#mc: franky second

[now-and-4ever]

Does anyone else interpret some of the lines in Now and Forever as indicating that the MC's family wasn't financially well off before Opal's promotion? Like the MC even wonders if Opal got a big bonus when she casually suggests eating out for a treat. And how the MC knows that even when treating herself ordering a drink is too much.

I like to lean into this interpretation with my version of Franky because it feels like an important aspect of a default version of the MC. I imagine Opal being someone who would make sure Franky got what they need before fulfilling her own. She lived as frugally as possible with the Opal earrings being her only notable gift to herself. Maybe they came from a time when she was less concerned with saving money. Or a gift from someone else maybe?

I reflect this interpretation with some aspects of my version of Franky. My Franky is impossible to buy gifts for because you can never get them to admit to wanting anything. They were aware of their prior financial situation enough that they tried to help out by not asking for anything for birthdays and Christmas. Of course someone who is close to Franky can figure out what they would like, Opal especially. She would get Franky gifts that they would like, but were also cheap enough so they wouldn't worry. After the promotion and moving to Golden Grove Franky still can't shake the habit. But eventually Qiu and Tamarack learn how to see what Franky wants even if they never ask for anything. Also, it's this trait that makes Franky really appreciate Tamarack introducing them to the idea of getting people gifts from the forest.

Another aspect of my Franky is that between Steps 1 and 2 they put on weight. This shows that they are in a better place now and let themself be treated more often. I love when weight gain is portrayed as a symbol of someone's quality of life improving.

So yeah. That's me rambling a bit about my Franky and interpretation of the Second family.

[muxas-world2]

The MC for the French riders parade is the best like he made it his personal mission to make everyone, speak French even if they wanted or not ¿french or french ?and also make everyone who crashed remember how awful their day has been a true icon

[devilzcatto]

I received art that I commissioned. Look at how they cute😭😭

Cute art by @JademimicZ at X (Twitter)

[melocores]

my OLNF oc!!!! :D

name: Cheyenne "Chey" Wu

gender/pronouns: demigirl - she/they

(details about her below 😎)

step 1 personality: "child of the flowers"

cheerful and bubbly, many people that know her describe her as a bundle of joy. she likes to tease the people around her and is shown to be a lot more perceptive than people expect her to be, many assume she is gullible due to her natural innocent expression. can be shy around adults that aren't her mommy and she can be very clumsy, bandaids appearing on her from time to time. she loves to draw and paint, as well as bake (with parental supervision ofc) she loves strawberries, flowers and many other things described as cute. she likes to explore and look for shiny or attractive things she finds outside and stores it in a box full of 'treasures'. She owns a teddy bear named Mimi who is her best friend.

fun fact: she is not afraid of any bugs, she brought a centipede home and tried to keep it as a pet but it died which made her really sad 😭

step 2 personality: "maiden of the clouds"

has become a lot more toned down but still friendly to the people around her despite being described as closed off from time to time and not having any proper friends besides her neighbours, qiu and tamarack. to qiu and tamarack, she's the same except the playful teasing has been turned up a notch, though she's very supportive of them (listens to qiu about their problems, attending tamarack's cello recitals) she started to become interested in activities related to her appearance (e.g. painting her nails, wearing a necklace, flower clip) and is seen from time to time to have stylish outfits and hairstyles of many different kinds. she becomes quite admired by her peers for this despite her being oblivious to it; she normally hangs around by herself which adds to her mystique. her hobbies remain the same with the addition of skateboarding which is her main mode of transportation and taking long naps. the problem she faces is the inability to share her feelings with other people and bottling up her emotions, even to the point that qiu and tamarack worry for her due to a past experience in elementary where her 'friends' actively bullied and made fun of her to the point that it damaged her mental state and her fear of confrontation didn't help whatsoever. those friends only wanted to be her friend to get to qiu. when they found out years later, they felt extremely horrible but she never put it against them. her trust issues and inability to express herself makes her seem disingenuine which causes her to lose a lot of friends. her main way to resolve conflict is to just run (in this case, skate) away and avoid everything. the necklace she wears was a gift from her mother. she's very comfortable in her gender identity, normally dressing up in both masc and fem fashion and has supported qiu in their gender crisis. meanwhile, she actively helps tamarack gain confidence in herself.

fun fact: her first crush was baxter (probably because of the similar ways they resolve conflict LMAOOO) she blasted chasing pavements in her room while sobbing after he graduated highschool

step 3 personality: "lady of the vogue"

fun fact: many of her family members say that she's starting to resemble her mother in her teens, which she can agree with.

planning to pursue her dream of starting her own fashion brand, cheyenne has come a long way with her battle with the fashion industry and insignificance as a whole. she still takes good care of her appearance, becoming an influencer and running a blog that showcases her daily looks and fits. she now rarely has issues with expressing herself due to the support of the people around her. she always looks out for the people around her, gaining the title of the mom friend which is a funny pair with tamarack being the 'grandma friend'. her younger self (specifically step 2) avoided striking colours like red due to not wanting to stand out (which is contradictory bc ms girl walks into class with a brand new fit every time), but her step 3 self has fully embraced the bright red that she used to proudly wear as a young child. she's become quite popular amongst her peers after realizing that she could trust other people and lives her life not caring about what other people thought. also she's madly in love with qiu but you didn't hear that from me

[littleautumnboy]

i’m so happy to share to you guys my oc / mc for our life: now & forever: timothy “timmie” aspen

I wanted to draw him so bad but I don’t know how to draw so instead, i'll just give you guys more description of him for step 1!!

timothy is someone that is quite creative with how he would be able to craft different stories and poems that he can find solace in. he tends to be shy and sensitive when it comes to people but when he says something, he means it well. he loves to take photographs using his polaroid camera, especially if it’s the sky and his friends that he considers to be really friends with and he would clip those photographs on his wall in his room, so that he can always remember those moments.  

so here are some other details about timothy during step 1:

his favorite colors are blue & white

his favorite movies are finding nemo and brother bear

he knows how to ride a bike

he’s not that sporty but he can play badminton pretty well and he’s a beginner at chess

he’s interested in playing piano

he loves doing gymnastics

he mostly writes poems and he would often give some of his works to people that he considers to be his friends

he loves playing video games and would be loud when he really enjoys the game

he likes playing video games using female characters but doesn’t do it as much now because of the teasing he experienced from other boys that he thought to be his friends before they moved to golden grove

his wardrobe mostly consists of jackets

Although he does have a favorite cardigan that have orange, red, yellow, & white stripes that he wears aside from his white and blue jacket when he’s not in school

he also loves wearing beanies

his favorite is his blue beanie but he does have a gray one as his second favorite

he likes to have his hair long and despises the thought of cutting it

however behind his sweet smile, he feels that he doesn’t belong because of how he feels like he’s not doing enough to meet the expectations of everyone, especially when it comes to aspects pertaining to gender identity which shall be the main focus for him during step 2.

but he’s very happy that he can actually say that he’s able to call someone his best friend now and happy that he’s part of a friend group, which is something that he never experienced before.

although here's a clue when it comes to step 2, there’s one lorde song that perfectly captures his characterization during that time

[gb-patch]

Is it possible for Franky Second to have an half-sister in Our Life: Now and Forever?

That won't happen in the game and it isn't canon. The MC lives the only child life. But you could certainly headcanon that Franky's donor parent was also a donor for another kid!

[candyheartedchy]

Okay!! Am gonna drop them! Please remember that these questions can be skipped or unanswered because, well if you don't want to, you don't have to/pos

1- who fell for who first? Like i know Frankie blushed when he saw OC's (sorry i don't know what to call her so am going with mc, reader or player.. I apologize in advance) face but was this enough for him to fall for her? Or was it like "she's cute" vibes for few seconds?

2- the comic about reader sending a crush letter to Frankie when she was a kid is just so cute and nostalgia because am sure a lot of us had this "celebrity" crush or "when i was a kid i had a crush on this person despite i can't marry them" type of crush. But how did Frankie knew it was her? Was her name listed?

3- what about monster Frankie, deputy duck & Henry hotline? How does reader feel about them? Or monster Frankie and deputy duck? Because henry is d3ad.

4- does reader and monster Frankie has some... Bond outside the contest? Like in the live stream show, they're enemies or hunter & prey but outside they're like normal around each other?

5- does Frankie give the player an advantage every now and then so ahe won't d1e?

6- how does the player's room look like? Since she's working with Frankie she must have a room of her own.

7- I hope i don't be rude or disrespectful in any way but how can reader Parkour while she's so... *ahem* thicc?!

8- does Frankie like to tease the player? Like he sees her wear the bunny socks and he teases her about her liking him others why a bunny? There's other mascot socks lol.

And these are here for now!💛💛💛

SORRY THIS TOOK A BIT TO ANSWER!! But I’d numbered each answer to each question below! And I didn’t mind answering them so don’t worry! :D

—

1 — My sona (oc) grew up watching Frankie’s cartoons and stuff as a kid and was always a fan of his. She technically was the one to fall first since “Cartoon Frankie” was her fictional crush as a kid. So during the events of the game and after meeting “Real Frankie”, her old feelings for him returns. At first Frankie only saw her with the mask on, so he had no idea what the contestant looked during the whole game until my sona removes it and mostly catches Frankie off guard because now there’s a (cute) face to the contestant.

2 — Once my sona starts to work as an assistant, Frankie becomes curious of her because her name seemed familiar before he finds out that my sona’s name is the same one that were on a few fan letters addressed to him.

3 — I like to think Henry always gets damaged during the games and ends up needing repairs in time for the next one. So once in a while my sona crossed paths with him and ends up chatting (mostly strained) a few times, mostly about what it’s like to work for Frankie. Deputy Duck she seems to get along with better out of the two. (Answered her opinion on Monster Frankie for the next reponse!)

4 — Yes and no. When my sona first had to face against Monster Frankie, it was terrifying for her. All those old happy childhood memories of Frankie’s cartoon counterpart, they were now twisted by her spending that time trying to survive his monster version. Monster Frankie is very dangerous and can’t be controlled, so it’s constant hiding and dodging for my sona around him. A few times Real Frankie had to swoop in to make sure his monster copy won’t hurt her.

5 — Not at first. When my sona was going through the game in the beginning, Frankie was expecting her to go like the others until he became intrigue by her determination to make it out alive that he eventually starts go easy on her. Though he does keep her on her toes here and there (mostly for ratings purposes).

6 - Probably boring and a lot like a dorm room, where she sleeps there and it was mostly put together last minute. She only ever uses it for sleep since she’s mostly working for Frankie.

7 — I was mostly amused by the idea of myself would most likely struggle through the whole game and barely making it out alive. So with my sona’s weight and being physically weak, parkour is VERY difficult for her. So it’s mostly out of sheer luck and hitting her mark when landing at the right moment that saves her. Which is the one reason why Frankie wasn’t expected her to make it at first.

8 — He mostly talks to her as an announcer to a player, so everything he says to her is just sounds upbeat and bold. So when he finds the letters it’s mostly amusing to him, and pokes fun about it, but eventually he starts noticing her getting nervous around him and will tease her on that too. The bunny socks (and sometimes graphic tshirts) are merch that Frankie gave her as clothes to wear while she stays there.

[meowsgirldrawing]

Tough Week (Papa Mammon-Obey Me)

Mammon being a good papa basically.

Word Count: 1,865

Mentions of other kids, slight poly of MC but can be interpreted as whatever wanted. Mentions of GN MC but gets called Mom

Other kids for reference- Here

Masterlist- Here

AO3 Link- Here

Summary:

Varya can feel her eye twitch, her knuckles ache from how hard she grips her cane. Her siblings all tease her in their own ways for having one at 26 but at this point, it’s her only lifeline with how utterly chaotic her siblings can be.

It's been a tough week..

Varya can feel her eye twitch, her knuckles ache from how hard she grips her cane. Her siblings all tease her in their own ways for having one at 26 but at this point, it’s her only lifeline with how utterly chaotic her siblings can be. 

It’s been a tough week.

First she finds out River and Ryder pulled Rhomb into some pranks, thus getting them all detention with her having to attend a basic hearing on their collective punishment. And on top of having to make one on the spot herself to appease Lucifer. “You’re the oldest, you have to keep them in line.” Thankfully Rhomb will be graduating soon, otherwise she might lose another decade on her life.

Adding to that, the next day she had to look for a missing Quinn, only to find him in one of the worst sets of town in the Lust ring, just ending a motorcycle race. It wouldn’t be so bad if she ended up walking in on him in a scuffle with one of the other bikers, them pissed they got beat by one of the Avatars’ kids. She’s usually fine with her siblings taking on their own battles, they need tough skin in Devildom anyway. But they just had to waste her time more by the biker making a lewd comment about her right in front of her dear, protective, little brother. 

Yeah, another punishment had to be made on the spot.

The day after that had her in the human realm with her calmer parent, MC and the youngest, Frankie. After some negotiations as usual about the human realm sending more exchange students to Devildom as per Lord Diavolo’s request, she was dragged to a party per Frankie’s request. She never minds parties, not really. Her father brought her to many in the Fall when she was around 18ish. 

Yet, her content mood went to downright sour as she noticed some human punk making too many moves on her younger sister. The men in her life were always respectful, save for some flirting in front of her and her siblings with their ‘mother’. So you can imagine how many seconds she was close to revealing her demon form. Thankfully Frankie wasn’t allowed to drink yet, because many drunk teens went on booing her, calling her names like ‘prude’ or ‘old woman’ as she yanked her sister out of the house and into her silver ride. 

Frankie’s apology hug did help lesson the headache that night but still.

Many similar instances occur for the rest of the week. The twins pulling more pranks. Ending up in an awkward position as Lucifer and Satan fought about a mundane thing. Lilly and Diavolo’s heir forcing her into an improve shopping trip despite wanting 5 minutes to herself. Having to make up more punishments when she could care less of what her siblings do for this once. And even when she got some time to herself, she had to deal with some low-life demons undermining her desperately at the casino. Unfortunately leading her to teach them why she’s considered the strongest, most powerful spawn of the Lords of Devildom. 

She’s had a tough week, and she needs a break.

Ignoring another phone call from Lucifer, Varya stuffs her DDD into her skirt pocket, slides her cane out of the passenger seat it was previously thrown carelessly into, and opens up her silver ride. 

It snaps shut with a harsh bang, and her heels click against the concrete as she makes her way to the building. Workers under her father wave or call greetings to her, used to her occasional visits, and she waves back, perhaps a bit more shortly than the wontoned. Her everyday smile a-tad tight more straight.

Through an elevator ride and passing several doors, she makes her way to the main office. Her father’s office. 

She hears his voice, deduces he’s either in a meeting or chatting up the phone by his tone, and knocks before sliding in and hanging on the side. Before she would hang outside, but right now, she needs to see him sooner.

Her back rests on the wall, her smile tight and as patient as she can make it.

“Yeah, well demand is comin’ soon with tha season so we need ta get goin’, Shilk.” Mammon’s nails tap on the desk, his wedding ring glinting in the forever red and purplish hues that filter in the giant glass. He looks up from his hard look into the client chair before him and nods his greeting. Varya bows her head lightly, her long, white hair falling over her shoulder.

“Ok, ok. I got it. I’ll have tha data send ta ya by the end of the week. Just make it snappy, Shilk.” His words pushy, but his tone a touch playful. He ends the call with a short bye, see ya later, before spinning towards his kid with a growing grin. 

“ Lil Treasure!” He smirks, “Long time no see, eh? Miss yer old man much?”

“Please.” Her eyes roll, playing his game as easy as pie. “I only came to check up on you, Mother wanted to come see you earlier this week but the exchange program discussions continues to keep them on Earth.” 

He hums, he misses his human too. Behind continuous operations of his ever-growing business and working behind the scenes for RAD, he’s barely had time to see them or their daughter. Speaking of…

“I heard you overtook a new territory this week!” He laughs, carefree as a demon can when talking about territory wars and power growth. It’s been a hot minute for himself to do so, but you don’t even have to look at the older demon to know he’s very damn proud his kid is just about following in his boots. Or Heels in her matter.

“Varya Morningstar- Daughter of Greed- overtakes the Newbon territory in a matter of 2 days, all with a winning smile present.” He recalls the headline he saw, whistling at the end.

 “Someone must’ve pissed you off.” Her eyes squint and join her smirk at his snicker.

“Well, I suppose when someone stares at your upper chest area a little too much while simultaneously telling you that betting your worth is the utmost impossible, it can be noted as irritating.” Her sharp canines shine. 

“That’s my girl!” He cheers, wondering closer. “Don’t let anyone tell you shit, yer my kid after all!”

Varya’s expression doesn’t fall but Mammon still notices anyway, “I hope I could always do so..yet it seems only Lucifer could continue to do so.”

A flash of understanding comes across his face as his head tilts. He doesn’t come across as pitiful, she may be his daughter but she was raised around the Avatar of Pride, but his hand comes to her shoulder, his brow sad/solemnly amused. “He’s really wailing into ya, aint he?”

“As if dealing with my siblings isn’t enough cannon fodder.” Her smile stays up as her shoulders tense, “I understand I am the eldest, but I can’t control every action they make. I haven’t a clue as to why he expects the opposite.”

“That’s Lucifer for ya, kiddo.” His thumb rubs light circles into her half-jacket. “Always wants people on their best behavior, even tried havin’ yer mom help out but they ended up just indulging in us more times than many.”

“But they are all of age now.” It’s rare to see his kid so upset, for years she always had a vacant expression on her face, and it wasn’t until she became older did she start having a smile everywhere, even when she was as pissed as an unsatisfied tyrant. It was her tool against fellow demons, what helped her use her ability as the eldest spawn of the 7 Lords of Devildom and rise to power on her own. People can’t tell how or what she plans, feels, anything. 

But Mammon knows, possibly the only one after his human that does. 

She’s had a tough week.

And now the cracks are finally making their way to the surface. Her smile is tight, no joy present. 

“Frankie may be in her mid teens, but she is old enough and smart enough to know how to handle herself!” Her voice wavers, not loud, at the end. “Why….why must I be the one to keep their un-needed leash? Why must I be turnin’ and throwin’ what I need to do for the day to the wind just to stop some silly prank the boys wanna do? They’ll learn why not to do it, right?”

She breathes, usually blue eyes flaring gold for a second. 

She turns silent then lifts to pinch her brow. “Apologies, Father, I came to take a breather but not to-”

Now he acts, now he wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her into his chest. “Oh shut it. Yer tired and you got a right to rant.” She tries to push back, not allowing such a ‘weak’ moment but Mammon doesn’t let her. If anything, he pulls her tighter, hand on her head, carding his fingers into her ponytail with a snicker. 

“Father-”

“Shushshushshush” His fingers emaphzie his motion, twirling strands or two, messing it from it’s pristine, soft and straight line down her back. “My baby needs a break-”

“Father!” Her cheeks flush, claws digging into his jacket. Her eyes, one closed from being squished into his chest, beat wide at the door. A tinge of fear stomachs. “The door-”

“It’s locked.” He huffs, his blue iris rolling, and he hooks his chin on her head, “Just breathe and hug yer old man, will ya? It’s awkward with yer hands all dangling like they are now.”

Theres a moment pausing the scene, her staring at the door, the more demonic side of her yelling at her to push him and off an leave! He’s useless! To go back to her newly established territory and start working again. Demons don’t cry!

Then there’s the small human part of her, tiny and hidden away, only meant for rare moments. Rare moments like this one..

She takes in a breath, sharp and cold numbing. 

Then melts. 

Her body goes from straight, rigid, awkwardly tight in Mammon’s hold to a full damn puddle, swift and flashing from one to the other like the transition between 5 year old her holding her 1st little brother for the first time of many to the 26 year old self who’s constantly being batted every which way and that, all while holding her greatest, carefully constructed weapon up high for everyone to see.

Even that falls too, especially that. Her smile drifts until the expensive jacket Mammon adorns wipes it away and welcomes her spilling tears instead.

Mammon has a smile that isn’t full of joy but still as kind, pressing a small kiss to her matching hair and planting his cheek into it. He sways them back and forth as Varya silently unravels, hands clutching his back, claws digging deep but thankfully not tearing.

Varya’s had a tough week. But at least she has her dad’s hugs to break that fall.

[cleverusernameh]

Predictions for Buddy's Real Name

Hello Cinderella Boy enjoyers, how are we doing? Sobbing? Suffering? I can only imagine what emotional turmoil the fast passers may be experiencing right now. Well, to get our minds off of the impending Season One finale, I've decided to try and predict what Buddy's "real" name is.

(PS. You don't have to take this too seriously; I just needed some way to cope after the penultimate episode.)

(P.P.S This post is a pretty long read, so just stay with me on this, or continue on with your scrolling :))

First, I took some observations as to how Punko names her protagonists and compiled the following notes:

Punko has yet to name a main character anything starting with a vowel.

Punko's MCs have had names starting with either a stop/plosive or a fricative.

All of these names have had English, Latin, or Greek origins.

I also am taking the following assumptions into consideration when sifting through potential names:

I'm going to assume Punko will keep in line with all previous observations.

I believe Punko takes a bit of consideration of the meaning behind her characters. Deacon is the most obvious example, because he's like a friend and whatever and second in command to Chase. Prunella means "little plum", and yeah, I can see that. She is smol, and her temperament is... tart like a plum? But also sweet, like a plum? (I've never had a plum, I'm assuming this is what they're like).

I think her name choices skew towards a slightly older generation. Chase being an exception, but with names like "Frankie" and "Prunella" more commonly being given to children in the Victorian Era, apparently. Either way, I'll focus on slightly older names, like 90's and back probably.

I will be keeping a heavy focus on names that begin with the letter 'B' because the title of the series is "Cinderella" (Chase) "Boy" (Buddy/B-alternate name) and I personally think that would be cool.

Last thing is I'm gonna add names of Greek and French origin to the roster because I feel insane. My sources for searching mainly boil down to behindthename.com and the 2012 edition of this baby name book of 100,000+ baby names. That being said:

List of Potential Buddy Names

1. Beau

This is my personal favorite, which is why I'm listing it first, but I do have a few valid reasons for adding it here.

It means "handsome" in French

It plays into the "storybook/romance" angle of the series

Begins with the letter 'B'

Has been a relatively popular name since the 70s

2. Theodore

Kind of a weird 2nd pick, maybe, but hear me out.

Comes from Greek meaning "gift of God"

Could reflect that one theory that Buddy is not actually a human, but rather some creation that Ex Libris made

Was popular in 1915 and 2025, which is kind of silly

3. Vincent

Sounds regal enough, lol

Latin origin

Means "to conquor", so maybe he's gotta win something (like his freedom??)

peaked in the mid-60s and 90s

4. Connor

I have a friend named this, so it'd be really funny on Punko's part to name Buddy this

has like two roots meaning "desire" and "wolf"

he desires freedom, and is treated like a dog (they give him ZERO chocolate in Ex Libris)

of Irish origin, but idk, I still like it

5. Hunter

Okay this one has a single thing in it's favor criteria-wise (is of English origin), but this would be very cool considering Chase's name. Chase? and Hunter? Chase the Hunter? Hunt the Chase? Absolute power couple stuff here. Ship name could but C**ter---nevermind that censoring is actually worse

(maybe? comment down what the appropriate ship name for two characters names "Chase" and "Hunter"in case this is actually this poor man's name)

6. Victor

Some goober in the Webtoon comments section, like a year ago claims that Punko said this was gonna be Buddy's name in a Twitch stream, so maybe dawg?

Latin origin; also has to do with winning and victory of his rights or smthn

within the top 250 of baby names for Americans

V sounds like B when you think about it

7. Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson? More like Will Gayson, Will Gayson. /j

another 'hear me out' of the tame degree

means "son of the grey-haired one"

like the "old man" in ex libris???

it's not unlikely *shrug emoji*

8. Sebastian/Bastien

Like that funny little crab man

sounds fancy

Latin/French

means "venerable", like "honored" and "worthy of respect"; i guess he needs some of those

9. bro just has no name

who am I to assume punko created Buddy with a "real name" to be discovered in the first place?

would play into that neglected/dehumanized lighting that he probably experiences in ex libris

would be an *incredibly* emotional scene if Chase asks for Buddy's name in some display of trust or frustration and Buddy has to confess that he's never had one

And yeah, those are all the options I'd be willing to place money on. However, I do have more names compiled from Webtoon's comments, my friends' suggestions and some wild guesses that I am placing below for funsies, with my favorites highlighted:

-benjamin -brayden -oliver -devin -caspian (has already been used in reference to a hot vampire guy from a franchise already; is this foreshadowing or means the name is off the table?) -jordan -kieran would be silly because of my OC :) -owen is another silly choice because of my OC :)) -whitney?? -did punko already name a character charlie? -someone in chat suggested jasper (also didn't get very popular until after 2000s) -"quinctilius asparagus" -beverly? -payton? - bobbie would be the worst way of doing this to me punko - ryder?? - blaine? maybe? - brennan? - casey? - cole - percival/percy sounds cool (historically older name; has literature background with being one of the round knights; just doesn't have a hard meaning i can pin to his character, unless we're deriving it from the knight percy, in which case uhhhhhhhhhh) - trystan would be a personal act against me - garreth (actually not bad with historically coming from the knights of the round table, but idk he seems too cool to have a dumb name like gareth) - "david" (he ain't "beloved" enough by anyone for that) - penguin - not penguin - ryan (suggested by ryan) - edward/eric/eli - demian - nigel - Rumpelstilksin - Aiden - Virgil - "Goth Twink" - Manuel - Two

Well, now that it's taken me about a week to make this create the text for this post, I'm dumping it all onto here roughly 24 hours before tomorrow's episode. Hope you enjoyed the silly fan rant, now if you'll excuse me, I have to copy/paste this into tumblr for realsies now, format everything the way I want them too, and add at least 15 tags. And drink water, that's also probably important.

sleep well young one...

[canmom]

reading Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt. it's interesting. clearly part of the post-Topside wave of trans lit, with the same 'plugged in to twitter' energy, but way more British about it. which means most of the allusions are very transparent to me. it's a combo of... hardcore kink driven romance as the main arc, in a near-future setting in which TERFism goes further to the point of outright bombings, and a scifi element with alien brain parasites that it's gradually building towards.

compellingly written, I'll give it that for sure - I lay down to read for a bit and before I knew it I'd read like a third of the book. the main character's disaffected, traumatised air is well observed, and the kink doesn't hold back.

I think my reservation with it so far is that it feels a little too much like a polemic blog post about the way things are going. the MC Frankie is a trans woman with a pregnancy kink who survived a bombing at a GIC and now works in social media moderation - it's all stuff that is blatantly Relevant To The Argument, as it were. it's tricky to criticise it for that because it's like, what you're saying is that it's tightly constructed and thematically consistent and that's bad somehow? but I think I've come to feel that I like fiction to bring me something a little new and unfamiliar.

the chapter I most enjoyed so far was actually a more metaphorical, abstract interlude, in which resistance to fascism is cast as becoming 'one mass of queer flesh, which now grabbed and clawed...'; 'faces locked in kisses until they became one face. the cops would try to pull at this mass, but to no avail'. very 'faggots and their friends between revolutions' stuff.

the chapters which are presented directly as social media posts and articles are also sharply observed. i think a lot of fiction in which the internet features heavily suffers from not understanding the internet very well (Hosoda's Belle for example), but for example the chapter 'Curious Cat' where an anonymous person (blatantly Vanya) is sending messages asking for help with a parasite, and getting rebuffed or misunderstood, and the chapter where Frankie relates a murder of an instagram model by a stalker who posts about it to a reddit community devoted to her, read as very real.

a lot of the story is about responding to a terrifying political situation in sexual terms - a flashback chapter depicting Frankie having sex with some terf's pretentious brother ("with each thrust from him, she thought to herself, I am a traitor, I am a traitor to the cause"), or the preface which jokes about how in another world the author would be writing 'cool horror stories about vampires raping werewolves, ones with no subtext at all'. I prevaricate a little on whether this is a compelling examination of a theme that I do find interesting (the mysterious origins of sexual desire) or just edgy for its own sake.

this is an odd novel for me in some ways because while on one level, this is about people who I could very easily be a single degree of separation from were they real, it's also about a facet of life that is still quite alien to me and in many ways I only know about second hand. I've never been to a kink club (that wasn't in an MMO anyway lol), I'm way too much of a nerdy autist shut-in to know what it's like to be someone who would feel put out if she hadn't had sex in a week. so even before the parasite stuff, it's hard to know how much of Frankie and Vanya's stuff is real, and how much is fantasy. is this really how things go between people? it sounds kinda fun, but unlocking the door this far has already taken years.

when I've read books about the crazy lives that American trans girls supposedly live and interesting sex they're apparently having, they've been at a certain remove, the other side of the Atlantic. and this book feels sort of similar, even though I know it's set right on my doorstep. idk, I've never been good at this.

anyway I don't think I want to write fantasy novels so directly about The Discourse of the day, but it's probably good that someone is. that said, it's hard to parse like... ok, it's titled brainwyrms, and 'brain worms' is a common way of describing an obsessive, cultish idea you receive from the internet.

and like if you look at the newspapers, or twitter trans discourse, you certainly could believe that this country is on a rapid slide to putting us in camps. however, my day to day life has been... it's not without hostility, but the average street harasser isn't doing it because of a Guardian or even Mail article. this country has a subculture of deranged weirdos who hate our guts, and a political class who will happily stoke culture war shit to score points, but most normies I've met don't care one way or another that I'm trans - they might mention a family member or friend they know who's also trans. the day to day conflicts are over way more prosaic shit, the landlord vs tenant forever war, or how the kitchen should be cleaned. which of these windows is more informative of the 'overall' state of affairs? not that a more violent terf cult is a bad premise to write a novel around, but a sense of impending doom is a pretty powerful mechanism to keep you scrolling, right?

like in 20, 40 years - will the terfs really be bombing the Tavistock and banning transness, as Rumfitt imagines in her near-future setting preface? or will they go the way of those newspapers in Thatcher's time who smeared the gay movement, just as they smear us today? of passing political obsessions like 'new atheism'? I don't know the half-life of cult shit.

anyway, time to read the rest of the novel, and see how it handles this brew that it's concocted.

[now-and-4ever]

A short piece about Qiu learning something important from Franky. Set during Step 2.

On a windy Saturday Qiu Lin was walking to the home of Opal and Franky Second. What they didn't expect was to see Franky doing the same thing. It was obvious Franky had been spending some time at the Baumann residence that morning. They had yet to notice Qiu so Qiu purposely let Franky walk into them.

Franky jumped back with a huge blush on their face. "Qiu! I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going."

Qiu shrugged. "No big deal. It's not like you could hurt me just by walking."

Franky thought for a moment. "Well... What if I manged to knock you over? Or if I was swinging my arms and smacked you in the face?"

"None of that happened so it's all good," said Qiu, giving a smile to Franky.

Franky smiled back. "Do you have any plans today?"

"Nope," said Qiu.

"Then how about stopping by for lunch?" suggested Franky. "Mom and I have a lot of leftovers from dinner last night."

Qiu nodded and the two of them made their way inside. Qiu sat down at a small table used to eat meals in the kitchen while Franky started warming up the leftovers. Franky hummed a happy tune and had a big smile on their face while waiting. As great as Miss Second's cooking was this mood struck Qiu as unusually joyous.

"What's up with you? Did you win the lottery or something?" asked Qiu.

"Oh? No nothing like that. I just had a good morning is all," explained Franky.

Qiu wouldn't give up that easily. "Is that really all? I can tell something really made you happy today. What was it?"

Franky started blushing. "I don't know if I should say."

"Come on," said Qiu. "I promise I won't laugh or anything."

Between Qiu’s insistence and their own want to tell the world what happened Franky's resistance crumbled. "Okay, okay." They took a deep breath and with a big smile they informed Qiu, "Tamarack and I kissed!"

If you had asked Qiu Lin they would've preferred for Franky to have punched them in the face. It would have hurt less.

[blanketgutz]

Just finished watching Final destination bloodlines so now I'm going to rate all the movies heh

Final destination - 7/10 - The original one 🙏 but idk not my favorite as I didn't got attached to any characters (expect Billy and Tod but that's just mother instincts)

Favorite death: Tod's - only because that was the first time I had to throw up because of a horror movie

Final destination 2 - 10/10 - LOVE IT SM OMG MY SECOND FAVORITE!! 💋💋💋 I love everything about it I have no complains

Favorite death: Rory's - I WAS SO SAD BHT HE WAS MY FAV... rip crackhead

Final destination 3 - 100000/10 MY NUMBER ONE FAVORITE HIHI I LOVE ALL THE CHARACTERS AND I CAN YAP ABOUT THEM FOR HOURS

Favorite death: Frankie's - most interesting death and the fact he gets an alternative ending where he survives is so goated

The final destination (4) - 3/10 - Worst one out of all of them the only thing I liked was how creative the deaths are and the MC's visions

Favorite death: Hunt's - IT WAS SO EWWW BUT SO WOAH?? I mean I wouldn't want to be him 💔

Final destination 5 - 8/10 - I liked it was cool but it was still lacking something idkk but the plot twist was cool

Favorite death: Candice's - OW OW OW OW OW GET IT OFF MY SCREEN/J that was brutal but I was more wincing on the girl who stepped on a nail rather than Candice snapping her spine in half (the irony)

Final destination bloodlines: - 8/10 - It was hella interesting and I really liked Iris and JB's lore was SO INTERESTING WOW

Favorite death: Eric's - NOOOO HIS PEEPEE PIERCING 💧💧💧💧 (why is it magnetic is the first place)

[loveislandthegame]

thoughts on todays volume ! well…i can’t say it was uneventful

i enjoyed the podium challenge! i wouldn’t say it was “fun to play” because the entire thing was on rails, but it gave us some reasonable drama. plus MC actually got some wins for once, rather than automatically losing for the sake of a diamond option

next up is some random date, it was mostly just eavesdropping on other couples, and then we have a dance off ??😭 anyways, i danced with lisbeth, it was very cute

then we have spin the bottle! jesse chose to kiss MC and obviously i went all in

for the diamond option, you actually can pick tristan (and interestingly enough, he has hearts. i'm starting to think he really is the enemies to lovers route 💀💀💀) i just couldn’t resist the mess

but then i was considering a replay, because choosing him means i probably won't be able to kiss lisbeth—

sike ! she points the bottle right at MC and we kiss her too. anyways, this was the most fun i’ve had in the villa by far (with that being said, after the results of this volume i might actually replay to choose lisbeth for the diamond scene 😭)

i was dreading whatever gesture hayden had planned for MC, but at the very last second lisbeth swoops in 🎉 unfortunately that means i have to read dialogue about "the LI i'm forced to be with being sad about being turned down" for the one millionth time. i wish female LIs (or slowburns in general) could be a choice early on instead of forcing us into these awkward situations (even if we can't be coupled up for storyline reasons, FB could have one of the girls talk to MC about romantic gestures, give us some "if someone here did a gesture for me, i'd love if it was..." type of dialogue, and then have every LI to choose from. it's not that hard luv)

anyways, lisbeth also has some dialogue about how i also chose her for the hot tub date and the hideaway, i thought that was a cool detail! (and it’s nice to not get treated like you’re automatically on a hoe route as a wlw player, that was one of my biggest complaints with the 2 previous seasons)

we go to the treehouse and catch franki kissing tristan, i would say “clap if you care” but it’s all gonna go downhill from here, so…👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

we go back to the rest of lisbeth’s gesture: looking at the constellations, and it was so adorable ! however, i should’ve known that the line about the pleiades was foreshadowing what happens next

side note before it all kicks off, the new outfits in this volume were giving me life ! putting "goth PLEASEEEEE" in every FB survey question about clothes finally paid off

next up, we got some season 5 energy with everyone dogpiling MC. common sense and critical thinking completely out the window. mind you, everybody that was in the dressing room saw franki steal MC’s perfume. mind you, my MC doesn’t even wear lipstick. mind you, our own LI defends us and somehow we still get dumped (UPDATE: i said tristan didn’t vote for MC but he actually did when i replayed. maybe it’s a glitch, maybe i’m illiterate, maybe it's maybelline) before we go, lisbeth tells MC that she'll wait for her. then we got some season 6 energy with “dumped MC actually being sent to casa” …or coming back to the main villa as a casa girl 🤷🏽

but more importantly, we got dumped for two whole weeks ??? that’s pretty much years in love island terms, im sure our LIs managed to stay loyal but i have no idea how they’d do that without getting dumped (i could see lisbeth and jesse staying together in a friend couple, but idk about hayden/ethan/milo) can't wait for all the "pay gems to learn about what happened" scenes 🙄

speaking of gem scenes, the way i thought the option to open the door was gonna be for one of our LIs 😭 i already said this in my last post, but i have unlimited gems and i still feel robbed. in the game i ended up forgiving franki, just because there wasn’t an option to throw hands (and i do agree with the option that ideally, tristan would’ve been dumped instead lol) but i definitely do not forgive her, choosing to walk after letting MC take the fall is some of the most pathetic bullshit i've ever seen (so what was the point of throwing MC under the bus, you bozo !!!)

overall... what on earth !? i'm gagged, mainly because i cannot believe my prediction of MC getting dumped was correct. granted, we’re gonna be returning, but this is so unserious 😭 i'm sure the game won’t let us be more than mildly upset with the islanders who got us dumped, but trust and believe my MC will be burning that villa down when she returns.

(in case you're wondering, i'm still gonna romance tristan...because i live for the drama and his route will probably be "uncharted territory." in other words, i don't think a single person is gonna be romancing him after this shit, & i'm curious to see what it's like. he's 100% not my endgame tho 💀 i prefer sweetie pie LIs . jesse and lisbeth all the way)

[drabbles-mc]

Interruptions

Angel Reyes & OC Evangeline Reyes & Ezekiel Reyes Franky Rogan x OC Evangeline Reyes

Warnings: 18+, pining, language, this really is just a fluffy little something

Word Count: 2.8k

A/N: For my next trick! I will pull out of my bag of wonders a character that the show-runners seemed to have forgotten about but I sure didn't! 😂 Shout-out to Franky Rogan- I hope he's doing okay lmao. I'm not really planning on turning this into a multi-chap per se, but I do plan on just writing some snippets/one-shots that all exist in this universe. This is our first look into this au, but definitely not the last if I have anything to say about it 😂 Enjoy! xo

As far as Evangeline was concerned, there was no real reason for Angel and EZ to be in her shop. She’d told them as much about five minutes after they’d walked in and started causing more ruckus than she wanted to be dealing with. She tried to shoo them away, tried to get them to pop one more door down to go and bother their father instead, but they weren’t budging.

Angel was sitting on one of the chairs by the dressing room and EZ was standing off to the side of the sewing machine that she was currently using. Angel was gawking around at everything as though he didn’t stop by every week, and EZ was studying over her shoulder like he was thinking of becoming the next family seamstress. If the shop had belonged to anyone else, the two of them never would have bothered to set foot inside. Not to mention if the shop had belonged to anyone else, they would’ve barred the two of them from entry ages ago.

“I can feel your breath on my neck,” she said, sounding annoyed for a split second before she started laughing.

EZ chuckled, stepping back and instead starting to pace around the shop. “Sorry.”

“Vete—go be sorry somewhere else. You’re gonna scare people off before they even set foot in here.”

Angel shook his head dismissively. “C’mon, Eva. Don’t think of it like that. Think of it like…we’re like protection, you know?”

Head still angled down at the pantleg she was hemming, her eyes lifted just enough to look over at her brother. “What, you two in the mob now too? MC wasn’t enough?” She shook her head and looked back down at the garment draped over the machine. “Protection,” she mocked. “Who you guys gonna protect me from, anyway? The high school girls coming in for me to tailor their prom dresses?”

EZ laughed as he watched his two older siblings go back and forth. “I don’t know,” he chimed in. “Think those girls might have Angel out-gunned.”

He sucked his teeth. “Fuck both you guys.”

She finally leaned back in her chair, taking her foot completely off the sewing machine pedal. “If you’d left when I told you to, you wouldn’t have to be going through this.”

Angel was finally laughing with her and EZ. “Nah, you know if we never stopped by you’d—” He stopped mid-sentence and stood up from his chair when he saw a police patrol car pull up to the curb right in front of Evangeline’s shop. “What the fuck is this?”

Evangeline mirrored his actions, standing up and carefully draping the pants she’d been working on back over the hanger she’d took them off before she had company. The tailoring job for them was a quick one, or at least it would be once her brothers left and she could actually do her job. She ran her hands over the fabric of her own pants, smoothing them out before looking out the window to see whatever it was that had elicited that reaction from Angel.

She laughed when she saw the cop car parked out front. “Oh, good. Maybe someone will finally be able to make you leave. You think if I ask real nice they’ll give me a couple pairs of cuffs specifically for you two?”

EZ was smiling and shaking his head at his sister, but then when he saw that Franky was the officer getting out of the car, both he and Angel became way more amused than they were annoyed at the cops being there. “Oh,” EZ said with a nod, “yeah I’m pretty sure he’ll give you whatever you want.”

Angel was on the brink of cackling as he nudged his sister’s shoulder. “He’ll give you a pair of cuffs as long as you promise to use them on him just once.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can’t stand either of you sometimes. I hope he knocks your bikes over,” Evangeline muttered with a tiny smile as she moved away from her little brother and went back behind the desk where the cash register was.

There were only a couple seconds between Franky shutting the door to the patrol car and him walking into the small boutique that Evangeline owned, but it was long enough. Angel was sitting back down again, this time just in a different chair that was towards the front of the store. He was leaning back, practically sinking into the soft cushions of it. His legs were spread farther apart than necessary, one hand on one knee, his other on the arm of the chair that he was sitting in. Meanwhile EZ was standing behind his brother’s seat, hands holding onto the edges of his kutte—his default these days.

Evangeline was looking at both of them with a mildly amused look on her face. It looked like they were pulled right out of a movie or a cartoon—stereotypical goons trying to look tough and not quite hitting the mark but they didn’t realize it yet. Her attention shifted off them when the soft chimes above her door signaled Franky’s entry.

He stepped inside, immediately looking around and greeting her with a casual, “Hey, Evangeline,” as he did. He looked at Angel and EZ, seeing the image they were trying to put off and also not being overly convinced by it. When it was just the two of them separate from the rest of the club, they weren’t nearly as intimidating. It was hard to be scared of the same boys he went to school with. He’d known them long enough to know that whatever macho act they were putting on, really was just an act. They had the same look in their eyes that they did back then when they were about to cause trouble after school.

It didn’t take long at all for his gaze to land on Evangeline, the real and only reason he’d even pulled up to the shop at all. She was standing behind the counter, leaning forward onto it so that her elbows were propped onto the wood and her chin rested on top of her interlocked fingers. Her hair was pulled back out of her face, a convenience style when she was using the sewing machine, but there was one unruly lock that had managed to escape and it was hanging just enough to the side so that her face wasn’t obscured at all. She smiled at him, head tilting slightly as it rested in her hands.

He'd known Angel and EZ for most of his life, and it made it hard to find them intimidating these days. In the same vein, he’d known Evangeline for almost his whole life too. Only instead of that fact making her less intimidating, it almost made her more intimidating—it was a different kind of intimidating than her brothers were aiming for, but still. Sure, it’d been so long since high school, and they were all such different people now in a lot of ways, but sometimes when she was looking at him like that Franky still felt like he was the dorky kid in class who was a little in love with his friend’s older sister. They were older now and he was much less dramatic than the teenage version of him had been. In love was an overstatement these days of course. Not that the semantics of it all really mattered in moments like the one he was in.

“Something I can do for you, Officer Rogan?” she finally asked, proving one more time over that she was the only Reyes sibling who could address him as such without using any sarcasm.

He turned so that he was completely facing her, purposely ignoring the looks he was getting from her two younger brothers. He shook his head as he walked over to her, standing on the opposite side fo the counter from her. “No. Just making the rounds and thought I’d stop by.”

She hummed in amusement as she stood upright again. “Got it. Thought your ears might’ve been burning somewhere out there.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “You talkin’ about me?”

She laughed and shrugged. “Was talking about getting someone to throw these two,” she nodded towards her brothers, “out of my shop. And then you rolled up.”

“Yeah,” Angel chimed in from where he was still sitting, “like an answer to all your prayers, right?”

Evangeline shot her brother a look. “An answer to one of them, at least.”

Franky turned and looked at Angel and EZ. “You know it’s bad when even your own sister is waiting for you two to get picked up.”

Angel stood up out of his chair. In two easy strides he put himself right in front of Franky. There was just enough of a height difference for Franky to have to tilt his head to look Angel directly in the eyes. It was something that would never stop amusing Angel in any close encounters the two of them had.

“I bet you’d be real happy to do that for her, huh, Officer?” he goaded.

Evangeline was standing, arms crossed over her chest as she shook her head at the two of them. EZ was watching her just as intently as he was watching his brother and Franky. The scene was amusing from every angle for different reasons. And, as much as he would’ve loved to see how far Angel was going to take things, he liked his sister too much to let it happen in the middle of her shop. It was one thing when they were at the clubhouse, or Vicky’s. But not here.

“C’mon, Angel,” EZ inserted himself into the conversation, “let’s go. Pop still needs help with the compressor anyway.”

Evangeline cut a small sigh of relief, flashing EZ the quickest of smiles to thank him. “Yeah,” she agreed, “go make yourselves useful somewhere. Por favor. I’m begging.”

She was half expecting Franky and Angel to crash shoulders as the two Reyes boys made their way to the door, but they didn’t. Franky did manage to get the last word in with them, though. Rebutting Angel’s, “Stay safe, Officer,” with an easy, “I’m sure I’ll see you two soon. With the lights and sirens on.”

The door chimed again to signal the two of them leaving. Through the glass windows that made up the storefront, she and Franky were able to watch as the two of them made their way next door to their father’s shop. They were both shaking their heads at the pair of brothers, but for very different reasons.

“Nice to see you boys all getting along still,” Evangeline joked once they were out of sight.

Franky laughed as he put his attention back on her again. “Saying that like I’m the one who started any of that.”

She shook her head as she made her way around so that they were both on the same side of the counter. She leaned back against it, crossing her arms once more out of habit. “That’s not what I said.”

He watched as she crossed one leg over the other, the bright silky fabric of her pants distracting for only a moment before his gaze traveled back up to her face. He saw her knowing smirk and he cleared his throat, hands resting on his belt as he looked down at the floor for a second before getting himself together again.

“They give all the cops that hard of a time? Or just me?”

She laughed. “No one has an easy time with those two…” she trailed off for a moment before continuing, “but yeah you get it a little worse.” She saw the incredulous look on his face and she couldn’t pretend that there wasn’t something endearing about it. “C’mon, Franky. I know you were all friends in school but, you know, they grew up and became members of a motorcycle club. And you grew up and became a narc.”

He laughed, placing one hand on his chest. “Ouch, damn.”

She shook her head as she laughed right along with him. “Their words, not mine.”

They shared another quiet laugh about it before the conversation hit a pause. The only noise in the shop was the music playing from the speakers scattered around, a playlist the Evangeline changed from day to day depending on the mood she was in. Franky looked down at the floor, then around the shop, and then back at the woman standing next to him. He didn’t know for sure but he was fairly certain that she’d been watching him the entire time.

“Talk to me, Rookie,” she said, gently nudging his shoulder with her own. “What’s going on?”

That got him to chuckle. “Evangeline, I told you, I haven’t been a rookie in—”

“Franky, I told you, it’s not gonna make me stop calling you that.” She smiled. “I remember when you were slugging your way through the academy, before they got stupid enough to give you a gun,” she joked. “You’re always gonna be a rookie to me.”

“Almost as hurtful as your brothers callin’ me a narc.” There was a brief pause and he cleared his throat. “I really was just checking in. I think they told me that something about this job has to do with protecting and serving or some shit like that.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I heard the rumors.” Reaching back, she took her hair out of the loose, messy ponytail that she’d thrown it into earlier in the day. She continued to speak as the long, loose waves of hair fell down around her shoulders. “I appreciate you checking in. I’m alright, though. All quiet on the strip.”

“’Til your brothers get here.”

She cracked a smile. “Yeah, ‘til my brothers get here.”

He stepped away from the counter and reached into his pocket for his keys. “I’ll let you get back to work then. Don’t wanna be another distraction.”

Her smile was warm as she shook her head at him. “Very considerate of you.”

He stepped backwards towards the door. “Call if you need anything.”

“911 still a good number to reach you at?”

He grinned. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

She was laughing, mostly to herself, as he turned and let himself back out of the shop. She watched as he went back to his patrol car, noticing how he shook his head at her brother’s bikes on the way. There was a split second when she thought she was going to get exactly what she’d asked for earlier, that he was going to knock them over. But of course he didn’t, not looking to kick up that kind of trouble.

By the time that EZ and Angel came back over to her shop, Evangeline had not only finished altering the pants that she’d been working on earlier when they’d stopped in, but also taken care of another pair in between customers filtering in and out. She considered it a successful day, and the shop wasn’t even closed yet. Judging by the looks on Angel and EZ’s faces, she wasn’t sure if they’d had the same amount of success she did.

“Compressor got you beat?” she asked.

Angel scoffed. “Fuck no. We fixed that shit.”

She looked over at EZ. “Did you really?”

He flashed a grin. “Limping it along until the new one comes in.”

Angel’s head dropped back and he let out a dramatic sigh. “Dude, what the fuck?” He ignored the way that they were both laughing as he focused on his sister again. “So, what’d Rent-A-Cop want, anyway? Y’know, besides your hand in marriage.”

Evangeline rolled her eyes. “He was just checking in.”

Angel scoffed. “Yeah, gotta make sure his precious Evangeline is all good over here.”

She tilted her head. “Why are you saying my name like that?”

Angel gestured to the curb even though Franky’s car was long gone. “That’s how he fuckin’ says it! Swear to God, ‘mana, I haven’t heard that guy refer to you as Eva since he was like, twelve.”

Evangeline laughed. “How dare he call me by my actual name.”

“You know what I mean,” he shot right back, attempting to sound more annoyed than he really was.

She tried to divert the conversation rather than going deeper down whatever rabbit-hole Angel was trying to drag them down. “Why are you guys still here, anyway? Don’t you have motorcycle business to attend to? Parties to throw, windows to smash, all that fun stuff.”

“Party’s tomorrow,” Angel replied with a shrug. “You should come through.” He nodded towards EZ. “Prospect is playing barback.”

Evangeline laughed and nodded. “I’ll think about it.”

The two of them hugged her, taking her gentle cue to get going. Angel pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Just don’t bring the narc as your plus-one.”

She laughed as she pushed him towards the door, but chose not to acknowledge his last comments. “Be careful out there.” She waited until the door to chime shut behind them before she muttered a quiet, “Pendejos,” to herself and got back to work.

Mayans Taglist (please let me know if you'd like to be added!):

@garbinge @withmyteeth @darqchilddaydreamz @artemiseamoon @proceduralpassion

@fanfic-n-tabulous @danzer8705 @justreblogginfics @cositapreciosa @narcolini

[hasellia]

The Process of Frank Herbert writing the Dune series (from my very vague memory of a video essay).

Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. watches Lawrence Of Arabia (1962).

It becomes his problematic fave, and he writes fanficion; “Lawrence of Arabia IN SPAAAAAACCEEE.”

Franklin needs money and decides to send his fanfiction to a publisher. The book becomes an unexpected hit.

He wants to rewrite Dune to repair the ethical problems of his favourite movie, but the publishers tell Herbert that a rewrite or a clone will be seen as a lazy cash grab that would lose them trust.

UH OH! RENT IS DUE!!! If he wants to pay rent and eat a nice dinner, Frankie better write a sequel!

Sequel 1; The story continues, but the supporting characters pine for a better version of their world by vocalising the problems of the MC’s colonialism.

The audience doesn't get it. Maybe it’s too subtle.

Sequel 2: The MC commits major atrocities, including a horrific genocide. He’s not a god or a messiah. He’s just another worthless cog in the machine of colonialism.

The audience feels bad that their hero is seen as a worthless cog. Maybe he just needs Jesus. That way, he can make up for the irreversible loss of millions of lives! God finds a way.

RENT IS DUE

Sequel 3: The MC has a son to carry on his legacy. The son loathes him. He channels his inner cool rebel, angsty Sasuke energy to tell the audience of children that “pot is cool, genocide drools!”

The audience is vaguely offended that Sasuke said pot is cool and still thinks genocide is okay. Or at the very least, the colonialism was okay in the circumstances of the Dune universe.

Patrick is out of patience.

Sequel 4: Sasuke huffs all the pot in the universe and becomes the king god of worms. With his infinite wisdom, he writes a Martin Luther style manifesto of every bad thing his father did. Point for point, sin for sin. The manifesto is within the novel itself and is roughly 97.8% of its reading. Repeated throughout the novel and manifesto and the novel itself is “Colonialism and genocide is NEVER okay. UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE , IN ANY WORLD , IT IS N E V E R OKAY.”

The audience’s main take away is that the king god of worms is cool.

Herb is out of pot to keep the Jesus in him. He is so tired of trying to just F I X these people. He channels every ounce of energy he has left to figuring out a concrete way to explain to his audience how colonialism and genocide is bad. In his late middle-aged life, it’s the only way he can stop himself from picking up a phone book to find and throttle some nerds.

Sequel 5: Out of the sand and ether, Sasuke Luther King God of Worm’s long-lost never mentioned before normal human descendant appears. She walks up to the audience, hold their eyelids open, stares directly at them within a cm of distance from her own, and says; “Colonialsim bad. Genoicide is a bad. Do not do. Is bad. Alway. O.k.?”

The remaining audience says. “ye. ok.”

Franklin Patrick Herbert Junior finally has a win and dies promptly on the spot from exhaustion at the ancient age of 65.

That’s just my guess, though. Most of what I know about Dune is from Jack Saint's video and a 10-second glance on Wikipedia.

[littleautumnboy]

i might post my oc for our life: now & forever in a few days