#this is A LOT coming from a happy-go-lucky silly/goofy character

[naughtyneganjdm]

Good Luck Charm - Chapter 16

Summary: Negan attempts to celebrate his daughter's seventh birthday at Y/N's home, but having Shane and Negan in the same place causes tension between the two men leading to a major face off between the two of them.

Characters: Negan, Evie, the reader (OC), Shane, Lucille, etc.

Warnings: Swearing, Angst, smut, etc.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39423063/chapters/105478767

Notes: I just appreciate those that continue to comment on this story! Thank you. Love you all. 

“I wish I would have had parties like this when I was little,” Lucille looked out the window of the kitchen while she helped Y/N gather some snacks for those that were out in the backyard.  It was Evie’s seventh birthday party and they had managed to invite a lot of family from Negan’s side along with Evie’s friends. “When I was younger, I was lucky if my parents hired a clown for some entertainment which always ended up terrifying half the kids that showed up.”

“That would have terrified Evie too, she hates clowns,” Y/N informed Lucille with a shuddering movement knowing that she wasn’t big on them either. Moving in beside Lucille to look outside, Y/N sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “Growing up I didn’t have a lot, so I try to do the best I can to let Evie know she’s loved.”

Without saying anything, Lucille reached out to wrap her arm around Y/N’s shoulders to give her a tight hug. Lucille knew that Y/N didn’t have a family, so she was always impressed with the mother that Y/N turned out to be to Evie, “I know that we couldn’t do anything super extensive, but I think this isn’t too bad.”

“I think this is very nice Y/N,” Lucille agreed with her that it was actually a very extensive party for a seven-year-old. For Evie’s birthday since Negan couldn’t really travel out of the state due to his probation, they did what they could at Y/N’s home. They got a bounce house, an inflatable water slide and set up a few game areas for the children that were attending the party. “I would have lost it if this was my birthday as a child.”

“We didn’t really do much,” Y/N played down what she had really gone out of her way to do, “Evie would have been happy just having a few people over. Someone at work just knew a person who did these kind of rentals, so I got a good deal on them.”

“I’m not a kid and I’m tempted to go play in those things,” Lucille followed Y/N outside after they grabbed the snacks to take it out to one of the tables that they had set up. A round of giggles filled the air when they both looked over their shoulders to see that Negan was in the bounce house with the children making them both laugh. “Apparently Negan felt the same way.”

“Evie dragged him in there,” Y/N mentioned with a half-smile remembering seeing her daughter come and grab Negan to pull him into the bounce house with her. Turning to watch Negan playing with the children was making them laugh at his silly antics. “Negan has always had a very hard time telling her no. Technically, it’s one of the bigger bounce houses so adults are allowed to go in there too.”

“Negan is just the only one with no shame and will do anything to make Evie happy,” Lucille acknowledged hearing the children giggling when Negan did something goofy again. “I don’t know whether I should be in awe or worried that Negan can always entertain a room full of children. He has a talent at making kids love him.”

“It’s a good thing. If Negan hated children, then that’s when you should worry,” Y/N teased Lucille, nudging her softly with her elbow. “It’s probably the sexiest thing about him. How good of a father he is.”

“You’re not wrong about that,” Lucille let her words linger seeing how happy and pleased with himself that Negan was when he was able to entertain the children that he was around. “Seeing him like that makes me feel so bad that he lost that high school job. He’s so damn good with children and they usually like him…”

“Speaking of…has Negan talked to you about the security job?” Y/N brought up seeing Lucille’s eyebrows arch up when Y/N mentioned it to her. “The only reason I ask is…”

Before Y/N could finish her sentence, the coloring in Lucille’s face seem to fade and Lucille reached back to grab the edge of the table that was behind her. Stepping forward, Y/N grabbed a hold of Lucille and reached out to press her hand in over the side of Lucille’s face to get Lucille’s eyes to connect with hers, “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, I think I’m just really tired lately with all the work I’ve been doing,” Lucille brushed off Y/N’s fears, but Y/N continued to hold onto Lucille to make sure that she was okay before Y/N released her. “I’m sorry. I just haven’t been sleeping much.”

“Let’s get some chips and maybe some sugar in you,” Y/N grabbed a few things for Lucille before leading her over toward one of the chaise lounge chairs. Lucille seemed to gain her coloring back a bit when she ate what Y/N had given her. “Has that happened before?”

“A few times,” Lucille answered with a long exhale, her eyebrows furrowing when Y/N grabbed her empty plate to set it on the table beside them. When she was done, she reached for Lucille to pull her back into her arms. “Y/N? People are here. Negan’s mother is here.”

“What? Two friends can’t hold each other like this? We both could use some time to relax,” Y/N got comfortable in the seat while holding Lucille in her arms securely. It took a minute for Lucille to feel at ease, but eventually she did relax while watching Negan playing with Evie inside of the bounce house. Y/N loosely wrapped her arm around Lucille’s shoulders and it made Lucille sigh. “Feeling any better?”

“Better than I did,” Lucille explained noticing that people weren’t really watching them while they mingled or played some of the games that Y/N had set up in the back yard. There was always that stigma that Lucille did worry about in the past with. It wasn’t easy to hide how she felt about Y/N and she always figured people would give them shit if they knew how genuinely close they were to one another. People always shunned the idea of loving two people, but thankfully them being like they were right now didn’t seem to faze anyone at all. Knowing that they were pretty much alone, Lucille turned her head and delicately placed a kiss over the inside of Y/N’s arm. “I miss this.”

There was a silence between the two of them, but Y/N nuzzled her nose against Lucille’s neck and sighed, “Me too.”

“While I love Negan, there is just something so calming with you,” Lucille stroked her fingers over Y/N’s arm while she closed her eyes and cherished the feeling of being wrapped up in the warmth of Y/N’s arms. “I do love you. You know that, right?”

“Of course,” Y/N whispered knowing that she missed this as well, but it was something she never felt like she deserved. “Because I love you too.”

“Then what are we doing with life Y/N?” Lucille stammered low enough so the conversation was only between the two of them. Lucille tipped her head back to look at Y/N with her beautiful green eyes. “Haven’t we wasted enough time apart?”

“I can’t just break up with Shane, Lucille,” Y/N explained knowing that Shane had given up a lot to be with her and stay back with her instead of going home to Atlanta. It would have made her feel like an awful person if she dumped him now. Sticking it out with Shane was her attempt at being a good person to the best of her ability.

“You don’t love him,” Lucille reminded Y/N making her frown. It wasn’t a lie. Lucille was right. She didn’t love Shane, but she cared about him greatly. It made her feel bad that she didn’t love Shane. Shane had told Y/N multiple times at this point that he loved her, but she just couldn’t reciprocate the feeling. “Do the two of you have moments like this?”

“I mean, we cuddle, but it’s never relaxed like this,” Y/N was honest with Lucille knowing there was no reason to lie to her. When someone walked by them, she went silent before quietly speaking up again so only Lucille could hear her. “I have been doing whatever I can to avoid sex with him lately too. Pretending to fall asleep when I hit the bed…I just…”

“Y/N?” Lucille looked back over her shoulder at Y/N when she confessed that. “If you can’t even have sex with him and you are doing things to avoid sleeping with him that tells you that you shouldn’t be with him.”

“It’s complicated,” Y/N repeated what she felt like she was always saying about Shane these days, but there were a lot of things that kept her from breaking up with Shane.

“What’s complicated?” a voice spoke up from behind them when Shane walked out of the house surprising Y/N since he was supposed to be at work tonight. Both Y/N and Lucille looked back at him when he approached the two of them. When he saw the position that the two of them were in together, Shane seemed to be a bit irritated, but it was something that only Y/N might have caught onto since he had a certain muscle that would flex in his jaw when he was angry followed by a flare of his nostrils.

“Hey you,” Y/N lifted up enough to meet Shane in a quick kiss noticing that he was wearing his casual clothes and not his work clothes. “What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to work all day today?”

“I managed to change shifts,” Shane sat beside the two of them, sitting on the edge of the lounge chair. “I got out early so I could be here for the little one’s birthday. Have I missed much?”

“Just some play time,” Y/N nodded toward the bounce house where a significant amount of children were playing. Shane stood up for a moment to survey things over and when Evie saw that Shane was there, Y/N could hear Evie call out Shane’s name.

Evie hopped out of the bounce house and ran across the yard toward Shane who eagerly picked Evie up in his arms to pull Evie into a big hug, “You made it! I thought you were working.”

“Well, I couldn’t miss your birthday,” Shane replied with a wink, leaning in to press a kiss against the side of Evie’s face making her giggle before she wrapped her arms around Shane’s neck tightly to give him a big hug.

“And there is the complicated part,” Y/N whispered in Lucille’s ear making Lucille’s grasp on her arm get tighter. “Evie loves the heck out of him.”

“But she can still love him while you aren’t dating him,” Lucille sat up straighter, turning to look at Y/N so that Shane couldn’t necessarily hear the two of them talking. Evie was keeping his attention while they talked about what he did at work, making it easier for the two of them to share a moment. “He can still be your friend. You don’t have to date him in order for him to be good to your daughter.”

Shane had obviously said something to make Evie laugh and it pulled their attention from one another to look back at Shane with Evie.  

“You should come in the bounce house with us!” Evie exclaimed making Shane laugh at the suggestion while he bounced her a bit in his arms. “It’s so much fun.”

“I don’t think those are for adults kid,” Shane suggested when the sound of a playful roar was heard drawing their attention to the bounce house where Negan was crawling out with a few of Evie’s cousins still hooked onto him. When Shane realized that Negan was in the bounce house with them, he grumbled. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Where is my little girl?” Negan’s deep, raspy voice questioned while he kept the children that were latched onto him safe as he moved in Evie’s direction. “You kind of just bailed on us kiddo.”

“I was coming back!” Evie wiggled out of Shane’s arms and was able to get back to her feet when Shane set her down carefully. Evie ran back to Negan and jumped into his arms to hook her arms around Negan’s neck making him groan out when he balanced her weight as well. “Mommy! Lucille! You should come bounce with us too! And then…we’re going on the water slide!”

“I don’t know kiddo, Lucille wasn’t feeling very good,” Y/N hesitated making Evie pout at the idea of them not being able to join.

“Everything okay?” Negan frowned, his eyebrows furrowing making them laugh when he essentially made the same face that Evie did. “What?”

“She’s just definitely your daughter,” Lucille held her finger out in the air to point between the two of them making Negan smile brightly. Negan turned his head and peppered kisses against the side of Evie’s face making her giggle. “Actually…I think we should.”

“You do?” Y/N was surprised to hear that and Lucille nodded. “Are you sure? We don’t want you feeling bad.”

“It’s not every day that it’s Evie’s birthday and if she wants us to spend some time with her…then there is no way that I can refuse,” Lucille carefully pulled herself up from the chair that they were in and reached for Y/N. “Let’s have some fun.”

“You coming?” Y/N looked to Shane seeing him shake his head and point over toward the snack table.

“I’m going to grab some snacks since I didn’t eat yet today. Have fun,” Shane watched Evie hop into Y/N’s arms when they all headed over toward the bounce house together. Shane knew that she had mentioned getting pizza later for everyone, but he used the snacks as an excuse because he would have felt awkward being part of that whole thing.

Sitting down on the bottom of the chair that Y/N and Lucille were on previously, Shane watched the four of them playing together and a sense of jealousy flooded his body.  Evie was attempting to get all of them to flip. Negan had done it, Lucille seemed like she was denying trying it, but Y/N attempted doing it. When she did, she ended up knocking into Negan who fell on top of Y/N making Shane’s jaw flex. They were laughing and with Negan over Y/N Shane felt his heart pounding inside of his chest. Negan stroked his fingertips over the side of Y/N’s face before helping her get up. Watching all of them jumping and playing together made Shane stand up from where he was seated and he started pacing.

When they got out of the bounce house, Shane thought it would be time for him to make his move, but he watched Evie drag all of them over toward the area where the music was playing. Evie was attempting to show all of them a dance that she must have just learned making Shane smile at it. Even though he was frustrated, Shane knew that he cared about Evie. She was a good kid and it was amazing that Negan could father a child as good as Evie. Lucille, Y/N and Negan all seemed confused but she tried instructing them how to dance like she was. Maybe it wasn’t the best of ideas to opt out of being with them. Shane should have tried to be part of the fun with them so he could make it clear he was part of the family right now.

After a moment of attempting to do the dance that Evie was trying to teach them, Negan started being ridiculous making Evie burst out in laughter when he started dancing like a fool. Evie covered her eyes with her hands, her giggles loud when Negan picked her up in his arms and started dancing with her to the music. Negan went back and forth between Y/N and Lucille getting them both to dance with him and Evie making Shane’s jaw flex seeing the fun the four of them were having together.

Evie had crawled into Lucille’s arms and Negan move to Y/N to start dancing with her making Shane’s face flood with a sense of fire seeing the two of them laughing with each other. Negan dipped Y/N before pulling her back up to his chest and that’s when Shane decided that he had enough.

Moving forward, Shane rubbed his hands together and put on a fake smile when he approached them, “Who is ready to go on that water slide?”

“Me!” Evie squealed making Lucille smile at her excitement. “I just have to get changed. Does everyone else have a bathing suit?”

“Sure baby girl,” Negan reached for Evie heading toward the house where he knew they had their things. Shane followed the group into the house. Negan and Lucille went to the guest bathroom to change and Shane followed Y/N into her bedroom when she went to get changed.

“You’re real touchy with your ex’s again,” Shane cleared his throat once he got the door closed making Y/N’s eyebrows furrow when she started to change. “I’m being serious. Do you know how fucking awkward it was to show up and see you cuddling with Lucille?”

“We’re friends Shane. She was feeling dizzy, so we took a seat. They are both my friends,” Y/N changed quickly, pulling on some shorts and a t-shirt over her bathing suit. Pointing in the direction of Evie’s bedroom, she shook her head and sighed. “I have to go make sure that Evie gets her suit on right, but I promise you, you have nothing to worry about. We were just being friendly.”

Shane wanted to say something more, but Y/N was out of the room before he could making a grunt fall from his throat. Changing into his trunks, Shane grabbed a tank top and tucked it into his pants before heading out of the room. Negan was standing by the back door talking with Lucille. It looked like he was trying to check in on her while they whispered, but when Shane approached them, Negan took notice of how Shane was shirtless.

“You want us to have a ticket to the gun’s show, huh?” Negan joked with a tip of his head, circling his finger over Shane’s body. “Maybe you should put a shirt on, don’t you think? There are kids here.”

“Not all of us need to wear a t-shirt to feel comfortable about ourselves buddy,” Shane reached out to smack Negan on the stomach making Negan grunt. Negan was wearing his swim trunks, but he had a band’s t-shirt on. “I can give you a few tips about muscling up if you feel bad about yourself.”

“Wow,” Negan smirked and Shane noticed the way that Lucille slipped her fingers in with Negan’s to keep him calm. “Yeah, I’ll let you know if I’m interested big guy.”

“Let’s go!” Evie blurt out, running out into the hallway in her bathing suit with excitement when Y/N followed her not far behind. Evie led them all up the climb of the inflatable duo water slides and instructed that she would go first before the girls and then the boys. Doing as Evie wanted, they all had fun with her, but when Shane had the chance, he grabbed Evie and suggested them go down the slide together. The amount of laughter that fell from her throat with the splash they made amused Shane. Shane was definitely trying to make Negan jealous, but Evie was intent on including all of them which was rather typical of Evie so that was pretty hard to do. At one point, Evie went down with Negan and Y/N went at the same time where they met at the bottom pool area. With the way that they were all laughing and the way that Negan was touching Y/N, Shane felt like he was about to explode. Even though it wasn’t extremely long, it felt like things went on forever for Shane. “We should get pizza.”

“I’ll pick it up,” Shane offered knowing that he needed a break or else he was going to erupt. In front of Evie, that wasn’t going to be a good idea. “Why don’t you start some of the presents while I get the food?”

“I like the sound of that,” Evie pointed at Shane and Y/N left with Shane to give him the money for the food before heading into the kitchen with Lucille to get the plates ready for dinner. It left Evie alone with Negan and she looked up at her dad with her big hazel eyes. “What about your gift? Can I open yours first?”

“Sure,” Negan reached out to pick Evie up in his arms, heading over toward the gift table in search of something specific. When Negan found what he wanted, he grabbed the small box and carried Evie into the house to sit in the living room with her. “I got you a few things, but this is the thing I want you to have the most.”

“Hey,” Lucille muttered nodding over toward where Negan was with Evie. “You’ll probably want to see this one.”

Lucille and Y/N headed into the living room to take a break when Negan handed over the box to Evie who looked at it with excitement in her eyes. Evie shook the box making Negan snort, but she eagerly pulled open the wrapping paper afterwards. When it revealed a long, slender box, Evie had a bit of trouble opening it so Negan helped her.

“Wow,” Evie looked down at the bracelet that was in the box, turning it to survey it over. Y/N was actually surprised how nice it was, but when Negan reached inside for the bracelet she could see that he was very proud of it. “What does it say?”

“Here,” Negan held it out for Evie to look over and he could feel her small fingers stroking over his.

“Daddy’s little dream come true,” Evie took her time reading it. When she finished reading it, she dropped her head back and looked up at Negan with a big smile. “That’s what you call me.”

“That’s because that’s what you are,” Negan winked leaning forward to press a lingering kiss over Evie’s cheek before she looked to the bracelet again playing with the pink charm that was over it along with the jewel. It might have been a gift that was too nice for a child, but Y/N knew Evie and knew that she would absolutely cherish anything her father would give her. Which meant that Evie would do whatever she could to make sure she didn’t lose it.

“It’s so beautiful,” Evie announced, stroking her fingers over it. “Can I wear it now?”

“Of course. It’s adjustable, so you should be able to fix it the older you get,” Negan took his time to carefully put the bracelet on the wrist of Evie’s that was bare. On her other wrist, Evie still had on the bracelet that Negan had gotten all of them on Y/N’s birthday. Taking a quick glance, Negan was impressed that all three of them were still wearing those. “You’re my special little girl. You know that?”

“And you’re my special daddy,” Evie cuddled back into Negan’s chest making him chuckle while she happily stared out at the bracelet she was gifted. “I’ll always be your little girl.”

“Yes, you will,” Negan pressed a loving kiss against Evie’s cheek and it made her smile with joy when he did it.

“I’m never going to take it off,” she whispered, her eyes closely observing the bracelet while she got more comfortable in Negan’s arms. Lifting her arm up, she noticed that Y/N was taking a picture of them and she held her wrist up higher. “Mommy! Look!”

“That’s gorgeous sweetheart,” Y/N assured her daughter while Negan nuzzled his nose against the side of Evie’s neck making her giggle. “Your daddy must really love you.”

“And I love him!” Evie boasted turning in Negan’s arms to hug him with all her might. It really was a beautiful thing to see how their relationship was. The love Evie had for Negan was incredible. “I love you with all of my heart.”

“All of your heart?” Negan gasped, caressing his hand in over Evie’s back seeing the way that both Lucille and Y/N seemed to be in awe of the moment. “Well, I love you with all my heart times two.”

“I love you more times a hundred!” Evie blurt out making Negan laugh with her excitement while she cuddled in closer to him. Evie’s hand pressed in over the center of Negan’s chest and he knew that she was in search of the locket that she had given him. It gave Evie comfort knowing that Negan was wearing that and quite often she would go in search of that locket when he was holding her. “We both will never take these off.”

“Never,” Negan promised with a wink, getting up and handing Evie over to Lucille. “Why don’t you go with Lucille and your mama? They can help you open some of your gifts and I will get everything ready for dinner. I can also get some video in of you opening your presents for me and your mama.”

“Sounds good,” Evie was eager to show Lucille the bracelet when they headed back for the presents table. It took a while before Shane was back with the pizzas and Y/N was sitting with him while Evie was with Negan and Lucille. Evie was feeding Negan his pizza while Shane let his thoughts linger looking at the bracelet that Negan gave her from the other table they were seated at. Evie was having fun playing with her father, but a lot of negative thoughts were swirling in Shane’s mind.

“It’s nice to see what your money went toward,” Shane pointed at the gift making Y/N’s eyebrows bounce up when she noticed the bit of venom in Shane’s tone. “He’s always getting the most credit for the things that you do.”

“He wanted to get her something nice for her birthday likely because they wouldn’t be able to the rest of the year with times being tough,” Y/N brushed off Shane trying to cause some sort of anger there between them. “He could have spent the money on something ridiculous.”

“But he could have gotten her something like a stuffed animal,” Shane reasoned, throwing his hand up in the air and he could see that Y/N’s face was flushing over. “You know Evie would have loved that just as much.”

“It’s okay that the two of them have something special together,” Y/N hushed hoping that he wasn’t drawing the attention of anyone else at the party.

“One day, when she realizes what her dad is really like…it’s going to break her harder than you ever think it will because you have always led her to believe that her dad is her fucking hero,” Shane slurred making Y/N’s eyes lower down. Shane watched as she pushed the plate that was in front of her forward as if she lost her appetite. “You should let him drown sometimes. See what kind of father he is then.”

“Not today, Shane,” Y/N stood up from the table to help clean things up for those that were finishing up their dinner. The amount of time that Shane had with Y/N was minimal at this party because someone always needed her. Lucille and Evie had gone off to play one of the games together and Shane noticed that Negan and Y/N were sitting together talking. Heading toward them, he could hear that they were being quiet.

“Chuck has been asking me if you are getting his messages,” Y/N stammered and Negan looked to Y/N with furrowed eyebrows. “I guess he’s trying to get a yes from you so you can put in the final paperwork. It’s been a few weeks…”

“Listen…” Negan licked his lips when Shane cleared his throat making Negan look up at him with his hazel eyes. “Shane.”

“Can we talk?” Shane muttered noticing the way that Y/N went to get up, but Shane shook his head and pointed to Negan. “I meant Negan. I wanted to have a talk with him about something.”

“We’re kind of in the middle of a discussion here,” Y/N was confused as to why Shane wanted to talk to Negan alone. Negan stood up and straightened out the t-shirt he was wearing before shrugging.

“It’s doesn’t bother me. I’ll be right back. Maybe you should go with Evie, Lucille and my mom,” Negan pointed toward the area where Lucille and Evie were trying to teach Negan’s mother how to play a game. “They could probably use your help.”

“Okay,” she agreed to it and left Negan alone with Shane who headed over toward an area of the backyard where no one else was.

“What can I do for you Shane?” Negan pushed his hands into the pockets of his swimsuit that he was wearing. Negan leaned back against the house, his eyes locked on Shane while he waited for whatever it was he wanted to say.

“Listen,” Shane reached back to rub at the back of his neck, a low rumble of a growl falling from his throat. “I know today is Evie’s birthday and that’s why I won’t make a big deal of it, but after today I don’t think it’s best for you to be coming over here anymore.”

“What?” Negan snickered, his nose wrinkling when Shane suggested something as wild as that. “Of course I’m going to be coming over here.”

“To pick up your kid, sure, but I think the less time that Evie spends with you the better,” Shane declared, his eyebrows tensing up and his voice getting deeper the longer he spoke. “I think we all know that you have abusive behavior. Beating someone almost to death was kind of a big deal and if it were my choice, you would have gotten your rights taken away from you since you obviously aren’t fit to be a parent.”

“Listen, it’s my daughter’s birthday so I’m not about to do this with you,” Negan rolled his eyes, attempting to move around Shane only to let out a groan when Shane pressed his hand into the center of Negan’s chest to shove him back against the brick of the house. “Get your hands off of me.”

“Or what?” Shane smirked, digging his fingers further into Negan’s chest hearing Negan’s breathing getting louder. “Are you going to hit me? While you’re on probation? Hitting a police officer wouldn’t probably be the best thing for you Negan.”

“I’m not going to stop spending time with my daughter or Y/N,” Negan denied the request of Shane, reaching up to place his fingers in over Shane’s wrist to try to persuade Shane to move his fingers. “See, I care about Y/N. My daughter needs me in her life and Y/N certainly needs someone other than you in her life.”

“Sure, but it’s not you that she needs,” Shane closed the distance between the two of them, but it didn’t make Negan back down. “Who knows what your anger will do next time? Maybe it will make you go off on Y/N or your own daughter.”

“I know you’re jealous as fuck of me,” Negan moved forward making Shane’s fingers dig harder into his chest, but he didn’t give a shit. “But you need to get your shit together Shane because no matter what, you’re not getting rid of me. I love my daughter and my daughter will always trump whatever it is you are trying to pull here.”

“You know they are becoming mine more and more each day,” Shane called out when Negan went to leave. It made Negan stop and look back over his shoulder. “Your daughter already loves me and Y/N picked me over you a long time ago. In fact, I asked Y/N to move back to Atlanta with me and she didn’t say no. So, losing your daughter is going to be pretty imminent Negan.”

“Y/N would never agree to something like that, so I know you’re bullshitting me,” Negan turned back toward Shane, his expression changing when he thought about what Shane was telling him. “Y/N knows I’m a good father and she wouldn’t take Evie away from me.”

“I’m going to do whatever I can to get her to take Evie away from you because you don’t deserve a happy ending Negan,” Shane muttered, caressing his fingers over the side of his chiseled jawline. “They are both too good for you.”

“Fuck you Shane,” Negan slurred, looking back over his shoulder at the women in his life knowing that Shane was doing his best to get him fired up. “What are you trying to do here? Huh? Get me so worked up to the point that I fucking hit you in front of everyone?”

“I’m just being honest with you Negan. It’s best to get used to the idea of it now,” Shane folded his muscular arms out in front of his chest with a smug smirk pressing in over his features. “You know? In my time, I’ve always loved dating women with kids and pieces of shit ex’s like you. I knew from the moment that Yumiko told me about Y/N’s past what I had to do. All it took was me being nice to her. She was just so fucking eager to have someone be nice to her that it didn’t matter if I did something negative, I knew she would never want to let me go. Yumiko told me everything that you did to her and I knew as long as I didn’t do the things that you did there was no way that she would turn me away. I just had to be nice to her kid, put on a smile and treat her good because you being a deadbeat made it easy for me to swoop in and be the man that both her and Evie needed.”

“She doesn’t even like you,” Negan stepped forward, his eyebrows furrowing when he stepped in closer to Shane. “Evie is a good kid and she would be good to anyone that was kind to her. I know I’m a deadbeat and I don’t deserve any of the women in my life. But they are in my life and they are never leaving it.”

“It’s not going to take long before your daughter likes me better than she likes you,” Shane stammered with a simple shake of his head. “When someone starts explaining to her what her father did to her mother, it’s only a matter of time before that blind love that she has for you starts questioning everything.”

“She’s seven years old,” Negan reminded Shane who simply shrugged his shoulders and Negan grunt before shaking his head. “Fuck this, Shane. I’m done. It’s Evie’s birthday and this is bullshit.”

“It must hurt you pretty good, huh?” Shane breathed out, pushing his hands into his pockets when Negan stopped again. “That Y/N would be willing to pick someone who raped her over you because you are literally that fucking terrible.”

Turning on his heel, Negan shoved into Shane’s shoulders managing to get Shane to stumble back and over onto the ground drawing some of the attention of the people at the party. Evie stepped forward and Negan’s fist was clenched at his side while he stared down at Shane.

“Daddy?” Evie called out to Negan, breaking him from what was going on and Negan turned to her to pick her up in his arms to hold her close. “What happened?”

“Shane just tripped,” Negan answered making Shane smirk from where he was on the ground, pulling himself up slowly.

“Yeah, I just tripped. Nothing’s wrong Evie,” Shane assured Evie, moving forward to offer up a big smile. “Hey, I was thinking that we should play some football. What do you think? Would you like that?”

“Sure!” Evie was excited at the idea of it making Shane nod his head and grin. “We can play teams!”

“Sure we can! Your dad can be captain of one team and I’ll be captain of the other,” Shane suggested noticing that Y/N was coming over to check on him after he had fallen. Y/N touched his shoulder, but Shane wouldn’t give her the attention yet. “Of course I would love to have you on my team.”

“Okay,” Evie shrugged her shoulders making Negan glare out at Shane before they walked off together leaving Shane with Y/N.

“What was all that about?” Y/N watched Negan move over to Lucille with Evie in his arms to talk to her. Shane’s chocolate brown eyes were fierce and they were locked on Negan. “Shane? Is something going on between you two? Because today is not the day.”

“It was just a misunderstanding. We’re okay,” Shane assured her with a wink, leaning in to press a kiss against her cheek. “No big deal.”

“It kind of looked like it was a big deal,” Y/N urged her hand in over the side of Shane’s face and in that moment, he leaned down to kiss her with a bit of power behind it. The motion surprised her before Shane pointed toward the back door, giving her a weak smile.

“I’m going to go get that football,” Shane headed inside to grab the football that Evie had in her room and when he got back, they made teams. Y/N and Lucille sat out. Negan had set up the rules since they were playing with both kids and adults just making it tag football so no one would get hurt.  

Considering Shane was a quarterback in the past, it made sense that their team would do better, it was just Shane was taking things very seriously, but on the other team Negan was definitely making it more of a game. It kind of seemed like because Evie was on Shane’s team, the other players were allowing her to win and while he got it, at the same time it really pissed Shane off.

There was a play where Negan had the ball and Evie went after him. Evie hopped at him and Negan dramatically dropped back like he had been tackled by Evie who jumped on top of him, “Oh no, you’re just too strong.”

Evie’s giggles were filling the air making Negan laugh himself when Shane reached for the ball to pick it up with a grunt, “You know, if you fake her out like that you are just going to teach her people aren’t going to really hit her. Evie wants to play soccer and being all dramatically fake like this is just going to get her hurt because she’s not going to realize that people are aggressive with sports.”

“Cool it,” Negan warned, pulling Evie in closer to his chest so he could stroke his fingers over the back of her neck. “It’s just a game.”

“It’s just a game until Evie gets blasted because she thinks she can just lightly hit someone and they are going to go down. You know for someone who was a coach for a lot of sports, you’re doing a shitty job with teaching your daughter about the realities of sports,” Shane hissed back even making Evie look back at him with confusion. Y/N stood up from where she was seated with Lucille and grabbed a hold of Shane’s arm to pull him back. “What?”

“You’re kind of overdoing it right now,” Y/N claimed, grabbing a hold of Shane’s jaw so he would look at her. “I know you take football seriously, but this is just a game. It’s her birthday and he’s her dad. He’s going to be silly with her. Okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” Shane licked his lips and brushed his fingers through his dark hair with a nod. “I’m sorry. You’re absolutely right.”

Shane moved around Y/N to head back for Negan to reach for his hand to help him up from the ground, “My mistake man. I take this stuff way too seriously sometimes. I forget that I’m not on my high school football team anymore.”

“It’s all good,” Negan blew it off before lowering down to whisper something to Evie who giggled and Negan reached for the football again. They continued to play for a little while longer and Shane noticed the look that Y/N gave Negan when he looked back at her after they did something with Evie. With Negan having the ball, Shane felt a fire building up inside of him and when he had the chance, he tackled Negan to the ground with all of his might making a loud gust of air exhale from Negan’s lungs. People gasped with the amount of strength Shane used. “Fuck…”

“It’s touch football,” one of the other parents reminded Shane while Shane stayed over Negan who dropped his head back against the ground. Negan’s torso arched and Shane could see that he actually hurt Negan. “Negan, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Negan held his hand up when he looked back to see that Evie was worried about him. “It’s okay baby girl, I’m fine…”

“You’re far from it big guy,” Shane reached up to tap at the side of Negan’s face seeing that Negan was trying to get the air back into his lungs after Shane hit him like he did.

“You’re psychotic,” Negan snarled lifting his head up in attempts to move, but Shane’s weight was still over him. Trying to get up, Negan braced his hands on the ground only to grunt out when Shane swiftly brought his arm up hammering it into Negan’s nose making Negan’s head pop back. When Negan hit the ground, he immediately turned onto his side and covered his nose with his hands. “Fuck…fucking…fuck!”

“Shane!” Y/N called out from where she was seated with Lucille. When Negan pulled his hands from his face, they were covered in blood. With shaking hands, Negan scrambled toward Shane and shoved him firmly to the ground.

“I’m going to fucking destroy you,” Shane stammered quiet enough for only Negan to hear, his eyebrows tense when Negan grabbed a firm hold of the center of Shane’s tank top that he was wearing. Twisting the material, Negan had his fist clenched at his side and Shane nodded. “Go ahead Negan, hit me.”

“Daddy?” Evie called out making Negan look back over his shoulder at his daughter and he slowly released Shane letting out an uneven breath. When Negan got up on his knees, Evie immediately ran to Negan to hug him knowing that he was hurt. “Are you okay?”

“Hey,” Negan noticed the fear that was in Evie’s eyes when she pulled back to look at his nose making Negan shake his head. “Baby girl, I’m okay. It’s alright. Don’t worry about me.”

“You’re bleeding,” Evie’s eyes were focused on Negan while Y/N had pulled Shane away from the group. It was obvious that they were bickering and Negan found himself concerned that Y/N was with Shane when Shane was in this state, but he had to calm down Evie who was worried about him. It became evidently clear to Negan that Shane wanted Negan to punch him so he could use it against him and likely get Negan in trouble since he was on probation.

“I’m going to be fine,” Negan hushed Evie knowing that he was fully prepared to attack Shane in front of everyone, but when he saw Evie, he knew that she was worth so much more than the desperation to get back at that man. Lucille and his mother had come to check on him as well with another one of the parents grabbing him some tissues.

Negan watched Y/N grab the football and say something to Shane that made him glare over at Negan before walking off. Y/N went back to give the football to someone else before she lowered down to look at Negan, “Hey Evie, Lucille and I are going to get your daddy’s nose cleaned up. Okay? You play a few games with your friends and we’ll be right back.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Evie made it obvious that she didn’t want to leave Negan’s side after what happened to him. Negan didn’t want to touch Evie too much since he still had blood on his hands. “I should be with you.”

“Play sweet girl. When I’m done getting cleaned up, the two of us will have some ice cream. Okay?” Negan gave her a wink and carefully got up feeling like things were spinning around him. Lucille and Y/N were able to get him to one of the bathrooms and took him toward the shower to sit on the bench that was inside of it. Lucille moved in beside him to help him put a towel over his nose to get the bleeding to stop. “Where the fuck did the psycho go?”

“I asked him to leave because he needed to relax,” Y/N explained, heading into the shower space with the two of them attempting to get Negan’s hands cleaned from the blood with the showerhead. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”

“He’s psychotic!” Negan snapped and Lucille stood from the bench with Negan.

“I’m going to go get some ice for your nose,” Lucille left the two of them and Y/N was doing her best to clean up the blood.

“I’ve done everything I could to not try to get between the two of you Y/N, but he’s a loose cannon,” Negan groaned when she stroked over the side of his face looking at his nose. “I’m going to have black eyes for a few days. I just know it.”

“I don’t know why he was doing that Negan. I’m so sorry,” she apologized when the sound of Lucille returning to the bathroom was heard. Lucille handed Negan over a new towel filled with ice and he held it up to his face with a groan. “I knew he was jealous of the two of you…”

“Are you okay?” Lucille looked to Y/N seeing that the color had drained from her face with all of this.

“I just didn’t think he would do something like that. Shane cares so much about Evie that I never would have thought he would have attacked Negan today,” Y/N responded with a frown, reaching out to stroke her fingers over Negan’s hand where it was resting on his knee. “I was wrong. I should have never put you in this situation.”

“You didn’t know,” Negan sighed loudly hearing the sound of the door being pushed open and he lifted his head to see that it was his mother coming in to check in on him. “Ma, I’m good.”

“Let me see,” Negan’s mother stepped before them making the space in the shower feel even more cramped when Negan pulled back the ice from his face. “See, this is why I always told you that it was a good thing you didn’t go into baseball. Things would have been like this…”

“Mom, baseball is no contact,” Negan reminded his mother pulling the ice back up to his face. “I would have been fine.”

“Not with the way those players throw. This could have been what was happening to your face constantly,” Negan’s mother continued to lecture Negan making his head drop back against the wall. “I’ve seen some clips from games where they would purposely throw balls at the players heads and…”

“Mom, could you please go watch Evie for me?” Negan begged with a bit of a whine. “I need someone to make sure that she is okay.”

“I’ll go with her,” Lucille offered, getting up from the bench to head for Negan’s mother. Even though Negan loved his mother, it was obvious that his mother was stressing him out. And the last thing Negan needed was another stressor to have to deal with. “We can get things prepared for cake and ice cream for when you’re done in here.”

“Thank you,” Negan gave Lucille a big-eyed glance knowing that she was saving him in this situation with his mother. When they left, Y/N got up and moved to the door to lock it so they had some time away from people. “Thank you for doing that. I need some space.”

Y/N sat down on the floor of the shower, looking up at Negan with her worried eyes and he felt his chest aching, “Shane told me that you were going to be moving with him to Atlanta. That he was going to convince you to take Evie from me…”

“That’s bullshit,” she blurt out with a shake of her head, a sigh falling from her throat. “He asked me if I would think about it and instead of saying no, I said I would think about it. He kind of threw a lot of shit on me that day. He told me he loved me and then asked me to go back with him.”

“He loves you?” Negan repeated what she said, his eyebrows raising with intrigue. “Do you love him?”

“I’ve never said it,” she was honest with Negan hearing his breathing loud while his eyes were hooked on her. “There are parts of him I like, but there is something that…”

“You know deep down there is a darkness inside of him,” Negan declared with a grunt, pulling the towel away from his face for a minute to check if his nose was still bleeding. When he got a look, he put the ice back to his nose and sighed. “Y/N, I’m really worried about you. I’m scared of what he is capable of. He’s starting with me, but who knows where he will take this next. He feels like he has an ownership over you and Evie.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” she waved her hand in the air making Negan let out a frustrated breath.

“Fuck. I am going to worry about you because I love you damn it,” Negan snapped, dropping his hand aside that had the ice in it. “I’m going to worry about you because of the same reason that you worry about me and you fix things for me. Because you love me. There is a part of me that is going to always love you and I just desperately want you to find someone that treats you good. I want you happy. I don’t want you to end up like this because you were too worried about breaking up with Shane. You will find someone else. You are a fucking catch. Just because I was stupid and didn’t see what I had in front of me doesn’t mean that no one else will.”

Y/N’s eyes were locked on him and she said nothing when they lowered down, “I wish I could live two lives because I like who I was when I was with you the first time. I was a person that I wanted to be. Someone who was happy and excited for life. But I also fell in love with Lucille as a boy. But I hate who I am right now. I love her, but I hate me. I hate me for hurting you. I hate me for hurting her. I hate that I can’t be the father that Evie deserves.”

“You shouldn’t feel bad for Evie. You’ve always done right by her,” Y/N pointed out and Negan gave her a disappointed expression.

“I did what I did with the farm and that was fucked up,” Negan shook his head bringing the ice back up to his nose. “Just stop asking me to stop caring and worrying about you. Because I can’t do that about someone that I love. And I’m scared about what is going to happen with Shane. He’s threatening me. Telling me he’s going to destroy me. Trying to get me to hit him so it will fuck with my probation. He’s hell bent on getting me out of both yours and Evie’s lives. If I don’t bite and give him what he wants, what comes next Y/N?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted getting up on her knees to reach out to grab the ice to look at Negan’s nose again. Negan’s stare was focused on her while she reached up to caress over the side of his face, tracing her fingers through his short beard. “But you aren’t going to lose Evie. I promise you that. I will never let that happen.”

“Yeah?” Negan swallowed down hard, leaning into her touch. “She’s the only thing keeping me standing at this point.”

“I would never hurt you or Evie like that,” she insisted hating that Shane would even think he had any control over something like that. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault that he attacked you. He knows how I feel about you and Lucille.”

“Felt?” Negan breathed out, the warmth of his breath mixing with hers while her thumb caressed over his jawline.

“Feel. I’ve never been good at hiding it,” she corrected him, her thumb sliding in over his bottom lip making his eyes come to a tight close. “I just thought if Evie loved Shane, I would learn to as well. I care about him, but I will never love Shane. I just like having his company sometimes.”

“Y/N,” Negan reached out to brush his fingers through her hair feeling his heart hammering inside of his chest. “I haven’t called back about the security job because Shane said if I fucked up, I could ruin this job for you completely. I was afraid I would fuck up and then screw up everything you worked so hard for.”

“We wouldn’t even be working in the same area Negan,” she reminded him and he bit down on his bottom lip, forcing himself to look away from her. “You should call him back. You wouldn’t screw up things for me. It’s not that hard of a job.”

“But I would rather be a deadbeat than put your job at risk because I fucked up. I always fuck up,” Negan claimed, sadness flooding his voice while she knelt before him. “It’s better to have nothing than to potentially ruin everything for you…”

“You wouldn’t,” she shook her head feeling Negan pressing a soft kiss against the pad of her thumb. Getting up further on her knees, she leaned in and felt Negan’s breath warm over her lips. Bringing their lips together, she was cautious at first in the way that they kissed not sure if it was something that Negan would want. When he pressed in closer and returned the kiss, she sank her fingers into his hair. A wince fell from Negan’s throat when he pulled back and reached up to touch his nose. “God, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. Worth the pain to kiss you,” Negan shook his head and lowered back in to be more careful in the way that he was kissing her. When she parted her lips, Negan brushed his tongue faintly against hers. A moan escaped his throat when he felt her hands caressing over his thighs. “I just want you to take care of yourself Y/N and I don’t want to be the thing to hurt you again.”

Groaning, Negan felt her kisses tampering off over the side of his neck and he could feel her palms caressing up and over his torso. A nervous sound fell from Negan’s throat when he felt her pushing up at the bottom of his t-shirt he was wearing and reaching for the top of his swim trunks to tug down on the material. With a tense breath, he watched her reach for his body to stroke softly at it making him suck in a sharp breath of air.

“You don’t…you don’t have to do that,” Negan brushed his fingers through her hair when she peppered faint kisses over Negan’s hips. Negan’s pulse leapt in his throat when he felt her fingers wrap around his length. With a loud pant, Negan felt her taking the tip of his manhood between her lips. Soft laps of her tongue were done at the sensitive underside making his head drop back against the shower wall. There was no rushing in doing what she was. It was focused, meticulous and very unhurried while she took her time pleasuring him. The wet kisses she pressed over the ridges of his body made him let out a throaty moan. Wet sounds were falling from her lips while she tenderly sucked at his manhood, dragging her tongue over the most sensitive parts of him. Licking his lips, Negan knew that he could find himself lost in this, but he didn’t want the meaning of this whole discussion to get lost. “I don’t want you to think I said those things just for this.”

“Shh…” she slurred against his body, her other hand caressing over his testicles while his cock started growing erect from her motions. Stroking his fingers through her hair, Negan appreciated the sight of her pleasuring him in such a sensual fashion. Pulling her lips away, she let them linger while she kissed faintly at the tip when she had him fully solid in her grasps. The way she was focusing on certain parts of him had him a breathless mess.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he growled hearing her chuckle against his flesh while her tongue and lips continued their wet caress at the tip of his cock. Both her palms were wrapped around his shaft and he felt his body tremoring. Reaching out, he urged her away from his solid form and leaned forward. “Come here.”

Claiming her mouth with his, Negan kissed her over and over again tasting himself against her lips. Capturing her chin between his thumb and his index finger, he felt his body on fire with what she had been able to build up inside of him.

“I want to return the gesture, but I think it would fucking hurt,” Negan stated, sliding forward to help get her to stand to her feet. Tugging down the material of the shorts she had on, he took her bathing suit bottoms down with it and leaned forward to press faint kisses at the insides of her thighs. Looking up at her with his seductive hazel eyes, he kissed teasingly at the area underneath her navel and smirked. “I don’t care if it hurts…”

“Negan,” she felt his hands hooking tightly to her when he slid down further on the bench that he was sitting on to kiss over the most sacred parts of her. Flicking his tongue out, he did his best to slurp and pamper her with his mouth without hurting himself in return. Her whimpers were escaping her parted lips while her fingers hooked tightly into his thick, dark hair.

“Does he ever cherish you?” Negan tipped his head back and licked his lips, watching the way her wet lips parted and her pupils were dilated with desire for him. “It’s been a while since someone pleasured you, hasn’t it?”

“I haven’t been with Shane in over a month,” she was honest, the room spinning around her when Negan leaned back up to use his mouth to bring her to a shaking mess while she was over him. Negan reached for her and lowered her in closer to him. Their eyes connected when she sank her hips in over Negan making him groan when the warmth of her etched over his erection. “Negan…”

“I miss you so much,” Negan breathed, his lips lingering over the side of her neck when a low guttural moan fell from his throat when she led him carefully into her warmth. It felt incredible inside of her as she lowered herself cautiously over him. Burying his head against the side of her neck, he felt her fingers hooking into his hair while she took her time sinking down over him. When he filled her completely, he tipped his head back and licked his lips looking up at her. “I’m so sorry.”

“So am I,” she muttered starting to slowly raise her hips up before lowering back down over him. It was that sweet stretching, full feeling that Negan could only leave her with. With the way his hazel eyes locked on her, she felt seen again with his aching length inside of her. Resting her forehead against his, their soft pants filled the air while their movements were slow taking the time to get used to one another all over since it had been quite some time.

With a cuss, Negan heard the sound of knocking on the door and his jaw lowered feeling everything inside of him tensing up when she stopped her movement over him, “Yeah?”

“Has your nose stopped bleeding yet?” Negan could hear his mother at the other end of the door and when Negan looked up at Y/N, he could see that something was behind her eyes. A rush full of emotions when she realized what she had been doing and she pulled herself from Negan with a worried breath making him cuss out. “Evie wants to do her cake and she was looking for her parents.”

“We’ll,” Negan looked down at his straining erection and he noticed that Y/N was reaching for her bottoms to pull them on. “We’ll be right out.”

“Okay honey,” Negan’s mother tapped a few times at the door and Negan could see that Y/N slid down in the corner of the shower. “Hey…”

“I can’t believe I did that,” Y/N lowered her head into her hands making Negan worry when he pulled his swimsuit back over his hips. Lowering down onto the floor with her, Negan reached out to try to cup her face in his rough hands. “I’m still dating him Negan. I’m a cheater.”

“Hey, we didn’t…we didn’t finish so not completely,” Negan tried to make it better for her, but he knew that wouldn’t be the way that would make her feel better. Stroking his thumb over her jawline, Negan leaned in to kiss her, but she turned away from him. “You can blame me for this.”

“It was all me,” she shook her head knowing that Shane obviously did have something to worry about when it came to them. They hadn’t finished the sex, but she sure did initiate it all between her and Negan. “This is what I mean Negan. I’m not a good person.”

“You’re not a bad person for loving me,” Negan shook his head doing his best to get her to look at him. “We share something that no one else does and that’s Evie. Shane has been wrong for you from the start. I think deep down, you know that.”

“I still shouldn’t have done that,” she reasoned hating that she only proved Shane right. “I told him he had nothing to worry about when it came to the two of us…”

“But I genuinely love you and you love me,” Negan felt her leaning into his touch and he leaned forward to press a kiss against her forehead. “Please don’t let this destroy you Y/N. You can’t help the way you feel and you deserve to be happy.”

“I don’t know about that,” she shook her head seeing Negan reaching out to cup her face in his rough palms to caress over her face. “Negan…”

“Please stop beating yourself up over being human Y/N,” Negan begged leaning forward to kiss her faintly again, his forehead pressing in against hers. “Let’s go be with the one thing we’ve always done right and finish off our daughter’s birthday right. Please don’t punish yourself for this.”

Negan helped pull her up to her feet while he stroked his thumb over the side of her neck, “Everything is going to be okay, I promise.”

Taking his hand in hers, all she could do was pray that was true because with the way she was feeling right now, she only thought that bad would follow if anyone ever found out what had started to happen tonight between her and Negan. She just hoped she would be able to hide it considering things were already toxic enough with Shane and she didn’t know how she was going to handle anything more.

Right now all that mattered was giving Evie the best birthday that they could and that’s what she hoped that they would accomplish. Their emotions and feelings should be secondary when it came to their child and she knew that now.

----

Tags: @slutlanna976​ @fuckthis-and-fuckthat​ @jennydehavilland​  @felicity291​ @ibelongtonegan​ @smallsadjellyfish​ @labyrinthofheartagrams​  @msjamesmarch​ @thebeautysurrounds​ @hotfornegan​ @redmercysugar​ @caprithebunny​ @tuttifuckinfruitty​ @emoryhemsworth​​ @a-girl-interupted​​ @akumune​​ @stoneyggirl2​​ @xsarcasticwriterx​​  @insertneganhere​​ @haleygreen23​​ @xhannahbananax03​​ @sanctuaryforthelost​​ @burningredaffair​​ @killaweiser​​ @dead-of-niight​​  @ayumi-wolf​​ @neganswoman​

[theresattrpgforthat]

Do you know of any games that are circus themed, or would be able to handle a traveling circus’s worth of npcs alongside the player characters? I have a very specific idea and I’m not sure DnD is the best system for it

THEME: Circus, or Circus-like.

These are games that are either built around the idea of a circus, or are tangentially related to a circus in some way. Some are more specific than others, but in any case they will certainly get you in the right headspace!

Clowning Around, by Bemia.

You are a Clown with a capital c, joking and laughing are in your DNA. Yet the people have stopped laughing, they aren’t even scared anymore. Find what makes them indifferent to your existence if you want to return to your old clownish ways.

This hack of Honey Heist (by Grant Howitt), lets you create clown characters to solve the sadness among humanity in an easy way. The game itself is rules-light and even comes with a character sheet. There is a "sadness reasons"  table included, but you can of course come up with your own. The game allows for both a happy-go-lucky and a creepy clown game. 

Clowning Around is a silly game in which you play clowns trying to figure out why people don’t find you funny (or scary) anymore. Your mission: to make them react, in one way or another. You have two stats, Human and Clown, that you will use to complete your mission. When it comes to relationships with a larger circus, there’s nothing in the game that inherently supports it - rather, you would have to do some worldbuilding. Perhaps the sad, sad apathy has overcome your fellow circus-folk! If you want a silly, goofy game, then consider Clowning Around.

Thy Words Inspire, Thespians, by MagiCole.

Make your theater company worthy of fame, captivate your audience with every moment, complicate your characters’ lives and to aspire to greatness.

Firebrands games are all about entangling your characters' lives in drama, so why not add the element of... well, drama?!

Play as a Performer, an Aesthetic, or a Stagehand through a variety of mini-games all aimed to build up your theater and to make a name for yourselves!

This is a game of interpersonal drama built upon the Firebrands system, which relies on a series of mini games to tell a narrative of romance, drama, and putting on a show. If you want to tell the story of a circus, you can probably re-imagine the acts as different performances by different circus folks. When you build your theatre, you also include the NPCs involved and what their job is within the theatre, so there’s definitely an expectation that you’ll be making a number of characters to fill different roles. If you like the idea of having a number of different scenes building up to the night of a big performance, this is the game for you!

The Traveling Circus, by Bone Mouse Productions.

“There's no such thing as bad publicity." - P. T. Barnum

Look anywhere - the spheres will always have room for a traveling circus. Come one, come all, to the magnificent sights and wonders that only a pack of fools can procure! This short document contains 6 backgrounds for Troika! that will astound you!

This isn’t necessarily required to run a circus in Troika, but it gives you some inspiration for writing up characters. NPCs don’t need a lot of stats for you to run them in this game, which means it’s also pretty easy to write them up! Keep in mind that most of Troika’s rules tell you how combat runs, which is a problem you might be trying to circumvent from Dungeons & Dragons. However, the rules are light enough, and the inventory list varied enough that you can probably write up an adventure that involves moving through a circus ground and figuring out how to placate numerous NPCs, using nothing but your wits and that exciting necktie that you wear during your performances!

You can also check out Eldritch Courts of Some Repute by Alan Szczepańcyk, if you want some inspiration for more NPCs, Fae Courts, and a different kind of combat - status combat!

Goblin Market, by Eliot Silvarian.

Every solstice, the veil thins between the worlds, merging mortal world with fae realm. Some time ago, the goblins started a market on the solstices to encourage friendship, trade, and storytelling between the worlds. Play to get to know your characters, meet fae beings, and ultimately decide where you belong.

Goblin Market is a 1-4 player GMless game meant to be played in one 2-4 hour session. To play, you'll need a deck of cards and a way to write.

Goblin Market is character driven and narrative heavy, and you can collaboratively decide if you want to use the narrative to lean fun and whimsical or a little darker and more intense. You should also decide together if your playthrough is set at the summer solstice or winter solstice, as well as a general setting, e.g., modern, historical, a certain style of fantasy.

This game is GM-less, but if you’re used to GM-ing, you might want to take on the role of the facilitator. In this game, your characters aren’t part of the Goblin Market, but rather a visiting party. Each character will have a reason for going to the Market, as well as a personal struggle that they may be trying to overcome. It would likely take very little work to re-skin this game in such a way that the Goblin Market is more like a Carnival or a Circus, rather than a fae bazaar. Because it’s a GM-less game, the NPCs that reside in the Market are going to be group-generated, rather than GM-generated. That being said, this is a good solo game if you want a tool to help you determine what the Circus looks like!

Under Hollow Hills, by Meguey & Vincent Baker.

There is a traveling circus under the Hollow Hills.

It travels by moonlight, small wagons creaking in the night silence. It travels lost roads, where fireflies and whisps hover to watch it pass, where goblins peer down from their treebranch perches, and owls. It travels the night world and the day world, fairyland and the living earth, and places otherwise, and no border can keep it. It has mysteries to pose, drama to perform, it has music, juggling, acts of death-defying peril, pratfall comedy. It has dangerous secrets to tell.

In Under Hollow Hills, you play the performers, planners, and crew of a traveling circus. You’re fairies and mortal humans, of various kinds and descriptions, but one and all you’ve found your way to the circus and now you travel with it. You make your way through fairyland and the human world, performing wherever you go, in street fairs and crossroads markets, in vacant lots, fairy palaces, amphitheaters, and among the standing stones. You perform for great and small, and to you, a child’s birthday in a town park is as important as the command of the the great Crowned Heads of fairyland.

With 13 core playbooks, your characters have so many choices there is bound to be an option that sticks out for each player. Much of the play options are fae, but there are also a few options for human characters that ended up in the circus one way or another. Under Hollow Hills is recognizable as a Powered by the Apocalypse game, with a few changes, including the fact that the GM rolls dice, and there is no mechanical character advancement. There’s also a play sheet for A Playbill in which you determine what characters will be performing, and what the audience is like. This means that the game is centred around the ways characters interact with each-other - if you want a game that is all about connections between characters, this game is for you.

[doubleddenden]

Man, I'm thinking about Sonic 06 again. I know it's a terrible game questionable decisions and a troubled development, but you know? 12 year old me and currently 30 year old me probably appreciated it best for the concepts, characters, music, and basically everything BESIDES the gameplay.

Like, Shadow was handled SUPRISINGLY well. Not a single connection to his past, just him getting entangled in the plot and trying to figure out Mephiles, and coming to terms with being hunted and sealed away in the future. The unshakeable friendship with Rouge, the hurt he hides well upon finding out Omega was programmed to seal him away, sort of becoming a brief mentor to Silver when they uncover the truth, and the bad ass line that is "If the world chooses to become my enemy, I'll fight like I always have" when faced with a demon that refuses to die and releasing his inhibitor rings- previously only done in game against The Final Hazard. Gameplay wise, his homing multi attack and chaos drive was actually pretty cool, especially with his red aura. Also Jason Griffith sounded really cool.

Silver himself is also incredibly overhated and underrated by fans and SEGA themselves. His character design is pretty cool, his powers are unique, and his backstory is sad and understandable when you realize he's even younger than Sonic. Watching him lose his friends- Amy when she finds out Sonic was his target after they bonded, PROBABLY his first friend he's made other than Blaze; and Blaze acting as his rock to keep him steady and SACRIFICING HERSELF to save the future, leaving him alone AGAIN. Yeah its complicated and never explained properly how she came there, but god it's such a cool dynamic. Sonic p06 actually is helping to show off just how cool of a character he could have been to control, especially by taking his cutscene speed into account.

Now Elise is complicated. It is definitely weird they had her fall in love with Sonic and kiss him back to life- however, if we ignore that, the friendship she was building with Sonic and their adventures together was actually rather sweet in it's own way. Perhaps if they simply wrote out the romance angle and simply kept it to admiration and friendship, then she would have been better accepted- like at least she's not Chris from Sonic X, cmon. Sonic being this fun guy that's there to teach her how to relax or to just be a fun, non political figure in her life is such a fun idea, too, being honest, its a fun trope that's been around forever and i never tire of it. Sonic isn't really one that needs a ton of character development because part of his charm is just how free, brave, and a bit happy go lucky he is in spite of the dangers around him. Really, their friendship could have been a lot like how KH handles the humans being friends with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, with surprising wisdom, silliness, and bravery coming from the cartoony animal friend and the very human character learning a lot from them and growing. It would certainly help if Elise maybe hung out with other characters, too (maybe have that bit in the beginning where she sees Silver again actually play out).

I think the biggest loss from the retcon at the end was losing Mephiles. Mephiles as a villain was INCREDIBLE considering everything wrong with the game. Cold, calculated, scheming, not to mention Dan Green just bringing his absolute BEST here, like it's very rare to see a character like him in Sonic games, let alone the way he manipulates people by... not exactly lying. Sonic in a way WAS the Iblis Trigger- Mephiles killed him and Elise released Iblis. The way he presented only the cold truths to Shadow- he's a devil, but not wrong, because everyone did turn their backs on Shadow. His designs, too, are cool af- Shadow on a conceptual level was meant to be Sonic's shadow and fold, but Mephiles became that for Shadow QUITE LITERALLY by taking his form for himself, and this time it ACTUALLY makes sense and isn't just a huge coincidence. Going even further with the demonic form is icing on the cake, especially considering just 1 game ago, that could have been Shadow himself if he gave into Black Doom's temptations. Mephiles is such an interesting villain, but alas he was retconned out of existence and doomed to a bad game, so I doubt he'll even return in Shadow Generations.

Then the entire concept of the story involving time travel, adding more abilities that can be used with the Chaos Emeralds (time travel and soul... binding? Sealing?), the ruins, the Venice inspired city itself, the landing wasn't there but the ingredients WERE. So was the gameplay, 06 could have easily been Sonic Adventure 3, and they probably avoided that title because they knew the game would be a bust. Ugh. Ugh. But the MUSIC. FUCKING HELL THE MUSIC. His World is probably the best game theme from the entire franchise (so much so they made 17 versions lol), and Dreams of an Absolution CHANGED something in me as a kid. Shit, I'm still listening to Aquatic Base and Kingdom Valley all these years later.

Also... maybe controversial, I liked these models the best. The current ones are too short and plastic looking tbh. We'll, for Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Omega, and Blaze, the rest are definitely weird but the longer legs actually fit Silver pretty well with his boots in comparison to later 3d models.

Oh man. I don't think I'll ever get over this. I've had to come to terms with a lot of "what could have beens" in my life but I don't think I'll ever fully get over what was lost here. The potential for what could have been the best Sonic game ever and a game that could have defined a generation, LOST because some jackasses up top demanded that Christmas money. A development cycle so awful that Yuji Naka left Sonic Team, as did many other devs working on the game... Splitting the already struggling team down even FURTHER to try and make 06 for the Wii, realizing that the Wii was not going to be as powerful as the 360/ps3, and deciding to turn that into Secret Rings (oh look MORE squandered potential). Introducing characters that are cool as shit, only to be forever scarred by the fact they appeared in a bad game. Not only this, but said bad game had Sonic's friends in it, making it so assholes in reviewing would go on this "Sonic and his shitty friends" tyrade that would result in us not really getting to play any other characters in an official capacity until QUITE recently... as dlc for Frontiers. Or Shadow, but in Forces he was just Sonic again.

This is my Roman Empire, I swear.

I hope that when ChaosX finishes up with p-06, fans can somehow work together to create a more cohesive story to really rectify what could have been, complete with better character development and some major plot holes either explained or filled in. In my heart, I would really love 06 to get a redemption arc and go from one of the worst Sonic games ever (Boom now holds that title- again, squandered potential) to one of the BEST ever. Like so good that even SEGA says "actually THIS is canon now." Idk, it'd be so much vindication for middle schooler DD.

God I've actually prayed to see the universe where 06 became Adventure 3, or 07/08 instead and was the best game ever. Like many things in life, I'll probably never get to see or play it in it's fully realized state.

[shuuji-thoughts]

on Tampopo - Juzo Itami (1985)

Initial Impressions

Watching this for the purposes of critique was actually unusually difficult partially because I had scene it before and partially because it's just a really well-made film, I'm not really sure what it was that made it so hard to view objectively. Regardless, my primary impression of this film is just how silly it is. There's not really much more to it to be honest, it's just a very goofy movie about food.

Further Critique

My favorite parts of this film were of course the various inter-spliced scenes disconnected from the main plot. I don't believe there was necessarily any specific point to them, the only commonality being their connection to food and their comedic tone. The oyster one might have been a bit much tho lol. I also appreciated the general tone of subversion, particularly in the scene on dining etiquette and the scene with the businessmen at the fancy restaurant. Also appreciated the slightly absurdist tone of the overall direction, with characters doing unnecessarily bombastic or random things in almost every scene, something I can always appreciate in a film. The vacuum scene and the ice cream scene were especially good.

Something I also quite liked was just the overall happy-go-lucky vibe, with all the characters kinda coming together in the end to celebrate Tampopo's success. Sure, there are some slightly tense/ sad scenes (the dying mother scene comes to mind), but they all still feel embued with this non-serious tone that keeps the film feeling consistent.

I honestly don't have much to say about this film aside from a few other particular things I found amusing, such as the constant clipping of the mic, the way the homeless (?) characters looked into the camera in that one scene, and just how fucking cute the old dude was lol (Watanabe was also a little bit of a cutie in this one too). I also for some reason felt like the one scene where they sneak into the kitchen to make omurice kinda felt like an homage to silent films in a way? I could be totally off on that, but something about the music choice and the over-the-top acting reminded me a lot of the feel of those films.

Yeah not gonna lie I really didn't get much out of this, it's just a fun film. I'm sure there's more to read into, like the value of honing a craft and the satisfaction that comes from creating art (food in this case), but it kinda just didn't feel like that deep of a film to me. 5/10

[corpsephage]

Sonic Frontiers Pre-DLC-Three Whinefest

I couldn't really get much into Sonic Frontiers, and I thought the final boss and ending was a little lacklustre. Apparently the writers agreed with me, because they're releasing a new ending as free DLC tomorrow.

I actually had a lot of thoughts about Frontiers and this'll likely be the last time I can air them before The Final Horizon comes along and makes me eat humble pie with how good it is. But I don't want to rip on it too hard because I know a lot of effort goes into making games like this.

I think Sonic Frontiers works best for me when I look at it like a tech demo for a future open world Sonic game. Compared to the variety of stages you get in other Sonic games - here's a casino with giant pinball machines, there's a European city full of balloons, here's a mineshaft from Halloween Town - the Frontiers open zones kind of felt sparse and empty, and there wasn't much I could find to do except go from one bit of plot to the next. This is a trap a lot of open-world games fall into, when the world is wider than it is deep, and there's everywhere to go but nothing to do.

However, I did like the enemies. They kind of looked samey aesthetics-wise, but they were all unique and had their own abilities that cleverly played off from Sonic's own, like the enemy disguised as a bounce pad or the one that would steal a Chaos Emerald from you.

In terms of boss fights, I think I preferred the part where you were normal Sonic running up their bodies to being Super Sonic and frantically smashing buttons. I was a big fan of Shadow of the Colossus, so anything that reminds me of those bosses is a plus.

Plot-wise, well... usually I can take or leave Sonic game plots, but this is probably the most plot-heavy Sonic game we've had so far. It's been described as "melancholy", and while it's not exactly grimdark-edgy, I wonder if it's a good fit for a Sonic game. I think the tone that suits Sonic best would be “fun”; not necessarily “silly” or “goofy”, just “fun”. That’s not me saying the whole thing should be happy-go-lucky, I think it should take slow moments every now and then to add complexity to the story.

Sonic's friends have these character arcs where they learn important lessons, like Amy learns not to be creepy-in-love with Sonic, Knuckles learns not to be tethered to the Master Emerald all the time, and Tails learns to stand on his own two feet for the umpteenth time. Part of me feels like maybe they're overcorrecting things that don't need that much correcting - especially Tails, whose whole arc felt kind of like an apology for the whole "Sonic, help me!" throwaway line in Forces.

Then there's Sage, the new character for this game, honouring the SEGA tradition of adding at least one new character every game. Truth be told, I kind of like them adding new characters, as long as they aren't just re-skins of the same "tutorial fairy" archetype (I think that's why Blaze and Silver had the staying power they did, being headlining playable characters in their debut games and all).

Sage had a lot of potential that I didn't think they got to explore. It's an interesting idea that she unconditionally loves Eggman like a father, but learns more of her morals from Sonic, which has the makings of a really tragic character. But they didn't really go in-depth with this my-two-dads-hate-each-other hook, and when they tried to do the whole Toy Story 2 bit with her (you know the part I'm talking about) I just couldn't take it seriously.

The main villain of the game turns out to be a big purple rock, which left me quite underwhelmed considering the build-up it got. The Sonic wiki reckons it's the ultimate overarching evil in all of Sonic ("Oh my God, I should have known! The one behind all this! All this time it was a big purple rock!") which is big talk considering Eggman is right! There! I get they were trying to go for a whole Azathoth/Yog-Sothoth thing, but I think Sonic-style dark gods need some more meat on their bones than the Lovecraft "it's indescribable, just trust me bro" style. I've seen some impressive fan designs for the big purple rock that make it look a lot more malevolent.

Honestly, I think Sage should have been the final boss. That’d really put her feelings between Sonic and Eggman at the emotional core of the story. Imagine once the towers were finished, Eggman comes out of cyberspace and the first thing he tries is to kill Sonic and his friends there and then - maybe he orders Sage to do it - but poor Sage can’t bring herself to kill her Uncle Sonic or disappoint her beloved dad, so she has an emotional breakdown which allows the evil cyber-force to enter into her mind, and the final boss ends up being her piloting this super-titan made of all three of the other titans. And maybe at the end Sonic knocks some sense into her – telling her to be her own person and all that – and she uses her free will to sacrifice herself and stop the cyber-evil. Or something. Look, I still can't believe the final boss was a QTE against a big purple rock, alright?!

But if there's one thing I do like Sonic Frontiers for, it's for being ambitious. If you look around the Sonic Fanon wiki, you'll see a lot of pretty detailed Sonic game ideas, and a lot of them have pretty high stakes and expansive stages - open-world designs featuring ancient evils from ancient civilizations and stuff like that. The first thing I thought of when I saw Frontiers, right when it was nothing more than a teaser, was that it reminded me of those fan game ideas. And in a strange way it works. Kind of. Sorta. I didn't hate it. On reflection.

If nothing else, Frontiers proves that an open-ended Sonic game can work. If the open world was more lively, it'd be a magical experience. Picture Sonic running through the countryside at night, over hill and dale, past streams and forests, the flickering lights of cities in the distance. Slaloming through traffic on the interstate, running up the sides of skyscrapers and springing from the rooftops, pedestrians down below wondering what that blue flash was. That kind of freedom and openness suits Sonic down to the ground. Split the world into denser and busier areas for fast-paced reflex-testing, and wider, quieter areas for taking it all in - that's a true Sonic simulator right there, looking into his world of worlds.

The new DLC also gives SEGA the chance to prove itself with other playable characters, like back in the days of Adventure yore. I actually like the presence of other playable characters - like I say, you don't make a fox with two tails who can fly and not have him playable - so long as they're fun to play as. Honestly, I hope the new DLC does it well, because if it's a success, then the next game might be willing to expand upon all this potential. You never know, we might be looking at a proper Sonic the Hedgehog RPG in a few years, and it could be the biggest Sonic adventure since... uh... Sonic Adventure.

So, yeah - Sonic Frontiers - didn't dig it - could've done better - and I hope it does do better, because it has a hell of a lot of potential, and I'd love to see an open-ended Sonic game taking place in a living, breathing world with the groundwork Frontiers has laid. And if we can play as Tails, Knuckles, Amy and all the rest, so much the better. Bring on Grand Theft Sonic, I say.

[princesshaymin]

Reached Chapter 3 in Misyr's route, and I.... WOW what the hell

[y0ung-4ever]

Genuine

Paring: Johnny Depp x reader

Description: You and Johnny are being interviewed and talk about each other.

Warnings: flufff~

Rating: E

Notes: I really like this one..I hope you all do too!! This is in your pov! Enjoy~ <3

Today me and Johnny had an interview with James Corden about how our relationship was and how it is like to be married to a famous actor..at least that’s what I think it is. What else would it be about? Johnny originally had a solo interview but James insisted that I tagged along.

“Darling, are you ready to go?”

I was in the bathroom of the hotel room we were staying in while we were in LA, it was closer to the studio than our house and it was nice for a change in scenery.

I had on a beautiful green gingham dress that brought out my s/c skin and e/c eyes. I did simple makeup and my h/c hair was wavy and reached the bottom of my shoulder blades.

“Oh wow..love, is it really necessary to look so beautiful for a talk show? I’ll be too distracted to answer the questions properly!”

Johnny whined and pouted as he rested his chin on my head.

“Oh don’t be silly..”

I looked in the mirror at the reflection of me and the love of my life. Him being pouty and me giggling.

“Okay, enough pouting mister, we have to go.”

He sighed and shook his head with the same pout.

———————————

“Welcome back to the show! Today we have two very special guests, Johnny and y/n Depp! This beautiful couple has been so gracious as to join me for a couple questions!”

The in-studio crowd clapped and cheered as me and Johnny waved at them and I even blew a couple kisses at the little girls watching in the front row.

“Now, Y/n. May I ask what your first impression of our dear Johnny was?”

I laughed and looked over at Johnny while I answered.

“I thought he was the biggest dork ever! He’s always joking around and being silly. I remember the first time we actually had a one on one conversation, he was comforting me because I had just lost my grandmother, and he said these exact words, “You know I’m always here for you, right? You can talk to me about it...about how you're feeling.” And I just remember a total feeling change for him. Like I really liked him, he was goofy and kiddish and I loved that, but when he got serious and genuinely cared for me in that situation, I seen him more as a man than I ever did and I realized that under all the silliness and laughs and smiles, he was a very caring and passionate guy. And it made me fall in love with him.”

Johnny smiled at me with sympathy and he grabbed my hand to hold it.

“You both genuinely look and sound in love and it makes me so happy to know that you two have made it together and can have that support system for one another. Now, Johnny, what about you?”

He laughed and looked up.

“It’s funny to think that the times we made a big imprint on our feelings towards one another was during hard times in our lives..I remember I was really upset with myself because I was filming a movie, and I was just having so much trouble with the character I was playing. I just couldn’t get the part down and we were going to be filming in less than a week. And y/n was a stylist and makeup artist so she came into my dressing room and apparently saw that I was upset and she could just see the sadness in my eyes because I’m obvious with my emotions, at least that’s what y/n says..and she sat down next to me and patted my back. And the words she said were, “it’s not bad to cry..In fact, I think it makes a person stronger.” And I still live by those words. Do you want to know something funny, darling? I remember just the day before that, practicing how to ask you out in the mirror.”

“Oh my gosh..Johnny you dork!”

I laughed and he just looked at me with caring and loving eyes.

“Well..maybe I should start to practice in the mirror..”

I laughed again at James’ comment.

“So I’m guessing Johnny made the first move then?”

I nodded and smiled.

“He did! It was so cute-“

“Oh please, honey don’t tell them this story..”

He pulled at my arm and pouted.

“Johnny are you saying that you were embarrassed when you asked y/n out?”

Johnny bowed his head and said yes.

“Oh shut up! It was cute!”

“Yeah! Shut up, Johnny! It was cute! Anyway..continue with embarrassing Johnny..”

I nodded and continued my story.

“So I was cleaning up the makeup supplies and hanging up the clothes that were strung out everywhere in Johnny’s dressing room, when all of the sudden he comes up to me and he is leaning against the clothing rack..and *laughs* he almost fell over because the rack wasn’t strong enough to support his weight and it fell over and all the clothes were on the floor and Johnny had this terrified expression on his face! And then he proceeded to ask me, “Wanna, like- I mean, if you’re not busy.. We could get lunch? Or even just a coffee if you don’t have a lot of time..?” And I could not stop laughing at this and he was just so confused and then laughed with me because he was just so nervous!”

He pouted and looked at me with “are you kidding me?” eyes.

“Oh~ so our Johnny here was a stud!?”

“James..do not make me come over there!”

I giggled.

———————————

Once the interview was over, we made it back to the hotel room and we didn’t even take the time to prepare ourselves for bed, we just fell onto the mattress and sighed with relief.

“I am so tired..”

I groaned and got under the covers.

“From what? Embarrassing me on live television?”

I giggled and playfully slapped his arm.

“Oh, come on..you aren’t still hung up about that story, are you? It was cute, baby boy!”

He buried his face in my neck and breathed in heavy.

“Your hair is so soft..”

He snuggled his face into my hair and I could feel the content smile on his face.

“Oh my gosh you are such a dork..but..you are my dork..so it's okay.”

He sighed and we just laid there for a while. Soaking up each other’s presence and enjoying the warmth of each other’s bodies.

“You know..I really love you..like a lot! Like so much! How did I get so lucky..”

His face was squished against mine so his words came out squished as well.

“You are so cute when you are half asleep like this..”

[danny-chase]

A lot of how we view teenage girls is based on misogynistic standards. There is a lot about adultification of teen girls and how we portray teen girls in media. A teen girl with no make-up actually looks very young. People constantly thought I was 14-16 even when I was in my early twenties. I know 20 and even 30 something women who like bunkbeds, stuffed animals, and act silly/goofy.

Look. I get it. I got pegged as an 8th-9th grader last weekend (I'm in my senior year of college). I sleep with a stuffed animal, and only stopped sharing bunk beds with my sibling a little bit ago. I am literally the type of person you are describing.

Cass does not act like she did in Batgirls.

Here's Batgirls:

Batgirls #1

Here's from the second issue of her solo

Batgirl (2000) #2

Here's Batgirls:

Batgirls #1

It pretty much makes no sense for them to be seeking her approval constantly. Here's Cass:

Batgirl (2000) #7

Cass goes on in this issue to run around Gotham not as Batgirl, but her own vigilante even Bruce told her no (and Barbara clearly implies she wants her to stay home). Cass semi-cares about Bab's approval, but her sense of duty is stronger. (She wouldn't go to Barbara first, she'd jump out the window and likely wouldn't worry about Babs being upset when she got back).

Steph's also not the type to ask permission:

Batgirl (2009) #2

She didn't go to Barbara for permission being Batgirl, Barbara showed up at her house unannounced to talk her out of it, and Steph pretty much just completely ignores her. Neither of them would be constantly seeking approval for their actions from her.

I'm not exaggerating much when I say their expressions hardly change throughout the entire issue. It's like they took one look at Cass, and assigned her entire personality as "goth" because her costume is all black.

Here's her after showering in Batgirls:

Batgirls #1

And here's her taking a bath in her solo:

Batgirl (2000) #65

In both scenes she's portrayed childishly, the difference is in her solo she's enjoying it, whereas in Batgirls she's just -_- the entire time. Which is starkly different from her solo run in which she is incredibly expressive.

Meanwhile Steph has a smile plastered on her face the entire issue. Can she be goofy in her solo? Absolutely! She is!

Batgirl (2009) #3

Is that her only personality trait? No. Not by a long shot. For comparison, here's Steph being goofy in her solo, without her face being stuck in one setting:

Batgirl (2009) #1

And of course Steph has more serious issues going on too. She's coming back from dying, no one treats her seriously (especially Tim, who tried firing her from spoiler, which she didn't listen). Her father is a pest, she's not an only happy-go-lucky character (aka smiling is not her only personality trait). She's optimistic yes, but that's not all she is.

There are ways to show "childish" behaviors without losing the depth of these characters. Batgirls gave Steph and Cass 1 personality trait each and had them act childishly the entire time and mind you, I would not care at all if it wasn't Cass and Steph - if there names were Laura and Mary or smth I'd be like this is fun. I would reccomend reading Batgirl (2000) #1 and Batgirl (2009) #1 as comparison to see just how flat Batgirls #1 portrayal of these two characters is (and Birds of Prey #1 for Barbara, although she wasn't who this post is about). It legitimately takes reading 1 comic to show the difference, you don't need to take my word on this, and I encourage you to read each issue and judge for yourself whether or not Batgirls did Cass and Steph justice.

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

I would love for you to talk more indepth about the montage. To me it feels so off and weird. Almost like a parody? So many scenes in it are "funny" moments that just don't make sense in the context of an emotional overview of the road so far... (Like all the scenes where Dean is eating, Donna with donut dust on her face, Sam getting hit during the game show.) I don't know. Isn't the montage supposed to make me nostalgic, teary-eyed? This one definitely doesn't do it for me!

Here I am! Yes, I absolutely agree. The montage is Weird(TM). It’s kind of a tone rollercoaster. It’s very full of funny/silly moments, with some serious moments smacked in. And it definitely looks like... there’s something about it.

For an easier consultation I will reference the gifs I have made of the montage sequence here.

[Gif 1] It starts pretty much like I’d expect a Supernatural goodbye montage to start. The two brothers meeting for the first time in the pilot, a reminder of their childhood with John, their banter still from the pilot, a couple moments of them driving in the car in the first seasons, Dean saving Lucas in 1x03 which is the first Dean-heavy episode and also an extremely symbolic moment for Dean’s entire journey - just think at how Lucas as a mirror was still relevent during the “drowning” Michael possession arc. Everything feels normal so far. We’re starting from the beginning! Now--

[Gif 2] Interesting and weird choices start here. Them pretending to be high school teachers from After School Special 4x13 - actually a very iconic moment for the fandom, remember that post of Dean in shorts from that episode that you had to reblog when it came on your dash? (Actually I’m not sure if I ever reblogged it lol.) Dean celebrating getting young again from The Curious Case of Dean Winchester 5x07 (and Jensen showing off his agility). The two of them showing their FBI badges to Jesse Turner’s biological mother in 5x06. Dean mowing the lawn of Mary’s house in the Djinn dream and immediately after Jess and Sam kissing also in the Djinn dream, from What Is And What Should Never Be 2x20. Then Dean after killing the witch when he was under the memory loss spell, in Regarding Dean 12x11. Sam happy when they celebrate Christmas in A Very Supernatural Christmas 3x08. Them being “lucky” under the effect of the rabbit’s foot in Bad Day At Black Rock 3x03. Sam also happy in Baby 11x04.

Again the present, then the montage starts again with the water-related ghost from Red Sky At Morning 3x06, a Bela episode, and then Bela herself from her first episode, 3x03 again.

What do these moments have in common? Not all of them, but for many of them I’d say reality being manipulated. The Djinn dream, the rabbit foot, Dean’s aging, the Antichrist... and it’s not over yet. Also, them pretending to be teachers, agents etc - not “real”.

[Gif 3] The tone suddenly gets more serious and relevant to current events: Chuck in The Monster at the End of This Book 4x18 (eh). Death in Two Minutes to Midnight 5x21 (the first appearance of Death, while now we’ve had Billie’s last and a very short-lived new one), and then two major moments from Lazarus Rising - Dean emerging from the grave and finding the handprint on his shoulder. Crowley’s first episode, Abandon All Hope 5x10. Zachariah’s death in Point Of No Return 5x18. Anna from The Song Remains The Same 5x13, where she is the antagonist having been brainwashed successfully by heaven. Michael burning and Sam jumping in the cage with Michael in 5x22, then another moment from 4x01 (the brothers hugging after reuniting). A moment from The French Mistake 6x15 (reality fuckery again!). Sam in Frontierland 6x18.

[Gif 4] Reality fuckery continues with Becky marrying Sam in 7x08. Funnily enough, this is the peak of Becky’s obsessive behavior which she went to therapy for and grew away of - it definitely emphasizes how far Becky has come. Donna’s first appeance in 9x13. That iconic shot of Dean in Bloodlust 2x03 because he’s pretty. Charlie’s first appearance in 7x20 while she dances to Walking On Sunshine (relevant?), Kevin’s first appearance in 7x21 when he becomes a prophet (lots of firsts). Abaddon’s first appearance in As Time Goes By 8x12. Then there’s the first appearance of the bunker, in the next episode, a couple shots in fact. Then more 4x01, Ruby pretending to mistake Dean for the pizza man (eh). Then more present...

This section seems to be mostly “first appearances” - including Ruby’s s4 meatsuit, i.e. Genevieve’s first appearance.

[Gif 5] We suddenly jump to more recent events with Kelly and Jack in heaven in Byzanthium 4x08. Jack’s iconic hello from 4x16 Don’t Go In The Woods. Dean teaching Jack how to drive in 14x07 Unhuman Nature. But then we suddenly go from Jack things to something completely different on the surface: two consecutive moments from Changing Channels 5x08, including the iconic Nutcracker scene, and Sully from Just My Imagination. We are actually back to the previous theme: reality fuckery. Gabriel’s episode was about placing them in “television shows”, Sully, while real, is literally a child’s “imaginary friend”. And then... a moment from the cartoon part of Scoobynatural! It doesn’t get more reality fuckery than that. Oh, wait! Charlie and Dorothy going to Oz in 9x04. That’s a pretty strong contender. Dean being hit in the face by a fairy in 6x09 - also about a realm Dean briefly went to. And, in case we felt like we hadn’t gotten enough 4x01 yet, Pamela’s first appearance (her last, albeit a hallucination, was about the whole “How come you only want what you can't have?” thing).

[Gif 6] We continue again with a mixture of firsts and weird things. Ellen’s first appearance in 2x02, Dean and Cas in 4x18 (we saw Chuck from that episode earlier), Jody’s first appearance in 5x15 Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. Rufus in 6x04 Weekend At Bobby’s (not his first but a good episode...), Garth in 9x12 Sharp Teeth (not his first but the first in which he is a werewolf and is married... relevant to recent lamp events??), Missouri in 1x09 (her first appearance).

Then Gabriel from 13x21 Beat The Devil (an episode where he plays a trick on Lucifer) and Rowena from the same scene (in fact a scene where they’re flirting).  Then Eileen coming back to life in 15x06 and smiling at Sam. Jo flirting with Dean in 2x02 - her first appearance, again. Funnily enough, she had been introduced as a love interest, but ended up being repurposed as a sisterly figure. Tempted to say it’s relevant in an ironic way. Mary in 14x11 Damaged Goods, when Dean has a goodbye mother-son moment with her. Amara in 11x09 Oh Brother Where Art Thou when she was looking for her brother. Then Lucifer in two different vessels (12x07 Rock Never Dies and 12x21, when Lucifer regains control over the vessel).

Then Metatron doing the find a wife make babies speech to Cas in 8x23! Relevant??? Dun dun dun. Then Ketch for some reason (the first episode where we see his face, 12x08 LOTUS).

[Gif 7] Then Jo/Anael in 13x13, another first appearance. (I cropped these horribly I should have cut them when the present happens lol.)

Sandwiched between two shots from the present, Dean Sam Mary and John having dinner together in 14x13 Lebanon.

Then we start again with Dean riding Larry in 12x11, Dean and Cas dressed as cowboys in 13x06 (mini pattern here...), Asmodeus with the archangel blade in 13x13 (insert meta about Asmodeus in Christian lore here), and the really intriguing “Intermission” shot from the play in 10x05.

[Gif 8] To continue a certain pattern we might be tempted to see, Dean eating piecake from 14x06 Optimism (an episode about a distorted version of romantic love), then Dean eating noodles from 10x13 Halt & Catch Fire (the ghost is a husband that passes on thanks to his wife). Dean after his dentistry session with Garth in 15x10. Meg from 6x10 Caged Heat (the episode with the pizza man porn). Dean and Sam investigating in 4x12 Criss Angel Is a Douchebag (an episode about growing old poorly). Crowley in 10x16 Paint It Black (that episode). Dean playing that game in 14x17 Game Night (the episode Cas calls for God, and when Mary dies - the one playing the game was God...). Sam and Dean getting out of the car in 13x05 when they visit the traumatized kid (peak mourning Dean episode...). Then we go into reality fuckery territory again with 14x15 Peace of Mind, Sam under the psychic’s control and Cas disgruntled about it.

[Gif 9] Mick Davies from 12x16 Ladies Drink Free, when he learnt a lesson about monsters. Dean geeking out about the Hatchet Man - so heavy with mirror significances - in 14x04 Mint Condition. Belphegor - Jack’s dark mirror - in 15x03 The Rupture, the break-up episode. Donna’s first episode again, this time Dean and she eating donuts. Dean, Sam and Mary hugging in 12x22 after the confrontation in Mary’s head. Kaia in 13x09 The Bad Place, when Jack uses her to find the way to where Mary is (Mary pattern?). Claire&co rescuing Jody and Donna in 13x10 Wayward Sisters. Dean in 1944 dresses as a sailor in 11x14 The Vessel. Baby nyooming in 15x11 The Gamblers...

Aaand more Changing Channels, the genital herpes ad. It’s almost like reality fuckery is a theme. Followed by Sam drinking the anti-cold concoction at Garth’s in 15x10 and the two of them outside the monster fighting pit in the same episode. Then Cas, Dean, Sam and Jack on a video call with Ketch in 14x09 The Spear when they talk about the egg to trap Michael.

[Gif 10] We stay in the same episode with the four of them heading to Michael. Then the four of them celebrating Jack’s return to life (after Cas’ deal with the Empty). More present, and then the iconic “we’ve got work to do” [trunk closes] moment from the pilot.

So: some of these moments seem like genuine moments you’ll want to put in a montage, but there’s a weird predominance of characters smiling and looking happy or goofy. It’s kind of... not exactly representative of the show as a whole, you know? There are moments that fit as, you know, iconic steps in the story, but surprisingly few, and many moments you’d expect to be in a “final” montage are blatantly not there. Several moments with, let’s put it like this, suspicious meta connotations. Moments that, well, we don’t know what happens in the finale yet, but smell like they might be relevant to future developments. (Metatron’s speech to newly human Cas anyone?)

What really strikes me is the amount of moments connected to reality being manipulated or distorted in some way. Lots of Changing Channels, fantasy elements of various kinds (the Djinn dream, Scoobynatural, Oz, the imaginary friend Becky’s wedding to Sam, the fairy, ...), them acquiring luck (s3) or losing it (s15), and so on. It’s almost like the sequence is telling us something...

Thoughts?

[volleyball-dontknowher]

Break up with your girlfriend and date me instead

WOrds: 1.7k 

Warnings: None

Characters, Kenma, Tsukishima and HInata (all seperate and x reader)

Requests are open! 

Kenma 

It had been almost six months since yoou and Kenma started dating and it went exactly how you would expect, you chatted some in the mornings before school and during lunch, but otherwise majority of your time together was after school or on the weekends where you didn’t have to worry about other people bothering the two of you. One of your friends didn’t understand this and continuously asked you if you were going to bring Kenma around or why you weren’t sitting next to him, and when you told her that it was because he needed his space too she always rolled her eyes as you changed the subject. 

This had been happening since the beginning of your relationship and never thought too much of it, until she decided to go talk with Kenma alone. 

*From Kenma’s perspective* 

“Heyyyyyyy Kenma” You recognized the voice, she usually hung out with Y/N so I had to at least be a little nice to her so Y/N doesn’t get mad. 

“Hi” I mumbled not looking up from my game, being nice and caring are two different things. 

“Soooo whatcha doin?” She asks while sitting down right next to me. 

“Playing my game.” “Ohhh what game? It looks really hard, you must be amazing,” 

“It’s animal crossing, I have a five star island,” she was getting annoying and she’d barely said anything. 

“Wow Kenma you’re so talented.” “I guess.” 

“Well I wanted to ask you something?” Crap, she wanted to actually talk and I really don’t want to, before I could respond she was already going off, “so how is your relationship with Y/N going?” 

“Good.” 

“Is it really? I don’t see the two of you hanging out often, like it looks like the two of you aren’t even dating.” 

She's annoying, “We’re dating,” I huff out just wanting to focus on my game but I know that she is going to want to talk more. 

“Why?” 

“What?” I couldn’t help but look up at her to see that she looks serious. 

“I mean come on Kenma, you two don’t work together, I think you should date me instead, I mean I am a lot prettier and I will actually hang out with you and talk to you and cheer for you at all of your games because I care about you so much.” 

“No you don’t,” I respond, she really knows nothing. 

“But Kenma I promise you I do, we would be the best couple ever, we would have so much fun going out together and we look so” 

“No we would not. I like Y/N and we are dating so stop talking.” 

“Kenma listen to me we would be so much better together and she is nothing compared to me.” SHe is practically whining at me and I’m sick of it. 

“I don’t care what you think, you’re annoying” I can’t help but tell her the truth, and I don’t even have to look at her to know that she’s staring at me in shock. 

“Kenma Kozume you are a jerk and I can’t believe that you could say something like that-”

“I can, I don’t like you, I like Y/N so stop wasting your breath and find someone else.” 

She is peeved but I don’t care she is annoying. I get up and leave the bench to go find Y/N so we can walk home together and I can show her how much I’ve done on our shared island. (That he secretly has been working all day on to show you because you only had two stars at the beginning of the day and he just wants you to be proud of him and loves how happy it makes you, like he was really annoyed that he had to stop to tell that girl that he was not interested) 

Tsukishima

 You and Tsukki were the perfect couple, you both complimented each other perfectly, you brought out everything in him that he thought that the public would never see. You were too good to be true and he made a point to constantly remind you. What the world saw was him greeting you by the door, walking you home, and giving you his sweatshirts. What they didn’t see however was how you called him after practice and just let him talk about all of his worries, or how you pack him food for long bus trips because you know that’s the only way that he’ll eat, or how you practically pounce on him when he comes over and give him all of the affection in the world. This is what let your friend decide that she id going to have...an opinion on your relationship. 

*Tsukishima’s perspective*

Morning practice was as brutal as usual this morning, they all voted for sprints this morning and it really couldn’t have been worse. Now it’s over and I’m waiting for Yamaguchi to finish changing so we can walk to class together. It was a little colder out today and I just wanted to get inside. I decided to put my headphones on for a couple of minutes of peace before school, as I grab them out of my bag I see one of Y/N’s friends running towards me. 

“Tsukishima, hey Tsukishima!” She is calling my name, shit. She’s annoying and I really only handle her because she is Y/N’s friend.

Once she gets to me she is out of breath but tries to puff her chest out and smiles at me, “Heyyy so I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me?” 

“What?” Did she really just ask me that? I have a girlfriend and she knows it, she is literally friends with Y/N what the hell. 

“I mean I thought that you would want a girlfriend who actually cares about you ans wants to spend time with you and I would also love to show you a good time,” she says while rubbing her hand up on my chest and I can’t help but brush it off of me. 

“Why would I do that?” Is she really asking me to go out with her? Is she stupid? 

“Because I like you stupid and I would be willing to fufill all of your needs and I’m prettier than Y/N and I would like to do everything for you. Besides you don’t even seem happy with her, like you do all of these things but that’s because she’s spoiled, you deserve better,  duh.” 

“You must be stupid, ugly and stupid.” “What?!?” “Y/N is my girlfriend, not you, do not touch me, do not talk to me and do not assume anything about our relationship. You must be stupid to think that you can come blink at me and expect me to go out with you. I knew you were dumb but that’s rediculous.” She was completely in shock, but that’s fine she doesn’t matter to me. Lucky for me Yamaguchi walked out of the locker room and we left her standing there, staring at me in awe. When I got to the classroom with Y/N I pulled her into a hug and told her that she needed to drop that friend before you got hurt. 

He would actually never ever ever tell you this but you literally make him the happiest person ever and to think that someone would even think about trying to split the two of you up makes him both pissed and super nervous because if he was mean and still got asked things like that what happens to you, his nice and loving girlfriend. He makes sure to be a little closer to you for the next couple weeks because you are his whole world and he just wants you to be by his side. 

Hinata

You and Hinata are literally so cute together and if you don’t know that the two of you are dating then you must be blind, deaf, and stupid. He was constantly shouting your name or is right by your side, HInata is loud but a complete sweet heart and he treats you so well that it makes other girls so jealous. Like no one else gets greeted by their boyfriend with a big hug and goofy smile every single morning. Other girls approach him often but usually you are right by his side. 

Hinata’s POV

After school there is about 5 minutes after I change before someone with a key gets to the gym, so I like to sit on the steps by the gym to be the first one in. Usually Kageyama was there with me but today I was all alone, well until Y/N’s friend came along, she came and sat by me and gave me a really warm smile. 

“Hey Shouyo what’s up?” 

“I’m just waiting for practice to start, you?” 

She sighs and looks at me, “I’m not doing anything, I just wanted to know if you would be interested in hanging out with me?” 

“What were you thinking? Practice starts in fifteen minutes so I guess I could talk with you until then…” 

“No silly, I meant like hang out like go out on a date together,” she looks at me like I should’ve known that but there is no way. 

“Um no… you know that I’m dating Y/N right?” Maybe she forgot or this was a prank, who knows what people are up to. 

“Yeah, I know, but I mean I just thought that I would be more fun to date instead of her, like come on Hinata I play volleyball too, like we could do that together and I would actually be your biggest fan.” 

“I already have a biggest fan and her name is Y/N and she is also my girlfriend so thank you but no thank you.” She’s Y/N’s friend, how you could she say something like that? “NO HINATA I COULD MAKE YOU HAPPY” “I am already happy.” Walking up next to the gym is Tanaka who got a set of keys to the gym and unlocked it for us, he looks at the two of us with a confused look on his face but doesn’t bother asking before he entered the gym. I get up to follow behind him and look back at her one more time, “If you wanted to be friends I would be more than happy to be friends with you, but I am taken and have to go to practice now, so have a good day!” 

Hinata really didn’t understand what happened there, like she meant a date but he was already taken so he kinda just blew it off. When he told you later though you explained it to him and he kinda just laughed but also felt bad for rejecting her like that even though she should have known better than that. 

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: February 2021

Whoa I know it’s exactly 4 weeks but February just flew by! Here’s how I spent those chilly days.

……….FILM……….

Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar (2021) Silly and sincere and just...a lot of fun. There is so much happening at all times that you’re bound to enjoy at least half of it. Maybe 2/3rds. Mileage will vary but watch the teaser trailer. Does that look like a movie you’d enjoy? If “yes” then go watch it.

Freaky (2020) Fun! And a couple solid laughs. If you’ve seen Happy Death Day then it’s similar in tone but I admit I think I liked that better than this. It delivers on the premise but almost feels like it has a tiny fourth act that...doesn’t really fit. Not bad, overall.

The Kid Detective (2020) Highly recommend. A good dark comedy with a wild third act and overall just a good time at the movies. I’m not sure if a trailer gives too much away so just picture Adam Brody as a washed up kid detective trying to solve a murder case.

Logan Lucky (2017) Pretty solid! It kinda drags after the heist (oh yeah, it’s a heist film...love it) but other than that it’s really rather fun! Worth checking out.

……….TELEVISION……….

WandaVision (Episode 1.01 to 1.08) While it’s starting to slot into the overall Marvel formula, I really appreciate that the superhero stuff is dabbling in weirder stuff. Between the illusion scene in Spider-Man 2 to this, I’m really rather hopeful that the movies will get more colourful and wacky and ever closer to the aesthetics of Speed Racer (also go watch Speed Racer).

The Bachelor (Episode 25.05 to 25.08) What. A. Mess. I mean I of course follow all the drama outside of the series and it really feels like 1 step forward highlighting the 2 steps back happening in tandem. Sure, Matt is bland and I really just want more of the goofy stuff that they show at the end of the episode, but those complaints are overshadowed by a really irresponsible casting and production that brings in super problematic contestants. It’s a bummer. But I DO think I’m winning my fantasy league! 

The Night Manager (Episode 1.01 to 1.04) Far less night managing than I expected, but what we ARE getting is a really solid spy mini series. Also I always think Tom Hiddleston is like...average to average-tall actor height (maybe 6 feet?) but he absolutely towers over most of the cast! It’s wild. Also a good show.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (Episode 1.01 to 1.04) The first three episodes had me a little worried for how much they relied on youtubers and a community that feels...rather exploitative of a really tragic situation, but the end kinda redeems itself. I don’t think it holds them as accountable for the damage they’ve done and the problems they caused, but that’s just me.

……….READING……….

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey (Complete) As a character study, it’s really really great. I wish I hadn’t read focusing on the murder mystery component because that side is...fine. I was looking for clues and misdirects and it was too late when I’d realized that was not the type of book I was reading. I won’t spoil anything. Instead I’ll suggest it as a good book to check out if you want to read about a very human detective working in a world that is not her own. In that, i wholly recommend.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Page 203 of 453) Gosh I’m loving this so far! The lead character is so fun to read and the whole premise (okay...1 necromancer and 1 swordsperson from 8 communities come together to sort out who will rule over them all in a techno gothic haunted mansion) is bonkers but grounded and it’s a really good time. There’s so much chemistry between each character and lots of skeleton minions so I really don’t know how else to sell this book.

House of X / Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva, and Marte Gracia (Complete) Really great ideas and as I don’t read a lot of X-men, it feels like two things are crucial to every big story: conflict with humans and time travel/time jump stuff. When I finished reading it I admit I wondered “is that it?” as it really feels like an unfinished story...more like a setup to bigger things. Turns out that’s exactly what it is and now there are a million books to check out. So I don’t love that. I’d still recommend this and will likely go back to it, but just know that it leaves a lot of threads dangling.

Dragon Ball 3-in-1 Vol. 3 by Akira Toriyama (Complete) This is a series I’m rereading during the pandemic and a few things stand out: I love that you can see Goku aging in the comics, the Red Ribbon Army is blaaaaaaand (but the underwater cave stuff is fun), and I LOVE the old crone/fight the universal monsters storyline. So basically this volume is 50% fine and 50% fantastic.

……….AUDIO……….

Calypso by Harry Belafonte (1956) You know that viral video of the happy trotting dog? Well since then I’ve been listening to Harry Belafonte and...more hits than misses!

……….GAMING……….

Hades (Supergiant Games) Alright I’ve made it out of hell...3 times? Not enough to really share with any pride but I’m still knee-deep in this game. Fun and perfect for a few minutes or a couple hours and hot dang I love Greek mythology.

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The adventurers have been doing some mining and are now on their way to exchange their haul for a fallen star! Also the longer recap is on Reddit and is full of spoilers and more TTRPG details.

And that’s it! See you in March.

[datingdonovan]

Hello Cece!! I just saw your new hq game and was thinking it i could join if its still open :)

My pronouns are she/her

Im an INFJ, 6w5 and a taurus, i would describe myself as an ambiverted because my mood changes a lot depending on the vibes i get from the environment, im also very independent but love to be with my close ones, i really like laughing too and im always trying to be nice to people, i also have a crackhead side and smile or cry very easily (im quite sensitive).

My relationships usually dont start bc i feel like something isn’t right, i have some trust issues and i need someone who is always there even if it’s bothering me but never pressures, the biggest red flags that cause me to not want to be with someone are 1. feeling too sexualised, 2. feeling pressured to things and 3. feeling that they don’t care about me, i tend to distance myself without realising so i need someone who is present and makes me feel nice about myself in all aspects

Neway, this game is quite fun and interesting since it makes you realise about how you feel and how you are so i really liked it!! I hope i did it right but if not please let me know through dm :) im also open for chatting anytime!! I hope you have a great week and please remember to hydrate yourself and stay safe <3

a/n: oh my word. took me a sec to think of who to pick but all I have to say is I feel like I have so many random vibes about this man that are maybe not canon compliant at all. I don't really know lol. but he is like, my comfort character ok???? and I feel like In my mind he really really does a lot of what you need and I just had this thought that he's it!!! he's it!! for you so here I give him to you take care of this boy <3 I hope you really enjoy!! im so glad you liked the game and thank you so much for your well wishes! come into my ask box anytime :):)

ok Elena I know it's been a while since you've felt comfortable enough to be with someone and I totally totally get it. I would NEVER try to set you up with someone unless I seriously knew he was a good guy, and I just feel like it's time. it's time for you to try dating again, and you need someone really safe to do that with. so... a little begrudgingly... im gonna get you in touch with my bff... koganegawa

I swear. he is the best. like, the best the best. like, I'm almost sad he'll be spending more time away from me if I set him up with you, but here goes nothing. okay, TOP of the list of why you two should be together: The man is the most easygoing, happy go lucky guy you will literally ever meet. he is so CHILL I swear he's literally so sociable and fun and kind and would never ever ever get annoyed or like frustrated if you were largely calling the shots on what you're comfortable with, the pace you want to go, etc. he's just so laid back he'd be cool with anything as long as it means he gets to spend fun times with a person he enjoys!! and FUN it will BE im telling you!! this man will absolutely indulge every silly and hilarious idea you have and he WILL crack you up on a daily basis. you can 100% expect him to be doing goofy antics with you and all your friends and enjoying every minute of it :):):) he's also super social and very very emotionally attuned to the people he loves, and I think a HUGE thing for him Is making sure that everyone around him is comfortable and having fun, so he definitely would take note of any nervous or stressed behavior from you and try to respond to how you're feeling without being weird about it. truly he just wants his s/o to be enjoying your time together as much as he is so whatever that means for you, he's willing to try it. oh my gosh I think you'd just love him I mean from the calm and comfortable and totally relaxed getting-to-know-you phase to the endless laughs and calming smiles and quiet low-key nights you'll share once you get closer to the totally attentive way he'll always take your feelings and your unspoken mood changes into account, he is truly THE GUY!!! I think you'd love him because he's always down to be funny and make new friends and try new things, but his way of interacting with the world is so welcoming and energizing like he is SO SO chill and stable and so OPEN to suggestions and new ideas and he has this encouraging laid back approach to anything that comes his way and nothing is gonna shake that openminded, open-armed, curious and awed way he lives his life. so like, he will match your energy when you're at your most extroverted and silly and carefree, but he's also soooo open and in tune and ready to help you and respond to your needs when you're feeling down in whatever way works best. like he'd be so fine if you need space or attention or you want him to try some different way of expressing his feelings like as long as you can communicate to him what you need and sometimes even if you can't he'll just figure it out lol perceptive MAN!! he will try it bc he just wants you to be comfortable and be yourself in everything you do including your relationship. never wants you to feel pressured or stressed about being with him. ugh he is a KING. anyway I love him. brb inviting him over to meet you now.

[captainpikeachu]

I’ll just say, so far even with only the first episode of this season, I am liking how they are writing Deke’s character already so much more than the back half of season 5 and all of season 6, and I know exactly why I’m loving it.

They stopped using him as a comedic relief tool and treated him like a real character.

Now I understood that much of season 5 and season 6 were times when all the SHIELD team characters were struggling and there were a lot of intense emotions and breakdowns. So with everyone down and angsty, Deke was the only easy target for comedy as he was new and his trip back in time was a treasure trove of fish out of water laughs. But it was inevitable that when all the humor landed on his plate and at his expense, it would make things unbalanced, and it would just turn him more into a caricature than actually a fully realized character. He was one-man compensating for everyone else’s lack of humor and it just was unrealistic to expect one character to single handedly carry all the humor on his back. He became an easy tool of comedic relief because they couldn’t really do it with any of the other characters without undermining their arcs.

Now this season, there is a clear intent, as Chloe noted in one of her interviews, to have fun. We got more lighthearted fun and characters just smiling and being joyous. With a lot of the darkness having moved on, everyone else is more or less at peace and able to be excited about new time and new place. With the humor now being spread around, Deke is no longer solely carrying the duty of being funny, and by extension, it frees him up to have more serious moments. Everyone else coming down from their emotional highs allows Deke to go up a bit in seriousness so that they can all meet in the middle and be on the same emotional level. He no longer is tonally out of place. Also he’s not trying to catch up with everyone informationally either, they are all in a new place they don’t know much how to handle, they are all learning things together. It’s no longer just silly Deke from the future who doesn’t know present day while everyone is side eyeing him for not knowing something that is natural to everyone else, now everyone is out of place and out of time. And if anything, being out of time is allowing Deke’s resourcefulness and competence to shine, because he knows about survival, he’s very adaptive, and as he said, this time period of “huddled masses” is something familiar to him because of his life experiences in the Lighthouse. Deke is good at thinking on his feet and surviving, and we get to see that on display in the first episode: hotwiring the car, getting all the clothes, all the detective work with Daisy, and explaining the time travel. Even Mack slipped up and let a little something out which Deke gave him a look for.

They are finally allowing him to be a character, to have emotions beyond just “LOL FUNNY HUMOR”, and we get to see him momentarily sad picking up the tool Fitz left behind for him and realizing his Bobo isn’t there, and connecting with Freddy about their shared loss of fathers. Both of these little moments reminding us that Deke beneath the humorous happy go lucky surface is someone who suffered a lot of trauma and loss that he’s never really healed from. Now maybe this is also just a result of Fitz not being around, maybe they are using Deke to serve the role that usually would go to Fitz as the tech person, and maybe being out of Bobo’s shadows allows Deke to grow on his own, but I am liking the way that Deke is finally balancing out well with the team. Sure they still needle him a little, as he is the “kid” of the group, but they aren’t also treating him like a helpless annoying idiot. He’s active with the team, he is doing his part and contributing, and those are all very encouraging signs.

They haven’t changed who Deke is, they haven’t suddenly rewritten his character, but with him no longer having to single handedly hold up all the humor of the show, they can finally tone him down to meet on the same level with the rest of the characters. And he finally has space to be a real character and allow some of the more serious side and unexplored emotional side to shine.

I really hope the rest of season 7 sticks to this character path for Deke and doesn’t lose sight of that. It’s not that he can’t be funny or goofy, he can be, but that shouldn’t be all he is.

[writinginthedarkwood]

Yandere Himiko Toga x Shy Fem Reader: Anything for You.

Honestly this is pretty soft compared to some yandere pieces I’ve seen, but it took me forever to write and I’m proud of it! My requests are open!!

Warning: Smut, yandere

You get your coffee from the same place every morning. You’ve been enjoying a morning brew here for a couple months, you wake up, get dressed and bring a stack of papers to grade while you sip happily on your dark roast. You shifted uncomfortably in your chair, the past two day’s someone had already payed for your order by the time you got to the little shop.

She’d been staring at you with those bright eyes all morning. The beautiful blonde stirred sugar into her tea, she chewed on her lip while slowly circling the silver spoon around the rim of her cup, a little clink ringing out with every turn. You wanted to say something to her, but she couldn’t possibly have been the one to purchase your coffee... why would such a gorgeous woman want your attention?

You looked over at her again out of the corner of your eyes, she licked her lips after taking a short sip of her drink. She pointed a finger at you and curled it, motioning you to come to her table. You swallow hard and point to your chest. “Me?” You mouth silently to her.

A big smile spread over her lips, her Cheshire like grin sent your heart beating heavily, trying to jump out of your chest. You stood up and straightened out your pencil skirt, she looked up and down your body with obvious desire.

“Hi there cutie. Why don’t you come and sit with me?” She had a thick sweater on that’s long sleeves covered the better portion of her hands. Her long and dainty finger tips cupped the sides of her face as she leaned on her elbows. “Oh, uhm. Sure, let me grab my things.” You tried to straighten out the mess you had left on your table quickly, stuffing your students lab reports into your leather brief case.

You sat down in front of her and gave her a soft smile. “Did you need something miss?” You asked sweetly.

“I’ve been hoping to get your attention for a little bit now, but it looks like I needed a more direct approach to get your eyes out of all those papers.” A light blush sprinkled her cheeks and she bat her eyelashes at you. A blush covered your face, a bit more harshly than hers. “What did you need my attention for miss?”

She reached one hand out to touch your hand, her cold palm resting on top of your fingers. “Oh please darling, call me Himiko.” Her thumb rubbed light circles on your sensitive wrist. “I just really want to get to know you better. You’re so cute it’s annoying.”

The two of you talked for a little while, she asked a lot of questions about all the things you like, your family, your work. “But you look too young to be a professor...Especially something so science-y!” Her eyebrow raised when you told her you taught at a regular, non hero related university. “I guess that’s thanks to my quirk. I have heightened intelligence.” You looked down embarrassed, talking about your quirk made you insecure. Some people thought it was cheating that you moved through your education so quickly because of your quirk, it’s not your fault. “Wow you’d have to be super smart to teach what was it? Rocket science?” You think it’s cute how interested she is in your work and smile. “I teach astrophysics to graduates. It’s boring to most people, kids want to grow up and be hero’s, not scientists.”

Himiko rolled her eyes and made a gagging sound. “Well fuck that, people like you are the real hero’s. Educators are so underappreciated.” She dripped her words with honey, never taking her eyes off your face. “Did you go to school Himiko? I feel like we’re only talking about me.” You said with a small, nervous giggle. Himiko just shook her head with a grin. “I like talking about you! You’re so interesting Y/N.”

A brief intrusive thought interrupted your happiness. Who really is this woman? Why does she want to know so much about me? Himiko must have sensed your sudden hesitation. “It’s a bit embarrassing, but I didn’t ever finish school. I dropped out when I was really young.” She said with a light pout. “You’re so smart and cool, you don’t think any less of me now do you?” You squeezed her hand. “Of course not, are you doing any kind of work now?” Something flashed behind her eyes for a moment, a spark of something. Not many people can notice sudden bodily changes in other people, but you pick up on things other people might not. “I do odd jobs here and there. I have a friend who runs his own... business and I help him with that.” She bobbed her head up and down, satisfied with that answer.

“Himiko I’m going to ask you this in the most polite way I can...” You thought about a possible solution to why this gorgeous woman was vying for your attention so hard. She looked slightly nervous for a moment. “Are you a... sex worker...?”

You make quite a bit of money, it wasn’t impossible she had seen that magazine article about you that published recently.

Himiko burst into a fit of giggles, covering her mouth with her long sleeve. “No you goof! I’m just a normal, super cute girl. Most people don’t get what I do, so it’s easier to just say I help out my friends.” Your face burned red, horrified you’d even think to ask something like that. “I’m so sorry, if I have to be honest I’m not sure why you’d like me for anything other than my money.” Himiko stopped laughing and furrowed her brows. “Don’t even say that Y/N. For a smart girl, you’re kind of dumb.” She leaned in all the way across the table, putting her face right in front of yours. “I don’t think you’ve noticed, but you’re insanely hot. I can’t get your pretty little body out of my head.” She practically purred, either unaware of the other occupants in the shop that are starting to stare, or she didn’t care.

You thought about leaning in and planting a kiss on her when your alarm on your watch went off, telling you it was time to head to the university for your first class.

“Can I take you on a date Himiko?” You blurted out while quickly grabbing all of your things. The blonde stood up and happily clapped her hands together. “Really Y/N? A date??” She beamed, clasping her hands together and holding them by her face, leaning her head to the side with big puppy dog eyes. “That would make me the happiest girl in the world!” She gushed. You couldn’t help but display a big goofy grin on your face. “Okay then... here.” You handed her your phone and Himiko put her phone number in it. “Send me your address and I can pick you up!”

Himiko was quick on her feet, she never faltered with her excuses. You didn’t think twice when she suggested you met her downtown so that you two could have a nice walk together. You thought it was sweet, that she was an angel. How did you ever get so lucky? You walked to the campus in a daze. Her face was burned in the back of your eyelids. You daydreamed about the restaurant you wanted to treat her too. There’s that really fancy Italian place with the expensive wine... Oh no how about that steak house where they always bring something to the table? Your train of thought went along uninterrupted, you felt like you were floating just above the pavement.

Himiko snickered to herself. “This is just too easy...” She muttered under her breath. You never even turned to see if anyone was following you, you never did. She’d been watching you for months, even going as far as to pick through your things in your office while you were teaching. She’d been tempted to leave you little love notes, but no. She had to be careful, you’re just so shy. She would never want you to mistake her for some kind of stalker. She loved sitting in your classroom watching you teach. It was such a turn on to see that pretty face talk about all of that nerd stuff. Who would she be today? That one bitch always talked to you too long. Visiting your office hours and interrupting your lunch. Was she trying to move in on her darling? Himiko wasn’t going to let that ruin her mood. It’s not your fault you’re so perfect. “That bitch is going to get it...” She pictured your students contorted face in her head. The way she would scream as Himiko’s knife cut through her neck. She might even cut her enough that stupid girl would die, it’s not like anyone would miss her pathetic ass. Himiko watched you fumble to put your reading glasses on, you dropped the frames and they hit the side walk. “Is it me that has you so distracted baby? You silly girl...” She purred under her breath. You bent down to pick them up, a man walking by did a double take, leering at your ass as you bent down. Himiko rolled her eyes. Men can be so disgusting, they always disappoint her. Not you though, no your the first girl you ever made her feel this way. You care about her, you had too. Nobody could see through her disguises, but the way you looked her in the way while you spoke, it was like you knew you were looking into the eyes of your soul mate.

That pig walked down the street, Himiko stuck her foot out and tripped him. He tumbled forward and looked around to see who had the nerve to bother him with a scowel.

No one was around.

You pulled up the wrong slide show for your lecture. You started teaching the wrong chapter before one of your more participating students chimed in. You apologized and the right thing loaded on the board. “Doctor Y/L/N, you seem distracted. Something on your mind?” You liked all of your students. This girl was always chatty, and asked plenty of questions. However, this sentence sort of struck a cord with you. It seemed a bit out of character, she was always very shy and stuttered often, only daring to ever talk about the topic. You were too happy to think too much about it. “Oh I just had a really pleasant morning is all. Let’s get back to chapter 49.”

You rushed home and showered, blow drying your hair and trying to apply some makeup that didn’t make it look like you were trying too hard, where the hell is that lip gloss that’s clear? Your thoughts felt frantic. A message popped up on your phone letting you know that the car was here to pick you up and take you downtown. You shot yourself another glance in the mirror and took a deep breath. Your outfit was pretty cute, you sported your favorite outfit. A plain gray pencil skirt and a white blouse. You spiced things up with a platform heel, you grabbed your jacket and purse and rushed out the door.

“Wow Y/N that’s a fancy car!” Himiko stole your breath. You hardly made it out of the car before she hooked onto your arm, giving your upper arm a side squeeze. She was wearing a tight, strapless blood red dress with matching lipstick and heels. She let her long blonde hair down and had drawn on eyeliner that matched her cat like iris’. “Himiko you look beautiful.” You managed to stammer out. She bat her long lashes at you and tipped her head up to kiss your cheek. She left just a light peck on you, you blushed and touched your face. “So where are you taking me, sugar?” She looked around the plaza. Bright lights bounced off of her eyes as she drank up the sights, busy people rushing to the different shops and restaurants.

It’s been awhile sense Himiko has been able to walk freely in public. She usually stuck to the shadows, wearing another persons face constantly has helped her hide over the years. The last thing she would need is for someone to interrupt phase one of her master plan.

“I have the worst time making decisions... there’s a pretty popular place called Aragawa... and a restaurant that serves French food too.” You wanted to impress her, but you didn’t want to look like a show off. “Those places sound expensive Y/N! Are you sure?” She looked at you with complete adoration. You wondered how no one has ever treated her to something like this before. “Of course I’m sure... there’s something about you I can’t put my finger on, but I know your special Himiko.”

If only you knew.

You two settled on a pricey Italian restaurant, Himiko had never tried pasta like this before. The waiter brought red wine to the table, Himiko swirled her glass around and looked at you with a haze over her eyes. She licked her teeth and shifted on her side of the leather booth. “Is the wine okay Miko?” You had thought of calling each other cutsie names, she lovingly has called you darling all night. Things were moving quickly between you two, somehow everything you said she agreed with and loved too. You had the same favorite movie and T.V. shows, she listened to some of your obscure music choices and even understood some of your more nerdy references. It was like you two were made for each other.

“Hold out your hand under the table, darling.” She purred through ruby lips. “Uh-uh okay. You’re so silly-”

Your face burned bright red. She handed you a small amount of cloth. You looked at your hands, it was her black lacy thong. Thin enough you wouldn’t even call this suitable underwear... what would this even cover?

“How fast can that driver of yours come pick us up?” She hooked your ankle with her own foot and uncrossed your legs. “Slip yours off. I want them.” She gently commanded you. “My car can get here through traffic in probably a half an hour...” You started to text your driver when she snatched your phone out of your hand. “That’s too long. Let’s just walk...” She bit her bottom lip and ran her nails along your arm. “Waiter! I’ll be taking the check now...” The waiter nodded politely and headed for your table. “Your panties darling...” She said a bit more stern, but with a wicked smile on her face. You looked at the wait staff around and the small intimate gathering of people. You nervously shimmied out of your own pair, pulling it off of your ankles and handing it to Himiko. She studied them for a second a bit too close to the the lip of the table where people could see. She opened her small clutch and folded them up, stuffing them inside with no intention of ever giving them back.

The two of you walked hand in hand down the street. You told a joke and Himiko laughed so hard she had to stop walking for a minute.

“Well well well...” A dark voice called from behind. You jumped, knocked out of your trance. Himiko’s body went rigid. You turned to see who had called out to the two of you. “What are you ladies walking around so late for?” The man was covered in scars. It seemed like the majority of his body was burned, deep purple scars sat under his eyes and covered half of face and all of his neck. He leaned against the wall.

Is this a villain? You wanted to move and protect Himiko, but you stood frozen on the sidewalk. “Leave us alone.” Himiko said with a sickeningly sweet tone. “Can’t you see we’re busy here?” She almost sang.

“I can see a lot of things. Pretty interesting what I’m looking at actually.” He smirked, Himiko still stood with her back to him. Her shoulders were tense and she clenched both her hands into her fist.

Was he following me? The league was working the next city over, why would he follow me after I explicitly said I was busy? Himiko seethed. He’s going to mess everything up!

“H-himiko we should j-ust go.” You couldn’t help but cower a bit. His eyes were startling, they pierced through you. He pushed himself off of the wall and approached you two. He kept his shoulders slack and opened his arms wide. “Go? Aw come on don’t go, you two are pretty cute. Why don’t we all go somewhere and have a chat...” He stuck out his hand to touch you, it was like time was moving slowly, yet everything happened within just a few seconds. Himiko spun her heel, revealing that she had been carrying a knife that was strapped to her thigh. She grabbed the mans arm and threw him against the wall, she pressed her knife to his neck and smiled. “I said that we’re not interested. Get. Lost.”

The man just sighed and shrugged. “Alright fine. Message received.” Himiko dropped her fighting stance and the man started to turn on his heel. “Would be a shame if anyone else found out about this. Not my problem though.”

You had tears welled in your eyes. Himiko put the knife back into it’s holster and cradled your face. “Oh baby, baby girl don’t cry I’m so sorry!” She wiped a stray tear away from your face.

“I didn’t mean to-” Himiko was terrified she had blown this. She had one shot to get this perfect and her line of work always had a way to worm itself into her personal business. Before she could even muster up a type of explanation, you interrupted. “Himiko do you think that man is going to try and twist this date around in the tabloids as something wrong? He said he was going to tell others...” You had a well respected position, you’ve been published multiple times. You didn’t think you were a celebrity by any means, but you didn’t want anything to happen to your job if someone were to spread a rumor about you.

Himiko almost sighed in relief.  She thought for sure you would put together that she knew the “stranger” but you hadn’t. It was like you were the smartest person in the world, except when it came to her.

Even plugging in her first name “Himiko” to google her criminal profile might pop up. “Everything will be perfectly fine honey. Let’s go back to your place and watch a movie.”

Himiko gasped when you opened the door to your apartment. It was immaculately clean, but that wasn’t what impressed her. It was high rise, the window was huge and slid open to a gorgeous balcony. It was a sizeable space with luxury furniture.

She stepped inside and twirled around. “Wow darling, it’s beautiful.” She instantly started playing with your things, picking up the magazines on your coffee table. Touching your nick nacks and studying them. Himiko was ecstatic, she’d been in here so many times while you slept. She hadn’t been able to go through a lot of your things, she was worried you would get mad that she messed up your organization. Now that you two are so much closer, she can finally take a look at all of the things that keep you busy when you aren’t studying or teaching. “It’s nothing special, I’m sure your place is nice too Miko.” She was touching a daisy you had in a modern looking vase, her look got a little distant for a moment. “Are you alright?” You stepped towards her and she flashed you a smile. “Of course! I have to travel for work a lot so I’m between places.” She looked around at the nice space around her. “I guess I’m just looking for some stability you know? It was nice when I was younger but I think I’m ready to settle down, you know?” You nodded your head and kissed her forehead. “That’s really mature. Life goes by so fast doesn’t it? My job has aged me so much.” She snuggled into your chest. “I think I’ve even seen a grey hair on my head...” Himiko giggled.

You showed Himiko around your place room by room. She lingered in your bedroom for a minute, she was resisting the urge to tear into your dressers and go through all of your clothes. She stood politely by your side, and when you opened the master bathroom she followed a few steps behind.

“It looks like a spa in here!” She was astonished. Your few makeup products were scattered on a large sink counter. You had a stand alone shower and a jacuzzi bathtub. She turned around and grabbed the collar of your blouse. “I have a naughty idea...” You could still smell the wine on her breath. She placed a sweet kiss on you and you couldn’t help but close your eyes and enjoy it for a moment. She pulled away, nibbling on your lip. “We should take a bath together.”

Both of you laid back while the jets massaged your bodies. Himiko playfully dumped almost the whole bottle of bubble bath into the water. You had your eyes closed, looking relaxed but truthfully you’ve never been more nervous. Himiko squealed when she saw you undress, gushing about how cute you are.

Her hand touched your thigh and your eyes shot open. She was staring at you intently. She pushed herself closer to you, her breasts pressed against your own. Himiko kissed your neck and you whimpered. “Oh cutie I want to make you purr so bad~” She nipped at your jaw and pressed her fingers around your hardened nipple.

The water sloshed around the rim of the tub, Himiko had you pressed against the porcelain wall, she held your leg in the hook of her arm. She rubbed herself against your throbbing pussy. She relentlessly caused friction on your swollen clit, you held onto the edge of the jacuzzi for stability. Himiko laughed between her own moans. “Your face is so cute. Cum for me baby please- I want to see the face you make when you cum.” She gasped and moaned wildly, she almost screamed, her noises becoming manic. You could hardly move, you hadn’t felt this type of stimulation before, it was almost too much. “I- I’m going to cum M-miko I can’t take it!” She moved her hips frantically and you spilled over the edge. You called her name out and she slowed down a bit, both of you were slightly out of breath. Himiko let your leg go and kissed you softly.

Himiko and you watched a horror movie in your bed. You snuggled under the blankets, Himiko picked the movie. It was sort of gory, you didn’t really like this sort of thing but for some reason it was one of Himiko’s favorites.

It’d been about two months. At this point, you two were together every day now. You’d meet for coffee before you went to work, and she’d come by your apartment at night for dinner. On the weekends the two of you took little day trips, Himiko hadn’t seen a lot of the major tourist places in your area which surprised you. She visited you at work a few times, she added an intense spice to your life. She practically threw you into your office during your lunch hour and ravaged you, clawing at you desperately. Every time the two of you were intimate she acted like you would slip through her fingers, she was wild and a delicious lover.

Himiko couldn’t be happier with how things were turning out. This was following her plan almost exactly, but she was running out of time. Dabi had done her a kindness by not mentioning you to anyone else. But it was a matter of time before she couldn’t make any excuses anymore. Other members were catching on that she was disappearing for long periods of time, that her loyalties were fading.

It was time for phase two of her plan.

“Himiko we have to talk about something serious.” You were shaking you were so nervous. Things were getting serious between you too, you didn’t want this to end. “What’s wrong my darling?” Himiko knew exactly what you were about to say, she calculated this down to the exact sentence. She knew you so well she knew you would be terrified to bring this up. “I got a really crazy job offer outside of the country.” Himiko had been practicing in the mirror what face she would make. A face of concern, but not too sad. “I can’t take it, it’s a ton of money and it’s the job of a lifetime... but...”

Come on just say it baby... Himiko was great at masking her excitement.

“I can’t take it. I love you, I know it’s kind of early but I love you so much. I can’t imagine leaving you here.”

Jackpot.

She gave you a moment to finish your piece, but she didn’t hesitate to gush about how much she loves you too.

“Y/N... I think you should take it.” She took your hand and smiled.

“Wh-what? I can’t leave you.” You thought for a moment. “Himiko I think that maybe, we should go. Together.”

Finally, her ticket out. A life on the run, a life underground was fun while it lasted but finally. She could have a family, a new life across the ocean. Nobody would know her name, she would be your trophy wife. One you could parade proudly at high profile events. More importantly, more than anything.

You would be all hers, she could give you all of her time.

You’d buy first class tickets under your name, she had already a fake passport. It was easy to black mail that stupid scientist in Switzerland, he lost his job and she sent in your application at the perfect time. If they hadn’t offered you the job she’d just keep going down the line, taking out anyone who stood in your way.

The minute she first saw you, she knew you two were meant to be together at all costs. Nothing mattered, but you two.

You two packed up everything in your apartment that week. You and Himiko bought matching rings, and matching cozy clothes to wear on the plane. Himiko had a head ache that day, she wore sunglasses on the plane and an oversized beanie. Poor thing wasn’t feeling great and stayed quiet for the long trip. She laid on your shoulder and you two cuddled the entire ride.

“I’m so happy Y/N, this is everything I could have ever dreamed of.”

[popculturebuffet]

Mickey Mouse Birthday Shortstravaganza!

It’s Mickey and Minnie’s Birthday! It was 92 Years Ago Today everyone’s faviorite mouse came in on a tide of whistling, romance and animal abuse and swept into America’s hearts and wallets. Okay I am a day late on this, I had a busy day, but hey a belated celebratoin’s still good right? Right? Eh i’m doing it anyway.   Anyway since then he’s been one of animations most iconic characters, and while out of the classic power trio I vastly prefer donald and goofy, they still woudln’t be around without Disney’s big cheese and having not seen a ton of Mickey’s shorts, I felt I owed it to the big eared one to take a look at a bunch of his shorts for his birthday and see how I liked em. If your curious about my previous Donald Duck marathon, it’s CLICK THIS LINK.  Unlike last time all of these shorts are on Disney+ as more of Mickey’s library is on there and one or two of these were added recently, as Disney tends to add a few a month. I do wish there were more on there.. but unlike with say the handful of shows they haven’t put on there, i’m a bit more forgiving here. For one thing, YouTube has all the shorts available from various uploaders and DIsney hasn’t touched them despite Plus’ launch. Given like most companies Disney usually has their bots a cirlcing for their content, this has to be delebrate on there part and it’s a good gesture from the company. So while not in crisp HD like the Plus copies, or as easily avaliable, you can find any short that’s happened. So the shorts not all being up at once isn’t an issue like most of the shows that are absent on Plus. 

They also heavily need to cherry pick their library as some shorts simply haven’t aged well or have offensive stuff. With the exception of “The Beach Picnic”, which has a racist caricature of native americans via ants.. yes really, most of the shorts are fine to show kids, and have aged pretty well. And as my last marathon showed some shorts.. just haven’t. While not you know racist, seriously why is the Beach Picnic on there?, “Donald’s Penguin”, while utterly adorable at first, ends with Donald trying to murder a baby penguin with a shot gun. No amount of content warnings is going to get past one of their beloved icons pointing a shotgun at a baby. While Disney’s self conciousness can be silly, the splash edit and not putting the Darkwing Duck episode “Hot Spells” on plus for instance, this is one time when I can agree with them: if someone is curious about a paticuarlly offensive short or a propoganda one, youtube exists. But given Plus is trying to be all ages and dosen’t have censoring they have to be careful what they put on there, and I can respect that. I don’t think anyone’s crying a river over the fact that the goofy short where his reflection keeps saying “Hey Fat”, over and over while he struggles with his weight isn’t on Disney Plus and thankfully never will be. But seriously get rid of the “Beach Picnic”. It’s not a good short and you already have one batch of native american stereotypes with “Peter Pan”, I don’t think racist ants are the hill you want to die on disney.

So yeah, this time all of these are from Disney Plus, and since I watched them all at once, their in Watch order rather than chronological like last time. So with all that out of the way...

After the cut

1. Steamboat Willie (1928): It’s All Fun and Games Until Mickey Strangles an Innocent Duck Starting from the obvious source, Steamboat Willie was the start of Mickey’s career. And it’s.. okay. The animation is fantastic and the first half is pretty good: Theirs a pretty good gag with one of the cows. But the finale, with Mickey abusing various animals just isn’t that funny A LITTLE rattling of an animal for comedy is fine.. but the things Mickey does here are just sociopathic> And yes I know it was the 1920′s, but even in that lawless, racist, sexist time, they knew better than to strangle a duck, or, in the moment that puts it over the top, remove suckling pigs fromt heir mom and then play a pig’s teats like an insturment to make it squeal musically.. I assure you I did not make this up. That actually happens.  The pacing is also fairly slow at points, with some gags dragged out, though that can be chalked up to having no way to edit the damn thing, so that part I can forgive more.  What makes up for it, like I said, are some good jokes, and some gorgeous animation. Decades later and while clearly made a long time ago, it still looks vibrant and really pops even in black and white. It shows just how talented Disney was and how far the company could go with this medium.  One last thing to note is Mickey’s Early personality. While he’d retain trickster aspects at times, here he bounces between the loveable jolly mouse we’d come to know for the rest of his career who sometimes has a wild streak.. and a total asshole who strangles a duck. It’s just intresting to see such a diffrent side of him,  most of which would end up going to Donald over time. Overall the short is decent, not the best of Disney’s catalogue but worth a watch for the historical significance despite it’s shortcomings, pun unintended. 

2. Thru the Mirror (1936): That Was a Weird One This was easily my favorite of the bunch and as of now, my favorite Mickey Mouse Theatrical Short. Part of it is that it’s entirely bonkers; The film STARTS with Mickey , sound asleep, some how astral projecting as his soul, his spirit or whatever lead shis body and having been reading Alice Thorugh the Looking Glass, goes into a mirror world. But instead of encountring evil goatee mickey, he encounters a bunch of living objects and a bunch of fun set pieces for jokes ensue. He dances with playing cards, fights an army of them, has a sword fight with the king after dancing with the queen which.. no Mickey, bad mickey, your in a relationship and so is she. Bad Mouse bad. It is entirely fucking insane, even including a living nut cracker which.. words can’t.. look

They.. they had to know how this looked right? did the director have a ball busting fetish? I mean okay if he did, nothing wrong with that, but maybe don’t put it in your children’s cartoon.  That being said it does eat the shells which I find creative. And that’s what really makes this one pop. The creativity. Not a single minute is boring, every minute has something intresting going on, but without throwing too muchi n your face. It’s just a wonderful short and one that like Mr. Duck Steps out, i’ll be rewatching a LOTTTT. 

3. Mickey’s Rival (1936): Mortimer: The Original Bro From the same year we have disappointment. Having grown up with the disney classic House of Mouse, I was a huge fan of Mortimer. So when I first saw this, I was happy to see where he came from.. then justifably blocked it out of my mind till this review. While I love mortimer, I love Mickey having a sleazy rival and one diffrent than Pete who has different goals and tactics than the big guy. But his debut just has him as an obnoxious snickering bro.. which to be fair is who he is, but without the venre of charm his later version would have.  Mortimer just spends the short being a pranking douche, and blatantly hitting on Minnie in front of Mickey while their on a date. Which even in an open relationship is a no no, so he has no leg to stand on.. metaphorically. He also walks weird in this one because, and this is true, he’s carying 9 volt batteries in his pants. Yes really. That’s the level of Douche we’re dealing with. Someone so up their own ass they carry batteries int heir pocket instead of money or a mask or children’s trading cards like a normal person or a me.  What makes it frustrating is Minnie just swoons over the guy. And not like “Awww he’s so funny”, I mean romantically then has the gaul to say “your just jealous” when Mickey is understandably fuming over the jackass who swooped in, pranked him, is hitting on his girlfriend in front of him by teasing a bull, and in general is just the worst. Yes.. yes he is. Justifably. Jealousy is an ugly emotion but there’s a line between some dude bro like Mortimer getting mad your friends with someone you could be in a relationship with, boy, girl, neither, both, whatever your into, and Mickey getting mad his girlfriend is chuckling all over her ex who agian, crashed their date and treated him like garbage and is very transparently hitting on her in the middle of it.  It’s also just not a very funny short, outside of the bit pictured and tha’ts more for the sheer aburdity of Mortimer elctifying his pant for a really dumb gag about stealing people’s pants button. He’s very lucky we didn’t see Mickey’s Epic Mickey is what i’m saying. But given he’s a frat bro, the 1930′s version granted but a bro nonetheless,  he’d probably find that hilarious until he noticed the sheer size and scope.  Overall a forgetable, frustrating short. The one bright spot is mickey and mortimer’s cars which have faces and stuff and look neat.. otherwise it was just a waste of my time and the only good thing it did was bringing Mortimer into our lives. And that ain’t nothing. 

4. Mickey Down Under (1948): ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

This is a quick one.. because this one was a vacum. I mean I can at least say for Mickey’s Rival it’s interesting.. i’ts not good but it’s interesting. this is just.. Mickey farts around with a boomerang with his dog and then pisses off an ostrich. There’s not really a lot of consequence or intrest is what i’m saying. I can’t even find a good opening to make a letterkenny joke. No one got close to fucking an ostrich here. It’s telling by the fact theirs no gif’s of this one that no one cares and it baffles me this is one of the ones Disney chose to gussy up for D+ release. But still no donald messing around with a robot? 

5. The Band Concert (1935): That’s More Like It.  Okay scooting back a year we have the band concert. This is my third time watching this one and it’s a delight. Like the last one I don’t have a ton to say.. but it’s more because this one is just so good rather than because it wasted my time. It’s got a fun concept and the breakout performance from my boy donald duck as he constantly fucks with the band’s performance by either getting in their faces or hilariously pulling Flute’s out of thin heir. I miss that gimmick for donald, his love of pulling objects out of the either via magic and shenanigans. They should bring it back. Also his shenanigans remind me of opus and that’s never a bad thing. 

Also Horace takes off his shirt. For the Ladies. A Classic for good reason. 

6. On Ice (1935): Donald is a Bastard Man Another great one from the same year. This time around we have what i’ve come to call a Mickey and the Gang Messaround. This is back when Donald and Goofy were supporting characters, so generally each of the big three do something, usually coming together for the climax.  In this case Mickey tries to help Minnie with her skating, with him adorably following her around with a pillow before showing off for her, just really sweet stuff. Goofy’s bit is hilariously dumb, as fitting my boy, as he feeds fish tobaco to get them to spit into a spitoon, and tries to club them, with predictable results. While not the most enivrionmentally friendly just the sheer oddness, the fact it sort of works minus him actually clubbing them, and one of hte fish smacking him in the face all make it work.  The only bit that reallyd osen’t is Donald and pluto... it was present a bit before but here illustrates why I really dread Pluto based shorts. While I don’t hate the dog, he’s a dog I love dogs, most of the gags in his old shorts, and even up to mouseworks are him either being blamed for shit that’s not his fault, a pet peve of mine, or being tourtured in some way...

But dosen’t work at all now. He puts the poor dog on skates and then laughs at him and even sings a song mocking the poor dog, before justifably nearly ending up going over a watterfall, then ending up clubbed in the head. Good. I love donald but good god is he unsympathetic here.. and for some reason they teamed the two up again for more shorts! Why. It’s why I don’t get why Pluto was the star of his own shorts: if this is all they had.. why do it? Was the 30′s, 40′s and 50′s equilvent of a micheal bay audience really that into dog abuse?  So yeah otherwise a good short but that segment drags it down. not Donald’s best work. 

7. Clock Cleaners(1937): This is a Great One Not much to say on this one. It’s pretty good, has some fun set pieces, and some great jokes from all three characters. Mickey deals with a seagull, donald effs with a main spring and Goofy fights some statues. All good clean fun. My lack of brevity is more because I don’t have any jokes rather than this genuinely being bad. It’s pretty good. 

8.. Mickey and the Seal(1948): More Pluto Torture Porn! 

This one’s more of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is really cute, as a young seal ends up going home with mickey after he visits the zoo to feed them fish. On the other hand.. it’s mostly Pluto chasing after the seal, Mickey being kind of a dick to pluto and not getting he clearly saw SOMETHING in his house, and then teasing him at the end despite him having been right. That being said the ending, with the seal brining back all it’s buddies to mickey’s house, is fricking amazing. ALso the seals in this unvierse who aren’t antrho can speak. That.. that raises a lot of questions I don’t think disney can answer. 

9. Ye Olden Days (1933): Jaunty Dueling Music Now this.. this was a fun one. Mickey and Minnie head to Medivil times, proving that the current shorts tendency to jaunt to various settings isn’t a new thing, and it’ sjust a much of a fun change up here as it was there. Mickey, a wondering minstral, ends up trying to rescue Minnie after her father throws her in a dungeon for not wanting to marry Prince Dippy Dog, who hopes she can learn to love him. I can’t tell if he’s genuine or a dick here. But it’s fun, especially the part where, after Minnie declares she loves mickey which.. it’s been a few hours slow down, they decide on a duel and thus sing some ragtime, 1930′s getting ready for duel music that’s just catchy. if X Of Swords ever gets a movie, I want to use this song. Just.. really good stuff. A fun short with some great gag,s a great concept, and my boy goofy as the villian. What’s not to like? Alright one more. 

10. MIckey’s BIrthday Party (1942): Big Chicken Breasts We end on another all together now, Mickey and the Gang Messaround that was a great note to end on. I did watch another short, Pluto’s Birthday party.. but it was both more of a Pluto short and more Pluto torture nonsense, so yeah, skipping that one, as I ended up one short of my 12 goal because I can’t count, apparently. So Mickey gets 10, but this one’s a good note to go out on. 

Minnie throws a suprise party for mickey which almost turns into a live sex celebration as Mickey clearly is a wee bit horny going in. But it turns into a fun dance party, with Donald throwing out razzes like a good buddy, Goofy making a cake, and some fun gags with a piano they all bought him. It’s a really good short. That’s the problem with Mickey Shorts and doing all D+ ones: There just isn’t the weirdly offensive stuff to talk about there is. He’s not a bad character, but there’s a reason in every short that features all three, Donald and Goofy easily outshine him. Mickey’s not a bad character, but when not in trickster mode, there just isn’t a lot for him to do. It’s why the comics reinvented him, much like they did for donald, into a plucky detective/reporter who reguarly sovles crimes. He’s not bad, and as seen with Ye Olden Days and Thru the Miror, his blank slateness cna be put to good effect and house of mouse gave him more of a personality, but here he’s just the bland good guy to Donald’s loveable scmap and goofy’s loveable dumbass. It’s an issue comedy has to this day: having a lead whose just.. not as intresting as the rest of the ensemble.  There is weirdness to note, as Donald dances with Clara Cluck> That’s not the weird part, he and daisy took a while to be etched in stone. The weird parts are 1. Donald wearing a sombrero and smoking a cigar, and 2. Clara’s MASSIVE boobs.. yes really. Clara Cuck has giant breasts. Like actual boobs that sway around while she dances with donald. it’s.. bizzare. Not terrible, who doesn’t like big chicken boobs but just.. really really weird to see ina  Disney cartoon.But yeah it’s jus ta fun note to end on. 

And that was MIckey’s Birthday special. I enjoyed it even if I had less to say than I thought. If you liked this review, you can comission your own for five bucks, just hit up my pms or my discord , avaliable on request. You can check out my ohter disney reviews in the disney tab on my blog and until next time, ther’es always another rainbow. 

[caughtinthestcrm]

     ⌞ʾ⁎ ⊰ kim soohyun, male, he/him ⊱ i think i just saw EMMETT FORREST walk across trafalgar square, singing to KNOW ME WELL* ( ROO PANES ). you know, the THIRTY-TWO year old LAWYER AND LAW PROFESSOR? people claim that they are just like EMMETT FORREST from LEGALLY BLONDE**. it must be because they are INTELLIGENT and HEADSTRONG as well… though i could be wrong. all i know for sure is that they live at CHICAGO*** apartment.

TW: death

History

His mother and father moved to the US from Korea soon after they got married, wanting to live a better life. They barely spoke a word of English, but were very hopeful to live that American dream. Less than a year later, their son was born. Wanting to give their child all the best odds, they decided to give him a Western name - Emmett. On top of that, they also decided to change their family name, making a loose translation from their Korean name into Forrest.

Emmett was given a Korean name as well, Jinyoung, but he's never really gone by it. At most his mother might call him by that name, or he might use it around other Koreans.

They were a happy family until Emmett lost his father when he was only four years old due to an accident. It was after that loss that his mother kind of broke down. While her relationship with her son was excellent, she was less lucky in the love department, having already lost the love of her life. They ended up losing the nice house they had in the suburbs and moving to the slums.

Emmett grew up seeing his mother date a bunch of men, none of which really stayed around all that long, which also resulted in Emmett often having to take care of his mother. Not that he minded, he just wished he could do more.

Emmett had to grow up pretty fast, resulting in him already being a very responsible person from a rather young age. All of it also made him realise that if he wanted to make a better life for him and his mother, he’d have to work hard for it as it certainly wasn’t going to be handed to them. So he buried himself into schoolwork, making sure to get good grades, and as soon as he could, he started working all kinds of jobs so he could start saving up for college.

All of his work also meant that Emmett never really had a lot of time for friends, which in all honesty - he didn’t mind. It did leave his social skills on an emotional connection-level... lacking.

In the end, his hard work did pay off. He got into a good school, with a partial scholarship and eventually got accepted into Harvard Law. Combining school with all of his side jobs wasn’t always easy, but he made it work. He was working towards his dream of becoming a successful lawyer and one day buying his mother a nice house - it’d all be worth it.

During his last year, working as a teaching assistant, he met Elle Woods. The girl quickly made an impression on him, and he started to help her out with her studies. The two eventually fell in love and ended up engaged a few years into their relationship.

After the engagement, things went well for both of their careers, and so all wedding plans kept getting pushed back. Distracted with work, something started to grow in between them despite their love for one another. Then Elle was offered a job in London. As much as it broke his heart, Emmett couldn’t keep her from that opportunity and so he encouraged her to go for it and decided to break off the engagement.

After Elle left, Emmett completely buried himself in his work, spending every waking hour on his cases. Taking on case after case, never taking a break, Emmett started to make a reputation for himself and was even able to finally buy his mother that house he once promised her.

It took a while, a few years even, before he realised that his work ethic wasn’t exactly healthy anymore. When the offer came to teach law at a university in London, while still being able to take on cases, Emmett didn’t hesitate. Maybe a new setting would help him sort out his life a little. The possibility of running into Elle also helped.

And so now he’s been in London for about two months, just getting settled and setting up his office while also preparing for classes.

Personality

Though his main intention for the move to London was to take a step back and slow down, Emmett is still very much a workaholic. He easily gets carried away as he takes on a new case, spending all his available time on it to the point where he skips meals and barely sleeps. He’s trying to work on it though.

He’s not easy to impress, especially when it comes to materialistic things.

Considers himself a good judge of character, a sees through people’s intentions fairly easily. Part of the job, he figures.

Though he might come across as uptight, once he really gets comfortable around people, you notice what a dork he really is. He’s goofy and silly and always has the best intentions. He’ll always go out of his way to help other people, no matter what.

Possible connections

Friends, especially some people who get him to take a step back from his work and also call him out when he’s overworking himself.

Neighbours

Idk peeps, my brain isn’t really working atm, I’ll think of more things when it isn’t 2am, but just give me anything tbh