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420thewritersroom · 14 days

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Got That Cursed Dawg in Him

Whoo-ie, this took slightly longer than intended. I wanted to gift this piece to @averageludwig simply because I LOVE LOVE LOVE their art and their pieces of the Demoman & Soldier makes my heart do backflips AND front flips. This is also highly inspired by @waterwindow art on Twitter that I think about daily, on top of that I love their art and their pieces on Demo & Soldier too.

This is also my first time writing anything involving the TF2 peeps, and I feel like it shows a lot when writing dialogue for the Soldier and Demoman (I didn't bother with doing written accents because...no, not skilled or patient enough to bother with that lol).

Before we continue, just wanted to do a bit of housekeeping, BLU Soldier is named John Doe (full name Johnathan Dodger) and is essentially a BLU Team OC. Same with the BLU Demoman, their name is Harvey (full name Harvey MacLennan). So for those who are confused on why the Soldier is named John instead of Jane, that's why. I also like to interpret the BLU Soldier to be a tad bit smarter (still a massive himbo). Anyway, I hope you enjoy the read!

Characters: RED Demoman (Tavish Finnegan DeGroot), BLU Soldier (John Doe), BLU Demoman (Harvey Maclennan)

Word Count: 2,058

Ships: RED Demoman/BLU Soldier (Boots n Bombs) if you squint

Warnings: Canon Typical Violence (it's not too gratuitous, but it's there), Unresolved Tension, mentions of murder, BLU Soldier is too dumb to not escalate situations to worse heights

John strains to keep himself upright, wobbly staying on his feet as he looks at the RED Demoman across from him under his helmet. Pained breaths escape him as he readjusts the grip on his shovel, having lost his rocket launcher in the fight long ago.

"Tavish," it hurts to talk as John forces himself to try to reach his former friend again, "Tavish, you need to snap out of it!"

He has tried, time and time again, since this fight reignited, to get Tavish to stop this bloodshed he was subjecting both teams to. John said he could talk him out of this blood-frenzied stupor that the RED Demoman was under, that there was no need to trap Tavish in the Respawn system. Or worse, cut him off from it completely. He can be reasoned with. He's one of the most reasonable men with both teams combined.

"You have to let go of that sword, Tavish. You can't let whatever commie trickery that thing is plaguing you with take over. For your sake, listen to me!"

The RED Demoman was slumped forward, arms dangling in front of him while holding on tightly to the Eyelander that dripped fresh blood from its blade. Tavish's remaining eye shone with a cursed green, the outcome of constantly feeding the sword the heads of not only the BLU team but RED as well. The usual rogueish charm that the Demolition Man possessed was gone. In its place, a blood-hungry beast that saw neither friend nor foe, but lambs fit for the slaughter. Despite being wholly empowered by the claymore, the body is still flesh and bone. Tavish, or whomever was possessing him, struggled to keep themselves aloft. They have lost too much blood, and Tavish's body protested any further exertion unless treated.

John, however, looked worse for wear. His uniform was ripped and in tatters, revealing the white tanktop below, which was also showing signs of damage. He lost FAR more blood than Tavish ever did, with multiple cuts that ran deep and oozed his essence all over his attire and on the dirt below. Breathing was haggard and painful for the BLU Soldier to do. Hell, existing was riding him up a wall as hours of fighting and dodging were catching up with him. The only reason he was still kicking was thanks to the few health kits and bottles that were littered about, the dispenser that his team Engineer set up for him (that was now destroyed at this point), and their resident nurse giving him a buff before the confrontation. But his resources were running thin. He practically ran this entire battlefield dry of its health kits and ammo, his rocket launcher and shotgun now only having a single shell and maybe two rockets for him to utilize.

"Heads," a ghostly snarl escapes not from the claymore but from Tavish's mouth, dripping like poison in John's weary ears. "Heads…Heads," the body continued to utter as it tried to inch closer to John. Tavish's body, exhausted from the fight, struggled to place one foot after the other, stumbling here and there as every nerve was demanding that this being stop and let it rest.

John can barely think. He tried talking to Tavish, but nothing was getting through to him. Every plea, insult, and statement was greeted with unbridled violence and horrific screams. Any strategy the war veteran could think of was leaking from his ears (or maybe that's just blood now that he's thinking about it). As Tavish's body lumbered closer, John scrambled mentally on what to do. Shooting Tavish will send him to respawn and will provoke the RED team to damn Tavish to whatever fate they opted to do. But he can't fight him either. Should whatever's controlling the Scotsman gain a second wind, John will be sent through the ringer instead, failing in his mission and pushing both teams to definitely kill Tavish.

Tavish was now within arm's length of the Soldier, scrapping the Eyelander beside him on the dirt ground and ready to swing the weapon at John's head. John isn't sure what compelled him to do this. Perhaps he was hinging on the possibility that their past friendship still lingered somewhere in Tavish's mind. Maybe it was a final distraction tactic he opted to pull out from under the possessed Demoman's feet. Regardless of what the reasons were, John pushed himself to get dangerously close to the deranged Demoman.

And he kissed him.

The kiss might as well be two kids on the playground pressing lips together, thinking this is "how adults kiss" or woeful virgins awkwardly "kissing" each other. The sensuality was lost between the two of them; their lips connected, but the desire that usually comes with it was in the other room.

Yet, John couldn't help but feel his heart flutter a bit. He tells himself that it's just the adrenaline and fatigue that caused his heart to skip a beat, kicking away the dawning fear that he might still harbor the same feelings that he felt all those years ago; before their fallout, before the Demoman betrayed his trust. But despite these affirmations he tried to hammer into his head, his lips still lingered far too long than they should have. But it must be doing something; Tavish has yet to raise his Eyelander at him.

John mentally had to rip himself away from the Demoman, quickly stepping back should the RED fiend decide to take a swipe at him. What he saw before him took him aback as the RED Demoman stared at the BLU Soldier with a wide eye. The color of Tavish's remaining eye no longer glowed a misty green, but it wasn't back to the usual brown that it was before. Instead, his eye was a startingly alluring emerald green.

"…Tavish?" John says carefully.

There's a brief moment of silence between the two, and John decides to take further initiative in this temporary standstill. "Tavish, you have to give me the sword. You're out of control, out of line, even for someone of your expertise."

The Demoman remained still, his face filled with foggy confusion as he seemingly was slowly coming to his senses. John took this moment of uncertainty to his advantage as he leisurely reached for the sword.

"If you don't let go of this communist contraption you found, they'll kill you. You hear me? They. Will. Kill. You, Maggot," despite the insult, it held none of the searing bite that it usually conveys. John silently thanks his helmet for shadowing his eyes as he used the concealment to prevent the RED Demoman from seeing him eyeing his sword.

"You may not be a red, white, and blue-blooded American, but I know you can fight whatever has plagued your English-muddled brain." John was so close to the sword that he could taste it. Just a millimeter longer, and he'll end this nightmare once and for all-

Tavish's eye suddenly flares in anger, shoving John away from him and placing extra distance from the BLU Soldier. "Then let them kill me. Maybe Heaven or Hell will have more use for me than this wasteland of a state!"

John stares at Tavish dumbfounded, his helmet slightly ajar to glimpse his blue eyes. "Tavish, you don't know what you're saying-"

"I know EXACTLY what I'm saying. Haven't had a drop of scrumpy since I've started this rampage."

So he was aware? All this time?

"What? You think I'm that ill-willed to just LET a dead son of a bitch take me over without an inch of a fight, eh? I fought the goddamn loche, read a cursed book, and lost me eye for it."

Not a single word was slurred or interrupted by an untimely burp. John was lost for words, unsure of how to respond.

"But, why? You're terrorizing both teams consorting with that weapon, letting it whisper Russian nonsense into your ears!"

"Firstly, this sword isn't from fucking Russia; let's put that through your tin-canned skull first. Secondly, I let it take over because I allowed it."

"But WHY?" Soldier couldn't restrain his growing impatience, his tone resorting back to his usual drill sergeant demeanor.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Don't back sass me, you one-eyed Scot son of a bitch. Your whiskey-drinking life is on the goddamn line."

"See, that right there," the Demoman points at the Soldier accusingly, "Maybe if you'd stop with those demeaning jokes, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Jokes? It's what you are, Tavish! You have one eye, and you drink! What else am I supposed to call-" John stops himself, his mind finally clicking back into gear and understanding where Tavish was coming from. "Ah, so drinking wasn't enough, was it? Gotta bully everyone else, all because of your own damn insecurities, is that it?"

"You shut your bucket-wearing trap," Tavish growled, his remaining eye threatening John with a ghostly mist.

"Maybe if you actually faced your own demons instead of trying to drown them out with whiskey and blood, you'd be half the man you wished you were."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Tavish's eye becomes fully enveloped in the same cursed green color as his fury rises to new heights. "YOU HAVE LITTLE ROOM TO TALK FOR SOMEONE WHO WAS PLACED IN A MENTAL HOSPITAL FOR DECIMATING THEIR WHORE OF A GIRLFRIEND!"

Though this should've struck a cord in John, it instead made his spine and skin run cold as a shiver coursed through him. Nevermind that Tavish screamed to the heavens a secret he wished was left buried in its grave, but John completely lost the plot of what he was supposed to be doing. If anything, he reignited and made worse the Demoman's conviction to fucking kill him.

"T-Tavish, wait," John tried to backpedal, kicking himself mentally for letting his emotions run his mouth. But it was too late. The familiar sounds of Tavish's ungodly screams came rushing at him, and he had little time to run. Hell, he even tripped on himself attempting to run away from the bull that was the RED Demoman.

Thank his stars and garters that the Eyelander clanged against steel instead of his flesh and bone.

John is unsure when the BLU Demoman appeared or where they came from, but he was slightly grateful that the demolitionist stood between him and the willfully possessed Tavish.

"We gave you ten minutes, you took an hour, and we waited, John," Harvey's soft voice pierced through John like a hot knife to butter.

John panics as the possibility of Tavish meeting a fate worse than death becomes a painful inevitability in his mind. He scrambles through his words, thoughts not connecting to his lips, "Harv, please, just give me more time-"

"I gave you all the time in the world, Soldier. But something has to be done," Harvey grunts, and his words felt cold to the touch, but he does not raise his voice. Keeping a steady tone that, to an untrained ear, he might as well be as serene as a monk.

The BLU Demoman ends the standstill between him and his RED counterpart, building distance by kicking Tavish away with amazing strength. A prowess even the BLU Soldier didn't know his BLU companion possessed.

The RED Demoman's back slams against the outer walls of one of the buildings. With that previous stalemate, Tavish's body felt a renewed vigor as it slumped forward, and from his mouth, a familiar, venomous hiss escaped his lips, "Heads."

"If there's anything good that came out of your distraction, most of BLU have convened with RED, and they're plotting what to do with this beast once it's down." Harvey tilts his head to look at John, "Either you join them, or you help me keep this monster down."

John, from under his helmet, lingers between the two Demomen, searching through his mind how he can still salvage this situation. Ultimately, he settles on helping Harvey in the moment, and hopes to contain Tavish should they weaken him again. The BLU Soldier gets back on his feet, shovel in hand and stands with his BLU companion.

"I know you both have history, but that can not hold you back from doing what must be done, Johnathan," the BLU Demoman softly says.

"I know," John answers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey, you made it to the end of the story, congrats :D

My main inspiration for making this piece, aside from Waterwindow's art piece, was because I have yet to see anyone put Demoman in the "unwillingly or willingly becomes possessed by an entity that takes over their body completely and they're so deep in the possession sauce that they require the power of friendship to save them or have to be put down like a dog for the sake of the world" trope, and I decided to clumsily make this a reality.

I can just imagine, especially when he gains the Eyelander and his friendship with the BLU Soldier is broken, that Tavish goes through a spiral of emotions as he questions his self-worth and feels guilty for betraying his friend all for a cursed sword. And his guilt and self-hatred eats up at him and he becomes vulnerable to the influence of the Eyelander and lets the sword put him on auto pilot, allowing the spirit within to go on a mindless rampage against both RED and BLU team.

#Team Fortress 2 #TF2 #TF2 Demoman #TF2 Soldier #Boots n Bombs

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loststarphounix · 3 months

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How would a Soudam AU with both of them being the Mastermind/Ultimate Despair work?

Would one of them just brainwash the other into despair?

or would both of them love the concept of despair so much, they eventually would want to spread it to their classmates? 🤔

Sweet wrench….I have thought of this idea on and off for a while.

long post below!

Let’s see, CrazyNekoChan made a Mastermind!soudam on AO3 that I love, but it was MM!Gundham that brainwashed everyone including Kazuichi who was also the MM in the planning stages.

I love either one being the Mastermind because whoo! The power dynamics! My first watch of a silent play through (I didn’t have game consoles at the time rip) I was DREADING being Kazuichi being the MM but it would’ve been a genius move - the supposedly simp mechanic being so absorbed by a pretty girl; who would think he was a calculating murder mastermind behind this killing game?

But back to the question: my answer would be a little mixture of both HOWEVER it would depend on who is Ultimate Despair:

If it’s Gundham, he would want to make Kazuichi see the true depravity of humanity. He feels like his Ultimate talent has opened himself to the real state of the world and humanity and it is as horrible and unrepentant as he always knew it was. Making Kazuichi and his best friend/student Sonia see this truth is a mercy - for they will not be lead astray by these tainted humans any longer.

He of course experimented on a few first years - you can’t bake a cake without cracking a few eggs and he made a mess of several…dozen. But he was able to create the perfect program that was as humane as possible (note: that didn’t involve invasive surgery or injury). He found the Kamakura Program and used the lab and Izuru was freed in exchange for helping him.

Sonia was his first official start and well…something went slightly wrong. However, she came out of it 99.9% intact and has had her third eye opened s he counted it a success. With Kazuichi, he took his time. His vibrant hell flower was surprisingly resilient in the first stages.

But he learned after Sonia and it was most unfortunate that it took so long. He needed to take his time with his beloved and the end result was truly worth it.

He thinks of making his fellow classmates see the light as well, but the method is so difficult to do in a larger scale and Izuru was calculating months for it to be at that large of a scale. That was too long and he had the two important people in his life. He can destroy the world with three people. The others can be spared…for now.

Now! If it was Kazuichi, he would’ve had production done for large scale projects much faster.

He would see the bigger picture, like Junko, and wanted his friends to be apart of this. He finds Izuru and promises him freedom and an obedient slave (Nagito) in return for his help which make Izuru help only because it’s Nagito. He experimented on Fuyuhiko’s little sister and that other reserve course student first, but sadly the other student killed Nazumi before she could be completely turned to Despair.

He made sure the test subject suffer before Fuyuhiko killed her. He was also furthering his experimentation by introducing it to certain individuals via drink, food or airborne. Granted, he’s not the Ultimate Chemist, but Izuru has been a real help!

But his most important task, was getting Gundham, Akane and Chiaki. Sonia would follow Gundham and Chiaki like a duckling - she’d only be perfect as a money and material distributor. Akane and Chiaki were his sisters basically and he needed their loyalty.

And for Gundham…well. Love makes people want that special someone close at hand. And Gundham was closer - even if that was because he had him chained downed for his special version of the formula.

It was a shame about Chiaki, but losing her made the Despair so much sweeter as he lamented her loss. Oh well. Some things are truly not to be it seemed. But he had the rest of his class to get together and administer the final step. And poor Gundham needed extra attention. Chiaki’s body can be handled later.

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smallestapplin · 2 years

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Whoo, better get in here while I can.

I think it would be hilarious if Maxie’s S/O gifted him a litten and like nobody on magma knows how it’s gonna evolve and stuff. So everyone loses their shit when it finally evolves into Incineroar and starts fucking bodyslamming other Pokémon in battle. Imagine the carnage. Bonus if the Incineroar is female. 🤣🐶

Rip whatever the fuck Archie thinks he’s gonna do. 😔

🔥Maxie🔥

- When you first came back from your trip to Alola he didn’t know what to expect. Half the time you were gone you would message him about how excited you were to give him a gift you had gotten him, Maxie isn’t a materialistic person by any means, but with how excited you sounded it got him a little excited about it.

- So when you got back and you gave him bags full of obsidian he thought that was it, and honestly he was just as excited about the beautiful rocks as he thought he’d be.

- “One more thing!”

- He watched you pull out a simply pokeball and toss it.

- Cool grey eyes lock with bright red and yellow ones.

- “It’s a Litten! Isn’t she so cute?” You sounded so proud of yourself.

- But Maxie and the little Litten stare at each other. The older man slowly offers his hand for the little fire type to sniff, he lets her get use to him before he moves to scratch under the Pokémon chins.

- He’s instantly cooing when the Litten starts purring.

- “My aren’t you precious.” He can’t help but pet and love on the little fire cat.

- And that quickly became her name.

- Maxie and Precious were never seen far from one another. The fire type was always following Maxie around base or riding on his shoulders.

- The grunts can’t say anything about the little cat, cause last time someone did they get a fireball spat at them.

- Precious evolves slowly.

- Maxie doesn’t go out of his way to train her, viewing her more of a pet companion than a battling partner.

- But he sees just how playful she is a how she tries to fight Camerupt, and thinks ‘maybe.’

- Of course when his sweet Litten evolves into a Torracat he was in tears.

- He took so many pictures and sobbed heavily (in private!) onto your shoulder about ‘our child is growing up!’

- Now instead of a 9 pound (4.3kg) cat cuddling with you two, it’s a 55 pound (25kg) cat that takes up a good chunk of the bed.

- And Maxie refuses to move her, she’s so sweet and looks so comfy! How could he ever move her.

- Precious is undoubtedly spoiled by you two (mainly by Maxie)

- Though Precious is too heavy to ride in his shoulders, she still follows him around base like a little body guard.

- Luckily the Torracat tolerates everyone else at base and allows people to pet her only a little, maybe more if they give her a treat, but only you and Maxie can full on pet her and cuddle her.

- The next time Precious evolves everyone was in attendance. None of the grunts, admins, or Maxie himself knew how this Alolan Pokémon was going to evolve, no one looked it up, wanting to be surprised.

- And surprised they were when out of the lights stands a 5’11(1.8m or 180cm) cat that can now literally fist fight them and stand at eye level with the.

- Precious quickly becomes a menace with her new found height and strength.

- Gone are the days you offer her a treat when she can just take them.

- She now wants to wrestle everything she can.

- She even still tries to sleep with you and Maxie, but she’s the size of a human! And a queen size bed can’t fit the three of you.

- It takes so long to get the Incineroar to sleep in a separate room.

- But Maxie still treats Precious like she’s still his little baby.

- Archie was in for a shock when he tried to fight Maxie, only to have his Mightyena got picked up by this new Pokémon and thrown at him.

- Precious wasn’t having any attack on her dad go unpunished.

- Archie then got really excited and put himself on the battle field, wanting to fist fight the large cat.

- Shelly isn’t paid enough for this.

- You’re holding back Precious while she drags a burning Archie away.

- “Such a sweet baby, yes you are! Oh you truly live up to your name.”

- “Maxie please.” You sigh.

- But there isn’t much you can do to keep him from spoiling that Pokémon, especially after she fought Archie.

- You dread the more fights to come because of his encouragement.

#long post #pokemon #pokemon imagines #pokemon x reader #pokémon #pokemon fluff #pokemon headcanons #pokemon maxie #pokemon maxie x reader

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choking-on-dandelions · 10 months

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Good morning, dearest friends! I'm delighted to say we're back from up north and it was a BLAST!!!

So first of all, whoo. what a drive. From the heart of the city to the softspoken winds of the water it was erm, give or take about 5-6 hour car trip. Ya girl got pockets of car sickness but I managed not to throw up so yay!

The four of us traveled through Traverse City and omg THE CROWDS BRO I COULDN'T. We did weave through the people to catch the air show, that was so cool! All you heard was the planes ripping through the sound barrier as you watch them do their tricks and spins and barrel rolls through that bright blue sky. They looked so close that you could reach out and touch them! So many cool tricks! The people were a little less than stellar, only because I get panicky in big gatherings, but the cherry pie was worth it. Soo worth it.

Okay, now, off to the Sleeping Bear Dunes! We arrive in fair time and pull up to the BIGGEST piles of sand I've ever seen with my own two eyes! I get nervous, a little dizzy just looking at this beastly climb, and immediately predict this is going to be the funnest nightmare ever. (I was right btw!) We all take a whiz then start climbing, each of us donning our breeziest most death-proof clothing we packed, and right away I resort to scaling the FIRST dune on my hands and feet, growling and howling like a monster and chasing after my boyfriend while other tourist watched and laughed. It was all fun and games until about the 11th pole marker on our never-ending hike. How long did it take, you may ask, to get through these sand hills? I will tell you, dear friend:

It took us, in grand total, a whopping 6.5 hours to get from the car, down to the beach, back to the car, all without the relief of adequate shade from any trees, and running dangerously low on water after we saw for ourselves that there were no facilities on the shore. No bathroom, no water fountains, just sand and lake and lots of cool rocks. We rationed the water we had for about the last 3 miles of our hike, only sipping enough to wet our mouths. When I tell you we got burned bad. My back is just now starting to peel. Turns out, after all was said and done, we had mistakenly taken the longest and steepest path there was coming and going. But we did it! And we didn't even need to call the rescue team (good thing too, hello $2,000 rescue bill, no thanks)! But watching some of these other people hike our way WITHOUT ANY WATER OR ANYTHING, I was like '???' So we went out of our way coming back to warn others that they might want to turn back and prepare for the worst. They were grateful to say the least lol.

From there we carried on towards Cadillac and meandered around the country roads until we found a cozy little hole-in-the-wall bar and grill and stopped off for dinner. The food there was excellent! My friends Cassie and Annette got a giant ceaser salad and mac n cheese with a side of fried cheese curds, my boyfriend David got a burger with fries and a side of mac n cheese, and I nibbled on a plate of veggies with a few fries on the side. I got something super light because I suspected I'd doze off in the car right after eating; sure enough, I was right lol.

From there we drove about an hour to our hotel room and packed it in for the night. Super nice little place, we lucked out and got one of the best rooms with lakeside view and a backroom door leading straight to the heated pool room. Everyone else stayed up for a bit, I was knocked out lol. We slept a few hours, got up the next morning and showered and whatnot, then took off for the local beaches for some serious rock and shell hunting. We found some neat stuff: David found some cool Petoskey stones and me and Cassie and Annette were chasing shells around the shore. We found a bunch of big snail shells and a few clamshells, I was hoping to dig up some gemstones somewhere like how I did out in North Carolina, but sadly no such luck this time. But that's okay. We beach hopped for a few hours, had a few seltzers in the sun, then began our journey home, saw a haunted-ass barn and belted out some car karaoke for a while.

Y'all, it. Was. The. BEST!!! It was the getaway we all needed and some amazing bonding time, even though we all nearly died out on the dunes lol totally worth it! We're already planning another vacation for next year, we wanna go gem hunting up in the mountains. Gonna be bomb!

I'm so glad to be home though. It's good to be back!

#bunnygirl speaks #vacation #michigan #traverse city #sleeping bear dunes #great lakes #summer fun

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the-widow-sisters · 1 year

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I’m Lost Without You

Summary: Shuri burned the mourning garments to try to let go. The funny part is that despite how liberating the gesture was meant to be, she finds herself filled with nothing but regret and pain as thoughts of T'Challa endlessly plague her.

However, that evening on the beaches of Haiti, someone pays her a small visit.

Word Count: 2893

A/N: Whoo!!! I busted this one out after watching Wakanda Forever, and I honestly have no clue what I'm doing 🤣 I was emotionally compelled, so I rolled with it, lol. I have never written for these characters before (I wrote for Shuri like once but it was one or two lines in a bigger fic that was not centered on her). But I've never read nor written stuff for these characters, so hopefully it's not totally bad 🤣😂💖

Honestly, Shuri has lost so much. More than even Yelena in some ways (and that was a shocker for me) 🥺😭 And her and T'Challa's relationship was so touching and so sad for me. I hope I was able to do it justice 💞

I hope y'all enjoy! 💗💗💗

Warnings: Spoilers for Wakanda Forever.

Shuri felt her lips trembling as she looked at the ocean, trying her best not to look down at what was left of her mourning garments there in the smoldering fire that had gone out since earlier that day.

She had spent some time with little T’Challa, but she had not been able to fully shake the sense of grief that had been brought back tenfold from earlier that day. Therefore, she had ended up back on the beach that night after the boy and Nakia had gone to bed, barely containing her tears.

Strangely enough, Shuri found that she may have burnt the clothes of mourning, but she had not found the peace or release that her mother had spoken of. And she was having the hardest time even finding a sense of remotely okay.

“Why did you have to go? I needed you still. I need you now,” Shuri whispered softly, her knees digging into the sand as she closed her eyes tightly where she was kneeling. Her entire body was shaking with the raw pain wracking her frame.

“You were the good one. You were always good and right when I was not,” Shuri confessed to the night air around her, sobbing harshly as she felt the sand beneath her palms. The waves were rolling softly around her, and she felt as if her heart were being ripped out of her chest.

It was the first time that she had truly faced her grief for T’Challa and she despised the fact that it took their mother’s passing to do that, because now she had to suffer through the pain of two of the largest, most vital pieces of her heart being an empty hole.

She chose peace with Namor, but she had not even made peace with herself. She was alone, and she could not accept it. And in the end, the person that she had needed the most was gone. She loved her mother, but at the end of the day, it was her brother’s passing that she could not accept.

He was never coming back and she had been trying to avoid that fact— fighting it tooth, fang, and toenail— for too long. It was true, she could say it aloud. She felt that she was being stabbed every time she did, but saying it and shortly thereafter distracting herself was different than allowing herself to feel. To legitimately and deeply feel his loss.

In her lab, Shuri could lull herself into the false sense that she was simply in her domain, and he would come in at any moment with his big, far too easygoing smile and those ridiculous sandals that she hated. The ones that he thought were so regal and kingly and that she thought were the dumbest things she had seen in a while.

She took in a deep, shuddering breath, and she looked to the sky, addressing him even more directly or at least as directly as she could.

“You left me. You didn’t tell me. You kept it to yourself for so long, and when you asked me to save you, it was too late. Why did you have to do it that way? I could have helped if I had time,” she explained, nothing but desperation in her words as she felt her throat closing up.

“Didn’t you know you were my world? Didn’t you know that you meant everything to me?” Shuri pleaded aloud, knowing there would be no answer.

That was part of what hurt so much. There would be no answer to her words. She honestly did not know why she was talking aloud right now when she was wasting her breath. She had seen her ancestors and all she saw was her cousin, the last person she had wanted to speak to.

She had hoped to see him. He had forsaken her. She knew that her cousin was the best person that she could have seen given the direction that she had been frighteningly close to turning, but she had still hoped to see her brother.

He had been taken from her too soon and now she felt like the rug was pulled out from under her. She was completely alone now outside of little T’Challa, who she did not know at all outside of introductions.

Worst of all, she did not have the man who had made her feel safe. The man that had been her hero.

Her big brother.

“I’m lost without you, big brother. I am alone,” Shuri brokenly confessed to the warm night, a sob wracking through her as she bowed her head and crumpled in on herself.

She sobbed for what felt like an eternity, nothing but the sound of the waves accompanying her, but to her shock, she suddenly felt a familiar, strong yet soft hand on her shoulder.

“Why do you cry, little sister?” a voice replied, and Shuri swallowed as she raised her head quickly, turning to look behind her to where the source of the hand was.

There was her brother kneeling behind her, his warm, dark eyes watching her calmly and lovingly. He was wearing gorgeous robes fit for the king that he was, and she felt her entire being in utter shock.

“T’Challa? My… my brother,” Shuri barely managed to whisper before she threw herself upon him, her arms around his neck as she brought him into a suffocating embrace.

His arms lifted to hold her against him, and she sobbed into his shoulder as he brought his hand up to the back of her head, holding her securely and safely there. She took in a breath, the scent of home filling her as she shut her eyes tightly, grasping for better purchase as he held her. Her fingers were digging into his robes, but if it hurt him, he did not show any true evidence.

He was filled out and healthy like he was before, and he was strong. He was not the weakened husk of her brother that he had been at the time of his passing. He was there.

She reached her hands up, feeling his neck and head as she sobbed deeply and heartbrokenly. She was taking in the feel of him, remembering her hero as he kept her held safely where the grief and pain could not touch her.

“You are here,” Shuri managed to speak, tearstains on her face as the moisture wetted her cheeks and her brother’s clothes.

“I am,” he replied, and his voice sounded oddly heavy in the emotion just beneath the surface. Shuri furrowed her brow in slight confusion, her breaths shaking as she struggled to calm them.

“But I will not be here for long,” he confessed, and she pulled back to look at him. He had a gentle smile on his face, and he was looking at her with just as much adoration as he had in life, but she quickly came to the full realization that he was truly not there with her and that it was merely a dream.

After all, the atmosphere surrounding her was completely different. The waves falling upon the beach had subsided with the ocean turned into a lake, and gorgeous pink, blue, and purple lights were shining in the sky above. It was not real. He was a spirit.

“You’re not here,” she pointed out, withdrawing from him a little more. He let his arms fall away slowly from her, looking at her somewhat sadly.

“Not in body. But in spirit,” he expressed, and Shuri just looked at him sadly, feeling her heart ache as she looked away, moving back so that she was sitting on the sand next to him. He moved so that he was sitting down with her, and there was quiet between them.

“Why are you sad?” he asked, and Shuri let a somewhat bitter huff pass between her lips.

“Our mother is gone. You are gone. I have no one left that truly knows me. Is that not a reason to be sad?” Shuri asked, and he shook his head carefully.

“Death is not the end—"

“Everyone keeps saying that,” she interrupted quickly at the end of his statement, desperation and bitterness stifling her. He quieted, eyeing her as he considered her words.

“You are not completely alone.”

“Yes, you have a son that I never knew about,” Shuri pointed out, just looking at him for a long moment as she stared at him. She honestly was quite hurt about the fact that he had hidden it from her when their mother had known about it.

“I only told Mother because she had a right to know that there would be an heir,” T’Challa explained.

“And what about me? Did I not have a right to know that my big brother had a child? One that I could have spent time with and gotten to know? One that I have lost so much time with already?” Shuri pointed out, and he was quiet, looking down at the sand before redirecting his attentions to her.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, nothing but remorse in his gaze, and Shuri met his eyes for a long moment before sighing deeply, looking away.

They remained quiet for a little while, the both of them just sitting together in one another’s company. Finally, Shuri spoke up, her voice rough with raw emotion.

“I am the Black Panther now. And I am completely lost without you,” Shuri confessed, her voice soft, and he was silent as he considered what she said.

“You have been making the right decisions. You are ready,” he assured her, and Shuri swallowed as she shook her head.

“I do not feel ready. I am not ready to take your mantle. I am not ready to be the Black Panther. I have never been. The Black Panther was you. Father bore the name, but it was you,” Shuri expressed, pain stabbing sharply within her. He eyed her with sympathy but also with a certain exhaustion and weight.

“Little sister… You are ready. You are prepared to handle this burden. I knew you would be before my passing,” he told her, and she clenched her teeth as she quickly stood up and walked a small distance away, looking out at the lake. She did not want to hear him discuss his own death.

He let out a sigh, and she felt her heart aching with pain as tears threatened to come back to her eyes.

“You have to do this without me,” T’Challa explained softly from where he was sitting on the sand behind her. Shuri instantly felt the emotions bubbling up in her chest and she clenched her teeth, turning around quickly.

“Without you?! How am I supposed to make it without you?! You were everything to me. You knew how to do all of this. You are gone! Father is gone, Mother is gone, and you are gone. And I am alone!” Shuri cried as she raised her voice, the sound of it pained and cracking as she grew increasingly distraught with the truth bearing harder and harder upon her.

T’Challa looked at her carefully before slowly getting up. Her chest was heaving with pained breaths, and she was trying her best to ignore the painful lump welling up in her throat. He approached her carefully, pausing just in front of her as he looked at her.

“Can you see the wind?” he questioned suddenly and the randomness of the question threw her off completely. She just gaped at him blankly.

“What?” she asked, utterly shocked. T’Challa smiled a little, his eyes glowing with a bit of mirth before he asked her again.

“Can you?” She paused, not sure what the correct answer was supposed to be since it felt like a trick question.

“Well, no…”

“But you feel it, yes?”

“I suppose,” she replied slowly, confusion thoroughly plaguing her, but she decided she would go along with it momentarily. T’Challa seemed to sense her lack of understanding, and he huffed softly before his dark, warm eyes met hers once again.

“Close your eyes,” he told her, and she stared at him for a moment, not sure what he was getting at. She looked away for a moment before closing her eyes with a deep sigh.

After a brief moment, she felt his hand on her shoulder, and she furrowed her brow.

“What do you feel?” he asked, and she cursed how her voice was wanting to leave her.

“You,” she managed to force out.

“You cannot see me?” he stated patiently in a manner that was more of a question, and she shook her head, not sure what he was trying to communicate.

“Just because you cannot see me, does not mean that I am not there. I will always be with you to guide you,” T’Challa assured her softly, and Shuri opened her eyes to look at him.

He was looking down at her with such confidence and love as he brought his other hand to touch her other shoulder, squeezing gently. Shuri stared back at him, feeling her heart squeeze painfully.

She slowly nodded, unable to do anything but numbly reply to him. She did not have much hope that he would be there, but something in her believed him, nevertheless. He never let her down in life, so why would he let her down now?

He smiled knowingly at her. Shuri let out a deep breath, bringing her hands up to grasp at his arms.

After a long moment of the both of them just existing in the same space, silence between them, she finally found her voice enough to speak up again.

“Why did you not tell me in time to save you?” Shuri asked, and he eyed her, a certain regret and softness in his eyes.

“I wanted to protect you from the pain,” T’Challa expressed, and she just eyed him wordlessly.

“I wanted to protect you from the pain,” Shuri echoed, the both of them having two different meanings but seeking the same effect. He nodded, understanding glowing in his gaze as nothing but kindness filled his features.

“It was not really bad until the last of it, and that was when I knew I needed to tell you,” he confessed to her, and she felt the tears threatening to come to her eyes yet again.

“If you would have only told me before… I could have saved you,” Shuri told him.

“That is unfortunately something we will both never know for sure,” he resignedly confessed, and she reluctantly nodded, hurting deep within despite knowing that it was the truth. Perhaps the fact that it was the truth was the part that hurt the most about it.

She squeezed his arms and he tightened his grip on her shoulders, leaning forward as their foreheads touched softly. She closed her eyes, reveling in the love that she felt from him despite the pain.

“You did the best you could despite my choices. Just,” he took in a deep, shaking breath, and she could not help but feel tears running down her face as she worked her jaw.

“Know that I will always be here. I will always believe in you. And I will always love you, little sister.”

Shuri swallowed hard, pain in her heart but also love as she tightened her grip even more, begging for just a few more moments of this respite from her reality where he would not be here holding her.

She knew this was their goodbye, but she wanted longer. Just five more minutes. Five more seconds.

Just more time.

But as it was, she would make the most of what shred of time she had left.

“I will always love you, big brother,” she whispered in reply, and he pushed his head into her just a little harder, her body shuddering with the pain and the tears running down her face. His hands softly came up to hold her neck gently, the both of them remaining there silently as his hands slowly faded away.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Shuri stirred awake, her eyes shooting open as she jerked a bit. She realized that the sunrise was falling upon her, and she raised up quickly, looking around her. She let out a breath of disappointment as she realized tears were running down her face. She swallowed hard, the waves rolling in the water as she felt the warmth of the sun descending upon her.

She swallowed hard, looking down as she shut her eyes tightly and drew in on herself.

However, to her absolute and utter shock, the wind suddenly blew oddly strongly against her back, almost knocking her over. Her eyes shot open and they widened a little, chills running through her as she felt something suspiciously warm against her shoulder.

She looked behind her, knowing what she would not see but nevertheless finding it necessary to confirm it to herself.

As she expected, there was not a person there, but she knew. She could feel it. Shuri took in a deep breath, looking out at the ocean before her as she mustered the barest of smiles.

“I feel your guiding hand, big brother. I… I won’t let you down,” Shuri whispered.

She could not see him, but he was there.

He always would be.

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sometimesoliloquy · 1 year

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The Handmaid’s Tale 5x08 “Motherland” (or “This is Not the Beach you’re Looking for”) 👀

Whoo boy, sorry this one’s so late, life and stuff has got my brain feeling broken this past week. Let’s see if I can string some coherent sentences together about this episode, where in addition to heavy parallels on motherhood (and Serena and June again, of course), some big/dramatic events also seem to finally be put into motion, and it only took 4/5 of the season to do (yay I can do fractions, my brain isn’t fully broken!). I have to say, though, taking everything into consideration I am nervous as hell for episode 9...

So we open 5x08 with June daydreaming: a flashback of June making pancakes with Hannah, but jarred to reality by blaring car horns, as asshole protestors yell in the background. Apparently now they have to deal not only with the wannabe Gilead cult member nutjobs, but also a suddenly Canadian nationalistic fervor bringing mobs who look and sound like they just came from a Trump rally, but carrying beaver signs and saying “eh” a lot more. June’s phone rings and we learn it’s Serena (again), apparently she’s been telemarketing the shit out of June for a month while in detention. Moira expresses surprise that Serena even thinks they would help her, meanwhile honestly I’m wondering how she even got June’s digits. Luke can tune out the protestors and doesn’t seem to give a shit about newborns dying in the woods (does anything bother this guy? (spoiler: we find out later).

Dramatically ominous music plays over a cut of crashing waves and cawing seagulls and I’m thinking someone on THT is definitely a Hitchcock fan (first the Vertigo inspired Wheeler household and now an ode to The Birds). We narrow in to our favorite pithy commander Lawrence giving several other commanders a tour of the shiny new location for The Real Housewives of Gilead New Bethlehem. The only one I recognize aside from Jlaw and his sidekick puppy Nick is that smug bastard Calhoun (who really reminds me soo much of a youngish Republican senator), so ostensibly they’ve done a good job of whittling down the competition. Calhoun seems fully on board with what Jlaw touts as the more modernized, liberal Gilead, where they can welcome back prodigal sons and daughters to get away from those nasty Canadians and reunite with family (more on that in a second). New Commander McBeardy expresses skepticism and wants to know how they’ll keep this from their “people” in “Gilead Proper” because after all if the people who Gilead proper isn’t super amazing for start trying to defect to diet Gilead, who will they have left to oppress and torture? Jlaw however reminds him that Gilead isn’t exactly free press friendly (RIP Globe reporters). I mean not to mention half their population gets body parts cut off for reading. And here I am skeptical, because while Jlaw certainly has a point about the press, if one of the intents was to reunite the new New Bethlehemites with family in Gilead… wouldn’t… people in Gilead proper come to know about it? Would they just be secretly kidnapping these people from Gilead and forcibly relocating them in NB? McBeardy is likewise still not convinced but Nick reminds him of the bullet he put in Putnam’s head lack of moral fortitude and the Commander changes his tune reeeal quick. He concedes, admitting he was hearing the “deceased Putnam” in his ears (I thought I heard “diseased” at first but my subtitles say deceased and honestly I guess either works), as our Gilead mafia duo walk smugly away.

Speaking of smug, for once Serena is not: sadly pumping in a not so private corner of the detention center visitors area (hm why does this look familiar?).

For, as we soon see, Mrs Alanis Wheeler arrives to (very reluctantly) pick up, because OF COURSE she’s stealing the baby fostering Noah while Serena's detained. Alanis talks about pregnancy hormones like they are something she knows about, while being the utmost amount of condescending and complaining about the baby she’s stolen (hi, Naomi!). She's doing the "crying it out" method on a one month old and I really don't know shit about babies but even I can tell that's not right. Such a warm woman, it's a wonder why little Noah cries so much! Serena is clearly too emotional and sentimental and weak minded to be a mother, though, because if there's anything newborn babies need it's discipline. Serena reminds Alanis (and us) that she's a big baddie who overthrew a country... but unfortunately she gave all that up to chase after June's baby, who she was trying to steal, who she's also completely forgotten about now that Noah has filled the baby sized hole in her womb. Back at the Bankhole/Osborne/Strand household, the three are scrubbing anti immigration graffiti off their sidewalk while the aforementioned mob of protesters obnoxiously parades by. I guess it only took a few years of US refugees streaming into their country, and for some reason being able to afford really nice houses in their crowded city, for Canadians to stop being polite, and start getting real. June very casually relates the task to scrubbing blood off the wall in Gilead (ya know, from the hanging dead bodies. Same same). Luke pretends like she didn't say that, and asks if they should just say fuck it and move to one of the 2 far away remaining US states or Europe as if the entire show hasn’t been about trying to get back their daughter who’s trapped just right over the border in a hellish regime, which June reminds him of (oh, right). But before this can go any further, she gets a surprise call from Mr. Commander Lawrence of all people (I wonder what he wants).

June meets JLaw for a lovely stroll along the waterfront while he rambles esoterically about his esoteric vision for Gilead and how it all went wrong because he underestimated the depravity of religious nutjobs (really, my guy? I thought you were supposed to be a mental giant or something but ok, maybe my bar is just skewed from having grown up Catholic). He gives her the New Bethlehem sales pitch, which she extremely side eyes until he claims she will be able to reunite with Hannah once she's "grown" (so like 14 I guess) and running her own household. At this point I have to be super skeptical, because for Jlaw to "bring Hannah to New Bethlehem" I assume her new husband, whoever he might be, would have to be OK with it (not to mention I can't imagine Cmdr. MacKenzie would just be super cool with it), so I' not sure if he just has that much confidence in his far-reaching power or he's bullshitting her to win her over, but I'm kind of leaning towards the latter. But he does know June's achilles heel. Seeming to miss the fact that Hannah would already be married off in this case, which is her #1 goal in trying to stop, she's just emotionally overwhelmed with the possibility of being able to be near Hannah. Lawrence reassures her of her safety by saying Nick has been helping with this pet project, he's been grooming Nick, not sexually (I mean clearly Nick is so attractive that it bears clarification). Luke is shockingly not so excited by this proposal. New Gilead Bethlehem is one place he does not want to move to (not that I blame him in this case). June argues that she would risk anything to be with Hannah again, "wouldn't you?" and Luke says "of course" but I mean he is also literally saying that he wouldn't, here, so it seems like a bit of a contradiction. He insists they focus on getting Hannah out, because that's worked so well so far, and June reminds him of what a fucking disappointment Tuello is (sorry, Mark!) and the uselessness of the entire remaining US government in general ("they're politicians, they don't give a shit about us"/"what has the American government done for us?"). He proceeds to call Jlaw a nazi and I was half expecting him to bring up June's "nazi" boyfriend as well but of course they dance silently around the topic of Nick as usual. The only thing I agree with Luke on here is that they should NOT take Nichole anywhere near those motherfuckers (or child fuckers, I guess). When Luke tries to egregiously mansplain June’s trauma and womanly emotions to her, it surprisingly doesn’t go over well. I'm also calling BS on his "I did that (turned Serena in) for you!", nah, my dude, you clearly did that for you. What also doesn't go over well is him saying "just let me protect you sometimes", but I very much appreciate that June and I seem to be on the same damn page here, because a second after I yelled "she doesn't fucking NEED your protection!!" at the tv (what, you don't do that??) she says basically the same thing to him. Amen, June. She doesn't need his protection, but Hannah does. Lawrence visits Serena in detention, and tells her he's generously "helped her" by convincing the Wheelers to let her return to her handmaid room in their house to nurse Noah. Lawrence talks about her breasts and then is done talking about her breasts. He reminds her the Wheelers have legal status to care for the baby, which I guess finally answers my question of their citizenship because they must (technically) be Canadian citizens then, not Gileadean, right? She still insists she will not "live in the same house as her child's kidnappers" which makes Lawrence correctly ask if she has an "irony deficiency" (I mean). At this point I think Serena does actually see what a flaming hypocrite she is but doesn’t give a fuck because she still thinks she's better than the hundreds of women she helped enslave as handmaids.

It’s nighttime and June is comforting an adorable little baby Nichole who is disturbed by the asshole protesters again. She sings her to sleep with a song she used to sing Hannah "let me be your mirror" and it's a very sweet moment (I didn't even notice the doll from Nick until others pointed it out but I love that attention to detail here). June softly tells a now peacefully sleeping Nichole that she wants her to know her big sister, that she would love her, and at this point I'm very much thinking about The Testaments, and I'm both sad about it and also kind of excited for it? I’m also kind of hoping they incorporate the song into the Testaments, as maybe a kind of vague hazy memory they both have. June wakes up the next morning still in Nichole's bed, hearing Luke and Tuello talking downstairs. She interrupts and Tuello tries to appeal to June's patriotism and sense of civic duty but she "not without my daughter”'s him. She continues to bully classified military information out of him but she's not happy with it. June has a heart-to-heart on the porch with Rita, who apparently has not actually dissipated into thin air after all. Rita tells her it would be crazy to consider going back but also that if her son was still alive, she would do anything and go to the ends of the earth to see him again. They have a touching moment of bonding and given how little we’ve seen of Rita this season I hope it’s not actually the last time we’ll see her.

June visits Serena (for a person with no friends she sure does seem to get a lot of visitors) to try and get more information on New Bethlehem. Interestingly, Serena knows that Lawrence has been pitching it "since the beginning" and it's been in the works for years, but she doesn't know much more. She says it seems he has more power than ever implying that maybe because of that he can actually make it work now, which is also interesting because he seemed very powerful, or at least revered, when we first met him, but I think back then he was probably trying to fly under the radar to protect Eleanor, now he's much more cavalier with blatant power moves since he has nothing left to lose except for his life (which he already thought was a goner after Angel's Flight) and his legacy (which ostensibly he is trying to save with this plan). Serena has her own agenda, though, she wants June to help her get out of detention and get her baby back. Really I'd think she'd have better luck trying her boyfriend Tuello, because June finally says what I think we were all hoping she would ever since last episode: "Serena, we are not FRIENDS". Serena, ever the narcissist, assumes June forgave her because she helped her and Noah, but June's like "actually I'm just a good person and a better Christian than you, bitch". June tells her to march her Viking ass back to the Wheelers scary mansion and gives her the 101 on how to be a vengeful, scheming handmaid, and it's pretty fucking delicious. She tells her "you can't help your child if you're not with them", clearly mirroring her own thoughts about Hannah and New Bethlehem. I like that there was kind of a mirroring and chain reaction of women and motherhood here: June asking Rita what she would do and then Serena asking what June would do, and it's different situations but basically the same answer. June walks away with new resolve and clarity, and pays a surprise visit to Lawrence, who appears to be at the Gilead embassy propaganda hub" information center" even though I thought it was supposed to be shut down, but maybe in the month that's passed they got the proper permits or whatever? She asks Lawrence to stop Hannah from getting married but hey, "Gilead's gonna Gilead". Not an acceptable answer, June does not want to stand by while her daughter is raped by someone twice her age, although honestly from what we've seen it's more likely to be 3 or 4 times her age (gag). She calls him out for being a sick fuck who created a world where women are abused and tortured, and in a rare moment of seriousness, he shows a glimpse of the full burden of guilt on his shoulders. If he'd known what would have happened he'd have just let the human race die out. He desperately tries to convince her of his plan working, not just to form the "utopia" of New Bethlehem, but for its more modern, liberal values to spread further into Gilead, making it a better, kinder, less murder-y, torture-y Gilead (in like 10-15 years). That's the thing, though. He seems desperate: for this to work, for it to not all have been for nothing, for Eleanor not to have died for nothing. I wonder if that will end up leading to his downfall.

Speaking of Eleanor, the next scene we see June out in her garden at night (her baby seedlings have graduated), and it reminded me of the scene in season 3 where June has to bury the killed Martha at night and sees Eleanor "gardening" in that spot the next day to help cover it up. She's looking up at the moon and thinking about Hannah, but then Luke interrupts her daydream to tell her she got a "package". Inside, they take a disc out of the mysterious envelope and I'm thinking 1) do people really still have disc drives on their laptops anymore?? and 2) I really wish we could tell whose handwriting that is on the envelope... It's a video of a line of girls at the wives school, and we see it zoom in on Hannah as she seems to notice someone filming, and stops for a second until her peers prompt her forward. I have to wonder who or what she’s seeing, as well as who sent the video. I at first assumed Lawrence as most logical(?) but if so he definitely shot his plan in the foot there (unless it’s part of a larger more devious scheme). Nick?? Will we ever know or is it just another mysterious plot device that will never be properly explained? Sigh.

June and Luke fight about New Bethlehem (again) and she lets out some resentment she must have held deep inside for a loong time:"What are you going to do? Same thing you've done for the last 7 years? Fucking NOTHING?" She immediately regrets it but while I think she was definitely sorry it came out in the way it did, I also think she still means it. And not even that she thinks Luke just happily sat on his hands; she knows that he did what he could, within his skills set and imagination. But she also knows from experience how useless, how in vain, that kind of action can be. And it was actually very refreshing to see her pissed at Luke for once, not deferential, or so careful of his feelings. While he is right that they could certainly be walking into danger with Jlaw’s proposal, that the minute they cross Gilead could put her on the wall, she's also right that his "I don't know, we'll figure it out" just isn't good enough any more. Luke's resentment comes out, too: "you stayed, you stayed for so many years!" , echoing him asking Moira in season 4: "did she choose this? She knew she'd probably never see us again". Which I feel like still comes from a place of ignorance and insecurity (and selfishness?) on his part. I mean, June literally passed up ONE opportunity to escape (end of s2 when she handed Nichole to Emily) and Nichole was born by then so "by choice" she "stayed" like 1 year max., but ok. I mean she tried to escape before while pregnant but got caught, and then she sacrificed herself to make Angel's flight even happen, if she didn't stay back as a distraction, none of them would have gotten away. June and Luke embrace at the end, after she breaks down, and they obviously have love for each other and always will for Hannah, but their relationship is clearly broken. Back at the NB gated community, Lawrence is now laying the sales pitch on Nick. Nick plays it close to the vest as always but he seems very skeptical. I don't think he wants June or Nichole anywhere near Gilead considering he's risked his life to get both of them out, and his number one priority is to keep them safe. He does not seem tempted by Jlaw's "sister wife" proposal. He wanted the beach in Maui with June and Nichole, not polygamy on this cold-ass beach in Gilead, damnit.

June and Luke have called Tuello about the Hannah video, and they're talking about metadata, and I'm thinking I really liking Tuello's contrasting clothing patterns here, when did he become such a fashionista, and then I'm thinking that I feel either really old or like an idiot or both because I have no fucking clue what metadata is. Data about itself? What does that even mean? How does one obtain a location from that? Was it included in the video on purpose so they could find the location? Or was it an unintended side effect? I still can't help but like Tuello even if he does have terrible taste in women and is kind of useless. Serena arrives back at her other prison the Wheelers, and is forced to suck up, much like June was in 2x04, except she’s not just been fully broken into a hopeless shell of herself, and she's still getting the extremely cushy version of being a handmaid.She’s putting on a contrite face to her wife and commander, but we can see how pissed she is by how tightly she’s clenching her hands behind her back.

Finally, after a quick and insincere "praise be!" (I think one of my favorite things in this show is actually when people say “praise be” as a “fuck you”), she hears her baby crying and runs up (all those) stairs, somehow not gasping for air, to find him being looked after by a sweet and lovely nanny, (so at least it's not just "cry-it-out" Alanis) who leaves him in her care. Serena has a beautiful, emotional reunion with Noah, who finally stops crying as she holds and breastfeeds him, certainly different from the scene where she tries to do that with Holly/Nichole back in the day (yikes, awkward, right?). Part of me wants to see what schemes Serena gets into as a handmaid-by-any-other-name but the bigger part of me would be extremely fine with her story line being at least much reduced, because as amazing of an actor Yvonne is, I really don’t think we need “The Handmaid Lite's Tale”. We get it, Serena is getting a taste of her own medicine, can she now just fade into obscurity?

June is super on edge waiting for Tuello to get back to them about the metadata (still don’t know what that means), and she excuses herself in the middle of dinner to go get apples for Nichole, because Nichole needs apples and they're out of apples, we don't have any apples, Moira! but she doesn't need help getting the apples. She's spacing out at the market, getting apples, when her phone rings and finally Tuello is on the line, miraculously telling her the news she's been dreaming of: the metadata(??) pulled through and they have the location of Hannah's school, and they're going to do a raid, they're going to get her out (you really can't actually hear that last part but I cheat and use the subtitles, so). June is overwhelmed, she is overjoyed, she is over these apples. She makes a mess and hugs the kindly grocer, before running giddily back down the street, full of hope and joy. And listen, I obviously know it was just a random excuse to get out of the house and keep busy but I also can't help thinking, "WAIT BUT NICHOLE NEEDS THOSE APPLES!" and honestly I have no idea why a toddler would need apples anyway (do they?? Do they even have strong enough teeth to eat apples? Apples are pretty hard. I told you I don't know shit about babies) and I don't know why I'm overthinking the apples this much, but still it kind of bothers me that she just completely abandons the apples the second she gets the news about Hannah and oh my god are the APPLES A METAPHOR??

Anyway, June arrives back at the house, much less breathless than I would be, having sprinted all that way (seriously, what is these women’s workout routine?) and tells Luke and Moira the amazing news. They're of course incredulous and overjoyed as well, jumping up and down in glee, and poor Mark FINALLY gets some love (geez, the poor guy's bound to have self esteem issues by now, right?).

The hopeful music swells as we cut to a beautiful preteen Hannah in another garden. It's not nighttime and the moon isn’t out but she is peacefully planting, looking up at the sky, and that still seems very a much a mirror to June earlier. The sound of jet engines roars in the background as we pan out to the birds eye view of the wives school yard, laid out in interlocking "U"'s. ** OK, I'll say it: god, could Luke have been any more condescending this episode? As much as he pissed me off, though, I was actually glad for their fighting, because at least it means they’re not skirting around the real issues anymore (well, except for Nick, I guess). It's so clear to me that the divide between them has been growing again ever since 5x06, with a distinct turning point coming at the end of 5x07, leading directly to their arguments here. He has tried to get on the same page as June, tried to understand her (and she's maybe tried...like, a little bit(?)... to see his perspective). But the fact is that despite their shared bond of their daughter, and as much as Luke hates what has and what could happen to Hannah, and that she's not there with them... I think at least a part of him has given up that they'll ever get her back. He never thought June would escape, probably never thought he'd have her back and be raising another child together. And even if he'll always mourn the loss of Hannah and feel guilty for not being able to protect her, it could be enough for him: to live a life with June and Nichole, move away, move on. But June will never be able to move on; not with Hannah in Gilead, her fate uncertain, married to god knows who. Nothing will ever be "enough" for her as long as Hannah isn't with her, or at least safe. Their arguments in this episode also speak greatly to their different experiences over these past years, which have informed how they now think and operate. Luke has been safe in Canada, though for the most part he's felt helpless here. Maybe at first hopeful that the Canadian government, or what's left of the US government, can do something, but growing more and more jaded of potential progress as time goes by. He's barely had any news or visibility on Hannah since she was taken at the age of 5, just a few photographs and what June relays to him. So I also think maybe Hannah, and the chance of getting her back, has become less and less concrete over the years, less and less of a possibility to him. June on the other hand, has actually seen Hannah multiple times, talked to her, even if the last time was traumatizing. She's been so close for years, which both makes Hannah, especially the current version, more real to June, and also makes June's guilt, and desperation, to save her even greater. But while Luke's sense of impotency probably grew as the bureaucratic avenue continued to fail, June actually found a greater strength she never knew she had in Gilead. Her will to survive, her burning anger and love for her child and then children formed her into a bolder, more empowered version of herself. She's achieved impossible things, or things that should have been impossible in Gilead: falling in love, having a healthy baby and getting her away to safety, getting 86 other children and 9 Martha's out, killing multiple commanders, getting out herself. So why shouldn't she keep believing, that no matter how crazy and impossible it may seem, that she can get Hannah out as well, and save her from the certain fate that awaits her in Gilead. More than that, she has to believe it, much like Lawrence has to believe he can make New Bethlehem a success and eventually reform all of Gilead. Also similar to Lawrence, she is desperate, and that can be dangerous, can cause a person to take serious chances despite the obvious risks. But I think that as long as she can be confident in Nichole's safety, she will risk her life and anything else for the chance of seeing Hannah safe as well. Like Lawrence, she feels like she will either see her mission to fruition, or die trying. And if this raid does not go as planned (which I don't think it will because you know why), even if June doesn't end up going to NB, I can't imagine that she and Luke can keep on like this. So we come full circle with the episode title, "Motherland". Lawrence of course refers to Gilead and New Bethlehem, specifically, as the "Motherland", which is interesting because considering the misogynist patriarchal bullshit that built it, you'd think he'd say "Fatherland". Whether it' Jlaw's nod to the fact that it's the mothers who are really doing the work in perpetuating the human race, or just PR lip service to June, the title also certainly speaks to the very specific and far-reaching territory of motherhood itself: as we see from June, and Rita, and even eventually Serena: a mother will never give up on her child, will risk her own freedom and safety to be with them (no matter who tells them they're being too emotional), and to protect them. It's perhaps the most powerful bond that can exist.

#the handmaid's tale #the handmaids tale season 5 #june osborne #nick blaine #osblaine #tht #tht s5 #Motherland #review #recap

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ask-anarky · 2 years

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as someone who wasn’t there for all that, I’d love to know more about the whole situation with kaos

Whoo boy, yeah thats a question she wouldn't answer.

It was two very long and heavy hitting arcs in the spider discord rp channels

(Promo for the discord x btw)

Effectively Gwen was captured, stabbed in the back by Kingpin a once close friend. And was experimented upon by Dr Warren Miles.

During this time she had a child, Kaos a symbiote that promptly ripped apart its cage, bonded with Gwen and internalised the bleakest most cynical and misanthropic version of her beliefs. Twisting them from killing can be justified against oppression to, the world is inherently bad and death is a mercy.

It was not a good bond for either party.

The Cluster (the discords pet name for the spider team) investigated her absence and found her location in two labs. Split up they took both at once.

One held Anarky who was promptly whisked away into a tube to the mysterious subsystem, while Gwens lab was.. barely intact.

See kaos was an infant, tortured and twisted by the circumstance of his birth but still a child. He was lashing out in self defence. Gwen stayed bonded to try and convince him otherwise. So they remained in the ruin of the lab, talking.

Cue the spiders who bust in, assume the worst and torch him with a flamethrower, horribly wounding Kaos and nearly killing Gwen.

Some other things happen but the short is he disappeared. Gwen went AWOL, wiping her memory of the trauma and the absence of Anarky and 451 went dark.

A few months later the spiders are called back in by a distress signal from Gwen's old A.I who is being salvaged by the resistance for Intel in Gwens absence. Now led by the Charismatic Vox, a man who wants very dearly to see Carlton drake dead.

The spiders follow his plans, fighting bad guys and infiltrating the subsystem, the abandoned subways of new york, now a high tech mag-rail system designed for ferrying supplies and staff between LF buildings.

They use this to get inside the tower and split once more, one half going to Dr Warren's lab for Anarky, the others helping Vox reach the top office.

Once there Vox reveals himself to be Kaos and tried to kill them, he fails, the spiders get away with Anarky and Gwen gets her memories back by bonding with her girlfriend once more.

An unsatisfying ending that leaves more questions than answers, just how I like it.

Oh and Drake got away.

#cw fire #AMArky

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rkmb · 5 years

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𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘮: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦

--- 𝕠𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕗

I’LL BE THE ONE ○ ○ ○ HAL ↪ 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪, 𝘴𝘰 𝘪’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘪 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮.

it’s all about the opportunities, the sacrifices, and the first breath of victory. elder go players would consider his style far too reckless and unappealing to discuss, yet he boasts a 2-dan title under his name. how he plays his games reflects how he lives his life; he will do what it takes to come out on top, even if it means giving up what makes him whole.

--- 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕒

CRUSH ○ ○ ○ DAVID ARCHULETA ↪ 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶? 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰?

LOVESICK FOOL ○ ○ ○ THE CAB ↪ 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘦��𝘵, 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦? 𝘪𝘧 𝘪 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘪 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵, 𝘪 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨.

they were once a volatile pair back in high school. they were the ups and downs, the colds and hots: a consistent, brewing storm. their break up was messy, and he swore never again. fast forward a few years when their hearts became numb, they reunited under a familiar guise. she captivated him, reminded him of all the good memories they had together. they decided to try again, and this time, he makes an effort to understand her better, to embrace those more distant parts of her as something unique to her.

--- 𝕪𝕠𝕟𝕘𝕤𝕦𝕟

A LITTLE TOO NOT OVER YOU ○ ○ ○ DAVID ARCHULETA ↪ 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵. 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦, 𝘪’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘵.

JUST SO YOU KNOW ○ ○ ○ JESSE MCCARTNEY ↪ 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘪’𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘨𝘰.

they’re the what could have beens and the what ifs. ever since middle school they’ve skirted around one another. he liked her, then he didn’t. and this cycle of like and unlike would repeat itself over the next ten years. they were always missing each other, always had the absolute worst timing. and now, they’re at a point where he considers her untouchable, yet at times, he still reaches out, wondering if she’ll ever look back.

--- 𝕛𝕒𝕖𝕓𝕦𝕞

BETTER THAN I KNOW MYSELF ○ ○ ○ ADAM LAMBERT ↪ 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘪 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.

there was a period of time when he was overly concerned about fitting in, about being popular, one of them. jaebum was his wake up call, his call for change, and to him, he owes his true confidence to.

--- 𝕜𝕪𝕦𝕟𝕘𝕤𝕠𝕠

NO ONE’S HERE TO SLEEP ○ ○ ○ NAUGHTY BOY ↪ 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭. 𝘰𝘩, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭.

the two of them are their grandfather’s pride. they each represent the lefts and rights of opportunities and victories. head to head, they compete for the title of the most successful. unfortunately, they’re both still human, and humans hurt.

--- 𝕥𝕒𝕖𝕪𝕒𝕟𝕘

NO END, NO BEGINNING ○ ○ ○ POETS OF THE FALL ↪ 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪’𝘮 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦.

they’ve been close friends since they were kids, and through all this time, taeyang was his anchor, his voice of reason. he eventually became the one suwoong sought when he needed someone to understand.

#RKPLAYLIST #RKLISA #RKYNGSUN #JBUMRK #RKTAEYANG #RKKYUNGSOO #whoo this took a while rip

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anonymousfiction211 · 3 years

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Seven minutes in heaven

Summary: After a party the team (which includes Loki) has another drink. They decide to play seven minutes in heaven. Loki, who you have a crush on, and you are pick. But the whole situations makes you uncomfertable. Luckily, Loki knows a solution. Word count: 2.252 words Warnings: Smut

The party was dying down a bit. The last guest who wasn’t an official part of the team had just left. Most of the night you spend with Loki, judging the other guests and laughing about the way some of them danced. And the rest you spend laughing with your other teammates. You liked that Loki was a real member of the team now. It took a long time, but he finally fitted in. You were one of the first persons that Loki connected with, and you had developed a crush on him ever since.

Whenever the two of you weren’t together at the party, you couldn’t help but glance in his direction. He was wearing his black suit and he looked way too good in it. Sometimes he would catch you staring at him and you quickly turned your head back to a conversation, you weren’t really listening to. You were hoping he didn’t saw the blush on your face. The only person who knew you liked Loki was Natasha. She wasn’t understanding at first, but once she was okay with Loki, she was pushing you to do something about it. ‘What is the worst thing that could happen if you tell him?’ she always said to you. The worst thing was Loki rejecting you, of course. ‘And what is the best thing that could happen?’ was always her follow-up. That would be Loki returning your feelings.

But even if it was worth a shot, you never could tell him. You were always shy when it came to guys you like. And this was not a guy you liked, this was a God. You were pulled out of your thoughts when Tony clapped in his hands. ‘Guys, afterparty!’ he boomed. The whole team grabbed another drink while sitting on the ridiculous large couch together. You ended up next to Natasha, which was great, but unfortunately Loki was on the other end of the couch. ‘Why haven’t you told him already?’ she asked you. ‘I- I can’t’ you whispered back. She rolled her eyes at you. ‘Let’s play a game’ you heard Tony suggest. Everyone agreed, a game could be fun. That was until you heard Natasha ‘Let’s play 7 minutes in heaven!’ she gave you a subtle wink.

‘What’s that?’ Thor asked. ‘Two people are chosen to spend seven minutes in the closet, and what they do in there is their business’ Tony explained to the people who didn’t know the game. ‘How do we choose?’ Steve asked. Natasha was already writing everyone’s name down on paper and putting it in a bowl. ‘I’ll pick from the bowl’ she said. You didn’t like where this was going. She put her hand in the bowl, playing with the tickets. She pulled the first one out ‘Ah, Y/N!’ she said slightly too happy for your liking. You glared at her, but she just smiled back at you. She pulled another ticket from the bowl ‘Loki’ she said. Everyone else was whoo-ing like a bunch of children and you felt yourself become redder and redder.

Loki looked a bit confused but stood up and walked towards you. He held out his hand. Now it was your turn to look confused. But you took his hand and he led you to the closet. The rest of the team was still snickering on the couch and you tried your hardest to ignore them. This felt really uncomfortable and forced. Loki opened the closet door for you, and you went inside. He closed the door behind him. The two of you were silent, you could still hear the team in the background, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. The closet was pitch black and you barely could see him. ‘Okay, I still don’t understand it. We’re locked in a closet for seven minutes. What are we supposed to do know?’ Loki asked. You didn’t answer him, how could you? You felt a hand on your shoulder and you immediately tensed up. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked you.

‘Ehm.. yeah’ you stammered. You took a deep breath and tried to relax. ‘This game is mostly played by teenagers. You can do whatever you want.’ you explained to him. ‘Alright, and what is it most people do in here?’ he asked. ‘Like I said, it is mostly played by teenagers. So, mostly the just fool around in here’ you answered a bit meekly. ‘I see’ Loki replied. ‘B- but like I said.. ehm.. you can do anything. Talking is also good’ you went on. That was when you heard Tony yell from outside ‘Loki and (Y/N) are awfully quiet, not much talking going on in there’. The rest of the team started whoo-ing again. You were standing in a dark closet with your crush, while the people outside thought you were busy getting it on, people you had to face in the next five minutes. This was the most uncomfortable moment of your life.

Suddenly you felt two hands grabbing your waist, Loki pulled you a bit closer. If you weren’t already tense, you would have tensed up now. ‘Close your eyes’ he said. Even tough it felt like you were going to be sick, you did as he told you. You felt a breeze around you and noticed that the team suddenly got quiet. ‘Open your eyes, love’ Loki told you. When you opened your eyes, you noticed that you were in Loki’s room. The moonlight lit up his room and you could finally see his face. He looked concerned at you. When you realized that the team was practically on the other side of the building you relaxed. Loki let go of your hips, something you hoped he wouldn’t. ‘You looked really uncomfortable, so I teleported us back here. You can leave if you want. Sorry you got stuck with me’ he laughed awkwardly. You furrowed your brow at that last comment. ‘Thanks, but it wasn’t you. Just the team outside made me feel a bit nervous’ you explained.

A smile formed on his face. He was beautiful when he smiled. Loki took a step towards you and put his hands back on your hips. ‘Hmm, in that case I quite like to finish the game’ he said. The most inappropriate thoughts crossed your mind, making you blush hard. ‘I love it when I make you blush’ he whispered in your ear. He grabbed your chin with one of his hands and you felt his lips almost touch yours. ‘May I?’ he asked. ‘Yes’ you whispered, your mind was racing, and you couldn’t believe this was happening. His lightly kissed you and your eyes fluttered shut. He tasted like pepper mint. Now you know why they called the game 7 minutes in heaven, he really felt like heaven. When he pulled away you put your hands behind his neck, pulling him back in. You felt him smile against your lips. The kissing became more heated. His lips felt right against yours and you felt his tongue sliding against them. You opened your mouth and his tongue slid inside of you. It was slowly circling your own tongue and you felt yourself become aroused.

Loki broke the kiss and tensed up a bit. ‘My love, if we continue now I’m not going to be able to stop’ he whispered to you. You looked into his eyes. They were filled with admiration and lust. You saw him clench his jaw, waiting for you to answer. You were ready to let him ravish you, but you loved that he waited until you actually told him that you wanted this too. You put your hands on his chest ‘Loki, don’t stop. I want you’ you told him. As soon as those words left your lips you felt his lips back on yours. He was kissing you passionately. You felt him move you backwards until your legs hid the bed. He put you down gently and crawled on top of you. You pulled his jacket of him and started to work down his buttons. Loki threw his shirt across the room and started to kiss you neck. You could feel his abs through the fabric of your dress and loved the way his back muscles moved beneath your fingertips. He let out a soft moan and you couldn’t help but giggle a bit. You undid his belt and he pulled down his pants. He was only wearing his boxers now, a sight to behold.

He suddenly grabbed your hips and flipped the two of you around. You were straddling his lap and felt his erection clearly against your core. You instinctively rolled your hips, making the God beneath you gasp. ‘Take off your dress’ he told you. You slowly undressed yourself, taking your time. You saw Loki become impatient and loved that you had that effect on him right now. Your dress was on the floor and the only thing you had on was your bra and thong. Loki grabbed your ass while changing in a seating position. He immediately undid your bra clasp and took it off. His tongue found your nipple and he started to circle it, making it hard. His hand found your other nipple, slightly pinching it. When he was satisfied with his work he laid back down. You started to kiss his neck, trailing downwards. You felt his breathing speed up when you got lower and lower. Your hands found the hem of his underwear and you pulled it all the way down. Loki was know laying completely naked underneath you and you took your time appreciating the sight. He rolled his hips making you gasped and fall forward a bit. Your hands were on his chest and your legs opened a bit wider. You could feel his full erection through the fabric of your thong.

You started to ride him slowly. When he wanted to protest that this wasn’t enough, you swallowed his words with a kiss. When you broke the kiss, you heard him growl. His hands found the side of your thong and he easily ripped the fabric. ‘Take me, now’ he said. He grabbed his cock and lined it up with your entrance. You sat down on his cock, slowly taking every inch of him inside of you. Once he was fully inside you started to move your hips. Loki grabbed your hips, guiding your movements. It didn’t take long before the two of you were moaning and panting. One of his hands slid from your hips and found your clit. He started to trace slow circles around it, smirking and mapping every reaction you had. You felt your orgasm build up, when suddenly Loki flipped the two of you around.

He grabbed one of your legs and threw it over his shoulder. The new angle made it able for him to pound deeper inside of you. He quickened his pace and started to play with your clit again. He was watching you intently and grinned widely when you started to moan his name. ‘I will never grow tired of that’ he huskily said to you. ‘Loki.. I’m close’ you panted. ‘Me too, come fore me (Y/N)’ he panted. Loki thrusted two more times when you felt your wall clench around him and an incredible sensation spreading from your core to the rest of your body. You came moaning his name loudly. After a few more thrusts Loki reached his own high. He collapsed on top of you, but after a few seconds supported himself with his arms, not wanting to crush you with his weight. You stroked his hair and he kissed you slowly. ‘I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time’ he said to you. You smiled at him ‘Me too’. Loki got up and handed you a towel to clean yourself up. He gave you a pair of his boxers and a dark green t-shirt. He himself was in a pair of black pyjama pants.

He laid back in his bed, pulling you against him. He laid on his back with you on his chest, starting to stroke you, and playing with your hair. When you remembered that you were at a party playing 7 minutes of heaven you tensed up. The team surely would be looking for the two of you right now. ‘Something wrong?’ he asked you. ‘Ehm.. aren’t you afraid they come looking? Shouldn’t we go back?’ you said to him. ‘No worry, my love. I left a note saying we were tired of them and that we left’ he said. Your heart fluttered when he called you ‘his love’. You relaxed in his arms ‘Thank you’ you whispered. ‘Anything for you’ he replied. It didn’t take long for you to fell asleep. You barely registered Loki kissing the top of your head, pulling you closer and wishing you a good night.

#loki #Loki Laufeyson #loki odinson #loki of asgard #loki marvel #loki mcu #Smut #shameless smut #loki smut #lokixyou #lokixofc #loki x reader #SWEET LOKI

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metamorphicrocky · 4 years

Text

adult animation appreciation post bc we've got some good shows lately

Bojack Horseman

a lot of us know it and love it, but for the ones who never got around to it, PLEASE watch it at some point in your life. it has so many good storylines centered around depression, addiction, sexism, repercussions of child abuse, and the daily struggles of living in this messed up world that we all know and can relate to. it'll punch you in the gut with some of the most unique storytelling you'll see in your life

Tuca & Bertie

created by the lead character designer of Bojack, this show may seem like a spinoff from the look but it isn't in the slightest. created and starring amazing women and letting women be funny in their own unique way that feels so genuine and following the story of these two crazy bird friends, I cannot tell you the emotional rollercoaster this one took me on. our mains struggle with anxiety and sexual harassment, with some great queer rep, and the stories are so fun and inventive that you can't help but have a blast

Final Space

I could talk about this show for DAYS, but I already have in this post so I won't go on a massive rant rn. it may look like a normal little scifi comedy show at the beginning, but this show'll blow you away with plot for days. if you want an action show that has consistent storylines, here ya go. it's so heartfelt, and it has stories revolving around coping with loss and loneliness by building new connections and new families, and it rips your heart out while leaving you shook over how great the animation and the soundtrack is

Castlevania

this one is insane. it is super gorey and violent with tons of swearing, but if you like that stuff you'll love this one. vampires and action with some stunning animation drags you in quickly, and the plotline is actually really good and you'll end up feeling for the characters so hard. their struggles are so investing and even if there's blood every second, it still manages to hook you quickly and wanna know what happens next. still haven't seen the new season yet, but I bet it's great

Primal

created by Genndy Tartakovsky, the legend behind Samurai Jack, so you already know this one is good. it's a short miniseries but whoo boy is it good. the animation is so nice, and this one is so unique. following the story of a caveman and a dinosaur becoming unlikely companions after loss, there is no dialogue. that makes it such a unique experience and it gets so emotional with some pure raw emotions that just crush you

The Midnight Gospel

the newest addition to the family, created by Pendleton War, the genius behind Adventure Time, this one messed me up in ways that I can't even put into words yet. it's an animated podcast with crazy trippy animation behind it and holy shit it is so unique. it takes time to process everything going on, but once in you get in the flow of it it hits you with emotions. following a guy who goes into a simulator to different worlds to interview people for his spacecast, expect for some great discussions of the struggles of hoping, coping with loss, and meditation. take your time with this one, it is so beautiful and funny

adult western animation is finally swinging up, and these are only some of the good ones. thought it would be good to advertise how not adult animation is ugly and just gross humor all the time, because people are finally telling stories that only adults can understand and relate to and feel, and I for one am absolutely here for it

#I am so happy that we're getting good shows nowadays that aren't just hideous #final space #primal #the midnight gospel #bojack horseman #tuca and bertie #castlevania #animation #adult animation

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hnychn · 3 years

Text

𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄

pairing: poly! bakusquad x gn! reader

summary: why settle for one lover when you could have five?

𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 🐝: ugh i love the idea of all five of these assholes in one relationship !! it just makes my heart 😫. lmk what you thought of it, i appreciate any constructive criticism that'll help me improve 🤍 i'm also working on a shoto work next so!! PS. this ended up being a lot longer than i thought, so i'll be making it into diferent parts!

𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 || 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨 || 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞

ur their baby

sorry

don't make the rules 🤷🏻‍♀️

so first and foremost, how you became a part of their relationship.

surprisingly, it was bakugo who brought up the idea to the others 😳

you're not in 1a, but you are in the support class. you make them gadgets 😌

and bakugo met you when the last student who was supposed to be responsible for his costume design and other shit refused to work with bakugo anymore

that was the sixth guy to quit

so you offered to pick up his work 😌

otherwise the storyline wouldn't continue

so bakugo goes to you after school and is like, "listen here you fucking extra-"

and that's as far as he got before you interrupted him and was like:

"no yOU listen you hot-headed cyndaquil! the only reason you should be talking to me is if you want to submit a request for your costume. other than that, don't look at me. don't speak to me. don't even breathe near me. GOT IT?!"

and he was just. . .😳 damn

highkey thought your yelling was hot

so the weeks pass and surprisingly he listens to you and doesn't speak to you outside of making requests for his costume or giving feedback

and your relationship with him is relatively stable

you're not friends but you can live together without ripping each other apart

there's a term for it but i forget what it is

he starts coming by more often because there's a kink in one of your gadgets

so you ask him to stay after school to test it out and figure out what the problem is

you end up talking

and you realise he's not as much of an asshole as you thought he was

and your relationship turns into more of a "friendship" but not if that makes sense?

like, "ok so i don't hate you, but i still hate you."

does that make sense? i how it does

anyways,

the two of you start saying hi in the halls or nodding at each other

bakugo's babies see this and are like ??

yOU MADE A FREND??

yes. yes he did 😌

so kirishima and mina try and convince him to introduce them to you

"why would i introduce you to that dumbass? they're nothing special."

he doesn't mean it, he's just flustered.

so kirishima, mina, kaminari, and sero start looking out for you in the halls

and they start picking up on your routine

without knowing they basically know your schedule

it's bakugo who points it out when kirishima said it was time to go

🦈 "oh! it's time to go guys!"

💥 "why? lunch isn't even over yet"

⚡️ "y/n usually goes to that vending machine by their art class during this time"

💥 ". . . how do you fuckers know that?"

and they're all silent like. . . how do they know that?

that's when it hits then that without them knowing, you slipped your way into their heart

because here they were,

right next to the vending machine where you always go 20 minutes before lunch ended to get a small snack

and when you get there and see bakugo surrounded by a bunch of people looking at you with starry eyed

". . . hi?"

mina lunges at you and asks how the hell you tamed bakugo

"easy, i beat his ass."

"NO YOU DIDN'T YOU FUCKER!"

and you just snort at his reaction and put some coins into the vending machine

"why do you think your gauntlet backfired yesterday, dumbass?"

and he blanks like. . .wait. . . wAIT A MINUTE

"THAT WAS YOU?!"

you nod, "wish i was there to see it though."

and you pout

fUCKING.

POUT.

and they all just feel their heart go doki doki

so the bell rings for class to start and you say goodbye to them and kaminari promises to show you the video he took of bakugo's gauntlet backfiring tmr at lunch

and while they're walking to class, none of them are talking

which is very unusual

but they all know their thoughts are only of you

it's kind of like an unspoken agreement that they're all falling for you

they have a hard time paying attention in class that day.

OK NEXT DAY!!

so you rush over to the bakusquad and practically throw yourself at kaminari

because you wanna see that video

you don't notice he's a blushing mess and the others are staring a bit bitterly because

:I i want that

so he shows you the video and you start laughing so hard

and it's so contagious and soon they're all laughing

except bakugo because he refuses to laugh at himself

but they suddenly hear someone calling your name

and you all look over and see some guy who's also from general studies

they see you roll your eyes and mutter, "fucking hell" under your breath

so it's safe to assume you don't like this guy.

"hey l/n."

"hey tanaka. . ."

the boy shoves his hands in his pockets, "so about that date saturday-"

you might have slapped the bakusquad in the face with a fish because holy-

they never considered you were seeing anyone and now they're kinda heartbroken because oop-

caught feelings too quick 🙊

but you grind your teeth, "it's not a date tanaka. the teacher paired us up for a project because he knows you're so incapable of doing anything on your own you have to be watched like a child."

anD WHOO BOY THEY WERE NOT EXPECTING THAT

kaminari snorts a bit before slapping a hand over his mouth

mina grabs kirishima's arm and burries her face into his jacket to stifle her laughs

kirishima and sero and just staring at each other with wide eyes and slowly growing smiles like "bro did they just say that?" "dude i think they did!"

and bakugo. . .

he's staring at you with the proudest look in his eyes and a smirk because yeah, that's his baby

wait what.

now the boy is a bit embarrassed that you said that in front of some of the school's top heroes

so he sputters a bit before walking away with a red face

💥 "damn i didn't know you had that in you, spit fire."

you stare at him a bit with a small blush at the nickname

and you sputter out a thanks before making an excuse to leave (something about banana milk)

and they all stare at each other

⚡️ ". . .did they . ."

🦈 "was that a-"

🍊 "holy fuck that was-"

💥 "-adorable."

mina is took shocked to say anything

during this time, you bang to realise your feelings for the group as well

but you thought you were being selfish for wanting all five of them

so you kind of avoid them for the next few days in hopes of your feelings going away

you change up your schedule

and when you see them or one of then in the halls you turn around and go another direction

they were a bit confused as to what they did

but kirisima assured them that you were probably just working out your feelings and they should respect that

so they did

and they pretended it didn't hurt when you suddenly dart the other way when you see one of them

they gave you your space

and they thought you would come to them when you had everything worked out

until bakugo cane storming into the dorms one day

he was obviously pissed, but his eyes were also a bit glossy

so they all dragged him to kirishima's room since it was closest and asked him was was wrong

💥 "that dumbass quit from making my items."

and they were all kind of shocked

like wtf ??

uhm, for why?

you had assured bakugo that you wouldn't be another one of those losers who resigned because of his eccentric personality

and yet here we are

they spend the rest of the night in kirishima' room comforting bakugo

because he really took it the hardest

like sure the others liked you too,

but bakugo spent the most time with you

and developed a deeper relationship with you than the others

so the next day,

kirishima wants to talk to you

so he goes to the support room and bumps into hatsume as she was walking out

he asks her if you're in

"oh, yeah they are, I'll go get them for you."

this is a lot longer than i thought it would be uhhh oops

so you come out, not knowing it was kirishima asking for you because hatsume was vague

only telling you, "someone wants to talk to you"

like ok specifics??

anyways

you're like. . . oop heyyy. . .

because you knew what he was there for

the two of you don’t say anything for a bit

you’re just staring at your shoes and he’s looking at you with a small frown on his face

lowkey he’s kinda disappointed in you

so he finally speaks first

“you quit.”

it’s not a question, or something you were expecting

but you nod

there’s another silence

“why?”

you fiddle with your fingers for a bit.

now this was a question you were expecting, though, you didn’t want to answer

kirishima is a patient boy though, and waits for you to gather the courage to tell him

he’s not leaving without an answer

“i just-” you begin, “i. . .”

kirishima is still waiting patiently for your answer

“i don’t want to be selfish.”

now he surprised. wdym selfish. please explain.

“it’s just- you all already have such an established relationship and i don’t want to interrupt that. you guys have a schedule. adding myself into the mix would only mess all of that up, and no matter how strong my feelings are for all of you, i could never mess up your relationship like that. it would be so selfish of me to put my feelings before all of yours, so i thought the only way to get rid of these feeling as to distance myself from all of you...”

“starting with bakugo...” kirishima whispered after your rambling came to an end.

you nodded

kiri was at a stand still for a bit

and it was silent once again in the hall

kiri knew his lovers had feelings for you too, and would have no problem adding you into the relationship,

but he also knew he couldn’t fore you into anything

he was about to reassure you that you wouldn’t be interrupting anything and that they would love to have you in the relationship

but then you were tackled

to the ground

by kaminari

and smacked your head against the floor

really hard

like, you passed out

ahaha. . .

when you wake up, your head feels like it’s going to split open

and the loud voices aren’t helping

so you let out a groan, “shut the fuck up...”

and everything goes silent.

until someone SCREAMS AGAIN

“YOU’RE AWAKE!”

it’s kaminari

bless his soul

poor baby is a bit slow

so you groan out again and clutch your head

bakugo slaps the back of kaminari’s head

“shut the fuck up, dunce face!”

he whisper shouts

mina hands you some pain killers recovery girl said you give you when you woke up, and sero hands you a glass of water

they’re all watching you as you take the pills

it’s silent for a bit

and it’s making you anxious, so you fiddle with the empty glass for a bit before bakugo snatches it from you,

“dumbass...” he muttered as he refilled it and handed it back to you

sero rubs the back of his head, “so...”

mina pulls at the hem of her sweater, “we heard everything you said to kirishima.”

kaminari sits next to you on the bed and whispers, “sorry for tackling you. i just got a bit emotional...”

I'm so sorry this is getting so long 😭😭 i'm trying to wrap this up so if it gets a bit jumbled, my bad

so they all reassyre you you're more than welcome into their relationship and wouldn't be interfering with anything

so you agree

and they're all so happy 🥳🥳

and while everyone is celebrating

(quietly because your head still feels like shit)

bakugo comes up to you

"you better start making my items again, dumbass. those other dipshits in your class don't know what they're doing."

bakugo only said that because they weren't you but he'd never outright say that to you

OK ITS OVER OH MY

IT GOT SO LONG IM SO SORRY LMAO

#imagines #mha #bakugo imagine #mha imagines #bakugo katsuki #bakugo katuski x reader #angst #mha headcanons #headcanons #mina x reader #kirishima x reader #kaminari x reader #sero x reader #mha poly #poly bakusquad #bakugo x reader

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bsdwhore · 3 years

Note

AA please drop some hcs for chuuya and ranpo for shyer s/os , but are quite loud mouthed to anybody but them at the same time ✋🏻 ( and whoever else ude like too add if u please ) okay okay have a good day/night <3

( also u should turn on anonymous asks if u havent since ion got the option 😭 )

-----------------------------------

a/n: ty for the request hope u like this it took me a while i apologise :)

Ranpo & Chuuya With A Shy Yet Loud Mouthed S/O

Chuuya:

this man is so sweet and understanding about the fact that you can be shy

like he wont take you to social events if you feel uncomfortable and don't want to despite this man literally being the life of party have you seen his mayoi cards omg

he literally lowers his voice and speaks softly too bc this man yells a lot *car noises* uuuuuurrrryyyyyYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

i cant be the only one who watches chuuya yelling compilation religiously-

anyway so when this man finds out you’re loud mouthed he is SHOCKED

his face is literally like °o°

is so proud

loves you even more

he’s loud mouthed too so you guys r just shouting at everyone

no one can win a fight with you guys

and absolutely no one wants to be on you guys bad side

#powercouplewow

dazai DESPISES you guys

everyone is scared of you the most in the pm tho they think you put up a shy front and lure people in then BAM UR SCARY

tachihara’s words not mine

😭👆

Ranpo:

has experience with shy people due to poe so knows just EXACTLY how to treat you

by that i mean he DELIBERATELY takes you to social events and makes you speak to people in the ada

sometimes he’ll make you speak FOR HIM to random people bc he’s too lazy and you want to die rip y/n 2021

says he’s doing it to help you not be shy

this mf

but if he can tell you’re really upset then ofc he wont and will give you his snacks and unconditional cuddles

when he first witnesses your loud mouth ness

he’s actually surprised

his detective skills didn't pick this up

ofc he wont admit that tho and pretend he knew all along lmao

roots for you in every fight you get yourself into

yosano: whatcha doing ranpo

ranpo: *eating popcorn* just watching y/n shout at some people WHOO LOOK AT MY S/O BEING RUDE TO PEOPLE LOOK AT THEM GOOO

yosano: WHOO YES LOOK AT THEM GO *starts encouraging you with ranpo*

(im out of ideas im sorry-)

#chuuya x reader #chuuya nakahara x reader #chuuya hcs #chuuya headcanons #ranpo x reader #ranpo hcs #ranpo headcanons #ranpo edogawa #dazai x reader #bsd x reader #bsd hcs #chuuya nakahara #chuuya x you #chuuya x y/n #ranpo x y/n

338 notes · View notes

fiddlepickdouglas · 3 years

Text

Viva Las Vegas, Pt. 1 - Ribbit

Summary: Sunset Curve Alive AU, Willex, THE meetcute of meetcutes. 2.1k

Edit: thank you so much @trevor-wilson-covington for the pretty edit!! I'm in love with it!

Alex drummed his fingers on the armrest of his seat in the van. The drive from Los Angeles to Vegas was just short of four hours, but it had been an early morning and it was going to be a long day. He was feeling the carsickness sit just under the threshold of dangerous and rolled down the window.

“Whoo! Twenty miles boys!” Luke called out as they passed a sign on the freeway, clapping Bobby on the shoulder from behind.

“Woohoo!” Bobby responded in excitement.

“Think you’re gonna make it, buddy?” Reggie looked over at Alex. Alex turned only a fraction of the way toward his friend and gave a half-hearted nod.

“Hey man, let us know if we gotta pull over,” Luke said.

He simply nodded. Next time he wasn’t going to sit in the back.

The other three were jamming to whatever Luke was riffing on his guitar. Bobby thankfully drove at a slower pace as they approached the final stretch toward their destination. The ache in his stomach didn’t get better, but it also didn’t get worse so he was banking on it calming down once they stopped.

“Hey, guys, we wanna stop somewhere and get breakfast first?” Bobby called out to the rest of them.

“Oh yeah!” Reggie said. “I think I could go for some pancakes.”

“Oh, pancakes sound real good right now.” Luke echoed.

“Alex?” Bobby peeked into the rearview mirror at him.

Looking up from the view outside, he just shrugged. It didn’t matter. He wasn’t sure he could handle food no matter what it was.

Eventually they pulled off the freeway and kept their eyes peeled for an open restaurant.

“I see pancakes!” Reggie cried, pointing at his target.

“They’ve got an arcade next door, I second that vote!” Bobby said.

As they parked and clambered out of the van, the boys stretched and shook their limbs. They entered the diner and found a booth, practically collapsing together on the table. Alex placed his face in his hands and tried taking in deep breaths to calm his stomach. A sudden voice was heard beside the table.

“Good morning starshines, the earth says hello! How are we doing today?” Sounded like a waiter. Alex felt rude, but didn’t bother to look up. He felt Luke nudge a menu under his elbow.

“Oh, we’re hungry!” Reggie responded.

“Awesome, guys,” the waiter said. “Anything I can get started for you?”

“We’ll go with water,” Luke spoke for everyone at the table. “And, sorry about him, he’s not feeling good.” Alex assumed this was about him and sighed.

“Okay, so water for everybody? Alright, I’ll just grab those for you while you prepare your orders.”

As the waiter left, Luke tapped Alex’s shoulder.

“How you doin’, Alex?”

“Not blowing chunks, I guess,” he groaned.

“Hey, guys,” Bobby started saying. “How about we pick what we wanna eat, and then I want to check out the arcade while we wait for our food.”

“That’s a good idea,” Reggie said, perking up. “I hope they have Galaga.”

“I’m down,” Luke said. “Alex, you wanna wait here for us? You can give the guy our orders and then just chill.”

“Maybe that stomach will settle down,” Reggie added.

Alex lowered his hands and rested them on the table.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I need the space anyway. Thanks.”

“Cool,” Luke hopped up from his seat. “Uh, I’ll just do the buttermilk pancakes.”

“Make that two buttermilk pancakes!” Reggie said, holding up his fingers.

“Eggs and sausage,” Bobby told him. “And buttermilk pancakes.” He patted Alex on the back as the three of them ventured next door.

At least they were easy to remember. Alex looked around the restaurant as he kept breathing in and out slowly. He was the only person there. That was surprising for a diner just outside of Vegas around ten in the morning. He didn’t mind the quiet, though. Having all this space to himself was already helping him feel better.

A guy with long dark hair approached him with a tray carrying glasses of water. Alex gulped as he watched, his breath catching in his throat. He took in the tie-dye shirt, the ripped jeans, and puka shell necklace and guessed he was probably from California as well.

“Whoa, where’d they all go?” the waiter asked, smiling a little in confusion.

Alex blinked.

“They, uh, they went to the arcade,” he managed to get out. He couldn’t help it, this guy had a nice smile.

“Ah,” the guy raised his eyebrows and began placing the water on the table. “And they left you behind? That sucks.”

“I’m okay,” Alex said. “We’ve just been on the road for a bit and I got kinda carsick, so I needed some space anyway.”

“I’m sorry, man,” the waiter said. “Did they decide what to eat before they bailed?”

“Uh, yeah,” Alex shifted to face him better. “They all want buttermilk pancakes and then one guy also wants eggs and sausage.”

“Three buttermilks…” the guy muttered as he wrote them down. “Eggs and sausage. And do you know what you want?”

He looked directly into Alex’s eyes as he rested the tray under his arm and it took everything Alex had not to melt right there. Don’t look at his lips, he thought. He was pretty sure his eyes had betrayed him but he forced his gaze downward as a cover.

“I’m sorry,” he said, flustered. “I actually forgot to look at the menu.”

“Right, ‘cuz you were carsick, sorry” the waiter chuckled, running a hand through his hair. Alex bit his tongue.

“I should probably get some food still,” he managed to say. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

“Right on. I could recommend some toast - that’s always easy on the stomach. That comes with eggs, and I could add in some banana for you.”

“That actually sounds great,” Alex told him. “I’ll just do that, then.”

The waiter smiled and bit his lip.

“‘Kay!” He lifted the tray from under his arm and headed back toward the kitchen, doing a little skip before disappearing inside.

Alex felt his hands shaking and he sat on them for a minute. Looking around the empty diner, a thought occurred that somehow with just him and the waiter it had seemed full. The strange feeling crept all over him, like a new exhilarating energy, and he moved his hands back up. The waiter popped back out of the kitchen and came back toward Alex in a cavalier fashion.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked. “I don’t exactly have other people to help and I feel bad leaving you all by yourself in here.”

“Make yourself at home,” Alex said, gesturing to the seat across from him. Make yourself at home? What is that? he berated himself.

The guy extended a hand for him to shake. “I’m Willie, by the way.”

“Alex.” As he took it, Alex returned the firm grip he received and they both chuckled a bit at noticing each other’s strength. Willie sat down and immediately grabbed a napkin from the dispenser.

“So you said you and your friends have a long day ahead of you?” he asked.

“Oh right,” Alex couldn’t believe he had forgotten about the guys for a minute. “We’re a band, so we’ve got a gig opening for Julie Molina tonight.”

“Wicked,” Willie smiled and nodded, folding the napkin into something Alex wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be. “Who’s Julie Molina?”

“Oh, she’s just a good solo artist - does a little bit of everything. My buddy Luke is really into her.”

Willie nodded some more, continuing to fold the napkin.

“And who are you guys?”

“We’re Sunset Curve,” Alex said. “I’m the drummer.”

“Right on! You guys just becoming a thing?” Willie raised his eyebrows.

“I mean, I guess so,” Alex hadn’t exactly thought about it. “Opening for Julie is a big step for us.”

He watched Willie’s hands work until he finished. It turned out to be an origami frog.

“Ribbit,” Willie said, pressing on the top to make it look like it was moving. The napkin material didn’t exactly lend to bouncing up and down, which made them both giggle. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be distracting.”

“I don’t mind,” Alex said. “It’s entertaining.”

He realized how widely he was smiling and laughed to himself.

“What about you?” he asked.

Willie straightened his posture and ran a hand through his hair again. He flailed his arms and blew out his cheeks before holding one arm with the other and leaning on the table.

“Making it on my own for now. I just do whatever feels good, you know? Make a few bucks, get out and enjoy what I find. Don’t need a whole lot to be happy.”

Wow, Alex wanted that kind of chill. He picked up the origami frog.

“What do you do when you’re not here? Besides these, of course.”

Willie shrugged.

“Skate. Be free.” He smiled, but sighed heavily. Alex saw a distant look in his eyes, but knew now wasn’t a time to address it. “I see Vegas in all its glory. You should see the lights at night.”

“Won’t I see them tonight?”

Willie shook his head.

“Not the right way,” he told him. “Not at the right angle. I would show you, but you’ve got your gig and everything.”

Alex opened his mouth to reply, but a head stuck out of the kitchen door. A man with dark hair and chiseled features looked at Willie and all he did was glare authoritatively.

“I’m - coming,” Willie stammered, rising from his seat.

Alex realized his mouth was still open and he shut it, unhappily swallowing what he’d wanted to say.

“That was my boss,” Willie said, already in a hurry. “I’m sorry, I’ll be back when your food’s ready.” He rushed off and the diner felt empty and cold again.

As if on cue, Luke, Bobby and Reggie burst back through the door. Luke and Reggie were celebrating while Bobby seemed a little less enthusiastic.

“Dun-geon slay-er!” Reggie proclaimed in a mock deep voice. “Too bad we can’t stay longer and go for that tournament today; I would have whooped everyone.”

They all sat and immediately gulped down their waters. Bobby remained quiet.

“How was the arcade?” Alex asked.

“It was sweet,” Luke reported. “Bobby’s mad because Reggie mopped the floor with him.”

“The joystick wasn’t working right, it wasn’t a fair outcome,” Bobby defended.

“Oooohhh,” Reggie made a silly face and wiggled his fingers. “Bobby only loses when the game doesn’t work, ooohhh!”

Alex shook his head and laughed mildly. He only noticed then that his stomach had stopped bothering him completely. He hadn’t even felt it when he’d been talking with Willie. He finished his own water, and was happy not to feel anything as it went down. The origami frog was still on the table.

“Hey, Alex,” Reggie said, picking it up. “Did you make this?”

“Oh, no, Willie did,” he told him.

“Who’s Willie?” Luke asked.

Speak of the devil - the kitchen door opened and Willie came out carrying their plates.

“Alright, we got pancakes, pancakes, more pancakes,” he said, placing them where they belonged. He glanced at Alex quickly, but it was too quick to read. “Who had the eggs and sausage?”

“That was me,” Bobby said, raising his hand.

“Okay,” Willie passed it over to him. “And toast and eggs with a banana.” He smiled as he set it down before Alex. “And it looks like you all need more water, I’ll be right back!” He was gone too quickly again.

The change in his mood unsettled Alex, but maybe it was because Willie was working. As he saw Willie returning with the water pitcher he had an idea.

“Hey Luke,” he said. Luke turned to him expectantly as Willie silently poured water in their glasses.

“Where are we playing again?”

Luke looked confused. Willie was listening intently.

“The Pearl, why? How could you forget?”

“And what time do we play?”

“Eight o’ clock. You sure you’re feeling better?”

“Yeah. I was… I was just testing you, cuz sometimes you don’t remember.”

Luke looked around the table defensively.

Reggie shrugged. “He’s right. But you remembered this time!”

Alex felt bad about starting Luke in an argument as he listened to them continue, but he knew it would blow over quickly. He caught Willie looking back at him and nodding as he walked away. As he returned to his food, Bobby smirked at him and shook his head. Heat rose in his cheeks and he focused on his toast.

#julie and the phantoms #jatp #fanfic #jatp fanfic #willex #alive au #alex mercer #willie #luke patterson #reggie peters #bobby wilson #julie molina #viva las vegas #ribbit #fiddlepickdouglas #meetcute

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annab-recs · 3 years

Text

It’s My Fault - JJ Maybank

After you and Pope have a run-in with Rafe and Topper on a grocery delivery, things get out of hand quickly. You beg Pope not to tell JJ about what happened to you and he doesn’t tell him for a little bit before spilling your secret to his friend.

Requested by @maybebanks 💙

Warnings: some curse words; physical and sexual abuse (if you are being abused of any sort whether it is physical, verbal, mental, sexual, or whatever, get help please. My messages are always open for any of you and I love you)

Word Count: 2.6k+

--------------------------------------------------

“You guys get these groceries over to Figure Eight. Get straight back here when you’re done. No fishin’. I promised delivery by this afternoon,” Heyward told you three as you and Pope grabbed some bags from his grasp to load onto the boat.

“Rich folks don’t want to wait for you lazy sons of… Oh, JJ, thank you,” He said the last bit with sarcasm dripping from his voice before continuing his sentence, “…sons of bitches.”

“Right,” Pope answered to his father as he took the last bit of the bags before telling his dad goodbye.

“Don’t worry Heyward. I’ll make sure all the deliveries make it on time,” you grinned while speaking to the man. He chuckled before rolling his eyes.

“I’m sure you will, y/n. See y’all later.” That was the last you three heard before he slipped back into the store and you all took off to the land of the kooks.

…

“Doesn’t even look like the storm hit here,” Pope observed while he manned the boat. You and JJ looked out to notice the clean yards and electricity that the kooks had. Not a limb was seen in any of their yards. It was spotless and appeared to be untouched on this side of the island. If you only looked at this side of the island, you wouldn’t have been able to tell that a hurricane had hit.

“That’s because they got generators, bro. Get used to it. And then they say the juice will be out all summer at the cut,” JJ informed you two. You rolled your eyes at how unfair it was, but there was nothing that you could do about it.

“It’s nice to be a kook,” Pope muttered under his breath.

“Lucky bastards,” you agreed before y’all pulled up to your first stop which JJ would be going to fulfill. He went to the back to grab his bags and gave you a quick kiss on the cheek before getting off at the dock to deliver the goods.

…

“Hey, what’s up?” the voice of the one you hated most rang in your ears. Rafe Cameron. You and Pope were walking through the golf course to get to your next delivery and as luck would have it, you ran into Rafe and Topper.

“Hey, how much for one of those beers?” Rafe asked as he poked the box you had in your arms with the handle of his golf club.

“They’re not for sale,” Pope spoke firmly before stepping in front of you. You tried to match his firmness by standing tall but weren’t sure you were doing so well. Rafe always bugged you. He would openly flirt with you even though you were with JJ. He would always stand too close, try to touch you, and made you uncomfortable overall. All the pogues knew about this and Pope gave you a sympathetic look, wishing he would have left you at the boat, but you wanted to join him instead of sitting around.

“Oh, wait, wait, wait. You can just give us one, then, right?” Rafe pressed as he put his club in front of Pope to get him to stop walking forward.

“Or you can order one like everybody else,” Pope told him before trying to walk forward again, but this time, Rafe’s hand stopped him.

“Listen. Wait, wait, wait. You’re not listening to me. Um, you’ve got so many, bro, and we’ve got nothing,” Rafe said as he stepped closer to Pope.

“Nothin’,” Topper added to Rafe’s bullshit.

“They’re not ours,” you spoke up from behind Pope. “They’re already paid for.”

“Already paid for?” Rafe asked as he peered into one of the bags that Pope held before slipping his golf club into it. “What the hell? You probably stole ‘em, right?” he pondered as he ripped the bag open with his golf club, allowing glass to shatter and ears of corn to spill everywhere.

“What the hell? You owe for that,” Pope warned the two, but they didn’t seem to care as Rafe swung the club at the other bag the Pope had, spilling the contents of it everywhere as well.

“Dude, I don’t own you shit, pogue,” Rafe spat as he stomped up to Pope.

“Buy your own shit!” Pope shouted and pushed Rafe away from him to protect you and possibly the beers, but you were far more important to him. He grabbed the beer box from you because he knew if you held them, then they would come for you.

“We just want one of these beers! Just give us one of these-” Topper started before he went in to take the beers from Pope, but Pope wasn’t going down without a fight.

“You guys are freaking crazy!” you screamed at the boys. The whole situation was ridiculous, but those kooks always had to be superior in all things. At least, they thought that. Topper and Pope wrestled with the beers before Topper eventually pushed Pope away, causing him to hit the ground harshly and roll a few times before he moaned in pain.

“Shit!” Topper yelled as he stumbled back with the force of the push which caused the beers to slip from his grasp and hit the ground as well. “Shit, my bad, man.”

Pope laid there, groaning. As you were about to go and check on him, he got up and charged at Rafe. Just when he was about to throw a punch, Rafe hit him in the gut with the end of the club. You screamed as Pope hunched over and you watched Rafe smack him in the back with his club again.

“Rafe! Stop!” you yell again.

“Hey! Rafe, Rafe! Come on, man!” Topper shouted, trying to get Rafe to leave before someone gets seriously hurt, more than they already have. You did not really know how to help, so you just kept yelling at him to stop.

“Stay down, bitch!” Rafe warned Pope as he towered over his body that laid on the ground in pain.

“Hey, let’s go! Let’s go, man!” Topper got in between Rafe and Pope to once again try to calm the situation and get an incredibly angry Rafe out of here. It did not work, so you went next.

“Rafe,” you spoke softly as you placed your hand on the side of his face. “Look at me.”

Rafe’s face lost most of its anger before a mischievous smile grew on it. He brought your body close to his before turning you around to have your back flush to his front side. The hand that wasn’t on his club found your neck and held you still. Once Pope noticed this, he tried to make it stop, but Topper told him that it was best to back off. Pope didn’t listen so Topper held him back.

Your heart dropped when you felt something touching your lower area. Rafe had the golf club run up your leg until it met your center and he rubbed it with the head of the club. Rafe’s hand left your neck and found your breasts. His head nudged your head to the side to allow him access to press his lips to it.

He did not listen to both Pope’s and Topper’s protests that told him to stop. You couldn’t even speak from how in shock you were. All you could think about was JJ and how much he would hate you for this. He would hate that you let this happen to yourself. He would hate it. Then, he would try to find Rafe and fight him, which would get him hurt and you don’t want that.

You were tuned out in your mind, not even feeling or realizing the touches until you felt his hand slip underneath your shorts. Tears welled up in your eyes, threatening to fall, but then you spoke up.

“Rafe, please stop,” you whimpered. He licked a stripe up your neck to your ear lobe before whispering in your ear.

“Until next time, princess.” With that, he stopped all actions before pushing you off of him. At that time, Topper let go of Pope and you fell into Pope’s arms, finally feeling somewhat safe again. Pope made sure it was okay to hug you before he tightened his grip on you to make you feel more safe.

“Top, let’s go!” Rafe yelled at the boy with frosted tips as he walked away. Topper looked at you and Pope in shock, never expecting his own best friend to do that. Your dull eyes met Topper’s blue ones and you saw sympathy flash in them.

“Hey, let’s go!” Rafe yelled again. This time, Topper listened before mindlessly following the Cameron boy.

“Are you okay?” Pope asked as he pulled back to look into your eyes.

“No, but I will be. What about you?” Based on the blood on his face, he did not look too good.

“Same as you. Let’s head back to the boat.”

…

“How are you going to tell JJ?” Pope asked as you two were on the way to go pick the blond up from his delivery.

“I’m not. I can’t. Not right now anyway and you aren’t either. Let me tell him when I am ready, okay?” Reluctantly, he agreed. This was something for you to tell him, not Pope. You sat down in the corner like you were earlier and pulled your knees to your chest.

“Y/n! Pope!” you two heard the giggles of your boyfriend as he ran down the dock and came onto the boat. “Dude, you are not going to believe what just happened to me, man! Whoo! That was the best hundred bucks I’ve ever made! When I say count me in on all these grocery deliveries, Pope, I mean it.”

“What’s up with you two? Bro, you good?” JJ asked as you and Pope stayed oddly silent and Pope wore a scowl on his face, staring blankly out into the water ahead of him. JJ leaned forward to get a better look at Pope before noticing some blood. “Yo, what happened to your face, dude?” JJ questioned before he lifted Pope’s hat to see all the damage that had occurred earlier. “Jesus! What happened?”

“Rafe and Topper jumped me. They said no pogues on their side of the island,” Pope told him the bare minimum which you were thankful for.

“Where were you, y/n? Because I swear if they laid a finger on you, I will-” JJ started as his anger built up at the thought of them even touching you.

“No! Babe, Topper held me back from interfering, but that was it. I didn’t get hurt or anything.” JJ nodded before turning back to Pope to deal with his situation.

“What are you gonna do?”

…

You were happy with your decision to not tell JJ because he convinced Pope to sink Topper’s boat. If he had known what had actually happened, there was no telling how far he would have gone and how much trouble he would get in for his actions. You were already scared of what might happen if they get caught for sinking the boat.

Now, everyone was at the chateau, just hanging out. You were on the couch with JJ, all cuddled up. Pope was sprawled out on the pullout and John B and Kie were outside starting a fire for you all before you guys went out to lay on the hammocks.

JJ had his hands on you the entire time, whether they were on your thighs or your waist. They were always on your body somewhere. Then his lips connected to your neck, right where Rafe’s tongue was hours earlier. You shuddered at the thought before shifting around uncomfortably in your seat.

“You good, princess?” The last word rang in your ears. JJ had always called you princess, but now it felt different. It felt different because it’s what Rafe called you when he touched you. It did not give you butterflies anymore. Instead, it made you sick. You felt the bile rising in your throat, but you made sure it didn’t make an appearance.

“I’m gonna get something to drink. You two want anything?” you asked as you rose from your place on the couch. JJ eyed you before shaking his head. Pope declined as well. You walked over to the next room before opening the fridge to look for something to drink. You could not hear it, but JJ was whispering to Pope about you.

“Dude, what happened earlier? She’s been acting weird ever since. It had to be more than just Topper holding her back,” the blond quietly asked his best friend. Pope looked over at you searching through the fridge for a beverage, completely unaware of the conversation your boyfriend and best friend were having. It would be the perfect time to tell JJ, but he promised you. He wanted to tell him because it is what is best for you, but he promised he wouldn’t. He was beginning to regret that promise.

“I don’t know what her deal is,” Pope responded, keeping it short and sweet.

“Did she talk to you about anything? Like our relationship? It’s just something feels off between us. She’s been weird about me touching and kissing her which she has never done. It’s freaking me out. I don’t want her to break up with me.”

“She’s not going to break up with you,” he softly spoke. “I wish she would just tell you,” Pope muttered under his breath.

“Tell me what?” JJ asked. Pope looked at him with wide eyes. He did not intend for JJ to hear that last part. There was no getting out of it now and he probably wouldn’t have been able to keep the secret in for much longer anyway. It was eating him alive.

“Okay, don’t freak out, but Topper didn’t just hold her back. When Rafe was beating me with the club, she stepped in between us and Rafe started to touch her in places he shouldn’t and kissed her neck and stuff. When I tried to help, Topper held me back. There was nothing I could do,” Pope blurted out. He watched your head pop up from behind the fridge door before you slammed it shut, anger filling your veins.

“Don’t freak out? Pope, I’m going to kill those bastards!” JJ shouted as he stood from the couch.

“This is exactly what I didn’t want. Thanks for nothing, Pope,” you spat before you stormed out of the chateau with tears streaming down your face. It was the first time you really came to terms with what happened. It was like it was real now that JJ knew. You had been kind of dismissing it up until now. You hated yourself for it. You felt like you walked right into it. You grabbed his face. You initiated it. You allowed it. It was your fault. You should have just stayed in the boat like you were supposed to but, you didn’t want to be alone.

“Wait, y/n!” JJ called out to you as he ran after you. He ran in front of you and stopped you in your tracks.

“You know this isn’t your fault, right? And I won’t leave you or think any less of you. I love you, y/n. If you really don’t want me to fight them, then I won’t, but I think something should be done. It’s up to you though. Can I hug you?” You nodded before falling into his arms as you broke down in them. Everything you were scared of, he made you feel better about. He was so caring and sweet. He loved you and you loved him. You had nothing to be ashamed of. You did not cause this. It was not your fault.

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shapa-likes-art · 3 years

Text

Chapter one: Now or never

Warnings: death of major characters, food/battery poisoning (it's unclear). Tell me to put more warnings if needed.

Pairings: Eventual Prinxiety and Intrulogical

Summary: upcoming band, sunset curve, are about to make their debut at the orpheum when a serious tragedy occurs on the night of their performance. (Set in 1995)

A/n: here is my crappy writing bringing to you my Julie and the Phantoms au- er, Roman and Phantoms in this case? Haha, sorry! Besides that, there is are going to be links right before a performance/singing scene and it's highly recommended that you give it a listen before continuing on!

First | Next

Taglist: @that-peach-anon @thunderholtz @anxious-chaos-art @arcticfrostdoesthings @cirishere

It was a loud and busy night in sunset boulevard, there were crowds of people lined up right outside the orpheum, a line that was so long that it almost surpassed the width of the building. There was excited chatter amongst people- fans of the band that had yet to play in the building.

Up on the Marquee read: Sunset Curve - Sold out.

The sound of a distant guitar riff from inside the building seemed to rile up the excitement in the crowd.

(Listen to the song before proceeding)

There were three clacks of drumsticks hitting, "One! Two! Three!"

"Take off, Last stop! Countdown till' we blast open the top!"

A man in his late teens with purple-dyed tips and ripped jeans sung with a playful smirk. he seemed to be the lead singer of the band Sunset curve.

"Face first! full charge! Electric hammer to the heart-"

He looked in his element, effortlessly playing the guitar while singing. Three other voices joined the lead in harmony.

"Clocks move faster 'cause it's all we're after now, oh"

The lead looked over to a guy with a baby blue leather jacket a bass and he cocked his head to the side as if to say 'come over'. The bassist jumped over and sung in the same mic.

"Won't stop climbing, 'cause this is our time! yeah!"

The singer pushed him away playfully and the bassist went back to his own mic. They quickly moved to the prechorus

"When all the days felt black and white, Those were the best shades of my life!"

The singer belted with a grin, swiftly moving to the chorus, the other band members joining in every shout

"Don't look down!"

" 'Cause we're still rising-"

" Up right now!"

"And even if we-"

"Hit the ground!"

"We'll still fly- Keep dreaming like we'll live forever But live it like it's now or never!"

The singer turned away from the mic and to the drummer as if passing it off to him with a shine in his eyes and an almost never-gone grin.

"We ain't searching for tomorrow," The drummer sung, "Tomorrow" The bassist repeated

" 'Cause we got all we need today," "Today!"

The lead took over momentarily

"Living on a feeling that's been running through our veins,"

The bassist smirked as he took in a deep breath, running his and through his hair,

"We're the revolution that's been singing in the rain"

Each band members stopped playing their instruments, clapping and clacking their sticks together to a beat as they repeated the start of the chorus

"Don't look down! 'cause we're still rising up right- now!"

They picked their instruments back up, a fire and smoke effect errupted around them as they played their instruments once again and delved into the final chorus

"And even if we hit the ground we'll still fly- Keep dreaming like we'll live forever but live it like it's now or never!"

There were more effects blowing around and lights shining on them as they harmonized at final part of the song

"It's now or never!" "Now or never"

Both guitarists and the bassist turned to the drummer as they strummed their last chords. They panted, catching their breaths as sweat fell down their faces and yet they had wide grins. They soon turned around and did their bows.

There was applause and cheers from the orpheum employees as the band members stood straight, "Whoo! Excellent!" A Girl cheered from the table she was wiping down, clapping alongside the employees,

The bassist chuckled, it sounded bubbly and sweet, and grabbed the mic, "Thank you, we're sunset curve," he said with a small wave before turning to the other bands members, who were immediately going on about that performance as the put away their instruments.

The lead and the second guitarist bumped their fists together with a smile, "Too bad we wasted that om a sound check," the second guitarist said, "that was the tightest we've ever played!"

The lead singer just smiled as he turned to the empty spot where the crowd would have been, "Just wait until tonight, when this place is packed with record execs," he said, his eyes lighting up at the mere thought. It was almost hard to believe and yet there they stood on the stage.

"Logan, you were smoking!" The bassist said to the drummer- Logan- who just huffed, pulling out his glasses from his shirt and sliding them back onto his face

"I oppose that, Pat, I was just warming up... In fact, you guys were the ones on fire," he said with a small smile and a faint blush on his light brown skin.

The bassist- Pat- pouted, "Aw, c'mon, lo! Can you, just this once, own up to your awesomeness? Hm?" He huffed, grabbing a few of their t-shirts and CD cases. The lead, who had been listening in, looked at Logan with a knowing smirk and an eyebrow raised.

Logan relented, biting his lip as he looked to his band members, "Fine, I was... 'Killing' it," he said, offering a small smile.

The lead smiled and went to lightly tap Logan's Shoulder, "ok, well, I'm thinking that we fuel up before the show," he took in a deep breath, "I'm thinking street dogs?" He suggested

Logan and Pat made sounds of affirmation. It had been a pretty high-energy performance, so having some hotdogs wasn't such a bad idea. At the time.

A female employee watched with a fond smile as she wiped down a table, and it seemed that she had captured the second guitarist's attention and interest

He went to walk off the stage and approach her.

"Hey Toby-" the lead saw him jump off the ledge of the stage and followed after, "Where you going?" He asked, the other two members right behind.

Toby turned to them, "I'm good," he said waving his hand dismissively and turned to the girl, smiling as he leaned against the table she was wiping.

"Vegetarian. Could never hurt an animal," he said, as if explaining. The others stood next to him, the three of them holding unimpressed and fond looks, seeming that they knew it was a lie.

"You guys are really good," she said with an impressed look on her face, a small spanish accent to her as she spoke. She had tan skin, shoulder-length voluminous curly hair, and a sleeveless sequin shirt.

"Thank you," pat chirped, resting his arm on Logan's Shoulder, to which said man didn't mind.

"I see a lot of bands," she continued, "Been in a few, myself," she smiled, "I was really feeling it,"

The lead smiled, "Well, uh, that's what we do this for," he said with a small awkward laugh before realizing something: "I- uh, I'm Virgil, by the way," he introduced then gesturing to Pat.

"Hi, I'm Patton,"

"Logan,"

"Toby,"

"Nice meeting you guys," she said with a curt nod, "I'm Rose,"

Patton seemed to perk up, "Oh! Uh-" he held out a CD, "Here's our demo," he said, sliding it over to her, then grabbing a T-shirt, "and a T-shirt, size: beautiful," he said with a grin. Logan groaned at that. Patton had the tendency to flirt as a joke and not meaning any of it.

Rose just smiled, talking the T-shirt, unfolding it and holding it up to he body, looking down at the design, before looking to the band, "Thanks," she said with a smile. She went to fold it in half and put it on her shoulder, looking to the table, "I'll make sure not to wipe tables down with this one," she said a little awkwardly.

"Oh, good decision," Logan said with a nod, "whenever they get wet, they tend to- uh, fall apart in your hands," he provided with a small smile.

Toby huffed, "Don't you guys have to get hot dogs?" He asked.

Virgil just smirked, "Yeah," he said then leaning close to Rose, "He had a hamburger for lunch," he said, cocking his head to Toby's direction before going to push himself away from the table and walk towards the exit, leaving an exasperated and disappointed Toby alone with Rose.

Virgil, Logan, and Patton grabbed their jackets before they went, shrugging them on as they went out the backstage exit.

Virgil hummed looking around, rolling on the balls of his feet "That's what I'm talking about," He said with an almost giddy shine to his eyes

"The smell of sunset boulevard?" Logan asked with a raised eyebrow, readjusting his ripped denim jacket.

Virgil rolled his eyes and lightly punched Logan's arm, "No, smartass," he said with a small laugh, "It's what that girl said back there-" he said, walking in front of the others and kicking a puddle in his adrenaline-induced happiness.

"-about out music Alright?" He turned to look to the others, making a vague gesture with his hands, "It- It's like an energy," he said, slowing down a bit and walking beside them with a hum.

"It connects us with people- they can feel us when we play," Virgil hummed, walking behind them then hooking his arms around their shoulders, "I want that with everybody tonight,"

"Well then, we'll need a lot more shirts," Patton said, looking to the two ones in his hands. Virgil could help but let out a small laugh at that, "C'mon, let's go," he said.

They walked by a line of people- the people lined up for their show. Patton noticed two girls who were excitedly talking to each other and he went to diverge from the other two.

"Ladies," he smiled, giving them the last two shirts he had on hands before going back to the other two.

The two girls seemed confused, unfurling the shirt. Their eyes lit up as they realized who gave them the shirts

"Patton, wait!" One of them shouted, "oh my God, Patton!" The other one shouted. They both jumped in excitement, "oh my God, hi! It's me!"

As they walked away, they felt a little bit of pride bloom inside. They saw just how long the line was and it blew their minds. So many people lined up to see them and hear them play. This truly was a night none of them would ever forget.

They soon found a hotdog spot in an alleyway about a street down from the orpheum. They quickly got their hotdogs and went to putting on their toppings and condiments

Logan grimaced as he looked to where the condiments were stored- the trunk of a car along with a car battery.

"Virgil, there should be better places in Hollywood than this," he huffed, going to reach for the tongs to grab his topping of choice

Virgil didn't exactly look that crazed about it Either but he shrugged, "It's the closest spot to the orpheum and we cannot- for the life of us and our future- miss this gig,"

Logan just took on a deep breath, going to take a pickle to put on his hotdog, a slice slipped through the tongs and fell on the battery's cables. Great, just great, "I can't wait to eat someplace where the condiments aren't served in the back of an Oldsmobile," he grumbled.

Virgil just huffed and leaned against the trunk, waiting for Logan. This was going to be the one and only time they're eating at this spot. After tonight, they'll eat anywhere they want.

Logan finished with assembling his hotdog and turned to the vendor who was grilling hotdogs and patties, "Excuse me, uh... I got some pickle juice on your battery cables. Sorry," he said.

"No problem, it'll help with the rust," the vendor responded, giving Logan a pat on the back and a laugh

Logan looked dumbfounded, "That can't-" the vendor only chuckled and turned back to grilling. Logan looked to Virgil, who cocked his head over to a couch.

"Ok.." Logan sighed as he shook his head, defeated.

Patton let out a small sigh and he plopped on to the couch, followed by Virgil then Logan, they all leaned against the ratty and patched-up couch that was in the "dining area" of this pop-up shop.

Virgil hummed as he looked up to the sky, a small smile appearing on his face. Tonight was the biggest night ever and he could barely believe it, "This is awesome, you guys," he said, looking to his friends. "We are playing the freaking orpheum- I can't even count how many bands have played here and then ended up being huge!" He exclaimed

Patton chuckled lightly and smiled wide while Logan tried to suppress one. Virgil let out a small laugh of disbelief, "We are going to be legends," he smiled. He looked to the hotdog in his hands and lifted it up.

"Eat up, Boys," he said, the other two lifting their dogs as well, " 'Cause after Tonight... Everything changes,"

They all brought their dogs together as if a toast and bit in. As soon as Logan bit down, he tasted something metallic and ashy, "That's an odd flavor," he mumbled. Something felt very wrong.

"I'm sure It'll be fine," Patton mumbled. There was sudden sense of dread, "street dogs haven't killed us yet," he tried to joke.

They looked to the sandwich in their hands and reluctantly took another bite.

Only a few moments later, the siren of an ambulance wailed, driving towards sunset boulevard.

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