#I FORGOT TO TAG THAT ON TWITTER I FEEL BADLY | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

grimxswathe · 3 years

Text

I come bearing quite belated Moonfire Faire fluff with Estinien and Katsu! Special tanks to Sten and Siren on Twitter for letting me borrow their character briefly and coming up with a pet name, respectively.

The word count is 1,378 and starts under the cut. Beware of mild spoilers in the first paragraph for the second part of Death Unto Dawn.

I’m gonna tag @snow-covered-moon, since she likes these two. (If anyone wants to be tagged for writing, pls let me know.)

It was the final night of the Moonfire Faire in Costa del Sol. Estinien was relaxing on the water’s edge with Katsu nestled into his side, his arm draped around her waist. The water had become a little chilly for his liking once the sun set, but he wasn’t about to deprive Katsu of this time with him. Ever since the battle against the Telophoroi at Carteneau, things had become quite tumultuous and something had been bothering him as of late. Between the twins now sharing their Ishgardian home and assisting the Scions with the occasional mission, it seemed like Katsu couldn’t make time for him anymore. It was making him worried that she, for some unbeknownst reason, was no longer happy with their relationship.

Despite the anxiety gnawing at his insides, he couldn’t take his eyes off Katsu. She was so tiny, especially compared to his broad frame, and looked far too delicate to carry the weight of two separate worlds on her shoulders. All the same, Estinien knew full well that looks were deceiving. At the moment however, tucked safely into his side, she looked surprisingly vulnerable. He absently started tracing his calloused fingertips in circles against her hip, causing her to sigh happily and snuggle against him. Estinien’s heart melted at her response and he gave her an affectionate squeeze. Halone be praised, he loved this woman. Which was why he had to voice his concerns forthwith.

“Something’s been weighing on my mind recently,” he said.

Katsu rested her chin against his chest and gazed up at him. “What is it? Is aught amiss?”

As soon as he noticed the way she was looking at him, Estinien’s train of thought fizzled away. She was looking at him like he meant infinitely more to her than the sun and moon. She was looking at him like he was worth more to her than those damned plushies she loved so much. Like he was worth it. The sheer amount of love on her face was overwhelming and Estinien felt tears welling up in his eyes. He couldn’t help but wonder if she had been looking at him like this all along and his insecurities had prevented him from noticing.

Katsu’s loving expression turned to one of alarm when she saw the tears rolling down Estinien’s cheeks, but he wrapped her tightly in his arms and held her close to him. He buried his nose into her hair and inhaled deeply, breathing in her scent.

“I’m okay,” he assured her. “It’s just...gods, I love you. So much.”

Estinien felt Katsu freeze in his arms and for good reason. He had only ever uttered those words before when he was reciprocating her sentiments. After allowing a moment for the weight of his words to settle, she acknowledged him in a small voice.

“Can you say it again?”

“As often as you’d like to hear it, my dear,” Estinien breathed. “I love you.”

“And I love you.”

Even though he’d heard those three little words countless times from Katsu, this time they caused Estinien’s tears to fall harder.

“Oh, Estinien,” Katsu mumbled, wrapping her arms protectively around his torso. “What is all of this about?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he choked out through his tears. And it didn’t.

Being careful not to break from his embrace, Katsu maneuvered into Estinien’s lap and started to gently kiss his tears away. Once she was sure she had gotten them all, she touched her forehead to his and cupped his face in her hands.

“My handsome dragoon,” she told him.

A stupid, lovestricken grin spread across Estinien’s face and he placed a tiny kiss to her nose. “And you’re my beautiful moon flower,” he told her.

Katsu’s eyes widened slightly at the new nickname and she hastily buried her face into Estinien’s chest, no doubt trying to hide her blush. A soft chuckle rumbled in his throat and he leaned down to gently kiss her hair. She pressed a tender kiss in response to the deep scar that had once been his left nipple, causing a shiver to go down his spine that had nothing to do with the crisp water.

“Careful, lest you want to miss the fireworks.”

Katsu giggled lightly. “Nay, we wouldn’t want that. They are belike to start any minute, afterall.”

As if on cue, a firework exploded in the night sky, prompting the couple to turn their attention upwards. Katsu reclined her head against Estinien’s collarbone so she could watch the fireworks comfortably.

“I’ve always loved fireworks,” she told him. “They’re so colorful and pretty.”

Estinien hummed quietly in acknowledgement and rested his chin on her head. While pretty and colorful things weren’t exactly his cup of tea, he couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing Katsu by telling her that. He knew how badly she had been wanting to watch the festival fireworks with him. Besides, they were clearly making Katsu happy and that was enough for him. When he didn’t respond after a minute or two, she frowned the slightest bit before realization crossed her features and she reached up to gently run her fingertips against one of his pointed ears.

“They aren’t hurting your ears, are they? I forgot your kind has sensitive hearing.”

Even though he found her concern touching, Estinien grunted as he softly batted her hand away. “Please. I’ve heard many a dragon’s roar in the past. I think I can handle a few fireworks. Besides,” he brushed his knuckles against the curve of Katsu’s horn, “I’m more concerned about you. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t your horns use vibrations to hear? These sharp noises can’t be pleasant.”

Katsu looked surprised for a brief moment, but she then grinned broadly. “You’re such a sweetheart.”

Estinien felt his cheeks flush deeply. “Oh, shush,” he grumbled.

“You’ll have to-mmpf!”

Katsu’s retort dissolved into a muffled sound of surprise when Estinien pressed their lips together. He took a moment to savor the kiss before addressing her, their lips still touching.

“You were saying?”

“Mmm, I can’t say I was quite expecting that,” she mumbled, pausing to lightly kiss his lips, “but I shan’t complain.”

Estinien’s lips curled into a satisfied smirk. “Good,” he muttered before placing another small kiss on her lips.

Katsu grinned against his lips and gave him one last kiss. She then pulled back slightly and twirled some strands of his hair around her finger that had worked themselves free of the loose bun he had tied it in that morning.

“You’re absolutely right and certes, the vibrations they cause are irritating. But, it’s completely worth it to be able to share them with you.”

Estinien smiled at Katsu softly and gently moved her off his lap, disregarding her puzzled expression. He then repositioned himself so he was laying on his back with his head across her thighs and folded his hands on his stomach.

“Mayhap we should watch some fireworks, then,” he told her.

“Aye, you’re right,” she said quietly.

The disappointment in Katsu’s voice was palpable, which caused Estinien to frown quizzically. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just a shame that we have to leave tomorrow,” she told him glumly.

Her statement triggered Estinien’s recollection of some advice G’raha had given him prior to the faire’s commencement.

“If I may offer some advice, don’t rush back here as soon as the festival is done. You needn’t worry about the twins. Sten and I can keep an eye on them, though we both know they really don’t need it. But, you really need this time with Katsu.”

“If you’d like,” Estinien said uncertainly, fidgeting his thumbs, “we can certainly stay in Costa del Sol a while longer.”

The way Katsu’s expression completely lit up at his suggestion was a sight far more captivating to Estinien than any firework and it made him feel incredibly stupid for ever doubting that she loved him.

“I’d like that very much,” she gushed.

“As would I, my dear,” Estinien told her. “I love you.”

Katsu positively beamed down at him, tracing her fingertips against his lips. “I love you, too.”

Estinien lightly kissed her fingers before nodding toward the sky. “We’d best dispense with the chatter for now. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re missing the fireworks.”

#ffxiv #ffxiv writing #wol x estinien #estinien wyrmblood #katsu ishiku #txt.post #my writing #this ended up being longer than intended #and also went in an entirely unexpected direction #but i like how it came out

10 notes · View notes

vintagedolan · 4 years

Text

overturned (egd)

ethan’s tried everything to get you to hear him out, and you aren’t budging until a news article on twitter changes everything in an instant

word count: 4.7k

requested by: anon (thank you bby!)

warnings/tags: angst angst angst angst, did I say angst???, but in typical lynds weak bitch fashion it ends up okay at the end 🥴

feel free to send in requests! and check out my masterlist if you wanna :)

You were running out of counter space, and that was saying something. The kitchen was beginning to smell like a florist shop, rich and beautiful with the number of bouquets. Luckily, they’d all come in vases, or you wouldn’t have had enough containers to keep them in.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang again. You grabbed a water bottle from the fridge, already feeling guilty. When you opened the door, it was the same sweet woman who had been there everyday, twice a day at least, for the last 6 days.

“Hi Mary,” you sighed. You’d begun a bit of a friendship with her, the exchange of her handing over the flowers commonplace now.

“Hi Ms. Y/N. Those are particularly good ones, I think the shop found a new supplier. Blue hydrangeas are hard to come by, especially out here. He must be paying a fortune for those,” she said, raising her eyebrows. You knew that - your favorite flower wasn’t common in California.

“Money isn’t really an issue for him,” you mumbled, holding out the water. “Here, take this, I know it’s hot out. I’m sorry you keep having to come out here for all these. You’d think he’d take the hint.”

“Oh nonsense honey, I don’t mind at all! It’s actually quite heartwarming.” She took the water, offering you a warm smile.

“Heartwarming?”

“To see young love so strong. Most people these days just give up and move on. He’s persistent.” Mary gave you a look that was laced with meaning, like she was trying to convince you of something. But she let it go quickly, sensing she may have gone too far.. “Well, I’ve got more deliveries to make. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon.”

You waved as she got back into the delivery van and pulled out of the driveway. Pulling the door behind you, you carried the bouquet in and sat it amongst the others, her words ringing in your ears.

Persistent. That was one word for it. Guilty might be more fitting.

It’d been a week since your argument, and you were still wrestling with the whole thing. The fact that you could play the entire thing back, word for word in your mind, wasn’t helping anything.

-----

“You can’t keep doing this,” Ethan said, leaning back against the couch. The fact that he was being callous about it wasn’t helping matters in the slightest.

“The hell I can’t. Don’t try and put this on me Ethan, don’t you fucking dare.”

“What the hell did you want me to do?” He snapped back.

“Just fucking tell me. That’s literally all I ever ask for you to do, and you just keep hiding shit from me!”

“I’m not hiding anything, you’re just paranoid.”

Wrong answer.

“Oh, okay, you’re right. Yeah, just paranoid. Well, hope you don’t mind, I’m gonna go spend the whole day with my ex. Oh wait, shit, shouldn’t have said that, too much information for you.” You spat the words, the anger you’d been holding in finally bubbling to the surface.

“We were filming, it’s for work.” His tone was short, anger escalating.

“I understand that. But you could have at least told me that’s what you were doing, instead of some vague ‘oh I’m just filming a collab’ bullshit. Don’t treat me like I’m stupid.”

“I don’t tell you shit because you always react like this! Everything I do makes you pissed at me!” Ethan said, exasperated.

“No, I react like this because you don’t tell me in the first place! You never ask me if I’m okay with anything-”

“I shouldn’t have to!” He was yelling now, something he never did. He knew how you got when people raised their voices, knew how it made you feel. “You don’t get to control my life! I’m my own fucking person!”

“Control your life...” you breathed it out, shaking your head in disbelief. “Right. I control you. I control you, but I’m the one who can’t ever post a picture with my boyfriend, can’t post a snapchat because people might realize that we’re together, can’t go out without telling you where I’m gonna be. Can’t have my clothes in your closet in case it’s in the back of a video, can’t leave our room when you’re filming in case my fucking reflection or the sound of my footsteps end up in shot. I can’t hold my own boyfriend’s hand in public, I can’t go on a date without security there. But you’re right, I’m the controlling one.” The tears were coming now, and Ethan’s eyes were wide. You made it a point to never complain about the things that life with him entailed - it was always worth it. But right now, you let them fly. You wanted him to know, to realize, to fucking appreciate exactly what you did every day, just for him. Maybe it would make him understand why you were so upset.

“I-” He started, but you cut him off.

“I give up so many little things, every fucking day, and I do it for you. And I ask you for one fucking thing - just to give me the respect of telling me when you’re gonna be around your ex for work, and you can’t even give me that. Just one fucking thing Ethan, that’s all.”

“You knew what you signed up for when you decided to date me.”

You weren’t sure what response you were expecting, you weren’t even sure what response you wanted. All you knew were his conceited words were the final straw.

“Yeah. I guess I did.”

-----

When you came back out of the memory, you were gripping the flowers so hard you were surprised you hadn’t broken the vase they were in. With a deep breath you went to the counter, scooting another vase to the side to make room for the new ones.

You pulled the card from the small holder nestled amongst the flowers. Your name was scrawled on the outside of the envelope in Ethan’s handwriting.

You never thought that handwriting could make your heart hurt. With delicate fingers you pulled it open, fishing out the tiny card provided by the florist shop.

I never thanked you enough for everything you gave up for me. I’m sorry. I love you more.

The tears were instantaneous, just like they were every time you opened one of the notes. They were all gathered in a little pile by one of your candles, each one a small declaration from Ethan.

I fucked up.

I can’t imagine my life without you. Please call me back.

Please give me a chance to make it up to you.

I miss you so fucking much.

But it didn’t matter what he said - each one ended with the same four words, and that’s what brought the tears every time without fail.

I love you more.

You could remember the first time he’d said it. Toes in the sand at the end of a picnic blanket on the beach, fire behind you keeping you warm as you watched the waves crash. His arm had been around your shoulder, you were leaning into his chest. And you said I love you to him for the first time.

And he’d responded with ‘I love you more’, as if that was the only correct response.

“What?” You’d asked.

“Well, you love me. Take that and add just a little more, and that’s what I feel for you. So, I love you more.” He explained it as though it was common sense.

And it had become the most unplanned little trademark in your relationship that you cherished more than you realized. Every time you said I love you, that was his response. When you were leaving for the day, when he made a stupid joke, cuddling in bed, after sex, when you were done singing terribly in the car.

He never missed one, never forgot.

You were realizing now that you’d taken advantage of what it really felt like to be loved like that.

“Fuck,” you muttered to yourself, wiping at your eyes. You’d cried too much over the last few days, not having enough distractions to keep the memories and thoughts at bay. You couldn’t even use your phone - the missed calls and texts were too tempting to respond to. You needed to hold strong, and really think about everything when you were rational enough to figure out what you wanted to do.

It wasn’t that you didn’t love Ethan anymore - you’d always love him. In fact, it was that maybe you loved him too much. Maybe you were giving up too much to fit your life into his. You wanted the simple things, the little things in your relationship. You wanted to go get ice cream with him on friday nights, hold his hand while you shopped, post stupid instagram stories and snapchats. You wanted to be able to talk to your friends about your own boyfriend and not be afraid that they might be using you to get information to sell to tabloids. They were little things, but they were still part of the ideal relationship you always dreamed about having.

And you knew that Ethan did it to protect you. He didn’t want fans harassing you any more than they already did, didn’t want you in danger. You’d been around for the stalker, and he’d almost broken it off right then for your own safety. But you’d stayed, and you’d followed his rules and you’d given it all up.

You did what you had to, but you never really thought about how it made you feel. Were you being selfish? Maybe. But part of you needed to be - you were bad about putting other people’s problems in front of yours, pushing down what you wanted, what you needed, in order to appease everybody else.

So as badly as you wanted to, you didn’t call him. You didn’t text him, you didn’t facetime him. You put your phone in a bag with a towel and some sunscreen, changing into a bathing suit and heading out to enjoy some California sunshine.

The pool in your neighborhood wasn’t as nice as the one at the boys house, but it would do the trick. It was part of the reason you’d decided to rent the place, but you’d only used it a few times. In fact, you might as well have given up your lease for the last 6 months anyways - you were rarely anywhere but Ethan’s.

Maybe that was it. Maybe you just needed some time to yourself, to figure out how you’d changed over the last year of your relationship, figure out who you were when you weren’t with him. Either way, you were going to have to talk to him about everything eventually - and you needed to get your mind settled on exactly what you wanted before you said anything.

You laid out on one of the lounges, closing your eyes and trying to relax. But the images wouldn’t stop rolling behind your eyelids, like a slideshow of all the best things you never wanted to forget.

And Ethan was in every single one of them. It didn’t matter how hard you tried - anything worth remembering and reliving had him written all over it. Your road trip across the US, he was right there in the passenger seat. The fourth of july when you’d gone camping and set off fireworks - he was the one with the lighter. The first time you’d caught a wave surfing, he was the first thing you saw when you turned back, arms raised high as he cheered you on, loud enough for the whole beach to hear.

This was going to be harder than you thought.

You fought within your mind for a few more hours, reaching farther back, back before you’d met Ethan, trying to find memories. It worked for a little bit - some trips you took when you were younger, late nights with old friends. You were finally getting the hang of it when someone tapped you on the shoulder.

“Uh, ma’am? Sorry, but you’ve gotta leave.” You opened your eyes, blinking up at the boy who’d tapped you. He was a young teenager, you could tell, and after spotting his whistle and red shorts you realized it was the lifeguard. “There’s a storm coming in, supposed to be pretty bad,” he added.

“Oh. Okay, yeah, sorry,” you mumbled, trying to orient yourself again. As you packed up your things, you looked up to see a rolling dark cloud coming in above your building. It was rare that it even rained in LA, much less stormed.

Guess your mood really could bring the weather.

You went back to your house, assaulted by the smell of the flowers after being out of the room for so long, and changed into shorts and a tank top. You couldn’t tell if it was getting darker from the sun going down or from the storm. Either way, you decided it was time for dinner - cooking would keep you occupied enough.

You pulled up an intricate recipe, one you knew would take a lot of focus and time, writing down the instructions so you could pull up Netflix on your phone and watch a few episodes of your favorite show. The more things on your mind, the less space for Ethan to creep in.

The method worked, and you moved around the kitchen, cutting up herbs and mincing garlic, enjoying the process and the relief from your thoughts. You frowned when you looked over the tops of the flowers on the counter - the sky outside was so dark that it could have been midnight. You paused, heading over to the doors.

As soon as you opened them, you realized that the storm was going to be a bad one. The wind was whipping, and the temperature had dropped at least 20 degrees, causing goosebumps to rise on your arms. You’d never seen a storm come through LA like that.

“Damn,” you muttered, closing the door and locking it before heading back inside to finish up your dinner. Even over the sound of your show and the air conditioning, you could hear the wind outside. Eventually it even began to thunder - you didn’t mind. Storms were always your favorite weather.

You know who didn’t love storms? Ethan. He hated them. You were hit with another memory, from when you’d flown home to New Jersey with him. A storm had rolled through, with harsh winds and hail, and he’d clung to you through the whole thing, making sure you stayed at his side and away from the windows. He couldn’t sleep that night, and you’d stayed up with him watching harry potter to keep his mind off of things.

He wasn’t going to be doing well during this storm, that was for sure. You were overwhelmed suddenly with the thought of him alone in the house, curled up on the couch under a blanket. Just the thought of it made you sick to your stomach - you hated seeing him upset.

Before you could dwell on it any longer, you were suddenly surrounded in darkness.

‘What the fuck?” You moved to the light switch, testing it.

The storm had knocked the power out. Lovely.

“Well... pb&j it is then,” you sighed to yourself, turning off the burners on the stove and abandoning your dinner plans that definitely required electricity. It was like the universe was playing some sick joke - oh you wanna ignore your problems and distract yourself? Nice try.

With a lost appetite and nothing else to do, you retired to the couch, deciding to just keep watching netflix as the storm rolled outside. You expected it to blow over, but even after two episodes it was still raging outside. It sounded a bit like your house was going to come apart at the seams.

Trying to ignore it, you kept watching, dismissing your phone’s notifications of 20, then 10 percent battery. You were sure the power would be back on soon anyhow and you could charge it.

And then everything happened very quickly after that.

It started with a text from your best friend. You swiped down so you could read it.

have you checked twitter? wtf is going on

You frowned at that, exiting out of your texts and opening the app. You didn’t get on often - usually it was just slander, but occasionally you would check to see what was going on in the world. And even though it had been a while, your notifications were much, much higher than usual.

It only took a second for you to realize why. The article had been sent to you at least a dozen times, all with messages of concern attached. But you couldn’t read any of them - all you could see was the TMZ headline.

Dolan Twin involved in major LA crash, scene shut down

And right below it was an image of a mangled white tesla, upside down on the side of the road.

You couldn’t breathe. That was Ethan’s car. Ethan was in that car.

“Oh no, oh no no no no,” you groaned, immediately closing out and going to your contacts. He was the first one on the list of recents, and you immediately clicked to call him.

The dial tone came through three times before the call disconnected.

“Fuck, fuck fuck fuck,” you cried, going to your text messages.

are you okay? was all you had typed, and then your screen went black.

Your phone was dead.

“FUCK!” you yelled, panic overriding everything else. In the back of your mind you knew that you had a power bank somewhere that you could charge your phone off of, but the thought of looking for it wasn’t even feasible.

By the time you found it, you could be halfway to their house.

Without another thought you ran to the table by the door, grabbed your keys and sprinted to your car.

The rain was coming down in sideways sheets, droplets stinging against your bare skin as they hit. Even though your car was right outside, you were soaked by the time you threw the driver’s door open and climbed inside.

You fumbled with the keys, trying to start the car, hands shaking. You were a mess. It wasn’t going to do you any good to get to try to get to their house if you didn’t make it there yourself.

“Okay breathe Y/N, breathe,” you mumbled, turning the key and starting to back out of the driveway. The rain was relentless, your wipers going as fast as they could on the highest setting as you started down the road. You drove painfully slow, lucky to find that there were very few people out on the roads. You could hardly see in front of you at all.

In the back of your mind, you weren’t even sure why you were going to the house. He wouldn’t be there. Maybe Grayson was there. Grayson would know what to do.

The drive that usually took 10 minutes took 20 this time - you couldn’t go over 25 without losing your visibility entirely. Your heartbeat was through the roof the whole drive, and you were blinking the panicked tears away as they came so you could see. Both hands were gripping the wheel so tight your knuckles were white until you got to the house. You pulled up to the small box that unlocked the gate, typing in the code without thinking.

The power was out. The gate wasn’t going to open.

“Fuck!” You yelled again, still panicking. In a moment of insight, you remembered something. When they’d installed the gate, you’d been there to help supervise, and the installer had shown you all something.

“There’s a reset code that will activate the battery pack in here. In case you ever get locked out, or there’s no power. Just type it in and then type in your usual code and it should open right up.”

“Shit, shit shit,” you mumbled, reaching out the window and trying to remember the code, remembering the numbers but not the order. 6736. No. 3766. No dice. 7663. Nothing. Finally, you tried again. 7636. The buttons lit up blue, signaling you’d done something right.

You quickly typed in the code, letting out the breath you’d been holding when the gates began to swing open. You rolled up your window and pulled up the driveway, throwing your car in park and climbing out immediately into the rain.

And to your confusion, the driveway was full. The Porsche was parked in it’s usual spot, the Bronco behind it. Ethan’s Jeep was to the side, and there right in front of you was the Tesla, in perfect condition, parked and waiting.

“What-”

“Y/N? What the fuck? What’re you doing?”

When you turned at the voice, you could have fallen to your knees right there in the rain.

Standing outside the front door, still under the stoop and protected from the rain was Ethan, whole and unharmed.

Every doubt you’d had, every question you’d asked yourself about what you wanted and what you needed over the last few days was suddenly irrelevant. None of it mattered. You’d do anything, you’d do everything for him. There wasn’t a single fiber of your being that questioned it anymore. He was the only man you were ever going to love, and you’d been dumb to think otherwise, even for a second. You were meant to be with him, and that was the end of the story.

You ran straight for him, dropping your keys on the way and barreling into his arms. He caught you, the force of it almost knocking him off his feet.

“Hey, hey what’s wrong, what’s goin’ on?” He carried you inside, into the dark, and it wasn’t until you were out of the wind and the rain that you realized that you were sobbing. You could hear the gasps coming from you, like they were being ripped out with hooks. You knew you were scaring the shit out of him, but you couldn’t get enough of a breath to even say anything. All you could do was cling to him, relish in the reassurance of having him there with you, perfectly fine and alive and safe. You buried your face in his shoulder, breathing him in as best you could through your gasps.

He seemed to realize that you were incapable of speaking, so he sat down on the couch, you in his lap pressed to him as tightly as you could be. He wrapped his arms around your back, squeezing you to him in the most blissful way as the sobs continued, rough and ragged.

“Sweetheart, you’re shakin’ like a leaf. You must be freezing,” he mumbled, grabbing a blanket off the back of the couch and wrapping it around your back. You were still soaking wet, and you knew that the water would probably ruin it, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“Are you hurt? Baby please - talk to me.” He pulled back just enough to look at your face, and even just that tiny loss of contact was excruciating.

“Are you hurt?” He repeated, some of the worry leaving his eyes when you shook your head no. “Then what is it? What’s wrong?”

“I saw an a-a-article, and I t-thought-” you couldn’t get the rest of the sentence out, you just broke down again.

“I saw it too. They already took it down, and their asses are getting sued,” Ethan said, a bitterness in his tone that you weren’t used to.

“I thought it was your car, I thought it was y-y-you,” you stuttered, burying your face in his neck.

“I’m sorry baby, I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you call?”

“I tried- it disconnected.”

“I was probably on the phone with the lawyer,” he mumbled his explanation, still unsure. “But hey, I’m okay, I didn’t even leave the house today. I’m safe, and I’m here. I’m right here.”

“Yeah,” you whimpered, the tears still coming.

“Tell me what to do, tell me how to help,” he pleaded, obviously at a loss. He’d always told you he hated seeing you upset, even a little bit.

“Just hold me, please,” you asked, feeling vulnerable but knowing it was what you needed.

“Okay. Okay.”

He wrapped his arms around you even tighter, pressing you into his chest. His arms were strong and stable as they coiled around your waist. You focused on the feeling of them around you, holding you steady as he rocked side to side, so subtle that you weren’t even sure that he realized he was doing it. You breathed him in, the smell a mixture of his skin and his deodorant and the ghost of the cologne you knew he’d put on that morning. It was the most grounding thing you could find besides his voice in your ear, whispering sweet reassurances.

It took a few minutes, but you were able to breathe again, body finally processing out your adrenaline and allowing you to stop shaking. He didn’t let go, even when the tears had ceased - he kept his hold, leaning his head against yours, pressing kisses to your temple, your neck, your shoulder.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” you whispered when you got to the point where you could trust your voice, sitting up and taking a deep breath.

“Me and smooth cat are just fine,” he said, and you couldn’t help but laugh. It was the first time you’d laughed in a week, and it felt almost foreign.

“There’s that smile I’ve been looking for.” Ethan breathed out a sigh of relief, reaching up to wipe your tears. When he did, you laid your cheek in his palm, so thankful for the feeling of his skin on yours.

“I’m sorry you thought I died. But I’m really fucking glad you’re here,” he admitted, staring at you, eyes tracing the features of your face in the candlelight. You’d barely even noticed they were burning, giving off just enough light for you to see each other.

“I’m glad I’m here too,” you smiled. You couldn’t believe you’d ever thought you could live without him.

“Did you get my flowers?”

“Which ones? The first bouquet or the 15th?” You teased.

He blushed at that, cheeks turning your favorite shade of pink. “I went a little overboard huh.”

“I made friends with the flower delivery lady,” you shrugged.

“Of course you did,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “I missed you so much, you have no idea.”

“I missed you too. I missed us,” you sighed.

“Does that mean... does that mean we’re okay then?” He asked it nervously, obviously scared of what you would say.

You watched the relief cross his face when you smiled. “Yeah. We’re okay.”

“Oh thank god,” he said, hugging you to him again. The blanket fell off your shoulders and you shivered as the cold air hit your skin again. You weren’t dripping wet anymore, but you were still damp, the occasional droplet falling from your hair and onto Ethan’s shirt.

“Well in that case, let’s get you warmed up huh? And get you away from these windows.”

You let him carry you to his room, past his bed and into the bathroom where he sat you down and started running a bath and lighting the candles he always kept on the sides of the tub for you. It was as easy as breathing to undress and climb into the water, feeling it warm you up from head to toe. Though the most relaxing part was when Ethan climbed in behind you, leaning you back gently so you were resting on his chest.

And when you rolled over just slightly so you could look at him and tell him that you loved him, you knew exactly what he was going to say. The words were so much sweeter falling from his lips than they had been when they were on paper.

“I love you more.”

#two imagines in two days???? a bitch CREATIVE #hope you all like the angst #i did my best #now i want it to storm haha #lynds writes #ethan imagine #ethan imagines #ethan dolan #ethan dolan imagines #dolan twins #dolan twins imagines

272 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

Ducktales Review: The First Adventure! or Baby Donald Says Eat the Rich

Welcome back. I’d been looking forward to this one for some time in the hopes of getting one thing i’ve been waiting for.. sadly that thing didn’t come, we’ll get to that, but this was still a fun episode so let’s hop right in. Spoilers in a second but my tag is spoiler tagged soooo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We open in the 1960′s. Austin Powers just went into Cryo Freeze to prepare for Dr. Evil’s eventual return, The Marvel Universe was in full swing, a teenager in baltimore was battling racisim via a dance show, and Black Heron had just been caught by Agent 22, aka Beakly when she was young and just as gorgeous then as she is now. Heron once again engaged in her usual cartoonish supervillian, and now SHUSH has her. Meanwhile in a nearbye room a young accountant by the name of Bradford Buzzard is outlining his plan for Director Von Drake: The way he sees it every time a villian costs chaos Shush “Wastes” billions causing MORE chaos to stop it without controlling things. He proposes taking over the world, weeding out the chaos and ruling from the shadows. Naturally, Ludvig isn’t on board with any of this and points out they aren’t super villains. It’s here this episode fully defines something about Bradford’s character. Back in “Let’s Get Dangerous!” when Huey called him a villain, he said he’s not one... at least from his point of view. It’s here, in his youth we get a clear understanding why he dosen’t think so: So far most people we’ve seen in the world of Ducktales take the chaos and insanity of the world in stride: Either just numb to it like most of the citizens, Rolling with it like Daisy and Violet, or diving straight into it like.. pretty much the majority of the cast, either for the love of adventure and treasure like the McDuck/Duck family, or for their own ludcrious ends like Glomgold, Mark Beaks or Magica. To them the world’s fine the way it is and there’s to explore, take or whatever. To Bradford.. this is madness... he feels all these people are just a bunch of overgrown children, and in some cases actual children, are just making the world worse and worse until one day their going to break it. One day skill, intuition, wit, and knowledge just wont’ be enough. Someday Scrooge, SHUSH or whoever’s standing in the way of evil will fail and the world will fall. This simply can’t go on, and SOMEONE has to control this, someone has to take this world, shake the chaos out of it and MAKE it sane. Make it work the way it’s SUPPOSED to. And to Bradford that’s him. Someone has to, no one else will, so he will. To him SHUSH doing this is just the logical thing: They want peace right? Their fighting for good right? Then what’s better than making the world a utopia? Ending these conflicts and remaking it. The thing is.. that’s not what Heroes do. As we’ve seen in various stories where the superheroes, the Good Guys take over they do improve things.. but at the cost of free will. At the cost of free thought. At the cost of their morals. They become what they were fighting all those years and have to bloody their hands and keep them bloody just to make THEIR world right. And that’s not Utopia, that’s a dictatorship. The example I always come to, even though there were ones before and after this including Marvel’s incredible Squadron Supreme maxi-series, is Justice League the animated series’ two parter, like most of their episodes really but that’s not the point, a Better World, about an alternate reality where Superman kills Lex Luthor after Luthor kills the flash and hte League take over the world. The thing is.. the world isn’t BETTER. It’s just crime free. You can sweep the chaos and the crime under the rug.. but your not making a better world, your just making YOUR version of it. No one person is a god even if they have a power of one and no one person can or SHOULD be able to decide what’s best for everyone. It’s up to each of us to MAKE the world better, to fight for a better world. That’s what Ludvig knows full well and what Bradford just can’t see. You can’t control the world, you just have to accept the things you can’t change like it being chaotic and change the things you can like injustice.

Bradford however, who was hired as a favor to his grandmother, can’t though Von Drake lets him off with a warning.. and a laugh about an accountant being able to be a super villian. Bradford however realizes ther’es some truth to that.. he needs someone to teach him out to operate outside the law, and if SHUSH won’t take the world and remake it.. maybe it’s time someone else did. So in the prison cells of SHUSH, which are conveniently empty outsdide of Heron, Bradford outlines his plan to her. To create a massive orgnization to steal the world and give it the order it needs. To combine their skills: Heron’s for grandeur and crime, and Bradfords for strategy and focus, to take the world. The Orginzation for World Larceny, or OWL, fitting bradford’s hatred for theatrics. Heron objects, adding an F for fiendish, and Bradford relucntantly agrees to get her on board, lets her loose and fakes like he just saw her escape. FOWL is born. And the world would never be the same. Cue credits and cue the rest of the review under the cut.

After the opening we cut to 1994-5.. sometime around then as it’s hard to get an exact year, and that’s how the crew likes it. Point is it’s the 90′s, and Scrooge is.. busy running his company. We’ll get into the weeds of that in a bit, but this is a different Scrooge, one who while no less capable, has no thirst for adventure or drive. He’s not nearly as miserable as the Scrooge we saw back in Woo-Ooo but he’s still a much less complete man. Anyways alongside him for his planning is Duckworth, whose very much alive at this time, and who tells his boss his sister Hortense left something in his office for him. To no one suprise, that thing is the twins, at the tender age of i’m guessing 10. Since your probably curious, Della is still voiced by Paget Brewster, just using a slightly different voice like the Triplets and Webby’s voice actors do. It’s just a bit more jarring here since unlike those characters, we’ve seen adult della and thus are used to this voice coming out of a grown woman. It’s not bad and I got used to it eventually but it was jarring at first especially since once again Donald has a completely diffrent voice ACTRESS doing his voice. This time around it’s cristina valenzuela, of Miraculous Ladybug fame, who I know more for her song work and twitter than her actual work ,but am delighted to see her here and she does a terrific job. I genuneily did not realize it was her, and while not exactly like the late great russi taylor, it is just similar enough to work.

So we get to see what the Twins were like when they were the Triplets age: Della is about the same, but with more of Dewey’s impulsiveness, and Donald, much like he’d be a few years and some dead parents later, is a bitter, grungey musician whose constantly on his guitar and railing against the man.. which is Scrooge in this case which is fair. Hortense left a note.. which bothered me as I genuinely expected her to show up and was majorly disappointed she did not. We are in year 4 of this series, season 3 and STILL no appearance of Hortense or mention how she died, as she and Quackmore are still alive by the end of this. Given she’s easily my faviorite part of Life and Times, this bothered me, and the only reason i’m not more upset.. is the clever way they wrote around actually using her. The letter she leaves for Scrooge explaining things is the same one Della herself used in the comic strip, and using a bit of the postcard she left in the cartoons, when leaving Huey, Dewey and Louie with Donald, down to the Twins having left a firecracker in their fathers seat, thus leaving him in the hosptial. As disappointed as I am my favorite Ginger is completely absent once again, this is a brilliant reference, and I have to give them credit for it, so it’s a fair enough trade off. As for his “Angel Nephew and Niece”, Della wants to dive into adventure while Donald struggles to write a song, singing throughout the episode. It varies in tolerablity, though mostly due to the writing, Cristina is doing fine. Della however is disappointed to find her legendary uncle views his past exploits as merley a means to an end to get his fortune and now he has it he can just focus on building it in the boardroom. This is an intresting take.. and one I could easily have seen happening to the Don Rosa version seen in Life and Times. The Scrooge there himself saw building his wealth as the most important thing until his encounter with Teddy Rosevelt, who taught him experince was what mattered and the having isn’t as fun as the getting. It works for me: This is a scrooge who never got that lesson so once he got to be richest duck in the world, having achieved his life’s goal nothing was left. He’s not miserable like the Scrooge we saw at the start of the series, having lost his love for adventure after loosing his niece/daughter, and having lost his fight. This one has retired.. but because he likely just sees no point in going on. He’s the richest duck in the world, has a vast empire.. no amount of treasure is really going to add to that like it used to, and as he points out in a second Shush has tons of agents at this point to clean up what’s left of FOWL. He’s the man who has everything, so why keep going. It’s weird to see a scrooge without the hunger to keep going, but it makes sense when his belly is full. Without someone to get him to see there’s always another rainbow, he just stopped chasing them. Also a fun nod to the comics I almost forgot to mention is when hearing about the “Gift”, i.e. the twins, Scrooge dreads it’s another surprise party, a nod to life and times where Hortense threw Scrooge one that went.. badly and lead to their entire relationship collapsing. Though Donald did get back at Scrooge for screaming at his parents and Auntie Matilda

However his busy day is disrupted with a call from Beakly. They’ve found the last known cordinates of Captain Yellowbeak, but FOWL is on them and Scrooge is the only one Beakly trusts for this since they have a leak. Beakly is also director of SHUSH at this point, with Von Drake having retired or died or both at this point. Scrooge reluctantly accepts, while Della is excited at the prospect of a real adventure and Donald ends up sharing her enthusasim as it’d make a good song. Scrooge, naturally, has no intention of bringing them with him to their disapointment and leads Donald to sing another “Suck it the man song” which totally isn’t about Scrooge.... spoilers: It entirely is, he’s just a little dumbass grunge baby and I love him. We then get a cute sequence of Della popping up in Scrooge’s Luggage and Trunk to try and convince him to let them tag along, before we cut to the Limo, driven by Duckworth at this point, which solves that mystery. Scrooge is firm in having his butler take them back and have them work with him and Duckworth’s fine with that.. but wants overtime, which is fair. Scrooge, being Scrooge, grumbles about not being made of money, proven wrong by gold spilling out of him. Though I do like the update of Scrooge’s classic cheapness when it comes to pay: INstead of barely paying his employees like a monster, he’s simply reluctant to pay extra if he dosen’t have to, and would rather drag two 10 year olds with him on a dangerous adventure than pay overtime, which tracks. It’s also clear if he had to he WOULD actually pay it, either due to legal reasons or his moral standards, he just isn’t happy about it. So he agrees, though he wants Donald to leave the guitar behind which.. given the most Donald’s been able to come up with is “Suck it THE MAN” and “This guy’s a greedy asshole”.. he’s extremely correct and when Donald tries to pull a “YOU CAN’T CENSOR ME MANNNN”, Scrooge just chucks it out of the car. At the airfield while Della is excited like an rabid chipmunk, and genuinely thinks she can fly a plane because she’s played Outrunner 2.. which I have only vaguely heard of before now. And is apparently just a pc game where you run a lot so I genuinely do not get where Della gets piloting from that.. but she IS Dewey’s mother. So with that in mind the family take off and Scrooge explains what their after: The Papyrus of Binding. It’s a dangerously powerful magical artifact from Ancient Egypt that will make whatever’s written on it happen. The dangerous part is that it’s incredibly literal: As Bradford puts later in the episode, ask for unlimited power, it might zap you dead with a million volts, ask for infinite wealth, prepare to be crushed underneath it. It’s a nice twist on a Monkey’s Paw or Jackass Genie situation. Instead of either the source of the wish granting magic just being inherently evil, or some dickhead screwing with the hero.. it’s just an object that has no ability to interpret nuance, just like your phone with the goddamn autocorrect. It can’t judge intent or tone or meaning, it just gives exactly what it’s asked. It’s a thoroughly interesting concept.

Something I really like about this episode is the fact it answers some little questions. While none were Hortense related, and I am still grumpy about that even with this coming out a good 17 hours after I watched it due to getting caught up with other stuff, it does have little touches that explain small parts of the lore: Who drove Scrooge? As just mentioned, Duckworth. Who flew scrooge? Paid pilots. Did he have a plane before the sunchaser? Yup. It fills in some small gaps in the world. Stuff we weren’t dying to know but’s stil lintresting. Said pilots in this case however are Heron and Bradford. This episode also fills in Heron’s character, as while we’ve already seen bits and pieces this season she LOVES being a classic, take over the world james bond type villian, like she stepped out of a duck version of kim possible.. and i’m just now realizing there probably IS a duck kim possible somewhere in this world as while far after disney afternoon, it fits too neatly to not be wedged in there with your tailspins and goof troops. I wouldn’t be suprised if there were brid versions of every human based disney afternoon and one saturday morning show. My.. my head’s swimming from this. I could be, and probably am wrong but the sheer idea of this... it’s amazing. Back to Heron, she just LOVES being evil and destructive, letting the world know she exists and operating on a grand scale. Now we’ve seen more of her while she’s Beakly’s nemisis.. she’s really an evil scrooge.. yes another one. Like Scrooge, at least how he normally is, she simply gets how the world of Ducktales operates and can take advantage of that to the best of her ablility. Just like adventuering, cartoonish supervilliany is about risk and reward.. sometimes you faceplamnt hard, that’s the risk, but the rewards and rush is worth it. She’s as addicted to grandoise villiany as Scrooge is to adventure by this point. And like Scrooge, and unlike her partner Bradford, she sees the world as it is: Chaotic and one big sandbox to play in. She contrasts Scrooge by the fact that while Scrooge is willing to bust down doors, he still has morals, as well as the wisdom to not go overboard Heron often lacks. It also makes her a good contrast ot the equally skilled Beakly: While Beakly is taciturn, controlled in all things especially her emotions, Heron is bombastic, gloating and borderline insane, and while deadly in a fight, dosen’t exercise any control in her plans, preferring it big and loud despite her partner usually being right about reiging it in. So Heron evacuates dramatically, taking a grumpy Bradford with them, and sending the plane into a tailspin.

youtube

I can’t wait for Next Year’s Tailspin episode. I swear to god. I’m hoping for Shere Kahn but this episode has taught me to be okay with disapointment, if a grumpus. Della however shows her natural talent and despite having no real experince with planes, lands it gracefully. While that’s going on, Bradford berates Heron for her plan, pointing out that they COULD have simply landed the plane, then captured the McDuck family and executed them quitely, versus leaving a chance they’ll survive which they do. They AREN’T supervillains.. or at least he thinks he isn’t. Heron does show off her competence though, pointing out that this way they can simply stay low, and FOLLOW the Ducks to the treasure. Bradford is impressed for a second.. till Heron’s evil shows as she plans to use the Papyrus. Bradford loudly objects to this, listing the possible risks shown before. If not used CAREFULLY, it could kill them, and she balks and wants him to just embrace being the Villian already. It’s what I love about their dynamic set up here: While they are equals, Bradford is a better strategist, able to think and plan way in advance, and prefers subterfuge, and if present day is any indicatoin probably used Heron’s flash to distract from the real mission or goal often or to do something on the down low while she kept SHUSH busy. His last two plans, while again requiring some pizzaz, relied on misdrection: having the ducks take care of an immidate threat like their used to.. while he gets exactly what he wants while their busy and whatever they get out of it is either nothing (Impossibin) or something he couldn’t use just yet and thus if he didn’t get it, no loss, but if he did it just moves up the timetable. Not only that but he’s outlasted all three other big bads, lying in the shadows till it was too risky to leave scrooge and play and even THEN, only coming out into the open when forced out. IT’s why he’s Scrooge’s most dangerous opponent: He knows how Scrooge’s other enmities operates as well as Scrooge himself. And since he knows everything he can maneuver Scrooge exactly where he needs him to do exactly what he wants. It’s unknown how the family will beat him, but he’s easily the biggest challenge they’ve had.

But back to the show and the past, Scrooge bonds with his niece and nephew, retelling stories of his past as they get closer, with Donald ending up high at one point and thus seeing the ship stranded on a mountain. As he recounts a fight with El Capitan, the villian from the ducktales 87 pilot, he counts the story as as a loss: He didn’t get anything from it, no treasure no new contracts. But Della shows him the point he’s been missing; He got a story. Sure he lost.. but he got experince, a tale to tell and a legend grown.Just because you don’t get everything dosen’t mean it wasn’t worth the experince and you can’t hold it in your heart. And this episode shows why this scrooge needed his family: Without Teddy to mentor him, he simply never got that adventure wasn’t about gains or what you get.. it’s about the thrill of it, the enjoyment of discovery and the memories you make.. it’s about the Journey not the destination.

As Scrooge starts to warm up to that, he finds a gap, with Della volunteering Donald to jump but Scrooge just having the kids hop on his back and pogo caneing across. The family find the Papyrus, and find out why the ship is all the way up here: Captain Yellowbeak, who’s a character from one of barks stories and the one who had the scroll last, wished to escape.. but that just stranded them. He asked for water.. and it drowned his crew.. and finally with the document hteir reading he asked for release... and thus is now a skelington. The kid are happy to have reached the goal.. while Scrooge is back on his Zack Morris phone trying to reschedule things and schedule a SHUSH evac, to the kids annoyance. However Scrooge raining on their parade gets interupted by Heron and Bradford, as Heron can’t resist popping out dramatically and Bradford is UTTERLY furious since she blew his cover, and Scrooge recognizes him from his christmas party, a nice callback. Scroog being scrooge figures out he’s the mole and Bradford runs , furious at Heron. Their conflict is an intresting one: Both have a point but both will not back down. Bradford is right this showboating nonsense has only hindered Heron’s plans.. and Heron is right that Bradford needs to accept he’s the bad guy. Even if he has well meaning motives, he’s the villian, he works with them, he leads them.. he is one. He just can’t accept he’s wrong or dosen’t have the answers... huh.. I wonder who that reminds you of. And that’s 100% intentional as Frank has outright compared Huey and Bradford and like last season it’s neat to have the main vilian contrast our chosen Duck for the season.

Heron outfoxes the kids and gets the papyrus and being just an enitrely black hearted bitch, plans to kill them just to spite scrooge.. writing that “his sidekicks will perish on this mission.”.... but Scrooge’s character development, and her choice of words, means nothing happens. As Scrooge outlines, “Their not my sidekicks their my FAMILY, and this isn’t a mission, it’s an ADVENTURE”. Scrooge has finally accepted his life for what it really is.. and the thrill of the chase over what lies at the end. There’s always anothe rainbow.. and he’s finally become the man who will chase every last one.

OF course this is interupted, and Heron escapes with the papyrus, when a skeletal pirate attacks.. why is Yellow Beak alive, why’d the scroll do this?

But we get a neat fight as Scrooge fights the skeleton while he sends the kids after Heron. Scrooge gets a cool looking swordfight, while Bradford gets the papyrus, and Yellowbeak even terrifies me what with his bestial roll and fucking centepede crawling out of him.. jesus those things freak me out. Meanwhile the kids battle Heron, who throws della overboard... and thus for the first time, Donald taps into his beserker rage, snikty snoink, and easily incapaciates the more experinced and fully grown adul, though Della since we’eve been following her kids for the past three seasons, is fine, if suprised by her brother being the goddamn wolverine.

While heron is out for a second, Scrooge heads after Bradford, and vows to tell Beakly and chase him all across the world. However Bradford gets an utterly awesome moment.. he admits scrooge may be right and probably would.. but since he has the papayrus and is careful in everything he writes his request carefully and perfectly “As far as the ducks are concerned, I was never here.” Grante dit COULD have left scrooge out.. but since he didn’t sday duck family or specificy, and likely knew it’d do that, it instead just means the three bilogical ducks. Bradford dissappears, turning invisble and leaving the papyrus for scrooge, who foils heron by simply writing that this scroll will be lost until one day found by his heirs.

So Heron takes a fall and looses an arm, again.. or for the first time.. the family is triumphant and despite loosing his goal, Scrooge is convinced he and the kids will find it again. See above. Scrooge then pulls out his phone and tells Duckworth to rework his schedule.. but it’s so he can find someone to run his comapny so he can spend more time with the kids. As for why Hortense would allow this before her still mysterious passing.. i’m guessing A) she notices her brother is happier and more alive than he’s been for a while and B) they just blew up their dad’s ass with a firecracker, and she won’t be able to use it for a while, so she’s double mad, so if it means she gets a moment’s peace and is with someone she trusts.. why not?

So we end on Scrooge packing up, preparing for further adventures.. i’d love a spinoff of this one day. I mean Disney plus needs it, and since Frank is probably going over to Darkwing.. maybe matt could take a crack at this. Just saying. You have the cast ready, a giant world to explore, and 15 years worth adventures. Run that baby damn you! But yeah the inevitble happens and Bradford further proves his magificent bastardry.. by appling for the position of running the company as head of Scrooge’s board, and setting up said board. So now FOWL has unlimited resources, he has a direct eye on what he now realizes is his greatest threat, and the complete trust and faith of both Scrooge and Beakly. It also puts Beakly’s breakdown in context: We now see WHY she went as far as she did: While the revelation was bad for Scrooge, finding out one of his most trusted allies was a traitor the whole time and knew everything about him, for Beakly.. it had to be worse. Finding out one of your best employees, one of the FEW people you ever trusted, and someone you DIRECTLY RECOMMENDED TO SCROOGE, was not only the man who set up your greatest enemies, but had compromised your organization for most of your career. IT’s no wonder she broke down so hard.. while I already gave several reason adding “This level of betrayal and self doubt to the list” only makes it that much harder on her. But for now a partnership is started.. one that very well may end scrooge.

Final Thoughts: A pretty good episode overall. It’s well paced, to the point I probably forgot a LOT, has some good jokes, and fills in a lot of the gaps in the lore, while giving us a nice insight into bradford and heron. Even without hortense this was a pretty good episode.

Upcoming Reviews: LIfe and Times; Master of the Mississippi Ride of the Three Cabbleros: The Three Cablleros (House of Mouse) Tomtrospective: Lava Lake Beach

#ducktales #ducktales spoilers #scrooge mcduck #bradford buzzard #della duck #donald duck #black heron #bentina beakley #the first adventure!#the first adventure #cristina vee

51 notes · View notes

heartofether · 3 years

Text

Bonus Episode #3 - Leave a Message TRANSCRIPT

[You can listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts, or go to our “Listen” page if you’re on desktop.]

VAL

Hey there! Val here with a couple of special announcements before our third bonus episode. First off, our season two release date has been set and will soon be announced. Before then, however, we have an abundance of teasers and bonus content coming your way. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Tumblr to keep up with all of our new releases.

Second, do you want to talk to other Heart of Ether fans, either about the show or whatever else your heart desires? We now have an official Discord server! We have automatic roles, specialized channels, daily quotes and question of the day, and in the future, we may use it to host special events. The invite link is on our socials and our Carrd, and we would love it if you joined us!

Last but certainly not least: we all like tea, right? What about podcast-themed tea? That’s right, you can now buy The Heart of Ether-themed tea with the help of Adagio Teas! (not sponsored, just using the service) A portion of the proceeds will go to The Trevor Project, which helps provide crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth. The link to browse our tea collection will be in the description of this episode, or on our socials if you want to look there.

Right, I’m done with my rambling. Here’s another bonus fluff episode—and this time I at least 90% mean it! Talk to you soon!

AUTOMATED VOICE

Please state your message.

[THEME MUSIC PLAYS.]

[THE DIALOGUE THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE EPISODE IS SLIGHTLY MUFFLED, AS IF THEY ARE SPEAKING OVER THE PHONE.]

ROSE

Hi! This is Rosemary Quinn. Unfortunately, I’m not able to return your call right now, but leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Have a lovely day!

[PHONE BEEP.]

IRENE

Hey, it’s Irene. I just wanted to check and see when you’d be coming over? Text me and let me know if you have an estimate.

Oh, and my dad is going to the store, so I know you mentioned wanting to make brownies? Did you mean, like, from scratch or is just a box mix fine? ‘Cause I’m good with whatever. Just text me what you need, and I’ll ask him to pick it up. See you later! Bye!

[PHONE BEEP.]

IRENE

Hey. It’s Irene. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you. Thanks.

[PHONE BEEP.]

ROSE

Hi, Irene! I’m sorry to call, but you said you were having some issues with your texts, so I thought this would be a safer bet. Are you available after school today? If you don’t mind, I could really use some help with the chemistry homework. You seemed to at least kind of understand it, or maybe you were just pretending like the rest of us were. [SHE GIGGLES.]

I also just am not super fond of Mr. Morrison. Nobody is. I mean, I try to be nice to him, nicer than most other students, and I think he likes me for that. It doesn’t mean he’s actually willing to be helpful, though. I think he sees me as some sort of air-headed bimbo, which is both misogynistic and presumptuous. Olivia told me he might be retiring, though, so fingers crossed?

Anyways, would we be able to meet up and work on it together? I’ll buy you a coffee for your time. Just let me know! Oh, and no need to call me back, we’ll see each other at school most likely. I just thought I’d call and ask before I forgot. I’ll talk to you later, bye!

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

IRENE

Hey, are you still at the school? I try to have school spirit—sometimes—but events really aren’t my thing. Maddy seemed to be into it, though, so I figured you might still be hanging out with her.

Anyways, if you decide you’re done with it, I was thinking about going to Sonic and it’d be great if you tagged along? It’s not the same when I go by myself. I’ll pay, obviously, since I’m the one inviting you. Call me back if you’re interested, and we can work something out. Alright, bye.

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

[THERE IS THE SOUND OF DISTANT CONVERSATION AS ROSE TALKS]

ROSE

Hi there, Maddy just wanted me to tell you that when you get here, make sure you go through the back door so you don’t disturb her grandparents. They’re not in a great mood tonight. You’ll have to hop the fence, but if you need help, I can go down there. I’m excited to see you! Bye!

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

[THERE IS A SLIGHT BREEZE HEARD IN THE BACKGROUND.]

IRENE

Hey there, I just wanted to apologize for leaving in such a rush. It was just a lot, and I didn’t really, well. I honestly didn’t feel super welcome there? That’s not your fault, though. It was everyone else.

It just—I don’t want to sound rude, but it doesn’t feel like our “group” actually cares about me a lot? I mean, maybe it’s because of my interests, or because I don’t dress or act like stereotypical straight girls do. I’ve known them all since freshman year, but honestly? You’re the only one I’ve ever really clicked with.

They like you, though. Everyone does. I don’t mean that in a snarky or jealous way. Just in the way that…well, you’re Rosemary Quinn. Everyone wants to be your friend, I guess. You just have that aura.

[A BEAT, THEN, EMBARRASSED] God, I’m sorry, that’s such a weird thing to say. I’m really not good at this whole friends thing, huh? I’m surprised you’ve stuck around for this long. I called you to apologize—now for multiple things it appears—but also to tell you that if you’re looking for me, I went to the park. It’s like a five-minute walk from Maddy’s house, and I have my board with me, so that helped.

I’m sure you’re not looking for me. You’re probably having fun at Maddy’s birthday party. You texted me to ask if I was okay, though, so I guess that’s why I called. You always do. You’re the one person who’s consistently cared, who’s always checked in on me when my social anxiety kicks in and I decide to leave early. Is that how you are with everyone, or…?

Jeez, I’m sorry, I’m rambling. Just, sorry for running off, I’m at the park sitting on the swings if you need me. Bye.

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

IRENE

[SOMEWHAT DESPERATE] Hey, it’s Irene. Please call me back. I— [SHE HUFFS.] I really think we need to talk.

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

IRENE

[DEFEATED] This is my third time trying to call you. At this point, I’m pretty certain you’re actually ignoring me.

I’m not mad, Rose. I promise I’m not. It was—it was nice! I liked it. Really liked it, actually, um. But you ran off to go home before we could really talk about it, and now it really feels like you. Well. Like you didn’t mean to, and now you regret it.

[SHE GROANS.] I’m not saying that to guilt trip you. I mean, maybe I’ve got it completely wrong. Maybe you’re scared that I didn’t like it, which isn’t true. Which would mean that we’re just walking in circles around each other, worried about what the other thinks. It would be funny if I wasn’t so worried about you.

[A BEAT, THEN] Do you wanna know the truth, Rose? I’ll tell you.

[SOFTER] Do you remember when we were building snowmen back in December, outside of the school? You made one named—god, I don’t remember. Was it Queen of the Valley? Some sort of royalty. You always come up with such extravagant names for things, it’s…

Anyways, you said what would make it perfect is if it had a crown to wear. By some absolutely absurd coincidence, I had a paper crown in my locker. I had learned to make them during study hall when I got bored. The school was still open, so I ran back inside through the empty hallways to go grab it.

When I came back outside, you grinned, your cheeks rosy and your hair still a mess from the wind that had only just died down. You took the crown from me, and you looked me in the eyes, giggling. You said, “I could kiss you right now.” Then you ran to give her majesty the crown.

And I didn’t say it. Of course I didn’t. I was too scared of that feeling I felt. I felt so warm, even with a blizzard on the horizon, and that terrified me. I wanted you to kiss me, though. I wished so badly that you had, it physically ached.

I gazed at you there, as you placed the paper crown upon the Queen’s head, Maddy rolling her eyes, but still smiling. In the moment, though, I hardly processed she was even there. I didn’t even process the groundskeeper glaring at us, or the cars driving past as teachers left for the day. As I stared at you, it was like you were the only thing I had ever known, and all I remember thinking was, “This is what will destroy me. This will be my downfall.”

[A PAUSE, THEN, HOPEFUL] But maybe it doesn’t have to be. Because you did kiss me, in the end. I’m glad you did.

Call me back, please?

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

[THERE IS BACKGROUND NOISE HEARD AS ROSE STANDS OUTSIDE OF HER HOUSE.]

ROSE

[SINKING INTO DISAPPOINTMENT] Hi, Irene! Just, um…just making sure we’re still going to the dance together. I’m outside my house waiting. My mom’s starting to get pretty upset with me for not being gone already, and just uh…standing here like an idiot. Won’t let me come back inside, though, because she thinks that if I’m not out here, you’ll—actually, I won’t try to understand her reasoning. I haven’t been able to for the past sixteen years.

But, um…please let me know? I’ll be waiting. Goodbye.

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

[IRENE IS HEARD DESPERATELY TRYING TO GET HER SHOES ON AND GET OUT THE DOOR.]

IRENE

Rose, I am so, so, so sorry I’m late. I promise, I’m on my way, I’m literally—

[HER DAD CALLS OUT, MUFFLED BY THE DOOR, AND SHE CALLS BACK]

IRENE

Yeah, I’m coming!

[THEN, AS SHE'S HEARD RACING ACROSS THE CARPET] I don’t wear makeup very often and I kept messing up my eyeliner and by the time I looked at the clock—I’m sorry. I have no idea how I’m supposed to make this up to you, but I’ll be there as fast as I can, okay?

[MUTTERING, CURSING HERSELF AS SHE PACKS HER BAG] First dance I get with you and it’s the only one I’m late to. Of course it is.

[SHE'S HEARD WALKING OUT OF HER ROOM, THE DOOR OPENING.]

IRENE

Okay, I’m going outside now. I love you. See you soon.

[PHONE BEEP.]

[THIS TAKES PLACE SECONDS AFTER THE LAST ONE.]

IRENE

[SLOWLY] So. I just told you I love you. I didn't mean to, but if you feel that way, too, then great. If not, then just pretend it was a slip of the tongue and we can spend the rest of the night pretending it never happened! Yeah. Um. Yeah. See you soon.

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

[THERE IS AMBIANCE OF THE CAFE AND PASSERBYS AS ROSE TALKS.]

ROSE

Hi, I’m outside of the cafe now! I haven’t ordered yet, so we can go in together.

[A BEAT, THEN, SOFTER] I brought something for you. Early this morning, when dawn was just barely teasing the sky, I couldn’t fall back asleep. I have no idea why I woke up in the first place. Maybe my muscles knew something I didn’t. I decided to slip out through my bedroom window, though.

If my mom noticed, she hasn’t told me yet. She knew I was going out today, but I’m sure I’ll still come home to her sitting on the couch intently, giving me that look she always does. I don’t care. She can do whatever she wants.

I got on my bike and I rode out to the park—not the one we usually go to. This one is in the opposite direction. It’s much vaster, less playset and more nature. There were flowers that had just started blooming. I picked some with the gentlest hand I could manage. I wish I had thought to bring scissors, but I hope the flowers will forgive me for my carelessness.

I thought long and hard before picking each one, making sure the colors matched just right, that the sweet scent they produced was in perfect harmony. I tied them with a ribbon I had around my wrist, and sealed it with a kiss, just for you. It took me all morning.

[A BEAT, THEN, SHE GIGGLES] Oh, wait, I think I just saw you pull in. Okay, I’ll talk to you in a second—

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

IRENE

Hey. Just wanted to make sure you got home safe. I love you. Call me back when you hear this, okay?

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

ROSE

[LAUGHING] God, I must have just missed you. Yes, I got home safe. Thank you for checking, dear. Sir Griffin the Third says hello!

[TO SIR GRIFFIN THE THIRD] Hey, look, it’s Irene. Say hello!

[IRENE SHIFTS. SIR GRIFFIN THE THIRD IS HEARD PURRING. HE GIVES A SMALL MEOW.]

ROSE

[GIGGLING] I’ll talk to you later, I love you!

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

IRENE

[HER VOICE CRACKING] Hey, I just saw your texts about your mom. Are you okay? Do you need me to come pick you up? You’re more than welcome to spend the night at my place. My dad said you can stay as long as you need, so don’t worry about that, okay?

I wish I could do more to help. I wish I could make her stop. Have you told your aunts about some of the stuff she’s done? They sound like good people, from what you’ve told me. I know they live far away, but still, they might be able to do something.

Right, um, just let me know if you need me to come get you. I love you. Bye.

[PHONE BEEP.]

[THERE IS RUSTLING AS ROSE LOOKS THROUGH HER BAG.]

ROSE

Hi, I’m sorry to bother you. I just wanted to check, did I lose my bracelet at your house? I can’t find it anywhere. It’s the one you gave me, and I really, really don’t want to lose it. It’s like a good charm for me. Please text me if you find it. If not, it’s okay. It might just be somewhere I haven’t checked yet. Thank you, honey. I love you. Goodbye.

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

[THERE IS THE SOUND OF HER CAR ENGINE, ALONG WITH SOFT GUITAR PLAYING OVER THE SPEAKER.]

IRENE

Hey, I’m parked outside! It’s okay if you’re not done yet, I can wait. I know you like to take your time getting ready for dances, and it definitely pays off. You’re gonna look beautiful regardless, though, so just come out when you’re ready. Love you!

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

ROSE

[TIRED] Hi. I’m sorry to call you so late. To be frank, I didn’t expect you to pick up at all, but I know you’ll hear this in the morning. I hope you’re sleeping well, by the way. I— [SHE YAWNS.] I can’t sleep. That’s not unusual, but I’ve just been thinking a lot.

Do you remember when you fell in the creek? It was late autumn, and even though I pulled you out just seconds after, your teeth were already clattering. I wanted to cry, you looked so miserable, but you acted like it was hardly a big deal.

That one coffee shop was the closest warm building, so I had to take you there. One of the baristas brought out some towels for you, and even gave you a free hot coffee. I should visit them again one day, if they still work there. Maybe bring them a thank-you gift.

Anyways, I gave you my jacket, which you almost refused because you didn’t want me to be cold, but I honestly didn’t even notice it. Once we were almost certain you weren’t going to catch frostbite, we went back to your car and drove back to your house.

On the way there, while we were at a stoplight, you looked at me and said, “I’m just happy it wasn’t you.”

I laughed and said, “Well, it feels like I was in there with you. I got chills just looking at you.”

You said, “Is that how relationships work? We feel each other’s pain?”

And I said, “What happens when one of us dies, then? Will the other die, too?”

And you said, “I hope so. I can’t imagine life without you.”

“But what if you could just live your life for me?” I said. “If one of us dies early, the other should have to live double the life to make up for it.”

You hummed, and then said something I’ll never forget: “I may continue living, but that doesn’t mean I’ll like it. Life is so wonderful when you’re in the world.”

And I should have told you, then, that whatever wonder I bring is only because of you. Every time you smile, or say something stupid, or brush your hair out of your face, there’s a bit more color in the world. I think our colors bleed together, then. You are a universe in my hands and I love you more than both of our lifetimes could ever contain.

And I didn’t have the words to describe it all until right this moment. I couldn’t afford to forget.

So, I love you. In this life and the next. Goodnight, dear.

[TWO PHONE BEEPS.]

[IRENE'S DAD IS HEARD TALKING ON THE PHONE IN ANOTHER ROOM. ON THE MIC, IRENE IS HEARD QUIETLY CRYING. THERE ARE FOOTSTEPS OUT IN THE HALL. THE DOOR OPENS.]

DETECTIVE

[DISTANT] Ms. Gray, could I please speak to you?

[A PAUSE AS IRENE SOBS.]

IRENE

[QUIET, SHAKILY] Please pick up.

[PHONE BEEP.]

AUTOMATED VOICE

Today's quote is: “Foul smell of the things that we do to escape There is no glamour in this. No rock and roll. This is just endings. This is just grief.”

Kate Tempest in Hold Your Own, 2014.

[OUTRO MUSIC AND CREDITS PLAY.]

#heart of ether transcripts

3 notes · View notes

karaxreds · 5 years

Text

Heart broken (Part One) - Eric Dier

You threw your phone on your bed before runing both hands through your hair roughly, you were beyond angry.

Not just angry you were furious, devasted, and completely broken. There were no precise words to describe how you felt right now.

You've shed a million tears last night, you weren't the kind of girl who would cry over the smallest thing, you were one of the strongest woman, you hated to cry not because it showed weakness but because you knew that crying never solves anything.

You woke up this morning wishing that the events that came rushing into your mind as soon as you opened your eyes were just a horrible nightmare, unfortunately when you turned your head to the other side of the bed...it was empty.

While you were scrolling down on social media last night, as you waited for Eric to come back from his lads-night out as he likes to call it. You were suddenly tagged in thousands of pictures and videos, usually it didn't worry you because you know that ever since you and Eric made your relationship public there were a few accounts with your ship name that would post pictures and videos of the both of you.

But this time it was a whole different kind of taggs, as you clicked on the first one. You jaw dropped as you saw the small ten seconds long video on instagram, at first you thought you were hallucinating but when you went on twitter, you were tagged by a few fans there too.

There it was, a video of Eric sitting in one of the couches in the bar, he looked totally shit-faced with a girl sitting on his lap.

Eric looked uncomfortable at first, at least that's what you thought but you quickly changed your mind when you saw him slapping the girl's arse and it looked that she was really enjoying it.

You could feel the sharp pain in your chest once again, like someone just stabbed you and made sure to turn the knife right inside your heart and then rip it off.

What hurt you the most too is that the girl on his lap looked like you, same height, same hair colour and it disgusted you, you felt like throwing up when you remembered the video once again.

You heard your phone ring once again, you received dozens of texts and calls, messages from your friends asking you if it was true, and some would ask you about how you felt and of course you answered none.

You didn't even know how to feel, In the four years of relationship you had with the blondie, he never once did anything to hurt you, yeah there was some ups and downs just like any other couple but he never did something like this, In fact he was probably the most loyal boyfriend at least that's what you thought untill last night.

Hours have past and he still didn't show up and it only made you feel worse, knowing that he spent the night somewhere else, with some other girl that weren't you.

You decided thay since he didn't shop up it was maybe the time for you to pack a few things,maybe you weren't ready to confront him after all.

You grabbed the small bag you'd usually take when you went to a few of his away game and threw a few pieces of clothing, your mind was all over the place so choosing this and that really was the last thing you wanted so you just threw the first thing you saw.

You zipped up the small back and grabbed your phone from the bed, you didn't bother to change. You were wearing one of his old t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants, you sighed walking into the kitchen to grab your car keys.

That's when you felt your hert drop as you heard the front door pushed open and then closed again.

You heart started beating faster, as his footsteps approached. You heard him sigh followed by the jiggling sound of his keys.

Then there he was, standing in front of you. He looked exhausted, probably hangover from last nights events. You were frozen, he stopped in his tracks as well as soon as he noticed your presence.

"H-Hey." He stuttered nervously, you wished that somehow he felt just as bad as you did.

You didn't say anything, your grip tightened around your keys keeping you from bursting out on him.

He lowered his eyes into the small bag on the floor and then widened as he noticed what was happening.

"A-are you leaving?" He asked in a small voice, his face becoming a litle paler.

"Wha-" You started but there was a lump in your throat, "what did you expect mw to do?"

"Please, Let me explain." He whispered, taking a few steps toward you. You lifted your hand up between you two, stopping him from moving any closer toward you.

"Explain what?" You shook your head, "Explain how you-"

"Don't say it." He mumbled. "Just let me explain, Okay?"

"Eric." You shook your head again, "There's nothing unexplained here. There are thousands of pictures and videos on social media..."

"I know...but it's not what you think." He tried to explain.

"J-Just...How?" Your voice cracked at the end. "How could you?"

"Baby, Please I-"

"Was I not enough for you? Is it me? Was I a bad girlfriend?"

"What? No! Of course not, you're everything I've ever wanted and more!" He cried, moving closer but you took a step back.

"Is she better? She is. Isn't she?" Your voice barely audible now, as you finally let your tears down.

It broke his heart, the second he saw the tears he knew he screwed up badly, he knows you rarely cry and when he sees the tears it just breaks him.

"Baby, Please don't cry." He whispered, "I am so sorry. I promise, I would never mean to hurt you on purpose. I was drunk, too drunk to know what's happening."

You let out a loud sob, covering tour mouth with one hand while you wiped away the tears with the other.

"Fuck this!" He yelled, "Please, Don't cry." He was now himself crying, red eyes.

"I fucking loved you!" You screamed, "How could you do that? While I waited here for you, for hours to make sure you were okay! You were out there fucking some other g-"

"W-what?" He cut you off, "No, no no no! I would never touch someone else like that." He whispered, "I- I could never touch someone that isn't you."

"I don't believe you." You said with a harsh tone, your face hardening. "I saw it! Everyone did."

"I promise you-"

"I don't wanna hear it, Eric." You cut him off once more, clearly not believing him or his lies.

"Why won't you listen! I know I fucked up but just hear me out for god's sake!" He yelled again.

"You have a lot of nerves to come here and yell at me as if this is my fault." You punched his chest, it probably hurt you more than it hurt him. "You're a fucking dick Dier." You punched him again.

"Stop it, Baby please..." He spoke softly, grapping both of your arms to stop you from punching him again.

"Let me go." And he did as he was told. "You ruined us."

"I get it you don't want to talk now." He said giving up, "Forgot how stubborn you are." He added, rudely.

Your jaw dropped at his rudeness, he was guilty and yet he was still playing the innocent card on you.

"You're unbelievable." You breathed out, "I fucking hate you." You spat.

And there it was again, the words that broke his heart. Eric just didn't know how to express himself in this situation, he knows he fucked up bad, very bad.

"I don't wanna do this anymore." You sighed, "I don't have enough energy."

"What do you mean?" He panicked.

You didn't answer, you just grabbed your bag from the floor and walked past him toward the front door.

"Are you leaving me?" His voice cracked, "Please, don't leave me."

You shook you head with the lump still in your throat, "I need to stay away from you for some time."

"Then stay here." He rushed, "I'll leave, at least I'll know your safe and that maybe there's a chance that you'll f-"

"No." You stopped him, "I want to stay away from you and everything that reminds me of you, this is your house I don't wanna st-"

"This is OUR house." He emphasises on the our.

"Doesn't matter, Eric." You shrugged, "You stay here."

"Where are you going to go? Are going to come back?"

You sighed, lowering your head down looking at the floor.

"At elast tell where you're going, so i know you're safe. "

"I am a big girl." You said sharply, "I can take care of myself, I'll see you around."

And before he could say anything else you rushed and opened the front door trying not to look back at him because you knewthat if you do, there was no way you were leaving.

"Goodbye, Eric." Those were the last words you whispered before you slemmed the door leaving a heartbroken Eric behind you, on the other side of the door.

You know that leaving this house you also left a piece of you in it, a piece of your heart.

You didn't know what was going ro happen now, but you know that you have to stay away from him for a while before you make up your mind because you know that there was absolutely no excuse for cheating.

You got into your car and you already knew where you were going, to the person who introduced you to Eric in the first place, to the person whom you've always shared your secrets with, to your best friend's house, To Harry's house.

Ps: Eric Dier deserves all the happiness in the world, protect him at all costs.

#football imagines #footballers imagines #footballers one shot #tottenham hotspur #eric dier imagine #eric dier #baby eric #one shot #imagines #football #spurs

67 notes · View notes

boogiewrites · 5 years

Text

A Girl Walks Into A Bar 12

Characters: Declan Harp x Bella Fiore (OFC)

Summary: Modern Declan harp AU. With the close of the music festival, will the fondness they're built for each other continue on in the real world?

Warnings/Tags: Language. BED SHARING. Cuddling. Mutual Pining! Growing FEELINGS. Sexual Content: Masturbation. Mike forcing Declan to make a move. Flirting.

Click on my screen name then go to Mobile Masterlist in my bio for my other works and chapters. Please leave a like, reblog or comment if you enjoyed this! It makes me want to write more of what you want if you let me know!

The last day at the festival went by without much fuss. The same drinks and junk food, the same burp contests and looking out while the other peed in places they weren’t supposed to. It had the same closeness they both were hoping wouldn’t go away after they went home. They held hands, he carried her on his shoulders, both shoving and picking and teasing all day, sober and not. She even got him to dance a little with her and Joey, who applauded his weak attempts at twerking even though Bella told him it would take some work.

The stage schedules are out of whack, the changes going up on twitter and being adjusted, the word of mouth different from all the other things they’d heard and it became frustrating in the muggy and muddy fields. Finally, it's announced the skipped headliner goes on before tonight's, which meant for a long evening. And boy was it.

At a little after two in the morning, Bella feels energized, a second or was it third or fourth, as they went back to the van. “You wanna stay the night again and fight the crowds in the morning or you wanna head out now? I can drive for a bit if you need to sleep.” she offers with bright eyes that he was finding it difficult to say no to.

“You sure? You’re not gonna get on the road and I’m gonna have to slap you to keep you awake?” he retorts with a deep swing of his voice and a chiding face.

“You wouldn’t.” she chuckles, taking her hair down out of it’s braided up-do to something more relaxed.

“Well I wouldn’t WANT to, put it that way.” he laughs.

“We’ll load up at a gas station, coffee and sugar and we’ll be set. Some good music will keep up awake. Just four hours and we get to crash HARD.” she enthuses with bent posture to draw out the word and prove her point as to how good it would feel to do exactly that.

“Fine. Energy drinks and sour worms all around.” he proclaims with a whip of his hand in the air.

“That’s my boy!” she says cheerfully, patting his sides and bouncing into the van.

The ride is long, and the sun is coming up as they cross over the state line, dawn, a new light starting to creep across everything as they pull up to Bella’s house. Declan drives the last part and for the sake of solidarity, Bella stays awake and sings raspily to songs and eats candy, feeding him the occasion piece when he’d open his mouth like a fish and grunt. She didn’t even hate that she found it entirely adorable, and when his lips touched her fingertips, sleep was the last thing from her mind.

“So you want me to bring your stuff by later or…” he asks, rubbing a hand through his hair as he parks the van.

“Nah. Just bring it in with yours.” she answers, reaching for the door handle.

“Huh?” he asks with a quick twist of his head.

“Bring what you’d need in the house with you.” she states as if it’s obvious.

“Why?” he asks, mind fogged a bit from lack of sleep.

“You can stay with me and leave whenever we crawl out of bed tomorrow.” her delivery is entirely casual and his eyes narrow at her. “I don’t want you driving alone, you can even wash your clothes if you want. But you said you had extra so…” she shrugs. ”We can take a good long shower too.” she speaks slowly with a dopey grin, looking forward to it the most.

“Together?” he blurts out, his nose wrinkling only slightly in an attempt to keep his delivery from coming out loud and sudden like a donkey haw.

Her cheeks flush, her jaw going tight. “I didn’t uh, mean that.” she huffs nervously.

“I’m just teasing.” he gives her a friendly smile. Great cover Declan.

“Oh.” she nods and laughs nervously again.

“I can just head home, I don’t wanna bother you any more than I have. It’d be better than the couch anyway.” he shrugs, trying to remain polite.

“If you’re over at my house you’re not sleeping on the couch anymore ya dingus.” she smiles, opening the door. “We’ll share the bed, it’s big, don’t worry.” she says with a playful bounce, getting out the van. “I’m not taking no for an answer Declan.” she gives him a playful scolding look and shuts the door behind her.

They’re greeted by a very vocal Robbie who is airing his grievances to being left without Bella.

“Lil man is pissed at you Bells.” Declan snorts.

“He has the right to be. C’mere my big baby boy.” she coos and drops all her things in the middle of the hall and picks him up to cuddle and kiss him. Declan never thought he’d see the day she’d be so soft with something. Maybe staying with her was a good idea. It could be the sleep deprivation telling him that, but he really didn’t care as he watched her move lightly around her space. She looked relaxed, happy and at ease, not something he was used to. He had wondered if her newly seen bouncy and enthusiastic nature existed outside of the festival, and apparently it had all along, he’d just had to find it.

With Robbie on her shoulders, enthusiastically talking back and she told him about the trip in little snippets, Declan grinned to himself, that heavy feeling creeping over him at the cool air of her home, the light music in the background, the soft couch underneath him as she walked back and forth and did laundry, getting everything ready for them to sleep.

“Bring your stuff in and get cozy while I shower.” she motions for him to follow her into the bedroom for longer than a few minutes, he was looking forward to getting to look at everything. “Robbie might get upset if I leave him with you, so I’ll have the door cracked, he’ll prob come and go but don’t worry about him too much.

“You seem like an independent little fella, I don’t think you’ll be much trouble.”

He mrow’s as she plops him into Declan's lap and he investigates him closely. As Bella turns to shut the door to, she sees them with their noses together and almost ‘aw’s’ at the sight. They say if your cat approves of someone, they’re a good bet. And she was starting to believe it. With Declan's big welcome hands, Robbie doesn’t budge from his lap as they chatter on about the trip, Declan’s muffled baby voice being heard from beyond the heavenly dull sound of the water hitting her skin. With her fingers digging into her scalp, the welcome smell of her shampoo wafting around her, steam filling up the glass and tile box, her body starts to relax, her mind starts to realize it’s home and everything begins to decompress, she lets out a groan, taking a deep breath and letting the water run over her. A simple drag of her hands over her breasts is enough to spark the thought in her mind. The previous thoughts of Declan’s big hands, even if they were being imaging just petting Robbie, she easily imagined it was another cat of hers those tattooed and seemingly nimble fingers was petting. She realized this might be the longest she’s gone without masturbating since...since she started? She bites her lips and considering waiting another night, but hearing his warm laugh come through the small crack in the door is enough to make her body react and she gives in.

A simple fantasy while her fingers work between her legs and she leans against the tile of the wall. Him coming in, catching her and not being able to resist. Getting to yank his clothes off and feel him wet and hard under her hands, lips hard against her skin and no reason to hold back the deep moans from his delectable throat. She wanted him, she beckoned him in to catch her as she rose closer to a fast finish, biting her lip to muffle the sounds, hand fast on her breast, fingers tweaking away at reddened peaks and fingers slick between her thick folds her eyes roll back and she finishes imagining him holding her up and fucking her against the shower wall. The vision slowly fades as her heart rate slows, and she feels like she’s a ton lighter. She hadn’t realized how badly she’d repressing that need. She was suddenly very proud of herself for not giving in on the trip.

As she exits, freshly shaven and scrubbed she facepalms as she realizes she didn’t bring her clothes in. Not being used to having someone around led her to forget that she couldn’t air dry on her way to the dresser. This was going to be painful no matter how she rolled it. Say nothing, walk out confident like she meant to do it, or be apologetic and scurry about saying, oh I forgot my clothes, sorry-sorry. It’s not like he’d be upset, he probably wouldn’t even care, so she goes for the first option.

With just a towel and now damp hair with the amount of time it took for her to make herself leave the bathroom in the state she was in, she makes her debut with her modest coverings. It wasn’t racy by any means, but seeing someone wet in a towel led to thoughts no matter the situation.

With a strong posture and a face set soft and friendly, she walks out with bare feet onto the hardwood floor. It doesn’t even take a second for his eyes to move up to meet her emerging form.

“Towels are in closet.” She smiles as he rises, not speaking. She thinks making eye contact might make it worse, or should she act like nothings weird.

He looks at her and feels a lump grow in his throat. He’s seen her in less on the trip why was this coming off so...erotic. Maybe it was because with one swoop he could move in and she’d be naked against him.

“I think I left you some hot water.” She jokes, a forward nod of her head. A clear sign to stop staring and get moving he thinks, clearing his throat and lowering his gaze.

“I’ll uh, be fine.” He says with a raspberry of his lips and goes to touch the door and misses. It cued a small soft chuckle from her that makes a lump grow somewhere else besides his throat.

“Still got it.” She mutters to herself and grins proudly as she shoots finger guns at her reflection before starting the process of choosing what to wear.

Inside the bathroom Declan was quick to turn on the water, leaning against the sinks counter and looking at the ground and exhaling noisily. What was it about being back home that made her seem more attractive to him? Was it that he promised he wouldn’t sleep with her on the trip and technically the trip was over? Was the comfort that settled into his muscles while she showered that made him more vulnerable? He didn’t know but he knew he had to get rid of this half hard intrusion between his legs. He tries to calm down first, hands in his hair, scrub the filth away he muses. But everything smelled like her, his hands on him reminded him that he wanted her to touch him, hands gliding over lean muscle he worked hard for. Knowing she’d been naked right where he was just moments ago, the air still warm, the loofa still sudsy. He looks down at his twitching cock and sighs. He’d done worse things in this bathroom before so might as well add jerking off to the list.

It didn’t take him long either, picturing her with droplets running down her pierced tits, getting soapy hands on her pert and weighted tits and that ass that had haunted him the entire night before. Those little panties, just under the hem of his hoodie. HIS hoodie over her, like she was his, like he had marked his territory and claimed that strong and curvy body underneath. A solid stomach with a touch of softness before the swell of soft lips and thick thighs. His mind pictures her rolling over in her sleep, in putting his hands under her shirt, down that black thong he’d seen and feeling her pant against him. His hand quickly became hers around his now throbbing cock, the leaking going unnoticed as the water ran down his chest to his stomach that had just a small amount of winter weight left on it. A thick fuzz from his chest to his thighs, dark and dense around an uncut cock that was close to giving in as it ached and reddened. His large hands didn’t swallow himself up in one go, his size able to compare to the rest of him. As soon as he imagines her moaning his name, feeling her hot and tight and wet around his fingers as she whimpers that she’s coming, his body takes the cue. Heavy balls pumping out a backed up release of wet dreams from his good behavior the past week. He could feel it deep in his stomach, clenching his jaw as it came out, shooting against the wall and to the floor in thick spurts. With the proof of how withdrawn he’d been now washing down the drain, he shakes his head and rubs his face hard, letting out a noise of frustration to clear his head. He still had to go back to bed with her and his cock twitches at the thought.

“Fuckin...down boy.” He angrily whispers and pushes it down, shaking his legs as he gets out of the shower. “Behave.” He grunts out.

Bella decided on a simple tank dress. Not too long or short, not trying too hard. Unlike her nipples which were practically screaming look at me in the thin material against the chilly air of the room. She sits under her covers, eating one of the burritos she’d heated up for them that he was so fond of.

He emerges shirtless. Although she deserves that. She gulps and pats the bed next to her, his thin sheets hanging from a torso that made her pelvic floor wanna snap her in two. A thick and untamed happy trail disappeared under loose pants, rounding over a perfect swell of belly that lead her eyes to two heavy and strong pecs that flex as he rubbed his hair with a towel, giving her time to ogle.

She shakes her head and tries to put on her good girl face as he raises his to meet hers. A tiny bit of cleavage and a covered lower half with her blankets makes it not impossible for him to act like he had a brain.

She pats the bed next to her. “Beer and burrito on the nightstand.” She announces proudly.

“God, you’re a saint.” He moans, his stomach rumbling.

“Nah. Just a fellow eater.” She smiles as she chews a mouthful of food.

A quick bite and a wash down of their favorite drinks makes for two exhausted and happy babies. “I don’t know the last time I was so tired.” She says snuggling down as he does the same between clean and soft sheets.

“Yeah tell me about it.” He yawns and stretches, leaving his legs splayed and arms up above his head and bent, looking like a meal laid out before her.

“Just cause we’re not forced to now, doesn’t me we can’t-?” She begins, eyes looking uncertain as they look over to him.

He simply reaches over and rolls to his side, grabbing her hip and pulling her to him. Her face is more than pleased, wanting to know it was okay to keep this up now. It was a hopeful start she thought. Also miraculous she still wanted to be close to him after being this long. She would’ve murdered Charlotte by now. But all she wanted was more of Declan. It was new...and it was nice. Only mildly terrifying but...still nice.

“Good.” She mumbles out between pooched lips as she snuggled into his chest.

“You set an alarm?” He asks.

“Nope. I say we sleep to whenever the fuck we want.” Her hand moves to wrap around his body, a rather bold move, not keeping her hands tucked against her own. It doesn’t go unnoticed by him, smiling as the warmth from her seemingly small hands against his skin.

“You’ve got the best ideas.” He mutters with a smile into her hair.

She nods in response and he feels it. His hands feeling bold to return with a new gesture of their own, reaching around her and waiting against her lower back, above the swell of her butt that wiggled as she got closer to him. “Night Declan.” A little voice much softer and breathier than before escapes her.

He grunts, kissing her hair and putting his arm underneath her. “Night babe.” He gives her, casual enough for him, but not her name like he had before.

She feels the warmth of domesticity flood her body. A catch in her chest she tries to hide. Was this what it was like to be with someone? This little slice of heaven she got to taste before buying into the whole deal? It’d been so long since she’d...had she ever slept with a man like this? With someone she liked, cared about, that dare she think felt the same about her. Her hand moves nervously, but she’s feeling warm and soft in his arms, the light blocking curtains and the lamps off, leave them in a suspended night that makes their emotions want to come out and play. Her fingers trace up and down his spine, a lazy back and forth that it only takes a minute for him to know isn’t accidental.

He grunts and resituates.

“Is that-?”

“S’good.” He mumbles out as she sees his lashes fan over his cheeks and the lovely trio of freckles on his cheek. His shapely lips blub out and she smiles, chin to his chest to look up at him. She smiles and sighs. “Keep goin’.” He follows up and she does so gladly. He returns the affection with a gentle rub of his thumb to her bare skin between her shoulder blades. Both fall asleep fast, and there wasn’t much to dream about seeing as that line that had been haunting them about crossing had finally been pushed. They didn’t really want to be anywhere else besides exactly where they were.

————

Bella was proud at how little she stalled Declan in leaving the next morning. It was hard not to pull him into a kiss to keep his warmth next to her all day. She woke in his arms and that’s where she’d wanted to stay. After he'd gotten up, all his noises throaty and rumbling from a deep sleep, his hair wild and curled naturally and looking like some magnificent lion hybrid she didn’t sense the feeling of wanting to be close to him fading. It looked like it was here to stay. But herein lay the problem. Bella wasn’t known for being the best at articulating her feelings. In fact, she was usually shit at it. Especially when they were romantic. After a young love gone terribly wrong it was hard to trust again, and when she thought herself able to move on, there was no one to be had that really lit anything within her. She’d been floating, loving her life alone and content with fulfilling her own wants and desires until the day she walked into that bar. She lay with huge sleep-tousled hair, leaving a lovely impression of sex hair on Declan as he emerged from the bathroom to find her barely sitting up and still rubbing her eyes. She was even cute in the morning. Oh man he had it bad didn’t he?

She made him breakfast, or a late lunch really at this time of day. She fueled him up, gave him his clean laundry and sent him on his way. With a chaste but affectionate hug and kiss to the head from him, he left looking well rested and happy. What more could she really want? A lot apparently her inner monologue was telling her. She noticed how quiet it was, how she had no one to tell the dumb things that popped into her head before she forgot them. No one and no reason to hold hands with and be close to. She finds herself looking at her phone in her hand as she plops onto the couch with a heavy sigh.

“Mrow?” Robbie asks, his little feet pressing into her stomach.

“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” She grumbles and starches his chin.

He chirps and his tail swishes.

“I’m just...I feel off now. Like I forgot how to be alone.”

“Mmrrrlll.” He retorts and pushes into her mouth with his funny little mushed face.

“Sorry, I meant with another human.” She chuckles and scratches his favorite spot just above his tail. “Is it too soon to text him?” She asks, biting her lip. “Fucks sake.” She rolls her eyes. “Is it too soon?” She mocks herself in a high pitched voice. “Who the fuck am I? I don’t worry about dumb shit like that.” She groans. But with the work she’d put in before leaving, she didn’t have much else to do at home now. “Fuck it Robs.” She announces, throwing her hands up. “I’m gonna text him.” She says and puts her thumbs to the screen.

“Feels really weird without you bein connected to my hip now, I’ll be honest.” She types and considers it. Harmless and honest. Send.

Declan is back at work, his bags thrown back into his apartment as he’s faced with a VERY curious Mike who keeps judging him with his elbow.

“Soooo…” He keeps asking like he’ll get a new answer.

“What do you want dude? Nothing happened.” Declan claims again.

“And you’re a terrible liar.”

“Psh. That’s not true.”

“Well, maybe not but ya can’t hide things from me boyo.” He says with a wag of his finger.

“I’m not hiding. I’m not even wearing sleeves where do I have to hide?” He laughs and raises his arms.

“Behind that humor for starters eh?”

“Oh fuck you.” Declan groans and Mike laughs.

“Somethings different,” Mike claims again. “Besides you smellin' like a pretty lady.”

“I showered at her place.”

“Uh huh.” He says accusingly.

“Because we were gross from camping out for a week! Jesus.” He rolls his eyes.

“It’s in the eyes Declan.”

“It’s in the eyes, something different.” Declan mocks in a bad Irish accent. “Sound like my mom when I came home from Joe's party when we were kids.”

“Well if I recall you did pop your cherry at that party.” Mike laughs. “Mother’s...they know.”

“Oh yeah, I lost my virginity at the festival. Is that it?” He side eyes and smirks.

“Can’t lose it more than once big guy. Maybe she lost hers though eh?” He chuckles.

“Yeah... I don’t think she’s a virgin.” He snorts softly.

“There we are! Why do you think that? How would ya know? She tells every other guy but you to go fuck themselves.” Mike elaborates with a cheerful grin.

“She’s just...not.” Declan mumbles.

“Because she’s sexy, Mike. Ugh dude, I saw her and I just, I just knew man.” Mike mocks him and gets a punch to the arm.

“Shut up.” is Declan’s only come back.

“Mmmm interesting.” Mike nods.

“I saw her dance and...saw her not sober. She wasn’t shy like she... didn’t know what she was doin’.” He says quietly out of the side of his mouth.

“Well that’s...somethin’. That’s good, yeah?” He offers. “So not even a kiss then?”

“Nope.” He says, withholding the almost kiss Mother Nature herself cut short.

Then a buzz on his phone. He and Mike both look at it and Mike gives him a huge grin. “$5 It’s her.” Mike holds out his hand.

“But what if I want it to be? Why would I take that bet?”

“And he finally admits it!”

“I never denied it!” He says loudly reaching for his phone and posting up against the back of the bar.

“And the verdict?”

“You would’ve gotten 5 bucks.” He says with a smile that wasn’t meant for Mike.

“Oh look at him. That boyish smile. He’s got it bad, he does.” Mike continues wiping down the bar as Declan flips him off only for a second before responding.

“I was thinking the same thing babe.” He grins to himself. Mike notices but just thinks it’s rather adorable now. Declan was never good at hiding his emotions.

“Is this what Siamese twins feel like after they're separated?” Bella sends in response and he feels a flutter in his stomach. She could be sweet, you just had to know how to translate.

“I don’t think we were quite that close lol.”

“Speak for yourself. How do you explain this massive scar on my hip?” he snorts at her response.

“Oh yeah, I stole your kidneys. Should’ve mentioned that.”

“I knew it. Using me for my organs. How'd I let this happen again?”

“Again?!” He laughs out loud and Mike rolls his eyes.

———-

The next day while Bella’s back at work she’s shuffling around her office. She felt like a change, rearranging her shelves contents, putting together a new chair she’d ordered from IKEA, she had her music on and her door open as she mulled around.

This went unnoticed by no one in the office. Bella didn’t leave her door open and she didn’t listen to music without headphones. She came in and even said hello to the girls that morning. They were all dying to know what happened while she was away, but knew better than to ask. So it was left to the one that could, CeeCee.

“So…” She begins, hip presses against the doorframe of Bella’s office. “Trip go well?”

“Yeah it was good. Great line up this year.” Bella nods.

“Am I supposed to ignore the fact that you’re listening to Sam Cooke?” She smirks.

“What? He’s only a timeless genius.” She stops and leans on her desk.

“There are usually implications involved when this sort of music is listened to.” she insinuates with narrowed eyes, taking a noisy sip of her coffee.

“There is nothing different now than it was when I left.” is the cryptic answer she gives.

“Mmm.” She nods, tucking her strawberry blonde hair behind her ear. “Who’d you end up taking anyway?”

Bella doesn’t miss a beat. “You don’t know them.”

“Try me.” CeeCee challenges with a nod.

“I’d rather not.” Bella shoots a more playful warning glance her way. Then he phones buzzes again at her black patent desk.

“Seems you forgot some stuff in the van. I can give it to you when you come by the bar but it’s a little...it’s panties. lol”

“I’ve got to take this,” Bella says with busy thumbs that makes her friend roll her eyes and stroll away. “Why are you stealing my panties Declan? Seems beneath you.”

“Thank you for thinking it is. lol But they we’re in one of my laundry bags by accident.”

“Good to know... I can pick them up after work. No big. Just don’t wave them around or put them up the flagpole or something.” She kids, a smirk on her lips.

“Whoops.”

She puffs at his reply. “Rude.”

“I thought you liked Salute Your Shorts?”

“I did, good pull, but that’s a bit too literally for my taste.”

“You were singing the theme when you were drunk because we walked by a pair of boxers on a pole. How could I forget?”

“I’m glad I can then. lol I can’t stay tonight, have lots of mixing to do this week and I need quiet and no distractions. But I can pop in. That work?”

“That works.” He signs off with a nod. He wanted her to stay, get a feel of what she was thinking but he admired how she worked and that wouldn’t stop now. Besides, he knew Mike would be analyzing her every move.

——

He supposes he just hadn’t known what to expect when she walked through the doors. After seeing her in such wild outfits over the festival maybe he expected her to be the same now. But she bounced in, a t-shirt dress with a v neck that he could tell was soft before he even touched it. Hugging her body just right, her feet adorning black vans with the green camo print of the dress looked entirely charming to him.

Mikes eyes were glued to them both as he pretended to be busy.

“Hey babe.” Declan practically sighs out, meeting her at the edge of the bar and wrapping his big arms around her tightly.

“Hey.” A soft matched sigh of affection to match his escapes her. She inhales him, missing the way he smelled, missing having him around, the masculine touch he added to a space or conversation just by being there. Their eyes shut for a moment of indulgence. Hands on backs gently rubbing back and forth before slowly parting, palms flat against each other’s bodies as they pulled apart hesitantly.

“I’ve got your stuff, c’mon back.” He says with a nod. She gives him a quick one back and can almost hear the assumptions of the men in the bar looking her up and down. They’d be half right, but she hadn’t left anything with him for the reasons they were thinking. “I hid them in one of my shirts so they weren’t just...layin' around.” He offers it to her with a soft huff of a laugh.

“Thanks. I appreciate it.” She finds her words short, hands passing over the others intently with a slow drag as the skin to skin was already missed by them both. She could’ve just put the underwear in her bag, it’s why she’d brought it in. But the chance to take one of his shirts home with her? She’d never pass up the chance. “Be a little brow-raising to just leave with a fistful of panties huh?” She grins.

“A little.” He smiles as her almost bashful behavior as she tucks her hair behind her ear and holds the shirt to her chest. “You sure you can’t stay?” He offers, rubbing the back of his neck as he looks down at her with a plea in his eyes.

It was hard to turn down those deep hazel puppy dog eyes. But she had to. “Yeah, unfortunately. Trust me,” she offers with a hand to his arm. “I want to I just have work to catch up on.”

“Nah it’s cool, I get it.” He nods. “I’ll walk ya back out then.” He holds the swinging door open and with a hand on her back, he walks her out to her truck.

“Thanks again. I know I haven’t been saying much but...busy...like I said. And not in that ignoring you but being polite way.” She insists with a smile.

“I do admire your honesty.” He chuckles as her almost goofy smile as she really tries to show him she isn’t being sparse for any reason other than work. “I’ll let ya go then. Thanks for coming by, even if it was just for a little bit.” His face looks so soft and open and she finds herself jealous. Why couldn’t she be like that? She felt like a locked and shut box beneath his gaze.

“Yeah, it was good to see you.” She managed and it’s enough for now for him. He leans in for another hug. This one without prying eyes that he’s aware of and kisses her cheek in a spur of the moment decision. It turns rosy under his touch and he wants to do it again. Then again and onto her lips. With a blush, she tucks her hair behind her ear and bows her head down. “I’ll text you later.” She offers with big green eyes that catch the yellowing lights of the bar sign.

“You know where I’ll be.” He replies with a disarmingly charming smile, hands in his pockets as he walks backward and leaves her to her feelings.

“Aw look at ya now.” Mike coos as soon as the door shuts behind Declan. “Two kids in love. I do love love.” He sighs.

“Jumping the gun on that one.” Declan says with a nod and a sigh.

“What no date yet?” Mike asks surprised.

“Very funny.” Declan mocks.

“Did she say no?”

“I didn’t ask her to marry me Mike what the hell.”

“No! I meant a date. Like goin' out.” He responds fast. “But good to know where your heads at.” he shoots him a wink.

“I didn’t ask.”

“Why the fuck not?” he says with exasperated outstretched hands. “Did ya see how the lass looked at ya? All that blushin' and tuckin' her hair back? I’ve not seen her that bashful since I’ve met her. And smilin’? Ya kiddin’ me? She likes ya boyo just...go! You fuckin idiot go ask!” He shoves his shoulder.

“R-really? She’s probably-“ he gets cut off.

“You go fuckin' see ya little boy! Go ask her out on a date like a man.” He says hitting his chest and being insistent.

Declan turns and looks to the door, taking a breath and his long legs carrying him quickly. Luckily for him, Bella’s was processing that kiss to the cheek and was moving slow. Wondering if she had time to stay for a drink before going home. So when she sees him reappear and tap on his window her hearts in her throat.

“Hey.” He simply states with a nod of his head.

“Hey?” She asks back with a small smile.

“You wanna...go do something this weekend?” He asks with an entirely unsure face that she found to ease her nerves. He was just as bad as she was at this. She found it comforting.

“You aren’t sick of me yet?” She asks, the time being teasing but it was an entirely honest question.

“Not at all.” The certainty was back in his eyes, his head shaking a bit to drive the point home.

She nods before speaking. “Okay. Yeah.” She swallows, just act cool Bella.

“Yeah?” He tilts his head like a puppy and smiles with a wrinkled nose.

“Yes.” She nods and smiles. “Do you know what you wanna do?” She offers up, trying to hide the slump in her posture from forcing out her words.

His eyes blink, mouth parted for a moment before he realizes he, in fact, does not. “Uh. No.” He admits with a laugh that draws one from her too. “Just wanted to spend time with you.” He adds and she can’t believe his ability to recover and come back even smoother than he was before.

Another tuck of hair, another sheepish smile that looks away before it makes eye contact again. She nods. “That’s good enough for me.” Her voice is soft and the vulnerability in it makes his head spin.

“I’ll think of something.” He nods and promises. “Something kick ass.” He beams.

“I know you will.” She smiles softly at him over lashes that are trying not to flutter.

He reaches into the truck and she puts her hand in his instinctively. The touch they’d both been wanting. “Drive safe. Lemme know you got home okay alright?” He offers with a warm tone that makes her skin sweat. His thumb rubs the back of her hand before a little squeeze is shared and he pulls away.

“I will.” She agrees and gathers herself. “Night Declan.” She replies with a more sly smile, seeing his shoulders slump slightly at the use of his name.

“Night Bells.” He sighs out, smiling with a closed mouth and shoving his hands into his pockets once again.

He watches her drive away. He’s just asked her out. And she knew what he meant. And she still said yes. This was actually happening. With no moves too aggressive this could still turn out to be just as innocent as he was prepared to act like it could be. He still had to be gentle and patient with her. Her cool exterior now broken as she stuttered at his affection. But it made him feel powerful, a rush to affect someone as tough and hard as her. Maybe all that idle wishing she might also see him as more than a friend had accomplished something. Now he just had to figure out something for them to do.

Please leave a like, reblog or comment if you enjoyed this! It makes me want to write more of what you want if you let me know!

@vale0413 @littledeadgirlwalking @jaegeeeeer @phillipkopusimagines-and-stuff @mjolnir96 @xmother-mortemx @this-isnt-madness @thors-hair-extensions

#Declan Harp #frontier #declan harp x reader #declan harp fanfic #declan harp fan fiction #declan harp fic #declan harp au #frontier au #frontier modern au #declan harp modern #frontier fanfic #frontier fan fiction #jason momoa frontier #frontier fic #frontier fandom #frontier fan fic #jason momoa #declan harp x ofc #declan harp x oc

58 notes · View notes

hope-for-olicity · 5 years

Text

Pumpkin Spice and Football 7/?

Felicity is the new Social Media Coordinator for the New York Jets, Oliver is the veteran quarterback - their worlds will change when they literally collide.

I LOVE the Fall and I hope you do too! This story will focus on all the fabulousness that Fall has to offer including NFL football. That being said, you don’t have to like football to like this story. This story is also available on AO3.

Thanks so so much to the AMAZING @mel-loves-all for the moodboard!

7. Sick

It turned out Felicity was right. Something Oliver was soon going to realize was the usual course of things. Instead of the press attacking him for keeping a secret, he was praised for helping out his family’s business. Between the news of his personal life and the Jets going 8-2 so far, this was the best year of Oliver’s professional career.

The team had flown in late last night from Miami. Felicity skipped the trip as she was feeling under the weather. He sent her some video from his phone to post. Oliver wanted to check on her but didn’t want to disturb if she was sleeping.

It was Monday, he knew Felicity had brunch plans with her friends but he could invite her for dinner her smiled as he picked up his phone.

Oliver: Hope you are feeling better

Oliver: Missed you yesterday

Oliver: Would you be up for a home cooked meal this evening?

Oliver: I’m leaning toward a cheat day with pasta :)

Oliver put his phone down, pretending he wasn’t waiting for the buzz.

*****

Felicity grabbed a tissue as she sneezed. Her head felt like it weighed a million pounds. She thought working from home would do the trick yesterday, apparently not. She felt like she was going to die. Her phone buzzed on her nightstand.

Felicity: Welcome back

Felicity: I missed you lots

Felicity: I’d love dinner but I’m still sick

Felicity: Can’t make the star qb sick, his fans would kill me

Felicity: cough, sneeze, cough

*****

Oliver smiled. It was so sweet that she cared.

Oliver: I’m going to let you in on a secret

Oliver: I don’t get sick

Oliver: Are you going to brunch?

Felicity: I’m dying

Felicity: No brunch

Felicity: No dinner

Felicity: No fun

Felicity: No welcome back kisses :(

Oliver: Okay, rest up. I need my welcome back kisses BADLY

Oliver: I’ll be by later

Oliver decided to make his famous chicken soup. He just had to run out to get supplies.

*****

Felicity snuggled under the covers. She didn’t deserve Oliver Queen, he really was too wonderful. They had not gone public with their relationship yet. They told Coach Lance and Oliver’s agent John Diggle as well as their close friends. They wanted to make sure they weren’t breaking any rules. They were given the go-ahead to go public but decided to wait.

Thanksgiving was fast approaching, Felicity was very excited to spend her first with a traditional family. Oliver told his family they were together, he said they were happy for him. She so hoped this was true.

Felicity closed her eyes thinking of Thanksgiving, she woke to a soft knocking on her bedroom door. She slowly opened her eyes to see Oliver.

“Hey,” Oliver spoke softly, “I used my key so as not to wake you but then how would you know about the soup?” Oliver smiled.

“Soup?” Felicity poked her nose out from under the covers. “Brr, it’s cold in here.”

Oliver took a seat at the end of her bed. “I know, I think you forgot to turn on the heat. I turned it on for you. I also put the soup on your stove burner to heat.”

Felicity looked worried. “Is there smoke?”

“No.” Oliver tried not to look alarmed. “Why would there be smoke?”

Felicity shook her head, quickly grabbed a tissue before sneezing again. “It’s just I’ve never used it before, usually when I use the stove there is smoke….” Her voice trialled off, she looked sheepish.

“Okay, I’m an experienced stove user so you don’t need to worry. No smoke.” Oliver reassured. Felicity looked so cute bundled up under a dozen blankets with her pink nose and messy hair. He knew better than to say it but he simply adored her.

“Thank you for the soup. You are too good to me. But Oliver, you need to go home! Wash your hands, take a shower, you must disinfect!” Felicity began to shoo him away with her hands.

Oliver chuckled. “No. I’m a big strong man with a strong immune system. I’m here to take care of my girlfriend. It’s okay that I call you that?”

Felicity practically beamed. “I like that.”

“Good, I do too.” He knew he was smiling at her like an idiot. “So, what do you want to do? Do you want me to bring you soup in bed? It’s important we get some liquids in you.”

Felicity began to cough.

Oliver rushed out of the room, returning with a glass of water that Felicity gratefully accepted. She took a few careful sips. “Sorry, guess I should go get some cough medicine.”

“No need! I brought you everything!” Oliver smiled hoping he was scoring boyfriend points.

“You did? What did you get?” Felicity began to get out of bed, quickly sat back down. “Oops,” she blushed. “Did that a little too quickly.”

Oliver got up to help Felicity get up. She was a little steadier on her feet the second time. “I take this means you are getting up”

Felicity walked over to her dresser. “Yes, I’ll put on a fresh pair of comfy clothes then meet you in the kitchen.”

“I’ll be waiting. Call if you need me.” Oliver closed the door behind him.

Felicity smiled she really did have the best boyfriend. She’d never had a boyfriend take care of her when she was sick, it was kind of, no really nice.

*****

Felicity shuffled out into the kitchen in her bunny slippers, leggings, a Jets t-shirt and one of his old Jets hoodies.

“Okay, I wasn’t going to say anything but now I have to. Felicity Smoak you are adorable.” Oliver quickly put some soup on the small table for her. Followed by a tall glass of water.

He took the seat across from her, watching Felicity crinkle her nose.

“What? You don’t like it? You haven’t even tried it yet.” Oliver pushed her bowl closer to her.

Felicity rose her hands in defence. “It’s not that. I’m just wondering, where is your soup?”

“The soup is for you. To make you better. I’m good.”

“What if I said it would make me feel better if you ate the soup too? I don’t want you to get sick. I’ve been breathing all over you. Breathing my yucky germs, I mean.” Felicity began to eat her soup. “This is amazing, Oliver. Is there anything you can’t do?”

Oliver chuckled. “Felicity, I doubt anything about you is yucky, including your germs. If you insist I’ll have some soup if it will make you feel better but first let me show you what I brought you.” Oliver grabbed a bag from the kitchen island. He began placing the items on the table in front of her. “I got cough syrup which will also help with your head cold, the pharmacy said this was fine as long as you don’t have asthma. I got apple juice, orange juice and pineapple juice because I wasn’t sure which one you liked. I got you a chocolate bar and ice cream which I put in the fridge and freezer respectively. Some magazines,” Oliver tossed some a People, a Wired, a Vanity Fair and Sports Illustrated on the table. “Finally, I got you this,” he pulled out a stuffed Tardis. “It’s the right one, I think, it has a Doctor Who tag.”

Felicity slowly got up, walked toward Oliver. Who was looking a little worried. She hugged him. Germs be damned. “Thank you, Oliver. I love it all. I’ve never had anyone spoil me like you do. You make me feel so special.” Tears began to form in her eyes.

“Hey,” Oliver hugged her tight. “Don’t cry. I’m glad you like the stuff. It’s supposed to help you get better.”

“Well, it does. Your soup has magical healing powers.” Felicity beamed up at him.

“You best finish it then.” Oliver gestured for her to sit again.

They spent the rest of the day together. In the end, Oliver did get a minor cold. Felicity felt awful but he assured he was a big tough man and it was totally worth it.

*****

As Oliver and Felicity remained professional at work, no one outside the people they told knew about their relationship. Oliver really was amazed given how the press followed him that their secret remained a secret. They both knew they were living on borrowed time.

Which was why when they were cornered by photographers while packing Oliver’s SUV for their Thanksgiving trip, Felicity put Team Olicity plan into action.

First, after the encounter, she scrolled through media outlets and social media to see if they were being talked about. She insisted, but Oliver disagreed that the press might think she’s his assistant.

As Oliver drove, Felicity scanned on her phone. Making little noises now and then.

Finally, Oliver couldn’t take the silence anymore. It was weird. Felicity was never silent. “Well?”

“We’ve been outed,” Felicity said sadly.

“Finally!” Oliver was overjoyed.

“What do you mean finally? You wanted this? Why didn’t you say anything?” Felicity felt confused. She knew her whole life was about to change. She had already seen trolls on Twitter saying she was too fat and nowhere good enough for Oliver Queen.

“Felicity, I am so proud to be your boyfriend. I want to shout it out to the world! The only reason I haven’t as I know you didn’t ask for this. For the attention, you will receive. I will try my best to protect you but you, more than most, know how people can be awful. That being said.” Oliver looked away from the road for a quick second to hand her his phone. “Can you tweet my tweet?” He gave her a quick smile that was only for her.

Team Olicity already had a tweet written and a pic to attach. Felicity had loved the idea of them controlling the story when it was hypothetical but now that it was happening she was freaking out. Like, what if Oliver changed his mind tomorrow. She’d lose her job, her reputation, everyone would laugh as they knew she wasn’t good enough for him.

Felicity was so caught up in her own personal mental freakout that she didn’t realize Oliver pulled over at a rest stop.

Oliver turned to face her. “Breath, baby, just breath. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. We are going to talk about this. Everything is going to be okay. Just breath.” Truthfully, Oliver thought he’d be the one freaking out. Felicity was always so calm and collected. Seeing her freak out was a little reassuring.

Slowly, Felicity began to breathe evenly. “Sorry, about that.”

Oliver pulled her close for an awkward car hug. “No need for sorries. This will be big change for you. And you more than most, being so connected to social media, know this. Just remember, I know you, nothing these trolls say is true.” Before Felicity, realized it was happening Oliver had taken both their phones back from her. He saw the trolls comment about her being fat and not good enough.

“I need you to listen to me. Felicity, you are not fat. Being fat is not bad but you are not. If you gain or lose weight for whatever reason, it will change nothing. No matter your body type, you are too good for me.” Oliver wiped a tear that slid down Felicity’s cheek. “I love you and I want the whole world to know it.”

Felicity’s eyes widened. “You love me?” She took off her glasses, wiping the tears from her eyes before putting them back on.

“Yep. I have for some time now. Maybe since the first time, you spilt a latte on me.” He chuckled.

“I love you, Oliver. I was worried about saying it too soon but I’ve never felt this way before. I just hope that everyone knowing won’t change things.” Felicity smiled hopefully.

“We won’t let it.” Oliver leaned forward to kiss placing a soft kiss on Felicity’s lips. The kiss quickly escalated.

Finally, Felicity pulled back. “Best not start something we can’t finish.” She smiled. They hadn’t slept together yet but she had a feeling it would be soon. Truthfully, she couldn’t wait.

Oliver smiled at her slyly. Then picked up his phone. Copied the text they planned into a tweet, attached a pic of them before turning the phone to Felicity. “Look good?”

Felicity sighed. “Looks perfect.” She hit tweet.

I am happy to confirm that I am in a relationship with @FelicitySmoakNYJets. Ms. Smoak and I met when she took on the role of Social Media Coordinator for the New York Jets this year. We are both very happy. We ask that you respect our privacy. #GoJets

(Not my photo)

So hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading :)

@mindramblingsfics @memcjo @mel-loves-all @wherethereissmoak @green-arrows-of-karamel @spaztronautwriter @tdgal1 @vaelisamaza @lucyyh @tangled23works @swordandarrow @marcsmom6 @smoaking-greenarrow @pattid1 @1106angel @it-was-a-red-heeler @obibaldwin @folly1977 @nathiawarrior @alemap74 @samwinter09 @miriam1779 @coal000 @alejandra1400 @you-are-not-done-fighting @matalala @alexisa1206 @blondeeoneexox @felicityfan20 @emw751103 @mochababychristy @omglovechrissie @stephswims @fortheluvofolicity @ajillgreen @laurabelle2930

#Pumpkin Spice and Football #olicity fanfiction #oliver x felicity #alternate universe #MyFanfic

68 notes · View notes

nebulapie · 5 years

Text

I was tagged by @barad-doom (aka @goldenhornets), thank you! :)

Nickname/s: I don't really have one, people usually just call me Anna

Zodiac sign: Cancer (sun, moon and rising, so I'm like the ultimate cancer person)

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Last thing I googled: I wish I could say something related to my future flat being renovated just because I'm in the mood for oversharing my life situation and because it would be an actually useful real life thing, but it was "michael sheen twitter" and I'm still proud of it

Favourite musicians: Currently I can't stop listening to Queen, but my all-time faves include (in no particular order): Imagine Dragons, Muse, Alt-J, Black Eyed Peas, MGMT, Quimby, Sheldon Allman (his album Folk Songs for the 21th Century is a treasure)

Last movie I saw: Bohemian Rhapsody

Last book I read: Finished: Time Out Of Joint by Philip K. Dick; right now I'm reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Song stuck in my head: Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy by Queen as I am just a basic new Good Omens fan and I've been listening to it on repeat today at work

Following now: 597

Followers: 265

Do I get asks: Very rarely, but I just got one two days ago and it still makes me so happy!

Amount of sleep: I used to sleep a lot before I started working beside school, but now I sleep 7 hours on the best days and I'm always sleepy

Lucky number: 7 and other numbers thats digits make 7 when added together, like 16

What I'm wearing: Black crop top, my new fave black and white striped trousers, pastel pink blazer and shoes, and I feel more stylish than I've ever felt this year

Dream job: Cinematographer. my other choice would be a job where I'm working on a computer in a corner of an office and everyone leaves me tf alone, and basically this is my current student job so, good for me! (but without the university I'd get bored real quickly probably)

Dream trip: I want to go back to London so badly!!!!

Favourite food: I love a lot of kinds of food but one thing I really loved as a kid and recently re-discovered when I realized I can just, go and make some anytime, is crêpes/pancakes

Instruments: I used to play the flute in elementary school (I had the good old yamaha soprano flute) but then I stopped somewhere in 6th grade and I haven't really played any instrument ever since. my mum has a piano in the living room and sometimes I try little things on it like parts of the Darth Vader theme, but this is basically all. I always wanted to try the drums but that day haven't happened yet

Languages: My native language is Hungarian, I think my English is pretty okay, I learned 4 years of German in high school but then I forgot basically all of it, and I tried learning Japanese for a semester at uni but then I gave up (which doesn't mean I won't try again someday)

Favourite songs: Right now I have 3 faves from Queen: Friends Will Be Friends, Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, and Somebody To Love

Random fact: I have psoriasis, I'm incredibly self-concious about it and so I never speak of it to anyone, but in high school I used to design ocs with awesome looking horns on the places I had/have plaques on my head to cope (I never showed these ocs to anyone either)

Aesthetic: Pastel blue pajamas and fluffy pink comforters, a mug of milk with a little eierlikör in it, watching storms from the window at night, the smell of almond shower cream, baggy blazers, iridescent nails, rose gold rings, combing your hair with your fingers, stepping into the summer rain, going to the mall alone, listening to music with one earbud in, wearing three different pastel flower patterns together, the touch of your favourite t-shirt on your skin, rainbow colored markers, synthwave background music

This was fun, especially the aesthetic part! I'm tagging @hippygirl14, @futurenewyorkerdoodles, @no-soul-no-problems, @hobbitnextdoor and @dendriticdruid

As always, you don't have to do it if you don't want to, and sorry if I left you out, if I didn't tag you but you want to do it, consider yourself tagged as well!!

#tagging thing #about me #I started this post 3 days ago and when I tried to save it in my drafts tumblr simply ate it #I got so angry that it took me this much time to re-write the whole thing #In other news: sometimes I hate tumblr

2 notes · View notes

castingdirect · 3 years

Text

IMMORAL PROFITS: Why Are Big Corporations Still Allowed To Profit From Rape Videos?

This article isn't about ethical pornography, it's about rape and sexual abuse and big corporations that are allowed to profit from human misery A Canadian student says: 'I've not problem with consensual adults making porn. Who cares?' but the problem is that many people in pornographic videos, especially those on user submitted content generated video tubesites. Just after she turned 14, a man had enticed Jane* to engage in sexual play over Skype, and he recorded her, and posted a clip, along with her full name, on XVideos, one of the worlds most-visited pornography tubesites. Google searches helped direct people to this illegal footage of child sexual abuse. Jane had recounted how she begged XVideos to remove the clip, but instead, said the website hosted two more copies, so hundreds of thousands of people could leer at this most mortifying moment of her life, preserved forever as if set in amber. That happens all over the world: Women and girls, men and boys, are sexually assaulted or secretly filmed, and then a video is posted on major websites like XVideos that draws traffic through search engines, while the initial video assault may be brief, the attack on dignity becomes indeterminable. 'The shame I felt was embarrassing,' Jane had said. Mr Kristof wrote in December about Pornhub, a Montreal-based website that pioneered access to free porn uploaded by anyone - so called tubesites that are like YouTube but orientated to the adult market and selling nudity and sex. Since the article was written and published, credit card companies have stopped working with the tubesite, and the site has removed more than nine million videos in response, with the Canadian and US Governments cracking down on the company's practices. However this isn't isolated to one company. It was noted at the time, that exploitation is rooted not in a single company, but in an industry that operates with some impunity and punishing one corporation may simply benefit it's rivals, after all, remove a brick, it makes a building unstable, knock enough bricks, the wall comes tumbling down. That's what is happening here because when Pornhub deleted videos, millions of outraged customers flooded to it's nemesis, XVideos, which has even fewer scruples. A veteran European Pornographer called Pierre Woodman, said that while Pornhub has been damaged financially, XVideos see Mr Kristof as a 'Santa Claus In Newsprint'. That's not a comfortable feeling and it doesn't sit right, and we need to knock more bricks out of the wall, rein in the entire rogue industry, and for now, the behemoth that is XVideos, bolstered by Google, and other search engines. 'We are the biggest adult tube in the industry, with an average of two billion daily impressions worldwide,' boats XVideos, which SimilarWeb ranks as the seventh-most-visited website in the World. Two slots behind is a sister website with almost exactly the same content, XNXX.com, and each get more visitors than Yahoo, Amazon or Netflix. XVideos and XNXX appear to be owned by mysterious French Twins and based in a nondescript office building in Prague not far from Wenceslas Square. This building is the hub of a porn empire that gets six billion impressions a day and inflicts anguish all over the world, and raises an important question - Why do they get away with this? Heather Legarde, a young woman in Alberta, felt the world crashing down on her last August, when she had discovered that her ex-husband had posted intimate videos of her online, and she said that people around the world were gazing at her naked body. 'I'm all over the internet,' she said sadly; 'Not what I wanted to be famous for.' What's worse, in one video her former husband sexually assaulted her as she lay unconscious on the bed, which Legarde had no recollection of the assault and no idea how the video was made, apart from a clue in the tag: 'Sleeping Pills.' Some 200,000 people had watched her being assaulted while she was drugged and unconscious, so on that day in August, mortified and dizzied by the betrayal, Legarde prepared to tie a noose. 'I was standing in my garage under a beam, holding a rope,' she recalled. But finally, she changed her mind: 'I said to myself, "If this is your solution, he'll do this to someone else tomorrow".' So Legarde resolved to own her story and fight back: 'So it doesn't have to happen to other girls.' That's why she agreed to be quoted by name in the Times column, but her path through the life is now paved with daily humiliations, she regularly finds herself searching for her naked videos and begs websites, sometimes successfully, to remove the ones she finds. 'How do you get your head around 200,000 guys masturbating as you're being assaulted?' she mused. A great majority of videos on XVideos and other tubesites are not of children or of unconscious women, most of the bodies are writing by choice. But it's easy to find videos where the posting or the activity wasn't consensual. A major study published by the British Journal of Criminology this year found that one in eight videos on three major tubesites - XVideos, Pornhub and XHamster - depicted sexual violence or nonconsensual conduct. Some show intoxicated or unconscious women or girls being raped, while others are from spy cams in locker rooms or breach changing rooms and show unsuspecting women or girls, (and, less often, men and boys), undressing or showering. Racist epithets and humiliation are on display; as are misogynistic videos of supposed feminists being degraded and tortured, and many of the videos depict rapists, real or fake, forcing sex on children or adults who are trying to fight back. One on XVideos was captioned with a girl's protest: 'This is not right, Daddy, stop, please.' XVideos guides viewers to videos that purport to show children: Search for 'young,' and it helpfully suggests also searching for 'tiny,' 'girl,' 'boy,' 'juvencita,' and 'youth porn.' Many of those on the screen will be young-looking adults, but some will be minors whose lives have been badly damaged. 'I think about suicide,' a Thai girl called Jenny* said, and she explained that when she was in eighth grade, a man reached out to her on Facebook and suggested that she could make money form modelling, and he advised her to send videos of herself, including naked videos to give a sense of her body; these would be kept strictly confidential, she was assured. Jenny sent him the videos, but she was never paid as promised, and said she forgot about the whole episode - until a friend had alerted her that her naked videos were on XVideos, Pornhub and at least one other site. 'I just wanted to die,' Jenny said: 'I didn't want my parents to know.' Jenny is smart and well educated, and is a beautiful singer, and she had hoped to become a music star in Thailand: 'I don't think that's possible now,' she stated: 'My dreams are going to end because I have naked pictures on the internet.' The Hug Project, a nonprofit in Thailand that works with trafficking victims, got XVideos to remove Jenny's videos, but Jenny quit school because she couldn't handle the humiliation and every day she gets messages from strange men, sometimes with photos of their genitals. Jenny is furious with herself for sending the videos: 'I had the potential to do something great, but now I can't,' she said. She agreed to be quoted, despite her shame, because she wanted other kids to understand that in the internet age, some mistakes are forever. The abusers aren't limited to obscure pornographic websites either. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and other sites are all sprinkled with child sexual abuse imagery. One woman, Adrianna*, from Illinois, had been trafficked, and her pimp had posted naked video clips of her that had been sitting on Twitter for six years; she said Twitter had ignored her pleas to remove them. When asked to have them removed after the fact by a prominent Times writer though, and they were removed within hours. Not everyone has the opportunity to rely on Newspaper columnists to aid them though in order to get nonconsensual nudity removed, and it's not a scalable solution either. Meanwhile a web search of Adrianna were still on XVideos, despite her efforts to have them removed, and they had collectively been viewed more than 100,000 times. 'The trafficking was one thing,' Adrianna had said: 'But I feel I'm being exploited all over again.' Google is a pillar of the sleazy ecosystem, for roughly half the traffic reaching XVideos and XNXX appears to come from Google searches: 'The porn tube sites are obsessed with their Google rankings because Google is their lifeline,' said Laila Mickelwait, the president of the Justice Defense Fund, which fights against online sexual exploitation. 'Google is the primary means by which they drive traffic to their sites.' A recent search with the words 'rape unconscious girl' using Google's video tab directed people to scores of videos celebrating just that, including one in which a woman first appears to be strangled to death (presumably acting) and then her 'corpse' was violated. A google search subsequently done for 'Schoolgirl Sex' turned up video results of teenagers having sex of all kinds (on a bus, with a 'stepbrother,' etc.) on XVideos and XNXX, with most of the people in the videos possibly over 18, but no way to be verifiably sure. The Times reached out to Google to help them understand its reasons for complicity with companies that monetize from child sexual abuse, but there were no satisfactory responses. Google has it's limits though, and when the Times reporter tried to search 'How do I poison my husband,' the results were literacy or humorous, not how-to instructions. The top responses to 'How Do I Commit Suicide' were for a suicide hotline. So Goole can demonstrate responsibility, it can demonstrate and remove toxic moral materials, so why not rape videos? XVideos and XNXX appear to be owned by the twins Stéphane and Malorie Deborah Pacaud (sometimes rendered as Deborah Malorie Pacaud). The Pacauds, 42, avoid the media and didn't respond to any inquiries, but others in the industry said that Stéphane Pacaud began the business in about 2001 by copying images from pornographic magazines and putting them on a simple website that became XNXX. Fabian Thylmann, who helped build what became the Pornhub empire before selling it, described Stéphane Pacaud as a loaner who devoted himself to his websites and other solitary pursuits. 'Even when in Vegas for conventions, he was often just in his hotel room working,' Thylmann said in 2012, and when he offered to buy XVideos for $120 million, but Pacaud cut off the discussion and said he had to get back to playing a video game. 'I'm too busy,' Pacaud had said, as Thylmann remembers the conversation: 'I've no time to discuss this now. I'm playing Diablo II.' The Pacauds' empire became WGCZ Holdings, a company that appears to have been recently renamed to WebGroup Czech Republic. It controls at least 60 companies worldwide, including some in the United States. Many of us were inspired by Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution in 1989: Is it too much to ask that the heirs of that revolution not inflict rape videos on the World? The Czech police and prosecutors say that they are investigating XVideos and tis affiliated sites, and the Czech press is publishing exposés about WebGroup's practices. Under pressure, XVideos has removed some paedophile search terms over the past few months, but the clean-up doesn't go that far, with a search for 'twelve' on XVideos suggesting 'related searches' of 'training bra,' '7th grader,' and 'elementary,' according to the Times. So what can be done and how can it be done, how long will it take, and will it be effective? A starting point is going to be to recognize that the issue is not pornography or the pornography industry at all. The issue is about child exploitation, and how we can be sex positive, and exploitation negative. It's a fair objection that cracking down on illegal pornography is sometimes a game of whack-a-mike, but while oversight won't eliminate problems of the internet, it can vastly help reduce them. Copyright protection is a priority for U.S. Government, so mainstream porn companies mostly have learned not to steal content; when they do, they get sued and lose. If the United States and other Group of 7 Countries cared as much about abused children as about video piracy, maybe it can make XVideos equally vigilant about rape videos. While there are no simple solutions, there are three steps that could help. First, PayPal and Credit Card Companies should stop working with ALL companies that promote illegal videos and not just single out Pornhub. PayPal in particular props up XVideos because it used to pay for ads, Mastercard took the important step of announcing that porn websites can only carry on accepting payments if they verify age and consent of each person in sex videos; other card companies could follow suit, and should follow suit. Second, search engines should stop leading people to rape videos and stop directing people from the likes of Google, Bing and Yahoo to websites with a long record of distributing them. Third, we should create accountability in criminal and civil law, for that's the best way to incentivize companies to clean up their act. In March a girl who was trafficked at 14 and forced to appear in sexual videos filed a lawsuit against XVideos, but such a suit faces difficulties under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Bipartisan legislation before the House and the Senate would make these suits easier to pursue, which could be a gamechanger by harnessing capitalism to induce better corporate behaviour. 'There's always some enterprising lawyer waiting to pounce,' said Marc Randazza, a lawyer who has represented XVideos and also victims of nonconsensual porn: 'If you put civil remedies in, you would have a platoon of lawyers fighting to help you if you were a victim of nonconsensual porn.' Facing this privatized accountability, companies like XVideos would themselves rush to remove nonconsensual imagery, and we would have aligned the interests of porn king pins and their 14-year-old victims. Some worry that a crackdown would financially harm sex workers who sell videos of themselves, but these three steps would not kill that porn industry, or the porn industry in general. People in the adult content industry say that companies like XVideos have a perfectly good business model with just consensual adult content. Without accountability, corporations are tempted to avert their eyes, the most exploitative companies profit the most, and this creates a race to the bottom. The cost is borne by the unsuspecting children and adults who often didn't know their content is there in the first place. A 16-year-old girl in Perth, Australia, a good student and popular in school, took a naked photo of herself while standing in front of a bathroom mirror, and she sent it via Snapchat, so that it would automatically disappear in seconds, to her 17-year-old boyfriend, with the words: 'I love you. I trust you.' The boyfriend took a screenshot before it disappeared and shared it with five of his friends who in turn shared it with 47 of their friends, and within a few days, more than 200 people in the school had a copy. Someone uploaded it to a porn site and named the girl and her school; over three months, and with the help of online searches directing people to the site, the photo was downloaded 7,000 times. The family moved to a different city, but students there found the image as well, so the family fled to a different state in Australia. Paul Litherland, a former Australian police officer who worked on the case, said that the photo was posted on porn websites all over the world, and she felt she could never escape. She refused to attend school, and she self-medicated with drugs. Then at the age of 21, she took her own life. These are the stakes in which people are gambling with every day. There is more than financial and monetary gain at stake - lives are at stake! *Names changed to protect identities of victims. Read the full article

0 notes

nearmidnightannex · 6 years

Text

Eurovision 2018! commentary as it happened

Reposting from something done elsewhere. It is very very long, what with the competition lasting, you know, FOUR HOURS, so there is a keep-reading tag below.

No idea who the performers were, but I really liked that second number leading into the beginning and the parade of nations.

Interesting that Ross and Shangela felt the need to explicitly state that they will not be talking over the performers. I'm guessing that they had comments about that in previous years. (Also, totally forgot that Celine Dion got her start with Eurovision. And also somewhat confused, what with her being, you know, Canadian. Then, there are random Americans here this year, and I think Norway’s performer last year was actually from Australia, so.)

I do not remember the Ukranian boy band hosts from last year doing the instructions in English and French. I'm guessing in part because as they stated they were very new to English, so handling both would have been a bit much.

And here we go!

Melovin, Ukraine, "Under the ladder". Had a few problems wandering off key at the start, but then the number went insane and he was fine. Seriously, that ending was kind of nuts for a song that really wasn't all that intense. Didn't like it that much, meself, but we shall see.

Amaia y Alfred, Spain, "Tu Cancion". Surrounded by a sea of phone screens on one side, and a stage of things that aren't phone screens but might as well be on the other. It's actually the sort of very sweet ballad that wouldn't tolerate Eurovision-standard overproduction, so the lack of LED screen probably doesn't hurt them at all. No sense of whether or not it will do well, but the audience (and Ross and Shangela) seem to love them. (Cat Valente on Twitter: "Oof, Spain's only special stage effect was heterosexuality.")

Lea Sirk, Slovenia, "Hvala, ne!". A song and performance with attiTUDE, at the least. And about ninety million more flashing laser lights and spotlights than any song needs; I'm not epileptic, but I literally could not watch the chorus because it hurt. I can't imagine how difficult it was to be in the room.

Ieva Zasimauskaitė, Lithuania, "When we're old". A very very small and sweet ballad. If we didn't have the example of last year's winner, I wouldn't think a song this small would have any chance of making it through. Given that there's no projection screen on stage with her, I'm guessing that the images of couples we see next to her can't be seen in the auditorium, so they're aimed squarely at the juries and viewers, all of whom are watching on television elsewhere. And that staged ending, however hokey, was really sweet.

Cesar Sampson, Austria, "Nobody but you". I like the sound of the song, although I think it may have a shade too much repetition. His pants are ... weird. (People, if I, the fashion-impaired, am wondering why his spandex pants have a crotch at his knees, something is decided ODD.)

Elina Nechayeva, Estonia, "La Forza". Oh, Opera. Or at least operatic. And she gets around the LED screen restriction by wearing her own. Man, that skirt is MAGNIFICENT. It also provides all the motion, which is good, because she can't possibly be able to move without screwing up the screen. (Um ... were those sperm cells zipping around on her dress for a hot minute there?) I do wonder how much the auditorium can see, though; the main seating/standing level is all below stage level, and the balconies are all very far away.

Alexander Rybak, Norway, "That's how you write a song". A previous winner performing again. And again, effects that the audience can't see because they're composited into the camera. And it was fun, I guess, and I suppose that's how you write a song, but ... eh. Whatever.

There is a LOT more direct outreach to the auditorium audience this year than there has been in the past. The Slovenian grrrl group asking them to sing along, the Austrian guy saying "How are you, Lisbon" in a song that really didn't tolerate it, Norway throwing his jacket into the audience ... I wonder how much this is a reflection of them compensating for the LED effects they don't have.

Claudia Pascoal, Portugal, defending champeeen, "O Jardim". Apparently, Portugal has decided that "small and quirky" is their niche, and they're going to OWN that. That said, the song built a little, in a way that last year's song never did, if only a very little.

And now a bit of business, both literal and figurative, in which the entire world sprints for the bathroom. Plumbing system managers around the world are thinking, "What the ... must be a break in Eurovision."

SuRie, Great Britain, "Storm". A very energetic performance, in which some rando grabbed the mic from her to get political. It was handled expeditiously, to put it mildly. She was able to get the audience back with her pretty quickly. Intrusions aside, the song was ... OK, I guess.

Sanja Ilić & Balkanika, Serbia, "Nova Deca". Cant understand a word, of course, but I like the sound and staging. Also the studmuffinly lead singer who set sail on a shorter version of the SS Kaftanic.

Michael Schulte, Germany, "You let me walk alone". It's a very nice, low-ish key song. Again, very simple staging accompanying effects ... although, judging from the reflections on the stage floor, unless the floor itself was part of the effects, the audience actually could see those. I wonder if management changed its mind about the LED screen ... or if he somehow brought his own with him. (EDIT: judging from later acts, the latter.)

Eugent Bushpepa, Albania, "Mall". Very dynamic. I mostly liked the sound of it, although I could have done with less of the falsetto blasts. Back of his jacket was ... odd. And ... that's it. That's all I got.

Madame Monsieur, France, "Mercy". So ... being able to kinda sorta just a little understand parts of the song are throwing me. Not least because it took me a couple rounds to catch up with the concept of "My name is Mercy", and not "My name is Thank you." Not helped by the fact that they were actually playing on that confusion deliberately. That aside, the song was ... very very French.

Mikolas Josef, Czech Republic, "Lie to me". It's a fun song -- why is he wearing a backpack? -- but good lord, there's a lot of just standing more or less in place this Eurovision. (Well, OK, until the end of the song, for him. Bopping about with dancers and the occasional backflip off stairs is not “just standing in place”, no.) Also, it would have been helpful to have established the context that the other dancers were standing in light boxes bseside him; it looked on screen like they were somewhere else entirely at first. It's one hell of a dynamic performance, I'll give it that.

Rasmussen, Denmark, "Higher ground". Selected to perform the song because he looks like a viking. Which cannot be denied, really. Also, putting him in all black makes him look simultaneously undead and slightly terrifying. (Cat Valente on Twitter: "The lead singer for #Denmark looks like undead bearded Jared Leto when he hasn't had lunch yet.") The choice to stage with a bunch of long-haired burly trenchcoat-clad guys sorta kinda marching around is ... interesting. The song is sort of monotone; the performance is making a LOT more of it than it is, which is saying something. (And again, the appeal to the audience: "Come on, walk with us!" Which explains the marching.) Not quite sure what the snow effects have to do with anything. (The stagehands and crew for Eurovision must be both very good and feel very put-upon by the end.)

Jessica Malboy, Eurofied Australia, "We got love". It's dynamic, and it's ... fine. Although this is as close to typically Eurvision staging as we've had in a while. She did go badly off on her big glory note near the end, but she had a fair amount of song left to recover with.

And another break for business, and for business. The bit with the Serbian ... whatever he was, was very cute. The bit with Cesar Sampson was also very cute; hope he didn't hurt anything. And the bit with the Portuguese pod was also very cute. Cuteness abounded.

A very brief "in memoriam" bit to the first Eurovision winner, who passed away earlier this year.

Saara Aalto, Finland, "Monsters". Weirdly, I mostly like this song a lot. I think parts of it needed ... something, but I have no idea what. It just felt a bit off in places. (Not helped by the fact that nerves pulled her off key a bit here and there.) But that aside, it was energetic and interestingly staged. No sense of how well it might do.

Equinox, Bulgaria, "Bones". A motley of a group, with random Americans, according to Ross. Staged -- and presented -- as a really stark music video, sort of. Everyone in black. (My, this is a grim Eurovision this year.) That said, the blond woman singer does look as though she apported in from some completely different futuristic video. The song was ... fine, I guess. Can't quite see it going anywhere, though.

DoReDoS, Moldova, "My Lucky Day". Clever staging -- VERY clever staging, fifties doorway farce translated to music. Not that fifties doorway farce would have involved quite so much groping. It was really a lot of fun. It's so relentlessly out of anything even vaguely popular that I have no sense of how well it will do, but if there's any justice, that should be at least a top five finish.

"It's a very good chicken, sir."

Benjamin Ingrosso, Sweden, "Dance you off". And apparently some performers did indeed find their own projection stage solutions. Song is ... fine. (Saying that a lot this year, but that's all I got. It's not awful, it's not outstanding, it's FINE. If he were on the US version of The Voice, he would probably win.)

AWS, Hungary, "Viszlát Nyár". Um ... well. It's ... dynamic. Yes. It is ... that. Also apparently a fire hazard. And the lead screamer was barefoot. And the electric guitarist/bassist (couldn't tell which) decided to use Eurovision's audience as a mosh pit. (I bet the lead screamer can't talk after concerts, if he tries do to whole sets like that.)

Netta, Israel, "Toy". I really do love this song. Even the first few seconds have graduated from "intensely annoying" to "kind of growing on me". (They also sound MUCH better without autotune.) Not quite sure that the HEY light board thing really translated. Other than that, the staging is kind of lunatic, in initially small-scale Eurovision tradition. Oh, hey, sparkle shooters! And then the lighting went utterly insane! And then fire! And smoke! Ah, Eurovision!

Waylon, Netherlands, "Outlaw in 'em". A country song. Huh. I wouldn't expect that to do well at Eurovision -- an American-style country song being, you know, not even vaguely Euro-anything -- but as CW songs go, that was fun. Although you can tell that this was European, because he would have been Strongly Discouraged From That Staging here. The black guys having angry violent fits around the white singer was ... yeah. THAT. (Probably deliberately, given that the lead singer had lived in the US for a while, but still.)

Ryan O'Shaughnessy, Ireland, "Together". Low-key, lovely mid-tempo ballad. And I think he’s also been to Eurovision before, so he was able to keep his falsetto strong and on-key until near the very end. A nice all-male romance portrayed by the dancers on the stage and bridge. (Weirdly, given that the song itself is very clearly about the breakup and not the romance. Reportedly, the semifinal performance was censored in China, and the Eurovision broadcasting team promptly yanked China’s license to broadcast the grand final and blocked them.)

Eleni Foureira, Cyprus, "Fuego". It's fun, but still not seeing how this song is one of the favorites. To repeat myself: It was FINE. Lots of fire effects at the end, which, given the titlte, were rather required.

Ermal Meta e Fabrizio Moro, Italy, "Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente". Lyrics in many languages pretty clearly composited directly to camera -- they must have been in a complete panic when they discovered that they wouldn't have a big LED stage to work with. The song had sort of a nice build that they played with. Beyond that ... it was (say it with me!) FINE.

Honestly, I'm kind of clueless about what to expect. The staging was very low key. Very few of the numbers stood out. At a guess, my picks, vaguely in order, would be:

Israel Finland Moldova Austria Serbia Estonia Ukraine Ireland Cyprus Czech Republic Lithuania Slovenia Spain Portugal Netherlands Norway Sweden Italy Eurofied Australia (Yes, that's right, outside the top ten for the first time) Albania Denmark Bulgaria Hungary France United Kingdom (may do better with sympathy vote for rando invading the stage) Germany

I think the top three that I listed will actually be the top three, but beyond that ... I have no clue. And, to be scruplously accurate, I don't expect Israel to win, although I think they should. I think the geopolitical moment that we're in, which kept Russia out of the final for the first time ever, will also keep Israel from winning.

And now, the interval acts! The first couple singers are really nice. Can't understand a word, but the songs are still lovely.

The skit about the journey to Portugal's win was ... interesting.

And Salvador Sobral himself returns to the stage (sans last year's manbunnage) to sing another "I won't do Eurovision style" song at Eurovision. Which, to be fair, is a very nice sounding lament ... which his movements on stage do not at all match -- I wonder if he usually performs with a guitar or something and just has no idea what to do with himself. Or maybe I'm missing a lot because I don't speak Portuguese. Either way, he just looks odd up there. ... oh. And now the song acquires tempo as he plays the piano like a drum. (In all seriousness, this is the most Eurovision-style performance I've seen from him; adding in a certain dynamism along with a certain amount of "What is he DOING?") And then he performed his Eurovision-winning song with a person who I guess is his idol. And the audience sort of sang along. (I wish I liked that song more, and I did like it better than last year’s Eurovision performance. Because that was a Moment.)

Interesting that Ross and Shangela, when they picked their top five, had almost NOTHING in common. They both had Israel and Germany in their top five, but nothing else.

And now: the jury vote! And judging from the early vote, the juries are going to be all over the place; Israel, for example, has been in second on one ballot, third on another, out of the top ten on the third and fourth jury ballots, first on the fifth; Cyrprus has a first and a few random other points; France has one first place (...the hell?), and not a single top ten vote anywhere else, and so on. But apparently the pre-competition love for Cyprus was justified; they're doing very well. But countries are bouncing all over the rankings in ways that they haven't the past two years. (Barring a massive televote result, it does seem clear that Eurofied Australia will indeed finish outside the top ten this year.) Unfortunately, Moldova is getting hammered in the jury vote, so they won't finish in the top five. SO UNFAIR!

Halfway through the jury vote, a pause for whatever reason, in which they cover the Eurovision young musicians orchestra very briefly. Israel very narrowly leads Austria and Cyprus. A pattern is emerging, slowly, that if Austria, Germany, Cyprus, Israel or Sweden isn't shown in a particular national jury's top ten, they will usually be the first place vote. Usually. But not always. (Hungary gave their 12 points to Denmark. And again: the hell?)

The green room for Eurovision is MASSIVE. For some reason, I thought all the pods were somewhere front of house. Also, Cesar should forego mentioning his Twitter password methods on international television.

Russia's jury got booed in the auditorium during the jury vote. (I do not have the slightest idea what Shangela was talking about when she said there was a hush in the auditorium.) This may go some to explaining their first-ever shut out from the Grand Final.

Unlike the past two years, at the end of the jury vote, it was utterly unclear which country would win. Last year, Portugal would have needed an unprecedented collapse in the televote to lose (it won the televote, so it didn’t matter); this year, it could easily go to either Austria or Sweden having a roughly equal shot, and Israel, Germany, and even Cyprus (which dropped back to fifth) having a not-unreasonable chance.

And now, the public televote results! Sweden, shockingly, finishes well down the public vote, so now their chances depend on Austria and Israel getting hammered. (Which does not happen.) And the public televote is ... weird. Seriously, how did Hungary do so well? And Austria does not win the televote, or even do particularly well! Serbia does well in the televote! But does not do well enough to matter! Ditto Norway! Moldova did very well in the televote, indicating that some people out there had decent taste!

Weirdly enough, as soon as they announced the fifth highest score, it became apparent that either Israel or Cyprus was going to win, because Austria getting hammered in the televote meant that they couldn't maintain first place. Italy, somehow, miraculously, managed a top three televote result, but finishing third meant that they couldn't win, because they got hammered in the jury vote.

Second place in the televote goes to ... Cyprus!

ISRAEL WINS! ISRAEL WINS! WOO-HOO!

youtube

I only got one of top three (and two of the top six) right (and Germany kind of epically wrong), and it was (sort of) the winner! Woot! And other nonsense noises! (Cat Valente on Twitter: "YES YES YES WEIRD #EUROVISION RETURNS TRIUMPHANT TAKE THAT BLACK SUITS AND EARNEST BALLADS ALIEN CHICKEN MUSIC FOREVER!")

youtube

Next year's Eurovision will be in either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, belike. That should be ... interesting. (I'm guessing probably Tel Aviv ... although one of the announcers did just say Jerusalem. Well. That may be ... fraught.)

While I am glad that Netta won -- I really did think it was the best song and performance -- part of me was secretly wanting Austria to win so that next year we could have Conchita and Cesar co-hosting. But I am really happy about this result.

One of the things I both love and hate about this type of competition. "Hey, Netta, you have just won the biggest competition of your life! Now, get it all together and perform for us! RIGHT NOW! No, you can't take the trophy with you ... Oh, all right, take the trophy. LOOSE THE CONFETTI!"

#eurovision #eurovison song contest #eurovision 2018

2 notes · View notes