#i just think it would be cool to have him and audrey team up please please please

[m0th-gh0st]

i feel like there was a greatly missed oppurtunity to have sammy teach audrey how to walk through walls tbh

[nothingkillsyoulikeyourmind105]

Betrayal

Chapter 10

Master List Betrayal Series

Part 2

Warning: Mentions of Death, Violence,Depression, Suicide, Breaking Up, Torture, Blood, Explicit Language.

“Take me to Eddie”

Audrey stood up from the bed her legs still a little wobbly but she managed.

“Audrey can you stand on your own?”

Bruce asked her as she held the bed to stabilize her.

“Audrey I tried to reason with them but they wouldn’t listen. I can’t guarantee his safety.”

Natasha held her cold stare to Audrey. She glanced over to Bruce in hopes he had any additional information he would like to share.

“Audrey, Nat is right we are walking into a delicate situation especially in your condition. Please don’t do anything drastic. We can find a way to reason with Tony.”

“I can walk Bruce. Take me to him.”

“NOW!”

Holding Cells

Tony continuously watched Eddie pacing his cell. Steve paced back and forth discussing the incident that took place earlier.

“Tony the team is at a disagreement with this?”

Steve stopped pacing the room. Deep in thought he mentioned the first thing that came to mind.

“We don’t know what he is?” “Where did he come from?”

Tony swiped through all the classified documents from Hydra that they recovered from previous missions.

The sound of an alarm blaring.

Tony had accidentally hit the lockdown button for Eddie’s cell.

Venom and Eddie fought to stay together but the pain was too great for Venom.

Separating from each other Eddie laying on the ground trying to crawl to Venom.

Venom body form resemble slime.

His movements were scattered everywhere. Sharp spikes stretching everywhere.

Tony and Steve watched.

They had found his weakness and a way to separate them.

Tony shut the alarm off. Watching the black matter be absorbed into Eddie’s body.

Eddie lied on the ground. His mind and body in excruciating pain. All he could think about was Audrey. His pain didn’t stop him from fighting to stand up and try to say something before they could anything to hurt him or Venom.

Audrey was walking with Bruce and Natasha when she felt his pain. She thought about what her dad said to her.

She had to make things right.

“You guys go ahead I need a minute with him”

“Sure thing”

“Sam and Wanda just got back I’ll fill them in on the situation”

Natasha and Bruce walked down to the lobby to brief their team mates on the current situation with Tony and Steve.

Meanwhile in the Kitchen

Bucky paced the kitchen. Brushing his fingers through his hair he tried to calm his emotions. He felt like his heart would burst out of his chest.

The way Audrey looked at him. Made him sad, but frightened of her, she looked broken.

Pacing the kitchen made him have a panic attack. He gasped for air, clawing at his throat he kept trying breathe slowly. His eyes watered up.

Everything started to turn black.

Was this it.

No one around to help him with his panic attack.

Steve promised him he would help him if he ever needed it. But this time he wasn’t around. And he was at a loss with everyone. No one accepted his apology for what he did to Audrey.

The cold floor cooled his overheated body. Lying in silence alone. He deserved to be alone.

“But wait?”

Soft warm hands caressed his face. Brushing the stray hairs out of his face. He felt at peace.

Then in the darkness he hears her.

Hearing her hum to him was what grounded him when he was at his worse.

He couldn’t help but cry in her arms.

He felt tears fall on his face. Just as he opened his eyes he saw her “his girl”

“Audrey”

“I Hate You”

“I Fuckin Hate That My Heart Aches For You”

“I’m human and I have emotions and I care for you”

“I can’t let you suffer like this. I saw my dad. I loved him so much he was the only person that mattered to me. But he’s gone. And I promised him to make things right.”

Audrey tried to hold back a sob. She started to sob uncontrollably while holding Bucky in her lap.

“I can’t keep hating you the way I did. I forgive you. But I choose Eddie.”

“I love him.”

“Eddie Brock I love him.”

“I forgive you”

“The pain you put me through made me realize how delicate my heart is and how dangerous I am if I stay here. I’m a different. And being different can be dangerous. Eddie and I are alike. He has a beautiful soul.”

“And I love him.”

“If I lose him then I will lose myself. I will become unstoppable, dangerous, fueled by grief and anger.”

“Take care of yourself please forget about me. Stop hanging onto the past let me go.”

Audrey leaned down to Bucky’s forehead with a kiss she put him to sleep.

“Forgive me father. I had to do it”

Audrey walked away.

Holding Cells

The sound of the door closing in the holding cell area echoed in the room Tony and Steve stood in.

“Oh my god, what have you done?”

Audrey ran to his glass wall. Where Eddie slumped over covered in sweat, he shivered uncontrollably.

In another room Venom jumped all over his glass cell. Trying to reach Eddie.

“Eddie, My Love?”

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?”

“I wouldn’t do that kiddo?”

Tony interrupted over the intercom.

“You’re A Fuckin Monster Stark!”

“Am I Though? You’re boyfriend here is a murderer?”

Tony stared at Audrey aggressively through the glass window.

“Let him go?”

“He didn’t do anything wrong, he didn’t hurt anyone?”

Tears streaming down her face. She held back her transformation. The anger was building up against her. Her blood boiled.

“Audrey Darling This Is Your Last Warning”

Tony chimes in on the intercom.

Wanda, Sam and Bruce, Natasha walked into the room Tony and Steve were in. They all disagreed with the decisions that the guys made about Eddie.

Tony and Steve presented their argument. But Wanda had a peek in Eddie’s memories. There she saw the carnage that Venom had done to some bank robbers and some prisoners.

After she witnessed the carnage the Venom had done. She sided with Tony and Steve about sending Eddie to the Raft. She was against it at first but she saw what he was capable of. And it frightened her.

Bruce didn’t want to take a side. He had a soft spot for Audrey in his heart. He couldn’t bare another moment of hurting Audrey. He walked away with his heart in his hands.

Sam thought about both arguments. But seeing what Eddie was he agreed to have Eddie sent to The Raft. Seeing that it was best for Audrey and the safety of everyone around him. He couldn’t look at Audrey. Having to side with Tony and Steve he simply walked away.

Natasha argued with Steve and Tony about the decision they were making. When everyone noticed that Bucky wasn’t around.

Steve ran out of the room. Looking through the hall’s, balcony, the kitchen and living he didn’t see him. Running down the hall to his room he bursted into Bucky’s room he found him lying down in his room. Cold to the touch he tried to wake him but he was lost in a dream like state. He started to panic thinking he lost his best friend. He stormed back to the holding cell area. He grab Audrey by the neck choking her.

“What did you do to him?”

Steve lifted Audrey off the ground. Tears running down his face.

“He’s sleeping.”

Audrey trying to get lose from Steve grip.

But her eyes turned black she started to transform right in front of everyone. She overpowered Steve grip on her neck.

Dropping to her knees she looked up. Her eyes glowed black and red. Her fangs stuck out. Her fingers had turned black.

“I trusted you all and this is how we end things?”

Feel free to comment and reblog. Thank you for reading. 🖤🖤❤️❤️

[aplaceofstone]

AO3: faceofstone

(with treats enabled!)

Dear Yuletide Writer,

thank you for offering one of the small surreal-ish fandoms of my heart and I hope you will have fun writing for it. Anything can happen! Symbols! Meaningful non sequiturs! Things! Stuff!

All prompts and ideas are just suggestions, if you are the kind of Yuletide writer who likes to follow them. If not, cool, they are certainly not the end-all of what I love about these fandoms and characters.

If you like visual prompts, this entire blog is 20% recipes and 80% aesthetics that mostly fit my requested fandoms…

I like found families, oddball friendships, sympathy toward outcasts, characters who fully embrace being outcasts, melancholy, a sense of place, bittersweet accomplishments, and a stubborn flicker of hope in an overall bleak world. Dreamlike atmospheres that aren’t necessarily scary, some sort of reassurance that can be found in the weird and the profoundly unnatural.

Myst - worldbuilding (badum tsssssss)

This went too well last year not to ask for it again ç^ç Worldbuilding as an expansion of any of the Ages we don't know too much about - Eder Gira's huts in the distance, Tay stuff inside the hive a/o above the cliffs, Myst's underground rooms, strange sightings on Todelmer, you name 'em. But also world-building as in good old-fashioned focus on the Art, whether it's about a canon Age (anyone else think about instancing too much and get a headache, for one? I think Relto and the instanced Cavern itself are fertile ground for dreamy-weird-spooky fic...) or a made-up Age.

I love the whole cast, so feel free to pin that worldbuilding to any era of canon, following pretty much anyone. I nominated Atrus, Catherine and Yeesha because I love them so much and they all have interesting approaches to Writing, but if your idea works better with, idk, Ri'neref or the Watcher or Gehn or Esher or Zandi or Nelah or some schmuck on Releeshahn or whatever, go for it! I am not particularly well-versed in pre-Fall D'ni shenanigans - I'd be interested in reading something set anywhere in those millennia, just please write it assuming that your reader may not be already up to speed on what was going on historically at the time.

Twin Peaks - Tammy Preston

I see a Twin Peaks character, I want to see them face the unknown, cross a threshold, tread into a different world, have a terrifying epiphany. You know, as they do. Tammy, though, more so than Albert, has a way of being down to earth as we see in the books, and she's got some breathing space between herself and the trauma that keeps propagating itself through Blue Rose on one side (the loss of Phil, of Chet, Sam, Coop) and the town of Twin Peaks on the other (Laura, Maddie, Annie, Audrey, gonna go out on a limb and say Donna and Harry too). Does shooting Diane shift something in her? Or does she remain a potential anchor for others who are adrift? Cynthia could be a fun partner for supernatural casefic, shippy or not. She's the Air Force side of Blue Rose to Tammy's FBI, like Milford and Gordon in The Secret History, and later Garland and Cooper... we don't know much about her but I love her attitude, I think they'd be a formidable team. ...or they could simply go out one night in Buckhorn before Cynthia flies back. And find a ghost or something. There was an old interview where CB was asked whether she felt that Tammy was “the new Cooper” and she said no but Tammy is trying her best!!! And that Coop is more open to the unknown, and Tammy is only just starting. As I think that Cooper's failures are a big part of the narrative, I'm not sure anyone should aspire to be the new Cooper, but anyway, I've been wondering about these two characters interacting (in dreams?) ever since. Reaching out to her as the new Blue Rose agent and/or as someone who is just starting to peek 'between two worlds', warning her, teaching her, getting to know her and even seeing shades of Albert and Gordon in her. And what would she think of him? And maybe Laura is with him, or maybe it's just Laura and Tammy, secrets whispered to her ear, a world just for them. Maybe Laura could be a better teacher. She knows the darkness. Or maybe she would be too intense.

Codex Seraphinianus - worldbuilding

Take a page, any page, and tell me more about it! The rainbows thing, the potted deer, the swimming trees, the literally any illustration in here, look at them, they're great. Translate the text! Connect... things? Are there narrative paths through this copious amount of nonsense? Go fake academia on this - considering the text a total cipher or pretending we can read it? If you want to get philosophical, metaphysical and/or high concept in any other way, go for it! As long as it's all weird.

I have the recent edition with the extra pages; it's easy to find low-res pdfs around the internet or random pages via image search! Here’s a few:

[flightfoot]

Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 Episode rankings (As of Optygami’s release)

ML season 4 has knocked it out of the park so far! It’s been absolutely amazing, and I’ve greatly enjoyed every episode.

That being said, some episodes have still been better than others (or have contained elements I find more appealing at least), so what better way to show that than with a ranking?

9. Queen Banana

We got a new hero this episode, and she is awesome! Vesperia and Chat have a nice little interaction, and while Vesperia gets taken out, it’s for a good reason - distracting Queen Banana so Ladybug can put glue in her pocket, disarming her. It was a really nice way of showing Zoe’s humility and ability for teamwork, even when it meant giving up the starring role, in order to complete the group’s overall goal.

The mini-movie felt like foreshadowing, what with the “Superheroine of Creation” being an obvious Ladybug expy, while the “Supervillain of Destruction” was a Chat Noir expy, though with fewer connections. Interestingly, it’s also used to parallel Zoe’s and Chloe’s relationship, with Zoe even quoting from the movie at the end.

And Andre’s character development was top-notch! Bully him around to do material things as much as you like, but hurting Zoe is off-limits. She’s Andre’s daughter too.

So why is it so low down? Simply put, it didn’t feel like it changed things as much as Sole Crusher did, nor did it showcase Marinette’s and Adrien’s relationship as much. It was good, but there was less to talk about concerning it than I thought there’d be.

8. Furious Fu

The first episode of Season 4 aired (even though it was episode 6 in production order), we got some lore drop this episode! Su Han gave us a better idea of what to expect from the Guardians and what their relationship with the kwamis had been like overall. Poor Plagg especially, he’s just treated like a bomb that could go off at any moment.

I especially liked seeing Ladybug and Chat Noir’s relationship this episode, and their differing reactions to Su Han and his proposals. Ladybug was insecure about not having defeated Hawkmoth yet and thought Su Han might have a point about the Miraculous being better in other hands, and for this to be something for the Guardians to handle.

Chat Noir meanwhile didn’t give a crap about Su Han’s authority, about this random guy who just showed up and tried to boss them around; but he DOES respect Ladybug’s, and made that known. That he’d give up his Miraculous, his ticket to freedom and also the vessel for one of his closest friends, Plagg, but only at LADYBUG’S request, not this dude.

But it also showed the limits of that, with him refusing to go along with even that when it’d mean that Ladybug would get amnesia. That he’d not only lose his Miraculous, but his closest, dearest friend as well.

The episode was well done, but just didn’t feel like it either changed things as much or showcased character development as much as the other entries on this list, which is why it’s lower.

7. Sole Crusher

This was our first look at a new character, Zoe, and she did not disappoint! She was absolutely adorable and I really felt for her, with needing to pretend to be nasty in order to not be practically disowned from her family. 

It showcased how much Marinette had grown as well, with having Marinette see through Zoe’s Mean Girl act when they reunite and not jump to hasty negative conclusions, like she did with Adrien, instead considering that there may have been other factors involved with making Zoe act differently while with Chloe.

Also character exploration and growth for Andre, of all characters! Very unexpected. I really wanted him to succeed in his original dream, and I was thrilled at him comforting Zoe, with him empathizing with her, with acting as a parent towards her, even with her being his stepdaughter and presumedly not knowing her very well before this.

Zoe’s ability to anticipate how she’d need to act in order to conform with her family’s expectations while still getting to do what she wanted (for the most part), like with her pretending to be all prissy and stuck up when interacting with Audrey, or pretending that her messaging with Marinette was a setup to betray and humiliate her, showed a great understanding of the people around her as well as some great acting ability. And her realization of how she’d been putting on acts like this for so long before this, of her people-pleasing and afterwards attempting to just be herself, felt like foreshadowing for Adrien’s own arc.

 And we got a few seconds of Marichat. Yay for crumbs!

6. Mr. Pigeon 72

This episode was PACKED. We got to see the followup to Gang of Secrets, with Ladybug freaking out and Alya trying to center her, as well as some followup to Lies, with Marinette trying to “help” Kagami get back together with Adrien. And on top of the stuff that forms the premise of the episode, we got to see Rena Rouge be badass again, Plagg and Ladybug team up, and even Umbrella scene 2, which I don’t think ANYONE saw coming!

Marinette was a lot of fun and we got to see some good stuff from Kagami and Alya here. It felt a little disjointed with how much was crammed into it and I missed Chat Noir, but overall it was really good!

5. Guiltrip

What an amazing episode! Rose is one of the least developed members of the class, mostly being known for being really sweet and being Juleka’s girlfriend, and not much else. Here, we got an inner look at her, at WHY she’s so positive, and how powerful that positivity can be. That she’s not innately positive just because, but that it’s a choice she makes.

Plus the class is AMAZING here. They care about their friends SO MUCH, even if they go about it the wrong way. We got to see Juleka and Rose caring about each other, and even though it went wrong, Rose understands why Juleka ended up spilling her secret and doesn’t blame her for it.

It also really showcased Marinette and Adrien, there different ways of dealing with serious issues, with Marinette jumping ahead and trying to do whatever she thinks will help immediately (help now, ask questions later) while Adrien tried to do the opposite, asking Juleka what she wanted first and trying to stick with that (ask questions first, then help). Both can be useful, depending on the circumstances.

Also got to see a bit more about Adrien’s turmoil, with him being borderline suicidal, and Nino feeling guilty that he wasn’t able to help Adrien with his father, hinting that something bad went down with Gabriel before this. 

There was just a LOT to unpack with this episode, but it all fit together neatly!

4. Lies

All of the “Truth” related episodes were amazing! Lies being no exception. Also our first (and so far only) Adrien-centric episode this season.

Lies catapulted discussion of Adrien’s looming identity crisis, as well as his deflections and near-suicidal behavior, stuff that becomes even more apparent in Guiltrip. The breakup was handled well, with it not being Adrien’s fault (he had to leave and lie for the same reasons Marinette did), but with Kagami’s reaction being totally understandable and valid. She was a very active participant in it, even testing to see whether Adrien had lied. And she was ALLOWED to be pissed afterwards, to not trust him, even though she could tell that he wasn’t just doing this for no reason. 

I wish we’d gotten more time with her as an akuma, but I can see why we didn’t. There just wasn’t that much time in the episode, and the emotional crux of the episode occurred between her and Adrien - there just wasn’t much she could do as an akuma that was gonna add much impact to the episode.

3. Optygami

Oh WOW did this episode make an impact. Major Wham episode in a season chockful of major revelations, status quo changes, and character progression.

 Nathalie and Gabriel actually had a pretty clever plan, spying on the revealed wielders this whole time using the “one sentimonster per wielder, but there can be multiple sentimonsters from different wielders out at the same time” loophole. It meant that Nathalie was actually doing something while she was benched, and I’m willing to bet that she’s the one who came up with the plan in the first place. Say what you will about her morality or her taste in men, but she is an effective supervillain who may be an assistant (and totally fine with that role, which isn’t so common), but one with a lot of agency. And using impostors and try to force a situation where Ladybug would have to give a Miraculous to one of them, and using that opportunity to plant a spy sentimonster in a Miraculous in order to discover Ladybug’s identity and the location of the other Miraculous? Was inspired!

We were baited on there being a Reveal, but that wasn’t exactly a shocker. In any case, we did have a bunch of OTHER cool, impactful stuff. 

Hawkmoth stepped up his game with his sentimonsters, making a couple of impostors to control the situation, with Senti Alec and Senti Nino. Seems like foreshadowing about there potentially being more sentimonsters in disguise...

The major developments everyone’s screaming about though, are:

1. Alya getting her Miraculous permanently, being the first “temporary” wielder to get that honor, and putting her in a greater position to help with any akuma that’s causing more trouble than usual.

2. And the one that’s gotten everyone theorizing, screaming, and writing fics: Chat Noir and Ladybug’s seemingly deteriorating relationship, with a special emphasis on how left out Chat is and just how much he’s being kept in the dark, and how he’s beginning to realize this, feeling unneeded. How much Chat’s hiding his hurt, and how that’s going to lead to some sort of emotional confrontation or breakdown down the line.

My ranking of Optygami may go up or down depending on whether future episodes follow through on what it sets up, especially with the foreshadowed Ladynoir confict.

Looks like we’re gonna have a hiatus after Optygami, considering that we don’t currently have airdates for any more episodes, but what a note to leave off on!

2. Truth

This episode was AMAZING. We got to see Luka and Marinette just hanging out casually, having fun together, like with the little trivia game they played on the way to the theater. Luka even showed a bit of a playful side, with setting up the last question so that the answer would end with “kiss me”. 

Luka was also allowed to feel negative emotions for reasons aside from protecting Marinette, with him feeling down and a little abandoned because of Marinette constantly ditching - something that was given more context, with how we learned that he never knew his father, and how much it bothers him that his mom won’t tell him who it was.

The revelation of Jagged Stone being Luka’s father was one that’d already been leaked way back in January, though few people believed it at the time and it got little attention. It gave Luka a plotline that had nothing to do with Marinette, something that was sorely needed and one that I’m hoping gets expanded on later.

Also had some great Ladynoir, with Chat Noir and Ladybug discussing their relationship during the akuma fight, when they were forced to be truthful to boot! Ladybug really does like Chat’s sense of humor, and Chat doesn’t have a problem with Ladybug’s status as Guardian, so long as it doesn’t interfere with their relationship.

1. Gang Of Secrets

Gang of Secrets was a great followup to Truth, showing Marinette attempting to cope with with breakup, and the subsequent realization that she has to lie to everyone always, and how little time and trust that leaves for her regular relationships.

Meanwhile, the people around Marinette worry and try to help and comfort her as best they can, even when they don’t really know what’s wrong or what to do. From the Girl Squad to Chat Noir to... kind of the kwamis (though with them it’s more lack of understanding of romantic relationships rather than lack of knowledge that holds them back), everyone attempts to help her, but it’s just not feasible under the circumstances for her to be helped the way she needs to be while keeping her secrets.

And in order to keep those secrets, she snaps, forcing all her friends away.

But they don’t take that easily. They want to be there for Marinette, they want to be friends, and become akumatized specifically in order to find out what was wrong, comfort her, fix whatever it was, and become friends again. They really care for her a lot.

And then- AND THEN-!

ALYA DEAKUMATIZES HERSELF

BECOMES RENA ROUGE AGAIN

AND MARINETTE EVEN CONFESSES THAT SHE’S LADYBUG TO HER.

It’s one of the biggest changes to the status quo we’ve had. Like, Master Fu being introduced changed what Marinette was doing, meaning that they could call on new heroes and she had someone to discuss Miraculous stuff with besides Tikki, and Master Fu renouncing his Guardianship and passing it on to Marinette changed what Marinette was doing on a day-to-day basis more, but... well, it didn’t represent as big of a change in themes, of things that had been built up for seasons. Breaking the Secret Identity Rule? DOES.

Also sets up for some potential LadyNoir conflict down the line, with her not having told Chat that she told her identity to someone else yet. I’m sure they’ll be okay in the end, but it could test their relationship and the rules they’ve lived by since they started being superheroes.

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

So that’s my ranking with the episodes we’ve had released so far. We’re a third of the way through the season and I gotta say, I’m really happy with it so far! Can’t wait to see what the rest of the season has in store for us.

[jojosbizarreblog]

Moon River

(As the the title suggest, I recommend listening to ‘Moon River’ by Audrey Hepburn. P5 spoilers below. Read at your own risk.)

Bruno Brucciarati x reader (angst)

Taglist: @outofthiszawarudo

The staticky radio played softly in the background of Bruno’s office as the both of you tried to finish his work. As one of the more, if not most, responsible members of the team, you were trusted to work with him on these delicate matters. Glancing at Bruno, you saw the telltale exhaustion pulling at your childhood friend. Small, minute things that an outsider wouldn’t pick up, but you did. Ever since Giorno joined, the workload had only increased, especially with your plan with the Boss of Passione. 

“Moon river...” 

You stood up abruptly as the start of the new song played. “C’mon Bruno.”

He sat upon straighter and looked at you with curiosity in his eyes. “Hm?”

Scoffing, you replied, “Let’s take a break. You look dead.” 

Bruno simply tilted his head and picked his pen up again. “No thank you, tesoro. Grazie.”

“Old dream maker...”

The nickname rolled off his lips effortlessly and you pursed your lips as Bruno resumed writing. It didn’t pass your notice how his writing was sloppier, one or two mistakes seen in the previous forms that otherwise wouldn’t have existed if he was in a clear state of mind.

Leaning over, you plucked the pen from his hand, carefully so that it wouldn’t smudge the papers, and placed it to the side. The man could have resisted, but easily allowed you as you pulled him to his feet.

He raised an eyebrow and you grinned. “We don’t have to leave the office if you don’t want to. I just want you to take a little break.”

“Where ever you're going I'm going your way...”  

Pulling you to him, Bruno linked his hand with yours and hummed. “Something tells me you won’t let me go until I do.”

“Exactly,” you said, grinning cheekily. “So just give in Bucciarati.”

He shook his head in exasperation before relenting, beginning to sway softly with you to the music.

“Two drifters... off to see the world...”

“What do you think we should do after all this is done?” You dare to ask him. “We’ve been so busy lately, I kinda miss it before, you know?”

Of course, the before really wasn’t your idyllic, picture-perfect life either. Being part of the mafia made sure of that, but you missed nights where you actually stayed up late watching the stars, instead of being forced to pour through documents and risk your life in some shady warehouse for any clues that could leave your group to the boss.

“There’s such a lot of world to see.”

“I’d like to go out fishing,” Bruno replied. “If you wanted, you can go with me, and then we could go get ice cream from that one parlor we always used to go to.”

You grimaced, sticking out your tongue. “The one with all those weird flavors?”

“What else?” Bruno laughed.

“Please don’t tell me you’re gonna get the olive one again,” You sighed, resting your head against him.

You felt Bruno tilt his head. “Why not?”

Leaning back to look at him, you said, “It’s nasty! Out of all the flavors you could have gotten, you chose that one!”

“Maybe I should try the sardine then,” Bruno replied, a smirk pulling at his lips. “What do you think?”

“Gosh, you’re gross.”

The little moment between you two was broken as Mista burst into Bruno’s office. “Bruno...” he panted. “We were ordered to bring Trish to the Boss. It’s timed, we have to hurry.”

With little hesitation, you two split apart and all traces of the soft atmosphere was erased. “Thank you Mista,” Bruno said. “Gather everyone. We’ll discuss as we go. Mista nodded and thundered down the stairs, leaving you two. 

Crossing the room, you turned the radio off. Bruno was looking at you, a gentle look in his eyes. “Are you ready?”

His question hid a plethora of other meanings. You nodded. “I’ll always follow where you go, Bruno. I’ve always done that, and I always will.”

***

You hit the floor, blood spraying out of your mouth. It hurt, it hurt so bad. Bruno was also on the floor, a gaping wound in his stomach. You all knew that delivering Trish to her father was risky, but Bruno insisted on being the one to do it. From the beginning of the mission, there was a bad feeling in your gut, and you had been the only one to listen to that feeling, going against Bruno’s orders to stay put. 

And because of that, Trish got away safely. But you and Bruno had suffered the price. The din around you was blocked out as you focused on Bruno.

A shuddering sigh passed your lips as a familiar tune from the radio played in your head. With the last of your strength, you dragged yourself to Bruno, reaching out to grasp his still hand in yours and to place the other on his cooling cheek.

It hurt to see Bruno like this, but you were content with the knowledge that you’d see him soon. You would have to apologize for not saving him, though. But it won’t be long now. Where ever he went, you went too.

You closed your eyes and imagined.

“Moon river... wider than a mile.

I'm crossing you in style someday.

..........

.......... 

Where ever you're going I'm going your way

Two drifters off to see the world

There's such a lot of world to see

We're after the same rainbow's end

Waiting round the bend

My huckleberry friend

Moon river and me...

...”

[clandestine-j]

Gossip Girl, EP. 4 Reaction & Review

Finally, I've gathered all of my thoughts for ep. 4! I had this really cool extra post to the intro and had more thoughts but then I lost the entire thing so I had to re-write the entire post SO, yeah, this is all I have for this part. Also, if anyone has those bts photos please let me know, i’m looking for the ones that have the audience reacting to max’s dick pick from the fashion show, aki biting his lip. please send. 

ADULTS:

Kate & CO: JAIL JAIL JAIL. We had that one teacher being turned on by incest and ruining kids lives. DO BETTER IN JAIL. I'll say tho, the male teacher makes a better gossip girl, he doesn't feel bad and is enjoying it. Kate could never.

Rafa: JAIL. JAIL. JAIL. JAIL. JAIL. I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU, WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU. I hate that they showed us this man having common sense. This man, pushing Max away sexually but understanding that he needs serious help. I hate that they just didn't have them flirting and show us him saying no, I'm so upset. I'm even more upset that I fell for him being the character to subvert the trope. I can only blame myself but blame HBO as well. I also hate the comments saying it's okay or well, the show needs scandal and spice. They could've been photographed together in normal clothes, just standing next to each other. Max could lie to GG. There are a bunch of ways these could become an IC scandal without having them cross the line. If you support this, you need help.

OUR KIDS:

Max: My boy needs therapy, lots of it. Maybe rehab. On one hand, he's being taken advantage of because he's clearly going through something and more than just his dads and he has been for a while. His escapism is dangerous and anyone would be able to prey on that. On the other hand, I need someone to beat his ass. His lines to Rafa about money and career were punch worthy and out-right willing to lie about Rafa doing something to him, even just to press Rafa's buttons. He needs help, he needs to be taught boundaries, he needs a lot. And why were the only two people concerned for his week-long disappearance Aki and Audrey, the whole squad should've had the guns out, friends since childhood, sure.

Obie: My boy, I get that you didn't like where you saw Zoya headed. I get that in some aspects you were right about her being a little too involved and suspecting Julien. That being said, she was having real problems and troubles and needed support. Do better. Obie still isn't the worst character on the show and many of them are SOOOO much worse. He doesn't deserve the all of the smoke he's been getting when their are better people for it.

Monet & Luna: I hate them as people and love them as characters that move the plot. I guess I could see how they thought the fuck school thing was horrible (and Julien too since she planned on showing Obie). The directors cut, I don't think they thought it'd ruin Zoya, they're just fucking cruel and found it funny. Let's box. Also, why are ya'll so pressed over this CHILD. Like get over it, find a real up-coming social media star. 

Aki & Audrey: My good sis, you brought a gay man to make Aki jealous. I'm sick, it was fucking funny. Her comments at first were off the wall, I wish the writers would've done something else but a lot of woman don't see it as normal so I sort of get it. I'm glad she came around by the end. And Aki...he was a little spicy this episode, my boy was ready to pop off a bit AND I AM HERE FOR IT. My dude said, 'I don't regret kissing him' I was THROWN. Aki being with Audrey helps me like her more because she's a bitch that's still ready to gun for a now 15 year old girl but her and Aki's relationship is cute. They could break up and be fine which is great, I love that their relationship is really more than just dating and the friendship is strong. I'm here for it.

Zoya: It's just bad writing but my head canon is trauma. Trauma from her moms death death, trauma from the past and current bullying that caused her lash out. I felt like this was her breaking point (so far) and anything gossip girl related as always came around to Julien. If she trusted Julien more, she wouldn't have thought of her as the person causing her issue's but she doesn't trust her. They were civil but even at the end of ep 2. Her 'hell yeah' to Julien about bonding was too dry, too dry. I think a big part of her just doesn't trust Julien and she'll always think the worse because she's seen mostly the worse. And that video, horrible, I'd hate everything about my birthday too after that and even before. Her emotions during the scene and the talk with Julien, ouch. And while I'm happy that Zoya found herself in the end, YES GIRL POP OFF. THIS IS WHAT I WANTED. THIS IS THE FLAVOR. I WAS WAITING FOR THIS AND I WANT MORE. I DEMAND MORE. I SEE A SPARK OF A BITCH, LET HER OUT GO, GO ALISON DELAOTRUINES ON THESE BITCHES.

Julien: Once again, I love Julien as a character, I know she's supposed to be struggling and for that, It's fun to watch her BUT. Julien could never be on my team, she's too wishy-washy. That is my issue, she's too, just...flip-floppy with no substance. Like, when she does things wrong, they're expected  to be forgiven / are forgiven without true reflection or anything on her part. She fucks up, she see's its wrong and then she says sorry and goes on it does it again. This episode was just the worst example, like, the moment she heard buffalo, she was ready to send in a tip. Instead of just doing the party normally and being best because she's hear, she sends the video to Monet. She believes Luna and Monet (Monet talking about her throne being taken when Zoya isn't even an influencer) and she eats it up. They were the ones who did the dick pick thing, like girl, THINK. And why does she never get the full plan, why would she not watch the video or why is she so shocked that Luna and Monet would play something like that? She knows them. Friends since childhood? Sure. Using your moms name to make the party about charity? SIS, THE FEUD IS NOT WORTH IT. She says she wants to be sisters but then she switches up so fast and the witches up again, it's whip-last and I'm sick. I hate that she's doing this to her and I hate even more that's is the writers fault. I don't mind a character having personal conflict but make it a conflict. Like after four episodes, why is she still friends with her sisters bullies? At the end of the episode, she says she's gonna tell them to lay down their weapons, NO, shut it down. correct them. make it clear and make it known. I love my girl because she's flawed but I wish they'd linger on things and have her really think about it. I was fine with the i'm sorry speech up until the camera part.

Other random thoughts

fuck the rafa max thing again, i'm not over, i will never be over it

evan mock isn't the best but he does give me face at times, his 'wtf stare', little sly looks, the 'wtf' moment when audrey first asked him if he was gay like 'this bitch' also, give him more annoyed, irritated scenes, he gives in those

have julien go full nice or full evil for a while, pick a side and stick with it for more than one episode

i wish zoya was a bitch at her old school but i'm fine with this too, it explains why she was so reactionary when it came to the bullying at constance, not again!

i wish we could've seen julien talk with davis after that stunt

nick and davis, KISS, the ride scene was 100%

don't talk about obie so soon

i like that she chose to be with julien for the night, it was cute

emily makes these faces that i can't get with

eli brown is a good actor, that shot of him during the traumatic reveal

i will say, zobie might be boring but when they talk, they talk, their communication is p good, i don't hate it

i’d be here for obie x aki bc they’re friends, they got chemistry, aki was giving look lil up and downs this episode, aki was giving a lot of looks this ep, honestly, idk i just don’t want him heart broken 

aki menzies is still my comfort character

i couldn't take rafa serious with his ass out,

whitney's acting in that talk scene, perfect, my girl had me in tears because DAMN

jordan is pretty good but in that scene, go girl, give me nothing

fuck max and rafa

max lied about his dads or at least one, AT LEAST one, i don't think they'd do that, he saw his in and took it

aki and aud, just have that open relationship, ya'll will make it, the way he tucked into her, it was so sweet

davi and nick secret relationship plot

jail for all of the teachers, once again

the hallway scene was great, the cinematography is been clutch overall

music wasn't as jarring

that's about it! i have more thoughts on the show overall that might be another post, they have a lot of amazing ideas but they need to stick with one and flush it out is the overall gist, i'm still into it!

can't wait for five bc i love the angst that's about to hit.

[spooks-and-tea]

Entangled (Spencer Reid x femReader) [Ch.9]

Summary: You don’t know how it happened. One moment you were watching Criminal Minds, and the next moment you were literally in the show. Can Spencer be the key to helping you find your way back home?

Warnings: minor character death, mentions of su*cide, bad explanations of quantum mechanics, bad words, sexual situations (some non-con), the usual criminal minds-type content

A/N: Uhh more quantum mechanics that I don’t fully understand.

Word Count: 3,357

Chapter 1.  Chapter 2.  Chapter 3.  Chapter 4. Chapter 5.  Chapter 6.  Chapter 7. Chapter 8.  Chapter 9.  Chapter 10.  Chapter 11.

************************************************************************

Y/N (3 months later) You wanted to see the BAU again; to be in that world again. That's what motivated you to join the show and, somehow, you got the part.

Your character was new on the team, around your age, and Spencer's love interest. Of course.

Reading your character's description had almost put you off of accepting the part all together. Was it wrong to live vicariously through the show? It felt wrong. It felt wrong to pretend that tv-Spencer was your Spencer. Yet, you wanted to be on the sets, working at the BAU. You missed everyone and everything about that life.

Today, you walked onto the lot. You had a scene with Matthew. It was going to take place on the set of Spencer's apartment.

You mentally prepared yourself as you sat still for hair and makeup. This was the first time you would be in any form of Spencer's apartment since the night you were taken away.

You stopped in front of the production studio, screwing your eyes shut and counting to 10.

Your hand moved of it's own accord, over your chest. Would that magnetic feeling ever go away? Would it haunt you for the rest of your life? Would it remind you every day of what you lost, or of what you could've had?

You stepped onto the set and looked around, taking in the familiar setting that was once a place you called home. That big apartment never felt like a home. If you could go back you would've sold that place in a heartbeat to live with Spencer. Although, it was early on in your relationship, you both got along well when you lived together. You both could share the small space and still have enough room to love each other.

"Y/N! How's it going? You ready to film today?" Matthew came up to you with a coffee in his hand and a big smile.

You tried to not let that smile break your heart.

"Hey, I'm great. This is my first time on this set actually, it's cool to see it in real life." You bit your lip to mask the exaggeration in your tone.

"Ah. We won't be here long, we've got a bullpen scene later."

"Yeah."

You looked at your shoes. You knew what scene that was and, from what you read of the script, you weren't going to enjoy filming it.

Matthew studied you for a second, but was called away by the director before he could say anything else. What he was looking for, you couldn't say.

You read over this scene's lines and got into place. The director filled you in on some script changes and how he wanted your reactions to come across to the audience. You nodded in understanding and the cameras were rolled into place.

You cleared your throat and got into character just before the scene started.

************************************************************************

Spencer 3 months had passed by; 3 more months without her.

For 3 straight months, Spencer worked himself sick. People could tell he wasn't eating or sleeping. Garcia made the extra effort to bring him lunch everyday because he refused to leave the office to get it himself. Morgan would invite him out some nights, even volunteering to watch documentaries with him, but Spencer always shot him down.

His mind was constantly on the equation papers. Whenever the team wasn't working on other cases, he was looking over the equation, scribbling notes, rewriting the equation, and reading countless material on quantum mechanics. He felt so close to the answer, like it was just out of his reach.

Then, one day, Spencer received an unexpected call.

"Hello?"

"You'll find him at the warehouse at 4pm." A older woman's voice.

"Who is this?"

"You should hurry, if you want to see her again, that is. Your lives are already entangled. When the time is right, just follow the magnetic pull and it will lead you to her."

"I-" The caller hung up before Spencer could speak. He checked his wristwatch, it was 3pm. If he wanted to get there in time, he would have to leave now and drive fast. He looked around the bullpen for anyone that would let him borrow their car without asking too many questions.

"JJ!" He ran to catch up with her.

"Hey Spence? Why are you so excited?" Her eyebrows rose. She could barely contain her smile at his excitement. She'd been worried about him.

"I got a lead. I need to borrow your car. Please."

She immediately knew what case this lead was for.

"Spencer. How do you know this isn't a trap? You could be running blindly into a dangerous situation."

"I know and I don't care. This could be my last chance to find her. Please JJ, I don't have much time," Spencer pleaded.

She gave him a worried look. "Okay, but I'm driving."

"JJ, you don't have to come with me. If this is a trap I don't want you getting hurt. You have a family."

"You're not alone in this, Spence. We all want Y/N back. I'll call for backup when we get there."

************************************************************************

"4pm." Spencer suddenly said as JJ drove to the warehouse at the outskirts of town.

"It's 3:25. We still have time," JJ assured; side-eyeing him from the driver's seat.

"No. That's the answer! That's the missing piece to the equation!" Spencer's eyes were wide and he was accentuating his words with hand gestures.

"Okay, genius. What are you talking about?"

"The equation we found. I concluded that it was configuring quantum tunneling equations. When quantum particles gather enough energy, they're able to pass through barriers-"

"Like radio waves?" JJ asked.

"Yes! These pieces of equations, the Schrödinger's equation part, in particular, shows that our unsub was studying these high energy quantum particle waves. I understood that much, but valuable information was missing in those burnt pages."

"And what information was that?" JJ did her best to follow along.

"Time, the missing variable, it's time and space! Doctor Who! Dammit I've been so blind this whole time." His false memory was telling him the answers, but he had brushed them aside as delusions. His false memory of watching Doctor Who with Y/N before she woke up in his dimension.

"The Doctor travels through time and space in a loop, a void space. Time isn't linear, as we understand it, in these equations. The walls of her dimension cracked, a particle wave with high enough energy got through, but barely; cracking her end. That's how she got through, or at least that's how someone got her through."

"Okay Spence, watch the language, you're starting to scare me a little." JJ gave him a worried look. He hadn't been eating or sleeping, should she be driving the doctor to a doctor?

************************************************************************

Y/N You were stronger than you realized. The scene in Spencer's apartment had called for your character, Agent Audrey Stryfe, to subtly flirt with him. Being able to separate Matthew from your Spencer outside of your scenes was proving to be a helpful coping mechanism that you kept at the back of your mind during filming.

What wasn't going to help was the scene you were just getting into place for.

"Aaaaand, action!"

"Dr. Reid." You strolled over and sat at the edge of his desk in the bullpen set. He looked up.

"Explain to me again how our unsub was able to pull off all of this in one night." You tunnel visioned, no longer seeing the cameras or edges of the set in the peripherals of your vision.

Matthew twirled his pencil, flicking his eyes down at your skin that peaked out from under your fitted skirt.

"Actually, I don't think our unsub was acting alone. Remember the box of ticket stubs located at the first hideout? Those were momentos; kept in pairs. I believe we're dealing with 2 unsubs, a couple."

"Star-crossed lovers, a new-age Bonnie and Clyde," your character considered.

Matthew nodded and stood up, walking up to the pinboard.

"Based on the geographical locations of the crime scenes and hide outs, we can see that they're making their way west." He ran his fingers along the map's red markings.

"Will they cross state lines?" You walked up next to him.

"There's a high probability they will, yes."

"Can we confidently say that one is the aggressor and one is just tagging along?"

"Yes, in cases with couples like these, typically the male is the aggressor. For example, Bonnie and Clyde. Clyde had a history of committing crimes long before he met Bonnie. She only became a criminal after they became a couple."

"But why would the unsub's partner go along with these killings willingly?" You asked.

Matthew turned to look at you.

"Love. History says Bonnie fell in love with Clyde and that's why she stuck by him as his partner; though he was a terrible criminal. He made multiple failed attempts at robbing banks. Clyde actually wrecked their car at one point, nearly killing her with these 3rd degree burns that nearly lost her a leg. She was also struck by bullets multiple times, but still she stayed by his side. We know he loved her too because a smart, or ruthless, criminal would have left her behind after the leg injury. Clyde carried her around; sometimes she limped. She couldn't properly walk for the rest of her short life."

"Devotion, idolization, justification. These unsubs are recreating the Bonnie and Clyde crimes. I can't agree that it's love that drives them, though."

"Why is that?"

"When you love someone, you want what's best for them. You'd never put them in harms way. If Clyde really loved Bonnie, he would have never taken her along with their gang in the first place," you nearly choked on the familiar words.

Matthew nodded, eyes scanning the map.

"I suppose a more appropriate defining word for their relationship would be 'obsession.'"

"If you were in the male unsub's position, what would you do, Dr. Reid?"

"I'd protect her." He looks at you again. "I'd turn myself in, admit that everything was my doing." Matthew was a great actor, but he couldn't recreate your Spencer's expression when he looked at you.

"Hmm," you hummed.

I'm going to be sick.

"Have you ever been in love, Agent Stryfe? You seem to know a lot on the subject."

"Yes, in fact. I have." You swallowed, eyes going glossy.

"May I ask with whom?" He smiled, slyly.

"I'll tell you if you promise we can take a break from this. We've been working all night. You promised me dinner, Dr. Reid." You poked his chest.

Stay in character; just stay in character and get through this scene. You can cry later.

"I didn't think all this talk of murder would work up much of an appetite," he chuckled.

"We've worked here long enough, catching murderers is normal. " You smiled.

Matthew nodded, his tongue flicking out to wet his lips.

"We could raid the snacks in the break room, then get right back to work." He suggested.

"Oh no. You're going to properly wine and dine me, Doctor." You stepped forward, placing your hand over his chest.

He went quiet for a heartbeat.

You shrugged. "Fine, then I'll just have to treat myself." You smirked at him and turned to grab your purse from your desk.

Matthew grabbed your wrist, stopping you. You gave a sly look to the edge of the nearest camera.

Matthew spun you around, placing his hands on either side of your face and bringing you into an intense kiss.

You disassociated from yourself, right then, letting him lead you through the kiss. He pulled away, still holding you.

"Dr. Reid. If I had known you kissed like that, I would have asked you out sooner." There it was, your final line.

"So-" He cleared his throat.

"Dinner?" Has asked, holding out his elbow. Your character giddily wrapped her arms around it and swept up her purse.

"Cut! That was great! Take a break, we'll come back in 5." The director called out.

You breathed heavily, practically running out of the studio. You needed fresh air.

As soon as you broke through to the outside lot you felt the tears begin to fall. You gasped for breath, sobbing for someone who didn't exist here. Sobbing for the Spencer Reid who originally wrote that script for you.

5 months you had gone without him. You could no longer remember the exact last words he spoke to you. Your mind hazily pictured his eyes as he watched you begging for him. He was becoming a fading dream.

You wondered if he was still searching for you. Was the whole BAU on your case? He must've known by now what really happened; that he could never get you back. He must have blamed himself.

You cried harder.

If you could just send him one more message. You could properly tell him that you loved him and that it wasn't his fault.

You clenched your aching chest.

"Y/N?" You held your arms around yourself tighter at the sound of his voice. You knew it wasn't your Spencer, you would only hear him in your dreams now.

"Sorry Matthew. I just need a moment alone." You were facing away from him, but your posture and voice gave away your emotions.

"Listen. I know that I remind you of someone important. You have the most difficulty filming scenes with me, more than with Shemar or anyone else. I feel super bad about it. Let me take you out for dinner later. I'll even sing Disney songs in the car at the top of my lungs with you." He stepped in front of you.

You laughed a little through your tears. Matthew was a lovely friend, he didn't deserve to feel guilty about something he couldn't control.

"You don't have to take me anywhere. I'll be fine, really." You sniffled, looking up at him.

"Nope. I think you need junk food. The greasiest food that Southern California has to offer." He smiled, pulling you into a tight hug.

You giggled. He wasn't going to let this go.

"Fine," you grumbled.

************************************************************************

"So let me get this straight. I strongly resemble your ex and that's why you've been acting strange around me?" Matthew spoke through a mouthful of In-N-Out cheeseburger bits.

You nodded, sipping your milkshake. You'd never eaten on the hood of a car before, but Matthew thought it was absurd not to watch the sun set turn the sky pink and orange. It did make the semi-empty parking lot look more ethereal.

"You seem really torn up over him, did things end badly?" Matthew asked.

"Neither one of us wanted it to end. I was taken away from him." You lay your head back down on your elbow, looking up at the sky.

"What do you mean?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Y/N I believe in a lot of things. A lot of things others don't believe in. I know there are things out there that we can't explain and I know you have no reason to lie about something I see effecting you every day. I'll believe you." You did know he was into the paranormal. Would he actually believe you?

"Alright you asked for it." You turned on your side to look at him.

"Remember how I told you that I missed the first Criminal Minds casting call I was lined up for?" He nodded while biting into his greasy food.

"Well I missed it because I woke up in another place, as in, not-of-this-dimension." You paused, bracing yourself to be verbally torn apart.

He blinked, but motioned for you to continue. You were stunned he hadn't immediately laughed at you.

"I woke up in a dimension where the plot and all the characters of Criminal Minds were real. I woke up in the BAU and everyone there knew me."

"This sounds like a dream," he commented.

"I thought it was, so I tried to jump off a cliff into a lake to wake myself up. It's my greatest fear, but it didn't work. Spencer Reid saved me before I drowned. After, I stayed in that dimension for a month." Matthew's eyebrows raised.

You continued to explain everything to him and he stayed quiet, just listening, barely giving reactions.

"Spencer Reid is your ex." He realized just before you got to the part where you had confessed your love to Spencer at the BAU.

"Yes, he is."

"Does he- look like me? Does he act the same way he's written in the show?"

"He looks and sounds just like you, but he has his minor differences with his facial expressions. He's a bit different than how the showrunners write him."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"But how did you get back here? How did you get separated?" He frowned.

"An unsub kidnapped me and brought me back here. I think he has something to do with how I left in the first place."

"So you really were taken from him," he breathed. "I'm so sorry."

"Yes, but I'm coming to terms with it. There's no way I can ever see him again. It was nearly impossible that I ended up in his dimension in the first place."

"Y/N, I've been playing the guy for 15 years. If I know him, which I believe I do pretty well, I know he won't stop trying to find you."

You sighed.

"That's what I'm afraid of; I don't want him to go the rest of his life feeling guilty and searching for something he can't possibly find. I just want him to be happy."

************************************************************************

Spencer

When JJ parked outside the warehouse at 3:53pm. Spencer practically took off running inside.

"Spencer!" JJ called.

He burst through the doors and drew his firearm. He spun around, checking his surroundings. The warehouse had only one large space at this point, with beams to hold up the roof. The integrity of the interior, individual room walls, had given out; leaving only rubble behind.

Spencer's eyes widened as they landed on a platform machine that stood in the middle of the old warehouse. It was connected to a generator, filling the room with a humming noise. A dim, white light emanated from the circle in the middle of the platform. Near it was a table with scattered paperwork, identical to the notes Spencer had found at the abandoned house. A large computer with maybe 100 multi-colored wires connected to a box-shaped machine with blinking red, blue, and green lights. This box connected back to the platform with two large black wires on either side.

Spencer slowly neared the computer, the humming of the machinery matching up perfectly with the wavelength of the magnetic humming in his chest; it pulled him closer.

"Spencer watch out!"

Spencer spun on his heel just as JJ called out. He dropped to the floor just as an older man in a trench coat reached forward to grab him. The momentum caused the man to trip over Spencer, landing hard on the concrete floor in front of him. JJ took this opportunity to lunge at the man, quickly and skillfully handcuffing him.

"Oh you are lucky I came with you! What the hell do you think you're doing Spencer?!" JJ yelled.

Spencer caught his breath, looking at the man. He was the one Y/N saw; he was the unsub.

"That's our unsub He's the one who took Y/N." Spencer spoke quickly.

He checked his watch; 3:57pm. He had 3 minutes. The unsub could wait, Spencer needed to find you.

Spencer sprung up and sprinted to the computer. A white box with a blinking line waited for an input. Spencer tuned out JJ reading the unsub his rights and calling for backup.

His eyes glanced over the scattered papers. He willed his brain to work faster than it ever had before as he calculated the full equation, with time and space included, in his head. He mumbled incoherent variables and squeezed his eyes shut.

The humming grew louder. 3:59pm. His eyes flew open as he typed in the answer; harshly clicking 'enter'. He stumbled to the platform, standing over the glowing white circle just as 4:00pm hit.

The last thing he saw was a blinding white light.

Next Chapter

[syms-things-5]

Clear The Area - Chapter Thirteen

Previous chapter HERE

Tags: @jennmurawski13 @kelbabyblue

Warnings: Strong language, suggestive language

Chapter Thirteen

It had not been a particularly difficult shift that Thursday. Things had been calm and peaceful as far as most days go. It was actually a nice surprise for once.

The team released a couple more patients following the accident and that news allowed for a minor celebration among the emergency staff working that day. A glimmer of some good news always helped to raise people’s spirits and when they were later able to release Matilda as well, Sarah and Greg took a few minutes to wave goodbye to her as her nephew arrived to pick her up.

It was about time they had some happy endings amongst the ordeal. Everyone was where they needed to be. No one was rushing around. O’Brien hadn’t yet steamrolled through the department and people seemed relaxed so things were under control. It was pleasant and really, the only reason Sarah had to feel tired at all was the gnawing hangover that had slowly taken over her life that day.

She and Shanna had had their long overdue catch-up the night before. There was pizza, a few tears, a meagre attempt at karaoke, and two empty bottles of Grey Goose now waiting to be recycled. Oh, and some left-over spiced rum but neither of them had known how long that had been there or who had bought it in the first place. Drowning it in diet coke had not been such a healthy idea either. Both had crashed out on the sofa around 3am only to be abruptly awoken with a bang that they soon discovered was from some old war movie after they had left the TV on way too loud and not, thankfully, a gas explosion from leaving the oven switched on when Shanna attempted to reheat some KFC chicken.

“Oh my fucking god...” Sarah held a hand to the side of her face in some vain hope it would help alleviate the throbbing. “I am too old for this.”

She’d woken up and found herself lying uncomfortably over their armchair, legs flung over the armrest and pins and needles stabbing her hands from having accidentally slept on them all night. It had resulted in her spending most of that day fighting one ache in her head and another one down the side of her body. Her writing was atrocious owing to her not being able to keep a firm grip on her pen and Greg had to politely ask what she meant when she wrote “hysteria” instead of “hypertension”.

Sarah had lost her sense of humour in the past couple of hours as the hangover took hold and couldn’t pick up on what Audrey was hinting at.

“I bet it was a good work-out, though?” she remarked, suggestively. “They say it’s good for the body. Good for the mind.”

“I fell asleep at an angle not meant for humans, Audrey. Nothing about this was good for my body.” Sarah massaged her hand across the back of her neck, stretching her back a little to get the blood going again. Four hours and she would be free to die in her own bed or possibly on a park bench, whichever she managed to reach first.

Audrey did her best to hide her smirk. “Why not speak to Chris and see what he suggests? Bet he’s full of practical ideas.”

“Nah he’d probably just tell me to drink through the pain.” She took another sip from her bottle of water, flinching slightly as the cold hit the back of her throat. She caught Audrey eying her in that same moment and couldn’t read the look on her face. “Are you OK?”

“Hm? Yes, of course! Just...” she half-shrugged, picking her words carefully. “I’m just...really happy for you today.”

Puzzled, Sarah wasn’t sure if she was truly awake in that moment. Audrey appeared to be having a completely different conversation and was wearing the same look on her face as she had when she heard some gossip and was dying to relay it to someone else. “OK. Thank you.”

“You look healthy...and glowing. It’s nice.” She smiled again, leaning on her elbows across the triage desk. 

“Have you smoked something?”

“What? No!! You just seem like you’re having a nice time right now with Shanna and...people.” Audrey’s smile softened as they fully focussed on each other. “At least, I hope you are having a good time. Y’know, with everything else going on. You should give yourself a break. Do something fun for a change. Something...different.”

“OK. Thanks, I will” Sarah’s brain couldn’t properly register her tone. “I am OK, Audrey, you don’t have to worry. I haven’t really thought all that much about Charlotte these days and work has been keeping me busy and stuff so, I am doing OK. I promise.”

“Cool. I’m glad.” Audrey nodded at her. “And you know if you ever did want to talk about anything, anything at all, you can always come to me, right?”

“Yeh I know. And I really appreciate that.” OK. This was getting weird now.

*

Chris 6.44pm: Come get me...

It was shortly before 7pm. Sarah was positively beat and looking forward to her microwave Mac ‘n’ Cheese that she’d been hiding in the back of the refrigerator for the past 3 days. It was something of a guilty pleasure of hers, albeit an unhealthy one, but one that would no doubt serve as a decent hangover cure.

Her feet ached and her migraine was still creeping around inside her skull. If she didn’t take an aspirin soon and get out from under the bright fluorescent lights, she was sure she would pass out. As grateful as she was to see his message, in all truth she was just looking forward to her bed and her pyjamas and those thick grey woolly socks that kept her fee warm but made her look like she was a yeti from the knees down. She would fall asleep on him given half the chance.

Sarah 6.58pm: Sorry :( Rain check? I think I died at some point today

She didn’t have to wait long for his reply, like he hadn’t been keenly eying his phone for her message.

Chris 6.59pm: !!! So I heard...

Chris 6.59pm: Please? I give really good massages. Great hangover cure ;)

She didn’t doubt that for a second. She was tired and fed up and hungry but she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t want the giant hug he would no doubt envelope her in as soon as she walked through his door. The hair stroking and the hot chocolate and marshmallows as was his secret speciality.

Sarah 7.03pm: I’ll just crash tho

Chris 7.04pm: Was hoping you’d say that. I’ll leave the door on the latch. Just come in x

He sent her a kiss emoji and she was sold. She should have headed home, she knew she should have, and stayed away from him for one night. She had after all only just seen him less than 24 hours earlier and the closeness in meetings felt a little jarring. This wasn’t supposed to be a “thing” in that sense. It would be against her better judgement to entertain this right now, especially because he absolutely loved it whenever either her of Shanna regretted their life choices.

“OK guys, time’s up. Y’all need to leave.” Chris yelled as his pals continued to duel over Mario Cart. He hastily rushed around their feet grabbing the empties and wafting away the cloud of cigarette smoke.

“Wait, what?” piped up Mark, one eye still on the screen in front of him as the finish line appeared up ahead.

“Come on, you’ve all got homes to go to, wives and girlfriends and weird looking pets.”

“She’s a sphinx cat, thank you very much, and she’s adorable and friendly if you’d just give her a chance.” Gary argued, slightly affronted but more so by getting distracted and finding himself being lapped by Mark.

“No thanks. I’ll stick with dogs. Less likely to murder me in my sleep.” He shoved what he had managed to gather in his hands into the trash can before standing in front of his television like a suburban mom trying to get her kids out of bed. “Come on. I’ve got shit to do.”

“Since when?” Mark asked, genuinely surprised to hear about this new-found desire to work. “You’re done for the year, right? That’s what Scott said.”

Chris sighed in frustration at his apparent failure to kick his wonderful friends out of his home. He couldn’t tell them what he wanted to tell them even though he knew it would successfully help with this quest to remove them from his property but, y’know, promises were made and he was keen to stick by them for a change.

“Ohhh I get it. “Work”.” Gary kicked Mark, “Come on pal. We’ve been usurped. Our boy here has found some new entertainment for the evening.”

“You’re just saying that because you know I’m about to win...” Mark quipped before catching the steely look in Chris’ eyes, unamused. He hadn’t seen that stare in quite some time.

“It’s not like that, OK? Just...something has come up and it’s-”

“-more fun than hanging out with your buddies?”

“Absolutely.” he nodded enthusiastically. Mark flipped him the bird and followed Gary out of the front door leaving Chris to breathe a sigh of relief. He knew Sarah could reach his property in less than twenty minutes on a good day but if she was feeling even half as sorry for herself as Shanna had been when he spoke to her, it’d be pushing half an hour at least.

After dousing the place in an air freshener he found hiding in the back of a cupboard, he got as far as considering using his vacuum, one his aunt bought for him for Christmas a couple of years back but had remained in the original box ever since. Looking at the mess, he figured it would be easier all round if he just kept her out of the living room and he’d burn it down another time. Fuck that room.

He’d planned to say a polite “hello” and ask her how her day had been while taking her by the hand and slowly pull her into his bedroom. He’d whisper sweet nothings into her ear as he undressed her, pull back the covers and make her forget about her pain. There was no better cure for a hangover in his mind. It was truly a win-win situation. 

He should probably offer her a drink first, though. Possibly some aspirin, too, if she hadn’t take some already. Maintain the allusion that he was a gentleman for a little while longer.

By the time he’d ran the trash out back, he heard her come through his front door and could feel his pulse in his ear. She smiled broadly at him when she clocked, seemingly unaware of what had taken place that day. He was happy when he caught her giving him a look up and down knowing he was looking reasonably good thanks to some weight-lifting that morning. She had a thing for arms and there was no arguing that he was definitely a 10-plus in that department.

“Hey...” he leaned on his door frame, acting casual as thought he hadn’t just bee running around like a lunatic moments before she arrived. He tilted his head to the side, taking her in. She seemed happy to be there but soon saw the tiredness as he moved closer to wrap her in his arms. “How are you feeling?”

“As if you don’t know.” she pouted at him. “I think there’s a tiny man in my brain hammering against my skull.”

She pulled away from him after a few seconds and sat on the stool perched by his breakfast bar.

He grabbed a glass and poured her some filtered water. “Do you want something to eat? I’m starving. I could order in? That Chinese place you like doesn’t deliver here but I could go pick it up?”

she shook her head as she finished the drink. “Don’t worry. I doubt I’d keep anything down to be honest. I’m just tired and I’m not going to be great company either, sorry.”

“Hey don’t sell yourself short.” he said, leaning on his arms to reach her across the bar and flashing her a comforting smile. She was obviously struggling but somehow managed to stay on her feet all day and he found himself looking at her in awe. “You have your moments.”

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Nothing, just looking at you.” Chris flirted.

“No, what the hell happened here?”

Chris noticed her look past him and into the llving room down the hall to where mess was still gathered on the floor. He mentally kicked himself for not closing the door properly. “Oh...that’s...that wasn’t me.”

She raised an eyebrow before bursting out laughing.

“It wasn’t just me.” he rolled his eyes and admitted defeat. “I had the guys over earlier.”

“And you were gonna give me a hard time?!” She playfully punched him on his arm but he grabbed her hand before she could pull away and used it to move closer towards her. His breath smelled freshly minty thanks to his quick teeth-brushing moments before she arrived. She knew it but he didn’t need to know she knew it.

Instead, she watched him watch her, his eyes intently flicking back and forth between hers. She wasn’t altogether sure of the looks he was giving her nowadays; they were both stirring and nerve-wracking in equal measure. He had already agreed to refrain from making those kinds of moves in “public” but it just meant they were heightened ten-fold when they were in private and, honestly, she was finding it harder and harder to get used to.

“You need to rest, gorgeous.” he finally spoke, breaking the quiet between them. “Come on...”

He held his hand out for her to take, her attempt at stifling a yawn pulling on him a little.

“Is it OK if I fall asleep?” she asked.

“Of course.” He responded, keenly. Genuinely, he would do whatever she felt like doing and while he was slightly fretful by her demeanour, he wanted to keep her around for a while. It was a nice change of pace from the swearing and playfighting he’d just experienced with his friends. He didn’t particularly want to cuddle with his friends and she smelled far better than they did. She smelled like sweetness and comfort, like freshly washed cotton linen, and he took the opportunity to smell her hair as she leaned on him while he ambled them both to his room. Something about it felt soothing and it was all he could do not to climb on top of her in the moment she flopped down on the end of his bed but he knew better than that and simply laid alongside her, lying on his stomach, his head resting in both of his hands.

“Did you and Shan have a good catch-up last night?” he asked after a certain length of time passed and the peace had settled in. Her eyelashes fanned across the top of her cheeks as she rested her eyes and he listened to her steady breathing. There was almost no noise inside or out and he was happy she was able to finally relax. “Y’know, before you both drank yourself stupid.”

Sarah side-eyed him and caught his smirk before closing her eyes again. “Yeh we did, thanks, it was fun.”

“What did you guys talk about?”

“Nothing and everything and random stuff. There’s definitely a guy at work. Robbie something. He’s an accountant I think but not based in her office so she doesn’t see him around a lot.”

“There’ll probably be something wrong with him.”

“Not necessarily. You and Scott have too little faith in her when it comes to men.” She turned to look at him again. “He seems like a nice guy from what she says. Very smart, loves his family, loves the outdoors.”

“Oh that’s what’s wrong with him, then. She hates being outside.”

“Well, he sounds like he’d be a good influence compared to her last boyfriends.”

“Shanna never chooses the smart guys.”

“She seems to have chosen this one if her interest is anything to go by, and change is good as they say.”

“Indeed they do.” He perked up a little bit at her seemingly off-the-cuff comment. “Is that what I am? A change?”

Sarah rolled onto her side to face him. “No. You’re a...surprise.”

He full-on belly laughed and she was relieved he saw the intended humour. “Well, hopefully a nice one?”

“Of course!” she chuckled. “What would you say I am?”

He rolled onto his back to face the ceiling and contemplated her question for a second, drawing the pause out to see if she reacted. “You’re a breath of fresh air.” He finally offered. “It’s nice. It feels like there’s no awkwardness ‘cos we already know so much about each other.” She seemed to like that response well enough.

“Did you talk about me?” He reluctantly asked again after a few more moments passed. “Or...any other guys?”

“Ummm...” she couldn’t think of a suitable response that would put an end to this conversation so she could closer her eyes again and they could lie in peace.

“Oh wow...” he huffed out, trying to maintain a playful air. He poked her in her side with his finger. “You need to learn to lie faster.”

“No!” she giggled. “We did not talk about you or any other guys. Not exactly anyway. Just...you know...girl stuff.”

“i know what girl stuff is, Sarah. I grew up with sisters and aunts and cousins who all told me about girl stuff. I remember having to talk to Scott about girl stuff when Carly got her first period and he didn’t understand why she was crying herself stupid for days.”

Sarah wasn’t sure what to say to that. She now had a mental image of Chris freaking out a much-too-young Scott with talk of babies and menstruation and werewolves most probably.

Chris had in fact come up in conversation the night before, several times actually, but it was more to do with Shanna’s concern over recent media speculation into his private life vis a vis Jenny. Some things had been appearing online again, it sounded like she had made some comments on a friend’s blog, and it seemed to be turning into a story that didn’t want to die down. He could not have been unaware of it either yet he hadn’t explicitly mentioned anything to anyone so she didn’t think it was fair to bring it up now. Chris didn’t talk about anything he didn’t want to. Not even for the sake of assuaging his loved ones or his management team.

She continued to gaze at him as he looked up at the ceiling in contemplation. His beard was a little shorter, she noticed, a little neater around his jawline and neck and his right hand was reaching out to barely touch hers. His left arm rested over his stomach and helped the hem of his t-shirt ride up just enough to give a glimpse of his happy trail. He seemed comfortable enough but the next few minutes would determine whether things were going to descend into an awkward conversation. Quite frankly, she’d rather talk about periods if is was.

“You know she loves you, right? You’re her hero.”

Chris laughed again fondly before turning his head to look at her, appreciating what she was aiming for. “And what about these other guys?”

“I’m sure they like your movies.” She shrugged and he barked out again.

“i meant did she push you to talk about your private life? Did she want to know what was going on?”

“Yeh, a little bit but only to say that I don’t really have much of one. She thinks I’ll end up with a doctor because they’re the only other people I meet.”

“I know. She keeps saying Greg likes you.” He didn’t miss a beat. “Apparently, he definitely wants to get in your pants.”

“i really doubt that. Why are you guys talking about this without me? How am I the last to know about this?!”

“Because you don’t think highly enough of yourself, Sarah.” He said, matter-of-factly. “Which is absolute bullshit.” He turned back onto his side so she knew he was getting serious. He reached a finger out to stroke a line down the side of her face. “’Cos you’re freakin’ awesome.”

She smiled gratefully at him, her face heating up. “How do I get out of his conversation with her? I don’t think she’s gonna drop it anytime soon.”

He shrugged, out of answers. Spending the evening talking awkwardly about another man wasn’t exactly what he had in mind but whatever. This barely cracked the list of his terrible “dates”.

“You do like him, though, right?” He couldn’t help himself; he’d foolishly brought the subject up. This was on him and he knew Greg was floating around her head now, probably occupying the same space he should be in and wearing his hero surgeon scrubs and glowing with a bright aura. All charm and with teeth as white as white can be. Well, two can play at that game.

“Yeh, I do. I think he’s grown on me.” she pondered. “He’s a good guy, really good at his job. Plus, he helped this old lady we were treating and spent time with her ‘cos she was on her own. She was really scared but he calmed her down. He made her a cup of tea. You can’t teach that in medical school.”

“Oh fuck...” he exaggerated smacking his hand across his face.

“What?”

“You and old people.” he replied, exasperated. “I’m Captain fuckin’ America! Am I gonna have to find an old guy to help across the street? ‘Cos I’ll fucking’ do it right now if I have to!”

“It was you that brought him up!” She giggled and punched him on the arm as hard as she could which still wasn’t hard enough to provoke a reaction from him other than one of smug laughter. He was rock solid. If she wasn’t so tired, it would have been affecting.

“Yes and now I hate myself.” he needled her in her side causing her to yelp out at the painfully ticklish sensation. “Just say I’m your favourite and we’ll forget we ever had this conversation, OK?”

“Well...” she drew the word out to irritate him but didn’t bank on him moving on top of her to straddle her waist, his weight pinning down into the mattress. He restrained her hands to either side of her head. She guessed he was barely using half of his full strength and that thought made her feel a little light-headed.

She tussled with him a bit for effect knowing he’d get a kick out of it also, but didn’t bank on him pushing her down further into his bed, applying more on top of her in a manner that could get quite dangerous if they weren’t careful. This close she could see the tell-tale darkness setting in his eyes and his breathing slowed down, gently cooling her face. After allowing herself to bask in it for a brief minute, she grinned at him and he chuckled back.

“Yes, yes, OK? You happy now?! You are my favourite!” She giggled and he eventually loosened his grip on her wrists to allow her to feel like she could push him off. He collapsed to her side, keeping one arm across her stomach and they stayed like this for some time.

*

She ended up leaving around half 6 the next morning. She’d woken up a couple of hours after they had fallen asleep and made them both some food with that could piece together from his kitchen. He really needed some kind of assistant to keep things ticking over, she mused. She couldn’t reconcile how he survived at times and if it wasn’t for him spending so much time at her and Shanna’s apartment, or at his mom’s, he would probably forget to eat a solid meal.

They stayed in a tranquil sort of state for a little while, just eating and chatting about nothing in particular, and just as she implied she should make a move to head home, he convinced her to stay again with a low, dozy tone indicating that he could also quite easily crash alongside her. She was content here and the thought of leaving for the outside noise didn’t appeal.

He was still fast asleep when she silently gathered her things and she decided against waking him to say goodbye. She had woken up a few times during the night and admired with jealousy how he always managed to sleep like a baby regardless of his surroundings. Much like a baby also, he was cranky as hell if you woke him. She knew this much when she’d inadvertently tried to kick him out of their flat following a Super Bowl party years earlier. He had taken it so personally and was so grumpy with her, she didn’t think he’d ever talk to her again.

She walked home in record time and straight into her bedroom to dump her things before heading for the kitchen. Like with most of her hangovers, she was always starving the day afterwards and contemplated the Mac ‘n’ Cheese. Eating pasta at this time of the day for sure would have been the dream and it would have been all too easy but she had enough bad habits at the moment. She made some toast instead before checking her phone for any new messages.

“OH MY GOD where have you been?!”

The loud shrill tone from Shan shook Sarah from her reverie causing her to drop her phone, shattering the corner of the screen on the tiled floor.

“Jesus Christ you scared the life out of me!!” Sarah clutched her hands to her chest and took a deep breath. “I didn’t think you would be up this early?”

Shan moved to help pick up Sarah’s phone. “I slept all day yesterday but woke up an hour ago.  I didn’t know where you were. Have you only just left work?”

Guilt panged inside Sarah to see Shan so concerned. She felt awful lying to her that she had indeed had a long shift and had chosen to crash in the staff quarters but right now that seemed easier than trying to pass off casually sleeping in her brother’s bed.

“How are you feeling?” Sarah asked, dusting off her phone. She realised she should probably try to at least look like she was heading towards her bedroom to sleep for a little bit. Actually, that didn’t seem like such a bad idea. She viewed her phone and saw missed calls and texts from both Shanna and Jocelyn.

“Ugh I’ve had worse days, I s’ppose. I think it was that rum stuff we drank. That was not right.”

Sarah’s stomach turned at the sudden recollection of it all. She wasn’t feeling much better as she thought. Shanna sat down at the table and Sarah tossed her a slice before putting the kettle on to make some coffee.

“I think the lack of good sustenance probably didn’t help either.” She chuckled. “I found half the pizza left in the trash.”

Shanna regarded Sarah sheepishly for a second. “Wasn’t a bad night, though, was it?”

Sarah saw the cheeky look in her eyes and laughed in response. No, it wasn’t. She was right. Sarah always enjoyed the times they spent together and the memories they were making even when they didn’t realise they were making them. It could be messy and they had certainly made their fair share of bad choices over the years but it always came back to this: the two of them sat around the kitchen table, suffering through it all together.

“Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.”

Isn’t that the way it always goes?

*

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

Bowie Didn’t!

PART EIGHT OF THE DO YOU SEE HER FACE? SERIES

Pairing: Jess Mariano x Original Character (Ella Stevens)

Warnings: mentions of death, plentiful pop culture references

Word Count: 3.7K

Summary: On the night of Sookie’s wedding, Ella visits the diner and encounters a surprise. 

Though the sign on the door read Closed, Ella gave only one knock and rushed in. She could see Luke closing up, wiping down the main counter. Upon looking up to see her, Luke groaned and hung his head. Ella only smiled, a slightly wicked look. The lights were turned down low and it was shadowy, adding to her fatigue. Sookie’s wedding, out under the early summer sun, had been a fun, all-day affair, and it had taken the wind out of her. But she only had a night left before she shipped off to New Britain for the rest of June, and she had to get one dose of Luke’s food in before the three-week excursion.

“Ella, how many times-”

“I’ll help you clean up whatever mess I make, alright? I know the procedure,” she insisted, her grin growing.

He sighed. “Fine.”

“Thank you, Luke. I am eternally grateful,” she said with mock severity. “I just had to get another look at the place before I depart forever.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “You’re only gonna be gone for a few weeks.”

She scoffed. “To a youth like me, that’s practically a lifetime.”

“What can I get ya?” he snapped, over her theatrics, but in his usual gruff, lovable way.

“Fries, please. And a water?” she asked. Luke nodded and disappeared into the back.

Smiling still, she shrugged off her jean jacket, left in only the army green dress she’d worn to the wedding. The air was clear and full of promise. She would miss the diner, of course, but it would be a welcome escape from her family. Not that her father was entirely behind the idea, but she’d wheedled enough to get him to agree to not send the police looking for her while she was gone. It was odd, considering he usually gave less than one percent of a shit on a daily basis about where she was or what she was up to. Suddenly, feet thumped down the stairs to the apartment and Jess emerged from behind the checkered curtain. He was rubbing his big brown eyes with the heel of his hand. When he looked up and saw her sitting there, he staggered back in slight surprise.

“Hi,” he said, nodding a little.

She raised her eyebrows at seeing him back in his old haunt. “Hi.”

“So,” Jess began with a sigh, raising his hands and gesturing to himself standing in the diner.

Ella nodded, pursing her lips. “Yep. Guess you didn’t think to mention this on the phone two nights ago?”

He chuckled. “Of course I didn’t. Gotta keep things exciting.”

A crooked smirk on his face, Jess ambled over and leaned his forearms on the counter in front of her. Before she could ask him any questions, he shifted toward her and produced a shiny silver quarter from behind her ear. She furrowed her brows at the action but smiled. Holding out the coin to her, he smiled back. He heard Luke puttering around in the kitchen behind him. The deep fryer sizzled lowly. She took the quarter and rolled the cool metal between her fingers before shoving it in the pocket of her jacket.

“How was the wedding?” he asked, his chin propped up on his hand.

She shrugged. “It was a wedding.”

“Hence the name.”

Luke came back around with a basket of fries and a glass of water, eyeing Jess suspiciously, and said nothing as he set them down in front of Ella. She shot him a pointed look. “Thanks for keeping me in the know, boss.”

Sighing, Luke rolled his eyes. “Seems like you figured it out on your own. You’re gonna be gone all month anyway.”

“Gone all month?” Jess echoed.

She nodded. “The New Britain aunt. She just asked me yesterday if I could help her out for a while. She's getting married next week, and they already have a couple kids. I’m babysitting while they’re on their honeymoon.”

“Thrilling,” Jess quipped.

“Should be.”

“Guess I’ll just have to call you here for a while then. You’ll be waiting at the phone, desperate just to hear my voice,” she said in a breathy, dramatic voice, reminiscent of 1940s screen queens.

“Keep dreaming.”

“I always am.”

“Well, it’s not too far. Maybe I’ll return the favor. I’ll show up and you can take me on a tour of all the New Britain hotspots,” he said dryly, though there was a joking tone.

She scoffed. “No such places exist, Mariano.”

“What’s he talkin’ about?” Luke asked, crossing his arms over his chest and looking down at her.

Pausing for a moment, Ella shrugged, feigning nonchalance as she stared down at her fries. “I went and saw Jess in the city a couple weeks ago.”

“What?” he asked, throwing an accusatory glare to a smirking Jess. “When?”

“Mother’s day,” she said shortly, finally meeting Luke’s eyes again.

A knowing expression passed across Luke’s face. “Oh.”

“Mm-hmm,” she hummed in response, aware he wouldn’t say another word about it. Lost in her mind for a moment, she cast her gaze over to the door of the stock room, memories rolling over her like waves.

.   .   .

one year and three weeks earlier

It was summer when she died, almost a full year before. The warming weather brought with it unpleasant, familiar stirrings in the pit of her stomach. She could hear the keys of her mother’s piano, smell her perfume, feel her mother’s hands brushing her hair when she was a child. Order after order, she brought pancakes to happy families. There were mothers with bouquets of flowers in their arms milling around out on the street. And she was happy for them. But it was so hard to maintain the facade when she had nauseating clouds of grief washing her in gloomy rain. She hadn’t even known it was Mother’s Day until she left the house, her father and brother not having yet awoken. But the looks people were giving her told her something was wrong. The chalkboard outside the bookstore announcing the holiday sale solved the mystery for her.

Blowing strands of hair away from her rosy face, Ella felt the throbbing of her sore feet and wanted nothing more than to be listening to her Stevie Nicks tunes on a low volume in her bedroom. She wanted to be reading Dickinson and wallowing in the misery she had no idea would befall her. There seemed to be nothing on the Earth which would cheer her up until the bell over the door jingled and she saw the faces of Lorelai and Rory.

“If it isn’t my favorite mother-daughter detective team!” Ella smiled as they sat down at the counter in front of her.

Luke came over to greet them as well, a cheery expression on his stubbly face. “What can I get ya?”

“Pancakes with chocolate chips that spell out ‘Mother of the Year,’” Lorelai said immediately, batting her eyelashes.

Sighing, Luke looked up from his writing. “Is that a serious request?”

“Am I one to joke about pancakes?” Lorelai countered.

Grunting out an affirmative monosyllabic response, Luke went back into the kitchen. Ella shook her head. Her boss would do anything for that woman.

“We’re gonna have to wolf those pancakes down if we’re gonna get through all the movies today,” Rory reminded Lorelai, a sweet smile on her lips.

“Oooo, what kind of marathon is it?” Ella asked.

“Audrey Hepburn,” Lorelai answered through a grin. “Funny Face, Sabrina, the whole nine. Maybe we’ll add some Katherine, too. All the Hepburns.”

Feeling her heart drop into her stomach, Ella hid the crestfallen look which threatened to cross her face. “That sounds great. I um...I gotta go get some extra chocolate chips from the back if Luke’s gonna fit all those words on the pancakes.”

Rory furrowed her brows in confusion, but Lorelai realized their mistake almost as soon as the words left her lips. However, Ella was in the stock room before either of them could say anything to correct themselves.

Ten minutes passed before Luke noticed his waitress was nowhere to be seen. Admittedly, he had to search his mind to remember if she’d told him he was taking a break or not. When he decided there was no such memory, he returned to the counter where Rory and Lorelai were finishing up their candied pancakes.

“Did you guys see where Ella went?” he asked.

The two women looked between themselves with hesitant looks. Lorelai sighed and shook her head, a conspiratory whisper to her voice. “She’s back in the stock room, but I would just give her a minute.”

“Why? What’s goin’ on?” Luke was immediately concerned, and Lorelai’s face softened at his worry.

Rory chimed in, looking guilty. “We told her we’re doing a Hepburns marathon for Mother’s Day. And her mom also loved Katherine Hepburn and it just slipped out and it’s Mother’s Day and-”

“She’s probably just gonna need a few minutes,” Lorelai cut in, finishing for her daughter.

Luke’s face dropped and he blew out a long breath. “Oh. I...I should go talk to her.”

“Should you?” Lorelai asked doubtfully, but Luke was already walking away. “Luke?”

Back in the stock room, Luke found Ella on the floor near a rack of canned goods. The room smelled of tomatoes and dirt, but it was homey in an odd way. She rested her head on her crossed arms, elbows on her knees. Luke hadn’t seen her so small since she was a toddler, sitting there crumpled up into herself. Her shoulders were shaking slightly, though her cries were silent. Wiping his hands on his jeans, Luke almost returned to the diner but Ella’s muffled voice stopped him before he could leave.

“I know you’re there, Luke,” she said, though she didn’t raise her head to look at him. “I’m sorry, I’ll be back out in a second.”

He sighed guiltily, then shuffled on his booted feet a moment before taking a seat next to her. Though she could feel his presence at her side, she still didn’t look up. There were dark smudges around her eyes, she knew, and tears steadily streaming down her cheeks. Even at the funeral, she didn’t cry. No one had seen her cry since she was a small child. It was only nights alone in her room when she finally let her heart open up and bleed. In a million lifetimes she never would have imagined a simple mention of Katherine Hepburn would break her down in public, or that Luke would be the one to see it. But in the last year, she had learned how grief would come and go like a flash flood. The thought of the loneliness, the pure isolation she’d brought upon herself while coping with the loss, sent another shuddering sob up her spine. She swallowed it back and sniffled, her face still buried in her jeans. Suddenly, she felt Luke’s arm around her shoulder, and she flinched at the touch. Her muscles were tense.

“I’m sorry, Ella,” he said solemnly.

Before she could stop herself, she blurted out a tearful whisper: “Everyone else gets to have a mom.”

Luke nodded, and he wrapped his arms around her as she brought her head to his shoulder and cried into the flannel of his shirt. “I know, I know.”

“I don’t have a mom anymore. I’ll never have a mom again,” she murmured through her tears.

“Yes, you do. She’s still with you. It’s gonna be okay,” he spoke softly, feeling his heart break for her. He knew exactly what it was like to lose a mother at a young age.

And there they sat for the next half hour, until Ella’s breathing finally slowed to a near-normal pace and her hands had calmed their shaking. Luke let her go early, and promised her Mother’s Day off for the rest of eternity, or however long she might work there.

.   .   .

Her high heels fell rhythmically on the sidewalk as she and Jess left the diner and strolled through the balmy night. There was a warm breeze, and somewhere far off an owl hooted, a loon called. After she had washed up the dishes from the fries and the water, Jess had suggested they go out and do something since she’d be missing in action for three whole weeks. The flowers were blooming all around town, and the gazebo was adorned with hydrangeas of pink, blue, purple.

“Hey, you gotta see this,” she said, grabbing him by the sleeve and marching the both of them up the steps.

“Jeez, relax,” he grumbled at her insistence.

She only grinned, her eyes travelling up when they reached the gazebo’s center. They sat down next to each other on the small wooden bench. A fragrant floral sheet cloaked them. Jess followed her gaze to the sky, and immediately understood. There was a hole in the gazebo ceiling, small but enough. There was a beautiful view of the stars, through a cloudy lattice of flowers.

“Huh,” he chirped, nodding slightly.

“Wow, don’t act so impressed,” she scoffed, annoyed at his ambivalence.

He smirked at her, looking over at her profile in the moonlight. “No, really, it’s cool. Something you should paint.”

“Maybe,” Ella agreed, finally meeting his eyes with a tiny smile.

“How’d this happen, anyway?” he asked, gesturing up to the hole.

She shrugged, scrunching up her nose. “Something about Kirk and a batting machine a few nights ago. I just tune most of it out at this point.”

“A wise choice.”

“I think so. Anyway, it'll definitely be fixed in the next few days. Figured you should see it before it was gone.”

“Well, I’m so honored you thought of me,” he teased.

Ella rolled her eyes and flushed, staring ahead at the square glowing silently around them. “Don’t flatter yourself, Mariano.” She paused and spoke again, losing her wistful air. “So, come on, don’t keep me in suspense any longer.”

“What?” He furrowed his brows.

“Well, what are you doing here? And are you visiting or are you...here?” she asked hesitantly, avoiding his eyes.

“I’m here. I came back. I just...wanted to.”

“Why?”

Jess shrugged, running a hand over his mouth. “World bites you, you bite back, right?”

A full smile crossed her lips, and she nudged him with a joking elbow. “That’s right. Took my advice, huh?”

“Just this once. Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Too late.”

“Yeah, I figured,” he said. “Besides, it wasn’t like my mom was suddenly gonna want me back there.”

She hummed and nodded, appraising him. His arms were crossed over the chest of his Clash t-shirt, his hair mussed and his eyes tired. Again, she thought of Jess wandering out in the city alone in the middle of school hours. A pit of guilt settled in her stomach at the thought of leaving the next day, just as he had returned. But she thought better of it. He didn’t need her, and she instantly felt more than a little presumptuous. Without thinking, she chewed at the nails of her right hand.

“You need to quit that, honey,” he scolded with good nature in his voice.

Ella rolled her eyes and scoffed, casting him no more than a momentary glance. “Yeah, I’ll quit biting when you quit smoking.”

“Touché.”

“I’m just nervous.”

“Really? I couldn’t tell,” he quipped.

She snickered and shook her head. “Shut up. My dad doesn’t want me to go, and there’s probably gonna be hell to pay. But I have to take my escapes where I can get them.”

“Don’t I know it,” he agreed. Her makeup was smudged around her eyes, her lipstick faded. There was a stoic look across her features, guarding her thoughts. Jess found himself frustrated at her unreadable expression.

“Hey, just for the record?” she began, breaking the silence.

“Hm?”

“I think I might hate your mom,” she admitted.

Jess laughed bitterly. “I don’t know. You two do share the inclination toward Stevie Nicks.”

She scoffed. “The one commonality. She doesn’t think you’ll go to college, right?”

“More like I’ll never amount to anything, but close enough.”

“That’s bullshit, Jess,” she said with earnest.

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger,” he snapped defensively.

Before she could stop herself, she shifted to face him and raised her eyebrows doubtfully. “The messenger? Like you don’t walk around acting like someone you’re not.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Jess exclaimed, brows furrowed.

“Just…” she sighed, trailing off. Then, she doubled down and took a big breath before beginning again. “This whole Holden Caulfield thing, acting like you’re too cool to want anything!”

“Like you know what I want,” he countered. “And college isn’t the end-all be-all of existence!”

“I didn’t say that! Who gives a fuck if you go to college? Bowie didn’t!” she agreed, voice still raised.

“Exactly!”

“But, that’s not the point! Jess, what do you want?!” she asked. “You go through like five books a day and you almost failed eleventh grade! I mean, Jesus, you could do anything you wanted if you tried!”

“Like it’s so simple,” he grumbled.

“I didn’t say it was simple,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’re just too fucking smart for your own good, Mariano. You can’t waste it.”

He shook his head, biting his lip.

Ella sighed, running a hand through her curled hair. “Fine, don’t listen to me.” Again, she bit at her thumb nail, gazing over the town. Luke was finally finished closing up, and she saw him shut off the lights.

“I’m listening,” he muttered, his voice not without frustration.

“Whatever you say, jackass.”

Before he could respond, Ella stood up and smoothed her hands over her skirt. Her hair fell down her back in golden curls, and the silver chain around her neck glinted. Jess could hear the gentle buzz of insects beneath the thick blanket of night. Upstairs in the apartment, there was a Hemingway novel awaiting him. But he had an inkling he would have a harder time concentrating on it than normal. He thought she was going to leave without uttering another word, but instead she turned and stood back against the rail of the gazebo. She leaned down and unclasped the strappy black shoes she wore, gathering them up by the heels in one hand.

“You’ll get an infection walking around without shoes,” he warned lightly, hoping to drop the subject of his ambiguous future.

She smirked, and Jess felt himself relax. “Maybe in New York. Not so much in Stars Hollow.”

“Oh, was Manhattan not up to your small town standards?”

Her smile grew into something more genuine and she crossed her arms against the summer breeze. The night was quickly cooling, and she had only her jan jacket to shield her. “No, actually, it exceeded them. It was so...dynamic. Just like you described. But there was no five-dollar street corner sex!”

Jess laughed, though his heart fluttered inside his chest at the look in her eyes. The one of glittering wonder she’d had while they watched the Hudson. “Yeah, well, can’t win ‘em all.”

“Next time?” she teased expectantly.

“Next time,” Jess assured her, nodding.

“Well, I gotta get home,” she said, glancing behind her in the direction of her street. “I have to finish packing.”

“Right,” he sighed, glancing down at his boots, then back up. “Guess I’ll have to keep that place in business until July, huh?”

“I suppose,” she said, descending the stairs of the gazebo and calling back over her shoulder. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“I’ll try my best,” he shot back. “But no promises.”

She rolled her eyes and threw him a glance. “I would expect nothing less of you, Mariano.”

And with one final wave and a shouted goodnight, she turned away and continued on the short walk back to her little blue house. Jess smiled after her, watching her glide barefoot over the grass of town square and down the main street until she took a left and disappeared. And he felt a tug at his heart at her absence, but shook his head to himself before trudging back over to Luke’s.

.   .   .

The mid-morning bloomed warm and sunny, a break from the showers which had recently hung over Stars Hollow, and much of the north East. Pebbles crunched beneath the tires of Ella’s big blue Station Wagon, loaded with her duffel and her suitcase, various books in a grocery bag on the passenger seat. After the morning she’d had, she was biting her nails down to the quick. If she hadn’t admonished Jess the night before, she might have even smoked a cigarette or two. She had smoked for only a short period, the few weeks following her mother’s death. And every now and then when she incurred her father’s wrath. Watching her load up her car had made her father’s ears steam, and he’d broken one of the kitchen chairs. Being hungover certainly hadn’t helped him keep his temper under control.

As she rolled past Luke’s Diner, the radio blasted a sharp Liz Phair tune. Ella sang along at the top of her lungs, but quieted as she slowed down and let her gaze wander to the diner. For a moment, she debated stopping in for a final cup of tea, but she had to blink twice to make sure what she saw was accurate. Jess, with his black hair spiked up and dressed in his familiar camo shirt, had his hands in a girl’s back pockets. They sucked face as they leaned against the diner, right on the sidewalk. Ella scrunched up her nose at sight and scoffed as she turned her eyes back to the road. Apparently it didn’t take Jess very long. Had he even been back for twenty-four hours yet? She ignored the way her palms began to sweat. As she sped away from Stars Hollow, she turned the speakers up until she felt the music’s vibrations in her chest.

[eviesmyspiritanimal]

Paint It Pink

Summary: When Mal, Evie, Uma, Audrey, Jane, and the rest are all hanging out at Evie’s house, they get into a rather interesting conversation about whether boys or girls should be the bosses. Soon enough, they’re launched into an all-out paintball war as they struggle for dominance. Huma, Bal, Jarlos, and Jaudrey but ultimately friendship and family feels. Warning: an attempt at fake suicide.

  “Yo, Whitey Tighty, get me a coke!” Uma called to the white-haired boy over nearby the fridge in Evie’s kitchen. Carlos looked at her strangely and furrowed his brow.

  Currently, all of the group was gathered in Evie’s house for a relaxing evening to just enjoy one another’s company. Evie, Mal, and Ben were relaxed on one couch while Uma, Harry, and Gil were on another. Jane, Audrey, Jay, and Carlos had been sitting on the opposite one to the Sea Three’s. That is, until Carlos got up to go get himself a drink.

  And now Uma was demanding that he get her one as well.

  “How about a please?!” Carlos questioned loudly, unappreciative of Uma’s bossiness.

  “Oh, go please yourself!” Uma replied to him with a dismissive wave of her hand, despite the fact he couldn’t see her. Mal raised an eyebrow at the other girl from her position with her head on Evie’s lap and her feet on Ben’s, and Uma smirked at her.

  “I’m not somebody’s servant,” Carlos smartly replied, but he nevertheless withdrew a drink for the pirate and himself.

  “Ah, yes. Good boy. Now I know who to go to for getting my bunions scraped,” Uma declared, and Mal snorted a bit in response to the pirate. Evie rolled her eyes slightly.

  “I’m not scraping your bunions,” Carlos replied to her, and Uma just raised an eyebrow.

  “Why not? You should be an expert since you did it so much for your mother,” Uma informed him, and Carlos just ignored her as he sat down next to Jane who wasted no time in taking his hand in her own.

  “Dadgum. You know, it’s a good thing my boys listen, ain’t it?”

  “Does that mean we’re your servants?” Gil questioned worriedly, and Uma just gestured flippantly at the boy.

  “Gil, please. You practically signed your soul over to me when you became part of my crew,” Uma sassily replied.

  “I don’t recall tha’ bein’ part of the deal,” Harry piped up, and Uma looked at him almost offendedly. She then turned her gaze to Mal.

  “Look at this, Mal. This is ridiculous. These menfolk getting out of hand. You know what I mean, don’t you, girl?” Uma questioned desperately and almost dramatically as she looked over at the faerie.

  “No, not really. Ben always does as I tell him,” Mal informed Uma, and Ben immediately turned his gaze to her in surprise.

  “Yeah, it’s practically me and M running the kingdom,” Evie expressed with a grin, and Ben furrowed his brow, unappreciative of the two girls and their determinations.

  “Wow. Harry Barry, you need to take some lessons,” Uma told him, smacking his stomach lightly, and Harry sighed a bit in response, unimpressed with his captain.

  “I wish Jay would mind that well,” Audrey expressed, offering Jay a slight glare of irritation.

  “Well, dear, I think you’re forgetting that I usually do because you spend the majority of your time nagging me to death,” Jay replied to her, and Audrey’s mouth fell open in shock as she glowered at the boy.

  “I-I think we should all just work together and help each other equally,” Jane expressed, but her opinion was quickly lost in the midst of the uproar that had started with some of the rest of their group.

  “I think that y’all are getting out of hand. I am the captain, remember?” Uma told Harry and Gil.

  “But that doesn’t make us your servants, does it?” Gil questioned confusedly, and Harry immediately shook his head in response to the other boy. Uma just growled under her breath as she cut her eyes in the Gil’s direction.

  “And, Jay, how dare you accuse me of nagging?!” Audrey demanded, and he rolled his eyes as he scooted forward a bit.

  “Alright, look, I’m not talking about this and letting it blow up into another one of our giant explosions or whatever. I still remember the last time we were all hanging out and we got into a bit of an argument. My stomach’s still suffering from that prank cake,” Jay spoke up, interrupting things before they could get too heated.

  “Carlos, how’s your new paintball game on your PlayStation?” Jay asked, pointing to Carlos as he directed his attention to his little brother.

  “Of course. The new topic of conversation is video games,” Uma muttered under her breath. Carlos shot a dirty look in Uma’s direction before replying.

  “It’s really great. It’s a first-person shooter, and the graphics are stellar,” Carlos described, and Jay nodded as he grew more engrossed in the conversation. Ben looked at Carlos oddly, and he leaned forward a bit.

  “Is there character customization?” Ben questioned curiously, and Carlos nodded emphatically.

  “Totally, dude, it’s so awesome!” Uma rolled her eyes, sharing a glare with Audrey.

  “Multiplayer?” Harry questioned, and Carlos grinned widely as he offered affirmation to Harry’s question.

  “I think we need to meet up and play that one,” Jay expressed his opinion on the subject and Carlos laughed, looking over at the older boy.

  “Yeah, definitely. Shoot up the other team, am I right? Get your aggressions out!” Carlos aimed a fake gun and he made a few shooting noises. Uma’s eyes widened and a smirk came onto her face as she got an idea.

  “How about I’ve got a better idea?” Uma spoke up, and everyone looked at her.

  “What if we had a real paintball match?” Uma suggested, and Carlos suddenly looked quite thoughtful.

  “A paintball match?!” Jane squeaked, and Evie had a big grin on her face as she looked at Uma.

  “Ooh, that sounds fun… What do you think, M?” Evie asked, and Mal could see Evie’s eyes glowing with that competitive spirit. Mal sat up and moved her feet off of Ben’s lap so that she was sitting more closely to Evie.

  “Sounds good to me, E.”

  “You wanna be on my team?” Evie offered before leaning close to Mal and whispering playfully. “I have a high likelihood of winning, but with you, it’d be guaranteed.”

  Mal grinned at her best friend, and she slid an arm around Evie’s shoulders.

  “Sure. We’ll win,” Mal told her sister confidently, and Evie beamed.

  “I propose girls versus boys. What do y’all think?” Uma questioned, and Carlos nodded excitedly. Jay, Harry, and Gil seemed to be rather intrigued as well. The only boy who wasn’t so enthralled with the idea was Ben, and he looked somewhat apprehensive.

  “I don’t know about that,” Ben started to protest, but Audrey’s next statement almost completely made any effect of his words disappear.

  “And let’s make it a bet,” Audrey added, and Uma grinned wickedly at her. After all, Uma wasn’t through with their entire conversation about servants and who bossed who around, and she had a feeling Audrey wasn’t either if her sly expression was anything to go by.

  “A girl after my own heart, eh, Princess?” Uma questioned, and Audrey just shrugged a bit as she smiled smugly.

  “What exactly is the wager?” Jay questioned with an eyebrow raise.

  “The team that wins will have the other team as their servants for a whole day. You have to do whatever the winning team tells you to do,” Audrey firmly spoke, and Uma nodded approvingly.

  “That sounds fun,” Evie excitedly expressed, and Mal nodded. In fact, everyone except Ben and Jane seemed excited at the prospect of the battle. Once he had looked at all of the boys and seen that all except Ben were in favor of the idea, Jay nodded with a grin.

  “We’re in.”

  “Cool. And you guys will set up the gear?” Uma questioned, and everyone but Ben nodded eagerly.

  “Definitely,” Carlos answered with a sparkle in his eye. Uma leaned back in her seat with a slight smirk as she glanced at the other girls before returning her gaze to Carlos.

  “Perfect.”

   ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

      “I think I look like Katniss Everdeen,” Evie declared proudly as she fingered her braid before lifting her gun with a raise of an eyebrow. Mal looked over at her sister, taking in Evie’s pose. Evie looked at Mal and she bounced one eyebrow playfully. Mal immediately laughed at her, and she side-hugged the girl tightly, pressing her forehead to the side of Evie’s head.

  However, to her surprise, their helmets clanged together hard, and they both jumped a bit in surprise before giggling again.

  It was two days later, and all of the girls were gathered around the edge of their chosen field in the dead zone as they made the last few preparations to their uniforms before they went out to meet the boys who were already finding their positions.

  Evie and Mal had went out together to go and buy the group some armor pieces. Particularly, they had helmets, chest armor, and shin guards.

  “Well, I’m glad you do. I look more like the Michelin tire man,” Audrey proclaimed in a bit of a whine, and Evie shook her head as she started to say something.

  “It’s an improvement, honestly,” Uma replied immediately, interrupting Evie. Audrey narrowed her eyes and growled under her breath as she set her jaw in irritation. Uma strapped on the last bit of armor as she turned around to face the rest of the girls.

  “Okay! We ready to whoop some boy behind?” Uma questioned as she looked at the lot of them, her hair pulled back just a little as she gazed at them with her helmet lifted.

  Audrey rolled her eyes as Uma tried to look imposing and intimidating with her gear.

  “No!” Jane whimpered, her mask already down as she fearfully hid behind it. Uma just offered Jane a slight smirk.

  “Then let’s do this,” Uma spoke, flipping the visor part of her helmet down before leading the way over to where the boys were already standing. Evie and Mal followed suit, closing their helmets, and Audrey just scoffed, but copied their movements as she went after them and dragged Jane behind her.

  “Took ye long enough!” Harry called out in a taunt, and Uma rolled her eyes at him, unimpressed with his jeering as she led the group behind their big rock that would serve as cover.

  “Alright!” Jay called when the girls were in their positions on the battlefield.

  “We know the rules! One shot and you’re down, and don’t shoot anybody after they’re hit that one time,” Jay announced, and the girls expressed varying forms of agreement. “And after they’re hit, they head over there to the dead zone where they’ll wait until the match is over.”

  “We’re good?” Jay questioned loudly, but Audrey quickly raised her hand, and Jay looked at her.

  “And don’t shoot anyone in the head?” Audrey questioned, and Jay furrowed his brow.

  “What? No!” Jay replied, shaking his head as if that were the oddest thing he’d ever heard.

  “The beauty of this game, gorgeous, is that you can shoot anywhere!” Harry added with a wild look in his eyes, and Audrey suddenly lost all of her calmness about the idea of the paintball fight as her jaw slackened.

  “Are we ready?!” Jay shouted, and Mal and Uma gave out thumbs-ups in response to the boy as they ducked behind their rock. Ben shook his head quickly, and Harry just shoved him down behind their rock.

  “Let’s do this!” Uma called in response, and they all five jumped as Harry shot a paintball nearby Uma’s shoulder that hit the rock with a splatter. Uma wasted no time dipping down behind the rock to hide behind it more fully.

  “Huh. He’s a better shot than I thought,” Uma pointed out with a slight chuckle as she started to aim for the boys with her paintball gun.

  “AAAH!!! The paintballs splatter?!!!!” Audrey cried, and Uma looked at her strangely.

  “Well, yeah.”

  “And let me get this straight! They can shoot at our heads?!” Audrey demanded, and Uma looked at her with a slight chuckle and an odd glance.

  “Yeah, Princess, duh.” Uma then looked to Mal. “Is she not a fast learner? She obviously knows nothing about violent sport.”

  “Don’t worry, Audrey, you won’t be getting hit in the head today. I’m going to win this match easy!” Evie declared before starting to fire at any signs of movement around the boys’ rock.

  “What the— did they give us pink paintballs?!” Uma demanded, and Evie looked at her paintball gun strangely as she took in the fact that her gun did indeed eject pink paintballs.

  “Because you’re a bunch of girls!” Carlos declared, obviously having heard Uma’s question.

  Evie narrowed her eyes, and Mal watched as Evie’s entire stance shifted as her mind moved into competition mode. Evie aimed for Carlos’s head and she pulled the trigger like a madwoman, paintballs shooting toward the boys’ rock and covering it with pinkness.

  “Take that, you scumbags!!!” Evie cried as she unloaded on them. Mal and Uma paused, and Uma stared at her in shock.

  “Does she always do that?” Uma questioned as she jabbed a thumb at Evie as she bared her teeth and blasted the paintballs.

  “Pretty much,” Mal replied simply.

  “Remind me not to get roped into family game night,” Uma muttered with a slight laugh, and Evie shot back down to the ground as the boys fired some balls. Evie narrowed her eyes, and she looked as if she might hop over the top of the rock.

   However, Uma and Mal both grabbed her before she could begin to do that.

  “Evie, stop, you can’t go out there!” Mal told her best friend, and Evie looked at her confusedly as she gripped her gun firmly.

  “Why not? I might have a better chance at hitting the boys.”

  “Because you might get hit,” Uma told her, and Evie just laughed a bit.

  “Well, one person getting hit is no big deal. You and Mal and Audrey can go on without me as long as I hit two or three of the guys,” Evie informed the pirate, and Uma shook her head.

  “E, you don’t get it. First of all, we need you to stay in the game as long as possible because I kind of want to keep our whole team out of the dead zone. Second of all… Well, Evie, those paintballs hurt when they hit you,” Mal expressed, and Mal watched as the crazed look in Evie’s eyes slowly started to fade away as she seemed to realize the possibility for pain that was in this game.

  “Oh. Oh… That’s not… Well, that sounds not too fun,” Evie replied to Mal as she sunk down behind the rock next to Jane who was currently hiding behind the rock in a curled up ball. Mal nodded in agreeance and Uma rolled her eyes as she tried to position her gun a bit better over the top of the rock in case she could possibly manage to hit the boys.

  “The paintballs hurt?! As if it wasn’t bad enough with the mess!” Audrey proclaimed, almost completely hysterical. “And people make this out to be a fun game?! It should be called painball instead of paintball!!!”

  “Look, Princess, suck it up. By the time we’re through with this match, you’re going to have an ugly raised up bruised place on your body and you’re going to be messy,” Uma informed Audrey in a matter-of-fact tone as a paintball suddenly splashed nearby the girls and the paint shot out onto Uma’s hair.

  “Did ye hit ‘er?!” Harry gleefully shouted, and Uma narrowed her eyes.

  “Try again, Hook! You missed by a mile!” Uma cried in return, but she hid a bit better behind the rock as she looked at Audrey to resume their conversation.

  “Uma! Your hair has blue paint in it!” Audrey cried in unadulterated horror. Uma looked down at her hair, and she sighed slightly before shrugging.

  “It’s going to happen, and it’ll probably happen to you,” Uma informed the princess.

  “I can’t do this. My hair can’t do this! I can’t have my hair messed up! I CAN’T DO THIS!!!” Audrey screeched.

  “AAAH!!!!!” Audrey shrieked as she suddenly left from behind the rock, trying to get away for fear that her hair would be ruined by the paintballs. Mal and Uma shared a blank glance before looking back at the runaway princess. After a long moment, Uma just slowly shook her head as she stared at the girl.

  “Wow. That is purely impressive,” Uma commented in shock as they watched Audrey take off across the battlefield. Audrey ran, dodging paintballs as she took off screaming at the top of her lungs.

  However, after a moment, Gil jumped out from behind the rock, aiming for Audrey as he ran toward her. Of course, Audrey couldn’t do much about him because she had somehow or another ended up leaving her paintball gun behind. Uma smirked as she saw her opportunity.

  Before Gil could even begin to shoot the princess, Uma hit him in the center of his chest with a pink paintball. Audrey hadn’t stopped the entire time as she ran for her life and tried to escape.

  “Darn it, Gil!” Harry cried out, and Gil sighed deeply as he held his gun above his head and ran off of the field.

  “WHOO!!! First hit!” Uma called, and she could practically feel Harry’s glare at her.

  During this, Audrey was still running for her life, and Uma quickly noticed that Jay was peeking out from behind the rock in an attempt to shoot her. Mal apparently saw this as well, and she shot up so that she could see just above the rock, and she shot at Jay multiple times.

  But her paintballs very unfortunately didn’t hit Jay, and he ended up successfully blasting Audrey in the behind with a blue paintball.

  “OUCH! JAY!!!” Audrey screeched and held her paintball gun above her head as she glared at Jay. He just smirked wildly at his girlfriend, waggling his eyebrows, and Audrey growled as she fled.

  “Don’t hit me, please don’t hit me! I’m already fatally injured!” Audrey cried, and Uma rolled her eyes at the other girl’s dramatics.

  “Man, that diversion worked like a charm,” Uma informed the other girls, and Evie nodded with a slight smile as she looked at Uma and Mal.

  “I’ll say. And we didn’t even mean for it to be a diversion. Audrey just went nuts and ran,” Mal informed Uma with a slight laugh as she tried to get an idea of the boys’ position. Mal narrowed her eyes as she watched Carlos dart out from behind the boys’ large rock in favor of hurrying over to a tree that was closer to the girls’ place.

  Mal raised an eyebrow.

   “In fact, I think we need another diversion,” Mal spoke up, and Uma grinned widely, not knowing what Mal had in mind, but perfectly willing to hear it. Mal looked to Jane, and Jane’s eyes went wide as she stared at the purple-haired girl.

  “Why are you looking at me?” Jane questioned, and Mal smirked slightly.

  “We need you to run over to that tree,” Mal pointed to the one that Carlos was hiding behind, “and distract Carlos by telling him that you’re scared and don’t know what to do.”

  “Oh, I get it! Lure him out from behind the tree and then we blast him, right?” Uma questioned, and Mal grinned. Evie just looked between the both of them and shook her head as she reached around and tried to ensure that her braid was still firmly intact so that she could avoid as much disaster to her hair.

  “Isn’t that a little cruel?” Jane questioned worriedly, and Mal shook her head.

  “All’s fair in love and war, dear Jane,” Mal muttered as she repositioned her mask a bit.

  “Get out there now, okay? We’ve got to win this,” Mal informed the other girl, and Evie sympathetically squeezed Jane’s shoulder.

  Jane sighed deeply, and after a moment, she rushed out, trying to hide behind different trees as she approached the de Vil boy.

   Before long, she was nearby him, and he jumped out from behind his tree, about to shoot. However, he froze as soon as he realized it was Jane.

  “Jane?! What are you doing?!” Carlos questioned, obviously not thinking that Jane would try to actively participate in their game.

  “This is scary! I’m scared!” Jane proclaimed, and Carlos’s eyes softened. Jane truly hated to do this to him, and she wished that literally anyone else could’ve taken the job instead of her.

  He stepped a bit closer to her, and to her shock, he was suddenly covered in pink paint all over his stomach. His eyes went wide and he gaped at his front.

  “WHOO!!! Nailed it!” Uma whooped victoriously, and Jane offered Carlos an apologetic glance. He just narrowed his eyes at Uma and groaned before running off to go and join Audrey and Gil in the dead zone.

  “Y’know, I’m starting to not mind that our team color is pink. It’s extra embarrassing for those ‘manly men,’” Uma sarcastically referred to the boys before laughing heartily.

  Jane just watched Carlos running for the dead zone, and she looked down at her shoes, feeling terribly guilty, but she suddenly jumped as a paintball whizzed by her.

  “Crap, I missed!” Harry cried, and Jane quickly dove for the other side of the tree as she tried to avoid getting hit. Her blue eyes were wide in fright.

  “Jane, come on! Get back over here!” Mal cried, and Uma launched a few warning shots that hit the boys’ rock in an attempt to give Jane an opening so she could escape. Evie looked up at Mal, grabbing her hand as she got her attention.

  “M, she’s too scared,” Evie informed her, and Mal looked at Evie softly before nodding.

  “Jane, it’s okay, just run back fast! Uma’s stopping them!” Mal called, and Jane looked at Mal trustingly. She started forward, but before she could get too far, the boys nearly hit her again. Jane immediately flung herself back against the tree, breathing hard as she calmed down from the fact that she was almost hit with a paintball.

  Uma groaned deeply, and she fixed her mask more solidly upon her face as she readied herself to run out from behind the girls’ rock. Mal looked at her strangely, and Uma returned her gaze.

  “I’m going to go and get her. Cover me!” Uma called as she readied her gun. Evie scooted out of the way, holding onto her almost empty gun.

  Uma waited for only a moment before darting out toward Jane. Harry, and Jay immediately began actively firing at her with Ben hiding behind the rock fearfully. Mal started shooting intensely in response to the boys, and their fire was a little scattered since they were now spending more time dodging.

  Uma hurried over to Jane and she took the girl by the arm, trying to guide her out from behind the tree and back to the rock. She had almost made it halfway back when the boys managed to hit Jane in the back.

  “Oh!” Jane cried as it hit her, and Uma stopped for just a moment as she pushed Jane in the direction of the dead zone.

  “Get out of here, Jane!” Uma instructed, and she made a mad dash for the rock. Evie reached out for Uma’s hand in an attempt to pull her over to their side quickly.

  But to the girls’ surprise, Uma was suddenly splattered with a paintball, blue paint hitting Uma’s helmet and splattering onto the front of Evie’s helmet.

  Mal narrowed her eyes as she saw Harry standing there and laughing his behind off behind the rock, and Mal pulled her trigger quickly as she blasted Harry in the front of his helmet with a paintball.

  Uma stopped in frustration, growling under her breath, and Evie and Mal looked at her regretfully. Uma offered them a slight smile right before she looked over at the boys with a snarl. However, her grin quickly returned tenfold as she realized that Harry was heading off to the dead zone as well. Uma then returned her gaze to the two girls left behind.

  “Spank them like babies, okay, y’all?” Uma questioned, and the two left behind nodded resolutely. Uma offered a two-fingered salute before hurrying toward the dead zone where Gil, Audrey, Carlos, and Jane were currently seated and where Harry was currently running for.

  Suddenly several balls splattered nearby Mal and Evie, and they quickly dipped a bit lower behind their cover.

  “E, if we’re going to win this, we’ve got to get out from behind this rock and get closer to Jay and Ben,” Mal spoke, and Evie nodded in agreeance, somewhat distastefully wiping a bit of the splattered paint from her shoulder.

  “But where can we go?” Mal trailed off, looking around, and Evie squeezed Mal’s shoulder as she looked around as well. After only a moment, she caught sight of a place that would be perfect for them to hide at. Evie wasted no time in pointing.

  “M, look over there. There’s a rock that looks like it might be just big enough for me and you,” Evie told the faerie, and Mal followed Evie’s finger. She grinned at Evie widely and looked at her adoringly.

  “Awesome job, E. Let’s make a run for it,” Mal praised her best friend as she kneeled and peered just barely around the rock as she held her gun in her arm carefully.

  “One… Two… Three… Go,” Mal quietly told Evie, grabbing Evie’s hand tightly as she darted out from behind the rock. Evie wasted no time in running with Mal.

  “Aha! Give it up, sisters!” Jay called as he shot at them. Mal and Evie both tried desperately to dodge the paintballs, and just barely made it behind two trees as they paused for a moment.

  “Okay, E, let’s go again…. Now!” Mal called, and they both shot out from behind their covers. Jay immediately started shooting at them again, and Evie felt a paintball whiz by her head as Jay got dangerously close to hitting her. Evie was getting quite tired, and she was starting to realize that their rock was farther away than they had originally thought.

  “In just a second, let’s make a run for it again,” Mal told the other girl, and Evie nodded despite the fact that she was running a bit short on air. Before long, Mal jutted her head in the direction of the rock, and they both shot out from behind their trees as they made a run for it.

  However, to the bluenette’s shock, she tripped a bit in the midst of her running. Naturally, hearing Evie’s grunt, Mal paused as she considered running back to Evie, but Evie had managed to catch herself, and pushed Mal ahead as the paintballs whizzed by them.

  Soon enough, they reached the rock, and Evie nearly collapsed behind it.

  After only a moment, a paintball almost hit Evie’s head.

  “Evie, get down!” Mal cried, grabbing Evie’s shoulder and pulling her down to Mal’s level as yet another paintball flew above her head. They were both breathing hard, and Evie was beginning to think that she couldn’t take much more of this game if it consisted of more of this constant running, despite her competitive nature. If this would have been something like charades, Evie would’ve likely already cheated at it, but as it was, she couldn’t cheat in this game, so her hopes of winning were rather dashed.

  “E, we gotta keep going until we make it around so we can get a clear shot at the boys. This rock’s good, but we’re still not quite where we can reach them,” Mal informed her, almost as if she had read Evie’s mind. Evie furrowed her brow, raising up her mask slightly so that she could look at her best friend. Mal was peering from around the rock they were both hidden behind, checking to ensure that the boys hadn’t changed positions.

  “Why did we agree to do this in the first place?” Evie whined a bit, allowing a bit of her emotions to slip into her voice. This challenge was getting a little harder than she was quite prepared for.

  “Evie, just think of how wonderful and sweet that victory will be when it comes in the form of being able to make the boys wait upon us hand and foot,” Mal informed her, and Evie sighed a bit as she smiled just barely.

  “Besides… This is Mevie, remember? Mevie can do anything,” Mal told her sister with a loving grin as she took Evie’s hand in her own, lacing her fingers through Evie’s. Evie nodded slowly, feeling a bit of her resolve return to her.

  “Come out, come out! Ready to get smashed?!!!” Jay called as he shot a paintball nearby their hiding place.

  “C’mon, E. For some reason, we were the last ones standing on our team. I think it’s because me and you were meant to win this,” Mal informed her sister. Evie’s eyes hardened and she looked significantly more determined at the mention of winning. Mal smiled fondly, knowing that Evie’s signature competitiveness was lying just beneath the surface.

  “Let’s go kick their butts,” Mal told her, and Evie swiftly snatched Mal’s arm and pulled her back near the bluenette.

  “M, I’ve got an idea,” Evie informed Mal, and Mal furrowed her brow as she looked at her sister.

  “I’m going to run out and distract them,” Evie expressed, and Mal’s eyes widened as she shook her head.

  “What? No! Evie, are you crazy?” Mal demanded, giving Evie a onceover.

  “I’m going to run out and trip and fall on purpose. I’ll act like I’m hurt, and then we can shoot Jay because he’ll come running,” Evie explained her plan to her sister. Mal furrowed her brow as she moved just a bit to peer in the direction of the boys.

  “How do you know it’ll work?” Mal asked.

  “I don’t. We just have to take a chance,” Evie solemnly replied.

  “E, that’s suicide… And I can’t afford to lose you,” Mal expressed, and Mal almost thought it sounded like something out of a war movie. She was definitely getting a little too carried away in this game.

  “In war, Mal, some sacrifices must be made,” Evie told her, a dead seriousness to her voice. After a moment, she grinned, alleviating the tension. “Besides, you’re going to run out to check on me so it’ll really sell it, and then you’re going to shoot him when he comes out.”

  Mal couldn’t help but grin at Evie as she laughed.

  “Y’know, I love you,” Mal affectionately addressed Evie.

  “I love you, too.”

  “And you’re an evil genius,” Mal complimented her before squeezing the bluenette’s arm. “Now get out there and trick them.”

  Evie just offered one of those thousand-watt grins before taking off through the battlefield. Naturally, several paintballs were launched at her.

  Evie managed to successfully dodge them all, and after a moment, she decided it would probably be a good time to fall on the battlefield.

  Evie wasted no time in dramatically tripping and collapsing on the ground. Before Jay could shoot her, she cried out in pain, immediately reaching for her foot as she brought it up closer to her body.

  “AH!!!” Evie yelped, making sure that she sounded as hurt as she possibly could. Mal, ever loyally playing her part, rushed out to Evie, diving for her sister and hitting the ground hard as she crawled over desperately to the other girl. Evie had to give it to Mal. She could definitely offer a convincing performance.

  “Evie?! EVIE!!!” Mal cried, grabbing Evie’s mask where her cheeks would be as she looked her over. She wasted no time in taking Evie’s hand tightly, and Evie resisted the urge to smile. If she smiled, she’d no doubt soon laugh.

  “Evie? Is she okay?!” Jay called, and Mal didn’t respond, just shaking her head. Evie could see the slightest hints of a grin on Mal’s face as she removed her hand from Evie’s as she placed her hand on Evie’s thigh while she got a better look at Evie’s fake injury.

  “It hurts, M!” Evie yelped in what she hoped was a pitiful manner, but the end of her cry was interrupted a bit by a laugh. Fortunately, it sounded more like a sob than a laugh, so it worked to Evie’s advantage.

  “Evie?! Is she alright?!” Jay called louder, and Evie realized he was getting closer. Ben was even peeking out behind the rock somewhat curiously. Evie glanced at Mal, and the faerie simply brought both of her hands to her gun slowly.

  After only a moment, Mal turned and she blasted Jay. He wasn’t nearby, but he had just left from behind the rock, and before he knew it, he was shot in the chest with pink paint. His eyes widened and he stared at the girls blankly.

  Mal just laughed and Evie giggled along with her. Jay growled unhappily as he glared at the other two, the entire trick dawning upon him.

  “That was unfair! You used my emotions against me!”

  “Now, now,” Mal playfully reprimanded.

  “Who shot Audrey in the butt as she was running away to safety?” Evie called with a slight laugh, and Jay furrowed his brow as he paused. However, after a moment, he groaned, realizing that the girls were in the right.

  “All’s fair in love and war, Jay!” Mal told him.

  “Besides, we’ll never do it again,” Evie added with a sincere smile as she sat up and started to get up with Mal’s help.

  “Unless we’re playing paintball!” Mal laughed, and Evie nodded in agreeance. Jay just rolled his eyes, knowing that the girls had played fair or at least as fair as he had played.

  “Well, we’re not playing paintball anymore!” Jay announced as he hurried off toward the dead zone, but Mal could hear that he was not entirely serious.

  Mal and Evie shared a glance and shook their heads. However, after a moment, they both headed over to the boys’ rock, aiming on finishing it once and for all so that they could win their prize.

   They very carefully snuck around the edge, both of their guns pointed at Ben as they approached. Ben’s eyes widened, and he shook his head quickly.

  “No, no, no, don’t shoot, don’t shoot! I give in! I give up! You win!” Ben cried. Mal lowered her gun a bit, and then to everyone’s surprise, a blue paintball crashed straight into the visor of Mal’s helmet. Evie gasped as she stared at Ben.

  He looked just as surprised as Evie, but before he knew it, Evie had unloaded pink paintballs all over his front.

  As soon as she had emptied what was left in her gun, Evie pointed at him accusingly, a fire in her eyes as she glared at the boy.

  “YOU! You killed her! You killed her!!!” Evie declared, sounding almost crazed. Ben swallowed hard as he started to try to wipe paint from his visor.

  “It was an accident!”

  “Uh-huh, likely story! How dare you?!!! I loved her!!! And now she’s gone!!!” Evie cried, and Mal just furrowed her brow as she wiped the paint from her visor.

  “At least I won. But even my victory means nothing without her!” Evie spat, sounding as if she might cry.

  “I can’t go on in a world without her!” Evie announced before putting the end of the paintball gun to the side of her helmet and pulling the trigger.

  However, after several pulls, she realized it wasn’t working. Evie pulled the paintball gun away from her head and she examined it strangely. She groaned as she realized that she had emptied her gun.

  “Darn it, I wasted all my paintballs on you!!!” Evie whined, and Mal took off her helmet as she grabbed Evie.

  “E, I’m alive, and I’m fine,” Mal assured her, and Evie looked between Mal and Ben.

  “He shot you in the face!” Evie protested. Mal rolled her eyes and took Evie’s helmet in her hands as she pulled it off. She then grabbed Evie’s face in her hands and stroked her cheeks with her thumbs.

  “Of my helmet. Besides, this is a game. It’s a game, E. Chill out,” Mal told her, and Evie just sighed deeply. Evie’s warm brown eyes met Mal’s cool green ones, and they both shared just a tiny hint of a smile after a moment.

  “I guess I got a little too into it, huh?” Evie questioned somewhat sheepishly, and Mal chuckled under her breath as she squeezed Evie’s cheeks before letting her go.

  “Just a little,” Mal replied before she suddenly heard loud whoops and yells. Mal looked to the direction that the yells were coming from, and before she knew it, her and Evie were being grabbed by several sets of arms.

  “WHOO!!! WE DID IT!!!” Uma cried out victoriously as she grabbed Mal tightly. Evie was squished firmly against Mal as Audrey sandwiched the two best friends in the midst of her grabbing onto Evie and Uma. Jane hugged Mal tightly, and Mal grinned as she was surrounded by her team. She wrapped her own arm around Evie, and Evie quickly reciprocated the embrace.

  “So… I guess ye girls won, eh?” Harry spoke up suddenly, and the girls released one another to look at the guys. Mal and Evie were still holding onto one another, and they quickly noticed that the guys were all gathering around as well to face the girls.

  Uma grinned widely as she walked straight up to the pirate boy.

  “Sure enough. And you know what that means, Hook?” Uma questioned, getting as close to his face as her height would allow. His eyes darted down to her lips for just a moment, but they soon returned to her gaze.

  Uma grinned slightly, giving his face a onceover before stepping back.

  “You boys are ours for a whole day,” Uma told him with a confident smirk as she looked back at the other girls. The group smiled widely as they looked at each other. Uma then looked back at the guys.

  “Starting now. Now carry us to one of Ben’s limos and chauffeur us to Evie’s house.”

    ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

      It was a little later in the day, and all of the girls were reclined on the sofa at Evie’s house. And they had all of the boys working rather intensely.

  Jay was currently rubbing Audrey’s scalp, and she had her eyes closed as she was enjoying her treatment. Harry was brushing Uma’s hair carefully, and Ben was painting Evie’s and Mal’s fingernails and toenails. Gil was currently working as a footrest for Jane at Uma’s instruction.

  And Carlos was massaging all of the girls’ feet and was currently having to do Uma’s.

  “A little more fingertips, Jay,” Audrey instructed, and he complied. She smiled in satisfaction as she sunk down in her seat comfortably. “Ah… that’s nice.”

  “Now make sure you get all the tangles out. Gently, mind you,” Uma told Harry, and he continued through her hair a bit slower and more carefully.

  “Aww, these are so gross!” Carlos grumbled suddenly in a sour complaint as he coughed in response to the smell of Uma’s feet.

  “What did I say about complaining?” Uma questioned, cracking one eye open just barely as she raised an eyebrow at the de Vil boy. He just closed his mouth, rolled his eyes, and wrinkled his nose.

  “What I meant to say was by what miracle did I get the privilege to do this?” Carlos questioned in a falsely sweet tone as he squinted.

  “Because you’re best at foot care, and you seemed to have a problem with my feet,” Uma replied simply as she sighed deeply.

  They were quiet for a long moment before Uma finally spoke again, uttering the very sentence that started it all.

  “Yo, Whitey Tighty, get me a coke.”

  And all of the girls couldn’t help but laugh as Carlos now had to fetch Uma a drink.

[sparklyaxolotlstudent]

In honor of watching Z-o-m-b-i-e-s 2, I’m giving a bit of review of my favorite and not so favorite Disney Channel Musicals, because why not.

Please do note that these are sarcastic as heck and that I do actually enjoy these movies. For the most part, they’re popcorn movies and fun to watch.

High School Musical

With Four movies (and a sort of tv series), I think this is the most profitable saga in the whole channel.

The first one: Fun music, cliché as heck, and really dark when you start to think about it too much. I like the fact that Sharpay is not your typical villain, and Ashely Tisdale portrayal actually makes her more sympathetic than some of the “heroes”… yeah, I’m talking about Chad, who is a total douchebag, and Taylor, who is a complete tool.  

Sharpay (And Ryan’s) crimes? Talking with Mrs. Darbus about changing the date of the callbacks. They didn’t even lie to do this, they just outright said it was highly suspicious that someone who had never shown any interest was now all over it. Mrs. Darbus agreed.  She also “introduced” Gabriella to Taylor. Her only real dick move was talking down Kelsi.

Chad and Taylor? They lie and manipulate their supposed friends. Taylor even only became friends with Gabriella when she thought she could get something out of her.

Then the Decathlon team and the basketball team proceed to cheat on their respective competitions so Troy and Gabriella can show up to callbacks!

ANYWAY. I still know the songs by heart (And Sharpay’s and Ryan repertoire are the most awesome of them all)

The second one:  I loved it, but it really has a weird message… the first one is all “BE YOURSELF”, while this one is all “SUCCUMB TO PEER PRESSURE”. To recap: Troy is sure his parents can’t afford to get him into a good college, so he agrees to suck up to Sharpay and get a job at a resort where her parents are really powerful.  He even manages to get ALL of his friends jobs! (Except Kelsi and Gabriella, who already had jobs there. Sharpay even was the one who told Kelsi about the opening at the club). The first thing they do, literally not even five minutes into the job is to bitch and moan and complain about how hard it is.  Sharpay uses her influences to promote Troy and introduce him to a professional team who are sincerely impressed with this boy. How do his “friends” react? Of course they support him and are happy he will have this once in a lifetime opportunity!

Ha! Nope. They are jealous of him, especially Chad, and bitch and moan and guilt trip him until he falls to peer pressure and ditches every single advantage he got after Gabriella also dumps him for being sexually harassed by Sharpay.  (I’m exaggerating a bit, but seriously, poor Troy)

I also want to point out that for some reason people like to ship Ryan with Chad due to them sharing a song here and switching their hats shirt/jersey, despite Ryan being visibly scared of Chad on the first one, and they don’t even interacting once in the following.

Also I find it hilarious when Troy is jealous of Gabriella talking with Ryan.  

 The music is on par of the first one, and I know most of them by heart too! Again, Sharpay and Ryan’s numbers kick ass, even the weird HumuhumunukukuA’pua’a

The third one: Honestly my least favorite of the saga.  Gabriella dumps Troy for the third time, ghost him and decides that her future is more important (Y’know… the things she dumped Troy for in the second movie) and once again Troy has to fight tooth and nail to get together with her again. I bet Gabriella is dumping him again as you read this.

Some songs are good, but they’re honestly confusing, “I want it all” is a fantasy sequence the first time, but the second time is Ryan’s number in the Musical. “Who’s that girl” was about Kelsi in the rehearsals, but about Sharpay in the actual musical.

The movie do have it’s sweet moments, like Ryan and Kelsi bonding (Who totally are each other’s beards), Sharpay being outsmarted and then deciding to be the baddest bitch.  Chad and Taylor being practically background characters in this one…

Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure: Awesome and well deserved spin off. Ashely Tisdaly performance as Sharpay is one of the things that really made High School Musical stand out. The music is good, the plot is okay-ish. I don’t remember much of the new characters, but Peyton was good for Sharpay’s character development, even if he is sort of a satellite character.

 Camp Rock

The music of both movies is very good, and the first one is okay, but coming right after High School Musical, it felt like a rip off. The music in both is awesome tho.

I barely remember the names of the characters, and the Alpha Bitch character is very… poorly thought off? She’s a mean bitch with some talent, but, like, everyone in that Camp is talented, and is pretty obvious that her mom doesn’t care about her that much, so why bother trying to suck up to her?

The Camp guide… counselor guy is also clearly biased favoring her, yet he knows what kind of a bitch she is, which makes absolute zero sense. Sure, she could complain to her mom about it, but Camp Rock is supposedly super exclusive and famous already. Her blaming the food fight on the protagonist and the other girl was somewhat believable due to how the question of who started it was asked, but her accusing protagonist girl of stealing a bracelet and then hiding it in an extremely obvious open to everyone place. It feels like he actually hates the protagonist.

The second one is even weirder. Camp Rock as THE most famous camp ever in the story of anything, and now we are supposed to believe is an underdog camp who struggles to get by. The antagonist of the previous movie, who was supposed to have learned her lesson switches to the new Camp Star, who is now the most awesome camp in the story of ever, despite being literally new and unknown. Also the protagonist somehow manages to bet the camp away, despite being in no way associated with the owner. And they don’t mentioning it in the original bet… And then they win not through talent and hard work, but for a technicality.

Yay?

 Teen Beach Movie

The first one is awesome and fun to watch. The fish out of water, and the culture whiplash is educative, progressive, and presented in a fun and relatable way (“Like Me”, about the different expectations boys and girls have in both eras) and “Can’t stop singing” is just hilarious. Garret Clayton is just hilarious as Tanner.

The second one has fun moments (“Twist your frown upside down”) but… well, I like it a lot less than the first one. They retcon and change lots of things established, or at least hinted in the first movie. The first one establishes the rules of the musical, and the characters go along with those, while the second one throws those rules and makes it a traditional musical, which makes no sense. The first movie heavily hints that Brady and Mack has been together for some time, and that they meet due to Brady working with Mack’s grandpa… in the second one the grandpa is nowhere to be seen, and now they meet on their own, they had been dating only for that summer and “Wet Side Story” is both their favorite movie, when in the first movie it was said to be Brady’s and Mack’s Grandpa’s favorite movie, and Mack barely knew about it. The first one also threats the main characters equally, while here, Tanner could disappear from the main plot and it would not make a difference.. The second movie is very feminist, which is not bad in itself, but also is very anti-male in the process, which… well, nope.  In the first movie they were both Tanner and Lela were portrayed as slightly ditzy, brainless beauties, but in this one,  Tanner is an outright dumbass, and Lela a freaking genius (Even understanding calculus on her first try).Brady also takes a level on jerkass and is dumber, while in the first one he was more capable and reliable.  And then the ends happens and the movie in universe goes from “Wet Side Story” to “Lela Queen of the Beach”, which sounds incredibly narcissistic and self-centered on Lela’s part… not to mention in the video we are shown Tanner is, again, portrayed as an idiot instead of Lela’s love interest.

Descendants

Do I think the premise is a cash grab? Abso-fucking-lutely? Do I still enjoy every bit of them? HELL YES.

They’re popcorn movies, the First one even has Kristin Chenoweth, which is always a good thing. There are horrifying implications like in Ever After High (Which I have no idea which was “first”, since EAH came first, but there were plans for this long before EAH came into being)

ANYWAY, the plot of the first one is solid, although I honestly think making them animated would have made them a lot more enjoyable. The characters are relatable and sympathetic, even if they’re trying to prove they’re “bad”, it all comes to them being super afraid of their parents. Audrey is a major asshole tho, I have no idea why many people “stan” her, when she’s a horrible person. Chad is also bad, but to be fair, his speech at Family day was only truths, he didn’t even had anything to say against Carlos. “You can do different than your parents” is always a good lesson. Even if that technically applies to Audrey being an evil bitch by choice too.

The second is a bit iffier, with Mal essentially succumbing to the pressure of essentially being seen as the Future Queen, when she has had barely any time to process being good. Also they gave Lonnie a huge role and that also was cool as hell (Even if stupid Hasbro didn’t make a doll of her). Her ship teasing with Jay I could do without. Jane/Carlos was adorable though.  I also hate Uma and how people compare her to Mal, especially Ben. Mal was afraid of Maleficent and wanted to prove herself worthy. Uma did all what she did for herself and herself alone. (This does change in the third movie, but still)

Third one felt rushed as hell. I liked the big reveal of Mal being Hades’ daughter, and I liked Hades. I didn’t liked how they replaced Freddie from the Wicked World shorts for Celia (They could have used the same character FFS!) I really liked Freddie character. She blended well with the other VKs, and somehow managed to become close (And I would dare to say BFF) with Jane… anyway, onto the movie. Audrey is a bitch, she’s completely evil and unrepentant, and the final solution is to break the barrier? … what… I would argue that getting the children should have been a priority and then slowly get the adults out. And the main 4 never encountered their parents again…

I dislike that Lonnie was not there in the third movie, but they compensated that with the bromance between Jay and Gil… like, if Lonnie needed to be out for that bromance to bloom, I’m ok with that. (Seriously, Ben and Mal end up practically engaged, Evie got proof that her thing with Doug was True Love, and Carlos has a budding romance with Jane, Uma/Harry is pretty much also a couple… Jay essentially ends up with Gil as his “pair the spares” partner. )  

Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

It was a good movie, even if the message is a little awkward if you try to apply to the real world. Not that “don’t be racist douchebag” is wrong, but when you portray your minority as a literal race of monsters that eat brains and need the other race to be able to function (The Z bands) yeah…

Anyway, the music is very cool (BAMM is totally my jam) and the Addison / Zed is not as jarring as other examples (They are a lot more healthy than Troy/Gabriela, for example)

I might be gay-biased, but while it is obvious that Bucky is jealous of Zed getting attention, at times he seems jealous of Addison being with Zed.

The make up and characterization of the zombies is also… well, bad. They look like discount Jokers. They could have done something really fun and give each character a different hair color, or at least different shades of green.

In the second… well, they handled “political issues” WAY better than Teen Beach Movie. They didn’t sacrifice characters for this, their attitudes do fit with what they did in the first one. It is a bit annoying that they undo the happy ending of the first one and that Bucky and the ‘Aceys are still racist assholes… actually, the aceys seem to be even MORE assholish than they were in the first movie. And that’s without saying they replaced one of them. Bree is has less screen time than in the first movie, but at least her shiptease with Bonzo did result in them being together (They’re cute!)  

I will also admit I kinda disliked this because the Toy Fair showed the toys and the main werewolf girl was basically a human Clawdeen Wolf (Literally… you can see some comparisons) but the actual character doesn’t look that much like Clawdeen, so no idea why they went that route for the doll.

Addison’s hair looks platinum blonde instead of the white it looked in the first movie. The make up of the zombies is just as bad as the first one. There are scenes in which Zed doesn’t look to have make up.

Addison is not a werewolf, but the prophecy about the “Great Alpha” only shows someone with long white hair… I don’t think it’s mentioned she is a werewolf… and Addison does fulfill said prophecy

There is a scene were Addison is interacting with the only important of the guy Werewolves, Wyatt, and Zed is watching them and gets very jealous… and I couldn’t help but be reminded of the HSM2 scene with Troy being jealous of Ryan… and then at the end Wyatt compliments Bonzo… so yeah.

I liked the werewolves more than the cheerleaders. Wyatt is totally my favorite, and I actually laughed when Zoey gave scritches to the other girl and she ended up enjoying it haha.

Also, Addison is totally and alien.

Or a fairy.

Honorably Mentions:

Lemonade Mouth. This is one of the most boring movies I have seen. I didn’t remember this one until I did a search for the DCOM movies in case I missed one and here it is.

Lizzie Maguire: Not a musical per se, but it did have music in it. Other than the male friend falling hard for the female friend, this is very enjoyable.

The Cheetah Girls. A shame that internal fighting left this saga kind of incomplete. They’re fun movies. Raven-Symone is an awesome singer and actress.

 -

In order of my enjoyment, I would say they are

1. High School Musical

2. Descendants

3. Teen Beach Movie

4. High School Musical 2

5. Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure

6. Descendants 2

7. Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

8. High School Musical 3

9. Descendants 3

10. Camp Rock

11. Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2

12.  Teen Beach Movie 2

13. Camp Rock 2

Like I said, they all have mostly awesome songs, and are good popcorn movies, so don’t try to look too deep into them.

[redfoxwritesstuff]

A Loki by another name... (Loki x ofc)

Hello! For @just-the-hiddles​ 1k celebration, I bring for you today a Loki x ofc with no warnings. Rated Teen. 

A Loki by Another Name....

Audrey giggled to herself, kicking up a pile of leaves as she made her way toward her apartment. The cool fall air kissed her cheeks and gave her breath a hint of winter fog. She was coming home from her sixth date with Luke and everything felt like a teenage dream. He was the handsome mythology teacher who had recently joined the high school. He had seemed to come out of nowhere, blowing into town with his slick dark waves and smart suits.  

He captivated her the moment she saw him. When he asked her to dinner a few weeks before the start of the school year, she jumped on the chance. It wasn’t something she could explain but she was so pleased to be noticed by him. One date lead to a second and somehow, they ended up a couple just in time for the beginning of the school year.  

Or, she assumed that was what they were. It wasn’t a conversation they had officially had. But he walked her through the school halls, holding her hand for all to see. Teenagers were brutal and you didn’t do that unless you were real, right? It was a conversation she knew she need to have with him but it could wait.  

Today had been too perfect to mar it with such a serious talk. They had spent the afternoon holed up together in her classroom, grading papers over tea. Once the mountain was concurred, he had treated her out to dinner in the nicest place in town as if it were nothing.  

After a parting kiss, she was left walking through the night on cloud nine. It was safe enough that she didn't give it any thought. Still, when she turned to look behind her, Luke was standing there on the sidewalk in the distance watching her walk away. He'd offered to walk her home, he always did but it was only a few blocks, almost a straight shot. He lived a few blocks in the other direction, it was silly to walk all the way down here only to turn around and walk back.  

Over dinner, they had planned to spend Halloween together. It was his idea and judging by the things he had planned for them to do, he had taken his plans straight from a teenage girl's dream. Audrey was beyond excited for it. Hay rides, apple picking, pumpkin patches, it would be perfect. There was no way it could even begin to go sideways.  

~~~~~<3

“You mean to tell me Loki is alive and on Earth?” Thor looked sheepishly down at the reflective surface of the polished metal tabletop as Tony raged at him. “You didn’t think to mention that, Point Break, when you found out? He’s dangerous.”

“I’ve been watching him.” Thor offered.

“How? You don’t even know where he is!"

How long has he been on earth, do you know?" Banner asked from where he stood, not paying attention to much going on in the room. His attention was more focused on the matter at hand, a device made of magic and technology, woven together and ticking down seconds. What would happen when the timer reached zero, they didn't know. But it was probably a bad thing. It seemed to always be a bad thing.

“There haven’t been any issues, have there?” Thor offered as if that was a good enough excuse and in his mind, it was. Humans were such short sighted creatures.

“We need to find him, now.” Tony pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I agree. He would be of great assistance. He is one of Asagrd’s most skilled in the magical arts. Mother taught him herself.”

Another set of eyes on this would be good." The others ignored Banner's input but he didn't notice, too busy turning the problem over in front of him, trying to find the solution.

“Or maybe we need to find him before he decides he’s having a bad day and needs to take over the world again.” Tony snapped.  

“There were reasons for that- I’m sure.” Thor pressed.  

“Like what?” Tony didn’t leave him a chance to answer before turning and setting his attention to the computer. All he needed to do was set a facial recognition program and have Friday scan all the security film in the world and if he was lucky, Loki would be on it. How hard could it be to find one rogue god?

~~~~~<3

Audrey was early as she made her way up the steps. The air around her was crisp and but her black pea coat kept her warm enough for now. In a few short weeks, it would be too cold for the stylish coat and it would be replaced with one that would make her resemble a blueberry. The cafe they were to meet at was a small local shop, like most shops in town. Her hair was curled into a bouncing tumble of waves and she had spent far more time on her makeup than normal.  

Luke was inside, black waves caressing his shoulders from a recent trim. He greeted her with a coffee in hand and a warm hug. Before she knew it, off they went. What they didn’t see was the people sitting spread out in the restaurant across the street watching them.  

As the couple walked down the sidewalk, the group of people made subtle work of gathering outside. They stood on the sidewalk, some pretending to look at a tourist book while others looked after the couple walking in the distance. They didn't expect to find Loki laughing with a women, fingers intertwined.

“That was rather unexpected.” Tony broke the silence as the others agreed. "Let's go get him before something has a chance to go wrong."

Let's observe for now. She is going willingly enough with him and it looks almost as if my brother is courting her." Thor offered, keeping his voice low to avoid drawing any more attention to their group.

So he has more time to hurt her?" Tony scoffed.

Stark, I'm well aware of my brother's past sins. But this has nothing to do with your issues." Thor scolded, putting the issue at rest for the time being.

~~~~~<3

“I had a lot of fun today.” Audrey broke the silence as she looked down at their hands, fingers intertwined. They’d been walking back through the town for a bit. The moon was high and the chill in the air had much more of a bite to it.

“As did I.” Luke agreed, glancing down at her, taking in her thin pea coat and red cheeks. “Are you chilled?”  

“Oh, I’m fine.” She lied.  

“Nonsense.” He shrugged out of his coat and draped it over her shoulders. The warmth soaked into her. “What would the students say if I let their favorite English teacher come down with a cold?”  

“Oh yes, we can’t have that. That would ruin your reputation.” She laughed, drawing a chuckle from the man she knew as Luke.  

“Time to stop playing house, Reindeer Games. Step away from the girl and come quietly.” A group of people stepped up to them. She recognized the man speaking as Tony Stark and the larger man as Thor.  

“I beg your pardon?” Luke scoffed, eyebrow raised.  

“I think you’ve got him confused with someone else.” Audrey offered, confused herself as Luke pulled her behind him.  

“My apologies, milady but we need a moment with Loki.” Thor offered. Luke's frame was stiff and tense as she held onto his hand still.  

“Luke?”

“Loki.” Tony corrected her.

“Is that true?” She pulled her fingers from his.  

“Yes. Audrey, let me-”

“You lied to me.”

“We don’t really have time for this.” Tony said but was ignored.  

“Why?” She demanded, stepping out to his side. She didn't show any fear of him, though perhaps she should have. “What was this? What was tonight? Just a game?”

“No-” She cut him off.  

“I cared for you. Does that matter at all or was it all for your entertainment while you, what? Killed time waiting for the Avengers to find you and take you away?”

Tony moved to step up, say something but Thor rested a heavy hand on his shoulder. “Let them sort this out. It can wait for a bit longer. Let’s give them a moment.”  

She hardly registered the team walking a bit down the street. Loki reached out for her but she took a harsh step away. He decided right then that he would not do this with her now, in front of the eyes of Thor and his friends.  

She stepped away harshly, doing her best to yank her arm out of his reach. He was faster by far and his strong hand pulled her back to him. “Get away from-”  

His arm circled around her abdomen as her momentum carried her to him. She tripped over her own feet and crashed against his chest. Gray clouds burst forth and swallowed them before winking out as suddenly as they came. When the team looked back to check on the commotion, they found the sidewalk empty.  

At no point did she feel fear of him. It was hard to fear a man she had spent so much time getting to know. This wasn't the first time she was alone with him. He didn't look any different now. She couldn’t put the idea of the man she had been getting to know, who had been taking her on such magical dates, who had shown up in this small town with the man who’s pale face had been all over the news during his failed attempt to take over the world.  

The next moment, she was standing in what looked like her small living room. She’d spent the night grading papers sitting at her dining table, sharing coffee with Loki more than once. She tired to remember what she knew of the man who was defeated in New York as she turned, pulling herself from his arms easy enough.  

There was a moment where instinct took over. Her hand sailed through the air before she could even stop to think how terrible of an idea it was to slap a god. One who had been billed by the media as insane. One she had been tricked into caring for. He had tricked her into caring for him, hadn't he?

“Perhaps I deserved that.” Loki rubbed his jaw with something resembling more affection than pain. “Will you let me speak now?”  

“Do I have a choice? Where are we, really, anyway?”

“I suppose not.” Loki mused. “And we’re exactly where it looks like we are, in your living room. We don’t have long before they track me down.”

“Why? I cared for you and it was all a waste.” Tears gathered in her eyes as she crossed her arms in front of her.  

“Was it?” Loki asked. His voice was low low and gentle as he reached out, resting his hands on her arms. His thumbs were caressing the curve of her shoulders. It was so hard to tell herself that she should be scared of him when the man looking at her looked no different than the man she knew.  

“I’m not an idiot. Stop playing me for one.” She sniffled and it was an ugly sound in her own ears. “Why? Why ‘Luke’? That’s a dumb name, a step down from ‘Loki’.”

“The name? Simply a play on my own name. One of the names mankind has given me through the years is Luki, one letter off.” He shrugged. “It was good enough. I hadn’t planned to stay for long.”

“And I was, what? Just entertainment?” She scoffed and in a moment of frustration, Loki shook her sharply by the shoulders.  

“No. I intended to only be here for a few weeks while I recovered strength. But than-”

“You what? Found a toy? God, I can’t believe-”

“Bloody hell! Will you shut up and let me speak?!” Loki roared, voice demanding her attention. “I stayed because of you!”

“What?” Tears spilled from her eyes now and Loki’s hold softened. One hand moved to cup her cheek, fingertips wiping tears away.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m in love with you.” He didn’t give her a chance to turn him down, to say anything at all. “I don’t need you to say anything at the moment. I only needed you to know before they could interfere. I don’t expect that you could-”

“Shut up and kiss me.” What the future holds, she couldn’t say. What she did know was that her heart beat for him. She knew that she cared for him, regardless of if he was Luke, Luki or Loki. It would take time to merge the two identities into one and she had so many questions but none of that mattered in the moment.  

He did as she asked. When her front door opened, Tony’s hand on the knob, Loki was kissing her softly as a wave of magic shimmered over him. His smart suit disappeared in a shimmer of green and leather garb replaced it. The shift happened under her fingertips yet she didn't open her eyes. In a moment she went from kissing Luke the teacher to Loki the prince and yet, the way he kissed her remained the same.  

When their lips parted, she gazed up at him and admitted for everyone to hear, “I love you.”  

~~~~~<3

Tag List: @0-0-0-0-0-0-0-7​, @theoneanna​, @alexakeyloveloki​, @toozmanykids, @j-u-s-t-4, @winterisakiller, @missaphrodite23, @bambamwolf87, @nonsensicalobsessions, @tinchentitri, @xoxabs88xox, @queenoftheunderdark, @wegingerangelica, @myoxisbroken, @panicfob

[daisychains4]

Can’t Handle You | Chapter 10: Lisbon

Can’t Handle You | Masterlist

Warnings: None

AN: Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist!

No one was more excited when the tour bus pulled into Lisbon than Shawn. Not only did he love Portugal for the family history there - it’s where his dad grew up - but Shawn’s parents were coming to visit. He hadn’t seen them in almost a month, and he missed them more than he was ever prepared for.

It would be a hectic day, and Manny and Karen wouldn’t arrive until later, so Shawn and the boys hit the gym immediately after deboarding the bus. Shawn looked forward to working out every day, but today he had a lot of nervous energy to burn off.

Maybe that’s why you were surprised to find Shawn’s reply to your note. You had expected him to be too busy and distracted to write back until a few more cities had passed by your bus window.

Shawn’s note wasn’t as long as yours, which was not surprising considering your question (What would you name your boat if you had one?), but you couldn’t help but be excited to read it. You allowed yourself to be momentarily distracted from your usual unpacking-Shawn’s-room duties and sat on the edge of the hotel bed to read.

Who says I don’t have a boat already? Shawn wrote. Well ok, I don’t. But now I kind of want one. I think watching the sun go down over Lake Ontario from the bow (yes, I looked that up) of my own sailboat would be kind of amazing. A sport boat, like the kind you could surf behind, would be cool, too. But there’s something about a sailboat that seems really - is romantic the right word? Not like love-romance, but the kind of romantic where everything just seems perfect and beautiful and a little bit magical. Although, come to think of it, watching the sunset on a sailboat could be pretty love-romantic, too.

Your breath caught in your throat as you read. Growing up so close to Lake Travis, you were practically raised on the water. Your mom’s best friend owned a small boat rental business, and you spent every free moment of the warm seasons wakeboarding behind one of his boats, learning to expertly drive the various sports boats he offered, or laying across the deck of Dave’s own Nautique to work on your tan. You’d turned your favorite pastime into a pretty lucrative high school job, working the counter at Dave’s shop and offering boating and wakeboarding lessons on the side. 

You’d always had a pretty romantic, to use Shawn’s word, view of sailboats, though. You often fantasized about sailing out to open sea, standing at the tip of the bow of a catamaran or a schooner, one hand on the jib as you leaned out over the water. That particular image may have come from an old Audrey Hepburn photo your mom had shown you (your mom had an obsession with old Hollywood starlets). 

Either way, you felt your heart race a little at Shawn’s words - especially the implication of a romantic sunset cruise. Was he flirting?

Maybe one day we’ll meet, and we can sail off into the sunset together - at this, you stopped breathing altogether; that definitely felt like flirting to you - on The Firebolt. Mischief Managed? Maybe I’d call it The Patronus. I’ve got some time to come up with the perfect name, but it’ll definitely be Harry Potter themed. 

We won’t be sailing anywhere before you answer my next question: What exactly is your job? I don’t think I’ve ever had a “handler” before.

You could have been reading and rereading Shawn’s notes for one minute or ten - you lost track of time until you heard the jiggle of a doorknob, and you practically jumped out of your skin. Someone was opening the door to Shawn’s room. For a fleeting second, you wondered whether you should hide. But you knew that idea was ridiculous the moment it crossed your mind - imagine if Shawn opened his closet to find you tucked down beneath his clothes? You would look like a crazy stalker. No, you had every right to be in his room - it was your job to be there - and it was bound to happen anyway. Eventually. You just weren’t ready for it to be today, right now, that you’d meet him.

The door opened before you had time to move, and in walked a tall blonde woman with a large tote bag slung over her shoulder. She was beautiful, and you knew instantly who she was. When her eyes connected with yours, a surprised expression crossed her features. You could see her calculating the situation - you, a woman not much older than her world-famous rockstar son, were sitting on the bed in that rockstar’s hotel room as though waiting for him - and you hastily wanted to correct the conclusion that seemed to settle itself awkwardly across her face.

“Mrs. Mendes!” you exclaimed, jumping up from the bed and stuffing Shawn’s note in your back pocket. You crossed the room quickly, reaching out a hand toward her - to shake her hand or take her bag, you weren’t sure.

“Hello,” she replied cautiously, still confused by your presence in her son��s hotel room. She wasn’t naive by any means, but she was still a mom being confronted by a strange woman in her son’s bedroom. She reached for your hand.

“I’m (Y/N),” you said, shaking her hand. “We spoke on the phone last week.” Realization began to dawn on Mrs. Mendes’ features. “About Shawn? And his laundry?” 

“(Y/N), of course!” she beamed, understanding that you weren’t Shawn’s latest hookup but rather an employee. “You’re the one who’s been taking such good care of my son!” At this, she pulled you in for a warm hug, which you happily returned.

“I do what I can,” you said bashfully. “Let me take that for you,” you said, motioning toward the bag on her shoulder.

“Thank you,” she replied kindly. You took the bag and set it gently on the desk for her. She went to the bag and opened it, pulling from it a few objects you assumed were meant to make Shawn feel at home. “I couldn’t resist,” she said, indicating the device she had pulled from the bag. “I miss taking care of my boy,” she said in her charming Canadian/British accent. 

“I understand, Mrs. Mendes.”

“Please, (Y/N), call me Karen. We’re on the same team, after all.”

You beamed. “What is that?” you asked as Karen plugged in the device. 

“It’s a diffuser for essential oils,” she responded. “I live by my oils.” You thought you understood, now, where Shawn got his penchant for all things natural.

“I can see why,” you smiled. “I’m never doing laundry without lavender oil again.”

“You like it?” Karen asked, pleased.

“I love it! I couldn’t believe how good the laundry smelled when it came out of the dryer. I did Shawn’s and mine with lavender and I’ll never go back to regular dryer sheets.”

“So you really do Shawn’s laundry?” Karen seemed surprised. “He’s really getting the rockstar treatment now.”

You weren’t sure how to respond. Karen seemed disappointed by this information, and for some reason, the last thing you wanted to do was disappoint her. “Part of the job,” you muttered uncomfortably.

Karen sensed something was wrong. “Don’t get me wrong!” she said apologetically. “I often do Shawn’s laundry back home. I just worry about him,” she confessed. “This has been his life for so long,” she indicated the ritzy hotel room, “I worry about how we’re going to keep him grounded. You hear so much about the other child stars, I sometimes think that if they did their own laundry, they wouldn’t turn out so...” She trailed off, but you knew what she meant.

“I don’t think you have to worry about Shawn,” you replied in the most reassuring voice you could muster. “He seems really humble.”

Karen didn’t answer right away, distracted by the tiny bottles of oils she was pulling from her bag. You wondered what they were each supposed to do, and thought learning about essential oils might be the next task to keep you busy on a long bus ride. 

“Seems humble?” she finally asked. “What do you mean?” She looked up at the mirror above the desk to your reflection, and it felt, somehow, as though she were looking right through you.

“Well, I just mean,” you stammered, “that it always looks like he puts everyone else first. It doesn’t ever look like he thinks he’s the center of the universe. Which is pretty impressive, considering this tour is all about him, really.”

“Does he put you before himself?”

Your stomach did a flip. How could you explain your friendship-that-wasn’t-a-real-friendship to Shawn’s mom? 

“I think he would,” you replied uncomfortably, “if we ever talked to each other.” There. It wasn’t quite a lie - you’d never had a conversation with Shawn. Only notes written on scraps of hotel paper, passed back and forth between you via the pockets of jeans and the lining of bags. “I work sort of in the background,” you finished lamely. “I’ve never actually met Shawn.”

At this admission, Karen turned to face you. “I know,” she replied. “I just don’t know why.”

This would be harder to explain, but you found yourself trying anyway. “To be honest, I’m not sure there’s a really good reason anymore,” you started. “When we left for Amsterdam, I asked Andrew - he’s my boss - to hold off on introducing me to Shawn. I wanted to spend some time observing him to get to know him first. Shawn seemed like the type of guy who would go out of his way to take care of other people, and, well, it’s my job to take care of him. I think that would make him uncomfortable, and ultimately make my job harder.”

Karen nodded her head in understanding. “You’re right about that,” she admitted. “But what about now?”

You had to think about this one. You had observed Shawn enough by now to be able to anticipate his needs and wants pretty well. He knew you existed, and he knew you were the one who followed him around, packing and unpacking his luggage, washing his clothes, shopping for him, prepping the green rooms at stadiums across Europe. He’d hinted in today’s note that he wanted to meet you. “I guess it just seems easier this way,” you said lamely, knowing this wasn’t a real answer. 

“He talks about you, you know,” Karen said, catching you completely off-guard. Your head snapped up to meet her eyes, the eyes you’d been avoiding as you answered her question. “He tells us about the things you’ve done for him.” You could feel your cheeks heat up. “You’ll have to give me that tea recipe, he went on and on about it. Said it was a miracle.”

“I can write it down for you,” you said, happy for the change in subject.

“Just text it to me,” she said. “You have my number, right?” You nodded. “I do hope you’ll use it.”

You knew why Shawn loved his mom so much. It was true that he probably couldn’t get away with anything around her; she was too smart, too observant. But despite the fact that she could apparently see right through you, she didn’t push. She told you just enough to let you know she knew there was more to your story, but didn’t pry or make you feel bad about holding back. You knew she would listen if - when - you wanted to talk.

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

Shawn was on a high unlike any other when he finally crashed in his hotel room that night. The show had been as perfect as a show could get, and his parents had been there to see it for the first time. They’d had an incredible dinner together, and he’d hugged on both of his parents enough to satisfy him for the next month on tour. He fell into his bed, grinning from ear to ear. What a night.

He was almost too distracted to notice that he didn’t get a reply from you. He went to sleep wondering where he would find your next note.

Taglist | @librarianct, @5secondsofjade4499, @theetherealbloom, @lukesmyaesthetic

[anachronistic-falsehood]

OKAY so I finally got around to watching Descendants 3, I’m watching it right now and I have some stuff to say

opening music number? fuckin bitchin, we STAN whoever writes these villain songs. I do like the ones from the first two movies better, but it does show more of how the Isle of the Lost has changed since the first four went to Auradon (idk if that’s how it’s spelled don’t judge me)

SMEE HAS TWINS

I’ve only known facilier’s daughter for three and a half minutes but if anything happened to her i would kill everyone in this room and then myself

aight, so Hades is definitely going to play a big part in this movie, whether he’s a villain or a bad guy gone good. He’s gonna be important, and it’s a little random because he wasn’t even mentioned for the last two movies

THE P R O P O S A L. I’M CRYING Y’ALL. I LOVE THEM

Seeing Cameron being a goofball as Carlos makes me want to cry. I love him and I wish more than anything that he was still here.

anyway, sad stuff aside, Audrey is obviously going to be some sort of villain just based on her whole rant about the proposal. not the best choice for a villain, considering she wasn’t that memorable from the first movie and her motive is a little cliche, but whatever

ooooOOOOOHHHH SHE’S GOT A VILLAIN SONG

OH NO SHE’S HOT!! AUDREY KILL ME PLEASE!!!

Mal wanting to close the barrier for good is a little out of character in my opinion

Audrey showing up when she did is also a little random, not sure why that was necessary. She just turned Mal into an old lady and left???? 

The pacing of the whole movie is a little weird so far, but every movie seems like that to me at first and it seems better the second time I watch it so it could totally just be me

AUDREY SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY. OH GOD IM IN LOVE HER VOICE IS BEAUTIFUL

I CHANGED MY MIND I LOVE AUDREY AS A VILLAIN

and now Mal is back to normal?? what was the point of audrey cursing her in the first place?

the actor for Dr. Facilier could NOT be better!!! I love him, and I LOVE that he has an arcade kinda thing going on in the Isle. just,,,,, UGH he is incredible

OHHHHH IT’S THE PIRATE BOYS

k so we visiting Hades now and idk why theyre on this minecart/bike sorta thing? they could literally walk faster than that but you know what the sequence was cool so imma let it slide

HE SLEEPS TO FUCKING DOG SOUNDS I LOVE HADES

he’s wearing shades while he sleeps the absolute madlad

oh god he’s hotter up close

hOLD ON DID SHE JUST SAY D A D

WHAT THE FUCK HADES IS HER DAD

that sassy scarf flip?? im lov he

OHHHHHHH HE’S SINGING NOW

god this kind of song totally fits his aesthetic. All the songs are absolutely incredible so far and so is the choreography, just like the other two movies

THE TAMBOURINE. WHAT A FUCKIN DRAMA QUEEN, I LOVE HADES

he radiates chaotic bi energy i love this man

i LOVE audrey!! her motives may be cliche, sure, but she is incredible

PIRATE BOYS GOT OUT AND OH NO UMA’S PRETTY

uma and mal have such a good dynamic 

“i can feel you lurking...” “good” could harry and jay get any gayer

ANOTHER SONG FUCK YEAH

I love Evie playing mediator between Mal and Uma, and the two of them working together in this fight scene??? NICE

Have I mentioned how much I love the choreography?

Evie making them do team bonding sksksksksksksk

is gil flirting with jay

jAY’S FLIRTING BACK

is gil asking him out???

i want harry to stab me with his hook

i would literally die for celia, she’s such a precious kid

okay so Mal wanting to close the barrier is more relevant now that Celia thinks they’re letting all the kids out of the Isle, I take back what I said earlier

OH EVIE’S SINGING, WHAT A DRAMA QUEEN I LOVE HER

god they are so cute together im crying

OHHHHH BEN’S A BEAST!!!!

im literally going to cry i love carlos and cameron

does ben just??? have a beard now??? is that permanent?? god i hope so it’s rly cute

I LOVE HARRY, HOLY FUCK, PLEASE DATE ME

harry radiates disaster bi energy and he’s sTILL FLIRTING WITH JAY, HE LITERALLY JUST CALLED HIM GORGEOUS I’M-

if they don’t end up together at the end i’m gonna RIOT

mal and uma?? working together??? i love them

BEN’S GOT LIDDLE FANGS HE’S SO CUTE

can i just take a moment to comment on harry’s eyeliner??? ugh he’s hot

i would die for chad

hey uhhhh have i mentioned how pretty jane is??? i love her so much

“mal promised to let all the kids off the isle” ohhhhh DRAMA

oH NO UMA IS SAD

SO IS HARRY

CELIA’S GONNA CRY NO

ok this is a good fucking scene, evie’s gonna cry and mal- oH GOD OH FUCK THEY’RE ALL STATUES

ohhhhhh a SONG

showing clips from all the movies show her character development is just,,,, UGH i LOVE it! it’s such a powerful moment for her and i love how she’s changed through the series

OH FIGHT SCENE

AUDREY’S GOT CELIA FUCK

UMA’S HELPING I’M IN LOVE

audrey does such a good evil laugh why was she not a villain sooner

audrey’s been defeated but there are still twenty minutes left??? what’s happening is audrey dead or sumn

i’m sorry but WHERE THE FUCK IS BEN’S BEARD. GIVE IT BACK TO HIM PLEASE IT’S CUTE

ngl i would be ok if uma and harry ended up together theyre kinda cute

again,,,,, i would die for celia

IT’S THE CHAOTIC BI HIMSELF

FUCKIN HADES BABEY!!!!!

“When you guys try to destroy the world, it’s an error in judgement. But when it’s one of us? Lock ‘em up, throw away the key. Right, Beast?” i,,,, love this man. seriously could hades possibly have been more perfect

hades growling at the beast is,,,, ngl kinda hot

god i love audrey, she was such a good villain, and her apology??? nice

THAT WAS SUCH A GOOD FATHER/DAUGHTER MOMENT, I LOVE HADES AND MAL AND OH NO SHE’S CRYING FUCK

“speech, oh fancy one!” i love jay so much

mal’s speech??? im crying, look at how much she’s grown

THEY’RE OPENING THE BARRIER!!!!

UMA’S HAPPY LIL TWIRL???? SHE’S BABEY!!!

it’s a bop!! fuck yeah!!!

the choreography of the last dance number is just?? phenomenal??? 

ok harry and audrey are gonna be a cute couple but can i just say right now that gil and jay are canonically together in my opinion and you can’t change my mind

that last shot of the four of them running across the bridge??? poetic cinema

IS CHINA ANNE MCCLAIN SINGING DIG A LITTLE DEEPER???? HOLY FUCK

this movie was such a good ending to the series, i loved how every character developed, the music and choreography was incredible, 11/10 would watch again

[bravadoseries]

All the evens for Audrey and all the odds for Margo!

thank you!  this got super long so i’m putting it under a cut hehe

audrey: 

2. why is your oc problematic?

audrey is problematic because she has no clue what she’s doing when it comes to anything and when it comes to being a hero, she relies almost entirely on trial and error.  

4. what crossovers with other ocs have you talked about?

i have talked about crossovers with you for leila, @emiliachrstine​ with jacqueline, and @notaboutcat​ with grace barnes!!!  

6. if your oc were to have superpowers, what would they be? if your oc has superpowers, what are they?

so audrey has super soldier strength as her primary superpower, and also there’s some other stuff that will be revealed during the thor: tdw arc

8. alright, be honest—whether or not they get the chance to prove it, is your oc worthy?

so i think that audrey does become worthy eventually during endgame, but i think that all the avengers are.  

10. what’s your oc’s fight song? (e.g., immigrant song for thor, just a girl for carol)

girls just wanna have fun!!! i think is the biggest one.  but i have actually picked out songs for the main fights in all of the movies audrey is in: 

avengers battle of new york: “mama talking” by parov stelar

moscow fight against bucky: “bad guy” by billie eilish which i know wasn’t technically released yet but it’s okay

thor: tdw final fight: “big god” by florence and the machine

tws final fight: “seven nation army” by the white stripes

avengers: aou battle of sokovia: “glass & patron” by fka twigs

captain america: civil war airport scene: “bad blood” by taylor swift

angels of mercy final fight: “tomboy” by princess nokia

thor: ragnarok: “the future’s so bright, i gotta wear shades” by timbuk 3 

avengers: iw: “yellow flicker beat” by lorde

avengers: endgame: “girls just wanna have some” by chrormatics and “lights up” by harry styles and “boys wanna be her” by peaches 

12. what was your oc like in high school?

audrey didn’t officially go to high school because she was tutored privately until she started just going to college but she was generally bored with her tutors.  when she went to high school in the 80s, she was jarred.  even though she’d gotten several degrees by that point, she was like freaked out by being with other people and having to have a social life because in college she just didn’t talk to anybody.  so she was nervous and quiet but she did have one good friend!

14. your oc meets thanos. what’s their first move?

omg audrey’s first move is to spit on him, i think, and then she just like attempts to tackle him and scratch his eyes out ngl

16. your oc gets married. which canon characters are in the wedding party?

yesss braudrey wedding time!! natasha is one of her bridesmaids, tony is the officiant, and both steve and darcy walk her down the aisle.  steve and darcy have a young daughter by this point who is a flower girl with morgan, and they’re super cute.  i could talk about the braudrey wedding for so long though i have so many little plans

18. what are your oc’s bad habits or vices?

audrey loves sweets, i think is one of her vices. she also tends to know she’s making bad choices but go through with them anyway. 

20. your oc wears the gauntlet (without any detrimental effects on their health) and gets one snap to wish for anything they want. what do they ask for?

audrey asks to destroy the infinity stones, i think most likely.  she doesn’t want that energy to be condensed into such a powerful form because that’s like a nightmare.  i think it changes from film to film, but by the end, her final wish is for everyone to not be so powerful all the time

22. what does your oc’s bedroom look like?

audrey’s apartment is very minimalist, because it’s easy for her to get overwhelmed.  before she moved into the tower, she was a workaholic because she would get so bored with her freetime that she always had case files everywhere.  once she joins the avengers though and kind of like starts building a life for herself, she starts to settle into her place more and have details that reflect her life more—photos on the walls, little things that she collects from good memories, and a lot of books on the shelves!  audrey likes big windows and keeps them open, but the space is mostly like white with dark blue accents.  

24. which characters from other movies or shows is your oc a combination of?

excellent question!  so audrey reminds me a lot of like the most chaotic combinations of mike schur main ships?  she’s both chidi and eleanor, and both jake and amy.  she’s anxious but also impulsive, awkward but also extremely loving, strong but also scared.  

26. which canon character would they go to for advice? why?

audrey goes to different characters for advice about different things!  with moral problems, she goes to steve.  with fighting advice, she heads to natasha, obviously.  with relationship advice, she heads to darcy.  and later, post aou, audrey actually spends a lot of time with wanda and pietro becoming more politically active.  

28. what’s your oc’s biggest flaw?

audrey is scared of everything! i think is her biggest flaw.  it’s hard for her to overcome that fear.  

30. what movies or shows is your oc featured in?

audrey is in agent carter, she has cameos in iron man 1+2, thor 1, captain marvel, and captain america: tfa.  she’s a main in avengers, thor 2, tws, avengers: aou, captain america: civil war, thor 3, and avengers iw and endgame!

margo: 

1. how did you pick your oc’s name?

margo is short for margaret! i think peggy is kind of an old-fashioned name (technically so is margo) but margo is cute and short too 

3. besides their main ship, who else do you think they would work well with?

i think margo could have a relationship with magnus (thor and jane’s older son) but it probably wouldn’t be super healthy.   also i think she and calliope could have had a cute relationship which coulson would have lost his mind about lol.

5. what’s a crossover with another oc that you’ve wanted to do, but haven’t officially discussed or planned?

i feel like it would be cool to talk about margo with @cassercole​‘s queve family ! i think an audrey and q crossover would just slap in general because i think it would be angsty and cool and i can imagine q being like . i did not sign up to be a stepmother, but thanks, but then the two of them actually becoming friends eventually.  

but anyway, i can imagine bonnie and tristan teasing margo and making them call her aunt and uncle but them all getting along well and hanging out at family reunions and getting into trouble . having a vision of the three of them stealing a blunt or something from tony’s jacket pocket at thanksgiving and then all of them being high and paranoid about getting caught by steve. 

q catches them and margo is like please don’t be mad and please don’t tell my mom and q just rolls her eyes and closes the door to the room they’re all in after telling them dinner’s in 10 minutes, and she won’t tell but it’s up to them not to get caught.  

7. rank their compatibility with the marvel teams: avengers, guardians of the galaxy, agents of shield, defenders, runaways

okay so: 1) avengers, because they’re her family.  2) gotg, because she thinks they’re all super weird and cool.  3) runaways, because i think she’s scrappy and has a similar sheltered background to them.  4) aos, just because found family time.  5) defenders.  super brutal and she’s just like ummmm i am scared . 

9. which other mcu characters would your oc really get along with?

i think gamora and margo would get along super well.  also margo’s close with carol because she likes how she’s not too serious about herself as a hero.  i think she’s also probably gets along well with wanda and pietro.  she’s super close with her dad, also.  

11. post a snippet of the next chapter of an oc’s fic!

okay to be honest i have not written any of margo’s fic yet so i will have to pass 

13. what’s a secret about your oc that they would never admit? feel free to be as angsty or as silly as you’d like!

margo would never admit it but she has a slight schoolgirl crush on thor, who is one of the strength instructors slash english teachers at the academy.  

15. if your oc has a costume/were to have a costume, what does it/would it look like? what colors? cape or no cape?

no cape, but sometimes she ties a towel around her neck and dances in her dorm room.  margo’s costume would probably look a lot like helena bertinelli’s costume on arrow—very classic, infinity mask, etc. 

17. after a battle, how does your oc recover?

she cries into her pillow for several hours and enters a period if intense self loathing and eats ice cream.  

19. what were some other faceclaims you considered for your oc?

when audrey was shipped with pietro, margo was played by josefine frida petersen!

21. if your oc survived the snap, who do they miss the most?

in an au where audrey has margo before infinity war and the snap, margo would be devastated to grow up without her mother

23. what’s their love language? what’s the love language of the character they’re shipped with?

i think margo’s is words of affirmation, and leo’s is quality time! 

25. which characters annoy your oc? why?

margo gets annoyed with her mom, a lot.  audrey and bex are really close and so she feels left out of that relationship.  i also think that margo doesn’t get along super well with pepper because she thinks pepper doesn’t like her.  she doesn’t like peter quill that much, even though she likes the rest of the guardians.  and she never meets loki, but i think she would absolutely hate him.  

27. what’s your oc’s biggest strength?

i think her biggest strength is her big heart!  she feels a lot and she’s kind of intense but she’s a very loving person.  

29. team cap, team iron man, team i don’t care, or team please stop fighting?

team please stop fighting!! she’s like why is my life an episode of family feud . i know she doesn’t exist then but she looks back on it and brings it up sometimes and they’re both deeply embarrassed about it in hindsight and also like . okay BUT and she’s like okay nevermind!!!!

[clandestine-j]

Gossip Girl Reboot, Ep. 2 Reaction / Review

This was posted on reddit first, crossing posting it here since I’ve chosen to review the ep’s and post on tumblr as well. So, this post is geared more towards reddit as a whole, this was posted a day after ep 2 aired.

i don't have a favorite character rating but #teamaki, yeah, the acting is awkward but it's getting better and it's not like it's the only bad acting in the show. i like the character either way.

now

people are so extra with zoya and obie and are looking at julien with the rose colored classes. yeah, obie shouldn't be dating zoya but let's not act like julien gave her all and everything to him. from the conversation with zoya in ep 1, his general feelings, audrey calls it out (maybe because she always feels that way)

She admits it at the end, she wouldn’t do the things he wanted when it came to his interest, he’d want to do random and fun things and she’d blow him off...how is this mart of someone fully invested in their other, no, she was invested what he did for her and how he made her feel. She misses him because in their other breaks he’d always come back. We saw a dying relationship and ppl can assume a lot about him but make 0 assumptions when it comes to her.

And then y’all expect Zoya to turn down the one person who’s actually nice, doesn’t ice her out and shares interest? What I want more than anything is for Zoya to find her own friends & her romantic interest, just one episode where her life isn’t an extension of Julien's. Idk wut, maybe she can go off on a find out gossip girl adventure. Idk something.

Then this talk about sisters and sister hood. Yeah, they’re blood related but what sisterhood is there? You say that’s is wrong for Zoya to do that to her sister but what about what her sister did to her? Even in this ep, she wants Obie so instead of idk driving Zoya away from him, she attacks her lil ‘sis’ over her long time boyfriend. She continues to let her friends talk bad about the girl. We can talk sister hood when she gives the mean team a good “learn me or leave me” when it comes to Zoya

At the of ep 1 Zoya says, she’s not playing the game. She’s grounded in fear of losing her scholarship, has already lost her dads trust. So she does that, she keeps her head down and doesn’t bother anyone but it’s the mean team to prompt Julien to after Zoya and she does. She’s minding her business at the even and Julien is the one to storm over and cause a scene. And it’s all about her, she’s scared of her dad finding out without any care that Zoya has lost and what she has left to lose. Of course she doesn’t care about Julien personal problems? When did Julien care really about hers? Then, she wants to sneak away and have fun and because she’s mad Zoya won’t run off and hide like a hood little girl, she once again collabs with GG, brings in the dads and fucks her sisters life up, AGAIN. Yeah, she changed her mind at the end but too little too late. Her come to jesus moment was great but the relationship she wanted/wants it very much damaged.

So yeah, Zoya dating the one person who has empathy for her is not as bad as the older sister who consistently let her be talked down, about and two, plotted with GG and didn’t even ask her if she was okay because, she didn’t mean it, it’ll blow over. Even in the very last apology when Zoya was about to leave, you could see that she had 0 faith in Julien, not only as a sister but as a person.

Which leads me to saying that Julien is probs the most interesting character of the show. She’s lovable and flawed and she is good but she as of right now, she’s mean at worst and horribly complicit at best because right now her career is a bit more important but her 14 year old sister doesn’t deserve the headache of navigating her with her. But I do love Julien because she has layers and I think by the end, she’ll be able to have her influencer career without compromising herself. That does lead us to the the chairmen and co-chair of the mean team.

Monet and Luna weren’t around as much but I do think...I do think...that if Julien goes nice, they’re gonna go super nasty. They have access to her life which mean access to that video if Julien didn’t out right delete it or they find out about it and snooping. They’re her friends but unlike her, they don’t have a much of a Conscious so far of right and wrong and they’ll strike anyone down. I think if we have wild cards, they’re it. If Julien really does go down a new path, learns more to fight for what matters and understand the real her is just as likable, the mean duo will not accept and will try and bring her down. They have their own meaning of friends with benefits.

My dude Obie, I can’t say much. I don’t think he’s as Malicious as y’all make him out to be but he is a bit callous and naïve...which could be worse tbh. I think he does want to do good but he only knows Performative good to counter-act his parents. I do want him to get with someone else but I do hope he learns what true activism means through Zoya and understand how much of a difference he could make if he really put his mind to it. I also want him to learn get out quick, because he wasn’t just looking for a reason to end things but one to stay and Julien didn’t give him that.

Audrey, I like the stuff with her mom. I like the little bit more depth we got, she slept with Max maybe but Aki made out with him, who am I to judge? I hope her mon can step up in the future but I don’t think it’ll be easy and hopefully they explore it more. Not just tease us. Her mom needs therapy but I think I'm a bit invested in her too.

Max, I love max but the dude is Pretentious ~ above earthly love ~ low key a shitty friend and talks in metaphors whenever he has the chance BUT he does it well. I don’t see him with Aki but I want it! I do see him going harder after Audrey but I think he was a bit shocked for all his flirting that he was into the kids with Aki. I think he lives to play with people. I don't know if he really likes Audrey but he does want to bang her, a lot, a lot a lot. I don't think he really wanted to sleep with Aki but he did like playing with him and he could pick up the fact that Aki might be feeling him. I don't think the interest was really, real until Aki kissed him at the pool, home boy was shocked and was like oooo maybe something is there but his focus is on the teacher. And I also think the not in a million years thing had his gears turning too. You tell him it can't or won't happen and now he wants to make it happen.

Aki, my baby, my voice of reason. What makes him great as a person, makes him not great for Audrey when it comes to emotional stuff. He means well and I get where he's coming from with wanting Audrey to understand her mom but she did need a partner. The thing she loves about him is the thing that makes it hard. I don't know how Aki was brought up but I feel like this plays into it, she's always comparing him to a therapist. I wonder if his parents a bit more emotionally cold or curt or just very analytical people. But, like he's been lovely since ep one, the only one of the group to sort of defend Zoya or Julien wanting to know her / keep her secret. (What secrets does he have?) And in ep 2, he really was like 'ya'll fucked in the head' to the mean team. I know some consider him boring because he doesn't speak up often but when he does speak up, he got something to say. I want the show to use him in a way to stir drama just by being friends, his character doesn't have to have a dramatic effect and he could get his own little subplot that's tied into the show but like, my can't become some douche. (If he does, only for a bit.) Now, I don't see Max being endgame for him AT ALL. If it's between the two, Max would go for Audrey for sure while leading my boi on in ways, he could even really start to like him but endgame no. I'd love to see a scene with Max does get jealous of Aki with another dude, in a romantic way or the dude could be hitting on him, I think Aki would be able to humble him just a bit because no one really seems to know what he's thinking. In the end, idk who he ends up with but I want him to find someone who will do my dude right and he should get some non-shitty friends who'll listen to his problems. (Still not over that Max)

The teachers while being shown more, don't have much of a presence. It's mainly Kate and the goofy one for extended scenes. KATE MY GOOD SIS. NO. Please, I want this to be the point where she loses GG somehow and someone takes over or maybe another GG pops up, can market better and isn't willing to have a faltering moments. I want it to spiral. Spiral hard. Also, sexy teach said not on my watch ezra! I stan him. Teachers are still fun for me, they make me want to never teach at a dumb rich private school.

Also, fuck the dads within reason. Esp, Julien's dad but only because we got to see Zoya's more and he is kinda in the right about most of the stuff but not the sister stuff. You can tell he's doing his best to instill morals in his daughter esp when he knows she can fall to outside influences.

Overall, I'm still enjoying it, I'm invested. I see room for growth for all of the characters (maybe not the teachers) and I want to see it play out. It does feel a little rushed but I think they're finding their footing and they have some big things to pull. But's not horrible and if they just play the drama bit longer and then conclude, it wouldn't feel that way. Maybe one more episode or half an episode could've been added to the Zoya-Obie-Julien story line to fully flush it out but I like the ending. Not sisters, not friends but cool with each and possibly re-build, at worst they just don't interact. I noticed some cool things with the promos but I need to confirm when I can find the one for 3.

Sorry if it went from all lower case to proper-ish, I had to switch to my phone and it auto-does it.