#I did cheat a bit bc the finale was already half written so

[echo-goes-mmm]

Old Friends Finale

Masterpost

Previous

Note: Charlie, the doctor, uses they/them pronouns.

Warnings: death

They tumbled into the Dark, wrestling with each other in the black.

Laith could see Nightclaw, grayscale against the infinite expanse of pure void, but it was clear after a moment that Master was completely blind.

“You stupid bitch,” he snarled. Laith dodged a wild swing of his blade; it came down a scant inch from where his head was a mere second before.

He struggled against Master’s weight pinning him down. With Nightclaw unable to see, he finally had an advantage.

Laith wiggled out of Nightclaw’s grip, his pure rage and frustration making him sloppy.

He scrambled out of reach, and Nightclaw stumbled to his feet.

“Where are you?!” Master shrieked, swinging his blade into the empty.

Nightclaw suddenly stood up straight, eyes still searching uselessly into the black. He dropped his blade arm to rest at his side.

“Darling…” he cooed, voice soft and sing-song, “I know you’re still there.”

Laith didn’t dare draw a breath as Nightclaw’s eyes passed over him.

“I’m not mad,” lied Master. “Take us back, sweetheart. I promise I won’t punish you.”

Laith said nothing.

Nightclaw suddenly cried out, not in anger, but in pain. He dropped the dagger entirely, and fell to his knees.

Laith didn’t know what happened to people when they were left in the Dark. Some sick part of him wanted to find out.

Nightclaw’s hands pressed against his head, as if some great migraine was pulsing in his brain. He gasped, eyes wide open, and against the grayscale, Laith saw black void stream from his eyes.

It flowed off his jaw and into the Dark.

Master kept screaming, even as his eyes completely turned to pitch and his mouth began to drip.

“Laith! Help me!” he called out, desperate. “Please!”

He still said nothing, frozen in horror. Dark spilled over Master's lips.

“LAITH!” 

___________________

“LAITH!” Theo screamed, but he was too late. Laith and Nightclaw were gone.

He frantically turned in circles, searching for any sign of them. They couldn’t have gone far, not with Laith’s condition.

“LAITH!”

Mateo and Beatrice finally caught up with him.

“What happened?” Mateo demanded.

“Look for them,” he ordered, “hurry!”

They flew up into the sky, scanning the city.

“There!” Beatrice called, pointing in the distance. She dived down, scooped Theo up under the arms, and they moved in a blur.

Laith sat on the concrete, hands over his mouth. He was rocking back and forth, eyes wild. There was blood spatter on his clothes, too much to only be his.

Beatrice put him on the ground and Theo raced towards Laith. She hung back, and Mateo hovered above her.

Theo put his hands on Laith’s shoulders.

“Laith, where’s Nightclaw?”

Laith didn’t seem to hear him. Tears streamed down his cheeks. His pupils swallowed up most of the vibrant purple of his eyes, pure horror and panic in his face.

“Laith!” Theo shook him by the shoulders. Laith’s eyes snapped to Theo, as if just now realizing he was there.

“Where’s Nightclaw, Laith?”

“He’s- he’s gone,” whispered Laith, trembling. “I killed him.”

Theo inhaled sharply.

“Oh god,” moaned Laith, “I killed him!”

Laith turned away, vomiting onto the street. Theo rubbed his back as he retched.

Beatrice approached, and Theo shot her a pleading look. She held up her hands, and Theo knew she understood.

“Where’s the body?” she asked, quiet.

Laith shuddered. “I left him behind. In the Dark.”

“The Dark?” she gently prodded.

“It’s… it’s where I go. When I use my powers.”

Theo remembered the dark cold Laith brought them through when they escaped Nightclaw. He wasn’t aware it was a place, but then again, he never thought about it. 

He filed away a note to ask Laith exactly how his powers worked.

“You killed Nightclaw and left him in the Dark?”

“N-no, I-” Laith scrubbed a hand over his face. “I- I took him there- and- and I got him off of me and… the Dark did the rest.”

“Go on,” Theo encouraged.

Laith shook his head and wrapped his arms around himself, clearly unwilling to say more.

Theo was suddenly very grateful that Laith was the type to value human life. He’d make the perfect assassin if he wanted to.

Theo, Beatrice, and Mateo exchanged looks. “Am I under arrest?” Laith asked wearily.

“No,” said Mateo, his voice firm. 

“It was self defense,” agreed Beatrice. “And I don't think any jury would convict you anyway.”

“Okay.”

Laith sounded so tired, and his frame was so small. Theo put a gentle hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort.

“What do you want to do?” he asked, quiet.

Laith leaned into his leg, something Theo was sure he’d never do a mere few hours ago.

“I don’t know,” he mumbled. “He’s really just… gone.”

Theo empathized. Laith hadn’t said how long he was under Nightclaw’s boot, but it was long enough that he must feel directionless without him.

“You could come back with us,” suggested Mateo. “We have room.”

Laith turned to look at him, blinking slowly. “I’m not a hero,” he said slowly, as if he thought Mateo was an idiot. “ And I’m not exactly useful.”

“You don’t have to be,” assured Theo.

Laith stood up, legs shaky. “That’s not how the world works,” he protested weakly.

Beatrice and Mateo gave each other a look.

“Who cares?” she shrugged.

“I care!” Laith’s leg went out from under him, and Theo caught him under the arms.

“Do you think I can just-” he waved a hand around, wincing, “-stick around and, what, hope you don’t do something to me? That’s not how any of this works! Not out there, not in prison, not anywhere!”

Theo slung Laith’s arm around his shoulders, and he didn’t struggle despite his outburst.

Laith panted, tears dripping off his bruised jaw.

“Fine then. I guess you’ll just be our prisoner,” said Mateo, strangely nonchalant. Beatrice stepped away from him, shock on her face. Theo gaped at him, and Laith nodded as if his point was proven.

“You’ll have to get used to regular meals and healthcare, though. It’s policy for such horrible criminals like you,” continued Mateo, and Theo caught on. 

Beatrice smacked Mateo on the shoulder. Mateo winced. “Ow!” He rubbed at the spot. 

Laith tilted his head back to look at the sky. “Fuck you guys,” he said, without any bite.

Theo took that as a yes.

___________________

Charlie was thrilled to finally have a permanent roommate in the complex, but it was months before Laith fully ventured out of his corner of the base for more than a quick shower.

Theo wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment, resentment, or both.

But now, he often tinkered in Theo’s shop. Sometimes he even offered to assist if he was in a good mood.

Theo occasionally caught him reading in a corner, or cooking in the kitchen. Laith made a mean lasagna and worked wonders with just beans and rice. Things that Theo wouldn’t have guessed he cared to do.

On the other hand, he still flinched at most touches and unexpected company, and small static shocks could send him spiraling into panic.

Theo installed a humidifier and removed the carpets to minimize the zaps, and everyone made sure not to accidentally sneak up on each other. Honestly, they should have taken care of that earlier anyway.

Laith also hated surprises, preferred quiet, and was always there to help Charlie patch the team up.

It worked for them. Laith wasn’t in the field, but no one would argue he wasn’t part of the team.

___________________

“Hey,” greeted Theo, grabbing a mug from the cabinets. Laith was making some pasta. Pesto, from the looks of the sauce gently bubbling on the stove.

“Nope,” Laith shook his head, “not sharing.”

“Do I look like Charlie?”

Laith snorted.

Theo filled the mug with water and put it in the microwave. Mateo got onto him about making tea in the microwave, but honestly Theo couldn’t taste the difference that he insisted was there.

The microwave dinged, and Theo plopped in the teabag.

“I’m setting a timer for three minutes,” he warned Laith.

“Thanks.”

Laith drained the pasta, and poured the noodles into the pan of sauce. He folded the pasta into the sauce, sprinkling it with the good parm.

The timer went off.

Theo took out the teabag and dumped in two heaping teaspoons of sugar. He stirred it and took a sip. Laith grabbed a fork and started eating right out of the pan. A habit of his; to avoid cleaning more dishes. Something about wasting water, even though Theo had made a very efficient dishwasher for the kitchen.

“Hey,” said Theo, putting his mug down on the counter. “Are we friends?”

Laith stabbed some more pasta with his fork.

“What are you talking about?”

Theo shrugged. “I was just wondering.” He picked up his tea again. He tried not to be disappointed as he sipped at it.

Laith rolled his eyes. “Yeah we’re friends. You think I just stick around for the free room and board?”

Theo smiled at him. 

“Sap,” scoffed Laith.

Theo took another sip of his sugary tea, as Laith shoveled more pasta into his mouth like a starving man.

Laith had called him sentimental, naive, soft-hearted, and a sap, more times than he could count.

It was Laith-speak for love, a substitute for the ‘I-care-about-yous’. Just like how ‘don’t die’ really meant ‘please be careful’.

Laith rinsed out the pan before putting it in the dishwasher and leaving.

Theo watched him go. He finished his tea, closing his eyes.

He replayed it in his mind. “Yeah, we’re friends.”

Theo smiled to himself.

He’d always been a sucker for happy endings.

taglist: @paintedpigeon1 @loserwithsyle @cepheusgalaxy @ohwrite

[littlespoonevan]

hiii! I really hope I'm not bothering you but... are you taking prompts? 👀 cause I love your fics and this is kinda your fault because I read your post about 9x06 lol but now I can't stop thinking about I&M having a *real talk* like... "I'm sorry I let you go" 🥺?

Sorry it took me a while to get to this - my ao3 fics kept me quite busy the past few weeks! okay so i’ve written about the aftermath of 9x06 quite a few times but never an actual, full “talk about everything” conversation in its entirety so i decided to give it a whirl here! 

for the record i 100% believe they had a conversation like this within the first week, if not 24 hours, of being in the cell together and find it absolutely preposterous john wells tried to act like they hadn’t in 10x03 and then again in 10x08 bc all ian wanted to do legit all season was talk things through and that didn’t come from nowhere but ANYWAY, they’ve got a lot of things to sort through but i did my best to cover as much as i could!

I hope you like it <3

*

The lights have been out for five minutes and Ian just about manages to stay in his bunk long enough for the guard to do his final check of their cell before he’s swinging himself down from his bed to crawl in next to Mickey.

He’s met with kisses and a muffled laugh into his mouth and fuck, he never thought he’d get to do this again. He allows himself to get lost in Mickey’s body for a few minutes, trading hungry kisses while their hands roam wherever either of them can reach, like they’re trying to commit one another’s skin to memory again – not that Ian has any intention of letting Mickey go this time.

He’s been itching to touch Mickey like this all day – they’d managed a hurried, flustered mutual reunion handjob before but they couldn’t risk anything more. Even that had been reckless but he’s pretty sure he lost any and all sense the second Mickey walked through the door of his cell.

He wants more now, wants Mickey whatever way he can have him, but a thought makes him pause and as soon as he thinks it he can’t stop thinking about it.

Is this supposed to be reunion sex or make-up sex?

Ian had done a lot of soul-searching and self-reflection after he’d left Mickey at the border and he just- he wants to talk about it. He doesn’t want them to jump straight into everything again and let their issues fester like they used to. Sex has never been a problem for them, communication on the other hand…

Mickey must notice he’s slowed down because he leans back, a confused smile on his face. “What?”

Ian looks at him and feels nothing but an all-consuming, addictive kind of love envelope him. He loves Mickey so fucking much – he hadn’t been able to stop even when he wanted to – he’s not going to hurt him again. But that means he needs to do this right. “Do you think we should talk first?” he asks uncertainly.

They’d both sort of agreed earlier that they would talk eventually when they’d been catching up and found themselves naturally slipping into deeper territory. They’d said they could worry about it later. But well, it’s later now.

Mickey appraises him for a moment and Ian tries not to panic when he notices his expression shutter the tiniest bit. Cradling Mickey’s jaw, he runs a thumb across his cheek. “Mick, I wanna do this right this time. We should talk about it.”

Mickey’s expression softens somewhat at that. “Talk about what?”

Ian blows out a breath. “Everything, I guess?”

He’s not sure they ever really talked out their issues in the past. He thinks they would’ve when Mickey brought him back home after he took off for the army. But Ian had already been halfway to manic by then and hadn’t exactly been in the most rational frame of mind to discuss the deep shit.

Mickey shifts onto his back, still keeping one arm around Ian, and Ian fits himself against Mickey’s side, head half on the pillow, half on Mickey’s shoulder.

“Well, if we’re talking about everything,” Mickey starts, rolling his head to the side and meeting Ian’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”

And that’s- what?

“What the fuck are you sorry for?” Ian asks with a frown – he’s pretty sure he’s the one with a laundry list of apologies to make here.

Mickey huffs out a laugh but it sounds sad. “Jesus, Ian. Did you just block out the first year and a half of our relationship?” He averts his gaze for a second before looking back to Ian with renewed determination. “I’m sorry for all the times I pushed you away or pretended this didn’t mean anything or ended it because I got scared or hit you- fuck-“

“Mickey,” Ian says, cutting him off with a hand on Mickey’s chest. “You think I resent you for any of that?” he says, words quietly disbelieving. “Or that I don’t get why you acted the way you did? Yeah, sure, it fucking hurt at the time but I’m pretty sure you made up for it a thousand times over with everything that came afterwards.”

When I almost burned our relationship to the ground, he thinks, and all you did was try to love me.

Mickey glances away again, looking more bashful this time. “It still doesn’t make it okay.”

“Yeah, well if it wasn’t already clear, I forgive you,” Ian tells him, feeling his mouth tick up at the edges when Mickey starts to smile at him. And he can’t help leaning to brush their lips together – just once before he allows himself to get side-tracked.

It’s his turn now.

“While we’re doling out apologies,” he starts, feeling shame burn through him. Even thinking about half the shit he’s done makes him question how the fuck Mickey’s still here. “I’m so fucking sorry, Mick. Jesus. For all of it.”

Mickey stares at him with something vulnerable in his eyes and Ian wonders if anyone’s ever actually apologised to Mickey for hurting him before. That thought alone is enough for him to keep going.

“I’m sorry for giving you an ultimatum after the wedding. I was just- fuck, I was at breaking point, y’know? I know what happened that day with Terry was a million times worse for you-“

Mickey tenses at that and Ian thinks they’re going to talk about a lot tonight but they probably won’t talk about that. Some scars just run too fucking deep.

“I always wondered,” Mickey interrupts quietly, staring at Ian’s hand on his chest instead of Ian himself. “If that day was your trigger or whatever.”

Ian’s wondered it too, has considered bringing it up whenever he does go to therapy countless times, but he can never make himself say it out loud.

“It might’ve been,” he says slowly. “But if it was that’s Terry’s fault, not yours.”

Mickey nods absently and Ian shifts forward until he can press his forehead to Mickey’s temple. “None of it was our fault, Mick.”

Neither of them speaks for a beat – everything they’ve left unsaid hanging heavy in the air between them until Ian eventually decides to carry on.

“And I know I said sorry for this one before,” he continues. “But I’m sorry for trying to make you come out.”

Mickey shakes his head as if to tell him it doesn’t matter. But it does.

“And for all the fucking bullshit I pulled with you while I was manic. Not even just the big stuff – the cheating, the porno, Yevgeny – but all of it. I didn’t treat you how I wanted to back then.” Ian feels tears burn behind his eyes just thinking about it and his pulse is ragged by the time Mickey finally turns his head to look at him.

His eyes are shining and Ian’s heart is fucking broken. “You were sick, Ian.”

“Doesn’t make any of it okay,” Ian mumbles, closing his eyes when he feels Mickey’s fingers graze against the back of his neck. “Just- I really need you to know that the only reason I broke up with you was because Monica fucking got in my head and I could see how much I was killing you and I didn’t want that for you, Mick,” he says, voice low and desperate, begging Mickey to understand. “The thought of you just staying with me and letting me hurt you over and over again was too fucking much. Especially back then when I felt like I’d never feel normal again.”

Mickey is quiet for a moment before he squeezes the back of Ian’s neck. “I’m not excusin’ shit, Ian. Losing you back then- it nearly fucking broke me. But it’s like what you said about the stuff I did. It’s not okay. But I know why you did it.”

Ian nods, sniffling back the tears threatening to fall and burying his face in Mickey’s neck to press an apologetic kiss against the spot where his neck meets his shoulder. Mickey’s arm tightens around him in response and it’s enough to give Ian courage to deliver the final part of his apology.

He leans back, pushing up on his elbow so he can look down at Mickey and meets his gaze while he talks. “I’m sorry I didn’t go with you to Mexico,” he whispers, breath hitching. “I’m so fucking sorry but I wanted to believe so badly that I actually had my shit together and-“

Mickey cuts him off before he can say anymore, lips upturned in a rueful smile. “I’m not mad about that,” he murmurs.

Ian frowns in confusion. “You’re not?”

Mickey nods, blowing out a resigned breath. “You were fucking right, Ian. Where were we supposed to get your meds? I spent two years working for a fucking cartel, that’s not exactly the kinda stress-free, routine life you needed to be living.” Mickey shakes his head, shrugging half-heartedly. “I didn’t think it through, I just wanted to be with you again – couldn’t see past that, y’know?”

And Ian is so fucking in love with him. He can’t believe Mickey still has so much goddamn faith in him.

“Fat lotta good it did anyway,” he huffs bitterly. “Goin’ home. Look where I ended up.”

He’d given Mickey the basics of what’d happened with the whole Gay Jesus thing earlier. But it’s still hard to believe how quickly things spiralled after he came home from the border.

Mickey doesn’t say anything because there’s not much to say really but he links his fingers together with the hand Ian’s still got resting on his chest which is an answer in and of itself.

“Listen,” Ian murmurs, meeting Mickey’s gaze and hoping he can see the sincerity there. “I know- I don’t expect you to just give me blanket forgiveness right now, okay? I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me,” he says, voice feeling thick with emotion. “But let me make it up to you, alright? Let me prove that I’m in this this time. I’m not fuckin’ around again, Mick. I’m not- I can’t let you go again.”

Mickey doesn’t reply right away and Ian watches as a myriad of emotions flickers across his face. Eventually though, his throat bobs and he offers Ian a hint of a smile. “You let me make my shit up to you. It’d be pretty fuckin’ hypocritical if I didn’t let you do the same.”

Ian huffs out a relieved laugh, resting his forehead against Mickey’s shoulder. “Or smart, maybe.”

“When have I ever fuckin’ been smart around you, Gallagher?” Mickey says amusedly and Ian raises his head again, leaning in until there’s the barest inch of space between them.

“I mean it,” he whispers steadfastly. “If it takes a week or a year to make you trust me again, I’ll do it. I promise.”

Mickey’s expression is calm and open as he watches him and Ian revels at being allowed to see the vulnerability behind his eyes – more as a sign of trust than because Mickey can’t conceal it for once. He closes the distance between them and tries to pour every bit of love and devotion he possesses into the kiss, hoping Mickey can feel it.

When their lips dislodge after a minute or so Ian rearranges them until he’s the one lying on his back and Mickey’s head is resting on his chest.

“I missed you so fucking much,” Mickey admits into the cotton of Ian’s tank top and Ian closes his eyes, feeling a lump swell in his throat as his eyes begin to water.

“I missed you too,” he murmurs hoarsely, tightening his arms around Mickey like he could fuse their bones together and pressing a firm kiss to Mickey’s hair. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Mickey mumbles and it’s just three words but it feels like fucking salvation to Ian’s ears.

They’re gonna be alright.

*

[bluecoffeemugs]

Hey guys... so i just re-wrote the very first chapter to my fic. 

I did it bc of many factors, but mainly it was bc I didn’t like it anymore and I noticed how much my writing had improved. It just didn’t seem fair that the ending was much better written than the beginning, bc i feel like no one would get past the first chapters bc of my writing. I mean yeah, it has much more attention that i could hope for, but i’m pretty self-critical about my work, so i just had to re-write it.  

Anyway, I’ll just post the chapter here because I want you to give it another chance, maybe it spikes your interest now. I’m putting a whole lot of effort in the ending, it’s got just a couple of chapters left, so it will be a finished fic soon. 

Here it is: 

(bill cipher x dipper pines. pirate au. pirate!bill. siren!dipper.)

- - - - - - - - - - 

The gigantic ship swayed calmly over the ocean. The night was clear, the fresh salty scent of the sea lingered on the deck of the Golden Giant. The only sound besides the water below the ship, crashing small waves on the wooden walls of the ship, was the croaking sound of the captain's footsteps on the wood.

The crew had already released the plank, readying the ship for what they had been planning to do for months. And so, they stood, expectant and eager for what was to come, waiting for orders on deck.

The blond captain walked out of his cabin with a grin on his face. See, their crew had been waiting to catch this creature for months, but he had been waiting years. Oh, captain Bill Cipher knows about sirens. He knows how those beasts slaughter his kind. But he is not afraid of them, not a single ounce! The pirate also know how difficult it can be to catch one, he has heard countless stories and legends, none of them have succeeded. However, there has never been a legendary pirate that has tried to capture a siren.

Indeed. Bill Cipher is a legend. He has been living in the sea for as long as he can remember, and it has slowly become his life as a whole. Since he was a little boy, he was not only charming and ambitious but also highly curious. The supernatural and mystic myths spiked his interest from a very early age, so his drive for adventure and the unknown has never ceased.

Bill Cipher had always been so invested on mysteries, that he became a mystery himself.

The captain seeks creatures — all around the seven seas, and of any kind or species — studies them, and then sells them. The highest bidding of gold takes the price! Cipher doesn't need the creature anymore, what else could he do with them? Set them free? Now that would be insane. Setting them free means letting them go for free. If they won't pay, Cipher won't deliver. Besides, it's none of the blond's concern what the bidders do with the creatures after they buy them. Will they study them as he does? Will they slaughter them? Will they cook them, even if they're still alive, just to know what they taste like and brag about eating a mythic creature? Meh, Cipher doesn't care. He never has.

The blond went down the stairs and on to the deck to meet his crew. Such familiar faces that have grown into a family. See, Bill Cipher didn't always have his own ship and crew. Of course, he did acquire his ship — through a most epic fight he will never forget — when he was eleven years old, but still, not belonging to a family for his entire childhood until he was almost a teenager was not easy.

Belonging. Ha! Bill Cipher knows he doesn't belong. He actually takes pride in it! Because you know what? He figured that belonging to made you somebody else's possession, so he swore to himself he would be the only one who ever got to own himself and/or others.

Nonetheless, his current crew is better than what he could ask for. They are invested in the supernatural almost as much as he is, all of them have unique abilities that benefit him either on battle, on investigation, navigation, or plans, and most importantly, they are loyal. That's the quality Cipher values the most.

The captain was finally greeted by his crew. They were standing in line, looking at their pirate in anticipation, eager. All of them were loaded with their weapons of choice, let it be guns, knives, swords, or even knuckles.

The crew cheered at their captain, smiling widely at him. As the moonlight and oil lanterns were the only light that lit their faces, the shadows looked menacing and eerie.

The blonde returned the sly grin and humorously vowed to his crew's cheers. He was wearing a tail-coat made of leathery-fabric, a white button-down shirt that wasn't all that white anymore, black pants, and a slightly loose golden and weaponized belt around the hips. He was carrying his favorite gun and sword, plus other minor weapons that he hid not only around his belt but also around his whole body. And of course, he wore leather boots that reached almost up to his knees and his fancy black pirate hat, which had a single golden feather and some jewels adorning it.

"Tonight's the night, fellas," he spoke, his crew finally shutting up. "As we speak, fierce beasts are swimming below us, ready to devour another pack of men. Creatures that have forever lured uncountable men to their deaths by using their celestial voices and bodies."

His crew nodded. They knew all of this already, but something about hearing it right was those beasts live made it a whole lot more difficult to bear. Now they weren't only listening to a story, they were about to experience one. And maybe, they wouldn't even get to live to tell it.

"We will be the first known pirates to ever defeat them; conquer them!" The captain continued to speak. The crew's nerves turning into excitement, "Tonight, we catch a siren!"

Everyone cheered and punched their fists in the air. Noise returning to its natural state.

“Kitty,” Cipher continued, nodding to the toughest-looking man on the crew, “you will be in charge of the ship while I go on the rowboat.”

The man nodded in return, so the captain kept speaking, “Bigfoot, Cain, Red, Onyx, and Tiny, you will be staying here too.”

The biggest man in the crew, a man with a scar across his face, a red-haired young adult male, a woman with almost charcoal-black skin, and a small boy nodded in response. 

“Guard my baby while I'm out," Cipher joked and winked. They all knew how much he loved his ship. “And that leaves Hellhound, Dawn, Dagger, and Cheat with me."

A muscular young man, a tough but very beautiful looking woman, another woman highly equipped with at least half a dozen daggers and swords, and a teenage boy agreed.

“Get settled, then.”

And with that, they all retreated to stuff their ears with cloth or wax to muffle de sound of the sirens' voices. They had been preparing for this, they knew exactly what to do. They also knew perfectly well to stand their ground, no matter how tempting a siren could look. And most importantly, they knew that their goal was to catch a siren, not kill one. If for some reason they started to get aggressive, which they figured would be bound to happen, they would result in violence.

A few minutes later, the rowboat with Cipher's chosen crew was lowered down to the ocean. They paddled slightly further away from the ship, and then stopped when they started to notice the shadows under them. They were currently surrounded by huge boulders, covered in algae and coral, where they also spotted movement. A wave of adrenaline washed over everyone's veins, making the captain smile even more widely.

Cipher's team had their ears shut by different types of material, except for the captain himself. He was wearing an enchanted necklace of black pearls, which made him completely immune to the sirens' singing.

Soon enough, a ginger-haired siren came out of the water, and the pirates were immediately amazed by her beauty. However, none of them moved, as they waited for their captain's orders.

The siren swam closer to the boat, her eyes fixed on Cheat, the youngest one on the boat. The ginger held a powerful gaze, making the boy shiver, which was either because of her captivating beauty or because he realized he had been chosen as her meal.

The captain shot Cheat a confident look, making the teenager feel just a tiny bit better.

When the siren was practically touching the ship, another one came up to them. This one had curly, black hair and was staring straight at Dagger. Then a few seconds later, another creature appeared, she had darker skin and powerful blue eyes, swimming closer to Hellhound. The captain felt slightly overwhelmed by the sudden arrivals, but he never lost his calm.

Suddenly they realized that the ginger siren had gotten so close to the boat, she could easily snatch Cheat and drown him. Then, she saw the spears and fishnets, freezing on the spot.

"They're hunters!" She yelled, making all of the other sirens gasp and submerge back underwater. Cipher thought they were going to attack, but apparently, this pack of sirens had had other experiences with pirates and did not wish to repeat them.

Sure enough, however, the ginger siren was not going to leave her favorite meal alive, so she launched, grabbing Cheat with her sharp nails, and pulling him underwater with her. Hellhound threw himself forward and grabbed onto Cheat's legs.

The siren's strength was immense, causing Hellhound to begin to sink. Dawn and Dagger grabbed his torso and began to pull him to the boat. At this point, Cheat was completely submerged. In the meantime, Cipher loaded a crossbow and aimed to the spot where the siren was holding Cheat.

"No!" Dawn exclaimed although she could barely hear her own words because of the wax in her ears, "You might shoot Cheat!"

"Don't worry, sweetie" Cipher said calmly, fully aware that Dawn knew him enough to be able to read his lips perfectly, then shot the arrow. The movement below the water stopped. Hellhound pulled Cheat back to the surface. The boy was unconscious. Dawn began trying to remove the water from the teen's lungs.

Cheat suddenly coughed a great amount of water and took in shaky breaths, shivering. Dawn just looked at the captain and slowly shook her head.

"I never miss," Cipher said, obvious pride in his voice, Dawn could see it by the look of his face. She turned away.

The blond nodded at the coughing boy, and the teen managed a smile. Then the captain took off his coat and handed it to him, as the boy obviously needed it more than him at the moment. Cheat muttered a thank you. 

Cipher sat down with a sigh and looked around. He signaled his crew to hide the weapons and the fishnets, he should've known better. He might have blown their chance for the night, maybe their only chance! How could he have not foreseen that?

Time passed, and as he feared, no one else showed up. The pirates waited in silence. Cheat was almost completely dry now.

The captain fixed his eyes on the boulder closest to them, lost in thought, when he spotted another pair of eyes staring back. Immediately after those eyes noticed the pirate was looking at them, they hid behind the huge rock. Cipher stood up with a jolt, making the others around him jump in surprise. Then, nodded towards the rock and signaled his crew to remain silent.

"Hello?" Cipher said loudly, with the kindest voice he could manage, "We don't want to hurt you."

After waiting a few minutes for a sign of life, and not seeing the eyes again, he sat back down and sighed. He looked at the boat's wooden floor, sighing in defeat. Maybe he had imagined it.

Then, his crew gasped.

Cipher looked up and saw the siren far away, right beside the boulder. The light from their boat did not reach that far, so he could only see a dark figure the clear brown eyes looking back at him.

The captain stood up again, this time more slowly. He smiled gently at the creature, and spoke, just loud enough for the siren to hear, "We're just curious about your species, we don't mean any harm."

"I saw you shoot one of us," the siren said, still in the dark. His voice cracked but tried to remain steady. This only intrigued Cipher even more, because he had found himself a male siren. 

The crew looked at each other with wide eyes, they didn't understand what the captain and the siren were saying, but they sure as hell knew they were having a conversation.

Cipher remained calm, answering to the siren, "She was trying to drown one of us."

"You're hunters," the siren said gravely, much more as a statement than a question.

"We're pirates," the blond responded, as if it were pretty obvious, "we have weapons to defend ourselves, it's in our nature. Just as much as it is in your nature to lure us to death. Fair game, don't you think?"

The siren thought in silence, analyzing the words. But Cipher was not about to wait anymore, so he offered, "If you don't harm us, we don't harm you. Deal?"

Something about the way the pirate spoke made the siren want to trust him. Even if he knew the stories of pirates, how reckless and dangerous they were"¦ curiosity had always won him over. And something in his gut made him think that this pirate was not lying.

The words lingered. Cipher was afraid the siren might be smarter than him and swim away for good. But he was proven wrong when the siren slowly came into view, swimming closer to the boat.

When the siren was just a few feet away from the rowboat, the lantern's light finally glowed on his skin. Instantly, the pirates were captivated by his beauty. They had never seen a merman, much less a male siren. 

"You can come closer," the captain said, leaning closer to the water, "See? I have nothing on my hands," he said as he lifted his hands up innocently.

The siren moved closer, feeling just slightly safer and a whole lot more curious. He was intrigued by the sailors, he had never seen so many up close, and they were all staring back at him. The feeling was overwhelming.

Cipher smiled at the siren, then turned to Hellhound and winked, which roughly meant wait for my signal.

The siren's light blue tail was almost touching the rowboat's wood from below. He looked about Cheat's age.

The blond placed both of his hands behind his back. The siren and he just stared at each other in awe, each of them amazed by the other. Cipher noticed there were splashes of tiny blue scales on his shoulders, he had chocolate brown hair, and the most entrancing deep brown eyes the captain had ever seen. His gaze was purely innocent and curious.

"You're magnificent," the captain whispered to the siren, completely lost in the siren's eyes, almost forgetting what he was there for. Almost. Behind his back, he closed his hand into a fist. And so, the crew launched the fishnet at the siren and fastened it as fat and swiftly as possible, apprehending the siren.

The brunet screamed an unholy scream, Cipher was suddenly jealous of his crewmates with wax on their ears. The siren tried to escape the nets, almost knocking the boat over, but the crew acted faster. They lifted him, and with a loud thump, the siren was on the boat.

The captain had a large grin on his face and got closer to the siren. The siren had never felt so much fright in his entire life. He felt as if his heart had run up to his throat and was about to be regurgitated. He was about to scream louder, and try to knock the boat over once again, but with one swift move, one of the men that was holding him down injected a syringe into his skin. The last thing he saw was the grin on the blond pirate that had just betrayed him, until all faded to black.

[wallstagram]

june - july fic rec: month(s) in review

hello & welcome back to the june - july edition of fic rec: month(s) in review! we have a L O T to unpack this time, so let’s dive right in! throughout june & july, we have been blessed with the majority of @larryabroad, as well as the bulk of @hlsummerexchange2019, all of @wordplayfics, wanker’s day fic fest, and many more that i’m probably forgetting. summer was a great time to be a fic reader for sure, thank you to every author who contributed!! 

**disclaimer: not all of these fics were written in june/july, it is simply when i read them. however, a lot of them were. ***note: as always, if you do take my recommendation and read any of these works, please bookmark, comment, and leave kudos for these authors!! it is so important that we support the creators in our community. as an author, i know a sweet comment will often spur me to keep writing when i’m stuck. but, without further ado, here’s my recs below the cut!

J U N E : :

You Were Made To Be Mine by lovelarry10 (@chloehl10)

Louis Tomlinson takes his 6 year old son Jacob to see Harry Styles in concert. Jacob has been a huge fan of Harry's for as long as he can remember, so it's a dream come true when Harry notices him in the pit. But Jacob isn't all that Harry has his eye on...

Louis is a bit embarrassed when Harry picks on him from the stage, but when he's invited backstage after the show, he wonders what Harry Styles could possibly want with a single dad and his kid from Manchester...

This was such a cute read! At a whopping 580k, there is a LOT to sink your teeth into. Though I started it at the beginning of June, I haven’t even nearly finished yet, but it’s so good that it’s made it onto my rec list!

Get Off and Vote by haztobegood (@haztobegood)

Niall lets out a loud laugh, “Hey, listen to this. You know how elections are Tuesday? It says the Babeland on the edge of campus is giving out free toys to the first 100 people that show their ‘I Voted’ sticker.”

“How patriotic.” Louis laughs. “Maybe I should go.”

Haha! This one was great. At 3k, it’s a perfect quick read for some sexy, patriotic fun. 

Surprise Me, Space Boy by jacaranda_bloom (@jacaranda-bloom)

Louis is a solo officer on Space Station Zeta and the isolation can present many challenges, not least of which is that it’s really bloody hard to date. He’s pinning his hopes on that changing with a fellow solo officer, Harry, from a neigbouring station who gives great banter and has a gorgeous smile. Maybe online dating has its benefits after all?

OR The Space Wank Fic.

Oh, this one was so good!!! The thing I love about literally anything Dee writes is that she just thinks completely outside the box. I feel like I never quite know what’s going to happen (in the best way!) and her originality totally made this fic amazing. (7k)

rivers ‘til i reach you by embodied (@crossnecklace)

Louis can’t begin to understand how he’s always this close and still can’t manage to make Harry his. He stands up and gets another beer. AU. Louis studies astronomy; Harry studies Louis. They spend their summers on the water and it shouldn't be complicated (spoiler: it is).

This was such a good read! It’s written in such a way that you’re utterly sucked into the verse so much that you’re a bit sappy when the fic is over. Kinda makes you feel a bit lovedrunk just from reading it. (29k)

Found My Hallelujah by crimsontheory (@ireallysawanangel)

As an engagement gift from his parents, Harry and his fiance receive an all expenses paid cruise trip for two. But one week before they're set to sail, Harry walks in on his fiance cheating on him. Newly single, with the cruise tickets in hand, and his bags already packed, Harry brings along his sister instead. And maybe the cute bartender on the ship might just be the person Harry needs to help him put back together all of his broken pieces.

I have so much to say about this one! I had the absolute honor of beta’ing this 35k work (which im pretty sure i just cheerlead you bc nicole you know grammar isn’t my strong suit...lmfao) and honestly it has become a fic that i love so much! nicole is such a talented writer; everything she writes just brings out so much emotion from her audience, and she has such a great sense of characterization! if you liked this one, check out its sequel, Now I’m Moving Up because it’s great too!!!!

J U L Y : :

Whisk me off my feet by allwaswell16 (@allwaswell16)

When Louis locks himself out of his apartment in just a pair of novelty underwear, he hopes his new neighbor can come to his rescue.

Haha! This one was so cute! What a darling fic! (5k)

The Charles Compass Trilogy by SadaVeniren (@sadaveniren)

Louis Tomlinson is a successful writer who rents a beach house on the Cape to try and finish the final book in his successful Charles Compass trilogy.

So I’m convinced that any rec list I make will not be complete if Sada isn’t on it. Here’s the thing - I fell in love with this story before she was revealed as the author, and honestly I had no clue. She’s got this amazing way of being able to change her style to fit the kind of story she’s trying to tell. This is such a good look at the writing process, highly recommend! (9k)

From The Heart series by jacaranda_bloom (@jacaranda-bloom)

Every Tuesday, Louis spends his day off holed up in his favorite coffee-come-bookshop, writing his little stories as part of the WordPlay challenge while daydreaming about the resident barista, Harry. Each week a new word prompt is revealed and Louis adds to his series of short stories about Henry, the owner of a B&B in the Cotswolds who has curly hair and dimples, Lewis, his long term guest who just happens to be a writer, and Tigger, Henry’s cat.

As Louis and Harry’s friendship develops, could his fantasy world spill out into real life? And how does that reader who leaves the lovely comments with the teacup emoji seem to be able to read Louis’ mind?

Okay, Dee really killed the game this time. Because I was OBSESSED. I mean honestly checking my phone at work to see what the newest installment was. This series is so fulfilling and so so hot to think about as an author! (25k)

blue eyes, black jeans, lighters, candy by delsicle (@emperorstyles)

Harry is in Madrid and Louis had a hard week.

So, the whole dom on tour series is really good, but this is my favorite work of the two. I love basically anything Delaney writes but this was extremely hot! (4k)

Could you love me anyway by SadaVeniren (@sadaveniren)

Dear Mistress Lorin: I’ve been reading your blog for a couple weeks now and was hoping you’d give me some advice for something that happened with me and my boyfriend. I’m really worried that I hurt him.

aka Harry and Louis begin playing ping pong during the X-Factor Tour. It quickly gets out of hand.

Okay. If you know me at all, you know that the way to my heart is either spanking, kink negotiation, or both. This just delivers on it all, and it catches on some main parts of BDSM-for-newbies and kink-gone-wrong that people often pretend never happens. I could gush so much about this, but go ahead and just read it yourself because it’s too good to miss!! (13k)

you are half of me (and I am all for you) by angelichl (@angelichl)

One Direction, an obscure indie rock band, is about to embark on their first cross-country tour, living out of Louis' beloved van named Patricia.

Harry is in love, and Louis is oblivious. Or is he?

Featuring skinny-dipping in Texas waterfalls, getting lost in the desert, stargazing under the New Mexico sky, performing in front of crowds that grow in size each night, and falling in love on the road during the greatest summer of their lives.

Okay WOW. I have so much to say about this one!!! So first off, the biggest thank you to adri for writing this fic for me for HL Summer Exchange!!! Honestly I feel like you spied through all my hopes and dreams and loves (including parenthesis in fic titles??? love it) and squished it all into this fic. it’s just the best fic, and it feels like warm summer air and tracing constellations in the stars and falling in love. if you haven’t read this already, please do!!!! It was so good I teared up when I first read it! (25k)

Heading for Limbo by kingsofeverything (fullonlarrie) (@kingsofeverything)

Childhood best friends who’ve fallen in and out of touch with each other since Louis’ family moved away when they were thirteen, Harry and Louis find their paths crossing again and again. Each time, no matter how many miles apart or how many years it’s been, it’s as if no time has passed. They fall back into their easy friendship, until life intervenes and sends them on their separate ways once more.

When Harry discovers some life-changing things about himself, Louis is there for him, however he needs. But it’s all temporary because Louis has plans that will move his life from New York all the way to L.A. and the distance isn’t the only thing between them.

The pieces of their twice broken hearts are scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Okay. Okay. This fic literally is one I will remember for the rest of my life, and i’m not even being dramatic about it! So, I really do enjoy leaving authors detailed comments about their fics, but that just wasn’t enough... I really had to message Lauren this whole essay about how Heading for Limbo helped me deal with a lot of emotions I was feeling in my own personal life, and it helped me fully realize that i’m bisexual. (did i just come out?? yikes) it was nice to see a fic where things weren’t perfect over a long stretch of time. It was amazing to see Harry realize his sexuality later in life, because that was one of my main struggles. this fic is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. Literally, Lauren, thanks for changing my whole life!!! (101k)

Tell Me This Is Paradise by QuickedWeen (@becomeawendybird)

Harry Styles has been lucky in love but unlucky in the bedroom with all of her previous boyfriends. When her best friend Niall finds out that she's never had an orgasm, she knows just what Harry needs: Louis Tomlinson. Niall sets Harry up to get sorted out.

Okay, if you’re new around here, this fic was also on one of my previous rec lists, but then Molly had to ruin my life and write another chapter of it. Jesus Christ!!!! I literally could read this fic every single day and die happily. It’s so hot, and the characterization is so good. So, I guess this rec is specifically for chaper 2, but you’ve gotta read chapter 1 also! For the betterment of your life, of course. (9k)

Abstract by Star55 (@star55)

After Zayn draws a naked Harry for her art class, she finds that she can't stop drawing Harry and Louis' naked bodies, usually engaged in some form of sexual activity.

Literally - this was hot as balls. Loved it! (8k)

alright guys, that’s it! if you read all the way to the bottom, you deserve a sticker. i hope you guys enjoy some of my favorite fics i’ve read! don’t forget to go bookmark, comment, and give kudos! and just remember: we are all human. if you read a work, and loved it, and didn’t comment, it’s never too late! give your author some loooooooove. my life has been super busy and i really haven’t been in the place to leave the thought-out comments i like to, so most of these authors can expect comments from me soon. thank you to all the authors listed above, have a nice day everyone! also, feel free to send your favorite fics into my ask - maybe they’ll end up on my next list!!!

[verobatto]

Destiel Chronicles

(Vol. XIX)

It was a love story from the very beginning.

Tell me the Truth

(6x04/6x05/6x06/6x07/6x08/6x13)

Hello my dear! How have you been? I'm here with another volume from this Chronicles.

This time I want to talk about the truth as a recurrent topic in the first half of this season.

I'm gonna mix some bi Dean concept too, this will be mostly a Dean centric meta.

O want to give thanks to my friend @agusvedder , she couldn't make me the gifs for this meta but we discussed a lot about this topic. Thank you girl!

Let's start...

Saying goodbye to Lisa and Ben

Ok, I will collect here an amount of observations I made in several chapters in which we can see Dean breaking up with Lisa and Ben as his family.

In episode 6x06 Live Free or Twihard , calling back to 6x02, we had Dean feeling himself a monster and becoming one.

At the beginning of the episode, the Winchester brothers went to investigate to a house, a girl's room, vampires fan. Dean found a book and this is what he reads...

DEAN. Look at this. He's WATCHING her sleep. How is that not rape-y?

This is very significant because when Dean is turning into a vampire, he decided to go visit Lisa and Ben to say goodbye... So when he arrives, he just stays there by Lisa's bed watching her sleep. As a real monster. After this we all recall he pushed Ben violently and ran away. This was the beginning of the end.

In episode 6x06 "You can't handle the truth" written by Sera Gamble, even when it was a very Wincest episode, it had a very interesting topic about ASKING THE TRUTH YOU CAN'T EFFORT.

And related with Lisa here, he called her, and because he had asked for the truth, he receives the truth from her. A very hard one. She snapped at him this...

LISA: You've got so much buried in there, and you push it down, and you push it down. Do you honestly think that you can go through life like that and not freak out? Just, what, drink half a fifth a night and you're good?

DEAN: You knew what you signed up for.

Dean is excusing himself with her, she knew, he's like this. He won't change. Hunting is his life.

LISA: Yeah. But I didn't expect Sam to come back. And I'm glad he's okay. I am. But the minute he walked through that door, I knew. It was over. You two have the most unhealthy, tangled-up, crazy thing I've ever seen. And as long as he's in your life, you're never gonna be happy.That came out so much harsher than I meant.

Here, we have the pathologic codependency between them, but as it was written, and here's my opinion, is screaming Wincest all over, we know Sera was a fervent fan of the boys, and this doesn't surprises me. Lisa is being very hard and honest with Dean. Things are not Al right between them.

DEAN: It's not your fault.

LISA: I'm not saying don't be close to Sam. I'm close to my sister. But if she got killed, I wouldn't bring her back from the dead!

DEAN: Okay, Lis... I'm not gonna lie. Okay, me and Sam, we... we've got issues. No doubt. But you and Ben --

Here is Dean saying "Everything you had just said is truth", so more Wincest for the bag.

LISA: Me and Ben can't be in this with you. I'm sorry.

And this was the end for sure.

In this same episode, we had this scene...

Gif set credit @paladeckis

The woman is dressed in lavanda color, si, basically, is a Lisa's mirror here,asking for a lot of attention and Dean is giving her that not very hopeful answer... So yeah, Dean had decided which life he wants for him. Maybe, and as I said before, he doesn't feel he deserves a good life, or maybe because he feels like a dangerous monster that can destroy good things.

Now... Let's jump to 6x07 "Family Matters"...

There's a singular quote by the Alpha Vampire:

DEAN: I didn't realize we were on a first-name basis.

ALPHA VAMPIRE: Of course we are. After all, you were my child... for a time. Dean, tell me... did you enjoy it?

Ok, I know this is a creepy way to see it, but... Immediately after episode 6x06 we had this. And beacuse Dean is in the break up process with Lisa and Ben, this could be taken as a Dean/Ben mirror... Ben was the "monster's son" for a while, or at least that way is how Dean see it inside of him. So, symbolically, we are talking about that here.

Now... Episode 6x08 "All dogs go to Heaven" a very blantant Dean mirror with the dog-man here... First of all... Remember the monster watching in silence while the woman sleeps?? We have the same again here... The dog-man (skinwalker) his name was Lucky.

There was interesting words exchanging between Dean and Lucky, and please pay attention to Dean's speech...

DEAN: Hang on, Sam. [to LUCKY (MAN)] Listen, you don't have to tell me why you're with the family. I get it.

LUCKY (MAN): Oh, you do, do you?

DEAN: You killed every threat that came near them. You care about them, in your own whack-a-doodle kind of way. It's obvious. What I want to know is, who was that guy you were kibitzing with? He a skinwalker, too?

So... Isn't it Dean talking to himself? Do he feel like a abandoned and hurted dog that needed a refuge? A family? Now... Check this other quote...

DEAN: What are you gonna do to that family, really? You gonna put your jaws around that little boy's throat? Clamp down, listen to him cry for his mom? 'Cause I'm gonna guess that these are the only people who in your pathetic life have ever showed you any kindness. So it's either that... or you can help us stop it.

Again, the scene of Dean pushing Ben against the wall when he was about to transform into a vampire (a monster) and then... Again talking to himself. Is so blantant that my heart broke instantly...

After this, Dean decided not to shoot him bc he knew that dog was him... But things didn't end well for Lucky...

When he tries to come back to Mandy and her son, this is what happened...

MANDY: Get away from this house, you psycho. And if you ever, ever come near me or my son again, so help me...

LUCKY (MAN): I know I probably deserve...

MANDY closes and locks the door.

This is the end for the monster that wanted to have a family, the difference here is... Dean really wanted to have this kind of life?

And the answer we already know...

Gif set credit @frozen-delight

Dean is puting salt on the windows while he's saying he's out... Tell the truth Dean.

And in 6x13 "Unforgettable" Dean said another thing to his brother (to himself) to put a final period here...

DEAN: Sam, y-y-you got to understand that all that crap last year -- all of it -- none of it was you.

Ok Dean, we get it. This last year trying to be a man with a normal life and family, it wasn't you. It was a lie.

Sam's lies and foreshadowing Castiel's secrets

Before to continuó with this meta... I promised you some bi-Dean scene... Here you have.

Look how Dean checks out the police man and he even greeted him that way. As we know... Dean likes uniforms... 😉 (This gif was made by my gorgeous friend Agus!)

Ok... Let's start with the brothers here...

We all recall that scene when Sam just watched as Dean was turned into a vampire. Ok... So Dean saw it too. And that was one of his biggest alarms about his brother. This happened in episode 6x05.

In episode 6x06, another interesting parallel with the Winchesters brother and Sam's lies.

SAM: You know what a "tell" is?

OLIVIA: Excuse me?

SAM: It's a poker term... for when you're bluffing. Like what you just did with your hair.

OLIVIA: What are you trying to say?

SAM: You're lying.

DEAN is surprised at the force of SAM's inquiry.

OLIVIA: What?!

SAM: Tell us what you did to your sister.

Ok big parallel each time Dean wanted to obtain the truth about what happened with the vampire and why he didn't take care of him.

So after this we had the big scene with VERITAS, and very very WINCEST thing right here...

Gif credit @whiskeyandwhine

Look at their hands touching... Yep very disgusting and very Sera Gamble era. 😒 I'm just pointing things here for you to see what this woman wanted to do with the show.

Let's see continue now with CAS.

In this same episode we had another confession that could be analyze as a parallel and foreshadow of Castiel and his secrets.

SAM: So, you had some idea Corey might have taken her own life?

ROOMMATE: Well... she had been going through a bit of a hard time lately... at school. And then, um, her cat, Mittens, had just ran away. But, really, it was her boyfriend. She was sure that he was cheating on her. But he was just very good at covering his tracks. Which, of course, made her completely obsessed with --

Ok we are here talking about Castiel... The "boyfriend" term will be use by Balthazar twice, one with Dean and the other with Sam, referencing to Castiel. Castiel is the boyfriend, and he is cheating on Dean and Sam.

Gif credit @never-forget-viva-la-pluto

Gif set credit @sam-spirit-winchester

Also, making Balthazar calling Castiel as the Winchesters's boyfriend, equally... Another SERA GAMBLE tool, "look Cas isn't Dean's boyfriend, is Sammy's boyfriend too, so... Is irrelevant."

Episode 6x07 we had the boys discovering SAMUEL was working for Crowley, so the entire episode is a big foreshadow of what was about to happen when Dean, Sam and Bobby discover Castiel's deal with the King of Hell. And is also the episode in which the idea about Purgatory and the power of souls is presented.

And ironically, we'll have Dean and Sam literally working for Crowley too, so ... A little hole in the narrative here... But hey... We don't talk about this Season, don't we?

To conclude

Dean asked for the truth and he had it with his brother and he will have it with Castiel, the problem is... Is he ready to handle it?

The first half of the season was a foreshadow for Castiel's secret and we could see in many episodes how the writers showed us what Dean felt by leaving Ben and Lisa and how he will have to handle with a big betrayal.

In Sera Gamble era we had a lot of references to Wincest and holes in the narrative, that we will see more often in the incoming episodes.

I hope you like this! C-u in the next Chronicles!

Tagging

@magnificent-winged-beast

@emblue-sparks @weirddorkylittlediana @michyribeiro @whyjm @koshisekisen @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @angelneedshunter @trickster-archangel @dea-stiel @bre95611 @thewolfathedoor @charlottemanchmal @neii3n @deathswaywardson @followyourenergy @dean-is-bi-till-i-die @hekatelilith-blog @avidbkwrm @anarchiana @mishka-the-angel-of-saturday @dickpuncher365 @vampyrosa @xsghn @foxyroxe-art @authorsararayne @anonymoustitans @mybonsai1976 @love-neve-dies @wildligia @dustythewind @wayward-winchester67 @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @deeutdutdutdoh @destiel-is--endgame @destiel-shipper-11 @larrem88 @charmedbycastiel

If you want to be tagged, please let me know.

If you want to check the previous season 6 Chronicles, the links are here: XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII.

Buenos Aires July 11st 2019 1:47 AM

[procrastinatingfeminist]

I've been sucked into the 911 fandom without having watched the show (I am having flashbacks to Firefly, that's how that started, too), so the time has finally come to remedy that. I have two days off plus the weekend, let's see how far I will be able to dive in.

What is hilarious though, is that I know plenty of things that happen in the show from all the fanfic I have already read. And so far the first season looks like a completely different show than the one that I have read about.

- Buck actually does start out as a very annoying bro type character. I got the impression he was slated for a woobie niche right off the bat. He wasn't.

- While the therapy session is seriously fucked up, I have say the way he asked her if she is the one who friended him on Facebook... does sound somewhat manipulative. Also interesting, that this was the one and only therapy session we have seen. Did she refer him to another doctor? Did he stop therapy once he got his dick wet? Did he get only one session covered by the department? So many questions, absolutely no answers. And honestly, it doesn't make Buck look good.

- For all that fanfic writers love to dump on Abby, like the majority of fandom often does with female love interests in the way of their ship, the only reason Buck turned even a bet likeable at the end of season 1 was because of Abby. She was the character development he badly needed. (Though the way she just disappeared on him is justifiably self-serving. Still, I do believe that she was real with him up to the episode with their second date. That is the moment their romance started fizzling out. There are ways to write about it without turning her into an absolutely heartless bitch).

- I think I wore similar kind of frames as Abby up to fourteenth birthday. Those look so dated. Everyone told me how unfashionable my glasses looked. It's real: everything comes back again.

- Everyone who has a family member that is dependent on specialized care deserves someone like Carla. I wouldn't have loved if my mom had someone from homecare service to help her with my grandma that was at least half as helpful and nice as Carla. Instead of whatever the fuck useless twats she had to rely on.

- What the hell is Chimney's problem? Aren't the guys supposed to be good friends? Like, Buck is Chim's little bro? I can't see anything good-natured in their relationship - or more like the good-natured bit is one-sided. Must be the chip on Chim's shoulder that is the size of the moon that is hiding all his affection for Buck. Chim is an asshole and a bully and I don't like him. Even if Buck comes with his own shitload of problems, he could have just as well kept professional distance, but these constant cutting barbs and barely checked envy and jealousy are so damn annoying.

- I thought the rebar thing was some fan writers idea of spitballing emergencies. I am shook to find out that it is really canon. This sound so fake, I always thought it was the least believable part of any fic.

- Isn't Buck supposed to have some super broad but arcane knowledge? Knowing some pretty weird stuff in weird detail? Haven't seen that in canon just yet. Only thing special about him is that he doesn't have some of the normal hangups.

- Best characters so far: Athena and Hen. Even the cheating arc doesn't diminish how good written Hen is. Instead of unlikeable it makes her more human and relatable. (Also, the actress is so breathtakingly beautiful). Athena ... is just Athena. If I start writing why I like Athena, she will need her own post.

- Goddamn that scene with the handcuffs and sex date had me in stitches. Such brilliant writing.

- Makes me wonder though how insulated she is as a cop against consequences with that 'skanky hoe' thing. That was so not okay, and she still got mad bc she had to file paperwork for a couple days instead of roaming the streets???

- Don't get me wrong, I love Bobby's backstory. But I really think that if he fucked up this badly, that no fire department would touch him anymore; lest give him a job as the captain at the station. The insurance alone would shoot through the roof and make him unemployable. Any asshole that wants to sue the dept and finds out about his history is gonna see dollar signs. That said - his character makes a sad sort of sense. Another piece of brilliant writing.

- In conclusion: if I only had watched season one and only seen the impressions of the show based on tumblr posts I would be wondering what the hell everyone is smoking who likes Buck and Chimney and hates Abby; and wonder where all the other firefighters and paramedics at the station are because we see almost exclusively Buck, Hen, Bobby and parttime Chim. I get that the reason is budgetary constraints but I think the only time we see something approaching the full shift is Chims party. Where was the rest of the station with the plane crash? What about the wedding? Are there at least some people they are familar with on the scene?

[imagineaworlds]

The Arcade -- Steve Harrington

Written By: @aliedelanie

Request: Anonymous– “Do you think you could make an imagine in which Steve and the reader are dating and they take the kids to hang out maybe to the arcade or to a diner? I'm not sure if a diner is cool or not . But Steve and the reader would get teased by the others bc they act like a married couple with kids sorry for taking your time up !”

Warnings: None.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Words: 1175

Listen to: I Wanna Go Out by American Authors

The clock on the wall said that it was 7:30, thirty minutes later than we were supposed to leave. But to the boys, it was 5:30. I would have thought they would have been over the moon excited to go to the arcade that night, but all of them were running late. Steve and I had driven to Mike and Nancy’s house to pick the boys, plus El and Max, up for dinner and time at the arcade. We had told them to be ready by 7:00, but they were all still in the basement doing some “top secret”. About ten minutes ago I had knocked on the Wheeler’s door to inspect what was taking so long, and when Nancy opened, she invited me in. I looked back at the car, wondering if Steve wanted to come in, too, but he shook his head and said that he would keep the car running to stay warm.

And the harder I watched the clock on the opposite wall of the kitchen, Nancy grew irritated with the kids down stairs when there was a loud bang. She hurried to the basement door and yelled, “What was that, Mike?!”

“What? Uh, nothing! Tell [y/n] we’ll be up in a minute!”

“You’re already half an hour late, and mom wants you back by nine. Get a move on!” Nancy slammed the basement door shut and reentered the kitchen. “I think dinner’s off the table if you guys are going to get in any time at the arcade.”

I nodded, “I was thinking the same thing. It’s a shame, I know Steve was looking forward to spend as much time with them as he can.”

Nancy smiled brightly and wiggled her eyebrows at me. It was official, she had entered gossip mode, “So tell me about you and Steve… How are the Mama and Papa bear?”

I laughed her joke off, “We’re not that, Nance. Steve and I just like watching over the kids and hanging out with them, they’re fun once you have a chance to know them.”

Suddenly, there were thunderous sounds echoing up from the basement as the six kids came running up the steps. All of them were out of breath and looked suspiciously on edge. I tried to ignore their signs of something being wrong, knowing that they wouldn’t tell me anyways, and asked if they were ready. They all had different answers at the same time before they ran for the front door and ran outside. “Well, I’m glad I brought my car, too.”

The arcade was quiet so late at night. All of the parents had already come to take their kids home for dinner. So, in other words, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. And when we got there, I finally discovered what it was that had all of the kids out of breath. In a pack, they had hurried to one of the games in the very back of the arcade, and Steve and I followed out of curiosity. There, they dropped on the floor a pillow cover full of coins, nearly halfway full. Dustin pushed past everyone after he grabbed a handful of coins from the bag. Eager to get a look, they all pushed each other around in order to get complete sight of Dustin’s actions. Steve and I looked at each other in confusion, wondering what the hype around that game could have possibly been. They were all shouting supports and arguments at Dustin as he began playing the game that was unfortunately hidden from us due to the many heads surrounding the screen.

When I turned around to talk to Steve, he was gone. Confused, I went looking for him, scanning the few aisles of video games. At the very end, he was playing one of the video games. I smiled when I noticed that he was biting his lip in concentration. Then he playfully hit the side of the platform when he lost. I approached him, nuding him out of the way and covered the simple stick controller with my hand. “Pac-Man?”

Steve shrugged, “It’s something easy to do.”

“You lost…”

“That is besides the point. Anyways, I’m sure I could do better than you,” he said playfully, purposefully challenging me. He threw on his sunglasses, pretending like he was the ruler of the arcade.

I gripped the controller harder and turned to the game, “Oh, you’re on, Harrington.

The kids had abandoned their game in the back by the time Steve and I were deep into the competition, and frankly, no one cared what the time was. Most of them were cheering me on, especially Mike and Will. While others, like Dustin, were cheering for Steve. It was my turn to go again, me and Steve were tied 3 to 3. The next person to win a game would win the competition. And I was determined to win. Suddenly, I felt someone’s arms snake around me and give me a distractingly warm hug, and they rested their head against my back.

I groaned, “Steve, you’re cheating.”

Against my back, he mumbled, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That’s not fair!” Mike and Will said at the same time, protesting Steve’s actions.

“Yes, it is!” Dustin fought back. “They’re dating, he has a right to hug his girlfriend.”

I could literally feel Mike roll his eyes. “Don’t worry about it, Mike. He’s doing it because he knows that I’m going to win.”

Steve hummed against my back, “Hmm… I love you…” Then, we both froze in place. The crowd of kids around us groaned as I died, but that didn’t faze me. What did, was what Steve had said, and when he realized what he said, he quickly pulled away from me and attempted to hide behind Dustin. “I know it’s not the right time.”

“You—  You love me?” I asked, shocked.

The kids also froze and Max leaned over and whispered to Lucas who nodded. “Guys, I think we have, um, a, um, code red? Yeah, a code red somewhere… Somewhere over there…” They all ran away, scattering elsewhere in the arcade, leaving just me and Steve.

“You love me?” I repeated.

Steve stood tall, knowing he couldn’t hide from it and that he had to be a man about it. “Yeah, I do. I love you, [y/n] [y/l/n].”

Instantly, I threw my arms around Steve’s shoulders and kissed him. He stumbled back a bit, shocked by both my reaction and sudden hug. We nearly toppled over, but he caught his footing and kissed me back. “I love you, too, Steve Harrington.”

“Finally.” We turned and saw the kids peeking around one of the video game machines, watching us. El had said it.

Neither of us moved, we just laughed at them as they came out from the shadows, Will holding their empty pillow case. “Can we get ice cream?” he asked.

Steve and I looked at each other, and Steve nodded, “Yeah, why not?”

[enbouton]

Better Call Saul Rewatch, Part 3/30: Reasonable Doubt Type Stuff

Nacho (Season 1, Episode 3)

Written by Thomas Schnauz / Directed by Terry McDonough

A metal container hinges open; someone tosses in two sets of keys, a pen, and then an enormous brick-type cellphone, signalling that this is the show’s first flashback. There’s a distinctive cool blue tint to this scene that’s consistent through all but a couple of the other flashbacks, and the lighting is even more polarised than usual. (Writing this, I just remembered the one time Breaking Bad used this specific flavour of colour and lighting: the early flashback to young Walt and Gretchen.)

It’s the early nineties. Chuck wears a three-piece suit (of course he does) and Jimmy, ostensibly about 28 or 29 here, sports jailhouse scrubs and an awful shag mullet. Credit to Bob Odenkirk for animating Jimmy in such a way that he does come across as much younger; he fidgets on the edge of his seat like a restless teenager, his emotions spilling everywhere.

Chuck informs us that Jimmy is not only facing property damage and assault charges but a potential place on the sex offender registry. (They did a good job holding back the payoff— what Jimmy actually did— until the end of the season.) Jimmy admits to being in “a bit of a pickle”, but insists that the charges are trumped up. It’s telling that while Jimmy clearly does admire and respect Chuck for his standing as a lawyer, he talks of the law solely in terms of “tricks”, “loopholes”, “technicalities”— as if all he needs to get out of trouble is for Chuck to apply the right cheat code.

As Jimmy squirms, Chuck mentions that it’s been five years since they last saw each other. According to Chuck, their mom called him after Jimmy called her from jail, crying and begging for help (Jimmy strenuously denies that last part). “I know I’m a lousy brother,” Jimmy says. “I’m a lousy brother, I’m a big screw-up... and if I was just a better person, I would not only stop letting you down, you know what? I’d stop letting me down. And it’s about time that I start to make both of us proud. Am I right?” 

Looking at Chuck’s face here, you get the sense that it barely matters what Jimmy does from this point on; even if Chuck did once have the capacity to feel proud of him, that ship has sailed.

Back in the present, Jimmy, not actively suffering for a change, helps himself to some cucumber water, which is both pleasing to look at and makes nice underwater sounds. 

He wears white in this scene, maybe indicating his attempt to make a fresh start and do the right thing. Credit where it’s due: Jimmy’s desire to warn the Kettlemans is genuinely altruistic, and he doesn’t stand to benefit from it at all.

Jimmy considers calling Nacho, then calls Kim, whose first instinct is to ask him if Chuck’s all right:

Jimmy: Yeah, Chuck... Chuck is Chuck. All right? Everything’s all right. I just wanted to call you. So, uh... hey. Whatcha doing?

Kim: Jimmy... no. I’m not talking dirty to you.

I love them and I love this conversation. This is how you establish intimacy! Jimmy promises nothing but “quality PG phone conversation, PG-13 at worst” and then steers the talk towards the Kettlemans; he gets all “gee, it sure would be bad if something were to happen to them!” with her, laying it on just thick enough to weird her out but not to make her concerned for their immediate safety. Plan A having failed, Jimmy tries Plan B, section I, “Warn The Kettlemans While Disguising My Voice”, then section II, “Just Tell Them They’re In Danger Then Hang Up Very Fast”, and in the end they get the message (it helps that Nacho’s van is indeed lurking outside their house).

(Aside: the Kettlemans’ awful voicemail message is amazing. You just know they dress up in matching outfits for the annual family Christmas card.)

Next morning, Kim calls: the Kettlemans have gone missing, and Jimmy has neither the cash nor the stickers to leave the courthouse parking lot. Mike won’t budge, so Jimmy reaches into the booth, raises the boom himself, and drives off yelling “screw you, geezer!”; ah, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

At the Kettleman home, Kim implores Jimmy to tell her why he said what he did; he looks torn, but tells her that he doesn’t know what happened. He drives to a payphone and leaves several breathless, desperate messages for Nacho, framed effectively in a mixture of tight close-ups and expansive wide shots (they make good use of that big blank wall behind him). There’s such a good long beat after Jimmy takes the hang-up call: high angle, city noise.

It turns out that the cops were already tracking Nacho, whose license plate was reported by one of the Kettlemans’ neighbours, so the scene culminates in Jimmy getting chased down an alley and arrested. Nacho assumes that Jimmy set him up (this episode is just rife with misunderstandings) and orders him to get him out, “or you’re a dead man”. Kim, Jimmy and the detectives head back to the Kettlemans’ house, where Kim pointedly tells Jimmy the names and ages of Craig and Betsy’s kids. Jimmy infers from the missing doll that Jojo wasn’t kidnapped, but the show doesn’t present the detectives as incompetent— they already noted that the doll was missing, and they’ve verified that the Kettlemans haven’t travelled. “If you run, everyone knows you’re guilty,” Jimmy insists, foreshadowing what will happen to him seven or eight years down the line.

Jimmy finally admits that he gave the Kettlemans an “anonymous” warning call, whereupon Kim delivers the deathless line, “Oh God, you didn’t… you didn’t do the sex robot voice, did you?” There is, as they say, a lot to unpack there, but the Kettlemans are still missing, so the conversation quickly moves on. Jimmy speeds back to the courthouse and gets arrested again after assaulting Mike, who has decided he doesn’t want his parking business any more.

There’s a glint of interest in Mike’s eye as Jimmy insists that the Kettlemans “took themselves”. He may not like Jimmy very much at this point, but he sees something in him worth paying attention to. Declining to press charges, he tells Jimmy a story about a man back home who disappeared and was found hiding two doors down from where he lived. “Nobody wants to leave home,” Mike says. Yet he’s very far from home; so is Jimmy; so is Kim. (So is Gus, more so than any other character.) The multiple meanings of home, and what it means to be alienated from a place you are tied to in the past or the present, are some of the most interesting themes explored in BrBa and BCS.

Jimmy goes back to the Kettleman home, deduces that they’ve gone camping, and plunges into the Sandia foothills to track them down. The shots in this montage do well to establish just how far he’s hiking and how sweaty and miserable he is in his suit and loafers. 

Around nightfall, his efforts are rewarded: the family are right where he guessed they’d be, and so is their loot. Jimmy and Betsy tussle over the bag, a seam splits, and hundreds of stacks of cash come tumbling out. For a moment, it looks like Craig and Betsy will be forced to reckon with reality.

Misc.

Jimmy corners DDA Oakley in the men’s room and browbeats him into accepting a deal for a client who “assaulted a cashier with a bottle of Kahlua”.

The “JPi” tag on the payphone also appears in Jesse’s house.

“I refuse to believe [you let me off because] you have something resembling a heart inside your body,” Jimmy tells Mike. “You’re not gonna have a heart inside your body in about five seconds,” Mike counters.

Anyone else get a very strong True Detective season 1 energy from these shots of Jimmy’s hike?

Timeframe: a single day in the first week of June, 2002. The flashback most likely takes place in the spring or summer of 1993 (in season 3, Howard says he’s known Jimmy almost ten years).

Music

“Find Out What’s Happening” by Bobby Bare (1968), as Jimmy tracks down the Kettlemans

References

“I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque” is an old Bugs Bunny catchphrase.

The Donner Party was a group of frontier travellers who set off for California from Wyoming in 1846 and got stranded in the Sierra Nevada after an ill-advised shortcut. Over half of the travellers died en route; some resorted to cannibalism to survive. 

Jimmy compares the detectives to Cagney and Lacey, the titular characters in the 1980s police procedural.

Mike talks about a Philadelphia bookie disappearing after the Super Bowl (Dallas Cowboys v. Pittsburgh Steelers). The Steelers won against the Cowboys in 1976 and 1979; the Cowboys won against the Steelers in 1996.

“Here’s Johnny!” is from Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining (1980).

< PREVIOUS EPISODE: MIJO

> NEXT EPISODE: HERO

[oqpromptparty]

OQ Prompt Party Week

Hi everyone! I set up a Tumblr because I thought it would be the easiest place to post all of the prompts for the OQ Prompt Party week. 

If you’d like to take part, just select any of the prompts from the list below and write a fic, make a video or create some art based on it. Please note that more than one person may choose the same prompt.

You may submit new stories or include the prompts in any of your existing verses.

Artists & Video makers may use any of the prompts, but there are some Art/Video specific ones at the bottom of the post.

I have condensed some of the prompts that were a little too long... and feel free to take some liberties with some of the more specific prompts!

If you have any questions, please tweet @OQPromptParty

OQ Prompt Party week will run from 21st - 27th August. Please don’t post anything until then.

Prizes: 

Everyone who posts a prompt for all seven days of the OQ Prompt Party week will be sent a limited edition, one of a kind Outlaw Queen button/badge. These will never be available again, so don’t miss out! 

Each day there will also be the opportunity to win another prize. You will be entered into a prize draw and the more prompts you write, the more times your name will be entered into the draw. I will announce which prizes will be available on each day soon. 

There will also be a separate prize for most prompts included in a single one-shot/chapter (crack!fic encouraged). 

And now! Without further ado, here are your prompts: 

Prompts: 

Friends with benefits

Pride & Prejudice AU with Regina in the role of Mr. Darcy

Hospital AU with Regina as the Chief of cardio (nicknamed ‘The Evil Queen’, work addicted, hates everyone, on call room = sex) and Robin as a Nurse (follows the rules, has a crush on Regina, makes out with her in the on call room, lives in campervan in the forest) 

DarkOQ go to New York (aka real World) for their honeymoon and then stops by Storybrooke to check on Regina.

Regina kidnaps Robin to prevent him from marrying Marian.

Regina finds out her fiancé (can be any ouat character) has been cheating on her with her sister on her wedding day! She runs away to a different city or county & meets Robin.

Regina meets her soul mate online.  But is reluctant to meet Robin in person for fear of ruining what they already have.  Will Robin be able to change her mind? And what happens when her friends try to force her hand?

Robin, Regina and the Evil Queen... perhaps maybe Robin meets one, then meets the other... doesn't quite realise straightaway... ooh they could be twins!

Regina as a headmistress and Robin being a billionaire whose son Roland, goes to the school where Regina is the boss.

Robin being Regina's personal trainer, because Regina wants to work out before her wedding but we all know that wedding won't happen now that they met.

Regina mothering Roland (it'd be awesome if Robin witnessed at least a part of the scene)

Robin actually dies in 5x02 and after seeing Robin getting taken to the underworld Regina chooses to follow. It's the author's choice whether she goes alone or with the storybrooke clan.

Regina owns a Dessous boutique and Robin comes in quite often to buy stuff for his imaginary girlfriend in Regina's sizes and her taste because he just wants to talk to her and work up the courage to ask her on a date but Regina thinks him weird bc why would he flirt with her and buy all this shit for his girlfriend. Later she finds all the unopened bags with stuff in his apartment.

Wonder Woman scene at the healing lake thingy. Regina sees a (naked) man for the first time.

"you can't just run around and threaten to kill everyone." "Oh but you never told me that so how would I know?"

Dark Robin contacts Regina when he doesn't know how to deal with the EQ after a particular fight.

Ink Heart AU Whenever Regina reads a story out loud, characters come to life. She vows never to read out loud again.  One day she comes home to find Robin Hood in her son's room. Henry confesses that he shares her strange gift.

"The poor guy at table 4 has almost ordered the whole menu just so he can look at you and you didn't even give him a smile. How about when you slip him your number instead of ask what dessert he wants."

Troy AU (Robin as Achilles and Regina as Briseis, evtl. Hook as Paris and Emma as Helena) when her temple is plundered Robin saves priestess Regina from the hands of the Spartan men.

Roland spills something over himself in Regina's vault and now any time he lies he turns further into a donkey (like in Pinocchio).

(early OQ) Regina comes home and finds the television is dead because it has tons of arrows sticking out. "What on earth did the poor TV do to you?!"

Missing Year body swap AU with Regina and Robin

Homeless AU "You gave me a dollar every day for three years and now I had a bit of luck, I have a job and I really want to pay you back."

"have you by any chance seen my vibrator?" "What's that?" *Explanation* "Ooooh, that thing. Yes, used it to fix the ____."

Regina and Robin meet Daniel/Marian in the Underworld

Cora didn't get the sheriff but the real Robin on Regina's birthday.

Regina meets the baby of DarkOQ for the first time

It's cold and OQ share a blanket

OQ's first camping trip with the kids and Regina turns out to be a natural at _______.

Robin isn't really dead, he's caught in the book of "Adventures of Robin Hood" and tries to get (a message) back to Regina.

Henry decides to throw the author's rules over board and rewrites his mom's happy ending.

It's Regina's first bday after Henry is gone and she feels lonely. The doorbell rings and a little Roland is waiting there with a half eaten cupcake for her (ofc he says it wasn't him, but the icing on his cheeks says it all).

OQ go skinny dipping in the water and when they come out someone stole their clothes.

After missing year just after curse broke. Regina asks Robin to pick up some tampons for her from the store. It turns into quite an adventure because Robin doesn't know what they are.

AU A: "sorry you're sitting on my sun lounger. B: oh and since when is it yours?" A: I clearly reserved it before breakfast with my towel - which by the way you're sitting on! so get your butt off my sun lounger or else."

Robin spills a drink on Regina.

Your OTP is covering up a murder.

Robin doesn’t die instead is resurrected somehow and in NYC as a dark Robin. Things from the finale happen. Regina kills the EQ but she doesn’t die because her soul is tethered to Robin or something like  that. EQ and evil Robin find each other. Regina has to find a way to kill EQ or reunite with her and save Robin from the darkness.

Robin dies or so they believe, but in actuality a villain has given Robin a memory curse and he remembers nothing of his life with Regina. Regina helps him remember.

Regina and Robin go look for Daniel’s grave and they happen to find  both his and Marian’s stone. Both tipped over and Regina and Robin  share an emotional moment.

Groundhog Day AU with OQ.

A fic based on the movie Sabrina.

Regina drunkenly confesses to Robin about the lion tattoo and pixie dust. Robin misunderstands and thinks she doesn't want him around her

Regina picks up the newest book by her favorite writer. Another best  seller that she can’t get enough of. What she doesn’t realize is that  the heroine from those books is inspired by her and the books were  written by her sweet, handsome but oh so shy (at least in RL) neighbor  Robin.

Regina and Marian are single moms, neighbors and best friends. When Marian dies she leaves Roland in Regina’s care. A  few months later Robin moves in next door. While unpacking his things  he discovers a picture of a very pregnant Marian and remembers their  night together before leaving for England. There is a date on the back  of the photo and he does the math. He is a father and his son is closer  than he thinks.

Through a glitch in the system (or was it?) two strangers find  themselves married to each other. (somewhat inspired by the movie  Accidental Husband).

Regina’s house/apartment is on fire. Lt. Robin Locksley and his  men save her and Henry. She goes over to the firehouse to thank them  properly and ends up inviting Robin for dinner.

Robin as gladiator and Regina as his domina. (pure smut)

Robin proposes to Regina with a little bit of help from the Storybook and Henry.

The smuttiest smut you’ve ever written in your life.

Robin is taking dancing lessons to surprise Regina on their first  wedding anniversary (since their wedding dance ended in a disaster when  he broke her toe) and Regina thinks he is cheating. She even follows him  with Tinkerbell to find out with who.

Robin and Regina are roommates. Robin accidentally walks in on her getting out of the shower. Regina returns the favor.

Regina drags Robin along with her for a little shopping. Their last  stop is Victoria’s Secret and things get “hot and steamy” in the changing room.

Regina and Robin are  single parents (Henry and Roland are the same age and go to class  together) and have clashed a couple of times during parent/school  meetings. She thinks he is immature and irresponsible. He thinks she is  overprotective and overbearing. A school camping trip comes up and  both go as chaperons (not their idea). Henry and Robin bond and so do  Roland and Regina and they both start seeing each other in a new light.

Regina as a soldier. She comes home from her second tour in Iraq. She  is not the same woman she used to be after all the things she has seen  and  all the things she has done. She wants to get her life back on track.  Along the way, she meets Robin who is battling his own demons and  understands her better than she thinks.

Robin trying to stop EQ!Regina like Xander did with Dark Willow on BTVS.

Robin picks up a hitchhiker named Regina. Things get interesting while on the road.

Henry and Roland are friends (they are about 10 years old). Roland  really likes Henry’s mom Regina and Henry thinks Roland’s dad Robin is  pretty cool. They decide to play cupid.

Henry makes sure that  several things in his house break and Robin (a handyman) has to come and  fix them. Hopefully, his mom’s broken heart as well.

Regina,  single mom, mayor and workaholic is in desperate need of a new housekeeper/nanny after Henry has scared off yet another one. Robin,  widower and single dad who’s life has not been easy after losing Marian  is in desperate need of a new job and home for him and his son Roland.

After a blackout, heavily pregnant Regina ends up stuck in an elevator  (or another place, whichever you prefer) with a stranger. Unfortunately,  her water breaks and Robin has to help her deliver her baby.

Regina is Mary Margaret’s childhood friend and maid of honor. Robin is  David’s best friend from college and best man. The first meeting  between the couple’s best friends doesn’t go as planned and ends in a  disaster with a very upset MM and a disappointed David. Regina and Robin  are forced to put their differences aside to ensure a happy wedding day  for their friends.(If there is a part with them having to take dance  lessons and things heat up during that I won't be sad.)

Regina and Robin as thieves: It is the 3rd time he had outsmarted her and stolen from right under  her nose. Only this time he is a bit careless with his disguise (at  least that’s what she thinks) and she manages to see the lion tattoo on  his right arm which helps her track him down. Her plan is to steal  everything back from him. His plan is to steal one last thing from her:  her heart.

Robin, a single dad, saves Henry from being run over by a car, but gets hit himself in the process.  Regina is so grateful she helps him and Roland while Robin heals.

Robin is a disgruntled former employee of Cora Mills who, in a moment of desperation, kidnaps Coras daughter, Regina.

Robin, somewhat of a ladies man, gets the shock of his life when a  social worker hands him a baby boy, telling him that his mother had died  and that she wanted the baby’s father to take care of him. Robin doesn’t know what to do and asks his neighbor Regina for help.Regina  is reluctant at first. She doesn’t like him. Thanks to him Henry has witnessed his conquests walks of shame on a regular basis which always led to awkward questions.

Robin can’t explain the feelings he has for Regina. One night he  overhears a very drunk Regina and Tinkerbell (Tink already knows that  it’s Robin and drops a few hints without giving him away) talking about  the man with the lion tattoo and it all starts making sense.

Robin cuts in line at the supermarket. Regina is not having it.

Robin is so used to sleeping in the forest he won't fall asleep in houses etc because of the missing forest noises (birds, frogs...)

instead of Neal, Pan's shadow Robin and Roland to Neverland.

Author Henry by accidentally mixes up some of his comics with the stories he's supposed to be writing down. ... therefore somehow Regina and Robin trade places with some comic book characters.

Regina used to be a teen Popstar, now a few decades have passed. Life has happened etc and she's asked to be back on stage for a show to celebrate the decade she's been famous in. They want her to share the stage though with a few men who used to the British boyband "The Merry Men"

AU based on the film "one fine day"

Enchanted Forest, s3, OQ secret candlelight dinner.

David, Killian and Robin talking about things from the land without magic with King Arthur (and Merlin). Gadgets, things that vibrate (including sex toys and phones), birth control, underwear…

Robin asking Regina what certain things are (for) after having been to the store/supermarket/pharmacy like roller skates and birth control.

Robin is a wedding planner. Regina is divorce lawyer.

Robin and Regina are actors in the same movie or tv-show who are in denial about being in love with each other. Their friends on set try to trick them into discovering their feelings

OQ’s first baby.

Robin is a counselor/psychologist who helps people with anger management. Regina is a particularly difficult patient of his.  they both develop feelings for one another.

Roland looses his first tooth

Robin teaches Regina how to shoot an arrow.

Regina teaches Robin how to ride (assuming he doesn't know how to)

Robin meets Cora/Henry in the underworld

Regina tells Robin that she's infertile.

Roland and Henry prepare a surprise birthday party for Regina.

Roland’s first tantrum with Regina

Roland can't sleep so he sneaks in Henry’s bedroom. When Regina and Robin wake up, they find a fort has been built in Henry’s room and the two boys sleeping soundly.

Just like she did with Henry when he was younger, Regina shows Roland how to garden and he insists in having his own plant to take care of.

Henry and Robin spend a day/afternoon/or/night alone for the first time.

Robin asks Henry to be his best man

Regina asks Roland to be his flower boy

Regina is sick, her men take care of her

Family vacation/road trip

Roland is scared of something (darkness, or whatever) and he is ashamed. Henry tells him that until this day he is still scared of (insert something)

Regina snores while sleeping with Robin.

Robin doesn't know how to work a toaster.

Robin tries to steal Regina’s cab.

Sex goes horribly wrong and they laugh about it

Roland loses Robin's bow

Kissing in the rain

Modern day AU where they are cosplayers and meet at a Comic Con

Roland wants to be the evil queen for Halloween

Sex on the kitchen table

Robin accidentally gets Regina the flowers she hates most.

Robin is allergic to something and Regina accidentally feeds it to him.

Robin and Roland miss Regina and video call her.

Regina takes Robin and Roland to the beach for the very first time.

Henry decides he wants to be a vegetarian so Regina and Robin follow suit as moral support, but they're secretly sneaking bacon, chicken wings and pepperoni pizza into their room.

Regina and Robin talking over what Zelena did to him.

Robin and Regina putting her heart back in after Zelena took it for her spell.

Regina remembering Robin is still chained to a tree after the shattered sight spell is over.

Regina and Robin take roland for ice cream for the first time (Roland being introduced to her). Leading to the scene we saw of them walking hand in hand, on the way to grannies.

Missing year: Snow ships oq! And however that manifests, maybe Regina realised she's been trying to match make with the two of them? Snow goes to Robin to talk about Regina cos she's worried?

Regina thinks Robin may be cheating on her with his ex Marian... until they introduce her to Mulan, her girlfriend.

Party of Five AU. Henry has to take care of the Hood-Mills kids after OQ dies.

Canon divergent oneshot where Robin crashes Regina's wedding hoping to steal some jewels and fancy plates but ends up stealing her instead.

Roland finds two kittens, they love Regina the most.

A walk in the woods / on the beach.

Cuddling during a flight.

Robin & Regina hide the dagger…

Robin is a comic-strip artist and an owner of comic book store. He creates a new super heroine inspired by his favorite customer Regina, who he admires from afar.

How the EQ responds to Robins proposal/first time they see each other after the arrow.

D!OQ first kiss.

D!OQ stealing from the rich together so kinda bandit EQ.

Robins birthday....Regina bakes him a cake and probably has some other surprises for him!!

Regina asking Robin to move in with her.

How S3 should have ended...no Marion coming back nonsense. Them having a nice family dinner at granny's and Regina asking Robin if he wanted to go home with her,for their first night together.

Any domestic OQ kitchen chores with Regina in one of Robins shirts.

Them having a conversation about her cutting her hair, why did she do it, him running his fingers through it.

Henry catching them in a compromising position somewhere.

Regina watching Robin sleep the morning after the vault before she gets up and dressed.

A lot more vault blanks filled in. Did she question/was there any conversation after the initial kiss? Where'd they go? What exactly happened?

Regina having a hard time on Roland's first day of school.

Any and all oq wedding scenarios.

Robin seeing Marion in the underworld (or getting to do anything in the underworld).

Jealous Robin in Camelot.

Hogwarts AU where Robin is the Gryffindor Guy who falls for the Slytherin girl Regina.

Regina and Roland use magic mirrors as walkie talkies.

Robin is called to the principal's office after Roland gets in a fight with a kid who said mean things about Regina.

Sliding Doors AU.

Roland opens a lemonade stand.

Robin has to sub in for Regina at a Parent Teachers Association meeting for school.

Robin discovers bacon. (bonus points for sexy kitchen shenanigans)

Henry protects Roland from bullies.

Regina is bad at camping but then saves Roland from bears.

Robin and Regina watch Game of Thrones together. Robin thinks Regina would have given Cersei a run for her money. Also Regina's dragon is cooler than Dany's dragons.

The Notebook AU

Dark OQ masquerading as real OQ.

Regina gets drunk and wanders into Robin's camp late at night...either to yell at him, or fuck him (or both).  she ends up breaking his tent.

Regina owns a bar and Robin is a regular who has a secret crush on her.

Robin and Regina meet at a singles vacation resort, have a blast together, and agree not to see each other when vacation is over.  But then someone breaks that agreement....

Bandit!Regina and Robin get captured by Nottingham and have to find a way to get out of the cell.

Wish Nottingham also comes over to the Enchanted Forest with Wish!Robin and The Evil Queen.

Regina and Robin meet at the principals office after their children are caught fighting.

Robin has amnesia.  He falls in love with his Regina, his doctor.

Regina and Wish!Robin get married in the EF.

Despite cursing herself with infertility, Regina becomes pregnant.  She talks to Robin about her confusion as to what this means.

Regina and Robin meet at a grief counseling session.

Blind date.

Regina or Robin suffers a sex related injury.

Regina's hair is curly and Robin likes.

Henry asks Robin for advice on girls.

Roland tells Regina that he is scared that someone will take his papa away.

Roland asks Regina to be his mother for "Bring Your Mom To School Day"

Regina enchants Roland's birthday cake so whatever he wishes for comes true.

Skype sex.

Regina and Robin meet in a club.  There's instant attraction and smut ensues.

Henry is a child actor who gets fired by some douchey TV producers, Regina and Robin comfort him.

Henry and Roland have their first fight.

Regina gets hit by a car and Robin is a good samaritan who helps her.

Missing year. A drunken Regina confesses her attraction to Robin.

Robin gets drunk and tells John he thinks he's falling in love with the evil queen.

MissingYear sick!Regina with Robin taking care of her.

s7 setting, cursed Robin (with another name), Seattle university professor, goes out for a drink after a rough day at a bar he usually avoids as he knows many of his students frequent there, making eyes to the 'zesty and feisty' bar owner. When he meets her, he understands why... What he doesn't understand is why his heart flutters the moment she speaks to him nor does she get why a strange tattoo on his arm seems strangely familiar.

Based on BBC's Sherlock, Regina as Irene Adler and Robin as Sherlock Holmes, but with their own unique touch to it... What happens when insane consulting criminal Gold hires a well known dominatrix to take out the world's most genius detective? How does her mind that matches his own manage to make him feel something he had never felt before???

He's a loner, willingly avoiding human contact and emotional connection after the unexpected loss of his wife (and child... I know I'm bad). He's given an AI program that talks to him as if it were a real person. Her voice intrigues him, her responses are clever and witty... She sounds so real.... If only she were. Is she?

Just Like Heaven au. He's in a coma. She's moving in to his apartment, but his spirit seems to have other ideas. How can they coexist? And can she bring him back?

Henry jumps from realm to realm searching for Robin's soul. When he crashes Cinderella's carriage, he discovers this new realm hides way more surprises than he thought... Like exiled souls that search for a way back.

Bandit Regina gets arrested under Prince John's command... Funnily enough someone she considered her rival occupies the cell right next to hers. Can they work together to escape? Can they trust each other with their freedom and life?

Grown up (and quite magical) Robyn discovers the truth about her conception and the unfair loss of her father... Needless to say, she holds a huge grudge, but when she faces Regina about it, she discovers how deeply her aunt has been hurt over that loss and how she hid her pain all those years…

After Robyn searches for her brother, the two share a talk about their past, their father and Regina.... She listens from afar, tears running down her face, as she recalls so many moments in which she felt she'd be truly happy like she always planned with him... Funnily enough, he listens too.. And makes sure she knows he does. And that his children do too.

House MD AU. She's his boss, he's a smart pain in the ass yet the most brilliant mind she has in her hospital... And one of her oldest acquaintances as well. When she searches for a way to have a child and tries in vitro... He's the only one she trusts with the injections... But he objects to her having a child with someone she doesn't know... Will she listen?

Robin meets Regina in Seattle and they fall for each other again not recognizing who the other is. When the curse breaks (and we all bawl our eyes out with them cause they found each other after three billion years) robin reveals he has a huge thing for Regina in curls... After he does, she embraces her natural wave almost permanently.

Outlaw queen adopting a baby

Hood Mills family getting their first pet

Robin telling Regina he can't have children.

Regina coming out as bisexual or pansexual.

Robin proposing to Regina in the forest.

Robin getting his first job in Storybrooke.

Robin coming out as bisexual or pansexual.

Regina teaching Robin how to use modern things.

(AU) Robin didn't die, he ends up in the new town (and is cursed too), meets Regina and he can feel the connection but he can't remember anything. They develop a relationship and break the curse with a true love kiss.

(Young OQ AU) Regina is dating Robin and she can't wait to go to prom with him but something happens and she can't go so Robin organize a romantic dinner in her garden.

Sunday morning breakfast

Dealing with Regina's period [ex. cramps, moodiness, extra horny, etc.]

Midnight snack

Bartender AU [one owns the bar, the other is a bartender, sparks fly, love unfolds, etc.]

Robin & Regina meet & fall in love in their 50's.

“South Pacific" AU.

There are a few prompts for certain writers that I will send out individually.

Video specific prompts:

The Winner Takes It All - Regina, Robin, Zelena/Marian

Bluebird

Sanctuary (Nashville OST)

Uptown Girl

Art specific prompts:

Banner to use for the fic Happiness Can't Be Arranged by grayautumnsky (OQ meets Jane Austen)

WW2 AU by grayautumnsky - Robin is a Nazi soldier during the occupation of France. If this were a manip (doesn't have to be), the pics of Sean from Timeless would be perfect. As for Regina, when I think of her in this fic I always picture the character Sira from The Time In Between (which is set during WW2).

Regina & Robin reading legends about him (a canon scene which we've never seen). And if I can ask for anything else: I'm so weak for DimplesQueen, I'd love to see a drawing of them&Robin

Robin & Regina go on vacation. 

[evilisk-played]

Labyrinthine December Pt 0: On Bonus Points / My Party Setup

I’m currently working through Labyrinth of Touhou’s postgame. While I’m not fresh from beating Maribel (I’ve been beating all of the V2 and Bloodstained Seal Bosses that I can with my Maribel-slaying party) I finally hit a wall with Eientei V2 fight. 

Before I get into this playthrough in earnest though, it’s time to analyse my current party setup and, worst of all, figure out how to spend those 40 extra levels I’ve accumulated for most of my party members. I love this game but dear god does allocating bonus points for all characters make me anxious. Since I’ve forgotten how to use most of the cast, I decided to look at the stats for all my current party members.

Long, analytical post ahead.

So, how about them bonus points?

As a quick reminder, Labyrinth of Touhou doesn’t have conventional levels. You still gain EXP, but rather than some EXP share mechanic, it’s more like you gather up EXP in this gigantic pool that every party member draws from. Every party member has different EXP milestones that dictates when they can level up or not (with some characters having quicker level up rates than other).

Also, every party member gets a ‘bonus point’ for every level they get and these bonus points are crucially important. While every character has the same base stats and leveling rate, bonus points are one of three ways that allows players to really customize characters. Though some characters are too specialized to really be changed (like Chen, who is just about being stronger and faster) other characters have a wealth of good stats that allow them to be tweaked in different directions.

Yuugi, for example, has good HP, ATK and DEF. As the owner of one of the most powerful ATK spells in the game, you could totally tweak her to get the most out of that one attack... however that’s not the only direction you could take her character in. For me, personally, I realized that as good as her ATK is, her DEF has even better growth. So I made the decision to up her HP and DEF instead. Now she serves as my poison-paralyzing tank (who I often use alongside Komachi).

Bonus points are really important like that, and it’s fully possible to mess a character up by building points into a stat they don’t even use (like adding any bonus points to Patchouli’s ATK stat). And since there are no take-backs without reloading old saves, I understandably get a bit anxious about where to put bonus points. While I *always* have the Touhou Wiki’s LOT Guide open, that’s not enough; the Wiki can tell you what the good growths are, it can’t tell you how you’ve already spent your on points. (I’ve been playing for 70 hours, forgive me for not remembering where I put all those bonus points.)

So before I proceed with the game, I’m going to take a hard look at each characters stats.

...But before I do *that*, I’m gonna explain how I’ve been using my current party.

For the record, I have all the characters you can possibly get in Labyrinth of Touhou’s main game (including Kaguya)

Ever since beating Maribel, I’ve been running around with this half-assed party:

Chen, Komachi, Nitori, Ran, Yukari, Marisa

Chen’s a simple character: stronger, faster, stronger, faster. She’s pretty independent, so you can shove her into any party, but at the same time, she doesn’t add much specific synergy to a party (she can switch characters out with fast speed, but all high speed characters are capable of this). 

Komachi is my main tank. I love that poisoning-paralysing-debuffing skill, and that beefy health value means you’ll never be caught off guard. My approach to bossfights is “everything and the kitchen sink” (aka, do everything: buff my characters, debuff and inflict ailments), so she really speaks to me.

Nitori and Marisa are my main nukes. Even though it’s inefficient, I like having both on my team. Marisa is great but waiting to regain all that SP is crazy (and good luck using Master Spark on MYS resistant bosses...). Nitori is the backup attacker I can use multiple times in a row. I can also use her as an okay tank with her Camouflage ability.

Ran and Yukari are my other tanks. Ran’s never left my party ever since she’s joined; her ability to buff backup characters is just too useful to me (even if it leads to fights taking *forever*). Yukari is another tank I use, mostly just for her Cheat Spell (though I’ll occasionally use her Yakumo spell, since I always have Ran and Chen all the time). I’m probably under-using both these characters, but eh, they’re working for me so far.

Some of the other revolving door members are:

Suika and Yuugi: these two oni are my other tanks. Yuugi is like poisoning-paralysing tank number two, with occasional nuke capabilities. She’s a bit more reliable than Komachi in terms of actual tanking. Suika is the MND tank that’s more reliable than either with tanking (because of Missing Power).

Sakuya and Remilia: my backup tanks. Sakuya exists to speed buff party members and to take hits. Remilia is a really speedy tank who is pretty self-sufficient (bc of Curse of Vlad Tepes). Both are useful for their speed rather than their outright tankiness, which is why they’re paired together.

Reimu, Eirin, Meiling: these three are my main healers. Yes, you heard me, I don’t use Minoriko or Sanae all that much (I just seem to have really bad luck with those two). Anyway, I can usually get away with having two of these healers in the active party. Having three of these is overkill, though in certain bossfights like Rinnosuke and his first phase, it’s totally necessary.

Aya and Cirno: these are my other speedsters. Aya is Chen with a bit more synergy (since she can buff speed). Cirno is a character I only recently started to use, and it’s purely as “fast paralyzer” (I gave up on giving her good stats, and now I just dump all her bonus points into SPD). Both these characters get more use in random encounters, though I’ll occasionally use them for bosses (like using Cirno in a “Paralyzing Trifecta” with Komachi and Yuugi). 

Suwako: my other nuke, alongside Marisa and Nitori. She basically exists as the NTR nuke. That’s about it. I might be under-using her, though she’s been critical in a few important fights, which is more than the following characters...

And now here are the party bench-warmers.

Patchouli: I used her a lot early on. I stopped using her for some reason (I think because there were too many MAG + ATK / MND ignoring bosses popping up)

Minoriko / Sanae: Like I mentioned before, they never seemed to work when I actually brought them out for fights. So I never used either (outside of early game for Minoriko)

Youmu: another early tank I stopped using. She seems good on paper, but I can never make her work (her damage is always less impressive than I remember, or she’s always getting annihilated when I need a tank) 

Alice / Mokou: these characters both belong to that weird niche of “MAG attacker with weirdly good defensive stats” (Eirin is also part of this niche, but since she has a healing spell, I treat her as a healer instead). I never really found a good spot for either character since their best spells are all FIR based (and Yuugi already readily covers that area).

Rumia: she sucks

Wriggle: she’s another early tank I actually used a lot of for her poisoning capabilities. Then Yuugi and Komachi arrived (and they could tank better, and could also paralyse/debuff along with poison) so she lost her position.

Iku: I never got around to using her much. It always felt like I had to build the party *around her* and I didn’t like that (I prefer my strategy of “death by beefy, poisoning-paralyzing-debuffing girls)

Flandre / Yuyuko: these characters seemed too unwiedly to use outside of trash mob fights. As good as her attack stats are, Flandre’s best skill messes up your whole party, and that’s no good. Yuyuko is a character I may have written off too early though.

Reisen: she never filled a good role in my party. It feels like she’s supposed to be another speedster (that relies on Grand Patriots Elixir to build up her speed) but aside from Discarder, her offensive abilities kinda suck. (Also, every bossfight I’ve brought her into, she’s always died. Even in the ones I win, she dies. What are you, Lunarian Wimp Lo?)

Kaguya / Orin / Rinnosuke: these three characters all came in way too late for the main game. It’s like “I’ve been playing a specific way for about 60 hours; I’m not gonna adjust my party when I’m right at the endgame”. I will say, Kaguya did end up being crucial in the Maribel fight with 100% buffed Hourai Barrage. 

+ + +

And I think that’s all of the characters and my usage of them so far. Now that I know where all the characters have been, I’m going to have a hard look at their stats to see if I could be using them better and, more importantly, figure out where to put those blasted bonus points.

[spideywars]

I just saw your tweet about the prompt and OHMYGOD *cracks fingers* hmm lets see.. can you please write about harry as an actor who got a new assistant (niall) and harry gets a crush after having him around (and please don't make either of them shy or them stuttering bc i had enough of these stories)

This might be really bad or really good and you will have to be the judge of that. It’s honestly hard for me to make a story that’s not 10k words or longer so I made this as short and sweet as I possibly could. 

~~

He should just do it, pull Niall aside and just blurt everything out. But what if he said no, or looked at Harry with wide eyes and just run away? God, what if he quit?

This was a mess, all of it, but when a man like Harry is in love he can’t just ignore the feelings that become like an infestation in his body. This wasn’t supposed to happen, this was supposed to end with Harry finding a hot celebrity date who had the same net worth that he did so they could waltz around looking like the worlds most envied couple.

But Niall Horan came along, a boy from Mullingar who sent in a resume to become Harry’s assistant and had written ‘I’ve watched all of his movies, top lad’ on the bottom of the paper like this wasn’t just one of the biggest jobs he was ever going to try and get. But that comment was the only one that made Harry smile, and he thought it would be a privilege to have a funny lad coming along with him to tour around the world and go to different movie sets with.

Now though, Harry is falling deeply in love and the feelings grew into needs instead of wants and now he can’t stop thinking about bringing Niall as his next date to his premiere for his next movie, Dunkirk. There is a part of him that hates that thought more than anything, but then there is the part that dreams of it every night and wants it to happen.

He can see Niall from where he is standing at the airport, watching him settle everything for the plane ride with a large bag over his shoulder and glasses shifted low on the bridge of his nose as he talked with one of the workers. No, now wasn’t the time to say anything, they were just getting on a flight and heading back to London, he should wait till they are settled there.

He tells himself this, but the premiere is in a week, he’ll probably chicken out again at the last minute.

Niall is walking over now, staring down at their passports as he shuffles some papers in his hands, gets everything organized just the way he likes it. Harry couldn’t help but move a finger out to push Niall’s glasses up his nose comfortably again, and he bit his cheek from smiling too hard in fondness when Niall’s nose crinkled up and a small smile appeared across his face.

“Planes leaving in half an hour, so we’ve got time to kill yeah?” Niall handed Harry his passport, mind shifted to another thing already as he started looking around for a place to sit.

-

Maybe it’s Niall friendly behaviour, or how he’s been with him since the start of his success that has Harry’s heart jumping into his throat whenever he see’s him, or how he wants to sit and stare at the way Niall’s eyes look like oceans and his freckles look like the sandy beaches in paradise. But Harry has found a place in Niall that he wants to see when he wakes up in the morning, under him making love, and around him whenever he looks beside him. That’s probably why his life is more of a mess lately, cause he’s now got to juggle his crazy schedule and his undying love for an assistant that probably just wants to be friends with him, not lovers.

He’s tried other things, other people that might love him like Niall would, he really did. But it’s not the same, the touches aren’t what he imagined, the love isn’t connected enough, and his heart doesn’t feel like a beating drum in his chest whenever he looks at them.

It’s frustrating, because Niall is just an assistant, someone he should simply just work with instead of fall in love so hard he can’t get back onto his own two feet. It’s that constant battle in his head, everything shuts itself down and Niall’s the centre of his mind whenever he is left alone for a couple minutes.

That’s what is happening right now–everyone letting Harry be in his own company for a bit as they finalize dates for premieres and auditions and interviews. They landed in London and are now settled in a hotel, everyone immediately splitting off to move onto more things to get Harry’s life in order. Everyone except Niall, who is waiting in line to get them both some coffees to wake each other up.

Harry’s sat in the cafe with a hat on and as far away from the windows as possible, staring at the empty table in front of him and drowning in his own thoughts because everything is getting a little more depressing as the premiere crawls closer and closer to him. His thoughts are growing like weeds in his brain and he can’t stop them now, everything needs to be said at some time and it’s starting to get to the point where the little voice in his head is screaming at him to just get it over with already, to stop pushing everything back.

A coffee cup is being slapped down on top of the table in his little daze. He looks up startled, and then there’s Niall, the one and only who smiles down at him looking more than amused as he sits himself down across from him.

“You looked like you needed something stronger than a coffee, so I got you a latte.” Niall spoke, taking a short sip from his own drink before wincing at how hot it was.

“I thought you knew I kept my sweet things to a minimum.” Harry pretended to look unimpressed, but ended up chuckling and breaking his act when Niall raised a brow at him.

“I think you can have a cheat day today, get some energy into you before you get stormed with interviews.” Niall took another sip, and Harry watched him gulp it down easily this time, a hand coming out to shift his glasses back up the bridge of his nose again. They were too big for him.

“Yeah, guess so.” Harry didn’t really mean to sound uninterested, but his brain was working overtime and every conversation that he has had lately has been shit. He can’t seem to speak out full sentences, and usually he just let’s the other person talk themselves tired till they get bored of him.

But Niall isn’t that kind of person, no, he likes to push and prod till he finds out the core to Harry’s worries. This time this wasn’t something Niall wanted to know, and Harry cringed seeing the concerned look fall across Niall’s face when he settled his drink back down onto the table.

“What’s wrong H? Don’t tell me you’re nervous about the premiere and interviews…you never get worried about those things.” Niall was right, but he wasn’t digging deep enough, there was more to it and Harry had shifted uncomfortably in his seat under his gaze.

“M'not, just a little stressed lately.” That was true, he was definitely stressed. Harry hated lying, so this was something he could beat around the bush with.

“Okay well as your assistant and friend I’d like to know what you’re so stressed about, cause you didn’t talk the whole plane ride here.” Niall was looking determined now, arms crossed along his chest and staring right into Harry’s soul.

Should he just say it? Or will this ruin his life right before his eyes? Niall doesn’t want a relationship, he has his twitter and instagram private for a reason, he doesn’t want a high-profile partner that has the media down his throat on a daily basis. But it wouldn’t hurt to try, to dive right in and put everything on the table. This could take a load off Harry’s shoulders, and he just needed to take a chance and hope for the best. Even though this might just be the worst thing he has ever done.

God, this is like prom all over again. Asking the girl out with nervous stutters and sweaty hands.

“Would you like to go to the movie premiere with me?” Harry asked it casually but immediately cursed himself in his mind because of course Niall was going to the premiere with him, Niall had to be there with his management. He wasn’t specific enough, and he cringed seeing Niall let out a small snort.

“I’m already going with you pet, what, was I not aloud in the first place?” Niall was joking around of course, making the atmosphere a bit lighter and less awkward. But Harry shuffled to the edge of his seat, leaning over the table and grabbing for his latte that he still hasn’t taken a sip of. The warmth of it in his palm was soothing.

“No,” Harry sighed out, shaking his head and now frowning. “I meant be my date, to like, the premiere. You know, walk around with me, wear a nice suit.” He kept a straight face, trying to ignore the way he was sweating and how his mind kept telling him to just get up and run away.

Niall’s expression was, well, expected to say the least. The older brunet was sitting stiffly in his chair with wide eyes and a mouth opening and closing like he was trying to find words but there was nothing that processed in his brain. He looked cute, and his glasses were already starting to slide down his nose again.

“Uhm, okay?” Now that was the unexpected part, and Harry almost choked on his own spit.

“Okay?” He asked, blinking at Niall blankly, wanting more than just that. He expected a rant, some kind of dramatic fight that ended in either them smiling and kissing or Niall running off and yelling out loud for everyone to hear that he quit. This was…weird, and Harry didn’t really know how to handle this situation.

“I-I mean we would obviously have to check with management, get me a suit and I honestly don’t even know if I could be able to handle all the attention and I don’t really know why you want me to be your date-”

“Cause I like you Niall.” Harry chuckled as he said that, interrupting Niall’s babbling with words he has wanted to say for what felt like a lifetime. Niall’s eyes were widening even more and it almost looked comical.

“You like me?”

“I like you.” Harry made sure the repeat himself slowly this time after Niall asked.

They both stared at each other after that little back and forth and now it was a silence smothering them. Both speechless and unable to come up with anything else. Harry was dying inside, could feel his heart melting in his own chest.

“This will be the weirdest first date I’ve ever been on but I would really, really like to go with you Harry.” Niall was smiling now, the shock and everything slowly draining from his face and now a hot flush was painted across his cheeks. “Only if you’re sure…” He finished, now looking down at the top of his drink and tapping his hands nervously against the side of the cup. 

Harry couldn’t help but laugh now, almost feeling embarrassed that he had built all his nerves up on top of each other till he was a mess all these weeks-years, if you count the amount of time he’s actually been in love with Niall-and it’s ended like this, them both smiling at each other across a small table in a cafe with two lattes and blushes reddening their faces.

“I’ve been sure for a while, trust me.” Harry answered as he leaned over to push Niall’s glasses up his nose, again. 

[bookwormbambi]

Finals/Study Schedule!

I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about this, but I honestly think that one of the greatest parts about online classes is having the freedom to choose when I’m going to take my exams. It’s awesome!

So for today’s Dead Week post I wanted to talk about how I planned out my studying/exam schedule, despite some issues.

Last year I was taking four classes for my first semester of being a fully online student and I spent I think an entire day planning out exactly what I would be studying on each day and when I was going to be taking the exams (more on that in a minute). This year I’m taking five classes, but one of them is causing me problems in that the instructor has posted literally zero information about the exam, and I’m honestly starting to wonder if we even are going to have one, since finals start in six days. (I’ve taken a “pop quiz” final exam before, I was not happy.) So I’m really hoping that I hear something soon because I have no idea what’s going on and it’s causing some unnecessary stress. With that in mind, the schedule for this semester isn’t so concise like it was before, but I still have a solid idea of what needs to be done for each class, so I’m going to break the class down one by one, explain the exam (except for Sociology bc I still have no idea) and talk about what I’m studying, and when I’m taking it.

Side note: with online classes, the majority of instructors will allow you to take the final exam at any time within the duration of finals week, but you have to start the exam with at least two hours before the end of the exam window or you won’t be allowed to take it.

Intermediate Algebra I think this class is the one that’s actually stressing me out the most at the moment tbh. This exam is a cumulative exam (I think he said 50 questions but I honest to goodness do not remember oops) that has to be taken on campus on Monday, 10 December at 2pm. More than anything I’m stressed about having to go all the way out to campus for this, but it’s a department policy and there’s nothing I can do about it. When I went in for my last exam (can you believe that was only a week ago bc I can’t) he gave us the first two exams. I absolutely love using old tests to study because so many instructors will reuse exact questions from old tests in their final exams and I can get a better idea of what to study. He also posted two review quizzes (ungraded and unlimited attempts) on his website for me to go over. For the next three days I’m going to review each of the first three exams (I don’t actually have the third one but he did email me the answer key which is better than nothing) and get myself in a position where I would get 100% on all three if I retook them (I so wish I was able to do that)! After that I’ll be taking the review quizzes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until I get 100% on them. There is also an extra credit assignment due on the day of the exam that I think I’ll do either tonight or tomorrow just to get it out of the way. I already looked at it, it’s easy points. No reason not to do it. I think we are also allowed to make a notecard to have during the exam, but I’m going to email him to be sure. He’s let us have them in the first three exams and never said that we couldn’t have them in the final, but I’d like to be sure.

American History For this class, there actually is not a final exam (thank god) but a final project which is due the day after tomorrow. I more or less have to create my own lecture, record it, and compile it into a presentation and send it in. The research is done, the script is written, I just have to record the voiceover and add the pictures in. I feel pretty confident about this project, but recording the audio is making me a bit nervous. I’ve been sick with a bad cold for the past few days and am only just starting to get my voice back, so I don’t sound great and am still coughing/clearing my throat every three seconds, but unfortunately I don’t have time to wait for my voice to clear up. Tomorrow I’m going to record a few takes of the lecture (accompanied with some lemon and cayenne tea for my throat) and edit it the best I can (something I actually used to do a lot when I was in high school so I’m not too worried about). I can have the whole thing finished tomorrow, but I think I would feel better taking the day on Thursday to fine-tune it just to really secure an A (it isn’t due until 11:59 pm). Once it’s submitted I have until Sunday, 16 December to review someone else’s lecture post a peer edit. I’m not actually sure if he’s going to assign someone for me to review or if I can choose, but I’ll find out on Friday after my own lecture is submitted. The tentative plan is to do the review as soon as I found out, and to have it finished by Tuesday, 11 December or Wednesday, 12 December at the latest.

General Psychology This is a non-cumulative exam that has to be taken on Wednesday, 12 December, but can be taken any time between 8am and 10pm. There are only I think three chapters that I need to study, but the chapters are so long I’m going to take two days to study each one, and it might turn out that I maybe make a write-up or study guide on the chapter one day and test myself on it the next; I’m not really sure what’s going to happen yet. Unfortunately Canvas has changed a lot of its rules and I’m not allowed to access any of my old tests or quizzes. It’s supposed to be an anti-cheat thing so you don’t post everything onto Quizlet but I actually use them to study from so it doesn’t help me much. I didn’t do great on my last two exams so I’m a little nervous about this one. I think that’s why I’m taking two days to study one chapter tbh. I think the best I can hope for in this class is a C as my final grade, but I need as high a score as possible on the final to hope for that in all honesty.

Pharmacology This is a non-cumulative exam that can be taken anytime between 6am on 10 December and 11:59 pm on 15 December (but has to be started at the latest by 9:59 pm on 15 December). I’m still not sure what’s going on with the term paper, because she said she won’t be grading them until I think next week. Whatever she decides to do is what she decides to do, and I’m not going to throw away the final exam on the possibility she doesn’t grade my paper. I’m going to keep going like she will grade it and that I’ll get a great grade. This exam is on the second half of the class, which adds up to I think 13 chapters to study from, which I’m breaking down to two a day (or one lesson a day, essentially). I have benefitted so much more from studying from the textbook directly over her lecture notes - which are not set up for online classes, but rather in-class sessions where she would be talking through each incredibly vague bullet point. At the end of each chapter is also a review which she’s sent us the answer keys to, so the plan is to take notes on each chapter (which takes about an hour each) and then take the review quiz at the end. Again I can’t see my old quizzes so I can’t use those to study from. I think this is honestly the first time where I’m completely relying on my textbook and no other material, but, if it works, it works. As of now I’m planning on taking this exam on Thursday, 13 December, so that I have more time to study. I haven’t decided on a time of day yet, but most likely in the morning so I can get it out of the way.

Intro to Sociology So again I have no idea what’s going on with this class, but I can guess. My best guess is that this will be a non-cumulative exam (I’m basing this on her syllabus that she doesn’t actually follow) and she’ll most likely give us the entire week to take it, with a plan to take it on Tuesday, 11 December. I imagine she’ll post something about it within the next day or two, but only time will tell.

Ideally, I want to be completely done with my finals before Friday, 14 December because we are having a Christmas Party at work, and I would really love to go feeling accomplished and being able to celebrate the end of the semester with my team who have been so patient and supportive of me while I’ve been barely working for the past two months to maintain my ridiculous course load. Wish me luck!