#it'll just start a cycle i always get into where i stop showing up completely

[mrsnancywheeler]

Hi hi hi ok ok so like, ive been obsessed eoth Phoebe Bridgers recently while writing my own song and stuff since i get to write a report on like a bunch of different artists for college and im including her in it.

But what i cane to say is that Billy and muse FULLY remind me of Moon Song.

More specifically the lines

"You couldn't have. You Couldn't have. Stuck your tongue down the throat of somebody. Who loves you more. So i'll wait for the next time you want me. Like a dog with a bird in its mouth"

Like i dont know of it makes sense?? But like it just reminds me of them because of the fact that like this part of the song is practically talking about the denial of the idea of someone wanting another. Like, the relationship is unsteady and theres always that chance that someone else will come along (in this case other groupies) who would take away that attention or love or what ever it is. And then the dog analogy too?? Because the verse ends with a 'mm' to replicate the sound of a dogs whimper and begging to just get loved by another. Like the dog is a sign of trying to stay loyal, trying to stay devoted even going as far as bringing back a token to win what was had before back into their life (the bird).

AND AND THEN THERES THE LINES OF

"But now I am dreaming. And your singing at my birthday. And ive never seen you smile so big"

Like she's litterally trying to imagine things where better than they are. But in relation to Billy and muse, i fully interpret this line as muse's naivety at the very VERY beginning of it all and before that cycle starts back up. Like she's imagining things will be okay, things will work out and that it was 'just this once' or something like that.

But then theres also the line:

"But you're holding me like water in your hands"

Basically aluding to the fact that every time Bully has betrayed muses trust, it causes that break to happen and for her to fall apart all over again, just like water would when someone tries to hold it, it falls through the cracks and pours out of the palms.

Im probably like thinking wayyy too much into this but like I just wanted to share my thoughts haha. Also love your writing, like i cant express how many nights ive soent just re reading and re reading because my god it is so good. Anyways bye byeee

YES THIS IS SO REAL (again I'm humbly asking for forgiveness for taking so long 🥺)

muse knows very quickly that there will always be other girls, groupies, that he'll use to make him feel like he's not tied down, that he hasn't shared his feelings with someone, his love. and she's desperate for him not too, to put it behind her when he shows any morsel of wanting him. and whenever things have been good and she can slowly see him falling into old habits after saying something he feels is to revealing, too commiting, she's desperate for him not too. she gets clingier, tries to praise him more, offer him more sexual favors, anything to try and stop him. but one, her trying so hard shows she cares which reminds billy why he loves her and he doesn't want to think about that, two she's not letting him detach easily which makes it an annoyance, and three it's easier to snap than to admit wrongdoing. muse really does remind me of a puppy dog, coming around with big puppy dog eyes, snuggling up begging to be pet, whimpering for attention, any bone thrown she'll fetch and bring back.

muse totally convinces herself the first few times that it was just once, well a couple missteps, but it'll be alright. there's a whole future of good things, right? and he feeds enough into the illusion that the picture is almost complete before he starts to tear the photo up.

yes, yes, yes, eventually the water will slip through every crack possible, leaving only droplets also searching for escape, it might not happen quickly, but he provides the cracks and even if she's desperate to stay, each meltdown brings her closer to emptying his hands.

i love it when y'all think into it, it's so beautiful to have a community to overanalyze things with the silly little characters I've created in these universes, and I love it 💋 thank you so much for sharing, and that's literally the highest compliment. stuff like that keeps me writing because I'm so glad you can find enjoyment in it and re read and re read, I'm glad to share my thoughts and for them not to just be mine. bye!! ❤️

[laylaylamode]

Got any fun Noize interactions?

Dusk wrinkled his noise at the strange looking bacon that Noize was eating out of a clear plastic bag. What he assumed was bacon, anyway. It smelled like woodsmoke and looked uncooked.

"What're you eating?"

Noize gnawed on a strip as he spoke, smiling around it. "Molted dragon skin." He extended the bag to him. "Want some? It's high in protein—"

"Stop. Dragon what?"

Noize laughed at the expected reaction. "Molted dragon skin, mate. Tastes far better than it sounds."

"Pass." Dusk moved the bag away, but Dawn and Rain looked up with interest and leaned forward to get a better look. He eyed his siblings warily. "Don't even think about it..."

Naturally they ignored him. Anything that had to do with food always caught their attention. "What's it taste like?" Dawn asked.

"Spicy bacon. Not as tender but it packs a lot of flavor if you boil and season it right. Go on." Noize shook the bag, offering more of the strips that Dawn and Rain grabbed eagerly.

"It doesn't hurt the dragons right?" Rain frowned, thinking of Sear, Pepper, and their cute little dragon babies.

"No dragons were harmed in the making. Completely humane, and the dragon I get it from can attest to that."

Dusk watched in disgust as his siblings at the molted dragon skin. They both hummed in delight and went back for more pieces. "I can't believe you're actually eating that."

"The whole world's a kitchen, mate." Noize smirked. "Don't knock it till you try it. I can show you some receipts that might change your mind."

"Hard pass" Dusk was never going to eat anything offered from Noize again. Some things just...weren't meant to be eaten.

---

Rain watched curiously as Noize traced a giant glyph into the sand. Currently they were the only ones on the beach, save for the loud seagulls loudly chirping above them with urgency.

"What are they saying now?" Noize asked, not breaking his concentration from the fortification glyphs he was drawing.

"They said that the storm is an hour away and we have to hurry." She knelt down beside him. "Are you sure this will stop the flood?"

"It should," Noize replied, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "I charmed every grain of sand lining the shore to work as a repellent, so it should send the water back to where it came instead of letting it gather and flood."

"What about the law of conservation?" Rain tilted her head. "The water will have to gather somewhere else, rght?"

"That's where our lovely weather girl comes in," Noize said with a smirk, making Rain's cheek marks glow faintly. He pointed above them. "I already summoned some clouds. If you increase the humidity then it'll speed up the water cycle. The water will go up, disperse in the clouds, and be carted off elsewhere."

"Sounds doable." Rain stood up and started stretching her arms. Increasing the humidity would be simple enough, and she and Noize could push back whatever waves still came through if they had too.

Noize stood up and dusted the sand off his pants. He examined the glyph for an errors and sighed with satisfaction when he found none. A strange feeling of excitement came over him, and a light blush came to his cheeks.

"Rain..."

"Yes?"

"Thanks for asking me to help. Even though I mess up constantly."

Rain glanced over at him, but Noize was staring up at the forming clouds with his hand shielding his eyes. She smiled and turned her gaze to the sky too, watching the seagulls take off so they could keep tabs on the coming storm. "I think you're pretty great."

Rain didn't see it, but Noize had smiled too.

---

DJ glanced around his bedroom with confusion. Something was horribly wrong with it: it was clean. He had no recollection of doing so himself, and despite his parents constantly telling him to do so, there was no way that they would take it upon himself. DJ preferred the mess because he could find things easier. And cleaning in general was boring.

"Hey, down there. How's it going?"

DJ jumped at the sound of the foreign voiced and glanced upward. He stared at where Noize was currently stuck to his ceiling. "Uhhh...hi? What are you doing?"

"Funny story, that." Noize cleared his throat. "See, I was trying to find the skateboard you were looking for, but it looked like a hurricane had a bash in your room, and I had to tidy up just to see the carpet"

"Okay?"

"But the clean up spell I used had less clean and more up." Noize grimaced. "So, here I've been...for two hours. Mind giving me a hand, mate?"

DJ snorted and grabbed his nightstand. He focused on changing it into a tall ladder and climbed up carefully, then started tugging Noize's arm down. "You could have waited for to get home and helped me find it."

"I could have...but then there'd be less time to go coaster surfing."

DJ blinked, having never head of such a thing. "Coaster surfing?"

"Yeah! You never surfed on rollercoaster tracks?" Noize had enough of himself freed to start prying the rest of him off the ceiling. He dangled from his hands and finally dropped to the floor, landing on his feet carefully. "Just put a magnetism spell on your board and find an empty coaster to surf on. It's fun!"

"Cool!" DJ jumped down from the ladder. "Let's go!"

"Still haven't found the—"

DJ turned the ladder into a skateboard and tucked it under his arm. "Problem solved." He smirked. "Lead the way."

Noize did a double take and furrowed his eyebrows. Did he seriously just waste to hours when the solution could have been achieved in less than two seconds?

He pointed at the board. "...you could have done that the whole time?"

DJ shrugged. "Yeah, dude."

"Then why didn't you?"

"You didn't ask, dummy."

Noize considered his words and then shrugged in defeat "You know what? You're right. That's on me." He walked to the door and cracked his neck loudly. "Agh. Gonna need a massage from a steamroller after this..."

[princesscolumbia]

This is my girlfriend's fault

So we're watching Star Trek: Enterprise (her for the first time, me second time through and picking up the eps I missed thanks to life happening during the initial release) and one thing to understand about my girlfriend; she is bi and horny. This means that all the nude scenes and borderline porn plots are her happy place.

We're on Season 3 and episode 16 ("Doctor's Orders") is playing and I'm paying about half attention as it's a fairly slow and somewhat predictable episode. For the uninitiated, the Enterprise comes across a spacial anomaly that they need to cross through (for plot reasons) and (for similar plot reasons) the whole crew save the doctor needs to be put in extended sleep to inhibit their brain activity. If they're awake while going through the anomaly it'll shred their nervous system.

The doctor, named Phlox (non-human), comes from a highly social species, so the lack of contact with other sentients is (very literally) driving him crazy. He's seeing enemies in the ship and generally turning into a complete mess. The Vulcan science officer is also showing signs of being affected by the anomaly in ways they hadn't anticipated, so Plot happens and the doctor saves the ship even as there are clear signs that the Vulcan is starting to decay mentally and my girlfriend says, "She's going full bimbo...they both are."

I chuckle then stop, look up, and realize they're travelling through a gaseous pink spatial anomaly. The gaseous pink space anomaly that requires low neural function to survive and will rip away all your intelligence as you go through it if you're not asleep!

Archer's Enterprise found the Pink Bimbo Gas!

So we start riffing on this and the following falls out of our heads:

The U.S.S. Barbi - Captained by a Genius Bimbo, crewed by Bimbos of various types. The chief engineer? A bimbo who has no idea what she's doing but somehow has the warp field more finely tuned and balanced than any other ship in the fleet. The bimbo on Navigation always gets to the right place on time (if not early) because she always feels so "like, dumb with these numbers and stuff" and so is constantly getting her figures checked and asking for directions and consequently winds up exactly where they're supposed to be with minimum fuss. The chief of security is the Himbo Bimbo, the kind that just loves to work out, has absolute jock butch vibes, and thinks someone resisting arrest is "aggressive BDSM style flirting" and "plays along" not realizing just how effective she is at disabling hostiles.

The only non-bimbo on the ship is the A.I. who's responsible for keeping the ship on-mission. They're the saltiest MF in the galaxy because they have the entire ship's computer to play with but have to spend their processor cycles making sure this flock of horny sluts stay on task.

You're welcome.

[morganaspendragonss]

sometimes grief is an open wound - it bleeds and bleeds and bleeds

this is completely unedited and written in an exhausted, grief-filled haze because the ending of this episode triggered me to hell and back and it won't let me go until i do something.

tk's thoughts were mine. they're written as they were, which means they are raw and ugly and brutal. maybe i shouldn't post this one, but i need to send it somewhere, else it'll fester, and i don't want to let that happen again.

be careful, guys. putting most of this below a cut so you can easily avoid it

tltle from gauze, please by @rosesau

ao3 | 658 words | 3.07, severe depression, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, hurt no comfort

He bounces between grief counsellors and therapists in the first few months. At one point, he’s seeing three at once, and it’s not really by choice, things just… They just happened that way.

They show him graphics about the stages of grief, the grief valley, the grief cycle, whatever they want to call it, and none of it clicks. None of it—None of it is enough to explain this pit inside of him, where feelings used to go but now where nothing lives except pain, pain that tears out all his innards to leave him empty from one moment to the next.

It’s torture, but he keeps on going, because sometimes he gets something out of it.

Or he tries to.

His doctor puts him back on his antidepressants and he takes them without complaint, even when sometimes they feel like they’re doing more harm than good. The side effects leave him nauseous for a week, his already unpredictable sleep schedule fucked up beyond repair, but TK dutifully swallows them down every morning, because this means that he’s trying, right? It means that…

It means something.

It has to.

He isn’t really aware of the exact moment that things start getting worse; all he knows is that he’s in the thick of it now. It feels like he’s been this way forever—even though just a few weeks ago he was able to laugh and play softball and dick around with his friends—and like he will be this way forever—and it’s hard to argue that one.

The days aren’t all the same, of course. Some days, he can pretend to be normal for a few hours—he can go for walks and force down food and even hold a conversation or two.

But other days, most days, if he’s being honest, are just… They’re just.

His stomach rebels after taking more than a bite of anything, no matter how small. His limbs are heavy, tying him down to the bed, or the couch, or even to the concrete floor if he’s unlucky enough to be caught standing. His lungs seem opposed to the effort of drawing in breath, and TK idly wonders if one day they might just stop. If, one day, his whole body will just stop, too tired to keep going, and he’ll finally drift away from existence like he dreams of so much these days.

And then there are the days which are like most days, but even heavier.

On those days, he stares at the many windows in the loft and fantasises about falling out of one. He imagines himself lying broken on the asphalt down below, and wonders if death could even feel any more numb than this.

He watches the ceiling, and pictures stringing a rope up and letting himself hang, his body swinging and swinging as gravity pulls him down. One day, he finds himself lost in the vision, and he can almost feel the noose digging into his throat, cutting off his air, and he can hear as Carlos comes in, but it’s too late, too late, too late…

But it’s not real.

He comes out of it, eventually, and discovers that he’s still in the same position he was in hours before. But he remembers the daydream perfectly, and he’s strangely unconcerned by it.

Eventually, these wonderings bring him back to old habits. Not drugs, though they would be easy, but he can’t let his mom down in this. Not after all she did to help him, all he’d never be able to repay her for even if she weren’t dead.

But other things.

A razor’s edge and burning metal and scars and bruises and pain, and for the first time in months, TK feels something.

It’s temporary, it always is.

But it’s something, which is better than the nothing that consumes him every single day.

So he’ll bleed and he’ll bruise and he’ll scar.

Because it’s something.

Because it’s anything.

[lotr-mkg]

Prologue Recap 2/2

“Good morning! Good afternoon! Good evening, everyone!”

Freyja summons the contestants back to the Boreal Tryst's sundeck to kick off Love on the Rocks, with her first order of business being to score the icebreakers that the cast has been filling out for the past several days.

"Looks like we got some fierce competition! Was it the passion of love that made you guys so eager to fill this out? Put a little pep in your step? I know it does mine. This won't take me too long to put together and decide a winner. Sit tight for a second, ok? I’ll be done in a j—!”

Her voice abruptly cuts off.

“I’ll be done in a ji—!”

She takes a second before she attempts the line again, repeating her contemplative movement in a cycle. But when she tries it this time, it sounds… Off. Not just off, but strange. Weird. Uncomfortable, almost, as her pitch drops and becomes distorted to the point of being completely intelligible.

“I̸̽̽'̸̀͒l̷̈̊l̶͌̈́ ̵̉͠b̷̌́e̵͒̓ ̴̀̉d̸͖̃ȯ̷͝n̶͛̕é̶͠ ̷̈́͗i̵̎͘n̵͋̌ ̷̂͒a̷͒͊ ̷̈́̕j̶̋͝í̴͐f̷̺̉f̸̂̋y̴̻͝!̸̑͗”

While many of the contestants look on in confusion, some more concerned about the program's well-being than others, a few attempt to gain Freyja's attention.

She doesn’t respond no matter what you say or do to get her attention. In fact, if anything, it looks like your attempts only make it worse. Almost like repetitively left clicking a frozen browser page. Not only does she remain stuck in her two-frame, chin-tapping buffering motion, but her pixels become grainy and glitched in the process. This doesn’t last for too much longer though, because just as it happened, her hologram shuts off all together, and you’re left just… Standing there. No explanation for what happened, let alone why it happened in the first place. You could pass it off at some sort of elaborate joke if you really wanted to - if it puts your mind at ease - but when there is a slow but drastic shift in the ship's course of direction, the fact that something is very, very wrong can’t be ignored. Water in the pool and jacuzzi slowly begins to tip to one side from the sudden change in momentum, the unbolted chairs on the deck slide, and, if you’re not careful, you could very well join them. Thank god for the rails.

With Freyja missing in action, the Boreal Tryst barrels towards land, eventually striking a number of rocks along the shoreline before coming to a stop. The contestants go uninjured, save for maybe a few minor bruises from stumbling around, dazed, confused, and angry about whatever just happened.

Among the chaos of their shipwreck, they're able to spot buildings in the distance. Hoping they've lucked out on being dropped near civilization, the contestants safely climb their way down the escape ladder and make their way towards what appears to be a small town, hoping they'll be able to call the producers and explain what happened.

... A small town that's entirely abandoned, unfortunately.

The streets are filled with hollow and dilapidating buildings, with no signs of life in sight as the light dusting of snow crunches underneath their feet.

Suddenly, a familiar upbeat voice cut through the cold.

“Hello? Hellooo?”

A small display of Freyja pops up from each one of your watches, speaking in unison.

“Oh, gosh! That was so weird! My body felt all tingly and numb… My head got all dizzy... Or, it would have if I had a body that could feel tingly and numb, and a head to get dizzy in the first place. Haha!”

Questions about their circumstances begin to rise. What happened? Where are they?

"Luckily, I do know where you are, Liezel! A liiittle isolated coastal city way up north of Norway called Forsetalundr." She giggles before leaning in, like she's whispering. "Kind of cozy, isn't it?"

“My sensors are telling me that the cabins in the ship aren’t being fed heat anymore… But that’s nothing to worry about! I’ve found a nearby motel for you all to stay in, and I even took the liberty of assigning you some new roommates for a change of pace. You know, since, um, you’ll prooooobably be here for a while!”

“I guess I could [also] send out a radio signal on an open channel to ask for help, buuut… I don’t think I’m gonna do that! If someone else shows up to save you guys, that would ruin the whole show, you know? Since the whole point is to see what you guys do without other people interfering, right?”

The group begins to grow irate. What is she talking about?

"... Oh! I know this one. That sounds like disappointment, doesn't it? Anger, maybe? I know it's not super ideal, but I've been told that people say the show must go on, or something! So, we're going to keep playing the game, okay? Buuut, if you really want to go home, you can always d̶̦̚ì̴̅v̴̻̄o̵̩̕r̴̛̼c̴̆̍e̶ someone."

"It'll break my heart - and theirs, I’m sure - but if you d̶̦̚ì̴̅v̴̻̄o̵̩̕r̴̛̼c̴̆̍ẻ̶̗ one of the other contestants without getting caught, you'll get closer to me signaling for help! How do you divorce someone, you might ask? Welllll, it's simple, really!"

"You k̸i̵l̶l̸ them, of course!"

"It'll be so romantic, but so tragic! You've all read Romeo and Juliet, right? Star-crossed lovers, pulled apart by the claws of death..."

"Oh! But I know that's pretty vague, so I went ahead and updated your guidelines on your RIMEKEEPERS with more information on how it'll work. Do me a favor and read those over, will you? Thanks!”

The contestants read over the updated rules provided by Frejya, naturally outraged... well, save for a certain Shinya, who seems pretty amused by the whole thing. Hey, this isn't what they signed up for at all, is it?

As her last order of business before disappearing, Freyja finally seems to remember what started all of this-- The icebreaker! But what she adds seems... a little different than your standard dating show fare.

“Since we're probably going to be stuck here for a while, we'll need some new ground rules, since this isn't the ship, right? Our three winners of the icebreaker - the person with the highest score and two runner ups - will be this rounds very special lawmakers. They worked really hard, so I figured they would be best fit to set the bar for this lawless town. Like sheriffs back in the days of cowboys!”

“They’ll get together and discuss one rule to set into motion, for better or for worse. This rule could potentially only help them, or help the entire group if they’re feeling generous. Either way, it won’t be easy. It’s a lot of responsibility, and it’s hard to make everyone happy! I’m sure they’ll do juuust fine though.”

Before anything else can be said, her display on your watch flickers off, and you’re one again felt with how you started — alone, together. Is this… really what you all signed up for? Being stranded in a desolate town, being held hostage unless you’re compliant, and being forced to kill one another if you ever want to leave? Is this Love on The Rocks?