#i'm gonna go with ''no and this is pretentious as hell and i probably just like to hear myself speak''

[estella2707]

Impossible Standards

Chapter 2

Anthony Bridgerton x Reader

Anthony walked into the drawing room with the mail in his hands as he tossed on it on the table, then sitting down to read the daily newspaper. Eloise immediately got up and ran over to the table as she grabbed the latest Lady Whistledown and sat down in her chair as she began reading.

"Boring...boring....oh well look at this, seems like we have our new Diamond of the season" Eloise says surprised. "Already?" Violet says. "The season has barely even started yet! Who is it my dear?" She asks as Eloise looks over the pages. "Oh my goodness it's a princess!" Eloise says excitedly. Everyone perks up interested. "A princess?" Everyone says collectively. "Yes indeed, the Princess of Spain to be exact! Gosh I wonder what she's like...it says here that she arrived a few days ago and is currently staying at the Queen's Palace." Eloise says. "It says here that her name is....y/n l/n, gosh what a unique name but I guess it's quite fitting for a princess" Eloise finishes.

Anthony felt his heart stop as his face flushed and his palms started to sweat. "y/n l/n....bloody hell" Anthony sighs. "Something wrong brother? You seem quite paler than usual" Benedict says as he chuckles. "Nothing...I'm fine" Anthony says annoyed. "Why would a princess need to find a suitor here? Surely there's tons of great men back home..." Violet says curiously. "Maybe she got sick of them constantly chasing after her" Colin says. "But that's surely still going to happen here and it'll probably be ten times worse now that she's diamond of the season!" Benedict adds.

"Brother what do you think about her?" Colin asks as he looks over at Anthony. "She sounds quite...pretentious" Anthony says annoyed. Pretentious? You don't even know her! Eloise says. "What if you run into her at a ball? This could become quite the opportunity brother!" Benedict says. "You get with her you'll become her prince and be in lined with the Spanish throne" Benedict says. "Oh nonsense Benedict, your brother needs to focus on finding a real wife not chasing after some fantasy" Violet says. "Oh come on mother think about it! Our family could become apart of royal blood! We could be of even greater status, come on brother isn't she exactly what you've been looking for?" Benedict says as he smirks.

Anthony thinks for a moment as he sighs. "Can you imagine the scandal? A lord and a princess together....but it does seem like the perfect way to boost our family name" Anthony chuckles. "But she probably wouldn't even look my way, let alone fall for me" Anthony says as he recalls their last encounter. "Oh come on brother you can swoon any girl with that charm of yours plus most of the ladies this season are already gonna be flocking after you, there's no way you'll go unnoticed!" Benedict says. Anthony sighs as he thinks for a moment. Swoon the princess? But what if she still hates me? What if she really is immune to my charm? Why did she come out here out of all places to find a suitor? A million questions run through his head as he sighs. "You know what...I'm in! I love a good challenge and the princess seems like the perfect candidate." Anthony declares as Benedict laughs. "I knew you'd come around brother! So it's settled then swoon the stuck up princess and make her fall in love with you and you'll be beside her on the throne in no time!" He says.

"Doesn't that seem a bit...wrong?" Daphne says softly. "I mean she is still just a girl...." She says. "Oh nonsense sister you need not worry it's not like she'll ever find out anyway, it'll be fine!" Benedict says.

Daphne thinks it's wrong? Anthony thinks to himself. It may be a bit dishonest but she was rude to him first! And this opportunity for him and his family name is to good to pass up on. He thinks to himself.

"Well luckily for you the Queen is hosting a ball tomorrow at her Palace and our family already received a formal invitation." Violet says. "Perfect then, the plan is officially set in motion!" Benedict and Colin chuckle as Eloise scoffs. "Bastards..." She mutters under her breath.

#anthony bridgerton #anthony x you #anthony x reader #bridgerton #anthony x princess #enimes to lovers #benedict bridgerton #colin bridgerton #eloise bridgerton #bridgerton netflix #violet bridgerton #daphne bridgerton

[panthera-tigris-venenata]

18) Who talks to the other while they are sleeping?

19) Who drives and who has the window seat?

20) Who falls asleep in the others lap and who carries them to bed?

21) Who cuts the others hair?

28) Who writes poems/stories and love songs about the other? Do they sing the songs the write for them?

8) Who likes to wear the others sweatshirts?

for either mutually destructive threesome or Ivy/Claudine!

I think I'm gonna do both. I'm bored ✨

First, mutually destructive threesome:

Who talks to the other when they sleep?

...All of them. They're Isle kids, it's easier to do feelings when the other can't hear it, yeah?

Not that. Not that they do feelings. At all.

Also, they're drama queens.

Who drives and who has the window seat?

Harriet drives most often. She should NOT be driving.

For one, her drivers license consists of a post it note with „I can do what I want to“ with Ben's signature and „Please, let her."

She should not be driving anyway but she likes the control. Being in a car someone else drives is Not Good.

Anthony drives sometimes. He's safer driver than Harriet. He likes to do the hand on gear shift - hand on knee thing.

Ginny is passenger princess.

Unless she wants to drive somewhere with Maddy - well. Harriet saw that once and proceeded to give them a lift from there on.

Who falls asleep in others lap and who carries them to bed?

They take turns collapsing ✨

Isle kids who refuse to take care of themselves and also are mostly just feral cats.

Who cuts others hair?

Anthony.

No question about this one. I mean, look at him.

Sometimes, the girls give themselves or eachother a "haircut" with a knife, which just means Anthony has to fix it.

Who writes poems//songs?

They do NO such thing, thank you for asking.

Harriet. She's a pretentious bitch like that. But you'd die very painfully long before getting to the diary in her drawer.

Who likes to wear the others sweatshirts?

None of them wear sweatshirts!

Ew-

(Ginny.)

Okay, moving on: Ivy and Claudine:

Who talks to the other when they're sleeping?

I'd say Claudine. Again, it's easier to deal with feelings when the other can't hear.

I don't think Ivy wants to extend effort for something that Claudine won't remember anyway though.

Who drives and who has the window seat?

Ivy drives. She also does the hand thing like Anthony.

And she also shouldn't be driving. You see, she just doesn't believe in driving laws. They're boring and slowing her down. Plus any car the de Vil cousins drive is tuned to hell and back. Plus there's enough funky shit going on with her brain that she shouldn't be granted a license. Don't worry tho Auradon didn't do mental assesments for that until WAY after Isle kids started driving.

Needless to say, it takes near act of god do get Claudine to a car every time.

Who falls asleep on others lap?

Ivy and Claudine just has to deal with it.

Who cuts others hair?

Given that Claudine still refuses to enter the Tremaine salon, Ivy.

She also gives a haircut to herself whe she is at it and yes it is for the sole purpose of giving the Tremaines a heart attack the next time she shows up.

Who writes poems/song?

Well maybe Claudine, repressed feelings and all, but it ends up in a fire real fast.

Probably good thing, too, Ivy would be insufferable if she found it.

Who likes to wear the others sweatshirts?

Again, they do NOT wear sweatshirts, what is WRONG with you?!

(Ivy refuses to touch these with a ten feet pole and while she has a bunch of coats liberated or given from Auntie's closet, she might be a tiny bit too jealous of these. Also, Claudine mostly refuses to wear them anyway.)

Frankly I don't think Claudine knows what a sweatshirt is.

#disney descendants #harriet hook #anthony tremaine #ginny gothel #ivy de vil #claudine frollo

[coconutcordiale]

steady pt two (what if i'm the one, but you're not?)

pt one | pt two | pt three | masterlist | prequel

pairing- rooster x female bartender!reader (no y/n)

synopsis-

“He won’t ever make you feel like I do.”

Part of you wants to strangle him for being right, for highlighting every part of your soul that still believes it was made for him with nine little words.

“Maybe that’s the point.”

warnings- angst with a happy ending, austin tx slander because i'm still annoyed that glens a ut fan, one joke about doing drugs, one dark adjacent joke about murdering an annoying rooster, drinking as a coping mechanism, past infidelity (no current cheating!), this is slow burn, heartbreak/healing, friends to lovers, smut in next chapter

length- 5.4k

an- actually why is the wedding in tx, idk. mostly because i feel weird making fun of states i've never lived in (which only leaves tx & ca) but also i'm moving and i'm gonna miss tx so this is how i deal, by making vaguely insulting jokes. austin is actually a very nice place guys i'm sorry lol

also I did a lightning fast google search of the naval air station in key west so apologies if it's completely inaccurate that rooster could be teaching there but lets be real this story is like...barely about tgm and more about rooster's mustache

d a y 1 3 9

As far as Bradley is concerned, the problem with you is that you’re far too magnetic. He’s constantly fighting the pull of you, the urge to show up on your doorstep and share his vinyl with you.

Maybe it’s because he has more free time now, going from living with someone to spending his nights alone.

He tells himself it’s that. It’d be easier if it was only that.

It’s probably because you’re quick on your feet, sarcastic as hell, and your new favorite past times include insulting his favorite patterned shirt and the fact that he loves BBQ Chicken pizza and hates The Office. For some reason, he wants nothing more than to hear you tell him all his opinions are wrong. He always feels one step behind your wit, one beat too slow in your dancing banter.

Occasionally, he’ll celebrate getting in a good jab about your uncultured music taste.

It reminds him, sometimes, of a certain blonde pilot he flew with at TOPGUN. His good qualities, at least.  

It’s a good thing you’re a hell of a lot nicer than that guy.

He doesn’t know if it’s the pilot in him, the part of him that won’t quit, but he finds himself wanting to break down the walls you’ve spent so long building around your heart.

Wants to peel back those layers, wants you to know not everyone will hurt you like whoever it is that you’re running from.

Can’t help but try to take care of you. He doesn’t know why when you seem plenty capable of taking care of yourself.

Maybe that’s why he suspects you need it the most.

(It’s not his friendliest of instincts, but he can normally keep himself in check.)

He knows you deserve it, at the very least. Because for all your whining about BBQ chicken pizza not actually being pizza, but instead, a crime against nature, when you knock on his door with Pizza Joe’s in your hand, he’s certain he’ll open the box to see one half of it covered in BBQ sauce. And you won’t even make fun of him for it.

It doesn’t stop him from ribbing you for asking him to play something from this century, Jesus Christ Bradshaw, more Righteous Brothers, really?

He puts on The Beach Boys just to be a dick.

“You should expand your horizons,” he suggests, halfway through California Dreamin’, thoughtfully chewing his pizza. “There’s a lot to learn about music if you’re willing to broaden your tastes. We could start easy, with the Doors or something.”

You roll your eyes, stretching out on his rug like a cat. “I already like the Doors, you pretentious snob. Besides, music is more of a visceral thing for me. Not an intellectual learning experience.”

Bradley furrows his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“This is probably weird to you, because you’ve made it your life’s mission to learn every instrument on planet Earth, but for me, music is more instinctive. I like what I like because it makes me feel something.”

“Like what?”

You make a thoughtful humming noise like you’re really mulling it over.

There are more questions on the tip of his tongue, but something has been telling him since you started hanging out that the way to get you to talk is not going to be badgering you.

“How do you explain how music makes you feel? Isn’t the point that it’s indescribable? It’s a feeling, that moment when goose bumps shiver up your legs, something about two sounds coming together that gives you an unprecedented emotional reaction.”

“I’d say that was a pretty good description.”

“Jackass,” you snort, throwing a wadded-up napkin at his head.

He dodges it easily, because, hello fighter pilot, but your words stick with him. It’s uncanny to know someone who probably loves music as much as he does but in a distinctly different way.

You seem more reluctant to head to work than usual, and he tries not to let himself feel too proud about the fact that he might have something to do with that.

Partially because you’re clearly going to be late if you don’t get going soon, and mostly because he’s not done spending time with you yet, Bradley offers to head in with you, citing he could benefit from having to walk the couple miles back to the apartment having skipped his run this morning.

Bradley rarely visits you at work and he tries to tell himself it’s because you guys spend enough time at each other’s apartments, that he’s already skirting around crossing the friend line by always showing up at your front door as soon as he leaves base.

The real reason, however, is that Bradley is terrified of Beth.

“Look,” Beth starts, steely edge to her tone after you’ve walked to the back grumbling about stupid tourist bars and their garnishes to find maraschino cherries or drink umbrellas or whatever else you need. “Don’t you dare think about hurting her. If there’s even a chance of that, walk away now.”

Bradley holds his hands up, trying to seem like a nonthreat and she shoots him another look.

“We’re friends,” he defends. “Both still healing.”

She ignores him. “You weren’t around yet. When it was really bad. When I had to pick her up off the bathroom floor and force feed her because she wouldn’t eat. When she’d get drunk and cry until she could barely breathe. If you make her go through that again, I’ll make sure even the Navy can’t help you.”

He doesn’t doubt it.

“You haven’t been here much longer than Cali, have you?” Beth asks suddenly. You must be back from your tiny umbrella quest.

You come into his line of sight to flip her off at the nickname before tossing the umbrellas into their holder, a little more aggressively than he thinks the situation warrants.

Bradley bites back a laugh at your clear vendetta against cute, colorful drink décor. That earns a pointed look in his direction, but he just smiles amicably until you give into his warmth and he sees you fighting a smile back.

“I miss working in a dive bar where I could tell the customers to fuck off.” You joke, staring at the ceiling wistfully.

He rolls his eyes, biting back a chuckle, and turns back to Beth. “No, only been here a few months.”

“I take it your ex didn’t like Florida.”

You snort from where you’re setting up the garnish caddy, but Beth and Bradley ignore you. He knows you’ve heard this before, that your opinion on Lauren isn’t exactly fond.

“She didn’t seem to be a fan, no. That’s probably why she left so quickly.”

It’s not like he doesn’t miss Lauren. He does. In the way you miss having summers off when you were a kid or Saturday morning cartoons. He misses her because he spent so much time around her, because it was routine to miss her, but it’s no burden to live without her.

They were together for a long time, and the breakup did take him by surprise. But now that it’s done, he realizes she was right in leaving, that they were little more than roommates by the time they moved down here.

She’s like that missing space in your gums after getting a tooth pulled. You’re better off, having had the tooth pulled, but in the weeks after the operation, you run your tongue over the empty space, over and over again, trying to get used to its absence.

Eventually, you will, and it’ll be more right than things were before. He just hasn’t gotten there yet.

 “I like Florida, though,” he finds himself telling Beth. “And I’m enjoying teaching replacement pilots. It’s better than Lemoore or Fallon or wherever else they might send me, anyhow.”

“I mean look at this hideous shirt,” you chime in. “He was practically born to be here.”

“Excuse me?” Bradley gasps, hand going to his chest in mock offense. “I thought you liked my eclectic old man style.”

“Rooster, we’re friends, so I’m going to be brutally honest right now. Your style blew past eclectic years ago, it’s incoherent. That shirt has birds on it. Where do you even find these things?”

Bradley’s trying to keep the smile off his face, but he doesn’t think you realize this is the first time since he stumbled into your apartment a couple of months ago that you’ve used his callsign.

“What?” You ask finally.

“Nothing.” He grins, something like pride and unmistakable fondness budding in his chest as another layer peels back.

d a y 1 6 5

Just like last time, the phone call starts with your name. Your breath hitches, the world momentarily stops spinning on its axis. He doesn’t say sweetheart, doesn’t use his soft and honeyed voice to make you melt.

“I know I shouldn’t be calling,” you hear Jake say slowly as if he’s taking the time to enunciate each syllable.

“Have you been drinking?” You ask, chest tightening.

“Maybe.”

Your hands are already trembling. You don’t know why you can’t just hang up, block his number, do something, anything that doesn’t pry this wound open again.

“If you know you shouldn’t be calling then why are you?”

“M’drunk and I needed to hear your voice.”

“Jake—”

“How am I s'posed to let you go?” He asks, the crack in his voice corresponding with the break in your heart. “Don’t want to lose you.”

“You never really had me.”

That’s the thorn of it, isn’t it? You always considered yourself his, you were willing to give him all of you, but it was futile from the start. He couldn’t really have you since his plate was already full.

“Yeah, guess that’s true.” He exhales audibly. “Wish I had something else to say besides I’m sorry.”

“You are a lot of things, Jake. We both are. Sorry isn’t even ranked.”

+

You toast Bradley with your whiskey bottle when he gets back from work, walking through your front door still in his flight suit. “I know Beth said you didn’t have to deal with me at my worst, so I thought I’d grace you with the lovely opportunity of finding me drunk on the floor.”

The best thing about Bradley is that he doesn’t even question it, just ambles over to you, settling in close with his back against the wall.

“It’s been six months. Look at you, all healed and moved on, while I’m still a wreck.”

He shrugs. “That probably just means I’m still in denial.”

You make a face at that, but you’re too emotionally wrecked to touch it right now.

“Did something happen?”

“He called me.”

The breath he takes in would be deafening even if he wasn’t mere inches away from you. “That’s pretty unfair of him.”

The truth spills from your lips, feeling odd and out of place after having spent so much time lying to yourself and everyone else about Jake. “Wasn’t the first time either.”

Bradley’s eyebrows raise in surprise at that. “You didn’t tell me. Or Beth, I’m guessing.”

You sigh. “I knew she would tell me to block his number.”

“Which you don’t want to do.”

It’s not a question.

It’s never a question with Bradley because he always knows.

You lean your head on his shoulder, nose crinkling a little in displeasure at the smell of his flight suit. “The first time he called to apologize. It was nice to hear, even if it doesn’t make up for everything.”

Bradley doesn’t answer, just takes the bottle from your hands so he can take a swig.

You wonder, absently, if he’s allowed to drink in uniform.

“He said a bunch of fucked up stuff to me the night before I left. That it was just sex, that our relationship was all in my head, basically. It was—he just wanted to hurt me.”

“He lied.”

You shrug. “I’d like to think so. But it doesn’t really matter, does it? He still said it. But since I’m working through the stages of grief, I’ve now rebounded to anger.”

“You can’t stay mad forever,” he reasons. “You have to forgive him eventually.”

“It’s either be mad or start doing drugs,” you say, shrugging one shoulder. “Being mad is cheaper.”

That earns a dry chuckle and even your alcohol-addled brain preens a little at your constant ability to make Bradley laugh.

“It’s easier,” you admit quietly. “When I’m mad at him. It’s easier not to wish things were different, not to wish we could’ve worked out.”

“You mean it’s easier to move on if he’s a piece of shit.”

“Yes.”

“Well, he is, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

The air is still heavy and serious between you, his face twisting as you watch him mull over his next words, choosing them carefully. “It’s not a good idea, to keep talking to him. To keep entertaining this.”

Logically you knew that, of course, but his words feel like a bucket of ice water being poured on you anyways.

You’re feeling defensive, and you know you’re not being fair to Bradley, know your anger at Jake is taking over this conversation, but you can’t stop yourself, words tumbling out harsher than you mean them to.

“I just want closure,” you say, words slicing through the air sharply.

You could kiss Bradley for how mildly he takes your tone, how easily he absorbs the edges in your words. “Only you can give yourself closure.”

You know he’s right.

“You have to stop answering,” he says firmly, probably unconsciously leaning into your thigh where it’s pressed next to his own on your kitchen floor.

You look down, staring at the green material of his flight suit, the muscle that hides beneath the baggy material, wondering how it’s strong enough to hold the pieces of you together.

+

Jake calls again three days later. You hand your phone to Bradley, who takes one look at the DO NOT ANSWER flashing on the screen, before sliding the phone into his pocket and dragging you outside to go to the beach.

That’s the problem with Bradley, you never have to ask, and he always does right by you. He always knows.

You feel like you should be doing more to return the favor. You know he’s going through shit of his own, even if he doesn’t say anything, even if he always shows up to be your rock.

“I want you to be happy, you know that right?”

He’s staring out at the horizon, refusing to look you in the eye. “I’m fine.”

You roll your eyes. “We both know that’s not the same thing.”

His lips press together in a hard line. It’s impressive, really, how much derision he manages to convey in one minuscule facial expression.

“Is this necessary? Do we need to ruin this peaceful moment on the beach talking about my emotions?”

Something you’ve begun to notice is that your hands are always steady around Rooster, even when he shuts down and annoys you enough to consider cold-blooded homicide.

“I’m sorry, all right? I wasn’t trying to make you mad. But I know what it’s like, to go through the motions, barely keeping your head above the surface. You have to find something to help pull you out of the water. Flying, your friends, me, Beth, your fucking plants, I don’t know. We need you. You’re not a burden because you need us back.”

He slots his fingers into yours, squeezing them in a silent understanding, a silent apology. Your heart hammers in your chest at the gesture, trying to ignore the intimacy of it.

The problem with Bradley is that the possibility of him is terrifying.

Friends you can do. Friends is easy, friends doesn’t threaten to shatter you irreparably and incite you to move across the country. As long as you can keep Bradley squarely in the friends box, there’s nothing to worry about.

Even if, sometimes, you wish there was something more to worry about.

You’ve been drifting at sea for so long, nothing to tether you, nothing to hold onto. Here, in Florida, away from almost everything you’ve ever known you want nothing more than to keep your feet firmly in the sand.

Bradley is like flying high above the clouds, miles away from the ground.

d a y 2 5 4

You hear a crash, a stream of expletives, a door slamming all the way from downstairs in your bathroom. You’re upstairs before you can think better of it, before you can consider that he might need space.

“Bradley?” You ask tentatively, knocking gently on his front door.

He looks wrecked when he opens it, face splotchy and red, hand at his side still clenched in anger.

“I’m sorry for being so loud,” he breathes. “Did I scare you?”

A little, but you can tell he feels bad, so you’re not super interested in being honest right now.

“I was just surprised,” you respond slowly, which is true. “Usually, it’s me that’s doing chaotic things.”

He smiles tightly and you edge your way in, gently pulling him to the couch with you.

“Nice change of pace. I like being the one with their shit together occasionally.” You knock your shoulders together gently and instantly feel him relax where your arms are touching. “Wanna talk about it?”

He scrubs a hand over his face. “There’s this wedding.”

You let out a breath. Sometimes your life really does feel like a cheesy rom-com. “Let me guess, you need a date.”

He nods. “Lauren was supposed to go with me, I already RSVP’d with a plus one.”

You don’t know what to say, so you take a page out of the Bradley playbook and stay silent, letting him ruminate.

“I had a shit day at work, then came home to a reminder about this dumb wedding. I know it’s stupid to be this upset. It’s not like I wish she was going with me…it’s just going alone, having to explain to everyone why she’s not there, I don’t know. It’s hard not to feel left out, being by yourself at stuff like this.”

“Feels like the whole world is set up to make you feel bad for being single.”

“Yeah, exactly,” he agrees, putting his face in his hands.

“I could go with you,” you suggest slowly. “I’m not going to pretend to be your girlfriend or anything, I mean I’m sure some people will assume, but whatever. At least then you don’t have to go alone.”

“It’s in Austin.”

Damn it.

“Texas,” you say flatly.

“I’ll buy your plane ticket, obviously,” he says quickly as if that’s the problem here.

“I can’t believe I offered to do this without asking where the wedding was,” you grumble, shaking your head. “I’m way too good of a friend.”

“Come on, Cali, it’ll be fun.” His mood has practically done a 180. “We can go line dancing, or whatever it is they do down there.”

“Nobody from California says Cali,” you protest for what seems like the thousandth time. “Are you sure you’re from there?”

He rolls his eyes but otherwise ignores your nickname slander.

You sigh. You already knew you were going to say yes.

d a y 2 7 5

“I’m gonna strangle Rooster when he gets back.”

Beth laughs.

“Austin is so much like California, you’ll love it,” you mimic. “I’ll fucking end him.”

“You Californians are such snobs,” she sniffs.

“Beth,” you whine into the phone. “It’s one billion degrees here and there isn’t an ocean in sight. Just some river full of bacteria that’ll give you hand foot and mouth disease. Or something.”

When you get out of the shower Bradley’s back and he’s already in his choker whites, so it’s pretty much impossible for you to be mad at him.

+

“About the wedding.”

You look at him expectantly. His tone tells you this can’t be good, but you’re pretty distracted by how tan he looks in his white uniform.

“It’s gonna be a lot of Navy people. I met Brandon way back in API. I haven’t seen him since before I went to TOPGUN, so I’m surprised I even got invited, to be honest.”

Somewhere in your mind alarms are going off, sirens blaring. “You were in TOPGUN?”

Rooster squints. “You know what TOPGUN is?”

“God, Bradley it’s a good thing you’re pretty. I literally told you I grew up in San Diego. Also, everyone has seen that stupid movie.”

“You hate Tom Cruise. He gives you hives to even think about,” he comments, as if that’s what’s relevant at this moment.

You can feel your eyes rolling of their own volition. “Hence why I called the movie stupid. Don’t change the subject. How has this not come up before?”

He shrugs. “You don’t seem to like military pilots that much, so I try not to remind you. I just thought you might want some warning. In case you didn’t realize what kind of wedding you were walking into.”

“And yet, you waited until we were almost there to mention it.”

 “I was scared you’d change your mind about coming. I wasn’t really sure—you’ve never told me why it is you hate pilots.” He makes a face, and you feel kind of bad for letting him think that you’d bail on him over this.

“Specifically, I’m from Coronado. Take a wild guess,” you tell him eventually, wanting to smack your forehead on the dash of the rental car.

Something knowing is lighting up in Rooster’s chocolate eyes and you don’t like it one bit. “Wait, the dive you worked at before was the Hard Deck?”

“Yes, with Penny.”

He lights up at that. “She’s the best. That means you must know Mav…”

Bradley trails off as he watches you finally give in and put your head on the dash, shutting your eyes against this information.

You let out a sigh of frustration because what are the odds, and how did I not put this together before?

He furrows his brows, asking a silent question.

“Penny told me that Maverick knew someone when I moved. Wanted to give them my number, in case I needed anything. I said no because I needed a break from fighter pilots.”

His lips form an ‘o’ in realization under that stupid pornstache as he picks up what you’re putting down.

“Yet here we are,” you finish, hand flourishing in a gesture that hopefully gets your point across.

Rooster grins at that and it’s so endearing it makes you forget what a complete clusterfuck you’re in for a second. “It’s fate, baby.”

You snort. “It’s fate, seriously?”

Looking out the window, you think maybe you’ll get lucky. Bradley’s a few years older than Jake, they probably don’t even know each other. The Navy can’t be that small.

And even if it is, it’s fine, right? You’ve done some serious work these past nine months. You’ve cried, you’ve screamed, you’ve tried your best to stop being angry.

You’ve grown, you know that you have.

It doesn’t hurt, doesn’t wrench your chest, to think about Jake anymore, so if you have to see him, you can pretend like everything’s fine for a few hours. Right?

+

Wrong.

Unfortunately for you, imagining seeing Jake Seresin is nothing like seeing Jake Seresin.

The moment you do, panic rips through your chest. You’re glad you’re sitting in a pew already, certain if you were standing, you’d have crumpled to the ground the moment you clocked piercing green eyes and golden hair.

He looks gorgeous, because of course he does, because no one looks more like they should be in an ad for the Navy than Jake in his dress whites. People would be tripping over themselves to sign up if the Navy were smart enough to cash in on his arrogance and All-American good looks.

“Bradley, I can’t…I’m so sorry, I’m sure you hate me, we just got here, you don’t want to leave, obviously you don’t, but I have to…” You’re rambling, you know you are, but one second after seeing Jake you’re already trembling. You’re itching, to get up, run away, leave the state and never see anyone in this room ever again.

“Hey, hold on,” he says softly, putting a hand on your shoulder to keep you from getting up from your seat. “Take a breath. This’ll be easier if you’re not trying to have my part of the conversation too.”

Deep breaths. Stop freaking out before someone notices.

“I slept with him,” you admit, barely audible for fear of Bradley actually hearing you. You thank your lucky stars that no one seems to be near you to hear the admission of crimes you’ve been choking on for months now.

“Who?” He follows the way your eyes flit up to the blonde across the room and immediately back down, terrified. “Hangman?”

Rooster looks downright confused, clearly not fully understanding the situation.

“I knew he was married,” you whisper, unable to meet Bradley’s eyes.

You’re gripping his arms so hard that they must hurt, but he doesn’t say anything. You just hope you don’t have anything on your hands that’ll mar his pristine uniform.

“I knew he was married and had a child and I still slept with him, for months, and I thought that he loved me. I thought he’d leave her, even though he told me he wouldn’t. Because I’m an absolute moron.”

“Seresin,” he says slowly, not putting the pieces together as quickly as you’d like, but he’s getting there, “is your ex.”

“Yes,” you whisper.

Expression unreadable, Rooster takes a long look at you before standing, quickly pulling you to his side. You’re sure he can feel the constant, low vibrations running through your body with you this close, can practically taste the anxiety in your exhaled breaths.

“Let’s get some air.”

You go with him blindly, staring at the floor.

Right, left, right, left.

“I’m sorry,” he says when you’re outside in the sticky Texas air. “I’m dense, sometimes. Even after what we talked about in the car, I assumed your ex wouldn’t be here, because anyone here that graduated from TOPGUN probably did so years ago.”

“I could’ve mentioned it was Jake,” you respond delicately. “I was kind of holding onto hope that you didn’t know him.”

“Still.” He cups your cheeks in his large hands, warm eyes tracing over you. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you to come with me tonight, that was selfish.”

“You’re sorry?” You ask incredulously, finally registering that he’s apologized to you twice in the span of a minute. “I don’t—how can you stand to look at me?”

“We’ve all done things we’re not proud of.” He waves it off like it’s nothing. Like it’s not something that makes you nauseous every time you think about it. Like you don’t have nightmares about having to face Jake’s family. “We don’t have to stay.”

Here he is again, doing right by you without so much as a request. 

“No,” you say firmly, rolling your shoulders back, determination taking over. You can do this.

You know what it took, for Bradley to ask you to come with him, to admit that he didn’t want to do this alone. You won’t let Jake take that away from you, your unspoken pact to be each other’s support systems when it seems the rest of the world has left you to pick up the pieces of your broken hearts alone.

+

The night goes about as well as you can hope for, given the circumstances. You recognize a few people from the Hard Deck, but the large majority are people you don’t know.

Jake does a double take when he sees you with Bradley, but in classic Hangman fashion quickly recovers, placing that charming smile right back on his lips. You thank the powers that be that he seems to be alone, not sure what you’d do if he was here with Katelyn besides start praying that the ground opens to swallow you both whole.

You try your hardest not to look at him but you’re not sure you manage it. It doesn’t help that when you sneak looks at him, most of the time, he’s already glancing at you.

There’s a part of you that thinks it will always be connected to Jake, the part of you that knows you’re cut from the same cloth. It makes you feel off-kilter, still being drawn to someone you once loved more than you ever thought yourself capable of.

The anger must be radiating off your date in waves because Jake carefully avoids you two for most of the night.

Until the end, as you’re getting ready to leave, when you hear Jake’s voice from behind you, calling your name.

“Can I have a word?” Without him, his expression clearly requests.

“You’ve had plenty, I’d say,” Rooster grits out. He seems so large right now, anger allowing him to tower over Jake even though they’re nearly the same height.

“Rooster, it’s okay,” surprising yourself at how calm you feel and squeezing his arm, comforting. “I’ll meet you outside.”

His face goes through a wide range of awkward facial expressions before he nods curtly, turning his back to Hangman without another word.

It’s awkward, to say the least.

“You look beautiful,” Hangman says finally, soft like he always is with you, except when he’s drunk and plotting ways to make your chest split in two.

You nearly roll your eyes at him. “That’s what you want to talk about? How good I look in this dress?”

He clears his throat, shifting uncomfortably. “He’s why you stopped returning my calls.”

“You shouldn’t have been calling me in the first place,” you snap, irritation laced in every word.

You’re proud of yourself for your tone, having spent those last few weeks around him whiny and teary and broken, a fragmented version of your former self. Because by the time you and Jake were done putting each other through the wringer you didn’t even recognize yourself anymore, didn’t feel like you had yourself to fall back on.

You really are healing, a microscopic part of you dances with glee.

Jake pauses, he must know you’re right.

But you can see the jealousy written all over his face, have been pretending not to notice the hard line of his jaw every time he witnessed the easy way Bradley’s arm snaked around your waist. It’s pathetic, really, how well you can still read him after all this time.

You’re watching him carefully and you see the knife coming out unauthorized a second before you hear him.

“He won’t ever make you feel like I do.”

You suck in a sharp breath anyways.

Part of you wants to strangle him for being right, for highlighting every part of your soul that still believes it was made for him with nine little words.

“Maybe that’s the point.”

Clenching your fists briefly, you try to release your anger through your fingers, before moving to get up and get the hell away from whatever this is, because agreeing to this was clearly a mistake.

“I’ll wait as long as it takes,” Jake calls to your retreating back.

Even though you wouldn’t wait for me, you hear in the silence that follows.

You can’t help but stop dead in your tracks. You don’t say anything, though, and he takes it as a sign to continue.

“It’ll always be you,” he says, honeyed voice tingling your skin. He’s moved up behind you while you were busy listening to your pounding heartbeat and the blood rushing in your ears.

Jake’s fingers gently brush your hair over one shoulder, exposing your neck in an intimate gesture he has absolutely no right to, but sets your skin on fire anyways. It’d be easy for you to turn around and give into him, to give your broken heart the band-aid it’s been begging you for the better part of a year.

But your brain pleads with you to remember all the times you did give in, to gain that small reprieve from the pain, the fallout splintering your heart further and further each time.

The only way out is through.

“I’m in love with you,” Jake says finally, and somehow it shatters you even more than it did to hear him claim the opposite.

“That’s not enough,” you say, and you walk out the door.

What if I’m the one, but you’re not?

#bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster x you #rooster top gun #rooster bradshaw #rooster imagine #rooster angst #bradley bradshaw x you #rooster x reader #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw fanfiction #rooster bradshaw fic

[gipzisays209]

My fav thing about the SC weirdos is that theyll spend HOURS setting up PKs just to role play being a "fake system" to pass off the screenshots as "real system cringe uwu!!!" on their sub. They ARE a hate group, if they werent they wouldnt be spending this much time to make us look bad because they can't find any real material :)

As a Theatre kid, I can definitely appreciate the usefulness of a good disguise. Hell, it's how I'm in the damn server in the first place. And while spying isn't exactly moral, sometimes it i necessary to fight fire with fire. And in this case, we're fighting the entire damn Canadian Wildfire here. Yes, I realize that what I am doing is nowhere near redeemable, but against such a blatantly toxic place... yeesh.

Honestly. I'm perfectly fine becoming the next punching bag, if it means a few more systems can discover something about themselves. I will gladly face the hate group head on, not because I think it's noble or valiant (because a the end of the day it's online discourse, ir's not gonna change much of anything). Nobody is the hero here. But if I can maybe change a few minds, maybe help a few people along the way, then I'll consider my job fulfilled.

I'll let you in on a little (not so) secret. These people? These ideologies and tactics, sowing an "us vs. them" mindset? Yeah, it's been used throughout history by some of the worst fucking people imaginable.

But I'll tell you another (not so) secret...

Every stick and stone they throw our way is only adding on to the ammo we have against them. They don't care about policing systems. They don't care about "cleansing system spaces" or "stopping fakers". No, they only give a shit about turning the entirety of system spaces into a goddamn gulag. It's power, is all it is.

Honestly, I wish I could call them a cult. But even I know they don't meet half the criteria.

I know this rant is long and pretentious for no reason, and I know I'm probably not the person people need to see saying this. Hell, I'm scared of what they're gonna do once they realize how much I fucking hate them. These are just... purely personal opinions that I, Gipzi, share, and needed to get off my chest. I wholly agree with you, Anon. I really do.

I think it's fucking sad we have to go through this.

#syscourse #pro endo #pro endogenic #endo safe #system stuff #r/systemcringe #r/systemscringe #r/fakedisordercringe #r/didcringe

[stopthatfool]

You KNOW I gotta hit you with some of these...

7, but give me Iceman or give me death; 21 and 24; and 38 for the Top Gun asks!! >:)

WOODSY! thank u thank u for the ask! (so excited i'm vibrating out of my body!)

7. Do you have any headcanons about [character or ship]?

Oh boy! Do I! alrighty, here we go!

ice drinks tea! he is a tea drinker! When he gets the chance, he'll have a cup before bed every night! (Black tea, some milk, some honey/sugar!)

Icemav looovveee old country music; like Patsy Cline, some Dolly Parton here and there, Glen Campbell (!!!!!), TAMMY WYNETTE (!!!!) etc. etc.

Mav used to take the mufflers off his motorcycle to make it sound really loud and to annoy the hell out of everyone driving and existing around him! (i hate him.)

Ice can draw! He doesn't practice often (rarely) but he can draw. he knows his way around a pencil.

1990's Bradley/Rooster would have loved Jeff Buckley! I just feel it in my bones.

Ok... i'll stop.. for now..

21. Favourite helmet design?

watch out. gonna be so pretentious art student about this one. i can't help myself i might have to give an opinion on everyone's helmet one day...

FAV HELMET-- phoenix's !! we don't talk about her helmet (and her tbh) enough!! i've seen different versions of it, some without something on the back, others with. But regardless, her helmet is still the best.

The typeface????? the cards on the side?? the spades?? the red leading line going across the whole helmet?? hello people?? this is a visual masterpiece!!! it's recognizable! It's simple, but detailed where it matters! the usage of space and negative space!! phoenix u should've been a graphic designer...

and when phoenix's helmet is compared to THIS!!!???!!

phoenix's looks like the fucking Sistine Chapel or something. yale, is that TIMES NEW ROMAN ON YOUR HELMET????? insane.

24. A line you quote all the time?

Oh oh oh! One I've been quoting the last couple weeks is:

Goose! Ah no!

It doesn't sound like how Mav talks throughout the rest of the movie and I find it so funny. Mav almost sounds like he's from... New York? Or Boston? (i don't actually know. as you know I'm not American so i don't know) but it's so fun to say.

And another one I used say is this line Slider says to Goose:

Goose, you're such a dickhead.

Idk, I say them to my cat mostly. but they replay in my head more often than I actually say them.

38. Which character do you project on the most?

As I've been writing for The Jeep Universe (also thank u for coming up with that! it's so much easier then typing out the whole title!), I've been projecting the most on Maverick!

Me and Maverick are very similar in some ways (sigh, diagnosed with ADHD way too late) and i think that allows me to be more critical with him. And as I continued to explore his personality I realized that we're alike, not in the impulsive, balls to the wall way, but on an emotional regulation and "mental" level (does that even make sense) me and mav are similar. and that's probably part of the reason I can't stand him sometimes.

I'm sorry this got so long! but I was having fun so whatevs. Thank you again for the asks!! this was wonderful!

#im sorry yale but come on now. new times new roman??? ur crazy im sorry #don't ever get me started on ice's helmet i will be mean #top gun ask game #top gun 1986 #top gun #stopthatfool goes crazy and explodes

[velvet-vox]

So, I feel like it's time for me to finally make that famous response post to @rad10active-ketchup that I promised to do a couple of days ago. First of all a couple of things: the original response that I made is probably my least favourite post of mine, I felt like I started very strong but gave up after the first point and just wrapped things up very quickly for the second and 3rd one. Second of all I didn't realise that those you listed were your own personal opinions and I just thought those were actual answers you came up with to justify your feelings on the subject matter; in my defense the way the first sentence was worded left very perplexed but I understand that I was probably in the wrong to treat those as full on critiques so I want apologize for that; I am but a pretentious novice who hopes to improve his writing on this site so sorry for not knowing how to tag you I still have much to learn.

Finally, as the last point of contention: I really love Doll.

But I feel like she is the character that encapsulates better than anybody else the strengths and weaknesses of Murder drones as a show and I want to make a full post analysing just that.

For now, I'm just gonna say that she is my favourite character in the show and me being overly aggressive towards her is just my way to cope with her death because I am a masochist.

Like, how dares she. How does she dare to carve a place in my heart and mind only to shatter the both of them to pieces and leave me in the same state that you are when a girl leaves you and you don't even know why. I was on vacation these past couple of days. I didn't have fun. I didn't eat a lot. I nearly threw up multiple times. I was constantly empty due to the big void in my heart that this b##ch has left in me. She doesn't deserve happiness. She literally just disappointed her own parents who gave up their life for her and she didn't even manage to make up for it. She's the worst written character in all fiction. I hope she keeps suffering in robo hell for the rest of eternity and never gets to speak with them. Absolute cringe loser wet cat of a woman. How about healing from your trauma instead of making it everyone else's problem?

No? You couldn't even do that. And now you're probably never going to. What a shame. Truly the pinnacle of wasted potential.

R.I.P.

#murder drones #murder drones doll #murder drones ep 7 #murder drones spoilers

[strawberry-barista]

⚅ — @rubiesintherough asked: — ⚅

⚅ — send me 📝 and my muse will answer all applicable questions below: ( slides this in with aedus and a cookie ) — ⚅

Muse Association Questions

— ★ ⚄ ★ —

⚀ what color reminds your muse of mine?

"Aedus is... Amber. Like liquor or honey. Amber like the ancient sap of a tree. Amber like shining stone, or a dimming halo. Amber like a low burning fire. He is... A brilliant color to me, not nearly so pretentious as gold."

⚀ what song reminds your muse of mine?

"Back in the day AMX used to sell this little number called 'Give Me All Your Love', and it reminds me'a him for, hehe, ah obvious reasons~ Is that a cop out? But I mean, it's true that anytime I hear it these days it makes me wish I was with 'im..."

⚀ what scent reminds your muse of mine?

"Oooh, Hinotori's scent~ I mean, I would say his cologne, but to be honest, I think it's more like baked goods. He loves to cook, and I love to cook, so we're always doing that shit when we're together. Over time I kinda... Any time I smell some damn good pastries, or hell. Any kinda really good food, I immediately think'a Hinotori. Well, except for bread. But that's a different story."

⚀ what meme reminds your muse of mine?

Hanekoma laughed as he panned through his phone, "I'll be honest, I try not to show any'a these to Aedus. I worry he'd get cross with me or offended. But damn, if this ain't him~"

He turned his phone around to show off:

Another chuckle as he locked his phone and tucked it back in his pocket, "Ahhh, he'd probably kill me."

⚀ what sound reminds your muse of mine?

Hanekoma reached up to tug at his chin, thinking hard, "Hm... Damn, I dunno. If we aren't talking to each other, we're usually silent, reading together or shit like that. I, ah, I haven't done a whole lot with 'im that tickles that particular sense, damn shame. We need to go out more, shit."

⚀ what setting reminds your muse of mine?

"Any place with lots'a books or lots'a antiques. I get in some dark academia kinda place and I immediately think about his home. It makes me miss 'im."

⚀ what fashion style reminds your muse of mine?

"Hinotori is definitely an elegant style type. Never see that man without a waistcoat on, hardly ever. Not that I don't like that sorta thing. Obviously I'm pretty damn into it."

⚀ what feeling does your muse associate with mine?

"Right now, it's love. I get so overwhelmed by it anytime I'm near him. He makes me feel like my heart's gonna burst. I love him. I love him. I feel loved by him. I'm almost dizzy with it. There is no other answer."

⚀ what animal does your muse associate with mine?

"Well, he's a phoenix, so... Yeah. But ah, I kinda think of him when considering birds in general, except doves. Those birds are special..."

⚀ what holiday does your muse associate with mine?

"Ah, right now it's Christmas. I haven't had a whole lotta holidays with 'im yet, but I will never forget last year when I got caught under the fuckin' mistletoe with him. I almost lost my head at that one."

⚀ what season does your muse associate with mine?

"This is probably gonna sound kinda weird, but I actually associate 'im with winter the most. And it's for one very specific reason and I dunno if he'd be offended by this, but it's almost entirely because'a how damn hot he is. I mean like, body temp wise. I never have to turn the heat on in my place when he's around. It saves a ton'a money, and there's nothing so goddamn cozy as just sitting on the couch snuggled up to him with a hot cuppa joe and being warmed up so nicely just by 'is arms alone. Damn. Beautiful. My winter fire god~"

#busy dizzy and lazy ⤙ic⤚⚄ #you still lack in experience ⤙answer⤚⚄ #rubiesintherough

[saltygilmores]

Thoughts While Watching Gilmore Girls- Season 1, Episode 21 (Love, Daisies, and Troubadors) Part THREE.

Please check out my pinned post for the rest of season 1 as well as part 1 & 2 of this season finale. We resume our regularly scheduled program, which is Buttzilla Forrester in the middle of a jealous rage, trying to manipulate RoryGil (who isn't even his girlfriend anymore, by the way).

I HATE IT when Rory apologizes to Dean like this and she's done literally nothing wrong! It's so sad. My feelings about later seasons Rory are...a mixed bag to say the least, but I will defend Season 1 Rory with all my might.

Gaslighting: to manipulate (someone) by psychological means into questioning their own sanity. Buttzilla: Your boyfriend's waiting. RoryGil: He's not my boyfriend, I hate him! Buttzilla: Whatever. Biggest fictional piece of shit on the planet. Literal dogshit stuck to the bottom of your shoe. RG: Dean, stop! Buttzilla: Why. RG, Pained and Unconvincing: Cause I love you, you idiot. You know there are literal people that find this exchange romantic? Not many,as The Dean Forrester fandom is small and they seem to know their place and not emerge from the shadows. But they exist. Uh oh. I hear corny music... it's happening...

Alexis is frozen solid. She is not moving. Her mouth isn't moving. Her hands are not moving. Her spine is stiff. I don't even need to post pics or gifs of her kissing Milo to compare the two, we've all seen them.

Easy there, JarPad! Release that poor girl from your kung-fu grip! Screen shots don't illustrate the frantic speed in which he is mashing his mouth against hers either. Oh no, now we're getting into the closeups. I'm so sorry for doing this. I hope you can forgive me.

She's a woman, not a lemon! Jesus christ! The vein in his neck is throbbing.

If you would like me to further ruin your Thanksgiving, imagine this following disturbing but absolutely true scenario: Rory and Dean sleep together. Dean refuses to go down on her, fucks her for 15 seconds, finishes and has this same stupid smile on his face, all "was it good for you baby?" and Rory's like "Sure, you did great, tiger." and he believes it. Also Lindsay. Poor Lindsay. #JusticeForLindsay Ugh. I survived. We all survived. Ya'll okay? Diet Logan witnesses this and puts down Rory's books, probably traumatized into being a better person, because I know I was close to promising I'd find Jesus if only that kiss would mercifully end. We cut to the Indepdence Inn and Michel and Kirk arguing because Max took Lorelai's "1,000 yellow daisies" suggestion very, very literally and the Inn is now filled with fucking flowers. Kirk Job: Flower delivery man. Lorelai stands there in stark silence admiring the daisies while Michel calls daisies "Pitiful little things, a notch up from weeds", which is also what I think of Dean Forrester. This relationship is going to LAST....! ...For about another four episodes. Max: I didn't propose to you because we were fighting. I proposed because I love you. Lorelai:

"Help. Me." MM: We're in a bad pattern Lorelai, and we have to break it. That's why you proposed to end an argument, got rejected, didn't have any discussion about it whatsoever like grown ups, pretended it didn't happen, took an off the cuff suggestion she gave you way too literally, then waited exactly one more day to propose a second time. Goes into a blathering Mediocre English Teacher Speech about how books just can't compare to real life blah blah blah. Look, in my occasional headcanon where Jess Mariano grows up to become an English teacher he would never be this fucking pretentious. Lorelai: "God you talk so good." To be fair, he doesn't exactly propose to her over the phone, he's all "think it over" but this thing with the daisies feels really manipulative. How the hell is she gonna say no now? Lorelai bursts into Luke's Diner. Luke: Ahhh, you made me spill. He said the same thing while he was fixing her porch rail.

Cute.

"I just got manipulated back into a shitty relationship wtih a shitty male!" "Me too Mom! Me too! This is so exciting!" Happy Thanksgiving!

#gilmore girls #lorelai gilmore #rory gilmore #denise rewatches gilmore girls #gilmore girls season 1 #love daisies and troubadors #luke danes #max medina #a thousand yellow daisies #kirk jobs

[demonsfate]

LIKE. i get the whole jin being bullied thing was essential to the plot's overarching theme of "anger management" and how it's best to control your anger or else it'll make a devil of you. but jesus fucking christ, they couldn't do a better job of depicting this rather than have jin be physically + emotionally abused for WEEKS (like he even makes that a POINT, fucking WEEKS) finally fight back, only for jun to tell him how wrong that was. i get it, i get it, jin shouldn't lose himself to Anger or Hate. but i also hate the "if you stoop to your abusers level, then you're just as bad!!!" and it'd be ONE THING if jun had told jin to not lose his temper like this. but then she MAKES him apologize to them later????????? HELLO??????? like lady he's been getting the CRAP beaten out of him for WEEKS, these people have been TERRORIZING him and y....... you're gonna make him apologize for fighting back with the same shit they were dishing?????? AND THEN SHE TELLS HIM HE'S NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO SMILE OR BE HAPPY AFTER SHE TAKES DOWN A BULLY. LIKE GODDAMN. DUDE CAN'T EVEN FEEL HAPPY THAT HIS ABUSER GOT PUT IN HIS PLACE.

if they really wanted to showcase jin losing himself to anger, wouldn't it have been better to have him lose his temper over something more miniscule? OR OR Just have an argument over something trivial and then losing his shit? i mean yea it may feel out of character for jin but also this anime wasn't afraid to write him out of character and more emotional. so why not? like that would've been leagues better and got the message across rather than shaming somebody for being happy about their abusers getting hurt. it comes off as both pretentious, and also feels like it's lecturing the audience at the same time. because WHO wants to watch their protagonist juts get beaten down helplessly, and be shamed once the bullies got theirs? most people WANT to see the bad guys get a taste of their own medicine. like most superheroes (batman, spiderman, daredevil) all have a no kill rule, but we still see them beat the hell out of bad guys and making quips while they're at it. like this is SATISFYING to watch. bad people DESERVE bad things to happen to them. it's just that these bad guys never cross the line of Killing Them.

and yes i had people try to say "oh but it's jun and she saw this happened to kazuya and she doesn't want her son to go down the same path." and like... that would be fine, actually. i wouldn't mind that if this was just a character scolding jin, and not a show. especially if the character was presented as taking it too extreme because she's overprotective and strict. but there are two reasons i don't think this is the case. 1) the entire show is filled with the lecturing of jin "taking things too far". (it only really worked with leroy, it doesn't work with heihachi (another abuser who LITERALLY KILLED JIN either) and has character scolding him that you feel... probably wouldn't care as much as jun. and 2) jun and kazuya's relationship are just as unexplored in this anime as it is in the games. jun doesn't want to talk about kazuya. but we don't really know why. we can assume it's how he died, but we're not with jun enough to understand this. we're not shown jun and kaz through flashbacks of them ever loving each other. IN FACT, kaz is also depicted as cartoonishly evil in this anime, that it DOES make you wonder why jun even loved him in the first place. so if we lack the context of kaz being an okay person then getting worse, then that means jun lacks the motives as to why she's so scared about jin losing himself to rage.

I'M SORRY BUT I CAN'T GET OVER A CHARACTER BEING PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY BEATEN AND WHEN HE FINALLY STANDS UP FOR HIMSELF, HE IS SHAMED AND TOLD TO APOLOGIZE LIKE IT'S JUST WILD.

#✏️ - ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏsᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏsᴛ // (ooc) #// LIKE Y'ALL COULD'VE DONE ANYTHING ELSE..... #// HELL YOU COULD'VE HAD IT BE THAT JIN WAS TRAINING WITH PEERS AND TOOK IT TOO FAR AND JUN SCOLD HIM FOR THAT #// SDJFNSDFJNDF WHY THE ABUSERS????? WHY???? SDFNG DFGJSDFNDF #// WEIRD ROUTE TO GO DOWN

[26ja]

🦋If you get this, answer with 3 facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog🦋

Hey! Thanks a lot for this ask. Sorry I let it sit for a bit because it's a bit similar feeling as when new teacher asks you to say few words about yourself and you promptly forget everything there is and half the class then goes with 'my hobby is sleeping' :D (real thing that happened, including me of course:P)

sooo.... hehe, why don't use this for a bit of rant (sorry)

1. I have no irl friends outside of family (which sucks majorly)

(I changed school at the edge of puberty and feels like I haven't recovered ever since - had 1 or 2 friends at high school and none since then.)

2. For tenth birthday I chose my present - 1000 pcs. puzzle just to see if I could do it. Turns out I could, with the help of family, and then several times by my own (different puzzles of course.)

3. I am apparently "interested in ideas"

...

Does this sound so pretentious and insufferable to you? Well, good news, you're not alone. That is something that was told to me with a straight face.

Ohooo I wanted to rant about this for the longest time. Sorry.

So, in the last year of high school we were made to take this personality/iq test which consisted of millions of questions that kept repeating themselves apparently trying to catch you lying. Which offended me massively along with the fact that the very first question was 'tell something that is important to know about yourself'. Which again, teenage me was offended - if you want to asses me, analyze me, then figure it yourself, duh. So I am sitting there looking at blank page, chancing side look at the class mate who's writing - I kid you not - two full pages of who knows what.

Anyway. Those test were supposed to help us with choosing school/career after high school. Which, you guessed it, did nothing of the sort for me. After the tests were evaluated, several days later, we had a meeting with the dude - still not sure who he was. Some kind of psychiatrist, psychologist maybe? Maybe not, who knows. And this is what he tells me.

That I am "interested in ideas". And I am sitting there bit anxious, 'cause duh, you're supposed to tell me what to do with life and I am immediately stunned, slowly realizing that this isn't going to help me to choose school, thinking to myself who isn't? Like c'mon.

So I say OK. Or good perhaphs.

What is that even supposed to mean? Interested in ideas. Pff.

And this is not where it ends. Do you want to know what more he tells me?

That I am "cold".

I kid you not. He tells me I am cold.

So here I am, saying OK or equivalent of it, 'cause what the hell you're supposed to do in such a situation. And that's probably not the reaction he's going for, because he immediately starts defending himself as if I accused him of something. Which I did not. He starts telling me that that's not what he himself is saying, that's what my test is saying, that that's how people perceive me.

(Which, he might not be entirely wrong in hindsight. Sigh.)

But really? Wtf dude? Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you for ever thinking this is OK to tell to teenage girl. Fuck you. Even years later - fuck you.

(At any given moment I am like 5 seconds from crying and you tell me I'm cold? wtf? I am awkward. When I don't know how to react - which is often - I just don't. React. Fuck you, man.)

Anyway, I thought this is where I'll stop but - ah, whatever. I'm gonna spill all the beans. Cause this whole meeting was certainly an experience.

So anyway, on the test, one of the questions was - circle what careers you're interested in. So cue me circling military career among the others. (Mind you, I'm not complete idiot, these are the times of peace, when everything looks OK and any conflict is just a bad dream.)

Single reason for it is - they retire early. I am not working at this point but I am pretty sure I don't even want to like ever, so if I have to, it should be the shortest possible time, right? They retire at what - like forty? Some of them choose to work for longer because they are bored. Can you imagine? So that's my thought process behind it.

And the dude goes, there you circled military, it doesn't really check out with the rest, why you did that. And because I am an idiot at last, I say because when you want to throw over a government you need military :D And he goes, hm, yes, interested in ideas...

So anyway, I'm pretty sure they still have that record on me somewhere :D

(But tbh I am still kinda proud of my non-reaction when he told me I'm cold. Kinda wish I was this sassy on purpose and not just awkward but well, I certainly do hope the dude got the same whiplash from meeting me as I got from him. )

#ask answered #personal #rant #I guess this was more then 3 facts #sorry

[mobiused]

hi mobi mobiused thank you for all the loona blogging you do you’re a champion and a hero. i wanted to know what would your ideal loona album would look like in terms of songs and styling etc like if you got to be the creative and musical director on an album of theirs what would you love to see!

Thank you for the love and support it really means a lot to me. To be honest just because I know they would never do it and because Yves and I were talking about it the other night I would LOVE to see a j-idol style punk/grunge album from them. Now it really doesn't have to actually sound punk, (because 1. this doesn't work with twelve singers and 2. theyre kpop lets stick to that) it just appropriates the aesthetic from them. Ideally pulling from the j-rock scene way more than like present day cringe commercialised cleaned up bullshit you know what I mean. We can steal from the wardrobes of both Avril Lavigne and Tommy Heavenly6 though I'd be happy with that.

For the TT I'd like a shouty and fun song in major that makes you wanna sing along (Yeah sorry this is another 4th gen idol songs without a melody in the chorus LOL) like okay I'm seeing the vision it's a summer school's out anthem like mmm if I had to use examples I'd mix Billlie's Ring Ma Bell (which I thought had the right spirit but was unfortunately way underproduced) and OK please don't think I'm cringe but maybe like you know when Paramore's tone shifted and it became pop rock so yeah like Aint it Fun. So like that... Like a lot of rough guitar presence still but overall it's a good time cheerful mood you know. Maybe a little bit melodic in the chorus then I guess. And also it actually sounds good And thematically going back to the 'Schools Out' theme (And when I say school I mean way less school and way more summer holiday) we're gonna expand on what rebellion means to the girls in-lore. Like what exactly are our silent protests and what are they for. Why are the girls outsiders (aside from the obvious) and where are they taking it. Like I say every time someone asks me I would like it if they picked up the threads that were dropped in the previous MV. Like literally any semblance of continuity would be massively appreciated. And I also think that instead of a loud fuck the haters ITZY-core style rebellion (sorry I actually love ITZY but they're camp and LOONA's pretentious, so), I think building on the theme of Why Not where it's more about aligning oneself with your own values and moving forward in life independent from societal views, as opposed to that meme which is like >lives life in opposition to something >inadvertently makes entire life about said thing (you guys know what I mean. probably) would be a really good way to further it. And it doesnt have to be that lore-y its just like yeah this is a thing that fits with LOONA's brand.

And as for B-sides well they still need to do a real UK House song because flop that does not fucking count. Actually we need a Day & Night sequel forget UK house lets get UK GARAGE. Because it's fucking good and we need another. I think we can bring back a featured instrumentalist not necessarily guitar but like literally anything because getting Jungmo from TRAX on Love & Live went hard as hell even if the song itself was erm. Anyway. I also want it to be danceable because I fucking miss a classic LOONA intro (*says classic but they only did it for two TTs lol*). And I'm bored of explaining so here's the imaginary setlist 1. Intro ft. famous Korean musician 2. Kpop rock title track 3. R&B summer sunset cruising anthem 4. I actually kinda ended up liking the interpolation of Gloria Gaynor in After Like so maybe a vaguely disco inspired track because this is my imagination and I can do what I want 5. UK Garage track. Promoted Bside that shows off their vocals. Yeojin gets a part which shows off her vocals as a treat. Hyeju can have a rap with way too much english that fails to scan because I think it's cute. 6. Acid house track with trance influences and this one can be the fun one at concerts where they just kind of aimlessly hop around and pick up slogans from fans as if they're really gonna keep them

Noticeably NO FUCKING BALLADS.

...Or they could just rip off Rolling Quartz the only group that is doing k-rock right atm teehee

#(actually nazababara was underproduced just like RMB was but we'll live) #(also i like rolling quartz please listen to them) #(not so discreet plug) #also this got long whoops

[maryellencarter]

so apparently having a new lupin thing i am distinctly enjoying (lupin zero) is what it took to get me around to watching the lupin thing i had not seen yet that i really hadn't heard anything positive about (part 6, not counting "the times" which i have already seen and loved the hell out of, but have not managed to watch since july because... you know)

thoughts so far, as of finishing episode 7 (i'm watching the subs then the dub for each episode, which helps me follow details better but definitely takes longer):

* wow. so you know how i like to say about part 5 that, love it or hate it, that is a piece of media that knew exactly what it wanted to do and went for it? this is the opposite. the only episode so far that seemed to have an actual goal in mind is the one where the goal was "i am going to retell an ernest hemingway story, and also insert into the dialogue the titles of every other hemingway story in the same collection", which sure did do what it set out to do, but was it a thing worth setting out to do?

...well, given that i am told the guest writers for each non-main-plot episode in the first half were all instructed "you must base your episode on a specific piece of crime fiction", i have to admit that playing the world's most pretentious version of the game where you try to write a paragraph without any E's in it was... probably the most Mamoru Oshii possible way of complying with a stupid requirement, and definitely hewed closer to the spirit of the rule than the one where NPCs with names relevant to Ellery Queen did fuck-all of importance.

episode by episode:

* "enter sherlock holmes". in which sherlock holmes looks a great deal like somebody tried to make a 2D version of first!jigen and failed to grasp why first!jigen is sexy. also in the english version all the brits are dubbed by american-sounding americans, which is the most auditorily disorienting version of sherlock holmes i have heard (although i must admit i never did get around to watching the veggietales version, but if there's one thing the veggietales guys have demonstrated their commitment to doing from day one, it's accents... and now I'm humming "oh no, what we gonna do")

where the fuck was i? right. so albert gets worfed to demonstrate that holmes is a badass. why on earth albert would be doing spy work personally in a country where he *doesn't* have millions i've strings to pull, i have no fucking idea. also him going straight to "shoot myself in the head with my last bullet" as an exit strategy compares really badly to the bit in part 5 which... either it was supposed to mirror this, or somebody just failed to do their research, but that moment near the end of part 5 where jigen's on the run alone, down to his last bullet, there are multiple guys about to come around the corner and capture or kill him, and then albert rescues him.

and yeah, that's a moment where you have to wonder if it crossed jigen's mind to use his last bullet for himself instead of going down fighting a hopeless fight, but jigen has never been someone who -- i can't recall a single moment in 53 years that we've seen him actively ready to die. he does plenty of self-destructive shit, but even when a fight can't logically be won, he keeps fighting, even if all he can do is run his mouth. having albert jump straight to suicide in a scene that *has* to be a callback... it doesn't feel right thematically and it doesn't speak to a great understanding of albert as a character (such as he's been so far).

oh yeah, also there was the intial setup for the antagonist secret society "the raven", whose mysterious hooded executioner blew up a guy in protective custody in scotland yard. they weren't terribly impressive. even though i haven't actually seen twcfm, only read spoilers, i feel like a creepy bird-themed secret society is maybe something you're not gonna beat that show on using well?

* "detective and crook". in which jigen and goemon also get worfed to further prove that holmes is a badass. jeez, guys, just give him purple eyes and lavender hair already, huh? lupin also continues his mary-poppins-esque habit of never explaining anything. we do get jigen riding on the back of fujiko's motorcycle, which is a rarity (and keeping his hands where they belong, as opposed to Lupin). fujiko sticks a scroll of paper down her cleavage a la first contact, so that the camera can zoom in on it for maximum jiggle physics opportunity. and lupin blows up a whole-ass demolition site full of cops including zenigata and yata -- none of whom get hurt, but *wow*, that's a life choice.

* "adventure along the (replica) transcontinental railroad". in which lupin wears the biggest turban you ever saw, npcs with ellery queen names do nothing much, fujiko gets whole-ass tied to railroad tracks dudley do-right style and nearly beheaded, jigen and goemon ride a bicycle built for two and also pretend to be cosplaying as themselves in order to throw zenigata off the scent (in the dub, goemon suggests that zenigata page lupin to the front desk like a lost child, which is delightfully goemon), and jigen gets to do some fancy trick shooting that i still don't understand after seeing it twice in order to flip a railway switch and send the runaway train onto a siding. he shot a streetlight and something flew out and somehow that made the switch do the thing?

* "the killers in the diner". in which mamoru oshii plays silly buggers with hemingway titles, lupin and jigen in disguise are voiced by other actors until they're revealed (which has barely ever happened... in the english dub at least, i can think of *one* time a disguised lupin was voiced by lex lang for a scene, that's it), fujiko appears to be disguised as an extremely depressed pippi longstocking for reasons that are never explained, and a bunch of japanese people get to take a fairly reasonable stab at pronouncing "dulles". also it's established that fujiko is bad at cooking, which i think might have been fanon previously but i can't think of anywhere else it was actually established.

* "the imperial city dreams of thieves". a two-parter in which lupin gets dropped into a world based on the works of japanese mystery author edogawa ranpo (this was a pen name based on the name "edgar allan poe"). it's pretty solidly paced for the most part, which is not something you can really count on part 6 for so far, but it's also... well.

so. it's a story set in the late 1920s, about a giant mysterious golden clock/orrery from mongolia, guarded by the heirs of genghis khan, one of whom decides that entrusting it to a young female japanese "explorer" (visually coded very much like the white egyptologists of the era, similarly dedicated to bringing back other cultures' precious artifacts for display, and treated as an unquestionably virtuous character) is obviously the wise and correct choice to keep it out of harm's way -- the youthful guardian of the device accompanying the explorer back to japan as a bodyguard and servant, as well as continuing to guard the clock.

the japanese imperial army, who (the episode does not explain) are most of the reason there's all this war and unrest on the mainland that make the clock's guardian decide it's better off in civilized japan (okay the episode *all but* says the civilized part out loud)... where was i? right. the japanese imperial army, who are busy conquering mainland countries in the whole pan-asian empire thing they did in the run-up to world war ii (christ, it's been forever since i studied that part of history... if i recall, their selling point was "asia for the asiatics", as in they wanted white people out, but in practice they wanted to rule all of asia themselves, so it was more like "asia for the japanese empire") -- the japanese imperial army want the clock in order to give it to a puppet dictator they'll install in mongolia. our young explorer, who is the daughter of a powerful... department store conglomerate?... look, i'm sure it packs some kind of an emotional punch in japanese, but now i'm just cracking myself up imagining the heiress of like woolworth's or sears roebuck facing off against the fbi.

anyway. as i was saying. our young heroine declines to give away the clock, as having it on display at her family's department store is clearly the best place for the cultural artifact that determines rulership of mongolia. (i'm being sarcastic. the episode isn't.) kidnapping and shenanigans ensue.

also, as you would expect from an alternate universe story, there are characters who look exactly like the lupin crew. lupin is put into the role of "golden mask", a phantom thief edogawa ranpo created based on that most popular of phantom thieves, arsène lupin (the first). fujiko becomes "black lizard", a femme fatale originally working with the villain and face of the japanese army -- i think the villain's name is daidouji, but i think leia also picked that out for one of jigen's aliases in one of our stories, so either she has something she could explain to me or that's a very confusing coincidence.

goemon, it will turn out, is also his real-world self along with lupin -- i'll get there in a minute. zenigata is a fictional (secondary-fictional) police inspector with a slightly different name and an almost identical hat. and jigen... jigen is one of the factors that make this episode what you might call, on the internet, Problematic.

so. the villain is a very large japanese army guy named colonel daidouji. his ever-present shadow and sidekick is a very, very familiar-looking major whose name is not initially given, and who very nearly manages to put a bullet in lupin on first meeting him.

now, jigen's au version being evil, y'know, it's a hard sell, it's not impossible that i'd buy it if it was done right, but the thing is that you never have to buy it. tv shows have this need to make au versions of the heroes always still have some kind of heroic core. the really steep issue comes with what kind of a hero he turns out to be.

the character who looks like jigen is eventually revealed to be a character named major yoshiaki hongo from the works of a writer named minetaro yamanaka (whose first google result for me is, uh, the wikipedia article on antisemitism in japan, that's... probably not irrelevant to my point here?). major hongo, at least as described in the episode, is a badass soldier who goes undercover to root out corruption, which is all very well and good... except for the part where his little speech about who he is and what he's doing here, in both languages, leads with "fighting for the liberation of asia". aka, as we discussed, conquering it for the japanese empire.

which, together with the whole misappropriating cultural treasures with the enthusiastic cooperation and servitude of their native owners arc... really, really makes one wonder about many choices that were made.

(oh yeah, it turns out the whole thing is a virtual reality mindfuck, major hongo's badassful hero reveal moment is basically the last thing that happens before everybody explodes into pixels except lupin and goemon, it turns out somebody was trying to get a passcode to lupin's hideout, which they failed at because he was just that smart, but also a couple of shots at the end of the episode imply that everything did actually happen for real somehow. that part is confusing and rushed. the loving morals about cultural artifacts and the liberation of asia from non-japanese rule take precedence.)

(okay, major hongo had a faceoff with goemon who cut a notch in his cap brim so you could see one of his eyes, that was a *very* cool bit of visual design that you could never do with proper jigen because he would murder you for slicing his hat. and then goemon toppled dramatically off a bridge because he is the biggest drama queen in the entire cast and we're talking *including lupin iii*.)

like. i grew up on (western) fiction from this era and earlier. the part where i notice or mind the imperialism is aftermarket. i can, if i try, shut it off and enjoy the show. but, like writing an episode composed largely of ernest hemingway references... is that a goal worth having? especially in a worldwide political climate like this where it's very beneficial to notice the overton window shifting before it slams shut on your damn fingers.

* "an untold tale". in which zenigata is summarily slandered by both lupin and the writers. lupin deduces that the zenigata he's working with is actually sherlock holmes in disguise based on the premise that zenigata is not someone who does things like... run headlong into danger? selflessly protect innocent bystanders? kick ass? stick to a trail?... and is instead someone who, while having a solid idea of lupin's next destination, goes and gets blackout drunk and passes out in a bar instead of staking it out or at least yelling "LUPIN" a lot in the general vicinity.

i guess there's also plot, supposedly. this consists of lupin explaining his movements at a certain time, clearly and in order, over a flashback that agrees with his description. No unreliable narrator in sight. No evading every question like it's "give Jigen rubber bullets and practice dodging" day at the hideout. Just reading pages of boring exposition while being ineffectually shot at by a Colonel Sebastian Moran wielding one of the clunkiest air-guns I've ever seen the man burdened with.

(I haven't gotten around to watching the dub of this last-named episode yet, but I hear that somebody majorly failed at googling, overcommitted to "all R's in the Japanese must become L's in English", and created the character of Colonel Sebastian *Molan*. I'm not sure I'm gonna have spoons for that one for a bit.)

#lupin iii part 6

[shinydixon]

i'm gonna say something that will probably come across as pretentious but i promise that is not the intention. i'm old, in social media years. you're 27, you said? i could be your mother. i could be the mother of all those teenage girls bringing upon this hell because of an article. yes, old people watch teen shows and some even have opinions about them! some, like me, have favorite ships and characters too. it's crazy. i work with pr. there is no bad publicity. i know some of you have never watched the beginning of someone's career like this. we are literally seeing joseph becoming this huge thing in real time. i understand the love you (we) have for him as an actor makes the entire situation seem so scary and huge. this feels like a huge thing. but it's not. it's just the edge of an entire painting. it's good that you guys are reaching out to the author to let her know that there are both sides to the story (something she should know herself but apparently she doesn't) but even if it fails, don't fret. if anything an article bad mouthing joseph fans will only drag in curious people and i can assure you a lot of them will choose to stay. it's very obvious that this is ship related. they think it's a win. it's not. if they're trying to silence joseph fans then they're choosing to go about this the wrong way. this will only make them louder. it's the reason joseph signed in to be at cons for two years. if you have someone yeling that his fans are inside and his fans are crazy more people will come to his panels because human curiosity is a wonderful thing in this business. so if you're worried this is going to hurt joseph's image, it won't. if anything, it will help even more. joseph has shown himself to be kind and caring and he's an amazing actor. he just got cast in a huge movie and he's apparently rumored to be talking to marvel. joseph will be fine. and these girls who started all of this, they will make some noise and then they'll fade. because that's what happens with 'fans' like them. i1ve seen it happen a thousand times and it never changes.

Thank you dear, it means a lot 🤍

[sundownsquad]

I was tagged by @echo-my-cyare! ❤️ Tag people you want to get to know better!

Drums has gone ahead and answered these questions! 👍 From the man himself:

Favorite color: Blue! Which likely comes as no surprise.

Currently reading: A published study on droid cognitive heuristics called "How to Think Like a Droid". It's pretentious as hell, but it's got good working methods.

Last song: "Naboo Taboo" by the Scatterlights.

Last series: None lately, actually. Been too busy to get into a new one. Might look into that historical Twi'lek drama the Stormhunter guys have been going on about, though.

Last movie: Knox and I watched a Quarren comedy the other night that we mostly just turned on for background noise but it ended up being absolutely hilarious. We were laughing so hard Speedy pinged us from the other room to tell us to shut up, but he and Kess ended up wandering over and watched with us. We're gonna show it to Zio and Chigba later, they'll get a kick out of it, too.

Sweet/spicy/savory: Savory mostly but I'll never turn down sweets. Not a huge fan of spicy food, though.

Favorite food: We once had this food called batalator that was AMAZING. We found it at the most unassuming little dive of a restaurant at a fuel station in the middle of nowhere. The restaurant was run by the sweetest little old Togruta lady who ended up chatting with us for a good hour. She recommend we try the batalator, though it was more like she said "I'm making this for you" and wandered off to make it without actually taking our order. I'm so glad she did, though, because it's the best food I've ever had. I'm not even totally sure how to describe it, actually. It was a meat stew sort of thing but whatever sauce it was stirred into was stupid good. She gave us bread to dip in it and everything. And... wait, sorry, I've been rambling on about stew. I should probably move on to the next question.

Song stuck in my head: This horrible little jingle that goes along with a stupid toothpaste ad. Been stuck in my head for two days straight. Accidentally started humming it yesterday without realizing it and Knox was like "Are you seriously humming the toothpaste song?" I definitely was.

Last thing I spoogled (space googled): "What would cause a sudden, near explosive increase of fuel line pressure that is somehow not related to the fuel line pumps or casing" (I figured it out, don't worry)

Time: 20:31, Galactic Standard Time

Dream vacation: Hmmm... You know, I've never really thought about this. Uhhh, maybe go to one of those fancy beach resorts on Champala? Those are supposed to be pretty cool.

Currently working on: Fixing a droid that has the problem solving prowess of a dumbbell. Poor little guy got stuck in a corner and simply could not figure his way out. That's why I'm reading the book on droid heuristics.

#Thanks for the tag! <3 #Trooper Drums #Sundown Squad #Sundown Asks

[ronearoundblindly]

Hey Ro! I'm so glad I caught the post before your birthday. Happy birthday and here's to a great day and very productive, successful year full of growth. For the birthday post I'm really unsure of any idea but I really love the way you write. You could literally rewrite the most boring article and I'd swoon with awe and disbelief at how great it is. I'd love to read your favorite trope, like sharing a bed, enemies to lovers, childhood friends, best friends to lovers or any other cliche you love. Thank you for sharing your work!

TLDR; scroll for drabble after my drivel.

Oh boy, this one is HARD. I'm gonna sound pretentious as hell, but I really love finding a way to mess with tropes. I like writing about imperfect relationships that work out because people work hard at them. (The voice in the back of my head is screaming, "you like painfully slow burns, bitch." But yeah, shut up, brah. Oh great, now it's just singing "smut" over and over. Well, fine. Brain's not wrong.)

I like finding organic transitions of behavior like people being nervous to excited to comfortable. I wanna read how Steve Rogers evolves as a man, and frankly, it's difficult to really get that from just a fighting style or being a hero all the time. I put him in domestic-adjacent situations and go wild thinking about how he'd react. Although to be fair, I got back into fanfic a few years ago with a Bucky x OFC, so it's really anybody being explored more through different scenarios.

I like characters in character. Now, that said, if you lead me there with experiences and background and interactions, I'm invested and will totally buy dark!characters and AUs, but I'm a picky bitch about jumping straight into--say--a hardcore BDSM sex scene when the characters have been flirting for 50k and have only kissed once. I'll read it, but I won't believe it. I'm not invested then. (Told you I was gonna sound pretentious.)

Ok now for a wee scene--only warning is zero editing. FluffyMcFlufferson WC ~450

In the Sunshine

Steve nods his head in the direction he wants you to look, but it’s too vague.

“Where?”

“Right there,” he whispers. “Are you even looking?” His head tries to point fervently to his eleven o’clock.

Of course, you see them, a whole family of deer lazily prancing in the sunshine a ways across the wooded ground, probably heading to the same babbling brook Steve is giving you a piggy-back ride to. You saw them before he even stopped, but it’s easy to see everything from your perch atop his hips. Yes, the shelf of his lovely, defined ass helps keep you propped high enough to squish your cheek against the side of his head, soft hair caressing back and forth with his strides.

A glorious, golden day indeed.

Steve is frozen, thinking his already imposing figure made more massive by your legs spread wide around his sides and your elbows jutting out, will spook the doe. 

She stares you dead in the eye. Her ear flicks, and her long tongue shoots out in a lick.

“I don’t think they give a shit about us, love,” you mutter so low and close to Steve’s ear that when he turns, he bumps your nose.

Your eyes water at the bit of sting that zaps through that delicate nerve.

Steve winces. “I’m sorry” rushes past his lips, louder than he intends. He shifts his footing instinctively which simply moves you with him, so he can’t look right at you.

The leaves crunch beneath his huge boots. Steve’s grip loosens under your knees, and you shift more weight to cling to his shoulder.

“No, honey, look.” Your command sounds nasally as you pinch your nose and wait for the tickle to stop.

Momma Deer flicks one ear and then the other. Baby stops nuzzling something at the roots of a sapling before looking back to their parents, ignoring you two entirely.

You’re recovered and settled again against his broad back. You keep your voice soft, breath hot on his skin. 

“They have good instincts, Steve. You might be big, but it doesn’t mean you’re scary.” You let your hand slide down his chest a little and pat. “We are looking. We all see the same thing. A good man.”

Steve sighs when your lips meet his cheek, and you both hum. He’s never gonna get used to this, and you’re secretly very glad of that because you will never get sick of reflecting Steve Rogers’  heart back to him.

The deer head to the stream, and Steve follows, bouncing you a little until you giggle and hold on tighter.

This is where Steve can be himself, can see himself, and can love himself: in the sunshine.

divider by @firefly-graphics

#ro answers #fanfic #this is the only place i talk too much #i swear #all lies #steve rogers drabble #drabble #fluff #reader insert #one shot

[whoreforharlow]

We're "Roasting" him … Let's goooooooooooo!!! Fuck it, imma just say it, the man in insecure as hell. His whole alpha male "Personality" is so cringy and a turn off. It makes him look stupid and anything but confident. The lack of promo on his end for anything, screams 15 minutes of fame. Sometimes I wonder if he has anything else to give and it's sad, because I like his stuff, but he is concerned about superficial bullshit like what his friends think and "Optics". I don't know if anything he has done has truly been his own doing, it seems like he is always wanting validation from someone. Him having "The greats" on his last album was a huge mistake, because they made his head big, yet the peppa pig album scored higher than chtkmy. The no promo on this album was a huge mistake, never mind dropping it so randomly and out of nowhere. It seems like he has given up. As the other anon said, he only interacts with us when he wants something and even then it's a select few - time we discussed the favoritism in the fandom, and if anyone is gonna deny it, respectfully go and fuck yourself. It's time for him to figure it out and let go of his ego. He is not the hot shit he thinks he is, I am not saying he's bad, but he says one thing and his actions say another.

I miss the old jack, where he was known for his personality and he would engage with us and we felt connected. Now I don't even believe a word this man says, because he's pretentious as hell. He's playing some mind game, but I don't know with who. He's so easy to see through, yet in his interviews he tries to be mysterious and all this crap.

Ngl, the "we're roasting him? Let's gooooo" had me ctfu 🤣

I do miss the older goofy Jack. I am kinda confused by who he's presenting himself to be now, like what opinion does he want us to have of him, ya know? Like back when he was the internets boyfriend or the white boy of the month, we knew who he what his image was supposed to be. Now because he kinda drops off and pops back up every now and again, it's kinda know who he is.

Like I said, I'm kinda just into the Jack in my head more so than him as an artist. I did like WMCJ, but his promo interviews kinda left a lot to be desired as far as his personality. Like TWTAS Jack was honestly chefs kiss, and even leading up to CHTKMY he was interactive and giving the girlies what we wanted. He was charismatic and we got to see his personality. A year later and it's like we don't even know who he is anymore.

I'm still a fan of his because I do like his music, I listen to him probably everyday, but his older stuff mostly. I think because I can picture him in each album. But then I listen to Jackman and I just don't connect to it. Like to release something so "raw", I want to be able to connect the music to the artist, but I can't because this man gives us nothing to go off of.

Most of what he gives us is to troll us, nothing seems real with him. Like you said, he's playing mind games but with who exactly???? Like even with the alpha thing, I feel like it was to get a rise out people. Like I feel like everything he says is kinda to lead us astray from who he is. Like wanting to be mysterious and keep his privacy, but like we're not asking for his home address, we're asking for a selfie or something lol

#anon