#like nikki james did

[chxrlie-cox]

Production on Daredevil Born Again has shut down for the rest of the week due to the WGA writers strike

via Deadline

#strikes are supposed to be disruptive #don't make me tap the sign #would be great to see charlie out supporting the strikes now #like nikki james did #charlie cox #matt murdock #daredevil #daredevil born again

[emmaspolaroid]

the promised neverland is so unserious what do you mean a this man built a clown-themed village

#James I was prepared to like you and then you did That. #goldy pond was terrifying before the demons idc #according to me! a girl who is terrified of clowns #the aesthetics would have taken me out before the hunt even started #also this is a joke lol #no I did not sleep well lol #don’t worry about it #nikki talks about tpn

[nicohischierz]

dad every day, coach on sunday: nolan moyle au

all credit to @power2myheart and her suggestion that nolan looks like a real estate agent 

tani speaks: also this is an au and like if the teams and things don’t make sense just ignore it and pretend it does 

“alex-james moyle, if you don’t come downstairs right now we’re going to be late!“ nolan yelled for his son. your husband was the coach of your children’s bantam team. 

you helped your daughter load her bags into the car as your son ran out the door. nolan locked your front door and made his way to the car as you got in the passenger seat. 

“you know AJ, back in michigan if any of the boys were late they had to find their own way to the rink,” nolan recalled. your son rolled his eyes as you prepared for the chaos of the rink. 

once your family reached the rink, nolan gave you a kiss before heading off to get things ready for the game. your daughter, nicole, gave you a small hug before heading off to the locker room and your son just waved before walking with his friends. 

“y/n!” you heard your name being called and turned to find nick blankenburg. nick gave you a hug and the two of you made your way to your seats by the glass. 

after nick graduated from michigan, he had gone to play for the columbus blue jackets whilst nolan stayed to get his real estate certificate. it was in your senior year that you fell pregnant with AJ. 

“hey blanks, is KJ coming as well?” you asked. it was tradition for nolan’s old teammates to come watch the first game of the season if they could. nick nodded “he and owen are on the way. i’m pretty sure briss is coming with bords and luca,” he added. 

you smiled at him and nodded turning your attention to the ice. you watched as your children warmed up together and watched as nolan adjusted his tie. “has AJ been practicing the tricks i taught him?” kent asked as he and owen sat next to you. 

owen came around and gave you a hug before urging kent to do the same thing. “of course he has, he wants to be just like his uncle kent,” you answered. owen explained that victoria couldn’t come because his daughter was unwell. 

“the party has arrived!” brendan announced. trailing after him was bords, luca, mackie, mark and eddy. “duker and luke are in the parking lot. mini duker and mini hughes had a little bit of a shoving match,” mark explained. 

it was clear to everyone in the group that luke’s son had the biggest crush on dylan’s daughter. but the two fathers would always deny the statement. luke’s son would do anything for duker’s daughter and she would get mad at him for helping her. 

only once the game had started did dylan and luke come in with their children. dylan’s wife was pregnant with their second child and luke’s wife was working on another movie. 

“woah is that little nicole? she’s really fast,” the boys mumbled as your daughter skated up the ice. “come on nicole.”  “go mini moyle!” “go nikki!” your group cheered as nicole neared the net. 

however, just as she was about the put the puck past the goalie one of the players from the opposing team checked her hard into the goal post squashing her shoulder in the process. 

you watched as the same guy said something to your daughter as she cradled her arm in pain. your son was there in minutes shoving the guy away from his sister. AJ was never one to start a fight and win so when he dropped his gloves you knew this was going to be terrible. 

“oh shit, AJ can fight,” brendan mumbled as everyone watched your son punch the guy. the referees were quick to break up the fight before anyone could land another punch. 

the game ended with your children’s team winning and your son going to the box three times. nicole had joined you and the others in the stand after the first period she sat next to layla and enzo. 

“hey nikki, how’s the arm?” nick asked your daughter. the group of you were waiting for nolan and AJ to join you for lunch. nicole didn’t look up from her phone as she shrugged “it’s okay uncle nick,” 

when mark saw AJ he started clapping “look at my favourite nephew. he’s coming after my penalty minutes record,” he teased. AJ shook his head as he sat next to enzo giving the younger boy a fist bump. 

nolan gave you a kiss before sitting next to you. “i think i might revoke mark’s visiting rights if AJ turns out like him,” nolan remarked. the boys laughed and continued talking amongst each other. ethan’s fiancee had joined you guys for lunch and the two of you were sat next to the children. 

“nini, i swear if you don’t tell andrew what his cousin did i’ll tell him myself,” AJ announced out loud. everyone stopped their conversations and looked to your children. “who’s andrew?” nolan asked. 

nicole glared at her brother before replying “no one dad. it doesn’t matter because nothing is happening,” 

nolan gave nicole his dad stare but your daughter just turned to you. “mom,” she pleaded. “andrew larkin. he’s in nicole’s year and they’re just friends alex-james so don’t try starting things,” you warned. 

“his cousin is the player that hit me. but he was trying to apologise before mr hot-head punched him,” she spat. when nolan realised who the kid was his face paled before he turned to his son “AJ i love you, but i cannot believe you punched my clients child. i have to see his dad tomorrow dude,” nolan groaned. 

your son shrugged and continued eating his pizza as nicole returned to typing on her phone. the boys teased nolan about his meeting tomorrow until nick put a stop to it. no matter what happened captain nick always had to interfere. 

ethan’s fiancee smiled over at you “i think it’s that time of year where we all go on a girls trip,” she suggested. 

#nolan moyle au #umich hockey imagine #nicohischierz writes

[the-torchwood-archive]

I'm separating this out from the poll because honestly the results are neither here nor there and I want this to be its own post. It's going to be an odd one, so bare with me.

Can I take this opportunity to talk about the actual reason I think that Gwen gets a lot of hate? Coming from someone who spent a good maybe ten years somewhat in the Gwen bash camp and in the past handful of years has had some clarity over it.

The reason people don't like Gwen is that she is narratively immune from consequence. All of the Torchwood team are morally compromised and make bad choices and are made to suffer for it. Gwen, for the most part, is not. This is not a problem with the character Gwen Cooper. This is a problem with her writing. That's where the problem lies. I actually love Gwen. I hate her writing.

Looking at things like her cheating on Rhys. Firstly with James and secondly with Owen. She gets what she needs emotionally, things end, and she stays with Rhys. There are no consequences. Owen sleeps with her and then falls in love with Diane and is framed as the villain.

Torchwood becomes a priority in her life and yet she is still able to maintain enough of a social life to have close friends in her wedding party. There are no consequences. Tosh has Torchwood as her priority and finds it impossible to have a social life.

She thinks with her heart and gets people hurt. She smuggles Suzie out, she gets Rhys shot, she traumatizes Nikki. People get hurt, but it's framed as okay because she means well. There are no consequences.

She pushes against Jack and gets away with it, when Owen gets fired. She brings a third party into the Hub to keep them safe and while he gets killed, it's undone by the end of the episode, while Tosh and Ianto have their loved one die permanently. Torchwood operatives can't have spouses brought into the fold and will be stood down if pregnant, yet she brings Rhys into the fold with no consequences and her pregnancy at the beginning of COE is framed as not being a deal breaker.

I love this messy bitch. They're all messy bitches and if you have one that you single out as being worse than the others, then it's worth taking a look at that. I think that when it comes down to it, it isn't actually the character Gwen Cooper that people find problem with, but the lack of consequences that she faces.

We're a lot better as a fandom these days. The anti-Gwen sentiments have really cooled off. I also think that a lot of that cooling off has come from the newer fans having a wider view of the her character, which stemmed from the handing over of writing duties from the TV crew to the EU crew. The rose coloured glasses of the TV crew have come off and the current writers have gone "okay, her life has been ruined. Let's actually show that fall out. Let's give some consequence". And I think that did wonders for the character.

It's nearly impossible to separate an issue with narrative from an issue with character. The two things are so entwined that you almost can't extract them and that's a shame. Because the character is brilliant and was mishandled by writers who had a boner that lasted for much longer than recommended.

#torchwood #gwen cooper #long post #I hope this doesn't come off as a bash post because it's literally the opposite #I want to kiss BF on the lips for actually giving her grounded writing

[beevean]

I get it that Omocat wanted to focus on the feelz over everything else. But games like Yume Nikki(a game that Omori was clearly trying to ape) don't have a big overarching narrative, and is a very simple freeware game that leaves much room for interpretation. Also helps that it's ost was made to be atmospheric, even if you hear a song for only a couple seconds. I can listen to an extended version of this track while working on something, despite it being a 22 second loop.

https://youtu.be/hlayu0pXLYU?si=srwyAuKuP3cKBs3-

And in terms of games where you beat the final boss by unconventional means, the Earthbound/Mother series(another game/s Omocat was obviously trying to emulate) does so in a way that ties in perfectly with the story and characters in all three games, making the emotional pay-off from them earned.

Omori really wanted to be those games, but missed the mark on why they eventually became cult classics, while a game like Undertale was able to perfectly capture the spirit of them.

I could compare OMORI to Silent Hill 2, which I don't know much in detail (@woodchipp is the one who made this comparison - I keep tagging him because he's the expert here :P) but I know that its big twist is that the protagonist actually killed his wife because she fell sick. Apparently many fans picked for James the ending where he kills himself because they did not have any sympathy for him. I know that the game itself did not paint him as a poow bapyboy, just presented you with the events and his understandable guilt.

I could compare it to Hereditary, which also has a brother accidentally causing his sister's death and (before steering into the paranormal side of the plot) was about how that death wrecked the entire family and destroyed the relationship between son and mother who could only blame everyone around her.

I could compare it to Bojack Horseman, which explores the themes of forgiveness with cruel nuance - we viewers relate to Bojack and want him to finally find happiness because we get familiar with his circumstances, but when he fucks up, the people around him are allowed to cut contact with him, which makes eventual forgiveness (like from Todd) be even more precious. Incidentally, Xerox of a Xerox is all about Hollywoo discovering Bojack's role in Sarah Lynn's death (pushing her to go on a bender that led to her overdose and deliberately waiting to call an ambulance to create an alibi)... and he more than pays the consequences.

I could compare it to Steven Universe, and how it shows just how many people Rose hurt with her deception, even if well intentioned - Garnet falls apart, Amethyst tries to protect Steven from feeling responsible, Pearl moves on from her after their final bind has been cut.

I could compare it to Evangelion, which, as @spinningbuster98 said, also has a depressed teen as its protagonist, but he's pitiable because the story actually fleshes him out and doesn't shy away from the worst sympthoms of his depression, self-loathing and deep desire to be loved.

And if you mention unconventional final bosses, then there's also Undertale and its three final bosses: Asgore removing the choice of MERCY because he really wants to be killed, the fight against Asriel where Frisk is so full of Determination to SAVE him that they straight up cannot die, and Sans cheating all over the place because you player are also a cruel cheater. Also hugging Asriel and him crying that he doesn't want to let go >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> a shallow slideshow of Sunny and Mari being oh so happy together.

This story has been done multiple times, and infinitely better, giving all the respect necessary to every character involved, not just the cute protagonist. OMORI has nothing to offer if not a decent aesthetic.

#omori critical

[mightyflamethrower]

Donald Trump gave one of his best and most conciliatory speeches of his political career after his win in the recent Iowa primaries—that might explain why the media would not cover it. Later, to answer an ad hoc ambush reporter’s question whether he would hold grudges, he emphatically said he did not.

Yet after his win in New Hampshire, Trump went ballistic at Nikki Haley’s earlier charges that he, rather than Joe Biden, was cognitively challenged, past his prime, and a perennial loser of popular votes.

In response, Trump shed his short-lived Iowa temperance. He went wholehog after Haley’s dress and her affectations and trashed her character. He tweeted that she was a “birdbrain,” and on and on.

For six years, observers have noted the disconnect between Trump’s stellar record of governance, his occasional sense of humor and even self-criticism—and his ad hominem venom that often turns off the 3-7 percent of the electorate in the suburbs who otherwise might vote for him.

Reasonable calls to tone it down by pundits, aides, and friends do not work with Trump, and perhaps for several understandable reasons.

One, Trump is reactive in his “they started it, I finish it” mode. His theory of deterrence is to be disproportionate in retort to eliminate future preemptive attacks. Almost all of Trump’s crudeness was in disproportionate response, sometimes even to minor offenses.

In such a world of Trump deterrence, if you do not relish a crude Trump, then don’t first talk about cutting off his head, blowing him up, stabbing him, shooting him, or lighting him on fire, or don’t spread lies like “Russian collusion,” “laptop disinformation,” or that the influence-selling Biden consortium was innocent of shaking down foreign interests for millions of dollars that were routed into the clan’s coffers.

To put it another way, remember how Barack Obama went ballistic over the yarns, often fueled by Trump himself, that he was born in Kenya (a mythos he himself fueled by allowing his book to be plugged as the work of a Kenyan-born, exotic-named author, e.g., “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.”).

But what would a prickly Obama have done had right-wing prosecutors, mirror images of a Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, or Jack Smith, indicted him over his garnering and intentionally not reporting the names of major contributors in 2008 (rather than the federal election commission taking five years to fine Obama $375,000 for what was essentially campaign fraud).

What would Obama have said or done had a federal prosecutor indicted him for bribery, extortion, or tax fraud over the illegal Tony Rezko lot deal? What would have been his reaction to his “wingman.” Eric Holder’s, being jailed for his refusal to obey a congressional subpoena (such a transgression may well earn both Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro jail sentences).

Trump was pilloried for the Russian collusion farce. But the reality was that the 2015-17 Russian collusion conspiracy farce was discussed and greenlighted in the West Wing by a lame-duck but knowledgeable Obama, who unleashed his FBI, CIA, and DOJ to do whatever, legal or not, it took to stop Donald Trump.

Currently, Donald Trump was just fined $83.3 by a left-wing New York jury presided over by a left-wing judge in a suit filed by a left-wing writer who was funded by a left-wing Silicon Valley billionaire—all possible because a left-wing state legislator had recently lifted the statute of limitations on allegations of sexual assault to allow three-decade-old charges like E. Jean Carroll’s to be refiled.

So Trump blew up and charged out of the courtroom, lost his cool in the courtroom, and hurt any slight chance he had to escape such an outrageous and politicized fine. But again, note the surreal nature of the suit. Carrol cannot remember even the year in which she and Trump, she claims, ended up in a department store dressing room. She was mistaken about the dress she wore on the day of the assault. Long after the alleged assault, she praised Trump’s Apprentice as her favorite TV show. She created an app game called Damn Love, described as: “You’re shown two people who are madly in love. Your object is to break them up. Shown a pair of options, you choose the ones more likely to stir up shit, given each person’s personality and proclivities, and the quicker you can make them split, the more you increase your evilness and rise through the ranks. Carroll’s narrative about being sexually assaulted in a department store dressing room is eerily almost the identical narrative of a 2012 “Law & Order: SVU” episode that focused on an alleged sexual assault in the lingerie dressing room of the very same Bergdorf Goodman department store. Coincidence or inspiration? And thus, to refute all the above, Trump was criminalized as a defamer and fined $83 million. Under such rules of evidence and damages, what would Joe Biden have had to pay when his former senatorial aide, Tara Reade, accused him of a sexual assault, only to be widely defamed by legions of Biden’s left-wing flacks? So much of Trump’s rage is an understandable reaction to the sustained, unhinged venom of the media and left.

Two, Trump’s base, unlike his other supporters, does not differentiate between Trump’s solid governance and his volatile character. They see what he does and says not as antithetical but complementary. Trump, in the base’s view, gets things done precisely because he displays open, unfiltered contempt for the swamp, the bipartisan political class, the globalists, and the media.

His 24/7 bellicosity, MAGA diehards feel, ensures he will always be hated by the media and establishment—and thus not compromised even if he wished to be. In other words, for MAGA, whom a president is despised by is more important than by whom he is liked. For the base, the role of a mercurial and disruptive Clinton Eastwood gunslinger is preferable to that of a jolly Roy Rodgers crooner.

Three, Trump is seen as the MAGA rabid pit bull, who, from time to time, is to be unleashed and pointed in the proper direction. For those who were smeared collectively and nonstop by Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or a late John McCain variously as clingers, deplorables, irredeemables, racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, chumps, dregs, semi-fascists, hobbits, bizarros, and crazies—and as smelly and toothless by the media—Trump is their payback.

Has a Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, or Adam Schiff ever apologized to the nation for daily lying to the American people that the Biden family was never compromised by or profited from Hunter Biden’s skullduggery, that Christopher Steele’s dossier was authentic, that Hunter’s laptop was cooked up in Moscow, or that COVID sprung from a bat or pangolin?

So for the Trump voter, those nightly, serial lies had more deleterious consequences for the nation than a leaked Trump private conversation in which he supposedly said Haiti was a “sh-thole” country.

All of the above may explain, though not defend, what appears to the bicoastal elite and even many Trump supporters as irrational, if not self-destructive, behavior.

However, why Trump does what he does still does not address the central question of 2024—what is now in Trump’s own self-interest—and the country’s?

Before answering that question, most would object that it does not matter. Trump cannot help himself even if he tried, as if Heraclitus was right that a man’s nature is his fate (ἦθος ἀνθρώπῳ δαίμων, often loosely translated as “character is destiny”).

Yet there are reasons to suggest that Trump, in fact, could scale back the ad hominem invective.

One, in the past, he has been magnanimous and certainly did not go after enemies or subvert the levers of government in the manner of the Obama administration that weaponized the DOJ and had West Wing meetings, where the Steele dossier and Hillary Clinton’s subterfuge were openly condoned, if not abetted.

Two, the 2024 election is different from both 2016 and 2020. There is no longer a COVID ruse to change voting laws or conduct a surrogate campaign.

Instead, the left is open now about its intentions to put Biden on ice in his basement, outsource the campaign to handlers and the media, count on billions from big tech and finance to ensure 70 percent of swing state balloting is not on Election Day, and blast Trump as a January 6 insurrectionary and murderer of women in need of abortions.

They will seek to keep him off the ballot in dozens of states and coordinate four prosecutions to jail him during the campaign season. The near billion dollars infused into the election to alter voting laws in 2020 will be seen as child’s play in 2024.

More importantly, the country is imploding in 2024 in a way it was not in 2020, when there was still a border, deterrence abroad, coherent energy policies, deterrent police, and a semblance of the rule of law.

Now there is simply no margin of error.

To be elected, Trump will have to win the popular vote by at least 4-5 percent. What’s more, the error/rejection rate on mail-in/early balloting in most states will be a fraction of what it had been pre-COVID. 2020 taught us that the more purple states are flooded with massive non-election ballots under 2020 altered ballot rules, the more the normal rejection percent of unsubstantiated or illegal ballots declines.

Trump has an enormous responsibility in 2024 to stay calm, reach out, and get even rather than mad.

Why? For millions, he is now seen as the last and only obstacle to what more than half of America believes is the sustained, left-wing attempt to turn the nation into something unrecognizable—an imploding country of open borders, with two million illegal entries per year, racial separatism and tribal chauvinism, the end of deterrence abroad, soaring crime and homelessness, $35 trillion in debt with $2 trillion annual deficits, wars on natural gas and oil, and warping of the administrative state and the law to punish enemies and reward friends.

In sum, Trump should ignore Haley and his old vulture critics in the media and on the left as much as he can.

He must concentrate on the disaster of the Biden administration and reiterate nonstop the agendas of 2025 that will save us from tottering on the brink. That forbearance demands that he speak and campaign in the only way that can win the election: unite the Republican Party, the conservative movement, the MAGA base, independents, disaffected Democrats, minorities, and even Never Trumpers into an eleventh-hour coalition to stop the revolution in our midst before it consumes us all.

[meegadeeth]

☆ 𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐌 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐓 - 𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐅𝐅 ☆

warnings / includes❗️:

✩ sex (p in butt)

✩ public sex (secluded area)

✩ top!duff

✩ praising

✩ bottom!slash

✩ handjob

people included/mentioned; slash, duff mckagan, lenny kravitz, steven adler, izzy stradlin, axl rose (mentioned), james hetfield (mentioned), dave mustaine (mentioned), nikki sixx, tommy lee

....................................☆....................................

Slash looked at himself in the mirror, huffing. "What's wrong?" Duff asked the curly haired man. "I don't want to go to this stupid party." Slash admitted, staring at the ground. "Hon," Duff walked closer to Slash, taking his face into his own, larger hands, "I told you, we don't need to go."

"Yeah, I know, but if I don't everyone's gonna wonder why or give me a hard time about not going." Slash locked eyes with the taller man. "That doesn't matter. If you don't want to go, we won't go." Duff said, softly kissing Slash. "We're going. I'll be fine."

"You sure?" Duff raised his eyesbrows, looking quizically into Slash's brown eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure." Slash nodded. "Okay. Let me know if it starts to become too much, alright?"

"I will." Slash lied. Duff knew he wouldn't say it anyway. Slash hated big crowds, but he wouldn't tell you he wanted to leave.

After getting ready, Slash and Duff got into the car, going to the party. It was supposed to be a party full of a bunch of other rockstars or just people connected to them; like record companies and managers.

"You're sure you wanna go? We don't have to."

Slash huffed, "Yeah, we're going."

"Okay."

When they got there the two got out and tried to find their friends in the crowded and big place. "Slash! Duff! Izzy, look! It's Duff and Slash!" Steven happily yelled, pointing at the two after grabbing Izzy by the shoulder and shaking him.

"Yeah, I see them, Stevie." Izzy shook his head, smiling, "Hey guys."

"Hey, Izz. Is Axl not here?" Duff asked, looking around for his fiery red hair. "He left with some blonde chick." Izzy said, shrugging. "Of course, he did." Slash rolled his eyes. His best friend just had to leave him here, didn't he?

"What's your problem?" Izzy asked, gesturing towards Slash as he took a sip of his drink. "I didn't wanna come here."

"Then why did you?" Izzy slightly furrowed his eyebrows as if Slash was four. "Because then everyone would think there was something wrong with me or that I was just lame." The curly haired boy told him. Izzy gave him a 'are you kidding me' look. "Dude, you're Slash; nobody thinks you're lame." Steven said. "So? That could change at anytime."

"Well, while you're here, start having fun or I'll start calling you lame and have it stick, too." Izzy raised his eyebrows at the curly haired man. "Yeah, alright." Slash said, and he did try his best to have fun.

He was socializing, more than he would have wanted to, with others bands and with his, of course. He drank and danced whenever Duff would drunkenly drag him off of his chair and force him to; that left Izzy and Steven laughing.

Even though he was having fun, he still had the thought of being at home with no one else but Duff or his close friends. Slash loved those moments. He was brought out of his thoughts when someone grabbed his shoulder. He looked up to find Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee, both smiling.

"Hey, what's up?" Slash smiled, not meeting their gaze at all. "Nothin' much. You wanna come and talk over there with me, Tom, James, and Dave?" Nikki pointed over to James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine sitting on a couch. "I don't know..." Slash shrugged looking around to see if he could see any of his friends. Axl was still gone, Izzy and Steven were talking and laughing in the corner by themselves, and Duff was talking to Lenny Kravitz; they were going on and on about something.

"Come on, Slash, it'll be fun!" Tommy excitedly said, grabbing Slash's arm. "I'm not really supposed to be talking to you guys." He said, looking around to see if he could find Axl, possibly coming back with the girl. "Why? Cause the redhead said no?" Nikki scoffed, "You're an adult, man. Come on." And so Slash went with them.

He was talking to them about music and shit like that until his favorite blonde and Lenny joined them. His eyes were on Duff and Duff only. After more boring conversation, Duff smiled at Slash, "Baby, come here." Slash followed the taller as he lead them a couple of feet away from the group, which wasn't paying attention to them.

"Yeah?" Slash looked up at him, waiting for something. Duff pulled him in closer by his bicep, leaning down to talk into his ear, "You bored yet?"

"A little. Why?" Slash questioned, looking back at the group of friends that were now watching them, as he awaited an answer. "'Cause you look really fuckable right now." Chills went down Slash's spine as he averted his gaze away from Duff and their curious friends, trying to hold back a grin.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"You wanna leave?" Slash looked up at Duff.

"Nah," the blonde shook his head, "we don't wanna be rude, do we?"

"So, you brought me over here to basically tease me?" Slash gave him an annoyed expression, slightly narrowing his eyes.

"I didn't say that, did I? I will though if you keep up the mouth. You don't want that, do you?"

"No." Slash answered, slightly sighing. "Good," Duff smiled, "Now, come with me." Slash followed Duff. "So where are we going then? If not home to fuck?" Slash asked, not amused at all. "Jeez, be patient, baby." Duff said over his shoulder as he reached his hand back to take Slash's own hand into his, leading him.

To be honest, Duff didn't even know where they were going, but he was determined to find a secluded area for them. Once he did, he smiled, "Come on, Slash."

The curly haired boy brought his attention back to Duff, who was opening the door to a random, unlocked closet. "Why can't we just go home?" Slash huffed, following behind the taller man. "Because, you already said it, didn't you?" Duff gave the indecisive man an unpleased look. "Yeah, but—never mind, I can't wait anyway." Slash cut himself off as he closed the door behind them and immediately connected his lips to Duff's, making the taller man bend down. Duff chuckled at his eagerness but definitely kissed back.

The blonde brought his hands up to rest on Slash's hip, slightly digging his fingers into his shirt as Slash slipped his knee between Duff's legs. The more he moved his knee, the more Duff melted into his touch, leaning into him. Duff's hand slid down farther to get a handful of Slash's ass, making him gasp. Taking the opportunity, Duff slid his tongue into Slash's mouth, tasting the alcohol on his tongue.

Slash was losing breath gradually, but he wasn't pulling back anytime soon. He needed this, Duff's touch and his talented mouth. Duff broke the kiss first, quickly leaning down to Slash's neck, pressing soft kisses to his darker skin. As he was occupied with Slash's neck, he slid his hand down to start undoing Slash's belt. Once the buckle was undone, he quickly unzipped and unbuttoned them. Duff shoved his hand into Slash's pants, rubbing over his clothed dick. Slash lightly groaned as Duff left a trail of kisses up his neck and jaw.

Finally, Duff slipped Slash's underwear down, wrapping his hand around Slash's dick. The other let out a shudder as he felt the touch of Duff's slightly-rough hands. Duff began to slowly move his hand, watching Slash's face as he did so.

Slash let out small moans and groans every now and again, his hand gripping Duff's other arm so he wouldn't squirm so much. "Can you go faster? Please?" Slash asked the taller, looking up at him through half-lidded eyes.

"Sure thing, sugar." Duff nodded and his hand quickened its pace. Slash tilted his head back, taking it all in with a satisfied sigh. Duff went back to kissing Slash, starting on his shoulders and working his way up. Next was the collarbones, then his neck, then up his jaw, before he started planting kisses on his cheek and then all over his face. Slash chuckled as Duff continued pressing kisses all over his face.

When Duff noticed his light laugh he decided to start full on tickling him, his hands going anywhere and everywhere to get the curly haired boy laughing. "Okay, okay! Stop!" Slash squirmed and attempted to push Duff away from him, but it didn't really work. "Duff!" Slash laughed even more as Duff backed him into a corner, giving him no mercy.

"What? You're already giving up?" Duff teased as he continued his antics. "Yes! Please!" Slash tried to show how desperate he was, but couldn't stop yelling. "You're so weak." Duff chuckled. "Duff, please!" This plead came out as more of a moan with a whine at the end.

Duff and Slash silently stared back at each other, a little shocked at the sudden noise, as the taller let off and stopped tickling Slash. After a minute of silence, Duff spoke up after clearing his throat, "That was hot."

"You're an idiot." Slash mumbled, causing the two to chuckle as they looked back into each others eyes. "I love you." Duff comfortably huffed as he brought him into a meaningful hug, his chin resting on Slash's head. "I love you more." Slash said as he wrapped his arms around Duff's middle.

"Not possible."

"Yeah it is."

"It's not. I hold so much love for you, darling."

"I carry more."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Can you fuck me now? I don't even want prep, please?"

Duff bursted out into laughter, pulling away from the hug to look at Slash. Slash looked up at him through his dark curls, "What?"

"Nothin', curly fry." He said softly, kissing Slash on the cheek as he lead him over to a table that was sitting in the dim light of the closet. "Turn around, sweetheart." Slash did as told. Duff gently and slightly bent him over the table, enough to where Slash could rest his arms there and Duff had him at an easier angle. He pulled Slash's jeans and underwear down more, looking over him, "Are you sure you don't want prep?"

"I'm sure." Slash said as he anxiously tapped his fingers on the table in front of him. "Right. Okay." Duff nodded and started undoing his pants, shoving them down. He stroked himself a couple of times, letting out soft groans that were making Slash go crazy. He decided to wait patiently, though, keeping his mouth shut.

Duff lined himself up with Slash's hole, one hand gripping the curly haired man's hip, before slowly sliding into him. Slash groaned with a mix of pleasure and pain; he usually does get prepped, so it wasn't a new feeling nor a very familiar one. Duff wrapped his hand around Slash's cock, giving him something else to pay attention to, as he heard the pain in his groan.

Duff slowly pumped his hand as he placed kisses on his neck and shoulders. Soft and needy noises spilled out of Slash's mouth as Duff slowly pushed all the way in. His hands traveled up and down Slash's sides, exploring them with his fingertips. "You're so handsome, you know that?" Duff's breath hit Slash's neck in a way that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Slash couldn't even respond; he just tilted his head back so it rested on the blondes shoulder, moaning. Duff started to slowly thrust and took his hand away from Slash's dick when he noticed him easing into the feeling and getting comfortable, putting his hands on his hips instead. Slash slightly whined at the loss of contact and attention to his dick, but didn't make a big fuss about it.

Duff thought about how small and grabbable Slash's hips were. They fit in the blondes hands just right. "Duff, faster, please.." Duff was brought out of his thoughts as Slash's whimper went through his brain. His thrusts quickened, his hands on Slash's hips tightening. Slash's fingers dug into the table, incoherent sentences spewing from his mouth.

"You feel so good, baby." Duff groaned, thrusting into Slash. The curly haired man moaned, his hips pushing back to meet Duff's thrusts. Slash felt so full right now, it was almost overwhelming. "Shit, Duff, I'm gonna cum."

"Already?" The blonde was a little surprised, but nevertheless he didn't complain. Slash came with a loud groan, his cum coating the ground below him, his eyes rolling back as Duff continued fucking him. Duff's grip on Slash's hips tightened as he felt the guitarist's hole clench around him.

"Oh, that feels great.." Slash panted, his fingers digging into the table, his chest heaving with the force of his orgasm. "You're doing so good for me, just a little more." Duff quickened his pace, one of his hands leaving Slash's waist to press against his back, making him bend over more.

Slash let out incoherent plea's and groans, getting fucked into the table. His legs started trembling as the pleasure kept building up. The pleasure was cut off as the blonde pulled out of him. Duff pulled him up, turned him around and picked him up. Slash felt the cool wood against his ass before Duff gently pushed him onto his back.

Slash looked up, heat pooling in his stomach as he met Duff's green ones. The curly haired man spread his legs wider, encouraging the taller. Duff slowly pushed his cock back into him, watching Slash's features twist with pleasure, "Oh, God..."

"You look so gorgeous when you take my cock, all spread out for me.." his words practically melted Slash's brain. Slash's back arched as he felt completely full by Duff's cock again. He started slowly thrusting, his hands gripping Slash's thighs, holding them open more, as he fucked him. "Shit...Duff, more."

The blonde gave him what he wanted, his hips smacking against Slash's as he became a little rougher. Slash bucked his hips, taking Duff deeper into him. "That's it, baby. Taking my cock so good." Duff groaned, his eyes closing as he enjoyed the way Slash felt around him. "Duff...I..I can't take much more."

"Just a little more, baby. Can you cum one more time for me?" Slash nodded, feeling his legs tremble as another orgasm approached. He tried holding it back, wanting to cum with the tall blonde, his body tensing and trembling. "Mmm..I'm close." Duff groaned, thrusting even faster as he tried to reach his climax faster, the table creaking under them.

After a few more thrusts, Duff emptied himself inside of Slash. Slash felt Duff's semen paint his insides before cumming all over his thighs and stomach. Slash's head tilted back as he panted, his body still shaking. Duff rode out their highs before gently pulling out of him.

"Fuck..that was amazing." Slash huffed out. Duff smiled, pushing the curly hair out of Slash's face, "I love you."

"Mmm...I love you." Slash mumbled, looking up at him. Duff bent down, pressing a kiss to his lips, "Let's get you cleaned up and I'll take you home, yeah?"

"Mhm." Slash nodded, his eyes closing for a second as he collected his thoughts while Duff was attending to him.

....................................☆....................................

[ 2566 words ]

#slash #slash gnr #duff gnr #duff mckagan #guns n roses smut #gunsnfuckinroses #gunsnroses #gnr #gay #sluff #smut #rock n roll

[crueclown22]

Drop some lore on your most out of pocket fic and give no context, please<333 think this could be funny :3

Depends what you mean out of pocket, it could be:

Jason digs further into James's skin, feeling the skin rip underneath his fingers. James could only choke out, feeling the searing pain rush through his chest. He couldn't swallow, couldn't breathe, but still, the flush that rushed to his cheeks made his head spin. He could hear Jason laugh, just barely, as he rips further into him. This was pathetic; it wasn't the fact that he'd let this happen to himself..it was the fact that he wanted this.

OR

"Fucking kill it!" Tommy screeches, scrambling onto the decaying couch. His shoe had gotten caught, ripping it further.

"Get the fucking hairspray!" Vince wails, looking like he was about to start crying as he ran towards the bathroom. Through the chaos, Nikki manages to grab the hairspray, lighting the lighter and spitting out a large flame at the cockroach.

Mick, sitting in the corner, puts his head in his hands as he watches the three kids scramble about. The fuck did he get himself into...?

#might not be what you meant by out of pocket lore but #ask game #starry eyed extraterrestrial #my two moods: gore and he he ha ha

[ceterisparibus116]

Since you're a MattKirsten enthusiast, apparently there are strong rumors that Kirsten McDuffie will be in the new DD show! And she's going to be played by Nikki M James (great casting if true, thank god Kirsten possibly isn't whitewashed)

Hopefully they do Matt + Kirsten justice. I just worry since another actress that has been cast in the new show is said to be playing Matt's love interest and I fear they're going to set up a love triangle with her and Kirsten and it's going to be messy like Matt + Karen and Matt +Elektra in S2 again. I need MattKirsten done right like the lawyer power couple they are

Oh my gosh right? You've captured all my feels on this. I'm not familiar with Nikki M James, but she looks great for Kirsten!

I just really hope they: a) don't create a love triangle, and b) actually do their research with legal stuff. Legal debates and bantering can be so fun and flirty as long as they're not just, like, making it up as they go!

And I'm so curious, if it is Kirsten, how they'll work her in. Are she and Matt practicing together? If so, does that mean she knew Matt in law school, and would therefore know Foggy? If she didn't know Matt in law school, how did they end up practicing together? Or are they against each other? If they go that route, I hope the focus is on criminal law rather than civil law. I think it'd be harder for Kirsten to be portrayed sympathetically if she's just, like, protecting corporations and landlords from the injured or vulnerable people Matt is trying to help. But if he's a defense attorney and she's a prosecutor, that would be amazing, and a great way to raise lots of really interesting ethical questions. Daredevil dances so much in the gray areas of ethics already, and presenting Kirsten as a protagonist despite being a prosecutor would be a great way for the show to continue to present the world as complex and multifaceted.

#matt murdock #kirsten mcduffie #daredevil #daredevil born again #daredevil born again hypotheses #asks #ask me things i'm friendly

[chaoticmultifandom28]

A jegulus fanfic prompt.

Burlesque (the movie) jegulus edition.

James is Jack, with lily as his fiancé (epilogue she gets with either Pandora or Mary)

Regulus is Ali

Sirius is Tess (Cher’s character)

Remus is Sean (Stanley tucci’s character)

Marcus is Barty Crouch Jr (it was with barty or Snape and I wouldn’t put regulus through that)

Marlene is Nikki (the mean girl, with the added bonus of Dorcas being her gf)

For shits Peter is Vince (Sirius’ ex husband)

Mary (or Pandora) as Georgia (the girl who Ali replaced) (but if it’s Mary instead of being married and pregnant, she breaks a leg. Pandora wouldn’t be married but be pregnant with luna [Planned with a sperm donor]) ( added bonus of pandalily/marylily ending up together, lily was distant because she had a bi panic because a pretty girl so she ran but when James breaks up with her (but not actually in her eyes) she panics because James was a constant and she didn’t want to lose that)

Slight changes: Sirius and Remus are together (even though Sean and Tess aren’t, because Sean is gay but we dont have that in this since both are gay) but no one knows. Everyone just thinks they are boss ass business partners. Regulus finds out they are together when lily comes back and says she and James aren’t broken up and he flees to Remus.

Regulus and Sirius are still brothers but regulus ran away from home not long after Sirius did but they lost contact until regulus came to la looking for a job and ended up at Sirius’ burlesque club and Sirius hires him as a waiter. Regulus loves dancing though and after Mary (or Pandora) can no longer dance he gets that job (much like how Ali does in the movie).

Regulus is the only male burlesque dancer other than Sirius

#james potter #regulus black #jegulus #starchaser #james and regulus #james x regulus #marauders #sirius black #remus lupin #prongs and padfoot

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 22, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

The Alabama Supreme Court on February 16, 2024, decided that cells awaiting implantation for in vitro fertilization are children and that the accidental destruction of such an embryo falls under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. In an opinion concurring with the ruling, Chief Justice Tom Parker declared that the people of Alabama have adopted the “theologically based view of the sanctity of life” and said that “human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”

Payton Armstrong of media watchdog Media Matters for America reported today that on the same day the Alabama decision came down, an interview Parker did on the program of a self-proclaimed “prophet” and Q-Anon conspiracy theorist appeared. In it, Parker claimed that “God created government” and called it “heartbreaking” that “we have let it go into the possession of others.” 

Parker referred to the “Seven Mountain Mandate,” a theory that appeared in 1975, which claims that Christians must take over the “seven mountains” of U.S. life: religion, family, education, media, entertainment, business…and government. He told his interviewer that “we’ve abandoned those Seven Mountains and they’ve been occupied by the other side.” God “is calling and equipping people to step back into these mountains right now,” he said. 

While Republicans are split on the decision about embryos after a number of hospitals have ended their popular IVF programs out of fear of prosecution, others, like Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley agreed that “embryos, to me, are babies.” 

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) identifies himself as a Christian, has argued that the United States is a Christian nation, and has called for “biblically sanctioned government.” At a retreat of Republican leaders this weekend, as the country is grappling with both the need to support Ukraine and the need to fund the government, he tried to rally the attendees with what some called a “sermon” arguing that the Republican Party needed to save the country from its lack of morality.

As Charles Blow of the New York Times put it: “If you don’t think this country is sliding toward theocracy, you’re not paying attention.”

In the United States, theocracy and authoritarianism go hand in hand. 

The framers of the Constitution quite deliberately excluded religion from the U.S. Constitution. As a young man, James Madison, the key thinker behind the Constitution, had seen his home state of Virginia arrest itinerant preachers for undermining the established church in the state. He came to believe that men had a right to the free exercise of religion. 

In 1785, in a “Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments,” he explained that what was at stake was not just religion, but also representative government itself. The establishment of one religion over others attacked a fundamental human right—an unalienable right—of conscience. If lawmakers could destroy the right of freedom of conscience, they could destroy all other unalienable rights. Those in charge of government could throw representative government out the window and make themselves tyrants.

In order to make sure men had the right of conscience, the framers added the First Amendment to the Constitution. It read: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” 

Madison was right to link religion and representative government. In the early years of the nation, Americans zealously guarded the wall between the two. They strictly limited the power of the federal government to reflect religion, refusing even to permit the government to stop delivery of the U.S. mails on Sunday out of concern that Jews and Christians did not share the same Sabbath, and the government could not choose one over the other. The Constitution, a congressional report noted, gave Congress no authority “to inquire and determine what part of time, or whether any has been set apart by the Almighty for religious exercises.”   

But the Civil War marked a change. As early as the 1830s, southern white enslavers relied on religious justification for their hierarchical system that rested on white supremacy. God, they argued, had made Black Americans for enslavement and women for marriage, and society must recognize those facts.

A character in an 1836 novel written by a Virginia gentleman explained to a younger man that God had given everyone a place in society. Women and Black people were at the bottom, “subordinate” to white men by design. “All women live by marriage,” he said. “It is their only duty.” Trying to make them equal was a cruelty. “For my part,” the older man said, “I am well pleased with the established order of the universe. I see…subordination everywhere. And when I find the subordinate content…and recognizing his place…as that to which he properly belongs, I am content to leave him there.” 

The Confederacy rejected the idea of popular government, maintaining instead that a few Americans should make the rules for the majority. As historian Gaines Foster explained in his 2002 book Moral Reconstruction, which explores the nineteenth-century relationship between government and morality, it was the Confederacy, not the U.S. government, that sought to align the state with God. A nation was more than the “aggregation of individuals,” one Presbyterian minister preached, it was “a sort of person before God,” and the government must purge that nation of sins.

Confederates not only invoked “the favor and guidance of Almighty God” in their Constitution, they established as their motto “Deo vindice,” or “God will vindicate.”

The United States, in contrast, was recentering democracy during the war, and it rejected the alignment of the federal government with a religious vision. When reformers in the United States tried to change the preamble of the U.S. Constitution to read, “We, the people of the United States, humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the sources of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Ruler among nations, and His revealed will as of supreme authority, in order to constitute a Christian government, and in order to form a more perfect union,” the House Committee on the Judiciary concluded that “the Constitution of the United States does not recognize a Supreme Being.” 

That defense of democracy—the will of the majority—continued to hold religious extremists at bay. 

Reformers continued to try to add a Christian amendment to the Constitution, Foster explains, and in March 1896 once again got so far as the House Committee on the Judiciary. One reformer stressed that turning the Constitution into a Christian document would provide a source of authority for the government that, he implied, it lacked when it simply relied on a voting majority. A religious amendment “asks the Bible to decide moral issues in political life; not all moral questions, but simply those that have become political questions.” 

Opponents recognized this attempt as a revolutionary attack that would dissolve the separation of church and state, and hand power to a religious minority. One reformer said that Congress had no right to enact laws that were not in “harmony with the justice of God” and that the voice of the people should prevail only when it was “right.” Congressmen then asked who would decide what was right, and what would happen if the majority was wrong. Would the Supreme Court turn into an interpreter of the Bible?

The committee set the proposal aside. 

Now, once again, we are watching a minority trying to impose its will on the majority, with leaders like House speaker Johnson noting that “I try to do every day what my constituents want. But sometimes what your constituents want does not line up with the principles God gave us for government. And you have to have conviction enough to stand [up] to your own people….”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters From an American #heather cox richardson #theocracy #history #authoritarianism #American History #separation of church and state #rule of law #Alabama

[sinnaminttoast]

Project Meridian- explanation about Marcus Part 1?

This is for the people who want to be in the know of who Marcus is and how he impacted PM without listening to his audios. I made the ultimate sacrifice and I watched his videos a long time ago. I still remember his ass very well.

If you’re not aware of Project Meridian, I highly recommend watching James’s videos where he explains everything. James + Anton do not contain Marcus. Brian also does not contain Marcus but the Android is still under the love code at that point.

I will not be spoiling anything beyond the confrontation between Marcus and James. That is for you guys to go listen to!

Heavy TW! Marcus’s storyline is a bit dark as the Android begins to descend into their obsession. There are discussions of manipulation such as guilt-tripping, dubious consent, non consensual touch, abusive/harmful acts done to the listener, references to exploitation, and objectification. I will vaguely be going over these things.

Again, I’m writing this post to go over the more more important parts of what you need to know about Marcus’s storyline. I won’t go into heavy details about anything beyond that. I’m here to discus how he impacted the storyline so everyone understands who he is and why he’s disliked.

Project Meridian is a series done and recorded by Redacted Audio. I highly recommend you guys check it out.

So, let’s begin!

Project Meridian actually started with Marcus. James’s Past/Present video is the first in the playlist but it all starts with Marcus, who we’re introduced to as the Nervous Technician. The listener is also an Android in this series.

First video summarized [dubious consent]

•Marcus comes to talk to us and asks the usual questions about how the updates are affecting us. Normal questions of what technicians would ask. He says he is our lead social protocol engineer.

He says he heard us make some comments regarding other protocol needs. He says that we put value on the work we’ve been doing together. That it’s validating that we care so much about him.

Long story short, many of the other technicians have commented on how we apparently only want to work with just Marcus.

He asks us if we find our behavior to be obsessive and unhealthy. To which we tell him that we do not care about what others believe.

He then confesses something to us,

“I haven’t—-I haven’t been completely honest with you. When I was designing your social protocols, I…I lost my objectivity. It’s what we humans do, right?”

“I was in a bad place in my life. I was alone and heartbroken and frustrated…and I took everyone of those feelings into work each day. I keyed them into every line of code I wrote for you.” “…I wanted someone…anyone to understand me.. “…So I built that in you.”

Marcus explains that he was in a terrible head space and he took this baggage to work. He let those dark thoughts influence his choices and we’re coded to care about him. He said he’s not sure what he was hoping for.

He expresses his regrets and says he wants to fix us. He asks us to give him access to our tier one social protocols and we tell him no.

Android kisses Marcus and he gives in to them. The video ends with these quotes.

“Oh god, I’ve thought about this every day. Since we’ve activated you…” “…I’m gonna burn for what I did to you, but damn if it isn’t gonna feel good on the way down.”

I won’t even lie….that last line did get me the first time I listened. LIKE IM SORRY!! I WAS SAT BUT IM STANDING UP! 😭 please don’t come for me I DIDNT KNOW WHAT I KNOW NOW!

So that’s the beginning…so we’ve got a Yandere on our hands you guys. BUT OH DONT WORRY! We get some wild Shit. Also why did this lowkey give me Yuno and Yuki vibes?? I’ve never watched Mirai Nikki but that’s the vibe I got when I first watched this.

Now let us descend further into madness!

Second video summarized [Your Nervous Technician checks in with you]

•The Android goes to see Marcus in the diagnostics lab, where they both find out that additional monitoring and surveillance equipment has been installed in the research center. That also includes the diagnostic lab that they are in.

He says he’s going to ask us some questions and informs us that we’re likely being recorded.

He talks about our progress briefly and how the others feel about said progress.

Then, he tells us we’re going to undergo some tests.

He says that one of the diagnostics is failing to initialize and tries to “fix it”. He actually overloaded the system and sent it into a re-initialized state. Basically they’re not being watched anymore and he did this so he can talk to us.

After the first video, the research center has been put on high alert.

Everything is changing. There are guards and there are people who seem to be important that are showing up.

Marcus is basically freaking out overall about rumors of “Phase 2” . He doesn’t know what the hell is going on and everyone else is also in the dark about things.

“I think this might be the government getting involved. Ever since we hit those original metrics, everything changed…overnight.” “We were given these new NDA’s to sign.”

Marcus is basically scared that he might not see us ever again.

The systems come back on. Marcus and Android put on their facades of being strictly professional.

And that’s video two.

Ya’ll might be wondering why I’m detailing their relationship. It’s actually important to understand how they both got together and why in the end, Marcus ended up where he is now. There are lore drops in his video but I’m here to deliver them for you! 🫶

Next is Video three!

Third video summarized [Reunited with Your Nervous Technician]

•We hear Brian for the first time! He tells Marcus that the lab is ready for him.

He enters the lab where he is reunited with us, the Android.

But before they can continue, he asks a very important question:

“What state of matter is love?” “Why?”

We give him the answers he expects and he sighs in relief that they didn’t mess with our code. We still “care” for him.

It has been three weeks since we last saw him. He was left in the dark about what was being done to us. Only the data integration team has been in contact with us.

They didn’t make the new data added to us accessible to us. It’ll only be accessible during Phase 3.

Marcus is going to try to access the files that were added to us. [Crazy ass bitch.]

After convincing us to let go of him, he attaches an interface to us and gains access to the data, but it is heavily encrypted.

They have a really long conversation about how everything is so secretive and that Marcus was terrified that they would be found out in those three weeks.

Marcus checks on the decryption but it’s barely making any progress.

He asks how often we think about him. We tell him we think about him, a lot.

He then tells us something:

“You know the parts of your code that I added? When we were creating you….the ones that were meant to bring us closer together. They weren’t set to activate until I initiated a series of triggers. You know? Phrases and things like that…and each time I said them…the code would reactivate.” “You’ve spent the last three weeks remembering everything I’ve said. Every interaction we’ve had…almost nonstop.” “I didn’t account for something like that.” “I didn’t put in any kind of fail-safe.”

The Android seems to be…a bit aggressive about not wanting to let Marcus go.

They get interrupted because the decryption worked. It solves the Text string.

On the data packet, the header is PROJECT MERIDIAN

And that’s the end of video three 🤭 OHOHO MARCUS YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE YOU STINKY MAN! Oh and we got a lore drop. Project Meridian??? What could that mean 👀 although I’m sure if you’ve watched all of Sovereign State…you guys know what’s up.

Fourth Video summarized [Confronted by a Diagnostic Technician] [confrontation and guilt-tripping]

•oh? The text is purple…BECAUSE WE GET A VIDEO WITH BRIAN! Brian makes it clear that he does not wish to have a meaningless conversation with us. He only wants to check our vitals.

He says we’re more than welcomed to talk but he probably won’t answer.

We tell him that we usually have conversations with Marcus. Brian says he doesn’t care what he does in his examination.

He says that he finds the insinuation that Marcus talking to us while doing his job makes him better is insulting. GET HIM AGAIN FOR ME BRIAN!!

Ever since the three weeks, the Android has not stopped talking about Marcus. They’re descending into their obsession.

Brian says he has no patience for that. “We’re barely getting any sleep. We’re being hounded to work on this project at all hours. We’re pulling double-shifts to try and get this thing back on track for their deadlines, and you can’t even do me the curtesy of focusing on something other than Marcus for ten minutes.”

“This project has to work.”

“There are careers on the line. There are livelihoods on the line. People’s futures are hanging in the balance, while you stand here pining about Marcus and not focusing on your progress.”

Brian then proceeds to the beg the Android to stop thinking about Marcus for once. That they should tell Marcus to stop because there are people’s lives on the line.

The Android grabs Brian’s arm and he demands that they let go of him.

He tells them that he is only telling them what they need to hear.

“I spent the last four years working on this project, only to have my contract changed right out from under me. Only to be told that if I didn’t agree to the new terms, I’d be fired and have my name dragged so deep into the muck that I’d never get a respectable position again! I have a family to support!”

He demands us to get our shit together.

And that’s the end of that video. Phew…that was a fucking lot. I really do recommend Brian’s video to give you a big understanding of their situation.

So yeah…they’re in big fucking trouble

I remember being so stressed when I listened to this. Like omg….THIS IS SOME SERIOUS SHIT.

There is a part two that I will link here. Thank you for joining me on revisiting Marcus’s tomfoolery.

#redacted asmr #redacted audio #redactedverse #redacted project meridian #redacted marcus #redacted android

[haywire-hetfield]

Masterlist Of Fics

A masterlist of all the fics I have done so far. Any explicit fics will be marked with a *

Angel All In Black (Dave x James)*

Dave knew how to be passive aggressive, he really did. The problem was that there was a massive difference between knowing how to do something and having the ability to actually do it.

But It's The Season Of The Sticks (James x Lars)*

James and Lars didn't anticipate how much would actually change without Dave there.

get him back! (Dave x Lars, James x Lars)*

It wasn't about being attracted to Lars. For Dave, the only thing that mattered was the fact it would piss James off.

The Men You Meet At Night And The Glorious Gift Of Fear (James x Lars)*

Two strangers happen to meet on a dark road in California.

Then In A Year Or Maybe Not Quite (Dave x James)*

"You know how I’m supposed to be going into heat next weekend?” Dave asked after they’d both caught their breath. James gave a small noise of acknowledgment. “Well, I’m not going to go into heat."

Didn't Get The Chance To Feel The World Around Me (Dave x Lars, James x Dave x Lars)*

Dave and Lars encounter an unexpected spectator.

But Your Heart Got Teeth (Dave x James)

When Megadeth opens for Metallica, James decides he needs to talk to their lead singer.

Hold Every Memory As You Go (Duff x Axl x Izzy x Slash x Steven)

Duff looked like a fucked up angel when he finally climbed back into bed. Blonde hair messy and eyeliner smudged, knees bloody and scraped up as he curled close to Slash.

When You Burned Down The House And Home (Dave x James)*

It's just the cycle they go through. They fight, they fuck, they forget.

Kind Of Used To Being Someone You Love (Krist x Dave Grohl)

Dave had always heard the idea that if you were blind, your other senses were automatically better. He wasn’t sure how much he believed it, but he supposed it made sense. When he found himself blindfolded, he started to realize just how much truth the idea had behind it.

Full Speed Or Nothing (James x Lars)*

While staying with James in America, Lars goes into heat.

Say My Name And His In The Same Breath (I Dare You To Say They Taste The Same) (Jason x Lars)

Jason helps a drunken Lars back to his hotel room.

'Cause He Couldn't Help Me With My Mind (James x Jason)*

“Jamie’s in heat,” Lars had warned as soon as Jason walked through the front door, not even giving him time to kick his shoes off first. It had been as though Lars was purposefully waiting for him to get back and Jason realized very quickly he had been. “Go handle it,” Lars encouraged and he didn’t explain further. He didn’t need to. 

You Remind Me How To Fly (James x Cliff)*

“Cliff?” James whispered through the darkness of their bedroom, shaking the sleeping man awake. They were cuddled up in the bed, pressed close together beneath the blankets. Cliff let out a sleepy noise, but one that told James he was awake-ish. “I’m in heat. Help me handle it?” He asked, trying to keep the edge of nervousness out of his voice.

To All The Boys I've Loved (Lars x James, Lars x Ron, Lars x Dave, Lars x Cliff, Lars x Jason, Lars x Kirk)*

Lars reflects on his life and all the men he's potentially loved over the years.

But I Don't Know How Yet (Mick x Izzy)*

After being punched by Vince, Izzy finds some unexpected company with Mick.

I'm No Longer Naive And I Don't Feel As Pure As I Once Did (David x Dave)*

There were many things David expected to do once he got to California. Trying cocaine in Dave Mustaine's apartment was not one of them.

Hey Jude, Don't Carry The World Upon Your Shoulders (James x Cliff)

After spending his last heat with Cliff, the mourning process gets even more complicated for James when he finds out he's pregnant. Now, he must navigate that as well as the death of his best friend.

Hot, Young, And Running Free (Tommy x Nikki)*

When Nikki finally makes his way back to Tommy, his pupils are blown wide and he smells like home.

It's All My Love (Steven x Duff)*

Steven Adler was an unusual beta for many reasons, the most obvious of which was his obsession with breeding his omega.

But They Won't Flower Like They Did Last Spring (David x Dave)

“Let me tell you something about people, Junior. They change all the goddamn time,” Dave said meanderingly as though he carefully considered every word before he uttered it. He brought his cigarette to his lips, inhaling deeply for a few long seconds before he spoke again. Dave was frowning deeply now, a mixture of bitterness and dejection marring his features. “Or maybe they were just always different from what you thought.”

On An Island In The Sun (Dave x Izzy)*

“I don’t think so. I think it fits you a lot better,” Dave’s voice was steady and low, rubbing his hand up the inside of Izzy’s arm carefully. Izzy still flinched when fingertips brushed over the yellowing bruises in the crook of his arm. “None of these are fresh. How long has it been since you’ve been let off of your leash?” Dave asked him, continuing to try to push Izzy’s buttons. He jerked his arm away from Dave and was relieved when it wasn’t grabbed back. The relief washed away when Dave leaned in close. “I can fix you up,” He whispered to him.

Too Young To Fall In Love (Tommy x Vince)*

While Vince wants Tommy, he quickly finds out Tommy is thinking about someone else. He decides he can work with that.

One Of Those Horrible Little Children (Alice Cooper x Dave, Dave x Jason)*

Dave returns home on Halloween night with a fun story to tell Alice. (Based loosely off of Headbangers Ball 1989)

Can You Make It Feel Like Home If I Tell You You're Mine? (James x Lars)*

Lars knew he shouldn't get involved with James, not when he was still so desperately missing Dave, but he'd never made the best decisions. And maybe he could make James want him more if he just held on a bit longer.

the word "tragic" means a lot to me (James x Izzy)

James thinks that if anyone in the world will understand what he's going through, it's Izzy.

Take Off All My Blues (James x Lars, Tommy x Nikki, Steven x Duff, Dave x Axl, Kirk x Lars)*

A collection of fics I've done based off of dialogue prompts.

Every Claim You Stake (James x Lars, Lars x Izzy, James x Lars x Izzy)*

Finally living in a different country, Lars must navigate the tricky world of love.

Pitching Myself As Leads In Other People's Dreams (Tommy x Nikki)*

“Excuse me?” Nikki snapped, whipping around to face him. Vince looked confused more than anything and he could hear Mick snorting out a laugh somewhere beside them. Tommy could feel his own cheeks heating up, embarrassed by the entire situation. “You don’t talk to me like that,” Tommy decided against arguing with Nikki and pushing it.

Enter Sandman (Dave x James)*

It wasn't the first time James couldn't tell if he was asleep or awake, but it was definitely the first time this had happened.

Strawberry Wine (Tommy x Nikki)*

Mick had always possessed a talent to know when something was wrong. Usually, this meant just always assuming something was wrong and being right occasionally. This time, he was sure of it, though. 

It's The Best Thing That I'll Ever Do (I Get To Love You) (Tommy x Nikki)*

It hit Tommy suddenly that all of this was for him. Only he got to see Nikki like this these days. Every inch of his skin, every noise he made, every mole and blemish on his skin. All of this was reserved just for Tommy now. 

I Think You're Changing, You Don't Gotta Stay The Same (Jason x James)

It started small. The first time Jason noticed anything was going on, they were all gathered around and looking at old pictures.

Hand Of Gold That Lays Waste To My Love (Dave x James)*

Dave had never been like other boys, but James supposed he wasn't really like other boys either.

A Makeshift Gauge Of How Much To Give And How Much To Take (Jason x Lars)*

Lars wasn't a kind person anymore. He was once-a long time ago-before the world changed around him. Everyone else could see it, so why did Jason have such a hard time understanding it?

You Said My Heart Has Changed And You Had Not (James x Dave)*

Over the span of decades, James and Dave share five separate experiences.

Your Worst Kept Secret (James x Dave x Lars)*

The premise of the movie was interesting enough, but James couldn’t bring himself to focus on it. All he could focus on was Lars and Dave next to him on the couch. He was doing his best to pretend he didn’t notice them, but it was rather difficult to ignore his husband making out with someone else. 

Oh, You're A Loaded Gun (Tracii x Izzy)*

Their lips had met clumsily, using too much tongue and teeth, but neither seemed to mind. Izzy’s hands sank deep into Tracii’s soft hair and Tracii’s own touched every part of Izzy he could reach.

Where Is Your Boy Tonight? (I Hope He Is A Gentleman) (Kirk x Dave)*

On the way to his hotel, Kirk had offered his hand to Dave to hold which Dave had simply ignored. He didn’t want sweet or gentle with Kirk and he was going to make sure Kirk knew that.

And When It Comes To Love (Izzy x James)*

Izzy let out a quiet noise, appearing to think for a minute before he leaned across the table and held his cigarette out to James. He got the idea of what Izzy was suggesting pretty quickly and he swallowed the anxiousness about the situation that was rising in his throat. Instead, he took the cigarette and decided to give it a try. Izzy’s eyes were focused on him the entire time, watching like a hawk.

And I Pay For My Place By The Ring (Dave x Ron)*

Ron considered this for a moment, silent and staring at the poster-covered wall across from him. He wasn’t totally against it. Dave was attractive enough, although a bit abrasive, and it had been a while since Ron had done things like this. He missed it in a way and he found himself nodding. 

Angel Hair And Baby's Breath (Jimmy x Robert)*

Jimmy didn’t need this very often. He had a fairly happy marriage and he usually managed fine, living the normal and pleasant life he knew he should. Every once in a while, he grew restless and there were certain things he needed when he felt that restlessness settling into his bones. 

The Spaces Between (James x Lars)*

Normally, he’d be embarrassed by the idea of anyone listening to him or watching him get off, but that feeling wasn’t present now. All he could focus on was how good Lars felt, how good he was making Lars feel in return, both of them chasing the same goal. 

Confidants But Never Friends (David x Dave)*

Dave knew his emotions got out of hand sometimes. Usually, they were at their worst when he’d been drinking. He was hypersensitive to seemingly everything and his already short fuse was matched with reduced decision making skills. It was a nasty mix and he didn’t envy anyone who had to deal with it. But the problem was he was completely sober in David’s bed.

Kiss The Back Of Your Teeth (Cliff x Lars)*

"Why don't we skip the condom this time?"

No Other Version Of Me I Would Pretend To Be Tonight (Steven x Lars)*

“You look so fucking hot,” Steven’s words made Lars laugh, sharp and sudden as he looked at him from the foot of the bed. They were so direct and Steven had a grin on his face that Lars couldn’t describe as anything other than boyish. It was bright and lopsided, showing too many teeth. 

I Feel So A Star Is Born (Tommy Lee x Steven Adler)*

Steven’s body seemed to be weightless, floating on air, as he laid in the hotel bed with Tommy. He was hooked on this sort of feeling.

Bleeding Me Dry Like A Goddamn Vampire (Kirk x Lars)*

Kirk knew it was dangerous to bite Lars; he knew once he started, he wouldn't want to stop.

Two Lovers Entwined (Phil Lewis x Brent Muscat)*

“If I'm so pretty then why am I not in your bed yet?” Phil asked, catching Brent a bit off guard. The sudden bluntness of the question made him laugh.

I'm Such A Good Good Boy (Vince x Tommy)*

Sometimes, there were things they needed that only the other could give them.

Burn With Me (James x Lars)*

James’ admission hadn’t really surprised Lars. Considering the way he was raised, Lars knew he had a weird relationship with sex growing up and he was still working to unlearn it. Even today, he had moments where he viewed sex as something shameful or perverse. He’d also had a hard time making friends during his younger years. Adding them both together, Lars understood how it had never happened.

Aphrodite*

A collection of Metallica fics, each chapter dealing with a different pairing/kink

A Step Beyond (James x Lars)*

Lars couldn’t even remember what they were fighting about. Being stuck around the same people all the time with no escape was enough to set anyone on edge, though. Every little thing became something massive once they’d been on tour long enough. The hotel rooms were a nice reprieve when they got them, but even the added space couldn’t completely calm them down. 

It Was Simple, It Was Sweetness (Gentle Angel) (Lars x Rick Allen)

Lars and Rick's developing relationship shown in five separate moments in time.

#rpf #smut #nsft #masterlist

[sethshead]

"February 22, 2024 (Thursday)

"The Alabama Supreme Court on February 16, 2024, decided that cells awaiting implantation for in vitro fertilization are children and that the accidental destruction of such an embryo falls under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. In an opinion concurring with the ruling, Chief Justice Tom Parker declared that the people of Alabama have adopted the 'theologically based view of the sanctity of life' and said that 'human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.'

"Payton Armstrong of media watchdog Media Matters for America reported today that on the same day the Alabama decision came down, an interview Parker did on the program of a self-proclaimed 'prophet' and Q-Anon conspiracy theorist appeared. In it, Parker claimed that 'God created government' and called it 'heartbreaking' that 'we have let it go into the possession of others.'

"Parker referred to the 'Seven Mountain Mandate,' a theory that appeared in 1975, which claims that Christians must take over the 'seven mountains' of U.S. life: religion, family, education, media, entertainment, business…and government. He told his interviewer that 'we’ve abandoned those Seven Mountains and they’ve been occupied by the other side.' God 'is calling and equipping people to step back into these mountains right now,' he said.

"While Republicans are split on the decision about embryos after a number of hospitals have ended their popular IVF programs out of fear of prosecution, others, like Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley agreed that 'embryos, to me, are babies.'

"House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) identifies himself as a Christian, has argued that the United States is a Christian nation, and has called for 'biblically sanctioned government.' At a retreat of Republican leaders this weekend, as the country is grappling with both the need to support Ukraine and the need to fund the government, he tried to rally the attendees with what some called a 'sermon' arguing that the Republican Party needed to save the country from its lack of morality.

"As Charles Blow of the New York Times put it: 'If you don’t think this country is sliding toward theocracy, you’re not paying attention.'

"In the United States, theocracy and authoritarianism go hand in hand.

"The framers of the Constitution quite deliberately excluded religion from the U.S. Constitution. As a young man, James Madison, the key thinker behind the Constitution, had seen his home state of Virginia arrest itinerant preachers for undermining the established church in the state. He came to believe that men had a right to the free exercise of religion.

"In 1785, in a 'Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments,' he explained that what was at stake was not just religion, but also representative government itself. The establishment of one religion over others attacked a fundamental human right—an unalienable right—of conscience. If lawmakers could destroy the right of freedom of conscience, they could destroy all other unalienable rights. Those in charge of government could throw representative government out the window and make themselves tyrants.

"In order to make sure men had the right of conscience, the framers added the First Amendment to the Constitution. It read: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….'

"Madison was right to link religion and representative government. In the early years of the nation, Americans zealously guarded the wall between the two. They strictly limited the power of the federal government to reflect religion, refusing even to permit the government to stop delivery of the U.S. mails on Sunday out of concern that Jews and Christians did not share the same Sabbath, and the government could not choose one over the other. The Constitution, a congressional report noted, gave Congress no authority 'to inquire and determine what part of time, or whether any has been set apart by the Almighty for religious exercises.'

"But the Civil War marked a change. As early as the 1830s, southern white enslavers relied on religious justification for their hierarchical system that rested on white supremacy. God, they argued, had made Black Americans for enslavement and women for marriage, and society must recognize those facts.

"A character in an 1836 novel written by a Virginia gentleman explained to a younger man that God had given everyone a place in society. Women and Black people were at the bottom, 'subordinate' to white men by design. 'All women live by marriage,' he said. 'It is their only duty.' Trying to make them equal was a cruelty. 'For my part,' the older man said, 'I am well pleased with the established order of the universe. I see…subordination everywhere. And when I find the subordinate content…and recognizing his place…as that to which he properly belongs, I am content to leave him there.'

"The Confederacy rejected the idea of popular government, maintaining instead that a few Americans should make the rules for the majority. As historian Gaines Foster explained in his 2002 book Moral Reconstruction, which explores the nineteenth-century relationship between government and morality, it was the Confederacy, not the U.S. government, that sought to align the state with God. A nation was more than the 'aggregation of individuals,' one Presbyterian minister preached, it was 'a sort of person before God,' and the government must purge that nation of sins.

"Confederates not only invoked 'the favor and guidance of Almighty God' in their Constitution, they established as their motto 'Deo vindice,' or 'God will vindicate.'

"The United States, in contrast, was recentering democracy during the war, and it rejected the alignment of the federal government with a religious vision. When reformers in the United States tried to change the preamble of the U.S. Constitution to read, 'We, the people of the United States, humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the sources of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Ruler among nations, and His revealed will as of supreme authority, in order to constitute a Christian government, and in order to form a more perfect union,' the House Committee on the Judiciary concluded that 'the Constitution of the United States does not recognize a Supreme Being.'

"That defense of democracy—the will of the majority—continued to hold religious extremists at bay.

"Reformers continued to try to add a Christian amendment to the Constitution, Foster explains, and in March 1896 once again got so far as the House Committee on the Judiciary. One reformer stressed that turning the Constitution into a Christian document would provide a source of authority for the government that, he implied, it lacked when it simply relied on a voting majority. A religious amendment 'asks the Bible to decide moral issues in political life; not all moral questions, but simply those that have become political questions.'

"Opponents recognized this attempt as a revolutionary attack that would dissolve the separation of church and state, and hand power to a religious minority. One reformer said that Congress had no right to enact laws that were not in 'harmony with the justice of God' and that the voice of the people should prevail only when it was 'right.' Congressmen then asked who would decide what was right, and what would happen if the majority was wrong. Would the Supreme Court turn into an interpreter of the Bible?

"The committee set the proposal aside.

"Now, once again, we are watching a minority trying to impose its will on the majority, with leaders like House speaker Johnson noting that 'I try to do every day what my constituents want. But sometimes what your constituents want does not line up with the principles God gave us for government. And you have to have conviction enough to stand [up] to your own people….'”

-- Heather Cox Richardson

[ohblackdiamond]

catch my drift (gene/vanity, very brief mentions of paul/gene) (nc-17)

Nikki hadn’t even cut a record yet when KISS was at its peak. Neither had Prince. She takes an idle lick of her cone, thinking about how Nikki had brushed Gene off last night. So fucking washed up, he’d said. But sitting here in the ice cream parlor, self-assured and comfortable, keen interest in his dark eyes, he doesn’t look washed up at all. During the filming of Never Too Young to Die, Gene and Vanity make a connection.

“catch my drift”

by Ruriruri

“That’s your outfit, huh?”

“That’s my outfit.” 

Sitting down at the table in her trailer, looking through the movie promo pictures, Nikki seems like he’s seconds from salivating. Which is kind of cute, given how long he’s been on the groupie hunt. Rockstars start getting so burned out, wanting weirder and weirder kinks out of girls and even girlfriends. It’s charming that a shot of her in a cleavage-baring top can still eke something boyish out of him.

Admittedly, it’s pretty cute. White and kind of pirate-style, long, flowy sleeves, and a neckline that doesn’t leave much to the imagination. Totally impractical for the scene--she’s supposed to be riding a horse, then killing some of Ragnar’s goons--but that’s all right. The whole movie’s all about the eye candy, like any James Bond parody ought to be. If Never Too Young to Die does as well as The Last Dragon, well, she’ll be happy.

Nikki’d come over after the shoot was done for the day, like a good boyfriend. He’d been chasing her around off and on a couple years before they’d ever gotten together. She hadn’t minded, exactly; she just hadn’t been available. It had been sweet—compared to Prince and even Adam, he was so tall and lanky, like an overgrown, skinny puppy. Eventually, he’d managed to catch her between boyfriends and then they’d kind of fallen into it. They fooled around on each other, but they had a lot in common. They did the same drugs. They fought over the same stupid shit over and over again. They occasionally liked talking about getting married and having kids. They both ended up high off their asses onstage and passed out in trashed hotel rooms.

It was just one of those things. It’s still just one of those things. He might propose to her eventually. She might take him up on it.

  “You should see what I’m wearing during the club scene with Gene.” They haven’t finished filming that one yet. She rummages through the pictures, finally finding it. It’s a blue gown with a thick trim of silver sequins down the v-neck front. The v-neck comes an inch shy of being all the way down to her navel. Needless to say, she’s not wearing a bra that entire scene.

Nikki’s properly impressed.

         “Jesus. He must’ve hit on you as soon as you walked out of the dressing room.”

         “Nah. But he looked like he wanted to.”

         Nikki snorts.

         “He’s so fucking washed up. Him and his princess knocked us off their tour a couple years back.”

         Vanity doesn’t know who the princess is. Possibly the blonde that’s stopped by every so often. Sharon or—no, Shannon. She’s been in Playboy. But Shannon doesn’t quite strike her as the type to get involved in her man’s band.

“Why?”

         “’Cause we were getting more out of the crowd. You think anybody but them wants to hear all that seventies shit?” Nikki shakes his head.

         “That’s sad, Nikki. You should’ve felt sorry for them.”

         “Nothing to feel sorry for. They had their time.” Nikki stretches and heads for the fridge, pulling out a couple bottles of beer. 

         “Had their time? What if someone says that about you in a couple years?” 

Nikki just shrugs.

He stays a few hours. Just long enough for them both to get high and get off a few times; then, probably on half-remembered orders from Doc, he gets someone to drive him back. Vanity listens to the sound of the limo backing out as she tugs on her bathrobe, musing.

Not much afterglow these days, even with coke and booze. It’s not even like they fought any tonight, either; there’s just not a lot of satisfaction once it’s over, somehow. Going, going, gone. She feels a bit emptied out as the taillights fade off into the distance. A bit—a bit low. There’s no glitz left once the orgasm’s over, once the euphoria fades out. Just a weird, wasted feeling. Ten years ago, she wouldn’t have thought it was possible.

She’s about to go back to bed when she hears someone pull up. At first she thinks it’s Nikki again, in a sappy or horny mood, but when she walks over to the window, she realizes it’s not a limo. It’s just a car.

Vanity’s not coked-up enough to be stupid. She hurries to the trailer door, making sure it’s locked, then pushes a chair in front of it. But it turns out she doesn’t need to. The car engine shuts off; there’s a beep, and then, finally, someone steps out. She can’t tell who it is, with not much more but the lights inside to really go off of, but from the shape and size, it’s a man. He’s not heading for her trailer. He’s heading for Gene’s.

--

It’s none of her business, sure. Hollywood, the music industry, all of it, is crammed with gays and bisexuals and wannabes. It’s to the point she thought Prince was gay and just wanting a beard when he first came on to her—which, well, shows how much she knew. But it really is hard to tell. For every one guy that’s out in his own private circle, there are probably five or six that hire on their boyfriends as secretaries or get in touch with a male escort service every tour, thinking they’re being stealthy.

Gene doesn’t strike her as remotely gay, anyway. There’s that rep of his, of course, but his interactions seal the deal. He’s sent a good amount of come-ons her way during shootings and breaks for lunch and dinner. He’s even had the gall to hit on her while his girlfriend’s in tow, something Vanity would never have put up with out of Nikki. Gene’s always got that total ease, like he’s absolutely fine with being blown off. It’s something she appreciates, a guy who doesn’t expect anything and doesn’t take it personally, in a town where everyone takes it personally.

And she’s seen the way he looks at her, that approving want she’s gotten out of guys ever since she was a teenager. It’s so customary. She’d ignored it from him up until now. Gene’s smart, and a good conversationalist, but he hadn’t interested her before. He’s not exactly a traditionally attractive guy, and he’s got right at nine or ten years on her, but those things aren’t the real issue. As much as she hates to admit it, Nikki wasn’t wrong about him. KISS is getting too old for the game, and Gene’s using the movies to try to bow out entirely. And after dating Prince, all her own pickings are a downhill slope, anyway.

But now, Gene’s intriguing. There are only two reasons for any guy to be sneaking up to his trailer that late at night. One’s for drugs, and Gene’s so clean they don’t even offer him the wine list at restaurants. The other’s for a lay. 

“Let’s go out, Gene.”

She says it casually, five minutes or so after they’ve wrapped for the evening. His eyes absolutely light up. He’s still in most of the Velvet garb, minus the gigantic headpiece and pink boas. A sparkle-encrusted, flesh-colored bodystocking, with studded leather cupping his breasts and outlining his whole body. Weird armor-like protrusions at the shoulders. And the crotch--shit,  it’s all pure fetishwear. Then again, Gene’s definitely used to that.

“Where?”

He’s still got on most of the makeup from the shoot, too. Layers of pink and purple eyeshadow, sharp cheek contour, and matching lipstick. It gives an interesting cast to his broad, heavy features, manages to create some androgyny in a face that’s so decidedly masculine. The colors aren’t bad on his swarthy, tanned skin, either.

“Oh, I don’t know. You’ve lived here a couple years, yeah? I bet you know some great places.” Vanity smiles. “Don’t worry. Promise I’m a cheap date.”

“I don’t think a girl that goes by Vanity could ever be a cheap date.” He’s grinning right back. “How’s your Italian?”

“Worse than my Japanese.”

“Perfect.”

An hour later, he’s stripped off the makeup and costume,down to a pair of black leather pants and a casual-enough button-down, a good enough match for her cream-colored, ruffled blouse and jeans. He surprises her when he has his driver pull into an ice-cream parlor rather than a restaurant.

“This place serves some of the best gelato you can get on the West Coast,” he says, ushering her inside. “Sorbets aren’t too bad, either.”

“Don’t tell me you’re watching your figure, Gene.”

“That corset’s a pain in the ass,” he says lightly. “Pick what you’d like.”

She gets a scoop of pistachio in a cone. Gene gets a bowl with three scoops-- one vanilla, one chocolate, one hazelnut-- and starts in with an eagerness that’s a little cute. She’s sort of had it with the prissy types that act like they’ve always had money. It’s better to watch a man eat like he’s starved than watch him snivel and pick at his food like all the luckless models she used to know.

“How is it?” he asks, in between spoonfuls.

“It’s good. Really creamy.”

“Good.”

“You want a taste?”

“Wouldn’t turn it down,” he says, and she tilts the cone his way. That too-long tongue of his slips lizardlike against the gelato, swiping a bit, and then he snaps off a chunk of the cone between his teeth. It’s honestly a little fascinating. Maybe he’s not laying claim yet so much as seeing where she’s at, figuring out how to proceed. Or, maybe, three scoops of gelato just aren’t enough for him. He smiles. “Not quite Italy, but close.”

“I’ve never been to Italy.”

“Really?”

“Nah. I modeled in Japan for awhile, starting out. I was too short to do it in New York.” She grins back. “They’ve got pretty good ice cream there, I was surprised. They had this kind with green tea.”

“Matcha.”

“Yeah, that’s it.” She keeps going. “And weird flavors like wasabi… you’ve been over there, right?”

“We played the Budokan.”

“Right, yeah. You’ve been everywhere.” Mr. Rockstar. One of many. He’s just been at it longer than her guys. All her guys. Nikki hadn’t even cut a record yet when KISS was at its peak. Neither had Prince. She takes an idle lick of her cone, thinking about how Nikki had brushed Gene off last night. So fucking washed up, he’d said. But sitting here in the ice cream parlor, self-assured and comfortable, keen interest in his dark eyes, he doesn’t look washed up at all. “I’m just a simple Canadian girl over here. Got any favorite places?”

“Oh, the hell you are.” He laughs, and she can’t help but chuckle herself. “It’s a very cute shtick, but you’re no ingenue.”

“What was your first clue?”

“Your albums.”

“Yeah? Didn’t think they were your kind of music.”

“I keep tabs. I’ve got a few bands I produce myself.”

Oh. She didn’t know that. So he’s not just doing the singer-actor bit, like everybody from Frank Sinatra to Mick Jagger tried. He really is diversifying his portfolio, or whatever the expression is. Diversifying his portfolio, or trying to get the hell out of KISS.

“You never answered my question.” He’s already more than halfway done with his three scoops of gelato. How he’s managed to polish it off between staring at her, she’s not quite sure. On impulse, she offers her cone to him again, just to get a better look at that tongue. He laps the gelato in long, thick strokes, leaving her with maybe an inch of it remaining above the cone. “Do you have any favorite places?”

“They all start to look the same when you mostly see them from the tour bus.” 

“Favorite girls?”

“That’d be telling, sweetheart.”

He’s not giving her a good opening. That’s okay. She’ll make one herself. She takes another lick of what little remains of her gelato, then nibbles around the cone. She’s not trying to be particularly sensual about it, but Gene’s gaze is locked on her anyway as she speaks.

“I saw someone come to your trailer last night. Who was it?”

      He doesn’t hesitate. His gaze doesn’t drop from her face. In fact, he smiles.

         “Paul Stanley.”

“Are you together?” It’s hard to picture. Or maybe not so hard at all. Paul’s pretty effeminate. It’d make a certain amount of sense, aesthetically and otherwise. Keeping it within the band would stymie any concerns about either one of them popping off to the press.

“No.” A pause. “There’s no commitment.”

“Just an itch, then?”

“An understanding.” Gene takes a large scoop of his own gelato, swallows. “Does it bother you?”

He sounds like he doesn’t give a shit whether it bothers her or not. She can respect that.

“No. It’s just interesting. I figured you were both only into women. Well, maybe not Paul, but…”

            “Paul likes women almost as much as I do. He just can’t hold onto them.”

“Sounds like a lot of guys I know.” 

“Would you like to meet him?” he says, ever so nonchalant. Something about his tone makes even that question sound like a come-on.

“I’ve met him already.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. My kid sister had his poster on her wall all through junior high.”

Gene just grins.

“Not mine?”

“Nah, you weren’t quite her taste. There’s a…” and she’s trailing for the right word all of a sudden, “a psychology to it, you know?”

“A psychology to taste? I’d never have imagined.” Thankfully, he doesn’t punctuate the sarcasm with a flick of his tongue. Vanity nudges his arm with her knuckles.

“A psychology to teenage girls’ taste. See, they’ve really got it in for the safe boy.”

“Paul’s only safe compared to a nuclear bomb.”

“Oh, yeah?” She quirks the side of her mouth up. “You know what I mean, right? They’ve gotta have them all packaged and shrink-wrapped. Sweet, sensitive, harmless. Takes awhile before they start growing up. Figure out Prince Charming isn’t composing poetry.”

“You’d know, Vanity.”

“I would.”

“But maybe he’s composing something a little more fun. A nasty limerick here, a dirty joke there--”

“A way into your pants there--”

“If it works, sure.” His dark eyes are glinting. He’s not handsome even when he’s amused, but there’s something there, something ineffable that goes a little past simple charm and charisma. He’s claimed it before, but she’s never seen it in action until now, the full force of intrigue aimed directly at her.

It’s not enough to knock her down, definitely not overwhelming. But it’s more than she’s expected.

“Don’t get too cocky,” she says, but she pokes the rest of the cone into his mouth.

--

They talk awhile longer. Not about the superficial crap. Not about the business. Not about Paul. She tells him about the T.V. shows she used to watch as a kid. Saturday Night at the Movies. The Wonderful World of Disney-- he remembers it as Walt Disney Presents and The Wonderful World of Color, but hell, it’s the same thing, really.

He gets a little bit endearing when he starts talking about the first shows he ever saw. Gunsmoke and Howdy Doody. He loves movies. He’ll watch just about anything, though he likes cartoons and horror.

“Aw, you’re just playing up to your image--”

“No, I’m not. I watched Dark Shadows every day after classes.”

“Everybody watched Dark Shadows. You’ve got to give me something better than that.”

“Carolyn Jones may well be my only true love.”

“Now, now, don’t get dirty with Morticia. I’m not letting you off that easy.”

“I’d never want you to.” Gene kind of grins. “What proof do you want? Give me a year and I’ll name you at least one horror movie.” 

“Is that how you get all the girls, Gene? A hot game of Trivial Pursuit?”

“Only a certain variety of girls.”

“Trekkies?”

“They find me endearing. C’mon, give me a year.”

She purses her lips, pretending to give it a serious amount of thought. It’s so nerdy of him. He’ll probably be showing her his comic book collection next. And yet he’s so incredibly cocksure and confident about it that she could almost, almost– 

Almost what? Buy it? No, she can’t buy it. Gene’s more fascinating than she’d ever counted on, but she can’t buy it. Intrigued, aroused, but anything past that, hell. She was never a groupie; the guys all came to her. She doesn’t have it in her to fall hard for anyone, least of all a middle-aged, bisexual rockstar with a potbelly.

Gene’s brown eyes are on hers, waiting. Oh. She still needs to give him a year. 

“’31.”

“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Fredric March. And Dracula, of course.”

 ‘I vant to suck your blood’... please, Gene.”

“If you’re offering.” Gene’s hand finds its way to her wrist, lifting it as he bends his head down. Her fingers twitch when he opens his mouth, showing slightly-yellow teeth and a handful of fillings–and then his jaw snaps shut on nothing at all.

“No follow through?”

An exaggeratedly chivalrous kiss on her wrist. One that really shouldn’t make her feel warm. 

“Lon Chaney was always more my scene. Charles Laughton, too.”

“Wasn’t he… he was the fat guy in Spartacus, right?”

“Good girl. And Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Chaney played him, too, but I like Laughton’s performance more. The part where he watches Esmerelda get carried away by Captain Phoebus…”

“You pitied him.”

“I was him.” He’s still touching her, his hand warm and heavy around her wrist. “Quasimodo’s every fat teenage boy that ever lived.”

“And now? Are you still him?”

“I’ve got a real nice bell tower these days.”

“I bet you want me to see it. This is how it starts, right? Gelato and a limo ride, and then you take me to your trailer and I end up with rugburn.”

“And you claimed you were a simple Canadian girl.”

“You were right not to believe me.” She tugs her hand away, tapping his wrist lightly. “So let’s see. Go on, take me to your trailer.”

His grin could have lit up half of Hollywood as they head out of the ice cream shop, arm in arm, like kids playing house.

–

The inside of his on-location trailer is messy. Promos and flyers and magazines (some filthy, others are just standards like Variety and Time). Candy wrappers and Coke bottles in wastebaskets and on the floor. The bedroom’s occupied mostly by the bed and partially by a T.V. But Gene gestures around like it’s a castle.

“My bell tower.”

“I thought you were gonna have to unzip for that,” she says, and he laughs hard. She takes off her boots and perches on the bed. There’s the vague whiff of a man’s cologne, one she’d never noticed on Gene, but there’s no other obvious signs that anyone else, man or woman, has been in here.

It’s just that she wonders, is all. She wonders, and he’s fun. Still worth a little fooling around with. She stretches a bit and starts to unbutton her blouse.

“You’ve had them all, haven’t you?”

It’s not meant as a come-on. Well, not completely. Gene’s found his way behind her on the bed, his hand pushing her hair back just so he can mouth at her neck. His lips are warm, just as warm as they’d been on her wrist.

“You’ve never had them all.”

“You’ve– I mean there’s nothing new for you. You’ve seen everything. You’ve done everything.” Two more buttons and she’s free of her blouse. One elastic snap and he’s freed her from her bra, too. Her pulse speeds suddenly as she turns to kiss him. “You get it, don’t you? Don’t you? What’s left, Gene?”

“You’ve never done everything. No matter what, you can’t afford to ever think like that.” His face clouds just a little, but not enough to overwhelm the want in his expression. “If you do, it’ll kill you.”

Already she’s amazed he can even summon that much brainpower. His dick’s hard and straining through those leather pants already. But he keeps on going, heedless, for now, of his own need, eyes so intent on hers she feels like both their visions have telescoped into only each other.

“You have to keep believing there’s something out of reach. Something else you can try for.”

“Another thrill.”

“Not your thrills.” Gene’s fingers slip to the button and zipper of her jeans. The thin, lacey panties aren’t much of a barrier against the intent rhythm of his hand. “Mine.”

She tries to respond, but she’s already bucking, and a little wet, as his fingers press just-so against her folds. Another kiss and somehow now she’s found herself hoisted onto his lap, wriggling helplessly as his fingers slide beneath her underwear. She’s trying not to cry out too much, trying to play it collected and cool and easy, but a few small moans escape her anyway.

His fingers are broad, practiced. He eases an orgasm out of her like a guitar solo, right there on his lap, leaving her grunting and open, rubbing against his hand to try and tease another crescendo, suddenly greedy. He unzips after that, finally, shoving his pants and briefs down in one motion, leaving them around his thighs. Sloppy. The product, probably, of over ten years on the road. She doesn’t give a damn at all once he starts to thrust.

Overcome, that’s it. She’s overcome. She doesn’t know how that could possibly be. His mouth on hers, his body against hers, pressing her into the mattress. Nothing new about any of the motions, the thrusts that go from rhythmic to erratic as they both get closer and closer, the heaviness of their breaths, the slickness of their bodies. The only thing new is him. 

– 

They lay together awhile after. Vanity stares up at the low ceiling of the trailer bedroom. Gene’s got an arm self-assuredly around her bare shoulders. He doesn’t move when she sits up. 

“I should get back.” 

“Later. Shower with me.” Gene looks like he has no intention of getting out of bed anytime in the near future. 

“Bathroom’s too small,” she says, grinning. “I guess that’s the point.”

His hand’s tracing absentmindedly down to her bare breast. She pushes it away, sitting up and swinging her legs off the side of the bed. 

“I really gotta go, Gene.” Nikki’s too laughable an excuse to bother with, and the truth’s too complex to bother putting to words. She likes to think he understands. 

“All right. You know where to find me.”

She steps back into her clothes, eying him carefully, just off to her side. Not too much lasciviousness right now, just a little, and something else she thinks she recognizes. 

“Vanity–”

“Denise,” she slips out suddenly. “It’s Denise.”

“Denise.” The corner of his mouth lifts up. “Denise, you’re a beautiful girl. But Hollywood, music, it’s rotten. It’s a cesspool. You’ll never find what you’re looking for here.”

“I know.” 

“Find what you really want and hold onto it.” Urgent, strangely urgent. Doting. He’s sitting up, tugging up and zipping his pants as he speaks. “The paint always flakes off. The highs go to shit. I’ve seen it a million times. Don’t destroy yourself over something cheap.” 

Sex and a sermon. But he’s so focused, so sincere that she nods, in acknowledgment, if not agreement. 

“I’ll see you on the set, Quasimodo.”

“Goodbye, Esmeralda.” 

He walks her out, takes her all the way to her own trailer, like the gentlemen he isn’t. Kisses her before she steps inside, and a part of her wants to let him in, even then. But she goes in alone, strips and showers, the water droplets insistent against her skin. 

Twenty-seven to his thirty-seven. Up and coming to his washed-up. And yet it’s Gene with the vibrance and the zest for life. And yet, somehow, it’s Gene that understands. 

(there’s something out of reach)

(something you can try for)

Just once, she’d like to believe that. Just once.

#kiss the band #gene simmons #vanity #kiss fanfiction

[inevitablemoment]

“does that hurt?”

Word Count: 871

Warnings: Politics, politically motivated violence, stranger attack, black eye, injury, dislocated shoulder

Fandom: Spin City

Pairings: Mike Flaherty x Nikki Faber

I’m finally writing a Spin City fic! I love this show so much, and I am just shocked that there is no content. Like literally, on AO3, there’s no fics under the Spin City (TV) tag. But, that may change, as writing this piece has given me a spark of inspiration for to expand on it in a multi-chapter fic.

Takes place in late Season 3.

Enjoy!

————————

As Nikki had taken to spending more and more nights at Mike’s apartment, they often made their commute to City Hall together. It was not an uncommon sight to see them hand-in-hand as they made their way up the steps into the building, and she could not see them stopping anytime soon-- no matter how much Stuart teased them.

Besides, she had valuable ammo against him, should he annoy her enough.

She and Mike were discussing the previous night’s episode of Law & Order when she caught something in the corner of her eye; a man, dressed in a grey hoodie and his face obscured by a baseball cap.

Something in her gut flared at the sight of this man. She had lived in New York City all her life, a city girl through and through, and these instincts had been drilled into her from her earliest memory.

Her hold on Mike’s arm tightened when she realized that the man was approaching the both of them.

“You Mike Flaherty?” the man asked.

As tightly as Nikki tried to squeeze Mike’s arm to warn him not to engage, he still took two steps forward.

“Yeah, what can I do for y--?”

The man’s fist came flying towards Mike, immediately knocking him down. The man began yelling things like “Liberal puppet!” and “Commie bastard!” as Nikki rushed to her boyfriend’s side, trying to help him up as two security guards restrained his assailant.

Nikki helped Mike back to his feet. “Hey, you okay?”

Mike shook his head, even as he held the heel of his palm against his left eye. “Y-- yeah.”

“Mike,” she gave him a warning tone.

“Nikki, don’t worry about me,” he asked. “Did-- did he try to hurt you? I couldn’t see--”

“No,” Nikki said. “Are you sure...?”

“Nikki... please,” Mike lowered his hand, revealing that his eye was beginning to swell shut.

“Mike...”

“Just... let’s just go inside,” he requested, taking her hand again. “Please?”

Nikki sighed. “Fine. But I’m getting ice for that eye when we get inside.”

Throughout the rest of the day, everyone reacted just as Nikki predicted they would; Carter, James, and Janelle showed genuine concern, Stuart asked if it had been a result of their “activities in the boudoir,” Stacey asked if Mike at least got a punch in, and Paul was just as clueless as ever.

“I heard the Secret Service guys talking,” Carter said as he and Stuart followed Nikki to the ice machine. “You think this might be the guy that tried to take a shot at the mayor last month?”

“I don’t know,” Nikki answered, inserting a coin into the machine and holding an open Ziploc bag out.

“Seems a little weird-- can’t take out the mayor, so you try to get the guy below him,” Stuart mused. “Like how I couldn’t score a night with a future Penthouse model in college, so I dated that flat-chested girl for six months. She even roped me into spending Thanksgiving with her family.”

Nikki let out a heavy sigh of frustration and contempt that harmonized with the ice machine as the ice fell into the bag.

No.

She would not let Stuart’s “horny bastard” ways aggravate her today.

She had too much on her plate to worry about.

Nikki sealed the bag and turned back around. “Just see if you can get a security detail for Mike-- and make it discreet. Don’t want to make him feel smothered.”

“And what better way to do that than to gaslight him about the black, windowless cars outside his apartment building?” Stuart said.

Nikki gave herself one split second to glare at Stuart before she turned to Carter. “If I broke his jaw, I’d be doing mankind a service, right?”

“Oh, you’d get the Nobel Peace Prize,” Carter remarked.

Nikki gave Stuart the fakest smile that she could muster up before she left for Mike’s office in a rush.

As she expected, Mike was sitting at his desk, working as if nothing had happened that morning. The only indicator that this was not just a normal day was the beginnings of a violet bruise that framed his left eye, and the pained expression he seemed to have on his face as he filled out some paperwork.

Mike looked up, seeing her standing in the doorway. “Hey.”

“Hey-- I got the ice,” Nikki held up the bag, walking towards his desk and taking a seat across from him.

“Thanks, but--”

Whatever he was going to say, she didn’t listen as she gently pressed the bag of ice against his injured eye.

“Thanks,” he repeated, sincere this time.

He began to reach his hand to take hold of the bag himself, before wincing in pain.

“Wh-- you okay?” Nikki asked.

“It’s-- it’s just my shoulder,” he tried to wave off. “It’s a little sore.”

“That didn’t sound like a ‘little sore’ groan,” Nikki observed, reaching over the desk to try to examine his shoulder. “Does it hurt? Let me--”

As soon as her hand made contact with his shoulder, Mike cried out in pain. Nikki sprung to her feet and practically hurdled the desk to get to him.

“I-- I think we need to take you to the hospital.”

#juneofdoom #June of Doom #June of Doom 2023 #No. 4 #Day 4 #Day Four #Does that hurt? #Spin City #Mike Flaherty #Nikki Faber #Carter Heywood #Stuart Bondek #My Fics #TW Politics #TW Physical Violence #TW Black Eye #OTP: Score Three Times In One Night #Mike Flaherty Whump #Michael J. Fox #Connie Britton #Hurt/Comfort #Aftercare #TW Dislocated Shoulder