Simon (trying to be) casual about the mask
By that I don’t mean he’d take it off whenever you asked. Of course not. You have to have very, very special privileges to see his face, and even each of the 141 members practically had to pry it off him once he agreed to let them see.
Simon’s mask is what makes him Ghost. It’s what makes him able to slip into work mode. It’s what holds him together when he needs it and what lets him block out everything else and pretend it’s never happened. The mask allows Simon to assume another identity.
He puts it on at night after his nightmares, when he feels like the world is crumbling down around him. It holds everything together, making sure his scars won’t tear apart at the seams, letting him find reprieve in his second skin.
The mask is an essential, immovable part of who Simon is. Who Ghost is. And he doesn’t take that thing off for just anyone.
Simon is an intimidating, bloodsoaked, unadmittedly sad, broken man. All these things, coupled with lesions on emotions beat into him by his father, make for a not so smooth approach to communication.
By which I mean, almost none at all.
Which isn’t a fault of his own. He likes to shove everything down, and almost nobody he knows is willing to risk his temper enough to dredge it back up again. So he gets to keep it locked away in a tight little bottle. He’s never had to express himself, communicate with another person, explain the reasoning behind his sometimes irrational actions (and he is not willing to admit it may be akin to the fact that he doesn’t quite know why he does them himself sometimes).
But when you came around, it jolted his entire world.
You, little firecracker you, who doesn’t flinch when he glares or snaps and pushes him to explain until he wants to scream his tar-soaked lungs out in newfound frustration.
You’re so different. You don’t fear his wrath. You meet it with a firm hand and a possibly more stubborn attitude. The team has never seen someone who can go head to head with Simon, and they don’t think they’ve ever seen him get so irritated either.
You push him until he snaps, spitting his reasoning and thoughts to you, explaining with a growled “I don’t know, okay?!” when you push him too far. You bend him on topics that make him itch until he breaks, and then you soften. You lower your voice, sweeten your tone, comfort him with words that make his stomach churn with how kind they are, and drag each word of explanation and processing out of him with coaxing gentleness.
You learn more about him than he intends over time.
You learn about the scars that cut through him–his mind, his heart, sometimes his flesh body. Sometimes when you look at him, he thinks you can see them, the slashes and cuts that mangle his body. His gnarled heart, his twisted mind.
That doesn’t scare him the way it would if it were anybody else. It doesn’t scare him because no matter what he shows you, you always come back. You always learn more, and you always show him that syrupy, worried look whenever he bears a new mark to you, physical or not.
So he wonders, in spite of himself, what would you think of his face? His cleft lip, his scarred cheek, his cut brow? What would you think of his eternally crooked nose, his drawn brows?
He hopes the scars on his face won’t stop you from giving him that sweet look, because none of his scars have before.
Simon isn’t quite sure how to integrate his bare face into the equation.
He wishes he didn’t have to go through all the muss and fuss, could just take it off with no overdramatic theatrics. He just wants to rip the bandaid off as quickly as possible.
So, that’s what he does. Saunters into the rec room one day while it’s just you, completely maskless.
He casually walks to the kitchen counter (despite how he thinks he might be having a heart attack from how hard his heart is beating against his ribcage) to make some tea.
You glance over your shoulder when you notice his presence, and–
“...Simon?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you forget your mask?”
He turns the knob on the stove to light a fire under the kettle.
“No,” He grunts.
You blink at him, speechless, for lack of a better word, trying to process this situation and the face in front of you.
It’s almost surreal, seeing it all come together. Those familiar eyes, the glance of jaw and lip, his light brows, furrowed down. Now connected with the rest of his face, a crooked nose and a gnarled cheek, lines in his forehead from scowling so much.
“What?” He mutters from his spot at the counter, seeing how you’ve twisted around to stare at him over the back of the couch.
“Nothing,” You say quickly, turning back to your phone with a grin.
a/n: haha hey guys sorry i fell off the face of the earth! i do that sometimes ANYWAYS gonna try to write some more 😭 i have little thing in the works rn but it takes me at least three days to start writing literally anything beyond a base idea so
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student au ivantill would be such peak "fell first fell harder" do you get me. the whole main cast has all known each other since they were kids and ivan's been nurturing his onesided crush ever since they were like. very tiny.
mizisua are best friends but grow up to realize their feelings for one another in like late middle school/early high school idk theyre around 14-15 and till has his crush on mizi crushed but mizi is the sweetest angel ever and he cant be mad at her for it. he only knows sua through mizi really and cant be too good a judge of character but he knows mizi loves her and wants to be supportive but hes a little sad. he starts spending a bit less time with her to give mizisua their space but also cause hes trying to get over his feelings.
enter: ivan. ivan has sworn off confessing to till outright for years cause he knew he liked mizi and the two of them have always butted heads so he figured he had no real chance and settled for being his kind of friend who lightly bullies him sometimes for attention. he grows out of this mostly as they age but he still makes it a point to spend as much time as he can with him because he's down horrendously. post-mizisua confession is the first time till is the one to initiate spending time together, and ivan is absolutely thrilled. till learns that he actually doesnt mind being around him and they become closer than they ever had been before.
they stay in this stage of being closer-than-before friends for like. most of high school and then they become seniors and talks about moving away to go to different schools start and WHAM. oh moment realization hits till like a truck. he doesn't want ivan to leave. he likes him. oh god. this is horrible. this is the worst thing that ever could have happened. there's no way ivan feels the same. dramatic irony
he agonizes over this for a long while. he tells mizi who tells sua who both are naturally already aware that ivan has been horribly hopelessly in love with till for nearly the entirety of his life and they want to laugh at him. but they dont. they consider just telling him but they dont and mizi encourages him to tell ivan how he feels.
time is running out. they're receiving college acceptance letters. ivan is accepted into some crazy prestigious university thats all the way across the country. he tells everyone together. till is happy for him. he's crying. ivan is confused. he tells him he doesn't want him to leave. "i love you." he feels awful about it. it's a selfish request. he shouldn't have said anything.
ivan is speechless. till is stammering out an apology. ivan drops the letter and steps closer. he's kissing him. "i love you too. i always have."
the end and everyone clapped happily ever after etc. anyway do you get me
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Ridonculous Race but Noah is friends with Owen part 6: I'm sorry, even when I don't say it.
This was so clearly supposed to be a turning point in their relationship and the status quo. Why they wrote this episode just to return to said status quo I will never understand. Aaaanyway, in my perfect little world (this series), this is a turning point that gives leeway to Noah trusting and caring more about Owen going forward. He still likes Emma of course, but that doesn't mean Owen is any less important to him, and I'm sure he'll learn to show it :]
Transcript:
Image 1
Owen: How did we go from first to LAST?
Image 2
Owen: Woah, buddy. Are you alright? ...Noah?
Image 3
Noah: ...
Image 4
Owen: (Sigh.) Alright, listen. I can appreciate that you have a crush on Emma- and believe me- I know how strong that feeling can be and how it can mess with you...
Image 5
Owen: ...but racing with you has been the most fun ever! It'd stink if we had to go home because your head wasn't in the game!
Owen: Not to mention you might end up losing Emma for good.
Owen: I know you, dude. And I know that's not what you want.
Image 6
Owen: I know you want to win this thing! So... at least for now...
Owen: Stop trying to be some girls hero...
Owen: and be my hero.
Image 7
Owen: Okaaaay?
Image 8
Noah: ...okay.
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you make it sound like youre drowning in asks that suck or something. if majority of ppl aren't getting it it's because it's either; not the same askers, new people, people who aren't going to read thru 70 something asks, ppl who saw a reblog and sent an ask and didn't go to og post to read your tags to get hints, or just generally ppl not understanding it
holding up asks and saying 'i dont want ones like this' and then not explaining why is just mean. 'nobody is learning' are you explaining it clearly, or are you just vaguely hinting and then getting mad when people don't get it?
and like. when you hold up ppls asks/show them off like 'this is wrong', what about that would make those anons want to come back? they see that and think 'well i fucked up and my ask i sent genuinely is not what the blog runner wants/I don't want my ask screenshotted to be picked apart or laughed at again, so i just wont send a new one', which leads to the kind of ppl who are observant but don't want to send you asks - because theyre afraid of getting it 'wrong', and having a screenshot made of them on a public post about how stupid/wrong they are
acgghh sorry,, i genuinely didnt realize how that came across,, i'll stop doin that!!! Sorry!!! It never occurred to me it probably looks mean asf </3 Ive (tried to) explain before when i do that but i may be doin it wrong,, thats my bad. I dont mean it to make them seem stupid but the way its presented looks like that i guess X-S
its a little easier to understand when youre giving me another perspective, so thanks /gen
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No bc I love women and football tell me all the gossip with mccabe and foord and the ex (who is she) ☕️
alright this is going to be long im sorry but get me started on woso and i just blabber. uhh most of my sources cited but this is mostly me going back thru texts from during the world cup and grabbing facts/pictures from then so a few of these claims are a little
BUT i promise i didnt make this up LOL i was Deep in google for the entirety of the world cup so i Know i got my info from somewhere
everything else under the cut bc this got SO long im actually so sorry
there's three primary people involved here:
katie mccabe: left back (but honestly left everything wonder woman). captains the irish national team. plays for WSL's arsenal, has been since 2015 (minus a lil bit loaned to glasgow in 2017). those are the two important facts here really but the below is ~flavor~.
she's 28 and 5'5 and she's a DREAM. scored an olimpico at the world cup (FIRST IN WOMENS WORLD CUP HISTORY!!!!) (THATS WHERE YOU SCORE A GOAL DIRECTLY FROM A CORNER. FIRST ONE SINCE THE 60S IN A WORLD CUP IN GENERAL!! LITERALLY INSANITY!!!)
also for context this world cup was ireland's wnt's first ever major tournament appearance. she's the first ever irish goal-scorer (of men and women!). she's amazing. here's her for arsenal:
ruesha littlejohn: striker/midfielder. scottish-irish, but represents ireland at the senior level. 33 years old. has played for a lot of teams club-wise. currently plays for london city lionesses, a second tier team, but that wasnt announced til after the world cup. her most recent wsl team was aston villa (but i mean it, she's played like everywhere lol). 5'6 if you're curious.
here's her in ireland's kit:
caitlin foord: forward! plays for australia internationally, and arsenal (so teammates with katie. this is important.) she's played for arsenal since 2020! used to play for the thorns in the nwsl once upon a time. 5'7, if, again, you're curious. she used to date a swiss footballer (lia walti, who's played for arsenal since 2018) but they broke up like six months before the world cup. walti unfollows the australian team on instragram right after they post a video of foord, it's all very dramatic (THEYRE STILL TEAMMATES AT ARSENAL THIS WHOLE TIME BTW). arsenal man, always at the scene of the crime.
ok so now you've met our main players!!
world cup happened this past summer (2023), btw. to give you an idea of timing.
katie mccabe and ruesha littlejohn dated for 6-7 years (some articles say 6, some say 7). they came out in june 2019 and said they'd been dating for three years already. their breakup was confirmed right before the world cup (like THE SAME WEEK??), in an article where mccabe was like "yeah, ruesha, my partner at the time..." very casual.
and then. in JUNE. (world cup starts july 20th!!)
foord and mccabe go to ibiza w an ex-arsenal player (jordan nobbs). who (in june 2023, not anymore) played at aston villa with. you guessed it. littlejohn. so yeah your ex gf goes on a trip to ibiza w a new girl and your current teammate, you might be a lil pissed off. maybe.
the sun's (i know, BOOOO but this made me laugh so hard) caption on a pic from the trip had me cackling:
(the title of the article was "inside the glam lifestyle of pals caitlin foord and katie mccabe after ireland’s star’s ex snubs world cup handshake." borderline galpals commentary like have writers there never heard of regular synonyms for friends?? there was also a line that just screamed please don't sue us: "However, The Sun does not suggest the Aussie forward had anything to do with McCabe and Littlejohn's break-up.")
so now we've got two exes on the irish national team going into their first world cup appearance, the captain of the swiss national team and an australian player having broken up like six months ago, and much more, but that isn't directly related to This Specifically.
while you, anon, presumably know how the world cup works, ill give a mini explainer for anyone lost: there's the group stage, where the teams get divided into groups (in this case, of four), and your team plays every other team in the group. you get three points for winning a game, one for a draw, and none for a loss. those points add up and top two teams move on. and then you go into the knockout stage, where you have to win to advance, and if you keep winning you make it to the final yay!!
but for this we only care about the group stage. and more specifically, about group B.
group B is made up of nigeria, canada, australia, and (drumroll please) ireland!!! it is the stuff reality tv shows WISH they could make happen.
ireland and australia play. it is (almost*) the very first game of the tournament (but it's still on july 20th). it is at 5am my time. you would not believe the timezone fuckery i went through that month.
(*ok new zealand played norway starting a bit earlier on the same day but that's not as dramatic sounding)
and you know how they shake hands with the other team before a game? yeah well here's littlejohn apparently refusing to shake foord's hand:
here's a lovely photo of a Look from littlejohn to mccabe:
here's a diff irish player (sullivan) separating littlejohn and foord after the game (australia wins 1-0, btw.):
and i already shared this on @powerful-owl's post BUT. here's mccabe's little sister, supporting mccabe. please note the date (july 20th) and the comment from foord (from after the game, im like 99.99% sure) asking if she wants her jersey now. me personally if i just beat my totally platonic friend/teammate on the world's stage i wouldnt be pulling up in their sister's comments asking if she wants a jersey now (also implication of the word now as in previously discussed, etc etc. this was the thing that pushed me over the edge into insanity at like 9am after no sleep)
i admittedly have not kept up to date on anything that's gone down since the world cup so it's entirely possible more has happened! in fact i would say that it is downright likely lol. i love soccer lesbians n the insane charts necessary to keep track of their relationships <3
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(Out of nowhere, you are approached by a familiar lightbulb-headed Cog.)
Ah, it's you, cat. Thinking you're oh-so-slick. Muttering and whispering under those raggedy whiskers of yours... Thinking I am unable to hear it all...
Well, you've simply underestimated my fantastic hearing. You probably want to know the reason why I'm here, taking a 'break' from my incredibly important scientific breakthroughs? It's quite simple, really!
(She gets close, and squints her eyes.)
I know what you are.
Farewell, now!
(She then leaves the way she came from.)
(Spam giggles immensely, covering her face... it always seems like she's giggling, isn't she? This lasts... at least thirty seconds. Longer than usual.)
And I know what I am too, Sparky! You broke through something, that's for sure. Really, broke through...
(She looks down, continuing to laugh nervously.)
You know, I find it odd you Havent tried to bulb blast me into the stratosphere by now. I mean knowing how you acted with Frostbite. Is there something peculiar about me that you perhaps can't quite track? Something about me that you... don't know what I am?
I know, I know, I'm talking to nobody again. But you were there when I had a moment today with the one the only Frostbite The Bravecog. You may be remaining. Lurking in the shadows. Knowing about these thoughts that I'm thinking.
(The giggling resumes, lasting far shorter this time.)
Your brother's a piece of fucking barp, by the way
(She braces for impact for a few seconds, wincing while smiling, before comically looking around to realize nobody's there. She sighs.)
Wow, okay maybe toony superhero show logic doesn't apply in this situation. Cool.
WAIT I JUST FUCKING REALIZED WHAT SHE MEANT but like. Dude if she meant that then what's the point I mean the whole ahh sellbot department barping knows unless you're Really low on the ladder. Heheh... maybe she did mean what I thought she meant.
Oh i'm so fucking screwed. What kind of bitch gets filament fever
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