#and I lay it out and it sounds both 'am i a conspiracy theorist' and also 'well yeah obviously.'

[essektheylyss]

.

[raziroo]

Cotton Candy

Pairing: Lotor x gn!reader

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: Saying "Shit" twice

Word count: 2,076 (yay) (also, I edited this, I still need to update the word count)

Author’s Note: I'm crap at writing dialogues, and this is my first time writing for a gay couple. I'm so sorry if it seems forced or unnatural or shitty. Don't be afraid to call me out.

Story Moodboard!

It’s with a grunt of effort that I manage to lift the carton containing the cotton-candy-maker.

‘Here, dad,’ I say as my dad takes the box from my hands. ‘That’s all?’

‘Yep, that’s all of it. We’ll conquer this carnival with our delicious cotton candy,’ I nod, doing jazz hands while saying the last part. Dad chuckles. I grin.

‘Hey, Honey!’ I turn back, squinting to spot where my other dad is in the crowd of bustling people. Where, where…? Yep, there he is – in his embarrassingly brilliant sunshine yellow and bottle green striped shirt and hot pink trousers, a sharp contrast to his natural bright red hair. Don’t say that it can’t look that bright; you’ll never know just how blindingly bright bottle green can really be until you see the shirt my dad’s wearing. And trust me, he usually dresses in simpler tones; such bland tones that you’d be surprised to know he was capable of wearing colourful hues as well. It’s only that he’s very passionate about his job, and so whenever we set up a booth in fetes such as the current one, he never misses to match the shop logo.

‘Hul-lo, father dearest, how seems to go your day?’

‘Oh, quite lovely, if I do say so.’

‘Well, that’s simply charming –’

‘Alright, enough,’ my other, not redhead dad snaps with an exasperated sort of smile on his visage. You see, my not redhead, a.k.a. brown-haired dad happens to be British. And that means that me and dad would rather paint our teeth blue than to not tease him. ‘You both need to shut it and start helping me with the decorations, now. You know I’m trash at all that.’

‘Aw, now don’t get discouraged,’ I say, patting dad on the back. ‘After all, not everyone can be as blessed as me, can they?’

‘Hey, why don’t you go look around for a bit? You’ve been helping out since before I have.’

‘Yeah, he’s right, pet. You should.’

I huff, rubbing my palms on the fabric of my jeans. ‘You guys sure? I’m not tired, if that’s what you’re worried about.’

‘We’re not worried, we’re just saying you should also get a look, you know? There’s a lot of surprising booths this time around. I mean, there are aliens participating too, so…’

‘Hmm,’ I play with my bottom lip a little, then, ‘yeah, okay. I’ll be back in like, an hour? Forty five minutes? Sound okay?’

‘Sounds great.’

‘Bye, then.’ And with that, I turn on the heels of my Converse, wandering about the pretty stalls and eager children and kissy couples and aliens with curious features.

It really feels bizarre, just how astonishingly fast mankind has accepted the existence of aliens. It seems simultaneously ages and just a day before when conspiracy theorists raged all around the world, presenting baseless theories and concepts as to why and how the three-man squad on the Kerberos mission disappeared. Then came the Galra, bringing along with them global terror – because alien life, intelligent alien life existed and humanity remained oblivious all these millennia, and now they were actually attacking us. It could’ve been, perhaps even was, in some other dimension, the end of Earth. But then a defender appeared; Voltron appeared in all its glory, bringing along with it proof that however much these purple aliens claim that humans are scum of the universe, humans were, in the grand scheme of things, the ones that saved the universe too.

It feels even more puzzling to actually be on a first-name basis with the leader of Voltron; that’s right, I’m personally acquainted with Keith Kogane. It was around six months after him leaving the Garrison did I come across him. He’d been loitering around the neighbourhood, had ended up in a fistfight with some other kids, and along with that a split lip and bruised cheek. I’d been watching. When the fight ended, I (somehow) persuaded him to come along so that I could at the very least provide him with a band-aid.

Long story short, we’d bonded over how our moms were no-shows and how dads were the best and we became surprisingly close friends; the only difference was that after the death of his old man, he lived alone. I’d been adopted by my two current fathers. I told him about how when they’d initially adopted me, I was excruciatingly shy. I wouldn’t even come out of my room except meals. It was only when I came to know that they knew how to make candy floss had I timidly approached them if I could have some, because previously I’d always been grossed out at the thought of having to eat that. I’d overheard this group of kids saying that cotton candy was actually just dyed granny hair, so that’s where that came from.

I love cotton candy now. So much so, that even at the age of twenty-six, I will pout if someone takes some of mine without my permission. As if I’d ever allow them to.

Speaking of Keith, I haven’t seen him in years. We lost all contact when he turned eighteen, and then he went off into space, and even when he came back, I didn’t get a chance to meet him. I bear no ill will, though. He must have formed some close relationships. Our past friendship is comparatively much more trivial.

I spot a booth selling grilled corn. I instantly head there.

As I’m about join the crowd of humans and aliens who also want corn, a familiar call of my name leads me to pull a three sixty.

Lo and behold. Keith Kogane.

Despite him having obviously grown a lot, the face was still the same. I’m sure that, if he gets a split lip and bruise on his cheek right now, he won’t look all that different.

There’s a questioning hesitance on his features; he’s probably wondering if he’s got the right person. My pleasantly surprised smile and raised eyebrows assure him. As I step away from the grilled corn stall, I notice a motley crowd behind him; some are purple, some are holding Voltron plushies, and some look way too curious to be in a carnival. The introduction is going to be fun.

‘Keith! You're gonna live a hundred years - I was just thinking about you. But anyways, it’s – it’s great to see you,’ I say with a little giggle. ‘Though I am kind of surprised you actually approached me. The sixteen-year-old you would never.’

He smiles awkwardly in return. ‘Y – yeah… I, just… oh God, this is – I’m sorry,’ he says, his inner turmoil evident.

‘It’s all good. I know you’re shit at small talk, so… like, introduce me? Maybe?’

He nods rapidly, brows furrowed. ‘Yeah, um,’ he turns to the people behind him, telling them my name, how we met, the whole affair. I give them a wave. Most of them greet me back.

‘And, this is Shiro and Curtis,’ he points to the tall, white-haired yet young man, holding hands with a tanner guy, ‘Lance, Pidge and Hunk,’ he points to a lanky, bright-smiled guy, a buffer, kind-seeming person, and a short chestnut-haired woman who, despite wearing baggy jeans and a baggier tee, looks somehow better dressed than me. ‘Then that’s Allura, Coran, and Romelle, they’re Alteans,’ a woman with enchanting beauty and a regal aura surrounding her, a redhead who’s significantly older than the rest with an impressive moustache, and a youthful appearing girl with a big grin, ‘and Lotor, he’s Galran. The Galran Emperor, in fact.’ Lotor is a tall, lilac-skinned man with aristocratic features who shares the same cheek markings as the Alteans. Oh, and he’s unfairly gorgeous, his hair a luscious mane of white which I just know will be soft. It’s hard not to stare. You remember how I said Allura looked like royalty? Yeah, the way this man carries himself, he has the aura and visage of a God. Even in a white tee-shirt and jeans he looks way better than should be legal.

I rip my eyes away.

‘So…are Noah and Oliver here too? I’d love to see them. I mean, I never did get to thank them to permit a possible criminal to sleep in their house.’

I laugh. ‘Never mind that, but we actually sit up a stall here. I could, you know, maybe even get you guys something to eat.’

‘Free? Please don’t.’

‘It’s nothing, really, just… I don’t know, accept it as a small thank you present for not letting the planet go to shit.’

A bit of thinking. Even after a nod from Shiro, it was Lance who said yes. Good ol’ Keith.

When we reach the stall, my British dad is the only one we find there. He looks up, about to say something to me, when he notices Keith.

‘Dad. You remember Keith?’

‘Your possible criminal friend who turned out to be the saviour of the universe Keith?’

‘That Keith. He wanted to see you.’

‘Oh? Well then,’ he dusts his hands, stands up, and greets Keith. Both of them engage in a conversation.

‘You guys wanna try something?’

‘What do you got?’ asks Pidge.

‘What do we got? Um, we got chocolates, candy, marshmallows, jellybeans, tortilla chips, ice cream, popcorn – butter, cheese, caramel, peri peri – Lays, like, a lot of Lays, and the good old cotton candy. What d’you want?’

So, after providing the humans with two Cream n’ Onion Lays, a pack of tortilla chips, a double scoop of butterscotch and chocolate, a small tub of popcorn, and three cotton candy sticks, I turned to the aliens.

‘I’m assuming you guys aren’t familiar with a lot of this stuff, so you could either pick whatever looks to be good, ask your friends, or I could recommend something. What’ll it be?’

Romelle was the one who asked, ‘What’s ice cream like?’

‘It’s sweet. It’s cold. And it’s like… heaven in mouth.’

‘Ooh. I want an ice cream. The… pink one?’

‘That’s strawberry. You can eat it in a cone, or in a cup.

‘What’s the difference?’

‘Well, the cup you can’t eat. The cone is like a crispy biscuit,’ judging by her face, she didn’t know what biscuit was. ‘I’ll just give you a cone. It’s all on the house, so no worries if you don’t like it.’

I watched eagerly as she licked the ice cream. An unreadable look crossed her face. Then – ‘This is almost as good as Hunk’s cookies!’

‘Really?’ Coran asked, twirling his moustache. ‘Well, then…’ he squinted to read the names of the various flavours. ‘I would like “cookies and cream”. Yes.’ A cone of cookies n’ cream was served.

‘Allura?’

‘Do you have something that isn’t sweet?’ That was a plot twist. I’d have taken her as someone who appreciated sweeter foods.

‘We do. You want spicy?’

‘…Sure.’ Peri Peri popcorn was given and enjoyed.

And last… ‘Lotor. What would you like to have?’

It takes me a lot of will to not laugh at Lotor’s way too analytical expression. ‘What would you recommend?’

‘Me?’

‘Yes.’

‘Out of all this stuff, candy floss is my favourite.’

‘Candy floss… the item that looks simultaneously like a cloud and an old woman’s hair?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I would like a helping of candy floss, then.’

As I hand Lotor a stick of cotton candy, I wait with anticipation for his reaction.

‘How am I supposed to eat this?’

It takes me a moment to process that. ‘Uh, you just… pinch a little of the stuff in between your fingers, then eat it. Or you could just, um, go in directly, which I’m thinking isn’t really your style.’

He narrows his eyes, but follows my instructions nonetheless. Only a second after putting the stuff in his mouth, Lotor purrs.

Everyone around him, being me, Coran and Romelle (Allura’s off telling Lance how great Earth food is), looks with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. Lotor appears as if he’s just died inside. The berry-shaded blush on his face is adorable, though.

'I didn't, like, poison you or something, right?'

'No. It's that... I would never in my lifetimes have expected something so tooth-rottingly sweet to be this delicious.'

'So you're okay?'

‘Yes. In fact, I quite like… this cotton candy.’

I grin.

[aylinaliens]

The Not So Scary Haunting of Sarawat Guntithanon— Chapter 1

Fandom: 2Gether

Pairings: Sarawat/Tine

Summary: Sarawat Gay Panics 24/7 over his new roommate (who, by the way, might be a ghost, which is weird on so many levels but whatever, if a man wants to thirst over the supernatural being haunting his apartment so be it!)

Word Count: 1621

Notes: i'm not even excited for 2gether the movie yet here i am, posting another sarawatine fic. basically our boy Sarawat gay panics every single minute of every single day because the ghost who is haunting his apartment is pretty. that's it. that's the plot. just sarawatine being dumb, mutually pining idiots.

Read the first chapter on Ao3 or down below!

+

How was it possible that a disembodied voice could sound so... god damn enticing and lovely? At first, Sarawat found himself pressing his body deeper into his bed but after getting over to his initial shock and fear he allowed himself sometime to appreciate the sound of it. Although his heart was in his throat, Sarawat could not deny the wave of comfort that filled his veins, from his finger to his toes warm spread through his body.

Which was weird—and frankly crazy. Ghosts can possess people, right? Or kill them? Sarawat wished he paid more attention to all the horror movies Man and Boss dragged him to because maybe then he wouldn’t be laying in bed, already whipped, ready to drop down on knee. Hand in marriage sir, please give me your hand in marriage.

He should be terrified of this figure, not lowkey turned on.

Curse Sarawat and his inability to function around attractive boys. Curse this motherfucking hot as heck ghost and his stupid dimples.

Sarawat awakes to a blurry and translucent figure hovering mere inches from his face.

The next day he swears to Man and Boss that the reason he remains frozen was because of fear and not because he was having a full on gay panic attack... over a ghost. That’s what this person was, right? A ghost? He was a rationale adult but he had enough brain cells to connect all the dots.

Sarawat sucks in a deep inhale of breath, allowing his eyes to burn every line, curve, and dip of this mysterious figure's face.

The dim light of his bedroom combined with the near translucent nature of the figure meant that Sarawat never was able to get a clear idea of what this ghost looked like. Just the glimpses he did get left his throat dry and heart pounding rapidly.

The figure had a closed mouth smile etched across his features, all soft pink lips and crinkly eyes and dimples. Sarawat briefly thought of leaning forward to press his fingertips against those pink lips just to see if they were as soft as they looked. But then he realized that was insane and weird so instead he just beat that thought away with a stick. Gay thoughts: be gone! Don’t you dare become a simp over a motherfucking ghost.

The bottom half of his face was crystal clear which was both a blessing and curse while his top half looked as if it was about to flicker away at any moment. Sarawat was positive that this was abnormal, but then again this was his first encounter with a ghost so maybe it was, in fact, normal? It’s not as if he was given a manual or anything.

He couldn’t quite tell what shade of brown this mysterious figures eyes but he allowed his brain to imagine that it was probably vivid, just like the rest of his face. He was debating on the actual shade when he a disembodied voice spoke.

“Hello.”

How was it possible that a disembodied voice could sound so... god damn enticing and lovely? At first, Sarawat found himself pressing his body deeper into his bed but after getting over to his initial shock and fear he allowed himself sometime to appreciate the sound of it. Although his heart was in his throat, Sarawat could not deny the wave of comfort that filled his veins, from his finger to his toes warm spread through his body.

Which was weird—and frankly crazy. Ghosts can possess people, right? Or kill them? Sarawat wished he paid more attention to all the horror movies Man and Boss dragged him to because maybe then he wouldn’t be laying in bed, already whipped, ready to drop down on knee. Hand in marriage sir, please give me your hand in marriage.

He should be terrified of this figure, not lowkey turned on.

Curse Sarawat and his inability to function around attractive boys. Curse this motherfucking hot as heck ghost and his stupid dimples.

Sarawat was like ninety percent sure of his sexual identity but now he was having a crisis about the fact he was possibly crushing on a whole new species. Needless to say he was losing his mind!

He could just imagine the headline of the video Man would inevitably make him sit down to film and post on their jointed YouTube channel.

STORYTIME: I ALMOST MADE OUT WITH THE GHOST THAT'S HAUNTING MY APARTMENT!

Sarawat was positive that his best friend would insert various memes and jokes throughout his very honest and real existential-slash-moral-slash- philosophical crisis Sarawat was having.

It would probably rake in a lot of views but Sarawat did not want to be known as That One Guy Who Simped Over A Ghost for the rest of his life.

He was almost positive that if he told his friends the trust extent of how he felt, they would want to change their channel from music and vlogs to something more akin to Buzzfeed Unsolved.

They would buy a spirit box and Ouija board online and force Sarawat to try to communicate because of course they fucking would, those absolute menaces.

He could already see Boss glancing around like a conspiracy theorist, seriously asking the ghost are you DTF (that means down to fornicate in case you need clarification), Mr. Ghost? Just give us a sign, any sign. Man would most definitely feed into this or make the situation even worse.

Which is why he was not going to reveal what happened tonight. He would just play off as sleep paralysis. Yeah. That is the best way to prevent his best friends from blowing this situation out of proportion.

Sarawat wanted to say something but the words died in his throat. What would he even say? Hello. Please smash your face against mine! Uh, no way in hell. Maybe it was a good thing that he had trouble forming words right now. It would save him a lot of embarrassment.

The figure leaned down closer and— fuck fuck fuck gay thoughts go away— peering curiously down at Sarawat. “He definitely can see me so why isn’t he saying anything?”

Because you can’t verbally keysmash in real life you beautiful and vaguely threatening supernatural being.

The figure hummed, deep in thought, before leaning back (thank goodness) only to do something that made Sarawat let out a very unflattering shriek in surprise. Well there goes his reputation. He didn’t have one in the first place to begin with, especially not with this ghost, but still. There it goes.

Ghosts were unable to touch people right? Right? So why did a ghost...just touch him?

Sarawat raked his brain trying to remember the drama he watched a few months back with his brother (it was Phukong unsubtle way of being like, hey, bro, I like boys but I’m still scared of coming out so let’s just both pretend like I didn’t just cry at the scene where Ohm Pawat’s character comes out to his mother, I swear I’m emotional because of the acting not because I can relate to it).

Sarawat was positive that the ghost in that drama couldn’t actually touch anyone. He was like ninety-six percent sure that every time he tried his body would just go straight through the other characters.

He forgot how it was possible that the ghost could touch, and kiss, the human, though. He should have paid more attention but hey, he was also trying to think of an inconspicuous way to let it slip that he was also gay. Great (disaster gays) apparently think a lot alike.

Anyways, the figure poked his chest and Sarawat almost pissed his pants in shock. Clearly the ghost was just as surprised that he could actually touch Sarawat because he froze, making Sarawat happy that he decided to wear a shirt to bed tonight.

He assumed that the ghost must have thought he was dreaming to (wait can ghost dream?) so just to make sure he poked Sarawat three more times in the same spot and yup—Sarawat felt it. He felt it clear as day.

“Oh.” The figure tilted his head to the side. “This is weird. I shouldn’t be able to do that.”

Yeah, obviously.

Sarawat opened his mouth to finally speak (he swore he was going to play it cool and be all like: hi! i promise i’m not having gay thoughts right now!) but before he could a loud crash in the next room made him jolt in surprise.

After being rendered motionless for a few minutes, Sarawat finally gained control of his own body. He threw himself upright into a sitting position but in the process of doing so he accidentally slammed his forehead against the figure whose face was technically still in close proximity.

Cursing, Sarawat clutched his head as pain made white spots cloud his vision. “ Fuck .”

From next to him the figure cursed too. “ Shit.”

Eventually the pain subsided into a dull ache, allowing Sarawat to glance over at the boy—ghost, supernatural being, angel, whatever—next to him.

The top half of his face was no longer translucent anymore.

In fact, he wasn’t translucent at all.

Crimson blood began to trickle out from his nose, causing Sarawat to gape in horror.

Not because the image was a terrifying one. I mean, yeah, it was a bit weird but it has been established that Sarawat, that certifiable himbo, was in a constant state of ‘mark me down as scared and horny’ tonight, but because a ghost...was bleeding. From a wound that Sarawat gave him. Was that like, scientifically possible? Note to self: send a text to Earn so that she can ask her girlfriend about it.

Also? Sarawat was finally able to label the ghost's eyes as being a cross between honey and caramel. Obviously, his poor gay started chanting oh oh oh oh oh because yeah, read above, Sarawat Guntithanon? Himbo, Simp, Dumbass Extraordinaire. Either way he was a mess.

The possible brain injury and the shock of the entire night finally caught up to Sarawat, making his stomach churn with nausea and vision become blurry.

Without meaning to, Sarawat fainted—not even elegantly like one of those heroines in a romance novel but like a dead, fucking fish, limbs flopping every which way—right into the arms of the mysterious figure he was still dying ( yikes bad choice of words) to know the name of.

The last thing he registered before completely blacking out was that someone was cradling him to their chest, rambling away.

“Oh my god. Did I just kill him? No. No way. He’s still breathing. Shit. Sarawat! Hey, you saraleo, wake up!”

[brideofcthulhu10]

Eek! I requested but tumblr was being dumb, so I dunno if you got it or not! I remember it though! - I'm happy to have made your day! I relate to you on the insomnia, especially sleeping at 4 am. I hope you get some sleep! I think I just need some fluff right now, (it's 4:19 am and I'm playing with my piercings while reading and listening to music, so perhaps something involving the insomnia we share? I dunno) and who better to be fluff with than Marko? Right? The boy just needs some love 🥺❤️

Sounds perfect! I just so happen to have some perfect fluff in my handy dandy notebook!

MARKO FLUFF

Marko is my sweet baby, I adore him, I'll take any excuse to write more about him!

Marko gets a tad fidgety before bed, very similar to a toddler with that sudden burst of hyper just before the sun comes out. He'll take a good few hits of Paul's wacky tobacky to curve his energy. He knows the sun is rising, he should be tired... but he can't help it, his mind is going a million miles an hour! The best way to describe it is a loopy kind of tired, he'll usually either get giggly, or try to keep the other boys from falling asleep so he's not awake alone, or start asking the most ridiculous questions. Just hanging upside down in the cave with his hands behind his head as something will randomly pop in his head

"Psst, Paul. Paul. Hey man, you still awake?"

"Yeah dude, what's up?"

"Do you think pigeons get nightmares?"

"I dunno... maybe? Probably I guess. Like cats and stuff?"

Cue David in the most half asleep, mumbled monotone he can muster through his teeth.

"I'm going to give you two ten seconds to shut the fuck up and go to sleep"

He does secretly miss the sunset, the way it used to light up the whole sky in fire. It's one of the few things he misses about being human. Thankfully with the plethora of cinema now he can be content with watching movies. The beach waves really help him sleep, it's something he could never be bored with. The seagulls trying best in their cave, that gets old quick. When he first turned he would still try to peek at the sunset, but of course any glimmer of sunlight would char his undead skin. Cue him sulking for a few hours in the cave, arms crossed with a pouting lip.

Wrestling is pretty common amongst the 4 boys when bored out of their skulls. Marko is quick with a headlock, laughing like an idiot when Dwayne lifts him by his belt and flings him over his shoulder. Doesn't stop him from flying onto the ceiling then dive bombing Paul. Noogies for all, beware! Four teenage guys under one toppled, hole filled roof? Roughhousing will ensue, and furniture is not against the rules. Well, really there are no rules at that point. 

"Dudes, boardwalk's having a movie night we gotta go!" Waves flyer as he runs into the cave, leaves out the part he only found it because the wind slapped it up against his head on his way back from a food run. He'll beg to go, which doesn't take much convincing since it always got slower around winter time. Popcorn is a must, and he'll plop down in the comfiest spot. It's gotta be just right, middle not too close, not too far away. Definitely one to shush you if you try talking over his favorite scenes. His favorite movie is probably either Aliens or Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Who doesn't love cartoon violence? I absolutely picture him being a secret scifi nerd, like loving all the futuristic space stuff , "buying" tabloids with the most ridiculous titles (ie "I Married a Wolf Man"). He's not really a conspiracy theorist or anything, but he's definitely curious what else could be out there

When Chinese food grows old, his next favorite food is a good, classic burger. Honestly he's a bit of a foodie, he loves trying whatever weird concoction they have brewing on the boardwalk. He'll ride down to the nearest burger joint and order a chocolate shake and a double bacon cheeseburger with chili fries- hold any garlic. He'll of course get something for everybody, carrying a little scrap of paper with the various requests. You don't tell him what you want, fine it'll be a surprise. Paul of course has to steal some fries, to the point that Marko will get him an order even if he says he doesn't want any.

"My fucking fries count as wanting fries, man."

Believe it or not he does read when bored, but even better if someone reads to him. Hopeless romantic is too strong a word, but he does secretly wonder about how it'd be to have a mate. Laying on their lap, listening to them read aloud while playing with his hair. The thought always makes him smile. His favorite book is Lord of the Flies, second being The Crucible, it makes him wonder if there really are witches. He figures if vampires exist, why not other things? David is the first to dismiss said questions. It's not like knowing would make much a difference, he's content with what they already know. Fair enough, but he still keeps his little questions locked in his own mind. On lazy nights he'll lounge on a torn up couch with his feet propped up zoning out to a good read, sinking until he's practically being eating by the cushions. He'll definitely fall asleep on the couch with the book covering his face if you leave him there

Red hands is a favorite boredom game he'll challenge Paul to. Rock, Paper, Scissors was too predictable. Both are pretty evenly matched and snicker like idiots every time to other flinches. Lots of cussing whenever they lose, and you bet they count flinching as a reason to lay down a quick SMACK!

"Two for flinching!"

"It's only one you ass!"

Eventually try to challenge Dwayne to it and pester him until he agrees, only become increasingly frustrated when he repeatedly loses. When he finally gets a hit in, he definitely gets over excited and it's like being slapped by a bear. They've since stopped bugging him to play. Paul was ballsy enough to try and challenge David, and Marko had never seen him move so fast. Paul lost five times in a row and just rage quit by that point.

[gallagherwitt]

QAnon is actively, deliberately, and successfully grooming people to embrace fascism.

What’s that? Am I claiming that the kingpin of an organization of conspiracy theorists is actually behind a conspiracy of his own?

Yep. That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Stick with me, folks. I’ve been keeping my finger on the Q pulse for a while, and especially lately, this has become incredibly apparent. And not in the “look at all the pieces,” “take the red pill,” “wake up,” “open your eyes” kind of vagueness that Q’s followers use without realizing they sound like the cultists they are.

I mean looking at what is said, how it’s said, and how it’s making people think and behave.

For example, I just saw with my own eyes a Q follower outright state that the reason Trump and the GOP have been aggressively installing federal judges is so that after Trump's reelection, the infrastructure (trustworthy Constitutional judges) will be in place to try and convict members of the Deep State.

The whole narrative of Trump and others going after the "Deep State" and the "cabal of Satanic baby eaters and pedophiles," not to mention the constant drumbeat of "Trump is secretly renovating Gitmo to hold all these traitors" and "military tribunals are being set up as we speak"—QAnon's followers are eating it up and salivating for more, oblivious to the fact that they are eagerly embracing blatant fascism. It isn’t just creeping in and quietly setting up shop—there are people laying out the welcome mat and throwing it a parade in broad daylight with zero self-awareness.

There is an excited undercurrent right now because Q followers believe that Biden (along with Obama, Pelosi, Clinton, etc) are all going to be arrested any day now and tried for treason, convicted, and hanged. Don't listen to the mainstream media—they're in cahoots with the Deep State. It's all being driven by Soros and globalists, and if they are allowed to retain and gain more power, the United States and democracy are doomed.

Whoever is behind QAnon (and I’m going to go with the idea that he’s one male-identified person, just for the sake of brevity in my use of pronouns) has managed to socially engineer a large and growing group of people who claim to have a thorough understanding of the shadowy goings on in the government, but are completely unaware of what they're enthusiastically embracing.

The fear-mongering about globalism is part of nationalism, and is meant to make us wary of anyone who wants us to depend on or form alliances with other countries. Anything that seeks to unify the world is rejected and demonized as ushering in the New World Order, when in fact the entire narrative is meant to isolate us from the rest of the world, leaving us at the mercy of whoever is in power. “Build the wall” and “close the border” are battle cries of xenophobic nationalists who don’t realize that a wall and a closed border don’t just people out—they also keep people in. This xenophobic nationalism has been galvanized during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which people within this movement state with a straight face that the whole crisis (along with the BLM protests in the middle of it) was engineered by the Democrats along with China, globalists, and the media in order to damage Trump, steal the election, and usher in the NWO. It is, like everything, a false flag attack.

The liberal media’s alleged role in this segues nicely into the vilification of the media and the push for a state-run media, both of which are giant glowing neon signs of fascism. QAnon has taken Trump’s “fake news” narrative and pushed it ever harder, underscoring it with meme campaigns, videos, etc., with the never-ending “the media won’t tell you this” and “the media is afraid to tell you this.” Q’s followers swallow it up, resorting only to right wing sites and QAnon himself for their information. Fact-checkers are dismissed as biased and “Soros-backed.”

No one is to be trusted except for Trump, Q, and the handful of honest media outlets that toe the line of what is acceptable as truth. Anything critical of Trump or Q is to be rejected at once, because apparently no one paid attention to 1984. Anyone critical of Trump or Q are enemies, and are at best complacent (allowing the Deep State child rapists to remain in power) or are accomplices, and should be treated accordingly.

Whiiiiiich segues into that classic hallmark of fascism, "identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause." The Deep State, "illegals," Democrats ("left-wing extremist socialists"), George Soros (anti-Semitic dog whistle), etc. At every turn since Trump announced he was running, and at every turn since QAnon came on to the scene, there has been an “us vs them” mentality. There is always someone coming to take away our freedom, our democracy, our children, our jobs, etc.  Undocumented immigrants, Muslims, Democrats – always. Nothing will get better and everything will be a disaster unless and until THEY – because there is always a “THEY” – are arrested and punished.

Oh hey look, that dovetails nicely with another red flag of authoritarianism: arresting political opponents. Trump could announce today that every single Democrat is being arrested, sent to Guantanamo, and will be executed for treason, and the so-called Q Army would *cheer* because they've been so thoroughly brainwashed about the "Deep State" and the "cabal of pedophiles" that they never once stop to notice that the list of people accused of treason is a list of people who oppose Trump politically. Particularly as we get closer to the election, the salivating increases over “Obamagate,” imminent arrests, etc. without so much as an inkling of “Wait, arresting an entire political party right before an election sounds fishy.” Because they’ve all completely bought into the idea that the Democrats are Soros-backed globalists who rape and eat children.

Which brings me to yet another hallmark of fascism: obsession with crime and punishment. Mass arrests, Gitmo, military tribunals, executions—it’s all there on nauseating repeat, and Q’s followers LOVE IT. They don’t even realize that the idea of military tribunals for civilian offenses is, in and of itself, another notch in fascism’s bedpost: military supremacy.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Under the pretense of hardcore patriotism, QAnon has successfully convinced his followers to embrace and even cheer for fascism.

And they don’t even realize it.

[its-always-the-witching-hour]

Chapter 1 of Apocalyptic AU - Sanders Sides

This is way longer than I intended it to be, and it’s only chapter one. I don’t have a name for it yet, but I’ll come up with one soon.

Word count - 1643

Pairings - None (yet)

Warnings - (Spoilers) Zombies, blood, guts, the undead, being left alone, death, disease, summoning rituals - Tag anything I missed

Characters - Virgil Sanders, Deceit (Devan) Sanders, Remus Sanders

Next chapter

---

Everyone had called his parents crazy, and conspiracy theorists, but now they probably wished they had listened to them. It was month 4 of the apocalypse, and Virgil was probably the only survivor. The outbreak had started with what seemed like a new disease, one that was extremely contagious but harmless, and put the infected person into a sleepwalker like stupor that lasted for days. At first, things just continued like normal, with people still going to work and school, and traveling around the globe, but Virgil’s parents hadn’t bought it. They had locked him from the outside and inside in a bomb-proof bunker, stocked with enough food to last a person a year. They refused to join him, though, and instead attempted to figure out where the disease had originated from. The days down in the bunker were long, but not that boring, due to the fact that there were at least three charging points for electronic devices on each wall, and a tv to keep connected to the outside world, not to mention the bookshelf with all of Virgil’s favorite books in it. He thought that the whole thing was an over-reaction at first, but still got some pleasure out of it, mainly because he now had a valid excuse not to turn up to school, as he was locked in his crazy parent’s basement. Then the disease went into its second stage.

Everyone who had been infected once, or was still suffering from it just collapsed onto the ground. Scans of the bodies showed that their brains had just stopped functioning, and nothing that was done could bring them back. There were too many funerals that week. A week after every dead body was buried, stage three started. People walking past or paying their respects to the dead reported scratching sounds from the graveyards. The government and police dismissed it as a Halloween prank – as it was October at the time – and stated publicly that there was no point looking into it further. Then, the voices started. At first, it just sounded like the wind ripping through the leaves of trees, until people realized that there was no wind, and hadn’t been for weeks. The unexplained chattering noises became the root of many dares that week, and police had to stop many people, young and old, from doing stupid things like digging up the bodies, or chanting so-called ‘summoning rituals’ and trying to connect to the ghosts of the dead. And then, about a month after the disease was first discovered, all hell broke loose, literally.

A report to the police had told them that a man was walking strangely along the pavement outside their house, and they suspected that they were illegally drunk in public. However, when the police arrived, they found a man covered in dirt, mud and grass. Both of his hands had sizeable splinters sticking out of them, and a few fingers dangled as though they were broken, but there was no blood. He walked with a shambling gait, looking like he had broken at least one of his legs. One policeman approached him, to see if they needed to call an ambulance, and the rest, well the rest was recorded by a camera crew doing one of those police documentaries for TV. The horrifying video, which was aired on every station in the world, started off with the policeman approaching the man and asking him ‘Are you okay’. When the man didn’t respond, the policeman tried again, each time moving closer to the man, until he put his hand on the man’s shoulder. With a creepy, unhinged look, the man turned slowly towards the policeman, who seemed happy to get a response out of him at last. The man flew at the policeman, shoving him to the ground and sinking his teeth into his arm. The policeman screamed in agony, then his head flopped back against the pavement.

After that video, Virgil’s parents re-enforced the door with twice as many locks, and for once he was glad that his parents always thought the worst was going to happen. Even days after the video came out, Virgil was still having trouble sleeping, so at 3am, when it happened, he heard everything. It started off with a banging on the front door, but nobody took any notice of that, because their house was pretty old, and weird noises appeared almost every night. As soon as the groaning and mumbling bubbled up, Virgil knew his parents were going to die. He huddled under the weighted blankets of his bed, silent tears running down his face as he listened to his parent’s screams. A couple of times, the zombies banged on the door to his bunker, trying to find a way to get in, but it was built too well. They left around 5am, leaving Virgil alone in a now broken home.

That happened 2 months ago, and Virgil hasn’t heard a thing since. The TV in his room doesn’t work, because there is nobody left to air anything, and the electronic generator has been slowly running out of energy. Every book on the shelf has been read for at least three times, and food and water levels were running low. He knew that his slow and painful death from starvation or dehydration was about to begin. All he could do was just try and ration the remaining supplies he had left, and sleep. When he heard the noises, it was no wonder he thought the zombies had returned. Then, he heard their voices.

“Try this one.”

“I can’t it’s locked.”

“Oh. Well this one is empty. Looks like someone beat us to it.”

A pause, then, closer to the door of the bunker,

“Hey, look at this. What do ya reckon it is?”

“Pictures of… paranormal activity?”

“Woah. This one’s really cool. Look at all the organs on the floor.”

“I think I know who lived here…”

“Yeah? Who?”

“Those weird scientists that were convinced that the world was going to end soon.”

“Well, looks like they were right after all.”

A small bout of harsh laughter with no humor behind it caused Virgil to retreat further back into the safety of his bed, his heart pounding.

“Hey, didn’t they have a kid?”

“Yes, a son, I’m pretty sure. He went to our school, I think, but we’ve never seen him around because when anything remotely strange happened, his parents locked him up for days. Wait Remus don’t –”

A loud crash echoed through the house as ‘Remus’ knocked over something.

“I’m fine, stop fussing Dee. Was there a door here before?”

“A what?”

“Look, it’s like a safe door! But with a thousand more locks!”

“Interesting. Perhaps there’s more food inside.”

“Or bodies!”

“Why am I friends with you?”

“Because I’m the only one left alive apart from you.”

“I hate it when you’re right.”

“Aw, you know you looooove me.”

“Quit being weird and help me open this door.”

Virgil could hear them unlatching locks, and then, alarmingly, the door to his bunker began to shake. He let out an audible gasp, thankful that he kept the inside of the door locked in fear that the zombies would figure out how to open the outside locks.

“Huh, I think it’s locked on the inside as well.”

“But how, unless…”

There was a moment of terrified silence for Virgil, then the voices started speaking again, not to each other this time, but to Virgil.

“Hey, if there’s anyone in there, we won’t hurt you.”

“Yeah, we’re nice people, really, and also… we might be the only other people left.”

“Please open the door, if you need it, we can help you.”

Taking a deep breath, Virgil realized that they were his best chance at surviving, even if it meant leaving his safe haven, he would have to go with them. Steeling himself for what would lay behind it, he opened the door.

Standing in front of him were two boys of a similar age to him. One was wearing an interesting black cloak around his shoulders, fastened with a golden chain. The shirt he wore under it was plain grey, and he had jeans on. Half of his face was covered in dirty bandages, and he had a slightly surprised look, as if he hadn’t expected the door to actually open. The other boy had a dark green parker jacket on, and shorts, which made an interesting combo. His hair was extremely messy, with twigs and clumps of dried mud in it. He had a wide-eyed smile, that almost made him look crazy. Virgil regretted opening the door immediately.

“Hey…” the one in the cloak stepped forwards slowly, wincing as Virgil backed up nervously at the movement. “Don’t worry; we’re not going to hurt you. I’m Devan, but you can call me Dee, and that idiot over there is Remus.” Remus gave an energetic wave as he peered past Virgil into the bunker.

“I-I’m Virgil,” Virgil whispered, “and don’t bother looking in there for food; it’s nearly run out. I do have some medical kits if you need it.” He directed the last one at Dee, who touched the bandage on his face self-consciously.

“That… would help.” He admitted, sending an exasperated look at Remus as the energetic one glanced over at Devan, worry clear on his face, “I’m fine, Remus. It just… hurts sometimes.”

“Okay, but you need to let me know if it opens up again. I can help you, ya know.”

Unsure of what to do at this moment, Virgil retreated back into his bunker, then came out moments later carrying a bundle of blankets.

“Here,” He mumbled, offering the bundle to the other two, “This will hopefully have enough stuff to keep us going.”

“Us?” Devan asked.

“Yes, I’m coming with you.”

[mayascherub]

THE DINNER

WARNINGS: mostly angsty, but a littleeee 18+ :)

thanks too: @openheart12 @junggoku @sekizincimektup

*btw sry if there are any grammar mistakes etc. englsih is not my first language!*

-----

Ethan had planned his day thoroughly, knowing the time he got off the job, planning to go to Whole Foods, already had made a shopping list, so he didn't have to spend too much time in the public. Of course dreading the fact, that he always ran into several of his colleagues and interns. 

He enjoyed planning, and enjoyed that Naveen had suggested that they ate dinner together once a week. It felt nice, catching up on their personal lives, instead of discussing cases like they always did. Today it was Ethan’s turn to cook.

7:01 pm. 

Exactly 59 minutes before i have to leave Ethan thought, looking up from his silver watch as he was strolling down the halls of Edenbrook. He passed many doctors, brilliant doctors who all admired him. All doctors wanting to stand out, be the first to diagnose a patient, fill the chart with the most correct information - all for nothing.

Ethan already knew which doctor’s work he was most indulged in. Hers. Dr. Valentine. Casey.  

She had wrecked his life, whirled his heart like an uncontrollable tornado - in an insufferable addicting way. Ethan have had girlfriends in the past, but no one like Casey. No one made him feel the way he felt, when he saw Casey’s eyes sparkle with joy at him. 

The warmth from her body he was addicted to feel, when she showed him a patient’s chart. Having to clench his jaw, not to embrace her. To feel her.  

“Why do you have that smirk plastered on?” Casey playfully said, when Ethan passed by her in the hall.

“I-” He looked at her, almost scared that she had read his mind. “I just-”

“Did you yell at an intern? I know it makes you happy to crash dreams” she took a step towards him, crossing her arms and smiling mischievously.

“Very funny, Rookie” he said, trying not to stare at her “I am having dinner with Navee-” he stopped himself, as he noticed the other doctors around them. “..with Dr. Banerji. In less than an hour”

“Oooh. That sounds nice” she took a strand of hair behind her ear. “I guess he will be the one cooking?” 

“No, today is my day.. so far he is the only one who have cooked, so i-” he stopped himself as he noticed Casey giggling. “What is so funny, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“It’s just.. you cooking?” she bursted out laughing “I mean.. no offense”

“It is kinda hard not to.. you are insulting my cooking skills immensely” a small smirk creeped on his lips. “I guess.. i never considered it” 

“Well it’s your lucky day, Dr. Ramsey” she put her hands behind her back “i am very good at cooking, and i’ll get off in and hour as well” Ethan considered her words.

“Meet me in the parking lot at 8:15 sharp” he continued his walk, looking back to see a huge grin on her face.

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

Casey had to stay in the car while Ethan went shopping, since they surely would run into fellow Edenbrook doctors. And they would start all sorts of rumours. 

Ethan usually wouldn’t care, but he knew Casey did. 

She didn't deserve to be so hard-working, only for people to think she slept with her boss to earn her place on the diagnostics team. 

The drive was surprisingly awkward. Just an hour ago they communicated like school girls, now it just felt too real. 

She was going to his apartment for the first time in more than 2 months. When he left Boston and went to the Amazon he promised himself to let her go.

To let go of his feelings for her, and never set a foot into her apartment, or let her into his again. But here they are. In front of his place, ready to ruin his promises to himself. 

Ethan pulled his key out, only to notice that his door was already open. “What..”

“Has there been a robbery?” Casey said, looking worried at Ethan. Only for the song “Afterglow” being played from his living room, inside.“Taylor Swift? What is happeni-”

“Naveen” Ethan shook his head, but clearly delighted by his mentor. “He has a spare key” Casey looked stunned at him.

“Well i know that! But.. NAVEEN IS A TAYLOR SWIFT STAN?” Ethan chuckled at her comment.

“I am.. so mind blown right now.. an old doctor.. listens to- oh god. I am so happy i decided to come tonight” 

Ethan opened the door, and quickly put the bags of groceries in the kitchen, where he met Naveen, sitting on a barstool at the kitchen island. Humming silently to the lyrics of the song.

“Good to see you, son. I am.. er.. very excited for dinner” Naveen said plaufully, clearly making a joke about Ethan’s cooking abilities. Am i really that bad? Ethan thought, but before he could answer, Casey walked up behind him.

“And now you should be even more. I was assigned to help Ethan” She patted Ethan friendly on his shoulder, letting a huge grin out. Naveen looked surprised at her arrival, yet happy to see her.

“What a lovely surprise, Casey!” Naveen took a long pleasant stare at her, and then at Ethan. 

“What is it?” Ethan said, knowing Naveen had his mind on something. 

“Well i am just surprised the two of you are dating without telling me first” Naveen scooped down from the stool, and went to the livingroom to turn off the Taylor Swift music and returned to them, finding them glaring at him uncomfortably. Casey had retreated her hand from Ethan’s shoulder, standing frozen. 

“Ah kids, that was simply a joke” he laughed loudly, holding a hand on his stomach. 

“You should see your faces!” He started unpacking the grocery bags.

“I- Naveen?” Ethan turned around to Naveen, a bright red color spreading on his cheeks. 

“Ahem. Well, should we all cook together?” he said, looking shyly at Casey, who clearly still were stunned by Naveen’s comment. 

“Yes. Yes I uh- yes. Dr. Ra- Eth- uh.. yes” Casey stumbled on her sentence, although it filled Ethan’s stomach with butterflies, pleased with her equal feelings for him. They both felt like little school children, getting caught by their teacher. 

They all started cutting out veggies and meat, as Naveen and Casey tried to learn Ethan how to roast chicken properly - ending in Casey taking over, leaving the men to set up the table. 

“You know” Naveen said in a low voice to Ethan, so Casey couldn't hear him “It wasn’t all a joke”

Ethan almost tripped, as he was holding three plates. He quickly balanced himself again, his face turning red again. 

“It would be.. inappropriate. And unprofessional” 

“So you’ve thought about it, boy?” Naveen smiled brightly, tilting his head to one side.

“I- no i- it was simply a fact, Naveen. You-” Naveen shook his head while maintaining the smile.

“I’ve never met a person who makes you speechless” he said as he returned to check on Casey. 

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

After dinner Naveen left, giving Ethan an obvious wink as he was hugging Casey. 

“You kids take care” he said, closing the front door behind him. Leaving Casey and Ethan alone together in Ethan’s apartment.

They looked at each other, as they both knew they shared a longingly feeling for them to connect again. Them both knowing they couldn’t, their eyes turning somber in sync.

Ethan cleared his throat. 

“Are your friends waiting for you?” 

“Yeah, i should probably..” 

“Of course” Ethan took her jacket of the hanger, handing it too her, only stopping in mid-air. “Wait you can’t go.. you can’t go home alone.. it's dangerous. And i can’t drive you, i had too many glasses of wine, and-”

“Uber? I can just call an Uber” 

“No. You can’t trust them” he said, trying to look sincere.’You can’t trust them?’ What are you, a conspiracy theorist? He thought, annoyed by his own comment. “You can borrow my car.. or” he leaned against the wall, looking at her with great insecurity. “You can.. stay here for the night”

It felt like the whole world gone silent - two adults clearly having feelings for eachother, both trying to restrict themselves - and then she broke the silence. 

“I would love to” Casey said, eyes smiling as she looked up at him. “And anyways, i would definitely dent your car. I am a terrible driver”

“Oh, i know” he said, smirking as she walked by him from the foyer to the living room. 

She stopped, and turned around to face him.

“So do you have any extra blankets or something?” Ethan almost didn’t hear her words, still being in a trance after her decision. “Ethan? Hellooo?”

“Oh, yeah of course.. but” he scratched the back of his head. “I’ll sleep on the couch, you can take my bed” 

Casey protested, but Ethan convinced her that he usually would fall asleep on the couch with a book - so he was used to it. He showed her the bedroom, both of them pretending that she never had seen it before. She gestured to his closet.

“Do you have any pj’s or old t-shirts or something i can borrow?”

“Yeah” he opened a drawer, and gave her a green t-shirt that said “World's finest doctor” written in pink.

Casey bursted out laughing. 

“Well, well, well Dr. Ramsey” she took the shirt and held it up to him. “Why have i never seen you wearing this?” 

Ethan smiled, enjoyed how much she enjoyed this moment. “It was a gift from Ines.. dont.. mention this to anyone.” 

Casey hugged the fabric, and went into the bathroom to change. She came out, the t-shirt reaching just her upper thigh, exposing a very little amount of her bottom. But for Ethan, it was just enough. He quickly looked away, and crossed his legs to hide his body’s response to her outfit. 

“Very well.. i’ll go to bed now” he said, trying really hard to think about anything else but his desire to share the bed with her.

“Okay, goodnight” she said, well-knowing of the look in his eyes. 

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

And there he was. Laying on the uncomfortable couch, both regretting his choices for letting her stay - and dreading the fact that he didn’t go further. 

That night he didn’t sleep. His mind was full. And to his own annoyance, jealous of his shirt for being so close with her. Absorbing her smell.

Of course he was planning to wash it the next day. Of course! But could he really get himself to do it? 

He knew that they had crossed a boundary. But now.. They could never go back. We will make it work. And he knew they would. Because his eagerness for her presence would only grow stronger.  

[joygaytrash]

Things weren’t suppose to be this way(Spiderverse AU)

Word count: 3071

Notes: Fucking finally, I finished this. It’s a bit rushed but I didn’t wanna make it too long. Anyways, this is for @sugarglider9603 and @galaxy-lilies-main AU and I hope you enjoy this~

The plan was to stay there for dinner then leave, not to stay and listen to his dad talk to his friends.

Emile never enjoyed going to the dinner parties for his and his dad's job. He always felt uncomfortable at them. He knew his mom didn't like going to them either, the other reporters there always hit on her despite being told that she's married.

Which leads them to here, Emile and his mom, waiting outside the entrance of the boss of the Daily Bugle's house, already annoyed by everyone there. Emile was on his phone, texting Remy and Dolion while Evelyn was also on her phone, currently having a conversation with one of her co-workers.

"Helen, listen, take as much time as you need. Your baby comes first, not your job and I will be telling Michael that tomorrow. Just take it easy, okay? Great, talk to you soon, Helen. Bye," Evelyn sighed softly as she hung up the call, putting her phone in her purse.

"Is Helen finally having her baby, Mom?" Emile asked, looking up from his phone.

"She's getting there," Evelyn replied as she looked back at the doors, "What is taking your father so long?"

Emile shrugged, putting his phone away. "I'm not sure, do you want me to go check on him?" He asked. Evelyn shook her head as she dug out her car keys and handed them to Emile. "No, I will. You go start the car, okay?" She answered, opening the door. Emile nodded, gripping the keys as he made his way to the car while his mom went back inside to get his dad.

He unlocked the car and got in, putting the keys in the ignition, starting it up then put it in idle mode. Emile then sat in the back seat, going back to texting Remy and Dolion as he waited for his parents.

But then 5 minutes became 10 minutes, 10 minutes becomes 15 minutes, and 15 minutes becomes 20 minutes. This worried Emile. What if something happened to his parents? What if his mom or dad got hurt? What if-

Emile's racing thoughts were cut off by his phone ringing. He grabbed it, seeing the caller I.D. and answered the call right away, "Hey mom, is everything okay?"

"Emile, listen to me carefully. I need you to take the car and leave," Evelyn said, not answering Emile's question.

"What? Leave? Mom, what's going on?" Emile asked, the worry in his voice was clear. Why would Emile leave his mom here? What about his dad? What was going on with him?

"Em, hun, I don't have much time to explain. All I can tell you right now is your dad isn't the man we all thought he was," Evelyn quickly explained.

"What do you mean?"

"Hun, please, I will explain when this is all over. Just take the car and drive and shut your phone down so you can't be traced. There's a non-traceable phone in the glove compartment, okay?"

His mouth felt dry. What was going on? Why was his mom acting like this?

"Okay," He replied as he crawled into the driver seat, tossing his bag on the seat next to him.

"Good. I love you, Em," His mom cooed, trying her best to keep calm. Emile smiled a little, already feeling the tears in his eyes.

"I love you too, Mom," He responded before ending the call and powering down his phone. After setting it in the middle console, Emile started the car up fully before driving away from the house as quick as possible.

Once Emile was a few miles away from the house, he opened the glove compartment and dug out the phone his mom had mentioned earlier. He turned it on and dialed a familiar number before putting the phone up to his ear, listening to the electric buzz.

"Hello?" The tired voice asked on the other end.

"Thomas, it's Emile. Listen, I need your help," Emile said, stopping at an empty intersection.

"Okay, where are you, kid? I can come get you right now and-"

"I'm practically nowhere right now,"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm currently driving, without my parents,"

The other end was silent for a few moments, making Emile shift anxious in the car seat as he started driving again.

"Look, Thomas, something is going on with my dad. We were at the company dinner for the Daily Bugle and after we finished eating my mom and I waited for my dad then she went to get him while I started the car. Then 20 minutes later, my mom called me and told me to drive and said my dad wasn't the person we thought he was and oh my goodness, Thomas, I'm scared," Emile explained, his voice breaking a little at the end.

"Hey, hey, everything's gonna be okay. We'll figure this all out but I need you to calm down and focus on driving. I'm sure your mom wouldn't want her son getting hurt," Thomas suggested. Emile nodded, taking a deep breath and released it before focusing on driving.

"Better?" Thomas asked, keeping his voice down.

"Yeah,"

"Good, good. Now, how about you come over to my place so you're not alone tonight, deal?"

Emile felt a small smile on his face as he started to relax a bit, "Deal."

"Great. See you in a bit, kid," Thomas said.

"Same to you, Thomas," Emile added before ending the call and putting the phone in the center console of the car by his phone and then started to make his way towards Thomas' place.

***

Emile got to Thomas' place about 15 minutes later, grabbing everything of his from the car and went inside. Thomas had tea ready for Emile in order to help him calm his nerves.

"So, if I'm correct, your mom told you to leave after being gone for 20 minutes to go get your dad and said your dad wasn't the man you guys thought he was?" Thomas asked, looking at Emile.

Emile nodded, taking a drink of his tea. "That's correct and I'm super worried, Thomas. I mean, what if my dad did something to my mom? What if my dad's holding my mom, our boss, and our co-workers hostage in our boss's house?" Emile rambled.

"Hey, hey, breathe. We will figure this out, Emile. We will find out what your mom meant and we will find her and everyone else. And right now, you should get some rest. It's late and you need it," Thomas said.

"But-," Emile began to argue back, but Thomas quickly cut him off.

"No buts. As your temporary parent, you need to get some rest so we can focus on this tomorrow, understood?" Thomas stated, cracking a smile as an attempt to lighten the mood.

Emile couldn't help but giggle a little, making Thomas chuckle a bit. "Okay, okay, I'll lay down. The tea's making me tired anyways," Emile responded.

"Good. I'll see you in the morning, kid," Thomas said as he got off the couch.

"Same to you, Thomas," Emile said back, taking his glasses off and set them on the coffee table. They said one last 'good night' to each other before Thomas disappeared to his room, leaving Emile alone on the couch. The teen sighed and laid down, covering himself up with the blanket that had been draped on the back of the couch.

"It's gonna be okay, Emile. Thomas and the others will figure this out and your mom will be safe," Emile mumbled to himself before falling asleep.

***

It's been a week and they found nothing yet. The police had gotten involved and searched the boss's house, but found no signs of the boss themselves, the employees, or Emile's parents. This only added to Emile's paranoia.

He had gone to school and to work that past week, hoping that one day, his dad would be at work to greet him and his mom would be at home, waiting to hear about his day. But they didn't show up.

After the disappearance of his boss, co-workers, and parents became public, the school allowed Emile to take as much time as he needed off. They didn't want him to worry about his parents and his school work at the same time.

Now here Emile was, sitting in the spider lair with Joan and Talyn, watching them go through some files.

"So, what's this for?" Emile asked. He saw Joan and Talyn glance at each other quickly then back at Emile.

"Well, Thomas thought that if your dad was behind this, there would be red flags in his bank statements or something, so, he asked Talyn and I to look through his things," Joan explained as Talyn nodded in agreement next to them.

"Have you tried looking through his email?" Emile suggested.

"No, not yet. We were just about to though," Talyn answered, pulling up Emile's dad's email. None of it was what they expected to see.

There was probably a couple hundred emails all coming from or going to the same person; Dragon Witch. Emile could feel his stomach perform a full 180, making him run to the nearest trash can and lose his lunch. His heaving and coughing drowned out the footsteps behind him but not the voice talking to him.

"Hey, you okay, Picani? Do you need some water? Does that name seem familiar to you? Does-," Joan started to shoot questions off left and right but Talyn stopped them right in their tracks.

"Joan, go get Emile some water and probably some pain killers. I'll stay here with him," Talyn said, their words sounding more like a demand than a suggestion. Joan nodded and stood up from the floor, jogging away from the two.

"I recognized that name, Talyn," Emile mumbled, catching Talyn's attention.

"Really?"

"Yeah. According to my mom, my dad used to be a conspiracy theorist before I was born and had his own website and every time he shared a theory, he'd sign the post off with 'Dragon Witch'. Now, I'm not sure if he still has that website but I am sure that he is still the only one who uses that name, no one but him, my mom, and I know that name,"

Talyn nodded, patting Emile's back gently as Joan came back with the water and pain killers.

***

Joan and Talyn had spent days on end analyzing Emile's dad's emails when they finally managed to find a location of an abandoned building at the edge of the city. They both told Thomas as soon as they found it and Thomas got a hold of the Spider gang right after.

The group of heroes now we're standing in range of the building, discussing on how they wanted to go about this. Emile was sitting near the group, looking at the abandoned building while listening to the discussion.

"Okay, gurl, like lowkey, I want to deck Emile's dad in the face," Remy stated.

"Same," Dolion added, Venom growling in agreement on his shoulder.

"You guys can but we need to figure out how to get in, get every worker out of there then we can fight him," Thomas said.

"Well, I suggest that two of us does a quick perimeter of the building, just to see how big it is and how many entry points we have," Logan suggested, "Virgil and I can do it but only if he's okay with that, of course."

"I'm down to do that," Virgil replied. Thomas nodded and the two of them were gone, swinging over to the building.

They came back a few minutes later, standing on the ledge. "There's doors and a garage door in the back and a door in the front," Logan described.

"And a bunch of windows," Virgil added, Logan nodded his head in agreement next to him.

"Great, now, let's get a moving. You ready, kid?" Thomas asked, looking at Emile. The teen nodded, standing up from his spot. "Yeah, I'm ready," Emile answered, looking back at Thomas. Thomas nodded and pulled down his mask, the seven others doing the same while Dolion allowed Vemon to cover his body.

Then the group made their way to the building.

***

If any of them were being honest, it had felt like they've been fighting for hours. Robot soldier after robot soldier, their muscles became sore after taking them down. Once they finally finished fighting the robot soldiers, the spider gang went to find the boss, the employees, and Emile's parents.

Patton was the first to find the boss and the employees, who were being held in a old storage locker in the basement. One by one, him and Roman checked to see if any of them were injured before safely removing them from the building. But Emile's mom wasn't in the crowd and he could feel the lump in his throat.

"We'll find her, Emile, I promise," Thomas told him softly when he noticed the uneasy look on the teen's face. Emile nodded his head, still a bit on the edge.

Crash!

Thomas and Emile turned their heads towards the crash before Thomas turned his head back at the group. "Remy, Dolion, Emile, and I will go check that out while you four wait outside with the civilians," Thomas stated.

"You got it, Rainbow!" Roman yelled as him and the other three ran outside.

Thomas then ran off in the other direction with Dolion, Remy, and Emile following behind him. Once they got to the source of the crash, the four of them saw Emile's dad looking at a large computer screens with multiple smaller ones around it. On the floor by him were scattered pieces of metal and next to him was Emile's mom, bounded down in a chair.

Emile felt his breath get caught in his throat as the sick feeling in his stomach returned.

"What the hell, Evelyn?! That took me weeks to make!" Emile's dad exclaimed, looking at his wife. Evelyn rolled her eyes, slouching in the chair. "Oh, boo-hoo. Poor Richard, you spent your free time building some machine instead of being with your family, I feel so bad," Evelyn faked cooed with a deadpan expression on her face.

"At least I am actually home at night!"

"At least I actually give a damn about our kid!"

"Okay, okay. That's enough,"

Evelyn and Richard turned their heads to see Rainbow Weaver standing in the doorway with his hands resting on his hips.

"Ah, you finally arrive, Rainbow Weaver. Took you long enough," Richard commented, stepping away from the large computer.

"Quit the chit chat, buddy. I am already tired of your bs and this is the first time I met you face to face," Rainbow shot back, earning a loud cheer from Dream Catcher and Vemon behind him.

"Drag him by his wig, gurl! Drag hiiim!" Dream Catcher yelled. Rainbow Weaver sighed, turning towards Dream Catcher and Vemon. "Guys, I am not gonna drag him by his hair," Rainbow said.

Dream Catcher and Vemon argued with Rainbow, still attempting to get Rainbow Weaver to drag Richard by his hair. While the three of them argued, Richard pulled a small remote from his pocket with a smirk on his face. He was about to press the button when a string of web came from behind him, grasping the remote and pulled it out of Richard's hand.

"The hell?!" He yelled, catching the attention of Rainbow, Dream Catcher, and Vemon.

"Missing something, Richard?" A voice asked, making the four of them to turn their attention to the source of the voice. There they saw Emile in his normal clothes, holding the remote with a wicked smirk on his face. Evelyn was standing next to him, a sledge hammer in her hands.

"What-? Emily, the hell are you doing here?!" Richard asked, clearly annoyed.

"Emily hasn't been around since eighth grade, Dad. And to answer your question, I'm here to put this all to an end," Emile answered, taking the remote in both hands and easily snapped it into two(okay, Emile really loves his super strength, so of course he's gonna show it off). His dad stared at him with a shocked look on his face, his eyes were wide with confusion.

"But, how?!"

"How what, Richard? Your inventions break easily. For example," Evelyn lifted the sledge hammer and swung the hammer down on the control panel of the large computer, "In reality, anyone who have made their panel with stronger metal and would have hidden the sledge hammers," She explained, clearly happy with her actions.

Richard's confusion was soon replaced with anger as he grabbed something from his tool belt. As soon as he found what he wanted, Richard got ready to throw it, only for his whole torso to be covered in spider web.

"Come on now, gurl, you know better than to hurt your own wife and son," Dream Catcher pointed out before punching Richard in the face hard.

***

Once Thomas had gotten Richard all bounded together in webbing, he carried him outside with the help of Dolion and Remy. Emile and his mom had decided to stay behind because Emile wanted to make sure his mom was okay.

"Did he hit you?"

"No, he didn't,"

"Are you sure? Because if he did then I can punch him in gut or I can have Dolion to do it or-"

"Emile," Evelyn stopped her son mid sentence, placing her hand on his shoulder, "I am fine. Your dad did not hurt me in any way, shape, or form. I wasn't even worried that he would hurt me, I was worried about you more than anything."

The teen was quick to hug his mom and Evelyn returned it, holding Emile close. "I was worried about you too, Mom. Scared, even," Emile mumbled into his mom's shoulder.

"I know you did, Em. Now, let's get out of here. This place gives me the hibby jibby," Evelyn suggested, making Emile laugh a little.

"Sounds like a great idea. We can go through the back to avoid the reporters," Emile said, pulling away from Evelyn. His mom nodded, wrapping an arm around her son's shoulder before making their way to the back door, finally happy that this nightmare was over and that they had to deal with one last toxic person in their lives. 

[sceptilemasterr]

ES Act 2, Scene 2 - The Princess and the Wolf

Title: Endless Summer: The (un)Official Screenplay

Main Pairings: Estela x Ian (M!MC), Jake x Alyssa (F!MC)

Other Pairings: Craig x Zahra, Grace x Aleister, Michelle x Sean, Diego x Varyyn

Genre: Full Rewrite

Rating: PG-13 for swearing, violence, alcohol, and sexuality

Summary: Lost en route to the emergency shelter, Jake and Alyssa seek higher ground.

Previous Scene: A Mystery Solved

Masterlist: Link

EXT. LA HUERTA JUNGLE - DAY

Jake’s group follows Lila along a dirt path through the jungle, the sounds of nature all around them. Quinn and Grace lag behind, stopping every so often to glance at the strange, glowing flowers they are passing by.

GRACE: I’ve heard La Huerta’s ecosystem was unique, but these flowers are... the shape, the texture, it’s like nothing I’ve ever come across in my textbooks!

QUINN: They’re just so beautiful! Like something out of a dream...

In front of them, Alyssa plucks a brilliant purple flower and tucks it into her hair.

ALYSSA: You’re right, Quinn! How do I look?

QUINN: Wow, you look amazing!

JAKE (simultaneously): Ridiculous, Princess.

ALYSSA (to Jake): Wasn’t asking for your opinion anyway. (To Quinn) Thank you, Quinn!

Jake reaches over and yanks the flower out of Alyssa’s hair, tossing it to the side.

ALYSSA: HEY! The hell was that for?!

JAKE: How much d’you wanna bet those flowers aren’t drenched in radiation? I just saved you from growing a new head.

ALEISTER: That is preposterous.

ALYSSA: Huh. Never thought you’d be the conspiracy theorist type.

JAKE: Is it a conspiracy theory if it’s true? You’d be surprised by the kinda rumors you hear about this place, if you know where to look.

ALYSSA: ...Rumors? Like what?

JAKE: I’m just sayin’. In the military, you hear a lot of things. Criminal plots. Weird experiments. Missing-

ALEISTER: Jacob, enough! This is, quite frankly, absurd!

Jake follows Aleister’s gaze behind them to see Grace looking down at her feet, obviously scared by the pilot’s words. He looks back to Aleister.

JAKE: Oh, give it a rest, Malfoy-

Up ahead, Lila suddenly stops, glancing around in confusion.

ALYSSA: Uh... something wrong? What’s the holdup?

LILA: This doesn’t make any sense. According to the signs, the shelter should be right nearby, but...

She gestures at the jungle around them.

JAKE: Yeah, I don’t see any shelter. Or any anything, unless it’s some kinda invisible treehouse.

Jake heads off toward a rocky cliff visible in the distance.

ALYSSA: Wait, where are you-

JAKE: Always get the high ground. That’s basic tactics, Princess.

QUINN: Do you really think you can find the shelter from there?

JAKE: Dunno. You got any better ideas?

QUINN: I hear a waterfall nearby! What if the shelter’s over there?

GRACE: Ooh, that sounds fascinating! I’ll come with you!

The two girls walk off in the opposite direction from the cliff, following the sound of running water. Jake looks over his shoulder at Alyssa.

JAKE: ...Well? You comin’?

ALYSSA: Are you asking me, Top Gun?

Jake gives a noncommittal shrug and continues toward the cliff. After a moment’s deliberation, Alyssa follows, jogging to catch up.

ALEISTER: Oh, brilliant! Absolutely genius, everyone rushing off into the unfamiliar jungle heedless of personal safety! I shall wait right here, thank you very much!

Jake moves through the jungle like he was born to it, easily ducking beneath branches and hopping over fallen logs. Alyssa has a much more difficult time of it, getting repeatedly smacked in the face by undergrowth and gasping for air as a result of the exertion.

ALYSSA (out of breath): Holy shit. Do you do this a lot, or something?

JAKE: What, get stuck on an island with a bunch of college kids? Gotta admit, haven’t done that one before.

ALYSSA (out of breath): I meant this stuff. Nature. You make it look so easy!

JAKE: Well, sure. Even before basic training, I grew up in rural Louisiana. More gators and mud, but otherwise not too different from here.

ALYSSA (out of breath): My brother should be the one out here right now. He’s the outdoors guy, not me; I’d prefer sidewalks and nightclubs any day.

JAKE: Figured.

ALYSSA (angrily): You... you...!

JAKE: Hey, easy, that wasn’t an insult! All I meant was, you could use some advice. That’s all.

Alyssa takes a moment to digest the meaning of his words.

ALYSSA: You’re serious?

JAKE: Sure I am. I do have moods other than “sarcastic,” you know.

ALYSSA (laughs): Uh-huh. Alright, I’ll admit, you know way more about nature than I do, so... I’m all ears.

Jake parts a dense patch of ferns in front of them to reveal the cliffside seen earlier, which is now right in front of them.

JAKE: Alright, Lesson 1: when in doubt, get the high ground. It’s easier to get the lay of the land from higher up, plus you have the advantage against your enemies.

ALYSSA: Jake? We don’t have any enemies here. At least I sure as hell hope not.

JAKE (sheepishly): Right. Sorry. Military habits and all that. Still, the “lay of the land” part still stands.

ALYSSA: So, how do we get up there?

JAKE: You kiddin’? How do you think?

Alyssa looks up at the steep cliff.

ALYSSA: ...Please tell me you’re kidding.

JAKE: I mean, you can just stay here if you’re too scared-

ALYSSA (sighs dramatically): Screw it, let’s go!

Jake smiles knowingly before cupping his hands to give Alyssa a boost. Together, they begin to scale the steep cliff, with Jake making it to the top first.

ALYSSA: Oww... this... sucks...

JAKE: Just a little more!

When Alyssa is almost to the top, her next handhold breaks off in her hand, and she shrieks! Jake lunges down and grabs her arm in both of his hands.

JAKE: Gotcha!

ALYSSA: Jake!

Jake strains his powerful muscles, finally pulling Alyssa up to the top of the cliff. They both stand and take in the sight of the jungle canopy around them.

ALYSSA: I gotta admit... this view was almost worth falling for.

Jake looks over at her to see her staring at him. When she notices him looking, she coughs and looks away.

JAKE: Uh. Right. One hell of a sight, ain’t it?

Alyssa shuffles her feet, lost in thought. Then, the glint of sunlight on metal in the distance catches her eye.

ALYSSA: Oh! Jake, look! Is that a building out there?

She points toward the jungle. Jake follows her gaze to see:

JAKE: Hey, that’s gotta be the shelter! Hot damn, Princess!

ALYSSA: Well, I wouldn’t have made it up here in the first place without you.

They stare into each other’s eyes for one long, drawn-out moment.

JAKE: We, uh... should probably find the others.

Alyssa tucks a lock of hair behind her ear awkwardly.

ALYSSA: Yeah. Right. Of course.

Next Scene: Rooftop Chat

Tag List: @brightpinkpeppercorn​ @mysteli​ @edgydepressedchoicesthot​ @bbaba-yagaa @endlesshero1122 @endlessly-searching-for-you

[migleefulmoments]

Is Darren’s watch gay?

Today the CC fandom has a theory that Darren wore his PINK and blue watch because it’s a “gay” watch or a symbol of his queerness.... because PINK obviously means gay, right? 

The watch has the added advantage of being both pink and blue ...therefore it’s a solid representation of both Chris and Darren -at least according to the CC belief that blue represents Chris and PINK represents Darren, like DUH! For anyone new, the color symbolism is something the CCers have long believed....I mean, that is something normal adults do right? Assign colors to their OTP or even better, to themselves and then actually wear those colors once a year to send a secret “high-five” to those fans who are paying enough attention to “get it”..I mean it’s totes normal, right?  

Anonymous asked:

hello love! i hope you’re doing well! i know this doesn’t mean anything but i saw the thumbnail for the interview you linked of d saying he doesn’t know who he came out straight to and he’s wearing a watch with a blue band and pink face and i noticed he’s wearing either the same or a similar watch when rehearsing in lsb! but then his watch changes and i thought it was weird,,, anyway sorry for the ramble!!

ajw720 answered:

Hello nonnie!!!!  Excellent observation.  That is a watch he has had for years, He used to always wear it, now much less, likely not approved by his team, plus often the watch he wears now is a paid endorsement.

But the pink and blue watch, that is genuine D and what he loves.  Add pink is D and Blue is C and those colors have been associated with their relationship since the beginning.

I always smile when he wears that watch. I think it is very special to him.

LSB rehearsal 2019. He clearly looks happy and like his watch is “special to him” and we all know that photos (and screen grabs) are PROOF of Darren’s emotions. 

LSB BTS package 2019. He’s MUCH happier here. 

George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight 2012 

Apparently, Darren hasn’t worn the watch much -not something I have ever paid attention to- but it was spotted on his arm during rehearsals for LSB. It’s clearly not the same watch as the band is teal in the 2012 screen grab and blue in the more recent one.  

(I posted the comments out of order so ya know go read the original if you want a more accurate reflection of their thought process).

Sometimes the CC Conspiracy Theorists catch the fact that the items they are matching- don’t actually match....

souly

If I remember correctly, this is not the original watch though. I don’t remember what he said about the original one, but he stopped wearing it for a while. At the first Elsie (or was it the second?), a fan gave him the new watch. There was a post about it back then, but I don’t know if it’s still around.

Anyway, I do believe though that he loves this watch for what it stands for - the original and the new one - so it always makes me smile when I see it!

(Plus, these BTS videos made it obvious that he is wearing the silver one for promotion and prefers the other one in private. And now look at the paps shots and so-called “private outings with friends” again and look at the watch he is wearing there.)

flowersintheattic254

I’m happy that at least he can wear something that’s special to him personally. Even for a short time.

There is always a “no longer available” post to explain CC Confirmed. As for whether it is special to him? Darren has never indicated that the watch is special to him. That is called MAKING UP A STORY. But from this day forward the fandom will believe that this little queer watch is meaningful to Darren. 

The watch is a sporty, more causal-and presumably less expensive- than the watch he has been wearing.  Wearing a less expensive, more casual watch while exercising isn’t logical CC reasoning, noooooo, logical CC reason is of course that his team WON’T LET HIM wear it. He has to be sneaky when he wants to express his sexuality through accessories. Also, they claim that he is forced to wear a “paid endorsement” watch most of the time.. 

ajw720

@flowersintheattic254 it has been almost 5 months since the JH promo began and they essentially stripped him of the rings we know mean the world to him (absolutely intentional, M and RR knew precisely what they were doing when they got that campaign, it was about much more than a free trip to Bali).  So I agree, it is good to see him supplement an accessory here and there that is actually meaningful to him.  I cannot wait until he is free to just be himself.

Sooooo, I’m not entirely sure why she brought up “JH promo” here, but I read it to mean that the watch that he normally wears is promotion for John Hardy. They have obsessively raged about the John Hardy jewelry since his trip to Bali in September. Yes, I am sure that was a promotional trip. Who cares? He got to spend a week in Bali and all he and Mia had to do was wear some jewelry. Darren seems to enjoy the designs as he has worn them quit a bit since then- UNTAGGED. I honestly never pay attention to these things but the CCers always comment. The thing is, something is only “promotion” on social media if it is tagged. Wearing an untagged ring or bracelet isn’t in anyway promoting the item. Only the most diehard, rage-filled fans recognize the untagged John Hardy pieces. The idea of promotion isn’t simply to get free stuff and wear it on social media, it’s to drive traffic to the John Hardy website and them to get people to actually purchase the pieces. Wearing them untagged doesn’t serve this goal. 

But back to the watch...is Darren wearing an (untagged) John Hardy watch as per his endorsement deal?

Uh, NO.  There are no John Hardy Watches. If he is wearing a promotional watch for a different brand-he really sucks at it.

Some thoughts on other CC comments:

...they essentially stripped him of the rings we know mean the world to him (absolutely intentional, M and RR knew precisely what they were doing when they got that campaign, it was about much more than a free trip to Bali).  So I agree, it is good to see him supplement an accessory here and there that is actually meaningful to him.  I cannot wait until he is free to just be himself.

So let’s analyze the facts: 

Chris gave him ring(s)? The CCers have long claimed that Chris gave Darren a ring, a ring he often- but not always-wears on his right hand. Over the years, there are I believe, 5 different rings that Darren has worn and all were attributed to Chris until the John Hardy rings were added in September. Why were they attributed to Chris? Literally NO reason whatsoever other than their fantasy.  These same people have raged over their claim that Mia has sported 5 different engagement rings in the last year. The rings all look to me like the same diamond ring with other rings added when the mood struck her. CC Mia is horrible for caring so little about her Engagement Ring that she would wear 5 different rings, but Chris is romantic AF for giving Darren 5 rings. 

The rings are meaningful to Darren? Darren has NEVER said the rings hold any meaning for him or who they are from that I am aware of. He doesn’t wear them consistently. Seems to me that they are fashion accessories and nothing more. He’s worn the John Hardy’s rings quite a bit since September.  Clearly, the CC fandom couldn’t claim the John Hardy rings are from Chris, so they fell back on their favorite excuse: his team “forced” him to wear the rings. I’m never sure exactly how one “forces” another adult to do something. I’ve been married for 24 years, if someone can tell me how to “force” him to do my bidding, I would love it.    

One final CC comment on this topic- The Impossible Dream comment

bjpb08

Concur @ajw720. The thing is D has always found a way to fight back, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. We have seen it on the frontline, we do not see behind the camera or in the soecifics of his life. Sometimes I am sure he has sat it out, waiting. D has said too many times he is private, social media is not his way of communicating. He seems to pick whatever means he is afforded. Glimpses that we see, I love…it reminds me he is fighting and still remains the human being I so love and support. He is Dar/ren Eve/rett Cri/ss first and formost a son, brother, uncle, cousin, but first and formost a partner to one Chr/is Col/fer. He will do what he needs to do for those he loves. And that includes fighting a foe that we will never know the depth of.

To dream the impossible dream

To fight the unbeatable foe

To bear with unbearable sorrow

To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong

To love pure and chaste from afar

To try when your arms are too weary

To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest, to follow that star

No matter how hopeless, no matter how far

To fight for the right

Without question or pause

To be willing to march

Into hell for a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true

To this glorious quest

That my heart will lay peaceful and calm

When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this

That one man scorned and covered with scars

Still strove with his last ounce of courage

To fight the unbeatable foe

To reach the unreachable star

Songwriters: Joe Darion / Mitchell Leigh

The Impossible Dream lyrics © The Bicycle Music Company, Helena Music Company

I believe D would not agree. This song always comes back to haunt me in relationship to D. He lives it, he breathes it, he feels it on a daily bases. Soon he will find he will reach the reachable star.

D has always found a way to fight back, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly? Yes, because the CC fandom literally fabricated all of these things he did to “fight back”. The things are “subtle” because the fandom made them up...they are overt because they made them up.  As long as CCers continue to make up claims about what he is doing and how it represents a ‘fight”, Darren will continue to “fight” back in ways that are asinine. He will continue to hide deep In the closet while sending the CC fandom subtle messages of his “truth”.  He will continue to walk the red carpet with Mia and take her to awards shows where he says nice things about her. He will continue to be a straight bro, to wear John Hardy jewelry and play piano at Tramp Stamp Granny’s BECAUSE THAT IS WHO HE IS. The CC fandom will continue to claim that everything he does that we see and everything he says that we hear- is all fake or forced upon him by this team while he lives a secret queer life with his husband Chris Colfer. A life we cannot see or hear BECAUSE IT ISN’T REAL, it’s pure CC fantasy. And his story will continue to be something only they are paying enough attention to see it because they are the ones writing it.

D has said too many times he is private, social media is not his way of communicating. He seems to pick whatever means he is afforded. This is literally an argument for why he isn’t secretly communicating with the CC fandom via social media. 

Isn’t it convenient that “he seems to pick whatever means we fabricate he is afforded”? He will always “conveniently” do whatever fits the CC fantasy...that is how it works when you are writing the fanfiction as you go.

Is Darren’s life The Impossible Dream? The CC fantasy about love conquering all and CrissColfer being “a love for the ages” is how tweens and young teens believe love works. It is fodder for fanfiction and the best rom-coms, Twilight and Disney Princess-esque romance novels, but it isn’t real life. Real life is messy and hard. Love rarely survives even the most mundane stressors of life, it would never survive

9 years of hiding from the world while the spotlight is focused directly on it

9 years of being apart and pretending to love someone else 

9 years of overt lying about Darren’s sexuality and his life

9 years of traveling with someone else and sharing his life with Mia with the world

9 years of mundane real-life stressors while hiding

Add on Chris’s mom’s death, his dad’s remarriage, his sister’s illness,  Chuck’s divorce, and all of the things we don’t know about

Love doesn’t save people from life’s difficult moments. Love certainly doesn’t excuse deception and lies. Darren isn’t gay because he wears a PINK and blue watch. 

[jancys-blue-bayou]

this isn't really a smut prompt but more of an after-sex prompt where Jonathan gets emotional after his first time with Nancy and cries a little and when she asks him what's wrong he tells her nothing, he just thought that nobody would ever love him enough to do stuff like that with him

A/N: Thanks for the prompt! So there’s no smut in this, just a lot of cute in love dorks talking. I’m yet to write my smutty take on their first time at Murray’s actually, but I’m saving that for a series of smut outtakes from my fic The Real Shit that I plan on doing at some point.

Also on Ao3 and FFNet!

”What’s wrong?”

She leans up on her elbow and asks the question when a quiet sniffle rouses her from where she was laying comfortably with her head in the crook of his neck. It was bliss, she felt satisfied, exhilarated and was content to just lay in silence and enjoy his company for a while. Here on this not so comfortable bed (that got way more comfortable when Jonathan lay down in it with her) in a strange conspiracy theorist’s bunker.

”N-nothing,” he deflects and quickly wipes at his eyes.

She studies him for a second. He doesn’t look sad, but she can tell he definitely just blinked away tears. He looks pensive, thoughtful. But also a little embarrassed and caught out. Looking like he’s torn between hiding from her again and the exact opposite, as they’re still laying naked pressed against each other and his arm around her has only tightened. She doesn’t want to retreat anymore, not when she feels this good, with him. She doesn’t ever want to retreat from this, from them. She realizes fully penetrating his trust issues is integral for that purpose. So she presses on.

”No, come on. Please talk to me. What’s up? Is something wrong?”

”No, nothing’s wrong,” he quickly shakes his head. She doesn’t say anything, giving him time. He looks deep into her eyes, seemingly considering, choosing his words. ”It’s just… I never thought anyone would want me… like this. Least of all you, you are everything I… I’ve been in love with you for like a year, you are perfect, I never thought you’d…” he trails off. She looks at him in awe. Seeing her look he quickly chastise himself. ”Sorry, way to ruin the moment Byers,” he adds, looking annoyed with himself.

She interrupts him with a kiss, pressing her lips to his and hoping to with it press away all his negative feelings he has about himself, even though she knows it takes more than a kiss for that. He’s caught off-guard at first but quickly finds himself and responds to the deep kiss. He’s a natural, she finds. She never wants to stop kissing him.

”Woah,” he breathes out when they break apart for air.

”You didn’t ruin the moment,” she tells him.

”Oh,” is all he finds to say to that.

How honest he just was, how he just laid himself bare floors her. She wants to be the same. No retreating.

”I’ve been in love with you for a year too. I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to handle it… I tried to deny it, tried to run from it. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for my own sake too because how I feel now… with you, I can’t believe I denied myself this for so long. To feel this good. Jonathan I’ve never felt so good before as I do with you.”

”I… I’m glad. I want you to always feel good,” he responds after a second of just looking at her in awe, taking in her words. He listens. So much and so carefully. No one listens quite like Jonathan, she’s learnt.

”I’m done with retreating. I never want to go back to how it’s been. I want to move forward. And I never want to retreat from this, us. You,” she continues.

”Me neither,” he quietly responds.

She thinks for a second, considering her next move. There’s something else he needs to know, needs to understand.

”Jonathan, do you trust me?” She challenges.

”Yes,” he answers after half a second. He thought about it, not just instantly throwing out an automated response. But he didn’t have to think for long. She likes that.

”Then trust me on this: Of course people would want you. I’ve wanted you for a year and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have you now. One thing I’ve learnt now is that life is too flimsy to waste your time and let what you want slide away from you. I’ve got you. Long as you want me, I’m not letting go of you. If I would, someone else would snag you up because you Jonathan Byers, is a catch.”

”I just want you,” he quickly says.

”I’m in love with you because you’re brave, smart, kind, strong, funny and sweet. But also because you’re beautiful, Jonathan.”

He blushes and looks away at that so she grasps his face with both her hands and makes him look at her.

”You are. Not to be shallow, or objectifying but seriously Jonathan, you’re beautiful. Cute. Handsome. Hot, really. Remember last summer, during the heatwave? My mom sent me over to your house to get Mike because he was hiding out there to try and avoid having to go visit our aunt in Michigan. You were in the driveway washing your car and wasn’t wearing a shirt since it was like 90 degrees out. I was NOT ready for that!” She grins. He blushes even more and shakes his head. ”Seriously, Mike caught me ogling you and gave me hell for it the whole way home.”

He’s completely red in the face now. She leans down and kisses him again.

”You ogled me?” He then says with a wry grin and a tone of laughter in his voice.

”Yup, and I’m not planning on stopping,” she grins back and makes a point of very obviously move her gaze down to his bare chest underneath her. He blushes again.

”You are so beautiful I can’t even wrap my head around it,” he then tells her, just like that. Looking up at her with wonder in his kind eyes. He says it so direct, he sounds so honest. It’s not a line. It’s his truth. She kisses him again, deeply.

”Speaking of not stopping…” she begins, while roaming her hands over his chest before sending them on an exploration trip down south where she’s certain she can feel something again. ”… I’m not tired. Are you?”

”N-no,” he immediately responds. His hands, who were firmly planted at her sides during their talk now starts to roam up her back. And down…

She kisses him again.

”I can’t get enough of you,” she whispers to him.

He captures her lips again and she knows the night is far from over.

[spacelionspchew]

Hey, can I please get a scenario of Matt cuddling his conspiracy theorist S/O and them talking about cute dumb things? Bonus points if you add in head kisses and Matts hair being braided by the reader. Thank you~

So quick confession, I am HORRIBLE at braiding, so I apologize if the methods used in this are not accurate. 

              The two of you were hanging out in your room. Well, to be more specific your bed. And to be extra specific, laying face-to-face with his arms around you and your arms stuffed in between your and his chests, legs tangling up in each other’s. Okay, so you weren’t hanging out in your room. You and Matt were cuddling on your bed. This might sound like the most romantic thing in the world, if it weren’t for the discussion you two were having.

“I’m just saying that now that we know aliens exist, it is completely possible, and probable, that Avril Lavigne was replaced by one. Think about it, we already know that she’s been replaced,” Matt explained.

              “Well obviously!” you cut in, already knowing you were going to love his theory.

                “So I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that she was replaced by something from another planet. The original Avril was probably abducted, because if I’m anything to go by, all amazing, unbelievably attractive and talented people are,” you both chuckled.

              “If that’s the case, I’m offended!” you pouted and crossed your arms.

              “Well the reason you weren’t abducted is because the aliens knew you were too amazing to be abducted,” Matt kissed your forehead and brought up a hand to stroke your braided hair. “The real mystery here is how good you are at braiding!” he exclaimed.

              You laughed and brought your hands up to cup his cheeks, “As you said, I’m amazing.” You moved your hands up to his locks, playing with them between your fingers.  You let out an excited gasp, you legs removing themselves from Matt’s, much to his dislike. Before he could protest you explained your revelation, “Your hair’s at a pretty good length, I think I should be able to braid it!”

              Matt moved his hands to feel his hair, “Are you sure? It’s pretty scraggly…”

              You stood up, “Don’t worry, I’m a professional!” You then ran off to your dresser to grab a brush and some ties.  “Okay, turn around,” you clapped your hands together happily. Matt quickly turned so that his back was facing you. You began to brush out his knotted hair, apologizing after each snag. After the knots were gone, you brushed it out some more to get it nice and smooth. You could feel Matt relaxing as you brushed through each lock, and you snuck a look at his face to see him with closed eyes and a wide smile. He was too cute! You kissed him on the top of his head, causing him to open one eye to try and look at you before his smile got even wider.

              Once the brushing was done, it was time for the real test of your talents. You decided that it would look best if you braided a bit of the hair from the sides and then tied them together at the back. You started on the right side, making a decent size braid. You then made one on the left side, too focused in your work to speak.  Matt was practically putty and you made a note to play with his hair more often. Once you finished the two braids, you wrapped them together in the back and placed a hairband over them to keep them in place. You then moved some of the hair to wrap around the band to make it look extra special.

              “All done!” you took a photo of his hair with your phone and showed it to him.

              “Oh my goodness! Y/N, that looks incredible!” he reached a hand back to feel it. “That’s so cool!”

              “Thank you. I have to say, it turned out even better than I expected,” you plopped down in his lap, wrapping your hands around him.

              “I’ve been thinking, and I think I figured out how you got so good at braiding…”

              “Really?” you asked, nuzzling into his chest. “How?”

              “So my theory is that…”

[eisforeidolon]

Episode: Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell

Yeah.  I'm gonna give this one a solid meh.  I have yet to be impressed with anything to come from Davy Perez, most definitely including this.  I continue to feel like he hasn’t the foggiest understanding of Dean, and this time he did his best to make Sam look the fool, too.  Yay for equal opportunity Winchester sabotage?

It wasn't all bad.  I was so, so frustrated when it seemed like Crowley had been dumbed down again into leaving Lucifer where the demons could potentially free him after it had been established so clearly their loyalties lay with the angel – so I really did absolutely love that it was a fake out.  Crowley at his best is actually ten steps ahead of everyone else, and that this episode let him be at his best earned it quite a few points with me.  It's a bit of a shame the demon minions are so painfully dumb, but, well, that's pretty typical at this point.  Of course, I'd rather be done with this pathetic, boring remnant of Lucifer entirely, but at least Crowley did plan ahead.  And hey, this is also a plus, the hellhoundiest of hellhounds as mentioned in the promos at least didn't seem to suddenly have a million extra special powers and was only special really for being first and Lucifer's, so that could have gone far worse.

I did like the little nod to the Walking Dead that crept in there with the bat, and some of the other dialogue was decent.  Dean and Crowley was particularly enjoyable with Dean calling him peaches and making the little talkity-talk gesture on the phone, Dean thanking Crowley for saving Cas and Crowley pushing it off saying he couldn't bear the Winchester angst likely to ensue, and Crowley's line about rubbing off finished with that evil little laugh and Dean's eurgh shaking it off.  I wanted to like some of Sam and Dean's, but aside from the joke about shampoo, there was little that wasn’t too tainted by baffling context.

I do think it has to be taken as progress that Sam did come clean about lying in a relatively short amount of time and without outside circumstances forcing his hand.  At this point, expecting either one of them to actually discuss a situation before making unilateral choices that affect them both is doubtless expecting too much.  Whatever Perez might have intended, I also don't think it's possible for Dean not to have known Sam was lying about having gotten all those cases one on top of another from the BMOL, and I think Jared and Jensen played to that. Especially with Sam's guilty face there at the beginning, like even he can't believe how dumb the lies coming out of his face are. Considering the end, with Dean just accepting it when Sam does come clean, I can only feel like Dean's recognized on some level no one's going to listen when he says something is a bad idea so there's no point in continuing to fight it and be blindsided when they go behind his back anyway.  I didn't want them to fight, still don't, because the show has done enough of that to cover the next twelve seasons.  Still ...

While I didn't expect more, I can't say I'm exactly pleased Sam didn't admit he wanted to work with them upfront rather than having Dean help him work cases for them unknowingly.  Even if it meant brother fighting drama.  Especially after knowing the case Mary drug them on at the BMOL's behest nearly got them all killed and how betrayed they both felt by her hiding and lying about the same thing oh-so-recently.  I was likewise unimpressed that his decision to tell Dean seemed to be prompted by one of the least coherent and most anvilicious “parallels” since #thinman.  Worst of all, Sam doesn't seem to have any hidden reasons for working with them and instead credits the BMOL for getting things done … after having to save them from their own stupidity.  I mean, Sam's always had a tendency to convince himself that whatever course of action he wants to choose is the right one, but if they wanted this to be Sam's believable reason, they should have actually shown us something other than the BMOL splatting on their smug, incompetent faces.  Even if he 100% believes their attempts to dissociate themselves from Toni (though why beats me), even knowing he doesn't know about their shadiest shit like killing Magda and all those humans from the detention center?  This is still a nonsensical choice if their supposed competence is the reason, and I was really hoping we'd get better justification from Sam than that. Sigh.

Putting aside the canonical fail that Dean has been shown several times to be a neat freak and has never been that mucky outside of Hell and Purgatory, what the hell was Sam doing on these three back-to-back cases?  Where Dean apparently got so splattered and yet didn't have time to clean up between monsters?  How that even makes sense in terms of time, investigation, and geography, I don't remotely know - but regardless, Perez is so goddamn desperate to make an OOC joke about Dean that he also paints Sam as incompetent and useless by proxy since he was apparently sitting on his thumbs the whole time to be so pristinely clean by comparison.  

Furthermore, why did it feel like the dialogue for both the shop guy Cas was talking to and Gwen was cribbed from Nightshifter?  A) Conspiracy theorist B) who gets pissed at Sam for trying to lie to them.  Which, in terms of Gwen, why exactly was that lying necessary?  I mean, there was no good reason for that whole interchange, and worse, it did feel like it was just lifted wholesale from the earlier episode and tweaked for the joke opportunities. Gwen was so convinced of what she saw that she told the police her crazy story knowing it sounded crazy, but she's just going to buy it was a bear? Thinking that would remotely work was inept and dumb in a way the boys very rarely are anymore, but in Nightshifter, it actually advanced the plot and was a competent - even compelling - story about lying to people for their own good in itself.  If there was some intent here to tie it thematically to the whole couple-breakup-allmyfault-drama, well, lol no.

Speaking of dumb, they know that the hellhound is pissed because Gwen hit it with an axe, so it's coming after Gwen.  They split up planning that Sam will protect Gwen and Dean and Crowley will get the hellhound … but not by waiting outside of wherever they have Gwen, Sam’s going to drive off and they're just going to randomly roam the woods assuming it has a nest and will just be hanging out there … for … reasons ... I guess?  Shock! Surprise! The thing that was following the girl?  Is following the girl, ffs!  Even better, when Sam pulls over to stop the car, instead of oh, say, hitting the gas when it attacks and calling the guy helping them that can not only teleport but knows more about hellhounds than they do?  He'll go after it himself … and have to be saved by Gwen to ultimately get the job done after initially botching it.  I mean, I liked that she had enough initiative to attack the creature even with it being scary and invisible at the beginning, so in theory it should carry through, but on top of the so-called plan a VotW has to save a Winchester again?  No thanks.

Neither am I impressed with downgrading eating babies from a show of how extra evil Lilith was to yet another stilted hell-is-a-boring-procedural joke, nor version five million and two of ‘Cas doesn't know where he belongs and lies by omission about his questionable choices’.  Eh, whatever.  Though I do seriously wonder why we're not out of angels wandering Earth yet.  Didn't Hannah round them up? Weren't they gonna lock themselves in heaven after Amara?  I mean, Demons are a perpetually renewing resource, but just how many angels does the show have to kill to be rid of them all?  Since at this point I can't even muster the ability to halfway care what this new drama of theirs will entail, maybe the show should get on that instead of having them arbitrarily change their stance on Cas yet again for a “new” plot.

[callowsermons]

Ascension

One of the things I like to read for fun are conspiracy theories. I promise I am not a conspiracy theorist myself (but who would admit to that anyway?). I’m just fascinated by the stories people believe. One of the books in my library is None Dare Call It a Conspiracy, which explains how international capitalism and international communism are controlled by the same international bankers who want to impose such evils as an income tax and the Federal Reserve. Another example is David Icke, a former soccer player and BBC sports commentator who had an episode where he was convinced he was the Son of God. Icke went on to devise an elaborate conspiracy wherein inter-dimensional aliens are controlling us via vibrations being projected from Saturn through the Moon. Our jailers are reptilian aliens who count the Bush’s, the House of Windsor, and Kris Kristofferson in their company. Alex Jones’ conspiracy turns out to not be much different, just switch out the aliens with inter-dimensional psychic vampires and literal potbellied goblins, and replace the reptilians with elites doped up on psychadelics. 

When you lay out the elements of a conspiracy theory straightforwardly they almost always sound absurd on their face. Of course the earth isn’t flat, of course the moon landing happened, of course the Nazis didn’t survive on a base in Antarctica where they developed anti-gravity travel and now have a base on Mars. But despite the absurdity these conspiracies are attractive for two reasons. 

The first reason people find these attractive is it puts them in the know. If I believe in a conspiracy, I know something you don’t. I know the secret. I know what really makes the world tick. It’s the Illuminati. It’s the Trilateral Commission. It’s the Jesuits, the deep state, and so on and so on. It’s the same principle that makes gossiping so common, or why so many people try to get into the inner circle. We want to think we know, that we have the in, that we understand what others don’t. And, well, it’s special. The other thing about conspiracy theories is they do sometimes hinge on facts that go unreported. So there really is some kernel of knowledge only the intrepid researcher discovered. But the facts are extrapolated into absurdity.

The second reason people find conspiracy theories attractive is they beat the alternative. We can all agree things are not the best they could be. War is a constant reality, economic inequality is worsening, a pandemic sweeps the globe. Either our leaders are not up to the task, or they are in control and all this serves some grand plan. Conspiracy theories tell you someone is in control. There is a head to the beast, and the beast can be identified and defeated. But if no one is in control, if the beast has no head, that’s a far thornier problem. If Bill Gates is the face of a global elite conspiracy to depopulate the earth something might be done about it, and at least we are in capable if evil hands. If Bill Gates isn’t the face of a global elite conspiracy, if the coronavirus is beyond our leaders control, that’s a troubling reality to face. 

Today we celebrate the Ascension, which tells us two things about the universe that should strike at the core of any conspiracy theory. The first is that Christ is in control. The second is that Christ is our brother. Christ is in control, and Christ rules on our behalf. The Ascension is not Jesus’ disappearance, or his extended cosmic vacation. It’s not that Jesus has left us until his return. The Ascension is Jesus taking the reins of power. It is Jesus assuming control of the world. It is Jesus reigning until he must put all enemies under his feet, the last enemy to be destroyed being death.

Too often we Christians have put the Ascension aside not quite knowing what we are supposed to do with it. Jesus ascends into the sky? But the Ascension is of a piece with the Incarnation and of a piece with the Resurrection. The Ascension is part of God’s rescue mission, of uniting himself to humanity and overcoming sin and death. By the Ascension we know that God is in control, that chaos does not reign, that all things work together for the glory of God and the good of God’s people.

Right now we are going through a time where it may seem like no one is in control. Unless, of course, you listen to the conspiracy theorists who may want us to believe the coronavirus is all part of a dastardly plot to create a one world government, or depopulate the earth, or a communist conspiracy to defeat the west, or what have you. But from our human perspective, our limited modern perspective, the coronavirus was not supposed to happen. We were supposed to avoid it. We made errors. Our leaders were incompetent. And suffering ensues.

On Ascension we assert even in the midst of such pain and loss and error that God is in control. This virus is not stronger than God. God is not limited by our mistakes. Death has no sting. But God will bring his Church through this time, and God can even make good out of this tragedy. 

On Ascension we can assert this is not a time for despair. We need not despair at our human inabilities. We need not despair at our own tiredness or weakness. We need not despair at the enormity of what is before us. We need not despair because Christ our brother is in control. He loves us. And that is the end of the matter.

So let us not give into despair. Let us not feed our own paranoia. Christ frees us from fear. He faced death on the cross and won for us the victory. He is the one who reigns. 

You know what, maybe I was wrong to say I’m not a conspiracy theorist. There is one conspiracy I do believe in. That is the Church, which is led by her Lord. And the conspiracy of the Kingdom, which is both here and not yet. And all things work for the good of those in Christ, in the end.

Christ reigns. He is coming again. He has put all things under his feet. Alleluia. 

Questions for Reflection

What are some conspiracy theories you’ve heard?

Does it give you comfort to know God is in control?

Have you had an experience when you knew God was in control?

The Ascension should give us hope. How might we practice that hope?