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beckyylynchh · 2 years

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meant to be (becky lynch x fem!reader)

pairing: becky lynch x female!reader.

genre: kinda angsty with a bit of fluff.

warnings: fighting, wrestling, charlotte flair being a bitch, small mention of blood.

note: this is an old fic that i wrote, so i edited it a bit.

NOT MY GIF!

“Please just drop it, Sasha” I asked my friend, who was again telling me to give a certain person a chance beside our not so friendly past.

“But-”

“Listen, Becky is not even my friend, she’s basically my enemy. I don’t see a reason for you to think I have a crush on her” I said, interrupting her before she could speak.

Sasha then lightly chuckled.

“Girl, Becky is deeply in love with you and the same goes for you” Sasha responded as she crossed her arms over her chest. I just rolled my eyes at her while taking a deep sigh.

Then I gave her a smirk, making her look confused at me.

“Yeah, I’m also deeply in love with me too” I said and then walked out of the locker room with Sasha following me

“You know what I meant, dumbass!” She said while walking with me down the hallway as I had a match against Natalya in a few minutes.

“I really don’t know what you meant, Banks” I replied with a cheeky smile, making her groan in annoyance.

“You little-” as she was about to say something, a staff member called on me.

“Sorry, but I have a match to win. Wish me luck. Love you” I said and gave her a gentle hit on the shoulder as she watched me walking out to the ring.

Now it’s showtime

After hitting Natalya with my signature move, I quickly went over to her and lifted her leg in the air while the referee counted to three.

“One! Two! Three!” he yelled and then the arena went into big applause, making me smile widely.

The referee raised my hand and then I went out of the ring to take some pictures with fans as I was in a good mood.

Out of nowhere, someone from behind knocks me down on the floor, making the two teenage girls I was taking a picture with gasp.

I looked up at the person with my blurry eyes as my head had landed pretty hard on the floor. I guess from the blond hair look who had attacked me.

The biggest bitch in the industry. Charlotte Flair.

“Aww, look at this little baby being all dizzy from one push” her annoying voice said.

“Fuck you” I mumbled, trying to kick her leg, but failed.

“I can’t hear you, honey” she said as she lifted her hand and slapped me across the face. I’m going to beat this bitch so badly.

“Can’t say anything?” She mocked me with the stupid smile of hers.

As Charlotte was trash talking to the fans, I had used all my strength and crawled over to the ring to take a chair.

I had then planned my attack and stood up from the ground, but when I was about to hit her, she spotted me which led her to kick the chair away and also right in my face.

Now I was back on the floor, tasting the blood from my now bruised lip. That shit hurt!

The bitch wasn’t done though as she took the chair that I had taken and then started hitting my back multiple times, making me scream out, both because of anger, but also because it hurt like hell.

She wasn’t stopping anytime soon as none of the stupid referees had come and tried to help me from this crazy woman.

Then a piece of some familiar music came through the speakers in the arena and I simply thought that now she also was going to hurt me even more as I saw her with my teary eyes, walking with a chair in her hand.

This doesn’t look good for me.

Just when I closed my eyes as I thought she was going to hit me, I heard a scream from Charlotte. I opened my eyes to see Charlotte getting hit by the chair many more times than I did. Fucking deserved asshole!

A referee then came to my side, helping me stand up as my back hurt like shit. The referee helped me backstage as Charlotte still was getting hit by the chair in front of thousands of people chanting together loudly.

“BECKY! BECKY! BECKY!”

I walked into the locker room with worried eyes on me as the referee left the room. The girls were silent, probably knowing that my head was hurt pretty badly.

“Do you need anything?” Alexa asked me with a concerned voice.

“No thanks. I’m fine” I answered with a small smile.

“You don’t like fine though” the one who had basically saved me said as she walked into the room with a mocking voice.

The one and only Becky Lynch.

“No one asked you” I responded and took a slurp from my water bottle.

Becky gave me a chuckle as she put her hands in her pockets and looked down at me.

“You should actually thank me. I saved your little pretty face from getting hurt even more” she said with her irish accent.

“Did I tell you to help me? No and you know what? I can handle myself” I replied, getting annoyed with her attitude.

“Well, it didn’t look like that a few minutes ago” she mumbled, walking backwards.

I groaned in annoyance and then went out of the locker room, not wanting to deal with her anymore.

1 week later:

I watched backstage, the stupid promo Charlotte was doing and where she was talking about how dumb I am and that she would have destroyed me if it wasn’t for Becky.

When I had enough of her small little talk, I walked into the arena with my music playing, making her stop using her idiotic voice.

“Are you a fan of me now? You’re always where I am, stalker!” Charlotte said in the microphone as the fans booed at her.

“I’m not a fan, Charlotte. You don’t even have fans, so stop trying so hard will you?” I responded and got inside the ring, making Charlotte step backwards and fans cheer.

“Also, I’m not always where you are. You’re the one following me around from place to place like that little bitch you are!” I added with a smirk as Charlotte looked pissed off.

“Now, the reason why I am here is simple. I would love to see you try to destroy me tonight” I said and then the crowd cheered loudly.

“So if you aren’t too afraid of me, accept this challenge. You and me tonight as the main event”

The crowd went even louder now and chanted “YES! YES! YES!”

Charlotte just shook her head and took the microphone to her mouth.

“I will not have a match with someone like you” she said while laughing evil.

“Someone like me? What am I like, huh?” I asked.

“You’re nothing, but a stupid little brat. You’re nothing, but a little shitty face and you’re nothing, but a big fat ass bitch” Charlotte answered, yelling into the microphone.

“You’re so funny, Charlotte Flair” I said as I chuckled a bit.

Charlotte gave me a confused look.

“You think you have humor? Accept this challenge and see if you get any humor left after I beat that stupid face off you!” I said calmly, but threatening to her face.

Charlotte almost growled at me like a wild lion while the crowd once again chanted and yelled loudly.

“Fine. I accept. Get ready to lose, bitch” she said. The crowd went even wilder now.

“Good girl” I mumbled and gave her a smirk and wink as I went out of the ring. Just before I stepped backstage, I took the microphone to my mouth.

“I’ll see you later tonight. Until then, don’t miss me too much, sweetheart”

When I came backstage, I took my water bottle and was about to head to the cafeteria, but was stopped by an irish red haired woman named Becky.

“Why did you challenge her?” she asked and sounded kinda annoyed.

“She attacked me last week and thought she could get away with it, but I’m not that type of person, so of course I had to challenge her” I answered with confidence in my voice.

“Still, there’s no need to challenge her and get more hurt!”

“Why is it such a big problem that I challenged her, Becky?” I asked.

Becky then crossed her arms over her chest and just stared at me without answering me.

“Oh, now you’re not speaking. What a surprise, Lass Kicker” I said, half and half not mocking her.

“You know what? Fuck you!” she responded and came closer to me. I laughed a bit at her while shaking my head.

My eyes then meet hers again.

“Fuck you too, Rebecca!” I mumbled and walked away, before it got worse between us. What the hell was her problem anyway?

I was casually doing my interview with Charly before my match, but then I felt a chair once again hitting my back just like last week.

“What’s up, bitch?! I don’t think you can fight me now, huh?” Charlotte’s stupid voice mocked me.

“Get the fuck away from me” I yelled and tried to kick her legs like last week. I’m kinda getting a deja vu. Sadly.

Charlotte just laughed at me and began to throw the chair onto my back again, again and again.

I thought this would never end, but one person luckily came to help.

The Man.

Becky kicked Charlotte in the stomach and took the chair from her hands, starting to hit Charlotte until she was crawling away, crying for help.

I tried to stand me, but my legs wouldn't work with me, making me fall back down on the floor in pain.

“I’ll help you” the irish accent said and I was suddenly lifted in a bridal way in her arms. I automatically threw my arms around her neck, not wanting to fall out of her arms.

Becky then walked inside the medical room and placed me down on a small bed.

“There you go,” she mumbled.

Becky sat down on a chair, watching me getting checked on by the medics.

“Can I still fight tonight?” I asked.

“You’re clear to go, but you just need to be a little careful” I was told

I gave the medics a small smile, thankful that I could still smash Charlotte’s head off tonight.

As the medics left the room, only Becky and I were there. I kept my mouth shut as I didn’t really know what to say.

“Uhm, thank you for helping me” I mumbled while Becky just nodded. We weren’t really the best to make small talk.

There was awkward silence for a minute or two, before Becky broke it.

“I hate you so much. You made me worry, idiot!”

“I’m sorry for being attacked,” I said with irony in my voice.

“You better be!” she replied very seriously.

“I was being ironic, Becky” I said as I stood up from the bed and was about to walk out of the room, but before I could do that, Becky came in my way in front of the door.

“I have to change for my match, so please move aside”

“Can’t you see that I’m trying to take care of you?” she yelled with anger.

“I can take care of myself, now more” I yelled back at her, but then she took a good grip on my wrist.

“Let go, I have to get ready for-” I got interrupted when I felt her lips on mine.

At first I was a bit shocked, but when I realized that she was really kissing me, I kissed her back.

Her hands on my waist while mine were behind her neck in a hot, but sweet kiss.

We were standing and kissing for as long we could, before we both needed air and rested our foreheads against each other.

She sent me a smile, making me smile back at her. She then quickly pecked my lips.

“I don’t want Charlotte to hurt you again,” she said and caressed my cheek.

“Trust me, I won’t get hurt, she will!” I responded as a smirk made it to my mouth.

Becky then raised her eyebrows and also got a smirk on her face.

“What are you waiting for then? Go kick her ass!”

As Charlotte and I were going back and forth towards each other for 15 minutes, I got her arm and took her down on the mat.

Then I did the Dis-Arm-Her. Becky’s submission move.

Charlotte was screaming in pain and after a few seconds, she tapped out, making me smile widely.

Take that bitch!..

I stood up as I looked at the crowd chanting my name while the referee was holding my hand in the air. I was about to get out of the ring when Becky’s music hit the speakers in the arena.

I smiled a bit to myself, thinking about our moment earlier today, hoping not many people would catch it.

Becky walked down the ramp and got inside the ring with a microphone.

“Congrats on your win” she said and held her hand out. I matched her smirk as I shook her hand.

“We’ll see each other very soon” Becky added, giving me a wink and walked out of the ring while the fans were cheering, not accepting to see the two so-called enemies shaking hands and not ripping each other's heads off.

They don’t know a lot of things happening backstage, you thought to yourself with a smile.

#becky lynch #becky lynch x reader #becky lynch imagine #gxg imagine #wwe #wwe imagine #wwe imagines #wwe x reader #becky lynch imagnes

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a-small-batch-of-dragons · 3 years

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Oldstones

Prompt: I got a prompt for you! (but no pressure if you don't wanna): The knights discover that Merlin is incredibly musically gifted but shy about it, and they try to make him see how talented he really is - aeonthedimensionalgirl

*vibes in playlists*

Read on Ao3

Warnings: it's fluff all the way down bois

Pairings: merthur, morgwen, can be platonic or romantic I don't care

Word Count: 2604

Merlin is allowed to keep secrets, yes, but that doesn’t stop people from wanting to find them out.

Come on, the man is literally the most conspicuous person in the castle, one doesn’t rise to that title without sparking at least half a dozen gossip trains each day. Whether it’s where he was when the King was in his private chambers with the knights standing guard, whether it’s how the speech the King hadn’t written is finished by the next morning, whether it’s how often things mysteriously show up just where they need to be…

There are rumors that he sneaks away from the castle at night. No one knows where he goes. Because it definitely isn’t the tavern.

But one doesn’t get Merlin without the host of people that surround him. Arthur, the King, of course. Gaius, the Royal Physician. Morgana, the Queen Regent, at least until her proper coronation. Gwen, who holds the ear of the servants in the castle—the real power here.

And the knights. Brothers, ’til the end. And Merlin is one of them. They couldn’t care less about the rumors flying around unless they hurt Merlin. Then, well, all bets are off. But Merlin is theirs and if there’s nothing wrong, they won’t ask questions.

That is until, of course, there is something that he really should’ve told them.

There is a negotiation with a neighboring lord about whether or not the knights will be allowed passage through his land on patrols. Arthur sends the knights and Merlin to go a broker a brief agreement with representatives before he can join them. The negotiations are long and offset by the fact that the leader keeps shooting narrow-eyed glances at Merlin.

“You sure we haven’t met before,” they ask for the fifth time, “you seem…familiar.”

“I can assure you,” he says, for the fifth time, “I would remember.”

Gwaine and Percival exchange a look. They’re making no headway, the leader is unwilling to accept anything as trade. If they don’t find something soon, the fingers itching towards swords will find their marks sooner or later.

Then Merlin sneezes.

He apologizes for interrupting the negotiations, only for the leader’s right hand to slap their knee and point accusingly at him.

“I knew it,” they crow, triumphant, “you’re the songbird!”

Merlin blinks. “I’m sorry, what?”

“The songbird,” they repeat, standing, “you’re the one who sings in the abandoned arena.”

Well, that certainly explains where Merlin’s been sneaking off to if the way the tips of his ears turn red is anything to go off of. It certainly doesn’t help his case that a few more people run into the room, some of them children, and gasp when they realize that someone’s found the songbird.

“My apologies,” Merlin manages after a moment, the embarrassment still blooming on his cheeks, “I didn’t realize that anyone would—that I—that you could hear me.”

“But your voice is so pretty,” one of the children cries, “will you sing something for us now?”

“Oh, do the one about being happier!”

“No, no, the one about being a bad liar.”

“Ooh! Ooh! Or the one about the bright lights!”

“I’m quite partial to the ‘stay with me’ one,” another lieutenant remarks.

The knights look on, half amused, half bemused, as the requests pile up. Only when Merlin’s mortification begins to seep past his facade do they have mercy.

“That’s enough,” Elyan says gently to the children, “we don’t want to overwhelm him.”

“Don’t we,” Gwaine mutters.

“Well,” Merlin says before Leon can respond, “I believe we’ve found something you want.”

The leader regards him for a moment. Their face twists as they think.

“…and how am I supposed to know that you are the pretty little songbird that’s been singing in there?” They look him up and down. “You could just be using that as a convenient excuse.”

The right-hand snorts. “No one else kriffing sneezes like that.”

Lancelot hides a snort behind a cough.

“You are correct that we cannot offer you anything material or legal in exchange for the deal,” Merlin says, still heroically fighting the blush on his cheeks, “but perhaps this will suffice instead?”

“Entertainment,” they muse, tilting their head back and forth, “a tempting offer.”

“A song for the deal?”

“Not just one song,” the leader huffs, “more.”

They glance back at the knights.

“What you’re asking of us, it’s a lot. That’s a lot of money we’re losing. Damages, labor, replanting.” They glance at the lieutenant. “How much?”

“Three thousand.”

The leader whistles. “That’s pretty steep.”

Their attention shifts back to Merlin.

“Three thousand, huh? Three hours.” They lean forward, their eyes on Merlin’s face. “That’s about how long you normally spend in that old arena. Three hours.”

Merlin nods. “When?”

The leader’s smile grows. “Tomorrow evening, little songbird, when the lord and your king can come to watch.”

They ride back to camp with the paperwork of the deal completed, Gwaine teasing poor Merlin about his habit of sneaking out to an old abandoned arena and singing. Leon watches on, not bothering to hide his smile, as Merlin’s embarrassment fills the air. At one point he shoots him a look that clearly says ‘are you not going to help me?’

The one he sends back makes it clear that this is more than enough entertainment for him.

“Alright,” Lancelot says eventually when he sees Merlin��s jaw start to wobble, the line of embarrassment to humiliation much shorter than he would like, “that’s enough, leave him be. After all, the songbird has to perform tonight, don’t make him lose his voice before he closes the deal.”

“I’ll take it,” Merlin mutters.

They do thank Merlin for agreeing to do this when they get to camp. Leon slaps him on the shoulder and congratulates him for being willing to do it.

“It’s fine,” Merlin says, shuffling a little next to the fire, “I just…wasn’t expecting it.”

“Well, no,” Gwaine sighs loudly, “I also wasn’t expecting to find out that one of my oldest friends is a songbird.”

“Merlin’s your oldest friend?” Elyan snorts. “How bad are you at making friends?”

“Oi!”

“No, wait, seriously, do you have no other friends?”

“I have friends!”

“Really? Who are they?”

Merlin grins as the topic of conversation steers away from him and more toward Gwaine’s apparent inability to make friends. Well, meaningful friends. People you down pints in the tavern with don’t really count—no they don’t, Gwaine.

Of course, just because the knights are getting distracted doesn’t mean Leon is getting distracted.

“How long have you been able to sing for, Merlin,” he asks softly, too unobtrusive for the others to notice, “did your mother teach you?”

The tips of Merlin’s ears redden again. “No.”

“It’s alright, Merlin,” he says softly, “there’s nothing to be embarrassed about, it’s alright.”

“It’s—it’s—“ he shifts— “it’s nothing.”

“If the lord was ready to make a deal over the promise of your voice, that’s not nothing, Merlin.” Leon frowns when Merlin just keeps shifting uncomfortably. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“That’s alright.”

“You’ll laugh.”

“Never,” he promises gently, “not if it’s worrying you this much.”

Merlin shifts a little more. “…I’m not actually that good.”

“Lie.”

Merlin’s head jerks around as Leon glances over his shoulder to see Lancelot watching them. The knight nods toward the other three who are now arguing about the precise alcohol quantity of some tavern drink as he scoots closer.

“Lie,” he repeats softly, “I’ve heard you sing, Merlin, you’re incredible.”

“Did you—“ Merlin splutters— “did you follow me?”

“No,” Lancelot says, raising his hands, “but the patrols do go there from time to time.”

Merlin buries his face in his hands. How many people have heard him?

“Shh,” Lancelot says, bringing his hands away, “you’ll do great. And if you don’t, we’ll be the ones who suffer the consequences for agreeing to a ridiculous deal.”

Merlin shakes his head. “I don’t know why I agreed to this.”

“Because it was the first thing they suggested that wasn’t entirely unreasonable.”

“You think this is reasonable?”

“Well, yes, compared to the thirteen caskets of gold, two barrels of opals, and six cartloads of mead.”

“It will be fine, Merlin,” Leon promises, “don’t worry so much.”

Merlin is plenty worried, thank you very much, especially when Arthur, Morgana, and Gwen show up the next day to look very very confused at what the deal has turned out to be. Arthur is fully intent on teasing Merlin mercilessly about his singing only for Leon and Lancelot to shoot him a death glare. He shrugs. He can do it perfectly well afterward.

The lord meets with them, they sit in their places of honor, and Gwaine cups Merlin’s elbow as he steps onto the stage.

“Ready, songbird?”

He sighs. “Are you going to keep calling me that?”

Gwaine just grins.

Merlin looks…small on the stage, they realize, despite the fact that he looks right.

Then he begins to sing.

Gods.

Three hours feel like an eternity, collapsed into an instant. His voice lifts and soars, pouring into the air like an endless well. The happy songs send them into the stratosphere, the sad ones drop them into the planet’s core. Arthur reaches blindly for Morgana’s hand at one point and they cling to each other, there in the upper corners of the theatre.

One song reaches deep into Morgana’s chest and tugs in too many places to be unfamiliar. Wrapped up in power, unable to use it properly, cultivated as a thing, a cog in a machine, trapped. A dangerous flare in her gut, reached only by the way Merlin’s aura hides reluctant darkness, one borne on necessity and resentment.

One song pushes back against Arthur’s shields, calls out to a child. A child, too soon knighted, too soon forced into the mold of the perfect King, still raw from years and years of being overlooked, not being chosen, not being wanted. It calls out in remorse, in mourning for someone lost long ago yet could not be grieved because they’re still here, just buried under layers and layers of armor. The person they used to be.

One song hurts them both.

They’re not sure how long it’s been when Merlin stops for a moment, smiling, before he takes a moment to talk about the next song.

He says that there is a tale, an old one, about a soldier. A legendary warrior, impervious to all harm, except for one spot on his body. His heel. When his mother held him as she bathed him in power, something that would keep him safe, keep him invulnerable. What she did not realize is that her son did not have just physical weaknesses, nor that her son’s supposed invulnerability would keep people from realizing that he was a person too.

He says that the story tells of someone very important to this warrior, someone who realized that he was human, first and foremost, and that someone was taken away. Murdered. And what good was that invulnerability if he could not protect the one he loved? The warrior was only human, after all, and humans make mistakes. And they need to be reminded that’s all they are, behind all the power, all the invulnerability, they’re human.

The name of the warrior?

Achilles.

His voice has a sense of urgency now, one that they’ve only heard once before. When a squire, suddenly happy after months of being lost in their own head, climbed to the highest balcony in the castle and stood there, wobbling in the wind.

The song climbs, higher, and higher, the urgency growing, his light shining brighter and brighter.

Then the trick.

Another voice, dark and distorted, a twisted version of him, ringing out in the theater despite the fact that his mouth is closed. Gasps and shock as the audience tries to figure out what the trick is, how this is happening, too caught up in the thrill of the performance to care that it might be magic. The dark voice whispers temptation, scorns the others, tells the warrior to jump.

Morgana does not let go of Arthur and Arthur will not let go of Morgana.

The dark voice sings alongside Merlin, the theater caught in the storm of his making. The dark voice vanishes into a whisper, Merlin all but pleading the warrior to come down.

As the last verse starts, he looks directly at them.

There is no more facade, no more roles for him to play. This is Merlin, singing to them. The concert may be for the deal, this song is theirs.

Throw yourself into the unknown

With pace and a fury defiant.

Clothe yourself in beauty untold

And see life as a means to a triumph.

Today of all days, see

How the most dangerous thing is to love

How you will heal and you'll rise above.

Crowned by an overture bold and beyond

Ah, it's more courageous to overcome.

When the song ends and the spell is broken, the whole theater has to take a moment to breathe.

There are more songs, more that touch different people in different ways.

“I will say this,” Morgana whispers, still blinking away tears, “I don’t see them backing out of the deal.”

Arthur can’t find the words to reply.

Too soon, Merlin announces that the next song is the last one. The theater crows in protest, Arthur and Morgana among them, despite themselves. A strange look crosses his face as he raises an eyebrow.

“No? You don’t want to leave?”

Another round of ‘no’ goes up.

“But we have to,” he says softly, his voice still ringing as if surrounded by old stone halls, “we can’t stay here, as much as we want to. We have to keep going. We can’t be the rock that the water beats away at, we’ll be worn to nothing.”

To their surprise, he sits.

“…or we’ll fade into ghosts.” He looks around. “But we’d like to stay here, for a moment longer, with the ghosts, yes?”

At the noises of agreement, he smiles. “Then let’s do a different song for the last one.”

And oh, what a song he chooses.

It’s not as vocally impressive as some of the other ones, nor does it tug on their heartstrings as painfully. But this one, more than any other song he’s sung tonight, sounds like Merlin.

A girl, dancing in the ruins of an old stone castle with the ghosts of her loved ones. Season after season, year after year, until she too became a ghost, dancing with them once again.

They can almost feel hands on their shoulders.

The song ends and the deal is complete. The leader approaches to have a quiet word with Merlin before he exits the theater and waits. The lord stumbles to Arthur and Morgana, almost in a trance, with the promise to ride behind them to Camelot to officially sign the deal the next morning. Arthur is only conscious enough to nod and murmur a reply. Morgana isn’t much better. The knights have already formed a protective huddle around Merlin as they return to camp, the little songbird all sung out.

When they get back to camp, Merlin barely has time to thank them for coming before Arthur pulls him into a hug.

“No,” he whispers, “thank you.”

#merlin #merlin bbc #bbc merlin #fic #dragonbabbles #arthur pendragon #morgana pendragon #guinevere pendragon

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bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture · 3 years

Text

The first match continues! How will our intrepid hero get out of this mess? (Spoilers, it’s ghosts.)

[No. 33 - Shinsou’s Situation]

Our first page here is actually another mock cover! Which I think might be a nod to some other comic book cover, though I would not be able to tell you which one.

Poor Izuku’s shirt, who knows where it might have gone. Boy’s gonna get a cold like that. And he’s standing on top of the rubble of a fallen apartment building I think? Just from the ladder and some of the brick-like debris. And the gloves and boots are definitely a different style from what we see Izuku wearing in canon.

Anyways, into the chapter proper. The crowd’s making a lot of noise as Izuku continues to stand there frozen, with Present Mic comments on that fact, along with how Izuku is looking confounded and not even twitching. He correctly identifies it as Shinsou’s quirk at play, though he frames it as a question because, you know, show business. Ochako and Tenya are confused and concerned, as is Toshinori.

Shinsou continues to stand there, menacingly, as Present Mic goes on about how they were barely aware that this guy existed, but now he’s sure one to keep an eye on! Aizawa brings up a pair of sheets, catching Mic’s attention, as he brings up how the entrance exam was completely irrational. The sheets have simple specs on the two, since they knew this would be a quirk versus quirk battle.

...wait, oh my god, but this WAS a quirk versus quirk, battle, though, just not in the way anyone was expecting! It was a mental control battle instead of a physical versus mental quirk battle! And was our first nod towards One For All having a powerful mental aspect, which becomes a major plot point like 250 chapters from now. I am just. Huh. Well then.

Continuing on with Aizawa’s commentary. Shinsou apparently failed the practical part of the exam, so he lost a spot in the hero course. He got into general studies, though, and that’s all he could have hoped for. His quirk is extraordinarily powerful, but, given the format of the practical exam, his ability didn’t help him out.

Down in the arena, Shinsou comments to Izuku about how it must be nice to have everything handed to him. He then commands Izuku to turn around and walk out of the ring. Izuku ends up doing so, and Present Mic comments on Izuku following orders like a good little boy - which means that the crowds (or at least the announcer booth) has to be able to hear what’s being said?

Uhm. (Looks at later matches) Either they have selective hearing, or the mics must have been destroyed during the Izuku-Shouto match before they could give away anything incriminating.

Anywho. We finally get info on Shinsou’s quirk, Brainwashing! Which is absolutely not what his quirk does, it’s more like puppeteering or hypnosis, where brainwashing is a longer-term conditioning process. Shinsou’s quirk, according to the narration here, makes anyone who verbally responds to him instantly brainwashed, and will do whatever he commands. However, the quirk won’t work if he doesn’t will it.

Huh, so I suppose that means written or signed responses don’t work, then. I’ve seen that in a fic or two. Though that then leads to the question about making noises that aren’t outright responses, like groaning or scoffs or whatever… eh, battle now, quirk thoughts later.

Up in the booth, Aizawa thinks about how, from the result of the strength tests, Izuku really shouldn’t have been placed in the hero course either. But Shinsou’s stats are even worse in any event where he couldn’t make use of his quirk. Izuku would come out on top in an ordinary battle, but now that he’s brainwashed, it’s a different story. This will be over quick…

Meanwhile, Toshinori is panicking over seeing Izuku about to walk out of the ring, a litany of ‘no’ escaping him as he mentally begs fo Izuku to stop walking. Izuku is also stressing out over his body not listening to him, as well as how fuzzy his head is. He’s trying to get himself to stop, and swearing when it’s not working. He’s especially mad at himself because Ojiro had even warned him about this ahead of time -

And as if to highlight this, we shift into a flashback where Izuku and Ojiro are talking. Izuku wonders how he can win against mind-control quirk. Ojiro replies that his loss could be Izuku’s gain. His memories cut out from the instant he replied to Shinsou, which is what he thinks is the trick.

Izuku is stressed out as he summarizes that it’s all over if he slips up and says anything to Shinsou. Ojiro disagrees, saying that it doesn’t seem like such an almighty ability. Remember how he said he didn’t remember anything until the end? When Shinsou had them run past to nab Tetsutetsu’s headband, he thinks he must have bumped into Tetsu’s formation - which was when he snapped out of it. He was suddenly aware of what was happening.

Izuku guesses that it had been undone by the physical contact, which Ojiro agrees with. That said, however, he has no idea how strong the contact needs to be. And in a one-on-one match, of course you can’t expect any outside help. (Cough) Anyways, that’s everything Ojiro can tell him. Izuku replies that no, it’s awesome, thanks! Ojiro asks for forgiveness if he’s out of line, but he wants Izuku to win this for him.

With that, we ome back to the present, Izuku getting awfully close to the line and his ringing himself out. Izuku thinks how it can’t end like this, over in a flash. Everyone’s done so much for him - he can’t lose here.

And something responds.

Eight pairs of eyes watch from shadowy faces, almost everything about the specters nondescript. Izuku has no idea what’s happening, even as they seem to linger at the fringes of his mind. One For All starts to flow under the skin of his left arm, with Izuku quickly realizing he can move his fingers, even just a twitch. Shinsou, ignorant of this, starts to talk about how Izuku wouldn’t think so, but Shinsou’s quirk is like a dream. Oh, right, and Izuku loses.

Izuku’s response?

He’s not out of it yet. Izuku heaves like he’s just breached the surface of a lake, his feet stopping right on the inside edge of the line. He then turns to stare at Shinsou in a very concerning way as Present Mic wonders at Izuku managing to stop.

You know, I have this particular face saved in my folder under ‘boss music starts playing’ AND ‘boss music intensifies’. I feel like that’s pretty appropriate.

Izuku’s fingers throb in pain, and apparently the cameras are able to zoom in enough for Aizawa to see it and realize what happened - Izuku smashed it up to shake off the brainwashing. Ojiro is in nervous awe at Izuku going that far. Shinsou himself is unnerved, asking how he did it, that he shouldn’t have control.

And here’s where we get to some interesting internal monologue from Izuku that I don’t think made it into the anime.

Izuku slaps a hand over his mouth to keep himself from replying, thinking about how the finger was all him, but something woke him up. What was that? Who were all those people in his mind? For that one second, his head was clear!

One For All, All Might had told him. It’s passed down like the Olympic torch. Izuku recalls those words, and wonders if those were people, and if that was a sign that he’s linked by this power to the past. Did they save him? Is that even possible? Izuku tries to shake it off, knowing that just thinking about it won’t give him any answers, and to save it for later. He needs to think about now.

[I will have thoughts about One For All at the end of this, but for now, let’s finish up the battle.]

Shinsou is pissed, thinking about how Izuku’s not answering him, wondering if he figured it out. But no, he probably knew from the start, that that ‘damn monkey’ told him. He just has to get him to open his mouth again. He mocks Izuku for having nothing to say for himself, but Izuku manages to press his lips together and say nothing as he shifts into a fighting stance.

Shinsou presses on, stating how he’s jealous, and how just moving that finger must mean Izuku’s the real deal. Thanks to his quirk’s nature, he couldn’t enter the golder gates. Izuku wouldn’t get that, since he’s naturally blessed. You people, born with your awesome quirks, getting to follow all of your dreams!

Izuku sweats as he pushes himself forward, internally noting that that’s how he used to think too. He does get it. But… right. He is blessed. He’s blessed by the people in his life! And that’s exactly why - that’s why he’s not going to lose!

Izuku throws himself forward, one hand grabbing Shinsou’s shoulder while the other slams itself into his stomach. Shinsou retaliates with a cross punch into Izuku’s face, demanding he say something. However, Izuku only turns back to stare at Shinsou, determination burning in his eyes as he begins shoving Shinsou back. Shinsou says that pushing him out isn’t gonna happen, right before he yanks himself out of the grip and doges around. Shinsou says he’ll give Izuku that honor instead as he smacks a hand into Izuku’s face and pushes him back.

(Also, interrupting the flow here, but Izuku is making noise without Shinsou able to take control, so it really does seem like it has to be a response and not just noise. Which makes sense!)

Izuku grabs Shinsou’s wrist and his shirt, and with one mighty heave, manages an over-the-shoulder throw that firmly slams Shinsou back-first into the ground - and just over the line.

I’m pretty sure this is the same move Izuku pulled on Katsuki during the Battle Trial, actually - at least, from that momentary reaction shot we get from Katsuki.

Midnight calls the match. Shinsou is gritting his teeth, and Izuku is straightening himself out as Midnight confirms that Izuku is moving on to the second round.

And with that, the chapter comes to a close. What a match. And now that I’m not breaking the flow, it’s time to go back to the ghost stuff and ramble on it a bit more.

Alright, so. One For All. First time we’re seeing the ‘haunted’ aspect of it - and honestly, it’s not far out of line with what we end up seeing it capable of later on. It comes off as a physical quirk, but One For All as a stockpile holds everything from the past holders - strength, quirks, memories, personalities. And because of that overwhelmingly spiritual lean to the stockpile, One For All is, in many ways, as much a mental quirk as Shinsou’s, if not more so. Arguably, it could count as the most mental quirk, and that ties back into something All Might mentions at the end of the Hosu arc - that One For All can’t be taken unwillingly.

I’ve seen criticism of this fight’s handling, and how One For All shouldn’t have been able to (or interested in) stopping Shinsou from taking the win. But it’s really not about Shinsou’s quirk itself - it’s about the mental control! The helplessness, the desperation from not one, but two living holders to overcome this and retake control from the person commandeering them.

One For All’s existence, it’s purpose, is to resist being taken by All For One. It is the collective will of nine people, all with a deep-seated will to resist control. So why wouldn’t One For All step in here, when Izuku needs to learn to fight against mental puppeteering? When the still-hazy spirits of the quirk must already have the sinking feeling that All For One isn’t as dead as hoped?

Can it really be a surprise that they stepped in?

I’ll probably make a longer post digging more into this after Kamino, but yeah. Honestly, this fight is a LOT more interesting in the manga than I recall from the anime, since we get a bit more of Izuku’s thought process and what’s happening with OFA.

To close us out, here’s some discord commentary on the match:

#chapter 33 #sports festival arc #readthrough #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #midoriya izuku #shinsou hitoshi #ojiro mashirao #yagi toshinori #yamada hizashi #aizawa shouta #one for all #quirk's haunted #QUIRK IS HAUNTED #whoo boy do I really like this scene so much #especialyl izuku cottoning on right away to what's happening #even if the details elude him for a while

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makeupbychio · 4 years

Text

goodnight n go // C.H

pairing : Calum Hood x Reader.

summary : you are a famous pop singer and one normal night in your life Calum literally came to change everything.

words : 8.5k

warnings : fluff, angst and swearing.

a/n : hi babies, so I tried to do this gender neutral because I’m trying to write things for everyone without specifying gender, sexuality, physical appearance, etc. Feedback is more than welcome. Credits to the owner of the photo, and the Instagram posts.

italics means song lyrics.

bold means posts on social media.

inspired by : that one second laugh Ariana Grande does in ‘everytime’ studio version and ‘goodnight n go’ live version. And these videos (links down below in the blurb)

You are a pop star, already part of the pop culture, on tons of playlists made by platforms. So your life is always on the public eye even when you don’t post in your social media the paparazzis and social accounts always doing that for you. It wasn’t like that at the beginning, the world barely knew your name, your shows were for 50 in the room, then 100, then 1000, now a whole arena and with two dates in some cities. You have learned how to deal with the dizzy things of being famous thanks to your fans, family, friends and your own power so at the end of the day you would not change leaving your heart on stage singing and dancing every night at all even when you know that it is crazy, yeah, it is crazy there outside. How people that you don’t know tells you how you changed their lives with your music, how you saved them, tattoos in their bodies inspired by your lyrics and style.

It is been crazier lately. You write your songs inspired by your own experiences or your loved ones experiences. You just finished a tour and after a good break for a whole season you are back writing and planning a new album. You were writing a song based on a reckless love but the song couldn’t make it to the previous album because you never finish it and you didn’t want it as an interlude. But you restart it because life slapped you in the face because 3 months ago you broke up with your partner. You are laying on bed looking at some pictures of you two together walking on the streets taken by paps. The light of the screen lighting your face. And god, how you didn’t realize tons of things?, in every picture you are looking at your ex like a fool completely in love but people could not say the same coming from the other person. You were in love, your ex really loved you at first but the last months of the relationship barely paid attention to you. That is when you remembered one of your fights.

“I waited for you for almost two hours! You could at least answered my messages or you could call me! So I would leave the restaurant and don’t waste my time on you” you said loudly pointing at its face when you came back home and acting like nothing happened. You were furious.

“I know, sorry I’m tired I spend the whole day with my friend I didn’t see him in a while” your ex sighed laying on your bed. “Don’t wanna argue”.

“I don’t care about your friend! You could tell him to hang out another day. It was a special day for us you asshole” you said giving an angry look and leaving the room.

It was supposed to be a special day that day. You were back from your South America leg of the tour and you received the notice of awards nominations so you decided to celebrate by having dinner and then go to the movies together. But your ex didn’t show up, and it wasn’t the first time. You just asked for simple things like going to the beach or just receive love. So even you were angry, you came back to their arms every time.

You thought that then a good fuck or a pretty face would fixed everything, but no. Your naive head at that moment thought that things were going to change, or that your lover was the love of your life.

Now you are looking at the last picture of you two that was seen together walking out a store and even bugs can notice how disillusioned your expression and body language are in that photo. You are hanging by their arms but looking at the floor with your head down. The other person also was trying to hide it with a cap and focused on the road.

‘Oh God’ you sigh at the picture knowing how ridiculous you looked. You lock your phone and throw it to your side of the huge bed now empty the other side. You are sitting with your legs crossed in your bed looking outside your window. It is late in the night so the city lights are your view and it reminds you that night when you called your best friend to tell her about you were thinking to end your relationship. She is always been supportive with you and every time you were going to make your decision you postpone it till finally it happened. You remembered that you cried a lot that night you saw them leaving your apartment and hours later you were still crying listening to sad music with your best friend looking at the roof.

Now you decide to restart the song you left half done. Your dog joined you in bed, you went for a cup of hot chocolate and you start writing it.

The next day early in the morning you are in your way to the studio once you are ready with your makeup trying to hide your tiredness that you wrote till 3 am and put your studio outfit which consists on a big hoodie so big that the sleeves are always covering your hands but comfiness is first.

Your band and crew arrived and you have your coffee. Even when it is a sad song coming from your experience you want to put energy in this one like one of those nights you fought, how your blood was running in your veins and how deeply you knew that your relation was pointless but you were going to fall every time. The energy being aware of that but at the same time an energy by saying I’m done, I get over you but I know that I was a fool for you but not anymore.

You explain that to everyone when all of you are thinking about the melody and beats. Most of the people in the room insist and show you a sad melody and you are starting to get frustrated because they are not listening to you and your idea you are looking for.

You decided to move on on another two songs that you have complete. During breaks to eat something, drink water, go to the next studio and say hi to people that you know and fooling around with your own crew now it is dark outside and you are thinking to call it a wrap for today but the urge to at least figure it out the musicality of the song you wrote last night it is bigger.

But all of you are tired and ran out of ideas and your manager enters the soundproof box to tell you that the room is reserved for another artist from midnight till dawn. So you have 3 hours left to record this song or try again another day.

When you are talking to your favorite producer, who also is your friend, a tall man enters the room with headphones and the music too loud for not noticing the room full of people. When he saw the big group of people he freezes and apologies already leaving when you stop him recognizing him.

“Calum?” you said getting up from your seat in front of all the buttons of the huge synthesizer.

“Y/N?” he asks checking if this is real.

You nod at him and hug him because it is been a while, almost 2 years without seeing him. He is so happy to see you, the last time you were together was in an awards after party and you know him since 4 years ago when you met him and his band on an awards show that you presented his band and their performance and you saw it from the corners of the stage and waited to congratulated them because you are respectful with others musicians work, they asked for a picture and after that you have been friends but your busy life didn’t let you hang out with them but always exchanging likes, comments or messages on the dms on social media.

“Omg how are you?” he asks you while he hugs you with his strong arms the height difference is notorious so he lays his right cheek on top of your head. He knows about your love situation, but to be honest he was not sad about that. Not at all. But he is not going to take advantage of that.

“Fine and you? Omg I miss you so much, what are you doing here alone?” you say to him confused not seeing all the 5sos boys.

“We are recording our new album and the guys should be here” he says checking the hour on his watch and then quickly his phone if there is a message.

“Finally new 5sos music!” you say and laugh.

“Yeah, we don’t have the ability like you to drop music every year.” he teases you.

“Hey!” you punch him softly on his ribs. “First things first, you can do that too if you want to drop music and second, actually right now I’m struggling with a song” you explain to him all of your situation when his phone rings. Ashton is on the other side of the line.

“Cal, we said at midnight!” Ashton said.

“Oh crap, I don’t know why I understood it was at 9 pm...K’...Bye, see ya’” Calum answers to his friend before hanging out the call.

He explains to you the situation even when you listened to what Ashton said. Calum tells you that it was nice to see you but he should be back at midnight but you stop him letting him know if he wants he can stay.

“Are you sure?” he asks knowing that maybe that could bother your crew.

“Of course Cal!” you say. And even when his house it is like 20 minutes away by driving he could come back when it is his band’s turn to use the studio but to be honest again he would really love to hang out a while with you. He always finds you attractive and your voice is one of the most angelical for him.

After he greeted the rest of the group he sits close to you listening your conversation with your producer.

“What if you add little adlibs and drums?” Calum suggests but he regrets if the producer would get angry. “Sorry man, I know it is your work and I am just a guest and-”

“It is okay! Actually that is a good idea dude” your producer say asking Calum to show him what he said.

Calum and you enters the box and he sits to play the drums.

“Ashton is teaching me a little bit now that we are roommates” he jokes about it while taking the drumsticks.

“I saw that joke you did to Ashton! It was hilarious and his response” you point at him.

So you and Calum organized that he would play something in the drums first and then you start singing or reading the lyrics to catch the rhythm. He shows you a freestyle moment with the drums since he’s been doing that in his house to practice. The producer in the other side of the glass tells you from the speaker that there is a beat that maybe could fit. So once back again listening to beats ideas ordering to make that beat faster or slower, louder or pronounced then your band is working with the guitar, bass, keyboard and your drummer continues what Calum started and last but not least you are thinking where to sing it with high notes that it is your biggest characteristic.

All the people in the room are tired, your manager and part of your crew left early because they have meetings for some upcoming festivals to schedule. You let your band know that is the last effort of this week then you’ll be back again the next one rehearsing for an awards performance.

Calum now is in the other side of the glass next to the producer watching and listening all of this process of making this record. He is having fun and he realizes he could hear to your voice all night. It takes a lot of takes, to the final result of a song and Calum knows that perfectly.

You want to achieve the highest note of the song in the last chorus of the song in the last line. You should have record that first because it is getting hard for you to reach with a tired vocal cords after doing the rest of the song and the ad libs. You sigh frustrated at another failure of that last chorus.

“Y/N, should we call it a wrap for today?” your producer asks you softly. To be honest, you don’t want it after all of the work behind to finally get this song built.

“Excuse me” Calum says confident to the producer to take control of the speaker. “Y/N, listen to me, this is the last effort I know that ya’ can do this… You got this” he says looking at you directly in the eye. You nod and take a deep breath to try again and ‘he was right’ you thought to yourself when you freaking nailed it not just one high note, you reached it also the lines of the outro of the song.

Once you open your eyes when you keep singing with not that much power the last line. You laugh hiding your smile with the sleeve of your hoodie because the first thing you see is Calum stunned with his arms crossed on his chest and one hand full of rings lifted to cover his mouth. You start clapping to your band and say through your microphone ‘thank you’ to the rest of the people.

“Girl, you fuckin’ blew my mind” he says so excited mimicking what he said once you left the recording side of the room.

Minutes later everyone is saying goodbye to you and once again you thanked everyone for their job and energy as always and telling your producer to call you to edit the song other day.

Now you are alone with Calum while you start packing your things. “Magic” you say looking at the clock with 15 minutes in your favor.

You use that time catching up on general things, like music, family, next awards, and a little bit of gossiping and of course asking about the rest of the boys.

“So happy for you guys, I can see that you are happy with this new era” you say after listening to Calum talking so passionate about what he and his band are doing. “I want to wait for the guys because I miss them. Do you think Michael is still in love with me?” you joke about it in a friendly way since Michael told you you were his crush, so he always reacts so excited and weird with you.

“No, he can’t react like he used to”. Calum laughs and you understood because you congratulated Michael on his engagement.

Minutes later, the boys and the rest of the crew arrived making noise with a lot of energy as always ready for a recording night but at the end they are always laying on the floor waiting for the team to call it a wrap.

“You gotta be kidding me!” Luke says running to hug you by lifting you because he is so tall and he missed you so much. You laugh and hold him tight. You say hi to the rest of the boys and you look at Calum next to you when you both noticed Michael is trying to act serious and cool around you when later he is going to ask Calum "Did Y/N said something about me?".

After a couple of minutes talking to the boys catching up about life, their crew called them to start the session so you have to say goodbye.

"Thanks again Cal, you saved my life today" you say goodbye to him with a kiss on the cheek and then the same with the rest. "K' guys bye, hope you have a good night".

You are stepping into your car when Calum calls you running behind you. "Y/N! before you leave, I lost all of my contacts when Ashton threw my phone into a pool…" you laugh at how they always been like that. "So if you can give me your number again if one day you want to hang out with me- with us".

You both exchange numbers and say goodbye.

Your producer laughs hearing that take where you stop singing and take a second to laugh at Calum’s face. “You want to put the laugh in the song too?”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8EMIEPCF5y/

You don’t know if it was a joke or a serious question. You think for a minute at how frustrated you were that night with your team trying to build this song and thankfully Calum was there to help and give his opinion, also that laugh confirms how this song is not sad at all even when people were saying to you that it should be because of your breakup.

“Yeah” you answer and think about that little good time hanging out with Calum. You record a short video of that laugh that is going to be in the song, letting know your fans that you are in the studio pointing with your phone at the computer.

Your stories on Instagram are always like a puzzle to your fans, like what does this means? what is this? when? where? new song? album? tour? collab? video?. Most of the times you add emojis, letters, or numbers that are meaningful to decipher the message and also to tease.

“Hello?... Calum? Can you hear me?” you say through the phone.

“Y/N? Hi! Yes, I can…” he answers leaving the room. “Sorry, I was so into playing my bass, we are writing a new song”.

“Oh sorry, if you are busy I can call you later-” you say softly and gentle.

“No no no. Ehmm, how are you? Tell me” he say surprised that you actually call him. He is giving you all of his attention listening to you.

“I’m fine and you? I’m calling you because we finished the song and I would like to know if you want to appear in the track info, cause’ ya’ know… you helped with the drums and other stuff” you wait for his answer, you are nervous of his response. Why? You have done this all the time with other collabs, ‘maybe because he is so intimidating but at the same time the cutest’ you think to yourself.

In the other side of the call, he is surprised and also he finds this so cute from you because he thinks that he barely contributed. “Ehhm, yes- I mean if you are okay with this I’m okay too”.

@MTV: Biggest return of Y/N!, who just announced a new single and a new collaboration TONIGHT!, a new album, and a performance for the VMAS. *internal screams*.

@MTV: Don’t forget to watch the VMAS this Sunday at 8 pm, amazing performances by Y/N, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Halsey, Rosalía, Bad Bunny, Doja Cat, Cashmere Cat and Missy Elliott winner of the Vanguard Award and more! with surprises of course, as always.

@y/n.updates: Genius.com has revealed the lyrics of the new singles! “everytime” and “quit”, the last one is from the dj Cashmere Cat’s album. We are so excited for our baby's return.

@bbcradio1: A friendship you didn’t know you needed until now… Calum Hood from 5sos appears in the track info of Y/N’s new single. Is Y/N going to appear in the upcoming 5sos album too? let’s pray to the universe.

“Of course last but not least to arrive the red carpet is the royalty in person, Y/N” the interviewer comments watching you posing to all of the cameras. “I am loving this moment. Y/N is here to slay the red carpet and taking pictures with every artist throwing kisses to friends like to 5sos, ugh lucky boys, now saying hi to Normani, we love that”.

“Yeah, I’m smelling big succes coming this year and Y/N totally deserves it” the other interviewer says. “Oh. My. Goddess… Can we take a moment to appreciate this outfit?!”. You arrive and say hi to everyone. After a couple of questions and compliments you are walking with your team to go backstage to change for your performance.

Once the Teen Wolf cast introduced your performance, everything went dark and silence and you appear in a large lavender satin dress, perfect to build up your figure and Cashmere Cat appears on a platform with his dj set and lights pointing at you and him.

“And you say that I'm the devil you know

And I don't disagree, no, I don't see the harm

They say, "You crazy, just leave him, he'll suffocate you"

But I wanna be in your arms

They say, "No, don't pick up the phone, let him think there's nobody home"

But I'm under your spell

'Cause when you call, my heart starts to roll

I always want more

It's my heaven, my hell…”

Then two contemporary dancers are next to you dancing at what the lyrics means to you when you recorded this with Cashmere Cat in the studio after your breakup. At the chorus a fake rain starts in the stage and you have your moment feeling amazing and feeling the beat that your dj friend was playing behind you. You participate too in the choreo while you sing the last part of the song. Singing to both dancers faces like if you are watching from outside when you decided to step out your relation. So each dancer goes to their own way representing the metaphor.

Then a new different beat went off for a little moment and you start singing a snippet of one of your new songs of your upcoming album hoping to make everyone clear how you are after your breakup because you still hear some comments about it.

“I got a bad idea, How 'bout we take a little bit of time away?

I got a bad idea

Forget about it, yeah, forget about him, yeah”.

The next thing you see is everyone standing up and clapping at you. You hug Cashmere Cat. “Thank you, please give it up for my friend Cashmere Cat!”

You stay not that much to the after party because tomorrow you have to get up early for a photoshoot.

You post videos behind the scenes and the photos of the photoshoot. You are in the front page and you did something original playing with makeup, hairstyles and clothes. Everyone is living for this new era.

“Ugh, are you going to do that call or should I do it for you?” Ashton interrupts Calum and his daydreaming watching your latest posts.

“What?” Calum answers confused wrinkling his nose and expressions.

“You heard me”. Ashton says letting know his friend that he is not stupid. “I noticed how you look at Y/N that night performing and then at the after party...And don’t excuse yourself because of the angelic voice because I know I was mesmerized too but you were on another level”.

Calum doesn’t add anything else and stands up to continue writing the new song but not without leaving a comment on one of your posts ‘gorg!’.

“Hello beautiful human, it is Y/N back in the studio!” Zach says through his microphone. Everyone clap and he greets you. Even the promo you have to do for your singles, albums and all that stuff you are so picky with the interviews you want to do because in the past you had a lot of uncomfortable ones with disrespectful questions and interviewers. It is not the case with Zach, you feel at home and he is your friend.

As always you talked about your new music, upcoming things, opinions about something, your personal life and you are so honest talking on Zach’s show because he always asks you about how are you doing because he knows that everyone struggles.

“So the whole tracklist it is on genius.com and I think that it is safe to say that I’m not the only one surprised with the collabs and people who helped you.” Zach says reading a paper checking the new revelation. “I would like to know details how it is to work with such talented artists and producers”.

You told him the details and including how Calum ended in your studio session that night.

“Thank God I recognized him because my bodyguard was ready to punch him” you make Zach laughs.

Calum saw your interview and after that he called you. He didn’t know what kind of confidence took him to invite you to hang out tomorrow.

That day you went with him and Ashton and Luke to the Star Wars theme park. The guys insisted that Calum must have gone alone that day but he was too nervous. Other day you and the guys went to bowling, Michael was losing all the fun because his new life as fiancé planning the wedding.

That’s how you got the chance to know more about them every single time you hang out. Paparazzis always were there and people talking about this cool friendship. But then Calum had the balls to ask you on a date. For your surprise he invited you to a The 1975 concert, then you invited him to a Post Malone concert, you went to the movies, then late nights stops at diners. And as the bond between you two was growing with so much love, affection, confidence, honesty and how safe you feel next to him you didn’t realize that you were holding his hand or arm so natural like it was a thing you two always do. That little thing was enough for people to start rumors. Calum likes you so much but he wanted to take things slow because of you and him after you told him everything about your ex and he did the same. His ex used him just for fame and to be in the public eye so with little details when you noticed he was doubting about his own self or anything else, you let him know that everything is okay.

One and a half month later, you are with him at your place in your home studio after you order vegan pizza for dinner that Calum was right that it is delicious. You were helping each other, mostly him with ideas of sets to perform Want You Back and Youngblood on tv shows. Then you showed him the final version of ‘everytime’ and he loves that you included the laugh in the song which reminds him of something.

“I want to show you something” Calum says searching something on his phone gallery.

“Found it” he says getting his chair closer to yours. It is a video that he secretly recorded of that day in the studio, when you finally hit the high notes of the song. In the video you can hear how he says ‘wow” multiple times and your producer is not surprised but still in awe. Then there is your laugh when you saw Calum’s face and when the song ends you can hear his ‘what the fu-” and the video ended.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8O76_nC3Q5/

“Why you didn’t show me this before?” you say with giggles at how incredible you have the two sides of that moment.

“First, don’t worry because I’m never going to show this to anyone I know that I should ask you before and-” he is explaining himself.

“Can I kiss you?” you interrupts looking at him noticing a sparkly surprise on his eyes.

He leans so fast to kiss you, you take your moment to taste his lips after all this time you can confirm what you think about his lips. You break the kiss needing air. “You didn’t answer my question”.

He laughs at your teasing while you bit your lip. “You’re right, I didn’t”. He holds your face within his hands and start kissing every part of your face while he says “Yes” in every little kiss.

Things got hot and heavy so you move the make out session to your room. Both of you don’t want that the other person feel pressure to do things but with you Calum forgot his “love is scam” thing. So he carries you and takes his time to make every moment, kiss, thrust and this night to last. He thinks that he is the only one that kinda feels strange at this amount with affection and intimacy but the truth is that you were feeling the same way, because with him you don’t feel a clingy or a needy person as you were in your last relationship. With Calum is different in a good way.

“So you didn’t come home last night” Ashton says to Calum when he arrived for lunch time, because he had breakfast twice today with you.

“Ew! I didn’t want to know that Cal” Ashton says while cutting vegetables for lunch. “Thank God you are together, it took you forever. To be honest, I thought Y/N was going to get bored of waiting”.

Another night at your place when Calum surprised you with a romantic dinner and also apologizing for the other night when at his place Ashton interrupts you two.

In the middle of the night you woke up with an idea stuck in your head, you took your underwear and Calum’s baggy shirt he was wearing and before you stood up you melted at the sight of your dog sleeping closely to Calum, who at first hated him but now they look like besties.

After an hour in your studio with this new idea, you had the lyrics and already recording with a beat which two of your best friends made once in a party just fooling. The studio is soundproof and in another level of your house so the music is not going to wake up Calum, but the coldness he felt next to him makes him wonder the reason that woke you up.

And when he found where you are and what are you doing he reminds to himself that in this exact moment he feels so much love for you.

“That sounds beautiful babe” he said getting closer to you to kiss your cheek.

You are editing all focused this song to send it to your producer to do the final touches. “I didn’t want to wake you up” you lift your head to look at him with a pout and noticing he is shirtless and he looks tired from what you did hours earlier. He asked you details about this song called ‘goodnight n go’, he listened to it and once again all of his feelings manifest in a studio. “I love you” he confessed when the song ends. The feeling is mutual and the idea of this song came up all based in your relation you have with him.

@Y/N: new album. valentine’s day. love y’all xoxo.

You posted with the cover of your new album.

“There is a lot of people downstairs” your manager said arriving the room, you were waiting for your manager for the first toast of the night. It is your album’s launch party and you want to celebrate with your team, your band and their loved ones. Your family, your friends, artists of the industry, and other famous people.

You made a speech about how grateful you are for everyone in the room for their patience, for the love and support for you and this new project. Before you start to get emotional, you said to everyone to have fun tonight and you thanked again.

You rented a whole club for the night. After eating, cut the cake and having a few glasses of champagne you are ready to take pictures in the photo booth with everyone.

Your close loved ones of course know about you and Cal, but the other half of the people in the room just know the rumors and the pictures from paparazzis and fans. When you were taking funny pictures with other musicians, it is iconic that in the photo is going to appear artist from different genres of music that are your friends. Calum really wants a picture with you and just you even when he loved the ones with the boys and your friends.

“I’m ready” Calum said to you when you are pointing at the printed photo because Luke’s gold eyeshadow looks freaking amazing.

“Ready for what?” you looked at him confused.

“Ready to announce the world that we are together” he said biting his lower lip waiting for your reaction. He told you a few weeks before that he was afraid and he didn’t know how to handle at that moment if you said you were together, so you told him that it is okay and understood him.

“Like now?! What you have in mind?” you asked him nervous because you both know what comes next with this kind of announcements.

Calum just took your hand and enter just with you inside the photo booth and when the countdown started he looks at you with a smirk and sparkly eyes. “This is my plan” and he kissed you on the lips at the same time the machine announced the picture was taken.

“We have two more! What do we do?” he asked you, but now that you are here you use right the last two pictures. One kissing him in the cheek and hugging him around his neck that Calum did that thing with his eyes and the biggest smile on his face because he is so happy and also the alcohol. And the last one looks a little bit blurry and funny.

You took the opportunity to take another three but this time, now that everyone is going to know about your relation, the pictures are sexier but not vulgar. Of course your photographer took film pictures during the night so you will have several memories of the night.

You and Calum posted the three first ones on your social media.

@Y/N: my love💖.

@calumhood: happiest man in the universe. february 14th is not bad at all anymore with you by my side💛.

That night before you arrived home with Calum, he told you about a new 5sos music video called Valentine that was going to be on Youtube in 30 minutes, he told you that he wrote almost the entire song and you can’t wait to hear and see him singing this song, especially his verse.

We know we're classic together like Egyptian gold

We love us

The success of your new album was immediately. And that means a lot of interviews, invitations to tv shows, radio stations, youtube channels, etc. Calum went and waited for you backstage to the ones that were in US. But the international ones he couldn’t come with you because their new album is going to release soon and new music videos by 5sos.

“I’m so happy to be back!” you said. Today is BBC radio 1 turn. They told you they were happy to have you in the radio.

After you sang a song from the new album, you have to do a cover. In the past you did ‘Them Changes’ by Thundercat and ‘After The Storm’ by Kali Uchis taking advantage of your voice and the high notes you can reach, it is the same this time.

“Hi, this is Get You by my friends Daniel Caesar and Kali Uchis” you said. The last part is your favorite.

This feels like summer

Boy you make me feel so alive

Just be my lover

Boy you'll lead me to paradise

Youngblood is out and the release party wasn’t bigger like yours but the fun was the same. You appeared on the Cocktail Chats they did when it was Valentine’s turn. Now after two months your relation went public, the euphoria coming from the people decreased.

@Y/N: something huge in two hours with a special guest.

You posted on your stories with a sneak peek.

@ctrlnow: Y/N’s world tour with Kehlani as special guest. Next week tickets on sale. Are you excited? because this is going to be 🔥. It is the first time Y/N is going to perform in all the continents in almost two years.

@5sos: US, Canada and Mexico get ready for this tour. Special guest our buddy Dominic Fike. Tickets on sale in 6 days.

After 4 months of rehearsals and planning visuals, outfits, makeup, sets, tracklist, etc. You are on the road with the first leg of the tour in US for the whole summer in arenas and festivals. You are synchronized with Calum so you have no problem to hang out together and enjoy to the fullest your days off.

Both of you don’t get tired of each other concerts. Watching Calum leaving his heart on stage singing and playing his bass, also looking so freaking handsome every single show. For him is the same watching your amazing show with your dancers and different outfits, he said it before and in the present day that he can listen to you singing the whole day and he envies you how charming you are with your fans and noticing every person in the huge arena.

You have a main stage, then a circular runway and a B stage. Calum is always in the first row in front of the B stage. The first show you were so nervous. The beginning of ‘goodnight n go’ started and the crowd went crazy.

“It seems that you really like this one” you said teasing even more. You started dancing and walking next to where Calum is. Your dancers interact with the audience while you are reaching the high notes.

We'll have drinks and talk about things

And any excuse to stay awake with you

And you'd sleep here, I'd sleep there

But then the heating may be down again

(At my convenience)

We'd be good, we'd be great together

https://www.instagram.com/p/B577uVJnJ6f/

When you looked down, there is your boyfriend looking at you like nobody else did before. You laughed at his reaction because it was priceless and before you keep moving you blow him a kiss. So as the same his reaction was that first time in the studio with ‘everytime’ that made you laugh, now it is with the song that he inspired. He does that in every show he goes, every time you sing ‘goodnight n go’. It is now your amulet that he makes you laugh in the same part with his faces and reactions. But not everything is perfect.

The different time zones, the distance and the stress is clouding Calum’s mind. In two weeks you have barely spoken ten minutes. And new things keep coming to you like singing to fashion shows, summer festivals in other continents, hosting tv shows, etc. His friends told him that he will get used to and things will be okay within you two. But he misses you so much and he is doubting about himself again in this thing called love.

“I think it is the best Y/N” he said through his phone. He called you that night, he is so overwhelmed and tired. “I don’t want to be an obstacle, this is your career’s biggest time” he tries not to cry while he passed his hand through his hair all nervous.

“Calum please tell me you are not joking” he can hear your sobs in the other side of the line. You are in France and he is in Canada.

“Y/N just look at what time you are calling me! It is 4 am here where I am!” he said frustrated, it is not the first fight but it is the first time he yells at you that loud.

“Okay I’m sorry! It is late here too Calum in New Zealand- my point is that we will be okay Calum. After this I’m going to be home like you” you tried to calm him.

“And then what? Run to film a tv show for a whole week? Just seeing you at nights? We should take a break while we figured it out” he said and you are frozen trying to check if what he said is real.

“You are the only one who needs to figured it out, because I’m sure about us and… How could you even wonder and said that you are an obstacle?”. Now it is the opposite because the last thing you said was “Okay, if it is what you want. Go to sleep n’ goodnight”.

You don’t know how people could know. But rumors of your relationship are in every social media and it is just been a day. You want to throw your phone but you have to get ready for your show in Australia, what an ironic thing.

It is not the same hype when the beginning of ‘goodnight n go’ started. When you are singing the bridge that you were used to laugh thanks to Calum’s reactions. Now your voice breaks and hide your face with your hand and the other one holding your microphone so the public keep singing because you can’t. Your dancers changed the choreo to get close to you and let you know that they are there for you but still you start singing again in the next chorus but with a shaky voice. With this people confirms the rumors.

@enews: Our favorite couple is not longer a thing. With this we don’t believe in love. Y/N and Calum Hood are taking a break. Days before the couple had some troubles in tour. Y/N broke in tears and Calum didn’t go to any interview. Link of the video of Y/N last show in the bio.

“I supposed that you already saw this” Luke said giving his phone to Calum to show a video someone posted on Instagram. It is from your last night show.

“Yeah, I saw it” he said without making eye contact with his friend. Calum doesn’t want to talk about it. He is trying to convince himself that what he did is the best. It breaks his heart watching the video that now it is everywhere and his bandmates noticed how irritated he is with everything.

For a whole week Calum barely sleep two hours at nights. He looked off in the shows. He cries during his part in ‘Ghost Of You’, he sings spiritless in ‘Valentine’ and he asked to take off ‘Babylon’ from the tracklist.

5sos have new dates in another continents after December holidays.

“You should talk to Y/N, the Asia leg is going to be over in ten days and after the holidays the South America leg starts” Michael gave his advice to Calum but once again he didn’t give any answer.

You took ‘goodnight n go’ and ‘everytime’ off from the tracklist and changed it for another song because you tried a couple of shows after but you couldn’t do it like it used to be singing that song. Your fans were sad because it is their favorite song but you don’t want to cry every single show.

You have been in touch with Calum but not much. Just good morning and good night messages and that you are safe in the city you two are in that moment.

“Hello Mexico City!” Luke said on stage. “Welcome to the Meet You There tour, thanks for having us tonight, let’s have some fun!”

The whole night Calum were late and off key with his voice and bass that multiple times Ashton tried to follow him with the drums. Calum is thinking and worried about you when he saw earlier that you cancelled your shows in Korea because you got a cold that you have to rest your voice. He just wants to talk to you.

When the show ended, Calum throws his bass hard against the floor without caring a thing. After that he went directly to bed, without taking a shower, or eat something. It is been like this for weeks and everyone knows that what he decided was so stupid, but with hope that he learns the lesson.

“Can you explain us what was that?” Ashton said taking off Calum’s hands his phone. “Dude this is getting out of control, and we gave you your space and everything but now you are going to admit that what you did was wrong and the only thing you want is your relationship back”.

“Go away” Calum said.

“No, Hood. You are barely sleeping, eating, focused, happy. This is how relationships work, and we know that it is crazy as fuck when you are famous”.

“Yeah man, it wasn’t easy for me and my girlfriend” Michael said. “And now we are going to get married...Look, if it is meant to be and if you really love Y/N, you should fix this”.

You are back in LA for holidays and tonight you have the last show of the year because the second date of LA you had to cancel it because an allergy you had so you reschedule the show.

You are in the car on your way to the arena when your manager told you to stop by the studio because the new visual that you asked for is ready. It is a recap of this year, so your fans are going to see a couple of unreleased videos and pictures of behind the scenes of this whole year including everything and every person in your life.

In the studio you saw the new visual and you noticed that they didn’t put Calum on it. You love him and even when you are on a break, you wanted him in the visual too.

“Hmm I can explain it” your crew member said when another video randomly start in the screen of the computer.

“A mini film by Andy Deluca” you read in the title. The video shows the different reactions of Calum in every ‘goodnight n go’ performance. not just the tour, it also shows the reactions from his house listening to the song, or watching you performing the song on a show. It is a funny video but at the same time so cute and emotional because his reactions are different in every take. Calum screamed “YAAAAS!” or “I LOVE YOU BABY!”, surprised faces, funny faces, lip-synching, etc. And when Andy pointed the camera at you and you hid your laugh with your hand or sleeve, depends on the outfit. Calum says directly to the camera “Y/N should stop doing that, I’m going to say it later because Y/N’s laugh and smile are gorgeous… Okay this is my favorite song, enjoy it”. And the video ends.

“Wow, this is freaking cool but how did you-?” you asked your team when Calum appears from nowhere that scares you.

“I send it to your manager” he said. “I asked Andy to do this video because as always since the start of our relation I wanted to keep these memories”. When you didn’t say anything, he continues. “Y/N I know that I fucked up everything and-” he is interrupted by your manager telling your team to leave you two alone. Once alone with Calum in the room he continues again. “I got scared, I had never had a real relationship, this connection and what I feel for you before...I’m sorry”.

After a couple of minutes talking and giving your point of view that he didn’t let you give months earlier, you said “I love you, but please talk to me because the solution is not running every time things get complicated” and you hug him. He tried to kiss you but you said that he has to win your heart again.

“Hello LA! Hope you enjoy this surprise, happy holidays” and the new visuals and videos start playing in the big screen and everyone is laughing, getting emotional, while you drink water backstage you can hear the “awww cute”. And last but not least Calum’s video is playing and you are ready for the next song. Everyone screamed and are happy for you to be with him again. So when in the video Calum says ‘Okay this is my favorite song, enjoy it’, the beginning of ‘goodnight n go’ started.

Tell me why you gotta look at me that way

You know what it does to me

So baby, what you tryna say? Ayy

Lately, all I want is you on top of me

You know where your hands should be

So baby, won't you come show me? Mmm

“For this next song I would like to call Mister Calum Thomas Hood” you said looking at him. He didn’t know about this. You sat him in a chair and say on his ear “A little tease never hurt nobody babe”. Now talking to the audience, “Let’s go!” and the beat of ‘break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored’ went off. Calum is fighting and struggling when you are dancing in front and on top of him.

It’s been 3 years since Calum entered your room. He is so glad that he interrupted your studio session. And here he is now, watching you performing ‘goodnight n go’ like if it was the first time he heard you that night in your home studio, the feeling and the amount of love to you is the same and even bigger he would say, it just changes the place where you are singing this song. Now you don’t hide your laugh with your sleeve, and Calum always says how he feels and trusts in your relationship.

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let-me-love-you-loki · 4 years

Text

Crushing Too Late

Mattie

I always loved coming with Dad and Papa to work. I knew with everything in me that one day, I was going to be just like them. That I was going to be a wrestler and people were going to say that I was the best.

For as long as I could remember, I’d wanted to be like them. I’d wanted to do everything that they did. Whenever Mom would let them, they’d pull out an old ring they’d bought and put it together on the tennis court or the back yard. Then Papa and Dad would get in it with me, tell me stories about everyone they’d wrestled in that ring as they taught me everything they knew. And what they didn’t know, Uncle Kenny, Uncle Adam, and Uncle Cody would show me. Sometimes Uncle Brandon or some of the other people who worked with my dads would train with me.

Whenever I went with them to shows, Dad and Papa always promised that I could train in the ring after it was set up. And no matter how many times I came with them, they never once broke their promise.

“You’re getting better at that,” Dad said as I ran into the corner and flipped over onto the apron, just like he did. “Now let’s see the rest of it.”

He stood next to the ropes while Papa stood outside. I looked between the two of them and grinned.

Papa got close, I kicked out and slapped the outside of my thigh as he took my shoe on the palm of his hand. “See ya!” I grunted just before I leaned between the top and middle rope and put my shoulder into Dad’s stomach.

He let out an exaggerated oof as I jumped onto the top rope, sprang off and pulled him face-down onto the mat. Then I flipped into a handstand and kicked my legs through the top and middle rope. My feet landed on the apron, I took half a second to make sure Papa was right there, and then did a moonsault. Everyone else called this the perpetual offence machine. Mom called it Dad showing off.

Papa caught me over his shoulder, but instead of falling back, he grinned at me. “Caught in a counter, Tea. What’re you going to do?”

I looked at how Papa had caught me. I honestly had no clue what to do. I’d never ever seen anyone counter Dad’s move before.

“Nyla or Shida would have driven you into the ring apron by now,” Dad said from the ropes.

Before I could think further, a voice came shouting down from the stage area. “DDT!”

“What?” I shouted back. When I looked up from Papa’s back, I thought I was going to choke. Trent and Chuck were walking down the ramp with their friend Orange Cassidy right behind them. I blushed and tried to wriggle out of Papa’s hold. Instead I kneed him in the ribs hard enough for him to drop me onto the mat at ringside.

I felt the heat burn through my face as I looked up and saw them standing there. Cassidy smiled as he offered me his hand to pull me up. “DDT would do the trick,” he said as he heaved me easily to my feet. He was in street clothes and wasn’t wearing his trademark sunglasses or jacket.

I didn’t like how my tongue got tied into knots whenever they were around. Chuck always told jokes and made me laugh. We traded bad jokes and insults about how stupid the other one was. Trent would let me sit on his back while he did pushups until either he fell over or I couldn’t stop laughing. Then he’d do pull ups while I clung to his legs. Cassidy was almost always there, usually sitting quietly in the corner watching the three of us act like idiots. But he never said much, and I never knew what to say to him.

But when he did speak, it made my heart sink into my toes and I thought I was going to be sick. He had a nice voice and really pretty eyes. I couldn’t stop staring at him, even as I felt my face go redder and redder with each passing second.

I heard Dad’s voice from the ring. “Remind me not to use that in the match tonight. I can’t have the King of Sloth Style show me up.”

Cassidy laughed and I got that sick feeling in my stomach again. It was like a straight drop on a roller coaster without a safety bar. It made me dizzy. “Dude, we both know you move too fast for me.”

“Aww, I’m sorry, Cass. Let’s have dinner first, how about that?”

Papa snorted. Trent hid his laugh behind his fist. Chuck hopped up on the ring apron. “Only if you have him home by eleven, Nick. Doesn’t do well if he misses his bedtime.”

I looked up and saw Dad grinning ear to ear. I always loved seeing him smile. It made Papa and Mom happy. Especially since there was a time when Dad didn’t smile all the way. But being with his friends, being around everyone at the show, it always brought out his easy grins. I felt myself mirror his expression. Everyone said I looked like him. Sometimes I thought that bothered Papa and, honestly, I didn’t like it all the time either.

But when it came to smiling, Dad had the best one. And I was glad I’d gotten it, too.

Matt

Nick, Chuck, and Cassidy traded snappy remarks and comebacks while Trent and I watched them like a tennis match. It wasn’t unusual. The five of us had done enough bits for Being the Elite to have a pretty solid rapport by now.

Our eldest stood in the midst of it, looking up at Nick and beaming when he smiled. The more I saw it, the easier it was to see that she was his twin. Mischievous, funny, whole-hearted, and exceptionally aware of her place in the world. Mattie had Nick’s eyes and his smile, and hair that was somewhere between mine and her mother’s.

Like them, she was also a completely open book. Oh Jesus, I’m not ready for this.

Nick

I flopped onto the mat and rolled out to sit up on the apron. Mattie was a few steps away, her face bright red. She hopped up onto the ring next to me and tucked herself beneath my arm. I gave her a squeeze and kissed the top of her head. She was fifteen, and I was afraid that the day was coming when she didn’t want to be our little girl anymore. I’d take what I could get until then.

“Dad, can I come to ringside tonight?” she asked quietly.

I grinned at her. “Sure, Tea. We’ll get you a spot in the front row.”

Our daughter grinned at me and kissed my cheek. “I’m going to go annoy Uncle Adam.” She slid onto her feet and hugged Matt around the waist.

“Yeah,” Chuck said throwing his arm around Mattie’s shoulder. “Let’s go annoy Adam.”

Cassidy and Trent fell into step with the two of them as they walked up the ramp and disappeared backstage. I watched until they were out of sight.

“God, she’s growing up so fast.”

Matt crossed his arms and glared in the direction they’d left. “Too fast. I’m not ready for this.”

“Ready for what?” I queried as I joined him at the base of the ramp. “Matt, she’s not going to get in the ring or be on TV for a while.”

My brother grunted. “I’d rather put her on TV tonight than this. Did you not see what I just saw?” When I didn’t answer, he threw his hands up. “She’s looking at Cassidy.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Matt, relax. She’s fifteen. And he’s our age. Plus… Jesus, she’s known him all her life.”

“I don’t like it.”

Mattie

“I don’t know where Uncle Adam is,” I said nervously, standing outside the locker room that was usually his. “Maybe he’s not here yet.”

“Pushups?” Trent asked, his brows raised. There was a slight smirk to his smile that made me grin.

“I’ve got some yo mama jokes you haven’t heard yet,” Chuck offered.

I looked up at him, hoping I looked very serious. “You talk about my Mom and I’ll superkick you in the teeth.”

Cassidy laughed from where he leaned against the wall. “I would pay money to see that. Actually…” He dug his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out twenty dollars. “I’ll give you this right now, Mattie, if you do it.”

“Come on, Orange. You know she’d never—”

Before Chuck could finish, I’d leaned back and delivered a superkick that Dad and Papa would be proud of. The very tip of my sneaker bopped Chuck in the chin. It was habit to slap the outside of my knee at the contact, and the noise echoed down the hallway. He staggered dramatically and plopped onto his butt on the floor. I laughed.

I lost my balance. Wobbling on my planted foot, I saw the floor come rushing up at me. An instant later, a set of arms locked around my chest. Cassidy took a moment to steady me before settling me upright.

My whole body tingled. I could feel my face burning bright red as I smiled nervously. Cassidy grinned. “That was perfect.”

I beamed beneath his praise. My heart raced in my chest. I thought I was going to faint. I couldn’t catch my breath for the life of me. He was so close, and his eyes were so pretty and brown.

“Dad’s going to get me a ringside seat tonight,” I blurted out. The moment the words were out of my mouth, I wanted to slap myself. Why did I say that?

Cassidy grinned even wider. “That’s going to be fun.”

***

Papa took me out to my seat before the show started. “Be good. And enjoy the show, Tea.”

I reached over the barrier and hugged him as tight as I could. “I love you, Papa.”

He squeezed me hard and kissed my forehead. “Love you too, sweetheart.”

After he went backstage, I watched the fans file in and take their seats. I loved the noise and the crush of people and the signs and energy. It was one of the reasons I wanted to be a wrestler.

Dad, Papa, and Uncle Kenny were starting the show against Chuck, Trent, and Cassidy. I grinned as The Elite music thundered through the arena. Dad, Papa, and Uncle Kenny came out, paper money came flying out of the cannons by the ramp. My heart thumped and thudded in my chest as they came down to the ring. I shouted and waved, jumped up and down, screamed in joy. Each time I saw them was just like the first time—exhilarating and terrifying and beautiful.

Once they were in the ring, new music started. Chuck and Trent came out, Cassidy right behind them. I always giggled when Trent and Chuck walked to the ring arm-in-arm or holding hands. They all looked so ready to fight, so determined to best my dads and Uncle Kenny. I waved at them too, screaming in happiness.

They hopped into the ring together. Cassidy crossed the mat and shrugged out of his denim jacket, tucking his sunglasses in the pocket. Instead of tossing it to the ringside table, he rolled beneath the bottom rope and handed the jacket to me. He winked, and I felt the heat tear through me. I blushed and stammered.

“Take care of that while your dad kicks my ass.”

I clutched it to my chest and tucked it against my nose to hide the way a smile split over my face.

Tag List

@mox-made-me-do-it @not-that-kinda-gurl08 @lilred91 @imagineall-the-fandoms @maelleoute @librathepheonix13 @justamess44

#crushing too late #too late tales #the too late tales #matt jackson #matt jackson fanfiction #nick jackson #nick jackson fanfiction #young bucks #young bucks fanfiction #mattie jackson #aew #aew fanfiction #matt x reader #matt x reader x nick #nick x reader

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365days365movies · 3 years

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April 3, 2021: Duck Soup (1933)

Time for talkies! That sounds weird, doesn’t it?

The year after The General, the first writing was put on the wall for Keaton and Chaplin with the controversial film, The Jazz Singer. In that movie (which, yes, prominently features blackface, but moving on for now), the eponymous Jazz Singer talks on screen, with the audio being synched up to his mouth moving. This was the birth of the “talkie”, or a film with diegetic sound (sound coming from the film itself, rather than the score). The silent film industry heard the death knell rapidly approaching.

But from the death of one, comes the birth of another. Sure, slapstick would still persist in talkies, inheriting the remnants of the vaudeville era that Chaplin and Keaton heralded from. But now that sound was available, a whole new form of film comedy could be introduced. Enter: The Marx Brothers.

Leonard (born March 22, 1887), Adolph (born November 2, 1888), Julius (October 2, 1890), Milton (October 23, 1892), and Herbert Marx (February 25, 1901) were all born in New York City to German and French Jewish immigrants. Unsurprisingly, at least one of their parents (their mom, Minnie) was a performer, in a continuing trend with all of these guys. Her entire family were performers, especially her brother Abraham, a very successful vaudevillian who went by A Shean. The five brothers soon also fell into this profession.

The began with their uncle in vaudeville, and they became fairly successful. Originally known for their singing, they shifted to comedy after a performance in 1912. The two eventually fused, turning them into a comedy act with music in it. And at some point during this time period, the brothers were playing a poker game with a cartoonist, who gave the brothers their iconic names. Respectively, they became Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, and Zeppo. And a new troupe was born, but only on stage. It’d be another 17 years before they broke into film. Well, except for Gummo, who went to World War I, then never came back...to the theatre. Just wasn’t his thing. He went into the raincoat business! Anyway...

By 1929, two more things had happened: the first talkies had been introduced, and the Marx Brothers were one of the most popular theatre acts in the country. They also had some competition in that arena from two other acts. On stage, three brothers, Moses, Jerome, and Samuel Horwitz, also Jewish and also from New York City, joined up with a man named Ted Healy, and a comedian named Larry Fine, and formed the vaudeville group known as the Three Stooges.

Meanwhile, in silent film, British comedian Stan Laurel teamed up with American comedian Oliver Hardy, and the two made a lot of short silent films together, all of which were shorts. The tall, talkative, and rotund Hardy and the thin, stoic, childlike Laurel were a perfect pair and were known as, of course, Laurel and Hardy.

These two groups were worthy competitors, both for the Marx Brothers, and for Chaplin and Keaton’s form of comedy. And their popularity similarly built over the course of the 1920s. But the Marx Brothers were then given a unique opportunity, before any of the others had the chance. In 1929, Paramount Pictures funded a film, 93 minutes long, which brought the Marx Brothers to the big screen. And this film was a talkie, called The Cocoanuts.

The Cocoanuts was pretty successful, and certainly launched the career of the Marx Brothers. Laurel and Hardy had a talkie come out earlier that month, but it was a short rather than a feature film. And the Stooges wouldn’t be in a film at all until the following year! The Marx Brothers made the leap to the silver screen with verbal comedy, arguably before any other major comedians had the chance to.

The next year, Animal Crackers came out, launching them to even greater fame. This is especially in the case of Groucho Marx, whose greasepaint mustache and quick wit was a huge hit with audiences all over. They moved from New York City to Hollywood, and became bonafide movie stars. Monkey Business in 1931 was their first production not based on their stage acts, and was also a big hit. Horse Feathers in 1932 increased that fame EVEN FURTHER, and there was absolutely no way their stardom could increase from there.

Right?

1933. The Marx Brothers meet up with Leo McCarey, a director you may remember from An Affair to Remember, back in February. They reunite with Margaret Dumont, a comic foil to the brothers who had been in The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers, and the honorary fifth Marx Brother, according to Groucho (sorry, Gummo). Paramount Pictures funded them for the last time, and the brothers would make a film that wouldn’t perform well in the box office...but is considered their great work on film, basically universally.

Let’s watch it, shall we? Time for some Duck Soup! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

After the opening credits, which includes a bunch of ducks in a bucket ON FIRE, JESUS, we enter the country of Freedonia, a small, bankrupt, and fictional country. The leaders, including President Zander (Edmund Breese), are asking wealthy widow Gloria Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) to give them ore money. She agrees, on one condition: that the President step down, and that a man named Rufus T. FIrefly (Groucho Marx) be appointed new leader of Freedonia.

At a party celebrating his ascension, we met Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern), the ambassador of a rival nation, Sylvania. With his beautiful spy Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres), he plots to take over by having her woo Firefly. At this point, his secretary, Bob Roland (Zeppo Marx), arrives to the hall, and the group questions where Firefly is. They note that he’s always on time, and begin to sing the national anthem in anticipation of his arrival. Sucks that he’s still in bed.

He slides down a fireman’s pole as they continue to repeat the anthem, as if repeating a theatre cue, and begins...well, he begins being Groucho Marx. He spits out so many lines at such a rapid pace, it’s genuinely difficult to keep up with it while typing. Check out the scene yourself, if you’re curious! Best part is when Teasdale is talking about her late husband.

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Get used to clips; I’ll be adding a lot of them, I’m sure. This segues into another song about the new laws that Firefly is planning on imposing with his administration. He forbids whistling, so I’m never going here. He also bans dirty jokes, smoking, chewing gum, amongst other things. He also basically promises that the country’s going to be far worse than it’s been before. So, yeah, promising.

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This is interrupted by an appointment to see the House of Representatives, and he heads there with the help of his car’s driver, Pinky (Harpo Marx). However, the sidecar somehow isn’t hooked up to the motorcycle, and Pinky drives off without Firefly anyway. Funnily enough, the silent Pinky is actually a spy for Trentino, along with Chicolini (Chico). They go to report back to Trentino.

Their report reveals two things: they were tailing the wrong person, and they’re very bad spies. Disappointed, Trentino sends them back out for some reason, and they eventually get into a fight outside, which also involves a short-tempered lemonade vendor. Which is, unsurprisingly, another very humorous exchange.

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After destroying both his livelihood and sanity, the two pose as peanut vendors and are quickly found by Firefly, who basically IMMEDIATELY appoints Chicolini to a government position, as the Secretary of War. Just then, Pinky steps in, answering a phone with his signature horns as a response.

After replying to all of Firefly’s questions with various pictures on his body (again, this is very funny), Pinky also leaves, only to be replaced by Bob the Secretary, who suggests trying to get rid of the two-faced Trentino by insulting him, with the intent to get Trentino to slap him, and give him cause to get rid of him once and for all. He once again gets in a car driven by Pinky to go there, only for Pinky to take off once again.

At the party, Trentino is trying to woo Mrs. Teasdale, in order to get her money. Firefly shows up, insults Trentino, only for Trentino to insult him back. He slaps Trentino in response, leading to the opposite intent, and Trentino declares that the countries are now on the verge of war. That night, Teasdale speaks with Trentino, who is to be summoned back to his country. However, he promises to remain if Teasdale can convince Rufus against war.

Rufus agrees to come over, and proceeds to flirt with/intensely neg Mrs. Teasdale. He meets with Trentino once again, who is also with Vera. After another confrontation in which Rufus makes a reference to an old song about my African Americans exist (it’s not called that, and it’s SO BAD, but it’s not with malicious intent; just ignorance), and war between Freedonia and Sylvania is even more likely than before.

That night, Pinky and Chicolini are sent by Trentino to infiltrate Mrs. Teasdale’s place, as Vera has discovered that the war plans were given to her for safekeeping (which we actually saw previously). As they search the house, Teasdale calls Firefly, and asks him to come over and take the plans. He agrees, and Chicolini (who was waiting for him at his room), takes the opportunity and locks him in his bathroom. He dresses up as Rufus and impersonates him to get the plans.

However, Pinky does exactly the same thing, leading to three of them in the same house. Chicolini and Pinky run downstairs, and Chicolini heads to get the plans, now knowing their location. He accidentally turns on a speaker, and runs off. He accidentally runs into a mirror, breaking it. This is just as Rufus heads downstairs to look for his imposter, and that...leads to arguably the most iconic comedy sequence of all time.

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It’s in almost complete silence, and the two are so perfectly synchronized, it’s unbelievable. And it is VERY funny. I mean, it’s famous for a reason. It’s just genuinely a great sequence. But, at the end, Chicolini is caught, and we next jump to a trial, which is, you guessed it, very funny. It also produces on of Groucho Marx’s best and most famous one-liners.

Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you; he really is an idiot!

However, Mrs. Teasdale makes one last ditch effort to prevent war. However, Rufus talks himself out of the effort, slaps Trentino again, and it’s officially war. And what follows is...well, what I can only define as Marx Brothers musical number chaos. It’s war.

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Also, I think that’s the last video I can add on this post. Damn, didn’t know there was a limit for that. Anyway, the whole thing is a crazy-ass production, followed by an insanely chaotic climax on its own. Pinky finds a woman he was looking at romantically earlier, and it turns out that she’s the wife of the lemonade vendor from before. He hides in the bathtub as he’s coming in, then erupts out of the bathtub playing a bugle when he comes in. It’s...it’s hard to describe, but it’s pretty funny.

War begins in earnest VERY quickly, and while this entire sequence is pretty amusing...it just reminds me that World War II is yet to happen, and that these guys have NO IDEA how bad war is going to get in the next few years. Whoof. Anyway, Chicolini and Pinky switch sides a couple of times, until eventually siding with Firefly. But pretty soon, the war destroys most of Freedonia, and Rufus, Chicolini, Pinky, Bob, and Mrs. Teasdale are all together in a shelter.

Trentino shows up, and he gets trapped in the door, as if he were in the stocks. The guys pelt fruit at him while he’s caught in there. Declaring victory, Mrs. Teasdale sings the Freedonia national anthem. The boys respond by throwing fruit at her instead, and...that’s it!

Yeah, that’s Duck Soup! Holy shit, that was...both exactly what I was expecting and not really what I was expecting at all. Huh. I’ll get into it, but it was at least very funny! See you in the Review!

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whatarubberchicken · 4 years

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The Bodyguard’s Tale

Happy Holidays, @staymagical! I’m your Secret Santa for the @voltronsecretsanta2k19 exchange! I hope you like this! (I saw you were a Merlin fan, and I couldn’t resist! But don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten the rest of your request, it’s just a bit of a slow burn! (; )

Read on Ao3 or ff.net! Next chapter>>

......

The Bodyguard’s Tale

Chapter 1

Keith stared up at the tall, white towers of the Altean palace and tried not to wince. It was so different from what he was used to on Daibazaal! The colors, the shapes, the sounds! Back home, there had been noise and chaos, yes, but it seemed so much… more organized than this! There, it was orders being shouted and the ring of blade on blade. Here, people were calling out to each other eagerly, children laughing everywhere—he swore he even heard music coming from somewhere! (You never heard music on Daibazaal unless it was a feast day!)

“Well, this’ll be an adventure, huh?” Shiro said cheerfully, coming up beside him.

Keith rolled his eyes at the Champion. Shiro had been a prisoner in the arena before his fighting prowess had been recognized and he’d been granted his freedom as a prize. Above all, the Galra valued strength, and Takashi Shirogane had it in spades. Since then, he’d become an “ambassador” for his home planet, Earth, which Sendak had conquered on a whim a few years back. Shiro didn’t really have much to do as an ambassador, Earth was still conquered, but the title allowed him to sit in on meetings and not be forced back into the fighting pits.

He was probably elated to get away from Daibazaal for the foreseeable future.

Sure enough, he laughed at Keith’s droll expression and slapped the young prince on the back. “It could be worse,” he pointed out.

“Yes, my great choice,” Keith drawled, looking around this new world with poorly-disguised contempt. “Either become the servant to some jumped-up peacock with royal Altean blood, or become Sendak’s new chewtoy until he decides I need to have an ‘accident.’ Yay, me.”

“Hey, I’ve heard this Altean prince is pretty nice,” Shiro said, showing a bit more sympathy as they entered the palace. “At least he’s your age.” Keith shrugged. “And you won’t be his servant, you’ll be part of his personal guard.”

“Same difference,” Keith muttered.

“We both know he can’t possibly treat you worse than Sendak would’ve,” Shiro added.

That was for damn sure. Keith wasn’t sure why Emperor Zarkon hadn’t just signed his execution warrant. Instead, he’d offered his younger son a choice: become Commander Sendak’s new lieutenant or go to Altea with his half-brother Lotor, where he would become a young Altean prince’s new bodyguard while Lotor attempted to solidfy their alliance by marrying the Crown Princess Allura. And since Commander Sendak had gone through eight lieutenants in the past two years, it had been an easy decision to make. At least on Altea, Keith would live. Shiro’s appointment to the same planet had been a great relief, though. Keith had no idea how to relate to these people. Lotor was half-Altean, and he and Keith couldn’t stand each other.

Hopefully his half-brother would be busy paying court to the Altean princess. With any luck, their meetings would be few and far between.

“Game-faces time,” Shiro whispered as they entered the court. It was a huge room with lofty high ceilings and an overall feeling of light and magic. Big difference from anything he was used to on Daibazaal. Still, one thing was the same; people everywhere were looking at him expectantly. Keith carefully schooled his expression into the blank mask he’d been taught from childhood.

“Announcing Prince Keithyr of the Galra Empire and Champion Takashi Shirogane, Ambassador of Earth!”

Keith resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his formal title. Prince? Sure. Unwanted prince. At least they weren’t trying to call him Yorak anymore.

He was a bit surprised at the murmurs and side-long glances people gave to Shiro when his prosthesis came into view. Apparently, the Alteans didn’t value strength and fighting nearly as much as the Galra did. Shiro might not fit in here as much as he thought he would.

“Beloved baby brother!” Lotor greeted, coming down from the dais to embrace Keith. They both remained stiff, but avoided snarling or growling at each other in public. Keith gave him a fake smile and a nod as they pulled apart.

“Allow me to introduce my intended, Princess Allura.” Lotor said gaily, indicating the Altean royal family. A young woman with long, flowing, curly white hair descended, smiling at them. Keith and Shiro quickly bowed.

“It’s so good to finally meet you, Keithyr,” she said, holding out her hand for Keith to kiss. “Lotor’s told me so much about you!”

Yeah, I can very well imagine what Lotor has told you…. Keith performed a perfunctory salute on her hand and gave her a smile.

“I’ve heard many good things about you too, princess,” he said politely.

She beamed at him. “And this, of course, is my brother Lanceon,” she said, waving him forward.

Keith studied his new charge carefully. He’d seen pictures, of course, but it was always best to get the measure of a man in person. He did a quick inventory. Short brown hair, glowing blue cheek markings (those might make it hard to hide in the dark if they had to make a quick getaway sometime) tall, lanky, a casual air about him that said he didn’t really care to be here—

“He’s shorter than I thought he’d be!” the prince’s aloof air suddenly melted away as soon as he saw Keith, and he bounded forward to get a better look. Keith shied back instinctively as piercing blue eyes roamed all over him. “Aww, I thought he’d be blue! Or at least, ya know, purple,” Lanceon whined. “He’s not even fluffy!”

Keith felt his eye twitch. “Sorry I’m not fluffy enough for his highness,” he growled under his breath. Beside him, Shiro covered up a laugh with a cough.

“My apologies, Prince Lance,” Lotor also appeared to be hiding his mirth at Keith’s discomfort. “Keithyr is only half Galra and doesn’t share all of the traits—”

“Like you?” Lanceon interrupted, looking over at Lotor with a sweet smile. “You’re only half Galra too.”

“Indeed,” Lotor said, his eye barely twitching. Keith noted it down. Aha! It seemed there was some tension between his brother and the resident prince. “But Keithyr is half human,” Lotor said, recovering quickly, “the species of Ambassador Shirogane there.” He indicated where Shiro stood. Lance latched onto him immediately.

“Hi! I’m Lance!” he said cheerfully, shaking Shiro’s hand.

“Shiro,” the man said, amused.

“Man, he wasn’t kidding,” Lance said looking between Shiro and Keith. “Are you sure you two aren’t the real brothers instead of Lotor there?”

Don’t I wish, Keith thought silently, as Shiro and Lance chatted amicably. I would gladly take Shiro for a brother over Lotor any day! He tried to stomp down his growing resentment of the prince. I didn’t get a handshake, or an introduction….

“Lance, why don’t we let Ambassador Shirogane introduce himself to the court,” Princess Allura finally interjected. “You can go acquaint yourself with your new guard.”

“Fine, fine,” Lance said carelessly, leaving the court and obviously expecting to be followed.

Keith gave one last bow to the royal family (guess he wasn’t important enough to be introduced to the king or queen, but that was just fine with him, he already knew his duties), exchanged an eye-roll with Shiro, and hurried after him.

He wasn’t surprised to see Lance whirl on him as soon as they reached a bedroom that obviously belonged to him, and Keith carefully closed the door behind him before the other prince could explode.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” Lance snapped, “I don’t need a babysitter!”

“No, you need a cleaning lady,” Keith said, looking around. There were clothes and bottles of various liquids thrown haphazardly around the room. He even caught sight of a boot on a lamp. What a mess! He’d have been whipped if Dayak ever caught his quarters in this state!

“It’s fine, you can walk through it!” Lance said, dismissing it as easily as everything else.

“It’s a health hazard,” Keith argued, noting all the places where ingenious spies or assassins could be hiding in plain sight. “And it’s my job to keep you safe.” Lance opened his mouth, but Keith beat him to it. “But it’s NOT my job to clean up after you.”

Lance scowled. “Fine, I’ll clean it later. The point is,” he said, launching into another rant, “I don’t like Lotor or his heavy-handed ways, giving me a bodyguard who I’ve never even met!”

“What, you think I want to be here?!” Keith asked incredulously. “You think I like the idea of following you around for the foreseeable future?! It was either this or be stuck as Sendak’s punching bag until enough people forgot about me for me to ‘disappear.’” He stepped closer, daring to get in Lance’s face. “Whether you like it or not, we’re stuck with each other. So, let’s just hope my stupid brother charms your sister enough so we can make this alliance official already, and maybe they’ll let us go back to our regular lives!”

Lance blinked and took a step back, studying Keith in a new light.

“You don’t like Lotor, do you?”

Keith stared at the young prince. “Are you actually this stupid, or are you just pretending?”

“I—I am not stupid!” Lance sputtered. “At least I don’t have a stupid mullet!”

“Really?” Keith said dryly. “You’re comparing intelligence to hairstyles?”

“It looks stupid! You’re stupid!”

Keith felt the beginning of a headache come on. “Oh, this is gonna be a long mission….”

#voltronsecretsanta2k19 #voltron #VLD #klance #keith (voltron)#lance (voltron)#Altean!Lance AU #bodyguard AU

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inheritedfang · 4 years

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Some of my Thoughts About Dark Souls 1

Considering how I’ve heard people talk about this game for years and years, and I both finished my first playthrough and got more than halfway through a new playthrough in one night (it’s 7:30 a.m. and I haven’t slept at all, help), I have a few things I want to talk about.

I’m going to start off with my biggest point: is it just me or does the game drop in quality after Ornstein and Smough? Up until then the game is incredibly atmospheric, with fantastic level design and that whole “difficult but fair” thing everyone tells you about when you first find out about the game. However after I beat Ornstein and Smough and was told to go after the four Lord souls, the game stopped feeling fair and just became irritating. Tomb of the Giants? Admittedly not the worst at first, but once you get to the second bonfire it just becomes a mad sprint past the massive beast skeletons that’ll tear you apart if you stop to fight them. Not to mention the fact that unless you found the Skull Lantern in the Catacombs, you have to navigate the Tomb of the Giants in the pitch black, barely able to see two feet in front of you until Patches shoves you off a cliff just after the first bonfire. This area is capped off by Gravelord Nito, who is somehow frustrating and easy at the same time. I, a big mistake on my part, went in without a divine weapon as getting one to a decent level would have taken far too long. I could detail every bad thing that happened, but one example sums it up perfectly; I dodged one of Nito’s attacks, only for him to immediately follow up with a grab. I messed up the dodge and he grabbed me, doing a bunch of damage before gently laying me down on the floor. In the corner. Right in between the three skeletons. I couldn’t roll away, I couldn’t kill them quick enough, I couldn’t heal. I promptly died.

The Duke’s Archives was even worse, with the majority of my experience being boiled down to running around in circles trying to figure out where to go while being spammed to death by projectiles being fired from God knows where. After escaping my cell and returning to the Library I got lost for an unbearable amount of time, running back and forth trying to figure out where I was supposed to go when everything looked exactly the same. The enemies are irritating as well; the worst being the archers and the big sorcerer enemies (can’t remember their names), who just spam soul arrows at you then teleport away when you get close. I may be slightly biased because I just started a Sorcerer playthrough which was complete and utter hell in the Archives, getting nearly two shot by literally everything, but regardless. I don’t have much to say about the Crystal Caves. It looks nice, the invisible floor mechanic was odd and seemed pointless to me but it was easy to figure out where to go anyway and it was harmless all things considered. Seath the Scaleless, the boss of this area, was a complete joke. Trying to sever the tail for the Moonlight Greatsword was a pain at first, sure, but just going for the kill was pathetic. I beat him by running at one of the two front tentacles and just sprint attacking over and over. Seath barely even attacked me while I did this, it was a massive disappointment. Also special mention to that one garden area between the Duke’s Archives and the Crystal Caves, it looks unforgivably bad. I don’t have a good image of it unfortunately, but it looks genuinely unfinished. Especially with the Crystal Golems that look like they’ve just been randomly thrown about the garden with no thought put in whatsoever. I felt like I was playing a developer test level.

The Demon Ruins were very fun, fighting through the ruins gave me the same feeling as first carving my way through Undead Burg, seeing everything ruined around me, taking in the various details of the environment as I slowly overcome the various enemies blocking my path. The very copy and paste feeling of some of the enemy placements was strange, however. Seeing five or six weaker Capra Demons dumped in a hallway and seeing seven or so Minor Taurus Demons off in the distance, all standing together in the lava lake made me think that they could have been leftover placeholders that were kept in due to time constraints. But overall, without going into too much detail, the Demon Ruins was a refreshingly enjoyable area, especially after just trudging through Tomb of the Giants, so after killing the Centipede Demon I was excited to see what would be next. And then Lost Izalith ruined everything. My time in Lost Izalith was spent taking off my clothes and running through boiling hot lava and it was about as fun as it sounds. The sprint to the boss was stupidly long and had you taking an incredibly linear winding path through the lava lake to avoid attracting the attention of massive Tyrannosaur-looking Demons that just stand around completely still like until you accidentally step too close and get squashed. But despite the painful area leading up to it, maybe the boss would redeem it? Maybe the boss would be good enough to make all the suffering I’d endured worth it? Haha.

No.

The Bed of Chaos is easily the worst, most infuriating boss in the game and one of the worst I’ve played in a long time. It’s not fun having to run through the entirety of Lost Izalith, only to spend about five seconds in the boss fight before being swept into a bottomless pit and sent right back to the bonfire at the start of the area. Finally killing the boss isn’t even satisfying because once you’ve gotten past the asinine jump and managed to avoid being knocked into the death hole by the almighty hand of God himself, you find that the boss is just a pathetic little bug that goes down in one hit and doesn’t even fight back.

The last of the four Lords, the Four Kings and the area leading up to them, New Londo Ruins are my favourites of the Lords and their areas. New Londo Ruins had a brilliant aesthetic and atmosphere, the Dark Wraiths were threatening as all hell (although surprisingly easy to kill) and the idea of fighting the literal ghosts of those who had died when New Londo fell is incredibly cool. The atmosphere especially ramps up when you drain the ruins and head down, only to be greeted with piles and piles of endless corpses that you have to step over to carry onward. It’s intense. It only took me two tries to beat the Four Kings, but it was one of the most tense fights in the game for me (I’m not counting the time where I dropped into the arena then took off the Artorias ring and was consumed by the Abyss shhhh that doesn’t count). The first time round was me testing the waters then quickly calling the fight cheap because I was swarmed by three Kings at once that I’d obliviously allowed to spawn, but then the second time round I realised that I could reliably tank their attacks without needing to heal and kill each one before the next one spawned, so it quickly became “neck a green blossom and just rush them there’s no time for second thoughts”. It was easy, but damn was it fun.

And so came the final boss, Gwyn. The Kiln of the First Flame was a brilliant area that did everything it needed to, being an atmospheric and foreboding lead up to the final fight. The few black knights along the way were good parrying practice and they dropped tons of upgrade materials that’ll no doubt be useful in New Game Plus. But before long, I finally arrived at the fog gate. Weapon at the ready, I stepped through, prepared to meet the final battle this fantastic game has for me.

Remember how I said that “The few black knights along the way were good parrying practice”? Well, that was some subtle foreshadowing because parrying completely and utterly trivialises the final boss. Parrying isn’t something you can usually do in the boss fights, however for whatever reason Gwyn is able to be parried. So despite what the game’s story has been leading to and the beautiful, melancholy music backing your fight would have you believe, it’s much less an epic duel between Chosen Undead and forsaken Lord, and more just the Chosen Undead slapping Gwyn’s sword away and stabbing him in the chest every ten seconds. Good build up and once again good atmosphere, but a pretty underwhelming fight overall.

That sums up my thoughts on the second half of Dark Souls 1 pretty well; underwhelming. The first half is exactly as it should be: you fight your way up from nothing, constantly facing overwhelming odds as you prove your worth as the Chosen Undead through sheer determination and strength. The second half lost that same feeling for me, and I think it’s due to the levels relying more on gimmicks like the darkness of the Tomb of the Giants or the entirety of Lost Izalith. The game is still fantastic, but I do wish it managed to keep up the same level of quality that it held at the beginning.

Because I started writing that at about 7:30 a.m. and it’s now 9:21 a.m., I’m going to just summarise my last point and then go the bloody hell to sleep.

I feel that Anor Londo is somewhat overhyped. I’m not a big fan of the design and while I understand that it’s entirely by design and intentional, the big and abandoned feel of the city doesn’t work for me at times. I still love exploring it, but I don’t understand the tons and tons of love people give it. As well as this, the Anor Londo archers really aren’t that hard. I’ve heard people rant about their difficulty numerous times before, but once I’d finally encountered them, I just walked up to the one on the right, baited him into pulling out his sword and attacking me, parried the attack and one shot him. The pillar blocks the other archer’s view of you so they can’t do anything about it. It really isn’t that hard. Same with Ornstein and Smough, they’re definitely difficult, but not quite as difficult as I’ve heard people say.

Anyway I’m off to sleep for fifteen years, have a good one lads

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jt-amethyst · 4 years

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WWE Live in Brandon

Finally my recap for the February 23, 2020 WWE house show in Brandon. My brother and I showed up right when the doors were opening because I have anxiety and I wanted to be there as early as I could. The show was not a sell out, they even removed the chairs directly behind us and we had the entire 10th row to ourselves. This was only my 2nd WWE event and the last time our seats were far away and in a bigger venue so I was excited to be sitting where I was.

* Sarah Schreiber was the host but the audio was so bad that we really couldn't hear a thing she was saying and when she tried to get reaction from the crowd, there was nothing. Sorry Sarah, we're not jerks we just couldn't hear you.

* Even before anything started people in the audience were wooing lol.

* They played a retro jukebox video package with entrance videos of past superstars and like the dumbass I am, I started tearing up during Macho Man's music because I was remembering when I was a little girl watching my cousin's old wrestling tapes and dreaming of seeing a show live. Macho Man was my favourite.

* Okay on to the show. The Street Profits were the first to come out and they hyped up the crowd like I have never seen. They had so much energy and had everyone in the audience screaming for them. Montez was especially energetic and was playing air guitar to Hawkins and Ryder's entrance music. I couldn't even watch their entrance because I couldn't look away from Montez, he was just that funny. The match was really good, entertaining and athletic and I got a new respect for the Street Profits. Also, Montez was carrying a red cup as usual but it was covered in sparkly red rhinestones.

* Next was Humberto Carrillo vs. Angel Garza. Garza came out with Zelina and she was wearing the same outfit as she did on Raw that I loved but she had a knee length black pleather jacket with black fur on the collar and wrists that I think might have been her personal jacket because it was cold in the arena that night. I thought she looked great, I always like to see what she's wearing. Anyway she came out trash talking Brandon and saying that we had the ugliest men in the country which Garza agreed to but he said that we had the most beautiful women and after some banter, he got kisses on both his cheeks from women in the front row. Obviously they had massive heat from the audience and we were firmly on Carrillo's side. It was a very athletic match with lots of near falls and yes Garza did rip his pants off. Zelina interfered a few times and Garza got the win and the boos from the crowd.

* Next up was Lana vs. Liv Morgan. They showed a short video package to remind us why they were fighting before Lana came out. Lana talked for a long time and whipped the crowd up into a frenzy of hate and when Liv came running out and attacked her, everyone cheered. I was worried that people wouldn't be into this match but I was wrong, and there was lots of cheering for Liv. Lana was doing ballet exercises using the top rope as a barre and Liv kicked her in the thigh and everyone cheered, it was funny. It was a pretty standard match and not all that long but Liv got the victory and did a long victory lap slapping hands and signing stuff for the fans. When that was over, she skipped up the ramp with her hands behind her back like she usually does but when she got to the top she did a half turn and winked to the audience. It was adorable.

* Next they showed a package for Eric Rowan vs. Aleister Black. Rowan started out on the mic and he was actually really good. It was a pretty standard match for them, nothing new but Rowan interacted a lot with the audience. Aleister pulled out the win but he was kind of closed off from us but that is kind of his serious character. Rowan really impressed me.

* A lot of people left after that match and I think they thought that it was intermission but it's their loss because it was Becky vs. Asuka time. It was supposed to be a triple threat with Charlotte but I found out later that her Grandfather had died so obviously she wasn't there. RIP Charlotte's Grandfather. Becky got a huge reaction, I almost wanted to plug my ears but I was surprised that she didn't go on the mic at all. It was a great match but nothing that you wouldn't see on a typical episode of Raw. In the end The Man came to Brandon and left with a win.

* We had an intermission and they handed out prizes to some kids and brought out The Street Profits again. They came out in Brandon Wheat Kings jerseys and handed the kids who had their own hand-made titles, titles from the concession stands.

* Next was R-Truth vs. Shelton Benjamin. Truth was amazing and had everyone screaming What's up with him, including me who is extremely softspoken. I was very excited because I have been a fan of his since he was in TNA. He talked for a while and dedicated his match to his childhood hero, John Cena. Shelton came out with a Wheat Kings's jersey over his shoulders and got a nice reaction until he was posing on the turnbuckle and used the jersey to wipe his arm pits. That's right, he played us like an old fiddle and we fell for it. Instant boos, he threw the jersey to Truth who smelled it and made a face before trying to shake it out and throwing it into the crowd. Good match, they are both so athletic and talented but Shelton tried to do a five-knuckle shuffle on Truth and that was the end for him. Truth got him with an Attitude Adjustment for the win and the crowd was so excited.

* Next was AOP and Buddy Murphy vs. Ricochet, Ivar and Kevin Owens, Seth stayed out in his disciples corner. Naturally the crowd went nuts for Owens because he is Canadian. The match wasn't that great in my opinion, Ricochet did most of the wrestling and he was amazing but there were too many breaks because Buddy had to keep leaving the ring to get Seth's advice. It was a match you could see on Raw but not that exciting. Seth eventually broke up the match so it ended in a disqualification as he attacked everyone. Drew McIntyre's music hit and he came out to challenge Seth to a match right then. Seth was in character for the whole time and I have to give props for his acting skills. Drew talked for a while calling Seth a coward and stuff like that before he and Owens led the audience in a chant of 'tiny balls'. It was pretty cringy to hear a couple thousand people yelling that but it got Seth down to the ring and their match started. Again, it was a standard match and Drew got the win. He got on the mic after and thanked us for being a great crowd and that he was surprised that this was the first time in 15 years that WWE has come to Brandon. He went around the crowd and signed some signs including one that he took and laughed at that said 'Seth Rollins sits to pee', holding it up in front of the camera so we could see it before giving it back to the fan.

Other thoughts:

* R-Truth is a living legend

* Rezar, I'm sorry I never noticed how attractive you are. That has been rectified.

* My brother is now officially a fan of Montez Ford which is nice since he was already a fan of Bianca Belair

* Aleister Black wore full tights which was kind of weird

* Kevin Owens tore off Ricochet's shirt before the match started and Ricochet was really surprised

* Ricochet's back is really muscular

* Drew called Seth 'Sweet Messiah' on the mic

* I can't believe how vocal the crowd was the whole night long. Even though I am painfully shy, they even had me yelling and clapping all night. The last show I went to in Winnipeg really only got loud a few times and mostly for Chris Jericho but my brother walked past Lana when he went to get the car and she was talking about what a great audience we were. Maybe we won't have to wait 15 more years for them to come back.

TL:DR

I forgot that WWE can actually be fun when you don't have to listen to commentary and the superstars aren't so micromanaged. They know what they are doing and the do it well. I haven't enjoyed WWE that much lately but that was a night I will never forget. Thank you to all of the superstars and staff for putting their all into these shows just to make us happy.

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writing-realityawayfromreality · 5 years

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Find Me

So I wrote this for two reasons. It is roughly based off what I hope will happen at an ECHL game when I go this coming weekend, and two i picked Nolan because I am still stuck on part 7 of Please dont Leave, and if I would had written about the ECHL player chances are no one would know who he is. Anyways, enjoy.

You and your friend decided to go to a last minute hockey game, you scored some pretty good sits for really cheap considering how late in the season it was and how well the team has been doing lately. It also helped that you had connections with people in the ticket office.

You usually went to games with your parents but tonight you decided to venture out on your own, plus your parents were busy and you didn’t want to sit home on a friday night. Your friend was always down for whatever whenever when it came to hockey. You did some loose beach waves and some light makeup before throwing on your Patrick jersey. You love the whole team but you had gotten nolan’s jersey for your birthday since you were turning 19 and your friends thought it would be cute to get you one every year same number on the back as your age. Well that was until next year when there is no player 20.

You and your friend decided to eat at the arena. It was so much or crowded than it had been before but you took into account that it was the playoff push. You grabbed some chickie and pete fries and headed to your seats. You had perfect timing since the guys were only coming out for warmups. “Gets go to the glass and see if we can get a picture with one of them.” your friend suggested. You’ve always seen pictures of fans getting pucks and pictures with the guys so you gave it a chance. Heading down to the glass you saw Nolan. Your friend knocked on the glass gaining his attention, he turned around and gave a smile as well as wave his glove, your friend pulled out her phone and snapped a quick picture of the three of you.

You turned around to mouth a thank you to Nolan, you saw him staring straight at you. you gave a quick smile. you were about to walk away when he took his glove off and held up a finger signaling you to wait. He leaned down and picked up a puck. He flipped it over the glass for you. Once again you smiled. you both kind of just stood there until Travis came over and skated right into Nolan, causing you to laugh while nolan shoved back at Travis. You waved goodbye and then headed back to your friend. You were about three rows from the ice and just about center line a little more so behind the players bench but you had a pretty good view of both teams.

You and your friend continued to talk throughout the warmup, you watched the guys do their routine of passing shooting and one on one drills. Your eyes landed on Nolan a few times to see that he was already looking at you. You thought it was a little strange but you still gave him a smile. “Someone likes you.” Your friend bumped your shoulder laughing. “bruh, he’s a hockey player he sees tons of girls that he likes a night, doesn’t mean anything.” you said shoving your friends shoulder and laughing with her. The buzzer went off signaling the end of warmups, some of the guys stayed on the ice for a little longer wanting for the other team to leave. Nolan was last off the ice, he shot you a quick wave before heading down the tunnel.

It wasn’t that long until the game started. You decided to post the picture of your friend, Nolan, and you and then another picture of the puck that Nolan had tossed you. You captioned it A night to remember. Thank God for hockey boys. You were debating on tagging the flyers and or Nolan, you were too focused on that to notice that the opening video started playing for the Flyers meaning that they were about to come out of the tunnel. You quickly put your phone away and started cheering with the rest of the crowd.

You patiently waited for them to announce the starting line up, secretly hoping that Nolan was starting. Sure enough it was Hart in net, Ghost and Provy as defense, and then Nolan, Travis and Coots, as offense. They were playing the islanders for the fourth and last time of the season, last game they won 4 to 1. You were a little worried because last game Jake got suspended two games for the hit to boychuck and he said that he was going to get him back, so you knew it was going to be a brutal game.

Right off the face off Nolan had the puck and skated down the ice. you started to cheer him. hoping that he would make it. He passed it to travis who slapped the puck right past the goal tender making it 1-0 with just minutes into the game. The boys did their little line of high fives and then headed back out for another face off. This time the islander won and headed towards Carter, playing a little keep away from the guys you could tell they were tired and irritated, they needed a change. Provy got the puck and sent it down the ice, luckily Coots had touched it making sure it wasn’t icing. The boys quickly skated over to the bench for the line change. You looked down to see Nolan looking back at you with a smile then waved before turning around to focus on the game.

The rest of the first period went pretty smoothly. There were a few rough hits but nothing too major. the islanders didn’t want to do anything to cause an unwanted penalty since they were down. The second period started off just how the first period ended. The islanders dominated majority of the game after the flyers opening goal. the one player took a shot to which carter out of a rebound causing another player to come charging at the net, crashing straight into Carter, his helmet few off. The flyers didn’t take too kindly to that considering Travis one player in a head lock while Nolan was squaring up with the guy who hurt Carter. It was almost a full line brawl. Travis started to throw some punches at his guy while Nolan already threw punches and had his guy on the ice.

Carter was standing up talking to the trainer, he seemed to be fine, he was a little more concerned about getting his helmet fixed. They gave the islanders two five minutes for fighting and gave the same to the flyers. The crowd was upset thinking that there should had been more considering the player never let up before contact with Carter which sent him flying into the net and his helmet to come off. There both Nolan and travis sat in the box, they were still chirping at the other players. The game continued, it was pretty much back and forth until the last seconds of the penalties, the one defense men on the flyer shot the puck up the ice, Travis was the first to leave the box followed by Nolan they were both considered in play. Travis got the puck and continued to skate down the ice followed by Nolan. travis pulled the goalie to one side while he passed to Nolan for basically an empty netter.

You literally jumped out of your seat. Nolan had an assist, a fight and a goal which was a gordie howe hat trick and it was only midway through the second period. you didn’t notice the camera man standing in front of the section that you were in taking pictures of the crowd, you only noticed when a flash went off signaling that he took a picture. The Islanders called a time out to try and slow down the flyers momentum. While the crowd waited for puck to be dropped again music came on to fill the time. It was your favorite song, pulling your friend to her feet you both started dancing, until the jumbo tron showed you and your friend. Some of the guys were looking up and watching you and your friend having a great time.

The flyers ended the second period 4 to zero two goals thanks to nolan, travis (twice) and Hartman , you were hoping that tonight would be the night that carter finally got his shut out that he’s deserved since day one. The second intermission went pretty quick and before you knew it the guys were back on the ice. There were a few more fights that broke out, and in all honesty you couldn’t blame the players, the flyers weren’t letting up and the islanders were playing pretty rough, but you didn’t want the game to end. You usually got sad at the second intermission knowing that there was only another 20 minutes to play. The islanders pulled their goalie pretty early, basically with 5 minutes to go. JVR skated down the ice shooting the puck on net to which it went in. The crowd started cheering louder than ever before, you were glad JVR was playing some good hockey with the team, after all he was your first flyers player. The Islanders put their goalie back in only to pull him once the face off happened.

Nolan skated down the ice towards the empty net, instead of taking the empty netter for himself he passed the puck to travis who happily put it in the back of the net, needless to say the game ended 6-0. Carter had finally gotten himself the shut out that he deserved. The guys stood in the middle of the ice acknowledging the crowd that was watching. You caught Nolan staring at you again, you were too caught up in him to notice that most of the fans were leaving, your friend nudged your arm. “You ready to go?” she asked. “Yeah, sure.” you said looking back on the nice to see the guys leaving and heading down the tunnel. “that was a really good game. You and Nolan seem to have something going on.” she said laughing. “Oh shut it. He’s a hockey player, he’s just being nice.” you said.

You knew you were lying to yourself, you didn’t understand why he paid so much attention to you. As soon as you got back home you went to sleep right away. Not that your mind wanted to let you, you kept thinking about Nolan. Rubbing your eyes you looked at your phone, it was already 10 o’clock, shit, you were late for class. You literally jumped out of your bed and got dressed. heading into the bathroom you sprayed some dry shampoo and brushed your teeth. Grabbing your keys and your book bag you headed out the door and to your class. You had just gotten into class when your phone started to blow up with notifications. Looking down you saw that it was your best friend. “CHECK INSTA!!!!!” She texted. she sent another text but this time it was a picture “IT’S YOU!!!!” confused you looked at the picture, it was a screen shot of the flyers latest post it was indeed you. You remembered that the photographer had taken your picture right after Nolan had score. you were so excited that he scored you jumped out of your chair. You texted your friend back. “Okay, so?” you asked not knowing what the big deal was. “SO?!?!?! Have you been on twitter?” She texted you back. “No.” She had sent you another picture, it was a screen shot but this time it was from twitter. “Nolan is looking for you.” the text read. you clicked on the picture. It was a tweet from Nolan with the picture of you from the game last night that they posted on instagram. “Can someone help me to find out who this girl is?” read Nolan’s tweet.

“Why is he looking for me out of all people?” you asked your friend. “I don’t know, maybe it’s because y’all connected last night!!!!” your friend said. You decided to go onto twitter yourself to see if this tweet was real. Looking up Nolan’s twitter you was the post. then you saw there was a feed. The one person had commented that they thought that you went to Temple and was in her class, to which nolan replied asking for her help to find you. You weren’t sure how your felt. You could just message him asking what he wanted but what fun would that be, you decided that if he really wanted to know who you were he was going to have to work for it.

You tweeted to your page hoping that Nolan would be smart enough to figure out what it means. The girl who replied to the tweet originally was actually in your class and your followed each other on twitter, you posted two simple words, Find Me .....

#nolan patrick imagine #nolan patrick #Thoughts #dreams

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wewillwriteyou · 5 years

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Friends Will Be Friends || Chapter 11

A few elements from the main plot: A very special group of friends: early days, drama, laughter, booze, success, rock stars life, girl power, friendship, love, sex, music, misunderstandings, some more drama, family. Pairings in the tags

Summary Chapter 11: The concert arena is filled with tension. Everything goes down.

Word count: 2.3K

Warnings: Language, more language, DRAMA, angst, smut at some point (kissing, touching…). D R A M A.

A/N: Hi everybody! This one was honestly so much fun to write. It’s pretty much dialogue and nothing…hot…happens, but it’s really important to the rest of the story. So be sure to check it out if you want to keep track of it. Stay tuned for the next ones lovesies 💖😏 As usual, if you like what you read, comment, like, reblog and share this with others! For everyone who follows and supports this story, thank you guys (you know who you are)! You are real stars! ⭐💗

“Shit”

The girls muttered in unison.

Freddie widely grinned, as he observed the scene that was unravelling before his eyes: he knew he had thrown the girls a cheap shot, telling them both that the other would not have shown up that day. However, he could not help but feel pleased with himself. He had had enough of all the stolen glances and the sexual tension inside the group. Besides, they never could hang out all seven of them because Melissa and Chelsea were always so worried about messing things up and causing a scene. He had somehow forced them to, but he was sure that from then on things would have worked out okay.

Both Mel and Chelsea had lost colours in their cheeks and they kept on staring at each other, trying somehow to communicate telepathically and figure out how to handle it.

Brian glanced at them both, not sure of what exactly was going on. John and Roger were even more confused.

They all were startled by the side door, as Mary made her entrance in the hall. She gasped and grinned widely “Oh my God Fred! How did you do it? You convinced them to tell the truth?”

Chel and Melissa fulminated her with a stare, unbelieving of what was happening.

“The truth about what?” Roger turned to his sister.

John felt his hands become all sweaty “I can explain,” he told Roger, extending his arm towards him as if he wanted to stop him from stepping ahead.

Melissa widened her eyes and interrupted him “That’s not what she’s talking about, John”

Brian moved his eyes from John to Chelsea “Then what IS Mary talking about?”

Chelsea opened her mouth in shock, she pointed her finger towards Roger “You told him?”

“Of course not!” Roger quickly defended himself.

“Told him what?” John stepped up.

“Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?” Roger yelled in exasperation.

Freddie was trying to contain his laughter and Mary gave him a nudge; he looked at her apologetically, then turned to the group and said:

“Oh c’mon, darlings, are you blindfolded?” he eloquently gestured, moving his hands from Melissa to John and from Chelsea to Roger.

“It really isn’t that difficult…” he took a seat on the edge of the stage, followed by Mary “Besides, it’s not even a big deal”

He could see lightbulbs lighting up inside the guys’ heads, as various expressions of astonishment passed through their faces.

John was the first one to talk. He turned to Chelsea “So… you two have a thing? What-” he couldn’t finish the sentence, because Roger suddenly shrieked:

“You’re shagging my sister?! My FuCkiNG SiStER?!?”

“ROGER!” Mel slapped his arm, her cheeks swollen by the embarrassment.

“-what about Tom?” John felt a shiver down his spine, hearing Roger’s words, but decided to focus on his best friend.

Chelsea flushed and opened her mouth to explain him everything, but

“Fuck!” she yelled, dragging John down with her, while the back seat of a disposable chair flew above their heads.

“WHAT THE FUCK, ROGER?” Brian yelled, pushing his friend back: Roger was actually losing control.

“The one thing I always say to all the members of my band is to stay the fuck away from my sister, and YOU - the last one to join us - you shag her without even telling me?!”

Roger furiously stepped forward, ready to jump up the stage, but Melissa rushed to his side and put a hand over his chest, trying to push him back

“Roger he was not supposed to tell you anything!” he looked at her, rage infuriating in his eyes “I’m not a child, Roger. I can shag whoever I want and they don’t need your permission”

Roger was shocked to hear those words coming out of her mouth. She added:

“Besides, John and I are not messing around” she calmed her tone, smiling to her boyfriend. Then she shifted her look to her brother, who had stopped panting but still was enraged, looking at John, deadly serious in the eyes.

“I need some fresh air. If I stay here another minute I’m gonna choke the hell out of you…” He stepped away from his sister, looked briefly to the people around him, then started walking rapidly to the side exit.

Chelsea jumped up and climbed down the stage, rushing to catch up with him.

“Chelsea wait-” John reached out his hand but she was already at the door.

“Let her go” Melissa had climbed on stage, stepping towards him and taking his hands in hers “She is good at calming him down. They’ll be back” she said reassuringly.

John met her gaze and smiled slightly “We messed everything up, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, pretty much” they chuckled, Brian too. He was sitting with his legs crossed on the edge of the stage.

“Did you know about her and Roger?”

Mel nodded, rapidly glancing at her feet.

“And do you know what happened with Tom?” he asked.

Melissa nodded again “I was there. During their break up, I mean. Mary and I picked up the pieces”

She looked around but realized both Mary and Freddie had disappeared.

“They said pretty harsh things to each other. Chelsea told me their relationship was at a dead end. Tom did not see it that way… or maybe he didn’t want to see it that way.” Mel sighed “He stormed out after the fight and Chel… well, she just crumbled to pieces. I think she took it pretty hard. But I also like to think Roger helped her see things another way and lift her mind off the weight she felt for keeping that relationship with Tom alive…”

She looked at him, trying to figure out how John might take this. She then added “They’re good for each other. Chelsea and Roger I mean…”

John smiled slightly “I know. They have the same lively energy that radiates and reaches everyone in the room. No wonder Rog and I became such good friends so quickly…”

Melissa smiled and placed a hand on his check. He leaned into it and added “I only wish she had told me… I can’t stand the fact I didn’t do anything to help her.”

“I know you do.” She caressed his check “And I’m sorry we didn’t tell you… the thing is… we sort of… had a deal about it.”

John furrowed his eyebrows curiously. Mel smiled and in the corner of her eye, she saw Brian shifting his attention to her as well; she continued:

“I had to be quiet about her and Tom… and Roger” she sighed “She had to be quiet about me and you.”

She looked up to him and saw him smiling.

“So you two knew everything but everyone else knew nothing?” he inquired grinning.

Mel let out a soft chuckle seeing his funny expression “…actually, Mary knew as well”

John lifted his eyebrows, making her laugh even more “Mary?”

“…and Freddie, cause that girl can’t keep her mouth shut”

John laughed “So who didn’t know? Me, Roger and Brian?”

“Actually I knew about you two” Brian raised his hand, trying to act innocent “Remember when you almost went at it on my kitchen counter?”

The two of them blushed and Brian laughed “Yeah, walls are thin guys… anyway, I also had a feeling something was going on with Roger”

“Oh shut up, you didn’t know anything about them!” Mel pointed her finger to him, her other hand on her stomach, to contain the laughter.

“So in the end, the idiots who didn’t know anything about anyone were Roger and me?”

Mel mouthed a yes, but she was lost between laughter. She had never realized how funny the whole thing was. Her laughter was so contagious, that both John and Brian found themselves laughing along.

“Well, don’t you look lovely, darlings?” the three of them, still giggling, turned around to see Mary and Freddie reappear from the shadows, grinning widely.

As they stepped closer, Mel locked eyes with Freddie and mouthed a ‘thank you’. Freddie bowed his head, as a way of saying ‘you’re welcome my dear’.

If inside the arena the air was starting to get less heavy, outside Roger was seeing everything black. Chelsea was still running behind him and, when she finally saw him, he was approaching his car.

“Roger!” she yelled and stopped him from getting inside, by slamming the door of the car. He turned around and almost fulminated her with his sight.

“You knew everything?!” he asked her and when he saw her looking at the ground, he understood he had guessed right “and you didn’t tell me! Why?!” Roger snapped and Chelsea felt the tears watering her eyes.

“I’m sorry Rog, but Mel knew about us and she didn’t say anything to John, so I promised her not to tell you about them! She’s my friend!” she yelled back at him.

“But she’s my sister!”

“And with that? You can’t control her life, Rog! And I can swear to God that John is a fucking good boy, who probably loves her more than anyone else could!” Chelsea felt the need to protect her best friend.

Roger looked away and started to breath faster, probably trying to calm himself down. He looked at Chelsea: the tears were streaming down her face. He sighed and pulled her closer, as she laid her head on his chest, hugging him tightly. Roger started to brush her hair to calm her down and he kissed her head.

“I’m sorry honey, I am an asshole. A total asshole” he whispered and Chelsea lifted up her chin to meet his eyes.

“You’re not. Or, at least, maybe you’re a half-asshole” she caressed his face and he smiled.

“I made you cry, so I have to be an asshole”

“I always cry, not a big deal” she joked, but he was serious. He positioned two of his fingers on her chin and pulled her closer to kiss her. It was a passionate kiss and Chelsea softly moaned on his lips when she felt his tongue entering her mouth. Roger pulled her even closer, by placing his arm behind her neck and hugging her waist with the other, while Chelsea was stroking his hair and his neck.

“I’ll never make you cry again, I promise you” he uttered between the kisses. She nodded, but at that moment the only thing she wanted was to feel him closer to her. She kept kissing him with desire, so Roger lifted her up and stumbled until he was in front of his car. Chelsea soon found herself sat on the hood of the machine and she wrapped her legs on his waist. His hands were travelling on her body, while he started to kiss and nibble her neck; Chelsea moaned, this time louder than before, and with her heels she pulled his hips closer to her, feeling the bulge that was forming inside his pants.

“I couldn’t wait to argue with you, just to have rough sex after it” Roger mumbled before kissing her again. Chelsea smiled on his lips.

“Do you really think you can handle it?” Chelsea flirted, sliding her hand inside his pants. Roger groaned and bit his bottom lip.

“Oh honey, believe me, you’re not ready for that” his voice was low and Chelsea felt shivers of pleasure running inside her veins. She immediately crashed her lips against his again and Roger’s hands sneaked under her shirt to touch her breasts softly.

“Oh my dear Lord, please darlings, hold it down!” Freddie’s voice made both of them jump. When Roger turned around and Chelsea looked over his shoulder, they both immediately pulled away, noticing that, in front of them, there wasn’t only Freddie, but also John and Melissa. Chelsea climbed down from the car, while Roger was trying to adjust his pants.

“You don’t need to pretend as nothing happened, we all saw that you were almost fucking on that car, lovies” Freddie stated, putting his hands on his waist.

“Can you please shut up, Fred?” Roger said, taking Chelsea by the hand. She met Mel’s eyes and they both smiled to each other.

“I didn’t want to interrupt anything, I just wanted to apologize for what happened” John shyly declared, looking at the ground and caressing the back of his neck with his hand “Chel, I just want you to be happy” Chelsea fondly smiled and ran to hug him.

“Mate, I’m sorry” Roger simply said looking to the ground in embarrassment, when John pulled away from Chelsea. They both nodded at each other, while Mel and Chelsea were smiling, finally relieved.

“All of this is so poetic, but can you please bring your cute little asses inside, now? In case you forgot, tomorrow we have the biggest fucking show of our lives!” Freddie shouted, sounding like a hysterical diva. They all laughed together and started to walk again inside the arena.

“I’m sorry for what happened earlier” Roger said, pulling John closer to him by putting his arm behind his shoulder.

“It’s okay mate” John replied smiling.

“But, keep it in your mind Deacon, she’s my sister. Make her sad and I’ll make you cry” Roger growled and John became serious in a moment. He raised an eyebrow to the blonde guy next to him.

“I should say this to you. You’re the one who shags girls and treats them as disposable things. Am I wrong, Taylor?” John spat out in anger and quickly walked away from him, leaving Roger with a dead look in the eyes.

“I’m so glad the truth is finally out” Mel whispered to Chelsea’s ear. She looked in front of her to see Roger putting his arm behind John’s shoulder. She smiled and, turning to Mel, she added:

“Me too, Mel. Me too” hugging her the same way Roger was holding John. The girls snuggled under each other’s arm, not knowing what their boys were actually talking about in that very moment.

Chapters: ⤎ previous | next ⤏

A/N: Hi again! Hope you enjoyed this one 💗 we’re gonna tag the lovely people who read, liked and commented the previous chapters. If you want to be tagged in the next one, comment under this one or leave us a message. Our inboxes are always open for you beautiful people

Tag list: @littledarlingwellaway @its-a-metephor-brian@bohemiandelilah @onevisionliz@misshystericalqueen @loki-lover095@deakysgurl @inthelapofthe39 @starsoflovingness-wq@minetticatinwonderland @cairdes20 @friendswillbefriendsblog@o-holynight @trash-record-collection @please-stop-me-now@theappleofmybri @marvelsbunch

Cheers, folks! ✌

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