#Morgan's graduation sleepover!

[all-that-glitters-is-goldfish]

Can I get a short fluffy Drabble with bucky with this prompt?

I just woke up in a stranger’s bed and I’m half naked, I cant remember anything about yesterday besides that the party was great and that I got absolutely wasted AND OH MY GOD THERE IS A HOT PERSON NEXT TO ME IN BED AND THEY ARE NOT WEARING MUCH WHAT DID WE DO YESTERDAY AU

Thank you!! 💗

Okay so this is kind of long for a Drabble because I just loved the plot and couldn't stop writing!!

Anyways, I hope you enjoy, nonnie!!

Morgan's Graduation Sleepover!!

You blink hard against the bright stream of sun poking through the gap in the curtains, groaning as your head throbs in the light.

You let out an audible moan as you attempt to pull the covers over your face. The soft, silky comforter was cool against your skin, and you snuggled tighter against the sheets as you became aware that you were shivering despite the summer heat.

You extend your arm searching for your phone that you kept on the nightstand and frowned when your hand felt nothing. You turn your head slightly, trying to see the floor below where your phone may have fell, catching a glimpse of the bed in the sun for the first time since you opened your eyes. The large queen-sized bed draped with dark grey blankets.

Wait… Grey?

Last time you checked your comforter was a deep purple colour.

You sit up slowly, becoming fully aware of your environment and looking around the dimly lit room. A room that you definitely hadn’t been in before because you would never have a poster of dogs playing poker hanging above your bedroom door.

You groan again as a feeling of nausea overcomes you, the dizziness being caused from your eyes darting around the unfamiliar room. You clasp the palm of your hand against your mouth, attempting to stifle a gag and you taste the acidic bile bubbling in your throat.

“Oh god.” You belch into your hand as it balls into a fist.

“Mmmph-“

You nearly jump out of your skin as a low moan fills the silence of the room and your head whips fast enough to cause another wave of dizziness.

Your eyes widen as you realize… whoever owned this bed was sleeping right next to you, curled up on his side, face buried deep in the pillow.

You startle, getting tangled in the blankets as you jump out of the bed, thanking internally that you still have your underwear on and are not waking up butt-naked next to a stranger during the worst hangover of your life.

Unfortunately, your actions aren’t grateful as your feet become tangled in the sheets and you land with a thump loud enough to vibrate the furniture. You wince as the pain radiates up your ass and into your spine.

Suddenly, a pair of ocean blue eyes are peering over the side of the bed, a concerned look across the man’s face.

“Are you okay?” He asks, jumping out of bed with much more grace than you had shown, and dropping down to his knees by your side.

“I- Yeah.” You stutter, embarrassed and still confused about how exactly you had ended up in this position, not on the floor, but in this situation.

He grips your arm with a strong hand, pulling you up and steadying you as you stagger, the dizziness still not disappearing due to the excessive amount of alcohol you had consumed the night before.

As he helps you stand you notice the sunlight reflecting off the arm of the stranger, the metal left arm that causes your heart to skip a beat and the feeling of a golf-ball sized lump in your throat. You hadn’t recalled any of your past Tinder dates having a prosthetic arm and you panic, realizing that you really had no idea who this man was.

“I-“ You pull away, your eyes darting from his arm to the folded up clothes on the chair in the corner of the room.

The clothes you had worn to the party!

Fragments of the night come flooding back, but still with no memory of this mysterious, handsome man.

“Are you okay, Y/N?” He asks, his eyebrows still furrowed in concern.

Wait… Y/N?

“You know me?”

“Yeah! You’re Nat’s roommate! She introduced us at the party last night.”

“Introduced us?” You search your mind for any recollection, finding it surprising that you couldn’t remember this muscular man, with the dark hair and stubble surrounding the most gorgeous lips.

Damn, I bet they taste soft.

“I’m not surprised you don’t remember. You were already 4 drinks in, and you were trying to go shot to shot with me. I tried explaining to you that I have a very high tolerance for alcohol, but you kept going. Basically had to carry you back here.”

“Back… here?” You ask, squinting as your head begins to throb again.

“Yeah. My place.” He turns around, heading into the ensuite bathroom that you hadn’t noticed before. “I was going to bring you back to your house but you lost your keys and I was unable to get a hold of Natasha since she took off for shawarma with my friend Sam.” He shouts from the other room, before returning with a glass of water and a couple of Tylenol.

You accept it gratefully, not caring that you willingly took drugs from a man you still weren’t sure you trusted.

“I’m Bucky, by the way. In case you don’t remember. Bucky Barnes.”

You nod, unsure of what to say next as your mind was still breaking free from the alcohol induced haze. Your eyes trail down towards the pair of plain white boxers Bucky is wearing, and you gasp as you remember that you are also standing there in your underwear.

You dash towards the chair, pulling the tight black dress over your head.

“I- Did we-“ You don’t know how to ask, and you hope he understands your gesture as you motion towards his near-naked body. Seeing him blush 3 different shades of red comforts you slightly, and you smile slightly through the panic.

“No! I would never- You were completely wasted!” He fumbles with his fingers, avoiding eye contact.

Your heart sinks as you realize you offended him, and you try to crack a joke. “There’s not too many other scenarios I can think of that offer a valid reason for waking up in a man’s bed in only my underwear.”

He chuckles, smirking and you almost swoon as you notice his handsome smile for the first time. “Clearly you’ve never met yourself drunk.”

“What do you mean?” You ask, the pain in your head finally dissipating.

“Well, first of all I insisted you sleep in your clothes, but when I went to grab a trash can in case you vomited again-“ You wince as he stresses the word. “And by the time I came back you had already stripped down. And then when I tried to sleep on the floor, you started crying telling me you were afraid you were going to float away like a balloon and you wanted me to, and I quote, keep your string grounded.”

You curse, not bothering to keep it in your head this time, as embarrassment flushed your face. You grab your purse from the chair, sighing in relief as you notice your phone safely inside the front pocket of the bag.

“I mean, I’m not complaining. I just wish the next time I’m in bed with a beautiful women-“ He pauses. “No, God sorry. I’m going to stop talking now, I’m horrible at flirting. This is awkward”

“Flirting?” You’re taken aback.

He’s beaming now, his smile stretching from a smirk and into a full-blown smile. “I don’t save all pretty drunk girls I meet from choking on their own vomit, you know.”

It’s your turn to blush now as you swing your purse over your shoulder. “Well, thank you for being my hero.”

A loud buzz breaks the tension and you pull out your phone to silence it, seeing several missed calls from Natasha.

“Oh wow.” Your eyes widen as you read the new text that pops up on the tiny screen.

Did you fuck him yet?

“What is it?” He asks.

You quickly shove your phone back into your purse as you turn to look at Bucky. “It’s Nat- she’s just worried about me… I should probably go.” You lied.

“Do you need a ride?” He asks, grabbing a pair of jeans slung over the end of the bed.

“Oh- Maybe? I’m not exactly sure where I am.”

“Ah. I don’t live too far from Nat, but it’s too hot out. And heatstroke can make hangovers so much worse.” He holds the bedroom door open for you and you head into the hallway, not noticing as he grabs something from the dresser before he follows you out.

He tosses you a heavy helmet and you almost drop it, not expecting the object to be thrust into your arms.

“What’s this for?” You question.

“For your ride. Just one rule, though. Don’t throw up on my bike, dollface.”

#morgan answers #morgan's graduation sleepover! #morgan writes #bucky barnes #bucky barnes drabble #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes reader insert #bucky barnes x reader #anon

[honeypiehotchner]

intelligence & issues (Hotch x Fem!Reader) -- chapter thirty-four

Not me saying I’m busy and then writing two chapters in the span of one week,,, Anyway. Here’s the next one! Guys, there’s seriously going to be like maybe 2 chapters and an epilogue left...get ready

Today’s chapter title is from “Make Up My Mind” by Maya Payne (which is really good for the vibes of this chapter and the next)

Warnings: Angst! Nothing else besides angst

Previous chapter || Fic Masterlist

Chapter Thirty-Four: Do you think I’ll be happy?

You don’t tell Aaron.

To be more accurate, you don’t tell anyone. Not a single damn person. Not your mom, not Aaron. Not even Garcia, though she has been suspicious.

The two of you had a sleepover at your apartment before coming back to the BAU to get back on the case. You have no idea how you managed to dodge Garcia’s questions while at your apartment, but you think being tired was the best excuse. And that Hotch called you.

Because Aaron did call. He wanted to say goodnight. And he did.

But that was it.

You thought for a moment about bringing up Haley’s visit, but you had no idea how. Seriously, how do you bring that up?

Hi babe, hope you can get some good sleep tonight, you deserve it after such a long day – oh and by the way, your ex-wife stopped by and she basically… Threatened me?

She didn’t even threaten you, unless she calls her last remark a threat. You guess it could be a thinly veiled one, but as much as she scared the shit out of you yesterday, you don’t think she would actually do anything. You genuinely think she’s just…jealous? Maybe?

It’s all so confusing. You don’t know what to make of any of it, and maybe that’s why you decide not to tell Aaron.

You’re lucky he isn’t here, though. You can mask your voice easily enough, especially when there’s a case, but if he saw your face, you’d be caught in a second.

You just need to think about it more, that’s all. He’s stressed out enough as it is. You don’t want to bring up Haley’s visit and make things worse. He’s not even here, it’s not like he can do anything. He could call Haley and talk to her, but you’re not sure that would even go anywhere pleasant.

It’s best not to bring it up. For now.

Another fire was set this morning, anyway. That needs to be today’s main focus.

“Garcia, Eric Hanover was supposed to be there today,” Morgan says. “We need everything on him. He’s important to our guy.”

“I already gave you everything,” Garcia replies, tapping your arm with her pen to get your attention. “He’s fine, he has no criminal records – he has one DUI from when he was twenty-two, but other than that, this guy is squeaky clean.”

“What about relationships?” Morgan asks.

“I think he’s gay,” you blurt, ready to kick yourself.

Morgan pauses. “Excuse me?”

“He’s had no girlfriends, he’s not married, but he does have one best friend that was his roommate in college. They still live together,” you explain.

“Who is he?”

“Peter Lamelle,” Garcia fills in. “He’s also squeaky clean, babes. No criminal record whatsoever. Graduated college with honors, both parents are still living and married, no siblings. His credit is clean and full of generic purchases, I mean,” she shrugs in defeat. “I don’t think he’s your guy.”

“Alright,” Morgan says. “We’ll keep digging here. I’ll call you if we need more.”

“I’ll be here. PG out.”

Garcia hangs up the call with a tap of her pen. She pushes her mic on her headset back from her lips before she swivels her chair to face you.

“Out with it. What’s going on with you?”

You lift your eyes from the case file, furrowing your eyebrows. “What? I’m fine.”

“Oh, no, my friend, you are not,” she shakes her head, reaching forward to grab your chair, spinning you to face her. “What is it? Trouble in paradise? Sexual tension?”

“Pen!” You laugh nervously. “No, Aaron and I are good. I swear.”

“Something else?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“So there is something!”

“I thought you weren’t a profiler?”

“I’m not,” she says. “I just happen to know when something is bothering my gal pals. What’s going on?”

If it weren’t for Pen’s kind face and caring nature, you would’ve brushed her off. But it’s Pen. You can tell her anything.

“Okay,” you exhale. “Haley stopped by yesterday.”

It takes a moment for Garcia to respond. “Haley? Like Hotch’s ex-wife, Haley?”

You nod. “I woke up from my nap and she was knocking on his office door.”

“Oh my God, Y/N! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know what to say!” You argue. “She just asked if he was there and I told her we’re working on a case, so he’s out. And then she…”

“What?”

“She asked if Hotch and I are together—Well, actually she asked if he and I are having sex, which really caught me off guard—”

Garcia nearly throws her coffee mug. “WHAT?!”

“It’s fine, I didn’t tell her anything,” you say. “I told her we’re on a case and I needed to go.”

“What did she say?”

“She… She said he’ll see the truth about me one day,” you shrug. “Whatever that means.”

Garcia shakes her head. “I can’t believe this. Have you told Hotch?”

“No, no, no,” you shake your head furiously. “No. He’s stressed enough about this case. And he can’t do anything, he’s not here.”

“Uh, he could call her,” Garcia says, giving you an incredulous look. “And tell her to not do that. It’s none of her business what the two of you do.”

“He is the father of their kid, though.”

“And?” Garcia sets her mug down to grab your hands. “Don’t let her get to you. They have a son together, yes, but that doesn’t mean she gets to control him. And if you tell him about this, he’ll say the same, I know he will. He would call Haley in a heartbeat and ask her what the hell she’s thinking—”

“I just…really don’t want to stress him out,” you murmur. “And Haley said Jack noticed and asked about me. Aaron didn’t even tell me Jack had asked about me—but I don’t know, maybe he asked Haley. Still, I…I can’t be a mom, Pen. I’m not cut out for that.”

She’s shaking her head more the more you speak. “You don’t have to be. Haley is Jack’s mom, not you. Hotch doesn’t expect you to be a mom to Jack, no one does.”

“But if I’m going to be in Aaron’s life, that includes being in Jack’s.”

“Okay, yes, I can’t argue with you there, but sweet pea, you don’t need to overthink this,” Pen squeezes your hands. “I think you should tell Hotch. Talk to him about it.”

“I don’t know…”

“Think about it,” she says. “Okay? Just consider it.”

You already have. You barely slept last night because you were thinking. But you don’t tell her that right now. Instead, you say, “Okay.”

Perfect timing, too, because a call comes in from Morgan just a second later.

They can’t find Peter, Eric’s roommate.

+++

Three hours pass and the case has come to an end. It was who they didn’t suspect at all. Peter Lamelle.

Police caught him in the process of starting another fire. And further digging led Garcia to find a storage unit of his (registered under his brother, Gregory’s name) that contained everything an arsonist would ever need – and more.

Eric left the precinct shocked and scarred. His roommate, his best friend, a murderer, an arsonist.

And the team got on the plane, relieved to have caught the unsub.

You’re glad, too. Catching an unsub is always a good feeling. That is, when you don’t have the overwhelming dread settling over you from your boyfriend’s ex-wife.

The team is landing in a few minutes and you’re still at the office, awaiting Aaron’s return. Maybe you’ll tell him about Haley in person.

You think about it for a second, but your thoughts are rudely interrupted by Strauss requesting your presence in her office.

“Strauss?” Garcia asks. “What does she want?”

“She didn’t say,” you shrug. “But I’m gonna go get whatever it is over with. Maybe I’ll be back by the time the team gets in.”

“Good luck,” Garcia frowns, squeezing your arm.

“Thanks.” You’ll need it.

You’ve never actually been up to Strauss’s office. You’ve met her, of course, but as for being called to her office, you haven’t had the luxury.

It feels strangely like being called to the principal’s office, and you’re not sure how to feel about that. The ride on the elevator makes your heartrate spike.

A terrifyingly truthful voice in the back of your head tells you this might have something to do with Haley.

Would she go to Strauss, though? Is she that angry about this this to go over Aaron’s head to Strauss?

Suddenly, you want to vomit.

Strauss is waiting for you in her office when you get there. She’s standing in the middle of the room, looking at some file, probably the arsonist case, but regardless, she smiles upon seeing you.

Weird.

“Come on in,” Strauss waves you in. “How are you doing?”

“Good,” you reply slowly. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” Strauss answers as she rounds her desk. “Please, have a seat. I just wanted to talk to you.”

Hesitantly, you take a seat across from her. Your mind is racing, so is your heart, just waiting for her to get out with it. All other logical reasons have flown out of the window. All you can think is your relationship with Aaron has to be the reason you’re here.

“So,” she folds her hands, “I heard the case went well.”

“Yes, it did,” you nod, sitting up as straight as possible. “I was just glad Agent Hotchner let me work on the case from here.”

“Yes, I saw he cleared you for remote work,” Strauss nods. “I assume you still need clearance from your doctor before you can return to the field?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to return to the field?”

You pause. “Yes. I’d like to.” Another pause. “Why do you ask?”

“There’s been some whispers,” Strauss begins. “With your recent performance and your age, it’s impressive. A few positions have opened up and I’ve been hearing offers that might be heading your way in the near future.”

“That’s…flattering, but I like the BAU,” you reply. “I don’t think I’m interested in moving right now.”

“Understandable,” Strauss agrees. “You’re young. You have time to advance.”

You nod slowly.

“Just know, you don’t have to go to any drastic lengths to advance,” she continues. “There are many positions in the FBI that would suit you and improve your skillset further.”

“I’m sure.” Either you’re reading too far into everything, or she definitely knows. “Thank you for letting me know.”

“You’re welcome,” she says. “One more thing, Y/N, I know you’re still new here, but I know the BCI has this same policy,” she pauses. “Workplace relationships are strictly prohibited. In order to keep a safe and healthy environment, this rule has to be in place. You understand, I’m sure.”

Your muscles have all gone rigid. She fucking knows. “I do.”

“Good. Because I’ve heard that there might be a relationship blooming within the BAU, and I’d like to stop it while it’s ahead.”

Too late. “I understand.” It’s already bloomed. It’s been blooming for months now.

“It could still…bloom, if you will, if one of the two people decided to transfer. That would keep the work environment intact and not complicate things anymore than need be.”

“I agree.”

Strauss’s eyes are narrowed, but she makes no move to be utterly blunt about what she’s saying. “Good, I’m glad.” She unfolds her hands and stands to her feet, and you follow. “Thank you for meeting with me.”

“Of course,” you nod. “Anytime.”

As you turn to leave, she adds, “I know you said you aren’t interested, but…the offers are here if you change your mind.”

You don’t think you will, but you thank her anyway.

+++

Downstairs, Haley and Jack are there when Aaron and the team walk into the bullpen.

Shocked looks are shared briefly before the team disperses, letting Aaron handle whatever it is that’s happening.

Apparently, Haley is only here because Jack wanted to visit Aaron at work.

“Hey buddy,” Aaron grins, picking his son up and putting him on his hip. “What’d you do today?”

Jack jumps into explaining how school had the day off today, so he got to spend the day with Haley, and they went to his favorite park and ate his favorite lunch. Aaron is listening intently to Jack when you see him through the glass doors of the bullpen.

He looks so…happy.

Bracing yourself, you get ready to be the bigger person.

Morgan spots you first when you’ve barely pushed the door open, so he’s instantly by your side, hauling you into a hug. You accept it with a laugh, grateful for his knight in ever-shining armor self.

“What have I told you about manhandling her?” Garcia smacks Morgan’s shoulder lightly, earning a grin.

Aaron watches this interaction unfold with a small smile, not noticing the smug glare you’re getting from his ex-wife.

“How did it go with Strauss?” Garcia asks, which causes Morgan to let go of you, turning you so he can look into your eyes.

“Strauss talked to you?” Morgan questions.

“Really?” Emily says, practically coming out of nowhere with Reid and JJ.

Mention Strauss and suddenly everyone appears.

“Yeah,” you nod, seeing Aaron staring at you from your peripherals. “It was fine, just some routine stuff. Nothing big.”

“Are you sure?” Morgan asks, but both his and Garcia’s eyebrows are raised in disbelief.

“Yeah,” you confirm, flashing your best everything-is-fine smile. “All is good. She’s not that scary, you guys,” you tease.

This seems to satisfy them for now. The only person who is even remotely skeptical is Hotch, but you wouldn’t know. You won’t look at him. Because looking at him means looking at Haley and looking at Haley means risking losing your brilliantly crafted façade.

“I’m about to head home, though,” you say, jabbing Morgan in the ribs when he starts to pout. “I’m exhausted and I’ve missed two calls from my mom.” A lie. “So, if you’ll quit pouting, I’m gonna head out and call my mom.”

“Alright, alright,” Morgan backs off. “Tell Momma L/N hi from me.”

“I will not,” you scoff, grinning. “I don’t need her falling in love with you anymore than she already is.”

“Where’s the harm in that?”

“Get out of here,” you smack his hands away. “I missed you the least, you know.”

“Oh, you don’t mean that!”

You finally catch Aaron’s eyes, completely on accident this time. Jack is still in his arms, with his head on his father’s shoulder, eyes fighting sleep as hard as they can.

You want to say something to him, but you don’t. He doesn’t say anything either, so you don’t have to form a reply.

You’re grateful. You don’t have the words right now.

Next chapter

#intelligence & issues #aaron hotchner #aaron hotchner series #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner x fem!reader #aaron hotchner x you #aaron hotchner x y/n #hotch #hotch x reader #hotch x fem!reader #hotch x you #hotch x y/n #aaron hotchner fanfic #aaron hotchner fanfiction #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fanfiction #angst #aaron hotchner angst #oops #sorry for the angst

[heart-strong]

touch

Aaron Hotchner/enby!Spencer Reid

Summary: when spencer is locked out the pretty pre-law student invites them to sleepover.

WC:1260

CW: throwing up(both talking about and doing? is that the right phrase? either way not too graphic), talk about germs, Spencer overwhelmed, Haley mentioned anything else I missed let me know.

AN: not betaed

so I think this was for a challenge in the summer but I can't remember anymore. um I really don't know the ages for this, legal, but like is spencer like in the show when they went to college at like 16 and this is just another degree where they met aaron. or did they graduate high school at 18 and this is their first degree; i don't know you choose. anyway, here's another non-binary spencie because I am me and will be keeping this concept alive.

Spencer arrives back at their shared dorm with Derek Morgan to find one of their own scrunchies on the doorknob. Savannah was over and by the thudding on the opposite side of the door, they were probably “railing” or however Derek would phrase it the day after.

“Fucking great,” Spencer says as they pull the grey hair tie off the knob.

“Spencer, is everything okay?”

Spencer turned around, adjusting the hair tie on their wrists, and was suddenly faced with Aaron Hotchner. The absolutely delectable pre-law student next door.

“Um Derek has Savannah over.” they raise their arm to show Aaron the scrunchie secured around their wrist. “I could call Penny but she and Emily are currently out and I just want to sleep as soon as possible.”

“Ah locked out,” Aaron responds. “Well Dave is gone for the weekend you can crash with me.”

Spencer short circuit.

The very sweet boy they met move-in week, who didn’t mock their pronouns pin on their bag or aversion to handshakes, just invited them to “crash” in his room.

Spencer may as well be medically crashing come to think of it. They cannot feel their breathing anymore and the only reason they are still standing upright is they were leaning against the wall.

“I appreciate the thought but,”

“No I’m not going to accept any other answer, you clearly just came back from a study or reading session and said you were tired.” It wasn’t force full at all. Just confident. Damn Spencer thought he’s going to be a wonderful lawyer. “Please, Spence, I got a large pizza too and I’m not going to eat enough to fit in my mini-fridge alone.

Spencer finally looked at something that wasn’t Aarons smile. He was wearing a graphic tee with light wash jeans and a fleece sweatshirt. Underneath one arm a huge pizza box with a backpack slung over one shoulder.

“What flavor?”

“Cheese.”

“Um sure, thank you.” Spencer smiles. “I just have books though, nothing to change into.” they say as Aaron unlocks, opens and walks into his dorm room.

“That's okay you look like you could drown in my clothes so you could wear one of my shirts, even though covering that ass would be a crime.” Aaron says as he riffles through his drawers.

Stopping cold, Aaron turns to Spencer standing beat red in the middle of his room. “I’m so sorry, I’m a bit drunk but also that's not an excuse. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,”

“Aaron its,”

“I mean you're so pretty and when you said you were waiting till your soulmate I shoved it, the thought of how pretty you are down. Shit sorry.”

“It's fine Aaron. I saw the pizza and hour and just assumed.” Spencer said. “You're pretty too.” they shift on their feet, trying to defuse the tension. “What about you, is she yours?” They point to a framed photo on Aaron’s dresser of him in a suit holding a gorgeous blond in a ball gown.

“Ah, Haley, no or at least we don’t know. I’ve known her my whole life and I can't remember our first or second touch. And apparently, if you can't remember you just know. And I don’t feel that feeling. I do love her and she's amazing but we have an open relationship to not hold each other back.“ Aaron has turned back to his dresser by now. He turns with a white shirt and asks, “what about you?”

“Oh, I never had friends growing up, or someone like her. I can't say if I’ve met mine, I just get overwhelmed when germs are involved.” they look at their hands balling up the ends of their sweater.

“Aren’t germs always involved?”

“That's why I don’t shake hands.” Spencer rings the sweater in their hands more as they continue. “But it's not just that. When Derek and Savannah first touched it was at a party and Der was violently ill and in so much pain until they touched again. But he had no idea who it was so he was like that for three days until Savannah's roommate came over because someone told her that he was vomiting too. I hate vomiting so much.“ Spencer stopped looking at their hands and found Aaron hanging onto every word they said. “I guess that’s germs too. Sorry, I’m trying to get better at rambling.”

“Don’t,'' Aaron said simply. “I’m sorry, that must suck having all of that in your brain. Must be crowded.”

“I also have everything I’ve read so yeah you could call it crowded.”

“What.” Aaron knew they had an eidetic memory but he didn’t know everything about the diagnosis. “Jez, I'm sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Spencer chuckled a little. They thought they apologized a lot.

They were so fucking cute Aaron thought; “I don’t know. So I'm going to go shower then I'll switch the sheets on Dave’s bed.”

“That's not necessary, I'll take the floor.”

“Spencer I won't force you if it’s the germs but if it's not you should take the bed.”

“Thank you, Aaron.”

"No problem, okay I'll only be 10 minutes at the most." Aaron shoulders an IKEA bag of shower things and then hands them the shirt hanging in his hand. Their fingers brush quickly.

They both feel the energy pass.

Just a shock, Spencer thinks as Aaron walks to the bathroom seeming oblivious. He would've stopped if he felt the real thing.

But as time went on Spencer's eyes and head started to ache. They find that that happens on days they find a new library or studies. They went to their bag and took out their glasses. By the time the water turned off their stomach had begun to ache and their saliva started running sour. They tried to locate a trash can, it’d be better than the gross carpeted floor. They hear Aaron retching as well, hopefully, the toilet as they lunge for the basket under Dave’s desk.

As soon as Spencer regained their footing Aaron opened the bathroom door. Towel around his hips, cheeks pale, and hair still dripping.

Spencer short circuits again.

He really was pretty. Aaron makes it across the room in record time but does not reach for Spencer. He wants to feel better but Spencer’s comfort is more important.

“Spencer.” Aaron’s hand aches as he battles instinct to keep it to himself. “I need to touch you. Please.”

“Kiss me.” it’s coming out of their mouth before they can fully register it. “Please Aaron.” that they caught.

And as Aaron’s hand slides on their skin to cup their head, it all dissipates. They shut their eyes as Aaron presses his mouth to theirs. And they almost float away, the full effect Derek talked about was taking over. This isn’t soulmate shit Spence this is knowing someone is always with you cheering you on, so like us but so much more.

But this, Aaron’s other hand slipping around Spencer’s waist and pulling them flush to his body. Well, this is a feeling Spencer wouldn’t want to have with Derek. This is some soulmate shit.

The two part with a gasp, collecting oxygen to get the blood to flow to their brains so this can be processed. It’s Aaron. Spencer thinks. The boy next door all school year. Why in the world did I not shake his god damn hand that first day, I should apologize.

But all that came out of their brain was “Please don’t make me sleep in Dave’s bed.”

#hotchreid #college au #soulmate au #criminal minds #aaron hotchner #ssa dr spencer reid #ssa derek morgan #ssa emily prentiss #ssa jennifer jareau #ssa hotchner #nonbinary #enby spencer reid #heid #fanfic #fanfiction #evie writes #first kiss fic #fluff fic #look i wrote something happy

[you-a-southpaw-doll]

MASTERLIST

Masterlist

Hey, yall! Here’s my Masterlist. I’ll try to keep it updated as I post new stories. As of right now, it is currently up to date with all of my works so far. - Erin (2/11/2021)

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

Negan: (The Walking Dead) (27 one-shot stories + 2 chapter series total)

Zombie Apocalypse One-Shot(s): (13 stories)

Brace For It ~ Negan x Reader. Reader’s best Friend (Female) x Reader.

The Sheriff Returns ~ Crossover with Dead & Breakfast (Includes The Sheriff) ~ The Sheriff/Negan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC)

Out Of Place ~ Negan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC)

Squeaky Surprise ~ Negan x Reader (Friendship)

Devil in Public. Angel in Private ~ Negan x Reader

Leather ~ Negan x Reader

Lucille ~ Negan x Reader

Sleepover - Pallet Style ~ Negan x Reader

Daddy’s Nap ~ Negan x Reader

Leader or Not ~ Negan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC)

Daddy’s Family ~ Negan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC) [romantic]. Negan x Lucille (OFC and not the Lucille from the story) [paternal]. Negan x Issac “Ike” (OMC).

“…Step on a Fuckin’ LEGO!” ~  Negan x Reader. Melissa (OFC)/Ike (OMC) [Mother/Toddler Son]

Buzzed ~ Negan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC)

Pre-Apocalypse One-Shot(s): (2 stories)

The Alarm Clock ~ Negan x Reader

Comin’ Home ~ Negan x Reader

Alternate Universe(s) One-Shot(s): (12 stories)

Temporary Roommate ~ College Student!Negan ~ Negan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC) (Friendship)

In the Name of the Law ~ Officer!Negan ~ Negan x Reader

Sniffles ~ Single Dad!Negan ~ Negan x Christian (OMC) (Father/Son)

History in the Makin’ ~ Professor!Negan ~ Negan x Reader

Teacher of the Year ~ Coach!Negan ~ Negan x Reader (Married). Negan x Emily (Father/Daughter). Reader x Emily (Mother/Daughter)

“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” ~ Santa!Negan ~ Negan x Reader (Married). Negan x Emily (Father/Daughter). Reader x Emily (Mother/Daughter)

Ringin’ in the New Year ~ Negan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC)

The Teacher’s Lover ~ Teacher!Negan ~ Negan x Reader

The Ride ~ Teacher!Negan ~ Negan x Reader

“You Only Want Me…” ~ Modern!Negan ~ Negan x Reader

Graduation ~ Negan x Leigh [Named Reader] (boyfriend/girlfriend)

“I Love You” ~ Teacher!Negan ~ Negan x Lucille (Husband/Wife –> Soon-to-be Ex-Husband/Ex-Wife). Negan x Reader (Eventual Romantic). Negan x Simon (Best Friends). Negan x Son (Father/Son). Negan x Daughter (Father/Daughter)

Chapter Series: (2 stories)

Another One Bites The Dust (AOBTD) Masterlist ~ (Ongoing) [Also includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan]

Lovin’ Him Masterlist ~ Ongoing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joe Merriwether: (Solace) (1 story total) One-Shot(s): (1 story)

“It’s Vegas, Baby!” ~ Joe Merriwether x Leigh Sullivan (OFC)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Sheriff: (Dead & Breakfast) (1 story total) Alternate Universe One-Shot(s): (1 story)

The Sheriff Returns ~ Crossover with TWD (Includes Negan) ~ The Sheriff/Negan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John Winchester: (Supernatural) (2 stories total) One-Shot(s): (1 story)

His Salvation ~  John Winchester x Leigh Sullivan (OFC) (romantic).

Alternate Universe One-Shot(s): (1 story)

His Jacket and Dog Tags ~ Teacher!John ~ John Winchester x Reader

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Max: (The Resident) (1 story total) One-Shot(s): (1 story)

Deaf ~ Max x Leigh Sullivan (OFC)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan: (5 stories + 1 chapter series) One-Shot(s): (5 stories)

Dozin’ ~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan x Reader.

Goin’ To The Doctor’s ~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan x Leigh Sullivan (OFC).

“Come Back To Bed, Doll.” ~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan x Reader.

The Hug ~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan x Reader

“A Wee Bit of Cuddles, eh, sweetheart?” ~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan x Amber (OFC).

Chapter Series: (1 story)

Another One Bites The Dust (AOBTD) Masterlist ~ (Ongoing) [Also includes Negan]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Supernatural Related Posts: Supernatural Music Playlist:

Season 1 Music Playlist

Season 2 Music Playlist

Season 3 Music Playlist

Season 4 Music Playlist

Season 5 Music Playlist

Season 6 Music Playlist

Season 7 Music Playlist

Season 8 Music Playlist

Season 9 Music Playlist

Season 10 Music Playlist

Season 11 Music Playlist

Season 12 Music Playlist

Season 13 Music Playlist

Season 14 Music Playlist

Season 15 Music Playlist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Other Fic Collabs:

With @mychemicalimagines

14 Movies - 24 characters - 32 stories

6 T.V. Shows - 8 characters - 9 stories

2 Celebs - 2 stories.

With @supernaturalwritingbunker: (at bottom of linked post)

1 T.V. Show - 2 characters - 7 stories

1 celeb - 1 story

#Masterlist #One-shot #Chapter series #Fanfic #Jeffrey Dean Morgan #Collabs with @mychemicalimagines and @supernaturalwritingbunker

[tiaragqueen]

For The Sake Of You

✂ Pairing: Yandere! Kim Taehyung x Reader

✂ Word Count: 1,6k+

✂ Trigger Warnings: Possessiveness, implied obsessiveness

✂ This story is fictional and for amusement only. I don’t believe any of the members would do this in real life. As always, thank you for reading and I hope you have a good day!

Do not re-upload my writing to another website or use it without my permission.

[Edited]

***

This is quite a sensitive subject, so I apologize if I accidentally offended anyone. Your body is beautiful just the way it is.

If you like my writing, please support me on ko-fi!

“I hope very soon you'll see all the love I have (for you) I've been holding some inside, 'cause I thought it was too much (for you).” - I’ll Do Anything For You [Denroy Morgan]

“Do I… really look fat?” you mused as you stood in front of the mirror, shirt lifted slightly to reveal your stomach. You knew that compared to the lean girls you often saw in your school – or anywhere else, really – you had a bit of fat. And you knew that in a country where it prized slender and pale figure, a chubby body was often looked down upon as though it was the ugliest thing anyone had ever seen.

It was hard to stay optimistic. You weren’t oblivious to the sneers and dirty glances, by any means, nor were you dumb enough to not notice the reluctant smiles the girls wore every time they invited you to their sports groups.

You’d tried to ignore it, though, thinking that it’d pass. There was no way everyone would suffer forever, right? At least, that was what those quotes on the internet told you. You didn’t want to burden yourself more with their snide remarks, the countless homework and projects had done their job already. But you couldn’t stay impervious now, can you? There was only so much you could stomach, so many bitter pills to swallow, and your growing insecurity didn’t help you in the slightest.

You could only pray for a good tomorrow and for those people to stop mocking you, but even that wasn’t enough.

Because you knew they wouldn’t stop, as painful as it was to admit it. As long as you still had this body, they wouldn’t cease to nitpick every single thing from you.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

And yet, the school’s heartthrob, Kim Taehyung, always went out of his way to approach you. You didn’t know why he did that, not when there were other prettier and richer girls striving for his attention. Not to mention, he had this strange tendency to call you pet names as if you were dating each other. You remembered being uncomfortable and pleaded him to stop in fear of people picking up the – in your eyes – nonexistent signs and got the wrong idea. You didn’t think you could bear any more insults from them.

Taehyung had chuckled then, promising that he wouldn’t call you affectionately in front of other students ever again. And you’d sighed in relief and thanked him for his consideration, thinking that you’d finally solved a problem before it could grow out of hand.

It didn’t. Well, not exactly. Taehyung seemed to be more doting in private, often dropping by your house and buying your favorite food despite your protests. Sometimes he invited you to go out, his cute grin weakening your resolve. You wondered if he knew the effect on you, or if he purposefully used that against you. It wasn’t as though he was blind to his admirers groveling him at pretty much every opportunity, and yet, he didn’t look like he was actively enjoying the attention, either. He kept his gaze solely on you, even in a crowded place.

It was like he couldn’t tear his eyes away from you no matter what. Regardless of your attempts to deter him, he always ‘rebounded’ faster and showered you with more affection than usual. You’d learned that it’d be good, and wise, to let him do whatever he wanted because you couldn’t handle his onslaught of love without dying from blood loss.

And, surprisingly, he took great care of yourself too. Sometimes, you even suspected him treating you like fragile glass. It was weird, in a slightly flattering way, because some boys treated you rather roughly due to your size. They thought that you’d be okay without ever noticing, nor would they care much about your feelings. You didn’t know if you should be grateful or weirded out with the new, and honestly pleasant, situation.

You swiftly pulled down your shirt and turned around, grinning like a child being caught red-handed by their parents. You forgot that he liked to have a sleepover at your house on weekends because his own house was too ‘quiet and lonely’. Your parents were fond of him and wasted no time in preparing the guest room, wanting to please their ‘son’. Though, with how often he slept here, it might as well be his room now. Whenever you asked his reason, he’d either deflect it or say that his parents didn’t pay him enough attention like yours did. Both of them didn’t convince you in the slightest, but you eventually dropped it. Besides, he was a good guest and you and your parents had no complaint regarding his presence.

You hadn’t paused to think about his ‘infallible charm’ that people often mentioned, though.

“Taehyung, w-what are you doing in my room?” You shakily turned the attention back to him, hoping that it wouldn’t provoke his suspicion even further. He was unconvinced, however, and frowned.

“I’ve been calling you to watch the TV with me. Didn’t you hear?” He gave you no chance to respond and merely stepped forward. “No, of course, you didn’t hear. Someone has been messing with your mind too much lately, am I right?”

You supposed there was no use in hiding from him. Taehyung could be awfully perceptive if he wanted to, especially if it involved you. Perhaps it was the reason why your parents trusted him so much because they felt like he could ‘protect’ you when they weren’t able to.

“I-it’s nothing!” You waved your hands frantically like it’d deter him from cornering you against the mirror. “I-I was just… looking at my stomach, see if I can… improve a bit.”

He cocked his head, looking more and more displeased with your pitiful responses. “Improve or change?” He framed the question like it was rhetorical, and you knew he got you there. Very soon, he was merely inches away from your trembling body. Warm breath fanned your head as he raised a hand to touch your cheek. You flinched, and that was enough to freeze him temporarily. “Tell me who they are. I’ll make sure they regret ever mocking you.”

You snapped your head towards him, face blanched upon seeing the cold fury that clung like ice to his visage. Why did he look so angry? Did your insecurity affect him that much? You thought you were the only one who had been suffering silently but turned out, he was in no better position than yourself. It felt… weird and enlightening to know that someone cared about you, discounting the implication of his ‘demand’.

Was this what having a friend felt like? Someone who noticed your pain and determined to work it out? If so, then you were fully grateful for his existence.

“No, no, don’t do that. It’s… it’s bad, okay? Just drop it, I’ll be fine.” You smiled up to him, trying to alleviate his indignation and weaken the resolve behind those frigid eyes. “Besides, we’ll graduate soon, anyway. So there’s no need to pick a fight with anyone.”

However, Taehyung merely shook his head stubbornly. “No, this has been happening for too long. You fake a smile to me and say that everything’s fine, but I know that you’re suffering. It’s obvious that you want to cry, and every time I console you, you always push me away.” A slow, understanding smile stretched his lips. “But I understand now. You don’t want me to comfort you because you want me to solve it instead, isn’t that right, [Name]?”

“W-what? No! It’s really nothing, Taehyung. I–” A swift glare from him managed to root you on the spot. Sensing no way out – it was too late now, you should’ve known something like this would happen soon – you sighed. “It’s just the girls, and yeah, their words kinda hurt me. But you won’t hurt them, right? Please don’t do anything drastic.”

Taehyung regarded you for a moment. “… It depends.”

“Taehyung, please.” You grabbed his arms before he could withdraw them, voice teetering the fine line of desperation and assertion. You didn’t know how strong he was, or how far he’d take his ‘promise’, but the thought of anyone being hurt made you sick. “Please don’t be so rash. If anyone finds out, you could get expelled!”

“I don’t really care about that,” he replied emotionlessly, much to your astonishment. “As long as you exist, I’m willing to do anything for you.”

You gaped at him. Somehow, the determination behind those words managed to make you sicker than you thought possible. You knew you should’ve been flattered, instead. Nobody would take the time to help you, especially when it involved something as ‘trivial’ as your insecurity. Even your parents couldn’t do much with your predicament, believing that everything would be okay as time passed.

Yet, here he was, proclaiming his ‘service’ to you. And with such a resolute face, too.

Perceiving the fear on your dumbfounded visage, Taehyung smiled amicably and reached out to pat your head. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hurt them,” he said softly, a reassurance that sounded hollow in your ears.

And true to his words, the girls no longer bullied you. In fact, you didn’t see their faces all day. Other students knew better than to tease you now, or else they’d suffer a vicious glower from the one and only heartthrob.

When you questioned Taehyung about this, he merely beamed and slung an arm around your shoulders to bring you closer to his. You noticed that aside from some curious glances, nobody dared to speak up against the blatant affection.

“They’re far from us now, I made sure of it.” he chirped, smiling down at your concerned expression. "So don't worry your pretty little head, okay? Everything will be fine now."

#yandere scenario #yandere imagine #yandere oneshot #bts yandere #yandere bts au #yandere bts imagine #yandere bts scenario #yandere bts #yandere bangtan #bts yandere au #yandere taehyung x reader #yandere taehyung #yandere kim taehyung x reader #yandere kim taehyung #omgsuperstag #yandere kpop scenario #yandere kpop story #yandere kpop imagine #kpop yandere #yandere kpop #kpop yandere scenario #kpop yandere imagine #kpop yandere au #yandere request #request

[go-ldy]

I did it, I watched Riverdale, and I feel the need to have a post-mortem so here we go.

First some positives:

Lili has such a pretty singing voice! Even my partner was like: “Wait, is that the actual actress singing?” YEP.

Vanessa Morgan also has a really lovely voice.

Toni had lines in this episode where she talked to people who weren’t Cheryl about a topic other than Cheryl. You know, not a LOT of lines, but listen, I take my victories where I can get them.

The girls + Kevin having a sleepover was really cute & how adorable are Betty’s pajamas. 

Betty making an organized binder for Jughead to do his homework was cute and before everything went horribly wrong so, like... I enjoyed that moment.

Jughead briefly got to hang out with his half-brother Charles.

Masked!Betty braining Masked!Jughead on the videotape at the end was extremely creepy.

That’s is. That’s all I got on the positive.

The rest:

I already knew the Bughead fight was going to be stupid, but somehow it was even worse than I was expecting? In what universe does Betty get mad at Jughead for wanting to investigate the creepy voyeur who has been spying on them instead of... like... immediately joining him down that rabbit hole.

Why is Jughead failing out of high school? He was AT another school! Supposedly a better school! Why did the credits not transfer???

If you “die” and therefore vacate your place at Yale but then you undie why do you not get your Yale spot back.

Usually these gaping plotholes don’t bother me because, well, it’s Riverdale, but given that this was being used as justification for the Bughead fight + subsequent cheating, it is like... SUPER annoying this time.

I keep trying to thinking of a character reason to explain Bughead’s fight and why it was as angry as it was other than it needing to serve as a plot device and I got nothing, literally nothing, someone help me out.

The Exquisite Corpse number that Bughead and Varchie sang during their fights was extremely cringe like even MORE SO than usual o m g.

I don’t have a whole lot more to say about Betty & Archie than has already been said but I have to lol @ the “flashbacks’ of all their meaningful time together building up to the kiss being limited to like... 1x01 and 1x02 and then their season 2 kiss. I like to imagine that some intern tasked with finding Betty and Archie flashbacks looked at tapes for the rest of season 2, 3, and 4 and it was like:

I suppose the call backs to the Pilot including their dance scene could have been deliberate. The road not taken. These two long-time friends on the edge of graduation and an uncertain future are nostalgic for what was and could have been. What would have happened if Archie hadn’t rejected Betty in the Pilot? Would all the pain and heartbreak that followed - serial killer dads, parents murdering their children, organ stealing cults - would that have all followed? The next episode being called “Simpler Times” with the flashbacks could play into that. TBH I wish the flashback episode had come first. Like we know Archie and Betty have this long history and have been friends their whole lives, but since we haven’t seen them interact with each other in two years, this sudden longing and attraction to each other feels unearned and sudden. At least if we saw them indulging in the flashbacks and their past together, we might be better able to understand why they are suddenly yearning for each other.

It is kind of hard to speculate on where this is all going right now especially when we know we are getting a truncated season. I would still bet the most likely outcome is: Betty and Archie decide to put this behind them next episode + return to their SOs + but don’t come clean about it + this blows up in their faces at the end of the season and the Core Four go their separate ways. Then season 5 has the six year time jump.

But this is Riverdale and who knows.

#Riverdale #Riverdale 4x17 #4x17 #Riverdale spoilers #rd negativity

[letterboxd]

Kid Detectives, Adult Problems.

As The Kid Detective becomes “a surprising darling” of a hit with our members, Jack Moulton talks to its Canadian writer-director Evan Morgan about broken projectors, the pressure of proving yourself, and what happens when precocious kids grow up.

“The premise felt immediately funny but it also felt immediately sad and painful.” —Evan Morgan

A growing number of indie films over the past decade recognize that ‘coming-of-age’ is not a teen-exclusive life event—indeed, that it often takes decades to work out who we are, versus who people perceive us to be. The Kid Detective takes that premise and steals off into the night with it, blending noir with indie slacker in an offbeat, genre-flipping tale of a washed-up, thirty-something private eye who was once a star solver of local mysteries.

Adam Brody (Ready or Not) stars as Abe Applebaum, the detective in question, who seizes a chance to step back into the small-town limelight when a young woman (Sophie Nélisse) asks him to help find her boyfriend’s murderer. Veep’s Sarah Sutherland also stars as Abe’s secretary, taking calls about lost cats and other inane mysteries.

Reviews on Letterboxd praise the “delicious premise” that explores “the darkness lurking beneath the surface of small-town America”. They also appreciate Brody’s “phenomenally pathetic” performance, and the unexpected swerve in the final twenty, noting that “sometimes movies don’t recover from a shift in tone in the third act… but here it all [falls] into place”.

The Kid Detective is the directing debut of Toronto filmmaker (and Letterboxd member) Evan Morgan, who first received attention for The Dirties (2013), an alternately funny and upsetting micro-budget dark comedy in found-footage style, which he produced, co-wrote and co-edited. Morgan’s work is drenched in pop culture: Abe’s talent for deduction is demonstrated by how he digests movie narratives; The Dirties, too, has endless movie references. So we were chuffed to quiz Morgan about the films that have played an important role in his life.

What was premiering The Kid Detective at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival like for you, under the current conditions? Evan Morgan: We were in quite a rush to get the film finished for the online platform that they had made—I signed off on the final cut on Thursday and then I was reading a review of the movie by Saturday. I was still in that mode of trying to scrutinize everything and implement my final notes, and then all of a sudden the movie was done and I could never touch it again. It certainly was a surreal transition to make that quickly.

It was also extremely gratifying to see people respond to it for the first time. We knew that we weren’t making a movie that was for all tastes but when you’re reading the first response from the first person who’s ever reviewed it and they’re picking up on stuff you intended, you start to let your spine unclench a little bit. You can sort of finally say goodbye to the process of making something and enjoy the process of people interacting with it.

Have you been reading the Letterboxd reviews? Obsessively. I’ve been refreshing Letterboxd all the time. I’ve been joking with my editor and composer a lot about how people posting their reviews on Letterboxd, on their YouTube channel, or other little outlets would never expect the filmmakers to be instantly reading their reviews.

You’re also a member! How do you use Letterboxd? I’ve always been a big film nerd. Ever since I was a teenager I was making lists at the end of the year and obsessing over an order that would always change. A friend of mine, Matthew Miller, who produced The Dirties, recommended that I hop on Letterboxd and instantly I was going through the library rating and organizing everything, and it became a real slippery slope. I remember spending hours on it in the first week.

Now, after actually having made a movie that’s on a larger scale, I’ve found that my sensitivity has changed a lot in the last year. I’m less inclined to give a star rating. I’m happy just to catalog the film so I can reflect on it and just use the ‘like’ button. That’s been an interesting shift in my relationship with how I see movies after having finally completed this project.

I know this idea had been gestating a while for you, what was the seed of the story? I’d written a short film in film school, which I never shot, that was about a child detective who was still a child and was solving grisly murders. I was obsessed with the first season of The OC and I thought Adam Brody was so funny. I was impressed with how he broke out of the formula of that show. I knew he was someone I really wanted to work with and we happened to cross paths at Sundance because The Dirties was premiering at Slamdance. It was clear to us that we shared a similar sense of humor and taste.

I was looking back on my old ideas and I saw an opportunity to re-conceive this one for him because I immediately identified with the protagonist. I’ve always known I wanted to be a filmmaker and thus had that sense of expectation where people would joke: “he’ll grow up to be the next Spielberg!” It’s incredible encouragement when you’re young but it also creates this unfortunate sense of pressure where you’re beholden to a future that you actually haven’t achieved or lived.

When I graduated film school, I was suddenly left in the space of my own apartment where now it was up to me to actually make this happen, to write and direct a feature film. The process acquires this unfortunate pressure because it’s not just about watching ideas unfold in front of me, I also have something to prove. I was at a point in my life where I was doing a lot of writing and not having great success in terms of actually finishing a script so this premise resonated with me and I saw an opportunity for people to connect to this character in their own way.

I revisited The Dirties after watching The Kid Detective and I finally understood why there were those huge The OC posters in Matt and Owen’s edit suite. I assume that was your idea? Yeah, it was. We were all big fans of that show. The cultural references they made were things that were important to us at that particular moment and we loved Seth Cohen [Brody’s character]. When I ran into Adam at Sundance, I shared a link to The Dirties, forgetting that his face was in the background of about twenty minutes of our movie. We were back in our hotel that night and it suddenly just occurred to us—“wait a minute, shit. We should probably warn him that his face is a big character!”

How did you conduct your research into detective work? What excited me about this premise was the character and not so much the genre. I think the genre is alluring in a sense that it’s so hallowed. The set pieces are so familiar in terms of the PI office, the receptionist and the glass of scotch. That stuff was all super cool and enticing, but I was never a big mystery person. I was intimidated by the process of writing because it felt very much outside of my wheelhouse.

The first thing I did was buy a bunch of Raymond Chandler books from the Philip Marlowe series. I read those super quickly and thought they were super funny. I also read a bunch of Encyclopedia Brown books. So, the world of The Kid Detective exists between these two realms. I started watching bad TV procedurals where the detectives try and find the victim within the span of 42-minutes just to absorb as much as I possibly could.

Here you have a whimsical directorial approach while the film reflects upon a cynical, changing world. In comparison, The Dirties also deals with young adult trauma but couldn’t be further from this in style. Can you talk about your use of juxtaposition this time around? There was no more fun experience than shooting The Dirties. It really was a film made by four best friends having an endless sleepover in their parents’ basement. That’s where the energy, the life, and the humor of the film comes from. We were always relying on the darker component of the dramatic payoff to provide us with a structure so that we could goof around as much as we wanted knowing that it wasn’t all for nothing. Those dramatic stakes would provide it with a different kind of technical legitimacy. We didn’t have any money to make it but it didn’t have to look like a big Hollywood film because it was made by the characters.

It wasn’t a conscious decision to recreate the same dynamic with The Kid Detective in terms of dealing with dramatic issues in a very light way. The premise felt immediately funny but it also felt immediately sad and painful. I wanted to find a way to wrap them together without forfeiting the humor or the reality of the characters. It’s interesting how a lot of people are responding to the way the movie reveals itself to be dark because, for me, this was always inevitable. If you’re going to tell a story about a stunted adult, like a kid detective who never really grows up, the only way for the character to grow up is to confront something that is so sinister that it would break them from their selfishness.

Which detective movies most influenced The Kid Detective? The biggest films that were in my head when I was writing this movie—and also in terms of our aesthetic—were Chinatown and Blue Velvet. Chinatown was a movie that I had more of a relationship with as a teenager than I did the older Humphrey Bogart movies like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon. Blue Velvet also has a suburban setting that reveals this darker underbelly—two characters driving around in a convertible, interviewing people, and putting themselves in greater and greater risk. Those were the movies that we wanted you to be able to put the film on the shelf with.

Jim Carrey in ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’ (1994).

Which film made you want to become a filmmaker? This is an easy one for me. I was a very big fan of Jim Carrey when I was eleven and I remember seeing Ace Ventura: Pet Detective for the first time and having my mind blown. I didn’t even know what some of those jokes were referring to, but I was so delighted by his energy and the absurdity of that movie. It invited this ferocious interest in acting and consequentially, the world of film. I got really excited when I heard he was working on his first dramatic feature and that it was going to be directed by Peter Weir since I was already a fan of Dead Poets Society.

I remember going to see The Truman Show with my family on the first night that it played and the projector broke about an hour into the movie. I was broken—I knew that was I watching my favorite movie that I’d ever seen. I was absolutely blown away by the world and the story. After about 30 minutes, the theater staff came out and started offering vouchers to see it again but I wouldn’t let my parents leave—I said “no, we have to stay and finish it!”—and then I was rewarded with what remains my favorite movie ending ever.

That was the point when my interest shifted from wanting to be in front of the camera and the center of attention. I was kind of the class clown as a child. If you’d asked at the time, I’d say I wanted to be a comedian. This was the moment where I decided I wanted to tell stories and start writing scripts.

Which coming-of-age protagonist did you relate to the most as a teenager? Not super original, but I was obsessed with The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager. I don’t know if I necessarily saw my experience reflected in a movie—I’m sure it’s out there. Rushmore was another film that Adam and I used as a reference when we were pitching this movie, in how The Kid Detective exists between that and Chinatown. It’s also about a character dealing with his own expectations of himself and ultimately having to evolve out of his selfishness.

I think that there’s something about the coming-of-age genre that is very special to me and I continue to really appreciate and recognize it. I really enjoyed Adventureland, which came out about eleven years ago and it’s sort of underrated. I guess in its own way, Blue Velvet is a coming-of-age story too. Those are the ones that are the top of my list.

What are your favorite Canadian films that really could not be made anywhere else but Canada? It seems I should have an immediate answer to that question. It just proves how bad Canadians are at celebrating themselves. There was a movie called Monsieur Lazhar that stars Sophie Nélisse, who’s the leading actress in our film. It was her first film role at eleven and it’s an incredibly sensitive and quiet movie that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars that year. That’s a really amazing example of Canadian filmmaking at its best.

If you’ve had time to watch any films this year, what is your favorite film of 2020 so far? This is another tough one for me because I was honestly so immersed in trying to complete The Kid Detective—we were editing intensely from the very beginning of the year and throughout the lockdown. I was so exhausted by that process that I lost track of what was happening in terms of new releases, so I watched quite a few old movies and there were a few movies I revisited.

The movie that probably had the biggest impact on me was Midsommar, from last year. I couldn’t believe the precision and how unshakable it was in terms of those images. It got me excited again in the way that sometimes you feel when you have to see a movie more than once in order to truly see it, because the first time you’re dispensing your expectations. Maybe you wanted to like it or maybe you didn’t want to like it, but the second time you don’t have the same anticipation, and as a result you notice things that you didn’t notice previously.

Related content

Melissa’s list of films about Detectives, Private Eyes, Mysteries, Film Noir, Neo Noir, Thrillers, Erotic Thrillers, Cat and Mouse, Chasing, Crush, Obsession, Stalking, Escaping

Phillip Marlowe, Private Eye: RetroHound’s ranked list of films featuring Raymond Chandler’s famous detective

MovieMaestro’s Teenage Wasteland list of coming-of-age movies

Follow Jack on Letterboxd

‘The Kid Detective’ is in select US theaters now.

#evan morgan #adam brody #the oc #film noir #noir #kid detective #the kid detective #sony #crime thriller #murder mystery #sarah sutherland #letterboxd

[robertdowneyjjr]

In honor of Father's Day in the US, do you think Tony cried when Morgan was born? And again and again at her every milestone, and as he realizes that he broke the cycle, becoming a good dad unlike his own father?

yes 100% tony cries during every major event. when morgan was born. when she took her first step. when she said her first word. when her first tooth grows in. her first day of kindergarten. when she brings back her first report card. the first time she fails a test or assignment, not because he’s sad or pissed, but bc she’s just like any other regular kid. the first time she goes over to a friend’s for a sleepover, because he misses her already even if it’s just for one night. when she graduates middle school. when she graduates high school. when she gets her undergrad degree. when she walks across the stage for her master’s.

everything she does makes him proud and happy, and he supports her all the way. he gets a little emotional over it, but so what? it’s okay. because he loves her.

#happy father's day to the only dad that matters #tony stark #morgan stark #iron dad #headcanon things #anonymous #ask

[richincolor]

New Releases

Five new books and a sequel that I personally am so excited for. Which of these novels are going on your TBR list?

A Dream So Dark (A Blade So Black #2) by L.L. McKinney Imprint

Still reeling from her recent battle (and grounded until she graduates) Alice must cross the Veil to rescue her friends and stop the Black Knight once and for all. But the deeper she ventures into Wonderland, the more topsy-turvy everything becomes. It’s not until she’s at her wits end that she realizes—Wonderland is trying to save her.

There’s a new player on the board; a poet capable of using Nightmares to not only influence the living but raise the dead. This Poet is looking to claim the Black Queen’s power—and Alice’s budding abilities—as their own.

Dreams have never been so dark in Wonderland, and if there is any hope of defeating this mystery poet’s magic, Alice must confront the worst in herself, in the people she loves, and in the very nature of fear itself. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker Delacorte Press

Trapped in sunny, stifling, small-town suburbia, seventeen-year-old Morgan knows why she’s in therapy. She can’t count the number of times she’s been the only non-white person at the sleepover, been teased for her “weird” outfits, and been told she’s not “really” black. Also, she’s spent most of her summer crying in bed. So there’s that, too.

Lately, it feels like the whole world is listening to the same terrible track on repeat—and it’s telling them how to feel, who to vote for, what to believe. Morgan wonders, when can she turn this song off and begin living for herself?

Life may be a never-ending hamster wheel of agony, but Morgan finds her crew of fellow outcasts, blasts music like there’s no tomorrow, discovers what being black means to her, and finally puts her mental health first. She decides that, no matter what, she will always be intense, ridiculous, passionate, and sometimes hilarious. After all, darkness doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Darkness is just real. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Six Goodbyes We Never Said by Candace Ganger Wednesday Books

Two teens meet after tragedy and learn about love, loss, and letting go

Naima Rodriguez doesn’t want your patronizing sympathy as she grieves her father, her hero—a fallen Marine. She’ll hate you forever if you ask her to open up and remember him “as he was,” though that’s all her loving family wants her to do in order to manage her complex OCD and GAD. She’d rather everyone back the-eff off while she separates her Lucky Charms marshmallows into six, always six, Ziploc bags, while she avoids friends and people and living the life her father so desperately wanted for her.

Dew respectfully requests a little more time to process the sudden loss of his parents. It’s causing an avalanche of secret anxieties, so he counts on his trusty voice recorder to convey the things he can’t otherwise say aloud. He could really use a friend to navigate a life swimming with pain and loss and all the lovely moments in between. And then he meets Naima and everything’s changed—just not in the way he, or she, expects.

Candace Ganger’s Six Goodbyes We Never Said is no love story. If you ask Naima, it’s not even a like story. But it is a story about love and fear and how sometimes you need a little help to be brave enough to say goodbye. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Slay by Brittney Morris Simon Pulse

By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the “downfall of the Black man.”

But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for “anti-white discrimination.”

Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process? — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring Imprint

Simmering in Patagonian myth, The Tenth Girl is a gothic psychological thriller with a haunting twist.

At the very southern tip of South America looms an isolated finishing school. Legend has it that the land will curse those who settle there. But for Mavi—a bold Buenos Aires native fleeing the military regime that took her mother—it offers an escape to a new life as a young teacher to Argentina’s elite girls.

Mavi tries to embrace the strangeness of the imposing house—despite warnings not to roam at night, threats from an enigmatic young man, and rumors of mysterious Others. But one of Mavi’s ten students is missing, and when students and teachers alike begin to behave as if possessed, the forces haunting this unholy cliff will no longer be ignored.

One of these spirits holds a secret that could unravel Mavi’s existence. In order to survive she must solve a cosmic mystery—and then fight for her life. 

#new releases #WeNeedDiverseBooks #ownvoices

[the-roanoke-society]

What's the story behind the Agents of Sass and Class tag? How did Seraphim and Succubus meet within the society even tho they were from two COMPLETELY different agent circles? P.S I love you, bitch. 💖💖💖

now you did get the initial beginning down pretty square—seraphim had heard, on the periphery, that oh, we had a new necromancer, and man, her origin story was equal parts bizarre and intriguing (with the normal touches of tragedy that seemed to paint the narratives of everyone at the estate from time time—but such is the human and non-human condition of this plane, unfortunately).

let’s talk about it.

between the emotional aftermath of enoch’s abrupt departure, the city in the hills, all on top of routine missions that she was still being handed from lilith, there was a lot that seraphim missed. it wasn’t because of apathy. it was because of exhaustion. (and then there was still the matter of agent whiskey, of statesman. she was… still working on figuring that part out. but jack loved a good chase. and a good fuck.)

a large part of that was succubus’s training and entire initiation. but even as it was, for some reason seraphim couldn’t quite discern, lilith had been very keen on the senior agent being at least a bit aware that she was around.

very keen.

“hey, it’s—clementine. right?”

those were her first words to her. she’d overheard poltergeist a few days ago, talking to wendigo and mothman about his newest recruit. that he’d done the grave test, as he’d done with other field agents in training before her.

seraphim didn’t hate him. not exactly. but he reminded her so much of john who sparked such a deep anger and hurt inside of her that it was difficult for her to physically be around him for long. and it broke her heart to see another person being spiritually shattered in this way.

she’d pivoted abruptly, leaving the lounge before any of the three had seen her. fuming.

we aren’t wild horses. this is all so goddamn unnecessary and exhausting.

it didn’t feel like they were being broken and remade into something better. it just felt like breaking.

looking back, seraphim was grateful that rae had let her carefully lead her to one of the stools by the center island, get her tissues, a wet towel for her face, and food that was actually plated. she was hardly the first person seraphim had seen weeping in an odd place in the manor, although crying in front of an open fridge was a first.

clementine wasn’t clementine for long. soon enough, she was raeanna. then rae. but a lot about her was… guarded. that first conversation in the kitchen that night was very much a weird kind of dance. seraphim had to learn where to press, where not to press. the shapes of what she was willing to share versus what she wasn’t. and succubus, for her part, had only a vague idea of who seraphim even was.

“my name’s morgan. uh, seraphim’s my handle. it’s nice to finally meet you.”

an exorcist, fine, a senior agent of apparent high regard, sure, but succubus didn’t know her and didn’t exactly relish the idea of a sleepover-tier get-to-know-you conversation in the middle of the night with the witch that poltergeist had constantly used as a standard to decimate her confidence.

the closeness and seamlessness they share as a duo on the field wasn’t formed overnight.

but it was engendered in one.

because succubus found that for the life of her, she couldn’t withstand the barrage of kindness.

they ran into each other a few times after that, always in passing. succubus still had her training to finish, and seraphim had her normal fieldwork.

but one day, shortly after succubus had finally graduated out of poltergeist’s authority to become an agent in her own right, lilith called seraphim into her office. all of her usual calm smile and gentle—if not a little suspicious—demeanor.

“morgan! there you are! i see the color’s gotten back into your face since you came home. did mr. daniels have something to do with that? … aaannnddd look, now there’s even more pink there, i’m taking that as a yes.”

“lil, please. look, did you need to ask me something? i’m assuming you called me up here for a reason.” seraphim took a seat in one of the plush armchairs on the other side of lilith’s desk, watching her superior thoughtfully twirl a red apple in the space above an open hand. it had a bite out of it.

“you know me well. i did have something that i wanted to assign you, and agent succubus.”

“agent? oh, she got through training! thank god, i was scared that adam was going to run her off, or worse, and—wait, both of us?” seraphim lifted one brow. it wasn’t that she’d been hit with dread, but she’d never worked with rae afield before. she wasn’t sure what to expect.

“yes, she’s become quite the gifted necromancer under ‘geist’s—particular brand of tutelage. … morgan, would you like an apple, or are you just jealous that you haven’t quite mastered the art of object levitation?”

seraphim sighed. “both, if i’m honest, but joe’s been teaching me energy manipulation.” she caught the apple that lilith tossed to her from a bowl on the small table behind her and eyed the manila folder she slid onto her desk towards her. “granted, it’s not like i have a separate universe at my hands. our magic doesn’t look the same. but it’s…” her voice softened. another sigh. this one was sadder. “… it’s nice to be able to explore what i can do. after everything. you never really stop learning, i guess. not really.” she poked at the folder. “but uh, i’m a little bit more curious about that, ma’am.”

lilith smiled kindly. she’d have to speak with mothman later, see what exactly they’d been up to. “we’ve had—reports,” she began, flipping open the folder. seraphim took a bite out of her apple, reaching forward to touch one of the photographs that was on top of a stack of scanned newspaper clippings. “of something interesting happening around the outsides of las vegas.”

seraphim picked the picture up, frowning at it. “uh—lil, uhm, what, what am i looking at?” she spoke around the apple bits in her mouth. the only distinct shapes she could make out in the photo were the mountains in the distance and a police cruiser. but this black blur in the middle…

whatever it was, it was massive. easily at least ten, twelve feet, comparing it to the car. big, dark, and—were those antlers?

“we’re not a hundred percent sure. but we’re afraid that given the damage its caused and an uptick in insomnia and night terrors around the part of the city where it’s been sighted, it may be something demonic.”

“which is why you’re sending me. okay, i follow you.”

“we also think it might not be completely alive in the traditional sense.”

“… it’s not what now?”

lilith rubbing her hands together. not a good sign. “we don’t think it’s—living. no mundane weapons seem to slow it down, which isn’t necessarily a huge surprise, but other members from the nevada office that were dispatched had similar misfortune. granted, their specializations aren’t quite like yours, or like rae’s, and we’re wondering if maybe we just need an approach with… let’s say a dynamic more like the one you two have.”

“lil…”

“i don’t mean anything as shallow as a game of holy versus unholy. i only mean that both of you are walking different sides of the same road, going the same way. you have a decent handle on being, as luca has said, a ‘light-bringer,’ and rae makes a weapon out of darkness. between the two of you, this thing doesn’t stand a chance, and the vegas mayor will, once again, owe me a debt.”

“uh, once again?” why was it that she consistently left lilith’s office with more questions than answers?

“it’s a long story, i’ll tell you when you get back. now go find rae, please, i’d like to speak with her. take this file with you to review. our dear darling quetzl just got back from visiting his mother, he’ll fly you out tomorrow morning at six a.m. sharp.”

“yes ma’am.” seraphim bit down on her apple, holding it in her mouth as she used both hands to shift through the file.

this would make for some interesting afternoon reading, but first, to find succubus…

*   *     *

“did you eat breakfast?” seraphim asked the next morning, hoping that a pair of dark capris and a light grey button-up wouldn’t end up being too hot for the desert. she couldn’t bring herself to just wear a tank-top. she didn’t like how people looked at her scars.

“… what?” succubus was rubbing sleep out of her eyes, almost tripping up the steps into the jet. almost. “oh shit—uhm, no, i opted to get as much sleep as possible. kind of regretting it.”

“what, sleeping in or not eating anything?” seraphim got up into the plane first, slinging her duffel bag upwards onto the rack over their seats.

the good witch—which seraphim thought was a fuckin’ weird name for a plane—was one of the nicer jets in roanoke’s hangar. the flight from kentucky to nevada wouldn’t be tremendously long, but it’d give them a few hours to rest, and if seraphim had her way, to be better friends.

this would be the first time they’d be stuck together for an extended period, and she wasn’t sure what to expect.

succubus laughed, and readily handed her own bag to seraphim’s outstretched hand. “both.”

“then boy do i have a surprise for you two!” seraphim and succubus both jumped at the booming voice of quetzl, who was the most intense morning person seraphim had ever met. all dark eyes, dark smiles and a demeanor that could be likened to a nuclear reactor.

before either of them could quiet react he’d already stuffed pop tarts into their hands—smores flavor into seraphim’s, strawberry into succubus’s. “you’re welcome. now please, go sit down, i’ve got to radio phoenix and get him to open the hangar up for us, but as soon as the gate’s up, we’re outta here!”

and as soon as they sat down: “dude do you want to trade? that one’s my favorite.”

“seriously? hell yeah, that one’s my favorite too.”

okay. off to a good start.

but seraphim closed her eyes as soon as they hit cruising altitude—she’d watched succubus take out a worn copy of carrie, and had to hide her smile—and when she opened them again, it was to the tune of quetzl’s voice over the p.a. system. “ladies! and—other ladies! all of the two ladies on board. we’ll be landing on the airstrip by our nevada compatriots here in like, thirty minutes. we’ll be right on the outskirts of henderson, which means around a thirty minute drive to the site that lilith wanted you to investigate first. so please return your seats to the upright position, do the thing with the tray tables, you’ve been on a plane before, just don’t run around the cabin, that’s literally it. … thank you for your patronage.”

succubus rolled her eyes. “is he always like this?”

seraphim laughed in response. “welcome to air quetzl. never boring, and sometimes just—real fuckin’ annoying.”

“better annoying than boring, though?”

the senior agent hummed, nodding. “i—yeah. better annoying than boring.”

*    *     *

agent tahoe met them in the hangar. blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and all six feet of her like a ray of sunshine. seraphim thought she was going to bruise her knuckles with the strength of her grip. where the hell does lilith keep finding all these morning people?

“seraphim! good to see you again, look how long your hair’s gotten! and you must be our newest crowned, agent succubus! i’m senior agent tahoe. our ah, staff’s stretched a bit thin at the moment, what with all the monster bullshit, but don’t worry, i’ll be the one making sure you get to where you need to g—“

“emilia! baaaabe! how’s it hangin’?”

“… clark.”

her tone went deadpan and succubus was trying desperately to keep some sense of professionalism.

“oh come on, you’re not still mad at me, are you?”

“if you two will follow me, our ride’s waiting in the garage juuuuust down this corridor here—“

“oh sweet, what did boss man upstairs lend us?”

“i said you two. meaning them. you are going straight inside where someone can keep an eye on you. and don’t touch anything.”

“emilia!”

“go fucking upstairs.” but all the venom in her voice disappeared when she turned back to the team at her shoulders, following close behind her. “in all seriousness, we’re really glad y’all are here. whatever this thing it, it broke jarbridge’s legs, compound fractures, too. i mean, she passed out, which is good, she says she doesn’t even remember it happening, but i’m pretty sure lovelock’s gonna have to take some kind of sabbatical, you know how squeamish he is around blood…”

succubus glanced at seraphim once. her face was a little pale.

but seraphim just put a warm hand on her shoulder, and leaned closer to her. “hey. this asshole hasn’t met us yet. we got this.”

 *    *     *

tahoe was the kind of woman where, if you didn’t make any attempt to steer the conversation, she could talk gore and guts for literal hours (seraphim had heard her do it enough times before).

once they’d gotten into a shiny black falcon coup (that, despite how clean it looked, was straight out of 1975) seraphim watched succubus’s face become more and more drawn.

she’d survived poltergeist. that spoke volumes in and of itself. but even the confidence bred from that firewalking brand of training, well…

seraphim remembered her first mission solo, without enoch at her side. all she had to do was envision that bright yellow doorway on lincoln street and it all came flooding back, visceral but short-lived. the nervousness. the fear. and for her, at least, an acute case of being overwhelmed.

but then… poltergeist hadn’t left.

would it have been so bad if he did leave, really?

seraphim shook her head. “—emilia! emilia. uhm. look, now, you know i love a war story as much as the next agent, but ah, rae looked a little confused as to why you were being so cold to clark, and frankly, i am too, i thought you two had patched things up?”

if there was one thing tahoe liked talking about more than body horror—it was her exes.

succubus didn’t want to let on that her heart was in her throat, and she had her hands balled into fists in her lap so no one could tell they were shaking. what had she gotten herself into? double compound fractures? were her bones about to see the light of day as well? she suppressed a shudder.

she loved bones. she loved her own bones.  she loved them most when they were safely under her skin like they were supposed to be.

but succubus also loved gossip, and seraphim, as it turned out, was an excellent enabler.

also turned out that quetzl was just as awful to date as succubus had judged beforehand, according to tahoe. “and okay, i’ll concede that maybe i shouldn’t have been looking through his phone but damnit, rae, it was my own sister! like, both of my sisters! who does that?”

  *    *     *

their arrival point was hardly anything climactic—although ‘cinematic’ was still a word that seraphim would’ve used. in a very regional gothic sort of way. the sun was high by that point, not a cloud in the sky and it was so blue that it hurt her eyes. she could see roaring vegas in the distance as she stood by the front of the coup, taking a drag off of her cigarette. her usual pre-mission ritual these days.

“i didn’t know you smoked,” succubus said quietly, but even as soft as her voice was, seraphim jumped anyway, coughing. “oh shit, sorry, i didn’t mean t—“

“it’s okay! it’s okay. it’s a gross habit. i keep telling lilith i’ll quit, but…” she stared at it in the v of her fingers, shrugged, and then took one long final inhale before flicking upwards, snapping her fingers, and—where the hell did it go? “i don’t know. i don’t have a lot of motivation to stop. and anyway, that’s not why we’re here, we’re here!” with a grand flourish, she turned, motioning to the spread of desert before them. “to catch a monster.”

succubus grinned. “i do like the sound of that.”

“hell yeah you do! we are the fuckin’ veil!” tahoe had a mapped spread out over the car’s hood, covered in various markings. “shit, iiiiii am utter garbage at location work, i wish jarbridge was out of medical already—“ she laughed. “man she’s probably high as a kite right now anyway. she’d be useless. okay, look just—you two come over here.”

seraphim and succumbs watched at her shoulders as she pointed with one black-painted nail to a part of the map marked with three sharpie x’s, all in a triangle and all on the other side of a low, craggy ridge about a mile or so from where the dirt roadside where they’d parked. “based off of all the intel we’ve been able to gather, we think that it’s home base is right around here. now, it’s daytime, and this thing is one nocturnal son of a bitch, so the strategy is to get a jump on him on his home turf. catch him with pants down, or whatever.”

succubus hummed, “oh, now those are my favorite kind of missions—“

tahoe lifted her eyebrows. “remind me to ask you some questions when this is all over and we get celebratory shots on the strip or something. now!” in a few wide strides she was at the trunk, popping the lid with the wave of a hand as she walked. “these are yours.” she handed seraphim her usual pistol, and succubus a standard issue handgun marked by the roanoke insignia and a few sigils she couldn’t quite recognize.

“there’s my baby!”

“uh, morgan, what kinds of babies have you been around…?” but seraphim was too busy taking practice swings with a large wooden bat, embedded with nails, wrapped in barbed wire and prayer beads.

“rae, meet virgil. virgil, rae. most trustworthy man i’ve ever met.”

succubus lifted her eyebrows in approval. “will, uh, i get one of those—?”

seraphim had the audacity to wink. “if you make one yourself. i’ll tell you virgil’s story over all those shots tahoe said she was going to buy us here in a second.”

but tahoe was back studying the map. something about her posture was different. her back straighter, her lips in a tighter line. there was a beat before she lifted her eyes to the agents, sighing. “i wish there was something more i could give you. anything more. but this is it.” another short exhale. “we don’t know what, exactly, this is. but you two are going to be the best crack at it that we’ve taken so far. if things get hairy, just head back here. i’ll stay here with the ride. my office is a button-press away. don’t—“ she swallowed. seraphim felt nervousness tug at the base of her stomach. this wasn’t like emilia. “don’t be scared to bail out. might’ve saved jarbridge her legs. i’ll be here, okay? comm’s on. you’ve got your specs. call me beep me, whatever.”

succubus lifted a hand, reflexively tracing the frames that rested across the bridge of her nose.

“… good luck.”

seraphim had one hand on the top of the holster strapped across her thigh, the other on virgil’s base. he rested easily across the width of her shoulders. she knew where the grooves were to keep the barbs from digging into her work jacket (although a few still did anyway). succubus realized the weird straps of leather stretching across seraphim’s back were just another holster as she took one more swing, then popped the back into the curved sockets. “we won’t let you down, em. rae—stay at my shoulder.”

but she waited until they were a ways down, making their own path through the sand before she kept going: “—but when i say get behind me, get behind me.”

succubus frowned. “what, you think i can’t handle it?”

“rae—“

“no, no, please, enlighten me.” they didn’t stop walking. their path started to descend down, and succubus could see the rocky edge they’d have to hike over to get to the triangle marked on tahoe’s map. she wondered if it’d be like the monster movies she’d watched as a kid; would there be a cave? a dark, yawning maw on a hillside, looking like it’s full of nothing but pitch, like how sophie walked into the cavern in howl’s moving castle?

seraphim didn’t answer immediately, but then: “this is our first time. not to make this sound all euphemistic and shit, but i’d prefer if you didn’t, i don’t know, get a part of your neck bitten out, get your bones broken—y’know. work stuff.”

succubus blew out a breath. “right. … right. i, uh. i’m—“

“don’t.” seraphim smiled. succubus realized how easy it looked, sliding onto her countenance.

it didn’t make sense.

she’d seen this same woman look absolutely haunted when she thought no one was looking.

“i’m here to act as guardian angel. this is a part of your training.” and softer: “… and mine, too.”

“hmm?”

“nothin’. just stay close, okay?”

“‘kay.”

  *    *     *

the rest of the walk was fairly quietly. seraphim kept singing under her breath, but succubus couldn’t make out anything familiar.  she thought she heard something like “it’s rainin’ tacos…”

they came up on top of the ridge, and succubus squinted, staring down. it was a sheer drop, and while it wasn’t like they were on top of the grand canyon, she was pretty sure a fall from this height could kill someone. or at least make sure they never walked again. seraphim whistled lowly, motioning off to the left. “looks like there’s a path that goes down.” her voice was soft, but solid. “if i had to guess, we’re probably standing on top of this thing’s house. ten bucks says there’s a cave or something similar down there.”

“deal.”

and as it turned out, there was a cave.

well—‘cave’ might’ve been too kind of a descriptor.

to seraphim it looked more like a giant had straight up just clawed a huge whole into the side of the rock. the entrance was marked by sharpened, jagged stones that looked too much like teeth for her liking.

they approached painfully slowly. as soon as the ground had evened out, seraphim had drawn her pistol, and succubus mimicked the movement. but there was no sound, nothing, save for the wind whistling over the ridge.

“look like about how you expected?”

“with a bit more cacti, yeah. and the police cruiser is a surprise.”

the saguaro looked like they belonged there, but that car did not. seraphim wondered if it was the same one she’d seen in the photo lilith had shown her, but this one had definitely been through the wringer.

all the windows had been shattered. the sun caught the shards of glass that surrounded it, making it look like someone had spilled stars onto the sand. it was covered in dents, the place where the engine was had been hit downward (whatever engine there had been was now probably less engine and more just… car parts scattered underneath the cruiser), but what caught her eye the most was a set of six long lines dug along the length of one side.

claw marks? teeth marks? it was anyone’s guess.

—oh. and we’re about to find out.

succubus suppressed a shiver underneath a full sun. “what do we do?” she whispered. she could see seraphim’s jaw working, brows furrowed.

“should’ve brought a grenade…” a short sigh. “well, too late now, and this isn’t exactly joe’s last d and d campaign. i don’t think charging in there is a good idea. we have no idea of the layout, and ‘strength in numbers’ doesn’t apply to every situation, especially not ones like this.” she lifted a hand and ran it along her chin. “… okay. okay. i have an idea.”

“what’s the idea?”

“you go wait by the cruiser. i’m gonna whistle and try to draw it out.”

“… are you being serious?”

seraphim grinned and it looked borderline maniacal. “sure am. something tells me it might have a weakness to sunlight, hence why we only see it at night. if it is demonic, like lilith thinks, i’ll be able to bind it. and if it’s undead—also like lilith thinks—then you’ll just dispatch it.” she nodded to the handgun at succubus’s hip. “those bullets are holy. should do the trick. now get over there. i’m going to see if i can pull off a tom and jerry, get the jump on it from behind if we can just lure it out.”

so. succubus found herself on her knees behind the front part of the cruiser, sheltering behind the busted metal. she watched as seraphim had walked a far, wide circle, coming back to the ridge face and slowly edging her way along the rock, her spine pressed as flat against the stone as it would go. virgil, abandoned for the moment to make space, leaned against the rock some ways away. succubus was already regretting that decision.

it felt like ages passed as she side-stepped. side-stepped. side-stepped. side-stepped again.

until finally seraphim was close to the cave’s mouth. but she didn’t draw her gun again, like succubus had expected. it stayed holstered alongside her thigh. but she did roll up her sleeves to reveal—were those tattoos? where had those come from? succubus couldn’t remember seeing them before. had she found time to mark herself somehow?

but she didn’t have enough time to ponder. because seraphim met her eyes, nodded once, and turned her neck.

there it came, a whistle, low, long and, succubus reasoned if she could hear it from all the way behind the police car, loud. seraphim abruptly jerked back, flattening herself again. her palm spread wide against the stone, trying to feel the vibrations of movement, the vibrations of anything.

but an entire minute passed. then two. then five.

seraphim blew some air into her cheeks, and with trembling legs, finally began walking back towards the car. “look, rae, i think maybe the recon team got the wr—“

it came so quickly that seraphim immediately collapsed to her knees. it was a high-pitched banshee wail of a shriek, so cacophonous and blaring that even when succubus jammed the heels of her hands over the shell curves of her ears it did nothing to soften the sound. she screwed her eyes shut, and just as abruptly as it started, it was done. when she opened them, trying to remember how to breathe, how inhaling and exhaling felt, seraphim had collapsed onto her rear on the other end of the cruiser.

succubus swallowed. “what. the fuck. was that.” her voice was quiet. a jet plane would have been quiet in comparison to what they’d just heard.

seraphim had no color in her face and couldn’t immediately answer. “… okay. that’s uh. probably the target. i apologize, i completely gave in to the monkey brain flight-or-fight response there and didn’t pick the right one.”

“i don’t know if i necessarily agree.” they stared at each other for a few beats of silence. both were afraid to move. it wasn’t something either of them were trying to hide that moment. “—what do we do now?”

seraphim took a breath, her mouth moving to answer, but was interrupted by—succubus didn’t know how to describe it, not straight away. it had different parts, all moving and all happening so close together it was hard to pick them apart. the whoosh of air, the clean cut of metal on metal, that short of shink noise that a knife made up against a whetstone. succubus blinked.

she thought she’d seen sparks between them.

literal sparks, as if the side of the car had been hit with something.

her mind was trying to catch up.

… are those claws?

the fingertips—nails, talons, claws, all of them—of a hand (‘hand’ was a generous descriptor in this instance) were sticking out of the side of the car. not opening the door. they were sticking out having gone through the outer frame of the cruiser.

tap. … tap tap.

succubus was going to be sick.

taptaptaptaptaptaptap—

seraphim abruptly fell backwards as the half of the car she’d been leaning against was wrenched back, and she found herself staring upwards, right into the face of the monster of the photograph.

“jesus christ you are so much uglier up close.”

“morgan for fuck’s sake—!“

succubus was reaching, grabbing, trying to grasp her pant leg, something as this thing let out another scream. it threw the chunk of cruiser down where seraphim had been lying in partial shock just seconds earlier. the crash was deafening and before seraphim quite knew what was happening, she was sprinting across the sand with her elbow in a grip that was almost bone-crushing.

“run!”

it didn’t matter that they were armed. it was too close too fast. there was no time. no space. it was on them like–what was it poltergeist had liked to say? white on rice.

that thing didn’t have to make a noise, they could both hear the hoofbeats behind them, could see the too-long, too-prickled shadow catching up to overtake theirs on the desert ground.

“what the fuck! what the fuck! shit!” succubus wasn’t leading them back to tahoe, then there’d be three dead agents instead of just two, and she absolutely believed that there was for sure going to be two.

“—i have another idea!”

“oh fucking great!”

“no no no, this one’ll work i’m positive!”

“isn’t that what you said last time?!”

“if you remember correctly, i said no such thing! trust me, old school always works! let me go on three, okay? one—three!”

succubus hadn’t planned on turning around, but then the—demon? zombie? old forgotten demigod or someone’s bastard offspring? who knew?—started to make a new sound. she ran until its shadow wasn’t touching anything in her sight, ending up back against the ridge. only then did she turn.

… wow.

what she hadn’t seen was seraphim pulling off what she’d honestly considered a hail mary.

they couldn’t outrun it. in the time it would take them to draw their guns, it probably would’ve sliced them open at the elbows. and as any necromancer, or exorcist, or witch, or sorcerer can tell you: it’s very, very difficult to concentrate enough to do anything, let alone put up a decent defense or guard, when you’re actively being chased and doing the opposite of gaining ground.

not for seraphim, anyway.

not yet.

as soon as succubus’s grip released from her arm with a push, seraphim dropped like dead weight onto her back and prayed—prayed very, very hard, and focused, just like she’d been taught.

she forced her elbows to meet, right up to her wrists, as she was very, very narrowly missed being stepped on (which would’ve been lethal—apparently she’d missed the velociraptor feet the first go-around). and as she did so, the marks on her arms made a shape—a circle, decorated with smaller symbols, around and around and around…

a seal.

“a capite ad calcem.”

from head to heel.

freeze, motherfucker.

succubus turned in time to see the target upheld over seraphim, who was flat on her spine against the dirt, directly underneath it. it almost looked like it was being suspended by the thinnest strands of razor wire—succubus kept catching glints as it thrashed, and something black began to ooze out of it.

seraphim had some drip right onto her flushed cheeks, struggling a bit to keep the seal intact.

succubus began to understand why poltergeist had brought her up so often. for a beat, she could only stare.

and with a bit of surprise, she realized she didn’t feel envy, or any kind of spite—because that’s just what adam would have wanted, isn’t it? to break a thing before it got a chance to breathe?—she felt awe.

she felt pride.

which quickly melted into panic as soon as seraphim’s voice cut through her haze, upped a pitch in the chaos. “rae? buddy? a little help? this dude’s—oh shit, no you do not, asshole mcgee—just a smidge stronger than i first thought. show me what you’ve got! deport this fucker!”

every line blazed into a brightness that hurt her to look at for too long, and it suddenly all snapped into place. every single thing poltergeist had taught her, flooding back. perhaps her learning retention was better than she thought.

as another of the monster’s cries echoed against the ridge wall—this one perhaps a bit more pain than rage—she ran closer.

those were petrov lines—which meant that was an azrael seal. azrael was an archangel who had special dominion over retribution; his marks (and succubus understood that oh, those are what seraphim had on her arms, i just couldn’t recognize them in broken pieces—) aided in trapping demonic entities that had manifested onto the physical plane. this was one of the first seals that seraphim had been taught, and for good reason.

okay. so a demon.

but petrov lines, those only appeared for beings that were demonic just in part. something that came from some of the in-between worlds, an underworld that was a hell but not a hell.

something that succubus merely recognized as undead.

fuck, it’s both.

but succubus suddenly felt a surge of confidence at the light of the lines, and she lifted her hands, gun forgotten, darkness already beginning to twine out from her elbows, down to her wrists. she stalked, predatory, and seraphim tried to both watch her partner and keep this thing under control.

she may not have seen succubus’s hand motions, the intricate movements of her fingers in rapid succession followed by a definitive slicing motion.

but she heard her, speaking in the same tongue she had.

“ad initium—asshole!”

seraphim watched as cords of black intertwined with the lightlines, and kept watching as they found the creature’s neck.

it was both forces together that bore themselves down and quite literally razored the being into little chunks. no more black fell on seraphim’s face. it simply dissipated, as if it had turned to ash.

what was it that lilith had said?

walking different sides of the same road.

it took about a minute for it to disappear completely, and when it did, for about as long, neither agent moved. seraphim was exhausted. muscle fatigue manifested as tremors in her arms. she stared up at an empty sky as succubus slowly walked towards her, finally kneeling down by her side.

“… you good?”

“… yeah. you good?”

“yeah.”

“groovy.”

seraphim closed her eyes. she could’ve fallen asleep if she hadn’t started to hear distant yelling: “oh my god what did you two DO?!” tahoe was scrambling down towards them, yelling, looking equal parts horrified and elated. “i heard—oh my god, i—morgan, rae, you’re alive, you’re both alive, hallelujah, and no bones! morgan, what the fuck is all over your face? whose blood is that? is that blood? holy shit i can’t believe you—woah woah!” she caught succubus as she flopped off to the one side, threatening to collapse. “rae. rae, stay away. morgan. … morgan!”

she slapped the exorcist on the bicep, and the exorcist in question swore but in a much more whiney tone than she’d originally meant, to which tahoe just quipped: “oh walk it off you big baby. we’ll have a beta team come out and cleanse this area, it’s still tainted, which means if you’re gonna faint, you can’t do it here. c’mon now, up we go—“

succubus, as a newer recruit, had the luxury of tahoe’s arm around her waist, helping her to stagger to her feet. seraphim had a few false starts before she managed to first roll up onto her knees, then finally, to stand. her first few steps were shaky. but she shook her head, blinked a few times, and glanced over at succubus and tahoe walking back towards the car.

and they grew steadier, as she went.

around thirty minutes later, time found them all sitting at the bar of a classic, neon-tinged greasy spoon diner, complete with black-and-white checkered floors and a jukebox in the corner that apparently knew three songs: rocketman, dancing queen, and under pressure.

not a bad mix, honestly.

“ladies!” tahoe was the first to lift her shot glass. the three of them swirled with some cheap well tequila, given a pink sheen from the lights. “what do we want to toast to?”

“… uhm.” seraphim mumbled, staring at her glass. “weee… should toast toooo…”

“… new friendships?” succubus had spoken so softly that at first, seraphim wasn’t sure she’d heard her. but once she understood, she grinned, broadly.

“to new friendships—and to the first of many victories.” succubus smiled back at her. … i think i could really like it here.

“cheers!”

their glasses clinked to the tune of sir elton john, crooning softly: “and i think it’s gonna be a long long time… and i think it’s gonna be a long long time…”

#the roanoke society #agent succubus #agent seraphim #agents of sass & class #agent quetzl #agent tahoe #agent lovelock #lilith #agent poltergeist #once upon a time in nevada #(what's this? morgan actually created content? the madness!)

[jessiemieli]

I miss Brynn and Molly!! Do you have any headcanons about them?? Especially after Endgame??

ugh i miss them too! (i’m def focusing on our twin au)

after everyone comes back, brynn, molly, peter, and malcolm go on their own mini weekend getaway and that helps brynn and molly reconnect

molly and brynn stay up all night talking during their little vacation and catch each other up on everything that they might have missed when they were apart

and that’s all it takes for their twin-tuition and twin telepathy to kick back in

the second they start having silent conversations again peter’s all “well, i definitely didn’t miss that”

brynn and malcolm would have waited to get married until after they undid the snap so both molly and peter could be there with them

molly being brynn’s maid of honor and peter being malcolm’s best man, like it was meant to be

when things start going down on the ffh trip, peter calls brynn to come help them out but it’s only when molly’s like “get your ass over here now” that brynn’s like “i’ll get my suit and be there in a few hours”

imagine molly making all the surviving/available avengers (+pepper & morgan ofc) come with them to brynn’s college graduation and making huge signs

they’d definitely be the largest cheering section in the crowd

no matter where they are or where they end up, they always find a way to meet up at least once a week and have a sleepover at least once a month, but brynn would make it her mission to do it more often

brynn would offer molly a spot on her young avengers team, but she wouldn’t pressure her to accept

the spot would always be there for her sister

they have the best group chat with peter and malcolm and ned

but brynn and molly also have their own side convo going for when the boys start getting on their nerves

also, they’d have the best ongoing ugly snapchat competition of themselves and others and molly only admits defeat once brynn gets a pic of flash mid-sneeze

that’s all i can think of for now, but we def need to talk about these girls more

#asks #brynn x molly #brynn asks #oc asks #liz tag #i tried to put this under the cut #but the formatting is still messed up

[knightsims]

Week 20 of Crystal Valley BACC is finally over, so here’s a summary of everything that happened (warning: it’s really freaking long).

Somerset:

Leliana gave birth to their fourth child, Cassandra, who turned into a toddler later in the week.

Malavai moved to Eris University.

Josephine turned into a teenager and entered a relationship with Austin Jones. 

Thane turned into a child.

Charleston:

Michael finally died after a couple of days of defying Grimmy.

John almost froze to death by sleeping on a bench in the snow.

Piper met and befriended a vampire, and was turned into one herself.

They adopted a kitten called Ally, who then turned into a full-grown cat.

Devlin turned into a child.

Hall II:

Elena gave birth to their first child, Sinead, who turned into a toddler later in the week.

Connor went on an outing with some friends, where he saw his sort-of cousin, Orion Hansen. 

Danny, the Halls’ dog, died.

Elena became pregnant for a second time.

Elena got into a fight with a townie.

Grimmy and the Hula Zombies came for Donovan.

Elena gave birth to their second daughter, Natalya.

Somerset II:

Aurora had twins, Brienne and Carlisle, who turned into toddlers later in the week.

Bean, the cat, got into a fight with a stray.

They adopted a second cat, Alice.

They purchased the services of a maid.

Aurora became pregnant again.

James went into aspiration failure due to changing diapers. 

Leonard:

They moved into a new home due to the old one being buggy.

Taliesin turned into a toddler and then a child.

ACR struck again, leaving Patricia with her third unplanned pregnancy, to which she eventually gave birth to Thomas.

Cressida became friends with Abigail Jasper.

The twins turned into teenagers, with Cressida becoming a Family/Fortune sim and Raphael becoming a Knowledge/Pleasure.

Asher turned into an elder.

The children got into private school.

Thomas turned into a toddler.

Hall III:

Heaven Sellwood, a close friend of Gwendolyn’s, moved in due to the ROS roll requiring a new roommate.

ACR struck, resulting in Gwendolyn falling pregnant with triplets, Athena, Persephone and Ares.

The triplets turned into toddlers.

Peterson:

Due to his abduction the week before, Christian gave birth to alien-baby Lyra, who turned into a toddler later in the week.

Emilia, also pregnant at the same time, gave birth to baby Kaleb, who also turned into a toddler later in the week.

Alecto and Blaine, the twins, turned into toddlers and then children later in the week.

Mills:

Elizabeth used the genie lamp and wished for money, and then promptly used it as she set half the kitchen on fire and had to replace some things.

Elizabeth gave birth to Aidan.

They adopted a puppy called Lemon.

Hansen:

Orion and Kea moved back to Crystal Valley from Eris University.

Kea befriended an alpha wolf and was bitten, turning her into a werewolf.

Grimmy and the Hula Zombies came for Charlie.

Leigh:

The ROS roll stated that Pepper Leigh and Malcolm Fraser would be getting a roommate or two, so both Adrian Campbell and Verity Amundson, Pepper and Malcolm’s respective partners, moved in.

They adopted a male cat, Sweets, in hopes that he and Biddy would have kittens.

Malcolm and Verity moved out at the end of the week.

Chin: 

The ROS roll meant that they lost over 70% of their money.

Caitlin Terry stole the newspaper.

They adopted an adult cat, Heidi.

William died while painting outside (I think it was due to catching a cold and not resting), but Gretchen beat Grimmy and brought him back to life.

Baxter:

They went on a family outing to the new park in front of their house.

Austin Jones, Brandi Reeve, and Yusef Xander came over for a sleepover.

The quadruplets moved to Eris University, leaving Emily and Morgan alone at home.

Morgan was abducted by aliens, but as he’s an elder, he didn’t come back with a ‘gift’.

Black:

Logan turned into an elder.

Ava and Anthony got into private school.

Ariel gave birth to a single puppy, Dana.

Logan got abducted by aliens, with Marissa watching without care.

Anthony turned into a teenager and became a Knowledge/Fortune sim.

The family received a genie lamp.

Ava moved to Eris University.

Jones:

Olivia set the study on fire by attempting to repair the broken computer.

The repoman came and stole some cookbooks from the kitchen.

Megan moved to Eris University, with Austin moving too at the end of the week.

Warren turned into a teenager and became a Family/Pleasure sim.

Austin asked Josephine Somerset to be his girlfriend.

Ezra turned into a child.

The boys had a ‘sleepover’ and slept on mattresses in the lounge.

They adopted a small dog named Dakota, who immediately became Warren’s best friend.

Terry:

Emmy continued to sell cars to townies at her car lot.

Lightning set the telescope on fire.

Emmy and Jacob turned into elders.

Emmy became an evil witch, and summoned a familiar called Midnight.

Caitlin set the kitchen on fire.

Caitlin moved to Eris University.

Jacob summoned the genie and wished for Peace of Mind.

Leonard II:

They moved to a new house because the previous one wasn’t big enough.

Emmaline restored a car.

The headmaster was impressed and all the children got into private school.

Darian and Joanna turned into children.

They received a genie lamp from the matchmaker.

Reuben was electrocuted while trying to fix the tv.

Kea Hansen turned Katherine into a werewolf.

Springsteen:

Travis turned into a teenager and became a Pleasure/Family sim.

Honour’s brother, Hunter Mills, was given Leo, while Aaron Somerset was given Mac, leaving the family with three dogs instead of the original five.

Honour summoned the genie and wished for money.

Honour went on an outing with some townie friends.

Max and Honour got engaged.

Max went on a midnight hike and was chased home by bees.

Both Honour and Max turned into elders.

Travis moved to Eris University.

Kane:

Tara summoned a familiar named Umbra.

They adopted a proper cat named Goddess to fulfill the ROS event of a large pet adoption.

Jamison turned into a toddler and then a child later in the week.

Hayden befriended Blaine Alistair.

Hayden turned into a teenager and became a Popularity/Romance sim.

Tara went on an outing with some of her townie friends.

Flynn and Tara got married.

Hayden started a ‘relationship’ with a townie named Rose.

Torres:

Eva (and Isobel) entered a polyamorous relationship with Erin, a previous townie, as the ROS roll required a pregnancy.

Erin befriended a stray dog.

Jasper:

Due to the ROS roll, both Aveline and Mathias lost their jobs and became bankrupt, meaning the family had to move into a tiny apartment building and start over.

Mathias found a new job as the postman, like his father before him.

Abigail befriended Jamison Kane.

Aveline gave birth to baby Margot, who turned into a toddler later in the week.

Abigail turned into a teenager and became a Romance/Knowledge sim.

Wheeler:

Henry and Rebekah turned into toddlers.

Kal, Ryan’s alien son, turned into a teenager and became a Fortune/Romance sim.

Sasha and Sammy tried for puppies, which resulted in Xena, Andy and Muppet.

Ryan and Adelaide got engaged and then threw a wedding party.

Isobel Peterson, Adelaide’s sister, was sprayed by a skunk at the wedding.

Adelaide had another fight with her townie enemy.

Dean:

After throwing Reagan Mills out after she cheated on him, Anton stayed in their old home.

Reagan came over at least three times a day to kick over the trash can.

Anton befriended Piper Charleston, who turned him into a vampire.

Having moved on from Reagan, Anton started a relationship with townie Ivy Scott.

Mills II:

Reagan moved into her own place after being caught cheating by her ex-boyfriend, Anton Dean, and thrown out.

She was abducted by aliens as per the ROS roll, and came back with a little ‘gift’.

Reagan, the Romance sim that she is, started sleeping with townies all over the place.

She had a small party and invited over her two siblings, Honour and Hunter Mills.

She gave birth to alien-baby Altair.

Graham:

Marina bought Demi’s, the restaurant once owned (and named after) the late Demi Hall.

Joseph went into aspiration failure.

Marina became pregnant and gave birth to baby Seth.

Lilly turned into a teenager and became a Fortune/Popularity sim.

Matthew turned into a child.

Joseph turned into an elder.

Hughes:

Lisette, already pregnant from the week before, gave birth to twins, Griffin and Keiran, who then turned into toddlers later in the week.

Lisette continued to run her bakery.

Uni II:

Claire and Harrison entered a relationship, while Carmen entered a relationship with a dormie named Zaltrarrio Jeffries.

Everyone graduated with honours and returned to Crystal Valley.

Uni III:

The Baxter quadruplets, along with their respective significant others, moved into a dorm in Eris University.

The llama and cow mascots got into constant fights in the dorm, much to the horror of Skye.

Skye turned out to be much better at the ElectroDance Sphere than any of her brothers.

Alton finds a girlfriend in dormie Regina Greaves.

Each quadruplet then moved into separate student housing with their respective partners.

Uni IV:

Malavai Somerset moved to Eris University and into his own private student house.

He found a girlfriend in Heidi Ebadi, who then moved in.

He had a fight with the cow mascot after he insulted Heidi and made her cry.

Lightning set the garden on fire.

Uni V:

Travis Springsteen and Caitlin Terry moved into a dorm together.

Caitlin was constantly rejected by pretty dormies, while Travis impressed, and consequently woohooed with, every single one.

Travis made an enemy in one of the other dormies who was also vying for the attention of the ladies.

Travis had a number of aspiration failures.

Travis (and a number of the dormies) kept passing out in the sun.

Caitlin befriended a professor over constant mutual drinking at the bar.

Uni VI:

Megan Jones and Ava Black moved into a private student house together, as they were quite good friends as teenagers.

Megan became an evil witch.

The ROS roll determined that they were to have another roommate so Stacy Andersen moved in.

Ava started flirting with a professor, who Stacy then had a fight with.

Many things happened over the course of Week 20 and I applaud you for a) reading this far down and b) sticking with me as I posted the hundreds of screenshots. Thanks for reading, and be prepared for Week 21 because some shit goes down that even I wasn’t anticipating <3

#sims 2 #ts2 #crystal valley bacc #maxis match #week 20 summery

[you-a-southpaw-doll]

Masterlist

Hey, yall! Here’s my Masterlist. I’ll try to keep it updated as I post new stories and/or chapter for Another One Bites The Dust (AOBTD). As of right now, it is currently up to date with all of my works so far. - Erin (3/27/2019)

Negan: (The Walking Dead) (21 stories total)

Zombie Apocalypse One-Shot(s): (8 stories)

Brace For It

The Sheriff Returns

Out Of Place

Squeaky Surprise

Devil in Public. Angel in Private

Leather

Lucille

Sleepover - Pallet Style

Pre-Apocalypse One-Shot(s): (2 stories)

The Alarm Clock

Comin’ Home

Alternate Universe(s) One-Shot(s): (11 stories)

Temporary Roommate

In the Name of the Law

Sniffles ~ Modern

History in the Makin’

Teacher of the Year ~ Modern/Coach

“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” ~ Modern/Santa

Ringin’ in the New Year

The Teacher’s Lover ~ Teacher!Negan

The Ride ~ Teacher!Negan

“You Only Want Me...”

Graduation

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

Joe Merriwether: (Solace) (1 story total)

One-Shot(s): (1 story)

“It’s Vegas, Baby!”

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

The Sheriff: (Dead & Breakfast) (1 story total)

Alternate Universe One-Shot(s): (1 story)

The Sheriff Returns ~ Crossover with TWD (Includes Negan)

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

John Winchester: (Supernatural) (1 story total)

Alternate Universe One-Shot(s): (1 story)

His Jacket and Dog Tags ~ Teacher!John

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

Jeffrey Dean Morgan: (5 stories + 1 chapter series)

One-Shot(s): (5 stories)

Dozin’

Goin’ To The Doctor’s

“Come Back To Bed, Doll.”

The Hug

“A Wee Bit of Cuddles, eh, sweetheart?”

Chapter Series: (22 Chapters)

Another One Bites The Dust (AOBTD) Masterlist ~ (Ongoing) [Also includes Negan]

#Masterlist #One-Shot #Another One Bites The Dust #AOBTD

[lyssismagical]

When did I become the one who's always chasing your heart?

Parkner Week Day Six: “We’ve all made a ‘Happy Birthday’ sign” / coming of age / getting older

yes this is entirely based off the Frozen 2 song, Lost in the Woods 

 Being a year apart in age had never been a problem for them. It’s not like it was a big thing to be a whole twelve month difference in age. Peter’s the younger of the two, when they started dating he was fifteen and Harley was sixteen. Nobody at school blinked an eye at a sophomore and a junior dating.

It wasn’t like it was a big deal, the tiny age difference didn’t change anything.

Until Harley’s eighteenth birthday comes around.

It’s late August and they’ve been ignoring talking about the big change coming up. Harley’s graduated. Tony’s helping him move to Boston. Harley’s going to be gone in three weeks.

They’ve never really spent a lot of time apart. They’ve gone a week or two whenever Harley flies down to Tennessee to his family, they went all of July apart the first year they were together when Harley was home and Peter went to a nerdy summer camp with Ned. They don’t spend every waking moment together, but they’re used to seeing each other all the time, always being close enough to see if they want to.

With Harley living at the tower, they had sleepovers every weekend, they would walk to school together and Harley always walked Peter home, they spent lunches together, they had Academic Decathlon together. They spent a lot of time together.

And now they’d have to spend months apart.

Sure, Harley could drive. Tony had gifted him a car for his sixteenth birthday, and Harley would only be a few hours drive away from New York. He could come home every weekend if he wanted to.

But everything would be different.

Peter wasn’t sure if he was prepared for everything to change.

Which led to a big blowup fight after a few weeks of Peter burying the problem and trying to prepare himself for losing Harley.

“Talk to me!” Harley shouts, hands lifting in exasperation before falling back to his sides. His voice echoes into the darkness, the moon shining back onto them where they’re standing on the roof for the only piece of privacy they can really get away from Friday. “If you’d just communicate, maybe things wouldn’t be falling apart! Just talk to me!”

“I’m sorry.” Peter’s voice is an awful contrast to Harley’s shout, sad and pitifully small. His shoulders hunch over himself and he rocks back on his feet.

Harley drops to barely a whisper, “Talk to me, Peter. I can’t read your mind.”

“I’m scared that this is it.” He waves a hand between them, blinking rapidly to keep the tears from falling. “I’m scared that you’re going to run off to Boston and see what the world has to offer, you’re going to see all these people and everything’s going to seem so big and so bright, and you’re not going to be able to remember why you’re tied down here with me.”

Harley visibly recoils at the way Peter spits the last word. “Peter-”

“Don’t pretend like nothing is changing. We’ve been pretending for the last six months that everything’s going to stay the same, but it won’t. You’re going to be in college, Harley. You’re going to be in Boston while I’m trying to make it through senior year. I’m going to be your silly high school boyfriend and everyone’s going to tell you to let go of the one thing that’s holding you back. I’m scared!”

They both know how Harley would’ve reacted normally, with soft reassurances and even softer touches, defusing the situation and making everything okay, but they’ve had pent-up stress because of the other for so many weeks, that it’s hard for him to draw that kind of strength.

“Is that really what you think of me?” Harley demands, flipping back to angry without a second thought. “You think that just because Boston is new, that I’m three hours away, that I’m going to just move on without you? You think I’m so shallow that I’m going to get distracted by every pretty face I see? Are you worried I’ll cheat on you too? Is that really how low your opinions of me are?”

“Of course not-”

“Obviously it is if that’s what you’ve been so worried about.” Harley rolls his eyes and takes a step back, raking a hand through his hair. “Fuck, Peter, I know I’ll be in a different state, but it’s not like it’ll be hard to come see you or vice versa. I love you and moving to Boston isn’t going to change that.”

Peter rubs his cheeks, trying to rid himself of the tears that fall before Harley sees them, but it’s pointless as more take their places. “That’s not what I meant. I just- I’m me, Harley. I’m just Peter Parker. I wouldn’t- I’d never hold it against you if you-”

“If you dare finish that sentence with anything along the lines of me leaving you for somebody else, I swear to god, I’ll tell Tony you’re self-deprecating again.”

The older boy steps close enough that he can touch Peter, hands running up his biceps and over his shoulders, across his jaw and they stop, cupping his cheeks.

“You’re not just anything, darlin’,” Harley says. “Don’t believe that bullshit you tell yourself about not being enough because it’s not true. You’re more than enough and I love you.”

And it should be that simple.

But when is it ever that simple?

Things are still tense between them. Peter spends his time watching Harley, wondering if he’ll have to say goodbye to him and everything between them. He spends those quiet nights at the tower, curled up against Harley’s chest, trying to convince himself he’ll be okay without it.

Harley’s obviously working twice as hard to make everything work between them, asking Tony to set him up a credit card account with enough money for gas to make it to New York every weekend, if he can, for his birthday gift instead of whatever extravagant gift he was planning.

But despite Harley’s efforts, they fight over little things every few days, always ending with Peter crying and Harley, cursing himself, crying too because he’s always been a sympathy crier when it comes to Peter.

And after every fight, Peter wishes more and more that Harley won’t be leaving when their relationship is in such a rocky place.

“So, Harley’s birthday party tomorrow?” Tony says, very carefully broaching the topic.

Peter’s eyes are still wet and red-rimmed, moisture still clinging to his jaw where his tears had caught, hair still sticking up from where he’d been tugging at it.

“Yeah,” Peter mumbles, accepting the offered glass of water. “I don’t know, things are… bad right now, to say the least.”

“You’ll still come to his birthday party, right?”

Peter shrugs, but then he nods. He can’t miss Harley’s birthday party. That would be the last piece of their relationship falling apart, and he doesn’t want to be responsible for that. “Yeah, I’ll be there. Should we decorate?”

“Yeah, we’ll decorate. You wanna make a banner? I think Morgan’s paint is still in the living room.”

So Peter works away making a banner for the birthday party, trying not to think too much while Tony starts blowing up balloons, before he finally breaks.

“You wanna talk about it?” Tony asks.

“Nothing much to say,” Peter says thickly. He doesn’t want to talk to Tony about how young and small and insignificant he feels in comparison to Harley’s upcoming year. He doesn’t want to talk about how they fought for nearly an hour about something as small as cooking. It was obvious where the fight was going, how they were planning on living together once Peter graduates, but neither of them ever mentioned it in real words.

Tony shrugs, lifting an eyebrow. “Well, I can’t offer much advice, I still have no idea how I ended up marrying Pepper, but there’s one thing I know for sure. Harley loves you, kid. Like a crazy amount. He looks at you like you hung the moon and all the stars in the sky. I don’t think I’ve seen that kind of love ever except for how much you love him. That much is painfully obvious. I’m really glad you two found each other.”

“You really think it’ll work? Me here and Harley in Massachusetts?”

“If anyone was ever meant to be, if there was such thing as soulmates, I’d bet my money on the two of you.”

*

Peter holds one end of the banner, trying his best to look casual as he blinks back an onslaught of tears, while they wait for Harley to arrive to the surprise party.

It’s not like he doesn’t want to see Harley, and it’s not like he isn’t happy for his boyfriend. The last thing he wants to do is ruin his birthday party. But Peter’s still scared that if he says the wrong thing, it’ll be over for them and that’s the last thing he wants.

May squeezes his shoulder, offering a reassuring smile.

And then the elevator doors slide open.

Harley, for his part, looks just as much of a mess as Peter does. His hair is sticking up messily like he’d been pulling at it, eyes still a little bit puffy and red, remnants of old tears still shining in the corners of his eyes. But he smiles when he sees them in the living room, eyes lingering on Peter for a beat too long.

“Happy birthday!” they all call out, but the tension in the room is already rising from Peter and Harley, neither of them wanting to say anything in front of their family.

“Wow, thanks y’all.”

Tony rolls his eyes dramatically, letting the banner fall from his hands. “Alright. We’re going to go out, pick up some food for dinner later, and pick up your mom and sister from the airport. You two are going to have two hours alone here to fix this because I’m tired of you two dancing around the problems and being miserable all the time.”

Pepper laughs, quickly drawing Harley into a hug and then ushering Morgan to get her shoes on. May hugs both boys, pressing kisses to both their foreheads.

“Have fun!” Tony calls out, waving everybody into the elevator and winking at the boys before it closes behind them leaving Harley and Peter alone.

Peter lifts the drooping banner half-heartedly before letting it crumple to the floor. “Happy Birthday, Harls.”

“I don’t know how to fix this,” Harley admits, shrugging. He’s frowning, hands lifting in defeat.

“I’m sorry.” He knows it’s the best way to start mending the breaks. “I shouldn’t have been so upset over everything lately. I know this is on me. I should’ve been supportive and happy for you when you got into MIT. I should’ve had faith in us. I should’ve-”

Harley shakes his head, stepping closer to Peter to bridge the gap. “This isn’t just on you. I didn’t understand how hard this would be for you. I know it feels like I’m moving on without you, that I’m going to be farther away than I’ve ever been permanently, and I know you feel like it’d be easier if you distanced yourself now to make it easier when I’m gone, but I promise I’ll be here, darlin’. I’ll come see you every weekend, we’ll call all the time and facetime and text, and we could meet up on school nights if we meet halfway. Change isn’t always a bad thing.”

Sniffling, Peter moves into Harley’s open arms, desperate to feel close to Harley again. It’s been a very hard couple weeks for them and Peter misses him so badly. “I know. I trust you and I love you, I just- It’s hard to feel like you’ll be experiencing all these things without me, you know? I just sometimes wish we could’ve done it together.”

“I know but it’s not a race, sweetheart. It’s not like I’m winning a race just because I’m moving out and going to college before you. It’s not a competition, it never was.”

There will be plenty more fights in the future, and they’ll have to get used to all the change, but Peter believes in them and he loves Harley. That’s all that’s ever mattered.

He leans up onto his toes to kiss Harley, something in his chest finally settling at the reconciliation. He’s missed him a lot over the tense fighting from the past little while.

They’ve got two hours of time to talk and figure things out, but most importantly, they have plenty of time to catch up on missed time.

*

They make it through the year with flying colours.

Harley drives out to New York at every chance, even if it means having to do homework in Peter’s room instead of everything they want to do. Homework’s always nicer when he gets to have Peter in his lap while he does it.

Peter gets a car for his seventeenth birthday and he drives out to meet Harley halfway for cute dates every couple weeks when they can swing it.

They text constantly. To the point where Peter ends up in after-school detention for the majority of the year from texting during class. Not that he really minds, the teacher sleeps during detention so Peter can spend that time texting Harley too.

As a Christmas gift, Tony lets them stay at his renovated Malibu Mansion alone, as long as they promise to be home during Spring Break and keep the PDA to a minimum. Over the break, Harley helps Peter apply for MIT and they look for apartments online and create a collection for how they plan on decorating their apartment.

In February, Peter gets his letter of acceptance from MIT, and Harley goes all out for a Valentine’s Day date to celebrate.

Harley gets home in April and he spends most of the month and the two that follow, helping Peter study for exams. They go to Peter’s Senior Prom together, and Harley cheers the loudest when Peter crosses the stage at graduation.

They spend the entire summer like they’re lovesick teenagers, making up for all the lost time from the year, and getting prepared to be living together in Boston starting in the fall. Pepper nearly dies laughing when she sees the Ikea budget Tony set that they managed to blow, not that Tony minds, on new furniture.

In September, they move into their apartment together, happier than they’ve ever been and so crazy in love. May and Tony both cry while Morgan and Pepper roll their eyes at their dramatics.

They’ve got their whole future ahead of them. This is only the beginning. 

Taglist: @littlemissagrafina  @spidey-reids-2003 @romeoandjulietyouwish @c-artara @shadedrose01 @likeaphoenix13 @pj-hermes-tonystark-obsessed  @you-get-killed-walk-it-off @kitkatwinchester  @emo-girl10 @justme--emily  @hold-our-destiny @imalivebecauseirondad @spiderman-peterman @dykeragee @maryserrao @heeeyitskay @parknerandirondad {Let me know if you wanna be added or removed}

#lyss writes #parkner week 2020 #parkner #parkner fic #peter parker #harley keener #tony stark #may parker #pepper potts #morgan stark #harley keener/peter parker #a fic based entirely off a song from a children's movie? Maybe #Do i regret my decisions? no #is it just because I absolutely love jonathan groff? probably

[goarticletec-blog]

We remember the Sega Dreamcast, 20 years on

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/we-remember-the-sega-dreamcast-20-years-on/

We remember the Sega Dreamcast, 20 years on

The Dreamcast itself was pretty compact, but that controller! What a chunker.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The Sega Dreamcast launched in Japan 20 years ago on Nov. 27, 1998. The system enjoyed a brief but memorable time in the limelight with some truly fantastic games and a few features that would inspire future consoles — it was the first console with built-in internet. 

But ultimately a lack of third-party support, a somewhat underpowered architecture and the fact that the rival PlayStation 2 could play DVDs as well as games would mean a premature demise. None of that will stop us from remembering it fondly — or wishing for a Dreamcast Classic.

Morgan Little

I was in fifth grade, visiting a DisneyQuest while doing the whole Disney World thing, seeing the last gasps of 1990s interactive arcades, and there it was. That Sonic Adventure demo with the whale chase — amazing to watch and awful to play.

I wouldn’t spend any quality time with the Dreamcast until at least a year later, but seeing that showcase was astounding for the time. At that point I still just had a Genesis, so even a brief glimpse of Sonic looking halfway-decent in 3D was a revelation. And no, Sonic 3D Blast doesn’t count.

Though I never bought one myself, a good friend did, and it became the go-to console for sleepovers and wasted Saturdays. The mix of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Power Stone, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 and that terrible Chao Garden feature from Sonic Adventure 2 was more than enough to keep us playing that Dreamcast until long after it had died and everyone else moved on. Plus, its giant controllers were still better than the awful DualShock 2 on the PlayStation 2. That’s just a fact.

Now playing: Watch this: Remembering the Sega Dreamcast at 20

5:49

Scott Stein

I had every Sega system that was ever made. Yes, even the 32X. I was a Sega kid — the Master System with Superscope 3D glasses was my gift after getting appendicitis. While the Genesis was my favorite, the Dreamcast is a place of special memories. I was living in LA, working as a script reader and story editor, and playing amazing NFL 2K games to connect with my dormant feelings about the New York Jets. That NFL 2K game stunned me… it was the first TV-real sports game I’d ever seen. Crazy Taxi was my LA commuting therapy. I loved the weirdness of Chu Chu Rocket. And even more, I was obsessed with Seaman.

My first E3 I ever attended had the Dreamcast, and I saw the Leonard Nimoy-voiced fish-man in all its Lynchian horror. Seaman was so ahead of its time: It had a microphone I could speak to Seaman with. It was like if Alexa were a depressed cannibal fish. In my dusty little Sherman Oaks apartment, Seaman was my mystic surrealist aquarium. Along with the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, it was part of my cabinet of curiosities that made me dream of how strange art could be. Space Channel 5, the insanely real-feeling Shenmue, and yes, I owned Typing of the Dead. It was a great system of gaming oddities.

The Dreamcast was small and beautifully designed, had arcade-perfect games, and was my first real online gaming system. May it rest in peace in my mom’s basement.

Rez Infinite is a modernized version of the Dreamcast classic. Other than the graphics, not much else was changed. 

GameSpot

Dan Ackerman

The Dreamcast was the first console launch I ever covered as a novice “games journalist” at the long-forgotten (but pioneering!) games-and-culture website UGO.com. My colleagues and I all shelled out for launch day bundles, and Soul Calibur was everyone’s instant favorite.

We all ended up playing a lot of conference room Soul Calibur with UGO’s most famous employee, former child star Gary Coleman. Gary was a total fiend for Soul Calibur, and regularly held court in our Park Avenue office, taking on all challengers and dispensing endless foul-mouthed trash talk. He was actually pretty good, and probably had an 8 out of 10 win ratio.

Other early Dreamcast highlights for me included Power Stone, Shenmue, a Resident Evil knockoff called Blue Stinger (I bet I’m the only one giving that a shoutout), and bizarre fish simulator Seaman. When my now-wife used the Dreamcast microphone attachment to tell Seaman she was going to eat him, he replied, “Or maybe I’m going to eat you.” If that’s not next-gen, I don’t know what is.

I’ve come back to the Dreamcast a few times since its 2001 discontinuation, talking about it on my old talking head video game web series Play Value (circa 2006), and taking a deeper dive for the Dreamcast’s 10th anniversary, which I wrote about here.

Would I buy a new “Dreamcast Classic” micro console? Definitely. Would I plug it in more than once or twice? Probably not.

Tim Stevens

My Dreamcast memories are a little different than most. Like Scott I was a Sega kid and, like Scott, I too owned (and still own) every Sega system. But my memories of the Dreamcast weren’t so much about gaming as they were about coding. Lots and lots and lots of coding.

I was in college studying computer science and writing when the Dreamcast dropped, and my dream was to combine those passions and get a gig in the videogame industry after graduation. It was time to pick a senior thesis, and so I blindly emailed some folks at Sega to see if there was any way I could get permission to write a simple game for their hot new console.

Amazingly, I got a response. As it turns out I would not be allowed to develop anything for the Dreamcast — the development hardware alone cost thousands of dollars and I was lucky if I could afford pizza on Friday night — but I was given access to the Visual Memory Unit developer kit. The VMU, you may remember, was the tiny, Game Boy-looking thing that slotted into the controller. It had a tiny, gray and black LCD, a four-way D-pad and a couple of buttons.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Games for the VMU were written in assembler, an arcane language I’d never been exposed to in my studies. If that weren’t daunting enough, the only documentation for the VMU kit was in Japanese, another language I didn’t speak. Despite all that I figured it out over the following few months, then toiled and toiled and toiled to write what would be the first — and to my knowledge only — multiplayer VMU game. You could, you see, connect two of the mini handhelds together at the top thanks to a cunning, reversible connector. So, I wrote a Pong-like game played vertically, with the ball traveling from one screen to the next, back and forth.

Developing that game, plus another simple, Simon-like game, consumed my senior year at school. The resulting code, when printed out for my final thesis presentation, filled a binder as big as a phone book. Along the way I learned enough about the game development industry to realize it wasn’t for me, but that project, just me and my text editor toiling for months, is still the programming project I look back upon most fondly.

The recently remastered version of Shenmue. 

GameSpot

Jeff Bakalar

I was 17 when the Dreamcast launched and was working for a dotcom start-up run by three 21-year-olds. I remember the day it went on sale, one of the partners ordered it for same-day delivery from a service called UrbanFetch.

It arrived and we didn’t do any work for the rest of the day. It was just nonstop Ready 2 Rumble. I recall being instantly impressed with how crisp the visuals were. It was a level of fidelity I hadn’t ever seen before.

Everything seemed so fast, so advanced, so futuristic. The Dreamcast arrived in between the other console cycles, so it felt like we were getting a very early glimpse into what the rest of the competition would soon be offering.

I didn’t wind up owning my own Dreamcast until college, but I eventually fell in love with Sonic Adventure, problems and all. I played most of the Tomb Raider and Resident Evil games on the Dreamcast too.

The Dreamcast will always have a place in my heart for its ridiculous memory card adapters, its mostly awful controller and the insane speed at which its disc reader would spin and adjust, like some kind of dot-matrix printer that went off the rails.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Jason Parker

I never actually owned a Dreamcast, but for a period in my life, I could not get enough of one game: Fighting Vipers 2. It was while I was in college and one of my friends had a Dreamcast, so when we were not out at night or studying, we’d spend hours fighting match after match.

The funny thing is, it wasn’t called Fighting Vipers 2 as far as I knew back then. My friend had a bootlegged copy on a disc and everything written on the sleeve was in Japanese, as was all the on-screen text in the game. I even had to rely on him to start up games because I couldn’t navigate the menus. At the time, he explained the game wasn’t available in the States, but it didn’t officially come to Dreamcast until 2001 and never in the US.

Now playing: Watch this: Our most cherished video game memories

8:00

But once he started a match, it was button-mashing heaven. I remember being blown away at the crisp 3D graphics and cool-looking fighters at that time. But the best mechanic of all, and probably the biggest reason I loved the game, was that you could kick your opponent through the wall of the arena at the end of the match.

Maybe that sounds silly, but fighting games between friends can get tense. When you can send your buddy through the wall at the end of a long fight it’s an exclamation point like no other. We’d get dramatic about it too, yelling “Boooooooom!” as we’d blast the other guy about 50 yards outside of the cage.

So, no, I didn’t own a Dreamcast, because I was a poor college student, but I still have fond memories of stomping out my good friend in Fighting Vipers 2. “You’re going through the wall!”

Jet Set Radio on the PC, running at 2,560×1,440 pixels with largely the same assets as the original, still looks great. 

Screenshot by Eric Franklin/CNET

Sean Keane

The Dreamcast was the most incredible console I never owned. Games like Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Sonic Adventure and the mighty Shenmue, and features like online gaming and the VMU made me want one badly, but I just couldn’t afford it as a 12-year-old.

Code Veronica looked incredible at the time of its release — replacing static prerendered environments with fully 3D ones and bringing in some sweet sweeping shots to showcase them. The blur effect as resurrected (and newly superpowered) villain Albert Wesker darted around made my jaw drop (this was shortly after The Matrix had blown my mind at the cinema).

It got an expanded rerelease — Code Veronica X — on the PS2 in 2001, but the original version hasn’t come out on any other systems. So my Resident Evil completionist urges aren’t quite satisfied… but it’s fine. I’m fine.

Sonic Adventure seemed like an incredible expansion of Sega’s mascot into 3D, even if it’s agony to play today. That whale chase looked amazing at the time and it seemed the obvious step forward for Sonic after Mario’s glorious transition into 3D.

Shenmue was the big one though — a glorious life simulator with a rich open world that was unprecedented. Seeing Ryo Hazuki wandering around Yokosuka, Japan, as he tries to unravel the mystery of his father’s murder was fascinating, and something I only got to experience fully through the recent remaster.

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Eric Franklin

I bought the original Japanese Dreamcast from NCSX back in November 1998 and got two games: Pen Pen Trilcelon and Virtua Fighter 3tb. While Pen Pen was and still is terrible, VF3 was anything but!

Why did I pay a premium to have this system imported? I was a Sega fanboy and the Dreamcast was where I could continue playing Sega games beyond the defunct Sega Saturn.

But as much as I loved playing the Dreamcast, looking back now, it’s clear to me what it really represented for me: A last chance at console success for Sega. I got a Sega Master System in 1987 and from then through the end of the Dreamcast’s life I was not only invested in playing Sega games, but also hugely invested — emotionally, to be sure — in Sega’s success as a console developer.

It’s probably strange for people to understand that, but here’s the way I saw it: The more successful Sega’s consoles were, the more great Sega games the company would make. I not only wanted to play those games, but to also have other people discover how great they were. To see in them what I saw in them: Games with great graphics and simple gameplay that belied a depth you had to uncover.

You could play Crazy Taxi like a normal person, sure. But if you didn’t use the Crazy Dash and the Crazy Stop, which allowed you to go from 0 to 60 in less than a second and instantly stop, then you weren’t playing it right.

That want and need for the Dreamcast to be successful was real. Even at the time I knew that if the Dreamcast didn’t sell a certain number of systems, Sega would likely leave the hardware business, which the company eventually did.

And the anticipation of each new big release was addicting for me. It was less about how much I would like Shenmue and more about whether it would push enough mainstream audience buttons to make people buy a Dreamcast over a PS2. It’s silly to think about now, but that was me.

I guess I just needed something to distract me from my real life at the time. For a few solid years, it was the Dreamcast.

Gifts for the gamer who has everything: Please that hard-to-shop-for PC gamer in your life.

CNET’s Holiday Gift Guide: The best tech gifts for 2018.

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[adultingrpg-blog]

《 THE BASICS 》

CHARACTER NAME: Luna Isabel Valdez.

NICKNAMES: Lu, Looney, Valdez, anything else.

AGE/DOB: 23 / January 11th, 1994.

FAMILY DETAILS: Original character.

HOMETOWN: Las Vegas, Nevada.

IDENTIFIES AS: Cis-female, she/her/hers.

ORIENTATIONS: Heterosexual bi-romantic.

SHIPPING: /chem, /forced.

FACECLAIM: Eiza Gonzalez.

OUT OF CHARACTER: Kate, 23, EST, she/her.

SONG CHOICE: Bad At Love - Halsey.

APARTMENT: Grand Court / Apartment 15.

CURRENTLY: Currently strips at a club called Lucky’s while attending University of Chicago Law School.

《 A LITTLE MORE 》

Since Luna was little she always wanted to be a superhero for latinx people just like herself -- which is why she decided to become a lawyer. To fight for them and help them live the best lives they could. Only because she’s been fairly lucky with the life she has.

While Luna might not exactly be a people person, she is a cat person. She adopted a cat when she moved to Chicago, his name is Devil and he lives by his name.

Growing up Luna actually didn’t like her name, until Jasmine talked about how beautiful the moon was, and she decided her name wasn’t so bad after all.

《 NETWORKING 》

@moonbabe: i don’t think anyone has been more ashamed than my doctor when i admitted i eat hot cheetos for breakfast like…everyday

@moonbabe: "do you need a full face of makeup to go grocery shopping?” [photo]

text to [boy toy]: i’m bored. delete my number. :)

last 4 emojis: 🌮 🌙 🖕 🔥

《 PERSONALITY 》

POSITIVE TRAITS: Hardworking, outgoing, adventurous.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Blunt, stubborn, wary.

《 A LITTLE DEEPER 》

** TW UNDERAGE DRINKING, DRUNK DRIVING, CAR CRASH, MENTIONS OF BIPHOBIA, DEATH **

Luna Isabel Valdez was born in San Ángel, a relatively small city in Mexico. She doesn’t remember anything from living there, mostly because she was two when her parents took her and her sibling to America – hoping they could find better work and give their children a better life. That wasn’t exactly the case when they got there, sure they got lots of work but it was constantly odd jobs that paid okay and at the end of the day it was still barely scraping it for an undocumented family of four.

Luna grew up watching her parents go through hell to raise them, watching her father leave for weeks at a time to go to better paying jobs and watching her mother cry at night because it was so much stress and who knew if he’d make it back. It didn’t exactly help that Luna was the problematic child growing up. There wasn’t really a reason why she acted out and was the wild child, she just was. It was who she was as a person. She constantly wanted all eyes on her and would do anything she had to do to get it. Dancing, singing, doing things she shouldn’t in class. Luna was just constantly bored – that was her answer for why she acted out. But that all changed when a best friend came into the picture.

Luna met Jasmine in the third grade and they instantly became best friends. And while Luna was still a little mischievous, Jasmine was always the level headed one who tried to keep her out of trouble. They were inseparable, honestly. Wherever Luna was, Jasmine was right by her. And vise versa. They had sleepovers every weekend, called each other on the phone almost every night even if they had just seen each other that day, helped each other with outfits, homework, talked about boys. Luna finally had someone who understood what it was like to be different, her being Mexican as well. They had each other for everything. So it wasn’t a surprise when in the 8th grade, while sitting on the porch swing of Jasmine’s house – Jasmine came out to Luna as gay. She liked girls, and had known for a long time. Luna was the first and only person she ever came out to.

Of course Luna accepted her for who she was, no matter what. They were best friends, and Luna would have accepted anybody who was different – especially her best friend. Learning more about sexuality, had Luna thinking a lot about it. The idea started to play in her head that she could be with a girl, maybe. That if they were the right person, and she felt good with them – she could date them. And that was true. She started to imagine herself with her closest girl friends, wondering what it would be like to kiss them, and date them. The one person she thought about that the most with, of course, was Jasmine. And as more time went on, she realized more that she did like guys, and was attracted to them. But if she got to know a girl well enough, she felt the same way she did for guys.

Soon enough, Luna found herself thinking about Jasmine as more than a friend. And that soon turned into a confusing crush that until the tenth grade, had her completely confused about it. During a sleepover one night, Luna confided in Jasmine about how she was feeling. About her sexuality. And she also confessed that she was sure she had feelings for her. She was relieved that Jasmine actually felt the same way. They started secretly dating, since to everyone else they were still in the closet.

It was easy to get away with, seeing as they were best friends and had been long before this ever happened. They were happy, and they were in love. And it was easy for them, as it got closer to them graduating school to plan a future together. To go off to college together, get married, have kids. It was something they wanted badly. But it never happened. The summer after they graduated high school, they had gone to a party to celebrate their new freedom. They had both been drinking, and somewhere along the way – a fight happened. Luna to this day doesn’t really know what it was about, not fully. All she remembers was talking to a classmate and Jasmine getting jealous, and Luna getting defensive and saying she didn’t need to be because she loved her.

It had drawn enough attention that Jasmine panicked and left, saying she was fine to drive even though she clearly wasn’t. Jasmine was supposed to be the level headed one, so Luna let her go – which she still regrets. Luna got a ride home, and was hoping that she’d get a call from her girlfriend once she got back. She was too caught up in her head, upset, that she didn’t even think twice as she saw the ambulances and police racing down the road. But as she drove up her driveway to her parents waiting for her, she knew something was wrong. And her world came crumbling down around her. Jasmine ran a red light, causing an accident – the person in the other car somehow survived, but Jasmine, didn’t.

Between what happened at the party, and Jasmine dying, it forced Luna out of the closet she was so comfortable living in. Most were okay with it, they lived in Las Vegas for crying out loud. But also some weren’t, like her parents. They never outright said anything, because they did love her and how do you tell your daughter you’re ashamed of them when they just lost the person they loved? But they did quietly disagree – which sometimes, Luna thought was worse.

It took a little while for Luna to get back into the swing of dating, Jasmine had been her first relationship and it had been secret. And it had obviously ended horribly. But since then she has dated and seen a good amount of people, but nothing has really ever lasted. She either goes for people who only end up hurting her – or she ends up hurting them. It was easy with Jasmine, with others it’s not. And Luna isn’t a perfect person, she knows that. And can own up to the fact she doesn’t think she could be in a serious relationship because she’ll end up fucking it up if they don’t first.

Luna took a much needed year off before college, needing the time to mourn and also to save up for college. She wanted to become a lawyer, and she knew it would be expensive with her parents not having the money to send her to college. So when Luna was accepted into The University of Chicago, the second she got there she started looking for anything that made decent enough money to support her while she got her education. That’s when she stumbled upon a strip club called Lucky’s. She’s not ashamed that she works there, in fact, she’s happy with the money she makes there. If she wasn’t so determined to become a lawyer, she probably would just continue to do that.

Since graduating, Luna is now attending the law school at The University of Chicago. She’s working hard to make her parents proud, and working hard to be the person she’s supposed to be. Even if that doesn’t come easy for her. She’s struggling just trying to make it as a young adult off on her own. But she hopes that one day she’ll be where she needs to be.

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