#can’t wait for his commentary tonight

[rhaenella]

Cornald Maas (Dutch commentator) tonight 🧡 Couldn’t have said it better myself

[slytherheign]

YOU BELONG WITH ME | tasm!peter parker

PAIRING: high school senior!tasm!peter parker x high school senior!fem!reader

WORD COUNT: 3.9k

SUMMARY: you can’t help but feel insecure when you realize your best friend peter and the most famous girl in the school are keeping a sweet secret from you.

WARNINGS: cursing/swearing, awkwardness, jealousy, insecurities, self-loathing, reader is an overthinker and assumes things easily. let me know if i missed any warnings. [⚠︎︎RATING: G]

AUTHOR'S NOTE: inspired by taylor swift’s song with the same title. angst with happy ending. dedicated to @joshiiieeenesx, thanks for supporting me and requesting this. i hope you’re having a great day!

DESTINATION: Sweet Street | GO BACK TO THE STATION. CLICK HERE FOR ALL THINGS YBWM (reviews, commentary, etc. about this fic).

It was Friday Night.

Your favorite day and time of the week because of your tradition with Peter to order pizza and watch a movie. Tonight was a bit different though, you both decided to order your least favorite flavor of pizza and watch the lowest-rated movie ever. 

Peter made a joke in the middle of the movie, causing you to laugh and cover your face with your hands. It was a habit you developed since you were a kid when a bully made fun of you for having an ‘ugly-laughing’ face. “Stop,” he chuckled as he captured your wrists with his hands. “Stop what?” you questioned unknowingly, allowing him to hold your wrists and pull them away from your face. You stared at him confusingly.

“Stop covering your face when you laugh,” he said. “I can’t see your pretty face.” Peter would always make little comments here and there about you, most of them being compliments. You ought not to make it serious since you’d always tell flirty jokes to each other, but you just can’t help but feel a little flutter in your stomach every time he would compliment you.

You tried covering the increasing redness of your cheeks with laughter. “I’m serious. Stop covering your face,” he told you. “What if I told you I’m doing it on purpose?” you thought of a quick funny remark.  “And why, may I ask, are you doing it on purpose?” he quirked an eyebrow. 

“Let’s just say, if you see my beautiful face when I’m laughing, you might just fall in love,” you joked, smirking at him. There was a tinge of the color red in his cheeks, but he was quick to hide it with a chuckle.

“Well, why don’t you let me see your beautiful face then let’s see if I really fall in love?” he remarked. Once again, you laughed because you didn’t know how to respond. Peter was laughing with you when his phone suddenly rang. He quickly stood up, covering the name of the caller with his hand before walking to a private secluded room in his house to answer it. You didn’t mind it. After all, everyone deserved privacy when they’re talking to someone on the phone. Besides, you were actually quite thankful because the phone call interrupted the growing awkwardness in the room. You paused the movie while Peter talked on the phone in the other room.

Minutes passed and you were getting bored of waiting for him. You decided to pull your phone from your jeans pocket and open the Instagram app for a bit. Your feed was pretty much full of your schoolmates that were either busy preparing for prom next friday or busy with the upcoming game on Monday. You scrolled mindlessly, double-tapping each post from your close friends when you stumbled upon a post from her.

Gwen Stacy. Blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect body. The cheer captain, head of the planning committee, the smartest in school… well, not the smartest because that would be Peter… but still the smartest girl in school. Having all that, you’d think she was the type to be the typical mean girl, but no… she’s actually the nicest.

In the picture, she was smiling with the other cheerleaders, their teeth as white as snow and their faces as beautiful as barbie dolls even when they were sweating. Sometimes you just wonder if they ever had a bad hair day or they’re just perfect all the time.

“Please! Gwen, come on!” you heard Peter yell. Gwen? Why was he talking to Gwen Stacy?

“Really? Yes!” you heard him exclaim excitedly. A pang of jealousy hit your chest, the feeling was unwelcome because you knew he wasn’t even yours to begin with. But still, it hurt.

The next thing you heard was his footsteps nearing the door. You collected yourself immediately, greeting him with a smile as he opened the door.

“Sorry about that,” he smiled, with the same fucking smile you fell in love with. He sat next to you on the couch, subtly putting his arm on the back just around where your head was resting. He grabbed the remote from your hand, but for a few seconds, you felt it linger when his hand touched yours.

He pressed the play button and you both continued to watch the movie.

“Okay, just so we’re clear. You think Peter and Gwen are dating?” your other friend, Mary Jane, iterated on the phone. It was Sunday night, the only time MJ had free time this week since she was also a cheerleader.

“Yes,” you answered clearly. “I heard them talking on the phone the other night. Peter seemed really happy and excited.”

“And what do you feel about that?” she asked.

“Uh–I don’t know?” you admitted.

“I call bull. Come on, I know you’re in love with Peter.”

“Okay. I do have feelings for him… but I don’t think he feels the same about me. He probably asked Gwen to be his prom date even though we promised we’d take each other to the event.”

“So you’re not going to prom anymore?”

“I mean I already have a dress so I guess I’ll still go. It just sucks that I’ll be going without him.”

“Since when did you get a dress?!” 

“Uhh… since last week?” 

“And you didn’t even tell me?” she made a sound of absolute shock. Knowing her, you knew she probably had her hand on her chest while making that sound. “I could’ve helped you pick.”

“It’s not a problem honestly. Besides, I kinda wanted it to be a surprise?”

“Can you at least tell me the color?” she pleaded.

“Blue. Like the kind of blue in Spider-Man’s suit.”

“Weird way to describe a color. Is there a specific reason why you chose blue? I thought you never liked blue.”

“Okay, I’ll tell you but don’t tell anyone about this because I think Peter is kinda embarrassed about it… Peter is obsessed with Spider-Man. He’s such a huge fan of his–maybe even his number one fan. He even tried to hide it from me, but when I found a Spider-Man suit in his closet he just started getting really nervous and he only stopped when I told him it’s fine if he’s a fan. I’m not judging him, I think Spider-Man is really cool too,” you explained. “I was hoping he’d notice the color reference but now that he’s going with Gwen Stacy, I doubt he would even look at me.”

“You really think Peter would ignore you? Have you seen how that man looks at you?”

“He looks at everyone like that. It’s nothing special,” you denied.

“Listen, believe what you want to believe but I know Peter is definitely in love with you too. But if you did end up alone and out of place at the event, you’re welcome to sit with me.”

“Thanks, but you literally have a date. I don’t wanna be a third wheel,” you laughed. “I appreciate the thought though,” you exchanged goodbyes not long after that, wishing her good luck on their cheer performance.

You thought hard about what she said. Peter did become more clingy to you these last few months and he always made sure to text or call you every day. You guessed there really was a chance Peter shared the same feelings with you. 

Maybe he was just talking to Gwen as a friend.

You were at the gymnasium where you'd have to watch student-athletes pass the ball to each other, all having the same objective to shoot the ball in their respective goals. And when a member of a team claimed their shot, it would repeat all over again. 

You were never into sports. If you had a choice, you’d rather stay in bed and continue reading Looking For Alaska, but instead, you were stuck sitting on the bleachers while watching cheerleaders dance their routine in such a flawless manner. As much as you wanted to focus on MJ and support her, your eyes couldn’t help but look at Gwen. She really was mesmerizing.

You were too busy comparing her shiny legs and the way they moved with their short flowy skirts with your simple t-shirt and sneakers to even notice someone sitting beside you.

You continued watching Gwen dance, focusing on her pretty face and realizing that even in her sweaty condition she still kept dazzling everyone in the room with her beautiful smile. You noticed her wink in your direction. For a moment you thought she was winking at you, but when you followed the direction she was smiling at you noticed it was directed at someone beside you—Peter. 

Funny. You didn’t even know Peter was beside you.

“Hi?” you greeted, putting your best smile in front of him while your stomach ached from cruel jealousy.

“Hey,” he simply replied, before focusing on the phone he just got out of his pocket. He was busy texting someone. 

“So…you already have a suit for Friday?” you asked, trying to start a conversation. He shook his head. “Nope. But I plan on looking later today.”

“Cool. Do you want me to go with you? I don’t have anything to do after this,” you offered. 

He stopped and finally looked at you. You noticed how his eyes widened at your question and after mere seconds of looking at your eye, he looked away. He didn’t even need to open his mouth, his body language already told you that he already had someone he was going with.

You felt too sick to even hear his reply, immediately knowing the answer. You excused yourself, going straight to the bathroom to try to compose yourself and your body that was slowly starting to shake. You looked at yourself in the mirror, yelling inside your head to stop the tears that were threatening to fall. 

You and Peter were supposed to be inseparable. From childhood up until that moment earlier on the bleachers, you thought you would end up together.

All those years, you have convinced yourself you would be together and told the stars that he belonged with you.

But maybe he belonged with someone else.

And if you truly loved him, who were you to stop him from following his heart?

The moment you stepped inside the school tomorrow morning, Peter immediately wrapped his arm around your shoulder.

If it was yesterday or the days before, you would’ve loved it and your stomach would’ve already been swarmed with butterflies. But today, all it felt was aching pain.

“Hey,” he kissed your cheek, a thing he always did whenever he saw you at school. “MJ told me you went home early yesterday because you weren’t feeling well. Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve walked you home.”

“It’s fine, really,” you answered. It wasn’t fine, but how could you tell him he was the reason you couldn’t bear to stay at school yesterday?

“Well, I missed you. You got me really worried.”

And there it was again, the feeling of your heart jumping just from the words he said and how his voice spoke them. Was Gwen even okay with him putting his arm around your shoulder and walking with you in the hallways?

You did your best acting like everything was alright for the rest of today. Peter was busy texting Gwen for most of the time anyway, it wasn’t hard to convince him everything was fine.

Classes for Wednesday and Thursday were suspended to give way for prom preparations. You didn’t have much to do on Wednesday, so when MJ offered an idea to practice doing makeup and putting on the dresses to prepare for prom, you agreed.

You sat in your room in front of your vanity mirror while MJ did your makeup for you. She matched the eyeshadow with the color of your dress, and you must admit, she did amazing. Next was your hair, you requested it to be an updo, with the hairpins you picked out scattered attractively.

For a moment, you wondered what Peter could be doing right now. His house was just next to yours, his bedroom window facing yours and if you only pulled your curtains aside, you would see him through his window—if it wasn’t covered by his curtains.

Mary Jane snapped you back to reality by complimenting the details of the dress she just pulled out of your closet. “I need to see you in this dress now.”

You chuckled but complied nonetheless. With her help, you carefully put on the dark blue long dress. “Shit. This dress is made for you,” she complimented. It was true, you were indeed a vision. The dress hugged your body perfectly and the details were perfect to your liking. You never liked the color blue, but this dress got you second thinking. 

After putting on your heels, you checked yourself out in the mirror when MJ’s phone suddenly rang. “Peter? Hi,” she answered. As soon as she said his name, you turned around to face her.

“Are you okay?” MJ asked Peter. “You sound ill.”

“What’s happening?” you didn’t care anymore if Peter wasn’t talking to you. Something was wrong with him based on MJ’s reaction, and you were concerned.

“Oh my god.”

“MJ, what is it?” 

“Something is really wrong with him. I think we need to go to his hou–” she didn’t have the opportunity to finish her sentence when you immediately walked out of your room still in your dress and on your way to Peter’s house. MJ followed you but stayed outside Peter’s house. She smirked the moment you entered his house. Everything was going as planned.

Aunt May was thankfully on vacation somewhere, you couldn’t imagine her reaction if she saw you rushing towards her nephew’s room in a long dress and in heels. 

You carefully knocked on his bedroom door, announcing your presence. “Y/N?” he asked and you hummed in response. “I’m in here,” he answered from the next room. As far as you can remember, that room was an empty one. You weren’t sure why Peter was in there but in times of emergencies like this one, you didn’t care. “Can I open the door?” you asked.

“Yes.”

You did not expect what you saw.

The room was dark as a result of the windows being covered. On the floor were littered little candles with your favorite scent lit up to light the room in a romantic manner. There was an area left for you to walk leading to the middle of the room, which had a space just enough for two people. You also noticed the petals of roses scattered on the floor as a string version of your favorite song started playing. 

A figure emerged from the shadows—Peter. He offered his hand for you to take and only then when he led you to the middle did the fire from the candles revealed his outfit. He was wearing a suit that perfectly matched the color of your dress. You didn’t know how he knew the exact color of your dress, you would ask him that later.

You were both speechless, neither knowing what to say. “Wow…” he breathed out. “How could a person look so beautiful? You are unreal.”

“Thank you,” you blushed. “You look handsome too.”

He held your hand and guided it towards his lips, placing a soft kiss on the back of it before holding each of your hands with both of his.

“Peter?” you started to say. “What–”

“You know I prepared a whole speech just for this moment,” he interrupted. “And then as soon as I saw you, I just forgot every single thing in the world because you’re the only one that matters.”

Tears were starting to gloss your eyes but before you could start crying from his sentiment, you asked him a question that has been vexing you for quite a while.

“What about Gwen?”

His face was quick to react to your question. His forehead scrunched up, looking at you as if to tell you if you could emphasize your question.

“I thought you were together. You were talking to each other pretty much the whole week. You were texting and calling each other, she was with you when you picked your suit, and then I saw her wink at you at the game.”

His face slowly dawned with realization. As soon as he realized what you were talking about, he couldn’t help but laugh. But upon seeing your worried face, he stopped laughing at once and looked straight into your eyes with absolute seriousness.

“Gwen and I are nothing more than just friends. We are not together. We’ve been talking to each other a lot because I asked her for help on how to surprise you. She also helped me pick the right suit so I wouldn’t embarrass myself with a lousy one. She winked at me at the game because she was excited that after the game ended, we would set up this surprise. And also because I was sitting next to you in the bleachers, she kinda saw me stare at you while you were busy watching the cheer routine. The wink was just her teasing and being excited. It doesn’t mean anything, I swear. It’s only you. I only want you.”

“Shit. So I really just overthought the whole situation,” you chuckled. “I’m so stupid.”

“No, you’re not stupid. Don’t invalidate your feelings, It’s completely understandable. If I was you I’d think the same too.”

After a short moment of soft understanding silence, you felt him stiffen. His hands now held yours a little bit tighter. “Can I ask you a question?” he finally said.

“Let me guess, you want me to be your prom date?” you tried to ease the tension with the obvious question.

“Yes, and no.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I want to take you to prom, yes. But that’s not the only thing I want. I want to take you on dates, I want to dance with you not just at events organized by the school, I want to buy you flowers, every day if I can; I want to watch scary movies with you and laugh when you’re too scared and you hide yourself with a pillow, I want to watch sad movies with you and bring you tissues and cuddle you the moment you cry, I want to watch romantic movies with you and cringe together when the characters do something embarrassing and wrap my arms around you when you blush at something sweet that they do. I want the tears, the pain, the frustration, the confusion, the sweetness, the laughter—everything. I want everything. With you.”

“Pete…”

“We’re seniors. Next year, we’re going to college. We will take on different paths and places, but before that even happens, I want you to be my place that’s never changing. And if you feel the same, I want to be your place that’s never changing too. You have been my best friend since we were kids, and I don’t want my memory of us to be just two people being friends since childhood,” he said before resting his forehead against yours. “I am in love with you, Y/N L/N. Would you be willing to enter a relationship that’s more than friends with me?”

Tears glossed over your eyes again, but this time, you let one fall. Peter was quick to wipe it with his hand. “Tell me you don’t feel the same and I will not hold it against you. Tell me you don’t feel the same and I will not cross the line of being more than friends. Know that I will not force you into a relationship you do not want. Tell me if you don’t feel the same and I–”

“Yes,” you stopped him before he could finish his sentence. “The answer is yes. I am in love with you as well, Peter Parker. I have been for a long time.”

Peter smiled, now feeling his own tears try to escape his eyes but he didn’t let them fall. “May I dance with you?”

You chuckled but agreed, letting him guide you into position. Your forearms rested on his shoulders, your hands softly stroking the back of his neck while his hands were positioned at both sides of your waist. As the music still played in the background, you both started swaying.

“I can’t take my eyes off of you. You’re gorgeous,” he commented. “You don’t look so bad yourself. Your suit even matched my dress,” you said back.

“I’ll have to thank MJ for that.”

“Wait–MJ is a part of this?” 

“Of course, she is. How’d you think I knew the color of your dress?”

You suddenly remembered the conversation you had with MJ when she asked you about the color of your dress. And then you also remembered that MJ was the reason why you were even inside Peter’s house right now in the first place. Peter called her and then she said that something was wrong with him and urged you to come here. Where was she even now anyways?

Peter laughed as he watched your face change from confusion to realization. “You know what–I’ll give it to y’all. You, Gwen, and MJ are good at this,” you admitted.

“The dressing up with our prom outfits and dancing was my idea though,” he spoke as he guided you into a spin. “I wanted our first dance to be private, not in a room filled with other students.”

You saw him glance at your lips for a moment before looking back into your eyes. “I also want to do this,” he said as he leaned in closer and met your lips with his.

You’ve imagined this moment ever since your heart started beating for him. But still, the feeling of his lips against yours for real was better than what you’d imagined it to be. The kiss was soft but intimate, neither of you having a need to rush into things but at the same time making up for lost time pining over each other silently. You wished you could kiss him forever and stay like this but you eventually needed to pull away to breathe.

“So, you really thought I was in love with Gwen?” he teased while you were catching your breath.

“Way to ruin the moment,” you chuckled, lightly punching his arm before nodding.

“Shit. I really made you jealous?” he seemed really proud of what he had done from the way he was smirking.

“Are you happy?” you jokingly asked, rolling your eyes with fake annoyance.

“Am I happy? Of course, I am. I just kissed you.”

You couldn’t find the words to reply as you blushed harder than you’d ever blushed before. Instead, you just laughed out of blissful happiness.

For the first time ever, he saw you laugh without covering your face and it was the most beautiful sight he’s ever seen. He couldn’t help but kiss you again.

Needless to say, the future was exciting.

If only he could tell you that he was Spider-Man.

SLYTHERHEIGN TAGLIST: @writingstoraes @joshiiieeenesx

TASM!PETER PARKER TAGLIST:  @mymilkducts @i-am-woman-strong @lauraneedstochill @jeanettexkillian @ms-mandalore @enaraism @alessandralol @sad-darksoul @sincericida @mentallystablepotato @mich0731 @logolepsic-insomniac @k0miiki @dreamsarecloserwithyou @jumilzzz @primroseparker @preciousbabypeter @myheartonthemove @rebecca-johnson-28 @silkholland @ellievickstar @okkulta @geekygamerchick @starqwerty20 ​ @the-quiet-observer @softiepeterpan

[redflagshipwriter]

Halfa Cass Ch 10 part 1

masterpost

“Tyranny!” Damian bellowed. His little face was red with fury.

Cass crossed her arms and nodded agreement. She was not accepting any more changes to her life at this time. Things were already happening, too much.

“Nevertheless,” said cruel Batdad. “The pediatric nutritionist will be here tomorrow.” He was trying very hard to seem composed and unaffected by their upset. But he was affected. So affected. And yet he persisted on traveling down the wrong path.

Cass hissed.

Their natural ally, Alfred, put his nose up a little as he cleared the dinner dishes. He sniffed as he left, unhappy-stiff. Cass did not know how he had been defeated. Food was his domain, not some interloper with a pathetic weepy Doctorate of nutritional sciences.

“He designs the meal plans for child Olympians,” Batdad coaxed. He wanted them to like him soooo much. “Standard advice is not necessarily very useful for extreme athletes. You might feel better afterwards. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Gentle, gentle, pleading.

No!!!

Damian stabbed his fork upright into his cinnamon roll and pointed an index finger at their tormentor. “I will not submit. I consume an adequately varied and nutritious diet. Whatever your true aims are, I will not be moved.”

Cass scarfed down her own dessert messily, scowling at Batdad the whole time as if to say: come and take it from me. Can you? You can’t.

Duke watched this with clever eyes darting between Batdad and his siblings. His body said: I don’t care. But I won’t pick Bruce publicly. What can I get? Can I make trouble? 

Hmm. Cass didn’t like that. She narrowed her eyes at him. He should philosophically agree with their cause. She was going to crawl under his bed and hiss, scary sounds to wake him up and go BOO. 

She made a mental note to do that before patrol tonight. If she could even fit it in, jeeze.

Ugh. So busy. Always so much to do.

The tension was high when they trooped to the cave for briefing, before Duke went to bed and everyone else took their pre-patrol nap. Cass lingered sullenly because she wanted to hear Duke’s report on the mechanic. Jacqueline’s apartment had been sneakily snuck through. The conclusion?

“There’s a lot of work clothes in the apartment, but no tools or anything like that. No references or books, aside from a couple of ones from the university library.” Duke fidgeted, micromovement. Not an interesting report. Not an enjoyable detour. “There’s no indication as to what she’s been working on. I took DNA samples off some dirty dishes and hair off the sofa. They’re filed for processing.”

Disappointing. The next step was unclear. Cass frowned. Should they try to observe again? Wait for Jacqueline to leave her lair and follow? Perhaps they should enter the apartment and lurk, ask questions. Tell her: We know your criminal associations. Stop it. Stop it, Jacqueline.

Damian stuck his lips out. He would say: This is not a pout, Cain.

It was a pout.

“I see.” Timbird took notes, fingers flying. Tap tap tap. “You’re passing the case back?”

“It’s all yours,” he said, nodding to Damian. Babybat nodded solemnly. My responsibility. He looked at her. Cass nodded: I have your bat-back. Let’s creep on Jacqueline, as a family.

Hmm. It was too quiet. Usually, there was Batdad commentary. She snuck a look at him even though she and Damian were ignoring him for his cruelties.

Batdad was pondering. He was paying enough attention, but his mind was on something else. Hmm. Cass prodded him. “Ah- Tim, did you upload your conclusions about the Amity Park case?”

Oh. Cass kept her body still, letting it say: I’m bored, I don’t care.

Timbird sighed and ruffled his hair. The gel made a little crackle sound. “It’s a massive government coverup,” he said. Unhappy. “I think a few residents fled, but it looks like it was a mass murder of the residents. The tank tracks came from a subdivision called the GIW, which is ridiculously over militarized.” He opened a file on one of the many Batcomputer screens. It showed a complex of buildings, taken from above. Superboy photography? “They’re doing weapons development, and it appears to be based on the designs of local scientists, also missing.”

“These scientists were affiliated with the GIW?” Batdad asked.

Tim shrugged. “Unclear.” His mouth twitched, unhappy. “There’s evidence of some collaboration, but it seemed a relatively normal exchange of information. Now, the GIW appears to have all their patented inventions and is replicating them.”

“So either these scientists are on staff or they have been removed,” Damibat scowled. A grumpy line formed between his eyebrows. So cute. 

“Removed?” Duke repeated, amused.

“From this mortal coil,” Damibat repeated. Impatient. Keep up, Thomas.  Haha. Cass sniggered and stuck her tongue out. Yeah. Keep up, Duke.

[qqueenofhades]

Hi. I followed you for your DNC 2024 commentary and the links to the PBS broadcasts. The DNC has been great this year! I have a special interest in US politics that stems from childhood and being brought to the voting booth with my mother, who hated W and wanted to vote against him.I’ve been watching all of the DNC livestreams on their official website, but the PBS broadcasts and videos on their YouTube channel are great for seeing them again.

Walz was amazing last night! I loved his acceptance speech! And I can’t wait for Kamala tonight! I’ve been sharing DNC 2024 highlights with my sister, who’s usually checked out of politics unless something big happens, but is incredibly excited for the Harris-Walz ticket.

Thanks, and I'm glad you've enjoyed my fairly off-the-cuff commentary, aha. I think we're enjoying the DNC so much not just because it feels like a rock concert, though it does, but because of all that pent-up fear and dread and anger and hatred that the Orange One has been so good at stoking and which we might FINALLY just be able to make go away for good. That is a powerful motivator and a beautiful dream, and I am going to do whatever I can to keep interest, enthusiasm, and hope for the basic task of saving America, at long fucking last, from Trump. It is hard but necessary and possible, and it must be done.

That being so, I am still holding onto the delightful notion that on January 21, 2025, having watched Kamala get inaugurated as the first female POTUS (having sailed to the Capitol on an ocean of MAGA tears), I will not have to post about politics on the blue hellsite for at least another 12 months. AT LEAST. In the meantime, though, we've all got work to do, and the last night of the convention is coming up tonight. I'm not sure it's possible for people to be MORE pumped, but I am eager to find out.

[annymation]

The Kingdom of Wishes- A “Wish” Rewrite

Chapter 5- When Blue Turns Green

Chapter 4

(This one has more of my commentaries than most because I was feeling chatty today, let me know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing)

“…Yes… I do have a wish”

Magnifico holds in a laugh, just a bit longer, gotta hold in the act just a bit longer.

Magnifico walks towards her slowly with that same gentle smile he had at the wish ceremony “I knew you had it in you, just needed a lil push, right?” the king extends his hands in front of her, the same way he always does when getting people’s wishes “May I?”

He asks, as if Asha had a choice.

Asha stares at his hands… It’s not like she can actually grant this wish she’s thinking about right now, so she might as well let the king do it for her.

(… Oh you’re waiting for me to say what’s the wish she’s thinking of? Lol this is the chapter opening, read more if you wanna know)

Asha closes her eyes.

Takes a deep breath.

She thinks about her wish.

And…

She forgets.

Magnifico is holding her wish.

Asha thought that after giving up her wish she’d feel a great sense of relief, like a weight being lifted from her shoulders. That’s at least what everyone in Rosas says it feels like…

She feels lied to, because there’s no sense of relief to be found at all.

She feels like she just forgot something really important, it’s not her interest in drawing though, it’s something else, but she can’t for the life of her remember what… She feels like part of her is missing.

While Asha is going through all that emotional turmoil, the villains are looking at her wish as if it’s the most adorable thing in the world.

“Now, was that so hard? All you had to do was think about it and *snaps his fingers* there’s your wish” He says while making the wish bubble levitate slightly above his hand

“Oh and what a beautiful wish it is, it really does suit you well, Asha” the queen complemented in a honeyed voice

“Th-thank you?” Asha doesn’t really know how to react to the complement, of course it suits her, it’s literally the most essential part of her…

Oh god, did I actually just give that to them?

“Could I… maybe take a look at it?” She says meekly raising her hand to reach out for the wish.

Magnifico swiftly moves the wish away from her and holds it above his head, like a bully keeping a toy away from a smaller kid.

“Ah ah ah noooooo peeking~” he singsongs in a mocking reprehending tone “You know the rules Asha, you’ll remember your wish only after I grant it for you” he explains like he’s talking to a toddler.

“I… I know but… Why’s that even a rule again?”

“Oooh you and your questions haha” he laughs while pinching her cheek and shaking her head “It’s more fun that way, sillyhead! So you’re surprised when it does come true!”

(I wanna murder this man I’m writing, I might actually just give Aster a gun idk)

Asha notices how the king is acting more… Mean than before, like yeah he has been kinda pushy and overly touchy with her, and disrespected her father’s beliefs earlier. But other than that he was being nice overall…

Now it just seems like he’s making fun of her and treating her like a child.

That’s because he has no reason to keep the mask on, he got what he wanted so why keep pretending he respects her at all, right?

Asha rubs her cheek that now feels sore because of the king’s grip, she was already feeling small in their presence before but now she feels like she’s the size of an insect.

“Patience is a virtue, my doll” the queen states serenely.

Magnifico glances at his wife with a little “Oh I see what you did there” smirk, referring to how she just called Asha a doll, get it? Cause he just turned her into a doll minutes ago with an illusion.

“Tell you what Asha, I was going to grant all of today’s wishes next week, buuuut because I like you soooooo much I shall grant them all… TONIGHT! So you’ll remember it by morning, how about that?” He exclaimed with his usual over the top energy.

In case y’all need a refresher, in my rewrite wishes are granted at night, while everyone sleeps, so when they wake up they can already tell their wish was granted.

Asha is feeling really lost, she doesn’t know what to say or what to do “Yeah that… that sounds great, can’t wait” she forces a clearly fake smile

“Oh I’m sure you can’t my dear, so how about you just take your leave now and go to sleep humm? The sooner you do the faster tomorrow will arrive!” The king says as he guides her to the exit of the treasure room

Asha’s eyes widened in confusion “Wh-what? But didn’t you say dinner was in an hour?”

The king had to hold in a laugh once again. The girl actually believed she’d be allowed to sit with them? How pathetically naive.

“I know Asha, but I just can’t help but notice how tired you are.” He says giving her a fake expression of pity

“Yes little one, you almost fell on the floor a minute ago had I not caught you” The queen adds “Clearly you need sleep, today was a big day for you, wasn’t it?”

“I’m not tired really I just-“

“I said” the king interrupts, his voice stern this time, as he makes direct eye contact with Asha and his blue eyes turn green for a second “You are tired, you should go home, now.”

Asha is frozen in place as she nods slowly “Okay.”

(If you’re wondering why he didn’t use this mild hypnotic ability earlier when they were trying to convince her to give her wish, it's simply because it had to be her choice to give it away, otherwise the magic doesn't work)

The king’s expression relaxes “That’s better…WELP!” He snaps his fingers and starts talking really fast “There! Now all the doors that lead to the exit are open! Thank you for coming sweetheart! Nighty night now! Sweet dreams! Buh-byeeeee!”

B L A M

The door slams on her face

Asha’s now outside the treasure room all alone

About 5 seconds pass

The door opens again

“Don’t forget your goat.”

Magnifico’s is holding a very happy Valentino by the colar of his little goat sweater

He drops Valentino on Asha’s arms and-

B L A M

The door closes again.

…

“Good night…”

She says quietly and starts walking down the stairs, making her way back to the exit.

As she walks we cut back to the couple real quick.

Magnifico has his ear glued to the door trying to hear Asha’s footsteps getting farther away. He has mischievous smile on his face.

Amaya is just standing there watching him do so, smiling just as wickedly as her husband.

“Is she gone yet?”

“Shh shhh wait” he signals to her with a finger on his lips

He no longer hear her steps, she’s far away enough.

Magnifico cannot hold it in anymore and starts letting out a wheezed laugh…That grows into a cackle… And then evolves into an outright deranged fit of uncontrollable laughter as he’s leaning on the door hugging his sides.

Amable is laughing along with him, letting a dark chuckle that grows into a maniacal giggling.

Their voices echo through the dark room.

(… I need you guys to understand these two are losing their minds because they successfully manipulated an 18 year old… Because they’re petty she raised her voice to them in public… These people are in their 50s… What I’m saying is the straights are not okay)

So we cut back to Asha who’s getting near the entrance of the castle, and just like how the king said, the door is open.

Her expression is a mix of lost, sadness, but most of all defeat.

Even though she understands she’ll get this wish granted tomorrow, it was still something that was taken away from her

She doesn’t feel like she’s whole anymore.

“Is this what people travel days on end to experience here in Rosas? Give away part of themselves… So they can have it be made a reality by someone they don’t even know?”

She hugs Valentino tightly, and he realizes something is wrong, so he begins licking Asha’s cheek.

She smiles a little bit with that “Thanks Val. I’ll be okay.”

She puts him on the floor to take some deep breaths before she leaves

She starts talking to Valentino (more so to herself, really)

“I mean, maybe I’m just being dramatic, like they said, I’ll get my wish granted tomorrow, right? Then I’ll feel normal…”

She's distracted talking to herself so she doesn’t notice…

That the door to the room where the queen left Bravo in earlier…

Is open.

“But then again… Those two are really not how I thought they’d be at all… I mean yeah, I knew Magnifico was a bit full of himself sometimes and the queen was… well, actually till today I’ve never seen her being nothing but sweet… They were just acting so strange ya know Val?… Valentino?”

“Maaa! Maaa!” Valentino starts bleating, but not to talk to Asha…

He’s talking to Bravo, who just so happens to not have had his dinner yet, and is preparing to pounce at the naive baby goat that just thinks he found a new friend.

“VALENTINO!!! NONONONOGETAWAYFROMHIM!!!” She runs as fast as she can and manages to catch her goat just a millisecond before Bravo made his move.

The lynx is now growling at her aggressively, she looks behind her and sees the door of the castle opened, she can make a run for it and someone outside might be able to help her, she can do it.

Buuuut Valentino is panicking, realizing the gravity of the situation and he kicks his legs to run away, making Asha accidentally drop him.

“NO NO VALENTINO COME BACK!”

He runs up the stairs and the lynx runs after him, Asha obviously follows them running like her life depends on it.

“BAD KITTY! THATS NOT YOUR FOOD THATS MY GOAT!!”

She runs and gets close enough to the wild cat to step in his short tail. He lets out a scream of pain and turns to her with blood thirty eyes

“… Uh That- That was an accident hehehe” she nervously says as the cat prepared to jump no her

She manages to dodge him and starts running up the stairs after Valentino, with the lynx just after them

She’s realizes they’re getting near the treasure room again

“KING MAGNIFICO! QUEEN AMABLE! HELP!! PLEASE!!!”

(GYYYYYAAAA GET YOUR FUC*** DOG BI**

It don’t bite

YES IT DO!!!)

Asha makes it to the treasure room but she has no time to close the door.

But as they run to the other side of the room Bravo steps on the shattered glass slipper Valentino dropped earlier and gets distracted.

(Haha you thought that was just a pointless reference, didn’t you?? BUT IT WAS ACTUALLY PLOT RELEVANT HAHAHA- the writer proceeds to lose her mind as this scene unfolds)

Asha sees this as an opportunity, as soon as she enters a different room she slams the door behind her shut.

She and Valentino are both exhausted, Valentino drops on the floor panting heavily.

“I… *puff* am never… *puff* letting you in this crazy place AGAIN” she says trying to catch her breath

She looks around the room they’re in now

It’s a corridor, with decorative black armors along the way, leading to a new flight of stairs

(I know that you knew what room I was referring to so no need for an image reference, but either way have Magnifico happily jumping on a poor armor’s head)

“… Whoever designed this castle REALLY liked stairs” she comments to herself

She takes Valentino into her arms again.

She can hear Bravo scratching the door behind them and growling angrily.

Asha looks to the stairs in front of her and sighs “Well… Guess we’re not getting out of here unless we ask them to control their crazy cat… Greeeeeeat” she pretty much groans, clearly not looking forward to talking to them again.

She and Valentino start making their way up these new stairs

(Take a shot every time I wrote stairs in these past few chapters)

The ambience is dark, a direct contrast to how it was when Asha first entered the castle. Before it was beautifully illuminated by the sunset lights coming out of the glass windows

And now it’s night time, and the castle is just faintly lit up by some candle lights hanging from the ceiling.

She sees a light coming from the end of the stairs… the light seems to irradiate a mix of blues and greens flashes

Asha then hears something coming from the room she’s approaching… laughter?

That must be their room

She thinks… and wonders what they’re laughing so much about.

Asha reaches the end of the stairs.

She’s now in front of the large door… it’s slightly open, just enough that she can peek through.

She was about to say something like “excuse me” or “sorry to bother you again, but your cat wants to kill me” but her mouth was closed shut when she heard

“OH that stubborn little BRAT got me a headache!” Magnifico complained loudly while massaging both sides of his temple with his fingers “I never had to use THAT much mind bending magic on anyone before” he says sounding a mix of frustrated and almost impressed

(He’s referring to that whole illusion sequence at the end of their villain duet last chapter)

Mind bending magic?…What’s he talking about?

Asha looks through the small opening in the door and sees the king and queen are standing in the middle of the wishes room

(Like how Asha and Magnifico are here in this concept art)

Asha is in awe with the sheer beauty of all of them in that majestic room. She understands how much each one of those bubbles represents the most beautiful part of so many people, and that alone fills her with joy.

“Aww my poor darling” the queen coos as she caresses her husband’s head “You deserve some much needed rest, say, how about I prepare a sleeping potion for you before we go to bed humm?” She suggests lovingly, but not like the fake loving voice she does all the time, this one felt absolutely genuine.

Asha remembers the tales that queen Amable used to be an amazing potion maker when she first arrived in Rosas… But that’s something no one really talks about anymore.

“Oh please do, my love.” Magnifico looks at his wife with a devoted passion, then turns his attention to the wishes above him with a malicious glee “But before that, let us see which lucky subjects get their wishes improved tonight” he lets out a dark chuckle

Improved? What's THAT supposed to mean??

Asha holds Valentino close to her and places her hand on his mouth so he won't make a sound

Asha watches as the king moves his arms bringing some wish bubbles down, they circle around him swiftly, forming patterns in the air.

(Ya know like how he did in the movie during the “At All Cost” sequence? That was neat, not gonna lie)

Paying more attention she notices something really odd.

Most of the wish bubbles aren’t blue… they’re green.

Asha has never seen green wish bubbles before, only blue ones… like her wish.

Speaking of which

“I thought we’d begin with our little star of tonight, I am oh so looking forward to coming up with something special for her” The queen says sinisterly while tapping her fingers on Asha’s wish bubble. Her voice makes Asha feel a chill run down her spine.

What on earth is going on?

Now she’s trying to hold her own breath so they won’t hear her.

“Ooh you know how I always leave the best for last, my sweet. Besides, there’s some wishes here that have been gathering dust for a while” Magnifico gazes upon the wishes floating around him like a predator watching his prey “And what kind of king would I be if I left our precious people waiting, right?” He adds with sarcasm.

Amaya just shrugs and goes to the table with potions and alchemy materials to start preparing a sleep potion for her beloved husband.

Magnifico makes the wishes spin around him faster and faster “Now lets see… Eeny, meeny, miny… YOU!” All of them suddenly stop moving, Magnifico is pointing at one specific blue orb, he signals with one finger for it to come to him.

As the orb lands on his hands it reveals a young woman flying in the sky, along with a flock of birds.

The king’s face is cruel, but his voice is saccharine sweet “Awww would you look at that my beldam, little Wendy wishes to fly like a bird.”

“Is that so? How lovely” The queen says while preparing her potion “And what shall you do about that? Oh wise and benevolent king” she speaks jokingly.

It’s like they do this pretty much every night, and they just never get tired of it.

“Hmmm… You mentioned last month you’d like to have a mockingbird as a pet, didn’t you?”

The queen gasps with one hand on her chest “Awwn you remember?” She says, already knowing where her husband is going with this, but playfully acting shocked.

“Now how could I ever forget a wish from the only person that matters in this kingdom?” The king says lovingly

Asha feels like she’s gonna pass out, he’s not actually going to do what she thinks he’s going to do… Is he?

“Well mi reina, your wish is my command” He says as he caresses the blue orb and starts mumbling some words in latin as his eyes start glowing green

“Mutatio animae, mutatio mentis, hoc votum fecisti, nunc meum est”

As he says the spell, the image of the young girl named Wendy looks at him terrified, as her arms turn into wings. The king caresses the orb a few more times and it slowly goes from blue… to green.

He removes his hands from the now green orb, revealing inside a little bird flying away scared, like it’s trying to get out.

… Asha holds in a gasp. She feels a single tear forming in the corner of her eye.

The king looks at the wish proudly, admiring his handy work “More of a Wendy Bird than a Mockingbird, but eh, it’ll do” He shrugs as he lets the bubble fly up to join the others “Tomorrow once she wakes up as a speechless helpless little bird, she’ll come flying begging for my help, and voila! You get your bird!” He says excitedly to his wife

“And what will you say if her family comes asking where she is?” The queen asks him, but not out of concern, more like she’s testing him to see if he’d know what would be the right thing to say

“… Not my problem?” He laughs at that

“Darliiiiing~ remember what we practiced”

“Hahah I know I know I’m jesting.” Magnifico says after laughing a bit more, but then his face instantly morphs to a sorrowful expression as he demonstrates what he’d actually say “Oh… I’m deeply sorry, but Wendy wished to be free from you, to live somewhere far far away… I’m sure she’s much happier wherever she is now” as he finishes the little act his face instantly goes back to an evil grin and gives her a bow like an actor.

“Hmmm not bad, you’re getting better” Amable complements softly

“Well, I do have the best teacher” He lifts his head and gazes upon her lovingly.

(This would be so sweet in any other context)

Asha feels like the world is crumbling down around her the more and more with each and every word that comes out of their mouths…

These people were more vicious than she could’ve ever comprehended… They tricked thousands of people… they tricked her.

“NOW!” Magnifico claps loudly, snapping Asha out of her thoughts “Let’s see who’s our next lucky subject~” he says in a singsong voice as the wishes once again start spinning around him, and once again he picks a random one

“A wish to write engaging stories about your culture?… Booooring!” Magnifico yells at the wish, the little man inside the orb holding a pen and paper gets frightened. “How am I supposed to make this fun for us?”

He ponders as he throws the orb to one hand to another several times, playing with it like it’s just a normal ball. The little man in the wish bubble is being thrown side to side like a rag doll.

“Just do the same you’ve done with the royal cooks, my love” Amaya suggests “Change the subject he’ll be writing about to something more interesting.” she says nonchalantly while grinding some herbs with a mortar and pestle for the sleeping potion.

(English is not my first language, so like, learning new words like “mortar and pestle” has been pretty cool :3)

The royal cooks?… Dahlia’s parents.

Asha thinks to herself in horror

“Oooh good idea my love!” Magnifico said excited as he turned his attention to the wish and once again recited the spell in Latin

“Mutatio animae, mutatio mentis, hoc votum fecisti, nunc meum est”

“Aaaaand there, why write about your lame ol’ culture when you can write about something much more important… like ME” the wish is now green and shows the man writing a book about Magnifico.

Asha connects the dots. That family recipe book Dahlia found, THIS is why her mom doesn’t care about it anymore, the king made her only interested in making meals that fit his liking.

(I do love when my set ups pay off)

“Ahem” the queen says with an eyebrow raised and a mischievous smile

“… I MEAN US! WRITE ABOUT US! Of course, I’m sorry my darling, hold on le-let me change it!” Asha sees an emotion that she hasn’t seen from the king ever before, he got nervous, but not in a scared or pretending to be nervous way, more like an “awkward teen trying to impress his crush but he gets flustered” kind of way.

“Heh heh I’m just teasing, dear.” The queen says giggling at her husband’s small panic attack “We both know the less this kingdom knows about my past the better, so really, you may have all the spotlight you want” she speaks sweetly.

The king sighs with relief and comments casually “Hehe indeed, it would cause quite a stir if the people found out their beloved queen was banished from her homeland for being a witch back in the day, now wouldn’t it?”

As soon as the king finishes that sentence a cloud of smoke pops out from one of Amaya’s flasks, making a loud noise.

“Your sleep potion is done… Also, you know I much prefer the term “alchemist”” she corrected him, sounding a bit more serious… like the word "witch" strikes a nerve with her.

“… My apologies my love, I forgot” he says genuinely

(… I might make a blog all about this, because there’s history here, let me know if you’re interested… anyway enough of them being a cute evil couple, Asha is SUFFERING)

Asha is not even that shocked with the reveal that the queen was a witch, that’s minor compared to everything else she has seen.

They tricked THOUSANDS of people for the past 25 years, and no one had a clue…

How many people had their dreams twisted beyond recognition? How many families had their culture erased from their minds after entering Rosas? And how many couldn’t even tell that they’ve been forced into a complacent life of loving nothing but these two monsters?

And… What would they do to her wish?

Asha will get that answer earlier than she thought, as she hears the king say:

“You know, we really should wrap this up, it’s getting late…” he says looking at the stars outside and then turning his attention to Asha’s wish that is floating around, he smiles maliciously “Let’s finish this with our sweet birthday girl’s wish, shall we?”

Asha feels her heart stop.

Magnifico makes the wish fly towards him

Amaya also walks to her husband to take a closer look at the wish.

As they take a look in her wish we see...

Asha happy with other people in Rosas.

That was her wish, to make other's happy, and to be accepted.

Magnifico looks quite disappointed but not surprised "A wish to “Make others happy”… Pffft pathetic." Magnifico rolls his eyes and sighs "She couldn’t even want something only for herself. Now how can I possibly turn this into something entertaining?"

Asha's eyes widen, that's it, that was her wish... She can't really feel a connection to it anymore... Why would she want to be accepted?

(Sooo yeah, just like how Simon’s personality changes because he doesn’t have his wish, a similar thing is gonna happen to Asha, but it’s not gonna be that noticeable)

"Hmmm I can think of a way" The queen says with a wicked gleam in her eyes as an idea forms in her head

"Do tell" he says already anxious to hear what his wife’s words of wisdom.

She walks a few steps away from her husband to start explaining her idea

"Riddle me this, darling... Who makes a kingdom happy?"

Magnifico... The damn king of this forsaken kingdom, struggles with that question for a bit

"Uuuuh... Shoot, I don't know. Uh florists? Backers?...Hair dressers?"

The queen gives him a one arched brow look.

"That’s kind of a vague question, don’t you think? Peasants get excited over the simplest of things" He shrugs

"Fair enough... Let me put this in a different way then... What do we want to make of this girl" She continues her train of thought walking around the room.

"To be honest? I considered just pushing her off the stairs handrails a couple of times today" He states like killing a random 18 year old is just a normal Thursday.

"Yes yes me too, but that's thinking too small, what she has shown today is that she has this almost unbending spirit, so much so she made you tire yourself using your powers... What we need is to put her under control, make sure that she NEVER inspires anyone else to be like her" She explains eloquently.

Asha does not like the sound of that at all.

"I like the sound of that. Buuut how can I do that with such a simple premise? "Make others happy"... Should I just make her WANT to conform to the norm?" He ponders

"That is, again, thinking too small, darling" she walks towards him slowly "Wanna know something I've always wanted?"

Magnifico was kinda taken aback by the sudden change in subject but ok "Well, just tell me and it shall be yours, my queen" he said with his voice dripping with passion

"... I always wanted a daughter"

...

...

...

wha-

"W H A T ? !"

Magnifico literally screamed with eyes wide like a bat blinded by the sun, his voice echoed through the room in a way that some of Amaya's potions even shook.

"WOMAN, SINCE WHEN??? I THOUGHT WE AGREED BABIES ARE THE MOST HEINOUS CURSE ONE CAN HAVE CASTED UPON THEM???? NOT TO MENTION I WANT NO HEIRS!!!"

He's not mad by the way, he couldn't get mad at her even if she stabbed him, he's just surprised, really. Because that's something he thought they both agreed on.

Amaya blinks a few times after that reaction, she may love this man more than anything in the world, but wow, his temper is something they really gotta work on.

She continues her train of thought like that didn't just happen.

"Yes... But Asha is not a baby, is she?"

... Oh... Oh no... Asha understood where the queen is going with this

The king did not tho

"... Ooooooh... Uuuuuh??" He stared at his wife, very confused "Not that I’m questioning you dear, but um... Are you suggesting we make THAT girl... A princess?"

(Hehehe subverting the disney princess trope, I love it)

"Precisely." The queen nodded pridefully, then she continued “You change her wish from “I wish to make others happy” to “I wish to be a princess”, it’s semantics since a princess does make the kingdom happy. Her personality will be rewritten to fit that wish, and she shall never question us again.” The queen speaks like she’s just talking about the weather.

The king is not fully convinced though "...Thats all fine and dandy but I thought we were gonna punish her, not give her a life of luxury”

"And who said anything about a life of luxury? You know the guest room on the west wing tower?"

"Yeeeeees?" Magnifico starts to understand his wife’s train of thought

"We lock her up in there." Amaya says it like it's simply the most natural course of action.

"Hmmm" He thinks for a moment with a hand in his chin, and by the looks of it he warms up to the idea "Yeah I can see the appeal now... It’s like throwing her in the dungeon, but in a socially acceptable way." he rationalizes with an evil smirk

"To the people it'll seem like this poor orphan girl just got the wish of a lifetime. While to her, well, she won't remember ever wanting anything else than to obey us... And as a bonus she can stay drawing in her room all day, just how she wanted." She has a wicked smile that grows more and more with every word.

"There's just one caveat to that though” He says with a worried expression “She'd be the heir" He almost whispers like the word frightens him.

The queen shrugs "And? We are too beloved for anyone to dare threaten our lives, and with my potions we can remain young for many MANY years to come" The queen says like that’s all obvious.

Magnifico still looks concerned. He really despises the possibility of anyone getting his crown.

Amaya notes his fear, and genuinely gives him some words of comfort... in their own way "Here's a thought, in the impossible scenario that we may have to come to terms with our own mortality... I'll give the girl my special tea, the same one I gave to your brother all those years ago, and she won't take what is ours. How does that sound?" She speaks calmly... How she's gonna straight up kill this girl if they so happen to become old or sick.

Magnifico's face softens at that, his wife always know the right things to say

"As always, the brightness of your mind outshines the sun, moon and stars, my love." He holds her face tenderly. "Very well then, if a little princess locked up in a tower is what my queen wants, then your wish is my command"

They exchange a kiss.

Magnifico turns his attention back to Asha's wish and mumbles the spell one more time

“Mutatio animae, mutatio mentis, hoc votum fecisti, nunc meum est”

And the blue bubble with Asha smiling among the citizens of Rosas... slowly turns green, and the image inside morphs into Asha smiling forcefully, while standing between the two royals.

... So umm yeah how's Asha feeling right now you may ask?

Yeah our girl is not fine, she's actually panicking. Tears running down her face while she hugs Valentino.

(It's like she's stuck in a story that the writer also can't wait to move along and get to the happy stuff... So let's move this along, shall we?)

Valentino obviously didn't understand anything that just transpired but he sees how sad Asha is, so he tries cheering her up.

"Maa-"

Asha covers his mouth instantly

But they heard it.

"What was that?" Queen Amable whispers.

The two royals start walking to the door.

Their steps are quick.

Asha doesn't think twice and slides down the stairs's handrail.

She’s terrified. If they find out she heard all that she’s as good as dead.

She makes it back to the corridor with the black armors.

Asha knows behind that door there's a savage wild cat... Which now feels less scary than the people coming from those stairs.

She gets an idea.

Asha opens the door quickly and when Bravo notices that it's finally open he runs inside to attac-

B L A M

Asha pushes one of the armors and it falls on the lynx, making a lot of noise.

"WHO'S THERE?!"

Magnifico’s enraged voice echos through the whole castle.

She hears their footsteps quickly approaching.

They have not seen her yet.

She runs as fast as she can to the exit without looking back.

Magnifico and Amaya get to the corridor and find quite the sight...

Their cat has his head stuck in the armor's helmet, he's struggling to get out like those cats you see on youtube that get their head stuck in a jar.

Bravo meows in his raspy voice panicking as he moves around.

"OOH my sweet precious babyyyy! How on earth did this happen??" Amaya rushes to his rescue like a worried mother.

"Bad kitty Bravo, you don't attack armors, just the people inside them" Magnifico says sternly.

Meanwhile our girl is BOOKING IT down those dang long stairs, jumping the steps and almost falling a couple of times.

She doesn’t know if they're actually right behind her or not.

But she’ll not look back to check.

She finally makes it out of the castle.

The wish ceremony celebration is close to ending but there's still a few people in the surroundings of the castle, talking to each other.

Asha just keeps running, she let's go of Valentino, she knows he can keep up with her

So she just keeps running.

Some people see her and try asking what’s wrong.

But she can’t stop.

She' can’t look back.

Tears run down her face.

And...

She’s stopped, by a large hand holding her arm.

Chapter 6

Final Thoughts

AFTER 3 CHAPTERS ASHA IS GETTING AWAY FROM THE STRAIGHT WHITE RICH PEOPLE!!! RUN GIRL RUNNNN

Don’t get me wrong, I LOOOOVE writing these two with a passion, but I wanna focus back on my girl Asha and couldn’t quite do that with those two stealing the spotlight… They gonna keep stealing the show every time they appear in the story tho but hey that’s kinda what it means to be a Disney villain.

With that said, I hope this helped make it pretty clear how Disney royally screwed up when they scrapped the villain couple concept. Like, it’s not just a “oooh that looks neat” thing, NO it’s more of a “THE WRITING POTENTIAL IS UNFATHOMABLE” thing.

Because I cannot stress this enough, we’ve been told through Disney’s WHOLE HISTORY how love is the strongest thing of all, and that’s true… But what happens when two immoral people love each other? WHAT HAPPENS??? Well I’m planning to show here what I think would happen, and it’s scary.

Also a recurring theme I was trying to make very clear in this chapter is how this couple comes from completely different worlds, Amaya was a peasant, Magnifico was born royalty, but they both learned from each other to make themselves more powerful… Actually, I think I might write a whole blog about their respective backstories, like yeah I wrote about them here but this was the early concept (not that it’s out dated, you can still read it if you haven’t yet) but after some further reflection I came up with even more details to flesh them out and make them feel like rounded characters, that although are irredeemable, have their own perspectives on the world that makes them see themselves in the right… Let’s just say they think the world wronged them so they can do the same to others, that’s all I’ll say for now.

Also OH MY GOSH, I did it, the animal sidekicks pretty much are the whole reason the plot is set into motion. I'm actually so happy.

When I first started to think on this scene (Last month) I thought about Asha just going back up the stairs to ask for her wish back because “oh she changed her mind”… which didn’t feel right, ya know? Like yeah it’s cool she’s so determined, but it felt off… And then the idea of the royal couple having a pet lynx showed up to save the day.

It’s kinda funny that none of this would’ve happened if Magnifico just teleported Asha outside after getting her wish… But he was feeling petty as usual so he decided to have her walk AAAAALL the way back… And he accidentally messed up the spell and instead of just opening the door to the exit with the snap of his fingers, he opened ALL the doors, letting Bravo get out. So my point is that Magnifico’s pettiness will bring his downfall, as it should be.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! And get hyped because STAR BOY IS COMING!!!

Thank You For Reading!

[hannahlovesluca]

i was wondering if request were open if it is i would like to request for luxiem angst to fluff (separately) where the reader overworks themselves to the point where their mental & physical health r really bad then like luxiem steps in and like try to like stop u which leads to an argument then uh fluff u can add plot twists if u like !! ( im sorry if u dont understand 😭)

Only if ur request r open!! If not feel free to ignore!! - 🍡

hi 🍡!! nice to see you back here!!

| warnings: shu’s is a bit suggestive

As soon as Vox had come home, he saw you still working on that goddamn outfit.

See, you were Luca’s mama. You designed all his outfits, his hair, everything.

Right now, you were working on making him the scariest mafia boss this godforsaken world has seen.

But if you spend even a second longer working on that stupid outfit, he was going to rip you to pieces.

You deserve more than just sitting at your desk, sketching, sewing, and even knitting now and then.

And he was going to see it through that you did get more than that!

“Y/N, hey, lets go to bed, yeah? It’s midnight already, love,” he smiles at you with that charm, the one you can’t say no to.

However, tonight was different.

Tonight was dedicated to work.

“Love, come on… please?” Milord was practically begging by now.

And who were you to say no to this handsome devil?

When you (reluctantly) agreed, he scooped you up in his arms and practically threw you on the bed before laying his head on top of your stomach, finally basking in the peace surrounding you two.

Mysta frowned.

You’d been streaming over half of the day…

What has it been now..?

He checks the time on his phone.

Eleven hours.

Eleven hours you have spent staring into a screen and simply daring to dream.

Eleven hours you have spent narrating god knows what and making stupid commentary.

Well Mysta wasn’t having it!

Not only was it bad for you, it was bad for him to go this long without kisses.

Mysta texts you to come to the living room, saying he had something important to say and it couldn’t wait until after stream.

After a few minutes explaining to chat that ‘your food had arrived’ you made your way out into the living room.

“Yes, Mysta?”

“End stream.”

“Huh- what? Mysta, no. I have to keep going, they’re expecting me to.” You deject with a small smile, insisting that you had to keep going.

“Y/N, they don’t expect anything from you. You’re their entertainment, not their friend. And frankly, you’re my ____friend and I think I rank higher, hm?”

Ike couldn’t say much.

He was just as bad as you when it comes to this, but his own tendencies be damned.

He was going to make you take better care of yourself.

Was.

It wasn’t to be taken lightly.

He slowly opens your office door, looking at you hunched over your desk and taking notes about god knows what, your hands shaking and your mechanical pencil almost out of lead after having using it for over five hours straight.

As soon as he had caught your attention, without sharing any words, he swept you up into his arms and held you for what felt like forever, but in reality had only been a few minutes.

(oh god im running out of ideas)

Luca hated every second of this; he hated seeing you so overworked, hated seeing you stressed… he just hated it all.

So,

He did the only thing that made sense.

He offered his hand to you and gave you a charming grin.

"Wanna dance?"

You look at him, horrified.

“We are not dancing, Luca.”

The golden retriever-like man pouts, crossing his arms.

“Why not, baby?” He asks with a pout.

You look up from your computer and look at him with a small smile.

You were so tired and you were sure you looked awful but his sweet smile and puppy dog eyes got to you.

You take his hand.

"Well, you got me, now. I can't say no to you. But we're gonna get some food and I'm not changing into a dress."

The man beams, happy that he'd gotten his way.

And with that, Luca takes your hand and immediately brings you in for your first dance of the night.

It's slow, soft and romantic, and honestly, the two of you can't take your eyes off each other.

"I missed this, baby," he whispers.

Luca pulls you close to him as the two of you sway in place.

"Me too,” you whisper back.

You lay your head against his chest and feel your stress and exhaustion melt away.

This moment was worth everything.

"You're beautiful." He says softly, kissing the top of your head.

(i genuinely dont know what to put..😭)

Shu loves that you love work, but by God if you spend another minute at that desk he was going to go insane.

"You know I'm a simple man," he says. "all I need is a little food and a little sun, and the rest of my needs are met."

He's laying out the blanket for the afternoon.

"And if you keep this up, my food and sun time is going to be at night."

You sigh, stretching out your back. You'd been at your desk all day, trying to figure out the final parts of the puzzle to the latest quest you've been given.

The strong mafia boss himself had come to you, begging you to complete this mission and find his missing son, and the people were starting to get nervous as he had been missing for a few days.

"I'm sorry," you sigh. "I know I've been at this forever."

"It's been nearly two hours," Shu snarls.

"Sorry, sorry," you sigh. "I can tell it's getting on your nerves." You stand up and stretch out, then smile at him. "What should we do this afternoon?"

Shu's lips twitch and curl. "It's too late to go to the beach now," he says. "And honestly, the weather looks pretty bad. I was thinking, though," he smirks at you. "Since it's our first anniversary, and I was thinking, well," he motions to the blanket.

You immediately go red, lightly smacking his arm.

“Shu!”

He chuckles.

“Kidding, kidding.” He wraps his arms around you and holds you fast. "Seriously though," he murmurs. "Happy anniversary, babe."

You melt and smile, holding onto his face. "I love you."

[the1975attheirverybest]

BEING FUNNY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Warnings: smut, pretentious SATVB commentary, also SATVB spoilers.

read all other chapters here

Chapter 2– “I’m in love with you- I -I - I -I-“

As Amelia rounded the corner, peeking through the glass windows of the hotel lobby, she spotted a familiar head of hair and reflexively smiled to herself. She’d know these curls anywhere.

“Hey, you,” she called out to him as she walked in, Matty’s head turning around at the sound of her voice. “What’re you doing, awake, and…” she scanned his table, noticing the drink in front of him, “drinking — alone, apparently, at this hour?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” He shrugged, eyeing her from head to toe. “What about you? You look like you had a fun night.”

Amelia smiled, recalling tonight’s activities with a flutter in her stomach, “Yeah, I was out with-”

“Your boy-toy?” Matty’s tone was unintentionally critical.

She chuckled, throwing herself into the chair next to him. “He’s…not my boy-toy.” Her objection was weak and more amused than defensive.

“Well, whatever he is, he’s not a gentleman. What, he let you go home, alone, on your own, at 2 in the morning?” Matty scuffed, as if waving him off. “you want me to buy you a drink, by the way?”

“No, it’s okay, I’d rather share yours.” she reached for his glass, taking a sip. “For your information, he invited me to stay the night. Insisted, even. But I didn’t want to.”

“Is that right?”

“Staying over after sex….it just feels serious. This is not meant to be serious.”

“My, my, my!” Matty gestured dramatically, “How the tides have turned.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“I’ve taught you well.” He giggled despite himself. “Mousy, inexperienced Amelia is all grown up now.” He placed a hand on his heart, faking sentimentalism. “I could burst with pride.” He was bursting with something else.

She rolled her eyes, holding back a smile, “piss off.”

When Matty stretched his hand out to reclaim his drink from her, Amelia noticed the notepad, with various scraps of paper sticking out of it, that had been tucked underneath his forearms.

“What’s all this?” she pulled the notepad towards her side of the table.

“Oh, it’s not much. just been trying to write a new bit for the show.”

“Oh?”

“So, part of the plan for this tour is,” he took a big swig of his drink, “that I’d sort of- like- add or tweak it every now and then. You know, to keep things fresh and unexpected.”

She nodded along as he spoke, recalling a conversation they’d had when he first started planning the show. He’d talked about how important it was for him that the show be responding to the audience in real time. A way to get around the repetitiveness of the performance, and the idea of people seeing it online.

“And? What’d you come up with?” She flipped through the pages, reading his scribbles.

“Nothing. I can’t seem to come up with anything.

Brain feels…..both full and empty at the same time.”

She heard the tone of defeat in his voice and looked up at him, not saying anything. He offered her the remainder of his drink, which she accepted.

Matty watched her read his unfinished drafts and fragmented sentences. The words felt heavy in his mouth. He wanted to say them. To free himself. To finally let her know. His lips parted, ‘just say it,’he thought to himself. No words came out. ‘Just fuckin say it. Just tell her.’ He waited a moment, hoping the urge to confess would pass, but it didn’t. He needs to just get it over with. Worry about the consequences later. He’s a grown adult. He’s going to tell her how he feels.

“Amelia-“

“Do you have any cigarettes left on you? I’m in the mood for a smoke.” She didn’t seem to notice that she’d cut him off.

“Oh.” He uttered. The sinking feeling overwhelmed him.

“Well? Do you?”

“Do- I…what?”

“Have any cigs left? Matty, are you listening?” She blinked rapidly.

“Oh- oh, yeah. I do. I do have some left.” He struggled to come back to his body for a moment. Slowly, his hands felt around his pockets. “You wanna go outside for a smoke?” He eventually rose to his feet. “C’mon, let’s go.”

****

“So,” Matty looked at her as she blew the smoke into the cold air of the night. “You and your….boy-toy-“

“Joshua.”

“His name is Joshua?” A smirk twitched on his lips. “That’s a slutty name.”

She giggled, amused. “What the fuck’s a slutty name?”

“Joshua!”

“No, like, how can a name be slutty?” She threw her cigarette bud to the ground and stepped on it with the heel of her shoe. “Cold.” She mumbled. “Can I have a cuddle?”

Matty did not hesitate to throw his arm around her and pull her into his side, hiding her under his leather jacket.

She wrapped her arms around his torso. “You’re warm.” Sighing contentedly and already feeling his body heat spread to hers. “What is it about me and Joshua?” She suddenly recalled that he’d started to say something.

“You were saying earlier….you’re not serious.”

“We’re not.” She rested her cheek against his body. “Plus, we’re leaving for the east coast soon anyway, right?”

Matty nodded.

“Yeah, so I won’t see him again after that.”

He remained silent for a while, taking her words in. He couldn’t help but be delighted. Should he try again tell her now? Should he wait until Joshua is old news first? What would she prefer, if she could choose? How can he make this perfect for her? “You’re freezing. Let’s go upstairs, yeah?”

“What a fine idea.”

***

“You’re exhausted, aren’t you?” Amelia sat next to him on the bed and reached out her hand to stroke his cheek.

He closed his eyes, leaning into her touch. He felt the cold metal of the rings on her fingers against his face and the scent of cigarettes lingered on her skin. “You’ve been asking me that every time you’ve seen me.”

“When's the last time that you had a full nights sleep?” She asked, her tone suggesting that she already knew the answer.

“What’s a full nights sleep?” He quipped.

With her face so close to his, Matty’s eyes studied her features, admiring her beauty. Her pretty eyes, the smudged, faded lipstick on her lips. He thought about how the smudge had happened. How, earlier in the night, her lips might have looked different. He hadn’t caught her before she’d gone out to meet Joshua. But he imagined the color sitting perfectly within the lining of her lips. Until another man’s lips had kissed hers. A man that wasn’t him. Had she let him touch her the way that she let Matty so often do? Had his fingers traced her skin? Had he made her feel good? Was she wet for him before he’d even undressed her? Did he make her weak? Had he heard her whine and beg? Had she been vulnerable for him? Did Joshua know that she preferred it when a little pain was delivered with her pleasure? A slight tug on her hair. An ever so slightly rough squeeze of her neck…had he learned her body? Had his name died on her lips, interrupted by her moan as she’d cum for him? Would Matty taste the remnants of someone else on her lips if he could kiss her now? Was it all the same? Just sex? Just pleasure, regardless of the source?

Did Joshua know how she liked her head scratched afterwards? Were they intimate enough for him to notice how shy she gets after the orgasmic high subsides and she feels naked and exposed? Does he rush to cover her up and shower her with praise as he had done, countless times before.

Amelia watched the darkness creep onto Matty’s face, as if suddenly visited by a waking nightmare.

“Matty, are you alright?”

Her gentle voice calmed his racing mind, pulling his thoughts away. He nodded. “Y-yeah.”

“You’re worried about the show, aren’t you?”

The show. Sure, that’s what he’s worried about. She’s not entirely wrong. The future of the tour weighed heavily on his shoulders. Not at this exact moment, though. “Yeah- the…show.” He mumbled.

She kicked off her shoes, climbing into his bed and making herself comfortable. Matty’s body ached for her.

“C’mon.” She patted the empty space next to her, urging him to join.

They each laid on their sides, facing each other, noses almost touching.

“So, tell me what you have in mind.” She smiled and his heart skipped a beat.

“Tell you what?”

“Isn’t that why you’re paying me? To help stage the show?”

“Right…yeah. The show! Yes! Of course…well, erm.” He cleared his throat. “I think we keep the naked body double—“

“Peanut. He has a name! Please.”

Matty laughed.

“How’d you like it if we all started referring to you as the clothed body double?”

“Fair argument….alright. So, I think we keep the Peanut bit. It’s kinda dramatic enough on its own. And it’s open-ended enough for me to, like, improvise as I go, you know? Like I don’t have to do the exact same bit every night. I can pretty much engage with it-“

“Him.”

“Engage with him in any way I like. Depending on what I’m in the mood for.”

She nodded. “Yeah, that’s true….I like that. It’s clever. So, what’s the problem then?”

“The problem is the other bit. The weight lifting and smoking and stuff.”

“Okay…” she was quiet for a moment. Matty found himself getting lost in her eyes, his heart beating to the rhythm of her blinking. “Well, let me ask you this: what’d you write it about?”

“Well it’s commentary on the old show, right? The raw meat eating ‘I’m a man’ stuff. But it’s also….a healthier version of that. So, it’s double edged like that.”

She nodded.

“I guess it’s just….well, part of the criticism that I’m meant to be responding to is that I took the performance bit too far, right?”

“Mhm.”

“I don’t think I’m addressing that adequately by shirtlessly lifting weights.”

Matty watched Amelia frown, deep in thought. She shuffled spring in bed, sitting up and propping up the pillow behind her back to rest against the headboard. His eyebrows shot up to keep track of her. He shifted to lay on his back and felt small next to her.

“Have you thought about reflecting the inadequacy of your response within the response itself?” She spoke after giving it some thought. “Like saying something to the audience about it even as you’re doing it?”

“Like commenting on the commentary?” Matty asked. “That’s meta.” He giggled. “Very matty-coded. I like it.”

She chuckled “matty-coded? God, you’re hot.”

“I am? I mean, yeah, I am, but-“

“I hate that I have a thing for men with big brains it’s so cliche.” She bristled, judging herself.

“I DO have a big brain, you’re right.”

“Get your head out of the gutter. I was actually referring to your brain, nothing else.”

“Oh. What a shame.”

“Don’t say it.” She commanded, looking down at him knowingly.

“I have literally said nothing.”

“I know you. You’re thinking about making a joke about how you have two heads. One up here, and one down there.”

Matty giggled, rolling his eyes. “I was not thinking about that.” He was. He so was. And he found it attractive that she could read him that well.

“Does it bother you that people thought you took the performance bit too far?”

Matty was taken aback by the question. Perhaps it was the abrupt change of subject, or just the fact that he was sleep deprived, and perpetually on the verge of telling her how he feels, but he felt a mix of emotions bubble to the surface. He remained quiet for a long time, contemplating his answer. The longer he thought about it, the more emotional he became.

“I’d love to say ‘no’ but yeah. Yes it bothers me.” He sighed loudly. “It didn’t at first. And to be fair, not all criticisms are valid. There are some objectively stupid tales.” He kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling as he spoke. “And those don’t bother me. I just— I expect Twitter to have something to say no matter what I do or say. That’s sort of a— an occupational hazard at this point. I guess what bothers me most is….people thinking that I did any of it maliciously, you know?”

She heard a faint strain in his voice and sensed that she’d hit a sore spot. “Matty—“

“Like some actually think that I set out to do this with the intention of hurting people.” He exhaled, blinking rapidly to keep from crying. “The concept of punching down in comedy….it’s just….it’s not great. And- I guess you could argue that - I did do that. To some extent?”

“Yeah, and you’re not a comedian. So there’s not really that context either.”

“I disagree.” The statement echoed for a long moment. “I do. I really disagree with you about that.” A few stray tears managed to roll down his face but he ignored them and carried on. “ I don’t think I’m a comedian like in a professional comic kind of way. I’m not like….fuckin Bo Burnham. But I think I’ve set up the persona as a bit of a jokester. Or at least I thought I had. I guess it came out of nowhere for some people.”

“It came off stage.” She corrected him.

“Right. But- metaphorically speaking everything’s a stage.” He gestured vaguely with his hands. “Well, you know what I mean. You’ve heard me say this before. About…..like social media being a performance and all that.” He shrugged. “Anyway, and then- then all that other shit happened and….I guess I’m public enemy number one now.”

“I’m so sorry-“

“It’s fine. It’s whatever.”

“Don’t say that-“

“No, no. I mean it. It’s fine. Like, this isn’t about feeling sorry for myself. I don’t ever want the show to become that.”

Amelia looked him straight in the eyes. “The show doesn’t have to become about that. But you’re allowed to feel however you feel.”

“It’s….I just need to man up and deal with it.” He shifted back to lay on his side again, his arms reaching upwards and wrapping around her, he buried his face into her waist, letting the rest of his tears flow.

***

Matty awoke in a panic. Suddenly jolting in bed and looking around him through squinted eyes as he sat up. “What happened?” He mumbled, his voice heavy with sleep. He noticed that he was in nothing but his boxers. His jeans were folded across the chair on the other side of the room. His shirt was draped over Amelia’s shoulders as she stood by the foot of the bed, sipping on what smelled like coffee.

“Mornin.’” She spoke into her beverage. “Bad dream?”

He nodded. “What time is it?”

“ it’s only 7 am. Go back to sleep.”

“Fuck. Shit. Fuck.” His head hit the pillow again. “I’ve gotta meet Ross at the hotel gym in a bit.”

“I’m sure he’d understand if you canceled just this once.” Amelia made her way towards the hotel coffee machine, rummaging through the complimentary supplies to make him some coffee.

“I figured it out.” He spoke over the sound of the machine, “I’m taking out the weight lifting bit. I’ll replace it with a speech. But it’s going to be funny. I’ll have to write something today. You and Tobias can help me figure out where I should be, onstage, when I deliver it. For lights and shit.”

“Is that what your dream was about?” She picked up his mug, walking over to his side of the bed.

“No. No. My dream was….much more terrifying.”

“You wanna talk about it?” She handed him the mug.

“Not really. Id rather forget about it.” He took a sip and hummed in satisfaction.

“Oh I know how to help you forget.” She whispered into his ear.

“Oh?”

“Have you decided whether or not you want sex yet?”

He stared through her, blankly. Nows not the time to say I love you.

With his eyes still fixed on her, he set his drink down on the nightstand, then he leaned forth and kissed her, wrapping both of his strong arms around her waist and pulling her on top of him.

She yelped, loudly, laughing and reveling in the kisses that he’d peppered her body with. Fuck, she’d missed him. He had a certain unforgettable touch that satiated her, yet always left her wanting more.

“Hold on tight for me, darling.” He whispered from underneath her.

She hovered over him, her hands gripping the headboard tightly, knowing it was necessary, and bracing herself. Matty lined his lips with her center, licking his mouth hungrily.

“You ready?”

“Yes, god yes.”

“What I like to hear.”

She gasped, breathless as she felt his tongue lick into her. Mouthing a silent “fuck yeah” up at the ceiling. His mouth was just as perfect as she’d remembered and replayed in her fantasies. He knew exactly how to move, he’d taken pains to learn the pace that worked best for her, and he took his time working her up: going slow at first, giving her time to adjust, making sure she’s comfortable before dialing up. He relished in the fact that he could tell how great she was feeling by the rocking of the headboard. As the sound of it hitting the wall intensified, so did his mouth, licking, sucking. His newly grown out facial hair grazing the insides of her legs, a new sensation she hadn’t experienced before.

She felt ( and heard) her own wetness covering Matty’s lips, dripping down his chin. He let none of it stop him. He delighted in it, in fact. Took it as a clear indication that he was doing his job right. He loved opening his eyes, seeing her breasts right there in front of him and had to fight the urge to reach over for a quick feel. As tempted as he was, he much preferred keeping his arms wrapped around her, both, for safety, and to keep her in place whenever she tried to squirm away, feeling too sensitive. He knew he’d gotten her right where she wanted when she began to shake and whine.

“Ple-please. Matty- please— I feel- you’re so- please?”

He waited for her to look down, locking eyes with him, then, without pulling his mouth away from her, he nodded, mumbling a “cum for me.”

Matty smiled when he felt her thighs clamp down around his head. She moved faster, carelessly, bouncing up and down, riding his tongue, and screaming out his name.

His grip around her tightened when she let go of the headboard, catching her as she collapsed on top of him.

The sounds of their heavy breathing filled the room.

“Yum.” Matty made sure to add into the heavy silence, making her blush and turn to hide her face in the sheets.

He rolled over to pull her away from the bed and free her beautiful, blushing face. “Pretty sure the entire floor knows my name now. So much for my ‘Adam Levine’ Alias.” He gloated.

“Stopppp. That’s not funnyyy.” She whined, hiding in the crook of his neck.

“Sorry, sorry. I forget you get weirdly shy after doing obscenely sexy things.”

He peeled her off of him, his fingers tilting her chin up. “Hi. Good morning.” He couldn’t help the grin on his face. “Kiss?”

“Can taste myself on you.”

“Don’t you taste amazing?” Matty reached for his lukewarm coffee. “Could put you in my coffee and drink you up.”

“Gross.” She rolled her eyes. “Wait,” she took his mug away as soon as it touched his lips. “Wanna ride you.”

“Uhh…what?”

“Who’s shy now?” She shot up an eyebrow as she set the mug back where it was.

“N-no. Not shy. Just….the last time we did that…well….”

“I cried and hid in the bathroom. I know. But I wanna try again.”

“Are you- sure?”

“Wouldn’t be literally asking for it if I wasn’t.”

“Fair enough- I guess.”

Matty’s body stiffened, head to toe, as soon as she moved to remove his briefs. She felt him tense up.

“You alright?”

“Mhm.”

“Matty, don’t worry. I’m fine. I promise this is fine.”

“Yeah, umm…yeah. It’s fine.”

She studied his face silently for a beat. “So….can I go ahead?”

“I- guess. Yeah…yeah, go on. Do it.”

Amelia was stunned to look down at Matty’s lap and find herself face to face with his flaccid penis.

“Uhh, Matty-“

“Don’t- I know- it’s fine.”

“Uhhu. So you keep saying. But I’m looking at it and- well, it’s not fine. Hey, no big deal! You’re not in the mood right now. You don’t have to be. I guess I just thought, after everything you just did-“

“I AM in the mood. I promise!”

“Does the rest of your body know?”

“It…knows.

“The dick doesn’t lie, Matty.”

He rolled his eyes.

“Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.”

“Well, I’m not in the mood for that right this second.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” She nodded at his lap. “Sorry! Sorry! I think- I think I reflexively make jokes when I’m uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to-“

“Go to therapy, Amelia! Stop making dick jokes.”

“Soft dick jokes….okay, that wasn’t nice but I’ll let it slide cuz you’re having a crisis of masculinity right now.”

Matty pulled his briefs back up. “I am not!”

“I’m not saying that….that….failing to get it up — there I said it! Okay. We’re all adults here it’s fine! Except I guess Matty Jr. over there cuz he’s refusing to grow but…oh my god someone stop me!!!l” she got off the bed, pacing around the room and avoiding looking into Matty’s eyes. Then, once her brows had stopped sweating she tried again.

“I’m just saying, Matty. Failing to maintain an erection is fine. It’s not some weird measure of manliness or whatever. But you make whole shows about being a man and….I guess I just wanna say that it happens. It’s fine.”

Matty turned around around to sit on the edge of the bed, his feet touching the ground. He found his cigarette packet on the nightstand and began to feel around for his lighter.

“Amelia?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you leave?”

“What? Why?! Are you mad at me? I was joking, Matty! I’m sorry-“

“No, no. I’m not mad. It’s just….please leave? I can’t look at you right now. Don’t want you to see me like this.”

“Oh, for fucks sakes! You’re such a primate. What, are you a wounded jungle animal going off on his own to die with dignity away from the pack? So, your dick can’t get hard so fuckin what? They have drugs for that shit now. Pop a pill and shut up!”

“Leave.” Matty walked over to his hotel room door, pulling it open.

“Unbelievable.”

***

Matty stood in the far corner of the venue, sipping his wine and wishing he were anywhere but this after party. He knew that as Frontman, it reflected well on everybody for him to be there and to put on a smile, especially since they were leaving the west coast in the morning. This would be his last chance to thank and celebrate some local people who helped put this show on for the past few weeks.

His mind, however, was elsewhere. He couldn’t tear his eyes off Amelia. And as he looked at her, his nightmare from the other night replayed in his head. He’d dreamt that he tried to tell her that he loves her, but every time that he would approach her, she’d get farther and farther away, until she’d disappeared. Marty’s never been a superstitious guy, but, something about that dream left a bad feeling in the back of his mind.

‘I’m in love with you.’ Just tell her. Go on. Go up to her. Look her in the eyes and say ‘Amelia, I’m in love with you.’ Do it before you lose the courage. He gulped down what was left of his drink and marched in her direction. She’d been saying goodbye to a venue worker who’d helped her out of a few backstage emergencies.

“Amelia?”

She turned around at the mention of her name. “Matty! Hi! Oh, god. I wasn’t sure…I mean, I’ve been keeping my distance cuz…you know. You kicked me out of your hotel room after not being able to- well, you know. But I just wanted to say.”

“Amelia, shut up.”

“Beg your fuckin pardon?”

“Sorry, I just mean, forget all that. I’ve got something to tell you.”

“Oh? Go on. What is it?”

“Well, it’s simple, really, I-“

Amelia felt someone tap her shoulder and turned around. It was Joshua. He leaned in and greeted her with a kiss.

“Hi, you.” Matty noticed her hand squeeze his shoulder. “What- what’re you doing here? Come to say goodbye?”

“Even better.” Joshua smiled at her. “Here to give you the good news in person. I’m tagging along! On tour, I mean. If you’ll have me.”

“What?!” Matty yelled out before he could stop himself.

Both of the couples heads whipped around staring at him.

“Sorry, pardon. Private moment. I shouldn’t intrude…I’ll just- walk…away.”

As he walked away, Matty thought, THIS must be his dream. His nightmare coming to life.

[plussizefantasia]

Munson's Commentary

Flufftober Day 22: Haunted House

Modern AU: Eddie Munson x f!reader

Word Count: 1.3k

AN: This was inspired by a real-life experience I had at one of those scare experience places that are like hainted houses on steroids. I wish I had had an Eddie Munson to protect me, but alas I had to do it myself. Feedback and Reblgs are much appreciated. See y'all tomorrow!

divider credit @royallaesthetics

“You guys are fucking sick, you know that?” You spat out at Robin and Steve who were over on the sidewalk laughing their assess off. 

This was their idea, doing the Scare Factor Experience ™ and you were totally not afraid to admit that when it came to shit like this you were a wimp. You had told them so right after they suggested the Saturday night outing and yet, here you were. Waiting on the sidewalk outside this warehouse-looking place with a bunch of other young adults in various states of intoxication. It was halfway to freezing out here and you were in a simple jeans and sweater-combo. Which would have been sufficient for hanging out at Steves as the plans had originally been.

Robin had seen the ad on her phone while scrolling on the couch and immediately started convincing the group that it would be “So fun” and “a great idea”. Bullshit. You didn’t consider being scared by weird people in makeup was a great way to spend your night.

But you’d been outvoted and unceremoniously shoved into the back of Steve’s car so you apparently didn’t really have a choice.

When you’d arrived and seen how long the line was you’d tried to convince the others that it would be too long and you should just go home, which only caused another round of booing at you and some minor bullying that you wouldn’t put up with form anyone except your friends.

It was obvious you were on edge, which to the dumbass duo over there meant that you were free game apparently. They’d been trying to jumpscare you in line every ten minutes for the past hour and had successfully gotten you a few times.

“C’mon guys, leave the scaring to the professionals.” Eddie had told them, wrapping his arm around your back and pulling you into his side. 

“We’re just messing around Munson.” Steve had replied, sticking his tongue out at your curly-haired savior. You stuck your tongue right back out at him and turned to his your face in eddies chest. Eddie hadn’t really said much tonight, usually you can’t get him to stop talking but tonight was different for some reason.

“You okay, Eds?” You mumbled into the neckline of his shirt.

“Yeah Princess, just not thrilled about being here.”

“I thought you liked scary things?”

“I do, but you don’t. I don’t want to force you to do this but I also don’t want to leave you out here where I can’t keep an eye on you.”

“Aww Eds. I’ll be okay I promise. I’m just a little scardey cat sometimes.”

“You shouldn’t have to be okay about it. Tweedle dee and tweedle dum over there should’ve taken no for an answer and planned to go another time.

“Thank you for sticking up for me Eddie, but seriously It’s not that big of a deal.”

“If you say so, princess. Just know that I’ve got your back.”

A few more minutes went by, during which your little group shuffled closer and closer to the doors. At one point, Nancy and Jon joined your group. You don’t know who had texted them but they were here now. You loved hanging out with them but weren’t too excited at the prospect that more people were going to see you freak out in a few more minutes.

Eventually, your group made it to the doors and listened to the guy at the entrance explain the rules. No pictures, no running, and definitely no putting your hands on the scare actors. Apparently, some people punched when they were scared.

You and Eddie were smack dab in the middle of your group. Robin and Steve had locked arms and were raring to go at the front. You and Eddie were right behind them, Eddie still having his hand on your back, attempting to rub soothing circles into your skin. Nancy and Jonathon were behind you too, whispering back and forth between the two of them and giggling. You had no idea what could possibly be funny right now.

The guy who had told you the rules pulled back a thick black curtain and told you all to go ahead into the starting room.

Stepping past the curtain submerged your group into a sea of darkness. There was no light except for the faint glow of the fire exit sign right behind you.

Steve and Robin marched confidently towards the other set of doors in the room, past that was the haunted house, which didn’t have any exits you could take once you went through it.

Together they pushed the doors open and a dark red light could be seen on the other side but not much. You were trembling in your boots at this point. You could feel your tears begin to water and your breath begin to pick up and Eddie did too.

“I got you, Princess.” He whispered into your ear, and you calmed down even if it was just lightly. Slowly and with a small push from Eddie your feet began to work again and you started shuffling forward and into the first room.

This room wasn’t really a room, more like a hallway. The walls were made of some kind of metal sheeting and above your heads were red pulsating lightblubs. The hallway wasn’t very wide, meant for only one person to go through at a time. Eddie grabbed your hand and took the lead. Slowly pulling you behind him but turning his head back a couple of times to check on you. Behind you, Nancy was looking around, without the need to hold her boyfriend’s hand and you were suddenly distracted by the feeling of fear, as it was quickly replaced by embarrassment. 

However, the feeling faded just as quickly as it had come when you entered another room. One modeled after a kind of run-down hospital. There was a woman behind a counter, dressed in a blood-covered nurse's outfit. In her hands was the largest needle you had ever seen, her head was tipped back and she was laughing like a maniac.

You were absolutely terrified. It was all too much, the low lights, the creepy soundtrack in the background. The fog that was being pumped into the building made it hard to breathe and you could tell you were beginning to panic. That was until you heard, “Do you take walk-ins? I don’t think I have an appointment,” come out of your boyfriend’s mouth. You couldn’t help but smile. If Eddie had a superpower it would be his humor, it was one of the many reasons you loved him. 

Room after room, Eddie would make you laugh and feel better by cracking some jokes. A room that looked like a butcher, complete with fake hanging pigs? “I’m a vegetarian, do you have like a salad or something?” A dentist’s office “Will I get a sticker when I’m done?” And so on and so on. Every time an actor would jump out at you he would say “Hello!” in a cheery voice. Once or twice you heard him say “Happy birthday”. 

By the last room, you were laughing more than you were screaming and your heart was warm with the love you held for your goofball. He held your hand the entire time and made you forget all about the terror that was supposed to be flowing through your veins.

The last set of doors opened up and immediately you could breathe better, the fake fog not following you into the outside air.

“That was awesome!” Robin yelled, turning to look back at the rest of you.

“It was fun, I could’ve gone without Munson’s commentary though.” Steve ribs, sending a wink your way to let you know he was just joking around.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Harrington, I’m hilarious,” Eddie replies.

“You really are.” You pipe up, placing a kiss on your boyfriend’s cheek and sticking your tongue out at Steve one more time.

[thealogie]

Back to macbeth, dt's co-star in this brian o'sullivan has an acting podcast called putting it together. He already had the guy who plays macduff on and just released the dt's one. It's total theatre for an hour, with crazy stage hijinks from both of their careers and is overall delightful, pretty sure you'll enjoy it. Oh, and dt tells his version of 'don't enjoy yourself too much' here and i thought it was hilarious how it differs from ms' one and what it says about them both lolll

YES content made specifically for me. If I could make them do DVD commentaries/companion podcasts for every theatre role they’ve ever done, I truly would. I can’t wait to listen tonight

[itsmeatballworld]

| just kiss me |

summary: Eddie and Reader are old friends. After finding out Reader has never been kissed, they make a decision to fix that.

pairing: eddie munson x f!reader

No use of y/n.

word count: ~1800

warnings: none except some cursing! It’s all soft ‘n fluffy with mutual embarrassment <3

a/n: I had the urge to write something ft. Eddie to take a break from my crazy life! I hope someone reading this finds some enjoyment in my messy writing <3

dividers made by @firefly-graphics

Eddie was oddly quiet tonight. He shuffled back and forth with all his attention on the gravel beneath his feet.

You paced near the back of his van. “Need any help?”

“Nope.” 

He lifted the last case into the back before slamming the heavy van doors. Eddie finally looked up and gave you a tight lipped smile before slipping inside the dark interior. 

You paused.

No funny commentary? No talk about the game? Nothing?

After the D&D game tonight with your friends, you waited for Eddie to drive you home. This was a ritual for you both: he’d drive you home by 10:15pm and you’d tell your parents that studying with Nancy ran late. 

But tonight Eddie was acting strange and you couldn’t help but think it’s because of what you said. Actually, from what Jeff jokingly asked and you stupidly responded to.

You could see it in his eyes, that nervousness eating at his thoughts. The thought that he was weirded out by what you said was unbearable. Hell, now that you think about it, you’re not sure why you said anything at all. Eddie’s your best friend. Even though you’ve had a massive crush on Eddie for the past year, you were always going to be just friends.

And now he can’t look at you longer than a second. You’ll blame Jeff and Gareth for why the topic even came up in conversation tonight. 

“Lots of stars out, huh?” Nothing. “Kinda warm for autumn, right?” No response. 

You slumped into the seat. Crossing one part of Hawkins, Indiana to the other side was easy with minimal cars on the road. Although a quick drive, it was eerily quiet without Eddie’s jabbering. To make it worse, he forgot to put music on when he drove off. So, you dug through his stash of cassettes in the console until finding a Black Sabbath tape. He nearly drove off the road when War Pigs blasted through the van’s speakers.

“You okay to drive, Eddie?” 

“Uh,” he glanced at you. “Y-yeah! Right, I’m fine. Totally fine.” He stopped at the red light and avoided your gaze. 

This was irking you. Was all this really about earlier? About what you said? You bit your tongue and asked. “Was it about the kiss thing?”

Eddie’s face went red as the light changed to green. He slammed on the gas. “Uh, what kiss, uh, thing?” 

“The thing Jeff said about me. About me never being kissed before.”

He cleared his throat. “Why would I be thinking about that?”

“I don’t know. You tell me. What’s got you all red-faced, Munson?” 

Suddenly, the van reared off the road into the dirt shoulder and stopped. “Alright! Fine. I’ll tell you.” He turned his body. “It was about the kiss. About your first kiss and what you said… about me.”

You hesitated. 

“About how you wanted me to be your first kiss.” 

You gawked. Maybe you hoped it wasn’t about the kiss thing. Maybe you were hoping he was just mad about losing the game. But now that he said it, you weren’t sure what to say. So you deflected.

“It was just a joke,” you tapped your feet. “I know you wouldn’t really be interested in being my first kiss. I just said it because you’re… we’re so… fuck, I’m sorry I said anything.”

There was a long pause in the van. The music that was blasting cut out mid-song. He signaled as the van pulled over. The engine turned off. Eddie removed his hand from the keys sticking out of the ignition. His rings tap against the steering wheel as he watched you. “Hey.”

You kept your eyes low on the bounce of your legs. Fingers wove together in an attempt to calm the jittery feeling coursing through your body.

“Hey,” he gently nudged your arm. “What if I said I’d want to?”

You grasped your own leg, squeezing down like a vice grip. “What?”

“What if I said yes to the proposition?” 

“Proposition?” What is this, the 1800s?

He kept talking but you couldn’t hear him—it was like his words were just whispers in the dark van. He said he wanted to kiss you, but you couldn’t process this. You pinched your leg.

“—easy enough.”

“What?”

Eddie shifted in his seat, “it’s easy. Kissing is easy.”

You averted your eyes. The idea of kissing Eddie, your best friend, was terrifying. Not because you didn’t want to but because you always wanted to. And a pity kiss wasn’t what you wanted from him. With hands folded against your lap, you shook your head. 

“I want a guy to kiss me because he likes me. Not because I should get it over with.” 

His body stiffened as if you’d slapped him across the face. Those brown eyes widened but Eddie kept quiet. He started his van and drove off down the paved road. 

The van pulled down your street with five minutes to spare before curfew. No where near your block, he veered over and shut the engine off again. The road was quiet and dark minus the bright full moon. 

“What are we doing—”

“It wasn’t out of pity.”

“Eddie come on,” you grumbled. “I thought I embarrassed myself enough tonight.”

“I never said I’d kiss you because I thought it was sad or something. I’d never think like that.” He shifted towards you, determination in his eyes. “Damn will you listen to what I’m saying?” 

You were listening but this was Eddie. He’s been there for you since the beginning. And through that time, you developed a crush on the long haired-rock band fanatic. He would never make fun of you for a kiss.

“I want to kiss you,” he emphasized. The night’s darkness settled over him with nothing but the moonlight to illuminate his handsome feature. 

Your heart raced, hot nerves bubbling inside your body. “Eddie, I don’t want this to be a pity—”

“This isn’t like that. I want to kiss you. I’ve always wanted to kiss you,” he leaned forward. “I want you to kiss me. Only if you want to kiss me.”

A determined yet terrified feeling etched into your soul. Bad idea. But your heart was doing flips. Those gorgeous, dark brown eyes embodied warmth and comfort. No, it’s a good idea. And those eyes were on you.

He didn’t speak after that. All he did was watch and wait. He was waiting for you to make a choice. When you inched in closer, your heart pounding in your chest, he reciprocated the move.

Like you’d always imagined it, his hand raised. Eddie’s fingers gracefully drew the contours of your facial features. Gently, sweetly taking his time to memorize your face. As if he’d never seen you in his life, Eddie took his time tracing your nose then lips. 

“You ready?” Eddie said. His voice was as rich as crushed velvet.

You nodded.

Eddie dropped his eyes back to your lips. “Now I’m gonna need to hear you say it, sweetheart.”

Your tongue felt heavy. Your mouth, completely dry. But you managed to squawk out a ‘yes’. 

Eddie’s brows scrunched as he scanned your face once more. This time, he pressed a bit harder so you could feel the silver and gunmetal colored rings run across your jaw before cupping your chin. 

It was soft and quick at first. His kiss was nearly a whisper against your sensitive lips.

Just like that, your first kiss over with. But this wasn’t a stranger, this was Eddie. And you loved kissing him.

When he pulled back, you realized your hand was grasping the neck of his shirt. 

His brown eyes studied you curiously. Eddie grinned. “Round two?” 

“Just kiss me, Munson.” With a chuckle, Eddie moved closer. 

The Hellfire crewneck held strong as you pulled him back in. You softly moaned and Eddie was pushing forward until his chest was pressed against yours.

Your name a whisper on his lips before returning to kisses that were becoming increasingly passionate. Frustrated. Heated. Your arms wrapped around his neck as Eddie adjusted his angle in the van. Maybe the console was digging into your ribs. You didn’t care. Maybe this was a stupid idea at first. But not now—not any more.

His hands fumbled behind your head, playing with your hair as he drew his lips to your jawline. Eddie’s hands had a mind of their own and you were loving it. 

Each touch was somehow lazy and focused. Each kiss was soft and gruelingly passionate. Eddie knew what you liked without asking. And he was patient with you. But this was a lot all at once. All of your senses were overwhelmed with him—with Eddie.

Your nose brushed his before you slowly pulled back.

Eddie’s finger brushed your cheek, “well that was long overdue.”

You smiled and he mirrored that enamored, giddy expression. He didn’t move from your close position. It was as if Eddie was transfixed on you and couldn’t let go.

You were buzzing. Every inch of you was humming with excitement. “I’m kinda glad you wanted to kiss me because I’ve had a huge crush on you for a while.” You paused. “I can’t believe I actually said that out loud.”

“Hey,” he spoke up. “I would be an idiot not to like you.”

Eddie gave you a soft smile before spotting the watch on your wrist. 10:37pm. “Shit, I’d love to do this all night, but you’ve got a curfew.” 

You begrudgingly agreed, shuffling back into the seat with a warm buzz in your body. Eddie tugged on the seatbelt that fell behind you. “Safety first. Come on, you know the drill.” 

Then he put his keys back in the ignition. He drove up the block and two houses away from yours before parking again. This time, you exited.

“Now I get to take you on a proper date,” he called out as you held the door.

“Was that a proposition?”

He chuckled, flashing the widest smile you’ve ever seen on him.

“Yes it was.”

You walked down two houses until you made it onto the driveway. One light was on above the front door in suburbia tonight. 

“Hey hot stuff,” Eddie whistled as his van idled from the road. “This year is our year. I can feel it.”

With a smile that wouldn’t wash away, you swayed into the house. 

Even now, you could still feel his lips on yours. Hours have passed and the buzz was so strong it was intoxicating. You sunk into your bed and dreamt of nothing but bliss.

This year is our year. I can feel it.

-xx-

-xx-

a/n 2.0: thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have an amazing day/night!!

[red-flagging]

⭐ would love to hear any director commentary on consider the hairpin turn and/or that one post quali sewis tumblr flashfic you did this year!!

(director's commentary ask meme)

some consider the hairpin turn for you! commentary on seb's first time blowing lewis under the cut:

Vettel’s legs have barely stopped shaking before he’s shoving himself up onto his knees, almost tripping over the console as he crawls over to Lewis. “Fuck,” he breathes. “Your turn,” and then before Lewis can react, is unbuttoning Lewis’s pants and dragging them down past his hips. Lewis jerks his eyes away, but not before he sees the wet stain on his own stomach, the way his own legs are shaking; how he’s so hard that it’s poking out of the waistband of his boxers, flushed dark and heavy. one trick that i like to use for getting into a character’s headspace is to give myself somewhat arbitrary restrictions about certain words that they can’t use in their dialogue/internal narration. for this fic specifically i decided early on that i didn’t want lewis to use any explicit sexual language (cock, come, etc.) - so in the earlier scene where he’s blowing seb he never actually references any of seb’s genitals, and the closest that he gets here is describing himself as hard (which imo was like. toeing the line but i truly could not think of a different way to talk around it). i really like it as a technique because not being able to use certain words not only forces me to talk around the idea (and in doing so almost draw more attention to its purposeful absence than it would if i just wrote the word), but also pushes me to hone in on the details of what lewis’s body is actually experiencing in the moment, instead of being able to just use “he’s hard” as a shorthand for him being turned on.

Vettel’s hands are on his legs, pulling his pants down to his knees, spreading them open. There’s a hot puff of air over his skin. Lewis’s breath catches in his throat. Wait, he wants to say, to grab Vettel by the shoulders and say wait, this wasn’t supposed to happen tonight. to be clear - lewis's plan for the night was to go out and purposefully have a really bad sexual experience with a stranger, in order to essentially try to condition himself out of wanting to have sex with men. the main reason this prompt hooked me was because i remember reading it and being like “2005 lewis would NOT say that (be secure enough in this own sexuality to have sex with a mostly-random man in his car),” which then immediately made me ask – well, what would it take to make him say that? and i am quite proud of the little subversion of the usual “young lewis being too closeted to even look at a man let alone think about him sexually” storyline (although to be clear i LOVE AND CHERISH all deeply homophobic lewis stories so much lol. and have written many myself! it was just fun to challenge myself to do a different take that is antithetical to how i typically view early lewis characterization) His hands feel numb; he can’t remember how to move them– 

Heat floods through him. Feeling rushes back into his body like blood, so fast it almost hurts. He barely clamps down on the sob before it slips past his teeth. Vettel’s elbow is digging into his thigh. He makes a frustrated noise, leaning harder against it as he pulls himself further forward towards Lewis, and the terrible hunger roars back, snapping at his heels and tugging him down into the pit in his stomach. lots of switching back and forth between active and passive voice in lewis’s internal narration throughout the fic to try and capture the way he’s fighting to detach from what’s happening in his body / getting pulled back into himself despite his best efforts. there’s a lot more active voice here than there was, for instance, when he was blowing seb and could make himself dissociate from what he was doing - he’s starting to lose control. The panic catches in his throat, fuzzing out his brain. He’s going to–with Vettel's mouth on him, he can’t stop it– 

Lewis digs his nails into his palms, as hard as he can, until the knife-edge of pain cuts through the fog in his head. Forces himself to breathe through his nose, fast and harsh. No. He isn't. He forces his breathing to slow down. He isn’t. He’s kept it at bay for so many years already. (he has not.) He can do it tonight. (he cannot.)

Vettel’s mouth makes a wet sound. Lewis twitches, his hands jerking convulsively. He forces his attention away and up, tipping his head back and searching the inside of the car. The lining on the roof. The leather of the headrest next to his face. Five, six, seven, eight stitches in the seam. The windscreen is fogged up. He presses his fingertips against it, the cold sending a shock down his spine all the way to the soles of his feet. please imagine the titanic car sex scene but if rose was having a massive dissociative panic attack the entire time. Nineteen stitches, twenty. In the distance, a car honks. Thirty-two, thirty-three. random observations about the setting around a character my beloved. maybe my favorite narration trick of all time to get across that a character is distracted and/or trying to distract themself but also in this case, for a fic whose mood is very much driven by the setting it takes place in, a nice way to sneak in extra exposition about some tactile and sensory details that would be unreadable in large paragraph form. 

“Are you even paying attention?” Vettel suddenly snaps, as he pulls off with a wet sound. [affectionately] attention-thirsty BRAT.

Lewis jerks. “What?” he croaks, clearing his throat. “I–obviously–”

“So then why aren’t you doing anything,” Vettel snaps back. “You aren’t even looking–” for the most part, this version of lewis is not particularly concerned about seb’s internal life (much like this version of seb isn’t concerned with lewis’s whole deal - they’ve never really interacted as people outside of racing at this point, remember), but i also didn’t just want seb to come off as a blank wall that only exists in-story for lewis to bounce his repression off of. imo, it’s important that seb is also working through his own stuff - not just because that makes him more interesting as a character, but also because it puts him and lewis on more even footing - for all of seb’s bravado and (imo genuine) greater comfort with his sexuality, he by no means has all his shit figured out, and the fact that he’s so in his head about wanting to be good at sex, wanting to be taken seriously and not seen as a child, wanting to be genuinely desired, etc. that he ALSO pulled the “find a stranger who will face-fuck me, a barely-legal adult, in a bathroom at a random bar” move, just like lewis, points to them not being all that different, even if at face value seb seems far less bothered by lewis about all of this.

“That's your problem, not mine,” Lewis answers. He forces his hands open, wincing at how stiff his fingers are. His breaths feel damp, like he’s just run ten kilometres or cried for an hour. The skin all over his body feels so tight that he thinks he might burst. lewis’s plan b for the night truly was like 1) suck seb off and don’t enjoy it (failed step 1) 2) don’t let seb suck your dick just get out of the car and go (failed step 2) 3) okay if he really wants to he can but you’re going to have the most self control of any person in the world and not come and eventually he’s going to get bored and give up and you will have achieved your goal of having mediocre gay sex and proving to yourself it's not all it's cracked up to be and can go home in peace (about to fail step 3)

He needs to get out of the car. He needs to get Vettel’s mouth off of him. He can feel the two of them flying around the corners, wheel to wheel, trying to force each other wide; pushing the braking point further and further, edging closer to disaster every lap. Lift off, he hisses to himself desperately. broadly one of the things i wanted to explore in this fic is lewis’s relationship to his own drive and hunger, and the parallels between his own desire to win, which propelled him to that GP3 title, and his sexual desires. a lot of this fic is about him trying to pretend that those two things are separate when in reality (and he knows this on some level) the thing that he hates and wants to rip out of himself is the same thing that will push him to greatness and let him achieve all that he has achieved (and will achieve)! and trying to nourish that desire in one part of his life and stamp it out in another does not work. 

Vettel’s mouth is still hanging open, panting. His pupils are so wide that they’ve almost swallowed up the blue. In the low light, Lewis can barely see the shine of spit on his lip. He looks ravenous. Lewis’s mouth waters. [f+tm voice] WE ALL! HAVE! A HUNGER-

but actually. once again. even if they don’t know it yet - they are more similar than they are different. in the way they’re hungry for the things they want – wholeheartedly, ravenously, undeniably, and beyond reason – maybe more so than anything else. 

He forces himself to drag his eyes back up to meet Vettel’s, digging his nails back into his palms. Quietly, he hears himself say: “Give me something worth looking at, then, if you’re so upset.” 

Something shifts in Vettel’s expression, and all of a sudden it hits Lewis, too fast and too late, how monumentally stupid that was to say; to think, even for a second, that there's any universe where Vettel would ever brake first. a little bit of projection on lewis’s end, imo, because this is also definitely true about him. in the same way that neither of them would ever brake early to play it safe and let the other overtake them through a corner - even if lewis knows it’s a bad idea, there was never any way that he was going to let seb win gay chicken tonight. and so there was no other way that this could have ended.

The heat crashes into Lewis, full-force. Before he can say anything, do anything about it, Vettel pushes his legs back open and swallows Lewis back down.

[seenoversundown]

Chiaroscuro

Josh x Quinn

TW: none (: just some fluff

Word Count: 1.2k

Quinn POV

Walking into the festival grounds, hand in hand with my Josh, who is practically vibrating with excitement. Seeing the string lit trees while everybody is picking their spots to set up their blankets feels like a dream. 

“Are you nervous, Starlight?“ I whisper, leaning into Josh. He squeezes my hand a few times before quickly nodding. Josh was always a candidly happy boy but, nothing will beat the way he is beaming at the sight of this festival set up.

Josh was finally accepted to present a film he put together and I’ve never been more proud, even if it’s a local film festival that is hosted once a season. Given that it’s October, the theme for the fest is Horror Films, which isn’t necessarily my favorite but I will always be there for Josh. 

“Okay glow bug, find us a cozy spot and I’m going to go get the schedule.” He quickly says before pressing a kiss to the side of my head.

“Don’t get lost!” I yell as he scurries off into the crowd, knowing full well he didn’t hear it. 

After sneaking past even more horror fans, I found a sweet little spot under a tree. While smoothing out our blanket, I can hear him singing as he’s making his way back. 

“What a lovely day it is,” bringing a smile to my face just by the sound of his voice. “Isn’t it my little glow bug?” 

Plopping himself down on the blanket and giving the space next to him a little double pat, I can’t help but laugh at the gesture. 

“Every day spent with you is lovely” I tell him, because simply put, it’s the truth. Gently squishing his face, making him giggle. It was selfish really, anything to make that dimple pop. I haven’t seen him this giddy since that night on the rooftop. 

“Where are you on the schedule?” I questioned. 

“Fourth!”, he says excitedly, “but there’s only six films being shown, so I really hope mine is memorable for everybody.” 

I could hear the excitement start to leave and the doubt creeping in its place. 

“I’m sure it’s absolutely perfect, Josh. Don’t be too hard on yourself. The stars aligned to get you here, enjoy all of it.” I tell him, hoping maybe some encouraging words will help him feel a bit better. 

“Thank you, bug. You’re right. No reason to fret about it beforehand,” he mumbles. “Now come and get comfortable so we can enjoy these horrific films.” 

I spend most of the time during the first three indie horror films, watching through squinted eyes and listening to Josh’s commentary under his breath. I’ll never understand how he enjoys watching these but I'll gladly make the exception to spend time with him. I’ve been listening to him talk about the film he put together for months and I’ve only been lucky enough to see little clips, mostly from sneaking up behind him while he’s editing. 

“I actually quite liked that one,” Josh says at a normal volume, snapping me out of my thoughts. “It was done so well, I’ll find them later so I can give them a proper ‘bravo!’” 

If there’s one thing I know about tonight, it’s that we will be the last to leave . He just wants to make sure everybody feels included, so he will spend the night speaking to everyone. It’s admirable really, because he and I are not the same. But maybe that’s how we balance each other out so well.

“I’m sure they would love to talk to you but it’s basically your turn, love!” I remind him, earning a grin.

“I really can’t wait for you to see it,” he says as he’s standing up. “I think you’ll enjoy it.”

I reach my hand up towards him motioning for him to lean a little closer and as he does, I pull him in. Pressing my lips against his gently, leaving a few small kisses on the corners of his mouth and the tip of his nose, I see his beautiful smile start to creep onto his face.

“I’m already so proud of you,” leaving one last kiss to his forehead, “ now go! Go impress the fellow creepy folk!” Which earns a good laugh out of him as he starts walking up to the front. 

“Next up, Joshua Kiszka presenting his film, The Red Opus“, I watch the MC hand the microphone over to Josh, not having thought about the fact he would get to speak. I lock eyes with him from a distance seeing him release a big breath before pulling the mic up to his mouth. 

“Thank you so much for having me here. It really is an honor. I have been passionate about film for my entire life and being able to finally show the world is really special to me. Well, with that said, I hope it scares the shit out of you!” Josh exclaims. He always had a way of speaking that would make anybody laugh, no matter the crowd. It makes sense how he’s done so well in his past and current jobs, that charismatic little shit. 

Josh quickly hustles through the crowd of blankets and settles back down onto ours. 

“Your face is going to be sore from all that smiling you’ve been doing”, I can’t help but poke a little fun at how excited he is. 

“What can I say,” he torts back, “I get to spend an afternoon in the crisp air, enjoying people’s response to my film with the love of my life. I have a lot to be happy about, bug.”

I can’t help but beam back at him. It’s a wonderful thing being in love with someone who thinks you made the sun and the stars in the sky. But nothing beats knowing that our stardust paths decided to cross somewhere and I will be eternally grateful for that. 

“I’m proud of you, Josh” I stared into his eyes for a moment, “really, I’m so proud to know you.” Hearing the movie start, we both break eye contact to see the title screen pop up. 

Through some laughter, “Now, let’s see what horrible shit you decided to come up with.” 

I sat there and watched, cuddled up to Josh, and only had to look down a couple times throughout.  He was also aware that I’m not the biggest fan of horror in general, so I would get a little tap on my thigh, letting me know to look away. 

“It’s almost over,” he whispers, “I’m really happy that you’re here” pressing a gentle kiss to the top of my head. Sending little tingles through me, everyday I fall even more in love with him. 

Everybody begins to hoot and holler as it ends, causing Josh to quickly stand so he can graciously accept the praise. He will forever be the cutest man I laid eyes on as he does a little curtsy to each side, relishing in his achievement. I can’t help the fact my eyes are a little misty watching him, he has worked so hard for this that it’s nice to see him get to live his most authentic self. 

And as anticipated, we spent the rest of the evening talking to everybody- after watching the last two gore fest films of course. 

Josh was just elated to spend time talking to other film buffs and there wasn’t anything I could say that would stop that. So with that, I stood beside him all night and enjoyed the fresh fall air while he spoke endlessly about his love for film under the moonlight. 

Masterlist | Taglist

[brokehorrorfan]

Scream Factory has revealed the specs for its Bride of Chucky, Seed of Chucky, Curse of Chucky, and Cult of Chucky 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray releases. Originally due out on July 25, they'll now drop on August 29.

Shout Factory has an exclusive set with all four films, four exclusive slipcovers by Devon Whitehead, eight 18x24 posters (original theatrical art plus Whitehead’s new art), prism sticker, five movie cards by Beyond Horror Design (limited to 500), and five enamel pins designed by Matthew Skiff (limited to 500). Pictured below, it’s $223.98.

1998’s Bride of Chucky is directed by Ronny Yu (Freddy vs Jason) and written by Don Mancini (Child’s Play). Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile, and John Ritter star.

2004’s Seed of Chucky is written and directed by Don Mancini. Jennifer Tilly, Redman, Hannah Spearritt, John Waters, Billy Boyd, and Brad Dourif star.

2013’s Curse of Chucky is written and directed by Don Mancini. Fiona Dourif, Danielle Bisutti, Brennan Elliott, Maitland McConnell, Chantal Quesnelle, Summer Howell, A Martinez, and Brad Dourif star.

2017’s Cult of Chucky is written and directed by Don Mancini. Fiona Dourif, Michael Therriault, Adam Hurtig, Alex Vincent, Jennifer Tilly, and Brad Dourif star.

Bride and Seed have received new 4K scans of the original camera negatives, while Curse and Cult have been newly mastered in 4K. R-rated and unrated cuts of Seed, Curse, and Cult are included. Special features are listed below.

Bride of Chucky disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Dolby Vision (HDR 10 Compatible)

Audio commentary by director Ronny Yu

Audio commentary by actors Jennifer Tilly and Brad Dourif and writer Don Mancini

Bride of Chucky disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Audio commentary by director Ronny Yu

Audio commentary by actors Jennifer Tilly and Brad Dourif and writer Don Mancini

Bride of Chucky: Spotlight on Location

The Making of Brude of Chucky

Additional screens from the TV version

Theatrical Trailer

TV Spots

For ten years, the tortured soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray has been imprisoned inside a child’s doll. Chucky (Brad Dourif) is reborn when his old flame, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), rescues his battered doll parts from a police impound. But Chucky wants his favorite playmate cut down to size, so he transforms his blushing bride into a stunning little terror. Chucky and Tiffany can’t wait to start their own homicidal honeymoon. When this demonic duo hits the road and hooks up with a pair of unsuspecting newlyweds, they leave a trail of murder and mayhem behind them.

Seed of Chucky disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Theatrical cut

Audio commentary by writer-director Don Mancini and special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner

Audio commentary by writer/director Don Mancini and actress Jennifer Tilly

Seed of Chucky disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Theatrical & unrated cuts

Audio commentary by writer-director Don Mancini and special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner

Audio commentary by writer/director Don Mancini and actress Jennifer Tilly

Interview with special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner (new)

Interview with actor John Waters (new)

Deleted scene with optional commentary by writer/director Don Mancini and actress Debbie Lee Carrington

Heeeeer’s Chucky

Family Hell-day Slide Show

Conceiving the Seed of Chucky

Till on The Tonight Show

FuZion Up Close with The Seed of Chucky stars

Storyboard to Final Feature Comparison

Teaser Trailer

Theatrical Trailer

TV Spots

Everyone’s favorite killer doll returns and the Chucky legacy continues with the introduction of a new family member! This time around, Chucky (Brad Dourif) and his homicidal honey, Tiffany, are brought back to life by their orphan offspring, Glen. Then, the horror goes Hollywood as Chucky unleashes his own brand of murderous mayhem!

Curse of Chucky disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Unrated cut

Audio commentary by writer-director Don Mancini, special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner, and actress Fiona Dourif

Curse of Chucky disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Unrated and R-rated cuts

Audio commentary by writer-director Don Mancini, special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner, and actress Fiona Dourif

Interview with actor Alex Vincent (new)

Interview with actress Danielle Bisutti (new)

Interview with special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner (new)

Playing with Dolls: The Making of Curse of Chucky

Living Doll: Bringing Chucky to Life

Voodoo Doll: The Chucky Legacy

Storyboard Comparisons

Deleted Scenes

Gag Reel

Trailer

TV Spot

He’s back! From the filmmakers that brought you Chucky comes the terrifying return of the pint-sized doll possessed by the spirit of a notorious serial killer. When a mysterious package arrives at the house of Nica (Fiona Dourif, True Blood), she doesn’t give it much thought. However, after her mother’s mysterious death, Nica begins to suspect that the talking, red-haired doll her visiting niece has been playing with may be the key to the mounting bloodshed and chaos. The return of America’s favorite toy, voiced again by Brad Dourif, is full of blood-splattered thrills and chills!

Cult of Chucky disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Unrated and R-rated cuts

Audio commentary by writer-director Don Mancini and special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner

Cult of Chucky disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Unrated and R-rated cuts

Audio commentary by writer-director Don Mancini and special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner

Interview with actor Alex Vincent (new) Interview with actress Danielle Bisutti (new) Interview with special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner (new)

A look inside actor Alex Vincent's recording studio (new)

Inside the Insanity of Cult of Chucky

Good Guy Gone Bad: The incarnations of Chucky

The Dollhouse

Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Don Mancini

Trailers

TV Spot

Confined to an asylum for the criminally insane for the past four years, Nica (Fiona Dourif) is wrongly convinced that she, not Chucky, murdered her entire family. But after her psychiatrist introduces a new group therapy tool – a “Good Guy” doll – a string of grisly deaths plague the asylum and Nica starts to wonder if maybe she isn’t crazy after all. Andy (Alex Vincent), Chucky’s now-grown-up nemesis from the original Child’s Play, races to Nica’s aid. But to save her he’ll have to get past Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), Chucky’s long-ago bride, who will do anything, no matter how deadly or depraved, to help her beloved devil doll.

Pre-order Bride of Chucky, Seed of Chucky, Curse of Chucky, and Cult of Chucky.

[lieutenantbiscute]

GOW Valhalla DLC SPOILERS

Ok so I finally started the DLC and HOOO BOY!!

Love seeing Kratos go through a therapy session via combat and Mimir’s badgering. Freya wanting him to be a part of her peace council as the new God of War for the Norse realm really puts into perspective how much he still doesn’t trust himself with that type of power.

But him knowing that about himself only proves (to me at-least) that he’s grown from the god he once was. Mimir sees it too; especially once Helios gets involved!

The way I SCREAMED when I saw that asshole take Mimir’s place! Loved the snarky commentary though, reminds me very much of Hermes, hope to see him too. Also! When we get to Týr and him find out he’s the one who sent the invite and that WE HAVE TO FIGHT HIM NOW?

That’s the Týr content I’ve been waiting for! His insight and advice to Kratos from one God of War to another, the fact that he faced the same doubts as him about his title— AGH I’m in love with this version of Týr!!

Also also, Kratos putting Helios in the cage but then it changing to Mimir last minute and him just freaking out about it! Breaking the cage and therefore breaking Valhalla and Sigrun diving in to save them and then on the second run Kratos PLACING HIMSELF IN THE CAGE!!

This man I swear—

Can’t wait to jumo back in later tonight. This DLC is fucking AMAZING!!

[aritamargarita]

ATTITUDE || 013

im sorry if this chapter is kinda shorter than expected. im sleepy and i would’ve put a timeskip to add the next show but it makes sense to wait on it. promise i’ll make it up to you, time out with [name] will return in the next chapter!

i feel like reader is getting sassier every time i write her—also i don’t even like jerry lawler but im going to deal with it for the sake of commentary.…

The match wasn’t too bad so far. You were already a bit in and you focus your attention to the ring. Currently, The Rock had just hit Kurt Angle with a Samoan drop.

You could feel the crowd becoming antsy, even chanting ‘Rocky!’ every second they got. ‘Wow.’ You begin, adjusting your headphones. ‘They’re really coming alive tonight, huh? Hey, Austin! Who’s side are you on tonight??’

It got to the point where both men were crawling over to their respective corners, reaching out their hands for a tag.

He looks over at you with a dumbfounded look. You should know better than to even ask. ‘No one’s side but my own.’

‘It sounds you’re supporting The Rock.’ You conclude. He starts to speak, but you quickly cut him off. ‘Hey, viewers at home! Austin’s supporting Rock! Can you belie—‘

‘Shut your damn yapper!’ It’s not like he denied it either. ‘I told ya’ who’s side I’m on. You need to be put in time out.’

‘Time out? What am I, 10?? You can’t put me on time out!’

The two of you go back and forth like that for a while, but as soon as The Rock makes his hot tag to Kane, it all went out the window. The crowd erupts in cheers at the Big Red Machine taking care of Kurt.

To the point where you kinda felt bad. Of course, just for him. There’s zero sympathy for Jericho. It’s why you smile with glee when Kane takes him down with a Big Boot after trying to interfere.

So this is Kane, huh? He was monstrous. A force of power. For some reason you felt captivated by his strength.

‘[Name], now you and Y2J have your issues. But there’s rumors that say you two are involved with each other.’ JR says. ‘How do you feel about that?’

You look over in disgust. ‘Ew, don’t ever assault my ears like that again. I should be the last person you should even be asking about being involved with Jericho.’ You gag, covering your mouth. ‘I almost threw up!’

Austin agrees with you. ‘I’m right behind ya’. Let loose right on this table here. There’s a stick so far up his ass I bet he can taste it. Between him, little Rocky, and Angle, I’m not sure who I hate more..’

You decide to piggyback off of him. ‘I don’t mind anyone in the ring besides Jericho. I hope he loses tonight. I’ll laugh in his face as soon as that bell rings. If you open a dictionary, he’d be the definition of egotistic.’

‘It really is the battle of egos in the ring!’ Jerry nods.

Back and forth, Jericho and Kurt tag each other in for a double team. The Rock has yet to be tagged in.

‘This isn’t looking too good,’ You say. ‘I don’t know—‘ As soon as you say that, Kane recovers and Irish whips Kurt into the corner. Kurt runs right back into him and Kane quickly power slams him into the mat.

Now, both men were crawling to get a tag. ‘I’ll eat my words!’ You chime. The both of them make their respective tags and they switch, with The Rock immediately getting the upperhand. ‘Wow! Rock’s on fire!’

Austin just rolls his eyes. ‘I hope he burns ta’ death.’

Completely dominating the competition, The Rock goes even further and flips Kurt into the ring, then tosses him out. He then hits Jericho with a Spinebuster.

But then, he starts trying to apply a Sharpshooter! You had to stand up out of your seat, excited to see it. It had to be one of your favorite submission moves. He could really win with this one.

Oops, nevermind. Kurt comes back and slams his forearm into the back of The Rock’s head. Kane was there to take care of things.

Kane picks Kurt up and tosses him out of the ring once more, the latter slamming onto the ground in front of color commentary. Kane then gets out of the ring, hopping onto the floor.

All you can do is stare, and as he’s about to deal more damage to Kurt, he turns his attention to the commentary table. He’s looking straight at you and you stare back.

You wave. He doesn’t do anything back. He just stares.

Austin somehow had mistaken that Kane was looking at him. ‘The hell are you lookin’ at, ya damn jobbernowl?!’ Just for extra measure, he gives him the middle finger. It’s like he WANTED to go to anger management, jeez.

The Rock finally hits Jericho with a DDT and pins him. And that’s it! That’s the match!

You give a round of applause. You’re elated that Jericho lost tonight, it’s what he deserves. You were so excited that you took your headphones off, hop out of your seat, and grab The Rock’s title.

‘The hell is she up to??’ Austin was confused by your actions, taking off his own headphones.

You reach the title through the ropes with a smile. The Rock looks at you warily, but slowly takes the title. You smile up at him. You could tell he’s confused.

Suddenly, a hand on your shoulder pulls you back.

“What’re ya’ doing givin’ him the title?!” Austin yells.

“Um?! I was just being nice!”

He’s already heard that excuse. “What a load of bologna!” He waved his hand at you. “We’re gettin’ outta here!”

Was it really time to go? You had one last thing to do before you left. “Hold on!” You wanted to rub Jericho’s loss in his face.

But before that, you could see the final stare off between Austin and The Rock. Everyone was definitely anticipating something happening between them, but you didn’t want to stay long enough to witness.

You quickly roll in the ring, leaning down so Jericho can hear you. “HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A LOSER?! HUH?! HUH?!”

He flinched at your words, but before he could grab at your leg to pull you down, you jump back. No way he’d take you down that easy.

But, hey, you have to remember what Debra said. You couldn’t antagonize him. You had to be the bigger person..

And you damn sure would try your hardest. Maybe if you walked away now, she’d reconsider your classes!

You do so, rolling out of the opposite side of the ring and wait for Austin to meet you there. It’s time to get the hell out of here.

HOTEL ROOM // 8:23 PM

The phone rings, so you roll over in bed to pick it up. “Hello?”

“Hey.” Lita’s voice came from the other side of the line, her voice slightly tired. “What’re you up to?”

“Nothing.” You respond. “What, are you going to ask what I’m wearing next?”

Your words bring a laugh out of Lita. “Hilarious. I was just curious on how things went with Jeff yesterday?”

“Things got interesting. Promise to not tell anyone?”

“Of course.”

“Well, I kissed him when you guys left, but that’s all. We did nothing other than that.”

Lita gasps. “Really?? That’s why he was smiling like crazy the entire night...”

Thank god the room was a single suite. You weren’t sure what you’d do if this information got into the wrong hands. Your clothes were neatly folded once more, this time with no shaky hands! You were proud of yourself.

“Oh yeah? He was smiling the whole time?” It brought a smile to your own face. “That’s nice. But enough about me. What’s up with you and Team Extreme??”

Lita sighs. “Still unresolved. I don’t know what I’m going to do. All of us, all we’ve been doing is fighting and I don’t know how to fix it….’

“Hmm..” You go into thought for a minute. How would you approach a situation like that anyway? It’s hard to talk after all that yelling. You’ve witnessed one argument, and it’s safe to say you don’t want to see anymore. “You know, Debra is forcing me AND Austin into anger management. On that note, maybe you should look into couples therapy. You and Matt.”

Lita’s just starts to snicker. “Oh wow. I’m sorry—“ You could tell she was trying her hardest not to laugh. “You and none other than Stone Cold Steve Austin,” She says the name for a full effect, “..are going to anger management. That is something I never thought I’d hear.”

“It’s a shocker, isn’t it?” You say, rolling over to the nightstand. The cord had gotten stuck, so you had to untangle it. “We were forced, it’s not like we can go against Debra’s word.”

“She’s like your mom or something.”

“Definitely.”

“Hey, wait, you weren’t doing anything, right?“ Lita asks. You give her a “no”, and you could just tell there’s a smile on her face. “Good. We’re going to IHOP. What’s your room number?” A pancake addict in the making, it seems. “I still haven’t gotten any and I think it’d be a good way to talk. There’s a lot I need to tell you that I can’t say here.”

“And what better than doing it over a plate of pancakes, right? Sure, I’ll come with you.” You definitely had a lot to tell her, but you were pretty sure it was vice versa. Before you can talk with her anymore, the phone rings again. “Hold on, I’m getting another call.”

Momentarily trying to figure out what button was used to put someone on hold, you tap it quickly and hit the button to accept the next line. “Hello?”

“Evening, Nitro Girl.”

It’s Triple H. Or should you say Hunter? You were shocked to hear his voice again.

“Evening.” You greet back.

“Got anything new for me?”

“I don’t, unfortunately.” You sigh. “I’m surprised you’re calling me, what’s the deal?”

“I’m returning to the ring in about a week. I’ve already been making my rounds backstage. I’d like you to keep your eyes peeled and your ears open. I know there’ll be a lot of talk.” He said. “If Jericho or someone close to him has a blabber mouth, report back to me.”

You weren’t sure how you missed him tonight, but there’s always next time. “As if Jericho has any friends. His ego is so inflated I’m not sure there’s any room for them. But I’ll do what you ask.”

“Atta’ girl. That’s all I can ask for. Stephanie’s been acting….normal for the most part. Hasn’t talked about anyone else lately since I’ve mentioned coming back to wrestle. She seems excited.”

“That’s a given. You’re coming back to the ring. From what I’ve heard, you two were pretty unstoppable when it came to matches. She helped you out a lot.” It was true. Stephanie always interfered one way or another. You shrug slightly. “I’m sure business partners are out of the window.”

He’s silent for a minute, but before you can begin talking again, he goes first. “I’m still led to believe that she could be sleeping with someone else. You’d better get used to this, we’ll be calling very frequently from now on.”

Oh great! You’ll be talking to him for a while then. Especially if what he thinks turns out to be true.

“You know, I can think of maybe TWO people who definitely wouldn’t approve of this partnership…” You trail off, wrapping the phone cord around your finger.

“Then this is just our dirty little secret. I told you, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Well, what if there’s more?”

He seemed intrigued. “Go on.”

You’ll take your chances. You’ve already made your bed, it’s time to lie in it. Even if the accusations were false, you’d pretend like you never spoke to him. “You and I, how about we get even closer? I mean, if Stephanie’s possibly stepping out, why don’t you give her a taste of her own medicine? I mean, if your instincts are telling you the truth.”

“That’s cute. Listen, I’m only about business. I don’t normally stray past business relationships.”

“Unfortunate.”

“However, I may make an exc—“

Knocks at your door had made you get up out of bed. “Shoot. I’ve gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.” You don’t even give Hunter a chance to respond before you slam the phone onto the base. Getting up, you open the door.

Of course, It’s Lita that’s waiting for you, car keys in hand.

“You ready?”

You were in fact, not ready. Between having to throw something suitable on and haphazardly printing directions, you were a little off.

“[Name]?”

“Yeah?”

“…When you printed out those directions, are you sure they were to go to IHOP?” Lita asks. “Because right now, that looks like a Waffle House.”

“Waffle House?” You repeat. “What?” She stops the car momentarily, pulling over so she can read the directions herself. She points to the yellow sign first, then looks back to the paper.

“Yup. This says to Waffle House. What the hell did you do on the hotel computer? More importantly, how did you mess up?! International House of Pancakes and Waffle House aren’t the same thing!”

You just laugh. It’s all you can do. There’s always something getting in your way. No pancakes tonight!You two were already close to the end. “W-Why aren’t you laughing?”

“…Because it’s not funny.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know how that happened! I guess we’re eating waffles tonight. We’re already here.” You shrug, throwing your hands out defensively. Lita can only huff.

“Fine. But next time, I get to print the directions and you drive.” She pulls back into the street to enter the parking lot and all you can do is smile.

It’s only about 8:35. You’d probably be getting back to your room at a decent time! Not bad at all. You were pretty hungry, so you hoped they could cook fast.

You two entered the building and were seated quickly. It was sort of busy, but you liked hearing the chatter from nearby. It made you feel comfortable.

Lita takes a seat from across you. “I think me and Matt are done for a while…” She begins. “It’s just too much. I can’t deal with it right now. I feel like all he cares about is himself.”

“I told you, you’d better look into like, some type of therapy. It sounds like you guys are really going through it right now.”

Instead of laughing, she seems to mull over it. “Mmmm, I don’t know. I’m just tired of all the yelling. They’ve got another match coming up so I’m hoping this all goes away.”

“I could invite you to anger management.” Extending the offer to her could only make her scoff.

“Hell no.”

Once you two ordered your food, you felt like it was your turn to say what’s been on your mind. “You know remember who called on the hotel phone? You’ll never guess who it was.” You pause for dramatic effect. “..Triple H.”

“What??” Lita was definitely taken aback. She could remember it like it was yesterday. Funnily enough, it was him and Austin who had terrorized not only herself, but targeted both the Hardy Boys. Even Stephanie got in on it. And it’s not like you had a clue, you weren’t in the company yet. “Are you serious?”

You idly pick up your fork with a nod. “Yeah. Whole thing is, he thinks Stephanie is cheating or something. Now we’re like not-so-official business partners.”

Lita was all for taking Stephanie down. She was a thorn in her side last year for the Women’s Championship. The feud was mostly over, but she had a right to feel bitter. “Whatever you do, I’ll be supporting you.”

For some reason, you felt a bit surprised she didn’t protest. No doubts, no nothing. She just said she’ll support you. “Wow, okay.”

“And I’m sure Jeff will be right behind you.” She gives you a devilish smile, making you roll your eyes.

You weren’t entirely sure about that. “That was only a one time thing, I don’t think it’ll happen again. I’m sure Jeff was still pretty woozy from his last match and the one before.” You can only hope it’s the opposite.

Lita can only reply in a sing-song voice, mocking and mirroring yours from earlier that night. “I don’t think sooooo!”

Your food was set down on the table. After thanking the waiter, the only thing you could do was rub your forehead. “You’re a real piece of work.”

“I’m sure you love me anyway.“

reader + jeff is in fact, not a one time thing. *puts y’all in a tag team match*

i’ve always heard mapquest was used for directions back then…so staying true to the 2001 theme they had to use it LMAO

lita & reader are just fun to write together!! you gotta love team extreme. but im trying to think how to involve matt tbh he is a big meanie. and im sorry i have to say this but y’all gonna be like 😮 at one of the parts next chapter IM SOO SERIOUS it’s definitely in the works

[waitmyturtles]

Wanted to quickly post on two ongoing shows that I am loving! She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat (Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, or TsukuTabe) and Two Office Workers Who Are Too Poisonous For One’s Eyes (Me No Doku Sugiru Shokuba No Futari or MenoDoku):

1) FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY, TsukuTabe is out and it is FABULOUS! GAHHHHH, a GL WITH GORGEOUS SHOTS OF DELICIOUS FOOOOOOD, I NEED MOOORE OF THIS:

AAAHHHH, MINCED PORK STEW, NEED A RECIPE ASAP, AAAAHHHHH!!!

But, no, seriously, the story is wonderful, which I’ve covered before, but really quickly: Nomoto is a single woman who has a small appetite, but a desire to cook HUGE portions of food. Her neighbor, Kasuga, loves to eat a lot -- so they might be a perfect match for each other.

I’ve written about the following before in the context of NHK’s 2018 dorama, Life as a Girl, in that I really love when NHK — Japan’s biggest broadcaster — tackles edgier content, such as transgender rights (in the case of LAAG) and now here, in a GL in TsukuTabe. The mangaka behind TsukuTabe, Yuzaki Sakaomi, is publicly and prominently supporting the legalization of same-sex marriage in Japan, and NHK certainly can’t be turning a blind eye to that.

But, as well, this show is loaded with commentary about gender equity and equality. It pisses Nomoto off, for instance, that her male colleagues equate her love for cooking with an assumption that she’ll be a great mother and wife. It pisses her off so much that she cooks way too much food to blow off steam — and invites Kasuga over to eat up. At the same time, Kasuga experiences discrimination by way of being served too little food at a restaurant, so she’s ready for Nomoto’s big dinner.

All of this is to say that there’s a LOT going on in each utterly darling 15-minute episode (gotta say, NHK, it is criminal that these episodes aren’t longer, but I know we have a way to go with GL in Japan), and I cannot wait to see where this goes. I really highly recommend reading the manga before diving in — it’s a fast and fabulous read!

2) I wrote about MenoDoku previously, and I’m just here to say that if you want to watch multiple office fujoshis be COMPLETELY over the top in their obsession of two guys in their office (all while the two fujoshis telepathically communicate to each other), PLEASE WATCH THIS SHOW. I am breathless, it’s total insanity. 

Basically, the show is about Oto and Shizuku, two gals who work in the same office, who discover that they both fantasize about Chief Hongou and his subordinate, Daichi, being in a relationship. The shipping is NON-STOP. Episode 13 shows the two lads having fallen asleep in the office, which is like earthquake-level for the two girls:

And later in the episode, the ladies realize that Chief Hongou had intentionally asked Daichi to drive with him to a training to help him through a rough patch in the office:

Legit, all they do is communicate telepathically and flip the F out -- it is HILARIOUS.

Each episode is only five minutes, but I hope this show goes on forever, because the shipping is perfect. I might have perhaps smelled a potential small attraction between Oto (ponytail) and Chief Hongou in another episode, but I can’t do that to Daichi, so I’ll leave it alone for now. 

Anyway, I am totally stanning these shows (kind of nice to have a touch of a breather after the Cherry Magic volcano of emosh last month), and I start Utsukushii Kare tonight, along with finishing Wakako Zake/season 5, which I will write a WHOLE THING ABOUT, because I love shows where people eat alone. And my khao man gai post will come soon, too, yay!