#cheer squad= hadestown; mattie and reese are part of the squad

[averlym]

ASHJDSAHLKGJ WAIT I NEVER THOUGHT ABT LUMINE THAT WAY

but yes omg lumine paimon found family much beloved. (i actually can't ever bring myself to use the emergency food dialogues because paimon is just. too precious.)

also. yes i have a pair of jeans and ever since i read that pun i have been making the same pun NONSTOP my friends are sick of me now but that was pure comedic genius omg.

aiyaaa no don't say that about your writing >:(( self-deprecation is banned in this household tumblr i am sure it is amazing!!! and either way beauty is in the eye of the beholder. in this scenario i am the beholder and everything you make is amazing. tis facts.

ganqing though.... beloveds.... i am such a multishipper it is a serious problem but BELOVEDS... i have too many fic ideas and no time :c

WATT HADESTOWN AU??? IM INTERESTED ??? that would be SO cool like honestlyyyyy

that reminds me i was toying with the idea of a jeanlisa/beiguang hadestown au once upon a time but extracurriculars got in the way sob

I hope you have a wonderful day!!!!! *more hugs 'cause they make the world go 'round*

-the one and only teanon <3 (i'm on an old pc that is extremely scuffed and has no emojis sob)

as per usual, most rambles are in the tags,,, but also here are some doodles from the watt hadestown au it all fits in my head somehow so idk how clear these are

more info on the general story under the cut: but also, read the existing tags for this post first!

sign on the line 'cause you're running out of time

a/n: a scene from watt/hadestown (but i go off on too many tangents in brackets)

riley steps forward. 'she can't go. she signed a contract. she belongs to the team.'

kate stares between eva and riley, and back to eva. "is it true?"

they speak in unison. 

"she does." "i do."

(kate thinks, sometimes, about eva and 'i do's and their wedding song. this is not the 'i do' she wanted. this 'i do' she dreamed of only in her nightmares, on the track to here, this hell.)

"i can't leave the team," says eva, "i signed. 90k, my scholarship, for me to be on the team. climatology, kate! any way the wind blows," she sings bitterly.

"you can't leave- please not you- not you too-" comes kate's response, words spilling, falling from her lips, the same ones she said to chess before she left and never came back and now eva is going too- there isn't even a promise to skype, to keep in touch, to let her follow- "come home with me," she begs, "we can fix it-" 

(she knows they can't. riley is the richest girl in the area. the school can't afford to lose her. 90k scholarship, fancy gym- giles corey would bend over backwards for this girl.)

eva laughs sadly. "you don't know what it's like to be hungry." 

(i have worked so hard for so much less, eva thinks, remembers being unable to study for college because she was always working, how the stress got to her. thinks about how annleigh said kate would make her feel alive- but she can't quite remember how it felt. being a tiger has dulled her inside. riley is rich, and she knows how to use the money and power she has- a world where all the wrong kids keep getting all the nice things, she thinks wildy for a moment, watching kate stare at her brokenly, and she loves kate but sometimes she doesn't get it, lost in her music, lost in her grief.)

from the side, cairo watches. 

(the memory of seeing eva flashes through her head. up on top for spring, above and away from this basement, pouring drinks for everyone in the sunshine. kate had cried, "she will always fill our cups," a praise, a challenge, a reassurance to the girl next to her, staring at this bringer of life with skepticism. cairo had noticed, and looked directly at this girl, hungry and tired, and chimed in with "i will," watching her face grow hopeful. kate grinned, strummed her song and toasted, "and we will always raise them up!")

(growing up, despite appearances, kate never hated cairo. "i'll play my song and you and riley can kiss and make up," she told cairo as a child. cairo looked at this mortal girl, fingers red from holding guitar chords, and scoffed a disbelieving "sure.") there was a frenemy sort of passive-aggressiveness between kate and cairo, and out of all the gods, cairo was one of the rare few she trusted to help. like now.

(she thinks to annleigh turning to her, looking haunted, saying that cairo and riley were behind chess's death, and her immediate reaction being to defend cairo- "cairo never hated chess!")

kate turns her head to the side, and cairo, lost in the tumultuous thoughts of an immortal who has lost so many (her mind, right now, is thinking of farrah) looks up. "cai," kate pleads, and cairo steps forward, into the dull glow of riley's basement, so different from sunlight above. riley's voice hums, a calming technique cairo taught her long ago, and cairo can nearly hear the words with the tune. "please forgive me for doing what's best for you," echoes riley's voice in her head, sad and desperate.

"riley," she starts, and her friend looks to her. riley's hands are shaking, something cairo remembers from fourth grade. "make this easier" riley sings softly, voice trembling, and looks at her.

"eva means nothing to me!" says riley, defensive, mind whirling with 'cairo must think i have a crush on eva or something and now she hates me just like i got mad at farrah when cairo started spending so much time with her but farrah was bad for her they kept getting drunk and please forgive me for doing what's best for you i love you i love you i love you please she means nothing to me it's always been you-'

and maybe the two of them know each other too well, maybe they're too in sync, because cairo looks at riley and sees how much riley cares for her, and also thinks of farrah, and the suspicions she has, and her heart breaks because she knows how to fix this and she doesn't want to do it.

"i know," cairo says (reassuring, i care for you too, do this to please me) and then, "but she means everything to her."

riley is beset with phantoms that take cairo's voice and face and rip them off, because suddenly, even though she is looking at her best friend, all she can see are ghosts.

chess floats near her face, and riley can almost feel her nonexistent breath beside her cheek. "damned if you don't", she sings, hauntingly persuasive. let them go. the guilt claws at riley's chest. she can't breathe. 

chess then glares at farrah as her double braids flop onto riley's head. with fake cheer, she somersaults through the air and grins at riley upside down. "damned if you do!" mocking, taunting. you can't win.

clark appears, broods by her side. choruses with the other two before they fade- "whole damn nation's watching you."

even as the apparitions subside, drifting in front of her instead, their song continues around riley- "what you gonna do when the chips are down, now that the chips are down?"

"here's a little tip," farrah hums, sing-song, and a bottle of belladonna wine appears in her hand.

"word to the wise," sighs chess, and suddenly her hair is filled with poppy red, flowers blooming and covering the blood from an inconspicuous stab hidden beneath her jacket.

clark, instead, seems to be spiralling, twisting the ring around his finger until it warps into a bloody knife. "here's a little snippet of advice," he sings.

three fates, always singing in the back of her mind, in front of her vision. here, they mock her. clark places the knife he is twisting before riley, and it hovers there as the spirits disappear. "men are fools, men are frail, give them the rope and they'll hang themselves."