#GOD DAMN FIFTEEN LOOKS SO GOOD IN THAT STYLE
Photo
a chūya a day. 276/★
#bsdedit#animangaedit#userroh#graphics-net#achuuyaaday#mohall#mohedit#bsd#edit#soukoku#GOD DAMN FIFTEEN LOOKS SO GOOD IN THAT STYLE#THIS IMAGERY#BOTH OF THEIR HEAD PIECES#GOD I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS
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Updated as of 6/30
The Eras Tour *Surprise Songs*
Taylor said her goal is to not repeat each show’s surprise songs so I thought it would be fun to track them as the tour goes on! Black strikethrough is included in the main set list. Purple strikethrough are included in the main set list but have been switched up at some show/s. Blue songs Taylor played but might be repeated due to messing up.
Taylor Swift
Tim McGraw (3/17) • Picture to Burn • Teardrops on My Guitar (5/5) • A Place in This World (4/22) • Cold as You (4/23) • The Outside • Tied Together with a Smile • Stay Beautiful• Should’ve Said No (5/19) • Mary’s Song (Oh My My My) • Our Song (3/24) • I’m Only Me When I’m with You (6/30) • Invisible (5/20) • A Perfectly Good Heart
Fearless
Fearless • Fifteen (5/6) • Love Story • Hey Stephen (5/14) • White Horse (3/25) • You Belong With Me • Breathe• Tell Me Why• You’re Not Sorry (4/21) • The Way I Loved You • Forever & Always (5/13) • The Best Day (5/14) • Change • Jump Then Fall (4/2) • Untouchable • Come In With The Rain • Superstar • The Other Side Of The Door (4/28) • You All Over Me (6/3) • Mr. Perfectly Fine (6/16) • We Were Happy • That’s When • Don’t You • Bye Bye Baby • Today was a fairytale (4/22)
Speak Now
Mine (5/7) • Sparks Fly (5/5) • Back To December • Speak Now (4/13, Taylor restarted part of the song but did not confirm it could be played again) • Dear John (6/24) • Mean (4/15) • The Story Of Us (6/17) • Never Grow Up • Enchanted • Better Than Revenge • Innocent• Haunted (6/9) • Last Kiss • Long Live • Ours (3/31) • If This Was A Movie (6/23) • Superman
Red
State Of Grace (3/18) • Red (5/21) • Treacherous (4/13) • I Knew You Were Trouble • All Too Well • 22 • I Almost Do (6/9) • We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together • Stay Stay Stay • The Last Time (6/16) • Holy Ground (5/27) • Sad Beautiful Tragic (3/31) • The Lucky One (4/2) • Everything Has Changed • Starlight • Begin Again (4/23) • The Moment I Knew (6/4) • Come Back… Be Here (5/12) • Girl At Home • Ronan • Better Man (5/19) • Nothing New • Babe • Message In A Bottle • I Bet You Think About Me (4/30) • Forever Winter • Run • The Very First Night • All Too Well – 10 Minute Version
1989
Welcome To New York (5/28) • Blank Space • Style • Out Of The Woods (5/6, Taylor confirmed it might be played again) • All You Had To Do Was Stay • Shake It Off • I Wish You Would (6/2) • Bad Blood • Wildest Dreams • How You Get The Girl (4/30) • This Love (5/13) • I Know Places • Clean (4/1, Taylor confirmed it might be played again, 5/28) • Wonderland (4/21) • You Are In Love • New Romantics
Reputation
…Ready For It? • End Game • I Did Something Bad • Don’t Blame Me • Delicate • Look What You Made Me Do • So It Goes… • Gorgeous (4/29) • Getaway Car (5/26) • King Of My Heart • Dancing With Our Hands Tied • Dress • This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things • Call It What You Want • New Year’s Day
Lover
I Forgot That You Existed • Cruel Summer • Lover • The Man • The Archer • I Think He Knows (5/21) • Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince • Paper Rings (6/23) • Cornelia Street • Death By A Thousand Cuts (4/1, Taylor confirmed it might be played again) • London Boy • Soon You’ll Get Better • False God (5/27) • You Need To Calm Down • Afterglow • Me! • It’s Nice To Have A Friend • Daylight (6/24) • All of the Girls You’ve Loved Before
Folklore
The 1 (replaced IS multiple shows) • Cardigan • The Last Great American Dynasty • Exile with Bon Iver • My Tears Ricochet • Mirrorball (3/17) • Seven (spoken, 6/17) • August • This Is Me Trying (3/18) • Illicit Affairs • Invisible String (replaced by T1 multiple shows) • Mad Woman (4/15) • Epiphany • Betty • Peace • Hoax • The Lakes (6/2)
Evermore
Willow • Champagne Problems • Gold Rush (5/12) • Tis The Damn Season • Tolerate It • No Body, No Crime • Happiness • Dorothea • Coney Island (4/28) • Ivy • Cowboy Like Me (3/25) • Long Story Short • Marjorie • Closure • Evermore (6/30) • Right Where You Left Me •It’s Time To Go
Midnights
On 4/14 Taylor changed the rule: ALL SONGS ON MIDNIGHTS MAY BE REPEATED. I’m adding the dates to the midnights surprise songs but they will remain in black text since they can be repeated.
Lavender Haze • Maroon (5/26) • Anti-Hero • Snow on the Beach (3/24) • You’re on Your Own, Kid (4/14) • Midnight Rain • Question…? (5/20) • Vigilante Shit • Bejeweled • Labyrinth • Karma • Sweet Nothing • Mastermind • The Great War (4/14) • Bigger Than the Whole Sky • Paris • High Infidelity (4/29) • Glitch • Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve (5/7) • Dear Reader • Hits Different (6/4)
Other
I don’t wanna live forever (6/3)
#reach out if I’m missing anything#eras tour#eras tour set list#surprise song#Taylor swift#taylor nation
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Hi, here again
Second request!
Leo x female!reader who is very muscly and just... scoops Leo up bridal-style. Bonus if Leo short-circuits with the most flabbergasted look on his face 😂 ~🌺👸
(note: I saw you don't usually write for female inserts, but I thought it would get extra fluster points if reader was female. Your call though)
What Happens In The Hidden City
rottmnt leo x strong!female!reader
summary: how is it that every nice outing ends in some sort of chaos? time to bail your boyfriend out of trouble - again.
word count: 832
a/n: i may or may not have taken this and ran. not sure how this mini-plot developed, but it did, so here we are. this may be a little ooc, the last few days i’ve been writing in a sleep deprived frenzy and a sleep deprived frenzy only.
also! to the lovely people who’ve commented on my previous posts, i’ve found there’s a glitch in my tumblr that’s giving me an error message whenever i try to respond to anything. i’ll say thank you here, and hope you see it! have a lovely day, everyone!
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Sometimes, you wondered just what was going on in the guys’ brains that convinced them that any of what they did was a good idea.
The Hidden City was amazing. You’d known that the moment you stepped foot in it. Filled with yokai, and with this magic that you only ever dreamed of as a child. You’d thought you were in for a nice, peaceful day for once, exploring.
At some point, you and April had split off from the group. You could’ve sworn you didn’t even leave their sight, but when you turned around, the turtles were gone.
You decided to meet up with them again later, and went on about your sightseeing. It had been maybe fifteen minutes - only fifteen minutes - when you heard April’s phone ring.
“Hey, Mikey.” You knelt down to examine the plaque of a statue while she picked up the call, noting it was meant to be of some historic figure.
“What did you guys do this time.”
That certainly wasn’t an encouraging statement. “What did they do?” You quickly looked back at her.
April took the phone from her ear and put it on speaker. None other than Michelangelo was on the other end. “So, uh, funny story…” He spoke in a panicked whisper. Definitely not a good sign.
“So Donnie-“
“Oh, so it’s MY fault now, is it!”
“Would you two be quiet?” On the other end, Raph took the phone. “We were just minding our business, and I’m-Not-Naming-Names-Donnie ran into this yokai.”
“Oh?” You could hear faint bickering in the background, accompanied by Raph trying to hush his brothers. Well, two of them, at least. “Where’s Leo?”
“Mob.”
“Excuse me?”
“There is a mob.”
Now that the word ‘mob’ was mentioned, you couldn’t help but notice the sounds of rage coming from somewhere in the distance.
“WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU SAY TO THEM?” As April yelled into the phone, you began making your way towards the racket.
About five streets down, you found the previously mentioned mob. And it truly was a mob, with pitchforks and everything. Above the crowd, on the rooftops of what you took to be a restaurant of some kind, you could see three of the four brothers hiding somewhat poorly behind a stack of boxes. Your boyfriend, notably, was missing.
“Look, I didn’t mean to take that little girl’s teddy bear, okay? I didn’t know!” There he was, at the front of the crowd, quickly being backed into a corner.
“God damn it, Leo…” Pushing through the horde wasn’t easy, especially a horde of yokai, who occasionally had spikes and other such appendages, but you made it through.
“HEY, HEY, PEOPLE, CALM DOWN!” Your yells quickly brought attention to you, which may or may not have been a mistake.
“Oh hey, y’don’t see humans every day ‘round here…”
“Who’s that lady?”
You laughed nervously. “Now look, I don’t know what happened here, but I can assure you all, whatever my boyfriend and his brothers may have said, or done, they apologize deeply and hope you can forgive them, and/or whatever they smashed can hopefully be fixed with super glue.”
Silence had fallen over the mob. Was that a good sign? The pitchforks were still up.
“… So now that that’s been said and done we’re going to take our leave now goodbye!”
You turned away from the crowd and hastily scooped Leo up bridal style. “OH-“ You barely had time to register his red face before you were running from a mob of angry yokai.
You’re not really sure how you got out of there without being burned at the stake. You had absolutely no plan, and the majority of your success was definitely due to pure luck. At some point, you managed to duck into an alleyway without being noticed, breathing heavily. Running who knows how far at who knows how fast wasn’t an easy feat.
Speaking of, Leo was still in your arms.
“I’m gonna put you down now.”
“Okay.”
You set him down gently before leaning back against the wall behind you, trying to catch your breath. “Think they’re gone? … Leo?”
You hadn’t previously been aware that turtles could blush just as red as humans, but here Leo was.
You couldn’t help but smile at him. “Aw, did I catch you off guard?”
“Off guard? Me, the great Leonardo, off guard? Never!”
“Your face says different.”
“Pff-“ Leo crossed his arms. “You didn’t HAVE to pick me up. What, (y/n), trying to impress me?”
“Maybe.” You were on a roll today. It wasn’t every day Leo got flustered like this. “Guess you’re just that lucky to have a big, strong girlfriend like me.”
Leo did that awkward laugh - you know the one - as he covered his face with a hand. “Oh, I’m going to get you back for this.”
“Yeah, sure, pretty boy.” You grabbed his hand, and led the way out of the alley. “Come on, let’s find the others before those yokai come back. What did you do, anyways…?”
#pacing’s kinda wack reading this back over oops#tmnt x reader#rottmnt x reader#female reader#reader insert#tmnt leo x reader#rottmnt leo x reader
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every god needs an imp
notes: this is my first fic ever sorry if my presentation isn't very polished! also not sure about teenage kix in the show but instead of just making them a hero team I figured why not make it a show in the style of bad girls club or Jersey shore? teen titans but with hair pulling and alcohol. anyways that's the preface to how A-train and eccentrica met their bother former teenage kix members.
summary: homelander needed one thing, a tool. a tinker toy to carry out his more wild whims that the deep/A-train or the new recruits couldn't.finally after endless searching through files upon files he finds a perfect candidate.besides every king needs a jester, every hero needs a sidekick, every god needs an imp.
"teenage kix." Ashley looked up from the file folder grasped between shivering fingers eyes locked nervously on homelander and his hateful glare.
"absolutely not why in the every loving fuck would I choose anyone off that circus of a team? I mean A-train was the last remotely decent hero to come out of that voyeuristic Bullshit TV show. come on Ashley get your shit together." he didn't move one inch sitting ankles crossed in the chair in front of her desk chin rested on his clenched fist like an pouting child.
"well- well actually sir there has been one more promising member..." the (now fake) red head slid the file over to homelander the page resting on top a vought branded hero file with an attached image of the supe in question.
Ashley began to speak as homelander analyzed the portfolio, "Eccentrica Magica, 5'8, 160 pounds, only 24, replaced A-trains slot on the show when he aged out. premiered at fifteen and became a hit, once she left the show she started a residency at the MGM Grand."
she was a fucking magician?
homelander dropped the file on the desk before pressing the palms of his red leather gloves over his eyes letting a hissing sigh out through his teeth. "you really expect me to put a god damn magician in the final spot on the seven?" he practically growled his words out, he could hear Ashley's already racing heart jump nervously.
"well she is very talented-" she started but was immediately cut off."I don't care if she's "talented" I need someone to fight not pull a fuckin' rabbit out of hat!" he stood up rolling his eyes teeth pulled back over his teeth in a grimace of annoyance and rage. hands found their way into a fold one gripping the other as he paced trying his best not to laser Ashley's stupid face off. two hours of this bullshit going through applications of pre established supes for the empty spot in the seven.
"really homelander she's a good option, she has super strength plus she can remotely teleport! plus she already has a strong fanbase and she's attractive," Ashley's mutterings about this eccentrica magica was tuned out as soon as he heard the words remote teleportation. sure sure anyone could teleport, but having control like that to so much training it wasn't worth it. she could be useful she could just teleport butcher right into the space for him! besides if the deep was in the seven, well that was comparing an intern to loan shark.
He snapped back pacing back to the folder on the desk as Ashley continued chattering, endlessly chattering. his thumb and index fingers gripped the photo of eccentrica, she smirked at the camera with a manic charm he found reminiscent of the Cheshire cat fitting for her powers. his big blue eyes wandered up the picture tracing the round curve of her face pale, soft, unmarred skin a sign of her invulnerability right up to the best part her eyes. framed by light brown feathery bangs and eyebrows raised only making her big glowing purple doe eyes all the more god damn startling.
"besides she has an in! A-train has met her an confirmed she's a good candidate plus again shes literally the last file in the stack." Ashley smiled at him eyes flicking between homelander and the massive stack of files sitting to her right hand.
homelander let out a small huff, "fine I'll take the magician." now, to meet this little imp and see if she was as useful as he needed her to be.
thank you for reading <3
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Male mc that looks good with messy hair
it’s not often you see someone pull off the messy hair look, so what would happen if mc did?
Lucifer
The day started peaceful.. to peaceful
He was patrolling the hallway when he saw mc
Mc hair was a mess, his tie was loose, twigs in his hair AND mismatched socks
“What happened to you” Lucifer asks
“Would you believe me if I said mammon suggested I try something new…?”
“….” Lucifer raises an eyebrow
“…okay- I might’ve..maybe… woke up with only 5 minutes to get here and to get dressed”
“…are you serious ?” Lucifer asks
“Before you get mad- I made it so I wasn’t late!”
“Isn’t it a fifteen minute walk??”
“Shortcut?” Mc says with a smile
He should be mad but the hair look and the smile isn’t helping
He’s still going to make you look presentable but the messy hair with twigs looks…charming
Lucifer helps mc look presentable and reluctantly fixed mc hair
He might’ve snuck a photo of your messy hair
MAMMON
Chemical explosion caused your messy hair
The first mistake the professor made was putting you and mammon paired together
Luckily you two at the HOL
You two were mixing random stuff together hoping for the best and you two ended up making a makeshift bomb
anyways now mc is the ground- dazed from the explosion and possibly forever blinded from it
“oh shit oh shit oh shit Lucifer is going to kill me are you okay??” Mammon cries
“yeah I’m not dying- again” mc says slowly coming to his senses after the bomb
Mc sees mammon looking at him like he is
“No it’s just your hair is sorta… messed up” mammon mumbles looking away
Mc notices mammon staring at him while they were walking to the bathroom
“Huh my hair must look really stupid right now”
Mammon looks more flustered than repulsed though…
Mc finally connected the dots
“Like the new hair, mammon?” Mc asks teasingly when he catches mammon starring
“IDONTKNOWWHATYOURETALKINGABOUT!” Mammon says quickly
“You aren’t very subtly” mc laughs
LEVIATHAN
Mc hair was messed up but mc didn’t notice
Mammon didn’t tell mc about his messed up hair mainly because it looked cute
So mc went to hang out with leviathan
Leviathan didn’t notice until he went to tell mc something and turned his body to face him
“I..er.. mc” leviathan doesn’t know why he’s nervous
“Yeah?” Mc now facing towards him and it’s not helping.
“New hairstyle??” Leviathan blurted out
“What do you mean?” Mc looks in the mirror that leviathan uses for his cosplays
“Oh damn it’s really messy” mc says sighing
“I’m gonna go fix it-”
“ITS FINE!” Leviathan says a little to loud
“-I mean it’s fine it looks nice” leviathan mumbled the last part on purpose
Luckily leviathan was able to focus on the game.. sorta
Every now and then he’d look over at mc
The messy hair reminded him of game characters
He’s so obvious when he stares it’s sad
SATANNN!!!
Getting dragged into capturing cats to feed them isn’t known for being ‘clean’
So it was lucky it was just messy hair and not blood
Devildom cats are crazy
“Welp we’ve feed fifteen cats in two hours, how are you feeling about that Satan?” Mc asks Satan who’s not even paying attention
“You okay satan?” Mc asks
“Oh- sorry I was lost in thought” Satan says
“what were you thinking about” mc asks expecting it to be about tomorrow cats
“Your new hair look”
“Oh?” Mc says while pulling out his ddd and looking at his hair
“I look stupid” mc sighs
“You don’t look stupid- you actually look good with messy hair” Satan says while trying to not show how embarrassed he is after saying that
Mc doesn’t know how to respond
The walk back to the HOL wasn’t anything special
A lot of talking and not a lot of action
Anyways satan asked for a photo and mc agrees
“I wonder what he’d look like in different hair styles…” Satan thought
ASMO
(aka the most underrated brother)
His hair curler exploded
He isn’t sure how it didn’t hurt you and only affected your hair but he isn’t complaining
…maybe a little that hair curler was his favorite
“Oh my god! Are you okay mc?!?” Asmo practically screams
“I’m fine just a little.. bleh” mc says while slowly getting up
“Your hair!! It’s so cute” Asmo says while getting close to mc and forgetting about the exploding hair curler
“Do you have a mirror I wanna see”
Asmo gives mc a mirror
“ OH- I look like I was caught in an explosion”
“Don’t be over dramatic.. plus you were caught in one” Asmo says
“I have an outfit that would totally match your hair! And maybe some accessories!”
“I’m going to go through fifty outfits before you let me go aren’t you?” Mc sighs
“No! thirty one outfits” Asmo humms
Got through five outfits before passing out
Asmo sighs and realizes he went overboard
Took care of you for the next week
beel
Fun fact i was about to make it a Beel + Belphie but decided to get rid of it right after I did it💖 kill me~
Nothing major happened that led to your messy hair- it was just messy today
Mc wasn’t expecting Beel to notice the sudden hair change
But Beel noticed
“Oh your hair is different” beel says
“Yeah I didn’t have time to fix it” mc laughs
“Well you look nice” beel says casually
“Awe thanks Beel” mc says not thinking to much about it
Beel didn’t notice that he kept looking at mc
When he realized he was staring he got embarrassed
Maybe nice is an understatement
Belphie
who?
Anyways I’ll do this one ig for the five Belphie lovers 😒…
You two were napping together but you woke up with messy hair
You weren’t expecting belphie to wake up at the same time
“Your hair looks like a mess” belphie mumbles while snuggling closer
“you wake up and that’s the first thing you say to me? woooow” mc responds dramatically
“The good kinda messy” belphie added
“Your hair is also the good kinda messy” mc responds while combing Belphie hair
“I’m going to back to sleep g’night” mc yawns before sleeping
Surprisingly belphie didn’t fall asleep right after
He just sorta laid there- not really knowing why he’s still awake
He’s just enjoying the small domestic moment before the brothers wreck it
i was bored and had 20 percent on my phone so enjoy this.. also what’s y’all thought on the new format i need opinions
MASTERLIST
#obey me x male mc#obey me headcanons#obey me lucifer x male mc#obey me male mc#obey me mammon x male mc#obey me satan x male mc#obey me leviathan x male mc#obey me beelzebub x male mc#asmodeous x male mc#obey me asmodeous x male mc#obey me belphegor x male mc
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What if Alec Hardy tried to be “cool” and “spooky” for Halloween? Drabble idea, no pressure at all!
Not sure if he can try cool, but he'll try spooky, haha.
This is just a normal fic, not related to any of my aus.
On with the fic!
--
"I'm not doing this." Hardy tossed the paper onto the desk.
"It's just something fun that the department wants to do." Miller said in that damn tone that made Hardy feel like he ticked off the wrong person.
"But what's the point of it?" Hardy frowned, leaning back in his seat.
"It's for fun, alright? Halloween is a fun time, can you just... try to participate in anything here that isn't strictly work?" Miller asked. "You've been here for ages and you participate in nothing we do here! It's a little Halloween party, for an hour or two! You don't have to wear a costume for the whole day!"
"I don't want to wear a costume."
If looks could kill, Hardy was sure that his pacemaker would malfunction right now. He sighed, rubbing at his forehead. "One hour, that's it."
"Great!" Miller smiled, pushing the flyer closer to him. "Wear something scary."
"Why?"
"Cause it's different from your sad outfits." She snorted and headed out of his office.
Hardy glared at her before picking up the flyer. He didn't want to buy a costume to wear for an hour only. This was stupid, he didn't see the point of this other than to kill time for a bit because not a lot was happening around town.
He rubbed at his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. "Something scary..."
He could do something cheap and typical, 'scary', probably what you'd expect to see.
Or he could just do something that might throw Miller off.
He grabbed his phone, he was sure that Daisy could help him out with the makeup.
--
"Where's Hardy?" Ellie asked, looking around the office. "Did he lock himself in his office to get out of this, or did he escape when he had the chance?"
"Last I saw," one of her coworkers spoke up, "he went into the restroom, I think he said something about getting his costume on?"
"How long ago was that?"
"Ten or fifteen minutes ago?"
Ellie frowned and turned to go to see if he was done yet. She walked up to the bathroom door, knocking on it. "Sir? Are you in there?"
"Just a second." Came Hardy's voice from the other side.
Ellie sighed and leaned against the wall, waiting another two or so minutes before the door opened and out stepped Hardy. She blanched as she looked at him.
His suit was pressed and actually buttoned correctly, hell, his tie was straight. His hair was brushed and styled and his beard had been shaved off, and the bags under his eyes seemed to be... gone.
God, he looked like a totally different person, and it freaked her out. "Jesus, what the hell are you wearing!?"
"Something that I knew would scare you." Hardy said before walking past her. Ellie swore he smiled just a little smug-like when he said that.
"Damnit, you're a nightmare like this!" She said once she started following him.
"Good, exactly what I wanted, makes this all worth it."
"I get it, I get it, we won't get you involved in any more activities like this."
"Thank you."
--
I feel like he's not the kind of person to dress up, but I couldn't resist including that really, REALLY weird moment we saw in season two of what Hardy looked like when he worked on the Sandbrook case.
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Highway to Pail Day 24
[Day 1] [Prev] [Next]
@do-it-with-style-events
February 24: The Middle Ages were called the Dark Ages because there were too many knights.
Wessex wasn't really that great a place to be fomenting, honestly, but after getting kicked out of Ireland after that whole debacle with Pádraig, he was in a bit of a pickle. He needed some results and fast, preferably kind of close to Ireland so he could tell Hell he was working on figuring out the "no snakes or demons allowed" thing but far enough away that they didn't expect him to do something stupid like storm Rí Laighín. And King Arthur was doing half his work for him, annexing kingdoms left right and centre and leaving disillusioned and dispossessed sons of nobility in his wake. Whole island of out-of-work knights, just needing some direction.
He took up as The Black Knight mostly because there were already a few Black Knights out there making trouble and he could recruit them and pretend it was all his idea. Before the year was out, there were fifteen Black Knights under him, popping up to harry the Pricks of the Round Table whenever they bothered leaving their pretty little walled city of Camelot. It worked out pretty well for everybody. Crowley miraculously kept the knights and their squires and servants fed and watered and sheltered, the knights were organized so they mostly hit pricks who really deserved it (a twofer for Crowley: making the rich feel pain so they curse God and making a life of crime and sin appealing by smoothing off the rough edges), and relatively few farmers or whatnot got caught in the middle and could be tempted with something else later.
And then Sir Aziraphale showed up, and Crowley realized that any souls he'd secured for Hell had probably been counterbalanced by the angel's securing souls for Heaven. Just lucky they hadn't met at the points of each other's swords, and wasn't that a sobering thought. He didn't even like carrying a sword, mostly had a human do it rather than touch the blasted thing himself. He certainly didn't want to do a replay of the War nearly 5,000 years later with someone he actually pretty well liked and respected. And he definitely didn't want to do it soggy, foggy, damned damp old Wessex.
And it wasn't even like they were having fun, like they did sometimes; their jobs weren't all bad, but they were still jobs. Crowley wasn't exactly a fan of sleeping in fields, and neither was Aziraphale. Crowley might be good at logistics and politics and could wrangle a group of rich angry fratboys and their households, but that didn't mean this was his idea of a good time, and he knew Aziraphale hated the kind of court politicking, child-rearing assignment he was probably on right now. He'd probably volunteered to go hunt The Black Knight just to get away from some wailing kid for five whole minutes.
Really, it would be in their best interest if they called it even and went and took a holiday in Vichèi or something instead. Anything would be better than setting up a tent in yet another sodding field.
But, well. The angel had gone and called him the wrong name, and he'd gone and offended the angel's sense of propriety, and look where they'd landed. Camping in another bloody field, the both of them, and not even the same one. If Crowley'd played it better, maybe they'd at least be trading work gossip and tips on where to find decent lager now that the Romans had gone and taken all their wine with them. But nope: instead he had to babysit some Medieval frat boys, not that any of them would know what the Heaven he was talking about if he called them that, and try to convince them not to launch an attack on Sir Aziraphale in the morning on the strength of "because I said so." Yippee.
Crowley really did not like fomenting. Or Wessex.
#my writing#highway to pail#do it with style events#good omens fanfiction#good omens#crowley good omens#good omens 537AD#good omens 537 AD
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30 Day Writing Challenge - Day 4
Write about your MC’s personal style (from this list)
➸ set in the Bakeoff AU, before the events of summer came like cinnamon, so sweet and referencing an event from the first chapter of @firstelevens original fic in the series (sugar pie, honey bunch) and yes, I'm aware this is a huuuuge stretch for this prompt, don't worry about it!
Karen’s just left them to go get another round from the bar when Foggy’s phone starts ringing. On the screen, a photo of Daisy looking comically crestfallen while holding a ruined sufflé pops up and Foggy swipes to accept the call immediately.
“Hey, Daisy, what’s up?” he asks, aiming for casual but…well, Daisy’s roughly his age and avoids talking on the phone as much as anyone of their generation does, if not more. He’s slightly concerned that something must be wrong. Across from him, Matt’s expression turns pinched, probably because he’s thinking the same thing or he can hear the worry in Foggy’s voice.
“Did you watch the episode last night?” Daisy asks, without preamble or greeting.
“Oh, yeah. I mean, me and Karen did. Matt fell asleep like ten minutes in.”
Daisy scoffs over the line at the same time as Matt says, “I already apologized like five times for that!”
Pulling the phone away from his mouth slightly, Foggy says, “I know you did. And I forgive you. I know how important your beauty sleep is to you.”
Matt rolls his eyes, looking vaguely embarrassed at the same time. Foggy’s not sure if the extended time away during the show has made old things he’d gotten used to before new again or if this really is something new, but Matt’s easier to fluster than he remembered. Foggy could have sworn he made lots of jokes about Matt’s good looks and Matt always just brushed them off. This new shyness about it is surprising.
“Anyway,” Foggy says, turning his attention back to Daisy, “I saw the episode. Why do you ask?”
“Have you been online at all today?”
“You mean, have I been connected to the Internet at all? Yes, of course, Daisy, come on!”
“No, I mean, on social media,” Daisy says, impatiently.
“I don’t really use social media. You know that.”
“I know you have your finsta,” she replies. “I didn’t know if anyone had tagged you in anything there. Or if you have a dummy twitter account to lurk sometimes.”
Foggy laughs. “God, no!”
“Don’t say it like it’s totally ludicrous! People do it!”
“Yeah, but not me,” Foggy says, still laughing. “I’m just a simple country lawyer. What need have I of your twitters and your algorithms?”
He feels like he can hear Daisy roll her eyes on the other end of the call. “You’re such a dork!”
“Sorry. What’s so important that you needed to call me on the phone to ask if I have a secret Twitter account?”
“The Internet is freaking out about you, Foggy Nelson.”
Foggy’s stomach sinks. “It is?” he asks. “What did I do?”
“You looked too damn hot in this week’s episode, apparently.”
“I—what?” Foggy asks, feeling so utterly stupid. None of those words made any sense to him, which is troubling because most of them were pretty simple. “Wait, did I look really sweaty or something?”
“No, dumbass,” Daisy says, “I mean ‘hot’ like ‘god, he’s so hot, I want to have his babies,’ which, by the way, is a real tweet I read about you not fifteen minutes ago.”
“What?!” Foggy basically shouts, which makes Matt lean forward in his seat and give him a questioning look.
“Your humility is really beyond the pale, Franklin. It’s like you don’t know you’re hot!”
“I don’t know that,” he says, still freaking out slightly. “I’ve been called that by three, maybe four people in my whole life before today! It’s not a common occurrence.”
“I don’t believe that for a second,” Daisy says, because she’s fundamentally loyal and it makes her confused sometimes.
“Well, if it’s happening a lot, it must be behind my back, then.”
Matt, apparently done with being out of the loop, reaches across the table to poke Foggy’s wrist with his index finger. Foggy replies in turn by patting Matt’s hand with his twice, hoping that conveys that there’s no emergency.
“Well, it’s happening a lot on Twitter right now,” Daisy replies. “Which, I guess is still behind your back, technically.”
“That’s…great, I guess…”
“I thought you’d be happier,” she says, sounding worried. “You seem upset.”
“It’s just weird to think about,” Foggy says, keeping his tone mild. He’s not mad at Daisy by any stretch, but having people outside of the neighborhood know who he is and have strong opinions about him has proven to be a tougher concept to reckon with than he originally anticipated. “It’s that thing of being perceived in a way that I have no control over.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Daisy replies, thoughtfully. “I just…I thought you should know you’re the Internet’s reigning boyfriend at the moment.”
Foggy laughs, still feeling weird but in a warmer, cozier way than before. “Well, it’s an honor to be somebody’s boyfriend, I suppose.”
Matt’s head perks up at that, like a dog who’s heard a strange noise, and Foggy resists the urge to laugh at him for it. Karen returns with their next round at that precise moment, too, and makes a face at this pronouncement as she slides Foggy’s beer across the table to him. He also sees her look over at Matt, as if he’ll have more answers somehow.
“I’m guessing based on your blasé reaction to this news that I shouldn’t send you a curated collection of mine and Colleen’s favorite tweets about how gorgeous you are?” Daisy asks, innocently.
“For the sake of my mental health, you probably shouldn’t,” Foggy replies, “but honestly, today’s been a weird one and we had a miserable time in court, so it might cheer me up.”
Daisy squeals excitedly, which is not a noise Foggy knew she made before this very moment. She didn’t even make that noise when she won Bake-Off, not that he’s allowed to tell anyone that yet. “That’s what I like to hear,” she exclaims. “Alright, well, get ready for some screenshots. And also sorry in advance for any psychological damage I may cause.”
“Thanks,” Foggy laughs. “Both for the apologies in advance and for making sure I knew about this.”
“What are friends for?” Daisy sighs happily, and then hangs up without a goodbye.
“What’s going on?” Karen asks as she takes a sip from her beer.
“Have you been on Twitter today?” he asks, in response.
“I’m a journalist, Foggy. Unfortunately, most of my life is spent on Twitter.”
“Do you follow any Bake-Off people there?”
“I might follow the official twitter for the show itself, but I’m not sure. Why?”
“Apparently, Twitter is freaking out about me in last night’s episode.”
“Really? What do they have to freak out about?” Matt asks, frowning.
Foggy shrugs. “I don’t know. Just me, I guess? I looked good or something.”
“I told you that you looked good last night,” Karen says, gesturing broadly to convey her annoyance. “You didn’t believe me.”
“You’re one of my best friends, Karen. You have to lie to me about that kind of thing!”
“No, I don’t! And I wasn’t!”
“Well, you’re about to be vindicated,” Foggy says. “Daisy and Colleen are sending me screenshots.”
As if on cue, Foggy’s phone lights up with several messages being sent to his and Colleen and Daisy’s group chat and the notifications don’t slow down at all for another full minute.
“God,” Foggy says, just looking at the new messages pouring in. “She wasn’t kidding.”
“You want to read them,” Karen asks, with a bright, dangerous look in her eye, “or shall I?”
Foggy hands over his phone without a second thought. “Probably better if you do it,” he says, feeling genuine panic and terror at the idea. It’s too late to go back now, though. He’s gotten her hopes up.
“Oh my god,” Karen says, after he’s gotten his phone unlocked for her. She puts her hand to her mouth to disguise her…horror? Amusement? Both? It’s hard to tell.
“What?” Foggy asks, anxiously, and Matt turns over his hand underneath Foggy’s palm so he can give it a quick squeeze, which…that shouldn’t be as soothing as it actually is. It’s, frankly, ridiculous that it helps so much.
“Foggy,” Karen says, excitedly, “you’re a sensation!”
+
guy with no problems • juliachildsplay
um… hello?? Foggy coming into the tent with those little braids??? I’m experiencing symptoms????
the hateful nate • nateorade
I’ve been online too long because the minute I saw Foggy Nelson with his hair in braids, I just shouted OOOHHH GENDER!! at the top of my lungs. my gf and my cat both left the room in protest.
kelly nguyen • gaygrenadine
me normally: it’s so embarrassing when cis dudes get so much credit for the mildest defiance of gender norms…
me seeing foggy’s braids in GABO: yasss queen thank you for my rights 🌈🙌 gender is sooo over!!
brynn it to wynn it • flibbertigibbety
I did not actually think Foggy could get hotter to me than when he responded to people ridiculing his French pronunciation by revealing he speaks fluent Punjabi, but I was WRONG!!
Ezekiel (he/they) • ezeydoesitt
how is anyone getting any baking done right now when foggy is there looking so so good?? couldn’t be me!!!
world’s #1 trilla apologist • eldritchedeelite
lord, I am not one of your strongest soldiers… foggy in that salmon colored t-shirt and those braids… I am WEAK
dinah (derogatory) • surelytemple
my two cents is that Ava deserves star baker this week because she is somehow still baking with foggy nelson’s whole beautiful self directly in her eye line. talk about performing under pressure.
bram (not stoker) • bramblinnmann
I am watching bakeoff with my family right now and it’s getting very difficult to pretend to be straight in front of them when Foggy’s out here looking this hot
your future canceled wife • thecouturevulture
THEM: hey how was bakeoff this week? what did everyone make? was it good?
ME: FOGGY NELSON WORE HIS HAIR IN BRAIDS!!!
citizen paddington • genderemporia
I literally couldn’t tell you a single thing that happened in this episode of GABO. Foggy appeared onscreen and my brain shut off for the next hour. I came to and I was googling wedding venues, idk man
Kira Iris • villainesque
I don’t condone people getting obsessed with public figures and violating their privacy but if some of yall wanted to be weird and find out if Foggy’s “partner” he references is a business thing or a romantic thing, I would look the other way just this once
Default Username, Esq. • shrimpheavencanwait
thank god foggy nelson isn’t on social media or I would be embarrassing myself I would be in those DMs like cheese filling in a danish I would be bringing shame upon my ancestors for that man I promise you
Helena Bee 🐝♿️ • bananabreadcrumbs
that part of the episode where Colleen walked behind Foggy and pulled one of his braids to say hello and he smiled at her??? It just hurts to see other people live your dreams???
spy x savage x fenty • coolnormalchill
foggy deserves star baker because he cured my depression and my gender dysphoria in one fell swoop and that’s that on that
Lindy the SEO bitch • easilysearchablebrandname
other bakers: [make the snack]
Foggy Nelson: [is the snack]
sayid’s secret account! • sayidsayless
I didn’t hear who won star baker, I didn’t see who got sent home, l learned nothing about sweet dough, I was busy googling foggy nelson Instagram foggy nelson partner foggy nelson star sign
hb lovecraft • hazelbleu
I've already decided to call out sick from work tomorrow so I can spend the whole day watching the inevitable Foggy fancams that will come from this week’s GABO. It’s my duty as an American.
go gert go • yorkestown
if there’s any uneven bakes this week, we all know it’s because Foggy was simply too hot to handle and it threw off everyone’s baking times
SORRY 4 PARTY BROCKIN’ • attackthebrock
foggy saying that one thing he loves about bakeoff is never having a shortage of people to share his bakes with, because normally it’s just up to his partner to finish them. ME AND WHO TBH????
nora mcclain 👻🥀🖤 • themostest
Foggy explaining the hot cross bun recipe he’s making prompted my (allegedly) straight husband to say, out of nowhere, “I’d let him put a bun in MY oven!” Like, sir??? I’m right here???
stardew valley girl • wooloolemon
it’s crazy how many babies are going to be born nine months from the airing of Great American Bake-Off Season 3 Episode 6
Tolkien Straightguy • helmsdeepthroat
it’s pretty normal for me to end an episode of bake-off hungrier than I was before, but I’ve never finished one this THIRSTY my god
maddie📍grad school hell • doctorwormphd
seeing foggy with those french braids made me crazy y’all!! I almost redownloaded tinder I was so lost in the sauce
blandine montpetit ☮️💟 • peaceandloafs
Ava’s star baker moment was so deserved, I’m just sorry we were all too distracted by Foggy being the cutest human alive to really appreciate it. But not sorry enough that it won’t happen again.
+
“We’ve strayed very far from the light of god, I think,” Foggy says, with his face pressed into the sticky surface of the table, which…yeah, bad idea, but one of many he’s had tonight. Matt pats the back of his neck with a hand that was maybe supposed to be more in the direction of his head and ended up somewhere more weirdly intimate by accident. Foggy lifts his head to put an end to it, not because it didn’t feel nice but precisely because it did and that in turn makes him feel a bunch of messy emotions he doesn’t like. “Karen, what are you doing? Are there more?”
“Yes, but they’re getting a little redundant, honestly,” she says, squinting at his phone’s screen. “Everybody wants you to impregnate them, apparently.”
Matt chokes on air at the same time as Foggy chokes on his beer, so it takes both of them a few seconds to recover and respond.
“They what?” Matt asks, looking pale.
“The power of a new hairstyle,” Karen says, with a self-satisfied smile, though she directs it at Matt, for some reason. They have a lot more meaningful looks and mysterious half-conversations these days than they used to before Foggy went away to film the show. At least, that’s how it feels to him and if Karen didn’t have a boyfriend that she seemed to love a lot, he’d be worried that she and Matt were going to try dating again, for all it was a disaster the (admittedly brief) first time. Instead, it feels like they developed a shorthand while he was away and, granted he also made a bunch of close friends who he essentially talks to in baking-themed twin speak, it still makes him feel strange. He didn’t think him being away for the time that he was would change so much, but apparently it did. Matt and Karen speak in code now, and the Internet wants to fuck him. Life is strange.
“Do you really talk about me on the show that much?” Matt asks, apropos of nothing, it feels like.
“What? What do you mean?”
“A lot of those tweets referenced you talking about your partner,” Matt replies, looking thoughtful. “That’s me, I assume.”
“Yes, obviously,” Foggy says as his face heats. “Why shouldn’t I talk about you?”
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t. I just didn’t realize it was enough to be noticeable.”
“One thing I’ve learned about the Bake-Off viewers is that they notice everything,” Foggy says. “And I don’t mean to talk about you a lot, but you’re important to me and you’re in most of my stories and…all that…”
Matt seems to be thinking hard about that, while Karen is sitting with her chin resting in the palm of her hand, still scrolling through Foggy’s phone.
“What are you doing over there, Page?” Foggy asks, in the hopes of distracting everyone from the corny admission he just made that got met with silence.
“Just sending a few of these to my phone,” she says, with a sheepish look. “I want to show Frank.”
“God, no!” Foggy yelps as he reaches out to snatch his phone back. “I don’t need Frank knowing about these! It’s bad enough Matt had to hear them!”
“Why is it bad for me to know?” Matt asks, startled out of his reverie by the mention of his name.
“Because you think all of this is stupid!”
“All of what? Twitter?”
“No,” Foggy sighs, and then thinks it over. “I mean, I assume you do think Twitter is largely stupid, actually—”
“And you’d be right,” Karen adds.
“What I meant was you think all this stuff about the show is stupid.”
“No, I don’t,” Matt says, frowning. “I mean, I confess I don’t understand half the stuff you say on the show or about it, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s stupid. If anything, it makes me think I’m stupid.”
“Well, you certainly can’t be impressed by everything Karen just read us,” Foggy replies, gesturing with his phone. He’s aware, in the back of his mind, that he’s doing that thing you’re never supposed to do and negotiating against himself, but he can’t really stop it, for some reason. “It makes the fans of the show sound insane!”
“I understood even less of that than I do of the baking terminology, honestly,” Matt admits, “but I think most of those people have the right idea.”
“You mean, hitting on Foggy via Twitter? You think that’s the right move in this situation?” Karen asks, and there’s some kind of play acting going on in her tone, like she’s goading Matt about something that Foggy doesn’t have the context for.
“I’m saying Foggy’s loveable,” Matt replies to her with an unexpected amount of heat. “I don’t know why he acts like he isn’t.”
Foggy blinks at them, feeling like he’s stepped into the middle of an old argument he didn’t know about. “Am I still a part of this conversation, or…?”
Karen’s expression clears first and she turns to Foggy with a reluctantly amused expression, like she doesn’t know what to do with him, he’s so silly. “Of course you are! Matt and I were just agreeing about how great we think you are! That’s all!”
“Yeah, sure,” Foggy replies. It sure as hell didn’t sound like two people agreeing on anything, but he’s willing to let it go. “Well, if I’ve learned anything from this uncomfortable incident, it’s that I should braid my hair more often.”
“And that you look good in that salmon-colored shirt,” Karen adds, helpfully.
“Which is too bad, because I spilled ink all over it a few weeks ago.”
“Writing with a quill again?” Matt asks, innocently.
“No, I was helping Ruthie,” Foggy says, rolling his eyes when Matt’s smiles stupidly at his own joke. “Her newest hobby is calligraphy.”
“I thought she was into knitting now?” Karen says.
“Old news,” Foggy replies. “I’m just praying her next kick is baking so it can be something I’m even remotely good at.”
“I suppose it’s too much to ask that she gets really interested in reading up on legal precedent, huh?” Matt asks, thoughtfully.
“Yeah, probably,” Foggy laughs. “The point is, my magical salmon shirt that apparently makes me irresistible to random people on the Internet is out of commission.”
“Oh, well,” Karen sighs. “You’ll just have to subsist on the attentions of your local admirers.”
Foggy takes a sip of his beer. “I wasn’t aware I had any of those,” he says.
“Probably a lot more than you think,” she says, and she’s giving Matt another one of those weird looks again. Foggy decides it’s probably safer not to ask, and resolves to change the subject instead.
#i don't know what this is but it's done i tell youuu hwhat#it does not work that well for the prompt but what can you do#hws30days#homelywenchsociety#that's my writing tag! don't worry about it!#bakeoff au#the gbbo au#mattfoggy#daredevil#foggy nelson#matt murdock#karen page#writing challenge#series: how sweet it is
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Yellow City, Chapter 15 - a Malevolent AU
This happened sometimes, when Parker was working on more than one case. He got so focused on the one in front of him that the other seemed to solve itself. That the other, in fact, fit together like puzzle pieces, and he just hadn't noticed.
Chapter fifteen of Yellow City. Note: this chapter is not explicit, but the fic is.
AO3
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Parker hadn’t really spent much time in places with lots of books. He still recognized the smell.
Weird.
His nerves still buzzed, a deeply unpleasant echo of something bad, but he didn’t feel sick, didn’t feel infected, and the horrible sense (familiar, hated) of his own body putrefying was gone.
Even weirder. He managed to open his glued-shut eyes.
Huh. Some room he’d never seen in his life. Human-sized bed (funny how tiny that felt after all this time). A door. A little dresser. A table by his bedside with a sandwich and a glass of… was that milk?
Tucked just underneath the sandwich’s plate lay a neatly folded piece of paper.
Welcome back, Mister Yang.
You are in the Scriptorium. Tabby healed you, and I left you some food on the table. There are fresh clothes in the dresser; I had to guess at your personal style. Please, help yourself.
Call out to me when you would like to talk.
—The Keeper
Huh.
Huh.
Being awake and alive was weird enough. Why’d she do all that?
Wouldn’t be the first god who’d done something unasked-for. The Defiler did it to obligate him. Hastur did it to please Arthur. The fuck was this for?
Parker searched his memory. He couldn’t think of anything he’d done that might prompt all… this.
And he knew the feeling of what he’d been hit with. Knew what The Defiler had used. That spell was horrifying, and Y’golonac had never even bothered to clean up after attacking with it, but just rotted Parker to the bone and then dragged him back again from the dead.
Had he died? The note didn’t say he’d died.
Parker salivated. The sandwich looked good. Milk, too. “Fuck it,” he said, and ate. While he did, he studied the note. Yeah… yeah. He wouldn’t like to talk yet. Getting dressed held more appeal.
The clothes—dear gods, clothes. Actual pants. A shirt. Socks. Socks! He almost moaned as he pulled it all on. She’d even included boxers.
For a moment, fully clothed, he lay back on the bed and stretched, just feeling it all and absolutely relishing it. This was nice. Even if it didn’t last, it was nice.
He still didn’t want to talk. Maybe after he got eyes on the place. Yeah.
Arthur’s description of the Lady’s home had made no damn sense. Sounded like black cobwebs the size of buildings all along the walls, and coffin-bookcases, and about six hundred arms reaching around corners. Couldn’t be like that.
Moving very quietly, Parker opened the door and peeked out.
So the good news was it wasn’t a trick, and not Y’golonac’s palace. The bad news was it didn’t look too far off from what Arthur described.
Dark. Kind of drapey. Light way up high, like moonlight peeking through windows too inset to see. Enormous, still shapes that maybe were coffin-bookcases, though coffins for what, he didn’t know. Sure looked to him like a few Hasturs could stand in those things, one on top of the other.
Right. So it was back into the nice, cozy room… or learning the truth of this place.
He was an investigator. He stepped out of the room and quietly closed the door.
It wasn’t quite as dark as Arthur had said, at least. There was a rug under his feet, absorbing sound. He kept to the wall, counting steps. No one bothered him. No acolytes, no guards, no servants. Hastur didn’t have any, either, but this was so much bigger than his temple. Parker could feel it.
He couldn’t resist getting over to one of those coffin-shelves to see what he could see. Books. Just books? None in any language he knew. The letters weren’t even ones he recognized half the time.
They weren’t in the condition Arthur had described, though. Dusty, sure; but Arthur had made it sound like they were water-logged, burned, and ruined.
They were fascinating. He’d honestly never imagined so many books. He wondered what they said.
He wondered if “Keeper” meant “keeper of books.”
He put the book carefully back and continued exploring.
How the fuck big was this place? A tiny child-like part of him wanted to shout and hear the echoes.
A light ahead. Warm. Flickering firelight, humanly comforting.
Well, that was obviously where they were. And there was no way they didn’t know where he was. Fuck it. Nothing to lose today. “Lady!” he shouted, louder than needed, so he could hear the echoes and get her attention at the same time.
“Hello, Mister Yang.” Her voice was huge in this space, like it was coming from the walls, the ceiling, all around him. “How are you feeling?”
His echo was good. Hers was better. “Okay,” he said, which didn’t mean much, but he wasn’t great with words. “Uh. You?”
“Tabby is safe, my guest has regained his consciousness and his health, and I am well. Thank you.” She let out a low, soft chuckle. “Are you still hungry? I assumed you would prefer me not to hover, so I left something that wouldn’t spoil. Except the milk, I suppose, but I did a tiny enchantment on the glass to keep it cold.”
Was she checking to see how he valued it? What he’d trade for more? “It was good. Milk was good, too. Haven’t had that in a while. So what do I owe you?” Might as well get to it.
“It was complimentary. I view it to be poor form to charge a guest who had no choice in his visit.” She let out a rumble that he more felt than heard, but it wasn’t a bad noise. “I appreciated your efforts, you know. It was very kind of you, particularly since we had just met.”
Sure. He wasn’t buying this. Why not say it? He’d already faced down one god today. “You’re a god. This shit’s always transactional. You don’t gotta schmooze me.”
“I find transactional relationships distasteful, Mister Yang. Whenever possible, I prefer to avoid them.” She let out a sigh. “I do not need humans the way my cousins do. I like humans, make no mistake; I would not have gotten involved if I did not, regardless of how nicely Arthur Lester asked me. But I need no gratitude from you.”
Okay. There was much to untangle there. Parker chose what thread to pull. “They need humans?”
“Correct.” A creak, and a bookshelf shifted near him, and a long, multi-jointed arm clad in black silk and a lace glove ( holy fuck ) picked through the books and pulled one off the shelf. “The Great Old Ones and the lesser gods are part of the same cosmic ecosystem that humans are. As humans grow, and flourish, and multiply, you create billions of little moments of magic and choice and tenacity; and these are the building blocks of what the Dreamlands used to be.”
More clues, falling into place. “Sounds like we need each other.”
Another hand folded down from the ceiling, impossibly high, and opened the book; inside, a portrait of a tentacled horror and a human interfacing in what looked like worship decorated the page. “We do. In return for what humans create, we gods help form the world you live in, both metaphysically and literally. We take the threads of reality that Yog-Sothoth wove when he created matter and space and time, and make them habitable. Some are deities of life and growth, like the Great Mother, Shub-Niggurath. Some, like a certain bastard who deserves no further mention, are deities of rot and death. And there are others; deities of music and madness, like Hastur, deities of fire or magic or knowledge or any number of other things. In times before, we co-existed, barely registering one another save for the machinations of certain sects. The Dreamlands was self-sustaining with its own discrete populations of humans, not to mention the incredible variety of minor gods and demigods and half-humans, and all of them a font of creativity, of magic, of will that shaped the Dreamlands and kept it mostly stable, and beautiful, and constantly fueled when a human from one of the other worlds dreamed something totally new into existence.”
Did she always share so much? Was like a year of classes in here. “It ain’t like that now,” he said. “Gods’ve died. I’ve seen the pieces the witches collected. I’ve seen the busted statues in that Contract pavilion. And people… there’s a lot fewer of them, too. So the balance is off, and not just in the Dreamlands.”
“You’re quite discerning,” she said. “The Fires of Y… I don’t know that I can properly express the amount of blood spilled, Mister Yang.” She sighed, heavy. “The ones who died when the bombs fell were lucky; their death was instantaneous. The ones who did not fell to a slower, crueler fate; starvation, disease, their bones decaying within their body from the radiation—think of it like a kind of magic that damaged the fundamental building blocks of your body. And by the time any of us knew about it, it had happened, and…”
She let the word trail off and it was like the spare light in the Scriptorium dimmed, like the bookcases hunched over him. One of the hands, a left one, sagged. There was a ring on it; on its left ring finger, a glittering red jewel set into the silvery band.
“They are lucky the witches begged Shub-Niggurath to intervene. She is the most powerful of us, at least the only one who is willing and able to help; she was able to stop the complete destruction of humanity. But I imagine you know that story already.”
Parker exhaled slowly. “Some of it. Asenath said there were lots of worlds. That somehow this fucking… fire happened in all of them at the same time. That true, too?”
“It is true.” The bookcase shifted again, fanning out, and the ring-bearing hand began to poke through the titles. “When the Dreamlands were still whole, my Scriptorium was based in a place called Leng. It was a crossroad for many worlds, chaotic and dangerous, but it enabled me to gather knowledge from many places and many different universes. Timelines. For whatever reason, somehow, some way… The one who shared the information regarding the Fire of Y did so in every single timeline, and every single timeline had fools arrogant enough to bring about the devastation of those bombs.”
Weird. That made a lot more sense than a lot of the piecemeal versions of this he’d been told. “So they’re all like Cloud City?”
“They’re all gone, Mister Yang. All that remained was gathered to one world, one place and time, and sustaining that stability requires more than we have to give.”
Yeah. That tracked, too. He breathed for a moment, considering. Then he nodded. “Two things.”
“Ask away.”
“So, one. Seems to me like one small population on one Earth can’t sustain you guys forever. Am I right?”
“Correct.”
“Yeah. Two.” He took a slow breath. “I don’t think they all know that, but I think Hastur does.”
“Hastur most certainly knows; I cannot truly speak for the others.” She sighed once more. “Since the Fires, the only god I have spoken to is Shub-Niggurath. The others… Well. I believe you are very familiar with those who approach with empty hands and harsh words.”
“Uh.” Parker stared blankly at the nearest hand. “Nothing… good happens to those guys?”
“Yes.” And this sound was most certainly not a happy one, and the bookcase shifted again; and these books were…
A book shouldn’t have a presence.
“Hm… Ah, yes.” She pulled one off the shelf, one of the dozens that sat in a neat row. It had a beautiful green leather cover, the pages within a gentle cream, and something that looked disturbingly insectoid reinforced the spine. “This, Parker Yang, is what remains of the god H'chtelegoth.”
And the sound that came out when she opened it split the air, split his ears, split worlds—
“Holy shit!” Parker gripped his ears.
She snapped it shut, just as quickly. “H'chtelegoth came to me demanding the Parchments of Pnom, an item that I had in my collection. In exchange, he was ‘willing’ to give me back Sor—one of my acolytes.” The god paused, then, and it was like she was steadying herself. “Something you must understand is that these Parchments… They contain a genealogy, of sorts, for us. On its own, harmless; like how most of my collection is, on its own, harmless.”
One of the hands trembled.
“My acolyte knew better. She knew what he intended to do with them; he intended to use them to gain allies, to form a coup and enable the harvesting of the rest of the humans. Part of what keeps many of the Great Old Ones on a level playing field is not knowing who may or may not be more powerful; it is a risk to enter into a territory war. But enough gods who have been convinced they are descended directly from my ilk stirring the pot, and you may have a problem. She… She died to ensure I knew.”
Holy shit .
So being descended from an Outer God was important. And also, pissing the Keeper off meant getting turned into a screaming book.
Fucking gods.
He had to keep a grip on himself. Casually, he began to pace.
It felt really good to have his hands in his pockets while he paced. Familiar. Easier to think. “So when the gods finally fuckin’ die out because the Dreamlands go to hell, humans will too, right?”
“It is certain.” She replaced the terrifying book onto the shelf. “If all of us were to fall… well, reality itself will begin to erode. Humanity may crawl onward for a time, but matter itself will fall apart. The protections that were put in place to hold back the radiation would fail, and in time, the last human would breathe their last breath. A slow, sad end to a very sad story.”
Yeah, no shit. “Gimme a minute. Okay?”
“Take as much time as you need. I can wait.” The shelf of books-that-were-not-books slid upward, away, gone, protected.
He resumed pacing.
He didn’t want to know this. When a guy knew things, big things, he had to act on them. That’s how it worked. At least, for him.
He knew it wasn’t really on his shoulders. She wasn’t asking for help. Didn’t matter, though. Now, it wasn’t just save the miserable world from the gods. It was fix it or everyone dies.
It wasn’t fair. His god had betrayed him. Everything he’d believed had been ripped away. Justification for the bad things he’d done had been burned to ash, and now, this. This.
“Fuck,” he whispered. “Fuck,” he said louder. “Fuck!” And he spun and punched the blank wall between shelves.
“FUCK!” The Keeper howled, rattling distant windows and making those fucked-up person-books shiver.
That was startling as hell. “Whoa, what? What?” His eyes were huge. “You fuckin’ felt that?”
A silhouette appeared at the distant firelight. “Keeps?” Tabby called. “You good?”
“Oh!” The hands jerked backward a bit. “I… Alright, first, yes, I did feel that, but it didn’t hurt, and I didn’t take it as an aggressive action towards me.”
Parker stared at Tabby, his eyes huge. “I punched her! I… I didn’t know she was the wall!”
“Oh, Keeps, you big baby,” Tabby scoffed, jogging over.
“I didn’t swear because of that,” the Keeper protested. “I got caught up in him swearing, because you’re right, Parker: it’s fucked.”
“Sure, sure. Like this wasn’t a ploy for my attention.” Tabby rolled her eyes, patting one of the hanging hands as she walked to the spot of wall. “Here?”
“Stop it.”
“So you don’t want me to kiss it better?” Tabby aimed her gaze somewhere ceiling-wise.
The Keeper paused for a guilty moment. “He is very strong,” she said. “I am terribly wounded.”
“You mean your pride is wounded,” Tabby said, pressing her lips to the spot on the wall.
“I assure you, it is not.”
Tabby snorted. “It should be. This is embarrassing.”
One of the hands reached down and ruffled the girl’s dark hair, and Tabby stuck her tongue out at the other.
Parker did not know how to handle that casual affection. At all. At least the power dynamic and occasional sadism of Hastur and Arthur (even with all the new, weird changes) made sense to him. This did not, was dangerous, and threatened ( Charlie) the comfortable it didn’t happen like you thought story he told himself.
So he shelved it. “I got something to say.”
“It had better be an apology,” Tabby said mock-sternly.
“Be nice to him,” the Keeper said. “Please, Parker—unless you prefer Mister Yang. But please, speak.”
He stared at Tabby for a second. Like hell was he apologizing for a god being the wall . “Look, how long would it take to… no, that’s the wrong way to do this.” He bared his teeth for a moment. “Sorry. I suck at talking. Okay. Hastur’s got this plan. He’s got a plan for Carcosa that includes shrinking it three times and, I think, still working solid. How much time you think that’ll buy everybody?”
“You need not apologize, Parker. I quite like hearing your thought process.”
Sure.
“As for this plan, I haven’t seen it, but…” The god clicked her tongue a few times. “Guessing on what Hastur would do, given the fact he reportedly has a brain… I’d say another two centuries the first downsize, assuming he reduces Carcosa by about a third. If he reduces it up to half, maybe three. Perhaps another century on the second. As for the final… It depends on who is left.”
Parker licked his lips. “I’m goin’ off incomplete information here. All right? So. Bear the fuck with me.” He was back to pacing. “If the gods got… fed better, or whatever the fuck they get outta dealing with people, could that slow down more?”
“In essence. We either need fewer gods or more humans, or a better way to deal with the Contracts.”
Tabby made a face.
“I know.”
“I’m guessing here,” he said. “Contracts. Asenath said the Mother tried to make that fair, but… still… weighted toward humans. Right? Best she could, while still putin’ the squeeze on you assholes. No offense.”
“None taken. I can’t Contract, Parker. Outer God.”
“But he’s right,” Tabby said.
“Can’t Contract,” said Parker. “But you sure as fuck ended up speaking through her out there. Did you get fed by that? Whatever you get through that?”
“I am fed by the natural chaos of the universe, Parker. It is my nature, as it is the nature of my siblings.” Somehow, the hanging hands managed a shrug. “As for our sojourn… That was a necessity, if I am to attend the vote.”
“Keeps can’t leave the Scriptorium.” Tabby leaned against the nearest bookshelf; another arm appeared, pulling a quite-nice armchair out of nowhere and set it next to her, and tapped the girl on the shoulder until she sat in it. “It’s a whole thing. Long story that we don’t know the answers to yet.”
“Your friend asked for my vote,” the Keeper said gently. “I’d spent a long time avoiding getting involved in anything like this. I had never even thought about it. But I decided, since my participation in the vote will bring my cousins’ attention to me whether I desire it or not, it’s time for me to do my part in helping fix things. And that started with getting eyes on what was happening.”
“And testing how much power I could hold until I exploded,” Tabby added, “and monitoring my blood sugar levels so I didn’t pass out, and scribbling down all your observations of how excited you were to be outside, and—”
“Yes, thank you Tabby, I’m sure Parker understands.”
They were getting off track. “I understand more than that,” he said. “Asenath said the Mother helped you do it. Right?”
“Correct. She provided me with an artifact that allowed me to siphon off most of… I’m not sure how to describe it.” She let out a low, sheepish laugh.
“I can,” Tabby said eagerly.
“Tabby.”
“It won’t even be a truly heinous sex joke, I promise.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You shouldn’t. Anyway. So gods are big—big bodies, big souls, big magic. Keeps especially is huge, because she’s an Outer God and all of them tend to be pretty cosmic in scale. You take something that big and try to put it into something small, something’s going to have to give.” And for a moment, her face flickered, grew grim. “You may recall, uh, what was going to happen to Arthur if Y’golonac’s ritual succeeded.”
“Yeah.” Low. He knew his shame. There was no point in pretending otherwise.
“That is the reason many Great Old Ones can’t Contract, either, and no Outer Gods can; it is rare for a human to possess the power of will to harbor even a piece of them.”
“I know. It’s why I didn’t even consider it might be fucking Hastur calling himself ‘John,’” Parker said. “Assumed a servitor. Never thought it’d be an equal to the Defiler.” He sighed. “If I had… dunno. It would’ve gone down different. But the Defiler didn’t think of it, either, so. There’s that.”
Not much of a comfort.
“The artifact the Great Mother gave me allows me to, in essence, tether myself to Tabby’s soul to enable my consciousness to leave the Scriptorium. It is easily done, given that our mark connects us as it does, and that I am quite motivated to not burn her out; for the vote, I will need to do more, but the artifact should allow me to keep Tabby’s soul tethered to my own while I occupy her body. We just… need a bit more practice.”
“It’s not perfect yet, but I’ve got the smartest and prettiest girl in the whole wide universe on my side,” Tabby said, batting her eyelashes at the ceiling.
Fuck, these two. He stuffed more into that shout about it later box. “Okay. So. So.” He gripped his hair. “Back on track, okay? I know our population’s shrinking. Fucking Wastes take more every year. Arthur’s town—Harper’s Hill—there’s lots like that, that got sort of… eaten. Okay. So. If the gods…” He had to say this right . “If the gods were able to do more, hold back the Wastes, make the Lake and the ocean not just fucking wet death , humans could… make more of us. Right? The population could grow again. And if that could happen, they could feed more fucking gods. And if that happened, the gods could… protect humans more, and we could expand even more. Re-open places like Harper’s Hill, I dunno. Something. Right?”
The two said nothing for a moment, but Tabby was grinning. “I told you, Keeps, he and I are the same person.”
“That is what you said.”
“I can smell it. I'm on some fuckin’ wolf shit right now with how good I sniffed that out.”
“You were right,” the Keeper said primly.
“What?” said Parker, because what?
“What you’ve said is… an idea, yes,” the Keeper said. “A fascinating theory—one that makes sense, but I do not believe I would have reached it quite as quickly.”
“Yeah, well, being mortal makes you skip a few steps,” he muttered.
This was the kind of reasoning the Defiler had always praised, too, but that… that praise hadn’t been true. It hadn’t been enough for his god to even like him .
That wasn’t important now. “Pretty sure fucking King in Yellow’s already on board. He likes complicated bullshit.”
“You seem to know him well.”
“I do.” Parker paced. “K’thanid will be on board. Nath-Horthath wil, too. Those guys are big hitters.” And he sighed. “I fuckin’ hate it. I’m not… into this. Get me? I hate this. But I want us to survive, and we can’t do that without you people . But you can’t survive without us, either. It’s gonna take investment on your parts before we can give back.” And he breathed heavily. He had to get this right. “So if we’re gonna do this, vote first. Then that Contract system’s got to be updated. Fuck. Fuck. Maybe whatever the Mother gave you can work for other gods, too. The rules’ve got to change, don’t they? How the fuck…” He sighed. “Does it make a difference if bigger gods get to do it? Does that… I dunno, help the gods under them? Maybe mean less Contracts needed? I’m gettin’ ahead of myself. Sorry. Words ain’t my strong suit.” He’d talked too much. He knew he had. It never went well when he did. He clenched his jaw, dropped his head, and paced.
“You were utterly wasted on Y'golonac,” the Keeper said, voice low.
“Oh, you’ve got her in a mood now,” Tabby said, and winked at Parker.
Parker closed his eyes tightly for just a moment. “Naw. Got all the blood he wanted spilled. Arthur was just better.”
“He used you as a hammer when you were a surgeon’s blade. That worm-brained fool—did he keep you in the dark? He must have kept you on a very short leash. I imagine you would have been impossible to stop if you'd been allowed to act of your own volition.”
That was a load of horseshit.
Though she wasn’t completely wrong. There had been no wriggle room, no space for failure. And he’d only failed once.
Once had been enough. He swallowed and didn’t answer.
Her voice was full of wonder. “Gods, I hate him. The petty cruelties are one thing, but to waste such potential. Abhorrent.”
“He—” There wasn’t anything to defend. Nobody had said anything like that before.
Or… maybe they’d said some of it. Asenath (who was biased). Arthur (who was nuts). But this was coming from someone without shared history, who stood to gain nothing from it.
Reality called. Gods didn’t care for him. This praise was suspicious , no matter how… nice… it would be if it were true. “He promised things and did them. Kinda hard to argue with that.” It wasn’t an answer. Too bad. “Just tell me what you want outta this, talking to me, telling me shit. I want it laid out going in. No surprises.”
“From you? Nothing, at least at present; in the future, who knows? I believe you have promise; I believe you’re a wickedly smart man who was willing to sacrifice himself to protect my marked, not to mention bold enough to challenge me, one of the most powerful creatures in the universe, directly to my face when you felt I was speaking out of turn.” She laughed, light and pleasant. “Though I will say, I don’t believe you were aware at the time. At present, Parker Yang, all I can offer is a choice. Once Hastur has finished tearing Y’golonac a new asshole and the riot has dispersed, you may, of course, return to him and to Arthur. Or… If you wish, you may stay.”
Oh, what the fuck was happening now? “Stay?”
“If you desire, you do not have to go back to Hastur. You could stay here, in the Scriptorium, under my protection; not as a priest, or an acolyte, but merely as yourself. You may dress as you please, spend your days reading or learning or doing nothing at all—you would be able to meet the others who dwell here, under my protection.”
“No more collars,” Tabby said.
Parker stared.
“Consider it thanks for your efforts to ensure my wife was safe when Y’golonac attacked,” the Keeper said, voice gentle. “You need not answer now; you may even change your mind, if you decide to leave, and I will… what’s the metaphor? Put a foot in the door?”
“No. I think you want ‘keep the light on’ or ‘keep the door cracked’, or something like that,” Tabby said.
“I demand no Contracts, no pledging of your soul, no worship. Merely a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’”
“Kind of like it was before,” Tabby said, very quietly.
“Before… My acolytes came and went as they pleased,” the Keeper said quietly. “Perhaps, once things are better, you may as well.”
Parker straight-up didn’t believe this.
Come on. This kindness? This generosity? From a self-proclaimed one of the most powerful beings in the universe? Bullshit.
But he heard her. And the fact that she didn’t demand an answer right now was more important than sandwiches or boxers. “Thanks.” He knew that was abrupt. Not enough. Too bad. He was out of words. “I think I need to go back. Arthur… I wanna see where that’s going.” He needed to see this through.
He needed to see Y’golonac defeated.
He needed to go home.
“I understand,” the Keeper said, and it felt like she knew Parker meant more than he said. “Do you want to leave now? Or… Would you like some time to center yourself? Time will only pass for us.”
He frowned. “How long I been in here?”
“With us? About… nine hours. Out there? Maybe ten minutes. Long enough for the mayhem to have finished.”
He stared. He’d been in here nine hours. “Took a while to fix that shit, huh?” he said thickly.
Tabby made a face that said everything Parker needed to know. “Yeah. Had to get some backup from Keeps.”
“Healing is not my forte, but power I have in spades. Tabby was able to channel quite a bit of it, and at last we were able to purge the infection from you.”
“It was worth it, though.” Tabby grinned. “Keeps cried.”
“I did not.”
“You pulled through, though. Might have been through the power of spite, though, especially since it looks like you shook off whatever lingering hold he had.”
The truth popped out without warning. “He killed me lots of times with that.” Parker found himself shaking a little. “I really didn’t die this time?”
“I was not going to allow that to happen. Anything worth fixing is worth fixing correctly. Would you like to sit down for a bit?”
He would not like that. Maybe needed it, but would not like it. Nope. Limit reached. Feeling red-faced, he said, “Can I go?” Fuck, he wasn’t trying to be rude.
“As you wish. If you decide you wish to speak to me again, let Hastur know.” She paused. “Actually… Let Arthur know. I have a good feeling he’ll be able to call upon me if he needs to. I would give you a more direct egress, but I would rather avoid Hastur barging in.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. He’s always digging in everybody’s drawers,” said Parker.
“I’ll see you out,” Tabby said, hopping out of her armchair. “Sorry.”
“For?” He tensed.
“It was a lot.” The girl put her hands in her own pockets as she walked, leading him through the bookcases effortlessly.
“Oh.” Maybe his scale for “a lot” was off. “Not really.”
“Nah. I recognized that look on your face; same one I had when I first got shoved in the Scriptorium more than seven hundred years ago.” She shook her head. “Pretty sure, anyway. Didn’t have a mirror at the time.”
“Fuckin’ old for a human.” Said slightly aggressively.
“I know. I look good for my age, huh?” She grinned at him.
“Yeah. But you didn’t die?”
“No. I was sort of…” She paused, scrunching up her face as she thought. “I guess ‘portaled’ is correct, though it was more of a… I had a friend who, as it turns out, was one of the Mother’s witches, back before the fires. One day she just… She said she hoped I would understand, and gave me a shove, and I ended up in the Woods.” She laughed, low, flat. “It was a pretty big surprise for me. I was a psych major.”
“A witch saved you?” And he took a moment. “What is a ‘sike major?’”
“Oh, shit, right—you guys don’t really have higher education.” And that made her look sad. “I was in school; I went to a place called Miskatonic University. I studied psychology, which is understanding how the human mind works. I…” She paused. “I wanted to help people. But it wasn’t a discipline that had anything to do with magic. Fuck, I thought magic was pretend, you know? Stuff you read about in books, that didn’t really happen, and though my friend called herself a witch I assumed it was in the sort of ‘let me read your cards’ and ‘this crystal clears negative energy’ sort of way, not a ‘I’m going to portal you to a freaky eldritch forest and see if you’ll worship my god, which by the way is also a real thing you have to contend with.’”
Crystals and cards were tricky magic he went absolutely nowhere near, but it sounded like Tabby hadn’t known they held power.
Or maybe they hadn’t, in her world. She’d lived a life without magic. She’d known a world without gods… and it had still burned.
He couldn’t go there yet, but chose another thread to pull. “A doctor for the mind?”
“Yeah. That exactly.” She smiled. “I, uh… I had it really rough as a kid. I wanted to… I wanted to help other kids not end up like me.”
“A head-doctor. Shit. That sounds useful. And yeah. I get that desire. It’s why I became a cop. None of them fuckin’ helped me as a kid, so.”
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions, I suppose,” Tabby sighed. “I… I’m sorry it was so shitty for you. Especially if it was shitty enough that you decided to be a cop, yeesh. No offense.”
He shrugged. “Well, it meant I’d be above the law, too. Needed that, for what I was doing.” And he blurted it: “Beat the fuck out of a few child molesters, though. So that felt pretty good.”
Tabby whipped around at him and beamed. “Fuck yes! That’s the shit cops should do!”
He looked at her. “You too, huh?” he said, getting right to the heart of why someone, an adult, would have such a passion about that particular crime.
For a brief moment, she froze. A series of microexpressions flitted across her face; surprise, confusion, realization. Sympathy. Grief. “Yeah,” she said, flat. “...Yeah.” She started walking again. “Sort of… Sort of hoped the gods had done away with that one. Like they did homophobia and stuff. Cultural bullshit. But… Well, I mean, fuck. Predators everywhere, I guess.”
So many threads to pull. “Predators always think they can get away with shit, human or god.”
She looked at him. “You aren’t wrong.”
He was too tired to be delicate. “Bet you’re glad that radiation your wife-god mentioned happened to yours.”
“Sure fucking am. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.” She let out a soft laugh. “...Did you… Were you able to get yours?”
“Some.” Even. Flat. “One died of old age. One was gone, fuck if I know where. One I fucking murdered on the dock, and that’s the one Y’Golonac used to get my attention. I stopped caring after that. Had other things to do.”
“...I haven’t thought about it in a long time. Funny how that sort of happens, huh?” She shrugged. “Is that why you got so prickly at Keeps at the Hall of Contracts?”
“When was I prickly?” he said, prickly.
“When you called her out about that Contract—what’d you say? ‘It’s more than most of these shits will ever do?’” Tabby clicked her tongue.
His shoulders relaxed. “Oh. That. In part, yeah. Just. People like to make noises at things they don’t approve of without fucking offering any other options.” He shrugged. “Dunno. Rubbed me wrong. Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize, man. It was deserved. You called her on it, and she admitted it.” Tabby gave him a playful punch in the arm, earning a startled look. “She… It’s kind of different, for them, but she knows… What happened, with me. And she had a similar experience with one of her brothers, though he more wanted to… I dunno. I was trying not to go insane and die at the time.”
Parker stopped dead and stared at her. “That can happen to gods?”
“He wanted control of the Scriptorium.” Her lips pressed into a thin line. “She was barely over a hundred; it was just over a year after the Fires. He was older, thought he was smarter and stronger.” She let out a soft breath. “Might have been outside it, fuck, I dunno. We don’t really know exactly how this place works, just that she’s tied to it.”
“She felt it when I punched the wall. Uh.” He looked a little sick. “We’re—”
“Oh, right, all that. Pfft.” Tabby rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry she freaked you out when she shouted like a lunatic. Just so we’re clear: you absolutely didn’t hurt her. She was being a drama queen. And she gets excited when people yell, and likes to join in, so it was a prime opportunity for her. Yeah?”
Parker stared at her. “We’re inside of your wife-god. Maybe I’m not gonna think too much about that.”
“Yeah, I don’t recommend it. It’s complicated. But she can also, like…” Tabby stuck out her hands, as if trying to manipulate something Parker couldn’t see. “She can also like… not be in places, in here? She is it, but she isn’t. It’s all deeply within the realm of what she and I both call ‘Outer God bullshit’ and it is also something that I had to deal with when she and I weren’t on the best of terms.” Tabby paused. “Or, well… When I wasn’t on the best of terms with her, I guess. Another long story.”
He had reached his limit and gone beyond it at this point. “I need to go home.”
“Yeah, yeah. Workin’ on it. Need to go just a touch further… there. That’ll do it.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a doorknob. “Hey, just in case you decide not to come back: it was nice to meet you. You’re fun to talk to.”
He wasn’t sure how to respond to that weirdness. “Sure. Dunno about your wife-god, though. No offense.”
“None taken. I’ve had a long time to get used to her, you know?” She laughed, holding the doorknob out to nothing, and a large set of wooden doors sprouted from the knob’s handle.
Someone on the other side was calling his name.
That felt weird. So weird. Calling for him, trying to find him, like it mattered he was gone? Really?
For him?
“Sounds like your ride’s here. Y’know… Keeps likes you. Even if you decide not to take her up on the offer, it’d be cool if you visited. You can bring Arthur too, if Goldenrod lets him go.”
“I… yeah. Maybe.” Probably not. Arthur was… one did not bring Arthur places. Arthur went places, very much on his own.
There was nothing left to say, so Parker gave her a nod, and stepped through.
#
Hastur grabbed him before his feet even touched the churned-up ground.
This place was absolutely fucked. It had been the Contract pavilion. Now, it was rubble. Rot ate the grass and melted the stone; chunks of statuary lay where they’d been exploded, and a black groove in the ground announced where something large had been forcibly pushed right out the entrance.
Hastur was…
Hastur.
Was.
Angry.
Hastur was so fucking angry. Parker had never seen him truly angry, and hadn’t realized that until this moment. Petulant, ridiculous, fussy, demanding… but this. This was angry, and Parker suddenly realized that even at their worst moment, he had never gotten Hastur like this.
“You’re okay!” Arthur cried from below, and he sobbed. “Fuck… fuck, I thought he got you.”
“‘Kissinger’ did not win,” said Hastur in a voice like thunderstorms at sea, and any words Parker had left dried up and died like plants never watered.
He trembled. Hastur was so angry.
Hastur picked up Arthur (who reached for Parker, reached, with both hands, and Hastur brought them together without hesitation), and then flew.
From above, it was clear where the fight had happened. It was like some kind of pointed fire, like an aimed explosion, burning the ground and ruining the part of Carcosa that served to give gods access to the human world.
And suddenly, that mattered. Suddenly, that was important, because it wasn’t just what gods wanted to do , but something they needed , and no one was really safe to be around when starving, and if they all fucking killed each other now, there’d be no chance to save anyone, ever.
“Fuck!” Parker said. He couldn’t stop shaking.
Arthur held him.
Tentacles trapped them both, shielded them both, and kept them together.
Arthur’s tears cooled on Parker’s neck. “I thought he fucking got you.”
He couldn’t handle this. No one could handle this. What in fuck was this? “He did get me. Fuckin’ Keeper made it better.”
Hastur growled.
Oh, no, all the other angry sounds had been play growls , nothing serious, nothing like this sound that warped the air and ached like old wounds and made Parker cry out and made his eyes water and—
Arthur raised his face and kissed him. Deep, intimate, without hesitation.
Not expected. Nope. Acceptable response not found. Parker’s gaze rolled to Hastur, who had to react badly to this, who had to respond with crushing rage, who would hurt him so much that he’d wished he had stayed in the spooky library with the crazy lesbians.
It did not happen.
That growl happened, low and scary, but not at him . Parker could feel it. Parker knew it. “He will pay for this,” Hastur threatened.
Arthur breathed, forehead against Parker’s, and he was still leaking tears. “Don’t fucking scare me like that again. And sorry. I should’ve asked.”
“I…” He what? He fucking what? “I don’t get it.”
Arthur met his gaze, and Parker stopped breathing because this man was sane. “You’re an idiot,” Arthur said. “You could’ve just fucking walked over to us, or waved, or anything other than what you did. I thought he fucking killed you.”
Hastur still wasn’t hurting him? “I… no. He didn’t. For once.”
Arthur’s voice shook. “Fucking hell, Parker.”
Carcosa looked fine. Normal. Like it always did: stupid, showy, uneven, pieces given over to other gods with no sense of symmetry. “Where is he? Where’s the Defiler?”
“In his temple,” Hastur said, low, dangerous, “and he will stay there tonight.”
The concept of consequences now—after all this time without, after complete certainty that they could do anything they want at any time—filled Parker with something akin to joy. “He’s… in lockup?”
“He is awaiting trial,” Hastur thundered. “And tomorrow, he will have it. ”
Damn. “Because of the pavilion?”
“Idiot.” Arthur sighed, so close they shared heat. “He attacked someone else’s possession. He attacked a human, and we’re so fucking rare. He fucked up the Contract system for everybody. His fucking… filaments were everywhere, almost fucking invisible. Nobody saw them but you.”
“So it… it’s good?”
“The Contract system is down,” said Hastur, grim. “Firmly down. It will not be easy to repair in a hurry.”
And Parker now understood why that was bad. “Fucking hell.” And he knew how Y’golonac worked, knew exactly what had gone down today: “He wanted you to attack him. He wanted to blame you for it going down because the violence is obvious.”
Hastur’s rumble was…
Oh, the god was still angry, yes, so furious, but that right there was a pleased sound, and it struck Parker as every inch as dangerous as rage. “Yes, little traitor,” Hastur said. “That is correct. It seems your former master had laid a trap.”
“It would’ve been so much worse,” said Arthur. “Hastur was supposed to be weaker when it happened. Thanks to you, it happened early. We can handle this because of you .” And his lips touched Parker’s ear. “He kicked the Defiler’s ass. It was fucking great. ”
They’d clearly been going through a time in the ten minutes since the Defiler tried to kill him. “Uh-huh.”
Arthur rested his forehead on Parker’s shoulder.
It had been ten fucking minutes! Parker looked at Hastur.
That rage still loomed, still bloomed, still blossomed, but it had… gentled. “You no longer smell of rot.”
What? “Sure.” He swallowed. “You gonna kill me? He… Arthur’s touching me.”
“Arthur has done more than that in the past. He has taken you into himself, and amortization is overdue,” said Hastur, amused. “You were attacked. You vanished under a writhing tangle of hideous growth and filthy putrescence. Then… the Keeper responded.”
Amori-fucking-what? “I was gone ten minutes, ” said Parker helplessly.
Arthur met his gaze. He was so close. “I thought we lost you.”
Too close. “You’re gonna get me killed.”
“No,” said Arthur. “You’re our partner.”
“Wait. I…” Puzzle pieces, fitting together just fine, only he hadn’t been paying attention. “Wait. You… but… wait, Hastur is… uh.”
Hastur… laughed. Low.
“You’re our partner, ” said Arthur again.
Had they always meant—
Wait, this wasn’t—
They were at the temple. “Fool,” said Hastur fondly (and still definitely laughing at him), and then they were inside. And the evening was beautiful, and the night was cool, and he slammed the doors behind them. They gonged, loud, metallic, final.
Parker shuddered. He didn’t know where to look.
Hastur was back to growling. It rattled decorative vases and bowls, made incense sticks dance in their basins, sent ripples along the surface of the bath to splash against the far lip. “He will pay.”
“He will.” Arthur stroked his arm. “He will.”
Everyone needed a bath. Hastur was covered in soil and what might be pieces of god-flesh. Arthur was dusty, grass in his hair, smears of mud or something worse. Parker was…
Parker was in clothes Hastur did not like, and Hastur growled as he plucked at them.
“No!” Parker shouted, clutching his sweater to his chest. “No. A gift. From the Keeper.”
Hastur actually sniffed imperiously. “Remove it. I cannot see your flesh.”
Oh, the fuck was all of this?
“Sorry, again,” said Arthur. “I should’ve asked.”
Whiplash. Talking to any of these guys was whiplash. “What?” said Parker, frozen.
“I kissed you. I don’t think you’re ready yet.” And Arthur unhooked the big (ruined) skirt thing and slipped out of his boots.
Parker stared.
“Off,” Hastur rumbled.
“The fuck do you care?” Parker blurted at him, because Hastur was safe to yell at, because Hastur wouldn’t get sad eyes like Arthur could.
“I want to see you,” said Hastur.
“So it ain’t just putting me in things because I complained, after all?” Parker snapped.
Hastur… froze.
Caught. Caught! He was caught! Parker pointed at him. “You lied to me.”
“I teased you,” said Hastur. “Also, I did not lie. I merely withheld some of the truth.”
“I’d so fucking have you in lockup for a night if you were one of my guys,” Parker found himself saying because he’d apparently gone mad.
Hastur cupped under his chin with a thin and flexile tentacle and raised his face. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Power… over me .”
Oh, dear gods, the way he’d said that —
“Parker. That stuff might not do so well in the water,” Arthur said gently because Parker was still clothed (and Parker was glad he was clothed because things had responded right the fuck away and this was just too much on top of everything with the Keeper and—)
“Yeah,” Parker verbalized, and took off the Keeper’s gifts.
Hastur watched him.
It wasn’t like Hastur ever fucking blinked, but Hastur didn’t fucking blink, and the power and penetration of that gaze was so different from Y’golonac’s and Parker was still stuck on power over me and—
“How did she help you?” said Arthur already in the water.
Focus, Yang, he thought. “She… her, uh. Wife. Healed me, somehow.”
“I will repay her,” Hastur rumbled.
“No. Lady said it’s because I tried to save her wife when the Defiler attacked, so I paid for my own care, apparently,” said Parker who could do nothing about his almost painful arousal, and so just went into the water.
Arthur went under, scrubbed himself, and straightened, water streaming, puffing, and steaming in the cool night.
Parker stared at him, distractedly washing his arm. “Partner.”
“Yeah?”
“I mean. I mean I’m partner.” He paused. “I sound like a fuckin’ idiot.”
Arthur laughed softly. “Yes. You are partner.”
“You meant…” Parker waved vaguely.
And he could see the strain, see the effort of will to give as clear an answer as possible: “I mean… you’re partner with us. Whatever that looks like. You’re staying. You’re safe. You’re… you’re ours, and we’re yours.”
“Dunno that’s so much of a ‘we’ thing,” Parker muttered, and turned to look at Hastur.
Hastur looked so damned amused.
Parker narrowed his eyes and turned back to Arthur. “What’s all that fucking mean, Lester?”
“Whatever it means as we figure it out.” Arthur squeezed out his hair and headed for the edge of the pool.
“I don’t do so good without fuckin’ boundaries!” Parker shouted after him.
“So we’ll make them. You don’t want to be touched, you don’t get touched. You don’t want to be partners, you can back out.” Arthur looked at him over his shoulder, sane, sober, shockingly steady. “But I don’t want you to. We, you and I, are part of something. Hastur was part of it because he was part of me. It’s all changed, now. It’s a mess. But I think we can… we can fix this, Parker. The three of us.”
Okay, maybe not so sane at all. “Fix this? Fix what? What the fuck?”
“Just think about it.” Arthur grabbed a towel and left.
“Food,” said Hastur.
“Ugh,” said Arthur.
“Food,” said Hastur.
“FIne,” said Arthur, and they were behind the silk screen and out of sight.
Parker sat in the water up to his chin and went quiet for the next hour.
#
They let him. Let him sit in there, stewing, perhaps literally and figuratively. Let him think, let him take his time, and try to find words again now that they’d all gone up like magician’s flash paper.
He could see now that he’d misunderstood… well, a whole fucking lot. That once Arthur was marked (and Hastur was sure he couldn’t be “taken away”), once Parker had apologized (and Hastur had approved), and Arthur continued to heal and they actually talked in the mornings… yes. He could see it so clearly.
This happened sometimes, when Parker was working on more than one case. He got so focused on the one in front of him that the other seemed to solve itself. That the other, in fact, fit together like puzzle pieces, and he just hadn't noticed.
It seemed so obvious now.
And it was terrifying, because it wasn’t how he’d thought… families? Partnerships? The fuck would he call this? Well. This wasn’t how he thought they happened at all.
He’d literally gotten into a fight when he met Charlie the first time at a crime scene, because Charlie was trying to take photos, and Parker thought he’d fuck up evidence. But then Charlie had spoken smart, and spoken soft, and gotten Parker calmed down if not quite laughing, and then taken him out for coffee and pie, and…
And they kept going out for coffee and pie, and it was really obvious, and Parker knew he wanted that man from the moment Charlie Fucking Dowd stood up to him in front of a dead body.
Charlie had gotten to him, but he’d known Charlie would. Known, because what Charlie said hit home, because when Charlie smiled Parker smiled, when Charlie cried, Parker wanted to kill whatever made him do that.
That wasn’t this.
Parker had always known when he was attracted to people. That part was easy. He hadn’t expected… this. He hadn’t known he felt like this. None of this.
He wanted to be partners, and it had snuck the fuck up on him like a silent cloud, the kind bringing rain so quiet and light that he didn’t even know it was going to rain until he was in it.
Yeah, he thought. That was the right comparison.
He already was partners here . He didn’t want to live with the Keeper. He wanted to live with them.
He wanted to touch Arthur back.
Fuck, he wanted to see what Hastur would actually let him do, how far he could go.
Parker Yang realized he wanted to stay, and he hadn’t known he did, and now that he knew, had no idea what to do about it.
Just stay, of course, not really being an option. It was too complicated for that. Wasn’t it?
Arthur: complicated. Very complicated, guilt and hope tangled up like some knot that would just have to be cut or it’d always stay tangled.
Hastur…
Would be his god. Not Arthur’s god. Their god.
Parker realized he was shaking when he noticed the ripples sliding away from him to splash against the sides.
Complicated. And on top of all of this, the Dreamlands were failing, humanity was dying out, and the only way to save anyone was a wild play, a one in a million chance, with everyone working together, and completely reworking the damned Contract system—which had been smashed to shit, so. Maybe they could make it better.
What would it be to do that with them instead of alone?
He’d assumed alone. Sure, alongside the Keeper, and alongside other gods willing to do shit, and with Arthur peripherally, but this wasn’t that. This was… together.
Side by side, not just facing each other across a room.
Safe. With a god who actually wanted them to live?
Arthur’s kiss lingered, and Parker raised his fingers—soapy and perfumed—to touch his own lips.
He could hear those idiots talking over there. Hastur’s low rumbling and Arthur’s sweet tenor, and he knew he could just walk right over and join them.
But then what? What came after that?
Parker had no idea how to do this.
Whatever it means as we figure it out, Arthur had said.
Maybe… maybe he didn’t have to know how to do this.
That was a big fucking risk to take. Go into a thing without knowing how and you could blow that whole thing up.
But what if he didn’t?
“I don’t deserve some fucking relationship ,” Parker murmured into the water, and then thought, so? Lots of people got shit they didn’t deserve.
But if this wasn’t going to last… if it was all going to go to hell at once because of this trial, or wasn’t going to survive what came after, was it worth it? He clenched his fists. He didn’t know. Who would know? That was too big a thing to know.
Parker startled badly as Hastur lifted him from the water.
“You are getting wrinkly, little traitor,” said Hastur, still so damned amused like all of this was funny and not just the craziest shit Parker had ever tried to juggle.
“You don’t say that name the same way no more,” Parker accused.
“Whom you have betrayed has changed,” Hastur said. “Food.”
Whom he had betrayed had changed. Wow. Wow. “Really don’t wanna eat, big boy.”
“You will eat.”
Parker decided to ask the Keeper if he could have time off from eating, because this was stupid.
He also decided he wouldn’t answer the partners thing tonight. Much as he might like some of the outcome, he wasn’t ready yet. Not yet.
But maybe he’d push a little.
After some spicy soup with bits of egg in it (grudgingly admitted to be delicious), Parker decided he wouldn’t lie on the edge of the bed tonight, which he usually did when Hastur was in it with Arthur. Not tonight.
He glared, daring, challenging , before climbing over this ridiculously huge mattress toward them.
Hastur did nothing.
Parker got up behind Arthur, who smiled at him before lying down.
Hastur did nothing.
Parker lay right behind Arthur, curved against him, and slid one arm around his waist, glaring daggers at the god the whole time.
Hastur… fucking purred . “Yes,” he said.
Arthur made a happy sound and was out. Asleep. Parker would never figure out how in hell he did that so fast every night.
“You have made the wise choice,” said Hastur.
“I ain’t made no choices yet, buddy,” said Parker, daring, pushing.
Hastur chuckled at him, a low sound that pulsed through his purr like some kind of engine.
Fuck, thought Parker. I am in over my head.
But somehow, he fell asleep soon after.
----------
Notes:
Keeper and Tabby cameos thanks to @sepiabandensis, who brought her ladies in for this one.
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stranger things (taylor's version) prompt list
this list contains every taylor swift song and it will be marked by which songs have already been claimed. i'm sorting these prompts by album in chronological order.
since taylor swift has A LOT of songs, the list will be below the cut :D
original post HERE.
taylor swift
tim mcgraw
picture to burn
teardrops on my guitar
a place in this world
cold as you
the outside
tied together with a smile
stay beautiful
should've said no
mary's song (oh my my my)
our song
i'm only me when i'm with you
invisible
a perfectly good heart
fearless
fearless
fifteen
love story
hey stephen
white horse
you belong with me
breathe
tell me why
you're not sorry
the way i loved you
forever & always
the best day
change
jump then fall
untouchable
come in with the rain
superstar
the other side of the door
today was a fairytale
you all over me
mr. perfectly fine
we were happy
that's when
don't you
bye bye baby
speak now
mine
sparks fly
back to december
speak now
dear john
mean
the story of us
never grow up
enchanted
better than revenge
innocent
haunted
last kiss
long live
ours
if this was a movie
superman
electric touch
when emma falls in love
i can see you
castles crumbling
foolish one
timeless
red
state of grace
red
treacherous
i knew you were trouble
all too well
22
i almost do
we are never ever getting back together
stay stay stay
the last time
holy ground
sad beautiful tragic
the lucky one
everything has changed
starlight
begin again
the moment i knew
come back... be here
girl at home
ronan
better man
nothing new
babe
message in a bottle
i bet you think about me
forever winter
run
the very first night
eyes open
safe & sound
1989
welcome to new york
blank space
style
out of the woods
all you had to do was stay
shake it off
i wish you would
bad blood
wildest dreams
how you get the girl
this love
i know places
clean
wonderland
you are in love
new romantics
"slut!"
say don't go
now that we don't talk
suburban legends
is it over now?
reputation
...ready for it?
end game
i did something bad
don't blame me
delicate
look what you made me do
so it goes...
gorgeous
getaway car
king of my heart
dancing with our hands tied
dress
this is why we can't have nice things
call it what you want
new year's day
lover
i forgot that you existed
cruel summer
lover
the man
the archer
i think he knows
miss americana & the heartbreak prince
paper rings
cornelia street
death by a thousand cuts
london boy
soon you'll get better
false god
you need to calm down
afterglow
ME!
it's nice to have a friend
daylight
folklore
the 1
cardigan
the last great american dynasty
exile
my tears ricochet
mirrorball
seven
august
this is me trying
illicit affairs
invisible string
mad woman
epiphany
betty
peace
hoax
the lakes
evermore
willow
champagne problems
gold rush
'tis the damn season
tolerate it
no body, no crime
happiness
dorothea
coney island
ivy
cowboy like me
long story short
marjorie
closure
evermore
right where you left me
it's time to go
midnights
lavender haze
maroon
anti-hero
snow on the beach
you're on your own kid
midnight rain
question...?
vigilante shit
bejeweled
labyrinth
karma
sweet nothing
mastermind
the great war
bigger than the whole sky
paris
high infidelity
glitch
would've, could've, should've
dear reader
hits different
you're losing me
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open the blinds, let me see your face
Buck/Eddie | Rated T | 13,504 words
Eddie's mom convinces him to attend his 15-year high school reunion, right after Eddie makes a promise to himself (and Frank) that the next time he sees his parents he'll come out to them. It's a dilemma that Buck is ready and willing to help him with
Or, the Fake Dating High School Reunion fic
First off, a HUGE thank you to everyone who has cheered me on as I've written this fic. It's been a monster but I've finally tamed it and here it is - The High School Reunion Fake Dating Fic. Special shoutouts to @sibylsleaves and @messyhairdiaz who keep me motivated weekly on Seven Sentence Sunday and WIP Wednesday posts, and to @mmtions for holding my hand through so much of this. Hope everyone enjoys!
The Facebook invite arrives in early March, and Eddie immediately writes it off. Not because he has a particular disdain for his high school years, but because going to the reunion would mean going to El Paso and going to El Paso would mean seeing his parents. And considering he had made a promise to himself (and Frank, who happened to be in the room when he made the decision) that the next time he saw his parents he would tell them he’s queer, he very much would not like to be in El Paso any time soon.
Besides, he really doesn’t want to think about the fact that high school was fifteen years ago. Chris has been growing like a weed (and developing a pre-teen attitude that rivals Eddie’s own level of sarcasm) and this reminder of the passing of time just isn’t something he needs right now.
What he needs right now, this minute, is to find the damn can opener. The ground beef is already on the stove and soon it’s going to need the tomato sauce and Eddie is strong but not that strong; he can’t open a canned good with his bare hands. And then he remembers Buck in the kitchen three days ago, making them both lunch after a long shift, resorting to mostly frozen food and canned goods. Eddie hadn’t cared – he loves anything Buck does for him, loves that Buck wants to come to his house just to be after work, loves that he wants to surprise Chris at school pick-up and help him with his homework and read him the next chapter of whatever fantasy series they’re on now. He just – he loves Buck.
He finds the can opener in the junk drawer, where Buck always leaves it, even though Eddie always tells him to put it with the silverware.
He’s got a pot of water on the stove and sauce simmering when his phone rings. He almost answers it without looking, assuming it’s Buck, but he glances at the name first and is suddenly hit with a ball of anxiety, right in the chest.
He answers. “Hey, Mom, what’s up?”
“Eddie, “she says, and he can hear the smile in her voice. “How many days will you be staying when you come for the reunion?”
He flounders for a moment. “We’re having a family reunion?”
“No, no.” She uses that voice that implies he should already know what she’s talking about. “Your high school reunion. Roberta says it’s the first weekend of June. Will you be staying Friday through Sunday?”
Eddie walks to the couch and sits, letting his forehead fall on his free hand. “I’m not going to that, Mom. I already declined the invite on Facebook.”
“What are you talking about? You and Tyler were so close.” Eddie rolls his eyes, but she keeps going. “Besides, I’m sure it’d be nice to see all your little theatre friends and baseball buddies.”
He internally winces at the mention of his high school baseball career, thinking about the last time he’d picked up his baseball bat.
“I really can’t, Mom. It’s hard to get a full weekend off, and arranging someone to care for Christopher –“
“Well, you’d bring him, of course,” his mom says like it’s a foregone conclusion. “Your father and I will look after him while you attend the festivities.”
And God, does that sound awful. As much as Chris loves his grandparents, he hates their helicopter grandparenting style, made even worse when Eddie isn’t around to balance out the scales. But the real reason he’s digging his heels in sits heavy like a weight in his gut: he doesn’t want to see the look on his father’s face when Eddie tells him he’s queer. And he’s not one to break promises, even ones made only to himself in therapy – he just thought he’d have a little bit more time to prepare.
He sighs, half-listening as his mom lists all the things she and his dad plan to do with Christopher over the course of the weekend.
“Hold on,” he interrupts, as some of the words she’s saying sink in, “the second day of the reunion is a picnic for families that we’re not even going to, so you’d only have him for Saturday night. And,” he pauses and lets out a weary sigh. “We’ll arrive Saturday morning and leave Sunday evening. And – “
He bites his lip, looks up at the ceiling like the answer might be written there. It’s not, just a water stain and a chip in the paint. He wonders if it’s something he and Buck could fix together. He shakes the thought, closes his eyes, and focuses on his mom.
“And you have to pay for our flights. We can’t afford to fly to Texas on such short notice so soon after Dad’s retirement party.”
“Done,” his mother says without pause, and the excitement in her voice is palpable. He wavers one last time, but finally works up his courage.
“And I might be bringing someone, which means I’ll be staying in a hotel, not at the house.”
“You’re seeing someone?”
“I -“ he stutters. “There’s – there’s someone to bring.”
“Well, we’re thrilled to meet her, Eddie,” she says, and Eddie doesn’t bother correcting her.
“It’s not for sure, I have to ask,” Eddie says quickly, but his mom is already on the subject of breakfast at their house on Sunday if they won’t stay at the house and which airline do they want to use, she’ll get three tickets and send him the info. He lets the conversation reach its natural end (when his mom has run out of things to say) and lets himself collapse back into the couch cushions when he hangs up.
The house is quiet; Chris is at school and Buck is covering a shift for someone and isn’t due home for twenty more minutes. He groans out loud for no one to hear. “Fuck.”
And then he remembers his simmering sauce and rushes to the kitchen to stir, happy to see nothing burned over the course of his phone call. The water’s boiling and he tosses in the spaghetti noodles. And if he sits down at the kitchen table, satisfied by the meal he’s making, by the fact that it will be finishing up right as Buck arrives, by the fact that it’s one of Buck’s favorite after-shift meals, then he’s alone, and no one has to know.
Continue reading on AO3
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Surprise Song Tracker
I couldn’t find what I was looking for so here ya go!
Taylor Swift
Tim McGraw
Picture To Burn
Teardrops On My Guitar
A Place In This World
Cold As You
The Outside
Tied Together With A Smile
Stay Beautiful
Should've Said No
Mary's Song (Oh My My My)
Our Song
I'm Only Me When I'm With You
Invisible
A Perfectly Good Heart
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
Mine
Sparks Fly
Back To December
Speak Now
Dear John
Mean
The Story Of Us
Never Grow Up
Enchanted
Better Than Revenge
Innocent
Haunted
Last Kiss
Long Live
Ours
If This Was A Movie
Superman
Electric Touch
When Emma Falls in Love
I Can See You
Castles Crumbling
Foolish One
Timeless
1989 (Taylor's Version)
Welcome To New York
Blank Space
Style
Out Of The Woods
All You Had To Do Was Stay
Shake It Off
I Wish You Would
Bad Blood
Wildest Dreams
How You Get The Girl
This Love
I Know Places
Clean x2
Wonderland
You Are In Love
New Romantics
Now That We Don't Talk
Suburban Legends
Slut!
Say Don't Go
Is It Over Now?
Sweeter Than Fiction
Reputation
...Ready For It?
End Game
I Did Something Bad
Don't Blame Me
Delicate
Look What You Made Me Do
So It Goes...
Gorgeous
Getaway Car x2
King Of My Heart
Dancing With Our Hands Tied
Dress
This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Call It What You Want
New Year's Day
Lover
I Forgot That You Existed
Cruel Summer
Lover
The Man
The Archer
I Think He Knows
Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince
Paper Rings
Cornelia Street
Death By A Thousand Cuts x2
London Boy
Soon You'll Get Better
False God
You Need To Calm Down
Afterglow
ME!
It's Nice To Have A Friend
Daylight
All of the Girls
folklore
the 1
cardigan
the last great american dynasty
exile
my tears ricochet
mirrorball
seven
august
this is me trying
illicit affairs
invisible string
mad woman
betty
epiphany
peace
hoax
the lakes
evermore
willow
champagne problems
gold rush
'tis the damn season
tolerate it
no body, no crime
happiness
dorothea
coney island
ivy
cowboy like me
long story short
marjorie
closure
evermore
right where you left me
it's time to go
Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
Fearless
Fifteen
Love Story
Hey Stephen
White Horse
You Belong With Me
Breathe
Tell Me Why
You're Not Sorry
The Way I Loved You
Forever & Always
The Best Day
Change
Jump Then Fall
Untouchable
Forever & Always (Piano Version)
Come In With The Rain
Superstar
The Other Side Of The Door
Today Was A Fairytale
You All Over Me
Mr. Perfectly Fine
We Were Happy
That's When
Don't You
Bye Bye Baby
Red (Taylor's Version)
State Of Grace
Red x2
Treacherous
I Knew You Were Trouble
All Too Well
22
I Almost Do
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Stay Stay Stay
The Last Time
Holy Ground
Sad Beautiful Tragic
The Lucky One
Everything Has Changed
Starlight
Begin Again
The Moment I Knew
Come Back...Be Here
Girl At Home
Ronan
Better Man
Nothing New
Babe
Message In A Bottle
I Bet You Think About Me
Forever Winter
Run
The Very First Night
All Too Well (10 Minute Version)
Midnights
Lavender Haze
Maroon x2
Anti-Hero
Snow On The Beach
You're On Your Own, Kid x4
Midnight Rain
Question...?
Vigilante Shit
Bejeweled
Labyrinth
Karma
Sweet Nothing
Mastermind
Hits Different
The Great War
Bigger Than The Whole Sky
Paris
High Infidelity
Glitch
Would've, Could've, Should've
Dear Reader
You're Losing Me
OTHER
Beautiful Eyes
Beautiful Ghosts
Carolina
Crazier
Eyes Open
I Don’t Wanna Live Forever
I Heart ?
Only the Young
Safe & Sound
This is What You Came For
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❝ so are you crushin' on me ? i know you're crushin' on me ❞
— CRUSHIN' IT is the DEBUT extended play by KRUSH, released by BIGHIT ENTERTAINMENT. released exactly a month after their pre-debut single "HEART TO HEART," the album features SEVEN tracks, including their debut single "CLASSY." selling nearly 400,000 copies in its first week and winning FOUR music show awards, the album has widely been considered one of the strongest debuts in the industry, and still remains as the highest selling debut album for a girl group EVER.
♡ TRACKLIST.
— CLASSY ♡ (TITLE TRACK !)
— CRUSHIN' ON ME ♡ (B-SIDE !)
— LOOK ♡ (B-SIDE !)
— BLACK GALAXY
— A KISS IN THE RAIN
— LIKE A FIRE
— RUNAWAY
♡ STYLING.
the styling this era was so cool !
lots of denim and lots of leather, very girl crush and emblematic of the strong image krush was putting forth
kaleina was put in a lot of shorts, moonsun had on mainly skirts, chanhee was in mainly pants, and aeri was essentially the styling chameleon of the era
a lot of chunky platform boots made an appearance, too, we had some bandana tops, as well ! a lot of designer pieces were used, especially gucci
it was very late 2010s girl crush definitely
♡ ERA HIGHLIGHTS.
oh the girls came in hot !
like mentioned before, this was considered to be one of the strongest debuts in the industry, and damn, wasn’t it obvious
due to all the hype brought on by “first bighit girl group in five years” and by kaleina and aeri’s appearance on produce, krush’s debut made waves
the music video for “classy” received over FIFTEEN MILLION views in its first 24 hours, and it debuted at number one on EVERY major music chart, beating out “dna” of all songs !
the girls even saw international success, with “classy” debuting at number four on both billboard’s bubbling under and world digital songs charts (before shooting up to number ONE !), and with the album debuting at number TEN on the billboard 200
(yes, they made top ten !)
get this, though. “classy” later made it to number EIGHTY EIGHT on the billboard hot 100, making krush the second k-pop girl group to make it onto the chart !
it received FOUR music show wins (and the girls took a picture with each member holding one), winning its first one just a week and a half after krush’s debut. they were 2/3rds of the way to a triple crown on inkigayo, but then promotions unfortunately ended
the girls were everywhere this era, of course. they were promoting like hell, were practically on every variety show known to man, and even managed to garner some international interviews ! the era also saw the premiere of their ever beloved variety show, krushin’ it, which premiered on vlive in late october
we cannot talk about this era without talking about the MAMAs performance ! kaleina was probably the most talked about idol that night like she’s so good
(only god knows how bighit got them to the MAMAs so quickly though lmao)
and the label mate support was strong ! bts talked about them excessively pre-debut, and they ofc came to their debut stage !
they took so many pictures together this era like. bangkrush was truly on everyone’s lips mhm
the iconic krushpink friendship was born ! a fan caught them talking and exchanging numbers at gayo daejun not knowing that it would literally go down in history. like, they were giggling the entire time, they got on SO well
(it was so funny too bc gossip columns were already comparing them, especially since they debuted a year apart)
the hair colors this era were so cute, too !
kaleina had black with red ombré, aeri had this kind of brown-ish blonde, chanhee had dark brown, and moonsun had purple !
the dance line’s hair colors were so bright and, of course, just as era defining. the ombré kaleina had fit her and the overall vibe of the era so well, and everyone still agrees that purple is one of moonsun’s best colors
overall, this was an incredibly good start to krush’s career ! it was a smooth sailing and lighthearted era, and it definitely proved that the girls had a promising career ahead of them ♡
#KRUSH !#ALBUMS !#♥️ — ERA : CRUSHIN’ IT#fictional idol community#fictional idol group#fictional kpop girl group#fictional kpop group#idol oc#koc#kpop girl group#kpop group#kpop oc#fictional idol#cece writes !#ficnetfairy
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Songs Taylor Hasn’t Performed on Tour *complete edition* *updated each night
Debut
tim mcgraw, picture to burn, teardrops on my guitar, a place in this world, cold as you, the outside, tied together with a smile, stay beautiful, should’ve said no, mary’s song oh my my, our song, i’m only me when i’m with you, invisible, a perfectly good heart
Fearless Taylor’s Version
fearless, fifteen, love story, hey stephen, white horse, you belong with me, breathe, tell me why, you’re not sorry, the way i loved you, forever and always, the best day, change, jump then fall, untouchable, come in with the rain, superstar, the other side of the door, today was a fairytale, you all over me, mr perfectly fine, we were happy, that’s when, don’t you, bye bye baby
Speak Now Taylor’s Version
mine, sparks fly, back to december, speak now, dear john, mean, the story of us, never grow up, enchanted, better than revenge, innocent, haunted, last kiss, long live, ours, superman, electric touch, when emma falls in love, i can see you, castles crumbling, foolish one, timeless
Red Taylor’s Version
state of grace, red, treacherous, i knew you were trouble, all too well, 22, i almost do, we are never ever getting back together, stay stay stay, the last time, holy ground, sad beautiful tragic, the lucky one, everything has changed, starlight, begin again, the moment i knew, come back.. be here, girl at home, ronan, better man, nothing new, babe, message in a bottle, i bet you think about me, forever winter, run, the very first night, all too well 10
1989 Taylor’s Version
welcome to new york, blank space, style, out of the woods, all you had to do was stay, shake it off, i wish you would, bad blood, wildest dreams, how you get the girl, this love, i know places, clean, wonderland, you are in love, new romantics “slut!”, say don’t go, now that we don’t talk, suburban legends, is it over now?, sweeter than fiction
reputation
ready for it?, end game, i did something bad, don’t blame me, delicate, look what you made me do, so it goes, gorgeous, getaway car, king of my heart, dancing with our hands tied, dress, this is why we can’t have nice things, call it what you want, new year’s day
Lover
i forgot that you existed, cruel summer, lover, the man, the archer, i think he knows, miss americana and the heartbreak prince, paper rings, cornelia street, death by a thousand cuts, london boy, soon you’ll get better, false god, you need to calm down, afterglow, me!, it’s nice to have a friend, daylight
folklore
the 1, cardigan, the last great american dynasty, exile, my tears ricochet, mirrorball, seven, august, this is me trying, illicit affairs, invisible string, mad woman, epiphany, betty, peace, hoax, the lakes
evermore
willow, champagne problems, gold rush, tis the damn season, tolerate it, no body no crime, happiness, dorothea, coney island , ivy, cowboy like me, long story short, majorie, closure, evermore, right where you left me, it’s time to go
Midnights
lavender haze, maroon, anti-hero, snow on the beach, you’re on your own kid, midnight rain, question…?, vigilante shit, bejeweled, labyrinth, karma, sweet nothing, mastermind, the great war, bigger than whole sky, paris, high infidelity, glitch, would’ve could’ve should’ve, dear reader, hits different, karma feat ice spice, you’re losing me
Singles
crazier, this is what you came for, i don’t wanna live forever, christmas tree farm, only the young, renegade, carolina, all of the girls you loved before, if this was a movie, safe and sound, eyes open
Bold- on the setlist
Italicized- on the setlist for a brief time
Crossed out- surprise song
Crossed out and purple- repeated surprise song
Crossed out and blue- twice repeated surprise song
Crossed out and pink- thrice repeated surprise song
song in mashup- red
#taylor swift#eras tour#eras tour surprise songs#surprise song o clock#debut taylor swift#fearless taylor's version#speak now taylor’s version#red taylor’s version#1989 taylor's version#reputation taylor swift#lover taylor swift#folklore taylor swift#evermore taylor swift#midnights taylor swift
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Taylor Swift song master-list
info: i write fics inspired by Taylor’s songs, i’m planning on making most, if not all, of her songs into fics.
feel free to request for any song:3
——————————————————————————
taylor swift (debut)
tim mcgraw
picture to burn
teardrops on my guitar
a place in this world
cold as you
the outside
tied together with a smile
stay beautiful
should’ve said no
mary’s song - fred weasley x reader
our song
i’m only me when i’m with you
invisble
a perfectly good heart
——————————————————————————
fearless
fearless
fifteen
love story
hey stephen
white horse - sirius black x reader
you belong with me
breathe
tell me why
you’re not sorry
the way i loved you
forever & always
the best day
change
jump then fall - harry potter x reader
untouchable
come in with the rain
superstar
the other side of the door
today was a fairytale
you all over me
mr. perfectly fine
we were happy
that’s when
don’t you
bye bye baby
if this was a movie
——————————————————————————
speak now
mine
sparks fly
back to december
speak now
dear john
mean
the story of us
never grow up
enchanted
better than revenge
innocent
haunted
last kiss
long live
ours
superman
electric touch
when emma falls in love
i can see you
castles crumbling
foolish one
timeless
——————————————————————————
red
state of grace
red
treacherous
i knew you were trouble
all too well
22
i almost do
we are never ever getting back together
stay stay stay
the last time - james potter x reader x regulus black
holy ground
sad beautiful tragic
the lucky one
everything has changed
starlight
begin again
the moment i knew
come back…be here
girl at home
state of grace
better man
nothing new
babe
message in a bottle
i bet you think about me
forever winter
run
the very first night
safe and sound
all too well (10 min ver)
——————————————————————————
1989
welcome to new york
blank space
style
out of the woods
all you had to do was stay
shake it off
i wish you would
bad blood
wildest dreams
how you get the girl
this love
i know places
clean
wonderland
you are in love
new romantics
“slut!”
say don’t go
now that we don’t talk
suburban legends
is it over now?
——————————————————————————
reputation
…ready for it?
end game
i did something bad
don’t blame me
delicate
look what you made me do
so it goes…
gorgeous
getaway car
king of heart
dancing with our hands tied
dress
this is why we can’t have nice things
call it what you want
new year’s day
i don’t wanna live forever
——————————————————————————
lover
i forgot that you existed
cruel summer
lover
the man
the archer
i think he knows
miss americana & the heartbreak prince
paper rings
cornelia street
death by a thousand cuts
london boy
soon you’ll get better
false god - harry potter x reader
you need to calm down
afterglow
me!
it’s nice to have a friend
daylight
all of the girls you’ve loved before - james potter
——————————————————————————
folklore
the 1
cardigan
the last great american dynasty
exile
my tears ricochet
mirror ball
seven
august
this is me trying
illicit affairs
invisible string
mad women
epiphany
betty
peace
hoax
the lakes
——————————————————————————
evermore
willow
champagne problems
gold rush
‘tis the damn season
tolerate it
no body, no crime
happiness
dorthea
coney island
ivy
cowboy like me
long story short
closure
evermore
right where you left me
it’s time to go
——————————————————————————
midnights
lavender haze
maroon - fred weasley x reader
anti hero
snow on the beach
you’re on your own, kid
midnight rain
question…?
vigilante shit
bejeweled
labyrinth
karma
sweet nothing
mastermind
the great war
bigger than the whole sky
paris
high infidelity
glitch
would’ve, could’ve, should’ve
dear reader
hits different
you’re losing me
——————————————————————————
the tortured poets department
fortnight
the tortured poets department
my boy only breaks his favorite toys
down bad
so long, london
but daddy i love him
fresh out the slammer
flordia!!!
guilty as sin?
who’s afraid of little old me?
i can fix him (no really i can)
loml
i can do it with a broken heart
the smallest man who ever lived
the alchemy
clara bow
the black dog
imgonnagetyouback
the albatross
chloe or sam or sophia or marcus
how did it end?
so high school
i hate it here
thanK you aImee
i look in peoples windows
the prophecy
cassandra
peter
the bolter
robin
the manuscript
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Eras Tour Setlist and Surprise Songs (as of June 12, 2023)
Taylor Swift
Tim McGraw - March 17
Picture to Burn
Teardrops on My Guitar - May 5
A Place in this World - April 22
Cold as You - April 23
The Outside
Tied Together with a Smile
Stay Beautiful
Should’ve Said No - May 19
Mary’s Song
Our Song - March 24
I’m Only Me When I’m with You
Invisible - May 20
A Perfectly Good Heart
Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
Fearless
Fifteen - May 6
Love Story
Hey Stephen - May 14
White Horse - March 25
You Belong With Me
Breathe (feat. Colbie Callait) - June 10
Tell Me Why
You’re Not Sorry - April 21
The Way I Loved You
Forever & Always - May 13
The Best Day - May 14
Change
Jump Then Fall - April 2
Untouchable
Come In with the Rain
Superstar
The Other Side of the Door - April 28
Today Was a Fairytale - April 22
You All Over Me (feat. Maureen Morris) - June 3
Mr. Perfectly Fine
We Were Happy
That’s When (feat. Keith Urban)
Don’t You
Bye Bye Baby
Speak Now - Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was announced on May 5. Coming on July 7th, 2023.
Mine - May 7
Sparks Fly - May 5
Back to December
Speak Now - April 13
Dear John
Mean - April 15
The Story of Us
Never Grow Up
Enchanted
Better than Revenge
Innocent
Haunted - June 9
Last Kiss
Long Live
Ours - March 31
If This Was a Movie
Superman
Red (Taylor’s Version)
State of Grace - March 18
Red - May 21 (Performed on Guitar instead of Piano due to rain damage from May 20)
Treacherous - April 13
I Knew You Were Trouble
22
I Almost Do - June 9
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Stay Stay Stay
The Last Time (featuring Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol)
Holy Ground - May 27
Sad Beautiful Tragic - March 31
The Lucky One - April 2
Everything Has Changed (featuring Ed Sheeran)
Starlight
Begin Again - April 23
The Moment I Knew - June 4
Come Back… Be Here - May 12
Girl at Home
Ronan
Better Man - May 19
Nothing New (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)(added to the setlist on May 5, only to be performed when Phoebe Bridgers is one of the opening acts.)
Babe
Message in a Bottle
I Bet You Think About Me (featuring Chris Stapleton) - April 30
Forever Winter
Run (featuring Ed Sheeran)
The Very First Night
All Too Well (10 Minute Version)
1989
Welcome to New York - May 28
Blank Space
Style
Out of the Woods - May 6
All You Had to Do Was Stay - June 10
Shake It Off
I Wish You Would - June 2
Bad Blood
Wildest Dreams
How You Get the Girl - April 30
This Love - May 13
I Know Places
Clean - April 1 and May 28
Wonderland - April 21
You Are in Love
New Romantics
Reputation
…Ready for It?
End Game (featuring Ed Sheeran and Future)
I Did Something Bad
Don’t Blame Me
Delicate
Look What You Made Me Do
So It Goes…
Gorgeous - April 29
Getaway Car (w/ Jack Antonoff) - May 26
King of My Heart
Dancing with Our Hands Tied
Dress
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
Call It What You Want
New Year’s Day
I Don’t Want to Live Forever - June 3
Lover
Forgot That You Existed
Cruel Summer
Lover
The Man
The Archer
I Think He Knows - May 21
Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince
Paper Rings
Cornelia Street
Death by a Thousand Cuts - April 1
London Boy
Soon You’ll Get Better (featuring The Chicks)
False God - May 27
You Need to Calm Down
Afterglow
Me! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco)
It’s Nice to Have a Friend
Daylight
Folklore
The 1 (era opener as of March 31)
Cardigan
The Last Great American Dynasty
Exile (featuring Bon Iver)
My Tears Ricochet
Mirrorball - March 17
Seven (spoken)
August
This Is Me Trying - March 18
Illicit Affairs (era opener on May 5)
Invisible String
Mad Woman (w/ Aaron Dessner) - April 15
Epiphany
Betty
Peace
Hoax
The Lakes - June 2
Evermore
Willow
Champagne Problems
Gold Rush - May 12
‘Tis the Damn Season
Tolerate It
No Body, No Crime (feat. Haim)
Happiness
Dorothea
Coney Island (feat. the National) - April 28
Ivy
Cowboy Like Me (w/ special guest Marcus Mumford) - March 25
Long Story Short
Marjorie
Closure
Evermore (feat. Bon Iver)
Right Where You Left Me
It’s Time to Go
Midnights - Midnights - The Til Dawn Edition and The Late Night Edition released on May 26. The Late Night Edition CD was exclusively sold to those that attended the shows on May 26, 27, 28 and June 2, 3, 4.
Lavender Haze
Maroon - May 26
Anti-Hero
Snow on the Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey) - March 24
You’re on Your Own, Kid - April 14
Midnight Rain
Question…? - May 20
Vigilante Shit
Bejeweled
Labyrinth
Karma
Sweet Nothing
Mastermind
The Great War (w/ Aaron Dessner) - April 14
Bigger Than the Whole Sky
Paris
High Infidelity - April 29
Glitch
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve (w/ Aaron Dessner) - May 7
Dear Reader
Hits Different - June 4
Karma (featuring Ice Spice) - (Added to the setlist on May 26. Music video released for concertgoers on May 26 and online on May 27)
You’re Losing Me (From the Vault)
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