#live. laugh. love Scooby fandom

[threephantomrey]

tbh what also kinda pisses me off in the Scooby fandom is the like 4 people online that are so mad about the hate that 13th Ghost and RTZI get and get so defensive over these movies because of it that they’ll say things like “oh look at these grown adults getting so mad about retcons🤣” and claim that people who don’t like these movies just hate fun. and they’ll say things like “well the fandom ASKED for a 13 Ghosts sequel and now they’re CRYING about it because they wanted to see a demon get stuffed in a box but that didn’t happen cause we got another thing instead boohoo get over it” like bro first of all, you are NOT helping the reputations of these movies AT ALL. if anything, you’re actually making their reputations worse than they already are. and you can’t force people to like stuff and also, making fun of fans especially 13 Ghosts fans for not liking something/being disappointed about 13th Ghost’s ending because they wanted the 13th Ghost to be recaptured is incredibly rude. i like RTZI and i love 13th Ghost and i love the 13th ghost’s redemption thing and i like the villain reveal and i think it’s a good ending but OH MY GOD you can’t be that mad about people wanting the 13th ghost to get recaptured in the chest, literally the entire 13 Ghosts show was about the gang recapturing the ghosts from the chest after Shaggy and Scooby let them out that was the whole plot OF COURSE people were expecting the 13th ghost to be caught. they’re allowed to want that!!! they’re allowed to express their disappointment!!! so to sit here and say “well actually it’s THE FANS FAULT” is incorrect and rude and stupid. you guys are so mean. i understand being mad about the amount of hate that these movies get like i get annoyed about it too sometimes believe me i’ve talked about it before. but YOU CAN’T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!!!! or that one confession i saw that was like “well maybe if you guys didn’t voice how much you love ZI, we wouldn’t have gotten RTZI so maybe think about that” which is also stupid and is also just being very rude to the fans. you are disrespecting other Scooby fans and also giving yourself and others 13th Ghost and RTZI fans a bad rep! also i hate when they try to convince other fans that no actually 13th Ghost was better than the series and the series was garbage or that no actually RTZI was better than the original. like my guy, you can think that these movies are better than the originals and not like 13 Ghosts or ZI and voice your opinion online but don’t @ the fans and try to force them to think the same as you and be disrespectful towards them just because they didn’t like a movie that YOU liked. it’s okay for people to not like a movie/feel disappointed about it i promise you it’s not that deep😭

in conclusion: let’s just all chill and support other Scooby fans and come up with theories about 13th Ghost and RTZI and make fun little jokes thank you❤️🙏🏻

[llondonfog]

my one Very Specific Malleus Headcanon, stretched into a proper few paragraphs with the aid of backstory:

diasomnia's dorm building reminds me heavily of the background art used in the first scooby doo series—that is to say, it's old, isolated, and cool-toned.

the heavy blues of scooby doo tend to add to the isolation in a very specific way—they lack warmth, making the location seem colder, less welcoming, and (sometimes) deserted. because i was already used to this, when seeing diasomnia for the first time, my brain connected the similar shapes and heavy cool-tones to make it the coldest dorm location in my mind. (sorry, sebek)

this fed into a very unintentional headcanon i have for malleus. it's the only one i always keep at the back of my mind, whether going through the story or writing my own fics. i like the idea of malleus being a physically cold individual. his skin chilled, unnaturally pale with a green or blue tinge, and generally giving off the air of a walking corpse. reanimated, if you will, despite having lived for centuries.

however, he can breathe fire.

it's a fact mentioned so rarely that it tends to fall into the same category as "could be real, could be a joke," but given that he is a dragon...

while we could go with cold flames for a more fantastical touch, i prefer them to be warm—so warm, in fact, that you can feel them through his skin. his flames are breathed, much like most dragons, meaning they come out of his mouth. they start deeper in, most likely in his stomach, then come up through his throat.

for that reason, i like to think that malleus' skin is deathly cold in all places that do not have fire beneath them. his stomach would be warmer, as well as his throat and mouth. it seperates him from the (mostly) human population on campus just that little bit more, in a way that is wholly unique to him.

(and i did include this in the smut i promised in exchange for his birthday SSR coming home.)

FIRST OF ALL!! i typically don't read character x reader fics at all in any fandom, but i have to confess,,,, i kept coming back to this one ever since you sent it to me and feeling Some Type of Way about it. i feel like you've opened my eyes to this vulnerable and yielding side of malleus and. well. it was a nice comfort to get through the tedium and stress of the week, i must say :')

(it also didn't hurt that i thoroughly enjoyed the voice behind your writing and the imagery it provided)

BUT BACK TO YOUR HEADCANON—

i've never made the connection between the scooby doo haunted house and the color scheme/architectural choices of the diasomnia dorm castle!! i actually really love that gloomy, rainy melancholy vibe they've created, it makes me want to curl up with a warm mug and a cozy blanket while it storms outside. and it fits so perfectly with the stereotype of the rest of the school that diasomnia is the most reclusive and insular group— the cold and dreary atmosphere coupled with the foreboding thorny path certainly doesn't win any welcoming points, but i digress.

(also i have to laugh at the sebek comment considering his family is originally from sunset savanna iirc?? which makes me wonder what on earth could have driven them to briar valley with its cold and rugged climate— did they leave due to human/fae conflicts and fled to seek the protection of their own kind? i know its besides the point but i do find it kind of funny if the reason for sebek's/baul's brusque grumpiness is that they're irritated at always being cold ajlfd;aksf)

with respect to malleus though, i absolutely buy into that concept!! your description of his skin reminds me a lot of the rusalka water fae who had the appearance of a drowned person with dark, almost greenish-tinged hair, which makes the contrast of his flames all the more enticing. i just really love stark comparisons between two completely opposite concepts, and the idea that malleus is the coldest, most corpse-like creature stalking the campus, and yet somehow also harbors a super-heated firepit within his chest if you're favored enough to be snuggled within his icebox arms is so delightful to me :')

(i kind of also want his scales to glow a deep, dark green when he's about to expel flames, is that too cliche of me—)

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Tuesday, April 2

Dreg: It's strange. A body might ask what exactly it is you think you're doing. He might ask what all this was meant to accomplish. Because to a humble postulant, it looks like chaos. Like unnecessary attention drawn where it ought not to be. Ben: (angrily) Get out! Dreg: Sir. Sir, forgive me. I just want to understand. Why summon the Queller? Ben: What do you think? Because I'm cleaning up Glory's mess. Just like I've done my whole damn life.

~~Buffy Season 5 Episode #87: "Listening To Fear"~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Pipes and Debts (Buffy/Spike, T) by veronyxk84

[Chaptered Fiction]

The Watching of Watchers Ch. 1 (Spike/Drusilla, T) by Scar_Eve

Bad Blood |BTVS| Book Two Ch. 18 (OC, Ensemble, unrated) by BrunetteMarionette

Weight of the World Ch. 3 (Buffy/Spike, unrated) by Enigmatist

Love Lives Here Ch. 43/100 (Buffy/Summers, E) by Passion4Spike

No Going Back Ch. 18 (Willow/Tara, M) by Tru2urheart

Goodbye to Everything That I Knew Ch. 27/30 (Buffy/Spike, M) by My_Barbaric_Yawp

lost behaviours of a self-destructive mind Ch. 6 (Buffy/Xander, Buffy/Spike, M) by EmilytheSlayer

Staying Afloat Ch. 2 (Willow/Oz, T) by dwinchester

In Case You Haven't Noticed... CH. 8 (Buffy/Giles, E) by Sdhuskerfan

… A Stranger I Go Hence Ch. 11 (Faith/OC, M) by MalkMcJorma

Recommencer Ch. 10 (Buffy/Faith, M) by FridayQueen

If We Could Freeze Time Ch. E (Buffy/Spike, E) by cosplayermadness

Do as Romans do Ch. 23 (Dawn/Spike, T, French language) by OldGirl-NoraArlani

One Girl in All the World Ch. 43 (Buffy/Faith, T) by Brenna's Urbangirl Projects

The Neighbor's Point of View, Chapter 96 (Buffy/Spike, G) by the_big_bad

Early One Morning , Chapter 29 (Buffy/Spike, E) by all choseny

Dusk Rising, Chapter 38 (Buffy/Spike, E) by HappyWhenItRains

Key Moment, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, T) by mcgnagallsarmy

The Boyfriend Swap, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Maxine Eden

Hello Cutie, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, E) by CheekyKitten

Forever and Always?, Chapter 21-25 (Buffy/Spike, M) by scratchmeout

Bang, Chapter 16-20 (Buffy/Spike, E) by scratchmeout

Bad Idea, Right?, Chapter 16-20 (Buffy/Spike, M) by scratchmeout

Sculpture of Dance , Chapter 7-10 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Desicat

Family Business, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, T) by ClowniestLivEver

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork:ats themed doodles () by genericaces

Video: BUFFY & ANGEL X MIDNIGHTS (11 Bangel vids) by bangelism

Artwork:Willow Rosenberg vs Danzu from Naruto () by MattanzaMFedora

Artwork:Leather for Leisure (Buffy/Spike) by satinsafe

[Reviews & Recaps]

PODCAST: Episode 117: Flooded by Mythtaken

[Community Announcements]

It’s event time at Elysian Fields! by elysianfieldsarchive

[Fandom Discussions]

god, wesley and cordelia’s friendship really gets me. by summerroomspring

do the scoobies ever find out about the wishverse? by summerroomspring

Honestly when you really think about it the whole Acathla thing is really kind of silly. by bloomfish

It’s so obvious to me by danceandsing

The thing about Spike and Angel by spangelmybeloved

I forgot that they introduced Xander by having him zooming along on his skateboard. by nicnacsnonsense

I’m actually so upset we never saw Buffy celebrate Easter by fictiongods

Spike from Buffy isn’t actually a bad poet; he was just born in the wrong generation. by penny-anna

Top 10 Spuffy fics I’ve read (March 2024) by mcgnagallsarmy

when Buffy called frappuccinos “trendy, but tasty!” I thought it was funny the first time. by zorilleerrant

btvs season 1 episode 10 “nightmares” is a story about abuse by fallingtowers

Faith and Angel was such a good relationship by bloomfish

The scene in season seven where Buffy is expressing to Spike that she’s happy he hit Faith is actually so painful to me. by fictiongods

if Buffy did an April Fools Day episode by angelthemanspanker

This will never not make me laugh lol by AxelNoir

Favorite Riley Scene by Berry-Pie216

Season 5x18 Intervention Kiss by Kindofaddictedtotv

Wild at Heart - What If edition by dragonsrawesomesauce

As much as we all love and appreciate her, were there any times you felt Buffy was the one who was actually in the wrong? by InfiniteMehdiLove

The difference in which charmed and buffy depict the goddess of witchcraft Hecate by Busy_Supermarket9006

Angel Season 4 by la_noix

I can’t stop thinking about this y’all by MCGameTime

Desires for Reboot by roverandrover6

One Buffy episode that “saved” your life. by redditwatcher11

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PODCAST: Still the Queen: Looking Back on Buffy 25 Years Later by Nerdcrash

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[simptasia]

May I request buffy for the dashboard osmosis if you haven't seen it? Or if you have then steven universe

i'll do buffy

isabel, i like and respect you. but i hear about buffy a lot on tvtropes (in fact tvtropes started as a buffy fansite??) and almost everything i hear sounds... bad. it sounds like a cringe show. i'm sorry

i haven't seen it at all so thats not fair of me. but. yeah

or maybe the show isn't cringe but the fandom is. or both. hmm

buffy the vampire slayer was a 90s supernatural show made by joss whedon at his peak LOOK IM A FEMINIST fuckery

it stars sarah michelle gellar (who i know primarily as daphne in the live action scooby doo movies, and that bitch from cruel intentions) as buffy summers. and she's The Slayer. slayers are like chosen ones, and its a title thats passed on for i dunno hundreds of years

slayers... slay vampires, i presume

she talks in a specific manner hence the trope Buffy Speak. it's basically like a weird simple talky thingy (that was buffy speak)

one of the characters is willow rosenberg played by allison hannigan. and as a bi activist engrossed with fiction, i have certainly heard of this character. basically, she's the poster child for The 90s Being Weird About Bisexuality. as she was into dudes and then she's into a girl and the show is weird about it and she's Suddenly Lesbian. and like, yes, lesbians discovering themselves after dating dudes is totally a thing but thats not the logic being used here, it's just awkward biphobia. oh yes. i've heard much about willow and tara

tho, willow/tara is a case of Fair For It's Day

seth green played oz, a sardonic werewolf of little words. he was the dude willow was into before her bisexuality activated

david borealis and james marsters are angel and spike, they're two vampires that buffy is super into and i get the vibe that their love triangle is like a Big Thing in this show and/or the fandom. angel is the "good" one, spike is the bad one. i read that buffy and spike raped each other (with the buffy raping spike being played for laughs because life is a fucking nightmare). so that's fucked

angel got his own spin off called angel and one time angel became a muppet in it. i approve

angel is one of those brooding "i can never be good, theres no hope for me" types of vampires. the kinda guy tailored for certain women to be like "ohhh i can fix him" or whatever. it's kinda funny. on the flipside i assume spike is for the "mmm i don't wanna fix him" types

this is before this type of thing was subject to parody

there's some blando guy named xander, i think he's a nerd and meant to be an audience self insert. i've seen ppl say he has nice guy syndrome but i dunno how true that is. dunno who plays him

anthony head plays rupert giles, he's the exposition and mentor dude. makes dry remarks and spouts encouragement, i think

charmed, a show i love, apparently stole buffy's vibes a lot

buffy is the first show where somebody used google as a verb. as in "googled"

theres a musical episode wherein dancer and singer hilton battle Absolutely Fucks. oh and everybody has musical numbers, including one that ends with tara levitating from cunnilingus. this was noteworthy because sapphic characters being sexual was actually rare in mainstream media in the 90s. again, fair for it's day

oh, this is a monster of the week show where some overarching story each season. doug jones made a few appearances

i get the impression that buffy is one of those shows that has good actors and concepts but fucky writing. it happens, i feel you

is buffy a cheerleader or did i imagine that. i might be thinking of heroes (which also suffered from great acting, fucky writing)

anyways thank you for your time

[companionjones]

Bath Time

Requested by: @mothermeer-deactivated20170710

Request: Could I request a Lafayette x Reader where the reader is a single mom and doesn't thinks too highly of herself but Laf shows her just how much he loves her please?

Pairing: Modern!Lafayette x Mother!Reader

Fandom: Hamilton

Warnings: Google translate French, motherly self-doubt

*******

    “Y/n? Amour? Are you ho--”

    “Laffy Taffy!”

    Lafayette was greeted at your front door by an 8-year-old boy running up to him. Lafayette grinned at the boy. “William! Petit monsieur (little man)! How are you doing on this fine evening?”

    The boy shrugged, “I’m doing fine, but mom seems a little sadder than usual.”

    Concern pricked Gilbert. “Is that so?”

    A little solumely, the boy nodded.

    Setting in resolve without a second thought, Lafayette told William. “I’ll go talk to Y/n. You stay here and watch....Oo, Scooby-Doo! And it’s a great episode as well. Enjoy!”

    With William taken care of, Lafayette left the living room and entered the kitchen. There, he found you standing over the sink, presumably taking a break from washing the dishes. Lafayette cleared his throat to let you know he was in the room. When you didn’t respond, he slowly approached and leaned over you to turn off the water to the sink.

    That got your attention. “Oh, Oh my goodness. Hey, Laf. When did you get here?”

    “Just now, mon amour.” Lafayette gently looked you over. “Are you alright?”

    You shrugged off. “I’m doing fine. It’s taking me an hour to do the dishes, however.”

    Good, he thought, something physical he could do for you. “Is that so? Well, I am sure the dishes would be washed faster with two people washing them.” Using his hip, Laf scooched you out of the way.

    “Wait. No, Laf. That’s not what I meant,” you argued, “You don’t need to help me with this.”

    He shrugged, “That is true. But if I wasn’t standing here at the sink, then I would not be able to do this.” Lafayette splashed you with some soapy water.

    You jumped at the sudden contact. “Laf!” you laughed, and a mini-water-fight ensued as the two of you continued to do the dishes with only half of your attention on the chore.

    When the dishes were finally finished, water-war only broke out more. Your son William quickly got in on the fun.

    “Okay, okay,” you eventually put a stop to the fun, though a grin was still painted on your lips. “It’s getting late. Will, let’s go dry off and then you have to get to bed.”

    William was still giggling a little too. “Okay, Mom. Goodnight, Laffy Taffy!” He charged forward and hugged Gilbert again.

    “Bonne nuit, petit monsieur (Goodnight, little man),” Lafayette hugged the boy back before William pulled away and started tugging you by your hand toward his room. Lafayette told you, “I’ll stay here and clean up.”

    You wanted to turn him down again, but Gilbert nonchalantly waved you off. “Go. It is no problem.”

    By the time you made it back to the kitchen, it was ten minutes later, and Lafayette was finishing up drying the floor.

    “I’m sorry for the mess,” you apologized with a cringe.

    Lafayette shrugged it off. It was truly no problem. “Mon amour, I don’t mind. And I started the fight, nonetheless. I should be the one to clean up.”

    “Yeah, but it doesn’t seem fair. I-I’m responsible for the mess, too...” you trailed off because if you were to continue, tears would fall down your face. You turned away from Laf, and tried to calm down.

    He dropped what he was doing and rushed to you. “Mon amour, why are you crying?”

    “It’s just...Oh, sometimes I feel like such a failure!” you finally exploded. “I get so overwhelmed so often. Mothers shouldn’t be overwhelmed this much!” Yes, you were freaking out, but you were still keeping your voice low enough so you wouldn’t wake William.

    Lafayette took your hands in his. “Amour (Love), please, sit down. Take deep breaths.” He lead you over to your dining room table. “Now, I would like you to be honest with me. Do you really think other parents don’t get overwhelmed?”

    “They do, but--” you tried to argue.

    “Amour, parents are constantly unsure of themselves. Of that, I am sure. It comes with the job. You are not doing anything wrong. In fact, I believe that you are doing an amazing job.”

    Just hearing that last sentence was enough for your floodgates to open.

    “I am not lying, mon amour. I am so proud of you. You are doing a great job.” Lafayette was solid ground as you leaned into him. He rubbed your back comfortingly. “And as for young William’s bath...if you ask me, I would say the amount of soap and water that got on him tonight was enough for 2 baths, with some left over, perhaps.”

    That got you to chuckle for a little while. When you got your voice back, you leaned into Lafayette more. “Thank you so much, my love. I don’t know what i would do without you.”

    Gilbert smiled. “Oh, I believe you would be faring just as well as you are now. Maybe laughing a little less, but I also believe William would take care of that.”

    Again, you giggled.

*******

Author’s Note: Thank you for reading! Fill up that heart if you liked it. I would also appreciate a reblog, if you have the time. If you would like to read more, I have more stories over on my page. You should check it out. Have a nice day, night, or whatever time it is for you! <3 <3 <3

[writers-worst-nightmare]

Kittens (Keith x reader)

Song you are singing

Warning(s): A TON OF CUSSING, reckless driving, got lazy at the end, Keith loosing one of his lives

THIS IS A REAL LIFE AU WHERE THERE IS NO SPACE OR ANYTHING AND THEY ARE ON EARTH

Fandom: Voltron

Word Count: 1,510

Pairing(s): Keith x reader

Genera: chaotic fluff

A/N: this is basically a Voltron version of “no braincells“ but I added a twist to make things more interesting

Request are always open!

Keith stared at the tiny kittens surrounding him, he froze in place and looked up to you as a plea of help witch was rudely declines when you started snickering before bursting out into laughter. Soon the whole crew joined in on laughing at Keith with a bunch of kittens. Pidge was snapping pictures and uploading it to their Instagram, Lance was recording a tiktok, Shiro was trying to get the cats off of Keith, Hunk was laughing, and you where adding more cats to the pile on his lap. “Y/N DON’T ENCOURAGE THEM!” Shiro scolded. You rolled your eyes before grabbing a small black and white kitten and placing it on Keith’s lap. The crew had decided to meet up after band practice and stay at your house. Little did they all know that you fostered animals, you had a couple of dogs and Birds but you mainly fostered cats cause they look so fucking cute.

“But it fuuunnnn!” You wine, only making Hunk laugh even harder until he was literally on the ground laughing so hard.

“They are kind of cute…” Keith muttered as he stared at the cats and back at you and then back at the cats.

“Why don’t Keith and I go to get some cat stuff at the mall, you three can make yourselves at home by the way!” You called as you dragged Keith into your car and hopped in the drivers side.

“Oh no…” Keith muttered as he stared wide eyed at you starting the car.

“What?”

”Please don’t tell me—“

”Oh, yeah I am driving!”

“LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!”

You locked the car doors and started to drive on there highway. Keith relaxed a bit as he thought that you where going to be normal

Big mistake

As soon as you saw all the muscles sink into the car seat you smirked and pulled up a radio station. Since Keith hasn’t been with you in the car before (for a good reason since everyone that has let you drive a car was gotten sick) he didn’t know that you LOVES music. Probably even more then you loved anime (which was saying something).

The fuck? Hold on Bitches got beef but don't wanna fight me Quit all that barkin', ho, bite me Bitch Hold on

”What the fuck is this?” Keith asked as he started to lean forward before the song started and you higher Ed the volume all the way up

Bitch, you fat, need a tummy tuck (Yep) You dropping diss songs, man, bitch, get your money up (For sure, then)

”It is called ‘go best friend’ and it is awesome” You answered as you rolled down your window and started singing along to the beat of the song and speeding slightly.

If you 'bout it, then run it up Used to be cool with this bitch, but she mad that I'm coming up

Keith hesitated softly before pulling up the lyrics on his phone and starting to sing along slowly. Afraid of what would happen next. You turned right and got on the off-road. Keith stiffened as he has heard one to many times what happens when you go off road and onto the dirt paths that you have most likely made yourself.

You a thot, you gon' suck it up I got a white bitch in the club, wanna pump it up (Woo, woo)

You started speeding even faster the before and Keith was prepared for the worst. Looking for a pencil and a piece of paper before settling on a anime journal that you had and a pen

Fuck a speech, I'ma sum it up $hy on the track and you already know she gonna fuck it up (Ayy, yeah) Bitch need to worry 'bout a bag I'm rocking these shows, and that's why she mad (Aha)

”I am going to give Lance my fuck you energy, Shiro my Hot Topic shirts, Pidge my suicidal thought, Hunk my fuck boy energy, and y/n my outmost hatred.” Keith started to say as he wrote out his will.

“Oh come on I am not that bad of a driver!” You pouted, looking away from the road and staring at Keith. Keith widened his eyes and grabbed the steering wheel so he could drive.

After this diss, you goin' out sad Bitch, you not bougie, you don't got no class (Bitch) Turnt in the booth and I'm piped off that gas Spin on yo' block, then we hitting the dash (Shoot, shoot)

”The last time you said that Pidge ended up in a flicking tree!” Keith argued, holding back the urge to choke you out, you rolled your eyes and elbowed the emo boy out of the way to take control of driving

It's still love for you, though But, bitch, I'm 'bout to get on your ass (Haha)

You started screaming the lyrics and Keith’s heart seemed to be going backwards as he grabbed his phone and gripped it tightly in his hands before button the record button.

$hy gotta potty mouth You wanna talk shit? Bitch, let's talk 'bout your body count You stink, throw your body out Tryna hang wit' the kid, I'm the life of the party now (Yeah)

He stopped the video and sent it to the “why do we still exist?” Group chat that consist of the gang

-character development Sasuke sent a video-

Non-binary owl: WORK IT Y/N YEAAAH

Sapnap but better: oh no…

Panda dude from beastars: have you written your will yet?

-character development Sasuke sent a picture-

Character development Sasuke: already got it written out

Won’t shut up about how bisexual this man is: I GET FUCK YOU ENERGY?!

Sapnap but better: I GET FUCK BOY ENERGY

Non-binary owl: can we all collectively agree to play/sing WAP at Keith’s funeral

Your lil' sister look up to me (Yeah) Bitch, you can't rap and you really not touching me (No) Just like a virgin, lil' bitch, cannot fuck wit' me And I never been pussy, bitch, you know what's up with me (For sure, then)

Won’t shut up about how bisexual this man is: As long as I get to do the dance

Panda dude from beastars: NO ONE IS PLAYING WAP AT ANYONES FUNERAL

Panda dude from beastars: Look Keith you are going to be fine

Why this bitch wanna pop shit? We was just cool, now this bitch wanna act like a opp bitch (The fuck?)

“What happens if I go off the edge…?” You wonder out loud, Keith looks up at you with a panicked expression.

Oh, she mad she can't stop shit Said that my breath stink 'cause I'm spittin' that hot shit (Hot, hot)

“NO Y/N DON’T GO OFF THE EDGE! THIS IS NOT FUCKING MINECRAFT!!” Keith lectured as he tried to roll down the window but silently cried to himself as he realized that you had child’s lock on.

Quit all that barkin', lil' bitch, and come bite me Bitches got beef, but they don't wanna fight me (Wait, wait)

You ignored Keith and smiled up yourself as you almost ran over some ducks

Turnt to my music, but swear they don't like me You got my number, ho, FaceTime, Skype me These hoes wanna be me I'm on your radio, soon I'ma be on your TV John Cena, bitches can't see me (Nope) I'm goin' up, and it's hella fans wanna meet me (Hey, haha)

“WHY DID YOU ALMOST RUN OVER DUCKS?!” Keith screamed as he plastered himself against the window.

Bitches don't get me Bitch, why you hatin? You could've been goin up with me (For sure, then) Spear on the bitch like she Britney You could dissed any bitch, but instead, you gon' pick me (Okay, the fuck?)

You did a wide turn and Keith practically flew in the air, he got up off the floor and cursing the seatbelt for failing to protect him against your ruthless grasp.

Make a bitch wanna hit me (Ayy, ayy) Bitches be cap on my name, the shoe did not fit me (No, it didn't) Show these bitches no pity (Yeah) These bitches wanna be friends, admit it, you miss me (Go)

Keith peered over the dashboard thanks to him now being on the floor and distantly saw the mall “YESSS WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!!!” Keith exclaimed as he got exited ready to leave this hell hole that mortals calls a car

Wrap up the beat like a doobie I don't give a fuck 'bout opinions, you know I'ma do me (Hey, hold on) Bitch, you a gnat, you a groupie Told that lil' bitch it's some snacks, and we pulled up with Scoobies

you lowered the volume to one as you pulled up in the parking lot and slowed down the car before parking somewhere close to the mall. You didn’t even look bothered to the fact of your reckless driving while Keith was looking like a whole tumbleweed fell over and hit him in the rib cage.

[jennycalendar]

ok you know what i think it’s actually really vital that i talk a little bit about tea time. buckle up kiddos.

first off, a brief and relatively spoiler-free summary: the premise of the issue is very simple. the kiddos (aged up, if willow’s mention of being engaged is any indication) are hanging out in the library to help giles with research, swapping stories about what it would be like were giles a vampire. each of them, save giles, gets a chance to tell a detailed story -- xander tells two! -- and each story plays out in a way that says a lot about the scooby that’s telling it AND the way they view giles.

obviously this is a VERY character-driven issue, and it’s a really really interesting look at giles and how he is perceived as well! shit like that is my bread and butter, so this has honestly become one of my favorite things that boom has put out -- possibly my ACTUAL top favorite issue if we’re being real here. 

below the cut is a spoilery dissection of every story told -- a literal summary of Every Single Thing that happens in this issue, as well as what it has to say about the scoobies and their perception of giles, so definitely keep that in mind.

as can be seen in the preview, xander’s first story is about giles rising from the grave as an ineffectual british caricature, who is easily defeated by smoldering, sexy xander harris (and xander in turn walks off with buffy and willow draped all over him, cooing about how amazing he is). it’s more of an intro to the premise than anything, but it still sets the tone pretty clearly wrt how xander handles this situation: there’s some laughter and levity, and he’s center stage. obviously a lot can be said about xander’s self-esteem issues and how he overcompensates by casting himself as the main protagonist both in canon and here. however, i wanna save my more in-depth xander analysis for his second, longer, story, so i’ll stop myself there.

willow immediately responds with skepticism: she’s of the mind that giles would be an incredibly serious big-bad level threat. the tale she spins involves giles as a dangerous vampire cleric with access to a cryptic altar, killing xander almost immediately and slaughtering buffy as a sacrifice to create eternal night. her view of giles is more clinical than anything -- and, i would argue, the most perceptive and realistic from a threat standpoint. the guy knows a fuckton of magic and he is incredibly well-read and powerful. he’d have some kind of terrifying master plan. where xander goes for comedy, willow goes straight for logistics, already looking at the battle like it’s a battle rather than laughs aplenty. 

xander and buffy have a bone to pick with willow’s story (xander is indignant that he’s immediately and brutally killed, buffy is of the mind that she would easily defeat giles in hand-to-hand combat even if he IS a vampire), so (after one more teasing story where buffy lives and xander dies) willow gracefully alters her narrative to reflect her friends’ objections: after a dramatic tussle, xander helps willow and buffy unceremoniously stakes giles in the heart. still pretty straightforward and plausible. willow sees vamp giles primarily as a threat -- one not easily neutralized. one who could easily wipe them out.

buffy, about to tell her story, is interrupted by xander, who “had an even better idea!” the web he weaves is this time purported as realistic and entertaining: while partying at the bronze, buffy and co. are interrupted by a bunch of balding, greying vampires in curlers and bathrobes, led, of course, by giles -- who is wearing a hair bonnet and disapprovingly informing the bouncers how late it is at eight PM. a knockdown brawl breaks out at the bronze -- old people feeding on and decimating the young -- and culminates in giles and the geezers taking over the band to sing “some terrible song” that’s “probably something really old and bad!” the rest of the story descends into b-movie chaos, with buffy throwing a broken guitar neck up at the stage lights to send the whole thing crashing down onto vampire giles and his vampire old person band. it’s categorically absurd.

the thing that really sticks with me about this story is how dumb it is. xander’s take on giles is not even slightly serious and wholly underestimates him. fandom at large talks a lot about how giles dropped the ball with xander, but i think tea time explores an easily overlooked factor: xander constantly, consistently underestimates giles. in canon, xander’s view of giles is not often challenged: to him, giles is a bumbling, british librarian who regularly gets his ass handed to him by vamps and demons and the like. certainly part of his story’s intent is about laughingly entertaining his gal pals, but there’s a very real and consistent thread involving giles being hilariously nonthreatening. 

giles, taking umbrage at this particular tale, calls out both xander and willow: xander’s story, in giles’s opinion, emasculates vamp giles and turns him into a ridiculous caricature -- and willow’s story, though much more flattering, lacks the kind of imagination that vamp giles would clearly have. he then offers a suggestion of his own. it’s worth mentioning here that both xander’s and willow’s stories get gorgeous multiple-page spreads depicting the vampy action, but giles’s is a simple and chilling little thing: this is his vampire story. this meeting, called to ostensibly “research” a vampire altar, is really an excuse to get the scoobies to do his dirty work and find the thing for him. they’re tired and silly because the tea and donuts he’s given them are drugged, and their library location is to keep them out of daylight. he laughs it off when he sees they’re bothered, and the meeting is then adjourned when willow finally finds what they’re all looking for. 

buffy’s left her phone in the library, so she doubles back, and accidentally wakes up a dozing giles. just as she’s about to leave, he inquires, casually, “...you never did tell your version of the story.”

and good god here is where it gets interesting.

see, buffy’s take is simple: she’s fighting giles in a cemetery, she’s given the chance to kill him, and she is entirely unable to do it. they share a tearful embrace as she sobs about the unfairness of it all -- “you’re giles! and you’ll always be! ...how will i do this without you? without your guidance?” and as the sun is rising, giles turns her into a vampire, with no resistance whatsoever from buffy. the next handful of pages depict bloody, indulgent violence on the parts of giles and buffy, the two of them cuddled up together as they watch the world burn. 

buffy’s tale is the most emotive, the most loving, which makes me so damn soft! i love this girl so much! she is unable to even joke about giles as a foe to be taken down -- he is her watcher. he is her friend. she loves him endlessly and that does not change when he’s a vampire. vamp giles as she portrays him is gentle and understanding, holding her as she cries, because he knows that they’re connected. it’s easily my favorite part of this whole issue.

notably, there is a definite buffy/giles bend that the comic itself tries to contradict. the art is sensual in nature -- vamp buffy all dolled up in a way somewhat evocative of drusilla, giles tenderly caressing her face as he waits for her to wake up. “watcher and slayer connected forever” being the quote chosen to describe the situation. i think it’s kind of what naturally happens in a vamp giles sitch, especially if he turns buffy -- the childe/sire bond is incredibly sexual in nature, especially in canon, and a lot of frustrating human sentiment gets translated into something sexual as well. sex is a big BIG part of the relationships between vampires we see in canon; it would make a lot of sense for that to hold true for buffy and giles.

the comic is reticent about Going There, which i can understand -- though buffy is decisively aged up in this issue (willow mentions being engaged to a woman, later revealed to be tara), the buffy/giles bond is always seen through a father/daughter lens in canon. i do think it’s also important to always recognize how desperately giles wishes to escape the label of father in reference to buffy, pretty much entirely because there is no way to parent a child soldier who you’re also training, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish. point is, buffy very pointedly refers to vamp giles as her father not once, but twice -- once as a human, once as a vampire herself. it’s a very clear attempt, imo, to un-sexualize the vampy experience. the reason it doesn’t totally work, at least for me, is the fact that -- like i said -- the childe/sire bond is VERY sexual (spike and dru, angel and darla, angel and dru) and it seems just totally implausible that vamp buffy/vamp giles (two people who, as human were both VERY repressed) would chastely remain within the socially acceptable version of their relationship.

i can definitely understand why they did their best to blur that line, though. the idea of buffy and giles being romantically involved as vampires is 1) Kind Of A Lot and 2) not exactly the target demographic that i think this comic is going for. but the subtext is there, to the point where the issue itself has to actively obfuscate it, which i think is .... so interesting? especially as a counterpoint to the way i often see buffy/giles in fandom, wherein the father/daughter subtext in canon is at times actively obfuscated in fic in an attempt to push a preferred reading. 

the ending i particularly enjoyed: after buffy leaves, it is lightly and ambiguously implied that giles might really be a vampire. works GREAT as a standalone, imo, and the end is like the cherry on top. it’s a really REALLY interesting issue and i highly recommend it for any giles fan. 

[angelicamerlinbarnes]

Being asexual is...

or, an amusing and devastating vent list.

(DISCLAIMER: These are based on my own experiences as a sex-repulsed asexual and no one else's. I'm hoping this can help some of my fellow aces feel seen and my wonderful allo allies to better understand our identities as asexual people. ^-^ Love y'all. Be kind. <3)

Being asexual is just being confused about why everybody is laughing at the number 69

Being asexual is saying “I’m just admiring their outfit” and ACTUALLY just admiring their outfit

Being asexual is reading the summer reading book and having a breakdown at 2 a.m. cause you’re taking an AP class and the book has mature content

Being asexual (and not aromantic in this case, but I see y’all and i love you ;)) is saying “pan” or “bi” or “omni” but never the second half of the word because it just feels fucking wrong (just realized I always said I was bi instead of bisexual because even my mouth knew I was ace before my brain did ✌🏻)

Being asexual is scrolling through the asexual tag on Tumblr because you need validation you won’t get from any fandom or family you’re in

Being asexual is turning the national average age for people to start having sex and waiting for all your friends and partner(s) to leave you because you just aren’t good enough

Being asexual is watching ten episodes of COMMUNITY in a row because you want to be Abed Nadir

Being asexual is identifying with Shaggy Rogers of Scooby Doo above all else

Being asexual is looking at Newt Scamander and Five Hargreeves and Sam Winchester and Jughead Jones and Hiccup Haddock III and Spencer Reid and Severus Snape and Remus Lupin and Luna Lovegood and Alice Kingsley and going, “Oh. Me.”

Being asexual is loving dragons

Being asexual is not looking at your own body when you shower because gross

Being asexual is loving romance books but not being able to read any because they all have one of Those Scenes™ in them

Being asexual is not wanting to be put on meds you’ve needed for years because you’re scared they’ll give you a sex drive

Being asexual is feeling uncomfortable enjoying fanworks the same way everybody else does because That Stuff™ shows up everywhere without warning

Being asexual is owning seventeen different pairs of heels but not wanting to wear them because people tell you it will make your butt look bigger

Being asexual is avoiding an entire section of the mall just because it has a Victoria’s Secret in it

Being asexual is ranting about the fashion industry surrounding junior girls because they think bralettes are shirts and speedos are shorts so you only shop in the boys’ section now

Being asexual is being afraid to go to colleges with fraternities

Being asexual is wishing you lived in Wonderland

Being asexual is being angry at Riverdale

Being asexual is struggling with/hating anime because they shove boobs into everything and you just don’t wanna see that, you don’t

Being asexual is not being able to listen to the same songs you loved when you were young because you understand them now

Being asexual is knowing, deep down in your heart, that the queer parts of fandom and media don’t want you

Being asexual is the most beautiful, precious, lovely, amazing, brave thing that you will ever do and I am so, so proud of all of you for doing it every, single, day. You are my heroes and I love you all more than I can say. Please never forget how magical you are. Please never stop fighting for who you are. Please never give up trying to be more you.

You are wonderful. Please know that.

[space-sheep08]

since someone already said faity, how about buffy summers ?

buffy summers my beloved ! :')

Favorite thing about them : She is literally THE funniest character ever. RIP to all the vampires she slayed in cemetaries who didn't laugh at her jokes but I'm different. There are of course a lot more things I love about her and I could probably talk about her all day so to make it shorter and simpler : I love how human she is !

Least Favorite thing about them : Idk if I can really say it's my least favorite thing about her (just like what I said about faith for this question), it's more like flaws which make me sad for her... Poor girl just needs to know that she deserves happiness and doesn't need to take it all on herself all the time...

Favorite line : every single one of them "Well, you were mythtaken ! :)"

brOTP : Her and the original scoobies mean the world to me actually :') Their relationships are so complicated and painful at times, but there is always so much love between them and it hurts my heart a little tbh. They are just teenagers and their failed father figure trying to fight "the forces of evil" while living their (sometimes very fucked up) lives !

OTP : I already ranted about fuffy in my faith post so I'll make it short here vezffldfrk- But basically they are my whole life, and I care very very deeply about these two and their relationship ;_; <3

nOTP : I don't like ships including people from the og scoobies with her tbh. Giles for obvious reasons and Willow and Xander because I really really love their platonic relationship and I find it so heartwarming ! (Also there's another ship but we won't get into that because many of my mutuals, whom I love dearly, like it and I understand the people who like the ship so yknow- there's no need to really talk about it)

Random headcanon : She never got her driver's licence. She failed everytime and no one accepts her now because she has this reputation that she either will kill you with her insane driving or weird shit will start happening around the car (like fucked up creatures coming and all that)

Unpopular opinion : Tbh I don't really know what the popular opinions are on btvs because I mostly stay in a lil' corner of the fandom where the only takes I see (on buffy at least) are from my very sexy and correct mutuals-

Song I associate with them : Same as for the two other character asks before, I have a ton of songs I associate with her that's why I have a whole playlist for buffy but here are some : A Better Son/Daughter by Rilo Kiley and I bet on losing dogs by Mitski (and for fuffy My Best Dress by Florence + The Machine >:D)

Favorite picture of them :

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, May 11th and Friday, May 12th

GREEN DEMON: You better go, Spike. Things could get ugly. SCALY DEMON: Got ugly the second he walked in. (disgusted) Him and his human. CLEM: Her skin's so tight, I don't even know how you can look at her. Ew. Spike stands up angrily and confronts Clem. The green demon gets up too.

~~Life Serial~~

The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Spike's Princess by apachefirecat (Buffy/Spike, PG)

Buffy: Arrival at Sunnydale High by witchguy1993 (Buffy, multi xover, Not Rated)

A Lifetime Ago by SpiderQuinn (Faith, Wrong Turn xover, M)

Spiders in Steeples by birdie7272 (Buffy/Spike, E)

[Podfic of] Slayersitting by vexbatch (Buffy, Eliot Spencer, Leverage xover, G)

It Only Takes a Taste by FoolForSpuffy (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Shadowed Suspicion - Ch. 387 by madimpossibledreamer (Ensemble, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure xover, T)

An Unsatisfactory Conversation - Ch. 2 by daviderl (Willow/Kennedy, T) COMPLETE!

Willow's Revelation - Ch. 3 by AJ Fields (myfanfiction) (Ensemble, T) COMPLETE!

Damsel - Ch. 8 by Skateland (Buffy, Joyce, Scoobies, T) COMPLETE!

Since You’ve Been Gone - Ch. 10 by HuonParticlesAreHarmless, myrobotheart (Buffy/Giles, multi xover, M) COMPLETE!

It wasn't over, it still isn't over - Ch. 1-5 by loveisntbrains_ (Buffy/Spike, R) COMPLETE!

Mostly Harmless - Ch. 28-30 by Lady Emma (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) COMPLETE!

h o n e y / t a s t e - Ch. 1-2 by LittleTayy (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

This Old Coffee Shop - Ch. 2 by FoolForSpuffy (Buffy/Spike, G)

A Place in the Sun - Ch. 5 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Make or Break - Ch. 2 by Axell (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Encased - Ch. 7 by Sunshine by acb6293 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Fidelity - Ch. 3 by Sigyn (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

So One of Us is Living - Ch. 28 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

In Another Life, I Still Fall for You - Ch. 6 by DeamonQueen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Unconditional - Ch. 6 by Blade Redwind (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Witch’s Gift - Ch. 13 by RavenLove12 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

From Hell with Love - Ch. 8 by temporarytitle (Buffy/Spike, R)

Under The Rubble - Ch. 23 by Geliot99 (Buffy/Spike, R)

In Which the Potentials Time Travel and Are Greatly Befuddled - Ch. 2 by FlightsofFancy (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Fate Plans and We Laugh - Ch. 7 by Hermionetobe (Buffy, Dawn, Faith, Batman xover, FR15)

Wood it Work - Ch. 24 by dogbertcarroll (Willow, Xander, multi xover, FR13)

The Home Invasions - Ch. 29-30 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) COMPLETE!

Where Do We Go? - Ch. 1-7 by womanaction (Buffy/Spike, R) COMPLETE!

Origins - Ch. 41 by Niamh (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

In Which the Potentials Time Travel and are Greatly Befuddled - Ch. 2 by FlightsofFancy (Buffy/Spike, R)

One Step Away - Ch. 5-6 by flootzavut (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Encased in Sunshine - Ch. 7 by Acb6293 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Bring Him Home - Ch. 16 by Acb6293 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Manip: The Archive - Ch. 2 by Dirtyaim (Spike, NSFW)

Craft: I made wood carvings of Giles's drawings from First Date by diehardnick (worksafe)

Lego: Lego Buffy - Xander vs. Harmony! by tmcarlee (Xander, Harmony, worksafe)

Artwork: Buffy x Faith request ♥️ Kofi by somewillwin (Buffy, Faith, worksafe)

Gifset: ALYSON HANNIGAN as WILLOW ROSENBERG [S1] by whatisyourchildhoodtrauma (Willow, worksafe)

Gifset: Faith Lehane in 3.17 Enemies by slayer-pride-parade (Faith, worksafe)

Gifset: Buffy the Vampire Slayer S1.E2 The Harvest (1998) by 51kas81 (Giles, Xander, Willow, worksafe)

[Recs & In Search Of]

Fanged Four (Darla, Angelus, Drusilla, and Spike) supercut video rec'd by jospangel

ISO: FeelingCool2513 seeks (queer) Fans in Europe [esp Germany]

[Fandom Discussions]

🔥Scooby Gang [unpopular opinion ask game] by coraniaid

SoS: Favourite petty moments [Willow] by nightshade and others

Game: Incorrect Quotes by various

Just got copy of Buffy Unmatched! Boardgame by soundresearch

POLL: Choose the season that the Scoobie's (and co.) had the best chemistry by Opening_Knowledge868

Dru should have warned him about turning his mother IMO by sushibananawater

Loving Dru by sugarintheboots

How would Kate have worked instead of Justine? [ATS] by SemperMuffins

POLL: Best Angel Duo/Relationship?? by raebaybay_

POLL: Is Wishverse Buffy more similar to Kendra or Faith? by hthbellhop76

Characters you felt sorry for even if they were evil by IsabellaOliverfields

Observations when watching "The Wish" by aeryn1227

Im watching "the body" right now by Mitogi

Worst episode of Buffy by SinistralLeanings

I would like to atone for my previous dislike of season 3. It’s the best season. by MusntForgetThisName

POLL: Which of these "Love Interests" was your favorite thematically? by hhjmk9

A study in humanity... [soul lore thoughts on Angel, Spike, and Harmony] by reference404

Why didn't they just drug Angel to get Angelus out in S4 E10? [ATS] by Foreveralonewithrage

The "Shanshu" prophecy by henzINNIT

What's a rogue Demon? by Exiled-Devotion

If you could change 1 thing in the show, what would it be? by henzINNIT

POLL: Who did you enjoy watching Buffy slay after initially struggling? by Opening_Knowledge868

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

EVENT: Buffy Bash: A Night to Slay Demons and Celebrate the Chosen One [June 10th in CA, USA] via Reddit

Submit Questions: "Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the #Buffy finale, 'Chosen', we're going to be speaking to... James Marsters! Reply with your questions... by RadioTimes via dontkillspike

Video Interview: Talking "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and LOTS More with James Marsters by 90s To Now

Publication: Ted Lasso's Rupert and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Giles Are the Same Person [head canon] by Brianna Wellen via PRIMETIMER

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

[spookysweet-heart]

Born For This

Request: No

Fandom: Battle Egos

Parings: Holloway Sisters x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Death of Character, Mention of Death

A/N: This is gonna be a bit of a Julie and The Phantoms AU, with the Holloway Sisters and Battle Boys! I hope you like it! The songs featured throughout the series are by their respective bands and artists. I’ll link each song that’s featured so you all can listen along. Each song I chose has significance to the story, so I hope you pay attention to them! The collage was made by me! Edited by @semiproeagle23​!

       The year is 2001, and a group of sisters are getting ready for their first big show!

Hearing the crowd roar in excitement, Marie grins, looking at her sisters. “Alright, this is it, girls. Our dream is coming true. Ready?”

Raven adjusts the strap on her bass, nodding. Natalie nods, drumsticks in her hand. Anne tosses Marie her guitar pick. “We’re ready as we’ll ever be!”

The sisters take one last look around backstage, taking a deep breath in and out, they run out, getting in their positions. 

Marie grabs the mic as the lights come up on stage, her smile never fading when she hears the crowd cheer. “LA! How are you guys doing tonight?!”

All the girls wave at the crowd, feeling the adrenaline run through their bodies hearing them cheer out.

“Marie, let’s get this show started, shall we?” Raven nods towards Marie.

“Alright, LA! We’re The Hex Girls! I wanna see you all jump up and rock out! This song’s called Born For This!”

As Natalie starts the drums, the girls soon follow her lead.

Marie gets closer to the mic starting to sing with the others singing back up. “Oh no, I just keep on falling (Back to the same old) And where's hope, when misery comes crawling? (Oh my way, eh) With your fate, you'll trigger a landslide (Victory) and kill off this common sense of mine”

Raven takes the lead next. She grins, looking out at everyone. “And it takes acquired minds. To taste, to taste, to taste this wine. You can't down it with your eyes. So we don't need the headlines. We don't need the headlines, we just want (We want the airwaves back, we want the airwaves back)”

Raven nods over at Marie as they both get ready to sing the chorus together. “Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure now? Everybody live like it's the last day you will ever see. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure now?”

Raven leads as the crowd cheers. “Right now, you're the only reason (I'm not letting go, oh). And time out, if everyone's worth pleasing (Well ha). You'll trigger a landslide (Victory). To kill off the finite state of mind. And it takes acquired minds. To taste, to taste, to taste this wine. You can't down it with your eyes. So we don't meet the headlines. No, we don't want your headlines, we just want (We want the airwaves back, we want the airwaves back)”

As the chorus comes back, Marie joins in, letting the crowd’s energy come through with every word. “Everybody sing, like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure now? Everybody live like it's the last day you will ever see. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure now? Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me do you feel the pressure?”

The girls continue to play as Marie and Raven catch their breaths. Marie grabs her mic, making her way towards the edge of the stage, looking out in the crowd. She smiles at them as she raises her mic back to her lips. “Alright, so you think you're ready? OK, then you say this with me, go: We were born for this!” She points her mic out to the crowd as they chant back. (We were born for this) 

“C’mon, LA! Louder! Alright, so you think you're ready? OK, then you say this with me, go: We were born for this!” She grins as she hears them chant louder and makes her way back to her spot. “We were born for, we were born for!”

Raven and Marie both smile at each other as they take chorus one more time. “Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me can you feel the pressure? Everybody live like it's the last day you will ever see. Tell me, tell me can you feel the pressure now? Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing. Tell me, tell me can you feel the pressure? Tell me, tell me can you feel the pressure?”

Raven takes the lead as the song comes to an end. “We were born for this!” Marie raises her mic towards the crowd, signaling them to chant back. (We were born for this) “We were born for this!”

As the stage fades to black, Marie pants, catching her breath. “That was great, everyone!” The stage lights come back on as the girls walk off the stage onto the empty crowd area.

“Soundcheck is going well so far!” Anne smiles, hugging Raven and Marie while trying to reach over at Natalie who scoots in to be a part of the hug. “We’re gonna be great tonight!”

Natalie pats her sister’s hand, pulling away. “Guys I’m getting kinda hungry..”

“I’ll go get us some burgers, there’s a McDonalds close by.” Marie walks over to her bag, pulling out her wallet.

“Wait, I’m going too! You always mix up our orders!” Anne pouts at Marie, who only laughs at the younger sibling.

“I don’t mess it up, they probably do since it’s a lot to handle.”

Raven grabs her bag from the pile and turns her attention to them. “I’m going too, I kinda have to use the restroom and the ones here are, uh, pretty gross.”

“Wait, guys! No fair, now I wanna go!” Natalie jumps up from her seat by the crew.

“I’d rather you stay here Nat, it’s kinda late out, and downtowns pretty sketchy.” Anne looks at her, concerned.

“Marie, c’mon…that isn’t fair.” She pouts at her hoping Marie would allow her to go.

“It’s not, but I agree with Anne. You’re staying here.”

Natalie rolls her eyes and sits down again. “Fine...can I get a sundae though?”

“Sure thing. We’ll be back, okay?” Marie ruffles Natalie’s hair before catching up with the others. “Love you, Nat!”

“Love you too!” 

Raven struggles a bit to carry the drinks and ice cream as the three of them walk out of the McDonalds. “You guys think tonight’s gonna go great?”

“Raven, don’t tell me you’re getting nervous?” Marie asks while she hands Anne one of the bags of food.

“A little, honestly.”

“Girls, seriously. We’re gonna be amazing up there! We booked at The Roxy Theatre!! This is going to be life-changing!” Anne pokes Raven’s cheek with her free hand, both of them starting to cross the street.

Marie is a little behind, but she notices they're crossing on a red light. Glancing to her left, she sees a truck coming towards them with no signs of stopping. In a panic, Marie drops the bag of food running towards her sisters. “Raven!!!! Anne!!!! Get out of the way!!”

The two girls are too late when they turn around to see what was coming as Marie hugged them both, all three of them blinded by the bright white lights.

~

The year is 2021 and you just moved into your childhood home. Turning twenty-five was a huge deal for you. You were still in college, and you were helping out at The Roxy Theatre, cleaning the place up after performances. 

The reason for moving back home? Your mom decided to move out of state and pretty much just gave you the house since it was paid off already. What about your dad? Well, that’s something you don’t talk about.

Moving in was pretty easy, unpacking was the hardest. You got a decent amount done, and honestly, you were feeling proud of how things were coming along.

Later in the evening, you were taking out the trash when you saw the gate to the backyard open. You always found it odd that your dad never let you into the space in the back. From what your mom told you, it was your dad’s music space, or studio, as he called it. The space was like a mini house from the outside. As you walked into the back yard, a chill ran down your spine the closer you got to the door.

You looked back at your house when the wind picked up, causing you to look at the window, feeling like you were being watched. Letting out a shaky breath, you gathered yourself, opening the door to the studio.

Hesitantly walking in, you searched the wall for a light switch. After a few moments, you felt some sort of switch. Turning it on, the room was filled with light. 

Looking around, you saw things covered in sheets in the corner of the room. A small sitting area with a small coffee table, a writing station, your dad’s old instruments hung on the wall. They looked cleaner than you thought. Your mom must have been cleaning them for him. 

Turning your attention to the sheets across the room, you were careful when pulling off the first one. As the dust subsided, you looked down, seeing a dusty red and white bass. Tossing the sheet aside, you moved to the next one. A yellow, almost gold colored keyboard was underneath that one. Underneath the last two were a purple and black guitar and a blue and white drum set. 

Looking at the logo on the drum set, you whispered it to yourself. “The Hex Girls….” You looked a bit confused staring at it. “Like that Scooby-Doo movie?” Looking around, you saw a bag by the drums. Picking it up, you brought it over to the coffee table to open it. Looking inside it, the first thing you saw was a CD with the same logo that was on the drums.

Taking it out of the bag, you walked over to the stereo by the writing station. Making sure it still worked, you dusted it off before putting the CD in. Seeing it read the disk, you turned up the volume. The first song playing seemed to be a song called “Born For This”.  

Just as the song began, you felt the ground shake, causing you to fall and see a bright light in front of you. 

As the light disappeared, you opened your eyes, greeted with the sight of three unknown women huddled together. Not knowing what else to do, you simply scream, making the three of them look at you.

“Wait… why are we back home…” The woman in the yellow dress asked.

“What’s going on?!” The woman in a red buttoned-down flannel looked around in a panic.

“Who are you and how’d you get in here?! This is our studio.” The woman in a purple and black ripped shirt looked at you like you were the one who showed up out of nowhere.

Carefully standing up, you looked at them just as confused. “M-My name’s (Y/n)...What do you mean by your studio?! This is my house, this place here is my dad’s studio….”

“No this is our-” The woman in red cut herself off as she looked around. “It looks different….But! Wait! Look, our carvings are here! This is our studio! We carved our initials here when we were kids….”

“This is way too weird. You know what, I’m calling the police. You guys trespassing.” 

Pulling out your phone, you were startled when one of them asked, “What’s that? Is that just a screen?”

“It’s a phone…? Do you not know what a phone is?”

“We know what a phone is, that doesn’t look like any phone we have…”

“What kind of phone do you have?”

“Marie, don’t you have yours?”

“No, I dropped it the other week, remember..anyway, it was the newest Nokia phone.”

“Nokia...like the one that just had snake as a game on it?”

The girl you now knew as Marie lit up. “Yes! That one!”

“Uh-huh…hold on a sec.” Typing away on google, you searched up the phone and saw it was first released in 2001. “I remember that phone, it was my first one when I got into middle school a couple of years after it was first released…”

“First released? It just came out though?”

“Yeah, in 2001.” Looking down at your phone, you searched for the name of the band. The first thing that popped up were articles of three sisters dying by a speeding truck driver. Tapping on the first article, you saw the girls in the photo were the same ones standing in front of you. 

The woman in yellow looked at you a bit worried. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Because I have. You three died in 2001. It’s 2021 now, You’ve been dead for over 20 years….”

“Wait, there was that bright light….”

“Then we were in this dark place for what felt like an hour..”

“Apparently, it wasn’t an hour if we’re here and it’s 20 years later.”

The three of them looked at you for a moment before the one in purple reached out her hand. “I’m Marie, these are my sisters.” Nodding to the girl in red, she smiled. “That’s Raven, and,” Glancing back at the girl in yellow, you looked over as she gives you a warm smile. “That’s Anne.”

Hesitantly, you reached out to shake Marie’s hand, only for your hand to phase through hers. Immediately retracting your hand, you looked a little freaked out. 

“I guess we can’t do that anymore…”

“We’re dead, Marie...ghosts.” Raven looked over at you, feeling bad about how scared you looked. “I’m sorry this is weird, but we’re just as confused as you.”

You nodded and walked past them to the front door. “I...I think I’m going to bed. This is just...a lot. I’m sorry.”

Out of instinct, Anne reached out, almost touching your shoulder for comfort, but quickly took her hand back, remembering she can’t touch you. “Um, we’ll be here… I guess. Ya know, if you need us..”

You only nodded as you closed the door behind you, and headed back into the house.

Raven looked over at the coffee table, seeing the bag you left. “Hey…” She peeks inside, seeing it was all their things. “Guys, it’s our clothes!” 

They huddled around the bag, each taking out a different outfit. 

“Ugh, it feels so good getting out of these clothes!”

“It should be, we’ve been in them for 20 years.”

Marie looked around the room and almost immediately spotted her guitar. “Oh my god, how’d our instruments get back home?” Picking up her guitar, she grinned at Raven and Anne. “I can pick it up!!”

Raven and Anne excitedly went over and picked up the bass and ran their fingers across the keyboard.

They giggled at each other as each sister tried out their instrument. It was silent for a moment as they took in the familiar sounds.

“Marie...You’re crying…” Raven put down her bass back on the stand. Tears started to fall when she brought Marie in for a hug.

Anne saw this and immediately went over, hugging them both as she also started to cry.

~

The next morning, you were in your living room, sitting on the floor, looking over some lyrics you wrote for a song called “Figure Me Out.” There was something you thought was missing till it popped into your head. 

Quickly getting your pencil, you wrote down the last of the lyrics. Smiling to yourself, you set your keyboard on your lap. Beginning to play, you didn't notice the three women standing at the doorway, watching.

Taking a deep breath in, you started singing. “I'm a bit too pop for the punk kids, but I'm too punk for the pop kids. I don't know just where I fit in. Cause when I open my mouth I know nobody's listening. To the words of a prophet. Ha, who still can't turn a profit. Cause I don't fit in with the in-crowd. But I'm too Hollywood to go back to my hometown.” Glancing at the notebook you continue to sing letting your fingers flow over the keys with ease. 

“Cause they think that I'm famous. When I know I'm a fraud. Who got too fucked up on the finer things. To remember who she forgot. But I believe there's more to life than all my problems. Maybe there's still hope for me to start again. Get my feet back on the ground and pull my head out of the clouds. I think it's time for me to figure me out.” Pressing a button on the soundboard next to you, you smile hearing the drums, bass, and guitar follow along.

“Let's get back to the basics. And take it back to the basement. Where I heard "Born to Run" for the first time. And I stared at my dad in amazement. He said, "Don't stop chasing great and keep pounding the pavement." So I'd much rather die trying to make something sacred than live as another YouTube sensation. Cause I hate that they're famous, for being something they're not. While I'm too hung up on the things I don't have to appreciate what I got.”

Closing your eyes, you felt yourself getting lost in the song. “But I believe there's more to life than all my problems. Maybe there's still hope for me to start again. Get my feet back on the ground and pull my head out of the clouds. I think it's time for me to figure me out whoo. Time for me to figure me out. Time for me to figure me out.”

Giving it your all for the last part of the song, you couldn't help but cry a bit. “So if you hear this song. Turn it up real loud, Cause it's time for me to figure me out. Alright, if you hear this song, turn it up real loud. Cause it's time for me to figure me out.”

As you start to slow back down, you let the tears fall down your cheeks. “I believe there's more to life than all my problems. I just want to fall in love before I'm dead. So I can make my parents proud. Hope my feet don't fail me now, cause it's time for me to figure me out.”

Turning off the soundboard when you finished, you slide the keyboard off your lap. Hugging your knees to your chest, you rested your chin on your knees and close your eyes, welcoming the silence that surrounded you.

Raven and Anne were about to reach over and make their presence known, but Marie grabbed them by the back of their shirts, disappearing and leaving a purple mist behind.

Reappearing in the studio, Anne and Raven glared at Marie. 

“What the fuck! She was crying!” Raven huffed as she sat down on the couch.

“Why’d you make us leave, we could’ve helped!” Anne crossed her arms over her chest, still glaring at Marie.

“I don’t think that would’ve been a good idea if we did. She’s upset and having ghosts who just appeared in her life isn’t the comfort she needs at the moment.” She looked at both of them, seeing their expressions soften.

“I just thought we could help…” Anne looked down at her shoes for a moment.

“But I do have an idea.” Marie smiled, walking around the coffee table so she could sit next to Raven. “What if we ask her to join our band?”

“Our ghost band? Marie, if you haven’t noticed, no one can hear or see us but that girl!” Raven leaned back against the couch.

“Exactly, what if we play her a song? She can hear us, so maybe she’d wanna join.”

“Okay,” Anne took a seat on one of the empty chairs. “What if we did do that and let’s say she says yes. Then what?”

“We make music again! She’s alive, she has our studio, what if this our second chance at making it? A second chance to start all over?"

Raven and Anne looked at each other before turning back to Marie. “Alright, what song?”

Marie grinned, opening her notebook to a page that was colored in pink and black marker around the lyrics. “I was thinking about this one. Candy Coated Lies.”

[maria-scribbles]

glitter + crimson (let’s start a riot)//part five

summary: in the aftermath of hurricane agatha, the pogues are thrown into a mess none of them are ready to deal with. things that don’t exactly top sailor’s ‘fun things to do this summer’ list: surfing in the middle of a hurricane, getting punched in the face by a stupid kook, and stumbling upon a mystery that turns her and her friends into the damn scooby gang. when she said she wanted an exciting summer, she should’ve been more specific. 🙃

word count: 8.1k+ (it just keeps getting longer and longer 😅)

ship: jj maybank x oc (sailor flynn)

warnings n stuff: mentions of abuse/neglect/gambling addiction, child abandonment, anxiety, self-worth issues, jj being both soft af and hot for his best friend, weed usage, underage drinking, unresolved sexual tension, sailor being thirsty, swearing, guns, fighting, blood, that one trope where two characters only call each other by their nicknames/last names until they don’t because of ~reasons~ that makes me lose my shit every time (like a lot of the obx fandom, i also headcanon that jj stands for jesse james), references to the three stooges (jj=moe, pope=larry, and john b=curly and that’s a fact lmao), to all the boys i've loved before, avengers infinity war, and david attenborough, and a line heavily inspired/influenced by taylor swift's "dress" (a song that happens to be on the playlist for this series)

a/n: we’re finally entering canon territory, y’all (with a few tweaks, of course!) but i’m determined not to make this a rehash/retelling word for word of the show ‘cause that’s just no fun, so expect smaller pieces (vignettes, i guess?) of storytelling as i expand on canon with sailor and the rest of the pogues. think of it like a mixtape of sorts, but with words instead of music if that makes sense lol. this part originally covered episodes one and two but i wrote so much that i had to split it, so we're just covering most of episode one for now (i still can't even believe how much shit actually goes down in the pilot lol). i was veryyyy excited to write the kegger at the boneyard 'cause some ~juicy~ stuff happens there lol. fun fact: the title of this part is a term used by surfers to refer to getting up at the ass crack of dawn to hit the waves. as always, this is unbetaed so any mistakes are mine. enjoy! 

gif credit to @jj-maybnks​ 

~Masterlist~

part five: dawn patrol 

The next morning, Hurricane Agatha hits the island with all the force of a knockout punch; the sound of rain pounding against the roof echoes impossibly loud throughout the Chateau but Sailor’s bewildered shriek is even louder.

“You’re gonna what the what?!”

John B shrugs as the stunned redhead, lounging on the couch, looks away from watching the storm and fixes him with a wide-eyed stare.

“I’m gonna surf the surge.”

“Hell yeah, bro!” JJ yells from his spot as her footrest, punching his fist in the air and she sends him an exasperated look, both at his enthusiastic encouragement of John B’s downright moronic idea and the fact that she already misses the feeling of his thumb drawing circles on her bare ankle.

“Are you two insane?”

“Possibly.” John B states, grinning when JJ follows that up with, “Absolutely.” The blond boy pushes Sailor’s legs off his lap as he stands which earns him another displeased scowl from the redhead. “Come on, Sail. Live a little.”

“Oh, I’ll live alright, but you idiots won’t,” She takes his offered hand, letting him pull her to her feet and then down the hall after John B as she continues, “because this is the dumbest idea you’ve ever had.”

“See, this is why we keep you around,” He replies, laughing when she dodges his attempt to ruffle her hair and dashes forward to beat him to the spare room. “We do something stupid, you and Kie read us the riot act. It’s tradition.”

Sailor grabs her long-sleeved rash vest -if she’s going to sit on the beach to keep an eye on these fools in the middle of a damn hurricane, at least she’ll wear something that offers a little bit of warmth- and heads to the bathroom to change. “Yeah, and then I’m there to patch you up when you inevitably hurt yourselves.”

“Can’t help that you have that healing touch.” His cheeky response floats through the closed door and she catches herself smiling -wide and just a little bit sappy- in the mirror.

After a quick detour to pick up Pope, who’s already drenched from sneaking out his window, the pogues (sans Kiara who never answered John B’s text in the group chat and, knowing her parents, was probably on hurricane lockdown) head to the beach, where the rugged gray surf hammers against the shore with unrelenting brutality. Sailor trails behind the others as they grab their boards and make a break for the water, blatantly ignoring the barriers that read ‘beach closed’ in large, impossible to miss letters. A few hundred feet down the coast, she can barely make out The Sandbar all boarded up for the storm and she thinks of her mother, wondering if she's riding it out inside or at home; either way Carmen's all alone and Sailor's stomach twists with guilt, both for letting her phone battery die so she didn't have to answer her calls and for leaving in the first place, even though it was the right thing to do for her damn sanity.

“These signs are here for a reason, guys!” She calls over the howling wind, squinting through the rain at the rough waves with her hands tapping uneasily against her thighs. Watching John B run into the ocean with reckless abandon (Pope following with a little more caution, thankfully) immediately puts her anxiety on edge so she sits down heavily on the wet sand, wrapping her arms around the knees pulled to her chest and looks up at the blond boy who stayed behind. “Aren’t you gonna join the other stooges?”

JJ shrugs at her question, glancing out toward their friends before dropping his board to the ground and taking a seat behind the trembling girl, his chest to her back. “This one can’t just leave you hanging out here all alone, lookin’ all sad and shit. It’s kind of pathetic.”

“Wow, you really know how to make a girl feel special, J.” She smirks and scoots back in the sand, lips curling into a full-fledged smile when he lifts his arms to drape them over her shoulders. As he tucks her securely against his front, the warmth of his body helps ward off the biting chill of the rain, and so does the fact that he knows her so well, that he knows this is exactly what she needs to help calm the panicking butterflies in her stomach.

He leans close, lips brushing against the shell of her ear when he whispers his next words like a secret, low and just for her even when there’s no one around to hear them. “Trust me, Sail, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

She suddenly finds those butterflies in her stomach fluttering for a whole different reason.

-

The Chateau sits in complete darkness, the power having been knocked out since they returned from dropping Pope off at his house that afternoon. Sailor thinks it’s about ten at night as she lies on her back on the mattress of the sleeper sofa, listening to the wind rip through the trees outside with Binx curled up at her feet. The spare room was way too hot without a working fan, even after she braided her hair off to the side and changed into a crop top and shorts, so she and JJ had returned to the living room where it was cooler, if only by a little bit.

John B has already retreated to his room for the night; he’d been acting quieter than usual since their little adventure at the beach but between a lantern-lit dinner of semi-stale cereal and passing a joint around, she never got the chance to ask if he was okay before he made his escape. JJ lies beside her with his limbs all askew and from the slow rise and fall of his bare chest she’s 99% sure he’s out like a light until, out of the blue, he mutters into the stagnant air, “Can’t keep your eyes off me, huh?”

She blinks heavily -that weed must’ve hit her harder than she thought because she hadn’t even realized she’d been staring- when he lazily turns his head to stare back, a halcyon grin on his face and in the dark, his pupils are blown so wide she can barely see the blue of his irises. Her hand itches with a longing to sweep that one stubborn strand of hair away from his forehead but instead she blindly slides it to the left until she finds his and holds on tight; his fingers automatically lace with hers even as the space between his eyebrows furrows and the smile falls from his lips.

“Sail?”

“I don’t think my dad’s ever coming back.” The redhead’s mouth blurts before her brain can catch up, heavy words lingering like a storm cloud ready to downpour. The thought had been weighing on her heart for a while now, from when she’d first suspected it two months ago, and it feels bittersweet to finally admit it out loud, even when she hadn’t planned doing it.

Her bedmate is silent for a long time as he looks at her through the shadows and she focuses on the touch of his palm against hers instead of the awful mounting pressure behind her eyes -hadn’t she promised herself she was done crying over her dad?- until he asks quietly, “Why? I mean, good riddance 'cause he's kind of the worst, but why?"

“A feeling,” She murmurs around the sudden lump in her throat, biting the inside of her lip hard enough that she tastes the metallic tang of blood on her tongue. “He...he usually comes back after a month or two but this time it’s been almost five.” A bitter laugh escapes from her chest and she shakes her head. “I guess he finally decided he’s done dealing with my worthless ass.”

JJ’s eyes flash like lightning as he rolls over to face her, the hand not entwined with hers reaching up to cup her cheek. “Sail, shut up. Don’t you dare say that.”

“Why shouldn’t I? It’s true,” She says sharply, words acerbic and biting and full of a self-hatred that’s been poisoning her heart ever since she was old enough -eight and far, far too young- to discern the way her dad’s love for her was fickle at best, non-existent at worst. “I could’ve been a better daughter- a perfect daughter- and he might still be here and my mom wouldn't hate me. I should’ve tried harder-”

“Jesus Christ, Sailor!” He interrupts, calloused yet gentle thumb wiping away the tears she just now registers sliding down her cheeks and the shock of hearing her full name come from his mouth makes the rest of her vitriolic thoughts fly out the window. “Do you even hear yourself right now?”

The image of him blurs through the darkness in shades of black and she closes her eyes, jaw clenched in an attempt to quell the tremble of her lip as he goes on in his low, soft voice, “You should’ve tried harder to do what, huh? What could you have possibly done better?”

She’s quiet for a long time, so long that her tears run dry and all that remains is smeared salt on her skin because she doesn’t have an answer. What could she have done? That terrible thought in her mind rears it’s ugly head again, the one that tells her she’s not good enough, that everything’s her fault because she doesn’t do enough, but when she asks it what more she can do, there’s no reply. There never is.

“Hey, look at me.” She hears the rustling of sheets and feels his fingers slip from hers before they come to rest on her cheek, both hands now cradling her face; she opens her eyes to find him hovering over her and the sheer lack of distance between them makes her heart skip a beat. “You...”

“What about me?” Her voice cracks as she speaks and in a mirror of her from earlier, JJ shakes his head, causing that stubborn strand of hair to once again fall into his eyes.

“I wish you’d see yourself the way I do.”

Her breath catches in her throat. “And how do you see me?”

“Fucking amazing.” He says simply and in the dark, she can barely see the flush slowly starting to creep up his neck. “Smart, brave, and loyal as hell. A beautiful badass who doesn’t take shit from anybody. A girl who listens when someone needs to be heard.”

The redhead stares up at him with wide green eyes as he goes on and on, listing all these wonderful little things that her traitorous mind has a hard time processing, let alone believing; he really thinks about her like this? “You care so damn much,” “You’re kind but not afraid speak out,” “You’re the one I trust the most.”

Her hand slowly releases its tight grip on the sheets and slides up his bare arm, feeling the heat of his skin under her palm as she touches his face, not trusting herself to speak because she’s so afraid of saying something dumb or stupid and ruining everything ('like I always do,' her mind echoes).

“You’re my best friend, Sailor, and yeah, you’re not perfect. You drink and you smoke weed and you don’t get straight As in school but fuck, you’re real and so not worthless.” He says each word with such conviction that its impossible not to believe him, as much as her brain screams at her not to. “And I want you to know that what your parents think of you doesn't matter at all, got it?"

Without warning, she flings her arms around his neck and JJ loses his balance, falling onto her with a soft oof of surprise but Sailor doesn’t even feel the extra weight as she rests her face against his shoulder and finally finds her voice. “Thank you.”

He takes her with him when he rolls onto his side, arms wrapped tight around her waist and nose buried in her messy braid. “Just...trying to do the right thing, I guess. For once.”

She pulls back at his words, then leans forward and slowly presses her lips to his flushed cheek, just missing the corner of his mouth. She lets them linger for a beat longer than necessary before leaning back -not too far, just enough- and looking him in the eye. “Thank you, Jesse.”

He usually hates being called by his first name (she found that out pretty quickly into their friendship, “never call me Jesse” being one of the first things he ever said to her) but he just looks at her with a soft, endearing smile on his face as he leans back onto the bed, once again bringing her with him. “Promise me something, Sail?”

She glances up at him from his shoulder and meets his eyes. “Yeah?”

His fingers tuck an escaped red curl behind her ear. “Just...be you. Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks.”

She wishes it were that easy, that she could just step inside her mind and flip a switch and she could stop all those thoughts that’ve plagued her for years but it’s not. It’s gonna take time -time and a lot of patience and maybe even a miracle- but damn it, she’s gonna give it her all, not just for herself but for him and the rest of the pogues, too, the best friends she's ever had, so she nods and settles back down at his side. “I’ll try my best, J.”

“I know you will.”

-

"Sail, you're the best swimmer out of all of us. Think you can dive down there and check it out?"

The redhead peers over the edge of the HMS Pogue and into the water, where the murky shape of the sunken Grady-White sits thirty feet down on the bottom of the marsh, then nods at the rest of the pogues, an excited grin on her face.

"No problem," She answers John B, hopping up onto the very tip of the boat's bow with practiced ease before diving headfirst into the water to JJ's yell of "diver down!" It's dirtier than usual because of the hurricane but she doesn't let that stop her as she swims down and down until she reaches the top of the boat and pulls herself the rest of the way onto the deck, carefully scanning the area for...fuck. Honestly, she's got absolutely no clue what she's looking for but she assumes she'll know when she sees it.

'It' turns out to be a motel key, resting all alone on the floor by the steering wheel and she quickly reaches out to snatch it, sliding the silver key ring around her finger securely. When she pushes off toward the surface, she leaves the ghostly Grady-White behind with more questions than answers. 

The rest of her friends are lined up in a row along the boat's railing, all staring at her with near identical expressions of anticipation as she breaks through the water and holds the key aloft with a triumphant smile.

"The Summer Winds Motel called, they want their key back!"

-

A little later that evening, Sailor would really regret finding that damn key but right now, she's having a great time dancing at the Boneyard with Kiara at the traditional post-hurricane kegger, second refill of beer in hand, spiked with Fireball from the flask tucked in her back pocket. To her, dancing's a lot like surfing -steady feet, swiveling hips, snapping shoulders- and she thinks that might be the reason she's so bad at it, anticipating the fluidity of water instead of the solidness of dry land. Or it could be that she just doesn't have rhythm when she's a little buzzed. That works, too.

"Ow, Sail!" Kiara winces as the redhead steps on her foot again, rolling her eyes fondly when she throws her head back with a loud, tipsy giggle.

"My bad, Kie!" She twirls in the sand, hair dancing around her shoulders like fire, and finds herself spinning right into a herd of dancing tourons, all too drunk to care that she's spilling her beer all over their feet. Large, olive-skinned hands grab her waist to spin her again and she laughs, smiling over her shoulder at a cute dark-haired touron as he slides one palm over to settle against the bare skin of her lower back. She pushes one hand on his shoulder with just enough resistance that he doesn't get too close into her personal space as he leans in to speak in a low Southern drawl, brown eyes turned a pretty bronze in the glow of the nearby bonfire.

"This probably isn't the best thing to say to a beautiful girl but you kind of dance like a giraffe."

Sailor bursts out laughing at that. "Hey, I think giraffes are very elegant creatures so I'll take that as a compliment!" 

The boy grins and she smiles, too, letting him take her free hand and pull her into the throng of dancing bodies. He's almost as bad a dancer as she is but he's fun to talk to and together they gleefully show off their worst moves until their feet hurt -she's lost count of how many times she stepped on his toes- and her solo cup is empty. "Come on," She says and this time, she's the one to grab his hand and lead him over to the closest keg, where John B's dishing out beer with an expert flourish.

"'Sup, Sail," He lifts his chin in greeting as he fills her cup, smirking when she immediately pulls out her flask and adds a long pour of Fireball on top. "Who's your friend?"

"JB, this is Adam, he's visiting from Tennessee. Adam, meet John B, one of my best friends and a total moron," She makes quick introductions, smiling into her drink as he scowls and playfully sprays some beer at her feet before filling another cup and holding it out to the other boy with a jab at her expense.

"Be careful around her, man. She's a handful." 

The touron accepts the drink with a shrug and a quick wink in her direction. "Good thing I happen to like 'em a little crazy."

Ugh. More than a little miffed at that, she rolls her eyes and takes a long sip of beer to hide her annoyance when Adam laughs and slings his arm around her shoulders. Calling her a giraffe was actually kind of cute in a very weird, endearing way but he instantly lost whatever points he had with her the second that 'c' word came out of his pretty mouth. She glances around the Boneyard while the boys start talking about surfing (she scoffs to herself, what does a farm kid from Tennessee know about that?), scanning the crowd for the rest of her friends and a chance to ditch him. Kiara's sitting on a big piece of driftwood, chatting up a stunning, deeply tan girl with glossy black hair -she waves when their eyes meet and shoots Sailor a cheeky grin before returning to her conversation- while the ever awkward Pope seems to be stuck in the middle of one of his rambles about autopsies as he stands around the fire, the willowy blonde beside him looking more and more uncomfortable by the second. She'd deliberately lost track of JJ a while ago, after she watched him getting a little too close to a tiny brunette, his hand low on her back as she passed him a drink and ran her fingers up his bare arm, coaxing that killer smile of his onto his face (that girl may have gotten his smile but Sailor got his eyes and they watched her until she pointedly turned away).

Honestly, she's a bit -okay, a lot- peeved. Here she is, thinking that they're the closest they've ever been before (they've always been close, ever since that day in sixth grade, but this is a whole different kind of close), and just when she feels like she may finally be ready to admit some things, some feelings, he's off doing who knows what with another girl; to be fair, she's off with another guy that she'd, until a minute ago, fully planned on kissing, but that's only because of him! Him and some weird need she has to keep him looking at her, to make him jealous -she shakes her head and takes another swig of her whiskey-spiked beer. Nope, nope, not gonna think about that. 

Poor Pope looks like he's really struggling so Sailor pushes all thoughts of her blond best friend from her mind and goes to rescue him, ducking out from under Adam's sweaty arm and walking away without a backwards glance, ignoring the confusion in his voice as he calls her name. She pushes through the crowd to her friend and steps right in front of the girl he's trying to talk to, grabbing his hand with her free one.

"Come dance with me?"

The smile of pure relief that breaks out over his face makes her own widen as he lets her pull him back through the mass of bodies to a less-crowded part of the make-shift dance floor, the tension bleeding out of his hunched shoulders with every step.

"You're an angel, Sailor." 

She laughs and wraps her arm around his shoulders, leading him in a carefree twirl across the cool sand. "Tell me something I don't know."

Like a leaf caught up in a whirlwind, he's helpless to resist her infectious joy as they dance, grinning like fools and poking fun at each other; for a while, the redhead tries to forget about stupid, clueless boys and focuses on Pope who, while still a clueless boy, doesn't expect anything from her but pure, unconditional friendship that she's all too willing to give (although she did have a teensy little crush on him when they first became friends, she got over it pretty fast the second he started talking about the bodily functions of dead bodies in explicit detail). She shares her drink with him, giggling at the way his face morphs from curiosity to disgust to delight at the taste of her cinnamon beer concoction and lets him down the rest while she drinks straight from the flask that she pulls from her back pocket. 

"You've got a shadow." Pope says, slightly nodding his chin over her shoulder and she takes his hand again, slowly spinning herself under his arm to take a quick glance, rolling her eyes when she spots Adam staring at her from the edge of the crowd. "You know him?"

"Unfortunately. Thought he was cute, then he called me crazy." She tucks the whiskey away with a shrug at her friend's sympathetic wince, then steps closer to him and raises a conspiratorial eyebrow. "Wanna help me tell him to take a long walk off a short cliff?"

"Uh-"

"I think I can help with that," A familiar voice cuts off Pope's reply as JJ suddenly appears at her side, slipping his hand into her back pocket to spin her right into the circle of his arms before he plucks the flask from the other and takes a big sip in one smooth kinda sexy move. "Straight Fireball? Damn, Sail."

The redhead carefully schools her features into a blank mask but her body has other ideas, one hand instantly settling on his chest like it's second nature and her face flushing from more than just the alcohol as she casually replies, "You know I like things a little spicy." Completely aware of the way he's watching her every move, she snatches the whiskey back and downs the little bit that's left, trying and failing to ignore the thrill that shoots through her at those bright blue eyes of his darkening when her tongue darts out to lick her lips. Pope rolls his eyes at them both before muttering a quick 'see ya' and hastily melting back into the crowd. 

"So, who're we telling to fuck off?" His voice is just a little strained and she feels her cool facade start to crack as she scowls, subtly tilts her head toward where Adam's still staring at her with an expression that looks like he ate a sour lemon. JJ spins her around to take a very conspicuous peek and her mouth curls into a grin, mask breaking completely when he shoots the touron a glare that screams 'try me, I dare you'; the heat from his hand still in her pocket burns as he leans in until his forehead rests on hers. "Let's give him a show."

Sailor hums and pretends to mull it over even as she coyly snakes her arms around his neck and pulls him closer, the harder panes of his body sliding almost sinfully against her softer curves as they sway together, "I don't know, you looked pretty cozy with that other girl earlier..." Is it kind of petty to bring it up? Yes, yes it is, but she can't resist toying with him like he did to her, just as she can't help the breathless gasp that escapes her lips when his fingers press hard into the toned flesh of her ass through her shorts.

"Why, Flynn, are you jealous?"

"Please, I saw that glare you gave him. If anyone's jealous, it's you, Maybank." She fires back while carding both hands through his hair and the pure gratification she feels at his slight shiver is nothing short of euphoric. Out of the corner of her eye, she barely takes notice of the frown Adam sends their way before he turns and stalks off toward the other side of the beach; honestly, she's so caught up in JJ and everything about him -the slow swing of his hips, the hands burning hot against the strip of her back exposed by her crop top, the darkened look in those ocean eyes- that she'd completely forgotten about the touron she danced with earlier in an effort to forget the boy she's dancing with now. She should've known it wouldn't have worked: Sailor could never forget JJ, no matter how hard she tries. He's like a permanent mark on her, a tattoo inked in gold, a beautiful, wonderous scar that she never wants to fade away.  

"Seems like we scared him off so I don't have to worry about that anymore." His flushed face is so close she can feel his breath on her lips as he speaks and her eyes quickly flick down to his mouth on their own accord.

"And what about me?" She asks, twirling her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck, heart beating fast in anticipation as he smirks wickedly at the way her own face turns cherry red.

"Sail, babe, you don't have to worry about a damn thing."

All one of them has to do is tilt their head and everything will fall into place and she can once again know what it's like to kiss him-

"Let it go, Topper!" A sudden, annoyed shout breaks the two apart before they can close that final distance (Sailor's not sure who would've made the first move and she's both relieved and disappointed they won't get to find out), turning away from each other in tandem toward the gathering mass of bodies chanting 'fight, fight!' at the shoreline. 

"JB, he's not worth it!" At the sound of Kiara's voice, they take off running across the sand and shove their way to the front of the crowd just in time to see Topper Thornton in all his frat boy glory get absolutely slammed with a hard punch to the jaw, courtesy of John B. The kook barely hits the ground before he's back on his feet and lunging forward to tackle him into the water, landing a hit of his own square in the eye.

"What the hell happened?" Sailor grabs Kiara's elbow and the dark haired girl looks at her with wide eyes as the boys continue to roll around, exchanging brutal blows while a stunned Pope watches from her other side.

"I don't even know, they just started wailing on each other!"

JJ stands silent to Sailor's right, jaw clenched and hands curled into fists as he stares at the brawl and she reaches over to wrap her fingers around his wrist, thumb calmly running circles on his skin.

"Top, seriously! Stop it!" Sarah Cameron stands in the sand just before the crashing waves, yelling furiously at her boyfriend and throwing her arms in the air when he ignores her. "What is wrong with you?"

The moment Topper lands three punches in a row on John B's battered face, Sailor decides she's seen enough. She rushes forward without thinking to grab the blond boy's arm, pulling as hard as she can in an attempt to get him off her friend and barely has time to register what's happening when the fist he was aiming at John B suddenly swings at her. It connects solidly with her left cheek and makes her stumble back, her hand flying to her throbbing face before she goes down hard onto her butt in the surf. 

"What the fuck, Thornton?"

"Did you just punch a girl?"

"Ohhhh shit!"

A cacophony of voices yells from the shore as the kook boy stares down at her, momentarily stunned when he realizes who exactly he hit, and it gives John B an opening to wrestle him back into the water and land a solid punch right to his nose. Everything happens so fast after that that the redhead, still reeling in a wide-eyed daze, has a little trouble keeping up. First, Kiara and Pope splash through the waves to her side, kneeling down to help her to her feet with their arms around her waist. Second, Topper gains the upper hand and straight up tries to drown John B, holding his head under the water while Sarah screams at him to stop. And third, JJ -reckless, bold, protective JJ- pulls out that damn stolen gun, effectively bringing the whole mess to a grinding halt when he stalks forward and presses the barrel to the side of Topper's head.

"Your move, broski." He threatens and the beach is so quiet everyone can hear the click of the safety being switched off. The kook slowly raises his hands in the air and John B emerges from the water, stumbling forward onto his hands and knees with a horrible wet cough.

It's all too much for Sailor's poor tipsy self to take. The world spins beneath her feet as her head starts to pound and her shaking fingers fail to find purchase on Kiara's and Pope's shoulders.

"Guys, I don't feel so good," She manages to whisper and their looks of concern (the former) and panic (the latter) are the last thing she sees before her legs give out and everything goes black.

-

The first thing she registers is the pain that radiates from the left side of her face, her whole head throbbing with every beat of her heart and the sound of loud whispering right by her ear isn't helping at all. 

"That's the best you can do, J? Seriously?"

"The power's out! I can't exactly pull ice out of my ass, Kie."

Something semi-cold gently rests against her cheek and she audibly sighs at the little bit of relief she feels, her hand sluggishly rising to hold it a little closer as she mumbles, "I wouldn't want your ass ice anyway." At least she tries to: her mouth feels like it's full of cotton and she's pretty sure the only thing that comes out is unintelligible gibberish.

Sailor opens her eyes and finds herself lying on her back on the sleeper sofa at the Chateau, a passed out John B to her right. Pope sits on the edge of the mattress by his side, holding a beer bottle to his friend's black eye and he sends her a relieved smile when he notices she's awake.

"There she is," JJ says from her other side and she turns to face him, not at all surprised to find him already looking at her, and the unabashed concern in his eyes sends a golden warmth through her whole body. Her fingers slip down the hand that's still holding the bottle to her cheek so she can run her thumb over the delicate bones in his wrist in a silent thank you.

A different, softer hand rests on her knee and she tears her gaze away from his face to smile at Kiara as she says, "Good to see you're okay, Sail."

The redhead sinks back into the pillow in embarrassment and covers her eyes with her free hand. God, she really passed out, didn't she? She passed out after taking one lousy punch to the face by a fucking kook, no less. How completely mortifying. She swallows thickly and sounds like a chain smoker when she says, "I'm so sorry, guys. I'm a total idiot."

The other three conscious pogues start protesting all at once -apparently there's many, many, different ways to say she's not an idiot- and the resulting volume of their combined voices is enough to make her headache even worse. She sits up and scoots back until she's propped against the couch and sets the now warm beer on the side table before massaging both of her temples.

"Will you please shut up, I can feel my brain beating in my skull."

For a second, there's wonderful, blissful silence and then:

"Holy shit, thank you," A groggy voice says to her right and she turns to watch a bleary-eyed John B claw his way back to consciousness. "You guys are fucking loud."

"He lives!" JJ shouts, ignoring the four glares sent his way and reaching over to clap his hand against the brunet boy's shoulder. "Welcome back, dude."

"Ugh," He suddenly rolls onto his stomach -Pope deftly catching the bottle when it nearly falls from the bed- and his muffled voice floats out from the pillow he shoves his head under like an ostrich in the sand. "Knock me back out."

"Aww, poor baby." Sailor gives his back a sympathetic pat and chuckles softly when he blindly feels around for her arm, pushing it away with another deep groan and a 'fuck off, Sail' that lacks any type of venom.

"Okay, now that you're both kind of conscious, let's agree that neither of you will ever fucking do that again. Got it?" Kiara addresses John B and Sailor as she stands from the bed and crosses her arms, fixing the latter with a piercing look that makes her feel like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar; she opens her mouth to defend herself but before she can say anything, Kiara turns her furious gaze to JJ and points an accusing finger at his face. "And you! What the hell were you thinking pulling that damn gun out, huh?"

"Jesus Christ, Kie!" He suddenly rockets to his feet and throws his hands in the air. "Sail got socked in the face and JB was getting fucking drowned, I wasn't really thinking much at all!”

The dark haired girl can't seemed to think of a response to that and looks away, staring at the floor with her jaw clenched as Pope, ever the mediator, rises to his feet, too, and rounds the bed to step between them placatingly.

"Let's just drop it for tonight, okay? They need to rest." He says, nodding toward the two still on the bed before wrapping his hand around Kiara's elbow and turning her toward the front door. She immediately pulls her arm from his grasp but still nods in agreement, the hard look in her eyes softening when she glances at her injured friends.

"Yeah, okay." She says and glances down at her watch, wincing when she catches sight of the time. "My parents'll kill me if I'm not home soon, anyway."

"Come on, I'll take you guys home." JJ says with a conciliatory look in her direction as Pope tosses him the Volkswagen's keys from his pocket and when she nods back, a small smile pulling at the corner of her mouth, Sailor knows that all is forgiven, at least for now. 

"Are you sure you're good to drive?" She asks and immediately rolls her eyes at his sarcastic reply of "Yes, Mom," and the obnoxious wink he shoots her.

The trio leaves after a quick round of goodbyes and John B waits until he hears the sound of his van driving away before finally emerging from under the pillow and rolling onto his back.

"Sensing the immediate danger has passed, the ostrich cautiously pulls its head out from the sand..." She says in her best David Attenborough impression, laughing when he tosses the pillow at her head with an amused grin.

"Ha ha. I was trying to avoid getting a Kie lecture," He explains, running both hands down his face with a heavy sigh. "It feels like my head's gonna explode."

"You and me both, dude." She carefully probes at her swollen cheek and is more than a little surprised to feel the beginnings of a scab forming near her eye. She knew Topper landed a solid punch but she didn't realize how solid that hit was until now as she catches sight of the tiny bit of drying blood left behind on her fingertips. 

"That looks like it hurts. You okay?" John B asks and she looks up from wiping her hand clean on her shorts, stiff from dried saltwater, with a wrinkle of her freckled nose.

"I'm alright. How about you? No offense but your eye looks like shit."

"I'll live." He answers with a shrug as he pulls himself upright on the mattress and leans his head against the back of the couch. "Thanks, by the way."

"For what?" 

He sluggishly turns his head to look Sailor in the eye and shrugs again. "For trying to help me out. Sorry I got you punched."

She smirks and reaches over to give his hand a brief, friendly squeeze as she replies, "It's not your fault I got myself punched. I'm sorry your ass almost drowned."

He snorts at that and she's relieved to hear it, knowing that he can still joke around and he's not, like, completely traumatized or something. Poor guy's already got enough to deal with without adding a mental breakdown to the list. She swings her legs over the edge of the mattress and slowly stands before taking a tentative step forward; when her knees hold and she doesn't fall flat on her face, she makes her way to his side and holds both hands out to him with a small, lighthearted smile.

"Yeah, you're delirious. Near death experiences do that to you." She says, helping him to his feet and, after looping his arm over her shoulders and sliding hers around his waist, the two teenagers carefully shuffle down the hall in the dim light of the emergency lantern on the kitchen table to his room, where she unceremoniously dumps him onto his bed. "Sleep it off. And for the love of God, please change. You smell terrible."

She goes to leave as he laughs again, tugging his shirt off and tossing it into the growing pile of clothes near the closet before saying, "Hey, Sailor?"

The redhead pauses with one foot in the hall and leans against the doorframe. "Yeah?"

"You know you're a badass, right?"

She laughs and sends him a wink but her heart is oh so light as she turns and heads to the spare room, calling back over her shoulder, "Nice to see someone acknowledge it. Now go to bed!"

-

The sound of the Chateau's front door opening and closing startles Sailor awake and she blinks heavily, wondering when exactly she'd fallen asleep. Last thing she remembers she was staring out at the fireflies through the open window as she steadily ran her hand down the length of Binx's back and their ethereal glow, combined with the breeze dancing around her shoulders, must've pulled her right under. Down the hall, she hears a loud thump, followed by JJ cursing as he runs into something and she giggles to herself, rolling onto her side to face the hall. He appears in the darkened doorway a minute later, rubbing his knee with a scowl on his face and she laughs louder at his quiet, venomous hiss of "fuck that fucking chair."

"Rude. It's not the chair's fault you always run into it." She teases and he shoots her a flat, unamused look before turning to glance down the hall toward John B's room, his fingers holding tight to the door frame.

"He's okay, you know. Told him to get some sleep." His head swings to face her when she speaks with soft words and even in the dark, she can see the way his tense shoulders slowly relax and his hand loosens, falling back to his side as he nods, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him.

"And you?" He asks, his eyes never wavering from hers as he kicks his boots off and pulls his shirt over his head; the sight of his messy hair and the muscles in his arms make it a little hard for Sailor to breathe, the gentle wind she once thought of as cool now doing nothing to help calm her flushed skin when she scoots over in bed to give him room to lie down next to her. Binx looks as disgruntled as a cat can look as he loses his comfy spot and jumps down from the bed, only to immediately leap onto the windowsill and stretch out.

"What about me?"

JJ rolls over to face her, reaching one hand up to cup her injured face and runs his calloused thumb under the cut on her cheekbone. "Are you okay?"

Nodding, she shifts closer and lays her head on his outstretched arm, covering his hand with her own and effortlessly fitting her fingers into the spaces between his. "I'm fine. Even better, now."

He leans forward to rest his forehead against hers. "Good, 'cause I don't know what I'd do if you weren't."

When those pesky butterflies come raging back with a vengeance, she realizes she's fighting a battle she hopes to lose.

-

The sound of a conversation in the kitchen, low voices drifting through the closed door of the guest room wakes Sailor early the next morning. Sunlight filters in through the windows and she squeezes one eye shut against the painful brightness, the other still squished into JJ's shoulder. His arm is a welcome weight slung over her hip and his deep, even breaths are soft against her forehead as he sleeps on, dead to the voices down the hall. With the corner of her mouth turned up in a small smile, she smooths his fine blond hair away from his face and runs her fingers along his jawline before carefully sliding out from under his arm and quietly heading toward the kitchen.

Pulling her hair into a messy ponytail, she rounds the corner and stops short when she catches sight of the person standing by the table, her cheerful 'good morning' getting stuck on her tongue; she was expecting Pope and Kiara, not the goddamn sheriff! Shooting John B a wide-eyed look that makes him shake his head (what the fuck did that even mean?!), the redhead forces a smile and hastily offers her a wave.

"Uh, good morning, Sheriff. Sorry to interrupt, just, uh, grabbing some water."

She just nods in acknowledgement before turning her attention back to the brunet boy and Sailor breathes an inaudible sigh of relief. Holy shit, is that woman scary. She heads to the sink and keeps one ear on the conversation as she quickly fills a glass with water and pops two aspirin, the headache from last night made even worse by the addition of a whiskey hangover. 

"I didn't realize you had company, John B. Wild night?" The sheriff asks and Sailor meets her friend's eyes again, her anxiety rising when she sees his thinly veiled panic. Her back to Peterkin, she silently implores him to say something, anything -hell, she even tries to subtly mime surfing with her hands to help him out- but he stays silent, so she gathers her courage, plasters a smile on her face, and twirls to face her.

"Busy day, actually. We went surfing all day after cleaning up the yard." She says, jerking her thumb toward the heap of broken branches piled by the fire pit visible through the living room window; when the sheriff turns to look, she quickly elbows John B in the side, ignoring his huff of surprise as she nods her head in her direction.

"Yeah, surfing! All day." He blurts out, sending Sailor a lukewarm glare when she quickly mouths 'what the fuck was that?' before they both straighten up and spin back to the older woman just as she turns to face them again.

"Right." Peterkin hums and arches one eyebrow as she glances back and forth between the two teenagers. "Now tell me, how'd you both get those bruises? They look pretty painful."

"Oh, this?" Sailor asks, pointing at her cheek with a casual shrug, "I tried to hang ten and bit it pretty hard. My board caught me right in the face."

Peterkin looks at her for a beat longer than normal and the redhead does her best to keep her expression neutral as her palms start to sweat. "Surfing, really? Thought you were pretty experienced in that department."

John B adds, offering some much needed back up, "Even the pros wipe out every once in awhile, you know?" He crosses his arms and leans back against the counter. "My board got me good, too."

"Yeah, it just was not our day," She says with a nervous chuckle, refilling her water and slowly starting to back out of the kitchen, pretending she doesn't see the dismayed look her friend sends her way; her anxiety can't take another second of the sheriff's piercing gaze and she needs to get away fast, lest she start recounting every single second of their activities both legal and not so legal- from yesterday in explicit detail. "And I'm still pretty tired so I'm just gonna go back to bed for a bit. Nice talking to you, Sheriff."

After disappearing around the corner before either of them can reply, she creeps down the hallway, keeping her footfalls as light as she can, and she's so focused on trying to listen in on what Peterkin's saying that she runs smack into JJ, standing in the doorway of the spare room. His arm instantly darts out to wrap around her waist and pull her close, keeping her from falling right on her butt as he says, "There you are-"

"Shhh!" Sailor hisses quietly, covering his mouth with her hand, "The damn sheriff is here!"

He mumbles something into her palm but she she holds a finger to her lips, pushing him back into the room and softly closing the door behind them before pressing her ear against it and dropping her hand from his face. He mirrors her position with a question clear as day in his wide eyes, 'what the fuck?', arm still looped around her lower back.

"She's grilling him about yesterday," She says simply, then turns her attention back to the faint voices floating through the door. The duo listens in silence, trying and failing to discern what's being said until they hear the sound of the sheriff's boots on the front porch and her squad car tires crunching through the gravel as she drives away and they exchange a worried look. JJ had it right: what the fuck, indeed. 

"Holy shit, guys," John B's voice suddenly says from the hallway. The door opens before they have time to back away and it sends them sprawling to the floor in a twisted pile of limbs; the brunet boy -who'd usually find something like that hilarious- barely reacts to their position and sends them both a tense frown, his next words dropping like a damn anchor in the marsh.

"We need to go check out that Grady-White again, and fast."

Sailor groans and lets her head fall back onto the floor with a thunk. "Here we go."

-

let me know what you think! fun fact: ostriches actually do put their heads in the sand, but it's not because they sense danger. female ostriches bury their eggs to keep them safe from predators and they'll occasionally stick their head into the sand to check on them and give 'em a lil turn 😊

taglist ❤: @sinkbeneathwaves​ @jiaraendgame​ @hmsjiara​ @maysbanks​ @alexa-playafricabytoto​ @sunflowerbecca​ @obxlife​ @obx-adventures​ @sexualparkour​ @coltonparayyko​ @miawantsapuppy​

[gothamangelwings]

Okay, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to say anything about this, but I have to, for my own sanity. Excuse me for my rambling (especially about Castiel) and repeating myself, which I probably will do in this post.

Truth is I only got into Supernatural a little over a year ago. I just kept avoiding it over the years. I think when it was in it’s 7th or 8th season, I thought to myself “oh this should be ending soon. I’ll just wait til its over and watch it then” That did not happen. Jump to last year when I heard about the Scoobynatural episode. I love Scooby so I had to watch. And I loved it. And I really loved Sam and Dean. But I also couldn’t stop thinking about the guy in the trench coat with the deep voice named Castiel. Did very little research to find out he’s an angel. That’s all I wanted to know. Went to netflix and started watching the show from the beginning. By the time I got midway thru season 3 I was hooked. I started buying the dvds in bunches. Watching as much as a I could a week. When I got to season 4 I was Cass on the cover of the boxset and said “that’s him! That’s the angel! He’s in the season!” I actually didn’t know he would show up right in the beginning of the season but when Dean was at that gas station and gas started shattering I thought. That’s him isn’t it? That’s Castiel. Misha’s actual entrance on the show is the best in history. I do love Sam and Dean but I’m not going to lie and pretend like Castiel isn’t my favorite. Because he is. I adore that awkward angel. He is the reason I happily kept watching and brought all the dvds because I knew Misha was still working on the show. He is the reason I will buy season 15. I started shipping Destiel in season 5 but when I re-watched the series (Yes I watched it twice in less than a year. One over a period of several months the other over a few weeks before the show came back after hiatus.) I saw moments in season 4 that i missed the first time around.

So yes this finale makes me cry and not in a good way. although there are a few saving graces.

Let’s begin.

First let me start by saying I do not in any way blame the actors. Especially Jensen. He said he thought the ending was bad and had to be talked into it. Dean/Jensen deserved better. I blame the writers and producers and The CW

Second, repeat after me:

Cass is in heaven with Dean

Cass is in heaven with Dean

Cass is in heaven with Dean

Cass is in heaven with Dean

Now speaking of Castiel, who I mostly want to talk about before addressing the rest of this mess. Castiel/Misha deserved better. There really is no reason Misha couldn’t be in the final episode unless there was something on his end. Although seeing that he recently went to California to shoot a something for Amazon and took West to the Winchester House. He can definitely travel. But if there was some reason on his end, then okay, fine then. However that doesn’t excuse the way the handled his character in these last two episodes.

Yes in 15x19 Dean demands Chuck bring Cass back. Dean remembers Cass’s words when Chuck calls him the ultimate killer. Yes, Dean runs to the door when he thinks Cass has just called him. Instead in was Lucifer. What a slap in the face to the fans and an insult to Misha after that beautiful confession of love.

But the end of the episode. Jack becomes God and no one says “What about Cass?”

Now 15x20. Sam brings up Castiel and Dean is just like “move on“. No, That is not Dean. No matter what Dean cared about Castiel, to the point that being without him in the past led him to depression. i understand he doesn’t want Castiel’s sacrifice to be in vein. But come on. There’s living on and being happy and then there’s acting like the guy didn’t matter. Again, no. That is not Dean. Not after all the development those two have had. I know Dean wasn’t always perfect when it came to Cass but he did care. What happened to “We lost everything. Now you’re going to bring him back” What happened to the purgatory apology and admitting his anger issues. And so much more.

Again Castiel is in heaven. Jack got him out of The Empty. But they could of made it more clear. ( I swear, if they are leaving this up to interpretation....) Because I see so many people who have “conveniently” missed what Bobby said and insist he’s still in The Empty. Or just want to say “well that’s not what he meant. Cas is still dead, he just meant his influence on Jack” or some shit like that.(Now that I think about maybe influence isn’t the right word to use with this fandom lol)

Anyway lets say that Misha could not in anyway be there for filming. YOU CAN STILL ADDRESS HIS CHARACTER PROPERLY AND GIVE HIM A SATISFYING ENDING. In fact you barely have to change the scene between Dean and Bobby just add a few more lines.

Dean: “So Jack did all that?”

Bobby: “Well Cass helped”

Dean: “Wait, Cass is here?!”

Bobby: ‘Yep, Kid got him out.”

Dean: “Well where is he? Can I see him?”

Bobby (smiling): “Now calm down ya idjit. He’ll be back soon. Had some business to take of. But he is planning to stick around here with the rest of us.’

Dean (smiling, happy because he’s getting a second chance): Good. He belongs with us. With me. (takes a drink) It’s just too bad...

Bobby (knowing he’s talking about Sam: “Don’t worry he’ll be here shortly...”

Scene plays out as normal but instead when Sam and Dean are reunited. Dean tells him “Let’s head back, Mom, Dad, Bobby, and Cass are waiting for us. Along with everyone else we loved and lost when we were alive.”

Or... a few scenarios with Castiel there (even for a few moments)

1. When Dean dies (yeah we’ll talk about that) Jack sends down Cass to take him to heaven. Dean leaves his body. Watches as Sam falls apart and then hears “Hello Dean” turns and there’s Cass to guide him to heaven and also let him know Sam will be okay and will live a happy life”

2. The scene with Bobby starts the way it did but instead after he says “Well Cass helped” he points behind Dean.

Cass: “Hello Dean.”

Dean: “Cas! Aw, it’s good to see you. You have no idea.”

They embrace. Maybe the say something about the confession maybe they don’t but at least they’re together and we know that they have time to talk.

Episode continues as it did but again Dean tells Sam that Castiel is here waiting for them.

3. Episode plays exactly as it did. Except at the very end after Sam and Dean reunite on the bridge...

Cass: “Hello Dean. Hello Sam”

Both: Cass!

The three hug. Dean a bit longer.

Dean: “Well look at that. Team Free Will back together again. This time forever.”

In any scenario Castiel is living in heaven with the boys. Him and Dean eventually talk about what happened. In my canon Dean returns his feelings but even if he can’t it’s okay because Dean does care about Cass. And Castiel’s happiness was just in being able to say it. Either way they’re together along with everyone else they love and will be waiting for those who haven’t arrived yet.

Also Cass finally gets his guinea pig. Because he deserves it.

ONCE AGAIN, EVEN IF MISHA COULDN’T BE THERE. THERE WERE STILL BETTER WAYS TO HANDLE THIS ENDING! OH AND THERE BETTER NOT BE SOME LAME ASS THING LIKE ‘HE’S IN HEAVEN WORKING WITH JACK BUT ISN’T ALLOWED HERE BECAUSE THE NEW GOD LIKES TO KEEP ANGELS SEPARATE FROM THE REST OF US’

NO. CASTIEL IS DEFINITELY WITH DEAN IN HEAVEN. END OF STORY.

Moving on the other problems which I won’t go into full detail in like I did Castiel.

Dean’s death. The ever loving fuck was that? A nail?! I get that they finally get to call the shots in there own lives now but come on! A nail. And this is what a few weeks after defeating Chuck. Who, if he wants to can have a happy life. You know when Cass heard about this he rolled his eyes. Like “Really?!”

Ewwww that forehead touch. I know for most people it’s just a sweet final moment between two siblings as one dies. But we all know this is fuel for the Winc*sters and b*bros. I mean come on now. You’re afraid to have Dean even acknowledge Castiel’s feelings but a forehead touch that can and will be taken out of context as romantic between two brothers is fine and dandy. I was watching this with my Mom and even she was like “That forehead touch,,, why.. just why...”

Funny thing about my Mom. (Sorry not sorry going back to talk about Cass for a moment) She has been watching SPN with me this year but honestly only (not even) half paid attention. She has a habit of always looking at her phone even when it’s something she wants to watch. Two weeks ago after 15X18 I asked “Do you believe Cass’s confession was romantic?”

Her response. “No, they’re just friends. Angels aren’t supposed to feel romantic love.’ We get into a small argument.

A few days later...

Me: “Misha confirmed it was romantic.”

Mom: “Oh, well that settles it then. I just was taught that angels didn’t feel that kind of love.”

Me: “Yeah but your forgetting a few things. 1. Cass isn’t like other angels and 2. This is a fictional tv show not the actual bible.

Mom laughs: “Good point, Guess I didn’t think about that.”

Me: “Y’know people are actually saying  that Cass can’t be gay or bi because Dean isn’t.”

Mom: “That’s stupid. One has nothing to do with the other. Even if Dean doesn’t feel the same way that doesn’t change Castiel’s feelings.”

Jump to the last few days.

Mom: “Cass is going to show up in the finale. He and Dean will be reunited! Maybe he’s one of those people in the masks being controlled by The Empty. Or maybe there will be a scene in the barn where Dean is on the ground about to be stabbed and Cass saves him in the knick of time!”

Mom after the finale: “That was terrible. Very disappointed. They really couldn’t get Misha for few minutes. They better not use covid as an excuse with all those people on that bridge. Everything about this episode felt wrong” (she said that about 15x19 too). (Grabs her phone to look at twitter) “Misha is crying. This episode doesn’t deserve pie.”

We brought pie. We did not eat it.

Moving on.. .yeah yeah the wig on Jared was awful. But who cares. What I want to know is who is the mother? Is it Eileen? I hope it’s Eileen. It better be Eileen.

The barn. Why? Why that barn? Did they really think no one would notice. I get reusing sets and locations as completely different places. But that just hurt.

Did we need so many songs with no dialogue being spoken. I mean yes Carry On was a must have but so much time could’ve been spent talking about other characters during the other songs .

And again why are they trying to make Dean look bad. It’s not his/Jensen’s fault it’s the horrible writing of these final two episodes. Why did they not take to opportunity to talk about Castiel’s confession. Yes I’m  back on Cas again. I warned you. Also he’s probably the main reason you’re reading this anyway, so yeah...

I would like to believe a conversation happened off screen but the way Sam and Dean acted it doesn’t seem like it.

Again would it be so hard. Two scenarios

1.

Dean: “Before Cass got dragged into the Empty he told me...

Sam: :Told you what?”

Dean: He told me... he told me he loved me.”

Sam (smiling): “That’s not news Dean,”

Dean: “No Sammy. He really loved me... like... you know..”

Sam: “Again, not news Dean. How do you feel? “

Dean (hesitates): “ I think... no, I know I love him too. He’s the only man I’ll ever love.”

Sam: “Well you know technically Cass really isn’t male... so...

Dean: “Oh please Sammy. Could you imagine Cass in any other body? Especially a chicks. It would be so weird.”

Sam: “Good point.”

Dean: “Besides, he was perfect the way he was.”

2.

Dean: “Before Cass got dragged into the Empty he told me...

Sam: :Told you what?

”Dean: He told me... he told me he loved me.”

Sam (smiling): “That’s not news Dean,”

Dean: “No Sammy. He really loved me... like... you know..”

Sam: “Again, not news Dean. How do you feel? “

Dean: “I can’t return his feelings. I see him as a man and you know I’m attracted to women.”

Sam: “Alright then.”

Dean. “But y’know...”

Sam: “Hmmm?”

Dean: “I still miss him. I wish he was here with us.”

There were so many easy ways to fix this and they did nothing. Did they not think 15x18 would have a huge impact. I really hope the writers are kicking themselves for this. Funny, by ignoring Castiel and his feelings they actually brought more attention and love to him and Misha.

I really don’t know if a rewrite and reshoot for the dvd release is possible. Has that ever been done, I feel like it has but I’m not sure. But if it is. Fix it. It only took a few weeks to film these last two episodes. I’m sure all the actors can come back to film for a few weeks. Once there are less Covid restrictions of courses. I know there’s been talk about a possible movie. That could fix it. As long as they bring back the angel in the trench coat. Or how about a bonus episode for the dvd 15x21 where everyone is gathered in heaven. Sam, Dean, Cass, Bobby, Mary, John, Kevin, Charlie, Eileen, Jo, Ellen, Pam. Even Crowley and Rowena because why not. Oooh and Meg too because she did sacrifice herself for them and also I just love her.  Anyway they all gather and talk about old times. Perfect excuse for an old fashion clip show. Funny/heartwarming banter in between. Make Destiel canon at the end. Another possible way to fix it is do a comic book season or even just a few issues to flesh out the ending in heaven. Just fix it.

At least we have fanfiction.

If there are any positives to take away it’s this:

1: Castiel is in heaven with Dean. They are together. They have a second chance.

2. It was said only 30% of the fanbase would like this ending. Like many people I assumed that meant a Destiel ending. Cause I thought out of the whole fanbase shippers were in the minority. Nope turns of the the Winc*sters/B*bros are the 30%. Destiel fans, Cass fans, Misha fans are part of the 70% who hate this. Though why you would want to only please 30% of your fanbase is beyond me.

3. Sam was able to live a long happy life without being codependent on his brother.

I absolutely hated the last two episodes and how this show ended. Again the only saving grace is knowing Jack got Castiel out of The Empty and he and Dean reunited in heaven. But no matter how much I hated 99% of the ending. I still love this show and all it’s characters. I will happily go back and watch it over again to relive the good, funny, sad, bittersweet moments. The final 90 minutes of the series is not going to ruin that for me. I love Sam and Dean but Castiel is my favorite and I will happily go back and enjoy everything about his character. I am not going  to let this ruin Supernatural for me. Next summer I am going to my first SPN Convention and I can’t wait. I may have only discovered the greatness of Supernatural a year ago after avoiding it for so long but I want it to stay apart of my life. Like I said I only got into Supernatural a little over a year ago but this hurt my heart so much I only imagine how those of your who’ve been here for over a decade feel.

I know this was very, very long and I probably actually forgot some things I wanted to say. But I’m tired.

Cass and Dean are in heaven together. I believe they are canon 💙💚

[novemberhush]

17 Questions

Thanks for tagging me, @smowkie !😊

Nickname: I’ve had so many over the years, but on here it’s Dee.

Zodiac: Scorpio

Height: 178 cm / 5′10 (samesies, @smowkie !)

Hogwarts House: I’ve never read a Harry Potter book or seen any of the movies (and I’m very happy to keep it that way), but from what I know about the houses I think I’d be Ravenclaw. My friends who are Potter fans have all also said that’s the house they think I’d be assigned to as well.

Last Thing I Googled: Lincoln Clay and John Donovan from a video game called Mafia 3 because I know nothing about video games, but my friend @imwritesometimes just wrote a great fic called Till Your Fingers Burn about these two characters and her writing is always so amazing that I’m always willing to dip my toe into a ship/fandom I know nothing about just to read it.

Song Stuck in my Head: None at the moment.

Number of Followers: 986

Amount I sleep: It’s usually feast or famine with me. I’ve never had a very steady (or healthy) sleep pattern.

Lucky Numbers: I don’t have a specific lucky number, but I like 1, 3, 12, 13, 16, 23 and 39 (among others).

Dream job: Probably an archaeologist, psychologist or author (I love digging beneath the surface of things, be it literally or figuratively speaking!)

Wearing: My lovely, soft, grey, comfy pyjama bottoms and a violet t-shirt, both of which are actually menswear because I tend to prefer the colours, design and often the fit menswear offers (not to mention the fact menswear is often cheaper and actually has pockets and tends not to have those stupid cap sleeves that don’t reach far enough down my arms and leave me feeling really self-conscious about my bingo wings). I’m not a fan of the pastel colours womenswear so often comes in or excessive frou-frou and frippery on clothes (like ugly, random bits of embroidery or stupid slogans that just ruin what was otherwise something I would have liked) or having the clothing equivalent of those ‘Live Laugh Love’ wall hanging slogans emblazoned all over me or clothes featuring Minnie Mouse or some other such cartoon character in such a way that they look like they’d be better suited for an 8 year old rather than a 42 year old woman (if you like Minnie Mouse, etc, on your clothing, that’s fine, whatever, you do you and all that, I actually have a Where’s Wally/Waldo t-shirt lying around somewhere myself, plus a fun ghosts from Pac-Man one I always get complimented on, but I often find the way characters like Minnie are used on clothes meant for adult women isn’t in a fun way but an infantilising way, and that’s not something I’m interested in). I like darker colours and clothes that are either plain or have patterns like tartan/plaid, and those men’s t-shirts that do have prints are almost always more appealing to me than the ones the women’s have. And don’t even get me started on how bad the clothing options for plus size women are! (Rant over.)

Favourite Author: I don’t have one.

Favourite Instrument: I have no musical talent whatsoever (unless you count air drumming!), but I really love the piano and wish I could play it.

Aesthetic: I get wardrobe envy every time Rosa Diaz appears on screen so that should probably tell you all you need to know about my aesthetic.

Favourite Song: Again, I don’t have one. (I’m the worst person to ask what their favourite anything is!)

Favourite Animal Noise: The deep, contented purr of a happy cat.

Random: I have a deep, abiding love for Scooby-Doo.

I tag @oneawkwardcookie @kitkat0723 @elysiumwaits @dreamer9817 @an-intronerd and anyone else who wants to play. No pressure on anyone who doesn’t! ❤️

[plush-anon]

Would you ever write... a Scooby Doo and Phantom of the Opera crossover?

Ooooo, that would be a tough one to do. I would LOVE to say yes... but I honestly don’t know what I would really write, if that makes sense. 

(now allow me to vibrate intensely in place and hyperfixate over two of my earliest and most influential fandoms for about a thousand words please and thank you)

As much as I love these two fandoms (and I REALLY do. POTO 2004 helped pull me out of a REALLY ugly spiral in middle school - I dare say my worst - and Scooby Doo was THE fandom I first wrote/posted fanfiction for), meshing them would be... difficult.

Some Scooby properties have already played with Phantom some - Stage Fright actually did okay on their Phantom monster figure, esp in that he was a spirit focused on ego and NOT obsessing over Daphne (like they’ve done in other films - thanks Music of the Vampire TT_TT) - though considering every OTHER misstep made in that movie, it’s a damn miracle they even got THAT right. And Be Cool Scooby Doo had an episode with a Ghostly Prima Donna that hits a lot of the same points - amazing opera singer who wreaked havoc on a theatre when scorned by the owners.

(And if you wanna get into the actor side of it, Lego Scooby Doo: Haunted Hollywood’s plot focused on the ghost of a Boris Karloff/Lon Chaney Sr mashup haunting the studio with his horror characters, with the unmasking being the Mashup Actor JUNIOR wanting to carry on his dad’s legacy, a la Lon Chaney Jr. Again, not a great movie, but the mystery/monster element was handled alright)

The meshing of the two doesn’t really inspire much plot to it that hasn’t already been done to pieces. If it’s just a traditional Scooby mystery at a music competition the Phantom is trying to control/ruin, well - just see the above examples.  Regardless of the rest of the movie/episode’s flaws, WB actually did okay with the Phantom-esque elements. If it’s a modern POTO retelling with Mystery Inc trying to stop the Phantom, then, well. It’s basically rehashing Sherlock Holmes and the Phantom of the Opera adaptations all over again (of which there’s at least five and a comic miniseries - no joke, those actually exist), but with wacky hijinks and a talking dog. Not much new or interesting there, IMHO.

It would be VERY tired, low hanging fruit to have Daphne get kidnapped as the Christine replacement, and Velma’s family history is firmly established in Germany from Frankencreepy (and while that movie has... many problems, Velma’s family backstory is actually pretty damn good on its own, barring some minor quibbles over details mentioned).

I guess you could do Fred as like... the descendant of Raoul and Christine? Christine was OG Swedish in Leroux, and Fred’s family is primarily blonde and blue-eyed by WNSD standards (I refuse SDMI on principle). There could be something about Fred being targeted by Erik for conflicting reasons, his spirit sent into extreme emotional flux with what was Raoul and Christine’s great-great something grandson, while another mystery goes on framing Erik for something else... There could be something there, but I wouldn’t be the one to do it; main reason being, I am NOT great at writing Fred. 

For me, Fred is a difficult character to write, period; I have a better time of it with the live action Scooby movies Fred because I can play around with the flaws (read: bashing in the first movie) more. Fred in general is a tough character to write bc he’s played as the straight man, the generic leader (tho I forever mourn my lost draft of my post-SCOOB AU mashup with Orpheus in Eurydice - I actually had him there! *cries*).

More recent stuff plays around with him being an engineer - BCSD played him up as a neurodivergent mechanic, and I love that one to pieces - or a charming enough if frustrating at times himbo (WNSD), or in some cases an obnoxiously jealous dumbass who doesn’t know how to use buttons or listen to basic fcuking instructions (Moon Monster Madness, Music of the Vampire, also WNSD) or occasionally the dude SO obsessed with the Mystery Machine he may actually want to fcuk it (Frankencreepy, Happy Halloween SD!).

On the whole though, he’s not one ever really associated with music except when forced unrealistically (see again, Stage Fright for the sake of Fraphne baiting that they NEVER fcuking act on in these movies, to the point it’s legitimately frustrating and cheap to pull - Stage Fright esp so, bc Fred and Daphne spend the ENTIRE goddamn movie talking about having feelings for each other, KISS ON STAGE, and WHAT do they do?!? WHAT DO THEY DO?!??!?! THEY QUESTION THE KISS AND REVERT BACK TO STATUS QUO GODDAMNIT IT I’M JUST WHY) or when the gang is suddenly a band (WNSD, Legend of the Vampire, a background shot with him playing guitar in Witch’s Ghost, BCSD Screama Donna) or both (honestly all of the above, though BCSD played it for laughs best with Fred on the drums).

The closest we EVER got to Fred being interested in singing/music was an old ‘Behind the Characters’ short Hanna Barbera made for Cartoon Network, where Fred admitted he used to be in theatre and loved singing tunes from Showboat.

So him being the tie to Erik feels like a dead end to me. Not impossible, but still just... yeah, not a clean fit in my mind.

As for Shaggy and Scooby... they have enough problems to deal with without adding Erik on top of everything else. ‘Nuff said.

So yeah, unfortunately I have to say no on this one. There’s nothing I feel like I could do in them that wasn’t already tired (as opposed to the ROTG/POTO mashups I thought up forever ago), but hey, that could just be me.

[melonsmessymusings]

I just want to say I ADORE Operation Red Zone. It's a refreshing look at grief and loss that I've not really encountered before and Giles definitely deserved the screen time to explore his grief over Jenny's death in more detail! It led me to wonder how you go about writing something like that and not cry every time you think about it. Did you draw off any real-life experiences or is it all research based? I'm just curious because I'd be a mess if it were me lmao :)

Aww thank you anon <3 It makes me very happy to see stuff like this to the point where I start doing laps of the living room like an excited puppy. I’ve been truly humbled by how it’s been received actually, especially after being mostly inactive in the fandom until last year.

The only tears I’ve shed when thinking about it are purely from a ‘holy shit it’s awful! I’m going to delete that bullshit!’ perspective which I’m quite proud of actually. As to my references... Most of the plot is based off my own soap opera-esque late teens. I have no issues with sharing parts of it because it was a while ago now and I don’t give a fuck, though there are some potentially triggering things so it’ll be beneath the break. Also I don’t like getting to soppy because cringe, so it won’t be too detailed...

As I’ve said many times, Giles’ grief over Jenny’s death was never addressed and it’s infuriating. Especially as he’s one of the most interesting characters and Tony Head (other than being a genuinely lovely bloke) has it well within his skillset to pull something like that off. Jenny’s death in general was all but forgotten and something that doesn’t stand out as a ‘big moment’ in the series, which is unfair because it should be. You can’t just fridge characters because you’re a douche canoe and got bored of them. Hence my need for an AU where people actually DEAL with their emotions and try to start working through them.

Personal Context: To cut a very long, depressing, quite frankly disgustingly graphic story short, my best friend was killed in a drunk driver accident just before Christmas a few years back. It made national news being so nasty, there was a GRAPHIC Facebook post from the person who was there on scene when she died that was EVERYWHERE for months, it was horrific. I was 17, had no idea what the fuck to do and was pretty much left to it because of other stuff falling apart. I was always taught that what’s done is done so there’s no point crying about it. That’s toxic and harmful behaviour, but I ended up doing worse, ‘borderline’ illegal things because who cares about consequences when the worst has already happened? That whole year or so was the first time I’d properly experienced grief.

On my Lockdown 1 Buffy Binge, Passion came about and I found myself really relating to Giles. Obviously different circumstances, but it struck a chord that previous re-watches had failed to. There was a compelling need to use my ‘spicy year from hell’ as a skeleton reference for how the Scoobies would deal with something. Essentially, it came about because I wanted to express what I’d been through, using my favourite characters so that I could give them a happy-ish ending that I didn’t get. Also, I didn’t want to make it completely doom and gloom because there’s only so much you can take and although the situation may be dire, there is always some relief, no matter how small and if you can’t laugh, you’ll cry right? It sounds stupid but it’s the honest truth. It’s not just Giles either. Other characters’ behaviours and responses are based off what I’ve witnessed. Say what you will about trauma but by god is it an education for learning about life and making you wise beyond your years. 

Of course, I do google some stuff because I’m British, so cultural differences are a massive thing that I totally underestimated. I’m still baffled by the Schooling system across the pond because like... what? I don’t remember the 90s on account for being too young, so there’s that too. And just general things because I’m dumb as fuck and know nothing about the world so I’m eager to learn. Yeah, I blagged my way through A Levels and into Law School, but do I have a functioning brain cell...? Not at all, as Em can attest.

Dunno if that answers your question but that’s where it comes from. Whack on the depressing playlist, scroll through the ol’ Facebook memories to jazz it up every now and then and we’re off...