#restless rewatch extras

[canary3d-obsessed]

The previous problem has been solved, but new problems have appeared.

#hilarity #nie huaisang #jin guangyao #the untamed gifs #restless rewatch extras #ep40 #canary3d-original

[nyahchan]

Childe's Dear Roomate

Modern AU Childe x fem!faceless pornstar streamer reader 18+

TW:mentiones of toys, voyeurism (?) , modern au childe,daddy kink, squirting,

I think you can guess the rest of the tags

This is inspired by a fic I read but I can't find it anymore so idk who to give credits

:readmore: (this shi never works)

Every waking moment

Every hour at work

It all felt irritating

He could only grow restless till his working hours were up and he could leave

Childe's favourite activity of the day was going home, not to relax, not to eat, not to sleep, but to watch his favourite streamer, oh how cute she was! hiding her face with a mask, wearing a wig for extra caution, all while showing her beautiful and gorgeous body to the entire world for money, playing with herself for ___$ , Cumming on the stream for ___$, using various toys for ___$,Moaning a certain viewer's name for special donations and oh so much more! Childe could only feel aroused and angry everytime your stream started, you were showing your lovely body and doing such unholy things in front of so many perverts like himself just for money, he could easily give you the money you need! Just thinking about having you by his side, fucking you every waking moment, giving you the money that you oh so badly need to be doing such things on the internet was enough to make him cum all over his screen as he watched your stream on his computer.

Everything was perfect as usual except for one thing, he had a new roommate now, ugh so annoying, although he didn't need to have a roommate as he had a very high paying job, he oh so stupidly agreed to it one night a few days ago while he was rewatching a few of his favourite streamer's streams, agreeing in the heat of the moment as he was annoyed that someone was calling him asking if she could be his roommate for external and internal reasons for a few days, childe kept thinking about kicking his annoying roommate out but figured it's only for a few days so he didn't even bother looking at his new roommate's face, and with that in mind he kept watching his darling streamer when he realized something, her background was different today and she was telling her viewers how she was at a different place for some internal reasons and to not pay attention to it but childe kept thinking about it over and over again... It looks familiar... Too familiar... Childe kept looking at the background till it clicked in his head, he grinned evilly and immediately dashed to his new roommate's room and behold! His darling was right in front of him, completely naked, a dildo inside her sopping pussy, her face covered with a mask, wearing a wig, her eyes widened as childe barged in. He on the other hand,wasted no time in unbuckling his already loose pants, only in his underwear from the waist down now, wearing a mask himself and going near the screen where she was sitting, "hey guys, today you're gonna see your favorite streamer get fucked by an actual cock instead of this fake tiny little dildo" childe said as he yanked the dildo out with so much force, it caused you to whimper out loudly, still shocked from the turn of events "this will be her last stream so gonna make it a special one ya see" "don't even need to pay today, just watch and see how good I fuck my darling unlike you disgusting perverts, savour this moment in your heart" he says to the screen as he quickly takes his pants off, revealing his long and girthy member ", your eyes widen "w-wait, w-what do you mean my last steam?!" You say all confused "darling, ya think I'm gonna let these animals look at you any longer now that I've found out you're my roommate~ don't worry daddy's gonna pay for everything, no need to do such degenerate things for money anymore, daddy's gonna wife ya up"

and with that, he starts aligning himself against your dripping pussy, you can only whimper in protest, he starts slowly entering you until he bottoms out, hissing at you walls tightening around him "although you just had a dildo shoved in ya, it appears you're still too tight for daddy's cock, never had an actual girthy cock before did ya?" He says smugly as he starts violently thrusting in and out of you, you start moaning loudly, lost in the pleasure, no one has ever fucked you think good before, your eyes roll back in your head as your tongue falls out of your mouth as you stop caring about how your screen is filling up with hundreds of messages , either praising you or degrading you as they talk in detail how they're jerking off right now to you,as you're getting fucked into oblivion, childe on the otherhand could feel his blood rushing to his dick even more as he saw all the comments popping on the screen, a feeling of possessiveness fills him up as he starts thrusting faster and faster while growling to show the world who you belong to now, your walls start tightening around his cock as you feel the knot in your stomach about to snap, but something feels different, very different "i-i think I need to pee, I-i feel strange" you whimper out "then piss on my cock" he grunts as he feels your walls tightening even more, and as if on command, you squirt all over his chest, your back arching as your head falls back, childe's eyes widen at the scene in front of him and he starts smirking mischievously at this new revelation "my my, it looks like someone just squirted~" he chuckles,your eyes quickly widen but he gives you a reassuring smile to indicate this is not something to be ashamed of and thrusts into you sloppily a few more times to help you through your high before cumming inside your pussy himself, you whimper out at the feeling of being filled to the brim by his seed.

Childe quickly ends the stream and places you onto his lap to let you rest up as he coos praises into your ear "no more showing the world your gorgeous body m-kay?I'll give you as much money you need, let's be permanent roommates" he says as he slips the mask off of your face and his as well, then snags the wig off of your head for more air "you look stunning, you know that right? Looked so good when you squirted,it's a shame the mask covered your face, wanted to fully see that tongue sticking out,maybe next time" he says as he brushes some hair off of your face, you might have just found a new sugar daddy, except you're probably gonna be living with him.... And might just become a parent in the process..

#modern childe #childe smut #childe x reader smut #childe x reader #tartagalia smut #tartaglia x reader smut #tartaglia x reader #genshin smut #genshin impact #smut #ajax x reader

[fibula-rasa]

Seen in ’23: Annual Roundup

Top new-to-me films of ‘23 

(in the order I saw them, not preference)

The Blizzard / Gunnar Hedes saga (1923) [imdb | letterboxd]

The Rafter’s Bride / Koskenlaskijan morsian (1923) [imdb | letterboxd]

Funeral Parade of Roses / 薔薇の葬列 (1969) [letterboxd | imdb]

Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press / Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse (1984) [letterboxd | imdb]

Drylongso (1998) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy (1980) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Burning Crucible / Le Brasier ardent (1923) [letterboxd | imdb]

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) [letterboxd | imdb]

Merry-Go-Round (1923) [letterboxd | imdb]

Dream Demon (1988) [letterboxd | imdb]

Mazel Tov / Ost und West (1923) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Signal Tower (1924) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Second Track / Das zweite Gleis (1962) [letterboxd | imdb]

Restless Blood / Levoton Veri (1946) [letterboxd | imdb]

The Man Without Desire (1923) [letterboxd | imdb]

Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Adolescence of Utena / 少女革命ウテナ アドゥレセンス黙示録 (1999) [letterboxd | imdb]

---

Honorable mention:

Ritratto di donna velata (1972) [letterboxd | imdb] (because it’s technically a mini-series)

Spirits of the Dead / Histoires extraordinaires (1968) [letterboxd | imdb] (because it would make the year-end list for “Toby Dammit” alone TBH)

So, according to letterboxd, only 33% of the films I watched in 2023 were rewatches. In an unexpected bit of consistency, that’s also my proportion of rewatches for ‘22 and ‘21. Sometimes crunching the numbers teaches you potentially meaningless things about yourself.

On my letterboxd, I put together a list of my top new-to-me films of ’23, in case you want an easier way to check if there’s anything you might want to add to your own watchlists!

READ ON BELOW THE JUMP!

As I continued my tradition of watching films as they turn 100, the 1920s was my most-watched decade as it was in 2022.

I was startled looking at the stats that the 1930s were so underrepresented! To ward that off in 2024, I think I’ll binge some pre-codes. Maybe we should all watch pre-codes in March 2024 to dishonor Will Hays on his birthday?

My top individual years were:

1923

1987

1986

1920

1911

1971 (unexpected!) 

1988

---

In another bit of unexpected consistency, I seem to have watched roughly 60% American-made films every year for the last 3 years?

Regardless, I think my MVP for this year was Finland. Teuvo Tulio is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors and the silent films from Finland that I watched this year were highlights too!

---

My most watched actors for 2023 were:

Alice Howell

James Finlayson

Stan Laurel

Snub Pollard

Katherine Grant

Marie Mosquini

Christopher Lee

Jackie Cooper

Lois Weber

Mabel Normand

Noah Young

Oliver Hardy

Richard Smith

Can you tell that I watched a ton of silent comedy in 2023? Of course Marie and Snub are making a return appearance here from last year, so I suppose I watched plenty of comedy shorts in ‘22 as well.

If you were only to count the feature films that I watched, Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Douglas Fairbanks, Vincent Price, and William Haines would top the list!

---

My most watched directors were:

Alice Guy

Dave Fleischer

George Jeske

Arthur Rankin Jr. & Jules Bass

Charley Chase

John G. Blystone

Lois Weber

Richard Smith

Maya Deren

Phillips Smalley

Another affirmation that I watched a whole lot of silent shorts, but this time because of the fantastic Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers set. I highly recommend picking up a copy (or checking it out of your local library). Not only is the set well curated, but there are so many great extras to put the films in context. 

For Christmas ‘23, I got the Cinema’s First Nasty Women set and I’m very excited to marathon those and be influenced into a year of behaving badly.

Maya Deren makes the list because I re-watched her films in advance of my cosplay/profile of her. If you haven’t dug into Deren’s short but fascinating filmography yet, I highly recommend it!

#roundup #year end roundup #film recommendation #movie recommendations #film blog #film #classic film #classic movies #silent film #silent movies #silent cinema #cinema #filmblr #movies #world cinema #animation

[haemosexuality]

FNAF MOVIE SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT DONT READ IF YOU HAVENT SEEN IT YET I MEAN IT!!!!!!!

im ab to rewatch it at home and ill be writing what i think during it

im not gonna be talking ab stuff i already said in my other post lol

the FIRST SCENE is already fucking visceral dude. like they dont show any gore or anything but damn the fucking. aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA ITS GOOD its so good. also the previous security guard does exactly the same thing mike does later own to try to escape the freddy mask but mike succeeds and he doesnt, which is kinda like how in game phone guy (previous security guard) goes through the same process we do but we/mike survives and he doesnt. cool!!

THE INTRO WITH THE MINIGAME STYLE... DUDE. DUDE. I LOVE THIS MOVIE ITS A LOVE LETTER FOR THE FANS FR I WAS SO HYPE WITH EXCITEMENT I ALMOST STARTED CRYING IN THE THEATER. ALSO ITS JUST FUCKING COOL LOOKING

the rainbow!!!!! in the coffee shop scene!!! its the fnaf world rainbow!!

see the movie has the scene where william reads the name michael schmidt and pauses and long time fans will prob be like aha is that william realizing this is his son. but no thats where it tricks you bc hes actually just realizing this is a relative of that kid he kidnapped a while ago. which like obviously cuz why would william realize this guys his son by reading his, fake name?? but confirmation bias or smth

I WAS SO SHOCKED BY SEEING MATPAT THE FIRST TIME I WATCHED THAT I DIDNT CATCH HIM SAYING "THATS JUST A THEORY". OH MY FUCKING GOD DUDE

🎶It's getting lonely, it's getting hard to breathe

The arcade's empty, I think it's Christmas Eve

Someone's broken in, now they're painting on my skin

Breaking me and taking my quarters

Bashing in my face with a crowbar

Kicking me and pushing me over

Now they see my blood on their sneakers🎶

i am so jealous of the midnight motorist shirt its not even funny

my complain is that how did none of the animatronics have blood on them after brutally killing several ppl. come on!!!

me hearing the words "follow me" on a fnaf movie: holy shit is this a motherfucking fnaf reference?!?!?

oh my god that totally is the fucking fake dog animatronic

oh my god they dont actually swear in the og. she said "what in the heck" but portuguese translated that to what the fuck. incredible. amazing.

"i know what crazy looks like, mike. this isnt it" OH. OH

vanessas behavior was already pretty understandable without the extra context but knowing shes williams daughter makes it JUICY. ooo yeah baby gimme the trauma gimme the guilt

the scene with the animatronics and abby being besties felt a bit too ooc at first to me and ive heard that other people felt the same but as i think more about it it does kinda make sense. one of the main differences from the game is that in this the ghost kids' minds seem to be pretty intact? or like they can think theyre fully conscious etc so. i can see them wanting to do kid stuff. and i saw someone point out that they were actively trying to get abbys trust too so they could convince her to 'join them' (bc afton was somehow influencing them to be #evil) so, theres that. and either way it doesnt take away from the overall experience so who cares

the tv scenes were such a missed oportunity they couldve shown the immortal and the restless... i kept waiting for it :(

oh my god the airplane. i just realized she had garretts toy airplane bc william gave it to her after he killed him oh my god i feel sick

the ball pit wasnt even time travelling 0/10

i didnt watch the credits long enough in the theater to hear the COME FIND ME but AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA dude

yeah so good. i fucking loved this

#five nights at freddy's #fnaf movie #fnaf movie spoilers

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday, October 29th

ANGEL: (yelling) What the hell did you do? WESLEY: What I had to. ANGEL: I don't remember seeing 'Stab Gunn' on the agenda this morning!

~~Shells~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

A slayers heart by Dragonprincess19961 (Buffy/Faith, not rated)

New Traditions by Amejisuto (Xander/Spike, M)

A spontaneous training session by Bl4ckHunter (Buffy/Faith, T)

Quintessence by OveliaGirlHaditRight (Buffy/Angel, G)

[Chaptered Fiction]

All That Is And All That Seems, Chapter 48 by MalkMcJorma (Faith/OC, Buffy/Riley, M)

north star, Chapter 29 by The_Eclectic_Bookworm (Jenny & Buffy, T)

Athena Luthor - Slayer Travels, Chapter 41 by Hermione2be (Buffy/Clark Kent, Smallville crossover, T)

Sandy Places in Tomorrow, Chapter 37 by Raihne (Xander/Spike, M)

Sunset Valley, Chapter 27 by dwinchester (Buffy/Dean Winchester/Stiles Stilinski, Supernatural & Teen Wolf crossover, T)

The Time We Had, Chapter 11 by Dusty87 (Buffy/Spike, M)

Carrot's snippet collection, Chapter 66 by CaptainCarrot (Faith, multiple crossovers, G)

The Consequences of Not Fading Away, Chapter 9 by missxfaith (Angel/Cordelia, T)

Dawn of the Future, Chapter 13 by BrennaLynn (Buffy/OC, Faith/Dawn, T)

A New Family for Buffy, Chapter 10 by BrennaLynn (Buffy/Faith, Charmed crossover, T)

Extra Pickle, Chapter 2 by Alwaysandforevermylove (Buffy/Faith, E)

Ultimately Charmed, Chapter 2 by BrennaLynn (Buffy/Kyle Brody, Charmed crossover, T)

Dawn of the Shaun, Chapter 1 by buffvamporigfan (OC & Scoobies, T)

Drive, Chapter 1 by HollyDB (Buffy/Spike, E)

Through a Mirror darkly, Chapters 1-2 by davidf89 (Buffy/Spike, E)

Colonial Bride, Chapters 8-9, by Feanix88 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Bound, Chapter 27 by RavenLove12 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Fade Away Again, Chapter 5 by Willow25 (Buffy/Spike, PG)

Not Back to the Future Rules, Chapter 2 by Lady Emma (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Seph, Chapter 1 by sweetprincipale (Buffy/Spike, R)

Colonial Bride, Chapter 8 by Feanix88 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Road to Hell...., Chapter 15 by All4Spike (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Not Back to the Future Rules, Chapter 2 by Lady Emma (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Sunlight On Your Face, Chapter 5 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: S4 E9: Pangs Lil Pincushion (Sketch) by goofwarrior (Spike, worksafe)

Artwork: S4 E22: Restless Classic Vamp Pose by goofwarrior (Spike, worksafe)

Artwork: Buffy "Every Outfit" "Where The Wild Things Are" by whatshisfaceblogs (worksafe)

Artwork: Buffy "Every Outfit" "New Moon Rising" by whatshisfaceblogs (worksafe)

Buffy comic by johnmcguinness.art (worksafe)

Fanvid: spike and drusilla | my love paramour by cocteau twins by deadwivesclub

Manip: True Romance by loveisntbrains_ (PG-13)

Comic: A Better Place Than the One We're At, Chapter 1 by BewitchedXx (PG-13)

Playlist: buffy summers playlist for slaying vampires | a vigilante inspired playlist by MusicThroughTheMoods

Vidlet: Buffy x Angel by Shannon Rey

Vidlet: Buffy x Angel - Video Games by Shannon Rey

Fanvid: Spike and Damon- Come As You Are by Bobblehead89 (The Vampire Diaries crossover vid)

Fanvid: Buffy The Vampre Slayer- Anime Opening (Blue Bird) by Just Arvin

Fanvid: Buffy and Angel - If I Don't by juliaroxs241

Fanvid: Chosen Warriors (BtVS edit) by Random Ships🌈🛳 (Chosen episodic vid)

Buffy intro & theme music adaptation: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, except 'tis Sengoku Period Japan by Friar Untuck

Buffy intro & theme music adaptation: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a bardcore tribute by Friar Untuck

[Reviews & Recaps]

Angel Season 5 Rewatch - #21 Power Play by Involvere

[Recs]

Top 5 Fics That Are New To Me by dragonyphoenix

Fanworks that are (mostly) new to me by dragonyphoenix

Top 10 Spuffy fics I’ve read (Oct 2022) by mcgnagallsarmy

[Community Announcements]

I Will Remember You: posting starts in a couple of days by iwry-marathon

[Fandom Discussions]

Season 5 is the only season of Buffy in which Joyce Summers appears in or is talked about in every single episode by coraniaid

Buffy Summers by aesthetic-solar-space

if you calculate the dates between the airing of The Gift and Bargaining it's only 133 days by disco-tea

faith would 100% run after buffy when dawn and the others kicked buffy out of the house (but...) by faithlehanegf

Is Buffy a Good Slayer? by worth1000kps

This episode [Lie To Me] is underrated by Opening_Knowledge868

First reference to Dawn by onugirl90

Why did The Initiative - or Maggie Walsh - make Adam? by First-Speech-5622

Character dynamics you would’ve liked explored by nerdalertalertnerd

How would/should Buffy have dealt with Maggie? by Awkward_Awareness

Confessions that can get your Buffy card revoked by moonwalker_96

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

Video: Architect Breaks Down 5 Haunted Houses From Scary Films by Architectural Digest(discussion of Crawford Street mansion starting from 5:28)

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #ats #angel the series #buffy

[movietimebesttime]

The Batman

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, and Paul Dano

Synopsis: Batman ventures into Gotham City's underworld when a sadistic killer leaves behind a trail of cryptic clues. As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator's plans become clear, he must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued the metropolis.

Warning: Contains spoilers!

Due to the pandemic, it feels like forever ago when I heard that Robert Pattinson would be the new batman. Thus, I may be biased because I really like him. However, I think this movie created a really nice portrayal of Batman on its own. I'm actually not a huge Batman fan so I don't know much about the character except the basics. Making his intelligence his most prominent feature in this film was fun to experience and kind of refreshing. Trust me, there was still plenty of brooding to go around, but I liked that he had to be almost super smart to solve the riddles so quickly.

I will say that the movie was a bit long. When I watched it for the first time, I was getting a little antsy towards the end. I'm usually able to sit for long periods of time. I feel like the max I can last without getting restless is two and a half hours. Luckily, the kiss between the bat and the cat got me going again for the rest of the movie. I enjoy romances in superhero movies, but this one was a bit strange to me. I feel like Batman wasn't as into it as a normal person would be. Like I said, I don't know a lot about Batman's character. Of course, I don't see Batman who would become giddy with joy either, but it just kind of felt unnatural to me.

The only thing I got lost in was the riddler's end goal. I understand that he wanted to expose the corruption in Gotham, but I don't get why he had to flood the city. And also the orphan thing... Was he an orphan?? I might've missed that because I'm litrilly stupid, haha. Well, now that the movie is available for streaming, maybe I'll rewatch it and take it at my own pace.

I actually only watched the extras so far because they were super short, and I love behind-the-scenes stuff. It's crazy how they used walls of screens to create some of the backgrounds to shoot scenes. I read that it's the same technology used for The Mandalorian! I wonder how many other projects will utilize this method in the future. I feel like it's bound to become the norm as technology develops to create sharper images.

#movie review #robert pattinson #zoe kravitz #paul dano #action

[emmathompsonegot]

Man!! I just rewatched Restless, and now I’m Extra bummed that s7 wasn’t about the origin of the Slayer and the Wather’s Council. Aside from the fact that it’s totally true that the Council would have made a way better villain than the First, Restless lays a fun foundation about how the Slayer is a fusion of human and demon which the show never takes full advantage of

Raising the issue of the Slayer’s demon origins would have established the question of the season as “What makes someone human? What makes someone a good person? Do you have to be the first to be the second, and how does choice play into that?” It would have strengthened the parallels between Buffy and Spike’s arcs, and covered Anya and Willow’s development which got weirdly sidelined in the show

Since the answer to the question has to be that goodness is a choice, I don’t think Spike would have his soul in this version. There’d be some fun callbacks to Lie to Me. Willow would get to talk to Buffy about choosing to wield her unimaginable power for good. We might find out if Anya has a soul or not. Fun stuff

#I just think that the idea of demon Buffy is so cool!!! #and it’s a bummer they never really explored it #buffy the vampire slayer #I have a lot of thoughts about this show #and my one friend who I could talk about with hasn’t finished it yet #agony #so my thoughts go out to you all lol #btvs #mine

[artificialqueens]

Level Up, Chapter Eleven (Branjie) - Holtzmanns

“I don’t think I could come up with anything negative about you.”

Brooke’s eyes are sincere as she says it, and Vanessa’s heart starts to beat just a little bit faster. Vanessa’s a person who’s always on the go, not one to slow down if she doesn’t have to but Brooke has the ability to make her world pause for just a second. Brooke changes Vanessa’s focus from what’s in front of her to solely her, and Vanessa almost wishes she could keep it there forever.

It’s never that hard for Vanessa to come up with words to reply with, especially not towards Brooke, but her brain feels like it has shuddered to a stop, pressing on the brakes because the small smile on Brooke’s face is more important to focus on. She could say something stupid, something funny, maybe return the sentiment but she doesn’t get a chance to decide on what to do before Yvie lets out a scoff.

“Except for your dislike of Chicken Little. That’s a negative if I’ve ever seen one.”

AN: Hi, I'm still alive, I promise. Popping back into this lovely fic nearly eight months later (a new job, a new apartment, a new city, and a new cat later too) and I love it just as much as I did in January. Eight months is good for plot to marinate and develop and I'm excited to get back to writing this fic again. If you're still around for this journey, thank you and know I'm so grateful for it. Please do tell me your thoughts if you read! Thank you writ for betaing ily <3

“So you have that interview with Glamour, I’ll set it up for some time this week, and Teen Vogue wants to do something on their Youtube channel. Who knew that was a thing? I’m working on Adidas’ rep to finagle a sponsorship outta them, and Under Armour on the backburner just in case-”

Vanessa bursts through the doors of the gym while Detox continues talking in her ear, not at all apologetic about the way that she has to interrupt her as she ambles towards Brooke’s office. “Just reached the gym. We’ll have to continue this later, ‘cause training waits for no one, right?”

“I see exactly what you’re doing, but I’m not mad at it. Go work on building those boxing skills that’ll keep lining your pockets for years. Toodles!”

Vanessa lets out a snort when Detox hangs up the phone. “Toodles? Who the hell says that?”

“Detox?” Brooke looks up from her book, an amused smile on her face. “I know that trick.”

“What trick?” Vanessa squints her eyes as she sits down, trying to read the cover of Brooke’s paperback. “Are you reading Chicken Soup for the Soul? ”

Brooke waves a hand. “Doesn’t matter. And the trick of dipping out of Detox’s phone calls. Why else would you get to the gym so early?”

“Oh, come on. I’m early sometimes. Occasionally,” Vanessa grins, and Brooke doesn’t buy it in the least from the way she raises an eyebrow. “Okay, maybe not. I like Detox, I really do, don’t get me wrong. She’s hysterical and good at her job, real good at it, but damn.”

“Detox works hard,” Brooke nods, understanding in her eyes. “It’s a lot to handle sometimes.”

“She cranks up the exposure by a million and targets it in specific places and it works, ‘cause I have a lot of followers and deals now but…”

“But what?”

Brooke leans forward, pushing her book to the side as she looks earnestly at Vanessa. It’s striking, sometimes, how Brooke gives her full attention. How much she cares sometimes.

It’s nice.

“It feels real wild, y’know? Like all I did was become a meme, and now my face is going to be in a Spotify commercial. How does that jump happen?” Vanessa shifts in her chair, letting out a sigh. “It’s only been a few weeks.”

It’s as if Vanessa is riding in a car that’s only getting faster and faster, not quite in control of the steering wheel or knowing when she’s going to be able to stop. Sure, the ride is fun, but it also feels like she’s driving without a license, as if she’s skipped the learner’s permit stage and hit the highway instead.

“She wants to capitalize on it as much as possible. Keep you in the spotlight even after the next big meme rolls around,” Brooke shrugs, before pausing for a second, a look of concern in her eyes. “It’s not too much, is it? I can always talk to Detox with you if you feel like it’s overwhelming-”

“Nah, I’ll survive,” Vanessa shrugs, giving her best reassuring smile to Brooke. “Lush sent me some free shit the other day. I like goodie bags.”

Brooke snorts. “Fair enough. Bath bombs are a reason to keep going.”

“Want some? I got enough for a month's worth of spa days.” Vanessa makes a mental note to bring some of the freebies for Brooke on their next practice. She’s earned half of everything, at least.

“You have any of the sakura ones?” Brooke is tentative with her question, and Vanessa nods enthusiastically.

“You’re getting all of ‘em.”

“Now, hold on a second-”

“It’s six. Don’t we have practice to start?” Vanessa’s up and out of the office before Brooke can protest any further. “I’m gonna go change.”

Practice is nice. Practice feels familiar amongst all the new chaos in Vanessa’s life. It lets her turn her brain off and get away from the people that recognize her out in public, the way her Instagram is now solely for sponsored posts. The way she feels like a caricature of herself, almost, because others have an opinion of who she is based on a ten second video clip.

But practice isn’t like that. In the gym, Brooke is the same as ever, pushing and pushing her until sweat is drenching her back and her mind is spinning and she feels more alive than she ever has. When Brooke throws moves at Vanessa that she has to work in overdrive to block and counter with some of her own, it’s familiar. Even though she’s tired and gasping for breath, it’s what she knows how to do, and in an environment that isn’t unsettling or foreign.

The best part about it? Vanessa can still feel herself learning. Growing. Stepping up to the challenges that Brooke throws at her. Sure, she’s not aching to get back into the competition ring anytime soon, but the approving smiles from Brooke when she gets in a good hit or when she avoids a shot that would previously knock her on the ground gives her a thrill every time.

The end of practice leaves Vanessa with a new sense of longing that’s only been present the last few weeks, since this whole meme mess has started. Leaving the gym is hard, because it means Vanessa has to go outside again, pull her hat down when passerby on the sidewalk give her a second look. She has to unlock her phone and pretend to be busy, but then she’s faced with comments pouring in on every social media account that she opens. She can text one of her friends but it’s hard to continue a conversation, really, after it starts with a rousing Miss Vanjie, no matter how much in jest.

Being outside the gym means that she’s reminded of her new loss of normalcy.

She takes her time switching back into her sweats after she showers, dragging her feet as she leaves the change room with her gym bag slung over her shoulder. When she squints her eyes she can see Brooke at the far end of the gym, teetering on a stool as she repositions one of the crooked banners. Brooke turns around almost as if she can tell Vanessa is there, a good natured smile and an easy wave following immediately.

“See you tomorrow.”

“Need any help?” Vanessa’s stalling a bit by asking, but maybe Brooke really could use a hand with the banners, or at least an extra set of eyes to make sure that they’re nice and straight.

She’s just helpful, that’s all.

Brooke, to her credit, doesn’t call Vanessa out for it as she squints, admiring her handiwork. “I think they’re as aligned as they’re ever going to be. I’m going to get ready to leave for the night, too.”

“Oh,” Vanessa doesn’t mean to sound a little disappointed as Brooke jumps off the stool, fiddling with the jacket that’s slung across her arm. “Already?”

“It’s almost eight thirty,” Brooke points out, padding past Vanessa towards her office door and grabbing her coat off of the hook. “You’re not tired and ready to go home yet?”

“I just…”

Vanessa trails off, looking down at the ground. She’s not sure what to say, really. All that’s waiting for her is her apartment, but she can’t mindlessly scroll Twitter or Instagram before bed without seeing her face again. She needs to reply to her friends’ texts, but the notifications are piling up on top of one another like a mountain that she’s not really sure how she’s going to climb.

Vanessa just wants to avoid it all.

Brooke pauses, and each second that passes makes Vanessa’s heart constrict because maybe she should just try to explain, but she doesn’t know how to and it feels like too much-

“C’mon. My roommate and I are having a late dinner and rewatching Chicken Little. Are you in for a nacho night?”

Brooke’s looking at her expectantly and Vanessa wants to say yes, but what pops out of her mouth is what’s pressing on her even more. “Did you say rewatching Chicken Little?”

“It’s a good movie!” Brooke’s defensiveness makes Vanessa crack a smile despite how restless she feels, how much she’s fidgeting while standing in place. “Come over and you’ll see.”

“Y’know, we haven’t talked about movies before, but this recommendation is making me question what your taste is like,” Vanessa lets out a giggle, when Brooke’s mock offense takes over her face as she puts a hand to her heart.

“The disrespect. You’re not getting nachos with those kinds of statements,” Brooke grabs Vanessa’s gym bag, slinging it over her shoulder as she holds the door open. “Now c’mon.”

Brooke’s apartment is not what Vanessa expects - there are colours and tapestries lining the walls and even one on the ceiling, and she’s pretty sure she sees a bong on top of the refrigerator. It’s pretty, though, with the art splashed across every free surface and the shelves filled with books upon books, piles of even more on the actual floor. Vanessa has to resist the urge to go and sit down on the wicker chair in front of the television that’s suspended from the ceiling.

“Yvie’s the one behind the decor.” Brooke has a knowing smile on her face and Vanessa can feel her cheeks heat up, from how easily Brooke can read her mind. “Moved in a few years ago after she broke up with a long term partner. Never really got around to adding things of my own to the walls.”

Vanessa snickers before she can even get her joke out properly. “What would you add? A Chicken Little poster?”

Brooke, for her part, doesn’t miss a beat. “Nah. A poster of your meme.”

“Wow-”

“I know we were thinking nachos, but picture this. Chicken nuggets while we watch Chicken Little.” A girl with bright green hair pops her head out from behind a door, waving at the two of them.

Vanessa waves back, her eyebrows lifting higher and higher on her forehead when she realizes how tall the girl is as she walks closer. Even Brooke has to look up at her which is a strange sight on its own, considering how much Brooke towers over Vanessa.

Then again, Vanessa’s used to being the short one.

“Vanessa here is doubting the movie’s genius,” Brooke raises an eyebrow, and the girl lets out a fake gasp.

“Um, not a movie. Chicken Little is a film. An artistic masterpiece.”

“Are you two the presidents of the Chicken Little fan club?” Vanessa asks, as Brooke sticks her tongue out at her.

“Yes. And no, you can’t join.”

It’s interesting how Brooke’s work demeanor has dropped now that she’s in her own apartment, her normally squared shoulders a little more relaxed. It reminds Vanessa of when they went roller skating, seeing how much fun Brooke had while pulling her around the rink.

Vanessa wants to see more of it.

Brooke points at her roommate as the girl sticks out a hand. “Ness, this is Yvie. Yvie, Vanessa. I’m coaching her.”

“You’re introducing her as if I haven’t heard you talk about her every single day for the last however many months,” Yvie drawls and Brooke’s sputter is immediate, making Vanessa’s breath hitch a little in her throat.

Brooke talks about her?

Yvie pats Brooke on the back as if she’s choking on her water rather than on some words, sticking her other hand out for Vanessa to shake. “You’re Brooke’s favourite student. Also her only student, technically, but still a favourite nonetheless.”

Brooke’s cheeks are bright pink and Vanessa can’t deny that the sight is adorable, seeing her flustered for once. Still. Brooke probably recaps their training sessions and nothing more.

“As long as it’s mostly positive,” Vanessa shrugs, and the way Brooke emphatically nods makes her feel better than she wants to admit.

“I don’t think I could come up with anything negative about you.”

Brooke’s eyes are sincere as she says it, and Vanessa’s heart starts to beat just a little bit faster. Vanessa’s a person who’s always on the go, not one to slow down if she doesn’t have to but Brooke has the ability to make her world pause for just a second. Brooke changes Vanessa’s focus from what’s in front of her to solely her, and Vanessa almost wishes she could keep it there forever.

It’s never that hard for Vanessa to come up with words to reply with, especially not towards Brooke, but her brain feels like it has shuddered to a stop, pressing on the brakes because the small smile on Brooke’s face is more important to focus on. She could say something stupid, something funny, maybe return the sentiment but she doesn’t get a chance to decide on what to do before Yvie lets out a scoff.

“Except for your dislike of Chicken Little. That’s a negative if I’ve ever seen one.”

The platter of chicken nuggets that Yvie places on the coffee table with a flourish is impressive, to say the least. There’s a little bowl of ketchup on the side, along with sweet and sour sauce and something that looks to be...ranch?

Whatever it is, Vanessa’s nose wrinkles at the sight. “Which one of you eats ranch with chicken nuggets? Is that legal?”

Yvie’s cackle and Brooke’s flushed cheeks tell Vanessa all she needs to know as she plops down beside Brooke on the couch, nudging her side. “Really?”

“The flavour combination is great!” Brooke mutters, grabbing a chicken nugget and dipping it in the ranch for posterity, holding it up close to Vanessa’s face. “Try it.”

Vanessa scooches herself towards the edge of the couch, away from the chicken nugget and the ranch that’s slowly dripping down like a melting ice cream. “Absolutely not.”

“It’s delicious-”

“It’s cursed-”

“More for me, then,” Brooke tosses the chicken nugget into her mouth, and Vanessa’s not sure, really, how she’s handling the flavours together without puking. “You’re missing out.”

“Very happy to miss out on that, thank you very much. I’ll take the ketchup.”

It turns out that Chicken Little isn’t so bad with Yvie and Brooke peppering in commentary as they watch, and Vanessa finds herself getting swept into the plot, as ridiculous as it is. The glass of cider that Yvie’s brought for each of them is making Vanessa feel a little more relaxed, her shoulders not as stiff anymore as she leans against the back of the couch. It’s fun to watch Brooke’s face, really, and the way she lights up while quoting the movie as it plays.

Vanessa makes a mental note to invite Brooke over to watch more movies. Better movies. Expand her palate. Chicken Little cannot be at the top of Brooke’s movie pyramid, not when there are better choices available, like Pretty Woman. Sure, Vanessa’s not exactly a film connoisseur herself, but still. Anything beats Chicken Little, right?

Maybe it’s just the cider settling in, maybe it’s the full stomach of chicken nuggets, but...it’s nice. Comfortable. Vanessa pulls her feet up behind her on the couch before grabbing a throw pillow to hug on her lap, and really, she could fall asleep right where she’s sitting, even to the dulcet tones of the main chicken character screaming about an alien invasion. Brooke looks over as Vanessa settles herself more into the couch, her expression unreadable but then she reaches over the back of the couch, grabbing the throw blanket behind them.

“Wanna share? It’s kinda cold.”

It’s not cold and Vanessa knows it, she knows that Brooke does too, but Brooke’s face is soft and tentative and adorable and sharing a blanket with her would make the couch situation even more cozy.

Plus, she can cuddle with Brooke, because Brooke is tall and thus is a tall, comfortable cushion to lean against.

Brooke throws the blanket across both of them and Vanessa scoots closer to her so that their laps are covered, the fabric fuzzy and warm. The side of Vanessa’s upper thigh leans against Brooke’s and she’s not sure why she’s so hyper aware of the fact, or why Brooke’s arm across the back of the couch makes her want to snuggle in even closer.

It’s just Brooke, after all. Brooke, who’s seen her when she’s all sweaty and about to collapse on the gym floor. Brooke, who had been there at her worst after the last tournament and still wants to coach her and spend time with her. Brooke, whose secret love for Twilight will never fail to make Vanessa laugh.

If it’s just Brooke, then why is Vanessa’s heart taking flight in her chest when Brooke starts to absentmindedly trace patterns on her palm? She doesn’t know why Brooke’s touch is lighting up a pattern of sparks on her skin either, or why Brooke’s side is so comfortable to lean against. Why Vanessa almost wishes that the movie could go on forever, so that she can stay warm and safe under Brooke’s arm that’s now draped across her shoulders.

Maybe Vanessa doesn’t need answers for all of those questions, not yet, not if finding out the answers would mean disrupting the delicate balance that hangs in the air between them. Brooke shuffles a little bit and when Vanessa’s head ends up against her chest, she can feel the way Brooke’s heart is beating, surely faster than any heart should. It’s a contrast from how seemingly relaxed the rest of Brooke’s body is, how her arms around Vanessa aren’t tense, restricting, but rather grounding, pulling her down.

Leaning back against Brooke is warm, familiar. It’s a feeling of home in a situation so novel, so different from how they usually are, like pulling on a sweater that Vanessa’s not sure how she’s ever lived without. Maybe, just maybe, Vanessa doesn’t ever have to take it off.

Vanessa doesn’t realize that the credits start rolling on the screen until Yvie rolls off of the lilac armchair, reaching for the remote on the coffee table. She lets out a yawn, stretching her arms up high before shutting off the TV. “I, for one, am exhausted. And as fun as this was, it’s my bedtime.”

Brooke snickers, and Vanessa can feel the way her chest reverberates underneath her. “You and I both know you’re about to go Facetime Scarlet.”

“That’s what bedtime means,” Yvie wiggles her eyebrows, and Brooke’s noise of disgust is immediate.

“Horrifying. You two better keep it down this time. My ears still haven’t recovered from overhearing you both last week,” Brooke shudders as Yvie cackles, shutting the door to her bedroom with a click.

Vanessa turns in Brooke’s grip, shooting a questioning look. Surely Yvie can’t be louder than the average person on Facetime. “Overhearing what?”

Brooke makes a face, the haunted look in her eyes almost comedic from the way that she sighs. “Let me put it this way. Yvie and her girlfriend are in a long distance relationship, which is hard on them for a multitude of reasons. One of them being their libidos.”

“Their libidos…” Vanessa trails off, her face falling when she realizes what Brooke means. “Oh no. Not that. Tell me not that.”

“Exactly that. They’re quieter over Facetime than they are when Scarlet visits, at least. That’s a blessing.”

Vanessa shudders. Sure, she’s not exactly quiet in bed either, but the thought of people on the other side of the wall being able to hear everything is horrifying, especially because of the fact that she lives with Alexis. Her sister does not need to know details about her sex life, that’s for sure.

Still, Vanessa wonders how loud Yvie must be. “How do they even make so much noise with phone sex, anyway? Yodel?”

“Mating calls that would fit in perfectly in a National Geographic documentary,” Brooke lets out a snicker, her hand clapping over her mouth when Yvie lets out an ‘I heard that!’ from behind her bedroom door. “Still, glad I’m not about to suffer through overhearing it alone. You’ve saved my evening.”

Vanessa snorts, pulling back from Brooke’s embrace to face her, leaning against the back of the couch. “Glad to be of service.”

Brooke is softness and kindness and contentment all at once, and the easy smile on her face is one that Vanessa feels so lucky to see the longer and longer that she knows her. It’s moments like these that Vanessa wants to hold on to forever - when Brooke’s guard is down, when her posture is relaxed and she’s looking over with eyes that Vanessa could drown in. She wants to package up this version of Brooke that isn’t tethered by reminders of her past, or with upholding a legacy that defines her whether she likes it or not. At times like this, Brooke isn’t a boxer with her father’s last name, or Vanessa’s coach responsible for facilitating her success. She’s just Brooke, a girl whose gaze is so mesmerizing that makes Vanessa’s breathing hitch in her throat without even realizing it.

Brooke holds out a hand and it’s almost second nature for Vanessa to link her fingers with hers, their hands fitting together in a way that doesn’t make sense, not when Vanessa’s hands are so much smaller. But Brooke’s grip is an anchor that keeps her from floating away, one that centers her and lets her focus on the upward curve of Brooke’s lips, the softness of her eyes when she smiles.

Except then Brooke’s brow is furrowing, a hint of concern in her eyes that Vanessa wants to brush away for her. “You okay? You’re quieter than usual.”

Vanessa can feel her face heating up as she stutters, pulling her eyes away from Brooke’s face to focus on the stitching along the couch cushions. “I’m fine. I...nothing.”

She can’t exactly go out and tell Brooke, someone who’s a coach and also a friend for that matter, that she’s just a little bit mesmerized by her face. Not something that’s likely to go over well.

Vanessa’s past relationships have been nothing short of peacocking, making herself known to those she’s had an interest in because they’d inevitably chase her right back. She knows her worth, knows how to go after what she wants, but…

What does she even want, now?

She doesn’t want Brooke, she can’t, not when Brooke is her coach and someone who’s becoming more and more important towards every aspect of her life, someone who she texts when she wakes up in the morning and who she’s messaging as she’s falling asleep.

Brooke’s not the type of person that Vanessa can parade around and go on a few dates with while drinking the cheapest wine on the menu for shits and giggles. She’s not someone that Vanessa can let go of easily, the way she’s had to with previous relationships that didn’t work out. Brooke is different from them.

She’s not disposable, not someone that Vanessa wants to let go of from her life. She isn’t someone that Vanessa can let go of at this point, because the thought of not seeing her amused expressions in the gym or the pride on her face while they’re training is too much to deal with. Vanessa’s only beginning to read through Brooke’s pages to learn more about her, and finding out little details that make her want to melt and pull Brooke just a little closer to her heart.

Brooke is too important.

Sure, Vanessa’s breath hitches in her chest whenever Brooke pulls her closer, and maybe Brooke’s smile is enough to drown out any background noise buzzing around them, but Vanessa also knows that she falls hard. And fast. She’s impulsive, following what her heart tells her to do and most of the time, she can deal with the consequences because she knows she’ll be able to get back up again.

But if this is a miscalculation? If saying something means that they’ll end up in pieces that neither of them will be able to put back together?

It’s too big of a risk. At least, for now.

Vanessa can’t be the one to take the jump off the cliff, not yet.

So she smiles, puts on the most reassuring expression that she can, hoping that it’s enough to soothe the concern that splays itself across Brooke’s features. “Really, I am. Just thinking about all the press shenanigans that Detox has lined up for me tomorrow.”

It’s enough for Brooke’s features to relax just a little bit, the smile on her face almost nostalgic. “I’m glad it’s you now, and not me, on Detox’s receiving end. She’s ruthless in the best way.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

There’s a sinking feeling in Vanessa’s chest by going for the cop out, but...she has no other choice. It’s not the way she normally handles situations like this, a fact made clear by how much she has to push down the butterflies in her stomach, and hide them behind a door so that they don’t escape and ruin stakes that feel too high, too much of a risk.

Still, Vanessa’s a bit of a sucker for punishment, and so when Brooke pulls her closer into a hug, it’s as easy as breathing to snuggle into her and rest her head against her chest, because Brooke’s arms are warm and safe and manage to slow her thinking down just a bit.

Part of Vanessa feels like she can handle it and hold herself back from doing anything stupid, if only to not mess everything up. She can be this close to Brooke and not have her chest split in two and maybe it’s a blessing, and something that she has to hold on to. Except that by leaning against Brooke, she can feel how fast Brooke’s heart is beating, threatening to escape from her chest before she can possibly stop it. It’s a contrast from the gentle way that Brooke’s fingers run through her hair, betraying the calmness on the outside that she’s trying so hard to convey.

Maybe Vanessa’s not the only one holding back. Maybe Brooke also feels it, maybe she’s also teetering on the bridge that Vanessa’s trying her best not to lose her footing on, and the thought gives Vanessa pause for a second, because maybe the risk is one they can manage, something they can work with...

No. No.

They can’t.

Not if it would lead to everything falling to pieces around them, not if it would mean no more training and no more Brooke in general. Because that’s how relationships always seem to end, don’t they?

As much as Vanessa has always wanted the romantic movie ending and a kiss in the rain, it hasn’t happened to her yet, much to her teenage self’s disappointment. There’s too much on the line to see if Brooke will be the one to veer her onto a different path and change the outcome.

So, Vanessa has to be happy with what she’s getting now, this friendship with Brooke and the coaching and accept it for all that it’s worth. Because Brooke’s important, maybe the most important person in Vanessa’s life and she has to take what she gets.

She’s lucky enough to have it in the first place, after all.

#rpdr fanfiction #vanessa vanjie mateo #brooke lynn hytes #branjie #lesbian au #boxing au #boxer au #level up #holtzmanns

[asstronauts]

chapter 16.5

rating: t word count: 1346 pairing: kennedy x grant anderson, à la @gravelyhumerus​ college au summary: the behind the scenes of the ch. 16 fire alarm fiasco, featuring everyone’s favorite OC kennedy miller and her bf grant anderson

---

“What episode are we on?” Kennedy asked, flopping down onto the couch and opening up her boyfriend’s laptop.

Grant shrugged, shoving his phone into his pocket to focus his attention on the screen. “What’s Netflix say?”

“Season 4 episode 13, but I swear we watched the dinner party already.”

“I don’t think so?” Grant wrapped his arm around his girlfriend and pressed a kiss to the top of the muss of curly red hair before him. “Have you been watching without me?”

Kennedy smirked. “Yeah, with my other boyfriend,” she drawled sarcastically. "He's tall, brown hair, bit of a baby face. Super muscular. Lives in this dorm building. You might know him actually — he's on the water polo team."

“Very funny,” Grant grumbled back, as Kennedy described him to a T. “I mean, we don’t have to watch The Office if you don’t want to.”

“What else is good?”

Grant made a noncommittal noise, busying himself instead in playing with Kennedy’s hair and letting his mind drift before a snort drew his attention.

“Why do you have The Perfect Date on your list?”

“I thought it’d be sweet to watch it together,” he protested. Sure, it was a cheesy movie, but he had figured a rom-com would lead to a nice makeout session afterwards.

Kennedy rolled her eyes. “You can stick with making the popcorn — I’ll just load up The Office.”

“Fine,” Grant groaned as he rose to cross the common room. On the counter lay the new box of popcorn they had decided to invest in for their weekly binge sessions. Extra butter, obviously. Despite both of them being athletes, the couple couldn't help but choose the more delicious option. He picked out a bag and threw it into the microwave, pressing the “popcorn” button before busying himself with finding a large bowl in the many cabinets that lined the wall.

“It’s popping,” Grant announced before settling on a large plastic purple one. He moved behind his girlfriend on the couch and placed the bowl upside down over her head.

“You look cute in hats,” Grant remarked as she peered out from underneath the bowl with a wide grin.

“You’re ridiculous,” Kennedy laughed. “This is disgusting — we have to eat out of this bowl, you know.”

“Not a problem if you wash your hair.”

“I do! You can take a smell if you want,” the redhead lifted the bowl from her head and shook out her curls dramatically.

Grant planted his face into her hair and gave an exaggerated whiff. “Mm, coconut-y.”

Kennedy giggled. “Bingo.”

“Not exactly the flavor I want in my popcorn,” Grant said, making a face as he sank back into the couch next to her. “Office all ready to watch?”

Kennedy turned back to the screen. “I mean yeah, but are you sure we haven’t seen them play charades already? I swear we have.”

“Isn’t this like your third rewatch or something? No wonder you’re all mixed up. Honestly, I don’t even know why you’re watching it again.”

“It’s better with you,” Kennedy said sweetly, and Grant grinned. She leaned over to kiss him on the lips, placing a hand on his broad chest. The kiss quickly turned less than innocent, their breathing became heavier, and the show was forgotten as Kennedy leaned into his embrace.

Grant tangled his hand into her hair and laughed slightly. “Coconut-y,” he repeated from earlier, then paused. “Why does it smell burnt?”

They separated as Kennedy furrowed her brow. “My hair?”

Grant shook his head and sniffed again before his eyes widened. “Shit, the popcorn!”

He leapt off the couch and ran across the room, throwing the microwave open and releasing a cloud of smoke. He gasped at the half-charred bag sitting innocently in the microwave.

“Grant!” Kennedy yelped.

The fire alarm suddenly sounded, its loud beeping drowning out Grant’s cursing and Kennedy’s panicked muttering of oh my god oh my god oh my god.

“Open the window,” Grant bellowed as he tried to wave the smoke away from the sensitive fire alarm.

Kennedy rushed to the window obediently, but the blaring continued.

“Grant, we need to get out,” she said urgently, hearing the commotion in the hallway as the students began to evacuate.

“It’s not even on fire,” her boyfriend protested. “The smoke detector is too fucking sensitive.”

“Come on,” Kennedy pulled on his arm and led him out of the common room and down the stairs of the dorm, trying to blend in and not indicate to their fellow students that it was their burnt popcorn causing an evacuation in the middle of the night during exams season.

She glanced around nervously at the anxious and angry faces. Though it was late in the night, some were clearly still up studying, some had been rudely awakened, and a few were even caught in the middle of their showers.

“How did it even burn so easily?” the redhead muttered to Grant as they exited the building.

He shrugged. “I don’t know, I just pressed the popcorn button, and then you distracted me with your lips.”

Kennedy groaned. “You’re not supposed to use the popcorn button, you blockhead. It burns the popcorn every time.”

“Then why the fuck is there a popcorn button?”

"Do you think there's any way they'll trace it back to us?" Kennedy bit her lip in concern.

Her boyfriend sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "My laptop is still in the commons."

The pair shuffled out to the lawn in front of the neighboring residence building, joining the crowd of students milling about in confusion.

"God, this is so embarrassing," Kennedy mumbled, feeling her cheeks burn despite the bitter cold.

"It's fine," Grant murmured, feeling his girlfriend tense up at the sound of those around them complaining. "It's being taken care of."

Kennedy let out a slow breath and did her best blend in with the restless crowd. She scanned the various groups scattered across the lawn, and her eyes landed on a flash of blonde hair. It was her teammate JJ, leaning her head on some dark-haired girl that Kennedy had only ever seen in passing. They were...remarkably close underneath the shared blanket. Kennedy thought back to the conversation she'd had with JJ in the locker room.

Huh. Guess she really is gay.

JJ looked happy, a sharp contrast to the distress and tension that had been evident that day after practice. Perhaps going out that night had been what she needed after all.

The blaring siren of a firetruck drew Kennedy from her thoughts, and she flushed with shame once again, this time burying her face in her boyfriend's arms.

"Come on, this happens all the time," he reassured her. "Wouldn't be college without a few dozen fire alarms every semester."

"I know, it's just so embarrassing when it's us," the redhead said.

"Okay everyone!" the voice of the RA — Kennedy had forgotten her name about two seconds after Grant had mentioned her — rang out across the lawn. “The firefighters have found the source of the fire. It has been put out, and it should be safe to go back inside. Apparently there must have been an...accident in the kitchen, the damage was localized there. We will be investigating further in case of foul play.”

Kennedy held her breath. Foul play? They'd burnt a bag of popcorn, for goodness' sake. This woman was acting like a serial arsonist was on the loose in the dorm building.

"Jesus Christ," Grant muttered, pulling his girlfriend close. "Come on, it’s freezing. We can go back to my room."

"What if they want to ask us questions?" she said in a low voice.

"It was a fucking bag of popcorn. We didn't do anything wrong."

Kennedy chewed her thumbnail anxiously and began walking with the rest of the students back inside.

"Do you still want to watch The Office?" Grant asked, taking her hand in his in an attempt to distract her.

"Yeah, but maybe we'll just have some chips to go with it."

#kenderson-rights #coconut-shampoo-rights #i don't want to tag this i don't know if i want it to be found #this is one of the most ridiculous things i've ever written #second only to the kfc lifetime movie jemily crackfic #anyway i'm a melia superfan #my post

[canary3d-obsessed]

Wei Wuxian reciting the Lan rules at the Wen indoctrination

#wei wuxian #gremlin #the untamed #ep12 #restless rewatch extras #canary3d-original

[fromthecouch]

I have always watched too much tv - an introduction.

A personal history of my relationship with the small screen.

My grandparents, who were my main parental figures growing up, didn’t work 9 to 5s. My grandfather worked as a bus driver for the Chicago Transit Authority, for over 20 years. His schedule often fluctuated. My grandmother worked as an expeditor for architectural firms. She made her hours and often came home later in the evening. For a significant part of childhood and all of my adolescence, I spent a lot of time alone. Sometimes I would go to my friends’ homes after school or my younger cousin would stay for the evening; however, from 3:00 PM-8:00 PM on weeknights, my main source of connection to other humans was through our living room television, the screen of my family’s desktop, and the pages of fiction.

It was not until recently that I learned of the term ‘latchkey kid.’ I had been watching the A&E Freaks and Geeks documentary on Amazon Prime when I noted the phrase. It had been used during an interview portion of the documentary when one of the production team members used it to describe Bill Haverchuck. The documentary cut to a scene of Bill, one of the show’s “geeks”, sitting in front of a television, laughing hysterically, with grilled cheese and Entenmann’s chocolate cake on a TV tray. The interviewee recalled their childhood similarities to Bill —the experience of a latchkey life. I was immediately intrigued and paused the documentary to turn to Google.

Freaks and Geeks, Episode 14: Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers

The search brought me to the Wikipedia definition, listed as “a child who returns to an empty home after school or a child who is often left at home with no supervision because their parents are away at work.” I reflected more in-depth on this and found myself assessing my relationship to fiction and how it raised me.

I have always watched too much tv. I used to read voraciously. I would buy random ‘pre-viewed’ DVDs from Blockbuster and played them in rotation until I got my hands on a new batch and a new rotation started. My grandparents often enabled my habit as a reader, yet I would go through books too quickly for my family trips to the library or Borders to keep up. Most of my planned reading for the week would be completely consumed by the end of the night on Tuesday or Wednesday, so the rest of my weekly time alone, I would turn to watch things.

At a young age, I viewed watching television as infinite. Since it was before the era of eBooks, there was a limited number of hours that my books could sustain me for each week, but television would always be there for me. I watched everything — movies, children’s shows, reality television, teen dramas, daytime television, sitcoms, documentaries, sometimes even infomercial channels. Fifth grade is when I truly became in awe of all that the small screen had to offer. My grandparents had upgraded to the premium package on Comcast. We went from a few dozen channels to having HBO, The N, Discovery Kids, multiple channels of MTV, channels that played history docuseries around the clock, the Filipino variety show channel, and so much more.

As a kid, film, literature and television was how I got to know the world. When I was a teenager, I more actively started to engage with what I was watching and reading. Fiction helped me dream of what I wanted for my life. How I consumed television and film during those years laid the groundwork for who I am as a person now. That was also when I had begun to use fiction to feel less lonely, to escape from the pressures of turbulent home life, to relate to my peers. I had curated a group of friends that also had independence thrust upon them at a young age. Watching tv with each other over the phone and renting films to watch together on the weekends was a big part of how we related to one another — the common interests that bound our friendships, as mutual indoor kids. My high school years also coincided with Netflix’s shift from delivery rentals to mainly streaming, which allowed us to consume a new set of content, in an entirely new way. With adulthood approaching, we segued into the era of series binge-watching.

I was diagnosed with panic disorder and major depression when I was in my sophomore year of university. It was around that time that I became more cognizant of the way that I used television and film as coping mechanisms. Sometimes they served healthy coping mechanisms, sometimes they became more like distractions, and numbing agents. Whatever the case, I sometimes doubt that I would’ve gotten through some of my lowest times without the fictional characters, places and storylines of my favorite shows.

In 2017, I struggled with some chronic health issues, nothing serious, but very debilitating. It took me a year to stabilize. At that time, I hardly saw my friends. I had to quit my job and was unemployed for a full year, living with my boyfriend’s family in an unfamiliar suburb. I was too ill to hold down a full-time position. I was always in pain. I entered the longest depressive episode of my life, which made reading, my first love, feel daunting. I also struggled with a lot of vestibular migraines. The aftermath of those lingered for days and sometimes left me in a fog that made the words on a page feel painful.

I still had television though. On my worst days, I often only had the bandwidth to make doctors’ appointments, eat oatmeal, and rewatch television series I had already seen. The Chinese Restaurant episode of Seinfeld made me smile when I otherwise felt numb. Buffy the Vampire Slayer made me feel resilient when I felt incapable of basic human functions. Daria made me feel understood when I felt completely isolated from my peers. 

Seinfeld, Season 2 Episode 11 The Chinese Restaurant

On my better days, I could venture into a new series, which involved more attention. I mainly consumed television rather than movies for the most part, as I didn’t like having my time spent with characters and plots to feel limited. (The major exception to this was the MCU, due to the span of central, interconnected plots.) With access to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and HBO plus, I found television to again feel like my main connection to other people. When I felt like I didn’t have anyone else, I had Mr Robot, Atlanta, Glow, Mozart in the Jungle, Westworld, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Black Mirror, Big Little Lies, Insecure. When the pain from my migraines, GI issues, ovarian cysts, and mundanity of my newly “sick” life made me feel terrible, watching the fictional lives of others helped me escape. Watching these fictional lives, helped me feel like I was surrounded by others and living their lives with them when my own life felt on pause and isolated.

In 2018, I was fortunate enough to get on a successful diet and medication combination that allowed me to stabilize my health, move back to the city, reestablish my friendships, and resume my career. Even so, I still have more mild depressive episodes. I still get medical flareups. I am still a normal person who occasionally faces conflict, as that is just life. When I’m in those darker places, television is often both a distraction and connection that helps me recalibrate. Now here I am, at my current age of 27, and I still depend on fiction to be there for me.

Once the COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions started in March of 2020, I, like everyone else around the country, found myself limited in social interaction. I maintained some level of relatedness to others through my cat, my boyfriend, group texts with friends, and my Zoom work meetings. Yet, television was again a big part of how I related to the human experience. Television persisted in reminding me of what life was like pre-pandemic and what it could be in the future. It has helped me keep boredom and restlessness at bay. Through this time, I’ve found myself watching many series that I would have never watched otherwise. I have also found myself analyzing the series that I watch more thoroughly and with more curiosity than I had the capacity to in my youth and during my time of medical distress.

This year was also the first year that I have started writing for leisure, since high school. Being so online over the past year, I’ve often found myself with many thoughts to collect, package cohesively, and express, yet I’ve felt very limited by the current platforms I often interact with. I often feel like I cannot articulate meaningful thought on platforms like Instagram and Twitter, which are limiting by word limit and social media norms. My newfound revived interest in writing has often collided with my enthusiasm for television, film, and pop culture, more broadly.

It may be true that I watch too much television. It may also be true that television was one of my first true friends and in many ways an extra parental figure. I want to move beyond watching too much television. I want to openly explore television, what it means to me, what it means to the collective, and examine the things that we love to watch or have loved to watch with a critical lens. That is what I hope to express on here.

#television #film #mental health #chronic illness #personal narrative #self

[kuroyurishion]

Symbiosis AU Part 1

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Pairing(s): Platonic DRLAMP

Chapter Summary: Thomas finds an intruder broke into his house. Neither he nor his Sides are happy about it. 

Warnings: Cursing, Spiders, Guns, Breaking into someone’s house, violence and other weaponry, Blood

Additional Note(s): Thank you to the amazing @thesearcher1092 for making the awesome TikTok that inspired my brain to write this up. It was a long time coming, but it’s finally here! I know I said I wanted to make one fanfic about it, but my brain was like “why not make a whole AU about it”. So, enjoy!

Ready? Let’s Begin. 

Chapter 1: Intruder Alert

Thomas was trying to have a relaxing day off. After weeks of work, he finally has three days to himself, and he was determined to make the best of them. He was rewatching The Office on his couch when he felt a sinking feeling in his gut. He tried to ignore it, but it kept getting worse. Groaning, he pressed pause on his computer.

“Virgil?” he called out carefully. His anxious side had a tendency to lash out, so Thomas had to tread carefully. Virgil showed up in his usual place by the stairs, hood drawn and arms crossed gripping his sleeves. His eyeshadow seemed darker than usual.

“Yeah?” Virgil asked. Thomas raised an eyebrow.

“You alright there buddy?” he asked.

“...Yes? No? I don’t know! Virgil exclaimed, gripping his arms tighter. “I woke up this morning feeling off. Something’s bugging me, and I don’t know what it is.” 

There was a sound, and the two looked over to see Logan in his usual place. The logical side adjusted his glasses before greeting his Host. 

“Salutations Thomas, Virgil.” Logan greeted. “Perhaps I may offer an explanation and a solution to your current problem.”

Virgil looked a bit relieved. “Sure, Teach. I’m all ears.” he said, still gripping his sleeves.

Logan nodded and turned to Thomas. “What Virgil is experiencing is a feeling of restlessness, as his fight or flight mode is being activated.” he explained. His Host looked confused.

“Why would his fight or flight mode be activated? It’s my day off. I’m literally doing nothing.” Thomas questioned, gesturing to the blanket and computer on the couch. Logan cleared his throat and fixed his glasses.

“Well, there’s a good explanation for that.” Logan said. “These past couple weeks have been stressful for you, haven’t they?”

“Yes?”

“Constantly in and out of the house, going to work, keeping up with a healthy social life, planning new videos?”

“Oh yeah, definitely. My stress levels were so high.”

“I was working overtime.” Virgil piped up.

Logan nodded at him before continuing. “Because of all these activities going on for a long period of time, your body has already been conditioned to have the fight or flight response on, as Virgil has been making sure you’re on your toes at all times.” Logan explained. “Now you want to relax, but the sudden shift from high stress to the mundane causes Virgil,” He paused to look at said side, “to be confused, as he is your anxiety. There’s too much adrenaline in your body, and has no place to go. Thus, the feeling of restlessness.”

Virgil nodded. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” he said. “So your solution to this?” he asked, gesturing to his body. 

Logan flashed him a quick smirk. “I’m glad you asked.” he said. “Exercise has been suggested to help with feelings of restlessness, so I suggest going out and taking a walk in the park, because there is no way I’m going to let Thomas watch The Office for the nth time.” The two Sides ignored their Host’s noise of protest. 

“I guess a walk in the park wouldn’t hurt.” Thomas mused. “I have been wanting to have a healthier lifestyle.” 

Virgil sighed, knowing that this was a better option than by watching The Office again. “Sure, why not.” he agreed reluctantly. He really didn’t want to go outside, but the extra adrenaline had to go somewhere. 

Thomas gave a little cheer as he left to go get ready, and both Virgil and Logan returned to the Mindscape. In a rare occurrence, all the other Sides were there waiting for them. Patton looked especially excited.

“We heard everything!” the Moral Side exclaimed, eyes wide. He was holding a large picnic basket. Beside him, Roman carried a large rainbow blanket. “It’s a nice day outside, so why don’t we have a picnic while we’re at it?”  he suggested.

Logan wondered when Patton had the time to make food for a picnic in such a short notice. As he asked, Virgil turned to look at Janus and Remus, who were looking at him amused.

“What?” he asked defensively. They got rid of the labels a long time ago after a long series of talks that may or may not have included some crying, hugs, and a massive sleepover at the end of the day. 

“It’s so like you to agree to not go outside.” Janus answered. Virgil shrugged in response, fidgeting slightly. Remus raised an eyebrow.

“Got ants in your pants, emo? I can make it happen literally if you want?” he crowed, wiggling his fingers. Virgil shot him a disgusted look and Janus sighed over Remus’ cackle. 

“It’s not that I want to go outside.” Virgil responded. He had yet to let go of his sleeves. “This feeling I have. I think it’s more than restlessness.” He didn’t know what would happen, but he could sense the danger in the air. Virgil bit his lip when Thomas walked out the door, reminding him to lock it, and checked that he locked it at least three times. Hopefully, his feelings would go away so he would be proven wrong. 

***

When Thomas was asleep after their nice day at the park, his Sides were huddled together in the Mindscape’s living room. It was close to 1:00 in the morning, and there was a tense silence between them as they sat in each other’s presence. 

“Don’t tell me you're still feeling restless, Dark and Stormy!” Roman exclaimed tiredly. Virgil groaned. The restless feeling didn’t go away. 

“I don’t know why I can’t calm down!” he responded, frantic. “We went to the park, we got the adrenaline out, so why can’t I,” Virgil suddenly went rigid, “calm down.” he finished. There it was again. There was danger nearby. Something dangerous was coming closer. 

“What’s not wrong this time?” Janus asked cautiously. Virgil didn’t answer as his mismatched eyes, his right one purple and his left one green, glowed and narrowed. No one spoke or moved as they watched their Anxious Side concentrate. The tension was thick as the others wondered what was going on. Then, the sound of the wiggling door knob echoed throughout the Mindscape. Someone was trying to break into Thomas’ apartment.

The Sides wasted no time. Virgil activated the fight or flight response, jolting Thomas awake. The Host growled angrily, but stopped when Janus waved his hand and silenced his voice. 

“Do try not to be quiet.” he hissed. “There’s someone in your house.” Suddenly the door downstairs was thrown open. “Slowly now, hide in your closet.” Thomas nodded frantically and obeyed. 

Once Thomas was safely in his closet, the Sides crept downstairs to observe. They saw a large shadowy figure walking throughout the first floor. It was opening the cabinets and drawers as if it was looking for something. They heard the figure talking to someone.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” the voice growled. It was male, deep, and dark. There was another muffled voice. An accomplice perhaps? Were they talking over an earpiece? “A Manifestor lives in this shabby place? Doubt it.” the man scoffed. 

The Sides returned to the Mindscape in anger. How dare someone break into their Hosts’ house! But no one was feeling as angry as Virgil, who grit his teeth in anger. He was the one who had to protect Thomas from things like this! If only he was more careful…

“We need a plan.” Logan said, snapping Virgil out of his musings. The Logical Side had a glare on his face as he looked at everyone. “Clearly this intruder is looking for something of Thomas’.” 

“He called Thomas ‘Manifestor.’” Patton whimpered. “What does that mean?” No one wanted to admit it, but they had a strong feeling they knew what the man was talking about. And they didn’t like it. They wanted answers, and they wanted them now. 

Virgil smirked. “I have a plan.” he purred. The Sides shivered at the sight of their Anxious Side. His smile was all teeth and dangerous, fangs out and dripping with venom. “A beautiful, bloody, plan.” 

***

Thomas grunted in pain as he was forcefully tied to the chair. He was found out, dragged from his hiding place, kicking and screaming all the way.

“Who are you? What do you want from me?” he growled. The man didn’t grace him with an answer. Instead he took out what looked like a recorder and pressed a button.

“This is recording #1678. My name is Dr. Sawyer. Now, please tell me your name?” the man said. 

Thomas growled. Dr. Sawyer continued with disinterest. 

“Subject is highly aggressive. Will proceed with caution.” he said and continued to ask questions. Thomas answered every single with one with a growl or a curse. Finally, after hours, the doctor became impatient. “Listen kid,” he sighed, “you’re in a dangerous situation. Follow my orders and answer my questions, or else.” 

Thomas’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Or else what?” he asked slowly. The doctor raised an eyebrow, as if to question whether or not Thomas was stupid enough to talk back. 

“Or else I’ll have to resort to extreme measures for your answers.” the doctor responded stoically. “Don’t mess with me.” He turned around, presumably to retrieve a weapon or something to force his captive to answer. 

Thomas glowered at him. He felt a strange tingling sensation, comfortable and familiar, and smirked.  “No.” Thomas whispered, eyes harsh. “You don’t want to mess with me.” 

Then suddenly, the world went dark. Dr. Sawyer jumped back in surprise and looked around wildly. He couldn’t see anything, just the cold black, like an abyss. “Who’s there? What’s going on?” Dr. Sawyer called out into the darkness. His voice echoed. He saw his subject standing there in the distance, arms crossed and his back turned. Dr. Sawyer approached him. 

“Excuse me?” he called loudly. He reached his hand out to grab his subject’s attention, but fell on his back with a loud thud when he felt a shock run through his body. Dr. Sawyer screamed in pain and clutched his hand. Looking up, he went to get up and yell at his subject, but paused.

He was held at sword point, the tip pointed close to his throat, by his subject. Or was it? The figure wore a white regal outfit with a red sash. Its eyes glowed a bright, angry red. “Get up.” it demanded. Dr. Sawyer slowly complied. 

“I demand to know what is going on!” he shouted. The figure didn’t grace the doctor with an answer. Rather it disappeared, along with his subject, right before his eyes. The black floor was engulfed in a dark mist. Dr. Sawyer tried to catch up to it, but found he couldn’t walk. He struggled to move his legs when he felt something grip on them. Looking down, he saw green tentacles curling up his legs. He screamed as the tentacles pulled him through the floor. He fell for a couple minutes as he struggled to grip onto something until he collided with the floor again.

He got up again, groaning. He heard the footsteps first, and then the green tentacles came back and wrapped around his body, lifting him up from the ground upside down, leaving only his head visible. Dr. Sawyer gasped in shock when he saw another figure, this one dressed in black with a green sash and holding a morning start threateningly, smiling creepily at him, eyes glowing a toxic green.

“Welcome, Fucker!” the green figure greeted with a slight bow. He raised the morning star. “Now please don’t move!” With that the green figure swung, and kept on swinging. Dr. Sawyer felt blow after blow from the morning star. He can feel the blood pouring out his head and the shortness of his breath. He could feel his lip break open and his bones crack from the hits and from the tight squeezes of the tentacles. The green figure cackled with glee as it continued hitting the doctor. 

At last, the green figure stopped. The green tentacles let go of the doctor, and he fell to the ground unceremoniously. He heard the snap of fingers and felt his bones set themselves, but his bleeding didn’t stop. He lay there, eyes closed and gasping for breath. 

Moments later, he stood up. Opening his eyes, he saw a blurry figure dressed in dark blue with glowing dark blue eyes hidden behind glasses. The figure nodded in greeting. “Salutations.” it said. Dr. Sawyer snarled and swiped at the figure. It sighed, as if it expected him to do that. “I apologize in advance.” the figure stated and with a snap of its fingers, held a gun in front of the doctor. The doctor heard a click and the figure said, “Run.” He did just that, turning sharply on his heel and running far away from the dark blue figure just as he heard the loud bang of the gun. He ran with short pants, eyes blown wide, looking back to see if the dark blue figure was following. He couldn’t see it, but he could still hear the loud shots. 

What he saw so far was absolute madness. Unfortunately, he didn’t look where he was going, and became… stuck? Dr. Sawyer found himself unable to remove himself from the sticky substance.  With wide eyes, he noticed that he was trapped in a spider’s web. An unpleasant shiver shot down his back. He could feel the web shake. Something big was coming closer, and closer. Dr. Sawyer couldn’t help but feel fear.

“How nice of you to drop by.” a low voice said. Dr. Sawyer couldn’t look up, but from his line of vision, he could see a deep, dark purple spider leg close to his face. Then, he could hear a faint hissing sound. He could feel something crawling on him, and the sensations sent unpleasant shivers down his spine. What was... ? And then it clicked. Spiders. Hundreds of spiders were crawling on him. He struggled to move, to kick the spiders away, but he couldn’t. The spiders crawled and crawled, covering his body. They moved to his face, their legs covering his eyes. Dr. Sawyer could feel his heart leap out of his chest, his vision blurring, his breathing ragged as he felt spiders crawl down his face and into his mouth. And he screamed. 

When Dr. Sawyer woke up, he was no longer in the spider web or in the dark room. Instead, he could see all white, and he was strapped to a chair. In front of him were two more figures. One was wearing yellow and black, the other wore light blue and gray. The yellow figure spoke first.

“Good night.” the yellow figure said. 

“Did you learn your lesson?” the light blue figure asked kindly. Dr. Sawyer groaned in agony. 

“Who did not send you here?” the yellow figure asked harshly. Dr. Sawyer didn’t answer, too angry and too confused at his situation. Instead, he spat in the figures’ direction, causing them to recoil slightly.

“How kind.” the yellow figure spat back. His eyes glowed a poisonous yellow. The light blue figure looked at the doctor disappointedly. 

“I’m so sorry for this.” it said solemnly, and their forms began to morph, growing taller in size. They morphed into a large green frog with muscular arms and legs and a large yellow snake, large fangs poised and ready to strike. They loomed over their captive, who was shaking despite his exhaustion. In front of them were the rest of the figures. The red and green figures had their weapons out -was that his blood on the morning star?- pointed at him threateningly. The dark blue figure held its gun steadily. There was a purple figure standing there, too, with its eight dark purple spider legs coming out of its back. And protected by all of them, was his subject. 

“I told you.” his subject said with tired yet proud eyes. “I told you not to mess with me.”

The large yellow snake hissed, grabbing the attention on Dr. Sawyer. The doctor looked into the snake’s glowing, yellow eyes, swirling with flashes of purple and green, and slowly, lost sensation in his entire body. He slumped forward in his chair, and closed his eyes. 

To Be Continued

Taglist: 

@bluebandedagate

(Anybody else? Just let me know :D)

#sanders sides #roman sanders #janus sanders #remus sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #thomas sanders #tw blood #tw violence #tw guns #tw spiders #tw cursing #tw home invasion #symbiosis au #platonic dlampr

[sloanerisette]

Jyoumi Challenge Day #27: Anniversary

Whew, this one is kind of late but still made it in time! I’ve been rewatching 02, and Mimi being in Odaiba for the anniversary had me wanting to do something a little different than just a traditional anniversary bit. I hope y’all enjoy!

---

“Can you believe that its already been three years?” Mimi asked as the two sat in the small fast food restaurant, looking out at the street and the people walking by while eating.

“Yes and no,” Joe shrugged, grabbing a fry to chew away at it for a moment, before he looked at her, “Yes because, well, we’re older now, but no because it does sort of feel like things have gone by so quickly.”

The group had arranged a memorial in a few days at the Fuji TV Station, to commemorate the defeat of Myotismon and the loss of so many friends, but Mimi had made sure to visit earlier to get a little extra time with her friends.

Plus, August first was the anniversary of the day they went to the Digital World for the first time, and for Mimi that day had come to hold significance for a lot of reasons.

“It feels like we’ve grown up so much since then…” she mused, pursing her lips as she absently dragged some fries through ketchup.

“You have, for sure,” Joe nodded, offering his girlfriend a warm smile.

“Oh? Well, that makes sense, you did fall for my womanly charms, after all,” Mimi said, flipping her hair and resting her chin on her palm, a sly, flirtatious grin, following with a wink.

Of course, that did it in an instant, and she was elated with his reaction: one leaving him bright red and flustered.

“I-I-I— I mean, I meant that—”

Each time he knew she was messing around, but each time he also couldn’t stop his brain from just about shutting down.

She placed her hand on his, patting it gently to calm him down.

“…I meant that you really grew up and matured during your time in the Digital World…” he sighed, shaking his head.

“You are the sweetest. You grew up, too. Into such a brave, caring guy,” she nodded.

Making him flush from complimenting him to no end was even better than making him flush from teasing him. Both, though, were her some of her favorite things to do.

“You know what one of my favorite things about today?”

“I’m pretty sure I do,” he laughed softly.

“Oh yeah, then what is it?” she asked, squeezing his hand.

“It was our first night in the Digital World. Together.”

“And we were both so terrified. And miserable,” she sighed, opting to take a large bite of her burger so as to not worry about all of that horrible, restless night.

“I mean, I wasn’t terrified,” he said with a huff, looking out of the window and scratching his cheek.

Of course he was, but he had tried to be strong for Mimi that night. He didn’t want all of that to be seen as some kind of… farce.

“Its ok that you were,” she said with a slight frown, “We were all scared that night. Plus the most important part was that you were there to help comfort me.”

“R-Really?” he asked, his head whipping back to look at her. The very notion of his question and surprise left her laughing.

“Of course. Even if you did bug me about that first aid bag, it still helped me feel better. Probably the only reason I was able to sleep that night.”

It helped his chest and throat feel less tight, and he exhaled softly.

“I mean, it was your duty to carry the bag…” he said, tapping his chin in thought.

Mimi stuck her tongue out at him, “Here I am trying to reminisce and you’re blaming me for that stupid bag!” she said, now pouting.

The way that his thoughtful expression turned into a small, cheeky grin though left her bewildered.

“Oh my gosh, this is a first,” she laughed, “You made a joke!”

Joe started laughing, too, placing his hand over his stomach and trying to stifle his laughter as best he could so as to not pull too much attention to their table.

“I’ve made jokes before! I make plenty of them! You can just ask Gomamon,” he told her with a simple nod. Granted, it was usually from him being on the receiving end of Gomamon’s own riffing.

“If you say so, sweetie,” she cooed sweetly and teasingly.

With smiles on their faces, they continued to eat, enjoying having each other around when that was such a rare occasion now. Something to be treasured and cherished when they were able to have each other close. Thanks to the Digimon Emperor, it was hard to get the Digital Gates working right, the things being fickle and opening and closing on what seemed like a whim. Bringing Mimi out to Odaiba for the three year anniversary was a stroke of luck that none of them— least of all Joe— took for granted.

Lunch was finished, and the two went to walk through Odaiba, enjoying an activity that they hadn’t done for so long now, and were glad to be able to do, even with as mundane as it was.

“What was your favorite time there?” she asked curiously as they crossed the street to head into a park.

“Well, that is pretty tough, what with all the times we had to fight dangerous and evil monsters…” he mused. Mimi playfully swatted at his arm, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, yes, I was wondering if you preferred to fight Etemon, Myotismon, or MetalSeadramon,” she said, leading to the two laughing. To the both of them, it felt so strange, to be talking about Digimon and the Digital World, while still being able to be a normal couple, even if they were anything but.

And that wasn’t even counting the fact that she was cool, calm, and composed, compared to him being tall, gangly, and, well, a dork.

Thinking on that, though, and how she had cooed and complimented him near endlessly whenever he brought it up, left him realizing how lucky he was.

She nudged his side with their arms, looking up at him, “Well? Which was it?” she asked.

“Honestly? I really did enjoy that time we went to Gennai’s house. It felt… normal,” he paused, “As normal as it can be visiting an old man in an alternate world, of course. I mean, that was our first normal night there. We had a huge meal, nice futons to rest on… it was nice.”

“That dinner was really nice,” she nodded, Joe looking to her.

“What about you?”

She smiled sheepishly, “Well…”

He tilted his head curiously, “Well?”

“I… really liked when we went to go find our friends.”

Joe seemed confused, “Really? Even with as stressed as we were?” he asked with a chuckle.

“I mean, I felt safe… well, once MetalEtemon was gone, of course. Ugh, I can’t believe we had to deal with him twice,” she sighed.

“No kidding.”

“It just… felt like we had come so far. You and me. You know, from that first night,” she nodded, “We went from being scared kids who didn’t want to be there to kids who grew up and had to find friends to help save the world.”

The sounds of cicadas droned on and on as Mimi fell silent. Joe looked down at her, worried, giving her hand a light squeeze.

“You ok?” he finally asked, voice soft and shaky. Mimi nodded.

“Mhm. I just… this day feels so important, you know? Everything changed. I know that the big day was when we defeated Myotismon, but we wouldn’t have gotten there in the first place if we weren’t all there at camp.”

Joe smiled softly, “We really did grow up, huh?”

“More than we probably wanted to,” she grinned, a soft laugh bubbling from her.

Their walk through the park had led them to a spot by the water, where the rebuilt Big Sight was visible off in the distance.

“…Kind of wild that after all this time, now there’s some new kids leading the charge to save the Digital World,” Joe said, staring out at the site of such a major event in his relatively short life.

“It lets us relax more,” she said, already expecting Joe’s reaction, and her lips turned upwards as she saw the completely, utterly exasperated look on his face.

“Relax? You do know who you’re talking to, right?” he asked, looking at her. Mimi wasted no time and leaning up to give him a quick kiss.

“My favorite person?”

That exasperated look faded as quickly as it showed up just because of that one simple gesture.

“”I don’t regret a single moment of any of this,” he told her.

“Me, either. No matter how hard it is. We got to meet our best friends, we got to meet each other again after so long. We wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for this day.”

The thought had occurred to Joe a few times— how they wouldn’t be here if not for the Digital World— but the way Mimi put it had him understanding the gravity and the importance this day held for her. For all of them.

For the two of them, specifically.

She took his hands in hers, squeezing them tight, “I know its not our actual anniversary, but… happy anniversary?”

“Happy anniversary,” he said back, leaning down to give her a kiss on the forehead.

She was so ecstatic, the pink tinge on her cheeks matching her hair, smiling wide.

“By the way,” she said suddenly.

“…Yeah?” he asked, tone clearly wary.

“Dinner tonight? Yolei wants to hear all about our story so we’re getting sushi.”

“Hearing you talk about all of our old times together? Sounds perfect.”

#jyoumi challenge #digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #jyoumi #joe kido #jyou kido #mimi tachikawa #kido jyou #tachikawa mimi

[creambunnie]

Cookie

ONEWE - Kanghyun

you sighed and sighed as you rolled around your bed.

it was a Saturday and you were bored to death. your parents left earlier for their wedding anniversary trip. so you were alone at home for 3 whole days.

you didn't feel like going out but you were just sooooooo restless not doing anything. you tried reading some books but you were just not feeling it.

you decided to just make some food for yourseld but the whole cooking and eating process onky took like 45 minutes.

you still had a long day to go. you quickly sat up on your bed when you thought of an idea.you reached for your phone to text your childhood friend!Hyungu.

well, Hyungu was one of your close friends because he was actually your neighbour who lives right next to your house . cliche bla bla but it was true.

your rooms were right opposite of each other so you could see each other through your room windows. sometimes you would secretly peek into his room and giggle to yourself.

yes you had a tiny little crush on him. Hyungu was always reading a book or playing his guitar when he was in his room. you really admire Hyungu when he was focused.

To : ☆Kang Hyungu☆

-- heyyyyy , you there? im kind of bored :(( --

you hit send and waited for a few minutes. you frowned and sighed. Hyungu was the only person you could think of right now. but he wasn't replying to your text anytime soon.

you went to the window and tried throwing some balled papers to knock his window. this was normal, the two of you would sometimes knock on each other's window to talk.

yeah phones exist but face to face interactions were just more precious. and also, because your windows were quite far and your voices would always be drowned together with the street noises, you and Hyungu had telephone cups.

yes the thing where you connect 2 cups to communicate .

you could call and text each other like normal people but the two of you were just used to this as you started since you were children.

again, there was no response from Hyungu's side. you sighed and plopped down on your bed, disappointed. *maybe he is not at home*. you thought.

you decided to entertain yourself by rewatching Harry Potter ; Prisoner of Azkaban. that was your favourite movie out of all the movies. because Harry looked extra good there.

anyways, halfway into the movie, you finally got a message notification from Hyungu. you swore you've never sat up from your bed so quickly before.

From : ☆Kang Hyungu☆

-- oh my, sorry for the late reply! i was making something earlier. if you're still bored, you wanna come over ? --

before you could reply his text, Hyungu texted you again. his message warmed up your cheeks as you read it.

From : ☆Kang Hyungu☆

-- no actually, i want you to come over. --

you quickly went to the washroom to wash your face and freshen up a bit. you know it was just a normal hang out but you just wanted to look presentable to Hyungu today.

you wore your favourite red sweatshirt and patted down your hair before leaving your house and heading to Hyungu's .

"y/n! come in!". the door opened, revealing Hyungu who was wearing an apron, all dusted with flour.

you scanned his 'outfit' which earned you a little giggle from Hyungu.

"don't worry,i didn't set my kitchen on fire. Harin helped me bake some cupcakes earlier. he already left because he had other plans.". Hyungu explained with a cute grin.

you nodded in understandment and smiled widely. "soooo, you want me to taste the cupcakes?". you anticipated.

Hyungu chuckled and nodded his head as he told you to wait at the dining table while he took the cupcakes.

salted caramel cupcakes.

"your favourite!". Hyungu chimed as he nudged his head towards the sweet treats , allowing you to taste some.

your eyes widened in excitement as you quickly reached for one.

"mmmmmmmm!". you let out a satisfied sound as salty sweet caramel flowed into your mouth as you bite into the soft cupcake.

Hyungu grinned at your reaction. all those naggings from Harin were worth it. Hyungu was glad you loved the cupcakes he made.

"aren't you eating?". you asked as your cheeks were full with the fluffly dough.

Hyungu chuckled again and ruffled your head. he leaned down to your eye level and poked your cheeks.

"hey don't talk when you're eating. you could choke. i ate some already so you can have them all.".

you blinked at Hyungu's actions and the close distance between the two of you. you felt your face warmed up.

you quickly swallowed the food and looked away. "o--oh tha-thankss..". you stuttered.

after a few minutes, everything went back to normal as the two of you chose a game to play .

"Dead or Alive!". you exclaimed.

Hyungu sighed and nodded. "that's like the ONLY game you always want to play.".

you pouted and flicked his forehead.

"noo i do play the games that you choose too!". you defended yourself.

Hyungu scrunched up his nose and turned on the said game. "okay okay, i understand that you sometimes have to let out the violence in you,". Hyungu teased.

you rolled your eyes and hit his arm. "i can just let it out on you!". you replied as you stuck your tongue out at Hyungu.

Hyungu chuckled and ruffled your hair again as he sat next to you and started the game.

you and Hyungu played for hours and only stopped when your stomachs growled.

"you have anything ?". you asked Hyungu.

Hyungu tapped his chin as he thought of the stuffs he had at home.

"i guess we have some pasta. you wanna fix some for dinner?". Hyungu asked.

you nodded and went to the kitchen as Hyungu cleaned up the game station.

Hyungu was right, they had some pasta. there was also some seafood . since both your stomachs were growling like mad, you decided to just go with something simple and made some aglio olio. simple but delicious and filling.

Hyungu was currently living alone in his house. his parents had some business overseas so they had to stay out of country for a few months. hence the two of them didn't have to worry about finishing up all the food.

"ahhhh that was great! thanks for the food,". Hyungu thanked as he volunteered to wash the dishes since you cooked.

it was getting late, you thanked Hyungu for the day and was about to excuse yourself when he stopped you.

"wait wait, i made a cookie for you . eat them right when you reach home okay?". Hyungu said as he passed you a medium sized fortune cookie that he packed in a paper bag .

you were confused but nodded as you got ready to go home. the usual 5-second trip took 3 as you were excited to eat the cookie Hyungu made you.

you were curious why he told you to eat it right you reached home. you knew fortune cookie always had a note inside.

and something in you hoped it was something good. something that would make you smile widely.

you went into your bedroom and unpacked the bag before taking out the cookie.

~ dear y/n.

you might find this lame and all, but i really like you since middle school. i am not sure of what more to say but, will you be my girlfriend?

☆Hyungu☆ ~

the printed words on the paper read.

blink

nani

blink

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH". you squealed into your pillow.

you really didnt believe your eyes. your crush has a crush on you? this is like too good to be true.

you want to believe it was just a prank but knowing Hyungu, who rarely expresses his emotions, he wouldn't play about these things.

of course you hesitated for a bit. Hyungu was a good guy but do you really deserve him? probably not but it doesn't hurt to try, right?

you quickly went to your window and threw your balled paper to attract his attention.

a few seconds later, a shy Hyungu appeared at his window as he opened it. you threw over a cup for him to listen to the things you wanted to say.

"yes. over.". you said.

Hyungu blinked and quickly held the cup to his mouth.

"yo-you mean , yes ? you want to be my girlfriend? over.". he stuttered.

you chuckled and replied though the cup.

"yes Hyungu. i like you too and i would love to be your girlfriend. over.".

Hyungu smiled widely and could not help but chuckle happily.

"then can i come over ? it feels cold here after you left. over.". your boyfriend!Hyungu asked cutely.

you scrunched up your nose and chuckled.

"grr you clingy boy. it's night time already! come over tomorrow okay? i am kind of tired and i want to go sleep. over.". you answered.

you could see Hyungu's deep pout as he got his answer.

"alright then... goodnight! over.". Hyungu bid.

you smiled and nodded as you waved at him. he threw back the cup to you . you caught the cup and quickly gave him a flying kiss before closing your window and running back to your bed.

Hyungu chuckled at your actions and held his chest.

"damn, the things you do to my heart...". Hyungu mumbled as he too got ready for bed.

Hyungu have had feelings for you since middle school. he realised this when boys started asking you out. well, you were a pretty girl after all.

but he didn't like you just because you were pretty, he loved your personality. although the two of you often argue with each other, it just made you two closer than ever.

Hyungu realised he had to make his move when you started dating some boys during highschool. he knew you didn't really like those boys but you dated them just so you don't hurt their feelings.

now that you're both in college, Hyungu was really determined to make you his.

he decided to ask help from Harin to teach him how to bake. you really love sweet stuffs and he really wanted to make you something you love.

although Harin nagged and scolded him a lot, Hyungu thought it was all worth it. because at the end of the day, he made you smile. and of course, you became his girlfriend.

it was really the best day of his life.

.

.

a/n : in case you can't imagine how the whole scene took place, here's a reference ! yeap , i was inspired by this anime called 'Tamako Market' .

hope you guys love it! stan ONEWE ! stan ONEUS! stan WEUS!

#onewe #onewe scenarios #onewe fluff #onewe imagines #onewe kanghyun #kang hyungu #kanghyun fluff #kanghyun imagines #kanghyun

[meanderings0ul]

AOS Hiatus Fic Roundup

Last night of the last aos hiatus and only the second one I’ve really been an active writer during. Last hiatus I took a break in a different fandom and then finished one long fic (which remains my only completed long fic...oh wips I’m so sorry). This year I’ve just realized I finished 17 aos fics during the hiatus instead. That’s a lot of different things completed for me! Several of them were for two different aosficnet events, which is the first time I’ve ever participated in a fandom writing event and I’m so glad I did. Many others were inspired while the fandom-wide rewatch was going on. 

List under the cut because why not. 

Horizons - T - phil & may - post season 6 anxious H/C

Traces - E - May/Sarge - season 6 hate sex

Allopreen - M - gen - post season 6 female friendship H/C

keep coming back for more - M - meldrew - themed around kisses

longing to share the lot - M - staticquake - humor and sex-gone-wrong fluff

Purple - E - philinda - non D/s established relationship pegging

Drifting - G - philinda - retired domestic fluff

Tuck Tail - T - meldrew - married camping nonsense

hungry thirsty roots - M - gen - coulson-centric pre-series horror

under this roof - T - meldrew - domestic fluff and self care

a strange flight i’m taking - T - meldrew - andrew pov, coulson & drew focused

Human Touch - T - phil & may - season four pre-romo H/C

hide out in every corner - G - bus kids + philinda - gentle future fic

drift in and out - G - philinda - retired fluff 

restless rust - M - gen - may and hunter H/C in season 3

confessional - T - mackelena - extra getting back together scene in season 6

Linger - T - philinda - season 5 missing scene with UST

For 3 years and leaving out nonfiction, aos has been then vast majority of my writing time. I’ve gotten so much more comfortable with dialogue and structuring my writing and spent more time fleshing out backstories for gaps in canon than I’ve ever bothered with. It’s been a great experience that way, let alone having the opportunity to brainstorm with friends and have people willing to test read my work when I’m ehhh about something. I know I’ll keep writing for the show once it’s completed its run, especially some longer wips, and will probably revisit abandoned drafts whenever I rewatch as I have always done. But this has been a much more active and engaged fandom experience than I have ever tried for before and it’s always going to stand out in my memory.

#agents of shield #aos fic #meandering fanfic #absolutely 100% the best gift of all this has been the friends I've made #and that will be the important part of this to keep #but i've really improved my craft as a writer #and the whole writing coherent meta thing #and being able to focus on projects thing long enough to finish them #which i still suck at tbh #was gonna be 18 fics but i worked on three in one day instead #anyways #i had occasion recently to start working on a wip from three years ago again #and wow #you just don't notice how much you're learning while you're doing it

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

Hey everyone

I hope you are all staying safe, healthy and happy right now. I want to apologize for lack of activity, but with everything going on it's made it even harder to write. But I can assure you I am healthy and taking precautions. I've been in quarantine for almost two weeks now - I'm not infected, but I do have asthma so there's a chance I could be at a slightly higher risk. But I have been separated from my dogs and cats, they live at my dad's house and while I have been able to video chat with him, which I'm grateful for, my animals are what keep my anxiety at bay.

It's been pretty hard without them. Especially my dogs, they can always sense my panic attacks before even I know they're coming so without them has been a struggle. I'm disappointed I haven't been able to write, especially with all this extra time but I also know that's okay. To all authors out there, it is okay if you don't write. Or maybe you try to but can't. These are stressful times and your mental health is something you also need to take care of.

Anyways, I apologize if this is out of the blue and kind of a lot, but I wanted you guys to know I'm okay and we will get through this! Stay inside, wash your hands and just do impulsive silly things that will keep you entertained inside that you might not normally do. Humans need change, so being spontaneous in times where we are stuck inside is the best time to shake things up. Light a whole bunch of candles [safely of course!], build a fort, rearrange your room, learn a new skill [sewing, painting, carving, etc] watch some new shows or movies you've been meaning to watch or rewatch stuff you see all the time if that's what makes you happy and comforts you. I built the bookshelf I've been meaning to put together and now my room is a whole lot cozier and I got a small workout from it. That's another thing, if you're feeling restless go up and down your stairs if you have some or pick a spot to jog in place - even if it's in front of a TV if that makes it easier!

We will get through this, we might not know just how long it will last, but we will get through it. Cause humans are meant to adapt. We got this. I love you all, stay safe my lovelies!

💕💕💕 - Yurtle

#yurtle rambles