room.

#rhink #randl #my writing #peachworthy #oh my sweet peach

[centrally-unplanned]

Allocating Your Aesthetic Budget: Sailor Moon Edition

Sailor Moon is a show that undoubtedly built a powerhouse of a visual brand. Should I even bother posting a screenshot of the sailor scouts, given that I am 100% confident anyone reading this can recall them instantly? I guess it won’t hurt: 

Anime is often really good at creating iconic designs like this, through repetition of the visuals. It is awkward in live action shows if characters just wear the same outfit every scene (what, they only own one outfit? Are they homeless/work in the tech industry?), but animation gives us enough aesthetic “distance”, an awareness that this isn’t accurate to real life, that you can buy into the conceit. By wearing the same outfit every time, it just becomes the character. Not to mention a studio can really save quite a few bucks by streamlining production with neat tricks like having only one character design to animate - when you are on a shoe-string budget, like pretty much every anime in the 90’s was, every cut corner counts.

What is interesting about Sailor Moon is that most of the time it doesn’t really use this conceit at all.

-----------

Episode 15 of Sailor Moon’s first season has, in its opening act, this shot of all of the Senshi (at the time) talking to the plot-of-the-day character, who clearly trains rock Pokemon in 16-bit caves in his off hours:

If you knew nothing about these three characters, you could probably infer about 80% of their personality just from their outfits. Usagi (the blond one in the middle, if that's necessary) is wearing:

Light pastel colours, with pink on top of that: girly, feminine, bubbly and breezy

Short-but-not-too-short of a skirt, and red heels: cares about fashion, wants to project an image of being a woman with a romantic hint to it

Long-twin tails w/ buns: Contrasting the shoes, she is still immature and childish. It also means she is the protagonist of an anime 

Rei (far right) rocks a very different look:

T-shirt and jean shorts, shoes over heels: sensible, practical, a bit sporty

Very short shorts, long black hair: Confident, a bit aggressive, and suggestive of a more overt sexuality

Ami (far left) settles into a more restrained vibe with:

Full, long, but sleeveless dress, bob-cut hair: Chaste, more conservative, but not to the point of prudishness; particularly with the length (and the hand posture, shielding her body) probably a bit shy

Monochrome blue colour in outfit & hair: reserved, serene, possessing a calm demeanor

I know I have seen the show already, but really none of these details are a stretch - this is just the language of fashion. And all of these outfits are outfits that the characters have never (or rarely) worn before up until this point. The cast of Sailor Moon, far from that animation conceit of “standard outfits”, change clothes all…

the….

time.

     I just randomly clicked on episodes to find these, it requires no hunting

And while it isn’t always as spot on as the top picture, they all in some way embody the language of visual design to speak to the personality of the characters. If you want to see more, check out one of the multiple tumblrs dedicated to the everyday clothing the Sailor Senshi wear, because of course those exist.

If this was a 2010’s Kyoto Animation show, pointing this out would be the end of it - every one of their shows has this level of impeccable detail. Sailor Moon is notable in that it is not at all that kind of show; the animation and designs in Sailor Moon take perpetual shortcuts to get the job done. I don’t think the transformation sequences need to be belabored - the way they permitted the team to recycle identical animation sequences, multiple times per episode, was surely a godsend to the production schedule. Yet not all of the budget limitations are so prettily masked:

     I’m sure they finished the background art in the...VHS release?

The show is filled with dirty animation, unfinished backgrounds, backgrounds that are a simple color gradient for no clear reason, and so on. It is clear that the Sailor Moon team did not have the resources for every detail - which is why the decision of what details they did choose to prioritize is so interesting.

----------

What is the point of Sailor Moon? I do believe that shows have “points”; and by that I don’t mean a message or theme but a core appeal to an audience, something specific that they will get out of the show. Almost every show appeals along multiple axes, and Sailor Moon is no exception, but I want to focus on one: aesthetic identification.

If you learn someone is a Sailor Moon fan, there is the obvious follow-up question you have to ask, namely “which Sailor Senshi are you?” It’s the which-Harry-Potter-house-are-you question of anime, a horoscope where you can choose your sign (in this case literally). The premise of this concept is not hard for media to execute on - it is just personality traits and aesthetics grouped together under a label, a basic building block of media and clickbait internet quizzes. Harry Potter, ironically, raised up its memetic question almost by accident, as its focus is so squarely on House Gryffindor that the others are almost forgotten; it was just so mind-bogglingly popular that it didn’t matter. 

Sailor Moon, however, takes this concept and allocates so much of its aesthetic budget into making it a centerpiece of the show. Sailor Moon herself is a klutzy, lazy romantic, Sailor Mercury is a shy, earnest bookworm, and so on, with none of them ever really becoming very complex characters. However, the show devotes itself to making you *feel* these archetypes as strongly and intricately as possible. All of those outfit changes are chosen because not only do real girls care about their outfits and can therefore identify more strongly with characters who do the same, but so they can constantly emulate their archetype in diverse, different ways. The show doesn't have the budget for intense action scenes, so after Sailor Moon engages in her hyper-serious transformation sequences, she proceeds to, nearly every time, bumble through the combat scenes like this:

Oh sure, the scenes are done this way because it is funny (and good comedy can be done on any budget - these shots are frequently still frames with motion lines!), but it is also done this way because Sailor Moon is a total screw-up, and if you identify with that it is validating to see someone “just like you” able to pull off wins despite it all. The transformation sequences are not only beautiful animation that showcases aspirational power, but are also crafted to highlight the personalities of the Senshi in question - unless you think aggressive, combative Rei got fire powers by coincidence. Half of the run-time of every episode is spent, not on the plot du-jour, but on light-hearted personal squabbles between the cast because those scenes are not just funny, but also allow for far more moments of character expression. 

All of that work pays off in building with the audience, not a connection with a character who reflects their identity in total, but a connection that reflects one aspect of their identity in an extremely deep (dare I say multifaceted?) way. I think if you were to describe Sailor Moon as a “shallow” show, you would actually be right to say so, in a sense. These characters will never have the true depth of personality, themes and so on of a more ‘adult’ show. But those adult shows have to spend their effort somewhere - for all that the themes of say Evangelion or Paranoia Agent are pristinely detailed and impactful, you aren’t ever going to be memorizing the moves of their transformation sequences. The way Sailor Moon committed so strongly to fleshing out the archetypes the Senshi stood for is, I think, one of the keys to how this cast of five became so iconic.

     Not even their school uniforms match! They had to spend time in-universe *justifying* this!

----------

A Final Note:

At least, everything I’ve said here applies to Sailor Moon at its peaks. The show, however, is not one without its stumbles, even in Season 1. This section doesn’t flow into the core essay too well, but I wanted to note it because if you were to watch Sailor Moon today, you might struggle to feel the dynamic outlined above. The biggest culprit here is the length - Season 1 is 46 episodes long, and sections of it most certainly drag. They also take a startlingly long time to introduce the cast - this choice builds tension around their arrival, but it also means the later Senshi get a lot less time to establish themselves. Sailor Venus in particular gets hamstrung by this - she is introduced and then immediately arc plot elements sweep the narrative, and so she is left as a hollow shell for some time. The pacing of the show is undoubtedly flawed.

I think Sailor Moon is a show that you do have to keep its time and place in mind for - namely, middle schoolers and anime nerds watching it on broadcast TV in the 90’s. As an adult you “get” the point of the show pretty quickly, and get satiated on it almost as fast. Watching it all in a few sittings only heightens this problem. For a younger audience, and one that is waiting for a week between episodes with no internet for plot reminders, all that extra time is needed to jog memories and build connections. And younger audiences just have that limitless commitment to the things they love! If you think no one could actually enjoy seeing the same transformation sequence for the 30th time, watch it with someone who would have died for this show when they were 10 and you will be disabused of that notion *very* quickly. 

Still, we can’t travel back in time - Sailor Moon is a show of its era. There are “filler-reduced” guides out there, though I caution that the plot of Sailor Moon is absolutely not the point of the show in comparison to the character dynamics, and so sometimes the filler is the best part (Cat-Rhett Butler is the best character in the show YOU KNOW I’M RIGHT). Certainly, however, some method must be used to cut down on its length. If you are going to be a first time viewer in adulthood, that reality should be kept in mind, and if you do accept it for what it is you can really appreciate its core appeal - and don’t forget to finish it off with a 1990′s era internet personality quiz to really wrap it up!

#essay #anime analysis #sailor moon

[rhinkthreeways]

Hands (Smutty Version)

Rhett was driving Link home from a team building exercise with the crew. It had taken the form of a game night over at Stevie and Cassie’s, and tonight’s game had been Cards Against Humanity. 

“I’m not even mad that I lost,” Link complained. “I’m just annoyed that you won so easily. You even drive smugly.”

“Who woulda guessed it? ‘A sad handjob’ for the win!” Rhett cackled at his own cleverness.

“What’s ‘a sad handjob’ anyway? Isn't that like ‘bad pizza’? No such thing, just be glad you’re getting... pizza?”

Rhett snorted. “I don’t know what kind of handjobs you’ve gotten, but there’s definitely opportunities for it to go bad!”

Rhett paused for Link to laugh or add commentary to his premise, but Link remained silent. 

“Are you, uh.. Playing a highlight reel in your mind of all the crappy handies you’ve gotten?”

That got a chuckle out of Link.

“It’d be a real short compilation!”

Rhett laughed, but the laughter faded as something occurred to him. “How short?”

“Um. Non-existent?”

Rhett’s jaw dropped. “You’ve never…?!”

“Are you really that surprised? I was so freakin repressed back in high school, I didn’t dare do anything.. like that. And by the time I actually.. Let that kinda stuff happen.. I was in my early 20s! People were kinda over handjobs. Seemed silly once there were other activities on the menu.”

“‘Over’ handjobs? That’s a dang shame, man. They’re super underrated! I can’t believe you just skipped right over that ‘base’! You of all people, who does everything systematically in order?”

They sat for a moment in silence: Rhett in disbelief, Link in mild embarrassment.

Rhett broke the silence. “You, uh.. wanna try it?”

Link’s eyes went wide. 

“C’mon… it’s a quintessential experience!”

“It’s not like I don’t know what it feels like! I give myself a handjob every—“ Link paused, and thought before proceeding. “...every so often.”

“It’s not the same!”

“It’s fine, man. Don’t make it weird.”

Rhett didn’t press him. But after a moment Link asked, “You’d really do that?”

“What?”

Link looked down toward his crotch, then brought his eyes back to meet Rhett’s. “Jerk me off? That wouldn’t strike you as... odd?”

Rhett laughed, hoping he was coming off as nonchalantly as he’d intended. “It’s like you said: I also give a handjob to a dude regularly. Myself. We’ve always described each other as an extension of the other person. That’s why we don’t do elaborate hellos or goodbyes. It’d be just like greeting yourself. I feel like this would also be just like… greeting myself?” 

“Well, which is it, Rhett? If it’s just like masturbating, I’ve done that! If this is some ‘quintessential experience’, then I guess it is kind of a big deal, ain’t it?”

“It’s a big deal for you to have it done, it ain’t a big deal for me to be the one doing it..” Rhett knew his logic was flawed. His voice was dropping too deep for this to be no big deal to him. But in that car, at that moment, there was nothing he wanted more. “C’mon, Link. Undo your pants. Go ahead and take your dick out for me?”

Link’s hands hovered over his zipper before he committed to unzipping and pulling his pants and briefs down to his hips. He was already half hard from just discussing this. Seeing Link in this semi-aroused state had Rhett shifting subtly in his seat, adjusting to the increasing tightness in his own jeans. 

Rhett wrapped a large hand around Link’s cock and felt the way it stiffened at his touch. 

Link was breathing quickly, trying not to moan and whimper too much too soon. But it was obvious. He liked it. 

“Relax, Link,” Rhett said in a low whisper. “It’s just me.”

Link did visibly relax his body into his seat, and his legs parts slightly, as much as they could, still trapped in his pants. 

Rhett grew familiar with the feel of him. The warmth and weight, the way his hips rose up to thrust lightly into Rhett’s grip. He grew attuned to the small noises and sharp intakes of breath that let him know what Link liked. 

Around the time that Link’s rhythm of deep breaths broke and shuddered, Rhett could feel the need for release in how full his hand had become around Link’s hot engorged cock. How slick the precome felt when he’d tease his fingers over it. 

“Better’n just jerkin off?” Rhett asked as Link bucked his hips more, catching up quickly to the orgasm he was chasing. 

“God. Much!” Link gasped for air like a man trying to keep his head above water, but just about at peace with collapsing under the crashing waves. “Please, Rhett..” He whined. “Don’t tease. I need to-“

Rhett was more than a little hot and bothered when he leaned over to kiss Link’s plump and parted lips. “I know what you need,” his voice hoarsely ghosted over Link’s mouth, and he felt the warm wet release run over his hand when their lips touched.

Rhett kept their lips crushed together, pinning Link’s head against the headrest as he stroked Link through his orgasm, feeling Link’s hot breaths as he moaned into Rhett’s mouth and was left breathless and sweating. 

Rhett eased off the kiss and quickly muttered an apology. 

“I’m sorry I got carried away with the… kissing. I know that wasn’t what we were talking about when I suggested you let me…”

Link tucked himself back into his pants, and rummaged through Rhett’s glove compartment to find him some tissues for Rhett’s hand. “‘Handjobs’ fall under the umbrella category of ‘Things I Was Too Repressed to Do in High School’. Kissing you also falls under that category.”

Rhett couldn’t suppress his smile, hearing this kind of confession from Link. 

Link’s eyes conspicuously locked on the bulge confined within Rhett’s jeans. “I also never gave a blowjob in high school. Would you say that’s a… ‘quintessential experience’?”

#rhink #rhink fic #rtw: smut #writer: likeaswitchinheat #prompt: hands #lemon

[buzzdixonwriter]

COMPARE & CONTRAST: Birth Of A Nation vs Gone With The Wind vs The General

TRIGGER WARNING:   Talking about race in American culture and movies, so some readers may want to brace themselves (looking at you, wypipo).

. . .

Confining “classic films” to movies that: Demonstrate technical expertise, and Influenced other films and creators

-- we have three (and only three) movies about the American Civil War we can safely put in the classic bin.

Before we go further, let’s restate the obvious: A film’s impact in the medium of motion pictures is separate from its impact on the culture as a whole.

Case in point: Leni Riefenstahl’s The Triumph Of The Will is a perfect textbook example of how to stage massive crowd scenes for maximum visual impact, and how to promote individuals and ideas in purely cinematic terms.

It also contributed mightily to the Nazis’ rise to power, their subsequent wars of conquest, and the deaths directly and indirectly of tens of millions of human beings.

It’s important to know The Triumph Of The Will exists and why it’s important in film and cultural and political history, but you need never subject yourself to its vile hate mongering.

With that in mind, let us proceed.

. . . 

Here are the three bona fide classic movies about the American Civil War:

The Birth Of A Nation (1915)

Gone With The Wind (1939) 

The General (1926)

They are all problematic for the same reason: They embrace the “lost cause” myth of Southern white supremacists.

The Birth Of A Nation is by far the worst offender of the trio, helping to restart the Ku Klux Klan and promulgate jim crow for decades to come.

Director D.W. Griffith was a Southern boy, Kentucky born with a father who served as a colonel in the Confederate army (Kentucky, a border slave state, tried to stay neutral at the beginning of the Civil War, then leaned heavily towards secession, but by 1862 threw its lot in with the Union).

Griffith bought into the lost cause myth heavily, and The Birth Of A Nation explicitly states African-Americans are fit only for slavery, becoming a murderous / rapacious mob once freed, and the Ku Klux Klan were gallant heroes attempting to turn this tide.

Griffith tries to have it both ways, depicting Abraham Lincoln as a thoughtful and compassionate leader who would have treated the South better had he survived (ignoring the fact Andrew Johnson did everything in his power to prevent the Union from holding the South accountable, and that Lincoln’s assassin was a Southerner who killed him in revenge after the war ended).

There can be no denying Griffith’s enormous talents as a film maker (again, separating thematic content from the technical expertise).  While the Hollywood publicity machine was quick to claim The Birth Of A Nation was the first feature length film (i.e., 65 minutes or more), the truth is the Australians, the Chinese, the English, the French, the Italians, the Japanese, and the Russians all made feature films long before Griffith, and Griffith wasn’t even the first American to make a feature but was preceded by at least a half a dozen other film makers.

What Griffith was, however, was a master synthesis of all the techniques that preceded him.  Griffith made movies better than anyone else of his era, and his best films are still eminently watchable to this day.

That’s what makes The Birth Of A Nation so harmful and destructive:  Like the Riefenstahl film, it seduced common audiences into complacency while stirring the worst people to action.

It’s a film whose final cost is not measured in dollars but in innocent blood and tears.

Griffith wasn’t stupid, and while he might have felt personally immune to the criticism of his racist attitudes, he was savvy enough to recognize publicly embracing them would not serve his career well.  He followed The Birth Of A Nation with Intolerance, an epic that jumps around in its story lines like a Tarantino film, and in later movies displayed a far gentler albeit still patronizing attitude towards African-Americans.

But the damage was done, the lost cause myth cemented into not just the Southern psyche but white America in general.

Like The Triumph Of The Will, I would never recommend The Birth Of A Nation as a “must see” film to anyone.  If you’re a film historian and you want to subject yourself to this cancer, that’s your choice, but if you’re a student of film there’s nothing Griffith did technically or artistically in this movie that he didn’t do better in his later efforts, and other film makers have since emulated his innovations and built upon them.

. . . 

For many decades Gone With The Wind was celebrated as the pinnacle of American film making, but once the romantic blinders were removed we see it for what it is:  An over long, over blown epic that promulgates what we now recognize as white supremacy, classism, and rape culture.

And while it uses every technical trick in the book, it doesn’t use them as well as Orson Welles did a year later with Citizen Kane.

Gone With The Wind is really two movies:  A well made Civil War epic and its lackluster Reconstruction sequel.

They should have ended the movie with “As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!”  (Seriously.  The only two memorable scenes in the second half other than “I don’t give a damn” both center around Scarlett O’Hara’s dresses.)

Again, let’s emphasize that a technically well made movie does not excuse bad intentions in thematic content.

Gone With The Wind is a rip-roaring bodice-ripping historical novel, admittedly well research and well written by Margaret Mitchell.

She isn’t necessarily writing from a conscious desire to spread the message of white supremacy, but as a Southern gal who grew up in the midst of the lost cause myth, she ends up breathing that message into every line of the book.

The movie version can’t escape that, nor does it try to.  There’s a brief scene early on where both Mitchell and the later film makers prefigure the lost cause myth where Rhett Butler explains to the good ol’ boys at the Tara cotillion that they’re about to be brutally decimated by the Union in a war of attrition, but both author and film makers side with the good ol’ boys and support their God given right to throw away their lives and destroy their homes in an attempt to keep enslaving millions of innocent people.

That last part in bold never gets mentioned, does it?  As others have observed, Gone With The Wind isn’t antagonistic towards African-Americans, rather it treats them as if they don’t exist other that walking / talking props among the scenery.

In that regard, Gone With The Wind is on par with The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged (only with a far superior writing style).  The protagonists of all three books are narcissistic sociopaths who will lie / cheat / steal / blow up buildings because the common folk -- the people who actually put in the grunt labor to make things work -- are nothing but slaves there for the elites’ entitlements, and God (or market forces, take your pick) help them if they ever raise their heads or voices -- much less their hands -- in protest.

Oh, but doesn’t it look gorgeous?  As those beautiful rich Technicolor gowns and sets and matte paintings.  All those balls and dances.  All those smoldering looks.  All those flames as Atlanta burns…

There’s the true hero of the story:  William Tecumseh Sherman.  The mofo cut the Confederacy in half, destroying lines of supply and communication, obliterating any rebels who dared to stand up to him, shortening the war by several months, and freeing tens of thousands of enslaved people in the process.

None of which would have been necessary if a few greedy bastards such as the O’Haras had lived Christian enough lives to say, “Y’know, maybe the way we’re treating these people is wrong…”

Gone With The Wind proved insanely popular, on a scale with The Birth Of A Nation a generation earlier, and once again it made it easier for mainstream middle American whites to turn a blind eye to injustices still being perpetuated on African-Americans of that day.  

And it kept playing again and again, one of the very few non-Disney movies to enjoy a substantial re-release schedule, popping up about once every seven years in theaters until the arrival of first cable then VHS.

And it’s still popular, still a steady seller in DVD and BluRay.

That’s in no small part to the skill of both Mitchell and the film makers in hiding the most egregiously problematic elements of the story under a think patina of romanticism.  It became a cultural touchstone that everyone knew and everyone could reference, from political cartoons to Carol Burnett skits.

But it’s still racist and white supremacist, saying African-Americans exist only to serve whites.

It’s still classist, saying not all whites are worthy of what the upper class hogs for itself.

It’s still about rape culture, saying all Scarlett needed was one good rape by Rhett Butler to set her straight.

Is it a product of its era?

Absolutely. The same way over the counter heroin at your friendly neighborhood drug store was a product of its era.  The same way cocaine laced Coca-Cola was a product of its era.

Just because it wasn’t recognized as a bad idea then means we should still circulate it now.

Compared to The Birth Of A Nation, Gone With The Wind is a far less hate filled work, and one that inspires less immediate harm.

It has inspired harm over several generations by making it easy to overlook the real harm it represents in favor of a romantic antebellum fantasy.

If someone wants to see a film that represents the Hollywood studio system at the height of its creative power, I’d recommend Casablanca or The Wizard Of Oz.

I’d put Gone With The Wind way down on that list, and I’d caution it with caveats, but I would say it represents a good example of the old Hollywood system firing on all eight cylinders.

At least for the first half of the film.

. . . 

In most ways, Buster Keaton’s The General is the least problematic of these three films.

In another, it’s as bad as Gone With The Wind.

The good thing about The General is that modern audiences can easily enjoy it.

Buster Keaton chasing after a stolen steam locomotive?  What’s not to love?

It’s one of his best comedies and if it’s not the very best, I’d hate to live on the difference.

It certainly lacks the overt racism of The Birth Of A Nation. 

In fact, it almost lacks any race at all.

And ironically, that’s what makes it a problem.

In researching this post, I re-watched The General, something I wasn’t willing to do for The Birth Of A Nation or Gone With The Wind.

I re-watched it looking for African-American faces anywhere in the film.

I think I found four.

Two porters lugging a trunk in an early scene at a train station, possibly two small children with their backs turned to the camera at the edge of a crowd about ten minutes later.

That’s it.

In a movie about one of the most crucial events in American history, an event entirely predicated on the issue of the enslavement of millions of African-Americans…that’s it.

Four faces.

Total screen time: Less than a minute.

If critics can justifiably lambast Gone With The Wind for sailing over the bloodied backs of millions of enslaved African-Americans to focus on the luxury liner S.S. Scarlett O’Hara, what can they say about a Civil War movie that almost succeeds in eradicating those enslaved humans from the story?

Paradoxically, this makes The General the safest of these movies to show an unsuspecting audience.

The Civil War is boiled down to the dark uniform army fighting the light uniform army; why they were fighting is never explored in detail.

But the lost cause myth was so prevalent at that point that Keaton and company didn’t need to discuss the causes of the war.

Audiences – even those completely ignorant of U.S. history -- automatically assume the light uniform army are the good guys simply because Buster is on their side.

Buster would never do anything bad, would he?

Of course not!

And so -- =poof!= -- millions of people erased from history.

Top that, Thanos.

To be honest, I don’t know how a modern audience should react to that, in particular an African-American audience.

Disappointment at being culturally short changed again?

Relief at being spared the most egregious stereotyping and white supremacy apologies?

Or just plain enjoy Buster chasing after a stolen locomotive?

The General’s cultural weightlessness helps it become a great film.

It’s a purely cinematic endeavor, with the intertitles used primarily to explain the spies’ and military leaders’ plans and motives, not tell us what Buster is thinking and doing.

For a guy called “the great stone face” Buster could be awfully expressive with his body language, and he needs title cards the least of all the performers in this movie

. . .

So where does that leave us, as a 21st century audience in a 21st century culture?

We can neither deny nor ignore the impact of these three films.  Even The Birth Of A Nation, as vile and as hateful as it is, influenced the country and the countries attitudes for a century.

Gone With The Wind feels like something we’ve outgrown, something some audience members can look back on with fondness, but not anything we can fully embrace again.

The General can still make us laugh, and in this case the sin of omission seems far less than the others’ sins of commission.

Learn from the past.

Do better in the future.

    © Buzz Dixon

#race relations #movies #art #cinema #morals #ethics #politics #Birth Of A Nation #Gone With The Wind #The General #DW Griffith #Buster Keaton

[asherlockstudy]

Hey there, we talked R&L theories in the past, but then I got locked out of my account and was too busy to make a new one until now. I just wanted to say I read your R&L post and the ''WHY THE CHICKEN CROSSED THE ROAD'' theory and yet again I found myself agreeing with you.

(the only thing I disagree with you it's the timeline as I think things started to get real way later than 2013)

Anyway, the way people don't seem to see the hints being dropped in these videos confuses me.

I'm left there wondering whether it's just me having an overactive imagination or if most people watching their videos are just not predisposed to recognize this level of subtlety. I really think that saying things like ''that can't be because R&L wouldn't lie to us'' like fans often do is very naive. Do people really think that they aren't capable of omitting uncomfortable truths to present a certain image that is beneficial to them? Because they definitely are.

I don't want to sound mean, but I think most of viewers aren't clever enough to pick up on recurring patterns and themes. Because there ARE recurring patterns and themes, these videos all look like random attempts at humor until you find out that there is an underlying thread uniting them.

There is NO way that all of the many puzzle pieces (metaphors, creative decisions etc…) would line up so perfectly and so perfectly match the idea we both have discussed before in DMs. It would be too big of a coincidence, and what really convinces me that this is what is actually going on, is that many of these creative choices make no sense UNLESS our at least our general assumption is correct.

People saying ''lol R&L doing things randomly just because it's funny'' and Rhett not liking the comment and ironically saying ''you get us'' is so emblematic of why there IS something deeper going on here, especially seeing how he has liked other comments that at least acknowledged that there is some depth to them (although I don't think that those commenters figured anything out).

Have you seen the happy, sincere reaction of Link when Rhett said that they're tired of asking permission to be themselves? in their '' we're done'' video? that stood out to me. What Rhett said seemed to hit him for a different more and more personal reason than most would think, it seemed like a private, genuine moment between them.

I don't know if an official coming out is what they are trying to head towards, the chicken video (when they resort to using a smart trick, in order to reach the goal when they realize the chicken isn't actually capable of crossing the road because it's too difficult) made me think that maybe THIS is their way they of coming out: outing themselves with their own creative projects and leaving it all up to interpretation. Although I am not ruling out the possibility that this is a soft launch.

The chicken video was genius if you think about it, because with a single concept (and using the chiken imagery as the linchpin), they managed to touch upon a lot of different topics all related to the same issue. The word ''chicken'' is used to describe people who are afraid to take risks, while the crossing of a busy street metaphor is perfect to describe the hardships of attempting to get from point A to point B when there are obstacles standing in between. It also gave them the chance to incorporate the ''how do you like the eggs?'' joke to talk about sex/sexuality in a way that is obvious but subtle at the same time. I would like to get to talk about some of the details in the video because I want to hear your opinions on some things. Anyway, I just wrote to say that no, you're not the only one seeing this :)

Heyyy sorry for the late reply… it’s been a little crazy.

I am always so glad to hear from a person seeing the things I see. I am just as confused about the stubborn insistence of the viewers to not pick up on the countless clues Rhett and Link have left in all those videos. I think, well, I get it to be honest butI don’t think it is that they are not clever enough but they are really not concerning themselves with these things. Let’s be honest, the vast majority of Mythical Beasts are very young or are there for lighthearted brainless content that will ease their mind off of their everyday problems. Most of them do not want to dig deeper and cause unnecessary worries to themselves. Because what is about to happen is going to be shocking for a lot of the viewers, a lot will feel betrayed or like the innocence and the childlike dynamics between these two brothers from another mother will take an unrecoverable blow. So I think they subconsciously suppress all suspicions. I have also noticed this to be part of the American culture; they still tend to have more romantic, beautified views on their celebrities. If someone appears good on screen, then they must be a “soft bean” in their real life as well. I find it funny how often Americans view their favourite celebrities as soft beans too pure for this world, despite the inconvenient fact that very few people are actually that soft and pure. So there is this image of great friends who are great husbands and great fathers. And they don’t want this image to be challenged. They choose to see everything as a meaningless joke or as a coincidence. And then of course there are the plenty ones who are determined to not think much (or at all) whenever they watch R&L content.

Yes, I noticed how disproportionately excited Link was when Rhett said they will stop asking permission to be who they are. It felt like Link had been waiting for a long time for Rhett to make a statement this clear on camera.

Link said something lately that made me lean towards what you think. He said in his spiritual deconstruction update video that the best way to reveal an uncomfortable truth is step by step, slowly slowly until it gets so evident that the recipients have started figuring it out on their own without you spelling out the thing. My theory was that they wanted to condition the viewers into accepting it with their numerous implications and suggestive images and now I think both of these are their intent.

(BTW the reason I believe it all started between late 2013 - early 2015 is because of the Puzzle video and the rest of the Sketchtober videos made in mid/late 2015. I have thorough analyses of these if you are interested. Watching these oldies around the same time as the new videos blew my mind and put everything into perspective. Also the last Christian entry in Link’s journal was one day after the newsical kiss episode was released.)

I will be happy to discuss this more. You said we used to send each other DMs, in your next ask / text please tell me your old username, I am curious hahaha ❤️

#rhink #rhett and link #mail #fullperfectionpoetry

[mythicalsecretsanta]

Afternoon Alone (T)

This gift is for: Wren (AKA @cerealbaths)  I really hope you like your gift. I’ve never written drama in such a short story so I hope it is well received. Happy Holidays!! From your Secret Santa, Silver (AKA @silverloveless)

Link to AO3, or read below:

Link took a deep breath, he turned on the bathroom sink to splash water on his face. As the towel he used to dry off was pulled down over his face, he caught his own eyes in the mirror. The lighting in Rhett’s spare bathroom wasn’t something he was entirely use to. His eyes looked the same as they always had thought. The same eyes that Rhett trusted, and he knew he had done enough to earn Rhett’s trust to know this afternoon would not be a mistake.

“You can do this,” Link said to himself, “You’ve done this in the past. You’ve done this with Rhett plenty of time.” He washed his hands, and pushed up his sleeves around his elbow, wondering for a second if he should take off his shirt instead of risking it getting dirty.

“It’s been a few years, but muscle memory right,” he gave another deep sigh before he left the bathroom, and made his way to Rhett’s kitchen. Link didn’t know why there was a spike of fear and uneasiness that suddenly entered his stomach. They weren’t doing anything wrong. Hell even their wives knew what they were doing. Jessie even gave her blessing while Christy just laughed and mentioned something close to it being about time. They even took the kids out for the day so they could go on a date before everything happened.

Their date had been wonderful, finally going for Mexican food after their last naked food episode. But the whole time as the date was getting closer and closer to ending at Rhett’s house the pit in Link’s stomach grew and grew.

“Link are you ready,” Rhett asked finally seeing Link stand there in the middle of the doorway.

“Rhett are you sure about this. I mean are you sure,” Link’s voice was strained. He didn’t know why but this moment felt so heavy. He didn’t want to screw this up. He didn’t want to let Rhett down, but he was stuck.

“Come on we’ve talked about this. It’s time to get this going with already,” Rhett just smiled at the obvious unease that Link was giving off.

“I just mean…well are you sure you want to do it in the kitchen,” Link asked trying to find some kind of out still.

“Yeah I mean we could do it outside, but I’d rather stay inside. Plus this seems like the easiest place to clean it up from,” Rhett just laughed, turning away showing Link his back.

Link took another deep breath, everything was going to be resolved in the next few moments no matter how it turned out. Link ran his hands through Rhett’s hair as the latter murmured, “Don’t tug it man.”

Before Link could process what he did, a single sound cut through the kitchen, Snip.

A single strand of golden brown hair fell to floor. Link broke out into laughter suddenly.

“Come on man what did you do,” Rhett turned quickly already running his hands though his hair worried at what had caused Link to laugh, his voice had gone up an octave.

Link pushed Rhett to face back around, the make shift cape out of a trash bag causing plastic crinkling to offset the annoyed look Rhett had given Link. 

“Don’t worry man. I just needed to get over doing the first cut. Now there is no going back,” Link said as he resumed cutting Rhett’s hair. Cutting off most of the length first, large curls began to litter the kitchen floor more and more. He left some of the top length long knowing that Rhett was going to most likely go back to his short up do.

“Do your ears feel cold yet,” Link asked as he moved away to grab the clippers setting a mid-length guard on the tool.

“Well at least now we’re back in territory you’re kind of familiar with now,” Rhett said as he turned on his self-facing camera to see the results of what Link had done so far. He marveled at how strange it looked after growing out his hair for so long, but by this point it was time for the long hair to be cut. He was glad his and link’s wife had taken the kids out of the house. No doubt Shepard would have been hanging around trying to gloat Link into cutting his hair shorter than he would had wanted.

Rhett felt the clippers start at the base of his skull moving upward pulling way towards the top. The feel of the vibration against his head always relaxed him and made him feel good. He could feel the goosebumps break out against his arms. Once the sides were cleaned up he felt Link go back to the scissors to clean up the top.

“Smile,” Rhett said as he help up the camera getting both him and Link in the camera screen, Link’s hands stilled mid cut.

“You going to send that to the girls,” Link murmured before he continued cutting at the top.

“Yeah I think they’d get a kick out of it,” Rhett just smiled. The kitchen had stayed quiet, Rhett knowing that the best and fastest way to get his hair cut was to keep quiet so Link didn’t stop cutting when he spoke to Rhett. Years of getting Link to cut his hair had reinforced the rule of only giving link one thing to do at a time especially with anything sharp in his hand.

Soon enough he had to open his legs letting link get further into his space than any normal hair cut would have allowed for. Following suit Rhett moved his hands to rest on Link’s hips, his thumbs digging into Link���s skin. A smirk showed up on his own face as he saw a slight blush showed up on Link’s face.

“There I think it’s done. I won’t know if anything was messed up or needs to be tidied up, till you wash it out and get it styled,” Link mentioned. He tried to move back from Rhett’s space, but was held in place by Rhett’s large hands.

“Thanks for the fade babe, want to get laid,” Rhett’s eyebrow wiggled as he asked Link if he wanted to continue the last of their day together in bed. Link just rolled his eyes at the pun.

“Rhett I am covered in your hair as is your whole kitchen floor is, and you want to have sex now,” Link responded not entirely not unconvinced.

“I’ll tell you what,” Rhett moved his hands under Link’s shirt just feeling the toned warm skin there under his hand.

“You go get in the shower. I’ll clean up in here read quick before I join you, and rock your world as a thank you? How does that sound,” Rhett pulled Link in closer standing up as he leaned down to kiss Link harshly.

“I think you got yourself a deal Rhett. Just don’t take too long in here,” Link responded. He turned to walk towards Rhett’s spare bedroom knowing better than to incur Jessie’s’ wrath at leaving a messed up bed set. As Rhett watched him go his eyes were glued to Link’s back side, and as Link disappeared around the doorway Rhett hurried to clean up.

“What a way to end a haircut,” He whispered to himself as he sweeping up his hair in a hurry before he joined his best friend and love in the shower.

#mythical secret santa 2020 #type: fic #rating: T #gift swap #rhink #submission

[slashingdisneypasta]

MultiVillain x Reader || Drabbles

Plot: Okay, so this is how it goes. Reader’s in love with (Villain), and (Villain) is in love with them… but no one ever said it out loud, and now Reader is marrying someone else.

Includes: Napoleon Boneparte (Misc), Human!Oogie Boogie (Disney Villain), Oswald Cobblepot (Gotham), Slenderman (Creepypasta), The Clown (Horror Villains)

Warnings: Alcohol intake, talk and hints towards murder of course, and swearing. 

Notes:

Inspired by ‘Marry Me’ (Either by Thomas Rhett [The guy’s POV which is what this will be in] or Elle Mears [Your POV, if you wanna see how Reader’s thinking]) and I recommend you listen while you read! ^^

I’m so happy!! I finally wrote something more then headcanons for Oogie! And this is also my first time writing for the Clown, so be easy on me XD

I hope you like this- I for one, am actually pretty proud of it! 

~~~

Napoleon Boneparte (You’re having a nighttime wedding- you made this decision of course so your friend and secret soulmate could attend):

She wants to get married, she wants it perfect She wants her grandaddy preaching the service Yeah, she wants magnolias out in the country Not too many people, save her daddy some money

Before walking into the church, I halt a moment at the side so others may get inside by me. This will be hard. I need a moment, just a moment… to pull myself together. It would be very bad, if I were to panic as Y/N makes their way down the aisle.

Hand on the church, more to hold myself together rather then to hold myself up. Am I doing the right thing? Should I be here? Should I leave? That stupid Capone said I might not be able to control myself and will object when the preacher asks… he’s not right, is he? It’s true, I don’t feel entirely under my own control right now…. But I need to be here. To support Y/N on their big day.

… I do love them, far more than any man every should a nearly married person, and even if I can’t have them for myself, I would, happy, do very near anything to make them happy.

So, if… If they want me here, as they said they do… Then I have to go in. I can’t chicken out now. I am the great Napoleon Boneparte. I can attend a wedding. Bon dieu.

Viva La France.

I can do this.

Forward!

As soon as I walk in, it is as if I am strolling into Y/N’s mind. This is just as they always wanted, with a few obvious added things by the other one that’s getting married today, like the chiselled cat head mahogany chairs… not that I think Y/N would disapprove if they weren’t, in fact, kind enough to just agree right away, seeing as it isn’t only their day.

The white makes a beautiful backdrop for their chosen accent colour, and the people in the room are exactly who I would imagine to accompany Y/N in her daily life, when I cannot be there. There’s not a sour, or in any way unexcited and unencouraging expression in the place.

Honestly, with my whole heart, wish I could feel the same as them.

Then Y/N comes into the room, and steals the breath right out of my chest. Like always.

Human!Oogie Boogie:

Ooh, she got it all planned out Yeah, I can see it all right now

I'll wear my black suit, black tie, hide out in the back I'll do a strong shot of whiskey straight out the flask

Christ, what kinda shindig is this?? I’ve asked everyone and their cat, including somebodies’ mother who looks like a cat, to play a tiny game of Blackjack with me while we wait for the main event, but nothing! Nada! What’s wrong with these people? Are they dying to just sit around and contemplate their loneliness until the two hosts get hitched??

I, for one, am not playing that game today.

Of course, I’m also avoiding Y/N at all costs so maybe I’m not the best example of a man controlling his emotions.

“Oogie!”

My shoulders seize up visibly, at Y/N’s voice behind me and I stop shuffling my cards. I only decide to turn around and face them like a man, when they give up waiting and round me so I can see their beaming face.

Oh, they look so happy.

That’s nice… in a terrible, heartbreaking, awful kind of way.

“Heya, Y/N. You look great!” I start shuffling the cards again in my hand, distracting my hands from and refraining myself from, taking their hand and kissing it, or pulling them into a hug. If I did that, I think theirs an acute possibility I would end up saying something we would both regret, in a moment of determination… and devastation, of course. Can’t forget that.

Really, I can’t. It’s a very prominent feeling right now in my chest, just being here. Just knowing this is happening.

“Thank you!” They beam wider, and oh Jesus. They’re so beautiful when they look happy- I wish I could make them this happy.

… But that’s all the other guy. The one they’re hitching.

They run their bottom lip through their teeth, looking down at the cards in my hands and then smirking in that mischievous way that always somehow makes this blackheart’s insides clench up. In a good way, but still. Tilting their head, they look back up at my face. “Had no luck getting anyone to bet with you yet?”

I let out a deep, theatrical sigh full of frustration. “No! Your guests all suck, Y/N.”

“Even you?”

“No, not me. I’m the King.”

“Right,” They laugh, then goes and sits down at a nearby table. “Well we have 10 minutes until I have to go get ready to walk- I’ll play you if you want!”

My heart pops like a balloon, and goes flying, wheezing around in my rib cage as I just smile at them for a good moment- unmarried, and free, and mine. For ten to fifteen more minutes. Hell yeah, I’m going to sit down and play with them.

Why aren’t I telling them not to? I wonder, as I deal us both cards and they pick theirs up and make cheeky ‘Hmmm’ sounds to throw me off. Why don’t I tell them, right now, how I feel? Why am I doing this to myself? Why am I here, is also a valid question but I already beat myself up over that last night when I was picking out my tie. I’m her friend, and they deserve to be… yuck. Happy, with the person they chose.

And I guess, that’s the answer to all my other questions too.

Let me just enjoy this last game, this last 600 seconds with them.

Oswald Cobblepot:

I remember the night when I almost kissed her Yeah, I kinda freaked out, we'd been friends for forever And I always wondered if she felt the same way When I got the invite, I knew it was too late

And I know her daddy's been dreading this day Oh, but he don't know he ain't the only one giving her away

As soon as Y/N leaves my side to go and freshen up for the aisle walk, I find myself a seat in the very back of the church / auditorium and rest in for the event. I will not be moving from this hidden away spot, in convenient shadow, with my secret flask of terrible smelling stuff that Victor gave me before arriving, until this shitshow is over and I can leave.

I’m only here in the first place, because Y/N asked me. And, evidently, my idiocy runs deep because I accepted such an invitation. I will do anything, for them. I learnt my lesson in dealing in peoples love lives, with Edward and Isobel- I will not let my relationship with Y/N go as badly as that one did, with Ed.

So if I must sit here and watch them marry that moron, (Fiancé’s Name), then that is what I’ll do. But I won’t sit in the front and watch it, and I will be as drunk as whatever this drink can make me.

Maybe I should text Victor, the deadly assassin, and ask what the contaminants are…

An unevolved, ap-like woman walks past my seat and I must be too close to the aisle because I can hear her yap like a strangled cat about what a cute couple Y/N and (Fiancé’s Name) are together and how they must be soulmates, and I don’t think twice before gulping down a huge mouthful of the alcohol. If this is how I die, then so be it, I think bitterly as I slide further down the aisle.

“Fuck!” The word comes out of me before I can stop it, my face probably the picture of horror and disgust. This… drink, if I can even call it that -more of an undiluted acid, if you ask me, - tastes like regret and earwax.

The same ape-like woman from before flashes a stern, disapproving look at me like she thinks she’s my mother, and I show her my middle finger. Uncouth, yes, but affective. This is a bad day, and I am in no mood to deal with bitches like her. She quickly looks away, and I take another, smaller, sip of the drink.

Another moment passes and the wedding doesn’t seem to be even a second closer to ending, so I sit up straight and close my eyes, holding the flask in my lap. Take me back to a better time…

In the silent, middle-of-the-conversation lapse moment, I allow myself to look down at Y/N’s mouth. They have a soft smile, left over from whatever we were just talking about, on their face as they sit comfortably in our silence and I suddenly feel total confidence. They’re here, with me, instead of off with that boy toy / girl toy / gender neutral or fluid toy. They’re with me. That must mean that I mean something to them, right? And Ed said they looked at me like… like, they love me. Or ‘care deeply’, as he put it. But we all know that was just his stiff version of the word ‘love’. Ever since Isobel… had her unfortunate accident… he’s been focused on one emotion only and it is not, love.

Anyway, the confidence spreads through me and I smile. It mixes with my perpetual desire to kiss them, and goddamnit, I should do it. I should just lean over and press a gentle kiss on their mouth- if they aren’t interested or pull away, I can blame it on the wine between us. If not…

Butterflies erupt in my stomach and my chest, and I’ve just lean an inch forward… when their phone rings on the table and I see (Boyfriends Name) flash on the screen.

I rush to lean completely back in my chair, as they answer. I don’t like to believe fate has anything to do with Gotham, but… that was entirely too close.

My eyes snap open and I roll my shoulders back, inhaling another, bigger slug of the contents of the flask and feel even angrier.

That was, most certainly not a better time, you nitwit.

Slenderman:

Bet she got on her dress now, welcoming the guests now

I could try to find her, get it off of my chest now But I ain't gonna mess it up, so I'll wish her the best now

I’ve been sitting in the back of this church, a place I likely shouldn’t ever enter in the first place -Well, at least I’m not Offender. I would probably burn to death, in that scenario, - for over 2 hours and I only got to see Y/N for 45 and a half minutes of that time.

Not that that really matters. Its more important that they see me. I certainly don’t want to see them. I don’t wish to see them, or their wedding clothes, or their wedding guests, or the stupid moony smiles on their faces, or the cake, or their partner. Definitely not their partner. If they show their face before they absolutely have to, or worse, talk to me, I will promptly go home and kill 30 people. I don’t want to be here.

I shouldn’t be here, in fact. If I were a good man, I wouldn’t be here. A good man would never turn up to a wedding that he know’s he’s just going to sit back in and think unholy, too-fond and too-angry thoughts about one of the marriage participants. Marriage is supposedly a sacred thing, and if I were this good man that I’m thinking about, I wouldn’t urinate on it like this.

But I am not a good man.

So, really, what would I know about what a good man, would do in the first place?

Enough thinking about good men, it’s making me queasy and very uncomfortable.

I don’t look around, but I can infer with general certainty, that Y/N will be welcoming all her other guests now that I ‘allowed’ -Not that I could have stopped them. They just didn’t want to leave me in my own company,- them to let me be alone here. And they’re in their wedding clothes, which look lovely on them, and their smiling and their giddy.

Giddy. Ugh, I hate that word, especially in this sense. Defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as ‘feeling silly, happy, and excited and showing this in your behaviour’. And by the Oxford, to ‘Make (Someone) feel excited to the point of disorientation.’. Yes, I looked up these definitions and memorised them before I came, and loathe every single word, in that order.

Because apparently, as if it wasn’t already obvious by the very fact that I’m HERE, I hate myself.

This other person has made Y/N giddy, while I have to sit here and pretend, I’m happy for them both and that I don’t feel like vomiting for the first time in 5 centuries.

But I can’t do anything about it, because I love them, Y/N, and I will… I will not, allow myself to be the reason their wedding wasn’t perfect. So, I wish them the best.

Or I try my damn hardest to.

The Clown / Jeffry Hawk / Kenneth Chase:

So I'm in my black suit, black tie, hiding out in the back Doing a strong shot of whiskey straight out the flask I'll try to make it through without crying so nobody sees Yeah, she wanna get married Yeah, she gonna get married But she ain't gonna marry me

I don’t know if I’d call this a real wedding. For one, its in the entities realm so how ‘magical’ could it really be? And for another reason, the only white thing here is my grease paint. Its pretty laughable. I would laugh, in fact, if I didn’t know it would cause a coughing fit and bring attention to me as Y/N walks down the aisle- O don’t need them looking at me. I might accidentally blurt out an ‘oopsie’ or something not-at-all funny like that, with all the whiskey I’ve injected today. Not that that would be the biggest issue with these kids seeing that I’m here, in the first place. Only Y/N knows, I’m hiding by a tree.  

But, I digress I guess. They’re calling it a wedding. The big one with the beard is officiating -I guess he has an online certificate from before he was brought here,- , Y/N’s wearing a pit of plastic bag on their head like a make shift veil / bit of plastic bag fashioned sort of like a tie, and all the lovely little fingers, or survivors as they like to call themselves, watch. With silly gleaming smiles and hope in their eyes- Pft, suckers.

Honestly the idea of weddings in the first place make me a bit uncomfortable. All those wide eyes watching and perving on your happiness?? Seems pretty creepy to me, and I’ve been told I’m pretty creepy myself! So, I would know!

The fact that possibly the sweetest, perfect person I’ve ever had the pleasure of setting my gaze upon is the one getting married, has absolutely no stake on my take on weddings in this moment.

Absolutely not…

Aha… hahahaha…

I kill myself.

I kill them, too, but let’s put that on the backburner like their fingers, for now.

Let me wallow in self-pity for a while longer before we start making jokes.

Yeah, let me… I take a swig of my flask -a bee-oootiful concoction of all the most toxic hootch I have in my collection, and maybe also some actual poison maybe since I wasn’t paying much attention when I created it this morning and I keep it all in relatively the same place, - and savour the horrible flavour on my tongue. Let me wallow, for a little bit.

This is going to be a bad day, for these little fuckers when I get into the game.

#napoleon x reader #NATM Napoleon Boneparte #Oogie Boogie x Reader #Human!Oogie Boogie #Oswald Cobblepot #Oswald Cobblepot x Reader #The Penguin #The Penguin x Reader #Slenderman #Slenderman x Reader #The Clown #The Clown x Reader #Kenneth Chase #Kenneth Chase x Reader #Jeffry Hawk #Jeffry Hawk x Reader #Drabbles #Drabble

[harper44]

I always like your takes on RandL so I really want to understand why today's more upset people. GMM is not a place were they will be 100% sincere, its comedy and entertainment. Rhett will always mix emotions with comedy especially in GMM where they play off each other. I could understand the thing about him being fake angry to the fans but he never took it out on Link and if we can see how obvious the bit was, Link knows too, especially because his hurt reactions are always a bit too.

Thank you for asking my opinion! To be completely honest, I did not watch the entire More. I've read some takes from both sides of the issue and I think everyone's views are valid.

Sometimes I forget and I'm sure others do too that Rhett and Link are acting on GMM. I believe they're acting more than we realize. That's where you're right: most of it is just a bit, that's what they do. We get more of their sincere thoughts on EB and I think that's what the problem is. It's easy to feel like we know them and because of the nature of their comedy, it can be hard to tell exactly when they're joking.

The reason I have not watched the whole More is because I've had experiences in my life where I tried to be sincere and it was recieved badly, so it hit too close to home for me, bit or no.

Comedy is nuanced and it can be easy to cross invisible lines in the genre. Rhett was playing to a specific crowd and we've seen today how a portion of the fans recieved it well and a portion didn't. From that, I believe Mythical can learn what people like and don't like and then not necessarily stop doing the things some people react badly to, but add in the things that different people like that the company hasn't done much of.

I definitely believe Rhett and Link and Mythical don't totally realize how fundamental the guy's friendship is to the content. I think without fail when the sincerity of their friendship is called into question by comedy or otherwise, they will recieve negative feedback.

#negativity #gmm #discourse #anon #thanks for asking #i didn't want to say too much today since i didn't watch it all #but this is my opinion #feel free to disagree #i shouldn't take myself to seriously yall #drama drama #harper's opinion

[totallyrhettro]

Blacklight

Word Count: 2296 Rating: PG Warnings: Implied activities Summary: After pulling a harmless prank, Chase learns more about his bosses than he every wanted to know. Notes: Present day, Rhett and Link aren’t married, Chase POV

Three days. Three long days. That was how long they’d been filming this new music video. Rhett, Link, and many of the crewmembers had been all working their butts off to finish this video and tensions were running high. The room they were working in was almost completely dark during shots, with glow-in-the-dark paint splattered over the walls, floor, props, and even on Rhett and Link themselves.

“It reminds me of ‘So Dang Dark,’” Link commented between takes. Rhett nodded in agreement. The set from the first music video of their Buddy System series was very similar. 

“Only we were wearing less clothes then,” he noted with a smirk, holding up his costumes’ head. It was a cross between a wolf and a bear, plus horns. Link had a similar mask to wear and both of them looked like something out of a kid’s nightmare. In ‘So Dang Dark’ they had been wearing what amounted to modified underwear and their bodies had been painted in orange and green stripes. Sometimes even they didn’t know where they got their weird ideas.

“Okay, guys,” Stevie was saying, coming up to the two of them. “I think that’s a wrap. We got everything we need.” A cheer went up in the crew from all corners of the large room, excited and gleeful. Rhett and Link smiled, happy along with them, and pleased with what they had accomplished over the last few days.

“Great, I’m going to take a shower,” Link told her, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“I got next,” Rhett chimed in, quick to follow his lifelong friend out of the room. While the bosses meandered off to get themselves clean, the crew set about cleaning up the room. It had been a hard three days and they were all eager to be finished but there was one last thing they had to do: the after party. It was to be hosted in this very room and they had to get rid of the props and paint first.

Once they finished cleaning they started getting ready for the party. They left on the lights from the shoot; the multicolored spectrum giving the place a wonderful glow. The blacklights were turned off, however, as all the paint that would glow under it had been washed away. A long table for snacks was set up on the far end and a large stereo was wheeled in for music. Everything else was to be put in storage, including the tubes of glow paint; under normal light the paint was invisible but it would glow green under blacklight. It had a neat effect and they had used quite a bit for the music video.

Chase was just packing up the tubes of glow paint when he had a sudden thought. It was silly, it was devious, and his prankster side loved it. After checking if anyone was looking, he quickly tucked the small tube into his pocket for later. Then, very nonchalantly, he continued working. The rest of his plan would have to wait until later. 

Soon enough the party room had been set up and the rest of the crew was already starting to gather around the snack table. There was still no sign of their bosses, Rhett and Link, in the party room or their office and it was to the ladder that Chase went. Checking and double checking that the loft was empty, he crept in and headed straight for Rhett’s desk. Pulling open one drawer, than another he rapidly found Rhett’s stash of lip balm (wondrously wild wood ‘n berries) and a wicked grin came over his face.

Taking the tube of glow paint he had taken earlier, twisting open the cap, he picked up one of the lip balms and speared a very small drop onto the side. With his finger he smoothed the drop over until it covered the entire tube in an almost indistinguishable layer of the invisible liquid. When he was done even he could barely tell he had done anything at all. Putting back the balm he immediately moved onto the second and a third until every single tube had been laced with the paint.

Once he was finished, and all the lip balm was placed back exactly where they had been before, Chase closed the drawer and stuffed the leftover paint tube back into his pocket. The deed was done and all that was left was to get out before anyone caught-

“Hey, Chase,” came Rhett’s charming and melodic voice. Chase turned on the spot to see one of his bosses leaning on the doorframe, looking a bit smug and very curious as to what his employee was doing here. “What’s up?” He didn’t look mad in the slightest, with a bearded grin and raised eyebrow, but Chase couldn’t help but immediately feel guilty. After all, he was guilty.

“I, uh, just looking for a-” ‘Think fast!’ “Pen.” Not the best excuse but it was all he could think of.

“For what?” came the obvious response.

“To… leave you a message.” ‘Good answer.’ Not good enough.

“Well,” Rhett chirped, stepping into the room with slow but long strides. “Now you don’t have to. You can just give me the message in person.”

“Right, yeah,” Chase agreed with a nervous smile. There was a short pause filled with awkward silence before Rhett shook his head.

“Well?” he pressed. “What’s the message?”

“Ah, right. Um, the… party’s getting started?” It was a lame answer, but the best he could think of. Rhett didn’t exactly buy it but he was in too good a mood to second guess it right now. Chuckling more to himself than at Chase, Rhett waved it off.

“Okay. I’ll meet you guys down there in a minute.” He strode past Chase to his desk and opened the middle drawer. “I just came in here to grab something.” Chase held his breath, watching as Rhett picked up one of his lip balms and popped off the cap. With practiced ease he spread the balm over his lips before putting it in the front pocket of his jeans as if nothing was out of the ordinary. He gave Chase one last smile before heading out. It wasn’t until he was gone that Chase could finally breathe again.

Everything was fine. Everything had gone completely according to the plan.

He held back his celebrations for now but he couldn’t help but grin like an idiot that things had gone so well. Any minute now Rhett would touch his own hair, beard or shirt, and there would be invisible glowing paint all over him, just waiting for a blacklight to show it off. It was a silly prank, but harmless, and that was the kind that Chase liked best. 

Scurrying back to the party room, he waited near the light controls for the final part of his plan. Everyone else was already there, hanging out, chatting away and eating snacks. They’d even started up the music and it was blaring through the stereo. There was talk of karaoke later but Chase didn’t pay close attention. He was waiting for Rhett.

Five minutes went by. Ten. Twenty. Finally after twenty five minutes Rhett strolled into the room, Link close behind. Their eyes lit up at the sight of what the crew had managed to cobble together for the party and immediately began to mingle with everyone. Rhett went straight for the snacks, of course, while Link went to see what tunes were available for the karaoke. Chase waited until his boss was close to the blacklight before making his move. 

His hands were quick, his movements precise. With one flick he turned off all the lights in the room. With no windows to the outside world, the entire space was instantly plunged into total darkness. Then, at nearly the same time, he turned on the blacklight that stood just a few feet away from Rhett. Turning his head he eagerly hoped to see the results of his handy work.

Just a few seconds later, he hastily turned the house lights back on and the blacklight off. His jaw was still set firmly on the floor. Everyone was trying to get their bearings, frantically talking as they tried to figure out why the lights had gone out for a second. Chase, of course, was right next to the switches and several people turned to see if he had done it and why he had done it. Picking up his jaw and blushing furiously, Chase profusely apologized to everyone, fiening his clumsiness and telling them he had bumped the switch by accident. A few people were skeptical but no one questioned it. They just resumed their fun and conversations while Chase dashed from the room, unnoticed.

He was still reeling from what he had seen when the lights had gone out.

The glow paint had worked alright, wonderfully in fact. There were streaks of the green illumination in Rhett’s hair, specks on his beard and all over his fingers- but that was not all. Link, who had been standing right next to Rhett, was also marked. Green on his shoulders, green on his arms, green all over his head and hair.  Lines of green all the way down to his waist and smudges of green at his zipper. 

Oh gosh, so much green on his pants.

Chase tried to blink the memory away, to reassemble what he had seen into a reality he could comprehend, but every time he closed his eyes he saw those tell-tale green marks just the same. All over Rhett. All over Link. The implications were intense, to say the least, and his mind just couldn’t handle it. Surely this couldn’t mean-

Maybe Rhett let Link borrow his lip balm? Maybe. Maybe. Still, that couldn’t have accounted for that much green, could it? All over his arms, his shirt, his pants. It was barely any on Rhett and Chase knew for certain his boss had used the tainted lip balm. No, there was only one explanation that, despite the connotations, could even begin to explain those marks. 

They could only have been put there by Rhett.

Had anyone else seen it? The lights were only out for a few seconds and Chase had already been looking at Rhett when he turned the black lights on. He hadn’t heard a single gasp of shock, or any murmurs about Rhett or Link’s clothing. Maybe he had been the only person to see the green on their bodies, or at least understood how they got there. Chase wished he didn’t understand how they had gotten there. He really wished he was still ignorant but he had seen the evidence and now… Now he could never look at his bosses the same way again.

How could he even look them in the eyes, knowing what they had done? Plus it had to have happened somewhere in the building. At the thought Chase’s mind immediately began to run through all the rooms it could have happened in. The loft, their dressing room, the recording studio? Which room would was now tainted by the libidinous activities of the two men he thought were just friends? The more he thought about it, the more he shuddered.

It wasn’t that he was upset that Rhett and Link were having what appeared to be a physical relationship. He was fine with that, if very surprised. It was the fact they had been hiding it from everyone for who knows how long and (apparently) having their relations in the very place their employees worked nearly every day. Chase really didn’t want to think about Rhett or Link naked in the spaces he worked, the places he ate, let alone doing anything else in those places.

Chase took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind of the wild and lurid scenes that his imagination was currently conjuring. Instead he tried to focus on how happy he was that his bosses, who have obviously been in love with each other for like, always, had finally realized it. He was happy for them, honest and truly, and he was just about ready to relax and rejoin the party when Link came around the corner and found him.

“Hey, Chase,” he began, kind and worried. “What’re you doing out here?” It was very nice of his boss to come and check on him, but Chase immediately remembered why he had come running out of the party room in the first place. He focused his eyes at Link’s face, trying very hard not to look anywhere else, trying not to picture the green paint that covered the man’s shirt and pants, but he could still envision the green on his face and in his hair even though it was all totally invisible right now.

“Just… needed some air,” he explained, feeling very embarrassed and still picturing the green. ‘Did Rhett just grab fistfulls of hair to get that much paint in it?’

“Alright, well… look- no one’s mad about the lights. You just scared us, is all.” He patted Chase’s shoulder reassuringly before heading back towards the party. Without thinking Chase let his eyes look over Link’s backside. Not because he was really into his bosses’ ass but because he couldn’t help but wonder how much paint was there that he just couldn’t see. He immediately shook the burgeoning thoughts from his head and looked away. Leaning against a wall he sighed to himself. Now that he knew, he wasn’t sure how he was going to be able to work here without getting distracted. Even worse, he wasn’t sure how he was going to be able to keep this a secret from everyone.

Especially Rhett and Link.

~

More Fics

#rhett #link #rhink #fic #fanfic #fanfiction #blacklight #idk #this was in my head and I had to share #i haven't posted a fic in awhile #i'm still here #still writing #i swear #*runs off to work on long-ass fic*

[jbbarnesnnoble]

Notice

Summary: She notices a lot of things about you. In the aftermath of the Snap and the Blip, you and Natasha find your way back to each other.  

Features: Fluff and smut

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff/Reader

Notes: This is a request fill! It’s set after Endgame, but they live. This can be read as an AU companion to ‘Ocean’ and ‘Living with Goodbye’ where Natasha lives after the events of Endgame; Vaguely inspired by Thomas Rhett’s ‘Notice’

Request: Natasha Smut

You had walked in the room and her eyes zeroed in on you. Whatever Tony had been talking to her and Bruce about faded into the background. The dress you had chosen complimented your figure and the color you had settled on looked incredible. As much as she enjoyed it on you, she couldn’t help but think about what it would look like on her floor, with you on her bed. 

The pair of you had been together for some time, but lately things had hit a rough patch and she wasn’t sure where they were heading. You had asked for space, and space she gave you in spades. You had told her you felt like she was phoning it in, like she was pulling away. Hearing that had hurt. Natasha never wanted you to feel like you were anything other than the center of her world, someone she would do anything for, give anything to protect. 

She had little things she loved about you, things you never thought she would have noticed. The way you would throw your head back with laughter whenever Thor regaled you with stories of his younger years, the antics he would get up to. The way you’d pout when Bucky or Steve would cut you off after missions gone well or other small gatherings where the team was drinking because while you’d insist you were fine and one more drink wouldn’t hurt, that one drink would be the difference between you being perfectly fine the next morning or having a hangover. 

She always noticed when you’d sing to yourself when you were cooking or when you were doing things around the compound. She could probably sing half of your favorite playlists off the top of her head with how frequently she heard you. There were so many little things, like the quirk of your lip when you were telling an obvious lie. You were good in the field, but when it came to lying to her, to your friends, to the team, you folded like a house of cards. You and Peter got up to more mischief than she could keep track of. You had taken him under your wing after everything that had happened. Even before Thanos, before Peter had been lost to the Snap like so many others, you had taken him under your wing, looking out for the friendly neighborhood Spiderman. 

Almost losing her when it came to defeating Thanos, almost losing Tony who had been the one to bring you in, it had affected you. No one was sure how Natasha had ended up returning with the others. Red Skull had been clear when he said it was permanent. You had been in your early twenties when everything happened, you and Natasha had only been together a couple years when Thanos came knocking. It had taken a toll on your relationship, one that was still being felt. It was why you had asked for space. You loved her, but you weren’t sure how she felt, not when she had all but pushed you away after the Snap. It had been gradual, but it had happened. 

Steve took notice of Natasha’s change in demeanor from across the room and saw that you had arrived. He just shook his head as he looked between the two of you. He knew the two of you would be okay, eventually. You had to be. The way Nat looked at you when you weren’t looking said it all in ways that words never would. It was the same way you looked at her, pure adoration and love. It always felt intrusive when he’d catch those looks, like he was seeing something he wasn’t meant to. Bucky bumped his shoulder.

“Where’s your head at?” he asked. Steve nodded his head towards Nat and gestured toward you. Bucky sighed while Sam just chuckled. 

“They’re idiots,” Bucky said.

“Idiots in love. They’ll figure it out,” Sam said.

“The Snap was hard on them both. Nat pushed her away. Before we went to get the stones...they were barely speaking. They still shared a bed, but...it wasn’t like it used to be. And then Nat didn’t come back from the mission,” Steve said. 

“Did she blame Barton?” Sam asked. Steve shook his head.

“She wanted to. We didn’t talk about it. But you could tell. She didn’t speak to Clint until after the Blip, after the stones were returned and she was sure Nat was back, for real,” Steve said as he watched you make your way over towards Natasha. He saw the slight smile on your face as you took her in. You gently looped your arm through hers and in that moment, he could tell. Things between you and Nat were going to be just fine. 

You looked at Natasha with a smile on your face. You had missed being so close to her. You pulled her away from Bruce and Tony and toward the dance floor as a slow song started. Thomas Rhett’s voice moved over the crowd, singing about his wife, about all the small things he noticed about her. 

“He has a point you know? This singer. You think I don’t see those little things, but I do. And they make me fall for you more and more. Even when...even when I was pushing you away,” Natasha said, as she spun you around. 

“You do?” you asked her.

“You do this thing when you’re nervous about something. I don’t think you even notice you’re doing it. You start playing with your left hand bra strap if you’re not out in public. If you’re wearing something strapless, you play with the ring on your right hand. You also do that when you’re in public,” she said. You blinked, looking at her with surprise. 

“Well, you are a trained spy,” you teased.

“That’s not why I notice things about you. You’re not a mark. You’re the love of my life. I want to know all the small things. Because when I think I can’t love you more than I already do, I notice something else about you that makes me fall more in love,” she said. You took the opportunity to pull her into a kiss, your first in you didn’t know how long. 

“Ms. Romanoff, I think you and I should ditch this party,” you said quietly. She nodded in agreement.

“I think we should,” she replied, taking your hand in hers and leading you out of the room. It was a short journey back to the apartment the two of you kept in the city. The last time the two of you had stayed there was before the mission to retrieve the stones. The door had barely closed before she was unzipping your dress, letting it pool around your ankles before you stepped out of it. 

Natasha took you in. You looked stunning, standing there in your lingerie and heels. She turned and without a word you unzipped her dress. She led you to the bedroom, both of you kicking your heels off along the way. She took her time finishing undressing you. She kissed her way from your lips, down your neck and chest, to your pussy. You spread your legs giving her access as she kissed up your thigh.

“You’re dripping, baby. All for me?” Natasha asked you as she pressed one finger into you.

“Always for you, Tasha,” you said. She grinned before licking a stripe from your entrance to your clit, adding a second finger. She knew how to work your body and she knew exactly what spot to hit to make you arch off the bed. She focused on your clit with her tongue, swirling around the sensitive nub. It had been so long since you had been with her. You were taking it all in, enjoying the sensations she brought to you. With a flick of her wrist and a swipe of her tongue across your clit, you were coming undone, moaning her name and incoherent words as you did. 

Natasha looked up at you with a grin on her face as you came down from the high of your orgasm. You pulled her up into a kiss, tasting yourself on her lips.

“Your turn, gorgeous,” you said as your pushed her to lay down. You paid attention to her breasts, massaging one while sucking and licking the other. Natasha’s hand found its way to the back of your head, gently controlling your movement as you switched between breasts. 

“That’s it baby. Just like that,” she said as you kissed your way down. She was soaked and you couldn’t help but grin.

“All for me?” you asked mimicking her earlier question. 

“Always, you brat,” she said with a teasing tone. You smiled at that. You pressed a finger into her as you started lapping up her juices. A second finger quickly joined the first. She guided you to her clit and you obliged, focusing in on the nub. It wasn’t long before she was cumming, her walls clamping around your fingers. As you pulled away from her and pulled your fingers out, you made eye contact with her as you licked your fingers clean. 

“Ready for more?” she asked. You smiled at her.

“With you? Always, my love,” you replied, a happiness you hadn’t felt in some time settling over you. Things, it seemed, were finally getting back on track.

#natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff/reader #natasha romanoff fanfic #natasha romanoff #natasha romanov #natasha romanov/reader #natasha romanov x reader #marvel fanfic #marvel fanfiction #marvel smut #natasha romanov smut #natasha romanoff smut

[loulougoingsolo]

“There goes our Peter Pan sponsorship”

A few days ago, there was this tweet:

Yesterday, Matt retweeted this same tweet with the addition of tomorrow - which is today. Boy, did he deliver. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. They made Rhett and Link read their own fanfiction - and it wasn’t the fluffy kind. So, let’s talk about that - and the fact that I am simultaniously exhilarated, embarrased...and a little bit awkward.

This is, for what I can remember, the first time ever that GMM has needed a warning about being NSFW or unsuitable for kids, but despite all those warnings, I assumed they’d found some fairly innocent fics for this episode. I love how before getting into reading, Rhett and Link point out that the thing that makes reading these fics out loud difficult for them is simply because it’s about themselves - not that it’s fanfiction - or that it’s about real people. They are not opposed to people writing fanfiction, even about themselves, they just prefer not to read it - for obvious reasons - but I think this episode, even with all the cringe, emphasizes the fact that they are ok with Rhink. And we also got proof that the crew does read fanfics, and we may actually have a mole in our midst.

Instead of just reading the fics, Rhett and Link do it in GMM style, by turning it into a game. They take turns reading a part of the story on a card, and for every card they successfully manage to read, gives them a point. If one of them taps out, the other has a chance to steal the points by finishing the card - and if they both fail, it’s up to Stevie to finish. Either way, we are getting to hear the whole thing.

I’ll link all the fics in this post, so you can check them out - and also, so you can read them in their entirety. The crew apparently decided to only have portions of the full fics on the show, and I think that was a good thing, since this supposedly was the first time R&L are acquainted with fanfiction, and even with these snippets, there might have been some permanent damage. (Oh, in case you’re wondering, I linked the AO3 texts instead of the tumblrs on all the fics, mainly to keep things simple.)

The first fic for the guys to read is “Puppy” by Mythical-Ross. Sounds all cute and fluffy, yes, but Stevie gives a subtle warning before Link gets to reading. No actual dogs were harmed in the story, but as the story goes on, it becomes apparent that this story is about a different kind of puppy. I can’t believe this was the first fic they chose to read, after celebrating Puppy love on Valentine’s Day.

I completely lost it when Link started reading his lines with a special voice: “Who’s a good boy?”, and commented on how only one finger was licked so far. Rhett, on the other hand, is struggling to read his part. (Which is understandable, given his role in this story.) Link looks a lot like how I felt when I first stumbled upon rhink fics, both a little guilty for reading smut, but also kinda curious about what’s to come. He seems to be taking this experience surprisingly well. 

Link is in a small lead after the first round, as we move on from puppy play to Mpreg with “Positive” by dip_the_pip. Why do I feel like we are going through all of Link’s kinks today. We know he loves puppies and talks about pregnancy a lot. But this probably isn’t like living a dream for him...And, just in case we’re getting reality and fiction confused, Link feels the need to point out that he’s never kissed Rhett’s knuckles. This comment feels slightly redundant after the previous story, but okay. And then he’s upset about doing the dishes on both stories (because THAT is the thing that’s upsetting about these stories), and then he warns the (fictional?) Rhett not to nipple on his lips - because of herpes. Rhett seems to still know what’s going on, saying the herpes is the least of their worries at this point. They ARE having a baby together, after all. Link finally gets to experience pregnancy first hand.

Considering all the jokes these guys have made on GMM about eating balls, turns out, reading about their own is a step too far. I have to say, checking the original unabridged version, a lot of the text was cut off for this episode - and personally I think reading a shortened version might give a wrong idea about fanfic. Anyway, Rhett fails to read his part, Link chooses not to steal his points, and Stevie has to read the line about her bosses doing it against the wall.

The last, but by no means, the least, fic for the guys to read, is a story from the college days of Rhink, “Breaking the Seal” by LinksLipsSinkShips. By this time, Rhett appears to be emotionally defeated, while Link almost seems to be having fun.

I really hope this episode didn’t ruin Link’s love for peanut butter. At least, he finally won something, and now we’ll get to see Rhett posting a line from a crew selected fic on his personal Twitter account (rhettmc) without explanations. Based on the choice of fics today, I expect the crew to be ruthless.

I have to say, this episode went much better than I expected. I admit that I’m still blushing, and thankful that nothing from my own archives was brought to daylight - although I fully stand behind my own work, even the cringier ones. I hope reading these stories didn’t change the guys’ openminded approach to dealing with us, the shipping kind.

I have to admit, after the main episode, I was releaved by the wholesome puppy videos in GMMore, probably as much as everyone else. I think it’s absolutely amazing, how dog-friendly Mythical is. So many adorable puppies, everywhere!

I happen to be the proud big-sister of a small dog, and I agree with Link in saying that a dog that has humans pet her, carry her treats, and fill the pool for her are pretty smart - they have complete control over their humans, and that is pretty clever. (I know that they’ve made IQ tests on dogs, and these tests rank many smaller breeds at the bottom, but that’s different kind of intelligence.)

Link has either completely forgotten about reading a fic about puppy play by the time they get to watch Sherby? the corgy play dead - after reading a story like that it doesn’t really help his cause to say he’d want to have a corgy as a pillow - or that Miles the husky is hot. And then he goes on to compliment Stevie’s dog Ringo’s gluteus.

Ok, after Link brings up swirls, I’m starting to think he’s intentionally messing with Rhett by bringing up these words that remind them about the fics. When he asks if Chase’s dog is swirling, and then goes on to talk in a puppy voice, I know he’s doing it on purpose. It seems the guys survived their ordeal mostly unaffected (and maybe with some new perpectives to life), and now we can all life happily ever after. Except maybe Rhett, who still has some tweeting to do...

#gmm #gmmore #rhett and link #gmm 1696 #they read their own fan fic #so i guess this is #rhink? #the cute dogs of mythical crew #i hope no one is scarred for life #this was so great #and a little awkward #rhink