#i only know bernie lmao

[katabay]

MY DEAR VICTOR

“My dear Victor,” cried he, “what, for God’s sake, is the matter? Do not laugh in that manner. How ill you are! What is the cause of all this?”

“Do not ask me,” cried I, putting my hands before my eyes, for I thought I saw the dreaded spectre glide into the room; “he can tell. Oh, save me! Save me!” I imagined that the monster seized me; I struggled furiously and fell down in a fit.

Poor Clerval! What must have been his feelings? A meeting, which he anticipated with such joy, so strangely turned to bitterness. But I was not the witness of his grief, for I was lifeless and did not recover my senses for a long, long time.

This was the commencement of a nervous fever which confined me for several months. During all that time Henry was my only nurse. I afterwards learned that, knowing my father’s advanced age and unfitness for so long a journey, and how wretched my sickness would make Elizabeth, he spared them this grief by concealing the extent of my disorder. He knew that I could not have a more kind and attentive nurse than himself; and, firm in the hope he felt of my recovery, he did not doubt that, instead of doing harm, he performed the kindest action that he could towards them.

Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley (CHAPTER 5)

ah, to be cared for! the unconditional depth and gentleness of it. also have you guys ever listen to the ost for the korean frankenstein musical. sometimes I think about how musical!victor uses his henry's (dupre in the musical, not clerval, but henry all the same) head for his creation. that's also an unconditional something!!

ngl I considered attempting a full bernie wrightson homage for this, but then I thought about how I like having fun and that would totally ruin my hands for the week and settled for drawing a bunch of lines until I got tired of drawing lines lmao

ko-fi⭐ bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost ⭐ cara.app

[trippinsorrows]

give me a reason + two

authors note: wow! so humbled by people's interest in this one! forgot to mention that i'll be playing around with joe's career, in terms of the timeline and whatnot.

also, if ya'll ever watched the bernie mac show, i was very much inspired in one section by that scene where vanessa and them was doing that car wash at bernie's house lmaooo

in addition (last point, i swear lmao), i can do faceclaims for the character, mainly mariella's family. if ya'll want. i know some people prefer to visualize for themselves. just lmk.

i don't own any lyrics used.

previous chapter

words: 7k

song inspo: just give me a reason by p!nk and nate ruess

warnings: language, fluff, some angst, blink and you'll miss it sexy time.

Spring, 2005

Spring break.

The time looked forward to by most students, especially college students, who are granted a free week to get into all kinds of trouble, mischief and then return to campus like nothing ever happened. 

Joe and Byron can’t deny that they’ve definitely had their fair share of that the first part of college, but now with two years under their belts and only two years left to go, they’re focused on having killer seasons and landing their dreams of going into the NFL.

It’s why when coach decides to give the players a break, canceling all practices during said break, there’s not even an initial question about what they should do with their time.

Home.

They’re going home.

Because while being away is nice at times, there’s absolutely no place like home and being surrounded by the people you love the most.

Byron glances at Joe who’s looking down at his phone. “You gonna see Brianna while we in town?”

Joe looks up. He can’t say he hasn’t thought about it. Brianna, Joe’s last high school girlfriend, was inarguably the easiest of all the girls he’s ever dated. And if not for him not wanting to be tied down while away at college, he would have tried to make it work. 

“I don’t know,” he answers, truthfully. “We’ll see.”

“Well, I’m definitely hitting up Tamia. Heard she and ole’ dude broke up.”

Joe shakes his head. Tamia has been Byron’s on and off girlfriend since freaking middle school. They date, break up, date other people, break up with said other people and start right back over. Truthfully, Joe can see Tamia being the one for Byron considering how long they’ve been in this little cycle. 

“Just make sure you’re safe, man.”

Byron looks like he’s just been told to make sure he wears a seatbelt. “Always, bro. You know me.”

Joe knows him alright. Knows he can be reckless at times. And with so much at stake in the next upcoming two years, they can’t afford to be reckless. 

“I do. That’s why I’m saying it.”

“Man….” Joe laughs at Byron’s dismissal. “What do we have here?” Joe turns his attention to where Byron has set his gaze only to quickly scowl with disgust. “Ugh, they in high school.”

Joe is also instantly repulsed. “That’s fucking gross.” 

Byron shakes in his seat, as if trying to shake the disgust off himself when he sees something. “Wait a minute…” Joe again tries to see what’s triggered the exclamation of irritation. “Oh hell no.”

“What are you—what the hell!” Joe shouts out as Byron suddenly swerves into the next turn lane, barely missing hitting a car. “The fuck are you doing, man!”

“That’s Ella out there!” He answers, speeding near the station where a bunch of high school girls are operating a car wash, trying to raise money for who knows what. 

At the mention of Ri, Joe’s attention is snatched. “What?” He’s looking around as Byron looks to quickly park the truck, clearly eager to get out. Joe doesn’t see her just yet. It’s not until they’re parked and out of the car that his eyes land on her.

Her smile is the first thing he notices. She’s laughing. Not surprising. For as long as he’s known her, which has been his whole life essentially, she’s always the one in the group to make everyone laugh.

Usually from her klutziness. 

It’s never a dull moment with Mariella Holmes. 

Moving closer, he can see that it’s definitely Ri, and she’s giggling along with the other girls, dancing to what he recognizes is Black Eyed Peas latest song, “My Humps.”

It’s that realization that helps Joe understand why Byron is so annoyed.

The dancing could be seen as a bit provocative.

“Ella!”

Her head snaps up at Byron’s voice, easily landing on him. Joe watches her mouth drop open in shock before she shouts, “BJ!”

Dropping the soapy rag in the bucket, she’s nearly sprinting over to the two of them, tackling Byron with a hug first. “What are you doing here?”

It’s when she steps back that she moves over to him. She smirks, crossing her arms. “Should have known you wouldn’t turn down a chance to come see me.”

Joe laughs, pulling her in for a hug. “Never.”

“What am I doing here?” Byron cuts in, angrily gesturing to her. “What are you doing out here dressed like this?”

She looks down at her outfit, frowning. Joe does the same. It’s a bathing suit top with jean shorts and flip flops. What’s so bad about that?

And she expresses as such.

“Ummm, the dance team is having a car wash. We’re trying to raise money for travel costs this season.”

This doesn’t seem acceptable to Byron as he asks, “well, you ain’t having nothing else to wear? All exposed and everything.”

That’s when she rolls her eyes. “Oh my god, you’re so annoying.” 

He starts to pull his shirt off when even Joe chimes in, “dude, come on.”

“She’s half naked!”

“I’m wearing a bathing suit, BJ.” Mariella says it like he’s slow. Like he was on the short bus. “I know you’ve been away at school, so you haven’t been around as much, but I have boobs now—”

At that, both Joe and Byron turn up their nose. The last thing they need is that type of visual.

She continues, gesturing to her body. “I hit puberty, and allll the areas started filling out. It happens!”

“I’m gonna be sick.” Byron covers his mouth. “I don’t give a damn. You’re sixteen, not twenty-one.”

She gives a sly smile. “That’s not what my fake ID says.”

Joe catches her gaze, seeing that she’s just messing with him. It makes him laugh. 

“Your what? Girl, you done lost your damn mind.”

She laughs, shaking her head. “Relax, BJ. You know I can’t get a fake ID. My dumbass would feel too bad and turn myself in.”

“That’s true,” Joe chimes, and she glares, reaching over to hit him. She starts to say something, only for her eyes to go wide. “What’s wrong?”

She says nothing, just awkwardly shifting her weight from one leg to another. He starts to ask again when a new voice joins the conversation. 

“Hey, babe.”

Byron jumps to a new level of annoyance. “Babe?” He and Joe watch as some scrawny looking little boy, who’s really not that scrawny in actuality but looks it compared to Byron and Joe, walks up to Mariella, kissing her. 

Byron looks like he’s about to have a stroke. He asks with all the smoke. “Who the hell are you?” 

Scrawny scoffs and has the audacity to throw the question back at him. “Who the hell are you?”

“Oh my god.” Mariella murmurs, slapping her hand against her forehead. “BJ, this is my boyfriend, Derrick—”

Mariella having a boyfriend makes sense to Joe. She’s 16 now. Why wouldn’t she be dating? It’s normal and expected. 

If only Byron saw it that way. “Boyfriend? Since when do you have a boy—”

“Derrick, this is my brother, BJ or Byron, and basically like my non-blood brother, Joe.”

Scrawny AKA Derrick looks like he’s seen a ghost. “Oh shit, my bad—”

If only he knew that Byron doesn’t forgive nor does he forget when it comes to his little sisters, especially Mariella. 

He steps toward the shorter young man. “Naw. You bad. You wanted to know who the hell I was, so let me tell you, I’m the nigga that’s gon fuck you up if you ever—”

“Byron!” Mariella is now fuming, grabbing him by his arm as she tugs him in a different direction. “Give us a couple minutes.” She flashes a sweet smile at Derrick and a pleading expression to Joe for him to also be nice.

Joe waits until they’re out of hearing distance. He then slaps Derrick on the arm. “Don’t take it personally. That’s just Byron. He’s always been a hothead.”

Derrick gives a nervous laugh, showing off braces that Joe didn’t notice before. He refrains from frowning. Ri could definitely do better than this dweeb. “You like Ri?”

Derrick shrugs, offering an unimpressive. “She’s alright.”

And that’s all Joe needs to hear to know what this kid is really about. Stepping toward him, he keeps his voice leveled and expression ice cold. “Do anything to hurt her, and you won’t have to worry about Byron.” He gives a steel smile. “I’m the one you’ll never see coming.”

———-

Present 

Post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) 

Or some milder form of it. 

Amnesia, at the very least.

That’s what Dr. Reynolds says is the cause of Mari’s complete loss of memory. A result of the head trauma she received from the accident. A prognosis that somehow feels almost worse than the coma, at least to Joe.

Because for the life of him, he doesn’t know how to look at the woman he’s known his entire life, and have her look back at him like he’s a stranger, like she has no idea who he is. 

Because she doesn’t have any idea who he is.

As devastating as that blow is, he knows it hits harder for her parents. April nearly collapsed in Byron Sr’s arms as Dr. Reynolds informed them of Mari’s memory loss.

She was in tears, desperately asking, “but—but she’ll get them back, right, doctor?”

And Joe only has to glance at the doctor, the way his lips press together before he informs sympathetically, “we don’t know. Some patients do eventually retrieve their memories. Others….others never do.”

Joe can’t even allow himself to think of the latter option. 

A couple days post coma, he knocks on her door, seeing she’s alone, her parents most likely grabbing food or something.

She glances at the door offering a small smile that doesn’t meet her eyes. It’s insincere, and he doesn’t know how to feel about that either, because one of the things he’s always loved about her has always been her smile. So big and infectious. Just like her personality. 

“Hey.” There’s nothing big and infectious about her almost unsure tone. 

“Hey.” He doesn’t wait for her to welcome him in, just walks in, taking the seat on the side of her bed. “How you feeling?”

She gives a one sided shrug. He notices the cuts and bruising on her face have gone down tremendously. That's a plus in a situation full of minuses. “Don’t know.” After obviously thinking about the question more, she offers a more descriptive answer. “Very...confused.”

“About?” He then adds. “Maybe I can clear it up for you.”

“I don’t know. It’s….it’s mostly about who I am.” He could definitely answer that one for her. She shakes her head, providing an example. “Like, I’m apparently this big singer, but I can’t even think about singing right now. It doesn’t—it doesn’t even feel like me.” She chuckles bitterly. “Not that I know who me is.”

“You love music. Always have. And you’re good at it. Singing. Writing. Producing. Dancing. All of it.” She looks over at him as he says with all the honesty and sincerity, “there’s nothing, creatively, you can’t do.”

Mariella nods, as if taking in the information to analyze later on. “What about you?” She asks. “What do you do?”

A lot of things. A lot of things he now regrets deeply. But, that’s not her question. “Professional wrestler.” He starts to say WWE to see if she knows what that is, but that isn’t important. Shit about him isn’t the priority. 

Mariella looks him over, nodding. “It fits.”

He smiles a bit. The first he’s done in weeks. “What else do you want to know?”

She’s quiet for a few moments before asking the question he didn’t know he was dreading until now. “How did I end up here?”

What a loaded question he was absolutely not prepared for.

There’s a lot of things that led them to where they are right now. A lot of which he blames himself for, and her as well, but not nearly as much as he blames himself. They both played a role in how badly their relationship deteriorated, but Joe puts the bulk of it on himself. 

He’s older and should know better.

But, the specific incident that resulted in her accident, the blowout that ended with her requesting the one thing she always swore she never wanted to have happened when they got married…that’s it.

That is the truth she is probably looking for. It’s a truth, however, he can’t find it in him to tell her.

Because selfishly, he doesn’t want that to be the thing to trigger her memories, or any memories of all the things that have gone so terribly wrong the past two years. He doesn’t want that for her.

Doesn’t want it for them.

It’s why he settles on an answer that’s neither a lie but also not the full truth.

“You had a lot on your mind and went for a drive.” His voice shifts into something quiet. He’s still trying to process his feelings about that part of this whole thing. “You were hit head on by a drunk driver.”

Silence.

For a brief second, he’s unsure if he should have just told the truth. Been honest with her and let the cards fall as they may.

And then she speaks.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.” He looks up. Joe sees it. That sense of humor that some could only take in doses, but for him, it’s always been a highlight. She’s always been able to put a smile on his face even in the darkest of his days. “How long have we been married?”

Another unexpected question, but he answers truthfully. “This March makes 11 years.”

“Wow.” This seems to take her by surprise. “And how long have we been together?”

“That….that’s a bit of a long story.”

She lifts her brow, gesturing to her hospital bed. “Not like I have anywhere to be.”

He chuckles. She has a point, but the story of them…that seems too complicated or detailed to share in a freaking hospital. Because in his mind, he’s started to sort the different ways and things he can do to help remind her of who she is. 

Of who they were. 

Finally, he answers, “I just—I think you should—” 

There’s a knock on the door, Joe turning to see April and Byron Sr.

April is the first to speak, walking over to them. “I’m sorry to interrupt.” She’s almost hesitant to move too close. Joe can see she wants nothing more to engulf her youngest in a hug but recognizes the same almost uncomfortable expression Mariella wore the minute he walked in.

“It’s okay.” He assures, going to stand up. “I’ll leave you guys—”

“Actually,” Byron Sr. interjects, shooting Joe a sympathetic expression. “We were hoping to speak with you.” He looks toward Mariella, and Joe hates it. Hates the almost discomfort that exists between them. She’s always been super close with her parents. Especially her dad. “If that’s alright, sweetheart?”

Mariella shrugs, clearly unbothered. “Sure.” She starts to lay back in her bed a little. “I’m kinda tired anyway.”

Joe wonders how much of that is truth, and how much of it is her just wanting to be alone from people who are virtual strangers.

Strangers…

That’s definitely a word he never thought could be used in any context regarding Mariella.

Once outside the room and in the private waiting area, her parents wait until a set of nurses pass before April is the first to speak. She reaches over and places a comforting hand. “How are you doing, Joe? Really?”

A mess. He’s a fucking mess. Joe has seen much, much better days than the past few weeks. But, he also doesn’t want to make this about him, about his mental state, so he provides a half truth.

“Been better.” His response is gruff as he quickly moves to change topics. “What about you guys?”

Having his wife have no idea who he is is brutal, but he can’t even begin to imagine what it’s been like for two parents to not have their youngest child recognize them, to have no idea who they are.

Byron Sr. is the first to answer, mirroring his son-in-law’s words. “Been better.” 

April shifts in her seat, bringing her hand back to her lap. “We umm—we spoke to Dr. Reynolds earlier today.”

Joe looks up, partially wondering why he wasn’t present for that meeting. “Okay.”

“She doesn’t remember anything, Joe. Not her childhood. Not her family. Not…not even us.” April voice breaks at the end of her statement as Joe looks away. Hearing this again isn’t exactly helpful, though he would never disrespect her parents by asking them to shut up. Even if it’s what he wants. “And we—well, we just think—”

Byron Sr. cuts in, hand on his wife’s knee. “We want to take her back home with us, Joe.” Joe’s stomach drops. “We want to take her back to Florida.”

———-

Spring, 2022

Cameras.

That’s the one thing Mariella, Mari, still struggles to get used to. The bright lights flashing in her face as her photo is taken, whether on the red carpet, on the stage, or even when she’s just making a run to the grocery store. The latter one hasn’t happened as much as it used to, for which she’s grateful, but still.

So there’s a bit of an adjustment as she looks around the room, the hair and makeup team touching up her face once more before they kick off the segment.

She doesn’t regret it. Doesn’t regret it at all. It’s a good look for him. For her too. And beyond any type of benefit for their careers, she’s just happy she gets to see him.

Because that’s the part she doesn’t think she’ll ever truly get over or be okay with.

The distance.

As directed, she walks down the hall, making sure not to look directly into the camera. This is made infinitely easier by pretending she’s shooting a music video. Which, truth be told, it isn’t very different. 

Mari wears the confused expression perfectly, looking down at her phone as if it has information that could help her when she ‘accidentally’ walks into him.

Head up, she gasps and immediately gets to apologizing, just as was in the script. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I wasn’t even looking where I was going.”

His eyes widen as he ‘realizes’ who she is. “Wow. No, you are absolutely fine. Wow. You’re Mari!”

Smiling, she points at him, “and you are…..”

He seems a bit taken back at first, like he’s waiting for her to also recognize him. When that doesn’t happen, he offers his hand. “Sami Zayn. Master strategist and locker room leader.”

She nods, perfectly conveying another confused look at just what that means. “Does—does that mean you’re good with directions? Cause I suck at them.”

“It absolutely does, and you are in luck, because I just so happen to be free right now and would love to give you a tour.”

She opens her mouth to protest, “oh, that’s so sweet, but I really should—” she looks down at her phone. “You know what, I’m a little early, so why not?”

“Awesome.” He claps his hands together and offers his arm. Mari smiles and links hers in his as he starts leading them down the hall, pointing out the most obvious of things. 

The camera cuts, and she engages in conversation with Sami, who’s actually a lot like the ‘character’ he plays. Super charismatic and engaging. Kinda reminds her of herself. So much so that before she realizes, they’re back to recording after having moved across the arena. 

“And lastly we have—” His eyes suddenly widen as he realizes where they are, Sami moving his hand to her back as he directs them in the opposite direction. “Wait, we do not want to go—”

“There it is!” Mari, however, is smiling brightly as she walks toward the door.

Sami looks like he’s about to have a panic attack, frantically warning, “Mari, I know you’re like an international mega star, but trust me, you do not want to bother that man—” He’s silenced by her knocking on the door. 

His face is turning red as he urgently whispers to her, “we should really get out of here. Like right now!.”

She turns to him, confused. “Why?”

And before Sami can respond, the door is ripped open, the scowling faces of the Usos the first thing Sami lands on. He’s preparing to get chewed out only for them to look at Mari and instantly start smiling.

“Whassup, Mari!” Jimmy is the first to greet her, pulling her in for a hug. Followed by Jey, the two of them engaging in some secret handshake that ends with a ‘Yeet’.

Sami, however, laughs nervously, gesturing between the three. “Wait, you—you guys know Mari?”

Jimmy answers, slinging his arm around her. “Man, of course. This family!”

“You’re related to them?” Sami asks, eyes wide. 

Mari opens her mouth to answer when another person emerges from the private locker room, taking up almost the entire door frame, face stoic and eyes cold. 

Sami looks like he’s about to piss himself. He swallows. “My Tribal Chief, I’m so sorry—”

He’s interrupted by Mari who smiles and pulls away from Jimmy to walk up to Roman.“Hi, baby.” Sami looks on stunned as she leans up and kisses his cheek, pressing her body into his, hand on his abs. “Sorry, I’m a bit late.” She grins over at Sami. “Sami was giving me a tour of the place.”

The reddening of his cheeks is about what and what with the red of his hair. “I don’t—I’m not—”

Playfully rolling her eyes as Roman continues to look like he’s contemplating murder, she lifts her left hand, showing off a beautiful diamond ring. “Roman’s my husband.”

Mouth open like a child who just found out Santa isn’t real, Sami does his best to reel in his surprise. “Of course, you’re married. I totally knew that!” He laughs nervously, hands on his hips. “That’s why I gladly brought you to the Tribal Chief myself. Wanted to ensure nothing but the best for the Bloodline’s first lady.”

“That was really sweet of you. Thank you.” She continues to smile, and Roman continues to send daggers with just one, stolid expression. Mari peers up, kissing him again as she reaches for his hand. “Come on.” She tugs him toward the inside of the locker room, Roman finally budging as he gives Sami one last look that has the redhead contemplating requesting a switch to Raw. 

However, as Jimmy and Jey go to follow along with their cousin, Roman is quick to slam the door in their faces. 

“Hey, Uce, uhhh,—” Jimmy tries to jangle the knob only to realize it’s locked. He starts knocking. “Roman! Hey, you gon let us in?”

A couple seconds later the door does open, but it’s Solo, followed by Paul Heyman. Wise Man closes the door behind him. He looks around, briefly bewildered and clears his throat, announcing, “The Tribal Chief has requested to be left alone this evening.” 

Sami is the only one to laugh, playfully shoving Solo and pointing to the locker room. “I bet he has.” Solo, however, also looks like he’s also contemplating murder. Sami coughs awkwardly and turns to walk away, just as the camera crew announces ‘cut’.

The remaining men share laughs about the promo, meanwhile inside the locker room Mariella relishes in the feel of being reunited with her husband in real life, and now in the WWE kayfabe verse.

She’s pressed against his body, arms around his neck with his locked around her waist, holding her to him. “Hey, Big Daddy.”

Roman, Joe, rolls his eyes. Mariella giggles. She knows he has such a love/hate relationship with the term of endearment, one of many she has for the massive man before her. “You miss me?”

He makes a sound, leaning down to connect their lips. “Always, baby.” 

She smiles into their kiss, “good answer.” His big hands venture down to squeeze her ass, Mariella moaning into his mouth which triggers something for him. He lifts her up, her legs locking around his waist as he goes to sit back down in the big leather chair. Joe’s tongue entering her mouth is enough to elicit another moan but also alert her to the fact of where he wants to take this.

“Baby, we cannot do the nasty at your job.”

“I don’t know why you still call it that.” His fake irritation makes her giggle. It’s an inside joke between them that she’ll never let die so long as she lives. “And who says we can’t?”

“I don’t know. The FCC?” He rolls his eyes as she grasps at his beard that she can tell he dyed recently. Most likely because of his job. She wishes he could leave it be. She likes the gray. It does….things to her. “Besides, you know the deal. If we do it right now, we can’t do it tonight.” He continues to move his hands across her ass. “Mama’s got a show this Sunday, and I’d rather not be rendered immobile because my husband impaled me on his big ole’ dick.”

Again, Joe rolls his eyes, even though there’s more truth to her statement than the typical playful jokes she cracks at any given time. Joe has a high sex drive. She’s known this for some years. Mariella, however, does not. And it’s not even that she doesn’t enjoy sex with her husband. It’s that her husband doesn’t know how to stop, doesn’t know how to come, make her come one time for the one time, and just be done with it.

No. This man wants rounds. And truthfully, she just doesn’t have the stamina to keep up with him. Outside of porn stars, she doesn’t know who would.

Man is an absolute beast.

“So damn dramatic,” he chuckles against her neck. “You know I be doing most of the work anyway.”

She opens her mouth to protest. “Okay, that may or may not be true.” She can feel him smiling against her. It’s not like he minds. Joe is dominant in the sheets, wanting to be in control at all times. Her preference given he’s much more well versed in the sexual arts than she is. “But, in my defense, you’re built like a Greek god.” A Samoan god. “I get winded walking up the staircase in our house.”

“Bullshit.” He pulls back, pointing out. “You be on that stage dancing your ass off for damn near three hours.” 

She rolls her eyes, murmuring, “okay, that also may or may not be true.” Mari’s eyes flutter as he moves his hand under her dress. Long, thick fingers easily pushing aside her underwear, feeling the pool of her arousal. She squeezes his shoulders. “Joe….”

He grunts almost, gliding his fingers across her wet folds. She exhales sharply. “You this wet already and really want me to think you don’t want Big Daddy to fuck this tight lil’ pussy?”

Whining against him, Mariella unconsciously tries to move around on his lap to get his fingers back on her. In her, preferably. And it’s when he enters one of those deliciously talented fingers inside of her gushy opening, she caves. “Fine.” He smirks as she warns, “but you’re pushing me around in the wheelchair after!”

———-

Between a rock and a hard place.

That’s how Joe has felt the past few weeks, maybe even longer. But especially now.

He knows Ri’s parents are right. That they have every right to want her to spend time at home with them, in the place where she grew up, where most of her formative years and subsequent formative memories lie. Logically, it makes sense.

But, he can’t seem to get past his discomfort at the fact that Ri won’t be getting discharged and coming home with him. No, she’ll be discharged and hop on a plane with them back to Florida. Selfishly, he was hoping the doctor wouldn’t clear her to fly, but that plan went out the window. Dr. Reynolds is clearly on the same page with her parents about the potential benefit of being around constant triggers. Triggers that could help generate memories.

And Joe isn’t against that. At all. 

It’s just the fact that he won’t be there that rubs him the right way. 

“Joe.”

His eyes shut, an instant headache coming on. This is the last thing he needs. 

Turning around, he’s met with Olivia “Liv” Holmes default stare of icy indifference. Out of all of Mariella’s siblings, her family in general, Liv has always been his least favorite.

For a lot of different reasons. The main one being how she always treated Mariella when they were younger. Not mean, per se. But not kindly either. She always acted like Mariella was annoying, and she definitely could be at times, but not to the extent that Liv made it seem.

Like Mariella was just this big nuisance. It’s part of the reason she always wanted to hang out with him and Byron when they were growing up, because Liv spent most of her time with her twin sister, Everly, and her own friend group.

“Liv.” He really doesn’t feel like talking to anyone, let alone her. Their interactions have always been brief and limited to what is essential. For good reason too.

“I take it my parents told you we’re taking Ella back home to Florida with us.”

Joe has to bite back a smartass comment. Liv’s smirk and the almost smug tone of her voice isn’t what he needs right now.

“Yes.” He matches her energy a bit, reminding. “For the first couple weeks, at least. Then I’m going to bring her back home with me.” 

Where she belongs.

Liv smiles, but there’s nothing friendly about it. “We’ll see.”

Joe gives her a look. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You know she called me.” He freezes. “The night of the accident.” Joe manages to keep a calm face despite his surprise at her words. Mariella has never been close with Liv, most of their communication occurring via texts and family group chats. 

There’s only one reason she would call her sister who happens to be a divorce attorney.

“I want a divorce.”

Liv continuing to speak is ironically appreciated, as it pulls him from the memories of what is now an infamous argument. “I was sleeping and missed her call, but she didn’t leave a message. Kinda wishing she did, because I’m still trying to figure out just what the hell she was doing out on the road that late at night.” 

He keeps his cool. Somehow. “I already told you—”

“I know what you said, Joe.” Her interruption is sharp. “I also don’t believe you, because what the hell could she have so heavy on her mind after winning 5 Grammys?” She crosses her arms. “It doesn’t make sense.”

When he doesn’t say anything, she continues her accusatory assault. “You seem to forget that we were in high school together, Joe. I know how you were.” At this, he can’t say anything, can’t necessarily defend himself against truth. “You and Byron fucked damn near half the girls in our school, probably at college too, and then all of a sudden you turn in your hoe card to be with my baby sister? Because you love her? I never bought that shit for a minute.”

While he can’t deny his promiscuous past, Joe isn’t about to stand here and let this woman act like he’s this horrible person who took advantage of Mariella. “What’s your point, Liv? Huh? I’m not fucking stupid. I know you never approved of me being with Ri, but just like I didn’t give a fuck then, I still don’t give a fuck now.”

Liv does relatively well hiding her disapproval among her family, to some extent. But Joe has always been hip to her truth. She thinks Mariella should have gotten with someone else, anyone else probably. Anyone who wasn’t him.

Liv, who has never done well with being challenged, steps forward, glare intense and purposeful. “I’m gonna find out what happened that night, Joe. Because I know there’s something you’re not telling us.” He keeps up his unreadable expression, though there’s a small chunk of guilt swimming around the back of his head. Not even about not being completely honest with Mariella’s family.

More about not being honest with her.

She lowers her voice. “And when I do find out—”

“Liv.”

Joe and Liv turn to see Byron Jr. standing before them with a disappointed expression.

Arms crossed, he steps toward them, focused more on Liv than Joe. “Don’t be starting no shit today, alright? This the last thing we need.”

In recent years, especially since becoming a father, BJ has matured from his hotheaded days, often even a voice of reason. One of the reasons he’s been voted Locker Room captain for his team, the 49ers, 3 years in a row.

Liv rolls her eyes. “You’ve always been blinded by your friendship with him—”

“Hey.” Byron raises his voice a bit. “I mean it. You blaming people doesn’t change what happened, and you know damn well Ella would have a fit at you coming at Joe like this.”

Not really. Maybe before. Before everything collapsed so tragically between the two of them.

“Whatever.” She gives a final almost warning glare to the two of them before stalking off, probably to go see Mariella.

BJ places a comforting hand on Joe’s shoulder once she’s gone. “You good, man?” 

Not at all. “Yeah.” He clears his throat. 

BJ gives a sad smile. “Don’t let Olevil get to you.” Her nickname from back when they were in high school makes Joe chuckle. “You going back to work next week?”

Joe blows out a breath. That hasn’t even crossed his mind the past couple weeks. He doesn’t even really know what storyline they came up with to cover his absence. Nor does he care really. “I haven’t even thought about that, man.”

“I think you should.” And before Joe can protest, Byron lifts his hand. “Hear me out. She’s gonna be with our parents for a few weeks, so you know she’ll be in good hands. What you gon’ do while she’s gone? Sit around the house sad and moping and shit? You know she would be chewing you out for that, telling you that you gotta get back in the game.”

Joe gives a bit of a smile. Byron is right. Knowing Mariella, she’d have a whole theatrical ass presentation as to why he should return to work, song and dance included. 

“Yeah…”

Byron slaps him on his shoulder. “Just think about it, alright?” 

Joe nods, because he will. And not for himself, not even for his job, because he doesn’t give a fuck about that right now.

But for Mariella.

His Ri. 

Because she’ll always be his Ri.

And he’s determined to make sure she doesn’t forget it this time.

———-

Spring, 2022 [cont.]

“Baby!” It’s a distant voice that becomes closer as it's repeatedly conjoined with a small hand shaking at his shoulder. “Baby, wake up.”

And he does. Eyes fluttering open, his vision is blurred initially, gradually clearing up to reveal the face of his beautiful wife. Cognizant of his surroundings, Joe realizes she’s sitting on top of him, notebook and pen in hand.

He smiles. It’s been a while since she’s woken him up for this. And while he’ll regret it in the morning, he’s grateful for it now. Grateful for these little callbacks to when they were broke, living in a crappy apartment, trying to chase the dream as inspiration struck her at all hours of the night. And she would wake him up, wanting his feedback. 

He didn’t really mind then. 

And he doesn’t really mind now.

That’s just his Ri.

Eyes squinting, she asks, “you up?”

He chuckles, also enjoying the sight of her straddling him wearing only his shirt. “Yes, baby. I’m up.”

“About time,” she complains, and he rolls his eyes. So damn dramatic. “I’m feeling inspired.” She says it while giving almost jazz hands, pretty brown eyes landing back on him. “Wanna hear the lyrics?”

He yawns, glancing at the digital clock that reads 2:37AM. “What else would I be doing at this time?”

She glares. “Is that sarcasm I detect, mister? Is it my fault my musical muse comes alive at night? That she flourishes when most—”

“Ri.”

“Huh?”

He closes his eyes. Joe loves Mariella with everything in him, but he’s not in the mood for one of her theatrical tangents at damn near 3 o’clock in the morning. “Lyrics.”

“Oh! Right!” Chuckling, he watches as she reads over whatever she’s written to herself at first. A bit of a habit. She’s always initially self-conscious about her lyrics. “Now, it’s just off the top of my head, so be nice, okay?”

“I’m always nice to you, Ri.” It’s the truth. As annoyed as he can get sometimes, she’s never been on that list. “And I’m sure it’s fine.” 

She smiles appreciatively, slightly taking him by surprise as she quietly sings the lyrics versus just reading them to him.

Yellow diamonds in the light

Now we're standing side by side

As your shadow crosses mine

What it takes to come alive

It's the way I'm feeling I just can't deny

But I've gotta let it go

We found love in a hopeless place

Finished, she looks down at him, expectantly, “well?”

“I love it.” He loves most of what she writes though. He especially loves to hear her sing. “What inspired it?”

“I don’t know. I was just thinking about us. About how far we come.” She shrugs, his hands rubbing circles on her hips. “Your show was sold out tonight, Joe. Mine is sold out too. Like, we both sold out Madison Square Garden. That feels almost too perfect to be true.”

He makes a sound. “But, it is, baby.”

“I know.” She sighs heavily and asks in a partial hypothetical tone. “We’re like really hot shit, huh?” Joe chuckles as she gasps and places her tablet down on his chest, quickly writing something down. He says nothing, having been with her for so long that none of her quirky ways really surprise him anymore.

“Also.”

“Also?”

She glares but moves to place the notebook and pen on the nightstand, resting her hands on his chest. “I was thinking about our conversation earlier…” He’s quiet, waiting patiently for her to finish her sentence even if it does have him a bit on edge. He’s never been good with waiting. “Let’s do it.”

Her answer takes him by surprise. “You sure?”

She nods, tugging at his beard. “We’re not getting any younger.” She giggles, eyes playfully narrowing. “Especially you, old man.” 

At that, he sucks his teeth. “Who you calling old?” He squeezes her side, and she squeals. He knows that’s where she’s ticklish. She falls out, laughing, and he takes the advantage of her being distracted to flip them so she’s flat on her back. “Naw, say it again. I ain’t hear you.”

“Joe, stop,” she giggles as he hovers over her, tickling her until she pushes back against his shoulder. He grabs her hand, restricting her when she opens her eyes. Her laughter quietly dies down when their eyes lock. 

Love. 

So much love.

Joe leans down and connects their lips, softly, slowly, just as meaningful as any other kiss they’ve shared. She moans into his mouth, feeling his hardened length graze against her opening, her essence already making its way down her inner thighs.

He feels this too, groaning and lifting her thigh to widen her as he carefully enters her, watching her arch her back at the entrance. She whimpers, hands moving around his shoulders.

He kisses her wrist, watching the pleasure on her face as he gives her deep strokes, slow and plunging, just how he knows she likes it. “Shhhh….let me take care of you, baby.”

And he does.

He always has.

He always will.

[ham1lton]

wait i have a nepo baby headcanon not a political one but more succession style. nepo baby!yn whose family owns the company that owns formula 1 (like bernie ecclestone but like not a terrible racist obvi) (or liberty media but obviously something else IDK)

so she’s been around it forever and she’s grown to have a reckless party girl image (partying with kendall jenner, lily rose depp, drug allegations you get it) but she’s actually v smart and on the board of f1 and is key in making decisions

she didn’t really start making decisions until her 20s when her family made her clean up her act and the dilfs are like wow i haven’t seen you in forever. last time i saw you you were sneaking out of a corporate dinner at your parents’ house 😉

and the current grid is like terrified of her. scared but turned on

(if you don’t like the dads best friend/age gap/‘known the reader since she was young but now she’s grown up and hot’ trope then you can change it to they know who she is but never interacted until she was like. 24 lol)

but since you said you were watching gilmore girls i do imagine a scene from that show but where there’s an F1 gathering at her parents’ house but she doesn’t know cos she doesn’t live there anymore but she does to her old room and finds like 3 drivers in there bc they’re pissed off at something happening downstairs. she opens the door and says can i come in? and the drivers are like well. it’s your room. (like in the episode rory’s birthday parties hahahah)

sorry this is so long LMAO 💘

WAIT THIS IS ACTUALLY SO FUN.

if i was to write it, i’d probably change the idea that she is publicly helping to run it because i don’t think that’s realistic. but maybe her dad or something is like ‘i want to do (insert idea)’ and yn overhears it while drinking a cocktail at 10am (because it’s six pm somewhere) and she’s like ‘shit idea, do (insert better idea)’ and the dad is like ‘no, as if i’m listening to my problematic ass daughter’. so he tells his advisors like ‘lmfaooo dumb idea right’ but they’re like ‘that actually works sm better. the original idea was your daughter’s one… right?’ and the dad is like ‘oh… yes!! lol!! exactly 😅’

idk why but logan comes to my head and he’s at yn’s family estate or something for a f1 related night and he’s like … fuck i need to hide somewhere for some fresh air and time alone. so he runs into a room and shuts the door behind him. he’s like phew!!! alone at last. only to hear a lighter switch and he sees reader in her room maybe smoking? maybe lighting something on fire to do it.

and he’s like … um who tf are you?? and she’s like ‘this is my room 🤨 who the fuck are you???’ and he’s like ‘um no it’s not. there are only two people who here. (yn’s dad’s name) and his daughter but she’s at boarding school’ and she’s like ‘by boarding school, they meant rehab and i’m back. i’ve been back for a while. i’m just not showing my face downstairs. i think dad’s relieved honestly.’ and then they start to chat - maybe about expectations placed on them by themselves and others? idk why i’m thinking this scenario. can be romantic or platonic up 2 you.

but i definitely think the dilfs knowing her growing up might be slightly weird for some readers so maybe, she’s just been sent from place to place for wild behaviour so they know she exists but they’ve never seen her - like u said!!

[milf--adjacent]

Hilarious to me how I've been loudly anti-Democrat since I was in undergrad (ya know, over a decade ago) and people are acting like it's only today I decided to stand up and say something. Go find one of my old @Milf-adjacent posts from before I got deleted. I was talking about Bernie being a bar below the ground back in 2016 lmao.

[rainisawriter]

Pumpkin Spice Fluff (Flufftober 2023 Masterlist)

🍂 Introduction 🍂

So, for the past few years I've been doing this set called Frightful October but I wanted to do something different this year. I have decided to try my hand at @flufftober this year!

I'm quite nervous because I only found this challenge last month and, as of posting this, I've only completed one lmao I really want to try and get all 31 but I'm not promising anything, knowing how I struggle to finish shit.

I originally planned to make this entire event original fiction however, then I changed my mind and decided to do half original and half fanfiction. I then changed my mind a third time and have decided to go with all fanfiction lmao

This set will be tagged with #RFO - PSF and #RFO - PSF23. You can see this set posted on AO3 and WordPress.

───── ⋆⋅🍂⋅⋆ ─────

Ficography under the cut!

🍂 Week 1 (October 1st – 7th) 🍂

Day 1. Cowardly San (San, Ateez) | 3k | fluff, angst, non-idol au

Day 2. To Be Family (Yamato, High&Low) | 4k | fluff, family

Day 3. What Changed? (Jaemin, NCT) | 1k | fluff, college au

Day 4. The Ugly Duckling (Amagai, High&Low) | 7k | angst, fluff

Day 5. Stood Up (Reo, Generations) | 3k | fluff

Day 6. The Sun & Moon (Bernie, High&Low) | 6k | angst, fluff

Day 7. Together-Forever (Woozi, Seventeen) | 7k | fluff, supernatural, romance

───── ⋆⋅🍂⋅⋆ ─────

🍂 Week 2 (October 8th - 14th) 🍂

Day 8. Strange One (Takeshi, High&Low) | 3k | fluff, comedy

Day 9. Luck of the Draw (Wooyoung, Ateez) | 2k | fluff, friendship

Day 10. Made With Love (Shibaman, High&Low) | 5k | fluff, romance, slice of life

Day 11. A Helping Hand (Cobra, High&Low) | 2k | fluff, slice of life, romance

Day 12. One Day, You'll Be Mine (Hitsugaya, Bleach) | 5k | fluff, comedy

Day 13. You've A Lot of Explaining to Do (Yamasho, The Rampage) | 3k | fluff, supernatural

Day 14. Hyuga & the Three Kittens (Hyuga, High&Low) | 4k | fluff, slice of life

───── ⋆⋅🍂⋅⋆ ─────

🍂 Week 3 (October 15th - 21st) 🍂

Day 15. Missing & Cursed (Choutarou, Prince of Tennis) | 6k | fluff, supernatural, magic

Day 16. A Halloween Miracle (Ice, High&Low) | 5k | fluff, romance slice of life

Day 17. Accept Me As I Am (Ryu, the Rampage)

Day 18. To the Hot Springs (Tsuji, High&Low)

Day 19. I'll Never Leave (Renato, Dead by Daylight)

Day 20. To Care for You (Murayama, High&Low) | 5k | fluff, angst, slice of life

Day 21. Welcome to the Realm (Nic, Dead by Daylight) | 3k | fluff, friendship

───── ⋆⋅🍂⋅⋆ ─────

🍂 Week 4 (October 22nd - 28th) 🍂

Day 22. My Beautiful Captain (Futa, High&Low) | 4k | fluff, angst, comfort

Day 23. Little Starfish (Floyd, Twisted Wonderland) | 3k | fluff, soulmate au

Day 24.

Day 25.

Day 26.

Day 27.

Day 28.

───── ⋆⋅🍂⋅⋆ ─────

🍂 Week 5 (October 29th - 31st) 🍂

Day 29.

Day 30.

Day 31.

───── ⋆⋅🍂⋅⋆ ─────

[stergeon]

🦈❤️ (for that writer ask post)

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

i’m lucky in that most characters flow pretty easily for me, but i’ve struggled the most with writing ferdinand and bernadetta.

ferdinand’s voice is more challenging to execute than i ever anticipate it will be. i barely featured him in chapter 1 of muscle memory, but it was enough to stress me out. he has this particular tone i can’t seem to nail—he’s overly confident and sunny in a way that can come off as oafish, but that oafishness is usually hiding a clever and thoughtful truth.

in general, i like bernie, but she’s not my favorite lmao. pre-timeskip, i find her to be so tough to write as she spirals for nothing and can easily take control of a scene. it’s hard to keep her on task, and i worry about her coming off cringey. i’ve only made an attempt at writing her in echoes of zanado and i’m not sure i’ll do it again, though i’ll definitely give post-timeskip bernie a chance to shine at some point. gotta reward her for all that growth.

i’ve also taken a few stabs at writing locked tomb fics, but i simply cannot get harrowhark’s voice quite right, so those have yet to see the light of day. alas. maybe i’ll finish one eventually!

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

hmmmmm. i don’t feel like i’m particularly skilled at crafting one-liners that stand out or are all that witty. i tend to either be partial to parts of sentences or entire passages that flow well. for whatever reason, i was pleased with the line in muscle memory chapter 2 about kissing the “soft plateau below her navel” even though it’s just describing a tummy lol. the words feel nice together.

i’m gonna cheat and throw a few out here. edelgard’s rant about the cats’ names in her majesty’s favored felines was so fun to write and still cracks me up. she’s so high-drama smdh. love her. there’s also a really stupid sex joke early in that story that’s not even a joke, per se, but also makes me laugh.

i think like you mean it contains some of my most primo navel-gazing angst, and i’m especially fond of the very last paragraph:

She held her like she was the other end of the tether, like she was the only thing keeping her here, like holding her could save her, could give her purpose, could make her worthy, like the heat-on-heat of their intertwined bodies could make meaning of all the things that didn’t make sense in this world. She closed her eyes, and held her, and begged the favor of an absent god, praying that she—that this—could be enough.

i also like this line from chapter eight of at the edge of the void:

And even without her love, he would still choose to make himself a planet and remain in her orbit, knowing full well he would be eventually swallowed by the gravity of a dying sun.

unfortunately, my neuroticism doesn’t let me like it that much because i’ve not put enough thought into whether anyone in fódlan, especially edelgard, has a concept of what gravity is or that suns (plural) can die. i won’t let me have any fun.

[paradoxcase]

@turtletotem:

Kiriona’s apparent lifelessness will be fully explained. I will take the liberty of explaining the Ianthe situation since it took me FOREVER to catch on—Ianthe is wearing Naberius’s body, puppeting him from a distance to protect herself from the Resurrection Beast. 😳

Ahh, that would make sense. Nona doesn't describe Naberius's hair at all like how Gideon described it. I guess they still do have his body hanging around, since John retrieved all the bodies from Canaan House and didn't return Naberius's to the Third because the fact that Lyctorhood requires the death of the cavalier is a secret. I guess he never actually got a funeral then, lmao

@wellhappybirthdaytomeiguess:

There really can only be two people that would have told Nona, or whoever Nona is, about the Hokey Pokey....

Well, this doesn't mean anything to me, since I have no idea if the Hokey Pokey is still a thing or not, and if it's not still a thing, the only person who would know about it is John

"Only, to actually be his heir, I think Gideon has to be alive first"---ok, this line really did make me laugh out loud! And what is funny too is that John would likely know Weekend at Bernie's. Ha! :)

Honestly, given the number of times we've now had people puppeting dead bodies pretending that they're alive, if John never says anything about Weekend at Bernie's I'm just going to be disappointed

[horce-divorce]

I don't know how to explain to you chucklefucks that for the most disenfranchised among us, NOTHING HAS FUCKING CHANGED since Trump left office. We know how bad it was, we were fucking here. And we are TELLING YOU, not speculating about the future, we are TELLING 👏YOU 👏NOW that nothing fucking got better for us and some of us ALREADY have nothing left to lose THANKS TO BIDEN AS WELL. NOT JUST TRUMP. WE HAVE BEEN DOING THIS SHIT ALL ALONG. Not JUST once Trump got to office!!! And NO IT HAS NOT BEEN FUCKING EASIER. WTF. Incoming tranmission from Planet Neoliberal Voter Privilege.

You stupid pricks don't even seem to realize that Trump leaving office DIDNT MEAN HIS APPOINTEES ALL WENT WITH HIM. THEYVE STILL BEEN THERE THE WHOLE TIME. Alive and WELL AT WORK helping to push some of the worst antiqueer legislation we've seen in DECADES while Biden, who barely has 2 brain cells left to rub together, decomposes before our very eyes.

If you think TRUMP was the thing that brought neo-nazi fascism to the mainstream, you are so comfortably privileged to have gotten to ignore it, to have never fucking heard it until then. And you are way too out of touch to be addressing the people you think you're talking to rn!

The "sign off on your glorious revolution" bit really gets me. Lmao. What a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue. What a hilarious way to misconstrue entire swaths of political ideology. You think Policial Jesus is going to come and save your ass, so we must think that too, huh?

Shits gonna hit the fan this year regardless of who "wins" the election, and it's not merely because of The Orange Man. It's also because of everyday lay people like this OP who have merely been privileged enough to ignore the suffering of your neighbors until now. Your privilege is running out, not because the revolution is coming, but because the hegemony that affords you that privilege cannot continue indefinitely. That machine runs on a profit-growth-extraction paradigm and we are running out of resources to extract from.

I don't know how to explain to these fucking people that you are the tone deaf motherfuckers we're talking to when we say you need to stop talking and learn. You have reblogged support of BLM and UBI and Palestine but at the end of the day you *don't fucking listen* to what we're saying in those posts. At the end of the day you are not hearing our cries of pain. And its pretty fucking ridiculous to turn around and point at people EVEN LESS PRIVILEGED THAN YOU and say "don't you realize that YOU'RE going to threaten MY safety and stability with your uncouth actions?" Well, bully for fucking you, because we already lost that! It's been gone! It never came back for some of us after Trump left!!!! You got to plug your ears and pretend the pandemic was over while millions of us became disabled and homeless for the first time as a result!!! While BIDEN admitted HE DOESNT THINK ABOUT IT ANYMORE!!!!! You got to go back to your life while protestors railing against our tax dollars being used for GENOCIDE are being injected with KETAMINE by the COPS!!!! If you thought TRUMP was that fucking scary! At least he outright said what he was doing!! Biden is continuing his work with ICE, continuing to increase surveillance and crack down on any kind of protestor, cop cities are expanding UNDER BIDEN, DEMOCRATS ARE ALSO VOTING FOR MASK BANS!!!!!!!

It is SOOOOO BLATSNTLY SELF CENTERED to think that you losing the privilege of a comfy life is the biggest threat to ""our democracy"" rn. YOU got to ignore how bad shit was until now. Some of us NEVER HAD THAT LUXURY. Our democracy fucking died decades ago and YOU got to keep playing Weekend at Bernies with it's corpse while the rest of us dug our own graves. And now you're scared because you stand to end up like us.

Lol. Lmao. Get fucked. This type of attitude is only furthering the class/social divides that already exist between voters and WILL. NOT. get anyone to vote harder for Biden. In fact, it just makes me wanna fist fight a Democrat even more than I already did.

First they came for the indigenous, and you didn't say anything bc you got yours. They came for the immigrants, and you didn't say anything bc you've always been a citizen. They came for the prisoners and their voting rights and you said if they didn't want to lose their rights they should follow the law, even while they made it illegal to mask, to protest, to be gay and trans in public- its so easy to just follow the rules! They came for the trans kids and you said, but we already have gay marriage, I thought it was safe to be queer now, and I dont have trans kids so I don't see how this affects me... they came for palestine and you said Oof. Well. That's the price of freedom for me, I guess!

And now they're coming for you and none of the other targets are left to feel worried for you, because we have already been living through your worst nightmare, UNDER BIDEN.

You look fucking stupid.

if you could EVER find a dem as outspoken and angry for the people as trump is for the white 1% then maybe we wouldnt be having this discussion.

[ratgingi]

hi time to make a poll that only applies to me and my content

if you dont know what im talking about you can play the jackson scene there, see a little bit of (unfinished) info on their routes here, and a tag with info/etc on everyone here

im making this poll last for a week so ill rb it periodically lmao

[ginevrastilinski-ocs]

New Ocs!

I have new ocs to introduce, some that aren’t on my masterlist yet (but I’ll add them soon, I promise) (I have too many Gotham ocs, I know that I’ll probably scrap some of them, but until then...)

Shadowhunters

Marceline Seymour - Mundane (with Sight); future Elys’ girlfriend

Her faceclaim is Holland Roden!

Vincent “Vice” Verlac - Shadowhunter; Nico’s best friend (and ex boyfriend); just wants to be a singer; doesn’t care about fighting;

His faceclaim is Charlie Gillespie!

Descendants

Esme Balthazar - daughter of Edgar Balthazar; cat lover; her and Carlos are besties; ship TBD

Her faceclaim is Maria Ehrich!

Celestine - daughter of Blue Fairy

Her faceclaim is Maude Apatow!

Bernadette “Bernie” Poppins - daughter of Mary Poppins and Bert; twin sister of Armie

Her faceclaim is Millie Bobby Brown!

Armie Poppins - child of Mary Poppins and Bert; twin brother of Bernie

His faceclaim is Noah Schnapp!

Gavin - son of the White Knight; sweetest boy ever; 

His faceclaim is Matt Cornett!

Brielle - daughter of the Red Knight

Her faceclaim is Sadie Soverall!

Rowan Cheshire - child of the Cat of Cheshire and Redacted; 

Their faceclaim is Joy Sunday!

Glee

Jean St James - sister of Jesse St James; the sweetest girl in town; already famous singer

Her faceclaim is Olivia Rodrigo!

Maya Puckerman - younger sister of Noah Puckerman; Cheerio; New Directions memeber; wasn’t there for the first season for reasons lmao

Her faceclaim is Alexia Demie!

Mirabelle Ryder - Cheerio; no plot just vibes

Her faceclaim is Sofia Carson!

Morgan Smith - Cheerio; one of the Originals New Directions member; future Broadway star; (maybe a Rachel ship... tbd)

Her faceclaim is Lili Reinhart!

Melanie Jay - Football Player at McKinley (the only girl in the team); New Directions Memeber; basically girly girl who likes to play football and sing and that can kick your ass

Her faceclaim is Hailee Steinfeld!

Dulcinea “Dulcie” Klempt - niece of Isabelle Wright; famous dancer

Her faceclaim is Kristine Froseth!

Ezekiel “Zeke” Wright - son of Isabelle Wright; hates being famous; just wants a normal teenage life; hides in Lima for not handle New York shit

His faceclaim is Dylan Sprayberry!

Stranger Things

Effie Munson - Eddie Munson’s younger sister; probably a Robin ship (TBD)

Her faceclaim is Emma Mackey!

Sunny Henderson - Dustin Henderson’s older sister; Steve ship

Her faceclaim is Haley Lu Richardson!

Ethan Clifford - sweetest guy in all Indiana; ends up in the middle of the Hawkins Supernatural Chaos by accident

His faceclaim is Joshua Bassett!

Gotham

Annalise Pennyworth - niece of Alfred Pennyworth; Bruce (potential Bruce x Selina) ship

Her faceclaim is McKenna Grace (and probably Meg Donnelly when she’s older but... TBD)!

Margaret Gordon - young sister of Jim Gordon; the darling of the GCPD (does she work there? No) 

Her faceclaim is Florence Pugh!

Virginia Falcone - daughter of Carmine Falcone; sister of Sofia and Mario Falcone; (don’t know about her for the vigilante thing... I’m more towards yes but not sure yet)

Her faceclaim is Zoey Deutch!

Karina Wayne - aunt of Bruce Wayne; Wayne Enterprices’ heiress (at least half of it); future vigilante (name tbd)

Her faceclaim is Anne Hathaway!

Vera Wayne - twin sister of Bruce Wayne (or at least this is what they think... spoiler: she isn’t)

Her faceclaim is Millie Bobby Brown!

Myra “Hel” Mooney - niece of Fish Mooney; rich bitch energy 

Her faceclaim is Savannah Lee Smith!

Penelope Fisher - private detective; just wants to know what the fuck is going on in Gotham; the law can’t stop her lmao

Her faceclaim is Emma Stone!

Elijah Crow - no plot just vibes; vigilante for sure but name TBD

His faceclaim is Dominic Sherwood!

Mireille Lacroix - first and only daughter of an elite family of Gotham; future vigilante (name TBD)

Her faceclaim is Dove Cameron!

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Time for Big Mouth season 6 summary!

I do this every year and that’s basically the only Big Mouth post I make for the year. So let’s go!

THE SONGS IN THE SEASON WAS… BANGERS!!! And now the new song album is out!!! With all the songs from season 4-6

The fucking ”Girl we got with your mom” song will forever be stuck in my head though now

Andrew’s parents :( I feel bad for him.

Him and Bernie were so cute :,) And i’m lowkey glad we saw her clips cause… some of the stuff reminded me of stuff I’ve done… what can I say the show really reminds you of the weird shit you did when you were in middle school

Anyway I am tempted to do that list lmao

Aren’t they supposed to be 14 now? They’ve been 13 since S1-

WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHO IS THE PRINCIPAL

This season was a little like a ”middle season” where I feel like not as much happened. But I do know they’ve been picked up for S7 so this is probably intentional.

I miss Ali and Jessi’s scenes :( But I do know why they didn’t have much interaction except that ”does anyone have a tampon” scene. First is that this season focused much more on family - and also, since stuff that happens on human resources also affects Big Mouth, Jessi doesn’t have a love bug since she got fired. Maybe Human Resources will pick this up in their next season. We’ll see.

ASEXUAL CHARACTER! Also the fact that his hormone monsters are so ok with it.

CONNIE AND MAURY’S BABY I love how they just fit right in

Missy finally got her period! I was actually wondering if she had gotten it or not. Also ”it’s brown, are you sure I haven’t pooped myself?” wow that’s relateable

Very accurate representation of a yeast infection lmao… god why are female genitals like this we constantly have to look out for stuff like this all the time

Love how they’re always going crazy in the last episode of the seasons. FUCKED UP FRIDAY YEAH IT SURE WAS

Lola and Jessi’s friendship awwww

THAT ONE TIME ANDREW BUMPED INTO MISSY AND SHE WENT ”GET TF AWAY FROM ME” AND ASKED HIM TO STAY AT LEAST A 2 METER DISTANCE LMOOO

I really love how things are starting to get better for Lola :) She deserves it

And Jay :( He deserves better

I wonder if Delilah will get any monsters. Babies have some monsters too I vet (besides the need demon)

Ok so when I was 13, I had found a lot of ”transformed into a baby/forced to be a baby” stories on wattpad. I don’t know why, I found one and suddenly I had read like 20 of them. I was so weirded out by them but I also was intrigued to it. So anyway, with all the diaper jokes, people wetting and shitting themselves, Jessi switching bodies with Delilah and having to spend the time as a baby, I kinda cringed because. I had read a lot of stories and I sat there like just questioning why I ever did. This show is great to remind yourself about the weird stuff in your adolescense <3 And that’s both the charm and the con of it hahahaha

To be fair, I read far worse things on wattpad… those things were MILD to the weird shit I otherwise found on that site

Anyway! Liked the season! Didn’t feel like as much was happening, but I am still gonna rewatch it 😄 I always find new things upon rewatch

[hoodienanami]

Tell us some facts about The Clash that would make the average punk on here hurl 👀👀 pretty please I love all that juicy old drama

LMAO i dont have anything actually super bad bc overall the clash was a band made up of nice decent guys....tho i do have a nice picture of paul simonon in an ss uniform (that features some marxist badges on it the same way the sex pistols' anarchy shirts had marx on one side and a swastika on the other)

the picture is for an interview in sounds magazine btw. speaking of that sounds magazine interview, i like this bit of it

Some people think Bernie used you as a political mouthpiece. That reminds me of once when I was talking to Viv of the Slits and it was the time that Malcolm was doing something with them and we were talking about being Malcolm's puppets. She just said, 'At Least it's better than being Rhodes' puppets'. Bernie never told us what to say. He just told us to stop singing songs like 'She's Sitting At The Party'. He said toss that fucking song out of the repertoire, write something else. It was great to meet him. Along comes this guy who says "Think about what you're doing, have something worth taking out there. Don't just shamble out there". And it was great… we don't really have a relationship like that with him anymore . . . still, everything changes. But is there still a mutual trading of respect? Yeah, on good days. On bad days, there ain't much of anything. How do you feel now about the treatment of you as a working-class hero? Do you think it was a fair representation? Yeah, I do. Well, you certainly don't come from any poverty-stricken background. Yeah, but it's not where you come from. It's where you've been, what you've been through. If you just stood on your own two legs, do it that way, then it don't matter where you come from 'cos you learn all the lessons and you get wise, just 'cos you have to, to survive. Songs like 'White Riot' were written walking along the street in my head…endlessly. (x)

what i like about this interview is that is shows how well spoken and intelligent joe was. its also is a rare case of him readily admitting in an interview that hes not working class and yet consciously represents himself as such

joe strummer was a man from a wealthy background and a good education who pretended to be working class for creditably. i dont think badly of him for doing this and i dont think it makes him a bad person. i just acknowledge that its a thing he did. personally i think hes got a good point about it being your life experiences that truly makes you who you are and how you were raised is only part of that. but i also think that fans of joe and the clash should know that hes not the working class hero he hinged most of his brand on being

(also for those wondering who bernie is: thats the clash's manager. weird guy. very politically active. you can read more about his relationship with joe here)

i think its important to say that i have nothing against the clash. i like to give them a hard time but its out of love. theyre one of my favorite bands and i love reading about them. what i dont love is the obsessive mythologization and lionization of them that leads to the obscuring and twisting of the truth

by ironing out all of the stuff that doesnt fit the myth of the clash or the myth of joe strummer, we dont just loose the truth! we loose part of what makes the clash such a fascinating and impactful band!

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 151/310

2015 Chinese GP

I only have the race again. I'm sorry about that, it's going to be an issue all season. I'm trying to get that person from f1fullraces to reupload the 2015 season on their website because it seems the whole thing was there at some point but all the links are dead, for the whole season :( unfortunately they're not answering me. I've reached out by DM first in August 2022 and they didn't answer and I tried again not long ago and I also answered to some of their tweets because they answered other people there but no response. Kinda sucks. Anyway as always I'll check what I can find on YouTube and dailymotion after watching the race but it would be much easier if they answered.

AND THEY FINALLY DID SO HERE WE GO PRERACE CONTENT 

Lewis is on pole again! Nico says Ferrari is a threat, they have race pace. Simon says Nico was pretty upset he didn't get pole. Johnny says it was his best performance this season so far so he was grumpy indeed. In the drivers' parade, though, he says he's feeling good. Saturday was frustrating but still there's everything to play for. He can't talk about strategies because there's so many possibilities. Of course it would mean a lot winning here as that's where he first won and he needs to gain back points over Lewis and Sebastian. 

They talked with Bernie about Red Bull complaining about Merc's performance and even threatening to pull out of the sport. He says he spoke with Mateschitz a few days prior and he didn't mention any of that to his face. The journalist asks what Bernie thinks he wants, reg changes to bring Merc "back to the park"? Bernie says Mateschitz would be happy like most people if all the engines were more or less the same. "It's supposed to be a drivers' championship not a team, you know, constructors championship." Erm… that's. Both exist, Bernie, that's the point? Wtf is he saying. The journalist asks if that'd mean going back to a non hybrid engine or with less than a hybrid element. "So long as they're all the same," Bernie says. As the journalist starts another question he adds "It's the drivers' championship eh? Not the engineers' championship". OLD MAN THOSE ARE THE SAME THINGS. THEY ONLY HAVE ONE CAR. YOU CAN'T SEPARATE THE TWO CHAMPIONSHIPS. The journalist asks what about Toto Wolff because Bernie said he's partly to blame for killing F1 potentially (LMAO WHAT), so what does Toto feel about that? "He's waiting for the funeral." That's the most absurd interview I've ever heard. What an asshole. Apparently Niki said who cares if Mateschitz, Honda and Renault pull out of the sport, we'll provide everybody with Merc engines. Red-capped king.

Simon says they know Nico has been "effectively in Lewis Hamilton's pocket" and that senior management, particularly Niki, has said he needs to sort himself out. Hill thinks it's because they know they're under threat from Ferrari rather than Niki wanting him to challenge Lewis so they need Nico to be right on Lewis' tail the danger being of course that Nico still very much wants to win the championship and they might fight where Ferrari seems to have a good arrangement and there's no animosity between their drivers. (I mean sure but only one of them is competitive right now, so…) 

Lewis drivers' parade interview. They talk about how much support he has here, he points out to some banners in the crowd. She asks what's key to be successful on this track. He's not willing to talk. He hums. He says he doesn't know, you need to attack and drive your heart out, "I guess". She pushes a bit more asking what they need to do to make it more comfortable for themselves and keep the Ferraris behind. He doesn't answer, he makes her turn around to show her something in the crowd. She says "it's a marriage proposal". Lewis exclaims "Yeah it's crazy!" Rachel says she thinks the fan wants an answer. Lewis says he didn't see that one. He gets back to topic. You need to look after your tyres and they need to try and do a better job than Ferrari. "Attack at the start and get away well?" – "That's always the plan, but it's gonna be hard as always, but I hope that it's the outcome that I hope for." 

There's a Red Bull segment, for some reason Keanu Reeves is interviewing them? I'm confused lol. 

Time for the race! 

Oh and it's not the usual broadcast on top of it? Oh no wait… it's not in English. Yeah. I don't know what language that is. Ffs. 

Okay I've found the race in English but I think this season is gonna be a struggle. 

So Lewis is on pole again. Nico is starting right beside him. Then it's Seb and Massa, Valtteri and Raikkonen, Daniel and Grosjean, Nasr and Ericsson, and this time we do have 20 cars on the grid, for the first time this season. 

It's very, very hot. Hotter than in the FPs and quali. So there's a bit of a question mark on the tyres. 

Oh there's Sewis drama. Ted says Lewis feels like Seb blocked him on his practice starts at some point earlier. He says Lewis got agitated because of that but he's now calm. 

Formation lap 

Everybody except Kvyat and Sainz are on softs. 

Lewis is pointing towards Nico a lot. Brundle finds that extreme. Crofty thinks it might serve right into Seb's hand. 

And they're racing! 

Lewis gets a good start and is indeed ahead of both Nico and Seb. Valtteri overtakes Massa, he's very close to Seb. Raikkonen overtakes Massa as well. He attacks Valtteri and he's ahead! Sainz spins on his own. No damage. Nico sets the fastest lap. And again. But he's still 1 second behind. Kvyat has been told to not fight Daniel as they are on different strategies but he doesn't let him through. Then he does and Daniel locks up, and that's Kvyat back ahead. He does end up in front but that took much longer than it should have. 

10 laps in. Verstappen overtakes Ericsson for P10 and almost crashes into him in the process in what is described as a "REALLY aggressive move". Yeah, jesus. We have an overview replay and Ericsson comes down the straight, ready to take the corner, and Max moves himself right on his path, between him and the apex. They really should have crashed and it's unbelievable they didn't. Ericsson had to slow down so much to avoid him he basically stopped on track. It's just always been his style, hasn't it? I'll put my car there and if you don't wanna crash into it then move. Anyway. P9 is Nasr, P8 is Maldonado, P7 Grosjean, P6 Valtteri, P5 Massa, P4 Raikkonen, P3 Seb, P2 Nico and Lewis is of course still in the lead. Hulkenberg just lost the gearbox and DNFs on the side of the track. Yellow flags. Nico is still only 1.2 behind Lewis, and Seb is only 3.6 seconds down on him which is impressive. We're in for a good fight this season, I like it. Also Raikkonen is only 1.4 behind his team-mate so it's not just Seb, Ferrari is indeed doing well. Maldonado pits. The problem is that the medium is really not performing great, and the Mercedes are already under pressure. These pit stops might get messy. Seb is called in, they're going for the undercut. Weirdly both Mercedes stay out even though the radio comm was very early. Seb is indeed in. They're giving him another set of softs. Bono tells Lewis the gap to Nico is 2.5 and asks him what he thinks about going for another set of soft tyres for a longer second stint. Lewis says these tyres are lasting well. And so he comes in and gets out on another set of softs. He's out in P3, at the moment, behind Nico and Raikkonen who haven't pitted yet. Nico is called in and they're putting him on softs as well. Raikkonen also comes in. Lewis is back in the lead, Nico is still P2 but it puts Seb definitely closer to him. Ooooh and there's Kvyat, out on the gravel, in a cloud of thick white smoke. His engine has blown off. Horner is seen on the pit wall shaking his head. That's not gonna help the whole RBR-Renault drama. Nico's engineer : "So Nico gap to Lewis in front 2.6." Nico talks over him : "OK Tony, need to reduce the communication, please, I can see Lewis, I know what I have to do for now." Mmh. He's not enjoying it. 

Lap 20. It's another Max overtake, on Nasr this time, also less risky. The garage, again, erupts in applause. Brundle says "we've got a mega star on our hands in the making here… Young Max Verstappen. They told us to look out for him and here he is." Indeed. LMAO wait. I can't believe what I've just heard. Nico : "Lewis is driving very slowly so get him to speed up." Uh my man. Your job is to overtake him or did you decide to play second fiddle all of a sudden? If you're unhappy with Lewis' pace, overtake him. What the absolute fuck. Brundle says he's suggesting Lewis is gonna back him into the Ferraris but again. If you're not happy with that, get in the lead. Ah, it's so stupid. A little bit later we hear his engineer say "Copy that" in answer to something we didn't hear and again Nico is talking over him : "If I go closer I destroy my tyres like in the first stint, that's the problem." Lewis is told to pick the pace up a little bit, 43.7, when he was doing 43.9. That made me forget completely to give you the standings so let's do it now. The top 4 is obvious. In fifth we have Massa, then Valtteri, Maldonado and Grosjean, Verstappen and Nasr. Sainz just lost his gearbox, that's another Redbull car out? No he's going again. Okay. Back to the situation at hand, Nico is 2 seconds behind Lewis and Seb 1.6 behind him, Raikkonen 3.4 further. Oh but wait. Nico loses 0.2, and Seb gains 0.1. Crofty says Lewis is backing off Nico into the Ferraris again but Brundle points out Lewis is doing the times he's been asked to do. A bit later Lewis is extending the gap again and we hear a message from earlier in which Bono sets him a minimum target of 43.3, "otherwise we may have to stop Nico first". Oh are we threatening now? I don't like this vibe. Remember Belgium 2014 and my endless rant about Lewis needing to feel like people have his back? That's the complete opposite of that. As Crofty and Brundle now discuss, they ARE indeed threatening him to give the preferential strategy and undercut to Nico. Absolutely fuck this shit. Seb is asked if he can go faster than this which is such a funny question. He says not much. He is gaining on Nico though. Nico is complaining of his front left. 

Lap 30. Lewis. Nico +2.9. Seb +2.1. Raikkonen +4.3. Is that far enough for Nico now? Ffs. It's pissing me off, this thing, I swear. Here we go again. Seb is told to push and box. They're trying the undercut again. Ted says they've put him on the mediums as they have to and that Bono has told Lewis he's doing well and to stick to the plan and it'll turn out good. It better. Nico is called in. Lewis sets the fastest lap. It's the same result as last time. Seb is still behind Nico but much closer and on hotter tyres. 1.6. Lewis is called in. Of course he's also out on the mediums and it's a very good 2.5 stop. He's still way ahead of Nico. Lewis complains that his seat is getting hot. 

It's lap 40.The commentators are again busy praising Verstappen. He is indeed obviously doing a good job. And he overtakes Perez for P8, Perez fights back but it's not enough. That's Nico 4.7 behind Lewis, Seb 8.1 behind him, and Raikkonen 2.7 behind him. Then it's still Massa, Valtteri, Grosjean as Maldonado has spun, Verstappen as we just said overtook Perez for P8, behind him is now Nasr though, as Perez gets overtaken again. Nothing much is happening at the front anymore but at the back Jenson and Maldonado just made contact. Light damage. They both keep going. 

It's lap 50, we're almost done. Rosberg is 5 seconds down on Lewis, the Ferraris have completely dropped the pace! Seb is 12 seconds behind Nico! Then it's still Raikkonen, Massa, Valtteri, Grosjean, Verstappen, Nasr and it's Daniel in P10. Maldonado retires. And that's Verstappen stopped in the pit straight. Engine blown up. That's your second Red Bull car out. Safety car. There's just a couple of laps to go so things are probably gonna end just like this then. Ted says the car is now "lightly on fire" which is a fun concept. The marshals are trying to push it away but it's not moving. Brundle is explaining where the clutch release is like they can hear him. Here they go, they found it, but then they smashed the front wing into the gate. And again. Lmao. It's a struggle. And again, and again. Last lap. The safety car is still out. Lewis asks if they're gonna end under safety car and Bono says affirm, it looks like it. The fans cheer on the marshals as they finally made it inside the pit lane. As the commentators remind us of the Michael Schumacher clause aka you can't immediately start overtaking once the safety car comes in, Bono confirms to Lewis there won't be any overtaking. 

And it's the end of the race! 

Lewis wins ahead of Nico and Seb.

Ted asks Niki if the team truly needed the 1-2 and he says he definitely needed it because he was a bit depressed. He laughs. Ted asks if he knows what was going on in the middle stint when Lewis wasn't fast enough. Was he protecting his tyres? Niki says he has to talk to him but he thinks he did a good job. He heard there was some discussion going on, he heard it, "but I have to find out first from him what the problem was if there was one."

He's not hiding his hair anymore.

The guy who conducts the interviews asks Lewis what happened during the second half of the race. Lewis first starts by congratulating the team on their great work, "smooth weekend", and says it was really just about controlling the gap to Nico and saving the tyres for when he needed them. He says he had loads left in his tyres at the end and was looking forward to using them but then the safety car came out. He thanks the fans for their support. The guy asks about the safety car. Lewis says the safety car wasn't helpful to anyone because it's anticlimactic "but you know naturally as long as no one was injured and all the cars go back safely that's all that matters." As soon as we move on to Nico, Lewis moves to Seb.

Then the last question to Lewis comes. I don't understand what he's being asked. The guy is rambling a lot. In the end he says it's better to be good than lucky but he is going to need luck. Lewis says of course. But the team as he said has done a great job. He says he's massively proud and happy they could get the job done. And that's it. 

On Wikipedia, it is said that Nico then accused Lewis of slowing down on purpose. Lewis said in answer to questions about the radio messages asking him to pick up the pace : "I wasn't controlling his (Nico's) race, I was controlling my own race." Nico then said "It's just now interesting to hear from you, Lewis, that you were just thinking about yourself with the pace in front and necessarily that was compromising my race." Niki backed Lewis up saying of course they're all selfish "what do you think these guys are here to do? I call them egocentric bastards. That is the only way to win and the only way to win the championship, they are all the same." 

Which. I mean. Nico. Just drive better and stfu, your team-mate isn't here to drive for you, except if there's more at stake for the team or he's out of the WDC running anyway. 

Ooooh I've found the press conference let's see.

So yeah Lewis starts by saying that. He's very serious. Very closed off. He's happy, they thought the race would be a lot closer. He says he was just looking after his own car and he had no real threat from Nico throughout the race. He says the funner laps were the ones before the pit stops. He says it was a much smoother weekend than the last race and it made a real difference to the balance of the car. He's really happy, he says.

The camera pans out and Nico looks like he's dead inside.

The journalist asks Nico to talk about his race, he started second and finished second but he sounded at times like he was under unnecessary pressure maybe? That's when Nico says it's interesting to hear what Lewis had to say. "Because driving slower than maybe necessary in the beginning of the stints meant that Sebastian was very close to me and that opened up the opportunity for Sebastian to try that early pit stop, to try and jump me." Lewis is just staring into the void.

"And then I had to cover him so erm… first of all I was unnecessarily close to Sebastian as a result and also it cost me a lot of race time as a result." Lewis is staring at the back of his head with a bastard smile.

Seb looks like me when my parents fight at the dinner table. "Because I had to cover him and then my tyres died at the end of the race cause my stint was just so much longer. So I'm unhappy about that, of course today and um other than that not much to say." The journalist asks Lewis if he'd like to respond. He chuckles silently.

"Not really." Then he chuckles for real. "My job is not to… to… it's not my job to look after Nico's race. My job's to (inhales) to manage the car and bring the car home (inaudible) at the end and as fast as possible. And that's what I did. I didn't do anything intentionally to… to slow any of the cars up, I just was focused on myself. If Nico wanted to get by he could've tried but… he didn't."

Okay so I think it's safe to say Lewis has the upper mental hand so far. Also Nico is really acting very entitled there so yeah. Pisses me off ngl. I wouldn't expect him to do that for Lewis if it was the other way around so. Yeah. Shut up and drive like Rihanna said. 

Once they get to Seb he has a stupid grin on his face like "... Yeah" you can tell that being in the midst of the domestic disputes is not comfortable lol. Anyway he says he wasn't worried about Raikkonen catching up to him at the end because he was in control. He says he thinks it's similar, him and Kimi, Nico and Lewis… he tried to be very aggressive and put pressure on Nico, which made the last stint very long so naturally in the end his tyres were gone. 

Let's see what the post race broadcasts had for us. 

Toto says a 1-2 is all they hoped for after a difficult race in Malaysia. Simon says even though Ferrari seemed to be able to match them on pace on the softs as soon as the medium went on they seemed to switch them on better than them. Toto said they were worried for a bit but they managed to go longer than them and Lewis did some impressive laps at the end of his stint. Their pace was good on both tyres and that's why they deserved to win. He does admit Ferrari developed impressively over winter and they have to take them seriously. 

They play for him Lewis' radio comm complaining about Seb's move from before the race. So here's what actually happened because LMAO Lewis what are you complaining about. The cars are lined up to leave the pitlane to get to the grid and Lewis decides to overtake them because why not I guess. So he pulls up to Seb's level, who just got the green light to go, and then complains that Seb's in his way like he didn't put himself right there. Actually Toto couldn't hear it because he doesn't have an earpiece so that's stupid. Simon sums it up for him : he said the Ferrari is dangerous and got in the way. Toto says everybody's tense before a race and Lewis judged it as dangerous. He shrugs. That's all. Then they show him the start, where Lewis was angled towards Nico on the grid. Hill adds that it's the most extreme such angle he's seen but it worked for him as he got a good start. They ask him if he has a problem with that. Toto says no, as long as the rules don't have a problem with that. He says he's not even sure he did it on purpose, they'd need to look at him getting to the grid. Hill says the second stint with Lewis backing up Nico must have been stressful for him, "certainly Nico was a bit concerned." Toto says of course that they race each other as well. In that situation he thinks Lewis needed to manage his tyres because they didn't know how long they needed to go and it became a problem for Nico and it was certainly not optimal for him but if you're the lead car you need to do what you need to do. So they'll analyse it. 

They're really LOVING Max, they're already calling him a future champion and it's his third race. You have to say it's clear he has the stuff when you look at it. 

Ted reports what happened between Nico and Lewis during the press conference. Apparently after what I already wrote down, Lewis said managing your tyres during a stint is like starting with 100£ and you need to get to 0 at the end and Seb laughed and joked asking if he still had a bit of money, and Nico, still fuming, said that he had a lot of money left at the end of the stint and that's the problem. Hill says Fangio famously said the goal is to win at the slowest possible speed. The others nod. He adds you should be proud of Lewis because he did exactly what he needed to, while Nico has shown twice his frustration this weekend by finding someone else to blame. Ted says he's with Lewis (he calls him Lewis) on this (and that's also what I said during the race) : if Rosberg (he calls him Rosberg) was so aggrieved why didn't he speed up? Although he then says Nico did say on radio that if he did he got in Lewis dirty air so that would have made him even more vulnerable by damaging his tyres. 

Lewis is being interviewed by Craig who asks what was the key to staying in control of the race. Lewis says it's bright so he's keeping his shades on. He says he got the balance absolutely perfect, he couldn't have changed anything to make it better. His engineers did a fantastic job, he's grateful. It was a much stronger race than the last. Lewis says the Ferraris were closer but not quite in firing range, the key here is to make the tyres last as long as you can to make the last stint as short as possible.

Of course Craig brings up the controversy. He asks where the balance lies between him securing the win and the team securing the 1-2. Lewis is still not convinced it was an issue. It gets spicy, I'll post the snippet because it's amazingly shady. "I'm not quite sure… I'm not really quite sure how I compromised his– he was 4.4… 4.5… 5 seconds behind so he was never close. Therefore I was having no impact on his race whatsoever.”

“If he wanted to get closer and… and if he was right up my tail and then I was going the pace I was going, perhaps they could say something but I wasn't, I was just, I was on my own. If they wanted to pit him early they could have pit– or, or… Before me or after he– they could have easily done that because I had life left in my tyre to keep going." Craig asks if it surprised him he had the option to pit first. "Erm no. It wasn't a problem as I said because I had– (stutters a bit) I was really happy with what I did with my tyres I was ready to go when I– you know you always try and keep a little bit in your pocket so you can keep pushing and I said I was supposed to go to the lap 11 and I think I went to 15 or 14 or s– no I was supposed to go to lap 12 or something like that but I went to 14 in the first and then eked out more in the second so uh… Ultimately there should be no problem in the team we got a 1-2 so… I'm actually really excited to see what the interview– meeting will be like when we go back.” (He grins and looks over his shoulder where Nico, in the background, looking the other way, is also giving an interview. Then he pauses and smiles)

“Cause uh… (He turns around and look straight at Nico’s back then turns back, tilts his head to the side with the grinnest of grins.)

“He's pretty uh…" He chuckles. Craig says he's a competitor, he's probably upset, he wanted to win because he didn't have the start that he did or even Sebastian did. Lewis gets serious again. "No, no, of course. I mean I'm not– that's not my, what I'm– we're both competitors, both fierce competitors, but ultimately today and this weekend we had a fair shot at getting the win, you know? And uh we did ev– we both did everything we could to bring the car back as fast as possible so… I don't think either of us are at fault." He has a hint of a smile again.

The journalists are SIPPING THE TEA. They're loving every drop of it. And they're fully defending Lewis, because it's not his responsibility to take care of Nico. 

Let's hear from Nico then. (Spoiler : 🙂) 

Craig : "I know you're frustrated Nico, did you feel your race was compromised with the way Lewis drove in that second stint in particular?" 

Nico : "No I didn't FEEL, it's a fact that my race was compromised and this is a scenario we went through in details before the race that uh for the individual in front to make sure that you know, for his, his, himself, best possible race you back that guy who's in second into uh Sebastian Vettel. That was the best race for the guy in the front but not good for the team (bro you have a 1-2 the team literally can't ask for better than that) because it puts the guy in second into an unnecessary risky position uhm… Did Lewis do it on purpose or not I don't know. I can't answer that. He said in the press conference that he was just thinking about himself, that's an interesting indication, interesting statement. Uh… That's it and yeah of course I'm frustrated as a result because my race was compromised and in the end my stint was too long in the last one you know cause I had to cover Sebastian cause he tried to attack me with an early pit stop and so my tyres just died in the end of the race."

Craig is very brave and asks "is it not up to you though to go faster?" saying Lewis said he didn't take him on. Nico says the problem is they have the same car, as soon as he tries to take him on, he'll make sure he has a gap to him on the long straight so he can't get by. (My god, my god, listen, Lewis had his moments of bad faith but like. Did Lewis not overtake him plenty of times in the same car last year? And now Nico says he can't do it because they're in the same car? Shit excuse. IT’S MOTOR RACING ffs) And after 1-2 laps his tyres will be badly damaged, which is exactly what Seb was saying in the press conference when he said he was trying to overtake him because he was quicker but he couldn't get in the DRS zone and all he did was destroy his tyres. He says he learnt that in the first stint trying to stay really close to Lewis. It doesn't work. 

Craig says Nico is suggesting this is a strategy in the championship battle between the two of them. Nico reacts but Craig is not done. Won't Lewis be happy to see his reaction, him being upset about what he did? Nico says he didn't suggest that, he's just stating facts, "it's impossible to know from the outside what went on." He hums. "Other facts are that of course once we pitted his pace was a lot quicker or looking a lot stronger overall, you know, so that's another fact which suggests that it would have been good for the team if he would have sped up earlier on a little bit more." 

Last question, when will they discuss it, does it need to be sorted out? "It needs to be discussed of course, yes, we will do it now."

Somehow they decided to interview Lewis AGAIN. But Lewis is taking a photo with a baby (look at her saying bye 🥺)

and then signing something for a fan. They walk followed by a few of them as they talk. Brundle asks him if he thinks it might be a bit tense in Mercedes' hospitality. He says "uh I don't… I don't think so…" with the high pitched voice he uses when he knows he's in delicate territory. "I don't know why." Still high pitched. "We won! And we came one and two so…" Brundle says it was a walk in the park for him really. "I was enjoying myself," he says. They exchange a knowing look. They had a very good setup "so today was just… so fine in the way you drive," he mimics it with his hands.

"It was just kind of… It's funny cause my driver that's driving me this weekend, a Mercedes driver, he drives like this." He pretends he's steering a wheel by holding it between his thumbs and index fingers. “With two fingers on the steering wheel," he laughs. Brundle asks if he tried that today. "I tried the same!"

Brundle says he came past them this morning at a million miles an hour coming to the track. He says he was holding on for dear life in the car. He laughs. But then he stops joking. Today was about being smooth and not sliding and not killing the front tyres. Brundle asks if he meant to have such an angle on the starting line. Lewis says he didn't. He meant to point a little bit but he found himself facing the wall and was worried about it but it's not like you can reverse and park again. But ultimately it didn't get in the way of his start. Brundle sums up the whole issue at hand : Nico says he could have been jumped by the Ferraris with the undercut but Lewis' opinion is that's Nico's problem and not his, his problem being his own race. "Uh I think so yeah… and erm… at the end of the day he didn't so…" He shrugs.

Then they ask Toto AGAIN. Really quick : did Lewis do anything wrong? Toto says you need to be careful pointing fingers half an hour after the race. It was a difficult situation because he did have to manage the tyres and it did put Nico in trouble. They need to look at whether the race result for the team was ever at risk, what was the radio comm always proper and followed, and they need to do it carefully, internally, and make sure it's not escalating. Craig asks if Lewis' pace after Nico pitted doesn't answer that question about the race result, the answer being no. Toto says it needs to be analysed with all the data but the cars had the pace, Lewis had the pace, he was the quickest out there and made the tyres last longer so he thinks the order is right. Oooh Craig asks if Lewis' first responsibility was to win the race or to guarantee Mercedes a 1-2. Toto says the second one, because there's 1500 people working for that result, and equally he's a racing driver and he needs to look after himself and you need to balance it out all the time. "You can drive your race and you can race your team-mate hard, but never bringing it to a point where you risk the team result." Craig asks if Nico is just hurting because he hasn't had the same start Lewis and Seb have had this season. Can't Lewis be happy to see Nico angry with the result? "This is a rivalry and it was always a rivalry and it's gonna be very intense in the future. I think you need to expect these kinds of discussions and controversies, it needs to be contained and managed well without an escalation. Sometimes escalation helps and you can stop it then, but today I don't think there wasn't many reasons to say that mistakes were done."

[cerebrobullet]

Sharpe's Fortress Daily Book Report:

alright, you know what i'll retract some of my judgement of cornwell pairing every woman he writes with sharpe because, honestly, every time sharpe makes a new male friend i immediatly go "oooooh i bet they fucked". so, really, it's just that sharpe has bicycle vibes.

also, sharpe yeeting himself over the fortress wall only to find like Everyone has followed him and he's now shouting orders at a captain, and immediatly being 😳 lmao.

hdgsfsf fuckin stokes out here seeing morris has been beaten up, figures out sharpe did it, and then is like "oh im gonna gaslight the HELL out of morris on this one".

also every time sharpe gets told no by an officer and he just goes "manslaughter it is then" and punches them. baby this is why you aren't getting promoted. wellesley is gonna start seeing a pattern between officers you've served under and officers who get stabbed and killed lmao.

also the image of sharpe, covered in blood, face cut open, tear streaks through the dust on his face, standing in the middle of the opening southern gate with a bloody claymore resting over his shoulder, glaring both defiantly and exhaustedly forward is something i super wanna draw 👀

Sharpe's Trafalger Daily Book Report:

well i'm so glad i just called myself out in that last bit because, guess what this book opens with? a navy captain. a handsome captain who hugs sharpe and is so very, very thankful to him and seems like a nice guy :). bernie why are you doing this to me :).

sharpe feeling comfy asking him questions and then getting lovingly fed a big meal hhfhsbss. chase is fucking trying to seduce him so hard rn im dying.

hgshsh ONE night with sharpe and chase is all "oh sharpe you're so cool i wanna use my reputation to help you someday uwu" BRUH

and writing a letter so that sharpe will go visit captain chase's wife and family like??? captain chase is 100% the epitome of the "i've had sharpe for 1 evening but if anything happened to him, i'd kill everyone in this room and then myself" meme.

HAH sharpe is so fucking anxious about talking to a pretty lady he's shaking. he's so BABY. god tho every time he pursues another woman i'm just like "she can't hold a candle to beloved teresa, teresa is so much cooler" and hey it's cornwell's fault for creating such a badass woman and handing the stories out to grubby little bisexuals like me.

anyway this one feels like it's gonna be a murder mystery for some reason. i dont think it will be, but it feels like it.

[bees-tornado]

hello stranger! I will ask you some questions! 6, 9, 26, 32!

thank you for the numbers stranger I owe you my life

6. Which route is your favorite?

I’m very biased towards Verdant Wind, largely because it’s my first route, but also because Claude is there + the way it explores and uncovers the game’s lore + it has the best final battle IMO. I really really like Azure Moon’s story though so it’s a close second.

9. What is your favorite scene in the game (can be in the main story or a support convo)?

Okay because this question is sort of open-ended I’m gonna do main story AND support convo.

As for animated cutscenes, I have two favorites. One would have to be the VW final fight, I won’t describe what I like about it in great detail because there’s a certain someone I know who will probably be reading this and still needs to finish VW cough cough, but it’s just a really cool sequence and I just think Claude really gets to shine in it. Two would have to be the Blue Lions’ Flame Emperor reveal because. Yeah. Uh. Wow. That was really something. The laugh? The shot of the spear flying by Edelgard? The way it really showed Dimitri’s monstrous strength for the first time? Very good. I had been looking forward to seeing how Dimitri cracks in that route and it did not disappoint when I finally got there.

As for supports, I’m not sure if I can pick just one, but a moment that really stayed with me was a Sylvain line from his B Support with Annette:

“There's just one thing I want you to remember. Guys like me who hate hard work and sorta get by on our wits? It all falls apart eventually. I'm smart enough to know that. So I respect people like you. I mean it.”

It’s a line that really personally resonated with me, and that was probably around the time I realized how much I liked Sylvain as a character.

Some of my other favorite support chains include Bernadetta/Sylvain and Bernadetta/Yuri, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen some of these supports that I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.

(Okay, I’m gonna try to reel myself in with all the text from this point on, because if I don’t I’ll never finish answering this ask lmao)

26. Who is your overall favorite character?

I love both Bernadetta and Sylvain very much but if I had to choose my overall favorite (looks nervously at merchandise on wall/shelf/etc.), I would have to go with Bernie. She was actually the first student character besides the house leaders that I knew about before the game came out and I knew I would have to recruit her.

I’m not sure how well I can put it into words unless I write a whole essay about it (that might be its own post one day), but I see a lot of both my gf and myself in her, and there are a lot of things about her character that are just really charming.

She caught me a little off guard early in the game because she had a lot more going on than I expected, but just like Sylvain, I think there was one moment when Bernadetta really captured my heart, that being when she showed up at the graveyard in Chapter 10. Not only was she (iirc) the only person to explicitly leave flowers for Jeralt, but she left her room and went all the way across campus during exploration hours for the first time to do it. She has several moments like this, where she goes above and beyond on her own volition despite her anxiety. I dunno, I just think she’s neat.

32. What is your favorite post-timeskip character design or outfit?

I love so many of the post-timeskip character designs, but there are two characters in particular that really blew me away when I saw them for the first time after the timeskip.

First of all is Bernadetta, they just made her soooo pretty for no good reason. I love her hair, her bow, her earrings, her pauldrons, her outfit, her color scheme, and how they kept her silly little bicycle shorts. Rip to the hoodie, but she has this sort of yellow cloak-like piece with the clasp that sort of gives off the same vibe.

Second is Lorenz, they took away his haha funny academy haircut and made him downright majestic. I also love how the rose is incorporated into his armor.

Anyways THAT’S IT! I’M DONE

[ko-the-kreator]

I compared their heights and my boy is so small he's just slightly over half ur boys height, gawd ur boy is tol

I love it, absolutely love it

Just imagining Ezy threatening anyone who tries to hurt the man who dwarfs him lmao

Bro looks like a chihuahua next to him, i can't JDJDDJDJ

I am imagining this and I cannot stop laughing. Oh my jesus, how tall is the fluffy boi? I’m going to guess like 6’0? My lord? Pfffffft. HAHA.

He be so tiny. Thank goodness you did a size comparison this helps me a lot with the animatic. AND THE LORE.

I just expanded and updated it.

So hear me out.

Aspen, the human that got all caught up in a demon deal, descends and wakes up in the In Between.

She wanders the large city, and ends up in Devil’s Keep. The only thing is -she glows like a damn light bulb because she still has a soul and a bright one at that. This sweet bb is just like…🥺. Since it is always night down below, well Aspen doesn’t know yet, she wanders into Sin City Bar, where she realizes that its patrons are all dead, or demons. And this glowing entity of a human just strolls right in. Right up to the bar where she is greeted by Mellie, an antlered girl who immediately takes notice of Aspen’s whole ass predicament.

Since the boss is in his office (Bernard) she is really biting her fist on this one, should Mellie really bother the boss? So she gets the next possible thing.

The twins.

Which wasn’t the best idea and Aspen is ran out of the bar and back out onto the street in a fit of terror.

Switching to Bernard’s POV the bar is still booming and he decided to take a smoke outside at the back of the building.

He begins to notice he may not be alone. He calls out to whoever may have been out there, he wouldn’t be surprised to get into a fight out here, but it was best to be careful.

[yeah, really Bernie? You having to be careful-ooh wait I forgot Arthur Demose kicked your ass but what that was like back in 1919 or some shit]

So he calls out while he drags in smoke from the cigarette. And then Aspen comes from the shadows, glowing so brightly that he has to shield his eyes. At first he is like “Holy Hell, why is there an angel in the in between?” But then he sees that Aspen is not in fact an angel, but a human.

One that was still alive.

And not supposed to be here.

It clicks that if anyone gets their hands on them its over for a life that wasn’t quite done yet.

“Hey uh, you? How’d you get all the way down here?” And Aspen looks up at him with the most innocent look.”

And she tells him she doesn’t know-one minute she’s helping a girl on the street from being mugged the next thing she knows she’s down here.

He eventually helps her inside his bar, clearing it out and shooing out customers. Bernard is doing everything in his power to make sure no one saw her. Even though she has already entered the bar from earlier.

He shrugs off the coat he has on because -fashion and throws it over the too of her, carrying her into the bar.

Mellie points “is that?”

“Yes.”

“We are in way over our heads.”

The twins are of no help since they high tailed it out of sight before he got in.

So the only other option is to…get the help of another damn nephalem. The only other one Bernard could think of was Ezekiel since most took to Topside with the other fluffy winged bois.

[this is where your boi comes into the lore- think about it]

Ezekiel lived way out of the city, on the outskirts in The Ruins. They were from the war there, about a century or three ago. Bernard couldn’t remember-too much fighting for him anyway.

[enter your lore here about Ezy]

Anyway ends up helping to get the girl back home, but they’d have to get the help of Elder Asphodel . By the time they travel to meet the elder demon to send the young girl back the first thing that happens is that Demose sends his demons to search for the living soul that was in the in between. He has never seen a soul that strong nor bright.

And he wants it.

The second thing hey have a weird encounter with a soul of a man, in which hitches a ride back to the human world alongside Mellie, Ezy, Bernard and Aspen.

Elder Asphodel is a nice grandpa character :)

[“Oh dear,” The old elder frowns, stepping down from his flowered throne. “You poor young lady…you must’ve been terrified.” 10/10 would braid flowers into her hair]

They send Aspen back and put her back where she came from. But as soon as they get her there.

They have to erase her memory, so that she can never know about the other realm.

Which is sad of course? Right?

Really sad. So she knows its better this way. And for the sake of her parents and their human lives, its best if this happens. Its not really a heartfelt moment. But they all say their goodbyes and were on their way before anyone saw them.

Except they can’t leave.

The In Between closed their doors, and now every single thing that Bernard feared at that moment just happened. They call upon The Elder Asphodel and their is basically nothing but static from the other side.

The four beings Bernard, Ezy Mellie and the Lost Soul are all trapped in the human world.

And that fucking sucks.

Not only that Mr Asshole himself, Arthur Demose is tearing through the void with his little team of demons going after that one strong soul. And he will do everything in his power to get it.

As for Bernard and the others? They gotta do something. Anything to get them back home. This is worse than anything that could have happened to a demon.

Worse than Hell itself.

However, they choose to head back to Aspen, knowing that if they couldn’t get home, she was going to remember them.

And good to know she did, but when they show back up-some shit goes down and now its a roadtrip to get four other worldly beings back home before the ruler of one of those realms destroys Aspens world.

That’s all the basic need to know lore for right now.

[sorry for it being so long lmfaoooo we can brainstorm Ezy and Mellie’s story too if ya’ll want XD] @mellietanya1456