#i know they have them somewhere bc i already have film back from a camera i brought in AT THE SAME TIME

[coastalroses]

pray for me i’m trying to get my photos back from cvs

[chirpsythismorning]

Motelgate Update

There's been a lot of updates on this already! I just wanted to give my two cents about the situation and tbh it is messy!!!

With the motel being so close to the gas station, it would make sense for the production to just buy out the hotel for the day they filmed there and let the cast/production team hang out there throughout the evening of the shoot, while they got everything ready for filming at the gas station.

We even get a shot that shows the motel in the background during the gas station scene:

And so the main question is, when this line is said by Will, are they referring to the motel right next to them? Because to me it comes off like this motel could be at least a mile away with that phrasing? If it was in fact the motel right next to them, wouldn't Will just say Hey there's a motel literally right there and then have him point to it on their left? And then have the camera acknowledge it's proximity?

Maybe? Maybe not though? Maybe they thought it would be better to throw in a motel line, but not give much more than that? Otherwise people might have connected the dots sooner if they focused on it, only to sort of drop it entirely? I could see how that might have contributed to it being something a lot of fans might have considered as a possibility by now if that was the case.

Regardless of my doubts based on that line, I want to continue bc there is some stuff that still makes this possibility quite plausible.

At the end of this scene at the gas station, they leave and drive to Surfer Boy. There's no way of knowing for certain how far away SB was from the gas station. There is some implications throughout the season that SB is popular enough to have a lot of locations throughout Cali, and now it even has locations in Nevada. So it could have been a five minute drive from the gas station, or it could have been up to a half hour or more. I would take a guess that it was somewhere closer to 20ish minutes though. I just doubt they had them drive another hour or more with all the driving they've been doing already. I hope for their sanity that there just so happened to be a SB in that area.

Now, in the West during the spring time, sunset is around 7pm. This means that arguably, them at the gas station at night, could have been around as early as 9pm, or it could have been as late as 2am.

This is where I think a motel scenario could actually make sense, as we do have some time unaccounted for within that two day time jump.

According to the clock at the library, it was almost 4pm on Saturday that they got to Hawkins...

But if they left at 2AM on Friday, they would have arrived to Hawkins closer to 7-8am on Saturday... not 4pm...

This is literally the first line we get in the epilogue. Them saying 48 hrs makes it seem like it's probably closer to 48 than 26-31... meaning that the Cali crew could have unintentionally turned a 30 hour trip, to something closer to a 48 hr trip?

And this is also noting, that they left SB assuming that everyone was safe bc El saved the day. That was the impression El had up until they arrived in Hawkins on Saturday with Dustin informing them about Max's condition.

Which means it's possible they could have decided to rest for the night after the Vecna mind fight, since it was already so late, as opposed to driving right then and there. After all they've had a really rough last few days, so it would be plausible after a win like that, for them to make a unanimous decision to sleep in actual beds for the night.

So let's say, it was like 2am at the latest that they left SB and turned around and went back to the motel, which was still fairly close by, as they remembered it was near the gas station they just were at a few hours prior.

They would have probably left around checkout the following morning (usually around 11am) and started driving towards Hawkins, assuming all was well.

This would actually have them arriving to Hawkins closer to the late afternoon on Saturday, as opposed to the early hours on Saturday morning.

Basically, based on the distance between Nevada and Hawkins, it's quite possible there is at least an 8 hr sleep cycle happening outside of driving nonstop.

With all that considered, if i'm being honest, I'm not that confident about this theory anymore? It's likely the motel lot was filled with all of their equipment and vehicles, which obviously needed to be hidden from the gas station lot, which is what they were focusing on for those scenes. They would have had to clear that lot and move everything just to get an exterior shot for the motel, whether it was day or night. While it's definitely possible, idk I just doubt it.

Though, another angle I could potentially look at this still skeptically, is that if they were filming night scenes, I don't see why they would need the cast there like 5+ hours before any shooting even started? I feel like filming goes on for hours as it is? We even saw a lot of bts of them inside that gas station at night while they were filming, with Charlie and Finn sitting half asleep in chairs hand in hand jokingly, but clearly tired from hours of shooting into the night.

And so I don't know if it would make sense for them to have been there at like 12pm or even 2pm, hours before the sun was fully set, to sit around and wait for them to set up, not until dark which is like 8pm? Like that seems kind of odd to me. Especially if filming was believed to go into like the late hours the following morning, which is likely to have been the case since again we saw them look half asleep inside of the gas station location. Also ngl I always thought it looked like Noah had bags under his eyes during that gas station scene, which just fits even more with these scenes being filmed LATE at night, like well past midnight.

If they were filming until as late as 4am, I don't think they would have been there any earlier than 4pm the previous day. And that picture of them on set looked like it was taken in the afternoon. Maybe it was taken at 4pm exactly. Maybe they had to be on set 4-6 hrs before shooting started? I guess it's not impossible, but it would be quite unreasonable honestly.

Based on all of that, I can say that I'm sort of skeptical but also very open minded to it. Like I see the vision but also I'm not going to allow myself to get my hopes up too much. I'm just going to have fun theorizing about it regardless so I will continue to support others who still want to consider it! Because it is quite interesting!

[bubbleseo]

how do u think zb1 would react to you sending nudes to them??

jiwoong- one of jiwoong’s biggest rules is for you to not touch yourself without him, so when you send a video of a dildo sliding in and out of your pussy he would be fuming. if he was somewhere he could leave he would be out the door before anyone realized he was leaving. once jiwoong gets in his car he’d facetime you and when you picked up with the camera shaking and moans falling from your mouth he gets even more pissed off. he would simply tell you he’s on his way home and if you know what’s good for you then you should hide the toy before he gets there. when he gets home and you still haven’t moved he’d rip the toy from your hands and slap your pussy a few times to make you cry out. jiwoong would fuck you with the dildo in so many different positions you’d lose count, making you cum in each one.

“desperate little whore can’t wait for daddy’s real dick so she’s just gonna get fucked by a toy all night”

zhanghao- hao had been in jeju filming their show when your new pair of lingerie arrived. you wanted to keep it a surprise for when he got back, but you loved the way it looked on you so much you just had to do a little photoshoot. posing on different surfaces and finding the best angles, you picked your favorites and sent them to hao asking if he liked them. when hao finished filming he immediately checked his phone and smiled when he saw messages from you. his smile faded and an eyebrow raised when he saw what the messages were though. let’s just say you had to buy a replacement pair after he got back because he ripped them open to fuck you in them.

“you better be wearing those when i get home princess”

hanbin- honestly you probably just sent nudes to binnie because you were bored. he had been at the studio recording for their debut all day and you had run out of things to do when you got the idea. taking a suggestive picture of you laid in bed (bonus if you have tattoos bc that man would go feral over them) and sending it to him along with a text that says “missing you ;)”. when he opens your text he would immediately blush and slap his phone down on his lap to prevent the members sitting next to him from seeing it. would probably leave you on read purely because he’s so scared of another member looking over and seeing the picture when he tries to text you back. poor binnie would come home whining about how you can’t tease him like that and you would have to kiss him to get him to shut up.

“you can’t just send pictures like that! i had a boner for the rest of the recording and i know matthew noticed because he kept laughing at me and i have a reputation as the leader to uphold whic-“

matthew- i’m a firm believer in the matthew shower sex agenda so his favorite nudes would be of you in the shower. matthew would text you saying he’d be home late because they’re having a hard time picking up the choreography and you would coincidentally be showering. quickly snapping a picture holding your chest while the water droplet run down your body, you’d send it to him and tell him not to rush because you’re just cleaning yourself up. matthew would either be completely distracted the rest of practice or make the moves so much more sexual than needed. when he finally gets home he would throw you over his shoulder and carry you to the bathroom to shower with him.

“but babe i’ve already showered?” “i don’t care, you’re just gonna be extra clean”

taerae- while he was out for dinner with the rest of the members celebrating making it into the debut lineup you would send him pictures of yourself to remind him of the present waiting for him at home. taerae would be in complete shock and would just sit there with his eyes wide and mouth slightly open, which would peak the interest of jiwoong sitting next to him. jiwoong would look over to see what has taerae so in shock and would immediately start laughing and teasing him in front of the other members. poor taerae could only shrink in on himself in his seat while everyone teases him. once he finally gets home he’s so embarrassed but also gushes over you like he wanted to do over text.

“you’re so gorgeous oh my god i cant believe i’m so lucky to have the most beautiful partner ever”

ricky- ricky knows you like to tease him, so it honestly wasn’t a shock when you sent him a picture of the expensive panties he bought you while you were sitting across the room from him during zb1 game night. he would discreetly text you back asking what the fuck you’re thinking and immediately stood up when you told him you just thought he would want to know what you were wearing underneath your clothes. sliding his phone into his back pocket, he would go straight to you and grab your hand. making up some half ass excuse as to why you need to leave right now while essentially running to the door to take you home and see the panties for himself.

“i’m sorry guys but we really have to go! i just remembered that we agreed to feed the neighbor’s dog while he was gone on vacation and there’s a very strict schedule” “ricky you live in a pet free apartment” “bye!”

[thursdaythunder]

Tell me about “Oscar Piastri WIP” please :)

i wrote a blurb for that before so have this dear, it's pretty long tho, so read under the cut

It starts out when you and Oscar still are in school, he is still a boarding house resident while you already have your own place. One night you work together at your place for a project, and you totally forget that you are the one hosting wine night that day. So, when your friends show up rather than kicking him out, you invite him to stay and join your friend group. But when the night ends you realise that he can't leave bc he drove to your place and now that you both are drunk, he can't leave. So, you invite him to stay with you. He does and the next morning you get up together and chat and it feels oddly domestic to wake up with him at your side. Your friendship further evolves from that and the next time you are having wine night together you end up sleeping with each other. The next morning you both confess your feelings and end up dating. When the school year ends that year, Oscar leaves school in favour of racing and you break up a few weeks earlier. The night before he flies to Italy for work you have break-up sex and everything is just very sad...  

But you continue with your life and through a series of events you discover your love for social media. A few years pass, you study media management and get a job for a cooperate firm. Your job is very boring, and you just want something to change so you apply for a position at McLaren, before you know Oscar is going to be a driver there. You go through the process of multiple job interviews and finally get hired as a social media creator. A few weeks into your job it gets announced that Oscar will be driving for the team next season. You almost die when you hear it first but try to keep it professional. In the pre-season of 2023 there are a lot of media obligations for the drivers, and you get asked to supervise one of them. It’s a tour through the google HQ as a sponsorship where they get quizzed on google and McLaren history.  

When it comes to the first briefing of the filming day with the drivers, Oscar does not recognise you, as you only introduce yourself with your first name. You try not to be too disappointed and keep up a smile.  

Filming day then comes around and you are a part of the video as the “quiz master” and introduce yourself to the camera for the first time with your last time. That’s the moment Oscar realised who you are, and he is shocked. After the scene wraps up, Oscar comes up to really make sure that you are his high school sweetheart. You confirm everything and you two now have a lot to catch up on. That night you two meet for dinner and it seems like everything is back to normal except that fact that you are dating, but none of you want to bring it up. You two see each other two times after that but then the season kicks off and it's hard to keep up. The video from the google HQ is really popular with the fans and the demand for a similar video is there. So, you get promoted/asked to make more videos with the drivers and travel to some races with them. You organise a McLaren unboxed for the Silverstone GP that year and the fans love it, and you also get to spend that weekend with the team on site. Silverstone is a really good race for McLaren that year with a podium finish for Lando and good points for Oscar and the team insists on a party and you have no choice other than joining the party. But it also brings back memories from the high school times and wine nights. The alcohol does good for you and Oscar, and you end up somewhere in a club dancing with each other. The proximity brings the butterflies back and both of you know that the feeling is mutual. Oscar then drags you to his hotel room because you both had a lot of drinks. The morning after its clear that you need to talk and its almost a déjà vu from your high school time when you both confess that the feelings are the same.  

It's difficult to have a working relationship when he travels so much and your job at McLaren is stationary, but you make the best of the times when he has breaks or you get to work with the drivers for content. During the winter break of the season you two finally announce your relationship to the world and it’s a happy end for all of you. 

[mypoisonedvine]

okay but here me out: you're a prostitute hired by laurie bc she found out that andy is cheating on her and needs proof for a divorce. when you see him, the payment is merely a bonus

wait i love this but i wanna modify it slighty: you’re a private investigator hired by laurie to seduce andy to prove he’s cheating!

this got so nasty so fast omg watch out for really dominating andy, with lots of dirty talk and a little bit of manipulation if you wanna read into it

“you don’t have to go through with it, obviously,” she explained, “you just need to get him to admit he’s done it before, and he’ll do it again.  on tape, with this.”

she set the audio recorder down in front of you, and you smiled sympathetically.

“don’t worry, ma’am, this isn’t my first time with a case like this.  I have my own equipment that’s less conspicuous and more reliable.  I could even catch him on film if you wanted.”

“you can do that?”

“yep, I have cameras that look like pens, buttons, rings, earrings, glasses...”

“well, video footage would be even better,” she explained, excited yet somber.  “I mean, it would make a better case in the divorce.  it would kill me to have to watch it, though...” she trailed off, scratching the back of her neck.

“is there any doubt in your mind he’s cheating on you?”

“only because I don’t want to believe it.  but it’s become to obvious to ignore,” she shook her head.

“I understand.  it’s hard to stomach that the people we care about most would hurt us like that.  but sadly it is all too common.  let’s just say that as a private investigator, this is a huge portion of what I do... and I get very steady work.  you’re not alone, laurie.”

“thank you,” she smiled weakly. “can you do it tonight?  I want this over with.”

“um, as long as it’s pretty late, I have other tasks this evening.”

“oh, late shouldn’t be a problem, he’s out until 4 or 5 in the morning these days.  this is the address of his work--” she set a piece of paper in front of you-- “just follow him to whatever bar he goes to from there and you shouldn’t have a problem.”

she’d shown you a photo, so you knew what to expect.  you had to come straight from your last assignment following somebody else around the city, so you weren’t dressed for the occasion at all.  to follow someone, you needed to dress plain and forgettable; to seduce someone, especially someone like andy barber, you needed to be extremely memorable.

you brought a change of clothes in your car, which you hastily slipped into in your back seat-- it required some acrobats to put tights on in the back of a small car like yours, but you managed to get through.

not just tights, but lingerie and garters.  sky high heels, a skintight dress that made you feel like your whole body was on display.  a motorcycle jacket and dark lipstick to give the whole look some edge.  basically, you’d tried to look as different from his wife as possible.  married men who were fucking around on the side always wanted something different, something fresh.  you knew how to do that.

plus, the jacket had the hidden camera attached to the lapel, nearly invisible among the snaps and buttons.

the echo of your heels on the concrete floor of the bar made every head turn.  it was quiet, and apparently a pretty slow night with only a few men scattered here and there-- the only other woman was the waitress.

andy was sitting at the bar, nursing a beer, and he gave you a quick glance before doing a double take.  you tried not to smile visibly. gotcha.

you sauntered up to the bar, leaning forward and making sure to arch your back just so, showing off your ass. “vodka cranberry?” you requested, smiling when the bartender nodded and started pouring grey goose into a glass.

you took a seat decently far away from andy, “adjusting” your jacket to turn the camera on.  you wanted to make sure you caught him coming up to you, starting the conversation, flirting first.  he looked over at you a few times but never said anything, making you start to get a little impatient, before finally the bartender arrived with a second drink.

“from the gentleman at the end of the bar,” he explained as he handed it to you.

“oh!” you smiled, “that’s so sweet!  you can tell him to come say hi if he wants.”

and it was just a few minutes before andy got up and leaned against the bar beside you, looking down at you with dark, half-lidded eyes.

“thanks for the drink,” you grinned coyly, letting your gaze drift a bit.  he was really good looking, honestly, and he looked all kinds of right in that suit, too.  if it weren’t a job, this might be the kind of guy you would actually flirt with of your own accord.  then again, you knew better than to go for a guy who had a tan line on his ring finger-- you hoped the camera was able to see that he’d taken his wedding band off.

“I’m here almost every night and I’ve never seen you before.”

“I’m from out of town,” you explained.

“business or pleasure?” he asked with a little smirk.

“I guess we’ll find out,” you winked.

it didn’t take much more flirting and a few more rounds of drinks for him to ask if you wanted to ‘get outta here,’ and with a giggle and a nod you let him guide you to his car with a hand on the small of your back. 

of course, you thought he was going to drive the both of you somewhere.  you didn’t expect him to push you up against it and kiss you roughly.

it was so sudden, and you knew you should stop him, but you somehow couldnt bring yourself to push him back, not when the way he was breathing heavily against you made your head spin, not when you could feel his beard and it was so hot for no good reason at all, not when his thick hands were grabbing you at your waist just tight enough to make you breathless.

“get in the back,” he instructed when he pulled back, making you blink up at him in shock.  you knew you had enough, you knew you should make an excuse and leave, get this footage uploaded from your mini cam and onto your laptop so you could get laurie what she needed...

but instead you found yourself biting your lip and nodding, letting him open the door for you and hopping in before he climbed on top of you, shutting and locking the door.

“we can go back to my place,” you offered as he started to suck on your neck, pulling you closer.  

“cant wait that long,” he mumbled quickly before helping you push your jacket off.

and you could tell that the way he tossed it onto the floor made the camera perfectly angled to see what he was doing to you.  maybe it was the perfect evidence for laurie’s case.  maybe it was about to tape you in your most intimate state with no way for you to stop it.

certainly there was no way you could stop when he manhandled you onto your hands and knees, pushing your dress up to find your black lace panties, and the garters holding up your tights.

“fuck, look at you... that’s why you came out tonight, then?  to get fucked?”

you nodded a little, gasping when he slapped your ass.

“little whore.”

you didn’t think you’d like being talked to like that, but it made your pussy throb beneath the lingerie that barely covered it.

just when you thought he was going to give it some attention, he flipped you around again and pulled you into his lap. 

“get on the floor, on your knees, and suck my cock.”

how was he so comfortable telling you what to do?  better yet, why were you doing it?

you slipped down, barely finding enough room with your massive heels in the way, and started to palm at his cock through his suit trousers, moaning absent-mindedly when you felt the thick, hard, hot length hidden beneath.   your mouth was already watering.

you started on his belt, looking up at him occasionally to find him watching you with a cold, unyielding stare.  when you reached inside his boxers and pulled it out, he smiled at your little gasp.

“bigger than you expected?” he taunted.  you were speechless, only able to nod in response before he put a hand on your hair-- not exactly forcing you forward, but definitely encouraging you to go ahead and put it in your mouth.

“fuuuck,” he groaned with you licked the head and finally closed your lips around it, suckling gently as your eyes fluttered shut.  “no no,” he correctly instantly, “look up at me with those pretty eyes, sweetheart.  take it deeper.”

you moaned around him but obeyed, using your hand to stroke the portion you couldn’t fit in your mouth (which was more than half).  you started to back away when you choked a little, but he pushed you back down and moaned a little louder, “I like it when you gag,” he explained gruffly, smiling when you looked up at him again, your eyes watering this time.  “god, you look so good like this.”

he pulled you off by your hair while you took in a gasping breath, gripping his cock at the base and slapping you lightly on the face with it a few times.  when you put your chin by his balls, the head hit you on the forehead... it made your gut burn as you tried to imagine how that would possibly fit in you without breaking something important.

when he pulled you back onto him, bucking up into your throat as you choked and gasped for air, you felt need tingling up your spine from seeing him like this.  he was completely in control and yet looked totally wrecked as he fucked your face.  it made you so wet you couldn't stand it.

just when you thought he might come, he stopped suddenly and lifted you up onto his lap, pulling your dress down to admire your completely impractical bra.

he grinned when he saw your nipples were already hard, reaching up to tweak them gently until your hips rocked on top of him of their own accord.

“you like having your tits played with, sweetheart?”

“I like when you do it,” you blurted out.

“sweet young thing like you, you’ve probably never even been with somebody who knows what they’re doing.”

it’s not like you hadn’t had some adept partners in the past, but none of them were like this. nobody had ever made you this desperate.

“please fuck me, andy,” you whimpered.

“not yet,” he growled, ripping your bra and tossing it aside.

“that was expens--” you started to protest, but it fell into a moan as he latched his lips onto an exposed nipple, sucking and licking eagerly.

“f-fuck!” you stammered, gripping his jacket tightly as you tried to stop yourself from humping his leg out of desperation

but he wanted you to-- he grabbed your hips and pulled you down, guiding you to rub yourself on his thigh.

“go ahead, pretty girl, show me how bad you want it.”

you were pretty confident that even through your panties, you were going to leave a stain on his trousers. 

you could even feel his cock on the inside of your thigh, hot and still slick with your spit, so hard you wondered why he wouldn't just put it in you already.

“please please please, need it so bad,” you whined, “I'm so wet for you, baby, I'm so fucking ready....”

“I know,” he whispered, pulling you closer to put his lips right beside your ear.  “I know, baby, I can feel it.  I can smell it.  you smell so fuckin sweet...”

you whimpered and your head fell back, pleasure shooting up through your body in jolts as you rubbed your swollen clit on his thick thigh.

“want me to fuck you?  I’ll fuck you, babydoll.  hard and rough just how you need it.”

“yes,” you sobbed.

“I’ll give it to you so good you won’t be able to walk straight tomorrow, won’t be able to sit right cause I tore that pretty little pussy up.”

you gasped but you wanted it, god you wanted it so fucking bad you couldn’t even remember that this was supposed to be a job, not a hook-up.  but you didn’t care.  

“please baby, I’ll do anything just fuck me, please--” you cried, cut off by him grabbing you and pushing you onto your knees again, slapping your ass one more time before pulling your panties aside.

“god, you’re soaked,” he chuckled condescendingly. “you’re so sensitive, honey.  I bet you’ll go crazy if I touch you here,” he proposed, rubbing his thumb over your clit and making you jolt forward from the intensity of it.  

he leaned down to wrap his body over yours, holding you close with one arm around your neck as he whispered in your ear, turning your face slightly with a hand on your jaw.

“look into the camera while I put it in you, baby...”

you weren’t sure if it was realizing you’d been caught, or the feeling of him pushing into you that made your eyes water, but a tear fell down your cheek as he buried himself into you with a groan.  it was just the right type of pain; with how wet you were, even a cock as massive as his slid into you easily.  but it felt like you’d never been stretched so wide and you didn’t even know what to do with yourself as he pulled back and slammed into you.

“I never told you my name,” he reminded you, “but you knew it anyways.  and with what I do for a living, I can smell a p.i. from a mile away.  you’re not as slick as you think, sweetheart-- well, proverbially slick... cause literally, this pussy is so fucking wet for me.” 

you could only gasp and sigh as he pumped into you faster and deeper, reaching parts of you that had never been touched before, let alone ravaged like this.  you could feel his smile against your ear as he started to fuck you faster, his free hand palming at your breasts before reaching back to hold your hips steady.

“god, you’re so fucking tight... anybody ever fucked you this good, honey?  anybody ever taken you like the needy little slut you are?”

he bit down on your ear and you realized he wanted an answer.

“n-no,” you replied, “never.  nobody’s ever fucked me like this, andy.”

“anybody ever fucked you on camera before?”

you swallowed dryly. “no.”

“was it all an act, then?  all part of the job?  I don’t buy it.  I think this is who you really are, a desperate little slut who needs to be stuffed full of cock by somebody who can give you everything you need.”

his filthy monologue fell on deaf ears as you tried with all your might to look away from the camera on your jacket, knowing that you had totally blown your case as well as presumably destroying your reputation.  fucking a married man is one thing, fucking a married man whose wife is your client who hired to prove he was cheating?  maybe you could spin it as doing your job a little too well?

“I can tell you’re close, sweetheart, go ahead and come for me.  I wanna feel this pretty pussy squeeze me, milk my fuckin cock when you come.”

mainly you were just trying not to get too loud, afraid that the car wouldn’t be enough to muffle your noises in case somebody walked through the mostly empty parking lot.

“andy!” you yelped when you reached your peak, not really meaning to but it came out anyways, he chuckled a little, the sound morphing into a growl as you clenched down around him with each wave of pleasure washing over you.

“fuck, don’t fuckin stop, this pussy feels so good I think I’m gonna come inside...”

you were too out of it to protest; you would’ve gone limp and fallen down onto your chest if he hadn’t held you up, his cock flexing against your overstimulated walls as he painted your insides with his come.

he grinned as he stilled his movements, catching his breath for a moment before sitting up and pulling out, slipping your panties back on to keep his come inside for a bit longer.

it was all a blur as he helped you half-redress before he all but shoved you out of the car, stuffing his cock back into his pants before getting into the driver’s seat and starting the engine.

“tell my wife I said ‘hi’,” he winked at you as he drove off, leaving you with wobbly legs balancing on your heels while his come leaking down your thighs.

[accursedvoid]

Thinking about a werewolf!Bruce AU but like werewolves here have two specific forms being wolf and ye bipedal traditional werewolf (bc I like both and it’s my AU and I GET TO CHOOSE THE RULES) - and yes when it comes to bipedal werewolves, I always see the van helping 2004 style ones (bc BIG and TERRIFYING YET FLOOFY)

Like maybe during his brat phase where it’s just all a blur one night he winds up bit and turned and now wolf Bruce has no idea what’s going on, where he is and how to get home after waking up changed in a forest somewhere - he winds up wandering around for awhile before he just winds up collapsing at some random small looking building way out in the middle of nowhere (which strikes him as strange and like he’s wound up in a horror film if he weren’t the monster in question).

Course we all know who’s doorstep he just wound up on.

Jeremiah gets an alert on his proximity sensors and the camera picks up on a large black dog sprawled out unmoving at the front door to his bunker, he waits awhile but nobody shows up to collect the dog and well it’d be cruel to leave the thing there so he brings the mystery stray in.

Surprisingly the stray is very well mannered (someone must be missing their dog surely?) and Jeremiah just winds up taking care of him for longer than he’d thought, enough to even give him a name, Ace (because I love to sprinkle in a call back c; ) and finds he quite likes having another friend even if they’re not human (oh little did he know) - Ecco is quite fond of him too, makes her job easier if Jeremiah also has added security around in the form of an overprotective guard dog.

Meanwhile Alfred is searching for Bruce after getting concerned that no one’s heard from him for awhile (because even fired he still cares about his boy 🥺) and Jim is about to start a search but then of course the arkham breakout occurs and all hell gets going.

So Bruce as the newly dubbed Ace is quite shocked to find himself in the care of what must be Jerome valeska’s twin but finds he quite likes the soft spoken Miah and well since he hasn’t figured out how to turn back yet, he’s stuck in the bunker essentially but well it could be worse - though he’s often badgering Jeremiah into remembering to take breaks and eat while the other is lost in his work which Bruce also finds fascinating though he can’t say so currently.

Then of course they both watch the news of the arkham breakout and now Bruce has to deal with the paranoia of Jeremiah and the whole ‘trap jerome’ plan - and before he knows it, Jim Gordon and Harvey bullock are paying them a visit and Bruce is happy to see them but of course neither of them knows the very large suspiciously wolfish looking dog with Jeremiah is Bruce so they’ve no idea why he seems happy to see them (Jeremiah is also baffled, was Ace a former police dog maybe? Surely the GCPD isn’t that inept to lose one of their hounds if so) but of course then red alert goes up and here comes the j squad.

Ace - Bruce - is sticking to Jeremiah like glue as this goes on bc he wants to protect his new best friend (even if said best friend believes their just a dog at the moment) while they set out through the maze only to be confronted hypnotised!Ecco and Ace - Bruce - gets separated from Jeremiah until of course he finds them again being confronted by jerome and boxed in by Jonathon and Jervis.

Now Bruce who’s already had to watch his parents die, really really doesn’t wanna see anyone else he cares about murdered or hurt and with the worst running through his head just acts on instinct with the blood rushing in his ears he charges them.

Now from the outside perspective what was a large dog that came skirting around the labyrinth corner is suddenly much much larger and practically has to stoop in the enclosed space as it lopes towards them, with horrendously sharp claws that score monstrous jagged scars in the wall when Jervis ducks the swipe as he and Jonathon scramble backwards from the sudden wolf man beast snarling like a rusty engine with murder in its bright eyes (the perhaps only feature aside from sharp white teeth that can be picked out from the mass of shadow and fur)

Jerome, cursing that his planned confrontation gets cut short, shoots at the thing (and what the hell? When and where did Miah get a demon dog?) while he, Jervis and jonathon quickly rush from the area - Bruce, currently mostly instincts and rage, recoils when a bullet hits his shoulder giving them enough time to escape while he recovers and when he does so finds his quarry escaped turns back to immediately check on Miah (who’s busy trying to process what in the hell happened over what has to be barely a minute - because clearly he’s taken in something that’s not actually a dog? Or what - and is half hoping it doesn’t turn on him now) who then has to deal with an overprotective werewolf-that-was-a-dog-but-is-actually-a-human trying to seemingly reassure him - and then Jim and Harvey come around the bend and everything gets tense again bc their first instinct is to raise their guns and Bruce-who-is-not-quite-himself but enough of himself to have the ingrained trauma with guns being pointed in his direction immediately gets defensive trying to protect Miah while also curling on his injured, bleeding shoulder.

Jeremiah is actually the one who gets them to not shoot because he’s fairly sure the monstrous wolf thing that saved his life - although half terrified a few years of his lifespan he’s sure - isn’t a threat to anything that isn’t a threat to him, presumably and it’s at that point w a badly wounded shoulder and maybe dipping into blood loss, said giant wolf beast slumps to the side half awake and then the last shocker of the night when it reverts to Not it’s previously assumed dog (though in retrospect clearly a wolf) form but that of Bruce wayne, missing billionaire and heir to wayne enterprises, half slumped over in Jeremiah’s arms with the ripped up clothing he’d worn the last time he was human (i can magic clothes if I want too ndndn)

Everyone is of course surprised and this is a lot to process but Bruce before fainting dead away and getting treated for that shoulder manages a faint ‘nice to finally meet you properly Jeremiah’.

[secret-ssociety]

Behind the scenes

Pairing(s): Aaron Tveit x Reader, Les Mis (2012) cast x Reader

Warnings: This is just fluff. Like one curse

Summary: It is never intended for Enjolras and Eponine to fall in love in the original story, but a lot of things can happen when the cameras are turned off

A/N: I know everyone is waiting for more of the Let Me Down series but I have wanted to do this for a long time bc I am utterly in love with this man and I've always said I don't want to just write Peter Parker's stuff. Might make this several parts, who knows, I like things with parts.

masterlist

requests are open!!

For the first time in the whole day, silence fell upon the set of Les Mis, being only vaguely interrupted by the quiet chatter of everyone else who, unlike you, still had energy to talk. It's not like it was your fault, though, you had no idea of how much running around implied to play Eponine.

Huddled in a quiet corner of what had been built to be the Café Musain, you pushed your knees against your chest and hid your face between them, hoping to catch some rest before Tom decided he wanted to do a scene again. Was it maybe two in the morning? Three? You didn't even know anymore, you weren't allowed to carry a watch around your wrist and your phone was charging in your trailer, but the last time you had checked it was midnight and that had been a few hours ago.

Doing a movie, you had come to learn in your first few days of filming, was quite different from putting up a show. Interacting with your surroundings, going over scenes and even directing your eyes to a certain place while saying your lines was a world away from your common place on stage. You'd had to repress a loud squeak on your first day on set when you saw just how real everything looked, and when you started to try on your garments... you might as well have been a street urchin on Paris, 1832.

A small finger touched your shoulder timidly, waking you up from your fragile sleep and making you lift your head from its place. Your eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the light and you even had to squint a little to recognize Daniel standing next to you, looking just as tired, but with a small flame of caffeine dancing in the back of his eyes. Who the fuck gave the kid coffee? You wondered.

"How long do you think they'll keep us here?" he asked sitting next to you. From all your cast mates, Daniel was probably the first one you had grown fond of, but then again, so had everyone.

"Maybe not much longer, unless they want us to be here at noon tomorrow," you answered raising an eyebrow. Being the youngest person on the whole set, you could tell he was trying to hold his own like the adults, drinking coffee and doing his best to stay awake.

The problem with that, you knew, was that caffeine reacted differently on kids and adults: when an adult drinks coffee, it gives them energy for a long period of time, the caffeine is distributed in order to serve the body for good while. When a child drinks coffee, on the other hand, the caffeine gives them a rush of adrenaline that gets them jumping up and down and running circles around the adults, very much like Daniel was doing a while ago, thus burning all the energy they had acquired as fast as they had engorged it.

"You want to rest for a minute?" you asked him, stretching your legs so that he could rest his head on them. He shook his head tiredly, but didn't put up a fight when you grabbed his shoulder and started to lay him down.

Softly, you caressed his hair, while carefully trying to undo the tangles the dirt had made onto his hair to give him that street gamine I-live-in-the-elephant-of-the-Bastille look. In a matter of seconds, he was fully asleep, snoring quietly against the fabric of your skirt.

You heard some of the boys approaching, laughing loudly with cups of steaming coffee on their hands, and were quick to lift your finger up to your lips, to let them know of the resting boy that would be quickly awaken by their laughs. They apologized in whispers, handed you the cup they had brought for you and sat around you.

"Helena is trying to convince them to let us go to the hotel," Alistair commented, although he didn't look tired at all, more like he was amused by everyone else's exhaustion.

You sighed in relief against the cup, which was held close to your lips, making the steam hit your face in a warmth that made you aware of how cold your nose was. Only one gulp of the bitter liquid was enough to warm the blood flowing through your veins and take you back to life, you could open your eyes properly and the first the landed on was one of the most distinctive of your cast mates: Aaron Tveit.

Was there something special about him that made you think of his full name instead of just the first? Yeah, everything. He was the embodiment of the Enjolras Victor Hugo had wrote, the one that had been nicknamed Apollo by his friends. Maybe it was the way he held himself, somehow taller than everyone else, with that revolutionary fire in his eyes and walking around the set like he was actually going to get the people to build a barricade.

Wherever he happened to exist, you couldn't help but feel the presence of an olden god amongst mortals, the time go slower and light to travel in a bliss. There was just something so ethereal about him...

"He's talent, isn't he?" Alistair commented, having followed the direction of your eyes. "Among other things," Eddie joked, perhaps having caught on on the repressed smitten nature of your gaze. Stubbornly, you rolled your eyes.

As if saved by the bell, your director announced that everyone was allowed to go and get some rest, under the condition that you had to be back the next day before lunch. You were so tired, you almost forgot you were on your costume, being remembered by Eddie when you walked straight to the exit.

Up until that day, you had followed you stylist's skincare routine religiously every day after finishing filming, but once you found yourself in your sweatpants and Alistair's sweater, you simply poured water in your face and wiped all the makeup away with a paper towel.

Outside of your trailer, you found at least half of the Amis waiting for you to go grab some pizza while forming a wall to shield a newly caffeinated Daniel from your accusatory eyes. "I just left my cup unattended for a second!" George said quickly. You didn't know if you should laugh or yell at them, but you decided you were too tired to do either, so you simply took his hands and walk with the boys to the minivans the studio had hired for your transportation.

Eating pizza after having barely washed the makeup off of your face and only having a few hours to sleep after? You knew you were going to break out, but that was a tomorrow's problem.

Perhaps it was the magic that gravitated around Aaron that made you look back to see him, walking several feet behind the lot of you and clearly immersed on his thoughts. What you did next wasn't exactly a conscious decision, but it felt as natural as if it were.

"Hey, Tveit," you smiled, stopping before him. He looked surprised for a second, since he hadn't heard you approach him, but then smiled softly at you.

"Hello, Y/L/N," he said back, looking at you with those piercing eyes of him.

"We're going to grab a bite, wanna come?" You asked with a bright smile, one so cute that made it hard for him to say no.

"I don't know, it's late..." he said with half a smile.

"Did you know that pizza wasn't invented until the late half of the 18th century," you said, persistently, making him raise an eyebrow at the random fact, "that means all of our characters died without having ever eaten pizza. Shouldn't we, in order to honor them, do the things they never got to do?"

Aaron tried as hard as he could to fight back a smile at your argument. He had heard from the other guys about your occurrences and funny yet charming way with words, but he still hadn't had a chance to delight himself with it all too much. Maybe you were both too busy, maybe he wasn't as good as he liked to think to break the ice and Alistair had beat him to it.

He was practically convinced already, but still you added, "come on, Enjolras is still going to be here tomorrow morning... er, today a little less morning." You corrected checking the time on your wrist watch.

He was tired and not really hungry, but sill he nodded and followed you to the exit, where the rest of your friends cheered upon his joining.

Thankfully, the place Fra Fee knew was not too far away from the hotel, because none of you would have managed to walk too much after the day you'd had. Pulling a couple of tables together with the help of a waitress who pretended not to be a little starstruck, all of you sat down and ordered. You personally tried to ignore the way Eddie gave you his sit so that you would end up sat next to Aaron.

After ordering three large pizzas and some lemonade, and having grudgingly remembered that you couldn't order a beer or anything of the sort, you resumed your chattery. You soon found that, while you weren't the only theatre actress on the room, you were the only one who had never been on a film before. Still, that didn't mean your previous work had gone unnoticed.

"I was really excited to meet Y/N," Eddie commented on Daniel's side, "because I went to see her in The Phantom of The Opera, in London and I was" he made the gesture of his head blowing up, making you laugh.

"Yes, I knew I had seen you somewhere! You're Christine Daaé!" George exclaimed, interrupting the bite he was about to give to his pizza.

"Didn't you say on the first table reading that your dream role is Esmeralda, from the Hunchback?" Aaron perked up, making you blush a little.

"Esmeralda, Christine and Eponine," Alistair numbered, only giving you time to nod, "are you planning on becoming the Holy Trinity of French Theater?"

"I'll be able to say the Holy Trinity of French Theater died in my arms!"

You almost spilled your lemonade at the exclamation, unable to contain your laughs, very much like everyone else on the table. You didn't mean for your face to be as red as it was in that moment, but you couldn't help it when everyone seemed to be so interested in your past work. Despite attention being your line of work, you didn't know how to handle it that good.

It was when Daniel's adrenaline burnt off, as you had predicted, and he was found too tiresd to even keep his head up that you came back to the hotel, with the quiet company of Aaron, who had also offered to take the young boy back to his room. You were both in silence, though it was not an awkward one, it just wasn't necessary to talk to enjoy the other's company.

"We're getting a cow," he said suddenly, when you were approaching the entrance of the hotel.

"What?" You asked with a confused smile.

"We're getting a cow, on the set, tomorrow," he clarified grinning, "she will be there for the scenes of the barricade."

"Why would a cow be on a barricade?" You questioned with a laugh, opening the door for Aaron, since he was carrying Daniel, and receiving a little thank you in return. "Not that I'm complaining."

He laughed in return and followed you to the elevator, making sure neither the young boy nor the jacket he had put over him fell from his embrace. The cow thing had just been to start conversation and be able to ask what he really wanted to know, although he was a little pumped up about the cow.

"Do you want to do what Alistair said?" He asked curiously, "About being the Holy Trinity of French Theater, it is."

"I had never thought about it that way, but it sounds quite nice," you answer thoughtfully. "Though, I believe I would have to play Eponine on a stage, rather than a set to really earn that title."

"You're not liking movie making so far?" He asked somewhat amused, specially when you whipped your head to look at him with wide eyes.

"No! That's not what I mean," you talked so fast you nearly stumbled through your words, but the kindness on his eyes made you sigh and calm down. "This has been amazing so far and I would never underestimate the huge effort it takes to make one of these. I mean, I've only been doing this for a couple days and I'm already beyond exhaustion. And yet it has been wonderful, the set and the preparation and just seeing all the work it implies is... unbelievable."

You knocked three time on the door, to see Daniel's mother not two seconds later. Aaron had been worried that maybe she would be concerned and even a little mad at how late her son was coming back, but you had been texting her throughout the extra hours of shooting and to let her know you were going to take him to eat something before coming back to the hotel.

She kindly thanked you both, took Daniel (who was still sound sleep) on her arms and gave Aaron his jacket back, to then close the door. Without saying much, he walked you to your own room, prompting you to continue.

"Where was I? Oh, yeah! So filming a movie is... I'm running out of adjectives, but it's really great," he chuckled slightly, "but I don't think it can top the feeling of being on the theater," you sighed dreamily.

"On stage, there is no take two, the things you're doing can only be done once. There's..." your tongue ran through your lips, an action Aaron found almost mesmerizing, as you tried to find the words to describe the thing you loved the most in the world. "There's this feeling, when the show is about to start, the lights dim, the overture starts and you get goosebumps and you heart starts thumping at the moment you come on stage, there's something about that moment being unrepeatable and having the eyes of the crowd on you, the adrenaline is just... is like the identity line that divides the actor from their character disappears and in that moment you're not quite them, but you're not you, you're just..." you let out a breath at the inability to find the word and, for a moment, you worried you might have bored him with your rambling, but he had that bliss over his face, the one only a theatre actor knows and has, that told you he knew exactly what you're talking about.

The next morning, back on set and with your costumes again covering your backs, Aaron found himself so hypnotized by the sight of you rehearsing with Amanda his tea got cold and was utterly scared when Eddie's palm fell onto his back, dragging him out of his day dream.

"Is this the part when the Phantom is stalking Christine?" George asked jokingly, making Aaron roll his eyes.

For someone who made so much fun of him for becoming Enjolras, he had certainly developed Grantaire's mocking nature.

"She's really talented," the blonde man answered nonchalantly, drinking from his tea and making a face when he found out the drink was cold.

"I see," Eddie said handing him his tea, "are you seeing our dear Y/N under a new light?"

Was he? It would be a lie to say he didn't come back to his room with you occupying every single one of his thoughts, his heart fluttering who had managed to put his passion for theatre in words. Had his hands always became a little shaky around you? Yes. But today it was even worse.

Today, your voice giving life to Eponine's thoughts and emotions could make his cheeks blush or bring tears to his eyes in a matter of a second. Today, you walked around with a strange light over you, one that didn't allow him to look away while, at the same time, reprehended him for staring. Today, you were more than an artist, an actress. You were something more than human.

"Nonsense," he replied stubbornly, "I have always known how talented she is."

Before he could get a sarcastic comment or a snide yet friendly remark, the three men's chatter was interrupted by the two previously mentioned ladies rehearsing The Robbery, one of the scenes you planned on filming that day.

"It's the police! Disappear! Run for it!" Your strong soprano voice cut all chattery in one swift motion. "It's Javert!"

He probably held his breath for as long as you held the note. Once you opened your eyes, you seemed a little embarrassed at all the eyes on you, but Aaron didn't understand just what did you have to be embarrassed about.

Eddie shook his shoulder, "breathe, mate!"

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 10/19/21

lotta things this week that are. they’re fine? but not spectacular

listening i wanna tell you a secret, by junie &thehutfriends

this is secretive and surreptitious, but not in a smoky-back-room over cigars and whiskey kind of way, a you-shouldn’t-be-on-break-in-the-maintenance-hall kind of way. i think this band is like. one girl in her bedroom and i’m really excited for her to figure out strings a little bit more, bc this is SO close to mixing really well with the background percussion and bleeps and bloops. there’s some delicious reverb on the drums, and as a former fellow contralto i really appreciate that this would have been in my (extremely narrow) range once upon a time. i feel like we’ve been moving away from sopranos in mainstream pop and toward a smokier more intimate kind of voice, but i like whatever this is more. i don’t think this is my favorite song by them but i like it a lot

also these lyrics have been on loop in my head for days bc just LOOK at them

I wanna tell you a secret And I hope you can keep it Cause the way that you reach it Ain’t the grind that they preaching I put a hit on the powers that be Soon they’ll be ours It’s the sun to your flowers And you’re starting to bloom

undefined

reading The Perfect Weapon, a Star Wars novella by Delilah S. Dawson. this is about the cool black and white chevron spy in the first sequel trilogy movie. this book is perfectly fine: there’s a lot of characterization of bazine in not a lot of pages (there’s really effective use of her paranoia to make a red herring hurt more), it briefly veers into survival horror, it’s a serviceable little thriller. would be a great ep of a TV show! this automatically rockets it up to top 10% of all Star Wars books bc i will not remember it in six months but it was well executed.

watching two movies i don’t have a lot to say about. black widow (2021, dir. Feige). everyone is acting in circles around scarjo (i do hope she wins her court case and takes disney for an amount that really hurts). this film is set in a bad place canonically and in our linear time, bc it is well after both the avengers and the people in our linear time watching this movie actually care about black widow. it is not a well executed revenge story nor does it neatly wrap anything up. floernce pugh does her pout but despite her best efforts, her rapport with scarjo does not feel sisterly at all. rachel weisz extremely hot, i want her preposterous little farmhouse with the second floor mezzanine covered in books. good movie if ur a fan of catfights and tanks, but an absolutely nauseating number of camera cuts. i don’t think i’ve ever gotten motion sick from a film before

coriolanus (2011, dir. Fiennes). watched it here on tubi but it seems like it’s readily available on most of the weird little free streaming platforms. it’s a bbc-funded movie from 2011 and if you already know what that feels like you will have set your expectations appropriately going in. it’s ambitious but ultimately ehhh all right. extremely understated soundtrack. preserved the homoeroticism! vanessa redgrave’s volumnia is terrific, jessica chastain’s virgilia admittedly does not have very much to work with.

playing we are in quarterly and client report wrapup season and the very last thing i want to do after work is think about video games some more. i am thinking about replaying new vegas since fallout day is coming up and i want to doublecheck some details for fic but like. no time! absolutely no fucking time to do anything beyond genshin dailies bc a banner is coming up and i Need the himbo in my party

making i have nothing to offer for fnv day except this shirt. this is a polyester/rayon shirt i picked up two days before i got all my shit out of my old apartment. it’s got shoulder pads. i’m too anemic for this color. i love it. the real color is somewhere between the fucked up bulb in my room and the clinical spotlight of our bathroom

if i planned on wearing this shirt more than once or twice a year, i would have given it the same treatment i used to do for my makerspace work shirts: completely redo the buttonholes, take all the buttons off and put them back on with modern thread. i did not do that. i instead turned to my dear friend fraychek, which i used to reinforce some of the cutwork that was showing its age, run a line around the edges of all the buttonholes, and a dab on the back of each button’s anchoring threads. i also trimmed away the fraying bits of the buttonholes, some threads where the seams were coming untucked, stitched those back down, and put in two snaps on the button band to stop the boob gap.

looking forward to wearing this with suede chelsea boots and ponte pants whenever the fuck i go back to the physical office, which will probably be never.

[angelthebedsheet]

Can you do a modern zuko x male reader where they vlog their day or they go on vacation. It’s okay if you can’t

a/n: ahhhh thanksies anonnie! i’ll try my best. zuko and m/n are camera transitions kings, i also have no idea on how airports work bc i’ve never been to one 💀💀, for their hotel room think of it was one of the waikiki resort hotel rooms w/ a balcony, i had fun with this!! lemme know if yall want a part 2!

lets get it yall!

“Hello, Zuko here. Welcome back to our channel. So tomorrow we’re going to Hawaii and we’re gonna take you guys with us.” Zuko said as he shot finger guns to the camera. “Right now, M/N is in the bathroom packing the last bit of his things. He’s a procrastinator.” Zuko commented. “YOU ACT LIKE YOU DIDN’T WAKE UP AT 5AM TO EVEN START PACKING.” M/N’s voice yelled from the bathroom. “He’s a liar don’t listen to him. He’s hangry.” Zuko said as he smiled.

“I’m hangry?” M/N walked to him. “Hey hey wait.” Zuko said as he turned the camera to record him. “C’mere. Imma teach you a lesson, boy.” M/N said as he rolled up his sleeves. “No wait you don’t haVE TO.” Zuko squealed as M/N threw him over his shoulder. “PUT ME DOWN!” Zuko yelled as he banged his fists on his back. “Nah you can’t talk mess like that and expect me to not attack you.” M/N teased as he walked out of frame. Zuko yelped as M/N dropped him in a chair. He started tickling him. Zuko busted out laughing. “B-Babe no!” Zuko exclaimed as he rolled the chair back. He slid back into frame with M/N tickling his sides. “Shut up and feel my wrath, pretty boy.” M/N cackled as Zuko squirmed around.

“I’m gonna piss my PANTS STOP.” Zuko cried out between laughs. M/N stopped and pressed a kiss to his lips. Zuko hummed with a soft smile. “We’re gonna edit that out?” Zuko asked. “Keep it in. They deserve to see how cute you look when you laugh.” M/N said. Zuko scoffed and slapped his arm. “Shut up. My image will be ruined.” Zuko said dramatically. “What image? You realize our fans have edits of you smiling and laughing?” M/N said as Zuko looked at him. “They do?” He whispered. M/N snorted. “Yeah they do. You’re on Twitter everyday, Zu. What do you think those profile pictures are?” M/N whispered back, amused. M/N watched as Zuko furrowed his eyebrows. He started laughing when Zuko’s face dropped. “Cut the camera, deadass. I’m an idiot, hold on.” Zuko whined as he ran a hand down his face. M/N kneeled down laughing. “It wasn’t that funny stop itttt.” Zuko said as he used his hand to cover his face. He gently kicked M/N’s side, causing him to wheeze.

“I’m turning off the camera. See you guys tomorrow, I’m tired of getting clowned.” Zuko mumbled with a small smile. “It’s just that you looked so fucking confused, I couldn’t handle it.” M/N cried. “Bye.” Zuko said as M/N raised his hand to wave. He covered the camera with his hand.

—————————-

M/N uncovered the camera with his hand. “And we’re back at the asscrack of dawn. It’s M/N here. Our plane is at 6am and we’re up at 3am. I already hate life.” He said as he wiped his eye. “Same here. Also why are you still wearing that bandana you can put on your durag. Isn’t that better for you?” Zuko commented as he looked at the f/c bandana. “Nigga why you still wearing that shirt you can put on your hoodie. Isn’t that better for you?” M/N said as he looked at Zuko. Zuko scrunched his nose and pushed M/N’s face away. “This is why we don’t speak early in the morning. His mouth is so rude.” Zuko whined. “You fell in love with me because of this mouth, sir.” M/N said. “Shush.” Zuko said as he covered M/N’s mouth. “Kinky.” His muffled voice said. Zuko groaned and wiped his hand off on M/N’s hoodie.

“I hate you.”

“Stop lying to yourself. You love me.”

“Yeah.... Unfortunately.”

“Unfortunately?? Guess I’ll just run away then.”

“Have fun.”

“You’re an asshole.” M/N chuckled. Zuko hummed with a smile. “But please change that bandana you look goofy with it.” Zuko said. “Garsh.” M/N commented as he set the camera down. He ducked out of frame and went to grab his durag. Zuko fixed his messy bun and threw on a hoodie. “Is that mine?” M/N asked from out of frame. “Yeah. Cry about it.” Zuko said, earning a pillow to the face. “Bitch.”

“Hoe.”

“Slut.”

“Cougar.”

“Whore.”

“Dumbass.”

“Clown.”

“Oh we’re talking about ourselves now?” M/N said with a false sense of surpise. “Low blow you lil shit.” Zuko grumbled. “I’m leaving you and asking Sokka to come with me instead.” He said. “Tah. You think Sokka’s gonna wake up at 3:30 in the morning on a Saturday? He’d skin you alive.” M/N commented. “Somewhere in the distant he woke up sneezing.” Zuko said dramatically. M/N chuckled. He picked up the camera and adjusted his backpack strap. “Autobots roll out.” He said, making Zuko rolled his eyes. “See yall in the airport, teehee.” M/N said as he held his hand up. “Did you have to say teehee like that.” Zuko said. “Stop shitting on my parade before I fart on your pillow.” M/N said. “You’re disgusting, why do I date you?” Zuko grimaced. “Because you’re stupidly in love with me and you’re whipped for my stupid ass.” M/N sang.

“N. e. ways. Before I was so rudely interrupted by this big baby—”

“I’m NOT a baby.”

“Uh I’m not finished—”

“I’m a grown MAN.”

“Oh my god, can you let me do what I need to do.”

“Go on.”

“Okay damn. As I was sayin—”

“I just think—”

“I’m gonna beat you with a tiki torch, Zuko. Shut UP. Let me do the fucking transition, fireboy.”

Zuko bit his lip to hide his smile. M/N huffed before smiling at the camera. Zuko waved. “See y’all in a few!” M/N said before covering the camera with his hand.

——————————

Zuko uncovered the camera. “Well hello there again. We’re in the airport now. It’s too bright in here.” He said quietly. “This tastes like shit. Like it makes me depressed even drinking it but caffeine.” M/N said as he grimaced at the taste. “I told you to not buy that brand. You don’t listen.” Zuko commented as he balanced the camera ontop of his suitcase. “It’s not even brand coffee.” He mumbled. “What is it then?” Zuko asked as he fixed his bun. “You wanna try?” He asked as he handed him the cup. Zuko took a sip and gagged. “That’s gonna give you some type of heart disease what the fuck is that? It tastes horrible!” Zuko exclaimed as he pushed the cup away. “Just a shit ton of caffeine shots and 5 hour energy.” M/N said.

“Jesus fucking christ. How do you drink that crap? Give that to me. I’m getting you actual coffee so you don’t die of high blood pressure before the age of 50.” Zuko said, snatching the cup away. “Zukooooo.” M/N whined. Zuko stood up. “This is basically gasoline. As a matter of fact, no more coffee for you. I’m supposed to be the coffee addict but this here is death in a cup. I’m getting you go gurt or some shit.” He said as he left. “He’s a hater he just took my gasoline.” M/N whined. He sucked his teeth and grimaced. “It was pure fuel. Can you get high off of caffeine? I mean it is an adrenaline.” He said as he fixed his durag.

Soon Zuko came back with a water bottle and a smoothie. He sat down. “Drink some water to wash that god awful mix out.” Zuko said, tossing it to him. “You couldn’t hand it to me?” M/N mumbled as he opened it and drank some, swishing it around his mouth before drinking it. “What flavour’s the smoothie?” He asked. “Piña colada.” Zuko said as he gave it to him. “But aren’t we gonna have that in Hawaii?” He asked again. “Stop complaining before I take it.” Zuko groaned. M/N shook his head before drinking the smoothie. “See you guys soon.” Zuko said, covering the camera.

———————————

There was a montage of Zuko and M/N, going through baggage claim and boarding the plane before Zuko turned the camera to face them. They waved at the camera. Zuko covered it again.

———————————

M/N uncovered the camera. “Hey girl hey, I’m in a plane.” He said. “That was awful.” Zuko grumbled as he adjusted his seatbelt. “When will you brighten up? Is it because you’re pastey?” M/N asked. “Pastey? I’m not pastey.” Zuko said. “You need some vitamin D? The sun? That good ol melanin? Cuz your panties are in a twist.” M/N teased. Zuko only rolled his eyes.

———————————

M/N recorded the plane taking lift off. There was a monatage of the plane getting higher and higher off the ground till clouds started to show. He turned the camera to show him and Zuko. Zuko rubbed his eye and waved. M/N only smiled and pressed a kiss to Zuko’s cheek. Zuko closed his eyes and smiled. He covered the camera.

———————————

He uncovered the camera to show Zuko hugging his arm while sleeping. He cooed. “See how cute he is when he sleeps? Lil chubby ass cheeks. Lookin like a dumpling. I can’t even turn on my laptop because he’s hugging my arm. He’s just so....” M/N trailed off to fondly smile at him. He pressed a kiss ontop of Zuko’s head. “Since I’m editing this video before it comes out y’all gonna see some real mushy shit because we are simply two stupid guys in love. I know some of y’all just gon eat this shit up. See y’all in Hawaii.” He said softly before covering the camera.

————————————

Zuko uncovered the camera. “We’re in a car and M/N’s out like a light.” He said as he showed M/N’s head on his shoulder. “I like him when he’s quiet sometimes. S’nice. Forgot to mention we’re in Hawaii now.” He said as he showed the scenery that passed them by as they sat in the cab. “I can practically feel the jet lag so we’ll probably stop filming after we show you our hotel room and continue tomorrow.” Zuko said, leaning his cheek ontop of M/N’s head. “We’ll be back.” He said before swiping his hand down the camera.

———————————

Zuko’s hand swiped down the camera revealing their shoes walking down the sidewalk. There was a montage of them walking into the hotel, checking in, going up the elevator and walking to their room.

——————————-

“Time for the big reveal.” M/N said as he held the keycard. Zuko hummed as he swiped the keycard and opened the door. They gasped as they looked at how cute the room was. “Bro... this is...” M/N said as he held the door open for Zuko. He walked inside showing the camera the whole room. “Cute.” Zuko mumbled. “Better than our room.” M/N said as he closed the door. M/N placed his luggage in the corner of the room and plopped down on the bed belly first. “Holy shit, Zu baby come HERE.” His muffled voice said. “Why what happened?” Zuko asked as he went to sit on the bed. “Oh my god.” He said.

“I know. Yeah no we’re gonna sleep and cuddle the rest of the day cut the camera.” M/N said as he turned to lay on his back. He kicked his shoes off and pulled Zuko down. Zuko squealed before he moved his head to lay ontop of M/N’s. He kicked his shoes off. “Welp. We’re gonna knock out. Bye.” Zuko said with a smile. M/N waved and covered the camera.

[artificialqueens]

These People in This Room (Don't Shine Like You) (Diamond Chaney) - Ortega

summary: Lawrence has just been crowned the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and Ellie is right beside her. Just like she’s always been.

a/n: omg HIIIIII! here’s my entry to the fic challenge (will it be my only one? who can say). in a shocking turn of events this is not a drabble asdfghjk but would we have expected anything concise from me? this fic was inspired by Shine and Starstruck, both by Years and Years. they are very diamond chaney songs so pls do give them a little listen for full effect! standard procedure, she/her pronouns bc they’re in drag, u know the drill. this has taken me entirely too long to write but pls enjoy some diamond chaney from the night of the crowning! (pls also collectively pretend they had an actual dancefloor to celebrate on and not just a hotel room bc i had already started writing at the point Ellie posted her BTS. fic is just one big serving of pretend anyway xo)

***

It’s somewhere around midnight, the sun has set on Thursday and Friday has crept in, and Lawrence is sitting in a booth with the dancefloor flashing bright colours in front of her, only just daring to believe that this is her actual life.

There is not a single moment that seems real. Even being one of the top four took her essentially since filming stopped to come to terms with. But hearing her name being read out, hearing the other girls cheer for her and being able to do nothing but stare at the screen in disbelief with her hands over her mouth and sob like a baby…that’s not sunk in yet. Maybe it never will. She’s still feeling the after-effects from the way the shock and euphoria had kicked seven shades of shit out of her pulse, the way the serotonin had crashed over her like a wave and the absolute unbridled lack of control she’d had over any of her emotions.

When the cameras had been cut off and they’d been given the all-clear from the producers that they could hug each other, Lawrence had only managed to stand up from the chair, still in floods of tears as Bimini bundled their arms around her, Tayce had jostled them all with the way she’d jumped up and down and yelled in delight, and Ellie had looped her arms around her neck and murmured into her shoulder, words Lawrence couldn’t hear but felt the love from regardless.

It had to be Ellie, really, that crowned her. It was a full-circle moment. She still remembers the night they met for the first time; Dundee in 2016, some time in the early hours of the morning (she’d probably called it ‘bastard o’clock’ or something similar), coming out of the bar and being stopped by a boy in half-drag similar ages with her who spoke rapidly and excitedly and told her that he’d messaged her about starting drag and she’d replied to him. The way realisation had dawned on her and the way she’d been her usual loud and boisterous self to cover up the fact she’d actually been quite bashful about the fact they were meeting for the first time.

There was no alternative, not least because of everything they’ve been through together; the years leading up to this moment and the rollercoaster it’s all been. She’s glad that they’re on a high because they’ve seen each other at their lows (been the cause of each others’ too, sometimes) and pulled through only slightly scathed, but always stronger. The producer had asked Lawrence who she’d wanted and when she, still speechless, had pointed in Ellie’s direction, seeing the tears start to stream down her face had only made Lawrence’s start all over again. They’d hugged- just the two of them this time- and the way Ellie had immediately felt like a safe place in the crazy chaos of reality reminded Lawrence so much of when they had filmed. The way even just hearing Ellie’s voice would stop her feeling homesick, the way she was a living comfort blanket.

She’d never tell that to Ellie, of course, because she’d never hear the end of it if she did.

It’s been a couple of hours and Lawrence is expecting everything to suddenly sink in any minute now. Something will click like the last piece of a puzzle and she’ll finally accept that she’s won, that the whole thing isn’t a giant and premature April fools’ prank. She turns her phone over in her hand, wondering what all this nervous energy is doing to her body chemistry. She’s got messages from her family, her friends, Kiko, the girls she works with back home. Well…some of them. But apart from reading them and frantically replying, Lawrence hasn’t checked anything else; hasn’t opened Twitter or Instagram, where the notifications are piling up like pizza leaflets through a letterbox and are equally as unwanted. If she thinks about them she can feel her stomach twist, wrung out like a wet towel.

Forty thousand likes. The Team Bimini tweet had forty thousand likes. What did her own get? Eight thousand? Lawrence thinks about the sheer scale of forty thousand people, compares it to the population of towns in Scotland. Almost Airdrie. Just under Coatbridge. She imagines a whole town of people, angry and furious and disappointed, and all of them tweeting her to let her know exactly that. She remembers in high school when she thought the whole of Hermitage was against her. She wants to tell baby Lawrence that that was fucking small fry. A thousand kids? Try the sheer scale of Bimini’s fanbase. Her breath is shaky when she tries to breathe in, like her lungs have reduced in size. It reminds her of that time in school camp when they all had to jump from a pier for some unknown-fucking-reason, how freezing the water had been and how her chest felt tight as she gasped for air. Lawrence supposes it was character building in the sense that it prepared her exactly for how anxiety would make her feel later in life.

In for four. Hold for five. Out for six.

“There she is!”

An ever so slightly slurred and wobbly voice breaks Lawrence’s reverie, and when she looks up she sees Ellie approaching her, a little unsteady even in the flats she’s changed into with a glass of prosecco in each hand. It says a lot that even at the top of a helter-skelter of an anxiety spiral, Lawrence’s heart still gives a little swell when she sees her friend. Ellie has always been able to make her feel better. She feels an almost silly sense of relief that she’s here.

Lawrence takes one last little breath in before plastering a small smile to her face. “Awrite? Where’s Mumma Diamond?”

“In her room conked out. Just got back from putting her to bed, she couldn’t hack it. Letting down the family name, that one,” Ellie huffs, sliding into the booth and squashing up right beside Lawrence, even though there’s enough space for two metres distance even if they had still been under strict instructions from the BBC.

“Tayce?” Lawrence asks, gratefully accepting the prosecco glass and hurriedly downing a too-big gulp in an attempt to calm herself down.

“Facetiming A’whora. Of course.”

“Of course. Maybe a bottle and a half of prosecco is gonny be the love potion she never knew she needed.”

“Fuck, we can only hope,” Ellie grins, already laughing through her words. “If we’re gonna be touring with them I don’t wanna have to karate chop through five layers of sexual tension every time I have to walk past them.”

Lawrence chuckles, tired but humoured and unable to not make the so-obvious joke. “You couldny fight sleep.”

“Shut the fuck up, I’ll fight you in a minute!” Ellie nudges her with her shoulder and spills both of their prosecco from the glasses in their hands. The gesture is affectionate and out of place with the impending threat. “Where’s Bims? Thought they were with you.”

Lawrence shrugs. “Went out for a smoke with one of the runners about twenty minutes ago and never returned.”

“Good for them. Always thought there’s something inherently sexy about a winch in a back alley.”

“Well, you would know.”

“Eh, so would you!” Ellie cries, nothing short of incredulously offended. Her expression makes her look even more like a cartoon character than usual, and it’s entirely too endearing.

“Yeah, forgot that popular phrase. It takes two to winch in a back alley,” Lawrence jokes, but her heart isn’t in it. It’s too heavy and her ribcage feels like someone laced her into a corset and pulled it too tight. She’s hoping Ellie is too drunk to notice.

Ellie sips her prosecco with her eyes on her, then scrutinises her as she swallows it. She frowns, her nose wrinkling up as she prods Lawrence with an acrylic-nail finger. “What’s up?”

Fuck.

“The sky,” Lawrence says without conviction, and the raised eyebrow Ellie gives her in return is enough to unlock her. She deflates like a balloon and brings her phone up so Ellie can see it, turning it over in her hands. “Just…as happy as I am, and as much as this is all a dream come true…I keep psyching myself up to open any social media, and I can’t, because this one fucking brain cell of anxiety keeps telling me that everyone out there hates me and hates the fact I’ve won.”

Ellie’s face falls into a frown. She gently pries the phone out of her hands and places it on the table, takes one of Lawrence’s free hands in hers and rubs her thumb over her knuckles. “But all your other brain cells know that’s wrong.”

Lawrence sighs. “So why’s that one louder than all the rest?”

Ellie presses her lips together in a badly-suppressed smile. She’s giggling as she speaks. “Because you’ve only got two brain cells.”

Lawrence splutters a laugh, shoving Ellie with her free hand. The other is still laced together with hers. As the laughter dies down and the momentary serotonin wears off, Lawrence can feel her brow furrowing involuntarily. “Forty thousand people wanted Bimini to win, Ellie. Forty thousand. You know that’s like a whole town? That’s like the population of Coatbridge?”

“ Fuck Coatbridge!” Ellie exclaims, affronted, and her shock and insistence makes Lawrence snort all over again. “Okay, forty thousand people is a town but really, what’s that to the rest of the world? Think how tiny that is in the grand scheme of things, Lawrence! Honestly, give a fuck about what any bastard who wants to send you anything vile thinks of you! You’re so amazing! You won! Fuck everyone else!”

Lawrence wants to feel cheered up. The prosecco Ellie’s drunk is making her all the more animated and lively, giving her words a determination and a passion that her speech so rarely possesses most of the time. Ellie is calm, and she doesn’t get wound up easily. There’s something about the fact she’s growing this animated over getting Lawrence to believe in herself that warms her heart a little.

Then again…

“It’s not just that, though. There’s girls from home that haven’t even said well done. Girls I’ve always supported and couldn’t do enough for, and it’s like…really? You can’t be happy for me when I’ve actually managed to do the one thing I’ve wanted to do for years?”

“Well maybe they have said well done, and you’ve just not seen it because you’ve been hiding,” Ellie gestures matter-of-factly at her phone. It doesn’t convince her.

“They won’t have. You’ll know who I’m talking about, Ellie.”

Ellie sighs a little, clearly conceding that Lawrence is right. Her grip on her hand tightens a little, and when Lawrence looks up at her in response her blue eyes hold a glint of assurance.

“Well, even if they haven’t…fuck ‘em. Onwards and upwards, chick. You’ve got ten new sisters out of this who’re always going to know what it’s like, they’re gonna be here for you no matter what,” Ellie says comfortingly. Lawrence knows why she’s said ten and not eleven, but Ellie affirms this with another squeeze and a slightly shy smile. “And you’ve always got me. You’ve always had me.”

This is true. She’s always had Ellie. Before the show, doing gigs with her and hanging out with her and going to DragCon with her. On the show, always there to reassure her or pull her out of a negative spiral or just lean against her shoulder and squeeze her hand. And after the show. Whatever that might look like. Whatever that might be.

She supposes that neither of them know yet.

“C’mon,” Ellie says decisively, holding out a hand for her as the song changes. It’s some sort of Paolo Nutini dirge, and Lawrence has to laugh at how obviously whoever is in charge of the music has rushed to attempt to find something Scottish. Lawrence can only blink at Ellie’s outstretched hand.

“Oh, fuck off.”

“Come on! ” Ellie laughs. Lawrence doesn’t know if she’s blushing or if it’s just the lights.

But she does know that she can’t leave Ellie hanging when she’s looking at her like that.

So Lawrence lets herself be dragged out to the dancefloor and pulled into a hug as Ellie sways them left to right ever-so-slightly out of time with the song, tipsy and full of affection given the way her arms are locked around Lawrence’s waist. It should feel stranger than it does. In reality, being held by Ellie feels as simple as just existing.

Or perhaps simpler than that, given the fact that Lawrence’s existence feels entirely surreal right now.

“You have to be in drag for half past se-ven,” Ellie sing-songs, bringing one of her arms out from around Lawrence’s waist and tapping her on the nose. Lawrence immediately misses it, so it’s a relief that it’s not gone for long.

“Because I wo-on,” Lawrence imitates back to her, and the way Ellie squeezes her waist in response and affirmation causes a smile and a blush to bloom on her face without her even being to control it. She rests her head against Ellie’s chest so she can’t have the satisfaction (ammunition) of seeing how she makes her feel.

It’s little moments like that that she needs right now. Anchors to keep her down on earth, to let her know that this isn’t just some really prolonged lucid dream and it’s all actually happening because currently reality is so absurdly ridiculous; she’s just won Drag Race and she’s slow-dancing with Ellie to the song that’s blasting through the speakers in the background, a parody of some American high school prom where she’s just been crowned the queen.

Moments like these- where Ellie’s holding her close as if she’s literally trying to protect her from the world- remind her that not everybody is against her. Not everybody hates her. Not everybody is wishing her a slow and painful death because Bimini didn’t win, least of all them. She knows that Ellie was never able to share what team she was on even though she hadn’t had a chance at the crown, but she didn’t have to. Not really. They’ve always been on each others’ team.

Ellie jolts Lawrence out of her daydream with the way her chest is shuddering, and Lawrence momentarily thinks she’s crying again before her soft giggle becomes audible over the music.

“What?” Lawrence tilts her head up, meeting Ellie’s scheming, smirking face.

“Can’t believe RuPaul Charles asked if you wanted to move to London, city of dreams, city of a thousand opportunities…” Ellie begins, Lawrence already laughing as she knows what the conclusion to her sentence will be. “…and you said, ‘yer awrite pal, am fine in Glesga wi the jakes an’ the Blue Lagoon chippy an’ the guy that stands on Buchanan Street and yells at everyone that they’re going to hell!’ ”

Lawrence would normally roll her eyes at Ellie’s impersonation of her accent, but she’s laughing too much at the joke that’s forming in her head to commit to it. “RuPaul asked if I wanted to move to London, and I said…”

The pair of them are almost giggling too much to get the punchline out, Ellie clocking on to how it’s going to end. In sync, the pair of them splutter out a “… NNNNAAW! ”

Giddy and happy, Lawrence rests her cheek against Ellie’s chest again. “London’s got junkies too, anyway.”

“This is gonna sound really selfish, but…don’t actually move to London,” Ellie’s voice murmurs from above her, and there’s something plaintive to it that makes Lawrence refrain from replying with a joke or a barb like she normally would. The way Ellie follows it up cements that fact. “It would probably be so good for you, but like…Glasgow would be lost without you, genuinely. And so would I.”

Lawrence can’t cry again tonight, even if it’s only because she thinks it’s physically impossible, so she just squeezes Ellie tight until she worries about her ability to breathe. “I’m not going anywhere, hen.”

Lawrence doesn’t even really know what they are, her and Ellie. They both still have Grindr and they talk about their hookups and raised hopes and broken hearts with each other like friends. But they’re not really just that. They’re affectionate, and they open up to each other with the same shared unspoken understanding of something Lawrence doesn’t understand. They hug for too long and cuddle up to each other when they’re together, and Lawrence can’t count the amount of times during filming that she’d find strength in the way Ellie would squeeze her hand without a word. They’ve woken up together too many times (why she’d felt the need to remind Ellie of that while the cameras were rolling, she’ll never know) and kissed each other more than that. Every time they say I love you they mean it, but they also mean a little bit more. There’s no butterflies or fast pulses or fluttering hearts- they’re past that stage. Everything is just natural and normal and easy.

She wonders if they’ll ever put a label on what they have. There’s a part of her that doesn’t ever want to.

“If we’re both still single by the time we’re forty,” Lawrence begins, leaning back to look at Ellie through her glazed, half-drunk half-tired eyes. “…we should just say ‘fuck it’ and get married.”

(She doesn’t even know if it’s a joke or not.)

Ellie laughs as if it is and nods as if it isn’t. “Drag wedding. We’d need to upstage Tayce and A’whora, though.”

Lawrence realises something. “I’ll turn forty two years before you.”

There’s a pause as the song starts to fade out, and it makes Ellie’s murmur seem louder than it is. “That’s okay. We don’t need to wait for me.”

The jolt her words give Lawrence’s heart and the way Ellie’s talking as if it’s an actual plan makes her think maybe it wasn’t really ever a joke after all. It’s ridiculous though, and it’s all theoretical, and it’s a totally hypothetical scenario, and they’re both drunk , for Christ’s sake. So Lawrence pulls out of Ellie’s arms and takes her hands in her own, the song that’s started playing more upbeat and the opening chords inciting some sort of hope and optimism in her heart for the future that’s unfolding for the pair of them.

“One more song then bed?” she suggests. Ellie raises her eyebrows as she looks down at her.

“Whose bed?”

“Shut the fuck up, Dirty Diamond,” Lawrence shoots back without missing a beat, and as the first lines of the song fill the room she leans back and begins to spin the pair of them in a circle, both of them laughing as if everything is as simple as just that room, and the music blaring out from the speakers, and the lights flashing above them drenching them in purple and pink.

[lovleez]

oner 《恶浪》 mv/film theory

(this is less of a theory and more of a debunking of the mv though)

warnings: mentions of violence, murder (i wont include gifs of the bloody moments but it will be discussed!!!), animal abuse, and a bomb or two ? (someone gets blown up ;-;)

honestly the debunking might get a lil bit dark around the ling chao and ziyang individual parts, so be warned of that!

it would be helpful for you to watch/listen to these to process whats going on here:

oner 《恶浪》 mv (cw blood, murder, animal abuse, & heavy violence - please dont watch if these are triggers for you!!!) (there’s also eng subs in this link ^^)

oner - AGENT  (this is a song, but there’s quite a bit of dialogue near the end that ties into this plot!)  (cw gunshot, beeping noises that resemble a bomb ?? - all at the end of the song w/ the dialogue)

okay lets dive into it d(^-^)> !!!

to get the important info out of the way!

the start of the mv shows the three of them chilling on the couch, as friends do, watching,,well themselves on the screen (oner’s past performances as idols) (and i do believe that the idols part of this has some significance that i can figure out). the important takeaway from the beginning rlly is that they’re three good friends...who are completely unaware of each other’s secret occupations

their occupations being: ziyang, a murderer, yueyue, a spy, and ling chao, a hacker

now to jump into the main story! (starting around 1:35)

yueyue and ziyang both have the same target: the man in the restaurant. however yueyue gets there first and does his job well, as he gets away without being caught. ziyang is frustrated that his target is taken already.

*interesting detail here, but when trying to enter, ziyang shows them a ring with a purple jewel in the middle for entry,,,coincidentally, the man yueyue kills in the bar in his personal segment in the film later also has the same ring? obv the ring is for the restaurant entry so maybe ziyang wasn’t going to kill this “boss” but maybe negotiate/discuss something with him instead...but also thats disproven by the fact that ziyang pulled out a gun to presumably shoot him before realizing the dude was dead....

but also,,,suspicious how there was a zoom in to the purple ring when yueyue kills the man in the bar..maybe it means more than we think it does? altho im not too sure what  to think abt it for now

     for reference:

     ziyang’s ring                                    

     dead man in bar’s ring

.

moving on 

okay so since yueyue is a spy n all, he has to confirm his kill somewhere right? this somewhere is a phone booth,,,one that ling chao has rigged up with a bomb,,,,

speculation: someone hired ling chao to kill someone who will be approaching the phone booth; at this time, lc doesn’t know that this someone is yueyue (and is v shocked to see him there through his cameras as evident by his “what the hell! are you kidding me?”)

....and after this part the film dives into their personal stories to give more background on who  these three are (i’ll expand on those after i finish explaining the present timeline ^^) before coming back to the main story 

so!

ling chao “accidentally” blew up yueyue oh no (he’s still alive tho yey)

& then yueyue holds up a piece of candy,,,and immediately knows its ling chao (cuz its the piece of candy lc was eating earlier in the film) 

(and to take care of all loose ends that my brain is providing me with: in the beginning they didn’t know abt each other’s secret occupations...how does yueyue know that lc is capable of doing this? my answer: they used to be agent buddies!!! i’ll expand on this later hehe)

 .

and so

it was at this moment ling chao knew...he fucked up

he’s afraid yueyue might come after him.

which, is exactly what yueyue does

after going home or somewhere, yueyue receives a text telling him to get rid of “them” (ling chao) bc his “identity is exposed” 

....so now yueyue has to go and hunt down his buddy ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

and they fight! looks very painful for ling chao,,,poor dude,,,

since ziyang comes out from the back door to join the fight, theres two possibilities that come from this:

1) ling chao knew yueyue was coming and knew he couldnt take him down himself (lets be honest; he looks rlly scrawny) so he called ziyang to his location for backup (how could he know ziyang can fight? agent buddies 👐) 

2) ziyang and ling chao live together in the same house

anyways, both results making it obvious that ling chao and ziyang are on the same team while yueyue is on another (lets ignore the fact that ling chao was getting up to fight ziyang as well)

the fight scene is so dramatic oml T-T

ziyang could also be motivated to beat up yueyue in this fight cuz the dude did  take his target before he himself could (loophole: how did ziyang know it was yueyue who took his target? answer: maybe yueyue left like a signature or smthn at the crime scene, or ziyang saw him walk out  ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ )

and when they all beat the living heck out of each other and are dramatically lying down in different areas of the room 

the tv turns on to a council saying “still want to be idols?”

(and remember, the thing they were watching on tv earlier was themselves performing,,,as idols. i cant connect it further than that so lemme know if yall figure smthn out ^-^)

so mayhaps this council is yueyue’s agency and they wanted to turn the trio against each other...? they would have set this whole situation up: they knew ziyang wanted to kill the restaurant “boss”, so they assigned yueyue to take care of him first, which creates conflict between those two. then, they hired ling chao to rig up a phone booth with a bomb; basically setting him up against yueyue

whether this council succeeds with their plan or not is unrevealed bc the film has a “to be continued” at the end, so the storyline still will have more to it!!!

although i would say the council succeeded since they all did beat each other bruised and bloody

.

that leaves the question: why  is the council setting them up against each other?

what are there previous connections beyond them just being friends 👀 ?

and here i shall bring back the “agent buddies” bit i was talking abt earlier, as well as why i linked the agent song in the beginning

near the end of the mv, there’s quite a lot of dialogue between the three of them, and it goes like this:

[robotic voice: welcome agent oner

ling chao (?): check 

yueyue: yo what up guys!

ziyang: yo what up bro

ziyang (yueyue?): alright lets take them out

yueyue: okay gentlemen we got a lot to do

ziyang: ey we gotta finish this quick, i got a date tonight

yueyue: really?

ziyang: no hard feelings (couldnt catch the rest)

yueyue: okay shut up

ling chao: hey guys, i saw a hit

(?): copy that

yueyue (ziyang?): hold your breath....now

ling chao: guys watch out

yueyue: okay guys locked and loaded

*single shot can be heard, then the reloading of a gun*

yueyue (?): go go go!

yueyue: fire fire fire!

yueyue: ???? *indistinguishable orders*

ziyang?: i got trouble i got trouble

yueyue: ?? i got ?? lets go

ling chao: stay together

ziyang (yueyue??): okay set to kill

ling chao: damn the truck is (blown?)

yueyue: what the hell

ziyang: okay let me (???) it

*bomb beeping noises*

yueyue: ???? clean this blood on my shirt]

(not sure how accurate my hearing is but its enough to make some guesses 😅)

agent buddies! the three of them used to be agents, as the song is titled, at some agency...and they probably made a pretty strong team together

the agency story would explain why they all seem to be good fighters too!

thats why the council might have wanted to tear them apart. perhaps the council was doing something that they knew would displease the trio, so they needed them separated lest they team up and try to defeat them 

i also think this audio could have been describing a mission going wrong for them, possibly their last one as a team. someone was probably hurt (im betting on either ziyang or ling chao), and they quit the agency and aimed to live normal lives from then on

...but old habits are hard to forget, so ziyang starts to kill ppl in his free time, yueyue joined another agency as a spy, and ling chao uses his hacking skills for other purposes

however they all dont tell each other, which could add on to the tension of their fight at the end of the film

.

now to dive into their individual bits of the film. these all don’t connect much to the main lore, just expands onto their lives with their secret occupations btw!

.

YUEYUE

his segment details moments in his daily agent life; im guessing he’s not very happy with it judging by his nightmares? or the nightmares are bringing up his past at his old agency which he does not like

he’s also master of disguise woah

personally i think he’s losing “who he is”. he’s always playing the role of another person, always putting on another disguise...so he starts losing his sense of identity (if that makes sense ;-;) 

(and if you wanna stretch it and make things wholesome, maybe the only times he [feels like himself] is when he’s around his two friends)

so basically: he’s always filling out other personas to the point where he doesnt know who he is anymore

(this is also the segment where he kills a man in the bar with poison,,,and the man was wearing the same ring as ziyang,,,,which is like Hm. why’d the directors do that 🤔)

.

ZIYANG

aka the murderer :D

(and not just regular serial killer type, more like joker-esque type where they’re a bit insane,,,)

okay his segment starts of with him dragging a man through a white room, where the floors is covered with plastic, and on the walls are a bunch of clay molds of human body parts

:D

my brain has concluded that! ziyang takes clay and makes molds of his victim’s faces/body parts of who he kills! to make statues! 

(i dont even know how i got there aksjdhdh but thats just what i assumed the first time i watched this film thingy)

and to make it more messed up than it already sounds,,,im guessing he’s a famous statue maker too, and holds shows where he presents his works to the public and maybe even bids them off ?

     ,,,,little did the audience know,,,,

          (this kinda remind me of sally and gabe’s statue from the pjo too now aksjhdkdh)

(i got this assumption from 6:50 in the film where he walks out in front of an audience who start clapping,,,and let my brain run wild with the rest,,,)

of course, he probably kills off the people he was the molding the clay off of once he’s done with his works,,,or sometimes even in the middle of his works as shown in the mv (*-* )

but alas that is not all to his story,,,

judging by his flashbacks when he’s beating that one dude to death with a bat, he used to be bullied when he was in school, which seems to be the source of all his anger throughout the film..

    ( yeah he killed the bullies too (_ _ )> )

its part of his personality to be rough and short tempered - he doesn’t like people looking down on him (as the bullies did)

and,,,if you want to be wholesome again! perhaps he found some bits of happiness and peace when hanging out with the others :]

.

LING CHAO

cw: animals abuse!!! 

his is pretty simple and is already explained in the mv itself! i’ll walk ya’ll through it though in case you didn’t watch the film tho akdjdjkf

basically: he’s just a dude who loves dogs :]

a lot

in his segment, a girl (handong, looking absolutely stunning ToT) approaches him wanting to take home another stray, and when he asks her where how the previous dog she adopted was doing, she says that “my bestie loved him a lot, so i gave him to her” ( -_- )

so...he lets her keep the dog, but also decides to keep an eye on her...to the point where she becomes very paranoid that someone is stalking her (which..she isnt wrong in)(but she doesn’t believe it to be ling chao because they’re..dating? i think? and he lulls her into a false sense of security that he’ll protect her from harm)

and then bam! one day he breaks into her house, steals the dog away, and then,,,,blows her up,,,,,

(i must say as disturbing this scene is,,,,i absolutely adore ling chao’s look here askjdjfd)

(i mean?? look at him?? loving the black lipstick ugh)

(v pale tho ;-;)

okay anyways the next flashbacks reveal that handong was abusing her dogs & starving them, and him being the animal lover he is, decides to kill her for it ig

(also she,,,stabbed the other dog that she “gave to her bestie” so-)

yeahh thats the end of his story; nothing much to take from it except that his hacker skills are still intact past agent days 

.

.

.

annnd thats a wrap folks! nothing else to expand on; i’ll definitely make another part to expand on this if they decide to release another mini film in the future tho :]

[cara-terra-pace]

Rich Neighbors Au Part 3: Bye Bye Miss Parisian Pie

Part 1 Part 2 The Gabrieling Procrastination Art Rich Neighbors Vine Animatic

-Oh my watermelon kids

-they are finally in America!!!

-First stop: Trash City!

-oops sorry NYC, sorry, they just sound the same when I say them out loud so I get them confused sometimes :)

-(I’m kidding New Yorkers don’t kill me please)

-okay, okay, getting off topic.

-so they’re in New York

-they’re just kind of wandering and they end up running into the Elmos.

-Mari was almost pulled into a hug with one and Felix had to drag her out of the way, saving her from the creep

-they then immediately booked it to a restaurant, hoping that would give them a bit of a reprieve.

-Hard Rock Cafe was the one they picked, Nino’s choice, obviously.

-Marinette gushed over the mini milkshakes for like ten minutes.

-someone ended up recognizing them. They took a picture, posted it on twitter and now BOOM

-every single one of their fans and customers know exactly where they are.

-but ANYWAY

-they’re in nyc, why not go to a broadway show?

-Six. They go to see Six. Don’t @ me, I like six and I thought Marinette and Nino would both enjoy it

-Mari is LIVING for their outfits.

-Nino is also loving every minute.

-They’re in the front and Nino is basically grinning the whole show but during Heart of Stone you can see him tear up a bit.

-Felix actually enjoys it. He shoves all the thoughts of historical inaccuracies out of his head and mostly just listens to Mari ramble about the outfits.

-Adrien vibes with Seymour honestly. And Parr. And basically all the queens.

-Nathalie likes the show too, mostly because it’s a nice break for her and the songs are pretty catchy too

-for Mega Six, Mari is filming and all the queens look directly into her camera

-they also take it and dance on stage with her phone, filming everything

-Mari is about to faint. Doesn’t matter that she’s technically famous, she is DEAD

-they don’t see her face when they take and give back the phone so when she comes backstage afterwards with the gang, at first they just recognize her hair and see her as the girl who was filming the Mega Six

-then they see her face and the costume designer is trying so hard not to squeal, oblivious to the fact that she’s doing the exact same thing.

-Mari is absolutely gushing to them about how great the show was

-She tells Parr that her song was what kept her going in school, since she’s listened to the Broadway and West End soundtracks about a billion times. (Pretend like the broadway one is already out time is a construct with rich people)

-side note, they post the pictures and video and suddenly A BUNCH of Six fans are now following Mari and now Mari is designing outfits inspired by the queens because AH THE COSTUMES ARE GORGEOUS I COULD TALK ABOUT THEM FOR DAYS I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

-fun fact, they are all wearing a “If Found, Please Return to Nathalie” shirt

-Felix is adorable and bought Mari some hair pins with watermelons because Watermelon Kids

-yes Nathalie has a shirt that says “I’m Nathalie”

-they actually did lose Adrien and these two girls were able to return him to Nathalie and they all took a pic with them and followed the two on Twitter

-they don’t know what else to do in New York, so they just make their way down to...

-New Jersey!

-Seaside Boardwalk!!

-they mostly stick to the arcades, Mari sticking to casino pier, and them getting fries and lemonade as a snack.

-they spend the night at the boardwalk, going on a few rides like Moby Dick, and Pirate’s Cove.

-they spend the night at a house of a friend of Tom Dupain’s and the next day, they go to the Ocean County mall because it was close to the house.

-Adrien complained a bit about going to “the least cool mall in the state” but stopped when he found a five below at the plaza.

-five below is his weakness.

-mall, fun, yada yada yada

-bath and body works is inside? Mari’s in heaven.

-Friendly’s for lunch! Ice cream all around my friends!

-that afternoon they go to laser tag and completely dominated.

-Twins on one team, Watermelon Kids on the other.

-for some reason (the reason is called because I said so) they decide to go down to another boardwalk further south.

-on the way they go to lobster house for lunch (lobster house is amazing I don’t even really like it for the food it’s just the VIBES. they are. immaculate.)

-they go to Wildwood and ohhh

-Nino and Adrien are living it up on the rides

-rollercoaster, log flume, submarine ride slash game thingy!

-they’re doing it all

-and Felix and Mari are being so cute and domestic winning each other things at the games

-and then the arcade, where Felix is hopeless at Skeeball and ends up slipping and Mari helps him up while trying not to laugh

-can I just say that I think Mari is probably really good at claw machines?

-she has some weird sort of luck when she’s playing and she’ll always end up winning a prize

-they spend the night at a cute little hotel and the next day they go mini golfing

-now this is where Felix for some reason shines

-Mari keeps losing her golf ball and having to go search for it

-Adrien and Nino are both mediocre at it.

-Adrien got a hole in one and he and Nino screamed and Nino picked him up and spun him around

-they also got ice cream at said mini golf place

-Khor’s is just...*chefs kiss*. They all got the orange and vanilla swirl because I said so and it’s a Khor’s classic

-Felix picks an Italian place for dinner that night. It’s called Little Italy and it’s pretty good.

-and, that’s a wrap for New Jersey! Next...

-alllll the way down to.... North Carolina!

-they spend only a day in North Carolina, but they do go to these caves.

-and also, this place with food that’s mainly made of... alligator?

-basically, it’s a rest day.

-Mari gets SUPER inspired and buys fabric to make a jacket inspired by the caves and honestly it’s gorgeous because she used not only the tan of the rocks, but the beautiful blues of the water.

-NATHALIE BREAK

-she’s so tired but she’s having so much fun with her boys!!!

-she actually feels pretty well rested a few days into the trip.

-Nathalie can’t help but fuss over the kids

-and coo at their cuteness when they do cute things

-She and Mari always share a room

-and the three boys share a room

-Nathalie helps Mari do complicated braids because she’s super good at those and Mari can only do a basic braid.

-next!

-South Carolina!

-specifically Charleston.

-ghost tout ghost tour ghost tour

-“and this is the building where a dude saw the ship that held all his crops sink. He then proceeded to-“

-it gets graphic in that moment and Marinette is having fun but also isn’t a fan of thinking of... uh, head not being on body???

-pirates!!! They go into this cave thingy and see piratey stuff, which is entertaining for everyone because it’s creepy in the cave, which Mari enjoys, PIRATES, which Adrino enjoys, and history for the grumpy Felix

-it’s quiet and everyone’s happy, which Nathalie is living for.

-they mostly just walk around looking at pretty things the next day

-rainbow row rainbow row

-Mari is so inspired that she buys a cheap sketchbook from target just so she can get all these ideas down

-she desperately wants to sew but she has to wait since they don’t have access to a sewing machine.

-so, they eat at a sandwich shop before hitting the road.

-they make a quick stop in Georgia, laugh at a sign that lists the marvel movies made in Georgia, then leave.

-(sorry Georgia. I’m sure you’re a very nice state but I’ve had limited interaction with the state besides passing through and sometimes stopping to eat lunch.)

-this is the thing they’re very excited for!!!

-Florida!

-specifically, Orlando

-that’s right, DISNEY WORLD.

-they are spending a whole week here.

-that’s right, 7 days of fun.

-day 1, animal kingdom because they get there in the afternoon and there isn’t as much they want to see in animal kingdom. They have loads of fun though and are planning on dropping by another day for the first half of the day.

-next day is Magic Kingdom

-they go on so many rides.

-small world is Adrien’s favorite ride, don’t @ me.

-Casey’s Corner is where they get lunch because Mari loves the aesthetic.

-MINNIE EARS ALL AROUND

-Marinette has a different one for every outfit

-Aristocats ears!!!

-she can’t explain why she loves it, she just DOES.

-for their last day (yeah this is out of order but who cares) they park hop, ending in magic kingdom and staying for the fireworks. Our favorite designer wears these lovely light up ears

-when they went to animal kingdom on the first day you KNOW Mari had some cute ears

-shh don’t tell the boys and Nathalie but Felix actually asked Mari to be his girlfriend when they were in Hollywood studios

-they walked off together, and sat on a bench somewhere sharing a snack

-our extra boy asked if she could be his girlfriend with matching beauty and the beast rings

-Mari said yes and she smiled soooo much.

-it’s kind of hard to explain everything so let’s just talk about the interesting stuff!!

-Marinette VIBES with the princesses oh my god

-TIANA INSPIRED OUTFIT PLEASE

-Disney is V fun but... sorry boys, it’s time for Marinette to get some sewing done! (Also I’m kind of bored of writing Disney this took several weeks bc I would write like a sentence a day lol)

-CALIFORNIA TIME

-they do go for one day in Disneyland but most of it’s spent going to get some inspiration for Mari.

-fabric stores fabric stores.

-that girl is sketching and coming up with ideas like her life DEPENDS ON IT

-inspiration explosion

-also some normal Knick knack shopping, so Mari gets some time away from staring down at her tablet and sketchbook.

-resting and just going to try all different sorts of normal, causal restaurants

-living the life

-also, Felix and Mari go on their first date. I say first date Very Loosely because it’s actually them sitting in Mari’s hotel room eating pizza and watching a movie and though they both consider it a date, they want to have a cute, cliche first date when they back home.

-Speaking of home...

-They are about to fly back to Paris when they get a message from Jess, one of the girls who found Adrien in NY.

-It was a message from her asking if she could check her latest tweet.

-it was a recording of Jess playing guitar, the song (an instrumental version of Miraculous but slightly modified) being wonderfully sweet. Aeon, the other girl, was also in the video, humming along to Jess. At the end, Jess dedicated the video the them and they both gushed about how nice they were in person and that both of them had waited until they had the arrangement ready before they posted it on social media.

-it thawed even Felix’s icy heart.

-and as they flew back to Paris, Nathalie couldn’t help but think of what a perfectly wonderful trip it had been. Minus... the accidents.

-But there’s no need to talk about that here.

-They reach Paris safe and sound, and Marinette takes a long, long nap right before she goes into creative mode and sews all the outfits she had sketched. Advantages of being rich, you know? You don’t have to worry about fabric price.

-While Mari was sewing, everyone else was also slowing down.

-And gearing up to go back to school

-*dramatic music*

-What will happen next? Even I have no idea!

.......

It’s almost like.... I exist??? Haha, but seriously, sorry for sort of going MIA??? I finally finished this, mostly by getting lazy towards the end. Yes, before you say it, I don’t hate NYC. It’s cool there, I just love making fun of it and the fact the special cam eout a few days ago is just pure irony. All of those links should work, so you can actually buy the Disney things I’m talking about! If they aren’t, please tell me so I can fix them. Next up is the Nathalie mentioned “Accidents”. That should take way less time because I’m going to go with the tried and true method of “Make stuff up and hope it makes sense”. I say should because you never know with me, I’m a mess ❤️❤️❤️

Tag list: @bigpicklebananatree @kris-pines04 @animegirlweeb @akana-sama @insomniac-nerd-posts-things @virgolioness @goblinwhoships @toastlover21 @buginetye

[lunarrwolf]

black butterflies [colby brock]

fandom: sam and colby/traphouse

pairing: colby x self

word count: 1,963

part(s): one

summary: after a prank gone wrong, colby and his friends meet another youtuber during her meet and greet in hopes it will cheer her up

A/N: this is a self-insert because it’s a fic that was started for my own personal pleasure. it was supposed to be shared last year on my fan account after a poll was done but never was bc i ended up not feeling ready to do so. i figured since i‘m ready to share it now, it would be best to do it here since it’s pretty detailed

ONE

“What’s up guys?! It’s your girl Kirsy here, and today we’re going to be entering Freetown State Forest. Otherwise known as The Cursed Forest of Massachusetts.” The girl looked into her camera brightly, the excitement of finally being able to explore her home state’s most bizarre places setting in as she recorded.

“Wait - cursed? You didn’t say anything about that.” Her best friend and roommate exclaimed, red locks shaking as quickly as her head was. Casey had been interrupted during a well credited movie of theirs when her friend decided she wanted to go out and take advantage of the fact that neither of them had any plans for the weekend. And as usual in their two bedroom home, no morning schedules meant the freedom to explore the best-worst possible places and capture it all on film for both social network and personal use.

“Didn’t I?” Kirsy chimed, turning the camera toward her roommate who only glanced into the object before shooting her friend the middle finger. She laughed and followed the retreating figure toward the path that would eventually lead them into the actual forest. It was a widened road of dirt and rocks, causing the two of them to nearly trip every so often. The sun was just beginning to set, so the scenery on the other side of the camera was something the green haired girl was glad she was able to capture as she filmed. They continued to walk down the barren path for about forty-five minutes - trees starting to surround them after a half hour - and by then the sun had set quickly without notice and the night began. She could hear Casey muttering about how the place was significantly creepier, and an idea popped into her head. She turned the camera to herself and glanced up to make sure no attention was being brought to her before looking into the lens. “So we’ve been walking for nearly an hour. Casey is already kind of freaked out because of how dark it is, so as her best friend I thought it would be fun to do a little prank on her.”

“What are you doing?” She looked up to meet the narrowed eyes of the redhead that caught her speaking lowly to the camera.

Casey’s eyes didn’t falter from their current state as she continued to glare at the other girl. “Kirsy, I swear if you’re planning something-”

Kirsy scoffed, “What would I be planning out here? Your murder? No thanks - too much work.” She finished off, laughing lightly at the expression she received before the girl with reddish brown locks turned back to survey their surroundings. Kirsy did the same thing for the following ten minutes of their walk. The only sounds they heard so far were forest animals and the wind rustling through the loose leaves of the trees. There was the occasional crunch or branch snapping, which unnerved both of the girls until they would see some small critter scattering to another bush or inside a hole somewhere. She really wanted to pull a practical joke on her friend after not being able to do one on her the whole month she’d been gone on a trip prior to this night. It seemed to be quiet enough to where she wouldn’t really suspect a thing. As long as comments were made from behind her, Casey wouldn’t notice.

She took the opportunity when they were nearing a fork in the pathway and jokingly said something about the atmosphere of the place that would make her friend give her a knowing look. And that was just what happened. However, when Casey turned around, the main star of the channel the video would be posted on was nowhere to be seen. She turned in a full circle slowly, being even more aware and extremely careful where she stepped so she wouldn’t disrupt the sudden silence of the area. “Kirsy.. Kirsy.” She hissed out, moving toward the edge of the path. “I swear to god if this is one of your pranks-” A twig snapped from directly beside her once she got to the natural line that separated a way back to civilization from unpredictable darkness. Her heart was pounding, and tears were springing in her eyes. It had been too long of a time since her last appearance in one of her friend’s scary videos; she forgot how frightening things could get within minutes or hours of arriving somewhere.

There was an obnoxiously loud rustling coming from the same direction, and she approached the bushes to her right cautiously. Reaching a reluctant arm out, she started to move stuff away from her so she could peer behind the plant. As her face got closer, someone jumped out and screamed a scream that was deadly enough to be included in a horror film. “Shit!” Casey jumped back, almost falling to the ground if she hadn’t been able to balance herself.

She glared up at the girl who was trying hard to hold on to the camera as she held her stomach in laughter. “Holy crap, you should’ve seen your face!”

“Dude. What the fuck!” Casey stood back up and snatched the camera away from her friend, marching away as she ignored the calls of the hysterical girl running to catch up.

-

A small group of friends sat on the leather couch in the living room, watching a fellow YouTuber explore a haunted forest with only one other person. It was entertaining to say the least - the amount of times the media influencer messed with her friend was endless, and it only got better when payback would be put into order. One of the darker haired males shook his head, a smile on his face as he shared an amused look with his friends. “I need to marry this girl.”

“Marry who?”

Brennen looked up to see a brunette enter from upstairs, looking at the group of them with curiosity written all over their faces. “Kirsy, dude. Not only is she rocking the new hair, but she obviously knows how to have fun.” Colby didn’t hesitate to join the others on the couch once he heard the name. She was very well known in their industry; a skyrocketing vlogger who stuck to the same several categories of videos and never failed to deliver quality content. She was known to go above and beyond for her fans after having been one herself for years before deciding to dive into the world of explorations. At a recent milestone of 500,000 subscribers, she not only released new merch, she also scheduled a last minute meet and greet that had the sidewalks and almost half of the central park of Boston flooded with local fans of hers. She was someone the members and friends of the trap house admired, as she wasn’t afraid to be herself even when others put her down and criticized the way she behaved on camera.

“Guys, check it out. She added something at the end of this.” Jake brought the guys’ attention back to the computer from their phones. She wasn’t smiling and didn’t hold a bright aura like she usually did when adding bits recorded after her adventures. When she spoke it sounded normal, but after having watched her for the past three years, the boys knew when something was off. They watched the girl give the lens a wry smile before clearing her throat, glancing away as she dove right into the point of the additional bit.

“So this part was recorded a couple of nights after we went into the forest. Casey hasn’t been with me since we got back.” She started off. “I did realize after the fact that she was genuinely mad at me, and I do feel really bad about it. She’d been gone for a month before then. Which meant she didn’t have to deal with abandoned houses, restless spirits, or me and my stupidity - so she wasn’t prepared to be brought back into the swing of things so quickly. I take full responsibility for any actual fear I caused her, and I want to apologize for doing this to her right as she got back from what I know was a good, relaxing trip for her. I did apologize off camera as soon as I caught up with her and she did say she forgave me. However, she uh- she won’t be in videos anymore. And I’m going to be honest with you guys...” She trailed off, and Colby’s heart lurched when he noticed the glossiness in her eyes, “I don’t know where our friendship stands. We know each other’s limits, and while I didn’t go too far, I think she just got tired of me doing all of this. So... yeah.” She gave a dry chuckle, tugging at the end of her sleeves.

“Damn.. she must be crushed right now.” Mike commented, glancing between his friends as they all gave their agreements.

“I can’t even imagine possibly losing you guys.” Sam added.

“And over a prank - Casey’s pretty cold.” Corey brought in, changing his position on the couch and leaning forward when the girl began to speak again.

“Anyway, I’m sure you guys didn’t keep watching just to see me get all emotional. So on to the good news!” The green haired girl continued, clapping her hands together and smiling brightly at the camera as if nothing happened. Still, they could see the look in her eyes, and it was unsettling to see the otherwise outgoing Dominican that way. “I'll be going to Los Angeles in a few days on business, and am happy to announce that I'll also be having a meetup at Santa Monica Pier. I haven't set the exact date in case my schedule goes out of whack, but I will be bringing along someone special. I expect that our family's policy of acceptance will be applied to him.”

“Wait wait wait - my girl's got a man?”

Mike rolled his eyes, smirking at Brennen. “If she was yours, wouldn't she know you exist?”

There was a short amount of silence while the targeted guy looked over with a playfully offended look on his face. “That was cold.” The guys laughed and chuckled, but deep down they still felt bad about what they just heard. The ginger had been by the brunette's side since the start of the channel. Though Casey was mostly the support and a guest in abandoned vlogs and some other types of videos, she would speak out as her friend's defense and help out in any way she could. Some would have figured that a month off would have her ecstatic in going back into working with her best friend. However, it sounded like that time away made her less for the type of content Kirsy had and more against it. The latter of the two must have been devastated at that moment.

“We should go meet her.” Sam announced. “Sounds like it's free - and Brennen could use an ego boost if she does know he exists.”

“You guys gotta give me a little credit here. My channel's pretty big.”

“Yes, but has she acknowledged it?” The dyed brunette questioned, laughing at the glare he received in return. It seemed like it was a unanimous agreement to take a short trip to the pier when she arrived, but everyone was vocal except for Colby. Sam shook his best friend's shoulder, and the young man blinked, switching his gaze over to the former blonde. “You alright?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, glancing back at the screen. “I agree. We should go meet her.”

[that-thing-that-feeling]

Do you have any excerpts from the reviews of sp2 that require payment in the US to read? If so, can you share any comments on Charlie’s part? (BFI, The Telegraph, etc)

Hey sure! I linked to the times uk one bc someone asked for it but it wasn’t good and didn’t mention Charlie. Which BFI one—sight and sound or something else? I’ll put the whole telegraph one behind the cut—it’s a fun, descriptive review that loves the film, but it only has one line on Charlie in it (“animalistic one night stand”), altho it does talk abt Patrick’s film. Anyway here it is behind the cut (does have spoilers from part one):

How much can art ever help us heal? There’s no straightforward answer to that question, which is why The Souvenir: Part II never stops posing it, readjusting the viewfinder, and switching angles. A British heavy-hitter in Cannes, this sequel to Joanna Hogg’s cinematic memoir of two years ago has a dizzyingly playful and prismatic quality. For a film overshadowed by terrible loss, it’s remarkably elating and light on its feet – at once a comedy of filmmaking egos, a multi-layered exercise in creative therapy, and a grippingly honest confessional.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Part II is its sheer buoyancy as a companion piece, springing off the earlier film’s strengths and finding ways to circle back, to reconsider and even critique them. Where Part I had a shimmering poignancy as a tragic love story, this is busy and dazzling: Hogg has never made a funnier piece of work or come to us with such fresh provocations.

As we neared the end of the 1980s in Part I, film student Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) was confronted with the shock of her young life, as her boyfriend Anthony (Tom Burke) was found dead from a heroin overdose in the Wallace Collection’s toilet, having concealed the extent of his addiction from her over several years. Part II picks straight up from there, with a bedridden Julie wasting away in the Norfolk stronghold of her parents, played by Byrne's real-life mother Tilda Swinton and a brilliantly cast unknown, one James Spencer Ashworth, whose droll incomprehension typifies Hogg's deft touch with both seasoned actors and brand new ones.

While those two struggle to find the right things to say, Julie herself becomes preoccupied with what, artistically speaking, is worth saying. The main thrust becomes her determination to make a graduation film, which she decides to craft as a kind of memorial to Anthony. This project is so tentative, elusive and personal that it’s regarded with hostile bafflement by the supervisors on her course, who can’t find any through-line with her previous aesthetic and brutally retract their support.

Hogg’s satirical eye on film-school foibles is beadier than ever in such scenes, but there’s a touching esprit de corps among the student body, who may not always understand each other’s work but rally to help as far as they can. Julie, fumbling towards her vision, lacks experience, and the patience of everyone else on a film set is by no means inexhaustible. Her actors (Ariane Labed and Harris Dickinson) get stuck and vent about Julie’s work ethic while she eavesdrops; her huffy cinematographer (real-life d.p. Ben Hecking) throws a strop when she can’t make up her mind about shot choices.

Alongside Julie’s work in progress, there’s another film in production by one Patrick Le Mage (Richard Ayoade, expanding on his brief appearance last time) – an all-singing, all-dancing proletarian musical called The History of Our Youth, which looks absurd, and has just enough in common with the bang-on-period Absolute Beginners (1986) to make Ayoade’s scene-stealing pomposity feel like an insider joke. Tucked away here are some of the most exasperated film-set insights this side of François Truffaut’s Day for Night. The hard graft and impossible logistics of the medium get a thorough going-over. But there’s also a profound sense of the pleasure, and satisfaction, of making something, however imperfect, and however long it takes. For Julie, it’s this film. But Hogg adds in a tiny morality play about getting too wrapped up in your own passion projects to respect other people’s. It comes in the shape of a lumpy sugar bowl – the first fruit of a pottery class Swinton’s Rosalind has been trying.

Byrne deepens her whole take on Julie so movingly, especially in making her need for new intimacy a raw, embarrassing thing. She has one animalistic one-night stand (with Charlie Heaton) but otherwise succumbs to painful romantic drift, crushing on all the wrong people. Joe Alwyn’s emotionally supportive editor has to sweetly let her down by mentioning he has a boyfriend, at which point the camera catches her stricken, and the audience thinks, “oh, babe”. Swinton continues to know precisely who Rosalind is, of course, and flawlessly transmits her essence, with three springer spaniels as her scuffling entourage. The family scenes are perfect.

The Souvenir: Part II is already doing everything you could ask of it, and then it springs a wondrous feat of pastiche-within-pastiche, serving up a kind of dream ballet finale that’s close to indescribable. Suffice to say, the première where all the characters eventually congregate is our ticket not for a literal screening, but a leaping-off into Hogg’s (and Julie’s) wildest hopes and reveries. The sequence is a through-the-looking-glass spectacle which dresses Julie up like a 1940s glamour queen, and takes her through a series of portals – adventuring, as her own film has aimed to do, into the very mysteries of her soul. 

Even beyond this part, there’s a coup de cinéma waiting on the other side, which offers pointedly the opposite closing shot to Part I. It speaks not of any pat redemption through filmmaking, or an escape back into living once again, but of anxiety, and artifice, and selves that have merged to the point where real life and cinematic portraiture are hopelessly intertwined. From a healing point of view, this may not be quite what the doctor ordered. While entertaining us deliriously, Hogg pulls the rug out. Somewhere behind Julie’s camera, shooting into this gilded mirror, is a lost soul.

[aqvarius]

I been wondering how many untranslated sub stories hlitf left? And which one, that u want to be translate asap

at first i was just going to answer this as “a lot”, but i was curious and really decided to count the actual number. and the answer is A LOT. 129 untranslated substories to be exact!! (128 when ayumu’s episode 0 comes out). i also didn’t count “discontinued stories” or reward stories (the ones you can only get if you met campaign requirements) or repackaged stories (there’s a substory which is just the text version of goto/kaga/shinonome’s voiced stories, and another 5 which are just goto/kaga/shinonome’s voiced stories split by chapter rather than character. i also didn’t check koi cafe. 

there are so many that i want to be translated!! but let me list a few of the ones i want the most:

all of the 勘違い ♡ BABY stories, also bc the SP (bodyguards) appear in these stories~

in kaga’s one, you go on a diet cause he squished your stomach and said it was soft while he was sleeping lol and also bc ayumu is compiling photos for something like a yearbook (graduation album) and saw you about to eat a doughnut and told you that the camera adds 10lbs. because you go on a soy-heavy diet, your period isn’t arriving and you go see an obgyn as recommended by riko. in the hospital, you bump into katsuragi!! anyway you left your phone in the obgyn department and get called to retrieve it on the loudspeaker so katsuragi and shinonome hear it and assume you’re pregnant. you tell shinonome to keep it a secret and then he blackmails you into helping him with the grad album and kaga gets annoyed since you’re listening to someone other than your master. when he finds out that you went to the hospital to see an obgyn he’s just... SO SOFT AND CARING???????? he makes you lie down and sleep and he makes you so much food and is relieved that your complexion is back to normal and when you tell him the reason you started dieting he APOLOGISES ALSKDJFLAS. one of the options to respond to his apology is asking him if he has a fever lol. another option is telling him to stop (apologising) and be mean like he usually is and then he’s like are you a masochist lmao. 

anyway he tells you that if you really are pregnant, don’t hide it next time since “it’s OUR problem” and not just yours. he also says that not speaking up might harm you and that he doesn’t intend for your relationship to be loose/casual (meaning he’s serious about being with you). HELP I LOVE KAGA.

afterwards, katsuragi is in the instructor’s room to do something and then he thinks you’re pregnant so he gives you a congratulatory bouquet from your team and ayumu literally loses it. 

I LOVE THIS STORY SO MUCH i can’t WAIT until it’s translated!! you all know i love soft/caring kaga the most and getting that + pregnancy misunderstanding + katsuragi + ayumu being a brat all in one story? *chefs kiss* incredible. i read this story on sato’s room, my favourite jp blog for hlitf content.

in goto’s one, where you go to a drinking party with naruko but it turns out to be a group date (goukon). sora and kurosawa make an appearance (naturally!!)

kaiji makes an appearance in ishigami’s route in which you go to his place to retrieve some documents for him and find lipstick and a lingering scent at his place after he cancels a date because he’s busy with work...

shinonome’s one is the one i’ve briefly mentioned before where his mc ends up with a porn dvd by accident. ayumu also gets jealous of mizuki in it (since his mc in particular just loves mizuki and is starstruck every time she sees him lol, the same thing happens in one of his vip room chapters too )

soma’s route is the one i also posted about recently where you have a matchmaking meeting with subaru. i’ve mentioned this like 5 times before but i literally am dying to see subaru/soma dynamics since subaru is usually so alpha male but soma was his mentor and senpai and trained him in criminal affairs and he really respects him, so i’m desperate to see them interact particularly in a competitive(?) setting. 

there’s another substory i want which is just for kaga and soma called ふれない夜を過ごすとき (when you spend a night without touching). the common factor in both stories is that mc turns down kaga and soma’s advances in bed (because of different story-related reasons) and it results in a ‘cold’ night where they just go to sleep. it’s so appropriate for these two considering they’re the most sexual/physical in the whole title. 

in this substory, voltage alternates between your pov and his pov for each chapter which i think is so interesting. i also love seeing both instructors being so ANXIOUS? about being turned down, since it never happens. and they’re so accepting of your rejection but so worried and hurt asdlkfs i love it. seeing soma being rattled for once is an incredible feeling lmao. and also seeing the third chapter from his perspective is so cool because you really get to see him put his detective skills to use when it comes to gathering information.

a fun detail in kaga’s route is that at the beginning you watch a film together called “ 私の名は” (obviously meant to be playing on “your name” kimi no na wa) haha. by the way, this is also the substory where we meet akane (who you may have seen in kaga vip room stories and ss3). i’m not going to spoil who akane actually is but let’s just say it was totally unexpected... 

aside from these two i want:

入捜査は蜜の味 which is a substory about going on undercover mission with your man. by the way, in this substory, kosugi from my sweet bodyguard is already a famous actress whose shows sell out in under a minute. 

離れるの禁止！－手錠で１日独り占め♡ー a substory just for kaga, goto and shinonome where you end up handcuffed to your instructor for a day

私を見つけて☆王子様 an AU substory with kaga, shinonome and namba routes since they won places in the 2015 election. the concept is like a cinderella x tanabata situation and it’s honestly HYSTERICAL. 

in the kaga ver, shinonome and soma are your evil stepbrother and stepfather respectively and you can only see kaga once a year. you met him in town last year and you spent a day (and night ;)) together and now you want to go to the ball this year. goto and kurosawa are your wizards (fairy godmothers) and their sprites wear giant witch hats with their regular suits. it’s literally so funny. ishigami is kaga’s butler and honestly, he is such a claude lmao. kurosawa reappears disguised as a prince and tries to get you to dance with him and prince hyogo literally tosses him out of the way and calls him nouveau riche ;alskfdjls. anyway he does the whole “i don’t care about your status” thing and wants to be with you. turns out it was a dream the whole time and you tell kaga about it and he’s like i don’t want that fucking megane to be my butler lmaooo (amongst other cute things that he says)

in the namba ver., kaga and shinonome are your stepbrothers A and B. they’re bullying you as usual and then prince namba shows up. i love how kaga is prince hyogo but namba is just prince namba. he whisks you away to a bar somewhere after joking that you don’t have sex appeal because you’re <30 year old and then butler ishigami comes to get him lol. prince namba tells you to grow a little next time you meet and then ishigami is like stop it with the harrassment, you are already being complained about by princesses from neighbouring countries lmaoooo. anyway you get grounded by stepbrothers kaga and shinonome and your evil stepfather soma and made to stay indoors and do chores for the rest of your life while they go to the tanabata ball. wizard goto appears and he’s SHY LOL and he uses his magic to dress you up and whisk you to the ball, where you see prince namba again. you’re about to kiss and then the bell rings and you flee before the date changes (since wizard goto’s magic only works on july 7 lol). literally an entire year passes and you wish to see prince namba at the ball again and wizard goto shows up to grant your wish. however, your evil stepfamily burst in and tie you and wizard goto up because they knew you used magic to go to the ball last year hahahahahhaa. you somehow escape and ride goto’s horse to the ball and namba sees you cause your horse is like screaming/making some really weird noise. he brings you inside and has a whole bunch of gowns and accessories laid out and is like “this old man doesn’t know what kids like so just pick whatever”. you get all dolled up and he tells you he’s impressed by how mature you look and that he was waiting for you and long story short he takes you on a garden stroll and gets on his knees and asks you to be with him forever. naturally, it’s a dream and you wake up in the reference room where you chat a bit with namba and then you end up going for ramen but this is before namba ms2 probably so you aren’t together yet and you lament that he just sees you as a trainee. 

i can’t find a copy of shinonome’s ver online and i spent all my money on intl voltage so sadly i can’t summarise it but i bet it’s equally ridiculous and funny. 

カクテルグラスに愛をのせて a really cute set of substories featuring ishigami, namba and soma which are all about “cocktail language” (as in cocktails having different meanings). i want soma’s one to be translated so badly so i can see dumbass mc being fooled over and over and over again by everyone’s lies and then soma ultimately being SO cute~ 

彼が野生動物だった件 this one is basically about you and your man not being able to touch each other because you need to hide your relationship from tsugaru’s surveillance - but when it’s over, you get devoured by your frustrated boyfriend... 

カレが妬くと大変なことになりまs aka all of those rival jealousy stories. naturally i’m most desperate for soma v shinonome. also, the first of these stories to come out (a while before any of the other ones) was kaga vs tsugaru, so i thought haha they replaced the “す” with “s” for sadist. they kept the titling like this for every single rival pair (namba v kurosawa, ishigami v goto, soma v shinonome) and i was like oh that does undermine it... but then i realised that as tsugaru once said, their entire department is full of sadists and public safety division should be renamed to SM division so~

aside from all of those, i want all the anniversary stories as well with their accompanying CGs and/or manga!! 

ahh... there’s also the 2/365 birthday story (which is where ishigami gifts you the matching watch btw) which is literally just everyone spoiling you and it’s so cute. anyway if i don’t stop this now i will keep going on and on and on but basically every single hlitf substory is AMAZING? i hope they release the untranslated summer ones soon too as summer is coming up!

ETA: I FORGOT TO MENTION I ALSO WANT THIS WHOLE SET: 逆転バレンタイン- 恋人は専属補佐官 which is a valentine special where basically the roles are reversed and you are the instructor and he is your exclusive aide~ 

and i want the entire kare kiss set as well because you know how much i love a jealousy plot ;) 

EDIT 2: I ALSO FORGOT TO MENTION 加賀兵吾の再調教 if only just for this one image 

and this formalwear sprite

and also just the drama of you being locked in a cage barely conscious for days while kaga has to pretend to sell you to a perverted millionaire 

by the way, the heart necklace you’re wearing in the cg is something that kaga gave in one of his main routes iirc and he literally tramples on it in this special... the DRAMA

[feistypaants-archived]

Between The Pipes [Chapter 8]

Rating: M Words: 2236 Pairing: Kristanna Summary: When a new owner takes over the Arendelle Ice Breakers, Kristoff isn’t sure about his future with the team. That is, until a PR nightmare throws the newest member of the media team, who also just so happens to be the daughter of the new owner, right into his arms. Kristoff and Anna can’t even stand the interviews they have to do together… how on earth are they going to fix this mess? Hockey!AU.

[Chapter Index]

Where To Read: [AO3]

Notes: hehe this was fun. I don’t know if this is something that actually happens or not, but in my world it does! They have to do those studio headshots and stuff somewhere right? 

Anyway, the NHL does these silly things called Puck Personalities and it’s def the inspiration for the last part of this. Here’s a playlist of them if you’re bored and want to watch hockey boys be awkward bc none of them like to be on camera. 

Enjoy!

Gerda wanted her to get some practice today. Some dumb, fluffy media that would just go on the internet when they ran out of things to report on, or if they felt that they needed something to smooth over any rough patches PR-wise. It was just going to be silly questions that were meant to play with the guys, get them comfortable with her, and to give fans something fun to watch that would bring the players down to a more relatable 

So Anna did herself up as nicely as she could. 

Her makeup was natural enough that she didn’t look ridiculous, but emphasized enough for all of her hard work to show up on the camera, she curled her hair and put the front up in a soft braid that circled the back of her head, and she slipped on a still professional but definitely tight black sweater dress, and a soft emerald green sweater, with knee-high black boots over sheer tights. But in her worry that it wouldn’t be what they wanted, she threw a couple more options into the back of her car before heading over to the local studio space that they had rented for the day. 

When she arrived, there were more cars than she was willing to count lines up around the lot, including Kristoff’s truck. Swallowing the lump that was forming in her throat, Anna got out of her car, elected to leave the other clothing so she didn’t look like a crazy person, and walked with purpose towards the studio doors. 

She was immediately greeted by Gerda, who smiled at her warmly. “I see you’ve taken care of hair and makeup, perfect,” she started, leading Anna by the elbow towards the small green room. “There are snacks and drinks back here while you wait. They’re just finishing up the shots for the players in jerseys, and we’ll be able to proceed with your segment soon. 

It was a whirlwind and Anna was grateful she processed anything that was said to her before Gerda ran off to find the next issue she needed to handle. 

There were a couple unfamiliar faces, but Anna’s eyes locked on to the one other female in the room, and let out a sigh of relief when she approached. “You must be Anna,” she smiled, her voice gentle. “Honeymaren, but you can just call me Honey.” Anna’s nose scrunched unwillingly, laughter in expression evident, and Honey smiled in response. “My parents are hippies, what can I say?”

Anna shook her hand before letting out another laugh. “I like it, it’s sweet.”

“... Like Honey?” 

They shared a laugh and Anna felt suddenly more at ease. It was nice to meet someone around her age and her gender in such a male-dominated area. She quickly learned that Honey was the same age as her sister, was in PR, and had been doing this for six years now. “So,” Anna started, clasping her hands together in front of her hips. “Is it always this crazy?”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Honey laughed, gesturing to the door. “If you want, we can go watch the videographer for a minute? It’s usually less crowded in the studio room.”

Anna nodded enthusiastically and they were soon on their way, making the usual small talk. They passed a few players who gave them winks and playful gestures, but none seemed too eager to stop and talk with them. Honey told her it was only because they had to go get into their suits for the talking head portion of filming and not because they didn’t want to talk to her, and Anna did her best to brush it off.

“These boys are going to be talking to me plenty over the season, I don’t blame them for not wanting to talk to me right now.”

With a chuckle, Honey pushed open the heavy studio door and nodded, leading Anna in. “I think they’ve just got the goalies left, and then it’ll be your turn!”

Anna realized exactly what that meant and felt her cheeks warm as she glanced up just in time to see Kristoff pulling off his mask to listen to the director, his blonde hair fluffy and falling around his ears in a gentle curl at the end. His face was serious until some comment she couldn’t hear made him laugh, and Anna could feel the warmth in her cheeks spread all the way to her toes. 

So he does smile. And of course it was a really pretty smile, too. 

What good were his looks if they were given to a man with his personality? 

She watched with interest as a photographer slid in to take some headshots, mask on and off, posing as if he were playing, and some just standing. 

“For stat boards,” Honey had chimed in with a grin. 

And then it was the videographers turn, and he made him do some traditional goalie stops. A dive, a slide, all these things that, too Anna, seemed like they would be impossible to do with all that gear and padding. But Kristoff made it look easy. 

They finished up quickly - Kristoff had been doing this for a few years now, and he moved to let their backup goalie do the same. He took his mask off again, shaking his hair loose, and Anna couldn’t say she wasn’t completely struck with his strong jaw and bright grin as he walked towards the exit. The one she was standing right in front of.

“Honeymaren,” he grinned, holding up his fist for a bump from the PR specialist. “Nice to see you as always.” Then his eyes drifted to meet hers, and Anna could swear she saw his pupils expand. “Anna…” 

She swallowed, expecting the worse.

“Don’t be nervous,” he winked, and Anna felt heat pooling in her stomach. “Just have fun with it.”

And then he pushed through them, his gear making him almost double his normal size, which was already more than double her size, and Anna felt herself gawking at him as he left. “That,” she sighed, disbelief in her eyes. “Is the nicest he’s ever been to me.”

Honey let out a loud laugh, covering her mouth with her hand. “Oh, Bjorgman. His bark is worse than his bite, I’ll tell you what.”

Anna wasn’t sure if she believed it, but it was a pleasant surprise nonetheless. 

—

“Thanks for watching IBTV.”

The director made one sharp clap and the lights changed, and Anna let out the biggest breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. A makeup artist trotted up to her, powdering her forehead and Anna felt distinctly uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the whole team. 

“Great, that was excellent, Anna.” He swirled his pointer finger around the room signaling for a reset, and Anna felt herself flush. “One more, okay?” 

She nodded, stepping back to her mark and took in a deep breath as she stood straighter. Risking a glance to the side where she new Gerda and Honey were watching, Anna squinted through the lights when she swore she saw two much bigger bodies beside the women. 

Oh, god damn it. 

Kristoff and Sven were standing there, suited up and hair tamed, watching with grins on their faces. Kristoff just kept his arms crossed tightly over his broad chest as Sven gave her a double thumbs up, and Anna smiled back before switching her attention back to the camera. 

“Hey guys, Anna Arne with IBTV, and today we’re doing something fun.” The director had asked her to be more animated, so she did her best to move naturally. Arms swung wide, fingers spread out for emphasis as she danced through her spiel. “Have you ever wondered who your favorite player idolized when they were a kid? How about their favorite Disney film? Whether or not they like olives?” 

She heard a small chuckle come from the crew and took it as solid encouragement. 

“Well,” she winked, leaning forward as if she were sharing a secret. “Tune in here to find out all of that and more, on Breaking the Ice, your Arendelle Ice Breakers’ weekly interviews.”

The director cut in to send her to her other mark, asking for her to do the outro again, clapping enthusiastically when she nailed it. “Fantastic job, that’s the one!”

Anna couldn’t help herself as she almost literally jumped for joy, pumping her fist as subtly as she could before stepping off the small platform and skipping over to Gerda and Honeymaren, both smiling just as wide as she was.

“You’re a natural,” Honey grinned, patting her arm. “It’s like you belong in front of a camera.” 

Gerda simply nodded in agreement, clear pride evident on her features. “I can’t wait to get you on the ice with the boys.”

Anna had only a moment to relish in the praise before she felt Sven’s heavy arm drape around her shoulders, stealing all of her attention. “All right, Anna! You rocked that.” She flushed as he grinned, turning her around to face Kristoff. “Now, ready to have some real fun?”

And with that, Sven was dragging her down the hall to the bigger studio space, the one with a solid white backdrop that they had been doing the player portraits in. Kristoff was following closely behind, a silent but looming presence. In the regular light of the hallway, Anna was finally able to fully take in how they looked, and grinned. “You guys look so nice!”

Sven’s curls were tamed and defined, slick as they fell over his dark skin, complemented nicely by his maroon suit and brown tie. She wasn’t surprised that he was the type to wear something more out there and daring, but it still filled her with glee to see something so bold. 

Kristoff, alternatively, was wearing a more classic suit, dark grey with a powder blue tie that made his eyes warmer, honey brown and sweet as he laughed at Sven’s antics. Anna only just noticed that his hair was gelled back, stiff and sleek. 

It looked nice, but she weirdly found herself missing the shagginess of it as it brushed over his brows. 

Her cheeks reddened as Kristoff glanced down, catching her staring, and turned her attention back forward.

—

The interviews went well. All the players responded well to her, laughing at some of the more ludicrous questions that included props, and Anna found herself relaxing with each set.

Sven was midway through the lineup, and was as cocky as ever. “Lay it on me, sister,” he laughed as they started, Anna poking at his shoulder. “I’m up for the challenge.”

The questions started easy, just some dumb this or thats, would you rathers, hockey tips, and favorites. Then there was trivia about things not-hockey related such as Disney princesses and 90s television stars. Finally, there were challenges. Can you juggle? Can you beat your teammate in arm wrestling? Can you do a handstand? 

Players were allowed to skip any question they wanted as this was all for fun, but leave it to Sven to take on each and every one.

Anna was belly laughing by the end of it, as he laid on the floor after trying and failing to do a cartwheel. “You should see Kristoff,” he laughed. “He does these in the locker room all the time.”

“That so?”

Anna trotted off the set, knowing it was unconventional, and grabbed the goalie by the arm, dragging him in front of the camera. “Come on, show us.” 

He held his hands up in front of his chest in protest, a blush evident on his cheeks. “Oh, no, no, that’s fine.” 

Sven stood up suddenly, squatting to be the same height as Anna, as they started chanting “Cartwheel, cartwheel, CARTWHEEL!”

“It’s just for warm-up!” He persisted, ears turning red. Sven continued on, even as she let up a little. Anna watched his entire body tense before he let out one heavy sigh and gave in. “Fine, you assholes.”

They’d bleep that out in post, she was sure.

“But if I break anything, you’re paying for it.” And then he was shrugging out of his jacket, and Anna was thoroughly enjoying the stretch of the thin white dress shirt over his muscles, the whole studio was clapping, egging him on. 

And then he did a fucking cartwheel, his whole face red by the end of it. 

She couldn’t hide the surprise. “Wow!” She just about shouted, closing the distance between them. “Where did you learn to do that?”

Kristoff was still blushing, his eyes avoiding hers. “Ugh, I have two sisters,” he laughed, leaning forward to pick up his jacket. “Every day was gymnastics growing up, so… I don’t know, I just picked it up, I guess.” He shrugged it on and Anna tried not to be disappointed about it. “It feels like it gets my blood pumping, so I try to do them to wake up before every game. Maybe it’s all in my head.”

Anna laughed, taking in the genuine smile that had spread on his cheeks. 

“That’s… impressive.”

He tried to run a hand through his hair and frowned as he messed it up, glancing up to the camera. “Yeah, well, now I’m not answering anything else.” 

Anna knew it was a tease when he leaned over to punch the top of Sven’s arm, grinning widely.