#shout out to Emmy for making me post this she says hi to everyone

[elizaisdunn]

goodtimeswithscar man-bun appreciation post

#Eliza draws #goodtimeswithscar #gtws #hermitcraft #hermitblr #irl hermits #hermitcraft fanart #he is so special to me #shout out to Emmy for making me post this she says hi to everyone

[warriorsofsplatsville]

"Do what now?! What happened to Theo?!" Jesse exclaimed.

"Yeah. He lost consciousness with me while on the radio. He's out." Emmy stated calmly, clicking things on the computer with her mouse. "The suit he's wearing says his vitals are still plenty strong, but he's not there. Beforehand, he told me there was some strange phenomenon at the Square where everyone seemed to be unconscious. I think Tara is behind it."

"No shot..." Jesse leaned back against the chair he was sitting in.

"Tara...so she's making her move?" Sandy gulped.

"Yeah, it seems like she's done hiding out now. She's showing us her hand." Plat grimaced.

"..." Mirage just listened intently to their chatter, absorbing the information. The Salmo-Inkling would have to relay this to their father.

"I already sent a message to Millie, so she's aware of the situation and has ordered anyone in the vicinity of the Square to keep far away."

"Right..."

"So, Captain, what do you want to have us do?"

"...Well, we need to apprehend Tara ASAP. She's a threat here, and there, and everywhere. I'll inform Professor Vulture and then deploy some of my agents over there."

"Y-You mean us? You're sending us to that death trap?!" Sandy exclaimed.

"I have no choice. Resources are limited at the moment. Four is out, E is manning Squidbeak's operations in Inkopolis, Millie is trying to keep everyone calm and collected...and I have Callie and Marie posted in Alterna just in case. That leaves you four."

Minu tapped her foot.

"Agent Jumper?"

"...It's happening..." She sighed. "This is it. This is where time gets weird. Even I don't...know what's going to happen..."

"Minu? What are you talking about?"

"Whatever. Send me where you need me. I'll take care of this quickly." The young girl huffed.

"I should let my father know I'm going off on a mission, first." Mirage said, pulling out their phone.

"No need, Mirage."

"Dad?! What are you doing in the crater?!"

Salomon approached the group, arms crossed. "It's dangerous. I'm aware. But you get my express permission this time."

"Okay...what's with this attitude change?"

Salomon silently looked at the ground. "I've been reassured you'll be alright. I know nothing will happen to you."

"?? Dad, you're acting REALLY cryptic..."

"Besides, it seems a feisty little fish wants to join you."

"Mir!" Cruesa shouted, catching up to the salmon king. "I'm coming with! I have to see this business with Tara to its end!"

"Ess...I don't know, this sounds really, really dangerous."

"I have to! Look, we met when I was working under her. I...helped her reach this point. So it's only right that I undo my wrongs and take her down with you all!"

"I tried to convince her otherwise too, Mirage. She's not budging. She's dead set on finishing what we started. Besides, with Cruesa here, we unintentionally have some...new allies."

"Huh?"

"The rebel army has decided to call for a temporary truce and help me out with taking down Tara. After all, she did cause harm to both sides..." Cruesa said. "But my brother said they'll back up the kingdom in this fight!"

"Cinnabar?"

"Yeah! It's strange...he's pretty stubborn, so I wonder what changed his mind..."

"No time to think about that now. We have a human to apprehend." Jesse said, turning his attention back to Emmy. "You catch all that?"

"Oh yeah. It's gonna be a real party!"

"Hey, is Octa there? Can I talk to her?"

"Oh...yeah about that. I sent her out to the Square to scope out the situation and find Theo."

"WHAT?! Emmy, you sent my girlfriend out there alone??" Jesse exclaimed, quickly turning to his crew. "Mobilize to the Square. Immediately! That's an order!"

"Octa can handle herself, Jesse!" Emmy shouted, hearing the footsteps of his troops leave. "She's not a noob!"

"I know, but still! Tara is like nothing we dealt with before. I...ugh, fine. I'll be there soon too."

"Wait, for real?!" Emmy exclaimed before the communicator cut contact.

Jesse stood up, stretching.

"Guess it's time for me to get back into shape. Octa..."

#//ic #//captain jesse #//guest: emmy #//mirage #//sandy #//plat #//minu #//cruesa #//salomon #//side order #continuation from manysquidsandoctos! theyre gonna converge a bit

[elocinnicole]

To Have and To Hold

Pairing: Daveed Diggs x Black!Reader

Rating: M for alcohol use and language 18+ Minors DNI

Word Count: 2K

Summary: It’s Daveed and Reader’s wedding day

AN: The Reader’s sisters are, Mara, Fatima, and Kalani. The narcissistic mother is back. I feel like Daveed would have a boho type of wedding especially based on his and Emmy’s AD House Tour. It’s giving very electric Boho and a hint of glam.

Dividers by: @firefly-graphics

Series Masterlist

Antigua

You woke that morning and didn’t know how to feel. This is your wedding to the love of your life. Those three years seemed to fly by and here you are in Antigua getting ready for the rest of your life.

“It’s your wedding day bitch!!” Jasmine said as she, Amber, and your sisters stormed into your bedroom bottles of champagne in hand.

“I’m getting married!” You cheered excitedly Your sister, Mara popped open the champagne and poured everyone a glass.

“Good thing y’all having an evening wedding cause we getting litty and we gonna sit pretty like a titty.” Fatima said raising her glass and everyone cheered as they all raised their glasses, toasting to your new chapter in your life.

“You not a hot girl anymore sis,” Kalani teased

“Um, yes I am.”

“Sis, have you looked at your Instagram, your post is blowing up.” Amber showed you her phone and yours widened, you had almost 500,000 likes. You and Daveed had both posted your newest tattoos on your ring finger, yours had his first initial and he had yours. Of course, all the comments were about if you guys had gotten married or you were engaged to each other. That’s why you opted to get married overseas, you knew getting married in New York would not grant you the privacy that both of you wanted. You haven’t even made it public that you’re engaged which was extremely hard, but it’s not something you haven’t done before. When you were pregnant with Daniel, both you and Daveed didn’t announce it to the public until you were well into your third trimester.

“I’m about to mute the post. I do not need that going off all day,”

“Have you heard from Daveed?” Kalani asked

“No, not since someone made me block my fiancé!” You said giving Jasmine a pointed look

“You’re welcome, you’re not supposed to talk to your fiancé 24 hours before the wedding and I’ll do it again, too.” She shrugged

“Alright, ladies,” Mara started “we are on a tight schedule, it’s time for breakfast, and then we have our massages and then it’s hair and makeup.”

You sat in the makeup chair and you were getting your hair done first since you were wearing your hair natural. Luckily the resort had black hairstylists and makeup artists to do yours, your stepmom, Barbara’s, and your bridesmaids' hair. Well, all except Fatima, who insisted on doing her hair. Daniel was not far from you, sitting on his play mat playing with his toys. You were thankful for your stepmom, Lisa, and Barbara for keeping Daniel busy while you got ready. Watching Daniel with the two of them made you think of your mom and the fact that she wasn’t there.

Amber looked over at you and could see you fiddling with your fingers something that you did when you were nervous.

“Hey, you okay?” She asked pulling you out of whatever space you were in.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Amber gave you a look, not believing a word you were saying. You sighed heavily leaned in as close as you could without disrupting the makeup and hairstylists

“I haven’t talked to my Mom since the whole wedding dress thing. It’s been mainly surface stuff but nothing about what happened. She RSVP’d to the wedding but she didn’t show up for the rehearsal.” You said trying to hold back the tears

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay. I know there’s nothing I can say that will make you feel better but Ms. Lisa is here, Ms. Barbara is here—”

“And we here bitch!” Kalani shouted from the other side of the room.

“The people that need to be here, are here and frankly if she’s not here then she’s gonna miss out on one of the best weddings of the year and that’s on period,” Amber said, that last part making you laugh.

“You guys are gonna make me mess up my makeup.” You exclaimed fanning your eyes.

“Here she go crying again,” Mara teased

“Someone get her a napkin like that girl Candiace from that Housewives show,” Fatima added, your sisters laughed as you flipped them off. Your phone rang for what felt like the fifth time. You blindly reached for your phone and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Skye I’m not sure if you know this but your Mom just came to the venue and she brought someone with her.”

“Excuse me? Tell her she can’t do that, she already has a plus one.” You said a little too loudly, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.

“Yeah, he is her plus one.”

“Who the hell is it?”

“She said it’s someone named Brandon, an old family friend.” You groaned in frustration, wanting to throw your phone across the room.

“Tell her to come to my room, is she still there?”

“Yes, she’s trying to help with setting up. I’ll send her to you.”

“Thanks.”

“What happened?” Your stepmom asked

“My Mom brought a plus one to the wedding that I didn’t invite.” You said not wanting to mention the other part

“It’ll be okay, this is still your wedding day. Nothing, literally nothing can ruin it.” Barbara insisted You nodded wanting to believe your mother in law but knowing your mom, you don’t know what to expect.

“Thanks, Barb,” There was a knock at your door and you knew it was your Mom. Kalani opened the door and in she walked, fully dressed…for an evening wedding…at noon.

“Hi everyone,” Diane greeted you rolled your eyes, Fatima gave you a look before your mom came rushing over.

“Hey, sweetie!” Diane said reaching out to hug you but you backed away

“Mom, they’re doing my hair and makeup.”

“Oh, right. I’m so sorry I missed the rehearsal last night.”

“It’s okay, Skye will tell you what to do. Mom, can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah sure.” You excused yourself from the rest of the group and walked into your suite making sure to close the door.

���Um, why did you bring Brandon?”

“I thought it would be a nice surprise.”

“Mom, why would bring my ex before I met Daveed to my wedding?” Diane simply shrugged her shoulders.

“I figured he would want to see you.” You inhaled sharply not having the mental capacity to deal with the situation.

“You know what, this is above me. Mom, can you get your hair and makeup done please? We only have two hours before we have to take pictures and my makeup isn’t even done yet.” You brushed past your mother and continued to get ready nothing else could mess up your day.

Diane followed you and went straight to Daniel, picking him up.

“How’s Nana’s baby?” Diana cooed “Y/N, have you seen the skin by his ear? It looks like eczema,”

“Yes, mom I know it’s eczema. He’s having a flare-up because of the weather change.”

“And you’re just gonna let him have a flare-up? Where’s his medicine, I’ll do it, that’s right Daniel, Nana will fix that up for you.” You moved to stand up but Mara placed a hand on your shoulder.

“Oh look, let’s hand her the Grandma of the Year Award,” Barbara muttered under her breath.

“Can I un-invite her?” You said to Lisa

“No, it’s only for a few more hours.”

“You know, I’m your mom, Y/N so I’m only saying this to help. You should really get on Daniel’s eczema, it’ll leave a scar all over his skin.”

“Thanks, Mom, but I got it. I haven’t gotten around to putting it on him. Besides, Oak is coming to get him soon so I can get ready.”

“Why? Daniel can stay,”

“No, he’s going with the guys for pictures.”

“Mhm, that doesn’t make sense to Nana, no it doesn’t Daniel.” She cooed passively aggressively

“Well, it makes sense to her,” Barbara said defensively

Daveed stood in front of the mirror in his all-beige tux, his hair braided up out of his face. Rafael came up behind and smiled at his best friend.

“Man you about to get married!” Rafael said

“You sure about that? The getaway car is running right now.” Daveed’s brother, Malcolm, teased

“Nah, I’m sure about this one.” He smiled fondly thinking about you, he can’t wait until he sees you. The door opened to reveal Oak carrying a sleeping Daniel

“I've returned with the package.” He joked before placing him on the sofa

“Thanks, man, is he sleep?”

“Out like a light, by the way. I don’t know how he was sleep, that room is nothing but mimosas, shea butter, and 90s R&B.”

“Man I’m used to it, Y/N’s sisters stayed coming over at our old place when Daniel was first born it was like that every night.”

“You know I always say this, but I’m truly happy for you,” Malcolm said

“Thanks, bruh, I’m lucky to have met Y/N in the first place.”

“Don’t fuck this up man,” Rafael added handing everyone a glass of scotch

“I don’t plan on it, and can you stop cussing around my kid,” Daveed said confidently

“He’s sleep,”

“What if he can still hear? Y/N would kill me if he dropping the f-bomb all over the place.”

“Babies can still hear in they sleep?” Oak asked, genuinely curious

“Shit, I don’t know, maybe in their subconscious.”

“That’s not the point, a toast to Diggs and the end of shots out of the Grammy,” Daveed rolled his eyes at Rafael

It was about a half-hour before the ceremony and you were getting those pre-wedding jitters. You really wanted to talk to Daveed, he always knew how to calm you down. You were talking to Barbara when Lisa walked out of the suite with a weird look on her face.

“What’s going on?” You asked

“Don’t freak out.” She started

“What’s going on?” You asked again

“Um, Diane’s wearing white.” That’s all you needed to hear before seeing red. You kicked your heels off and stormed into the room ignoring Barbara and Lisa calling your name. There she was in not only a white dress on your wedding day but a god damn evening gown, with a train. Enough was enough, if you didn’t say anything to her now, she would ruin your day.

“What the fuck is your problem?” You demanded

“Is there something going on with you?”

“Why are you wearing white?!”

“It’s just a joke Y/N. Don’t be so sensitive.”

“That’s not a joke Mom, you’re wearing white on my fucking wedding day!”

“Watch your mouth!”

“Mom, I’m trying. I’ve been trying since you got here from your snide comments to inviting Brandon, and now this? Enough is enough, you and your little piece of a plus one need to get out of this resort. You’re not coming to my wedding.”

“You don’t mean that,”

“No, Mom, I do, I want you to leave. Now.”

“You know what. I’m not gonna be here forever, one day I’ll be gone can you really live with not your mother at your wedding? The most important day of my life?”

“That’s the thing, Mom, it’s my Day. Not yours.” Your mom huffed before she stormed out of the room slamming the door shut.

A few moments later, your sisters came into the room, a sympathetic look on their faces.

“Sis…”

“Can someone get Daveed?” You asked trying not to cry

“But you’re not supposed to—”

“I don’t care about any of that superstitious bull shit, I need to talk to Daveed now.”

The knock at the door was hurried and frantic which made all the guys raise an eyebrow. Rafael opened the door only for it to swing open and barely miss hitting him.

“What’s going on!” He asked Mara,

“Daveed,” The look on Mara’s face was unreadable, and that caused him to worry.

“What’s going on? Is Y/N okay?”

“She needs to see you.”

As you paced the room your eyes would dart to the time on the clock, you had about fifteen minutes before the wedding started and you weren’t even nervous about getting married, you were so fed up about everything that happened today. The door opened and you instantly relaxed at the sight of your fiancé. Daveed stood at the door for a moment taking in your appearance. You blushed at the way he was looking at you but you would be lying if you weren’t giving him the same look. If your makeup wasn’t done you’d have half the mind to fuck him.

“Fuck,” he breathed “you look beautiful.”

“Thanks.”

“Is everything okay? You not trying to leave me are you?” You chuckled dryly as Daveed’s attempt for a joke

“No, I just needed to see you.” You closed the distance between you and hugged him. He heard you sniffle and pulled away first.

“What’s up, babe?”

“I had to kick my Mom out.” Daveed sighed heavily and pulled you for another hug, holding you tighter this time.

“I’m sorry babe, I really am. We don’t have to talk about if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t, I just really needed to see your face.” They stood in a content silence just hugging each other, they weren’t sure how much time went past before someone had opened the door.

“Hey, hate to ruin this moment,” Jasmine started “but this wedding starts in like five minutes and we still have to get to the venue.” You and Daveed pulled away from the embrace smiling warmly at each other

“See you at the altar.” You smiled

“Don’t be late,” Daveed pressed a kiss to your hands before leaving the room

You stood on the outdoor patio you could partially see the ceremony from where you were standing, almost every except Daveed. Your Dad stood beside you, fighting back his own tears

“You ready?” You nodded and joined arms

You didn’t remember walking from the patio to the ceremony space but when you reached the aisle you looked and your eyes instantly locked onto Daveed’s and his on yours. The dress you ended up wearing was a custom-designed dress after that debacle of her dress shopping, Jasmine and Amber dragged you to a designer who created the dress of your dreams. It was a long sleeveless lace white gown with a flared train, perfect for a beach wedding.

Daveed smiled tearfully as you walked down the aisle. You reached the altar and handed Jasmine your bouquet before joining hands with Daveed.

Both of you drowned out whatever the officiant was saying, looking deep into each other’s eyes. It wasn’t until the officiant cleared his throat you both jumped slightly, making light laughter fill the space.

“You may now say your vows,” The two of you couldn’t get through your vows without crying, you have been through so much as a couple, from dating long distance, having Daniel, and even this, planning this entire wedding.

“May we have the rings?” Both of you turned to look at Daniel who was sitting with Barbara and Dountes. Dountes gave Daniel the ring boxes and told him to give them to Daveed. Daniel toddled over and patted Daveed’s leg.

“Here, Dada.” He said quietly, Daveed bent down and grabbed the boxes before Daniel ran off back to Barbara and Dountes, giggling along the way. Once the rings were exchanged, the two of you were bouncing with excitement.

“By the powers vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may know—“ He didn’t even get a chance to finish before Daveed pulled you in for a kiss making the guests laugh as they applauded the new couple.

“For the first time Mr. and Mrs. Diggs!”

The reception was nothing less than a party and that’s what you and Daveed wanted. A party with your closest friends and loved ones. Drinks were flowing, the music was playing loudly off the speakers but the main question on everyone’s mind was, were you and Daveed? The two of you had been missing since before they bought out dinner. Just before serving the appetizers, Skye had sneakily ushered you off to a private room that she had set up for the two of you with your dinner plates so you could eat dinner without being asked for pictures or when you were gonna have another baby. Just you and your husband.

You were snuggled up close to Daveed, listening to his heartbeat. His fingers dance gently along your back. The music from the reception can be heard slightly from the room.

“Hey babe,” You hummed in response, craning your neck up to look at Daveed “we’re married.” You smiled widely you’ve been on cloud nine since seeing Daveed at that altar.

“How does it feel Mr. Diggs?”

“It feels wonderful, Mrs. Diggs,” Daveed leaned down to kiss you on your lips You sighed contently, holding onto Daveed a little bit tighter

“We should probably head back out there,” Daveed suggest you sat up and walked over to the dressing room

“Or, you could help me change into my second dress?” You asked suggestively, Daveed smiled in return and hopped off the couch

“You sure? Here?”

“You know I could I ask Jasmine—” Daveed cut you off with a kiss before leading you into the dressing room kicking the door shut behind him.

This is the end to Family is Everything. Thank you for all the reblogs, likes, and comments! I hope you enjoyed reading😊🥰

Tagging: @nikole-witha-k @iknowthekoolaidflavor @ramp-it-up @wreakhavoconmacroissantdiggs @blackpinup22 @chrisevanswife0405 @cocobutterbaby @mellie-teh-goblin-queen @azxulaa @luckyfriesss @endless-romantic-stories @pinkbonnetandglasses @daveeds-wife

If you want to be tagged click here

#Spotify #Daveed Diggs #Daveed Diggs Imagine #Daveed Diggs x Reader #Daveed Diggs x Black!Reader #Black!Reader #Rafael Casal #Jasmine Cephas Jones #Okieriete Onadowan #Amber Imma #Family Is Everything Series #elocinnicole

[jq37]

The Case File – Mice and Murder Ep 4

The Case of the Puzzling Painting 

Welcome back to Loam Hall where our Sylvan Sleuths are still hanging out in a room with a dead body. When we left off, Gangie had been snooping into Sly’s conversation about Fletcher Cottonbottom and now, he uses his Criminal Contacts feature to see what he knows, if anything, about a recent return. With a 26 he knows that his family used to be well respected but after the whole business with the insurance fraud and Sly busting it, the family kind of fell out of favor. So Fletcher was in a weird position where he was rich and a part of high society and had enough dirt on everyone to get them to do things for him but couldn’t actually show his face because he was disgraced. Gangie also knows that it’s rumored that Fletcher’s weapons running scheme was actually a front for moving art. 

With regard to more recent news about Fletcher, Gangie was never in direct contact with him but he knows that 3-4 years ago, his most trusted henchmen started going missing--people attributed it to some kind of “Cottonbottom Curse” and that rumor is part of why Gangie decided to get out of dodge in the first place.

Buck does an insight check on the rest of the PCs and, with an 18, doesn’t clock anyone there as especially suspicious (Lars isn’t there but like..it’s Lars). Ian tries to give Squire Badger his last rites but ends up pulling the knife out, putting it back in, flapping blood everywhere with his feathers, and sending Constance into a badger rage. Buck tries to help smooth over things, claiming his big screw up was a new style of avant garde church ritual (Ian appreciates the support--who ministers to the ministers, you know?) and in the process sees his knife for the first time. Which, you know. He obviously suspected before but never nice to see.

While this is going on, Daisy sneaks off to try and check on the secret door and everyone sees her do it/eventually follows her but we’ll get back to her once we check in with Lars who is en route to the kitchen. Once in the hallway, they do a perception check and, on a 15, there are 3 doors and Ally gets to pick one. There’s a kitchen where Gilfoyle is talking to a group, a door where someone is crying behind it, and a door where they can hear nothing. Ally, the galaxy brained genius, goes for the quiet door. That’s the money door and with their ears pressed against the door, they can hear Edwina and Carolyn--the two mice maids that overheard Buck’s conversation with the Badger--whispering about what happened there and wondering if they should pay back the money they were paid to by Buck.

Gilfoyle walks out and sees Lars snooping but on a Nat 20 deception check, Lars is able to play dumb and skate by suspiciousness. Also, with a dirty 20 perception check, when the mice maids leave, Lars sees that they’ve been stealing silverware. 

OK, back to Daisy who is getting to the séance room as quickly as possible. She has two rounds before people catch up to her so she’s trying to make the most of it by Investigating the painting she noticed was bolted to the wall earlier. She first rolls an 11, getting no new information. This is so frustrating to her. She’s good at this dammit! But being around Sly is rattling her terribly. She has feelings for him--strong ones. But she isn’t herself around him. How can she be with him if he makes her so unlike herself? Her introspection is enough to earn her advantage from Brennan on her second roll and boom! 25! Daisy is back. 

With that roll, she notices that the eyes in the painting actually move and can be used as a spying post on the other side. Then Sly runs in and they start bickering immediately. Daisy throws a crystal ball at him and absolutely brains him on a nat 20--the first combat roll of this very RP oriented season. 

Buck and Ian are still in the room with the body for the moment and Buck asks Ian about the first few names on the list Gangie gave him. There were a bunch of members of the Burrows family--a working class family that all died of a consumptive illness. And then the Diggories who died in a carriage accident. The connecting thread? All badgers. Buck then zooms away to follow Daisy, Ian follows, and Lars, seeing them as they leave the kitchens, also follows. 

So all the PCs are in the séance room now and they kinda have the sense of, “OK y’all, we’re all screwed but we’re al screwed together so we better throw our lot in with each other and start working together so we don’t die because no one else here is on our side.” Buck proposes an alliance and they all agree to share info. Sly asks about Buck’s knife and Buck admits it’s his but says he didn’t do it. Sly believes him--not because he wouldn’t do it but because he has no motive (that he knows about anyway. Buck doesn’t spill about the contract). 

Gangie shares the list of names from before with the whole group.It’s like half badgers and then some other critters (full list here). Sly doesn’t share any of his secret info Grant got texted. Daisy and Buck don’t share about the key (though Sly you’ll remember sat her steal it). Buck does however mention his suspicion about the fact that Gilfoyle wasn’t around when Squire Badger gave his speech and Daisy does the same about the fact that he said he would call the cops but the cops haven’t arrived yet. Lar’s remembers that Jez’s husband is gunning for at seat in parliament and wonders if this is related somehow. Daisy mentions the eyes in the painting and everyone is like way to bury the lede dude! Especially when they’ve just all spilled their secrets. Everyone checks on the painting and with a 25 Gangie can intuit that this is probably used to spy on rich people when they’re mid-séance and vulnerable and spilling secrets (which he doesn’t share but Daisy comes to a similar conclusion on her own). Buck on a 23 can smell ledgers (idk how but the DM said so and I’m reporting it) and guesses that that’s where the Squire’s real office is which means that’s probably where the contract he needs to find and destroy is too. 

 The group makes a list of their loose ends which are what’s on the other side of the painting, what’s up with Fletcher, and the smell of ozone. Plus Ian remembers that the date on the bust in the study is wrong and shares with the class. 

Lars tries to get to the other side of the room by ripping the painting off the hinges with a very impressive 26 but there is fully a wall behind it and the noise brings Gilfoyle, Harding, and the Badger kids running. Lars notes that in the stone behind the painting it says “⅓”  and then hurriedly puts the painting back. Daisy thinks that might refer to a secret third floor or basement accessible by the elevator (but my first thought was that there were 2 other spying paintings in the house somewhere).

Everyone in the room hears the Gilfoyle and co. coming and try to act natural. There is a group stealth check that they all tank so heavily that all the suspicious staff and kids need to do to suss them out is roll above a 5.

AND THEY ROLL A TWO. 

With that, Lucretia appears, totally buys that they’re doing very important spiritual work in there, and in fact guards the door for them. They use the privacy bought by their very vigilant sentry to plan their next steps. Sly, Daisy, and Ian will check out the study while they rest of them check out the elevator. As they exit, Lucretia asks if they got the answers they needed out of the spirits.

Oh yes, says Daisy, echoing Lucretia’s nonsense prediction from last episode. Either something good or bad might happen. Either way, I’m excited! 

Case Notes

How baller of a player move is it to say a line so poignant that the DM is forced to let you roll with advantage? I have been on the other side of that as the DM and it’s so great. MAD respect to Rekha for that. AND THEN THE DICE COOPERATED. You simply love to see it. 

The other best Rekha line is Daisy to Sly upon being called out about stealing the key in his normal, coy, quippy way: You saw me bitch.

Shout out to Grant also for being constantly on as Sly. The guy is on point always. Impeccable.

I am SO SO SO happy Daisy and Sly are on the same mission team. If I was friends with either of them I’d be like, “This is a toxic relationship, they make you too crazy.” But as an outside viewer I want them to be within crystal ball throwing distance always.  

The question I’m sure we’re all asking: Is Brennan enough of a minx to invoke the butler did it trope? I know everyone at the table is thinking it even if none of them have said it outright. I figured the reason the cops haven’t showed up yet was the storm but who knows?

Two pieces of housekeeping, only Buck and Gangie know what the room behind the painting is with their high rolls and, after the bit of passing it back and forth with Buck, Daisy has the key. 

I really can’t do the bit about Gangie’s mom justice. I wish there was a comedy Emmy for actual play DnD shows so D20 could get the accolades it deserves just for that bit. 

Brennan indicated that the conversation between the mice maids was the most interesting info (Gilfoyle convo to staff was too public to be juicy/they could get the info from one of the many gathered staff people and crying is info on its own--though I am curious about who the crying person was) but I’m wondering what he meant by that. Because the fact that Buck paid them might be interesting if Buck did it. But we know he didn’t. Is it the fact that they were in the room at all? Again, info that the party knows if not Lars specifically.  The fact that they were stealing silverware? What’s Brennan’s game here?

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #mice and murder #mice and murder spoilers #the case file

[gin-and-luce]

You killed our dog! Adriana of The Sopranos gave me strength to navigate life after a breakup during a global pandemic lockdown

I’m going through a breakup. It’s come at the worst time but also the best time. He ended things with me (more on that later) after three years in the most Beta-Male way...but this is what happens when your type can be boiled down to softboi. I can’t see my friends in the conventional way, so I made some new ones on screen to help me navigate the end during quarantine.

Over ten weeks ago I started watching The Sopranos. It doesn’t need justifying, everyone knows it’s the best television series of all time, but I’d never seen it, and I knew a global pandemic induced lockdown would provide optimum viewing circumstances. My favourite thing to do is completely throw myself into the female narrative and experience I’m watching on screen. I prefer a long deep drama over a film. I like being able to see my girls every night. 

People have said to me before “you should start a blog”, but I could never escape the feeling that doing so is massively narcissistic because it *is*, unless you have something actually relevant to write about. Alternatively, the image of Gretchen Weiners leaning in and going “you let it out honey, put it in the book” floats across my conscience, and everything embarrassing that I’ve ever done, plays in a montage in my mind. 

Who gives a fuck what I have to say about anything…….. especially about a cultural phenomena that is quite literally regarded as the best TV show of all time?

I’d been wanting to write this after I watched Long Term Parking. I lay in the dark for 45 minutes after the episode ended. I’d never felt like that watching a television show or film before. My throat had seized up but I didn’t cry, even though I felt like it. I knew it was coming from the moment Adriana met the agent. I wasn’t surprised, but I was heartbroken and absolutely fuming. I still am. 

I’m not angry with Christopher, Tony, or Silvio, but just the general unbalance I’ve felt when I’m in a relationship. The loss of self, relationships being a series of compromises. From what I have found from my own experiences and my girlfriends’, women are just much more willing to compromise, but don’t consider it to be a compromise. Men can only take into consideration their own reality, an evolutionary selfishness that just doesn’t translate. 

Just as lockdown began I texted my boyfriend to say I loved him and I missed him. He responded with “Can’t say I feel the same”. Nearly 3 years were over just like that. We had the obligatory phone call, where I was hysterical and he was smarmy and smug. Yet when it was over, I felt nothing. It’s allllll a big nothing.

My personal Gospel is Sex and The City (shout out to HBO!). This was my Berger moment. He essentially scribbled “I’m sorry, I can’t. Don’t hate me” on a post-it. The irony of the whole thing is that when we watched it together, he himself said he was most like Berger. Thinking about it makes me wince.

My life opened up in front of me, I was exposed to his weakness regarding the situation in full when his sister-in-law messaged me on Instagram a few days ago. He hadn’t told his family, nor had he told his flatmates (another shout out to my sleuths at the back, you know who you are!). 

The Sopranos is a show about life. The Mafia structure provides a vehicle for us to question morality and mortality. You take what you get from it. When I watch it again at a different stage of my life, I will get something else out of it. 

For me now, while I stew in my own emotion during quarantine, Adriana represents emotional labour and the expectation for women to behave in a certain way in relationships. 

At first when my ex’s family members were messaging me, I was confused. It is frankly humiliating to smile as if everything is normal, so as to protect someone that in the end would not do the same for me. I know he wouldn’t do the same because there was just no courtesy in what happened weeks ago. I am trying to move on but things like this stunt your personal growth.

The struggle with emotional labour hones a guilt that someday I’ll regret giving my early 20s to something that didn’t work out. I felt like I was on borrowed time.

These are obviously my own insecurities spurred on by the fact that I’ve read enough “10 things I wish I knew in my 20s” blogs to know that these are my selfish years. Still, it is ultimately devastating to see the last 3 years of your life conclude via a text that displays a failure to realise that there is no real clean cut for a long-term relationship. 

I respect him for the blunt statement because it means I get to reference the Berger SATC breakup and say “casually cruel in the name of being honest” (Taylor Swift, 2012) a LOT, which softens the pity in the social scenarios that I invent in my head in the shower.

When Tony calls Adriana to tell her Christopher has tried to kill himself, that was like my final phone call too. This is the end. Her youthfulness was why I related to her most in the show, but at the same time having nothing to lose made her easily expendable. Youth makes you put 100% into something knowing it is a gamble. 

I’m not comparing my ‘borrowed time’ to Adriana because she ends up dead, but there was a disregard for her life that was so harrowing because she did nothing but try and do the right thing. I watched Adriana put Christopher first willingly for 5 series. He supported her music management dreams but ultimately ended up making it all about him. He gave her the Crazy Horse but this ultimately was just another mob hangout. He sat on her dog, he continued to use heroin, shag other people, and so on.

“You could start writing again,” she tells him in her last episode, to which he responds  “I could do my memoirs, finally,”. Here is Adriana still!! STILL!! catering to Christopher’s ego to give herself some confidence. Very me.

All the way through she was just too good for him. Her ties to the Famiglia aren’t as tight as Carmela and Co. No children, still young, there’s chance for Adriana to get out if she wanted to. Of course this makes her prime FBl bait, but shows she sticks by Christopher through everything purely out of love. In the end she dies on her knees, subservient, with Heart’s Barracuda the last song she hears. I know Adriana had to go. That’s the way it is in the Famiglia because Christopher took an oath. But in a way she also had the carpet ripped from underneath her, just like me. 

There are lots of men writing on the internet about how Adriana is greedy and hypocritical. I just don’t understand where this reading is coming from other than obvious misogyny. I’ve read others that say if she was really that strong she would have simply left the relationship years ago. I believe that she believed things would improve for both of them, and that most people are just slut shaming her for her past. 

Still, Drea DeMatteo won a Best Supporting Actress Emmy for the episode. Fuckin’ A. 

I rooted for the woman. Before I was made redundant while working from home, I would spend half my life at my desk willing it to be 5:30pm, so I could slither back to the settee and spend the other half of my life in New Jersey. I’d phone my mum to discuss the episodes. She loves the show too, it’s always been a favourite in my household. We’d talk about the women like they were our friends and how we relate to them. The Sopranos is like a big mirror urging you to question everything. The answer to life is simply what are ya gonna do? 

Men love making things black and white so it is easier for them, when really women are in the background sorting out the shades of grey. 

Don’t get me wrong, Adriana’s significance is massive, albeit more so because of her death. You watch Christopher and Tony’s relationship start to crumble afterwards. It's shattering to see the disregard for Christopher’s sobriety and how despite his loyalty, he still sees him as a liability and weak. 

On the other hand, for Adriana’s sake, I am still enraged that he couldn’t see the bigger picture at the time. She is collateral damage in his path to finding his precious arc - “Wives, girlfriends, they can complicate life in a major way” Tony expresses to Jennifer as he runs from his own guilt. 

Christopher is desperate for Tony’s approval but is more than happy to use his blood connection as a protective leeway whenever he steps out of line. Again the irony is that he comes to tell Tony about Adriana first, just as the old Famiglia values say he should, but there is no real personal reward for doing so despite the personal sacrifice. 

I think Christopher regretted it in the end, and rightly so. When he is faced with his potential alternate life at the gas station, we assume that this was what made him go to Tony. It’s a family with loads of kids. Adriana probably can’t even have kids??? What kind of male logic?!  #justiceforadriana

I can’t help but feel for him when JT screams “Chris, you’re in the MAFIA!”. It’s the same kind of reality check that Chief Cubitoso gives Adriana, it’s an ultimatum and it’s the realisation that they are trapped in this life. Just ask Gene.

Carmela knew. I read her dreams as a testament to a woman’s intuition. She knows her friend isn’t what everyone is describing, she knows Adriana wouldn’t just disappear. She is all too aware of the emotional labour Mob women carry. When she sees Adriana with Cosette on the banks of the Seine, it is as sad as it is when we dream about people who have died. 

There is a scene in an early episode where Carmela says “Don’t we all?” in response to Meadow squealing “She’s MARRYING a BABY?” at a painting of The Marriage of Saint Catherine. I thought about this again when Christopher dies. Carmela passes her instinct off as hysteria, she isn’t to know. “So quick to blame, what is the attraction in that?” she cries during the aftermath of the car crash. There is a critique in her own femininity here that just makes you want to shout “NO CARM!!!!!!!”. As she believes she mothers Tony, there is the double-edged sword whereby he protects her through keeping her in the dark. “Heaven only ever sees my love making a fool of me” sings Emmylou Harris at the start of season 5. Carm’s power is taken away but she doesn’t even know. 

Carmela dedicates her life to being a mother but it’s not enough to save Meadow from her surname. We get some sense that AJ ‘Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit’ Soprano might be on a new path when he feels like the burning of his car among the autumn leaves of death was cathartic. As a man, he just has more freedom anyway. 

Miss Meadow gained her independence by getting her driving license, but in the end we see that she is still held back in the final scene by her inability to parallel park. She slots right in, eventually. As she does, she slots into the Soprano cycle after years of doing the most to get out and pave her own way. After every breakup with someone without links to the Famiglia, no scrubs, she returns and dates someone closer to home. Her career path is left tenuous to us, it would be all too easy for her to become a kept woman, which feels like it is the only real option should she settle down into the lifestyle with Patrick Parisi. It isn’t what she envisioned for herself, so part of me wants to hope that her story ends up a little bit more like Elle Woods. Legally Italian. 

I probably wouldn’t even have remembered her saying anything about parallel parking if I wasn’t terrible at parallel parking myself. It’s the pepperings of these subtle callbacks that make the show so beautiful. As the guitar solo plays on during the frustration, you’re invited to reminisce over Meadow’s journey. I fully wept watching her struggle to get the damn car parked because I’m trying to get my car parked too. Don’t stop believing, Meadow. 

I admire all the women in The Sopranos. The show is feminist, and that is a hill I am prepared to die on. It’s definitely up for debate as it is obviously littered with gratuitous nudity and women are commoditised. We have to allow this for cultural context for the show, but real life is basically exactly the same too? 

I read a post on Reddit where a dude is asking whether he should watch the show with his girlfriend. He types ‘“It’s a masterpiece of film but she probably wouldn’t get into it as I am”, and you don’t have to look much further to find more comments about how women and their puny minds just won’t get it. It’s an odd perspective to take given that Tony’s psychiatrist is a woman, but of course women could never grasp something so complex. It’s bullshit if you ask me, the female narrative prevails throughout all scenarios. 

The Pine Barrens seems to be everyone’s favourite episode. It’s not my favourite but there are two major elements that resonated with me. The first is Meadow looking down at the three letter words Jackie Aprile Jr had placed on the Scrabble board, and the second is when Gloria says to Tony:

“What you said was that you didn’t wanna piss me off..which implies that you’d have to deal with me, which is more about sparing YOU than my fucking feelings”. Don’t need to elaborate on that. Rest in power, Gloria. Legend.

Of course I could write pages and pages of hot feminist takes on all of the women - Jennifer, Janice, Livia, Angie, Svetlana, Charmaine. Lord knows I could probably write a book on Tracee.“ 20 years old, this girl”, I bashed Living on a Thin Line by The Kinks for about a week after that episode. It is the male gaze of the show made me love the women more. Carmela is my mother and I’ll probably name my first born Meadow. 

Carmela is the powerhouse and backbone of The Soprano household even though Tony provides. She represents stability, emotional labour, and putting on a brave face regardless. In some ways, it is as if Carmela represents the human emotion side and the fragility of organised crime. She is secure, but not enough, and her lack of ability to stand on her own two feet plagues her conscience through time. She is totally complicit, but must be to ensure her future with Tony as he pays anything to roll the dice just one more time. At the end of Long Term Parking, she and Tony stand looking at where she will build her spec-house. The forest looks the same as where we lost Ade, it’s a grim reflection that Carmela wouldn’t have this life if it wasn’t for the quick disposal of those like Adriana.   

Yeah okay, what the hell is a show with a feminist underpinning trying to say about wider society about a woman who exercises her beauty, loyalty and ambition?? Is it that she is not to be trusted?? Adriana’s a rat, but before this she is already deemed “damaged goods” anyway. She dresses provocatively, but that’s because she just looks MINT always. You would dress like THAT if you looked like THAT. When you Google her, ‘Adriana Sopranos Tennis’ comes up. I roll my eyes. Fucking men, eh? To take it down to a basic Sixth-Form-Poet reading, Adriana is Curley’s Wife and Daisy Buchanan all in one. She loves a red manicure too, and it might have worked out better for her if she had played the complicit beautiful little fool. 

This isn’t ‘Why The Sopranos is good!’, but a love letter to Adriana and her strength, because there is basically little or no content written on the women of the show when I have Googled.  I needed there to be more things written about her that isn’t just “bitch had it coming” when in fact she is a martyr. 

When Adriana was on screen, there was my mate. I knew her, she wanted what I wanted, but she sacrificed so much of herself for others and it was heartbreaking to watch. She barely gets a look-in in early episodes, but when she does she is usually wearing something animal print, which automatically made her the number one character on my radar. I am choosing to believe the theory that she is the cat in the final episode too. 

Still, I have been struggling and questioning why an episode that aired 16 years ago, with no plot that links to my own circumstances, has had such a monumental impact on me. 

I saw a tweet that said “have we ever sat down and thought about why relationships only work if the guy is more invested than the girl or is that just something we accept” (@anugov1). Adriana invested more in Christopher, even in the end, than she ever did herself. 

As I navigate this transitional period in my life, I am Adriana driving in the vision we see when we think she is going to start her new chapter. We can’t leave the flat, I have no job. The Sopranos has provided the most cathartic escapism for me. As I enter into whatever new world follows this nightmare, I wanted my mate Adriana to find her new world too, turning the classic rock up to 11.

#the sopranos #adriana la cerva #christopher moltisanti #carmela soprano #feminism #cosette #breakup #woe is me #hbo #david chase #drea de matteo

[zach-the-fox]

Furiends Episode 3: A Bad Idea

A new day has come, and the warthog sits with the cat at a small table in a small coffee shop by the name “Pawbucks.” Zach sits with them, along with his two housemates. Having settled for nearly a week while out looking for employment, he’s quite comfy with their company, and had shared them with his new friends. The five animals spend plenty of time together and today, are now are gathered at the coffee place.

Zach has gone up to wait on line to ask the barista for an application while Hatboy accompanies him, patiently standing to order a fancy mocha. The girls, however, are slouched in their chairs, and have their heads leaning against solid objects as flat-mouthed, half-eyed expressions occupy their faces.

“Ugh, I’m so bored!” Emmy exclaims. “What are we supposed to do? There’s nothing around here…”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” responds Carly. “Thought it would be a good idea to talk about art, but we constantly see each other’s posts on Furbook. Maybe we can go to the cartoon festival?”

“Actually, I’ve got an interesting idea.” Brook reaches into her bag and pulls out a book to show to the girls. The title reads “The Dark Arts for Dummies,” and has a deformed face on the cover. “Was thinking we could do a little conjuring at my place. What do you say?”

“Uh…” Carly keeps her gaze fixed on the cover. “Gee, Brook. I don’t know… Maybe we shouldn’t-”

“Why not?” Emmy spurts. “Not like we’ve got anything better to do. besides, I’m interested in this stuff.”

Carly quickly faces the warthog. “Um, are you sure about that?”

“Come on, Carly,” replies Emmy. “It doesn’t seem too bad.”

“Yeah.” Brook smiles. “We could raise a cute little demon baby. Who knows?” Carly sighs before deciding to go onboard with the plans. Emmy asks the purple rabbit what the first step is. Brook opens the book and reads off the first page. “We’re going to need some supplies for this.”

Zach returns to the table with Hatboy by his side. “Well, turns out they’re not hiring… So much for that…”

Hatboy slurps down some of his mocha. “You probably wouldn’t want to work here, anyway. You’d have to be quick with making drinks and filling out orders. The food business is rough.”

“Don’t worry,” Emmy tells the fox. “You can fill out a lot more applications where we’re headed. Come on! We’re going back to the mall.”

 ***

 Back at the mall, the gang wander around in search for their items. They split off in different directions as they look around. Hatboy follows Brook into the candles store. Zach, however, walks around in search of employment.

Brook notices a box labeled “dinner candles” on it. “These will do. Hats, come pick this up.”

“Why do I have to lift this?” he asks.

“Because you’re a strong boy, and I’m not able to lift this by myself.” Hatboy sighs, bends down, and lifts the box off the ground. “Perfect, let’s head to the next step.”

“Excuse me,” calls out a store associate. “We haven’t stocked those yet!” The rabbits continue to the counter and prepare to pay, leaving the clerk with a look of dismay.

Emmy searches up and down the row of chalkboards, taking the erasers and chalk from the holders. “This will suit our need of chalk dust.” She picks up one eraser, but barely has a grip on it. “Uh oh!” Upon catching it, she hits the chalk boards on either side of her, emitting dust into the air around her. “Oh no…” Emmy’s mouth begins opening wider until, “Achoo!” The dust enters her nose more, causing an uncontrollable sneeze. “I must… achoo! Get out of- achoo! Here…”

In the floral shop by the corner, Carly looks around for the last item on the list; black rose water. “Hm… If I were rose water, where would I be?” Her eyes are drawn to the bottle on the top shelf near the entrance. “Of course, it’s up there…” She looks around, yet sees no worker in the store. “And no one’s around to help… Guess I’ll just help myself then…” The cat reaches for the bottle, but her paw is only inches away from it. “Hugck! Come on!” She stands on her tippy-toes. “Come on, Carly! You’ve almost got it!” Her paw stretches out more and wraps around the item. “Got it!” Her weight, however, causes the god to lean forward into the shelf. “Uh oh! Whoa!” Carly is knocked into it, causing it to fall over. As the shelf falls, a vase of flower water tips and spills all over her. Carly gets up and sees the damages she’s caused. “Uh, whoops…” She quickly pulls out some cash and leaves it on the counter. “I’ll just be going!” She leaves the scene. “I was never here…”

The friends regroup in the center of the mall. Brook approaches them with Hatboy by her side. “All right, everyone got everything from the list?” she asks, smiling. Emmy and Carly nod. “Good. Now, let’s head on back to my place and get everything set up.”

“Set up for what?” the fox queries. Brook fills him in on the details of what they’re plans are. “Oh… W-we are? Okay, I guess we’ll-” He sniffs the cat. “Hey, why do you smell like fresh roses?”

“Please don’t,” Carly utters. “I need a bath once I get home…”

“You can wash later, when we’ve-” Emmy sniffles. “Oh no… achoo! Ugh…” She sneezes again.

“Bless you,” Brook tells her.

“Security!” someone shouts. “Security! Someone has destroyed the flower shop!” As the spectator yells, the five animals rush out the entrance.

 ***

 The gang gathers at Brook and Hatboy’s apartment, where they set up for their “special event”. Carly draws along the floor, making a pentagram with a marker. Emmy takes sand and proceeds to encircle the pentagram, touching the points with perfection. Lastly, Zach places candles beside the points while Hatboy lights them.

Carly looks into the picture in the book before viewing the shape in reality. She crosses her arms with a smile of pleasure. “Looks about right.”  

“Yeah,” Emmy adds. “And it smells nice, too!”

“Okay, let’s get started.” Brook picks up the book and holds it in her paws. “All that’s left is to recite the incantation.”

“Wait!” Zach interrupts. “What if whatever comes out of there tries to kill us?”

“Hm, good point. We should suit up and prepare for the worst.” The friends rummage around for protective equipment and anything that could be used as a weapon. They manage to find gear and tools, preparing in five minutes. Zach holds a wrench close while donning a knight’s helmet, while Carly protects herself with football helmet, wielding a frying pan for her defense. Emmy’s head is covered with a pumpkin as a baseball bat leans up against her for her weapon. Hatboy and Brook use bubble wrap as light armor, donning bike helmets for their heads. Hatboy’s weapon is a shovel. The purple rabbit holds up her book. “Everybody ready?” Her friends stand by her, ready to expect the unexpected, while she begins the incantation. “For thou who lives trapped in flame and clay, heed this call, rejoice and pray.” Zach’s arms tremble, shaking the wrench in his grip. Carly tightens her grip of her frying pan. “Gather upon thy mortal door.” Hatboy hides behind the counter. Emmy watches with fascination and interest. “Break the gates, and emerge once more!” The candle flames enlarge, brightening the room as a portal opens within the center of the pentagram. One big, round ball shoots out from the entryway, bouncing off the walls of the apartment. The three girls panic as the frenzy continues.

“Whoa!” Carly dives behind the counters in the kitchen to take cover, lying on the floor. “Jeez! How do you stop this thing?!”

“Good question,” Brook answers. “I don’t know.”

Emmy dodges as the flame ball flies past her. “This thing’s out of control! Yipe!” She stumbles onto the ground, avoiding the fire sphere as it nearly collides into her. The flaming sphere then makes it to Zach, hitting him direct on and knocking him down to the ground, then bouncing off of him. He grudges his torso while lying on his side.

“Don’t worry!” Hatboy holds the shovel firmly. “I’ve got it!” As the ball comes him way, he swings and smacks it away. The sphere of flames smashes through the glass window and outside. “Homerun! Woo!” The orb is last seen barreling down the street, burning lampposts and trees along the way. “Um, uh oh…”

Brook stands and looks out the broken window. “Nice going… You yeeted our demon out the window!”

Emmy rushes over to the fox, who sitting on the floor, attempting to get up. “Zach, you okay?”

Zach grunts. “Ugh! That was rough!”

The warthog notices a large burn spanning from under his pectorals to the upper pelvic region, covering his abdominal area. “Oh geez! That looks bad…”

“Let me see!” Brooks glances over. “Ooff! That certainly looks like it hurts.”

Carly walks over and sees the fox’s burn. “Oh my goodness! Zach, we should take you to the hospital.”

Zach shows his friends the palm of his paw. “No! I’m okay.” He gets to his feet slowly. “It doesn’t hurt too bad. Just a slight burn… I’m used to pain.”

“We should get you some ice, at least,” Hatboy insists. “And you should rest.”

“I’m worried about you,” Carly tells the fox. “We should-”

“I’m fine!” utters Zach again. “Nothing too bad… Shouldn’t we try and get our demon?”

Emmy looks out the broken window. “I think it’s a bit late for that… That thing is long gone, and not sure where it went.”

“Aw man!” Brook juts. “I was so excited! I had a good feeling we’d be friends with a demon! Damn…”

“It’s getting late,” Carly says. “I should head home before my mother worries about me.”

“Yeah, same,” Emmy adds. “Stepdad’s going to go ballistic if I’m not back in my “cell” before curfew… Sorry about your apartment.”

“It’s no biggie,” Brook tells her. “That was freaking exciting, though. See yous around.” The cat and warthog exit through the door before Hatboy closes it.

Zach lies on his back against the couch. “Ugh…” He raises his head to examine the burn mark on his torso. “That stings…”

“I thought you said it didn’t bother you,” Hatboy reminds him.

“It hurts a lot,” Zach responds. “I just don’t want to go to the hospital… Not after everything I’ve been through…”

“I hear you,” Brook jumps in. “Hospitals suck anyway. Need a package of frozen peas to hold on your stomach?”

“Yes, please…”

@carlycmarathecat​ @emmy-the-absolute-goof​ @bendy-bear-15​

#Rabbit #Fox #Warthog #Friends #Furiends #Cat #Furry #Fursona

[smolbeandrabbles]

Director’s Cut 1: Andrew ‘Pope’ Cody

“I find it difficult to find any redeeming qualities in this character. He is a person with spot on DSM antisocial personality disorder, with sociopathic traits and without the charming facade. But the mental health professional in me also sees him as neurodiverse, on the spectrum. At any rate, I can’t find any allure or menacing sexuality in him. How did you find redeeming qualities within Pope? And how the heck did you come up with a female OC who can interpret his cues and find warmth and attraction from him? I enjoy your fics about him, others I’ve read have basically torture porn.”

Wow, okay, Andrew. You’ve picked a really interesting one here. So, lets start with some background... Which I will try to condense as much as possible.

Also, for ease of talking, I’m going to give our Reader back her OC name and therefore when I refer to ‘Elaiyna’ that’s your reader character! 😁 Background I was never meant to write for Andrew Cody from the movie. My first watch of the movie left me cold and, to be honest I still find it very difficult to watch even now. (The movie is great for sure, but it’s not one I rewatch often.) Without a long explanation as to ‘why’, I watched the movie so that I could watch the US TV show version of Animal Kingdom. Which I highly recommend!

Where as Movie!Andrew I couldn’t get into at all, Show!Andrew I fell in love with. It took me one episode to come up with my OC and a decent story line.  Although I never actually wrote it out I had many plot points saved on a document for how Andrew/Elaiyna’s relationship would play out. So really, you have Shawn Hatosy to thank-! 

Who, super side note, deserves an Emmy for this. And also can someone please get him and Ben in an interview to talk about Andrew - I will beg! 

When I decided to start writing and posting for Andrew here (considering I had the plot points and we were taking the Mendos as far as we could) - I essentially wrote a mix of Show!Andrew and Movie!Andrew. Honestly tipped in favour of the show. But very recently I’ve tried to write much more for Movie!Andrew as I’m 99.9% sure that’s who everyone reading my work is reading for anyway!

How did you find redeeming qualities within Pope? 

The only real answer is Show!Andrew. I love him so much, and they explore a lot with his character - as they of course have time to, that a 1hr30 movie doesn’t - so it’s very easy to find redeeming qualities in a character that’s at a very different stage to his movie counterpart (and yet is still the same character and recognisable as the same character... Show!Andrew is the build up to the man we get in the movie, if you will.). Show!Andrew has that same... creepy/awkward vibe, but also has a lot of sweet, decent human being moments that give you his more redeeming qualities (without spoiling anything major his relationship with Lena, Baz’s daughter, is a good example). 

But also I view Andrew in the movie very differently to the way that I believe most people do. Movie Andrew doesn’t scare me. Sure, he does scary things, but to me he just comes across as very awkward. Like, he knows what a situation calls for and kinda adapts to that - or he says things because he’s like “That’s what people say in this situation right?” at least that’s how I interpret him. No matter how incorrect that is.  Like there’s no social queues in his character, he doesn’t really fit into those kinds of situations (or function well!) but he observes everything. So he knows that “If X happens, say/do Y. Because that’s what people do.” regardless of his own “feelings” etc. I don’t think he has emotional intelligence and there’s a definite disconnect between think and feel and... I guess instinct? That ‘primal brain’ thing. 

I mean I know it’s interpretation but that scene where he carries Nicky to bed and then like strokes her hair back and then tells Jay “She’s beautiful.” Doesn’t give me any other vibe other than Andrew having observed this and his brain going ‘Oh, yeah, Andrew - then compliment her to her boyfriend. That’s a thing people do.’ Just the way my brain works I guess.

The obvious follow up question would be “Okay, so you love him in the show. But you write for him in the movie. So... you gotta have something redeeming there right? Now you’re leaving Show!Andrew on a shelf? Correct - I kinda feel like Andrew has at least some ‘relationships’ to which he actually feels something. Which is why I’m reluctant to place the “Psychopath” tag on him. Look at his relationship with Baz for instance (honestly, that supermarket scene is my very favourite.) - I just get this “friends” vibe. Like real friends, maybe even best friends. Andrew cares enough about him to want vengeance (I’m not down for thinking this is just him wanting to be a criminal I genuinely think this is a reaction to losing his best friend - and arguably his stability.) And I mean, he cares about his family. Even if not in the traditional ‘sense’ of caring. 

I also want to give a quick shout out to @mandy23b​​ - as Andrew is her favourite, and conversations with her on how she views him really help me shape Andrew in my head. For example she has a lot of headcanons about how he grew up (eg: potential physical abuse) that I am happy to adopt. So, my own personal headcanons / adopted head canons about him also help to make him redeemable. 

And how the heck did you come up with a female OC who can interpret his cues and find warmth and attraction from him? 

Oh my gosh, Elaiyna. Okay, well aside from again her starting with Show!Andrew and me basically lifting their entire relationship and giving it to Movie!Andrew there’s a lot about her that I guess ‘prepares’ her for him.

First - they meet because the Cody’s case her car (...Ready For It?), assume she has a lot of money and try to rob her. She knows who he is before they form a relationship - the barrier of “oh by the way I’m a career criminal” is broken instantly.  Second - Although she’s an only child her parents have fostered a lot of children over the years (More details in ‘Flaws’) and so she’s used to a lot of siblings and the bonds between siblings. Added to this it’s not hard to imagine that some of these foster children might have had neurodivergancies of their own and therefore she’s also used to people that act like Andrew does. Third - David ( ‘Flaws’ and ‘Last Habit’) her eldest foster sibling is a Police officer, and they have a close relationship. Figure she could learn a lot from him. Both on crime/criminals and then maybe neurodivergant criminals too. He’s bound to have at least some stories that might help her. Fourth - Not to make some kind of robot comparison for our Boi here but, she works in IT. She’s the CIO for her firm. Draw your own conclusions on relationships with something/one with basically zero emotional output.

I find your comments on other fics you’ve read very interesting. Because to me Andrew just isn’t sexual. (I might be in the minority, because other fic writers I’ve talked to tend to put him in ‘physical only’ / highly sexually charged relationships) He’s never read that way to me. ‘4 In the Morning’ is the first time I’ve thought to write something that is sexy for him. Although I have alluded to sexual elements of their relationship in other fics.  Their relationship to me has always been on a quiet understanding level. He observes and learns about her and is fairly quiet about it. Elaiyna is more extroverted, but also observes and learns about him very quickly. So instead of PDA and verbal “I love you’s” they have this non-verbal communication that isn’t always physical either. Although touch sometimes plays into it.  Because that just the kind of relationship that I see him in - sex is rare, and when it happens it’s not because of this big “I love you” romantic build up - it’s spontaneous. That part of his primal brain is kicked in and it’s like “Okay. We’re doing this now.” For his character I understand the “draw” to write something like that (even though, like I say, I don’t see him being interested.) but I’m just very much a romantic... 😅 So I want to write something Romantic even for a Mendo who you wouldn’t necessarily fit into a romantic role. Their story still has “romantic” tenancies. Like it’s a loving relationship it’s just a different kind of love. I don’t feel like he would necessarily know that he loves her, or even comprehend what ‘love’ is. But he knows he feels something for her that’s very different to how he feels about other people. Which is why when Elaiyna does say ‘I love you’ it’s not reciprocated with words - and rarely with actions. She knows he loves her, even if he doesn’t know it. Their relationship is very ‘quiet’ but she knows that’s just how he is - and he will show “affection” as he deems fit and appropriate to show it. Even if - again - it’s not a “typical” way of showing it. And when he wants affection himself it’s more, “I am hugging you now on MY terms. But in 5 seconds I will walk away as if nothing happened.” He is more often enough the one to initiate anything PDA and Elaiyna will wait for him to come to her. If her read on him is *just* right then she’ll initiate, but then there’s the consequences of getting it wrong and Andrew pushing her away... I definitely base a lot of the beginning of their relationship on them just finding each other fascinating. He’s completely different to any other man she’s ever met, and he’s never met someone so interested in him that doesn’t try to change him and/or however he treats her is met more with understanding than conflict. 

I say I love all my OCs, of course I do. But Elaiyna is one I really had to think about building because of Andrew’s own personality. It had to make sense for her to be with someone like him - their relationship had to make sense and keep him (mostly) in character. So she needed to be able to interpret his cues, as you so nicely put it 😊 But I think I gave her the right tools to do this, and, with Show!Andrew she got the right base to jump from. 

I know this is super long, but I hope it helps in your understanding of how I’ve built Andrew’s relationship with his S/O! 🙏 And more importantly answers the questions you have! 

---

Thank you SO much for asking! If anyone else wants a Fanfic directors cut for any of my fics please ask! I would love to answer any questions! 🥰😘

#Andrew Cody #Andrew Pope Cody #Pope Cody #Animal Kingdom #Long Post #HOLY SHIIIIT L O N G post #Ask me more questions guys please!!! #I mean you're gonna get some super in depth Answers! #(Ralph Anderson to come!)

[go-redgirl]

Ellen DeGeneres Loses 1 Million Viewers After Apologies for Toxic Workplace

When Ellen DeGeneres returned from a summer hiatus to open the 18th season of her daytime talk show in September, she came armed with an apology. “I learned that things happen here that never should have happened,” she said. “I take that very seriously. And I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected.” Those remarks came in the wake of reports of workplace misconduct at “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

Viewers tuned in for the apology: This year’s season opener had the highest ratings for an “Ellen” premiere in four years. And then they tuned out. “Ellen” has lost more than a million viewers since September, according to the research firm Nielsen, averaging 1.5 million viewers over the last six months, down from 2.6 million in the same period last year.

The decline has come at a time when workplace behavior, in Hollywood and elsewhere, has come under intense scrutiny against a backdrop of protest and social change. It is a startling setback for one of daytime television’s most successful franchises and for Ms. DeGeneres, who was at the forefront of an earlier cultural shift when, as the star of a prime-time network sitcom in the 1990s, she announced that she is gay.

The show’s loss of more than a million viewers translates to a 43 percent decline, representing a steeper drop than any of its competitors. This TV season, “Ellen,” the winner of dozens of Emmys since its start in 2003, is no longer in the same league as traditional rivals like “Dr. Phil” (3.1 million) and “Live: With Kelly and Ryan” (2.7 million). Now it finds itself uncomfortably close to shows hosted by Maury Povich (1.4 million), Kelly Clarkson (1.3 million), Rachael Ray (1.2 million), Tamron Hall (1.1 million) and Jerry Springer’s former security guard Steve Wilkos (1.1 million).

The loss of viewers includes a 38 percent decline in her core audience, adult women under 54, according to Nielsen. And it appears to have put a dent in the show’s ad revenue. From September to January of the 2019-20 season, “Ellen” brought in $131 million from advertisers, according to the research firm Kantar. That has fallen to $105 million for the same period in 2020-21, a drop of about 20 percent.

Ms. DeGeneres, 63, has publicly mused on the possibility of leaving the show in recent years, and the spotlight on her workplace troubles has added to the questions about her future. Her talk-show contract runs through next year. Warner Bros., the division of AT&T’s WarnerMedia that produces “Ellen,” confirmed that the show would return for a 19th season in September, after her usual summer hiatus. A spokeswoman for Ms. DeGeneres declined to comment when asked if the 2021-22 television season would be her last.

“‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ remains one of the top three highest-rated syndicated talk shows this season,” David McGuire, an executive vice president of programming at Telepictures, a Warner Bros. subsidiary, said in a statement. He suggested other reasons for the decline, like changing viewing habits during the pandemic.

“While broadcast is down across the board and Covid has been challenging for production, we are looking forward to bringing back our live audiences and a 19th season filled with all of the hilarious and heartwarming moments that have made ‘Ellen’ one of the longest running and most successful talk shows in history,” he added.

Whether or not the next season of “Ellen” is its last, WarnerMedia and Ms. DeGeneres are together for the long haul. In 2019, the company made a deal with her to produce four programs for its HBO Max streaming platform, including a home-design challenge series; a dating show; an animated show, “Little Ellen”; and a documentary series on inventors made in conjunction with the Albert Einstein estate. (In another deal, she recently signed a multiyear pact with Discovery to produce natural history documentaries and series.)

Public perception of Ms. DeGeneres started to change in July when BuzzFeed reported that several of the show’s former and current staff members said they had confronted “racism, fear and intimidation” on the set. Several staff members also said producers had sexually harassed them. Warner Bros. investigated the workplace and found “deficiencies.” Three high-level producers were fired, including Ed Glavin, an executive producer; Jonathan Norman, a co-executive producer; and Kevin Leman, the head writer. Ms. DeGeneres apologized to her staff before addressing her viewers in September.

Some observers believe the accusations may have weakened Ms. DeGeneres’s relationship with her audience. The host built her show as an oasis from the outside world, a place of goofy dancing, light jokes, cash giveaways to surprised audience members and high-wattage celebrity guests. Several years ago, she adopted “be kind” as her motto, in response to the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a gay college student who took his own life after being bullied.

“Her brand is not just being fairly nice — it is ‘Be Kind,’” said Stephen Galloway, the dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of film and media arts. “She’s chosen two words to stamp herself. You cannot have hypocrisy better defined than when you’ve chosen those two words to define yourself and everyone is seeing the opposite is true inside your show.

“The reason the incident with the producers was such a difficult and perilous moment is it’s the first time where something surfaced to indicate that a family — Ellen’s own professional family — was dysfunctional,” he continued.

Ms. DeGeneres referred to her motto in her on-air apology. “Being known as the Be Kind Lady is a tricky position to be in,” she said. “So let me give you some advice. If anyone is thinking of changing their title or giving yourself a nickname, do not go with the Be Kind Lady.” She added that she was indeed the cheerful person she appeared to be on television, but was also someone who experienced moments of sadness, anxiety and impatience.

In addition to her daytime show, Ms. DeGeneres is also a prime-time star for NBC — and her show for that network, “Ellen’s Game of Games,” also a Warner production, has lost 32 percent of its viewers this season, as well as 35 percent in the adult demographic important to advertisers.

Even with the complications affecting all talk shows during the pandemic, “Ellen,” with its loss of 43 percent of its audience, has suffered a steeper decline than its rivals. “Dr. Phil” is down 22 percent, and “The Kelly Clarkson” show has lost 26 percent of its viewers. Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest’s show has just lost 3 percent, and “Tamron Hall” is down 9 percent.

Ms. DeGeneres beat the odds to make her show a success. There is a television graveyard filled with the comics, actors, anchors and reality stars who have taken a crack at syndicated talk shows only to be yanked off the air because of low ratings. And when “Ellen” premiered, she also had to overcome the hesitancy of affiliate managers who thought an openly gay person could not connect with the women who make up most of the daytime audience. Her quick wit and approachable manner earned her millions of fans and ultimately a plum late-afternoon slot in most markets. As recently as a few years ago, the show was drawing roughly three million viewers an episode.

As Ms. DeGeneres fights through a loss in popularity, she has turned to celebrity friends to help her make the case that there is not much difference between the on-camera Ellen and the real Ellen. When Michelle Obama was a virtual guest last week, she spoke warmly about the time she went to Ms. DeGeneres’s house and they played a piano duet together. A video clip of the pair at the piano was shown.

Another recent guest, Jennifer Garner, also appearing remotely, raced to her hotel room balcony at the host’s request to tell passers-by how much she adored Ms. DeGeneres. “I love her!” Ms. Garner shouted. “She’s kind! She’s a humanitarian! She loves animals!”

By John Koblin

The post Ellen DeGeneres Loses 1 Million Viewers After Apologies for Toxic Workplace appeared first on New York Times.

[emily-strange]

Growing Pains...

Just to warn everyone, after this chapter it’ll get a bit darker for a while. I will make sure to post warnings! 

Summary: Emmy has been with the gang since she was a little girl. Her mother moved on, leaving her to be raised by Dutch, Hosea and Susan. Arthur and John are her brothers (argue and she will fight you). Becoming a woman is hard when everyone still sees you as a child. Since the Blackwater mess she’s trying to find her feet while dealing with her new feelings for the gangs resident douchebag.

Pairing: Slow burn Micah x female OC.

Warnings: Swearing, a mention of vomit

Chapter 8

I spend another moment just looking at Arthur’s tent, willing myself to move. What happened to make Dutch so mad? Why was Hosea so upset?

Hosea.

I look around and spot Hosea sat at the camp tables with Susan. She’s helping him mash some herbs together, for his cough no doubt. As I move towards the table, I catch eyes with Sean who must have woken up in the commotion. He lifts up his hands in a way to question me but all I can do is shrug.

“What was that about?” I ask Hosea as I sit across from him. He doesn’t look up, just continues to mash.

“Bad business ‘all. Nothing to worry about.” He replies. I reach across the table and hold his hand. Why can’t he look at me? “Hosea” I say gently.

He finally looks up and holds my hand in his.

“You know, Bessie and me, we tried. For a long time, we tried to….ya know…..” he stammers. I know what he’s saying. Bessie told me a long time ago when I asked why they didn’t have any children. One or both of them couldn’t. And despite how much it hurt, they stayed strong. Together.

“I know” I nod and offer a reassuring smile. One he tries to return but fails.

“You. You’re. We care for you.” He says quietly and I look to Susan who appears just as confused.

“Well, of course we do. What’s gotten into you all?” Susan asks sternly. She’s never been one to beat around the bush. I look back again at Hosea and I swear his eyes are glassy.

“Hosea” I whisper. But before I can say anything else, Dutch storms from his tent and walks over to us. He completely ignores Molly’s cries and she storms off herself.

“My friend. Ride with me.” he asks Hosea but it really is more of an order.

“Dutch, he’s” Susan starts but Dutch cuts her off with a hand in the face. I’ve seen Dutch argue with Susan many, many times. But I’ve never seen him act so rudely. She mutters something like “well I never” under her breath and pushes herself away from the table towards the girls. They’ll probably bare the brunt of Dutch’s insult.

“Dutch, what the hell is going on?” I say firmly, retracting my hand when Hosea stands. Neither man looks at me. “I’ll ask you to mind yourself little girl” he says sternly. Little girl!?

I’m speechless.

Hosea watches Dutch move towards the horses and takes my hand again, kissing it. He offers me a small smile and follows. As they’re mounting, Sean crouches down next to me and whispers.

“So, young Lenny said they stopped for a drink in Valentine b’fore heading back. Dutch caught sight of a man and all hell broke loose. Arthur ordered him to wait by the horses while he pulled the other two from this chap. Lenny said Hosea ‘nd Dutch were arguing all the way back but he couldn’t make out what it was about” Sean tells me before adding “Wanna find out?”.

Still watching them silently prepare to leave camp again, I nod. Sean pats me on the back and tells me to meet him round the back of camp in 30 seconds. I was going to follow them alone but it’s nice to have Sean watching my back. I know he’s only doing it for fun but still.

I count down the seconds and watch Hosea and Dutch trot slowly out of camp, talking side by side. With how Hosea is doing, they won’t be full on galloping anywhere so I don’t have to make a show of myself and run after Sean. Better to take my time and not draw attention.

As I’m walking to meet Sean, I glance over to see Micah with the other men all quietly talking. Probably about what’s happening. He sees me watching and I avert my eyes. I carry onto my destination but it’s no good, he’s intrigued.

I make it to Sean who has the horses ready to go but I hear Micah behind me.

“Hey. Whatta you think you’re doin’?” he asks while approaching.

As I mount Jett, me and Sean look at each other. Sean’s taking way too much pleasure in the drama but stops smirking when he sees my face. I answer Micah once I’m settled in the saddle.

“Dutch is in a foul mood, Hosea is talking to me like one of us is dying, Arthur won’t tell me what’s happened and Lenny can’t. So, I’ll find out myself.” I say simply, so sure he’ll understand.

“Alright” he scoffs “and you think you’ll be able to work out whatever’s going on with Dutch. You and the Irish idiot.” he smirks and it’s like a punch to the gut. This is my family too. Why couldn’t I help? I used to! “Why don’t you come down from there and leave it to us” he finishes while holding out his hand to me. How can one man go from being so empowering to so belittling in under 15 minutes.

“Fuck you Micah” is all I can muster and he looks completely taken aback. Without spending another second on how stupid I feel, I kick Jett into action with Sean following closely behind. I can hear Micah shouting from behind me but I don’t care to know what he’s saying.

We ride silently for around 5 minutes with Dutch and Hosea in our sights way ahead. After a while Sean starts to ride next to me, obviously feeling that he’d given me enough space.

“So, you’re havin’ one hellavah day.” he laughs and I smile. I find it hard to not smile with Sean, he’s so genuine in his care for others, “Care to catch me up on your little escapades?”.

“Maybe later” I reply, thinking back to the kiss. It was lovely. So gentle. But then he was so condescending! Maybe he does only see me as a child. Someone to play with but disregard once the going gets tough. “I’d rather focus on what’s upset Hosea so much”.

Sean nods and leads us around a small path, keeping us out of sight.

“Dutch was pretty angry too” he states.

“That’s not what worries me to be honest” I reply, “Dutch is Dutch. Anything sets him off at the moment…..but Arthur and Hosea. That bothers me. Arthur’s never kept anything from me. And Hosea? Man looks fit to collapse. Something’s upset him.”

I look around and realise that I have no idea where we are, “Sean this isn’t the way to Valentine.”

“No, it ain’t. I noticed that too.” Sean says, eyeing me cautiously.

We ride for a further 15/20 minutes before seeing the two men slow. We circle around to higher ground and watch as they pull up outside an old, dilapidated cottage. From where we are, we can see perfectly with a pair of binoculars and luckily, I always carry some in my saddle bag. We dismount our horses and army crawl to the end of the small hill we’ve occupied. The suns on its way down for the night but there is enough light left thankfully.

“Alright, hand’m over. Twas my idea, I get first look” Sean says wagging his hand at me and I roll my eyes. Such a child. I slap the binoculars into his hand and wait as he gathers his bearings. “Okaaay. Well. They’re waitin’. Hosea looks mad. Dutch looks……Dutchy”.

“Any idea what they’re waiting for?” I ask.

“Nope just waiting. Still waiting……oh! No, just waiting” he laughs.

“For fuck sake Sean” I groan, but he cuts off my whining.

“Okay, we have life. Someone’s approaching. An old gent, about Dutch’s age. Maybe younger.” Sean hands me the binoculars and I take them quickly.

I look through the view finder and seem my two surrogate dads with their arms crossed, waiting for this man to dismount his horse.

“Anything?” Sean asks and I shake my head but before he can say anything back, I hold up my hand to silence him.

As all 3 men head into the shack, the mystery man turns around to check the outside before going in properly. With his face turned to me I can see him as clear as day. He’s middle aged with brown hair. A patchy, unkempt beard and a rosy patch birthmark on his face.

As he heads inside and closes the door, I drop the binoculars. I can hear Sean asking me questions but none of it registers. All I hear is static. White noise.

A blinding pain enters my head and I swear for a moment I lose sight in both my eyes. All I can see is that horribly patchy, dirty face. I scrabble to get up and lunge myself towards Jett to stabilize myself but don’t quite make it.

I fall face first into the grass and before I can make any attempt at moving, I vomit.

As I’m vomiting up the painful, burning liquid from my stomach I can only just register Sean rubbing my back. He’s shushing me and at the same time asking me what’s wrong.

What’s happened? Do I know him? Am I ill? What should he do?

After heaving into the grass for what feels like forever, I sit back up. My eyes are streaming and my nose is running. I have vomit on my clothes and actually feel like I might faint.

I force myself to look at Sean and instantly throw my arms around his neck and hold on tight. He responds straight away, resuming rubbing my back. “Emmy…..tell me what’s happening love” he whispers.

My throat burns but I swallow and let out three quiet, shaky words:

“That’s my pa”.

#rdr2 #rdr2 tag #rdr2 fandom #rdr2 fanfic #rdr2 fanfiction #red dead redemption 2 #red dead redemption two #red dead redemption 2 micah #micah bell #rdr2 micah #arthur morgan #john marston #dutch van der linde #van der linde gang #micah bell x reader #micah bell x oc #red dead redemption imagine #red dead redemption online #red dead redemption x reader #red dead online #rdr2 pc #red dead redemption fanfiction #red dead redemption fanfic #rdr2 edit

[remasteredinnuendo]

Blue Bayou: Epilogue

Synopsis: Ben is nervous as he prepares for Bohemian Rhapsody. But just as he thinks nerves will get the best of him, he’s introduced to a woman who might just be the muse he needs. Inspired by the song Blue Bayou by Linda Ronstadt

Warnings: Nostalgia

Info: This is officially the last part to Blue Bayou. This part kind of closes the gap of what Emmy (OC) means in the story, not just to Ben. Rami Malek features heavily. I’d love feedback!

Epilogue:

Rami stood with his Oscar in hand, his weight shifting from foot to foot. The microphone in front of him demanded his voice, and the hundred-strong media presence in the room pressed with their questions. He couldn’t help but answer awkwardly, but the pride in his shoulders never faltered.

“I have to thank so many great artists who have brought me to the point where I’ve felt confident in my work,” Rami said into the microphone his free hand moving as he spoke. Like the feeling behind his words were too strong for him to stand still. “But it was the confidence that one person especially imbued in me that made me think I was capable of taking on this challenge of playing Freddie Mercury.”

 The post-ceremony interview was meant only for the winners. But Rami had let the cast stand offside of the little stage. At least some of them. Ben was in awe of all Bohemian Rhapsody had accomplished. With all his fears, he had done his best. And now he was so proud of the film and that the hard work put into it was being recognized by the world. Finally.

He smiled to himself, listening to Rami’s speech. Joe and Gwilym were over his shoulder, filming their best friend with their cellphones. This was a moment of a lifetime. And Emmy was here to share it with them.

Somehow, Ben had managed to talk her out of her hotel room and into the limousine. He didn’t once let go of her hand when they stepped onto the red carpet, and she didn’t once pull away. It was a warm feeling that washed over him whenever she was near. And even when she seemed to get nervous, pressing beneath his arm as the press shouted, asking for her name and wondering why she was here, she stood with her chin up. Smiled for the photos.

It was almost like a family photoshoot for them all. The entire cast stood in front of the white flashing lights, arms over shoulders. Not a single soul was going to be forgotten about. And when Brian called Emmy over for a photo with her and Roger, Roger gave Ben a firm handshake. Told him he did a good job. And to look out for his niece.

There was trust in those words, and Ben took them to heart. And now he had a hand on her hip, her back against his chest as she leaned against him. Blissfully at peace with the unpredictability of the world. Because even though it was as fragile as if it were made of sugar, she still was reaching out to taste it.

Now, because of her, so was he.

“I don’t know how this person thought a young man who felt so profoundly alienated with social anxiety could ever play Freddie Mercury. But I began to discover that in this audacious, wonderful, powerful icon….there was this sense of loneliness and a sense of anxiety and I could relate the two together.” Rami paused, a small smile on his face as they all listened intently. “I want to thank this person for discovering that in me.”

Ben encircled Emmy’s waist and held her tightly. He knew exactly who Rami was speaking of. Gwilym and Joe did, too. But she was oblivious, simply watching her new friend with happiness. The man who portrayed her father. The man who, really, allowed her to embrace herself, too. This win was so much bigger than all of them.

“Everyone, now is the time I’d like to present to you the heart of the Mothership. The woman who carries the last breaths of Freddie Mercury and Jim Hutton in her lungs,” Rami turned his head toward where they stood and grinned. “Emmanuelle Mercury.”

Beneath his touch, Ben felt Emmy freeze. Her entire body seemed to lurch, and then stood completely still. Through her spine he could feel her heartbeat thud as the gasps and whispers erupted in the room. Reporters stood from their seats, waving their hands in an attempt to get the first question in. But they all shared the same bewilderment. So did Emmy.

“Miss Mercury?” Rami called, outstretching his hand toward her.

Ben understood fear of judgment. Of not being able to live up to everyone else’s expectations. But the wisdom inside of her and the kindness she offered people from her lips had pulled him tight. The only reason he was able to be in this movie was because of her.

She hadn’t allowed him to miss this opportunity.

Now he was going to repay the favour.

Ben squeezed her tightly and leaned down to kiss her neck. The closest he had been to her skin. And she exhaled at the contact, giving him exactly enough time to pull away from her and gently nudge her forward with a hand at the curve of her back.

Emmy stumbled, if only for a moment, hand covering her mouth as her glassy eyes began to spill tears. The moment she revealed herself from the sidelines the cameras flashed like a fireworks show. Shutters clicked so loudly that none of them could hear as Rami moved his mouth and motioned for her. She reached her hand toward him like a blind woman trying to find her way.

And she found it.

Rami took her hand and pulled her toward the mic, and folded her fingers around the Oscar statuette. Joe and Gwilym whistled behind him as the reporters hushed themselves to bring applause to her name. To her meaning.

He turned back to the crowd. “Settle down,” he warned, and waited until they rumbles subsided and it was quiet enough for him to speak again. “This woman right here has taught all of us involved in the film to love the parts of ourselves that no one claps for. She gave every part of herself to make Bohemian Rhapsody possible.”

With a flourish signature to the film, Rami stepped back from the microphone and allowed her to step up. Tears glittered on her cheeks and her eyes were turned toward the ceiling. As though she was wondering if Freddie and Jim were watching her now. If they were proud.

When she hesitated to speak, cradling the award against her yellow gown, she turned toward them. Ben blew her a kiss, but her brows remained pulled low. Unsure of herself. Unsure of the room. Until he felt a firm hand on his shoulder and watched as Roger Taylor stepped forward. Still hidden, but nearly on the stage.

Emmy drew a small X shape over her heart with her finger, and he reciprocated. Just like they had both done that day in the studio. And whatever meaning it held, she took a deep breath and nodded to herself. And spoke.

“It is empowering to step outside of ourselves,” Emmy began, wiping a tear from her cheek, looking out at the ocean of journalists. “But my two fathers taught me that when we shed our doubt, we can become someone new.”

As she steadied herself, Ben took the moment of quietness to lean toward the drummer. “Excuse me, sir, but what does this mean?” he wondered, and when the drummer looked at him he drew an X over his chest.

Roger chuckled, turning back to the most beautiful woman in the room. “Whenever she needs reassurance, she’ll cross her heart, asking me to cross mine. Silently she’s asking me if I think she’s capable. And, of course I do, so I draw the X.” He gave a soft smile. “I silently promise her that I won’t let her fall. Neither will Brian, or Joe, or Gwilym, or Rami or the rest of us. And certainly not you.”

The answer made him blush. Of course she was as gentle as a flower, no matter the strong front she put on; everyone needed someone. So he turned back to Emmy, sliding his hands into the pockets of his slacks.

“We are not tarnished,” Emmy said, holding conviction in her words as she pushed her shoulders down. “In fact, we are pure, even if we can’t fathom it in the moment. And we get so lost in our heads and drown in our problems so often we never take a step back to appreciate the things around us. Within us.”

She allowed herself a smile.

“We fall off the mountain that took us forever to climb and we think it’s the death of us, but who can say it’s not just us being reborn? We begin again and again because we know it leads to something new. Something better. And my parents taught me that we should never let the flames determine our ending.”

With a little nod of finality, Emmy took a step back from the microphone and Rami immediately began to clap. The sound filled the silence, and then Roger added himself to the applause. Ben, Joe, and Gwilym couldn’t quite pull themselves from their awe fast enough to beat the burst of energy from the journalists, but soon they were clapping, too.

“Home is where the Mothership is,” Rami said to them all as he passed the mic to kiss her cheek.

She handed him back the Oscar statuette with a bow, her lips forming a dozen thank-you’s before she turned on her heel and gave him back the stage. Emmy, hands no longer shaking, leaned in to Roger’s embrace and the proud arms of Joe and Gwilym.

But when she turned to Ben, he found himself completely unprepared. She pressed her lips to his and it obliterated every thought. For the first time in a long time, Ben’s mind was locked into the present. The worries of everything and anything evaporated like a summer shower onto a hot car. His usual mode of running was suddenly suspended, and he didn’t want this kiss to end.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tightly against him. He was drunk on her, and all he wanted to do was touch. And within moments, the soft caresses became firm, and he savoured her lips and the quickening of her breath that matched his own.

A kiss like this was a beginning. A promise of much more to come.

“Thank you,” Ben said as he pulled away, pressing his forehead to hers. He didn’t care that everyone was watching them.

Emmy smiled at him, hands on his shoulders. “For what?”

“For being you.”

And he leaned in to kiss her again.

#Ben Hardy #ben hardy fanfic #ben hardy imagine #Rami Malek #Roger Taylor #Gwilym Lee #Joe Mazzello #Blue Bayou #Mine #imagine #bohemian rhapsody #borhap #bohap

[riseandshinelittleblossom]

Cordonian Nights

So on my old blog I posted a teaser for this, since then I have totally reworked the story and I’m happier with this direction so I hope you guys enjoy it as well!

Non-Royal TRR AU

Summary: Leo Rhys and his brother Liam always dreamed of owning their own bar, but when a high end nightclub opens up close by their dreams begin to unravel. (guys I seriously suck at summaries!)

Disclaimer: I dont own these guys,PB does, I just made up their girls :)

As always, If youd like to be added or removed from tags, just let me know!

Tags: @fullbeaumonty @leelee10898 @cocomaxley @hopefulmoonobject @katurrade @blackwidow2721 @itsstillnotwhatyouthink @ao719 @bobasheebaby @speedyoperarascalparty @brightpinkpeppercorn @choiceslife

        Ember wiped a rag across the bar before hopping up onto it. She'd been working at The Seven Deadly Sins for two years now, and she'd come to think of it as home, her coworkers like family.

       Of course they'd always been like family though, most of the staff having grown up together in Applewood before making the move to Ramsford together so that Leo and Liam could open the bar.

      "So how'd we do with tips?" She asked Allison who was still counting the contents of the jar.

       "Looks like not very good. Enigma opening up down the street has really put a dent in our cash flow." the woman frowned smoothing a stack of bills.

      "And our profit margins. Lemme get a glass of red wine guys." Blair, the bar's book keeper said coming in from the back room.

       Ember gingerly pour a glass and handed it to her and Blair swirled it a moment before she took a sip.

      "This tastes like shit." she frowned. "What is this?"

      "It’s called Vendange. Its cheap. Liam ordered this instead of our usual to cut costs. I tried to tell him it was a mistake, and now we have a whole case of that crap." Allison scoffed gesturing at Blair's glass.

      "The wine is fine, I just won't order it again." Liam said entering the room, shaking his head.

      "Liam I understand the need to cut costs, but we can't sell this shit. We can't skimp on quality." Blair told him and he rolled his eyes in response.

       “Alright, Blair. Noted. Now the guys are just about done cleaning up the back. Leo was thinking that it may be time to head over to the Enigma and see what all the fuss is about. Or as Maxwell put it 'market research.' Sky said she's game. Drake's gonna call Whitney. What about you three?"        "Sure, I'll need to swing by the apartment and change, but yeah." Ember agreed quirking  an eyebrow at Allison whom nodded. Blair peered into her wine glass before sliding it across the bar.       "Absolutely. I'm sure they have real wine there."

   The friends met up inside Enigma, Whitney and Drake had arrived first and saved a table. They made plans to split up and check out everything that the new nightclub had to offer and regroup later.

    The music thrummed throughout the building, bouncing off of the neon back-lit floor tiles. A laser light show flashed on. The combination of bass and lights made Ember a little dizzy, but the DJ was good and she could tell why the new club had become immediately popular.     She sat in their booth sipping her rum and coke through a straw. Beside her Blair and her boyfriend Ollie were cuddled up having a conversation in each other's ears when suddenly he smacked Ember's arm with the back of his hand, gesturing to the dance floor.     "You think they'll ever stop denying that they were made for each other?" he shouted over the music, his thick English accent dripping from every syllable. Ember's eyes traveled in the direction Ollie had pointed to find Sky grinding all over Liam on the dance floor.     She couldn't help but chuckle. Liam and Sky had been "friends with benefits" for two years now, but everyone could tell they both wanted more out of the arrangement.     "Probably not..." Ember answered her face falling as something else caught her eye.     "What? Em what is it?" he asked noticing how abruptly her laughter had ended.      Blair tried to find what their friend was looking at. Finally she saw it: Maxwell, just on the other side of the dance floor, arms waving wildly as he spoke. He was with two girls, both appeared barely old enough to even gain entrance to this establishment, one blonde the other a curly brunette. Both scantily clad, both giggling all over each other as Maxwell continued to impress them.     "Honey, I'm sorry." Blair offered placing a comforting hand on Ember's arm.      "Its whatever. I broke up with him right?" she said shaking her head, turning from the scene.  "Where are Allison and Leo?"     "They were at the bar a few moments ago with Whitney and Drake."Ollie said jerking his head in that direction.      "Oh..." Ember stabbed at her ice cubes with her straw awkwardly.       "I'm uh...I'm gonna...I have to take a leak." Ollie fumbled for words sensing the ladies needed a moment alone. Blair mouthed the words 'thank you.' before kissing her boyfriend on the cheek.       "Honey, are you ever gonna tell anyone what happened?  I don't wanna pry, but its been   6 months. You can't keep on pretending that you and Maxwell didn't happen. I know it must be hard to still see him all the time."     "What's there to tell, B? We broke up. Sometimes things just.."     "Don't work out. I know. That's what you keep saying, but honey I know there's more to it than that. One day you guys were shopping for engagement rings and literally two days later you were kicking him outta the house."      Ember's eyes darted around desperate to change the subject. She noticed that the blonde girl and Maxwell were missing now, the curly haired brunette alone at the table surveying the dance floor for another prospect. Her stomach turned.     "I'm gonna be sick, B. I've gotta go."

   She made her way towards the ladies room, pushing inside she noticed the largest stall at the end was the only door not latched though it was pushed too.     "Hello?" she asked pushing open the door. "Maxwell?! What're you doing in the ladies room?"     Maxwell stood over the blonde girl from earlier. She was slumped over the toilet groaning.     "Ember thank God! What the fuck am I supposed to do? One minute we were making out the next..."      The blonde girl heaved, the sound of vomit hitting water echoed through the room and Maxwell shuddered. "I...Emmy you know I can't do this. Help!"

       Ember looked at Maxwell, his impossibly blue eyes pleading with her, and she drew in a deep breath. Exhaling loudly she said, “ What's her name?”

    “What? Julie I think. Why does that matter?”

    “You don't even know her name?! Christ Max!” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, you need to get outta here before someone catches you. I've got her for now, but go find her friend.”

    “Right. Thanks Emmy! I knew you'd know what to do.”

     She knelt beside the girl, watching to ensure her head didn't fall in the toilet. Her eyes fluttered open.

      “Who the fuck are you?” She slurred.

     “Not  important, I'm just hanging out until your friend gets back.”  Ember peered around the stall door.

     Once again she'd fallen for those stupid blue eyes and Maxwell had talked her into something ridiculous. She was so angry at herself, she barely noticed when Julie- or whoever she was- hurled yet again.

           Maxwell finally returned with brunette friend ushering her into the quickly cramping stall.

     “Thanks Emmy.” He said pulling Ember into a tight hug. Her body stiffened up, but he didn't seem to notice as he squeezed her tighter.

     Just then the bouncer pushed open the door. “I knew I saw a dude come in here.” He grabbed Maxwell by the back of his collar jerking him away from Ember. The broad man surveyed the scene, which to any outsider almost assuredly appeared as if Max had done something very wrong.

       “What the hell is going on in here? You're outta here, Bub!” The man bellowed yanking Maxwell out, his drunken protests being ignored.

     Again Ember pinched the bridge of her nose.

      ‘Time to round Everyone up.’ she thought.

     The stall door closest to the exit clicked open and out stumbled Allison. “Em, is the coast clear?”

    Her disheveled appearance told Ember all she needed to know about what Allie had been up to.

     “Yes, Leo can come out. But we need to get everyone else and get the fuck outta here.”

#trr fan fic #trr au #trr non-royal au #liam rhys #maxwell beaumont #drake walker #leo rhys #cordonian nights AU #cordonian nights

[maybe-a-little-wicked]

I saw a post about how the actors were responding to the criticism, and I wanted to take a moment to hand out some praise despite my problems with the writing.

-The acting has been superb. I’ve seen a lot of people say this, and I want to take this moment to shout my agreements-Emilia Clarke deserves an emmy for her acting this season, in particular in episodes 4 and 5. All the acting has been amazing, and it’s incredible to see how everyone has evolved over time, especially the actors who started out as children. 

-The music is gorgeous. Ramin Djawabi is a musical genius, and he really helps to bring the scenes alive with his work. The merging of Daenerys’ theme with the rains of castamere in particular this season was stunning, and this man deserves all of the awards too. 

-The cinematography is, as it always has been, incredible. In particular in the episodes of 3 and 5, with huge battles like that, it just blows my mind how someone could create and film and just, ahh, do all of that. The shots of Arya in episode 5 in the aftermath of the battle, and the views of the architecture and the blocking and-gah, there’s so much I could talk about here, it’s beautiful. 

-The directing. I feel like this is kind of included under cinematography, because obviously, even with all the camera angles and crew and blocking and all of that, a director just brings it all together and finds some sanity in all of the chaos. Miguel Sapochnik did amazing work with episode 5 and it really does show. 

-The costumes, hair, and makeup, and props. Every season, I don’t think the costumes can astound me anymore than they do, and then I am always happily surprised. Michele Clapton left the show in season 5, but she did incredible work. April Ferry, Michelle Carragher, Simon Brindle, Kevin Alexander, Tommy Dunne, they all do amazing work and it really shows. I can’t imagine all of the work that goes into this. If you guys want to see some of the close up of embroidery, I would look it up on youtube because it gets discussed, and it really is stunning. I mean, hair, of course, doesn’t even need me to say anything because we’ve all known just from season 1 how intricate and unique the hair and makeup is. Props is something that gets kind of ignored, but Tommy Dunne and his work with the props department in creating weapons has made some stunning pieces of art. The armor has always been well done, but it was so nice to see some new pieces this season, especially on a character like Sansa, who has never worn it before. 

-The writing. While I have hated this seasons writing and have not been quiet about it, and I definitely find flaws in how some characters have been written in past seasons (especially female characters) the writing does get some props that are well deserving. Without good writing in the first seasons, the show obviously would have never been so popular. So, while D and D are currently on my shit list, they still get a begrudging thank you for earlier seasons, and for deciding to make the show in the first place. It was certainly a huge undertaking, and I don’t doubt it took up a lot of time and effort in their lives to bring this story to life. 

-George RR martin, who may or may not also be on my shitlist, but not nearly as bad as D and D. (obviously, it depends on events that have not occurred yet.) He really is probably one the best writers on the planet, and his meticulous and stunning work writing the books and all of its history and just everything that goes into it is masterful. As a writer myself who loves fantasy, I have tried creating my own worlds, and no matter how hard I try I just cannot seem to get the depth and precision and detail he does in his works. Without him and his handwork, we never would’ve gotten this TV show in the first place. 

-So many others. I don’t think I could possibly name all of the people and departments that work on this show, because it is so numerous, and they are all deserving of praise and reward. The editing, (come on, the coffee cup was HILARIOUS, and I didn’t even notice it.) the special effects, the animal handlers, the caterers, the cleanup crew, the people who had to get set on fire, the sound, higher ups who let this show be made and paid for it, the marketing crew, the photography crew, the set crew, etc., etc., etc., it’s all incredible. Thank you guys, for working so hard and putting in so many long and difficult hours to bring Game of Thrones to life. 

#gameofthrones #got #gameofthronesseason8 #somepraise #emmysallaround #andnoneforD&D #becauseimstillbitter #buttheystillgetthanks #becausetheydidmaketheshow #andsomereallyawesomestuffearlieron #butseriouslythey'reonmyshitlist #itreallyisincredibleworkthough

[thatonecurlygirl]

Can you please tell us more about single dad!Dean. Maybe the reader and Dean talking for the first time?

The cherished Black Impala pulled into a parking space not far from the front doors of the elementary school. Dean, Jovi, and Ben pile out of the car and head toward the front doors for another of those dreaded bimonthly parent-teacher meetings. They get the “pleasure” of sitting in the class and listening to the teacher go on-and-on about the class rules, he will get to talk to the teacher for two minutes and then they have to sit through another meeting from the PTA board before they are finally able to leave.

“Did I really have to come to this.” Ben groans as they walk through the main door.

“yep,” Dean says as he grabs a cookie off the tray sitting on the front desk and taking a bite out of it as they are directed toward Jovi’s class.

The hallways were crowded and loud from all the socializing going on between the children, parents, and teachers. The majority of the other teachers are all about socializing with the parents, Jovi’s Kindergarten teacher always sent monthly emails out and would occasionally call the parents to let them know how their children were doing. Mrs. Dunham was the opposite, she always acted as if she hated her job and was never pleasant to talk to. So, instead of talking with the parents she sat at her desk with a scowl on her face.

“Lulu!” Jovi’s small voice shouts out in excitement as she takes off running down the hall and into the arms of another little girl.

“Hi, Jovi,” Lulu says as they hug each other and Dean smiles, looking up to see you holding your youngest, Emory.

Looking up at Dean, you smile and walk up to him with Emmie on your hip. You laugh lightly as the two seven-year-olds jump up and down and squeal in an overly dramatic fashion. Emmie wiggles in your arms and you set her on the ground as she walks over to the girls and you finish making your way to Dean and stand beside him, looking at the girls.

“All Lulu talks about it Jovi.” You smile and shake your head looking over at Dean. “We haven’t formally met. I’m y/n, Tallulah’s mom.” You stick your hand out to shake his.

“Dean and this is my boy Ben” He introduces himself and Ben. “it’s great to finally meet you.” He smiles and shakes your hand, opening his mouth to say something else but is interrupted by the girls running up and talking 90 miles an hour.

“Whoa, take a breath and try again.” You laugh, looking between the two little girls.

“Can we have a sleepover?” Lulu asks as she looks up at you with big pleading eyes.

“We will talk about it as long as it’s okay with Jovi’s daddy.” You say looking over at Dean who nods. “Now, we better get in there before a house falls on Mrs. Dunham.” You say under your breath, earning a chuckle from Dean.

After Mrs. Dunham is done with her lecture everyone files out of the room and heads toward the gym for the PTA board’s meeting, all except for you and your girls. You turn and catch Dean glancing back at you with a confused look on his face but you shake your head and wave him over. He grabs the attention of his two and heads your way.

“You don’t have to go to that.” You say shaking your head. “My best friend is a teacher here, she gets the meeting notes the day before and passes them along to me. I can send them to you and free up thirty minutes of your time.” You say.

“Thank God.” Ben sighs from beside Dean. “I don’t know if I could take that any longer.”

“You and me both, kid,” Lulu says with a nod causing You, Dean and Ben to crack up.

“Mommy says that!” Emma pipes up in her cute little voice.

“You’re right bug, mommy does say that.” You poke her nose and look up at Dean. “We better get out of here before we get corralled to the gym.”

You all head out the doors and to your respective cars, only a few spaces from each other. You make sure your girls are buckled up before sliding into the driver’s seat of your car and giving a wave to Dean before he pulls away, smiling to yourself.

“I like Jovi’s Daddy, he’s nice,” Lulu says from her spot in the back seat.

“Yeah he is nice, isn’t he?” You check your mirrors to pull away, only to see Dean has blocked you in your spot and exited his car, walking up to your door. “Oh, hi again.” You say obviously surprised.

“Here’s my number, call me and we can talk about that sleepover.” He says with a smile as he hands you a post-it with his name and number written on it.

“Will do.” You smile and watch as he walks back off to his car and wow… that tush of his is definitely swoon-worthy.

#dean winchester #dean winchester x reader #single dad!Dean #single dad!au #supernatural x reader #supernatural #jensen ackles

[koganphrancis]

Camless Episode 2 Recap

(I can’t give a credit to the gif maker because they deleted their post right after I saved this gif and before I could click back and get their Tumblr url, so, sorry!  If anyone else would be interested in giffing this moment, please do-looks like there might almost be some butt crack in it for us, and that would officially make this the most interesting moment in the episode.)

Once again the best thing I can say about this episode is there was not even a whisper of a mention of Terror ;)  

But the rest of the show-I really don’t recognize anything from what the show used to be.  This is truly like a brand new Showtime show using some of the same actors from Shameless.  No one reminds you of how their character used to be.  They’re all like those Lego people Emmy’s always bragging about using when she directs episodes-plastic and stiff and lifeless.  

Also, this episode had zero sex scenes, which must have been confusing to its core audience that keeps insisting the show is still worth watching.  I’m sure they missed the tits.  

Like last week, I’ll just run down the characters, if I can stay awake.

Frank.  Ugh.  They gave him this incredibly moronic scene in The Alibi where he rallies his fellow white men against “reverse racism” and you could see how hard Macy was working to try to grind out the lines, but it just stunk.  I’m sure the showrunners think they’re coming up with cutting edge social commentary here, but they’re not.  The audience has long been clued into the fact that Frank’s motivations behind his machinations are to serve one thing and one thing only, and that’s Frank himself.  He will go whichever way the wind blows.  If not being a Make Southside Great Again cretin would’ve got him some money in his pocket, he would’ve been making speeches against everything he was saying last night.  Archie Bunker was an iconic character in the advancement of social progress because he did believe the shit he said, and the audience was in on the fact that he was dead wrong.  When Frank says racist bullshit, it’s not “shameless” it’s not commentary, it’s a lazy fuck wanting something for nothing.  It has nothing to do with improvement or education of the viewer.  Shameless has this unrealistic view of itself being a show “about” something, and when it inevitably fails to hit the mark, they just guffaw and say we weren’t supposed to take it seriously, it’s just a comedy, it’s just Shameless.  Well, you’ve cried wolf too many times and I can’t take anything you say as meaningful.  

Also, this and almost every other storyline last night took the most laborious routes possible to get the characters to their next plot point.  Frank only got involved in local politics because he needed beer money (what happened to his one beer a day with the new liver?  Oh yeah, that was a different character on a different show).  And why the fuck would the patrons of The Alibi put money into anything Frank’s going to be in charge of?  Are they that stupid?  

Fiona and Bored Their lack of chemistry continues to astound.  Their conversations make no sense.  Bored clearly doesn’t give a shit what Fiona does, so why does he insist on giving his opinion that, once it pisses her off, he just drops it?  Why say anything to begin with?  And I only watch their scenes once, so I might be wrong on this, but he leaves me with the impression that he squints every time he speaks.  It’s as if he saw Dirty Harry at an early age and vowed to himself if he ever became an actor, his delivery of all his lines would be just like Clint growling out, “Do you feel lucky, punk?  Do you?”  

Anyway, Fiona’s circuitous route has her going to the Gallagher house to find shoes she left there when she moved into her own apartment.  The fuck?  You gotta try so hard as a writer these days to get any of the family together-it’s another piece of the “old” show that is missing more and more lately, and really ripping the show apart at its already weakened seams.  

She has a big power meeting with a commercial real estate developer now that Ian’s bail money is burning a hole in her pocket.  (And, the fuck?  Ian turns down her offer to post bail so she figures he had his shot and if he changes his mind and wants-or worse yet NEEDS-to get out of jail he’s shit out of luck?  They could’ve had her make sure he understood it was a one-time offer, but no.)  Anyway, for said meeting, she’s wearing what looks like a kimono from a day spa and to complete the look she needs the pair of red fuck me pumps that she finds in a small box that looks like it’s only holding said pumps and one work boot.  She left that behind?  Couldn’t squeeze it into the new place?  

When she arrives back home at the Gallagher house, she finds Liam sitting on the couch and asks him why he’s not at school.  (Forget that, why isn’t SHE taking care of him, she’s his legal guardian!!!!)  He tells her he got kicked out because of Frank, Fi asks what did he do, Liam says, “The moms”, clue laugh track that this show totally needs now.  Fiona brings Liam along with her-he clues her in to how rich folk talk, and she tells the real estate guy Liam’s her intern, a prodigy, cue laugh track.  She has a bullshit meeting with the guy, tries to throw her boyfriend’s name around to prove she has clout (and hey, he has a last name now!  It’s Kellogg, but who will bother to remember that?), uses her patented Fiona looking at real estate phrase when she says a building he showed her has “good bones”.  She’s so obviously bullshitting the guy and we can see her losing her money happening a mile away.  She, however, thinks she’s playing the dick just right.  There’s a scene towards the end where she’s begging to throw her $50K at him, but he says you need $100K to get in, and she says she has it???  I couldn’t be bothered to go back and watch it again to see if at any point she indicates where she’ll come up with twice the money she has, I’m just assuming she’s going to gamble the entire apartment building and lose it all.  And that WILL be believable because she has no business experience that’s not straight out of fantasyland and the only thing that will bother me is they seem to be setting it up that Bored is right and she should listen to him like a good little woman.  

Lip  Lip’s storyline is no longer about Lip, it’s about all the people he keeps taking on as projects.  Last night Xan abandoned the Ball twins she was babysitting to run off with a stolen wallet (what is it with this show thinking child endangerment is funny?).  To nitpick-if Liam was supposed to be in school, shouldn’t Xan have been at hers too?  Last week they made a point of saying she forged a note to her teacher to go to Brad’s wedding...

Anyway, since this new show thinks it’s normal for 24 year old guys to do nothing but parent kids that aren’t theirs and be a one man support system for their mentor and their sponsor (but not their brother), Lip’s taking on a new project, being the reluctant sponsor of a drug and alcohol addict who has an adorable baby.  Lip tries telling Brad that “Gallaghers aren’t sponsors, they have sponsors” (I’m so sick of “Gallagher” pronouncements like that), but in the end, he can see the guy has no one, so he steps in.  And if I could trust this show for one minute I’d be intrigued by this (it’s much more realistic than the whole Xan bullshit)-it’s interesting to think Lip can relate to the baby being with the dad while he was passed out for two solid days more than he relates to the dad-but I just feel like they’ll handle it badly and I’m not going to get attached to the baby or the dad.  

Debbie  She’s shrilly screaming for equal pay and equal rights, but I get the feeling all of that was her circuitous route to meeting this season’s love interest.  It’ll be interesting to see if she keeps up her crusade or if all that’s forgotten once she’s getting sex.

We first see her rattling off statistics from computer print outs, which is a refreshing change from Ian memorizing the Bible overnight, but still.  The stats she’s reading are unfair and horrific, but the people she’s telling them to are in no position to change things.  Debbie takes her “cause” to job sites where again, she’s shouting into the void, since no women are working there and even if they were, what does she expect them to do?  This whole “Norma Rae” thing makes no sense because licensed workers ARE unionized and if the jobs she’s visiting are using under the table workers, no one wants this loud mouth teenager and her baby carriage calling attention to it.  What is she trying to accomplish?  

So, like I said, all the screaming is probably just the set up to her meet cute with the chick she thought was a dude.  Said chick comes to the Gallagher house (claiming she found it because Debbie was screaming her full name and saying she was a welder with a vagina-so good to know everyone in Chicago would know where that person lives...) and does the “big reveal” that she’s a woman.  Debs/Emma is all, “Dafuuuuuck?” and Alex winds up asking her out for a drink.  At home I’m thinking, “Aw, damn, Alex, you’re gonna get roofied!”  

Carl  Carl is moronic as fuck this week-more so than usual.  He tries to see his local congressperson (who is secure in his seat and not running in the same election as Frank’s tampering with, I guess?) and is told by an assistant the list of things Carl will need to get a recommendation for West Point and to come back in 9 weeks.  Carl totally ignores most of the list, the scholastic and athletic achievements-does he really think he’ll get in without it all?  Can’t he just ask Ian what he’ll need to do?  Oh wait, no one knows Ian-I’m thinking of that other show again.     

He starts on a quest to find volunteer work (since court ordered post juvie hours don’t count-cue laugh track), and asks at the first place “if it pays”.  Right there, he’s too stupid to get into any reputable school, why are people wasting their time with him?  

He winds up working for a retired veterinarian who uses an unconventional but cheaper and effective way to euthanize dogs.  The show goes totally off the rails, having Carl “rescue” them and taking them home to die a “natural” death in his basement instead.  Is the writer so stupid she doesn’t know that that’s just forcing the dogs to live out their days in pain, or are we only supposed to think it’s Carl that is that stupid?  Either way, why go there Shameless?  Why drag innocent dogs into your “it’s Shameless!” world of the unfunny?

Kev and Vee  Their painful role as the show’s family sitcom portion continues.  (side note: I was cackling with glee when I heard Bob Saget will be making a guest appearance-I called that Full House vibe from the start!)  They’re checking out preschools and the first place they go, the woman who runs it is dressed as a full on fairy princess.  As if that wouldn’t be enough of a red flag to GTFO.  When they hear the cost of tuition, K&V flip out.  Because, ya know, they had no idea daycare/preschool was expensive?  Have they been hit with the same stupid stick as Carl?  They get a lead on a Catholic school that’s in their price range, but there’s only one spot!  What to do?  Easy, just tell their obviously not identical twin daughters that one of them always has to keep out of sight at school and that from now on, they’re both “Amy”.  Cue laugh track.  

Ian  Oh man, why isn’t Cam gone already?  This week starts with him performing the prison yard triple wedding.  He’s speaking in the cadence and manner of a preacher, yet he’s only been to 2 weddings that he can recall?  Does he watch You Tube videos of sermons now?  It makes no sense!  Anyway, a guard tells him he’s made bail, and all lame, choreographed hell breaks loose as the prisoners want “Father” Gallagher to finish the ceremony.  

Next time we see him, he has at least half an inch more hair and he’s being released back into society, wearing the clothes he was arrested in 9 months ago.  The handmade God Loves Fags T shirt is better than some of the things I’ve seen Cam wearing in real life lately, but I digress.  Geneva is waiting for him and is jumping and yipping all over him like an overexcited puppy.  He tries telling her, “I really wasn’t done in there-those guys need me.”  She’s not listening as she tells him “so much exciting stuff has been happening” (off screen-there’s nothing exciting happening on the show itself)-”We have sponsorships now, we’re in 45 states, 1 mil strong on Insta, we’re getting some of the conversion centers closed down.”  And, just, you lost me with the hyperbole.  Say they’ve spread to 3 states or something believable, not almost the entire continental US.  Anyway, she tells him they crowd sourced his bail and asks if he’s ready to face his public.  He just looks dazed and confused.   A little group is waiting for him behind a (as in one, solo) police barrier.

Next time we see him, he’s being delivered to the Church of Gay Jesus in a luxury SUV.  People are waiting there to greet him too-some wearing unintentionally hilarious masks of Ian’s face-well, really GJ, but come on, that’s Cam!!!

Geneva asks him if he’s okay and he says “Yeah, just used to being in lock up.”  Again, Cam’s not giving us much to work with, but I guess we’re supposed to see that he’s already overwhelmed and doesn’t want to be part of this anymore?  Geneva introduces him to a bunch of workers for the GJ movement that have actual titles-they’re practically a corporation now, then drags him inside where he’s going to make a press statement and take selfies with donors that gave one thousand dollars or more for his bail.  Ian looks down at the index cards with his statement and reads aloud, “My harrowing and abusive time in jail?  Prison was inspiring...”  Geneva is officially his new Terror and dismisses anything he has to say.  She tells him to just emphasize his oppression as a gay man and the daily violence he endured.”  Which, yes, hello, that actually WOULD be his experience in jail, but the show chose to make it cute and sweet.  Grrrr.  

Ian doesn’t have a reply to that, I guess, so he looks at a map on the wall with a bunch of pins in it and asks what it is.  Geneva tells him it’s where they’ve blown up vans, and they’re going to do more in his name.  He seems genuinely upset.  Guess he’s missing out on the fact that he could meet more fireman if he keeps blowing up vans-opportunity missed, John Wells!!!

Another disciple comes up to Geneva with an old timey prison striped shirt for Ian to put on for his statement.  Just like Jerome wore for so many scenes in Gotham.  I don’t know if the show thinks it’s a clever nod to Cam’s other job every time they do something like this, but to me it just pulls me out of the story and I go off on a thought tangent yet again, thinking about how much more realistic Gotham had handled all Cam’s prison stuff.  But I digress.  Ian says, “Am I allowed to take a piss?” which, really?  That’s how the kids talk these days?  He wouldn’t say “go to the bathroom”?  Whatever.  He goes into the bathroom, stares at his reflection because that must be in his contract, stuffs the prison shirt into the trash, flips down the baby changing table, and uses it to escape out the window, flashing the camera a shot of those ugly ass blue shoes with the gold heel coverings.  

In his final scene of the night, Ian is sitting in the dark in the Gallagher kitchen, undoubtedly thinking about the huge-probably life altering-mistake he made.  I’m referring of course, to when TPTB at Gotham sold him on the “Jerome has an unknown twin!” storyline.  Carl comes up from the basement and the two of them share the most awkward scene since the British version of “The Matches”, as told by Eddie Izzard:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfw60qXtOH0  Oh look!  He’s wearing a spa kimono-like garment too!  

Anyway, Cameron and Ethan stiltedly say some lines as if neither of them has ever acted before, and Carl goes to make his escape quite rapidly, but not before we get proof (not that we needed any) that no one’s been visiting Ian in prison, and that when Fiona visited, she didn’t bother keeping him up on family news in the 9 MONTHS he’s been gone.  

Ian: Who’s the girl in my bed? Carl: Peyton List?  (I know I was confused-Lip’s been sleeping in Ian’s bed, Xan’s over in the corner where Carl and Kassidi-remember her?  She’s dead now-slept.)  Let me try again:

Carl: That’s Xan-Lip’s kid.   Ian:... Doesn’t really react to that either.  I HOPE what all this is driving at is that Ian doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere anymore-he doesn’t want to be part of the huge nationwide movement that Gay Jesus has turned into, he shouldn’t want to be in jail/prison even if there will always be gay men there, he doesn’t belong at “home” where they don’t even have a bed for him and all the kids except Liam are out of the nest now.  For Ian, home is not a place, it’s a caring, loving man with blue eyes and an ass that won’t quit...

#Recap #Season Nein Episode 2

[maylovexhs]

Hi darlings! It’s May! So first thing first, THIS IS NOT AN IMAGINE OR UPDATE. ITS JUST ME TELLING MY EXPERIENCE ABOUT MY HARRY SHOW. YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ IT IF YOU WANT TO. I saw a bunch of people doing threads and posting about how wonderful their time is and I was like I want to do it! I, in no way am trying to show off or brag about it. I just want to post it here because I’m friendly with y’all and I’ll just have the story on here for safe keeping. So ignore if you want(I put the keep reading for that) but yeah here’s my concert experience. WARNING: BELOW THE CUT IS A LONG LONG LONG POST. ENJOY THE SHAKY VIDEOS AND MY ANNOYING VOICE. This all happened one month ago ughh procrastination is the devil

I WENT TO SEE HARRY FUCKING STYLES LIVE IN CONCERT NIGHT TWO MSG AND I BLEW A KISS AT HARRY AND HE BLEW A KISS BACK.

. . .

he knows I exist.

Harry Styles knows I goddamn exist.

okay, let’s me backtrack a day or two before my concert. Actually a week, shall we?

So, it’s a week before Harry’s shows in nyc and I’m at home in Brooklyn with no harry tickets for none of the nights because of course 1. Both nights are sold out 2. I couldn’t buy tickets online from strangers cause y’all ever heard of scams? So, I’m at home in misery cause all over my twitter all my mutuals are tweeting how excited they are to go and I’m like “fUcKiNg GrEaT!” I’m pretty sure I posted shit of me gloating on here. ANYWAYS FAST FORWARD TO JUNE 21st, 2018(Harry’s first night/show at msg) and I’m on my living rooms couch on twitter. AND I DONT KNOW IF IT WAS THE UNIVERSE SAYING ‘WE GOT YOU HONEY’ or just a coincidence but the first thing i See is on my timeline is a tweet from ticketmaster saying along the lines of “Due to miscounting . . . There are tickets available for Harry Styles at msg night two . . .SALE” and I . . .i can’t even explain how I felt. It was like destiny. Like “SIS YOU WERENT MEANT TO GET TICKETS A LONG TIME AGO YOURE SUPPOSED TO GET THEM NOW. THIS IS YOUR CHANCE” and I was like “fuck it! I’m going to see my mans in concert and I couldn’t care about how shitty the seats are. It’s Harry of all people” so, I download the Ticketmaster app and ask my mom and my chill ass mom is like ‘really? The day before? This is a sign. God must really want you to see harry” and I’m like “YES”. So I use my moms card(I payed her back after) and buy the two tickets. AND LET ME JUST SAY! THE TICKETS! I GOT LUCKY WITH THE TICKETS. My tickets were seat 8 and 9, row 7, section 113

DO YALL KNOW WHERE THAT IS? THATS RIGHT NEXT TO THE STAGE! THATS THE SIDE BACK OF THE STAGE. And remember Harry’s stage is 360 honeys so I was hyped up. Honestly I thought it’s row 7, it’s not like we are in front! It’s not like he’s gonna see us. I’m bringing this up later cause well, you’ll see. But just remember I’m row 7. So I print out my tickets and I text my friends “HOES GUESS WHAT?” And I immediately text my best friend emmy(her nickname) “BISH IDGAF ABOUT YOUR STRICT PARENTS I WILL DRAG AND SNEAK YOU OUT OF THE HOUSE FOR THIS WE AINT MISSING HARRY. WE AINT MISSING SEEING THE MAN IVE BEEN IN LOVE WIG SINCE 2012” and thank god her parents said yes. Emmy and I spent like the next two hours like “Oh let’s make a sign that’s says sing Shania Twain still the one Harry!” and we talked about “what should we do in the city tomorrow before Harry’s show?” Our show day was a very busy day for us. Ready? Let’s go!

So, in the morning I had a college orientation with Emmy and my other friend(I’m calling her Anna for privacy reasons). I arrived there early so from 9:15 am, Anna Emmy and I were learning about our college and making our schedule. We left around 12:30 pm. Emmy and I decided to leave for the city after but we had to pee first so THANK YOU ANNA FOR LIVING CLOSE TO COLLEGE AND ALLOWING US TO USE YOUR BATHROOM. GRACIAS. Oooooh, fun fact: June 22nd was also my graduation date but Emmy and I wasn’t going in the first place so YAY!

Anyways we said goodbye to Anna and we took the train to the city. We stopped at canal street and went to Greenwich village? Why? My friend Emmy is a huge fan of Justin Bieber and 5 Seconds of Summer so we were just like “fuck it! Let’s go hunting for them! Maybe today’s our lucky day” so we are in Greenwich which justin was spotted in but with our luck we couldn’t find him. We were like ‘oh well! Let’s just stroll around’ so we walk and GUESS WHICH APARTMENT BUILDING WE WERE ABOUT TO WALK PAST BY?

HARRY’S. WE WERE ABOUT TO PAST HARRYS APARTMENT. WE WERE ABOUT TO WALK WHERE HARRY WALK. IM TOO HEADASS FOR HIM(btw I don’t stalk him, I didn’t stand outside his building, his apartment address is publicly online and I did not mean to walk past his apartment, IT JUST HAPPENED) I take out my phone and tell emmy where we were and luckily I took a sneak picture low quality of the building. BUT EMMY! EMMY! She was like “I WANT A GOOD QUALITY PICTURE!” Emmy goes, takes a picture of the doors and the security guards give her a mean look from inside the building. And we are like “ABORT MISSION! ABORT!” Moving on, we’re like if we can’t find Justin, we’ll try 5 Seconds of Summer. And guess what? We can’t find them either! At this time it was like, 3 or 4 Pm? And I really need to sit down cause ya girl has no energy whatsoever. So we take the train and go to the area where msg is and we get pizza. Btw msg area is mad busy. Like really busy. Continuing, we finish our pizza. We go check out the outside of msg and I learn that we aren’t allowed in until 6 pm(I heard it from girls outside) And i’m like okay? So Emmy and I buy and get these pride flags and we go to wait and sit outside where the driveway is. So we wait there for like an hour hoping we see anyone but we don’t cause that’s out fucking luck. But we saw like a dressing bag like the ones where suit and dresses are carried in. We highly doubt it was Harry’s suit but hey? Oh and I took a picture right here

Anyways it 6, we go inside, get through scanning and while we are in line, everyone decided to airdrop one direction memes and of course I joined

We were let in at 6:45 pm and we were going to our section. By going, WE RAN. Literally we had to be stopped by a security guard to see our tickets. I’m getting off point but we get to our section and I’m expecting us to be in the middle cause it says row 7. And Emmy tells me we are in the second row and I was just like “??? Our ticket say row 7” and Emmy shows me that the section starts with row 6 and I was just like “BITCH WE’RE CLOSER THAN I THOUGHT. WE’RE ROW 2 ACTUALLY”. So we were seated between where Sarah and Adam was going to be. This was our view

Then we put our shit down, I went to get my harry merch(I got a shirt) and we sat there in our seats waiting for Kacey to start at 8:30 and KACEY IS SO CUTE YALL HAVE NO IDEA SHE IS THE YEEHAW QUEEN. I USUALLY DONT LIKE COUNTRY MUSIC BUT THIS SISTER GOT SOME TUNES. Here’s me singing along(eXcUsE my cringy premature voice I’m 19) I was going crazy during crazy

Then Kacey leaves and we gotta wait another 40 minutes for Harry. I kid you not the whole arena was singing Olivia by 1d even the security guard was shook af

As I was saying, we had to wait 40 minutes more for Harry so it was like 9:30 and FUCKING FINALLY HE COMES OUT AND I SWEAR EVERYONE LOST IT 

ONLY ANGEL STARTED TO PLAY AND EVERYONE WAS SCREAMING. HE WAS SHINING IN HIS GODDAMN CALVIN KLEIN BLUE SUIT AND ISTG I KEPT TELLING MYSELF “BLOW KISSES AT HARRY! BLOW KISSES AT HARRY” SO THIS BISH HARRY COMES TO OUR SECTION I BLOW A KISS AT HIM LIKE THIS AND IDK IF HE SAW ME BUT HE BLEW A KISS WITH HIS HAND TO OUR SECTION AND YES IT GOT CAUGHT ON FUCKING CAMERA HOES

I WAS FUCKING SHAKING. CAUSE I WAS CERTAIN DURING THE CHAIN HE BLEW A KISS BACK AND IF HE BLEW A KISS AT ME DURING ONLY ANGEL IT WOULD BE THE FIRST OF TWO my heart is racing just remembering it. I’ll continue. So he finishes only angel and he introduces himself and he’s so cute I can’t even

Then they play woman and someone threw a bra on stage and I was screaming inside

Then they play Carolina, Stockholm syndrome, Anna, esny, jalboyh and finally fucking MEDICINE. I was going crazy during medicine as we all should. Sarah and Adam were fucking ripping the song up and I couldn’t be more proud. Then Harry talked to the crowd more and THIS HOE CALLED THE BACK(aka us) HIS BEST FRIENDS AND IM JUST LIKE THANK YOU. Then they start to play meet me in the hallway and the goddamn back screen goes down, blocking us from seeing Harry perform the song. EMMY AND I KEPT SHOUTING DISRESPECT AND THE GIRLS IN FRONT OF US WERE LAUGHING. then he the screen lifted up again as he finished the song and he goes down the walk to the b stage with mitch. Mitch is so cute fam. And we could see him get a bunch of flowers and I’m like “it’s what he deserves”. So he’s on b stage now and he begins to sing sweet creature and iicf AND DURING IICF WE ALL HAD OUR FLASHLIGHTS ON IT WAS SO NICE AND LIKE HEAVEN. MY BABY HARRY STARTED TO TEAR UP DURING THE SONG AND I JUST WANTED TO HUG HIM. OOH AND WHILE THEY WERE ON B STAGE, SARAH ADAM AND CLARE WENT OFF THE MAIN STAGE. ADAM AND SARAH WERE TALKING OFF STAGE NEAR US I THINK I HAVE A VIDEO BUT ITS TOO DARK. BUT BASICALLY THEY WERE TALKING AND I GUESS IT WAS ABOUT HOW THEY WERE PLAYING CAUSE ADAM KEPT MAKING A GUITAR GESTURE AND ADAM HAD SUCH A GREAT SMILE AND SARAH WAS SO HAPPY So Harry and Mitch come back and they all play two ghosts and then wmyb 

They finish wmyb and Harry talks to the crowd. He talks to a fan who was visiting from another country and he’s like “what did you do here?!?” being all excited. Then he talks to the girl who came with “I AM WITH CHILD” sign and then we found out she lied and harry criticizes her and he’s like “WE’RE ALL TRYING!” and I couldn’t stop laughing. Emmy said she lost some brain cells during that part. So harry begins to talk about sign of the times and me and Emmy were like “let’s shout FUCK TRUMP out loud”. WE DIDNT. We didn’t have the chance to but WE TRIED. The girls in front of us were smiling and laughing at us. I blame Harry cause he kept on talking so he couldn’t hear it anyways. Anyways sign of the times plays and everyone has their flashlights on. IT WAS MAGICAL.

So harry and the band leaves to do something and I’m like “wtf u going” so I start to record and they go under the stage. I guess they were doing a photo down there but they come back on a minute later.

They perform from the dining table and I WAS SO SAD I WAS READY TO FIGHT WHOEVER HURT MY BABY. then from the dining table was over and Harry’s like “I’m gonna sing another song” AND I FUCKING TOLD EMMY “WATCH IT BE STILL THE ONE” and BITCH I WAS CORRECT. So he brings Kacey on

They start to sing still the one and I was in my emotions fam and Kacey wore the rainbow dress and I was like YES QUEEN AND THEY BOTH MADE SO MUCH EYECONTACT IT WAS SO CUTE. Then Kacey leaves and they start to play the chain and I was like HELL YEAH AND DURING THE CHAIN HARRY SAID “DAMCE LIKE NO ONE IS NEXT TO YOU. YOURE NOT GOING TO SEE THESE PEOPLE TOMORROW” AND THAT HIT ME AND EVERYONE ELSE AND I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD THE WHOLE ARENA WAS SHAKING LIKE I COULDNT EVEN STAND BECAUSE I WAS AVOUT TO FALL FROM THE AMOUNT OF JUMPING GOING ON AND THIS IS WAS WHEN HE BLEW A KISS AT ME. SO ITS LIKE THE END OF THE SONG AND HE COMES TO THE BACK AND IMMEDIATELY START TO BLOW KISSES AT HIM WITH BOTH HANDS LIKE BEFORE AND I WAS PRETTY SURE HE SAW ME BECAUSE HE BLEW A KISS WITH BOTH HANDS IN MY DIRECTION AND THEN HE DID THAT TO ALL TE OTHER SECTIONS. BITCH I WAS SHAKING.

The chain ends and they start to play kiwi and I get sad af because I know it’s the last song and harrrys like “this is the last song” and inside I’m like “I KNOW HOE DONT RUB IT IN MY FACE” I have to applaud miss Sarah jones whose fucking drumming was amazing. She fuckingkilled it. Kiwi plays and everyone was losing their shit having the times of their lives and then in the middle of kiwi some girl splashed Harry with water and he sings “YOURE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT” HE GOES STRAIGHT SAVAGE AND SOAKS HER AND EVERYONE AROUND. kiwi finishes and Harry does the whale water spit and oh my god it was ICONIC AF. Harry leaves first then the rest of the band and I was just standing there like SHIT. Emmy had to drag me out. I felt wasted after the concert IT WAS A ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE. LET ME JUST TELL YOU IF YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO SEE HARRY LIVE GO FOR IT DONT MISS YA CHANCE. A WHOLE DIFFERENT SIDE OF ME EMERGED THAT NIGHT SO THANK YOU HAROLD I HAD PROBABKY THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE THANKS TO YOU. EMMY AND I GOT TO DANCE WITH OUR PRIDE FLAGS AND WERE SO HAPPY. HARRY MAKES HIS SHOWS SO WELCOMING AND HAPPY. MISS CLARE IS SO CUTE. MITCH AND SARAH ARE SUCH PARENTS AND ADAM IS SUXH A GREAT FRIENDLY PERSON I MISS THEM SO MUCH THATS IT I MISS MY CONCERT SO MUCH I CRY

ALL PHOTO AND VIDEOS ARE CREDITED TO ME AND MY FRIENDS. DONT STEAL. I’ll post the full versions of the videos i have on my twitter. TUMBLR IS A DICK FOR ONLY ALLOWING GIFS of them. 

Btw should I also write about my 5sos iheartradio experience and seeing Harry at the Dunkirk premiere? Tell me if ya want to know byeeee

#storytime with maylovexhs #my show #the gifs are horrible quality #I miss harry so much

[zach-the-fox]

Furiends Episode 3: A Bad Idea

A new day has come, and the warthog sits with the cat and blue jay at a small table in a small coffee shop by the name “Pawbucks”. The girls, however, are slouched in their chairs, and have their heads leaning against solid objects as flat-mouthed, half-eyed expressions occupy their faces.

“Ugh, I’m so bored!” Navy exclaims. “What are we supposed to do now?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” responds Emmy. “Thought it would be a good idea to talk about art, but we constantly see each other’s posts on Furbook.”

“Come on, I’m sure there’s something else to do,” Carly adds. “Maybe we can go to the cartoon festival?” The bird and warthog just look at her. “No? How about-”

“Let’s just get out of here,” Emmy interrupts. She gets out of her seat. “Perhaps, it’ll come to us…” The bird and cat follow without another word. The three exit the coffee shop and walk along the sidewalk.  As they amble down the street, Navy begins a conversation on her interests with a certain character she conjures up. That’s when the pass a display of books in the window pane.

Emmy takes notice of a book on the shelf through the display, forcing her to enter the store. The other girls follow her as she steps toward her target, pulls the book off the shelf, and examines it. The title reads “The Dark Arts for Dummies,” and having a deformed face on the cover. “Interesting…” Emmy opens the book and scans through its contents briefly. “Very interesting…”

Carly stands behind Emmy, glancing over her shoulder to see inside the book. “That book interests you?”

Navy stands and makes her way beside the warthog. “Ooh, a book on dark magic?”

“Looks like it,” Emmy says. “Says everything about how to summon demons and conjure black magic.”

Navy gasps and smiles at the idea. “Oh, can we do this! Please?”

“I don’t know if we should,” Carly adds. “May have some bad outcomes.”

“Or maybe we can raise our very own demon!” Navy utters. “And perhaps wreak havoc on that wolf for taunting Zach.”

“Not sure if that’ll be the case,” utters Emmy. “But you know what, it probably would be a way to kill boredom. Besides, what could go wrong?”

 ***

 Back at the mall, the three girls wander around in search for their items. They split off in different directions as they look around.

Navy picks up a box labeled “dinner candles” on it, taking it for the first item. “These will do.”

“Miss,” calls out a store associate. “We haven’t stocked those yet!” Navy continues walking up to the counter and prepares to pay, leaving the clerk with a look of dismay.

Emmy searches up and down the row of chalkboards, taking the erasers and chalk from the holders. “This will suit our need of chalk dust.” She picks up one eraser, but barely has a grip on it. “Uh oh!” Upon catching it, she hits the chalk boards on either side of her, emitting dust into the air around her. “Oh no…” Emmy’s mouth begins opening wider until, “Achoo!” The dust enters her nose more, causing an uncontrollable sneeze. “I must… achoo! Get out of- Achoo! Here…”

In the floral shop by the corner, Carly looks around for the last item on the list; black rose water. “Hm… If I were rose water, where would I be?” Her eyes are drawn to the bottle on the top shelf near the entrance. “Of course, it’s up there…” She looks around, yet sees no worker in the store. “And no one’s around to help… Guess I’ll just help myself then…” The cat reaches for the bottle, but her paw is only inches away from it. “Hugck! Come on!” She stands on her tippy-toes. “Come on, Carly! You’ve almost got it!” Her paw stretches out more and wraps around the item. “Got it!” Her weight, however, causes the god to lean forward into the shelf. “Uh oh! Whoa!” Carly is knocked into it, causing it to fall over. As the shelf falls, a vase of flower water tips and spills all over her. Carly gets up and sees the damages she’s caused. “Uh, whoops…” She quickly pulls out some cash and leaves it on the counter. “I’ll just be going!” She leaves the scene. “I was never here…”

The girls regroup in the center of the mall.

“All right, everyone got everything from the list?” asks Emmy, rubbing her nose with her finger. The cat and bird nod. “Good. Now, we need a place to perform the ritual.”

“Let’s do it at my place,” says Navy. “We can set up there and-” The bird sniffs the cat. “Hey, why do you smell like fresh roses?”

“Please don’t,” Carly utters. “I need a bath once I get home…”

“You can wash later, when we’ve-” Emmy sniffles. “Oh no… Achoo! Ugh…” She sneezes again.

“Bless you,” Navy tells her.

“Security!” someone shouts. “Security! Someone has destroyed the flower shop!” As the spectator yells, the girls rush out the entrance.

 ***

 The gang gathers at Navy’s studio apartment, where they set up for their “special event”. Carly draws along the floor, making a pentagram with a marker. Emmy takes sand and proceeds to encircle the pentagram, touching the points with perfection. Lastly, Navy places candles beside the points and lights them.

Carly looks into the picture in the book before viewing the shape in reality. She crosses her arms with a smile of pleasure. “Looks about right.”  

“Yeah,” Navy adds. “And it smells nice, too!”

“Okay, let’s get started.” Emmy picks up the book and holds it in her hooves. “All that’s left is to recite the incantation.”

“Wait!” Carly interrupts. “What if whatever comes out of there tries to kill us?”

“Hm, good point. We should suit up and prepare for the worst.” The three girls rummage around Navy’s place for protective equipment and anything that could be used as a weapon. They manage to find gear and tools, preparing in five minutes. Navy holds a shovel close while donning a knight’s helmet, while Carly protects herself with football helmet, wielding a frying pan for her defense. Emmy’s head is covered with a pumpkin as a baseball bat leans up against her for her weapon. The warthog holds the book up. “Everybody ready?” Navy and Carly stand guard behind Emmy, ready to expect the unexpected. Emmy begins the incantation. “For thou who lives trapped in flame and clay, heed this call, rejoice and pray.” Navy’s wings tremble, shaking the shovel in her grip. “Gather upon thy mortal door.” Carly tightens her grip of her frying pan. “Break the gates, and emerge once more!” The candle flames enlarge, brightening the room as a portal opens within the center of the pentagram. One big, round ball shoots out from the entryway, bouncing off the walls of the apartment. The three girls panic as the frenzy continues.

“Whoa!” Carly dives behind the counters in the kitchen to take cover, lying on the floor. “Jeez! How do you stop this thing?!”

“I don’t know!” Emmy dodges as the flame ball flies past her. “This thing’s out of control! Yipe!” She stumbles onto the ground, avoiding the fire sphere as it nearly collides into her.

“Don’t worry!” Navy holds the shovel firmly. “I’ve got it!” As the ball comes her way, she swings and smacks it away. The sphere of flames smashes through the glass window and outside. “Homerun! Woo!” The orb is last seen barreling down the street, burning lampposts and trees along the way. “Um, uh oh…”

Carly stands and looks out the broken window. “Nice going…”

Emmy is quick to her feet as she heads out the door. “Come on! We have to go after it!”

“Are you crazy?!” the cat utters. Navy is already behind the warthog. “Hey, wait for me!” Carly sprints after them.

 ***

 Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Zach, Niji, Eren, and Silus enjoy some time together in the park. The boys each hold ice cream cones in their paws and chat away as they lick their frozen treats.

“Mmm,” Niji spurts after licking his treat. “I love rainbow-flavored ice cream.”

Zach looks to the short deer, who takes a bite out of his swirl. “Eren, thank you very much… You didn’t have to pay for mine… I could’ve just passed on it.”

“No no,” Eren tells him. “It’s fine. Besides, it would’ve been fair if you were left out. You’re our friend after all.”

“Nobody ever thought it was unfair when they left me out of things, the orphanage and Team Rescuers especially…” Zach’s ears start to droop.

“They’re just dumb,” Niji adds in. “The whole town, too. Just because you’re different, doesn’t give them the right to push you out of things. So what if you are the product of some bad animals or have a mental disorder? You look and act normal to us.”

Zach’s eyelids open wide as his ears straighten. “R-really? You think so, Niji?”

“We all do,” Silus implies. “They just don’t know what it’s like to be different. You shouldn’t let people talk you down because they say you have “flaws”. In fact, you shouldn’t assess yourself for your flaws, but of your strengths; the things that make you proud of who you are, no matter what anybody things.”

“Gee, I-” The fox pauses, then turns his head after spotting something glowing in the corner of his eye. “W-what? What is that?” Everyone turns to see where he’s looking. “It looks like a giant-” Zach’s eyelids pull back as far as they can go as he notices a large fireball heading straight for him and his friends. “Holy!” Silus is quick with his reflexes, grabbing the fox, wolf, and deer with his arms and pulling them away to avoid the flames. However, as the ball of flames whooshes past, it manages to touch Zach on his torso, Eren by his shoulder, and Niji on his head, as well as the newt’s arms that grasp the three. The four boys collapse to the ground and scatter as they grudge at their burns, grunting and yelping with pain. The fire sphere then disappears from view, leaving the friends clueless.

Emmy arrives on scene with Navy and Carly beside her. “I think this is where it-” She notices the boys. “Oh my gosh! Niji, Eren, Silus, Zach!” She and the girls aide the four friends to their feet. “You guys okay?!”

“What happened?” asks Carly. “You’ve got burns!”

“Yeah, no kidding!” Niji shouts. “No thanks to that giant fireball that passed by!”

“Wait, you know where the fireball went?!” Navy utters. “Where did it go?!” She searches around frantically. “Is it around here?!”

“Navy, now’s not the time!” Carly calls to her. “We have to help our friends!”

“We don’t even know what’s happening,” grunts Zach. “We were having ice cream when that flaming ball came out of nowhere… Oh, it hurts!”

Eren looks up at the girls. “Um, why are you wearing those outfits?”

“We’ll explain later,” Emmy says. “Why don’t we head back to Navy’s place and get you guys some ice?” The friends agree. The boys stand with ease due to their injuries and follow the girls back. @carlycmarathecat​ @emmy-the-absolute-goof​ @pink-unicorn-blood​ @rainbow-strike​ @ask-choro-mama​