#ransom my baby

[soliloquent-stark]

'i think this could be the best thing to happen to all of you.'

chris evans as hugh ransom drysdale in knives out (2019)

[jtownraindancer]

oh damn ok

Burn Gorman starring as Richard Carter in Ransomed, 2023.

[keplercryptonomica]

sorry, i’m having more penumbra thoughts

this is the most brilliant, fucked up thing kabert could have done, honestly! since season one, we’ve been making “haha… gay <3” jokes ab nureyev giving juno his name the first time they met, wanting to run away with him while genuinely not knowing him all that well—when REALLY, it simply boils down to: peter spent endless hallucinogenic years without hearing the person he loves say his name. when he finally woke up, he must have felt so incredibly desperate to hear it. so desperate that YEARS later, he met a pretty detective and it came spilling uncontrollably out of him.

not only does peter’s past on saraswati cast murderous mask in a different light, but final resting place??? juno steel locks himself behind that door with miasma, and peter CRUMBLES. juno is the only other person besides slip to know his name And his history with brahma—now he’s going to die, and peter can’t do anything about it (another thing juno has in common with slip).

no wonder he begs juno to run away with him immediately afterwards! yes, love is part of it, but also? it’s a trauma response, babey! nureyev physically abhors the idea of being responsible for ANOTHER person’s demise. he is so incredibly frenzied about stealing juno away to a small corner of the galaxy + keeping him safe and happy.

dear god, every single thing this man has ever done has been a calculated move (or prepping for a calculated move, or dealing with the fallout of said calculated move). he hasn’t had a moment to rest since he was SIXTEEN. he doesn’t think he deserves one.

[martyrbat]

nepo baby azula

[moonyinpisces]

for a human au: once upon a time i tried to do a "the office" style one where they were working for rival firms for years and years (aziraphale perfectly content, Crowley continuously saying this is a "holdover" job despite being there for fifteen years and constantly quiet quitting) in the same building and kept rendezvousing at the shitty cafe across the street and making out in joint office supply closet. i could not make it work but i think you could

skfkskkdkekfke incredible. i feel like i could merge this with government work and write the parks and rec leslie knope aziraphale x ben wyatt crowley au of my dreams

[shadowbends]

“Fevers rarely climb this high without cause,” Draxum observed, finally joining their speculation. Couldn’t leave all the work to the kids. He pressed his lips together in consideration, paying no mind as Huginn swooped in and settled on his other shoulder. Given the state of that warehouse in their final battle? Infection made a likely culprit. “We should check his wounds.” “Right, because we definitely didn’t think of that already!” Donatello flapped a hand in the air, huffing. “Raph and Papá are working on it.” Draxum thought privately that if they were so worried, they could stand to do it faster. He rolled his eyes but held his tongue, then glanced up to see how the attempts to calm the turtle had progressed. “...yeah, just like that. You’re doing great, bud,” Raphael was saying. Beneath him, Leonardo sagged limp into the pillows, unmoving save for the involuntary shivers that shook his body. “Just keep listening to Dad. See? It was just a bad dream. You’re awake now, you’re okay.” “Thaaat is an oooverstatemennnnt~” Lou sang softly, trying poorly to match the melody of the lullaby.

The family uncovers a previously missed complication, and it's not spelling good news for Leo. Mikey and Draxum have a minor disagreement.

[e-m-p-error]

MULTIMUSE QUESTIONAIRE

Tagging: @infernalight, @infernal-feminae, @heartsofhell, @questionablemuses, @because-i-simp, @frostworkxfiction, @deepspacevivarium, @hotelbitches, @voxiiferous

RULES: Answer the questions with the Muses that would best fit the answers. Bonus if you give details why. If tagged, copy and paste into a new post – DO NOT REBLOG!

1) Rank your softest Muse and your toughest Muse. (Personality-wise)

My softest muse is definitely Vick. He's a 0 on the toughness scale, he's a big teddy bear and he will choose kindness over anything else at any point.

My toughest muse is probably Barbie. Girl is tough as nails and will not be stopped if she puts her mind to something. She doesn't take pain as a reason to stop and will go harder when it hurts.

2) Which Muse would blow through $1000 quickly?

Valentino, hands down. He spends $1,000 every day easily on things he doesn't even need. He loves to buy expensive things and will do so at all hours. He especially loves spending Vox's money. $1,000 is a drop in the bucket for him and he doesn't even notice spending it.

3) Do any of them have nicknames? Is there a meaning behind them?

Quite a few of them do!

Valentino answers to Bunny from his lovers, it's a subspace trigger word for him. I assigned him Bunny because he's Cute And Horny, aka a rabbit, and a bunny sub is fairly common.

4) Are any of them up-to-speed on the latest trends? Anyone more old school?

Velvette, Vox, and Valentino are obsessed with always being on top of the next new thing.

Alastor hates new things and will fight them as much as he can.

5) Who has the best relationship with their siblings?

Valentino had a fairly good relationship with his siblings when he was alive. He had seven of them, plus three live-in cousins that were like his siblings.

6) Karaoke night! Who is likely to grab the mic first and bust out a tune?

Beelzebub, Ozzie, Valentino, and Ostello! They all love to sing and party, and they're all pretty good at it. Ostello was a pop-jazz singer when he was alive and before he died in Hell, too!

7) Who is least likely to enter a beauty pageant/model?

Gretchen. She doesn't think that she's very pretty, and would just feel embarrassed even going to watch.

Travis. He is constantly told he's very ugly, and he doesn't have a very high opinion of his looks.

8) If your Muses visited a haunted house where actors scare you, who would panic and who would be unfazed? 

Chazz, Gretchen, Charlie, Anya, Magpie, Summer, Travis, and Vick would be the easiest to scare!

Valore, Dimas, Cash, Glitz, Stu, Paimon, Alastor, Darío, Niffty, and Vox would be the hardest to phase.

9) Are any of your Muses particular about taking certain modes of transportation?

Vox prefers to be driven around and doesn't like driving himself.

Valentino only likes to drive occasionally and prefers pretty sports cars when he does.

Anya and Darío are motorcycle people.

Emily enjoys bicycles!

10) Share a little-known fact about any Muse.

Adam is actually a very good father and he loves kids and babies. He is very tender with children even if he can be harder on them once they have grown into adults.

[smolvenger]

It's probably a miracle that Paris Paloma didn't release Labour until AFTER I completed my Stella Ransome fic or else I would have had it on loop while writing it

[tanoraqui]

another ficless snippet:

“You mustn’t be so reckless,” Eärwen scolded, as she rubbed cool gel over the balrog-whip burns coiled around Anairë’s arm. “What would Ara and I do if you got into a fight you couldn’t get out of?”

“Just fine,” Anairë said distantly. As always when she visited the infirmary ships, she showed no pain, even though the marks on her skin were dark red and weeping. As always—as, it seemed, for the last 600 years—her gaze remained steadily on the eastern shore. “Your daughter still lives. You’ll find her soon, I’m sure.”

Eärwen’s hands squeezed compulsively over her healing-work, at last accidentally eliciting a hiss of pain. She cried, “I wish my sister to live, too!”

[venusstorm]

Sensing a theme here

[lesbianlanval]

I’m against the fandomification of history but I am for the babygirlificstion of Anna Komnena because it is funny

[keplercryptonomica]

rita gathers the aurinkos together to watch a stream one night—not uncommon, considering they’ve all (more or less) fallen into a rhythm of abiding by buddy’s “always, implicitly, as a family.” living on borrowed time is a phrase of the past, of course; a proper thief lives on stolen time. so, they suppose, all the more reason for the crime family to steal another moment to themselves. another uneventful night together before all they have are long stretches of days, eventful and alone, they also suppose—or, peter also supposes.

sure, peter ransom was able to admit to his near-sightedness surrounding the night of the nova zolotovna heist, his thick-headedness in thinking he can shoulder the big, mean world alone (the same trait he admired so instantly when it came to his dear, dear detective—stubbornness had always suited juno better than it had him, he admitted with similar ease). yes, peter ransom was able to admit a lot of things—but peter nureyev still thinks there was some truth in his feelings towards the future. the present is the thing that presses, he had said in the not-too-distant past, and oh, how he wishes he could register that as a comfort, rather than an ever-stifling platitude. “the future can wait indefinitely,” said with such nonchalant bravado that—one thing peter nureyev has no trouble admitting—it reminded him of that owl-eyed man he still can’t help but feel a fondness for. how could it not? even after all these years, he clung to the surname he came up with out of some childish need for comfort, a wry chuckle under his breath. if mag could see him now…

as for the fate of the future: for all peter nureyev knows, it may not even exist. the present is all there is. the stolen moment in wait, waiting for the next stolen moment, and the stolen moment after that. an endless, inescapable cycle peter “for future consideration” ransom may have felt comforted by, but one that sends a chill down nureyev’s spine more often than he’d care to admit. so: no future, no way out, no way to know how much of the present he’s experiencing is actually the present he’s experiencing and—“no one gets a say in stream choice, i’ve got it alllllll picked out”!

(more under the cut!!! heads up for juno steel and the next page (pt. 2) spoilers, xo)

rita’s shrill voice pulls the den of the carte blanche back into existence; vespa trying to position herself to sit taller on the couch so she can nonchalantly drape her arm around her fiancée, and jet positioned just so with a large bowl of snacks (it used to never leave rita’s grip, but after one too many spills during the scarier streams, she now settles for grabbing handfuls of salmon-flavored dusty crunchies from a friendly lap).

an outstretched finger prods the apple of peter’s cheek. “you ready?,” juno asks—he’s wearing one of those classic steel half-smiles, though this one is interrupted by a barely noticeable flicker of concern. 

nureyev notices, though. that’s the thing about the two of them, he thinks, always reading each other to the quick of their core—even when the other would prefer them not to. even when it’s incredibly embarrassing for your paramour to border on pausing family stream night just to make sure you’re okay; embarrassing and endearing, in equal parts. “always, my love,” nureyev nods (swallowing thickly, jealous of ransom’s overconfident self-convincing). he plucks juno’s index finger, still hovering in midair next to nureyev’s face, and pulls the calloused hand it belongs to into his own smooth palm. a flash of teeth peek out from behind the detective’s upturned lips, easier than ever to fluster him. 

juno really has been like this since they arrived on the carte blanche: the same headstrong lady that nureyev once offered his name to upon first meeting, just softer around the edges. he likes him like this, he thinks. he likes him all ways—loves him all ways—he’s just of the opinion that juno has earned the right to be soft, especially after so many years of finding a home in that hyperion city hardness. even if it means that, sometimes, this softer juno treats nureyev with so much gentleness, he doesn’t know what to do with it. it’s not the affection he takes issue with (he’ll happily accept whatever affection juno offers up), but the sense of pity nureyev is sure underlies it. are even his deepest insecurities so glaringly obvious that juno, ever the professional private eye, has read them as simply as a run-of-the-mill case file? his weaknesses so profound that his own dear detective treats him like one of the fragile items he’d be tempted to steal?

he maneuvers himself to wrap around juno from behind, nureyev’s chin perched on the warm shoulder in front of him and one pair of their hands still loosely intertwined as the stream starts up. 

if not pity, then what could he have possibly done to warrant such sweetness? he’s definitely had his moments, nureyev reasons. between his fateful face-off against the guardian angel system and his assistance in preventing miasma’s martian culling alone, his “enduring moral core” (the calling card buddy had so bluntly informed him of) had surely earned him the right to skim off the top of the galaxy’s limited supply of goodness. but even if the sum of his varied actions had turned out to tip the scale in his favor...

an explosion lights up the screen, and a shower of salmon-flavored snacks are jolted from their bowl into mid-air. “my apologies,” jet laughs quietly, “that was... louder than i had anticipated.” rita chatters away as buddy mindlessly picks dusty crunchies out of vespa’s hair, and juno glancing over his shoulder with those big brown eyes of his warms peter down to the tips of his toes.

nureyev just has a hard time believing the soft, sweet, goodness can exist, is all. he had spent a whole other lifetime entrenched in the feeling of bliss, and it makes his mouth dry to so much as think of it fleetingly now. he does what he can to manage the constant sound of dripping in his head, to fend off the sneaking suspicion that the endless, inescapable cycle of youthful saraswati nights and jarring hospital room realizations (pressing present and indefinite, bleak future) is all there is. but he still braces himself each time juno utters his name oh-so tenderly in private, waiting with baited breath to see if “nureyev” will pull him away like “petya” had the power to before. and he still hopes with all his might that juno hasn’t noticed his repeated, momentary blanching, that this is the one thing he can still protect him from.

he remembers his near immediate urge to whisk juno away to an unreachable corner of space; bouncing from planet to beautiful planet, a once tangible future filled to the brim with dahlias and roses. how foolish to have ever thought he could simply run away, when his debts loom like the shadow of a sky-laser overhead. he remembers their first perfect night together, and he remembers the cold of the otherwise empty bed seeping into him afterwards too, nureyev confesses. how could he forget? he had spent so long turning it over in his mind, letting its tragic singularity turn him bitter. there it was, the confirmation he had been waiting for that it was too good to be true all over again.

there is another thing nureyev fears peter ransom got right: perhaps juno had been justified, leaving him in that hotel room. after all, wouldn’t he have done the same? ”when trouble arises, i disappear...” nureyev understands the dire importance of getting out while you still can. perhaps juno had simply heard it in his head back in that martian tomb, and had taken the motto to heart. 

maybe it was for the best, then, before the wiles of the carte blanche had thrown them together again. like nureyev said, he had already lived a full life. he cannot risk juno being crushed under the weight of peter nureyev’s past (not to mention his guilty conscience) before he gets to live a full life of his own. he won’t do it. he won’t ask that of him. he can’t bring himself to, no matter how much he loves him—perhaps because of how much he loves him.

so, nureyev will appreciate it for now, that elusive goodness he cannot seem to look at head on. he will forget all about the blade (and the map and the book and the key) burning a hole in his pocket, and he will practice music for his captain and her soon-to-be spouse. he will cradle warm mugs of nutrient paste at the kitchen counter, and he will let himself hold and be held by a certain gruff detective he will be ever so sorry to part ways with again.

resolved, peter passively enjoys the rest of the stream curled behind juno—right up until the end, of course.

“pretty good,” vespa mutters (high praise coming from the ship doctor’s lips, and rita glows from the casual admission). “PRETTY good? that was one of the best ones so far, vespa!,” juno’s grumbles vibrate against peter’s hollow chest. “not as good as the legend of good cop, but...” he starts again, met with more quiet laughter from a relaxed jet. buddy sighs a dramatic sigh. “vespa, darling, i’m sorry, but i have to agree with juno. not about the legend of good cop—dreadful stream, worst in the series—but i much preferred the one we watched last time. the trope felt a bit tired, wouldn’t you say? rita, dear, perhaps next we return to…” her voice fades as nureyev’s mind wanders to where the nearest source of water is. asked and somewhat answered, then, when he blinks the sudden wetness away from his eyes. surrounded by this ragtag group of five he has found himself a part of, a sudden sense of belonging washes over him—but so does the dread, the ice-cold impermanence threatening to pull him under. knowing it is his turn to offer his opinion, peter clears his throat.

“ah, so… it was all a dream?”

[rans0m-drysda1e]

😵‍💫

[softerpixels]

taylor......... girl.................

[sleepdeprivationitself]

Tell me why Duolingo knows the Worst Times to send notifications and always uses them

Why is it that, as I am looking for my sweet darling angel baby cat, calling out up and down my street, looking under every car, I see a Duolingo notification telling me to practice. I don’t know what it said as I deleted the notification immediately. I will not be doing a lesson today out of spite

[e-m-p-error]

🕯️ from Val about Vox, Chazz about Azzy, Chazz about Izzy, Vick about Azzy

send me 🕯️to hear my character’s inner thoughts about your character.

[ Valentino ]

"I don't think I'd be happy if I didn't have Vox. When I first met him properly my entire goal was to kill him, and I think if I had... I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be who I am today. Daddy's important to me."

[ Chazz ]

"Az is probably the coolest dude I've ever met. If he asked me to do anything, I'd do it, no questions. I trust him more than I trust me. I'm really stoked we're close."

"I'm not going lie here, Izzy was forbidden fruit for so long I wasn't sure entirely what to do when he got that free pork pass with us. But... Shit, man. You ever just kind of get with a married dude and kind of wish he wasn't married?"

[ Vick ]

"I think Azzy is the best thing that ever happened to us. I'm so happy he loves us both. I couldn't leave Mags behind or out, I don't think, but he's perfect for both of us. I love him more than I think I've ever loved anyone."