#and I’ll probably be saying the same thing 10 years from now as well

[bellewintersroe]

Max Verstappen x HornerDaughter!

Part 2 - here is the LINK to the first part! Leni has to act dumb to everything Max has told her when they’re in Monza where Kelly is. She witnesses a somewhat awkward interaction and Max gets suspicious when Leni is close with Carlos.

Warnings: mentions of arguments, probs some swearing, jealousy and impure thoughts. A little naughty thing happens between Leni and Max, but nothing major.

A couple days later we were all back together in Monza for the following Grand Prix. It was more than a success for Red Bull, with Checo taking second and Max taking yet another win. Red Bull now had 10 consecutive wins a row. It was party central around the grid, plus Sainz had bagged 3rd place which he truly deserved, he fought off the RB’s like a mad man for a good 15 laps. After his birthday yesterday, I congratulated him with a massive hug.

“You really deserved that, well done.” I hugged the Spanish man. I’d met Carlos years ago when he signed with Red Bull back in 2010.(I fancied him). Now he just felt like my older brother. Okay maybe that was a weird thing to say.

“Thank you, miss Leni. I missed you.” He gave me a tight squeeze back as I smiled adoringly towards Carlos. “I miss you Carlos, I hope Ferrari are treating you better than before the summer break.” I half joked.

“Yeah, me too.” His eyes widened. “Will you be out tonight?” Carlos then questioned. “Probably, I think we’ll be at the same place, -are you celebrating your birthday too?” “Of course.” He smirked. “I’ll come over and say hi. Get you a couple birthday shots!” I nodded as the older man laughed. “Drinking competition.”

“Are you trying to kill me? I’ll see you tonight, Carlos.” “Yes, let me know when you are in there. I think somebody wants to speak to you.” Carlos nodded behind me as my brows furrowed slightly as I spun around, hand sliding off Carlos’ arm. Max was lingering, a huge smile plastered across his face as he attempted to bite it back, nodding towards Carlos. My heart fluttered pathetically as I laughed out of pure ecstasy.

“Max!” The two of us embraced tightly as he lifted me up. “Oh my god, I’m so happy for you.” I felt the breath of his laughter against my bare shoulder as he gently eased me back to the ground.

“Thank you, thank you. I’m so happy.” He modestly spoke, cheeks flustered from his excitement. The whole morning I had to act sheepishly around him and Kelly, purely because of what he told me when he was drunk. For a second of seeing him, I forgot what I felt awkward about. But when his hand lingered on my upper back, I felt the exact same itch of guilt that had pestered me all day.

“Good, you should be. You’ll be celebrating tonight, right?”

“Maybe, maybe.” He shrugged, hand slipping off as I crossed my hands over my chest. “Maybe? Max you’ve literally beaten a world record, you can’t not!” I nagged, pulling on his arm dramatically.

He smirked sheepishly, laughing to himself as we began walking back to the Red Bull garage. “Carlos is going out!” I spoke, as though that would sway him. “I’m sure Checo is too!” “Go party with Carlos.” Max shrugged nudging my arm. “Huh?” I asked loudly. “Huh?” He mimicked as I scoffed out a laugh. “I thought you… you know- I mean now you’re single-” “Ew, what’re you trying to say?”

“Yes, what are you trying to say, Max?” Another female voice interrupted and I tilted my head up, stomach sinking to see Kelly. “Hi Kelly!” I politely smiled. “Hey.” She smiled back. It was about as far as our friendship ever got, I always made an effort with her, but she was quiet in general, maybe the 13 year age difference between us was a bit too extreme. I was just being a hater.

“Well I thought now Leni is single she might have been… interested in Carlos.”

“Oh.” Kelly’s face relaxed as I felt my frown grow harder. “Carlos? He’s known me since I was like 9!” I grimaced towards Max, feeling Kelly staring right back to her boyfriend. Max shifted uncomfortably. I felt uncomfortable- god he needed to just tell the woman what he was feeling.

“Oops.” Max shrugged as we shared another laugh. Kelly on the other hand, didn’t seem amused. “No hug for me, Max?” She sassed as I felt my stomach churn in guilt. Max’s mouth opened to respond and I wanted to yell out, hug her you fool.

“I’m gonna go, see you both later.” I awkwardly excused myself, wanting to literally throw myself off a cliff. A shudder ran down my spine, cringing at the whole interaction. This whole crush on Max had to stop, how the hell could I limit interaction between us without it looking so obvious?

Limiting interaction is what I tried to do. I kept my distance from Max the whole evening, opting to chat with Checo rather than be around where he and Kelly bickered. It wasn’t anything new the arguments, my dad often said it was Max’s number 1 distraction. Knowing what I now knew, I agreed. I just had to keep my head down and act like whatever they were arguing about wasn’t loud enough that you could hear Kelly over the music.

Minutes later she stormed out, tipping a few drinks off the table in the process. Max groaned into his hands, luckily, Hannah, the strategist, reassured Max she was leaving anyway and she’d fix it. I kinda felt bad for him, he’d just won yet another world title and this had to happen tonight. He looked a little sad, the minute my heart churned I turned my attention elsewhere. I hated the way I wanted to go and speak to him, it wasn’t right. Max needed to end the torment Kelly was probably feeling and sort out their god damn mortgage issue.

Desperate to avoid any form of drama, I escaped to go spend some time with Carlos and the Ferrari team for a while. I looked like a little backstabber, playfully sticking my fingers up at people from RB. I’d fully danced my feet off, and I was exhausted from all the day drinking combined with the heat at Monza.

After saying bye to a bunch of people, I slipped outside, bagging a cigarette off somebody as I stumbled to an empty table, booking an Uber.

“12 minutes? Ugh.” I muttered to myself, quite literally desperate to throw myself in bed. My ankles were desperately hurting where I’d grown uneasy in my heels, and it was beginning to radiate up to my shins. I lit the cigarette and began puffing on the stick that I normally wouldn’t smoke sober.

“I didn’t know you smoke?” My heart skipped a beat as I dropped the freshly lit cigarette into a puddle next to the chair. “I don’t anymore.” I cleared my throat, glancing up to Max quickly. Where had he come from?

“Don’t tell Geri or my dad.” I commented as he let out a soft chuckle. “I won’t.”

“Thanks… what’re you doing out here?”

“Leaving.” He shrugged, sitting across from me. “Oh, me too. You can get in my Uber if you want.” I offered.

“Yeah please, I’ll pay. I gotta go and… find Kelly.” He awkwardly spoke as I glimpsed away at the mention of her name.

“No, you don’t have to pay.” I ignored the last part of his sentence, shaking my head firmly. “I do.” Max firmed. “I don’t mind Max, he’s 10 minutes away, anyway.” I looked back down to my phone as he nodded. “I’ll split share.” He offered, reaching over to tap my phone onto his contact to share the cost. “Okay.” I shyly spoke watching him slide my phone back to me.

“You ok?” He then questioned as I glimpsed back up. “Yeah, I’m good. Are you?”

“Yeah.” He sighed, running his hand through his slightly messy hair. He had stubble growing in areas that made him look extra manly, and I had to pinch my bare thigh to focus on what he was saying.

“Not exactly the best night.” Max awkwardly chuckled as I began picking at the wood on the table, thinking carefully about my words for a good few seconds. “You should tell her, Max.” I boldly said. I felt him shift uncomfortably, when I looked up he was too staring at the table. I assumed he knew what I was talking about. “I know.” He chewed on the inside of his cheeks.

“I didn’t think you’d remember..” he then added on as I let out an awkward laugh. “I didn’t think you would. You’re rich enough, just pay off the mortgage and then that’s out of the way.” “I was talking to my accountant about it.” He rubbed his face. “That’s why she was upset.”

“Oh.” I commented, my eyes roaming around any part of the smoking area, as long as I didn’t make eye contact with him, it was fine.

“Yeah.” Awkward, my teeth sunk into my bottom lip, probably taking off half the lipgloss I’d just applied. “Awkward.” I blurted out, earning a laugh from Max as we caught each others eyes again.

“You don’t have a filter do you?” I felt my cheeks warm desperately as I tried not to smile. “I mean- just not after a few drinks.”

“It’s funny, Leni.” He giggled as I took a sharp breath, “it gets me in trouble sometimes.” I shrugged. We made small talk back and fourth for the next ten minutes before climbing in the Uber together, it was safe to say neither of us was as drunk as we were that night on the beach, we actually had some restraint about us.

“I forgot to take my brother to his tutor today!” I spoke up, turning to face him. Max’s head was rested back, lolling to look at me with a soft gaze.

“How? Why does he have a tutor on a Sunday?” He spluttered out a laugh.

“You tell me. My dad was speaking to me and I forgot to listen- took Monty up to the paddock, he knocked himself out on Gelato, the same way I did the free champagne, and I just… forgot.” “Oh, Leni.” Max laughed, reaching over to slightly touch my hand through his amusement. I spared a quick glance down to his hand, it was inching closer to my own, nudging against it with every bump of movement in the car.

“It was stupid.” I muttered on a sharp intake of breath. Max looked back to me, smiling, I shyly caught his eye, feeling his fingers graze over mine to hold onto my hand. He was smiling, glancing down to our hands and I couldn’t process the butterflies he gave me. The way my heart set off racing, how I felt like I couldn’t speak. What on earth was happening right now?

What followed was a terrible guilt. “Max.” I exhaled, softly parting out hands. I didn’t know what that was, or how it happened so quickly, of course it wasn’t a kiss, but the movement made me truly question if Max and I were actually just friends? Max straightened in his seat, clearing his throat.

“I’m sorry.” He muttered. I trapped both my hands between my knees. I didn’t quite know what to say, I glanced out of the window, pursing my lips slightly. “You need to tell her.”

#max verstappen #max verstappen x reader #max verstappen x you #max verstappen fanfic #Max Verstappen angst #f1 x reader

[carmendeiact2whenplz]

Things we don’t know about Old Mondstadt (that Hoyoverse refuses to tell us)

Aka things that haunt me (and probably many other old mondstadt fans)

(keep in mind- not all of these may be entirely unanswerable as of now, some have partial/vague canon answers, while some may have completely canon yet relatively obscure answers)

(for the sake of making things easier to write, i will refer to venti’s dead friend/the nameless bard as “nb” and the red haired warrior as “rhw”, and specifically wisp venti as “wispti”, and i will be referring to the group of wispti, nb, rhw, gunnhildr, and amos (and maybe decarabian too if he’s relevant in that context) as the “old mond gang”)

Note- lots of paragraphs ahead

1- why is nb nameless? does he just… not have a name? does he have a name that he either intentionally or unintentionally kept secret? did he have a name that he used openly and oftenly, but it was forgotten by history as time went on? if anything, did he at least have some sort of nickname people used for him (so we can stop calling him “some nameless guy or smth idk”)?

2- While nb being, well, nameless, may be a bit more justified, what about rhw? did he also have some sort of name? would calling him “ragnvindr” (or similar) be entirely un-canon? did he at the very least have some sort of code name/nickname?

3- what is the timescale of the rebellion? did it take weeks, months, years? decades? how long ago did thoughts of revolution start in old mondstadt? were the people always unhappy, or did old mond use to be a better place?

4- what is nb’s role in the rebellion? did he start it? is he just a leader in general? or is he just there for the moral support? was he on the front lines or in the distance, playing his lyre to rally the troops? is he a strategist? has he ever directly fought anyone on the opposing side?

5- actually, how old is nb anyway? pretty sure most people agree that the rest of the old mond gang are adults (not wispti but like. i’ll touch more on that later), but i’ve seen stories/theories/headcanons about how old nb was (at the time of death) ranging from around 14 to 23 years old- that is not a small range by any means. (according to a poll i made a while ago, 16 was the most common answer on what people thought their age was (my headcanon too), but there was definitely a lot of range in the answers)

6- If Amos and Decarabian’s romantic relationship is so toxic (for lack of a better word), how any why did they get together in the first place? Did amos enter the relationship aware decarabian was against some of the things she wanted most in life? did she enter the relationship purely to try to “fix” him? was he abusive towards her, or was it just a lack of attention/affection/caring about other things more than her? or was it that he never loved her/was attracted to her romantically at all? were they still in a relationship even until the very end, or did they eventually split up when they both knew they would have to fight eachother and that things wouldn’t work out between them?

7- according to the “biography of gunnhildr” book (i think that’s the name), it says they worshipped the wind spirit barbatos and treated it like a deity, while other sources say wispti was nameless and was like. just kinda there. is one of them the truth, or both, or neither?

8- does wispti have arms and/or legs of any kind? can he talk/communicate with people? if so, how does he go about doing so?

9- it’s implied in “a drunkard’s tale” (an ingame book) that the wind spirit that transformed into a fox and helped create wine is the same wind spirit as well. wispti. if that means wispti can shapeshift, to what extent can he do it? can he even become a human/humanoid (not to the same detail and/or time extent that modern venti/barbatos can do so but still)? if so, how does that impact his relationship with nb and/or the rest of the old mond gang?

10- how long did the members of the old mond gang know eachother? did most of them meet in relation to the rebellion, or did some of them know eachother before they got to that point?

11- what is the order of events between amos dying, nb dying, decarabian dying, barbatos getting the gnosis, barbatos taking nb’s form, the end of the fighting, and rhw leaving/abandoning (for lack of better words) everyone? how much time took place between all those happening?

12- what exactly are the purposes of the tower? is it just a living space/government building for decarabian and amos, or is there more to it? did other people live in the tower too? if the circular ruins/symbols seen in the tower present-day were also there back then, why and how are they there? are the light actuators in the tower related to anything involving decarabian’s power/immortality and/or the storm wall?

13- how impenetrable is the storm wall, really? is everything restricted from going in or out, or are some people able to move freely? what is the immigration/emigration rate of the city? how often are things imported and exported? does the wall have any intended purpose other than for keeping the blizzard out?

14- how did amos get her bow? why is it so (hypothetically) powerful? where did she get it and how did it “retain its power” to this day?

15- how “old” is wispti? he could theoretically be any “age” between “manifesting into existence shortly before his first interaction with nb” and 14 billion years old/as old as time itself(and you thought nb’s theoretical age range was large.) how much did wispti truly know before getting involved with the rebellion? was he technically a toddler (in terms of knowledge/mentality), or does he actually have thousands of years of knowledge?

16- to what extent did the imunlaukr (i probably spelled that wrong) and lawrence clans participate in the old mondstadt rebellion? were they involved at all? should the old mond gang be eventually expanded to include more people? (lawrence, venerare, etc)

17- HOW DID DECARABIAN LOOK LIKE? HOYOVERSE PLEASE. IF YOU WONT GIVE US HIS FULLBODY DESIGN WITH MULTIPLE POSES AND FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AT LEAST GIVE US SOME CRUMBS ABOUT HIS APPEARANCE (how tall he was, hair color, outfit style, special accessories he wore, weapons he used, etc)

18- what is the relationship of the old mond game to eachother? were they friends? found family? or were things far more complicated than that? (and what was their reaction to knowing amos, one of their biggest allies, was also the lover/partner of their (the old mond gang’s) enemy?

19- did some of the genshin weapons with lore relations to old mondstadt actually get used during old mondstadt? (aka did nb get to use freedom-sworn as an actual combat weapon)

I probably left out a lot of things so i may go back later to edit, but there are just. SO many things hoyoverse keeps behind the lore basement. If anyone would like to add onto this list, or provide personal headcanons and/or canon answers to the things mentioned here, i highly reccomend doing so.

@honorary-fool @amarisrosalette @gierosajie @lanternlightss @arson-n-quwubilder @littleblueberryartist @lilyandthegenshinbrainrot @elysianheresy

@goyayato @lordofthetower @nellfe-the-feral-creature @thatonenerdinyourclassroom

@yume-shirokuro

(if anyone tagged would not like to be tagged, please let me know)

#old mondstadt #genshin impact #genshin theories #nameless bard #venti #wispti #wisp venti #redhaired warrior #amos #amos genshin impact #gunnhildr #decarabian #writing prompts

[pascallatte]

Absolutely not

Pairing: Pedro Pascal x actress!reader

Summary: The Netflix interview that became "evidence". Sort of like “Proof that Y/N L/N and Pedro Pascal have been dating for years,” part 3?? I think.

Date: January 2016

Warning/s: talking about drugs, slight cursing, unspecified age gap

A/N: this is a long one, cause I really liked this Netflix interview of his. And his expression, his smiles, his laugh, everything honestly. it just feels like him.

“Tudummm…did I do it right?” you asked giggling as the video started. Leaning his forehead on your shoulder Pedro stifles a laugh and sits up, “Yeah, you did fine.”

 “Ok, I’m gonna introduce myself to you. I’ll take over since you guys are clearly confused”, Chelsea Handler, your host for today began looking at Pedro. “well I am,” Pedro said as he turned to look at her.

“‘kay, I’m Chelsea Handler..”

“hi Chelsea,” Pedro said as he moved his chair closer to yours. “and you are Pedr-“ the host was interrupted.

“Pedro Pascal... and Y/n L/n” 

” OK yeah you say it, say it again louder,” she encouraged.

With a smirk, “P E D R O  P A S C A L,” he said slowly yet clearly. “and with me is…” Looking at you, you smiled and waved,” hello, I’m y/n l/n.”

Chelsea nodded, looking down at her cue cards,” ok, now you are a cocaine cowboy on the hunt for Pablo Escobar and you on the other hand this sultry agent that had captured all these guys’ attention—“.

“yeahhhhh~ sultry,” he said teasingly with an eyebrow raised, in which you reciprocated.

“in your series right? You’re hunting him down?” The host continued as she looked up. 

“yeah…yeah,” you said followed by a deep, “correct” from Pedro.

“You filmed in Colombia, right?” She asked seemingly interested. Nodding,”we shot the whole thing in Colombia, w-“. 

Chelsea added when he confirmed the former question,” and how’s that going on? What’s going on down there?”

“It’s pretty amazing, we— the base production is in Bogota, and then we moved around to different locations, throughout the country. I-it’s not totally easy to be away from home and shooting these locations but it’s probably, like the most important thing for the show to capture and you’re, the only way to actually do it is to actually be there and visually that’s the experience you know.” Pedro finished and looked at you as if telling you to share your thoughts.

Smiling to yourself, you answered,” Yeah and when we like saw a little bit of the series and it looks like it’s Colombia in the 80s—“ only to be cut off before you’ve even finished speaking.

Moving in her seat,” so you guys play what? Like a police officer? In the series?” she directly asked.

Responding at the same time, Pedro looked at you and nudged you to speak. “Go on,” he said while playing with the loose ends of the button-up shirt you were wearing.

You turned to look at Chelsea to continue,” so uhm we’re both DEA agents who are-“. An audible hum from her was heard,” and you’re after— cause that was— he was a hard guy to find right?”

“uhh.. yeah, yup yup yeah” you shifted in your seat, “which is kind of a hard thing to imagine right? Cause he was so….. huge and-“

“Like really fat,” Pedro added as he laughed. With a nod and a soft laugh, “I’m sorry” you said towards the camera as you tried to hold in your laugh.

Laughing along, “Well also like the intre— yeah, it’s not like he can run fast. And so are you— so this is a series though, it’s not a movie?” Chelsea prodded as she looked at Pedro, again. “it’s a series, it’s a 10-episode series.” he responded.

Nodding, “10-episode series and the whole time you’re looking for this guy?". “Yeah,” you both said at the same time. “and so a- are your characters based on true people?”

“yes, it is a real guy”

“he’s not fictionalized?”

Shaking his head he takes a hold of your forearm. “No, no, he’s a real DEA agent I met him, just retired in like January 2014. But-but her character though is fictionalized.”

Now directing her attention to you, she looked at you shocked, “really? so like— why did they create this character of yours and what’s in it for her, in this world of men, guns, and drugs?”

Clasping your hands together you cleared your throat, ”so she’s just like Boyd’s character actually, brought in from another place when the DEA needed help and uhm some-some to say to add more heat to the fire.”

Smirking, “heat huh, I like it. So going back to this real character. I’m surprised he didn’t get killed by Pablo Escobar.”

Breathing in, “…..I know, it’s two guys, Steve Murphy and Javier Pena, real living guys and that headed the investigation for the DEA down there.”

“How’d you like working for Netflix?” Chelsea abruptly asked as soon as Pedro finished talking. Chuckling he leans back with a huff, “It’s terrible— that’s what she kept telling me as soon as filming started”, and reached behind you to wrap an arm around your shoulders.

She looked at you two before continuing,”It’s embarrassing isn’t it?”. 

“it’s so embarrassing!! It is—it’s so humiliating.”

“it’s like when people say how’s working and I’ll be like oh gosh” she laughed as she stared at him. Looking down as he thinks, “yeah, like excuse me. Netflix!! NETFLIX!!” Releasing a breath, he looks up then at you, who was already looking at him. “Yeah it’s embarrassing. Because I- we actually watch so much of it.”

“ohhh, what’re you watching?” Chelsea asked as she looked at you from the side. Pedro raised his hand to list down what he had in his thought.“We fucking watched all of it. I saw Bloodline, Kimmy Schmidt. I was watching your stand up, Uganda be kidding me..I’ve seen uhh what was the other one?” He looked towards you and asked.

Tilting your head, you thought for a bit before responding with, “oh!! House of cards”. 

“ Yeah that one, we’ve seen the house of cards, caught up on orange is the new black— all of it. A complete Netflix slave,” he finished

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

Sitting up,” Can I introduce you? Do I have to say hello?”, looking around for confirmation. “yeah yeah yeah but better give it to him he’s much louder,” Chelsea said, pointing to Pedro. “Ah, ok here,” passing the cue cards to the man beside you.

“Oookay here we go. Hello, hello internet. I would like to introduce you to Chelsea Handler, Netflix’s jack of all trades,” Pedro read from the paper before looking at her. “I’m doing 4 documentaries” she immediately stated, looking at him.

“you’re doing 4 documentaries?” He asked in disbelief.

“Yeah,..I’m almost done with them”

He continued, “so you-you’ve been shooting. Does this have anything to do with the amount of travelling you were telling me about before we started?” while pointing at her, to you then to the camera. Making the camera show the confused look you have on your face.

“Yeah, I’ve been travelling all- I’ve been bopping around. I mean I just kind of like to incorporate work with travel cause I really can’t sit still for very long, so I kind of like, kind of explore at all times.,” Chelsea enthusiastically shared while you were seen getting comfortable in your seat before leaning your head on Pedro’s shoulder as he scoots impossibly closer to you than he had been.

She continued with, “I’ve been doing- I did one with Chelsea does marriage, that’s my first one, which is all about my personal feelings about marriage and exploring it with my family. It was all- it was very personal, talking to my ex-boyfriends, talking to people who’ve been married for like 65 years-.” 

As she was talking, both of you were in your own little world as Pedro looks at you and pinching your nose before leaning to the side, to rest his head on his hand.

“-talking to people who were in-“, 

“65 days..” Pedro said chuckling, getting back in focus.

Agreeing, ”yeah, 65 days exactly. People who were in like a throuple relationship, like two women and a man-,” she stated as she looked at you two. “-that like operate as a couple, it’s called a throuple. That’s a thing now.”, she ended.

“Ohh..,” stunned, he looked at her. “I had no idea, did you?,” he asked as he looked at you who was still leaning on him. Moving to look up at him then to Chelsea,” Uhmmm.. I’ve heard of it but never really got the chance to look more into it.” You simply said.

Continuing, “Uhmmm we did that. Chelsea does racism which is fascinating-” She listed, which resulted in laughs from everyone.”-Chelsea does Silicon Valley, cause I just don’t understand anything about the tech world and how they operate. And then Chelsea does drugs, is the last one.” She continues as she looks up.

That caught Pedro’s attention as he jumped up his chair and gestured to the both of you with a teasing expression on his face,” Come to our show!.”

“ So I’m finishing it that’s why-“

“maybe that’s why they put us together.” He joked towards the camera.

 Chelsea lets out a laugh before continuing, “so I’m doing ayahuasca in Peru.” You perked up, making Pedro chuckle “Oh no! just come on y/n,” hearing him from behind the camera

Laughing, the camera focused on you, “have you ever done it before?”

“Nooo of course not. I was waiting to- I’m gonna do it on camera.” And weirdly, her answer had an effect on you as you were now laughing hysterically while hitting a very shocked Pedro on his midsection.

“you’re gonna do it on camera?!” He asked with a look between disbelief and interest.

Humming, “yeah that’s like the point of this whole series, is to show people. Everything I’ve done on camera’s medically supervised. Like taken Adderall, showed what happens to your brain, do like mental acuity and physical tests“. Pausing to think, “Ok ok so where was I- oh I’ve taken Ambien with lots of vodkas to see in my own house.”

A small voice was heard before the closest camera pans to you. “Out of curiosity, I’d like to try that,” you whisper to Pedro. He lets out a hearty laugh, “No, no, I won’t let you-“

She cut Pedro off suddenly interested in what you have to say, “hold on what’s happening?”

“she told me she was curious and wanted to try what you did, with the ambien-vodka mixture,” he answered for you.

“you should try it sometime—“ she encouraged, resulting in you nodding your head with a grin.

With a hand on his forehead,” no, don’t encourage her, 'cause she’ll fucking do it. I’m telling you.” Pedro looks genuinely concerned while you were laughing your ass off getting a few laughs from the production staff with you.

“I mean— it’s not a pretty sight”

Pedro nods agreeing with the host, “to see everything that you do and have no memory of it whatsoever,” he added. Looking at him, Chelsea finishes with a “yeah, just to show people how they behave when they’re not acting responsibly.”

“How did you convince Netflix to let you do it?” You suddenly asked out of nowhere resulting in a not-so-surprised response from Pedro, “See!! See!! I told you not to encourage her”

Turning to him you, “She didn’t encourage me, I’m just genuinely curious about how she’d convince them. It’s not like I’ll do it,” you said in a voice that sounded like you don’t believe what you’re saying.

Ruffling your fixed hair,” nope, I don’t believe you.” Earning himself a small pout as you leaned back in your chair.

“To answer that, I remember pitching the drug one to Netflix’s producers and said maybe I should just do drugs, have everybody see what happens— how you act on weed, on alcohol, on pills, and all the things that people abuse. Nothing really illegal or narcotic cause you can’t really film that kind of stuff and get away with it,” the host said when she interrupted your small moment.

“right”

She looks at you, “and then- or there are certain places where you can film and so ayahuasca obviously is legal in Peru so uh-“

You butted in and teasingly looked at Pedro, “I’m booking the earliest flight to Peru as soon as this wraps.” He softly lets out a breath, “oh gosh” as he dragged his hands on one cheek. “NO NO, I’m kidding,” softly chuckling while you reached to cup his cheeks. 

“yeah, go do it!! Do you like the people that you work with?” Chelsea asked as soon as you were seated properly.

Looking at him, leaning on one side of the chair. “hmm, do you Pedro? Like, the people that you work with?” asked with a small smirk.

“yes very much,” he said turning to you. “But they aren’t that funny, 'cause I’m the funny one” he continues as he turns to Chelsea like he’s stating a fact.

“HUhhhh!! No, you aren’t,” shaking your head, disagreeing with him.

Chelsea with curious look, “Are you?”

“Maybe, possibly…”

“so you think you make a lot of people laugh?”

Pedro smirks he glances at you “Yeah…. Yeah I do”

“mhmm, believe what you want to believe,” you said as you looked down to avoid his teasing expression.

Laughing aloud “I don’t think she agrees with tha-” she points at you

“or cry what’s the difference” he looked around to see some nodding. “Cry??” You asked confused. “Yeah cry. You know that,” he pauses, giving you a knowing look

“Wha-Ohhhhhh, ok. I get it now,” you said looking abashed as you turned away from the camera.

“why what is it?  Did he make you cry?”

“uh-haha, kind of a long story. But he did this thing that-“ covering your mouth to stop you from spilling. “Ok that’s enough. Going back, so then what are you?” He looks at Chelsea while still covering the lower half of your face.

“don’t worry about me. I’m a very loud personality. It was more important that we interviewed you,” Chelsea began, giving him a pointed look.

“no no this was- I got to kinda interview you but we should’ve-“ he says

“yes you did, a little bit. But I controlled the interview,” she stated as a fact.

“you controlled the interview-“

“because I know what I’m doing”

He nods, “because you do know what you’re doing, and I do not so meaning we should’ve interviewed this-“ he drags you to him with the same hand he used to cover your mouth, “-person right here, who was particularly interested in the drug part. why- why are you interested in that y/-“

The host cut him with, “So it was fun it was a pleasure to meet you” pointing at Pedro, “I like you.”

“I-it was a pleasure meeting you too, uhm I like you too” he answered while he was still looking at you.

Readying to stand, “yeah.. great, we’re gonna go- can we get a bag of blow?” Chelsea joked which you laughed at.

-cut- 

Now standing by the door the host, Chelsea Handler, was nowhere to be seen. The cameraman walked a bit closer to where the two of you were conversing. Once close enough and you were heard, they zoomed in on the both of you.

You bumped your shoulder into him. “can we go get it though?” You looked up at him from where you were standing.

Looking back at you, he crosses his arms and steps towards you, “Get what?” Raising a brow he watches as you step closer, arms on your waist.

You gesture to the staff behind you, “the.. the bag of blow”, you said fighting off a smile. 

Shaking his head at your teasing he proceeds to engulf you in a hug before dragging you out the room, “Absolutely not”.

Comments:

Fan 1 I like how Pedro literally tries to include y/n in the conversation she was purposely being left out of, why invite her if you’re only going to talk to one person.

Fan 2 Pedro Pascal is my guilty pleasure

Fan 3 No cause like why did y/n literally just jump out of her seat when the topic of taking drugs come in, girl you’re in a show where you fight against drugs and you’re curious about it like hell. Pedro’s way of stopping her like ughh

Fan 5 If Pedro looks at me in that way, he looks at Y/n, I’ll literally be in heaven.

Fan 6 The lady barely let y/n speak. Let my girl talk

Fan 7 There is a lot of chemistry between them. I am sure that had a very sexually passionate escapade.  ↳ Fan 5 replied to Fan 7: Girl his GF's literally right there ↳Fan 7 replied to Fan 5: rumoured, there’s not enough proof

Fan 8 I love him. He's being so attentive and respectful when Chelsea talks about her work, and how he includes always tries to bring y/n in. And then the "I controlled the interview!" was just CRINGE as well as her cutting y/n off as soon as she speaks.

Fan 9 Y/N: I wanna try what she did  Pedro: Nope Chelsea: yeah go ahead  Pedro: Don’t encourage her!!

Fan 10 No cause why are they so snuggly in this interview, like the subtle touches? Also, why does y/n seem so down in this? ↳ Fan 5 replied to Fan 7: probably cause she was probably feeling bad or already sick at the time they were recording this. She posted something about being bedridden for a week.

#pedro pascal #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal x you #pedro pascal x y/n #pedro pascal imagine #pedro pascal fanfic #pedro pascal x female reader #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal fic #pedro pascal fluff #pedro pascal x actress!reader

[thenukacolachallenge]

In defense of the One Piece Live Action Adaptation’s stylistic choices: A Cosmetologist’s Perspective

Hello! My name is Dia, and I’ve been a licensed cosmetologist since 2015(almost a decade now!). For those unaware of what exactly that entails, cosmetology is traditionally defined as ‘the professional skill or practice of beautifying the face, hair, and skin’. For me specifically, I have worked in the fields of hairstyling/haircutting/hair coloring, skincare, nail care, and makeup application(both traditional makeup and FX makeup) in my eight years of being licensed to work in these industries.

The reason I’m making this post today is to talk about the Netflix adaptation of the hit manga/anime One Piece, and specifically to address a lot of complaints I’ve seen about the wardrobe, makeup, and hair choices of the main cast thus far. I’ve seen quite a bit in the way of complaints, and a lot of it seems to be, to put it as politely as I can, not based in reality of how makeup, hair, and acting in general works, and I’d like to address some of it to possibly explain why certain choices were made, to maybe help people come to a better understanding of the why and how of these sorts of decisions.

I’d like to also, before I dive in, note that I am not in any way, shape, or form affiliated with this production! These are merely my personal thoughts and speculation as someone with some experience in this field. None of this is set in stone unless I provide evidence from the cast and crew to back my claims up. As well, I’d like to point out that I have next to no experience working on film sets(I have worked on VERY small productions in the past, for things that go up on sites like Youtube and not Netflix lmao), but I am married to a person who has a degree in film and has worked on live production sets before, and I did defer to them for a lot of the knowledge that I lack with live action production specifically.

I’d also like to point out that while I’m not mad at anyone who has the critiques I cover in this post, I may come across as a bit exasperated. I promise this isn’t me being angry at anyone, but more of just.... I’ve seen the same critiques over and over again, and to me, a lot of the choices seem fairly obvious as to why they were made, and some of the critiques come across as extremely silly to me. This is of course due to my own background related to these sorts of things. I promise I mean no offense or disrespect to anyone saying these things! I just want to make this to be able to help others understand why production may have made the choices they did.

Now, under the cut, I’ll be discussing some common complaints I’ve heard with regards to this production, and provide some potential explanation as to why these changes were made. On to the post! It is quite hefty, so please bear with me.

~

First and foremost, the most common complaint I’ve seen thus far is some variation of the phrase “I’ve seen cosplayers that look more accurate to the characters than this show does,” and I’d like to address this one first, as I think it’s the one that probably frustrates me the most. It specifically frustrates me because comparing cosplayers to actors feels like an apples to oranges situation. The two groups are designed to do entirely different things! Cosplayers do typically look more like the characters they portray than a live action actor will, and that’s a very common occurrence, but there’s a reason for that: the two groups are not doing the same thing. 

Both cosplayers and actors put a huge amount of time and effort into their work, and I love cosplay personally. However, cosplayers are typically in their outfits for 8-10 hour days at most for a weekend, doing things like photoshoots where they have to pose, walking around conventions, and maybe filming a small amount of video(Not to say that this takes no effort! Please do not take this as such, I have helped friends with cosplays and I fully understand and appreciate the level of dedication and hard work that goes into it!). Actors, on the other hand, are in hair and makeup on set for 10-12 hours a day(if not longer) for weeks to months on end, and have to be fully in character while filming, as well as(specifically for a show like One Piece) doing things like stunt work, being submerged in water, and being on boats with lots of wind and ocean spray. There are certain things you simply cannot do, hair/makeup/costume-wise as an actor that you can as a cosplayer, so I really don’t think this comparison in specific is being very fair to the actors and the crew who are in charge of makeup, hair, and wardrobe in this case.

I’ll be getting into a lot more specifics below, but I will be deferring to my main point here very often, which is this: The safety and comfort of the actors is far more important than 1-to-1 accuracy in the way cosplayers can do, especially for minor changes in appearance.

Now that I’ve addressed that specifically, I’d like to move onto some common complaints I’ve heard for each specific main cast member, and my opinion on these complaints, as well as listing potential reasons as to why these things may have been changed!

~

We’ll start with everyone’s favorite funky little pirate king, Monkey D. Luffy:

For Luffy, the number one complaint I’ve seen is the live action’s choice in shoes. in the manga/anime, Luffy wears and fights in flip-flops, but this was changed in the live action. This was changed for a very simple reason, and Emily Rudd, the actor that portrays Nami, actually addressed this on Instagram while being asked by a fan:

Simply put, trying to do the kind of stunt work that Luffy has to do is not safe in a shoe like a flip flop. This is something that falls very completely under my original point of the comfort and safety of the actors being more important than 100% accuracy. It would be entirely too easy for Iñaki or someone he’s in a scene with to get hurt if he weren’t wearing the proper footwear. Fairly simple explanation there!

This is really the only gripe with Luffy costume-wise I could find, to be honest! I have seen a few people saying that he doesn’t have his signature undereye scar, but he does, although it’s not as visible as it is in the original work:

They kept him fairly true to the spirit of his original character, and although I don’t know why they chose to give him this specific potato shoe footwear, it is what they went with, and the main takeaway is that it was for safety reasons.

~

Onto our favorite wayward booze-loving swordsman, Roronoa Zoro:

Similarly to Luffy, I’ve only seen one main complaint regarding Zoro, and it involves his use of swords. In the anime/manga, Zoro has pioneered a specific fighting style called “Santoryu”, known in English as “Three Sword Style”: one sword in each hand, and a third in his mouth.

I’ve seen several people wondering where his third sword(the one that goes in the mouth) is from the trailers, and I was initially wondering this as well, since in most of his action scenes that have been revealed so far, he seems to only be holding either one sword or two. However, there was a brief clip(I’m talking, like, maybe one second) of him utilizing his three-swords style in the teaser trailer released in mid-June:

Now, as to potential reasons as to why this seems to be the only clip of him thus far using all three of his swords:

1. Again, this could be for the safety of the cast. Obviously being a cartoon character, Zoro wouldn’t have to worry about potential damage to his jaws and teeth, but Mackenyu, Zoro’s actor, is a real person who does have to worry about such things, especially as an actor who relies on(among other things) his facial expressions to earn a living. Carrying something like a sword, even a prop sword, in your mouth for long periods of time cannot be good for the health of your jaw and teeth, and I could understand if they chose not to film him with a sword in his mouth very often for this reason alone. 2. It could also be he uses all three swords less often so he can still deliver lines while fighting. In an SBS(”Shitsumon o Boshū Suru”, when translated means “I’m Taking Questions”, essentially an AMA for mangaka to answer questions their readers may have), Eiichiro Oda, the author of One Piece, once answered a question about how Zoro was able to talk with a sword in his mouth with quite a funny answer:

Sadly, in real life, Mackenyu cannot speak through his heart as Zoro does, so it’s possible that some of the scenes have been changed for ease of dialogue. 3. It’s also entirely possible that he uses his three-sword style as often as he does in the anime and manga, and the small amount of what we’ve seen in the trailers isn’t necessarily the full picture. I imagine this is something we’ll have to wait for the full series to drop to find out definitively one way or another!

~

Now, onto our lovely citrus-fruit-loving navigator, Nami!

I have seen two main complaints with Nami’s looks, and I’ll start with her hair, as it’s the more common one I’ve been seeing. I have seen a large number of people saying that her hair looks like(and I am slightly paraphrasing here) “a bad cosplay wig”, and honestly? I think this is just not true, and either comes from unrealistic expectations or just plain being mean-spirited.

First and foremost, this is very obviously human hair:

Now, I don’t know what kind of bad cosplays y’all have been seeing, but the ones I’ve seen start with synthetic hair wigs, not human hair ones(This is not to say synthetic wigs are inherently bad for cosplay! Simply that they are much harder to work with, though they are cheaper than human hair wigs). As well, I know for a fact Emily Rudd got her hair done similarly to this, to the point where I wasn’t actually sure that this WAS a wig at first(this picture comes directly from her Instagram account):

This is very obviously almost the exact same haircut as the wig chosen for Nami, save with more layers, and even the color choices are similar. To say that this wig looks like a “bad cosplay” is honestly just flat-out wrong in my professional opinion, and moreover, it’s quite rude. In addition, to me at least, it really looks like the wig was styled to resemble anime-esque hair, which is actually quite common among cosplayers. If anything, I have the same complaint on Nami’s wig that I also have with Sanji’s(which I’ll definitely be touching on later): it’s not thick enough. Both Nami and Sanji’s wigs just seem like they could use more hair attached to the cap in general, but especially for Nami’s, I really don’t think it’s as bad as people are saying.

I think this “bad cosplay wig” complaint specifically is mainly coming from people who only see the tail end of cosplay productions, which tends to be photos that are often times edited to look a certain way, which can often include doctoring the hair. There’s nothing wrong with a cosplayer editing their photos, for the record, but it can absolutely give unrealistic expectations to those who aren’t familiar with this practice, and I personally think this may be where these comments are coming from. Obviously you cannot photoshop every frame of a live action production, at least not without a lot of time and effort on the behalf of the post-production team, and I highly doubt Netflix would have greenlit something like that for such a small detail. It’s simply not realistic.

As well, I do find it quite interesting that I have seen far less complaints about the wigs of characters such as Zoro or Sanji(played by Taz Skylar(as stated previously, I have seen complaints about Sanji’s wig and I will be speaking on that later)) than I have about Nami’s. I’m not saying it’s outwardly misogynistic, but it does make one consider such things.

The only other complaint I’ve seen directed towards Nami’s live action look(and truth be told, I’ve seen this one far less than the comments on the hair) is the discrepancy between Emily Rudd’s eye color and Nami’s. As you can see from the above photos, Emily Rudd does not have brown eyes, which are the color of Nami’s eyes:

Now, I didn’t actually see this complaint until after the first full trailer dropped on July 21st. Specifically, I saw someone saying that it seemed strange that Steven John Ward, who portrays Dracule Mihawk in the series, is wearing colored contacts to better resemble his character, while Emily is not.

Now, there could be a lot of potential reasons for this, including that Emily may simply be not wearing colored contacts because they irritate her eyes(going back to my original point of the comfort and safety of the cast). But more importantly, I think, is that Mihawk’s unique eyes are directly related to his character, specifically through his epithet: Hawkeye. This is a seemingly important enough part of his character, to the point where it’s directly mentioned in his title. Nami has no such distinctions with her eye color, so I really don’t think it’s as important, and at the end of the day, it takes nothing away from her character to have a different eye color. So, while I don’t know the particular reason she doesn’t have brown contacts, I also don’t think it’s nearly as important for that detail to be as canonically correct as it is for Mihawk. To me, this particular comparison is another apples to oranges situation.

~

Onto our beloved liar, God Usopp himself:

Of course, the number one talking point I’ve seen about the live action Usopp is that Jacob Romero Gibson, Usopp’s actor, is missing his trademark long nose.

As One Piece fans know, one of Usopp’s characteristic traits is his tendency to lie. His name, Usopp, comes from a portmanteau of the Japanese word “uso”, which means lie, and Aesop, the famous Greek storyteller and the namesake for Aesop’s Fables. Because of his propensity towards tall tales, Usopp’s anime and manga character designs also added a reference to another character who’s known for lying, Pinocchio, whose nose grows when he lies. Thus, Usopp in his cartoon form has a long nose!

Considering how many gags in the story involve Usopp’s nose, a lot of fans were surprised to see that aspect of him not carried over into the live action. After the drop of the official trailer, seeing that the character Arlong had his signature sawshark-esque long nose in prosthetic form, there was even more confusion about this choice.

(As an aside, Arlong’s costuming choices will not be discussed in this post, as it’s long enough with just the main cast, but believe me, I do have Opinions on it lmao)

Now, as to why the show chose to not give Jacob a prosthetic long nose to better match Usopp’s appearance, I don’t know the specifics. I can only speculate, and really, the only things I could feasibly come up with are the following:

1. It’s entirely possible that for whatever reason, Jacob is unable to wear a prosthetic nose. This could be due to several things, including allergies to either the prosthetic material itself or the adhesive used to attach it, or the makeup required to blend the prosthetic into his skin. If this is the case, then it of course goes back to my main point here that the comfort of the cast takes precedence over accuracy to the source material. 2. The only other explanation that really makes sense to me is that they did in fact attempt the nose in costume fitting, and either the absurdity of it was just either too distracting to audiences/the crew/Netflix execs/possibly even Oda himself, or it could have potentially been a problem during stunt work. Usopp primarily fights with a slingshot, and I have no experience with slingshots so this is just me taking a stab in the dark, but it’s possible that the extra length on the nose could have possibly messed with the actor’s depth perception while attempting to act out Usopp’s fight scenes.

Overall, I genuinely don’t know why they decided to axe Usopp’s long nose. But at the end of the day, I know that for me specifically, this is a minor detail, and not something I see as a genuine problem, nor will it ruin the immersion for me. That being said, I can definitely understand the criticisms here. I’m hoping that a lot of these changes will eventually be answered, perhaps in some behind-the-scenes footage that comes out after the show’s release.

The only other comment on Usopp’s costuming that I’ve seen is much more easily explainable, and I also haven’t seen nearly as much in the way of commenting on it: Usopp’s hair is not in dreads in the anime and manga, and instead is kept natural, especially before the timeskip.

As we can see in the above picture, Usopp seems to keep his hair fairly natural, whereas Jacob, Usopp’s actor, sports dreads in his portrayal of Usopp, as seen in the above photo.

Luckily, I haven’t seen very many comments on this, and I think that’s a good thing, since the explanation seems fairly simple to me. Usopp in canon is based off of (mostly unused in this day and age, for good reason: a lot of the design is highly based off racist blackface caricatures) old-school anime portrayals of Black/African people. As well, in an SBS, a fan asked where the Straw Hats would be based out of if One Piece was set in the real world:

As stated above, Usopp would come from Africa! As well, if I recall correctly, Oda had a hand in casting the live action adaptation, which all points to the undeniable proof that Usopp is and has always been intended to read as Black/African in some form.

The reason I bring this all up specifically, is because of the way African hair grows. Obviously not all Black/African people are a monolith, and even among curly haired people there are different curl tightness and growth patterns, but for a large portion of people of African descent, their hair would not grow similarly to the way Usopp’s is portrayed in his cartoon form. His hair is indeed curly, but it grows down, similar to most wavy or straight hair types. This is especially evident in his post-timeskip hair growth:

Usopp’s hair, which was once above his shoulders before the two year time skip, now extends down past his shoulders. This is not necessarily inaccurate to Black/African hair types, as, since stated previously, different curl patterns and tightness exist, and even with super tight curl patterns, if grown out long enough, the hair will eventually grow down, due to the weight of the hair strands. But for a lot of Black/African hair types, the natural hair tends to grow outwards, instead of downwards(or at the very least it grows outwards before it begins to grow downwards). This type of hair is typically referred to as afro-textured hair, and is the namesake for the afro, a hairstyle wherein someone with afro-textured hair combs out their natural hair growth in the shape it naturally grows.

Now, I’m not familiar with Jacob Romero Gibson’s work prior to One Piece, and I have never seen his hair without his dreads, therefore I can’t say with 100% certainty how his hair grows naturally. However, he does have an Instagram account, and on this account he has photos of himself. I looked through his account, and although he doesn’t seem to have any photos of himself without his dreads(indeed, they seem to be his signature hairstyle) as an adult, he does have a few photos of himself from his childhood. I don’t personally feel comfortable linking his baby photos to this post, so I’m not going to do so here. However, they are visible there, and from what I can see from those photos, he does indeed have afro-textured hair. This may not be 100% accurate to how his hair grows now as an adult, as lots of things can change hair growth types and curl patterns, including things such as hormones, medications, stress levels etc. In my professional opinion, I feel fairly confident in saying that Jacob most likely has afto-textured hair, and therefore his natural hair likely wouldn’t fully grow in the exact same way that Usopp’s does. 

Overall, I only bring all of this up to say that if Jacob did have his hair in a natural, non-protective style in his portrayal of Usopp, I feel that the same people who are complaining about the dreads now would likely complain that his natural hair doesn’t match Usopp’s exactly. Either way, Usopp’s hair is not a huge characteristic that defines who he is as a character(especially not in the way that his nose is), and therefore I don’t think that him having dreads in the live action takes away from the character in any way.

~

Finally, we’ll discuss the Straw Hat crew’s first-rate cook who attacks through kicks, Black Leg Sanji:

Sanji has the unfortunate position of being the character who’s had the most changes to his design from his cartoon to the live action, and there’s a lot of criticism that’s been lobbed his way. Some of it I think is fair, but there’s also quite a bit that I think is honestly quite silly. So without further ado, I’ll go through the four main critiques I’ve seen, and my opinions of each.

Let’s start with the one I’ve heard the most often, and the one that’s easily my least favorite to hear about at this point: the missing eyebrow swirl. Maybe it’s just because Sanji is personally my favorite on the crew and I’m just paying the most attention to him, but my god, the way some people are going on about the eyebrow, you’d think the showrunners made the decision to axe his signature curly eyebrow specifically to spite the Sanji fangirls. I think a lot of the complaining about the lack of eyebrow swirl would simply be changed to complaining about how bad the eyebrow swirl would look if they’d tried to keep it, and I’ll explain why below.

Like many of the costuming changes made to the live action adaptation, I don’t know the exact reasoning as to why they decided to get rid of the eyebrow swirl. As someone who has worked as a makeup artist, however, I do have a theory as to why they got rid of it, and my theory is fairly simple: it is just not really very possible to create a realistic-looking eyebrow swirl that reads well on a film camera.

Yes, the makeup team could have very easily drawn on a swirl with a brow pencil or some pomade and called it a day. However, it would have been fairly obvious that it was in fact drawn on, especially on a film shoot. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the missing swirl point to both cosplayers and stage actors as “proof” that it could be done, but again, this is an apples to oranges situation. Stage makeup(like that used for stage actors), photoshoot makeup(like what cosplayers would employ), and live action film makeup are three entirely different types of makeup application, and while they each have their own merits, that doesn’t inherently mean they translate into other mediums, and this is something that you have to learn fairly early on as a makeup artist if you want to continue getting work. If you are doing makeup professionally, you have to keep a lot of things in mind, one of the biggest things being how your work will read on camera, specifically the camera your canvas will be in front of. You have to keep in mind things like flash photography, shine versus matte, whether or not post-production editing will be involved, and the like. A fairly popular example of this is makeup influencer James Charles’ old meet-and-greet photo, which has become a meme since surfacing. Charles was used to only doing makeup and being photographed a certain way, leading to him using a setting powder that didn’t lend well to flash photography, and made him look like he was wearing makeup that was far too pale for his skin tone, when in reality it was just a makeup product that didn’t work for the kind of camera it was in front of:

Another example is basically the entire Cosmo Queens video series done for Cosmopolitan magazine’s youtube page, and I’ll use Kandy Muse’s video as a specific example, since she uses her natural brows in addition to her makeup. This series focused on the makeup of drag queens, and it’s very obvious when watching these videos that there’s a huge discrepancy between makeup meant for the stage and makeup meant for other avenues. Drag queens typically are live performers, and there is a common saying among drag artists, which is to “paint(apply makeup) for the back of the house(so that even those in the back row can see your makeup)”. On stage, Kandy Muse’s makeup is quite stunning, but it’s very clear that it’s not fully meant for the editorial style that Cosmo uses during these videos:

Even from a distance, you can very clearly see where Kandy’s real eyebrows sit versus her makeup. And while this is obviously an extreme example, it’s even more obvious when zoomed in, which film cameras have to do often in order to capture the expressions of their actors:

In a similar vein, film cameras, which are typically designed to catch a lot of definition and lend better to a more realistic look, likely would not be very kind to a drawn on part of an eyebrow. Without any hair growing there naturally to make the eyebrow makeup look more realistic, it would be very obvious that it was makeup, and would likely be more distracting to audiences(especially first-timers to the series; it’s important to keep in mind that Netflix would want to cater to those people as well as long-time One Piece fans) than omitting it entirely would. In addition, we have to take into account the actor, Taz Skylar, and his natural hair growth and the direction of his brows.

As is visible from the photo, Taz Skylar’s natural brow grows downwards at the end, whereas Sanji the fictional character’s brow grows upwards into his swirl at the end. In order to match the character 1-to-1 and change his own natural features, Taz would have to either shave/pluck/wax the entire outer half of his brow(which for an actor would be extremely inconvenient for other projects and would be an absolute pain to grow back out), or he would have to sit longer in the makeup chair to have his brow covered by FX makeup, which takes extra time and effort and could throw off the timing of the entire shoot. In addition, neither of these potential fixes would necessarily make the obviously-drawn-on swirl look good and read well on film. Add on the facts that Taz’s character is fully submerged in water in at least one scene, if not more, and has several fight scenes, and it’s not even a guarantee that the makeup swirl would even last throughout the shoot.

I’ve also seen people say that they could have added the swirl in post, but I think that’s it’s very unrealistic for Netflix to greenlight that for a minor detail such as a singular visible eyebrow.

While I am very sad that they weren’t able to translate Sanji’s signature brow to the live action adaptation, I think a lot of the complaints regarding him not having it and insistence that the production should have included it are entirely overblown, and are mainly being made by people who don’t have a lot of knowledge of what goes into film makeup versus other types of makeup. And while Sanji’s brows are fairly important to his character, this fact doesn’t actually come into the story until far after the timeskip, and we don’t even know if the live action will get another season outside of this one. I really hope this can help explain why they may have made the decision to nix the brow swirl for people who are still concerned about it, since from what I’ve seen, it seems to be the number one point of contention when it comes to live-action Sanji.

Next, I’d like to speak a bit about Sanji’s hair. Now, I have some complaints of my own about the wig used on Taz, but most of the criticism I’ve seen regarding the wig actually revolves around why it doesn’t cover his eye completely, as Sanji’s hair does. This is something that seems fairly obvious to me: Taz has to do a lot of stunt work, and he needs to be able to see! This is a potential safety issue more than anything else, and therefore goes back to my main original point. As well, there’s no real way to make the hair not move without completely overloading it with product, which, again, would be very obvious on a film camera, and likely wouldn’t read nearly as well as people think.

As for me, my personal critiques around the wig are just how sparse it is. Sanji has a lot more hair than is in the wig, and I really think a wig that had a little more hair attached to the base would have looked better. As well, I don’t know if the styling of the wig works for me personally.

I was actually really hoping that the live action adaptation would take cues on Sanji’s hair from the character who Sanji was modeled after. A lot of people still to this day think that Sanji’s appearance is based off Leonardo DiCaprio, specifically his role as Jack Dawson from the hit movie Titanic or his role as Romeo from Romeo and Juliet, but Oda has actually explained in an SBS that this isn’t the case:

Sanji’s looks and his “vibes” are based off of Steve Buscemi’s character Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs, and personally I would have loved to see his live-action hair more closely resemble that, but sadly, it wasn’t meant to be.

Another critique of live action Sanji is that he hasn’t been depicted with his trademark cigarette, and I kind of knew that this would happen from the moment I found out about the live action adaptation. This is not the fault of Tomorrow Studios(the production company), or even Netflix at large, but instead this is largely based off backlash from anti-smoking lobbies. 

(As a former smoker myself, I have a lot of opinions on the ridiculousness of anti-smoking groups going after smoking in fictional scenarios like films and shows, but that’s a gripe for a whole other post lol) 

Netflix notably caught a lot of flack for the depiction of commonplace cigarette smoking in other series, such as Stranger Things, even though the series takes place in the 1980′s, where smoking was incredibly commonplace. The major backlash even got to the point where you can actively see the drop in depictions of smoking between each season. I am hoping they at least give Taz one scene with Sanji’s iconic cigarette, but I’m not holding my breath on this one. I doubt Netflix wants to deal with that backlash again.

Finally, the last big complaint with Sanji’s wardrobe I’ve seen is his signature suit, specifically regarding the fitting of it. Sanji’s suits in the anime/manga tend to be fairly fitted in nature, while the live action once Taz wears, while still having a slightly tapered fit, is a bit baggier than what Sanji typically wears.

This is a fairly straightforward change, in my opinion: if the suit was as form-fitting as Sanji’s are, Taz(and his potential stunt double(I don’t know if he did all of his own stunt work or not)) simply would not be able to move the way Sanji does! This is an issue of cartoon versus reality: Oda is able to depict his characters doing whatever they want in whatever clothing they want. However, real life is sadly not as accommodating, and because of that, Taz’s suit has to be a bit less form-fitting so he can still do all of Sanji’s signature footwork. Going back to my original point, the sacrifice of the fitted suit had to be made so the production could actually work.

~

I tried to touch on all the biggest differences I’ve seen people talk about, and I hope this was helpful to anyone who may have been curious as to why some of these changes were made. Please let me know if I missed anything big or if you have any additional questions/need me to explain anything further, I love what I do and I love being able to have insight like this. Thank you so much if you’ve read this far, and please reblog if you found this post helpful or informative <3

#one piece #one piece live action #one piece live action adaptation #opla #tomorrow studios #dia drabbles #a rare case of nonfiction in my writing tag lol

[iheartyouyou]

Kill Bill | Tate Langdon

Summary: Tate randomly breaks up with you, moving on with Violet. It sucks, because you’re a ghost too, stuck in the house forever with a broken heart. But luckily there is a way out. Or is there? (Loosely based on the song “Kill Bill” by SZA.)

Word count: 1.6k

Part two: here

Warnings: Angst, mentions of death & suic*de, not proofread and probably more (sorry!)

Author’s Note: I’m obsessed with SZA’s new album and I’ve been wanting to write for Tate for a while, and so what better way than to write some angst? Anyways, please leave feedback! <3

You frown as you stared at the new couple— Tate and Violet— from the window, holding hands as you heard their muffled laughter. Tate was holding a candy bucket, they just got back from trick-or-treating.

That was supposed to be your guys’ thing, not their thing. It was the one day you could leave this shit hole— Tate promised he would take you trick-or-treating after you confessed to him you’ve never been.

Tate broke up with you not too long ago after dating for 11 months and 13 days. You guys couldn’t even make it to your one year anniversary. You guys would’ve, if it wasn’t for him.

It started with him acting distant, making up excuses and running away from you. Then after two weeks of not seeing or hearing anything from him, he dumps you. He shrugged it off as if it were nothing, as if he didn’t convince you to take your own life and spend the rest of eternity with him.

And now he had a new girlfriend— Violet Harmon. Her family had moved in a little bit ago, Violet immediately catching Tate’s attention.

It’s funny how the same thing happened with you. You wondered if it was a endless cycle, you wondered if the same thing would happen to her.

You hadn’t officially met her yet— deciding to stay in the shadows, she seemed sweet, but you just couldn’t help but hate her.

The couple made their way inside the house, the steps becoming closer and closer. You froze, becoming unseen.

“You know what we should watch?” You heard him ask Violet, the both of them stepping into her room before closing the door.

You came closer to the door, placing your ear against it to hear their conversation.

“Tate, I’m gonna gain like 10 pounds if I eat all this.” Violet said, giggling.

“Well, if I eat this half you’ll only gain 5.” He offered, slight amusement in his voice. He leaned forward, capturing her lips.

You back away from the door, hearing all that smooching and how they were definitely making out made you sick to your stomach.

You run to the nearest bathroom, puking.

-

“My dad’s not here.” You heard a voice from behind you, startling you.

It wasn’t just a voice, it was her voice.

You hesitantly turn around, facing Violet. She looked at you expectantly, eyes squinted. You shrunk under her gaze, breaking eye contact.

“H-he’s not?” You asked.

“No. He’s not. I can leave a message for hi—“

“No! I mean— uhm— no. It’s okay, I’ll have my mom call him or something.” You say, finally looking up at her.

“Who let you in anyways.”

“Moi— the maid. Or housekeeper— whatever you call her. She let me in.” You spoke, biting the inside of your cheek.

“Oh.” She mumbled, looking around. You look away, trying to think of a way to get out of there. You could just simply disappear— you were a ghost— but you didn’t want to expose yourself.

You weren’t a patient of her Dad’s, but after snooping around you found out that Tate was. You didn’t think anyone was home, trying to take a peek at his file. Too bad little miss perfect caught you, huh?

“So, what are you seeing my dad for?” She asks, causing you to look back at her. You open your mouth, a response on the tip of your tongue before it dies away, the hickey on her neck becoming your new focus point. Your face falls.

She furrows her eyebrows, placing her hand on her hip. “Uhm… are yo—“

“Tate. He’s the one who gave you that hickey, right?” You blurt, your eyes flickering back to hers.

As if her eyebrows can furrow any further, they do, her hand quickly coming up to cover the hickey.

You scowl, her suddenly becoming the one who couldn’t keep eye contact. “H-how— wha—“

“Be careful around him, or you’re just gonna become one of his victims.” You snark, storming off before disappearing.

You didn’t mean to lash out, you just couldn’t help if. It wasn’t fair. How come he gets to move on? How come he gets to leave you in the dust? How come you’re stuck in this house for eternity, your heart shattering every time you saw or heard of him. You couldn’t even remember the last time he spared you a glance.

Fucking bastard.

And how badly you wanted to kill him and his new girlfriend. Too bad he’s already dead and if you kill her, you’ll be doing him a favor.

-

When you’re a ghost stuck in a house for eternity, there’s really nothing to do. You’ve read every single book in this house at least a hundred times, visited every part of this house at least a million times, and probably more.

Tate never let you talk to the other ghosts, mainly Chad and Patrick.

Since you’re a ghost stuck in a house for eternity, struggling to get over your ex boyfriend, you needed advice.

“Oh honey, you’re barking up the wrong tree.” Chad announced, eyeing you up and down as you entered the room. Patrick turned, scoffing. “What you want?”

“I need…” You cringed at yourself, before shaking your head. “Never mind, sorry.” You spin around, getting ready to leave before they stopped you.

“Come on, we don’t bite. You obviously came here for something, your boyfriend trying to plot some revenge or someth—“ Chad started.

“No— we actually broke up. That’s what I came here for. He’s dating that uh, new girl.” You interrupt, head low.

They both stay silent, sharing a knowing look before staring back at you. “Violet? Jesus— she’s a pain in my ass. She’s so loud at night, I’m surprised her parents haven’t said anything. She sounds like a dying cat when she moans.” They both laugh.

You flinch, you’ve heard her moaning too. That’s why you stayed in the basement at night.

“Uhr— yeah. I know you guys don’t like Tat—“

“We don’t like both of them, hun.”

“Okay, both of them, but I need your guys’ help. Look, I know we may have had our differences and stuff… but I’m desperate.” You beg, looking between them.

You watch as Chad raises an eyebrow, Patrick pressing his lips inti a straight line before motioning for you to come over. “Fine, but you’re gonna owe us.”

-

You hum a soft tone, rubbing your eyes as you made your way down to the basement. You round the corner, eyes almost bulging out of your head as you spot the blond mop of curls by your makeshift bed.

“What are you doing?” You ask harshly, rubbing the last bit of sleep from your eyes before staring at him.

“Have you been sleeping down here?” Tate asks softly, ignoring your question.

“What are you doing here?” You repeat yourself, taking a sharp inhale as he finally turned around.

“What are you doing with that gay couple? I told you to stay away from them Y/N, they’re not safe.” He says, taking a step towards you. You take one back, shaking your head.

“They’re nice actually. You know they have names, right? Chad and Patrick.” You snark, staring up at him.

“I don’t care. Stay away from them— Violet too. You spooked her.”

“‘Spooked her’? I was just telling her the truth.” You say.

He sighs, rubbing his temples. “Just— don’t ruin this for me. Kay?”

“What? I’m not gonna ruin your stupid fucking relationship, Tate. Go be happy with her, I don’t care. I’ll leave your girlfriend alone, okay? Now can you go? I’ve had a long night.” You sigh, giving up as your shoulders drop.

You push past him, making your way to your bed.

“Why are you so jealous? She makes m—“ He starts.

“I’m not jealous!” You shout, eyebrows furrowing. “You wanna know why I was talking to Chad and Patrick? Because we’re planning to dig up my bones and bury me in some graveyard. Just far away from you. So, now you and your girlfriend can be happy! I’ll most definitely leave the two of you alone.” You finally admit.

You almost wish you didn’t say that when you looked up, seeing the pained expression on his face. “Wha— how do you even know about that?!”

“Moira.” You mumble, shifting your weight onto one foot.

“Moira? God damnit— look, Y/N, you c-can’t leave. I won’t let you!” He announced sadly, eyes glistening in light from the window above.

You clench your fists, anger bubbling up inside you. “I’m stuck here for eternity! Tate— this is like hell for me! You have no right to choose this choice for me.”

“Hell? You think it’s hell here?” He practically whimpered, frowning.

You stay quiet for a few moments, sitting on the edge of your makeshift bed. “Yes. I’m leaving, wether you like or not. Can you leave me alone now?”

It feels like the wind just got knocked out of him, dropping to his knees as he wraps his arms tightly around your legs. “You can’t— please. I’m sorry, please don’t leave me. You’re a-all I have. I love you, I love you so much—“ He begged, tears flooding his cheeks as his grip on your legs got impossibly tighter.

“Please don’t leave me. If Violet’s the problem I can get rid of her! Her family too— I can get rid of anyone or anything that’s the problem, okay? If I’m problem I can leave you alone! You’ll never see me again— please, I promise, i p—“

“Go away, Tate.” You say softly, wiping your eyes before any tears could start. He stops, eyes widening as he looks up at you in tears. “NO! What? No! Please!”

You look away, not having the strength to look at him. “Go away.”

And he listened.

#tate langdon imagine #tate langdon x reader #tate langdon #ahs #ahs murder house #violet harmon #tate langdon angst #tate langdon ahs #evan peters #evan peters x reader #angst #fanfiction #imagine

[ovaryacted]

I got one for yea. Anon off because I’m a degen and if I’m going to be sacrilegious, may as well show my whole ass

Leon was raised Catholic. This is canon. Now, he ain’t religious. We know this. But let’s just say he loves an s/o who’s Catholic.

To sum this up rq, us Catholics go through lent. So for 40 days after Ash Wednesday we give up one thing (or do more charity work) for those 40 days. We can have what we gave up after Easter.

Now. With that out of the way, time for me to get excommunicated.

Let’s just say Leon is curious about catholic traditions. He may not go to church but if his s/o gets the ashes on their forehead, he may as well join ‘em.

Now lent begins. And his s/o wants to give us orgasms. Not theirs. His.

For 40 days Leon is edged. At first he thinks he can handle it. It’s a challenge for him. He’s game. He gets edged once, on day 1. Edged 2 times on day 2 etc etc.

But by day like, 10, he’s cracking. He’s being brought to the edge so much and so often he’s damn near desperate. Day 20 he’s sobbing, begging to cum.

Day 30 he’s promising to go to church more he’ll convert back to Catholicism. He’ll get baptized again, just let him cum.

Day 40, on Easter, the most holy day for us Catholics, his s/o finally lets him cum. I think his brain literally shuts down from how powerful his orgasm is. Like neurons full on fizzle out processing the pure pleasure and ecstasy. I’d even bet he orgasms twice from how intense it all is.

He’s trembling, shaking, practically screaming from how good feels. He probably passes out. Leon only realizes he had completely blacked out when his s/o is stroking his cheek and praising him.

It takes a good bit of aftercare for him to return to the world but once he’s back, he’s already counting the days until lent again.

Aight Catholic Church it’s been fun. I’ll see you all in hell lmao.

I think it's kind of funny that I unintentionally saved my response to this for Easter weekend LMAO. But even though I personally am not religious, I think the idea of lent or having to give something up is an interesting one and I applaud people who do that. That being said, Leon voluntarily giving up the ability to have an orgasm because he loves his partner and wants to respect and support their faith would turn him into a reborn catholic.

This is on another level of No Nut November, military-grade abstinence that is slowly killing him over 40 days and 40 nights. He thinks he can handle it when it's first suggested, he's gone without feeling pleasure for years, and he'll make it.

He's wrong, so very wrong. In reality, he gets humbled very quickly, and after the first few edging attempts he thinks it isn't so bad until it feels like his dick is about to fall off from being on edge constantly. His body pulses, rigid as hell, he's antsy and is constantly bouncing his leg when he sits, and now has a hard time sleeping. It'll get so bad that he'll propose not being near his partner for a while because just being in the same room with them makes him hard, and the fact that he can't do anything about that kills him.

But after Leon survives the Lent period and finally gets what he wants, he almost regrets agreeing to it in the first place. The orgasms he experiences after 40 days are intense and overwhelming, and the way he has an out-of-body experience really makes him think that a God does exist. In the back of his mind, he's just thanking this Godly figure for allowing him to live this long to experience something like this. Perhaps he does black out from it all, I think he would, but it would probably change the way he thinks about everything in his life at that moment.

#ovaryacted asks #leon scott kennedy #leon kennedy #resident evil #leon s kennedy

[eddiemunsons80sbaby]

Everybody Hurts

Chapter 10

Pairing: EddieMunsonxReader

Summary: You needed to escape, escape from your life, your messy divorce, and all the pitying looks. Looks you couldn't ignore when everyone in town had known you and Cam, had known your shame and failure. So, you took the first job you could get, teaching third grade in a town called Hawkins. Little did you know, you were walking right into another messy situation, a messy situation with big brown eyes and long dark waves. But he's resistant, at times unbearable and you start getting curious about the town's past, his past, especially when things don't start adding up.

18+ Only for eventual smut

Next chapter: 11/01

Word Count: 6.5K

Masterlist

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

“Got any big plans this weekend?” queried Leslie as the two of you headed out of the school on Friday afternoon. 

You had stayed behind for about a half an hour to finish up your lesson plans, really not wanting to have to do them over the weekend again. The whole Lance and Charlie situation had eaten up most of your planning time the whole week and you were not looking forward to that meeting on Monday. You’d spoken with Principal Washington that morning and he was going to sit in to ensure the meeting stayed civil. That at least gave you just a bit of comfort. 

“No. No big plans,” you answered, holding open the door for Leslie, stepping out into the warm sunshine. You may have let your kids have an extra ten minutes of recess today because it was just too beautiful not to and you needed that extra ten minutes. This was the time of year when you relished every ounce of perfect weather, your body breathing a sigh of relief that dark, gloomy days of winter were behind you for now. “I am thinking of grabbing Chinese tonight and maybe renting a couple of movies. If the weather stays like this, I’ll probably work in my garden some more. Maybe I’ll even get to the hardware store and start the work to give my front porch a fresh coat of paint.”

The thought cheered you and you needed something to cheer you up after the debacle that roller skating had become. By the time you came back off the rink, Eddie was gone. Dustin told you he said he’d had enough of skating and taken off. You had allowed yourself to feel guilty for only a brief moment before you remembered it wasn’t your fault. 

If he was insistent on being so miserable all the time then that was on him. You had allowed him to occupy too much of your brain space for too long. You were done worrying about what he thought of you, done trying to get him to be your friend, hell to just be okay with you existing in the same space as him. You didn’t have to get along with Eddie Munson to spend time with the rest of the group. You would just avoid each other. He didn’t have to speak to you. You would have plenty of other people to converse with, far more enjoyable people.

“Really? You’re planning to work on your weekend off? Girl, I have no plans other than relaxing. This week has been hell.”

“That it has,” you grumbled. “But when else am I going to get anything done around my house? Besides, keeping busy keeps my mind off things. It’s therapeutic for me to work with my hands.”

“Well, you know what they say. Idle hands are the devil’s playground. Oh my god. Speaking of the devil…holy shit, what is Eddie Munson doing here?”

Leslie’s words took a minute to register in your brain. Eddie? This could not be happening. Not just as you were convincing yourself to stop obsessing over the man. The last thing you needed was him showing up and sending you straight down the rabbit hole again. You’d promised yourself that you were going to stay away from him, to keep as much distance between you as you could. That was going to be hard to do if he kept showing up at your work. You’d taken enough of his shit and you were done with it.

You glanced over to find him just as he’d been the other day, leaning back against the side of his van, a cigarette dangling between his fingers, looking like he belonged there. Looking like he hadn’t been an absolute dick to you last night. Like this was just a normal occurrence, him showing up at your work, waiting for you to come out. Absolutely not. You were not going to do this again. 

“I’ll see you Monday,” you blurted to Leslie, quickly hurrying over to the bike rack, your shoes tapping across the pavement, trying to get out of there before he had a chance to notice you. If you could just get on your bike, pedal out of the parking lot, maybe he would think he’d missed you and just leave.

“Uh…okay, see you Monday,” Leslie replied in confusion, narrowing her eyes toward Eddie’s form as she made her way to her car, her steps clicking just a little quicker as if she were frightened. 

The sight of your coworker rushing away like Eddie was the bogeyman caused your hackles to rise before you reminded yourself that you weren't caring about him anymore. It wasn’t your battle to fight. It wasn’t your business what anyone in this town thought of him. He’d made it very clear what he thought of you.

You pulled your bike out and were just hopping on when a hand caught your arm. Your eyes shot up even though you already knew who it was, the knowledge sending your body into panic mode as your shoulders and chest tightened. Your heartbeat pounded in your ears. You fought to control your breathing and maintain calm but the very presence of him was like a tsunami of stress and tension, your entire body reacting to him.

“Hey, what are you doing? Didn’t you see me standing over there?” Eddie inquired, his look one of curiosity and confusion. 

“Yeah, I did,” you snapped simply, grabbing onto your handlebars, placing one foot on the pedal, ready to take off. How could he look at you like nothing happened? How could he stand here like he was surprised that you were trying to get away, that you were ignoring him? Why was he even here? Was he really that dense or did he just not see anything wrong with his actions?

“Whoa, hey.” A forced laugh rose from his chest, fake and grating, letting you know that he was not that dense. He knew exactly why you didn’t want to talk to him, his eyes wide and anxious. “You’re not just gonna take off, are you?”

Your teeth gritted with tension, your hands gripping the handlebars painfully, feeling as if you were a rubber band that had been pulled so tight it was about to snap. He’d stretched you to your limit and your control was fraying. You were going to lose your shit all over him in this parking lot if he didn’t walk away.

“Why in the hell are you here?” you managed, inhaling through your nose, your eyes focused ahead of you, scared that if you looked at him you would start screaming. As teachers came strolling out of the building, eager for two days of freedom, you couldn’t do that. You couldn’t have all of your co-workers thinking you were some kind of lunatic. That gossip would spread through the school like wildfire. Hell, it would probably spread through the town before the weekend was out. The new teacher in Hawkins was completely certifiable. Nobody would want you to teach their children after that.

“I thought we could go to the junkyard to look at parts for the car,” he explained, as if it should be the most obvious thing in the world, and it only infuriated you more how casual he could be after being so vicious last night. “Remember? I called you on Wednesday and told you about it.”

This seemed to be the routine the two of you were setting up. He’d be a total asshole and then he’d show up and want to talk to you like nothing had happened, like you were friends. Just brush it all under the rug and move along until it inevitably happened again. Because it would. Of that you had no doubt. It was only a matter of time before he decided something about you pissed him off. It was an incessant merry-go-round of moodiness where you always wound up in the same place and you were done with it. You were beyond ready to get off this ride. 

“You have got to be shitting me,” you growled harshly. “Just…no. No.”

“What do you mean no?” he scoffed with a snort, his head tossing back, sending those dark waves swaying.

“I mean no, Eddie. N-O. It’s a fairly simple word, only two letters. Did you somehow miss all that shit I said to you last night?” you demanded. 

“What? You mean after I fell? That was just…it was nothing. Look, we were both just annoyed and we got grouchy. It wasn’t that big of a deal. I forgive you, okay?”

“You forgive me? You forgive me!” you screamed, not even caring who heard you anymore. “You have got to be kidding me. You’re the asshole and you’re forgiving me? It is a big deal! It’s a big fucking deal, okay? You are absolutely the most annoying human being I have ever met and that is saying something because I was married to an absolute jerk. I’m done! I’m beyond done with your bullshit.”

Eddie’s arms folded over his chest, his stance widening as if he were preparing to challenge you. His tongue ran along the corner of his mouth, “Then how are you going to get your car fixed, Prom Queen? If you don’t go with me then I don’t have the parts. If I don’t have the parts, you don’t have a ride.”

“Have somebody else work on it. Hell, I’ll have it towed to a shop a couple towns over and pay for the damn labor. I don’t care as long as it means I don’t have to spend one more goddamn minute of my life with your miserable ass!”

A loud snort sent waves of anger racing under your skin, “Good luck with that, princess. You take it anywhere else and you won’t be able to afford to get it fixed. They’ll take advantage of you the minute they see the pretty teacher in the tight sweater walk in. Enjoy walking to work once winter hits, sweetheart because you won’t have wheels.”

“I did it this past winter and I can do it again if I have to,” you stated, refusing to back down. The last thing you needed after the mess your divorce had been was to dive into another complicated situation. He might be beautiful. He might be sexy. Hell, he might be the most attractive man you’d ever laid eyes on but the stress that came along with him was not worth it. 

“Suit yourself. I was doing you a favor,” he huffed, stepping back, holding his arms out wide. “You think you’d be a little more appreciative when someone offers you free labor. Guess you are the little stuck up bitch I thought you were from the moment I saw you at the lake.”

“Fuck you,” you hissed. “You have no idea who I am. You’ve never even bothered to find out.”

Your feet slammed down on the pedals, flying away from him as fast as you could so he couldn’t see the tears that were already blurring your vision. 

___________________________________________________________

You sat on the floor of your living room, cartons of the Chinese food you’d grabbed sitting on the coffee table in front of you. You spooned out some rice and then some almond boneless chicken onto your plate. Grabbing an egg roll, you took a large bite, wishing for the familiar comfort food to fill the gaping void within you. The sweet and savory combination filled your mouth but it brought no joy. You could not shake the feeling of dismay and agitation you felt after your confrontation with Eddie this afternoon. 

You’d tried to let it go. You came home and did a load of laundry, cleaned the house from top to bottom, all the things you usually put off because you were bone tired by Friday afternoon. But today you’d needed to be busy, your body tense with unsettled energy.  None of it had helped, not even the three mile bike ride round trip to pick up the food had stopped your brain from going round and round, picking apart every single moment of your encounter. 

Eddie obviously had baggage. Hell, it sounded like he had an entire luggage set, possibly a U-haul’s worth that he was dragging behind him everywhere he went. It sounded as if the man had been through some of the most awful shit imaginable and you felt for him, you really did, but it wasn’t your job to save him. And it didn’t excuse him treating you like garbage. You couldn’t even manage to be his friend. What in the world had Steve been thinking, throwing around the word love? Yeah, like that was ever going to happen.

You took a deep swig of the extra large glass of wine you’d poured yourself, wishing you could just make him go away but you couldn’t. Your brain insisted on keeping him in the forefront. What was it about him that wouldn’t let you rest? That had you in some kind of chokehold? No, it wasn’t your job to save him but you found that you really wished you could even though he was so rude to you. You wanted to be the one. You wanted to see those eyes melt, that smile that lit up his whole face, and you wanted it to be for you. Shit, you were even more messed up than you’d thought, pining for some guy who was clearly not interested.

You picked up the movies you’d grabbed from Family Video before you stopped at the Chinese place. You’d grabbed The Craft, Scream, and Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet was out for now. You couldn’t stomach the thought of a romance right now. It had seemed like a good idea at the time because even though it was a romance, it was tragic but tragic was the definition of your life currently. Even with the two of them dying in the end, you did not feel up for gushy words and goo-goo eyes. 

Gushy words and goo-goo eyes were not in your near future and that was okay. Alone seemed okay. Alone was probably what you needed right now anyway. Sure, you and Cam had been split up for a year but the ink on the divorce papers was barely dry. Getting into any relationship right now was a horrible idea, something you shouldn’t even be considering. Maybe you would just embrace the inevitable turn your life was going to take, go down to the shelter, adopt a handful of cats, and become the crazy single lady you were destined to become anyway. 

A knock at the door startled you. You jumped as your wine sloshed over the side of your glass. 

“Shit!” you exclaimed, grabbing a paper towel, mopping at the front of your shirt. Damn. At least you’d gone with the white instead of the red tonight or your shirt would be a goner.

Sighing, you tossed the paper towel down onto the coffee table and made your way to the door, annoyed with whoever decided to interrupt your quiet evening to sulk. You weren't in the mood to be good company for anyone. Pulling open the door, your eyes went wide, an audible squeak releasing from your lips when you found Eddie standing on your front porch, a brown paper bag in his hands. 

He clearly mistook your surprise for annoyance because he stepped back, holding the bag up in front of him as if it were a white flag of surrender. You could not wrap your brain around Eddie Munson, the guy who’d just a few hours ago called you a stuck up bitch, standing on your porch. What in the hell was he doing here? Had he not gotten the message? What was with this guy?

“Look, I know I was a dick and if you don’t want to talk to me, then fine. I get it. You’d have every right to but I…” His spare hand ran over his face as he groaned. “I can be a total asshole sometimes. Okay? I know that and I don’t mean to be. I just get so damn mad sometimes. It’s…forget it. It doesn’t matter. Anyway, I didn’t know if you’d eaten or anything and Max said you liked the BLT at the diner so I brought you one.”

You stared at him silently, your eyes going down to the bag and then back up to his face, your brain racing to catch up to the words coming out of his mouth, trying to make sense of what was happening right now.

“You brought me food?”

“Yeah…I mean, you do eat, right?” he asked, a hopeful smile on his face, looking at you as if he were talking to a bomb that could go off at any moment.

“Obviously I eat. Is this your idea of an apology?”

“Well, yeah,” shrugged Eddie. “I was a jerk and I’m trying to make up for it.”

“Have you ever considered just saying you’re sorry? I find that works really well. You know, actually admitting that you feel bad because you were wrong?” you demanded, your confidence returning as your anger returned, remembering the nasty words spat from his mouth in the school parking lot. 

“Oh come on. I bought you food. Doesn’t that count?”

“Not really,” you insisted, folding your arms, leaning your shoulder against the doorframe. You turned your head, gesturing to your coffee table covered in cartons. “Besides, I already have Chinese food so I’m all set for dinner but thanks.”

You grabbed the door, moving to close it, done with this conversation. This guy was insufferable. He couldn’t even manage a real apology. Before you fully closed it, his hand shot out, pushing back, resisting. 

“Okay, okay. Look, I’m sorry, alright?” he groaned, those brown eyes beseeching you to accept it, to not make this worse for him than it already was. “I’m sorry I was a dick. I shouldn’t have called you a bitch.”

“Damn. That looked so painful for you,” you teased with a smirk, impressed but also unable to help yourself from torturing him just a bit. 

“It really was so please don’t make me do it again,” Eddie pleaded but the muscles in his face relaxed, his mouth cracking into a smile that was like a beam of light breaking through a suffocating darkness. “Anyway, I’ll just leave this with you.” He held the bag out in front of him. “Maybe you can have it for lunch tomorrow or something. Sorry about bringing you food you didn’t need.”

“Wow. Two sorries from you in a matter of a few minutes. I’m impressed.” You glanced back at your coffee table, the ridiculous amount of food you’d ordered just like you always did when you got Chinese. 

You were suddenly overcome with the desire to not spend the night alone wallowing. You didn’t just want to not be alone, you specifically wanted Eddie to stay. It was so stupid. You knew it was stupid but suddenly you found you couldn’t bear the thought of him just walking away even if you might be playing with fire when his mood shifted once again. Maybe you were setting yourself up for pain but you found yourself willing to get burned if it meant spending time with him. 

You cleared your throat, filled with uncertainty at the prospect of being rejected by him, your words wavering as you spoke, “Actually, I ordered way too much food. I am never going to be able to eat all that. You’re welcome to share with me. I mean, if you haven’t eaten dinner yet.” 

Eddie suddenly looked like a deer in headlights, his expression twisting into surprise. His eyebrows raised, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, clearly stunned by your offer and you instantly wished you could take it back. You just wanted to reach out and pull the words back into your mouth. Of course he didn’t want to join you. He was probably just trying to make nice for the sake of the group, trying to make sure he didn’t get told off by his friends again for being a jerk to you. That didn’t mean he wanted to willingly spend time with you. 

“You know what? Forget it,” you backtracked, shaking your head, a forced laugh that was both awkward and far too loud bursting from you. “You probably grabbed something at the diner, right? I’m sure you don’t want to spend your Friday night hanging…”

“Yeah,” Eddie interrupted, nodding. His lips pursed together in a pout that had your knees wobbling. “Yeah, I would, actually. I love Chinese. I didn’t get anything at the diner. I was kind of in a rush because I didn’t really want to bring you cold food. Cold food doesn’t seem like a great apology. I mean, no one wants to eat cold fries. I mean, I have eaten cold fries because you’ll eat anything when you’re stoned, you know? Jesus Christ.” He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. “Okay. Shutting up now. Anyway, yeah…I mean, if you’re not taking the offer back then yeah, I would like to share your Chinese food.”

“Okay. I mean, no, I’m not taking my offer back,” you laughed, stepping back and waving your arm toward the living room. “Come on in.”

Eddie stepped inside, his eyes moving around the small space as he walked, roaming over the kitchen that was in such need of a complete renovation and the living room, the photographs you had displayed on the walls. He stopped, examining a picture of you with your parents and your sister from when you went to Yellowstone National Park when you were nine. 

“This you?” he questioned with a wry smile, his finger pointing at you in your brown bell bottoms and a garishly bright orange tunic with yellow flowers. 

“Yeah, that’s me. My mom was really into seventies fashion if you couldn’t tell from all of our outfits. Pictures of me from two until about eleven all have highly questionable fashion choices.”

Eddie chuckled, “You don’t want to see my pictures then. In fourth grade my Uncle got me a denim jacket and pants for pictures with a plaid collared shirt. It’s…unfortunate.” He made his way down the line, pausing and tapping on a picture from six years ago, you at twenty-four, rocking ripped jeans, a flannel, and dark make-up. “Damn. Teach is looking all badass.”

“Nirvana concert in Chicago,” you told him with a quiet laugh. “My best friend…well, my ex best friend and I went. That was 1990, I think. We had the most amazing few days. The concert was epic, something I will never forget but we also did all the touristy crap in Chicago. We saw the Bean, ate deep dish pizza, and hit up Old Navy Pier. We went out dancing and drinking and stumbled back to the hotel at three in the morning. We used to do shit like that all the time. She was my concert partner, my adventure buddy. At least she used to be.”

“Is she the one that…?” he trailed off as if he couldn’t bring himself to actually say the words, surprising you with his tact when so many other times he hadn’t cared if what he’d said bothered you. 

You shrugged, “Yep. My best friend since sophomore year. I didn’t think anything could ever change our friendship but walking in on her bouncing on top of your husband kind of changes things.”

“Damn. That’s really messed up. Like, the lowest of the low. What kind of friend does that shit?”

“They claimed it just kind of happened and they never meant for it to. Then once I figured out it wasn’t a one time thing, they said they never wanted to hurt me but they just hadn’t been able to deny their feelings for each other. Usual cheater bullshit speak.”

“So, they weren’t just fucking?”

“Oh no,” you snorted, gesturing for him to follow you to the food. You sat down on the floor and Eddie followed suit, his knee brushing against yours, the tiny contact creating a ripple effect through your entire body that quickly turned into a tidal wave of desire. “She’s living with him in my house. Well, I guess it’s not my house anymore. Nothing is mine anymore. He got the house, all the furniture, my car, the dog…Cam made sure he took absolutely everything he could before he was officially done with me like he was the one who had something to be spiteful about.”

“Jesus. Sounds like a real asshole. Your dog, too?” Eddie’s eyes melted, just the way you’d hoped for them to, sweet ooey gooey brown that seeped right into your soul, warming it, coating it in a sticky barrier that was keeping the bad things away. 

“Yep. My sweet Marley is now with Cam and Cassie.”

“Didn’t you fight him?”

You watched as Eddie grabbed an egg roll and took a bite, those full lips wrapping around the crispy dough. Jesus, his lips were perfect, like two plush pillows you wanted to sink into. He chewed, his eyebrows lifting, reminding you that he was waiting for an answer. You straightened up, leaning back against the couch. 

 “Oh, uh…well, I tried. I fought him for months but I’m a teacher and he’s a real estate agent. He sells big money homes, like six figure homes. I couldn’t afford the kind of lawyer that he could afford. It just kept going on and on, meeting after meeting. Every single time we’d come together and I would make a demand, he would counter it. I just got so tired of fighting. I got sick of having to deal with him all the time. Seeing him was…painful and awful and nasty. We could not be in the same room without saying the most hateful things. I just wanted it over, you know? I felt like I was stuck…just standing in one spot, like someone hit the pause button on my life and I wanted to fast forward to the part where it got good again. Hell, where anything happened again. So, I just signed the papers and let him have everything. That’s why I don’t have a car. I barely had anything when I moved. Once I made a down payment on this place, there wasn’t much left over. I had to save for a while. Hence walking to work in the freezing cold.”

“What an asshole,” Eddie said again, brushing his hands together, crumbs flying off and onto the table and floor. “Shit. Sorry about that.” He began to wipe his hand across the table, attempting to collect them.

You laughed, “It’s fine. I’ll just wipe it down and vacuum later. Don’t worry about it.”

“So, you caught them and then you left and they just shacked up together? And then after he was the dick who blew up your marriage, he left you with nothing?”

“Pretty much. Except they didn’t start shacking up together until a couple of months ago. They tried to claim that when I caught them it was the first time but I knew better. Turned out they’d been sleeping together behind my back for a year. I found some charges that didn’t make a whole lot of sense.” Your lips pressed together and you looked down at your hands. “Pretty stupid to not realize your husband and best friend are screwing around, huh?”

Then his fingers were on your chin, lifting it, forcing you to look into those eyes and your heart was going to propel forcefully from your chest and spill messily all over him. It was the most casual touch and yet the most intimate. It was causing emotions to stir within you that you would rather push back down but it was futile. No matter how many times you told yourself to forget this man, to not let him affect you, your body and your heart had other ideas. 

His adam's apple bobbed hard in his throat as he swallowed, his eyes flicking down to your lips so quickly that you wondered if you’d just imagined it. You could have because you wanted it badly, wanted him to kiss you, wanted him to replace every touch, every thought of Cam. To record over it the way you used to record over your VHS tapes. Erase the bad, wipe it from existence as if it had never happened, new footage of something better, something good.

“You’re not stupid. That ex of yours is the one who’s stupid,” Eddie stated, his thumb coasting just under your bottom lip. You had to fight the urge to wrap your lips around it and pull it into your mouth. What in the hell was happening to you? “That ex best friend of yours is stupid. They both did something horrible and they lost you. That’s got to be the dumbest thing they could have ever done.”

Your breath caught in your throat, feeling as if you were on the edge of your seat. Was something about to happen? Adrenaline and anticipation coursed through you as Eddie’s face tilted down toward yours. His eyes moved to your mouth and this time you were certain it did because it wasn’t a fleeting glance. They lingered. 

“Eddie…” you breathed, terrified to move, terrified of what was about to happen while also being terrified of what would happen if it did. 

Those earth-toned eyes moved back up to yours, widening slightly as if just realizing what he was doing. He released your chin, clearing his throat as he leaned back. Your heart fell when he scooted just the slightest bit further away from you. He grabbed onto a carton of food, spooning some onto a plate. 

“Anyway, yeah, what total assholes,” he muttered, shaking his head, his gaze now completely focused on his plate. 

What in the hell was it about you that stopped him? The way he’d been looking at you, it sure seemed like he was interested but if he was then why did he stop himself? You hadn’t stopped him. You didn’t think you’d given any indication that you didn’t want it. You were certain you wouldn’t have been able to stop him even if you wanted to. Your body wanted this. Did he just get caught up in the moment and then remember it was you? The girl he only tolerated for his friends sake? Maybe he wasn’t into you like that. 

“Umm…well, I picked up some movies and I was going to watch one while I ate if you wanted to watch with me,” you offered, attempting to salvage some of your bruised pride after his obvious reconsideration of kissing you. 

“Sure, what did you get?” he asked, still purposefully not looking at you, only making the knot in your stomach twist that much worse. Definitely not interested. Jesus, you were an idiot.

“Romeo and Juliet, The Craft, and Scream.”

“Oh! Scream, definitely. I meant to get to the theater to see that but I never did.”

“Yeah, me neither. Kind of unheard of for a horror movie to make it out of the theater without me seeing it,” you commented, rising from the couch to pop the VHS into the player before sitting back down. 

You immediately started focusing on your food but that knot in your stomach was making it hard to actually want to eat anything anymore so you gave up. Placing your hands on the couch, you pushed yourself up and onto it, wanting some more space between you and Eddie. A barrier between what you wanted and what he clearly did not, a safe space where the two wouldn’t meet, where you wouldn’t humiliate yourself. 

“You like horror movies?” he inquired, following you up and onto the couch but about as far as he could be from you, sitting all the way in the opposite corner, only cementing your belief that he wasn’t interested in more than just hanging out. 

“Oh yeah. I love them. I don’t know if there’s a horror movie out there that I haven’t seen. Cassie loved them too so she always went with me. That’s probably why I haven’t seen it yet. Cam couldn’t stand being scared. Her and I always did all the spooky stuff together, movies, haunted houses, that kind of thing.”

“Sounds like Cam’s a bit of a pussy on top of being an asshole,” snorted Eddie with a roll of his eyes. “So, what’s your favorite scary movie?”

“My favorite? Well…I am pretty partial to the original Halloween,” you answered. “You can’t do much better than the actual bogeyman, the embodiment of true evil. Some of the sequels not so much though.”

“Ugh, tell me about it. That third one was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

“Season of the Witch? Yeah, could have done without that one. The entire plotline did not make any sense at all. Michael Myers wasn’t even in it. Like, what was the point? Honestly, if it wouldn’t have been called Halloween, I might have felt differently. It wasn’t an awful movie but it wasn’t at all what I expected. I know they said it was supposed to be an original movie, different movies all based on Halloween and Carpenter didn’t plan on continuing Michael Myers but how could you not? What about you?”

“Nightmare on Elm Street,” Eddie stated without hesitation. “Nothing beats Freddy Krueger. The man can kill you in your dreams. There’s no escaping his claw glove. That’s a real monster, man, one that can get you anywhere without even having to really touch you… can get you even in your own mind…” 

He paused, his body stilling, eyes glazing over with that haunted look again as if he was witnessing some horror within his mind that you couldn’t see. Instinctually you reached out, placing your hand on his arm and he jumped, coming back to reality. He looked down at where your skin touched and pulled his arm back from you quickly, his spine straightening. 

“Sorry. Uh…yeah, so anyway, I was thinking if you didn’t have plans tomorrow we could go to the junkyard and look for those parts for your car. It shouldn’t take too long. I won’t take up your whole Saturday but then I can start getting to work on it for you, possibly even have you behind the wheel within a couple weeks.”

“Oh…” You tried to calm the excitement that bubbled up within you at the thought of spending a day with Eddie, reminding yourself that it wasn’t what you hoped it to be. Hanging out together didn’t mean to him what it meant to you. You were going to have to get the hell over this one-sided attraction. 

“I mean, we can do it another time if you’re busy. You got big plans with Harrington or something?” he questioned, looking at you from under those ridiculously long lashes, those full lips pressed together.

“Steve? Why would I have plans with Steve?” you asked, flabbergasted by the sudden question. What was it with him and Steve? Why did he keep asking you questions about him? 

His tongue teased at the corner of his mouth, something you noticed was fairly common for him, like a nervous habit. Just like playing with his rings and as if he knew what you were thinking, there he went, twirling one of the chunky pieces of jewelry around his finger. He shrugged one shoulder.

“I don’t know. It kind of seems like maybe you two have a thing?”

“A thing?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, you two seem like maybe you like each other or something.”

“Me and Steve?” you laughed. The irony of it was just too funny. If he only knew how wrong he was. You’d probably be better off if you were into Steve but no, your brain couldn’t possibly make the smart decision. That would be too easy. “Where did you get that idea?”

Eddie’s fingers grabbed onto a chunk of hair, bringing it over his mouth. “Well…you guys looked pretty cozy at the bonfire and on the couch at Nancy and Jonathan’s. You were chatting all close at the roller rink the other night. I mean, to the casual observer, it would appear maybe you two were a thing. He is your type, isn’t he?”

“And what exactly do you think my type is?” you challenged, folding your arms over your chest as you stared him down. 

“Oh no. I’m not going there. I will not be sticking my foot in my big mouth again,” chuckled Eddie, shaking his head. “No way. Anything I say is just going to piss you off.”

“Me? You’re the one who’s always getting pissed at me.”

“Am not,” he scoffed, blowing a raspberry at you. 

You gasped, lifting one of the throw pillows and whacking him in the stomach. He threw his head back, that laugh that was like the most beautiful song rumbling out of him and you couldn’t help the pleasure you felt at knowing you’d caused it. It brought you more elation than you cared to admit that you could bring joy to this man who was so damn serious and surly all the time.

“Bullshit! You run hot and cold constantly. One minute I think maybe you like me and then the next it’s like you can’t stand to be in the same room with me.”

“Not true. I do like you.” Eddie’s eyebrows suddenly shot up his forehead and he began tripping over his words, appearing flustered. “I mean, like you’re cool, you know.” He shrugged. “You’re fun…to hang out with, like friends. We’re friends, right?”

“I don’t know. Are we?” you asked, genuinely wondering. 

“Yeah.” He nodded, eyes rolling up to the ceiling and then back to you with a sigh. “I think we are. I mean, we’ve just had dinner together and we’re watching a movie. And not because we’re hanging with the group. We’re just hanging out, me and you. That’s friends stuff, right? That’s what friends do.”

“Yeah,” you agreed, leaning back against the armrest, pulling your knees into your chest. You wrapped your arms around your legs, propping your chin on top as you considered him. “Yeah, that’s what friends do.”

A pang of disappointment sounded in your chest at your own words. You couldn’t deny that you’d hoped he felt something more between you, that the brief hope you’d had that he thought about you differently was true. But he clearly didn’t so you tried to push those feelings away, focusing on the positive. At least he considered you a friend. After all, wasn’t that what you’d been trying for from the beginning? Just to be friends with him, just to get along?

“But I am free tomorrow to look for parts,” you said, bringing them back to the original question he’d asked. 

“Cool,” he said simply, a small smile on his face, the two of you turning your heads to the television as the previews finished and the movie began. 

Chapter 11

Taglist

@tlclick73 @bebe07011 @eddiesguitarskills @witchwolflea @nailbatanddungeon @emilyslutface @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @corrodedcoffincumslut @mmunson86 @josephquinnsfreckles @katethetank

#eddie munson #eddie the banished #stranger things eddie #eddie munson fic #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x femreader #eddie munson smut #eddie the freak munson #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson angst #eddie munson series #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson lives #max mayfield #hawkins #ongoing #fluff #angst #smut and fluff #fluff and angst #enemies to friends to lovers #post divorce #falling in love #second chances #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #steve harrington #stranger things 4 #jonathan byers

[supernovafics]

strangers to lovers to enemies with steve harrington

(very much inspired by “in the kitchen” by reneé rapp)

wc: 1.6k

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

strangers

for the first time in a long time, you didn’t hate your job. 

when you found out robin would be working at the family video next door to the pharmacy you had been working at for the past year, you were glad that you would finally have a friend close by. 

it would make your boring job a bit more bearable. 

you went into family video during your lunch break on one of her first few days. she stood behind the counter with someone you didn’t recognize.  

“welcome to this side of town,” you said with a smile, grabbing her attention. 

she smiled back at you before then sighing. “do you know how many old people call here just to rant about how “disgusting” and “sacrilegious” the movie selection we have here is? answer: too, too many. they even hate the cartoons meant for little kids. i’m pretty sure i lose a year off my life every time a call like that goes past five minutes.” 

the only reason you found her words to be the slightest bit funny was because dealing with annoying old people was a staple to your job as well. “please don’t quit yet. the fact that you’re next door is the only thing that makes me slightly like my job now.”

“i’ll be here for at least a month.”

you laughed at that. “how generous of you.”

“this is steve, by the way,” she told you, gesturing to the guy next to her. 

you nodded at him and introduced yourself with a small smile before heading back next door. 

steve was smiling the entire time as you walked away, something that robin did not fail to notice. 

she lightly nudged him. “don’t even think about trying to get with her, harrington.”

to lovers

naturally, steve did not listen. 

because there was something about you and your personality that he was completely enamored by from that first very minor conversation he had with you at family video. 

therefore, one night when it was just him and keith in the store and no robin to stop him, he went next door to see you. 

you were stocking shelves and were surprised to see him walk into the store. 

“hi?”

“hi.”

there was something about his presence that made you feel slightly nervous, mainly because you didn’t know him well yet, and you always felt awkward around people you didn’t really know. 

“um, how’s it going?” you asked because that was the only thing you could think to say at the moment. 

“i just finished helping a lady find a movie that would ‘spice up her marriage.’ those were her exact words. we spent half an hour looking through pretty much every porn we have in the store, which for a place named family video was weirdly a lot,” steve responded and after your initial shock subsided, you fought the urge to laugh at his story. “and i’ll sadly never get those thirty minutes back. how’s it going here?”

“can’t say i have had experiences like that one today, which i’m very sorry for by the way,” you said. “but, earlier i did have to help an elderly woman pick out the best diapers for her husband, and she went into too much detail about why he needs the biggest size we have. i won’t tell you what she said because you don’t deserve to be subjected to that, but i’m scarred forever.” 

he then made a joke about how insane the people in this town are, which made you laugh, and the minor awkwardness fell away from there. 

“how long is your break?” you asked when it neared an hour of him being there with you. he started helping you stock shelves when after ten minutes of doing nothing other than talking, you told him that your boss would hate you if you didn’t finish stocking by the end of your shift.

steve glanced at the watch he was wearing. “yeah, i should probably be heading back. what time are you done here tonight?”

“i’m off at 10.”

he smiled at your response. “same here. do you wanna do something after?”

“okay,” you nodded and then turned away so that he didn’t see how happy you were at his question. 

that night you drive around aimlessly in his car, listening to music and talking, before stumbling upon a drive-in movie theater and deciding to watch the black and white movie they were playing. 

steve’s affectionate and sweet, and you get hit with the unfamiliar feeling of deeply liking someone that swells your heart. so, when he kisses you when he drops you off at your home, it just makes sense to you. 

to enemies

when robin entered the pharmacy on a random tuesday, a month after your first kiss with steve, she groaned. 

she didn’t know about you and steve yet, but there had been so many instances where you almost accidentally slipped and mentioned it. 

steve hadn’t wanted to tell her about you guys just yet because of how adamant she’d been about him not trying anything with you. you personally thought that after her initial surprise wore off she wouldn’t really care that the two of you were together, but you still understood steve’s hesitance. 

it was quiet in the store when robin walked in, and you were at the front counter, mindlessly flipping through a magazine. 

“what’s happening today?” you asked, knowing that she would have some sort of story to share about family video. for a job that seemed fairly simple, there was always something happening there. 

she sighed as she walked over to you and pushed herself up to sit down on the counter. “steve’s flirting it up with some girl right now. and laying it on very heavy, might i add.”

it would be an understatement to say that her words only surprised you. they confused you, made you do an inward double take to make sure that you truly heard her right. and when you realized that you did hear her correctly, her words immediately saddened you. and the worst part was you couldn’t tell her any of that. 

“oh?” you tried to hide the shock in your voice. you pulled your eyes away from hers and flipped a page in your magazine. 

“yup, and this is surprisingly the third girl this week that’s actually flirting back with him. i had to get out of there this time before it turned into a low-budget john hughes movie,” robin told you and then groaned again. 

you heard yourself responding with, “ew, that sounds horrible,” but your mind was in a completely different place right then, and all you could think about was steve and this girl, and apparently two other girls as well. 

before robin could question your sudden detached demeanor, you shoved everything you were feeling right then  to the side and plastered on a smile. “you can seek refuge here as long as you need.”

robin smiled back at you as she picked up a random magazine, which was actually the same as yours, and began flipping through it. “god bless you.”

she headed back next door twenty minutes later since she was off in an hour anyway, and that was when you finally let yourself sit in the sadness you were feeling. 

sadness that oh so quickly turned to anger. 

and when you saw steve hours later, moments after your shift ended, which was also the same time that his did too, you could feel your blood nearly boiling. 

“hi,” he greeted you with a smile on his face. 

you glared harshly at him before turning away and heading to your car.

“what’s wrong?”

“fuck you.”

you could tell that steve was taken aback by your words and you almost didn’t explain to him why you were acting the way you were, but ultimately you did. 

“robin told me that you were flirting with some girl at the video store today. ‘laying it on very heavy’ were her exact words. and she also said that this was the third girl this week that was actually reciprocating your flirting. third.”

he looked away from you and a part of you expected some sort of an explanation from him, to explain that maybe all of it was somehow some big misunderstanding. however, when no response came, you continued speaking. 

“i know that we didn’t have a full label on this ‘thing’ we have going on, but still, it’s pretty fucked up, and i can’t believe that i thought you actually liked me.”

“i do like you,” steve told you, full conviction in his tone. “but, this was never supposed to be something serious. i thought we were both on the same page with that.”

those words hurt you because in your mind the two of you were working toward something serious. it was still fairly early, but you liked him a lot and you thought he felt the same way. at least when you were making out in his car he made it seem that way. 

“well, i guess we weren’t,” you finally said, trying your hardest to keep your voice steady because you didn’t want him to see how much he hurt you. 

“i’m sorry,” he said, and you hated how you could hear the sincerity in his tone, and you also simply hated him in that moment. you didn’t want him to feel bad for you and you especially didn’t want to see him ever again. 

“just don’t talk to me anymore,” you told him. your voice was cold and harsh, and you didn’t wait to hear any type of response from him before getting in your car and finally driving away. 

on your way home, you realized through blurry eyes that your hope of never seeing him again was probably fruitless because he would be next door to you most days. 

suddenly, you were right back to hating your job. 

#sorry for this sad ending….</3 #steve harrington blurb #steve harrington drabble #steve harrington headcanon #steve harrington fic #steve harrington x fem!reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fanfiction #steve harrington smut #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington

[dreamcatcher2113]

The Dragon Dance

Summary: What if Rhaenyra had another child? What if Rhaenyra had a daughter with white hair and purple eyes? What if she was betrothed to Aemond as an alliance with Greens? 

You are the daughter of Rhaenyra Targaryen, unlike your brothers you have white hair and purple eyes. You are the twin sister of Jacaerys. You were close with Aemond when you were kids, you two attached to the hip. Ten years later after your family left to Dragonstone, your family reunites with the Greens. You see a familiar face, Aemond Targaryen. Even though it's been years since you last saw him, let's just say you are not the same little girl you were once before. 

Warnings: The reader and Jacaerys are aged up, they would be eighteen. Uncle/niece insect. 18+ smut(eventually). Language. Mentions of assault(mainly from Aegon). Violence. And possible other warnings that I can’t think of. There is a happy ending.

You're Nightgown

Part 04

Masterlist

___________________________________________

The Dragon Dance Part 05:

You sit out of the balcony in your nightgown, you look up in the sky seeing some of the stars shining in the night sky. At Dragonstone, you were able to see all the stars, but now that you are back at King’s Landing you can’t really see them. You hum an old Valyrian song that Rhaenyra and Daemon would sing to you, your eyes red from crying.

You hear a knock on your door, you get up and walk up to the door thinking it's your parents or brothers. You open the door and see the last person you want to see; Aemond was right in front of you, giving you a small smile. You were about to slam the door on his face, but Aemond was faster. He stopped the door from closing with his hand.

“I just want to talk.” Aemond said quietly, giving you a sad look. He notices that your eyes are red and swollen, probably from crying. His heart ached a bit, knowing he had hurt you.

Screw him looking all sad after what he said. You thought. “And what makes you think I even want to speak to you?” You asked, crossing your arms. 

“Please Y/N. I just want to apologize. If you still don’t want to talk to me after, I’ll leave you alone until you want to talk to me. Please….” Aemond pleaded to you, he honestly sounded sincere.

Swallowing your pride, you open the door further, letting Aemond in. Aemond walks in and  closes the door behind him. The two of you stood in the middle of your room. “Make it quick, Aemond. I’m tired and want to go to bed.” You said coldly to him.

Aemond sighed, knowing he really fucked up and not surprised that you acting cold towards him. He knows he deserves it. “I want to say I’m sorry for my speech. It was uncalled for, and I shouldn’t have let my anger get the best of me. Therefore I am sorry that I hurt you.” Aemond apologized, reaching for your hands but stopped himself.

You sighed deeply, still crossing your arms. “Why did you say those things, Aemond?” You asked.

“When your brother Luce started laughing when the roasted pig was set on the table. I just lost it. I started to remember what happened 10 years ago.” Aemond answered, looking down. Hurting a bit from the memory of the prank with the pig.

You sighed again, reaching your hand to his, caressing his fingers. “I understand why you would get upset, Aemond. I really  do. But you called my brother’s bastards. Calling me a bastard.” Your voice starts to shake.

“That was not my intention Y/N. I didn’t mean to call you a bastard.” Aemond claimed.

“But that’s what you did, Aemond!” You raised your voice a little bit. “When you call my brothers bastards, you are calling me one as well. Jace and I are twins for crying out loud!”

“I’m sorry my love.” Aemond said quietly, leaning closer to you but not touching you. Not wanting to make you uncomfortable.

You leaned closer to him, putting your forehead against his. “Do you love me, Aemond?” You asked in old Valyrian.

“Of course I do. I loved you before I knew what love was.” He responded, putting his  hand on your cheek.

“Then prove it to me. Please, Aemond. Please try to make amends with them.” You plead, holding the hand that’s holding your cheek. “I know you’re not close with your siblings, but I’m close with mine. I can’t imagine my life without them, and I don’t want to start now.”

“I know you are beloved. I just-” Aemond stops himself. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Please tell me, Aemond. I want to help.” You plead. “Let me heal the wounds that are in your heart.”

“After Luce took my eye, even when I told my mother that it was okay. That it was a fair exchange. I still can’t help but to hold this grudge against him. I don’t know how to let it go.” He answered honestly. Aemond knows he needs to let go of the grudge that holds against his nephew, especially since now that he is betrothed to you. Aemond knows how close you are with your siblings, which he envies a lot. However, the grudge he holds for Luce for ten years. He doesn’t know how to let go.

“Then let me help you let it go, Aemond. Let me help you heal.” You surprised him with what you just said. Aemond was a little shock that you wanted to help him. “I know what my little brother did was wrong. There is no excuse for what he did.”

“I know this probably won’t help, but-” you continued. “Luce does feel bad for taking your eye. He didn’t mean to take it that far.”

Aemond leans even closer to you for comfort. “To be honest I don’t know my love.”  You sighed in defeat

“However” he continued, “I am willing to try to make peace with your brothers, because I know it’ll make you happy.”

“Thank you Aemond, I appreciate it.” You lean closer to him, pulling his hand away from your cheek, and holding his hand against his chest.

“Can I ask you one more favor?” You asked.

“Of course.”

“Can you help me set up a family meeting?” You asked him with wide eyes.

Aemonds quirks his eyebrows, confused why you need his help. “How my love?” He asked.

“Well~” You said.

“Well what Y/N?” Aemond giving you a look.

“I need your help with your brother attending it, because it does have to do with him as well.” You answer him.

Aemond sighed, knowing the dipwhit of a brother of his, Aegon would probably skip out. Aemond knows whatever you are planning, it’s important to you. All he wants is you to be happy. If bringing his half of a brain brother to this family meeting will make you happy and for you to forgive, then so be it.

“I will drag him by the throat in order for him to attend, my dear.” Aemond giving you his signature smirk. “What are you planning?”

You give him a smile, “you have to wait tomorrow at the family meeting to find out.”

“Spitfire.”

“I’m not hearing you complain about it.”

Aemond chuckled, and started to rub his thumb across your hand. “I should get going my spitfire, it’s getting late.”

You sighed a bit, you kind of don’t want Aemond to go but you know that it would be inappropriate if he didn’t. “I understand, my love.”

The both of you pulled apart, and you walked Aemond out of the door. As Aemond steps out of your room, he stops and turns in front of you. He puts both of his hands on your cheeks, turning your face to the side slightly. Aemond gives you a kiss on the cheek. At that moment he wanted to kiss you, but he felt like it was too soon. Aemond can be a patient man, he will wait a little longer to feel your lips against his.

“Good night my fire flower, and have beautiful dreams tonight.” Aemond wished you good night in old Valyrian.

“Good night my beloved.” You also wish him good night. You slowly close the door, as you shut the door you start to walk to your bed. You get under the covers, laid in bed, and you start to feel your face turning red. When you and Aemond were kids, you were used to him kissing your cheek. Now that both of you are adults, somehow it’s different. You groan and face plant into your pillow, wondering how you’re going to get any sleep tonight. 

_____________________________________

Taglist: @dudfahsn @distinguishedvoidlady @allexiiisss @missbrownstone @jeyramarie

#the dragon dance #aemond targaryen #aemond x reader #aemond imagine #aemond fanfiction #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen x you #aemond x you #aemond one eye #aemond the kinslayer #house of the dragon #house of the dragon fic #house of the dragon fanfiction #house of the dragon imagine #aemond fic #hotd fic #hotd fanfic #hotd imagine #targaryen reader #velaryon reader #reader #reader insert #aemond x y/n #aemond fanfic

[justanothershippingcan]

My thoughts on the Ritsu&Shou related parts in the Fanbook

because I am kinda going insane.

The way ONE was able to melt all the gays down in one go should be studied, analysed and locked deep in the black void of Shou’s black shirt in the Cultural Festival scene in the manga, because there’s no way. 

As a warning, while I’ll be mostly talking about their relationship in terms of friendship anyway, I ship them, so this is kinda biased on this side of things. Enjoy what I have to say under the cut.

Okay, so, with the premise that the translations around on Twitter aren’t official so the info might not be 100% accurate, I am still more than willing to trust our beloved fantranslators and their hard work. Let’s actually begin this slide deep into the tunnel headed to Copium Land, shall we?

• To the question "Who are your friends, excluding your brother?" Ritsu just answers with Student Council Members and Classmates. And that we (readers) don't have to worry, since he has many people he can ask about the weather to. Now.

We... never see him hang out with his classmates, nor his Council members. Ever. Except for the whole S1 "Middle school criminals purge" fiasco and even then, it ended up with him breaking through the Student Council President Kamuro’s house. When I say Ritsu isn't normal, I mean it (go off, King). 

Ritsu is the same person who asked the other Psychic kids from the Awakening Lab their names only after they were all kidnapped. And solely for the sake of escaping. He... doesn't know how to socialize well or doesn't particularly care. 

To him, friends are ones he can ask the weather to. I honestly feel like, no matter how popular he is (mostly, due to his looks... let’s remember how he is the one among the kids in the cast who gets the most chocolate on Valentine’s Day, but he finds it a nuisance) he doesn’t really know how-to-friend and how-to-people. And partially, he isn’t too focused on that due to the many things he has going on. 

I truly appreciate the idea of autistic Ritsu, because it would explain many things tbh, and this difficulty of approaching others/making friends/even having a basic understanding of friendships and what they mean would be clearer. 

Now, onto Shou. We have two questions to take into account:

• To the "What do you like doing with your friends?" he answers mentioning only Ritsu. Not even the kids that call him leader in S2,nor any classmate. Just Ritsu. And he mentions how Ritsu doesn’t like crowded spaces and noise (I'll return to that later) and how they went fishing together and Ritsu didn't manage to catch anything. From this we have: 

THEY WENT FISHING TOGETHER. Even with the whole text thing later, Ritsu still cared enough to go out with him. Without Mob being involved at all. I think it's important. They canonically hang out together.

Shou cares so much that he wanted to go to a place where Ritsu would feel comfy. Fishing is probably not an activity Shou prefers among others. But Ritsu might appreciate it and that's enough. 

Ritsu is bad at fishing and this is honestly a fun detail lol. 

• Through the same question, we have the whole text bit with Shou saying he texts Ritsu from time to time, but Ritsu answers slowly/not frequently. So-

For one, Ritsu does answer. He is a busy person with Student Council matters and he is, yk. At the top 10 of the best students in the school, in his first year competing with third years. And yet, he still answers these messages. 

Shou goes to school THIS IS A WIN BTW I KNEW IT, Shou literally emits the energy of that one kid who is actually totally listening during class, remembers everything and gets damn good marks, called it. Anyway, Shou probably isn't a slow texter like Ritsu is and has another perception of time lol, not to mention how he probably isn’t as busy. Can relate to Ritsu here. 

They still text. That's pretty good in my book (copium). 

Again, noise. They should have 2012-13 flip phones and now, I have used them in the past, but forgive me, I forgot what I did yesterday, imagine remembering 2012 phones, but I believe they did have an option to turn off notifications. And with Ritsu disliking noise... it's no wonder he would. It also helps with studying. 

•  There was a question about the Cultural Festival bit. Shou says that Ritsu didn’t ask him to come personally, he just caught wind of it and thought “why not?”, which makes more sense now that we are 100% sure he goes to school. Honestly, it’s no wonder Ritsu didn't ask Shou to go and see him. He was uncomfy with that outfit and the whole Maid idea. But as soon as Shou caught on that, he just. Went. Without honestly any other reason if not to see him. Still fruity enough in my book. 

• Last but not least. Ritsu does call Shou a friend in the World Domination Arc. And, truly, I am not willing to believe they aren’t on friendly terms after them texting together, hanging out together (fishing) and Ritsu just... accepting Shou burnt down his house and going along with his plan without a second thought lol. Hence why:

Either Ritsu truly just doesn't know where to place Shou in his mind. Thinking back also on Shou's VA interview helps with this.

Or, since he was mentioned as a friend in Shou’s profile, ONE believed it would have been redundant to put him in Ritsu’s as well. Which I believe is actually a fair point, since Ritsu wouldn’t have added that much insight, knowing him lol.

Or, regarding them being established as friends in World Domination Arc... ONE forgor. And truly, it has been years since he finished that arc, and he has written so many drafts of manga (ONE PUNCH, the rest of Mob), the new upcoming one and all of the extras since then. Wouldn’t blame him.

There is also this little important DETAIL of ONE just casually mentioning he would like a spin-off with Ritsu AND Shou. Together. Can’t separate, idc.

And... gosh, I think this is all. Thanks to all the ones that translated the bits that came out with this book and Katya’s translations of all the other interviews! Between this, the whole deal with Teru (aka his freaking terrible fashion sense and especially his parents), Reigen’s family, Serizawa’s pay, a few peculiar ages being revealed... this fanbook has been a trip and a half. But just in case, thank you all for coming to my Pep Talk, feel free to add anything if you want.

UPDATE 18/11

NEW INFO IS OUT and I reblogged this post of mine with all of such info compiled and my thoughts on it! It kinda changes a few of my highlights here and for the better. I’d say... we ultimately truly won. 

#Mob Psycho 100 #Mob Psycho 100 S3 mention #Mob Psycho Fanbook #Mp100 #Shouritsu #Ritshou #Ritsu Kageyama #Shou Suzuki #Sho Suzuki #Ritsho #Shoritsu #mentions of Mob Teru Reigen and Serizawa at the very end #Kinda crossposted on Twitter but this one adds way more #ONE told me #This is my trip from copium to rationalty I swear they are besties #Mob Psycho #mine

[cup1dxzs]

Darling Little puppet

Wally Darling X Reader

Chapter 10- Enigma

If it were possible you would have literally jumped out of your skin, where the hell did he even come from? You were sure you’d hear this short ass gremlin coming up from behind you, though now you actually weren’t sure from your current predicament.

‘Do I lie? Obviously you fucking idiot, he’d probably throw me out if he found out a stranger was snooping around in his house at night!’ Mentally arguing with yourself, Wally’s grip increased on your hand which caused you to wince in pain, he’d seem very unbothered at you being in pain.

“I’ll ask you again since it seems your ears are stuffed with fluff, What were you doing Y/n?” Wally’s monotonous voice rang out in the hallways, his face neutral but it doesn’t take a genius to tell he was fucking pissed. You actually wished that you didn’t try and test the limits of a puppet, but it was a puppet for gods sake! How could you possibly predict this demon would be so menacing?!

“Oh Well I was just- I was looking- I actually sleepwalk! Now how did I get here…?” You’d stammer, actually wishing you could jump in front of a train right now, it was so obvious you were lying! You were fucked, like beyond fucked, there was no escaping from this-

“Oh! I Guess that makes sense, Barnaby does the same thing except when he goes back to lay down, he lays right on top of me!” Wally’s demeanor had completely changed, currently being all giggles and smiles as his grip on your arm was now featherweight, almost as you’d flip a switch inside him.

What?

There was no way he believed that? How gullible was this guy? It almost made you feel bad for lying to him, but even then you had to admit that your lie was complete ass. ‘Definitely not complaining, he’s an idiot and it’s not my fault! Never doing that shit again…unless?’ You’d inwardly celebrate not getting caught up in doing something bad.

“Well we should get you back to sleep, I want you to be rested up for when you meet the others! You already met Julie so she’ll probably stay with us, I’m not too sure yet though…” Wally rambled on as he dragged you through the halls, practically clinging to your arm which got uncomfortably fairly quickly since you were being hunched over due to him not being the tallest person- puppet.

Occasionally sneaking glances at your hand to see the damage, even if it was dark you could tell that a bruise was starting to form from how swollen your wrist was, hoping it wasn’t as bad as you thought but nothing was in your favor at this point.

The terrifying encounter really tired you out, yawing as your movements became sluggish and droning out Wally’s current ramble of something about Apples, resting your head atop of his as you closed your eyes and let him blindly lead you back to your bed that was actually a couch but who was actually paying attention?

You honestly couldn’t believe this was the same guy that had you genuinely fearing for your life not even a few minutes ago, there was something behind that door and as much as you wished to see what was behind it you’d rather not do that again, the fear from getting caught itself knocked off about 5 years from your lifespan.

You couldn’t help but wonder though, how did he know you were there and how did he come at a perfect time? You weren’t being too loud- the fucking house!

‘Ugh, too sleepy I’ll be mad about it tomorrow.’ You’d tell yourself as you found keeping your eyelids open a very tiring hassle, as much as you loved to conspire you had to say that you loved your sleep way more.

Finally arriving you’d awkwardly allow yourself to be tucked in as if you were still a young child, it was strange in your opinion but it was still sweet nonetheless, feeling Wally give you a small kiss on your forehead as he mumbled a quick “Sleep tight don’t let the bedbugs bite.” And walked away to his room.

What a charmer.

Pausing as you’d process what you just said, you’d be confused by even your own thoughts, ‘He was literally about to kill me why am I thinking of him like that?’

Rolling your eyes as you’d groan, you couldn’t help but giggle and touch where he’d kiss you, letting your fingertips ghost the area. Covering yourself with your single blanket, trying to sleep but even you couldn’t help but feel a heat slowly creep up onto your cheeks as you’d dose off into dreamland.

He was quite the enigma, but so were you.

———————————————————————————

This chapter is short but I hope the fluff makes up for it! Reader reminds me of a schoolgirl getting their first crush and it’s absolutely chaotic! Anyways enjoy everyone, remember I love you!

-ChillyKitty

#wally darling #wally x reader #welcome home #x reader #constructive critism welcome #pls let me know #wally my beloved #welcome home wally #welcome home puppet show #puppets #fluff

[testingthewatersss]

I never lost him Trigger warnings for PTSD, mentions of war, torture,  etc. Just unapologetic cuddling and comfort ft. Steve Rodgers. Bucky Barnes x F Reader Chapter 7 3890 words fluff, angst, comfort. 18+ MDNI Post TWS Steve realises that he's not the only one looking for Sargent Barnes. Reader is Tony’s sister, a non-enhanced shield agent who recently resurfaced.

Y/N is still laughing when they reach the bathroom, and they’re both grinning by the time they’ve finished washing up.

Despite Bucky’s poor attempt at denial, she catches the way he lingers under the pressurised spray of water, and makes a mental note to get it upgraded to one that is more customisable.

She mentions the idea to him in the bedroom and he scoffs, telling him that even if she’d given him a hundred years he’d have never thought about making a customisable shower head. She laughs and says that there must be some kind of stupid thing that he’s always wanted.

‘I can’t think of anythin’ like that’ he tells her

When she asks him for his top ten favourite luxuries in general he rolls his eyes, towel wrapped around his waist and replies that he’s looking at them right now.

“I’m not a luxury, Barnes” she mock scolds, turning to grab herself some clean clothes from her dresser, “and I’m serious— if you could invent any 10, ridiculous, unnecessary, frivolous things, what would they be?”

“Oh, god, doll— I don’t know.”

She just laughs again, and gestures towards the clothes she’d laid out for him earlier.

“Well, why don’t you ponder it for awhile and let me know when you have some ideas.”

He scoffs, and dresses himself without further rebuttal, only pausing to relish in the way that it feels to have soft, clean clothes to put on for a change.

The socks nearly make him cry again, but instead, he finds himself tugging at his dog tag and waiting longingly for Y/N to turn back towards him.

It isn’t a long wait.

She’s ready in no time, spinning on her heals to beam at him, as she reaches out to hold his hand.

As the pair walk back out towards the living-room, Bucky makes a detour to the wicker basket, grabbing the same blue quilt he’d been fussing with earlier before leading Y/N back to the couch.

They curl up together, and when his head settles neatly into the curve of her chest, he realises that it feels strangely like he’s taking his first real breath of the day.

“Wanna watch some TV?” Y/N offers, “Maybe take a nap before lunch?”

He makes a soft noise of consideration, snuggling down impossibly further into her front.

This is his favourite way to sleep.

Between her thighs, with her arms around him, with his whole body pressed against hers.

“What do you feel like eatin’, doll?”

His voice is tired. She thinks that he’ll probably doze off before long, regardless of her answer.

“I’m not sure” she replies honestly, “haven’t really thought about it, how about you?”

“I’ll have whatever you’re havin” he mumbles, pressing a lazy kiss against her arm, “Do we have anythin’ here?”

“Sure we do” she replies, “I normally use the main kitchen, y’know, downstairs, but we have some bits knockin’ around.”

“Or…” he begins, “we could always ask Steve to pick us somethin’ up?”

That takes her by surprise. Genuine surprise, that makes her blink down at him dumbly for a moment as she wonders if she’s misheard him.

“We could” she allows after a beat, “but then he’ll want to bring it.”

“We were goin’ to let him see me today” Bucky reminds her, “and I… I figured this way it… it might be less awkward than him just bein’ told to come by and wave.”

“Alright” she chuckles, “Fair point, but it’s up to you, sweetheart— this whole thing with Rodgers, it's all you.”

He nods, brow furrowing in thought

“If you called him now do you think he would answer?”

“If I call him?” she says with a scoff, “yeah, Buck I think he would.”

He nods again.

“It’s one” she notes, “If I spoke to him now and asked him to swing by a bodega or somethin’ on his way back you’d have time to nap or change your mind before he gets here.”

“Okay” he agrees, “and if I do— If I do change my mind, then-”

“Then I suppose I could meet him at the door, tell him you’ve passed out on the bed and ask him to come back later.”

“You’d do that?”

“Sure I would” she says, “but, this is all hypothetical, because we don’t have to ask him to bring us anything, we could always just order a delivery if you want take out that badly.”

His eyes roll just before he buries his face back against her chest.

“Can you call him, doll?” he asks quietly, “I think this is goin’ to be the way that gets me the least worked up.”

“Okay” she allows, “What shall I ask him to grab?”

“Whatever you want, doll”

That’s clearly one decision too many. She can feel the tension creeping back into his shoulders, so, she nods quickly, pressing a kiss against his brow.

“There’s a nice deli not far from where he is, you still like cheese-steaks?”

He nods silently, tightening his arms around her waist as she asks FRIDAY to make the call.

“Do you want me to take it on my cell?” she offers, “Or is speaker alright.”

“Speakers fine” he murmurs, “I’m goin’ to see him soon, no point hidin’ from his voice.”

Y/N scoffs at that, stroking a gentle circle across his back as she waits for the other man to connect.

“Hello?” Steve says, anxiety clear in his tone, “Y/N, are you okay?”

Bucky can’t help but smile as the woman he’s laying on chuckles.

“Sure I am, Steve” she replies, ever calm, “I’m fine, just wonderin’ if you could do me a favour whilst you’re out.”

“Anything-” he bursts, eager to accept, “Whatever you need.”

Bucky mouths an almost inaudible ‘Jesus Christ’ at the man’s desire to please her, and she rewards him with a smile and a playful swat against his hip.

“Can” she begins, swallowing laughter as he nestles down, kissing any part of body that he can reach, “Can you just, stop by the deli on 25th? grab a couple of the cheese-steaks.”

The silence on the other end of the line is telling. It lasts a fraction too long to be natural and Bucky can’t help but push himself up a little so that she can see the quirk in his brow.

Y/N’s hand is against his cheek before he can get too nervous about having over-stepped with his request. He’s still keening out towards her fingers when Steve finally clears his throat;

“I— Sure I can, are… where, where do you want me to bring them?”

“To my room?” she replies, “I’m back at the tower now, didn’t think about making a pit stop on the way”

“You’re home?” he asks quickly, “Are… are you alone?”

She meets Bucky’s eyes for a moment, genuinely curious about whether or not he’s going to speak. He gives her a small smile, before looking away, and that’s when she’s sure that he’s not.

“No” she admits, “Not, right now.”

The laugh Steve gives her is breathless, it’s so genuinely elated that Barnes is blushing when he hears it.

“So, he— is- is Bucky, is he there?”

“Steve” she warns, “Remember our little talk about patience?”

“Yeah” he says lightly, “Yeah, I do— but, but when I bring them back can— can I say hi?”

“—that depends—” Bucky’s tired voice inserts, “—are you goin’ to start bawlin’ or somethin’—”

Y/N is stunned. Truly, utterly, stunned.

and if the choked sound Steve makes is anything to go by, so is he.

“Bucky?” he asks after a moment, “Buck is it—”

“You know it is” he replies, confidence waining a little now that the interaction is real, “Y/N/N told you I was comin’ “

and then he’s back to laughing, the same disbelieving laughter that has almost become his trademark lately.

“I, god” he says, “I can’t believe it’s you— are, are you okay? do you have everythin’ you need? I can bring anythin—”

“Steve” Y/N cautions, more firmly than before, “Take a breath”

The look of gratitude on Bucky’s face is obvious. He hadn’t meant to set the man off like that, he… he hadn’t really meant to do anything other than say hello, and now all of this is suddenly feeling like… like a big step for a phone call—

“Okay” Steve chuckles, “Okay, yeah, you’re right— sorry— sorry, Buck I- I know you need time, and your own space, I- I get it, I swear.”

“Breathe” Y/N repeats, “take a breath- I wouldn't put it past you to be the first super solider to give himself an asthma attack”

To his credit, he does listen to her, despite her teasing tone. The way that he stops to draw in a real, grounding breath is audible, even via a phone call.

“I’m… I’m here and I’m fine” is what Bucky chimes in, “I… I’m just— it’s… this a lot, Steve”

“Yeah” the other man agrees, clearly a little bit calmer, “Yeah, I know- I’m sorry”

“Stop apologising” Y/N inserts, “It’s fine, you’re both fine-“

“She’s right…” Bucky agrees, “I… I trust you, I know you want to make this easy on me”

“I do” Steve agrees, “I really, I do, Buck- so anything, anything either of you need—”

“Let’s start with lunch” Y/N suggests, knuckle grazing Bucky’s chin, “Don’t rush back, just finish up whatever you’re doin’, stop by the deli and-”

“2 cheese-steaks” Steve finishes happily, “I’ll see you soon?”

That’s a question. It’s definitely a question.

“Yeah” Bucky answers, “See you soon.”

FRIDAY ends the call, and Y/N can’t help but tilt her head as the man in her lap sags back into her front.

“You can still change your mind” she promises, knowing he’ll need the reminder, “Baby, that was brave…”

“..I… I’ve missed him” he says, realising as he does, that it’s the truth, “I’m just, god I'm scared, I'm scared and I don't even know why.”

“I know”

She does know, too, she’s known that he’s missed Steve since she'd first had a real conversation with it, despite his frequent and sometimes playful denials.

“Will you stay close?” Bucky asks next, “When he’s here, doll, will you stay with me?”

“Sure I will” she swears, stroking a line from his temple, all the way across his neck, “I’ll stay wherever you want me to.”

He likes that, nodding before huffing out a deep breath.

“You know…” she says, thought just occurring to her, “…I don’t think Steve has actually ever been in here…”

“Hmm?”

“Steve” Y/N says again, “he’s never stopped by, it’s always been me goin’ to see him.”

“Well” Bucky sighs tiredly, “You’re a real pretty girl, and he’s never been real good at speakin’ to dames, maybe he’s a little scared too”

“Maybe” she agrees, “We’ll have to make sure he feels welcome”

He just hums again, daring to imagine how nice it might be to have his oldest friend come to visit.

To come to his home for a meal, like… like they’d done as boys.

To see him and Y/N laughing, to see the two people he cares for the most in the world together, together in one place, in one, safe place.

And then he’s asleep.

Y/N notices the rise and fall of his chest becoming deeper, and then, she sees the tell-tale way his legs twitch when he starts dreaming.

“FRIDAY, let me know when Steve gets close”

The AI hears her whispered request and replies almost silently so as not to disturb the man in her arms.

For a minute, she wonders what to do with herself, but then, she remembers the ‘code white’ protocol and the way that the list of programmed triggers have been transferred over to her.

In Tony’s defence, it’s actually not a bad list.

It includes basic behavioural alerts, and, an audio monitoring system that is set to catch any of his code words in every known language.

So if anyone tries to use them, if anyone tried to hack into anything and blast them over their speakers, or if anyone was stupid enough to try them in person, then they’d be alerted before anything could come of it.

She looks more into what exactly happens when it is activated, too, and when she does, she realises just how thoughtful Tony had been when coding it.

It doesn’t just remove Bucky’s access and send out a ping to their devices.

It locks him in whatever room he’s in, unless he’s with anyone the software isn’t certain is a friendly.

It secures him, safely, in one place, making sure that nobody could try and take advantage of the situation; and then, it sends a distress signal, her, Steve and Tony, not letting up until they’re within range of his location and even then, they still need to manually over-ride it.

There are details, too, details so thoughtful that she doubts that even she could’ve come up with anything better;

Wherever Bucky is, when this is triggered, is programmed to be as calming of an environment as possible.

The lights will stay dim, and the audio will be dampened— FRIDAY is still set to respond to him as family, so he won’t ever be left totally alone waiting for someone he trusts to arrive.

She only makes a few minor adjustments. She adds a triggers that they wouldn’t have known about, and eases the parameters for his biological monitoring to better allow for his enhancements.

“He’s not Steve” she tells FRIDAY quietly, “If Tony’s ever doing anything like this again, remind him that he was exposed to different stimuli, and has some more more complex internal components— it’s not just his arm, which, by the way, is more invasive than he thinks.”

The AI’s barley audible ‘Yes, boss’ makes her smile, so does the agreement she gets when she asks her to let her brother know how grateful she is for all of his hard work.

Tony likes gestures, Y/N thinks to herself, maybe I can finish up a project for him?

“Hey, FRIDAY?” she sighs, flicking her holo-tablet off, “Is Tony stallin’ on anythin? Somethin’ that he just can’t seem to make himself finish?”

“Now you mention it, Y/N- There is the end of year review for the STARK internship programme. He has been opening the files, but he has yet to make a start on the actual report, even though he has had the brief for the past 4 months.”

“Send it over” she murmurs, smiling to herself, “Will I have time to get started, or shall I wait until tonight?”

“Captain Rodgers is downstairs, I was just about to alert you.”

“Later it is” she decides, slipping back to normal volume now that she knows she has to wake Bucky anyway, “Hey, baby”

Her fingers curl through his hair as she shifts, repeating her greeting.

He’s still in her arms, face pressed against her chest, and as he feels himself becoming more and more alert, he starts to remember exactly where he is.

And then he’s smiling.

“God” he mumbles, “did, did I pass out?”

Y/N chuckles, rubbing her nose against his before pressing a kiss against his mouth.

“A little” she soothes, stroking his cheek, “did you sleep well?”

“Yeah” he replies honestly, “Yeah, I— I did”

“Good” she beams, kissing him again, “Steve’s on his way, have you decided what you wanna’ do?”

He ducks his head, bashful for a moment.

“I’ll say Hi” he tells her, “We… We should invite him in, too?”

“It’s your place” she reminds him gently, “You can invite whoever you want.”

That concept makes him smile, sweet and genuine as he nods.

“I… I might be a little jumpy” he warns her, “I- I’d feel better if you—”

“—Stay close?”

She nods as she strokes a line down, across both of his arms, feeling the softness of the fabric sleeves he’s wearing.

“You like the shirt?” she wonders, “Does it fit?”

“Yeah” he says, “Yeah it… it’s perfect”

“Good” is the last thing she manages to say before there’s a knock on their door.

Bucky freezes for a second. Eyes widening as adrenaline floods his chest, but then, he takes a breath, and moves so that they can both stand up.

He clings to Y/N’s hand the second he can reach, and doesn’t even think about letting go as they head towards the entrance.

“If you need to leave” she tells him under her breath, “just go to the bedroom— I’ll take care of Steve, okay?”

He nods, biting his cheek so hard that he tastes blood on his tongue.

“Here we go then”

The door opens, and Y/N nearly chokes when she sees Steve Rodgers, stood, in his full suit, shield strapped to his back, with a bag of cheese-steaks in his hands.

“Oh my god” she scoffs, blinking rapidly, “What are you wearing?”

He looks down at himself, gawking.

“I- I was doin’ press” he stammers awkwardly, “I-”

“You didn’t think about changin?” Bucky says, shock making him forget his nervousness for a moment

“Well-” Steve says, smiling shyly, “You did make me promise to keep the outfit, remember?”

Out of all the ways that Bucky might’ve reacted, Y/N thinks that him, letting go of her hand whilst stepping forwards to hug his oldest friend is probably the best.

Steve is clearly so taken aback by the gesture that he doesn’t know what to do, because the way that he barely grazes the other mans back with his arms is telling.

The whole thing is so sweet, so desperately, earnestly sweet, that she doesn’t know what to do.

The pair separate quickly enough, and Bucky retreats to her side with a flush of red in his cheeks and eyes that look awfully full.

Y/N suspects Steve is crying too, but if he is, he hides it well by turning to fuss with his shield.

“How many subs did you get?” she asks, looking at the bag he’s still clutching, “That’s a little big for only 2?”

“Oh” he chuckles, “yeah, they— they gave me a bunch, insisted when they, saw— y’know? they would’t even let me pay! I had to get FRIDAY to wire it across”

Y/N sniggers a little at that, at the image of a fully dressed Captain America standing in line at a Deli.

“Want to come eat with us?”

Steve’s jaw drops when Bucky asks him that.

When he looks at Y/N, face full of surprise and she just offers him a one armed shrug.

“I… are— are you sure, Buck, I- I don’t want to gate-crash”

“It’s not gatecrashin’ if you’re invited” Bucky counters, feeling awfully proud of himself, “I- I’m not sayin’ I’m ready to throw a dinner party but, you should see where I’m stayin’ at least.”

“Yeah” Steve grins, “Yeah I’d, I’d love that, Y/N/N- is, is that okay with you?”

“It’s his place as much as mine, ‘Cap” she says, leading the way inside, “and he’s right, you should see it— honestly I can’t believe you haven’t stopped by sooner.”

“If I’m bein’ honest” he says, closing the door behind himself, “I’ve only ever been this high up once or twice.”

“Roof parties or for the labs?” Y/N asks, watching calmly as Steve’s eyes widen, obviously captivated by the space,

“Once of each” the pair say in unison.

Steve lets out an awkward chuckle, still taken aback by inside of her suite.

“C’mon boys” she coos, acutely aware of the way that Bucky has frozen, now, hovering by her side, fingers tight against her own, “Let’s eat?”

The nod Steve gives her is much more natural than that of her partner.

They walk to the couch, and sit, together, with Steve hovering awkwardly in front of them until Y/N rolls her eyes and points at the arm chair.

“Sit, Steve, Jesus— You’re acting like you thought I lived in a- well I don’t know, what were you expecting?”

He opens the bag, pulling out three sandwiches, and passing her two before looking up and around again.

“Not this…” he admits, “I’m, I’m not really sure, darlin’— maybe something a little more…“

“Modern?” Bucky guesses, recalling his earlier observations.

“Yeah” Steve agrees, grinning, “yeah, that’s the word.”

“It’s plenty modern” Y/N retorts playfully, “Almost half the stuff in here is custom built technology, god, I think even the cutlery is vibranium.”

“I didn’t mean it like that” Steve says, taking a bite out of his sub, “I meant the… the stuff”

Her eyes roll again, and she notices how the only one of them who hasn’t even unwrapped his meal is Bucky.

He’s still clinging to her hand, sandwich abandoned on his lap.

Y/N meets Steve’s eye a second before he considers mentioning it.

The look she gives him speaks a thousand words, and he finds himself ignoring it completely, containing the polite chatter he’s making with her, instead.

"You know why me and Tony have all the important stuff up so high?" she says, "It's so if we ever have to jump out the window, there's enough time for the emergency suits to deploy- we had to get measurements so we knew which floors we could claim"

And Bucky is insanely grateful. He’s so, so grateful to not have to try and speak right now, when all he wants to do is watch.

Y/N just keeps hold of his hand, as she eats with the other.

She nods along with Steve and hopes she knows how important it is that he doesn’t push too hard right now.

This is already such a huge step. It really is the epitome of running before you can walk, though, so she doesn’t want to do anything that might cause him to stumble.

A few minutes pass and they’re done with their food.

They’re done, and Steve knows that he should probably leave.

“Did you tell T that we’re back?” Y/N asks

“Yeah” Steve sighs, “but it kinda seemed like he already knew.”

She scoffs, bringing Bucky’s hand to her lips.

“Sounds about right” she murmurs, pressing kiss against his knuckles, “Tell him I’ll catch up with him tomorrow? I think we’re due a quiet night in, huh, Buck?”

His head tilts when he hears his name. He blinks, looking almost dazed before he smiles and nods in agreement.

“Yeah, doll” he murmurs, “a… a quiet night in sounds good…”

“I’ll pass it on” Steve swears, going to stand, “I- I should go and get changed”

Y/N chuckles at that, not bothering to stand, “You should definitely change” she agrees, “Romanoff is gonna kick your ass if she catches you roaming the halls like that”

His laugh is silent, it’s embarrassed but real. He nods in agreement and catches Bucky’s eye.

“I’ll see ya’ around, Buck” he promises, “and remember, if either of you need anythin’ then just-”

“let you know” Y/N chimes in softly, “We will, I promise, but for right now, I think we just need some time to settle in.”

He smiles at that, and nods in agreement, offering her a two fingered salute as he turns to leave.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | x | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

#bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky x reader #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barns x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes angst #bucky x you #bucky x female reader #bucky x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky fanfic #the winter soldier x you #fluff #x reader #drabble #series #BBneverlosthim

[vendetta-if]

A bit of a lore question about the Vendetta game setting and superpowers. Did people gradually start developing superpowers over time through evolutionary mutations like you'd see in X-men, or was there some kind of event that triggered people developing superpowers like how a lot of classic comic books heros got their powers from some kind of feak lab accident/science experiment gone wrong, or strange phenomenon?

Ooh, thank you for asking this! I've answered the same question a while back in the CoG Forum and I planned to cross-post the answers here but I forgot! Now, thanks to your ask, I remember it again!

Hang on tight, this is gonna be a bit long. I'll put it under the cut.

It’s for sure not a result of a government or any other science experiments gone wrong. I’ll say it just came from naturally occurring genetic mutations starting from a really long time ago. This genetic mutations first happened to just minuscule number of people in all pockets of cultures and societies.

I’d like to think that in this world, all those myths about gods and goddesses are just basically some of the very first powered people recorded. Like Zeus and Thor were probably just really strong Electrokinetics and Aphrodite was a really strong Empath, that kind of stuff. And then as they had kids with normal people, and those children that inherits the abilities were considered demigods and most of the time, they came to rule their own kingdoms (like Pharaohs are also considered to not only be king but god walking on earth).

And then of course from there, these genetic mutations start to slowly spread to more and more people as their descendants intermingle more with normal people. I see these genetic mutations to be recessive in nature, which means some people might actually have the genes but they are just not expressed because they are recessive and the dominant genes are the ones that win out, thus they are born with no power. Of course, if your parents are both powered, there’ll be bigger chance for you to born with power too, but not guaranteed.

Similar stuff too with dual-powered people like MC. MC’s chance to get dual-powered was increased because Yvette is dual-powered as well. There are instances of those born with dual-power, despite their parents being only single-powered, but these cases are likely because somewhere in the parents’ ancestry, there were dual-powered ancestors, probably not too far removed from their generations too.

Indeed, the number and percentage of powered people have far increased compared to those thousands years ago, or even centuries ago as more and more of these recessive genetic mutations get passed down.

Well, the percentages numbers I put here are not final because I haven't done the calculation properly and this is just off the top of my head. Right now in the story, it is estimated that 20-30% of whole world’s populations are powered people and only around 10% of them are dual-powered. These numbers will only increase overtime, and maybe one day, almost everyone will have some kind of power. In a way, you can consider it to be a ‘next step in evolution’? Just an evolution that happens slowly over thousands of years.

It is also important to note that not all powered people are born with the same capabilities. For example, there are quite a number of other pyrokinetics, but only a pretty small percentage are able to use it to such a degree like Ash does. Same thing with haemokinesis and Jackal (which I think I touched upon a bit in Chapter 2).

#asks #lore #if: vendetta #vendetta if #if vendetta #if game #if wip #dashingdon #choicescript

[zepuckinghockey]

Matty Beniers KAN Interview Transcript -

9/21/23

Matty's radio interview with Mike Benton from the Kraken Media Day has been released! Full transcript below the cut but some of my favorite bits of up here.

INTERVIEWER: [Borgen] says Call of Duty is up there. He says Mario Kart is up there as far as being competitive. Which one’s your favorite, your go-to against him, and who’s better?

MATTY: [no hesitation] I’m better at both of them. Not even a question. If he said differently, that’s so false. And… that’s a tough one because I like—I play more Call of Duty when I’m home and have a little bit more free time, but we play Mario Kart on the plane, so. But yeah, I’ll—1v1, no doubt I’m beating him. He probably said he thinks he can beat me in COD but he can’t.

//

INTERVIEWER: [Hakstol] is at the forefront of culture, and that culture is a team that has grown together. So jumping off-ice here with this, which Kraken teammate would throw the best birthday party?

MATTY: Schwartzy, no doubt.

INTERVIEWER: Why is that?

MATTY: Schwartzy’s just the guy—you need anything done, he’s your man. He sets things up, he jut gets things done. He’s such a people person, has so many connections, and I think that him or… or Vince Dunn. Those are the two guys that I would say.

Seattle Kraken Audio Network – released on 10/11 – recorded at Kraken Media Day on September 21, 2023.

INTERVIEWER: There are good summers and then there are rewarding summers. How about you, my man? What was the best part of it?

MATTY: Yeah, it was a fun summer. Definitely good to be back in Seattle, for sure, but yeah definitely relaxing.  First couple weeks after, I went on vacation with my family, so that was nice. And then y’know a couple weeks after that, started getting back into working out and skating and y’know kinda just went from there for the rest of the summer.

INTERVIEWER: When you mention all that objective as far as your skating, the working out, how much does life change—how much does your summer change or your goals change after having the season you just had?

MATTY: Yeah, I mean it was basically just the same summers y’know the last couple summers. I like to try to work on as much as I can, and for me, it’s always [sheepish laugh] it’s basically been getting bigger the last couple summers, and then on ice, just y’know keep working on your shot, your edges, your skating, your stickhandling, like basically the main stuff.

INTERVIEWER: It was around this time last year where we asked you if you got your place picked out. What’s the best part of it now that you’re all settled in here and still with Will Borgen?

MATTY: Yeah, it’s great. It’s great having everything set up like you said. Last year was a little bit more hectic, going—doing all the hockey stuff, and then going right home, and you gotta unpack, you gotta set things up, so now it’s been a lot easier. We’re all moved in. Still looking for a kitchen table. [sheepish laugh] But uh--

INTERVIEWER: We’re doing Craigslist. We’ll go right here to radio.

MATTY: Yeah, Facebook Marketplace.

INTERVIEWER: What’s the best part of about having Will as a roommate and as a friend as well?

MATTY: Yeah, I mean he’s great, all around—especially, obviously last year, helping me out being a young guy, just little things, asking him… Making sure I’m up in the morning to get to the rink. But no, he’s been great. He’s been a great friend. I think we have a lot of fun together, especially at the house. And, y’know, I love being with someone because I don’t know how I would be if I was all alone out here. [laugh]

INTERVIEWER: He says Call of Duty is up there. He says Mario Kart is up there as far as being competitive. Which one’s your favorite, your go-to against him, and who’s better?

MATTY: [no hesitation] I’m better at both of them. Not even a question. If he said differently, that’s so false. And… that’s a tough one because I like—I play more Call of Duty when I’m home and have a little bit more free time, but we play Mario Kart on the plane, so. But yeah, I’ll—1v1, no doubt I’m beating him. He probably said he thinks he can beat me in COD but he can’t.

INTERVIEWER: What’s the one game that you would love to relive all over again in this jersey?

MATTY: My first home game was pretty amazing. I would love to relive that one. Maybe the Colorado game when we won in overtime, Ebs scored that goal, that was a really fun game.

INTERVIEWER: He almost won the Jack Adams last year. What is it about Dave Hakstol, your head coach, his best qualities that you love about him as a coach?

MATTY: Yeah, he’s a great coach. I think for me, and I know for—y’know I can’t speak for everyone but for a lot of guys—I think just being a good person goes a long way, and that’s exactly what he is. He’s a great person off the ice, and y’know just a normal guy, someone you can chat with off the ice and then when you get on the ice, y’know he gets more serious, he tries to push the best out of you, so I think a lot of our success was due to him last year, and he’s done a great job.

INTERVIEWER: He is at the forefront of culture, and that culture is a team that has grown together. So jumping off-ice here with this, which Kraken teammate would throw the best birthday party?

MATTY: Schwartzy, no doubt.

INTERVIEWER: Why is that?

MATTY: Schwartzy’s just the guy—you need anything done, he’s your man. He sets things up, he jut gets things done. He’s such a people person, has so many connections, and I think that him or… or Vince Dunn. Those are the two guys that I would say.

INTERVIEWER: Matty, as this day gets closer, what does playing outside on New Year’s Day in the Winter Classic at the home of the Mariners mean to you?

MATTY: Yeah, it’s gonna be really exciting. I mean, we grew up playing outside, playing on the pond—or I did at least. And being able to play an NHL game outside, it’s gonna be special. I remember going to all the Winter Classics in Boston and it’ll be really fun.

#matty beniers #seattle kraken #will borgen #vince dunn #jaden schwartz #transcript #text #kraken #2023 #Spotify

[vintagepresley]

THREE’S COMPANY

Pairing: Elvis & Priscilla x reader 

Word Count: 4,070 words

Warnings: 18+ SOME SMUT Talks of cheating, some drama, cursing, oral (f receiving), masturbating, Elvis and his two way mirror, etc.

Author’s notes: Okay, so this fanfic is a little different and it is also a two parter, which be prepared for that one cause the smut will be FLITHY. But I thought this would different and fun, and interesting to write. Especially because I love Priscilla the bi panic I feel with her and Elvis, GOSH. But I hope that you enjoy this one. Part two will be coming SOON. spelling errors possible. 

Part two!

You got me peepin’ you got me hidin’…

Priscilla and Elvis just had a huge fight about the usual rumors of Elvis being with other women on tour, so during the fight Elvis had stormed out of the house and just left to get away from her, their marriage was on the rocks, it’s been on the rocks for a while now, but neither one of them wanted to say it. Priscilla has tried everything to keep making it work, but she didn’t think it could at this point. She needed someone to talk to, her best friend, which was you. You’ve known each other for years now after meeting Priscilla out in California back in the 60’s and the two of you grew close to one another and began to tell each other everything. Well... Almost everything. You cared about Priscilla deeply, but not in a way a friend or sister does, your feelings for her were deeper than that, but you wouldn’t dare tell her, and once you began to hang out with her and Elvis more and getting to know him more, you began to develop feelings for him as well. You always thought the two of them were beautiful, you hated the feelings you had for them both, but you never missed a chance to hang out with them whenever Elvis invited you. He too enjoyed your company; he even bought you a house in Memphis so that Priscilla could always have someone around when he wasn’t. But he couldn’t deny that you were beautiful, he sometimes poked fun at how you dressed because sometimes you reminded him of a hippie, but even so he secretly wanted you around as well, and sometimes he gave you a few glances when he thought Priscilla wasn’t looking, but it never bothered her because she knew Elvis wouldn’t do that with her best friend. Elvis also knew something a was bit different with you, it was the 70’s and people were doing what they wanted and experimenting, but it wasn’t exactly out in the open. But Elvis always watched you around Priscilla and he just knew.

So, once Elvis had his dramatic exit from Graceland Priscilla called you up on the phone right after upset and overwhelmed as she held the phone up to her ear, listening to the trilling sound of the phone, hoping that you were home. She heard the phone click and she smiled with a sense of relief. “Hello?” you asked softly. “N/A?” she said in anxious tone. You could instantly hear there was something wrong just from the tone of her voice. “Cilla? What’s the matter?” you asked concerned. She signed softly because she felt like a broken record complaining about the same thing. “It’s Elvis and the usual rumors on tour, he got angry with me, and we had a huge fight about it and then he stormed out of the house and left.” She said almost on the verge of tears. “Oh, Cilla… Are you even surprised at this point anymore?” you said a bit annoyed. But not annoyed at her, but at the fact that Elvis doesn’t even try to hide what he does at this point. She got quiet on the other end of the line. “I-I guess I shouldn’t be. But I don’t know what to do anymore. Can you just come over? He probably won’t be back until tomorrow. God knows where he ran off too, I could use my best friend right now. Pleaseeeee.” She laughed softly trying to put herself in better spirits. “Okay, okay, I’ll be over in 10 minutes.” You sighed dramatically with a laugh. Priscilla smiled, “Thank you, see ya in 10!” she said before hanging up the phone.

You shook your head with a smile as you hung up as well and then got up and looked in the mirror deciding if you should change your clothes or not, but you shook your head reminding yourself that Priscilla is just your friend despite your feelings for her. Doubt she even thinks of me in that way. You decided to just go in what you were already wearing, which was a pair of bellbottoms, and a white flowy long-sleeved to that was cropped slightly, showing a bit of your abdomen, paired with a pair of black boots. As you grabbed your keys and your purse, you stopped in the mirror that hung by the front door and fixing your hair a bit before giving yourself another glance before heading out of your house, you approached the car, getting inside and began the short little drive to Graceland, a house that no matter how many times you’ve visited always seemed to amaze you.

Meanwhile as Priscilla waited for you to arrive, she fixed herself up to make it look as if hadn’t been crying and fixing her hair, touching up her make up. Sometimes Elvis would bring you up to her voicing his “concerns” about you and how you look at her, she always just laughed it off. But Priscilla wasn’t an idiot. She knew and honestly, she didn’t mind because sometimes the way you looked her made her feel beautiful, because she wasn’t getting those looks from Elvis anymore. Thinking about that made Priscilla smirk to herself a bit, she wasn’t a stranger to being a bit intimate with a woman, when Elvis was obsessed with his camera when he first got it, he would record her and sometimes her and other women, having them kiss and touch each other as he watched, but that would be about it. It never led to sex. She suddenly got this crazy idea in her head and thought if he gets to have fun, then so can I.

When you pulled up to the gates of Graceland they began to open, Priscilla had let one of the staff know that you were coming for a visit, as you drove up the drive way, and parked your car in front of the house, Priscilla heard a car door shut and made her way downstairs to meet you at the door, as soon as you approached she was already opening the door with a smile. “Finally!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around you in a hug. You laughed softly embracing her. “You’re such drama.” You teased as you both pulled away and she led you into the house, closing the door behind you. She seemed to be in better spirits now, you smiled as you watched her, she looked beautiful as always dressed in one of her usual dresses that clung to her a bit tight, her hair down and curly. How could Elvis ever cheat on her?? She was leading you into the living room now, where she had two glasses of wine set out for the two of you and she sat down on the couch, patting the spot beside her. You walked over and sat down, sitting your purse beside you. “You seem to be doing better since we talked 10 minutes.” You said as you raised an eyebrow at her. “Well... I had a moment to think, and you were right, I shouldn’t be surprised by what Elvis does.” She said with a shrug, reaching for her glass of wine and taking a sip. You nodded slowly shrugging as well, this was typical for the two of them, Elvis would be back and apologizing and she’d forgive him. So, you tried to never say too much about it. You adored them both and hated to take sides, you grabbed your glass and began to drink your wine as well.

You watched as she finished the first glass of wine and then went and poured another, it was not like her at all especially because Elvis never liked for her or anyone to really drink and he could come back at any minute. You took a few more sips of your own and sat it back down on the table, your hands resting on your lap. Things felt different with her today, something was off about it, and it wasn’t just the Elvis thing. “Are you sure you’re okay, Cilla?” you asked. “Of course, I am. Stop worry, N/a.” she smiled. She drank down her second glass, she was preparing herself for what she was about to do. If she even had it in her to do it. She got up from the couch now with a smile. “Come upstairs with me?” she asked. You furrowed your brow a bit at her request. You’ve never been upstairs to Elvis’ bedroom, their bedroom except for one time when they gave you a tour of the house years ago. “Uh, why?” you questioned. She rolled her eyes with smile, and she reached over to grab a hold of your wrist, tugging at you gently. “Just come on…” she hummed. You got up from where you were sitting now as she was pulling you with her toward the stairs and now you both were making your way up. You worried now more than ever that Elvis would be home, you knew he suspected you to have a small crush on Priscilla and you didn’t know how he’d react if he caught you two alone, upstairs, in his room.

As you reached the top of the stairs you pulled your hand away from her now, “Cilla, what’s going on?” you asked sternly now. She opened the bedroom door, rolling her eyes a bit. “Stop asking questions…” she said softly with a smile and grabbing your hand to pull you into the room now and shutting the door behind the two of you and then she turned back around to face you. You looked around the dark room that was a bit different now than what you remembered, darker than before and you noticed the three tv sets that were added to the room which you thought was a bit odd and then you noticed a big mirror that sat across the bed and it was a bit odd looking and then you turned your attention back to Priscilla who was staring at you now with look you’ve never seen before the silence between the two of you was deafening. Before you knew it she was walking close toward you now with a bit of hesitation, your brow furrowed trying to figure out what was going on and now she was real close, her body pressing up against your own, you took a deep breath now, you both staring at each other now. “Priscilla… W-What are you do-“before you could even finish your sentence her lips were against yours and your eyes widen a bit, confused but also enjoying this, that you got caught up in the moment and returned her kiss and now her arms were wrapping around your waist as your hands around hers as you kissed deeply, something you also wanted to do was suddenly happening, could this even be real? But then you realized what was happening and pulled from her with a confused look on your face, “What are you doing?! Are you crazy? Elvis could come home any minute!” you whispered so the house staff couldn’t hear. Priscilla a bit taken aback by your reaction and becoming flustered by how embarrassed she was now. “I thought... Do you not have feelings for me??” she asked.

Now you were even more shocked than before, how did she know that? Did Elvis say something? “I-I… I do.” You said hesitantly. “But we can’t do this… If Elvis caught us, he’d be furious.” You said. She was stepping closer to you again, her hands reaching up to cup your face as her face got close to yours, shaking her head. “I don’t care… He gets to have fun... Why can’t I? I’ve seen the way you look at me. You’ve made Elvis jealous sometimes. I’ve always been curious what it would be like…” she whispered. You were staring into her beautiful blue eyes now, biting down on your bottom lip a bit flustered that she noticed. You didn’t know what to say and now she was kissing you again, you couldn’t help but return each kiss she placed on your lips. “Elvis won’t be back any time soon…” she cooed. You let out a soft “Mmm” against her lips, wrapping your arms back around her small waist and pulling her against your body, and she smiled as her hands found their way back to your waist, you both giggled softly as you began to kiss each other again now a bit more passionately. You knew this was wrong, but she was right Elvis did get to have his fun, but you also thought about doing this for so long that you didn’t care about what he thought now, especially because she’s known this entire time. Your hands were slowly running up and down the curves of her body that was etched out so perfectly in her dress.

Now she was gripping your waist with her hands, and she gently pushed you back against the bed, you took another slow deep breath now realizing that you both were about to do this in the bed they shared. She sat beside you now, her hand resting against your right thigh, and she leaned toward you pressing light kisses against your cheek as she whispered, “I’ve never actually had sex with a woman before, so…” she blushed. You nodded slowly, turning your head a bit to face her, pressing a soft kiss to her lips, brushing some of her curly hair out her face. “It’s okay...”  you whispered back. She now scooted back against the bed kicking off her shoes and laying on her back as she bit down on her bottom, staring at you, you followed behind her, kicking off your boots and getting up now and climbing into the bed, hovering above her for a moment before lying beside her and turning over to your left side to face and now she turned onto her ride side facing you, you embraced each other again slowly, your bodies slowly rubbing up against each other, your lips capturing hers in a kiss again, the kiss deepening slowly as you made out, your hand finding its way beneath her dress, caressing her thighs gently, you could feel her shivering from your very touch.

You smirked against her lips, grazing your teeth gently against her bottom lip as your hand found its way to her ass and giving it a gently squeeze, she let out a soft whine, she was so desperate to be touched more that she pressed up against you more, she clearly wasn’t getting this kind of affection from Elvis as of lately and she was craving it. You pulled your hand from beneath her dressed and reached around towards her back and finding the zipper, slowly unzipping her dress and carefully removing it off of her, she maneuvered herself a bit to help you and once the dress was off, you tossed it to the floor, she was now lying there in just her bra and panties, a matching black lace set and you licked your lips slowly at the sight of her and how beautiful she looked, running your hand slowly and gently along her thigh, hips, and waist as you admired her. She grinned a bit at your reaction and now she was unbuckling your belt and trying to get your bellbottoms off and you laid back and lifted your hips to remove your pants, kicking them off and then tossing them to the floor with her dress and then you removed your shirt as well, throwing it with the rest of the close, you were really one to wear bras, it was the hippie in you, so laid there in just your white lace panties, you watched now as Priscilla had her turn to admire you and your body, she bit down on her bottom lip, running her hand along your abdomen and up to your breasts, running her hands along them slowly, a small giggle escaping her and then she pulled her hand away and sat up a bit, removing her own bra and tossing to the floor and she laid back on her side, pressing herself up against you once again, her hand around your waist and yours around hers as you held each other as close as possible, each of your breasts rubbing up against one another’s as you slowly began to grind up against one another, kissing a bit more sloppily now, her tongue slipping past your lips and swirling around yours, small noises escaping you both as each of your hands explored each other’s bodies, writhing around in the bed together now, completely oblivious to the outside world.

Elvis had now decided that he was going to come back home after having some time to think things over, knowing he over reacted and he wanted to apologize, so he drove back home, once he eventually got back he noticed your car was there, which wasn’t a surprise for him he figured Priscilla called you right after the fight, he headed inside now, closing the door behind him and looking around a bit when he didn’t hear your voices, he walked toward the living room, seeing glasses of wine and your purse but no sign of the two of you. So, he walked out toward the backyard, still no sign of the two of you, he confused and figured the two of you were up to your usual antics, he was hoping to apologize, but shrugged and headed upstairs, the closer he got to his bedroom he could hear noises coming from it, he made a face and he pressed his ear up against the door gently, he could hear Priscilla moaning, but not only that he recognized the other voice which was yours and he mouthed, “What the fuck?” to himself quietly. He didn’t know what was going on or how he should feel. But he wanted to know what was going on in his room. So, he decided to head down the hall that led into another entrance to his room, but he stopped and opened a door that led to the mirror that faced the bed in his room, Priscilla hadn’t known this, but he had installed a two way mirror some time ago when he was heavily into his video recordings and just liked to watch sometimes from another room.

Once he was in the hidden room, he was in complete shock at what he was seeing, the two of you naked in his bed, you were now hovering over Priscilla and pressing small kisses along her neck and down to her chest, your lips grazing up against his right nipple, your hands running up and down her sides, her head tilted back as she let out soft moans from your very touch. He was completely baffled, but not surprised at you at all. “I fucking knew it.” He mumbled, but part of him couldn’t even be mad, if it were a man, he’d be furious right now. But he was attracted to you, and these were the kind of things he enjoyed, watching two women together. He could already feel the tightness in his pants growing, watching the two of you together was already making him hard, he couldn’t stop watching now, his right hand finding its way down toward his pants, rubbing it slowly up against the fabric of his jeans, he let out a soft groan as he continued to watch.

Now you were kissing along Priscilla’s abdomen, staring up at her as you did, she was already breathing so heavy and squirming at your gentle touch, she could feel the wetness pooling between her thighs as she watched you slowly move between her legs, your hands rubbing her thighs and kissing the inside of them, she shivered beneath your touch, your hands moving up to brush your fingertips against the fabric of her panties, a part of you still couldn’t believe this was happening, you hooked your fingers between the hem of her panties and slowly slid them down her legs, removing them off of her and tossing them to the floor, your hands moving back against her thighs and spreading her legs wide open, she began to blush because no one else has seen her this vulnerable but Elvis. You bit down on your bottom lip at the sight of her wet pussy, and you couldn’t help but smile because you were the reason for it. Meanwhile behind the mirror Elvis had his hand in his pants at this point, stroking his cock slowly soft groans escaping his lips, he was a bit jealous that the both of you decided to do this and didn’t think to include him, especially Priscilla knowing he loved this kind of thing.

Your arms were around Priscilla’s thighs and your hands on her tiny waist, scooting her forward, kissing slowly along her panty line, she was so anxious and excited because she never realized how much she loved this, how different it made her feel, she watched you closely, biting at her thumb nervously as she mumbled softly, “Stop teasing me, N/a…” you smirked at her words and nodded slowly, your face now buried between her legs, your tongue dragging slowly between her wet folds, finding its way to her clit and slowly your tongue around it slowly, lapping up every bit of her wetness and continuing to play with her sensitive clit, she let out a soft whimpering moan, her hands tangling in your hair, her thighs slightly wrapping around you as you ate her out. Elvis was so turned on now that he couldn’t bare it anymore, he pulled his hands out of his pants, buttoning them back up even though his boner was obvious as ever, he got up now and left the little room as he grumbled softly under his breath, “Fuck it..” and he walked back down the hall and to the main door of his room and he swung the door open, the sound of it scaring the both of you that you quickly pulled yourself from between her legs, you both screaming a bit as looked over to see Elvis standing in the door way, both of you scrambling to cover yourselves up with the blankets. You were in shock, scared to be honest. You weren’t sure what he was about to do, or how he was about to react. Priscilla in a state of shock from being caught. “Elvis….” She said softly. “E-Elvis… We…. I-I can explain…” you say nervously.

He stood there with a smirk on his face as he stared at the two of you. “Oh, explain what? That the two of ya could do this and not include me?” he said playfully. You were a bit confused about what he just said, honestly this whole day has had you fucking confused between Priscilla and now him being weird, you then glanced down at his pants and saw he was hard, his cock practically screaming to be let out of his pants and then your eyes looked back up at him as he slowly walked into the room now, shutting the door behind him. “Cilla, if ya wanted to make things interesting in the bedroom again, you should’ve just said that, darlin’..” he smirked. She rolled her eyes because she knew his feelings about you and you knew your own feelings about him and how you had a bit of a crush on him as well, the both of them always having you in quite of a bi-panic.

Now he was coming to sit down on the bed with the same stupid smirk on his face as he stared at you both. “I think some of us are aware of our feelins’ toward each other… Hm?” he laughed softly looking at you. It always felt like he was staring into your soul as if he could read your every thought. Priscilla even had a smirk on her face now, chewing at her bottom lip, she was into it. The room quiet now as you all looked at each other.

“Whaddya say, ladies…. A threesome??” he said teasingly with that devilish smirk of his.

TO BE CONTINUED…..

TAGLIST: 

@erutluve​ @idk3453​ @natipooxx​ @re3kin​ @elvisdoll​ @godlypresley​ @elvisgirl35​ @lindszeppelin​

disclaimer: I wasn’t sure who to tag in this one, but I just tagged people who ask to be tagged from the previous ones. 

#elvis fanfic #elvis smut #elvis presley #elvis imagine #priscilla fanfic #priscilla presley #graceland #fanfic