#Not to hark back to recent bitching but

[maintitle]

'But Merrill needs someone to tell her how far she's fallen' nah bud, everyone in the world including her mother-figure and the actively possessed mage of the group are telling her she's an idiot or she's wrong or she doesn't understand what she's doing. She has literally nobody in the world on her side, why would she need a sixty-fourth person telling her how she's wrong for taking her grief and trying to turn it into something to help her people? Maybe the real right thing to do for her is to offer the support system she so clearly has been robbed of? Just a thought.

[vacantgodling]

song pic saying tag

thank you @jezifster for tagging me 💛💛💛 i’m gonna do this for red bc my little rosmarin is my favorite *squishes her face*

i’ll tag @multi-lefaiye @kudzucataclysm @ink-flavored & anyone who’d like to give this a go (no pressure)

Rules: Pick an OC and post a song you relate to them, an image that represents them in some way (aesthetic, picrew, art, etc), and a quote of dialogue or narration from them. Totally feel free to expand and explain!

SONG

this is an og red song that mainly relates to her backstory. despite the love she has for her sister iole (and vice versa) — their father was a cruel, horrible and abusive man, especially towards red because her birth was the “cause” of their mother passing (she died in childbirth). red feels as though she deserves this vitriol because of it however; and still loves her father in a twisted, sad way. she wishes she could be a better person, and if her crime was existing then maybe she shouldn’t exist at all.

PIC

decided to use recent art of red + what truly represents her: blood (and a knife but, mostly blood)

i will hark attention back to the summary of rdof ->

Red like blood, that’s what she named herself. Red like death.

essentially after iole passed and one <redacted> event occurred, rosmarin reformed herself into the person she is today (though there were hints of this person before becuase trauma’s a bitch, but she really went off to an end after those things) — blood is the one thing she knows and the one thing that she knows she’s good at. she can draw blood and she will.

SAYING

“I have no money to offer you, nor children to sell. I have no clothes other than the blood covered ones that hang to my back. No riches, nor connections can this deal between us bring. But I do have myself, and any services you ask of me.”

[primestartes]

This old picture of Ludwig's back was something I always wanted to modernize or have a commission but my recent dive into Hazbin Hotel and one particular song hit me so hard for this exalted Slaaneshi King that my fingers went on overdrive for it with a thought that someone said on it: Ludwig have returned after centuries away from unfortunate events and he will makes sure everyone in the Realm of Slaanesh know one of the Prince's Six returns after a heckler's foolish call-out.

"Let's begin...I am gonna make you wish I'd stay gone~ Hark on well, for when I'm done, your precious status will be forever undone. Oh this will be fun."

Slaanesh's continuous attention might not last, even for one of Their greater of daemons but oh the dramatic return and reestablishing as to why you are of Their baddest bitches in the Circles. Ludwig will make every rival remember and fear him, right in the crossroads of AOS and 40k.

[absolutepokemontrash]

Date bled or demon bros react to mc likes to nap and cuddle throughout the day

I’ll do the brothers! :D

Lucifer

…MC get off of him. He’s in a meeting.

Aaaaaaaaand they’re napping. Wonderful.

At first, Lucifer is annoyed that he’s got another Belphie on his hands, especially during the time when Belphie’s locked in the attic. How dare MC remind him of the brother that he’s holding under house arrest >:c

But once the relationship grows, Lucifer submits to the snuggles. Luci quickly realizes that he’s very not used to cuddling.

As long as MC isn’t napping through their classes, they’re good. Nap whenever you want, MC, just make sure your homework is done.

MC should expect the cuddling to be one sided in public, but behind closed doors? Hoo boy, the man’s attached to MC like a koala to a tree.

MC may have also accidentally fixed his sleep schedule… it’s just… why does he feel sleepy when he sees them nap? *yawn*

He’s just going to rest his eyes for a second, the paperwork can wait.

Mammon

G-gah! Stupid human! What do they think they’re doin’ cuddling up to him like that!? They do know he’s a demon right?

For the first little while, Mammon tsuderes it up, but he gets so easily flustered whenever MC leans on him that it renders everything he says pretty much meaningless.

The first time MC ever fell asleep on him it was absolutely magical. He slowly patted their head and refused to move until the next day. Sure, his back hurt and he didn’t get any sleep, but MC was just so cute dammit!

Deeper into the relationship, Mammon is the happiest demon alive because he doesn’t need to ask for snuggles! He just plops himself down next to MC and his human just cuddles up next to him!

His absolute favourite thing is when MC falls asleep on his lap. They did it in public once and Mammon took this opportunity to flex. Yeah, he has a cute human that likes to cuddle him, do you?!

Mammon’s only wish is that MC would be more awake when he’s explaining his totally legit business ideas, they always seem to fall asleep once he gets goin’

Leviathan

SISJDJSJSJDJDJSJJAJAKALSKA- PHYSICAL CONTACT?!?!?! WITH HIM?! it’s more likely than you’d think.

First part of the relationship when Levi had just made a pact with MC, he was kind of confused. He had tried to murk this normie just a couple of days ago and now they’re cuddling up next to him? What’s that abou-

Levi.exe has stopped working.

Yeah, Levi blue screening happens a LOT. It takes literal months for MC and Levi to snuggle properly on a regular basis.

As totally Kawaii MC is when they nap on him, they just need to see how this fight scene is animated! MC! MC! Look! Homura and Mami are- WAKE UP AND LOOK AT THIS!

Cuddling in public causes Levi to die a flustered death. Fs in the chat everyone, had a good life, he did.

Though, it makes him feel so much more comfortable whenever MC just holds his hand out in public and doesn’t make a big deal about it. It makes him feel safe ^.^

Satan

At first, Satan was taking notes on how this human got so comfortable so quickly that they just started cuddling people and napping everywhere. Hm, humans appear to be quite adaptable… interesting.

They also seem to lack any sense of danger. Well, at least this one does.

Later down the line though, when MC first crawled into Satan’s lap to nap, it rivalled the first time a cat chose him. This was wild.

Snuggles… while reading stories… yes please…

Okay, that part sounded better than it ended up being. MC fell asleep while cuddling and ended up right on Satan’s arm, then in their sleep, MC basically locked Satan’s entire right side into a vice grip and couldn’t be pried off. Basically, Satan had to reread the same page of his book over and over and over again because he didn’t want to wake up MC.

Well, call it a learning experience, and Satan loves to learn, so next time, he was prepared for MC’s death cuddles.

Apparently he wasn’t prepared enough because the exact same thing happened again… multiple times more.

MC is literally a walking relaxant, Satan is significantly less filled with burning rage when they’re around. Notice I said less filled, he will still cut a bitch.

Asmodeus

Oh~ how bold! MC just plopped themselves down next to him and cuddled up close to him!

At first, Asmo was amused by all the cuddling MC was doing and made quite a few less than wholesome jokes about it. The Avatar of Lust has a dirty mind! Shocker!

But hark! (The herald angels siiiiing-) Asmo actually… likes platonic snuggles?!?! What is this sorcery?!

If MC and Asmo don’t enter a romantic relationship, my man still needs his cuddle quota met, ASAP.

If they do end up dating, hoo boy, MC and Asmo sure do a lot of snuggling, and “snuggling”.

But overall, Asmo loves being held and cuddled, and sleep is good for one’s skin!

Beelzebub

*sniffle* Beeeeeeeeeelllllllllpppppphhhhhiiiiiiiiieeeeeee-

Congratulations MC, they have made Beel more sad about his twin being gone just by existing :D

Once the custard incident happens and MC and Beel grow closer, oh man, oh man oh man, is he in desperate need of cuddles.

If MC ever falls asleep anywhere and needs to get from point A to point B, fret not, Beel is prepared. He will gently pick them up and they will awaken at point B. How nice!

Once Belphie gets his ass out of the attic, MC has competition.

Not really, Beel has enough love to go around. Both his sleepy beans can get carried around and cuddled with. Beel is big and strong for a reason.

Since MC has a vice grip while they cuddle, Beel kind of walks around with them clinging to his arm like a sloth to a tree. Belphie also picks up on this behaviour and starts doing it too.

Someone (*cough* Levi and Mammon *cough*) took a picture and posted it on Devilgram and now it’s kind of a meme template.

Belphegor

Gasp! Whomst- whomst is this human who comes before him and cuddles up close to him? This must be his soulmate! His other half! His destined partner!

…his destined partner was drooling all over his cardigan.

Ah well, two can play that game motherfucker. *SNORE*

Anyway, Belphie and MC? I would say power couple but in reality, the two just do a lot of snuggling and sleeping, it’s like they’re attached at the hip.

The two are always touching in some way, Belphie resting his head on MC’s shoulder, MC attaching themselves to Belphie’s torso like a koala, the two of them trading spit with each other… you get the idea.

It gets weird when the two start legitimately visiting each other in dreams, it gets so frequent it basically becomes a date night thing to just sleep and do weird shit in dreamland.

“Hey MC do you wanna hang out?” “Sorry, can’t, it’s date night. *SNORE*” “Yeah, shoo. *S N O R E*”

On their most recent date, MC and Belphie fought a dragon and then ate a giant cake.

[cblgblog]

Is Comic!Peggy a nazi/hydra? Or in general a bad person? I'm a Peggy fan who hasn't read the comics and idk if what people are saying is true or not these days 1

No. As usual, people are cherry picking things/haven't read the comics themselves because they're too lazy/don't care about anything that doesn't serve their own agenda.

 So when they brought comic! Peggy back in the last couple years, they basically revealed that she'd been doing a riff on what both Nat and Sharon have done in the MCU. What I mean by that is that she was on the same side as Steve--the non-Nazi side--they both wanted the same bad guys dealt with, but they were essentially doing different assignments, without Steve knowing. It's like in Cap 2 after the ship when Nat's like, I did my thing. I just had another objective that you didn't have.

 So, as per the most recent run, Peggy’s revealed to have been part of a group called the Daughters of Liberty. Secret thing that’s been around the whole time, supposedly, we just never knew about it because the writer of this particular run hadn’t made it up yet. Essentially, it’s yet another secret organization meant to protect the world, that’s been here all along, with members including Peggy, Sharon, Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four, Misty Knight…a lot of badass Marvel women were secretly in this thing, okay? Including ‘It was Agatha all along’ Harkness, because comics are weird. Peggy was recruited into this thing, she did not start it, but she did recruit Sharon later.

 Anyway, during the war, she and Steve did their whole punching Nazis thing, but she was also tasked with getting close to him/generally making sure that this new super weapon man was on their side and trustworthy. So again, kinda what Nat did in Iron man 2, kinda what Sharon did in Cap 2 when she was watching him from across the hall.

 She was never a Nazi. She was never Hydra. She was working towards the same basic goals as Steve, they were just working for different people, essentially. So yeah, she lied by omission, and behaved somewhat shadily, but that’s, you know, kinda what spies do. And there’s no indication her feelings for him weren’t genuine. She never says that, Steve never says that. He’s annoyed that he wasn’t in the know, but generally speaking, he’s just happy she’s not dead, and they end the run on good terms, even though Sharon is his main love interest in the books.

So yeah, there’s a lot of bitching about oh, she’s a liar, she made Sharon a liar, everyone lied to Steve, these horrible bitch women. Which, fine, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been covered in the MCU to an extent already/nothing to the infinite number of times Nick Fury has also parceled out information selectively, comics and MCU both.

 She was never Hydra. She was never pro-Nazi. Steve was, in the comics, that one time none of us like to talk about because fuck you Nick Spencer, but she wasn’t. She lied by omission, but she didn’t fabricate feelings for Steve or use him for her own gain, and when it was all done with, Steve came away mildly annoyed and that’s about it. The run still ends with Steve, Peggy, Sharon and Bucky all chilling and having a beer together.

 She was a spy. She was written like a spy, she did some shady spy things, and that’s about all you can take from that run. Unless you’re a semi-illiterate Peggy anti, obviously.

[iamnotoriginalphil]

heyy 🤩 I saw you recently wrote a Agatha Harkness x reader fic and I just loved it. I was wondering if you could do another one 👉👈 where Agatha is very overprotective (like borderline mommy domme, or maybe full on, idk) and smut occurs hehehe I don't really have anything else in mind, maybe some jealousy, but other than that it's entirely up to you 🥺

Here you go, Anon. It’s not full one mommy domme but there are hints of it in there. I hope you still like it. 

Dottie was standing very close to you. You could smell her rose perfume and it was all wrong. Her blonde hair brushed against the exposed skin of your shoulder as she bent forward. You could feel her breath ghosting over your skin. You shivered.

“I’m sure that would look lovely with the flowers,” you said, leaning away from her.

“You have such an eye for these things,” she said with a giggle, moving until she was sitting across the small table from you. You fiddled with the lace of the tablecloth, avoiding her eye.

“Thank you.”

She brushed some hair away from your face, her fingers lingering on your cheek. You jerked away, your eyes darting away from her, looking for some kind of escape. She lent forward again, the scent of roses washing over you. She grasped her hand.

“I was wondering if you would like to stay for dinner,” she said.

You opened your mouth, ready to decline, when a pair of hands clamped down on your shoulders. You looked up, lavender wrapping around you like a comforting hug. Harsh blue eyes stared down at Dottie, lips pressed together in a thin line.

“Unfortunately, she’s already engaged,” Agatha said.

“That is disappointing,” Dottie said, giving you a smile.

“Not for me,” Agatha said, her fingers digging in.

You stood up fast enough for the chair to topple over. It clattered, loud in the echoing room. Agatha’s hands slipped from your shoulders, coming to rest on your hips. You stepped back into her body, drawing comfort from the warmth she provided.

“I should be going,” you said, “Agnes and I have plans.”

“Yes, I came to collect her.”

You could hear the anger under the surface, waiting to be released on the poor unsuspecting Dottie. Her hands tightened on you as she rested her pointed chin on your shoulder. You turned, looking into her smouldering eyes.

“Thank you for coming for me,” you murmured.

“Anything for you, darling,” she said. She pressed her lips to yours in a harsh kiss, more for show than as a sign of love.

She tugged on your hand, pulling you away before you could say goodbye to Dottie. You had to rush to be able to keep up with her as she strode from the hall. She didn’t bother looking at you as she led you back to your home, her fingers tightening around yours until you lost feeling in them.

She slammed the door open, waiting for you to close it softly behind you. She tugged you over to the sofa before she shoved you down onto it. She straddled your lap, her hands grasping your face. She kissed you with wild abandon, her teeth sinking into your lower lip. You made a startled noise in the back of your throat.

“Mine,” she murmured into your mouth, “all mine.”

Your hands grasped her thighs, the denim covered flesh supple under your touch. You dug your fingers in as her tongue invaded your mouth, feeling her heat consume you heart, body, and soul. She was kissing you in a way that made you know you were hers, forever and always.

“You won’t even look at her when I’m done with you,” she said, drawing away from you.

“Please,” you begged.

She didn’t waste time in removing your shirt and bra from your body, her fingers running over your soft skin. It was with a feather light touch that she had you gasping, straining towards her. She chuckled, laying a hand flat on your chest, pushing you back.

“Is that what you want, baby girl?” she asked, “for me to make you feel so good no one else could ever compare?”

“Yes,” you hissed, her thumb brushing over your hardened nipple.

“Say it,” she commanded.

“I want it,” you gasped, “please.”

She pinched your nipple, almost absentmindedly as her eyes considered you. You arched into her touch, feeling your face flush under her scrutiny. She gave a sharp twist to your nipple, curses falling from your lips. She kissed you again, soothing the shot of pain.

“I suppose that will do,” she said, “this time.”

With a flick of her wrist purple smoke enveloped the two of you, the scent of lavender clinging to your skin. When it cleared you found Agatha seated beside you, strap in place and eyes dark as they swept over your bare body. You bit down on your lower lip, your own doing the same. There was nothing quite so breathtaking as a naked Agatha Harkness.

She tugged on your hand, pulling you into her lap. The cool plastic of the strap was so at odds with your skin. Her hand descended between your legs, stroking until you were panting above her. She lent back, watching you while she got you worked up. Your hand landed on her shoulder, gripping hard as you tried to grind down on her hand. She chuckled.

“Patience, baby girl.”

You whined as her hand retracted from your core. She looked at the way it glistened in the light, turning it this way and that. She pressed her fingers to your lips, eyes darkening as you slid your lips around them. You sucked, your tongue lapping your own juices from her skin.

“That’s my good girl,” she hummed.

She pulled her fingers from your mouth, grasping your chin to pull you into a kiss. You moaned into her mouth, loving the way it felt to be pressed against her. She lifted you until you felt the tip of the strap press to your entrance. You shifted your hips, your fingers tightening on her.

You sunk down onto it, feeling yourself fill up inch by inch. You gasped into her mouth, feeling her teeth sink into your lower lip hard enough to draw blood. She held you still, waiting for you to adjust to the size of the strap.

After that it was hard and fast. She thrusted up into you and you bounced in her lap. Your head was tilted back and you knew you were being too loud but you also knew Agatha liked that best. At one point you thought she might have been looking out the window but she smiled at you, hitting that special place within you and it stopped mattering.

You fell apart atop her, then again, and again while she praised you with soft words. You were little more than a puddle when she pulled out of you, holding you close to her body. You were barely aware as she carried you upstairs until she slipped you into a warm bath.

With a damp washcloth she wiped the sweat from your body in soft strokes. You clamped one hand around her wrist, tugging until she settled in the bath with you. You lent back against her, her arms wrapping around you, her nose nuzzling in your hair. Her lips pressed to your temple.

“I love you,” she murmured.

“I love you too,” you replied.

“Dottie won’t be harassing you again,” she said.

“Are you going to be mean to her if I talk to her again?” you asked, your eyes slipping closed.

“Not that she now knows you’re mine,” she replied.

You hummed, letting her warmth and comfort lull you to sleep.

Permanent Tag List: @paulawand @delias-bitch-craft 

[cupofsapphics]

Could I request some hint-of-smut for a poly Agatha/Agatha/Reader fic? Where a younger Agatha first learns a duplication spell and shows it off for their girlfriend reader – maybe with some morning-after cuddling between the three of them.

Of course! This was very interesting to write, I was first confused at the two Agathas, but I hope I wrote this the way you hoped it to be!

Double Trouble

Warnings: Mentions of smut, poly relationship (if you don’t like that)

Taglist: @delias-bitch-craft @winters-witch-bitch @paulawand @nyx-aira @taylorsmakingfuckingmacandcheese (lmk if you want to be added and be specific; ex: agatha harkness fics)

------------------------------------------

You had baked some goods for your meet-up with Agatha in the cottage by the creek. She’s been busy lately because her mother, which is the head of the coven, is making her study extra hard on her station because she wishes for Agatha to take her place soon. You put the delicacies in your bag and bobbed your head outside of the door to look left and right. You let out a sigh of relief. No one in the coven was a huge fan of your relationship, especially Agatha’s mother. She had big plans for Agatha, and she wasn’t going to let them get foiled by you. She already disliked you when you came into the coven and now she hates you more. Agatha’s mother has sent countless other coven members to monitor you and Agatha. Frankly, both of you found it quite irritating. 

You took one tiny step outside of your house, then dashed down to the cottage by the creek to meet up. The coven never came to the creek because they found it unnecessary. The cottage wasn’t there before because you and Agatha made it as an escape from the coven and a place for you two to cuddle and do fun things without judgement. 

You made it to the cottage without the suspicion of your coven members, thank god. You opened the cottage door to find your dear Agatha sitting on the floor studying spells with books scattered around the floor. You sighed. As much as both of you wanted to learn more spells, Agatha’s messes were exhausting to clean up. She always forgets because she falls asleep right after dinner. I don’t blame her though. Besides her mother working her tirelessly to prepare her, the spells she practiced here at the cottage was draining her too. You approached Agatha slowly. You didn’t want to scare her. 

Flashback

You just came back from heavy training from the coven members. Boy, you were exhausted. You cooked some brunch as you called Agatha to come down and eat. No response. You looked out the back to find your dear Agatha with her books. Attempting to have a little fun, you approached her and scared her from the back. Extremely fast, Agatha shot out magic towards you. Fortunately, you were fast too, so you reflected it to the creek. Agatha swirled around to face you. “What were you thinking? I could have hurt you, Y/N.” You smiled. “I’m sorry Agatha. I made some brunch.” 

You didn’t want that to happen again. You were lucky enough to not get hurt the first time. You saw Agatha muttering to herself, pacing across the room now. You called out to her to bring her back to the present. Agatha looked up. “Oh doll! I’m so happy you’re here, I want to show you something.” You raised an eyebrow. What could be so important? You saw Agatha flip her book to a page labeled ‘Duplication’. You inhaled sharply. Duplication was extremely hard to manage because it’s similar to splitting your consciousness into two or more beings, which could go south really quickly. You turned to her. “Are you sure?” Agatha nodded. “I’ve recently done it, when you were back at the coven.” You couldn’t help but feel a little hurt that you weren’t there to see her first duplication attempt. “Y/N, close your eyes.” You complied. You were begging in your head that the spell wouldn’t go wrong. Agatha muttered the spell and you felt extreme heat, then a cool rush of air. You peeked your eyes open. To your astonishment, you see two Agatha Harkness’ in front of you. 

Your jaw dropped. Agatha truly was powerful. Only the most skilled witches could be focused enough to split their consciousness into two separate bodies. Your eyes darted between the two Agathas. “So which one is the real Aga-?” You stopped mid-sentence. You were so confused. One Agatha laughed. “We are both Agatha. Just imagine one Agatha, split into two. Imagine how many times we can sneak away with myself at the coven and another here with you.” You couldn’t agree more. There were too many close calls to when the coven almost caught you. One Agatha smirked and the other caught on. “Besides, we’ve got another advantage.” “And what is that?” Agatha grinned. “We now have 4 hands.” Pretty sure your face caught on fire. Next thing you knew, you were on the bed moaning the rest of the night. 

**

You woke up and found your throat sore from last night, your legs and thighs filled with marks, and still two Agathas laying on the bed next to you. You panicked. What if the spell was irreversible? You loved having 2 Agathas but splitting consciousness for long could result in brain damage. You rummaged across the room downstairs to find the spell. You sighed in relief as you reread the spell. Turns out the spell should wear off on the caster after 24 hours. You looked at the clock. 3 more hours. You walked back upstairs sleepily and buried yourself under the covers again in between your two Agathas.

[nileqt87]

Ramblings about Lucifer referencing Bones, “Close your eyes.” and shows influencing each other

That was never just a Bones reference being made and the season finale admitted it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv_1dJk5yEM

David Boreanaz played the ironically-named Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. His character has *so many* parallels with Lucifer (far more than Booth outside of the law enforcement/crime procedural connection).

Angel's spinoff also has noir crime drama aspects mixed with the supernatural starring an immortal protagonist with a dark past and infamously villainous reputation fighting evil as a supernatural private detective in the City of Angels (a city known for its dark underbelly juxtaposed with fame and glamor, broken dreams and chasing eternal youth) and navigating human law (including the LAPD and evil lawyers) while not legally existing.

Angel also fell in love with a blonde human heroine (Buffy Summers) after lifetimes of self-destructive, not-so-heroic behaviors (getting his soul back did *not* make Angel a hero and human Liam was a lecherous drunk with unfulfilled ambitions and father issues) who inspired him to become a better man and make human connections.

AtS made heavy use of sprawling nighttime Downtown L.A. cityscape shots, which Lucifer also shared an abundance of.

During both of their first cases, they failed to save the troubled blonde girl they were trying to help (Tina and Delilah, respectively). They also have a connection inside the LAPD through a blonde cop who also takes their identity secrets pretty badly (Kate Lockley in Angel's case).

Note that Buffy not only screamed (twice, given it repeated during her memory loss in Halloween), but also came after Angel with a crossbow when she thought he'd attacked her mother (it was Darla), so Chloe taking the Devil face reveal (Monster Reveals are iconic old horror imagery) poorly to the point of considering poisoning is par for the course. However, it only took Buffy seven episodes instead of three seasons to get the identity reveal via seeing the horrific second face (arguably also an accident on Angel's part).

They are metaphorically or literally Hell's angels. They also had long stays in Hell or a hell dimension.

Lucifer and Angel are also both Prodigal Sons with long-held grudges against their long-absent fathers (patricide in Liam/Angel(us)'s case) and they're later faced with a situation where they have unexpected, thought-impossible offspring who show up as adults (neither got to raise their miracle child) wanting revenge. Yup, major Connor/Rory parallel there.

Angel is also in a constant struggle with the Powers that Be manipulating his fate and free will (like Lucifer, he's a champion of free will no matter the cost) and making him prophecy's bitch.

Bones famously got jokes about how Booth is Angel getting his Shanshu (made human), since the character is given constant Angel-isms like references to a dark past having killed people (Booth is also named after a historical murderer, in addition to having been a sniper), both being Catholics full of Catholic guilt (note that the Buffyverse is most accurately polytheistic, though Angel does face off against a take on the antichrist--Angel has constant biblical imagery/themes and not just because of vampire iconography), kicking down doors (just not off their entire frames--LOL), turning on a dime and threatening people up against walls, constant wink-wink references to the Buffyverse (familiar casting, references to the Hyperion Hotel, etc...), etc...

The Lucifer finale used the words "Close your eyes." right before Lucifer is sent to Hell. This is literally the BtVS season 2 finale where Buffy kisses Angel and sends him to hell for a century with a stab to the gut (see the season 5 finale, not to mention Lucifer giving up his life for Chloe's à la I Will Remember You).

Note that D.B. Woodside was on BtVS (playing Robin Wood, whose Slayer mother Nikki Wood was killed by Spike). Aimee Garcia was in both episodes of AtS (Birthday--she's older than she looks!) and Bones. See her also playing a cross-wearing religious girl on Supernatural who was slaughtered in a police precinct by Lilith. Kevin Alejandro was also in an episode of Bones.

Tricia Helfer was in an episode of Supernatural playing a ghost who reenacts the night of her death every year. BtVS also had an episode along those lines, but with Buffy and Angelus possessed (not to mention Phantom Dennis!). Lucifer having Dan as a ghost is yet another thing they all have in common (ditto referencing Ghost, Patrick Swayze and/or Unchained Melody--Vincent Schiavelli a.k.a. Ghost's subway ghost was Jenny's uncle Enyos, whom Angelus killed).

Lucifer name-checked Castiel and Supernatural referenced Lucifer using their Lucifer (crime-fighting angel in L.A. made it a double-reference whammy). Supernatural returned the favor again by having Castiel forced to sing in Enochian. Lucifer's reference to his singing voice was already a zing about Misha Collins having to put on that monotone gravel voice and Enochian being far from melodious.

Russell T Davies was quite heavily inspired by the Buffyverse when he revived Doctor Who and spun off Torchwood, so there are absolute tons of Buffy, Angel and Spike respectively in Rose Tyler, the 9th/10th Doctors, Captain Jack Harkness and Captain John Hart (right down to the actor). School Reunion is the episode where the Buffyverse inspiration is most on the nose, complete with Anthony Stewart Head saying "shooty dog thing" in a school setting and a Mayor/Angel-esque speech about the curse of immortality. The Time War gave the Doctor a huge genocide-level guilt complex. Note that the creator of DC comics' version of Lucifer, Neil Gaiman, has also written for Doctor Who and is also the co-creator of Good Omens (the show is brimming with Doctor Who Easter eggs thanks to David Tennant). A barely-recognizable Tom Ellis played Martha Jones' ex-fiancé Tom Milligan during the Year that Never Was, as well.

A lot of shows take inspiration from the Buffyverse and you've probably seen some of them. It isn't just the copycat vampire romance stories either.

Angel's forerunners in turn were a mix of guilt-stricken, rat-eating Louis de Pointe du Lac (his Jekyll/Hyde-esque alter-ego Angelus is closer to the pre-retcon, fully-evil Lestat de Lioncourt, who got woobified into an antihero rocker not unlike Spike--the entire Fanged Four mirror Anne Rice's character lineup), sword-wielding, immortality trope-influencers Connor/Duncan MacLeod of Highlander fighting for the Prize of humanity (akin to Pinocchio becoming a "real boy"--see also Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows, though he was before vampires became antihero superheroes, not just sympathetic antivillains) and Nick Knight of Forever Knight (vampire detective).

Additionally, Tom Welling was famously the longest-serving Clark Kent of them all (Smallville) on the old WB (there's that DC comics connection, too), so it's not just a Fox shows thing (though Fox, not just Warner Brothers, did indeed own the Buffyverse). One of the least-known things about Clark is that he also has an immortality problem where he wouldn't age parallel to Lois (they wouldn't be able to have kids either) without a workaround. The Kryptonite line directed at Cain/Pierce by Lucifer was quite on the nose! Lucifer and Smallville sort of crossed over even further in Crisis on Infinite Earths, so Tom is canonically the face of both Clark and Cain in parallel universes of the DC multiverse.

Supernatural had quite recently had their own takes on Cain (played by Timothy Omundson, who also played God Johnson) and the Mark of Cain when Lucifer did it. Dan's killer Le Mec was, of course, Rob Benedict, who was God a.k.a. Chuck Shurley, the ultimate villain of Supernatural. Richard Speight, Jr., who was archangel Gabriel/Loki the Trickster, directed a lot of Lucifer's later episodes in addition to being a prolific Supernatural director.

Supernatural and Lucifer use the exact same font for their titles (Supernatural Knight).

The X-Files (which Supernatural referenced constantly) and Supernatural also had stories about nephilim (see the apocryphal Book of Enoch). Lucifer ultimately had two nephilim (forbidden interspecies offspring of angels and humans), even if not saying so as a known concept. Connor can also be compared to the vampire equivalent of being something like a dhampir, though he's not quite that (mostly-but-not-quite-human offspring of two vampires instead of a human/vampire hybrid--see Blade for an actual dhampir). Supernatural has also covered the even rarer cambion species (human/demon hybrid).

[nyx-aira]

Magical Bitching

Summary: When a new magical threat arrives in NYC Dr.Strange and Wanda need some magical help but Loki and Agatha in one place can only mean one thing, chaos and the start of a beautiful friendship

A/N: You can't imagine how much fun I had while writing this :)

Tag list: @escapetodreamworld @midnight-lestrange @king-star @ynscrazylife @booklovinbi @mysticfalls01 @adorkwithaplan @nathaslosttheirshit @agathaharkness-simp @paulawand

To say that Strange was busy was an understatement. He was currently fighting and evil interdimensional being that somehow  had managed to get to New York, interrupting his Sherlock Holmes marathon.

The thing could be described as a big glibbery blob that could fly through the air and spit fire, to say he imagined his afternoon a little bit different wasn't really a surprise. He wasn't alone thankfully, Wanda fighting alongside him. The young witch had recently moved into the Sanctum, training her powers under his and Wong's guidance. Even though they were both pretty strong the blob was becoming more and more of a challenge, splitting into mini blobs if you hit it with the same spell twice. It was very annoying. So he did something he swore he would only do if there was no other option. He called for Loki.

After their, let's call it a disagreement, they had sorted out some kind of truce, deciding the fabric of the universe was more important than their personal differences.

He and Wanda were just fighting a horde of mini blobs when they started turning purple, crumbling to the ground and fading into nothing. They turned around to see Agatha fling another dozen of the annoying blobs against a building, crushing them against the wall.

He looked at Wanda who was staring at the other witch in disbelief, shock the prominent emotion on her face, annoyance not far behind.

"Did you call her?"

The young witch asked, Sokovian accent present. Something he had noticed that happened when she was emotional or annoyed.

He was about to answer when they saw green sparks dancing around another small army of the annoying creatures, capturing them in a magic barrier and crushing until there was only interdimensional alien goo left.

"No I called him."

Strange answered with a sigh, pointing to a building to their far right where Loki just teleported, throwing a couple magical daggers at the slime monsters.

Wanda dropped her head into her hands, staring at him in disbelief.

"Great now we not only have to fight that stupid blob thing but also have to deal with grumpy and petty."

He lifted an eyebrow at the nicknames and shot her an amused look.

"Who is who? "

She just wanted to answer him when they saw another horde of blobs heading their way. Looking at each other they nodded, ready to attack.

Flying high in the air Wanda shot some energy blasts in their direction, giving Strange the opportunity to catch them and send them back into their dimension. She was about to round the corner when she saw something flying towards her, turning around she brought up a barrier to defend herself but the attack never came as Agatha landed not far from her, using another spell to open a portal the witch flung them in its general direction, the portal catching them and making them vanish. More blobs started to appear and Wanda realised that the situation was getting more and more out of control.

She was ready to attack the remaining creatures when she heard a roar, whipping her head around she stared at the new creature that just appeared on top of a nearby skyscraper. It kinda looked like a dragon with for two sets of wings and tentacles, spitting some kind of toxin and fading in and out of existence. Wanda groaned, their day wasn't bad enough already with the blob thing, a fancy dragon squid wasn't really some she needed today as well.

Agatha floated next to Wanda, bored expression on her face. It wasn't something she hadn't seen before. These kind of creatures were annoying, sure, but nothing she couldn't handle if she needed to.

Deciding that she did not need to get toxin stains on her new outfit today she turned to Wanda, already regretting what she was about to say.

"You and Strange handle our new guest, I'll handle these fuckers."

Shocked at her offer Wanda turned to her, raising an unbelieving eyebrow.

"You want to help us ?"

"Don't think too long about it or I might change my mind."

Groaning Wanda shot her one last glare before she flew away to help Strange.

Looking around Agatha decided that chasing after each of the annoying creatures was too much of a hassle. She looked around to find a good spot to catch as many of them without doing much work. Spotting a suitable tower in the distance she flew towards it, blasting a couple blobs out of her way as she arrived on the top.

The sight that greeted her was almost comical, there sat Loki, on a beach chair with sunglasses on his head sipping a colourful cocktail, every now and then flicking his hand to catch a blob that got too close to the tower, flinging it towards a portal he had opened not far away.

He lifted his shades as she approached him, snapping his fingers to let another chair appear, nodding his head towards it.

She laughed at the gesture, settling down in the surprisingly comfortable chair, conjuring up her own glasses to block out the sun.

"Never imagined to see you in New York again Trickster."

He only snorted at that, flinging another blob into the portal, a green 178 popping up over the interdimensional gateway.

"Never say never."

Agatha chuckled, flinging a couple creatures towards the portal as well, a purple 154 lighting up. She grinned, she wasn't that far behind.

"I don't understand why heroes always have to be so dramatic, its far more entertaining this way."

The god commented, refilling his drink and conjuring some pastries, grabbing some for himself before he passed the floating tray in her direction.

"Exactly, they are always so extra, always so much drama."

Agatha remarked, grabbing a strawberry cupcake, absently flinging a couple blobs into the portal.

"Strange look out!"

Wanda was panting, she had a cut across her cheek and her suit was burned in a couple places, the toxin and fire having gotten to her at one point.

Strange ducked a blast and ran towards her, shielding himself as he yelled something she couldn't understand over the noise of the battle.

The count over the portal just reached a tie when Agatha had finished her cupcake, tossing the wrapper aside she looked at the tray, deciding which one to try next.

"The lemon cake is divine, you should try it."

Loki supplied, taking a bite from his chocolate covered strawberry, adjusting his shades as they had slipped down his nose a bit.

She took a slice of the lemon cake and refilled the drink the god had offered her as the count had reached 1000, plopping some more ice cubes into the cocktail, it was a hot summer day after all.

Wanda jumped over some rubble, running for cover as she was chased down the ally by not less than 20 slimy creatures. Sometime in the last hour she had broken her wrist, the dull ache in her hand nothing compared to the burning feeling in her legs. She had ran more than ever in her life today. Yelling at Strange who was running besides her to keep going the slid behind some garbage cans.

Panting she looked at him. He was missing an eyebrow and his right sleeve, his boots melted to his trousers from a pretty hot fire ball from one of the creatures.

"The weather is quite nice today, don't you think? "

Agatha remarked, taking a sip of her cocktail, adding more ice as most of it had melted already. They had conjured a sun shade as it got hotter, the temperatures pushing 30⁰C

"A little bit to hot for my liking but it's definitely nice."

Loki answered, taking a bite out of his ice cream. He had change into a sleeveless tunic, pulling his hair into a messy bun, his boots having been replaced by flip flops. He flung his hand towards the portal, a green 735 popping up.

"Seems like im winning Ms. Harkness."

Agatha just laughed as she twisted her hand, sending some blobs into the portal, the purple 737 making her shoot the trickster god a triumphant smile.

"Don't get cocky dear."

Agatha had changed her outfit as well. Now spotting a purple flower dress, the fabric flowing around her knees, sandals instead of heeled boots. They had exchanged the pastries for ice cream at some point, Loki opting for mint and chocolate as Agatha chose blueberry and raspberry. They were just about to decide whether or not to order pizza when they heard a loud bang and smoke started to form a couple blocks in the distance.

Lifting his shades to have a better look on what's going on Loki shot a questioning look in her direction.

"You think they are alright? "

Waving him off Agatha took another bite from her ice cream, settling back in the chair.

"They'll be fine."

"Run"

That was the last thing Wanda heard before all hell broke lose, the building behind them catching fire and the toxin starting to react with it.

Strange grabbed her by the hand and they portaled out of the collapsing building.

Landing roughly on the concrete a couple streets over they groaned. Wanda by now having lost her right boot and part of her jacket. Strange didn't look much better, having lost a chunk of his hair to the fire and a broken ankle thanks to a fall from the third floor. It really wasn’t their day.

Loki and Agatha were just debating whether two servings of bread rolls were too much when an orange portal opened. They turned their heads away from the menu to look at the new arrival.

It was Wong, wearing beach shorts and a hawaii shirt, dragging his own beach chair through the portal.

"The Sanctum is safe, these idiots just don't know how to fight efficiently."

With these words he plopped down on his chair, accepting the menu Agatha offered him.

"Alright we can order two servings of bread rolls now but this won't work without a salad."

Loki commented, scrolling through the menu, debating whether he should order a caesar salad or the tuna one, both sounded delicious.

Having meanwhile conjured a fire pit and some blankets, as the sun was starting to set, they had dragged a table from the Sanctums dining room onto their rooftop. It was surprisingly easy to find a restaurant who delivered on top of a building if you offered to tip a little bit more.

"What do you think, red or white wine?"

Agatha asked as she held up two bottles. She had moved to the table already and had kicked her feet up on the table, watching the sunset as they waited for the food to arrive, distant bangs of fighting heard in the distance.

"I'll take the red wine."

Loki commented from where he was standing, arranging the fairy lights around the roof top. You needed a nice atmosphere to have a nice dinner party after all.

"I think the pizza arrived, I'll be right back."

With these words Wong opened a portal and stepped through it, leaving Agatha and Loki to their own devices. The god was painting his nails, nail polish floating in the air as he carefully applied the second coat of midnight black.

Meanwhile the witch had leaned back in her chair, wine glass in hand as she absently played with a ball of purple energy, illuminating the whole table in a purple glow.

"Today has been a great day, I really needed a day off."

She commented, taking a sip of her wine, taking her feet off the table as Wong appeared with their food, unpacking the pizza cartons and sorting through the food.

Wanda and Strange were done. They had finally managed to defeat the dragon squid thing, the blobs having disappeared a while ago. She had wrapped an arm around his shoulder as he had problems walking with his injured foot, her own wrist hurting like hell.

They were exhausted, smelling like dead dragon and smoke, covered in interdimensional goo and first degree burns.

"This has been a fucking nightmare. "

The sorcerer supreme commented. Wanda just nodding her head, too exhausted to say anything.

"I'd like to make a toast. "

Agatha groaned at Loki's statement, hitting her head on the table. They had had clearly to much alcohol, Loki bringing out some asgardian liquor, Wong bringing some alcohol from his home and she herself conjuring a bottle out of her ever-growing wine collection.

Loki was leaning against the table, having to hold onto it for support. Wong wasn't much better, feet kicked up on the table, glass in hand, refilling all of their glasses with what he call the best liquor you can get on earth.

She wanted to disagree but had to admit it was quite good. Getting up from her chair she raised her glass.

"And what are we making a toast on?"

Loki winked at her, raising his glass as he helped Wong up, the other man the most intoxicated of the trio.

"To this beautiful day and this beautiful friendship. "

"No no no, to magic and bitching about stupid people. "

Wong interrupted, talking about their animated discussion on who had to deal with the most shit.

The two men started arguing, on what they would speak their toast on. Groaning Agatha snapped her fingers, catching the attention of the two sorcerers, lifting her glass she spoke, a little bit more slurred than usual.

"To bitchcraft and the imbeciles we have to deal with on a daily basis. "

"To bitchcraft. "

They all echoed, raising their glasses.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Wanda asked Strange as they stepped out of the portal onto the rooftop, watching the trio speak a toast.

He just shook his head and pulled her back into the portal.

"I think we both got hit in the head one too many times. "

[path-of-my-childhood]

Taylor Swift: Pop Star of the Year

By: Jonathan Dean for The Sunday Times Date: December 27th 2020

Rather than hunker down, the singer put out two albums in 2020 and won over new audiences. She’s the pop star of the year.

Taylor Swift met Paul McCartney in the autumn for a big interview in Rolling Stone. The two would have headlined Glastonbury this summer. Who knows if they will do that next year. Anyway, both recorded albums in lockdown, working from home like the rest of us. When they spoke, though, Swift had a secret. As well as Folklore, released in July, she had a follow-up record in the pipeline — Evermore, which was released this month.

Swift noted that the former Beatle was still so full of joy. “Well, we’re just so lucky, aren’t we?” he said. “We’re really lucky,” Swift replied. “I can’t believe it’s my job.” And she is right. Being a pop star is an extraordinary way to earn the living she does. But rather than accepting luxury and letting this tough year tumble on, Swift is also keenly aware what music means. Sad songs soothe, happy songs make us dance, but as fans of most artists waited for something — anything — this year, this 31-year-old released two albums that broke chart records, were critically adored and introduced her to people who once thought that she wasn’t for them.

“I’m so exhausted!” she said to the American chat show host Jimmy Kimmel, laughing, a few weeks ago, when asked if she had a third new album planned. “I have nothing left.” In addition to Folklore and Evermore, she filmed a TV special and even started rerecording her back catalogue, after a volatile dispute over who owns her work. By October I’d just about cobbled together my first sourdough loaf.

A decade ago Swift moved firmly into the limelight thanks to a squabble with Kanye West entirely of the rapper’s own making. In 2009, when Swift — then a nascent country music star — won the best female video award at the VMAs, West stormed on stage, grabbed her microphone and said that Beyoncé should have won. Swift was 19 — West was 32 — and she looked scared. This wasn’t just about her biggest moment yet being stolen, but also about her position in the pop hierarchy being questioned, very publicly, from the off. She stood there as that man bullied her. Apparently she left the stage in tears.

Years later West released Famous, with its infamous lyric “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why? I made that bitch famous.” The alt-folk singer Father John Misty also wrote about sleeping with her. Every time that sort of thing happened, a powerful man in Swift’s industry was reducing a successful, talented, younger female to the level of a sex object. It was back-in-your-box belittling — as it was when a TV host groped her. (She successfully sued him.) While Swift herself would retort to West, as her music became less country, more slick pop, such retorts felt forced and gave the rapper too much of her oxygen. A nod to him on Folklore comes with the “Clowns to the West” line, but it is a sideshow now, not a headline.

Not that Swift’s life is entirely her own. She’s been one of the world’s bestselling female artists for a decade, coupled with curiosities such as a well-orchestrated relationship with Tom Hiddleston that kept her in the spotlight. Like many twentysomethings, Swift spent her youth apolitically, only to receive flak for staying silent during the 2016 US election. This year she endorsed Joe Biden, but what if she had wanted to stay quiet? Would the media have let her? She is under so much scrutiny that, after she made an innocuous hand gesture in a recent TV interview, similar to one women make to draw attention to domestic abuse, this headline ran: “Some people think Taylor Swift is secretly asking for help in her latest interview.”

Like many at the start of the pandemic she felt listless. The world we were used to was a wasteland, and we could only find the energy to watch Normal People. Swift’s ennui, though, was, well, swift. Stuck in LA, she emailed Aaron Dessner of the beloved beardy indie band the National to see if he fancied writing with her. No fool, Dessner said yes and, mere weeks later, the duo — with help from Swift’s regular collaborator Jack Antonoff as well as Justin Vernon, from the beloved beardy indie band Bon Iver — released Folklore. The gang just carried on working and, five months later, gave us Evermore.

Creativity is not on tap. Indeed, this year is not one for judging what others may or not have achieved. However, the silence of many big pop stars is striking because they know that even a single would make someone’s day; distract for a while.

Everyone needed to adjust to working from home, but Swift was one of the only musicians who did and, by eschewing the arena pop of recent albums for something more subdued, organic and folky, she gave the sense that she was letting fans in more than ever. She was at home, like us. This is who she is, and the first single from these sessions was so cosy, it was even called Cardigan.

“I just thought, ‘There are no rules any more,’” she told McCartney. “Because I used to put all these parameters on myself, like, ‘How will this song sound in a stadium?’ If you take away the parameters, what do you make? I guess Folklore.”

Maybe it is tedious, for a deft writer with a career of varied, brilliant songs — Love Story, I Knew You Were Trouble, Blank Space — to find respect from some people only when artists who appeal to middle-aged men start to work with her. On the other hand, pop has never been particularly welcoming to many until it sounds like something you are used to and, with delicate acoustics and gossamer-like piano, Swift’s two new albums recall, sonically, Nick Drake or Kate Bush. Thematically, lyrics seem to come from anywhere. Daphne du Maurier, for one. Even the Lake District and its poets.

Some songs are personal. She is dating British actor Joe Alwyn, and on one track she sings, “I want to give you a child.” Make of that what you will. But these records’ highlights are not about herself, but others. “There was a point,” she told Zane Lowe on Apple Music, “that I had got to as a writer, [where I was only writing] diaristic songs. That felt unsustainable.” Instead, she does what the best writers do and mixes subjective with objective. The Last American Dynasty is a terrific piece of writing about the socialite Rebekah Harkness, who lived in a Rhode Island house that Swift bought and was, by all accounts, a bit scandalous. Swift tells her story almost with envy. Imagine, she seems to say, that freedom.

“In my anxieties,” she said in Rolling Stone, “I can often control how I am as a person and how normal I act. But I cannot control if there are 20 photographers outside in the bushes and if they follow our car and interrupt our lives.”

Then there is Epiphany. The first verse is about her grandfather, who fought in the Second World War; the second about frontline workers in hospitals now. Sung in a high register, it is suitably choral. Marjorie, on Evermore, is even better. It is about her grandmother, an opera singer who died in 2003. “What died didn’t stay dead” is the repeated line, and it is eerie, gorgeous. Swift sings how she thinks Marjorie is singing to her, at which point some vocals from the latter’s recordings waft in. Touching, but the real power is in Swift writing about vague memories of a relative who died when she was young. “I complained the whole way there,” she sings. “I should’ve asked you questions.”

In person she is warm like this, and funny. When Kimmel told her there were far more swearwords on Folklore and Evermore than previous records, she replied: “It’s just been that kind of year.” She is also odder than people realise. In the way pop stars should be. Obsessed by numerology, she wrote, on the eve of her birthday when announcing Evermore: “Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards.” When I turned 31 I just wished to be 13 again, with all that youth, but then, maybe, she is just joking. “Yes, so until I turn 113 or 131, this will be the highlight of my life,” she said. “The numerology thing? I sort of force it to happen.”

Swift, of course, is far from the first pop star to become public property, or have a close bond with fans. This year, however, she was one of the few to show that such adoration is not one-way. She is, simply, a fan of her fans — from planting secrets in her artwork and lyrics, to recording two albums of new music as a balm for them when real life became too deafening.

“One good thing about music,” sang Bob Marley. “When it hits you, you feel no pain.” The 80.6 million who streamed Folklore on its first day will attest to that idea. So will the four million who bought it. Swift is pop star of the year, no doubt — leaving her peers in her wake, on their sofas, rewatching The Sopranos.

[lunapaper]

Album Review: 'MOTOMAMI' - ROSALIA

How do you top an album like El Mal Querer?

Released in 2018 and produced as part of her baccalaureate project while still at college, ROSALÍA’s Grammy Award-winning second album is nothing short of ambitious.

Split into 11 chapters and inspired by the 13th Century Occitan novel, Flamenca, the arrangements are mostly spare yet hypnotic, combining traditional flamenco rhythms with modern pop synths. Tracks like ‘NANA’ and ‘MALDICION’ are like haunting hymns ringing out from the darkness. On ‘QUE NO SALGA LA LUNA,’ she unleashes powerful war cries over jubilant palmas (or handclaps). She interpolates Justin Timberlake’s ‘Cry Me a River’ on ‘BAGDAD.’ Her vocals – having trained at both the Taller de Músics and the Superior School of Music of Catalonia - take on a vaguely Middle Eastern bent with their eerie vibrato and prolonged vowel syllables.

Her latest album, MOTOMAMI, proves just as stunning as its predecessor.

Though tracks like ‘SAOKO’ and ‘CHICKEN TERIYAKI’ have hinted at a move towards the mainstream, the Catalonian singer’s experimental spirit burns as bright as ever here.

While El Mal Querer dealt with death, MOTOMAMI signifies sexual and artistic rebirth, fusing raw aggression with heartbreaking vulnerability. Recorded in Puerto Rico, New York, LA, Miami, Barcelona and the Dominican Republic, ROSALÍA draws on a strange and wonderful bed of sounds.

Recent single ‘SAOKO’ has that big dick swinging energy pairing a Daddy Yankee and Wisin sample with a funky freeform jazz breakdown as the singer finds herself in the midst of liberating change (translated: ‘I'm very much me, I transform/A butterfly, I transform/Drag queen makeup, I transform). ‘CANDY’ (which samples Burial’s ‘Archangel’) sees her battle between love and lust while dancing atop sparse, earthy beats and a delicate jewellery box melody, recalling how she was ‘Dancing to Plan B, the Candy one/That's how you fell in love with me/The day that I met you’).

On the bachata-inspired ‘LA FAMA’ (featuring The Weeknd), ROSALÍA confronts that hideous bitch goddess called fame, tempting you with its slinky, snaky groove. ‘BULERIAS’ harks back to the defiant war cries of El Mal Querer, asserting its dominance with handclaps and bursts of marching band drums as the singer fires back in Spanish at those who have accused her of cultural appropriation in the past: ‘I’m as much of a cantaora [a flamenco singer]/When I’m wearing a Versace tracksuit/ Or dressed like a bailaora [a flamenco dancer].’

‘CUUUUuuuuuute’ opens with a warped, distant ROSALÍA counting herself in before erupting into an industrial drum n’ bass tribal dance, the singer’s willowy vocal soon becoming a seductive purr. The title track is squelchy, bass-fuelled bravado that lasts barely a minute, but sums everything you need to know about ROSALÍA as an artist (‘To every copy you see/You give your blessing/And I don't want to compete’).

‘G3 N15’ is a dreamy, synthesised birdsong that reaches a heavenly crescendo. ‘LA COMBI VERSACE’ is cool, brooding and enigmatic, the perfect soundtrack to a fight sequence as ROSALÍA trades verses with Dominican rapper TOKISCHA (who also featured ROSALÍA on her 2021 single, ‘Linda’).

‘DELIRIO DE GRANDEZA’ is brassy yet charming Spaghetti Western-in-a-jazz-lounge chintz, while ‘CHICKEN TERIYAKI’ is good, goofy fun taking its cues from Daddy Yankee’s ‘Gasolina,’ complete with engines revving.

‘HENTAI,’ however, best encapsulates MOTOMAMI’s sonic androgyny and delicious mass of contradictions. A gentle piano ballad with occasional static, the lyrics are barely innuendo (translated: ‘I wanna ride you like I ride my bike/Make me a tape, like Spike/I whipped it until it got stiff/In the second place is fucking you/In the first place, God ‘), making beautiful music out of sheer vulgarity while projecting unabashed feminine desire onto something so pretty and fragile.

Then there’s the operatic closer ‘SAKURA,’ circling back to that harsh mistress called fame.

The crowd chants her name as ROSALÍA stands under a lone spotlight, channelling her inner Edith Piaf. ‘You can't forever be a star and shine,’ she sings in Spanish, ‘I'm gonna laugh when I'm 80 and look back/I've never been afraid of a madman's laugh.’

Though still only 29, she feels her fame fleeting, like cherry blossom petals slipping through her fingers. And yet, ROSALÍA doesn’t feel sorry – she feels ‘tenderness.’ She more afraid of ‘the one who lies or the one who laughs too little,’ and so takes a more philosophical route, willing to pack in as much as she can (and she packs in plenty on MOTOMAMI).

And then the song ends. The crowd cheers. The spotlight goes out.

But ROSALÍA’s story doesn’t end here. Far, far from it. She might not be able to envision herself as a popstar at 60, but I can.

Gleefully disrupting the sonic landscape once again, the singer revels in her weirdo pop tendencies but remains astute when it comes to crafting fun, accessible pop, backed by a dream team of producers that includes El Guincho, James Blake, Pharrell, Rauw Alejandro and even The Weeknd.

Of course, at a whopping 16 tracks, there’s bound to be a little filler, and the sequencing is a little messy. But the album is better for being a restless sprawl of thoughts and sound reminiscent of Frank Ocean’s Blond(e), even embodying its blunt, straightforward approach to sex, heartbreak, and reflecting on the past. Even when things don’t quite work, ROSALÍA just seemingly goes where the music takes her.

She said as much in a recent interview with the New York Times:

‘I cannot think of making music in a right or wrong way. For me, creativity is not about that — it’s not about proper or not proper, correct or incorrect. It’s beyond that. Does it sound free or does it not sound free? Does it sound like it has urgency and it comes from need or not?’

- Bianca B.

[tayliviaspeace]

Day 3 of Analysing Taylor in Quarantine

Day 3: the last great american dynasty [tlgad]

1 sentence summary: tlgad is a song that can be understood as a song about how our lives are all intertwined with people we have never met.

"Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train, it was sunny Her saltbox house on the coast took her mind off St. Louis Bill was the heir to the Standard Oil name and money And the town said, "How did a middle-class divorcée do it?" The wedding was charming, if a little gauche There's only so far new money goes They picked out a home and called it "Holiday House" Their parties were tasteful, if a little loud The doctor had told him to settle down It must have been her fault his heart gave out"

This is a real story about Rebekah Harkness. Something bad must have happened in St Louis, or something that needs to be forgotten. I read a bit about Rebekah before analysing this song. Bill is her second husband, and since this happened in the 1940s, people were very sexist. No one understood how a woman who had been married and divorced, got married a second time and to someone extremely rich. People with old money, or who have grown up with money, always look down on those who recently became wealthy. People with new money spend it in a more extravagant manner and less subtly, which makes those who have grown up with it look down on them, since people with old money may spend it in a more 'classy' manner. Holiday House is Taylor's current Rhode Island Residence. It is a hugeeeeeeee mansion, said to have 8 kitchens and 21 bedrooms. The Harknesses knew how to throw great parties, like Taylor, but because they were mostly around people with old money, there was criticism of it. Bill might have had a heart condition, and prior to his death, he had had a heart attack the year before too. People needed someone to blame for his death, and even though she was in no way responsible for the death of her husband, people blamed Rebekah, as she was different to everyone else and a woman. The song is already showing sexism and highlighting the message that sexism is stupid, irrational and needs to stop.

"And they said "There goes the last great American dynasty Who knows, if she never showed up, what could've been There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen She had a marvelous time ruining everything""

The people blamed Rebekah and basically hate her for her husband dying. She was someone new in their community, and without a man, which made the town people hate her more. They had a certain way of life that they were used to, and she came and 'ruined' things. But she was being herself, and she was doing things that she wanted. She wasn't living her life to fulfil society's expectations of her. That is a similarity between Taylor and Rebekah. They both to an extent did what society wanted them to do and were who society wanted them to be, but after sometime they figured that they weren't really those people and tried to be themselves, which is something new since, in Taylor's case, the press is very critical of her, and for Rebekah, her neighbours were very judgemental. 'mad' also alludes to track 12, 'mad woman' which seems like a continuation of this song.

"Rebekah gave up on the Rhode Island set forever Flew in all her Bitch Pack friends from the city Filled the pool with champagne and swam with the big names And blew through the money on the boys and the ballet And losing on card game bets with Dalí"

Rebekah stopped trying to get her neighbours to like her, and figured that the people who actually liked her were the only people whose opinions mattered. The 'Bitch Pack' could be a reference to Taylor's 'Squad' as both are groups of close friends, who are immensely trustworthy and the best type of people. 'pool with champagne' is a hint to 'this is why we can't have nice things' on 'Reputation', where the line is, 'everyone swimming in a champagne sea'. She [Rebekah] didn't care about her reputation anymore with the townspeople. The 'big names' are the shareholders from Standard Oil and the rest of the town is probably very frustrated that she knows them and is still on good terms with them, despite her husband's death. This shows that the Standard Oil people are open minded and don't care about the wealth as long as you're a nice person. Taylor is also hinting at things the media says about her, when she says, 'blew through the money on the boys', as the media has frequently slut shamed her for doing something any normal 20 something year old would do. Rebekah loved the arts and ballet, and started the 'Harkness Ballet', she was also friends with Salvador Dalí, a famous artist.

"And they said "There goes the last great American dynasty Who knows, if she never showed up, what could've been There goes the most shameless woman this town has ever seen She had a marvelous time ruining everything""

The change from mad to shameless shows that whatever you do people will criticise you for it. Rebekah wanted to be herself, enjoy her life with people she knows she likes. Rebekah really couldn't care less about her reputation with the townspeople, because they didn't make any effort to know her, at least that's what it seems. Rebekah is happy being herself, and she wants to be herself and while she's being herself, she doesn't care about who's saying what about her.

"They say she was seen on occasion Pacing the rocks, staring out at the midnight sea And in a feud with her neighbor She stole his dog and dyed it key lime green Fifty years is a long time Holiday House sat quietly on that beach Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits And then it was bought by me"

The people chased her away. The sea brings calmness in people and all Rebekah wanted was a peaceful life. The people were pretending that she hadn't lost her husband when they were making the rumours about her. The sea, alone, at midnight, was one place she felt at peace. People called her mad for wanting to remember the happy times she had with her husband, when they would throw parties which is why she kept doing it, and she kept getting more annoyed with them, until she snapped, reasonably, and did something truly mad. Obviously, after dying her neighbour's dog, she must have fled and gone back to St Louis. The listeners don't really know how this song connects to Taylor, since she's known for her songs being personal, until this line. It was a really climatic moment for me personally. Once you hear this line, you can see the ways in which the song relates to her also.

"Who knows, if I never showed up, what could've been There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen I had a marvelous time ruining everything"

The media makes a bunch of rumours about Taylor and people may not have wanted her as a neighbour because of this, but she didn't care what people thought of her. She was living her best life and thats something that people [the media] shouldn't give her hell for. She also highlights sexism with the use of 'woman' as both Rebekah and Taylor's actions would have been praised had they both been male.

"I had a marvelous time ruining everything A marvelous time ruining everything A marvelous time I had a marvelous time"

The repetition shows that Taylor really didn't care what other people thought of her, and what mattered to her was how she thought of herself. It's almost like a chant she is repeating for herself, 'I am happy I am being me'. Ending on 'I had a marvelous time', shows that she was and is truly happy.

Overall review: I love this song, the message and everything behind it. Honestly, the last thing I expected a song to be written about was a house, but when I was analysing this, I realised it's so much more than a story of a house. I also think it's cool to write a story for an inanimate object because it's something that you can make feel like the most haunted [pun intended] or enchanted [also intended] thing ever, and you can create a fantasy world in a real world. I love the song writing of this song, the lyrics, the parallels. Honestly Taylor smashed the assignment yet again.

[forevers-winter]

full folklore analysis!!

as promised, here u go. warning very long.

first of all, the album’s name is super important to its meaning. “folklore” is stories passed by mouth, whether spoken or sung, so taylor’s not singing about herself in most of these songs and some of them are linked into a bigger story. i’ll start with individual analysis of each song and then get into the main storyline.

the 1: from the perspective of a girl (our protagonist) that’s been cheated on, hence the line “if it would’ve been me.” she’s looking back on a relationship that was very summer-love-esque and fun while also acknowledging that it wasn’t meant to be and detailing the bittersweetness of that understanding. one of my faves; linked to august, illicit affairs, and betty.

cardigan: from taylor’s perspective about joe and how she met him at a time where most everyone saw her as a snake or a backstabber and was neck-deep in the worst drama she’s ever been in. as she says in miss americana, “falling in love with someone who had a wonderfully normal, balanced life” was the best thing that could’ve happened to her at that time, hence her relationship with joe made her “feel new again” after so many that were always in the public eye. a lot of people think the cobblestones line is related to betty and/or the 1, but this song as a whole doesn’t fit with the heartbroken themes of those two. more likely it’s hinting at the fact the taylor and joe spend a lot of time together in europe, where cobblestone sidewalks and roads are commonplace.

the last great american dynasty: as many have realized, this is the story of rebekah harkness, the former owner of taylor’s rhode island house who hosted a ballet studio there. that’s literally it, just the story of a badass who doesn’t give af about the opinions of people around her. also one of my faves.

exile: dual perspective from both sides of a relationship that ended with the woman moving on and the man staying stuck in the past. “staring like he’s just your understudy,” “i gave so many signs,” etc. may be about one of taylor’s past relationships in relation to her and joe now but i doubt it. if i had to guess, probably calvin harris bc there were also engagement rumors and marriage plans swirling around with the two of them.

my tears ricochet: taylor’s perspective about the john mayer situation, ie “didn’t have it in myself to go with grace,” “if i’m dead to you,” “battleships,” etc. taylor notoriously wrote an almost-seven-minute song absolutely tearing him apart back on speak now (not going with grace), and their relationship was crazy violent and accusatory for the year or two following (battleships) and neither of them have talked about it since (dead to me+battleships sinking). i think this is her way of apologizing whether or not she had to (spoiler alert: she didn’t).

mirrorball: taylor’s perspective about the public’s opinion on her and joe “i know they said the end is near” but also telling them that their relationship is still going strong “i’m still on my tallest tiptoes...shining just for you.”

seven: holy fuck this song. it’s obviously from taylor’s perspective about her childhood as it mentions pennsylvania, but i have no clue who it could be about and i think that’s the point. it’s about loving someone in your childhood (no pronouns but implied that it’s a girl due to braids and hiding the closet) and wanting to run away with them but realizing as you get older that it won’t happen and eventually forgetting each other’s faces but still remembering how they made you feel. def one of my faves on the album bc it’s g a y a f.

august: also very young-summer-lovey, perspective of a high school girl who lost her virginity to someone older (same person who cheated on her in the 1) hence “never have i ever before,” “you back at school,” etc. but ended up being abandoned and manipulated into thinking they still cared “cancel plans just in case you’d call.” linked to illicit affairs and betty, more on that later.

this is me trying: taylor’s perspective detailing the struggle of growing up in the public eye as a superstar. “had the shiniest wheels now they’re rusting”=going from the golden girl of country music to a politicized controversy-ridden indie/alternative artist. again linked to miss americana: she wanted to stand up for what she believes in and is defending her missteps by stating that she’s trying her best. another of my faves.

illicit affairs: protagonist again. goes into detail about an apparent affair with her partner, now confirmed to be a “him” in the line about perfume.

invisible string: about taylor and joe, super cute, soulmate au type beat. next.

mad woman: taylor roasting sc**ter br*un within an inch of his life as she should. next.

epiphany: hooo boy this one is DEEP. not taylor’s perspective, but about the general trauma anyone experiences from watching someone die or being with them as they die; “some things you just can’t speak about.” extremely relevant during the pandemic, “hold your hand through plastic now” and the recurring line about watching someone breathe. the epiphany in question is the hope for a miracle cure to save the person as they’re dying. favorite crying song on the album.

betty: here we goooooo. perspective of the protagonist’s partner james and his* apologizing to betty for cheating “it was just a summer thing.” the scene of walking on cobblestones and being picked up in a car is the opposite perspective of the same scene in august, and “her” is the narrator of the 1, august, and illicit affairs. the way my interpretation differs from others is that betty isn’t the protagonist in the storyline. *also the fact that this song could very well be wlw if one assumes that illicit affairs is a standalone story not related to the love triangle.

peace: this one...giving us very much kaylor if you ask me. sunshine babey. i can’t even fully analyze it because my dumb bisexual brain just becomes tv static. however, it implies that kaylor will never be an official thing but they’ll keep coming back to each other as friends, hence “never give you peace.” also completely unrelated but the line “clowns to the West” LMAOAKSDNWN ROAST THEM SIS.

hoax: our girl is back. not taylor, the same narrator from all those other songs. this is her final take on james leaving her for betty until the 1, years later.

okay, if you’re still here, buckle up bc here’s the full story in order. august: our girl and james are in love in the summer. everything is cute and good but looking back she sees the trouble on the horizon. illicit affairs: james gets with betty but is still fuckin around with our girl on the side. the line about lies and lies implies that he said betty was the side girl and she believed and cared about him enough to stay while he’s really falling in love with betty and she ignores all the signs that she’s actually the other woman. between this song and betty, betty finds out about our girl and breaks up with james. betty: james realizes he loves betty instead of our girl and is apologizing (and making excuses) on her porch. betty’s a dumb bitch so she forgives him and they get back together. hoax: our girl is in absolute despair over james, who she trusted and loved with all her heart only for him to run off with betty. the 1: despite being the first song on the album, it’s the conclusion to the love triangle’s story. our girl is years older and more mature, looking back on her summer with james and understanding that he couldn’t control his falling out of love with her but appreciating the time they had together. flashes of the sadness from hoax come back, but she always switches it back to the positive. in conclusion, chronological order of the story is: august, illicit affairs, betty, hoax, the 1. and scene.

here’s my potentially hot take and explanation why i don’t think this album is about karlie: doubting taylor and joe’s relationship in favor of shipping kaylor is biphobic, especially after seven on this album basically confirms taylor has had crushes on girls/is bi. it’s one thing to speculate about the past or hope for them to get together, but ignoring the times taylor has gone on record saying that she loves joe and the songs she’s written about him and the more recent evidence that the two are quarantining together is disrespectful to her current relationship. the notion that she’s secretly dating karlie while letting her fans and the press think she’s with joe is furthering the stereotype that bi people are more likely to cheat or lie in a relationship and therefore biphobic. thank you.

anyway lmk if you want me to analyze the non-storyline aspects of the album! (or if you hate me for making it less gay lmao)

[writingfortoomanyfandoms]

Neighbourhood Barbecues

Pairing: Calum Hood x Reader

Summary: Its been a rough couple of months for him so he returns home at the plea of his mother and gets reunited with a distant friend from school

Requested: It won the vote so I guess it kinda was 

Warnings: Swearing, it’s also excessively long so I figured that deserves a warning as well

A/N: I’m actually really happy with this one, I loved writing it and that’s probably why it’s as long as it is. I hope you guys like it as much as I do! This is another fic it would be cool to do spin-off blurbs for so if you have any spin-off requests then just let me know! Please remember to let me know what you think, if you liked it then please reblog or comment or send me an ask telling me so, I love hearing from you guys, getting those messages honestly make my day :)

Calum regretted coming.

If it wasn’t for the facts that he’d promised his friend he’d make an appearance and that he’d already rung the doorbell and that his arm was aching from the beer he had brought, he would have scarpered.

He figured he’d suffer through awkward conversations with old acquaintances for a bit and try to ignore the fact that most of them were just showing an interest in him because of his fame and then hang out by the food table and make use of the fact the food was free and so was the alcohol being provided.

And then he’d return home and find a new Netflix series to start binging and there he’d try and ignore his mother’s disappointed eyes on him.

God, she would be disappointed in him. 

She had been so excited when Calum had said he was going to a barbecue today. He had been trapped inside the house almost the whole time he had been home so her excitement at his plans was understandable. He knew how worried his mother had been about him recently. He didn’t want her to hurt anymore than she already was.

He supposed he could stretch the awkward socialising from an hour and a half to two hours, just to keep his mum happy.

“Hey! Caleb said you’d be coming!” The smile on the woman’s face was wide and Calum desperately tried to place her, knowing that she must have been someone he went to high school with.

“Yeah, hi - he said it’d be fine if I came along?” He offered awkwardly.

“Yeah, course it is, Calum!” Yeah, he should definitely know who she was judging by her familiar tone of voice. “It’s good to see you again!”

“Who is it, bro?” Another voice called from the hallway and the woman who Calum assumed to be the hostess of the barbecue turned around to grin at the other woman who was walking down the hallway, a bottle of beer in her hand.

“Calum - you remember Calum right?”

“How could I forget Calum! He once kicked a football at my head,” this woman he recognised.

She looked different from the last time he saw her - though that was understandable considering that they had last seen each other in high school. She wad a little taller than before, held herself with more sureness but the smile on her face was the same, as were her eyes.

Yeah, perhaps she was difference appearance-wise but her mannerisms remained the same.

“Are you ever going to let that go?”

“Not until I get pay back and kick you in the head with a football,” Y/N assured him, placing her arm around the hostess’ shoulders. “I came to tell you that Rowen decided he’s a real man and so he’s in charge of the barbecue. I figured you should know before... you know, the house burnt down or something.”

“Fucking hell, again?” The other woman groaned, turning back to Calum. “Make yourself at home, Cal - it’s nice to see you again.” Y/N’s eyes fell onto Calum as her friend walked away, a  half smile tugged at her lips.

“Admittedly it’s probably my fault - I’m on Rowen duty today but sometimes it’s just so funny to watch him when he’s pissed.” Calum was surprised by the laugh that her words caused in his chest.

“He still can’t handle his alcohol?” Calum asked in disbelief.

He remembered Rowen from high school - he was the life and soul of most of the parties held once their year group had discovered alcohol. Rowen was famous in school for being a complete lightweight and not giving a shit about it, and it was comforting to know that nothing had changed.

“I think he’s actually worse than before,” Y/N confided, turning to walk back through the house. She paused when she realised Calum wasn’t following and looked over her shoulder at him, eyebrows raised. “You coming? I mean, I know we kinda annoyed you in high school but I promise we’re not quite as insufferable anymore.”

“You didn’t annoy me in high school,” Calum protested, following Y/N into the house.

“Dude, we pissed off everyone. We were all so fu-hecking annoying but we’re slightly less so now.” Y/N scoffed.

“’Hecking’?” Calum quoted, his eyebrows raising.

“Oh right - yeah, these barbecues are a no-swearing zone. Didn’t Caleb warn you?” Calum shook his head and Y/N let out a breath. “You have been gone a while, Hood - a lot’s changed since you got too good for us small towners.” 

“That’s not what happened,” Calum immediately said and Y/N let out a loud laugh that Calum wanted to join in with.

“I’m joking, Cal.”

“So... you say a lots happened - fill me in,” Calum insisted as they moved out into the garden of the woman’s house, filled with the familiar smell of barbecue food.

Y/N led Calum over to the table of drinks for him to deposit his beers down on.

“Well... that’s the reason over there that we’re a no-swearing zone,” Y/N nodded over to the other side of the garden.

A man he vaguely recognised was over there holding a toddler in his arms as he chatted with some friends - Caleb included.

“One of your lot has a kid?” Calum asked and Y/N nodded in confirmation, tipping her beer bottle up and finishing it off, throwing it into the trug being used as a bin and getting herself another one, seeing Calum’s look she scoffed.

“It’s my second, Cal, don’t worry,” she picked up a bottle opener and Calum picked up his own bottle, holding it out for her to take the top off of. “But, yeah, Alistair had a kid - she’s two years old and the sweetest child in the world. Her mum, however, is a complete bitch who we don’t talk about,” Y/N filled in and Calum nodded.

“Okay so... what else is new, then?” Y/N looked at him with cocked eyebrows. “Come on, I don’t care about you judging me for being so out of touch with the people I went to high school with but I don’t want all of them to think I’m a complete arsehole.” 

Y/N watched him for a minute with a level gaze before nodding.

“Alright - well, I can’t imagine this coming up in conversation but Rowen is asexual and aromantic, a new thing. He cried when he told us and his parents weren’t best pleased either so it’s still a bit of a touchy subject anyway-”

“Why did his parents care?”

“Oh, none of us know. Rowen doesn’t either but hey ho, his parents always were dicks.”

“I thought it was a no swearing zone,” Calum deadpanned and Y/N raised her middle finger at him.

“Kind of an important one, actually but, you know...” Y/N gestured at the woman who was hosting the barbecue who was stood at the barbecue with the rather drunk person who Calum assumed to be Rowen.

“Yeah - I can’t remember her name, though,” he admitted a little sheepishly.

“Good - that’ll serve you well. They came out as non-binary a few years ago and while they’d understand you getting it wrong because you haven’t seen them since, try and make an effort?” Y/N suggested and Calum nodded, guilt flooding him from the assumption he had made. “Hey, don’t worry, Cal, you’re not the first one and you will make an effort so Charlie - that’s what their name is now - will be understanding.”

“Y/N!” The woman looked away from Calum and towards Alistair who was calling her.

“Yeah?”

“Can you watch her for a moment?” He requested, approaching her and Calum. Caleb was behind him, clearly only now noticing that Calum had arrived and he raised his hand in hello before walking towards Charlie and Rowen, clapping his hand on Rowen’s shoulder and Calum could hear him let out a loud laugh.

“Of course I can!” Y/N beamed, handing Calum her beer, who took it so that Y/N could take the young girl from her father. “Heya, sweetheart, you look exhausted,” Y/N chuckled. The young girl nodded tiredly against Y/N’s body.

“Who’s that?” She mumbled, her eyes only half open and fixed on Calum.

“That’s Calum - he’s a friend from school and he’s back in town for a little while.”

“C-Ca-Cal.” The girl struggled to say his name and Calum felt a smile come to his lips.

“Just Cal is fine, buddy - what’s your name?” He crouched down a little to be more on eye-level with the small girl.

“Emma,” she mumbled.

“It’s nice to meet you, Emma.”

“You know, Em, Cal’s really talented,” Y/N stated and Calum had to restrain himself from letting out a sigh, having reserved a slight hope at the back of his mind that Y/N wasn’t going to bring up the band and hark on his ‘talents’. He was having a nicer time than he had expected talking with his old distant school friend. He didn’t want it to be ruined now.

“Why?”

“Cal used to play football for the school team.”

“With Uncle Caleb?” Emma asked, her head perking up in interest.

“Yeah, that’s how we all met Cal, through Caleb.” Y/N confirmed.

“And I was in some of your classes.”

“Yeah but you only started talking to us because you made friends with Caleb on the team,” Y/N pointed out and Calum gave a conceding nod of his head.

“Where?”

“What was that, sweetheart?” Y/N asked, her attention returning to Emma, who was reaching a little for Calum. He placed their drinks down and took Emma from Y/N’s arms.

“Where?” She insisted.

“Where has he been?” Y/N offered and Emma nodded, curling up closer to Calum, her eyes drooping tiredly.

“I’m in a band, Emma.”

“A band?” 

“Yeah - we go touring so I left Australia a while ago which is why I’m... never here.” 

“But he’ll be coming to our barbecues, right Cal?” Y/N said, grinning at the bassist. 

“What?”

“This is a weekly thing, Cal,” Y/N laughed. “Come on, Caleb must have told you.”

“I guess he mentioned something.”

“So you’ll come, right? Next week it’s at Rowen’s? He probably won’t be quite as drunk.”

“I - uh - I don’t have his address.” Calum mentioned and, truthfully, that was the only thing he was thinking about.

Because he’d spent half an hour with these people - with Y/N and her friends. And it was like he was back in high school, with nothing more to worry about than just one friend being a lightweight, than thinking of a funny comeback to a friends response. 

It was the first time since leaving high school that he’d felt truly normal. Surrounded by people like Y/N. People like Caleb, Charlie, Rowen, Alistair and little Emma. Their other friends who he hadn’t yet managed to speak to.

“I’ll text it to you, Cal - and Emma will bring her trainers and you and Caleb can continue her football lessons.”

Yeah, Calum reckoned he could manage a few more barbecues.

///

“Calum! No way man! When did you arrive back in town?” Calum was surprised by the hug Rowen brought him into. 

“Ro, dude, seriously how pissed were you last week?” Alistair asked, raising his hand at Calum from behind Rowen in the hallway.

“Were you at Charlie’s barbecue as well?” Rowen asked in shock, furrowing his brow as he tried to remember.

“Yeah, we actually had a very similar conversation and hug last week as well. It’s still good to see you again, though,” Calum told him, a smile on his face. Rowen stood back and allowed Calum to enter into his house. “You doing alright, Alistair?” 

“Not bad, Calum. Yourself?”

“Yeah I’m good, thanks.”

And it was true. For the first time in a while, Calum was actually feeling good. He felt normal. At Charlie’s barbecue Y/N and Calum had exchanged numbers and they had been texting almost all week, about irrelevant things. It had started with Y/N sending him a photo of a dog she had seen on a run in the park that she thought he’d appreciate the photo. It had sparked a conversation and Calum found himself smiling more than before.

The day after the dog photo Y/N had added him to a WhatsApp group chat. She had texted him immediately after, apologising because she had realised she forgot to ask him if he wanted to be added. He didn’t mind at all, it was the only group chat other than the one with his bandmates that he hadn’t muted.

It was almost constantly going and it had taken a couple of days with Y/N encouraging him for him to get in the swing of writing responses.

“Wait - are you on the group chat?” Rowen asked, following Alistair and Calum through his own house. Calum and Alistair looked at each other in evident amusement and Alistair chuckled, shaking his head.

“Come on, man. Y/N has been waiting for you to turn up so that you can take her place in ‘football training’,” Alistair informed him, clapping his hand onto Calum’s shoulder in a friendly gesture and Calum’s heart soared at the mention of Y/N looking forward to see him.

“Oh - about that! I remembered Y/N saying that Emma was into football? And I saw what you were saying on the chat about, y’know, getting her some actual boots?” Calum said awkwardly.

“Oh, Calum-”

“No, no, man... I was just looking through some of my old stuff and I found my first pair of football boots and so I know they’re not much and it’s a kinda crappy gift but...” Calum reached into the bag he found and brought them out as an awkward offering. Alistair looked between Calum and the football boots before nodding.

“If you’re sure then... that’d be great... Emma’ll love them.” 

“Okay, uh, cool,” Calum smiled and put the boots back in the bag to pass to Alistair.

“Go give them to her,” Alistair laughed, shaking his head a little. “I’m going to get some beers from the fridge - you want one?”

“Yeah - oh, can you put these in the fridge for me, then?” He asked, holding up the box of beers he had brought with him.

The moment that he stepped outside he felt his heart flood with instant relief, he felt free upon entering Rowen’s garden, surrounded by his new friends. Especially when he caught sight of Y/N. She was running around with Emma and Caleb. Emma was in a swimming costume and a pair of armbands, Caleb in a pair of trunks and Y/N was in a bikini and a pair of shorts, a flannel shirt unbuttoned adorned her shoulders and a pair of sunglasses perched on her nose.

The three of them were barefoot, kicking a football around, Caleb and Y/N taking it in turns to help Emma and ensure she didn’t stumble and fall.

“Cal!” Emma changed course quickly and Calum laughed, dropping his things to the floor to accomidate her rushing towards him.

“You made it!” Caleb cheered.

“I did,” Calum agreed, sweeping Emma up.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Y/N said, her tone a little soft and Calum wished she would take off her sunglasses so he could see her eyes.

An hour later, when food was being served up, Calum joined Y/N by the edge of Rowen’s pool, sitting down with his own legs dangling over the edge and into the cool water. Y/N looked over at him and offered him a grin.

“You stink,” she informed him.

“Well some of us have been entertaining children all day.”

“If you’re trying to bag a spot as being Emma’s favourite aunt or uncle then I’m afraid you’ve already missed the boat and you’re looking at her - she’s more loyal than you’d think.” Calum joined in with her laughter.

“I wanted to say thanks.”

“What for?”

“Y’know... all of this,” he gestured at the people around him and shrugged. “Just wanted to say thanks.”

“It was Caleb who invited you, remember? The rest of us just put up with that decision.” Calum smiled down at his plate of food and shook his head.

“Tell me something?”

“What’s up?”

“If Rowen’s parents were so pissed about... you know... him coming out... why do they let him have all of you guys at their house?”

“Well... he’s their only kid, you know? They’re... trying to get better with it all and... they’re on holiday anyway for the summer so they wanted someone to house watch.”

“It’s weird that you’re all back home for the summer.” Calum commented and Y/N shrugged her shoulders sighing and allowing her head to drop and land on his shoulder. Calum felt his heart rate pick up.

“Well Alistair moved back so Sydney a little after Emma’s mum abandoned them to be with his parents for support and all, and Tate moved here a couple of months ago for a job, and I guess you know why Caleb’s home,” Calum nodded, remembering what Caleb had told him about his mothers health. “Jess recently got together with Tate - but they think none of us know that - so while she says she’s back all summer to spend time with all of us we know that’s just a lie,” Calum laughed a little. “And then Rowen agreed to house sitting in an attempt to appease his parents.”

“What about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you back all summer?”

“Well it’s nice being home and seeing the family, Calum. Not all of us have a rockstar life in LA to be missing out on,” Y/N said with a meaningful glance his way, her eyebrows raised in challenge and Calum understood the meaning behind her words.

“Well I’m glad you’re here,” Y/N’s expression softened as she listen to him and took in his somewhat bashful appearance.

“I’m glad you’re home too, Cal.”

///

“So are you feeling better, Cal? After being back home?” Michael asked his best friend down the phone. 

Calum had been in Sydney for approaching three months and for two of a half of them he had been spending going to the weekly neighbourhood barbecues held by Y/N’s group of friends. He had very quickly been accepted into the group and had formed close friendships with most of them, the only two who he wasn’t as secure with being Tate and Jess, but Y/N had assured him that that was because the two of them were too wrapped up in each other at the present moment.

And he and Y/N had gotten especially close. He liked being around her. He appreciated the feeling of contentedness she brought him. He liked that she made him feel normal. He liked that she made him feel wanted as more than just ‘the bassist of 5 Seconds of Summer’. 

“Yeah, man… I feel a lot better than I did.” Calum agreed. He was currently walking over to Y/N’s house. It was her week to host the barbecue, admittedly some of the others had had to have it multiple times but it was fair enough seeing as though Y/N’s parents were still home for the summer as well, but had agreed to get out of the house for the day to allow Y/N to play hostess to her friends.

Y/N had joked down the phone that it really was just like being in high school again, having to wait for her parents to be out of the house for her to host a party.

That was another thing, him and Y/N spoke almost constantly. Outside of the barbecues that were fairly regularly scheduled, almost always landing on the same day every week, often at the same time as well, they would invite each other out to get coffee or ice cream or walk down the beach. Much of his summer break from the band had been spent accompanying Y/N when she took Emma to football practice to help out Alistair as much as she could.

Calum would likely never admit it to anyone but it was fairly doubtless in his mind that Y/N was much of the reason he was getting better by being back home in Sydney. 

“That’s good…” Michael trailed off and silence fell between them over the line. For the first time since Calum’s somewhat downward spiral had begun, though, it wasn’t an awkward one. It felt as though he could feel the happiness radiating off of his best friend that he was feeling better, the pride that Michael felt in him that he was taking steps towards recovery. “I think-”

“I’ve been-” they began to speak at the same time, the two of them letting out chuckles. “Sorry, what were you…”

“No, no, you go first,” Michael said. Calum wasn’t surprised by that response. He hadn’t been willingly speaking much in the past few months before returning home so his friends encouragement made sense.

“I was just going to say I’ve been writing again.” Calum admitted as he began the walk up Y/N’s front garden to her door.

“Really?” Michael’s excitement was almost painful to hear and Calum winced, it hitting then (not for the first time) how much his mental state had been affecting his friends. 

“Yeah! I was… I was thinking about maybe emailing what I have to you? You can check it out, see if its worth anything, you know?” He raised his hand and knocked on the door.

“Dude, I don’t think you’ve ever written a bad song, even when we were first starting,” Calum was laughing at Michael’s words when Y/N opened the door, raising her eyebrows as she saw Calum on the phone.

“Who is it?” She mouthed.

“Michael,” Calum audily answered.

“What?” Michael asked.

“Oh, shit. Sorry man, Y/N wanted to know who I was talking to,” Calum explained as Y/N stepped back to allow him into her house, mild amusement dancing over her features.

“Wait, Y/N from high school?” 

“Yeah, Y/N from high school,” Calum confirmed, giving the aforementioned girl an exaggerated eye roll and Y/N covered her mouth to stop herself from giggling.

“The same Y/N you harboured a crush on for, like, three years and invited to our first concert to impress her?” Michael teased and Calum felt the blood rush to his cheeks, infinitely grateful that Y/N couldn’t hear Michael’s side of the conversation.

“Yeah, that Y/N… plus, at least I invited someone to that who actually showed up.”

“Is this your first concert?” Y/N asked Calum quietly and he nodded. “Showed up and brought friends - remember, Rowen somehow got in.”

“Yeah, remember how she brought a friend who got completely smashed?” Michael remembered at the same time, the coincidental nature of the situation causing Calum to laugh again. 

“Is he coming home as well?” Y/N questioned and Calum relayed the question to his friend.

“Ah, yeah that was what I was trying to tell you - we’re all coming back for a couple of weeks. We’ve had our tickets booked for a while but didn’t want you to think we were checking up on you.” Calum explained Micahel’s answer to Y/N who nodded thoughtfully before grabbing the phone from his hand. Calum made a noise of indignation and chased her down the hallway and out into her garden.

“Cal’s having a barbecue at his next week, you should come! And the other guys too,” Y/N invited.

“It’s my fucking house!” Calum complained, but he didn’t really mind, truthfully he was thrilled at the idea of Michael, Ashton and Luke meeting his new friends properly.

“Language, Calum!” Alistair scolded, Emma was giggling in his arms after having heard Calum swear.

“Sorry Em!” Calum called, still chasing after Y/N.

“Yeah, of course they can come! I didn’t realise you were engaged, Mike, congratulations! And Luke’s really got a girlfriend? I figured he was still too awkward to talk to girls. He almost shit himself that time I congratulated him after the gig.” Y/N mused. She turned around and couldn’t stop herself from letting out a yelp of surprise when she saw how close Calum was. “I think he wants his phone back,” Y/N explained. “Yeah, it was nice speaking to you too, Mike… yeah, see you next week then!” Calum had his hand stretched out and while he tried to hide it his amusement from the situation was clear in his eyes. Y/N was reluctant to pass Calum the phone but placed it in his hand nonetheless with an innocent smile.

“She seems like fun.” Michael commented and Calum met Y/N’s eyes as he replied.

“Yeah, she’s pretty great.” Y/N’s embarrassment was clear and she excused herself away, joining Jess and Tate, stepping in the middle of the ‘secret’ couple and clapping a hand on each of their shoulders.

Calum and Y/N met again almost an hour later. He was last in line for food - all vegetarian this time since Y/N’s whole family were veggie and Y/N refused to cook meat and they walked together over to where two deckchairs were on the patio outside of her house, giving them a view of their friends.

“You okay?” Calum asked after a moment's silence and Y/N nodded. “You just seem quieter than normal,” he mentioned and Y/N sighed a laugh, leaning to rest her head on his shoulder.

“Sorry - I get a bit nervous when it’s my turn to host,” she admitted.

“Well it’s all been pretty great,” Calum assured her. “Excepting the lack of meat, of course,” he added, nudging her gently and Y/N laughed again.

“Cal?” He made a noise of acknowledgement. “Why… why are you back?” For the first time, the silence between them felt awkward. “Sorry - you don’t have to answer, I was just…” Y/N sat up, shaking her head. “I’ll go.” Calum’s hand was working on its own when it reached out to stop her from standing up.

“Stay,” Y/N looked at him, her eyes a little wide, unsure at his command but she gave  hesitant nod. “My mum told me to come back,” he admitted and suddenly their closeness didn’t feel close enough. He wanted the comfort being near her brought him and he tugged her closer. 

Y/N didn’t fight back against his affections and moved over from her deckchair to his, allowing his head to fall into her shoulder.

“I wasn’t… I wasn’t doing well in LA. I mean, I was. The band was doing great, we were planning for the tour and the next album and everything but…”

“But you weren’t great?” Y/N offered gently and Calum let out a long sigh before nodding. 

“I was sad… I was just so sad so much of the time and I couldn’t find inspiration to write, I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I didn’t want to go anywhere and I just didn’t feel like me… do you know what I mean?” Y/N gave a wordless nod of understanding, knowing that if she spoke now, Calum would never finish his confession and she got the idea that he needed to get it off of his chest. “And I knew the others were worried about me - Mali wanted me to visit her in London because she thought a change of scenery was what I needed, Ash offered to let me move in for a bit but then my mum called and… she basically begged me to come home.”

“I’m glad she did,” Y/N confessed, rolling over so that they were face to face, her hands gently playing with the curls of his hair. He smiled gently at her, nodding.

“So am I… with you and the others I feel more like me than I have in a while,” he admitted.

“Because we’re all a bit more fucked up than you?” Y/N offered and Calum laughed, shaking his head. 

“Because you don’t just see me for the band.”

///

“Am I early?”Calum was equally shocked at seeing Rowen on his doorstep.

The man was the least prepared of the whole group, consistantly late to anything they organised, always forgetting to respond to messages on the group chat and when he did send something it tended to be prefaced by something dumb he had done, he was almost always borrowing food from other people because he would forget to do his weekly shop.

Rowen was an idiot, but they all loved him.

Though it was the aforementioned reasons that their friends gave for not putting Rowen as their accountant, despite that being what his job was.

“Yeah, man - you feeling okay?”

“Yeah - I’m fully going to rub this in all of their faces when they arrive, though,” Rowen declared, entering through Calum’s house before pausing in the hallway and turning back.

“What?”

“I left the beer at home.”

“It’s probably for the best for you, Ro,” Calum mused, patting Rowen on the back. “And I know I said you’re early but there are already some people here.”

Ashton, Luke, Sierra, Michael and Crystal had arrived in Australia two days ago and had barely left Calum’s side the whole time. While they had assured him countless times that they weren’t checking up on him, Calum was well aware that they were, in fact, checking up on him. As a result of his friends suddenly developed clinginess, it was unsurprising that they were already at Calum’s house helping him prepare for the barbecue.

“Y/N also said she was going to try and come a little early,” Calum added after informing Rowen of his band mates presence.

“That was something I wanted to talk to you about, actually,” Rowen added as they moved into Calum’s back garden. “Dude you didn’t say you had a pool!”

“I one hundred percent did, but what did you want to talk to me about Y/N for?”

“Oh shit yeah. Right so, are you planning on telling her you like her or not?”

“Valid question!” Michael called from where he was attempting with Luke to light the barbecue.

“I-I don’t know what you mean,” he stammered out, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. 

“He’s lying!” Ashton called from where he and the girls were arranging the drinks in the coolers on the table. Calum flipped off his friends.

“It’d be cool if you did because she likes you too.” Rowen informed him and Calum froze.

“She-she does?” 

“Please, Y/N is never normally this friendly to anyone,” Rowen scoffed. 

“She’s lovely!” Calum argued, growing a little defensive of the girl he had been harbouring a crush on.

“Yeah she is but she’s also a sarcastic bitch a lot of the time,” Rowen pointed out, rolling his eyes. “Either way, my point was that you should tell her.”

Rowen walked away to take a beer from where Ashton, Sierra and Crystal were, leaving Calum stood stock still alone on his porch, his mind racing. 

“He’s right,” Ashton said as he approached his friend, passing Calum a beer as he joined him.

“Not you too,” Calum sighed, rubbing his forehead.

“Dude, this is the happiest I’ve seen you in months and I know for a fact its thanks to her, I’ve never heard you talk about any other girl in the same way that you talk about Y/N so… you need to tell her.”

“I can’t, Ash. She’s so painfully too good for me that the idea of telling her I like her with the hope of her liking me back is laughable. Actually, she probably would laugh if I told her. Look, you’ll meet her today and you’ll see what I mean.”

“I don’t need to see her to know she’s out of your league but that’s beside the point,” Ashton argued. 

“You’re doing a great job at boosting my self esteem and building my confidence, by the way. Have you ever considered going into counseling if the band doesn’t work out?” There was a knock on the door and Calum gave Ashton an incredibly pointed look. “I’m going to get that. When I come back I want you to have learnt how to shut the fuck up.”

Calum walked away from Ashton, his friends infectious laughter following him down the hall and bringing a smile to his face.

“Sorry - I know I said I’d be earlier than this,” Y/N greeted him apologetically.

“Don’t worry about it - the guys were here to help set up,” Calum assured her, taking the box of alcohol from her hands.

“I just need to grab the rest of the stuff from my car,” she smiled.

“Do you need a hand?”

“No, no it’s fine. I’ll see you out back?” Calum nodded his confirmation and carried the box of booze she had brought out to his garden. 

“Did you tell her?” Luke hollered across the garden, everyone but Calum erupting into laughter as the bassist groaned heavily.

“You make me want to slam my face into a table!” 

“Don’t do that - you have quite a nice face,” Y/N responded as she came out of the hallway into the garden carrying two carrier bags. Rowen wolf whistled loudly and Y/N struggled with her luggage for a moment before managing to extend her middle finger at him.

“What do you even have in there?” Calum questioned, trying to move so that Y/N couldn’t see his face, which he knew would be red from embarrassment at her compliment. 

“I made too much food last night for tea so I brought some leftovers for Al, Emma and Ro. And then I also picked up a bottle of wine for your parents to-”

“To thank them for letting you come over?” Calum interrupted, seeing where Y/N was going and she nodded. “Wow, we really are back in high school.”

“Fuck you,” Y/N groaned. “I’ve met your parents, like, once and we literally have come over and kicked them out of their home so we can be here and have a barbecue instead, I feel bad.”

“Trust me, they like you because they think you single handedly are the reason for me being happy again.”

“Are you trying to say that’s not the case?” Y/N gasped in offense, her hand going to her heart. 

“Come on, we both know that Em was at least half the reason.”

“Valid point - I also bought some champagne that was on offer? Figured we could celebrate your band coming back or, if that’s too cheesy then there’s more alcohol for us to drink away our sadness with!” She cheered, bringing the champagne out of her bag.

“I like the sound of option B,” Luke chipped in, joining Calum and Y/N.

“Bro, you look absolutely nothing like I remember you,” Y/N commented, her eyes widening in surprise as she looked Luke up and down. 

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It was meant as one,” Y/N assured with a smile. “I’m Y/N, by the way. Not sure if you…”

“I remember you,” he confirmed, grinning and his gaze slid over to Calum. “Besides, with the amount Calum-”

“Alright, Luke, that’s enough,” Calum had never been more grateful for Sierra’s presence. “Hey, I’m Sierra, Luke’s girlfriend. It’s lovely to meet you.” Calum watched Y/N take her hand, her smile a little more nervous than he had seen it be before.

“Y/N, it’s nice to meet you too. Mike mentioned that you and…” Y/N’s face dropped a little, her eyes widening as she seemed to search her mind for the name.

“Crystal,” Calum filled in for her quietly.

“Yeah, of course. He said that you and Crystal would be coming,” she confirmed, turning to give Calum a grateful smile.

“Luke, I need your help with something,” Sierra mentioned and Calum and Luke’s faces both furrowed in confusion until Sierra shot a look at Calum and he quickly cottoned onto what she was trying to do. Calum shook his head, his eyes wide but the couple left, giggling as they did so.

“Everything alright, Cal?” Y/N asked, seeing the panicked and mildly pissed off look on his face.

“Uh, yeah! I was actually going to ask you the same thing, you seem nervous,” he added, allowing his concern to outweigh his own personal worry.

“Ah, I’m just not great at meeting new people.”

“You’ve already met the guys.”

“I never spoke to any of you guys really in high school, though,” she pointed out and Calum nodded a little, conceding to her point.

“You didn’t seem nervous talking to me,” he said after a moment of thinking.

“Yeah, but… I dunno, you’re you, you know? Plus, I had all the others to fall back on if you did decide you hated me so that was less pressure than this,” Calum snorted in laughter.

“You’re such a dumbass.”

“I take pride in it.”

Calum could feel the eyes of his bandmates, their girlfriends and Rowen burning into them as they lapsed into conversation. When there was another knock at the door, Calum was unsurprised to hear someone else call to say they’d get it.

“They’re… they are all acting kind of strange today, right? I’m not just imagining it?” 

“Oh no, they’re definitely acting strange.” Calum confirmed.

“Do you know why?” She asked, observing them, though now they had gone into their own individual conversations. Calum had a feeling it was to try and play off that they were watching him and Y/N.

Calum sighed. He had a feeling that it was better to just tell her rather than have Rowen or Luke drunkenly blurt it out, knowing that the likelihood of that happening was quite high.

“I need to tell you something,” he began and his nerves came to hit him flat in the face when Y/N turned to give him her absolute full attention.

“That sounds serious,” she said, a nervous smile on her own face. “Is this a ‘sit-down-with-a-beer’ kind of serious talk or a  ‘stand-up-and-shut-the-fuck-up-Y/N’ kind of serious talk?” Calum chuckled, his nerves easing just a slight bit from her familiar mannerisms. 

“The second one, but I don’t want you to shut up,” Calum took a deep breath. “In fact, I’d gladly listen to you talk forever,” Y/N’s expression softened a little. “I… I’ve been really lost for the past few years of my life. Perhaps… perhaps I never really knew who I was because of what happened to the band happened so early in our lives that we never got a chance to figure out who we were. And the months before I came to Sydney I thought that… that maybe I wasn’t anyone other than ‘Calum the bassist from 5 Seconds of Summer’ but… when I’m with you I feel like I know who I am,” he explained, his gaze dropping down to his hands.  “I thought being home would be shit, just another reminder of who I am and I thought when I went to Charlie’s barbecue that anyone I met there would just see me for the fame and not see me. But… you never did. You saw me for me and you accepted me and looked out for me and cared for me despite me being kind of standoffish that first barbecue,” when he risked a glance up he saw the tears in her eyes and sadness swamped him. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

Calum lifted a hand to her cheek to catch the tear that slipped from her eye and Y/N giggled a little, leaning into his touch.

“Happy tears, Cal, I promise - now go on, you were about to profess your undying love for me,” it was teasing, of course it was, but Calum could hear the underlying insecurity in her words, the worry that she may have misinterpreted what he was going to say.

“I really like you, Y/N.” 

It was easier to say than Calum thought. He thought the words would be groundbreaking, momentus and earth shattering. But no. It was easy. Simple and sweet and natural. He wasn’t sure why he was so surprised. Everything with Y/N was easy.

Just like how it was easy to allow her arms to wind around his neck.

Easy to place his hands on her waist.

Easy to relax and let her tug him down to meet her.

But easy wouldn’t be the word to describe their kiss. Groundbreaking, phenomenal and otherworldly wouldn’t be quite right either.

No, their lips sliding together, the kiss tasting of beer and spearmint gum, the way that when they broke apart they laughed gently into one another's mouths, it wasn’t any of those things.

Being with her like that was natural.

[dangan-happy]

To Gonta, Kiyotaka, and Kaito

I have this friend, I met her last year when I first moved to my tiny school (only like 500-600 students K-12) and her group of friends. Im close with her and all of her friends now too, but recently she’s become,,,unbarable,,,she says all kinds of racist, homophobic, ableist slurs (not uncommon for my small bigoted home town). She calls me a snowflake and things like that when I call her out. She’s also pretty toxic according to other friends I vented to about her...sometimes she’ll call everything I like “stupid” or r-t-rd-d, other times she’s just generally mean to me, to the point where my girlfriend (one of her oldest friends) has started saying she was being a dick. Today she went on a small tangent about how there were only two genders and gender studies are stupid, and I just sat there....it hurt as a closeted Enby. Today she also was talking about her and some of our other classmates harassing some girl with all sort of slurs for calling them racist.

I really want to cut her off but I can’t because it’s a small school and I’m scared she’ll get mad and out me to the whole school or hurt herself...but I’m also so hesitant to let go of her because so much has hurt her and gone wrong for her, and I know she has such a capacity for love and acceptance...at one point we felt like family, I felt like an older sibling/parent figure when she didn’t have one...I love her, I let her into my found family...but continuing to be her friend and being forced to be quiet at risk of almost my whole class ganging up on me in discussions where she’s bigoted are starting to make me feel so guilty and gross. And the anger I feel towards her makes me so guilty too, and sometimes I get scared that if I vent about her that I’ll just be misrepresenting her to people.....

Can I have a hug, maybe some positivity. Please help me be brave again, and strong (HARK! That sounds like an ask that has just come in!)

To Kaito, Gonta, and Taka

Ah, it’s me, the anon who was venting about their friend earlier, I’m sorry to bother but I’m already back again heh...today she was pretty awful in the first three class periods. She was insinuating that gay people were babies and over reacting when people use the f-slur and then in the next class period she said the f-slur with a hard T, and made some insensitive Holocaust jokes. I feel so dumb and like I’m overreacting but those things aren’t ok. She just makes me so mad, but later in the day she’ll act nice and joke the same way she did when we first became friends and I’ll feel so guilty for ever being mad at her because she’s just a person like me...someone who wants friends and to goof off and someone who will hug you when you’re sad

(HARK! That sounds like an ask that has just come in!) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Side note: I accidentally answered this in two parts before we combined the ask, so that’s why the layout is weird)

Hey there anon! Holy shit, that's...wow, damn. That's really really not cool. I'd use stronger language but I don't think I have a swear pass. So you mentioned that your hometown is bigoted, that sounds like the kind of stuff she's pulling is the norm, which is really sad by itself. So I guess she's gone through live being oblivious and stupid and believing all of the crap she's saying. I usually like to hold out hope that maybe someone just hasn't had a chance to learn these things because of how they were raised, but calling you a snowflake is just stupid. Like, for real? She had so many opportunities to open her mind and learn some shit, but I guess not. If anything, she's the special snowflake who can't take learning that her beliefs are dead wrong. I think it's good that your other friends are seeing that she's being toxic. That's a dick move to call your interests that, and I'm glad your girlfriend has your back.

Aw man, I'm sorry. Enbys are awesome, including you, and I'm sorry you had to sit through that toxicity. I got news for her, there aren't two genders. I know, so shocking. Anon you are incredibly valid no matter what she says. Be proud of who you are, even if you aren't out yet. Honestly, she's a bully. That's disgusting how she was insulting that girl. For real, if she lived out of her bubble, she'd see how things should work. Jeez, yeah, this is where things get difficult. If it was a clean situation, I'd say cut her off and don't look back. Even if you're worried about her, you do need to start distancing yourself from her. What she's saying is hurting you, and you need to worry about yourself before her. Honestly, you gotta consider your safety. I would quietly try to get some distance from her, but nothing big. I don't want you getting bashed by the school as a whole, you don't deserve that. Try to get some space on a small scale so you can think things over.

Yeah, I'll be right there with you holding out a little hope. Maybe she can learn, and maybe it's worth giving it another shot. I'd sit down and have a serious conversation with her about the things she's saying and why they're wrong and hurtful. I get it, you wanna believe in her, I do that all the time. I don't wanna give up on people. But only give it one more try. You've gotten enough hurt as is ok? You shouldn't feel guilty. She's doing some really hurtful things, and you have a right to talk about it and vent about it. I don't think you're misrepresenting her. I got a good understanding about the things she does, and how you care about her still. Talking about your feelings can help get them out. 

Yeah, let's get some positivity up in here!! The good news is that you're gonna graduate from that school and get to where you can be yourself without any of the slurs and crap. This situation isn't gonna last forever, and on a wide scale, her bigoted views are outnumbered. It's ok to take a break from all of the heavy feelings, you can go look up videos of cute animals, or videos that make you laugh. Take care of yourself ok! There's lots of resources online where you can find more acceptance than you do irl, and maybe that would work too. You want me to help you be brave huh? Well, I don't think you need much help. You reached out to us, and you're clearly smart. It's a freaking scary thing that you're stuck in, but I know you got the brains and the skills and the strength to get through. It sounds like you have an ally in your girlfriend, so maybe talk things out with her some more. Listen up ok! You're strong, you're brave, and you can do this. You got me supporting you the whole time ok! You're in the right, and I'm sorry you're stuck so deep in the wrong. But you're brave, I promise you are. You can have a hug too! I'm gonna try and transfer all of my bravery to you via hug! You ready!! C'mere man!! I believe in you no matter what!

-

Hey man! It's cool, come back as much as you need to! This Ultimate Astronaut is always down to help. What the hell man!! That's a crap ton of terrible things to say in such a short amount of time! Like does she not get that she can't say those things!! You're not overreacting at all. It's the freaking Holocaust! People fucking died in horrible ways! She is 100% in the wrong and I can't believe she thinks that's ok. It's perfectly ok to get mad. I know I kinda am.

There seems to be some kind of huge disconnect. Either this girl is the most oblivious being to ever exist, or she's a two faced bitch. It's definitely confusing. I stick by what I said before. You need to have a talk with her to she if she understands what she's saying. She might have a chance to change, but if she's saying these things and fully understanding the weight of them, there might not be much you can do. You don't have to feel guilty. You're already giving her another chance that she might not deserve. Again, you're in the right, and you aren't doing anything wrong. I'm sending you all the bravery I have ok? You still got this, and I'm still here believing in you.

[shawtygonemad]

What Is This Feeling: Chapter 12

Fem!9th Doctor x Male!Rose Tyler

WITF Masterlist

The Doctor walked back into the alleyway after being laughed at by a crowd of drunks. She simply asked them if they had seen something fall from the sky recently. Then an air raid alarm went off. She had better find her human.

"Ross," she called out into the empty alleyway. Realizing she was alone, the Time Lord let out a huff. "You know, one day, just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet someone who gets the whole don't wander off thing. Nine hundred years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me."

Suddenly a ringing filled the air near the TARDIS. The Doctor furrowed her eyebrows.

'That's not supposed to be ringing,' the Doctor thought as she approached the phone booth phone.

As she went to pick up the phone a voice from behind startled her causing her to also drop the sonic.

"Don't answer it! It's not for you."

The Doctor turned to see a young girl dressed in ragged clothes. Fear was seen in her brown eyes.

"And how do you know that?" The Time Lord questioned.

"Cos, I do. And I'm telling you, don't answer it," the girl warned.

"Well if you know so much, tell me this: How can it be ringing?" The Doctor picked up the receiver. "It's not even a real phone. It's not connected. It's not-" the Doctor paused when she turned back to the girl who was now gone. Her brows furrowed once more as she spoke into the phone.

"Hello? Hello? This is the Doctor speaking. How can I help you," she asked sarcastically to who she thought was no one?

"Mummy? Mummy," a child's voice answered.

"Who is this? Who's speaking," she asked even more confused. This was impossible!

"Are you my mummy," the child asked.

"Who is this," the Doctor asked more firmly.

"Mummy?"

"How did you ring here? This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything."

"Mummy?"

Before the Doctor can respond once again the dial tone sounded. That was weird, and not the good kind. The Doctor knocked on the door of the time machine in hopes that is where Ross went.

"Ross? Ross, are you in here," she asked into the depths of the dark TARDIS. There was no response. That's when she heard a loud noise at the end of the alley. Instincts kicked in and she bolted towards the sound.

The Doctor followed to sound down the street. She noticed a family exiting the back of them home into the cellar to take shelter from the air raid. As they were leaving, she also noticed Nancy and a group of rugged looking children enter from the front. They must be scavenging for a meal. Perhaps she should join them.

As they started to get settled and still distracted the Time Lord slinked in and found an empty seat at the table. When Nancy finished carving the food slices of meat were being passed around. The kids each thanking Nancy politely for getting them this dinner.

"Thank you, Miss," One boy said.

"Thank you, Miss," Another said.

"Thank you, Miss."

"Thank you, Miss," the Doctor joined in with a grin.

The children gasped while panicking. Nancy tried to calm them.

"It's alright. Everyone stay where you are!" She instructed them.

"Good here, innit?" She smiled as she continued to fix herself a plate. "Who's got the salt?"

"Back in your seats, " Nancy informed them. "She shouldn't be here either."

"So," the Doctor started, "You lot, what's the story?"

"What do you mean," one of the boys asked, confused.

"You're homeless, right? Living Rough?" She asked nonchalant.

"Why do you want to know? Are you a copper?" Another boy questioned.

"Of course I'm not a copper! What's a copper going to do with you lot anyways? Arrest you for starving? I make it to 1941. You lot shouldn't even be in London! You should've been evacuated to the country by now."

"It's better on the streets! Nancy always finds us the best food," the children agreed.

"So that's what you do, Nancy," the Doctor said to the young woman.

"What is," she asked confused.

"As soon as the siren goes, you find a big fat family meal still warm on the table with everyone down in the air raid shelter and Bingo!" The Doc exclaimed. "Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London town. Puddings for all, as long as the bombs don't get you."

"Something wrong with that," Nancy bit back, ready for a fight.

"Wrong with it? It's brilliant," She laughed. "I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End Musical."

"Why'd you follow me," Nancy asked exasperated.

"I want to know what that phone rang when it wasn't hooked up," the Doctor jumped to the point.

"I did you a favor," she stated.

"Great, thanks," the alien said sarcastically. "And I want to find a blonde in a union jack. I mean a specific one. I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving." 'Liar,' her inner voice said. "Anyone see a man like that?"

Nancy grabbed the Doctor's place much to her protest.

"You took 2 slices. No blondes, no flags. Anything else before you leave," She bite off quickly.

"Actually yes." The Doc said as she got up from the table. "Anything fall from the sky? Probably about a month ago, but not a bomb! Wouldn't have exploded, and just buried itself into the ground. It would look something like this," The doctor pulled out a picture of what the ship looks like.

Suddenly a child voice sounded out. "Mummy?"

Chaos began, as scared kids quickly got up from the table and found an exit to escape to. The Doctor was trying to speak to the child, but Nancy stopped her. She claimed that if you're touched you become just like him. Nancy quickly made her exit as the Doctor opened the front door to find nothing.

After a short period of searching the Doctor found the kids at Nancy's hideout. She needed more information from Nancy if she was going to figure out what was going on. Thankfully, Nancy agreed to lead her to someone who could help. The Doctor. She internally groaned at the idea of having to meet another version of herself again. Reluctantly she venture on alone since Nancy refuse to enter. She told the Doctor that she lost her little brother during an air raid, and just couldn't handle what was waiting inside.

As she entered the ward she started to look around. She was shocked to find every bed occupied with a very still patient. After a quick scan of her sonic she realized that these things were human, but how was the gas mask fused to their face? It looked like her answer would come soon after discovering Doctor Constantine who was very sick and claimed to be dying. Much like the patients he seemed to somehow have head trauma, a collapsed chest, and a scar on the back of his hand. It was a domino affected. Only one victim was injured at first, then suddenly everyone he touched fell to the same injuries. The final phase is growing a gas mask which fuses to the face.

"You must find Nancy, again," Doctor Constantine choked. "It was her brother. She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she mi..migh…might…mummy? Are you my m-m-mummyyy," he cried as a gas mask grew from his mouth and fused to his face.

"Hello?" a voice came from the corridor.

The Doctor quickly stumbled into the corridor. She needed to warn these people to get out. Quickly turning around she bumped into a tall, handsome man. However, next to him was her beautiful human. She was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief knowing he was okay.

"Good evening," the unknown man said. "Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness," he extended his hand while sending the alien a charming, flirtatious grin. Hesitantly the Doctor shook his hand. "I've been hearing all about you on the way over."

"He knows," Ross said to her. "I had to tell him about us being Time Agents."

"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Miss Spock," Jack spoke again.

"Miss Spock," she asked amused as she looked at Ross.

"What was I supposed to say? You don't have a name! Don't you ever get tired of Doctor? Doctor Who?" Ross rambled on.

"9 centuries in, I'm coping," she said sarcastically. "Where have you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz! It's not a good time for a stroll!"

"Who's strolling? I went by Barrage Balloon! Only way to see an air raid," he said smugly.

"What!?" She exclaimed.

Ross brushed her off, "So what's a Chula Warship?"

"Chula?" The Doctor was so confused. What the hell is going on? "What kind of Chula ship landed here?"

"What," Jack questioned, distracted.

"He said it was a warship," Ross injected. "He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer."

The Doctor crossed her arms and stared hard at the new man. She did not get a good feeling from him or this situation. What kind of game was he playing at?

"What kind of warship," she questioned.

"What does it matter? It's got nothing to do with this," he said wildly as he gestured to the gas masked patients.

"This," the doctor pointed at the patients," started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it! What kind of warship?"

"An ambulance," Jack exclaimed. "Look!"

The man proceeded to project a holograph image from his wristband of the machine they had previously been following.

"It's what chased you through the time vortex. It's space junk! I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it! Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. I saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look, by the way, nice panels." The Doctor couldn't help but slightly smile proudly at that compliment. "I threw it to you as bait."

"Bait," Ross asked.

"I wanted to sell it to you, and then destroy it before you found out it was junk," Jack explained.

"You said it was a warship," Ross accused.

"They have ambulances in the war," Jack defended. "It was a con. I was conning you! That's what I am, a con man. I thought you two were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"

"Just a couple more freelancers," Ross told him smugly.

"Oh. I should have known," Jack shook his head in disbelief. "The way you guys were blending in with the local colour. I mean, Flag Boy was bad enough, but you, Biker Bitch?" He laughed. "Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."

The Doctor started to pace while thinking. What could be happening here? How is it possible for this sickness to simply pass through touch and not be air born? How do the other victims also receive the same injuries as the first victim?

"Human DNA is being rewritten," She said offhandedly.

"What do you mean," Ross questioned.

"I don't know," the Doctor stopped pacing to look at him. "Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"

Suddenly all of the patients sat up in their beds and turned to look at them.

"What's going on," Ross asked creeped out.

"I don't know," the Doctor said slowly as she started to steer Ross behind her.

"Mummy," they said.

"Don't let them touch you!" The Doctor instructed as she led the men back.

"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."

This isn't good.