#and hello cute little gay haircut

[harrylovesspaezle]

i've been looking fem for ages and tomorrow i'm getting my hair cut short for the first time in three years. i can't wait to look more masc, but i am kind of sad because i pretended to be super fem/a girl for so long, and this haircut makes it all just a little more real... like i am finally acknowledging that i'm trans and that my long hair is not who i am. new era for me, scary era but good? i think? yes, good.

[petrichoriansys]

Hi! You can call us Petrichor. Ric or Ricky also works. We collectively use they/he pronouns. Our body is 17y/o, so please keep that in mind, even when interacting with adult alters. French is our native language, so please be patient, sometimes we mess up our english.

We are a french and indigenous DID system. This blog was made to reconnect with the osddid community, since we’ve been falling back into denial lately.

We used to be particularly active in the syscourse community. There will be absolutely no syscourse on this blog (ha I’ve broken this already sorry -John). This is to stay a fully safe and discourse-free space for our system. (Since I’ve broken this rule already, click here for our syscourse opinions and endo interaction boundaries).

I’m willing to bet this account’s aesthetic will change regularly. This seems to be an aesthetic we all agree on, but the moment Ellie shows up everything is likely becoming pink again. Just bear with us.

Do not interact: Basic dni, proship/comship + supporters, discourse exclusive blogs, fakeclaimers, against educated and researched self diagnosis.

More information after the cut.

Dropping the aesthetic from here since this part’s hidden.

We don’t often refer to ourselves as a system and more often than not will use ‘I’ instead of ‘we,’ but for simplicity’s sake we will be doing the opposite in this post.

We gave up on sticking with a host. It’s tiring and with us being polyfragmented, it’s much easier to just let alters switch around as they please without having a set host. Because of this, our frequent fronters change a lot.

Also, please keep in mind that while not all our alters are introjects, our brain has a much easier time forming alters when there’s a base to go off of, and our fictives tend to be the most comfortable fronting. It might be rare for a frequent fronter to not be an introject. Most our introjects aren’t incredibly connected to source. Doubles are fine to interact, some of us may just step back if it feels weird.

Here are some of our frequent fronters. We will try to update this regularly, but no promises. Each member description is accompanied by an image of approximately what they look like.

JOHN - He/him

35y/o, m-leaning bi, ambiamorous, might accidentally speak to you in a british accent.

Introject of John H. Watson (specifically BBC Sherlock s4).

You can find him at @jonkwatsom !

This took ages to find. Nobody draws any fully sfw solo John fanart. Our John has the s4/Everett Ross haircut though, a tad less hedgehog-y.

CONAN - He/they

30y/o, gay, ambiamorous, less likely to speak to you in a british accent but still possible, don’t believe him if he says we play violin (he desperately wants to learn it).

Introject of Sherlock Holmes (Mostly BBC Sherlock, but there’s a bit of Doyle canon and MTP as well). Don’t call him Sherlock, he might yell at you.

(Lil sidenote from John: we sometimes refer to each other as Jawn and Sher, please don’t do that. That’s a little joke between us).

John (hi hello I’m the one making this post) thought this image was cute (and a tad funny). Conan, you’re free to change it, just don’t fuck up my intro please.

That’s it for now. This will definitely get edited later. It’s getting WAY too long now, so… goodbye.

[mlobsters]

supernatural s10e6 ask jeeves (w. eric charmelo, nicole snyder)

i looked her up because she reminds me of tissea from the witcher (spoiler alert looking her up apparently, i've been [sadly] bored to tears with s3 so i haven't finished it) but she was in coyote ugly! so i did recognize her. ish

s10e6 / coyote ugly - izabella miko as cammie / the witcher - myanna buring as tissaia

we got an spn / xfiles / the magicians / the killing actor! 🎉

and he was in the tooms episode of the x-files! (along with two others). and he was the faith healer in spn s1e12 faith, didn't recognize him at all with the sunglasses

the x-files s1e3 squeeze - kevin mcnulty as agent fuller / the magicians s2e1 km as knight of crowns / the killing s1e13 km as gas station manager

saw a gifset of this recently and spent plenty of time staring and rolling my eyes then. also, toxic masculinity/machismo is very much an issue in the culture but hello cuban coffee colada which comes with the ittiest bittiest cups (think basically creamer cups) for sharing. *pining for miami*

making my 😒 face at dean/writers right now

DEAN Bobby had secrets, man. Like loving on Tori Spelling. If he only knew Dean cheated on her.

cue my brain trying to dig up an old memory of 90210 character names

but no, apparently, her actual spouse Dean McDermott (m. 2006). dean knows this? i can't predict what pop culture stuff dean might know or not. (like interweb?) and like last episode where he didn't know who calliope was, yet he's supposedly read the odyssey?

from s4e14 sex and violence (my recap)

DEAN Like Greek myth siren, The Odyssey? ...Hey, I read!

just say no to dumbing down dean winchester.

also i don't think it's necessarily just sam's haircut that's so odd in this season, but it looks like it's getting blown out too. weird. it's normalish for his look in the front but very ~done~ in the back at times

just say yes to shutting up and watching, nic

s10e6 as heddy / new girl - gillian vigman as kim (schmidt's boss)

but there's more people i recognize 🥲 this is going to take forever. feels very... Clue-like

she calls them adorable, dean engages flirt-mode, sam makes a face. however! for what it's worth! i appreciate that as he's gotten older the rando side character women he flirts with are also regularly around his age or older

BEVERLY Oh but you’re welcome to spend the night. All the rooms sleep two.

HEDDY [slaps Dean’s butt] Or three.

i... okay. mad at the insinuation that sam and dean are sleeping together (?? do they know they're brothers or assuming married?? this show.), but happy about the butt slap/threesome offer?

DEAN You stay here. Keep an eye on Mrs. Peacock and Colonel Mustard. I’ll sniff around.

okay then. Clue it is

DASH Well Sam, I’ll let you in on a little family secret. We don’t really like each other. Then again, what family does? SAM Mine does. Uh, for the most part. It’s just my brother and me, so…

this is how the show has a chokehold on me. just when my commitment to watching every episode wavers, they're like oh but would you like to hear about how much sam and dean looove each other 🥺🥹

maybe toss sam a text before you go into the secret room

cute

is this all just an elaborate ad? lol

look at sam, sending a text to dean about the dude being dead. good job guys

HEDDY Did you see how long his fingers his fingers were? SAM There…there’s just. HEDDY First of all, did you see this? Look how long…

and then at this point in the screenshot she's saying 9 inches?? whaaat is happening

did someone get a ruler out. and measured his..... hand

this episode is a lot

HEDDY I knew those boys were trailer trash the moment they rolled up in that American-made. BEVERLY Not to mention homosexuals. HEDDY Ugh. Homosexual murderers. Like Leopold and Loeb.

guess we're just gonna ignore they're brothers now.

‘Scream’ Screenwriter Kevin Williamson Confirms Billy and Stu’s Queer-Coded Relationship Was Based on Real Gay Killers - huh, well thanks for leading me to that, wikipedia article on leopold and loeb!

DASH Then where have you been hiding all these years? OLIVIA The attic. AMBER Like in the movie.

Reference to Flowers in the Attic, which is a story about children born of an incestuous relationship, who are hidden away in the attic of a wealthy relative

i was trying to think of what it could be referring to that wasn't flowers in the attic because hello incest reference, but okay

SAM I mean….all those extra shots after the shifter was already dead. What was that? DEAN I don’t know. Target practice? SAM Come on, man. I’m serious. You sure it wasn’t….I don’t know, demon residue or something to do with the Mark, or...

demon residue made me laugh

dean getting defensive and weird, i'm sure he's fine

LOL all right (wiki)

Shortly before the episode aired, in November 2014, a Supernatural version of Clue was released.

what an odd episode.

[beevean]

Everytime I see someone praise the show for its representation, I can't help but laugh knowing that the guy who wrote it couldn't give any less of a shit about said representation, especially on the female side, and most likely just included it in a half assed way because every media nowadays does it and you gotta please the masses on Twitter

I wonder if it's like a requisite for Netflix series

NFCV's representation is really nothing special either. You have a bunch of vampires from all parts of the world... who do jack shit and most of them don't even have a speaking role. You have a lesbian couple... two minor characters with a shallow personality and that by the end they simply peace out (admittedly, they're cute for how little they interact). You have two canonically bi characters who are implied to get together by the end... too bad that their bisexuality is revealed through "hey I had a threesome", and Alucard's threesome was a horrifying experience. You have a character who was made ambiguously brown... and he gets horribly tortured and dehumanized. And hello, Sumi and Taka who look literally identical despite being canonically not related???

The only positive representation is Isaac, a gay black Muslim man who gets all the screentime, badass moments and character development... and the dude spends most of his screentime simping for a white vampire, killing innocents without rhyme or reason beyond "they were mean to me :(", uses his religion as a way to justify working for genocide, and his sexuality is revealed by a flashback where he professes his love to his much older violent owner. So uhhhhh still not great if you really want to flaunt how Progressive you are.

Also Ellis seems to reduce most of his female characters to girlbosses, with Carmilla and Greta being prominent examples (and that one Casca with a haircut character, for what little I remember of her). And Lenore is just straight up fetish material. Then you remember what he was accused of, and yeah :^)

[fruitcoops]

i would love to read coops doing one of those lie detector youtube videos!!

This was such a fun fic to research! I highly recommend watching the Try Guys Lie Detector videos if you'd like some context. Coops credit goes to @lumosinlove!

“Why are there so many of these?” Remus muttered, shaking his hand around. A series of multicolored wires smacked the table and Marlene rolled her eyes as she passed. “Sorry.”

“Welcome back to Lion Pride!” Sirius said as he turned to the camera with a smile. “I’m Sirius Black, and I’m here today with my husband, Remus Lupin, to get some answers.”

“We are also joined by Mark, who is an expert at reading polygraphs,” Remus added.

A middle-aged man in a blue shirt raised his hand in a slight wave. “Thanks for having me. Since you’re already hooked up, you’ll be going first. This machine measures your sweat, your heart rate, and a couple other common tells for liars. Do you lie often?”

Remus hesitated; Sirius hid a smile in his hand. “No, since I suck at lying, but I’ll do it if it makes somebody feel better. I think I’m pretty good at that.”

They stared at the polygraph for a moment before Mark nodded. “Checks out. Take it away, Sirius.”

Sirius cleared his throat and took a notecard from his stack. “Was going to college worth it?”

“Yes,” Remus answered almost immediately. “I don’t know what I would have done without getting my degree and staying close to hockey. Wouldn’t have met you, for one.”

“True,” Mark said without looking up.

“Do you like my playoff beard?”

“I do, yeah.” Mark raised his eyebrows and Remus pressed his lips together. “Okay, sometimes it’s a little much, but you’re pretty good about keeping things under control.”

“Alright,” Sirius said with playful skepticism. “Good to know. Who’s your favorite Lion?”

“Besides you? Talker.”

“Yeah, we don’t need a polygraph to know that,” Sirius laughed when Mark nodded. “Did you like my last haircut?”

“Oh, fuck,” Remus said under his breath, looking away.

“I knew it.”

“It wasn’t bad—”

“He’s lying,” Mark interrupted.

Remus turned to him with betrayal written all over his expression. “Dude!”

“You are.”

“Answer the question, Loops,” Sirius said, leaning back in his chair. “How did you feel about my last haircut?”

He bit his lower lip. “It was a little too short and really threw me off for a couple days. But you didn’t like it, either.”

“I didn’t,” Sirius agreed, grinning. “But I vividly remember several ‘no, honey, you look great’ conversations.”

“Next question,” Remus sighed.

“Ha! This one is self-explanatory. Have you ever lied to me?”

“Yes, but only when I knew it would make you feel better.”

“True,” Mark confirmed.

“Do you think you’re a better dog owner than me?”

Remus thought for a moment. “No.”

“True.”

“Do you think I’m a better dog owner than you?” Sirius asked.

“No. I think we balance each other well, and we wouldn’t be as good apart.”

“True again.”

“Interesting.” Sirius surveyed the cards. “Do you trust me?”

“A hundred percent,” Remus answered without hesitation. Mark nodded.

“Do you think I would be a good dad?”

He rested his chin on his hand, then smiled a little. “I do, yeah. I think you know what to do and what notto do, and you’re very protective without being controlling. So, yeah. You’d be a good dad.”

Mark glanced over. “He’s telling the truth.”

Sirius leaned across the table and kissed Remus on the cheek. “Merci. Oh, this’ll be fun. Is any of our relationship just for show, especially on Lion Pride?”

Remus narrowed his eyes with a hum. “Yes and no.”

“Pick one,” Mark said.

“In a general sense? Yeah, sure. We’re not perfect all the time, but we pretend to be. The specifics stay honest, though. None of our relationship is based on building clout. We keep the core genuine.”

The polygraph beeped for a moment. “He’s telling the truth.”

“This one is super morbid. Ready?” Sirius rested his elbows on the table. “You are Spiderman, and you’re holding two trolleys over a lake. One holds me, and one holds Jules. Which one do you drop?”

“I love you, but I would absolutely drop you,” Remus said after only a brief period of thought.

“Oh, thank god,” Sirius huffed. “I would be so upset if it was the other way around.”

“Right? I love you more than anything, but it’s Jules.”

Remus turned to Mark, who shrugged. “True.”

“Do you think we live together well?” Sirius asked.

“After a full year of it?” Remus laughed. “Yeah, I do.”

“True.”

Sirius checked the list and his eyebrows rose. “You’re going to hate this one.”

“Am I?”

“What do you really think about my parents?”

Remus’ smile turned thin and Sirius spread his hands in a see? motion. He was quiet for a few seconds, then ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t think I’m allowed to use those words on this channel. Um, I don’t like them.”

Mark snorted. “Very true.”

“Last one,” Sirius warned, though his eyes crinkled happily at the edges. “Do you know how much I love you?”

“That’s cute,” Remus said. “And…yeah. I think I do.”

“Wrong,” Sirius said before Mark could answer. “You have absolutely no idea.”

“Sap,” Remus scoffed. His cheeks were pink, and he pressed a quick kiss to Sirius’ temple while they swapped chairs.

“He was telling the truth,” Mark informed them as he helped Remus untangle his arm and hand, then transferred the devices to Sirius. “Though I am interested to see the flipside. Do you lie often?”

“Not anymore. I’m pretty good at it, though.”

“First one: have you ever had a crush on one of your teammates?”

“Oh, for sure,” Sirius said with a light laugh. “I never did anything about it, but I was the king of pining for a solid decade.”

“True,” Mark affirmed.

Remus cocked an eyebrow. “Who is the handsomest Lion?”

Sirius bit his lip, making a thoughtful noise. “That’s a tough one. I’m assuming a player other than you?”

“Yes.”

“In that case…I think Dumo is the classic definition of ‘handsome’ even though he is so not my type, but Kasey might be the most attractive.”

“Not Pots?” Remus teased. Sirius pulled a face and flicked him on the arm.

“He’s being honest,” Mark said.

“Do you think you’re the best player on the team?”

“…no.”

“He’s lying.”

“Shit.” Sirius sighed heavily as Remus looked at him over the edge of his notecard. “Look, it’s—it’s not an ego thing.”

“It’s the captain thing, isn’t it?” Remus sounded quite amused.

“Yeah,” Sirius said, defeated. “It’s stupid, I know.”

Mark nodded. “He’s telling the truth.”

“Oh, another parent one,” Remus remarked. “Did my parents scare you?”

“Not really.”

Mark furrowed his brows. “You’re right in the middle.”

“Huh.” He thought for a few seconds. “I think seeing you all together was a lot like meeting Dumo’s family the first time. You’re just so…normal. And you genuinely like each other. So I wasn’t scared, but it was definitely an adjustment.”

“He’s telling the truth.”

Remus nodded. “Yeah, they adore you. I’m glad we didn’t chase you off, though. Does it really bother you that I leave my socks around the house?”

Sirius pressed his lips together as several people off-screen began to laugh. “I can’t answer that.”

“See, that’s all the answer I need.”

“Fine. Yes, but only because I don’t know where you get them from. You don’t actually own that many socks, and I still find them every-fucking-where.”

“True,” Mark said.

“I’ll try to keep a better eye on things,” Remus assured him, smiling. “You are Spiderman, and you’re holding two trolleys over a lake. One holds me, and one holds James. Which one do you drop?”

“Goddammit,” Sirius muttered, tilting his head back. He thought for a long, long moment. “I can’t answer that.”

The polygraph buzzed. “False.”

Sirius shook his head. “Neither of you. I wouldn’t drop either.”

Mark raised his eyebrows. “True.”

“On a much lighter note,” Remus said with a cough. “Which of us is lazier?”

“Me.”

“True.”

“Really?” Remus gave him a baffled look. “You work so hard all the time.”

Sirius shrugged. “Agree to disagree?”

“Fine, but I hope you know taking time for yourself doesn’t mean you’re lazy.” He shuffled through the cards. “Oh, this’ll be very interesting. Do you think I talk too much?”

“No.”

“True.”

Remus sat back in his chair, a pleased blush coloring his cheeks. “Wasn’t expecting that. Good answer, I love you. Do you think we’ll get divorced someday?”

“Oh, god, no.” Sirius’ previous self-satisfaction turned to revulsion. “I don’t even want to think about that.”

“True,” Mark said again. “For someone who said he was good at lying, you’re very honest.”

“No point in lying with that thing around, is there?”

Remus shrugged. “Saves time, for sure. Have you kissed any of our friends?”

“Yeah,” he snorted.

To his credit, Mark didn’t even let a smile slip through. “True.”

“Do you enjoy getting stopped in public by fans?”

“Fans, yes. Ex-fans who take it upon themselves to explain why I shouldn’t be gay, no.” He paused, then shook his head with a smile. “I’m not good at talking to people, but I do like it when people say hello. It’s cool.”

“True.”

Remus raised his notecards. “Two left, and the first one is hella morbid.”

“Hella,” Sirius murmured, earning himself a teasing glare.

“Watch it. If I died, how long would you wait to get remarried?”

The playfulness dropped away. “What?”

“If I died, how long would you wait to get remarried?” Remus repeated.

Sirius looked horrified by the very thought. “I wouldn’t.”

“True,” Mark said, seemingly uncaring about the alarm on Sirius’ face.

“Even if it happened tomorrow?”

“First of all, thanks for my new nightmare. Second, no. I wouldn’t get married again.” He kissed Remus’ forehead gently. “Let’s not test that, though. Like ever.”

“Deal. Ready for the last one?”

“As long as nobody else is in danger of death.”

“I dunno, it’s a tough one.” Remus gave him a solemn look across the table. “I need you to be really honest with me on this one. Do you think you have better hair?”

Sirius blinked at him, then burst out laughing. Even Mark’s lips twitched into a suppressed smile. “Oh my god.”

“What’s so funny?” Remus asked, completely poker-faced. “This is important, honey. I’m really counting on you to be genuine with me here—”

“You can’t even—” Sirius broke off again and gestured to Remus’ face, which turned steadily pinker as he bit down a grin. “You can’t even keep a straight face.”

“My face is the only straight thing about me. You know this. Answer the question.”

“He’s trying so hard,” Sirius managed as he looked to the camera. “So hard, mon dieu.”

“Shit,” Remus muttered as he finally gave in and hid his laughter in the crook of his elbow. “We were doing so well until now! It’s the last question, just answer it!”

Sirius wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and nodded. “I do think I have better hair, but I love yours, too.”

Mark chuckled. “True.”

“It would help if you finally got a haircut that was different from the one you’ve had since you were thirteen.”

Remus closed his eyes, sighing. “Y’know, exposing my haircut choices for the entire internet to mock really wasn’t how I planned this day going.”

“Isn’t that the point of this whole video?”

“Mark, I’m not sure if we owe you an apology or not, but thank you for putting up with us.” Remus turned back to the camera with an easy smile. “Thanks for joining us today, everyone. Make sure to like and subscribe to Lion Pride for more videos like this!”

[myrfing]

panda monium spoiler thread

- uh oh *thinks claudien is cute for being a frazzled professor*. also look at gourd explaining crystals

- sorry for making more work for you erenville. of the gleaners union.

- THUD? I CRUSH BABY ELIDIBLES BONES?

- the animations are so nice in endwalker. also hello little guy. you look a lot like how I drew you. it's great

- THEMISSS I WAS SO DISAPPOINTED BTW IN MSQ THAT ELIDIBUS DIED WITHOUT EVER GIVING US HIS TRUE NAME. THEMIS. *holds your little head in my hands*

- omfg he's such a sweet and cute kid I feel bad about being absolutely batshit deranged about him 39023890382903902 yrs later as a little freak primal man

- IM SO SORRY ABOUT AB SENT MENTOR GOURDTEENTH. SORRY THIS IS IN CHARACTER NO THEY TOTALLY SHAFTED THIS TO YOU

- I BARKED at the wol going 🤨 at the mention of lahabrea

- lahabrea your shitty spirit halloween dungeon.

- i am for real ilvl locked out. god.

- the amaurot jail. you guys are so weird for real. also first fight was naht too exciting..i wish to meet athena though

- arent you skinny edward elric's dad

- SORRY THE GAY LITTLE HAND ON HIP THING YOU DO NOW. SO FUCKING FRUIT

- i habe to say you sharting out your friends is super funny

- fucking hesperos dracula fangies

- erichthonios dw you are much more likeable than your dad you just need a less white woman haircut

- LMFAOOOO YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK YOUR DAD'S NAME

- oh my god elidibus floor puncher

- oh my god lahabrea is married. LMAPOFAOFDOAFOA AND HE'S A WIDOWER AND AN ABSENT FATHER

- Lol Pinax (still has no idea what the mechs are but I didnt die or get hurt so ?)

- gay asf for lahabrea does that to you

- aw he gets to shirk some of his duties to the gourdteenth

[feeling--pink]

Hello and welcome to I redid my age up designs because I wanted to and so I did!!!!!!!!!! :D

uhhhhhhhhh explanations under the cut as per usual!!! :D

~

Officially speaking: shoot I figured out what I forgot

Okay so whenever I’m drawing I always forget SOMETHING right? That’s just a thing people deal with??

Anyways I forgot the FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS (except for Huey)

It’s very important that they all have friendship bracelets but I drew this over such a long period of time that I completely forgot to give it to people where it would be visible (i.e. Dewey, Boyd, kinda Lena)

It was almost important enough for me to go back but oh my gosh these pictures literally took an hour and I'm not doing that again very sorry

just: they’re there!!!!!! I promise!!!! Its just.... invisible.....

skdhjfgk okay sorry onto the actual thing

In order of left to right also known as height order!

Huey

I didn't change much from my first time doing this! 

Basically I gave him a dress shirt and a sweater vest :D

The key difference this time is that last time I made the undershirt red and the sweater vest burgundy! 

This time I made the undershirt pink!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Y’all that pink Huey trend from a little while ago was my life force

I hecking love the color pink so much

Anyways!! Moving on: he’s the shortest lol

As I have said before “Older Sibling Culture is being shorter than your younger siblings (I would know)”

But!!! I do love the concept fo Tall and Stronk Huey so he is actually very strong!!!

Instead he’s Short and Stronk!!!!! 

Webby and Boyd are the only one’s physically stronger than him but that’s because of spy training and literally being a robot (respectively)

But yes!!! Huey in a sweater vest and also very strong are important concepts so I did that here!!!!! 

(hmmn.... sweater vest,, nerd,,, weirdly strong,,,,,,, oh no I turned Huey into Chidi Anagonye klsdfjhgkakjahs)

Webby

y’all I messed up so much on this one

literally so many times

since you’re reading this I'll let you in on a secret

that may not be that secret ksdjfhlkds 

Anyways if you look closely at Webby you’ll probably see some weirdly placed lines

specifically around her face, shirt, hand, etc. 

basically I messed up enough that I thinned the paper significantly from erasing (multiple, separate times)

so I had so go in and paste another layer of paper over the thinned layer kjjdkahfgs

But enough about me messing up!! what’s with this outfit?

This one’s mostly about Vibes

I wanted to give off a femme lesbian vibe but still keep that formality we see in Webby’s regular outfit!

Hopefully I achieved that!!! 

This is one of the outfits I resigned completely from last time btw

The old one was fine but looks kinda weird to me now so this!!!

Oh yeah and I love long hair Webby a lot!!! So I included that!!!!

Louie

Louie is probably the one I changed the most about that still resembles the original design

Both times I gave him a button up for an undershirt

this is ‘cause I see y’all giving him suit jackets for when he’s an adult and he needs a middle stage before that

skdfjs- a middle evolution if you will jkadfhgkjhsfdka

But instead of a slip on hoodie over that I went with a zip up jacket because that’s just more practical y’know?

Also cheek tufts!!!!! 

I had them last time too but I love seeing adult louie with full cheek tufts so middle evolution effect comes into play again!!!

He and Webby are pretty much the same height right now btw

If you want to get technical about it Louie’s about a millimeter taller though!

I think that’s all I have for him though!

Gosalyn

Okay so I barely changed anything from last time for Gosalyn

Mr reasoning behind her outfit is mostly that I wanted a flannel gay and Gos was the obvious choice for that

and I liked that decision so I kept with it!!!

Main differences this time include: hair and shoes

So for the original hair I wanted to give her the “bisexual haircut” and I do like Gos with short hair so I kept that!

But I was having a hard time figuring out how to draw her regular bang situation so I went with a totally different style instead!

But I have sense learned how to draw her hair from the show so I incorporated that instead! 

In the original I also had her wearing shoes! I changed that this time because I forgot to give her shoes until it was too late! jksdafhg

Yeah this happens often kdsjhvfkajl (mostly with Lena)

Lena

Oh boy where to begin! 

In the original my one and only goal was to make Lena look like as much of a Lesbian as possible

And I achieved that much!!!!!! 

But in doing so I neglected to make it look like Lena

I mean well it looked like her but it didn’t give off her complete vibe y’know?

So instead of a Hawaiian shirt gay I made her a leather jacket gay!!! Much more Lena in my opinion! :D

I based her hair off of my interpretation of her Phantom and the Sorceress hair! (I know it looks nothing like it but thats how I draw it so???)

In the original I made her hair fade from pink to blue as well and I liked that so I kept it!! 

Then I kept the blue button up undershirt!!

I thought about giving it pinstripes but I don't have a thin enough pen or pencil to pull that off so I didn't :P

Hint of her old green shoes coming from the sock color! 

And then finally: stompy boots

Just to tie it all together! :D

Dewey

This man is LANKY!!!!!!!!!!

sorry I don't make the rules

Well technically I do sense I drew the thing- but thats unimportant!!!!

Dewey gets to be tall to annoy his brothers but in return he is LANKY tall

Otherwise I largely followed my original design!! 

All my reasons for the original were solely based off of ✨Vibes✨

I did change a few things though! 

For example: last time I gave him a 3/4 sleeve short and this time I just made them regular short sleeves

Last time I meant to give him shoes but I forgot so this time I didn't forget!! :D

Also cool socks!!

Oh and I added fingerless gloves!!!!!!!! 

This is once again based solely on ✨Vibes✨

I can’t put a lot of my reasons into words but I personally think I captured the theater kid meets aspiring pilot meets best friend to super hero’s sidekicks meets adventurer vibe pretty well!!

Boyd

!! Okay I’m excited to get into this one!

In my original Boyd was the shortest because technically he can pick his own height being a robot and all

BUT for that same reason I made him tall because: he wants to be tall like Gyro

The idea that Boyd wants to be tall like Gyro is literally so cute yall

I also based his outfit largely off of Gyros!!! 

That is: dress shirt, vest, bowtie, pants

But in Boyd’s color scheme! :D

I’m still working out how to Not to make Boyd look like a popcorn bucket but that’s a problem for another day! 

Violet

To start off: literally nothing was changed from the original

akjfdsghkskhal I’m serious no color changes, no outfit elements, nothing

I liked the original one a lot so I just kept it and redid it for this!!

My inspiration for the original was as follows: ✨Librarian Vibes✨ 

And I think I achieved that with the original so I hope I achieved it here as well!! 

Also Violet is TALL

She’s the tallest now and will continue to be the tallest!!!

I mean just LOOK at her dads!!!! They’re SUPER tall!!

So therefore she gets to be tall too!!!!!!!!!

And I think that’s it!! Thank you so much for reading if you got this far!!!!!!!!! :D

Have a nice day folks! :D

[allsassnoclass]

unmute: 2011

Hello friends here is chapter 1 of unmute, aka the off-screen prequel!

Fic tumblr masterpost

Read on AO3

warnings for this chapter: there is one mention of alcohol and there is one slight instance of homophobia (a microaggression)

thank you to bella @clumsyclifford for reading this over for me

Luke first meets Ashton on a normal Friday afternoon.  They’re in Luke’s garage to give Michael’s granny flat a break, the door open to let the spring breeze in to occasionally ruffle their fringes.  They’re messing around with a blink-182 song just for the heck of it when a bike skids to a stop on the sidewalk.  Luke doesn’t even notice at first, too caught up in positioning his fingers correctly on the fretboard and getting the words right, but once they finish singing someone outside starts clapping and Luke startles bad enough that his cheeks immediately feel like they’re on fire.

“Wow, you guys are really good!” the cutest boy that Luke has ever seen says.  Even from this distance, Luke thinks he can make out dimples at the corner of his smile.

“Thanks, mate!” Calum says.  The cute boy gives a thumbs up and pedals away, and Luke tries to trade the embarrassment of being caught singing with the boys unexpectedly for the pleasant burning of the compliment instead.

It happens again the next week.  The boy comes to a stop on his bike at the end of Luke’s driveway, and Luke notices him right away this time.  He sends a small smile as he finishes the chorus and the boy beams, bopping his head along.  When the final chord fades away, he claps, compliments them again, and then is off.

“Huh,” Michael says as the boy bikes away.

“What?” Luke asks.

“I’m pretty sure we’re Facebook friends.  We met at a party.  His name’s Ashton.”

“Invite him in next time, then,” Luke says.  It ends up being futile, because Michael’s parents let them back in the granny flat after that and there’s no more practicing in Luke’s garage following school.

-/-

He runs into the cute boy again unexpectedly at the movie theater.

It’s embarrassing, because Luke had just been minding his own business waiting for popcorn and hoping that he doesn’t see anyone he knows when a few boys from his school spot him.  Normally this would be fine, but Luke just got a haircut that he hates and he’s wearing his really dorky glasses, and these boys aren’t exactly bullies but they’re also not the nicest.

“Hey, Hemmings, how are you going to be a rockstar with those glasses?” one of them says, and the rest snicker, and Luke can feel himself closing in on himself instead of putting on his thick skin and acting like that doesn’t bother him.

“Maybe he’s trying to be a trendsetter,” one of the others says, glancing at him quickly.  The boys scoff and Luke knows that he should say something, but he’s desperately hoping that Jack appears from where he ran off to the bathroom instead.

“Popcorn for the guy in the awesome green glasses,” someone says, voice strong and melodic, and when Luke turns it’s not Jack that’s come to his rescue but the cute boy, fringe sweeping across bright eyes and tan skin, wearing the uniform of the movie theater and holding out a tub of popcorn across the counter.

“Thanks,” he says, stepping forward to take it, and the boy smiles widely at him.

Luke had been right.  He does have dimples.  And straight teeth.  And his eyes are hazel.  His name tag says Ashton, so Michael wasn’t lying about having met him before.  Luke wonders what he was doing when this party took place.

“Don’t listen to them,” Ashton says.  “With a voice like yours, they’ll be eating their words soon.”

“I hope so,” Luke says, and then, because Michael says they have to advertise the band better, “I’m in a band.  We’re called 5 Seconds of Summer, if you ever want to look us up.”

“I’ll do that,” Ashton says.  “I’ll admit I’ve been disappointed when I bike by that house and you guys aren’t practicing.”

Luke’s heart does an excited little twirl at that, because Ashton seems genuine.  Luke knows that the band is okay, otherwise he wouldn’t have put anything out on YouTube or let Michael and Calum invade his channel, but it’s nice to hear it from someone who isn’t an immediate family member.

“We’re practicing at Michael’s now,” Luke says.  “Maybe--”

He stops, because that’s a silly idea.

“What?” Ashton asks, tiling his head slightly.

“Well, we haven’t done any official gigs yet so I can’t invite you to those, but it might be good to play for someone else who’s not related to us, if you wanted to sit in on a practice or something.  But you don’t have to!  It’d probably be weird and I don’t know if Michael and Calum would be okay with it, although neither of them minded you watching from the driveway…” he trails off, chewing his lip.

“I’d love that!” Ashton says enthusiastically, startling Luke out of the unfortunate swirl of thoughts centering around how awful it is that he’s still so awkward.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Ashton says.  “If your bandmates are okay with it, of course, but I’d like that a lot.”

“Oh.  Cool.”

Luke is trying to figure out if he should give Ashton his number, or ask for his, or how to go about coordinating this when the popcorn is snatched from his hands.

“Come on, Luke,” Jack says.  “Movie’s starting.”

He doesn’t wait for him, just sets off for the theater, and Luke scrambles to orient himself and follow.

“I’ll have Michael message you on Facebook!” he calls over his shoulder, throwing out a wave.  Ashton calls back a confirmation and returns the wave and then goes right back to smiling at the next customer and preparing concessions.

“Who was that?” Jack asks once they take their seats, thankfully before the previews have started.

“His name’s Ashton.  He likes the band.”

“Wow, a fan,” Jack says without the proper amount of enthusiasm Luke thinks being in a band that has real fans out in the world should warrant.  Luke elbows him and snatches the popcorn bucket, but not before Jack grabs a handful to stuff in his mouth.

Luke rolls his eyes and settles in for the movie.  When they leave afterwards he looks for Ashton, but doesn’t see him behind the concession counter.

-/-

Their next rehearsal dissolves pretty quickly into Michael and Calum playing video games while Luke pretends to do his homework instead of watch them.  He has a few assignments that need to get turned in to keep his grades up to his mum’s standard, but Michael and Calum are loud and vibrant and very, very distracting.  Luke is laying on the floor to avoid any stray elbows that get thrown, but he can’t let his guard down just in case.  As such, he’s done exactly half of a math problem.

When there’s a quiet moment he clears his throat and says “Hey, you guys remember Ashton?”

“The guy who was watching from the driveway?” Calum asks.

“Ashton from the party?” Michael adds.

“Yeah,” Luke says.  “I ran into him at the movie theater.  I think we should invite him to sit in on some practices.”

“Why?” Michael frowns.  Luke shrugs.

“It’ll be good to play in front of an audience, even if it’s just one person.  He seems cool and he likes the band.”

“Are we ready for that?” Calum asks.  Luke shrugs again.

“We already put out stuff on YouTube.  How much different can it be?”

“Yeah, but we mess up a lot before we upload the videos,” Michael says.  He looks at Luke critically, squinting in a way that makes Luke want to retreat like a turtle, except he can’t even effectively do that because it’s spring and he’s in a t-shirt.  Then Michael grins, wide and teasing.  “Does he really like the band, or do you just have a crush on him?”

Luke feels a blush flare up on his face, the type that stings.  

“Fuck you, I’m not gay!” he says, and a voice inside his head screams liar!  He stamps it down viciously.

He isn’t gay.  He might be bi, but that’s not relevant right now and he’s not going to make it relevant for a while, not when he doesn’t have to.  All of the boys at their school are tools, so it’s not like he’s going to have the chance to explore that side of himself here, anyway.

Maybe if the band actually goes somewhere he will.  But then again, maybe having a bi member would hurt them.  Maybe he’ll end up keeping this between him and the poster of All Time Low in his room forever.

Either way, it’s not relevant right now.  Luke likes flirting with girls and holding their hands and the few dry kisses he’s had, so he’s just going to focus on that.

“Aw, you do have a crush,” Michael says, catapulting him back to the real world, and his tone is teasing but it still makes Luke panic.  It’s not even true, because Ashton is super cute and he seems nice but that’s not-- Luke’s not trying to get to know him because of that.

“Are you jealous?” Luke asks, switching tactics because the more he fights against them the more Michael and Calum will clamp down on this line of teasing like dogs sinking their teeth into a particularly good bone.  Michael wrinkles his nose and recoils.

“Ew.”

And yeah, that stings a little, too.

Calum gets a look on his face that typically means he’s up to no good.

“I think I need to meet this Ashton guy,” he says.  “See if he’s any good for our little Lukey.”  He reaches over to ruffle his hair and Luke swats his hand away, which leads to a small tussle that ends in half of the pages of Luke’s textbook getting folded over.

“Fuck you guys,” Luke says once he has Calum in something resembling a headlock, a little out of breath but triumphant.  “He just seems cool.  I don’t have any cool friends and thought it’d be nice.”

“Hey,” Calum complains, then jabs him with his elbow and escapes.

“He says he’s free on Saturday,” Michael says, looking at his phone.  “I don’t want him at our practices until I know he’s okay, so we’re going bowling.”

“No one who goes bowling is cool,” Calum says.

“Shut up, Calum,” Michael says, then begins the next round of their game with no warning, leaving Calum scrambling to get ready.  Luke huffs a laugh and tries to get his textbook back to rights, even though he knows he won’t be getting any more homework done today.

-/-

On Saturday, Luke feels inexplicably nervous.

He shouldn’t, because Ashton isn’t special.  He’s just a guy that they met and now are going to hang out with a little.  Luke has already botched one conversation with him and survived, and he’ll have Michael and Calum with him this time for backup.  Besides, if it turns out that Ashton is awful they simply won’t ever invite him over.  If it turns out that he’s not, Luke could have a new friend.

He has friends.  He’s not an outcast at school or anything, and Michael and Calum are amazing most of the time, so it’s not like he’s hurting for friends.  Still, another one would be nice, and he really does think it could be good to get an outside perspective on their music.

His mum drops him off in front of the bowling alley where Michael is already waiting, running a hand through his fringe in a way that makes Luke think he might be a little nervous, too, which is unfortunate because Michael is typically the most boisterous out of them and Luke was counting on him to drag him through this if it starts to go sour.  When necessary, Michael is really good at muscling through uncomfortable situations for the sake of Luke or Calum.

“Call me when you’re done,” his mum says.  “Have fun.”

“Thanks,” he says distractedly, already partially out of the car.  Michael immediately brightens when he sees him.

“Hi,” he says.  Luke waves and jogs over.  “Cal’s going to be a little late and I have no fucking clue when Ashton’s going to show up.”

Oh no.  What if Ashton doesn’t want to come in general?  What if he changed his mind and doesn’t think the band or Luke are hot shit? Then not only will Luke be sad, but Michael and Calum will never let him live it down.

“Mate, you look like you’re going to be sick,” Michael frowns.  “Don’t barf on me.  Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine,” Luke says.  “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

“It was your idea,” Michael says slowly.

“Yeah.  Maybe it was bad.”

“Luke, he’s just some guy.  It’s not like we’re proposing marriage.  It’s not like he might join the band or anything.  Relax.”  He knocks their shoulders together, throwing Luke off-balance and then catching him with a hand on his arm when he doesn’t bounce back right away.  Luke shrugs him off.

“I know that,” he says.

“So why are you being weird?”

He’s about to try to muster up an answer when someone calls their names.  Luke whips around fast enough that Micheal has to steady him again, but Ashton either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care, because he continues steadily walking towards them and his smile doesn’t waver.  Luke waves and hopes that that negates the fact that he just almost tripped over his own feet.

“Hey,” Michael says when he’s close enough.  “How’s it going?”

“Good, good,” Ashton says.  He rocks on his heels when he comes to a stop, and Luke feels inexplicably nervous again.  It’s different from seeing him with a driveway or movie theater counter between them.  Here there’s no distance or buffer, just Luke and Michael and Ashton.

At least his shirt is a pretty ugly purple.  No one can be too intimidating when wearing a shirt like that.

They exchange pleasantries until Michael suggests they go inside and get themselves sorted while they wait for Calum to show up.  They step into the air-conditioning and Luke immediately feels more at ease.  He loves bowling alleys.  He loves the gaudy carpet and the loud music and the weird lights and the funny shoes and the stacks of neon bowling balls by the lanes.  He especially loves this particular alley because he can pinpoint the carpet stain where he spilled his coke while here with his family then didn’t tell anyone so it had time to set before it got cleaned, or the lane they used when Calum broke one of the bumpers because he doesn’t like bowling without them but threw the ball too hard.

“Can I tell you something?” Ashton asks while Michael is paying for the lane rental and getting shoes, leaning close to be heard over the music and crash of pins being knocked down in the background.  He’s got his hands shoved in his pockets and a little smile on his face, and Luke is instantly convinced that he’d probably let Ashton say whatever he wants and hang off his every word.

“Sure,” Luke says.

“I’m shit at bowling.  I don’t remember the last time I actually played.”

“It’s okay.  Calum is, too,” Luke says.  “That’ll make him like you.  We’re not using the bumpers, though.”

Ashton frowns.

“Do you usually?”

Luke gets called up to the shoe rental before he can respond.  While he’s kicking off his sneakers Calum arrives, prompting another flurry of greetings and introductions and small talk, then they finally all head to their lane and can begin the game.

Ashton is not nearly as bad at bowling as he had implied.  He’s not great, and Luke is glad that the only real competition he has to worry about is Michael, but Calum still decidedly comes in last for their first round.  He vows to take Ashton down for the second, which isn’t likely, but Luke likes the teasing it prompts between them.

Conversation flows naturally with none of the awkward pauses or weird adjustments that Luke had been preparing himself for.  Honestly, it’s extremely easy to get along with Ashton.  He fits into their little group seamlessly, cracking jokes and asking questions and keeping up with their topic changes like he’s been doing it for years.  Luke’s not sure if he’s stopped smiling the entire time they’re bowling, and his smile is great.  It takes over his entire face, wide and infectious, and Luke has to remind himself to stop staring multiple times.

It’s still not a crush, but Ashton is cute, okay?  It’s an objective fact.  Luke is allowed to notice cute people without having a crush on them.

After their time at their lane is up, Luke’s stomach grumbles and convinces them all to stop by the Macca’s next door before they have to call their parents.  Luke wants to order one of everything on the menu, but he settles for some chicken nuggets and hot chips.  All of them get a large fry, so Luke is pretty sure he’s going to get to eat Calum’s leftovers since he won’t have to fight Michael for them, anyway.

“So Ashton,” Michael says once they’re sitting.  “Luke says you’re a fan of the band.”

“Yeah, you guys are pretty good,” he says, then pops some chips in his mouth.

“Do you play drums?” Calum asks around his own mouthful of burger.  “‘Cause that’d be convenient.”

“No, I wish,” Ashton says ruefully.  “I’m not very musical.  My forte is visual art.”

“Really?” Luke asks.  “Like, drawing and painting and stuff?”

“Yeah,” Ashton says, straightening up.  “I want to study it after school.  I actually really want to go to college in America for it.  I’ve been looking at places with scholarships for international students.  They don’t start their school years until September, so I could work full time for most of the year to save up since I graduate in December.”

“Wow,” Michael says.

“That’s cool,” Luke says, because yeah, wow.  Luke can’t imagine leaving behind everyone he knows to go to a different hemisphere, but Ashton seems excited for it, eyes shining.  He must really love art.

“If you guys ever make it to America, hit me up,” he says.  “I’ll be in the front row at your show.”

“When,” Michael corrects.  Ashton grins at him.

They manage to almost finish their meal before Ashton gets a text from his mum requesting him home.  As soon as he’s gone Michael turns to the other two, fast enough that Luke’s a little worried he’ll get whiplash.

“That shirt is fucking ugly.”

Luke and Calum dissolve into laughter.

“What?  Am I wrong?” Michael asks.

“No, it’s ugly,” Calum says around giggles.  Luke nods around his own laughter and Michael leans back in his chair, satisfied.

“Besides that I like him, though,” he says.  Luke feels warmth blossom inexplicably inside him, pleased on Ashton’s behalf.

“Me too,” Calum says.

“Yeah, me three,” Luke says.  Michael nods decisively and Luke’s heart starts beating a little bit faster in anticipation of their next band practice.

-/-

When Ashton arrives for the next band practice, Michael, Calum, and Luke are all playing Fifa in the granny flat.  Michael’s mum must let him in, because one moment Luke is in the zone and the next there’s a prickle of awareness giving him goosebumps and Ashton is there, existing in his periphery.

“Hey Ashton,” he says, not breaking eye contact with the screen.  Michael and Calum ganged up on him for this round and Luke is determined not to lose.

"Hey," Ashton says.  "What're you guys doing?"

"Fifa!" Michael says in his best sports-announcer voice.  Calum scores a goal and crows right before the game ends, throwing his hands up.  Luke considers throwing his controller but settles for a very loud groan and scrubbing his hands over his face instead before taking his first good look at Ashton of the day.

He's not wearing the ugly purple shirt, but rather a green v-neck that hugs the tops of his arms and ensures Luke can see his collarbones.  Luke tries not to make it obvious that he's looking at Ashton's muscles, following the line of his arms down to bracelets knotted around his wrists and a black book in his hands.

"You can join Luke's team," Calum says.  "He sucks though, fair warning."

"Hey!  I do not!"  He tries to smack Calum, but he has to reach over Michael to do it, which means both of them shove him away and he almost topples over.

"I don't play Fifa," Ashton says.

"What," Michael squawks.  Luke stares incredulously, but Ashton just shrugs and adjusts his fringe before flopping down on the ottoman.

"I don't really like Fifa.  I'm not big on video games in general, but Fifa isn't one of the ones I play."

"We can't be friends anymore," Michael sighs dramatically, falling backwards with an arm over his eyes like a fainting maiden.  Luke pokes his stomach to make him jolt.  "How can you not like Fifa?"

Ashton shrugs again.

"I just don't."

"You're lucky you're not actually in the band," Calum says, brandishing his controller.  "This would be grounds to kick you out."

"It's true," Luke says.  "The only band rule is that everyone must like Fifa.  That's why we haven't replaced Michael yet."

"Hey!  There wouldn't be a band without me!"

Michael tackles Luke to the ground, knocking the wind out of him with an oof.  He flails, but Michael digs his fingers into his side, making him shriek.

"Ashton!  Calum!  Help!"

Ashton sighs, then turns to Calum, who shrugs.

"I'm not getting involved in that."

"Betrayal!" Luke calls between giggles, uselessly kicking at Michael but unable to make satisfying contact.  Michael finally relents once Luke feels like his lungs are about to burst from the lack of a good inhale.  He pants on the floor for a few more moments, then heaves himself to sitting and runs his fingers through his hair to set it back to rights.  Ashton gives him a wry smile.  Luke ducks his head, cheeks still flushed from the tickling.

"Is this how band practice usually starts?" Ashton asks.

"Only when Luke's being annoying," Michael huffs.  Luke flips him off.

"Well, we do usually start with Fifa, yeah," Calum says.  "Sometimes we just hang out instead of practicing, which is probably why we're still kinda shit."

"Hey," Luke says.

"Yeah, hey," Michael frowns.  "Don't shit-talk the band."

"You guys do it all the time!"

"Not in front of a guest," Michael says, gesturing at Ashton.  "Besides, we're never going to make it out of Sydney if you keep believing we're bad."

"I didn't say we were bad, I said we're kinda shit.  You can be a good band and still be kinda shit."

Luke frowns, but Michael launches into a quick rebuttal before he can and Luke decides to stop following.  He glances at Ashton and shrugs.  Ashton smiles, pressing his lips together in a way that Luke hopes means he's holding back a laugh instead of being uncomfortable.  His eyes are dancing too much for it to be a bad thing, though, so Luke returns his smile full force.

It's nice to have someone else here for when Michael and Calum go off on their tangents.  Luke never feels left out or anything, but sometimes it's obvious that they have their own language and dynamic bred from years of history that Luke is still catching up on.  They all understand each other in different little, intricate ways, but it's nice to have someone to share his own secret smiles with when the others are in their own world instead of him staring off into space and waiting for them to jump to a conversation he can be involved in.

Ashton drums his fingers against the black notebook in his lap, drawing Luke's full attention to it while the others squabble in the background.

"Hey, what's that?" he asks.

"This?" Ashton asks, holding it up.  It's a hardcover, with thick black loops binding it together.  Luke nods.  "It's my sketchbook.  I figured it'd be better to have something to do than just stare at you guys while you practice."

"Can I see?" Luke asks eagerly.  Ashton pulls the book closer to his chest, a small subconscious movement, smile cracking with nervousness at the edges.

"Not yet.  I'll show you when I have something good, though."

Luke deflates, but nods.

"They're unfinished," Ashton explains.  "They're messy.  I don't try very hard with my sketches, and I want your first impression of my art to be a good one.  Sorry."

"It's okay," Luke says.  "I get it."

Luke doesn't point out that showing him the sketchbook would probably be like Ashton sitting in on a practice, because maybe Ashton’s not there with him yet.  He wants to reach that level, though.  He wants to sit on Ashton's bed and leaf through his art with him, letting Ashton explain what he wants and drawing his own ideas from moments of silence.

"Hey," Michael says, clapping his hands a few times.  "Are we going to practice or what?"

Luke rolls his eyes, because he wasn't the one arguing with Calum about whether their band is bad or shitty, but goes to get his guitar anyway.  He takes him time tuning it, waiting for the others to get ready as well, and Ashton gets comfortable, lounging back.  They bicker a bit about what song they want to do, but not as much as usual because Luke made them all talk about it at lunch so they don't look like fools in front of Ashton, although it's probably much too late for that, and the first play-through is always a little rough, but it's fine.  Ashton's gaze is a gentle weight on his shoulders, and Luke smiles while he sings.

-/-

Luke waits anxiously by the door, glancing out the window every so often to see if he can spot Ashton making his way up the block to Michael's house on his bike.  He's coming straight from work, and they delayed practice a bit today so that he could be there for it.  They've started factoring Ashton's schedule into their practices a bit more, and Luke likes it.  It's maybe not as productive, but band practices feel better when all four of them are there.  Having Ashton sitting in the corner bent over his sketchbook or, in more dire cases, doing homework and revising for exams puts Luke more at ease, and even though he claims not to be musical he has good suggestions for dividing up parts of songs and is willing to tell them when they can do better.

He always phrases it that way, too.  Not "that wasn't good," but "you guys can do better."  Luke likes that he has standards for them.  He likes how sure he is that the band is worth something.

"Luke, sit down," Michael says, picking up another piece of pizza and trying not to lose all of his toppings on the way to his mouth.  "Waiting for him isn't going to make him appear faster."

"I'm too excited to sit," he says, snagging another piece of pizza for himself.  They're supposed to leave some for Ashton, just to be polite, but at the rate they're going that won't happen unless Ashton pulls up right now.

"I still can't believe it," Calum says, awestruck.

"Me neither," he says.

"I can't believe they said yes," Michael confesses.  "I hoped they would, obviously, but I wasn't sure if they would like the YouTube videos."

"This is big," Luke says.  "Like, this could be life-changing."

"Yeah, you said that earlier," Calum says.

"Because it's true."

The doorbell rings and Luke scrambles to standing, basically sprinting to the door to answer before anyone else and effectively cutting off the rest of the conversation.  He throws the door open wide, greeting Ashton with an exuberant smile that he tiredly returns.  He's always a little tired after a shift, shoulders slumped and everything worn at the edges, but Luke's glad that he still comes over when invited.  Luke likes to think that they rejuvenate him a little.

"Hi," he beams.

"Hey," Ashton says.  "You're in a good mood."

"Hey Ashton!" Calum calls from inside.  "There's one piece of pizza for you if you want it before Luke or Michael take it!"

"Oh," Ashton says, perking up.  Luke steps aside to let him in and follows him to the main room.

"Pizza?" Ashton asks, sinking to the floor and taking the offered piece while Luke takes a spot next to him.  "What's the occasion?"

Michael, Calum, and Luke exchange giddy looks, excitement palpable in the air until Luke can't take it anymore and blurts, "We have a gig!"

Ashton freezes, looking at all three of them before one of his signature grins splits his face.

"No fucking way!" he exclaims.  "Seriously?  Where?  When?  Holy shit, congrats!"

"December third at the Annandale Hotel," Michael says.  He's practically vibrating.  Luke thinks the three of them are probably holding enough energy to power a small city right now.

"A real gig," Ashton breathes.  "I'll be there, obviously."

"Obviously," Luke repeats.  "We can't do our first official gig without our biggest fan."  Ashton gives Luke a smile, the type that makes something warm blossom in Luke's stomach.

"Do you know what you're going to play yet?" Ashton asks.

"No, we just found out today," Calum says.  "We were going to try to make the setlist tonight."

"And we still need to find a drummer," Michael says.  Ashton hums.

"Do you have anyone in mind?"

They all shake their heads.  The Drummer Issue, as it has been officially dubbed by the band, is becoming a bigger and bigger thorn in their sides.  They feel good as a three-piece, but you can't play a gig without a drummer.  Michael fills in on percussion sometimes when they really need it, but he likes guitar much better and it's a little late to make him learn how to be a proper drummer when they don't even have a kit to use.

"I might be able to help," Ashton says.  "One of my friends plays drums.  He's not looking to join a band or anything, but he's a quick learner and could probably play at the Annandale at least if you don't have someone more permanent by then."

"Who is he?" Michael asks, reaching for the laptop they upload all of their covers on.  "Pull up his Facebook."

He elbows his way between Luke and Ashton so he can lean over Ashton’s shoulder and Luke scoots over to Calum instead, content to munch on his pizza and leave them to do whatever internet-stalking Michael deems appropriate.  Michael's approval is the hardest one to get in the band, so if he thinks the guy looks good they'll probably end up using him, and Ashton's recommendation carries a lot of weight.

"A real gig," Calum says reverently, staring at his pizza like it's the greatest gift in the world.  Luke knocks their shoulders together and continues leaning against him while the other two talk.

A real gig.  Luke has always put a lot of weight into being in a band, but there's something more official about it now.  They're a real band, not just a band to themselves and a handful of people on YouTube, but to people who will see their name on the marquee and everyone who enters through the doors that night.  5 Seconds of Summer is going to get a chance to play in front of a real crowd, not just Ashton.  This is the start of something huge, he can feel it.

If he had to pick anyone in the world to share this moment with, he’d pick the three people in this room right now.  Luke leans his head against Calum’s shoulder and lets himself imagine the possibilities.

-/-

The night before they're meant to perform at the Annandale, Luke can't sleep.  He tosses and turns, trying to find a comfortable position and failing, flipping his pillow over to the cool side and readjusting his covers and still staring uselessly at the ceiling.  The clock on his side table reads 3:43, red letters blinking mockingly at him as every second ticks by.  He sighs, turning back to look at his ceiling.

He could try to text Michael or Calum, but he doesn’t want them to know how anxious he is, stomach already tied in knots with over twelve hours before the performance.  They might be dealing with their own nerves and he doesn’t need to add to them, or they might be fine and think he’s being stupid.  He could keep laying here, but the longer he does that the more he starts thinking about how everything could go wrong.

What if he forgets the words?  What if his voice cracks?  What if he doesn’t tune his guitar properly and everyone cringes at the first strum?  What if he loses all of his picks?  What if a string breaks?  What if no one even shows up and it’s just the three of them and Ashton’s mellow drummer friend playing to an empty room and then no one lets them do a gig ever again?

He could try texting Ashton.  He might not even be awake, but if he does reply he’d probably say something reassuring that would have Luke’s shoulders unclenching and quiet his racing mind.  Ashton is good at stuff like that, but he doesn’t say things unless he means them.  If he tells Luke that things are going to be alright, things are probably going to be alright.

He grabs his phone from the nightstand, squinting at the brightness.

Luke: U up?

He cringes when he realizes how much that sounds like a come-on.  Whatever, it’s not like Ashton expects him to be doing that, so hopefully he’ll brush it off.

He’s about to try willing himself to sleep again when his phone lights up.

Ashton: yeah whats up

Luke: nothn whats up w u

Ashton: nothing lol. u excited 4 tmrw?

This is his chance.  Ashton has given him a clear opening and all Luke has to do is tell him that the thought of going out onstage is giving him a stomach ache and he’s going to die if he doesn’t get to sleep soon.  Ashton might think he’s silly and dramatic and a baby, but if Luke works himself up any more over this he’s not going to be able to look at his guitar tomorrow, let alone pick it up, and he needs to be able to do that.  He can’t let the band down.

Luke: scared

Ashton: y? u guys r going to kill it!

Luke: what if i suck

Ashton: u dont ur a rockstar! i have gd taste in bands u deserve this opportunity& will be awesome

Luke: what if im not

Ashton: its ur first gig youll only get better frm here uv put in 2 much work 2 b scared u will be amazing

Luke: what if no 1 shows up

Ashton: ill b there! u can play 2 me ppl will come

Luke takes a deep breath.  Ashton’s probably right.  This is their first gig, and he seems convinced that there will be others.  Even if they bomb tomorrow or it’s only Ashton in the crowd, they can bounce back.  They’ve put a lot of work into the band, and he can’t let one shitty performance define them, especially when he doesn’t even know if it’s going to be shitty yet.  Ashton seems to think they’ll be alright, and Ashton is usually trustworthy.

Luke: thx

Ashton: no prob :)

Luke looks at his clock again and wonders if this will be enough to let him sleep, but something niggles at his mind.

Luke: y r u awake rn?

Outside, one lone car drives down the street.  Luke tries to imagine himself in the center of some big city like New York or Los Angeles instead of a suburb outside of Sydney.  He tries to imagine Ashton at a college town in the United States, living in a dormitory with all his friends and staying out late regardless of if he has classes in the morning.

Ashton: cant sleep sketching instead

He sends a picture with it and Luke waits patiently for the image to load.  When it finally does, he's greeted with a horizontal photo of Ashton's sketchbook, yellow light from a lamp barely illuminating the page.  It must be the scene outside Ashton's window, an empty street with houses lining the pavement and a rough sketch of a streetlight at the end of the block.  It's just graphite against creamy white paper, but Luke wishes he were seeing it in person so he could trace his finger over the lines.  They're rushed, but confident and bold.  Ashton has shaded most of the page to give the illusion of nighttime, and Luke imagines him sitting at his window, glancing up every-so-often for reference as he recreates what he can see on paper.

Luke: wow ur really good!

Ashton: <3 ty

Luke bites his lip, trying to figure out something else to say.  After a few minutes of silence, Ashton texts first.

Ashton: get some sleep luke. see u tmrw

His stomach sinks, but it’s probably for the best.  He’d keep talking to Ashton all night if he could, but he needs to sleep.  He has a gig tomorrow.

Luke: gn

He puts his phone down and lays back in bed, taking a deep breath.  To avoid thinking more about tomorrow, he tries to imagine what other creations could be in Ashton's sketchbook, black lines drawing themselves on the blank canvas of his mind until he finally falls asleep.

-/-

Luke paces anxiously as well as he can in the cramped “backstage” space.  They're about to begin the set, and it's just as nerve-wracking as he thought it was going to be.  Ashton's drummer friend is a picture of calm, twirling his sticks with a bored frown, but Michael and Calum are both jittery, too.  Calum is picking nervously at the bass he's holding, about to make his official debut as a bass player, and Michael keeps tapping his foot restlessly.

There's a few people here.  A group of girls is huddled by the stage waiting for them to start and Luke is supremely grateful that they showed up, but it brings up a new set of anxieties.  They're playing original songs for the first time, and it's one thing to be able to sing a cover, but it's another to present people with new material and ask them to like it.  They can't let these fans down, no matter how tiny the crowd might be.

His phone vibrates in his pocket and Luke digs it out.

Ashton: break a leg rockstar :)

Luke doesn't have time to reply before the lights are dimming, the crowd is cheering, and he's following Michael onstage.

The show is amazing.

Like, objectively it's probably not, but Luke has the time of his life anyway.  He's shaky and nervous for the first minute, then he actually looks up and sees Ashton standing off to the side with a camera in hand, million-watt smile on his face, and suddenly things are easy.  They mess up and they're awkward and they give it everything they've got.  The crowd is small but mighty, the music is messy but sincere, and Luke starts to figure out how to be a rockstar on a tiny stage in a hotel in Sydney, Michael and Calum blossoming into their own stars next to him.

He tears up a little during "Everything I Want," which should probably be super embarrassing, but mostly he's just happy.  He can't believe people came.  He can't believe this is real and not a dream.  He can't believe he's lucky enough to do this with his two best friends.  It's only up from here, and Luke already feels like he's on top of the world.

When they take their bows and exit the stage, Luke is buzzing.  He pulls the other two into a hug, the kind that’s so fierce it feels like he’s suffocating, and they all laugh and cheer and maybe Luke cries a little bit again.  He tearily thanks their drummer, who looks marginally less bored now that the show has actually been played, and accepts hugs from his parents and pats on the back from his brothers.  He talks to a few of the fans that have lingered and even signs his first autograph, which is insane to think about.

When he finally has a spare moment, he finds Ashton and throws his arms around him.

"Hey!  Amazing job!" Ashton says in his ear, holding him just as securely.  Luke tucks his face in his shoulder and squeezes.

"I thought you wanted to be in the front row," Luke says once he makes himself let go.

"I figured I'd let the other fans get a chance.  I have a front row seat at every practice, so it only seemed fair.  I got some good pictures, though."

He holds up his camera and Luke brightens even more, if possible.  He feels like he's glowing brighter than the stage lights already.  He feels like he's probably glowing more than all of the stage lights in all of the big stadiums around the world combined.

"Can I see?" he asks.  Ashton doesn't get a chance to answer before Michael and Calum appear in an enthusiastic, all-encompassing storm, pulling both of them out of their corner because Karen promised to buy pizza in celebration and both of them were too nervous to eat before and are starving now.  Luke is, too, and he tugs Ashton to follow them out to the cars.

"Wait, shouldn't this just be band and family?" Ashton says, dragging his feet.

"Don't be stupid," Michael says, taking his other hand and helping Luke pull him forward.

"Yeah, you're basically part of the band," Calum says.  "As much as our temp drummer, anyway, and Mum invited him along."

Ashton's drummer friend declines, so it's just them and their families.  Ashton sits sandwiched between Luke and Calum and Luke's mum jokes about that side of the table needing four pizzas just for themselves.  When the adrenaline finally wears off part way through the meal, Luke slumps against Ashton's side and sighs contentedly.

He's pretty sure this is the best day of his life.

-/-

Ashton graduates in mid-December.  Luke texts him a quick congratulations, but they don't see each other until a few days after.  The band decided they need to celebrate (or maybe they just want the excuse to get ice cream along with the usual pizza), but Ashton spends a few days hanging out with friends from school and his family.  Luke thinks it's ridiculous that they have to wait almost an entire week to see him, but they decide to all stay over at Michael's when they do, so Luke can't pout too much.

They pick Ashton up instead of making him bike over, which they make a big deal out of as his graduation present.  They leave the passenger seat open for him, at least, so he doesn't have to squish into the back, and he graciously thanks them with a lofty voice, like a king talking to his royal subjects.  They make a big deal out of ordering Ashton's favorite pizza, too, which is just one of their usual orders, then grab some chips and pass around goon and put in Iron Man, because Ashton wants to watch the Marvel movies and Michael has all five of them.  The wine goes down easy in the way cheap wine usually does, and soon Luke has a pleasant buzz, enjoying the way the room fuzzes at the edges from his place squished between Michael and Calum on the sofa.  Ashton is alone in the arm chair, and Luke wishes he were squished in here with them, too.

Calum dozes off first, so after Iron Man 2 they set up blankets and sleeping bags.  Michael claims the couch because it's his house, so Luke watches Thor from the floor, propped against the front of the couch so he can see the TV better, Calum on one side and Ashton on the other.  Calum falls asleep again quickly, and near the end of the movie Michael starts breathing deeply, the kind of breathing that's close to a snore.  During the credits Luke blinks at Ashton and finds him already looking back.

"Hey," Ashton says.  "Want to watch Captain America?"

Luke nods.  Ashton carefully picks his way over to the TV, crouching to exchange the DVDs.  Backlit by the screen, Luke can see the way his hair is starting to get slightly wavy at the ends now, hours and hours since he last straightened it for the flat-iron fringe they all sport.  Luke wonders what his natural hair is like.  He likes that he's going to get to see it in the morning, but that also means that Ashton is going to see his bedhead, too.

"Hey," Luke says quietly when Ashton returns.  "The others are asleep."

Ashton glances at them, then grins.  "Do you have a marker?"

They give Calum a mustache, which is hard because the smell of the marker right under his nose keeps making him shift, then giggle their way through drawing a dick on Michael's cheek.  Ashton clamps a hand over Luke's mouth at one point when Michael hums and moves, and both of them hold their breath until he settles again, smacking his lips.

"Shhhh," Ashton says in his ear.  Luke shivers at the proximity, then nods.  Ashton moves his hand, so they continue to give Michael a few more doodle-tattoos before deeming themselves done and returning to their sleeping bags.

"They're going to hate us in the morning," Luke giggles.  Ashton snickers next to him, and they turn back to the movie.  It holds Luke's attention for the beginning, but now that he's aware of it, Ashton's presence as the only other one awake takes up the room.  Luke hears his huffs of laughter and every rustle of his sleeping bag hidden between the dialogue and backing soundtrack.  When he grins, it's still bright even though the TV is the only thing illuminating the room.  It creates weird shadows on his face, valleys of black amidst the blue-lighted highlights, but it doesn't make him look strange or unfamiliar.  If anything, it assures Luke that he'd be able to recognize Ashton in any context.  He’s not the artist out of the two of them, but he wonders if he’d be able to draw Ashton from memory.

"Are you going to miss us when you're in America?" Luke asks.

Ashton drags his attention away from the movie to look at him again.

"Yeah, of course.  You guys are some of my best friends."  Luke tries not to show how happy that makes him.  Sometimes he thinks that Ashton must thing that they're all stupid and immature kids.  Ashton has graduated and has plans for his life and takes care of his family.  Luke draws dicks on his friend's faces when they fall asleep.

"You're one of my best friends, too," he says.  "I'm really glad you talked to me at the movies."

"I'm glad you invited me to go bowling."

"It was technically Michael who did that," Luke says, ducking his head.

"No," Ashton says with a small smile.  "He sent the message, but I know you told him to."

Luke hums and settles deeper into his blanket.

"Are you going to miss me when your band makes it big and you're on tour all the time?" Ashton asks.

"Yeah.  I think I'm going to miss you a lot."

Luke can already feel the phantom pain deep in his chest where he's going to miss him.  He once again wishes there was some way for Ashton to stay with them without sacrificing his own dreams.  It's strange; he's so excited for the band to take off, but now that it's a real possibility that their dreams are coming true and they'll move on to bigger and better things, it hurts a little.

Well, it hurts to think of leaving his family, and it hurts to think of Ashton leaving him.

"Besides, you're the one who's getting out of here,” he says.  “5sos has still only played one gig."

"You're going to be huge," Ashton says.  He states it calmly, like an accepted fact.  It's in the same way he'd say that the sky is blue.  "You'll get out of here and get to see the whole world a thousand times over."

Luke nods, curling into his blanket a little more.  On screen, Steve asks Bucky if he's ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death.  Bucky says, Hell no.  That little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb not to run away from a fight... I'm following him.

"Are you scared of leaving?" he asks quietly.  Ashton stays silent for a long time.  Luke watches him blink in the dim light, eyes toward the TV but too still to be watching it.

"I'm more scared of being stuck here forever," he confesses eventually.  "I love Australia, but... I don't want to turn into my mum, and I don't know how to prevent that unless I get out of here.  I love my family, I really do.  You know that, right?"  Luke nods.  "I love them, and I feel like I've always been taking care of them.  Even just wanting to leave is selfish, but filling out the applications for the schools was awful.  I felt so guilty, but... I don't know.  Australia has a great art scene that I probably should focus on instead, but I keep thinking about America.  If I don't go, I'm going to spend the rest of my life regretting it."

Ashton traces a thread on his blanket.  Luke wants to take his hand.

"I don't think it's selfish," Luke says.  "You can't let your entire life be determined by them.  They understand, right?"

"Mum does," Ashton says.  "I don't think Lauren and Harry get why I want to go so far away."

He sighs.  It feels heavy in the darkness.

"It doesn't matter yet, anyway.  It depends on if I even get into any of the schools I applied for and if we have the money.  I've been saving as much as I can, but it might not be enough.  America is so fucking expensive."

"You'll get there," Luke says.  "If our band is going somewhere, you definitely will, too."

Ashton shoots him a grateful smile.  Luke wants to tuck it in his pocket.  He's already saving pieces of Ashton in preparation of when they'll be halfway around the world from each other.

"Next year will be good for us," Ashton says.  "2012 is going to be a big breakthrough for us both."

"Yeah," Luke says.  "I believe you."

They watch the rest of the movie in silence.  When the credits roll, Luke realizes that Ashton fell asleep while he was distracted by the story, eyes closed peacefully next to him.  It’s strange to see him so relaxed and still, like some sort of marble statue.  He rarely stops moving when he’s awake, but here all of the stress lines he carries with him are smoothed out.  Luke didn’t know that they were there, but now the absence of them is obvious.

The movie menu screen reappears, loud music and bright colors startling him.  He grabs the remote and turns off the TV, plunging the room into darkness.  He tries to get comfortable, tossing and turning a bit on the floor and adjusting his blanket a few times, then closes his eyes.  Sleep doesn’t come easy, and he stays awake for a long time listening to Ashton, Calum, and Michael breathing.

[neerasrealm]

POLY JANEWORK POLY JANEWORK POLY JANEWORK

THEY LOVE THEIR GF SO MUCH JJSHSHDJDDN

WHATS BETTER THAN TWO LESBIANS??? THREE LESBIANS OF COURSE! Wrote this with a female reader because. y’know. Jane. Also while I was writing this my brain decided this was in the same continuity of the Jason x Reader short I did forever ago??? idk why but it’s there idk dfhdsjf

Enjoy!

You let out a tired sigh as you reach into your pocket and pull out your keys. You stop in front of your apartment and unlock the door before stepping in. The moment you’re inside you’re greeted by the sound of a love song playing on the radio and the smell of sauteed onions and garlic. You take off your coat and hang it up, then drop your keys on the table by the door. You walk down the small hallway. 

‘’Hello dear.’’ a soft, loving voice greets you. You look up and smile gently at Jane. She’s wearing a long black blouse with loose sleeves and baggy black pants. Not her usual outfit, but she still looks beautiful with her short black wig and her pale white mask. She’s busy stirring a frying pan. She looks up and over at you, her black eyes staring calmly. You smile a bit.

‘’Hey Jane.’’ you greet tiredly. ‘’How was your day?’’ you tilt your head at her. Jane is...a little odd. She wears a mask to hide her burnt skin, but is still the most gentle and loving woman you know. She speaks softly, gives the best hugs, has an eye for interior design and is an amazing cook. It’s almost a little hard to believe she’s- well- a murderer. Or rather, a murderer that works for an all powerful god. Maybe it’s more accurate to call her an assassin. Regardless, when she’s off the job, Jane is gentle and loving. 

‘’It was okay,’’ she murmurs back. ‘’I did a little embroidery, watched a movie with Natalie...I talked on the phone with Jason for a bit.’’ 

You roll your eyes. ‘’Gossiping as usual.’’ you murmur. She laughs gently. 

‘’Maybe a little…’’ you watch her take the pan off the heat and move it aside. She grabs a pack of tortillas from the countertop and lays them out on a baking tray. ‘’How was work, love?’’ she asks as she uses a spoon to grab chicken, peppers and onions from the pan. She deposits some onto each tortilla.

‘’It was okay.’’ you shrug. ‘’Tiring…’’ you look around for a second, then back at Jane, who’s now pouring cheese over the tortillas. ‘’Where’s Nat?’’

‘’In the bathroom.’’ Jane replies calmly as she neatly folds up each tortilla. She sprinkles a little cheese over each one then leans back. ‘’Natalie! Y/n is home!’’ she calls out. You hear muffled crashing and someone cursing in another room, followed by the bathroom door being yanked open. A green and white blur slides down the hall and stops just a few feet in front of you. Natalie, your second girlfriend, a girl who wears almost exclusively flannel and has a clock in her left eye. She’s wearing green flannel over a white t-shirt, along with baggy sweatpants and socks. Her brown hair is half shaved, with the non-shaved side hanging over her other, not-clock eye. 

‘’Sup.’’ she greets with a small grin. You stare at her.

‘’What’d you do to your hair?’’ you ask, pointing at her new skrillex cut. She looks up and grins, pointing proudly at the haircut. 

‘’Oh, ya like it?’’ she asks. ‘’Did it myself.’’ she tosses her head, her hair swinging out of her green eye slightly. Jane looks at her for a few moments before going back to making enchiladas.

‘’It looks great, sweetheart.’’ she replies calmly.

‘’You...gave yourself a skrillex cut?’’

‘’Uh-huh.’’

‘’...why?’’

Nat shrugs. ‘’I dunno. Thought it’d look cool.’’ she looks at you. ‘’...does it look cool?’’

‘’I mean- duh of course it does,’’ you reply. ‘’Just- you did that on your own? Weren’t you scared of- I dunno, messing it up?’’

Nat waves you off. ‘’Naaaah. It’s fine.’’ she gives you a small grin. ‘’How was work babe?’’

‘’It was fine.’’ you walk past her and sit down on the couch, slipping off your shoes. Nat is quick to follow you and sit down beside you. She leans against you, her head resting on your shoulder. You roll your eyes playfully and wrap an arm around her, pulling her close. She hums and snuggles up against you. You move a bit, laying down, letting her lay on top of you. She smiles wide and closes her eyes as she cuddles up. You let out a quiet, satisfied sigh.

And then Nat squeezes one of your breasts and giggles. ‘’Hehe tiddy…’’ 

‘’...Natalie I will push you off this couch if you do that again.’’

‘’Pff- okay, sorry.’’ she nuzzles into your neck instead. Jane puts the enchiladas in the oven and sets to work cleaning up the kitchen. Nat eyes her. ‘’Babe, c’mere.’’ she calls Jane turns and looks at her for a moment, tilting her head. Nat shifts on top of you and rolls onto her back. She holds out her arms, her non-verbal way of saying ‘’hugs!’’

Jane turns away from her. ‘’I’ll be over in a bit.’’ she replies calmly. Nat frowns. 

‘’Oh c’mooooooon.’’ she whines. Jane shakes her head. Nat looks up at you. ‘’Help me out here.’’ she murmurs. You smirk and sigh, shaking your head. You look up at Jane.

‘’Jane, love,’’ you call out gently. Jane’s head perks up a bit and you smirk more. ‘’Why don’t you come cuddle with us…? I’ve had a long day, and I’m sure you have too…’’ Jane turns and looks at you. You give your best puppy dog eyes and flutter your lashes at her. Nat is, presumably, giving puppy dog eyes too. Or maybe- just puppy dog eye. Jane stares at you both for a long moment before turning away. She sets down her dishcloth, dusts herself off, then walks out of the kitchen. You grin.

‘’Yaaaay!!’’ Nat cheers as Jane walks over to you two. She gently slips off her black pumps and climbs onto the couch. She lays down on top of Nat, squishing you a bit under the weight. Her arms wrap around the both of you and she hums gently. Nat loudly places kisses into the top of her head. Jane laughs.

"Affectionate today, aren't we?"

"How can I not be when I'm stuck between a cute girl and a hot lady?" Nat replies with a grin.

"That's gay." You wheeze quietly.

"Me? Gay? Never." Nat shakes her head. "I'm completely straight, now excuse me while I kiss this woman." While Nat speaks she undoes the buckle on the back of Jane's mask and pulls it off. She quickly moves down and kisses Jane's burnt lips. You laugh again as you watch your two girlfriends quietly makeout. 

Jane pulls away from Nat and smiles, her cheeks flushing red. Nat reaches up and caresses her cheek, smiling happily up at her. You soften as you take in her features. Even with her burns, Jane is beautiful, with a small button-nose and soft, smiling lips. Her eyes are a shiny blue colour that stick out brightly against her black clothes and hair. "You're so pretty…" you murmur.

Jane blinks and looks away, smiling a bit. "Thank you love…"

"She means it." Nat pipes up. "You're the most beautiful woman I know, Jane. Don't forget that."

Jane looks down at her and smiles wider. Genuine. She leans down and pecks a kiss onto Nat's forehead, then moves up and kisses your lips. She looks at the two of you for a moment and lets out a fond sigh. "...I won't."

"Good," Nat smiles in satisfaction, then reaches up and grabs Jane's shoulders. "Now c'mere." She yanks her down and hugs her tight. Jane chuckles and wraps her arms around you both. 

"I love you guys." You say gently. 

"We love ya too, y/n." 

"More than anything."

[mad4cheez]

Talked about fanfic with a friend today and then watched Kajillionaire and now all I can think about is a Melanie/Old Dolio hurt/comfort fic that I will never write featuring:

-framing narrative because who am I if not ambitious in my storytelling

-okay so the framing narrative is Old Dolio and Melanie drifting apart because Old Dolio might have friends so many years down the line but she’s never dated or been “properly” loved by anyone but Melanie

-Melanie tells Old Dolio she can go explore her feelings with other people if she wants and it’s a very weird conversation where both are unhappy with the outcome and this whole situation might end their relationship

-but then we have so many flashbacks to the building of this relationship, among which we see:

-immediately following the end of the film narrative, Old Dolio buys some new clothes with some of her third but they’re just as baggy and shapeless cmon a little makeover montage would be CUTE

-Old Dolio continuing to sleep on that little mat next to Melanie’s bed for SO LONG because she’s been so literally touch starved she still can’t stand too much physical contact at once or she WILL burst into tears

-Melanie asks Old Dolio what she wants to do now but she doesn’t know (obviously she can’t keep running the cons like her parents the whole point of the movie was moving away from your abusive past but cmon a lil gay crime is fine now and then dw)

-Melanie tells Old Dolio to walk around LA and see if there’s anything she likes (bc Old Dolio doesnt know what she likes that’s never mattered before)

-Old Dolio does just that while Melanie is at work, and she has this crazy adventure that would be a whole chapter where she decides she likes graffiti art and seagulls and weird synth music and French fries and the colour yellow, and really does NOT like the beach (too sandy) and of course she can’t walk into a mall without stealing something but she only walked away with like a cheap pair of earrings with little cat faces from like Claire’s but her ears aren’t pierced so she gives them to Melanie who wears them for like three months straight

-Melanie also spends this time thinking about what she really wants, but she’s thinking more like “how to make myself happy” bc she was encouraged to be a person growing up

-Melanie decides she wants to cut hair!! And play a sport regularly! And take a pottery class!

-hair school results in Old Dolio learning how to support Melanie. It’s messy but ultimately works because only Old Dolio can dance around that way and remind Melanie what’s really important

-sports is... listen, Melanie isn’t good at basketball per se, but really the trouble comes from Old Dolio feeling replaced

-so of course that leads to another long conversation about friends and feelings and Melanie agrees to help Old Dolio try and find some of that

-the pottery class they take together and Old Dolio is surprisingly good at it but it’s a bust for Melanie. Old Dolio makes friends with the weird old lady who also dresses mostly in track suits and they never speak but they’re pretty close

-we also see melanie trying out different things with Old Dolio like star gazing and clubbing and rec sports and Old Dolio is bad at everything but she likes dancing and she likes being alone with Melanie

-but (very) frustratingly (especially for Melanie), there is no more kissing for a long while after that store kiss. I think there were a few times where Melanie forgets and tries to be affectionate and Old Dolio reacts adversely and then feels bad about it and they have to talk about what they’re both comfortable with

-and eventually of course Old Dolio gets hurt (probably while trying to roller blade) but it’s worse than she’s had to fix before and she’s shutting Melanie out trying to fix it and this (of course) results in a big smooch fest, with lots of checking for consent

-and then maybe we skip forward in the flashbacks to a few months later and Melanie and Old Dolio have found their rhythm and they’re touching a little more but it’s still electric because Old Dolio has to be eased into touch and it’s so domestic and so good. There are still land mines for both of them but they’ve managed to avoid any for awhile at this point. Lots of kissing, no sex yet (cmon you thought it would be that easy)

-Melanie’s introduced Old Dolio to a couple of her friends, some are good friends, some are.. not good. Old Dolio doesn’t know how to deal with this

-one of the good ones (I’m naming him Pavan) nicknames Old Dolio “Odie” and it sticks and she’s weirded out at first (“but that’s not my name” “no silly it’s a nickname. Like sweetheart or hun, but for everyone to use”) but then she grows to like it a lot more (hello heartfelt renaming scene we let go of the burdens our parents gave thank you amen) ((also thank god now I can just call her Odie))

-haircut scene!!! Melanie convinces Odie to let her cut her hair “just a bit” and it actually turns out so well - still long, but shaped nicely and lets people see her face more

-and there also Odie helping Melanie to cut out some of the more toxic friends, friends who are mean and make you feel bad and aren’t we supposed to be looking for what makes us feel good? Maybe this is where they have sex for the first time and it’s so sweet and loving and Odie has no idea what she’s doing but she’s a quick and eager learner and Melanie is ready to go just from all the build up

Listen I’m just emotional about Gina Rodriguez playing a queer woman and having a story about seizing control of your identity and choosing to unlearn everything your parents taught you I guess Kajillionaire was good okay

[reginaldqueribundus]

what is a star wars?

Star Wars is about humans and aliens flying around space wisecracking and shooting at each other and befriending adorable robots, and exists primarily to make people argue on the internet. It takes place in a faraway galaxy where you can have a ray gun, a cool spaceship and your own mechanical slave, and maybe even mystical psychic powers (in which case you will most likely join a cult or get murdered). But the whole place gets torn apart every couple of decades in galactic wars caused by two tribes of space wizards, one of which is Good™ but slightly stupid, and the other of which is Evil and obsessed with giant death lasers. One wizard family in particular keeps fucking things up for everyone and then trying to fix it. 

Wildlife consists of cute marketable pets or enormous monsters who try to kill you, people primarily communicate via holograms, and there are robots literally everywhere and so many assassins they probably have their own section in the phone book, but no paper.

Available jobs are space wizard, bounty hunter, Nazi, royalty, smartass pilot, or foot soldier who dies in ten seconds. The whole galaxy is run by a) a bunch of bureaucrats who are all corrupt and never get anything done, or b) a dictatorship controlled by an immortal space warlock, both simultaneously with shit ton of overpowered crime syndicates that never really seem to go away. The dictatorship actually only lasts like 20 years but people spend forever trying to bring it back.

Star Wars mostly comes in three main flavours:

Original Flavour (episodes 4-6): the first three Star Wars movies from the 80s, in which Space fascists have built a giant flying ball that kills planets. A rebel princess with giant cinnamon buns for hair gets a diagram of the ball and wants to blow it up but she gets caught by a cyborg with asthma so she gives the diagram to two robots: a garbage can who just beeps and a gay one who translates everything the trash can says. They get mugged by tiny people in hoods and sold to a twink who lives on a farm in the desert. He takes the robots to see a crazy old hobo who gives him a laser sword and tells him to learn space magic. The twink is reluctant but gives in after the fascists turn his aunt and uncle into skeletons. They hire a getaway driver and his friend Bigfoot to take them to the princess’s planet but it got blown up so they rescue her from the Planet Killing Ball and blow it up. The hobo turns into a ghost so the twink learns magic from a weird little goblin who lives in a swamp. Then he finds out the cyborg is his dad but evil while his friends hang out in a flying city with the only black man in the galaxy. Jetpack Man shoves their getaway driver into a slab of concrete because he owes a ton of money to a mafia boss who is a giant slug but they rescue him and blow up the slug’s yacht. A gross old man tries to get the twink to be evil but he just wants to bond with his dad while his friends fuck around in the woods with some teddy bears. The space death ball comes back but they blow it up again and the princess fucks their getaway driver because the twink was her brother all along.

Greenscreen Flavour (eps 1-3): the prequels from 20 years ago. we meet the evil cyborg before he was evil or a cyborg and just an annoying little kid in a bowl cut who likes to drive in DEATH RACES. He meets a teenage queen with an even more ridiculous haircut and saves her planet from an army of robots. The Good space wizards kidnap him and turn him into a warrior monk because they think he is the Chosen One but then he grows up and gets hot and starts boning the queen who is now a space politician. Then more robots come and an army of clones comes out of nowhere to fight the robots and there are Politics and Christopher Lee. Jetpack Man’s dad shows up and immediately dies. The hobo is younger and hotter and looks like Jesus and says “hello there” and he tries to make the boy be a Good wizard but he fucks it all up and they fight in a volcano after the creepy old man turns the boy evil by telling him fairy tales at the opera. After murdering all the wizards except the goblin and the hobo the old man sticks the boy in an iron lung suit and tricks everybody into doing fascism so he can wear big comfy robes all the time.

Disney Flavour (eps 7-9): the sequel trilogy that just finished. 30 years after the originals the princess has a dumbass incel son who works for these neo-nazis led by a corpse in a gold bathrobe and a ginger who screams all the time and they built a planet that kills other planets. The princess tries to fight them but the getaway driver is dicking around in space with bigfoot and the twink fucked up so bad he ran off to milk dinosaur tiddies in the middle of nowhere. One bad guy foot soldier switches sides because he’s gay for the princess’s best pilot and they run away together and meet a random scavenger girl and help her look for the original characters so they can blow up the killer planet. The incel kills his dad so the girl cuts his face off but later they start magic-Skyping somehow and maybe want to bone?? The good guys spend a whole movie getting chased around by the bad guys while the ex-soldier and a janitor trash a casino and the scavenger tries to get the twink to please teach her some space magic but he just mopes around until she gets bored and runs off to see the incel but he sucks too so she gets the princess to teach her instead. The goblin’s ghost shows up, tells the twink he’s a failure and sets his treehouse on fire, so the twink kills himself by astral projecting across the galaxy to fuck with his nephew. The princess gets tired of her son’s bullshit and also kills herself by bothering him from across the galaxy so he’ll get stabbed and hopefully die, but the scavenger girl wants to turn him good so they can have sex. Then it turns out the old man was behind it all and the girl is his granddaughter so they hunt him down and kill him again.

And then the other flavours:

Buffet Flavour (Legends): after the original movies came out there were a shit ton of books and comics that continued the story. The princess has more kids who aren’t all dumbasses and she tries really hard to make democracy stick while learning space magic. A Smug Blue Douchebag tries to bring back the dictatorship while mansplaining everyone’s culture to them, and the twink finally gets a girlfriend and tries to start his own space wizard school but fucks it up by building it on a haunted graveyard so an evil ghost messes with his students until one of them steals a ship that blows up suns. The fascists are still kind of hanging around harassing everyone and people keep trying to build giant death lasers. Later a shit ton of space orcs who are immune to magic show up and try to kill everyone with organic technology. Then Mickey Mouse came along and dunked the whole thing in the trash, but luckily you can still read it!

Extra Flavour Packets: these fall into two categories: the “Star Wars Story” prequels from a few years ago, and the animated shows (released through the late 2000s and 2010s) that take place between the movies.

The extra prequels: Solo is all about how the getaway driver became a getaway driver and became friends with Sasquatch and stole his crappy ship from a poker player who fucks robots. They steal a bunch of space gasoline to defeat a rival biker gang. Rogue One is about a scrappy girl whose dad built the giant space laser ball and wants her to destroy it, so she teams up with a sexy terrorist, a space trucker, a blind guy and his husband, and a robot cop who got hacked into being good so they can steal the blueprints to the laser ball so someone else can blow it up in a different movie. They all definitely live happily ever after!!

The animated shows: In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, during the big robots-vs.-clones war the Chosen One gets his own child soldier to keep as a pet and they hang out with Young Hobo Jesus and the goblin and Bald Black Wizard Guy. They have many adventures getting to know their clones, somehow never figuring out the old man is behind it all, and fighting Christopher Lee and his pet goth chick and a bionic weed whacker whose name literally means “bad”. Then 20 years later (Star Wars Rebels) a kid with blue hair meets a student space wizard who survived the big wizard purge and they get together with a green lady pilot, a punk warrior graffiti artist, a different Bigfoot and a robot who is an asshole, and fly around the galaxy trying to convince people to fight oppression, the Smug Blue Douchebag and a lady with a shitty haircut. Throughout it all, the Satanic-looking ninja wizard guy who got chopped in half in the prequels comes back somehow and keeps bothering everyone, plus there is a goofy space pirate who wants to be everyone’s friend and maybe steal their wallets. (There’s another show called Star Wars Resistance but I haven’t seen that one. It’s about… pilots?)

Dusty Flavour (The Mandalorian): the only live-action show! This one is still going. Five years after the original movies a grouchy mercenary from the Jetpack Tribe who never takes his kickass helmet off bcuz religion gets hired by Werner Herzog to kidnap a baby goblin wizard because the leftover fascists want it for some reason. Helmet man decides he is going to take the baby home instead and he makes friends with a pig man and a lady with giant biceps and a huge gun. Every single bounty hunter in the entire galaxy tries to kill him but he is so cool he keeps going.

As with Star Trek, there are many, many, so many people who will tell you which flavours are Bad. Try each one for yourself, and you can find out which one you like! Just…just don’t watch the holiday special.

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see more “Sam Explains Pop Culture” here

[hungline]

the first and, hopefully, the last

pairings: junghope, minor namyoonjin  genre: fluff, teenagers au, rated t  warnings: mentions of weed, underage smoking  words: 2000 

summary: Hoseok is seventeen years old, has known Jeongguk ever since the bunny-looking kid was born, and he has never been kissed. Luckily, his dongsaeng knows exactly what to do. 

“I can’t believe you’ve never been ki-” Jeongguk’s outburst was cut off when Hoseok clamped his hand down over the younger’s mouth.

“You don’t have to announce this to the whole world, Gukkie-ah,” Hoseok hissed, looking around warily as the other kids at the skatepark slowly looked away and returned to what they’d been doing beforehand.

Jeongguk struggled a bit to pry Hoseok’s hand off his mouth, and when he finally managed it, he kept his voice low in order to appease the elder. “Hyung, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I don’t know why you’re acting like this.”

“It’s just embarrassing, alright?” Hoseok sighed, ducking his head as a group of sophomore girls walked past, giggling and shooting the two boys looks as they did. “It’s not like I really have a ton of options to choose from when it comes this anyways.”

“Because you’re as straight as a curly fry, hyung?”

“Precisely.”

Jeongguk laughed. “Look, hyung, it’s not like you’re the only gay guy in the entire world. Once you go off to the university, I’m sure you’ll be kissing dozens of guys.”

Hoseok hunched in on himself further. “What if I’m not good at it?”

“Good at what? Kissing?” Jeongguk chuckled. “Hyung, I’m sure that doesn’t matter.”

“And how would you know?” Hoseok asked, his voice marred with irritation. “It’s not like you’ve kissed anyboーoh my god, you have! Why didn’t you tell me before?”

The younger boy laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly as he did. “I didn’t think it was important news to share, hyung.”

And suddenly Hoseok was invading the younger’s personal space, like he usually did when he wanted a clear answer from Jeongguk. “Why? Did the kiss not go as planned?”

Jeongguk felt his face flush, because yes, the kiss hadn’t gone like he’d planned at all and he was barely at the stage where he could look Seokjin in the eyes again without wanting to vomit. To be fair, Jeongguk hadn’t really been in the right state of mind when he’d kissed his hyung. He had looted Jimin’s weed stash an hour before and when he stumbled downstairs to see Jimin’s older brother present, he’d been absolutely baked. He didn’t have a clue as to what had happened until Seokjin was pushing him away with a frightened look on his face because god damn it, Jeongguk was a fucking minor and Seokjin was barely a year over age and he had that weird thing going on between him, Yoongi, and Namjoon. And fuck, Yoongi was going to murder him when he found out that Jeongguk had kissed one of his boyfriendsーor whatever the hell they were since every time anyone asked, Seokjin would vehemently deny that he was dating neither Namjoon nor Yoongi.

So when Jeongguk had cleared his head, he returned to fervently apologize to Yoongi first before he begged for forgiveness from his other two hyungs, Namjoon and Seokjin. All three had easily dismissed it and Jeongguk breathed a little easier. Still, his first kiss wasn’t something he really wanted to share with Hoseok, his longest and closest friend. Hoseok had been in Jeongguk’s life ever since the younger was born (both their parents had the baby pictures to prove it) and it had really only been recently that Jeongguk realized he was crushing big time on his hyung.

“Hello! Earth to Gukk-ah!” Hoseok’s hand waved in front of the younger’s face, drawing his attention back to the present and to the gangly, long limbed dancer beside him.

Jeongguk blushed. “Sorry, hyung. I was just remembering it and yeah, it was pretty lousy for my first kiss.”

“And why was that?”

“I had no idea what was I doing,” Jeongguk twisted his fingers together anxiously.

“See! That’s what I mean!” Hoseok’s outburst surprised the younger. “I don’t know how to kiss. What if I screw up my first time and the guy never wants to see me again?”

And while Jeongguk’s heart twisted painfully at the thought of Hoseok kissing another boy, his gut clenched when he saw just how much this was bothering his hyung.

“Then he wasn’t worth your time to begin with, hyung,” Jeongguk sniffed, not really comprehending how someone could want to never see Hoseok again because he didn’t know how to kiss.

Didn’t everything else about the elder make up for it? Didn’t the way that when Hoseok blushed or laughed too hard, and his whole face turned a light shade of red, the freckle on his cupid’s bow became more apparent make up for the elder not knowing how to kiss? Didn’t the way he seemed to levitate off the ground thanks to his feather light footsteps make up for it too? And didn’t the way that Hoseok looked so cute when he wore his thick-framed glasses because he’d forgotten to get more contacts make up for it? Or didn’t the way that Hoseok had the kindest heart Jeongguk had ever seen do the trick? Didn’t Hoseok being a complete and total angel in both appearance and personality level out the fact that he didn’t know how to kiss? Hoseok was amazing, regardless of whether he could kiss properly or not. But if it really bothered the elder that much, then Jeongguk supposed he could just teach his hyung how to kiss. It was for Hoseok’s sake, after all. Definitely not his own. Nope, not all. Jeongguk was solely going to do this for the elder and totally not for himself. Yep, all for his hyung.

“I could show you how,” Jeongguk muttered aloud, before he could change his mind about his decision.

“Show me what, Gukkie-ah?” Hoseok asked, leaning into Jeongguk’s personal space again to hear the younger better.

Here goes nothing, Jeongguk gulped.

“How to kiss. I could teach you how to kiss, hyung,” Jeongguk said, his throat dry, hands sweaty, and body cold as he did.

“And how would we go about doing that? You teaching me, I mean,” Hoseok pondered.

Jeongguk visibly swallowed, wiping his hands on his shorts as he spoke. “Well, we could kiss until you get it right, hyung.”

Hoseok arched a brow at that. “And what if I never learn how to kiss someone properly, Gukkie-ah?”

“Then I guess you’d be stuck kissing me for the rest of you life, hyung. And I’m sure that isn’t what you want.” Jeongguk bit his lip because it was exactly what he wanted, to have Hoseok as his for a very long time, kissing the elder whenever he wanted, holding hands and going on silly dates together as a couple and not just as best friends.

“I don’t know. I think kissing you for the rest of my life wouldn’t really be that bad.”

“What?”

Hoseok laughed as he caught sight of the younger’s expression. “Oh, come on, Jeongguk-ah. You’re not a bad catch. You’re funny, you’re sweet, you’re very supportive, and you’re cute too. You’re my best friend and I don’t really think that anybody who got the chance to kiss you for the rest of their life would be upset with the fact. Honestly, Gukkie-ah. I thought you were smart.”

Jeongguk was five shades of tomato red and was surprised he hadn’t spontaneously combusted yet because Jung Hoseok had just said he wouldn’t mind kissing him for the rest of his life and then had praised him afterwards. Him. Jeon Jeongguk, the knobbly, bunny-looking kid with a weird haircut, mild acne, zero social skills, and was really only decent at dancing and sometimes, on the most rarest of occasions, singing. He was average-looking, he wasn’t as handsome as his hyung, but that was fine. No one was as handsome as Jung Hoseok, save for G-Dragon, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Hoseok wasn’t all too opposed to the idea of kissing Jeongguk and Jeongguk had probably died because this just had to be heaven and Hoseok really was the angel that the younger had always thought he might be.

“So do I kiss you or do you kiss me?” Hoseok asked.

Jeongguk sputtered. “Here?”

Hoseok shrugged. “We’re best friends. It’s not like it matters if others see us kiss, Gukkie-ah. Some people already think we’re dating and it’s not like they’re wrong.”

“What? Who thinks that?” Jeongguk was at a loss with the income of the new information that Hoseok was giving him. “But hyung, we aren’t dating. We’re just best friends.”

Just best friends. Nothing more and nothing less. The thought made Jeongguk’s heart thump painfully in his chest.

The elder just chuckled and beamed at Jeongguk, gifting him with that megawatt smile of his that outshined the very sun. “Jeongguk-ah. We are not just best friends. I’ve known you since you were born and yeah, at first, you were like a brother to me, but now…it’s different. I don’t see you like a little brother nor as just a friend.”

“Hyung, what are you saying?”

“I, Jung Hoseok, like you, Jeon Jeongguk,” the elder smiled. “So can I kiss you now or what?”

Jeongguk nodded. Of course he did. Why would he tell the elder no when kissing Hoseok had been something he’d wanted for the longest time? And then Hoseok’s face was close enough to his own that Jeongguk went cross-eyed trying to look at him and then holy fuck. Fucking hell. Jeongguk just had to be dead. Dead or dreaming because Hoseok was kissing him. Jung Hoseok was fucking kissing him and the elder’s heart-shaped lips against his own were so goddamn soft and warm and Jeongguk was practically melting. Their kiss was sweet and gentle, just lips against lips, but Jeongguk heard both of their breaths hitching anyways.

Then Hoseok pulled away and Jeongguk felt warm all over because holy shit. Jung-motherfucking-Hoseok had just kissed him. Kissed him after confessing to him. And alright, maybe Hoseok wasn’t perfect. He had strong mood swings, sporadic anxiety attacks, and sometimes severe bouts of depression when he felt he wasn’t good enough. But that was fine. It was all okay. Nobody was perfect and Jeongguk had gone through a lot with the elder. It was fine if they went through more challenging things together in the future. It was cool because Jeongguk wanted to go through more things together. Hoseok was an angel and Jeongguk was smitten.

“Hyung, I like you too.”

“I know, Gukkie-ah. I’ve always known.”

Hoseok pulled Jeongguk into his lap. The younger felt his face flush when he realized that the other kids were staring at them again.

“Hyung.”

“Hm?”

“People are staring.”

“Let them. They’re jealous cause you have such a handsome and amazing boyfriend that they will never have.”

“Boyfriend?” Jeongguk asked, but then he laughed because holy fuck was Hoseok conceited. “I wouldn’t say amazing. Your kissing skills still need work, hyung.”

“Oh, yeah? Yours aren’t great either, y’know. I bet Seokjin-hyung cringed when you kissed him.”

“You knew?”

“Obviously. Seokjin-hyung apologized for it when he came to see me awhile ago. He, and everyone else, thought we were dating.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Jeongguk asked as he tucked his head into the curve of Hoseok’s neck.

“I wanted to wait until you were ready to tell me how you got fucked up and baked like a goddamned cake after rifling through Jiminnie’s stash and then tried to stick your tongue down Seokjin-hyung’s throat afterwards.” The elder grinned a fond smile that the embarrassed and mortified Jeongguk couldn’t see. “In other news though, I guess I’ll just have to keep kissing you until I get it right. Even if it takes an entire lifetime.”

And so, they did just that. Their lips grazed against one another gently in a way that set Jeongguk’s veins on fire. He smiled against the elder’s lips, so inexplicably happy that he just couldn’t stop grinning.

Jeongguk was certain he’d finally found his own personal heaven, courtesy of the angel named Jung Hoseok.

[postmastered]

I Was An Island

Words: 1653

Warnings: Cursing

A/N: i think this counts as a songfic but who gives a hecc 

Cole watched from the window of his school as the other dweebs that went to his school fled home for the day, only to return tomorrow. The window was open, luckily, and Charles, his best friend, was the last person waiting to go home. Like always. He yelled, “Hey, nerd!” and Charles, being the scaredy cat he was, jumped, turning around quickly.

“For Tesla’s sake, Cole! You almost gave me a heart attack!” Said nerd snapped at him from the gate.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Oh, very mature. Go bother your dumbass jock of a crush so he can-“

“Ooooookayyyy, no more from you, go home and shove your snake up your ass!”

“Tch. I’ll do that when MCR gets back together.”

“OH, YOU BITCH-”

“Charles!” His and Cole’s attention turned to Kat, Charles’ parent. He waved goodbye to Cole, who promptly flipped him off, yelling “That was for Gerard Way!” He watched as Charles walked home, chattering idly with Kat. They insisted on walking with Charles for fear he’ll get hurt if he did that on his own, but their house was around a block away, and they did like talking while they walked home. He eventually dipped back into the school as the two figures got smaller and smaller, shutting the window and roaming the very empty halls. It was a crisp September afternoon, tree leaves turning orange and brown, blowing through the chilly wind. Cole was wearing a scarf and a black coat, walking through beams of setting sunlight, eventually arriving at the auditorium doors.

He, an art club member, was asked very nicely by the drama club and theatre kids, specifically the leader of the drama club.

Adam Adams. 17-year-old senior, Adam. A whole seven inches taller than him, Adam. Stood in front of him, pouting and pleading with him to “Pleaaaaaaase help us paint the sets? Please?” He was adamant (heh) to say no to any other members who asked, but… he couldn’t say no to Adam. His one weakness. So here he was, standing in front of the auditorium, clutching his supplies.

Great.

He walked in, he had a job to do, after all. He shambled onto the stage, moving towards the mostly blank, save for a few sketches he did during school hours, sets. Setting his own personal playlist to shuffle, he plopped his stuff on the ground, taking out his painting stuff and sweeping his brush along the unfinished background.

Once he realized which song it was, he smirked. Gee, that’s fitting. He thought to himself. It was “I Was An Island” by Allison Weiss. He often admired her. Reminded him a pinch of someone he knew. He turned, taking a glance at the empty auditorium.

Come on, Cole, you know there’s no one here. It’ll be just like when you’re at home alone, singing into a hairbrush. Deep breaths, Noir. Deep breaths, edgy last name. Deep breaths, equally edgy first name.

He took a breath, merely saying “Yo” as a test to see the echo of the auditorium. Huh. Fun. Anyway, right, fun, he should be having that.

He took a breath, as he’d promised himself, and sung.

I was an island.

He paused for a moment, just in astonishment that his voice sounded… nice? He giggled a bit, oh, this’ll be fun. He didn’t try too hard at home, just set on dicking around. But doing this for real, less for funsies? The. Best.

Before you came along.

Put your boat in my sand, hand in my hand, heart in my song.

Cole stopped, suddenly. Did… did he hear something? No, he didn’t. He glanced at the doors. Shut. He looked around backstage, as far as he could see just from front and center. He heard a creak. His gaze spanned across the seats, eventually back down to his feet. He pressed his foot down onto the hardwood floor. It creaked. “Well, that explains things.”

I was a fighter.

And I was so, brave.

But I lowered my sword, when you held me and swore, you’d stay, stay, stay…

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Adam was staying late after school to practice football with his younger sister, but eventually she had to go back home, but he decided he might hang around for a little while longer. The hallways did look a lot cooler at sunset. Of course, he was given permission to stay. He sprinted through empty halls, doodled cute little messages on chalkboards for teachers he liked. He decided he might go over to the auditorium. His favorite room in the school. He reached for the doorknob, but heard a sound from inside. A fiend, perhaps?!

He pushed the door open just wide enough for him to slip through, dashing to hide in the shadows so the monster who was hiding here wouldn-

Oh.

There was… just a kid. A short one. With black hair and a striped hoodie.

Wait.

He knows that guy. That’s the guy who he asked to help with th-

O h .

The kid was singing. And it was… oh gosh. He’s so gay, oh golly. He stood up a little taller. He wanted to go up on that stage, tell that kid that he’s incredible, that he likes his haircut, and if he wanted to go get some slushies sometime, but… he stayed. He didn’t move. He was mesmerized.

He watched as the kid waltzed around the stage, occasionally running a hand through his hair.

Now that, that was a pretty sight.

Adam hadn’t moved a muscle since he got there. That is, until the kid turned around, looking at the seats nervously, to Adam’s surprise. He ducked down, hiding from view.

He waited until the kid kept going, Adam stepping closer to the stage with each line. He eventually got two rows away. Just two rows of seats away.

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Cole didn’t look behind him once after the first time. He just kept painting and singing, occasionally stepping back and admiring his work. Once he knew he was getting to the ‘good part’, he whirled around, moving closer to the front of the stage. He shut his eyes, still singing, but his movements had more passion, more drama.

I can’t do this alone anymore.

‘Cause I’m no good on my own anymore.

What did I do to deserve this?

What did you do to me?

Baby come back.

You know I don’t wanna be free.

Oh, baby come back.

You know I don’t wanna be free.

No, no, no.

Oh, baby come back.

You know I don’t wanna be free.

He opened his eyes as the song ended, eventually smiling and laughing and turning back to his canvas to keep working. And that’s when he heard clapping.

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Adam kept listening to the kid until he was done. He was right in front of the first row of seats.

His voice was angelic, truly. He recognized the song, he knew how it went, and the kid’s voice fit the song, but he added something to the song that made it… better? More special? He couldn’t pinpoint it, but all he knew was that this kid was gorgeous, his voice was gorgeous, and Adam was very gay.

He snapped out of his little trance once he realized the kid had finished. He ducked down before the kid could see him when he went back to his work. Eventually Adam stood back up, clapping. The kid turned around, startled to high hell. He was spooked, that was for sure. He stuttered with his words, trying to make a sense of things.

“I.. uh.. wh- Who are you?” Cole watched Adam walk up the stage stairs, eventually coming face-to-face with him. Well, it was more like face to chest. Cole and Adam just stared at each other for a moment.

“Uh.. Hello?”

“Oh! Right, I’m sorry, I just happened to be parading through the halls recklessly and heard something in the auditorium. I thought there was an evildoer in our beloved school. But it was just you. Your singing is lovely, by the way.”

Cole’s face flushed. Okay, what?! No, he’s either dreaming or dead. Wouldn’t be surprising if he was dreaming about this, in all honesty. “Uhh… What?”

“I said, Cole Noir, that your singing is lovely.” Adam held Cole’s hands in his. The other practically shrunk under his gaze.

“HAHA YEAH COOL THANKS BRO REAL NICE OF YOU!” Cole frantically tried looking away from Adam’s stupid face that had to be stupid attractive and his stupid hair and his stupid warm hands and his stupid everything. He tried his best to pretend he was straight, but his skills were rusty. Adam wasn’t buying it.

Adam laughed a bit at his reaction. “Tell you what, if you’re straight-“ He placed a little note into Cole’s palm. “You can ignore this happened, and we can never speak of this again. Or, if you’re not… you can let me take you out? On a date? Please?”

Cole felt like all his blood had rushed to his face. He stared at the paper in his hands, then looked up at Adam. “Uhhhh…..”

Adam slapped him on the shoulder, almost making Cole fall over. “See you around, sunshine!” Cole watched, not having moved a muscle as Adam walked out of the auditorium.

“O.. Okay?” But he was already gone. Cole glanced once more at the sticky note in his palm. Eventually, he broke out into giddy laughter. His! Crush! Asked! Him! Out! He stuffed the paper in his pocket, smiling as he picked up his things and left the auditorium, Adam long gone, already gushing to Skylar about the occurrences of that day. Cole practically ran home, seeing his mom’s car in their driveway for once. He dashed straight through the door, immediately gushing to his mother about Adam. She rolled her eyes, still delighted to see her son so happy.

[timeless-season-four]

Recap of 3x12/13: HeLa and São Paulo

It’s been a week since the season ended, and we’re having a bit of withdrawal. If you feel like revisiting the finale in entertaining fashion, @only-freakin-sunflowers has one last Season 3 recap for us.

Let’s jump right in, so much happened! Be prepared for some stream of consciousness commentary beause really, whose brain imploded here?

 On “The Bad Place” Bunker (Yes, Rufus, this is the bad place.)

So we open up where we left off, staring at Future!Lucy and wondering how we reunited.

Aww, she hasn’t seen Rufus in five years so she just stares at him and then hugs him… I’m not crying

Future  Jiyaaaaaaa, she’s alive! In some capacity, at least. Cute haircut, girlfriend.

“GARCIA  FLYNN SAVED MY LIFE” I KNEW THIS WAS COMING IN SOME CAPACITY, THAT WE WOULD KNOW WHO SAVED HER IN THE ACCIDENT (BE IT FLYNN OR WYATT)

I have a Headache but it’s all so cool.

“This is the reality where we fought as hard as we could, but our friends all died, and Rittenhouse won.”

“You have things– people -- I no longer do. Hold onto them, Lucy. Hold on and don’t let go.”  I miss Amy Preston on this day.

Basically, Future!Them paint the most cautionary of tales.

This Garcy scene is, uh, hurting. (All of them do.)

I have Feelings about Future Jiya and Rufus goddamnit.

This was the part of the episode I paused to read up on Henrietta Lacks, she is so cool!

A  Moment On One Of Our Local Rittenbitches, Mrs. Logan:

Also the part of the episode where Jessica Logan made her first mistake, my friends. “Of course I trust you”. Yeah. No. Don’t do that, hon.

Jess, I’m kind of impressed that you’re trying to upend Emma. I’ll be even more impressed if it works.

Oh, oh, Temple’s trying to put her down for it. Yeah I don’t f*cking think so bud! AND SHE’S AGREEING TO IT, JESSICA HONEY YOU DESERVE BETTER (I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD SAY THAT)

And a mood throughout the ages: “Emma what did you just do?!”

JANE LOGAN JANE LOGAN JANE LOGAN:

YOUR DAD MISSES YOU I’M YELLING. “HI DAD” I KNEW IT. (I called it back when we first met Jane that she was Wyjess’s spawn. Tiera Skovbye makes for a perfect mix of them, too.)

Ugh she is SO Wyatt’s kid too. Ma heart.

Jane’s a magician and Emma’s a bitch but what else is new

Back on our “Friend” Emma for a second, and our real friends Lucy and Flynn:

“The last thing anyone needs in any situation is to hear what Wyatt Logan thinks. Sorry.” I’m cackling cause she isn’t wrong but it’s her delivery that kills me.

Oooooo Luuuuucy. I didn’t like it in canon when Emma died, but if she goes down here, by Lucy, I will laugh. 

If it’s any consolation, I’m upset over what they did to you too, Lucy.

Text I sent to my best friend, updating her on the situation here: “Flynn and Emma are kicking the shit out of each other”

Sooooo either Flynn just went down like a sack of potatoes or Emma did. Uuuuh.

Well Emma’s fucking alive so -- you funky little fuck.

On Love and Sappy Shit:

IF RUFUS GONNA ASK JIYA WHAT I THINK RUFUS IS GONNA ASK JIYA I WILL CRY

“I LOVE YOU” GARCIA FLYNN, WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?

So Anyways Onto Part 2, Right?

Mr. Flynn:

Gahh flashback to Flynn’s family no thank youuuu, LALALALA I hate this

“Emma’s going to kill you” “She is welcome to try”

Jiya thinks Flynn………… :(

The Bad Bitch and The Bad Place:

Oh the bitch is going to São Paulo? Lol jk she’s going to the alt bunker *groans*

LOL FUTURE!LUCY IS STILL PISSED

Side note: Emma’s only alive cause she’s too stubborn to die at this point

WTF THAT WAS UNCALLED FOR WHERE DID SHE EVEN GET A GRENADE – WHERE DID SHE EVEN GET A GRENADE? AND FUTURE!LUCY JUST LANDED KAPOOTS IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA LIKE THAT, EXCUSE ME?

Pre-São Paulo:

The fact that Lucy has a headache is…. concerning

“Jiya’s dressed for action ready to go with them” ... yeah I’m picturing a duck in a hardhat, knee pads, and rubber boots holding a butter knife

Nobody’s coming, babe. I’m so sorry.

Interruption, cause I see dead people:

Yeah and you were an idiot, Jess. What else is new.

“Rittenhouse made me a killer” AND SHE SHOT HIM YES BABE. SOUND THE ALARM, MIKE TEMPLE IS FINALLY DEAD.

FLYNN IS DEAD TOO? F*CK.

Back To São Paulo:

No, no Flynn, it isn’t supposed to happen this way!

BECAUSE I LOVE YOU

May I take a minute to (re)discuss my weakness for the phrase “home”

Oyeeee we have an intruder in our nice moment.

“Our Nice Moment,” or the cinematic masterpiece that was this next scene:

*coughs* Emma that was gayyyyyyyyyyy

LOL IS SHE SERIOUSLY PULLING AN ARGUMENT FOR MERCY KILLING?

OKAY THAT. THAT WAS POETIC CINEMA. BYE EMMA. (And Flynn didn’t even know who she was he just did it to save his new friend! that’s wild! he has some good judgement!) (ding dong the wicked witch is dead!)

Did they just fkn get themselves stuck GUYS

RIYA! RIYA! RIYA!

Jiya, that… that hurts me. Right here in the heart.

“WILL YOU MARRY ME” I’M SITTING HERE TRYING NOT TO HOWL, God I f*cking love them.

Some Closing Loose Ends:

Ohhhhhhh f me where did they land -- okay it’s not that bad AND they unkilled Flynn. We like that.

Are they gonna take in this little orphaned gay boy PLEASE

Hi, I support Jessica Logan and her current decisions. Hilary you’ve converted me.

THE FINAL SCENES:

Jiya asking Flynn if he’d walk her down the aisle cause she doesn’t have her dad and he doesn’t have his daughter I’M FINE, not crying, why would you ask that?

But, but where’s Flynn going?

I understand. And I understand Lucy too.

Rufus I love you so much you fucking dork GO SEE YOUR MOM AND GIVE HER THAT BIBLE AND INTRODUCE HER TO YOUR FIANCE

If that mysterious new woman is Iris, imma shit myself. But I’m calling it now. It’s Iris. (That casting, again, that is a Flynn in our midst.) 

AMY?? AMY??? AMY????

WHAT WAS THAT HELLO? EVERYTHING WAS GOING SO WELL.

So, uh, needless to say, had a super fun time with this and it was a really great way to end the season! A big, big thank you to Hilary and the entire team at @timeless-season-three, you guys pulled off the unimaginable with this season. Your time, effort, dedication, and creativity does not go unnoticed within this fandom and especially not by me. I hope to be reunited here as clockblockers for a season four, so we can go on more adventures, learn more new things, and experience more of our favourite idiots together! ♡

[skeletonscribbles]

Can you do #2 on the prompts for reddie? Eddie should say it to Richie out of nowhere and then Richie is shook and bam together boyfriends gay love.

Hello love! I think what my mind ended up putting together for you covers basically what you asked for - it’s a little less out of left field than what you implied, but OH BOY IS RICHIE SHOOK.

so! here is Things Keep Getting Better, for the prompt: “you’re so cute” 💕

(and here is where you can read it on Ao3!)

——

Beverly Marsh had always thought that her boys were the six most beautiful people on Earth. 

Maybe she was biased, or maybe she just saw what she wanted to see because they’d taken her in when no one else would…but no matter the reason, she was adamant about it: every single member of the Losers Club was a sight to behold.

The rest of the Losers….disagreed, to say the least. Years of bullying and discomfort in their own skin had been generally shitty for their collective self-esteem - and Bev included herself in that collective, but that wasn’t the point.

The point was that it had become a mission of hers to not only let them know that she thought they were beautiful, but to get them to believe it themselves.

Some of the boys were proving more difficult to convince than others.

Bill was probably the easiest, which had surprised Bev, because when she’d met him, he’d been pretty stuck under the weight of his own voice - of his own stutter. Time and his friends had changed that, though, and by the time high school rolled around, all Bill needed was the Losers around him and an assuring glance from Bev, and he could light up a room.

Mike had also blossomed readily since they’d met him that fateful summer, and while Bev liked to credit that to the heart-to-hearts they’d shared during their semi-frequent walks to and from Mike’s farm, she knew that a lot of it had to do with the removal of Henry Bowers. Bowers had been so bent on making Mike’s life a living hell that his absence had all but provided Mike with an opportunity to reinvent himself, and Mike had absolutely soared with his new freedom. Bev was wholly grateful…and so was Derry High’s football team.

Ben had taken some coaxing, but eventually she’d worn him down. In his case, she KNEW it was her encouragement that had done the trick, and she couldn’t help but loiter outside of his physics class sometimes, smiling to herself as he confidently explained some feat of engineering to his classmates. Sometimes he’d see her watching and a little color would rise to his cheeks, and that….well, that was a whole new kind of beautiful, right there. Even he couldn’t put that kind of genuine feeling into words - and he could put a lot into words, as evidenced by Bev’s growing collection of the pieces he’d submitted to the school’s literary magazine.

Stan was difficult. Where the others genuinely wanted, deep down, to be able to love themselves and move forward confidently, Stan seemed to enjoy wallowing in his darker thoughts. No matter how many times she whispered compliments and confidences to him in the halls, at movie nights, or as they were walking through the tall grass of the Barrens towards some adventure or another, he always regarded her with blank eyes and a sad smile. He kept all of them at arm’s length, in fact, and she hadn’t yet figured out why - something in her gut was telling her that something had maybe gone wrong right away with Stan, right when the seven of them had come together, but she couldn’t remember what, so she and Stan remained at an impasse for now.

Things had really turned around for Eddie when she’d brought him clothes shopping. Before Bev, all of Eddie’s clothes were either Sonia bought or Sonia approved, and as such, Eddie had never really gotten to see himself accurately. Bev had always had an eye for fashion (and more importantly, how fashion made people feel), and so saw right away how much of an impact Eddie’s pre-ordained wardrobe had on his self-esteem. At the beginning of their freshman year of high school, she’d caught him looking despairingly at his own legs, stomach, and arms in the mirror, seemingly wondering where he’d gone wrong, and that very night she had snuck him out of Sonia’s house, brought him to Freese’s, and bought him a shirt and a pair of pants that actually fit with money she’d wheedled out of her Aunt “for school supplies”. She did that every time she was able to scrounge up some money, and in three months’ time, Eddie’s confidence had done a complete 180. It was almost hard to recognize him at the end of their freshman year - he’d turned himself from someone who got shoved into lockers into someone that people smiled at in the hallways.

No one was more attuned to Eddie’s transformation than Richie. In fact, Bev was finding it difficult to get Richie’s own attractiveness through to him, because he was zero percent focused on himself and about eighty percent focused on Eddie. (The remaining twenty percent of his attention was divided pretty evenly between the rest of the Losers, Doritos, his Atari, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, respectively.) Unlike Stan, Richie wasn’t keeping himself totally closed-off…but he wasn’t allowing himself to be helped, either.

“I think maybe if you got a haircut?” Bev was combing her fingers through Richie’s hair one day during one of their frequent smoke-breaks, and brainstorming while she untangled his wild curls. “You have such pretty eyes, Richie, you should let more people see them.”

Richie had his eyes closed, and was tapping ash from the end of his cigarette erratically. “You can’t fix ugly. I’ve told you eight trillion times. And don’t tell me I’m not ugly - I don’t need that shit again, Marsh, not from you. I can handle the truth.”

“Are you accusing me of lying to you, Tozier?” she demanded, yanking on his hair sharply and taking quiet pleasure in his wince.

“Well, you’re not truthing,” he scowled, eyes drifting to something in the distance. Bev turned to follow his gaze…and of course his eyes had landed on Eddie, who was walking towards them with Bill and laughing about something. Eddie’s hands were gesturing wildly - he was obviously excited about whatever they were talking about - and Bev watched interestedly as Richie’s expression shifted from alert to wistful to just plain sad.

She tapped quietly at his shoulder, and he twitched, eyes flicking down in a show of guilt, or confusion, or maybe both. “You like Eddie’s clothes now, hm? You think they’re helping?”

“He, um.” Richie swallowed hard, choosing his words uncharacteristically carefully. “He seems happier.”

“I think so too,” she replied nonchalantly, lifting her eyes to try and gauge how much longer she’d have Richie’s attention before Bill and Eddie made it into earshot. She gave herself about another minute, and moved into fast-talking mode. “I helped him pick them out, you know.”

She could practically feel Richie’s ears perk up - like he was a dog that had just been offered a treat. “Did you, now.”

“Could help you out, too,” she offered cooly, “if you wanted to maybe…grab someone’s attention. If you’re interested, meet me by the bike rack at 2:30.”

Richie turned to look at her, a curious smile playing at the edges of his mouth. “What are you scheming?”

“Just show up, okay?” she sighed, and right on cue, Eddie and Bill cut into the conversation, yammering about the test they’d had in U.S. History and sucking Richie right into their (Eddie’s) vortex.

She figured the odds were about fifty-fifty on Richie actually showing up, so for good measure, she enlisted Ben and Mike to drag him out to the bike rack once the final bell rang.

“I could totally break out of this hold, you know,” was the first thing Bev heard Richie tell Mike as he was brought semi-forcibly out towards her.

“Yes, Richie, you’re very strong,” Mike lied agreeably. “Bev, here’s your Trashmouth.”

They let go of his arms very suddenly, and Richie fell to the ground in surprise.

“Thank you both.” Bev beamed at both of them, and they smiled back - Ben even got a little red in the face, which was the cutest fucking thing Bev had maybe ever seen. A phrase lit at the back of her mind - my heart burns there? My heart burns there, too?

“I hope you two have a nice time together,” Ben said earnestly, and Bev felt her smile grow even wider.

“Oh, we will.” She grabbed Richie’s elbow and yanked him to his feet. “Let’s go, Loser.”

—-

The next day at school, Richie got attention in the hallways, as usual - but this time, it wasn’t just because he was drawing dicks on lockers. Bev was practically glowing with pride - the between-class whispers were favorable, to say the least.

“Is that Richie Tozier?”

“Whoa, he pulled his hair back.”

“That sweater looks–”

“He looks–”

“Wow.”

“If I didn’t know he was going to make a weird sex joke about our French teacher today, I would totally consider asking him to Homecoming…”

“You see?” Bev asked Richie, who had frozen up a little bit…which was to be expected, given that had no context for handling positive attention. “A nice maroon sweater, a pair of black jeans that fit, and voila. Absolutely nothing’s changed, and yet.”

“I guess.” Richie rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “This sweater’s really fucking soft, at least. Also, I liked what that girl was saying about the French class sex jokes…glad to see my humor isn’t going unappreciated–”

“Whoa, hey, Rich!” The other Losers had caught up to them, and Mike was leading the parade. “Looking good, buddy!”

“Wh-who are you and wha-what have you done with Richie T-Tozier?” Bill demanded, smiling. He walked up to Richie and brushed some imaginary dust off of his shoulders. “Bev, you’ve p-performed a miracle.”

“I know,” Bev said, allowing herself a small, cocky smirk. “Stan? Thoughts?”

Stan, ever a harsh critic, pursed his lips. It was obvious that he was trying to find something to critique and coming up short. Finally, he said, “It’s passable,” and shrugged his shoulders.

Bev patted herself on the back for that particular compliment. From Stan, that was a lot…but Richie wasn’t paying any attention to Stan at all, no, his eyes were nervously locked on Eddie, who had brought up the rear of the group and was just now seeing Richie in his new outfit.

Bev heard Eddie’s breath catch in his throat, and she had to restrain herself from pumping her fist.

Nailed it.

“Whaddya think, Eds?” Richie laughed nervously, spinning around crazily like a fashion model on speed. “Hot or not? What’s Sonia K. gonna think?”

Eddie tutted quietly at the mention of his mother, but his eyes betrayed how he was really feeling - they were glued to the way Richie’s jeans fit nicely around his scrawny thighs, and the way the sweater cinched in at Richie’s waist.

“You’re so…” he began, color seeping into his face as he tripped over his words, “uh. You’resocute,” he finally finished, words all slurring into one another as he embarrassedly rushed through his sentence.

Hope lit up Richie’s features like he was a Christmas tree that had just been plugged in. “What was that, Eds? Say it slower, for the old folks in the back.” He gestured to Stan, and Stan unenthusiastically flipped him off.

Eddie’s whole face and neck were red, now, and it was clashing pretty grossly with his green button-down. Still, to his credit, he repeated his sentence. “You’re so cute,” he said quietly, slow enough this time that his words could be understood.

This time, it was Richie’s turn to go red. “Oh!” He smoothed out his sweater eagerly, fidgeting with his hands because he wasn’t really sure what to do with them. “Do you…do you really think that?”

“Yeah.” Eddie smiled up at him, sweet and genuine. “I like this look. I like it…um…I like it a lot.”

“Good,” Richie replied, touching his pulled-back hair gently in disbelief. “I mean, uh. Fuck. Thanks.”

Eddie giggled, and Bev could practically see Richie’s world start to shift.

Richie didn’t make any big changes at first, but he did start wearing that sweater at least once a week, which reduced Eddie to a blushing mess every time.

Then, Richie started to pull his hair back out of his eyes more often. This led to a lot of Eddie zoning out during conversations, to the point where Bill wrote him a list of methods he could use to pay better attention and presented it to him in front of everybody. It was a mortifying moment for Eddie, but it had sent Richie’s ego into the stratosphere.

After that, Richie started carrying himself differently. He walked more deliberately, he smiled more genuinely - he even seemed to be reining in his vulgarity a little bit.

“Is he sick?” Stan asked Bev after the first week of Changed Richie, concern in his voice.

“I think he’s just happy,” Bev replied, smiling back at him. Stan’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

“Doesn’t sound like Richie.”

“And yet,” Bev said, gesturing to where Richie was laughing with Eddie a little further down the hallway. Richie’s arm was slung over Eddie’s shoulders, Eddie was grinning sappily up at him, and love was practically radiating off of the two of them in waves.

Stan watched them quietly for a moment. “How did you do it?” he finally asked.

“I didn’t do anything,” she told him honestly. “I just showed him a little bit of what I see - or more, of what Eddie sees, which I think ended up being the kicker.”

“Oh.” Stan considered that. “I know what you think, Bev - about me, that is - and I appreciate it, of course, it’s very kind, but….I’m having a hard time…”

Bev’s eyes widened in realization. “Stan. You need an Eddie.”

Stan shot her an exasperated look. “I don’t need an Eddie, Bev. I just…I don’t…”

“Everything all right over here?” Mike had spotted them, and was weaving through the between-class crowds to join them. Bev made to assure Mike that they were perfectly fine, just chatting, but before she got the opportunity, her eyes were drawn to Stanley’s ears.

They were bright red.

Stan noticed her looking, and sent her an uncharacteristically pleading look. She pantomimed zipping up her lips with her fingers…but mentally, she was already putting together a plan.

“We’re fine, Mike,” Stan said, folding his hands in front of him and looking down at his feet. “Thank you for asking.”

“If you’re sure,” Mike said carefully, and oh goodness, his cheeks and neck were red too.

Bev felt a rush of gratitude sweep through her - for her boys, her beautiful boys, and the opportunity that had just landed in her lap.

She’d have them all believing in themselves yet.

[ascreamingstrawberry]

The HS/College Rent AU I Came Up With While Writing the Last Post

We’re just gonna refer to it as ‘the school’ b/c I can’t see a hs actually doing rent????? at least not in my old school district. This definitely didn’t come about because I’m wearing out my musical playlist on Spotify again what do you meannnnnnn anyone into the headcannon that is already becoming a fic that I’m definitely starting.....

NOTE : I just wanted to say first off I know that Tom Collins is typically played by an African American, and Angel by a Latino. However I’ve seen productions without these specifications, but this hc/fic is by no means meant to erase any character’s ethnicity, it’s just for the sanders sides hc/fic. 

Roman

freshman, 

red hair dye. kinda like jacksepticeye’s old haircut but red

soooo pissed he didn’t get Roger or Mark

in fact Mark is being played by a female??????

schools never has enough males for the parts they need

the only other option would’ve been giving Angel to a female, and the director did not want to send that message

which Roman kinda gets

And as Lo explained his father (the director) didn't give leads to freshmen

so he could consider himself lucky he even got Collins 

*smart logan voice* who is only in 3 or 4 less songs than Mark or Roger, because Roger has one more song than Mark, 

roman’s face definitely doesn’t do the little ‘aw’ (like seeing virge in his xmas sweater) when he realizes his best friend like counted them out to know that

(b.c even tho logan wouldn’t tell him he totally thinks romans deserved roger or mark too)

he and logan go way back, like middle school. roman’s always at the sanders house like every other day because his parents just yell at him for every little thing even if his brother started it

Collins couldn’t be too bad, he could finally play in a gay relationship on stage, 

and he’d be able to show off his lower voice range bc most of his other parts were leads and most male leads are tenors

so offended princey aside, Roman Prince is so ready to knock this role out of the park

and he walks in first rehearsal and the Angel they cast causes his little gay heart to almost combust on sight

Patton

freshman as well, new to school with his little brother

“pat, you’re ten minutes older than me”

“still older, virge�� (frustrated virgil noises)

doesn’t really like acting, he gets kinda emotional when things are sad but then sometimes forgets to not smile in the middle of a fighting scene, patton

this boy can SING tho

like his tenor is good and all

but THIS MAN’S FALSETTO

soooo of course Thom-er Mr. Sanders cast him as Angel

he’s just so delightful!

he comes into first rehearsal in this cute blue dress and totally doesn’t notice Virgil watching from the last row, 

but he can’t focus on that because LOOK AT THAT CUTE GUY SITTING ALL BY HIMSELF 

makes a lot of ‘friends’ with everybody but when nobody jumps at the idea of a groupchat or to hang out this weekend  he’s totally not sad what do you mean virgil!

and they’re both ready to wait outside for their parents who are super supportive and give them lots of free reign because they’re kinda never there but that’s ok!

but then the cute guy that patton sat like two feet from the entire rehearsal bc he looked lonely comes over and is like ‘I'm not cool or anything but we’re gonna be in a lot of scenes together so if you wanted to, i’d love to hang’

and patton’s heart does the EHEHEH thing, and virgil has to do the *shoulder push* to get patton to give him his number

Virgil

needs to protect his big brother

bc this is a new school and who knows what bullies will be lurking to try and try to ruin his brother’s big heart

didn’t want to take a music class bc he likes to listening to music but he’d rather just listen or draw

then mr sanders, head of the arts dept. catches him watching the first rehearsal

mr. sanders says he has to do something to satisfy the music credit and oh hey my musical is looking for a piano player

fine, virgil spits out, but lowkey glad bc he likes piano he just doesn’t like somebody telling him how to do it and ruining it

but as he’s given the sheet music he just goes ballistic, the fast tempos are oddly relaxing, and the rock feeling just soothes him

so he thinks ah this won’t be too bad

and he walks in to the second rehearsal, and he’s watching his brother kinda twirl on the stage just a few minutes before it’s supposed to start

and he notices that other freshman, Roderick? Ramen? Roman? come in and standing next to him is the hottest nerd he’s ever seen

and that nerd plops down next to mr sanders whose just getting there and mumbles a ‘hey dad’ but virgil catches it

and oh god he’s fucked, he thinks to himself as he stares at the keys for the rest of the rehearsal

Deceit

is stage manager

just wants to go home

and is a sophomore but hangs out with freshman, just not in the arts dept.

but he watches this horrifically adorable freshman in a dress try to talk to a junior and he thinks, oh god these kids are gonna get eaten alive

sassy af

no i have not seen your prop that is definitely not on the table you just walked by three times without checking Jessica

is always hanging upside down?

.like you’re just like ‘Deceit where are you there’s a prop malfunction?’

‘oh yay’ and then he’s doing a backflip off the railing of the pulley system 

comforting when needs to be bc some actors need love while others need a stick up their as-

DECIET LANGUAGE! yeah like that one. that one needs love. 

“i fucked up my line, deceit!” “no one probably even noticed!”

“my hair is a mess” “no it’s not its fine”

makes his assit. stage manag. do dumb tasks like polish the piano keys bc “i can handle it myself”

he can’t

gets stressed but ‘i’m fine, where’s our mimi, light my candle is starting’

Logan 

son of the director, Thomas Sanders

went to audition for the musical to support roman but he heard one comment about getting in bc of his dad and he dipped

told his dad he just wasn’t one for that stuff and was only doing it for roman

tried to ignore the disappointed look in his dad’s eyes even when Thomas was smiling

asked him to be dramaturg instead

mildly happy Thomas and Logan shared smile

sits by his dad first rehearsal,

watches roman,

hides his smile at roman’s first read through already being in character

groans as he listens to roman talk about the cute boy’s number he got

comes into rehearsal the next time and stops bc THE PIANO GUY

*windows error noise* 

slaps roman’s arm a bunch of times

roman asks him what, and logan can just kinda point in virgil’s direction

and while logan goes home that night and compiles a very detailed powerpoint as to why his dad should let him be assistant stage manager

conveniently leaving out how the assistant works with the pit

 roman goes home and compiles everything he could ever possibly find on virgil foster

and omg he’s patton’s brother what?

how could anyone tell under all that purple hair dye???

and he definitely doesn’t send mr sanders a texts 

YOUR SON’S GOT A CRUSH MAKE HIM AS.ST.MAN.AHHH

roman is practically logan’s brother so Thomas is just like ok son

but Thomas makes logan give his case first

and then says ‘fine but you gotta do what deceit says’

and logan’s like well shit if imma die might as well do it looking at the cutest punk ever

next rehearsal he’s just like hello i am new assistant stage manager 

and virgil looks him up and down and just goes ‘cute’

and virgil is dying on the inside but logan doesn’t know that 

all he sees is that sauve boy making him windows error noise

Thomas

just wants his son happy

just wants his son’s friends and crush happy

just wants his musical to go well