#so sad that he was introduced and barely got stunts to himself

[playgirlpontius]

Who's your favorite member of the new jackass forever cast?

It's a tie between jasper and eric manaka I think?

I really like how energetic jasper is and just how funny he is when he makes his dad do stunts with him LOL... he was like a perfect addition to the crew bc he just fit in so well and had that energy I think

And I really wish we had more of eric manaka in the movie bc hes so funny 😭😭 the credits scene where he runs into the door with the wooden bar and falls is SO funny to me god...

[hmshermitcraft]

Grifalse please i'm starving

False’s wings were broken at a young age due to an arena fight that she lost, she hasn’t been able to fly for years and to begin with she barely knew how. Her wings hurt her more often then not and she hates staring at the way they look crippled so she hides them under her jacket, that is just long enough to hide every feather.

She does take good care of them though, stretching them out and preening the feathers, she just doesn’t think she’ll be able to fly with them do to the trauma they went through. Her wings that resemble a peregrine falcon, theoretically should be able to carry her with the wings span being 28.7 feet long but they spasm and ache with every movement and while they don’t look broken anymore besides for the small scar on her back from where they were broken, and the fact that grew to their full size instead of staying stunted like she was told could happen, she just doesn’t believe they retain enough muscle to lift her off the ground.

Then came in a rather pretty parrot hybrid, his indigo blue feathers that slowly fade in a cerulean blue, drew her in. She slowly spent days trying to figure out a way to talk to the pretty parrot to at least get his name, so when she was doing her daily stretches, and hoping to ease the pain of her wings by doing so, she was surprised and a bit annoyed when the pretty parrot crashed directly into her while he was flying at full speed.

He introduced himself as Grian as he offered to help her up, she notice that he was staring at her wings, with his hand twitching at his side, she felt defensive when he reach his hand out to touch her feather and as she flinched away he retracted his hand. Though she wasn’t really surprised when he asked her to fly with him, she had quickly made an excuse that she was busy that day and darted away out of sight to calm her racing heart, she stares into the distance with the guilt of making his hazel eyes cloud with sadness.

After she stopped feeling guilty, she realized that she was quite happy with the fact she got his name, and maybe she may had fallen for him way before she got his name but she’ll blame her attraction due to bird instinct instead of her being a sucker for pretty people.

He kept coming by every so often asking her to fly with his or handing her shiny objects, which she treated with such care, and she knows enough of bird courting and mating rituals that he trying to court her with his advances.

She feels sorry when one day after he asked her to fly with him, that she can’t fly with her wings anymore, keeping to herself that she doesn’t think she’ll be able to even handle trying. When she does tell him he fumbles and apologizes for being so instent, and maybe she feel a bit guilty as she watching his pretty wings curl around him and the guilty face so she leans down a press a kiss to his cheek. Smiling at him and turning away, knowing she just accepted him as her mate.

And maybe one day when she isn’t afraid of failing she’ll ask him to guide her and help her fly once more but until then she is quite content with the fact she had gotten him as her mate before anyone else can snatch up her pretty parrot.

[gronknuts]

YESSSS THANK YOUUU Maybe for your rarepair? Or whatever hcs you'd like to share! Your strickrotlakebach hcs were lovely btw!

aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA TYSM CRYING SOBBING

I have a couple of rarepairs but right now i think hmmm stuhl (stuart and uhl)

uhl dosent really hesitate in eating tobys taco in the reckless club episode therefore he must eat tacos therefore he must purchase from stuarts taco van

stuart always thought he was cute but uhl didn't pay him much attention back then

I have no way to describe it other than strong emotionally stunted meets adorable over emotional

and I mean very over emotional, stuart cries at every movie he watches even if it isn't really that sad.

stuart also cries whenever he suddenly is very proud of the tarrons. which is a lot.

post-eternal night uhl realised he, like many others, didn't have a phone anymore because it broke in the panic

so uhl went down to stuarts place to get a replacement cheap (cause he dosent trust new phones and they're expensive) and stuart was like oh!! my god!! him!! it's the guy!! the hot guy!! oh my god!!

they started talking, uhl got a new phone yada yada

stuart was friends with Nancy at this point and was like oh... my gods Nancy... I am so 🏳️‍🌈 (Nancy has been knew, he's dating her bf after all)

yada yada yada stuart asked him out uhl said yes while internally bouncing around the entire shop n they started dating

uhl very so much admires how freely emotional stuart is, as he finds it hard to express how much he cares about his students or friends

stuart introduced him to SO many new movies after learning he barely watches anything

uhl is the guy that goes "what" at every movie ref anyone makes

stuart begs him to upgrade his stuff to akiridion tech cause they'd work faster and have so much more uses than just calling and texting but everytime uhl refuses. he loves stuart and the tarron children very dearly but he simply will never understand new tech

speaking of the tarrons, he'd felt responsible for them pretty much since the beginning but after morando was defeated and he learned everything they went through he broke crying and they had to comfort him

he started dating otto a little while after dating stuart and by the time stuart revealed that he was a durian post morando he was shocked, yes, but after he went home he was like ¿?¿ AGAIN??? ANOTHER ONE???

uhl ranted to barb about how he couldn't believe that he ended up dating ANOTHER non-human without realising it and barbara just kinda *sips tea* "Felt that."

barb and uhl share tips on how to take care of their inhuman partners

when stuart introduced varvatos to uhl he was like H... OLY??? SHIT??? mentally cause there was no fucking way he was attracted to ANOTHER non-human

uhl and varvatos aren't together in any way but karl is most definitely attracted to him

learning he found varvatos attractive did spur another emergency barbara visit btw

uhl officially has a dead nose as after a while of being around stuart he was pretty much immune to his funk. he had to have special perfume made by the tarrons sent on the dl to spray all over his house n clothes after people started complaining about it.

uhl has picked up stuarts sayings which often finds his students confused, especially when he mixes it with German angrily

uhl finds stuarts accent adorable

their relationship isn't physical in that sense (stuart is asexual) but stuarts love language is most definitely touch and gift giving

uhl finds himself half asleep cuddling stuart while murmuring his love in German (uhl dosent know that stuart learned German while on earth and stuart never intends on letting him know that.

stuart however shamelessly romances him in durian and uhl has no idea what it means but gets the hint.

karl will never get sick of listening to stuart rant

[catmetchu]

Bots/Cons discover their charge is a Puella Magi (Part 1/4)

You are partners with Miko and got introduced to the bots together. Both of you sometimes use your magic to fight cons but only when you won’t blow your covers.

Listen to this while reading

Optimus:

He noticed the mysterious beams/lasers/bullets/swords etc. that aided them during battle early on, and figured out your secret before you knew it.

So, one day, he asked you two in secret about your special powers and you had to spill the beans. He advised you to not use your power to fight Decepticons, but instead to save it up for witches. He also managed to persuade you into telling the rest of the team about it, as he was afraid of your safety.

Everyone was slightly concerned about your lives as Puella Magi, but Ratchet wouldn’t stop loudly voicing his complaints about illegal contracts with children who can’t consent…

Optimus never stopped you and Miko from fighting witches but he asked you to always inform the base beforehand. He also asked anyone to help you two, when they’re off duty.

When the witchs' origins were revealed, Optimus was visibly upset, but he was more sad, than angry at the Incubators. He began comforting you and spending the little time her had with you, after learning that Magical Girls don’t live past their teenage years. He also took it upon himself to hunt witches sometimes and always had grief seeds in his subspace. (He asked everyone to store some as well)

You felt bad for putting this burden on Optimus, with all the other responsibilities he had to carry you couldn’t accept his concerns and grief seeds without feeling guilty. You have always seen him as a father figure and a hero, which was who you wished to become, but you soon realized how delusional you were, thinking that being a hero was so easy.

Optimus soon noticed you avoiding him and fighting witches all on your own, and giving all the grief seeds to Miko.

You tried sacrificing yourself to make up for your mistakes.

Your grief seed hatched when you asked Optimus to drive you to a forest to relax a little. You knew your end was near and you can’t bare to let him see your downfall, so you escaped into the forest and your witch was born.

You left him a note, saying: “I’m sorry for making myself a nuisance to you and that I couldn’t make you proud. I would have already turned into a witch as you’re reading this. I’m sorry.”

Ratchet:

Ratchet found out about your identies when Miko was so badly wounded during battle with a witch, that you had to call him for help.

When you told him about your secret he was PISSED! How could you subject yourself to such danger! And Kyubey is getting a wrench to the skull when he sees them!

He immediately called the base and informed everyone despite you pleading him not to.

He is absolutely against you fighting witches. The first few times he even went after your cellphone signals, but he always ended up losing you after you crossed the witch’s barrier. It took Optimus himself to convince Ratchet to let you go.

He would force you and Miko to spar with team members, commissioning training dummies from Wheeljack for you to sharpen your skills. However he would not let you on the battlefield, despite Miko’s complaints.

When everyone learned of the truth of witches. He completely flipped out, cursing out the incubators. He even broke one of his own tools out of rage. You attempted to calm him down, saying that being a magical girl isn’t all that bad, given that you have saved plenty of people.

“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villian”, he had said to you, almost like he had someone in mind.

When Bulkhead's processor was overridden by data logs, you saw first hand how Miko’s soul gem darkened rapidly. Her resentment towards the Decepticons made her use up all her magic in a battle that followed. She turned into a witch before she could see Bulkhead recover.

After learning about what happened to Miko, you developed intense hate towards the enemy. You swore you would avenge your friend and partner.

Your intentions were no longer to fight witches, but to kill every Decepticon you crossed paths with. Ratchet noticed the shift in attitude in you and confronted you, which lead to you lashing out at him. You called him weak and a bad friend for not doing everything in his power to fix Bumblebee's voicebox, while you are fighting to avenge your friend.

Your grief seed hatched, when the realization dawned upon you, that you have just hurt your best friend. Your thirst for revenge ended up corrupting your moral believes. You pushed away those who cared until it was too late…

Your witch was born inside your very own bedroom, as you whisper your last words: “I lived long enough to see myself become a villian…”

Bulkhead:

He discovered the identity of both you and Miko, when she didn’t answer his calls past the time of her detention. You two always use detention as a cover up to fight witches.

This time you were both heavily wounded and barely made it out the labyrinth alive, when he found you two exiting the witch's portal in your magical girl attires.

After some explanation he was a little upset that you didn’t tell him, but also mad at himself for brushing off the weird things you two would do sometimes. Like, finding excuses last minute to not go to the base, or the weird beams/lasers/bullets/swords etc. he would see being shot at cons, on the battlefield. If he had noticed and helped fighting these monsters, maybe you two wouldn’t have nearly died.

He agreed to keep your secret from the rest of the team, but made you promise to always inform him when you need to hunt witches so that he can have your back.

When time allowed it, he would fight witches alongside you.

When the secret of witches was revealed he had sworn to punch Kyubey with his wrecking ball if they ever crossed paths. He understands that entropy must be stopped but he only wishes there were better solutions then to sacrifice innocent lives.

Knowing both you and Miko’s lives were significantly shortened as a result, he spends any time he has with you and Miko, watching TV, playing games, playing music.

He also made sure to hunt extra witches to supply you with grief seeds.

Throughout this time he hasn’t told anyone of your identity. But the truth got revealed when Miko died in a battle with a witch and the team was informed of your secret identies.

Everyone was upset that you didn’t tell them, especially Ratchet and Arcee, having lost two partners, she was especially upset. But Bulkhead defended you saying that Kyubey tricked you two into contracts and you kept the team in the dark to protect them.

Your grief seed hatched during a mission when Breakdown teased Bulkhead about the absence of Miko, and you attacked him out of rage. With all the blame you took for Miko’s death, your soul gem darkened rapidly. Bulkhead noticed this and called in back up.

The bots tried to pry you away from Breakdown but you fought them off. After realizing that you have hurt your friends, and murdered someone who wasn’t a witch, guilt pushed your soul gem over the edge.

Your last words before the Bots escaped were: “I’m sorry I killed someone again.”

Smokescreen:

When Smokescreen came to earth, your secret was already known to the Autobots. However, unlike everyone else from the team, he was ecstatic! He immediately overwhelmed you with questions: Why did you become Magical Girls? Can you really wish for anything? Can I become a Puella Magi?

The mission of Magical Girls, for Smokescreen, was the equivalent of a dream come true. Maybe not quite the life of a hero he had dreamt of, but saving innocent people from evil witches was close enough.

He would beg you to let him join you in battling witches. You two weren’t so sure at first, but you did accept his help in the end, since you don’t have to share grief seeds with him. And his superior firepower aided you both greatly in fighting witches.

Killing witches together became valuable bonding time between you and him. Miko would tease you about being more than just friends with him. You find yourself finding much enjoyment in hunting witches when he was around, and would put effort into impressing Smokescreen with your fighting skills, performing stunts etc.

When the truth behind witches was revealed, immense guilt filled your soul and you felt resentment towards witch hunting, and avoided the witches instead.

Smokescreen noticed your shift in attitude, so he tried to convince you to keep fighting by reminding you that you’re doing this for the greater good, that you are a hero.

“Maybe there is a way we can help those witches, and solve the problem in a peaceful way instead! Maybe then they’ll drop a soulgem instead of a griefseed or something.”, he had said. Those words filled your heart with warmth and you were willing to try. And you and him will succeed!

You told Miko of your plan. She was skeptical but complied with you anyway. If it didn’t work you can always just kill the witch.

The next time you found a witch you tried talking to her, dodging her attacks than trying to fight her. But it didn’t seem to take effect on her, but you had faith in saving her poor soul. You kept trying and trying, and your soulgems kept darkening and darkening. But you kept pushing.

Until you saw Miko’s death before your eyes. Smokescreen was quick to kill the witch before it could get to you.

Only for another witch to be born in the exact spot. Your griefseed hatching right after your last words: “I just wanted to make things right.”

[joetatoeheads]

“If he wanted you he’d make an effort if he missed you he’d make time” X David Dobrik

Word Count: 1.6K

Warnings: None

Masterlist

There was an unspoken thing and you and David. There were obvious feelings but David’s schedule had made it impossible for you two to have any type of relationship. David sometimes barely had time for friends, if it didn’t involve content some days.

You, on the other hand, had nothing to do but hang out with the other members of the vlog squad. You appeared on some vlogs with Zane and Heath and appeared on some of Carly and Erin’s videos too. You were another Matt but were treated better because David had a soft spot for you.

The simple fact that David would never pull a prank on you was the first sign. Then every day he would ask where you were and if you wanted to hangout. This constant need to be with each other was overwhelming in the beginning. He cared for you, you cared for him, and then things changed.

Just as quickly as David wanted you by his side, he didn’t want you anymore. The vlogs became his concern and you had no objections. The vlogs took precedence before you met David and they would still take precedence after you were gone. It was a slow change that slowly broke your heart.

Missed hangouts, unanswered text messages, and apologies as David left you all alone some nights were just the beginning.

“What are you doing here?”

Y/N turned around to find Zane, Heath, and Mariah by the door.

“David canceled again. I was already here before I got the text.”

“Oh baby girl,” Mariah’s sad voice had made things worse.

“Come out with us.”

“What are you guys doing here?” asked Y/N.

“Zane forgot his camera when he was pregaming earlier,” explained Mariah.

“Mariah’s right, come out with us! If Zane gets drunk enough then maybe you’ll get to see David.”

Y/N agreed and she did end up seeing David for a couple of minutes. They said hello and exchanged a couple of sentences. David even apologized and promised to make it up. A movie night was arranged later in the week and when the day finally came David barely paid attention to you.

Either he was trying to edit or doing a brand deal and was trying to post. You didn’t mind the lack of attention because Youtube was his life and how he made a living. When the movie ended you turned to David who was on his phone as he was before.

“David?”

“Yes?”

“Are you okay?” asked Y/N.

“I am. Why?”

“It’s just that we’ve barely had time to hang out that’s all. I could help with some things if you like.”

David gave her a big smile, “I’ve been busy but I’m not going to bother you with my stuff.”

“I could see you more if I started helping.”

“Thank you for offering but I have everything under control.”

“I just want to hang out with you. I never see you anymore,” said Y/N.

“We’re hanging out now,” observed David.

“The first time in weeks.”

“Look, I like you, you know that but I can’t spend every second with you.”

Y/N nodded and let things go and David never knew how much his words hurt. So slowly the drift widens as the days went by. Everyone noticed but no one could do anything about it. David cared for Y/N just not enough to make things official nor enough to prioritize her above other things.

From seeing David less and less, things changed once again when Y/N wasn’t invited places anywhere. Parties and hangouts never included Y/N and the rest of the vlog squad started to notice. The vlogs stopped featuring Y/N but she was still being in Zane, Heath, Carly, and Erin’s videos. So of course gossip stirred.

David didn’t care for gossip but when Corinna and Natalie finally mentioned something, David realized he was toying with Y/N. Keeping her close enough to have someone, but keeping her far enough so it wasn’t anything serious. David wasn’t interested in anything serious and that wasn’t his fault.

Days after being confronted, Y/N went to David’s with chipotle and was met with tired eyes and mumbles. The guys had a late night and Y/N was more than happy to cheer up David and things were fine until David wanted to talk to alone. It was in his bedroom that David confessed his feelings. He didn’t want a serious relationship with Y/N and all she could do was nod even if she wanted to cry.

“Are you okay?” asked David.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” smiled Y/N.

“Everyone made it seem like you would cry and hate me.”

“I could never hate you.” But Y/N did cry when she went back to her apartment.

The smile was gone from Y/N after that. Her routine was still the same. Film some videos, appear in some vlogs, and bring over food to David’s. The first sign that David was annoyed with Y/N spending less time with him was when he found out she was spending more days with Zane, Matt, and Jeff. His little side comments didn’t alert anyone in the beginning.

Then the food stopped coming. No more chipotle or homemade cookies from Y/N. One night Zane was passing around cookies and David could recognize them from a mile away.

“Hey where you’d get these?”

“Y/N she made them this morning and I thought I’d bring what’s left of them.”

“I missed them so much! I can’t get them at David’s anymore,” said Carly as she tried to get as much as possible in her hands.

Then there was getting food. Y/N didn’t come by with Chipotle or Jimmy John’s. David had to find out that Y/N was stopping by to eat with Carly, Erin, and Matt. Y/N was ignoring David and he didn’t like it. After a missed phone call and unanswered text messages, David was trying to find out where Y/N was.

“Dude she’s at Jeff’s. She helping him out with a video,” said Zane

“She never does that,” replied David.

“Ya she does man. Jeff thinks she has a crush,” added Matt.

“On him?” asked David.

“No on Oscar.”

“Y/N doesn’t have a crush on Oscar.”

“Why because she can only have a crush on you?” asked Erin.

Everybody had uncomfortable faces. David found an excuse to go to Jeff’s finding Y/N talking to Jeff. Oscar was on his phone and David went up to him first. He introduced himself to the group of people in Jeff’s apartment and finally made his way to Y/N.

“Hey man what’s going on?”

“I came to pick up Y/N,” smiled David.

“Me? Why?”

“Movie night,” answered David.

“Oh. Okay… like right now?”

“Well I was thinking of getting some food.”

Y/N nodded but Jeff gave David a weird look. After picking up chipotle and going back to an empty house, Y/N turned to David.

“Where is everybody?”

“I thought you’d appreciate just the two of us.”

“It’s been so long since we’ve ever been alone like this,” laughed Y/N.

“I asked them not to come tonight,” confessed David.

“Okay, what is going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You have never done anything like this before. If you think I’m mad at you, I’m not, I could never be.”

David looked at Y/N, with a small smile, “Are you sure about that?”

Now Y/N was confused, “What are you talking about?”

“You ignore me now. You don’t come around anymore and now you’re helping Jeff film videos?”

“I’m not ignoring you. I just stopped putting you at the top of my list now. Besides, I’m helping Oscar more than I’m helping Jeff since he does most of the prop work.”

“Let’s go on a date,” suggested David.

Y/N laughed at the bluntness, “Are you serious?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You have never shown interest in me like that.”

“That’s not true.”

“David yes it is.”

“I don’t treat you like Natalie or Corinna. I treat you differently because I like you.”

“What happened to not liking me that way? You told me that to my face.”

“I did like you. I do like you but I just never have enough time to put effort into any relationship. If I’m going to be your boyfriend I want to put all my love and time into it and not give you this half-ass version of me,” explained David.

“Wow didn’t realize there was a whole you, that I had yet to see,” joked Y/N.

“I’m serious. You’re too pretty, too smart, and too everything for me just to drag you around to stupid parties and dangerous stunts. I like you too much for that.”

“Say I say yes to the date where would we be going?”

“I would take you to the fanciest restaurant in LA and buy you 100 roses. I would try and show you I’m in this for the long run.”

“This can be our first date.”

“What?”

“This can be our first date. We’re both already here and all alone. We can just watch a movie and order Chipotle,” suggested Y/N.

“I don’t deserve you.”

“Well no, you don’t, but things happen” Y/N walked over to the couch and started going through movies, “Also you’re paying for chipotle. This is a date after all.”

[kisskissbanggang]

Righteous pt. 4

[<10 Min. Read, ~2.5K Words -- Church!Mark x Female Reader -- Smut. -- Temptation, Ethical Grey Areas, Improvised Bondage, Oral Sex, Semi-Public]

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Finale | Masterlist

This was becoming tiresome. Another trip home, but you couldn't bring yourself to be excited to mess with Mark this time around. It was a little sad, honestly. Your sordid affairs had been a highlight of the last few months for you, but now the idea had run a little stale. Your parents seemed more than confused when you suddenly didn't feel like going to the church picnic with them. You still looked cute -- a simple sundress, a cardigan, some sandals --but you knew this wasn't exactly what you wanted to be doing with your Saturday.

Why, then, was it the case that you burned a little seeing Mark hanging out with some pretty girl? He had an arm around her shoulder, introducing her to his friends and seeming to have a great time. Mark took notice of you, somehow feeling your gaze from across the park, his eyes widening enough for you to notice from where you were. I see you’re back in town again, you could almost hear him say, I’m not surprised you never called. You promptly turned your attention elsewhere, trying your best to hang out with your brother and his friends. Now you felt Mark's eyes boring into you from afar every so often. It would've been great to go home but you knew you didn't want to rush your family or just be rude by grabbing an Uber. As usual, your next resort was killing time in the public restroom on the other side of the park once you were sure you actually lost Mark’s attention for a bit.

That is, until a hand lurched at you from the men's restroom, yanking you inside and pinning you to the inside of a stall door. The lock flicked closed and you felt your blood run cold. You thrashed and attempted to scream before you got a good look at your attacker.

"Mark?!" You nearly cocked your wrist back for a slap. This was a bit much. Maybe you wound him too tight. He held a finger to his lips, attempting to hush you before his hands wrapped around your waist. You stood, paralyzed as Mark instantly dove into you and ran his lips along your neck.

"I like her, you know," he groaned against you, "Why do you always show up when things are going well for me?"

Your hands pressed against his chest, not nearly as hard as they should, your heart racing in your ears as Mark nibbled and kissed and sucked on your pulse.

"You come to town, you get me going, you never call, and it happens all over again," Mark continued, nearly hissing in your ear as his hands roamed your body.

"Mark, it's only happened a few times --" you coughed out, so dizzy from the rush of his arousal causing your own to stir in your gut. He was so strong. His grip on you tightened more than you thought it could as you struggled against him.

"A few times is too much already, and now I need more." Mark guided your chin so you would make eye contact with him. "Can I kiss you?"

You were stunned at his question. He pulls this stunt but now he wants to ask? This was more complicated than you thought. What was even more complicated was that you wanted him to. You both stood, breathing hard in your adrenaline as you considered what was at stake here. "Do you really like her?"

"I do. She's amazing. We've been on a bunch of dates already and I'm enjoying myself before I'm fully committed. The crazy thing, though, is that when I go home after our dates and feel lonely at night, it's just you I'm thinking about," Mark spoke softly, his lips almost touching yours as his fingers slipped your cardigan open, "It's just this body I'm thinking about." His fingers started toying with the three buttons on the bodice of your dress, throwing off the pace of the shiver running up and down your spine. Mark gently spread your knees with his where you stood, sliding between your widened stance, right up against you.

"So, yeah, I really wish you'd kiss me," he whispered, plucking the top button open.

"... because the last few nights have been really lonely..." Then the second.

"... and I've been going crazy thinking about how amazing you look when you cum, how you look when you take my cock -- " The third.

Mark only smiled to himself, victorious when you smashed your lips to his in a hungry kiss. All your buttons undone, he slipped open the bodice of your dress, letting out a full groan when he felt your bare breasts in his hands. His tongue wrapped around yours as he groped you, his hands never really deciding where to stay.

You originally came here not wanting to deal with Mark at all, but now you were eagerly cooperating as he turned around with you and pushed you down onto the toilet seat. The thick haze of sex in your brain made it difficult to recognize how gross this was. The only thing that mattered in the moment was how dirty it felt. It was incredible to feel like you drove Mark to this as he sank to his knees in front of you. His warm hands contrasted with your cool thighs exposed to the air as he lifted your dress and slid your skimpy panties off of you. He held onto the soaked lace as he gently spread your legs. Your arms wobbled as you leaned back, not really finding anything to brace yourself on and sucking in air as Mark's lips grazed over the lips of your pussy. A choked moan forced itself out of your lips as you felt Mark's tongue on your clit, the exclamation becoming a muffled yelp as he shoved the panties in your mouth. He licked into your very core, his tight grip on your hips holding you steady as you squirmed and whimpered into your gag. For your first time experiencing it from him, you were suddenly very sorry you'd never asked Mark to eat you out before. He was surprisingly attentive, his passion certainly making up for any minor misgivings about his technique. You were sorely disappointed -- upset, even -- when he abruptly stopped.

"If you weren't wet enough yet," Mark smirked as he rocked back up onto his heels and stood, "then you definitely are now." He pulled the gag from your sore jaw, taking a moment to admire your flushed face as he used the dripping panties to bind your wrists together. Mark made a show of unbuckling his belt and unzipping his jeans, savoring your starving eyes as he released his hard cock. "My turn," he ominously teased. He put a gentle hand to the back of your head and guided your lips deep around his pulsing dick. You both understood how much you missed this. You found yourself gladly, hungrily gagging on the thick cock in your throat, saliva coating your chin and dripping onto your exposed breasts as you met his thrusts into your mouth. You twisted your bound wrists to let your fingers reach your clit, sighing around the stiff organ as you felt how wet you were.

Mark grabbed your hair, leaving you gasping for air as he pulled you off of him and hoisted you back up. "I'd say we're both wet enough," he smiled, pressing against your ass as he shoved your chest against the stall door. He kicked your feet apart, spreading you and arching you back as he pulled your dress up over your ass. You supported yourself on your shaky arms, finding yourself begging as Mark stroked the head of his cock against the lips of your pussy from behind.

"Is this what you wanted?" Mark whispered, using his free hand to get a fistful of your hair and yank you back to growl in your ear. "You wanted to make me want you and need you and go crazy over you?"

"Mark, please," you groaned, trying to fight against him and grind down on his cock. He held you firmly in place.

"You wanted to make it so that fucking you is all I think about now?" His frustration seemed to be fueling his excruciatingly slow pace as he teased the head of his cock in and out of you.

"Please, Mark, I need it."

"Is this what you wanted? You wanted me wound so tight that I'd even settle to fuck you in a filthy restroom at the park? Because you definitely earned it. You're not leaving without my cum." The hand in your hair clamped over your mouth as Mark impaled you on his cock, his own strangled groan struggling to stay hushed as you screamed into his palm. You could feel his triumphant smile behind you as he thrust hard. "Perfect," he moaned, "even better than I remembered."

Mark's fingers began firmly rubbing your clit, urging you to cum too soon. You fought it, pressed hard against the rattling stall door as Mark fucked you like his life was ending. "Come on, baby," he cooed sweetly, "I know you love how I make you cum." You cursed yourself for how right he was. Your orgasm was threatening to prove him right at any moment. You bit into your knuckle as your legs tensed, your thighs clamping together and struggling to hold you up as you suddenly hit the peak and descended into your climax. An unfamiliar sensation arose as you came back to the real world. You were... Crying? Actual tears streamed down your face, choking out sobbed moans as you came down from your orgasm. Whatever it was, you loved it as Mark gently pulled out, turning you around and looking startled for only a moment.

"That good, huh?" He laughed softly as he kissed your forehead. He sat back on the toilet seat and led you to straddle his lap and sink onto his cock. "My turn, baby. I've been needing this." You nodded earnestly, feeling nothing but the compulsion to make Mark cum, letting out an exhausted whimper as his familiar stretch returned. Looping your bound wrists back around his neck, you began to rock your hips on his. He held tight onto your ass and hips, his lips predictably grabbing hold of one of your bouncing nipples. "Baby--" he moaned around your breast.

"What is it?"

"Say that thing I like."

It was such a simple and telling request. It was impressive to see how far you'd pushed Mark over time.

"Fuck me, Father." You felt the sweet smile pull on your lips as Mark threw his head back with a groan, almost as if you professed your love for him.

"Again, baby, say it again."

And you did. You repeated it as much as he wanted as Mark licked and sucked on your nipples, occasionally biting a hickey onto your chest as you rode his cock. You repeated it, reveling in how much you'd seemingly broken him down. You repeated it, terrified as you realized you actually felt another orgasm coming. This never really happened, especially not without any other stimulation, but perhaps all the surrounding factors made sense.

"Mar -- Father, I'm going to cum again," you desperately moaned, bouncing harder on his dick. Mark's grip on your ass tightened, his fingertips digging into you.

"Oh, Jesus, fuck, then get me there. I want it so bad, baby, make me cum with you," Mark groaned.

"Mark," you moaned definitively. He picked his head up from your breasts and met your intense gaze, "cum with me. Make me cum on your cock. No one does it like you." Mark cursed into your mouth as you wantonly pressed your lips to his, angling your pussy to better rub your sweet spots together. His hands slid under your ass, helping meet your thrusts as you finally clutched onto each other in your mutual orgasm, his hot cum spilling into you.

You held each other for a moment, feeling markedly different as you breathed against one another. Something had certainly changed today and, for once, you wanted to do something about it. For now, though, you waited for Mark to pull your wrists back from around his neck and untie them. He offered them back to you. "I already have a pair, if you remember," he smirked.

"And now you have a collection," you giggled back. You folded them a little and poked them into the pocket of his jeans. You both shared a small laugh before you impulsively pressed your lips to his, surprising you both. Wordlessly, you pushed off of him and cleaned yourself up as much as you could. You lamented the hickies bloomed across your chest and gracefully chose to button up your cardigan. Mark just watched you, almost dazed as he smoothed out his clothes. He even held the stall door and bathroom door open for you.

You both blinked in the harsh sunlight, a stark difference from the dim lighting of the restroom. Mark still seemed lost. "How about," you carefully offered, "we go out sometime? I haven't been very fair to you. I'd love it if you give me a chance."

You were back in view of the church picnic. You checked the time. You'd been gone for a full half hour. It seemed like the better part of a whole day had gone by. That girl Mark liked was approaching. You needed to make an exit soon. Mark still gawped at you, unbelieving that any of this insane gesture seemed to have any effect on you. 

“Of course,” Mark babbled, “I’ll need to break up with my girlfriend and probably make plans to take a trip up to the campus, but absolutely.”

You stopped in your tracks. The girl was only maybe 20 feet away. Spitting distance. You wheeled back around, shoving hard against Mark’s chest.

“’Girlfriend’?!” You spat. The rest of the community from church perked up at your exclamation. Mark’s babbling didn’t improve as dozens of pairs of eyes turned to look at him. “How long?”

Mark hesitated. You shoved him again. “How long?” You repeated, seething. A few dates? You should’ve known better. You should’ve known Mark would say anything to get into you in that situation. 

“A few months.” Mark admitted quietly. The girl was staring at you both, eyes darting between the both of you, horrified and speechless. The tears were returning, and you were so, so angry for that.

“So you mean this whole time?” You laughed at the absurdity, the audacity of the situation Mark let you fall into. You looked at the growing crowd of people. Mark had offered you a knife, so you were going to use it. “So,” you brazenly continued, “this whole time? We fucked at church all these times and you never thought it pertinent to mention you have a girlfriend?” 

You stepped forward, snatching your panties out of Mark’s pocket and throwing them into his face. Fuck Mark. Fuck church. Fuck waiting for your family. You were getting a ride out of here as soon as possible. You tried giving the nameless, forgotten girl an apologetic look as you stormed out of the park, leaving a morbidly curious mob of onlookers behind you to pore over Mark as you left.

[aceonice]

Hello, I've never done that before, but I would like to give you a prompt from the list: 22. Space AU + 18. Circus AU with Magnus Bane, Ragnor, Cat, Raphael and others of Magnus found family. I wouldn't say no to Malec either. But I like the focus on family and friendships. Uhm. I hope I did this right. I don't have a Tumblr site, but I'm Sashy on ao3.. Any way. Have a good day/night.

Sorry this took a while, but I’m so slow with prompts oops. Anyways, enjoy “Space Circus On Edom (Surprisingly It's Not A Crack Fic)” below or read on AO3.

When Magnus finds Camille cheating on him, he does what he does best. He runs.  

He doesn’t know where he’s going when he storms out of the apartment, his stuff thrown haphazardly into a duffle bag, but he knows he can’t stay there any longer. He’s considering buying the first flight he can find out of New Manchester when he stumbles across a worn poster. It’s torn at the edges and stained from rain, but the words are still bright, if slightly blurred, and it catches Magnus’ attention.

Got An Interesting Talent?  

Audition for the Space Circus!

Competitive salary with free room and board.  

Experiences you won’t find anywhere else!

Call the number below for more information.

Magnus has never been to space despite his continuous travels. At twenty-three he’s seen almost every part of the earth, but something (usually money) always kept him from  the space cruises.  

Now he pauses, runs a finger along the poster, feeling the torn edges and wondering if they’re still looking for performers.  

He’s not sure anywhere is far enough away from Camille, but space is probably his best bet. He programs the number into his phone and makes the call.

A day later Magnus takes the bullet train to Old London to audition. The entirety of his belongings, nothing more than the duffle bag he’d packed when he left the apartment. He knows that even if he doesn’t get into the Space Circus, he’s not going back. There’s nothing left for him in New Manchester.

But he does get in. The interviewers, long-time performers and high-ups in the lucrative industry, appreciate his ability to throw flaming batons while dancing around the room to an upbeat song, not missing a step.

He’d never put his talents together in that way, but he’d picked up juggling when he was twelve and living in New New York, an entirely man-made island built over where the state had sunk into the sea nearly a century ago. Then, at fifteen, he’d joined a dancing group for a year while visiting Spain. He’d continued learning on his own ever since.  

A week of practice was all it took for him to put together a routine impressive enough to get him a place in the circus aboard the Edom Spacecraft. It makes him wonder if they’re truly desperate of if he’s more talented than he believed, and he chooses to think it’s a combination of the two.

It only took another day after auditions before Magnus had signed all of the paperwork and read all about Edom. It was one of the most popular space crafts in the Space Circus industry. Edom was one of the many crafts that provided entertainment filled cruises to the moon and back, each trip lasting five weeks in totality. Magnus would be preforming five days a week for four weeks out of the cruise with the rest of the circus, having two days off as well as the week for which they were on the moon.

It’s a surreal experience being loaded into a pod ship with another new recruit, the pod set on an automatic course for Edom. They’re joining a week late, the craft already a week into its route the moon, but the hiring managers had been desperate for more performers. Something about someone getting horribly motion sick and having to leave, throwing the circus into disarray.  

Magnus takes a moment to study the inky blackness of space as they cross out of Earth’s atmosphere, the stars sparkling in the distance, the planet getting gradually smaller below them. He thinks perhaps he should feel sad to leave it behind, all of the people on earth, all of the places he’s been, all of the memories he’s made. He mostly feels excited and a little nervous. There will be people on Edom- only around three thousand compared to earth’s nine million- and there will be chances to make new memories. He thinks he might miss the greenery, the plant life and the scenery, but it’s been replaced with the sight of  space  and he can’t find himself to be disappointed in that.  

There was never much keeping him on earth anyways. The thought itself makes him a bit sad so, rather than focusing on that, Magnus turns to the man beside him.

He looks barely old enough for space travel, meaning he’s at least seventeen. His hair is cropped short and his lips are pursed tightly together. He could be a statue for how much he moves.

Magnus sticks out a hand, the black polish on his nails chipped away from the fresh application he’d done before the audition. “Magnus Bane.”

The kid studies him for a moment with a cool gaze before reluctantly shaking the proffered hand, his grip solid. “Raphael Santiago.”  

He has a slight Spanish accent that Magnus picks up on. “What’s your act?”

A hint of a smirk crosses Raphael’s lips. “I’m a knife thrower.”

Magnus raises an eyebrow. “Are you good?”

“I haven’t killed anyone yet,” Raphael says dryly. “What do you do?”

“I dance and throw fire.” Which, now that Magnus thinks about it, is probably the coolest profession he’s ever had. And it’s  in space.  It’ll certainly diversify his already staggered résumé.  

Raphael glances at his hands. “Have you ever burnt yourself?”

Magnus snorts at the question, turning his hands over to show his palms. A scar crosses the palm of his right hand, but they’re free of burns. “I use cold fire, just in case. It’s safer.”

“Boring,” Raphael mutters, but there’s a spark in his eye that suggests he’s interested.

They make easy conversation the rest of the ride, blatantly avoiding any talk of their pasts. It becomes abundantly clear to Magnus that he’s not the only one running away from something.  

When their pod lands in the hangar of the spacecraft, a woman with dark skin a kind smile greets them at the entrance. “Hi, welcome to Edom! I’m Catarina, but everyone calls me Cat. I’ll be working with you in the circus. I’m supposed to show you to your rooms and then to the dining hall so you can get acquainted with everyone. Actual training won’t start till tomorrow.”

She shakes Raphael’s hand and then Magnus’ as they introduce themselves. She hands them each a packet. “It has a map of the craft, the keys to your rooms and the staff hallways, and some additional information.”

She leads them down the hall, “It looks complicated at first, but you get the hang of it pretty fast. This is one of the main halls.” Magnus takes in every bit of it, admiring the long window that seems to run along the entire side of the ship, displaying the star-speckled sky. He can make out the moon in the distance. “They told me you’re a knife thrower. And Magnus, I heard you’re a fire baton-twirler.”

“That sounds correct,” Magnus says, refocusing on the woman leading them, “though I’ve never heard it called that. What do you do?”

Catarina grins back at him, dark eyes alight with joy. “You probably noticed the craft is gravity controlled?”

“I imagine people would be less interested in circus stunts if gravity wasn’t an issue,” Magnus muses.

She nods as she swipes her keycard over a lock and pulls open a heavy silver door. The hall behind it is all one shade of gray and Magnus has to assume it’s one of the staff halls. “Exactly. Even more so for aerial acts.”

“You do aerial?”

“Silks and trapeze,” she confirms with a bit of a smile. “I’m starting to learn lyra now.”

Magnus doesn’t know what most of those words mean but he nods along as if he does before asking, “How long have you been here?”  

A flicker of a shadow pass over Catarina’s face and her next words are spoken softly, “Almost two years. And now? I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Literally, I guess. But we’re here! Raphael, this is your room. Magnus, yours is the one across the hall.” She pointed to the corresponding doors. “You can leave your things here and we’ll head for the dining hall.”

Magnus took the time to set his single duffle bag on the bed in the center of the room. The bedroom isn’t large by any means, but it’s comfortable looking. It’s all shades of gray, remarkably similar to the hall but there’s a large window against the wall that shows the space unfolding around the ship. The bed is soft enough and there’s a dresser and a nightstand with a lamp. Magnus thinks it will make a decent living space.

“I know it’s not much,” Catarina says from the door. “But we get free meals and access to all ship activities as well.”

“It’s fine,” Magnus says as he joins her in the hall. Raphael is there as well, leaning against his door. “Not the worst place I’ve lived.”

“Seconded,” Raphael mutters, running a hand through his hair.

Catarina nods like she understands too well. Magnus supposes people with  nice  upbringings don’t run off to join the space circus. “Let’s get to the dining hall. I’ll introduce you to some more of the circus members.”

The dining hall is extravagant and filled to the brim. Soft, upbeat music plays over the speakers but it’s barely audible under the drone of conversation. Most of the occupants look like they make more in a day than Magnus has made in his entire life. They’re dressed in extravagant fashions, their hair styled perfectly. Although, some of them are wearing swimsuits and appear to be damp which makes Magnus wonder if the ship has a pool. He’s sure they’re all paying guests. People rich enough to afford space cruises.

There are several options for food which Catarina points out, informing them which booth has what kind of food. “You can get anything you want, but let me introduce you first.”

She leads them through the throngs of people to a table occupied by a large group. To Magnus’ relief, most of them are dressed fairly casually like himself. They don’t appear to be overly concerned with their looks. Catarina stops at the head of it and taps the man sitting closest on the shoulder. “Ragnor, this is Magnus and Raphael, they’re the new recruits.”

Ragnor studies them with a stone expression before nodding. When he speaks it’s with a distinctly British accent. “Welcome to Edom. Has Cat told you how the dining hall works?” He stands and places a kiss to Catarina’s cheek.  

“Of course I did. I just wanted to bring them over before they got food.”

With introductions out of the way, Magnus splits off from Catarina and Raphael to get Asian food while they head for the Italian booth. Ragnor accompanies Magnus, explaining that while the circus is technically run by a highly paid official in charge of the entertainment on Edom it’s handled mostly by him and Catarina for all intents and purposes.  

“I’ve been here five years,” Ragnor says as they fill their trays with a selection of mouth-watering food. “Best years of my life.”

“Catarina said something similar,” Magnus remembers “You really enjoy it?”

Ragnor nods. “There wasn’t much left on Earth for me. These people have become my family. You’ll understand soon.”

Family. Magnus hasn’t had anyone to associate with the word in longer than he cares to think about. It causes a pang of longing in his chest.  

“Of course, there’s nothing wrong with not being invested in the circus outside of training hours, you’re free to enjoy the craft and mingle with the cruise-goers, many people do. But a lot of us also tend to stick together, look out for each other. We’re the ones that are still here cruise after cruise.”  

The idea of having someone, multiple people even, who will look out for him feels foreign. He’s always looked out for those around him, the girls and boys he’d dated, but rarely did they return the favor. He desperately hoped what Ragnor was saying was true. “And what’s your act?”

“I help with a bit of everything, but my most interesting act is aerial stunts. Catarina and I do a few routines together.”

“I look forward to seeing that.”

“Everyone is fun to watch,” Ragnor says dismissively as they make their way back to the table, curving around the groups of people. “But you get used to it.”

Magnus blinks. “To being around ridiculously talented people?”

Ragnor smirks back at him, “To being around freaks. Oh, don’t look so offended, we’ve all made peace with it. I recommend you do the same- you'll be a lot happier here.”

He quietly sits down, contemplating Ragnor’s words. He supposes he’s never been  normal , what could it hurt to try on another label? Everyone did seem to be happy with their uniqueness.  

His first day of training is almost overwhelming. It goes by in a blur of names and faces and helping the others with their acts. Cat helps him with his dance, figuring out the parameters of it on the stage they’ll be using. He has to change a few steps, but it remains largely the same.

Somewhere near the end of practice Magnus finds himself watching Raphael practice, throwing knives at a spinning board around the cutout of a human body. His aim is perfect, each blade embedding into the board only an inch from the cutout.  

“Wow! You know this is my least favorite act to participate in, but at least it looks like you won’t be accidentally slicing me up!”

Magnus and Raphael turn at the sound of a new voice. Simon, one of the other members he’d been introduced to earlier, is at Raphael’s side. He looks less like a circus performer and more like an accountant in Magnus’ opinion. Then again, none of them really look how he imagined circus performers would. Certainly none of them wear clown makeup- thank goodness.  

“Only if you get on my nerves,” Raphael says in a way that Magnus  thinks  is sarcastic, but he doesn’t know Raphael well enough to be sure.  

Simon holds up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Message received! Want to practice with a real body?”

Raphael nods and Magnus watches as he removes the cutout, helping Simon onto the board, latching the holds in place.  

Magnus feels his stomach twist in sympathy when the board begins to turn. He can’t imagine it’s fun to be up there. Still, Simon looks relatively calm. Raphael’s face is scrunched in careful concentration as the board begins its second rotation.  

Then Raphael lifts his hand and throws five blades in rapid succession. They land on either side of Simon’s head, one under each armpit, the last between his legs. Raphael goes to stop the board’s spinning while Magnus whistles lowly. “Impressive.”

“That’s always terrifying,” Simon mutters as he hops down. “But I’m unscathed so not bad.”

“Magnus!” Ragnor calls out for him. Magnus turns and sees him standing beside a lithe brunette. Ragnor waves him over. “Help me hold this.”

It’s a pole, long enough that when he picks up the other side, it puts a difference of at least fifteen feet between him and Ragnor.  

“Don’t drop it,” the brunette warns before climbing onto it and standing precariously on the thin bit of metal. She doesn’t weigh enough to make it truly heavy, but Magnus steadies his posture to ensure he won’t drop it. He’d hate to send a fellow performer to the medics on his first day.  

“Lift it to your chest,” Ragnor calls. Together they lift the pole. The brunette barely moves despite the change. Magnus watches as she takes several easy steps before jumping into a front flip, grabbing the pole with her hands to spin around it before righting herself.  

“Dot, watch your posture,” Catarina instructs as she comes to stand by Magnus’ side. Dot nods in response, clearly focusing on her routine and balance, before jumping into a cartwheel. Catarina turns to Magnus. “How’s your first day going so far?”

Magnus doesn’t take his eyes off Dot, carefully holding the pole as still as possible. “Everyone is amazing to watch.”

“Years of training. You’re not so bad yourself,” Catarina says, patting him on the shoulder. “If you can help out with Dot’s act regularly, we’d really appreciate it.”

“Of course, I’ll help however I can.”

“Great, thanks. Let me know if you need anything.” She moves away as Dot jumps off the bar, doing a backflip before landing on the floor.  

Magnus lowers the pole as she makes her way to him. She looks friendlier than when she had first approached him. “Thanks for not dropping me.”

“Of course.”

“You’re the new guy, right? Magnus or Raphael?”

He holds out a hand. “Magnus.”

Dot shakes it, looking him over, “I think you’ll fit in well here.”

He wonders if she’s calling him a freak, but he looks over the performers, takes in the smiles and looks of concentration and thinks being a freak might not be so bad if it comes with friends.

[terri-does-gods-work]

Swing scene 3.0 (a tyrus one shot)

Word count: 2340

Disclaimer: This one is a little sad and also involves small mentions of homophobia.

(Apparently writing Tyrus fics helps me)

TJ paced around his room in the t-shirt Kira made for him for Costume Day the week before. He felt dirty. Ashamed. Guilty. Kira kept texting him, asking if they could meet up. TJ wanted so badly to ignore her, but he knew what would happen if he didn’t. He had to tell Cyrus. He had to explain what happened - what Kira said the morning of Costume Day.

Kira made him wear that ridiculous “dribble” t-shirt as much as she could, wherever they were going. He couldn’t understand why, but he didn’t dare ask her. Today, they were supposed to be going to a new diner that had opened a few blocks away from The Spoon. When TJ asked why they couldn’t just go to The Spoon, Kira’s eyes widened. She huffed and told him that she didn’t want to risk seeing Buffy (because Kira was not a fan of hers, to say the least).

After forty-five minutes of pacing and muttering to himself about Cyrus, TJ finally stopped. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, hoping something would come to him. He had no new messages from Cyrus and couldn’t find a way to start a conversation again. He didn’t even know if Cyrus would talk to him.

TJ decided what he wanted to do. He left. Empty-handed, without so much as his phone. His parents weren’t at home, so he didn’t have anyone to answer to, at that moment. He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to see Cyrus. He wanted to explain why he did what he did. He had no choice. But he wasn’t sure if Cyrus would understand, because TJ wasn’t so sure, himself. And it didn’t help that he wasn’t sure how to say it, either. Still he walked on, with purpose. He never looked up from the ground. He knew where he was going, though. The swings in the park. That was where he would find Cyrus, and how he would avoid the girl who was making his life hell by telling him that “Hell” was where he was headed.

Twenty minutes later, he was there. No sign of Cyrus, he thought, and sat himself down on one of the swings. He glanced at his watch: 4:42 pm. He knew that Cyrus’ dance practice ended at 4:45, so he waited. TJ turned his head towards every sound that came from the park – a twig snapping, a child screaming, even the rustling of the leaves – but it was never Cyrus.

TJ looked over at the swing next to his. He remembered how Cyrus was sitting there the day he (sort-of) apologized for the gun thing. He remembered how he told Cyrus that he was the only one he could talk to like that, and he meant it. It’s just, this time, he didn’t have the words. And, boy, did he wish he did.

About a half hour passed and Cyrus still hadn’t shown up. TJ started swinging. As he did, he subconsciously began to sing Cyrus’ swing song, the one he’d walked in on him singing before he told him about his dyscalculia. When he realised what he was doing, he smiled to himself. Cyrus was probably the only person who could make him smile, right now, and he wasn’t even there.

TJ stopped singing when it started to get dark. He couldn’t go home. He couldn’t face his parents, asking him where he’d been, or his phone, which probably had 50 missed calls and 100 messages from Kira, and zero messages from Cyrus. He wasn’t hungry so he figured, why not stay? He told himself he’d wait a little while longer, just in case Cyrus showed up. So, he waited. And waited. Until, suddenly, it was pitch black except for the moon and it had begun to drizzle. Please don’t start pouring, TJ thought to himself. But then it did. TJ could feel his throat close up and his ears become red. He started shivering, teeth chattering, as his eyes welled up, but the tears merged with the raindrops that were falling on his face nonstop.

Eventually, the crying warmed him up enough for him to fall asleep, right there, on the swing. And so, he did. He could worry about tomorrow when it comes.

***

Cyrus sat up in his bed and looked to the clock beside him. “3:38,” he said, groggily. He wondered why he was awake. He had woken up reasonably early because he had school, and he’d had dance practice after that, so there’s no way he wasn’t tired. The last time something like this happened, he woke up the next morning to find his parents finalizing their divorce. Something must be wrong, he thought. He wasn’t in the right frame of mind to think about what it was, so he tried to go back to sleep. But he couldn’t.

All Cyrus could think about was that day. Costume Day. The day TJ Kippen bailed on his own idea to do Kira’s. Kira? Of all people, he thought, as he stared at the glow in the dark stars on his bedroom ceiling. Cyrus couldn’t even bring himself to talk to TJ. Not a single text message he sent, nor a meme on Instagram. It was weird to him, but he felt too betrayed to give TJ a chance. ““You’re the only person I can talk to like this” my ass. He couldn’t even pick up the phone to call me,” Cyrus said to himself.

Part of him wanted to hear what TJ had to say, but he tried his best to crumple that thought up and throw it away. He hadn’t visited the swings in just over a week. He didn’t know what he would do if he saw TJ there. Run away? Yell at him? If he was being honest, he’d probably freeze for the rest of time.

Cyrus decided that any more thought he put into this was futile and forced himself to go back to sleep, which he did, until his alarm started blaring three hours later. Cyrus groaned and hit his alarm clock aimlessly, in attempt to locate the “off” button. He got out of bed and followed his usual before-school routine and opened the door to Andi and Buffy, like clockwork. The three of them walked to Jefferson Middle School, talking about Marty, and how Buffy clearly liked him “like that”.

The day goes on as usual. Cyrus doesn’t attempt to find TJ, even during lunch. No more TJ. He tried to convince himself to get the boy out of his head. It worked, until between English and History class he passed by Dr. Metcalf’s office.

“Vivian Kippen?” the receptionist said. A woman with a striking resemblance to TJ stood up and walked into Metcalf’s office. Cyrus promised himself he wouldn’t think about TJ, but what if something really was wrong? What if he had woken up in the middle of the night because something happened to TJ? Why was his mother here, at school? Calm down, Cyrus, you’re overthinking this. TJ probably skipped class to hang out with his friends. He had seemed to have reverted to his old ways.

The part of Cyrus’ brain that told him to talk to TJ was too strong. But TJ wasn’t around so his next best option was Vivian. He waited outside the office and stopped Vivian as she walked out.

“Excuse me, are you TJ Kippen’s mother?” he asked, barely audible.

“Yes,” she looked worried, “have you seen him today?”

“No, sorry. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him,”

Vivian’s eyes began to tear up. She took a deep breath and said, “Teej didn’t come home last night. I hoped he would be at school, but I guess he isn’t,” she choked back her tears, “I don’t know what happened, he seemed fine when his father and I left to work yesterday,” she leaned against the wall as tears rolled down her face. Cyrus didn’t know what to do. How do you console the mother of a boy who bailed on you, then went missing?

As much as Cyrus didn’t want to worry about TJ, he had to. TJ wouldn’t just disappear like that, would he? Cyrus thought, as he pat Mrs. Kippen on the shoulder.

“The school is calling the police. He’s never done anything like this before!” her puffy eyes turned towards Cyrus, “Are you friends with TJ?”

Cyrus contemplated his response. Was he his friend? After everything that happened, Cyrus couldn’t be sure, but he ended up replying, “Yes, I am,” he sighed, “Don’t worry, the police will find him soon.”

***

After History class, Cyrus was done for the day. He walked back to Metcalf’s office, and sure enough, Vivian was still there. Next to her stood a tall, uniformed man. Cyrus walked up to the two of them and introduced himself to the man.

“Hello, officer, I’m Cyrus,” he said nervously, his hands sweating inside of his pockets.

“Good afternoon, I’m Officer Penn. I assume you’re a friend of TJ Kippen’s?”

“Y-Yes, that’s right,”

“Officer, I think you should check The Spoon and,” Vivian started, her eyes shifting as she tried to remember the places TJ often visits, “the Jungle Gym. He works there,”

Officer Penn turned away from Cyrus and back to Mrs. Kippen, “I’m on it.”

Vivian and Penn left the school in search for TJ.

Cyrus began to walk away. He wanted to ask the officer if he could update him but couldn’t bring himself to say it. He was still mad at TJ. He was probably off doing some ridiculous stunt with his friends. Apparently that apology by the swings didn’t mean anything.

The swings! Cyrus thought, I have to tell Metcalf. Cyrus ran back into Metcalf’s office, where he was filing papers, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Dr. Metcalf, I think I know where TJ is!” Cyrus panted, out of breath.

Metcalf jumped back, startled, dropping a few papers on the floor.

“You do?” he started, as he picked up the fallen sheets, “Tell me. I’ll call Officer Penn,”

“The swings in the park,” said Cyrus, “Is it okay if I come, too?” Cyrus sighed, “I’m worried about him,”

Metcalf raised his eyebrows at Cyrus, “Okay, but please try not to interfere with what the officer is doing.”

“I won’t. I promise,” Cyrus said, a satisfied smile emerging across his face.

***

Cyrus lead Dr. Metcalf, Mrs. Kippen and Officer Penn to the swings. The swings with which TJ and Cyrus were very familiar. Cyrus stopped a few yards from the swing after he noticed a boy sitting on one of them, his head hanging how. Vivian shouted, “TJ!” and ran towards him. The rest followed suit, Cyrus last.

“TJ,” Vivian broke down beside the boy, “I was so worried about you,” she sniffled, trying to hold back her tears, as Cyrus did the same from further behind. Vivian hugged TJ tightly, but all TJ did was stare beyond Penn and Metcalf, at Cyrus.

TJ’s hair was damp, and his lips were blue. His eyes were puffier than his mother’s, half open, with dark circles under them. Cyrus zoned out looking, looking at TJ. He heard Vivian crying in the background, along with murmurs from Penn and Metcalf, but he couldn’t care less. His eyes were fixated on TJ’s, and TJ’s were fixated on his.

Dr. Metcalf and Officer Penn wave to Vivian, telling her that they’re leaving. Cyrus heard TJ ask, “Can I talk to him alone for a minute, mom?” He pointed at Cyrus. Vivian nods and tells TJ to come home right after.

Cyrus slowly made his way to the swings. TJ gestured for him to sit, but Cyrus refused.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Cyrus started.

TJ looked at the ground, “I’m sorry, Cy,” he took a shaky breath before continuing, “Will you let me explain what happened?”

“Go ahead.”

“I came here because I thought you would be here, but I guess not,”

“Why didn’t you go home, Teej?”

“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go back and see my phone blowing up with messages from Kira instead of you,”

“Kira?”

TJ sighed, “She’s the reason I didn’t do the costume with you,” he licked his lips, “She came up to me the day before Costume Day and asked me if I wanted to do a costume with her. When I told her that I was already doing one with you, she got mad,” TJ paused for a moment and looked up at Cyrus, “She’s been blackmailing me. She threatened to tell the school something about me if I didn’t hang out with her. She basically forbid me from talking to you, which wasn’t that hard, considering I upset you enough to stop talking to me,”

“What did she threaten to tell people?” Cyrus asked, concerned.

TJ’s eyes started to well up. As tears started running down his face, he said, hesitantly, “Cyrus?”

“Yeah, Teej?”

“I’m g-gay,” TJ stared at Cyrus, anxious to hear his reply.

Cyrus let out a loud sigh, “That’s okay, TJ,”

“It is?”

“Yes!” Cyrus exclaimed, a relieved smiled on his face, “TJ, being gay isn’t a bad thing. Not at all,”

“But Kira told me th—”

“Would you rather listen to someone you’ve known for barely a week, or me?”

You. Always you, TJ thought.

“Let’s get you home. You must have been freezing,” Cyrus added.

They started walking but TJ was still shivering, the tears left marks on his face. Cyrus noticed that TJ was still worried. His eyes were on the ground and he was fiddling with his fingers.

“TJ?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m gay, too,” whispered Cyrus.

The corners of TJ’s lips turned up and his eyes lit up like New York City at nighttime.

“And,” Cyrus sighed, “I like you,” he muttered, hoping TJ wouldn’t catch it.

“I like you, too,” whispered TJ.

The boys looked at each other and smiled as they walked to TJ’s house.

[aliypop]

A New Perspective

Word Count: 2,285

Character Count: 12,389

A/N: This is an au that I worked on with @totally-completely-obsessed​ With Barry and my Oc Yonah so I hope you guys enjoy it too!

Summary: When Barry Allen senior and new kid of Gotham Academy comes to flaunt his parent's riches he meets someone who reminds him her bite is better than his bark.

Warning: Hinted smut 

"Did you hear about the new kid?" a group of girls were chattering down the hall of the academy as if they had nothing better to do with their time, "I heard he's like super hot," Yonah Ezra and Dick walked down the halls as they usually did every day, but something about today was different everyone had been talking about some new kid who graced Gotham with his presence so to speak, and Yonah already wasn't having it,  Gotham academy was her kingdom and if anyone was going to steal her shine it would have been Oliver himself,

"I heard he's hotter than Oliver Queen.," Dick whispered already feeding into the gossip of the school,

"Shut up Richard,"

"Sorry, Ezra.." he glared at her. 

Coming down the hall was a young man who had the darkest of hair and the greenest of eyes with the brightest smile the world had ever seen, and it made Yonah sick to her stomach, he looked like solid Teflon in person, and for that she hated him. From what was conjured up about him, his father was a very well known doctor in Central City who had received a job offer to move his practice to Gotham city to then be funded by Gothams very own elite man of the hour Bruce Wayne or more so known to Yonah a big mistake, 

"So, you're the talk of the town?" Yonah said walking towards him, She could smell the cockiness radiating off him and she liked it, she knew that she would become a challenge for him and soon he'd be begging on his knees for her as most did. 

"Names Barry Allen, and you are-"

"Too expensive for you," Yonah laughed as she then whispered, "You try taking my spotlight, and my father will send you right back to that little town of yours.." 

"Excuse my sister.. my twin sister!" Ezra said taking Yonah by the arm as she stuck her hand out for him to shake it, 

"She's.. charming," he said with a laugh afterward, one so fake that not even a game show host could copy it, " like my maid.." he mumbled, "Barry Allen by the way, "He winked kissing her hand, "Ezra Shanel Wayne.. and that's my sister Yonah-"

"Princess! Yonah that is," she pushed through, "And the guy over there is our brother Richard," Ezra rolled her eyes at her sister, the bell had then rung as millions of students gathered together to head to their respective classes. Yonah and Ezra who always were the first ones in the class sat in their usual seats row 1 the first front 2, 

"What was that back there?" Ezra asked looking at her sister in disgust, 

"What was what? oh, you mean with that Allen guy.." Ezra shook her head as Yonah laughed, "He had to know his place... " she trailed off hearing a group of girls walking into the room,

"So, do you have a girlfriend?"

"I did.. her name was Iris.. but things just didn't work out.." he shrugged,

"Well, I heard there's a Gala at Wayne Manor, and everyone who's anyone is going.."  Barry looked over at Yonah as he sat down next to her, Yonah looked as though she was gonna be sick while Ezra snickered,

"You again?" he laughed, Yonah continued to look straight ahead while he kept talking, "So, you're hosting a gala. " 

"Yes, and what about it Mr. Allen," her eyebrow raised up as she turned towards him, "You want an invite, "

"It's only polite or do they not teach you that at princess school," 

"If I wanted to listen to an asshole I'd listen to my own farts.." she glared at him,

A few hours later and Yonah was now in her fencing 101 class in which she was known as unbeatable even by her own coach, though she was captain of it, putting on her gear, Rosa who was her sister's girlfriend handed her a foil before sending her on her way.

" By the way, you know you're fencing that new kid right," Rosa asked as Yonah held her helmet, "Then I have no mercy to show him.."  she shrugged walking out to the arena, Barry, on the other hand, was nervously standing there as the crowd of students gathered around, he had heard a lot about who his opponent could be, and he hoped that it wasn't Yonah, with the curly hair and eyes that sparkled- and what was he thinking,

"I won't go easy on you Allen, " Yonah said stepping onto the mat, 

"Hit me with your best shot!" he cheered.

"I've been wanting to hit you all day.." she snickered getting into position,

"En Garde!  Pret, Allez!" 

Yonah gave him the first hit and barely enough time to fight back, she quite liked the way he looked sitting on the ground looking up at her, it made her feel powerful, "You're pissing me off.." Barry mumbled, watching the way she walked back to her spot on the mat if he didn't have his helmet on you'd be able to tell he had hearts in his eyes, Yonah turned to look back at him "If your mad use your anger to destroy me.." she laughed, "If you can .."

"Oh I wanna destroy you alright.," he mumbled,

"En Garde!  Pret, Allez!" 

"I thought you and Oliver were finished, after the whole homecoming situation where he got juice on your dress?" Ezra said a few weeks had passed by it was now the night of the big Wayne gala hosted by their parents, Yonah groaned as Ezra sat there placing her tiara on her eldest sisters head, "I only got back with Oliver in case he shows up.." she said insisting on Barry, 

"Will you stop acting as if you don't like him!" Ezra grumbled, "And don't say you don't I heard you last night," she glared at her,

"I have no idea what you're talking abou-" 

"Oh, Barry~ please you moaned his name in your sleep!"  she laughed, "Something you didn't even do with Oliver, your own boyfriend,"

"That's cuz I was busy moaning it at him, but you wouldn't know that cause you do the same with Rosa!" She growled back at her, "Rosa is my girlfriend first off!" she whispered, "Oh don't get quiet now, Ms. moans in Spanish," Yonah stuck her tongue out, 

"At least she doesn't go for 15 minutes!" Ms, unsatisfied!" Ezra shouted back.

"Barf breath!"

"Idiot sandwich!'

"Nerfherder!" Yonah shouted at her.

"Oh, it's on!"

"Girls!" Alfred cleared his throat stopping them just in time, "Please compose yourselves, it's time for you both to arrive, and as for you Ms. Yonah," he glared at her then moved away to reveal Oliver behind him "No wild stunts you two," he mumbled watching Oliver run over to kiss Yonah.

"Introducing Master Dick Grayson," Alfred said "Alongside him  Master Jason Todd, Master Tim Drake, and Master Damian Wayne, with Master Duke Thomas," he said proudly watching them walk down from the staircase and inside of the monstrosity that was the gala, Barry waited to get the first glance of Yonah, the woman who had been on his mind for weeks in an annoyingly lovesick way,

"And Now announcing the entrance of Princess Ezra Shanel  Wayne accompanied by Rosa Santiago. " Ezra shook her head as she walked down the steps almost tripping down them, "And Now announcing  Princess Yonah Shathinia Shanel Wayne the 1st accompanied by Oliver Queen of Starling City," 

Barry felt his heart fall to his stomach which was odd because he didn't care that much about Yonah, or so he thought, but she looked happy up there in her black ball gown encrusted with crystal,  as she walked down the steps Oliver who had forgotten to hold her hand walked down without her. Yonah placed her hand on the railing as it brushed into another hand that helped her down.

"Oh Thank y-"  dark brown eyes meeting, green ones and the smell of the latest musk lingered around her making her drunk in the aroma, "You clean up nicely, you almost look like royalty.." she joked,

"You weren't kidding when you said you were expensive, you almost look like a princess.. " he remarked back,

"And now for our lovely host and hostess, Master Bruce Thomas Wayne and Her majesty  Queen Yazela Shathinia Wayne.." the room was filled with cheers and bows except for the small area in which Barry and Yonah we're talking.

"Who's this.."  

"Oh, Oliver meet Barry he and I are in the same classes together.. " she smiled taking him by the hand as he then let go of it, Yonah looked away for a bit from the action, 

"I see you have a thing for bad guys.." Barry mumbled remembering everything he heard from the papers about him, 

"Pleasure to meet you.." Oliver rolled his eyes, 

"Don't be so modest .." Barry laughed before watching Oliver's gaze follow towards someone else, 

"Yonah baby excuse me,"  Oliver kissed her hand as he walked off  towards the drinks, Yonah wouldn't say that she was used to him doing that, but she was, and she already knew what he was doing, he was going to set his sights on another girl leave her in the dust say he didn't mean it send her flowers and she'd end up beside him as his arm candy, 

"Wanna dance?"

"With you?" Yonah laughed 

"No, with my father.." 

"Cultured man.. you like musicals.." she smirked, taking him to the middle of the dance floor her sister cheering her on, "Don't step on my toe's, " she glared at him, "Wasn't planning to,"  

Yazela and Bruce we're standing next to Nora and Henry the four watching their children waltzing in the middle of the ballroom, "We're very honored to be here, " Nora said as Yazela giggled, "We're more honored you're both here, we haven't seen our daughter smile that bright since she made it head of the track team,"  Bruce only nodded along as he kept watching, 

"You're good at this, it's surprising... "  she said as he dipped her, her eyes wide at him in surprise of just how graceful he could be, "My mom taught me .." he shrugged it off, " Nothing special.." he sighed, "So you and that Oliver guy?" he asked watching how sad she had gotten just by her body language.

"What about him.." she asked 

"Why do you let him treat you like that, " Barry replied twirling her around, "He's rich, it's how life goes, everyone likes him and-" the sensation of lips on her own threw her off, Barry pulled her closer the feel of the satin fabric in his hands, as she kissed him back melting into it she couldn't believe what was happening right now, suddenly a sensation of something wet splashed over them, 

"OLIVER HOW DARE YOU," 

"Great I ruined the evening," Yonah said sitting on her bed soaking wet from what happened, "Mind helping me unzip," she asked as Barry was sitting there daydreaming, he didn't think that Yonah would let him in her room this quickly, but here he was "Earth to Barry!" she sighed already out of the dress, 

"We could get caught.," Barry mumbled to himself watching every shape of her

"Or we could get naked.." 

"What?" he turned red 

"Checking if you were listening.." she giggled " helping him up, her curls were curlier than ever, and Barry was in love his heart skipped 5 beats at the sight of her, he couldn't lose her besides he didn't know what to do in this type of moment, he felt his feet move  then his legs move, and his arms were holding Yonah by the waist, she purred feeling him behind her the fabric of his shirt wet against her low rise corset,

"Barry, what are you doing." laughing at their reflection in her vanity mirror, though she wouldn't lie and say she didn't dream about this ever happening, "I see you like bad boys.. from the look of Oliver Queen - " 

"If you're trying to turn me on, it's working..." She smirked turning towards him to kiss him, " You wan to do it here, right now, what about the guest," Yonah laughed untangling herself from his hold, "We don't have to if you don't want to, we can just get changed hate each oth-"

"No. "

"No?" 

"Look Yonah, I've liked you since the day we met, you're always in my mind and my dreams and at first I thought I was being cursed by you." he sat down on her bed "But I was falling for you and -"

"Stop talking." 

"What.." 

"Strip... "

"Okay.."

" You have no idea how much I dreamt about this!" Yonah squeaked, clothes were thrown in every direction of the room as there was nothing bur giddiness giggling heard from the two, "Neither do you..." 

"Did you hear about the new leader of the track team?" a few girls said running down the halls of the campus, "did you hear about his girlfriend," another asked, "Here they come," Yonah and Barry were hand in hand walking down the halls of the academy as she looked up at him squeezing his hand tight, 

" Do good at your meet!" she said as he let go of her hand to catch up with his team," she kissed him on the cheek while watching him walk away.

"I will!" he waved back.

"And bring the Knights to victory! crush them!!" she shouted,

"I'm gonna! " he laughed 

"I love you!" 

"I know!!" 

[thesinglesjukebox]

HARRY STYLES - LIGHTS UP

[5.33]

If Harry puts his Lights Up, maybe he can change the world?

Kayla Beardslee: When I say, What the hell is this structure?, I mean it in both a complimentary and a confused way. On one hand, it's nice that Styles is experimenting beyond the traditional pop song structure, but on the other, "Lights Up" ends after a single chorus, barely even establishing itself as worthy of attention. Maybe it'll sound better in the context of the album (an argument I'm not particularly fond of), but releasing a slightly muddled, interlude-like creation as a lead single is a risky move. The production is fine (glad to see Jeff Bhasker get a new production credit), but my real quibble is with the lyrics, which are, frankly, a mess. Maybe they're trying to say something personal, but there are absolutely no specific images here, only meaningless abstractions. "What do you mean?," "I'm sorry by the way," "Can't you see?": we never learn what these lines are actually referencing, what conversation or larger topic they're responding to. Styles just throws them out like they're important -- he's singing these lines, so they must be, right? -- but never bothers to elaborate. And let's talk about the central light/dark conceit. The prechorus says, "All the lights couldn't put out the dark / Running through my heart," so the idea is that there's a darkness inside Styles that isn't affected by the light. But the chorus switches to him stepping into the light, shining, and saying "I'm not ever going back," so I guess the dark has been put out and that first part was an irrelevant lie and oh my god what's even the point of all this hype if the music can't communicate anything of substance. [3]

Isabel Cole: Remember how Leonard DiCaprio used to be like, I mean, yes, super pretty, but also a gifted young actor with an unteachable movie star charisma and a wonderful sincerity that brought real feeling even to schlock like Titanic, only it was not enough for him to be rich and beautiful and famous and actually, in fact, extremely good at his craft, he decided he needed to be, like,serious, he needed to earn the respect of the joyless mediocrity-lovers of the Academy, he had to prove himself as An Artist as defined by perhaps the least imaginative deliberative body in the performing arts, and now he hasn't given a good performance since 2002 because no matter how committed his choices and no matter how thoughtful his physicality, he is incapable of convincing because you can always see the thinking behind the acting, you can't ever believe he is anyone other than a man desperately committed to embodying his own self-seriousness which is leaking off him so potently you wonder if his castmates can smell it on set? Anyway, "All the lights couldn't put out the dark running through my heart" is a pretty great line, so it's too bad that this song sucks. [3]

Alfred Soto: A hashtag in search of a song, a yearning in search of an object, messianic in a godless world, strummy without sincerity, "Lights Up" incarnates 2019. But I light a candle for another "Fireproof" and "No Control." [4]

Alex Clifton: Harry certainly isn't afraid to take risks. He's got a bit of an oddball swing to his singles--making his solo debut track about childbirth was a creative move. "Lights Out" sounds like nothing on the radio currently which is pretty awesome; I love the tonal shift in the chorus that's reminiscent of Michael Jackson's "Rock With You" in particular as that is a rare move in pop music. I would love to see Harry go full on avant-garde on this album with hints of Elton and Bowie and judging by this single, he is on his way there. [7]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: For all of the think-pieces that "Lights Up" is getting for its sultry music video and Harry Styles's statements (or lack thereof) regarding his sexuality, it's easy to forget what this song even sounds like: it's a slice of gourmet vanilla cake, light and airy, rich in texture, basic but tasty. Lyrically, it's effective if unambitious, perfectly what Harry described in own words, "It's all about having sex and feeling sad." [7]

Katherine St Asaph: All the fancy production styles Styles pulls out of his voluminous costumes -- the "Rock With You" chords in the chorus, the gospel-ish backing vocals, the pummeling percussion breaks -- and all the glomming-on by Rolling Stone can't disguise the fact that this is a slightly gussied-up Shawn Mendes or OneRepublic song. Between this and the Niall song, One Direction's alumni seem to have a taste for the blandest of the band's old meat-and-potatoes rock influences. [4]

Claire Biddles: No fan of Harry Styles was surprised when, instead of trailing the imminent sort-of-surprise release of his new single on social media, he popped up in the replies of a fan on Twitter, telling her to spend her money on therapy instead of tickets to his next tour. "I'll wait for you," he promised. Like therapy, Harry Styles exists to reflect our selves back at us; a reassuring presence that can be whoever we need him to be. "Lights Up" is a good song, but that matters less than the comfort and affirmation of the open question at its heart. "Do you know who you are?" Harry asks us -- as always centring our needs, giving us space, listening rather than waiting to speak. The best pop stars, the best crushes, aid our self-actualisation. Harry Styles is the perfect pop star, the perfect crush, because he understands this dynamic better than anyone else -- an uncomplicated delivery system for our multitudinous desires and selves. [7]

Stephen Eisermann: What a breathtaking declaration this is. The chaotic production are wrapped perfectly by Harry's warm vocals, and it all builds to that wonderful climax of a bridge where we meet Harry. He introduces us on his terms, using this song's video and the release date (yes, releasing on National Coming Out Day is quite the stunt) to really drive home the message, but man if this doesn't feel like some kind of big event. There are so many arguments that coming out shouldn't be an event, but man if this isn't an argument that it should be. [8]

Elisabeth Sanders: Rock and roll is no longer the counterculture, and hasn't been for decades. Most of us know this, I think--that a genre that was scandalous catharsis more than half a century ago is now a bastion of old-school respectability cloaked in nothing but the thin aesthetics of its long-gone indecorousness. And so, in a way, it's the perfect thing to turn to if you're, say, a former boy-band pop idol trying to shrug off the casual disdain that a certain kind of modern pop evokes. If you want patriarchal legitimacy, sour cream and onion flavor, but you never want to have to admit it.This is not to take some ultracontrarian edgelord view that the only truly authentic thing is commercially-viable stadium pop, because at least it's honest, but to say merely this: everybody's trying to signify something, no matter what. Even the painfully earnest.Which brings us past the folk-rock village of Harry's 2017 self-titled debut, around-about the gorgeously flamboyant suits and the Met Ball hosting gig, through the Rolling Stone interviews and carefully-minimal social media presence, to Lights Up. And it's... fine. It's certainly not a bad song, but it is one that I forgot the tune of immediately after hearing. Frankly, I still can't remember it even now, and I listened to it for the dozenth time a few seconds ago. It's just pop enough to be pop, just ponderous enough to not really be THAT kind of pop. It's got some fun spangly bits. It's probably got a lot of noises made by real instruments in it. And, most notably, it's got a fantastic, evocative, gay as hell video, which almost successfully conceals the fact that the song itself is playing it safe as midcentury, tastefully-appointed houses. And I guess all this makes me kind of wonder: Harry, DO you know who you are? [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[loserholland]

Twenty Dollars

Tom Holland

Pairing ↠ Tom Holland x Reader

Warning ↠ LOTS OF FLUFF, a hint of smut at the end teehee and (Daddy kink

Word Count ↠ 2,046

Summary ↠ When pictures of the Reader and Tom alone in paris together surface, fans begin to think that they’re dating. Though the fans will get their answer’s at ACE Comic Con.

P.S ↠  Kate Bishop isn’t in Infinity War just wanted to add her in because I love Kate Bishop sm, she’s a QUEEN.

☞  Masterlist ☜

 It’s been two weeks since (Y/N) and Tom had come back from Paris, two weeks since the paparazzi and fans had uploaded photo’s of the two alone in Paris together. Endless tweet’s of ‘Are you and Tom dating?’ ‘(Y/N) & Tom alone together in Paris!’ ‘Marvel Star’s (Y/N) (Y/L/N) & Tom Holland new power couple?’.

The couple had kept their relationship on the down low, their closes friends and family knew, and so did the marvel cast. Though they hadn’t official announce their relationship to the world, but a weekend in Paris changed everything. Yes fans had suspected the two beans dating, many ship accounts and constant tweets of ‘Just date already!’ ‘A cute pair of smol beans who are meant for each other.’ ‘When (Y/N) and Tom date, I can die happily.’ etc. 

ACE Comic Con was coming up and will be our first appearance since Paris, our mangers said to just keep it on the down low and announce our relationship when we want to. Tom and I began to pack entering in and out of our shared closet “So do you wanna maybe wanna confirm that we’re dating at one of the panels?” I questioned picking out which heels I plan to bring “If you’re comfortable to confirm in front of a thousand of our fans, then yes.” Tom answered. I walked back out to our bedroom placing my heels into my suitcase, throwing in what ever clothing I had picked out.

Now you must be wondering how we met, well it all started on set I was casted for the roll of Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye one of the member of the young avengers. From then on we became good friends, bestfriends and well a couple. I know very cliché, falling in love with your bestfriend. I mean who wouldn’t fall in love with Tom, he’s gorgeous, sweet and a little very nerdy.

It was currently ten in the morning and our flight was at four, last minute packing is always great. By the time it was twelve we were done packing and had a little lunch we had to be at the airport by one-thirty, we rushed around the condo double checking if we got everything. “Love? Got everything?” I asked Tom as I dragged my suitcase to the front door, I entered our shared bedroom as Tom sat on his suitcase attempting to close it “Love?” I questioned as he turned to the door “Darling, help me close this.” I laughed at his actions before heading over to close it. I looked down at my apple watch twelve-fortyfive.

 “Love we have to go before we catch traffic.” 

 We arrived in Seattle at about Seven, we ordered room service so we didn’t have to leave the hotel since we need to be up so early. By the time it was Ten, Tom and I got into bed my head rested on his bare chest as I traced random patterns on his back “Love?” I whispered as Tom hummed, I pulled away to look up at him “How do you think the fans will react?” Tom sighed tucking a piece of hair behind my ear “They’ll be excited, but a little sad that I’m off the market-” I whacked his chest playfully causing him to laugh leaning down to kiss my forehead “Though, if they’re true fans, they’ll accept the fact that we’re dating and that I love you.” I smiled leaning up to give him a chaste kiss “I love you too.” I rested my head in the crook of his neck as he wrapped his arms around my waist slowly drifting into a deep slumber.

Morning came quick, we had to be down at the convention center at Eleven sharp, I wore a simply outfit a white cami body suit, along with black jeans that had a little ruffle along the bottom with a gucci belt, and a pair of Christian Louboutin grey suede Pigalle’s. I accessorized with a layered necklace and a few bracelets. Once I was done curling my hair and applying mascara and lip gloss I exited the bathroom to see Tom sitting at the edge of the bed he wore a simple black top pair with denim jeans paired with brown boots and watch on his left wrist.

 “Ready to go love.” I grabbed my purse and phone as Tom cleared his throat I turned to look at him “Aren’t you forgetting something?” he questioned as I furrowed my brows, I have my phone, wallet, pass, lipgloss, what am I forgetting “No, I don’t think I’m forgetting anything.” he walked over taking off his brown leather jacket and placed it over my shoulders as I stood there confused.

“I don’t want anyone looking at my girls girls.” he pointed at my slight exposed chest causing me to giggle oh he was jealous “Awe is Tommy jealous?” Tom rolled his eyes as he avoided eye contact I placed my hand on his cheek as I kissed him these heels still make me a bit shorter than him “No need to be jealous Tommy, you’re the only one who get’s to see them. Now let’s go hm?” 

 Once we got to the convention center, we were dropped off at the back so we could get to our panels that started in about five minutes. Sebastian and Anthony we’re currently at the panel Tom and I were going to join, I placed my purse in the little room that we had backstage as we headed to the panel that was down the hall. I was to go on first then Tom would join about ten minutes later, Tom and I stood backstage it was as we waited for my cue. I wrapped my arms around Tom’s torso as I rest my head on his chest “So when you come on, and if a fan ask if we’re dating then we’ll answer the question together?” I asked Tom pulling away to look up at Tom’s face as he nodded tucking a piece of hair behind my ear “I’m pretty sure someone is bound to ask that question.” Tom said as I nodded kissing him once more “(Y/N) you’re on in thirty.” the person working backstage handed me a mic as I kissed Tom once more waiting for Seb to introduce me.

“We have another guest.” Seb said as the crowd cheered “She’s my little sister and will kick your ass. Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye the youngest avenger, the one and only (Y/N) (Y/L/N)!” I made my way up the stage waving at the crowd as they cheered Anthony and Seb stood up as I gave them a quick hug then sat next to Seb.

“Hi guys!” I said into the mic as the crowd went wild shouts of ‘I loved you!”as I giggled “I love you too!” I crossed my right leg over my left as the interviewer began to ask me questions “So what’s it like to play Kate Bishop?” I sighed “Well, it takes a lot of working out and training, honestly there was never a time before and during the film I was in the gym. It was like a daily thing and I’ve gotten use to waking up at Six to work out for about two hours.” The interviewer nodded as he went on to ask more questions, “So I’ve heard you did your own stunts?” the crowd cheered as I nodded “Yes actually I decided to do my own stunts, which meant lots of practice and of course the fight scenes are choreographed so endless days practicing to get it perfect.” Tom watched his beautiful girlfriend smiling to himself as he thought of how lucky he was to have a girlfriend like you.

 About ten minutes later the interviewer said “We’re actually gonna bring out one more person for questions.” Tom made his way up the stage causing the crowd to go wild he waved at the crowd for a little bit as I smiled a little, your boyfriend wiggled himself between you and Anthony as he rested his right arm on the couch fans began to line up waiting to ask questions. So far there was about five fans that asked about our roles and if we’d like to have our own movie or on our ‘deaths.’ in Infinity war.  Another fan walked up to the mic she seemed to be about twelve or thirteen years old “Hi I’m Audrey, this question goes out to (Y/N).I love you” she began and  made heart shaped hands as I said “Hi Audrey. I love you too!” I mimicked her actions. 

“So, that jacket looks awfully familiar.. is that Tom’s jacket?” the crowd began to go wild as I glanced at Tom then back at the crowd nodding “Yes, this is his jacket.” the crowd began to scream as Tom added in “I didn’t want her to be cold, plus she looks way better in it than me right?” some fans began to scream ‘Yes!’ as Tom gasped dramatically “Guys! You were suppose to say I look better!” I playfully hit Tom’s shoulder. 

“Hi, my name is Brooklyn and this question goes out to Tom and (Y/N) my parents.” Seb choked on the water he was drinking causing the crowd to erupt in laughter “I’m sorry Brooklyn please continue.”  Seb apologized as I patted his back lightly holding in my laughter. “So, I’ve, well we’ve seen pictures of you two in Paris so we just want to know are you two dating?” I looked at Tom as he took he intwined his right hand with my left hand kissing the back of my hand “Yes, we’re dating.”  Brooklyn screamed into the mic as did others fans.

Anthony stood up and pointed at Seb “You owe me twenty bucks!” as Tom and I stared at him confusingly “Seb and I made a bet that one of your fans would ask if you two were dating, I said yes a fan would ask and he said no. So I get twenty bucks!”

 New headlines were out ‘Marvel stars (Y/N) (Y/L/N) and Tom Holland confirm relationship.’

I laid my head on Tom’s bare chest scrolling through instagram, tons of fans posted pictures of us on stage with our hands intwined tons of different captions ‘I can die happy!’ ‘My parents!’ ‘My ship sailed!’ I liked some of the photos that the fan accounts tagged me in before placing my phone of the nightstand. Tom was sleeping soundly his right hand behind his head as his other was wrapped around your shoulder.

I sat up straddling his lap as I kissed his up his toned body, lightly flicking my tongue over his left nipple then continued leaving wet kisses up his neck to his jaw then his soft plump lips. I began to grind against his clothes area, Tom groaned as he began to wake up “Hi baby.” I whispered innocently as Tom smiled kissing you once more before flipping your position’s causing a squeal to leave your lips. He lips crashed into yours as his hands began to lift your, well his t-shirt you’d taken from him to use for bed. Tom began to massage your boobs as you moaned, he took that advantage to slip his tongue into mouth as you both fought for dominance.

Tom lightly pinched at your already hard nipple before leaving a wet kiss over it “You know sweetheart, I’m still angry that you wore that silly bodysuit showing off to the world what’s mine.. Maybe I should punish you for that.” (Y/N) looked into Tom’s once chocolate eyes to eyes filled with lust as she swallowed the knot in her throat rubbing her thighs together for some sort of friction.

“What do you think sweetheart? Should I punish you?” Tom asked innocently as I began to nod earning a light slap to my left boob “Sweetheart use your words, I don’t want to add to your punishment.” Tom lowered his head down to your neck leaving lilac marks as your whispered “Yes daddy.”

Tom hummed in response “Good girl.” he whispered nipping at your earlobe. Lifting his head from your neck to kiss your jaw then your cheek and finally capturing your lips with his.

[twentyonepilotsficlibrary]

Miscellaneous Fandoms Fic Rec Masterlist

This is something new we’re trying out. In our admin group chat we all started talking about our other fandoms/pairings we read and thought it might be fun to share some of our favorite fics. 

I know not everyone will be into this idea but i think it’s easily ignored if it’s not your cup of tea. Otherwise we hope you enjoy this mess of fics, maybe you’ll find yourself a new pairing, or maybe you’ll get inspired to write Joshler. 

we hope you enjoy! 

**this will be a long post**

Madi’s recs

Teen Wolf - Sterek (Stiles Stilinski & Derek Hale)

Cornerstone by Vendelin (6/6 | 83738 | Explicit)

Suffering from PTSD, ex-Marine Derek Hale moves back to Beacon Hills to open a bookshop and find a calmer life. That’s where he meets Stiles, completely by accident. Stiles is talkative, charming and curious. Somehow, despite the fact that he’s blind, he’s able to read Derek like no one else.

//PTSD //anxiety attacks 

No Homo by orphan_account (12/12 | 84092 | Explicit)

Stiles' sophomore year starts something like this: 3 FourLokos + 1 peer-pressuring cat - 1 best bro to end all best bros = 1 Craigslist ad headline that reads "str8 dude - m4m - strictly platonic". Derek is the fool who replies.

//internalized homophobia 

We Got Claws by Onlymystory (15/15 | 34914 | Mature)

Peter, Isaac, and Scott get de-aged. Stiles and Derek take care of them.

Harry Potter - Drarry (Harry Potter & Draco Malfoy)

Open For Repairs by FeelsForBreakfast (1/1 | 34901 | Mature)

After the war, Draco works at a tv repair shop and Harry breaks things.

feat. sad boys in jumpers and more ABBA than is probably necessary

There's a Pure-Blood Custom For That byLomonaaeren (36/36 | 105549 | Mature) 

The day that Harry stops Draco Malfoy and his son from being bothered in the middle of Diagon Alley starts a strange series of interactions between him and Malfoy. Who knew there was a pure-blood custom for every situation?

Transfigurations by Resonant (1/1 | 71284 | Explicit)

Five years after Voldemort's defeat, Harry returns to England to help re-open Hogwarts.

//major character death 

IT - Reddie (Richie Tozier & Eddie Kaspbrak)

Yours Truly by Buttercup12 (14/14 | 51414 | Mature)

Eddie Kaspbrak has it bad. He’s bullied for being a tiny, delicate, hypochondriac boy. He’s also bullied for being very, very, very gay. Long story short, his life isn’t the easiest.

However, that’s all a piece of cake when compared to his gigantic, pathetic crush on Derry High’s most popular and oh so very straight Trashmouth, Richie Tozier.

Richie has no idea he even exists.

Right?

Wrong.

ugly moon by weepies (27/27 | 79482 | Teen and Up)

Richie Tozier hasn’t spoken a word to anybody since he came to Derry in the middle of the school year. Until he talks to Eddie Kaspbrak.

//abuse mention

----------------------

Christie’s recs

Harry Potter - Drarry (Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter)

Turn by Saras_Girl (14/14 | 306,708 | Explicit)

One good turn always deserves another. Apparently.

All Our Secrets Laid Bare by firethesound (16/16 | 149,549 | Explicit)

Over the six years Draco Malfoy has been an Auror, four of his partners have turned up dead. Harry Potter is assigned as his newest partner to investigate just what is going on.

South Park - Creek (Craig Tucker/Tweek Tweak)

Do Not Try This At Home by Marasa (6/? | 32,100 | Mature)

A post is made that night detailing the rules of their arrangement:

• Video must be taken of the event.

• Video must be uploaded.

• Turns will be taken; after one group uploads, the other must upload as answer to the original post. This ensures equal stunts and higher expectations with each stunt.

• Don’t half-ass it; this is a fucking competition!

//depression //anxiety //past abuse //drug use

The Roommate by DoAsYouWill (27/? | 277,882 | Mature)

Craig is off to college, where he is introduced to the weirdest person he's ever met. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, (Craig can't decide), that weirdest person is his roommate.

Just your typical cliche 'meet as roommates' story, but with a lot of nostalgic undertones.

Deadpool - Cablepool (Wade Wilson/Nathan Summers)

Incognito by CQHD (Comet_Kohoutek) (2/2 | 5,810 | Explicit)

Deadpool introduces Cable to porn.

The video, Deadpool realises belatedly, is way too quiet. There's no cheesy bass line that gets stuck in his head and makes him feel each pulse in his dick. There's just the soft rustling of clothes against skin as the man strips. It's got an aesthetic to it, but it doesn't stop Deadpool from hearing the catch in Cable's breath once the man steps out of his underwear and crawls on to the desk. 

Toaster by edy (1/1 | 3,339 | Mature)

If someone were to strap you in and measure your heart rate, it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone to find it'd be beating in time with his own heart. The notion is meant to be romantic, as is customary in romances, and you think it might be romantic if an uneven heart rate wasn't a sign of a serious health condition.

//suicidal thoughts 

----------------------

Sydney’s Recs

South Park 

Do Not Try This At Home by Marasa (6/? || 32,100 || Mature)

A post is made that night detailing the rules of their arrangement:

• Video must be taken of the event.

• Video must be uploaded.

• Turns will be taken; after one group uploads, the other must upload as answer to the original post. This ensures equal stunts and higher expectations with each stunt.

• Don’t half-ass it; this is a fucking competition!

// depression, anxiety, past abuse, drug use

A Perfect Love Like Craig and Tweek by ugandadistrict9 (1/1 || 3,783 || Teen and Up Audiences)

Tweek and Craig have been close for a few years, and everyone says that they’re dating, but Craig has neither confirmed or denied it. Tweek has developed strong feelings for Craig over the time, but is worried that Craig doesn’t feel the same way he does.

Homicidal Maniac by Maroonedpunk (3/3 || 17,654 || Teen and Up Audiences)

They called him a homicidal maniac for years.

Then came the allegations against the coffee shop.

Tweek can’t do this by himself.

// depression, anxiety, drug use, mental illness

Spirit Animals by hollycomb (1/1 || 22,191 || Not Rated)

Cartman wants to film his amateur ghost hunting show at the site of the grisly McCormick massacre. Stan hates the idea but he can’t stay away, because Kyle will be there.

✓✓ Read by Boyue (16/16 || 65,196 || Teem and Up Audiences)

WENDY Nice picture but you have the wrong number.

AKA how Stan Marsh met Kyle Broflovski through a dick pic mishap.

// depression, alcoholism, derogatory language

Detriot: Become Human (Gavid Reed/RK900)

Chrysopoeian Heart by feistymuffin (6/? || 22,826 || Explicit)

Chrysopoeia - the act of transmuting a substance into gold

Gavin doesn’t like androids… but then again, nothing’s written in stone.

// graphic depictions of violence

Still by Terminallydepraved (1/1 || 4,277 || Explicit)

Sometimes it takes someone else nearly dying to make you realize the important things.

Life sucks, but in a beautiful kind of way by ConsultingStag (5/6 || 7701 || Mature)

Gavin stares at RK900 and regrets it immediately as its gray gaze bores into him. LED spinning yellow. Dissecting what happened. Analyzing the clues in front of it. And then a perfectly fake eyebrow lifts and equally fake lips twitch into a tiny smirk and Gavin knows that he is fucked. 

----------------------

Cade’s Recs 

Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia - Macdennis (Mac/Dennis Reynolds)

a beachfront of bad blood by castielanderson (1/1 | 28,366 | Mature)

or alternatively “Dennis Tries to Kill Himself: MacDennis Remix” Originally for the 2017 MacDennis Big Bang, but alas

.

They don’t have a falling out so much as a slowly drifting apart.  Being a dad makes Dennis tired, so tired sometimes he feels like he might never have energy again, and that means that he stops checking in with Mac as often.  Eventually, they stop talking.  Mac gets a boyfriend.  Dennis stops taking his medication.

After Dennis attempts suicide, Mandy insists he return to Philadelphia with the gang, and she will follow with Brian Jr. when she can.  Faced with an unwanted recovery, a failed family, and feelings he would rather ignore, Dennis is forced to navigate uncharted waters within himself and within his relationship with Mac.

//rape/non-con //suicide attempt //self-harm //eating disorders //depression

Fullmetal Alchemist - Royed (Edward Elric/Roy Mustang)

Reverti Ad Praeteritum by Batsutousai (30/30 | 288,908 | Mature)

Unwillingly forced to serve as a human trial for a crazy alchemist experimenting with time travel, Edward Elric finds himself standing across from Truth in the moment it takes his leg from him. Armed with the knowledge of what's to come and burdened with guilt for the choices he'd made as an adult, Ed sets out to fix every mistake he ever made and save every life they ever lost, no matter what it takes.

//underage //implied/referenced dubious consent //violence 

Know the Difference by ShanaStoryteller (1/1 | 9,083 | Teen)

“You’ve heard the rumors,” Mustang says, looking at Ed over the top of his latest report, “about the angels.”

Ed scoffs and rolls his eyes, “Angels don’t exist, don’t be ridiculous.”

“Of course, of course,” he murmurs, gaze sliding back down, “There have been multiple eye witness accounts, however.”

Ed slouches into the chair and doesn’t bother to keep the contempt to from his voice when he says, “Don’t depend on anything with wings to save you. Things that were made to leave always end up doing so, in the end.”

“Yes, well,” he says, “sometimes they come back.”

a terrifying clamour of trumpets by ShanaStoryteller (1/1 | 12,194 | Teen)

Edward grabs Marcoh’s arm and says, “That stone – what can it heal, exactly?”

The old man’s eyebrows rise to his forehead, and he looks like he already knows the answer when he goes, “Why do you ask, Edward?”

There's no metallic footsteps so there’s no way Al’s close enough to hear them. “I’m sick,” he admits after another moment of deliberation.

The Codeine Scene by Xyriath (31/31 | 111,257 | Explicit)

After finding himself entangled with King Bradley's gang of criminals and no way out, Roy Mustang must struggle between balancing his morals and the need to keep himself alive. He walks a thin rope, and a chance meeting of a young man, addicted to drugs and forced into prostitution, complicates matters further. By all rights, he should consider Edward to be collateral damage, an unfortunate bystander in his already difficult situation, but this is one person Roy soon finds he can't leave behind.

//rape/non-con //forced prostitution //drug addiction //mentions of suicide //mentions of depression 

Fullmetal Alchemist - Edling (Edward Elric/Ling Yao)

Nothing Gold by Rydia (ungarmax) (1/1 | 22,219 | Teen)

Ling has gained immortality. Ed has not.

//major character death

----------------------

Bard’s Recs

Bastille - Dyle (Dan Smith/Kyle Simmons)

and in the morning you'll be stranded in love (it goes around and around)by brujay (1/1 | 15,717 | Teen)

“Have you seen Groundhog Day?”

Kyle took a moment before replying. “I have… what exactly are you trying to say, here?”

Dan sighed again. “I think I’m living it.” Dan gets trapped in a time loop, and he is not having a good time.

//panic attacks

argonautica orpheus by trailsofpaper (Sanwall) (note: it is private, you can only read if you have an account but it’s too good to not share) (6/6 | 17,478 | M)

Kyle, like Jason on the Argos, sets out on a journey to retrieve something important but, more importantly, he finds love along the way. Dan, unlike Orpheus, doesn’t look back.

(Dan and Kyle are flatmates in Leeds, but when Kyle wrecks his keyboard a week before he and Dan are about to enter a competition, they need to go to London to get another keyboard. Complications and even shenanigans ensue.)

Harry Potter - Drarry (Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter)

He Who Must Not Be Normal by lettered (1/1 | 40,913 | Explicit)

Potter has fame and fortune and posh clothes and all he wants is a simple life. Draco has a flat and a cat and a steady job and all he wants is a complicated life. Which makes you think this story has something exciting like body-swapping, but it doesn’t. Instead it has Indian takeaway and a blue jumper and people wanting a whole lot of what they can’t have, discovering themselves as they discover each other.

All Life is Yours to Miss by Saras_Girl (4/4 | 114,741 | M)

Professor Malfoy's world is contained, controlled, and as solitary as he can make it, but when an act of petty revenge goes horribly awry, he and his trusty six-legged friend are thrown into Hogwarts life at the deep end and must learn to live, love and let go.

Buzzfeed Unsolved - Shyan (Shane Madej/Ryan Bergara)

i think i'm still turning out by the_tenerife_sea (1/1 | 6,325 | General)

Shane is starting to think Ryan is using him for his baby, considering how much he’s already talked her up to all of their coworkers and friends. ____

Or the one where Shane is a new parent, and Ryan is always there for him (and his daughter, of course).

[one-thousand-splendid-stars]

I know this is an old topic but I was thinking about it and now I’m mad and sorry, I’ve just gotta rant about Molly’s character assassination development for a moment: From S3 onwards, they so many chances to show us that Molly had moved on and was happy and content without Sherlock. Two years had passed. This was their chance to move away from the lonely, lovelorn girl thing they’d been doing. That was the time to show that she’d grown up, perhaps give her some friends or a boyfriend who she actually loved for himself and not because he looked like Sherlock. That would have been so easy to write. 

But no, they just won’t let her be anything except the girl who has a crush on Sherlock. For the longest time she was just borderline comedic relief because Moftiss just can’t write the lab scenes without including some pining just to check in on her character like “hey what’s up Molly? still in love with Sherlock? yep? cool, okay see you next episode.” Except as the show went on, it got less “comedic” and more eyeroll-worthy and sad. And then, god, don’t even get me started on how they put her through emotional turmoil in S4 - for literally no reason at all. Why do that to her so pointlessly and then act like it never happened? It makes me furious. They’ve given her no other story or line of development. No other purpose except pining over Sherlock and being unable to refuse him when he needs a favor. I personally think Moftiss don’t develop her past that because they literally don’t know how to write a Molly Hooper who isn’t in love with Sherlock. They’ve dragged this plot line on for so long now, that they’ve stunted her development and potential as a character. Yes, she speaks up sometimes, but I mean.... barely? Her moments of strength are so little compared to everything else. When you get down to it, the girl who wanted to know how Sherlock recognized Irene by her body is the same girl who stared daggers at Janine throughout tsot when Sherlock hung out with her and tossed her the boutonniere. The girl who allowed Sherlock lab access because he complimented her hair is the same one who lets him kick her out of her own bedroom because he “needs the space.” It’s been 4 seasons with minimal growth or change in her, that now they can’t break her out of this trope and don’t know what do to with her if she’s not in love with Sherlock. They had 4 seasons to tap into her amazing potential. But no, Molly Hooper - an intelligent, 30-something year old woman who works in a highly skilled profession - just has to be constantly pining over a man who will never love her back.

And you know, this is a running theme with the way women are written in Sherlock. It doesn’t matter how skilled or intelligent or badass they are. Their “womanly emotions” will always be their shortcoming or downfall. It’s so ridiculous. The men in this show can be criminal masterminds who must be beaten by Sherlock through the use of intellect and skill. But Irene? Would have won, but was bested because she made her phone password “Sher.” Gosh darn that pesky sentiment. Euros? A psychopath just like Moriarty, but in the end all she really wanted was be be looooved. Janine? Was easily manipulated into letting Sherlock into Magnussens’ office because he proposed (after “dating” her for like a month?). 

God, it makes me so angry how they’ve treated nearly every single female character. Irene can’t be included unless she’s a naked, over-sexualized dominatrix who falls in love with Sherlock - oh, and btw, instead of winning in the end, Sherlock has to come save her. They introduce Mary only to flip flop between making her a protagonist and antagonist, only to kill her and use her death as a prop for man pain. Don't even get me started on how terribly Euros was written. And of course, Molly can’t just be a smart and resourceful pathologist without them shoving those traits to the background so she can continue being known first and foremost by most viewers as “that girl who has a crush on Sherlock.” 

[sambart93]

Fullmetal Alchemist Live Action Movie [Rant]

I finished FMA:B anime like LAST week so I am super sensitive and still on the FMA love boat train thing. And tbh I never had ANY intention of ever watching this movie, but after hearing my friend describe his experience with the movie (he's a NON-FMA-fan and knows absolultey nothing about it) and just not having a good time with it; I had to see it and see for myself just what was wrong with it. And boy-oh-boy, please leave if you were hoping I'd be pleasantly surprised.

It has the bear basics of the character background and the bear basics of the world etc. which is just enough that non-anime/manga fans can just about understand BUT so much is left out. It misses and skips so much of the characters, of the development, of the world. There's just enough missing that also, non-FMA-people will get completely lost and somewhat disengaged with the story too. They really don't establish the childhood-friendness with Winry, Al and Ed, it's super briefed over. The hints about Hommunculus and the reason why they're searching for the Philosopher's Stone is, again, very heavily glossed over compared to the anime. I understand it's only 133 minute film BUT you definitely could've cut some other parts (especially parts that aren't in the anime/manga) in order to flesh out the details and the important parts. Especially in terms of emotional impact.

In the movie version Tucker is protrayed pitiful rather than a bit-shit crazy evil man. So when his dark side comes out, it just looks like a sad, pitiful man and there's no real satisfaction from him being beaten by Ed.

Yamada's emotional performance just doesn't land. The scene about the chimera, you couldn't see much anger or the switch between being happy-to realising what's happened-to getting super fucking angry, and his voice isn't strong enough to portray both his anger and his pain. It just didn't have any emotional impact.

A BIG positive is the setting and the location and such. It's perfect and so nice!

I really hate how heavily CGI'd Al's armour and Ed's arm and leg are. I don't understand why they didn't just build very realistic looking armour, have black clothes underneath so a stuntman/body-actor could wear it as Al and Yamada could've just pwore the armour. I feel like they were actual props BUT you can tell they've put CGI OVER it and it just looked stupid. Japan is well-known for tokusatsu costumes and you could've easily gone 100% realistic with Al's armour and it would've looked GOOD.

They do change the story somewhat but not enough to not be faithful to the original material.

While I do love Atomu, since watching the anime (last week) and actually becoming a fan of FMA, I totally understand and I am now in agreement with my friend that they should've just had the original voice actor for Al in the movie rather than Atomu BUT I do understand in the END GAME why Atomu is needed.

Winry can eff off. I've never liked the actress who plays her and she's in this MORE than she is in the anime. I don't even like the character in the anime so the fact they extended her part somewhat in this just annoyed me.

I don't like Hawkeye's actress or look either. It's clearly a wig. Why couldn't the actress just grow and dye her own hair? It'd look better. But any, recast her please.

Casting I AM happy about: Hughes!!! They picked the perfect actor for him! Even without seeing him in costume, I could tell he was a good choice. BUT, and it's a big 'but', the entire casting in general is too old. They've casted everyone 10-20years older than the actual characters ages. And I totally understand WHY. You need these big names in order to get a big budget, in order to get a lot of funding - I KNOW why Yamada was casted; more for the money rather than for him actually suiting the role <<< lets all admit this okay. I get it. We all get how the movie industry works. Especially with this movie being filmed via Warner Brothers, it was definitely more about 'hire the big actors so we get more money to play with' rather than hiring better, more accurate, faithfully-aged actors. So for the most part I am not annoyed with who was casted because this is the business. It happens. Don't get me wrong, Yamada did alright and he does have the voice which is just nice to listen to. When he's explaining or speaking fast, Yamada sounds REALLY damn good. But I can just think of a few other actors who would've suited, looked and acted the role better (COUGH COUGH UEDA KEISUKE FOR STARTERS!). And like, I LOVE KANATA HONGO but NOT as Envy. No no no no no no no not a good choice. Appearance wise; yes he fits Envy; his looks bratty, his skinny and he's somewhat short but the way he plays Envy and his voice; just no. You'd have better look getting a young actress to play Envy. Yes, I did just say actress. Especially because Envy is supposed to be GENDERFLUID!

BUT in general, I do not like MOST of this casting. I can think of a billion other people who would've been better in the role of Ed (no offence Yamada), I can think of so many more people who would've been perfect for Mustang (he is my baby, they ruined him in the movie; wrong casting completely). BUT then my friend said 'but would they haven't wanted to do this movie?' to which I straight away said 'good point, they wouldn't have accepted the role' and in fact they probably weren't even offered the role because; as I keep saying BIG NAMES = MORE MORE.

Ooooohhhh they RUINED Hughes' death! They CHANGED who the hell killed him!! AGAIN how are they going to fix and work around this in the future movie(s)?!

OMG that is HILARIOUS!!! SO the scene right AFTER Hughes' death we get Atomu-ception! We have Atomu playing a soldier arresting Ed while he stands next to Al who he bloody voices AND the soldier himself have BLONDE hair and just omg... what the fuck?! WHY and HOW did you think that was a good idea Warner?! That's gunna fuck people up for the ending for those who DON'T know Atomu

OH! NOT ENOUGH SMALL JOKES! And to be honest, I don't even think Yamada is that short! I don't think we get enough shots with him standing next to or near other people in a wide shot and stuff for us to go 'OH HE SMOL!'.

ALSO; WHERE THE EFF IS SCAR?!?!!?! WHERE IS SCAR?!?!?!!? He's SO important in the story and you didn't bother to introduce him in the first movie?! His first few fights with Ed are AMAZING! WHY is he not here?! WHY is he not in the movie?!

OMMGGG my friend was right about how BAD CGI and stuff is for Gluttony's real mouth. And his WADDLING! OMG his WADDLING was so funny.

They focused WAY to much on making Mustang and Hawkeye a THING. In the anime, they stay VERY professional for the most part. We understand they have romantic feels for each other but in public 99% of the time (and even in private!) they stay completely professional and 'we have police of this country'-type stance.

WAIT WHAT??!?!?! MUSTANG BURNING ROSS IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?!?! WHAT THE FUCK?! HOW THEY GOING TO EXPLAIN THAT AWAY?!?! WAAAAHHHHH THE ACTUAL?! .... WAIT WHAT?! THEY RUINED THE ENTIRE ENVY PLOT IN THE FIRST MOVIE?!

And I got SO confused when Al started having a go at Ed for 'I'm not real am I' and I'm like 'bitch this part of the story doesn't happen for AGES!!! What the hell?!' Also Lab 5 was just trash in this movie. AND Al goes off only about an hour into the film; we BARELY know these characters. There was no emotional impact at all. Just nothing. We haven't spent enough time getting to know these characters for this scene to work and make people cry at this point.

WAIT WHAT?! TUCKER IS STILL ALIVE AND HAS KIDNAPPED AL AND WINRY?! WTH is this plot line?!?!?!

Okay, kudos to Yamada for his scream acting when the Transmutation circle and the way to create Philosopher Stones are revealed. That was REALLY good.

WAIT WHAT?!?!? They revealed the ENTIRE soul army already?!?!?!!? That's not until like the LAST ten episodes of the anime! WTF.... Ohhh and the CGI for them is NOT good....

I am SO confused.... Mustang took the philosopher's stone out of Lust but that's not how you kill her!! You have to actually DESTROY the stone. If it's not destroyed by FMA RULES she's supposed to be able to reconstruct herself! WTF?! Why are they ignore this very important logic and basic rule?!

Whhhhyyyyyy did Ed use the stone?!?!? WHAT THE ACTUAL?!?! NOOOOO Ed you wtf?!?! That's not even canon!!!! WAAAAAAH?!?!

I wonder who they hired for Al's body... cos that DEFO isn't Atomu! << Again, how is this going to work if voice Al already looked this different to body Al?!

To be honest, FMA is too loved and too long for it to be a series of movies. If FMA was to get Live-Actioned it should've, right from the start, been a stage series. That's the only way they would've fit everything in and done justice to the story, and been able to do projection mapping and be able to go great action scenes using stunts and stunt equipment, and also in general, better and younger actors for the roles.

[numberhike]

Day 1: Which way does the train go?

We started on our first day with a very nutritious breakfast. Actually we were rather late because of that and only left our home at noon, leaving behind our home (and as a matter of fact Alex's girlfriend too who was kind enough to clean up the kitchen we left behind). Thanks to the Hitchhiking Map we had like a rough idea of where to go; there was a spot at the petrol station in Michendorf Süd, so we simply took the bus to the closest train station at Wannsee and decided to walk from there. About Michendorf I should not loose to many words but it is as sad as a little town near to Berlin can be.

It took us quiet a while to walk from there to the highway and when we arrived at the road we had to realize that it would not be too easy to reach our desired spot.

You see, every highway goes two ways of course so you always need to know in which direction you want to be going. In our case we had to cross the road to get to the other side but we were not sure how we should do that because there was no bridge or underground way nearby.

As an interesting sidenote: I also asked two girls who were from Spain, trying to hitchhike in direction of Magdeburg but their spot wasn't really well chosen and their behaviour probably too needy and aggressive so I personally thought it was not surprising many cars where passing by even though they were two pretty girls (little did I know at that point that it can take a long time to get a hike!)

They obviously had no idea how to get across the road either; but looked at us with big eyes of disbelief when we told them we wanted to cross the highway.

My mate Alex then took matters in his own hand, showing me a way across the road on Google maps which was definetly not there in real life though, at least not that we could see it. We still decided to follow the instructions and as we got closer to the railway that was crossing the highway we realized that there actually was a bridge to walk on, but it was obviously either unfinished or being repaired as it ended abruptly midway across the road.

Looking around we only saw one option to get to the other side: going over the railway bridge, which seems like a wildly unpopular option for anyone who wants to live. But we did it anyways: we had to climb up the construction side, leaving heavy machinery behind us and go up to the tracks, running over the bridge as quickly as possible. As aforementioned we had big backpacks on us so "as quickly as possible" did not mean "fast enough to escape an incoming train". Lucky for us though, no train interrupted our Indiana Jones Stunt and we were able to cross the train bridge without getting killed. Now that I think about it, the train could have been coming from the opposite direction too - there was a curve on the other side - so what we did here was already pretty reckless.

Not that we spend a lot further thought on that though. After unnecessarily climbing back and forth over a fence, we finally arrived at the petrol station - the only thing left was to actually find a ride. Our plan was to get to Warsaw, but we decided anywhere in Poland would be a good start for our first hike. Thus we simply wrote "Polen, prosçe!" On our sign. Alex wanted to simply hold up the sign at the exit of the petrol station while I decided to walk around looking for cars with a polish tag.

As I would have to talk to strangers all the time in the upcoming weeks I decided to warm myself up by talking to two German guys from Zürichy who were actually on their way to Berlin to a tattoo fair. They asked us why we would want to go to Warsaw, to which we only replied with a shrug and a smile. Why does anyone want to go to anywhere if not to explore?

As I made my way across the petrol station, my phone was ringing - barely 5 minutes after I started looking for cars - and Alex told me that he already found a driver to Poland who was willing to take us with him.

So basically, we had our first hike in around 2 minutes. Our driver was a man in his 60's, Stanislav or as he also introduced himself to us, Stanley.

You see, I strongly believe that in many cases, names have power. Regarding humans, I often feel that there is a certain stereotype attached to every single name and in one way or another, people who have particular names also often inherit certain traits.

In case of Stanley, he looked like how I pretty much imagined he should be with that name. He wore his trousers rather up high, had a striped greyish Polo shirt on him and, despite his receding hairline, sported a grey moustache a little aking to a Walrus. He was rather thin and though not being very tall the lack of widthness made him appear taller than he actually was. Oh and of course, he also smoked.

On our first ride being taken by a stranger, we were very curious: Do you often take strangers with you? No, never. Why did you decide to take us? He just looked at Alex's face and thought he was trustworthy. Where are you going to and why?

The funny part is, I didn't worry about where we actually were going until I was already in the moving car. Stanley told us he was going to Sczcecin, a place neither of us has ever heard about. As he told us it was a pretty place though and after a quick Google research we decided to just tag along, even though it was nowhere close to Warsaw. In fact, the first hour we ended up driving back through the center of Berlin which felt weird as we wanted to get away from here as quickly as possible.

Sooner or later we were on the highway again though and started to ask our Driver about his life. Turns out, his children had studied abroad in England but where in Sczcecin now for a family reunion. His wife passed away two years ago, but at least he found a new girl friend again to pass the lonely hours - (he even continued to show us pictures of him and his family on vacation which was unexpectedly nice). He was working in Berlin in Hannover in an engeneerig profession but the few English and German words he uttered were not enough for me to fully understand what his jobs was. The photos he showed us from big machines and control panels looked rather impressive though.

After about 4 hours, we finally arrived in Sczcecin and were greeted - by ships. The city turned out to be busy as a beehive due to the tall ships race that had been going on the past couple of days. And oh Boy, those ships were big! We desperately tried to get to know when the race would take place, hoping to be able to see these big ships challenging each other. Stanley didn't really understand our question though; as we later found out, the race already happened across the Baltic sea of course and Sczcecin was just the harbour for the ships to arrive.

Nonetheless, we were thrilled to see those beautiful big ships. There was even a big amusement park around! Stanley dropped us of close to the central station (in fact right in front of his home), we took some pictures and said goodbye only to see him some minutes later again as he forgot something in the car. We continued to walk around the town through the light rain (which forced me to wear my rain coat, becoming a big orange blob by appearance all of the sudden) exploring the buildings but nothing to extraordinary jumped on our eye yet. At the same time, we contacted several people via Couch surfing in Hope to find someone who would give us a place to stay. After several denied requests and some fast food in a MC Donald, a stranger named Sebastian messaged us, declining our request at first but then admitted he made a mistake; he thought he already was hosting two people but actually mixed up the dates so actually his place was free today.

Sebastian didn't have any references by other Couch surfers, listed himself as being a soldier, showing pictures of mountains and adventures - personally, I was expecting a rather rough, adventurous, maybe even macho guy to be our host but this was probably the first of many times where I would be wrong about a person.

After exchanging some messages, we agreed to meet at his apartment. Noteworthy was a double rainbow on our way, we ended up arriving at a rather ugly looking district with high apartment buildings which did not really brighten our mood. We were waiting for Sebastian downstairs for a couple of minutes until he swiftly arrived downstairs and welcomed us to his home. While the interior of the building didn't look much nicer than the first impression, his apartment was surprisingly welcoming despite not being vastly spacious. We dropped our backpacks - he immediately complimented Alex's Osprey Bag for being a good choice - and started to talk about backpacking, climbing and hiking quickly.

It might be something that is mainly ordinary to man but the first awkwardness that I you always encounter when meeting I strangers for the first time vanished quickly when we started talking about the weapons of our choice while we go into the wild - our fiskars Axe or the mora kniv we carried seemed to be of his liking. He proceeded to show us some of his equipment he used to climb the Mont Blanc, also showing us pictures on his Laptop (which I remember clearly had a big black circle in the display that Alex jokingly referred to as a black hole Sebastian had captured on the photographs). 

Sebastian also lifted up our backpacks, of which we thought were quiet heavy, restraining himself from laughing. After all, if you want to climb a mountain you have to bring a lot of water with you all the time which alone already takes up 6 to 8 kg. When we showed him our tindersticks that we brought with us he couldn’t help but shake his head, promising to show us how to make a proper fire in the woods the next day. 

We discovered that Sebastian used to play guitar too, but never really got the motivation to follow through with it. After singing him a song from Mando Diao, his passion for singing and music reawakened again I guess (as we would see in the course of the following events). 

In the evening we decided to take a walk around the city; turns out, Sebastian was actually not only a simple soldier but already a commander of an engeneering unit. He told us that there were a lot of soldiers in Stettin: His unit of around 700 soldiers wasn’t even considered as a big one. He also explained that he didn’t really like Stettin, especially if he compared it to Breslau for example. The problem seems to be that Stettin doesn’t have a really lively center; the only square in the town is rather hard to find. The government had actually thought of that and had placed arrows on the ground so tourists could easily find interesting places in Stettin (too bad if you are a tourist and don’t know what these arrows are about though). We found the square in the end; there were a couple of cafés and restaurants in very beautiful old buildings. A blue house especially striked my attention, we continued going into a small cozy bar though where they served crafted beer. 

Alex does not drink at all and I am not really a big fan of beer either, but I have to admit it was a good drink. Afterwards we went for a burger but as the waitress told us we would have to wait for an hour to get our food at least, we decided to look for something less fancy which in fact meant that we were sitting at KFC (two times in a fast food joint in one day, never a good sign!). 

After being completely stuffed, we dropped by a very cozy bar that reminded me of the lofts that they build in the London Bay Area, with walls made of slim red stone bricks. There we enjoyed a very delicious milk shake and a blueberry gin tonic as well. 

As it wasn’t very busy there and we got bored quiet quickly, we continued to go to a karaoke bar that was pretty much nearby the place where Sebastian lived. To our surprise, there were a group of disabled people there, partying and singing with everyone else and everyone was singing polish electro songs that we’ve never heard of but everybody else knew. We only recognized Enter Sandman by Metallica and also Quo Vadis Domine (which was a surreal moment). 

I took the opportunity to sing Tribute by Tenacious D with our Host Sebastian and we earned a lot of cheers for that, which was an awesome feeling! There were a lot of memorable events that unfolded during the course of that night too, like a very drunk girl who went up to Alexander, touched his face and couldn’t get over the fact “how beautiful” he was. (She also later startet to sing without any background music and to our surprised, pretty much everyone joined in afterwards). 

So a few hours later, we went back to home, finally getting some sleep and already with a lot of memories on our first day of our trip. 

[janeykath318]

The Courtship Of Miss Kirk 7