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mostly-marvel-musings · 2 months

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Minor Inconvenience

A/N: Hello Stark Squad! Trying something new here, an actor AU with our beloved Mr. Stark. Because I had a request for ‘sharing a bed’ prompt in my ask box a million years ago, here it is! Hope you enjoy it :)

Pairing: Actor! Tony Stark x Actor! Reader

Warnings: Almost smut, fluff.

Word count: 2.2k

My Masterlist

“And cut!” the director yelled, letting out a sigh of relief and thanking the crew before turning to his lead actors.

“That was amazing, Y/N and Tony. Rest up. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.” he gave you two a thumbs up, and a green signal to break out of character for the day.

You didn’t realize you were holding in a breath until you let it out, all thanks to your co-star Anthony Edward Stark. The feelings you had developed for the man during the schedule of your film weren’t going anywhere, and there was nothing you could do about it.

It is just a crush! It’ll pass. That’s what you kept repeating in your mind on loop. Justifying it by blaming the story you two were a part of.

The film was about your characters falling in love in times of uncertainty and your love being tried and tested over the course of the journey. It was so beautifully written, the writer being one of your closest friends, and the director being a legend in this genre, you were beyond ecstatic to be a part of the project.

And then there was Tony.

The actor loved by millions, the superstar who had the world at his feet. Being in his presence felt like being swept up in a storm, there was flurry all around, but the eye of the storm was him. And you could say you were officially in the whirlwind.

Tony had an aura about him, he definitely was every bit the superstar they made him out to be. His presence was commanding, magnetic and nobody could look away. And he romanced the camera like nobody’s business. You were definitely a fan and every interaction with him had you turn into a giggling schoolgirl.

Over the span of your shoot, you got to know the man a little better, he had been courteous, warm and inviting. And now you knew him well enough to be invited to the legendary lunches that he hosted with great music, good food and amazing company. The man knew how to show people a good time.

You often wondered if that ‘good time’ was applicable in other areas as well…

Those were just some of the thoughts you had to mentally shake yourself out of.

“It was a good day, wouldn’t you agree Y/N?” Tony offered you a kind smile, frowning watching you a little dazed.

“Huh? I’m sorry I-I wasn’t..” you stared at your fingers, mentally cursing yourself for zoning out again. This happened enough times for it to be embarrassing now.

“Paying attention, yeah I got that. You okay?” he seemed genuinely concerned, giving your shoulder a gentle squeeze, not helping your situation as you felt a thrill rush through your body.

For fuck’s sake, Y/N! He has touched you before, hell, you had hugged the man several times. And now there was a major scene you had to perform tomorrow. One where you kiss Tony, well, your character kisses his character.

“Mmmhmm super! I uh, I guess I’m just tired. Today was brilliant, you were brilliant, as always! I mean you are brilliant!” you chuckled, hoping your nervousness wouldn’t show. The smirk he hid behind his handsome features said otherwise though.

“You sure you didn’t sneak in a weed gummy earlier or something?” Tony said in jest, your eyes going wide in reaction simply amused him.

He secretly enjoyed watching you all flustered. It was endearing.

“Did they fix the plumbing in your room?”

“Oh no, they haven’t. And I can’t stay at my friends’ room tonight, she’s got a hot date that she is confident she’d fuc–um, sleep with tonight.” you managed to correct yourself terribly, placing a stray lock behind your ear as you two walked towards your cars.

That was the thing. The hotel you were staying at had been modest given the remote location, it wasn’t a big production and you were quite comfortable with it. Two days ago, you had woken up to a pipe bursting in your bathroom and your room flooding in a matter of minutes. You had to bunk up with the one person who didn’t mind sharing given that the hotel had been fully booked.

Tonight you were out of options, there was no hotel in sight for miles and no empty rooms were available.

“What are you gonna do?” he asked, opening the card door for you, making you realize you had to think of your options pronto.

“I guess I could look for another hotel but there isn’t one that’s so close to set. I am screwed.” you sighed, closing your eyes as the back of your head hit the backrest of your car.

Tony motioned you to roll down the window as he shut the door for you, leaning against it casually as he spoke, adding much to the fluttering of your heart.

“You could stay with me.”

“What?”

“For tonight. We can share the room, if you’d like.” he offered, his big brown eyes looking at you full of hope.

“I wouldn’t want to intrude, Tony. I’m sure you’ve got plans.” you didn’t want to be a bother, especially not with your situation. No matter how many excitable flips your insides did, you had to be a professional.

“I sure have plans. I plan on spending this lovely evening cracking open a bottle of whiskey that is said to taste better with some company. What do you say, Y/N?”

He made you laugh, hell, he made you feel like a teenager with raging hormones. You would hate to make those pretty brown orbs sad, so you agreed.

“Okay. Thank you, Tony. Really.”

He merely brushed it off, tapping the car twice before heading to his.

“And no you’re not sleeping on the couch!” he called out, almost sensing your thoughts, making you giggle yet again.

…

The keycard bleeped before Tony held the door open for you, watching you intently as you dragged your suitcase inside.

His room was definitely the best one you’d seen amongst all. Of course, it was him. He would be given the best suite the hotel had to offer.

It offered through their floor to ceiling windows the most amazing views of the meadows that surrounded, the pine trees lining the beautiful landscape topped off with the most stunning sunset.

“It is quite something, isn’t it?” Tony murmured, smiling at the way your body had naturally dragged you towards the windows.

“Stunning. I love outdoor shoots for this very reason. It’s sunsets, nature and all the things you wouldn’t normally experience back home.” You let out a soft sigh, placing a hand against the glass as the skies dramatically changed colors.

It took everything in Tony’s might to not walk up to you that very moment, push your hair aside and kiss your neck. And it would be a lie to say that he hadn’t thought about doing it before.

“I’m gonna take a shower, if you don’t mind?” You asked timidly, making Tony realize you were now facing him.

“Sure. I’ll join you.” He blurted out without thinking, shaking his head and scratching the back of his head nervously.

“I mean, please go ahead. I will take one when you’re done.” He muttered, missing the blush that had crept up on your cheeks at his earlier statement.

…

The shower was relaxing, hot water cascading down your back worked out all the knots and kinks while your mind was preoccupied with what Tony had said earlier.

I’ll join you.

Was there a tiniest chance he felt the same way about you? The Tony Stark crushing on his co-star who also happened to crush hard on him? It was ridiculous to even think about but the part of you that often had you day-dreaming about him encouraged you to believe in the possibility.

Tony jumped up from his seat as he heard the door unlock, gulping as you walked out in a fluffy robe, drying your hair, smelling heavenly. Clearing his throat awkwardly, he brushed past you to head to the bathroom, inhaling your scent inevitably. It made his cock stir as you passed him, giving him a shy smile.

“Feel free to open the bottle of whiskey, it’s right there. I won’t be too long.” he nodded at the expensive looking bottle on the small table they had in his room. It looked like it was sent from a fan, a female one that was too complete with a handwritten note and a not-so-subtle imprint of red lips.

“Oh and I ordered some fries. I remember you saying you loved them.”

Could this man be more perfect?

You did mention your undying love for fries at one of his parties but you never thought he’d remember.

“Thank you, Tony. You’re really going out of your way to impress me.” you blurted out, biting your bottom lip to stop the grin that formed.

“Hey as long as it’s working!” he chuckled, sending you a wink before disappearing in the bathroom. You were screaming internally at this point.

The evening was definitely going to be interesting.

…

You spent some time checking your phone before hearing the water turn off, your heart doing a little flip as Tony’s head peeped out from the door, calling your name.

“Could you be a dear and pass me a towel?”

Handing him a towel, you couldn’t help but let your eyes feast on his physique that was now glistening and was tantalizingly on display, making you wish he’d push the door just a little further. He had arms to die for and a toned chest that made you weak in the knees, his happy trail inviting you to explore a little lower, until Tony cleared his throat.

“I mean I could’ve walked out naked if I knew you’d enjoy the show.” he smirked, giving the towel you held in your hands a firm tug, pulling you forward. Your cheeks felt hot as you let out a nervous laugh, shaking your head.

“Maybe I needed to join you.” you felt bolder now, letting go of the towel and mirroring his smirk.

You figured it was now or never.

Pouring both your drinks, you waited for the man to join you, doing your best to get your erratic heartbeat to calm down.

Conversation flowed easily between the two of you as it always did, reminiscing about the first time you met, how you got into acting and landing this role. You even admitted to breaking into an embarrassing dance with your team the moment they confirmed you had been signed on for this film.

It was way past midnight by the time either of you bothered to glance at a clock.

“Jeez! Is that the time? I’m afraid we must get our beauty sleep as much as we can, big day tomorrow.” he placed both your glasses on the nightstand, chuckling as you both let out a sigh in tandem.

You’d changed into your sleep shorts and a large t-shirt that you had hoped nobody saw you in, thanks to the unforeseen situation, Tony now knew you slept in t-shirts with cheesy quotes on them.

“Tony, are you sure about this, I mean I’m tiny I can manage on the couch.” You tucked a lock of hair behind your ear as you watched him fluff the pillows.

“Look, if anything, it should be me offering to sleep on the couch but I’m gonna be selfish tonight.” he murmured, his voice soft.

“What do you mean?” your own voice barely over a whisper at the close proximity of him as he extended his hand for you from across the bed.

Maybe it was the whiskey that sat warm and fuzzy in your bellies or just the fact that there was something you both felt in the moment. An unsaid chemistry, tension you could cut with a knife.

The bed dipped under your weights as you got on your knees, still clasping Tony’s hand as you got closer, breathing each other in.

His scent was intoxicating to you, his eyes criminally brown as they bore into you, making you lose yourself in their depths.

“Well, I’ve been told, you’ve never kissed anyone on screen yet. Is that right?” he asked softly, bringing his other hand to brush your hair out the way gently to cup your face.

You managed a nod, leaning into his touch and closing your eyes momentarily. It was true. You had been in several films before however somehow there wasn’t any that had required you to kiss a costar. That added to the fact that your big on-screen kiss would now be with this gorgeous man who was right before you.

“We’ve got something here, Y/N. Something electric, palpable. See how our bodies react to each other?” his lips were now inches away from your ear, a smile adorning his features as his words sent a shiver down your spine, proving his point.

“And what are we gonna do about it?” you breathed, pressing your hand against his chest, noting how his heart beat against your palms and his very obvious boner that wasn’t hidden anymore.

Definitely not a one-sided crush. He wanted you, and you wanted him.

“I think we’re gonna go off-script. A lot. And not just on set.”

The gif is simply because I LOVE IT. What do we think?

#tony stark fic #tony stark one shot #tony stark x reader #actor au #tony stark x you #tony stark fluff #tony stark fanfiction #tony stark x y/n #marvel fanfiction #tony stark #the stark squad #tony stark imagine #mostly marvel musings

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lovelylotusf1 · 4 months

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Inspired by the lovely @wisteria-wisteria and her Pinterest roulette posts. I present to you an AU:

Lestappen - Coding rivals.exe

Don't know yet if I'll do anything larger with it so I'd love if someone adopts the idea! Give it a new and welcoming home!

Max Verstappen, a brilliant hardware engineer who is mostly focused on robotics, is partnered up to work with programmer and game designer Charles Leclerc. From the moment they meet, he despises his new coworker. Charles is everything he isn't - all smiles and polite questions, a laid-back attitude when it comes to his work and yet somehow constantly praised by others. The predestined programmer, they call him. Max thinks it's all very ridiculous.

But they need to work together to meet the looming deadline. Maybe they'll even learn to appreciate the other's company along the way...

Small scene after this universe's InchidentTM:

"Mr Verstappen. What happened?" His boss's cold voice greets him the moment Max sits down in the overpriced meeting chair. The board of directors stare at him, disdain obvious in their postures, but their faces are carved into polite masks.

Max glares at Leclerc, who is sitting across from him. Even now, he doesn't look like he gives a single damn about the situation he has brought them into, that unnervingly pleasant smile still plastered on his face. Max wants to wipe it off.

Leclerc is slumped in his chair, glasses askew and in his normal working attire consisting of a sweater thrown over a shirt. There is a small coffee stain on front of it, reminding Max of what brought them into this situation in the first place.

"It's just unfair. He pushed a glass of coffee onto the robot, so I pushed it back onto his computer. It's not fair, right?"

Before he can give further explanations, he is shot down, "Thank you, Mr Verstappen. What is your perspective on this matter, Mr Leclerc?"

Leclerc straightens and lets his eyes sweep over the room. Max doesn't miss the fact that he pointedly doesn't look at Max and a small pang of annoyance flashes through him.

Leclerc says, "Nothing. Just an inchident in the lab. We will have the code restored and the robot running by next week."

Max needs to remember all the self-control exercises he taught himself in order to not jump over the table, drag Leclerc towards him by his stupid oversized sweater and yell at him until that guy's ears ring.

Of course, he can say that easily. He just needs to write a few lines of code that the automatic backup hasn't caught. But Max will have to build the hardware from scratch, the delicate electronics fried beyond repair. Oh, how he would like to strangle Leclerc for that.

His boss is apparently pleased by this response. He nods. "Very well then. Get back to work and fill out the provided reports. I don't want to repeat this, the funding is already minimal and you don't want to make your budget even tighter than it already is."

They are dismissed and walk back to the robotics lab in silence, their steps echoing off the blank walls. At least it would be silent if Leclerc's annoyingly smooth voice didn't disrupt it, "I know you don't like me. But at least pretend that you do when other people are around. It will be easier if you let some of my charm work on you, non?"

That fucker has the audicity to wink at him and it is the most awkward thing Max has seen in his entire life.

Max almost snarls. He'd rather be caught dead than enjoy Leclerc's company.

(I don't know why a robotics guy would work with a game dev but just let me fantasize about my AUs without worrying too much about realism)

#lotus wrote something #lestappen #formula 1 rpf #f1 fanfic #charles leclerc #max verstappen #unwilling coworkers to friends to lovers #featuring programming this time!#nothing just an inchident #even in AUs they can't escape it

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foodsies4me · 2 months

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February Malec fic rec!

Thanking @kalalab for this month's theme which is enemies to lovers! The same rules still apply, about one fic per author, but all of these authors have other brilliant fics you should be reading and if you want to add your own recs in the comments, tags, or reblogs please feel free to do so! 😊

Also, I have tagged the authors whose Tumblr account I know, but if you'd prefer I not tag you, please tell me so! I don't want these to be annoying for the authors.

One-shots:

Rumor Has It by Lecrit: A human AU which is not something I'm generally a fan of, but Lecrit just writes so well that I gobble this up anyway.

Summary:

Magnus widens his eyes at him, silently asking him to just give him this one. Alec simply curves one of his stupidly perfect eyebrows in response, a simple gesture that carries the weight of a call for challenge. “Looks like you’re gonna have to postpone your wedding for now,” Maia giggles next to him. Magnus huffs, flexing his jaw. “Oh, it’s on, Lightwood,” he mouths at him.

Also, because I suck at keeping to my own rules, I'm adding a second fic rec that I maybe love just as much by Lecrit aka the way to a chef's heart. But, in my defense, both fics are great and one is about cooking and baking. I am weak when it comes to food, okay?

Anyway, summary:

After a scorching review on his restaurant in one of the world's most famous food magazines, world class chef Magnus Bane is set on finding the food critic who dared to slander his art and make him change his mind. He doesn't expect someone as stubborn or infuriating as Alec Lightwood

you're the light that i won't let go by oh-la-fraise: Another human AU as well as an Enemies to Lovers with a twist.

Summary:

There were three unspoken rules to the Manhattan Institute of Higher Learning, New York’s premier private K-12 school: 1) Respect that the space under the football bleachers was for sex, and only for sex. 2) Don’t eat the cafeteria meatloaf. 3) Never mention Mr. Bane to Mr. Lightwood or vice versa, unless you wanted the whole class to get extra homework.

careless curses by @alexanderlightweight: I don't know what to say that isn't already stated in the summary except I love it when alexanderlightweight writes dark themes. (Or just writes in general).

Summary:

The Lightwood family has been cursed by death for generations and now, Alec lives with death hovering over him. Sometimes life is the curse and death the reward.

Ten Not-Dates That Magnus Bane Spends Falling In Love with Alec Lightwood by Aria_Lerendeair: Magnus is hilariously done at the start of this fic.

Summary:

Magnus was going to have words with the Clave. They would be decidedly unpleasant words, and they might be accompanied by a few very pointed magic blasts and maybe even curses. They deserved it. Another Lightwood in charge of the New York Institute?

Multi-chapter fics or series:

All the Costs are Even by tsujiharu: A fic that deserves more love imo, is this Pride and Prejudice retelling. Also, I'm just now realizing that most of these are Human AU's despite me being notorious for generally not liking them, lol.

Summary:

A modern day Pride and Prejudice AU, in which a disgruntled lawyer and an aloof entrepreneur can't seem to get over their pride (and prejudices?) and admit their very obvious attraction to each other.

love is a four-letter word by @la-muerta: Do la-muerta fics need to be recced? Probably not because I suspect most people have read them. Am I still going to to rec them because I love them? Yes! So here is another lovely human AU fic where first impressions maybe aren't what they seem.

Summary:

Magnus knows he's one of the best editors in the business. So when the bigoted director of the publishing house he works for gives their grandson's best friend the promotion Magnus deserved to get, he decides that it's the last straw. Magnus intends to go out with a bang and take his new boss down with him — but he didn't mean for it to happen quite so literally.

Crush On You by @gospi: A FTH fic of 2023 that had me laughing at how salty Alec is about crushing on Magnus. A lot of fun.

Summary:

An ancient, unsuccessful recipe for starting new relationshipsalliances: A dash of rumors. A sprinkle of heritage. A smidgen of jealousy. A dollop of chaotic disasters. A shitload of assumptions. Let it simmer. Enjoy!

My True Love Gave To Me by AlxSteele: Christmas repeats itself endlessly for Magnus and while it's annoying he does end up learning a new side from the awful baked Alec Lightwood. Surprise, he isn't all that awful.

Summary:

Magnus Bane had a plan, a perfect Christmas Eve just like always. Hang out with his friends, bask in the Christmas Spirit. Then everything went wrong. Now he's stuck reliving the same day again and again and again. The bright side? Maybe Alec Lightwood isn't as terrible as Magnus always thought.

A fic that I am sure most people have already read because it is wonderful (which is the reason why I didn't add it last month even though it's a wing fic) is Fall Without Wings by @notcrypticbutcoy. It's a brilliant fic that's all.

Summary:

Or: In which the Nephilim have wings, are taught to loathe Downworlders, and Alec is presented with a conundrum when Magnus Bane saves his life.

#Fic rec #Malec fic rec #I don't know if people actually read this #but these also give me a reason to reread fics #so it's a win either way #also these are a lot fluffier than my previous rec list #which means the next one has to be angsty again #j

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cheesy09 · 1 year

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[CN] Kiro's Invasion Date

🌸 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for a date that hasn't been released on the EN server yet! 🌸

[Note: This date was translated with the help of Google Translate :>]

[PART 1]

MC: ...It is a great honor to win the Best Creative Short Film Award at this Golden Star Film Festival

MC: Finally, I would like to thank the team who worked with me and the audience who were willing to listen and understand this story.

There was endless applause from the auditorium, and I bowed solemnly. When I stepped off the stage, several acquaintances nearby congratulated me one after another.

I thanked them one by one, and when I passed by that familiar figure, I couldn’t help but take a look.

Noticing my gaze, he raised his eyes, smiled and nodded.

Kiro: Congratulations.

MC: ...Thanks.

I wanted to say something more, but he looked away.

Until the end of the award ceremony and the start of the salon reception, our eyes never met again.

Since there weren’t many opportunities for colleagues to gather, many took this opportunity to converse with each other. Not far way, Kiro was happily chatting with a director, my presence completely unnoticed.

A little disappointment welled up in my heart. At that moment, Director Sun, who I had worked with before, came over with a glass of wine.

Director Sun: MC, congratulations on winning the award. Should I start calling you director now?

MC: You flatter me. I have you to thank for the drama salon you invited me to last time. I really learned a lot.

Director Sun: I’m also happy that you young people came to socialize more. I’ll do it again later. You and Kiro should come together when you’re free.

MC: ...Sure.

After Director Sun left with a smile, I took another look at Kiro, but happened to be caught by his returned gaze.

I raised my glass to him from a distance, just wanting to signal, but he unexpectedly came towards me.

KIro: Miss Producer MC, I watched your award-winning work this time. It was wonderful and touching.

Polite and gentle. Everything seemed perfectly amiable but at the same time, very distant.

I took a deep breath, buried the phrase “I miss you so much” in my heart, and raised a polite smile.

MC: Congratulations to you for winning the Golden Star Actor Award. I respect you for that.

Without waiting for him to respond, I downed the champagne that was in my glass.

The alcohol suddenly went to my head, and my head grew light. Kiro’s slightly surprised face grew a bit troubled.

He took the glass from my hand and gently rubbed his fingertips against my skin, sending over an ambiguous electric current which made my fingertips numb.

Kiro: You look a little dizzy, Producer. Should I take you to your room to rest?

He stood at a distance that crossed no lines, and calmly and patiently waited for my answer.

I hadn’t reached a point where I couldn’t go back to my room myself, but before I could think about the results, my body instinctively took a step closer to him.

MC: ...Then I will have to trouble Mr. Star Kiro.

[PART 2]

In order to celebrate Valentine’s Day tomorrow, the promenade from the banquet hall to the guest room was decorated with layers of brilliant star lights.

After leaving the banquet hall, the cool night air made me shiver. The very next second, a jacket with his body temperature fell on my shoulders.

He tidied up the coat for me in a gentlemanly manner, only his fingers casually grazing the ends of my hair before leaving.

We walked side by side, keeping a distance that was neither far nor close. And this distance was a result of my own suggestion.

[Flashback]

Kiro: It’s been ages since I’ve seen you. I never expected that Director Yan would be stricter than before...

On the phone, Kiro’s voice was listless.

This time, he was collaborating with the great director Yan Dao in an AI anthropomorphic movie, in which Kiro played the AI hero.

Kiro: Director Yan said that I wasn’t getting into the drama, and asked me to block out all emotional ‘input sources’ and look for a more ‘mechanized’ feeling.

Hearing Kiro’s long sigh, I pinched my phone with my fingertips, longing to touch his face.

The lingering love during the New Year’s holiday seemed to have left a lingering warmth, and we talked to each other on the phone almost every day during this period.

Could it be that Kiro couldn’t “shield his emotions” because we talked too much recently? My heart froze for a moment and I pursed my lips.

MC: How about... not contacting each other for some time? You should concentrate on filming first and find out how you feel.

Kiro: Don’t. I still need you to provide me with motivation.

MC: But haven’t you been NG (no good) for days? I don’t want to bother you.

MC: You should... know the source of the problem already.

As a major star who always asks to appear on screen with the most perfect appearance, Kiro was never one to let go of any of the factors that affected him.

The situation was clear. While I, too, was very sad, Kiro’s work was more important right now.

Kiro: .....

Kiro: But we’ll still meet at the Golden Star Film Festival next week... And the second day of the event is Valentine’s Day.

MC: During that time, I’ll keep my distance from you and will not interfere with your work.

I tried my best to make my voice sound extremely understated, but the pain from my fingernails digging into my palm still made me perceive the sadness in my heart.

After a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, a low voice came.

Kiro: ...Sorry, it’s all my fault.

Kiro: When the filming for this is over, I’ll definitely make up for all the sweetness we’ve lost during this time. In fact, double it!

[End of Flashback]

Under the reflection of the bright starlight, his exquisite face still showed no sign of agitation.

I kind of regretted making that agreement.

Despite his coat blocking out the night wind, I still couldn’t help but slowly approach that familiar source of warmth. And as soon as the backs of our hands touched each other, the slightly cool gap in my heart was filled to the brim.

Tomorrow, he would return back to the studio to film, and the state he was maintaining would not be “wasted”.

Despite that reason tugging at my brain, my hands were unwilling to follow its instructions. I tentatively moved half a step closer to him again, letting our arms stick together.

The hand at my side touched his lightly with a forward rhythm, leaving an unconcealable throbbing in my heart. Kiro seemed to not notice it.

The reassuring temperature was like a warm current flowing slowly, which made one feel a little sad.

Just another five seconds, no, ten seconds... and then I’ll leave.

I counted the ten seconds in my heart over and over again, but as if we had a tacit understanding over this, neither of us moved away first.

When I was finally thinking about taking a step back, my pinkie was gently hooked.

His fingertips gently touched my palm, leaving a scorching mark.

In the deafening silence, I felt my heart beating clearly.

Not far away from the room, I slowed down, reluctant to part. And the finger that had been wrapped around mine, suddenly clasped my hand lightly.

Maybe it was the unstable center of gravity from wearing high-heeled shoes, or the swaying of my rationality after being soaked in alcohol, or maybe... it was him, who felt the same reluctance I did.

If it was an “unexpected situation”, it wouldn’t count as a breach of the agreement, would it?

With that thought in mind, I half-truthfully twitched and fell towards him. At almost the same time, a force came from my wrist, and my body fell into his embrace.

The hug was unexpected, but neither of us moved.

Until a slightly satisfied sigh came from my ear and I was hugged by the waist. In my partly widened eyes, the corners of his lips that seemed to be smiling, were reflected.

Kiro: It seems that today’s champagne has taken quite the toll on you. You probably won’t be able to walk to your room yourself.

Kiro: Let me take you the rest of the way.

There was a vague sound of water coming from the bathroom, and I leaned against the head of my bed, my pounding heart muddled into a complete mess.

The walk back from the banquet hall could have lasted a little longer...

I buried my face in his coat, missing the embrace that didn’t last long.

After a while, Kiro came out of the bathroom with a warm wet towel and makeup remover cotton, blocking out the dim floor light.

MC: You can go back and rest...

He didn’t respond to me, but just gently dabbed the makeup remover cotton on the corner of my eyes.

Kiro: Close your eyes.

The cleansing cotton carefully traced over every corner of my face. I couldn’t bear to fall asleep, so in a daze, I took his hand.

MC: Are you leaving?

Kiro: Do you want me to stay?

The whisper that was close at hand seemed to be a wonderful, yet deadly temptation. I nodded, shook my head again, and spoke the truth with unclear logic.

MC: You have to go back to the set tomorrow, I can’t mess with your focus--

MC: But I miss you so much...

After a moment of silence, a deep chuckle hit my heart. He moved closer and asked again.

Kiro: Do you want me to stay?

MC: How could I want you to leave...

As soon as my words fell, my body was pushed into the mattress and within the next second, an overwhelmingly hot kiss was pressed down on me without warning.

He easily pried open my mouth and lazily explored bit by bit.

His slender fingers ran through my hair, traced my eyebrows over and over again, and than slid down to my collarbone, as if confirming something.

Kiro: MC...

He whispered my name, luring me to continue to approach him.

The sounds of our pants were quick and heavy, and our fingers were tightly intertwined, tirelessly demanding from each other, trying to fill in all the gaps that were left open during this period.

I almost wanted to melt in that scorching heat, but I was looking forward to his more undeniable invasion.

In the dimness, it seemed that the midnight bell sounded outside the window.

Finding a sliver of clarity in my broken mind, I tried my best to raise my neck, and kissed the corner of his warm lips.

MC: Happy Valentine’s Day, Kiro.

He paused, and then responded with a more passionate kiss.

My consciousness floated amongst gentle waves, and before falling asleep, a soft voice came to my ear.

Kiro: Happy Valentine’s Day, MC.

[PART 3]

It was almost noon the next day when I woke up from a deep sleep.

MC: Kiro..?

I rubbed my bleary eyes and called his name, but no one answered. There was no one beside the bed, only a lunch box that had been left on the small table that still had some residual warmth.

There were dozens of messages on my phone, and the top dialog box was blank.

Although a little disappointed, I tacitly put down my phone, got up and took a shower.

There was going to be a red carpet walk in the afternoon, and all the winners were participating. Many media outlets were also invited.

Among the messages I received, there was a message from an actor friend saying that he had to return to the set temporarily and could not walk the red carpet with me.

I sighed and walked out of the hotel to go to the event venue.

Do I want to go alone, or should I find a partner? Just as I was coming up with an idea, a pair of blue eyes flashed in my mind.

Like telepathy, a familiar van stopped in front of me.

The car door opened and the person I was thinking about appeared before me.

The early spring sunshine was perfectly adequate, and through the scattered new shoots and branches and leaves, a colorful scene was reflected on his body, like beautiful magic.

Seeing me, a smile grew on his face.

Kiro: Good afternoon, Gold Medal Producer. It looks like you had a good rest last night.

I felt like there was something hidden beneath his words, but his frank gaze was devoid of any charm.

Thinking that we should continue our previous “agreement”, I also smiled politely.

MC: Not bad indeed, you look like you got up early.

Kiro: Well, there was an interview in the morning, which just ended. The time arranged for that had been relatively early.

He explained lightly, and slowly blinked his eyes with a certain hint, arousing the scorching throbbing that we knew very well.

Kiro: For the red carpet event in the afternoon, who do you plan to walk with?

MC: My partner has a temporary job, so I’m planning a one-man red carpet challenge.

Unexpectedly, he raised his eyebrows, stretched his hand and showed a sincere smile.

Kiro: I’m also alone. I wonder if I can invite this Gold Medal Producer to walk the red carpet with me?

MC: Is that... okay?

Kiro: Don’t you think today is the perfect day for us to walk together?

Hie eyes were burning, and the smile on his lips seemed determined. This was an invitation that would not be rejected.

And of course, I wouldn’t say no to him.

MC: Then, please take care of me, Mr. Superstar.

After putting on our makeup, Kiro and I went backstage to await our turn.

On both sides of the red carpet, the flashing lights lit up one after another, becoming a foil for the dashing figures on the red carpet.

Kiro: It’s almost our turn.

Kiro tidied up his cuffs calmly, and the high-tailored suit made his figure even taller and more slender.

Perhaps seeing through my nervousness, he tilted his head and joked.

Kiro: If this expression got photographed on the red carpet, it’d be in the headlines tomorrow.

Kiro: The title would be “International superstar’s flirting on the Valentine’s Day red carpet with female producer failed, suspected to have an inside fling”.

MC: That’s way too exaggerated!

I laughed at his light-hearted banter and felt a warm finger against the corner of my lips.

Kiro: Your smile is beautiful. Be confident, you’re a gold star director. With me here, there won’t be a problem. You just have to show your brightest smile.

Usher: Mr. Kiro, Director MC, it��s your turn soon.

Kiro: Are you ready?

I exhaled and walked out of the shadows of the backstage with him in my arms.

The overwhelming flashes of light flashed one after another on both sides of us. It seemed like the brightest lights in the world had gathered here.

But at the moment, a secret joy that no one knew of suddenly arose in my heart.

Today was Valentine’s Day, and it was also my first time walking the red carpet with Kiro.

Every shot would put us in the same frame. In this scene, he belonged only to me.

He faced the cameras with ease, his footsteps graceful and free, as if he was stepping on the stars with every step.

But the stars were vast, and he was the only focus.

I followed Kiro to the signature wall and was about to turn around when he just happened to lower his head.

Kiro: Excellent performance.

His warm lips traced against the shell of my ear, and his low whisper, accompanied by his warm breath, rushed into my ears, leaving a sultry and heart-throbbing sensation that no one else noticed.

By the time I wanted to trace back the disappearing temperature, the instigator had already smiled and waved to the camera.

Only the teasing at the corner of his lips that he hadn’t had time to withdraw revealed his devious little thoughts.

Reporter A: Director MC, congratulations on winning the Golden Star Awards this time. What was your inspiration for this work?

Reporter B: Kiro, I heard that you’re still filming a new movie. Can you tell me...

In addition to the Superstar Kiro, many reporters were also interested in me, a “director” who didn’t show her face very much.

Reporter C: I heard that the two of you had collaborated before. Walking the red carpet together on Valentine’s Day, is there any special meaning to it?

I was taken aback by the tricky question, but Kiro smiled with ease.

Kiro: I have always liked the works of producer MC, and it’s a great honor to participate in the award ceremony with her this time.

Kiro: Before stepping onto the red carpet, we were still discussing future cooperation.

Reporter B: Does this cooperation refer to the new work directed by MC?

Kiro: That is confidential.

Kiro: I can only say that she’s a creative and serious producer with many interesting stories, and you’ll find many new inspiring things when working with her.

He turned his face sideways, and in his clear and bright eyes, I alone was clearly reflected.

He pinched my finger lightly behind the shadow of the camera.

Kiro: [very, very softly] The muse of inspiration will always be my only choice.

After the red carpet event, the award ceremony was drawing to a close.

I was a little sad, since after this, Kiro would have to return to the set, and we wouldn’t be able to see each other until two months later.

Kiro: Do you have any work to do after this?

MC: Nope.

Kiro: Great, then let’s go~

Hearing that, my eyes lit up.

MC: Go where? Aren’t you going back to the set to film?

Kiro: That’s what I planned to do, but I need your help with something at work.

His expression was friendly but not intimate, and I wasn’t sure what he was thinking for a while. But this was a work matter. I needed to help without breaking the “agreement”. Thinking about it like this, I nodded with peace of mind.

Kiro: After that, your time is mine.

Unexpectedly, Kiro took me to his recording studio. There were still some audio track files on the screen of his console.

Kiro: In addition to starring as the male lead, I actually also acted as the film’s music producer.

Kiro: There’s a BGM that requires a female voice to hum, and I think you’re voice is very suitable.

Seeing his confident appearance, I hesitated.

MC: ...Isn’t it better to have a professional singer sing this?

Kiro: In order to match the plot, I want a more jerky and pure tone, so I think your voice is very suitable.

He adjusted the sound, put the headset on my head and played the demo to the score.

Kiro: Take it easy, let me teach you.

Kiro was indeed an extremely professional teacher, and the recording of the piece didn’t take long.

After he finished listening to the recording, he smiled and nodded at me.

Kiro: I still have a personal OST that I want your help with. Do you want to strike while the iron is hot?

[PART 4]

His scorching body temperature approached me from behind. his arms crossed my shoulders, and he adjusted to microphone in front of me.

This posture basically completely enclosed me in his arms.

MC: Isn’t this a little too close...

Kiro: Not close, this one needs a chorus. Ready? I’ll teach you the melody first.

I tried my best to concentrate, but my mind was distracted by the body temperature behind me.

He seemed to have noticed my half-heartedness, and whispered in my ear with some “dissatisfaction”.

Kiro: [whispering very enticingly] Focus on work--

His ambiguous whispers brushed past my ears along with his warm breath, leaving behind palpitations that made one feel restless.

But before I looked back, he pulled away, just like that unintentional move on the red carpet.

Kiro: Your voice is breaking here. Did you forget the way I taught you to speak so quickly?

Every time I made a small mistake, I would receive a little “reminder” from him. Either he would gently tug at my earlobe, or guide our bodies to be “close-fitted”.

But every single time, it was like a dragonfly skimming the water’s surface, leaving at a touch. It made one feel agitated, but helpless to do anything about it.

Finally, when he leaned over again and tried to ‘add fuel to the fire’, I squeezed his hand.

MC: Kiro, are you playing these tricks on purpose?

He tilted his head and leaned closer until our noses brushed. A pair of innocent eyes gazed at me deeply.

Kiro: Wasn’t it MC who broke the agreement by “tricking” me first?

Kiro: Obviously you said that you would refuse to contact me, and that meeting me would not affect my state, but it turned out to be the opposite.

He sighed softly, his voice slightly hoarse.

Kiro: Shouldn’t you be responsible for me?

MC: I... didn’t really go back on my word...

I opened my mouth, but when I recalled the little tricks I played under the intoxication, I felt a little guilty.

Kiro: Didn’t go back? You kept staring at me at the reception hall, and then stuck to me after drinking too much. Even when I was giving a speech on stage...

MC: Wait, I didn’t do anything while you gave your speech.

Kiro: You’d occasionally wander off to check your phone while others were giving their speeches. But as soon as I came on stage, you kept watching... I was so nervous that I forgot half my sentences.

I was stunned for a moment and blinked belatedly.

MC: Don’t you know that I’m looking at you because you’re always looking at me?

He didn’t answer. His eyes seemed to contain thousands of unspeakable emotions, gently grasping my heart.

The longing that had accumulated for a long time, engulfed me once again.

MC: Sorry, although we had an agreement, but I... really miss you.

MC: Can I give you a hug to recharge? Just for a moment...

Before I could finish speaking, a firm hug filled my arms, as if I had been waiting for a long time.

He cherishingly and tenderly kissed my eyebrows, again and again, and we indulged in each other’s temperatures without reservation.

I don’t know long it took before I reluctantly patted his back, but he only hugged me even tighter.

MC: ...What are you going to do about tomorrow’s shoot?

Kiro: It doesn’t matter... In order not to mess up, I’ve found a few tricks.

MC: Tricks?

Kiro: The method you proposed this time was very helpful, and my mistakes reduced immediately.

Kiro: Although Director Yan felt that I was qualified, when I was researching this role, I felt a little distance from him.

He relaxed his shoulders and rested his chin on my shoulder. A voice that was deeper than usual lingered in my ears.

Kiro: Even if I know what he’s thinking, or how he’s acting... I can be cold and heartless, but I can’t be him. I thought for a long time and finally found the reason why.

MC: What is it?

He turned his head slightly and rubbed my face lightly with his fingertips. His eyes were filled with tenderness and love.

I couldn’t help but breathe lightly, for fear of breaking the warmth of this moment.

Kiro: Because I met a very important person. She kept me away from loneliness, let me know the heartbeats of missing someone, and let me find my own destination.

He took my hand and placed it gently on his chest. The hot and powerful heartbeat under my hand, passed though my palm and merged with my pulse.

Kiro: She gave me irreplaceable warmth, and made me no longer remember what it was like to be alone.

Kiro: I can only try to image what it would be like to completely remove “Kiro” from my body, so that I wouldn’t feel love at all.

Kiro: That way, I can become him.

His tone was casual, but I couldn’t even imagine how hard it would be to completely strip yourself away. I pictured him forcing himself in a room, tossing and turning to adjust his state in order to be perfect.

There was a soreness in my heart. I stretched out my hand to trace his eyebrows and eyes, seeing that he hid that obscure tiredness without leaving a trace, and gently held my hand to the corner of his lips.

Kiro: So don’t worry, I’ll do fine tomorrow.

His determined voice sounded like some kind of appeasement, but also like a cryptic request. I let go of all considerations and hugged him again, but at the same time, a question suddenly floated in my mind--

MC: In other words, even without our agreement, you had found your own way.

MC: Then why did you keep your distance from me during the award ceremony?

Kiro: Because I wanted to try and see if I could still find that state while you were in front of me--

Kiro: But from the moment you came into my field of vision, I knew it was a failure.

Kiro: My body kept telling me that this was the person I loved the most. It had this uncontrollable desire to get close to you and embrace you.

Kiro: ...I wanted to declare my sovereignty over you in front of everyone.

Kiro: MC, tell me, why am I like this?

His slightly raised eyebrows were seductive, as if he was luring his prey into his territory little by little.

It was a no-brainer answer, but for some reason, I wanted to hear him say it myself.

MC: [blushing] Why?

Kiro: Because Kiro loves you.

Kiro: Because I love you, I can’t hide my love for you.

In his deep gaze, there was a secret emotion, akin to a sea of stars.

Kiro: It’s hard to pretend I don’t love you, even when I can’t see you.

Kiro: I can only keep hinting that I’m only temporarily saying goodbye to “Kiro”, and soon, I’ll be able to see my MC again.

The warm lights outlined his soft contours. Our overlapping breaths slowly drew closer, and his low end voice was a tad bit alluring.

As he wished, I got a little closer.

MC: See her for what reason?

Kiro: To let her know, of course-- how much I miss her.

Being grabbed by my wrist and lightly pulled, I was caught off guard and fell forward, falling into his long-awaited embrace.

Once the “prey” was ensnared, he lightly chuckled, and a fleeting kiss fell on the side of my neck. His scorching breath made me tremble uncontrollably.

But he seemed to have found something interesting, and slowly licked downwards, until he reached my collarbone.

The subtle probing but not in-depth teasing made the fire in my heart grow more and more intense. I pried away the headphones that were in the way from around his neck, and kissed him deeply.

But the tip of his tongue lazily chased after me, goading me to go deeper.

His fingers caressed the skin around my waist, the numbness spreading to every corner of my body, making my heart tremble at the same time.

The fiery and passionate kiss, with sweet comfort, slowly tempted me to give him everything.

More delightful than the sweetest sugar, more intoxicating than the mellowest wine.

I was like a drowning person, desperately trying to draw strength and oxygen from him.

As if aware of my response and desire, he melted a deep smile between his lips and teeth, his fingertips dancing along my spine, little by little.

Turns out that we were both the same; irresistibly addicted to each other.

Unable to stop.

It was the simultaneous longing of the body and soul, the irresistible attraction, and the emotion that was several times more intense than simple liking.

Like the softest and most fragrant thorns, one could not escape it, but was willing to sink into it.

During our interlaced panting, I saw my blurred self in his eyes.

Kiro: [gasping] I love you, MC.

Kiro: I’ve been in love with you since a long, long time ago.

As he said that, he kissed me, letting me feel the entirety of his confession with the most direct actions.

I don’t know who touched the control panel, but a soft and ambiguous melody slowly flowed out, blending with our chaotic heartbeats and breathing, into a beautiful movement.

MC: I’ll love you forever too, Kiro.

#mlqc #mlqc cn #mlqc spoilers #mlqc kiro #ASDFGHJKL THIS DATE IS HOLY GWACAMOLE I AM ON MY KNEES #THE WRITING??? JESUS CHRIST I NEEDED SEVERAL GLASSES OF WATER #WHO KNEW MC COULD BE THE ONE PINING I AM ASDFGHJKL IN SHAMBLES #DID THIS JUST TOP STARDUST DATE? YES. YES IT DID #I WILL NEVER RECOVER. WE F2PS ARE EATING GOOD NOW 😭

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ltwharfy · 24 days

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"Bob's Burgers" Season 9 Episode Ranking Rewatch (Long Post)

So, I've been rewatching "Bob's Burgers" from the beginning and ranking the episodes using the spreadsheet that @babsvibes created! If you want to know why I'm doing this or how I view the 1-5 rating scale, you can check out my Season 1 post! If you want to check out any of the other seasons, I've been using the "bob's burgers episode ranking rewatch" tag for all of them.

Now, on to Season 9:

Average (Mean) Score: 4.55

Mode (Most Common) Ranking: 5

Ranking Breakdown: 12 5s 10 4s

Season as a whole thoughts:

"Bob's Burgers" is turning nine and it's feeling *uses inhaler* fine!

Seriously, this is just another really excellent season in my opinion. It joins Season 4 and 8 as one of the seasons to not getting any episodes rated lower than a 4, and it's average score is good enough for 4th place of the currently ranked seasons below 7, 4, and 5. In some ways, it reminds me a lot of Season 7- a great mix of humor and heart along with introducing some new characters and other innovations- it's definitely representative of the series at its best, in my opinion.

Some thoughts on specific episodes (and feel free to ask if you want my thoughts on an episode I didn't comment on):

"Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now": It's a tough call, but this might be my favorite season premiere and my favorite "musical episode" (ie: one with more than the typical 1-2 songs). All the songs are absolute classics and great parodies of romantic comedy tropes! it's really a brilliant episode. It's hard to name a favorite song, but I think I might have to go with "Friend Zone" just because "Now let's kiss over this cake/'Cause it's your birthday, I guess" always cracks me up. The baby rat subplot is also really fun, and a great use of Hugo. And this episode gives us another (brief) appearance of Louise's Boo Boo crush, which is one of my favorite running gags! A great way to start the season.

"The Taking of Funtime One Two Three": While we're on the subject of great songs (or we were recently) "let an egg roll, from your egg hole" and "if wooly mammoths had had wheels maybe they'd still be around" are among the "Bob's Burgers" song lyrics that are always living in my head. Sadly, I rarely have an occasion to say either of them in conversation. I do like to say "To what end, people?!" occasionally, so thanks for that, Trip. Anyway, this is another classic "The Belcher Kids and their friends have an adventure episode" with a healthy does of Mr. Fischoeder and some fun moments with Yuli the security guard, one of my favorite minor recurring characters.

"Tweentrepreneurs": I love this episode because it helped inspire one of my favorite future career headcanons for Louise (and an outlined multichapter fic I'll probably never write). While taking over the restaurant or being a film director seem like the most obvious future career for Louise, this episode has the biggest of about three canon moments that inspired my "Louise Belcher, future labor union organizer" headcanon. I worked in the labor movement for several years and I just think would Louise would love it- taking on the rich and powerful, helping other people stand up for themselves, causing good trouble- it's a really good fit for her. And here she is, leading a walkout at age 9! (And, given my fondness for her relationship with Rudy, I have to mention that it's her concern for his health that is the final straw leading to the walkout.)

"Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street": Probably my favorite Halloween episode; definitely has my two favorite Halloween costumes! Rudy and Bob are probably the two characters I relate to the most, and it cracks me up that their costumes in this episode are totally things I would do: "what? It might look like I'm wearing normal clothes, but actually I'm totally Paul Rudd or Bruce Springsteen, can't you tell?!" Also, I don't think I've mentioned before how much I love the guy who's about to throw the candy into the incinerator. He's really one of my favorite one-off characters. Dude just got out of six month coma, doesn't know what day it is, still goes to work...and apparently will just throw anything into the incinerator that anybody tells him to (unless he gets a more compelling reason not to)? I think he might rank second after the "Boyz 4 Now" security guard as my favorite nameless one-off character.

"I Bob Your Pardon": Maybe my third or fourth favorite Thanksgiving episode! I've always had an interested in politics and journalism (I wanted to be a journalist when I was a kid) so this hilarious small town Thanksgiving turkey pardoning scandal really hits a lot of the right notes for me. If I had become a journalist, I definitely would've stolen "Well, somebody better call Huey Lewis because I may have found myself some news" as my catchphrase. And the end credits song is a total banger! "Don't you taint my mayor!"

"Better Off Sled": An excellent Christmas episode! Generally speaking, Louise and Logan's dynamic isn't really my jam, but I enjoy them here. The one-upsmanship of the snowball arms race is a lot of fun, and the "stupid Christmas" ending is sweet but not too sweet and feels totally in character for Louise. Also, I can't help but love this exchange: "Then why does it look like your butt could take a sheet of fresh-baked cookies out of the oven?" "Genetics?" (Kristen Schaal's delivery of "genetics?" is one of at least three times on the series when she absolutely kills me with her delivery of a single word). All that being said, I think Teddy is the real comedic MVP of this episode- pretty much everything he says cracks me up! And I love that Rudy is basically the one who saves the day for the Belcher kids! And Knitcracker, I can't believe I didn't mention Knitcracker yet! (That said, it's still not my favorite Christmas episode since it doesn't involve any references to murder mannequins.)

"The Helen Hunt": I feel like this might be one of my least popular shipping opinions but...I like Teddy/Kathleen! Not in the sense that I want to create fic or art for them, but I just think they are kind of sweet together. Like with Roger and Judy from "Aquaticism" they have that "awkward middle-aged people finding each other" vibe that this awkward middle-aged single person finds appealing. And I think her pretty easygoing, laidback nature is a nice contrast to how stressed out/excitable Teddy can be. And I always enjoy people who watch odd sports! Okay, Teddy/Kathleen aside, I also just enjoyed that they did a followup to "Housetrap", and the father and hot son plumbing duo subplot is so cute! "You, you make plumbing fun..."

"Bed, Bob, and Beyond": One of the things I've noticed in this rewatch, is that I really enjoy the three-story episodes (aka vignette episodes aka triptychs aka who knows what else some folks have called them.) I think what I really enjoy is that the reason for them is always different, and therefore it always says something different about the characters and their situations. it's not just the Simpsons having a trio of non-canon Halloween adventures ever year. I think showing Linda and Bob having a stupid fight, and the kids view of it and their efforts to get them to reconcile, was a really clever use of one of these stories. Also, if I am ever asked to do an English accent, I will likely say "I'm watching footie on the telly in the pubby where the beer is". (Which is probably offensive, so please don't ask me to do that!)

"Every Which Way But Goose": Another thing the rewatch has made me appreciate more: Jimmy Jr. and his relationship with Tina. I never hated J-Ju, but I will say that I probably took him and the Tinimmy relationship for granted- it's been there since almost the beginning but I never really thought much about it. But the rewatch has helped me realize how funny of a character J-Ju is (it's just a really funny voice by H. Jon Benjamin) and how the Tinimmy relationship has given us some really funny episodes- most notably this one and "Ex Mach Tina", which are both all-time classics in my book (and, of course, they play a big role in "Bob Actually" as well, but I like that one for other reasons as well.) To me, it's clear from this episode and others that J-Ju does care about Tina...he's just very much a 13 year old boy. So, he's occasionally thoughtful but more often dumb or oblivious. Also, the end credits song to this one is another classic. I wish I could go to a concert of "Bob's Burgers" music just so I could scream out "secret kiss with Bruce the Goose" with thousands of other excited concert goers, because that is what that lyric deserves, dammit!

"The Gene Mile": So, I recently posted about how much I enjoyed some of the Rudy moments in this one. This is another great "Belcher kids and their friends" adventure; and I really wish that Courtney and Alex had more appearances in stories like this- where they and their relationship with Gene isn't really the center of the story- they are just part of the gang! It's always fun to watch different combinations of the kids have fun together. Also, nice for Large Tommy to get his largest role- going back to Season 1 of the rewatch it's funny to think that he was introduced much earlier than some of Louise's more iconic classmates (Rudy, Chloe, Millie, Jessica, Harley, etc.).

"P.T.A. It Ain't So": I feel like this might be the first example in the rewatch of an episode that really grew on me. A lot of the episodes I've given 5s to were ones I remember loving as soon as I saw them. Or they were "sleeper hits" that I had basically forgotten about before rewatching. This episode I remember when I first saw it, and I remember thinking it was fine but nothing great. But on rewatches I just find myself enjoying it more and more. I really love the Kim and Sons hardware store bird subplot- especially the ridiculous flyer the kids make. Also, it's fun watching the kids play with their pipe in the background (such a great kids being kids moment)! But the PTA stuff is great too- I love the fact that Tammy's Dad is Linda's PTA bestie for some reason! And Linda's idea of Colleen being in the shark suit for the dramatic revelation! And the Bleach Boys! Also, as someone who headed a neighborhood political group for a while, Joanne's line "Do you have any idea how many emails I send a week? No, you don't because no one reads them" resonates with me.

Random thoughts (stuff that doesn't affect the ratings):

-More great new characters continue to arrive on the scene! Hi Susmita! Hi Arnold!

-I would totally watch Randy's movie "A Life, Well, Steved". "And I thought to myself, 'I can't take another hurdle. I think I am that baby turtle.'" That's some beautiful, profound stuff there.

See you in the Season 10 post! It could be pretty soon since I've already watched rated it all- just need time to write!

#bob's burgers #bob's burgers season 9 #bob's burgers episode ranking rewatch #long post

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ninjadeathblade · 6 months

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Moulin Rouge Discotrain AU (part twenty six)

Summary: (Post-game canon) The Conductor and DJ Grooves agree to finally work on a movie together. They come up with 'Moulin Rouge', a musical drama filled with romance. Over time the two directors grow closer and discover that maybe they don't hate each other as much.

Beginning | Previous | Next

Word count: 736

Warnings: None

Author's notes: They're so in love, I can't. Good job the confession is soon. God I need to write the confession. How do I have the end of the fic written but not the confession? Oh peck. Anyway, take this morsel.

A week had passed and they were back to filming.

Snatcher was still occupied with whatever was going on in Subcon Forest.

Grooves had taken to letting Conductor borrow his jacket.

Conductor had taken to wearing turtlenecks in the cold weather.

Empress returned, bearing pieces of jewellery for Conductor to use as Satine. As well as costume designs for some of Satine's dresses.

"These are gorgeous!" Owlice gushed, looking between the sketches and the shelves of fabric at the side of the room.

"I did nae know you designed clothes," Conductor said.

"You don't know a lot about me." Empress shrugged.

"H- hold on!" Owlice pushed the papers back into Empress' paws, running and picking up a bolt of red fabric.

"This!" Owlice cheered, rolling out a bit and holding it up next to Conductor. "Please sir, let me make that dress design with this fabric! For the Elephant Love Medley! Oh sir, Satine would look brilliant!"

"Go on lass, make the dress. You've already got my measurements from the other costumes," Conductor laughed. "In the meantime, I'll try on the necklaces, rings and bracelets that Empress bought."

Owlice let out a squeal of delight, running over to her desk and putting down the fabric before quickly darting back for the dress designs.

"Want me to help?" Empress offered to the director. "You haven't worn bracelets in a long time."

Conductor looked up at her. "What? How would you know that?"

"Lucky guess. Plus, you seem like the guy who wore bracelets a ton when you were younger," Empress explained as Conductor took off his coat and waistcoat.

"Which should we try first?" Conductor questioned.

"I got a good necklace for when the Duke gives Satine a gift. Want to try that?" Empress suggested.

"Sure."

Empress took out a silver necklace filled with diamonds, undoing the multiple clasps at the back.

The door opened and Conductor looked over as Grooves walked in, the penguin staring at the script in his flipper.

Empress looped the necklace round the front of Conductor's neck, doing it up.

"I just don't get it, why does the Duke have to be so creepy?! Satine never did anything to make him think she loved him. She's a courtesan for-" Grooves broke off as he looked up, beak opening and closing a few times. "-peck's…sake…"

"Hi Mr. Grooves!" Owlice greeted as she ran across the room, holding a small cushion with multiple pins and needles in.

"You, um. Y-you look nice," Grooves stuttered. Conductor's feathers ruffled at the compliment, bushing up around the sides of his face.

"Heh, thanks," Conductor breathed. Empress rolled her eyes, walking over to Owlice's desk and looking at the dress designs with the owl.

Conductor swallowed nervously, self conscious now Grooves was here.

"I came to ask if you wanted coffee," Grooves said suddenly, speaking rapidly. "But you're busy so I'll just get you one and come back later."

Grooves turned to leave.Conductor strode over to the penguin, grabbing the sleeve of his friend's jacket.

"Coffee would be great," he chuckled, smiling up at Grooves.

"Well, how can I ignore the best director I've ever met?" Grooves joked as the two of them left the room.

Conductor's face heated and his talons moved to fidget with the necklace he had on.

"Do I look okay?" Conductor asked, feeling like every owl or penguin they passed was staring.

"You're the sparkling diamond. You look perfect," Grooves assured. "And you're the angel of music. So if people were staring, it would be out of jealousy."

"Shut up," Conductor laughed before shuddering from the cold.

Grooves rolled his eyes behind dark lenses, slipping off his jacket and draping it around Conductor.

"I thought you would have learnt by now."

"I had ta take it off to try on the necklace!" Conductor protested.

"Mhm. Sure darling."

"Let's get coffee already. I cannae be working on our movie if I'm gonna fall asleep."

Grooves laughed, taking ahold of Conductor's hand and spinning him around as they walked down the hall.

Conductor tripped over the edge of the large red coat, slipping out of Grooves' grip and onto the floor.

"Looks like you fell anyway," Grooves teased.

Heat flushed Conductor's face as he scrambled back to his feet.

"Yeah. I guess I did," he mused, staring at the penguin.

Grooves tilted his head to the side with a smile.

"Coffee then?"

"Coffee then."

#moulin rouge discotrain au #ahit moulin rouge au #a hat in time #ahit #ahit conductor #the conductor #ahit au #discotrain #ahit dj grooves #ahit oc #ahit empress #dj grooves #ahit the conductor

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ggsworldstory · 4 months

Text

Chapter 2 Act 7: Showtime!

It was the night after the delinquent duo’s encounter with Igor Inkwell, the card he left behind sat on the counter of the hotel room that they paced back and forth in, trying to plan out their next move

“So, we both know this is a trap, right?” Terry said

“Obviously, but what if there really is something there we can use to clear your name?” GG replied

“It’s too risky, the second we’re in there, they’re not going to give us the chance to breathe, let alone do any investigation”

“Well how else are we gonna be able to find the truth? Your buddies aren’t exactly giving us a lot to work with”

“Even if there was something there, if they still believe the Director’s lies, chances are it was destroyed long ago”

“So what, you’re just giving up?”

“Look, we’ve tried,as much as I want to believe otherwise, there’s just no getting through to them, I’ve gotten used to being alone, now go to sleep, we’ll need to find somewhere far away to hide tomorrow”

Terry proceeded to walk away and slump into his bed, fast asleep, but GG was anything but, the thought of what seemed to be the last piece of the puzzle being right at his grasp ate away at him, he simply couldn’t take it “I made a promise and one way or another, I’m keeping it!” he thought to himself as he clenched his fist in determination

He proceeded to sneakily slither out of bed, slowly creak open the door to Terry’s room, grabbed the card and made his way to the address…

Meanwhile, at the Rogue’s gallery headquarters

“You did what?!” the director berated at Igor

“What?” Igor responded “those two come in, get our revenge and our cash! Easy as pie!”

“And did you think of anything if they come in from the back, tunnel from underground, take the St Nick play through our chimney?” Wally Interjected

“Uhhhm…”

“Ugh, classic monochrome meathead…” Mr Mech groaned

“Well I don’t see your brilliant ideas, toy maker!”

“At least my ‘toys’ aren’t being beat by some shoddy guitar playing!”

“Oh, callarse tu boca!”

Once more, the rogues were lost in their endless bickering, much to the director’s annoyance, “Will you all just SHUT UP!? The weed and his accomplice are coming to get us in our own home and you still can’t quit arguing for a minute?!”

“Well where’s your strategy then?”

“Yeah, any bright ideas to go with that big talk?”

“Well maybe I could think of one if I could hear myself think over all this noise!” the director then slammed the door behind him, and began panicking to himself, “agh think, I’ve come too far for that weed to mess it all up now, there’s gotta be something…”

All of a sudden, behind him he heard a “hey! Bossman!” Said Action much to The Director’s displeasure “Oh what is it? The weed and Toppat could be here any minute now!”

“Heh, funny ya say that, presenting the solution to all our problems!”

At that moment, Lights and Camera, with faces of pride behind their masks, wheeled in their creation

“That’s just a camera, you imbeciles!”

“Oh, well can a normal ol camera do this?!”

Lights flipped the power switch on their machine and in a flash, the room around them transformed, the mannequins became mountains, the paintings to plateaus, The director was amazed at such a thing “how are you doing this?” he asked in awe

“Heh, Special effects bay-beh!”

“Why, this is brilliant!”

“Mm-hmm!” Action assured with pride, turning to his squad, relishing in the joy on their faces

“I’m so glad I thought of it…” the Director said, as he wheeled the device out the door

“yeah- wait, what?!” The trio were baffled as they watched the Director wheel away their device back to the other room without so much as a thank you, finding the door was locked as the Director continued his speech to the rogues “and with this, my secret weapon, they won’t last a minute in our territory!”

“The hell does it even do?”

The Director took a moment to look at the device’s controls and quickly realized he had no idea how to actually operate it “uhhh, it needs a moment to warm up”

“Of course it does…”

“I heard that! As for the rest of you, keep your eyes peeled, the degenerate duo could arrive any moment…”

The rogues complied, the plan wasn’t great but it was the only one they had, at this moment, Lights, Camera, and Action managed to break down the door “ough, you accidentally locked the door again… also, WHAT THE HELL!? We made this and you-”

“Oh hush, if the Rogues don’t have a strong leader, who are they to rely on? Each other? They’re more dysfunctional than an animated sitcom family”

“I guess, but you can’t just-”

“For the sake of the gallery, I can and will do anything, now against my better judgment, I’m leaving you three in charge of my secret weapon, can I trust you with that? Or are you just going to stand there and keep being useless?”

The three were scared, at a loss for words and simply nodded

“Ah, there’s the reliable backstage I graciously took in when no one else cared…”

And with that, the Director walked off, leaving the three to their own devices

Meanwhile,

Soon enough, there it was, GG arrived the Rogue’s gallery headquarters, discreetly made out of an abandoned movie studio, he watched the place from a distant bush, planning his next move

“Ok” he said to himself, “the plan is simple, get in, get the evidence, get out, clear Terry’s name, easy as pie!” he confidently began to strut onwards, before quickly stopping himself

“No, it can’t be that easy, it never is! What would Terry do?” he thought to himself for several minutes, when he soon noticed a cardboard box

The doorbell rang, leading to Wally answering “hmm? Don’t remember ordering a package”

But then a thought came over him “oldest trick in the book…” and with a wave of his hands, a bazooka appeared in his arms that he used to blow the box to smithereens!

“What’s all that racket?” the Director said “did my package arrive?”

Wally, realizing his mistake, said “uhhh, noo… I thought I saw something” kicking what was left of the box aside as GG quickly snuck from behind an adjacent wall and in the door, hiding in a box of props as he entered

“Hah, easy as pie!” he thought to himself “now all I gotta do is search every square inch of this place, find some evidence then get out without being caught”

After taking a quick peek, seeing the coast was clear, GG confidently stepped out of the box

And immediately he stepped on an old car horn, startled, he hopped off hoping the sound would go unnoticed but he accidentally jumped in the middle of a drum set with a cacophony of bangs and pops, he immediately tried to flee the scene but he ended crashing into a costumed mannequin that fell and crashed into another, and another, and another… like dominoes they fell until the last one crashed into the fire alarm

GG could only stand there, flabbergasted as to what just happened “Maybe they won’t notice…” he muttered to himself

Before he knew it, the alarm stopped and he was surrounded by the four rogues, they had in fact noticed

“Well, look what we got here, not one for subtlety eh, toppat?” -Igor smugly remarked

“So, where’s the weed?” Wally grimaced as he stared the boy down

“He’s not here, it’s just me…”

“That coward, can’t even be bothered to confront his own crimes”

“He’s innocent, I’m telling ya! And I’m gonna prove it, no matter if you’re gonna help me or not”

“Oh” Igor said as he began to crack his knuckles “well if ya wanted a rematch, ya just had to ask…”

With that, the other Rouges followed suit, readying themselves for a brawl, Amelia took out her guitar, Wally, his spellbook, And Mech, a remote control for his machines

And GG too, took a stance… then he ran as fast as he could into the deeper studio, the rogue’s of course weren’t gonna simply let the boy get away as they all gave chase, Amelia played a few strums of her guitar that caused a skeletal hand to reach from the earth and grab GG’s ankles, but he quickly released himself by punching it right in the funny bone! Mr Mech and Wally Warlock both used their machines and magic to shoot their respective homing missiles, GG reacted by dashing to the side, jumping on and running along the wall, he then kept jumping,alternating between the two walls of the hallway until the two missiles ended up crashing into each other. Lastly was Igor, who transformed himself into a cannon which he used to launch himself as a massive ballistic rocket! Seeing this, GG did something unexpected, he stopped and turned to stand his ground! He watched the rocket grow closer and closer until the time was right and he rocket jumped right atop it!

“What the- get off me!” Igor yelled as he attempted to shake the kid off, But GG held on tight until they came flying through an extra-long hallway, GG let go of Igor, sending the both of them careening in opposite directions, Igor into the hall, and GG into the boarded up room behind

GG was disoriented but he soon picked himself up, he couldn’t forget his mission

“Urgh, that should buy me a little time, might as well see if there’s anything in this room”

The Toppat boy then got to snooping, as usual, he searched the room top to bottom, the torn tumbleweed posters on the walls, the collection of bandanas, the initials, T.T above the doorway (which had been vandalized to now read, “the traitor”) Everything was so torn and tattered

soon, he noticed a strange book, “maybe this’ll have some answers” he thought as he began to flip through

“I can’t believe my luck I don’t have to be alone anymore, I’m finally apart of something bigger than myself and I have people around me to call friends, maybe even family, I’ll keep this journal to commemorate every cherished memory I’ll share with them”

GG once more thought to himself “Terry’s old Journal…? I don’t like invading my friend’s privacy like this, but I can’t leave any stone unturned” he continued to flip through

“Igor used me as bait again, but it’s fine, he said I did great and was surprised I was still alive, he even gave me a congratulatory shoulder punch, nice of him, even if it’s a bit hard to write now…”

“I’ve been learning a lot about building and such from watching Mr Mech and today I finally decided to show him my skills with a prototype jetpack I’ve been working on, he yelled at me a bit, I couldn’t quite understand why, something about “staying on theme” but I’m sure he’ll change his mind as I get better”

Tears began to flow through GG’s face and stifled sobs escaped his vocal chords as he continued reading, memories of Terry being so mistreated by the ones he considered friends while he took it all in stride, still clinging onto them, up to the very last page

“The Gallery has been struggling a bit, money-wise, but I’ve got a plan to make it all better, I heard about a newly built casino somewhere, it’s a long journey, but it’ll be worth it when I get back, and in case something happens, my security tape back-ups should be in the VHS player”

GG’s sobbing came to a halt as he realized, lo and behold, there it was, a tape in the broken VHS player, “this is it!” he yelped

“Yes, well done, Toppat” the director remarked as he emerged from the shadows

“I wouldn’t be so smug if I were you, cus I got this!”

“And here I thought I’d gotten rid of all the evidence, but I never knew where he kept that damn journal, so give it, now”

“And I should do that because…?”

“Tell me, what do you think happens after you get the truth out? I’ll get exiled as leader, and the weed gets his happily ever after,but you, you’ve still got that oh-so massive bounty on your head, and you’ve just reunited your own hunters, hell, he’ll probably be the one to turn you in”

GG simply stood there, staring the director down as he continued

“Or, you give that tape to me,join the Rogue’s Gallery, as long as I’m keeping them in line, you’ll have nothing to worry about, what do you say?” The director extended his hand, with a rubber glove this time, waiting for the boy to accept

“Hmmm, lemme think…”

He instantly ran off

“So you wanna do things the hard way, I see” he reached to his pocket and pulled out a walkie-talkie, “go” he simply commanded and with that, Lights Camera, and Action wheeled out the special effects machine from about the corner and in GG’s direction

At that moment, GG went from seeing the gray, run-down studio, to a lush forest, immediately he was confused and ended up crashing into a wall of trees!

“W-what’s going on!?” he yelped, at his sudden change in environment, attracting the attention of the rogues who once more began to give chase

GG tried to run but he couldn’t tell the walls from open paths as the world around him kept shifting to a scorching volcano, a dry desert, outer space! Soon enough, the Rogues caught up, initially mesmerized by the machine’s work, but there was no time to be standing there in awe as they proceeded to attack the boy

GG tried to fight back, but he was overwhelmed both by having to fight 4 rogues at once and the constantly shifting landscape, seemingly camouflaging the rogues

Blow after blow, he took from all manner of attacks, eventually, Igor grabbed him and stuffed GG into a small cage, that Wally proceeded to cast a spell on to make fireproof

“Not so tough now, are ya?” Igor remarked, while GG noticed he had dropped the tape and The Director had picked it up “well done, Rogues! That’s one down, and one more to go…” he said as the rogues carried GG off

Back at the hotel, Terry had finally woken up and noticed something was off, it was too… quiet, no hollering or whooping, not even the faintest sound effects from a cartoon playing next door, he went to check GG’s room and found he, and the card were gone! Immediately he knew what had happened as he grabbed his jetpack and arrived at the studio

The rogues were in the middle of writing their ransom letter, with GG sitting tight on a shelf when they all heard the door kicked in, “that must be the weed!” the rogues eagerly ran to the entrance, while the Director briefly stayed behind and grabbed the tape to taunt GG, “well would you look at that, I should really thank you” he then walked out, “I’ll be in my office, this tape will look great in the fireplace” GG could only snarl in anger, as he left, but he then noticed a key to his side

Meanwhile, at the entrance, the rogues saw the door had been kicked in but Terry was nowhere to be seen

“Crap, he's loose!” Mech called out

“Fan out!” Wally commanded, “he couldn't have gotten far…”

And so they did, while Terry Jetpacked up and down and all around the studio, searching for wherever that miscreant Toppat friend of his was as the rogues searched every corner, behind every prop, costume and mannequin, leaving no stone unturned in their search, following faint trails of smoke and subtle wooshes of a jetpack

All the while, GG reached and reached as far as he could with his little arm, desperately trying to grasp the key to his freedom! Jostling the cage to and fro in an attempt to shimmy it ever so slightly closer to his goal, eventually he reached once more and finally held the key in his hand

“Got it!” he yelled in triumph, but at that moment, he felt the cage he was in slowly tilt to the side “uh-oh…” he realized before suddenly plummeting off the shelf, the cage smashing into bits upon impact

GG got up, disoriented but he quickly realized that he was free nevertheless and immediately ran off to take back the tape, lo and behold he found the director, casually strolling to his office, only for GG to speed by and in an instant, the tape in his hands was gone!

Seeing what happened he panickedly grabbed his walkie talkie “The Toppat is loose!”

And with that, absolute pandemonium befell the studio, Everybody running about the maze-esque landscape, running into one another, fists flew, lasers shot, skeletons rattled, shots fired, missles launched, fires burned it was absolute chaos!

Until after a while, GG and Terry finally found one another “GG! What the hell were you thinking, we gotta get outta here, now!” Terry yelled with a mix of relief and anger

“I know, it was stupid of me to come on my own but we can’t leave yet!” GG responded as he held up the tape

Terry gasped, as the memories came flooding back, realizing that there was a chance after all

“If we can just find a way to get them to see this, we can finally clear your name! Is there anything here that can help us do that?”

Terry thought for a moment, “The Director’s office should have a big TV, we’ll just need to lead the Rogues there”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Like clockwork The Rogues popped up from behind and immediately gave chase, just what the delinquent duo needed, they evaded as fast as they could, bobbing and weaving through their attacks until eventually they came up close to the Director’s office, victory was within their grasp, but then, Igor’s arms stretched out to sucker punch Terry!

GG reacted quickly, tackling Terry out of the way, letting himself get punched instead, sent flying right into the Director’s office, dropping the tape in the process

“GG!” Terry cried out as he picked up the tape and followed after the boy

When he entered he saw GG dizzy as he sat on the floor in front of the wall but he also saw the Director had beat the duo to the office, as he held a gun to the Toppat kid’s head!

“Long time no see, huh Weed? They say murderers always return to the scene of the crime”

GG interjected “Hey, that’s not how the saying goes-”

“Shut your mouth, lest you wanna end up a spot on the floor”

“Pfft, like you’re gonna kill me when my bounty says I gotta be alive!”

“Oh, money’s just an object kid, sweet, cathartic karma, especially on that weed, that is priceless”

GG could feel the killer instinct that echoed in the director’s deadpan tone, any confidence he had to taunt or joke disappearing as he continually shoved the gun into his temples

“Now, as for you, Weed, the way I see it the rest of the rogues are on their way, you and your little accomplice quite literally have their backs against the wall, the least you can do is let them turn you in and have some value for once in your-” BANG!

Without hesitation, Terry quickly drew and shot his gun at the Director’s arm, making him drop his gun as he stared dead into his eyes!

“You… Imbecile!”

Terry gave no response as he continued to stare

“You think this is a case of two wrongs make a right?!”

Still, nothing

“You think there’s ANY chance that they’ll ever want to see you as anything but a corpse in a shallow grave after you do this!?”

Terry would finally respond, “no.”

Then he fired two warning shots

Into his head!

And like clockwork, the rest of the gallery came bursting through the door, they could only stand in utter shock as they saw Terry standing over their deceased leader with a smoking revolver gripped tight in his grasp, Terry simply turned and said “if you’re gonna hate me for something, at least have it be something that’s true” as he placed the tape in the vhs player, and the truth unfolded before their eyes

They saw that fateful encounter, the Director shooting their old leader, before planting the evidence to construct his narrative before the footage abruptly cut to static and Terry picked up the tape and cast it into the fireplace

Even GG had no idea what to make of the events he saw unfolding as Terry reached out and got him up off the floor

The delinquent duo then took their stance, raring to go, snapping out of their collective feeling of awe, the Rogues brandished their own arsenals

At the same time, Lights, Camera, and action showed up and unleashed the Special effects machine but even with the ever-changing landscape, GG and Terry’s focus was absolutely locked in as they stared the Rogues down

Wally went first, with a wave his arms, he raised a veritable army of shroom soldiers from the ground that immediately charged the duo

Seeing this, GG charged two roaring fires in his hands and Terry drew a pair of daggers and they both charged headlong into the onslaught, moving swift as the wind, by the time they were done, every shroom that wasn’t burnt to a crisp was cut into ribbons

Next, Mech, as he commanded his machines to surround the two and shoot their missiles, Terry reacted quickly, switching his blades for pistols and GG grabbed onto his legs and began to spin him to and fro, the rogues took cover as the delinquents became an unrelenting bullet sprinkler

As the way to the exit had seemingly cleared up, the duo rushed to make their escape but Emelia quickly strummed her guitar, making a skeleton once more grab GG’s leg, making him trip as he ran

Igor, trying to take advantage of the Toppat’s vulnerability, stretched his fist for a quick knockout, but in a flash, Terry flew back right past his fist and once more pulling out his dagger, he cut off his arm! Sending it and the fist flying!

Terry immediately grabbed onto it with one hand and reached out for GG, plucking him out the ground as the runaway hand flew the duo right smack into the special effects machine, out the door and into freedom! By the time the rogues could chase them out the door, they were already long gone

“Dammit!” Igor screeched as he slammed his fist on the doorway while the other arm slowly grew back

“Well, it seems we have a bit of a leadership vacuum on our hands” Mr mech interjected “not to worry, everyone I nominate myself for the position”

Immediately, Wally erupted in laughter before abruptly stopping “oh, you’re serious, you couldn’t lead ants to a crumb!”

“Oh, like you could do any better?” Emelia added

Yet again, the Rogues exploded into another spat, voices overlapping, insults thrown like confetti, as the backstage trio just stood there in the middle of it

All of a sudden, the usually silent Camera absolutely snapped, “SHUT UP! EVERYONE!”

In an instant, the bickering just stopped as they stared at the three

Meanwhile, after they’d gotten all the distance they could, GG and Terry released the fist to fly to who knows where and they took their first moments back on solid ground to process what they’d just been through

“Wooo! Nice going, back there, Terry!” GG celebrated before something dawned on him “But, why? I thought you wanted to finally reconcile with them?”

Terry took a deep breath and sighed before replying “I did, but then I got to thinking,the rogues always treated me like dirt and the only reason I couldn’t see it before was that I felt it was the only kinda family I’ve ever had, but then you came along, and you’ve stuck your neck out for me far more more times in the few months I’ve known you than the years I’ve stuck around with those bastards!”

“Wow…” GG said with a sniff “This coming from the same guy who tried to leave me for dead in a desert when we first met?”

“What can I say? You grown on me kiddo”

“Like moss! Or grass on a cold hard sidewalk”

“Heh, you could say so”

And with that, The duo continued to walk into the beckoning horizon, with a whole world of sights to see and foes to beat, who knows where they’d end up next?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[End of Chapter 2]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Epilogue]

At the Mansion of Cards, there was chaos through the halls as a trio of masked bandits were attempting a robbery, they were running as fast as their little legs could carry them, sacks of loot in tow but as they tried to flee, two of them were shot in the legs by the guards while the third could barely take cover from behind a wall were they took a moment to attempt to catch their breath

When all of a sudden, a flaming dagger appeared right in front of his face, stuck on the wall, panicked, he tried to run in the opposite direction, only for another to appear on the other side

And standing in front of the bandit, K.Lown himself, “Oh, I just love when you guys pick flaming knife day to rob the place!” he hysterically cackled as he juggled and tossed the bevvy of knives the bandits way, and yet despite the onslaught he barely managed to get out the door

At which point, the bandit thought he was home free

When all of a sudden, a massive geyser of water shot up behind, launching a shadowy figure into the sky, that landed in front, she raised her head, covered by a spade card-shaped mask, without hesitation, she slammed the ground, causing a large rock be launched, the bandit once more tried to run but that only sealed his fate, as he was crushed by the rock, trapped where he lied,yet somehow still alive

“Not bad, Rookie!” K.Lown congratulated

Soon after, Dice came out, giving a slow, but very sincere round of applause “you’re ready, go” he said, the masked figure gave a simple nod, before she untied the bun on the back of her hair, letting her ginger locks flow as she raised a small river beneath her shoes, allowing her to swiftly slide across the landscape and to her target

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

#thsc fandom #thsc oc #toppat oc #henry stickmin #fanfic

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mousemousemoose · 3 months

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I wanna start writing about the games I play so here's a little review on Clock Tower. "Review" in the sense of looking back on it, not in the sense of like. IGN 8.9/10.

I first played Clock Tower on an SNES emulator in middle school with friends. One of them said it was the scariest game he'd ever seen (watching it on YouTube instead of playing it himself). We'd hunch around a computer and sort of try to figure out how to play it. Now that I've played it myself in twenty twenty four, I can see why it was such an uphill battle.

I played the game (again with friends) at first blind, and after about an hour of trying and failing to grasp it I looked up a guide. Turns out, there are a bunch of intricate (and semi-random) systems in place that more-or-less obscure the path towards completing the game. Rooms that shift locations, items that might not be in the same place between playthroughs -- it's an interesting method to increasing playtime, but not something I think makes the game more engaging. I think the designers wanted the search for the true ending to require trial and error. But (in my mind) trial and error really only work if the results are deterministic, and the fact that they aren't makes playing the game multiple times confusing.

Despite the clunkiness of the gameplay (and not to mention the kind-of-thin story), Clock Tower nails presentation. The house is gorgeous and the sound design is probably my favorite from any game of its generation. The footstep echo and the scissor noises stand out especially. And the music! The music rules! I'm not knowledgeable enough with music stuff to know if it's technically impressive on the hardware, but I haven't played anything from this era that sounds anything like it. The only problem with the music is that it makes it too obvious when you're safe -- it only plays once scissorman isn't pursuing you, and so it's all too clear when you're safe.

Speaking of scissorman: he's the most engaging part of the game by far. His appearances are effectively shocking and his pursuit of Jennifer feels dangerous. At least, it feels dangerous until you realize you just need to mash the "panic" button on him and you can win pretty consistently. But some of his scares are brilliant. When he topples the doll in that weird mannequin room, or when he crashes through the ceiling in the garage -- it was cool and felt true to the horror movies that clearly inspired the game. One friend I was playing with agreed with me that it felt a lot like Suspiria, which is a cool movie and it's cool to play a game in the same vein (lo and behold, the game's director has said that Clock Tower was made in homage to Suspiria's director! Wow! Intertextuality!).

The game has some other 1990s game weirdness going on. Needing to stand still for health regeneration, bizarre actions you need to take to solve puzzles with seemingly obvious answers, but honestly (and I say this as someone who played with a guide) I found a lot of that stuff to be kind of charming in the way that a lot of old games are charming. I especially loved the character portraits and sprite CGs (made by digitizing photos of real people! that's so cool!). There's a sequence where Mrs. Barrows (one of the antagonists) lifts her face up to catch more shadows and look more menacing. It's only a three frame animation but it absolutely rocks. I feel a little bad for having played this game with a guide since, incidentally, playing with one meant I missed some content. However, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have finished it without one thanks to my thin patience for unneeded slowness, something this game has in abundance. It was definitely worth the revisit, and I'll happily espouse the impact this game had on me as a kid. I'm excited to see what the upcoming remake ends up looking like, and if they'll change anything about the original.

If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading! I'll probably do more of these going forward since I had fun with this one and it made me think more seriously about the game and how I felt about it.

edit: typo lol

#clock tower

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snowblossomreads · 7 months

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Exhibit 2: Somebody That I Used To Know

Previous Chapter: Unfinished Business

Pairing: Sinclair Bryant x Amiee Huang (OC)

Summary: In where Sinclair keeps his promise and goes to deliver the good news to Amiee even as he continues to deal with drama from his own ongoing issues.

Tag(s)/Warning(s): None! A bit of a transition chapter.

Word Count: 4.7K

A/N: Already back with a second chapter what can I saw I just want these two to get back together and be happy but alas plot (dont worry I won't drag it out too much...) Anyways onward!

After Amiee had left and he had finished his call with another client, Sinclair did as he said he would do and made his way to the Senior Human Resources Officer who dealt with job requisitions for their department.

He told the man what he discussed with Amiee (with great passion at that) and how sooner would be better for this position as it had been something in the making for a long while.

"And do you have her qualifications on hand?" The man behind the desk asked, his dark eyebrows raising as Sinclair rummaged in the folder he had carried over.

"Yes of course right here though I'm sure I can spout off all the things she's done as I already looked at her file before coming by. She's absolutely brilliant Michael and did I tell you I worked with her before when I was at the Manchester office?" Sinclair prattled on as he handed the sheet of paper off to the man who took it from him and began to scan it. "I can't say enough good things about her work and it's quite a crime that no one has given her a chance other than to be an assistant which I think is absurd."

Nodding at Sinclair's words absentmindedly the other man scanned the front of the page before turning it around and looking at the back of it.

"Hmm impressive, impressive indeed, and you say she was applying to replace Arthur's old assistant huh?" He asked curiously looking up at Sinclair who nodded at his question. "She could probably do Arthur's job and half of the others too with these credentials."

As if Michael had spoken some wise truth that no one else seemed to understand, Sinclair threw his hands up dramatically with a noisy exasperated noise.

"Exactly what I thought I'm glad someone is seeing some sense around here. When she told me what she was here for I thought someone was having a bit of fun at my expense but no she was dead serious and I just couldn't let a good opportunity go to waste to work with her again, especially with how stellar her work always is."

Looking once more at the paper Michael nodded.

"Well from all of this I don't see any issues with hiring this Ms..." His eyes narrowed at the paper lips moving as he tried to sound out Amiee's surname but he was taking too long for Sinclair who happily assisted.

"Huang, Amiee Huang!"

"Ms. Huang right," Michael articulated looking up at Sinclair who was rocking on his heels. "Let me just talk to the director today and if she's okay with it, which I'm sure she will be, then I'll get the requisition out tomorrow and we can handle the rest of it internally."

Sinclair clapped his hand in joy, an enormous grin on his features as he thanked the other man with an enthusiastic, "brilliant I'll leave it with you then!" Before turning around and making his way out of the office ready to go enjoy a nice earned lunch.

There was a new Italian spot having its grand opening today and while he knew that all the carbs would probably make him drowsy for the rest of the day he was too impatient to wait until tomorrow as he was sure their day one food would be the best considering it's always important to impressive the first time.

His grin was ear to ear, and he felt like humming a tune as his spirits were higher than it had been recently considering the personal turmoil he had been going through.

But again it seemed like the turmoil decided to make its presence known once more because as he passed by his office his assistant, Sarah, popped her head out of her cubicle calling to him.

"Mr. Bryant I know you're about to leave but you have a call on line two they said it was important and needed to talk to you."

"Important? What's so important that it can't wait until after lunch? Also, just Sinclair is fine Sarah we've known each other for three months now!"

"Uhm right Sinclair, well..." Walking over to him as he was closing his office door intent on leaving and excited about his meal, she lowered her voice to a whisper before answering him."It's Natalie."

Any enthusiasm that he had from the day immediately drained out of him at the sound of her name and he couldn't help but feel his mood plummet dramatically.

The smile he had wilted and even Sarah thought the surrounding air had suddenly chilled as he turned fully to speak to her.

"If it's important tell her to have her solicitor speak to mine I don't want to hear from her and I've told her to not call. I thought I told you this already," he chided with a harsh tone before immediately feeling a smidgen of guilt when he saw her wince but he was getting impatient with the whole process and becoming equally tired of the out of the blue calls from Natalie who would not sign the divorce papers.

Her solicitor was always coming back with some made up rubbish and it had just caused the whole affair to become more draining and devastating to deal with. It was his fault really had he known this would happen he would have at least insisted on a prenuptial agreement if only to save them all from this back and forth. Though really it would only be saving him as it seemed that someone was getting some sort of entertainment from the entire thing.

"I know it's just that she insisted, and I thought,-"

"No, no, I don't care I don't want to speak with her tell her I'm out of the office or something and that I won't be taking her calls. I'm going to lunch if something actually important needs my attention I'll be at the new restaurant around the corner."

Eyes wide at the heated tone that was unnatural for her usually light-hearted boss, Sarah could only nod and stutter out an "o-oh okay I'll do that have a good lunch sir."

He huffed as he watched her scurry off, immediately upset at himself for snapping at her like that. She had been nothing but helpful since she first started but these past few weeks had just been tumultuous dealing with his hopefully soon to be ex-wife and her solicitor who kept constantly stone walling his own and wasting everyone's time.

Sighing, he told himself to bring her back something from the bakery nearby as an apology... but speaking of food.

"Maybe I'm just hungry, I bet some food would help yes it always does," he muttered to himself as he went on to lunch hoping to clear his thoughts from all the unpleasantness.

A few days had passed since Amiee’s run in with Sinclair and she had not heard from him since. While she assumed he was plenty busy with his job and life in general, it was still hard to brush away the sense of gloom that hung over her due to not hearing back from him.

Whether it be because she just wanted to talk with him more or her wondering if she had actually gotten the job she wasn't sure but either or she still missed him. She had been so shocked at seeing him that in her stupor she didn't ask for his number which was idiotic on her part.

Letting out a weary sigh, Amiee unlocked the door to her flat, jiggling the keys a little because of how finicky the lock could be just like everything in the building. With a ‘click’ it unlocked and she couldn't be more relieved to be home after the grueling day she had. Maybe some wine and dinner would make her feel better about all of this.

Whatever ‘this’ was.

Sure she was only a bank teller but dealing with people every second of the day was the absolute worst for her especially when everyone who came in seemed to forget instantly how to behave decently. Closing the door behind her with a huff, she shrugged off her coat putting it on the coat rack she had dragged back out a week ago.

Next were her shoes which fell to the floor with a clatter as she ambled into the kitchen. She would pick those up later but right now she was gaggin' for a nice glass of Moscato she had gifted herself with a few weeks ago.

Grabbing it from the fridge and getting a glass from her cabinet she was about to pour herself some to relax before the phone rang causing her to stop in mid motion.

An irritated grumble left her lips as she went over to the landline hanging on the wall picking it up and walking back over to the counter hoping the cord would reach far enough. Who was calling her on a Friday night?

"Hello?" She answered pouring the rose-colored liquid into her glass before screwing the top back on.

"Hello Amiee? It's Sinclair!" The bright, energetic tone of his voice coming through from the other end had her frown dissipating instantly at the warmth and happiness he exuded even when he wasn't in person.

"Hiya Sinclair! I was wondering when I was gonna hear from you," she chirped, smiling as she took a sip of her wine and leaned on the counter, fingers twirling the landline's cord as she talked. "How's it been plenty busy, huh?"

"Yes which is always a good thing in our world you know, if you aren't busy it may be a sign that people are about to be made redundant or something like that I know that's what happened last year to some people scary time. Though I wasn't worried not one bit as I'm quite good at my job as you know," he proudly added, causing Amiee to snicker in her drink at his confidence.

She couldn't fault him for it though as it was a well-won confidence with how good at his job he had always been.

"That's not the point! I'm so sorry for not ringing you sooner I've had a whirlwind of things that have come my way since earlier this week but that's a lot of mundane and tedious things that I don't want to bore you with or feel like talking about. Surprising I know! But what matters now is that I have time and wanted to see if you were busy tonight. I have some news to tell you I think would be very well enjoyed over dinner if you're free?"

Her mood was already lifting from hearing his voice but the dinner invite and prospect of good news was the cherry on top that had her buzzing.

"No I don't have owt going on tonight, just got home from work and all but I can wash up a bit and put something on. Where do you want me to meet you? I just need a little time to hop on the Tube."

"No no absolutely not I can come pick you up it be rude of me to ask you to come somewhere and have you figure your own way to the place you know I wouldn't do that to you. Where do you live? I can stop by. I'm still at work at the moment but can leave in a bit if you're far off. Most everyone is gone for the weekend so there's not a chance of someone slipping in and needing something."

She froze mid motion of taking another sip of her drink when he said that.

"Err em, I don't think that be such a good idea, I live a bit out of the way from the office and I don't want you getting into rush hour traffic either with the maniacs out there."

It wasn't a total lie, it took her about forty-five minutes to make it to the area on a good day taking public transportation. And even if he was taking his car, add rush hour traffic time and it would be about the same plus the annoyance of people all around which was worse to her.

"Nonsense I'm usually one of the madmen out there in traffic actually," Sinclair chuckled, "it takes me about an hour or so for me to commute to work so wherever you live I'm sure it's no worse, now come on where should I pick you up from I know this place that just opened up around Leicester Square that I think you would like!"

She paused, Leicester Square?

"Around Chinatown?" She asked equally surprised and equally amused.

"Eheh yes I know cliche," his laughter was low and nervous sounding as if Amiee had caught him red-handed doing something he shouldn't be.

But it was endearing to Amiee and honestly, she wasn't going to say no to good Chinese food, her ancestors would rain their wrath upon her if she did. And with Sinclair going she was sure it would be fun just like the old days.

"They have great food over there and I sometimes drag some of the others at work there for lunch and dinner," he rambled on, "it's great because you know they have a variety of stuff on the menu so it keeps the fussing to a minimum. Oh, I don't know why I'm telling you this I know you know so now where do you live so I can pick you up?"

She knew he wasn't going to let up until she told him; he was a persistent man, and if he insisted it was almost like him telling you he was going to do it. So letting out a hum she decided to just get it over with knowing she was about to give him a stroke when he found out where she lived.

"Well okay if you insist, and I know you do," she answered, hearing a faint 'good!' on the line. "I live in the brick flats on Brantwood off High road in Tottenham you can take the A10 up and it'll get you here. The flats you can't miss them, the only ones on the block I think."

"Amiee!"

His voice seemed to jump a pitch as he shouted her name, the tone of his voice making her want to laugh but also had her wincing ready for him to list off crime statistics of the place. Which he did. How did he even know all of this?

"That area has one of the highest crime rates out of all the boroughs! For every thousand persons there is a total of 105 crimes that takes place what in the world are you doing living out there? I know it's more expensive in a safer area but that place it's the worst of the worst. Goodness I know bank tellers don't make as much as they should working with the public and all but do they not pay enough so that you can at least make it to work the next morning?"

"Sinclair-Sinclair it's fine," she tried to calm him but to no avail as he continued going on about how unsafe the area was for her to be in.

It truly wasn't that bad. As long as she kept her door locked and wasn't meandering certain corners late at night she hadn't really felt unsafe. Sans the almost being waterboarded to death, but that was not the neighborhood's fault. But Sinclair was not having it as he went on about how unsafe the area was, his voice going higher with distress on her behalf.

"I still don't like it," she could hear the frown in his voice along with the rustling of paper in the background as he rambled on. "No I don't like this at all as a matter of fact I'll be picking you up and bringing you home from now on until you can get somewhere nicer you know knife cases have been up 20 percent right? I know it's the recession's fault people being desperate and all but I don't want to think about something terrible like that happening to you! I can help you find a place if you want I know a few places nearby that would be good for you and oh and if country life is better we can do that too. That's where I live it's beautiful out there you should visit I think you would love it. We could be neighbours that would be fun I'd love seeing you on the weekends and we could nose about with each other! But no, I don't like the idea of you walking from the station by yourself especially when it gets dark early in the autumn."

"Alright alright!" Amiee interrupted trying to keep herself from laughing while stopping Sinclair's tirade that she knew would not end if she didn't interrupt him. "I give! If I let you pick me up and drop me off do you promise not to go on a tangent about me living here?"

"I can't promise you that but I will do my very best not to if you let me pick you up and drop you off yes. Andmaybehelpyoufindanewplace."

He tacked on the last sentence rather quickly causing her to let out a guffaw at the sense of urgency in which he said it.

"Okay we can talk about that too but now that we have that sorted are you coming to pick me up soon? If you leave now you'll get out before traffic picks you and maybe," her tone becoming a bit cheeky wanting to tease him a bit, "I can show you around the neighbourhood."

"I'll have to politely decline the nose around your neighbourhood but yes I’ll be on my way in a moment! I just need to pack up and leave something with my assistant and I'll be on the way. Which flat number do you live in?"

"Ground floor number 2."

"Perfect see you in a bit buh-bye!"

"Bye!"

The phone clicked signaling he had hung up and Amiee shuffled over to the phone's base on the wall to do the same. It made a ‘click’ as the receiver popped back in and instead of going back to the counter she stood there with her hand on the phone as a smile grew on her face.

A warm feeling was bubbling in her stomach, and it made its way up her chest tickling it before it reached her throat where it stayed for a moment before she was grinning like a madwoman.

"Ahahahaah!"

A bright laugh burst from her lips as she leaned over, outstretching her hand for support on the wall as her shoulders shook with the force of her laughter. Sinclair was such a silly man. Silly but absolutely lovely and the way he easily brought a smile to her face seemed to not have changed.

It was nice. Knowing that some things would never change when it came to some people. And it seemed like things hadn't at all changed between them which had her thinking that maybe, just maybe they could continue where they had ended? It would be nice. They were already going out to dinner, and when he had hugged her earlier on it was so comforting and warm.

"No no no stop it Amiee he's probably married to a pretty woman who actually comes from somewhere who also didn't run off to another country because she couldn't cope," she scoffed to herself wiping the tears from her laughing fit away from her eyes.

Granted she didn't notice a wedding band earlier so?

Rolling her eyes at herself and standing straight she walked back to the counter and knocked back the rest of the wine before setting the glass in the sink.

"Alright you," she muttered to herself, attempting not to cause herself to spiral into self pity and instead thinking about what to wear. "Let's go get ready don't go and rile yourself up for no reason."

Almost an hour went by after they hung up did a knock at Amiee's door draw her attention away from the telly that had a game show, the Crystal Maze if she remembered correctly, playing. She wasn't one for them but she had gotten dressed pretty quickly with a long sleeve burgundy velvet blouse and some denim shorts and with time to spare she sat around for a bit and watched some mindless programs.

It was really fun actually, and she had gotten so engrossed in it that she had yelled answers out at her screen while also challenging herself to solve the puzzles before the real contestants. She had proudly gotten all of them correct and given herself a mental pat on the shoulder.

'Sinclair would probably like this I wonder if he's watched any of it.'

She thought offhandedly as she shut the program off, making her way to the door and looking through the peephole to find the person who she knew was there.

Still dressed in his office attire, minus suit jacket, Sinclair stood there rocking on his heels, hands in his pocket as he looked to his left and right no doubt wary of his surroundings.

She really was going to have to tell him that the place was not that bad. But she was sure it would fall on deaf ears considering his upper class upbringing and of course all the facts he knew. Those two things a lethal combination.

A clipped laugh left her throat as she unlocked the door opening it to a very enthused looking Sinclair.

"There you are! I was afraid I gotten the wrong place because I didn't see the flats then it turns out I gotten turned around and come up from the opposite end, traffic was indeed dreadful as you mentioned but someone down the street pointed me the right way," he exclaimed as he took a glimpse at her outfit before adding on enthusiastically, "but you look very pretty and that colour looks great on you, not that you aren't always pretty and that there are any colours that I think look bad on you but this one suits you well!"

His compliment was so honest and given so freely she couldn't help the blush that crept its way across her cheeks as she beamed at him. Any time when she went on a date in the States, which this wasn't a date she tried to remind herself, and the guy gave her a compliment it always felt off. Like it was something they had to say and not truly genuine which to no one’s surprise caused the relationship to fizzle quickly.

But with the way Sinclair's eyes glimmered as he gave her the compliment paired with a grin that was really the only bright thing in the building's hallway she couldn't help feel a pang of sadness. Which was not what she thought she would feel, but it made sense considering they could have been going on an actual date had she not run away years ago...

Ugh.

Physically shaking the negative thoughts out by shaking her head 'no' and hiding it as if she was just being bashful about his compliment, which she did sort of feel, she narrowed her eyes in his direction.

"You look quite fit yourself this evening. Are you sure dinner was the only thing on the agenda or do you have something else up your sleeves?"

Not catching the teasing tone in her voice at first, Sinclair's face warmed and she could see the startled look cross his features as he rambled about how it was only dinner and if she wanted to walk around a bit in the square after it would be good since the weather was nice and they could chat more. He would bring her home afterwards of course but that was it, nothing nefarious just two old friends catching up.

Sinclair frowned as the words left him. They were just friends now and just like at the office he hated that. But his life was messy right now and he couldn't drag her into it even though unbeknownst to him her own life was still as complicated as it was in the past.

The thoughts subsided though once he saw the grin that Amiee could no longer hold back slowly appearing on her features. Her eyes glinted with playfulness causing him to realize that he had been had, and that she was only joking causing him to let out a little huff and pout.

“Don't joke like that you almost gave me a heart attack! For that you're going to have to let me snoop around when we come back I expect a full tour of your flat. I want to see what you’ve done with the place.“

Amiee cackled because of course that would be the payment Sinclair wanted for startling him. A tour around her flat so he could poke and prod at things. He had always been inquisitive, read: nosy, about new spaces and he found it a treat to be somewhere different so it was no surprise he would find a way to get a tour.

"Really a tour of my flat Sinclair? I say you were up to something scandalous," Amiee snickered as she shuffled to the side to put her shoes on, allowing Sinclair to peek his head in, his curiosity piqued. "Plus, it's just a regular flat you know nothing fancy like I know you're used to, just somewhere I can put my stuff that's it."

"That's not true my wi-," Sinclair's words died at his lips and Amiee seemed to freeze at the syllables, her heart going to her throat.

All the words starting with that sound ran through her mind in that moment of silence.

'His what? His wick? That doesn’t make any sense Amiee. Witch? Rude. His widow? He's not dead what are you talking about don't be so daft!'

Her word game was interrupted by him continuing his thoughts albeit more slowly than usual as she put her shoes on trying to ignore the word he obviously meant.

"Somebody that I used to know, well I still know them but I guess not as well as I thought I did used to live in one of these flats not one of these flats specifically but similar to yours a little bigger maybe I don't remember it's been ages since I was in there so my memory about it isn't to clear. But either way it is interesting because you live in it and I know you have something interesting lying around in here. You always had interesting stuff in Manchester hanging in your cubicle like you're tiny paintings those were quite nice I hope you still have them."

Coming back in front of him, shoes on and ready to go, she could only agree to his demands knowing he wouldn't stop and still a little stuck on the earlier part of the conversation.

"Alright it would be rude of me to not let you have a look around because I know it's such torture for you if you don't get to nose around," she joked stepping out into the hallway and making him back up a little so she could close the door and lock it.

When she turned Sinclair was beaming at her like she had just told him some especially good news which to him this probably was.

"Perfect! Now let's go then traffic should be cleared up by now and we should make it in time before the dinner rush you'll love this place I know you will," he bubbled offering his left elbow for her to take.

Ever the gentleman still.

Nodding at him, she wrapped her arms around his elbow and only then did she see the golden gleam of the object that felt blinding as she glimpsed it. Its color and placement causing her let out an inaudible dejected sigh that made the night suddenly feel dull.

'His wife.'

A/N: 🙃Hopefully this get cleared up quickly no? Being in love with a married man who you don't know is trying to divorce is complicated no? Anyways let me know you're thoughts! (Scurries to write the next chapter)

#alan rickman character #sinclair bryant x oc #sinclair bryant #blossom writes #the art of entangled hearts

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guardianreadersofthegalaxy · 1 year

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My 2022 film ranking:

1. Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ – The Musical (AKA ‘Booksmart’) – [Musical] A highly intelligent child starts primary school and confronts the evil headmistress. I’ll get this out of the way, the sight of precocious children jigging about like they’re in a TikTok makes me nauseous. Otherwise, M:TM is perfect, thanks mostly to Dahl’s charming story and Tim Minchin’s wonderful songs. Director Matthew Warchus leans into stylisation, bringing colour and magic that puts more ‘grounded’ musical directors like Tom Hooper to shame. Emma Thompson chews the scenery as the child-phobic Trunchbull, and Alisha Weir holds it all together as the cute and capable heroine. For fans of Paddington.

2. The Lost Daughter (AKA ‘Mamma Mia! But Sad’) – [Drama] While on a solo holiday to Greece, Leda meets a young mother who reminds her of her own struggles as a parent. This could have been a slow burn, but an early reckless choice by the protagonist infuses the film with simmering tension. It’s a great character study, and director Maggie Gyllenhaal gets brilliant performances from Buckley and Colman as the quietly abrasive Leda, who’s unpredictable without seeming inconsistent. I like Gyllenhaal’s use of quick edits and closeups to deliberately disorient the viewer, as well as Dickon Hinchliffe’s score which swings from melancholy to upbeat, ensuring things never get dull. For fans of Fleabag.

3. The Quiet Girl (AKA ‘All Quiet On The Girl Front’) – [Drama] A young girl is sent away from her neglectful family to stay with kindly relatives for the summer. I wasn’t initially sure where the story was going to go, given this starts where most adoption stories end. But I realised very soon that it was about the journey, not the destination. The direction’s subjective, showing you the world from a child’s perspective while still providing insight to the adult characters. The ending’s wonderfully bittersweet and, most impressively, it’s a tight 90 minutes. For fans of Goodnight Mr. Tom.

4. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (AKA ‘Janelle Monáe, Janelle Problems’) – [Murder mystery] Eccentric detective Benoit Blanc is summoned to a Greek island to solve the ‘murder’ of a tech billionaire. It’s only a prolonged an uneventful first act that keeps this from reaching the perfection of ‘Knives Out’. After the mid-point gamechanger, Rian Johnson provides wall-to-wall payoffs that satisfyingly recontextualise previous clues and red herrings. As for Benoit Blanc, I thought he worked better as a co-lead with Ana De Armas than in his more central role here, but he’s still extremely charming. For fans of the end of Prisoner Of Azkaban.

5. All Quiet On The Western Front (AKA ‘Insert Hilarious WW1 Gag’) – [War] In the final months of World War I, a naïve German recruit enters the meat-grinder of the Western front. It's the sort of thing you only want to watch once, like '12 Years A Slave'. With hand-held direction that puts you at the heart of the action and nightmarish gore worthy of a horror film, AQOTWF is experiential filmmaking at its best. You could have lost the Armistice subplot and cut things down to a lean 100 minutes, but the prospect of a ceasefire lends extra pathos to the lives taken in the final hours of the war. For fans of 1917.

6. Ali & Ava (AKA ‘Disc-eo & Folk-iet) – [Drama] An EDM-loving landlord and a folk-loving teaching assistant find common ground. Director Clio Barnard finds magic in the drizzle and concrete of Bradford. There’s some great use of symbolism: a glance at a rocking chair or a pair of boots can tell you everything you need to know about a character. Her script deals with a lot of different issues (a few too many), and maybe should have zeroed in on the themes of mental health and the power of music. For fans of Ken Loach

7. Nope (AKA ‘Cowboys Vs Aliens’) – [Sci-fi/horror] Two siblings attempt to save their family business by capturing footage of the UFO terrorising their farm. It’s been a long time since I last said “Oh my god” out loud in a cinema (I’m British). ‘Nope’ takes a bit of time to get started, but once things kick off in earnest it’s a real thrill. The second act in particular is terrifying, thanks to a genuinely hard to watch scene of Lovecraftian horror. There are a few odd choices, like the distractingly gravelly director character who’s introduced too late to be properly characterised, but otherwise I’d say that Jordan Peele’s done it again. EDIT: Oh yeah, what was the deal with the floating shoe? For fans of Steven Spielberg.

8. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (AKA ‘The Power Of The Doc’) – [Superhero] A sorcerer has his ex-girlfriend’s wedding interrupted by a multiversal war. This was really entertaining! The action was occasionally hard to follow and the plot, while coherent, was little more than a vehicle for increasingly bizarre set pieces. But what set pieces! I know MCU directors often feel handicapped by studio interfering but, in this case, it seemed like Sam Raimi was able to make the film his own by leaning into the goofy soft-horror he’s best known for. And the, now obligatory, fan-service cameos were wisely confined to one scene. For fans of Sam Raimi.

9. Everything Everywhere All At Once (AKA ‘Racocoonie’) – [Sci-fi/action] A laundry owner has her tax audit appointment interrupted by a multiversal war. Co-directors ‘Daniels’ should be applauded for their boundless creativity, though I do have notes. There’s an incredible 100 minute film in there somewhere, but many moments dragged out for way too long. EEAAO rises above other Matrix knockoffs by remembering to have fun, with plenty of ‘Rick & Morty’-style comedy to complement the competently handled emotional story. By turns surreal, hilarious, tedious, and genuinely moving. And too long. For fans of Rick & Morty.

10. The House (AKA ‘There’s A Moose Loose Aboot The Hoose!’) – [Adult animation] Three generations of cats, mice, and humans try their best to settle into ‘the house’. I mean, I just love stop motion so maybe this had an unfair advantage. Design and direction are both on point to make ‘The House’ as beautiful as it is unsettling. Thematically though, it suffers from ‘French Dispatch syndrome’: with neither the variety of an anthology miniseries like ‘Inside Number Nine’, or the coherence of a standard 90-minute film. The first and last parts had decent messages, but I never felt like Jarvis Cocker’s mouse estate agent was getting his just deserts. For fans of Henry Selick.

11. The Power Of The Dog (AKA ‘Doctor ‘Straight’ In The Closet Of Sadness’) – [Drama] A macho cattle-rancher takes against his brother’s new wife and her aloof teenage son. I thought Jessie Plemons’ understated performance was the highlight. His tearful relief at finding an alternative to his bullying brother really struck a chord, and it’s a shame that he faded into the background later on. The actors convey a lot through physicality, like Dunst’s shaking hands as she sits at the piano, or Cumberbatch and Smit-McPhee’s gait as they respectively strut and mince around the farm. Dialogue schmialogue. For fans of There Will Be Blood.

12. RRR (AKA ‘Rajamouli’s Ridiculous Romp’) – [Action] Sparks fly in 1920s India when officer A. Rama Raju meets the revolutionary Komaram Bheem. They don’t make films like this in the West any more, and I think that’s a shame. RRR is camp and earnest, always somewhere between ‘so bad it’s good’ and just genuinely good. While there were literally hundreds of moments of unintentional comedy, I couldn’t help but get swept up in the epic drama and spectacle. For fans of Stephen Chow.

13. See How They Run (AKA ‘Who Has Done This?’) – [Comedy] In the 1950s, a murder is committed on the West End stage of Agatha Christie’s ‘The Mousetrap’. This was more enjoyable on the rewatch, with lowered expectations. Sam Rockwell's still wasted and the premise still isn't as original as it thinks it is. But the jokes (both verbal and physical) all land, the payoffs and reveals are satisfying, and the cast mostly live up to their potential. And Saoirse Ronan carries the whole thing, doing double duty as moral centre and comic relief. For fans of Inside No. 9.

14. Don’t Look Up (AKA ‘Leostorm’) – [Drama/comedy] Two astronomers desperately attempt to warn the world’s governments about an approaching comet. This was a really tense watch. It felt like a modern update of ‘Dr Strangelove’, where the people with the power to avert Armageddon are too inept to do so. There’s a hefty dose of Black Mirror in there too, with humanity’s stupidity on full display. That said, I didn’t leave feeling like we deserve annihilation, which might have been some consolation. Instead I was angry that we put our lives in the hands of the Musks and de Pfeffel Johnsons of the world, and that’s not as cathartic. For fans of Charlie Brooker.

15. The Banshees Of Inishirin (AKA ‘The Irishmen’) – [Drama] During the civil war, an Irish farmer is baffled to learn that his friend doesn’t like him any more. You can tell Martin McDonagh’s a playwright – the slow pace, the few locations, the focus on dialogue. And like most plays it gave me a lot to think about, whilst also being a bit boring. The jokes all landed but they were few and far between. It was like feature-length ‘This Country’ episode, but with more fiddles and misery. And Barry Keoghan was fantastic as ever, if typecast, as Dominic the village eejit. For fans of Samuel Beckett.

16. Turning Red (AKA ‘Meilin, Wailin’ & Big Fluffy Tailin’) – [Family animation] A thirteen-year-old girl turns into a giant red panda. I feel like, as with the MCU, Pixar films have somewhat reached a point of competent homogeneity. I could copy and paste most of this from my last two Pixar reviews: the animation’s beautiful; good insights are made about the human condition; the message is hindered by over-specific lore. And that’s fine, I guess. For fans of Luca.

17. Pig (AKA ‘Baken’) – [Drama] A former expert chef turned lonely truffle hunter searches for his stolen truffle pig. I felt like there could have been something profound going on in 'Pig'. The juxtaposition of a dirty, bleeding man sat in a fancy restaurant probably signifies… something. But there were just too many off-putting elements, like the random fight club scene, for me to grasp what it was all about. Cage does your standard 'Sadman McDeadwife' performance, but I much preferred Alex Wolff's nervous yuppie. For fans of John Wick… or Ratatouille

18. Prey (AKA ‘Nevertheless, Coman-she Persisted’) – [Sci fi/ action] A precocious young Comanche woman confronts an extra-terrestrial ‘Predator’. It’s such a shame this never got a theatrical release. The ‘Revenant’-style nature shots were amazing but would have been so much better on the big screen. It’s a lean 100 minutes and a little light on substance, meaning everything hinges on the action, which is… decent. The Predator’s kills are gleefully bloody, but the final fight is hard to follow in the dark, making it a bit of a limp climax. For fans of The Revenant.

19. The Batman (AKA ‘Twi-knight’) – [Superhero] Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler. Director Matt Reeves draws on the serial killer films of David Fincher, emulating their tone but unfortunately also their three-hour runtimes. I’m afraid I found The Batman to be heavy on plot and light on theme, leaving me with little idea of what it was ‘all about’. Paul Dano’s a brilliant actor but he’s only really given one scene and, sadly, I think he botched it. Still, I enjoyed the action, the cinematography and Michael Giacchino’s already iconic score. For fans of Seven.

20. Smile (AKA ‘Upside Down Frown Town) – [Horror] A psychiatrist is fatally cursed when she witnesses one of her patients committing suicide. This script really could have used another pass. The scares are effective but the premise is generic and the dialogue laughably bad, particularly the overuse of the f-word worthy of an A Level drama class. Worst of all, thematically it seems to come out against seeking help for mental health problems, an idea I thought it would subvert but then it just… didn’t. That said, there are a few brilliantly nightmarish images and an incredible score from Cristobal Tapia De Veer. For fans of It Follows.

21. Thor: Love & Thunder (AKA ‘Why, Waititi? Why?!’) – [Superhero] Thor teams up with ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher. I think Marvel Studios might be drunk on their own power. Indeed ‘Love & Thunder’ feels like it was written and directed while drunk. It brings back a lot of the elements that made ‘Ragnarok’ work, but underdelivers on both humour and pathos. Thor’s new multi-coloured costume is a huge downgrade from the streamlined look in his previous solo film, and Guns ‘N’ Roses can’t hold a candle to Led Zeppelin. For fans of Ghostbusters (2016).

22. Ennio (AKA ‘The Good, The Bad & The Long) – [Documentary] A documentary celebrating the life and work of Italian film composer Ennio Morricone. Honestly, I love Morricone but after two and a half hours I was sick of the old codger. Insights are made into the great man’s process but they’re drops in an ocean of runtime. I wish, instead of trying to cover every film Morricone ever composed, director Giuseppe Tornatore had just picked a few ‘greatest hits’. Or at least devoted more than 60 seconds to the scoring his own ‘Cinema Paradiso’. For fans of BBC 4 music documentaries.

23. The Worst Person In The World (AKA ‘Nor-way Home’) – [Drama] I’m sorry, so little happens in this film that I’m not sure that I can summarise it. My favourite part was finding out, to my relief, that my wife didn’t like it either. Perhaps I shouldn’t have had a couple of drinks before watching something where I’d have to read both subtitles and actors’ facial expressions. Either way, I mentally checked out after the first hour. TWPITW uses a prologue to establish Julie’s personality before instantly contradicting it, introduces numerous disparate plot elements that didn’t go anywhere (drugs, families, offensive cartoons) and has basically nothing happen for two hours. For fans of things that are shit.

And a dishonourable mention to The Lost King (AKA ‘Knowing M.E., Knowing You’), which Cate said it wouldn’t be fair for me to review because I walked out after 30 minutes. Also No Time To Die, which I couldn’t finish because my plane landed but was also pretty bad.

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xxruinaxxmcu · 2 years

Text

Jack Thompson x Reader

What Lies Before Us

Masterlist (previous chapters, book 1)

Chapter 15

Upon their return in New York, company awaited them in the SSR – more specifically, in the bullpen. Peggy and Daniel were waiting for them.

“They look livid”, Y/N commented, seeing the obvious anger on Daniel’s face, and the absolute frustration on Peggy’s.

“Philips, I’d guess”, Thompson said quietly, as the two of them joined them in the bullpen, closing the door to make sure no one else could be listening.

“You could’ve warned us before calling the director!”, Daniel hissed, trying his best to keep his voice down.

“You know how our chain of command works, Sousa, and this needed to be done urgently.”

“You’re unbelievable!”

“Hey, give us a break, Daniel”, Y/N interjected, “I know this is a shit situation for all of us, especially for you, but we literally flew halfway across the globe to take out whatever base HYDRA had in Japan, and destroyed their ability to reopen a rift in space with Stark’s gamma cannon.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Y/N”, Sousa said, now much more quietly. She simply raised an eyebrow.

“Philips contacted Howard. He wants that he and I rebuild an organisation in which the SSR is only a part of”, Peggy began, looking intently at the two New York SSR members, “He intends for it to have a broader range of duties than the SSR ever had. It’s supposed to be called S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Shield?”, Jack snorted, “Yeah, why not just call it Captain America’s fan-gang.”

Y/N chuckled, and even Daniel cracked a smile – Peggy only shot him an annoyed glance.

“I didn’t come up with it, Jack”, she replied, “It’s apparently a shorthand for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division.”

“Sure”, Jack nodded amusedly, “There’s a way to make any shorthand work.”

Peggy rolled her eyes. “It will take time to build up this new organisation. In the meantime, we will have to continue within the frameworks of the SSR, try to hunt down the rest of the Arena Club members, and especially Mr. Keller, who’s now probably somewhere hidden in the middle of nowhere together with Agent Eden. There aren’t many people within the SSR I trust not to be working with HYDRA… but I trust you. So if you want to remain within the organisation, and transition to working for S.H.I.E.L.D., I will keep your names on the books.”

There was a moment of silence, where no one truly knew what to say. Such a decision, you don’t make within the blink of an eye.

“And that after you threatened to shoot me”, Jack joked instead.

Y/N mustered a smile: “Thank you, Peggy, for your trust. On my part, if that is possible, I will consider it for a few days.”

“Ditto.”

Peggy nodded – after all, this didn’t need to be confirmed right away.

“I thought about how to get to Keller”, Y/N then announced, seeing three rather surprised faces when she did so, “The only way for us to find him is to tempt him with a bait, a bait suitable for a HYDRA member interested in scientific revelations. I thought long and hard about who could fill this role, and no one came to mind. Most of Stark’s employees are Americans, Doctor Vanko is Soviet, and I don’t know if HYDRA’s already desperate enough to work with what they consider ‘Untermenschen’. But we have one ace up our sleeves. A young man who offers to serve HYDRA, sell out Stark intel to get back at the people that had wronged him, that had taken his brother away from him. In an act of revenge, he volunteers to join HYDRA. And best of all, he fits all their recruitment targets. Right ethnic background, can show incredible loyalty within his family during the war, himself a member of the HJ. It’s the ideal match.”

“We’re gonna use Schmitt as bait??”, Jack asked her – just to confirm.

“He has potential motive”, Peggy agreed, “Y/N, you’re brilliant!”

“We can’t just use a civilian, he’s untrained!”, Sousa interjected. Y/N raised her eyebrows.

“I doubt this man is completely untrained. He will have had boxing lessons as a kid, that was part of the curriculum of the Hitler Youth. And most likely, he was also made familiar with guns. Regardless, we will obviously make sure he’s not killed, he just has to lure him out in the open. Then we take him out.”

“We’ll kill Keller?”, Sousa asked, frowning.

“Buddy, he already shot you once, and we don’t have to collect a billion HYDRA agents in our prisons”, Thompson deadpanned, “So even if we go in with the objective to capture, I wouldn’t be too hesitant to put a bullet in the guy’s brain.”

“I’ll contact him”, Peggy said, “and will report back once we’re ready to make our move.”

…….

Only when they were at Y/N’s place did Jack and her get the chance to talk about Peggy’s offer.

“What do you think?”, Y/N asked, “You’re planning on staying?”

He sighed. The comfortable route would’ve been to say ‘yes’. After all, he had a great position within the SSR, and with Daniel, Peggy and Y/N, he knew a handful of people he could rely on. But he also began to question if the SSR’s business of hunting HYDRA and Leviathan was what he wanted to do for the rest of his career. He didn’t have the same passion for hunting HYDRA that Peggy had. If anything, he wanted to make sure the Reds were being kept out – all of them, not just the ones that were after Stark tech.

“What about you?”, he asked back, not knowing what to answer.

Y/N tilted her head. She had earned her life’s purpose spying. She never had to deal with HYDRA before, there were enough “normal” Nazis to be hunted down. HYDRA was, after all, just a miniscule part within the Third Reich’s warped notion of Germanic influence in the world. “I can’t… I can’t understand why we are obligated to keep men like Zola or Fenhoff alive within our prisons when all they are is a liability. I can’t hunt the same agency we cooperate with. Especially if we have to assume they’re our co-workers. I will finish this job, and we will hunt down every last one of those bastards within the Arena Club. But then? My skills are for hunting other targets. Dooley had me investigate the mafia, but nowadays, that’s not under our jurisdiction anymore. That’s the FBI now. But God, call me biased, but I don’t fancy working for Vernon’s boys.”

Jack lifted a corner of his mouth, finding it amusing how they had reached such similar conclusions without even talking to each other about it beforehand.

“What?”

“You know, I thought the same thing”, he had grabbed two glasses, now reached for the whiskey, “the CIA it is, then.”

He handed her a glass to toast, knowing that she’d probably not actually touch the drink after the ceremonial clinking of the glasses.

“I’ll give Senator Cooper a ring. Though our resumé should be sufficient”, he grinned.

“Yeah, I’m quite certain he’ll list me as your secretary, though”, she retorted, raising her glass to meet his. “To one last job.”

“In the SSR”, he corrected before almost downing the entire glass like a shot, causing Y/N to roll her eyes with a chuckle.

“What?”

“You in a hurry or why do you drink this petrol like the devil’s behind you?”, she asked amused, switching his almost empty glass with hers.

“If you hate it, why’d you keep it in your house?”, he asked back, accepting her glass.

She simply laughed: “By this point, I’m conditioned to keep at least one bottle in reserve given you practically live here. We all have our vices, and this is yours.”

“Geez, thanks.”

“I told you, it has gotten better compared to 46”, she said with a grin, “though I can’t really comprehend why you drink this stuff pure. You always have, even at university.”

“You want the truth?”, he said with a lopsided smile, “Much cheaper.”

She shook her head – typical Jack-reasoning.

“And it’s an acquired taste.”

“Why would you want to acquire the taste of certain death?”, she joked, and he raised his eyebrows.

“What?”

“It’s funny”, he said, taking a sip, “Sousa’s said the exact same thing.”

Y/N snorted: “Good to know the SSR will at least maintain one man with the ability to see the big picture.”

“They’ll have Peggy.”

Y/N winked: “I said one man. I’m sure they can rely on Peggy until the day she dies.”

…….

Meanwhile, L.A. Stark Laboratories.

“W- Why am I being interrogated again? Have I done something wrong?”, Elias asked, looking anxiously at the brunette who had led him into a small room.

“You have done absolutely nothing wrong, Mr. Schmitt”, Peggy said, pointing to a chair for him to sit down, “As a matter of fact, Mr. Stark is very impressed by your work on the rocket engines.”

“Then why? Is it because of your colleague? The y/h/c one?”, he asked, voice still thin.

“Not in the way you mean”, Peggy said, sitting down herself, “Tell me, Mr. Schmitt, have you ever heard of HYDRA?”

“Hydra?”, he repeated confused, “The Greek monster?”

“No, the Nazi organisation”, Peggy replied, but she thought his confusion to be genuine. He didn’t know about HYDRA – most Germans didn’t.

“Never heard of it. Did my brother work for them?”

“No, at least, nothing would indicate that he did. We hunted them during the war, thought that they were eradicated. It would seem that we were mistaken.”

He looked at her, obviously wondering what this all had to do with him.

“I’m sorry, Miss, but I have no knowledge of this organisation. I can’t even tell you much about the SS, and my brother worked there.”

“It’s quite alright, we know all we need about HYDRA. See, Mr. Schmitt, some days ago, a HYDRA member disappeared. We need to lure him out of hiding”, she began, “and we can’t trust our SSR agents to do that job. Unfortunately, many of this man’s close contacts have met several of our agents, so chances are, he’d be able to uncover them.”

He looked at her, still confused.

“HYDRA predominantly recruits men with a… certain profile. Men, only men. Preferably German. With a background in science. In other words, men like you, Mr. Schmitt. Which is why, after some deliberation, Agent L/N recommended you for this job.”

His mouth fell open: “What??”

“I believe”, Peggy paused, “I believe she trusts you to be on our side. Which, I must say, surprised me, given her background with your family. But in any case. Your job would be to contact our man, to convince him that you have something of value. Stark technology. Something that you can offer them for them to meet with you in a secure location. When said meeting is scheduled, you will be accompanied by our best to assure your safety.”

“If those men – HYDRA – if they’re Nazis”, he said shocked, “they’re dangerous! They’re mad! It was one thing to work for the Nazis when they were the ultimate source of power, but to do so now? They must be insane!”

“Perhaps, but insanity can be incredibly dangerous”, Peggy replied, “And Mr. Schmitt, it would not go unrewarded. We will put in a good word at the Office of Immigration. We would be able to get you your citizenship.”

Elias remained silent for a good 30 seconds. This was a huge commitment.

“What do you say, Mr. Schmitt?”

He exhaled, collecting himself. He looked up, now determined. “Yes. I say yes.”

It would be a long shot – establishing communication, establishing trust – it would take a while. By an ironic twist of fate, the boy who had wanted nothing but to uncover the identity of the spy that had gotten his brother had become the spy himself.

………..

The next weeks were rough, and most days, the only time Y/N and Jack saw each other was within the walls of the SSR during working hours. Though Jack didn’t have nightshift every day, he hardly left the agency before two in the morning, and was there by 7:00 latest. Hunting down the remaining members of the Arena Club, Keller aside, was now top priority, and all possible resources were mobilised to get a handle on the problem as soon as possible. He made sure every police force in the country knew the faces of the men they were after, as well as the Office of Immigration, boarder patrol, hell, he even informed the FBI. By the end, he wanted that there was no law enforcement officer on US soil who didn’t know who they wanted to be arrested.

But Sousa had been right when he had moaned about how difficult it was to take Hugh Jones into custody – turns out, going after some of the richest, most influential men in the country ruffled some feathers.

“I think you didn’t get what I was saying”, Jack seethed into the telephone, inches away from screaming into it, “I gave you the paper trail connecting them to various cases of espionage and treason.”

“Sir, by all due respect-“

“Stuff it!”, Thompson interjected, “And so help me God, if you don’t do your goddamn duty right now, sir, I swear I will leak this story personally to the Washington Post!”

Silence.

“You understand now?”

“Yes, sir.”

After ending the call, Jack stared at the telephone. Sometimes, he really wondered if they were actually achieving anything, when they were working with people who obviously didn’t share their interest in actually bringing people to justice who didn’t fit the bill of being communist spies. What purpose was there of having power if you didn’t use it to get results? Why enter law enforcement, when you don’t enforce the law? This had nothing to do with political views, this had to do with integrity. For what did they offer up their lives in the thousands if not to upkeep the safety at home?

The door to the bullpen was pushed open and Y/N came in with coffee, interrupting his philosophical crisis.

“Weren’t you here like forty minutes ago?”, he questioned.

“Yes, probably”, she shrugged, filling up his cup, “but something has to keep you up and running, and it isn’t sleep, these days.”

“I want to have the case closed by Christmas”, Jack replied, rubbing the bridge of his nose, “The sooner, the better.”

Y/N laughed, causing him to raise an eyebrow. “What?”

“Never say ‘it’ll be over by Christmas’”, she said, shaking her head, “That’s what the Europeans thought in summer of 1914.”

He rolled his eyes: “I swear, if we’re still here in a year, I’ll ask you to shoot me.”

“Yeah, sorry, you’ll have to ask Peggy to help you with that”, Y/N replied with a grin, turning around, “But we’ll get it done. Just… maybe just before New Year’s Eve.”

……….

Regularly, Y/N would get a report from Peggy on the progress regarding Elias Schmitt. She had to admit, she was surprised he agreed without more fuss. But Peggy had spent months on him, wiretapping conversations, eavesdropping and following him, and he came out clean. He was their best shot at luring out Keller – after all, the motive he had was better than anyone could have come up with as a cover story, and it wasn’t even a lie. They had used the rogue agent to initiate a line of communication between Keller’s men and Schmitt, with the explanation that he had gotten his name when the SSR had asked him to assist their lab rats on hunting him down.

Meanwhile, Thompson finally made some progress getting the rest of the law enforcement in line to make arrests of those members that were not in hiding – which meant a media frenzy, given that some of the names, such as Hayes, were publicly well-known figures, together with several of the most-well-known bosses of businesses. The crackdown also meant that the mafia realised that their plan had been spoiled, meaning they attempted to silence those who knew of their involvement, which resulted in Jack’s old pal from the fair, George Heath, to end up shot in the gutter.

“Chief, I’ve got four calls from the Times in the last three hours, they are about to break a story on the Arena Club”, McKinley sighed annoyed, “I tried to talk them out of it, but unless we pressure them legally to hold back the story, they’re not gonna listen.”

“For f- then get the editor on the line and tell him if they disclose anything that will affect the trial, they’ll end up in court themselves!”, Thompson barked, “we can’t have them talk about a secret organisation before we bring charges!”

“Chief-“

“McKinley, the editor!”

His deputy raised his hands, turning around to pick up the phone.

Jack clenched his jaw, annoyed that it seemed that everyone was currently conspiring to make this ordeal even more frustrating than it would have been anyways.

Y/N had observed the interaction from her station, shaking her head slightly. The magic limit for Jack’s tolerance for sleep deprivation was a week. He could function well for about one week with three to four hours, then it started to show. And this was exactly what it looked like when day 7 had passed. That had been exam season every semester at university. Mostly followed by stellar exams, one last hurrah at a bar, and then some viral infection because of the previous stress. She had always found it rather silly – not finding it particularly effective herself to study with such few hours of sleep. She had even tried to talk to him to change his ways – and spectacularly failed in achieving that, which is why she didn’t even try to talk him out of it now. Especially when day 7 had passed, there was no way to get through to him. Then he’d pull through out of stubbornness alone.

“I can call the editor, if you want”, she said to McKinley, who looked like he really didn’t want to talk to more journalists.

He looked at her with wide eyes: “You would?”

“Yeah”, Y/N shrugged with a grin, “you know, I can pretend to be the SSR’s lawyer’s secretary.”

“I owe you, L/N!”

…………

As a matter of fact, by December 20th, they had managed to arrest, or at least localise almost all members of the Arena Club. The big absent, of course, was Keller, who was still underground. From what Y/N had heard from Peggy, she believed that it would take at least another month for them to be in a position where they could organise a meeting without suspicion. Elias was in frequent contact with Keller, or his associates, and even sent them some of Stark’s blueprints – mostly of things like his hoover-car, which was less dangerous than his weapons’ designs. Especially given its rather volatile performance.

This was about two weeks after Y/N and Jack had returned from Okinawa, and Y/N was pretty sure in any other institution, Thompson would be granted at least two weeks of holidays to stutter off his overtime. But that was the pleasure of being the Chief – no one cared.

“Who’s the folks who’ll cover the 25th?”, she asked when filling up his coffee again.

“Wallace and m-“

“It can’t be you”, Y/N interrupted, earning a frown.

“What?”

“Wallace and whoever, but not you and not me”, she shrugged, putting his cup down, “we have a very important appointment that day.”

He raised an eyebrow and rubbed his face: “If you want me to play a guessing game, I’m sorry, but I don’t have the nerve.”

She rolled her eyes: “As a matter of fact, yesterday, at like 23:00, I got a call. You wouldn’t know, I know, you were still in the SSR.” She paused to underline her point, making him roll his eyes. “Your mother called. Wanted to know if you were still among the living. And she told me, and as a matter of fact, I quote her here, ‘you better drag him here for Christmas dinner, or so I swear, I will force him to join me at the Church for a dozen time’!”

He sighed.

“Don’t brood”, Y/N shook her head, “We ain’t arresting Keller on Christmas. It’s one dinner, Jack!”

“Fine. But I don’t have presents for them.”

Y/N laughed: “Yeah. You never had presents for them. I’m sure your ma will already be happy to just see that you’re still kicking, but I’d advise you to sleep for five hours for a change. Right now, you resemble a ghost.”

“Geez, thanks for the barrage of compliments”, he said dryly, reaching for the coffee.

“Why, of course”, she winked, “It’s my job, right?”

“Your job is to arrest men like Keller.”

“Yes, and we will, Jack, but tell me, do you think a German scientist, even if he is appearing to work with HYDRA, is likely to chose Christmas for a meeting with his HYDRA handlers? Germans, if you believe, really care about Christmas”, she reasoned with a sigh. Arguing with Jack was hard enough on a good day, and when he was low on sleep, it really was a pleasure.

“If you say so.”

“I do say so.”

A/N: Christmas theme in September... Is that even acceptable? Idk, but I hope you like it regardless! There *may* be a longer pause between this and the next chapter, but I swear, it will come in September. Just not sure exactly as to when. Also - return of Elias! I like him as an OC in this story, and I felt like he fit in perfectly in this narrative. And: I love the ‘it’ll be over by Christmas’ joke. Not sure how famous it is in the US as it referred to the 1914-period of the war, but I felt the need to put it in here. Also, if you want a weird WW1 story - the 1914 Christmas Truce is one of these things that sound so unreal in the backdrop of both world wars that were yet to fully unfurl their wrath. Comments & feedback as to which parts you enjoyed most are ALWAYS a highlight of mine!

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