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woah-were-halfway-there · 4 years

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The Sweetest of Them All

A/N: just another little bonus part of the AFTR universe that I came up with out of nowhere. Also, I left this as third person instead of second. Enjoy!

Word Count: 3.2k

Y/N has never been a big fan of Valentine's Day.

To her, it was overrated and expensive. But, she'd be lying if she said she didn't love the fact that it gave an extra reason to love on Auston a ridiculous amount. Sure, she did that every day, but to be fair, she loved how the title of Valentine's Day added a bit more fun and excitement to something she'd normally do any other day. It felt different for some reason, so even though she didn't love the so-called holiday, she still tried to plan something special for it every year.

Admittedly, she and Auston almost got competitive about it with trying to one-up the other with affection. They didn't care about gifts. They cared about the time they spent together and the thoughtfulness behind it.

Usually, it was Y/N that came up with something ridiculously sweet for Valentine's Day to do for Auston. However, this year, he had her beat.

For some odd reason, Y/N woke up very early that day. Maybe it was the baby waking her, or perhaps it was her internal clock saying sleep was no longer necessary. But, regardless, she was awake much earlier than usual. She also knew Mia wasn't awake or else she would've heard her, so she took that time to lie back in bed and relax for a few minutes on her own.

The bed felt incredibly empty, given that Auston was with the Leafs in Washington and wasn't expected to be back in Toronto until late that night. Frank was a good cuddle buddy alternative, but sometimes the Goldendoodle just wasn't enough when Y/N was missing her man. Of course, this was one of the days when she missed him a lot, so she took that as an excuse to text Auston and at least get this so-called holiday kicked off.

Y/N Happy Valentine's Day, Aus 🥰 can't wait to see you tonight

She wasn't expecting him to message back right away, seeing as it was only 7:30 in the morning, but much to her surprise, he did.

Auston Happy Valentine's Day, babe 💕 Can't wait to see you either. Did the flowers for Mia get delivered?

Y/N Yes, they got here last night. They're beautiful. I set them on the kitchen counter, so once she's awake and we go downstairs, she'll see her little V-Day gift from you

Auston Perfect. I got part of your Valentine's thing with me right now too. Ready for it?

Y/N Is it going to make me cry?

Auston Probably

Y/N Great. Hit me with your best shot

She stared at her phone screen for a moment, expecting it to light up with the notification of an incoming FaceTime call from her husband or a picture, but instead, he sent her a link. But not just any link, it was the link to the video recording of a new Spittin' Chiclets podcast episode that was over an hour-long called 'Love Day: Part One.'

Confused, but also insanely curious, Y/N then leaned over to grab her laptop from the bedside table and got into the most comfortable position her growing baby bump would allow so she could watch the video like that. As soon as she was about to press play, her phone buzzed with another text.

Auston This was filmed a couple of weeks ago when the Chiclets guys were in Toronto. They interviewed at least 10 different guys in the league at different times, and they're kind of long, which is why there's more than one part. Just watch the intro, then I'm the first interview. Mitch is on part 2 if you want to watch that as well, but yeah... call me when you're done 💕

Still unsure of how to process what was going on, Y/N just shook her head and followed the link.

The video started with Biz, Whit and Rear sat all-around a table, each wearing a different red, white or pink shirt with heart-shaped balloons positioned behind them. Empty bottles of Pink Whitney sat on the table, acting as vases for bouquets of roses, making Y/N roll her eyes and chuckle at how far these guys would go for good product placement. But, she kept watching, and unsurprisingly, Biz was the first to speak.

Biz: "For Valentines Day this year, we wanted to do something different. Something more soft. So, we're going to tell, well, I guess, show some love stories."

Whit: "Bet you all didn't know that some of the greatest love stories to ever be told have happened to some of the guys that play in the NHL. Don't believe me? Guess you'll have to listen to find out what they are."

Rear: "We asked some players to come in and talk to us about their relationship stories and give as many details as they were willing to give. And let me tell you, they were great. To start us off, we have Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs telling us his fairytale romance."

The video then clipped to a shot of Biz sitting next to Auston in what Y/N assumed was the hotel downtown that the Chiclets guys were staying at. Auston wasn't dressed extravagantly or anything, just wore a grey hoodie, black pants, and his signature Raiders snapback.

Y/N immediately recognized his outfit. She remembered Auston coming home in those same clothes early one afternoon after he did some running around downtown with Mia, and started thinking of how not once did he mention doing anything for the podcast. He kept this very on the down low, and Y/N was excited to see how it would all play out.

Biz: "Alright, with us today, we have none other than the Leafs number 34, Auston Matthews. Welcome back to the show, Auston. How ya doin?"

Auston: "I'm great. Thanks for having me. How are you guys?"

Whit and Rear: "Good."

Biz: "Great, real good. Now, Auston, you know what you're here to talk about, right?"

Auston: (chuckling) "You're acting like you didn't spend the last week blowing up my phone until I agreed to do this."

Biz: "Amazing! You do know. So, here's how it's all going to go down. We've got a list of questions about your relationship with your significant other. Your obvious better half. And are going to take turns asking them so the people listening at home can get a bit of insight on your, and I quote, iconic love story. Why don't you give us a little summary of your relationship before we dive in?"

Auston: (hesitantly) "Sure, okay. So, my wife Y/N and I have been married for almost two years now. Our anniversary is at the end of July. She accidentally forgot it last year, which I haven't let her live down. Y/N, babe, this is your six month in advance warning that our anniversary is indeed coming up again this year… She's going to hate that I mentioned that. We, uh, we've been together since my first season in Toronto, so for a pretty long time now, and it's been amazing. We have a daughter, Amelia, but everyone just calls her Mia unless she's in trouble. She just turned two on January 25th, and we have our second baby on the way. They're due to be making their grand appearance in late June. We also have our firstborn, Frank, the Goldendoodle. Can't forget about him. But, yeah, that's my little family."

Whit: (nodding along with Biz and Rear) "Fair enough. Now, how and when did you and Y/N meet exactly?"

Auston: "We met on the night of my first NHL game back in 2016. She was at that game."

Biz: "Oh, yeah? Was she there for a reason?"

Auston gave him an unimpressed look.

Biz: "What?"

Auston: "You know why she was there!"

Biz: (shrugging) "Our listeners don't. C'mon, refresh my memory. Was she there to cheer someone else on?"

Auston: (shaking his head) "Yeah. She, uh, she's a cousin of one of my teammates, so she was there with their family to watch him during our first game."

Biz: (grinning widely) "What teammate?"

Auston: "The one out in the hallway keeping my daughter occupied while you keep being annoying and asking me questions you already know the answer to."

Everyone laughed at that, including Y/N, as she shifted onto her side, being mindful of her growing bump that seemingly became more noticeable each day, and got comfortable as she braced herself for what the rest of this interview would entail.

Biz: (still laughing): "Just to clarify for everyone who still doesn't know, he's talking about Mitch Marner."

Auston: "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up."

Rear: "I take it that Mitch and Mia get along really well? I haven't heard a peep from her since you came in here."

Auston: "Oh, she loves him. Yeah, that's her Mitchy, alright. Him and Steph, who you will hear all about once Mitch comes in here, are Mia's godparents and some of her favourite people."

Whit: "That's awesome. And how was that at first, though, being romantically involved with one of your teammates' family members? Sounds like grounds for some chaos, if I'm honest."

Auston: "It sure made meeting the family a bit more nerve-wracking. I'm just kidding. No, it was fine. It was definitely a little awkward at first trying to figure out how I was going to tell Mitch that I wanted to date his cousin. Like, he and Y/N are very close. Always have been. And the last thing both me and Y/N wanted was for Mitch to be uncomfortable. He did handle it really well, though. It's because of him I was even able to get to know her in the first place, which I'll never be able to thank him enough for."

Rear: "Now, you're a pretty private guy. You post the odd picture of your little family from time to time. Y/N is rather private, as well. So, really, no one knows your guys' story other than those who have lived it with you or watched it unfold. I'm sure many people will jump right on the chance to listen to this, seeing as you and Y/N are one of the most beloved couples in the NHL. But, what exactly made you want to come on here, give a bit of insight into your private life, and talk about it all?"

Auston: "Well, for one, Biz would not stop asking me to do it. Literally kept calling and texting me for days until I finally agreed."

Whit: "Shocker."

Biz: "Hey, now."

Auston: (chuckling) "That and also I figured, why not. I love my wife, and I love our little story. It's nice to think back on everything that's happened and see how it all got us to where we are now. With all the ups and the downs, its uh, it's been an amazing ride for sure, and I wouldn't change it for a thing. Also, it's for Valentine's Day. I haven't told her I'm doing this, so when you guys drop the episode, I'm just going to send it to her without much context."

Whit: "Do you think she'll cry?"

Auston: "Absolutely. I know this kind of thing would make her tear up regularly, but those pregnancy hormones have got her bad. Without a doubt, she's going to call me crying once she's done watching this."

Y/N scoffed as he said that and grabbed some tissues to wipe away the waterworks she already felt coming on.

Biz: "I've met Y/N many times now. The first time being back in what, 2018?"

The screen then showed an old picture of Biz sitting in a restaurant with his arm wrapped around Y/N's shoulders, both smiling widely as they held up their drinks, with Auston seemingly moping off to the side a little bit. Y/N chuckled at the image, instantly thinking back to the day she first met Paul Bissonnette and how wild it was before the photo faded away and showed the guys again.

Biz: "Yeah, it was when she was in Scottsdale visiting you during the summer. Great girl, completely out of Auston's league."

Auston: "Hey!"

Biz: "I'll never forget you sassing her when she commented on how hot Arizona was, with her being Canadian and all, but damn she was fast putting you in your place by calling you a, what was it?"

Auston: (grumbling) "Desert Boy."

Everyone burst out laughing again, except Auston, who just rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.

Auston: "Whatever. She sasses me all the time when I complain about the snow, but the one time I do it back, I get called a Desert Boy and can never live it down."

Biz: (still laughing) "Ugh, amazing. Okay, moving on because we don't have much time and can probably fit in like two more questions. So, Auston, tell us how you knew that Y/N was the end game for you. How did you know that she was the one?"

Auston: "Oh, man. I don't even know how to explain it. Growing up, you see all these movies and shows, or read books where people always find someone who is their soulmate. Their perfect match. And I never knew what the feeling of finding that person was because I had never experienced it. My mom would tell me that when I did find that person, I'd know. That it'll be such an intense feeling, and to be honest, I didn't believe her. Until I met Y/N, I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true. The first time I met her, something drew me in, and I knew I wanted to get to know her better right away. Mitch spoke so highly of her, so did the other guys on the team that had already met her and over the first couple of months of us knowing each other, I saw what they meant. She quickly became one of my best friends ever. When we started dating, I saw more of how good a person she is, which attracted me even more. She is so selfless and caring for everyone around her; it truly blows my mind. I had never seen my family welcome a girl I introduced them to as quickly as they did her, and I trust their judgment the most. But even if they didn't do that, I know they would have accepted her regardless because, honestly, I probably seemed like a lovesick idiot. I still do. Y/N became this significant light in my life that I knew I wanted to be there forever. I began thinking about what it'd be like spending the rest of my life with her. Then it became something that I knew I needed. I can't imagine my life without her, and I never want to. She makes me so happy and has given me more than I could ever thank her for. I'll never understand how I, of all people, was the one to capture her massive heart, but I do know how lucky I am."

As he spoke, the screen showed a little picture slideshow of Y/N and Auston over the years of their relationship. It started with one that Ema took the first time Y/N had ever gone to Scottsdale. Y/N was sitting on the edge of a pool, and her legs dipped into the water. Auston stood between them as he wrapped his arms around her middle and leaned against her while looking over at where Ema stood taking the picture. The next one was from a Christmas party where the two were under a mistletoe as Auston leaned Y/N back and was kissing her cheek as she laughed and held onto him for dear life. There was a picture of them with Auston's family, one of them with Mitch and Steph, and another of Auston with his arms around Nate and Mya, Y/N's younger brother and sister, as the three smiled at the camera and Y/N was in the background looking confused.

The last few pictures were a bit more recent. They showed Y/N holding Frank as a puppy, a maternity photo of her and Auston posing when she was pregnant with Mia, and one of them on their wedding day with Mia and the rest of the gang. Then, the slideshow concluded with a very recent picture of them taken just a couple of weeks prior at Mia's birthday party, where Auston has his arms wrapped around Y/N from the back, showcasing her growing belly. At the same time, she leaned against him and glanced over her shoulder at him lovingly. The photos then went away and showed the guys again as Auston finished speaking.

Auston was right. Y/N was full-on bawling by that point.

All the guys were smiling as Auston finished saying his thing, but were soon interrupted by a knocking noise followed by a door opening.

Mitch: (offscreen) "Wait, no! Don't let her in!"

Mia: (also offscreen) "Daddy!"

Mia then came into the frame as she ran towards Auston, not caring about what was going on or who was there. Auston was quick reacting as he smiled widely and scooped Mia right up into his arms, making sure to place multiple kisses on her cheek as she giggled and squirmed in his hold, while Mitch became visible too and shrugged.

Auston: "Hi, mini. I missed you. Did you have fun with Mitchy?"

Mia: "Yeah! Where's mommy, daddy?"

Auston: "She's at home, baby girl. I'm almost done, then we can go get a Timbit while we wait for Mitch to be done. Sounds good?"

Mia: (knuckling at her eyes, tiredly) "Mhmm."

Rear: "This is adorable."

Biz: "Hi, Mia."

Mia: (shyly while hiding against Auston's chest a bit) "Hi, Biz."

Whit: (laughing) "Okay, I think we've kept you long enough now, Auston. Is there anything else you and Mia would like to say to Y/N?"

Auston: "Yes. Happy Valentine's Day, babe. I love you so much, and I'm sorry I'm not there right now. You're going to hear a lot more from me on actual Valentine's Day, but for right now, I think that's just about it. Mia, can you blow a kiss to the camera so mommy can see it and say 'happy Love Day!'"

Mia: (blows the kiss) "Happy Love Day, mommy!"

Auston: "Can you tell her that you love her?"

Mia: "Love you!"

Auston and Mia then waved to the camera and said bye as the clip faded out, and a new interview of another NHLer began playing.

Y/N's heart felt so full. She couldn't stop crying over how much she loved her family and how badly she needed to hear something like that. Life had been particularly hard on her as of late and seemed to keep throwing her curveballs, but this, this was exactly what she needed. To be reminded of how loved she is and that she genuinely is never alone.

She then grabbed her phone to call Auston and remind him of how much she loved him, that day and every day. The two talked for a few minutes before Y/N was pretty sure she could hear Mia waking up. After saying their goodbyes, Y/N found herself thinking about how, regardless of how she feels about the actual day, this was a Valentine's Day she will never forget.

#auston matthews fanfiction #nhl imagines #hockey rpf #nhl rpf #auston matthews imagine #auston matthews imagines #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagine #toronto maple leafs fanfiction #nhl headcanon #hockey fanfiction #hockey imagines #hockey imagine

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shelovescontrol91 · 3 years

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In order to lure Camila Cabello to “Cinderella,” Kay Cannon borrowed a page from Prince Charming’s playbook. Sony told Cannon she could direct the film — she had already been writing the screenplay — provided she could convince the pop star that “Cinderella” should be her acting debut. So off Cannon went to Miami to meet with Cabello, having packed a glass slipper she’d bought on Etsy, even though her producers told her that would be “weird,” she says.

“I was there for, like, 30 seconds. And I’m like, ‘I hesitate to do this!’ And I pull out this glass slipper. ‘Does it fit?’”

However embarrassing, the gesture worked. In May, Amazon Studios bought “Cinderella” from Sony — with Cannon’s blessing — and it will premiere on the streamer on Sept. 3. While it’s disappointing that the movie musical won’t primarily play in theaters, the director, who has a daughter too young to get vaccinated, sees only the bright side.

“If the goal is for people to feel joy,” Cannon says, “I think we’re going to reach more people.”

At 47, Cannon is among the still-too-small group of women directors who have a Midas touch for mainstream, feminist comedies. After getting her start as a writer for “30 Rock,” Cannon wrote the three “Pitch Perfect” movies and directed “Blockers,” an emphatically R-rated comedy with a dirty mind and a loving heart.

In summer 2017, Cannon had just completed filming “Blockers” when her agent told her that James Corden wanted to speak with her about a “Cinderella” project. She jumped at the chance — but only because she wanted to meet the late-night talk-show host, not because she had any interest in fairy tales or princess culture. In fact, Cannon was certain that any new “Cinderella” would be a non-starter, since Disney’s 2015 live-action version, starring Lily James, had grossed more than $540 million worldwide so recently. “Nothing’s going to come out of this,” she remembers thinking.

But when Corden and his Fulwell 73 producing partner Leo Pearlman pitched her the idea of a “Cinderella” musical with contemporary songs, saying she could rewrite the fable however she liked, she immediately changed her mind. “I have no poker face,” Cannon says. “And I was like, ‘I want to do this!’”

Cannon’s “Cinderella” has a thoroughly modern message. Ella isn’t interested in marriage, wanting instead to travel the world and be a designer. Cannon also toned down the canonical cattiness of Ella’s stepfamily, and upped the story’s comedy potential. All the while, characters such as the stepmother (Idina Menzel) and the prince (Nicholas Galitzine) are singing songs like “Material Girl” and “Somebody to Love” and “Pitch Perfect”-style mashups like “Whatta Man” with “Seven Nation Army.”

At every step, her guiding principle was “How can it be different?” “I wanted people to get their money’s worth,” Cannon says, “or why do it at all?”

In an interview with Variety, Cannon talks about how COVID-19 affected “Cinderella,” her experience as a woman director and how things have changed in comedy.

The Cinderella story has been told and retold, and had just been a live-action movie when you signed on to write this. How did you want your version to be different? And is it significant here that Camila Cabello is a woman of color?

Yes, I wanted to make sure it was incredibly inclusive. And her being Cuban Mexican is no small thing, and what she represents to millions of people — not only her fans, but to millions.

The story has mostly been told and retold almost exclusively by men: I feel it when I watch. The 2015 Kenneth Branagh “Cinderella” was hugely successful, and it was beautiful. And I love the Whitney Houston, Brandi “Cinderella.” It just feels a little told from their gaze. And I really felt like it was important to me to tell it through my gaze.

Can you talk about creating the Fab G, and what you wanted from that character?

So many amazing actresses have played that role — so I’d written that role to be a man. And, quite honestly, the only one who fit all of everything I wanted was Billy Porter; I wrote it with him in mind. He’s just such a great singer. He’s just so talented. Because I wrote it specifically for Billy, the character kind of came easy. I just wrote it in his voice, and tried to make it funny. I had actually had another song in there, and then as soon as Billy was confirmed, we picked “Shining Star.”

Is the Fab G gender non-binary?

We talked about it. In having many conversations with Billy, I was like, “I think the answer needs to come from you.” He has said “they/them,” and “magic has no gender.” Non-binary for sure.

You started filming in England in February 2020. Tell me about shutting down because of COVID.

We had shot the ball the first week of March, which is something I do not believe I would have been able to do coming back — and it wasn’t a super-spreader. I’d shot all of the Fab G stuff, and all the basement stuff.

It felt like something out of “The Amazing Race” — like, pack up all your stuff! I’d been in the U.K. for like four months, and my family was there. My daughter was going to school there, and my husband was the writer on set. So we packed everything up, and then Camila and her family and my family, we flew back. My husband’s family is in Maine, and so we just stayed in Maine the entire time.

That sounds so nice, actually.

I did all of post in a boathouse in Maine. It was pretty awesome, actually.

During the break, what were you doing?

It was like getting a second prep, really. I was working with my editor, Stacey Schroeder, and we were putting together what we had. And then I was able to see what I needed and what I didn’t need. And I was doing a ton of rewriting, and I was doing a ton of prep that we didn’t necessarily have. Because I had all the opening, I had the finale, I had “Somebody to Love,” I had “Am I Wrong,” “Material Girl” — all these big numbers.

Movie theaters have reopened, and this was obviously made with a theatrical audience in mind. How did the Amazon of it all happen?

Sony is a business, first and foremost. I know that Sony loves the movie, and that partnership was really great on that level. So I think it was hard for them to give it up, but I’m really quite happy that people can see this in this safety of their own homes with loved ones. And it is a wonderful theatrical experience, especially with the music and the sound and everything. And it will open theatrically in some theaters.

It not being a wide release in theaters means that we’re not healthy yet. And so that’s what’s the most upsetting — that we’re not healthy.

As you were moving from being a performer to being a screenwriter, did you always have directing in mind, or was that something that you discovered you wanted to do?

I was led to it. When I was at “30 Rock,” by like Season 5, I really wanted to direct an episode. And I was too chickenshit to ask. I was the writer/producer who was always on set — at that point, I’d spent my 10,000 hours on set for sure. And it wasn’t until I had a meeting with Nathan Kahane at Lionsgate, and he was like, “You should be directing your own stuff.” I have such a respect for academics, and I never went to film school, so I just didn’t think I could do it. And then once he put that in my head, I was like, “Yeah, you know what? I can do it.'”

And is that how “Blockers” came about?

Exactly. Yeah, they sent me the script with an offer to direct. And with no questions asked. I didn’t have to do any kind of auditioning.

That is very rare! Obviously, things have gotten better for women directors in the past few years, after years of the most appalling statistics. What obstacles do you feel like you’ve faced as a woman director?

Especially with “Blockers,” I had a very good experience. I feel like the obstacles I have to face really are from the powers that be that still fight me at every level on what women want to watch, or think is funny. Or what is funny — forget gender.

My stuff happens to have female leads, and it’s female driven. So the jokes are coming out of women’s mouths. And I cannot tell you the amount of fighting I have about what they think is going to work, and what they think isn’t going to work. And there’s a lot of like, “I have all the expertise, you do not have the experience.”

And it’s just like, ‘I’ve been working in the comedy side for 15 years now — successfully.” And so what ends up happening is, I fight and fight and fight, and then I just do it and get it in. And then it gets put in front of an audience and the audience laughs. And then they have to say, “OK, that does work.” And you might not think that that’s that big of a deal. Maybe that’s creatively for everybody. Maybe it’s not gender specific. I tend to believe that it is gender specific.

Is that at the studio level?

From my experience, it’s mostly the studio level. And maybe I’m just sensitive to it or whatever. But I just feel like there’s a lot of conversations about what is funny out of a woman’s mouth. What’s allowed. And I feel like no matter how much success I had with “Pitch Perfect,” I think it’s still as much of a fight now as it was then. Which doesn’t make sense to me.

With “Cinderella” too?

Oh, especially with “Cinderella.”

And now we’re back on the record after going off for a bit! I rewatched the “Black Tie” episode of “30 Rock” yesterday, which you wrote with Tina Fey, in which Paul Reubens plays an afflicted prince. That was the moment in Season 1 when I realized, OK, I love “30 Rock.”

[Affects Prince Gerhardt voice] “THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY BIRTHDAY.”

That was the first thing I ever wrote! You know, professionally.

An unbelievable calling card to have as your first screen credit.

Yes! I was asked recently who is my Fab G, and my answer is Tina Fey. I wrote stuff as a friend she was reading. And I never thought that she would consider me for her staff, and she just grabbed me and was like, “You’re gonna do this!” I thank her every day for giving me that opportunity.

There are so many conversations right now about what’s acceptable in comedy. As a screenwriter who’s done mostly comedy, how do you feel about that?

Right now I think we’re in the muck, and I think we’re striving for equality. And we’re trying to work things out! Of course we should look back at things that were done 15 years ago, and be like, “Oh, no!”

I don’t know if this is a story I should tell. But I can remember getting notes to put the f-slur into “Pitch Perfect” as them being bullied like by the cool athletic guys. And I was like: “No! I can’t do that.” I think I put it in for a draft, and a friend of mine read it, and she’s like, “You cannot have that in.” And I was like, “It’s a note I was given!” I was told to do that, you know?’ And then like realizing, no, it’s unacceptable. You cannot use that word. Even if you’re trying to show that it’s awful, don’t do it.

You have to have your moral compass, and know what’s right for you. And there’s just some things we just shouldn’t tolerate anymore. And they’re just not acceptable. I’m certain if I looked back at stuff that I would cringe, you know? Or just, that’s how people thought then. And I was one of those people. But certainly now if you know better, you do better, right? Is that too soapboxy?

This interview has been edited and condensed.

#kay cannon #camila cabello #cinderella

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photolover82 · 3 years

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The Masked Singer Season 5 Episode 5 Recap: Group B Finals ft a plot twist (Commentary & Guesses)

Hi everyone! Welcome (or welcome back) to Ana’s Masked Singer recap, where I, Ana, recap every episode of The Masked Singer. So, this week, we are back to Group B with yet another wildcard and it is the last time we are gonna see the groups on their own since after Group A’s final, we got the Super Eight (yup, it’s 8 this time... much better still than last season’s format). Anyways, let’s get into it (this is gonna be super repetitive from last week guess wise but I am gonna try to keep it interesting and fresh for you guys, don’t you worry):

Alright, so usually I would save the wildcard for the end as like a surprise, but since the wildcard got eliminated, let’s introduce (and say goodbye to at the same time) to the:

Bulldog!! 🐶

Commentary: Ok, he sang Candy Girl by New Edition (which is really funny and ironic for a whole other thing, I’ll explain in a moment I swear) and um how do I say this nicely?... he’s a great dancer, but the singing is, what Randy Jackson would say, “a no from me dawg.” (Get it? Dawg.. bc the bullDOG... oh ok I will stop now). Anyways, yeah no, he was not good, I kind of expected this to happen honestly, so I am not surprised nor disappointed by any means. However, the person under this mask kinda did surprise me lol... even tho I kind of saw this coming.

He was revealed to be, in the biggest plot twist of the century, no voting, just Neicy Nash picking it:

*SURPRISE SHAWTY*

Nick Cannon, our very own host and Ken’s “daddy*”

*which is ironic because he legit just announced he was gonna have another baby

Ok, ok, did I get this right on my own? Nope, but Twitter helped me out so thank you Twitter. I did officially guess him before he was unmasked (but that’s because I had no other guesses sooo can I really count this a win? Hmmm... TBD... you guys let me know). Anyways, BOOM PLOT TWIST BABY, he’s back! Just in case you guys didn’t know (I don’t really talk about the judges or the host here because I watch for the contestants not for them and it would make this already long blog longer and we don’t want that): Nick had COVID so he couldn’t host the first few episodes of the show, but now he’s better and BOOM he’s the host again... Neicy Nash was taking over for him and now he’s back! So yeah this was just a transition for him to be back on the show, but like imma be honest: he might have been married to Mariah Carey but he don’t got any pipes like her, but he’s a good host so he should stick to that.

Anyways, NEXTTTT, let’s talk about the remaining 4 (which are legit the same freaking ones from last week):

1. Black Swan 🖤🦢

Commentary: So she sang Whitney Houston's How Will I Know and I swear she gets better and better each week like she murdered this song, it was absolutely amazing, my favorite performance of the night hands down. I really love Black Swan, she has one of the best voices on the show and I think either her or Robopine could win the entire season tbh.

I think this has to be (tripling down/final answer/insert buzzer sound here):

Jojo

Reasoning/Clues:

10-10-10= She has appeared on multiple singing competition shows (she did a lot of those shows as a kid), she was on America’s Most Talented Kids and was a guest judge on celebrity X Factor

Montana= get this... if you are around my age, this will surprise you. Did you guys know that Jojo was the original person that the producers of Hannah Montana wanted to play Hannah but she turned it down because she wanted to focus on her music

In her physical clue, she talks about a female singer who passed away at a young age that she was friends with= she was referring to fellow R&B singer Aaliyah

2. Crab 🦀

Commentary: He sang Give it to Me Baby by Rick James and it was a very strong performance, it almost took me aback the song choice. I didn’t expect him to go that hard in the beginning, the hip thrusts were a bit uncomfortable for me and he can’t dance for shit (I am sure it’s because he’s a bit older, not faulting him by any means), but it was really strong vocally speaking. He did actually loose his breathe and started hyperventilating under the mask and had to take a break to cool down (literally, because he was burning up under there), which honestly I hope he’s ok, I am not sure if he’s gonna last that long because of that hyperventilating (remember Mickey Rourke?), but tbh it would have been so unfair for him to go because he did an amazing job and I enjoyed his performance. He got soul.... crab’s got soul.

This has got to be (doubling down, like omg even the picture matches w the body type and everything, I am onto something here):

Bobby Brown

Reasoning/Clues:

Mom kept him in the straight and narrow and taught him how to cook= well, he has spoke about how his mother has gotten him away from the gangs and trouble around his neighborhood and into cooking (he even has a food line, hence the Mac and cheese), which also made him take up singing and thus his band New Edition (remember how I said Nick singing Candygirl by New Edition was ironic? Well this is why... because crab is Bobby Brown aka one of the members.... also Black Swan sang his ex wife’s song so yeah this can’t get any more ironic) was formed

Big Ben= Initals, BB aka Bobby Brown and also he had a show in 2005 called Being Bobby Brown and one of the episodes “Bobby Does London” he goes to London

Ribs= he has a line of BBQ sauces and seasonings called Bobby Brown Foods

3. Piglet 🐷

Commentary: This time, he went a bit softer with the song choice which I feel compliments his voice better, with 7 Years by Lukas Graham, which made Jenny, who apparently hasn’t listened to this song before (wtf Jenny, this song was all over the radio in like 2017 and you are like a radio host hun), cry. I mean it was really amazing and ballads actually suit him a lot more than super upbeat songs like last week’s Andy Grammar song and I really enjoyed it, I’ve heard that song a million times so no I didn’t cry but I still loved it. I do think Piglet will go super far, my guess is he will make it to semifinals.

I am a 100%, tripling down sure that this is:

Nick Lachey

Reasoning/Clues:

Genie Lamp= He did a cover of Aladdin’s A Whole New World with his ex Jessica Simpson on Disney Mania 3

The “spider” who made him a family man= referring to Vanessa Lachey, it was supposed to be this whole Charlotte’s Web thing not really referring anything specific about her that she’s a spider, she could have been another pig for all we care

Dog Tags= in the physical clue, there are 3 dog tags, which he has been seen wearing (you can Google those pics) and they represent his 3 kids which his wife gave him before they had their third kid, Phoenix (btw there’s a P on the bottom dog tag shown)

4. Chameleon

Commentary: Ok so he rapped again but this time the song was Hip Hop by Dead Prez (which I have felt like I have heard but I have no idea where) and I usually hate rappers on this show, but like he’s legit. What I mean by that is like he’s an actual rapper (well Bow Wow was too... but Bow Wow only went as far as he did because of his dancing, Chameleon is just pure rap talent) and his flow is insane. I am not a rap fan whatsoever but I can appreciate good rapping and that was good rapping, actually it was great rapping. Sure, he’s the weakest link of the four but he’s also the coolest one could argue.

Mark my words, this is as I said the last 2 types, again tripling down:

Wiz Khalifa

Reasoning/Clues:

His little Chameleon/lizard= he has an 8 year old son named Sebastian (he also says Cam in the package which is his real name... by him I mean Wiz.... his real name is Cameron)

Martial Arts= the dude likes Martial Arts and has been trained in it and Jiu Jitsu, he has mentioned it in interviews, has been spotted training in gyms, it’s no secret at this point that he likes that stuff

Hot wings= he has a wings place called HotBox by Wiz and he was also on Hot Ones (for those unfamiliar, it’s a YouTube show where celebs eat 10 super spicy chicken wings while answering questions) idk if that counts but I am also gonna say it

So that’s it, guys! I hope you enjoyed! Follow me on Twitter because I do live tweet the show, it’s the same username as here @photolover82 and I do some of these in video form on Tik Tok too if you wanna follow, it’s photolover820 (close enough lol). So yeah, see you guys in the next one! Byeeee! 👋🏼👋🏼

#the masked singer #themaskedsinger #music #celebrities #the masked singer season 5 #hollywood #nick cannon

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idkthisisjustforfanfic · 4 years

Photo

two years too late, chapter f o u r t e e n

You’d pulled your hat low over your face, sunglasses pressed up to your cheeks to ensure some level of privacy. You’d been recognized three times already--which was definitely a new record for the same 24 time span.

“Jesus,” Jake laughed when the third girl walked away. “Used to think we’d only have to deal with one famous friend.”

You pushed away from him, skates gliding on the clean ice in Central Park. It’d been a hike and a half up to the Northeast corner in the first place, and now all you wanted was to skate in peace.

“M’sorry--I wish I could make it not happen.” A beat of silence when none of them responded. “Yknow, that’s why I didn’t want to tell anyone at work about me and Harry being friends. I work in a field where it’s my job to talk about celebrities. I didn’t want to have to do it on my lunch break, too.”

You wouldn’t have been so straightforward with them if Harry had tagged along. He blamed his absence on a last minute meeting, but it offered a breath of fresh air and some space to actually breathe it.

“I get it,” Bryn said, skating to catch up with you in front of the others. Jessie clung to the wall with Adam, Jake tried his best to not skate circles around all of you.

“You do?”

“I do,” she nodded, linking her arm in yours. “Some of my coworkers know and they’ve been all over me trying to get tickets for the tour. I don’t tell Harry that, though--he’d feel obligated to hand ‘em over.”

“Exactly. I just didn’t want to deal with it.”

“It can be kind of cool, you know. I told my boss about it and he let me take a day off from work once without even using PTO cause Harry was in town,” Adam’s mouth was stretched into a silly smile.

“Your boss is a wanker,” Jessie said. “And apparently he’s a pushover too.”

“He is both of those things, yes,” Adam laughed.

Jake slowed down to fall back into the group. “So Smalls, what are you going to do about the interview?”

Another groan from your lips, two little boys skated past you, pushing against each other’s big winter coats to beat the other to the exit. “Nothing. Maybe just not do it.”

“Oh shut up,” Jessie said. “You have to.”

“I know,” you sighed. “S’the biggest story I’ve gotten. And it’s not that I totally don’t want people to know I knew him--it’s more that my boss will be livid when she finds out I’ve lied to her all this time.”

“You can’t give it to someone else?” Bryn’s head tilted to the side, Jake’s eyebrows went north.

“S’an idea. Have a coworker who could take it on? You could fake pneumonia. Be out of commission for a week or two.”

“Might as well,” you laughed.

“Y’know, Smalls,” Adam offered a sympathetic look. “He was pretty upset last night.”

“He was? About what?”

“That you downplayed everything so much.”

“Alright, maybe s’not the time,” Jessie tried to defuse the situation, as if Adam’s words didn’t strike up curiosity in your bones.

“What do you mean?”

“He really likes you,” Adam said. “I think he’s sad it didn’t work.”

“Okay,” you spun around to face him, stopping dead in your icy tracks. “He was dating someone else at first--and he didn’t tell me. I had to see photos of them online and confront him!”

“He should have told you,” Jake said, now skating backwards around Bryn. “But he really only saw her to end it. He told me.”

Bryn let out a short laugh. “And you believe him?”

“You don’t?” Adam shot back.

“I dunno,” she said. “I mean, why wouldn’t he have just told her if he ended it? S’not a big deal that he was seeing someone. It happens!”

You held up a hand, hoping to silence them without having to get loud. “S’between me and him, alright? I appreciate the concern for both of us,” you shot Adam a pointed look, “but s’fine.”

“We’ve been trying to trust the two of you to figure it out for a decade, Y/N,” Jessie let out a breath as if she’d been keeping it in for ages. “Feels like you could both use a little help.”

“We don’t need help. I just--I need space,” you said.

And it was true--at first you were sure you’d never want to speak to him again. When the gang first showed up you were convinced that you’d have a miserable time in his presence and be counting down the days until they left, freeing you from any obligation to interact with him.

But now, after museum glimpses of normalcy before Jessie’s outburst, you were wondering if maybe you should have coffee--just the two of you--after they left.

And maybe you’d get something close. The next morning when you were sat on Harry’s leather sofa for the last time as a group of six, he made some joke about how you never could seem to remember where the wine glasses were. It felt almost like he was testing the water--seeing where things stood as two people who were about to be set free into a busy city with no real reason now to see each other. Unless you wanted to.

And when you hugged them all goodbye in the lobby, watching as Roger rebuilt the mountain of luggage in his car, you felt like maybe now was the time to say something. But he said it first.

The last door was shut, Jake’s outline barely visible through the tinted glass as Roger put the car in drive.

“D’ya want a cup of tea?”

You looked up at him, a swell in your chest and an answer from your lips before he could take it back. “Sure.” Up the lift and into his flat, the kettle on the stove while you sat at the counter.

“Thanks for having them come,” you said, shoulders up to your ears. “Even though things were weird, for a minute.”

“Course,” he said, arms crossed over his chest. A long pause, enough quiet to hear the heating kick on and a siren outside the thick windows. “You know, Y/N, I want to be friends with you.”

You looked up at him, your heart in your stomach at his words--a true sign that you wanted more, as if you hadn’t known until he offered words that fell short. “Oh,” you said. “Okay.”

He shifted on his feet, his eyes bringing heat to your face when you finally looked back up at him. “Okay?” He laughed a little, leaning forward on the counter. “S’all you have to say?”

“I don’t know what to say, Harry--fine, we can be friends.”

His eyes narrowed in your face, he licked his lips before parting them to speak. “Are you even curious about my side of it?”

“You already tried to explain your way out of it, Harry. What else do you have t’say?”

“I just want you to listen to me!” His voice was more emotional than usual, as if the tightrope you’d both been walking on had suddenly wrapped around his heart.

“I already did listen!”

“No, Smalls, you didn’t, really.”

“So--okay, then. You want me to agree with you, forgive you really, not listen,” you corrected. He rolled his eyes at that.

A text from Jessie lit up your phone, his did the same thing only a few inches away. You sighed, thumbing back a reply, making them promise to keep you updated on their travel home.

He waited--patiently watching as you replied and set it back on the granite counter. When you looked up at him, he searched your face. “I should have told you.”

“I know,” you said.

“I was too afraid to tell you because everything was going well. For the first time ever, really. Felt too good to be true and I was afraid I’d fuck it up if I admitted that I had seen her.”

“I get it.”

“You do?”

A nod.

“Are you still mad?”

“I don’t know, Harry--I’m exhausted, is what I am.” He didn’t say anything, his eyes begged you to continue. “I can’t do the back and forth anymore. The friends, not friends, talking, not talking. S’been an exhausting eight years since you left home. Maybe not for you, but it has been for me.��

The kettle whistled, he pulled it off before it could scream and flipped off the burner. His voice was quiet. “I know.”

“I never knew if I was going to see you or hear from you and I don’t want to have some weird type of relationship with you that isn’t,” a pause, searching for the word when he slid a teacup across the counter. “Stable.”

“I want it to be stable.”

“I think the only way for us to have that is just,” you trailed off when he nodded, set his tea on the counter and traced a pattern on the counter with just one finger.

“To be friends.”

“Yeah.”

You only stayed for another ten minutes, finished the tea and laughed at a picture of his sister’s new cat. He paused awkwardly at the door when you said goodbye, a hand shoved into his pocket before he could let it wrap around you.

Carly brushed at her hair with her fingers--desperate to go out into the sunny weather for lunch. She stood over your cube, watching as you finished typing a list on the best memes from last week’s episode of the Bachelor.

“S’that the Harry story?” She whispered as if it was still a secret, as if you didn’t give the same nervous update in staff meeting every week._ S’going well_, you’d say. Making good progress.

No one needed to know you were lying, that is, except for Carly.

“No,” you rolled your eyes, clicking out of your story so it’d be queued up for Gabrielle to edit and proof. “S’taking forever, honestly. I haven’t got the slightest clue how to do it. I was planning on actually taking some time tonight to give it another go.”

You grabbed for your wallet, tugging your coat on before you followed her out of your space.

“How’ve things been with him? Still, y’know, fighting over wine?” She offered a smirk, one that threatened to be challenging, but you weren’t in the mood to divulge more.

“S’fine, we’re over it.”

She pressed the button for the lift, looked up to see the bright green numbers start to descend above the doors. “Having everyone in town was good, right?”

“Yeah, a lot of fun, turned twenty-four. You know, a real wild week out of the office.”

You stepped inside and rode it down, shifting aside for other people to cram on for the lunch time rush. When you found your way down the block, she pressed harder. “Any idea what you’re going to do about Whitney?”

You shook your head, thankful for the oversized sunglasses that shielded from the winter sun.

“D’you think you could just lie? Just write as if you don’t know him and hope for the best?”

“If only I’d be so lucky,” you laughed. “Just doesn’t seem realistic. M’still surprised that people haven’t put it together. I made all of my friends delete photos or go private or whatever on social media.”

“Right,” she nodded, a pause at the intersection. “Any more obnoxious tweets?”

“Only one that I saw that made it seem like they’ll figure it out eventually.” She raised her brows with intrigue. “Someone said a picture of me looked a lot like a different picture of me from a few years ago.”

She let out a noise of concern, shoving past someone who moved too slow through the crosswalk. “What do you think you’ll do, then?”

“I’ve got to tell her at some point. The question is how.”

“D’you think she’ll fire you?”

“Don’t know,” you said, voice lower now. “Wouldn’t be surprised. So, I dunno. Maybe I should look for other jobs.”

She let her mouth pull to one side of her face, sympathy clouding her eyes. She let it go, though, changing the topic to a new bar she’d tried over the weekend and a partially successful date she’s had on Saturday. He at least split the check with me, she laughed, which is better than the last one who made me pay.

You ate on the plush red sofas on the twenty-second floor, pretended like the dread of telling Whitney didn’t crop up inside of you every time she popped her pretty head out of her pretty office.

“You know,” Carly’s voice was low when you tossed your take out in the bin. “If you really don’t want to write it, see if she’ll let you transfer it to someone. M’super busy, but, I would obviously jump at that opportunity,” she stifled a grin that tried to break loose on her cheeks.

“Tried that,” you said, defeated. “I asked Whitney why she didn’t give it to you in the first place seeing as you’ve always been a fan.”

“What? You did?” Carly stopped in her tracks, her face a different shade of winter pale than it had been. “What did she say?”

“I dunno, Carly, something dumb. It was a while ago, I don’t remember,” it was a lie, but you weren’t about to tell her that.

“Oh come on, she must have given a reason why she wanted you to do it.” She fell back into step with you now, her eyes still trained on your face with purpose.

You let out a sigh, wishing you could crawl into the safe reprieve of warm sheets--specifically ones that still had a lingering smell of a certain someone. “I dunno, something about wanting it to come from someone less biased, or a more professional outlook, it wasn’t a big deal.”

“What?” She seemed to whisper-hiss in your ear, her fingers wrapping around your elbow to slow you down. “She thought I’d be unprofessional?”

“No, no--that’s not what she said. I told you I don’t even remember! She just wanted me to do it since she thought I wasn’t a fan.”

Her face fell, you couldn’t tell which emotion had taken hold of her. Her eyebrows dipped together and she pursed her lips. “That’s shitty of her--I wouldn’t have been unprofessional!”

“Carly,” you stopped now, turning to face her and ready to backtrack. You knew that Whitney hadn’t been the nicest about her reasoning, but you weren’t about to get into it. “Relax--she was just trying to throw me a bone, remember? She knew I was pissed about being stuck on lists and she was trying to do something nice.”

She let out a sigh, reaching up to fix her pony tail that fell over her shoulder. “If she’d given it to me you wouldn’t be in this mess. She wouldn’t be in this mess with you. Our entire company wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“S’not a mess,” you defended, head pulled away from her in offense. “M’sorting it out, I told you.”

“Right, Y/N, the blurred lines in your friendship with a subject aren’t problematic at all.” She put air quotes around the platonic label, immediately pulling a scoff from your mouth.

“What’s that--” you let your fingers bend like hers had, “--supposed to mean?”

She pulled you into her own cube, small enough to offer privacy but big enough to fit the two of you. “You really haven’t slept with him? You’ve never even kissed? Find it hard to believe with the way he looks at you!”

You inhaled and held it, eyes on her as you contemplated just blowing it all. Her lips curled up at the corners a bit, a laugh from her lips and a softened expression. “Y/N--just admit it. Aside from the fact that you’re writing about him it’s not a big deal. I can handle the fact that him and I will never work out,” she teased.

“I can’t tell you all about it here,” you said, voice quiet as you scanned the room to make sure no one else had heard.

“Fine,” she nodded. “Then let’s do dinner tomorrow night.”

So when you were alone on your own sofa that night, you begged your brain to try to come up with something good enough to publish. You’d lit a candle, put on some music, and drew the curtains. Only a few steps short of a satanic ritual after Alyssa left to meet Owen’s friends. She’d offered to bring you along, but you said you needed the space.

What you didn’t tell her was that you needed the space to cry or freak out or experience whatever would come pouring out of you when you finally had a minute to process the last few months.

You’d never been much of a crier--save for a good shower sob or drunken outburst--and now wasn’t much different. You sat at first and stared at your computer screen, bullet points scattered a blank white page that mocked you.

Friends. You and Harry were friends. He’d been one for a long time, really. Someone who knew you better than most people and someone who knew exactly how to piss you off and make up for it in the same moment.

You’d been walking a tightrope for the last decade, pushing and pulling and wondering when or if it would give. Separated by oceans or continents and still dreaming that one day your lives would align again.

And they have, you know that now. But they’ve aligned in a way that felt messier than before--which you didn’t know was possible.

The version of Harry that Whitney wanted you to write about was someone you didn’t know--one with perfectly coiffed hair and a personal assistant. So you decided that if you didn’t know how to tell the story of that Harry, the one who had celebrities on speed dial and didn’t hesitate to order top shelf liquor, you wouldn’t. You’d tell the story of your Harry.

And when you did that, the words fell onto the keyboard and jumped onto paper, promising that the truth was better than any fiction you could craft.

A text from Alyssa the next morning made your stomach sink to your feet.

Alyssa (8:43am): Okay, not to ruin your day so early, but I just saw these.

Pictured from LA. Ones that you could easily explain. You could find them on instagram and defend your case in the comments. See that bag? It’s got a laptop and tape recorder inside. For professional purposes only.

You let a sigh escape your lips, fine, it was fine. It wasn’t like people didn’t know that you knew Harry at all--it was really just a secret now that you’d known him for so long. Or, at least, it was a secret until you could tell Whitney yourself.

You’d decided--after staring at the blinking cursor on your screen for a good three hours the night before--that you wanted to at least give her the story before you really came out with it. That way, in case you somehow managed to catch her on a day where she was willing to overlook unprofessionalism, unethical behavior, and an altogether shitty situation, she at least had the chance to realize how skillful of a writer you were.

You hoped that after an eventful and exhausting few months the universe had some kind of good karma coming your way. But then the guilt of lying set in and you were back to planning an exit strategy and a plan B for what would happen if Whitney didn’t see the good in you.

You thumbed out a response to Alyssa right after you got off the subway.

Y/N L/N (8:47am): ugggghhhh

Y/N L/N (8:47am): at least no one has put it all together yet

Which was true. You only had to deal with the mess you’d made for a few more days. Your story was due on Friday, Harry left for tour a few days after, and hopefully, things could return to some semblance of normal. Though you couldn’t quite imagine what normal would look like now.

You climbed the steps up to street level, thankful that the sun had decided to fight its way through the late February cloud cover. When you were upstairs and at your desk, another message came through that you weren’t quite expecting.

Pat Martin (9:01am): Would love to grab dinner or a drink one night this week if you’re free!

You stared at it for a second, reading over the words a few times before you were able to make any sense of them. A date--this time you were sure of it.

But did you want that? Did you want to blur the lines between professionalism and romance for the second time in six weeks?

You put your phone face down on your desk, booted up your computer and then checked email. Whitney strolled by you with a bagel in hand, a smile on her face, and a pep in her step.

“How’s the big story coming?”

“Good,” you said, a solemn nod before you blinked twice, a small smile on your face. “Worked on it last night.”

It was probably the first honest response you’d given her about it. She adjusted the bagel in her grasp, crinkling the wax paper that kept her hands clean. “Can’t wait to read it. You’ll give it to me by Friday?”

“Uh huh,” you nodded again, praying she couldn’t smell the fear in you.

When she left you alone at your paper-cluttered desk, you typed out a response to Pat before you could overthink it.

Y/N L/N (9:06am): Sure! Any chance you’re free tonight?

He was quick to type back--you wondered if he was somewhere in LIC late to work, rushing from the subway or already situated at his desk.

Pat Martin (9:07am): I can be in the city by 6:30? Wanna meet somewhere near you?

You stared at the message and got lost in thought. It’d been a while since you’d been on a date--at least, one that really felt like one.

There was a kid at uni after Charlie--a boy from class who always wore these horrific shoes. He was sweet and nice but nothing about him sent a spark through you. In fact, you felt altogether quite unimpressed with his presence after 45 minutes so you cut the date short and headed back to your dorm.

You hoped that this would be different--that Pat wouldn’t want to talk about work the entire time and that maybe he’d walk you home.

More than anything, though, you hoped he’d numb the ache in your chest for Harry.

“Morning,” Carly’s blonde hair was blonder than the day before, loose curls falling around her shoulders. “Care to brainstorm with me for new topics in twenty?”

“Sure,” you said, straightening your posture as if you hadn’t just been pulled away into a daydream of men. “Yeah, wanna grab the conference room downstairs?”

She agreed and laughed hysterically when you told her about your set up the night before. Only needed a candle and a picture of him! She teased, if you chanted loud enough you probably could have summoned him. The afternoon slipped out of your hands, quick and busy, and when the sun was seeping between the cracks of tall buildings, you headed for the bar down the street where you’d agreed to meet Pat.

When your arm was outstretched for the door, your phone started buzzing in your pocket. You pulled it out, unsure of who needed you or who would skip straight to a phone call rather than a text.

But of course, Harry’s name and a stupid selfie he’d taken only a few weeks back lit up your screen. Your finger hovered over the decline button. Three rings, four, then your thumb hit the green button, feet frozen on the sidewalk.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Smalls--s’me. What--uh, what are you up to?”

“Just got out of work,” you said, true. “Grabbing a drink with Carly.”

“Oh, nice,” he paused for a second but then got right to it. “Listen--I have a thing on Thursday night. A dinner thing. I was wondering if you’d want to tag along?”

You were quiet, teeth tugging at your bottom lip when a gust of winter air blew. “As, like, a date?”

“N--no. Not as a date if you don’t want it to be as a date.”

“I thought we were just friends.”

“We are.”

“Okay.”

“Okay you’ll come?”

“Okay I’ll think about it,” you told him, a firmness in your voice that you didn’t think you’d ever used with him before. A firmness that hindered any hope in his response.

“Oh--yeah. Alright. I’ll uh, I’ll talk to you later, then.”

“Okay,” you hung up without a farewell, shoving the phone back in your pocket before taking another deep breath. An event? You had no idea what that would entail or what you were supposed to wear or say or do. It felt too vague to commit to and yet too interesting and intriguing to decline. So you tucked the decision away in your mind, saving it for a conversation with Alyssa and maybe even a glass of wine over FaceTime with Jessie and Bryn.

You pushed the door open and stepped inside from the stinging cold. Pat was already there--a stool at the bar with his jacket still on. He offered a side hug when you walked up beside him, a somewhat sheepish grin sat lazily on his face.

“How was your day?” He asked in greeting, settling back into his seat.

You let out a sigh and nodded. “Good, fine. Starving though.”

“Best nachos in the city, here, so that’s good.”

The bartender materialized in front of you, eyebrows raised to take your order.

“I’ll do a Blue Moon,” Pat leaned forward a little when he ordered, his eyes fleeting over to you. “And the nachos.”

“I will also do a Blue Moon,” you nodded, a smile in his direction once you were alone again.

“Why the sigh about work?” He folded his hands together on the dark wooden counter, scratched and dents told the stories of customers past.

“Just busy, is all. Big story coming up.”

“Yeah? What about?”

“Harry Styles, actually. An interview.”

His eyes went wide, the glow of neon wall decor lit up his irises in the dim room. “S’a big deal.”

“Yeah, so the stress level is a bit higher than usual.”

“Understandable. Interviewing one of the biggest celebrities in the world would certainly leave me with a lot of sleepless nights.”

You nodded, biting your lip to keep from telling him the truth. It was harder than that, really, seeing as you had to fight the feelings in your heart and all the while deal with a level of confusion--both professionally and personally--that you’d never known before.

You returned the pleasantry. “How was your day? Anything new and exciting at Digitize?”

“Not really--mostly spent the day looking forward to this,” he offered you a cheeky smirk, pulling his eyes back down to his hands when the bartender delivered two glasses--foam reaching up to the rims. He picked his up and held it in the air, waiting for you to let yours clink against his.

“Cheers,” you said, the drink jumped over the edged and trickled its way down to your hand. “To a Tuesday night.”

He was nice--he told you about his brother and his favorite band. He talked about New York and wanted to hear all about England._ Is it true that everyone has to curtsey or bow to the Queen?_ He asked.

Only if you’re lucky enough to meet her, you told him.

He was intrigued by your desire to move west--to find some solace in the States and give up the opportunities that surely would have been afforded to you if you moved to London. A fair question, absolutely, but you weren’t quite at the point to give him the truth.

Staying in London meant a higher likelihood of having to deal with Harry, bumping into him at work events or covering different things he did--or at least, so you thought.

So you didn’t tell him everything he probably would have liked to know. You left out pieces of your life--details like the LA trip or your recent birthday celebrations didn’t seem like they were appropriate topics of conversation for only one drink and a plate of nachos in.

And you wondered when he walked you back to the subway if you’d ever get to that point with him, because the moment his lips touched yours, quick and chaste and extremely politely, your cellphone started to feel like it was burning a hole in your pocket.

The N train pulled up and you hugged him goodbye, promising to see each other again soon. But when the doors shut between you and the rest of the world, your fingers typed out a message and pressed send before you could think better of it.

Y/N L/N (7:15pm): What do I have to wear if I come?

come talk to me about tytl

read the other parts here

AN: on the shorter side but you best all be gearing up for a wild FINAL FEW CHAPTERS. Yes, that’s right. Either chap 15 or 16 will be the end...still writing and editing all that so stay tuned! so much love to all of you who’ve tagged along on this wild ride!!!

tag list: @clorenafila @ainsleesolareclipse @castawaycths @harryspirate @wanderlustiing @ursamajor603 @thurhomish @omgsharry @stepping-into-the-light @rachkon @jdcharliewhiskey @shawnsblue @gendryia @g0bl1nqueen @laula843 @flooome @a-woman-without-a-plan@awomanindeniall @shaw-nm @staceystoleyourheart @ohprettylittlemind-deactivated2 @anssu-amry @my-fandomful-life2 @stylesfantasy @bookingbee @mleestiles @haute-romance-quotidienne @craic-head-horan @talk-british-2-me-britbritharry @at-least-im-1 @paigemck00 @rawmeharry @pinkpolaroidgirl @blackxxmagicc @sksspotkitty @nearbyou @kalesouffle @sunnflowerchild @lmk12310 @sing-me-a-song-harry @afterstylesmadeit @myhat @caritocp @liquor-and-intellect @harryinsweatersandbandanas @daydreamsofh

#tytl #harry styles fanfiction #Harry Styles Fan Fiction #harry styles fic #harry styles fan fic #harry styles fiction #harry styles fanfic #harry styles writing #harry styles smut #harry styles writings #harry styles one shot #harry styles blurb #harry styles imagine #harry styles drabble

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tabloidtoc · 3 years

Text

In Touch, April 5

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Prince's death investigation

Page 1: Contents

Page 2: Who Wore It Best? Jameela Jamil vs. Idina Menzel vs. Melissa Wood-Tepperberg in Alice + Olivia power suits

Page 4: In her documentary Kid 90, Punky Brewster actress Soleil Moon Frye fondly recalls have her first consensual sexual experience with her longtime crush Charlie Sheen in 1994, when she was 18 and he was 29 -- she says he was really kind to her and treated her beautifully and in some of the most pivotal moments in her life, he has checked in and lent his support

Page 5: 56-year-old Lenny Kravitz shows off his abs while carving up a coconut, Number of the Week -- $6.6 billion Kanye West is reportedly now worth, Hot Mom of the Week -- Chrissy Teigen trying for a topless photo shoot and her son Miles got in the way, Challenge of the Week -- Cardi B during a Twitter war with Candace Owens, Makeover of the Week -- Shakira showed off her new pink locks

Page 6: Crib of the Week -- Tom Cruise's Colorado cabin, Winner of the Week -- Drew Barrymore's daytime talk show is picked up for a second season, Loser of the Week -- Jennifer Lopez's show World of Dance is canceled just days after she reportedly split from Alex Rodriguez

Page 8: Up Close -- Billie Eilish ditched her signature green/black locks for platinum blond tresses

Page 10: Get Fit for Summer -- Halle Berry, Kate Hudson shows off her favorite Fabletics outfit in her home gym, Gabrielle Union in a black bikini, Tyler Cameron in Los Cabos, Mexico

Page 12: Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton happily greet an emergency staffer and her dad on the phone as they visit an ambulance station to support those on the COVID-19 frontlines in London, Drew Barrymore launches her new Beautiful kitchen line in NYC, Jared Leto is unrecognizable as fashion designer Paolo Gucci in the upcoming House of Gucci in Milan

Page 14: Caitlyn Jenner is revealed as the Phoenix on The Masked Singer

Page 16: Rob Kardashian tries out his sister Kim Kardashian's bleached blonde locks with an Instagram filter, during her first public outing in months Britney Spears hugs a bunny in L.A., Bradley Cooper takes daughter Lea on a shopping trip in NYC

Page 18: Animal Tactics -- Kelly Clarkson celebrates St. Patrick's Day on her talk show with a lamb in L.A., Farrah Abraham and daughter Sophia with their dog in Palm Beach, John Travolta and son Ben introduce the new addition to their family which is a cat named Crystal

Page 20: Justin Bieber rocks his crocs with socks, Kristin Cavallari in Cabo San Lucas, Beyonce hits the Grammys afterparty at Giorgio Baldi in a custom corseted silver-mesh look by Burberry and with her awards in tow in Santa Monica

Page 24: Jessica Simpson celebrating daughter Birdie's birthday with daughter Maxwell and son Ace and husband Eric Johnson, Paul McCartney hits the beach and even changes clothes under a towel in St. Barts, Bethenny Frankel wearing an engagement ring at the beach in Miami

Page 25: Jack Black doing a Hulk spoof on Instagram, Jennifer Lopez on the set of Shotgun Wedding in Dominican Republic

Page 26: Actually tying the knot is proving difficult for Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, as the couple contend with pandemic issues and last-minute details, including who should be matron of honor -- Gwen is close with Ellen DeGeneres and Angelina Jolie and it's between those two but she hasn't made a decision yet and that's led to a lot of friction between Ellen and Angie because each feels she should be picked and it's turned into a war, which is putting Gwen in a very awkward situation -- the bride-to-be is trying to keep the focus on her and her husband-to-be and the wedding will take place this summer on the beach in Malibu, not too far from the couple's new $13 million Encino mansion and many of the details have already been decided, except the matron of honor issue

Page 27: Things went from bad to worse for Armie Hammer as he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman named Effie Angelova for more than four hours in L.A. in 2017 -- Angelova claims she met Armie on Facebook in 2016 when she was 20 years old and fell in love with him instantly, but he became increasingly violent and abused her mentally, emotionally and sexually -- the LAPD has launched an investigation -- Armie's lawyer vehemently denies Angelova's claims, saying the actor's interactions with her were completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance

* Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak has come under fire for seemingly mocking a contestant's speech impediment on a recent episode -- Chris Brimble introduced himself as a tech salesman, revealing a noticeable lisp and at one point during their banter, instead of replying to Chris with, "I see," Pat said, "I thee" -- now some viewers are calling for the veteran game show host's resignation and there are even rumblings that producers want him to take a step back and Pat appears to have made a bad mistake, and he probably feels terrible about it and whether he will have to take a break or quit, that will be up to him and the show

* Star Sightings -- Whitney Port, Chrissy Teigen

Page 28: Cover Story -- Prince's death: was it murder? Five years after he was found dead at his home, a bombshell family lawsuit claims the music legend didn't have to die

Page 32: Brad Pitt's Worst Nightmare: the kids testify against him -- Angelina Jolie files court documents accusing Brad of domestic abuse and plans to call their children to the stand -- Brad just wants to get on with his life, but Angelina won't let him and she's doing everything she can win custody of their kids so she can freely move them out of L.A.

Page 34: Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom secretly married -- Katy gets her dream wedding with Orlando in Hawaii

Page 36: Demi Lovato's bombshell: her drug dealer assaulted her -- the singer reveals the agonizing secret she's kept for nearly three years

Page 38: Welcome to the new Bachelor -- in the wake of controversy, the popular franchise undergoes a massive overhaul

Page 40: The Big Interview -- Dolores Catania on Real Housewives on New Jersey -- it's been really hard on my relationship

Page 44: Beauty -- Hairdo Deja Vu -- stars bring back hairstyle trends from the '90s -- Bella Hadid, Maggie Rogers, Debby Ryan, Hailey Bieber

Page 46: Fashion -- Trend Alert: House Dresses -- these super-comfy, roomy style is basically the dress version of sweatpants -- Zoey Deutch, Mandy Moore

Page 50: Animal Overload

Page 54: Horoscope -- Aries Chris Meloni turned 60 on April 2

Page 56: Last Laughs

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shaekingshitup · 4 years

Text

unintended

A/N: Okay. So, this was supposed to be a completely different story with more thot antics than romance. But then this idea came and I decided to choose this one instead. I’m still just practicing over here. So, any feedback is appreciated. 😊 This is my first and most likely last fic that will be with a real celeb. So, I hope y’all dig it. It will be a series. So, expect more! I'm just not certain how I feel about writing for real humans that exist. AS ALWAYS, shout out to @glittermakesmesmile for always reading first and making things make sense. She’s wonderful. Be on the look out y’all. 👀

Pairing: Trevor Jackson x Black OC

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2265

“I WANNA FEEL THE HEAT WITH SOMEBODY! YEAAHHHH I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY. WITH SOMEBODY WHO-” Jayden stopped belting out the Whitney lyrics as her music paused and her Trey Kennedy ringtone filtered through her car’s speakers.

RING RING RIIIIIIING. RING RING RING RIIIIING RING!

She looked at her screen and the unsaved number which was staring back at her.

“Hello?” she asked trying not to let the aggression creep into her voice towards whomever had ruined her jam sesh as she weaved through the madness that was LA Traffic.

“Hey girl, how you doing?” greeted her with a sweet Southern twang

“Oh shit! It’s Terrell” Jayden thought automatically as she began gushing. All aggression was temporarily forgotten.

“Hey boo! I’m just circling the block trying to find a spot. I’m makin’ a pit stop at Blue Bottle. What’s up? Can I grab a coffee for you?”

“..bring me their Single Origin?” Jayden heard coming through in the background.

“Nigga” Terrell chuckled in an incredulous tone without losing his good humor.

“Who’s that? Is that Matt?” she asked trying to piece together what was going on. She was supposed to be meeting Terrell in 45 minutes. She was barely 3 miles away from his place. She’d planned the day out perfectly so that she would be on time, for once in her life. You only win the Shits & Giggles Song Association once. I mean, how could she be late for THAT?!

It sounded like there was some sort of disagreement happening on the other end as Terrell’s voice came in high pitched and strained “No. That’s not Matt, it’s-,”

“Wait, it’s my fault. Let me tell her” said the mystery person on the line. Jayden was confused as she put her car in park and grabbed her headphones so that she could continue to have this conversation while she stood in line at Blue Bottle.

“Ugh. Okay,” Terrell relented.

“Hey Jayden. It’s Jayden, right?” spoke an unfamiliar male voice on the other line.

“Yes.. and this is?” Jayden questioned as she opened the door and was blindly greeted by a barista.

“Well hopefully, the one you grab a Cold Brew for.” chuckled out of the other end of her phone.

“NIG-GUH. Where is my henny? Cuz I can’t wit yo ass,” Terrell hollered in the background and Jayden heard some generous pouring being done.

“Okay. Can someone please explain to me what’s going on? I’m fourth in line so if you want anything I need some answers first. Who is this?”

“Damn. Straight to it. She’s kind of feisty. She gotta be a fire sign.” Jayden heard this come in muffled as if the person was trying to communicate out of her earshot. She sighed outwardly. Typically, she had more patience than this. However, LA traffic really brought out the worst in her.

“Third in line.” she said, “and about 10 seconds away from using some choice words with you myself.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Let me explain. My name is Trevor. Trevor Jackson” he paused. Jayden waited for some further explanation. This name wasn’t ringing a whole lot of bells for her and she didn’t see the point in him being on her line. She was still confused; although, having a name did cause her to simmer down a little. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket while he spoke and was getting ready to Google “Trevor Jackson” but she was bombarded by all of the texts she hadn’t received while her phone was in drive mode.

“Okayy, Trevor who wants me to bring him coffee. What’s going on?” she asked in a genuinely curious tone and without her previous bite. She made her way through the barrage of “Congrats”, “Good luck” & “Don’t Fuck Up!” texts her family and friends had showered her in.

Trevor took his time providing her with an explanation. He was measuring out his words and how he would respond “Look, I know that you’re scheduled to shoot your Song Association episode with Terrell soon and that’s great! Congratulations on the win, uh, by the way! But, I had a mix up on my end. I thought that I was supposed to meet him today at 2 pm. Instead of next Saturday at 2 and I’m actually going to be unavailable at that time. So, I was thinkin maybe I could go first since I’m already here. Then, Terrell can just shoot yours afterwards? Plus, my mom’s here to watch me do this because she’s a big Terrell fan and it would mean a lot.”

Well when you play the mom card. Jayden thought

The boy was lucky there was only one register at this Blue Bottle and that the person ordering right now had a lot of complicated orders or his lengthy answer may have caused him his Cold Brew.

“Okayy. That makes sense,” Jayden says, “ I blocked off the rest of my day to be here so I can hang around. I get to watch yours right? I mean you’re not gonna just ask me to bring you coffee and then make me leave?” she giggled as a way to relieve the nervousness she felt about the situation and then she waited because she was certain this Trevor guy nor Terrell would ask her to leave. Right?

She was met with silence. Absolute and complete utter silence. There was no sound whatsoever on the other end.

“Hello? Helllo? Did y’all put me on mute?” Three seconds later there was roaring laughter and she stepped forward. She would be next in line real soon.

“Yes! I’m sorry I accidentally put you on mute. But thank you! Thank you! My mother and I truly thank you.”

“It’s okay! Does your mama want anything while I’m here?” Jayden asked.

“Oh, yeah. Uh please get her the tea. I promise I got you when you get here.

“It’s fine,” Jayden responded. “Well, I guess I’ll see y'all soon. It’s my turn,”

“Thank you Jayden. I really mean that.”

“Not a problem” she said.

17 minutes later Jayden was sitting in her car in the Guest Parking garage that Terrell had told her to park in when she arrived.

“Here” she texted.

“Meet me at the elevator” was her reply.

Jayden grabbed the drink carrier and her mini black backpack and headed for the elevator. By the time she made it to the door, Roxy was there to let her in.

“Hi Jayden” she said.

“Oh my goodness, hiii” Jayden said as she gave Roxy a hug with her free hand. It was just sinking in that this was real. She was really about to be on Song Association. She loved watching the series & was ready to come for Miss Amber P Riley’s perfect score. She definitely didn’t have the perfect vocals to match. However, her competitive nature was not going to let her miss out on this opportunity to fuck this game up.

“Hey girl, thanks for being so cool about today,” Roxy said as they stepped into the elevator. She pressed the button for the fourth floor. “We’re going to be doing lots of filming today so we can get this content out on schedule.”

‘Yeah, it’s no problem,” Jayden responded, “ Like I said,I already set aside the rest of my day for this. So, it’s really not a problem. Plus, this way I get to say I saw this Trevor guy on Terrell first!” she laughed.

“You’ve really never heard of him before?” Roxy inquired.

“Mm-mm” she shook her head in the negative.

“Wellll, you are definitely in for a treat,” Roxy smirked. The elevator dinged to let them know that they had made it to the fourth floor.

She took a right out of the elevator and led the way down the hallway until they made it to unit 414. Roxy opened the door and Jayden was immediately met with fresh air. After the heat of the LA sun, the cold air was refreshing.

“Miss JAY-den!” Terrell called out to her once he heard his front door shut. He set his glass down on the table. She couldn’t help it. She broke out into a full faced grin. She couldn’t even see anything but his hallway and all of her teeth were already on full display. She followed Roxy deeper into the apartment and when she saw him she was so overwhelmed that she wasn’t sure what to do. Terrell hopped off of his stool, removed the drink carrier from her hands by placing it on a nearby table and greeted her with open arms. In that singular moment, Jayden felt welcomed and as if she was the most valued individual in that room. So, of course it was at that time that she made the fated mistake of looking over Terrell’s shoulder and got a real good look at a well-groomed and delicious piece of chocolate. Trevor gave a slight wave which she returned with a smile.

“MM. I am so glad that you’re here.” Terrell said as he rubbed circles in her back and gave her all of the reassurance she needed to be there. She was still nervous. But she was starting to think that this was all planned and for a purpose.

“I’m so glad to be here!” she replied as he released her from their embrace.

“And BIIIIIIIIIITCH. This is a WHOLLEEE ASS LOOK! We gone talk about this later boo. But can I get a twirl?” Jayden did one better. She retreated back towards the hallway and came back in full runway flair. She strutted into the room, twirled and looked over her shoulder as she headed back towards the entrance. Finally, she strutted back one last time and gave Terrell a smirk. His energy was contagious. She had nearly forgotten that there were other individuals in the room.

“Oh yeah. Definitely a fire sign,” Trevor commented as he reached for whatever concoction Terrell had prepared for him prior to her arrival.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. Where are my manners?” She reached for her drink tray and provided him with his Cold Brew, “Trevor, I presume?” she asked as she stretched the drink out to him. He responded with a smile of his own.

“That’s me.” Trevor verified nodding his head. He took the drink with his left and shook her hand with his right. “Thank you Jayden. I really do appreciate everything. What do I owe ya?”

“Oh no, that’s fine. Don’t even worry about it.”

“Nah, I got you. What’s your venmo? Cashapp? Zelle? I got you.” Jayden ignored his queries and responded with his own.

“Where’s your mama?” Just then, an older Black woman with tight skin, a tight body to match and some of the kindest eyes Jayden had ever seen came from around the corner. She was really out here showing that Black don’t crack and she wasn’t even on camera!

“Hi Mrs. Jackson, my name is Jayden.” she smiled and handed the older woman her tea, “here’s your drink ma’am. I got some sugar too just in case you’re like me and like it sweet.”

“Thank you so much sweetheart. I love sugar. I need just enough to keep the diabetes at bay” Mrs. Jackson responded as she too embraced Jayden in a hug. “Your timing is perfect actually. I was just heading out.” she said.

“Oh no, is everything okay?” Jayden asked hoping she wasn’t being too nosey in her first impression.

“Oh yes darling. Trevor’s brother Ian has an event today too and I told him I would be there. But, I refused to miss the opportunity to meet this young man and see my baby boy get a few songs in on this game.” Mrs. Jackson clarified. “Thank you so much for this tea. Trevor, did you pay this young woman for this?” she asked sharply. Jayden could tell two things about Mrs. Jackson off the bat: 1) she was kind 2) she was no nonsense . The look she gave her son spoke volumes. It said “I know I raised you to be polite. I don’t care who you singin for but you better be respectful and don’t expect nothin from no one. Not even a damn coffee.

Damn. Jayden thought.

“I’m working on it ma.” Trevor told her. “Okayy baby” Mrs. Jackson said while continuing to stare at her son. The lecture left her eyes and was replaced with a knowing look while she smiled at her son.

Well Miss Jayden, I mean it. I do appreciate it, and good luck to you on your game too. I’m sure you’ll be wonderful,” she said as she hugged the young woman one final time. Mrs. Jackson continued around the room saying goodbye and hugging everyone. “Terrell, make sure you don’t go easy on my baby boy. He got this. We been practicin’, ya know.” .

Jayden watched the woman, enamored by the similarities between Mrs. Jackson and her favorite aunt. Jayden was so caught up in her thoughts, she initially missed Mrs. Jackson’s final goodbye to her, catching only enough to ask the woman to repeat herself.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Jackson, what did you say? Jayden stammered out flustered as she had gotten so in her own head.

Mrs. Jackson paused before scurrying out the door to support her first born “ I said I’ll see you soon baby”, giving the young woman a wink and mischievous smirk before disappearing out the door.

Jayden stared at the door, mouth opening trying to figure out what the woman had meant.

………………………………

TAG LIST: @twistedcharismaaa @mygirlrenee @glittermakesmesmile @sarcastic-sunshines @chaneajoyyy @shewrites02 @ghostfacekill-monger @raysunshine78 @shewritestheblues @scrumptiouslytenaciouscrusade @fd-writes @eyeknowmywrites @thadelightfulone

#shaekingspeaks #black oc #trevor jackson #trevor jackson x oc #fics n shit

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tuiyla · 1 year

Note

so I was never really on the leighton/tatum train (they were cute and had great chemistry but I always liked the idea of leighton’s endgame love interest being someone who didn’t really come from her world, I guess, whether that’s alicia or a new girl — and I did have a soft spot for leighlicia’s banter) but I also have a lot of issues with how tatum’s character was written off and the pacing. you also brought up such a good point that it makes no sense how the “new” leighton wasn’t a little more empathetic and didn’t try to explain to tatum what she loved about the women’s center - the fact that she discarded her so quickly, paired with the fact that she didn’t return to or even think of her women’s center friends at all until ep9, did make it look like she just suddenly wanted alicia back after that text, which is not what I think the writers were going for lol. I do wonder if you think the 25 min, 10 episode season format is partially to blame, along with the decision to rush through the rest of freshman year? I feel like all the arcs this season, for the other girls too, had the potential to be good, but they were pretty much all rushed - I think the only storyline that really worked for me and felt satisfying/earned was whitney finding her major. I don’t know, I’m sorry to rant, but I’ve found your takes interesting & wanted to say that even as a leighlicia fan who kinda got what she want, I didn’t feel satisfied and tatum’s character did deserve better :(

I really appreciate you Anon because you get what I'm saying. I try to be clear that I don't care all that deeply about who it is Leighton is with and ultimately I just want her to be happy and have a good story behind that. So all my criticisms aren't because I'm a bitter Tatum stan, I just think this wasn't done well.

I wish there was an episode before ep 9 where Leighton mentioned the women's center or it came up in some context where Leighton acted more woke than anyone expected her to and she realized how much she learned from them and that she did miss them. Didn't even have to be an actual episode's storyline maybe just one scene. That would already have made it make more sense, but then on top of that have Tatum dismiss that and make Leighton uncomfortable with how much she's like s1 Leighton. But no, all we had was zero mentions of the women's center and Tatum being nothing but a good supportive understanding reassuring gf. Wtf how am I supposed to be fine with Leighton blowing up at her for one mistake after that? And really my main problem is that this way it seems like Leighton's just talking out of her ass and her development doesn't nearly have adequate weight behind it, therefore feeling empty. I wouldn't have even cared about throwing Tatum under the bus but do it properly.

I think the format is to blame, partially. I've heard it said before and I agree that Sex Lives is a show that would benefit from the more traditional 20-22 episode season structure, or at least 45 minute-hour long episodes. I get it, those minutes are mostly for dramas but there's only so much balancing the show can do between four leads and their pocket universe storylines. Maybe even just 16 episodes of the same length. But also the main issue is that they decided to rush freshman year, and more specifically with Leighton that for some reason they wanted to speedrun what could have been half a season's worth of development in a few scenes. I don't get it, because the other girls were all left on varying degrees of cliffhangers. Maybe at the end of this season we could have had Leighton return to the women's center but have that be an actual milestone instead of a throwaway decision as a result of wanting to see Alicia. Imo it could have had a much bigger impact and then the landing is automatically better. Really just many ways to improve the messy way in which they handled Leighton.

I think Kimberly's was a bit rushed but overall still better paced, and I'd straight up say Bela's arc was just good and well-timed. Which proves to me that they can do it, just maybe not four at the same time idk. Also just from a selfish point of view I'd kill to have longer seasons because I need more day in the life from these girls and I so wish this was a network comedy with a bunch of comfort episodes to just play on a loop.

Anyway, thanks for this Anon, thanks for reading my ramblings and thanks for stopping by. I love it when people actually hear what I'm saying haha. So by all means rant to me any time! TSLOCG is the most passionate I've been about a new show in a while and the more people reach out the less I have to will myself to go in the tags and subsequently block a bunch of people. And yeah I'm happy for your ship and I'm happy for Leighton's happiness but this is what I mean, bad writing makes even one's own ship taste bittersweet. I hope they don't just start season 3 by writing Alicia out immediately but we'll actually see a new dynamic.

#anon #thanks this was nice to read #tslocg asks #tslocg #leighton murray

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doof-doofblog · 4 years

Text

"Let's Have That Playdate Tomorrow!"

Friday 20th November 2020

Hello again everyone! Hope you all are doing well, this current lockdown is nearly at an end! Hopefully things will start to look a bit better when Christmas comes around! I apologise for me being so behind on the episodes lately, unfortunately I am still working during this current lockdown and of course with things happening in my own personal life, there are times I miss out on watching an episode, let alone even getting the time to review one and type up a blog. I want to thank you all for your on-going support, there have been so many spoilers as to what may be happening over the Christmas period on Albert Square, I'm really looking to watching it all unfold!

Meanwhile, let's carry on from where I was last up to, Friday's episode. The episode begins with Kat, she's slumped on the kitchen table as Stacey makes her way in. Poor Kat looks as if she hasn't been able to have a wink of sleep all night. She reveals to Stacey that she's tried calling everyone she knows trying to find the whereabouts of Kush, she's still trying to call him but his phone remains off. Who knows where he must've gone to after the robbery?! He seems to have just done a disappearing act. But Kat isn't one to just hang around and do nothing, as she grabs her coat, she informs Stacey that she's going off to the police station to give her statement and then she's going to try and find Kush. If the police haven't got him then he must be somewhere?!

Meanwhile, Callum looks absolutely lost. He's seems to be in a world of his own as he tends to his busted lip. As Ben walks in, they begin to discuss how the whole situation has turned into such a mess. Callum informs his boyfriend that he really didn't have a choice but to let Kush go, considering he'd threatened to take down Ben with him if he got caught. Ben then speaks his opinion that Kush should remain missing, he seems to be believe that they would've gotten away with the robbery if Kush hadn't set off the silent alarm - however things seems to take an interesting turn here, Callum then reveals to his boyfriend that there actually wasn't a silent alarm, and the other reason the police turned up was because they received an anonymous 999 call. Ben seems to look deeply concerned, but does he have an idea as to who grassed them up?! Wait till he finds out that it was his brother!!

At the laundrette, Max walks in on Linda drawing up some new ideas for her business idea. She shows Max her rough copies of the new superhero's she's made, and of course - Max is really impressed and suggest that she should post them online. Once again I'm sensing more flirtation between the two, they suggest bringing their children together for a playdate and perhaps modelling some outfits that Linda has designed, but it's just so blatantly obvious that Linda is flirting when she suggests having an adult in on the modelling too to be pose with the children. They share a giggle as Sharon enters the building, oooh Sharon knows she has walked in on something! Both Linda and Max act very coy when she asks if she's interrupting something, Linda reveals to her friend that Max is helping with her business idea for the Lucy Beale Award. Sharon knows that Max is up to no good, the last thing she wants is for Max to break up another marriage! What do you think, are Linda and Max just good friends? Or do you fear that something is going to happen between the two and they'll cross the line?!

In the Cafe, Tiffany is informing her husband that both Rainie and Stuart haven't been in touch with her for a while since she agreed to be their surrogate, however once Keegan notices that she's had her phone on "Airplane Mode", loads of messages seem to come through once she's taken it off. I mean, of course Stuart and Rainie are going to be in touch with her as much as they can, it's the excitement of being one step closer to becoming parents. Suddenly they make their way into the Cafe and insist on buying Tiffany breakfast, however in stead of buying a lovely full English Breakfast, Rainie brings up a plate of salad to her - I mean, I get she wants her to be healthy so she'll be able to look after their baby okay, but something tells me it would start being a bit of an insult if she starts telling her what to eat and what not to eat. Tiffany and Keegan can both see this is going to be a really long journey for them.

Out on the Square, Ian appears to be dressed in his finest as he gives an interview for the Walford Gazette newspaper. I'm unsure what that interview is for, possibly for his public image? Or wanting to get the word out that the Vic is now under new management. He's one again gloating to this news crew that if it wasn't for him, the Queen Vic would've hit rock bottom with sales, business, etc. However, unfortunate for Ian, Tina is stood behind him listening to every word he's saying. It's interesting how many people he's really beginning to annoy and how many people are/will have it in for him. As Tina walks away after hearing him insult her family, Suki approaches and acknowledges how happy she is that someone as up-standing as Ian is getting the recognition he deserves, of course she's only saying that because they've come to an agreement of some kind. I do have a feeling that things aren't going to continue going well for Mr. Beale.

Returning to the Mitchell household, Kat pays them a visit an informs Callum that she's been down the statement having to give a false statement. She informs the young police officer that he didn't drop him in it but she knows full well that he let Ben off, she demands to know where Kush is, if anyone would know, he would, right?! Callum informs Kat that he has no idea of the whereabouts of Kush, its then he also drops the bombshell that he did find Kush during the robbery, but Kush ended up punching him and fleeing the scene. Kat can't believe that Kush would punch Callum, but he informs her that it's probably best if Kush stays hidden for the time being, as he not also took part in a robbery, he also assaulted a police officer, so maybe he is just lying low.

At the Atkins household, Phil is questioning Gray whether they'll be any issues in changing the licence plates on the cars. But Shirley reassures her boss that the paper work needs to be absolutely spot on, which is why Gray is doing the paperwork and Phil isn't! Interesting, there seems to be a lot of people who are in-the-know about this robbery. It's amazing how none of them have grassed any of them up, well of course except for Ian. But there's Kat, Stacey, Phil, Shirley, Ben, Callum, Kush, Gray, Sharon ... (Well maybe she doesn't know about the burglary but she's felt comfortable about giving Phil a false alibi?!) As Phil leaves the property, Tina arrives back and it's clear to see that she is seething over Ian's insults to her family and his attitude towards them and the Vic. Tina pleads to her sister that they attempt to get the pub back in their name, but Shirley reminds Tina that Linda is still an alcoholic, that was the reason they sold up in the first place. But Tina seems to believe that Linda is doing a lot better recently, she explains that since they sold the pub, Mick hasn't been the same, he seems to be so unhappy and lost. Could there be a way for the Carter's to win back the pub?! Is the pub really in Ian's name or Sharon's name? As Ian has always said that he bought the pub for Sharon, but who's name is really on the lease of the building?!

Returning to the Vic, Linda is informing her best friend about application for the Lucy Beale Award. It's nice to see Linda looking more positive and happy about her future prospects, but it's clear to see that Sharon is worried for her friend about getting too close to Max. As Linda is glowing with the excitement of a whole new beginning, Sharon voices her concerns about Max, but in a loving, friendly way that everything seems okay now between them, but if things go on it won't be long before Max will have his tongue down her throat. (However little does she know that they have already shared a kiss!) Linda reassures her friend that she wouldn't cheat on Mick and that she literally just sees Max as a mate. But Sharon has a good point, whilst Mick is away staying with Lee, it's understandable she's enjoying the attention but I'd hate to think she'd cheat on her husband whilst he was away, especially considering what he's been dealing with in recent weeks.

Meanwhile at the restaurant, Iqra is sat doing paperwork. Ian is stood behind the bar as Suki walks in, subtly she hands him over an envelope with half of the amount she promised him inside. Ian doesn't seem impressed and pulls Suki into the back for a private word, leaving the money on the bar counter. As he pulls Suki to one side he asks Iqra to watch the bar whilst they're in the back. Iqra is quite reluctant but once both Ian and Suki are out the back, Iqra starts to clean behind the bar, until she eventually comes across the envelope with the money inside it - instantly she's looking a little confused as to where this money has come from, but suddenly she begins to hear voices. Ian and Suki are both discussing their plan, Suki tells Ian that he won't receive the other half of the money until he has held up his end of the bargain and put things into paperwork and he has signed some kind of formal documents she needs, planning approval etc. Iqra is really shocked to have heard what she has, but what will she do with this information? Will she tell Ash what her Mother is really up to?! Or maybe will she help Tina in getting the Vic back in the Carter's name, knowing full well that Ian is up to some dodgy deals with Suki! Who knows?!

Back out on the Square, Whitney is seen leaving the Minute Mart as car sirens can be heard, slowly Ruby approaches from behind and they both watch in amazement as from across the Square, the police pull up the Slater household and barge their way in as they look for Kush. Stacey's voice can be heard objecting to them entering the house. Ruby voices her opinion that it doesn't surprise her that the police have come knocking at their door, however Whitney's response is more sympathetic, she questions that maybe the police have got the wrong house? But Ruby just laughs at Whitney's response and says that it wouldn't surprise her if they found something at the Slater household. Hmm, does Whitney know more than she's letting on?! Why would she be so quick to defend the Slater's?!

At the Carter's household, Max once again is helping Linda with her costumes (Wow! Can I just say how big baby Abi has grown?! I know it sounds silly, but I still picture her as a little baby, not the toddler that she's become. Didn't realise it was that long ago that Abi Branning passed away! Only feels like a year or two ago - which may possibly be how old young Abi it?!) As Linda is eager to get the children in their superhero outfits, Max picks out one for Ollie to year, however Linda recalls that the one he picked was the one Mick made for him when Ollie was first diagnosed with Autism. You can see a slight look of sadness as she mentions how Mick didn't want their son to feel different from everyone, so instead of different they made him feel special. When Max puts the superhero outfit away, Linda admits to him that it was actually Mick's idea to make their son a Superhero outfit. Is there a sense of guilt between them now that Mick hasn't been brought into the idea of superhero clothes for children?! Or the fact that they're feeling guilty for spending a lot of time together and have quite visibly been flirting with one another? Who knows?!

Meanwhile, Iqra has found her way to the Prince Albert, unfortunately she doesn't seem to be listening fully to Tina as her head is replaying what she's overheard from Ian and Suki. Tina is voicing how much she's going to miss living with her and Ash, but she understands that her moving out would help Iqra and Ash spend some time together. However, Iqra feels trapped in a corner as she admits to Tina that she can't stand Ash's family. I have to say I really do like the friendship between Tina and Iqra, I did kind of wish that they were a couple instead of Iqra and Ash. Anyway Iqra finds it in herself to confide in Tina and reveals everything that she witnessed, Suki giving Ian some money in return for some approval on a planning application. Tina tells Iqra that she's got to tell someone, she knows full well how dodgy Ian is being at the moment. Iqra pleads to her not to tell anyone, especially considering the fact the Iqra can't tell her own girlfriend that her Mum is up to something. But what will Tina do with this information? Will she find a way of getting her own back on Ian herself?!

Back at the Carter household, Max and Linda are enjoying taking pictures of their children in Linda's new children's superhero outfits. Only things take a slight U-turn when Max comments that they both make a good team. I think Linda maybe feels a little uncomfortable with his comment, he thanks Max for all his help but expressions her opinion that once they're done he should leave. Only when Linda begins to take photo's of Ollie with the flash on her phone, it frightens the poor boy and he attempts to hide underneath the kitchen table with his hands over his eyes. Linda apologises to her son and tries to coax him out but to no avail, Max then decides to take it upon himself to try and gain the little boy's trust. He gets down to his level and squeezes underneath the table, softly he speaks to the little boy and after suggesting that they build a den after taking their photographs, the little boy removes his hands from his face, much to Linda's surprise. Eventually Max persuades little Ollie to get up and join in with taking photographs, to which Linda is incredibly thankful.

Back on the Square, Tiffany and Keegan are approaching the chippy (Yum! Everyone loves a chippy, right?!) As Keegan orders himself some food, Tiffany feels a bit gutted that she's having to stay healthy. As she's voicing her frustration, Stuart appears from behind and informs her that he's managed to go to the chemist and pick up some vitamins for her. He pulls out about 3 or 4 different tube bottles full of pills and Tiffany is looking pretty overwhelmed with this new information that she's having to take pills as well as eat healthily. However it looks as if enough is enough when Stuart asks her to start taking them that day, she understands that they want the baby to be healthy but she assures Stuart that she wouldn't let anything happen to their child once its in her womb. Stuart seems to understand, he apologises for coming on so heavy, its nice that they have come to acknowledge each other's understanding, Tiffany tells him politely that she's more than happy to carry their child for them, but it does not mean that they can start telling her what she can and can't do, and in all fairness - Stuart completely agrees and announces that they'll do it Tiffany's way, to which she then responds with happily ordering something from the chippy.

Once again, returning to the Carter household, Ollie and Abi are both playing happily together as they wind down after their photoshoot. Linda is sat with Max as they look over the photographs they've taken. This scene did get me a little worried as I sensed something, once again, was going to happen between the two. Max brings up the fact that he's trying to be supportive to Linda considering he was with her the last time she had a drink, he doesn't want her to feel that she's got no one to talk to, but regardless of them spending time together, he admits that he knows that she and Mick are solid. It's then Linda seems to look upset and reveals to Max that things haven't exactly been brilliant between them recently, she explains that each time she tries she feels she's just pushing him further and further away. Perhaps this is why she's been enjoying Max's company so much, it's made her feel something again - I mean when was the last time, Mick and Linda actually had a laugh with each other and showed each other some affection? It's been a long time, hasn't it?! Max seems to understand but he makes the big confession that the only reason he kissed her a while back is because he wanted to, and more interestingly, he stills wants to! Things are looking as if they are going to pounce on each other, however Ollie breaks the silence as he asks for his Mummy. As Linda goes to see her to son, Max suggests that they make another play date for their children, to which Linda coldly responds by saying she'll text him.

Back at the Slater household, Kat answers her mobile which is ringing on the kitchen table, it appears to be Stacey on the other end. She informs her cousin that she's been desperately trying to search for her boyfriend but can't find him anywhere. Suddenly, there's a knock on the backdoor and Kat is surprised to see Whitney stood there. It's then Whitney announces that there's something she needs to show her, pretty urgently and they both leave the house together. Meanwhile in the Vic, Ian is feeling positive about his interview with the newspaper, even though he is looking incredibly happy with himself, the fella from the newspaper seems less than impressed as he downs his bottle of beer. Across the bar, both Callum and Ben are trying to talk about something other than the robbery. Oh but just by coincidence, as soon as Ben questions whether Callum can trace who dialled the 999 call, Ian is stood behind the bar ear-wigging on their conversation. However Callum is unsure whether the call will be able to be traced, but then again the only thing they'll find out is that it was made from a telephone box. Maybe Ian did a clever thing for once and made sure he dialled from a phone box and not a mobile phone, that way it would be harder for them to trace?! Suddenly Tina enters the Vic and makes her way toward the bloke from the newspaper. Ooooh I'm liking the look of this!!! She questions whether he's writing an article about Ian Beale, but the bloke doesn't seem interested if she's going to comment on how much of a aspect to the community he is, but then his attention in instantly grabbed as Tina admits that that is not what's doing, she mentions that if he really wants a story then she has one for him. Ooooh - I'm loving this! Yes! GO TINA!!! Is she going to spill what Iqra has informed her about and portray Ian in a terrible light?! In all seriousness, it's more than what he deserves! Only the downside is, will it fall back onto Iqra and will she get the blame?!

Eventually Kat makes it to what looks like Whitney's attic, she's questioning why Whitney has brought her up there, only as she turns around, Kush is seen sat in the very far corner, almost looking scared and very sheepish. Kat is absolutely elated to find her boyfriend is safe and sound, she announces how worried she's been about him, but Kush is nothing but deeply apologetic for making such a mess of things. He's tries to explain how he thought he would be able to start the car and how things just turned so messy. Kat is just happy to see that Kush is safe, she promises him that they will sort everything out together.

At Ruby's club, Linda is sat alone with a drink, Ruby enters the room carrying a huge box of wine. It looks as if Linda is feeling sorry for herself, she seems very agitated when Ruby politely asks if she's okay. Whether she's waiting for someone or something else. Linda then voices that everyone around her sees her not as Linda anymore, but Linda The Alcoholic! Ruby tries to persuade her that that isn't the case at all, she tries to explain that she has lots of friends and family around her who are just trying to look out for her. She questions whether she should all Mick, but Linda snaps back that he isn't her carer, he's her husband. She also makes sure to point out to Ruby that the drink she's got in her hand is only orange juice, nothing else! But Ruby is quick to throw in one last dig, she knows that she's drinking a soft drink, as she explains that all her staff have a list of who not to serve alcohol to, and it turns out that Linda's name is right at the very top of that list! Honestly, that's a bit of a big insult, I think that would hurt anyone really wouldn't it?! As Ruby leaves the room, Linda takes it upon herself to approach the box of wine which she's left at the bar and swipes a bottle before leaving. Once she's home, she's sat alone with the bottle and a glass already poured, to me it looks like that she really can't take Mick's behaviour anymore, she's feeling lonely, unwanted and maybe also missing her husband as well as missing their happiness and intimacy. She attempts to call him but to no avail as it the dial tone rings dead, I did fear at this point that she was going to take a big gulp of wine. She brings the glass up to her face and she gently smells the wine, she then plonks the glass back down and dials another number - Max! She agrees to go along with the playdate for the children for the following day, but something else is telling me, is she doing it for the company. If Mick isn't around then why not have Max's attention. I do thing as things go on, something will happen between the two, what do you think? Feeling a little more relieved she gets up and throws the glass of wine and the bottle down the sink!

A very interesting episode I have to say, some very interesting things taking place, I mean I do feel a lot of it will come to some form of explosion within the next few days. I do feel that all this that's happening right now will be the drama that's all going to explode coming towards Christmas! Christmas is only a month away and it's not going to be long now until huge secrets are revelled and big bombshells are going to be dropped. EastEnders is always explosive at Christmas, right?! I, for one, am incredibly excited to see it all unfold! Thank you all for reading, I'll be back again tomorrow with another blog. Enjoy the rest of your evening folks! Love you all xXx

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daydreams-and-shortattentionspan · 5 years

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Speechless: Chapter 1

A/N: Hey guys I'm so sorry it’s been a while since I last posted! I just had a really hard time finding inspiration lately. This story was a way for me to work through so emotions I could really find words to put to them It kinda (if you REALLY squint) deals with mental illness. It in no way romanticizes it but more so normalizes it and normalizes talking about it and talking your way out of a dark place if you can. I really hope you guys enjoy it!

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Black!Reader

Warnings: None(? If there is something you want to be tagged in this let me know and I’ll fix it right away!)

Word Count: 2k

Chapter 2

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You never wanted to be a bother to anyone, so a lot of times you kept your emotions to yourself. You were more of a ‘team therapist’ without the degree. Not that you minded being a confidant to the team; you were definitely able to keep a secret, a really good listener, and tried to give some sound advice when asked. You always tried to make everyone else feel better when they were feeling down or calming someone down when they were on a warpath (mainly stopping Sam from killing Bucky for some prank he pulled). All that was good and dandy, but sometimes you needed to talk things out and have someone just listen to you for once. That’s where Steve comes in. He was your go to person whenever you could feel one of your sad episodes coming on, or it was like he could sense you starting to shut down internally. He was the one to distract you from the invading thoughts of self doubt and internal bullying. You never really knew the cause of these sad episodes but they were always there and you had no way of stopping them.

This episode felt like it was going to be one of the extremely bad ones and you could practically hear the Windows shut down chime playing in your brain, but Steve was out on a mission at the moment when you needed him most. Again, not complaining, obviously the safety of everyone else is more important than one of your little mental pity parties, but you needed to try and get through your emotions before some small inconvenience had you becoming a big crying mess.

To avoid that inevitable minor inconvenience that would lead to your public break down, you texted Tony telling him you were feeling under the weather and weren’t coming in today. He said that it was fine and that he (along with everyone else) would miss you and hoped you’d get better soon. You turned your phone off completely and just tossed it on some random place at the foot of your bed -not wanting the reminder that everyone was happier than you-, turned on your TV and put on a movie that would no doubtedly put you in a worse mood than before. You snuggled deeper into your blankets and started your endless sadness fest.

~~~

Steve had arrived a day early due to the mission being easier than expected. He had stepped off the quinjet looking for you and possibly bracing himself to catch you in a tight embrace, but instead was met with Maria giving a quick mission debriefing. Usually he would have been engaged in the conversation but he was so focused on finding you that he hadn’t heard a word Maria had said.

After half-ass listening to Maria, Steve had begun his quest in search for you. He started off with the training room, expecting to see you on the treadmill as usual trying to beat your mile run time, hair thrown up in a high puff bouncing with every step you take, eyebrows slightly furrowed from concentration; he always admired your commitment. Instead, he was met with Bucky and Sam wrestling on the floor, shoulders slouching slightly in disappointment.

“Have you seen (Y/N)?” mind too preoccupied to worry about their latest friendly squabble. They both shook their heads no and went back to fighting.

He decided the next place he should check was the lab; you were always trying to learn something new from Bruce or Tony and oftentimes you were a helpful extra set of eyes, hands, or a new brain to pick. You liked to say that you majored in Chemistry and minored in kicking ass. Steve had a fond smile on his face as he walked, remembering the way you giggled through saying that. When he had made it to the lab he was met with Bruce muttering to himself, most likely about whatever he was working on.

“Have you seen (Y/N)?” he asked while looking around, expecting you to come out of some back room with something for Bruce, or walking out with Tony talking about whatever he was working on. Something, anything, he just needed to see you.

“Uh… No, I haven’t. Did you try the training room?” Bruce asked in return, to which Steve shook his head no.

“Have you tried the kitchen?” Steve had mentally smacked his palm on his forehead for not thinking about the kitchen. He was already out the door without saying a word.

This should have been one of the first places he should have checked, you always loved to bake whenever you had a free day at the tower to take advantage of the ‘fancy schmancy’ state of the art kitchen as you so eloquently put it. He loved watching you bake, you always put your music that he always found so calming along with the view of you making your way around the kitchen, you always looked so carefree and happy when you were there singing and dancing and stirring up ingredients, he always thought you made such simple things look like art. He was down the hall from the kitchen and heard rustling in the fridge, but no music. He had turned the corner only to find Tony eating grapes and grabbing a water. Tony had tossed a grape into the air and caught it in his mouth, grinning to himself in cocky satisfaction. Steve had taken out his phone and decided to call you, only to hear the sound of your voicemail instantly. He sighed in defeat, all he wanted to do was see you after this mission but there was also a growing concern in his mind. With one last chance of hope he turned to Tony as he was scrolling through some hologram for whatever he was working on.

“Tony, have you seen (Y/N)?”

“Not here today. Texted me saying she’s not coming in because she was feeling ‘under the weather’” Tony had replied nonchalantly, not looking up from his hologram. Steve furrowed his brow; you never texted if you were sick, you always called, and you never said feeling ‘under the weather’ he knew how theatrical you were when you weren’t feeling well and always had to say you were so close to death. He walked towards the elevator and headed towards the garage. He immediately hopped on his motorcycle and only had one destination on his mind.

~~~

As you predicted, you spent all day in bed, only getting up for the occasional snack and bathroom break. You watched all the ones that lowered your spirits and brought them back up to still sad state but not as sad as before, Waiting to Exhale, Poetic Justice, Higher Learning. Now you were watching Cinderella with Brandy and Whitney Houston hoping this might be the one to bring you out of your funk but all signs were pointing to no at this moment. Most of the time, intrusive thoughts filled your mind taking your attention away from the films.

‘No one probably is even missing me right now.’

‘They’re probably happy I didn’t show up.’

‘No one even likes me there.’

‘They probably don’t even think of me as a friend

“They only talk to me out of pity.’

‘I’m such a waste of space there’

‘Why do I even bother?’

The sound of a motorcycle passing your apartment muted the thoughts for a moment and caused butterflies to erupt in your stomach making yourself believe it was your own prince charming Steve coming to your apartment to get you out of this endless, black pit that was your emotions. Your mood began to sour even more if that were even possible, you knew if you were to check out your window you'd be in for a let down so big; you didn’t even want to know how much more deeper you’d go into your sadness.

~~~

Steve saw your bedroom window was open, indicating that you were in fact home. He parked and made his way to your apartment, not even buzzing your apartment for you to let him up because he already had a key and the code to get in. You had given those things to him a few months back -and every time they changed the code- so he could water your plants while you were out on a mission. He had arrived at your door and knocked announcing his presence to you before using his key to enter.

~~~

You shot up at the sound of someone knocking on your door followed by the sound of someone messing with the locks. Your bedroom was wide open and faced the front door and the only distance between the two doors was your living area, so you had a moment to think of what to do but also had to think fast. Instantly, you reached for the gun in your nightstand drawer. You might not have been in the right headspace and you weren’t exactly happy about your life at the moment but you’d be damned if you were going to let some dumbass try to take it from you. The door opened slowly and in popped Steve’s head, you instantly had let your guard down and stopped reaching for your weapon, Looking straight at you he looked to have breathed a sigh of relief and made his way straight to the side of your bed and sat down, grabbing your arm and pulling you in a tight embrace. This small act was pushing you closer to the edge of opening the floodgates that had been slowly building behind your eyes.

“I was so worried about you,” Steve had sighed, still holding you close, this caused the tears to flow with no end in sight. All the pent up feelings you had been holding were finally free, not just sadness but anger and happiness too. You just needed to release everything and Steve was the only person you felt safe and comfortable with doing so.

~~~

Steve could feel that this is what you need, he didn’t even have to say a word. He just knew that this is what you needed: to be held and to be listened to because that’s all you ever wanted at times like this. He was there to relieve the burden he knew was weighing down your heart.

~~~

After a few more moments of crying, you began putting yourself back together, wiping your nose and face, taking a few deep breaths and just overall calming down. When you had felt slightly better, Steve had given you a look; a look you had grown so accustomed to. Whether you two were standing at opposite ends of a room, or next to each other in a debriefing, it was always the same, it always said ‘are you okay?’ You simply shook your head no, this was followed by a look that said ‘do you wanna take about it?’ You shook your head again -losing all desire to speak at all-, he always took this as a sign to just be closer to you, to give you a sense of comfort. So he took off his shoes, jacket and pants and got under the blankets with you and just held you while you continued watching your movies. The more time you spent together, the more you could feel your spirits lift at a slow pace almost like your mental batteries were on a charger. At random moments during the movies, you’d bring up something that bothered you while he was gone, venting slowly and lifting the weight that had stayed heavily on your shoulders when he was away. You could feel yourself going back to ‘normal’, whatever normal was anyway. You felt whole again, almost new. You don’t know what you’d do without Steve, and you never wanted to imagine what life would be like without him. You snuggled deeper into the blankets with him and began to memorize all your favorite parts of him. You wondered if he ever did the same thing when it came to you.

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Taglist: @disaster-rose @oceanscorazon @snazzyjazzytrash

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takadasaiko · 4 years

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In Defense of Howard Stark

The Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t have a shortage of layered, fascinating characters. It’s always easy to hyper focused on the ones we love most, and that’s the excuse I roll with for why it’s taken me so long to find my fascination with Howard Stark. Up until the last few months I looked at him through the lense of who he was to other characters. He was Tony’s father, Steve’s friend, and co-founder of SHIELD with Peggy Carter. He filled roles, but I didn’t look closer for a long time. I didn’t have any reason to.

Then came the Great MCU Rewatch that happened post-Endgame. It wasn’t until I had Dominic Cooper’s Howard stacked back-to-back with John Slattery’s Howard that I started to dig into him. We meet a young man in Captain America: The First Avenger, the Peggy Carter short, and two seasons of the Agent Carter series on ABC. He’s brilliant and goofy, rarely serious unless he’s discussing his work. It’s a stark contrast with the older Howard we meet through John Slattery’s version. Either there was a catastrophic miscommunication between the writers, the directors, and the actors on who Howard Stark was supposed to be, or something caused that shift. The moment I settled on the latter, Howard went from a supporting character whose only use was to help round out others around him to a truly interesting, layered and even broken man. I became fascinated with piecing together that journey. I needed to know what took this man

to a man that his own son described as cold and distant.

I had been using Howard to help deepen my understanding of others, and in the same way, taking a look at those that he keeps close to him and how he treats them helps to shed light on who he is.

Who Howard Surrounds Himself With

Howard wasn’t raised with the same economic and social privilege that he was able to provide to his son in later years. In S1 of Agent Carter he tells Peggy that he was raised on the Lower East Side to a father that sold fruit and a mother that was a seamstress in a factory, going on to tell her how he’d learned to lie to break through the ceiling society had placed for someone like him.

Yet as of S2 of Agent Carter Howard was in high demand at a club that wouldn’t have let him within a hundred feet of if he hadn’t made the fortune that he did with Stark Industries. With that background matched with the contacts he would have made after Stark Industries took off, I think it’s safe to say that Howard knew people from every walk of life.

There were the less savory types:

Joe Manfredi and Howard grew up together and the mobster had no trouble reaching out to Howard years later for help when his kinda crazy girlfriend Whitney Frost went over the edge and into territory even he was uncomfortable with.

And while we may not know how he met Obadiah Stane, the other man wormed his way so deeply into Howard’s life and career that he was poised to manipulate his son after his death.

We don’t know a lot about those other than the fact that Howard wasn’t opposed to shady characters.

There’s something interesting in the more positive friendships that he keeps though.

Edwin Jarvis is a fascinating character. Howard’s butler is that and more. We see him stick with Howard through thick and thin. Through countless girlfriends that he was the bearer of bad news to

through disagreements, and he was with the Stark family long enough that Tony was influenced by him enough that he based his AI system off of him. Jarvis himself tells Peggy the story of how he met and came to work for Howard Stark in S1 of Agent Carter, shedding light on yet another layer of the complicated man:

Jarvis met his wife Ana during the war. She was Hungarian. Moreover, she was Hungarian-Jew in the middle of Europe overrun by nazis. Jarvis fell hard, but the general that he worked for wouldn’t help, even though he could have done so easily. So Jarvis forged his signature. He was found out and would have been tried for treason, but Howard - who had had business dealings with the general - stepped in and used his influence to save not only Edwin, but Ana as well.

There was no indication that Howard expected anything in return, but Jarvis remained loyal and steady.

And then there’s Peggy.

I could go on for days about Howard and Peggy’s friendship. I love it dearly, and feel that we need more friendships like it on television.

He flirts with her, he teases her, but in the end he respects no one quite like he does Margaret Carter.

Howard is a self-admitted liar. He felt that he had to become one in order to break free from the ceiling that society put over him in his youth. He doesn’t trust easily and, even when he does, he still hides behind a quirky, playboy mask meant to obscure anything of any real depth under frivolous layers. To get to the level of success he found himself in at such a young age he had to build up an imperviousness to others’ opinions of him. He flaunts in most cases, but, for better or worse, he does care about how Peggy views him.

She’s the one he turns to to clear his name at the beginning of the first season of Agent Carter and the only one that can talk him out of the mire of his own deepest regrets at the end of the same season.

The funny thing is that, for all his determination that he doesn’t really care how people see him, Howard seems to keep people closest to him that will keep him in check. Jarvis and Peggy, especially. They don’t pull punches and they call him on his shit.

If it’s a conscious choice or even a subconscious one, Howard surrounds himself with people that will hold him accountable. I’d put good money on the fact that Maria did too.

The Way He Treats Others

One of our earlier introductions to Howard is in Iron Man 2 where Tony tells Fury that his father had been cold and distant. He never told Tony that he liked him, much less that he loved him.

Fury indicated that he knew a very different man, and through Dominic’s Howard we (the audience) meet a very different man as well, which leads me to think that Howard struggles with expressing real, honest feelings rather than actually having them. It makes sense, given his explanation at two different points in the first season of Agent Carter that, to break through the barriers society had tried to force on him, he’d learned to hide behind lies and an indifference to what others thought about him. We see that that often leads him to come across as shallow and arrogant. He doesn’t, and seems not to even know how to express those truer feelings except in very rare circumstances, but we see glimpses in the way he treats people.

Edwin and Ana Jarvis are a fantastic example, as mentioned earlier. Here were people that he didn’t really know, people that he owed nothing to, yet he went out of his way to protect them. He used a favour that he could have hoarded away for more selfish purposes and gave it to them to save their lives. In return he was given loyalty, but there was no expectation on that.

Howard holds true to his playboy persona as well as, if not perhaps better than his son would in later years, but despite the flirtation (which he always manages to work into their conversations), Howard shows time and again the respect that he holds for Peggy Carter. While she’s fighting for her colleagues’ respect in the post-war SSR, she’s the one Howard reaches out to to clear his name. She’s the one that he trusts to protect him when his life is on the line. And when she needs help, it’s hers for the taking. A flight that the Army won’t take because it’s too dangerous? All Peggy had to do was ask. Twice when she needed a place to stay, he offered his own home(s) to her, and in S2 he dove straight in to help her on her case without any hesitation.

In S2 of the Agent Carter series we meet Jason Wilkes, a brilliant scientist who works for a company that becomes the center of the season’s investigation. The rarity of being a black man in his position is used against him when his company sets him up as a scapegoat. Not only is Howard eager to help him, work with him to clear his name, and reinstate his corporeal form (long story, but if you haven’t seen the Agent Carter series I highly recommend it!), but he sets him up in Stark Industries after all is said and done to help him run the Malibu labs on a new pet project.

For all of his faults and complications, Howard has a trend of helping to support and even protect those that the society of his time is set against. A Jewish woman and her fiancé facing the nazis, a brilliant female agent fighting enemies as well as men around her that have faith in her failure, and a talented black scientist whose company has used and thrown away when convenient. We see the kindness in his actions, in the respect that he gives others that society would prefer not to be bothered with.

So how did he miss the mark so badly with his own son? He gave him things, opened doors for Tony that he’d had to force open himself, but (at least according to Tony) he missed expressing any sort of affection for him. Personally, in light of the other relationships that we actually get to see as they’re taking place, I’m inclined to think that he didn’t know how to express his love in a way that an already struggling child could understand. He tinkered on cars with him and he built an organization that would keep the world (and his family) safe. Perhaps to Howard, more importantly, he kept his distance, thus allowing his son the chance to grow into his own man. Someone not quite like him.

The thing is, even if it went against everything he wanted, there was no getting around that. Just as I imagine that Howard inherited a few more traits from his own father than he would have ever admitted to, Tony inherited some from him. Both the good and the bad.

Howard’s Personality Traits

Marvel is a parallel haven. In many ways the universe that they’ve created feels like one long, fantastical TV show with 3+ hour episodes. One of the perks of that is the multiple nods they’ve made and parallels they’ve drawn. It’s through those parallels that I found between Howard and Tony that sunk me deeper and deeper into exploring Howard’s personality. Robert said it best:

(gif made by and borrowed from @erikisright)

Much in the same way that we meet Tony in Iron Man 1, the Howard of Captain America: The First Avenger and the Agent Carter short and series secures himself behind a mask of indifference to public opinion. He has a good time and doesn’t give a damn who knows it. When focused on work, he’s focused

but as soon as the war’s over he’s living the life of the playboy millionaire. He spends his time gallivanting around as much as inventing. He flaunts it. His money, his success. It’s the mask he hides behind to protect himself from the world, and the one that he feels like he has to hide behind. Afterall…

There’s no question that Howard has his fair share of less-than-desirable traits, but as we’ve discussed, he has some good ones as well. One that I found surprising, personally, is that he takes responsibility. Maybe not in his personal life (sorry, Jarvis, but it’s on you to handle Howard’s breakups apparently), but in his work. If he feels that he’s fallen short, he owns it, repeatedly to the point of putting his own life in danger.

In the first season finale for Agent Carter, after spending eight episodes on the run to clear his name, he waltzes himself into the SSR to give the full story and offer himself up as bait. It’s his fault, he tells them, despite not designing the invention stolen to cause harm, it’s still his, and he’ll own up to his responsibility there, both at the time and the damage it had caused during the war. In S2, after an invention fails, he offers himself up to go in and switch it on manually (putting himself at exceptional risk) because he ‘designed it poorly’. He doesn’t get the chance to do it, but he’s ready and willing to.

On the flip side (and also a trait that took me by surprise) he gives credit where it’s due.

Despite having to lie and possibly claw his way to the top, he’s consistently willing to both offer a hand to those that he can as well as make sure that he’s acknowledging their contribution, despite the fact that he believes that many successful scientists steal other people’s work for themselves.

Tony must have come by his tendencies to fixate by way of his father. Much like his son, Howard shows time and time again that he leans into his obsessive personality. It ranges from a hyper-focus on work to coffee to a good time by any means he can find it, and even to the guilt that we see him holding onto in those few private, honest moments we catch a glimpse of.

We see it in the way that he held onto the guilt over what happened to the Russian soldiers at Finow when his Midnight Oil was misused and ended up killing hundreds of Allied soldiers. He did everything he could to set the situation as right as it could be set - he faced down the general that had stolen the oil only to get his ass handed to him, forced the general to step down, ended a seven-figure contract with the Army, and created a vault to better protect designs and inventions that could hurt innocent people - yet we see how it still weighs on him years later.

I think it’s the guilt at never being able to find Steve that eventually shifts him from Dominic’s Howard to John’s. That lively, goofy man is broken year after year by the failure of not being able to find or save a man that he holds up on a pedestal. He fixates on it to the point that his own son feels that he cared more about Captain America than him. Really, there’s so much in this theory that I’ve had battering around my head for the last couple of months or so that it deserves its own post. I’ll put it on the writing docket.

All in all, Howard Stark is an easy character to overlook or to flatten out with partial information. The Agent Carter series does wonders to add depth to him by giving us time to get to know him. Time that we don’t get through newsreels and the off story that Tony tells.

Part of an interesting character is their layers, both the good and the bad. Much like Tony, I feel that the more I learn about Howard Stark, the more I come to realize that he was a man trying his best. Sure, maybe his best didn’t match up in a lot of ways, but I think there’s something to be said for each generation of Starks doing just a little bit better than the one that came before them in whatever way that they can.

#Howard Stark #MCU characters #character analysis #character breakdown #Tony Stark #Peggy Carter #Edwin Jarvis #Ana Jarvis #marvel's agent carter #captain America: the first avenger

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