#bohemian rhapsody one shot

[storiesforallfandoms]

history repeats itself ~ gwilym lee

word count: 2836

request?: yes!

“hey, i saw you wrote for Ben Hardy so I was wondering if you would write for Gwilym Lee? If not ignore this lol. I was thinking something like he meets the reader on set and they immediately hit it off, and the resemblance of her to Brian May’s wife is uncanny (let’s pretend he’s had just the one) and it’s kinda like a history repeats itself thing? idk if that made since. maybe Brian and Roger noticing and just being so amazed seeing that happening in front of them? thank you, and obviously since i have no explanation skills take complete control!”

description: when she gets cast to play the wife of a rock legend, everyone realizes how similar she and her on screen husband look to the originals

pairing: gwilym lee x female!reader

warnings: swearing, rpf

masterlist (one, two, three)

It was such a small role, one that didn’t even have any lines. But to me, it was huge. It was a small role in a massive blockbuster movie: the Freddie Mercury biopic. It would be the biggest job of my career. Up until that point, I had only been an extra in a few sitcoms. Having a small, silent role as Brian May’s wife in a Freddie Mercury biopic may seem like a small step up from what I’m used to, but the scale of the movie made it a massive deal for me.

I wasn’t sure if I’d get the role. There were hundreds of other actresses just like me - desperate for even the smallest roles in such a big film - were lined up to meet the director and casting director. It was such a small chance of getting it I thought. Until I walked into the room and both of their eyes widened when they landed on me.

“Holy shit,” the casting director breathed. “She looks just like her.”

I was cast on the spot. I nearly sobbed in happiness. I managed to keep the tears in until I got to my car and could call my parents to give them the news.

A few months later, I was preparing for my day on set. It was a party scene that was taking place at Freddie’s mansion at the height of their career. The other band members - Brian, Roger, and John - were there with their wives/girlfriends. The scene mostly required us to sit by our assigned on-screen husbands while they conversed. It was an easy day, and it was only going to take one day of filming, but I was still nervous. I had already met up with the director and some of the cast involved in the scene, but today I was going to be meeting the main four actors and two members of Queen.

I was just finished with wardrobe and was on my way to hair and makeup when I came across one of the main actors, Gwilym. I had been told about him after being cast, since he was the one playing Brian May, but I hadn’t met him yet. I suddenly felt nervous as I approached the hair and makeup trailer, where Gwilym was stood outside the door also waiting. He looked up as he heard me approach and smiled.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” I said back. “I’m (Y/N).”

“Gwilym. Nice to meet you.” He reached out and shook my hand. I hoped he couldn’t feel how my hands were shaking. “You’re playing Brian’s wife, right? Well, my wife I guess.”

I chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, that’s me. I’m getting all dolled up for my one day on set to film my one, dialogue-less scene.”

“Hey, there’s no such thing as small parts remember.”

I made a face at him. “You sound like my old theater teachers.”

Gwilym cringed. “That’s the last thing I’d ever want.”

I laughed. The door to the hair and makeup trailer opened and two other extras came out. The stylist greeted us and told us to come in. I sat in one chair while Gwilym sat in the one next to me. I watched the stylist grab a long, brunette wig and place it next to Gwilym.

“I’m gonna have to do Gwilym’s wig firs since that’ll take the longest,” she told me. “So, sit tight, and try not to mess up your wardrobe too much.”

I nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

I watched the process of applying Gwilym’s wig. It really did take a long time. First, a bald cap had to be applied to Gwilym’s head. Then, the wig was placed on his head in a few different ways to figure out the best placement. Once that was figured out, the wig had to be pinned down in a way that made it look natural on his head, and not like a wig.

“So,” Gwilym said, trying his best not to move his head. “Since we’re going to be here a while, and since we’re playing a married couple, I suppose we should get to know one another.”

“Sure,” I said with a laugh. “What do you want to know?”

“Is this your first movie?”

“It is. Until now I was just an extra in a few sitcoms. I had one line once, that’s the extent of my career.”

“Well, extras are important. Without them, a scene would look so stupid if it was just the main characters.”

I shrugged. “I know that, and I know every actor has to start somewhere, but I’ve been doing this for roughly five years. Performing Arts schools are expensive and I sometimes worry I made a mistake persuing acting.”

I saw Gwilym’s eyes quickly look over at me before looking back at the mirror in front of him. “It’s never a mistake to chase your dreams. It just takes time. You have to play the small parts in order to get experience for the big ones.”

“You’re right. It’s just taking so long. But I’m here now, so that’s a step up.” I shook my head. “Anyways, away from my career insecurities. Tell me a bit about you.”

We talked throughout his wig applying process. We exchanged embarrassing childhood stories, talked about how we got into acting, general details about one another. I had forgotten about the fact that I was waiting to have my own hair and makeup done by the time Gwilym stood from his chair.

He looked at himself in the mirror before turning to me. “How do I look?”

I tilted my head as I looked up at him. “Scarily like Brian May.”

He chuckled. “That’s good, then. They won’t fire me anytime soon. I’ll see you on set?”

I nodded and watched him go. I felt a little disappointed by the fact that he was leaving. I had really enjoyed talking to him. The next time I’d see him would be on set for the scene, where we wouldn’t be able to talk, and then once that ended I’d never see him again.

The stylist started going my hair and makeup. She showed me a picture of Brian and his wife in the early 80s, which was when the scene was set, as the inspiration for my look in the scene. It was subtle, but it was clearly 80s. It didn’t take as long as Gwilym’s had, and soon enough, I was on my way again.

I stepped out of the trailer just as Gwilym was walking up again. He was now in his costume, looking so much like a young Brian May that it was scary.

“Right on time,” he said. “I was coming back to walk you to set.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that,” I said, but I was touched by the offer.

“I didn’t have to, but I wanted to, so I am.” He offered an arm to me, like a gentleman. I took it and we started walking to set. “Besides, it’s a big scene with a lot of people. It might be nerve wracking to walk on set by yourself with all those people.”

“It is. Especially with meeting the rest of the main cast at the same time.”

“Oh, they’re all a bunch of wankers, you don’t have to worry about meeting them.”

I giggled. “You can’t say that about Brian May and Roger Taylor, though. And they’re going to be on set, too.”

“No, you’re right. But they are very kind. You don’t have to worry about meeting them. I’m sure everyone will like you. Even if they didn’t, who cares? You won’t have to see them again after today.”

He had a point, but it was still sad to hear out loud. I had been preparing for this day for so long, excited for my first big project. And now, within a matter of hours, it would all be over. I’d be sent back home, waiting for the next role to come up, hoping that maybe this movie could help with that role being a bigger one than just an extra. Back to my normal, boring life.

Saying goodbye to Gwilym.

I had managed to shock myself with that thought. I had only known Gwilym for maybe an hour and a half, but the thought of only having this day with him brought on a bit of sadness. He was so kind, and he seemed so genuine. I had never been on a set where the main actors even acknowledged that the extras existed, let alone be nice enough to walk one to set after talking to her for some time.

Not to mention he was extremely handsome. Especially when he smiled, like he was smiling at me now.

God, don’t develop a crush on the guy you’ll never see again after today.

My heart rate jumped the second we walked on to set. Gwilym wasn’t lying when he said there was going to be a lot of people in the scene. The mansion set was packed with people, so full that there was just barely enough room to move around. I was hoping this was the only amount of extras that were set to be in the scene, or else I think my nerves would go into over drive.

The director spotted Gwilym and I almost immediately and led us over to where we were set to be for the scene. Rami, Joseph, and Ben were already sat around having a laugh as we walked up. They happily greeted Gwilym, and he then introduced me to the lot of them. They were very nice and welcomed me in almost immediately, but it was still pretty surreal to be there with them. Especially Joseph, who I had seen in Jurassic Park when I was just a kid. I almost felt out of place there, but I could tell I wasn’t alone. I introduced myself to the other girls who were playing Ben and Joseph’s on screen love interests, who also looked just as out of place as I felt.

We were all sat around together when the buzz in the room suddenly turned into a hush. It wasn’t hard to know what had just happened: they had arrived.

Brian May and Roger Taylor themselves.

Rock and roll royalty.

I looked over and my heart leapt into my throat at the sight of them. It was hard to believe that they were actually real. I had been listening to Queen’s music all my life, but it wasn’t until this moment that I truly realized that these legends were actual real people.

Actual real people who were walking towards us.

I jumped when I felt a hand on my arm. I looked over to see that it was Gwilym’s hand. When I looked at him, he smiled. I couldn’t help but smile back, the nervousness in my stomach being replaced with butterflies. His hand moved down my arm and squeezed my own. I squeezed his hand back.

“My God.”

I looked up to see Brian and Roger stood over us. I tried to put on my best smile, hoping it wasn’t as obvious as I felt it was that I was shaking. Brian was looking between Gwilym and I, a look in his eye that I couldn’t quite place. Reminiscent, maybe?

“They did a spot on job casting for this movie,” Brian commented. “It feels like I’m looking into a mirror with you two.”

“If there mirror were about 50 years younger,” Roger teased.

“You speak from experience, don’t you old man?” Brian retorted. I couldn’t help but chuckle at their banter. Years of friendship and knowing one another, and they were still cracking jokes and poking fun. I hoped to be like them with my friends when I got older. “What’s your name, love?”

It took me a moment to realize he was talking to me. I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out. In fact, there was nothing going on in my head at all. It was like I had completely forgotten every little thing I had ever learned in my life. How does one continue to function after Brian May calls them “love”?

“This is (Y/N),” Gwilym said, saving me from my colossal choke.

“Yes,” I finally managed. “Sorry, my name is (Y/N). I’m a little nervous.”

“Nothing to be nervous about, darling,” Brian said. “You already have the look of my wife down. And it seems you and young Gwilym here have already gotten quite acquainted.”

I didn’t realize that Gwilym and I were still holding hands. I expected him to let go at that moment, as if he were just realizing as well, but he didn’t. Instead, he kept hold of my hand, giving it another reassuring squeeze. I wondered if the blush on my face was noticeable under the makeup.

The director called for places, so Brian and Roger took their places off set. I let out a sigh of relief after they were gone and moved into place with Gwilym.

“See?” he whispered to me as we were passed glasses of fake champagne. “They’re not that bad.”

“Their presence alone is a little terrifying,” I whispered back.

“But you got through it. Seems Brian’s taken a liking to you. Although, that’s not surprisingly considering how lovely you are.”

I was convinced this was all some sort of very long, very detailed dream. I was going to wake up at any given moment.

The scene went by very smoothly. It wasn’t hard to just look between the boys as they spoke, smiling when I was supposed to smile, offering a sour look when Rami arrived, acting as a rather rude Freddie. It felt like Gwilym was moving closer to me with each take that we did. First we started off sitting in separate chairs, until the director asked if we would switch and sit in the couch that Joseph and his lady friend had been sat in. Gwilym had moved towards me at the start of that take, and by the final take of the day our bodies were touching and his arm was around me. I was glad I didn’t have any lines, or else I would’ve likely forgotten every single one of them.

When the director called cut and said it was a wrap on the scene, I tried not to let my sadness show. The extras started to file out of the room, going to get read for a different scene that they were filling for. Not me, though. I was going to wardrobe to get my outfit taken back, and then I was going home. If I was lucky, I would be invited to the premiere, otherwise I would never see any of these people again.

I wouldn’t see Gwilym again.

Ben, Joseph, and Rami were kind enough to give me a hug and tell me they were happy to have met me. I told them likewise and started my way back to the wardrobe trailer.

“(Y/N)! Wait!”

I turned to see Gwilym rushing up towards me.

“Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for your next scene?” I asked him.

“Yes, but I wanted to talk to you before you left,” he said. “Look, I know this is a bit presumptive to ask because we only really spoke to one another for that time in hair and makeup, and I have no idea if you’re even single so maybe I’m about to make an ass out of myself, but I wanted to ask you if you’d like to go out this evening once I’ve finished on set.”

Everything in my brain? Gone.

Every last bit of it.

Gone.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. It had to be a dream, right? There was no way it was real. I would’ve pinched myself if it wouldn’t have made me look like a total idiot in front of Gwilym.

“Yes,” I said. “ I mean, yeah, sure, I - I would love that.”

His face lit up. “Yeah? Okay. Here, let me give you my number.”

We both realized we didn’t have our phones, so we had to do it the old fashioned way - Gwilym found a pen and paper, and wrote down his number for me. I took the paper and shoved it into my pocket.

“I’ll text you once I’m no longer part of the 80s,” I said, gesturing towards my outfit.

He chuckled. “And I’ll do the same.”

We both stood, just looking at each other for a moment. It wasn’t until Gwilym was called back to set that we finally, reluctantly, broke away to go out separate ways. I put my hand in my pocket and closed it around the piece of paper containing Gwilym’s number. I smiled to myself, having to restrain myself from skipping happily towards wardrobe.

I guess history really does repeat itself, I thought with a laugh.

[literatureloverx]

BSD MEN PLAYLISTS

Hi!❤️

I put this together pretty randomly, so the songs aren't in any particular order. You can imagine just the characters or them with their ideal type! darlings.

Enjoy!❤️

Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Neighbourhood - A little death

ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me

Army of Lovers - Crucified

Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence

Lana Del Rey - Young and Beautiful

Lana Del Rey - Salvatore (orchestral version)

Lana Del Rey - Dark Paradise

Theme from Schindler’s List

Theme from Romeo and Juliet (1968)

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake Theme

Tchaikovsky - Sleeping Beauty Waltz

Rossini - The Barber of Seville

Art of Noise - Moments In Love

=> FYODOR’S MASTERLIST

Dazai Osamu

Taylor Swift - Enchanted

Alexander Rybak- Fairytale

The Neighbourhood - Daddy Issues

Sade - Smooth Operator

David Kushner - Daylight

Raye - Escapism

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi

XOXO (Kisses Hugs) (feat. Pixel Hood)

Conan Gray - Family Line

Bad Omens - Like A Villain

Nbsplv - The Lost Soul Down

Labyrinth - All For Us

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Falling In Reverse - Popular Monster

Cigarettes After Sex - Apocalypse

The Living Tombstone - My Ordinary Life

MGMT - Little Dark Age

=> DAZAI’S MASTERLIST

Nakahara Chuuya

Sia - Elastic Heart

William Singe - Love You Like Me

Måneskin - Gossip

Skillet - Awake and Alive

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

Slipknot - Custer

Miley Cyrus - Angels Like You (Rock Version)

Pierce The Veil - A Match Into Water

Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman

Chase Atlantic - Into It

Chase Atlantic - Drugs & Money

Chase Atlantic - Swim

Stefflon Don - 16 Shots

Zayn - Pillowtalk

Zayn - Tonight

=> CHUUYA’S MASTERLIST

Nikolai Gogol

Insane Clown Posse - In My Room

Britney Spears - If U Seek Amy

Britney Spears - Circus

Britney Spears - Toxic

Britney Spears - Baby One More Time

Lady Gaga - Bloody Mary

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

Lady Gaga - Poker Face

Lady Gaga - Love Game

Lady Gaga - Judas

Maroon 5 - Animals

SZA - Kill Bill

Bea Miller - Playground

Melanie Martinez - Mad Hatter

Mother Mother - Hayloft II

(Nightcore) - Black Widow (Rock Version)

Autoheart - Stalker’s Tango

Bebe Rexha - I’m Gonna Show You Crazy

The Living Tombstone - My Ordinary Life

=> NIKOLAI’S MASTERLIST

TO VIEW ALL MY WORKS => HERE

[willfulscarlet]

Assorted Arrowclan headcanons of variable relation to canon, vol 1:

Ollie takes his survivalist shit extremely seriously - not in a prepper ‘six months of canned peaches’ way, but if any of the arrowfam are teleported to a desert island/the Jurassic/an alien planet/etc, they have the skills to survive and even to put batboys to shame. Mia was not terribly enthused to learn flint-knapping, but even on a normal patrol, fixing a broken arrow with a quickly knapped bit of broken glass is a useful skill.

Chilli became Ollie’s comfort food of choice because of Roy, and the cornbread he learned to make growing up on the reservation.

They’re all casually musical. Only Dinah and Roy are fully professional quality - Canary is of course Canary, and at least one of Roy’s cover IDs is a session drummer separate from his time in Great Frog - but the rest are talented amateurs. Star City citizens can tell if it’s a quiet night on patrol by the way they start harmonising Bohemian Rhapsody as they go. For a week after Hal brings Ollie quantum ghost hyperchillies from sector 1337, Roy and Mia sing Ring of Fire every time Ollie gets near them.

The Roy Harper Group Home for Neglected Sidekicks is vastly more successful than the Roy Harper Titans Academy (though to be fair, he’s alive to influence setup and is aiming for wildly different targets to headmistress Kori. But also….) Grant is an enthusiastic mainstay of cookouts and official Big Brother to the brood, several of whom get adopted into the JSA. Jason is perpetually confused.

(this leads to, when Ollie is being especially Ollie, a 21-year old Mia declaring she needs an adult and looking to Roy as the responsible one. Which causes perturbations, mostly in Roy’s psyche)

Between her early home life, living on the streets, assorted heroism-related absences, her school getting blown up and her involuntary sabbatical courtesy of Waller, Mia’s had about a year and a half of high school. It’s something she’s intensely insecure about, especially around her Titans team.

Lian was meant to give back her Legion Flight Ring before she went after Ollie and Connor. And she did! She just stole Saturn Girl’s ring on her way through the portal. This will cause problems for people that aren’t Lian.

Connor is welcome anywhere, anywhen. He’s got the only functioning ‘tact and diplomacy’ brain cell in the family.

Ollie is banned from Twitter. Roy, Mia and the Queen Industries PR department all owe Oracle a kidney apiece for ensuring he remains banned.

Connor’s mom is an old hippie and lives on a commune just outside of Metropolis. They grow weed that could knock out Superman. Mia isn’t allowed to make brownies with Moonday ever again.

Several leaguers and quadruple the number of supervillains have nightmares about the first Sin-Lian-Emi teamup. Some things are just unfair.

By the same token, Bruce and Ollie have explicitly barred Steph and Mia from ever working together again. They pay even less attention to this pronouncement than their mentors expected. Possibly it has encouraged them.

Roy’s favourite shot: tripping Wally with an arrow through his shoelaces. He first manages it when they’re both 14, but the pinnacle is when he repeats it when they’re in their mid-30s and Wally is having yet another Speedforce-related Capital-C Crisis. Roy saving the universe through the medium of teenage pranks is not something he ever lets Wally live down. There’s a display in the Flash Museum and everything.

Mia, recognising Ollie’s habit of stranding himself on Starfish Island every time the wind changes, has buried several caches of clothes, survival gear and rations around the island. Just because he has a Robinson Crusoe fetish doesn’t mean she can’t be comfortable in board shorts while he ‘reconnects’.

[juneberrie]

you always have been

thinking thoughts. *ೃ༄ this is very self indulgent im not sorry <3 btw the formatting is terrible 😭 also this is 1.5k words im so proud of myself its literally the longest fic i've ever written

pairing: jj maybank x fem!reader

fandom: outerbanks

warnings: swearing, mentions of being drunk, reader kind of pushes jj away, insecure!reader, stressed out!reader, mentions of jj's trash dad, fear of abandonment, sort of a smau? science hw (yes thats a warning science hw sucks), love confession, hurt/comfort <3

jj's instagram is a mess. it alternates between pictures of random objects, pictures of himself, and pictures of our friends.

lately, all of his pictures have been pictures of him and the pogues at keggers and on the boat. without me.

the most recent one is a blurry shot of him and kie at the boneyard. his hair is dripping wet and kie is holding up a red solo cup, beer sloshing over the side. the caption reads, "my brst girl 😋 ilysn kier.carrera" its so misspelled its obvious hes drunk, even without looking at the picture.

—————

↳ comments

-> jb.wifirouter ong your so drunk. ↳ heywpope its "youre" not "your" 💀 and you're durnk too ↳ sarahcamer0n lmaooo durnk

-> kier.carrera lol ilyt jj 💀 ↳ kier.carrera wsit wring emoji ❤️

—————

i groan and shut my phone off. kie knows i like jj. she's heard me rant about him since eighth grade. its fine, though. i need to focus on school. i get up and silence my phone, putting it into a drawer at my desk before going back to the papers sprawled on my bed.

science isn't my best subject, but i need this extra credit to bring my grade up. and, no pressure at all, this stupid extra credit is due by monday, at its literally sunday night. at least its pretty easy. all i have to do is write an essay about newton's laws and how they function in the "real" world. i sigh and open my textbook to the page on the first law, inertia.

as im scribbling down the beginnings of the paragraph about f=ma, my pencil breaks. well, how fucking dandy. i get up and head to my desk to grab a sharpener, and i pass the mirror next to my door.

i cringe away, then force myself to look back. the girl staring back at me is... not kie. not sarah. she's wearing a big oversized t-shirt she stole from jj and some shorts. her nail polish is chipped and her hair is practically crying for escape from the worn scrunchie.

i tear my gaze away and grab the sharpener. the clock on my desk reads 11:11 pm. i remember something kie said about making wishes at 11:11, so i think, why not give it a try? i squeeze my eyes shut and hope my wish gets to whatever magical star angel being is listening.

after i finish my essay, its 12:23 am. i grab my phone from the drawer and see a flurry of texts and instagram notifications assaulting my lock screen.

i ignore the texts — six from kie and eight from jj — and click open instagram.

my homepage is filled with pictures of the pogues at the kegger they're at. i can't help the pettiness that surges up inside me and i click on jj's most recent story, a video of him, kie, pope, john b, and sarah screaming the lyrics to bohemian rhapsody around a campfire.

—————

you replied to their story

yourinstagram looks like you're having fun :)

—————

i feel slightly terrible, but whatever. every single kegger they've been to this past week, i haven't been invited.

a text notification comes down onto my screen. it's from kie. the preview reads "im soo sorru"

what the hell? i immediately click on the text and i almost start crying.

—————

kie kie ml ♡

bro so dnt be mad but like i accidentally told jj that u liked him

im sorry

answer me please idont want yu to be mad

i dd;t mean to i swaer

y/n?? are you mad??

y/n pleeaas answre

im soo sorru

bro wtf.

ik im sorry but we were playing truuth or dsre and plpe asked if i had acrush on anybody and i sadi no i didn't but ik you did and the n jj asked who and im sorry :)

:(*** SORRY

whatever. go enjoy your kegger.

—————

what the everloving fuck. i specifically told her not to tell anyone, especially jj, and she goes and tells everyone and their mother. i've gotten a flurry of texts from pope, john b, sarah, and other pogues i suppose are at the kegger, all asking me if it's true i like jj. and, speak of the devil, jj himself has been texting me nonstop for the past thirty minutes.

—————

golden retriever lookin' mf 😋

haha kie jus told me the funnist shut

wait is she for real

wait n/n yuo like me

like fr fr?

brp answer me pls

y/nnnnnn

are you asleepo r somethinh 💀

y/n if you dpn't answer rn rn im going ovet to yiur house

—————

shit. jj can't come over right now. i look like a mess, and now im fucking crying. my gaze drifts back over to the mirror; my eyes are red and puffy and tears are streaming down my face and dripping down onto my (jj's) shirt.

—————

golden retriever lookin' mf 😋

jj please dont come over just stay at the kegger and have fun

nooo y/n im already on my wsy so its fine

—————

shit shit shit.

i throw my phone across the room and scream into my bedsheets. the pogues already didn't like me anymore; they had been going out and having fun without for weeks now, and now kie tells jj i like him? my life is fucking falling apart.

a knock at my window wakes me up from whatever sad haze i was trapped in for the last twenty minutes. jj's peering in and he smiles when he meets my gaze. i shake my head and turn away from him.

no bother letting him in, he'll probably just tell me that he doesn't like me back and to never talk to him again.

another knock, persistent, sounds from the window. i sigh and turn back.

i open the window but leave the screen up, so jj can hear me but he can't get in. "go away, j."

"nooo. wait, why are you cryiinggg?" he asks, the booze slurring his words.

"nothing. no reason. go away, please, jj," i say, my voice cracking.

his face softens and he seems to sober up a bit. "n/n, please tell me what's wrong. i hate seeing you sad," he whispers. fuck. i can't, i can't with the fucking blue eyes and the soft looks and the whispers. i open the rest of the window, and jj climbs in.

i crawl under the covers of my bed and face away from jj. i feel the bed dip next to me and he lays a warm hand on my back. its so casual, so domestic, that i want to laugh.

"sunshine, what's wrong? is this about what kie said?" he asks, gently rubbing my back.

the dam breaks. tears start flowing out of my eyes and i started shaking.

"it is about what kie said. i like you, jj, i really like you. no, i- i love you! i love you so much. i've loved you since i first saw you in mrs. williams' science class in eight grade and you laughed when she said that iron was discovered by the hittites. and i know you'll never love me back because— well— look at me! im not like kie, im not like sarah. i'm just... me! and i've been trying to pretend like you guys going to keggers everyday without me isn't a big deal because, hey, i'm swamped with school, even though its fucking intercession. and i knew if i told you, you'd hate me and you'd never talk to me again," i sob into my pillow.

jj is silent for a few seconds, still rubbing my back.

"i love you too, sunshine. i've loved you for the entirety of the time i've known you. and, you're right. you're not kie or sarah, but you're you. that's what i love about you. you are unapologetically yourself. and i'm sorry for not inviting you to the keggers. i just, i knew you were swamped and i know you don't really like parties 'nd drinking and shit. and i just want you to know that im so proud of you, honey, and— jesus, y/n. you're the only one for me. you always have been. you're the person who's been there whenever luke did something shitty to me, you've helped me with my homework, and gosh, dare i say it, you've helped me be a better person."

he chuckles. i feel him press a kiss to the back of my neck and gently bring me towards him so i'm basically in his lap. he wraps his arms around me and lays his head in the crook of my neck. we stay together in a comfortable silence for a few moments.

i sniffle. "i'm sorry, j."

"you're not the one who should be apologizing, sunshine. i love you, so much. i'm sorry if i made you feel like i'd never talk to you again or like you weren't enough; you are enough. you always have been."

[ttheatre-trashh]

ao3 is down but here’s my last minute @rtcpickyourpoison thing!!!!!

Noel, karaoke night (except I lowkey completely forgot about that) ^_^

Noel sat in a circle with his fellow choir members, plus Tammy and Ezra, as Penny had insisted. Tonight was the bi-weekly choir movie and karaoke night, organized by Ocean, of course.

Today’s first song was bohemian rhapsody, and ocean had taken it upon herself to teach everybody the harmonies.  As she went around the circle dividing the group into smaller sections, Noel noticed Savannah curling up on the couch, prepared to watch the chaos unfold, phone ready to record. 

She shot him a mocking look, because he was seriously about to do this. 

He probably wouldn’t be doing this without the cyclone accident, though. 

Noel had gone through an interesting journey with the choir. In middle school, ocean had insisted that Noel and Constance form a trio with her, and the three would preform show tunes and church songs at school concerts. 

Once they hit freshman year, however, Ocean quickly came to the conclusion that there were no creative extra curriculars, and therefore she took it upon herself to form a proper choir. 

After going around and handing out flyers, she had finally recruited a few upperclassmen. Well, Ocean dragged her cousin Astrid, who dragged her friends with her, because there was no way she was going to do that alone. 

Noel was hesitant to continue with choir, though. He had been hoping to lose his status as ‘token gay boy’ at his new school, praying that even the kids from middle school would have forgotten about him. But his type A friend was going to make this happen, although Noel usually stayed in the back during performances. 

But that didn’t stop the ridicule he faced. His middle school peers remembered Noel much more than he had hoped, and the bullying was worse now that the assholes had connections with older students. 

But Ocean never seemed to notice how bad it would get, always demanding for 110% to be given during every single rehearsal and performance. 

Noel grew to resent the choir over the years. What had once been a fun escape with his two best friends had quickly become Oceans personal project, trying to get bonus points on her resume. 

Giggling in Constance’s living room as the trio harmonized off key became Ocean screeching at ‘her’ choir if someone messed up. 

Noel really considered leaving, but it wasn’t like he had anything else to put on a college resume, or to do with his time. So he stayed, because he really wasn’t up for ocean accusing him of hating his friends and being mad about losing her one and only gay guy, because, as she insisted, ‘You just can’t have a choir without a gay man!!’. 

During the years, Astrid, Hank, Corey, Trishna, and Corey graduated, and Ocean went hunting for new members. She ended up recruiting a girl, Penelope? Peggy? Noel wasn’t too sure, just trying to get through every rehearsal. She had a lovely voice, though, and Noel made a mental note that Monique probably had a similar voice to her. 

Noel had been working on Monique Gibeau for a while. She was everything he wanted to be: wanted, no, needed. Admired. Feared. 

Writing stories about and drawing her had started taking up his free time, and as he stood at the back of the stage during choir performances, Noel often looked around the audience, hoping to find someone with an interesting outfit or piece of jewelry that he could add to his beloved character. 

Another girl joined the choir, too, Savannah. ‘Joined’, yet again, wasn’t the right world though. Ocean had made her join for ‘diversity’, and Savannah was forced to play the tambourine. 

Noel had been friends with Savannah in primary school, although he had known her under a different name. She looked miserable, sitting in her chair and tapping her tambourine half heartedly. 

In their senior year, Misha Bachynskyi was made to join the choir, this time not by Ocean. Something about wine, Noel knew. 

Noel’s bullies had mostly given up, which was quite a relief to Noel. 

Then there was the fall fair. The day had been so regular. 

Except it wasn’t, because they literally died. But then they didn’t. And afterwards, the choir got closer, Ocean coming to her senses, and making an effort. She apologized personally to everyone, and for the first time since middle school, Noel really enjoyed choir. It was fun again. 

He looked forward to rehearsals, and their sleepovers and karaoke nights, because now, that meant time with his friends. His best friends. 

And tonight, Noel didn’t complain as he sang his part of bohemian rhapsody, just taking everything in, despite the silly nature of the activity. 

[jswatson]

3 small things i noticed on good omens season 2 that i caught and have no one to talk about with (and are too small or obvious or unimportant to make a post about but i will anyway)

string version bohemian rhapsody playing in the coffee shop when crowley takes the 6 shots coffee

gabriel grabbing a discworld book

the good omens book existing inside the show (it's one of the books gabriel sorts alphabetically)

[fmajorenthusiast]

Some of the things that I would like to see in Rocky Horror sequels plus some headcanons part 2!!!!

● The reveal that Doctor Scott got abducted years ago and knew Riff Raff and Magenta's mother. She was like the first of his adopted children like Brad and Janet are now (she's my big OC for this fandom who's story we honestly don't have time to tell in this post lol. I'll try to remember to talk about her later if yall are interested)

● Janet getting progressively sassier and more confident as it goes on.

● Brad, Janet and Doctor Scott just went back to normal after Rocky Horror happened and it's considered the "night we don't talk about"

● Columbia being the only one who can save the day due to funny circumstances that I don't know yet lol (this one's getting an incorrect quote sometime in the next few days since it reminded me of a funny quote from Game of Thrones (which is a show that I wasnt old enough to watch when it first came out so i had no less than 5 people warn me about how bad the ending was writing wise and good god they were not wrong but it was so genius until then) so keep your eyes open!)

● Drunk Magenta. Just flat out drunk. Bonus points if the scene begins with Riff delightedly running into the room and loudly proclaiming that for the first time in years his sister is drunk. (I headcanon that she holds her alcohol really well.)

● Riff Raff doing karaoke at a karaoke bar (I have no idea how we get to these circumstances) and just... flat out killing it at Bohemian Rhapsody. He nails the high B flat. He also sleeps in the car afterwards later that night.

● Another ending idea in which Riff and Magenta give Doctor Scott a lecture that if for any reason Frank N Furter is to come to life again, he is to either take the shot without any hesitation or lock him in a room, contact them, and let them come and take the shot. (I believe that there can absolutely be a third installment in which Frank escapes)

And those are some more of my thoughts!!!

[nerdieforpedro]

Friends look out for friends right?

Chapter Two of Come live with me Angel Series

Benny Miller x Diana (plus size OFC)

This fic is 18+ MDNI

Word Count: 1908

Summary: Benny recalls how he and Diana first met. Living arrangements are discussed in addition to why Benny ended up in jail last night.

Warning: questionable karaoke choices, a few thots, Benny cooking, more pining, reference to a fight and jail

Notes: A slow burn with Friends to lovers. I enjoy writing them. I need to fit in tacos for @musings-of-a-rose just because. She knows why. 🤣

Main Masterlist/ Benny Miller Masterlist/ Come away with me Angel Series

Benny thought back to when he first met Diana while he cooked breakfast the next morning:

Six months ago at the Saucy Cantina. It was karaoke night and none of the guys would sing with him. He even chose ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ one that the four of them would know, but none of them would sing with him. He wasn’t sure if it was just the three beers he had but he wanted to belt out a tune. There were three women near the sing book when he walked over, two of them were looking at a Beyonce song - she doesn’t have a bad one so that’s a safe choice. But the third woman who’s dark hair touched passed her shoulders was studying a page intently. He tapped her shoulder and she looked up, her honey brown eyes stared at him and he watched her baby pink lips move as she spoke, “Yes, did you wanna see the book?” Benny shook his head and asked what song she was thinking of doing. “You’ll laugh, but I was thinking of ‘Rich Girl’ or ‘Diamonds.’” She said, setting her finger on each song.

“Those two are pretty different. I was thinking of a song too but my brothers over there are buzzkills and don’t wanna join me.” He grinned, his eyes a little glassy from the beer. She chuckled and nodded, explaining that she had been outvoted and it looked like her and her friends were going to be singing Beyonce tonight.

“We don’t have to sing what they want to you know. I’ll sing ‘Rich Girl’ with you if you’ll sing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with me, Angel.” He offered a hand outstretched as he hopped up on stage. Fish tapped Pope and Will, pointing toward the small stage at the back of the bar. The woman who he would later come to know as Diana took his hand and hopped up on stage with him. Benny remembered that he didn’t let go of her hand the entire time on the stage as they sang the Hall and Oats song and danced, swaying their hips and stomping their feet in tune with the music. It earned them a standing ovation and they got a second when they finally sang ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in which there were some squeals because neither of them could hit those notes and they may have had a round of shots in between numbers. Benny invited all three girls over to the table and kept Angel as he called her, next to him as they chatted and drank. Will and Fish noticed how Benny kept holding onto her hand, like she might bolt, but she didn’t seem to mind. When the girls went to the bathroom, they teased him about getting a girlfriend of karaoke. Benny told them to shut it and that she was just really nice, but he knew then he wouldn’t be alright with not knowing her name and noting seeing her again.

Over the course of the night, he learned her name Diana and she told him his, Benjamin, but to please call him Benny, no one calls him his full name. They exchanged phone numbers and he made sure to text her to check if she got home okay and to see if she wanted lunch. One would have thought that he’s asked her out on a date but it wasn’t, just brunch. It was fun and no pressure. It helped a lot that Benny was a goofball and that Diana liked telling bad jokes. It’s been great for the last six months, towing the line between friends and something more and easy, so very easy.

This morning, Diana woke up and had a headache. What should she do? Moving in with her mother would be the more reasonable of the two options, but could she stand living with the woman again? Especially now that she was being effectively kicked out because her roommate found a man and she hadn’t.

Benny was up off the couch and had folded the blanket. He was making some eggs and toast when he saw Diana walk out in a loose black tank top and pink shorts that bunched between her legs from her thighs rubbing together. Her eyes were blurry and she rubbed them to adjust to the bright light. They went wide when she saw Benny in her kitchen, shirtless in his jeans and no socks, his hair was down and coasting along the back of his neck. She sometimes forgets how tall and broad he is. No…she knows. She tried to forget, because if she thinks about it, she do that before bed again.

“What the hell Benny..?”

“Damn Diana, that’s not what I expected. I thought I’d at least get a ‘thanks’ or a ‘good morning’, no hospitality.” He turned with a wide grin, holding a spatula in one hand. Diana cleared her throat and took a few steps forward on the cold floor to make sure she wasn’t having another dream about the younger Miller again. It turned out she was not and he really was making her breakfast in her apartment.

“I-I didn’t expect you to be making breakfast. Thank you. I was just surprised. I didn’t think you could cook.” Diana walked over and leaned on the counter, her breasts were pushed together from her crossed arms as she watched him scrambling eggs in her frying pan. “Did you want me to start some bacon or toast?” She asked, Benny turned to answer her but was greeted by her ample cleavage that was exposed. Toward the scoop of her tank top, it looked like he might just be able to see the cusp of something. He’s not supposed to be thinking about that they’re friends. Benny wonders from time to time and feels guilty because of how close he keeps Diana. He swallowed the spit that had gathered in his mouth and nodded.

“Sure, make both. I’ll eat what you don’t. You like onions and peppers in your eggs right?” Benny asked, drizzling some on half of the eggs, Diana agreed and took out the bread and bacon to get started. The bacon she put between two paper towels and microwaved it while she plugged up the toaster to start on the bread.

“Benny, you take your toast like your hair?” She joked, he roared with laughed as he remembered first telling Diana that’s how he liked all his bread that wasn’t on a sandwich. He was finishing up the eggs while she made six pieces of toast and eight pieces of bacon. It was a lot of food, but after they sat down and split it up, Benny and Diana scarfed all of it down along with two glasses of water each. They sat at the table relaxing because they were both full. Diana decided to ask first.

“Benny, are you going to tell me why you were arrested last night? You told me you hadn’t had any issues with the law for a couple years. There had to be-”

“You really wanna know Angel? Then if I tell you, you need to move in with me.” Diana opened her mouth to protest but Benny held up his hand. “You’re gonna say no, but you know you and your mom are like oil and water. Also you can pay me rent if it makes you feel better. I’d rather you didn’t though. You’re my friend.”

You’re my friend.

Diana realized that the only one stressing about being in close quarters with Benny was her. It would be the better and cheaper choice. She’d just have to keep her wits about her and gawk at him…too much.

“Fine Benny, I’ll move in with you. I haven’t found another place besides my mom’s anyway. Now will you tell me why I had to get you from county last night?”

“You know that bar we go to often, right? I was drinking after a fight. May have lost, not a big deal. Point is, we were laughing and joking it was all good.” Benny leaned forward with both elbows on the table, his muscles taut. Diana wants to tell him to sit back or throw a blanket on so she won’t stare.

“I know the bar, yes.” She tilts her head, confused about where this is going. “If things were good, why were you in jail?”

“That bastard said, anyway. He said something he shouldn’t have. I showed him he should keep his mouth shut.” Benny shook his head and stood up from the table taking both plates and silverware over to the sink. Diana sighed following him and had her hands on her hips.

“Benjamin Miller tell me what he said. Now.” Her lips pressed together, and he knew her bottom lip had likely poked out. “Was it really that serious to where you needed to injure three men? I mean I’ve heard all sorts of things said-“

“I don’t care what you might have heard in the past but no one’s going to talk about you like that! Not while I’m breathing.” Turning toward her, his face was red as he chewed on his cheek. “He asked me how you were in bed because he was sure you were enthusiastic and loud since you sing so well. I told him to shut the fuck up and he followed it up with…it doesn’t matter. I should have made it so his jaw would be wired shut.” Benny tossed the dirty spatula in the sink and started running water in a large bowel, pouring in some soap to start washing. “You dry Diana.”

“Anything any drunk idiot says you shouldn’t listen to Benny. He’s an asshole. Don’t go to jail again. He and no other asshole is worth it.” Diana took the spatula and two forks to dry and put them to the side to put away.

“I’m not letting some douchebag think it’s fine to talk about you any kind of way Di, I’m not. I’ll try and stay out of jail. I can’t promise not to fight for you.” Washing the two plates, Benny handed them to Diana and watched as she bumped the drawer closed with her hip and leaned on her tip-toes to put away the plates after drying them. He found himself laughing to which she whipped the dishtowel at him.

“If I move in with you, you can’t be going back to jail Benny. I’m serious.”

“I am too.” Diana knows how serious he is which is a blessing and a curse. There’s always assholes that will say all sorts of things. Thankfully Benny was alright but what happens if he gets a longer sentence. Maybe he somehow thinks he won’t. They’re going to have to agree to disagree. “One other thing though Angel,”

“What now Benny? You gonna fight the cabinet for being too tall for me?”

“No. We need to go get my jeep from the bar. Then we can start moving your stuff today.” Whipping his hands on his jeans, he walks over to the couch and gets his shirt and slips it on. “Grab your keys.”

“I don’t leave the house in my sleep clothes Benny. Give me five minutes.” Rolling his eyes, he watches Diana make her way into the bedroom and close her door to get dressed. She may have fussed at him, but she was still moving in.

Goal accomplished

Notes on Benny’s guitar 🎸: @tinytinymenace @laurfilijames @rhoorl @musings-of-a-rose @megamindsecretlair @gwendibleywrites

[britt-kageryuu]

A video is uploaded to the VTurtles! YouTube channel titled Clips from Karaoke Night, a compilation of clips from a stream that wasn't turned into a VOD for copyright reasons.

<><><><><><><><><><><>

Donnie: Okay, so we're all fairly good singers, it's just that if we got into music it would need to be as a group, because a solo gig just leads to trouble with our luck, and history.

Mikey: Oooooo, you got a karaoke version of so many good songs!!

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

Leo's model is dressed in low hanging sparling blue pants, a galaxy print croptop shirt, his mask with some visible makeup, and long black blond/blue streaked hair in a high ponytail. Everybody Loves Me by OneRepublic is playing.

He's swinging his hips and dancing to the music, and giving the illusion that the only thing keeping his pants up is his tail. He's singing a bit off key, but not bad. He of course seems to flirt with the camera while singing.

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

Donnies model is in his purple hoodie, mask, black/purple tech pants, and boots.

Donnie is singing Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk, purposefully auto tuning his voice. He moves on every beat to put impact into his singing, his tail swaying, and whipping with the song is a little distracting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mikeys model is in an orange zip up hoodie with glowing paint splatter, black cargo pants also with glowing paint splatter, mask, and long multicolored hair pulled into a low ponytail with some fore locks framing his face.

Mikey is singing My Shot from Hamilton, and hitting all the notes, he's of course dancing for emphasis.

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

Raphs model is in blue jeans, boots, mask and a slightly ripped Ghostbear shirt. He also has some fabric wrapped around his tail in a bow.

The music is starting, and Raph starts a growling note only for it to turn into a very turtley bellow/roar. He stops and looks very embarrassed, there is alot of laughter heard, because no one was expecting that, most of all Raph.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The boys are all singing to Bohemian Rhapsody, switching off who sings which verse, dancing around to the music while waiting for their turn to sing.

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

Shelldon and River are singing Happy Synthesizer, if only for the name alone, it's still very cute watching them perform the dance in their bipedal robot forms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At some point their Karaoke was crashed by Splinter performing a number, or two.

Leo: Dad was well known to pull a wide variety of people in his youth.

Donnie: And somehow we were almost equally distributed his better traits, except his amazing singing voice.

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

Raph his showing off his vocals with a beautiful Soul number. (Take your pick, I don't know much soul)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Donnie and Leo are singing a 90's boy band song with choreography. Mikey joins in half way through.

<><><><<><><><><><><><>

Leo's voice cracking mid song, cuts to him tripping mid dance, a clip of him sneezing loudly into the mic.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Donnie is rapping rapidly only to fumble on the verse, cuts to him dancing to the music and forgetting to sing the next verse, a clip him pausing the song to take a drink.

<><><><><><><><><>

Mikey singing a song in Japanese only to pause, and check if he's singing to right lyrics.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Raph accidentally smacks something with his tail which causes them to stop and fix things before they continue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A slightly longer clip of the brothers singing a slightly altered Butter by BTS.

<><><><><><><><><><><>

A short compilation of each brother almost swearing, but quickly cutting or altering the lyrics.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Masterpost

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today, on 13th January, 2017

Lord Snowdon, former husband to Princess Margaret and photographer,died at the age of 86

Brian May remembers

Sad to hear of the passing of Lord Snowdon. I can’t say I was his friend, though perhaps I would like to have been. We did spend a couple of days together as Queen (the rock group) and portrait photographer, and it was very memorable. I knew of Lord Snowdon from when I was quite small. As Anthony Armstrong Jones he had married the very glamorous Princess Margaret, in Westminster Abbey, in top level splendour, televised in colour (!) and celebrated throughout the land. Somehow it caught my imagination, gave me a thrill, to the point where I pasted a picture of the handsome couple in my personal photo album. It was a fairy-tale. Shy handsome commoner weds beautiful royal princess. Much later I realised that Tony Armstrong Jones, now Lord Snowdon, was a dedicated artist, a gentleman photographer in true Victorian style, and that his world had stayed quite separate from the Royal Family he had married into. I believe he had a Victorian sensibility in more than one way. A Gentleman, certainly, and a man of independent means, he did not need to take photographs to earn a living. It was his art. And in the details of his practice, too, he adhered to early traditions of photography. He believed that the essence of a sitter for a portrait was to be revealed only in natural light.

Well, this is what he told us, when the four of us found ourselves at his house, our mission being to find the elusive ‘Group Shot’ - a four-fold portrait of a Rock Band, for the cover of an album. Now this was around 1981, about 35 years ago. So the portrait of this session in my mind is a little faded. But Snowdon was a delightful, thoughtful, modest and gentle man, given to pausing to ponder, in his walking around the room, with a slight limp, a relic from a childhood illness, as he looked at us, planning his shoot.

I’m sure Roger has better recollections than I, but I seem to remember us sitting around a little awkwardly, sipping coffee, discussing what we were trying to achieve. I don’t believe we had any preconceptions at all … the four of us hadn’t had the chance to confer beforehand, and I think on this occasion we didn’t have a plan. We assumed that this accomplished photographer would bring a fresh approach. We’d done a lot of this kind of session, of course, over the years, notably with George Hurrell, iconic Hollywood portraitist, and Mick Rock, who had pulled off a very memorable diamond format four-shot on a black background, which not only graced the cover of our early album Queen II, but, brought to life, became the shot that everyone remembers from the Bohemian Rhapsody video some years later.

Snowdon told us that he didn’t want an overriding theme - he didn’t think we need to ‘try so hard’. He said he wanted us naturally filling the space, and he was absolutely insistent that the lighting would be natural too … only the daylight which pervaded his studio, again, Victorian style - more or less a glass-house. He would not use any artificial light. Now I may be wrong about this, but I seem to remember we talked so much and drank so much coffee, that time passed and the light started to fade. Anthony took some test shots on his large-format camera (no 35mm for him) and wasn’t happy. So he said something like … "I know what to do now, but we missed our slot. I’m not going to use studio lights - I want the quality of daylight in this shot. Can you come back tomorrow?” Strangely enough we could. And then it was all very quick. He took a few solo shots of us singly (I wonder where they are ?) And then went for the cover shot of the four of us. I think he only took a couple of dozen shots, very much like we’d seen Hurrell do. He knew exactly what he wanted, and he knew when it was in the bag - even though he couldn't verify that on the spot. The developing of the negative had to be done, and prints made, before anyone could see the result.

So we said our goodbyes and left - and … that was it. The picture we wanted arrived a couple of days later, and it was perfect for what we needed - nicely balanced in composition, with all of us looking quite decent; understated, a little formal, yet not stiff, and beautifully lit by Nature herself, with a little help from Lord Snowdon.

The album ? It was to become the biggest selling British album in History - Queen’s Greatest Hits.

We decided to mount the picture in an unusual way. Inspired by the first Superman Film, we skewed the photograph as if it were mounted flat on a piece of glass spinning through space. So our faces are distorted by perspective. Years later, for the re-issue for Universal Records, we decided to ‘undo’ that distortion, and on this cover you see Snowdon’s picture exactly as it was taken. Pure ! I like that version best. As Snowdon himself might have said … it wasn’t trying too hard.

You won’t find this stuff on Wikipedia, of course. In the anarchy of the Internet based information, anybody can contribute stuff as long as they are citing someone who said it previously ! So the entry as I just looked at it is a ripe mixture of fact and inaccuracies - they don’t even mention who took the cover photograph. Who will write history ? Well, certainly not me … with my memory weaving its own spells at this distance. But History was certainly made in those fleeting moments when we were privileged to enjoy the company of that fine gentleman, Snowdon

RIP

Bri - january 13, 2017

(source: brianmay.com)

[bitwynn]

Not a fan

A SAGAU Impostor AU Songfic

Song used: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

...so I caved. Yep. Starting a new series even though i already have one. To be fair, i felt like i needed a break from that series since that beast needs a whole lotta world building and im planning for it to get into some heavy fucken subjects. This one tho is more chill and light-hearted, since theyre all just a bunch of kind of disconnected one shots that are all kind of connected. So like-- when this series gets a lil longer, you can literally start from any fic since its all connectedly disconnected. A better example was my original idea of me just writing the end goal where they finally defeat the impostor like-- directly after the Castaway fic to rlly show how connectedly disconnected it is but i refrained myself since i wanted to write more wanderer. Been playing as him a lot but i havent rlly done the archon quest yet lol but hes just a blast. Hes an annoying lil shit (affectionate)

Blue for Barbara, Yellow/Gold for Zhongli, Green for Wanderer, red for Diluc, Italics is Reader/General, Combined is Everyone. Colors only used for singing parts.

---

Is this the real life?

You were running again, the spears and arrows of the Millelith chasing you all across Liyue.

Is this just fantasy?

Zhongli was by your side, steadfast as a rock as he shielded you from their weapons-- both with his Jade Shields and his body.

Caught in a landslide,

A loose rock almost sent you tumbling down into the depths of the Chasm, Barbara grabbing you just in time.

No escape from reality.

Diluc recognizes the path you were taking towards Tiangong Gorge, immediately rushing off to the Chasm's Maw and letting loose Dawn-- his phoenix rising up into the sky like a blazing beacon, just buy the rest of you more time. He'll rejoin you once again, he knows the path you'd take. He's your main afterall.

Open your eyes,

The three of you make it, the relief from seeing the glow of the blue Waypoint almost bringing you to your knees.

Look up to the skies and see,

You stumble in, Barbara hauling your arm over her shoulder as Zhongli collapses the tunnel behind you. You may be Overseer of Teyvat but he is the Overseer of Liyue, and its stones still answers to his call. There is nothing left but the browns and greens that creep towards the borders of Liyue.

I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,

Your little group exit the cavern, the fresh air of the rainforest cooling the sweat on your backs and you see Haypasia's "little neighbor" peeking up from behind a leaf.

Because I'm easy come, easy go,

The tiny Aranara, though a little hesitant that more people could see him now, takes your hand and guides you through Avidya Forest. Thank goodness you had caved from your siblings nagging and finally done at least a part of the Sumeru quest.

Little high, little low,

You were still unfamiliar with the lands of Sumeru, trusting your little lettuce friend to lead you to a place of safety, of rest.

Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me,

Lettuce, as you had affectionately named him, lead you all deep into the rainforests of Sumeru all while deftly avoiding the little village of forest rangers and the rangers themselves. You hadn't said a word to him but you knew, deep in somewhere, that he would be leading you somewhere safe. Somewhere protected.

Though this... wasn't what you expected.

To me.

He turns to your group, the smell of tea faintly wafting from the pot he was tending. "I don't think I need to introduce myself, do I?"

-

After the short but silent panic that washed over the three of you (it took the you and Barbara 5 minutes to even get a centimeter pulling Vortex Vanquisher out the cave wall while Zhongli aggressively apologized to him), the four of you were sat on the floor watching the Wanderer tend to the bubbling pots of food he was making.

There was a strange... very not tense(?), and very awkward energy in the air as he set aside cups and bowls for all of you, his own cup still full with steaming almost black water. Zhongli was very noticeably trying not to stare at his oversteeped tea.

Little Lettuce had already left, presumably to keep an eye on the area or watch out for Diluc. You didn't want to use him as a shield or a way to break the ice or something but god-- the energy in the air was just so uncomfortable.

You all watched Wanderer in this terse silence prepare your food, his soft chopping of the grilled unagi sounding like death knells in your cave. He took each of the bowls he set out, placing a considerable amount of rice in each and a small handful of dried seaweed and sesame seeds. Bringing out a jar of umeboshi from his inventory, he placed each slab of unagi with a single umeboshi atop the bed of rice and seaweed.

He pours out the tea onto the rice, 1, 2, 3... and stops. He cocks his head. Frowns.

"Wasn't there supposed to be four of you?"

And the silence was broken.

"W-well, little lettuce already left--"

"Not the aranara-- wait, you named him lettuce? Tsk, whatever. Where's the other one? The red one?"

"Oh, uhm, Diluc?"

He nods, the small scowl on his face almost carved into him. You feel your face heat as you turn your face away from him.

"He ran off. To the Maw. Let out his burst as a diversion to buy us time --but he'll find us. He'll come back. He knows the way, he knows how I think, he knows what I'll do. He'll come back."

Wanderer sighs, disappearing the extra bowl. You're not sure whether you said all that to stop his retort or to diminish your own worry.

You're shaken from your thoughts by Barbara holding your hand. She gives it a squeeze, and you squeeze back, thankful for the comfort.

"Are you just gonna keep staring at your food or do you want to die of both exhaustion and starvation?"

"Okay, eating now!"

You're handed a warm bowl of Shimi Chazuke, Wanderer's specialty. It didn't look like its in game icon, only having the plump umeboshi on top of a bed of rice and seaweed with the pale tea glistening in the light. But you had come to learn that many things in game didn't translate directly, there sure as hell no quest or mention of a "Divine Overseer, and yet-- and yet.

You bring the bowl up to your face, the warmth soaking into your aching, tired hands and its steam gently caressing your face. You mix a portion of the rice together with the tea, scoop it up, and put it into your mouth.

And practically turn into jelly at the taste.

"Umai...!" you moan, savoring the taste of it all.

The fresh rice soaked in the bitter tea tasted amazing, each bite slowly turning into a different flavor as the oils and sauce from the grilled unagi gradually mixed in with the rice. Cutting up a bit of the eel with your spoon, you mix it with the rice and your mouth burst with deliciousness.

The eel was grilled to perfection, plump and juicy and flaky. And with the addition of the tea, it introduced flavors you hadn't even imagined from a simple grilled fish.

As you were about to burst that plump little plum, the Wanderer stopped you, a strange look on his face. He handed you a handkerchief.

"Wipe your face, the flavor's gonna be off if you mix it with your tears."

Stunned, you took the handkerchief. "Oh."

It... had been a long time since you've eaten good food and found a place to rest. Too long.

You hold it close to your chest, eyes squeezed shut as you tried to calm down. After a moment, you wipe away the sweat, and tears, and snot, and grime that had accumulated on your journey. It had been such a long time since you first found kindness in this world, even if that kindness came from an emotionally stunned automaton designed to be a god.

You chuckled to yourself, a wet little thing, as you realize that you kept weeping harder and harder with each swipe of the cloth. You bury your face in it, the handkerchief practically soaked with your tears as you take a few calming breaths to finally stop your tears.

"I'm... I'm sorry, I-- its been a while since I've... yeah. Uhm..."

You take a breath, still wet with your snot. "I, uh... I'm gonna keep this, I uh-- ruined it. I'll, I'll clean it though! If you want it back."

Wanderer, handily ignoring your breakdown just earlier, cringes in disgust. "No thanks. Keep it, you need it more than me if you decide to bawl your eyes out again."

Despite the harshness of it, you soften, tucking the offending handkerchief away. "Thanks." "Don't ever mention it."

He reclines back into his little designated space in your cave, and hesitantly stokes the fire with his anemo vision. You pick your unfinished bowl of chazuke, umeboshi still waiting to be eaten. It was good to know that at least there was a few things that didn't change now that you're here.

"Are you finished yet? Stop gawking at your food and finish it so I can do the dishes."

Yep, some things just never change.

You finally finish your meal with the silence in the cave now something much more comfortable, the crackling of the fire and the quiet rushing and clanking of dishes almost lulling you into a sense of "you don't have a bounty placed on your head and are definitely not running from anyone and everyone for fear of them betraying you and handing you over to your megalomaniacal doppelganger".

Wanderer, having lost the argument of who does the dishes against Barbara, was definitely not sulking in his little corner and absolutely not fiddling with his new(?) anemo vision. "So, why'd you come here to Sumeru anyways? I know you definitely were not looking for me, considering the fact you tried to impale my head on sight. Which to be fair," he chuckles at Zhongli's sheepish face, stood near the cavern entrance. "I would do the same."

You absentmindedly plucked the strings of your Windblume Lyre, the instrument becoming a sort of stimming/coping device, helping you deal with everything that had happened to you. He hummed to himself, the cogs turning in his head. "I can't think of any other reason why you'd come here-- finding and trusting in me is a huge gamble that you won," he clarified, turning away from Barbara's blank stare. "the ancient Khaenri'ahn technology scattered around Sumeru won't be of any use if you were considering taking the fight to your impostor, the Irminsul Tree could be a good reason but I can't see any way you'd use it to help you, though knowledge is always good to have anyways."

He scoffed, reclining into the dirt of your cave. "Archons, imagine how ridiculous it would be if you just ran here because you had no choice but to! Like a bunch of scared animals, ahaha!"

You slowly sink behind your lyre as he continues.

"In my time here, you're infamous for always evading their grasp-- heck, there's even an entire division of scholars here dedicated to just trying to figure out how in the world you do it. Some say you're a master at faking trails, some say you have some sort of... psychic power that lets you read the mind of your enemies so you can anticipate their moves."

He shrugs.

"Honestly, I'm more inclined to believe that last one-- in my brief time as your Vessel before your descent, you somehow managed to find information about me, despite my entire existence being wiped from the Irminsul Tree. Add to that the experiences that your other Vessels had, and it's a pretty compelling case." A sigh. "Shame that probing is one-sided though, a peek into the mind of the 'Divine Deceiver' or 'Overseer' or whatever fancy title you call yourself would be quite intriguing. Who knows what schemes are you cooking up in there. Now tell me,"

He straightens, eyes boring into yours from where you were, at this point, hiding in shame behind your lyre. "why are you here in Sumeru?"

"Aha... ha... haaa..." If you had a pyro vision, your face would be on fire by now. You had to turn away, the warmth of embarrassment creeping down your neck. "Well, uhm..." You clear your throat, gulping as you try to even find the words to explain how much of a legitimately normal person you are, who was practically forced to grow brain cells specifically for scheming because if you didn't you would die.

"So, uh...ah he he he... heh..." you take a breath, a shaky grin on your lips. "So, you know how reality is sometimes stranger than fiction?"

He raises an eyebrow.

"Well..."

You vaguely gesture, hoping that your flailing would get your message across.

He stares at you. He stares some more. He blinks.

"No."

"Yeah."

"No..."

"Yeah...

"NO."

"YEAH--"

His mouth drops in shock as he tries to process what you're implying. The rumors painted a... much prettier and mightier picture of you than the both of you thought.

"I-- you-- wha-- how-- what?!"

He takes a breath, chest rising despite his lack of a need for air. He pinches the bridge of his nose, and you get the feeling that he's restraining himself from grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you stupid.

"So, you're telling me. That the 'Divine Deceiver' and their little posse made of a literal god, the once-captain of Mondstat's Knights of Favonius, and Mondstat's most renowned healer idol, have, quite literally, been running around like rats all over Teyvat and somehow, somehow staying alive by a thread?!"

"I KNOW MAN, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW WE'RE STILL ALIVE--"

"Oh my--"

He begins to growl, a black orb of anemo energy collecting in his palm. You squeak as you try to scramble to your feet, his face full of rage.

And the whirling winds in your cavern suddenly stops, Wanderer dismissing the dark energy in his hand. "Oh, relax."

He blows a raspberry at you, as you groan and sit back down. You bring your lyre back out from where you unconsciously disappeared it and clutch it like a lifeline.

"God, I never knew your idle could be that scary."

"...Idle?"

Barbara waves off his question, a sheepish expression on her face as she fixes her curls back into place. "Its... complicated. You'll learn more about it as you travel with us." She hands him the used and cleaned bowls and utensils. "You... will travel with us, right?"

He scoffs, taking the bowls and disappearing them with a flash of light. "Of course I will. Its literally in my name. Besides, I have nothing that ties me down anymore so I might as well wander with you guys."

She smiles at him, ever sweet and ever kind. She settles back down near the fire, drying her soaking hands. Though Zhongli is still taking watch by the cavern entrance, you could see the slightest look of pleased approval in his face. "Though if you are going to be travelling and running from the law with me, we need to make a plan instead of scurrying around like rats."

And at that, the entire cavern groans in exhaustion. "Not now, please." "We'd like to have some rest first, Wanderer!" "Please, fuck, no-- I've had enough scheming for 3 thousand years--"

"Wait, so you did have a plan going into Sumeru?!"

You wave him off, hands going to rest back upon the strings of your trusty lyre. "Well, it was more of like... a guideline? A safety net? We had a couple ideas on what to do if we ever ended up in Sumeru and we, yknow, ended up in Sumeru so we'll probably do that."

You pluck a couple strings as you remember what you "planned". "I hadn't finished the Sumeru main quest yet and I hadn't unlocked all of the Statues of the Seven yet either. We were thinking of unlocking all the Statues first since, without them, my 'all-encompassing' game map is jack shit here in Sumeru, and then we were thinking of finishing the main quest to both progress the story and better the... political? climate here along with a few other benefits. After that..."

You make a face, much more aggressively playing at your lyre. "We really didn't want to split up the party but, I kinda wanna finish the main story quest in the Chasm but also we need to collect all the Dendroculous and Electroculous for more stamina and stuff. But also, I kinda wanna visit Dragonspine since..." You let yourself trail off, the makings and ideas of plans evident in your voice.

Wanderer merely stares at you for a moment, the game terms flying over his head as Barbara mouths at him, "I'll tell you about it later". You sigh, dreading the planning of tomorrow as your fingers calm on the strings. "But, we can plan tomorrow. Please. We almost died multiple times again." He sighs, relenting. "At least you have the skeleton of a plan."

"Yes!"

Humming, you sink into the soft ground, thanking the soils of Teyvat for giving you some comforts in this trying time. What little grass in the cave caresses you in gratitude, as you pluck at your instrument.

The Wanderer sighs, as he prepares a small pot of tea. "You've been messing with that thing all night and its about to grate at my ears. Do you even know how to play?"

You chuckle a bit, sheepish as you hand the lyre over to Barbara who plays a quick, jaunty tune with a flourish. "Well, I can sing...?"

He sighs again, bowing his head and resigned to the confirmation that you were much more... ridiculous than the gossip and rumors painted you as. "Then why are you the one with the lyre?"

You shrug as Barbara starts up another little song. "Gives me something to do with my hands. Helps me calm down. Diluc and Barbara have been teaching me though when we have the time."

Your soft smile at Barbara's song turns cheeky as you turn to him. "Wanna hear what they've taught me?"

"Sure, better than forcing this inane conversation."

You giggle maniacally as you smile at Barbara, the singer immediately catching your drift. "Follow me?" "To the ends of the earth."

You laugh, as she tunes the instrument to the right notes. "Not like that you sap!" "I know, I know! But yes, of course. His song right?"

You nod. "Yep."

"'My' song...?" Wanderer tilts his head in confusion, before realization dawns on his face.

"Hey, just because it has my-- ...that name, does not immediately mean its 'my song'."

The two of you handily ignore his slip up, you drinking some water in preparation for singing and Barbara testing the lyre if its in tune. "Oh, please," you say, sitting up. "you haven't even heard the full thing yet! It's definitely your song."

He sighs, leaning back against the cavern wall. "Very well then. Indulge me."

-

You start, reciting the beginning "poem" from memory. Barbara watches and waits, fingers hovering above the strings. Wanderer cocks his head, clearly interested. She begins playing as you get halfway, the lyre an excellent substitute for the piano. You continue, the Wanderer scoffing a little at the poem's mention of a poor boy needing no sympathy, but you pay it no mind. He hasn't heard the rest of the song yet.

"Mama,"

Barbara picks up on her playing, wringing the lyre out for all its worth for those deep chords and piano-like sounds.

"Just killed a man,"

You summoned the small drum you bought from a merchant in Inazuma in preparation.

"Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he's dead,"

You close your eyes, swaying to the tune of the song.

"Mama, life had just begun,"

You didn't need to open your eyes to know that he's really listening now.

"But now I've gone and thrown it all away!"

You quickly tap on the drum, trying in vain to mimic the band's performance.

"Mama!, oooh,"

Zhongli was sat at the entrance with his legs crossed and humming along.

"Didn't mean to make you cry,"

Wanderer was still. You could almost hear the turning of the cogs in his mind.

"If I'm not back again this time tomorrow,"

The steady beat of the drum was a stark contrast to the deep, heavy feeling inside his chest.

"Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters."

His Vision pulsed, as his hand unconsciously came to caress it. Was this what it was like to have a heart?

Barbara's fingers were gentle on the strings as a set of footsteps approached the entrance of the cave. You could hear Little Lettuce's pitter-pattering and the dulcet tones of Zhongli and Diluc's voices as they catch up in the short time they've been separated.

"Too late, my time has come,"

He had closed his eyes, listening intently to the music as the waves of sound rocked him gently and deeply into his sea of memories.

"Sends shivers down my spine,"

He can see it now, those old fleeting moments of happiness before they were all ultimately destroyed.

"Body's aching all the time."

He could feel it, suddenly hyper aware of his joints and limbs. The feeling of phantom strings and hands pulling and pushing him like he was some puppet. (But it wasn't like he was ever anything else.)

"Goodbye, everybody. I've got to go,"

He could hear it, everyone's cries and wails of despair filling his ears as he sailed towards Inazuma City to beg the Shogunate (his mother) for mercy that they would not grant.

"Gotta leave you all behind to face the truth."

He could also hear the Doctor's cackling laughter as he began to weave his web of lies, webs that would replace the strings that she had put on him. That he had cut away.

"Mama!, oooh,"

He could see it, the light shining through the patches in the walls and the roof of that old hut. The kind and innocent smile on that sickly, young face.

"I don't wanna die,"

He could see it, red, red, red lapping up and eating away at the walls and roof of the house. Red, red, red all around them. As if he was asleep in a meadow of flowers. (or sinking into a pool of blood)

"I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all.!"

You all gave him his moment, deep in his sea of memories. Diluc was wordlessly playing the zither, an imperfect substitute for an electric guitar. He'd noiselessly joined into your impromptu concert after he was caught up on the situation by Zhongli who had promptly disguised the mouth of the cavern as some kind of rock formation.

As he played, you thought back to the Wanderer's words. To the moment you first heard him say that-- his character teaser. Your heart had clenched back then, tears pricking the corners of your eyes but you couldn't help chuckling at his words-- that ever iconic song playing in your head. But you know that there was nothing to chuckle about here, Wanderer holding the brim of his hat in an almost vice-like grip. His jaw is clenched.

You all silently agreed to let the solo drag on at least a little bit longer. He takes a sharp breath. (You all know its his way of saying his thanks.)

Barbara begins plucking the lyre in a jaunty little tune, and you couldn't help but crack a grin. The atmosphere's heavy, but it's beginning to lift anyway.

"I see a little silhouetto of a man,"

The Wanderer scoffs, already knowing the next few lines by heart thanks to you. You all readily ignore the wetness in his sound.

"Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?!"

You were surprised at everyone joining in. Wanderer especially, being caught so off-guard that he jumped in his seat. "For the nth time, no I won't!" Barbara giggles as you push onwards, a manic grin on your face.

"Thunderbolt and lightning!"

Diluc only smiles at the mildly disgruntled Wanderer, his Divine Overseer and Mondstadt's Deaconess having stood up to sing their hearts out. "I'm pretty sure that's not gonna be the last time you say that to them."

"Very, very frightening, me!"

The singing duo once again became lost in the music of the song, belting their hearts and lungs out for their one audience member. Said audience member could only crack a smile and reply, "I had a feeling."

"Galileo, Galileo,"

You had all but screeched out said scientist's name as you pointed to Zhongli. When faced with the Wanderer's incredulous look, he could only gain a fond look in his eyes, shrug and say, "You get used to it over time."

"Galileo, Galileo,"

"Wait, you're all used to this?!" Barbara's sheepish as she answers. "They sing as a coping mechanism. We kind of picked it up over time as well." Diluc shrugs again. "It's better than alcoholism."

"Galileo, Figaro! - Magnifico, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,"

Wanderer cringes-- despite this, a smile is growing on his face. "You don't have to vocalize the echoes, you imbecile!" You merely put a hand to your forehead, aiming to up the drama with your next lyrics.

"I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me,"

He feels the tug of old memories, of old traumas still clinging to his skin. But he pays them no mind, knowing he must march onwards to the future. A future paved by a ragtag group of wanted divine beings and important people that are beginning to worm his way into his chest.

"He's just a poor boy from a poor family,"

Oh no. He's feeling it again.

"Spare him his life from this monstrosity!"

He cannot help but watch you all sing.

Barbara's fingers fly on the strings.

"Easy come,"

He felt what he felt back then, before she had forsaken him.

"Easy go,"

He felt what he felt back then, before he was fooled into thinking he had left him-- left them.

"Will you let me go?"

He felt what he felt back then, before he was torn away from him with no bigger enemy to blame but his own mortality.

"Bismillah! No!"

It was affection. It was care.

"We will not let you go!

(Let him go!)"

Oh archons, he's starting to care.

"Bismillah! We will not let you go!

(Let him go!)"

For hundreds of years, he's hardened his heart and closed himself off from everyone and everything. Sworn to scrub himself clean of human emotions.

"Bismillah! We will not let you go!

(Let me go!)"

And yet, for those same hundreds of years, he had never fully closed himself off-- never fully scrubbed away the feeling of... feeling.

"Will not let you go! (Let me go!)"

He couldn't help but glance at those two, fingers flying across the strings of their instruments. Humans, can they really be trusted?

"Will not let you go! (Let me go!)

His eyes slowly drifted to the other two, one ancient and the other practically a newborn. Can the gods really make him feel anything other than loathing?

"Never let you go!

(Never, never, never let me go!)"

He takes in their entire performance, all of them being their pure, complete, and unadulterated selves. With no masks to keep on, or roles to maintain. Merely singing, and dancing, and playing these instruments just for the heck of it.

"Oh, oh, oh!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

For centuries, he has roamed this world-- seeing and meeting many new people, and yet never regarding any of them as his companions.

"Oh, mama mia, mama mia!"

Would he be able to regard these people as such?

"Mama mia, let me go!"

Would he be able to trust them, like the did with the others? To stay and not break their promises with him?

"Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me,"

Would he be able to hold on to them, and they not let go as they had been claiming over and over?

"For me!"

Well, he has no choice in the matter. He's stuck with them now, as wanted fugitives.

"For me!"

Only time will tell if they forsake him like those before him. At least he's safe in the comfort that the world had forsaken them as well. Just like him. He hopes that strange sort of kinship makes you understand. He hopes it makes you stay.

You whooped with joy as Barbara absolutely nailed that note, Diluc quickly shredding on the zither afterwards. You would've given it to Zhongli but-- the man hasn't played a guitar before. And you need a certain "je ne sais quoi" to really pull off what Queen was doing. ...Also, you needed the sound of a guitar for the song.

You glance back to the Wanderer, mostly silently listening this whole time. He was lightly bopping his hand to the beat. You smile, taking whatever victories you can get. "Beelzebub? Really?" You blow a raspberry at him, preparing for the next part of the song. "I'll tell you about it later!" You clear your throat.

"So, you think you can stone me and spit in my eye!"

Diluc hits that sick riff.

"So, you think you can love me and leave me to die?!"

Barbara, even if she's practically undetectable underneath Diluc's strumming and your-- excuse me, Zhongli's drum beating, is still managing to bring up and compliment every single one of you performing.

"Oh, baby!"

You swear, if you all weren't wanted fugitives forced to live on the LAM because of a crime you didn't commit, you'd be a killer band.

"Can't do this to me baby!"

You do gotta thank Zhongli for subtly swiping away the drums from you-- you frankly weren't quite sure how you'd be able to focus on giving this song the power ballad it deservers while also playing an instrument.

"Just gotta get out,"

Despite all your peeking on Wanderer for his opinions on the song and to check on his emotional state, you weren't exactly omniscient. You were, afterall, still performing and still getting lost in the music.

"Just gotta get right outta here!"

So you didn't notice the twinge of an... almost fond emotion lacing his face as he watches you rock out to this classic. What can you say, Diluc kills it on the zither.

The sound builds and builds, Barbara layering on top of it and you not being able to resist the urge to air guitar to it as it slowly reaches its crescendo... And crashes back down, Zhongli and Diluc humming along to the sound.

"Ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah,"

You gasp for breath, the end of the song finally coming up. Diluc's energetic playing slows down, signaling the finale.

"Nothing really matters,"

You feel sweat dripping down your skin, having danced and moved around-- possessed by the power of the song.

"Anyone can see,"

You lean your back against the cave wall, relishing in its coolness as you bring the song to a close.

"Nothing really matters... Nothing really matters, to me..."

You sigh as you sink, pleased and satisfied at everyone's performance.

"Any way the wind blows..."

Zhongli finishes it off with the rapping of the drum, mimicking a cymbal crash to his best ability. Barbara beams at the Wanderer, who looks like he's regretting singing along to that last part.

"So," you ask, out of breath. "what'cha think about the song?"

Wanderer waves off Barbara's tired but happy smile, poofing the fourth bowl back into existence and busying his hands. He prepares Diluc's Shimi Chazuke as he hums.

"Well, despite it being a complete emotional roller coaster and the utter gibberish that it contains, I suppose that its worthy being called 'my song', as you will."

"I'll fucking take it! Fives all around guys, good job!" You quickly double high five everyone in the group-- Zhongli letting you slam your hands down on his, Barbara being a quick pair of one-two taps, and Diluc just lightly bumping his full hands into yours. You turn to Wanderer, waiting for him to high five you. "You too, hat boy-- you joined in the song, you get some fives."

At least Diluc had the decency to look away when he huffed in amusement. "Hat boy?! Let me tell you, I've gone through many names and titles during my journey. And each one is more eminent than any ordinary mortal could ever imagine!"

As he said these words, his heart slowly sank to his feet as he saw the stupid, cheeky smile growing on your face. "Yes, yes... But! and I quote, 'they're all just water under the bridge to me now.

Call me whatever you like. Go ahead, let me see what you can come up with.'" The Wanderer's eye twitched.

"And that's the best you can come up with?! If you know me so well, oh, great Overseer, then you would very much know that I'm also telling you to not disappoint me! Tell me, All-Knowing Guide, am I not disappointed?!" You snorted, too tired from the day's events to feel any sort of proper fear and trepidation at this situation. "Then, I'll just keep thinking of names until something sticks, mushroom head." You pat his head. "Now, how in the world did you even get here Lulu?"

He sips from his bowl full of rice and tea. "Doro44 Sumeru Chasm sneakpeek. Would've gotten here faster if the place wasn't absolutely surrounded by treasure hoarders and Fatui. Had a bit of trouble finding it as well, since it was behind some rock walls." He grabs a small twig from the ground and starts drawing. "Its a sort of cave that's absolutely overgrown by giant roots." "You dare to ignore me?!"

You flash that same cheeky grin at him again. "We didn't ignore you, we just changed the subject!"

Nope, he takes it all back. He hates all of you.

---

AND THATS A FUCKING WRAP AUGHHHHHHHHH-- broooooo, you would not BELIEVE how hard this was to write. both because Bohemian Rhapsody is SUCH a long song but also because of SOOOO many outside circumstances. like BRUH i was supposed to release this like a day after my castaways fic but NOOOOOOOO-- life got so in the way man. my parents started breathing down my neck for chores, we had to visit my relatives in the province (still in the province btw lol), i got FUCKING SICK BECAUSE OF STRESS AND DUST ALLERGIES and i literally spent like-- my first few days sick making my sickness FUCKING WORSE since our house was literally covered in dust and i was the only one who could clean it fucking apparently. bro, i even spent this goddamn christmas fucking sick. ugh this has been such a hell week. literally the only comfort i found this week was all genshin related AHAHA-- i was playing genshin, visiting the SAGAU tag a lot, waiting for fanfics to update, just generally genshin brainrotting.

ugh thank god i finally released this one. i do have a lot of ideas for this down the road and hell dawg! i even got a request! thats the one thatll be coming up next. i wrote like-- a massive part of this sick and it got sOOOOO out of hand ever since i didnt get to finish it that day so i hope it sticks together well and is mostly coherent. enjoy!! :))

[pupkashi]

flu season

megumi learns NyQuil unlocks your inner rockstar

a/n: hi hi !! first time writing for megumi sorry if it’s ooc ,, feedback is appreciated !! if yall have any requests or ideas let me know !! i hope you all stay warm and healthy <3 and happy bday megumi :]

wordcount: 691

Megumi Fushiguro was not one to sit around someone’s apartment and play nurse for them. Unless, that someone was you. In that case, megumi would show up at your door with copious amounts of medicine and snacks and urge you to take time off work and classes and stay in bed all day. 

“gumi i'm cold” you mumbled, curling into yourself as you stared up at your boyfriend, frowning as you saw him pouring the NyQuil up for you. 

“That's the fever, take all these blankets off, you're making it worse” he sighed, gently prying the four blankets off your body, a small sheen of sweat on your forehead as you shook slightly. His heart ached at the small whimper you made as you grew colder, handing you the shot of NyQuil and smiling at you as you took it from him. 

“I hate medicine,” you grumbled, swallowing the liquid and feeling the coolness spread through your nose and throat. 

“didn't say you had to love it” he shot back and you furrowed your brows at him, sitting up in your shared bed and crossing your legs. 

You were silent as you watched your boyfriend shuffle around the room, putting things away and taking off the sweats and t-shirt he wore. 

The NyQuil was quickly kicking in as you stared at his toned figure, smiling at him before whistling softly. Megumi turned around at the sound, a confused expression on his face and the tips of his ears burning. 

“you’re sooo hot” you giggled, resting your chin on the palm of your hand as you oogled your boyfriend, “you doin anything tonight? we should make out” the suggestion caused megumi to smile. 

“Sorry pretty, I have other much more intimate plans with you tonight” he sighed, taking two long strides forward and caressing your cheek, which he noted was extremely hot. 

Your eyebrows raised and you didn’t bother fighting the smile off your face, “you gonna fuck me?” the raven haired sorcerer laughed and shook his head, leaving you confused. 

Megumi bent down next to you, rummaging through the small basket on your night stand before standing back up and showing you the small dark blue container. 

“vapoRub” He grinned and you groaned, throwing yourself to lie on your back before breaking into a fit of giggles. 

“We should get a hamster! or a bunny! or you should just leave your demon dog with us at all times and he can be our pet!” you spewed, words slightly incoherent as the medicine's effect became stronger and stronger. 

“y/n you should get some rest” megumi smiled, opening the small container and putting a generous amount on three fingers, leaning down to spread the substance onto your chest and throat. 

“i think i could make it on the X factor” you blurted after a moment of silence. Megumi thought back to time you two went out for karaoke, a smile flashing onto his face as the sounds of your off key Bohemian Rhapsody played in his mind. 

“that’s very bold of you” he replied, rubbing a bit more on your chest before grabbing more vaporub on his fingers, “turn around” 

“bright eyes” you sang softly, a wide smile on your face as you continued “every now and then i get a little bit something something..... FALL APART!” the pause in your words made megumi chuckle, and shake his head. 

“shut up X factor turn around” he groaned, easily flipping you onto your stomach with one arm. You continued singing as his hand snaked up his your shirt, spreading the vaporub onto your back. 

“one upon time i was falling in love” you sighed, “.. falling ‘part,” your words trailing off. With megumi softly massaging your shoulders and the NyQuil in full effect, you were on the verge of knocking out. 

Megumi stared at you, a soft smile on his lips as he watched your breathing steady, closing the container and scooting into bed next to you, pulling you into his chest and closing his eyes. 

“total eclipse of the heart” he sung softly, kissing your forehead and drifting off to sleep.

[katyawriteswhump]

Idiots to Lovers (aka The Honeymoon)

WC: 684, for @steddieholidaydrabbles day 8

Rating: T

CW: Mild violence and h/c, fluff, 80s insults.

****

All Eddie did was step into Scoops Ahoy. Or, rather, stoop into it. 

The store had closed—the shutter was halfway down—and Steve-douchebag-jock-of-the-decade-Harrington sprung from nowhere. He grabbed Eddie by the front of a ‘Plastic Zombie’ t-shirt he totally didn’t want ruined and slammed him against the wall.

“She’s not interested, freak!” Harrington shook Eddie so hard his teeth rattled. “Stay the hell away from her!”

“What the heck, man?” Eddie squeaked, while shock mushroomed into vengeful fury.

“Don’t play dumb, numb-nuts.” Harrington got right in Eddie’s face. And Eddie rammed his knee toward Harrington’s groin, striking to the right of the ‘kill zone.’ Hah, who’s numb-nuts now? 

Harrington dropped Eddie, staggered back, cheeks colouring—even as Eddie, who was REALLY FREAKIN’ MAD now, sucker-punched Harrington with a fist to the left eye.

“Oooooow! Jeeesus!” Eddie shook his sore knuckles, blowing on them between his snarls. Harrington was on his knees, apparently stunned.

That’s when Robin emerged from the back of the store. “Steve! Oh my God, Steve!” Robin rushed over, crouched beside Harrington. “Oh my freakin’ God! What the Hell have you two shit-birds done?”

“M’okay,” mumbled Steve. He flapped a hand at Eddie. “The freak attacked me.”

She lifted his chin tenderly and scrutinised him hard. Nearly as hard as she glared at Eddie, who felt shaken as Harrington seemed. “You hit him? You bitch! He’s had a concussion, you know? God, Eddie! How could you?”

“Braindead sailor-boy attacked ME!”

“Don’t call him braindead,” snarled Robin, bordering on savage. Eddie’s hands flailed wildly in a mingling of defence and surrender.

“I’m okay,” repeated Steve, skittering his fingers distractedly across his brow. “Really confused—figured he was crazy stalker guy, who you wanted shot of.”

“Er, no. I took care of that myself.” Robin glanced between Eddie and Steve, who had resumed their combat with glares—easier for Eddie than Steve, whose eyelid already looked slightly red and puffy. “Steve, Eddie is the guy I thought you could, uh, explore your bi-curious side with.”

“WHUT?” Eddie and Steve yelled in unison.

“No way!” said Eddie. “You didn’t tell me it was HIM! Game over, sister.”

“I wouldn’t be seen dead in the same state as that freakshow,” mumbled Steve. 

Robin huffed at them both then stomped off to get Steve some ice.

***

One week later

Eddie sprawled on the bed with his new boyfriend. They explored each other’s mouths with lush kisses, to the ever-changing tempos of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. 

“See?” At the end of the song, Steve licked shiny, kiss-reddened lips, and smiled that smile Eddie always considered smug and preppy. Now, he adored it. “Not only are you a closet Hoosier’s fan—we even found music we both like.”

“Okay, I surrender.” Eddie’s hand found a comfortable spot—cupping the ass of his mega-hot boyfriend, while Steve’s hands roved similarly down Eddie’s pants. “Bryan May is a half-decent ax-man.”

“Ugh, those endless guitar solos are the worst. It’s all about Freddie. His voice gives me tingles.”

“You give me tingles.” Eddie grinned daftly. “Sounds like a nasty disease. Then again, wasn’t looking to catch you, douchebag.”

“Likewise, freak.” They kissed again, delving deeper than before, rolling and scrubbing against each other till they wound up pretty much naked, in a sweaty, sated heap. Steve pulled a blanket up over them, tucked his head under Eddie’s chin and…. 

“You kipping on me, Harrington?”

“In about ten seconds,” said Steve, sleepily.

The light caught the shine of Steve’s fading black eye, and Eddie winced, stroked Steve’s brow just above. “Does it still hurt?” he asked, guiltily. Even if the douche had totally asked for it, Eddie now knew all the facts.

“Had worse,” mumbled Steve. “I kinda gotta thing for this one. I worry when it goes, our honeymoon period will be over.”

Wtf? 

“That’s totally messed up, dude,” said Eddie, grateful when a lock of Steve’s hair slipped to cover the bruise. He planted a soft kiss on Steve’s head. “Who’s the freak now, huh?”

“Perfect match,” whispered Steve. Eddie smiled softly to himself and snuggled into his boyfriend just that little bit tighter.

***

Thank you so much for reading 🙂 Also posted here on my AO3

[aforgotto]

was looking at the Dio son Adventure Battle cards so I could have them to explain something but I realized something interesting

the background for Ungalo/Bohemian Rhapsody is Rikiel's ring, and the background for Rikiel is Ungalo's coin. the cards came out before the digital coloured version of the manga, so it's understandable that they got it wrong, but still

they got Donatello's right, but it's easy to tell he's the one that got shot since he's in a hospital bed and a wheelchair for his initial appearances

also for some reason in Donatello's other cards they colour in his pigtails as if they're part of his suit as well as gave him an undershirt. they censored his boobs. awful

but still understandable because again the cards came first

also I'm wondering if the colours they chose for the digital coloured version were from these cards

they don't really appear anywhere else. because uh. these guys don't really appear anywhere else

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Queen In 5 Minutes

This is one of those videos where I'm gonna have to remind myself to not talk about the music, because Queen is awesome, I know quite a decent amount of their songs, and this arrangement/performance is really freaking good. But the video itself certainly isn't boring either (Freddie would be proud), and I'm very excited to talk about this one, so let's go! (Yeah this one's a long one, you have been warned)

Apparently this video (released on the 24th of November, 2018) was at least in part inspired by a health scare that Earl had while touring with Voiceplay, which no doubt was very distressing for all of them, but he obviously was fine or got better, which I'm glad about, and this video is creative as heck!

Won't talk about their appearances just yet, but of course I gotta point out the iconic Bohemian Rhapsody diamond configuration thing!

Cool necklace! I don't know the exact meaning of it, and whether or not it was just acquired for the video, but I do know that the album/track image for this cover on Spotify takes inspiration from it!

(Also this song is split into two parts on music streaming platforms, idk why)

*(clapping my hands together)* character time!

I have no clue what mythological being Layne's character is meant to be based off of, if any - "Guardian" is a bit of a vague name after all - and the main thing that popped up when I typed "mythology sentinel of the underworld" into Google was Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog from Ancient Greek myths. And well... it'd check out actually. Layne doesn't talk/sing in this video (not counting vocal percussion of course), he's wearing a big furry grey coat, and none of the other 3 are from Greek (or even Roman) mythology, so it's entirely possible that "Guardian" could just be a human-form Cerberus (minus the two extra heads).

Apparently "Yama" is the Hindu god of death and justice, though he was also adopted into Buddhist, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean, and Japanese mythology as the king of hell, so-

A 19th-century painting of Yama on his mount depicts him as completely blue, so Eli's blue face paint definitely fits.

("Dark angel" definitely sounds fitting)

Geoff is based on Baron Samedi, who is a spirit (Iwa) of the dead in Haitian Vodou, as well as of course the more well-known Louisiana/New Orleans Voodoo. Fun fact: Dr Facilier in The Princess And The Frog is partly inspired by Baron Samedi!

I'm sure most if not all of us have heard of Anubis, but regardless, Anubis is the Ancient Egyptian god of funerary rites, and he's also a protector of graves, and of course, a guide to the underworld. He can take both human and animal form, and in artwork is often depicted with the body of a man and head of a jackal/canine animal (which Voiceplay subtly refers to in this shot here with the little Anubis Shrine statue sitting next to J)

Cool and Normal! 😆

(Also really love that jacket/blazer)

"Anubis" is of course weighing Earl's heart against a feather to see whether or not he is worthy of ascending to the heavenly afterlife. And since the heart appears to be slightly lighter, he's good! (Not that he's actually ready to pass on, though)

(Also, from a production viewpoint, I'm guessing they had some small stones or counterweights hiding underneath the feather?)

...Not gonna say anything, just putting this here

Love how "Baron" glances at his cane as if to check for any dirt or smudges from Earl 😆

(Geoff still has that cane I believe; when he did a few Q&A/"how to sing low" videos on his channel back in 2020, the cane was just chilling in the background, behind where he was sitting in his home office/workspace)

(Also obligatory he's so handsome/pretty aaaaaaa)

The body language of "Anubis" here when Baron starts talking (i.e. when Geoff starts singing), and the way that he, "Yama", and "Guardian" are all at one end of the stage, while "Baron" is on the other, says so much in such a small way! (Geoff once again getting to be Special(tm), love that for him)

"I've done my sentence, but committed no criiiiiiime!"

Cool necklace! (Also really love the subtle red edging/trim on his blazer/coat, very cool and gives me Crowley vibes)

While I'm talking about Geoff, time for another hair study!

(This one I actually used separate screencaps for the outline and for the colour grabs)

Wasn't even trying to pause in this shot but pfft Eli/Yama and J/Anubis doing the 🤏 thing

(Also kinda sorta another Eli Eyebrow raise?)

Baron: *(evil laugh)*

Anubis: OHKAY it's getting a little tense in here, time to lighten the mood a little bit!

Baron: wow rude

Anubis: here hold this for me thanks!

Guardian: wait what am I meant to do with this?

(Though I'm pretty sure that's meant to be his sword anyway?)

"Nooo time for looosers"

Fight! Fight! Fight! (Eli/Yama: "I'm three ounces of whoop-ass")

Love the facial expressions here, Anubis/J looks like he half-wishes he had popcorn! 😂

Thumbnail moment! (Or close enough anyway)

Yama singing "I don't need you" to Baron and Baron doing a sort of sarcastic "haha very funny" head motion in return, love it

Not talking about the arrangement but I'd like to thank the Good Omens fandom, because I wouldn't have recognized/known the bridge of Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy in this medley otherwise (I didn't first see this video until like a year or so after it first came out)

If you ever wind up in hospital, don't actually try to rip out IV drips or cannulas or any other tubes connected to your body!

If I had a nickel for every time a different member of Voiceplay played air guitar in a video, I'd have at least four nickels! (Earl here, Cesar in Hellfire, Eli in Top 10 Sitcom Themes, and Geoff in at least three or more videos (maybe 5 if we count J None in the Frozen 2 Medley))

Full-body group shot! (Also Eli, those shorts and those shoes are... an interesting combination that's for sure 😅) Also check out the body language of Baron/Geoff and Guardian/Layne!

There's a comment or two that sums up "Guardian's" body language as "I don't actually want to hurt you, but I will if I absolutely have to"

Love "Yama's" expression right before he's turned into a puff of smoke 😆

Baron was on Earl's side the whole time!

It would have been cool to have Baron bow out himself and be like "you did well, you can go on living now", rather than being poofed away like the others, but eh I'm sure Voiceplay had their reasonings

I would post a pic of the final shot, but Tumblr isn't letting me (I'm guessing I hit an image limit, rip). But still, it's very cute and sweet.

There's a reason why so many people adore this video/cover. The arrangement is stunning, the vocals are great, the costumes are cool, the makeup is really well done, and the whole plot/direction of the video is such a creative and original concept! Shoutout to Layne and Eli, who were in charge of both the video and the arrangement!

[jim-the-simpleton]

it isn't a puscifer album if it isn't rereleased at least once

This is the stunning sequel to my vagina mine post, where I listed the number of times that Puscifer's "Vagina Mine" had been released.

I created a table in Google sheets to document every track that Puscifer has released on Spotify and count how many times a track has been remixed, rereleased, or released in a live album. The only excluded Puscifer work has been "8 Ball Bail Bonds," an album which isn't available on Spotify and contains the original, country-themed comedy act as it was performed in the past. I also am not including anything that was released exclusively in physical media, such as the vinyl version of the track Simultaneous, nor counting reworked versions performe exclusively live with no official release. I am, however, including their original version of Flippant into the sums, despite the track being released only on the iTunes version of Money Shot.

Here are my findings:

On average, each Puscifer song has been released a total of ~3.93 times. There are 57 original songs in their discography, but a total of 224 released tracks, with 82 live versions and 85 remixes and rereleases. On average, each song is released 1.44 times in live albums and remixed 1.49 times.

Puscifer has released original music on 11 singles, EPs, and full-length albums, but has released 25 total singles, EPs, and LPs. Most of their releases contain zero wholly original material.

The only songs that have exactly one version each are Lighten Up, Francis (A track on "V Is For Vagina"), PSA, LOL! (a brief spoken-word track on "V Is for Viagra, The Vagina Remixes" announcing a bonus remix of their hit song Cuntry Boner), Polar Bear (the opening track to their "C Is For..." EP, whose full title I am not typing out), and their cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

The song with the most versions of all is Momma Sed, which has one studio version, three live versions, and four remixes/reissues, totaling in at eight releases.

The songs with the most remixes/rereleases are Rev 22:20 and Queen B, which each have 5 remixes or outright reissues. The song with the most live versions is our old friend Vagina Mine, with four live versions total.

The album with the highest average rereleases is, unsurprisingly, their first EP, Don't Shoot The Messenger, with each new track being released an average of 6.67 times. If Puscifer rereleased the songs on Don't Shoot The Messenger 14 more times, this album would beat The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in total rereleases.

The album with the highest average live releases is Conditions Of My Parole, with 2.08 average live releases. This is unsurprising as the What Is... concert album was recorded during the COMP tour and Parole Violator is a live version of exclusively tracks from COMP.

The album with the highest average remixes also goes to Don't Shoot The Messenger, with a whopping 4.3 remixes and rereleases. Not only does the EP itself contain remixes of the tracks it features, but these tracks were often released in the following LP V Is For Vagina and then subsequently remixed again. Two of its tracks were also featured on the studio session album V Is For Versatile.

Aside from the albums with no original material, the album with the least rereleases of original material is "V" Is For Viagra, The Vagina Remixes, because Puscifer has not had the balls to rerelease PSA, LOL! in any new format.

I personally think Puscifer should release more of the same music.