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princessmisery666 · 1 year

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Fairytale Ending - Part 7 - No One's In The Room Mini Series

Series Summary: Jake and Ryleigh find themselves stranded in a remote location when a mission goes sideways. Injured and dependent on his help, she gets a glimpse of the man beneath the façade of ‘The Terminator’. Once they are rescued, the bubble of their personal Vegas bursts, and Jake struggles with new emotions while Ryleigh hopes he will finally see the man she came to know when no one else is in the room.

Summary: Ryleigh and Jake have an opportunity to make things right. Will it be a fairytale ending or not?

Warnings: fluff, angst.

W/C: 2.4k

Characters: Jake ‘ Hangman’ Seresin, Ryleigh ‘Rodeo’, and other OC's.

Pairing: Hangman x OFC.

Pairing: none for part 2.

Betas: @deanwinchesterswitch

Graphics: made by me on canva.

Catch up here

Fairytale Ending

As soon as Jake exited the cab, he could hear the squeals of delight from the backyard, and it wasn’t until then he remembered Julia telling him the dance troupe was having a pre-party before the show.

He dumped his bag at the bottom of the stairs, smiling at the loud and proud declarations of a Giant slayed from the yard as he walked through to the kitchen.

Julia, in a huddle with some other parents, noticed him and gasped his name in surprise. “What are you doing here?” she asked, rushing forward to embrace him.

“Couldn’t miss the Munchkin’s recital, could I?” he explained.

He sugar-coated it as being a dutiful uncle, but beneath the sweet topping was the sourness of needing his home comforts. His sister wasn’t clueless to his pretense.

Pulling out of the embrace, she smiled sweetly at him, “Jake…” she started, but he cut her off, unable to stand the pity in her eyes.

“Where is my favorite Munchkin?” he asked, stepping toward the backdoor, freezing when he saw her.

“With your other favorite Munchkin,” Julia whispered, sliding up beside him. Now he understood her cautioning tone and wanted to turn and run before either of them spotted him. For almost two weeks, he’d wanted to speak to Ryleigh, but now she was there, crouching in front of Maddie in a make-believe sword fight, and he was terrified of doing so.

“Uncle Jake!” Maddie squealed, dropping the plastic sword and dodging around Ryleigh.

A witch had cursed Ryleigh to be stuck on her knees in the mud. As soon as Maddie squealed his name, the curse became a reality. She was unable to move her body even as Maddie excitedly brushed past her shoulder to run toward the house. There was no denying the girl's exhilaration, she couldn’t have mistaken one of the dads for her uncle, but Ryleigh prayed she had.

But the prayer went unanswered as Jake happily greeted his niece, “Hey, Munchkin.”

“Mommy,” Maddie grumbled as Jake scooped her up, “you told me he wasn’t coming!”

You and me both, kiddo, Ryleigh groused in her head as she slowly shuffled around on her knees to face him. He looked kind of pale. Maybe the surprise of seeing her had shocked him as much as hearing his voice had her.

“Princess Ryleigh is here too,” Maddie said.

“I can see that.”

Jake carried her toward Ryleigh, and the young girl continued proudly, “We’ve slayed a Giant, but a witch gave her a potion, and now she can’t get up.”

“Oh no,” Jake played along, “I’m not sure you know this,” he whispered as if telling a secret. “But I have magic hands, and I think I can reverse the spell.”

He held his breath as he extended his hand toward Ryleigh. It felt like time had stopped, and all eyes were on them. He knew Julia’s mom friends usually tracked his every movement. He’d heard them whisper and giggle about him. He was pretty sure Julia would have explained who Ryleigh was, too, so they were no doubt the focus of the group.

Tension in the air fizzled like unearthed electricity, and he pleaded with his eyes for Ryleigh to take his hand. But it was deeper than that; he was asking her to accept him.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long, and she took his hand, rising to her feet. “Hey,” Ryleigh managed to croak out, dusting off her knees to save herself from looking directly at him.

“Hey,” Jake sighed, relief flooding his veins.

“You're supposed to be on assignment,” she accused, unnecessarily aggressive.

“And you're supposed to be off the grid,” he threw back but quickly remembered their audience. “Important Roloville business, right?”

“Um, yeah,” Ryleigh recovered just as quickly.

“You still haven’t told me what it was?” Maddie questioned again.

Jake held his breath, the white lie had been told, but now Maddie required color, and he wasn’t sure how to paint it to make it lighter than the darkness it was. But maybe this was an opportunity.

“Well, you see,” Jake started, “Ryleigh lost a bet and had to help out a Prince. But the Prince made some mistakes, and Ryleigh got hurt.”

Maddie cocked her head, asking, “The witch that knocked you off the dragon and hurt your leg?”

“That’s right,” Ryleigh nodded.

“But Uncle Jake saved you?”

“I did,” Jake agreed, “but then I made some mistakes, too.”

Maddie gave him a suspicious look as if her Mighty Uncle Jake could never make a mistake, but didn’t comment.

“I said some things and hurt Ryleigh’s feelings, and she had to convince the Kingdom not to banish me for being a bit of a fool.”

Ryleigh corrected, “A m-ASS-ive fool.”

Jake flashed her an incredulous look but continued his tale. “Am I telling this story, or are you?”

“I just wanna make sure she knows all the important details,” she smirked, despite her nerves.

“Truth is,” Jake sighed, locking his gaze to Ryleigh’s. “I kissed Princess Ryleigh,” he confessed, “and what I felt was too good to be true, and I worried maybe a witch cursed me, and I got scared.”

Tears blurred Ryleigh’s vision, and she dropped her gaze to swipe them away before Maddie saw.

“But Ryleigh’s magic, too,” Maddie explained, “she could have stopped you from being scared.”

“I could’ve,” Ryleigh said, nodding, “but I was a bit of a fool too.”

“Hey Maddie, baby,” Julia cooed, taking the girl from Jake and announcing loudly, “why don’t we all go get some ice cream before the show?”

The yard emptied faster than the rec room when Admiral Simpson was looking for a volunteer, and Jake remained staring at Ryleigh. Now was his chance. He had to take it.

Ryleigh had seen all his missed calls and text messages, though she hadn’t read any of them. Too afraid they’d be a scathing remark or confirmation that he was right, that she was her mother’s daughter. Whenever her mother failed, she packed up and left town. Ryleigh had done precisely the same.

Jake had gone over the conversation a million times in his head. Every scenario had played out. Except for the one of him in his sister's backyard with a soundtrack of murmurs from families preparing to leave. So instead of some profound apology he blurted out, “What do you want from me?”

“Nothing,” Ryleigh answered. A knee-jerk reaction to his feisty tone. “I want nothing from you, Jake.”

“Back at the cabin and when we were last here, we both…something changed between us, and we’re both as guilty as the other for letting our pride and fear hold us back. But please, Ryleigh, what do you want?”

She stared at him for an eternity. He was right. She was fearful, scared of being honest, only to be shot down again. “Honestly,” she started, swallowing a thick lump of pride, eyes ablaze with trauma, “I don’t want to be my mother.”

That cut him deeper than he expected. The words scraped against his guilt and reopened the wound of remorse he’d tried to stitch. He was to blame for her believing that she was her mother, but she was only partly right.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, “I fucked up, and I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for what I did to you. For everything I said to you, for everything I didn’t do! I should’ve kissed you back at the cabin and when you asked at the reunion.” He rambled, “I should never have run away when I did kiss you. But you never should have let me ignore it.”

“I tried!” she growled, turning to pace in front of the swing set, “I tried to talk about it, I showed up at the airport, and you asked me not to make it about the kiss. I was respecting your wishes!”

“Bullshit,” he declared, “just admit you're just as afraid of this as I am!”

“I was afraid,” she admitted, stubbornly adding, “but now I’m angry. Angry at myself for thinking like my mom, for believing we could be something.”

He hadn’t meant to start the blame game. He’d have to relent if he wanted to make this right. He sighed, “You are like your mom, but the difference is you found someone who wants to change. I want to be all the things you told me about. I want to be all of it for you. I want to vacation somewhere with snow and no tv. I want to worry about you if you don’t call. I want to be the person you go to when you’ve had a shit day and someone you celebrate your wins with. Or I at least want a chance to try and be those things for you. But I’m not good at this, so you’re gonna have to show me how.”

She was dumbfounded, frozen on the spot, mouth agape while she stared at him, and in the silence that stretched, he floundered - had his actions and harsh words been unforgivable? Should he take it back?

Finally, the shock subsided, and a small contrite smile crept to her lips. “I’m sorry too. I couldn’t force you to talk, but I could’ve swallowed my pride and told you how I felt. Instead, I forced myself on you.”

Jake smirked, “not sure I remember that bit.”

She chuckled, and it helped ease some of the tension of the moment. “I meant the reunion. I invited myself here and expected you to open up to me and understand my feelings without me actually saying it.”

“You still haven’t said it.”

She contemplated her next words, caution still in her tone. “Something changed between us, and I wanted to explore it, see what it could be, but,” she sighed, hopelessness rife in her tone before she couldn’t find the words anymore.

“Wanted to explore it? I really did fuck up too much. Didn’t I?” Jake asked, the hopelessness spreading like wildfire. She couldn’t forgive him, and he knew he deserved it, but he never believed he wouldn’t get a chance to make it right.

“No, Jake, it’s not that. It’s me. I’m not cut out for this.”

“Yes, you are,” he said, brow tight with offense at her talking down on herself. “You’re all I’ve thought about for weeks now. I can’t stop thinking about you, us, what we could be.”

“It’s infatuation,” she challenged, “wanting something you think you can’t have. It’ll fade.”

“That’s not it! Look, I don’t know how to explain it, I just know this is something and I don’t want to walk away and then regret it for the rest of my life. I won’t.” He closed the space between them, reaching for her hand and finding courage in how she interlocked their fingers. “When I kissed you, I’d never felt anything like I felt in that moment, and it terrified me,” he admitted. “More than spiders terrify me!” That earned him a small smile, but he knew it wasn’t enough to make her believe his sincerity and let him see behind the walls she’d built up. “I’m scared of fucking this up. I’m scared of not fucking it up. But I’m more afraid of never knowing what could be.”

She averted her gaze, looking down at her feet. “What happens when that fear overwhelms you? I’ll be the one left brokenhearted and looking like a fool.”

“I can’t promise you that I won’t mess up. We both know I probably will,” he said, already sounding remorseful about something he had yet to do. “What if you decide this rodeo isn’t for you?” he asked, the mischievous gleam in his eye, “and you decide to leave me hanging?”

She rolled her eyes, chuckling lightly.

He was a confident man, but airing the possibility put him in a mental tailspin. It could happen. Maybe she was her mother’s daughter, and he was as emotionally damaged as the men her mother tried and failed to fix. It sobered him, and his confidence dropped like lead in his stomach. But he was stubborn, too. He wouldn’t let the possibility of a bruised ego stop him from going for what he wanted, and he wanted her.

“You told Fanboy you were tired of people hiding behind insecurities, afraid of being judged,” he quoted, “so stop being afraid, take your own advice. Take a chance on me,” he implored, a gentle finger under her chin to raise her head to face each other once more. “All I’m asking for is a chance, hell, one date. One real date, and I promise I’ll do my best to write us a fairytale ending.”

He looked like a Prince, with a charming smile and dazzling, sweet words, but what if he were the villain in disguise? She’d fallen for it before. Sky-high spires of doubt cast shadows on his promises, but as she searched his chartreuse eyes, she saw his unwavering conviction.

“You just want to be the Prince of Roloville, don’t you?” she teased.

Jake’s smile beamed for a moment before he looked deadly serious. “Absolutely not,” he winked, mischievous grin returning, “I want to be King.” It wasn’t until she blurred in his vision he realized he’d leaned in.

She felt his breath mix with her own, and timidly he pressed his lips to her. The shy hesitation was another new way to experience him, and she smiled into the kiss, slipping a hand around his neck to pull him in deeper.

Ryleigh breathed her confidence into him, and as she swept her tongue over his bottom lip, assurance surged through him. He felt it again, the same feeling the first time he kissed her, giddy anxiousness but there was feverish contentment this time.

“Can we go get ice cream now?” Maddie whined from not too far away.

Laughing, they broke apart, turning to see all the women huddled around the backdoor, some with their hands covering the kids’ mouths.

“Absolutely,” Julia answered, smiling at her brother, “and Uncle Jake is buying.”

“Yes, I am,” Jake agreed, turning back to kiss Ryleigh again. He hadn’t had his fill yet.

She kissed him but pushed a hand against his chest after too short a moment. “It had better be a damn good date, Seresin.”

“That reminds me,” he teased, “back at the cabin, I said we could skip to date five, so how many exactly before…”

She laughed - oh, this was going to be fun, even if it didn’t work out. “That depends on how good the dates are.”

Tag List Info can be found here

Master Lists: Top Gun Maverick // All The Fandoms

Tags. Taking to the skies: @alexxavicry / @b3autyfuldisast3r / @fandom-princess-forevermore / @imjess-themess / @justagirlinafandomworld / @leigh70 / @letsbys-library / @shanimallina87 / @wildbornsiren / @writercole / @xoxabs88xox / @atarmychick007

Hangman's Hoe's: @deanwinchesterswitch / @dempy / @emorychase

#Jake Hangman Seresin #jake 'hangman' seresin #top gun maverick #jake seresin #jake hangman seresin x ofc #jake hangman seresin x original female character #ofc #original female character #hangman x ofc #hangman x oc #oc #jake hangman seresin #fluff #angst #flirting #bagman

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singingninja4 · 2 years

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A new episode, a new analysis!!

jfc….Point and Shoot emotionally wrecked me. Is everyone else doing ok?? Because I am not 😩

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to analyze Chuck’s motif from 3x10: Lantern for a while now, but I hadn’t gotten around to it…but then I watched 6x08: Point and Shoot. When I watched it at Tribeca I thought that I heard chuck’s motif in howard’s burial theme, but I wasn't certain. I only got to listen to it that one time at the showing, and I was so focused on other things. I'd been waiting anxiously for three weeks to finally see the episode again last night so I could listen and verify it lmao and goddamn it!!! Dave Porter has done it to us again!!!

analysis is under the cut!!

bcs/brba analysis 5/??

Chuck’s motif is used in two separate cues in Lantern, “Lights Off” and “Chuck’s Relapse” The theme is in 6/4 time and in the key of A minor* You can see the melodic and rhythmic content below. I used solfege to denote the scale degrees so it can easily be compared to the other cue.

The cue from Point and Shoot is titled “Burial”. It includes Chuck’s motif as a counter melody above the beautiful, heart-wrenching melody in the cello 😭😭 The biggest changes between the two cues are 1) the original is voiced in the bass range, while the Point and Shoot cue is voiced in the treble range, and 2) the instruments used. The original uses a trumpet or maybe a flugelhorn because it’s so low (I don’t know for certain) and the Point and Shoot cue what sounds to me like a vibraphone or some other pitched percussion instrument (perhaps even electronic). One interpretation I had about these changes is that the motif is pitched higher with the vibraphone to be more ethereal...like Chuck is a shadow behind Howard's death. Aside from that, there are just a few rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic differences, but the material is similar enough to be easily heard.

In Lantern, Chuck’s motif is further developed in “Chuck’s Replase” by voicing the main melody in an electric piano instead of a brass instrument, moving the melody to the treble range, and by thickening the texture through additional voices. (I didn't include the full transcription, but here's a sample!) The texture get thicker and the melody becomes more embellished to build tension as Chuck slips further into the grasp of his mental illness 😩

The parallels between Chuck’s and Howard’s deaths are numerous, and people much smarter than me have posted great meta on it. They were both gaslit by Jimmy when he switched something out (numbers/photos) and they were both made a fool in front of their peers and colleagues, reputations forever tainted.

Another very interesting thing about this cue is that after closer inspection, I realized that this cue is also found in 5x08: Bagman and 6x03: Rock and Hard Place, which I analyzed previously here.

The biggest changes with these cues are the time signature (4/4 instead of 6/4), the key signatures, and the instrumentation. The melodic content is very similar with just a few changes.

Chuck colors Jimmy’s story everywhere you turn, so it’s easy to see how and why this motif showed up in Bagman when Jimmy uses the *space blanket* to lure in the bad guy. However, I’m puzzled about how and why it is in Nacho’s cue in Rock and Hard Place. I’m sure there’s a reason, I just haven’t dug deep enough to find it yet. If anybody has any theories on that, please chime in!! I’d love to hear them.

*for the music theory nerds out there: even though it's in a minor key, I labeled the solfege as if it were in a major key because less altered syllables are used. this method is called La-based minor, where the tonic is La instead of Do

#bcs/brba music analysis #better call saul #bcs s6 spoilers #lantern #point and shoot #bagman #rock and hard place #chuck mcgill #*op

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