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alexhandersen-marcoilsoe-fandom · 3 years

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THE MASTERPIECE: CHAPTER 1/5

Modern!IVAR x Reader x Modern!HVITSERK

a/n: This MASTERPIECE was so much fun. It was such an honor to do this with you @deans-ch-ch-cherrypie, you are so talented! Every hour writing and editing was definitely worth it! Thank you!

Spotify playlist: here (only for those who like latin urban music)

Words: 1913

Warnings: strong language

Summary: Ivar and Hvitserk had always prided themselves in being the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok. They had a comfortable life full of everything they wanted: houses, cars, money, and the most beautiful women. And with all of that came the security of always having the upper hand. But what happens when a bewitching girl from Ragnar’s past arrives into their lives claiming his fortune?

~~·······~~

An appointment with a lawyer was pending. He refused to give any other information on the phone about the reasons, so she had to meet him in his office.

Y/N had a hunch it was going to be a waste of her time. So out of spite, she was the last one to arrive. Not that she was ever on time. Punctuality was never one of her strong suits, but she didn't care about what others thought. She was so over their meaningless gossip.

Y/N stepped into the room and all heads turned to look at her, yet nobody knew who she was and she didn’t recognize anyone either so she excused herself and went out again. She must have been given the wrong room number.

The lawyer got up from his desk and called her name. He intercepted her midway and accompanied her back inside.

She looked exasperated; she even refused to take her coat off or sit down. Instead, she gazed around the room and noticed two young men out of the four reunited whispering emphatically at each other.

The lawyer thanked everyone for their presence and began reading from a long document.

Ivar was staring at her, wondering who the fuck she was and what she was doing at the reading of his father’s last will and testament. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t realize what the lawyer was saying.

"...and it is my last will that all of my houses, company shares, private artworks collection, and the entirety of my capital goes to Y/N Y/L/N.

To my sons, please, forgive me. I hope you will understand my decision and in time come to accept it. I love you all.

Signed,

Ragnar Lothbrok."

Her face froze in a gesture of confusion and old memories best left unstirred popped into her mind.

There was an oppressive stillness in the room. Everyone was twisting and turning in their seats but nobody dared to break the silence.

“That’s a mistake, right?” Y/N heard one of them say in a quiet voice after some time.

"Ma'am, could you come up to the front and sign the document, please? Ma’am?”

Yet Y/N could not move. She’d heard the lawyer’s words loud and clear but the gears in her head were still turning, in an effort to process their meaning. It couldn’t be true. Ragnar simply left after using her. Surely, he would never leave her in possession of all that he owned.

"No!" Hvitserk jumped up from the chair, shouting and banging his fist on the table.

The lawyer winced in fear. He knew of the infamous temper of all the sons of Ragnar.

"Who is she? What is she doing here?” Hvitserk turned to face Y/N. “Hey, you! How do you know my father?"

She stared blankly out of the window and didn’t answer.

He snarled his lip in disgust as his anger overtook him. “Hey, are you deaf, woman?! Who. Are. You?! Answer me!”

“Ma’am, please. The quicker you sign these documents, the quicker you can leave.” The lawyer urged her with his eyes as if he knew that a discussion like this could only end with one – or several – of them in jail.

She finally found it in her to separate her feet from their spot on the ground and move forward towards the big oak desk. As she walked in between a row of confused angry gazes, she couldn’t help but remember Ragnar’s smiling face.

These men gathered around looked as strong, proud, and reckless as he had been and it was at that moment that she understood who they were. They had to be his sons. They didn’t seem like the kind of people you would want to mess with.

And yet, she wasn’t exactly afraid of them. Fear was not what paralyzed her body; it was the realization that everything about her life was about to drastically change.

“Father... father would never do something like this,” Ivar stated in a harsh voice aimed at the lawyer. “Check that testament again!” Ivar was sure that if his mother, Aslaug, were alive, she would've threatened to take his license away and ruin his reputation if he didn’t find a way to revert Ragnar’s will.

In a split second, the room broke into protests, their contained displeasure bursting through at last.

Yet their angered voices only faded into the back of her ears as she came to understand that this could be her opportunity to get even. She slid the pen against the ivory-white sheet of paper and with a swish of her wrist she sealed all of their fates.

The brothers argued for long minutes with the lawyer but there was nothing he could do. It was beyond his power.

And as they complained, she slipped out of the room quietly.

Ivar noticed and tried to follow her in a haste, but she was already gone. He looked out the glass window of the lawyer’s office and saw her crossing the bustling street. If they didn’t hurry, they would lose her in the crowd forever.

"Come on, let's talk to her!" He urged the others.

Björn looked at his younger sibling and brooded his forehead. "No, let it be. Father wanted it this way, so we have to accept it.” He didn’t seem exactly happy about it but his tone still spoke of resignation.

Ubbe turned to Björn and nodded begrudgingly. "Yes, he’s right. It won't work, she already signed it. It’s a legitimate legal contract.”

"Hvitserk?! You know that's not fair!"

"You’re right, Ivar. She can’t get away with this! And you-” He pointed at Björn and Ubbe. “-if you don't want to fight, then we will. But don't expect us to give you back your part of the inheritance if we succeed.”

“It’s not like we need it, baby brother.” Björn shot back. “My business with Ubbe is thriving. If you want to keep living under our father’s shadow, that’s your problem.”

“As for us,” Ubbe continued his brother’s train of thought. “We’ll try to make our own path as father did once... and you two should do the same. Maybe this is for the best...”

Hvitserk and Ivar exchanged a glance, silently acknowledging that their brothers were crazy and that they were on their own on this one. They ran out of the office as fast as Ivar’s legs would allow them.

~~·······~~

“Hey! You! Hey, stop.” Y/N ignored Hvitserk’s yelling and picked up the pace but Hvitserk grabbed her arm very rudely.

"Touch me again and you’ll know just what I’m capable of, pretty boy.”

Her confidence intimidated him and he took a meek step back.

“Could we talk to you, maybe?” Ivar’s tone was much softer, and she seemed to be considering it.

“No.” She changed her mind in a split second and started walking hurriedly away from them again.

“We just want-“

“Wait!” Ivar was stopped by Hvitserk’s hand on his chest. “I have a better idea. Let’s go get the car.”

Ivar realized immediately that his brother was probably planning something insidious and he decided to give him a chance.

~~·······~~

They followed her to her home and parked at the end of the street, hoping that the massive tree in front of her house would camouflage them from her view.

“And what are we going to do now?” Ivar leaned his head on the headrest and looked beyond annoyed. They had been sitting in the car for at least two hours without making any progress.

“We’ll stay here until we find out who she is and what she wants. So, relax brother, and give it some time.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense and I’m hungry.” Ivar had run out of patience. “Let’s try to do this some other way.”

As they spoke, Y/N dimmed the lights inside of her house. The outline of her body was the only thing they could see. She went from one room to the next, until she sat down in one place – probably her living room – and stayed there for a while.

“She’s turning on the lights again. Look! She’s going out of the house. Duck!” They slipped down their seats and lowered their heads.

“I fucking hope you have a better plan than hiding in plain sight, Hvitserk.”

His brother frowned, his forehead creasing deeply and Ivar knew then that he had no actual plan. That was the face he made whenever he was trying to come up with something on the spot.

Ivar rolled his eyes and clenched his jaw.

“She must’ve left already... Let me go near the house. Maybe I can spot something through the windows that can help us figure out who she is.” Hvitserk muttered only half-convinced.

“Fine. But be careful! We don’t want her to find out we’re here.”

“Dude, of course.” He replied a little insulted.

Hvitserk walked up to her home with his back hunched over, trying his best to be invisible. He reached the walls of her house and slid flush to them until he reached the window. He peeped through it, trying to see what was inside.

Her home was small and humble but clean and neatly organized. She had an awful number of plants and herbs spread on various shelves as well as some lighters, smoking pipes, and what looked like a strange strain of weed, at least from that distance. So she wasn’t thatuptight after all, Hvitserk smirked cheekily.

There were dusty old books stacked on piles with weird unreadable symbols on their spine, and there were some regular documents on her kitchen table but he couldn’t make out the small letters.

Hvitserk narrowed his eyes, they probably contained a few answers. He took out his phone to snap a picture of the papers.

At that moment the front door opened and Y/N crossed her arms stiffly across her chest.

The flash of Hvitserk’s phone went off accidentally and blinded her momentarily which only made her look angrier.

“Well, wouldn’t you rather come in?” She challenged him in a sarcastic voice.

Hvitserk was pissed off and startled, but most of all, he was embarrassed, judging by the way his high cheeks flushed with blood.

“What? You thought you were being so stealthy? You guys aren’t exactly subtle...”

“We just, uh- we just want to get to know you better.” Hvitserk cleared his throat and gave her an improvised smile.

“Oh, is that so?” Y/N’s eyes twinkled for a second and her shoulders relaxed a little. “Well... If that’s the case, handsome... then you should ask me out.”

She sauntered forward to caress his chin with her index finger seductively. She flashed him a smile and Hvitserk, ever the ladies' man raised an eyebrow and smirked back, unable to help himself. All thoughts about his mission had left his head and were replaced with the signals his brain was giving him for him to notice the light caress of her fingers, her body inches away from his, and her tantalizing lips so close to his face.

“Or... you could just fuck off!” Y/N shoved him, sending him tumbling backward until his ass hit the grass, then she smacked the door on Hvitserk’s face with a smug smile. “Asshole.”

It’s this easy to fool a guy. She thought with amusement.

#ivar the boneless #ivar ragnarsson #vikings #hbovikings #hvitserk #hvitserk ragnarsson #ubbe #ubbe ragnarsson #björn ironside #björn ragnarsson #ivar the boneless x reader #hvitserk x reader

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theredraccoon · 3 years

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A Desperate Proposal - Ch 2

The soft snick of the heavy office door closing was overly loud in the quiet room and Simon raised his head, blinking rapidly. Like breathing, blinking was still a habit that Simon had yet to shake in his five years as a vampire, but whatever, he had time. Oodles of time, apparently; a fact that still threw him on a regular basis. He blinked again, actually registering the quiet— when had his music stopped? Wasn’t his playlist something like five hours long? Had he really been working that long? What time was it?

This time it was the creak of the chair in front of his desk that got his attention. Simon finally snapped back to the real world and took in the sight of his Sire, sitting prim and proper as usual. Raphael’s face was a mix of resignation, amusement, and irritation; in other words, it was his “Simon Face.”

“Good afternoon, Simon. How are the books looking today?” Raphael’s voice was smooth and dry.

Simon automatically straightened and his hands started to shuffle the papers around on his desk, moving his laptop back, rearranging pens, voice getting brighter and louder as he talked. “Oh! It’s going well. The numbers for last month look good, we've made some necessary adjustments. Forcing you to let me buy Quickbooks is paying off, I’ve been able to sort through the mess from, err, before, so much faster and I think that if make a few strategic changes we’ll be able to set up the new vampires with like, an income that will let them not be whiny assholes about what they’re missing from their former lives and I think… that you are not actually here to talk about accounting, are you.”

Simon thought he could detect at least a hint of “impressed” in the lines of Raphael’s face now, but the irritation was also stronger. Simon shifted in the ornate chair and bit his cheek as he kept his mouth shut and let the silence grow.

Finally, Raphael spoke. “No, Simon, I’m not here to talk about accounting. I’m here to relay the latest news from the Downworld Cabinet. Decisions have finally been made and they affect you. Directly affect you, in fact.” Raphael tugged at his cuffs, the crisp white shirt peeking out from the dark blue of his suit jacket. Simon’s eyebrows rose; he wasn’t used to any signs of nervousness from his Sire. His curiosity grew, along with some burgeoning apprehension.

Rapael continued, his voice firming as he went along. “The Cabinet has had a series of emergency meetings with the Clave. After much negotiation we have what we hope is the start of a solution to the... problem we are facing. There will be a series of marriages, between the Downworld and the Shadowhunters of New York. These alliances, if they prove effective, will then take place across the world as we attempt to figure out what is happening and how to counter it. If, and only if, our help is essential to defeating whatever is causing the Shadowhunters to drop like flies, we - the Downworld - will be able to renegotiate the Accords in a manner that is fair and equitable to us and not the Clave. So. We are obviously very invested in making these marriages work and be productive.”

Simon was blinking rapidly again. He felt his brain kickstart into a different gear as he struggled to comprehend what Raphael was saying and the implications of what he was hearing. Marriages? The Clave willing to renegotiate the Accords? Really? Those stubborn assholes? He knew the situation was serious, but really? Marriages? Who was getting married? Wait, why did Raphael say that he, Simon, was going to be directly affected?

His mouth popped open and Simon heard himself say, in a strange tone he’d never heard himself use before, “Who am I marrying, Sire?” Then Simon froze in his chair, his body startled by the leap his brain had made. He watched Raphael twitch slightly.

“The Second in Command of the New York Institute, Jace Lightwood. Alexander Lightwood’s brother.”

The words fell like dead weights in the middle of the room. Simon’s muscles felt locked in place, while his thoughts started to race forward like a bullet train.

The events of the past few months flicked through Simon’s head like a movie on steroids. Simon noticing expenses for the Hotel Dumort increasing suddenly for no discernable reason. The realization that Downworlders and foreign vampires were quietly flooding into New York at rates that surprised even the older vampires in the Clan, causing them to spend more and more money to hide their presence in the city. Raphael taking his concerns to Magnus. Magnus talking to Alec about the increased number of Downworlders in the New York Institute’s territory.

And then the horrifying knowledge that Shadowhunters were dying, dying everywhere, and it was forcing Downworlders into the city as they sought the protection of the Nephilim that remained, the protection that they would have fiercely denied ever needing in the past. Finally, endless hushed meetings between the various contingents of the Downworld as they struggled to make sense of what was happening. Simon, as Raphael’s reluctant Second, had attended several before his annoyance at the Seelie representative and his general impatience at the slow pace had led to Raphael kicking him out.

And now here they were, and Simon was beginning to realize that hiding his head in the accounting nightmare that was the New York Clan for the last month had probably been a mistake.

“I’m sorry, what? I’m marrying who? Why him? Why me? Who else is getting married? When are these marriages happening? What about the fact that I’m a vampire? The Seelies agreed to this? The werewolves? Is that what you’re saying? Really? I’m getting married? But my mom won’t be there. Or my sister. I never thought I’d get married without my mom there. What am I going to wear? Are the marriages taking place at the same time? Is this really the only way? Is Jace the hot blond one? The one who always looks constipated? I’m getting married?”

Raphael’s hands were suddenly on his face, cold brands on his cheeks, and Simon realized that at some point during his semi-hysterical rant he’d gotten up and was standing in front of his Sire. His body was vibrating.

“Simon. Child. I am here. I know that this is a shock and I am sorry for it. But yes, this is the only way. The Nephilim have been hiding their true situation, or they actually didn’t realize it until now, it’s unclear. Regardless, their numbers are now so low that the Downworld is legitimately in danger. We need them and for the first time in forever, they are admitting that they need us. Alliance through marriage has worked for Mundanes for millenia, we might as well try it. This is happening.”

“But why me?” Simon’s voice was a whine that he couldn’t control. Simon stayed still even as Raphael let go of his face and moved back to the chair in front of Simon’s desk. Watched Raphael settle back down, adjusting his suit for the second time. Finally, he spoke.

“Simon, I’m not sure if you have ever fully realized your power, or your responsibilities, as my Second. When I Turned you, you automatically had greater status than most as my Child, but when you presented as a Daylighter… Simon, the only reason that the New York Clan is mine is because I am your Sire. If I were not here, the other vampires would follow you. That is how powerful the draw of a Daylighter is. Especially because we have no idea why they exist, why you are one. If this plan is to work, each representative has to be of high importance, someone that proves that we are committed and have power to offer.”

Simon’s mouth opened. And closed. And opened and then closed again. He felt like a fish out of water, trying to grasp the full weight of what Raphael was saying. He’d known that the other vampires treated him differently but he’d thought it was just because he was young. And a bit of a spaz. And a nerd spouting pop culture references to creatures that were around when the only entertainment was going to see P.T. Barnum and his fish-monkeys. This was different. Slightly scary.

A brief wince crossed Raphael’s face and Simon’s focus sharpened. “What else, Raphael? What aren’t you telling me?”

“The Shadowhunters— Alec— put Jace’s name into the negotiations first, as a sign that they were willing to offer their best and brightest, and someone near and dear to the Institute. But we still weren’t sure how desperate they were and if the Clave was actually committed to changing some of their… prejudices. So we offered you. And they agreed. They are serious. Alec Lightwood is the one that discovered the depth of the problem in the first place. He seems level headed and not as willing to put up with the Clave’s bullshit."

The hits kept coming, apparently. “Does Jace even like guys? Do I have to get married to a straight guy? I thought this wasn’t supposed to be a complete sham?”

“Alec has assured me that his brother is bisexual and I believe him. But Shadowhunters are notoriously homophobic and it might be... difficult for a while. You remember the scandal when news of Magnus dating Alec broke. I think the Nephilim were more upset that Magnus was a man than he was a Downworlder. Or maybe it was equal, who knows. Regardless, no, you will not be marrying someone who isn’t interested in men. These marriages are meant to be alliances, they need a chance to work. ”

Simon drifted back to his own chair and sat down. “Well, at least there’s that. Although he could just be an asshole. The few times I’ve seen him lurking around Pandemonium he always looks angry. Maybe he just has Resting Bitch Face. Hopefully.” He met Raphael’s eyes. “This is really happening? It’s the only way? I feel like a broken record, but I need to know. I kinda gave up on marriage when I became a vampire, I’m not sure how to feel about this.”

Raphael leaned forward and kept Simon’s gaze. “Yes, Simon, this needs to happen. We don’t know what’s killing the Shadowhunters and it’s affecting all of us worse than we could have imagined. We need to figure out what’s happening and stop it, hopefully without too many more casualties. And we can use these marriages to make a better life for ourselves afterwards. If there is an afterwards.” His voice faded away and there was silence again.

“Shit. I guess I’m marrying a Shadowhunter.” Simon let his head rest against the heavy wooden chair and closed his eyes.

“Yes. Simon. Thank you. We’ll talk more soon.”

Simon heard Raphael get up and walk towards the door, enhanced hearing picking up every footfall and swish of cloth, knowing that it was deliberate, that Raphael was a master of silent movement, that his Sire wanted Simon to know that he was leaving, that he was retreating to give Simon space to absorb the bombshells dropped into his life.

The door shut soundlessly this time, just a whiff of displaced air. Simon swallowed hard.

#chapter 2 #shminibang #jimon #a desperate proposal #suck at tumblr

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ithoughtthiswastwitterbutfr · 3 years

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WandaVision episode 7 spoilers

My notes of the episode I would now like to state (before I start the episode) I don’t think the Metispho theory is going to happen anymore I believe it’ll be something or someone else.

Title: Breaking the fourth wall

It would be Wanda breaking back into her legitimate/original reality instead of ours since she created her own within that.

Ahh it’s starting

Vision isn’t next to Wanda when she woke up

The kids game controllers keep switching years.

Billy said his head hurts I’m assuming all the voices from everyone else are crowding his.

The show is definitely set closer to our time maybe the early 2000s or 2010.

The milk box is changing years as well and she said she’s not sure what it’s about. But this is first time we’ve seen her eat since episode one,

The hex is now huge. Hayward is planning on launching something knowing him it’s a weapon.

Vision has woken up next to the city’s and recalls that he was pulling apart. He’s also confused on why Darcy doesn’t

Darcy is doing her individual interview and she is an escape artist maybe this means she’s gonna get out.

“Don’t believe anything that man said he is not your uncle,” Wanda after the twins asked what uncle P meant about rekilling Vision. She said she had no answers.

“I’m starting to believe that everything is meaningless,” She’s clearly breaking down way pass her breaking point which is why she was comfortable saying something like that in front of the twins.

Agnes knows she’s going crazy hint the cutting her own bangs comment.

The twins don’t want to go with Agnes because they think they need to take care of Wanda,

Things are glitching back to older decades and she had to manually switch it back then the infamous “I’m fine,” Laughing.

Monica and Jimmy found out that Hayward was trying to bring Vision back as a weapon which is why he was so upset when Wanda was able to bring him back

Finally

So now they’re saying that they need to warn Wanda.

They found the rest of the SWORD agents wait nvm those are their contacts

They said they’re loyal to Monica just like they were to her mom interesting.

They got the tank she need to safely re enter the hex.

Darcy has been freed from the spell. Darcy punched the circus

She admitted she doesn’t know who the imposter Pietro is or if her kids are safe.

Wanda’s losing control over her powers the house keeps changing.

“I don’t understand what’s happening why it’s all falling apart and why I can’t fix it,”

Interview guy: “Do you think maybe this is what you deserve?”

“What?” Wanda “Youre not supposed to talk?” Shes loosing control over the citizens as well I suppose.

She’s depressed so the commercial about antidepressants is a given but the line “ A unique antidepressant that is made to anchor you back to your reality,” Is what has me confused on which reality they’re referring to. Nvm “Or the reality of your choice,”

One of the side is more depression which I think she was depressed outside the HEX before she made it and when she made it it just brought her to the depression she’s in now.

“Nexus because the world doesn’t revolve around you or does it?”

Agnes still has the bunny from the second episode

Billy said I like it here because you’re quiet Agnes on the inside. I haven’t moved on yet but I think he’s saying he can’t feel the pain inside her like Wanda’s grief is in her control and my default in the rest of Westviews citizens but he can’t feel the pain in Agnes maybe because the control isn’t there?

Tommy “ do you think our moms okay?”

Agnes looks around confused before saying “ oh for sure you don’t have to worry about your mom she’s a super mom,” Then it cuts to her interview saying “Ralph says I sugarcoat things,”

Still mentioning Ralph but even in their house we haven’t seen them.

Monica has a SWORD suit on made to contain her but now that’s shes her pure energy what’s gonna happen?

She said this is there last shot. What does she know that makes this the last shot because from what we know she can go back in whenever with the equipment she was given.

The exterior of the hex is becoming equal to the vehicle so it was half of it was rewritten before shot back out.

Monica knows she can make it through and as she goes through you can see different stages of her life and here the dialogue of her in Captain Marvel before her mom goes to space with Carol.

“Maybe I could fly up and meet you halfway,” Younger Monica.

She’s now screaming no I think she’s being rejected back out maybe because this time she isn’t being sucked in.

All of her phases and ages were pushed into her bodies and her eyes glew blue.

She can see all the energy in colors coming off the powerlines the whole world was in like pastel colors pink purple and blue. Before she blinked her eyes and it went back to normal. She’s getting her power exciting. She took her sword suit off because she doesn’t need it.

“So Wanda killed me?” Vision

“Yes, but it’s not that simple you asked her to do it,” Darcy.

“Why would I have done that?”

“To save the universe well half of it,”

“Did it work?”

“It did. Until the bad guy rewind time and killed you himself.”

She’s catching him up on his life before Hayward took him apart possibly wiping him. I can’t tell if Wanda or Hayward wiped him. Since he was so scared about not remembering anything before Westview before he gets his summary now.

“I came back and died again?”

“And Wanda had to watch,” After Darcy said that you could see the pity in Vision’s eyes.

Vision’s interview: “I believe Wanda is creating these impediments to stop me returning home,”

Yeah she’s created another one the construction workers stopping them from getting home.

Vision said he was a body made by Ultron and an AI named Jarvis but what is he now?

Darcy said she thought Wanda just like flipped a switch and brought her back but she doesn’t understand why he dies if he leaves.

“What I do know is I’ve seen watching WandaVision for the past week and the love you two have is real,”

Vision seems conflicted at that.

Monica made it in and when she came into the house Wanda was taking the Nexus antidepressants and she is confused on how she got in.

She begins to blame the drones and missles on Sword which that was then but then she blames Pietro on them and Monica claims Pietro wasn’t Swords doing.

Everyone including Dottie is watching Wanda use her powers to hold Monica in the air. They all seems stunned but not really surprised

“All you do is lie!”

When Monica hit the grown energy surrounded/protected her and her eyes were blue again. Wanda was definitely shocked by whatever powers she developed.

“The only lies I’ve told are the ones you put in my mouth,” Monica walking towards Wanda.

“Careful what you say to me,” Wanda as she conjures up her powers as a way to threaten Monica.

“Do it then,” Monica said knowing she probably wouldn’t do it. I think she knows Wanda wants help she just doesn’t want to leave her kids and Vision behind. “Take me out,”

“Don’t let him make you the Villain,” Monica talking about Hayward who’s going to tear Westview down to get Vision back.

“Maybe I already am,”

Agnes sees this go down and goes outside. Monica talks about how she isn’t scared of Wanda she already lost her mom and that was the worst thing that can happen. She said she can’t bring her back then she says. “I can’t control this pain anymore,”

Which is Wanda’s situation entirely her pain got so out of control her powers made up for it. Monica and Wanda share an understanding.

She broke through to Wanda I could see it in her eyes but then Agnes came over and said “Young lady, I think you overstayed your welcome,”

Agnes doesn’t want Westview to end she can’t let it end. I’m assuming she said something to do with the creation. Agnes is manipulating Wanda to thinking what Agnes wants is what she wants but it’s not. Wanda was going to shutdown Westview until Agnes came and led her away.

As soon as Wanda was back inside the rest of the citizens went about their day.

There is kids where did they come from? I’m still confused on that.

Now Vision is starting to understand what Wanda went through he’s realized how much stuff she endured he endured it too but he said it felt like it happened to another person. I feel like he’ll be less harsh now. Or stop trying to shut it down as hard I’m not sure yet.

He ended the interview saying “I need to get to my wife,”

Agnes brought Wanda to her home.

Wait how is Yo Gabba Gabba on the TV when thats a nickeloaden show. That wasn’t really related I was just confused.

The music has gotten scary as Wanda looks around.

“Where are the twins?”

“Oh they’re probably just playing in the basement,” Agnes said seemingly wayyy to calm for the twins to be possibly missing she knows something.

There are vines all in Agnes’s basement and there’s wind blowing it’s like a maze. There’s a book it looks like a spell book. Yep it was.

She came down to find Wanda stroking Sir Sratchy

“Wanda, Wanda. You didn’t think you were the only magical girl in town, did you?” She just admitted to being Agatha Harkness.

She is the villain I’m sure of it. Her and Hayward are both the villains. I’m just not sure why she needs Westview to stay up and running.

Wanda has red or scarlet waves that show her powers and Agatha or Agnes has purple waves.

Her eyes are purple and she’s going into her head.

Agatha is getting her own show theme sequence called “Agatha all along,” It’s going through the decades it’s switched to. Her waves are purple and she has the power to manipulate peoples mind I’m assuming. That’s how she messed with Herb after fixing the talent show.

OHHH MY GOD

people thought the twins brought back Pietro or Peter after seeing their mom upset but it was Agatha.

Agatha was the interviewer who asked “Do you think maybe this is what you deserve?”

She’s not only playing physical tricks and changing the actual physical surroundings in Westview she’s doing mind tricks.

“Who’s been pulling every evil string?” The chorus.

“She’s insidious,”

“So perfidious that you haven’t even noticed and the pity is,”

“It’s too late to fix anything now everything has gone wrong,”

“Thanks to Agatha Naughty Agatha,”

She admitted to killing Sparky which I think I commented on a few eps back.

But the “it’s too late to fix anything”might be why the times period keep changing along with the house because she’s already lost control of her powers she can’t get control back now. “now that everything has gone wrong,”

A lot of suspicions people had including myself have been comfirmed Agatha is the villain. But that’s only from the inside we still have Hayward to worry about.

WAIT THERE END CREDITS THIS TIME.

It’s Monica trying to break into Agatha’s basement as soon as she opened the door from the outside. Her eyes might’ve changed a bit but there was purple waves from Agnes in the vines. I can’t tell if Monica eyes are blue from her energy or purple from Agatha’s influence.

But a man caught her and said “Snoopers gonna snoop,” At first guess I randomly said Tommy all grown up but that’s unlikely now I’m thinking it was Ralph. We wouldn’t know because we haven’t seen him all season though. Wait that we Peter/Pietro that’s how he got back there so fast.

#wandavision #wandavision spoilers #wandavision theories #wanda maximoff #vision #agatha harkness #darcy lewis #jimmy woo #monica rambeau #tommy maximoff #billy maximoff #billy and tommy

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okaybutlikeimagine · 4 years

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ok by i cannot stop thinking about billy just losing his fucking mind to dream on by aerosmith. like his dad just went too far or he found out about him and steve and now hes tearing his room apart like a mad man, throwing records and smashing bottles and shit. and its not even just like angry hes like /crying/ like he cannot even for a second know peace and happiness and this has been on my mind for MONTHS

TW: physical abuse, blood, homophobic slurs ((f-slur)), verbal abuse, mental breakdown, cussing

Honey, ever since i got this i haven’t been able to stop thinking about it either ohmyGOD???? This is legitimately a PEAK Billy “i’m absolutely sick of all of this and i need out NOW” Hargrove anthem!! God if i could direct this i would but unfortunately i’m bound to words on my silly little blog so i hope this will do, love. ♥ (@venomdean)

Because it’s absolutely explosive. I kind of hate to think about it, but I feel like Billy is like a landmine. He’s a pot always threatening to boil over. He’s on constant vibrate just about ready to pop. He’s always on the edge of going absolutely feral because the only certain thing he’s felt for years and years is pain.

And you’re right- on both accounts. Neil finds out… and he goes too far.

Because Neil has been hearing all around town that Billy has been running around with “that Harrington boy”. You know, the son of that really influential family, the boy who “has all the opportunities in the world” but “seems to be amounting to nothing… what a shame. You know, his parents couldn’t even pay a school to take him. What a pity. I knew it would happen though...”

And Neil just hoped it wasn’t true. He hears it every time he goes to the grocery store. The voices follow him down the aisles, either from mothers who whisper about how “That’s Neil Hargrove. His son is that curly haired one I told you about. The different one.” or from teens who hiss about how “That’s Billy’s dad. Wonder if he knows his son is probably a fa-”

And one day Billy comes home happy. And i’d encourage you to really think about that and just enjoy it for as long as you can because Billy is happy. So happy he’s beaming. He feels like he’s glowing from the inside. He forgets that anyone other than Steve even exists. For a second he forgets his own existence, he’s so enamored and infatuated and near obsessed, really. Because he spent the whole afternoon with the boy, which isn’t necessarily a rare occurrence but it’s always an exceptional one, and today was especially joyful because something about their mutual existence just felt so…. So good. Yeah they had sex in the camaro like the teenagers they are and then again in Hansen’s field because it’s fucking massive and Hansen’s away on some trip and they blasted hippie music and fucked in a field of flowers and pretended like they were at Woodstock just existing in the skin of the other like they were made for it. Like they were made to share each other’s bodies and they were finally completing their infinite and perpetual task. And Billy would never be able to say these words or perhaps even string them together but it’s about the feeling.

Because that’s just the feeling he has. The nameless feeling.

And they fucked and they thought about smoking and they thought about drinking but they stayed high on each other and that was enough. They were laying there among the daisies happier than anything else in existence and Billy’s not even sure why. But they laid there and Billy felt the sun lay a large blanket of the softest warmth right over him and he absolutely reveled in it, allowing his hand to grace Steve’s fingers and then he rolled over to lay his head on Steve’s shoulder and he can’t believe he does that without feeling like a stupid fucking sissy but… but Steve’s always there. Always always always there. Stronger than he looks and warm and supportive and there. And Steve started to curl some of Billy’s hair around his finger and Billy pretended to bite at him like he was irritated and Steve whispered something about love and you and me and California and after graduation… i should have enough money by then. Let’s do it. Just you and me.

And Billy’s whole world froze. Froze in warmth, incubated in love, goddamn teeming with adoration as he got up on his elbows and evaluated Steve’s face just to be sure it wasn’t a joke and saw that it wasn’t and absolutely 100% beamed. Because the words and Steve’s eyes and the warmth of the sun on his back painted, stroke by stroke, the image of the two of them in California. On the beach. In the soft sand. Enjoying the sunlight. Playing in the waves. Billy teaching Steve how to surf, Billy dragging Steve under the boardwalk, Billy and Steve getting sticky with popsicles and soft serve and fresh watermelon and strawberries, Billy rollerskating hand in hand with Steve just like he used to watch all those couples do back when he was 9 years old and questioning everything. Billy and Steve existing freely. Openly and honestly. It can only have gotten better. He’s sure of it. It can only get better from this stupid hick town. He knows it.

He needs it.

And so they make out some more and the rest of the afternoon is a whirlwind up until he’s got Steve pressed up against the Camaro making out with him on that backroad and then again in front of Steve’s house and he’s letting his skin light up over every little promise of you and me in California… that Steve whispers into his skin, his ears, his mouth...

He feels fucking invincable.

He walks into his house with a forcefield. A smile he never sports. A bounce in his step he never maintains. Goddamn happiness. Not even just confidence, it’s pure bliss on his face and not even Neil’s ugly mug can ruin it. Not even Neil storming down the hall, electricity following his path, can ruin it. Not even Neil scowling, glaring daggers, lip snarled, teeth bared, can ruin it. Not even whatever gross, growling worlds Neil is spitting his way can ruin it.

Billy is blissed out on the future and the idea of pure bliss with a boy he thinks he knows he loves that he doesn’t feel it until even moments after. He doesn’t see it til it’s over. He doesn’t know it til he can’t defend himself. He doesn’t care until he does.

It’s a mistake.

When Billy thinks back on it afterwards, after everything, he heaves and hisses and snarls at his past, blissed out self. He wants to punch himself in the face for such a mistake. This is a lesson he learned years ago. Back when it all first started. Back when he was so young.

But current Billy is blissed all the way up until his world flashes black. Until his ears ring. Until his hand flies to his face of its own accord to press at the pain to get it to stop. Second nature.

“You stupid fucking homo.”

And Billy’s vision bleeds red. It’s anger, it’s rage, it’s betrayal. His vision tunnels with vitriol. With scorn. Fight or flight kicks in and every smart part of Billy is yelling run but the dumber, closer, stronger parts say fuck him fuck him fuck him I don’t deserve this.

So his fist swings, rearing back and surging forward. Animalistic nature.

He thinks he makes purchase, but if he’s honest, the rest is a too quick blur. A mess of motion. Someone presses fast-forward on his VHS tape. The moments bleed together.

It’s a montage of angered words. Words beyond anger. Words that poison his system. Words like “homo” and “fag” and “disgrace” and “military school” and Billy checks in right there because-

“You’re going to military school, you worthless piece of shit.”

Billy spits in the man’s face. Longtime craving.

And then the world blacks out again. It’s blurrier now. His face is warm. There’s liquid gushing out. His wrist is sore and the ground is being taken out from beneath him and he realizes he’s being grabbed and pulled and then dragged because his body is feeling weak. Call it a mix of everything.

And he’s being dragged to his room and the world shatters when they cross the threshold because this place is the only place in this damn house he feels somewhat safe in. And he feels himself hit the ground heavily, right in front of his mirror. Feels himself being pulled up to be seated. Hears a rustling. Hears a weirdly familiar sound his mind can’t process. Sees something metal in the mirror before his hair is being grabbed and pulled taught and then there’s slack and the pressure is gone and-

“How could you fucking do this to me?”

More hair pulling, more growling, more yelling, some spit.

“You’ve been running around with that prissy boy. How long, huh?”

Then there’s slack and-

“Everyone talks about you two. Disgusting.”

Pulling pulling pulling pulling… something tickling his arms.

“Saw you two… outside his house, huh? You’re a disgrace.”

Wetness. Billy’s face is wet. His eyes burn. His throat burns. There’s slack again.

“You’re going to military school. Tomorrow. You’re out of here.”

Pulling and sawing and yanking and slack. Over and over and over and over-

“Hope I never see you again, you fag.”

Billy sobs. It wrenches through his chest. Pulling and slack, pulling and slack, over and over and-

It stops. Billy’s weak. His body is shutting down. It must be. It feels like it. The vision in the mirror is blurry but he knows the damage that’s been done. He can tell. He can feel. There’s nothing touching his shoulders anymore. Nothing against his neck. Something tickles down his arms. He shakes, weakly moving his hand to swipe the feeling away from his arms and grabs at tufts of hair.

There’s that ugly fucking mug, right in his face. It’s a strange look he wears. Billy’s vision is blurred. His lip snarls upward. Instinct.

“Where did I go wrong?”

The words are whispered in his face on hot breath. They hang in the air between them.

Billy shatters.

The door shuts loudly. Another door shuts after that. A car starts. Billy’s still sitting on the floor.

His muscles in his legs begin to contract, and then his arms. His vision clears and sharpens. He pushes himself up off the floor, avoids looking in the mirror, walks up next to it to his stereo, moves to turn on the radio…. Auto-pilot.

Music fills the room. Lilts through the air. Cuts through the humidity of the once cool night. The altercation warmed everything up. Must have.

There’s the sound of a keyboard and the plucking of a guitar. A familiar rhythm. It flows out of his stereo and through the room like it has a life of its own. It’s a spectral kind of presence, slinking out of the speakers, lurking in the corners, filling up the forgotten spaces with its haunting rhythm. Billy turns the music up louder. Stands in front of the stereo. Lets the music consume his space. Exist with him until they can’t co-habitate.

The chord gets more complicated. The chord runs. Billy’s feet feel like they’re going to betray him and let him fall through the floor. His head feels like it’s in another realm. A mirrored realm of darkness and vines… a world teeming with threats that wouldn’t think twice of making attempts on his life.

He sways in place.

When the voice starts his feet move. They betray his thoughts but they don’t compromise his balance, necessarily. He’s moving backwards.

Every time that I look in the mirror….

He can’t.

All these lines on my face getting clearer…

He knows he can’t. Not if he wants to keep his sanity. His breath gets shorter. His head is dizzy just from moving, even though he’s slow. Maybe it’s because he’s going backwards.

The past is gone

His head betrays him now. Swings itself over the edge- looks over to the left.. Billy’s eyes take a second to focus but it’s only an instant after that before his hands shoot up to his head. Grab at tiny curls. Grab at randomly long tufts. Grab at whatever they can reach which is almost nothing.

He’s shaking. His hand is shaking as his fingers grasp with a kind of desperation Billy has never known but is suddenly wracking his body in a way that overwhelms every piece of him until he’s nothing but fingers grasping for what should be where they’re reaching but is nowhere to be seen. He can’t see anything but himself in the mirror. The world blacks out but him and the mirror. His feet are still moving him somewhere. He’s looking at the mirror at an awkward angle.

He hits the couch in his room. His fingers clench and unclench. He flops down onto it.

It went by like dusk to dawn...

Clenching and unclenching until his fingers get sore and he slams his hands onto the couch to stop thinking about it but how can he when his… his reflection...

Isn’t that the way?

He’s grabbing at his blanket beneath him harshly. He fists it and his mouth opens in a grimace and his eyebrows furrow so hard his head hurts and his lip shakes and…

Everybody’s got their dues in life to pay~…

The voice is rising and the music is rising and the specter fills up the space with something passively threatening, something that gently nudges Billy’s shoulders, something that presses at Billy’s head, something present.

Billy’s fisting hard at the blanket. His fingers are sore. He pulls at it. His finger slips into a moth hold or two. The voice reaches the top, along with the guitar and then they both topple over the peak and there’s the sound of a rip and something under Billy gives out. He pulls harder, hearing more tears, fingers dipping into the rips he’s created in his blanket.

I know nobody knows… where it comes and where it goes

Billy looks down at his fists tearing his blanket and they stop, pull away… thoughtless. His hands shake to do something, maybe grab at his aching head and they do, he does- no, they do, his hands do, but they feel uneven tufts of curls and it’s a jolt. His brain shocks itself. He pulls his hands away with a cry because what is this. He’s become alien to himself. He sees the mirror in front of him but he’s not sure who he sees in it. It’s not him.

I know it’s everybody’s sin…. You’ve got to lose to know, how to win…

The music is with him. Towering over him. The presence is daunting. Feels like it’s challenging him to something as a separate chord climbs and falls as soon as it starts. The spectre falls down. Settles with him. Next to him. He stands. He’s unsettled. Nothing in the mirror is right nothing is right nothing is right. He shoves the flat part of his knuckles on his thumbs into his eyes to fix it, fix something, fix this image that doesn’t feel right. Fix this creature he doesn’t recognize. His mind is swimming.

He walks around the room. He’s not sure if this is easier or harder than before, but he still stumbles.

Half my life’s in books’ written pages… Lived and learned from fools and from sages…

He tucks his chin into his chest, his knuckles still pressed to his eyes, the world black and scattered with the spots he’s pressing into them. His stomach is twitching with sobs that meet up in his throat and push out of his mouth. They’re small. That same droning chord is persistent, rising and filling up into the room, aiming to devour him in something. Drown him.

You know it’s true-

The end grows into a growl and takes with it a feeling that’s animalistic. The specter grows feral. Billy opens his eyes.

His chest heaves. His eyes burn as they water. His mouth twists up in misery. Because he sees it. There. At his feet. Under his boots. He’s fucking stepping on it.

All the things…

His hair. In curly tufts on the ground beneath his feet and in front of them.

Come back to you…

He’s stepping on it.

He looks up and he recognizes his face now and he… he…. He’s….

He’s distraught.

And he rounds on absolutely anything he can reach. Whatever is in arm’s distance behind him and it happens to be his lamp and he grabs it and he throws it with all his might to the ground and-

Sing with me, sing for the year-

-and it shatters. His mind is racing and he has no thoughts past the music. The presence is dark. It’s a shadow. It’s all around him. It’s in his vision.

-sing for the laughter and sing for the tear...

He’s swinging. His eyes are blurry from his own hot tears and they sear his cheeks as he grabs at whatever he can- vaguely registers the necks of bottles and the grooves of records against his palm and beneath his fingertips as he hashes through the world around him, trying to tear through the shadows consuming him and the tears are flooding everything out and he’s just swinging and smashing and-

Sing with me, it’s just for today… maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away~

He’s swinging and crashing and smashing like he’s being challenged. Threatened.. Whatever exists in this room with him is menacing. Malevolent. Feeding off his pain. Sipping it through his tears. He punches the wall and then the drums hit and they stop and the guitar is back and-

“Billy?”

It’s a voice. Billy’s sure it’s his own somehow. Sure it’s the song somehow. Sure it’s this presence somehow, whatever is it, floating through the chords of the song like a friend seeking a kill.

“B-Billy? I… Uhm…. Please stop.”

It’s small. Feminine. Familiar. Shaking.

“Please don’t hur-.... You’re going to hurt yourself.”

Maxine.

Billy strides to the door and throws it open. The violent thud it makes as the knob hits the wall fills something in Billy’s chest. It springs more tears in his eyes. His chest is sobbing.

“Billy?”

There’s something Billy can’t place in Max’s eyes. If his mind were even a tad clearer he thinks he’d recognize it… categorize it under worry or concern or care or even something deeper...

But the guitar chord hits a high note and the shadow specter of the music seeps into his mind and he’s a husk.

The chorus picks up again, singing about singing and Billy is standing there looking at this tiny red head standing in his way and she’s blurred by his tears and-

“Billy, what are you doing-”

“Mind your damn business, Maxine.”

“What happened-?”

“Mind your business.”

The music is rising. It fills Billy’s throat.

“Did… did he-? Do…?”

“Do what?” Billy spits down at Max, leaning over her, invading her space. Max’s eyes flood with fear and it makes Billy step back. The shadows of the song step away. He sees through the blur to find the girl.

“Do that?” She asks, voice small and soft and shaking and weak. Eyes filling with tears of their own and it fills Billy’s gut with bile and he’s so sick of it. So sick of everything. Thinks he might be sick. So fucking done. Broken. Feral.

Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away~

Billy’s eyes are filling. He glares as hard as he can while his eyelids are all mushy and swollen.

“Get out of my way, Maxine.”

She’s cowering.

“What are you gonna do?”

“Just get out of my way.” He growls and takes his arm and shoves and she stumbles back and the music is building and then he’s storming down the hallway, punching the walls and cracking every picture frame he passes and the voice is following him, sounding just as loud to him in the hallway as it did to him in his room as it chants-

Dream on… dream on… dream on… dream yourself a dream come true~

And he throws pillows off the couch and shatters a lamp on the ground with a shove and his blurry eyes search fervently for what he wants as the guitar wails and runs down and-

Dream on… dream on…. Dream on… dream until your dream come through~

And the guitar gets darker and he’s got it. Grabs it off the mantle. Looks as steadily as he can with shaking and blurry eyes at this thing in his hands. This picture frame... with their stupid family in it. This stupid thing they call family to convince others. It never convinced him. He’s not sure how it could have convinced anyone. His tears are so hot on his face they feel like they’re boiling and his nose is leaking and his saliva is runny and his chest is heaving and he’s-

“Billy?”

He’s thunder. He’s lightning and he’s rain. The music followed him down the hallway and follows him with heavier footsteps back up as the voice screams on with-

Dream on… dream on… dream on… dream on…

And each chant sees Billy taking the frame in his hands and slamming the corner of it into the wall of the hallway as he walks, goes back to his room, ignores Max as she cries to him some kind of garbled nonsense and the music is filling his shoes like a dark puddle and his eyes are drowned.

And the voice that was once singing is now screeching into the air, into the corners of his room, into the darkest parts and Billy looks at the stupid faces of these stupid people he’s been forced to love and thinks of how the only happiness in his life is going to be taken away from him and probably has been permanently taken away now because he’s fucking hideous with bruises and almost no hair and he’s wailing. Deep from his chest, right alongside the voice from the stereo, hurling the picture frame at his mirror blindly as he screams and hitting his target and hearing a loud crack as it shatters and he’s just screaming. Everything inside of him rising and bubbling and boiling over and over and over some more and he’s sure his body will never settle. He’ll never know peace. His mind and his body and his heart will never rest like it did this afternoon in that field with the warm sun and the blue sky and a love underneath him that was all his own for once for fucking once in his miserable life and he opens his eyes and he’s disgusted he’s a disgrace, he’s bruised and bloody and nearly bald and his fingers and knuckles are bruised and bleeding and in that cracked mirror is the most miserable version of himself and he can’t bear to look.

Sing with me-

He grabs the mirror.

Sing for the year-

He throws it to the ground. It covers his fallen hair.

Sing for the laughter-

He stomps it with his boot. Hot tears stain the toes of his shoe.

Sing for the tear-

He reaches for his bedsheets. He needs to take a few steps to get there.

Sing with me-

He tears at them, ripping all the way down. As far as he can.

Just for today.

His chest heaves. He rounds on his makeshift vanity. Swings his arms violently until it’s all on the ground as his feet, discarded and broken and cracked.

Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away-

He looks up from the ground. Up to Max, who’s hugging the door frame and shaking, watching with horror or what Billy thinks must be the equivalent. Something equivalent to it. The music and it’s guitar and the specter it’s conjured up is still rising, expanding, residing in every space of the room, pushing Billy out of the space and he’s struggling, fighting, mind getting so nervous and worried as it looks at Max that it needs to look away, needs to distract.

The song repeats itself as he reaches and throws and rips and tears everything in sight. Posters, picture frames, books, cassettes. He steps on everything, smashes everything, tears pour out and out and out, his mind is running and racing and throbbing in pain in hurt in worry in all of its unease and he picks up a hand weight and rounds towards the window and chucks it as hard as he can and-

The sound of the shattering of the window breaks everything. Breaks any resolve still left within him. Lets the shadow and spectre of the music out and into the night as the room is pitched into a bitter and unforgiving chill. Let’s all of Billy’s breath out of his lungs as he heaves and heaves and heaves like he’s going to hurl. He stands there, looking at the window, pictures something faint and distant and at one time hopeful in his mind before he turns around to Max and it’s just music now, the last of the words have been sung, and he mutters a dark and languid and miserable:

“Don’t wait up for me.”

And then he strides to the window and steps on the small table he has in front of it and jumps out and walks into the unfriendly night, a storm. More than a husk. Once again a human. At least, feeling something closer to human.

And then it’s just Max. She rushes to the window, the music turning into a haunting kind of alarm that doesn’t seem alert or at all worried or hurried or serious. A lazy alarm that warns you of an error in the system. She stands in front of the broken window, exposed to the cold, cutting her hand on the glass in her hurry to watch after Billy, watch as he leaves, watch as he stomps his way out of their house and out to the street and down the street and she’s crying. Her mind is spinning. Her face is heavy with tears and sorrow and fear. Her heaving subsides slowly as the music does.

She’s alone in this house. Truly alone. Not even the presence of Billy lingers like usual.

And then she runs to the phone to do the only thing she can think of- she dodges the carnage strewn across their house and runs to the phone and calls the only person she can think to call. The only person she thinks will for sure be able to help him from doing something crazy like leaving with nothing but the clothes on his back and whatever random cash he carries in his pocket.

Another song starts up slowly. The phone picks up.

“Jim Hopper speaking.”

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traumatized-motherfuckers · 3 years

Text

Friendship Dissolutions; A Lesson in Asshole Trauma Reactions

So this is normally my school day, but I’m feeling the need to dig into something else this morning. The past events of this weekend, annnnd the past nearly two years. Because, if you hadn’t heard, relationships are hard and I like to embarrass myself by telling you about all my fuck ups.

You know, romantic relationships are a disaster for yours truly, but I always thought I was pretty good at the friendship thing. Since high school I’ve almost always had robust friendly relationships - both in depth and breadth. With the exception of a few difficult points in my life since 16, my phone has never been quiet, my weekends have only been isolating when I’ve been isolating myself, and I’ve always felt like I had humans on my side who were closer to kin than my actual family.

The thing is, there have been periods when this hasn’t been the case. I want to say that it’s generally when I’m in my worst mental health downfalls, but I don’t think that’s universally true. There have been variable reasons for separating myself from other people, or vice versa. Sometimes getting too busy, sometimes naturally growing apart, sometimes getting too obsessed with a romantic partner.

But, taking a more analytical view, underlying my lost friendship events, trauma has often been one of the influences that corrupted my friendships and left me lonely, even if it doesn’t seem like it at face value. The thing is, the trail of breadcrumbs might go back 20 years or so. I might not have been in a full-blown trauma state at the time, but those early life non-learnings about relationships have left their mark. So, yes, I do believe that CPTSD is the prerequisite for interpersonal disruptions and we’re not alone in that.

Anyways, in this Fucker’s life, for the past almost 2 years I’ve been in one of those friendship lulls. I’ve had casual friends, roommates, work-associates, distant relationships, some of those hey-how’s-it-going-every-two-months relations. But I haven’t had those deep, rich, all-encompassing friendships that used to define my existence. The ones that used to make me feel safe enough to have an existence, at all.

It’s all because I lost my core group of friends, I didn’t understand and couldn’t fix the problem, and I had no idea how to move forward.

And this last time when I lost everyone I loved, it was definitely due to trauma. Acute, historical, and recovering trauma, to be specific. It was a horrible period of my life, I was a human wrecking ball, and I had no emotional control… because, partially thanks to said friends, I never had to develop those skills.

Basically, I’ve been on my own since a whole series of mental health related isolation events and relationships dissolutions that have persisted since - I want to say 2019 - but to be more holistic, the ship started sailing earlier than that. Like, when I was born.

This has all come to mind more than usual because, this weekend? I had a strange rush of humans back into my life. For the first time in a long time, I saw my best, closest, most important old friends, who were closer to siblings…. In our natural habitat, with our normal friendship routines, with hundreds of memories from the past decade flying around the room.

And today… or, realistically, since I tried to go to sleep after seeing them each day this weekend… I have the relationship reckoning to deal with. The emotional and cognitive processing of everything that’s happened. The lost years. The sense of abandonment. The feeling of being cast out of a family. The inkling that everyone was talking about me. The realization that I was acting a fool, and maybe they should be talking about me. The sense that all parties were partially responsible, but I was the one to blame. The voice in my head that has called me a crazy, miserable, unlovable mess the entire time I debated this at 6am and 6pm and 3am for the past several years.

And now, in the aftermath, I have to work through the dynamic cocktail of feelings, the sense of waiting for the other shoe, and the big decision - are these relationships that I feel secure pursuing again?

And I don’t think I’m alone in this one.

So, today I thought it would be good to talk about this. The history of losing my favorite people on the planet, how I perceived it at the time, how I see my own trauma-actions fucking shit up in hindsight, how I’ve forgiven myself for being such a wild one, and… well… my hesitancy to have close friendships with humans who hurt me in the past. The ways I realized that being separate was beneficial to my mental health and life progress. The self-sabotaging enablement patterns that I now recognize, ran deep, in our old group of friends. The fear that being around them again will let my trauma brain run away with me.

Woo - it’s a whole personal relationship reckoning over here. Let’s just do this, so I can get to my school work at some point soon.

History

So let me set up this situation. You need the background details, of which, there are many dramatic twists and turns.

Be me, Spring of 2019. My romantic relationship with my ex in Atlanta - the musical narcissist that I followed to the city - is going terribly. Since we moved things have been rocky, but now our relationship has been pumped full of disappointment, unfair expectations, emotional codependency, resentment, horrific fighting, and abuse of all colors. Every day is a battle. We’re rarely ever “happy” together. We’re closer to enemies than friends. And we live under the same roof - the one his parents bought for him, outright in cash - to make matters even more fun.

Other than him, I’m alone in this city. I work at the brewery, where no one really likes me. I have one friend from work, but little time to interact thanks to the demanding schedule of my ex with his gigs and out-of-state child visitation.

Financially, my savings have been depleted by floating my significant other’s horrible decisions for the past 2 years. We can never get ahead. He never pays me back for anything. I’m basically in his pocket, as far as needing resources to survive.

As you can imagine, and as I’ve described previously, my mental health is in THE SHITTER. Maybe worse than it’s ever been, although this is hard to judge against some of my earlier years in my 20’s. I’m definitely ramped up in an aggressive and defensive trauma state more than ever before, thanks to living with my aggressor every day. I feel like I’m surviving against the will of my partner, who seems to legitimately be doing his best to drive me into an early grave every single time the sun rises. He’s moved into the territory of intentionally triggering me for hours on end, upsetting me to the point of mental breakdowns, and then gaslighting me for “acting so crazy.” Things have become dangerous, I have no one to turn to, and no cash to get myself into a better situation… not that I know what a better situation even looks like.

But one day, I left. Packed my two bags, went to work, wound up at that single sort-of-friend’s house, never went back home.

And that’s when the real nightmare started. I mean, my ex was a terror over time as we lived together, but a narcissist scorned is a narcissist determined to ruin your fucking life. He harassed me daily via text, phone call, FB messenger, email, stalkings… whatever you can think of. When I blocked him on everything, he started trying to leverage our therapists against me until they refused to interact anymore. He wouldn’t let me into his house to get my stuff. He tried to have me arrested for attempting to do so, after he made arrangements with me to move that weekend. He suddenly refused to even acknowledge that he owed me a dime, and found a way to tally up venmo transactions to show that I actually owed him. He took my only support - our dog, who was really my dog - away and wouldn’t let me see him. Later, he reported my car stolen, so I had to purchase a new one without warning.

The list goes on and on. Just, assume every pathetic, cruel, desperate attempt at getting under someone’s skin and reminding them that they had the audacity to leave you. That’s what was going on in my world.

Meanwhile, with those financial and social pressures I mentioned earlier. No close friends in the area, no spare cash, an unstable job where I was on the chopping block for the reason of “the CEO didn’t like my personality,” nowhere to live, no idea where to go next or how to start a whole new life.

Annnnnd this is right about when my closely knit friend group back in Illinois sort of, well, dipped.

My bestest, best, most treasured friend in my lifetime had always been there for me. But now, she wasn’t. We had exchanged a handful of phone calls over the past month in the aftermath of this relationship ending, but she had been pretty detached from it. I wasn’t offended, because she had certainly heard enough of the drama in real time… of course she was tired of hearing about it... but I was feeling especially alone and incapable of handling everything on my own, so the distance was difficult, nevertheless. Then, one day she told me that I was being too much for her. I had too high of expectations. It had been bothering her for a while. She needed me to understand and give her some space.

And this was the completely avoidable beginning of the end of my friendships. Let’s talk about why.

How I perceived it

So, I’m pretty sure you can guess how I took this challenging message from my best friend. Uh, poorly. I was so shocked that in my darkest hour, my comrade would feel like my problems were out of her paygrade. It felt like a stab to the heart and straight down through the gut. Here I was, completely alone and isolated, reaching back to my most trusted companions for a lifeline to keep my head above water, and… nothing. She didn’t want to reel me back into the boat.

I responded with some shitty messages about how I really wasn’t asking that much from her and I didn’t appreciate being blindsided by her sudden decision to get rid of me. I had only taken up a few phone calls to talk things through based on her schedule. I had visited her one weekend as I went to a job interview nearby. I had asked her to come visit me soon, so I could feel less alone for a few days. I didn’t think it was fair that she was responding this way. I couldn’t believe she would turn her back on me at this particular moment.

And so, the rift developed. We stopped speaking. I started sobbing. I was absolutely beside myself, as if I hadn’t already been. This wasn’t what I wanted, at all, but I also felt like I had no control in it.

.......

Like it? Well I’m too lazy to post the whole thing here. Check t-mfrs.com for the full blog AND the podcast recorded version. Yawelcome.

www.t-mfrs.com

(Traumatized Motherfuckers)

#cptsd #cptsd problems #actually CPTSD #cptsdsurvivor #just cptsd things #Complex Trauma #complexptsd #complextrauma #complextraumarecovery #healingcomplextrauma

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spookysweet-heart · 3 years

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Christmas Story Submission: The Perfect Pair and the Wearable Chair

Note: I'm not good at writing fluff, I'm normally a comedy or horror writer, but I tried my best. I'm sorry about the length! I'd insert a "read more" line if I could! Anyways, tried to make this gender neutral! Enjoy!

***

It was the morning of Christmas Eve, and it was quiet...Okay, no it wasn’t.

Granted, the last few Christmases and Christmas Eves were anything but quiet thanks in part, but actually in full, to your goofball of a boyfriend. One would think that a banshee-siren-like monster like Mare would be more threatening and more serious...like an actual mare. However, if you told that to Mare, he’d accuse you of stereotyping spirits, which only further confused people on why he would call himself Mare when he wasn’t even actually a mare. He still wouldn’t tell you what exactly he was though.

That’s besides the point, the actual point was that Mare was a goofball. Now sure he could be threatening and scary at times when it was necessary; afterall, you still had no idea what happened to the guy that broke into your apartment and stole all your holiday cookies and chocolate. Still, there were times when you legitimately wondered how someone like Mare was capable of being a threat when sometimes he couldn’t even sit in a chair properly. As a result, you were used to something weird happening every year during the holidays.

Moving along though, you were awoken this Christmas Eve morning to the sound of a crash followed by a series of noises that sounded like a plate or something shattering on the floow. Your eyes shot open and you let out a low groan as your mind started to fully awaken. Truth be told, you had been half awake since Mare got up half an hour ago. You thought he had gotten up to go to the bathroom or something and figured he would return shortly and you could cuddle with him a bit longer before waking up. When he didn’t return after five minutes, you heard him go downstairs, so you thought he was gonna make coffee. You figured you could maybe get another half hour of sleep before Mare would try waking you up with his usual method of kissing and tickling you.

The sound of a crash was definitely not something you wanted to wake up to, but it was definitely something that you did wake up to more than any normal person really should. Begrudgingly and with a pout painted on your lips, you rolled out of bed, half literally and half metaphorically. Slipping into your unicorn slippers, a Christmas present that was gifted to you by one of Mare’s brothers last year, you slowly but surely made your way downstairs.

Once in the kitchen, you saw Mare on the ground wiping up the hot chocolate that he had spilled on the floor. Clearing your throat to get his attention, he turned to you and gave a sheepish smile.

“Uh, I tripped.” he said.

Raising an eyebrow, you shook your head. He was lying.

“Tripped, or fell?” you asked pointing to what he was wearing.

And what was he wearing you may ask?

“Uh, okay, maybe I did fall, but-”

“Are you seriously still wearing that stupid wearable chair?” you asked cutting him off.

You made a mental note to somehow get back at Anti for giving your boyfriend such a weird and dumb invention. Ever since he had gotten it, Mare would use it as often as he could. One time he even tried tying his victim to it...it didn’t work out.

“It’s not stupid! It’s-” Mare tried to argue.

“It’s the chair of the future, I know I know!” you said finishing his sentence that you had heard probably a hundred times.

Rolling your eyes, you grabbed another few paper towels before you got on the floor with Mare who stopped to watch.

“You really need to be careful with that thing, you might hurt yourself.” you said softly as you finished wiping up the mess.

“Uh...Actually,” Mare gave a small, shy smile, “I kinda bumped my head when I fell.” he said through a light chuckle as he shifted positions to sit on the floor.

“Why am I not surprised?” you said failing to stop the smile that was forming on your lips.

“Can you kiss it better?” Mare asked looking up at you with puppy dog eyes.

You rolled your eyes before scooting over to him. Getting yourself on your knees, you placed your hands on his shoulders and looked at the spot on his head that he was pointing at. Leaning it to kiss that spot, you found yourself being pulled towards Mare’s lips instead because only he would pull something like that. He wrapped an arm around you as you kinda just melted into the kiss.

Pulling away, you looked at Mare’s eyes which seemed to be full of hearts.

“You’re a dork.” you said as you rolled your eyes lightly.

“Yeah, but I’m your dork!” Mare corrected with a huge smile now painting itself on his face.

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” you murmured softly as you started to get up.

Mare grabbed your hand in protest and attempted to pull you back down to him for another kiss.

“Wait, one more kiss!” he argued.

You pouted and placed a finger on his lips, “No more kisses till after I brush my teeth!” you said laughing.

It was Mare’s turn to pout as he watched you get up. Offering him your hand, you helped him back onto his feet before you went back upstairs to the bathroom. After brushing your teeth and fixing your bedhead, you threw on a flannel as a sweater and headed back to the kitchen where Mare was placing hot chocolate and cookies on the table.

“Did you get those from the bakery?” you asked through a yawn.

“Yup! Went over there this morning and got the last batch!” Mare replied happily.

A few Christmases ago, Mare had actually almost burned the kitchen down trying to make you your favorite Christmas cookies. You appreciated the gesture, you really did, but you really didn’t enjoy having to fight a fire on Christmas. Luckily for you, you were able to save the kitchen, but you couldn’t save the cookies...or the oven. After that, Mare was never allowed to bake again, and if he wanted to get you cookies, he opted to go to the little family owned bakery that was a short walk away.

“They’re your favorite!” Mare exclaimed as he motioned you to the table.

“Really? Yessss!” you squealed as you hurried over.

Before you could take a cookie from the plate, Mare stopped you.

“Waaaaiitttt!” he whined as he grabbed your hand.

“Whaaaaat?” you asked mimicking his tone turning to him slightly annoyed.

Letting go of your hand, he wrapped his arm around your waist and pulled you close to him with a wide grin on his face.

“Mistletoe!” he declared as his other hand held a piece of mistletoe above both your heads.

“Really?” you asked with a quizzical look.

“Yes! Now kiss me!” he insisted as he leaned in towards you.

You giggled before kissing him back. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you pulled him closer as you again sank into the kiss as it deepened. When you pulled away, those hearts from before were back in Mare’s eyes.

“Yay!” he sang happily.

You just smirked at him before you sat down and started to eat cookies. Mare, with the wearable chair because he still had that thing on for some reason, sat across from you, watching you happily.

Catching his look of adoration, you raised an eyebrow at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” you asked trying, and failing, to hide the blush was creeping up on your cheeks.

“I love you!” he answered cheerily.

Letting out a small laugh, you looked at him and smiled, “I love you too.” you responded softly.

Taking a sip of your hot chocolate, you mused and took in the sound of the soft Christmas music that was playing from the TV.

“You know, I’m really surprised you haven’t set anything on fire. It’s almost like a Christmas miracle!” you half joked.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Mare objected through a chuckle.

“Well…” you hummed, “I mean, our first Christmas together, you somehow set the tree on fire-”

“That wasn’t my fault! The guy who sold me the lights didn’t tell me that they were super old!”

“Then the next Christmas you somehow almost set the porch on fire with a flamethrower.”

“I was trying to melt the ice so you wouldn’t have to worry about slipping on it!”

“And let’s not forget about the kitchen fire last year.”

“I just wanted to make you cookies!”

You giggled, and then paused. Mare really a knack for somehow setting things on fire.

“Okay, well I did those things because I wanted to do something nice for you!” Mare said with a sad look.

“I know, and I love you because of it.” you reassured him as you took his hand in yours, “but if you set something on fire this year, I’m gonna lose my mind.” you added with a serious tone.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that! I promise nothing crazy will happen this year!” Mare said confidently.

You smirked, “You literally fell from the roof five times while putting lights up.” you called out.

“Yeah, but I didn’t set anything on fire!” Mare argued, “Plus, I’m determined to make this the perfect Christmas for you!” he added as his face beamed of hope and cheer.

You just nodded and took a sip of hot chocolate. Mare was being way too cheery today, it was kinda weirding you out. Peeking at your boyfriend again, you realized how well he was sitting at the table really well with that wearable chair.

“You know, you’re really getting the hang of that chair aren’t you?” you pointed out as you got up to put your cup away.

“Sure am!” Mare said proudly.

“I still wish you would just sit on a regular chair though.” you said with your back to him.

“But why? Regular chairs are boring! Besides, this chair is perfect for getting into position.”

“Into what position? Into a falling position?” you joked as you put the cup in the sink.

As if on queue, you heard your boyfriend slip and fall to the ground, most likely due to the chair’s legs giving up when he shifted positions.

“Mare!” you screamed in surprise as you quickly turned around to help him up.

You paused when you saw Mare on the floor. The way he fell made it so he landed on one knee.

“Mare?” you asked quietly.

He looked up with a sly smile.

“What are you-” you began to ask cautiously.

“Like I said, this chair is perfect for getting into position.” Mare said as he got out a small box from his pocket.

Opening the box, you saw a diamond ring that sparkled brightly.

“Oh my god…” you said quietly.

“I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I want to spend every Christmas and every day with you. I know I’ve messed up more than a few times, and I want to make it up to you if you’ll have me. Will you-”

“Yes! Oh my god, yes!” you cut him as you dove into his arms and hugged him so tightly that you swear his bones would’ve cracked if he was human.

You were almost crying as Mare put the ring on your finger; you were so overwhelmed, the diamond was huge.

“Do you like it?” Mare asked.

“I love it!” you said as you stared at the ring in complete and utter wonder.

How Mare was able to afford such a big ring was beyond you. It looked like something from a jewelry catalogue. In fact, you could’ve sworn that saw this exact ring on a celebrity news story from a few days ago-

You paused with realization.

“Mare.”

“Yes?”

“Did you kill someone for this ring?”

Mare looked like a kid who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Uh…” Mare immediately grabbed your shoulders and turned you around to face the living room, “Hey look carolers! GUYS THAT’S YOUR QUEUE!” he shouted.

The door to your apartment swung open and Mare’s brothers and some of the Iplier and Septic egos bursted into the room in Santa hats and reindeer headbands singing carols. However, they didn’t seem to agree what carol they were singing since almost everyone was singing a different one. You sank into confusion as you started to accept the reality of the situation; the reality being that you were engaged with a gorgeous million dollar ring on your finger that Mare got from probably killing someone.

Then one of the ego carolers had their light up santa hat combust into flames.

“HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN???” Mare shouted in dismay as he ran to get a fire extinguisher.

Fin

#spookys holiday contest #1000brightstars #nwtb merch contest #contest entry #natemare #natewantstobattle egos #youtuber egos #youtuber ego #submission

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amisbro · 3 years

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Let’s discuss: UtaPri and “factions”

So this is something that I feel has been long overdue but I held off on it for the longest time (and no not just because I couldn’t figure out the issue with my dash on this website either) but I threw my hands up and went “Screw it...WE’RE DOING IT NOW!” With that let’s discuss UtaPri and the “factions”

So we can look at this subject any # of ways and we can use the Anime in a way (especially after Season 4 which people in the fandom can’t fucking let go of to the point I still gotta hear about it) OR We can discuss this in a way with how there is becoming factions where it feels like there are more and more people wanting to have HEAVENS in the game but there is a sharp adversary to this and that causes issues OR We can discuss how ,for a year and a half, there were people like me that just wanted to see the main story updated to get more songs added (and also because the fact that the game was legitimately blocking people from finishing tasks on the missions segment) Things like this are things that have been going on now since AT LEAST 2016 and ,in my opinion, has gotten WORSE once SL became a Global game. I genuinely believe that Broccoli has unknowingly (or possibly knowingly) done things that would splinter the fanbase and KLab got thrown into the mess once Shining Live came out. It’s gone from something that has been one big family to factions of people wanting one thing but being told to basically “Shut the fuck up” by the other group Let me give you an example Shining Live came out in 2017 in Japan and then Globally in 2018. Now is the game called “Shining Live” yes but I think that was a big misstep by KLab and Broccoli because I knew in a way (and its bared out that I was right) that this was going to cause problems Why? I have felt that one of the best things to do with UtaPri was to continue the Music series in some way. We had ended on the A-Sides for QN and STARISH for season songs and then the Group songs for them. It made sense that ,when the next game came out, that we would have the continuation of that and NOT a complete reboot People forget that had there been a “Proper Music 4″ that we would have gone through the S3 B-Sides and then moved on to Season 4 and it would have more than likely started with the Duets and then have had the solos in the next Music game. The point here is that they were going to have enough songs that were “publicly available” that “Broccoli’s Rule” wouldn’t have had to come into effect. Nonetheless we got Shining Live and for the first year + we had a lot of content for the people that liked to play the events and then still please those that really...probably knew better than to play the events so we just played the main story and chilled out. Keep in mind though this was also before they instituted the “Points Shot” and the mission that maxed out at the # 50 so for a while it was a bit weird...but you understood it! Then October of 2018 happened and because of that the Collection event and the halt of “Main Story” content and I remember mentioning in the comments of one of the KLab Game Stations that I would have liked to see more “Main Story” content and that resulted in an argument with someone and that was my first real realization that there were going to start to become more “camps” like this in the future. The biggest problem is always this one with SL Again is the game called “Shining Live”? Yes it is but that doesn’t mean you should get the right to exclude content from the game JUST BECAUSE its not from “Shining Productions”! Remember kids: “Shining Live” is a “Subtitle” of a game but “Uta no Prince-Sama” is the main part of the title...excluding one part of the series literally becomes a problem then! Now one could say “Well HEAVENS doesn’t have enough songs” And yet they get new songs released (and mentioned in tweets) and yet we can’t put those songs in SL...right! I think sometimes people forget that SL doesn’t exist in the universe of UtaPri like I think you do. Like they could have literally said that HEAVENS was canonically a part of Shining Productions in SL and that would literally solve everything...now they DON’T so we go into this whole thing every time they tweet out something that involves song releases. Like you all DO realize that there were 3 groups at Maji Love Kingdom right? So therefore there were SIX songs performed outside of “Maji Love Kingdom” right? I’m making sure you are aware of this because the way KLab has marketed this game (poorly in a way) is such that you genuinely forgot that HEAVENS IS a part of the UtaPri Universe! Here is another one Here in the States we had screenings of Maji Love Kingdom. I went to the one in NJ and it was literally like walking into a morgue! Now a big part of this is that Sentai fucked up royally and didn’t send out anything to theaters that this was to be treated more like a CONCERT than a MOVIE but they didn’t so what you ended up with was a lot of people not really singing along to the songs and it was literally so DEAD that I walked out before “Encore” finished! Now one would think that ,if you had a bad experience and you wanted to talk about it, people would be more sympathetic...problem is that didn’t happen! Here is what DID happen! Apparently there was this one cat that felt they needed to do PR for Sentai and anyone that genuinely complained about it on twitter were being told by this one individual (no I will not name them but I bet you they know who they are) “Maybe your next experience will be better” Alright shut all the way the fuck up! The experience that I had (and some others apparently) LITERALLY SUCKED! I get that we were in the minority but still...if there are people that had a bad time you don’t get to act any kind of way towards them...point blank period! The reality is that yes the camp of people that had a bad time was small...we got that but at the same time those people deserved to be heard and if you negate those people that’s a problem because how do theaters get to fix their issues then? But these are things I’m talking about. We get to the point where the series here starts to get divisive because of different things. HEAVENS not being in SL is a big one because...shouldn’t fans of the group be allowed to get cards of their faves too? The other big thing we can get into is the fact that it was recently announced that there are going to be an “Animated Concert Series” starting in 2022 and first is STARISH. I think we all know (based on past performances) that they are no doubt going to give STARISH and QN this treatment and that’s fine...but you have to be lying to yourself if you think for any amount of time that Broccoli gives any fucks about HEAVENS...they don’t...they literally DO NOT CARE! If you say they do then answer me this question “Why didn’t HEAVENS get a stage event like QN and STARISH?” Or answer me this one “Why didn’t they get to perform their solos but STARISH did at 6th stage?” I mean...ANYONE with a clue knows why and its obvious. When Agematsu tweeted out a photo from the Movie of course he tweeted it out specifically of STARISH but HE don’t get put on blast for his bias? HE IS LITERALLY HARUKA’S PROXY FOR FUCK SAKES!! Let me assure you all of something: You know damn well that a lot of you really hate the fuck out of HEAVENS because if you didn’t then for FOUR YEARS (soon to be 5) you all wouldn’t have harped JUST on what happened to Otoya...nah you’d have given a fuck about Eiichi but we get it cos you all hate his guts right? Y’all love to still post your Eiichi hate and I still get to see it SOMEHOW but don’t worry cos I got a spot on the bench for all of ya That is all I needed to say here...talk to all you lovely people again soon

#uta no prince sama #HEAVENS #factions #Shining Live #6th Stage

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jackdoe · 4 years

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Karaoke Night

She-Ra and The Princesses of Power fan short story

Spoilers for She-Ra season 5

(For full effect, listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6GdsRIbTSk, you’ll know when)

----

Friday night at the underwater bar beneath Seaworthy meant Karaoke Night. At least it did now. They were trying something different.

The dimly lit room was scarcely populated though. Since the bars' untimely destruction at the hands of Princess Mermista, who graciously paid for the damages and refurbishment, the venue had gone legitimate, and ran off all the pirates and slavers.

Now it was a cozy lounge, with a live band, for the discerning gentlefolk, and, on special occasions, the discerning princess and friends that looked to relax.

Small as the crowd was it, was no less lively. Mostly it was made of of members of the Princess Alliance. At one booth sat Princess Perfuma trying and failing to teaching Scorpia how to make origami with their napkins, dew to anatomical problems.

At another was Princesses Spinnerella, Netossa, Mermista and the (Former, I promise) Pirate Seahawk, his foot up on the table, fist in the air as he recounted a harrowing tale that only Spinnerella seemed to be enjoying.

There but in the booth up against the window to the sea floor sat, in a booth forever reserved for them if requested, were the so called ‘Best Friend Squad’ Queen Glimmer, Bow, Catra, and Adora, dressed down and enjoying some much needed RnR.

“You know, I was skeptical about this place,” said Adora, “But I gotta say, Double Trouble really knows how to sell the atmosphere. You almost forget about the crushing weight of the ocean right outside the window.”

“I know!” added Bow, “And look at these coral shaped lamps!” He pointed out, and as he said there was a warmly glowing lamp in the middle of their table that was in the shape of a stalk of coral. “So fancy!”

“And the bartender is dressed like a Mermaid!” said Glimmer.

“No, I think he’s actually a mermaid.” said Adora, “Or, maybe a snake man? Definitely something with scales and a tale. What do you think Catra?...Catra?”

Adora turned to see her girlfriend was Looking nervous as her eyes darted around the room. Only after a long pause did she realize she was being addressed, “Hum, What? Oh yeah this place is great.” she said quickly.

Catra then swiftly snatched a menu up from the table and flipped it up to obscure her completely. “You think we can order Fish and Chips? I heard there was a thing called fish and chips and I wanna try it? Can we order some?”

She looked up to see in no particular order, her friends looking at her confused at slightly amused.

“I mean, you know,” Catra began, “For the table. Stop looking at me like that.”

Mercifully, the scene was interrupted by the lights of the lounge dimming even further.

Unseen musicians began to play, starting low then quickly swelling into a jazzy fanfare. Smoke billowed from the stage and the audience, few that they were began to cheer.

A single spotlight lit the stage and there stood the owner themself, Double Trouble. A microphone rose from the stage to meet them.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. Everything in between and yet unseen,” said Double Trouble, “Welcome to The Trouble Trove! Where the drinks are doubled and you can get into a little trouble, so long as it's the fun kind.” They winked at the audience who responded with applause.

“I’ll give them this,” said Catra “Double Trouble knows how to brand.”

The applause continued and Double Trouble basked in it until it subsided, “Mmm, yes my darlings I live for the applause. But tonight isn’t about me.”

There were a few sounds of dejection from the audience.

“I know. Tragic. But the stage is a big place, too big for just one being like myself, although, I do look so good on it.” Double Trouble struck a pose and was met with a few woos this time.

“No no no,” they continued “Tonight is all about you, for tonight is Karaoke night!”

“Wooo!” Glimmer was the most excited for this, she had always wanted to go out with some friends to karaoke. But what with Bow being her only friend and his crippling stage fright, it just never happened. And, you know, there was a war.

Double Trouble descended from the stage and a duteous stagehand began setting up the equipment, including a very expensive (thanks again Mermista) hollow projector which could turn the stage into any environment the imagination could conjure.

“Now, my darlings who would like to be the first to let their voices be heard tonight.”

At this, the audience began to quiet down.

“Aww, no fun!” Double Trouble pouted theatrically “Don’t be scared, we don’t judge anybody here.” they then tapped their chin “Well, not out loud at least”

Double Trouble scanned the audience as they chuckled at their one-liner. Their eyes finally fell on a familiar pair of pointy ears sticking out from behind a menu.

“Oh! oh oh oh, who is this I spy all they way by the window?” they snapped their fingers and suddenly a spotlight was shining down on Catra’s head.

She peaked out from behind her shield “Shit.”

Double Trouble skipped their way up to the table the four friends were occupying and sat on it. “Well well, my eyes don’t deceive me, it’s the kitten herself. Out for a double date? I like you’re style.”

Catra sighed, “Hi DT.”

Double Trouble smiled playfully, “Well I think we’ve got our first lucky singer!”

The blood drained from Catra’s face, “I...” She looked around at everyone, “I don’t sing.”

“Oh no fun! Come on kitten, I know you got a voice of gold hidden under all that purring.” said the changeling. They turned the microphone to her.

Catra looked to her comrades but found no help. Each of them started banging on the table, “Do it! Do it! Do it!” they chanted . Catra’s eyes finally fell on Adora. She paused her chanting for a moment to give Catra and wink and a thumbs up. Honestly, a wink and a thumbs up from Adora could give the confidence to do anything.

Even so, Catra sighed again, “Fine.” The audience cheered and Double Trouble hopped up and down. They linked arms with Catra as she got up and began to lead her to the stage.

“Give it up for our first singer tonight, folks! I’ve got the perfect song in mind for you, kitten.”

“Wait, I thought we picked our own songs?” said Catra, her nervousness mounting back up.

“Normally yes, but you’re a special case, kitten.”

Catra looked back for help one last time, but found only cheering. And Scorpia, who attempted to give Catra a thumbs up but failed dew to anatomical reasons.

She and Double Trouble made their way on stage, where the stagehand had finished his set up and slinked away backstage.

Just before Catra was handed the microphone, the changeling MC covered it for a second, “Just follow the words on the screen and if you mess up, lean into it.” They said “And always remember, sing from the diaphragm, and the heart, but really mostly the diaphragm. And if all else fails, imagine you’re naked, that always works for me.”

But Double Trouble still saw a look of apprehension on her face.

“Listen Catra, don’t think about singing to all those people. Just think about one, pick someone in the audience and sing to them.”

They winked and patted her on the upper arm, “You’re gonna do great, kitten.” and with that, they whisked themselves away to sit in their personal booth, (closest to the bar of course), and Catra was alone on stage.

Catra looked out on the audience, which was partly obscured by the lights on the stage, but still she could see Adora, who’s gold hair stood out in the dark.

The expensive hollow projector sprang to life and Catra watched as it turned the stage into a technicolor nightmare, in Catra’s opinion. The curtain turned into a rainbow wave with twinkling lights and the stage floor took on a gold diamond pattern.

Her eyes then refocused on Adora, who smiled and waved back.

'Sing to one person.' she repeated in her head. ‘ok.’

The name of the song floated down, projected on thin air.

‘Well, at least I know the words.’ thought Catra.

The music opened with the sounds of an acoustic guitar, playing the medley slowly, its only accompaniment a bass just on the edge of hearing. Soon after an electric guitar joined in to reinforce the medley, followed closely by light drums, and the music began to swell.

“Oh, I love this song!” said Perfuma, leaning into Scorpia, who responded with a gentle claw around her shoulder.

The lyrics fell before Catra’s eyes and she looked out to Adora, gave herself an inward push. ‘I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna DO IT!.’

“Twenty-five years, / And my life is still, / Trying to get up that, / Great big hill of hope,” Catra’s voice came out uneven at first, but as the music went on, her body began to sway to the rhythm, and her voice followed after. “For a destination.”

there were a few woos from the audience, two of which definitely came from Scorpia and Seahawk.

“I realized quickly / when I knew I should, / That the world was made up of a / brotherhood of man,” Catra was fully getting into it now, and much to her own surprise, she wasn’t half bad at this. “For whatever that means.”

Now came the chorus and Catra put her full body into it, clutching her hand to her chest and closing her eyes. She already knew the words, now she was gonna take DT’s advice and feel the song.

“And so I cry sometimes / When I'm lying in bed just to get it all out / What's in my head.” She shook her head as emphasis, and her voice grew as the chorus mounted. “And I, I am feeling a little peculiar.”

“And so I wake in the morning / And I step outside / And I take a deep breath and I get real high.” Catra pointed to the ceiling. “ And I scream from the top of my lungs / What's going on?”

Catra’s voice raised with the song as she belted out the chorus. No longer afraid, there was no audience, just her and one blonde. “I said hey! / What's going on?”

Bow and Glimmer were now arms over each other’s shoulders, hands in the air, swaying back and forth to the rhythm

“Hey yeah yeah! / yeahyeah, hey yeah yeah! / I said hey! / What’s going on!”

As the bridge began a series of ‘ooh’s began to float down from the sealing, but Catra instead let the music play on without her and looked out to the audience. People actually clapped a bit. True they were all members of the Princess alliance and technically her friends but it was nice to be appreciated.

Her eye’s then settled on one person in particular. Adora, sitting leaning forward, head in her hands, staring at Catra with a dreamy expression in her eyes.

“You!” Catra pointed at Adora with a smile on her face, “Get up here!”

“What! No!” Adora’s dreamy expression few away. She was now shouting over the music to be heard.

“Oh yes! If I must be embarrassed, you will be embarrassed with me. That’s the girlfriend's rules.”

Now it was adoras turn to be sheepish, but the resounding chorus of “Do It, Do It, Do It,” batted that away and she stood up “Fine!” she said, marching to the stage!

After all, She Ra must show courage in all settings, including revelry.

Adora strode on stage and stopped inches from Catra, who had the mic. Just as the lyrics started up again they both realized how close they were to each other. They had to be almost touching to use the mic at the same time.

Now they were no strangers to being close to each other, but never in front of so many people. Even if they were all friends, the situation gave Adora butterflies.

Still, she soldiered on and picked up the song.

“And I try!” sang Adora, maybe a bit too loudly. “Oh my god / Do I try! / I try all the time, / In this institution!”

“And she prays.” sang Catra.

“Oh my god do I pray! / I pray every single day! “ Adora threw her fist in the air, For REVOLUTION!” she belted.

Adora got some woohs for that from the audience, which helped her butterflies. She put her arm down and turned to Catra, now staring into her eyes as she sang.

“And so I cry sometimes, / When I'm lying in bed, / Just to get it all out, / What's in my head.” Glimmer and Bow watched as the pair of singers began to sing with each other, not breaking eye contact even to read the lyrics. “And I, I am feeling a little peculiar.”

“ And so I wake in the morning, / And I step outside, / And I take a deep breath, / and I get real high.” Now both were singing duets, prompting considerable cheer. “And I scream from the top of my lungs, / What's going on!?”

On stage the audience melted away for Adora and Catra.

They were singing to each other, now.

“And I say, hey yeah yeah! / yeahyeah, hey yeah yeah!” They shouted to the sealing, Adora singing low and Catra singing high, harmonizing on each word. “I say hey, / What’s going on!?”

“And I say hey yeah yeah! / yeahyeah, hey yeah yeah!” The empty world began to spin around them and they emphasized every word, their eye contact never breaking. “I say hey, / What’s going on!?”

As the music recording brought in some back up singers for the pair they decided to go all out for this last big part. They threw their arms up and raised their voices, it didn’t matter anymore if they sounded bad to the audience, this wasn’t about them. However, incidentally, they did not sound bad to the audience.

“And I say, hey hey hey hey, / I said hey, what's going on!? / And I say, hey hey hey hey / I said hey, what's going on?”

When they finished the final note, they both leaned into each other, connecting at the forehead, the mic between them as they sang in harmony.

By this point the only lyrics on the projection were ‘ooh’s again, and the lightness of the lyric became a soothing sound for the audience.

Glimmer and Bow watch and smile at their friends' affection. Glimmer rested her head on Bow's shoulder and he pulled her in to rest his head on the top of hers. They listened in a state of contentment as the song began to wind down.

As the other instruments faded out of the music, only the acoustic guitar remained.

“ Twenty-five years, / And my life is still, / Trying to get up that great big hill of hope,” Adora picked up the final verse, content to just have Catra’s blue and yellow eyes this close to her’s, “For a destination”

Adora held the final note for a moment, then the song ended and the audience cheered to the two singers.

The audience clapped and watched as the two still maintained eye contact. They whispered to each other just out of reach for the mic to pick up, but they looked whatever they were talking about, they smiled and at each other.

Then, the first of many exciting moments had that night, Adora pulled Catra in around the waist and kissed right on stage.

The Cheers of the audience erupted with a few ooh’s thrown in for spice.

At their table, closest to the bar, Double Trouble was sniffing back tears. The hand of the bartender came to them, offering a handkerchief.

“Thank you Allen,” The Changeling sniffed, “You were recording that right?”

“Uhh, yeah boss.” said Allen.

Double Trouble sniffled once more ab began to dab at their eyes, careful not to smudge their makeup. “Excellent.”

-----

(I envition the Trouble Trove to be similar to vid related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rew5i1gfyoc)

(After this

Bow sang ‘Kiss from a Rose by Seal’,

Glimmer sang Cherry Bomb,

Perfuma sang Lose Yourself,

Mermista sang Killing in the name of,

Seahawk sang Juke Box Hero,

Scorpia made them weep with Somewhere over the Rainbow,

Double Trouble got in on it with People Like Us,

And Adora finished off the night with Don’t Stop Believing, as is Karaoke law)

Thanks For Reading

43 notes · View notes

nicknellie · 3 years

Note

Honestly that’s me, also kinda good night/morning again.

You should be so proud that you were able to finish your school work, that is such an accomplishment! Also cat 👀🥺, but I hope that your kitten didn’t cause too much of a mess! Imagine if we made tallies though, that would be hilarious (also adding yes)

Box stuff

1. Yes, you have described them so well! Reggie is organized but at the same time very chaotic which frustrates Alex so much. (Even more so due to the fact that Luke is just chaotic not organized at all, I mean have you seen his writing) Also agreed, Bobby is middle and I love the drum idea that’s amazing!

2. The baby is an honorary member of the band is amazing, I love that like so much.

3. That is precisely what happens, also because Reggie was going to give it to Alex for food however he needed to put it somewhere and completely forgot

Board games and Jam stuff

1. I love the little detail that you added of matching pajamas because that’s exactly how their game nights go a majority of the time. Yes to all of these, Bobby is the one who flipped a table once during Pictionary and since then the game has been banned. (Also points if Alex did the same during Cluedo because Reggie just kept on saying that he was suspicious) ‘Reggie we are not playing about us, it’s a mystery game with clues’

(Also bring me up suspicious, I remember reading some thing about where the boys play among us and that’s all I can think about. Because they do and the boys just keep calling each other out, i’m not going on a tangent right now but I may in the future 😂)

I haven’t played Articulate before however yes they do! (Also for some reason the fact that the box has a circle which makes me think of the game of life, for I don’t know why reasons, so I’m going to offer that up)

You’re absolutely right they definitely do go to thrift shops and just find random cool stuff. (Alex joins them later on)

I love the detail that you added that Luke on Julie’s team won’t win which is mostly because he won’t stop staring at her throughout the entire game. Reggie is definitely the master, except for in scramble because Luke shines in that game. After people started taking sides and stuff monopoly was banned very quickly, you’re so right.

2. I really wish I could explain why I thought of this but legitimately this all became a thing from me looking at some random thing of strawberry jam. That is so clever and that is the ultimate pun for Reggie. (Since you mentioned different versionsc all I can think about is this song actually starting out with Reggie talking about how much he loves etc. jam and how all the rest of the boys have problems)

Number stuff

2. Yes, (eventually) in the end everyone has a couples jumper as well. Also The fact that Luke stretches Alex‘s hoodie is hilarious, especially because he was doing it to make Julie jealous basically. Also adding on, Willie and Alex are cuddling under a blanket during this whole thing.

3. Yes, Luke just wants to make Julie happy in life and that’s everything to be honest.

4. You know those shows you have where you put it on a watch later and you’re like I’m genuinely interested in this however procrastination is my best friend and suddenly it’s like three years later, well Merlin may be that show for me. I support that AU idea so much, we need that in our lives. (Honestly whenever I think of two halves of a whole I think of yin and yang and I can’t explain why). And I love how this made you think of a fanfic, because I’ve had similar thoughts as well during our conversations.

(Wait yes, Alex is definitely Merlin he has that oh I’m wise so you need to listen to me kind of style. Also definitely takes Luke, Arthur, under his wing to make sure that he is not dumb/dies)

5. I just want more Alex and Julie to be honest, I don’t feel as thought we got to see a lot of that in season one. Thank you, yes my thoughts exactly. (Honestly I like to think that he came out to her as well however at the same time due to the fact that people in the 90s weren’t as accepting I feel like he just doesn’t know how she’s going to react and is kind of saving that for a later date🥺)

6. Exactly, so Bobby has no way that they could technically be out there (how Julie kind of draw strength from the fact that her mom is watching over her which is why she believes that she got the flower during that exact moment) also things would be much different if they had been able to send some kind of sign down to him. Even if it’s something little just to show that they are still there for him and even death couldn’t come between them.

8. I think I now know how you feel when I mentioned him writing ‘we were going to be legends’ on the back of that photo. Because ouch, and you are so right it’s not even funny. Nothing is the same without the boys because they all have little personality things that make simple tasks even better. Luke is able to do the Rubiks cube because he fidgets a lot with his hands, Alex is able to do the puzzles because he has really great concentration and it helps him feel more focused, also same for Reggie he’s able to do crosswords and sudokus because he’s able to focus on the more also he’s really great with numbers. (Also I totally didn’t say that Bobby doesn’t understand sudokus, because I don’t understand them)

That last sentence, you are correct but whoa that is painful.

10. Gotta love our random tangents

Yes, and the boys know that Bobby went on the logflume however they just don’t talk about it. Reggie has so many scrapbooks it’s not even funny legitimately once he realizes that he can take 1000 pictures and they can be stored in one place he kind of explodes (doesn’t stop him from making scrapbook though)

Alex just loves having people be happy, (also I didn’t think about an AU situation in which he does run into someone who has a skateboard )

I cannot describe that ride either however I know exactly what you’re talking about and Alex being impatient to go on rides is legitimately everyone who has ever been in a theme park. Reggie doesn’t talk to Luke for a good amount of time because Luke is the one who said that the ride wouldn’t be so bad, ‘I mean what’s the worst that can happen’ (also I did not say that just so I can reply, famous last words)

(Same energy as ‘street dogs haven’t killed us yet’)

Toffee nut- I’m glad you like the theory because I legitimately have no explanation for why Bobby is allergic to gluten but it just fits. Alex loves baking gluten-free stuff because not only is he reassured that Bobby has some thing that he can eat but in general it’s always nice to find new recipes.

Also random thought but every once in a while the boys will go somewhere go to bakeries and if they have gluten-free options they will try whatever they can.

Once again Alex just cannot say no to Luke and Reggie and they definitely eat the gluten-free food.

11. I love that for us 😂, even if there’s no possible way that I can happen it somehow did. (Also Reggie has a picture with the queen and I have no clue if there is even a way of having photoshop back then however Reggie is crazy enough to pull it off so they just think that it’s Photoshop)

13. Fairytale princess Luke is everything we need in our life. (This is also a band photo that is stored somewhere, because of course Luke wouldn’t do this alone)

14. His fists are like clenched tightly however he’s trying to pretend like he isn’t angry. I love that line with everything I have, that needs to be in season 2. Also the fact that someone who is very tall is trying to pretend to be someone who isn’t as tall is very humorous to me and I cannot explain why.

16. I love how determined Luke and Reggie are in this little scenario that you have painted, which they definitely are. One time Bobby is out and it’s just Alex with them two and he has no clue what to do because they can’t be in the kitchen however he cannot resist their puppy dog eyes.

17. Wait I love this (also Reggie finds baby photos of Willie that are actually baby Willie and shows them to Alex) (no one knows how but to be honest I could definitely see Reggie going to Caleb just ask for baby photos)

Also Willie finds it adorable that Alex is pretending to be embarrassed and definitely teases him about it. Bonus points if there’s a picture of Little Alex with a hotdog shirt and Willie is like ‘I knew there was another reason why I called you hot dog’

19. Water fights all the time, also during winter they have snowball fights all the time as well. (Also they always have water balloons on hand and it is very common for someone to throw it at another person‘s back and or down their shirt)

Yes, I love this theme as well, (despite being a very competitive person) Luke is just not competitive)

20. Same lol, honestly all Alex quotes and just Alex is everything and part of the reason why I love him so much.

(Also sidenote the fact that Owen Joyner performs these lines so beautifully. Maybe this is just me geeking out but the delivery and the pacing and the changing of voices from either high pitch to low pitch or whatever the line needs is just fantastic. Well if you can tell someone has been in any kind of music/acting field it’s that last sentence right there)

Alex is just happy that his friends are bonding with the guy that he likes. Especially because they are all the type of person that if their partner and or one of the boys doesn’t like each other then there is no way that they will be together. Also yes, Alex has a love hate relationship with Willie and Reggie bonding over puns.

Luke is very well practiced at egging houses, anyone who has ever made fun of the boys can confirm, and he is very torn between I want Flynn to like me but this is Julie’s house. Also yes, in the end he does egg her house.

Hear me out, she would’ve won mother of the year for being supportive towards Alex however I don’t feel like she would’ve for Luke because it didn’t really feel like she was supportive of the band which is basically Luke’s entire being. But aside from that yes. (But it got us unsaid Emily so I mean is that really a flaw 😂)

21. Yes, adding onto what you said honestly one thing that I keep thinking about which is the only thing he’s never told Luke is that he actually saw Emily and Mitch one time after Luke ran away.

Honestly for some reason I keep saying to myself he got arrested. Just because for being a person who basically freaked out at breaking into a museum it would be hilarious that he’s actually been in trouble with cops before, but anyways Emily and Mitch are his emergency contact so they have to pick him up and then that’s where they talk about Luke and everything. (I really wish I can explain this, also the fact that I’ve said this like 3 times already is concerning 😂😂)

But going back to what you said, he struggles with that so much because he loves Luke so much but at the same time due to the fact that Alex has such a bad relationship with his parents he doesn’t want Luke to end up on that note.

Mitch having a conversation with Ray is everything I needed and I did not think I would. (Imagine if Kenny Ortega had a secret Tumblr though 😂😂)

24. I want to see Flynn’s reaction to flying solo now it’s what we do deserve. Yes, it’s like you read my mind because that is exactly what happened, I feel like we can kind of see it in all eyes on me, with her face kind of being a tiny bit upset with Julie talking to the boys but she isn’t able to see what’s going on. (Even though the boys have only had one interaction with her they are very devastated, all they want is to be her friend as well)

Love how you meant Carrie, also why am I now thinking about Flynn joining dirty candy just to spite Julie, (I need to stop) also yess this is how the reaction song comes. Possibly maybe even a sad song because Flynn is talking about how much she loves Julie but she’s been feeling so disconnected from her lately. Yes, Jadah Maris is so talent.

Honestly I only know that video because one of my friends was singing the lyrics and I was very concerned 😂. Yes, you should be proud, maybe it’s because I cannot remember titles for the life of me but that is a very accomplishing thing.

25. Ahhh, dad Alex is everything. Also due to the fact that he has quick wit for a bit it would just be him and Carrie joking around with each other. Also I feel like the show does kind of show that although Trevor is supportive he is really bad at discipline 😂. (Honest Reggie wouldn’t be able to able to tell her off at all because he is afraid of somehow becoming like his parents, even though the boys keep reassuring him that will never happen)

26. Honestly the boys are kind of just holding a grudge at this point but it’s Trevor making the hats that has them go into a big group hug and burst into tears also the actual forgiving.

Also going along with the fact that Willie wears a beanie, he also wears a bandanna. I’m glad that’s stuck in your head to be honest.

28. Yes, what if the final product of Reggie raging at Bobby is Now or Never (however this has been re-make and has switch genres by Luke) (I have reasoning)

32. I love just thinking about some fans randomly bumping into sunset Curve. Legitimately they bring stickers and fanart everywhere because Alex is definitely the type of person to go to a grocery store at 3 AM just to look for a particular ingredient (for an example)

Honestly I had no reasoning for Alex being a hedgehog except for the fact that hedgehogs are cute so I most definitely agree and you are entirely correct

Yes, and once Alex finishes the puzzle it’s framed just because not only can he not take it apart but he’s afraid of it being ruined and it is so amazing

34. Yes, precisely and there’s only one photo of Luke that works and it’s him glaring and crossing his arms like an upset puppy (still stuck)

35. (Honestly Ray just adopts all of them, Luke, Reggie,Alex, Flynn, Willie all of them) I legitimately said this for just someone however instead of collecting stray cats Ray takes in stray children. Also, yes just best father of the year goes to Ray for the past 15 years. That is a very good theory because this entire time I’ve just been thinking of Reggie taking pictures.

Also the fact that technically Willie can’t show up on camera I didn’t think about but for the purpose of him looking absolutely amazing in these photo shoots I’m going to ignore that.

37. Yes, and Alex does have to make rules because otherwise he won’t have any clothes. The only reason Willie is allowed to get away with it is because he looks fantastic in the hoodie and Alex just has heart eyes.

39. Yes, she always talks out loud to herself and Trevor just silently encourages her and then he replies this one time and she is absolutely shocked but because the idea so so brilliant she immediately jumps on it.

40. Seeing Alex dance with Luke to dirty dancing with this particular dance in mind is what I need to see in season 2. Also yes, Reggie as well, honestly it just becomes a band thing because

Lol that is so relatable, also 10 out of 10 songs to be stuck in your head.

(Sorry for like the four notifications you got from me liking this post, because of course I just accidentally kept double tapping this and then letting out a gasp because it unliked the post)

Also the fact that this started from jigsaws and now we have three categories is everything

Good morning/night/afternoon/whatever time you’re reading this!

Ok so before I start I realised when I was trying to sleep that I left out a few things. I wanted to include a photo of a couples jumper and also the link to my Mitch headcanons, which I think I mentioned and then just didn’t include.

The only pics coming up were Christmas ones but this is the style I was in envisaging! Two heads holes, comfy, not just a random hoodie like Luke and Reggie try and use!

So here’s the link lol

BOX STUFF

1. Ajskfnskfo I love this like Luke’s writing is terrible can you imagine the state of his bedroom??

Actually, mentioning his bedroom, it was probably a mess and still is because Emily and Mitch didn’t tidy it when he went away in case he came back and then didn’t want to change anything after he died

3. YES definitely Alex being the designated chef of the group and Reggie bringing him recipes, except that’s the one he just totally forgets about, I love it

BOARD GAMES AND JAM STUFF

1. I love that so much omg they all have one game they just can’t play 😂 Bobby did that in Pictionary because he was doing his drawing and thought he’d made it really obvious, but the others were purposely guessing wrong and it pissed him off. And yes lmao Alex trying to explain to Reggie that it wasn’t him it was a random character for gods sake Reggie can you just read the damn rules?!

Omg PLEASE go on that tangent 😂😂

Oh yes totally they play game of life! It’s the only one Alex is really really bad at

Yessss Alex joining them is everything!

Omg yeah Luke is just watching Julie the whole time and she’s trying to help so they can win and he just doesn’t concentrate so they lose. Julie gets mad at him for it but he thinks it’s worth it

Lmao I can just imagine them playing monopoly - Alex is in charge of money and stuff and when Luke lands on one of Reggie’s spaces he can’t pay. Alex wants to just let him off (because he’s doing terribly and can’t win the game anyway) but Reggie is competitive and wants him to pay and Julie is backing him up because she likes playing by the rules. It’s two vs two, ends up in a big argument, and like you say it’s immediately banned 😂

2. Absjdldlajkd yes like the song actually started out about that, they figured out the tune was really catchy and then turned it into an entire song

NUMBER STUFF

2. Yes lol Alex and Willie just snuggled under the blanket like “guys there are easier ways to cuddle y’know” meanwhile Reggie got uncomfortable and tried to wriggle out the hoodie and they all just heard a ripping sound from the hoodie and Alex looked like he would have killed them if they weren’t already dead

4. YES even if you haven’t seen the show yet that’s literally perfect. Alex being one of the only ones who can get away with telling Prince Luke how dumb he is like Merlin and Arthur and keeping him safe. But somehow Luke still ends up dying from eating a bad hotdog

And I totally see where you get yin and yang from tbh!

5. Yes I can totally see that as well! I’ve read quite a few fics where he comes out to her and honestly it’s so cute every time because his reaction to her being immediately accepting of him is amazing. (Also I love it when she accepts him by immediately coming out to him as well - usually it’s bi Julie which I do love but I really strongly headcanon asexual Julie (best when she’s both tbh) and I realise that’s off-topic but yeah)

6. Yes omg now I kind of want to write that AU too 😂 Bobby somehow getting a sign from his friends to tell him that they’re okay and they’re still there. Like they could still come back to Julie, but in the dark room they get a glimpse of Bobby being sad and get to help him, therefore he doesn’t make so many mistakes

8. Absabskksksbf yeah omg 🥺 they all have their strengths and Bobby can’t build his own up to match them after they’re gone. And yes lol tbh I have literally no clue about sudokus either so I relate to not being able to do them, and props to Reggie for being amazing at them 😂

10. Awww yes Reggie just getting super excited when he finds out how much technology has progressed and how many pics he can take 🥺 also I can’t remember what they’re called but Reggie gets one of those portable printer things that’s kind of like a Polaroid but you can print them off your phone? Idk if I described that well but Julie gets him one and he loves it. Also at theme parks he always buys the photos the ride automatically takes

Oh my god oh my god oh my god yes! I love that so much omgggg your mind! It’s the one time Bobby doesn’t manage to pull him out of the way in time and it’s literally the best thing he could ever have done

Lmaooo yes that’s perfect Luke convincing them to go on it is definitely street dog energy. Reggie just refuses to even look at him because he’s that childish lmao

Ooooh yes and whenever they go to bakeries either Alex or Reggie will ask for the recipes of stuff they like (usually Reggie because no one can say no to him, but also Alex because he can be persuasive)

Yes lol eventually Bobby has to have a special like box or container to put his gluten-free stuff in otherwise Luke and Reggie will eat it all.

11. Yes definitely! Idk if they had photoshop either but they’re all convinced that’s what it is but he’s just really innocently like “no I swear I did” and it’s normally Luke who rolls his eyes like “ok sure buddy”

13. I swear if I was better at art I’d draw Cowboy Sunset Curve and Fairytale Princess Sunset Curve but alas no 😂 maybe I’ll just do it anyway lol

14. No I totally get that, it’s the sort of thing that’s funny for no reason lmaooo

16. Yes I love that like he is just moments away from opening the door and letting them back in but then he shakes his head like “no, focus” and the cycle keeps repeating. Also I love how in the scenario they keep moving but all they’re doing apart from that is puppy-dog eyes and that’s enough to nearly break Alex

17. YES. Willie has no idea where he got the photos from but doesn’t really question it either. And I can sooo see him asking Caleb for baby photos - like, he wants a Caleb scrapbook because like it or not he’s been a major part of their afterlives since he wants to remember him! So Caleb is confronting them after he stops possessing Nick and is doing this grand speech and when he’s done Reggie just raises his hand and goes “sorry but do you have any baby photos of you?” and Caleb just doesn’t question it and hands them over the next time they see each other. (Reggie also has Nick’s baby photos. Reggie has literally everyone’s baby photos.)

Ajsbskldl I love that! Little Alex in a hotdog shirt and Willie pretending to have some sort of psychic power like “yeah I totally knew about that it’s the other reason I call you hotdog!”

(BABY REGGIE IN A HOTDOG COSTUME.)

19. Omg Sunset Curve/Julie and the Phantoms snowball fights yessss and the water balloons are perfect - Luke’s preferred method is to sneak up behind someone and slam it on the top of their head so they’re totally drenched

20. Yes exactly!!! I definitely think Owen is one of the best actors in the show and one of the best in anything I’ve seen recently, he just plays Alex so perfectly and everything you said is 100% right I couldn’t have put it better myself

Yes that’s exactly their relationship! Like as sad as he would have been Alex would have dropped Willie if the guys hated him (and let’s be honest, seeing as Willie accidentally played a big part in the thing with Caleb they definitely could have hated him)

Yeah and Luke isn’t really sure if Julie being so mad at him for egging her house is worth it but he had fun so he goes with it

Oh yeah that makes so much more sense you’re totally right, but yeah it got us Unsaid Emily so in the end it was a good thing lmao

21. Ooooh yes! They share everything but that’s the one thing he has never told him

Lmaoooo yes but then what would he have been arrested for?? I feel like some sort of misunderstanding - like someone dropped something, he tried to be helpful and pick it up but then they accused him of theft and called the cops on him. Or he actually did do something illegal, knowing it was illegal. Aww yes Emily and Mitch picking him up and finally getting to see him and find out about Luke again 🥺

And yes exactly took the words right out of my mouth

If Kenny had a secret Tumblr and saw all this I would die laughing. Especially if he somehow included some of it in the show that would be the funniest thing. Sadly it’s very unlikely 😂😭

24. Yesss I agree we can totally see it then! I feel like it’s the really predictable scenario for her to be left out but I also think it would work really well

Oooooh Flynn joining Dirty Candi could be really interesting! I feel like it would only be for one song and then she’d feel bad but I’d actually love to see that.

I can totally see it being a sad song and also I think it would just be her and Julie there, the boys are nowhere to be seen and it’d give them a chance to make up before the boys are let in on it

25. Yes definitely! Because Carrie has such quick wit too their banter would be brilliant. Yeah you’re definitely right about Trevor, he’d do anything for her except discipline her well, and omg Reggie 🥺🥺 you’re so right, he’d be terrified, so he wouldn’t get involved at all when she’s being told off by Alex

26. I feel like maybe that was Bobby’s way of settling arguments back in the nineties (“Luke’s mad at me, guess I’d better make him a hat”) which is why it finally convinces them to forgive him

Omg bandana Willie might be even better than beanie Willie... maybe it’s just any time Willie has headwear, because I love Willie wearing his helmet too lol

28. Oh yes I love that! Originally the lyrics were “pack up your yarn Bobby, now or never” and Luke was like hmmm I like that

32. Omg that’s literally perfect I love that so much. Alex in his pyjamas (and a hoodie) staring at flour trying to remember which kind he needed to buy at 3 o’clock in the morning and the shop assistant is like omg you’re Alex Mercer then hands him a sticker

Yes definitely!!! He frames all his favourite puzzles and has them hanging up around the studio, but that’s his ultimate favourite and he makes sure to clean the frame of dust twice a week

35. Omfg yes that’s brilliant. Ray has two biological kids but actually he has four ghosts and his daughters best friend too (and maybe some other we don’t see, like Carlos’s best friend??) the comparison to stray cats is amazing - they just come in for food and maybe a hug then they’ll be on their way again.

Yeah same lmao I realised as I was writing that they wouldn’t show up but that’s a tiny detail and for this we can disregard it completely 😂😂 (or maybe he does show up sometimes, and even when he doesn’t there’s a golden orb there like in Ray’s photos and it actually looks really good somehow)

37. I live for heart eyes Alex tbh. And yes the other rules include: you must wash it if you get it dirty, if I find any rips I will literally kill you (because Luke once ripped one of his nicest hoodies), and for the love of god don’t lose it

39. Yes I feel like they’d be such a Father-Daughter-Dream-Team you know?? Like they’re really close and they know each other really well and the little things like that are the best part of their relationship!

40. Ahajdnsls yes I need it!

Lol the notifications were fine I literally do that so often bc I forget that’s how tumblr works 😂

Yes I was literally going to mention how we have categories now!!! I honestly find this so funny like how did we get all this from a jigsaw 😂😂😂

#love this for us 😂#williexmercer #asks #emily answers

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quickspinner · 4 years

Text

Second Chance - Ch 2 Second Chance at a First Date

“Luka, this isn’t how it’s supposed to go,” Marinette pouted when the chauffeur helped her into the car next to him. “I asked you out, I should have planned the date.”

“I know,” he grinned. “But this way we have a chance of keeping at least this one date out of the tabloids.”

“I hardly ever see you in the tabloids,” Marinette remarked. “Why is that?”

Luka chuckled. “One of my friends from lycée works for a legitimate entertainment magazine, so I make sure all the news goes to him first and that heads off some of it, but honestly, for a rock star, I’m boring. Juleka and I wanted to retain as much control as possible over our brand, so I work a lot. I don’t drink or party, I don’t date all that much. I’m not really hard to find because I eat at the same places and work out at the same gym every day, so mostly they show up and take a few invasive pictures and then get bored and leave. I don’t get mobbed at the door everywhere I go unless there’s an album release or something big like that. The last time the tabloids really cared about me was when I was dating Clara.”

Marinette gasped. “That’s right, I forgot you dated Clara Nightingale!”

Luka ran a self-conscious hand through his hair. “Yeah, I can’t actually believe I had to guts to hit on her in the first place, but we were on the same tour and she’s so sweet, I’d developed this massive crush on her, and when you’ve been up for thirty-seven hours straight a lot of stupid things get said.” He blushed a bit at the memory, putting a hand to his forehead. “Man, I was so awkward, but she was really nice about it. She was even sweet when she dumped me, although I think we had both realized by then that neither of us were invested enough in the relationship to overcome the challenges once the tour was over. It’s bad enough trying to date with my schedule but you add hers into the mix and it was—” He shook his head. “We parted on good terms and we still keep in touch when we’re both in town, despite what the gossip rags tried to make it. When I didn’t spiral into drunken despair, they moved on pretty quick. Way more profitable to follow someone like Jagged who makes a scene everywhere he goes, or someone like XY that people love to hate.”

“How inconsiderate of you not to go on a bender and be found in a ditch on the side of the road,” Marinette giggled.

“Very. I’m terrible for magazine sales.” Luka took her hand. “Anyway, I figured if we used the car service and went to a restaurant with a covered entrance we’d squeak by without ending up in the papers. I can’t guarantee that, though.”

“I figured,” Marinette shrugged. “I kinda got used to it while I was with Adrien. I’ll get used to it again if I have to.”

There were thrilling implications there he didn’t want to think about too hard just yet. “You look beautiful. Is that one of yours?”

“Thank you. It’s actually not,” Marinette admitted, looking down at her dress. “One of my friends made it for me a few months ago as part of a trade. It’s lovely, though, isn’t it? He did a great job. He’s going to be huge once his line debuts next summer, I’m sure of it.”

Luka smiled. “And when does your line debut?”

“Oh,” Marinette sighed, and made a face. “That’s kind of the hard thing about coming off of this internship. I’ve had two years where everything was sort of laid out and planned for me, and now I have to figure out what the next step is on my own. Although before even that, I have to put together a mini show and presentation for the awards committee to demonstrate what I’ve taken away from the experience. There will be a lot of really important people in the industry, I’m hoping to make an impression and see what opportunities develop from there.”

“That sounds like a lot of work.”

“It is,” Marinette shrugged, “But it’s worth it, and I’m certainly not lacking for inspiration material. I’ll get it done.”

“And you still made time to go out with me.” He nudged her with his shoulder. “I’m flattered.”

Marinette smiled at him. “Prioritizing is definitely something I’ve gotten better at while I was away.” She laced her fingers through his and darted a glance up through her lashes that hit him like a punch to the gut. “I missed you a lot while I was gone, Luka. I’m not about to miss you while we’re both right here.”

“Well,” he said, hoping his sudden inability to breathe wasn’t too obvious, “We’re in total agreement on that one.”

Luka was relieved that he managed to make it to their table without tripping over himself (Marinette wasn’t so lucky, but that was normal for her, and he was there to catch her). He rubbed his hand on his knee as he sat down, reassuring himself that he was in fact wearing pants, since he was getting increasingly worried he might be dreaming.

Except if he were, wouldn’t he be dreaming about the sweet, stuttering, blushing, beautiful mess he remembered? Not this confident, flirty, undeniably hot woman.

He was in so much trouble.

“Thanks for taking me out, Luka,” Marinette said once they were settled. “Honestly I didn’t even know if you would want to see me after all this time, and...everything.” Marinette’s cheeks reddened, and Luka found himself relaxing at the familiar flush. “I probably owe you an apology for everything that happened back then.”

Luka shook his head. “You didn’t hurt me on purpose. We were all young, you were in love. I knew it; I think everyone did but Adrien.”

Marinette groaned and covered her face with her hands. “I’m still sorry. I could have handled it better. I could have handled you better. Sometimes I want to die when I think about how I was back then.”

“Well, we all have some memories like that,” Luka chuckled. “I don’t hold any of it against you. How is Adrien?”

“He’s doing well. Things were hard for him for a while, especially right after we broke up, but he’s in a better place now. He...I don’t want to say too much or speak out of turn, but he’s had some long-standing issues and he’s finally seeing someone about them, and he’s made a lot of progress.”

“That’s good to hear, I’m glad he’s getting some help.” Luka glanced away. “The way he grew up would have messed up anybody. But I’m sorry it took losing you to make him realize he needed it.”

Marinette shrugged, and her smile was crooked. “I’d really rather not get into it.”

Luka winced. “Of course, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

Marinette shook her head. “It was messy for a while, but we’re both in good places now, both individually and in our friendship, so let’s just leave it at that.”

“Right,” Luka agreed. “So tell me more about this presentation you have to do, it sounds interesting.”

“In a little bit,” Marinette smiled, leaning on the table towards him. “We talked so much about me last time, I want to hear more about you. Is being a rock star everything you dreamed it would be?”

“Yes and no,” Luka admitted. “It’s awesome, don’t get me wrong, and it blows me away how many people want to hear my music, but—hang on, let me think about how to say this right.” He frowned as he considered his words. “It’s great bringing my music to more people,” he said slowly. “I don’t regret anything and I’m so grateful. But…”

“Take your time,” Marinette encouraged, putting her hand over his on the table, and he flashed her a grateful smile.

“I miss the deeper connections, I guess. I miss looking in someone’s eyes and playing something that’s meaningful for just that person, or for just the two of us.”

“Like the day we met,” Marinette agreed softly, and he nodded, smiling fondly at her.

“I don’t get to do that often any more, and I miss that.”

“Can I ask you something?” Marinette said, cheeks tinting pink again. “That song you wrote the first year you hit it big…”

Luka didn’t even need her to finish. The whole album had been about moving on, letting go, and several of the singles had hit big, but he knew exactly which song she meant. “It was about you, yeah. I hope that doesn’t make you uncomfortable.”

“I cried when I heard it,” she admitted. “To this day, it’s the only one of your songs I can’t listen to.”

“I’m sorry. I kind of hoped you wouldn’t figure it out, but I should have known you would.”

Marinette shook her head. “Don’t be. Clearly it was something you needed to write, and I think it was something I needed to hear.”

Luka smiled. “So you listen to my music, huh?”

“Of course I do,” she exclaimed. “I have every album you’ve released, physical and digital copies.”

“You’d do that even if you didn’t like it,” he teased, though he was touched.

“That’s true. But I do like it,” she leaned in, and the fingers covering his hand brushed over his knuckles in slow strokes. “I like the music, and I like the man who makes it.”

“Careful, angel,” he told her, voice deepening slightly as thrills danced through him from her touch. “You’ll make me blush.”

“Luka, that voice is dangerous,” she laughed breathlessly, cheeks a bright pink.

“Mmm, so I’ve been told,” he grinned slyly, pleased to find he affected her. She’d had him off balance since he’d laid eyes on her at the concert. “I think there was even a magazine vote about it once. But I think your eyes are what’s dangerous. I could get lost in them forever.”

Once upon a time Marinette would have combusted on the spot, sputtering and stammering until she literally fell over. Tonight Marinette just blinked those beautiful eyes and asked softly, “Would that be so bad?”

Luka moved his hand to thread his fingers through hers. She remained solid in his grip. Still not a dream. “It sounds like heaven to me.”

***

Luka was feeling a little thunderstruck as he walked Marinette back up to Alya’s apartment, where she was staying for the time being. On the one hand, he’d been burned badly by Marinette once before, whether she’d intended to or not, and if she’d been fire then, she was something infinitely more dangerous now. On the other hand, she’d made her interest in him clear, and he wanted very much to explore what they could be together. The chemistry between them was as strong as it had always been, and just the way she’d been looking at him tonight was enough to make him feel weak. Add in the flirty banter and soft touches and he was perilously close to melting at her feet.

The old saying about things that seem too good to be true was in his mind as she turned to face him outside the apartment door. Luka flattened one hand against the door and leaned in, keeping his hand in his coat pocket. Marinette raised her face to meet him and he pressed his mouth to hers softly. He felt her fingers tangle in the front of his shirt to pull him closer. He took her hands and detached them gently.

“Next time,” he said softly into the space between them, and then he had to clear his throat. “Can there be a next time, Marinette?”

“I’d like that,” she said, and then, more hesitantly, “You don’t have to hold back so much, you know. I’m not delicate.”

He took her hand in his and flattened her palm over his heart so she could feel how it pounded in his chest. “I know that, but right now, I am. My life already goes so fast I feel like I can hardly keep up. I’d really like to take things slow between us, if that’s okay.”

The smile she gave him was slow and soft. “Definitely.”

“And part of it is that…” he paused, thinking over his words. “Sorry, it’s just I don’t want to say this wrong.”

“Take your time.”

“I still have a lot of past Marinette in my head,” he said, running his thumb along her cheekbone. “The girl I was in love with all through lycée.” Her breath caught and he gave her a moment to absorb that as he considered his next words. “I want us to get to know each other again, if that makes sense. I don’t want to be blinded to who you are now by a bunch of memories and unresolved feelings. I want be sure I’m really seeing you, and I want to make sure you’re really seeing me too. So...can we start like strangers?” He huffed in frustration. “No, that’s not what I mean, exactly…”

“It’s okay, I think I understand, and you’re right.” Marinette curled her hand lightly around his wrist. “I know I probably put you through a lot back then and I’m not trying to rush you into anything.”

“Marinette,” Luka said gently, “If we’re going to have anything in the here and now, you need to let that go.” He smiled. “I was never angry with you, and you don’t owe me anything. Clean slate, okay?” He bit his lip and looked away. “I’m not asking you for anything, but for my own peace of mind, I want you to know that I won’t be seeing anyone else, casually or otherwise, until we figure out what we want us to be.” He gave a lopsided grin. “I know that there are all these preconceptions that people have about rock stars, but I have to be honest, I’m not very good at casual anyway. Just not my thing, you know?”

“I wondered,” Marinette admitted. “It didn’t seem like you, but it’s like you said, about rock stars and you always look really hot on stage and—“ she buried her face in her hands. “And why haven’t you stopped me yet, oh my God…”

Luka lost his battle against laughter and he pulled her to him, hugging her even as she punched his arm. “Ow, you’re strong,” he laughed, squeezing her tight.

“So are you, that was like punching a wall,” she said, her tone grumpy, but she slid her fingers down his arm with appreciation, leaving goosebumps in her wake even through his dress shirt.

“My personal trainer thanks you for the compliment,” Luka grinned, and then he sighed, loosening his arms and taking half a step back. “I’m supposed to be saying good night here before I get carried away.”

Marinette slid her arms up around his neck, and the smirk she gave him nearly killed him on the spot. “It wouldn’t hurt to get a little carried away, would it?”

Resistance crumbling, Luka let her pull him down into another kiss, fuller and deeper than before, taking a moment to really savor the feel and the taste of her and the way she moved against him, and then he pulled back and kissed her cheek. “Goodnight, Marinette. I can’t wait to see you again. I’ll call?”

“You better.”

***

Juleka was sitting on his couch when he got home with his guitar in her lap, playing Seven Year Ache at half tempo with a morose expression. Subtle as a funeral dirge, he thought, rolling his eyes as he hung his keys on the rack by the door and took off his suit coat. “I’m gonna take my key back if you start waiting up for me every time I’m on a date,” he called.

Juleka took one look at his face when he walked into the living room and groaned, letting her head fall back. “I thought you were over this, you absolute idiot.”

“It was a lie,” he sighed, flopping on his back on the loveseat and propping his long legs on the arm. “I was never over it.”

“Luka, she wrecked you for years.”

“No, she didn’t,” he protested. “One, it wasn’t her fault, and two, I was fine.”

“You were heartbroken.”

“Heartbroken and fine, Juleka.”

“Fine is not the same thing as happy,” Juleka snorted, folding her arms.

“I’m happy now,” he replied, grinning at the ceiling like a loon.

“You could at least string her along for a bit,” Juleka grumbled. “Make her suffer just a little.”

“She didn’t do anything wrong, Jule, cut her some slack.”

“I don’t need to, you give her plenty for both of us.” Juleka pursed her lips. “She picked someone else over you.”

“That was her right. I don’t hold it against her, why do you?”

“She hurt you.”

“Yeah, well that hurt went platinum, so I think you can forgive her now.” Luka scowled and tossed a throw pillow at her. “Considering we paid for these apartments with the money from that album.”

“There’s no amount of money that can make up for what she put you through,” Juleka groused.

“Come on Jule, she was your friend.”

“She was, until you went and fell in love with her like an idiot and she broke your heart.” Juleka looked at him and rolled her eyes with a sigh that meant she was giving up. “But you’re obviously going to date her whether I think it’s a good idea or not, so I’ll save my breath.” She pushed off the couch and dumped his guitar on his stomach.

“I sure as hell am,” Luka agreed happily, and Juleka groaned as she opened the door to go back across the hall to her own apartment.

“You’re disgusting, you know that right?” she called, and the door slammed before he could answer her.

Luka rolled his eyes and pulled the guitar into place, strumming lightly as he grinned at the ceiling.

#quickspins #backlog #second chance #lukanette #luka couffaine #i am lukanette trash i admit it #marinette dupain-cheng #miraculousladybug #miraculous ladybug #mlfics

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shawol9196 · 4 years

Text

Off-Air (Oneshot; Jongho; ~2.2k)

When Jinki drives Jonghyun home from the radio station meeting, he learns a little more about his off-air life than he’s expecting.

“So why do you dislike that Choi guy so much?” one of the other DJs asks as Jinki sits down next to Jonghyun.

It’s weird for them to all be here together: a huge gathering of DJs and radio staff all gathered into a tiny bar. But Jinki’s excited for a night out without having to be on interacting-with-consumers behavior, so he figures he’ll let it unfold as it will.

Jonghyun takes a sip of whatever soju concoction he’d ordered before looking over.

“Well first off he’s my number one competitor for my time slot.”

“You know you don’t own the hours of 12-2am, right?” Jinki teases.

Jonghyun glares and Jinki isn’t sure if it’s at the comment or the interruption. “Second, it’s annoying to have listeners calling in to talk about another DJ while you’re DJing, if you didn’t know. His music is too broad in genre. Like I get it’s a show of soundtracks but I’m not and never will be emotionally ready to switch from “My Heart Will Go On” right into “Footloose.” Also he’s too damn tall.”

Jinki nearly spits out his drink at the last item in the list. The other DJ had wandered off halfway through the spiel, but now Jinki’s interest was piqued.

“Too tall?”

“He’s 6’2” and that’s too tall.”

“And that matters...?”

“Jinki I know you’re my boss and you know I cherish you in that way and also in a friendly way but you’re too tall to understand my feelings about people who are too tall. Your complete averageness in terms of height prevents you from understanding the full plight I speak of.”

“First off I’m the show producer not your boss. Second of all I’m only two inches taller than you, tops. I thought you had to be under 5’4” to complain about height. Third, how do you know his exact height?”

Jonghyun ignores his comments in favor of finishing his drink. As silence falls between them, Jinki finds himself reminiscing of the now locally famous Choi-Kim radio rivalry.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this purple dusk radio?”

“Yes it is. I’m DJ Jonghyun and you’re lucky caller number 4!”

“Oh my goodness!”

“What’s your name?”

“Miyoung.”

“I’ve got the prize package right here for you, Miyoung, all ready to go, I just need you to do one thing for me alright? Just tell me one thing you enjoy about purple dusk radio.”

“Well, to be honest, normally I listen to silver screen on channel 99...but I just happened to tune in to this station for the first time tonight and it really fits in with my music taste.”

“So what I’m hearing is purple dusk has a better selection than silver screen does?”

“It fits better with my likes, yes.”

“Well congratulations, Miyoung, you won! Just promise me you’ll stay tuned in to the better midnight show, okay?”

Jinki listens as the girl on the phone starts squealing in excitement and Jonghyun signs off for the commercial break. Once the “ON AIR” sign is deluminated, Jinki laughs at Jonghyun’s little victory wiggle.

“Did you hear that, Jinki? We saved another poor soul from having to listen to silver screen!”

Jinki jumps at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder. It’s Kim Kibum, producer for silver screen. The rivalry between DJs didn’t extend to them -- mostly due to graduating from the same college program.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Not at all.”

“You looked pretty far away there for a second, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“No, not at all. I was just remembering an old show.”

Kibum slides into the seat that previously held Jonghyun.

“Any particular show? I mean you’ve only been on this show for six years now.”

“A particular one but for no particular reason.”

The conversation is interrupted by the bartender appearing. Jinki waits for Kibum to order, turning around to glance around the restaurant for Jonghyun. He finds him at another table with a few other DJs from their station.

“Minho’s got a significant other but he won’t tell me about them.” Kibum huffs once he gets his beer.

“If he won’t tell you about them how do you know he has one?”

“I overheard him on the phone and ‘I love you, honeybun’ doesn’t seem like something you’d say to everyone, now does it? Also he has a new ring, one of those ones that leaves an impression of a heart when you take it off.”

“Kibum, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; you make a great producer but you would’ve been a great detective.”

Kibum laughs before sipping his beer.

“So how are things at PYQK, besides the fact that Minho won’t share all the naughty details of his love life with you?”

“I never said I wanted the naughty details; even some sweet vagues would be nice. The station’s doing well. And at PYXQ?”

“Basically the same. Why doesn’t Minho ever come to these, besides the fact that Jonghyun’s here?”

Kibum scoffs as he puts down his beer. “He goes to work out after the show finishes like some kind of weirdo.”

“To each his own, I guess.” Jinki goes to take a sip of his drink, but pauses. “Weird question that I’ll explain the context of afterwards, but how tall is he?”

“Who? Minho? Bit over 6’ I’d say. Why?”

“Someone was asking Jonghyun why he doesn’t like Minho and one of the reasons was he’s too tall, but he said a very specific height, which I thought was a bit odd.”

“I think Jonghyun may be trying to get in on that sort of experience,” Kibum says with a giggle, pointing to where Jonghyun’s begun standing on a barstool and thanking people for coming to the party that he absolutely did not partake in planning.

“Oh jeez...I’ll see you later, dude.”

Jinki makes his way over to Jonghyun quick as he can; persuading him to come down off the stool isn’t easy but eventually he manages.

“I just wanted to make sure that everyone could see me!” Jonghyun explains with a hiccup as Jinki pulls him out towards the parking lot.

“Where are we going?” Jonghyun slurs, clutching Jinki’s arm to help steady himself.

“I’m going to drop you off at your house since you’re in no condition to drive.”

“How do you know that?”

Jinki gives him a stern look and continues guiding Jonghyun to his car. It takes Jonghyun a few minutes to remember his address to punch into the GPS but soon enough they’re on their way.

It surprises Jinki to realize he’s never been to Jonghyun’s house. The latter had visited him many times for holiday parties and garden dinners but not once in the four years they’ve worked together on purple dusk had he ever gone to -- or been invited to -- Jonghyun’s place. The house isn’t that big, but it has a pretty little garden in front and there’s something charming about it that seems perfectly Jonghyun. As they walk up the driveway, Jonghyun seems to perk up and Jinki is somewhat relieved to see a light through the living room window.

“My house!”

“Well I’m glad you recognize it.”

Just as quickly as it appeared, the perky feeling dissipates and Jonghyun stops in his tracks.

“I don’t have people over at my house.”

“I just want to make sure you can get in, I’ll leave right after okay?”

“I...don’t want...can’t let people know about him.”

“About who?”

“Him.”

“Come on, I just want to make sure you can get in.”

Begrudgingly he starts walking again, searching his pockets for his keys. Eventually he finds them but after four attempts to unlock the door it's clear he’s too drunk for such a delicate operation. Just as Jinki goes to offer to try, the door opens.

If Jonghyun revealed himself to be an alien at this very moment, it wouldn’t surprise him more than seeing Choi Minho standing in Jonghyun’s doorway.

“Oh, hello, Jinki. I...wasn’t expecting anyone to be with him.”

“I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here either, least of all you.”

It takes Jonghyun a moment to process that the door is open but once he does he immediately wraps himself around Minho, seemingly forgetting about Jinki’s existence.

“Baby I had fun at the party and I missed you.”

Minho’s cheeks turn pink as Jinki’s jaw drops to the floor.

“Do you...why don’t you come in for a bit so we can talk?”

“I...if that’s fine with Jjong I’d like that.”

It takes a few minutes of fussing and denied kisses for Minho to send Jonghyun off to shower. He joins Jinki in the living room after a moment, sitting opposite him.

“Don’t the two of you hate each other?” Jinki asks before Minho has a chance to say anything.

An odd smile crosses Minho’s face. “Only publicly. We’re very affectionate at home, as you can see.”

“How long have...”

“Have we been together?”

“I was going to say be friendly but yeah that’s also included in the question I guess.”

“We met in college, partnered for a project in a journalism elective.”

“Really. Did you get unpartnered for bad behavior or something?”

“No, actually-”

Minho’s interrupted by Jonghyun unceremoniously plopping on the couch with the highest amount of dramatic flair he can muster, still oblivious to Jinki’s continued presence. He’s snuggled up to Minho and asleep before he can even react. As confused as Jinki is, it’s a warming sight.

“As I was saying, we actually got along really well. Got bonus points on the project for being cooperative. We got into the habit of hanging out and things just...kinda went from there. We’ve been living here since I graduated. Sleepy here inherited it from his grandparents.”

“So wait...why the rivalry? Like we all legitimately thought that you two hate each other.”

Minho chuckles, but Jinki can’t tell if it's in amusement or in sadness.

“It was his idea, oddly enough. I don’t know if you remember the predecessor to silver screen, but it was... to put it kinder than Kibum would, it was a mess. So when I got hired, it was made very clear that if I didn’t make it successful, I would get fired, Yunho -- the producer that pitched it -- would probably get fired, and the station would basically have to resort to playing ads and royalty free spa music during that slot. Jjong had already got purple dusk comfortable by that point so he was trying to give me pointers and things. It didn’t really help though; Kibum always said it wasn’t my hosting that was driving people away, it was the bad taste left from the old show. Obviously he couldn’t just give me a shoutout, being on different stations at the same time and all, so he came up with hyping the competition. I always thought that we should’ve included you guys on it, but he said it’d make it feel manufactured if you all knew and also tried to play it up.”

“Oh, so that’s why I’ve had to hear Kibum complain about not knowing about your love life for two years now.” Jinki teases.

“Oh man, he’s got you hooked in on that too? I swear I can’t make a personal call at the station without at least 4 people scooting as close as they think they can get away with to eavesdrop.”

“If it makes you feel better, he was just as inquisitive about when I started dating my now-wife back in college.”

“I am not surprised in the least.”

An awkward silence falls between the two as Jonghyun starts to snore and Jinki struggles to process.

“It was hard to get used to the act, when we first started it. We’d both come home all apologetic -- ‘I know I said you sound grating but your tone was so nice today’ or ‘I’m sorry I was so mean today, but how can you not be mean when the theme of the show is noir films’, that kind of thing. Now it’s just a bit of a game. I always listen to the podcast recording when I go to the gym and come home telling him he’s recycled insults.”

Jinki chuckles and checks his phone. There’s a few messages from Kibum, asking him where he’s headed off to and if he took Jonghyun home.

“I suppose you should probably be heading home now. I know we live the night life already but I’m sure your wife would appreciate you coming home before the sun.” Minho says as he tries to wiggle his way out of Jonghyun’s grasp.

“You’re probably right. We don’t have the luxury of the same working hours like some people do.”

They walk to the door and Jinki half expects Jonghyun to wake up, but he doesn’t.

“Thanks for bringing him home. While it is amusing that such a lightweight enjoys gatherings so much, I do worry about him getting home in one piece.”

“Oh it’s no trouble. Even if it was, this dramatic turn of events made it worth it. Good luck with your show tomorrow and surviving Sherlock Holmes- I mean Kibum’s investigations.”

Minho cracks a smile and nods a thank you, waiting til Jinki gets into his car to close the front door. Through the living room window he can see him carrying Jonghyun to bed. His phone pings again, Kibum continuing to be nosy. For a brief moment he thinks to share the news with Kibum but instead closes his phone and heads home. What Jonghyun and Minho do in their off-air time really isn’t any of his concern; plus, he’d grown fond of Kibum’s investigations being thwarted.

#hello fellow youths its been a while #this is just...........a thing #my idea was a bit different but this is how it turned out and ive missed writing so here it is #jongho #1 shot 2 shot just for 1

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stansbooty · 5 years

Text

the line between love and hate // reddie

summary: soulmate au where you feel intense emotions with your soulmate & their name appears on your body the first time you touch warnings: underage drinking words: 2945

ao3 link

Everybody knew about soulmates. In fact, it was one of the first things you learned about when you went to school and one of the first things most children wished for on the birthday after. Everybody wanted to find their soulmate. It sounded magical. A person whom the universe created just for you, a perfect match sent to be with you until you died, complimenting you in every way as you did for them.

Richie Tozier came home from school they day he learned about them, blabbing nonstop about the new magic he became aware of.

“And Mrs. Johnson said that everything is better with them! That you feel a lot more. Like if you’re happy, then you’re really happy!” Richie told his mom from the backseat of the car.

“Yes, that’s right.” Mrs. Tozier laughed.

“And we get a special tattoo of their name!”

“When you touch for the first time, yes. And then you’ll fall in love. Or maybe even before.”

Richie paused for a moment. “When’s that?”

“Love?”

“Yeah.”

Mrs. Tozier sighed, trying to find the words to describe it to her 5-year-old son. “When you fall in love, you’ll know.”

“But, Mom, how?” He whined.

“Love is when you like the person so much that is almost hurts you.”

Richie grumbled. “I don’t want it to hurt.”

“Not really in a bad way, sweetie. You love them so much that you feel so full. You always want the best for them. You always want them to be happy.”

“Like with my friends?”

“Kinda, yeah.” She smiled and looked briefly back at him. “Except just so much more. It’s like being friends times a hundred.”

“What about times infinity?” Richie giggled.

Mrs. Tozier chuckled as well. “Yes, times infinity works, too.”

From that moment on, Richie knew that he wanted to find his soulmate as soon as he possibly could. He couldn’t imagine a world in which he didn’t have someone like that by his side. A friend times infinity? It sounded magical.

Richie soon found out that it wasn’t all magic. When he turned 9, his teacher told them that a lot of people don’t find their soulmates. Or sometimes their soulmates die. Or even worse, sometimes they don’t like their soulmate and their soulmate doesn’t like them.

“How does that happen? Aren’t they perfect for you?” Someone asked her.

“Well you already know that everything feels better with them.” His teacher, Mrs. Robin, explained. They all nodded. “Well everything bad also feels worse. If you’re happy, you’re more happy. But if you’re sad, you’re more sad.”

Richie pouted and that afternoon in the car on the way home, he asked his mom another question.

“Are you and Dad soulmates?”

Mrs. Tozier was a bit taken aback. “Of course we are. Why wouldn’t you think that?”

“Mrs. Robin said not everyone ends up with theirs.”

“That’s true.” She sighed. “But your dad and I are, don’t worry.”

“What if I don’t end up with mine?” Richie exclaimed, suddenly very nervous.

“Richie, there’s no need to worry. I am certain you’ll find your soulmate and be very happy.”

“Mrs. Robin also said not everyone likes their soulmate. What if I’m not happy?”

She sighed again, bringing one hand away from the steering wheel to rub at his forehead. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll be very happy.”

“But -”

“This is nothing to worry about right now. You’re 9, you have plenty of time to find them and be happy.”

“Okay.” He muttered, leaning his head against the car window and resuming his pouting.

“I hate him!” Richie Tozier, now 18 years old, slammed a hand on the table in front of him.

“What’d he do now?” Stan, Richie’s best friend, asked without looking up from his book. Bev, on the other hand, took it as an opportunity to push her textbook away.

“He’s just so infuriating! I’m just as smart as him, you know?” Richie sat down.

“I know.” Stan muttered.

“But fucking Kaspbrak thinks he’s all that just because he’s a teacher’s pet.”

“And captain of the track team.” Bev pointed out with a smirk.

“Who the fuck gives a shit?” Richie put his head down on the table.

“He’s not even that bad, Richie.” Stan finally pushed away his book. “He’s actually -”

“Don’t you dare say it.”

“Pretty nice.” Stan finished.

“He thinks he’s better than everyone. More specifically, me.”

Stan sighed and looked over at Bev, who had the same exasperated look on her face. This had been going on for the entirety of high school, since Richie had met Eddie Kaspbrak in his freshman English class. Richie had originally had a huge crush on Eddie, calling him the “cutest boy he’d ever seen”, but as they began to talk in their class, Richie realized the sheer rage he felt around the boy.

“You know, Ben is friends with him.” Bev mentioned.

“I know.” Richie rolled his eyes. “I don’t know how someone as sweet as Haystack could be friends with someone like him.”

“He says he’s a really good friend.”

“I really think you guys got off on the wrong foot.” Stan interjected hesitantly.

“You always do this. Just accept that I hate the guy and move on. You guys are my friends, you’re supposed to support me!” Richie groaned.

“I’m not going to support your childish hate of someone without reason.”

“So if I give you a legitimate reason, you’ll support me?”

Stan and Bev shared a look of confusion, but nodded nonetheless.

“I guess if you can find one, but he’s a good guy, Richie.” Bev answered.

“We’ll see about that.”

“So, Haystack, any parties this weekend with your other friends?” Richie asked Ben at lunch, resting his chin in his hands as he smiled faux sweetly.

“Yeah, Bev and I are going to Mike Hanlon’s party this weekend.” Ben smiled back, unaware of Richie ulterior motives.

“Can I tag along?”

Ben’s smile expanded to a grin. “Of course! That’d be great. You can bring Stan, too, it’ll be fun!”

“Benny boy, you’re so sweet to me.” Richie reached over and ruffled Ben’s hair.

“Why do you want to go?” Bev spoke up, having watched the exchange.

“Just some fun.”

Beverly squinted her eyes at him in suspicion, then turned to Ben. “Will Eddie Kaspbrak happen to be there?”

Ben shrugged. “Maybe. I haven’t asked him but I’m sure he will.”

Bev turned back to Richie and glared at him, but didn’t say anything.

When lunch ended, Bev grabbed a hold of Richie’s arm and dragged him into an empty classroom. Her grip on his arm caused him to curse as he was being pulled away.

“Shit, Bev, chill out.”

“You leave Eddie alone.” She pointed her finger at him accusingly.

“What ever do you mean?” He feigned innocence.

“If you and Stan go to that party this weekend, I want you to leave Eddie alone. This whole situation is getting so ridiculous and I honestly can’t handle it. We’re graduating soon, grow the fuck up!” She exclaimed.

“I will when he does!”

“Just shut up, Richie. This is childish and stupid and you need to forget about this.”

“Fine.” He snatched his arm out of her grip. “I’ll go and be civil to the demon.”

“Thank you for your sacrifice.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure it’ll be so difficult.”

“It will, Marsh.”

In fact, Richie actually was having a hard time being civil. From the minute he walked into the party, he had locked eyes with Eddie and felt a surge of emotions flow through his body. He immediately had torn his eyes away and walked to get himself and Stan a drink, his own being particularly strong.

He sat himself on a couch alone, Stan having gone to talk to the host (Richie was pretty sure he had a crush on Mike Hanlon), sipping his drink that would hopefully make him a more well behaved human being.

Then the couch cushion dipped.

“Surprised you haven’t sought me out.” Eddie’s voice filled Richie’s ears as he refused to look his direction.

“I made a promise.”

“A promise to what? Actually be a decent human being?”

“To be civil.” Richie spat out.

“Oh.” Eddie sunk back into the cushion, relaxing. “How’s that going for you?”

“Pretty good.” Richie tried to keep his answers short and curt, trying his best to keep his mouth from running.

“Well, thank you.”

Richie finally looked at Eddie, turning his head quickly with a confused look on his face.

Eddie took a sip of his drink. “I figured you, and me to an extent, could start being civil.”

“To an extent?” Richie barked a laugh. “Kaspbrak, don’t make me laugh.”

“That’s the last sound I want to hear, Tozier.” He mocked the venom Richie had put into his name but had a small smile barely on his lips. “I was just thinking, our friend groups have melded and we only have a few months until graduation….”

“You’re waving the white flag?” Richie’s lips quirked upward into a smirk, his eyes glinting.

“Far from it. I’m proposing a truce.”

“And after we graduate you’ll go back to being a dick who thinks he’s better than me?”

“Me?” Eddie let out a bark of laughter. “You’re the one that started hating me out of nowhere!” Even with his voice raising, it did little against the loud sound of the music.

“You’re infuriating and are constantly putting me down, but sure, I’m the bad guy.” Richie stood up from the couch.

“You make fun of me, you insult me, you go out of your way to make my day miserable, I just want you to leave me alone, because from where I stand it seems like you’re a 5 year old with a crush and you don’t know how to handle it.”

“A crush?! I wouldn’t have a crush on you if someone put a gun to my head.”

Eddie stood up as well, gripping his drink tight in his hand. He glanced down at it for a moment before tossing it towards Richie, effectively soaking the other boy’s shirt in the sugary alcohol.

“Grow up.” He spat.

Richie stood there, sticky shirt and all, as people stared, suddenly feeling more embarrassed than he had in his entire life.

A hand grabbed his and dragged him through the crowd, he glanced away from where Eddie had stomped off to see a mess of red hair and a head of brown curls in front of him.

“You’re ridiculous, I swear.” He heard Bev saying as they started up the stairs. “How immature can you two be?”

“Not to mention you cock blocked me.” Stan grumbled, causing Bev to let out a short chuckle. He shot a look at her before turning to face Richie. “This has officially gone too far and I’m sick of it.”

“I’m sorry.” Richie said, still feeling embarrassed, and now slightly sick.

“Too late.” Stan grabbed a fistful of his shirt and yanked him through a doorway, Bev following them. Mike was standing there with an equally annoyed looked on his face, his hand on a doorknob to what seemed to be a closet.

“You folks gonna murder me?” Richie looked around at all their faces.

“Maybe indirectly.” Mike shrugged and opened the door.

Using his grip still on Richie, Stan shoved him into the closet. He heard the door slam and lock behind him before he saw two glowing eyes in the darkness. He screamed and the other person screamed as well, and Richie scrambled to turn on a light.

Eddie Kaspbrak sat there with red, puffy eyes and wet cheeks.

“Kaspbrak? What -”

He quickly wiped his face with his sleeves, sniffling. “Shut the fuck up, leave me alone.”

“We’re leaving now.” Bev screamed from outside the door. “We’re not letting you out ‘til you grow up. Don’t care if it’s days from now!”

“Fuck.” Richie let out a deep sigh and slid down to the floor.

“I know, I know, you’d rather die of starvation than speak to me.” Eddie said quickly.

Richie swallowed hard and took in the other boy’s appearance. “Are you okay?”

“Okay? No! I just embarrassed myself in front of half the school and realized I’m so stupid that I didn’t figure out you actually hated me until this moment.”

“Only because you hate me.”

Eddie let out a deep sigh and rolled his eyes. “Do you really believe that?” His voice came out weaker than Richie had ever heard him speak.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Richie,” Their first names hadn’t been said by each other in years. “I had a total massive crush on you freshman year and you treated me like dirt.”

Both boys’ hearts silently skipped a beat at the confession.

Richie swallowed hard. “Shit, Kaspbrak….Eddie, I liked you too.”

He felt a strange feeling in his stomach unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It was as if he was going to be sick, but he knew he hadn’t drank that much. It made it difficult for him to speak, his throat closing and he voice coming out scratchy.

“So, what happened?” Eddie sounded small.

Richie racked through his brain, trying to recall the first moment that he started this rivalry, so to say, with Eddie Kaspbrak. The first time he walked into school, saw his face, and the words coming out of his mouth were cruel, not gentle.

“I don’t know.” He answered honestly.

All he could remember was the feeling of anger bubbling up in his chest, he didn’t even know if it was something Eddie did.

“Our personalities clash.” Richie finally said.

“So does everyone’s. Hell, you and Stan are pretty different.” Eddie managed to let out a small laugh.

“I don’t know what it is about you.” Richie moved his body closer to Eddie’s, so they only had to speak barely above a whisper. “You always just – ugh – managed to get under my skin and I couldn’t think.” He felt a lightness to him he’d never felt with anyone else, it was bubbling inside of him and spreading across his body and made him speak without any reservations. “I couldn’t think of anything but you, and every move I made was to frustrate you, or to get you to look my way so I could say something I thought was witty, and, damn, Kaspbrak, I don’t know how you did it, but you got a tight grip on me.”

“Like a compulsion you couldn’t control.” Eddie added on.

“Yeah.”

“You’re saying I was your drug, Tozier.” He smiled.

Richie let out a small chuckle and felt a hysterical wave of laughter wash over him, forcing him to cover his face with his hands as his cheeks became red with glee. Eddie couldn’t help but join in, the two boys laughing until their stomachs hurt and they couldn’t anymore.

“I think we’re idiots, Eds.” Richie said when he caught his breath.

“Eds?”

Richie’s mouth worked quicker than his brain. “Yeah, I figured, it’s short and cute, like you.” His eyes widened when he realized what he said. “Um, I’m…sorry.”

Eddie gave him a lopsided grin. “So about that truce?”

“You got it.” Richie stuck out his hand.

Eddie reached out and they shook, but they both quickly recoiled, a sharp pain running through their each of their bodies. Eddie clutched his wrist tight, waiting for the pain to subside, while Richie slapped his ribcage.

When it had passed, Eddie looked beneath his hand to see the name “Richard” scrawled across his skin. His felt his breathing quicken and he looked up to see Richie already staring at him with a hanging jaw.

“I – um – I don’t – how -” Richie tried to speak but Eddie reached forward, pulling up the shirt still soaked in alcohol to where Richie had gripped in pain earlier.

“Let me see your chest!” He screamed.

Richie scrambled to pull off his shirt and Eddie lightly touched his bottom rib, “Edward” printed there.

“Oh my god.” He covered his mouth with his hands and tried not to scream again.

Richie looked down at the writing on his own skin. “Holy fuck!”

“Are we…does this mean?”

“We’re fucking soulmates!” Richie yelled out in glee. “I found my soulmate!” He stood up from the ground, reaching down to grab Eddie’s hand and pull him up too, a huge grin spreading across the smaller boy’s features. He turned around, banging on the door repeatedly. “Hey, let us out, we’re more than civil!

The door opened and the boys scrambled out, Richie still holding on to Eddie’s hand.

“You’re missing a shirt.” Mike pointed out, Bev and Stan with him as well, taking in the scene.

“Look!” Eddie said excitedly, turning Richie and pointing to the name on his side, then lifting his own arm up to show his.

“Well, shit.” Stan exclaimed.

Bev looked hesitant to speak. “And you guys are okay with this?”

“I can’t tell you why, but I’ve never been more ecstatic in my life.” Richie answered.

Eddie glanced at Richie, biting the inside of his cheeks to stop himself from smiling anymore, his face was starting to hurt.

Stan let out an exasperated laugh. “All these years? The unexplained anger? Should’ve realized you were fucking soulmates.”

The two new found soulmates looked at each other, smiling in a way they hadn’t seen since they met each other years ago in their English class.

Richie couldn’t remember what caused his anger to start, he could only remember seeing Eddie’s bright face for the first time that morning and thinking “This boy better be my soulmate”.

-------------

hello everyone i am back from the dead to post a secret santa that i was supposed to post in december (obviously for christmas) but then i fell off the face of the earth and never did it!! so here it is...and enemies to lovers soulmate au it was for

#dont even know if i'm coming back to tumblr but here ya go #i put allll the tropes in here #reddie #eddie kaspbrak #richie tozier #fic #it #it 2017 #reddie fic #mine #itblurb #reddieblurb

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mca-attack21 · 5 years

Text

Riverdale: Deadly Definitions 9

AN: Hello guys! Sorry for the delay, I was working on a couple different angles for this story. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! Comment if you would like to be tagged in future parts like @l4life did. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Sunday morning was eventful to say the least. Being that it was the morning after you got out of the hospital, you were incredibly sore. You were also pretty sure that you had missed taking your medicine, which was great. Your boyfriend was no where to be found, and your phone was across the room. So you decided that you were going to get up, move around, take your meds, and use the bathroom, and rescue your phone. Sounds easy enough right?

Wrong.To be honest you both wished Archie was there and were glad that he wasn’t. You breathed in sharply as you turned to get out of bed. You struggled through with tears rolling down your face and finally made it to your feet. You had never been in this much pain in your life. But it was fine. You were fine. Everything was fine.

You made it to the bathroom and took your pills plus a dose of mouthwash. You then returned to the room, accidentally bumping your shoulder on the door and letting out a string of curses. The tears returned against your will and you knew you looked like a mess. Of course, that was when Archie decided to come jogging up the stairs.

“What are you doing out of bed?” he asked before entering the room to see the mess that was you, “Y/n what happened? Are you okay?”

The whole situation made you even more upset which contributed to actual ugly crying, which hurt your ribs, and thus made you cry more with intermittent “Ow’s”.

“Y/n, you need to calm down. Breath. It’s okay. Just focus on my voice. You are okay. I’m right here. Come on let’s get you back in bed. You’re okay. Breath. Just calm down. It’s alright.” Archie soothed as he carefully led you back to his bed.

It took you a minute to regain your composure. You were embarrassed that Archie witnessed your little meltdown. “I’m sorry” you said as you laid back.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” he replied and you looked away, “I’m serious Y/n. I know this sucks, but we’ll get through it. You’ve always been here for me, and now it’s my turn to be there for you. You just have to talk to me.”

“I know, I’m fine now, I promise.” you answer.

“What happened anyway? I went downstairs to get you breakfast and I came back and oof” he smiled.

“Well, you see I woke up which was mistake number 1. I then realized that I hadn’t woken up earlier to take my medicine which was very overdue. Plus I had to go to the bathroom. Looking in the bathroom mirror was mistake number 3. And then your door assaulted me. And then I saw you, at which point I learned that crying with fractured ribs is very painful and should be avoided at all costs.” you explained.

“Wow. Okay, what can I do for you now? Do you want some breakfast?” he asked.

“That sounds great. Can you see if Betty can come over?” you ask.

“I’ll call her and make you some pancakes,” he went to his desk and retrieved your phone, “call me if you need anything else.” he added and kissed your forehead.

Luckily Betty was able to come over. You had her brush and braid your hair and do your make-up. She also helped you into clean and comfy clothes. This way you would look and feel like less of a zombie. She helped you back into bed and the two of you talked about the baby shower that was happening that afternoon.

It wasn’t long before Archie returned with your pancakes. He thanked Betty for stopping by and walked her out. When he returned he was happy to see that you were in much better spirits than you were earlier that morning.

“So, what are your plans today?” you asked.

“Well there is this girl that I kinda like, and I was planning to hang out with her” he joked.

“You don’t have to stay here all day. You could go to Polly’s baby shower.” you replied.

“You think I would willingly choose to go to a baby shower instead of hanging out with my girlfriend?”

“You do have a point”

“Besides, I have a door to punish.” he laughed taking your plate and setting it down before crawling into bed beside you with his laptop. The two of you then proceeded to watch Netflix for the majority of the day. After dinner you talked him into pulling out his guitar and the two of you worked on his music.

Meanwhile Jughead, Betty, and Veronica were busy with Polly’s baby shower which was nothing but family drama. Alice showed up and asked Polly to move back in, at which point Polly revealed that Mr. Cooper had tried to have her have an abortion. The Blossom’s then showed up and asked Polly to move into Thornhill. The real kicker? After the party she chose the Blossoms.

This had both of the Coopers upset. Alice kicked Hal out of the house. He retaliated by kicking her out of the Register. Betty couldn’t believe that her sister abandoned her. She felt like her family was falling apart and that there was nothing she could do about it. Jughead was trying to keep up her spirits through it all.

Jughead’s dad stopped by to talk to Mr. Andrews. He asked him if he would consider letting legitimate serpents come and start working the Drive-In project. After all, the serpents needed work and would be able to handle trouble if the thugs decided to come back. Having no other options, Mr. Andrews graciously agreed saying they could start tomorrow.

Monday morning Archie woke you up as he was getting ready for school. He didn’t want to leave you alone, but you reassured him that you would be fine. After all, his dad was going to come home for lunch and school would be out at 3:30 at which point Betty was coming over. He made you promise to call him if anything went wrong, and then reluctantly left.

It honestly wasn’t that bad. You slept most of the day and Archie had made sure everything you needed was within arms reach. His dad came home and made you macaroni and cheese for lunch. The two of you talked for a little while before he went back to work. And then Betty came over to drop off your homework and hang out for a bit before Archie got done with practice. When he did come home, he went straight up to see how you were doing.

“Hey Archie, how was your day?” you asked.

“It was good. Actually, I have something to ask you” he replied.

“Shoot”

“Cheryl asked me if I would accompany her to the Blossom maple tapping ceremony as her date tomorrow. She gave me a whole speech on how I am the only decent guy in Riverdale after I defended her to sheriff Keller. And then later her mom offered to put in a word with the director of the Brandenburg Music Academy if I went. And I originally told Cherly no, but then I told her mom that I would talk to you about it. So here I am talking…”

“Archie-” you started.

“It’s just that doing that summer program would be so big for me. It would help me get college recognition and a chance to learn from professionals. Plus it’s only one time. And I could check in on Polly which would be good for Betty” he continued.

“Archie, can I finish?” you laughed, seeing how worked up he was.

“Yeah, I’m sorry.” he admitted.

“I think you should go, it’s good to make connections. And I trust you.”

“Are you sure your okay with it? This isn’t some girl tactic where you tell me to do it and then use it against me for the rest of my life?” he joked.

“Yes I’m sure, go tap some maple trees. Be there for Cheryl, even though she may act like the devil incarnate, she is going through a lot right now and could use a friend.”

“You amaze me” he replied as he kissed you, “you are the most understanding and kindhearted person I have ever met”.

------

So the next day after school Archie skipped practice and went to the Blossom residence. Cheryl greeted him and walked him through the schedule for the evening. They walked together and presented a united front. He offered her words of encouragement as she was being criticized by the other board members. After doing the ceremonial tree tapping Archie was getting ready to leave but was stopped by Mr. Blossom.

“Archie, I wanted to thank you again for being my daughter’s escort tonight.”

“No problem sir. Thanks again for putting in a word for me at Brandenburg.”

“I have to admit I was surprised to see you here. Your dad and I don’t always see eye to eye, but you and Cheryl are great together. The board likes to see stability. I think this is just the beginning of a great relationship between you and our family.”

“Thanks, I’m glad I could help”.

“Speaking of helping, there is a banquet Thursday that I would like you to attend with Cheryl. It is a very big deal for the board. I’ll have my tailor fit you for a suit tomorrow and you can pick it up Wednesday.”

“I’m honored sir, but I don’t know if I can commit to that” Archie tried.

“Of course you can, it would mean the world to Cheryl. Besides, I have invited her Uncle. The one who is on the board at Brandenburg. I was thinking you could play something and talk to him yourself.” Clifford persisted.

“Well, I guess...”

“Okay great, be here tomorrow right after practice.”

Archie was so slightly nervous to tell you that he agreed to another ‘date’ with Cheryl. He just hoped that you would be as cool with it as you were the first time.

“Hey, you survived a whole evening with the Blossom clan” you smiled as he arrived home.

“Yeah, I did. If you think Cheryl is evil you should meet her family”

“Well, if you play your cards right you will never have to see them again.”

“Actually there is something I have to tell you,”

“What’s up?”

“Cheryl’s dad asked if I would go to this Banquet on Thursday and I kinda agreed. It’s completely harmless and I might even get to play for a guy from Brandenburg.”

“Oh” you replied as your face dropped.

“I mean I can cancel if it’s a big deal,” he added.

“No, it’s fine. It’s a great opportunity for you. And like I said last night, I trust you Archie.”

The next day was equally as boring. The only difference is that it was Veronica who stopped by after school. You had her help you to get out of your clothes so you could take a shower. Afterwards she did your hair and put concealer over the bruises on your face. You were feeling much better and even ventured downstairs to the living room.

The two of you were talking about how she had to give a disposition and the fact that it was becoming harder and harder for her to have blind faith in her father. Especially since she found out that he had something to do with the Muggs family losing their house. She was frustrated that her mother wouldn’t tell her more about it. The worst part was that her dad threatened to incriminate her mom if she chose not to cooperate.

You were offering her advice when the doorbell rang. Veronica went to answer it and Cheryl came in with a guitar.

“Sorry not sorry to bother you, but is Archikins here by any chance?” she asked.

“No, he hasn’t come home yet. Practice must be running late.” you answered glancing at the time.

“Oh, he must be at his fitting. My dad’s tailor is making him a suit for tomorrow's banquet. You know Y/n I’m glad that you are okay that Archie and I are so close. Lesser girls would be jealous of the intimate bond we share or at least feel threatened by my draw. I mean my family can offer so much.” she said cattily.

“Careful Cheryl.” Veronica warned.

“It’s okay V, I trust my boyfriend. Anything else Cheryl?”

“I’m just going to drop the guitar off. I bought it for Archie as a thank you for last night. He was quite the gentleman. It’s top of the line. Tell Archie that he should test it out and see if it suites him. There are plenty of others to choose from.” She added as she set the case down.

“Okay, thank you Cheryl.” you smile.

“See you at school Veronica. Y/n I hope you recover quickly. Ta-ta!” she said as she exited the house.

“Dude, she is trying to steal your boyfriend. How are you so calm right now?” Veronica asked.

“I trust Archie. Plus we both know that Cheryl is mostly talk.” you answer.

“Okay, well I have to get going, but Betty is next door if you need anything and Archie should be here soon.” Veronica said and came over to give you a small but comforting hug.

It wasn’t long before Archie got home and found you snoozing on the couch. Unfortunately that didn’t last long at all as he received a phone call from Cheryl and the ringing woke you up. He went in the kitchen and took the call, which was Cheryl telling him about the guitar, and returned to the living room.

“Hey babe, have a nice nap?” he asked.

“Yeah. Cheryl stopped by earlier and dropped off a guitar as a gift for last night. She wants you to let her know if you like it. If not, she will be more than happy to exchange it.”

“I know, she told me. They want me to play it at the banquet on Thursday.” he said as he got it out of the case. You could see how excited he was.

“It’s a nice guitar.” you compliment.

“Yeah, and get this. Clifford Blossom even agreed to hire my Dad’s company for a couple of construction projects.”

“That’s great Archie” you said. And you meant it. You were glad that he was getting so many opportunities. It just made you feel bad because you knew that you would never be able to offer him the kind of life Cheryl could. With the Blossoms he would want for nothing. It would never be like that with the two of you.

“Hey, I’m worn out, I think I’m going to go to bed” you added standing up to begin the long journey upstairs.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’ve had a long day”

“Okay, well I’ll be up in a bit.” He said as he started strumming on his new guitar.

The next day went incredibly slow. You decided to go outside and sit in the yard and may or may not have got stuck. You were relieved when you saw Jughead walking up.

“This doesn’t look like a bed” he joked.

“And you don’t look responsible enough to be a babysitter, yet here we are.” you return, “On a more serious note, I may be stuck and could really use a hand”

“Okay, but only because you are damsel in distress and we Jones men are nothing if not chivalrous.” he replied as he helped you off the ground earning a whimper from you.

“So, how’s Bughead doing?” you ask as the two of you make it inside.

“I refuse to acknowledge that with a response. Instead I will counter with, how are you holding up?”

“Physically I’m doing a lot better. I feel like I’m not even missing anything at school. Except for you know, the fact Cheryl Blossom is trying to buy my boyfriend.”

“Yeah I don’t even know where to start with that one, Cheryl is a vulture.”

“It’s fine, I trust Archie. But still, she has some nerve.” you replied, “How is your dad doing?”

“He’s a lot better. He sobered up and I came home yesterday to a clean house. He said that after he pays the bills off he is going to call my mom and get her and Jellybean back.”

“That’s great Jughead” you smiled.

The two of you continued to catch up until it was time for him to meet up with Betty. At which point you decided that it was time to continue watching Netflix.

----

Archie was both nervous and out of place at the banquet. Even though he had the suit that was custom tailored for him for this event, he felt like he was under dressed. He also was second guessing his selection of songs. He wished that he would have had more time to practice. Especially since so much was riding on this.

He walked Cheryl around as she introduced him to her family members. The two of them sat by each other and enjoyed the fancy dinner. Afterwards, she asked him to dance and he obliged. It was a little while later when Clifford pulled him aside and asked if he was ready to take the stage. Archie decided that it was now or never. Clifford introduced him saying this is “Archie Andrews, with a song he’s dedicating to my daughter Cheryl.” He sang one of the songs that the two of you wrote and they loved it. Clifford than introduced him to Cheryl’s uncle who all but promised a spot at the summer camp.

After that Cheryl led him away from the party and into a private opening.

“Thank you for this Archie” she said as she pulled him into a hug.

“It’s no problem Cheryl, you know I’m here for you.” he answered.

“Seriously though, that song was beautiful, and the way you stood up for me back there” she added before pulling him in for a passionate kiss. It took him a moment to realize what was happening before he pulled away.

“What are you doing?” he asked backing away.

“My lipstick is maple red by the way. In case you were wondering why it tasted so sweet.” she seduced.

Archie had enough and walked away. He was going to grab his phone and then leave. On his way out he heard the Blossom’s say that they were responsible for Hiram Lodge’s arrest. He had almost made it to his car when Cheryl intercepted him.

“It’s supposed to be Cinderella who bolts from the ball, not prince charming silly” she calls.

“I can’t do this right now Cheryl, I’m leaving.”

“If you leave right now, the radiant sun that is the Blossom family will cease to shine down on you and yours. And everything we’ve given you including the Brandenburg program disappears. Are you sure you want to give that up? Are you sure you want to do that to your dad?”

“I’m sorry Cheryl, I can’t do this anymore. Goodbye.” he said before leaving to his car. What Archie didn’t know was that walking away from Cheryl was not that easy. She had a plan just in case he did something like this.

You were watching tv with Archie’s dad when you got the text from Cheryl. “He’s a good kisser xoxo” Attached came a video of the two of them kissing. You were shocked to say the least.

Archie’s Dad noticed your change in demeanor and asked you about it. You shrugged it off and told him you were going to go spend the night at Veronica’s for a change of scenery. He offered to drive you which you accepted. He went upstairs to grab your meds and then helped you out to the truck. At that point you were doing good to keep it together. You text Veronica to let her know that you were coming.

“You know for someone who is supposed to be on bed-rest, you don’t seem to stay in bed” Mr. Andrews joked.

“Yeah. It gets boring.” you reply.

“Do you want me to bring you lunch tomorrow at the Pembrook?” he asked.

“No, I’ll be fine.” you answered.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m just tired, but Veronica text me to come over. Duty calls.”

“Okay, so should I expect you back tomorrow?” he asked as he pulled up to the entrance.

“I don’t know yet, I might stay here.” you answered as you got out, “Thanks for the ride.”

Veronica was waiting at the door for you. She was always happy to have you over, but she was confused since last time she checked you were supposed to be on bed-rest with minimal exertion. “Hey girl, what’s up?” she asked as she let you in. When she saw your face she knew that something wasn’t right. “Y/n what’s wrong?” she asked.

You handed her your phone with the video playing. “Please tell me that the guy kissing Cheryl isn’t Archie.”

“That bitch.” she answered as she watched the video.

“She won. She can give Archie everything he has ever wanted and more.” you said as your eyes started to tear up.

“Oh Y/n, it’s okay, come on let’s get you upstairs and comfortable. And then I will break out the cookie dough ice cream.”

-----

Archie went straight up to his room. He was going to tell you that Cheryl kissed him and that it didn’t mean anything. That he was done being her date and he was done with the Blossoms in general. He was going to get into the music program based off of merit or not at all. He was going to tell you that he loved you and that he was sorry that he had ever chose Cheryl over you.

The only problem was that you were not there. He went back down stairs to see if he had maybe missed you sleeping on the couch. He then checked both the downstairs and upstairs bathrooms. He called out for you and then decided to call your phone. But there was no response. He was relieved when he heard the door open downstairs assuming you and his dad had went out.

He jogged down the stairs and was disappointed to see only his dad. “Hey do you know where Y/n is?” he asked

“Yeah, I just dropped her off at Veronica’s, she said she was going to stay there for a night or two.” Mr. Andrews answered starting to piece everything together.

“Okay, did she say why?” Archie questioned.

“No, but she did seem kinda upset. Did something happen?”

“No. Yes. Kinda. I just have to talk to her, I’ll be back in a bit.” Archie said as he went for the door.

“Hey son” his dad called after him.

“Yeah dad?”

“You might want to wipe the lipstick off your face”

Archie’s eyes went big. He pulled his phone out and went to selfie mode only to notice the smeared cherry red lipstick still staining his lips. He wiped it off and headed to Veronica’s. The fact that you hadn’t picked up his calls or answered his texts was not a good sign.

When he arrived he was forced to leave his name with the doorman as it was after hours. Smithers relayed the message to Veronica that Archie was here to see you. Considering that you had just fallen asleep and had already said you didn’t want to see him, she decided to handle this herself.

She met him in the lobby. “Hey Ronnie, I need to see Y/n it’s important” Archie tried.

“As important as Cheryl’s lips?” she asked and Archie realized just how bad this was.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“Cheryl sent Y/n quite the video. I have to say I expected better from you Archie.”

“You don’t understand Veronica, it isn’t what it looks like”

“You don’t get to say that. There is video evidence that it is exactly what it looks like”

“It was a set up, I didn’t know she was going to kiss me. And the video doesn’t show me pulling away or leaving right afterwards. You have to believe me Veronica I would never do that to Y/n. Please let me see her” he pleaded.

“I’m sorry Archie, not tonight. She came here so she wouldn’t have to see you. Besides she is asleep. And you know that she isn’t supposed to be getting worked up right now.”

“Okay, well tell her that I stopped by. And that I want to see her to explain. And that I love her” he said defeated.

“I will. And Archie? I am rooting for the two of you.” she smiled as she headed back upstairs. She believed him. After all, she had witnessed first hand how manipulative Cheryl could be. She just hoped that the two of you would be able to work it out.

As Archie left that night he wasn’t focused on his anger at Cheryl. Instead, his heart went out to you. He couldn’t believe that he had allowed this to happen. He wanted more than anything to apologize to you and to hold you in his arms. He was scared that you would believe Cheryl and that this would be the breaking point for the two of you.

He had no choice but to wait until the next day to find out.

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fromtheringapron · 5 years

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Scary Wrestling Stuff from My Childhood

Every Halloween season, it’s not uncommon for wrestling fans to reminisce about the moments in our great sport that genuinely scared them, and I’m certainly no exception. At the end of the day, wrestling is still a fantasy world that’s seen plenty of dark, suspenseful, and even at times supernatural bullshit. In fact, one of its biggest stars is The Undertaker, who has been in turns a mortician, a zombie, a Satanic cult leader, a desert biker, and some strange hybrid of all those characters at once.

Truthfully, nothing in wrestling scares me anymore. Well, at least not in kayfabe. Real life still provides a lot of fright in and out of the ring. When I see a wrestler get legitimately injured in the ring, you bet I’m concerned. The depressingly common trend of premature wrestling deaths is a terrifying subject on its own. But when you’re a kid, where even the most ridiculous thing in wrestling can seem real, there’s a lot in kayfabe to be scared about, and you don’t even known what the hell the term “kayfabe” even means.

So, to get in the spirit of the spooky season, I’ll give you a quick rundown of some things that personally scared me shitless watching wrestling as a youngster:

Evil Doink the Clown: Doink is usually associated with everything wrong in WWF’s New Generation era⏤one-dimensional gimmickry, cheesy beyond belief, and worst of all, out of touch. But it’s a reputation that isn’t quite deserved. The original Doink character was that of an evil clown, brilliantly brought to life by Matt Borne. As someone who churned out many rewatches of WrestleMania IX as a child, which features the character at its peak, you better believe I was terrified of this wrestling clown with lime green hair. If evil Doink’s sudden mood swings and aggression weren’t unsettling enough, the entrance music is fucking horrifying to this day. Far scarier than Pennywise and the Joker could ever wish, complete with maniacal clown cackles. Yikes, yikes, yikes. It sounds like the soundtrack to a haunted carnival episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? on Nickelodeon. Given the rise of creepy clowns in recent pop culture, evil Doink would still get over now, and scare a whole new generation of kids to boot.

Kane, Circa ’97/‘98: Hear me out: the video package to Kane and The Undertaker’s clash at WrestleMania XIV is one of the best ever. The music, the footage, and even the random Michael Cole narration all flow together perfectly to create something goosebumpingly epic. But, damn, as kid? This was some terrifying shit. Considering I was too young to stay up and watch every episode of Raw in full, that package was like a highlight reel of pure horror. Kane has become known for taking part in some of the most infamous and illogical storylines in WWE history, but it’s often forgotten how effective a job was done to build him up as a monster upon his debut. Remember when he lit that random dude on fire on Raw? Holy fuck. Not even the Wicked Witch of the West setting fire to The Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz shook me up quite like that. The eyes peeping out of his mask was, to me, the most frightening part of his appearance. Total nightmare fuel. Generations more familiar with bald, mask-less Kane could never quite know the trauma.

Papa Shango’s Sega Genesis Theme Music: Okay, this a fairly obscure one, but my brother and I would play WWF Royal Rumble on Sega Genesis back in the day. The game was complete with cute little 8-bit versions of each wrestler’s entrance themes. The Crush theme, in particular, is a minor masterpiece. The other piece of music that made an impact on me is the version of Papa Shango’s theme. I didn’t have too much footage of Papa Shango in my childhood wrestling VHS collection so he held some mythical status to me. The original theme is creepy enough, but the Genesis version really takes you to an dark, murky swamp where Shango is hexing his latest victim. It scared me so much that I’d speed ahead the character selection screen in the game so I wouldn’t have to hear it. You can scoff at me now all you want, but I must speak my truth.

Zeus and Randy Savage Attack Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake: If you’ve watched Survivor Series 1989, you may remember a segment where Mean Gene interviews Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake about their upcoming match at No Holds Barred. That’s not scary at all, but it’s what happens as the interview unfolds that, for whatever reason, really tore me up when I’d put my copy of this show in the VHS. Sensational Sherri crashes the interview, with the most wild-eyed glared you could imagine, shouting at Hogan and Beefcake in her dark, garish makeup. She then throws handfuls of powder in their eyes, allowing Zeus and Randy Savage to attack them. It’s so hard to describe what’s so scary about this. No Holds Barred, both the movie and the pay-per-view, were pretty notorious failures so it’s not even like it’s remembered as a major angle or anything. If anything, I gotta think it has something to do with the sudden tonal shift from a goofy babyface interview to an all-out assault, which can be pretty striking for any young viewer.

Mick Foley, Hell in the Cell: I don’t really need to say any more, do I? The Hell in the Cell match at King of The Ring 1998 is something that warrants a post of its own, as its undoubtedly one of my favorite matches of all time. But I cannot stress this enough: watching a human being do what Mick Foley does in this match, no matter how pre-planned, is some seriously distressing shit. As an adult, you realize you’re watching this man single-handedly take years off his career. But even in kayfabe, there’s true terror in watching the full extent of Mankind’s threshold reveal itself. The dude literally fucking smiles to the camera as he’s concussed and his mouth bloodied into steak tartar. If that image alone doesn’t stay with you, I don’t know what will. Mick Foley turns this match into a mini horror movie. Years before people tuned in droves to watch Saw and Hostel, they watched Mick Foley torture himself. In the match’s most chilling moments, he turns Mankind into a character like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees⏤just when you think he’s been completely broken in half, he’s up and ready for more.

Early Undertaker: I can’t possibly go on without mentioning The Undertaker. When you really think about it, some of things I’ve mentioned already wouldn’t have been possible without him. It seems a little cliche to even bring him up for a topic like this, but he’s the OG of cheesy wrestling horror. Plus, it needs to be said: The Undertaker, in first couple years of his WWF career, could easily scare kids. It definitely scared the kids who grew up watching that version of the character, at least. I watched Survivor Series 1990 countless times growing up so, as you could imagine, I was one of the fortunate/unfortunate children. One of the more brilliant touches of The Undertaker’s early character, outside of the creepy glare and slow approach, was the various shots of mortified children in the crowd. It seems like a minor detail, but it went a long way in establishing him as a genuine monster. Not to mention, there were things the Undertaker did during that era that, even by the family-friendly standards of early ‘90s WWF, were pretty messed-up. How about that time he locked The Ultimate Warrior in a coffin? Or when he worked with Jake Roberts to terrorize Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth? Make no mistake, those first few years were critical in letting us know for whom the bell tolls.

And that about does it for my own personal horrors. Maybe you think mine are silly, but what about wrestling scared you growing up? Does it still scare you? Does it still give you nightmares? As you ponder, I’ll be looking over my shoulder, hoping I’m not attacked by Zeus.

#wwe #the undertaker #mick foley #sega #halloween #scary

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