#i have another ten on people babying dave

[m1ssunderstanding]

Get Back Rewatch 55 Years On: Day 14

Who is this talking to Ringo? Press? A boy scruff? Someone who wants their project produced by Apple? He tries George too.

Again, I love the "freak-out" as John calls it. They really could've had so much fun together under different circumstances. (Different being neither of them ever dated John) But John's so sweet saying, "Id like it to be part of her new LP. Our new LP."

I wonder what Robert Fraser thought of the beard.

Why are we playing 20 Flight Rock now, Paul? It's just overlayed over a montage to change "scenes", but I wonder what the real context was.

Billy. What a little ray of sunshine honestly.

"So what should we do that's fun? Besides work?" I feel like every day, John has a little adorable quote, and this is today's. Words to live by.

I don't remember if Get Back includes the "Oh Darling" version where John's answering back between lines in conversation with the lyrics. I sincerely hope so. Peter Jackson was probably like "well I can only include so much homosexuality before people have too many questions."

Ringo, you smooth criminal. I love that he just has this trick he learned as a teenager that the Beatles were all impressed by, back when Ringo was the scary gangster with the car and the beard, and he still does it for them like ten years later. It's so endearing.

Another cute John and Yoko moment: "It's just that screaming all the way." "Poor John." "Yes, it's so terrible." She's teasing him and being sweet to him at the same time. Cuties.

George asks Paul where his Rickenbacker is. "Isn't that one much better?" And Paul makes up some shit about the Hoffner being lighter. You nostalgic little bitch. Poor baby.

John's little guilty look at the camera when he's almost just taken something on film. It's cute. He looks like a naughty kid. But it's kind of a cool moment. It shows just how relaxed and natural he is. He's not performing for or worried about the cameras at all. What we're seeing of him today is just him. You know? Idk I think it's nice.

What's with the little pigeon noises in the middle of a recording, guys? They're so weird smh

Poor Glyn. He's just trying to do his job and he has to deal with fucking Leopold and Leob over here. He gives them some instruction. There's a look between the two of them. And then it's all, "Don't interrupt" "Hey son" "Stahhs when" "Hey" "they're recording. We're bloody Stahhs you know." "Look fuckface. Don't comment." "The cheek." The impenetrable wall of Lennon and McCartney, folks.

"Well, we'll have to do it sitting down. Or we get too excited." It's heartbreaking to me how obvious it is that they're still just having the absolute time of their lives together and that, as John put it, "the minutes are crumbling away."

Literally what the hell is with Dennis smacking Paul's ass (as like a 'good job, your band wants to put your song out as the single' I guess) and nobody reacting? Linda would've been like "ope, time to find a new head of Apple films." (Dave Spinoza on RAM, anyone?) He really does look so proud of himself, though. Happy for you, baby.

Oh, right, that's what Robert thinks. Paul looks like his working class fantasy. (DH Lawrence. Victorian Miner.)

And I'm just going to add this, since Peter Jackson REFUSES. Paul: Can't afford to mess around here, you know. Then

[hellfirestxnes]

Imagine Us

Chapter Two

eddie munson x f!reader

word count: 2.2k+

warnings: 18+, girl dad!eddie, mention of blood, flirting, divorce, custody battle, the girls call wayne grandpa (if there’s any tags missing, let me know please!)

notes: This isn’t edited! I also got some requests about people joining the taglist for this fic! You can fill out this taglist form here if you’d like to be added! Thank you for all of your support here on this ❤️

As the beginning of October comes and goes, you and Eddie share many lingering moments during drop off and pickup. You’ve discovered Laura only picks the girls up one Friday out of the month and every other day, Eddie is there between 3 o’clock and 3:15, ready to corral their giggling faces into the car and get them home for dinner. Usually, Eddie hangs around in the mornings if you’re helping another student. Not that he needs to, not that he should, and it’s only a few minutes… what’s the harm? He just wants to make sure he says hello every morning. If it doesn’t help start your day, it sure helps start his.

And every day you find your approach to teaching a big litter of 5-year-old’s seems a bit unorthodox to most. But, you’ve always found it easier to teach kids the wonders of the world around them while being immersed into it. So right before recess you gather jackets, spending time with each student to make sure they’re all zipped up and cozy. And you stop at little Alice Munson, her pigtail braids are punctuated with pink hair ties to match the pink jacket she had worn that day. “I picked pink today.” The dimples in her cheeks out in full force as she tilts up her chin, letting you zip the jacket up to the top.

“I think the pink looks very pretty, Alice.” You smile softly, giving her small hands a reassuring squeeze. She just giggles softly, her cheeks beginning to heat up as she turns her head away from you and down to the floor.

“Allie is okay.” Her voice is quiet, her eyes not directed towards you as she says it. They’re fixated on a spot on the ground in front of you. So you smile, squeezing her hand again to let her know you heard her before you’re standing up and leading your gaggle of a class out to the far end of the playground, letting them crowd around in the grass to find whatever treasures they could to use in their crafts after they’re back inside.

When you see the recess aide slip out into the crowd of children to relieve you, you thank her and quietly retreat back to your classroom. A quick tidy of everyone’s spaces and you’re ready to go when the kids return to you. And just as you sit at your desk you hear quiet sniffles outside of your door before little Alice Munson is peeking her head in. Immediately you can see the tears in her eyes, scraped bleeding skin, and swelling bump on her forehead. “Oh, sweetheart, what happened?” You’re quick to jump up, going over to her.

“I tripped on my shoe. Miss Dunn sent me inside for the nurse but I don’t know how to go there.” Her words aren’t as clear as they normally would be, through the tears and you sigh softly, reaching for her hands.

“Let's go get you cleaned up, okay?” You suggest and she just nods, holding onto you with her right hand as she rubs the tears away with her left. “I have to call your daddy, okay? Just to let him know what happened.” You give her hand a squeeze as you begin to walk her to the nurses office.

Alice just nods quietly in response. The silence settles for just a few moments and then Alice sniffles, “can my daddy come get me?”

“Oh… I dunno, sweetie.” You smile at her sympathetically, “I’ll talk to him okay? Let’s just get you taken care of first.”

*****

Eddie has worked with the same three guys at the shop for the last ten years and he feels like he knows everything about them. The way Leroy’s wife left him because of his drinking, he knows about Robert’s bouncing baby boy due in December, and even about how Dave’s moving back in with his parents. But Eddie? He tried for a long time to get his life out of prying eyes, but that plan flew out the window in the second year of his marriage. He remembers coming home from a particularly hard day to Laura crying on the couch, after lamenting to him about her visit with her doctor earlier in the day. The trill in his voice when he asked if she’s serious. He’s twenty-four. He’s not ready for this. What about her being pregnant is good news? He regrets it now, all these years later. The way he yelled, the things he’s broken. He remembers back then thinking he’d be just like his own father. He remembers the cops showing up on his doorstep, no doubt one of their other neighbors had called from the shouting— they were questioning his wife, asking if he’d hurt her. While he was still wrapping his head around the fact that he was going to be a dad. And going to work on Monday? You could sure as hell bet he was greeted with a pat on the back from Leroy, a smile on his face, “I promise you’re gonna do great, kid.” And he does. When he holds his daughter in his arms for the first time, he thinks he could cry.

The stereo cuts off, pulling Eddie from his thoughts and leaving the shop eerily quiet aside from the sound of tools clanking. “Eddie?” Leroy calls, Eddie never got many calls at work anymore. Those days were reserved for when his girls were little. Eddie wipes his hands on the rag in the pocket of his coveralls as he walks over, taking the outstretched phone from him quietly. He’s just as confused when he presses the phone up to his ear.

“Uh… hello?” He questions, unsure of who would be calling him here.

“Yes, Hi.” Your voice begins to fill his ears, sweet, smooth, and soft. He can just imagine the smile on your face right now as his own begins to turn a deep shade of crimson. Eddie glances out at the shop floor to where the guys continue to work quietly and he lets his guard down for just a moment, twisting the phone cord around his fingers and he smiles, flirting the best he can.

“And what do I owe this pleasure?” He hears the whistle before he sees any of their faces, which just deepens the color of his face by three shades at least.

“Wouldn’t say I’m calling out of pleasure, Eddie.” You retort, a small giggle threatening to escape before you compose yourself to deliver the real news. “There was an accident on the playground today, Allie’s got a pretty big goose egg on her forehead, the nurse checked her over and there’s nothing to worry about but, I’m required to call and let you know.” You explain, hearing the other men teasing Eddie on the other end of the line.

Eddie’s quiet for a few moments as his demeanor changes, maybe loving the way you so casually called her Allie, just as he and Jane did, “is she okay?” he asks, a bit of worry lacing his voice.

“Yeah, of course! She’s perfectly okay, she’s spending some time inside coloring.” Your eyes drift over to Alice sitting neatly at her desk, the bump on her forehead still angry and red. Otherwise, she seemed fine to you. “I’ll keep an eye on her and give you a call if it gets any worse, okay?” You settle his nerves, wishing this was anything but a work call.

Eddie just rubs over his face, the color leaving his cheeks. He leans back against the wall, phone still pressed to his ear as he thinks of what to say. “Thank you.” Is the best he comes up with, but he’ll have to beat himself up for it later. Embarrassing.

“Bye Eddie.” Your voice is soft again, no doubt that smile back on your face. It pulls his own out, dimples setting in deep and it brings out the tirade of teasing from the other guys as Eddie says goodbye and hangs up. He just rolls his eyes, flips the stereo back on, and continues to ignore the “who’s the girl?” comments he gets.

*****

It takes an hour out of the day, but the kids' monsters with all of their treasures are glued together and placed on top of their cubbies, waiting for them all to come back and see them Monday morning. You see each of their proud smiles as they begin decorating name tags for each of their freshly made friends. And you keep your promise to Eddie, watching Alice as closely as you possibly can when there are more than 20 other children in your care. The redness of the bump starts to fade and you can see her frown fading as well. She’s starting to relax which means the pain might be starting to subside.

Alice places her name tag in the bin with the rest of the kids once the bell rings, but heads back to her seat instead of to her cubby to grab her coat and backpack. You stand by the door, saying goodbye to each of your students as parent after parent comes to pick them up. Pausing when you see Alice begin to color another picture, smiling when you sit next to her after the class has emptied. “My daddy’s birthday is tomorrow.” She looks up at you, showing you the latest drawing she’d made.

You can only assume it’s Eddie, her, and her sister. But there’s another person standing next to Eddie that vaguely has the same hair color as you do, which is more than likely a big coincidence. But it still pulls a visceral feeling of warmth from your core. “Is this a card for your daddy?” You ask, genuinely curious.

“Yeah! This is daddy, and me and Jane.” She points at each one, grinning widely. The same smile you see amplified each morning on her father. “and that’s you!” She turns her head up to look at you, not sure what to expect. “My daddy likes you a lot. He told my grandpa.” she shrugs a bit, like it’s casual information in the household.

“He wanted to invite you to dinner this weekend.” Jane says from the door, walking over to gather up Alice’s things. “but he’s too embarrassed. So I’m going to.” She grins and Alice just begins to nod.

“Please, please, please?” She grins, standing up and stuffing her jacket on as Jane helps her with her backpack.

And you laugh softly, nodding. “Of course, kids.” You watch as Jane sorts a few flyaway hairs in Alice’s braids before grabbing her hand. “Is someone here to pick you up?” she frowns a bit, usually Eddie would come in, come say hello.

“Yeah, grandpa is. Dad had to work more.” Jane shrugs a little before she’s leading Alice out of the classroom. And you get up to follow, watching as the girls climb into the awaiting car at the front of the building talking and giggling with smiles on their faces.

*****

Eddie sighs heavily when he walks up the front steps of Wayne’s trailer. He leans his head against the door for just a moment as he takes a deep breath. He knew fighting Laura wasn’t going to be easy, but sitting the entire afternoon in court to have their case heard only to be told she was trying to go for full custody was exhausting. He’d sooner die than let her take his girls from him. They were happy here. He did all that he could so they could have a happy life, everything they want and need.

He can hear their laughs through the door with Wayne, smiling to himself. He had to put on a brave face, not let the emotion he was dealing with show. He wraps on the door with a knuckle just loud enough to get their attention before turning the handle and letting himself in. Wayne has dinner cooking, Jane is settled into the couch as she does her homework, and Alice is running to her daddy as quickly as she can. Eddie lifts her up and presses a kiss to her temple, settling her on his hip. “Did you two have a good day today?” He asks as he walks over to grab a beer and have a seat, Alice sitting on his lap. He’s exhausted mentally and physically and fully ready to indulge in dinner with his family.

“Yeah.” Jane nods as Eddie pops the top on the beer. His ears perk up when he hears your name fall out of her mouth. “I invited her to dinner this weekend.” She shrugs nonchalantly, “for your birthday.”

Eddie isn’t subtle about the way he chokes on his drink. It makes Wayne turn his head towards him, silently checking if he’s alright. Jane and Alice both laugh, grinning and giggling, they know they made him happy deep down. “you did, what?” Eddie asks softly, barely believing what he’s hearing.

Jane shrugs, “grandpa said it was okay.” and that’s when Eddie’s head whips towards Wayne, who just gives a carefree shrug, a knowing smile on his own face. One that Eddie never sees. “Are you happy?”

Eddie rubs over his face, shaking his head with a smile, as he sets the beer bottle down on the table. “Yeah, babes. I’m happy.”

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Chapter One || Chapter Two ||

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tags

@peachyproserpina @munsonzzgf @latedawsonearlysunsets92 @eiffelmezarry @mcueveryday @bibieddiesgf @tlclick73

[issie-https]

Working Mom

Dave Grohl X Reader

A/n: Just a little something while I work on the requests❤️ I recently got into a show called ‘Workin Moms’ on Netflix and I love it! I defo recommend giving it a watch.

Word count: 1091

Warnings: Daddy Grohl(not in a sexual way tho👀), angst, swearing

Masterlist

༺✩༻

“Y/n, wake up," I heard Dave whisper. I woke up and looked at the clock beside me and it read '7:02am'. "I can have five more minutes," I groaned. "You told me to wake you up at seven, it's two past seven," he replied. "Three more minutes then," I yawned. "Y/n. Get. Up." He said, nudging me to the edge of the bed. Then our baby, Alfie, started crying. "Alfie needs boob. I don't have any," he said, kissing my cheek. I groaned loudly and slugged to his room.

He came into Alfie's room mid feed and whistled. "You're so gross," I rolled my eyes and held back a laugh. "Says the one that eats food off her shirt," he replied, standing behind me and massaging my shoulders. "Would you rather me waste it or drop it on the floor," I said. "How much does this kid eat?" He asked. "However much he feels like every two to three hours," I replied. "I could eat that much," he said. "You do eat that much," I laughed lightly, "can you burp him?". He took Alfie and started patting his back. "Us drummers need their energy," he said. "And us mummy's need our energy but i don't empty the cupboards within five hours of the shop being done," I replied, going out the bedroom and into our room. "Maybe we should be an ingredient household," he mocked. "You'd eat flour," I said, changing into my blouse and skirt. Just as Dave was about to say something, Alfie burped, making Dave laugh.

"Okay, I'm off now. I've briefed you and once again, only call if he is dead or on fire," I said, grabbing my car keys and bag. "What happens in the death is in progress?" He joked. "David Eric Grohl," I scolded. "Have a great day," he said, kissing my lips. "You too. I know you can do this," I praised, heading out the door.

"Look who's back!" My work and best friend, Nicole, cheered as she ran over to give me a hug. "Back and more ready to work than ever," I smiled, squeezing her tight. "Sorry to ruin your mood but we have a meeting first thing," she said somewhat carefully. "And I'm already fantasising about killing Andy," I rolled my eyes as we headed to the meeting room.

"Ah, Y/n, welcome back! How's Dave and Alfie?" My boss, Andrew, said. "Dave is amazing, loving being a daddy. Archie is loving Dave. I'm loving... food, mainly," I replied. "Well, thank you for coming back. Let's jump right into the meeting," he said.

The meeting was very bland, just something about partnering with another company for a project.

I finally got back to my old office. I've missed the view. Through the completely glass windows, I could see the cityscape, windows glistening, cars dashing around and people tending to their everyday needs. My first piece of work since coming back was now on my desk, getting my blood flowing to get back to work.

Ten minutes after my lunch break and pump, my work phone started ringing. "Hello, you've reached Y/n at-" I started. "Y/n, help. He won't stop crying. I- I don't know w-what to do," I heard Dave say, distressed and tears evident in his voice. "Honey, what happened?" I replied, concern getting to me. "He won't stop crying and I've done everything. Feeding, diaper change, nap, play time, book. Everything," he cried. "Has he hurt anything or got nappy rash or got any more teeth coming through?" I asked, searching for a reason our son was literally wailing on the other side of the phone. "No, I've checked," he replied out of breath. "Okay, give me fifteen to twenty minutes and I will be there. Stay strong, handsome," I said, shoving my things back into my bag. "Okay. I love you," he said and hung up the phone.

"Andrew, I really need to go home. I'm so fucking sorry but Alfie is literally screaming murder," I rushed. "I understand. Will you be in tomorrow?" He replied. "Yes! Thank you!" I replied, yelling as I ran to the lift.

I got into my car and sped home, most likely earning myself a few speeding tickets on the way.

"Dave, angel, I'm home," I yelled from the front door, hearing Alfie screaming as loud as possible. "Help me," he cried, handing our son to me. "Look at me. You're doing fucking amazing, lots of people don't have dads because they can't handle it. But here you are, you're doing amazing," I praised.

I stripped Alfie down to his nappy and checked him all over for any indication of what could be making him make me and Dave go deaf. I lightly pressed on his stomach and I could feel the gas in his stomach. "He's got trapped gas," I sighed. "How? I burped him," he also sighed. "It happens to everyone, honey. He needs a little massage or some crap that I read in that stupid book," I said. "Teach me because if I have to go deaf from a child, I will shove my drumsticks in my chest," he sighed.

I showed him how to get the gas un trapped or whatever and the second he farted, he was silent. "Thank you so fucking much. I love you," he smiled tiredly, hugging me and kissing me. "Well, I'm home for the rest of the day and it's two forty-seven now. What should we do?" I asked, putting Alfie's outfit back on. "He missed nap time and I'm going to cry if I don't sleep soon so how about a nap?" He said, rubbing our sons back. "That sounds amazing I need to change into my pyjamas first so you have a little cuddle with the velociraptor," I replied, handing him the fucking dinosaur that came out of me. "I'd say he's a pterodactyl," he said, kissing our son on the head. "True. How about you put him to bed while I change," I suggested. "Deal," he agreed.

I changed into my pyjamas and saw Dave sprawled out on the bed in just his boxers. "Baby got back," I sang, slapping his ass. "How the tables have turned," he laughed as I pretty much just collapsed into bed. He pulled me to his chest and stroked my hair, kissing the top of my head. "I love you so much," he whispered. "I love you so much too," I replied, closing my eyes.

[bansheesscream]

Some Dave x Debbie x Mike headcanons. Some NSFW

Mike initially felt attraction to Dave when he was on a mission to prove to Dave that the Killer Klowns were real. But he was in denial that he was attracted to a man because it was the 80s. But he was full blown in love when they were in the space ship and Dave was shooting Klowns.

Dave always knew he was attracted to both men and women but he suppressed his attraction towards men. Part of his aggression towards Mike by the now gone circus tent was his anger that he was attracted to both Mike and Debbie but didn't think he could be with both.

Debbie had lingering feelings for Dave. When she was dating him, she liked him but always felt like there was something missing. Same while dating Mike. She likes him but their relationship doesn't feel complete.

When Jojo arrives, Dave told Mike to get Debbie of the space ship, not just to save Debbie, but to save Mike too.

Mike was the first to make his feelings known. After Dave got out of the car, alive and not dead and Mike was hugging them both, he blurted out "I love you both!" He regretted it worried that it would freak the other two out but the other two just accept it. Dave just nearly died, he's going to go for the relationship that he wants. There was a silent understanding between them all that they were a throuple.

They like to sleep with Dave in the middle and Debbie and Mike using them as a pillow with Dave's arms wrapped around both.

Dave also likes to be the big spoon to both.

They have also fallen asleep on the couch with Dave on his back, Debbie sleeping face down on top of him, and Mike face down on top of her.

Mike is the biggest cuddler. He's always wanting to hold one of them. He is also big into movies and always suggesting one to watch. Although, they no longer watch any alien invasion movies or eat popcorn with them. Cotton candy is also a no go.

Their first time getting intimate together, Dave and Mike were a little shy because they had both never been with a man. Debbie taught them the proper way to give another man a blow job and hand job.

Their relationship is a secret. Despite Dave saving the day the three know that the world would immediately turn on them if they found out they were queer.

The only two people that know about their relationship are the two comic relief ice cream guys. But that's only because the lady Klowns survived and the two picked back up with their relationship with them. They are in a poly relationship with the Klowns and have ten have Klown babies between them. The ice cream guys aren't phased by Dave, Debbie, and Mike becuase their romance is far more unusual thant theirs.

Debbie is in school to be an astrophysicist. The reason she wanted to go chase after the meteor was because she has a passion for space. She now works on theorizing where the Klowns came from, studying their technology that they left behind, and preparing for their return. She is the breadwinner of the relationship and she works more than the two guys. Before she graduated college, the boys would spoil her anytime she had an exam and doubly spoiled her when she was working on her PhD dissertation.

Dave is always paranoid that the Klowns will return and is always preparing for it. He is no longer a cop. The three moved out of the town and live on a small farm away from most people. Dave has PTSD from the incident. Luckily Mike gives the best back rubs which calms him down if he's having a bad day.

They all have PTSD to some degree and all deal with it in different ways. Dave is preparing for the next Klown arrival and goes over an exit strategy for Debbie and Mike (He is fully prepared to fight the Klowns alone and let them escape.) He has taught them how to use guns and has had them practice shooting clown nose targets. He is very over protective of the two. Debbie throws herself into studying the Klowns to learn more about them (The Klown ladies won't tell her anything. Debbie doesn't trust them at all). Mike does what he can to help others especially Mike and Debbie to distract from his own PTSD.

Mike is the one that does most of the cooking. It was always a secret passion of his.

They find Pooh Bear and adopt him. Pooh Bear lives because I say so I don't care what the directors said. The Klowns thought he was adorable and played with him and then let him go into the woods.

[popculturebuffet]

Belated 420 Special: Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue: A Million Wonderful Ways to Say Blaze It (comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Happy belated 420 you happy people! I'm jake, I review cartoons and to celebrate a drug that genuinely helps people relax, with anxiety and really took way too long to get legalized, let's talk about a goofy cartoon from the 1990 that treats it with the grace and subtely you've come to k now from anti drug psas.

Yes folks we're talking about Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue, the 1990 drug PSA that's here to talk about how the devil's weed will destroy your brain, lead you to injecting crack, and force all your faviorite cartoons and alf to stage an intervention.

And you'd expect that last part to be in quotations, being whoever the networks could scrape together. Instead.. it's an entirely stacked lineup of some of the biggest cartoons of the 80's, two all time stars, most from franchises that in one way or another are either still here or still iconic enough their in the public conciousness: We have Michealngelo of the tmnt, Kermit, Piggy and Gonzo of the muppet Babies, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Bugs and Daffy, Pooh Bear and Tigger too, Slimer, Garfield, Huey, Dewey and Louie, The Smurfs and … Alf.

A lot of studios went in on this and every children's cartoon network aired this thing. Granted they all agreed to a limited release, so it hasn't gotten a remaster or anything since airing, but said legal hurdles mean that since no one technically owns it, no one can yank it off youtube.

So I not only got to watch it but I can present those of you who haven't seen it with one of the most hilariously inept psas and crossovers of all time. Join me under the cut as these cartoon all stars jump to the rescue!

We open with what brings all these grand and wonderful characters together… in the bedroom of young Corey, SOMEONE'S STOLEN HER PIGGY BANK, and all her toys, posters, records, garfiled lamps and framed pictures of alf, what every child in the 1980's had in their bedroom.

Come to life. How?

Given slimer just.. passes through the wall she could just be a ghost and no one realizes it. Look if you came for logic from a 90's drug psa where instead of I don't know, saving some lost orphans, fighting skeletor or helping the autobots in their endless battle to destroy the evil forces of the decipticons, all these iconic characters are trying to save a piggy bank, you must be pretty pedantic when your high.

I will say that for all the speical's goofyness.. they do get the characters down really well. Alvin has to be dragged into it and Garfileld is happy just being a lamp until Alf threatens to eat him. For as mockable as this thing is.. they did put in actual effort. It's easy to forget when the team of Garfield, Alf and the Chipmunks are going into Corey's brothers room to find the stolen piggy, but they did actually try with this thing. The characters are on point the plot is just bonkers, with Corey's brother not only pouring over her money, but also having a smoke monster following him…. okay so maybe Corey and her brother are stand users and Pooh Bear is her stand. Maybe this is just a ghost since again, ghost busters are real. Maybe this is what the phantom from Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase did for a living before getting sober. I don't know for sure

What I do know for sure is that Simon from Alivn and the Chip Munks knows what Weed is and says it's marjuana and that it's the best thing ever. I'm also entirely convinced Simon DOES smoke up as Alvin calls the drugs a "chemistry experiment" and Simon can recongize rolling papers, baggied up weed and smoking impliments on sight despite being ten. I mean.. it would explain how he's so chill despite also being perpetually annoyed by his brother, can't blame him. All I ask is maybe he wait a few more years till high school and share with dave.

Corey comes in to talk to micheal whose response is GET OUT YOUR NOT MY DAD I FOUND THIS BANK YEAH FOUND IT. FOR DRUGS. GET OUT. The two have had a strained relationship since Micheal started getting all sticky icky and she dosen't understand why. It's one of the few parts of the special that actually works: while it's still midly hilarious because it's weed, the idea of a small child who dosen't know HOW to deal with a sibling whose addicted is a great one. She spends the special confused, heartbroken and having no idea why her brother suddenly hates her. Her parents are no help: her mom seems oblivious to it and her dad is a raging alcholic as her mom's reponse to him noticing two beers missing is to assume he drank them in a stupor. I mean… i'm a teetotaler, but I do the same thing with my sodas. Shit is expesive. You gotta know what you have left in case you need more. This guy just comes off oblivious , not

At any rate the cartoons decide they need to stage an intervention for micheal, a sentence I need to remind you i'm getting PAID to write. I love this job so damn much. Thank you kevin. Pooh stays to guard corey because when you think someone to protect a small child you think Pooh Bear.. actually you do. He's cuddly, kind and reassuring and knows all about drug abuse after Christopher Robin came back from the war. Good call writers. Micheal goes to the arcade to chill with his buddies, all of who also do drugs and one of whom just.. casually plans to hand out some crack. Fun fact I didn't realize Crack was another form of cocaine. Their still diffrent drugs, Crack is the harder smoked form of it while Cocaine is the snortable kind that wears cool sunglasses. Aint' that right terry?

Yeah he be jammin. I love Smoke, the shadowy smoke monster what follows MIcheal I mentioned earlier's reaction of "aw yeah, crack!". Though honestly he strikes me more as the cocaine type but I get suburban kids can't really affor buisnessman coke, so he'll have his young charge smoke it up. Micheal IS reluctant to go full on cokey bryant though and thankfully a cop showing up scatters them.. and even more thankfully given this was the war on drugs it's just Bugs Bunny in a cop hat. Seriously just having some weed would get a subruban white kid like micheal jailed for like.. a week. My boy bugs has an uphill battle naturally, as Micheal is all "YOUR NOT MY DAD AND THIS WAS MY CHOICE. DRUGS ARE MY FRIEND! ARE YOU MY FRIEND BUGS BUNNY? ARE YOU" So bugs decides to debunk that first one the logical way: WITH HIS TIME MACHINE. Yes this special features bugs bunny with a time machine and isn't about him clowning on genghis kahn or stopping weed from existing all together like it should be. He did buy it from acme though.

So he reveals via the power of time micheal blazed it for the first time two years ago, when his friends who apparently have not aged in two years while Micheal apparently had a growth spurt and his voice drop in two years.. which i'd joke about but is somehow something they actually got right. And I feel it not being his decision.. was a mistep. I know , in the same speial that decides a gathering of some of the greatest cartoons ever should be to stop one weenie from getting into crack, quite the shock. But while peer pressure is a big part of this special and something that is genuinely dangerous, points to them there… they treat it like you ONLY get into drugs if it's peer pressure. It happens sure, but i've had friends who smoke and I never did, and my desire to take weed is because it'd help with my anxiety, not because people told me to SMOKE UP PUSSY. It's why not doing something like say cocaine where it's a genuine danger, addictive and makes more sense for the guy to not take casually. I know I know this is a fat lot of

But it's still worth pointing out where the special could've been really cleve rwhile still being a preachy mess.

Anyways rather than.. continue this himself bugs just.. drops micheal off and he goes to see hsi friends again with the only girl int he group suggesting she can get them all crack for 10 dollars. I'm guarnateeing she just gets some detirgent in a plastic bag that says DEFINTELY CRACK FOR REAL on it. Michela is one again hesitant so she just.. straight up robs him, and he chases after her. For some reason THIS Is when Michealngelo decides to intervene and captures him in a sewer. Like bud.. he was trying to get his money back to NOT spend on cocaine, and stopping him means it's already as going to a tuesday night coke party. Not only that it really undercuts your message when the person kidnapping a teenager to try and help him get clean eats chilli pepper whipped cream and sardine pizzas with hot fudge on top. Like either Mikey is baked out of his mind most of the time, or is donig this shit sober and neither speaks well.

Mikey apparently saw this coming though and thus calls in the muppet babies for an assit. Yes this could be another monthly muppet madness but I choose not to count it as such as there's so much I love involved here. I mean Garfield gets threatned bodily harm to help, Michealngelo is baked out of his gourd teling another teen not to and now 2 year old versions of kermit, piggy and gonzo are taking a teenager though his drug blown brain and .. somehow thorugh him skateboaring while he's inside his brain?

My point is it was hard to just let the muppets have this. Also why the fuck are toddlers teaching this teenager about how much weed h'es smoked. Has animal been doing drugs that long.. actually yeah that explains everything about animal. But if you can't get a baby to stop snorting cocaine you can't expect a teeanger to work.

he soon runs into Huey Dewey and Louie, presumibly because Mickey would invite roger rabit style equilvent screentime nightmares and Scrooge being a businessman in the late 80's early 90's would be the last person tellnig you not to do cocaine. I don't know what a hive mind of triplets is going to do exactly but then i'm asking for the barest minimum of reason from a special that then thinks what will talk torubled youths off the ganja is a rousing musical number starring huey dewey and louie. Garfield, maybe, lorenzo music can sing as Garfield incredibly well, but for some reason they factored everyone in. Plus he actually makes sense as while he does eat a lot and is near constantly asleep, Garfield is also too lazy to actually go out and buy some weed. So Micheal wakes up … for some reason thinking this was all a nightmare.

Only for Corey to come in to talk to him, worried about him. She tells him Pooh Bear is also worried he's on the stuff and he tells her "You can tell Pooh Bear to mind his own buisness)

He nearly breaks her arm.. well okay he grabs her arm agressively but the special and wikipedia would like you to think he did and she runs out crying, with Micheal seemingly finally off the stuff.. btu Alf dosen't think he's learned enough so he yanks Micheal into a hellish mirror dimension. He shows him a corpse like version of himself and when Micheal insists he can stop whenever he wants he's in charge, alf shows him SMOKE is actually in charge. That.. actually works honestly, a nice way of showing drug addicts aren't in charge of themselves afte ra point.

Corey goes to try and talk to micheal and finds the drugs, with smoke trying to tempt her and just shoving pooh bear away. Yet this dosen't stop say.. SLIMER or any of the dozen other cartoon all stars from coming to the rescue. Like.. the only ones trying to traumtize micheal right now are alf, huey, dewey and louie, and daffy, who are putting him through a hell carnival that makes sure I won't be able to sleep. no really I.. can't really describe what the fuck happened, it just.. did. Micheal however comes to his senses in time, with the help of psychic daffy, to save his sister, swears off drugs, and tells smoke to go the hell awya. Micheal goes to tell his parents he's got the reefer madness and the special ends

Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue fails at everything it tried to do. It has one or two good moments but is preachy and it's "just say no message".. dosen't work. As the special ITSELF shows, peer pressure is a lot harder to shake than just going NOPE NOPE WON'T DO IT NOPE. It's a specail designed more to try and wash parents hands of blame and convince kids who already wren't going to do drugs.

That said.. it is GENUINELY hilarious. The heavy handendess, genuine effort from the voice actors involved, and hilarously weird stuff like Micheal's friend stealing his wallet or bugs having a time machine, makes this a comic masterpiece. Will it convince you not to smoke weed? No nor should you stop if your of age and responsible with it. Will it make you laugh really hard and is it great riffing materail? Yes. So just say yes to watching this and smoking a bigass bowl of weed with me and KG and thanks for reading.

[pins-and-needles-and-gears]

Happy new years, everyone! Here is something I wrote featuring a crossover of four of my blogs, plus one joke character I made for a laugh.

These are this blog (@pins-and-needles-and-gears), @angels-and-demons, @ask-matrons-proxies, @the-baudelaire-florence-family and my OC, Dave.

So, now, I present to you: Natalie and Leo throwing their first New Year's, inviting several characters over.

December 31st

7:32 PM.

[Natalie is rushing about her house, getting stuff set up for their party.]

Leo: Hey, babe?

Natalie: can't talk.

Leo: babe!

[Natalie ignores him, setting down a plate of food and straightening another. She then, turns around, and Leo stops her by putting his hand out]

Leo: babe, I think you're overreacting a little. I mean, it's still early… our guests have ages to go. 

Natalie: I know, but this is the first time we're hosting a new year's eve party together and-!

Leo: And it will all be fine. The dogs are in the spare room. There's water for them. Plenty of food out here. Everything is fine. 

[Natalie nods]

Leo: Besides, it's not gonna be the end of the world.

Natalie: Don't you dare jinx this, Valdez!

Leo: wha-ha-hat? 

[Natalie looks somewhat panicked]

Natalie: Don't talk about the apocalypse like that! It'll just get me…

[Leo quickly realises what's up]

Leo: Oh. Right. This is a chance for us to see our friends and, uh… celebrate a fresh start?

Natalie: Nice save, Sparky…

-

7:56 PM

[Toby and Nico are just coming in]

Natalie: Oh, hey!

Toby: Hi, guys!

Leo: What's brought you two here so soon?

Toby: Well, we were in the area, and somebody doesn't like being late.

Nico: there is a deadline for appearing here tonight, and I'd rather get here with plenty of time.

Leo: Well… come on in, grab some food.

[Nico and Toby go off to sit down and be cute. Leo closes the door]

Leo: See? First guests arrived, and we are doing fine. 

Natalie: You're right. 

Leo: I know.

Natalie: I love you.

Leo: I love you too.

[Leo leans in for a kiss, and somehow meets Natalie's palm]

Natalie: Not until midnight, baby. You know the rule.

[Leo whines playfully. Natalie goes into the living room]

Toby: so, where are the dogs?

Natalie: Oh, we've just got them in a separate room, chilling out for the night. Didn't want to stress them out, you know? 

Toby: Yeah, but which room?

Natalie: …the spare bedroom?

Toby: Thank you. 

[Toby gets up, and goes to the spare room. The dogs both bark excitedly. Natalie groans. Nico slides next to her.]

Natalie: I swear, if he wasn't my best friend, I'd kill him. 

Nico: You want me to handle him?

Natalie: if you could… 

Nico: on it.

[Nico goes through, and the barking stops.]

Toby, muffled: Hey!

-

8:12 PM

Doby: Guess who brought some gin! 

Natalie: Oh, Doby! You didn't have to.

[Doby hands her the bottle]

Doby: I know. I just wanted to do something special. 

Natalie: aw, well thank you. 

Leo, from the kitchen: Hey, babe? Who is that?

Natalie: It's Doby, and he brought us something nice.

[Natalie walks through to the kitchen]

Leo: Remind me, how many people are coming again?

Natalie: Oh, just Toby, Nico, Doby… Scratch and Harley. Uh, I think that Jane might swing by for ten minutes. Oh, Dave is definitely coming. He swore that. And, I think that Doctor B and her husband are dropping in, if they can find a sitter.

Leo: Doctor B-? Who are these people, Nat?

Natalie: Just a couple friends. 

-

9:23 PM

Leo: Hi, uh… let me guess. Scratch and Harley? 

Harley: yep! Where's the party.

[Leo points to the living room]

Harley: thanks.

Scratch: Don't worry, man. I'll keep an eye on her.

Leo: Thanks. Appreciate it.

[Doby gasps from the living room]

Doby: are those who I think they are?!

Scratch: Hey, man. What's up!

[Doby squeals. Harley screams]

Doby: It's my girl-buddy!

Harley: And my boy-buddy! 

[Natalie comes out from the spare room, having just fed the dogs]

Natalie: Is that-?

Leo: yep. 

-

10:34 PM

Leo: No, no! It's ham, then lettuce, then the tomato!

Scratch: Nah, man. Lettuce, Ham, tomato. Makes the meat truly in the middle. Just try it like that. Changes your life.

[Natalie chuckles. Doby and Harley are doing tequila shots in the dining room, while Nico and Toby have nestled in on the couch together. She looks at Leo lovingly. Leo tilts his head]

Natalie, mouthing: Hallway!

[Leo nods. The two unsuspiciously sneak out]

Leo: What is it, honey?

[Natalie wraps her arms around Leo's waist]

Natalie: I just wanted an excuse to hug my best boy.

[Leo chuckles]

Leo: oh, if only the dogs could hear you say that… they'd riot.

Natalie, joking: shut up.

Leo: so, I take it there is still a ban on the whole… no-kissing-before-midnight thing?

Natalie: If you still have to ask, it's still a no.

[Leo groans]

Leo: this is torture!

-

11:22 PM

Dave: Yeah, alright. I know. Inviting the accountant to the party? Not very fun. 

Natalie: Dave, you're literally invited to every function. We enjoy your company:

Dave: I-you do?

Natalie: Yeah. Wouldn't be a party without you.

[Dave looks more confident]

Dave: Oh… well, alright then. Now, where's the party?

Natalie: in there.

[She points to the living room]

Dave: right. I'm off to have a pint.

-

11:50 PM

Natalie: Oh, Doctor B! Charles! I hoped you two could make it! Who's watching the kids?

Mira: My wonderful husband's parents pulled through at the last second. 

Charles: They're keeping an eye on the gaggle.

Natalie: ah, I see. Leo!

Leo: Yeah? 

Natalie: -these are Doctor Baudelaire and her husband, Charles.

Mira: Oh, please. No need for the formalities, sweetheart. Just Mira will be fine. 

Charles: Oh, I like your t-shirt.

[He points to Leo's AC/DC t-shirt]

Leo: thanks.

Charles: You know… I was in a band once.

Leo: really? What was it called?

Charles: Galaxy Hopper.

[Realisation dawns on Leo]

-

11:55 PM

Natalie: five minutes till midnight, everyone! Let's all gather in the living room! Come on! Momentous occasion! Fill your glasses, get ready to toast to the new year.

Leo: ba-ha-abe. Relax. There's still five minutes of the year left. 

-

11:57 PM

[Leo follows Natalie into the kitchen]

Leo: Nat, what's wrong?

Natalie: nothing… and that's the problem!

[Leo doesn't see what's wrong]

Natalie: Every single time I feel that there's something this good in my life, it gets taken away from me. And when something doesn't go wrong, it makes me… spiral! I don't know if I could deal with all of this… disappearing.

Leo: Natalie, I promise: I will never ever leave you. 

Natalie: But how can I know that, Leo? So many other people have said that to me, and every single one has somehow cast me aside… as if I never even mattered in the first place… and it makes me think that-!

Leo: Don't even finish that thought, mi paloma. You are worth so much more to me than anything. 

[Leo fiddles with his hands]

Leo: -I did want to wait for this, but…

[He dives into his pocket]

Leo: No time like the present.

Natalie: What are you-?

[Leo gets down on one knee]

Leo: Natalie Charlotte Ouellette, will you-!

Natalie: Yes!

[She pulls him up, and wraps her arms around him. Leo chuckles]

Leo: I didn't even finish.

Natalie: You didn't need to. Of course I will. 

[From the living room, everyone has began counting down to midnight]

-

11:59:52 PM

Leo: Well… it's a couple seconds left…

Natalie: fuck it, what do I care?

[Natalie leans in for a kiss]

-

January 1st.

00:00 AM

[Natalie and Leo are kissing in the doorway to the kitchen, as everyone else shouts out "Happy New Year" as loudly as they can. The two pull apart  and press their foreheads together lovingly. They both giggle]

Natalie: Well, here's to the end of one year…

[Leo takes her hand in his. He kisses the ring on her finger]

Leo: …and the start of another. 

[t4llhum4n]

FUTURAMA Episode 101

"SPACE PILOT 3000" By David X. Cohen & Matt Groening Transcribed by Dave,

The Neutral Planet [Over the caption December 31st 1999 a crude spaceship flies through space, cruising over and under planets and a man speaks.]

MAN (voice-over) Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and the gorilla starts throwing barrels at you.

[A planet opens up and a huge gorilla starts throwing barrels at the spaceship. It dodges a few but one hits it and it explodes. The gorilla thumps its chest and "Game Over" flashes on the screen. The spaceship and gorilla isn't real and the man, called Fry, was playing an arcade game called "Monkey Fracas Jr". He is in his mid-20s, wears a red jacket and has orange hair with two distinct forks at the front. There is a little kid standing next to him. The game is against the wall in a pizzeria called Panucci's Pizza.]

FRY And that's how you play the game!

KID You stink, loser!

[Mr Panucci, a middle-aged balding man wearing a vest, leans over the counter with a pizza box.]

PANUCCI Hey, Fry. Pizza goin' out! C'mon!!

[Fry sighs, takes the pizza from him and walks out.]

[New York Street. Fry cycles past people enjoying their New Millennium Eve. A cab pulls up and he sees his girlfriend inside.]

FRY Michelle, baby! Where you going?

MICHELLE It's not working out, Fry. I put your stuff out on the sidewalk!

[Time Lapse. Fry is still on his bike getting more and more depressed.]

FRY I hate my life I hate my life I hate my life.

[Cut to: Outside Applied Cryogenics. He stops outside a building and locks up his bike. A man sneaks up behind him, cuts the chain and steals his bike.]

BIKE THIEF Happy new year!

[Applied Cryogenics. Fry steps out of the elevator on the 64th floor. He knocks on a door marked Applied Cryogenics. A sign underneath indicates No Power Failures Since 199[7]. No one opens the door so Fry goes in.]

[Cut to: Cryogenics Lab. The room is empty and there are no lights on. Strange pods about 6ft tall line one of the walls. There are a few other machines around the room and a desk and a chair in the middle of the room. Fry wipes some condensation from a window on one of the pods, revealing the face of an inanimate man inside. He turns around.]

FRY Hello? Pizza delivery for......Icy Wiener?! Aw, crud! I always thought at this point in my life I'd be the one making the crank calls! Here's to another lousy millennium.

[He unenthusiastically raises his hand and toasts.]

[Cut to: Time Square. Crowds have gathered for the countdown. 10 appears on a huge screen.]

CROWD Ten!

[Cut to: Paris. A screen on the Eiffel Tower displays 9.]

CROWD Neuf!

[Cut to: Vatican City. The Pope holds up a sign with "VIII" on it.]

CROWD Otto!

[Cut to: Egypt. Egyptians crowd around the pyramids.]

CROWD Sabaa!

[Cut to: Athens. People are gathered around the Parthelon.]

CROWD Eksi!

[Cut to: Great Wall Of China.]

CROWD Wu! [Cut to: Taj Mahal.]

CROWD Chaar!

[Cut to: African Village.]

CROWD Thathu!

[Cut to: Tokyo. A screen displays 2.]

CROWD Wu!

[From space the whole planet sees in the new millennium.]

CROWD One!

[Cut to: Cryogenics Lab. Fry unenthusiastically blows a party blower and starts losing his balance on the chair. It tips back. Fry waves his arms around trying to regain his balance. As he falls he doesn't see the shadow of a small creature under the desk. The chair tips back and Fry falls off it and rolls backwards into cryogenic freezer number 40. The dial on the machine automatically sets itself for 1000 years.]

FRY What the?

[He looks around and screams. In a flash he is frozen in time.]

[Time Lapse.Days and nights and eventually years pass � la The Time Machine as he stays locked in the freezer. Civilisation is destroyed by aliens twice until eventually huge buildings spring up around Applied Cryogenics. The timer stops 1000 years later and the door opens. Fry is unfrozen. Initially disorientated, he stumbles around and notices something to his right. He presses his face against a large window and stares in awe.]

FRY My God! It's the future. My parents, my co-workers, my girlfriend. I'll never see any of them again. Yahoo!

[Opening Credits. Caption: In Color.]

Yeah no as a mobile user I do, in fact, feel awful for you guys

It doesn't mean that I won't retaliate tho

[magentamedicines]

Magentamedicines (Pt.20)

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

The headache Tori had earned from the previous night's hell hadn't subsided that morning, but at least it wasn't anything she hadn't already been used to- after all, vision migraines were enough preparation.

But this. . . this had to be different- this was something she could feel  in her core, like stones piling themselves up until everything inside her body had been replaced.

"What if. . . what if we can't- save them. . ." she'd been resting her head on Michael's chest, legs sprawled over Jeremy's as if the two were some sort of makeshift lounge chair.

Michael, a man of many facial expressions that could be summed up with the words 'dead eyes', didn't seem to be paying attention. Of course Tori knew better, it wasn't that he wasn't paying attention, his attention was just being directed at taking his mind away from his past.

"I'll drop Cori off at school, see you in a bit," Tori said with a sigh, casting a knowing glance in Jeremy's direction before sliding off the couch and making her way to Cori's room.

"Ready for school rosebud?" Tori said, knocking on the door to the girl's room a few times for good measure.

"Almost ma'am!" came the answer from behind the door. There was a reckless pounding sound that no doubt meant shoes being thrown in all direction, before a flurry of stomping, then silence, then the door opening to reveal the little girl.

Of course, Tori supposed ten was hardly considered little by her standards, but as far as the goth was concerned, it was hardly a good age to learn about the mission she Mike and Jeremy had been carrying out.

Secrets were difficult to keep from Cori, she knew how to force them out of people, no doubt something William would have wanted her to use for his own gain. It was sickening, the thought of all the things that girl had gone through before her father had been arrested.

She had strange ideas of what counted as bonding, buying new chokers to cover both her and Tori's own discolored skin from William's attempts on their lives. Cori was still certain she'd merely been choked to death- but Tori knew that wouldn't have left such a fine ring around her neck. Of course, there was no easy way to tell a ten year old she was probably beheaded as a child, so- she supposed that would have to be a revelation for another day.

"She do any better on the drive today? Jeremy says she's been getting more antsy with questions about work," Michael said as Tori shut the front door behind her and made her way up to the dining room.

"Same questions she always asks me, about new chokers and if we think that son a bitch is still locked up." Tori said, there was a snarl to her words on the last line, but then, there always was when she was talking about William. Her favorite way to refer to him was 'that self-righteous British asshole ', but 'son of a bitch' was a close second.

"I wish we could figure out where he is- he has access to phone lines and everything and yet there's no sign of him- and that 'Dave Miller' guy Cori keeps mentioning doesn't seem to be at the pizzeria when we show up." Mike said with a sigh, running his hands through his hair.

"Yeah. . . we'll figure it out soon love, I'm sure." Tori said, draping her arms over his shoulders and resting her head on his.

Soon enough the two of them had their work uniforms on, saying their goodbyes to Jeremy before beginning the melancholy drive to Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental.

"Casual. . . bongos? That wasn't even an op- hey you can't just dock our pay at random!" Tori folded her arms, rolling her eyes as HandUnit continued to explain what, in her eyes, constituted some kind of worker's rights violation. Of course given the working conditions of these places, the lack of consideration really shouldn't have been surprising.

"Yeah ok. Dock our paychecks and then make us do work we aren't qualified for nor signed up to perform- like that makes any sense." the digitized voice giving the two instructions was, frankly, starting to grate on Tori's nerves. It didn't help that sometimes she couldn't tell whether it was prerecorded or not.

"You doing ok turtledove? You've been really irritable since. . . oh. . ." Michael wrapped a hand around hers as Tori averted her eyes, blinking back tears. "It's about Millie, isn't it. . ." Michael said, Tori just nodded and made her way to Circus Baby's room.

"Thought we weren't going here tonight?" Michael said quizzically as he climbed in after her.

"I don't trust that thing, I'm going to check it out just in case," Tori said.

They stood in the room for a few seconds, then crawled back under the desk. Michael sucked in a breath as the sound of the intercom echoed in the room, followed by that same female voice they'd heard the other night.

Did you know that I was on stage once? It wasn't for very long.. only one day. What a wonderful day, though. I was in a small room with balloons and a few tables. No-one sat at the tables though, but children would run in and out.

Tori's face formed into an inquiring scowl, as if she were thinking of something, Michael only seemed capable of listening slack-jawed and in awe, as if he wasn't quite absorbing the words on the same level.

Some were afraid of me, others enjoyed my songs. Music was always coming from somewhere else... down a hall.

"Ballora Gallery. . . there was always music to accompany her performances. . ." Tori muttered, Michael nodded, the reassurance she needed that he was at least somewhat present.

I would always count the children, I'm not sure why. I was always acutely aware of how many there were in the room with me. Two, then three, then two, then three, then four, then two, then none.

That was the moment Michael seemed to react the most, his eyes widening, pupils shrinking to near pin-pricks as he looked toward the intercom. Tori could hear him whispering something, it sounded almost like 'fifteenth birthday'.

They usually played together in groups of two or three. I was covered in glitter. I smelled like birthday cake. There were two, then three, then five, then four. I can do something special, did you know that? I can make ice cream - although I only did it once. . . There were four, then three, then two, then one.

"Elizabeth. . ." was a word more clearly stated, and her own understanding seemed to broaden after that. Counting children had already seemed like an odd feature for an animatronic to have, but the recollection that this was a creature built by William Afton made the puzzle pieces all to easy to place.

Something happened when there was one. A little girl, standing by herself. I was no longer... myself. And I stopped singing. My stomach opened, and there was ice cream. I couldn't move, at least, not until she stepped closer. There was screaming for a moment... but only for a moment. Then other children rushed in again, but they couldn't hear her over the sounds of their own excitement. I still hear her sometimes. Why did that happen?

The last line was different, spoken as if by someone not quite dead, and not quite alive either.

Tori came to her senses at the sound of sniffling next to her, Michael was crying, she'd hardly ever seen him do that.

"Mike. . . love it'll be ok, we'll get her out, I promise, I swear it. . . he'll pay for what he let that thing do to her, stay with me ok? Stay with me, we'll get through the rest of the night and plan it out when we get home, we can watch the new episode of The Immortal and The Restless ok? I love you. . ." she placed a kiss on his forehead for good measure. Michael paused for a moment, blinking a few times, before his expression returned to a default blank one, he nodded, helping her out from under the desk, and making his way toward Funtime Auditorium.

[honey-everythingisonfire]

if matteo isn’t in the edge of sleep tv show, i’m gonna throw hands with someone

[letarasstuff]

Ranting

(A/N): This was requested by an anon, I hope you like it :)

Summary: In the middle of midterms, Spencer's daughter has enough and for the first time in her life, she rants to the team

Warnings: one swear word, school, school stress, mental breakdown, shitty friends, a bit of angst (but there is fluff to balance that out), weird grammatical sentences that are according to google correct

Wordcount: 2.3k

✨Masterlist✨ _____________________________ As a teenager, Spencer was pretty closed off. But this had several reasons, like being a child (or moreover a teen prodigy) at college and getting his first Ph.D, or that he hadn’t had a safety net of people he could have gone to. So as he became a father himself, he tried everything possible to assure his own daughter that her feelings and thoughts are always welcome and valid.

Unfortunately (Y/N) herself has developed the same habit starting high school and ever since Spencer can’t do anything to get her to open up to him. It’s not like they don’t have a good relationship, they have one of the strongest father-daughter bonds the BAU has ever witnessed. The girl simply has other ways to cope with her feelings and how to act them out in the safety of her own four walls. Her father learned to accept it, knowing that he can’t and won’t force her to talk to him.

So what follows now not only shocked Spencer. But also his work family.

It’s the time every teen in high school dreads: Midterms.

A word a teacher can mutter and a shiver goes through the rows of students in the classroom. Or at least it feels like it to (Y/N). She takes her school work very seriously. In her mind every single grade determines her future.

The rational part in her knows that the grades in her sophomore year doesn’t matter. That they are even long forgotten when she graduates. There is just so much pressure on her. But it isn’t coming from her father.

Spencer is pretty laid-back regarding school. He knows his daughter is trying her best and that it’s just the tenth grade and not the end of the world. School is not everything life has to offer, especially he has to know it as a scholar and profiler flying through the country in a jet back and forth.

It’s (Y/N)’s classmates, who pressure her to get good grades.

“We depend on you and your notes”, Tyler exclaims as he jogs next to her through the busy hallway. “Ty, I know. But I don’t have the time to get them done for all of you to understand by tomorrow. They are still a mess that only I know to see through. I still have to finish my history project and I go to my Dad’s work this afternoon, which means I won’t get much done and I still have to do the homework I got today before sorting my notes for the test in two days.”

At her locker, the boy still doesn’t let go of the subject. “Do you want to say that our grades don’t matter as much as yours? Because this would be a true selfish statement.” Maybe it is the lack of sleep, because she pulled three all-nighters in two weeks, or the fact that she is slowly getting fed up being treated like an unpaid private teacher, but (Y/N) can’t stop her sassy answer. “Tyler, you wouldn't even know how to tell apart your ass from your head if it weren’t for me and my help in biology. You wouldn’t even know how to spell selfish if I didn’t let you copy my answers in spelling tests in elementary school.”

Done with the day and her friend’s shit, she slams the door of her locker shut and leaves a flabbergasted boy behind. Half an hour later the teenager enters the bullpen with her visitor badge clipped to the pocket of her sweater.

On the way there she was fuming. The audacity of her friends. It’s not only Tyler, who tried to get her notes of a unit, she was the only one listening, even though the teacher said loud and clear that this will be important for midterms. A few other friends out of the group she usually hangs out with texted her the same question of when her notes will be given to them. Understandably, (Y/N) comes into the office in the worst mood anyone from the team ever saw, including her own father.

“Hey Sweetheart”, he tries to greet her with a hug. Even though both of them are not big on touch, they are extra affectionate with people they are close to.

To everybody’s surprise, the girl takes a step back, effectively avoiding his open arms. “Hey”, she grumbles out before taking a seat in the chair already waiting for her. Nobody is allowed to sit in this one, except for her. Not even Derek has ever put his butt on this one, knowing the sacredness of it.

Without sparing anyone another glance, (Y/N) gets the needed stuff for that history project out and continues working on it. The team resorts to throwing a questiongly look to Spencer, who shrugs his shoulders with a look of despair. So everyone resumes their work without even daring to say a word.

The general silence is occasionally broken by an unnerved sigh leaving the teenager’s lips. “Is the conference room occupied?” She asks, her voice clearly showing how annoyed she is. Her father shakes his head. “No, not that I know of. Do you need help with your school work?” This is obviously the wrong thing to say. “Do I look like a baby? I don’t need anyone to help with that, I have been going to school for ten years now, I think I can handle this project as perfectly fine as I did since day one. It’s just your keyboard typing that will be the reason for my first grey hairs if I don’t get out of here soon.”

Quickly (Y/N) gathers her stuff and storms off into the conference room. Immediately the team crowds her father’s desk. “What happened?” “Who hurt her?” “Go, talk to her!”

“Guys, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m at the same loss as all of you. The only thing I know is that (Y/N) is under pressure, because it’s midterms. But judging by the way she reacted, I don’t want to go near her. It’s safer to try to defuse a bomb than talk to her in that mood. Last time I saw something similar, her favorite show was declared finished, got a revival and then didn’t get one and nobody mentioned it again. She was so mad, I think it took three years of her life.” A silence of uncertainty spreads through the room.

“What about we give her some room until she calms down?” JJ suggests, being unsure herself how to deal with a teenage girl. But the rest agrees and goes back to filling out their paperwork.

This continues for about 20 minutes, till a loud bang and a frustrated scream is heard followed by “DON’T THEY WANT TO GET IT OR ARE THEY JUST STUPID?!” Alerted by that, seven people (yes, even Dave and Aaron leave their offices, while Penelope was already in the bullpen) storm into the round table room only to see a more than outraged (Y/N).

“Sweetheart”, Spencer speaks to her in the gentlest voice they ever heard from him and slowly moves towards his daughter, “What’s going on?”

Her response is delayed by several deep breaths she has to take in order to be able to talk without seething. “ALL OF MY SO CALLED FRIENDS ARE ASKING ME FOR MY NOTES, like do I look like a personal tutor? And when I tell them that I got a life, a life outside of school and grades, because otherwise I go completely bananas, just like all of you say, they get mad. Now they act like I’m the most selfish person in the whole world. I’m so done, can’t they understand that they are old enough to take care of their own stuff? I’m not responsible for them, their grades or anything regarding their lives. Otherwise I would be the mother of at least four toddlers and one baby and at the age of sixteen I’m not ready for that kind of responsibility. I know friends are there for eachother, and I really don’t mind helping them from time to time. But what they are doing is terror. Terror.

“Oh and don’t get me started on their tormention if I get something lower than an A-. Then they suddenly transform into geniuses, like they suddenly know everything possible. Of course, I’m the dumb one. I should have studied more.

“I am under an insane amount of pressure, because I know they rely on me, but enough is enough. I tell them that if anyone asks me for anything school related again and they act like I owe them an answer, I’ll cut off all ties to all of them. What am I, a roboter just there for their needs, without some of my own?”

After her long rant, (Y/N) takes a couple more breaths. It’s pretty much the only sound right now, because the team is stunned. None of them heard her talking, no ranting, like that. Not even her Spencer has seen her like that.

Realizing what she just said, the teenager fidgets nervously with her hands. “I’m, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, you know, blow up like that. I, I really don’t know where this came from.” Nervously she scratches the back of her head. It really wasn’t her intention to let it out like that. Her plan was just to come home tonight and deal in the confinement of her own four walls with all of her feelings. It’s easier to be honest to yourself when you are alone than having an audience watching you losing it.

Suddenly (Y/N) finds herself engulfed in a massive bear hug. “Oh, my sweet sweet summerchild. You needed to rant to us and I’m so happy you did. Even though your uhm, friends, sound like big douchebags, we can help you sort something out”, Penelope tells her while keeping her arms around the teen.

“Just like lil mama said, we are here for you, Baby Reid. Don’t ever be afraid to tell us something, may it even be as small as you having stubbed your toe.” Morgan ruffles her hair and gives her a reassuring smile.

Just like them everybody shows her their support, be it encouraging words or affectionately gestures. Rossi invites her to a calm and quiet dinner at his mansion, cooking class included. Hotch assures her that she will get through this rough patch, with or without these fake people. JJ suggests (Y/N) comes over to her home and she can participate in a family game night at their home.

When it’s Emily’s turn, she makes sure to get her message loud and clear by looking the teen in the eyes (not as deep as it sounds, because some people make an intense stare really uncomfortable): “If those kids give you a hard time again, tell me. I’ll pay them a visit in classic protective godmother fashion, because nobody traits MY godchild like this. Just give me their names and I’ll handle the rest.” Obviously she doesn’t say this aloud in front of everyone, else Hotch will have her head, knowing she goes through with her threats. Instead she whispers it into the teen’s ear. Still, it makes (Y/N) smile, having such a strong support net.

Sensing the family’s need for time of their own to talk about the whole situation, the team leaves the room. Spencer gestures to her to take a seat after moving two chairs opposite each other. He wants her not to feel trapped.

“Do you still want to talk about it? It doesn’t have to be now, we can do it tonight, tomorrow, in a week or in a month. Just, please don’t shut me out. I know it’s difficult to be a teenager, especially in times like these. But it won’t do you any good keeping all of this for yourself. Today you took it out through anger. How will it look next time?

I don’t want to pressure you into talking. We don’t need to. We can find other coping mechanisms. We can try and reduce your stress. Anything. But we both know that this is not the right way.” While speaking, he takes his daughter’s hand, making her look up to him.

(Y/N) nods. Her eyes fill with tears. “I just can’t keep going like this.” She whispers, feeling all the stress, pressure and the intensity of the last few weeks crashing down on her. Quickly Spencer gathers her in his arms, letting her cry in his embrace.

After calming down, she looks up to her father with bloodshot eyes. “We can talk tonight. But I need you to do me a favor.” “Anything”, he assures her, stroking a hand along her back. “I, uhm, I need a new phone. I may or may not have thrown mine against the wall after getting a text from Tyler.”

Spencer looks at the crooked cell laying on the floor, the screen cracked. “I think we can get that sorted”, he tells her with a smile and gives her a kiss on the forehead.

The two of them leave the office earlier, having many things to talk about and many problems to solve. But with the help of her family (Y/N) gets through this, a time where people unfortunately only like her for her smarts and not being herself.

Taglist:

All works:

@dindjarinsspouse @big-galaxy-chaos @jswessie187 @kneelforloki

Criminal Minds:

@averyhotchner @mggsprettygirl @herecomesthewriterwitch @ash19871962 @ellyhotchner

[imaginesbymonika]

Oh, baby, baby, have you seen Dave tonight?

Part 1 of 2

Pairing: Dave (Darf) England x fem!Reader

Warning: mentioning of blood, swearing, Darf being an asshole, a bit angst, humor (this is a comedy)

Plot: It's like Britney said "there's only two types of people in the world/ the ones that entertain/ and the ones that observe" and your crush of four years just happens to take "well, baby, I'm a put-on-a-show kind of girl" a bit too serious when he is drunk.

A/N: I am working on the Knoxville finale, I just needed something else for a moment to break out of my writers block.

Song to listen to while reading:

You absolutely adore your friends, you really do. But as much as you loved them, the hatred you felt for their parties was almost as strong (and keep in mind you once took a literal bullet for Johnny). You sigh as you take another sip of your Pina Colada when you hear how Chris walks up to you from behind. You slide a bit to the side, to let him sit down next to you.

"You're having fun, babe?", he takes a sip from your drink without asking and looks at you with dissatisfaction: "Not strong enough for me." You simply nod.

A Jackass party primarily consisted out of three things.

1. Celebrities

Your eyes widen as you glance past him: "Is that Paris Hilton?" Chris blinks a few times at you before he follows your stare, and when his eyes land on the stunning blonde woman he nods. "She is friends with Steveo, I spoke to her a couple of hours ago. She's super nice."

"I'm a huge fan of her music.", Ethan's voice emerges from behind you but you don't change positions, you just watch how the IT-Girl talks to Knoxville. You only hear how he starts to hum the chorus of "Turn you on", but the loud music that fills in the entire house drowns his voice out.

2. Drugs

You chuckle softly: "Is she friends with Steveo or friends with his drugs?" Chris joins in but turns his head to peek at you. You attempted your best to avoid all the substances that were being exchanged at this type of Hollywood party. But it often felt like walking on a minefield made out of Cocaine and Ketamine.

"By the way.", you say and tear your eyes off Paris. You notice how Jason and Steveo have joined you, and are both sitting on the floor around the glass-table. "Has anyone seen Dave?"

Chris whistles and you softly shove him with your elbow, while your cheeks begin to burn up. You made an effort to keep your foolish crush on the blonde Jackass on the low, but apparently, people were really quick to connect the dots.

Jason scoffs and takes a sip of his drink: "Have you looked at the time, it's almost three AM. Dave has probably already left by now."

"That's not true.", Steveo chimes in and lights up a cigarette. The smoke hits your face directly and you cough, he glances at you apologetically before he takes another deep breath: "I just saw Dave like ten minutes ago, walking towards the toilet with some random woman."

With a woman. You feel how your stomach drops.

"Yeah, but that wasn't Dave."

The moment Jason finishes his sentence a loud sound comes from behind you and when you turn around you observe Dave laying on the ground next to the grand piano. He clutches the side of his face, while he begins to curse under his breath.

And you immediately realize what he meant by 'that wasn't Dave'.

3. Darf

You see how a few drops of blood make their way down his temple and drop on the white marble floor. And while his friends all laugh you stand up and make your way towards him.

You kneel down and flash him a short smile: "You're good?"

"If you'd- you'd suck my dick I'd be feeling better.", he declares and you only roll your eyes. Whenever Dave drank too much alcohol, it turned into some live-action performance of 'The Exorcist' and your best friend turned into Darf. A douchebag who wrote assault with an enormous capital A.

When it came to you, the assault happened to be sexual. Not that you were minding it very much. Without talking back to him, you help him up to his feet, lead him out of the living room, down the hallway, and towards the bathroom. "You- you look so hot.", he lets out and you feel his hot tequila breath against the side of your face. "Oh, shut up.", you simply mumble and sit him down on the toilet.

"Let's clean you up, shall we?".

[tomatograter]

New to the fandom, Could you explain June? 💯 Love and support her. But homestuck 2 doesn't have her and I'm just confused?

June Egbert precedes the concept of homestuck^2! I’ve seen a lot of people be confused about this because they weren’t active on the fandom at the time the epilogues dropped, when reading her as a trans woman got a lot of discussion going and eventually lead to multiple confirmations.

So here’s an attempt at contextualization:

Throughout Homestuck, a few key ideas about Egbert’s identity and motivation to push forward with her hero’s journey are dropped like breadcrumbs. She’s meant to play the default straight-man protagonist. Her defining traits are ridiculously… generic, when compared to how all the other kids present themselves and stick to exaggerated bits. She’s a perfectly normal, regular suburban kid with normal, suburban issues. 

She may not leave her room a whole lot. She may not have a lot of real life friends in the neighborhood. She holds a comical irritation for the concept of birthdays, even though her father is extremely supportive, and is delighted to see his son grow up nice and healthy. There’s no reason for her to be so irrationally upset at cakes and gifts, and that’s what makes the setup funny! June doesn’t even know why she’s annoyed with half of the things that annoy her, what the heck.

But under all that playing around there is a sense that her life is so normal, so blasé, so unexciting and limiting and hollow and fake that she’d give anything to not be herself, even if only for ten minutes. This goes way, way back. It’s why June needs SBURB to happen.

June lives as though her life hasn’t started yet. She’s stuck in the Tutorial stage. I would argue while most kids (and trolls) play SBURB to escape a shitty environment or the end of the world as they know it, June plays for a simpler reason: She needs to escape herself, and she needs to do it before it is too late. 

Being thirteen means crossing the homeric abyss between being a child with no care for the world sporting a generic hand-me-down identity and becoming a Teen (capital T) who needs to figure out how to cope with atrocious bodily changes while building the adult they’re meant to be AND deciding what the fuck they want out of life, and how they’re going to work to get it, forever and ever.

When you’re trans, and you don’t yet know you’re trans (or that this is a thing you’re even ALLOWED to be) the above feels a lot like serving a life sentence for an intangible crime.

You know what you’re supposed to do. You’ve seen it on tv, you’ve heard it from your dad, you know what are the normal trials and tribulations. You know you'll grow a few pimples and stubble and you'll need to learn how to shave, obviously, because it's basically a tradition in your family, and no one is really happy to be a teen. You know at some point you'll find a nice girl and you'll grow a hat out of your skull and then you will have to pay taxes and maybe you will have a baby daughter? You'd like it to be a daughter for no particular reason. And when you get a daughter you're going to name her Casey and she's going to be adorable and this is something you've dedicated a lot of thought to. Maybe its because you thought Nic Cage looked really cool with those long flowing locks in con air, the movie who featured a trans woman as a minor character for a few minutes (and she gets quite a bit of compliments, regardless of how the movie has aged), and he had a really exciting life, but goddamn did he love his daughter. There is no purer love than the bond between a father and his daughter. 

This absolutely has nothing to do with your father and you, or how you hold no excitement for becoming an adult man, or how your father's excitement for you becoming an adult man in your stead feels a little stifling.

But i digress.

June spends her time on SBURB mostly hassling karkat, and readily following the instructions of zany, dangerous, COOL girls that seem to know what they're doing. June lets Terezi lead her to certain death without blinking. June lets Vriska dress her up as soon as opportunity presents itself. June thinks its really funny to trick this troll Who Types Really Oddly into believing she's Rose, and also into believing that she's a very silly girl. You may even say Homestuck employs a few of jokes pertaining to how her name looks like EGG !

June has a ball playing this game until it starts to get shitty. She's never able to mend her relationship with her dad, as he's one of the first causalities. She has to spend a lot of time waiting around with jade on a ship until things get cool and exciting again, but she never stops growing during those three years. Its fine, though, because there's always more things to be done and more people to fight.

Until there aren't, and they make a new earth, and while everyone cheers and claps for the birth of a new planet June realizes all her excuses are over. Her friends begin to grow up. Rose gets married. Jade is living her best life. Dave has a not-boyfriend glued to his hip. Jane has a job. Jake is on TV for some reason. June doesn't want to leave home. June's birthday is around the corner again. Here come all the congratulations for becoming a strong lad for yet another year! Vriska is gone. Terezi is gone. SBURB is over. Wacky hijinks have been swapped for real-ass, boring-ass Regular life. We watch her unsuccessfully chase after the glory of days gone by when Rose presents her the possibility of going back into the game, when things were cool and mattered, or her flimsy decision to settle down with a nice girl she hasn’t really made an effort to know and become a father and be absolutely miserable for four decades as she asserts nothing is real, not anymore, and this is just how it is.

Depersonalization, depression and general apathy towards the world are all pronounced aspects of dysphoria that seem like unrelated incidents for someone who hasn't came out yet. June's trainwreck of a life post-game, specially her feeling of hollowness and chasing after anything that could fill it struck a chord with trans readers who left the epilogues to read HS again and discovered this has always sort of been here. June being a trans woman who doesn't have the proper vocabulary to express she is a trans woman makes a lot of earlier bits from the comic click into place, now in a broader context. We settled in the name "June" because it's what she imagines Vriska is calling her at some point, amid laughs, but even that was discussed for a lengthy period last year. What would she want to be called, what are possible tags for this, etc. But it was mostly for fun and games, because the prospect of the protagonist of a 10 year old beloved cult series being ACTUALLY confirmed as a trans woman just wasn't something that was done.

Until word got around to Andrew Hussie and he was reportedly so pleased with this interpretation of events he’d be making references to it, and some time later, a box of toblerones was left in a cave as a gift for fans to find. The first person to find a toblerone thought it would be funny to dedicate it to June, because now she was an ongoing reference that was fun to make. Instead of it ending there, Hussie logs on twitter for the first time in a long while to say 'Oh yeah, i'll make it happen' and that's when the whole thing exploded. I have a post detailing this made a year ago (with pictures!) so i won't keep you here.

In the year since, June has been vaguely alluded to in Pesterquest (in jade's end card, she's having her nails painted by rose.) Has been widely adopted by the community, those making their own fanventures and continuations, and the team behind Homestuck^2. In every way that matters, she's already thriving within the community that brought her to light a year ago. But her coming out in canon is something that will take time and a proper narrative arc to happen, one that is still being set up. We know it'll come eventually, the only question is “how”.

Not that the wind waits for anyone.

[get-vengeance-on-the-ducks]

my favourite parts of different hamilton songs (act 1)

NOTE: many of the people portrayed in this musical were slave owners and overall not super great people. i like the musical and the actors but NOT these guys as people in the historical context, just keep that in mind. i do not condone the attitudes and behaviours of the eighteenth century, but a musical about the eighteenth century with rapping and amazingly talented poc actors? weeeellll...

alexander hamilton: "another immigrant coming up from the bottom" HE'S AN IMMIGRANT GUYS AN IMMIGRANT

aaron burr, sir: "talk less/smile more" "i heard your mother say come again" "tell the king casse-toi/who is the best?/c'est moi" this was a GOOD song

my shot: literally all of it. especially the moment when hamilton says "i think your pants look hot" and the rap part in the last half.

the story of tonight: seeing four poc on a stage singing about friendship warmed my heart so much (:

the schuyler sisters: "i'm a trust fund baby/you can trust me" i laughed my ass off at that. and angelica's response was so girlboss. plus their little fist-pump WERK moment.

farmer refuted: the rapping and the way seabury and hamilton try to out-sing each other is epic

you'll be back: need i say anything? the king is an icon. it's bad that he's lowkey one of my favourite hamilton characters, right? yeah, it's bad.

right hand man: the end is great (as you can tell, i have a thing for the rap parts in hamilton) and i liked the introduction to washington

a winter's ball: burr going "but what do we have in common?/ we're reliable with the LADIES/there are so many to deflower"

helpless: eh, but hamilton's little dance while eliza proudly sings "that boy is mine" is hilarious

satisfied: again, literally everything

wait for it: burr's underrated, he actually has motivations and feelings and in this song you can understand that he just wants to stay alive and stay safe

stay alive: again, rapping

ten duel commandments: not gonna lie, this bored me a bit

that would be enough: i may or may not have cried

guns and ships: i was amazed by daveed rapping in a french accent and this song has been stuck in my head for the past three week. "sir he knows what to do in a trench, ingenuitive and fluent in french, i mean"

history has its eyes on you: washington makes some good points

yorktown (the world turned upside down): hamilton and lafayette going "immigrants - we get the job done" made me grin from ear to ear because DAMN IF THAT AIN'T THE TEA. the instrumental in this part is AHMAZING.

what comes next: "you're on your own *insert sarcasm* awesome, wow"

dear theodosia: this was really sweet and i love that burr was included

non-stop: ooh boy was this a good song. the part at the end where they all sing together shows all the voices in hamilton's head going through the pros and cons of staying vs leaving to be treasury secretary.

[elocinnicole]

Say Yes to the Dress

Summary: You are going dress shopping with your friends and mom. What could possibly go wrong? Rating: T for Mild Language Pairing: Daveed Diggs x Black!Reader Warning: This fic features a narcissist and controlling mother.

Family is Everything Series Masterlist

AN: This mini series is almost coming to an end, there’s two more fics left and Family Is Everything will be complete. I want to thank all of my readers that Reblogged, liked, or commented on this series. Thanks for reading!!! If you want to be tagged please let me know!!

“The agenda for this week is to one, finalize the guest list, send out save the dates, the engagement session, by the way, the makeup team will come to your house and do your glam there, and the last thing I need for this month is for you guys to pick a venue.” Skye, your wedding planner said as she read off the growing to-do list for your upcoming nuptials with Daveed. The two of you were hoping for a winter wedding since by that time Daniel will be about 18 months and able to walk down the aisle as the ring bearer.

“So, what is the final number for the wedding?”

“Both Daveed and I want a private, small ceremony so the final count will be about 70 people no more than 80 max.”

“Alrighty, perfect. Now, your engagement session is scheduled for this weekend at Hayden Planetarium. We were able to have the planetarium closed for the day for privacy. No paparazzi will be permitted within a ten mile radius of the planetarium.”

You and Daveed both hated how invasive the paparazzi were, especially while you were pregnant with Daniel. You had to file a restraining order against one in particular for harassing you while you were out doing some grocery shopping.

“We don’t want any press at all. We haven’t even told the press we’re engaged.”

“How long do you think that you two can keep that a secret?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I almost slipped up at the show last night.” The sound of the front door opening and the sounds of Daniel calling for you made you smile.

“I’ll let you enjoy the rest of your afternoon. We’ll talk soon?”

“Sounds good, bye Skye.” You ended the FaceTime call just in time for Daniel to crawl over to you

“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,” Daniel said placing his head in the crook of your neck.

“Hi, Mommy’s baby, how was daycare?”

“Ms. Pam said your son has been hitting.” You gasped dramatically

“Hitting? Daniel Zaire Diggs we do not hit, we only use kind hands.” You scolded

“Yeah, and scratching.”

“Scratching too? Mommy’s gonna cut your finger nails and then we’re going to have a serious talk.” You said, Daveed leaned down and the two of you kissed one another. Daniel gently pushed Daveed away, frowning at him.

“What? I can’t give Mommy a kiss?”

“My Mommy,” Daniel said wrapping his arms around you,

“Oop, looks like I’m the favorite,” You teased, Daveed playfully rolled his eyes

“Why are you the favorite?”

“Because, he’s my baby.” You said, snuggling Daniel closer and him loving all the attention.

“How was the talk with Skye?”

“It was good, she finalized the engagement shoot so we have the place all to ourselves and the paparazzi can’t go down that block.” Daniel started to get fussy so you made your way to the kitchen to get him something to eat. Daveed followed

“What else did she add to the never ending list?”

“We still have to find a venue so we can send out save the dates. How about we don’t even have a date, either?” You reminded your fiancé while preparing Daniel’s snack

“I know babe, we’ve both been so busy.”

Daveed was right, the musical you were in just moved to Broadway and performances were selling out like crazy. Daveed is currently busy with The Little Mermaid and being offered for every role under the sun.

“I promise I will sit down with you and look over the venues tomorrow and we can pick a date.”

“I can’t do tomorrow, I’m going to look at dresses with my Mom and the girls.”

“Oh,” Daveed gave you a knowing look, it was no secret that your Mom could be a little controlling at times. Of course you love her, but sometimes you’re very grateful for the fact that you live in New York now.

“I mean it’s fine, that’s why I invited Jasmine and Amber, you know to be buffers.”

“Well—” Daniel banging his hand interrupted the two of you, frowning his face.

“Hey, we don’t do that. Say please,” You said firmly

“Peas,” Daniel said

“Here’s your snack baby.” Daniel happily took the bowl of fruit from you. Immediately stuffing the cut up grapes in his mouth.

“My Mom has been blowing up my phone asking about a date everyday at this point.”

“Babe, come on it’s not that bad.”

“Babe, she literally took over my Bridal Shower and I don’t even have a fuc—” You stopped yourself from cussing in front of Daniel the last thing you needed was him repeating the words at daycare. “I don’t even have a date for my wedding let alone my bridal shower.”

“How can she do that? She’s not paying for it?” Daveed questioned

“I can’t explain it, I just can’t really tell her no, disagreeing with her means that I’m disrespecting her.”

“That’s the craziest shit I ever heard.”

“Shit!” Daniel repeated excitedly clapping his hands, you sent your fiancé a glare.

“Now he’s gonna be at day care cussin all the kids out and hittin people all over the place.”

“Y/N, relax, Daniel, that’s a bad word. Don’t say that.” Daveed scolded

“Shit! Shit!” Daniel laughed, as much as you wanted to stay mad you broke and giggled,

“Don’t repeat after Daddy, he said a bad word,”

The next day you woke up excited and anxious. You walked into the kitchen, bonnet on and one of Daveed’s t-shirts that was practically a dress on you. You stopped upon seeing a shirtless Daveed making breakfast. You came up behind him and snaked your arms around him dragging your fingers alongs his abs. You swear you were the luckiest woman on earth.

“See, you keep on playing you gonna get pregnant again.” Daveed mumbled, sleep still evident in his voice.

“Boy bye, what you bout to eat?”

“I was trying to surprise you with breakfast before you go out for the day.”

“Aww” You cooed, making Daveed playfully roll his eyes.

“You’re so sweet and you’re making my favorite. You’re the best.” You teased pinching his cheeks making him yelp in surprise.

“Hey, keep playing with me,” Daveed warned

“Or what?”

“This ain’t gonna be the only thing I eat,” Daveed smirked

“See, now you stop playin,” Before you knew it, Daveed turned around and sat you on the counter causing you to squeal in surprise.

“Who said I was playin’?” Daveed started planting kisses along your neck

“What about breakfast?”

“It’s fine.”

“What about Daniel?”

“He’s sleep.” Daveed reached underneath the shirt and smirked when he discovered you weren’t wearing any panties. Daveed flashed a mischievous smile before sinking down to his knees. He placed your legs over his shoulders and starting biting along your thigh. The sound of the lock of the front door turning made you perk up, you heard it again and took your legs of your fiancé’s shoulders. Daveed, confused looked up at you.,

“Damn babe, already? I ain’t do nothin’ yet.”

“Shut up, there’s someone at the door.” You tried getting up but Daveed pushed you back down

“What the hell, let me up. You didn’t hear the door? Someone’s trying to come in.”

“No one else has a key to our place babe so who could it be?”

“It might be a robber! But you too busy worried about eatin’ some pussy.”

“You make it sound bad when you say it like that,”

“Daveed!”

“Aight, aight, let me go check.” Daveed finally let your legs go and stood up. He looked at himself and then you

“What?”

“Give me my shirt,”

“No,”

“Babe, I only got pants on.”

“So, I have on nothing underneath hurry and go see.” Daveed started to slowly walk toward the door with you trailing behind.

“What happened to ‘It might be a robber’?” Daveed said mocking your voice

“I still wanna see,” The door swung open and there stood your mom along with ample bags of luggage.

“Mom, what are you doing here?” You said confused to see your mom standing in your doorway.

“I’m here to go dress shopping,”

“But I was supposed to meet you at the hotel, that we paid for.”

“I know, but the hotel was so unprofessional, my room was filthy, the room service was awful. So,I figured I just stay with you guys. Daveed can you get my bags?” Your mom pushed past you and your fiancé to enter the two bedroom apartment

“Well, the reason we got you the hotel room, was because we don’t have the room…” You trailed off

“I figured, I can sleep in the guest bedroom.”

“Mom, we made that room an office for when we do interviews and have meetings.”

“Oh,” Your mom said deflated

“You can sleep on the air mattress, Ms. Diane.” Daveed suggested carrying the heavy luggage into the apartment

“That’s okay, my pinched nerve will just get worse. It’s fine.” You inwardly groaned, here she goes again.

“Mom, you don’t have to be like that—“

“No, no, it’s okay. I’m used to being the afterthought.”

“Well if you had stayed at the hotel—”

“Ms. Diane, I’ll sleep on the air mattress you can have the room with Y/N.” Daveed interjected

“Babe, are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s only for one night, it’s no big deal.” Daveed said but you could tell that this situation was not ideal.

“Thank you Daveed, someone knows how to treat their mom.” You held back an eye roll as your Mom brushed past you.

“It’s only for one night.” Daveed reminded you

“It’s so dusty in here, I’m surprised Daniel doesn’t have allergies.” She called from the living room.

“One night too many.”

Later on, you, Jasmine, Amber, and your mom were waiting for your dress consultant to escort you to their main floor. Daveed’s mom was supposed to come but she wasn’t able to book a flight that didn’t have her catching a redeye or too many layovers. So, you said you would send her pictures of every dress and then FaceTime her when you find “The Dress”. You were able to book the entire boutique for the dress fitting so that you could enjoy your time in private.

“Hello, ladies, now who is the lucky lady?”

“It’s me,” You beamed

“So what type of dress are we looking for today?”

“Well, our theme is Bohemian, so I was thinking a dress in that style.”

“Alright, and what’s our budget?”

“The budget is $5,000.” Your mom interjected

“Mom, that’s way over budget and that’s not what we discussed.”

“I know, but I wanted to surprise you, so I upped my portion of the dress.” She said, you stared at your mom not knowing what to say.

“Well, let’s go try on some dresses.”

You eyed the dress in the mirror it was an off the shoulder chiffon dress. You would be lying if you said you weren’t feeling a bit emotional. This was the first time you put on a wedding dress and everything was starting to feel real to you. You were about to get married to the love of your life.

“I don’t like the dress,” Your smile faltered as you looked at your mom in shock trough the mirror.

“Really? What don’t you like about it?”

“I just don’t like it,”

“Well, I think you look beautiful. The off the shoulders are very flattering on you.” Jasmine said hoping to cut the tension in the room a little bit.

“Yes, this dress looks so good on you and it compliments your body.” Amber added

“Mmmm, you have broad shoulders like your father’s side of the family. I think you should get a dress with sleeves. I don’t want to pay for a dress that doesn’t flatter you.” This is why you didn’t want your mom to offer that much money towards your dress, she was just going to control everything…like everything else.

“I think it’s beautiful but its up to you,” You looked at yourself closely, since she pointed it out you did have broad shoulders maybe that’s why your stylist never really picked strapless dresses for you to wear.

“I don’t think I really like this one.”

“Alright let’s get you in another dress.”

Five dresses later and your mom had something negative to say about all of them. Whether it was too revealing, not flattering, or even too white in her opinion. “Daniel’s in the wedding, I don’t think people are expecting you to wear white.” You decide to humor her and try on a dress that she suggested. One look in the mirror and you knew instantly that it wasn’t the dress for you.

“You look beautiful, Y/N.” Your mom said holding back ears you held back the urge to roll your eyes of course she would like this one.

“It’s pretty but I don’t know. I’m sure whatever you wear Daveed’s gonna love it but it doesn’t really fit the vibe you were going for.” Jasmine commented

“Yeah, and honestly I’m not even trying to be funny, it makes you look shorter.”

“This is the dress for you honey, it’s perfect.”

“Perfect for someone else, I don’t like this dress Mom. It’s too frilly and I just don’t like it.”

“Okay.” Your said, you knew that when she says “okay” it was never okay.

“Mom,”

“No, it’s your day so you should have the final say, but I’ve dreamed about this day since the day you were born. Not just you, your sisters too. I don’t know, it’s your decision.” You sighed heavily you were so over dress hunting.

After a few minutes of convincing, Jasmine got you to try on one more dress. It was a form fitting lace gown with a plunging neckline, the associate gave you the matching veil and jewelry and one look at yourself in the mirror, you were struggling to hold back tears. You looked at your friends faces in the mirror, and they were having a hard time holding back the tears. Even the bridal associate was teary eyed herself.

“So, what do you think?”

“I love it, this is my dress,” you said wiping away your tears

“I’m about to FaceTime Barb,” Jasmine said pulling out her phone

“Mom, what do you think?”

“You look beautiful.” Your mom said with a tight-lipped smile

“Hey, Barbara, I think your future daughter-in-law found the dress,” Jasmine turned the phone around and as soon as Barbara saw you, she started crying instantly

“You look breathtaking, do you love it?”

“I do, I really do.”

“So, are we saying yes to this dress?”

“Yes!” You exclaimed loudly everyone cheered even Barbara could be heard through the phone. Your eyes went over to your mother and her “smiling” face. You knew that face very well, that’s the face your mom makes every time she’s sees your dad and step mom.

You really didn’t want to but you walked over to her despite the cyclical relationship between the two of you, you wanted…needed her approval of this dress. You want your mom to be just as excited as you are.

“What do you think Mom?”

“You know that dress is so pretty, it would look good on your sister, Mara. I think she has a great body to pull that dress off. She’s not as top heavy as you,” That was it, you were tired of dealing with the bull shit your Mom brought ever since she came into town.

“You know what Mom, I can’t, I can’t deal with this anymore.”

“With what?”

“You! Everything, your comments, you constantly disregarding me, my boundaries. You have had something to say to everything I’ve done. Even down to the way I raise my child!”

“Well, I wouldn’t be a good mother if I didn’t share my thoughts,”

“No, what you’re doing is being controlling and passive aggressive.”

“Calm down, you are being so irrational,”

“No. I’m not Mom, you have been coming at me all day!”

“What is wrong with you? You’re making a big deal out of nothing.”

“See! That, that shit right there, you poke at me all day and then you gaslight me when I call you out on it.”

“I have never done that, I’ve been nothing but a good mother to you and your sisters.”

“Mom you’re doing it now!”

“You are so dramatic, just like you’re father. I can’t tell you nothin because you make me feel like I’m beating you down!”

“Because you are! You are constantly criticizing me, it’s like nothing is ever good enough for you!”

“Well, I’m sorry that you think I hurt your feelings.”

“Oh my God Mom!!”

“You’re just too sensitive. It’s my job to tell you about yourself I wouldn’t be a good mother if I didn’t. No one is gonna care about you the way I do.”

“You have a pretty fucked up way of showing it.” There was a silence that fell upon the bridal shop, you’re heart was pounding so loud you could feel it in your ears.

“Well, I guess I’ll be going. I’ll be at the hotel.” Your mom said grabbing her things and leaving. No one said anything for a few minutes until Jasmine approached you

“Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna take the dress off. I don’t think I want to buy this one anymore,”

“Do you want to try on another one?” Amber asked, you shook your head,

“I’m just gonna go home. I’ll call y’all.”

You returned from dress shopping, drained. You knew your mother was a piece of work but you didn’t expect your dress shipping experience to end like that. You were prepared to not find the dress today but not to have a shouting match with your mom in front of your friends.

“Hello? I’m back!” You called out to no response, you checked your hone and didn’t have a text from Daveed you walked further into the apartment and saw that your mom’s bags were gone, maybe she stopped by before going to her hotel. You went into the kitchen and saw a note on the counter

Went out with Ant and Oak. Be back soon!

You sighed heavily wanting nothing else than to spend whatever was left of the day with Daveed and Daniel. Exhausted from your day out, you headed straight for the bedroom and as soon as your body hit the bed, it didn’t take long for exhaustion to take over and you fell asleep.

The weight of the bed sinking is what made you aware that you weren’t alone anymore. Then you felt something crawling on you, you blinked as you awoke and saw Daniel lying on your chest. As soon as he saw that you were awake, he smiled. You sat up and hugged your adorable son.

“Hi Mommy’s baby.” You kissed the top of his head, you looked up and saw Daveed standing in the doorway, smiling at the two of you.

“How was your boys day?”

“It was cool,” Daveed started walking over to the bed and siting on the edge. He looked at your face and knew that something was wrong. “How was your day?” You sighed heavily

“My mom and I got into a fight. I didn’t get a dress today.” You really didn’t want to go into details right now you mentally didn’t have the energy to rehash everything that happened. Daveed moved closer to you and pulled you into his arms.

“I’m sorry babe, I am. Have you heard from your Mom?”

“Nope and I honestly don’t want to. All I want to do right now is spend some time with the two of you.”

“Well, I have a surprise for you in the living room.” You groaned loudly

“I have to get out of bed?”

“Yes, you do. Come on,” Daveed said, you slid out of bed still holding Daniel.

“What’s this surprise babe?”

“You’ll see.” The two of you walked out to the living room and you saw Jasmine and Amber standing in your apartment. Confused you looked back at Daveed who was grinning.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“I called Daveed and told him what happened. So, Amber and I called around and we’re taking you to get fitted for your wedding dress.” You smiled tearfully at your friends.

“You guys,”

“Girl, you know we got you besides what kind of Maid of Honor would I be if I didn’t save the day?” Jasmine said, you looked back to Daveed

“Go ahead babe, I got Daniel. Maybe we can get dinner after your fitting?” You gave him a quick kiss before handing Daniel back to him.

“I’ll text you when we’re done?” Daveed nodded his head before Jasmine and Amber dragged you out the door to create your perfect dress.

[ridiculousn3sswrites]

Mine

*Daveed Diggs x Reader

*Request: Anonymous asked: “heyyy i really enjoyed reading your writing of Daveed diggs! Can i request one where Daveed diggs and y/n(maybe like a stagehand or a stage manager) meets in hamiliton, and they are friends with benefits, but they also have feelings for each other, and then daveed gets jealous seeing you flirt with other guys and confesses? (iknow its kinda cheesy but... Thanks!”

*Warnings: Language, jealousy, smut (like this fic starts out immediately with a smut scene), light dom/sub, choking, spanking, use of ‘baby girl’, fingering, oral (female receiving), vaginal sex, dirty talk, grinding, hair pulling, marking, unprotected sex (wrap it up). Let me know if I missed anything!

*A/N: Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all! I’m beginning to notice my smut fics are a lot longer (this one’s about 7.5k). Anyways this got filthy and I think that says a lot about me lol. ALSO BIG WARNING THE FIRST SCENE IN THIS IS A SMUT SCENE SO YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

Tip Jar

**********

You knew you had to get ready for work, but at the moment, you didn’t care. His hand rested heavy on your hip, grip tight enough to bruise, while his other held your body up against his. He pounded into you, low groans and pants right next to your ear letting you know just how close he was. 

“You take me so good, baby girl. So fucking wet for me,” he rasped before biting down on the juncture between your neck and shoulder, muffling his noises. You whined, wanting to hear him just as much as he wanted to hear you. He seemed to get the message, kissing the fresh mark before he started talking again. “You’re gonna be late, but you just had to get fucked, didn’t you? Last night wasn’t enough, you just needed me again. I can feel you getting tighter, are you close, baby?”

“Fuck, Daveed, I’m so close. Please,” you whined as he somehow managed to speed up his thrusts.

“Please what, baby? I wanna hear you say it for me.” 

“Please let me cum!” Daveed practically growled as the words left you, bringing his hand from your waist to rub your clit. He always rewarded your obedience. 

“Cum for me, baby girl,” he demanded. The second he gave permission, you could feel the jolts of pleasure through your body as you coated his length in your release. He didn’t last much longer, his thrusts staggered as he chased his own pleasure. He pushed as deep into you as he could before he came with a loud groan, holding you close to him. “Fuck, you always do so good for me.”

You could already feel the fatigue settling in as Daveed moved you to lay with him, his arms around you. If you weren’t already running behind schedule, you would’ve loved to stay there with him, ignoring the mess between your legs until the last possible second. Maybe you’d both drift back into sleep, then go for a lazier round when you woke up again. Maybe he’d join you in the shower, complaining about how hot you always ran the water. But nope, you were already risking being late. 

“Alright, let me up. I gotta go shower,” you said, trying to get out of his hold.

“No, lay with me a bit longer,” he whined. You tried not to laugh; he was always so clingy after sex, even when you were on a tight schedule like this.

“I don’t wanna be late. You can stay in bed, but I swear if you’re late, I’m gonna kick your ass,” you warned, finally slipping out of the bed. Daveed mumbled something into the pillow, but you ignored him as you left for your bathroom. As you waited for the water to heat up, you assessed the damage he’d done. Hickies adorned your bra line, finger-shaped bruises decorated your hips, and even though it wasn’t too aggressive at the moment, you could tell the bite mark he’d just left on you would bruise nicely. You ran your finger over the mark on the juncture of your neck and shoulder, so tempted to just go back to Daveed’s warmth in your bed. Before you could convince yourself to join him, you jumped in the shower.

You left Daveed in your apartment with another threat to get to the theatre on time and a reminder to lock the door after himself. The two of you never got to the theatre at the same time, trying your best to hide the little friends with benefits situation you had going on. Sure, people could tell you had a little flirty thing between you, but that was just how the two of you being friends worked. It was always nerve wracking when people (see, Lin) tried setting the two of you up, but you managed somehow. You had the feeling it wouldn’t work if the two of you tried anything more than your current arrangement, not matter how much you sincerely hoped it wasn’t true. You weren’t willing to risk it though, content with just being able to sleep with him.

You enjoyed the walk to the theatre every morning, the brisk air waking you up to deal with everything that was bound to happen during the day. Today wasn’t a show day, so that meant you didn’t have to worry about things going wrong ten minutes before curtain. Rehearsal days were actually pretty calm for the most part. Well, as calm as they could be considering at least half the cast were really just overgrown children.

As usual, you were one of the first ones in the theatre. You took the chance to do your initial once-over, making sure things were where they needed to be for the day. Though you technically were supposed to have one of the stagehands do this, you enjoyed the time to yourself before the day started. Quiet moments were rare in the theatre, and the music playing softly in your headphones allowed you to get lost in your work. The next time you’d get the chance to do this would be after rehearsals were done, and by then you would be too tired to enjoy it.

Once your check was done, all you could do was wait for the others to show up. It would be at least another half hour until people started trickling in - Leslie normally being the first to join you. You waited by the Keurig for your coffee to finish pouring, lost in your thoughts for the things you’d need to do for the day. A new stagehand was going to be joining you, and most of your day would be training them. Even though - once again - this was something one of the stagehands could do, you enjoyed doing it. Before you could get lost further in your thoughts, you jumped at the feeling of a hand placed on your waist.

“What the f-” You turned, tugging one of your earbuds out. You were kind of surprised to see Daveed standing there, smiling wide at your reaction. “What the fuck, Diggs?”

“What? You told me not to be late,” he said, still amused at how he managed to scare you. “You know, maybe you shouldn’t have both earbuds in when you’re here alone, you never know who might come in.”

“Yeah, it might be one of the asshole actors,” you bit back, finally managing to get your heart to stop racing. You turned back to grab your coffee, taking enough of a drink to burn your tongue a bit.

“I mean, you weren’t calling me an asshole this morning,” he teased, leaning in until he was just a breath away from kissing you. Despite your body yelling at you to accept his kiss, you put your hand to his chest to push him back a bit.

“Hey, what did we say about work?” You tried to remind him. Almost getting caught at work a couple times really made it so you had to set at least a couple boundaries.

“Aw, am I really not allowed to touch you, baby girl? You know no one’s gonna be here for a while, we have some time,” he tried convincing you, leaning in to press a kiss to your cheek. Even the seemingly innocent action had your heart racing yet again.

“Diggs, chill it,” you said, trying to ignore the slight whine in your tone. He was getting to you and he knew it, but he respected your words enough to step back, going to make his own coffee. “So, why are you here so early? I thought you were going back to sleep.”

“I couldn’t after that little wake up call you gave me,” he teased. You rolled your eyes even as you smiled into your cup. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”

“You guys are gonna run through Act 2, I think. I’m not gonna be too invested in that, though.”

“Aw, why not?”

“We’re getting a new stagehand and I’m gonna train them,” you explained. “I wanna make sure they’re ready to work by the show on Saturday.”

“I’m gonna miss seeing your pretty face trying to act like you’re not staring at me.”

“Bold of you to assume I stare at you when Oak is right there.”

“It’s not assuming since I know you scream my name and not Oak’s.”

“Bold of you to assume I don’t scream his too,” you quickly took another drink to hide your satisfied smile. Daveed looked completely offended, exactly what you were going for with your little jab. If you hadn’t been at work, you knew he would do something about it, but he was just going to have to go about rehearsal dealing with it. You didn’t know if there would be repercussions later, but that was all part of the fun.

“You little…”

“Wow, Daveed actually woke up early today?” Leslie interrupted the two of you, already sounding like he’d been awake and ready to go for ages. You didn’t know how true that was, considering it was barely nine in the morning, but he was always ready to go.

“Dude, I’m capable of waking up early.”

“Really? You were dead before that one interview we had-”

“That was at six in the morning!”

“Get on my level, Diggs. I have to wake up that early every day except for show days,” you teased. “Normally Leslie and I get the chance to hang out before everyone else shows up, you’re kinda killing our routine.”

“You hurt me, (y/n). Here I was thinking I’d surprise you by showing up early, but apparently I’m just unwanted,” Daveed whined, finally taking his coffee so Leslie could make one if he wanted to. Leslie was quick to jump in, making himself a mug of tea for the morning.

“I’m glad you understand,” Leslie quipped. “(Y/n) and I have to stick to our routine.”

“I see how it is. I’m gonna go take a nap in my dressing room, come get me when people who aren’t mean get here.” Daveed was practically pouting as he left the two of you, cradling his coffee mug in his hands. As soon as he was out of sight - and earshot - you and Leslie couldn’t hold in your laughter anymore.

“He’s so easy to mess with,” Leslie said once he finally caught his breath. “So, the new stagehand starts today, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t know when they’re supposed to get here, but I’ll probably be training them for the rest of the week.”

“Wait, aren’t you supposed to set when the stagehands get here?”

“Well, yeah, but if people get here early or like a few minutes late then I’m not gonna hold it against them. Public transportation isn’t exactly reliable and traffic is a bitch,” you said, shrugging. “Kinda bummed Angel resigned, though. They were really reliable.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to whip this one into shape pretty fast, though. Don’t worry about rehearsal, I’ll handle it,” Leslie reassured you. If someone could keep an eye on everyone, then rehearsal was bound to go smoothly.

“You’re literally the best, you have no idea how much I appreciate you.” Leslie smiled brightly at your praise.

“You do a lot for us, I just wanna make things easier for you. So, are you and Diggs, you know?”

As amazing as Leslie was, he could also be a bit of a gossip. Not that he would ever share anything, he just liked knowing things. “Nah, you know we’re not like that,” you brushed him off.

“I mean, you could be. I share a dressing room with the guy. I know he likes you,” Leslie said. You had to admit, you were a bit intrigued by this. While you knew the both of you definitely had sexual chemistry - as if the frequent nights spent together weren’t enough to confirm as much - you figured that was where the line was drawn. I mean, you could definitely be physically attracted to someone without being romantically interested in them, and you were sure Daveed only really saw you as a friend. If he didn’t, he would’ve told you by now, right?

“What’re you talking about, Leslie? We’re just friends,” you insisted.

“Sure. So you don’t wanna know what he says about you?”

“And here I was thinking you weren’t a gossip.”

“I’m not usually, I’m just tired of you two dancing around each other.”

“Now you know Diggs can’t dance.”

“Oh haha very funny,” Leslie said deadpan, staring at you. You were trying to use humor to cover up your own curiosity. There was the chance Leslie was just thinking too much into things, being the romantic at heart that he is, and if you got your hopes up just to find out Diggs didn’t actually like you like that? Nope, it wasn’t worth it.

“Thank you, I try,” you said with a smile. “Now, tell me how Nicolette’s doing. I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“You know, sometimes I think you like my wife more than you like me.”

“Of course I like your wife more than I like you.” Leslie held his hand to his chest in mock hurt. You smiled. Mornings with Leslie were always fun.

**********

Everyone else started trickling in within the next half hour or so. Diggs finally came out of his dressing room once Anthony and Oak got to the theatre, having some form of protection from your and Leslie’s “bullying”, as he put it. Once most of the cast got to the theatre, you began looking around for the new stagehand. Just as you were prepared to send them a text, you heard someone coming up behind you. You looked up, prepared to help whoever was coming up to you, when you realized you didn’t recognize this person.

“Uh, hi. Are you (y/n)?” He asked fidgeting with the strap of his messenger bag. Oh Lord, he’s kinda cute. That’s a problem.

“That would be me! Are you Michael?” He nodded, still looking around as though he was scanning the room. Of course he’d be nervous, it was his first day on a pretty major show. He was honestly adorable, and you couldn’t figure out if you wanted to protect him or pursue him. 

“Yeah, uh, sorry I’m a little late.”

“No worries, I know how traffic is. Just try not to be more than fifteen minutes late or I’ll actually have to note it down. Right, I’ll show you where your locker is and then I’ll give you a tour of the place before I start your training. You’ve worked as a stagehand before, right?”

“Yeah, but mainly for community theatre. This is like… really different for me,” he admitted, getting a little flustered. Instead of fiddling with his messenger bag, he went to adjust his glasses, making you melt just a little bit.

“It’s not so bad. C’mon, let’s go,” you nodded towards the locker area, smiling at him. 

Daveed watched you from across the room, wondering who you were talking to. He’d never seen the guy around before, and now you were walking off with him. He turned his attention back to the group he was sitting with. “Hey, Leslie. Who’s that guy (y/n)’s talking to?”

“Oh, I guess her new stagehand showed up,” Leslie commented, following Daveed’s gaze. “They’re gonna be working pretty close while she trains him.”

“Shit, really? Why can’t someone else train him?”

“Hey, Diggs, why do you care so much?” Anthony decided to jump in, seeing a prime opportunity for teasing. “I thought you said y’all were just friends.”

“We are! I just don’t like the idea of her being alone with that guy.”

“You sure you don’t like her? Kinda sounds like you’re jealous,” Oak commented.

“Man, shut up. When are we starting?” Diggs asked, trying to change the subject. He looked around, trying to see if he could spot you from where he was, but you were gone. Shit.

**********

Training the new guy ended up taking a lot more of your time than you expected. He was quick to pick up on the little tech stuff from his previous jobs, but you still had to prime him for working with your crew and the cast. Michael stuck close to your side, asking you about little things to make sure he’d be ready for Saturday’s show. Even when he didn’t have to be there - during breaks and lunch - he still hung out with you, just chatting about anything. You had to admit, you really liked his company. He was a good kid.

Being so busy meant you didn’t really get to hang out with Daveed as much, the only real time you got with him was when he insisted on walking you back to your apartment. There were a couple times when you were walking that Daveed took your hand in his, making your heart race. It wasn’t an uncommon thing for him to do, but with Leslie’s teasing at the back of your mind, you couldn’t help but read more into it. Then again, this was Daveed: your best friend that you happened to sleep with multiple times a week. 

When the two of you got to your building, Daveed would kiss you on the front steps, that little fire and hunger burning in the movements of his lips against yours. Your body and mind buzzed, overwhelmed with the sensation of him, but your exhaustion would nag at the back of your mind, making you break the kiss far too soon for either of your liking. 

“Can I come in?” Daveed would ask, desire evident in the way he looked down at you.

“I’m sorry, I’m just too tired tonight,” you’d apologize even as you wanted to lead him up to your apartment, to your bed. Even though you could tell he was a little disappointed, he nodded, respecting your decision. With a promise to text you when he got back to his place - and the unspoken promise to call until you both fell asleep - Daveed would call a Lyft to take him away for the night.

As you laid in bed, listening to Daveed’s voice over your phone speaker tell you random stories and whatever just popped into his head, you couldn’t help but imagine how nice it would be if you could actually do this. If you could actually fall asleep to him next to you, his arms wrapped around you, maybe pressing a kiss to your head when he thought you were asleep. Sure, when the two of you fucked, he would stay the night and hold you in his arms, talking to you as you drifted off to sleep, but you knew it wasn’t the same. Even though the two of you were friends, you couldn’t imagine you having a right to that if you didn’t provide benefits for the night. So you would settle for the phone calls and the calls of your domestic fantasies.

By the time Saturday rolled around, you were kind of excited. You’d get to sleep in since you didn’t need to be at the theatre until noon, Michael was going to have his first run without you hovering over him like an overprotective mom, and you were finally going to have the chance to spend some time with Daveed after the show. You had to admit, you were looking forward to that last one the most. Not sleeping with him for almost a full week and having that post-show adrenaline? It was going to be fun.

Once you got to the theatre, you were energized. You’d gotten more sleep than you usually did, you decided to splurge a bit on a drink from the overpriced coffee shop down the street, you actually had breakfast for once, things were looking like they were going to be good. As soon as you walked in, Daveed quickly attached himself to your side before Michael had the chance to. This, of course, led to teasing from the others.

“Dude’s acting like he was going through withdrawals,” Anthony joked when he was sure you and Daveed could hear him. He was talking his shit and he wanted you to know it.

“Don’t act like you’re not like this with Jazzy,” you quipped back. As sweet as Anthony (normally) was, he was whipped for Jazzy and everyone knew it.

“Yeah, but she’s my girlfriend. You tryna say something about you and Diggs?” Anthony shot back. Fuck, he had you there.

“Sorry you don’t have any friends so you can’t relate,” Daveed saved you. Anthony glared at him.

“Then what’re all you guys?”

“Coworkers,” you said, completely deadpan. Anthony’s glare turned into a look of hurt. You almost felt bad for him.

“You know what? I don’t like getting bullied like this.”

“Then don’t start shit you can’t finish, Ramos,” you told him. As much of a sweetheart he could be, he was definitely a little shit too. You were beginning to notice that was a bit of a common theme with the people you worked with.

When you and Diggs were in his dressing room later before the show - you putting his mic on for the show - he took your hand and pressed a kiss to your palm. You weren’t used to him being touchy like this, so your immediate response was to gently shove his face with your hand and tell him to stop it while you laughed. He smiled at you, letting you do your job.

“So, you gonna come over tonight after the show?” Daveed asked.

“I dunno, am I?”

“C’mon, it’s been a while. I know I’m not the only one that’s a mess, baby girl.” Heat rushed through you at the pet name, one normally reserved for just the bedroom or when he was trying to rile you up. And he was really succeeding at that second thing. Before you could answer, though, there was a knock on the door. “Come in.”

“Hey, uh, (y/n)?” Michael asked, peeking his head in the room. He brightened up when he saw you were in there, though you had no doubt he’d been asking around to find you. “Can I ask you a quick question before show starts?”

“Yeah, sure thing! Just let me finish up with Diggs’ mic and I’ll be out,” you said. Michael smiled brightly before excusing himself, closing the door again. You looked down at Daveed to find him glaring at the door.

“Yeah, you’re definitely coming to mine tonight.” You just tilted your head in confusion, but Daveed only waved you off. You shrugged, finishing your job. You’d have time to ask him after the show.

**********

The show went by a lot faster than you expected it to. Then again, when you were running around backstage, making sure everyone was ready and in places and didn’t have any costume or tech mishaps, you didn’t have a real concept of time. In the brief break you had during intermission, Michael found himself at your side, gushing about how cool the entire thing was. You watched him with a fond smile, glad things were going well during his first official show. You could feel someone looking at you, though, and looked up to find Daveed watching you, obviously not paying attention to whatever Leslie was telling him.

You kept it at the back of your mind as Act 2 started, getting back to your job. There would be time to question him about everything later. Act 2 flew past just as quickly as Act 1, and you watched in the wings as everyone took their bows. Daveed spotted you, giving you a bright smile. As soon as curtains closed, Daveed rushed up to you.

“Just let me get changed and then we’ll head out,” he told you. You could see him almost lean in, but he stopped himself at the last second, opting to ruffle your hair instead before booking it to his dressing room.

“Asshole!” you called out after him even as you laughed. You went to grab your backpack from your locker, not really having a way to kill time after the show. You could always talk to some of your coworkers, but you were sure they just wanted to head home as soon as possible too. You leaned against the wall, just messing around on your phone, when you heard someone walk up to you.

“Hey, (y/n)! I think the show went great!” Michael said as soon as you looked up.

“Yeah, it really did! I heard good things about you today, but how’d your first day go?” You asked, pushing yourself up from the wall. Michael immediately jumped into telling you about everything, really giving off puppy energy. You didn’t know how long you were talking to him, but you could tell he was dancing around something.

“You know, I really appreciate you taking the time to train me yourself. I’m sure I wouldn’t’ve done half as good if you didn’t. Uh, do you think I could like take you out for drinks or something as thanks if you’re not doing anything right now?” Michael finally said.

“Sorry, she has plans,” Daveed said, seemingly coming out of nowhere to put his arm around your shoulders. You jumped slightly at the sudden contact.

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, she’s gonna get fucked until she can’t walk tomorrow.” This immediately drew a gasp of his name from you, but he ignored it and continued. “She’s mine, so you might wanna think again about asking her out.”

Before Michael could even think of saying anything else, Daveed practically dragged you out of the theatre. You struggled to keep up with him, cursing his long legs as you tried to figure out what the hell was going on. A Lyft was already waiting for the two of you outside, and he opened the door for you to get in. The ride was quiet, tension heavy in the air between the two of you, and you could tell the driver was a little uncomfortable even though they had no idea what was going on. As soon as you were in Daveed’s apartment, you turned to him.

“What the hell was that?! You really just said that to the new guy?! What the fuck is your problem?” You demanded as he closed the door behind him.

“He obviously has a crush on you, I needed to make sure he knew where he stood,” Daveed said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Even if he does have a crush on me - which I’m pretty sure he doesn’t - you don’t have the right to do that shit! We’re literally just fucking, it’s not like you’re my boyfriend or anything.” You inhaled sharply as Daveed took a step into your space.

“You don’t get it, do you?” Daveed asked, looking down at you. You tried to straighten up to your full height, but the height difference was still enough to make you feel small.

“Get what?” You tried to keep the venom in your tone even as your heart raced.

“It’s not just fucking. It’s hanging out with you even when we don’t do anything. It’s doing anything to make you smile, even if it’s because you’re bullying me. It’s being nervous to hold your hand but never wanting to let go. It’s wanting to just hold you when we’re in bed, not wanting to let you get up in the morning. I’m so fucking in love with you, and I have been for months now,” Daveed said, cupping your face. “I don’t want you with anyone else. You’re mine.”

“Wait, what?” You didn’t know how to process everything he just told you. You needed a second for it to register, and just as Daveed was about to speak again, you cut him off, pulling him down for a kiss. You didn’t know how to explain it, but this one was different from all the other times you’d kissed him, even from the first one. When you pulled back, you smiled at him. “You’re so sappy.”

“What, did you need time to load?” Daveed teased.

“Well, yeah. I didn’t exactly expect to get a confession from the guy I’ve been silently pining over for way too long now,” you admitted, pulling him back down for another kiss. You almost got upset with the little smile you could feel against your lips, but there were more pressing matters at hand. You broke the kiss again, pleased at the way he seemed to chase your lips. “Now, uh, what was it you told Michael? I was gonna get fucked until I can’t walk tomorrow?”

You could immediately see the change in him, a wicked smile growing on his lips. “You wanna play that game, baby girl?”

You nodded, biting your lip as the air around you seemed to change. The tension from before was back, but instead of the unbearable silence that plagued you on the ride back to his place, it was laced with anticipation. Daveed pulled you back in, one hand on the nape of your neck to hold you to him. His other hand started roaming, tracing lightly along your side before settling on your hip. When he was sure you wouldn’t break the kiss, he brought his other hand down. He bent down slightly, hands moving to your thighs. He pulled back for a breath before giving you a simple demand. “Jump.”

You did as he said, jumping just enough for him to wrap your legs around his waist. He started walking to his bedroom, distracting you with kisses and nips to your neck. The first night you guys spent together, you’d set up some ground rules to not get caught, the first one being absolutely no marks that couldn’t be hidden. That rule seemed to go out the window now that there was nothing to hide. A small whimper escaped you at the mark he was sucking high on your neck, not used to the sensation there.

His distraction worked; before you knew it, he was placing you on the edge of his bed. As soon as his hands were free from carrying you, they went to the front of your shirt, unbuttoning it with practiced ease. His lips followed his hands, kissing down your front. He ended up kneeled between your legs, letting your shirt fall open and frame your figure. “Talk to me, baby girl. What’s the safe word?”

“Red, and yellow if I need a second,” you recited. Just the fact that Daveed made sure to do the check in meant you were in for it, and you couldn’t be more excited.

“Good girl.” You barely had a second to process his words before he pressed up to kiss you, pushing your shirt off of your shoulders. Your bra was quick to follow, and once your top was exposed, Daveed pushed you to lay on your back. He planted his arm beside your head, caging you in as he lowered his body to yours. The kiss would break for a second just to let you get more air before he reclaimed your lips, and as much as you loved kissing Daveed, you needed more. You knew this was all part of his teasing, and as much as you were normally a brat, you needed him.

“Please,” you whimpered out, rolling your hips against his. You could feel his arousal so close to where you needed him, separated only by a few layers of clothes. 

“Please what, baby?” You couldn’t see his smirk, but you knew it was there.

“Touch me.”

“I’m already touching you, isn’t this enough? If you’re gonna be greedy, you gotta tell me what you want.” Against his words, he started trailing his free hand down the side of your face, down your neck, down, down, down, stopping right at your waistband. He pressed his lips to your neck, letting you feel his smile. “What do you want, baby girl?”

“Daveed, fuck, please. I want you to fuck me,” you said, trying to grind into him again. His hand at your waistband held down your hips, not letting you have any room for movement. He sat back on his knees, looking down at you.

“There you go, baby. All you had to do was ask.” He undid your pants, the sound of the zipper seeming to echo in the room as he slowly pulled it down. You wanted to complain about him still teasing, but you knew you wouldn’t get what you wanted if you did. He pulled your pants down and off, you lifting your hips to help ease the way. You reached down to remove your panties, just wanting the job to be done already, but Daveed gently smacked your hands away. “No. I wanna take a bit to look at you, all gorgeous and needy.”

“Stop teasing,” you whined.

“Normally you’re such a brat. What happened?” Daveed asked, still teasing. His hand toyed at the hem of your panties, the slight touch enough to make you shiver.

“I thought you like when I listen to you,” you shot back, finally moving to sit up. You liked his little games, but you were starting to get tired of it. You needed him to touch you, actually touch you, and if he kept going like this, it was going to take forever. Before he could say whatever smart ass remark he was going to, you pulled him by his shirt into a deep kiss. You broke the kiss for a second, starting to tug off his shirt. It didn’t take more than a second for him to realize what you wanted, quickly taking it off. You went back to work, not wanting to give up the slight bit of control you had gained.

You moved your kisses down his neck, wanting to leave some marks of your own. As your hand trailed down to palm his erection through his sweats, he grabbed the back of your hair, forcing you to look at him. His pupils were lust blown, he was panting slightly, and he looked like he was seconds away from losing it. You had the feeling you didn’t look much better. “Nuh uh, baby. Did you forget who’s in charge here?”

“It’s gonna be me if you don’t hurry up,” you challenged. You inhaled sharply when the hand in your hair tightened its hold, but you kept your eyes locked with his.

“There’s the brat I love,” he said with a small huff of amusement, trying not to smile. He moved you back to lay down, finally touching you where you needed him, even if it was still over your panties. “You know how I know you like these little games? You always get so fucking wet for me.”

Daveed pressed one more kiss to your lips before settling between your thighs, pulling your panties off and tossing them somewhere to the side. You leaned back on your elbows, wanting to watch his next moves. He kissed your inner thigh, making your breath hitch as the simple touch lit up your nerves. You could tell he was leaving more marks as he kissed and nipped on the soft skin, not even really registering his hand moving between your legs until you jolted at the slight pressure on your clit.

Daveed moved his attention to your other thigh, repeating the motions as his thumb lazily rubbed over your clit. Your thighs tried to close on their own, only to be met by a sharp bite. Breathy whines and moans escaped your lips, your head rolling back as Daveed took his time. As much as you were expecting him to take you rough and make you beg until you were crying, this slow build up was an entirely different kind of torture. When his fingers finally teased between your folds, guiding the way for his tongue, you couldn’t help your high whine of please. 

He took mercy on you, his tongue teasing your entrance before settling on tracing patterns over your clit. While his mouth worked on your clit, he eased two fingers into you, your arousal making it easy for him. Your hips bucked at the slight burn, but the way he dragged his fingertips along your walls quickly replaced the feeling. Daveed knew exactly how to take you apart, watching your reactions for the slightest changes. Just as your thighs started to quiver, the pool of arousal in you getting to just this side of too much, Daveed pulled away.

“You fucking-”

“Watch what you’re gonna say to me, baby girl. You’re already on thin fucking ice,” he warned, getting up to take off his sweats. Even though you knew he wouldn’t be gone for long, you missed his touch on you. Not that you were gonna let him know that.

“You asshole, I was almost there.” You bit your lip, barely hiding the gasp that threatened to escape you at the smack he gave to your thigh. The skin stung, but the prickling of pleasure was always enough to overwhelm it. 

“I know, sweetheart.” He gave you a wicked smile as he took his place between your thighs again, resting his length against where you needed him. You didn’t even realize you whimpered at the feeling until his thumb started rubbing circles into your thigh. “Aw, someone’s needy. I only want you cumming around me when I say you can, understand?”

You nodded, but Daveed just shook his head, the little pout on his lips mocking you. “Nuh uh, baby girl. Use your words and then I can fuck you the way you want, okay?”

“Yes, I understand,” you finally said, voice smaller than you would’ve liked. You rolled your hips up, trying to feel more of him. Daveed’s hand tightened on your thigh, hard enough that you were sure you were going to have finger-shaped bruises there in the morning. “Now can you please just hurry up and-”

You cut yourself off with a whine as Daveed ran the tip through your folds, collecting your wetness before teasing the head over your entrance. His little self-satisfied smile as he slowly pushed into you was annoying, but you had better things to focus on. He pulled you closer to him, thumb rubbing circles on your thigh yet again as he rolled his hips a few times. As much as he talked about ruining you, you could always tell there was a slight hesitation before he really got into it. You loved his concern, but he did have a promise to keep. His thrusts were still slow and controlled, so you decided to give him some motivation. 

“I know you can go harder than that. You know, I bet Michael would-” This time you were cut off by Daveed’s hand on your throat. You looked up, a small smile gracing your lips at finally getting what you wanted, only to falter a bit at the hard look Daveed was giving you.

“Michael wouldn’t do shit,” Daveed said, finally thrusting into you harder. You knew you shouldn’t be as smug about it as you were, but you were thriving. This was what you’d been waiting for. Your legs wrapped around his waist, your hands fisted in the blanket. Just as you were starting to get comfortable, enjoying the ride, Daveed forced your leg over his shoulder, driving his length deeper into you. “He wouldn’t know how to fuck you like I do. Even if you went to him, you’d be thinking of me. You and this pussy belong. To. Me.”

Daveed punctuated each word with a rough thrust of his hips, making you see stars. You were babbling at this point, whines and moans mixing with your pleas for more. Daveed’s hand rested on your throat, not quite choking you but acting as a reminder to watch yourself. He was treating you with the roughness you craved, and you could feel yourself getting closer as he went on. You didn’t know if you were the one that moved or it was him, but he hit that spot. That spot that had your vision edging with white, that had you yelling out as you came hard, not even bothering to ask permission. Instead of letting you ride it through like he normally did, Daveed pulled out of you, dropping your leg from his shoulder. 

“Wha- why’d you stop?!” You cried out even as Daveed flipped you over to your stomach. He pulled your hips up, arching your back for him before laying a hard smack on your ass.

“Did you ask?” Daveed demanded, smacking the same spot.

“What?”

“What, you get fucked a little and forget your manners?” It finally clicked for you, a little embarrassed that Daveed had to point it out like that. Normally, you’d be apologetic, but you couldn’t really find it in you to care at the moment. You just wanted Daveed to keep fucking you, you could deal with the consequences later. You tried rolling your hips back to his, but his hands kept a tight hold on your hips.

“I’m sorry,” you whined, still not meaning it. “Please.”

Daveed huffed out a little laugh, but when you tried turning your head to look at him, his hand fisted in your hair, pushing your head down into the pillows. You would have complained, but the feeling of him sliding back into you cleared your mind of anything other than him. He was quick to go back to his fast pace, holding your head down to keep you in place. “Don’t know why I fucking asked for an apology, I know you don’t mean it. You just want me to fucking ruin you.”

You couldn’t do anything but whimper at his harsh tone, trying to fuck yourself back on him. But no, he controlled the pace, he controlled your pleasure. You were his. All you could do was take it, trying not to repeat your mistake from earlier. Time seemed to fade away as the sound is his hips against yours, your muffled moans and whines, his small grunts and praise filled the room. It wasn’t until Daveed finally let go of your hair to rub at your clit instead that you could tell he was getting close. His thrusts started getting sloppy and you could feel the build up inside of you yet again.

“Please, baby,” you whined, the two words already being a struggle. You’d hoped it would be enough, but of course it wasn’t.

“You gotta say it, baby girl,” he said, voice slightly strained from how close he was.

“Please let me cum, I wanna cum so bad, please baby please,” you kept going, only able to repeat please, baby until he finally took mercy on you. You were trying your hardest to be good, needing to be good for him, but you didn’t know how long you could keep this going.

“Fuck, such a good girl. Cum for me baby, I wanna feel you.” His permission was all you needed, your orgasm hitting you as soon as you had it. Your legs shook, nerves sensitive as Daveed chased his own release, making you cry out into the room. Daveed followed soon after, pushing deep in you as he called your name in a delicious groan.

The quiet that followed was new, your heavy breathing the only noise breaking the silence. Daveed stayed for a few seconds before slowly pulling out, making you whimper at the sensitivity. You let your hips fall, content to just stay there laying on your stomach, but Daveed had other ideas, rolling you onto your side so he could pull you into his arms.

“Hey,” he said in a near whisper, a little smile on his face as he looked down at you.

“Hey,” you said with a smile of your own. The moment was a bit cheesy, but it made you feel warm inside.

“So, how was that?”

“I mean, it was different.”

“Different good or?”

“Yeah, but just different. Like, knowing that you’re in love with me or whatever.”

“Don’t ‘or whatever’ that! Every time we’ve fucked before I’ve been in love with you,” Daveed seemed to add that last part as an afterthought. Thinking the conversation was done, you started to get up only to be pulled back to the bed. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“To go shower?” You looked at Daveed, tilting your head slightly. You were met by a hungry look, immediately sending a shiver through you.

“We’re not done yet, baby girl.”

**********

Permanent Tag List: @treatallwithkindness, @laic2299

[gffa]

OKAY, IF I’M GONNA DO THIS, I’M GONNA DO IT PROPERLY.  WHICH MEANS YEAH IT’S GONNA GET REALLY LONG. A couple of things to say ahead of time:  Lucasfilm’s Story Group has always said CANON > WORD OF GOD when it comes to these matters, so when I quote canon examples from supplementary materials that contradict what he says, that’s LF’s official position, but that doesn’t mean that an influential person like Dave’s views couldn’t affect how things will be shaped in the future, like Deborah Chow listening to this may be influenced by it on the Obi-Wan show, despite that Master & Apprentice contradicts him.  It’s an incredibly murky area!  Mileages are going to vary.   Another thing to keep in mind is that Dave Filoni never worked on The Phantom Menace, that was long, long before his time at Lucasfilm (which I think he joined sometime around 2007? and TPM was released in 1999), that he has worked with George more than probably anyone else, but we cannot and should not treat him as infallible or the True Authority on things, because even Dave himself has said things like: “I mean, I know why I did that and what it means, but I don't like to explain too much. I love for the viewers to watch stuff and come up with their own theories -- and they frankly come up with better things that I intended.”  --Dave Filoni, Entertainment Tonight 2020 interview Or, in the same episode as the above Qui-Gon interpretation:

So, when I dig into this, I’m not doing this out of a sense of malice or even that I suddenly hate Dave or don’t appreciate all the incredible things he’s brought to SW, but in that I disagree with his take, Dave understands that he doesn’t always get it right, that he enjoys that fans come up with different things than he does and sometimes he likes those even more.  There’s room for both of us and, for all that Dave mentions George a lot (and, hey, fair enough, the guy worked with George and I’m just quoting what George Lucas has said) doesn’t mean that this is straight from George, especially because I have never seen George Lucas utter so much as a peep about how the Jedi were responsible for Anakin’s fall.  He has explicitly and frequently talked about how Anakin’s fall was his own choice, as well as I’ve never seen him say anything Jedi-critical beyond “they were kind of arrogant about themselves”.  I have read and watched every George Lucas interview I could get my hands on and maybe I’m still missing something, but that’s literally the extent of him criticizing the Jedi I have EVER seen. (It’s from the commentary on AOTC where he put in the scene with Jocasta to show they were full of themselves, but I also think it’s fair to point out that Obi-Wan immediately contradicts this by going to Dex for help, showing that it’s not necessarily a Jedi-wide thing.) Before I go further, I want to say:  this is not a post meant to tear down Qui-Gon, he is a character I actually really do love, but the focus is on showing why the above interpretation of him is wrong, which means focusing on Qui-Gon’s flaws. He has many wonderful qualities, he is someone who cared deeply and was a good person, I think things would have been better had he lived!  But Anakin’s choices did not hinge on him, because Anakin’s choices were Anakin’s, that has always been the consistent theme of how George talks about him, the way he talks about the story is always in terms of “Anakin did this” or “Anakin chose that”, and the Jedi are very consistently shown as caring, they believed very much in love and Dave’s own show (well, I say “his own show”, but honestly TCW was George’s baby primarily and he had a lot of direct, hands-on say in crafting it, through at least the first five seasons) is plenty of evidence of that. I’m not going to quote the full thing because this is already a monster post, I’m just going to focus on the Jedi stuff, because I like the other points a lot, but if you want the full text, it’s here.  The relevant part is: “In Phantom Menace, you’re watching these two Jedi in their prime fight this evil villain. Maul couldn’t be more obviously the villain. He’s designed to look evil, and he is evil, and he just expresses that from his face all the way out to the type of lightsaber he fights with. What’s at stake is really how Anakin is going to turn out. Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. But Qui-Gon is ahead of them all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” “So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family. So that moment in that movie which a lot of people I think diminish, “oh there’s a cool lightsaber fight”, but it’s everything that the entire three films of the prequels hangs on, is that one particular fight. And Maul serves his purpose and at that point died before George made me bring him back, but he died.“  --Dave Filoni  I’m going to take this a piece at a time to show why I really disagree with the content of both the movies and The Clone Wars supporting what Dave says and, instead, contradicts it a lot. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. He doesn’t explain what this means, but I’m pretty sure that he’s referring to this conversation: OBI-WAN: “I am concerned for my Padawan. He is not ready to be given this assignment on his own yet.” YODA: “The Council is confident in its decision, Obi-Wan.” MACE WINDU: “The boy has exceptional skills.” OBI-WAN: “But he still has much to learn, Master. His abilities have made him... well.... arrogant.” YODA: “Yes, yes. A flaw more and more common among Jedi. Hmm... too sure of themselves they are. Even the older, more experienced ones.” MACE WINDU: “Remember, Obi-Wan, if the prophecy is true, your apprentice is the only one who can bring the Force back into balance.” OBI-WAN: "If he follows the right path.” None of that has anything to do with being “detached” and, further, I think this is something that’s come up with Dave’s view of Luminara a lot, because he’s described her (re: the Geonosis arc):  “We were trying to illustrate the difference between the way Anakin is raising his Padawan, and how much he cares about her, and the way Luminara raises her Padawan. Not that Luminara is indifferent, but that Luminara is detached. It’s not that she doesn’t care, but she’s not attached to her emotionally.” Here, he says that the Jedi care, in the above, he says that the Jedi don’t care, which makes me think there’s a lot of characterization drift as time goes on, especially when fandom bombards everyone with the idea that the Jedi were cold, emotionless, and didn’t care.  However, look at Luminara’s face in that arc, when she’s talking with Anakin:

That is not the face of someone who doesn’t care.  She even smiles brightly in relief when Barriss is shown to be okay, that this really doesn’t convey “detached” in an unloving or uncaring way.  (We’ll get to attachment later, that’s definitely coming.) (I’m also mostly skipping the political thing, because I think that’s just a fundamental disagreement of whether Jedi should or should not lean into politics.  My view basically boils down to that I think ALL OF US should be leaning more into politics because we are citizens who live in the world and are responsible for it, and the Jedi are no different.  This is evidenced by:  - M&A’s storyline has Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan saving the day specifically because they play politics, that’s how they manage to free the slaves, through playing politics and being part of the Republic/having Senate backing. - The Clone Wars has shown that the Jedi believe “lasting change can only come from within” and “it’s every citizen’s duty to hold their leaders accountable” when Ahsoka teaches the cadets on Mandalore, as well as that politics are not inherently bad, given that Padme and Bail are working to make the system better or “create lasting change from within [the system]” - "Trying to serve the greater good does not always make you popular” says Padme Amidala in a very caring speech - Star Wars Propaganda makes the case that the Jedi might have won the war had they leaned more into politics. - Sometimes the Jedi get unfairly accused of playing politics when there’s just no good choice and they still have to choose one or the other.) But Qui-Gon is ahead of them [re: caring and loving] all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. This is flat-out wrong in regards to canon.  Mileages are going to vary, of course, on how much one takes a novel into consideration, but Dave Filoni is not a fan with the luxury of deciding what is or isn’t canon, he works on Star Wars where canon is canon.  Now, does that mean canon will never contradict itself, especially if Dave gets to write something for Qui-Gon?  Of course not, SW isn’t immune to continuity errors and they themselves have never said otherwise, even when fans want to hold them to that standard. However, this is still pretty much a big “that’s not what happened” instance.  In Master & Apprentice, the Jedi Council offer a seat to Qui-Gon on the Council, specifically BECAUSE he has different opinions from them and they welcome that.  (Excerpt here.)      “We hope it will also be our gain,” Mace replied. “Qui-Gon Jinn, we hereby offer you a seat on the Jedi Council.”      Had he misheard? No, he hadn’t. Qui-Gon slowly gazed around the circle, taking in the expressions of each Council member in turn. Some of them looked amused, others pleased. A few of them, Yoda included, appeared more rueful than not. But they were serious.      “I admit—you’ve surprised me,” Qui-Gon finally said.“I imagine so,” Mace said drily. “A few years ago, we would’ve been astonished to learn we would ever consider this. But in the time since, we’ve all changed. We’ve grown. Which means the possibilities have changed as well.”      Qui-Gon took a moment to collect himself. Without any warning, one of the turning points of his life had arrived. Everything he said and did in the next days would be of great consequence. “You’ve argued with my methods often as not, or perhaps you’d say I’ve argued with yours.”      “Truth, this is,” Yoda said.      Depa Billaba gave Yoda a look Qui-Gon couldn’t interpret. “It’s also true that the Jedi Council needs more perspectives.” Ultimately, Qui-Gon is the who turns them down and gives up a chance to shape the Jedi Council because he doesn’t like the shape they’re taking.  That he does become less political, but this is after he’s argued that the Jedi should be working to push the Senate harder, so when he has a chance to help with that, he turns it down.  It has nothing to do with caring and loving, it’s about Qui-Gon’s desire to not have to deal with the work himself, when he wants to be more of a hippie Jedi.  (I’ve written a lot about Qui-Gon in M&A, why I actually think it’s really spot-on to someone who can be both really kind and really kind of a dick, but it’s not the most flattering portrayal, even if narrative intention likely didn’t mean what came across to me.  I think this post and this post are probably the most salient ones, but if you want something of an index of the web that’s being woven with all the various media, this one is good, too.) So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. I have only ever seen George Lucas talk about Anakin’s fate in one instance and it’s this:  “It’s fear of losing somebody he loves, which is the flipside of greed. Greed, in terms of the Emperor, it’s the greed for power, absolute power, over everything. With Anakin, really it’s the power to save the one he loves, but it’s basically going against the Fates and what is natural.“ –George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith commentary I’ve made my case about why I think Anakin’s fate is about that moment in Palpatine’s office, and so I’m not fundamentally opposed that “Duel of the Fates” is about Anakin’s fate, but here’s what George has provably said about the “Duel of the Fates” part of the story: - In the commentary for The Phantom Menace during “Duel of the Fates” and none of Dave’s speculation is even hinted at, there’s more focus on the technical side of things and the most George talks about is that it’s Obi-Wan who parallels Luke in going over the edge during the fight, except that instead of a Sith cutting off a Jedi’s hand, it’s a Jedi cutting a Sith in half, drawing the parallels between them. - He does say of the funeral scene that this is where Obi-Wan commits to training Anakin and how everything is going to go (though, in canon we see that Obi-Wan still struggles with this a bit, but Yoda is there to support him and nudge him into committing even more to Anakin, because the Jedi are a supportive community to each other).  This is some solid evidence for that Obi-Wan is already caring about Anakin beyond just Qui-Gon. - Then here’s what he says about the “Duel of the Fates” fights and themes of them in "All Films Are Personal": George Lucas: “I wanted to come up with an apprentice for the Emperor who was striking and tough. We hadn’t seen a Sith Lord before, except for Vader, of course. I wanted to convey the idea that Jedi are all very powerful, but they’re also vulnerable — which is why I wanted to kill Qui-Gon. That is to say, “Hey, these guys aren’t Superman.” These guys are people who are vulnerable, just like every other person. “We needed to establish that, but at the same time, we wanted the ultimate sword fight, because they were all very good. It sort of predisposes the sword fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan later on. There’s real purpose to it. You have to establish the rules and then stick with them. The scene illustrates just how Jedi and Sith fight and use lightsabers.” “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him.  We’ll get to the “attachment to his mother” thing in a bit--but, for now, let’s just say, George Lucas’ words on this are not that attachment to her was a good thing. Fair enough that “not because he cares about him” is up to personal interpretation, but canon has also addressed the topic of Obi-Wan’s treatment of Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped up to the plate on this.  In addition to how we see Obi-Wan REPEATEDLY being there for Anakin and being concerned and caring about him, they specifically talk about Qui-Gon and overcome this hurdle.

No, Obi-Wan is not Anakin’s father figure, on that we definitely agree.  Anakin never really even treats Obi-Wan like a father--he says “you’re the closest thing I have to a father” in Attack of the Clones, as well as he says Obi-Wan practically raised him in The Clone Wars “Crystal Crisis” story reels, but Anakin has never actually acted like Obi-Wan is his father--”then why don’t you listen to me?” Obi-Wan points out in AOTC--as well as Obi-Wan glides past those remarks, which I’ve always taken that he doesn’t want to reject Anakin’s feelings, knowing that Anakin can be sensitive about them, but neither does he want to confirm them. This does not mean Obi-Wan was not supportive, caring, and loving.  He says, “I loved you!” to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, he asks after him and if he’s sleeping well in Attack of the Clones, and even George Lucas himself said that the elevator scene was set up TO SHOW OBI-WAN AND ANAKIN CARE FOR EACH OTHER:

PUTTING THE REST UNDER A READ MORE FOR A BETTER LENGTH REBLOGGABLE VERSION, IF  YOU WANT.

This is further evidenced by how the Jedi do see themselves as family, they just don’t need to put it into strict nuclear family dynamics:     - “You were my brother, Anakin!  I loved you!”  [–Obi-Wan Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith]      - “We are brothers, Master Dibs.” [–Mace Windu, Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu]      - “Did your parents bicker?” she asked. “The adoptive ones, I mean.”         A slow smile broke across Ashla’s face, curling first one side of her mouth and then the other. Whatever she was remembering, Kaeden could tell it was good.         "All the time,“ Ashla said, almost as if she were talking to herself. [–Kaeden Larte, Ahsoka Tano, Ahsoka]      -  Vos, brought to the Temple even younger than most, felt that he had hundreds of brothers and sisters, and it seemed that whenever he went into the dining hall he ran into at least half of them. [Dark Disciple]       - “It was not his birthplace, exactly, but the Jedi Temple was where Quinlan Vos had grown up. He’d raced through its corridors, hidden behind its massive pillars, found peace in its meditation hall, ended-and started-fights in rooms intended for striking blows and some that weren’t, and sneaked naps in its library. All Jedi came here, at some point in their lives; for Quinlan, it always felt like coming home when he ran lightly up the stairs and entered the massive building as he did now.” [Dark Disciple] Brothers, sisters, and other more non-traditional kinds of family are not lesser and Obi-Wan and Anakin absolutely were family, just as the Jedi are all family to each other, so, no, there was no “failing” Anakin, except in Anakin’s mind, perhaps.  (In that, I can agree.  But not on a narratively approved level, canon too thoroughly refutes that for me.) Rebels as well pretty thoroughly shows that non-traditional families are meaningful and just as important--we may joke that Hera is “space mom”, but she’s not actually Ezra or Sabine’s mother, Kanan is not actually their father, and even if they sometimes stray into aspects of those roles (as the Jedi do as well in the movies and TCW), that they don’t need that traditional nuclear family structure.  Mentor figures--and Kanan is Ezra’s mentor--are just as meaningful and needful as a “dad”.  And I’m kind of :/ at the implication that anyone without a dad/father figure or mom/mother figure is being “failed”. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” Whether or not Obi-Wan is being genuinely dismissive in this movie (I think you could make a case either way), the idea that Qui-Gon is better than Obi-Wan about this, as shown through Jar Jar isn’t exactly very supported given how Qui-Gon and Jar Jar first exchange words:

QUI-GON: “You almost got us killed. Are you brainless?”   JAR JAR:  “I spake.”   QUI-GON: “The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.” Qui-Gon is just as bad as everyone else to Jar Jar, he’s not somehow elevated above them. It’s also baffling because, Dave, I have watched your show.  The Jedi are specifically shown to be kind to people and creatures, not considering them “useless”.  Henry Gilroy (who was the co-writer for The Clone Wars and frequently appeared in featurettes on the same level as Dave Filoni) explicitly draws this to The Jedi Way, that “life is everything to the Jedi“, when he said this about the Ryloth episodes:

(Caps cribbed from Pan’s blog, because I cannot make another gif, save me, please.)      Henry Gilroy in an Aggressive Negotiations Interview:  "Obi-Wan truly is a Jedi in that he’s like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to murder these creatures [in the Ryloth arc of The Clone Wars].  They’re starving to death.  They’ve basically been unleashed against these people as a weapon, but it’s not their fault. They’re just doing what they do.  They’re just animals who wanna eat.’     "So the idea was–and I think there was an early talk about how, 'Oh, yeah, he’ll go running through them and slicing and dicing them and chop them all up or whatever, and save his guys.  And I’m like, 'Yeah, but that’s not really the Jedi way.  He’s not just gonna murder these creatures.’     "And I know the threat is [there], to save one life you have to take one, but the idea of him [is]: why can’t Obi-Wan just be more clever?  He basically draws them in and then traps them.     "It says something about who the Jedi are, they don’t just waste life arbitrarily.  And someone could have gone, 'Oh, yeah, but it would have been badass if he’d just ran in there with his lightsaber spinning and stabbed them all in the head!’  And 'Yeah, you’re right, I guess he could be that, but he’s trying to teach his clones a lesson right then, about the sanctity of life.’       "That is the underlying theme of that entire episode.  Which is:  A tactical droid is using the people as living shields.  Life means nothing to the Separatists.  The droids.  But life is everything to the Jedi.  And even though he doesn’t have to say that, it’s all through the episode thematically.“ It’s also Obi-Wan who teaches Anakin about kindness to mindless creatures in the Obi-Wan & Anakin comic:

"These beasts are nearly mindless, Anakin.  I can feel it.  They are merely following their nature, they should not die simply because they crossed our path. Use the Force to send them on their way.” Now, fair enough if you want to say Obi-Wan was taught by Qui-Gon, but also Qui-Gon is dead by that point and Obi-Wan growing into being more mature is his own accomplishment, not Qui-Gon’s, especially given that we see Qui-Gon himself being pretty dismissive to Jar Jar in TPM. This isn’t unique thing either, Padme is incredibly condescending to Jar Jar in “Bombad Jedi” and expresses clear annoyance with him to C-3PO when sighing over him.  Jar Jar is a character you kind of have to warm up to, pretty much the only one we’ve seen consistently being favorable to him is Yoda (and maybe Anakin, though, Anakin doesn’t really interact with him a ton) and Mace Windu warms up to him considerably in “The Disappeared” and even specifically is shown to be teaching him and helping him, which is a huge theme of the Jedi and how much they care.

So, ultimately, the point I’m winding my way towards is--the other Jedi do show kindness and consideration to Jar Jar Binks, including characters like Mace Windu, so if you’re judging the Jedi based on that, the conclusion of Qui-Gon somehow being more compassionate and loving is really pretty thoroughly disproved by The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars themselves. So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family.  You could be charitable and say this is just from Anakin’s point of view that it’s a “failing”, but within the context of what Dave’s saying, it’s clearly meant as a more narratively approved take, not just Anakin’s point of view, and I really, really dislike the idea that Anakin--or anyone, really--needs a traditional nuclear family, ie a “mom” and/or a “dad”, or else it’s a “failing” for them. Setting aside that the idea that Qui-Gon would need to be Anakin’s dad to be kind to hi (which is ?????) is contradicted by The Clone Wars as well.  Yes, Qui-Gon is warm with Anakin in several scenes, which is what Dave is presumably drawing on to show that Qui-Gon believed the Jedi should be caring and loving, but you know who else is warm to younglings?  OTHER JEDI COUNCIL MEMBERS.

Those two scenes have the exact same kind of warmth to them.  Ie, THE JEDI ALL BELIEVED IN BEING LOVING AND KIND, NOT JUST QUI-GON.  The things evidenced to show Qui-Gon was loving and kind are evidenced just as much in other Council members, in Dave’s own show. As a bonus--have Mace Windu, known Jedi Council member, being super kind and loving towards a young Twi’lek girl he just met in a canon comic:

But I know that this is about the way the Council treated Anakin in The Phantom Menace testing scene, but here’s the thing--when I go back and I watch that scene and the Jedi aren’t ever mean to him, they’re neutral in an official testing situation, where they are trying to determine if he’s able to adapt to the Jedi ways.  They never once say he’s bad for holding onto his fear, only that he does--which Anakin digs his heels in and gets angry about, he can’t really even admit that he’s afraid and that’s a huge deal for the Jedi. I’ve made a longer post about it here (and here), but the basic gist is: - That scene has Yoda giving the famous “Fear leads to the dark side” speech which is almost word for word how George Lucas describes how the Force works, showing the Jedi are narratively correct - “Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi” may be from the sequels, but it is thoroughly supported by the movies and TCW and Rebels and even supplementary canon material, including that the Jedi literally design their tests around both Masters and Padawans for it (Ilum, the Jedi Temple on Lothal, etc. - Anakin cannot admit to his fears in that TPM scene - We have examples of Jedi younglings do admit to their fears and the point isn’t not to have them, but to face them--the younglings in “The Gathering” are the most blatant example of this, but it’s also pretty much the entire theme of Jedi: Fallen Order, especially when Cal goes to Ilum to face his fears and get another kyber crystal. The point isn’t that Anakin--who has very good reasons to be afraid! nothing in the story or the Jedi have said he didn’t!--is wrong or bad, but that he’s not a great fit for the Jedi life because he is “unwilling to accept [Jedi philosophy] emotionally”.  And they’re right about this, because this is how George Lucas describes Anakin in commentary: “The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he can’t hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn’t willing to accept emotionally and the reason that is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he’d have been taken in his first year and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn’t have this particular connection as strong as it is and he’d have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them.”  --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary And so this brings us to A T T A C H M E N T, which, yeah, we’ve been having this discussion forever, but I’m going to state it again:  Within Star Wars, ATTACHMENT IS NARRATIVELY A BAD THING.  It is consistently tied to possessive, obsessive relationships, to greed and an unwillingness to let things go when it’s time (letting go is a huge theme in Star Wars) and equating love with attachment is fundamentally wrong according to George Lucas’ Star Wars worldbuilding: “The Jedi are trained to let go. They’re trained from birth,” he continues, “They’re not supposed to form attachments. They can love people-- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can’t form attachments. So what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death.” --George Lucas, The Making of Revenge of the Sith If attachment and love were the same thing, then he would be saying, “They should love their enemies, they should love the Sith.  But they can’t love.”  The way George makes the distinction shows that, no, attachment and love aren’t the same thing at all, attachment is not caring.  Further, there’s another instance of him showing there’s an important distinction between relationships and attachment and the association of attachmets with possession:  "Jedi Knights aren’t celibate - the thing that is forbidden is attachments - and possessive relationships.” --George Lucas, BBC News interview So, yes, when Anakin is attached to people, it is directly tied to obsession, possession, and greed, all things of the dark side: “He turns into Darth Vader because he gets attached to things. He can’t let go of his mother; he can’t let go of his girlfriend. He can’t let go of things. It makes you greedy. And when you’re greedy, you are on the path to the dark side, because you fear you’re going to lose things, that you’re not going to have the power you need.”  --George Lucas, Time Magazine  “But he has become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate.“ --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary ATTACHMENT IS BAD IN STAR WARS AS THEY DEFINE IT. Finally, I’m going to circle back to: Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. Here’s the thing about this:  You know who else, by this logic, Qui-Gon should have been a father to?  OBI-WAN KENOBI. This isn’t said as “Anakin specifically needs a father” (which I think would be an interesting idea to bandy about and I’m not disagreeing, though, it’s complicated because of what Anakin refuses to accept emotionally), it’s said in a bigger context, that Qui-Gon is better than the other Jedi because he understands the need for fathers (and thus this ties into Return of the Jedi) and he’s ahead of the other Jedi, who apparently think loving and caring about people are bad things, but Qui-Gon does not treat Obi-Wan like his son.  Or, if he does, he’s not exactly a stellar dad about it. Within Master & Apprentice, there’s an incredibly consistent theme of how Qui-Gon thinks supportive things about Obi-Wan, but never says them aloud.  He thinks he should talk to Obi-Wan about the upcoming decision to be on the Council and then never does.  He could have explained why he kept Obi-Wan training the basics but he never does.  There are multiple instances showing that Qui-Gon is actually really, really bad at actually handling a young apprentice who needs him to talk to them about important things.  Qui-Gon continues this in From a Certain Point of View where he still never talked to Obi-Wan about everything that happened, even after he became a Force Ghost.     Damn, damn, damn. Qui-Gon closed his eyes for one moment. It blocked nothing; the wave of shock that went through Obi-Wan was so great it could be felt through the Force. Qui-Gon hadn’t thought Kirames Kaj would mention the Jedi Council invitation. It seemed possible the soon-retiring chancellor of the Republic might not even have taken much note of information about a new Council member. --Master & Apprentice     That comment finally pierced Qui-Gon’s damnable calm. There was an edge to his voice as he said, “I suspected you would be too upset to discuss this rationally. Apparently I was correct.”     “I thought you said my reaction was understandable,” Obi-Wan shot back. “So why does it disqualify me from hearing the truth?”    Qui-Gon put his hands on his broad belt, the way he did when he was beginning to withdraw into himself. “…we should discuss this at another time. Neither of us is his best self at the present.” --Master & Apprentice     Obi-Wan walked toward the door, obviously outdone. “At the beginning of my apprenticeship, I couldn’t understand you,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s just as true here at the end.”     Only yesterday they had worked together as never before. How did Qui-Gon manage to get closer to Obi-Wan at the same time he was moving further away?     Just before Obi-Wan would leave the room, Qui-Gon said, “Once, you asked me about the basic lightsaber cadences. Why I’d kept you there, instead of training you in more advanced forms of combat.”     Obi-Wan turned reluctantly to face him again. “I suppose you thought I wasn’t ready for more. The same way I’m not ready to believe in all this mystical—”     “That’s not why.”     After a long pause, Obi-Wan calmed to the point where he would listen. “Then why, Qui-Gon?”     “Because many Padawans—and full Jedi Knights, for that matter—forget that the most basic technique is the most important technique. The purest. The most likely to protect you in battle, and the foundation of all knowledge that is to come,” Qui-Gon said. “Most apprentices want to rush ahead to styles of fighting that are flashier or more esoteric. Most Masters let them, because we must all find our preferred form eventually. But I wanted you to be grounded in your technique. I wanted you to understand the basic cadences so well that they would become instinct, so that you would be almost untouchable. Above all, I wanted to give you the training you needed to accomplish anything you set your mind to later on.”     Obi-Wan remained quiet for so long that Qui-Gon wondered if he were too angry to really hear any of what he’d said. But finally, his Padawan nodded. “Thank you, Qui-Gon. I appreciate that. But—”     “But what?”     “You could’ve said so,” Obi-Wan replied, and then he left. --Master & Apprentice     "I owe you that. After all, I’m the one who failed you.“     "Failed me?”     They have never spoken of this, not once in all Qui-Gon’s journeys into the mortal realm to commune with him. This is primarily because Qui-Gon thought his mistakes so wretched, so obvious, that Obi-Wan had wanted to spare him any discussion of it. Yet here, too, he has failed to do his Padawan justice. --From a Certain Point of View, “Master and Apprentice” (Further, in Master & Apprentice, Qui-Gon thinks that the Jedi give Rael Averross--who is HUGELY paralleled to Anakin--too many exceptions, were too soft on him because he came to the Jedi later than most and has trouble thinking of them as his family, and he thinks they should have been stricter with him.) It’s also readily apparent within The Phantom Menace itself:

You can take some charitable views of this scene, that Qui-Gon was pushed into a corner where he had few other options (and this is the view I generally take even!), but this is after the entire movie where he’s never once indicated that Obi-Wan was ready, has instead indicated that he still has much to learn (not just of the Living Force, but in general), as well as made it clear that he’s still teaching Obi-Wan, like on the Trade Federation ship. And I do think Obi-Wan got over this because he understood, because Obi-Wan actually is a very selfless person, he clearly cares (which is furthered by how we see him warm up to Anakin very quickly), but look at their faces. This was not a good moment, and they do somewhat make up, where Qui-Gon says that Obi-Wan has been a good apprentice, that he’s wiser than Qui-Gon and he’ll be a great Jedi--but if we’re counting that as Qui-Gon being this great Jedi, then you can’t say Obi-Wan failed Anakin, given that we show him doing the exact same thing, except better.  He tells Anakin, “You are strong and wise and will become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be.”, echoing Qui-Gon’s words, but also he never threw Anakin aside for someone else. This is kind of a major undercurrent throughout The Clone Wars, where Obi-Wan never takes another apprentice, where he continues to teach Anakin, to support him, even to the point of occasionally co-Mastering Ahsoka with him.  “This has been quite a journey for our Padawan.” Qui-Gon’s treatment of Obi-Wan in this scene isn’t the worst, he’s kind about it later (though, he never actually specifically apologizes for this), but we can see that this is a moment where Qui-Gon hurts Obi-Wan and knows it. And you know what George Lucas has to say about Qui-Gon?  This: “So here we’re having Qui-Gon wanting to skip the early training and jump right to taking him on as his Padawan learner, which is controversial, and ultimately, the source of much of the problems that develop later on.”  –George Lucas, The Phantom Menace commentary There’s nothing about Qui-Gon being right or better than the other Jedi, but instead that Qui-Gon’s actions here are a source of much of the problems that develop later on. So, ultimately, I liked some points Dave made in that speech, it’s a beautiful and eloquent one, but I thoroughly disagree with his interpretation of George’s intentions for Qui-Gon and I thoroughly disagree that that’s what the movies, The Clone Wars (DAVE’S OWN SHOW), and the supplementary canon show about Qui-Gon and the other Jedi.  I still stand by my appreciation of Dave’s contributions to SW as a whole, I think he does a really good job at making Star Wars, but he doesn’t always get everything right and this is one thing where I think the canon and George’s commentary show otherwise, as much as I love his desire to defend the prequels’ importance in the story.  Because, my friend, I have felt that every single day of my SW life.