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alexie-writes · 8 months

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Extra Ordinary Chapter 10

A/N: I apologize for how long this took, it's been a chaotic couple of weeks. I won't bore y'all with my stories about university and work, so please just take this longer chapter as my apology! We're finally into the plot now!

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Chapter Ten: Electric Eels and PizzaMax

The last class of the day was biology, and Essie was looking forward to getting home soon. When she rounded the corner into the hallway where Mr. Pouslen’s class was, she saw that the other three were already there.

Taylor was holding her hand on her head looking like she had a migraine. As Essie approached, she heard Taylor tell Michael “I’m just upset.”

Ostin, who was on the same ‘what the hell happened after lunch’ train of thought as Essie, immediately changed the subject. “What happened? Why did they call you down to the office?”

Michael looked between Taylor and Ostin quickly. “I’ll tell you later.”

Ostin, who hadn’t noticed Michael gauging Taylor’s response, asked “Did you get in trouble?”

“I’ll tell you later.” Michael repeated.

“Let’s just get to class. I need to get my mind off of this.” Taylor said, looking like she hadn’t been able to think about anything else since lunch.

They all walked into the classroom, sitting at their desks. Ostin still seemed like he wanted to know what was happening, but he wasn’t going to slack off during class. Even if he could easily teach the class, he still listened and took notes on what their teachers were saying.

Taylor was silent the entire class, which was different from her normal answering questions every class. She was usually always engaged in class, but she was just alternating between looking out the doorway or down at her desk.

After class finished, the four met up in the hallway. Taylor was looking more and more sick by the minute. Michael asked if she was okay, to which she nodded, staring at the floor.

“You remember the plan?” he asked. She nodded again. “Okay,” Michael continued. “We’ll pick you up at five.”

“I’ll meet you at the front of the school.” Taylor said, voice shaking.

“Are your parents home?”

“They don’t get home today until after five. Why?” Taylor asked, looking up at Michael.

“Just in case my mother needs to talk to them.”

“I hope not.” Taylor sighed, turning towards the gym. “I’ll see you later.”

“See you.” Michael waved.

Ostin, Essie, and Michael walked out of the school. As they passed a van labeled ‘General Electric’, Michael spoke up. “I don’t feel right about this. Maybe we should stay with her.”

“That would seem weird.” Ostin said, which was probably true. Three non-cheerleaders hanging out in the gym during cheer practice would be odd, and Essie wasn’t sure how much more attention they should draw. They were already on the Elgen’s radar.

Michael, it seemed, didn’t have the same thought process. “So?”

“If she’d wanted us to stay she would have asked.” Ostin clarified.

Oh. So it wasn’t the same thought process Essie had been on. Whoops.

“So, what happened with the principal?” Essie asked, hoping to change the subject.

“I’ve been offered a scholarship to Elgen Academy.” Michael answered.

Ostin said “Oh no.” at the same time as Essie said “Oh shit!” Ostin shot her a look for that.

“It gets worse. They’ve bribed Mr. Dallstrom. They’ve offered the school $200,000 if Taylor and I go.” Michael said, ignoring the middle finger that Essie was giving Ostin.

“You’ll have to change schools-Dallstrom will make your life miserable if you don’t go.” Ostin said, also deciding to ignore his cousin.

“I know.”

“Shit. When are you going to tell your mother? What are you going to tell your mother?” Essie said, scratching at her hands, a sign she was starting to panic.

“I don’t know. What if she wants me to go?” Michael said quietly.

“This is bad. Really bad.” Ostin shook his head.

The rest of their walk to the apartment was silent.

Just before five, Michael’s mother arrived home.

“Michael, Ostin, Essie, you guys ready?” she called from the door.

“We’re over here, Mom.” Michael called back. The three of them were seated in front of the TV, watching Shark Week. Michael and Ostin took up the couch, as Essie had decided to lay on the floor propped on a pillow. It was more comfortable than trying to squish all three of them, plus their backpacks, onto the couch.

Mrs. Vey entered the room and looked around at the three of them, “When is Taylor done?”

“She has cheerleading until five.” Michael answered.

“It’s almost five now, we better hurry.” Mrs. Vey said, as she rushed off to her room to change. Essie took her purse out of her backpack, and joined the boys at the door to put on her shoes.

The four of them piled into the Vey’s Toyota, and drove the two miles to the school. Mrs. Vey pulled up to the front steps of their small high school, and parked.

“Where are we meeting her?” she asked.

“She said she’d be in front,” Michael answered, as they all looked around for Taylor.

“Maybe they’re running late, or she went back inside.” Ostin said, squinting his eyes to try to look through the glass doors of the school.

Mrs. Vey looked around a moment more, then turned to the three in the backseat. “You three run in and see what’s up.”

The trio piled out of the car, and raced up the steps into the lobby of the school, Ostin leading the walk to the gym. There were groups of cheerleaders practicing stunts, but Taylor was nowhere to be seen. “Where is she, Ostin? Use your Tay-dar.” Michael said.

“She’s not here,” he answered.

“Nowhere in this gym, at the very least.” Essie said, feeling dread beginning to make its way into her mind.

“She has to be.” Michael said, looking around the gym more frantically.

“She’s not.” Ostin said.

Mrs. Shaw, the cheer coach, was on the opposite side of the gym. Michael crossed the room to where she was, Ostin and Essie following after. “Excuse me, Mrs. Shaw, do you know where Taylor Ridley is?” he asked.

Mrs. Shaw, a dark haired woman in her early thirties, looked up from her clipboard at the three of them. “Taylor said she wasn’t feeling well, so she left early.”

“She walked home?” Michael asked, looking more worried.

“I don’t know. She might have called her parents.” Mrs. Shaw offered.

“Thank you,” Michael said, as the three speed walked out of the gym.

“That doesn’t make any sense, why didn’t she call?” Ostin asked as they exited the gym doors.

They rounded the corner, and noticed Maddie, the blonde cheerleader in their grade, one of Taylor’s friends. She was texting on a powder blue slide phone. Michael called after her, “Maddie!”

She turned around and smiled at him. “Hi, Michael. How are you?” she waved.

“Fine. Have you seen Taylor? It’s really important that I find her.” Michael said so quickly his words almost ran together.

Maddie didn’t seem to notice how frantic he was. “She left practice early. She had a really bad headache.”

“Did you see her leave?”

“Yeah?”

“How was she acting?”

“Well, she was upset because of her headache.” Maddie was getting more confused by the second.

“Was she alone?” Michael asked, looking like he wanted to scream.

Maddie grinned, supposed knowing taking over her expression. “I’m not telling on her.”

“This isn’t a thing,” Michael said through gritted teeth.

Essie took that as her cue to walk over. Moving Michael away slightly with her hand on his chest, she spoke. “Hey, Maddie. The group of us just had plans after school, is all. Could you maybe text her to ask where she is? I don’t have a cell.”

“Oh! Yeah, of course.” she answered, immediately beginning to type away at her phone’s keyboard. About 30 seconds later, she got the reply. “She’s at home.”

Essie let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

Michael visibly relaxed. “Can you tell her I’m here to get her and ask if I should come over?”

Maddie relayed the message to Taylor. Within a minute there was a new reply. “She says she’s sorry she forgot to call. She’s not feeling well and will have to pass on tonight, but happy birthday.” she looked up at Michael. “I didn’t know it was your birthday. Happy birthday.”

Michael thanked her, and he walked back to Ostin, Essie following after, waving goodbye to Maddie. “At least she’s okay.” Michael sighed.

The three walked back out to the car, where Mrs. Vey was waiting. She looked at them, confusion written on her face. “Where’s Taylor?”

“She went home early, she had a headache.” Michael answered softly.

Mrs. Vey frowned. “That’s too bad. Maybe next time.”

The drive downtown was mostly silent, other than the soft pop music that was being played near inaudibly through the car speakers. Everyone was upset that Taylor wasn’t able to come with them, and Essie had a suspicion that Michael was as worried about her as she was.

They pulled into the parking lot of the aquarium, and Essie heard Mrs. Vey turn to Michael and say, “Let’s have a good time, okay?” to which he agreed, with a bit of disappointment in his tone.

The aquarium was fairly crowded, as it was the Family Night Special that was held monthly, so kids under 12 didn’t have to have tickets. The busiest of the exhibits was the shark room, blue lights illuminating the otherwise dark room. The walls were covered in plaques telling all about the different species of sharks that the aquarium held, and Essie did her best to try to focus on that, remembering the years she’d spent watching Shark Week with Ostin. Regardless, there was still an unusual sense of unease between the three teens as they looked out at the sharks.

“Do you think Taylor’s safe?” Ostin asked the two quietly.

“I don’t know.” Michael said in the same quiet, scared tone.

“What about us?” Essie asked, trying to focus on the saw shark lazing at the bottom of the tank.

“Not if she isn’t.” Michael answered, as they began to make their way out of the room.

They made their way into what Essie called “The Eel Room.” To be fair, there was only one kind of eel in the room, the Moray, but there was also a tank of electric eels in the center of the room.

While Essie was reading the same facts about the Moray she’d long since memorized, she heard Ostin begin to go off on a spiel about electric eels to Mrs. Vey. For a moment, Essie could almost pretend it was any other day. Listening to her cousin tell facts he learned from everything he’d read and watched, while she was reading her own lists of fun facts.

As Ostin wound down his speech, Mrs. Vey spoke up. “Speaking of eating, is anyone getting hungry?”

Ostin lit up, “Is that a trick question?”

“I’m hungry.” Michael replied.

“I could always go for food.” Essie said, shuffling back over towards the others.

“Good, I’m starving. Off to PizzaMax.” Mrs. Vey smiled.

PizzaMax, or, as it was actually named, Mac’s Purple Pig Pizza Parlor and Piano Pantry, was about as busy as could be expected of a pizza place in a tiny town on a Monday night. That is to say, Essie noticed a few tables of families around, but the place was otherwise, mostly empty.

The group ordered eight pieces of cheesy garlic bread, an extra-large Mac’s Kitchen Sink pizza, which was a cross between a supreme and a meat lover’s pizza, and a pitcher of root beer. They conversed over their meal, all lamenting that Taylor couldn’t be there. Essie was still worried on that front, and she guessed everyone else was too.

After about an hour, Essie and Ostin both ran to the restrooms. When Essie returned, Ostin was already back, and Mrs. Vey was ushering them out, looking panicked. The four of them walked out to the parking lot, when Ostin suddenly stopped. “Wait. I forgot my jacket.”

“Hurry,” Mrs. Vey said to him, as he ran back inside.

“I’ll go with him.” Essie said, turning to follow.

They ran back inside, and they made their way back to the table. Ostin grabbed his coat, and Essie grabbed his arm and dragged him back towards the exit. The entire ordeal couldn’t have taken more than three minutes.

They ran back outside, to see Michael passed out on the ground, near an unknown man in his thirties. Mrs. Vey was nowhere to be found. They stood together in shock for a few seconds, then Essie recovered. She ran over to Michael to check if he was okay. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, breathing heavily. Ostin stood nearby, looking like he was going to burst into tears at any moment.

“Ostin!” Essie said, louder than she meant to, snapping her cousin out of his shocked state. “Go inside, and get someone to call 911. Tell them we need police and medical, have them come out here. I’ll stay with Michael.”

Ostin said nothing, just nodded and ran inside. Essie did her best to look Michael over for any blood, hoping he hadn’t been shot or stabbed. Luckily, she found none, other than a gash on his head from where he hit the pavement. Not knowing how he landed, she wasn’t going to move him, risking any neck injuries.

The emergency crews showed up within the next eight minutes, and ushered her away from Michael, over towards Ostin. The two of them were asked some questions, before they were taken to the hospital along with Michael. The two had insisted they would stay with him as long as they could.

At the hospital, Essie went to the payphone to call home, and explained what had happened and where they were to her Aunt. She hung up the phone, and told Ostin to go to the waiting room, his parents would be coming soon. She walked into the waiting room’s bathroom, let out a breath, and started crying.

There was no way this was a coincidence, she thought as she collapsed to the floor. They took Mrs. Vey. They probably took Taylor, too. At least Michael was still with them, for now. Essie wept. They were too young to be going through all of this.

Taglist: @sam-vey

#my fic #michael vey #wip: extra ordinary #alexie writes

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oviids · 4 years

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pls share some of your spn fic recs 🥺🥺

ok, a few things first:

followers and mutuals who do not have supernatural brainworms, kindly avert your eyes

i don’t normally rec or even read much fanfic any more but this is a CRISIS ok (cont.)

there is so. much. content for deancas out there and i have incredibly high standards, several ancient ao3 bookmarks, can speedread, and want to spare you guys the experience of wading through it all.

i also have a section for spn femslash since I was pretty into that back in the day (sadly a lot less fan content for this :/)

I don’t really like au’s or pure smut (I honestly usually just skim or skip those scenes) so if you’re mainly looking for that kind of thing this probably won’t be very helpful to you. jsyk.

i’m not great at describing stuff but i’ll do my best, i’ll also try and add tw’s when neccesary.

i wil try and keep updating this with any other decent fics i find, feel free to rec stuff too since i’m like 7 years behind.(edit 1/25/21) this is getting looooong so i’m going to start making another list on my spn blog rather than update this one

(edit 1/3/21) since this has gotten pretty long i’ve added rating/approximate word counts and marked my particular favorites with an asterisk.

Dean/Cas fic:

So Says The Sword*** - explicit/85k. FUCK its good...au/time travel where dean is not pulled out of hell by cas and says yes to becoming the michael sword. honestly could serve as an alternative to actually watching the show, if you want to get into dean/cas without actually doing that to yourself.

Fata morgana.* - teen/6k, pst s9 finale. very bela centric and i love it, she finds cas looking for dean in hell.

Redemption Road -misc/600+k. an incredibly long fic from a collaborative writing group back in the day. canon divergent from the end of s6 on, has a cool take on godstiel and the leviathans, as well as the lovecratian mythos connection. ngl when i reread it i only made it about 28% in but imo the casual reader can actually stop around there, the rest concerns a lovecraftian apocalypse that is still good (i think i don’t remember it very well) but not required to enjoy the first half. if you prefer i have an ebook version i can send you on gdrive.

Someone Who's Feeling For Me* - mature/45k, s12. they run into lisa braeden and dean thinks cas is into her while cas thinks dean still likes her. treats lisa way better than the show ever did and the miscommunication is pretty funny rather than annoying.

a turn of the earth - mature/95k. time travel fic where cas from s10 keeps showing up in deans life from a few years before s1 to right before the hellhounds take his soul. slow burn, good character study, and at one point cas punches the dad in the face and it rules.

On the Wings of War - teen/85k, canon divergent s5. dean accidentally becomes the Horseman of War. plays fun, fast and loose with biblical lore, michael has some rights.

Named - mature/95k, alternate s5. EXTREMELY blasphemous in a fun sexy way. manages to predict metatron almost to a T. there’s one major character death and its literally jesus christ, everyone is very sad about it and it sets the rest of the story rolling. an alternate interpretation of cas’ mission to raise dean from hell which had me on the floor. ngl its kind of misogynistic at points, but its from 2010 and tracks with late oughts-2010 spn (sorry anna the author did you dirty here:/).

The Girlfriend Experience - explicit/15k. uhhh i don’t normally rec or even read smutty stuff unless someone i know is specifically asking for it but this has stuff like sam trying to be a good ally and dean thinking holding hands with cas is ‘kinda gay :/’ minutes after having gay sex with him.

i crippled your heart a hundred times - explicit/19k, s8. cas confesses his feelings and dean spends a long time getting his head out of his ass about it. truly hits different after the actual confession, despite being written six years early it feels like its actually what could have gone down more or less if the writers weren’t talentless demons who hate us.

My Roots Take Flight** - mature/125k. reverse au where cas is a hunter and dean’s an angel...OR IS IT???? an alternate retelling of s4. tw for briefly being set in a psychiatric hospital/the hospital being mentioned somewhat frequently throughout the fic, plus more references to torture in hell and heaven than usual.

The One Thing You Can't Lose* - teen/4k.you know those posts about how cas is a super-strong super-tough ancient warrior but he just lets dean tug him around because he likes it? thats it thats the fic.

Hands, From Which All Things Are Built - teen/14k, post s8′s ‘goodbye stranger.’ cas is on the run with the angel tablet but keeps in touch with sam and dean by text, he and dean still manage to be terrible at Actual communication.

Autrement, Danger - or, The Account of an Exceedingly Long Day - mature/30k, post s11. a monster that takes the appearance of your soulmate leads to some wild miscommunications and dealing with years of repression, also dean gets to see cas’ true form which is always cool. tw for non-graphic mentions of underage sexual assault/sex work.

Down to Agincourt - mature/explicit/900++++k, endverse continuation. endverse!cas survives his encounter with lucifer and discovers another time-displaced dean from s7. i’ve only read the two of four parts but its really good, veeeeery slow burn, has a lot of fun oc’s and takes a rather surprising but (imo) entertaining and intriguing turn into Hellenic history and mythology. usual tw’s for endverse/endverse!cas but nothing graphic, it’s actually pretty light-hearted (relatively speaking of course).

Nothing Equals the Splendor** - explicit/8k, THEE finale fix it fic you’ve been waiting for! posits that the entire final episode was just a (very bad and lame) djinn’s vision.

like moses and batman and james dean - explicit/31k, post s8. explores dean’s trauma and internalized homophoba from his technically canon experience with sex work and its impact on his relationship with cas. the sex work itself isn’t really shown in any detail but it’s still a relatively heavy fic.

Crazy Diamonds - explicit/25k, s4/alternate s14. fresh-out-of-hell dean and dean from 10 years in the future are displaced from time and sent to each other’s present.

where the weeds take root - explicit/30k. au where the men of letters kick them out of the bunker and they accidentally move out into the country, get over their codependence and semi retire. featuring chicken coop building, sam volunteering at a dog shelter, gardening, and blissfully mundane domesticity.

No Resting Place - teen/6k. djinn dream fic, switches back and forth between cas’ dream of being married to dean and retired from hunting to the aftermath when he wakes up. tw for brief mention of suicide since, y’know, djinn dream.

any port in a storm - mature/52k. post s8 finale. cas and dean have to pose as a couple going through a rough patch for a case and actually deal with their emotional baggage, cas struggles with being human and metatron is up to stuff.

all this and heaven too* - explicit/7k. in the author’s own words ‘...a love letter to every trans person who ever projected onto Dean Winchester.’ absolutely unzipped me emotionally and theologically, its just. so good. tw for very brief mentions of internalized transphobia/dysphoria.

Because it is* - mature/6k, finale fix it. killing chuck does not bring back anyone back and the winchesters spend a very long time dealing with what they’ve lost, cas and dean SOMEHOW still manage to have signifigant communication issues even after the confession. tw for suicidal thoughts/brief attempt.

Vena Amoris and Other Old-Fashioned Bullshit* - teen/4k, s6. when cas fell for dean it automatically soulbonded/angel married them, shenanigans ensue when dean finds out during the angel’s civil war. funny and actually written back when s6 was airing so cas is still (or at least pretending to be) kind of an OP asshole which is fun.

Rinse, Repeat - teen/3k, s8. angsty character study of cas as he’s reprogrammed and trained to kill dean. not really dean/cas since its just cas’ pov of canon events but its beautifully written and ends with him snapping out of it through the power of love (also now a canon event!).

Emergence - explicit/59k, canon divergent after s11. dean meets a hunter he only recognizes as their friend claire novak’s missing father, but soon realizes he might be the answer behind the mysterious void in his memories and feelings (aka everyone’s memories of cas are completely wiped away for three years).

Cuckoo And Nest - explicit/10k, early established relationship/character study, cas tries to figure out how he fits into dean’s life and space in the bunker.

Build a Home* - teen/20k, canon divergent s12. sam and eileen are cute and turn the bunker into men of letters/hunters hq and everyone but cas moves in, mutual miscommunication issues and pining ensues.

Down in the River - teen/5k, early s8, cas prays to dean in purgatory while sam and dean try to figure out a way to get him out.

Teaching Poetry to Fish* - mature/52k, ?? BC through the entire series/canon divergent s14 and 15. retelling of crucial scenes throughout the shows timeline from cas’ pov, feat. actual fish and poetry.

the minor fall, the major lift - gen/4k, post confession/finale fixit. dean goes into the empty to save cas and runs into several old friends (and enemies).

With the Kisses of His Mouth* - teen/3k, gen later seasons. dean and cas keep kissing by accident.

Remaining Grace - explicit/109k, alternate s6. au where cas asks dean for help with raphael and dean, of course, does. tw for temporary major character death/semi-graphic depictions of alcohol withdrawal.

The face of heaven.* - teen/10k, au, dean is a regular guy and cas is a fallen star (think ‘stardust’, kinda).

Stories Are Made of Mistakes* - teen/5k. newly human cas has trouble getting used to a human body and humanity in general, but still figures out that he and dean are A Thing before dean does.

Hurry Up And Wait - mature/21k, canon divergent s12. a fairyland and quite possibly LOTR related case comes up and dean goes full fanboy, mary is introduced to the wonders of the peter jackson adaptions, many references and comparisons (including between cas and dean’s ‘friendship’ and arwen/aragon). also charle is still alive and has just been doing fairy stuff this whole time.

There Are Many Things - explicit/28k, s9. cas is extremely lonely/touch-starved and trying to figure out this whole human thing, as well as where he and dean stand after being kicked out of the bunker.

It's A Long Life to Always Be Longing - teen/40k, post s11 finale. amara helps dean by putting him in a magical coma so he can finally get some much needed rest and show him possible futures for him, sam and cas. meanwhile sam and cas go on a roadtrip (or several) to find componets for a spell to wake dean up. really good sam and cas friendship, they actually talk about their shared lucifer trauma and stuff.

Non-Photo Blue - gen/2k, s4/5/alternate s5. fifty moments from cas’ memories of dean.

Tall Grass - explicit/57k, canon divergent post series. cas becomes the ultimate plant dad. feat the wayward sisters gang, cathartic character growth, fun oc’s, domesticity, and lots of actual botanical info-dumping.

on vessels - no rating/gen/2k. established dean/cas, cas tells dean about how he used to imagine what it would be like to have him as his vessel.

search for tomorrow on every shore* - teen/11k, post-finale (extremely derogatory). some angels in jack’s new heaven act out and dean gets temporarily resurrected in 2003 and runs into his younger self.

Architecture of the Minotaur’s Heart - explicit/45k, very canon divergent post s1. dean’s new house seems to have a life and mind of its own, while in his dreams he sees glimpses of a world and apocalypse that never came to be and an angel that looks strangely like his mysterious neighbor, cas. loosely inspired by the book house of leaves (which i highly recommend for fans of weird horror).

The Distance Of The Setting Sun - explicit/17k, post s5. established dean/cas relationship, team free will finally takes advantage of cas’ abilities to go on vacation around the world.

diamond star halo - teen/5k, s11. dean lets cas use him as a temporary vessel while he recovers from rowena’s spell, sam is a long-suffering third-wheel.

Make Known** - teen/16k, s6/7. dean struggles to understand how cas could have become his enemy and whether he ever truly knew him in the first place.

blunt little instrument* - mature/1.4k, post finale. dean finally confronts his father in heaven, very cathartic.

my heart a compass*** - teen/10k, post confession. the empty forces cas to re-experience his most regretted moments while dean tries to snap him out of it and bring him home.

A Crash Course in Someone Else's History - teen/11k, s6. cas from the very start of s4 is brought forward in time by s6!cas to distract the brothers from his and crowley’s plans.

The Cuckoo Father - mature/8k, s7 au. the woman who found cas in the river post-leviathans does not marry him bc he was sent to her by god or whatever, but actually identifies him as jimmy novak and sends him back to claire and amelia.

The Dead Dean Clause* - teen/5k, post alt s5 ending. team free will celebrates surviving taking down lucifer by getting blitzed, cas lies to a cop and gets an impromptu driving lesson. title/description sound dark i know but it’s actually very funny and light.

Suck It, Judy Garland - mature/20k, s12 (after the ‘i love you...i love all of you’ episode). cas and sam have to pretend to be a couple for a case and dean is NOT happy about it.

By Daylight and In Dream - teen/16k, s5. pre-dean/cas, dean invites cas to use his dreams to hide from the other angels. tw for very brief mention of a memory/dream of alastair sexually assaulting dean.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - mature/22k, post-canon. an actually happy (if sometimes bittersweet) heaven endgame written several years ago, though some details are rather eerily similar to the show’s ending.

heaven is a place on earth* - teen/2k. dean’s pov of some of the times cas left him behind throughout the show, and one alternate ending where he finally gets to stay.

I Cleanse The Mirror - teen/20k, alternate s6. dean’s body is stolen by an ancient elemental and his soul has to hitch a ride in cas’ vessel.

an exploration of gender; angelic*** - mature/4k. *oscar isaac voice* lets get into angel gender politics!! aka cas is trans.

Zenith - explicit/33k, s9. after 9x06 an angry witch curses cas with the ability to see supernatural beings and human souls.

La cucina. - gen/3k, alt s9. dean goes wild helping a newly-human cas find out what kinds of food he likes, or the early s9 domesticity we deserved!

Dean Winchester, Cocksucker at Rest***** - teen/7k, post-finale. john and mary finally come over for dinner and john reacts to dean/cas in a rather predictable fashion. SOOOOOOOOO good omg, its so funny and a little sad and very very cathartic. part of a series that has a few other really good short fics.

The Way You Didn't Go - teen/5k, s15. coda to 15.09, dean has nightmares about the moc!cas timeline.

On Drowning - teen/28k. dean saves cas after he nearly drowns, they both try and deal with the physical/mental fallout (aka the fic where thee iconic “you only touch me when you think I’m dead or dying” originates). tw for realistic depictions of drowning/triage/misc medical information.

The Thirty-Six Questions That Lead to Love* - mature/13k. claire has dean and cas pretend to be her gay dads for a case and they play the titular 36 question game, get mistaken for swingers, and birdwatch, among other things.

Assorted F/F stuff:

Deep Breaths* - mary/ellen, au where mary said no to azazel’s deal and let john stay dead, still becomes a milf.

Like Rebel Diamonds - krissy/claire, they become hunter gf’s on the hunt for cas to kick his ass for taking jimmy. not-so-stealth dean/cas as well.

To Ash and Bone - anna/ruby, same author as the previous fic (p much all of her stuff is good from what i recall). au where ruby is a witch and helps anna when she’s cursed.

Holy Clockwork Angels - jo/ruby, STEAMPUNK au with very cool worldbuiilding.

At Day's End - jo/anna (my fucking KINGDOM for more jo/anna content, the dean/cas parallels are allllll there), au where they are both at the camp in the endverse and gfs.

these posts - ok so not actually a fic but i’m now obsessed with this hannah/meg dynamic.

Tagelied - mary/ellen, the true story of how ellen got into hunting before angels interfered.

Hell's Bells** - meg/abaddon, alternate s8/9 where meg survives crowley’s attack with sam’s help and teams up with abaddon (who she has a sk year old crush on) to take back hell.

The Ecstasy of the Rose - anna/ruby, anna travels back in time to escape heaven and becomes a signifigant part of ruby’s old human life.

Angel Underground - anna/jo, kind of an urban fantasy au with a very intriguing premise (sadly its very short, i’d love to see more if this ‘verse).

Clover, Flame - billie/mary, billie was always the reaper that showed up to take mary after her death(s) over the years.

Drag Me To Heaven - anna/ruby, a variant on the ‘last night on earth’ thing with dean.

Come Home* - jo/anna, canon-divergent au where anna is the new waitress at the roadhouse and helps jo set up a (probably not really) haunted house for halloween.

#if you told me i'd be doing this in 2020 three weeks ago i'd have laughed in your face :/#deancas #supernatural #fic recs #spn femslash #destiel #fic #the alie tag #spn posting

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ender-baggins · 3 years

Text

Just watched 14x13 Lebanon.

Will preface with the fact that this was a bit of my commentary on the previous episode, and that I do think John Winchester was a crap parent

Lebanon was a pretty good episode, actually. I know some people hate it, and I started off prepared to seethe every moment that John was on screen. but then I managed to get one foot out of the John-crit zone and put it in Sam and Dean’s shoes, and looking at it from both perspectives? The episode has a lot of nuance to it.

Spoilers for this 14x13 Lebanon (obviously)

Overall I think the most important thing to remember about this episode: the theme is that some things are too good to be true.

I knew which episode it was, but I was surprised because I thought it has been in season 15, and then John didn’t show up for a while, so I thought I was wrong until the Pearl came up.

I gotta hand it to Jensen. When John appeared, there were so many emotions packed into Dean’s face in that first short scene, I had to rewatch it several times to get them. Part of it was simple shock, but I could also see… something a little like panic in his face, along with Waay too many emotions for me to name.

The conversation between Sam and John was… I started off mad and then focused more on Sam’s perspective and realized that… yeah, Sam isn’t the same person he was last time he saw his dad. And he didn’t get closure. He never got a chance to get real closure on it, and then here, he did, at least in some form.

Also, interesting thing I noticed- I could see the beginnings of how it could turn into another argument, and John said something that seemed a little accusatory, “you didn’t have a problem talking about it before you left,” and then Sam was like “nope, not gonna argue, not gonna do it, REDIRECTING-“ Which, after what Dean said in the scene before—

—Sam doesn’t want to mess this up for Dean. No way is he gonna start a fight, not now, not when they just got their dad back.

I don’t like the last line of Sam and John’s conversation: “But you did your best, dad. You – you fought for us, and you loved us, and… that’s enough.” Because honestly- it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t. And… dammit he could have done better. But then again, that’s Sam’s dad, and he’s been dead for over a decade, and sometimes people tend to put rose-colored glasses on over the past. So I’ll still happily condemn John’s parenting but I won’t condemn Sam just because he’s unable to see things for what they are in this case.

Now- my absolute favorite part of this entire episode is the section of Sam and Dean going to get groceries and noticing things are changed, and realizing “oh shit, what else is different?”

One, gotta love Dean for implying that Sam being a kale nut is a worse thing than Dean being considered a serial killer by society (which, it’s not like society is wrong??). Like, ah yes, wonderful priorities there, Dean. You’re a wanted killer with your face up in the town, but clearly Sam giving a lecture about the wonders of kale is a much worse thing. (If you can’t tell, I’m being incredibly sarcastic here)

And then here. Castiel’s appearance. I was screeching watching this. Completely freaking out- so much adrenaline. I bet if I’d taken my pulse it would have been skyrocketing-

This was followed by the scene of Castiel and Zachariah in the restaurant, which was Awesome, very clearly highlighting the difference that Dean and the Winchesters made in Cas’s life (later this will be relevant in the Confession - “You changed me, Dean”).

*cue me posting an unnecessary amount of screenshots*

Castiel unfurls his wings—

(Note the messy hair from flying around everywhere. Not the same as his old haircut, but they did what they could with Misha’s hair at the time)

Notice that Dean’s got the angel blade point down, and when he attacks Castiel, he’s using the blunt end to hit him, not the sharp end

(On the other hand, Sam uses the sharp end of the blade to swipe at Castiel. No judgement from me here, Sam sees this as “not our Cas” while Dean still sees this as “my Cas, I can talk him away from Heaven again.”)

Then, the most interesting thing here- when Cas pins Dean agains the wall, Dean’s not even trying to fight Cas here.

See how his hand settles on Castiel’s chest? Not really pressing, just touching. His other hand is gripping Castiel’s wrist, I imagine to try to remove enough pressure from his neck that he can speak. Trying to use his connection to Cas to get Castiel to stop hurting him. And it doesn’t work. Castiel stares him the eyes, not even a flicker of doubt or questioning.

You’ll note that I referred to alternate Castiel in this episode as exclusively “Castiel” and not “Cas.” Because it’s not Cas. Cas is the angel that saved Dean from Hell, and the angel that’s been by Dean’s side for 11 years (at this point in time). And this Castiel has not done that. So he is not Cas.

I’m reminded of the scene wayy back in season 5 where Cas beats Dean up in the alley for trying to give up and give in to Michael. There, Dean actually encouraged Cas to kill him, at the end, and Cas softens. Can’t exactly parse out the parallels there because my brain isn’t working, but there you go.

Now, probably my favorite conversation with John is this one, with Dean.

Right here. The way that Dean says “I have a family.”

It feels almost defiant. “I do have a family. I have Sam, Cas, Mom, Jack. My mother, my brother, my best friend… and I have a son, we all have a son. And beyond that, I’ve got Jody and Donna and Claire and the girls. I do have a family. Yeah, it doesn’t look like the apple pie life, the white picket fence, wife and kids, and yeah, our son is the child of Lucifer, and yeah, I’m in love with my best friend who’s an angel in a man’s body, and I wouldn’t trade him for any woman, and you’d hate that. But they’re my family. And I’m good with that.”

It’s proud, it’s a little defiant, it’s also a little bit of a reassurance, as we see from John’s smile afterward. I don’t think John caught the hint of a challenge in there.

I loved that moment. That might be my favorite line in the entire episode. “I have a family.”

I also like… Dean’s acceptance, “I’m good with who I am.” Part of that… I think it’s both a good thing and a sad thing and also a half lie at the same time. I think he’s good with who he is, in the sense that he’s accepted that he and Sam are the people that have to fill this role in the world, y’know, saving everyone. I think he loves the people he’s with, he loves his family and wouldn’t trade them for anything, not even having John back. No way would he ever trade Cas or Jack or Sam, or Mary, for anything else, ever.

It’s sad, though, because it’s like… he can’t imagine who he’d be if he had a different life. Yes, he’s had a few runs at an apple-pie life, but they weren’t happy, there was always something wrong nagging at him. He… I think he believes there’s no way for him to be happy, and that this is the best he could have.

I’m not even sure how to analyze the goodbye scene. I mean, the clearest thing here is just so much grief from everyone. They got a taste of their father back, and now he has to go back to being dead. There’s so many complicated feelings for both of the brothers, because of the complicated relationship with John, but in the end? They can’t help but love him, and they can’t help but feel grief at losing him. I won’t fault them for that.

In short, I wanna give Dean a gigantic hug and also give him therapy-

And then Cas coming back to the bunker when he did. I bet he sensed something and headed back to the bunker as fast as he could. Also, no clue what he experienced during the whole “Castiel and Zachariah are alive” thing. I imagine it’s possible there were two Cas’s running around for a bit? Because Mary didn’t get affected by the pearl. And Sam was there with his own memories, despite there being videos up of him doing things in the parallel universe. As for Cas, he’s part of Dean’s group of “people” so my guess is two Castiels running around for a little bit.

I like how Dean looks at Cas at the end. He’s relieved to have his angel back.

In summary-

The theme of this episode is “some things are too good to be true.” John came back, the four of them got their moment together, but John couldn’t stay. Things were good for that single afternoon, because everyone was just happy to see each other again, but it sent so much stuff into chaos that it couldn’t last, it had to be undone. And even then, if they’d tried to keep going with it, I know it would have degraded, the illusion of perfection would shatter, and they’d fall into old habits, old arguments and new ones.

And so it had to end.

#THIS IS NOT JOHN APOLOGISM #JOHN IS A TERRIBLE PARENT #HE MAY HAVE APOLOGIZED BUT THAT DOESN’T ABSOLVE HIM OF HIS ACTIONS #john winchester #spn 14x13 #spn Lebanon #dean winchester #sam winchester #mary winchester #castiel #jack kline #destiel #supernatural #Ender’s musings

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its-monster-mash · 3 years

Text

Wild Thing: Part 2

Paul (The Lost Boys) X Michael’s Ex!Fem!Reader Imagine

Content Warnings: She/her pronouns, Canon Typical violence/weed/Alcohol/Lite Vampiric Manipulation/Blood

Part 1

This is really long so it’s going under a Readmore

• It’s a miracle all of you made it in one piece; the boys had played a nasty trick on Michael; and he damn near went over the edge of Hudson’s Bluff. Normally it took a lot to rattle you, but in that split second before Michael was actually able to stop, you practically felt your heart stop. It wasn’t every day you watched your best friend nearly fall to his death. You can feel Paul’s abdomen tighten beneath your arms as he laughs. It’s a cruel sound, and you’re not sure if it’s at Mike’s expense or yours. David nods toward him, and he turns to look back at you, grinning like the fox in the henhouse. “Oh come on babe, lighten up.”

• As soon as he catches his breath, Michael lunges at David, understably furious. You’re pissed as hell yourself, but when you try to climb off of Paul’s bike to give them all a piece of your mind, he grabs your thigh, keeping you in place. You open your mouth to tell him off, but he interrupts you. “Shhh girlie, just look, s’all cool.”

• You’re about to argue with him when instead of knocking David’s lights out or storming off, you notice Michael talking to him, Star looking entirely uncomfortable between them. “How far are you willing to go, Michael?” Your jaw practically drops in surprise when you see Mike nod, getting back on his bike. It worries you, this is so unlike him.

• Paul smiles down at you, no trace of his cruelty from earlier. He jostles your leg playfully. “See? It was just a little joke, everything’s cool.” You can’t help but lose yourself a little in his beautiful blue eyes, there is just something about him that makes you want to relax. “Cool,” you repeat back to him, sliding your arms around his midsection again. “Atta girl.”

• The rest of the ride is pretty uneventful, and you come to a stop at the mouth of a cave, with no shortage of signs warning of the dangers within. “Oh please tell me we’re going in there,” you say with a grin; this is absolutely up your alley, and Michael shakes his head at you with an exasperated smile. How many ill-thought-out adventures had you dragged Mike on growing up together? You can’t help but recall the time you found that creepy old military bunker and accidentally locked yourselves in...the two of you ended up finding an alternative exit that opened up into the library basement of all places...

• Paul helps you off the bike, tugging you against his chest so he can whisper in your ear. “It’s your lucky night babe.” You can’t help but grin like an idiot as your heart races. He presses a teasing kiss to the side of your head and you feel yourself begin to melt.

• “We’re not seriously going down there, are we?” Mike pipes up, catching your attention much to Paul’s annoyance. “Mike wants to know if we’re seriously going down there,” Marko repeats, circling the cavern. “I dunno Marko, are we seriously going down there?” Dwayne asks, joining him. “We understand if you can’t hang, Michael,” David mocks with a false tone of sincerity. Paul wraps his arm around you, pulling you tight against him. “Yeah Michael, you don’t need to worry about (Y/N), I’ll keep her nice and safe.” “Stop it!” Star scolds him, taking Mike’s arm. “Don’t listen to them Michael, you can still back out if you want.” David stalks toward the edge of the cavern, his expression foreboding and mischievous. “It’s time to make a decision, Michael.”

• “Well, Either way I’m going in,” you say, getting a little impatient. You were never one to wait around while everyone else danced around a decision. “I’ll help you down,” Paul chimes in a bit too eagerly. He slides his arm around your waist, holding you tightly hip to hip before he jumps down into the cave.

• You gasp, very much expecting to break an ankle or something with the way Paul just leaped down in, but are surprised when your feet touch the ground almost feather light. “How did you DO that?” You whisper in astonishment. “Baby, I am all kinds of magic.” “What are you, the fucking Goblin King?”

• He laughs, watching you squint in the pitch darkness of the cave. “Hey I’ll take that as a compliment, Bowie’s hot as fuck.” “So are you,” you say, trying to reach for where his voice came from, but he leans away from you with a smirk, watching you stumble. “You know what the difference between me and Jareth is though?” You turn around to face him, gasping when he presses you into the cold cave wall. “I’m gonna get the girl.”

• You wrap your arms around his shoulders in excitement. It’s too dark for you to see him, but you part your lips and let your eyes fall shut, expecting a kiss. He doesn’t kiss you just yet though, holding back a moment to drink in the sight of you, beautiful and ready to give yourself to him. His lips only barely touch yours before you’re startled by the sound of several more pairs of feet hitting the ground. He groans with disappointment. “Guess we’ll have to put a pin in this,” he whispers, grazing his teeth ever so delicately against your ear. You shudder.

• Your eyes sting a bit as the cave is suddenly illuminated as Dwayne circles the room, lighting improvised trash bin braziers as he goes. Your jaw drops as you admire the sheer aesthetic of the place. Paul smiles with pride at your positive reaction.

• “What is this place?” Mike asks, climbing down from the ladder you probably should have used. David claps a hand on his shoulder, before moving to circle the cavern. “It was a Hotel once,” David says, gesturing to the now faded and ruined wallpaper. “The Jewel of Santa Carla, really.” He sounds wistful and nostalgic, almost as if he had seen the hotel in its heyday. He goes on to talk about the events leading up to its destruction, but you can hardly pay attention with the way Paul’s fingers trace little patterns against your exposed skin.

• You notice Star staring at you, almost like she’s worried...about what? Michael looks down at her, brow creasing as he follows her concerned gaze to see you standing all cozy with Paul. His eyes widen and he looks away, swallowing awkwardly. David seems to notice, and he looks straight at the pair of you. “Paul, it’s your turn to pickup dinner.” “But-” He protests, squeezing your arms just a little too tightly to be comfortable, but is cut off by the look of finality on David’s face. He sighs in deep frustration, releasing you for just a second before he startles you with a deep and forceful kiss. You barely have a chance to actually enjoy the kiss before he’s pulling away, looking at you with just the sweetest smile that makes you melt. “Wait up for me, okay?” You nod in agreement, blushing furiously. You hardly notice him side eyeing Mike as he turns to leave. “I’ll be back soon.” Just as he sets foot on the ladder, he suddenly turns around, jogging back to place another quick peck to your lips. “Okay, I can go now.”

• “Why don’t you go with him, Star,” David says, causing both Mike and Star to stare at him. “Or else we’ll end up with nothing but fortune cookies and chinese doughnuts.” Star looks at Michael apologetically, staring David down while she moves to exit the cave.

• You look over at Mike, smiling sheepishly and scratching the back of your neck. “Friendly guy,” he teases you, trying to cut through the awkwardness. David laughs, moving to clap a hand on Mike’s shoulder and yours. “What are the odds, huh? The two of you ending up lured into our little family.” Mike cracks a grin. “(Y/N) never could pass up an adventure.” David’s own face splits into a wide grin. “And what about you, Michael? What made you decide to follow us after all the crap we gave you?” “I go where she goes,” Mike says, crossing his arms defensively. “Really? Kinda looks like she’d be entertained plenty without you,” David nods toward you. “Paul’s taken quite a liking to her...that bother you?” “No,” Mike says a bit too forcefully; he never was very good at lying. “Hey, back off.” The words come out of your mouth before you even think about it. David looks at you with stunned amusement. “Yeah, back off David,” Marko mocks you. Dwayne shoves him a little.

• You take a deep breath; Mike tended to close himself off, but you were never very good at holding your tongue when you got upset...still, you didn’t want to overstep your boundaries in the boys’ own territory. “Look, Mike and I were together for a lot of years. Of course it’s weird to see each other with new people-” “You don’t seem too bothered to see him with Star,” Dwayne says from his seat on the old moth eaten couch. David grins, looking between you and Mike. He claps his hands together. “I think maybe these two could use a minute to talk things out, what do you boys think?” Dwayne nods in agreement, and Marko makes kissy noises; Dwayne gives him a light smack to the chest, before the three of them go chill in the other side of the cave to give you and Michael a little space.

• You and Mike stare at each other awkwardly; you gesture to the floor by the fountain. “You wanna sit?” “Yeah,” he agrees, his voice a little hoarse as the two of you take a seat leaning against the fountain. You sit quietly for a bit, awkwardly picking at your fingernails, before Mike breaks the silence. “I’m not upset that you’re moving on.” You turn to face him, and he continues. “I’m trying to move on too...it’s just-” “What?” “Him? (Y/N)? How did you even meet these guys?” You scoff, a little offended by the contempt in his voice when he mentioned Paul, it’s the same way his dad’s family talked about you when Mike first started bringing you around as kids. “He saved me. I was being harassed by a group of guys off the boardwalk, and Paul scared them off.” His gaze turns to his feet, partly ashamed at pre-judging Paul, and oddly ashamed of himself. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.” You scoff humorously, patting him on the back. “Mike, it’s not your job to protect me, I can look after myself.” “What would have happened if Paul hadn’t shown up?” You laugh, flashing him the knife tucked discreetly into your boot. “Like I said, Mike, I can look after myself.” He lets out a deep sigh, smiling at you sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

• You give him a friendly smack to the shoulder, lightening the mood a bit. “And what about you, Mr. Badboy, with your leather jacket and fancy earring,” you tease. “What happened to the goodie-two-shoes I grew up with?” It’s Mike’s turn to scoff, he grins at you. “Wow, it’s almost like having my first love leave me for being too much of a Goodie-Two-Shoes right before my parents get divorced fucked me up a little, huh?” “Mike...I-” He laughs, giving your arm a playful shrug. “Hey, no, in all seriousness you were right. I never really pushed the envelope growing up unless I was following you. I just thought with the move that maybe it’s time for me to reinvent myself, you know? Explore what I want for a change.” He’s smiling, and you smile back at him. “She’s beautiful,” you say. “I think she likes you too.” A blush creeps up on his face, and he can’t keep himself from smiling. “Well I’m not sure if Paul likes you,” he teases, trying to draw the attention away from himself. “He might just kiss everyone like that, we don’t know.” You can’t help but laugh, shoving Mike. He decides to be dramatic, falling over onto the floor like you actually pushed him. He sits up on his elbows, smiling at you like he used to when you were kids. You return the favor.

• Unbeknownst to you, Paul stands in the entrance of the cave, his chest tightening as he watches you laugh and smile with Mike. He walks over to you quietly, so he can startle you when he drops to the ground to sit next to you. “Easy there, Mikey. You had your chance,” he says with thinly veiled contempt as he throws his arm around you. He hands you a carton of takeout. “You seem like a beef and broccoli kind of girl, hope that’s alright.” You smile up at him, cradling the hot container carefully in your hands. “It’s my favorite, thank you so much.” He smiles back, very pleased with himself.

• Star calls Mike over, handing him a carton of plain rice. She apologizes, saying she wasn’t sure what he’d like. She doesn’t quite believe him when he insists that it’s fine. “He means it Star, he hates chinese food, the rice is all he’ll eat,” you clarify. David perks up, stirring a carton of noodles. “You hate Chinese food? Jesus Michael, how could a billion Chinese people be wrong?” “Guess not everyone likes flavor,” Paul taunts, skewering his General Tso’s with his chopsticks. “‘Least I know how to use chopsticks,” Michael spits back, earning dramatic ooos from the boys. “He’s always been shit at it, doesn’t have the patience,” Dwayne says. “Not me,” Marko pipes up. “I can catch a fly midair.”

• “Oh fuck off, (Y/N) doesn’t care if I can use chopsticks or not, do you babe?” He asks, leaning in for a kiss. You take advantage of his momentary distraction to snatch a bite of his chicken...with your chopsticks. He gasps in mock offense at your sneakiness, and you quickly press your lips against his to make up for it. “Nope, I think it’s cute.” He’s smiling ear to ear, his big blue eyes locked on you, and your smile.

• David makes an exaggerated gagging noise, staring at the two of you and thoroughly ruining the moment. “Mind wrapping it up? Some of us are trying to eat here...Speaking of which, how are your maggots, Michael?” “Excuse me?” “Maggots, Mike, you’re eating Maggots.” Mike rolls his eyes, humoring David and looking into the cartoon. His eyes go wide and he instantly drops the carton, spilling rice all over the ground as he gags. The boys all laugh, and you look at Mike with concern. “What the hell Mike? It’s just rice.” He looks at you like you’re crazy, pointing frantically to the carton. “(Y/N) are you crazy? Look, it’s-” He looks down to see nothing but rice...certainly no maggots. “It’s...rice.” He looks up at David. “What the fuck did you do to me?” Paul laughs, pulling a positively ancient altoids tin from his jacket. “Take it easy, Mikey, you need to calm down,” he says, popping open the tin to reveal a collection of hand rolled joints.

• Your eyes light up, it’s been a while since you’ve smoked, and it’s always good with Chinese food. You look at Mike, being consoled by Star. “Could be the stress, Mike. When was the last time you even slept well since...” You don’t mention his parents’ divorce in front of the guys. That’s Mike’s business, not yours. He nods, catching your meaning. “...Yeah, yeah I’m in.” Marko jumps down from his perch, smacking Mike on the back. “Atta boy, Mikey!”

• Paul tosses Marko a joint, pulling out another and slipping it between your lips. “This one’s just for us.” He lights the joint, and you inhale deeply. “Romantic,” you say, blowing smoke at him. “I try,” he says, leaning in for a kiss as he takes the joint from your fingers. He pulls away just far enough so he can press the tip of his nose against yours. He takes a long drag, holding the smoke in as he leans in for another kiss. You inhale the smoke from his lungs, trying hard not to cough and ruin the kiss; this was the first time you were on this end of the shotgun. Your chest begins to heave, and he pulls away with a grin so you can cough in peace. “Wow, you take my breath away,” you squeak out between heaving coughs. He laughs, not a mean sound this time, but with genuine delight. “Damn babe, I think I might end up falling for you,” he jokes, hand on his heart.

• You planned on sassing him back, but you find yourself lost in his big beautiful eyes. You swallow, hard. Maybe it’s the weed, maybe it’s the excitement of the night, but you can’t help but think that sounds...kind of nice. You glance around the cave, at the guys, and back at Paul. Would it be so bad to stay here forever? You’re broken out of your trance by a musical tinging sound, you and Paul both look up to see David clinking an old spoon against the gaudiest decorated wine bottle you’ve ever seen. Oddly; Paul tenses beside you, his hand on your knee almost trembling.

• David turns to Mike with the wickedest look on his face. “Join us, Michael.” Star grabs onto Mike, looking even more tense than Paul does now. “You don’t have to do it, Michael. It’s not too late to back out,” she urges. “What is it?” “Blood,” she says. You laugh at the obsurdity, and Mike shakes his head at her, knocking back the bottle and drinking deeply. The boys cheer, and David turns the bottle to you. “(Y/N)...drink, and be with us forever.”

• Before you can reach for it, Paul holds his hand out to David. Unfortunately, it slips out of his hand, the bottle shattering at your feet, spilling wine over your shoes. David shoots him the nastiest look, and Paul puts his hands up in apology. “Fuck, shit, I’m so sorry; I’ll clean that up,” he says, dropping to his knees. You drop down beside him, and his eyes go wider than you’d ever seen them. “(Y/N)-” “I can help.” “No, You don’t need-” Suddenly he winces, and you instinctively grab his hand. “Fuck,” he grunts, watching the blood well up in his palm. He puts his hand to his mouth, trying to cover the bleeding. “Shit, Paul, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” “Maybe you should kiss it better,” Marko taunts. “I’m fine, (Y/N), really.” He gazes at you soothingly with those eyes of his, trying not to wince as you blot at his bleeding hand with your shirt. “You’re bleeding like crazy-” you start to argue, before noticing that his hand is hardly bleeding anymore. How could that be? He flexes his hand gingerly. “See, I told you I’m fine,” he smiles at you, his eyes sparkling. “Wouldn’t mind that kiss though.” You smile back at him, taking his hand to your lips. You taste the blood still wet against his hand, and strangely, it tastes almost sweet. You wonder if maybe it’s the weed smoke on your tongue, or maybe the chinese food, that’s making his blood taste so strange. You stare up at him sheepishly, thankful he can’t tell what you were thinking just now. He caresses your face softly in his hand, and you melt into the tenderness of his touch. “You’re so cute when you’re worried about me.” He presses his lips against yours, and you’re immediately hit by the sweet taste of his blood again. Part of you is horrified with yourself; you know you should pull away, but it’s just too good. You think you might die when he slips his tongue into your mouth. All too soon he pulls away, looking more than satisfied with himself, a breathless glee in his eyes. He strokes his thumb across your mouth, coming back bloody. “Looks like we made a mess.” He leans in to whisper in your ear. “And it looks like you liked it.” Your body tenses, mortified at being caught, but he runs a comforting hand down your back. “Don’t worry babe, it’ll be our dirty little secret.”

#mypost #the lost boys #paul lost boys #Paul lost boys imagine #paul the lost boys #the lost boys imagines #paul lost boys x reader #David knows he TOTALLY did that on purpose #He wanted the Reader to turn with HIS blood #He was scared as hell when she bent down to help though because if she’d have gotten cut he wouldn’t know how he and the boys would react #tlb imagines #paul tlb

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andrea-lyn · 3 years

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The Recs (Less Travelled)

I’m excited to bring you the first installment of my ‘roads less travelled’ recs! I will be doing another round of this, probably once the Ted Lasso fic tag hits about 25 pages, and then I’ll also grab a couple more fandoms to collect in there!

The Rules:

Each fandom/pairing was sorted on Archive of Our Own by completed works. Anything recced here was not in the first ten pages when sorted by kudos at the time of reccing. There may be some more well-known authors on this list, but the specific fics I’ve picked are ones that didn’t crack that top ten or just didn’t get much traction and I think deserve it, so hopefully I have also balanced it out with other under the radar (and still great!) works. As ever, I have a pinned post of my other recs (none have been duplicated from there), so you can also check those out! Under the cut you’ll find 10 recs in each fandom for:

Raven Cycle

Roswell New Mexico

The Old Guard

Inception

Star Trek (mainly Kirk/McCoy)

The Raven Cycle

savor all the little pieces by littlelionvanz

“Since when do you garden?”

Ronan snorted, “Since I grew up on a fucking farm, genius. Jesus who gave you permission to pursue higher education.”

the old grip of the familiar by littleseal

"There is a single black feather and a printed out picture of Gansey, Blue and Cheng standing in front of some fucking monument Ronan didn’t care enough to remember the name of. Gansey sent it to Ronan’s phone some time ago, but it sat in his messages until Adam picked it up and grinned at it so hard that, one afternoon later, Ronan cursed and kicked and glared his old printer back to life in order to print it out.

Fuck, he thinks, I’m in love with a hoarder."

Adam collects things. Ronan is in love with him.

No Sweeter Innocence Than Our Gentle Sin by gansey_is_our_king

Ronan Lynch has wanted to kiss Adam Parrish for a long time.

(alternately titled: four times that Ronan could have kissed Adam)

Cheers to Another Seven Years! by skyermirth

Adam left Henrietta for Harvard and never returned. Now, seven years has passed, and an unexpected work assignment has brought him back to a place and people he hardly recognizes.

Row, row, row your boat by emmerrr

“What. Why are you smiling at me,” he says suspiciously.

Adam shrugs. “You’re cute.”

“I’m not cute, I’m terrifying.”

“Terrifyingly cute,” Adam says.

and now the world is ours to take / and every single move is ours to make by thatlittleblackcat

"Adam was the scientist, Ronan was the data, and Orphan Girl was the key that explained the strange outliers that Ronan presented, his previously unexplainable actions."

Adam sorts out his feelings, Ronan helps him, Gansey is the number one dad friend, Blue is the number one mom friend and Henry tries to make Ronan smile. Otherwise known as the story of how Orphan Girl became Opal.

All These Things You Make Me Feel by SilverOpals394

It was late. Adam could feel the long day catching up to him as he left Boyd’s, all his energy exhausted. When he started his car, the tape deck whirred to life once more. He sighed and raised his hand to turn it off, but before he did a soft melody began to play.

AU in which the mixtape Ronan made for Adam only plays the murder squash song until Adam realizes he's in love with Ronan, too.

Ways to Communicate by Jalules

Blue Sargent reflects on an early memory (and gets busy with her boyfriends.)

(The two things are related, trust me.)

Hold Me Closer, I'm Safe in Your Arms by actuallyronanlynch

“You wanna tell me why I had to hear from Henry Cheng that my boyfriend was at the hospital?” Adam hissed, though his voice wasn’t as acidic as it could’ve been. Ronan took small victories where he could.

“You don’t have a cellphone,” Ronan pointed out flatly. “It’s not like I could’ve gotten a hold of you.”

arts and crafts and the inevitability of death by sunshineinthestorm

Adam comes to the public library in search of a study spot, not a boyfriend.

But it must be his lucky day—because he ends up with a bit of both.

Roswell New Mexico

a conversation between insignificant others by Bellakitse

“Hey…have you noticed that our boyfriends are madly in love with each other?"

“You noticed that too, huh,” she answers dryly, letting out a huff of reluctant amusement.

***

Forrest and Maria share a drink and a conversation and start a friendship.

Own Personal Hell by BeStillMySlashyHeart

Now that Isobel's getting the hang of her telekinesis, Michael decides to test out his telepathic abilities. It backfires. Badly. Now Michael's trapped inside his own mind and only one person can break him out.

Drop the Hammer by brightloveee

Max makes a new friend at the shooting range, who turns out to be even more bad-ass than he expected.

(Takes place mid-S1)

Boys Like You by forgadgetsandgizmos

Curly, dirty blond hair (the mere description ‘curly’ felt like an injustice) twisted in every direction off his head, a sharp contrast with the scruff darkening his strong jawline and scowl-ridden face.

Alex made a mental note to compliment Maria on her excellent taste in men.

—

Or, Alex has coffee with Maria's one-night stand, a man who he definitely does not have a crush on.

let's exchange the experience by lostin_space

Michael decides they need to quarantine.

Michael floods Alex with love and care over and over and over.

This Is Hardcore by Anonymous

Michael makes a proposal. Alex accepts. Michael wonders what the hell he’s gotten himself into.

i don't know what to think (but i think of supernovas) by Milzilla

michael discovers that the console can talk. then, he discovers it can do far more than that.

iridescence on skin by Lire_Casander

In a world where (almost) everyone has a tattoo on their right wrist with one set of coordinates that point to the place where their soulmate is born, Alex thought he wouldn't be any different. He couldn't be more mistaken.

He has two.

The Real Thing by elliebird

Max checks on Michael the morning after Michael saves Max’s ass from Wyatt Long and his dumbass buddies. He sees more than he’s supposed to.

Written for a Tumblr anon who one of their friends walking in on them or anyone of them finding out about Michael and Alex in an interesting way

Sundering by romancandles

“You know it was just an Air Force balloon, right?” says Alex.

Michael smirks. “That’s what they want you to think,” he says, with a wink.

The Old Guard

Peer Reviewed by ishandahalf

[From:] Journal of Medieval Studies ([email protected])

[Subject:] Ad-hoc note from the editor

I have noticed an uncommon level of animosity in your responses to your reviewers (or rather, one reviewer in particular). I am writing to ask if you would please do your best to keep your interactions civil. In fairness, I have also sent a similar request to the reviewer you seem to have this friction with. I trust you will both try and remain more professional in the future.

Again, thank you for submitting your work to this journal.

Sincerely,

James Copley, PhD

Editor-in-Chief

Journal of Medieval Studies

An (accidental) academic epistolary romance as (inadvertently) documented via a (theoretically) rigorously blinded peer review process.[citation needed]

third for a word and the song keeps going Macremae

It was honestly shaping up to be a pretty uneventful year before the Vatican got on Nicky’s bad side.

Or: three times in 2008 that the team genuinely thought about killing Nicky if only to get him to shut up about the changes to the Catholic English Mass and his unrelenting opinions on them, and one time Nile did.

Apex Predators In Island Ecosystems (Freeman et al., in press) by Sixthlight

Palaeobotany PhD student Nile Freeman and her supervisor Joe al-Kaysani are invited to billionaire Stephen Merrick’s new project – a theme park full of cloned dinosaurs. What could possibly go wrong?

This Rough Magic by Marivan

When Joe came to Scotland to study the sea, he did not expect to also encounter a beautiful man claiming that A. he’s a selkie and B. they’re married because Joe picked up his scarf.

It sounds like a fairy tale and that’s a problem. Because Joe’s a scientist. And selkies don’t exist.

Wars for the broken by Yuliares

Five years into his exile, Booker is joined by a companion he never expected to meet. Together, they try to work on healing.

Sometimes they go down to the sewers just so she can scream and scream. “I like to hear it echo,” she explains. “Underwater, you can’t hear anything. Here, at least I can be heard.”

“I don’t feel like a warrior anymore,” she tells him, throwing bread crumbs at pigeons. “I feel broken.”

“You’re still a warrior,” he says roughly. “This is still fighting.”

a good (eighth) impression by deanniker

Over the next few months, Joe runs into Nicky every so often at the farmer’s market. Some weekends Nicky doesn’t make it, because of his work schedule - Joe doesn’t understand it because he doesn’t ask, though he does start to recognize when one of those missing weekends is coming up because Nicky will stock up on things with longer shelf-life. When they do run into each other, they make small talk and move through the stalls together.

Joe doesn’t mention it to Lykon when he stops by, because it is kind of weird, that Lykon’s ex-boyfriend texts Joe things like - If you’re here, the apples look particularly good this week and thank you for that recipe, I did not know what I was going to do with that much couscous

Or,

Joe wouldn't usually consider starting anything with his best friend's ex, but as long as they keep it casual, it shouldn't be weird... right?

get back to where you once belonged by tenderjock

Nile takes a sip of her cappuccino and closes her eyes.

(Booker and Nile get that coffee. Life happens, along the way.)

a house; a home by mehm

“Is this a kidnapping?” Joe asks as Nicky checks both their seat belts. “Like, I don’t mind. It’s just not quite what I expected for my birthday.”

In which Joe gets a birthday surprise, because that’s the stuff you have time for when you and the love of your life become mortal at the same time.

the ties that bind by damaskrose

“There’s a story I heard many times,” Andy begins, “in the Mediterranean. Threads of fate and three sisters. One to spin, one to measure, and one to cut.”

Clutter And Croutons by flawedamythyst

Joe and Nicky have an argument, and then Nicky talks to Nile about what it really means to be in a relationship for 900 years.

Inception

My Big Fat Slightly Annoying Wedding by jibrailis

Arthur and Eames elope for ~tax reasons. Certain people in their lives are not happy at the lack of a wedding.

Remember Sydney by pathera

When Eames shambles into the safe house outside of London, he finds a red light blinking on the phone.

For the inception_kink prompt:

Arthur is on a plane which is about to crash. No way anyone is going to survive. Instead of panicking he calmly calls the team's office and gets the answering machine. He hangs up before the plane crashes.

Give me Arthur's last message to the team.

(TW: Character Death / Angst)

Of Such Deceitfulness and Suavity by delires

In which emotions manifest themselves in unusual ways.

YO, K2tog (it's like a code) by lazulisong

“Oh my God,” moans Arthur. “I’ve paid less for Somnacin. Good Somnacin.” A horrible thought strikes him. “How much is the yarn --”

“I want you to have an unguarded reaction,” Eames tells him, and pulls him up from the floor.

(They run an extraction on a knitter.)

hit the ground running by orphan_account

"I travelled halfway around the world for you. I dealt with the French for you."

Valley by wldnst

It's an old story: a knight, a prince, a kingdom in peril.

If This Is Rain Let It Fall On Me and Drown Me by Brangwen

We used to be so brave, Eames thought. Of the two of them, Arthur had always been the more fearless.

a gentle familiarity by jollypuppet

Two weeks later, Eames is on his doorstep with bad Italian takeout and a grin, and Arthur tells him he can sleep on the couch.

Your Crisis Cannot Be Completed As Dialed by sevenimpossiblethings

Arthur doesn't do snow, Ariadne is determined to be as Midwestern as possible, and blizzards make cell phone service unreliable.

Let’s Say I Do (I Do) by xsilverdreamsx

There were, perhaps some things worse that this, Arthur thinks, as he glares at the letter in his hand with his name printed clearly in bold ink, indicating his presence in two weeks for his esteemed marriage to one William H. Eames, III, at St. Catherine's Church in London, England.

Star Trek (predominantly Kirk/McCoy)

Show the World That Something Good Can Work by knune

Leonard McCoy is a doctor, not a personal assistant, and maybe that's why he can't stand working for Jim Kirk.

It's in the little things by winterover

Bones is bemused by a persistent secret admirer.

"Wedding" Away with It by pendrogon

One morning, Bones wakes up and he's single. By the same afternoon, he's married to Jim Kirk for Arbitrary Fic Reasons(TM).

How Long Will You Stay (For Your Whole Life) by withthepilot

Jim Kirk, deputy director of the Enterprise parks and recreation department, sees all of his hard work fall to pieces when budget specialist Leonard McCoy arrives from the state capital to cut Jim's budget and threaten the livelihoods of his colleagues. But thanks to a major parks project, Leonard finds a place in the department, as well as in Jim's life—and when all is said and done, Jim doesn't want him to leave.

All-Time Favorite by mardia

What to do when your best friend suddenly starts making new friends.

Joy Ride by Cards_Slash

While running for their lives from an alien species Kirk had accidentally enraged, they come across a car. And well, if you were to come across a car while being chased by aliens that wanted you dead, and you possessed some lingering knowledge of how to drive a car similar to said car, you would have decided to drive it toward the nearest cliff too.

Also a gunfight.

Syncytia by epistolic

He’d signed up for Starfleet on an impulse, but Starfleet meant James Tiberius Kirk: the first – and second, and third, and fourth – big mistake of Leonard McCoy’s life.

Renovation by canistakahari

Jim has a whammy put on him by an alien death ray and he suddenly craves domesticity. He's crazy with longing to shop at space!Ikea and get potted bamboo and he starts looking into adopting AND HE HATES HIMSELF AND CANNOT CONTROL THE SHIT. Luckily, McCoy is drunk all the time and plays house.

17:08 by butterflycell

She'd watched the news holos with a sick feeling, searching for information that was completely obvious in its absence. Amidst the reports of the the Enterprise's miraculous recovery and the damages sustained, there had been next to nothing about the crew or her captain. Jim had been mentioned only in passing, his name shied away from as his first officer limited interaction to the bare essentials.

The Honey of Hybla by shrift

"Bones, prepare to be my date."

#recs #fic recs #recs project #star trek recs #inception recs #the raven cycle recs #the old guard recs #roswell new mexico recs

46 notes · View notes

spaceskam · 3 years

Note

For Title Tuesday can I get Malex + 25?

tags: alternate universe, swordfighting, blindfolds, the inherent romance of finding your equal in battle

25. the color of your eyes [ao3]

“Do you remember what they said about Icarus?”

Michael grinned wildly as he held Eurydike between his thighs, checking his hair in the mirror before he started tying the blindfold around his eyes. Isobel just didn’t understand. Maybe he was being overconfident in insisting he could do the entire competition blindfolded, but he was here to look good and show off for all the little earthlings. The blindfold accentuated that more than she could possibly comprehend.

“That he had high desires and died going for them,” Michael responded. Isobel scoffed so loud that Michael couldn’t help but laugh.

“If that was what you got from that story, we need to give you a better review,” she snapped. Michael shook his head.

“I’ll be fine, Isobel. Do you really think any of the Earthlings are going to pose any real challenge? And, let’s be real, no one from our entire planet is going to fuck with me too hard. They wouldn’t stand a chance even if they did, but we all know we’re against them and not each other,” Michael explained.

This was the first time his father had (stupidly) invited the humans to their competition. It was to show camaraderie. Put up your finest soldiers, you sons of lords, let them show off in this battle! But no one wanted them here. Michael felt the need to make a point.

“You worry me, that’s all,” Isobel sighed, “At least Max is properly trained with his sword. You trained yourself on your little spear.”

“Hey! Don’t call Eurydike a spear, she’s a glaive. Apologize,” Michael pouted to her general direction.

“I will not,” she said, “And for someone who hates humans so much, it’s bold of you to name your spear after one.”

“Glaive.”

“Whatever.”

Isobel patted him on the cheek and gave him a warm hug. It was clear she was genuinely worried and he tried not to take it as a personal insult to his capability. It wasn’t a secret he was the best swordsman in the Dreq Coterie and was probably the best out of all of the different Coteries on the planet.

His mother along with Isobel’s mother and Max’s mother all three ran the Dreq Coterie politically and socially, though Michael’s father was the one who ran most of the social events. That being said, Michael was well known and, admittedly, very privileged. He’d begun sword lessons very young and had found his calling in the glaive by the time he was 16. He remembered his mother having a fit about his choice of weapon while his weapons teacher had praised him for giving him something fun to work with for once. Everyone chose swords.

Not only was the glaive badass, but it often threw the average swordsman for a loop. It required a different stance, different balance, different placement, different strengths. How could they possibly compete with something they know nothing about?

It always meant Michael excelled at these things. He understood their weapons and they never understood his. It was a very, very beautiful thing. A beautifully hilarious thing. It meant he looked forward to every competition. It was all for fun, no one really got hurt past a few scratches or anything, but it was to show off nonetheless.

Michael waited in his room until Sheyric, his unofficial brother, strolled in and immediately snorted.

“I look good, don’t I?”

“Your arrogance precedes you,” Sheyric said. Michael felt his blindfold tighten before Sheyric touched up his curls a bit. “There. Now you look good.”

“I always look good.”

“Again‒arrogance.”

Michael laughed and grabbed Eurydike, holding her in his hand as they started their walk towards the competition grounds. Sheyric would be competing as well, though in a completely different facet. His specialty was archery and while the man was incredible at hand-to-hand combat, it was never smart to bring an arrow to a sword fight.

“Did you get a look at the humans? Were they trembling with fear?” Michael asked, leaning close.

“Not quite trembling, but they were clustered together. They seemed to take this whole competition thing as more of an actual fight than an event to celebrate our Coteries and togetherness,” Sheyric said. Michael went to open his mouth to say that he took it rather seriously, but Sheyric was already ahead of him. “You don’t count. You just like to show off. You’re still kind to the people you best.”

“Well, of course. I don’t want them to hate me because I’m an asshole. I want them to think I’m kind and better than them and hate me for that,” Michael said. He took each turn with practiced ease. He’d walked these hallways so many times in his life, his eyes weren’t necessary to get through them.

“I should push you into the wall.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would and The Bloodvisage would do that little laugh she does and shake her head and say ‘oh, Sheyric, don’t be mean’ and I’ll say I won’t be and smile and then I’ll do it again,” Sheyric said with the tone of someone who knew he was the favorite. Which really didn’t count because he was his mother’s apprentice. Everything he knew about archery, politics, hand-to-hand combat was because Michael’s mother taught him. Michael might’ve been jealous if he cared.

“Shut up,” Michael laughed anyway and then they stepped outside, taking a deep breath and smiling at the sound of people talking and preparing for the fight around them. It was a nice sound.

“Are you going to be able to make it to your spot with your dumb fucking blindfold?” Sheyric asked.

“Of course I will,” Michael insisted.

“Mn,” Sheyric grunted, clearly lacking faith in his abilities. Michael would’ve argued, but he and Sheyric were already walking to the same spot.

The Dreq Coterie was filled to the brim of skilled fighters and politicians and it was why they were one of the big six. If Michael felt like being polite (which he often didn’t) he might’ve extended that to Earth and say the big seven. But there was absolutely no kind of alliance on Earth. The only thing the entire planet agreed upon was that they were skeptical of Michael’s people.

He wanted to keep them skeptical.

��Michael,” Max hissed the moment he got close, “What are you doing?”

“Being a show-off, I guess.”

“You’re going to get yourself actually hurt if you do shit like that,” Max told him.

“I already said that,” Sheyric said.

“And so did Isobel. Look, I get none of you have any faith in me, but that doesn’t mean you have to be total dicks about it. Just accept I’m better than you and we can move on,” Michael bragged. Max and Sheyric both shoved him at the same time and Michael laughed loudly.

The competition began with his father’s booming voice, his natural bravado carrying across the entire yard. Michael remembered thinking he was so cool for that when he was little. He knew now that the cool one, albeit strict, was his mother. She was the one who gained the title of The Bloodvisage after defeating thirteen men with nothing but a classic cutlass, a battle axe, and skill.

Different fighters from different Coteries fought with skill and Michael almost wished he was able to see it, but he wasn’t about to risk taking his blindfold off and seem less cool. Instead, he listened while Max fought Evarius of the Piri Coterie and won before losing to Gontas from the Zand Coterie. Other Coteries were battling it out on different parts of the field and whoever the last two standing were would be brought together.

Michael sat back and waited for his turn. His name was eventually called and he got up, listening to the cheers as he twirled Eurydike with practiced precision. He loved that sound. He would be going against the previous winner, Astram of the Kynd Coterie which was a smaller Coterie in the southeast. Michael hadn’t seen him today, but he knew he was a pretty big guy who was a fan of dual swords.

“Ah, Little Rath, you’re feeling bold, I see,” Astram taunted. Michael grinned.

“I’m going by Michael these days,” Michael said. These days really meant since he was six and Astram really knew that, but it wasn’t uncommon for people to still call him Little Rath if only to remind him that he was named after his father.

“I know,” Astram said.

The beginning of the fight was announced and Michael dodged his blades with ease, already knowing that he swung nearly immediately to catch his opponent off guard. Michael swung Eurydike and hit the wooden side against his calves and he heard a soft grunt. Michael grinned.

It went like that with the next string of opponents, dodging and knocking them around with Eurydike and fighting blade against blade until they ended up on the ground and his foot on their chest. He knew them and their fighting styles well which is probably how he got away with it all while blindfolded, but he would never admit to that.

Rath, his father, let him be praised as the winner of this round and a break was announced. They were meant to eat, gather their strength, and socialize. Michael kept his blindfold on.

“You’re ridiculous,” Sheyric scoffed, handing him a flask of water. Michael downed it and leaned back, smiling in his general direction.

“I’m winning.”

“You’re going to be blinded the moment you take that thing off.”

“Nah.”

“I heard a guy from Earth made it to the final four, so you might get to fight him,” Sheyric said. His hand touched Michael’s chin and a damp cloth swiped across his cheek where he’d got nicked. It wasn’t deep enough to really even bleed or hurt, but it was a cut nonetheless.

“Good, I hope I do.”

“I hope you don’t,” Sheyric scoffed, “You’re going to get your ass kicked. He’s a general’s son.”

“I’m The Bloodvisage’s son, what does that have to do with anything?” Michael wondered.

“Because you don’t know his fighting style. That’s right, I know that’s how you’ve gotten this far,” Sheyric said. Michael didn’t stop grinning.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to kick his ass.”

Sheyric sighed, loud and long, and swatted his leg with the cloth. “You’ll have to kick Lachlia’s ass first, then.”

Michael pouted just a little bit at the name. She was easily one of the most gorgeous people his planet had produced and he hated that he had to be blindfolded while fighting her. She was from the Rhox Coterie, a little group of under 100 in the North, and they all specialized in war hammers which was unbearably sexy. They usually didn’t get very far in competitions though since it was rather easy for them to accidentally destroy others’ weapons and they usually played it safe. Lachlia, as always, didn’t give a shit. He always cherished the bruises she gave him.

“Don’t pout, she thinks you’re annoying,” Sheyric laughed.

“No, she doesn’t, we’re best friends.”

“Sure,” Sheyric snorted.

After a while of relaxing and re-hydrating, his father’s voice announced that the next round would be beginning. The first set would be Michael against Lachlia and then Desiric from the Krin Coterie, another one of the big six, against Alexander from Earth. How boring did that sound? Just Alexander from Earth. How did he even make it that far with something that boring attached to his name?

“Please be gentle with me,” Michael said as he strolled up to where Lachlia was. She huffed a laugh.

“You’re lucky they let you keep your precious stick,” Lachlia said.

“Why is everyone so mean to Eurydike? What did she do to you?” Michael wondered. She laughed again and then they announced that the fight had begun. “Come closer so you can pretend you can win in a non-deadly fight with that hammer of yours.”

“You’re such a loser,” she told Michael. He grinned.

“Yeah.”

Michael could hear the air around her hammer as she swung and he dodged it, though he felt that it was close enough to almost hit. He liked that feeling. It was exhilarating.

Now, Michael wasn’t that skilled at battling against war hammers. He was used to swords and other bladed weapons, but this was a little different and Lachlia knew how to use it. The only reason he got around it was that he knew how she fought. They’d been fighting since they were kids.

He knew that she relied on her left leg rather than her right and he knew that she was swift and nimble. That being said, he swung towards her right side and anticipated her jumping out of the way, so he quickly spun Eurydike and hit her left leg with the blunt end of his blade. Lachlia gasped and he really did almost take his blindfold off to make sure it didn’t cut her, but he realized it didn’t matter when she straight up punched him in the arm.

“You can’t just punch me!” Michael said, trying not to let his guard down though he found it funny.

“Oh yeah?” Lachlia asked and he didn’t have a warning before she just jumped on him. The wind knocked out of him as he hit the ground and pushed Eurydike out of his reach.

“This isn’t a wrestling match!” Michael said as he caught his breath, but he was laughing and let her pin him down. She was strong, he had to give her that, and it took him a bit before he wrapped his leg around her and flipped them over even while she was laughing.

“You’re such a dick.”

“Sounds like you like me,” Michael said.

He put his full weight on her as he used his leg to feel for Eurydike, trying to keep Lachlia pinned even as she squirmed and hit him, but they were both still laughing. He got Eurydike and quickly pushed himself to his feet, putting his foot on her abdomen and putting the wooden side of Eurydike on her chest until they announced him as the winner.

“Piece of cake.”

“Barely!”

Michael extended his arm to her, pulling her up to her feet. He shook his head as he tugged her in for a friendly post-fight hug.

“You let me win,” he said quietly, keeping by her ear.

“They announced the Earthling as the winner far too quickly,” she said, “He wields a curved one-handed broadsword, favors his left side, and can jump pretty high. You’re better at fighting broadswords. Kick his ass.”

“Have I mentioned today how you’re my favorite?” Michael mused, grinning even as she shoved him back.

Michael went back to his side to hydrate and receive a little mini-pep talk for his fight with Alexander of Earth. Sheyric even did him the honor of making sure his hair looked nice. Michael was more than a little pumped with adrenaline. Of all the times he’d had to meet Earthlings, he never got to fight any.

He couldn’t wait to show this one that he was much, much better.

Michael walked back out to the field and waited until he heard footsteps approaching him.

“You think that blindfold is a good idea?” the guy asked in rather impressive Antarii. Michael was instantly struck by how fucking nice his voice sounded in his language which was actually not at all fair or allowed. He twisted his grip on Eurydike.

“Yeah. I plan to win and, well, I’m a guy that likes to make a statement,” Michael bragged.

“So it’s not an excuse to use for when you lose?” Alexander of Earth asked. Despite the niceness of his voice and fluency of which he spoke his language, Michael couldn’t even offer a cocky grin. He just wanted this to begin and he wanted to win.

“I’m not going to lose.”

“Mhm, okay.”

His father announced the beginning and Michael kept his hearing keenly aware of Alexander. He heard his footsteps crunch as he walked to the side of him slowly. Michael raised Eurydike and spun her casually, preparing to dodge or throw or slash when needed.

The broadsword caught the sound of the wind as he swung and Michael blocked it with his blade with perfect precision, pushing him back and spinning Eurydike to use the wooden end to shove him back even further. He didn’t stumble to the ground though, unfortunately.

He did, however, swing again very quickly. Michael matched him beat for beat, relying on the sound of the air. He was a little annoyed that he hadn’t tripped Alexander up yet. He kind of liked the idea of not even working up a sweat. That would’ve been super cool.

Instead, Alexander delivered a swift kick to his thigh less than a second after he swung his blade, catching him off guard. Michael stumbled and grunted in annoyance and swung Eurydike in his general direction, but he didn’t hit anything. How high could he jump exactly?

Michael listened for him again and heard nothing for a second too long and received a swift kick to his ass which did actually manage to knock him to his knees. Before he could get up, Alexander of Earth kicked him in the back which pushed him to his hands and knees.

“Oh, come on, this is too easy,” Alexander laughed. Michael quickly rolled onto his back and swung his blade with enough power to throw Max off course, using that moment to get to his feet.

“Don’t get too cocky.”

“Pot, kettle.”

“Huh?” Michael asked, but he didn’t let the weird words distract him as he dodged another swing and then another. Lachlia didn’t warn him that he was fast.

The broadsword almost broke a rule just then as he swung right for Michael’s face. He was fast enough to block it by holding Eurydike with both hands out in front of him, though even he had to admit his pulse spiked.

“What the fuck?!” Michael spat, throwing him off, “You don’t go for the fucking head!”

“Who said I was going for your head?” Alexander asked and he kicked Michael again square in the chest. It did knock him on his ass and Alexander’s foot pressed into his chest, forcing him on the ground. Michael was heavy breathing through his teeth.

The tip of Alexander’s blade caught the blindfold and the blunt side grazed his nose as he took it off. The light blinded him momentarily, but once he adjusted, he got a good look at this asshole’s face.

And not only was he a good fight who spoke fluent Antarii, but he was the most attractive man Michael had ever fucking seen. They locked eyes and he had the most beautiful brown eyes he’d ever fucking seen, full of mirth as grinned.

“Now, fight me for real and not just a way to show off,” Alexander instructed.

What the hell kind of beast was he?

Michael didn’t waste time, though, as he grabbed Alex’s ankle and threw him off. He made his way to his feet with Eurydike in hand and charged. This time they met beat for beat with much more authenticity, blade clashing against blade, matching each turn and lunge and dodge. They fought. And they fought.

And never had Michael felt more like he’d found his equal than he did then.

He wasn’t sure when it went from being infuriating to exhilarating, but it happened and the fact that there was an entire crowd watching them faded from his mind. It was just them, fighting, matching each other and enjoying it.

“Okay,” Michael said, both of their breaths mingling between them as Alexander stepped closer. Their weapons were crossed between them and he was even more attractive up close. He was sweaty and strong and talented and beautiful and why the fuck did Michael ever go blindfolded, he missed a whole day of watching him fight. “Okay, we could call it a draw.”

“We could,” Alexander said, but he shoved Michael back as if trying to get him on the ground again. It wouldn’t be that easy this time.

“Alexander,” Michael said in response, unable to repress the grin on his face.

“Alex,” Alex corrected, eying him slightly, “Rath.”

“Michael,” Michael corrected.

“Michael,” Alex repeated.

“Alex.”

They stared at each other for a moment before Alex took a careful step back. Michael grinned and took a step back of his own. The more space put between them, the more he became aware of the fact that they were still being watched.

“It’s a draw,” Alex said, pointing his blade at him, “This time.”

“This time,” Michael repeated, nodding because that meant there would be a next time. “Hopefully once more before you return to Earth.”

“Watch your back,” Alex said, looking Michael up and down with those fucking eyes, “I don’t plan to go to sleep tonight as a draw.”

Michael grinned so wide it was probably obvious this wasn’t just a normal fight to anyone around them, this being the first draw in decades aside. He couldn’t wait. Alex was… incredible.

“What the hell was that?!” Isobel and Sheyric both hissed at him once he got back. Michael could barely hear the other noise around them, his eyes still on Alex as he faded back into his people.

Michael could barely even blink.

“I think I’m in love.”

#malex #malex fic #michael guerin #alex manes #roswell new mexico #my fic #title tuesday

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zeppelin-and-unicorns · 3 years

Text

Fanfic recommendations part five: Alternate Universe (canon divergence)

I am going to make three AU posts, one with AU’s that diverge from canon (this one), one with 100% AU stories, and one with Soulmate AU stories, I’ll probably post the next category tomorrow or maybe even today.

After the AU’s there are only two more categories left, Christmas fics and Crossovers! After that I will make a master post with the link of all the previous fanfic recommendations posts.

Enough rambling, this is a long category, which means, long post.

a retro romance by poeticlyme

Jackie Burkhart, the Princess of Point has an unrequited crush on a certain paranoid burnout. Or is it so unrequited?

Please read this story, it’s amazing and I love it!!! The slow burn and the sexual tension between Jackie and Hyde in this story is everything!!

This story is a WIP and it’s being updated constantly.

59k words, 18 chapters for now.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Eric/Donna and Kelso/Brooke.

Cheater, Liar by Maleesha (MalissaNgov)

Jackie hates cheaters.

(or when Jackie is less naive and Hyde was more aware of her situation.)

This story is a WIP.

36k words, 12 chapters for now.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Contact by tanith75

Stop what you’re doing and go read this story right now!! It’s amazing, this story is definitely on my top 10 favorite stories of all time.

What if the night Hyde and Jackie stood in the Forman driveway, kissing, the sliding door hadn't been locked? What if Kelso had gotten outside in time to confront Hyde? What if...

This story is not complete, but please don’t let this stop you from reading it.

53k words, 10 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Eric/Donna

Everything Works If You Let It by Ultrawoman

Jackie and Hyde pretty much hated each other from the get go, and yet he still agreed to take her to Prom. Kelso was unable to win Jackie back that night, and everything changed between the rich cheerleader and the Zen Master. S1 rewritten from 'Prom Night'.

This story is complete and it’s SO CUTE.

60k words, 23 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Endless Midnights by Anonymous

Were they stupid? Of course. Were they terrified? Duh. Were they doing it anyway? Hell yeah.

In which Hyde feels guilty about covering for Kelso and Jackie finds out about Laurie much sooner.

BOY OH BOY THIS STORY IS AMAZING PLEASE READ IT.

This story is complete.

54k words, 17 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Eric/Donna

Escaping The Friendzone by KayRight

Jackie doesn't take Kelso back at their prom. Instead, she starts an odd friendship with Hyde. They both want more but the only problem is he thinks she's on the rebound and she thinks he's not interested.

This story is complete.

73k words, 23 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Also Available on AO3

Going to California part 2 by holograma209

What if the whole gang went on a road trip to California after graduation, finding themselves along the way? Set at the very beginning of season 6.

This story is a WIP, it hasn’t been updated in a while but I still have faith.

11k words, 5 chapters for now.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna

Halloween: Extended Cut by Hyde’s Bride

An extension of the season two episode, "Halloween". Jackie forgets her poncho in the field where the gang buried their permanent records. Hyde goes back with her to get it. What tricks or treats will be in store for them on this Halloween night?

I love horror stories (even though I’m scared shitless of them) and this one is really nice! It’s not THAT scary, so don’t worry.

This story is complete.

8k words, 3 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

High on Summer series by QueenBookBuff

Hyde has been craving Jackie for a long time. It's summer time, anything is possible, and he is positive she will be his new favorite drug.

This is a WIP.

9 works on this series for now, according to my calculator, the entire series has 26k words.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Hyde Bags Jackie by gah-linda

After s3ep8 “Jackie Bags Hyde”, Jackie and Hyde start a very steamy affair behind everyone’s backs.

This story is abandoned, but it’s pretty good.

75k words, 23 chapters.

Rated M. Very, very M. Seriously, this work has a lot of sex, but the story’s plot is overall very interesting, I really like it.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna

I’ll be There by crimsinsky

When Jackie finds out that Kelso cheated on her again, she was hurt that her so called friends didn’t tell her. A new friendship happens starts up, and an old relationship turns obsessive.

This story is a WIP, and it’s being updated constantly.

26k words, 19 chapters so far.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Eric/Donna

Knowing Me, Knowing You by Writerperson100

After being cheated on by her second boyfriend, Jackie accepts her aunt’s offer to come live with her.

When her past is ready to catch up with Jackie, will she be ready to face it?

This story is complete.

61k words, 26 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Eric/Donna

Movies As Friends by rymilu

Jackie realizes a few things about herself after her kiss with Hyde. She once more tries to bag him after Michael and Donna leave to California, no longer hiding her feelings. Instead of pressuring him like before, she decides to start with taking him to the movies.

This story is a WIP.

38k words, 6 chapters so far.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Never Look Back by Shabbuuu

Jackie and Hyde decide to leave Point Place instead of waiting for Kelso to return.

Pretty sure this is an abandoned story, but the ending of the last chapter was nice, and they’re happy, so...

20k words, 17 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

New York, New York by Shabbuuu

This one is also on my top favorite stories of all time, do yourself a favor and read this, it’s amazing.

What if Hyde did go to New York City with Chrissy? It's 1981 and Jackie has just moved to NYC for a job. What happens when she runs into a familiar face at a bar?

This story is complete.

40k words, 38 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Of All Things Creepy and Unnatural by CaedanceLaura

Also on my top favorites, lol. I can’t help myself, I really love AU’s.

What if Donna and Eric hadn't found out about Hyde and Jackie? Hyde and Jackie manage to keep their relationship a secret for much longer. How will this change the development of their relationship without having their friends lack of support and ridicule in the beginning?

Not complete, but it ends in a nice place. No cliffhangers here.

56k words, 16 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Eric/Donna

One Difference: Donna and Kelso Have a Fling by MistyMountainHop

Believing she's lost Eric forever, Donna accepts Kelso's offer to have a fun, commitment-free fling. They plan on keeping it a secret, but Jackie and Hyde's own summer secret complicates matters.

This story is complete.

32k words, 11 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Eric/Donna, Jackie/Hyde

Also Available on AO3

One Difference: Hyde Catches Jackie by MistyMountainHop

Kelso forgets to pick Jackie up from work ... again. Feeling neglected, she falls into the arms of her boss, only to be caught in a transgressive lip-lock by Steven Hyde.

This story is complete.

15k words, 4 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Also Available on AO3

One Difference: Hyde Doesn’t Lie by MistyMountainHop

Hyde tells Jackie the truth about their Veteran's Day kiss, but his choice alters their relationship — and the lives around them. One difference can change everything.

This story is complete.

12k words, 3 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Also Available on AO3

One Difference: Hyde Goes to Kelso’s Ice Shack by MistyMountainHop

Kelso plans to get Jackie back by taking her to his uncle's "fabulous" cabin in the woods. He has everything in place—the right lie, the right couple to emulate—but an unexpected variable threatens to dismantle his scheme: Steven Hyde.

This story is complete.

21k words, 5 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna

One Difference: Jackie and Hyde Don’t Kiss (During the Summer) by MistyMountainHop

With the basement to themselves, Jackie and Hyde can't seem to stay away from each other. Buried feelings rise to the surface. Jackie makes the first move, but Hyde blocks it. Rather than kissing, they end up in a chess match of escalating risks and consequences.

This story is complete.

126k words, 31 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna

Also Available on AO3

One Difference: The Answer’s Probably Yes by MistyMountainHop

In a desperate act, Hyde seeks advice from Jackie, a girl who thinks he's scum. He's not fond of her either, but she makes him a crazy yet strangely-appealing offer.

This story is complete.

60k words, 15 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna

Also Available on AO3

OPERATION: REBOUND by ShanghaiLily

I was having a lot of trouble categorizing this, since it can be considered an AU and a season 8 fix-it, but in the end I placed it on the AU category because there’s a original character involved.

Jackie & Hyde have trouble hiding their secret relationship, because a housebound & heartbroken Eric continually walks in on them while they're fooling around. Sexually frustrated, they resolve to find Eric a girlfriend to distract him so they can be alone in every way. What happens when Donna comes home and finds that Eric has moved on? Will she fight for him?

This story is complete.

65k words, 13 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna, Eric/OC.

Spur of the Moment by shy1214

What might have happened if Hyde had made a different choice and said a different thing at one point early on?

Donna is not a nice character in this story, just to let you know.

This story is a WIP

49k words, 9 chapters for now.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Tiny Dancer by ourinvisibleink

After a summer of fooling around with resident bad boy Steven Hyde, Jackie discovers that she is pregnant.

This story is a WIP. It hasn’t been updated in a few months, but I still have faith.

9k words, 5 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Trick or Treat by MistyMountainHop

Kelso invites his single friends to his brother's Halloween party. Casey's Monster Make-Out Mash-Ups are renowned for encouraging commitment-free flings. Fresh from a break-up — and pining over Kelso's girl — Hyde needs some naughty-bad fun. But Jackie is far from happy herself, despite being one-half of the only couple left in the basement.

This story is complete.

14k words, 2 chapters.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Eric/Donna

Also Available on AO3

Welcome to Hydeville (One Difference: Hyde Doesn’t Toss Jackie’s Bag) by MistyMountainHop

When Jackie tries to prove her coolness to Hyde, Hyde shows her just how uncool life with him would be.

This story is complete.

13k words, 6 chapters.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Also Available on AO3

You Look Like an Angel by crimsinsky

It all started with prom, but what if Hyde hadn’t immediately gone off with Pam Macy and waited to see what Jackie would do?

This story is a WIP.

22k words, 17 chapters so far.

One-shots:

A chance encounter by hanaasbananas

When Jackie rejects Kelso's serenade, she leaves the basement and the gang behind for good. Seven years later, a meeting in a bar gives birth to an unexpected friendship that could change the course of her life forever.

7k words.

Rated G.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Beats of Silence by vampy.rEVOLution666

When she was with Kelso, Jackie never experienced the passion that she always thought she would when it came to sex, so responsibility falls upon the Zen Master to show her that it can be so much better when you're with the right person. Jackie Burkhart and Steven Hyde finally go on their first date, they have their first kiss and they spend their first night together.

3k words.

Rated M.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Catching Up by springsteenicious

Hyde isn't exactly sure just how he ended up in a smelly ice shack staring at a notebook paper with his name written on it in Jackie's curly handwriting, but he does know that today is going to change things between them.

Or: Hyde goes to the ice shack.

3k words.

Rated G.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Communication Breakdown by springsteenicious

Donna told Jackie she didn't want a new boyfriend after Eric. Hyde offers his friendship and Donna mistakes it for more. When Donna makes a move, Hyde tells her something shocking about himself.

6k words

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna, Donna/Hyde friendship

Creepy and Unnatural?? Not at all! by HydeLuver

As usual, Hyde is the only one who can comfort a heartbroken Jackie.

1k words.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Fez dates Jackie by zeppelinandunicorns

A rewrite of S3EP21. Instead of asking Donna for help with Caroline, Fez asks Jackie, making a certain burnout jealous beyond befief.

5k words

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

From the Land of Ice and Snow by MoonTickler

Blizzards in the Midwest suck at the best of times, but never as much as when Hyde and Jackie get stranded in the Vista Cruiser together, and they're forced to confess their feelings for one another, which may or may not have to do with the first kiss that neither would confess they felt anything during.

7k words.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, background Eric/Donna

Hyde Doesn’t Sleep With the Nurse by springsteenicious

What if Hyde hadn't slept with the nurse in "You Shook Me?" What if he and Jackie had just talked things out?

1k words.

Rated T.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

It’s Just a Kiss Away by springsteenicious

It's Veteran's Day and everything Hyde thought he knew about love is being changed. Jackie, on the other hand, is just happy to finally be with him.

2k words.

Rated G.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Little T&A by springsteenicious

Eric and Donna actually do get married, prompting Hyde to make a decision about his own relationship.

(Eric and Donna's wedding told from Jackie and Hyde's POVs)

2k words.

Rated G.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde, Eric/Donna

wouldn’t you love to love her by donutcats

And the story deviates off course yet again, because Jackie twists her mouth for a moment and then says; “Can we try that again?”

“What?”

“Can we kiss again?"

11k words.

Rated G.

Pairings: Jackie/Hyde

Feel free to reply to this post if you think I left out a good story!

I’ll repeat this at the end of every single post (seriously, I literally copy and paste this every single time): Speaking as someone who writes, it would be really cool if you guys decide to leave a review (or a comment, if the story is on AO3) in the stories you read, especially the unfinished ones. It really motivates the authors, and receiving a compliment is always a mood lifter. I’ve seen some authors updating stories after years because of nice reviews, so… yeah, this is just an idea.

The next category is: 100% Alternative Universe stories. Will post it soon!

#jackie and hyde #jackie x hyde #that 70s show #that '70s show #fanfic #fanfic rec #zenmasters #jackie burkhart #steven hyde #fanfic recommendations

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according-to-the-laura · 3 years

Text

StackedNatural Day 46: 5x08, 6x07, 9x05, 15x18 (Alternate Title: “Oh God, Oh Fuck, Here We Go”)

StackedNatural Masterpost: [x]

November 5, 2021

DISCLAIMER: I am watching today’s episodes with 4 friends and I will not be staying sober (especially for Dog Dean Afternoon), so prepare for this post to become less and less coherent as we go along. Also, probably will contain just a lot of transcripts of bullshit we said while watching.

Cast of characters:

Me: @according-to-the-laura

Nic: @weedsinavacantlot, who drove 11hours through the mountains to watch despair with us

Meg: @meg3point0, my sister

Charlie: @cherbertlemon, bestie from university

Lyall: Brother-in-law/bestie who isn't on tumblr but enjoys watching us go insane

5x08: Changing Channels

Written by: Jeremy Carver

Directed by: Charles Beeson

Original air date: November 5, 2009

Plot Synopsis:

Dean and Sam are thrown into an alternate universe by the Trickster where they are characters in different TV series.

Features:

Dr. Sexy’s Chekov’s cowboy boots, Japanese game shows, sitcom, police procedural, Knight Rider, Trickster Archangels, Gabriel.

My Thoughts:

This is a perfect episode of Supernatural and I don’t need to analyze it to death so I’ll start with the one actual thought I had and then leave you with things we shouted at the TV while watching.

Gabriel trying to force them to play their roles is him unknowingly walking in his father’s footsteps - he even wants one brother to kill the other, and Cas won’t play along.

During the Dr Sexy confrontation Nic (@weedsinavacantlot) just screamed “BABYGIRL YOU ARE SO GAY” at the TV screen.

Cas: *Appears on screen*

All of Us: *Wild applause and cheers*

Gabriel is so powerful in earlier seasons and not when he’s an ally in late seasons because “the Winchesters have a woobifying aura” - Lyall, my brother in law who doesn’t have tumblr. Also said, “you watch Gabriel do things like this and you’re like, ‘oh, right, you are related to Lucifer’”.

Me: Someone explain why Dean’s lips are so pink all the time

Nic: Whore

Meg (@meg3point0): He has such long eyelashes, too

Nic: WHORE

I think that CSI is a show for dads, and that’s why Cas watches The Wire. Also, sexy of Carver to handhold us all the way to the angel conclusion in the Night Rider scene. Yes bitch, don’t make me do an inch of work.

Me: He looks so fucking short

Nic: He’s taller than me! He’s five foot eight! These guys are just monstrous!

Notable Lines:

“Really? Because I swore part of what makes Dr. Sexy sexy is the fact that he wears cowboy boots. Not tennis shoes.”

“Mr. Trickster does not like pretty-boy angels.”

“Sam, starring as Lucifer. Dean, starring as Michael. Your celebrity death match. Play your roles.”

“Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna suck it up, accept your responsibilities, and play the roles that destiny has chosen for you.”

“Well, call it personal experience, but nobody gets that angry unless they're talking about their own family.”

“I want it to be over! I have to sit back and watch my own brothers kill each other thanks to you two! Heaven, hell, I don't care who wins, I just want it to be over.”

“You were born to this, boys. It's your destiny! It was always you! As it is in heaven, so it must be on earth. One brother has to kill the other.”

“This isn't about some prize fight between your brothers or some destiny that can't be stopped. This is about you being too afraid to stand up to your family.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 10

IMdB Rating: 9.7

6x07: Family Matters

Written by: Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin

Directed by: Guy Bee

Original air date: November 5, 2010

Plot Synopsis:

Dean becomes suspicious of Samuel's motives, but Sam isn't sold on the idea that their grandfather is doing anything wrong. The brothers go along on a hunt with Samuel and the other Campbells, but things go terribly awry.

Features:

Sastiel fisting scene, discovery of Soulless Sam, Samuel’s work ethic, Sam is a spy, Purgatory intro, Crowley wants the Alphas, Crowley claims to have brought Sam back from Hell.

My Thoughts:

We were drinking amaretto sours at this point and we kind of half stopped watching once Cas wasn’t in it anymore but boy did we say a lot of funny stuff!

Real observances: very fun to watch this episode right after Thin Lizzie. It is extremely funny how different Sam and Len are, Len is just A Guy and Sam immediately becomes a serial killer. Him going to shoot Samuel isn’t supposed to be funny, but god it sure is. Some of Jared’s best acting is when Sam is soulless, and that means something but I can’t quite put my finger on it….

Sam endgame should have been the good version of Samuel’s, running a network of hunters. The lighting in this episode rules! Actual shadows and rim lighting.

Cas: *takes off his belt*

Us: *hysterical screaming*

Nic: FISTING FISTING FISTING. This is all the Sastiel shippers have!

Meg: other than Cas taking Sam’s hell trauma

Nic: And peace of mind

Nic: The only thing that’s going to fix cas is having a baby and that won’t happen for several seasons. Cas literally baby trapped Dean and I think that’s sexy

Charlie: Good for her

Hilarious that when we cut back into the room after Cas checks for Samuel’s soul that he’s turned around with his hands on a shelf, bent over.

Nic: Cas is like “I’m gonna turn this guy into a muppet, hang on a sec”

[A few scenes later] *Dean makes a kermit joke*

Nic: DEAN STOLE MY FUCKING JOKE. Dean Winchester we duel at dawn.

[A few more scenes later]

Nic: God I wish Cas were still here fisting people

Crowley: *appears*

Us: *Wild applause and cheers*

Notable Lines:

“What, you think that there's a clinic out there for people who just pop out of hell wrong?”

“ You're not gonna hold me, Dean -- Not here, not in a panic room, not anywhere. You're stuck with the soulless guy, so you might as well work with me.”

“This is a vessel. My true form is approximately the size of your Chrysler building.”

“Now, when we "freaks" die... where do we go? Not heaven, not hell. So?”

“Well, if the old man's Kermit... whose hand's up his ass?”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 7.0, and it would probably be lower if I wasn’t having the time of my life with my friends tonight.

IMdB Rating: 8.1

9x05: Dog Dean Afternoon

Written by: Eric Charmelo & Nicole Snyder

Directed by: Tim Andrew

Original air date: November 5, 2013

Plot Synopsis:

When the only witness to a couple of mysterious murders is a dog, Dean performs a risky spell to help him communicate with canines.

Features:

Taxidermy, eating cats whole, Dean casts Animal Friendship, weird bad animal voices, Dean wants to fuck a poodle, Sam gets suspicious.

My Thoughts:

This episode was the epic lows part of the “epic highs and lows of Stackednatural” and we had to have it on mute for the majority of the episode because I have a 9 old puppy who gets jumpy at night and barks non-stop when she hears other dogs. So we just drank another amaretto sour and ate homemade pie by Nic and Meg.

It’s bullshit that Dean isn’t still scared of dogs (hellhounds!! Ripped him apart!!) and insane that in the Ezekiel arc that someone gets fatally injured every episode. How have you all survived this long as hunters?

We spent this episode missing Cas and wishing that Amazon Prime had a 1.5x speed option so we could move faster and get to Despair and party time faster.

You can tell that Supernatural like to queercode their villains because this chef dresses like Nic.

The only funny part of this episode is Dean accidentally playing fetch with Sam. Dean wanting to fuck a dog cancels that out.

Dean: I don’t have the urge to sniff butts

Dog: Not yet

Us: YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW

Notable Lines:

*Weird British accent* “Screw the sharktopus”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 1.5

IMdB Rating: 8.6

15x18: Despair

Written by: Robert Berens

Directed by: Richard Speight Jr.

Original air date: November 5, 2020

Plot Synopsis:

With the plan in full motion, Sam, Dean, Castiel and Jack fight for the good of the common goal.

Features:

Jack makes the Empty loud, Billie brings Jack back, Dean wounds Death, love interests vanish, Thee Confession.

My Thoughts:

Incoherent thoughts on this. Don’t know how to rank it as it causes me indescribably pain but also it’s brought me the most emotion I‘ve had in years.

Gotta focus on non-confession stuff first so quick rundown:

This is the third time that Cas has watched his son die. Billie is amazing as Death. I love Jack and I love Rachel Miner. They invented and killed a girlfriend for Charlie and disappeared Eileen so that the episode would have beginning-middle-end loss of love interest. Sure is interesting that Jack made the Empty loud and God has a new ending to his death book and they don’t care about Jack because he’s useful. CAN’T WAIT TO SEE HOW THIS TIES INTO THE FINALE.

I like to think that Charlie’s collateral damage speech was directed at Buckleming for Charlie 1.0’s death. “I’ll go with you” means “I love you”.

Obviously the writing of the reunion is perfect, Misha is great. The editing is piss poor and I FIRMLY believe that that was on purpose to hide any and all of Jensen’s acting. I’ve watched 86 episodes of this goddamn show since Sept 10th this year and he just doesn’t stand there not doing anything for that long ever. RELEASE THE TAPES.

Notable Lines:

“I can't stop this. I'm coming apart. I don't want to hurt you. Don't let me hurt you.”

“ It's over. The plan. My destiny. I was ready to die, and I wanted to. For Sam, for Dean, for the world. I wanted to make things right. And now... I don't know why I'm even here.”

“We don't care about you because you're useful or because you fit into some grand design. We care about you because you're you.”

“So, what, is she just some collateral damage to you? Is that what I'll be, too?”

death defying”It's you, Dean. It's always been you. Death-defying. Rule-breaking. You are everything I lived to set right. To put down. To tame. You are human disorder incarnate.”

“It was Chuck all along.”

[Insert entirety of confession speech here.

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 9.8

IMdB Rating: 8.8

In Conclusion: I wish to God I was always watching Stacked in a room full of people who are as insane about it as I am. So much fun. Even though we’re all crying now re: confession.

<< Previous Day | Next Day >>

#Stackednatural #supernatural #spn #5x08 #Changing Channels #6x07 #Family Matters #9x05 #Dog Dean Afternoon #15x18 #Despair #Nov 5

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overwatch-does-stuff · 3 years

Note

Torb and/or Rein for the character ask? Would love to hear your opinions!

For this ask game! This post turned out really really long so I'm putting it beneath the cut for the sake of the mobile users.

Torbjorn (my beloved):

a song that reminds me of them What I've Done by Linkin Park. Something about the more industrial sound and the themes of regret really hits different. If you want my really weird one, When They Come For Me by Linkin Park as well. I can't really explain this one as well. . . I know this song is literally about a rapper's journey but the kinda vibe of working hard to get better and rejecting what people expect you to be? That's what I associate. I'm worried I'm going to be mocked relentlessly for this one, because most people simplify Torb's character down to "haha funny dwarf man" but fail to mention the part where he's fiercely independent and is dealing with a lot on his plate. Okay and finally! Burn It Down by Linkin Park. This one is self explanatory, it gives me big Omnic Crisis vibes and the chorus is almost word-for-word his typical catch phrase.

what they smell like There's a very specific scent that I'll try to describe. There are chemicals used to get gun powder and other gook off of guns, and they have a very astringent, oily scent to them. No matter how many times you wash your hands, the smell always lingers. I imagine it lingers on him too.

an otp Him and his wife!!!

a notp Pretty much any other ship with him. I'm not really a shipper in general and I dislike breaking up canon ships.

favorite platonic/familial relationships Brigitte- I like to think he's a good dad. I like their relationship a lot, where they're obviously very close but he respects her enough to let her go her own way with things. I like the themes of legacy that surround them, the almost love-hate relationship Torbjorn has with her becoming an engineer like him, the almost love-hate relationship Brigitte has for joining an industry that already has her father's name plastered all over it. It's fascinating. Reinhardt- bubbly optimistic loud man is best friends with the grumpy pessimistic quieter man? A character dynamic made in heaven. Bastion- I thought I had already made a post where I outlined my thoughts on Torbjorn and Bastion, but I can't seem to find it. In short, not only are they the "cute dad robot child" combo, but Bastion also represents so much for Torb. Bastion is a walking reminder of the Crisis that he helped cause- the violence, the trauma, and most importantly, the legacy. Bastion is Torbjorn's redemption: if the most destructive robot he ever built can choose non-violence then maybe the Omnics can be a force of good after all. He hates Bastion but he needs them. And Bastion, looking for their own redemption and purpose, needs him too.

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with Literally everything to do with the "haha funny dwarf man" side of the fanbase. I guarantee you, if Torbjorn was a normal height and typically attractive man he'd be one of the most beloved characters in the fandom but because he's short he's a joke. It makes me so mad!!

the position they sleep in Flat on his back, all sprawled out. Alternatively, I think he likes being the big spoon with his wife.

a crossover au i’d love to see them in Probably Transformers Prime. He'd be best freaking buds with Ratchet!

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn My favorite skin? Honestly, his classic skin is extremely iconic. . . but if I had to pick another it'd be Santaclad. It's literally flawless. Now for Reinhardt:

a song that reminds me of them Whenever I hear Reinhardt's name I immediately think of Sabaton. The entire band embodies his whole vibe- epic power metal telling and embellishing war stories of the past. I know this is stereotypical and often used as a joke pick, but I seriously do associate The Last Stand with him. It's a story from the time frame of the crusaders, although it follows a much more noble group of defenders- just like the Overwatch Crusaders. There's also a lot of overt religiousness in this song and while I don't headcanon Rein as religious, he does believe strongly in faith and the strength of spirit.

what they smell like It would be nice to think that he smells good, but honestly. . . I don't see him using any sort of cologne or anything. Like yeah, he showers, but he's so active that I bet he's always sort of sweaty. He smells very masculine in that sense.

an otp I don't really ship him with anyone because I headcanon him as aro/ace.

a notp I just. . . I don't like shipping him with Ana, purely because I think their platonic relationship is 100x better

favorite platonic/familial relationships Ana- I have a lot of thoughts on this one. . . I feel like these two would be the type to use the phrase "my better half" platonically. There's a contrast between them, yes, with Ana being the quieter and more responsible and Reinhardt more energetic and outspoken, but their differences cover each other's weaknesses. Both care so deeply about the ones they love and would do anything to protect them. Both of them are dealing with the fallout of Overwatch in almost the exact same way as well, and I think it would be good if they met up sometime in canon and coped together- except for the fact that she left him behind to begin with. It's that friendship with that hint of tragedy that really gets me. Brigitte- Platonic mentor/mentee relationship???? Reinhardt being godfather status????? How could you not. How could you not adore them. Bastion- They're not friends. The dev teaser for OW2 made that one very clear. But. . . their interplay is going to be interesting as hell. It always has been. They're two old soldiers with a sizable and frankly quite understandable chip on their shoulder. Will they reconcile, will they heal? There's a part of Rein (and Bastion as well) that wishes to befriend everyone he meets. Will it be able to overcome the trauma between them?

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with This is fanon but instead canon but- some of Michael Chu's short stories imply that Ana and Jack don't like Reinhardt and that is. Not Correct. They're all friends because I said so.

the position they sleep in I think he sleeps on his side or his stomach, but never on his back. I also imagine he cuddles- be it a person or a pillow.

a crossover au i’d love to see them in Knight Rider, simply because he adores David Hasslehoff so much.

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn I'm an absolute sucker for power armor, and Reinhardt's classic crusader armor is peak power armor design.

#overwatch #torbjorn lindholm #reinhardt #reinhardt wilhelm

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tiesandtea · 3 years

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I met two members of London Suede, Brett Anderson and Mat Osman, in the lounge of a major New York hotel. They were at the beginning of a four-city tour of the U.S. in support of their newest release, Coming Up on Columbia Records. I got a chance to talk to them about songwriting, performing and who they think can write a good song. Brett did almost all the talking and never took his sunglasses off. Hey, he's a rock star; he doesn't have to. This was my first time interviewing a British band and I couldn't escape the feeling of being Rob Reiner in Spinal Tap.

An interview with Brett & Mat by Dave Levine for Urban Desires, May 1997. The rest of the article under the cut. (x)

London Suede, or Suede as they're known in England, is at the forefront of the new Brit-Pop explosion that includes bands like Oasis, Blur and Pulp. They write lush poppy songs reminiscent of Bowie in the late seventies. As with many of the new British bands, success in America is hard won. They released their first record, Nude in 1993 and it went #1 in England but didn't make much sound on this side of the Atlantic. Why? well Brett thinks he knows, so read on.

UD: So have you guys been to New York a lot? LS: Yeah, we've been here quite a few times. UD: So what's the difference between London night life and New York? LS: I don't know really. I think every city in the world is pretty much the same, isn't it? I mean there's no difference between New York, and London. Everyone likes to think that they live in the biggest, baddest city in the world. London's just as big and bad as New York and Rio de Janeiro is just as big and bad as London. I think at this point in the twentieth century everyone is so well connected and the world's just become one big place... got tramps sittin' in the street and sex and sleaze and stuff like that. It's all the same, isn't it? UD: Except for the bars in London close at 11:00. LS: Yeah, but there are after-hours places. UD: What's your favorite place in the world to play? London? LS: Probably Thailand or Scandinavia. UD: Why? Because the crowds are crazy, and they just love it? LS: They're mad, especially in Singapore. They sing along with every word. UD: What about New York? To me, New York crowds are jaded. LS: Yeah, they are a bit. Last time we played here it was shit. I can't really get my hands around the mentality. I don't really know how to put this. I mean, I don't want to be offensive. UD: Go ahead be offensive, it makes good copy. LS: New Yorkers want to be shouted at or they don't respect you. They tend to assume that quietness equals weakness, which it doesn't. That's an assumption that I don't think anyone in the world makes. The first show we did here was really boring and the second show we were going through quite alot of bad times with the band. We were having alot of internal arguments and it was a real low point in our relations. We were so fucked up with each other, we absolutely fuckin' hated each other... I don't know how to put it.... UD: New York probably loved that. LS: Exactly, it came across in the gig. It was a real wild gig. UD: I read in your press release that when you first started playing, people hated you. Is that true? LS: (Both laughing) UD: Critically too, and then at some point it changed. Did you do anything? LS: No we just got better, that's all there is to it. We always were going against the grain, and so when you're doing something that is going against the grain and you're not very good at it, people hate you. When you do something against the grain and you're good at it, people start thinking it's something special. UD: So it was just experience, then? LS: Experience of playing live, learning how to sing and how to write songs.

UD: I want to give people here in the US that don't know much about you some background. How did you get started? LS: No one really fuckin' cares anyway. UD: ... Okay. Why do you think it's hard for modern British pop bands to break into the U.S.? LS: I know exactly why that is, 'cause the American music industry is obsessed with categories and things. And we aren't that happy with being categorized. In Europe we're just a pop band. We're #7, and George Michael is #5. You know, we're just a band. There is a song on the second album called "The Wild Ones." When we first played it for Sony they were doing somersaults. We thought it was like #1 and they took it to radio stations, and they couldn't get it played. They couldn't figure out if it was a love song or a rock song by a band with a bunch of guitars. We took it to alternative and they thought it was too mainstream, and we took it to mainstream and they thought it was too alternative. It's never been my desire to be neatly sectioned into some little box. Then you lose any mystery, any danger, any X factor that you might have had, and I don't think that many bands in Europe are happy being categorized like that. UD: Your press release touted you as the best lyricist of your generation-- LS: --I wouldn't believe anything it says there-- UD: --do you have any problem living up to that? LS: Do I have a problem with that? Yeah, I don't think it's true. I don't think anyone is the best lyricist of a generation. I should burn that press release. It's been the source of so much inflammatory rubbish. UD: What inspired you to start playing? LS: We just loved music and wanted to be in a band. LS: I wanted to be a song writer. UD: What songwriters do you admire? LS: Kraftwerk, Lennon and McCartney, Pet Shop Boys. UD: What do you think of Billy Bragg? LS: I think he's got a big nose. UD: (Laughing) I guess that would be 'not too much'. LS: Naw, I think he's alright. I like some of his love songs. UD: Yeah, he does write good love songs. LS: It's like Bob Dylan; I think all these political writers aren't as political when they are writing love songs. I think their political stuff stinks. Bob Dylan's political songs are so fucking one dimensional, and the same goes for Billy Bragg. UD: So you don't believe in the folk, socio-political commentary song? LS: Yeah I do. I just don't believe it's effective when it's put in that crass category. I don't think any of Bob Dylan's political songs were that moving. UD: ... What about "Times They Are A Changing"? LS: Yeah, I guess. UD: What about Elvis Costello? He's a guy who writes political songs. LS: Yeah I like "Shipbuilding." That's probably the best political song ever written. It goes beyond politics, and touches on the human consequences of politics, which I think song writing has got to do. I don't think you can just put numbers and manifestos within a chord sequence. I don't think it strikes a chord in the human heart. I think to actually say something to people you've got to say it with emotion. That's why I think that "Shipbuilding" is one of the best political songs.

UD: What's the worst thing about being on the road? LS: Standing in a pool of someone else's piss when you're on a fucking bus on a three-day journey. UD: Is there a story that goes along with that response? LS: No, that's an everyday occurrence. UD: What do you guys think about Tony Blair? LS: I think it's fucking great. I think it's the best thing to happen to England in a couple of years, wonderful. UD: In the United States they compare him a lot to Clinton. LS: A politician can never be one hundred percent great. I think a politician, as long as he inspires confidence in a positive way, then he's a good politician. And I think Blair and Clinton both do that. UD: What kind of press does Clinton get over there? LS: He gets good press. UD: He probably gets better press over there... LS: ... I'd rather see someone like him than some rejuvenated old skeleton like George Bush. You know what I mean? Some old man that looks like they've been revived, you know, dug up from the dead. UD: If you could just sit at home and write songs, would that satisfy you? LS: I don't think so, it's not boring enough yet to do that. There is part that is mundane. There are some low points but then there are some extreme highs and those highs can inform your writing. I think the point of it all is to actually let things inform other things, and let the whole thing become one big process. UD: Do you guys all get along on the road? LS: We've had fights in the past but not in the last couple of years. Although maybe we should start. LS: There is an idea. LS: Maybe I'll punch our bass player. UD: Head butt him? LS: Yeah, I want to give him a good head butt. LS: I might give him a hug. UD: No, don't do that. New Yorkers won't like it. Don't do the hug thing. Don't be nice or anything.

#suede #brett anderson #mat osman #coming up era #i thought i had posted this before but it seems i didn't?#anyway here it is :'DD

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k1ng-for-a-day · 3 years

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DBD Headcannons #4: What Danganronpa character/ultimate would they have or be?

This is definitely going to be the weirdest thing I’ll do, but honestly I’m fucking stoked about this. I love Danganronpa immensely and I have my own little things for it. Alright here we go... (I have also excluded some characters since I didn’t know who would fit them). (Also ask boxes are opened).

❤️Dwight Fairfield: Makoto Naegi. That’s it. That’s all I can say. If I had to choose his ultimate than it would definitely be ultimate leader. However, it would be different from kokichi’s ultimate since he isn’t “evil” as you would say.

❤️Meg Thomas: Meg is definitely Akane Owari due to her ability to run. Additionally she’s very athletic, and I can definitely see her as this character. She would definitely be the ultimate runner.

❤️Claudette Morel: Surprising enough, Caudette’s character was the most difficult to find. The main reason for this is due to the people who have the ultimate, or the substitute character for the person. In Danganronpa there is an ultimate botanist, but he isn’t what I would assign Claudette. I would also assign her with Mikan, but I feel like they aren’t really similar. Instead I have nothing. Her ultimate is super high school level botanist.

❤️Jake Park: He would deadass be Rantaro. They are so immensely similar that I can’t see anyone else fitting this role. He would also be the ultimate... adventurer..? I’m not too sure. Does anyone have any better suggestions?

❤️Nea Karlsson: Nea definitely has those Ibuki and Maki vibes, however ima go with Ibuki on this one. Both of them have this very grudge, alternative aesthetic that kind of creates an interesting mood. She would probably the ultimate rebel or adventure. Again I’m not sure.

❤️Ace Visconti: Celeste Ludenberg. He’s a gambler after all, and they definitely have similar traits. Both of them are usually in it for the money, and don’t think twice about their actions. And he would be the ultimate gambler,

❤️Feng Min: Chiaki Nanami and ultimate gamer. Are there any questions?

❤️Kate Denson: Kate Denson is definitely the living embodiment of Kaede Akamatsu. Her personality is to become a sort of musician, which is what Kaede tries to do. She is also very calm, nice, and such towards other people as well. She would definitely be the ultimate guitarist.

❤️Adam Francis: Honestly Adam has those Shuichi vibes and I’m all for it. Though he enjoys writing literature like Toko, I can’t imagine him switching from calm to insane when he sees blood. It just doesn’t make any sense to me y’know? Hence we I chose Shuichi instead. He would definitely be the ultimate writer.

❤️Jane Romero: Jane would definitely be Junko before she was revealed as the ultimate despair. She is definitely a fashionista type person, and can be very diva-ish at times. She would be the ultimate actress.

❤️Yui Kimara: Yuri would DEFINITELY be Tenko. The stalker she faced somewhat scared her to the point she didn’t enjoy men much at all. She doesn’t completely hate them, but it made her feel more terrified. Her ultimate would probably be the ultimate survivor due to her backstory. Not because I love her a lot, (even though I do).

❤️Zarina Kassir: Due to Zarina’s calm nature, I feel like she’s similar to Maki and Kyoko in a sense. Mainly leaning towards Maki. She would be the ultimate analyst.

❤️Felix Richter: Byakuya Togami. Ultimate technician. Need 👏 I 👏 say 👏 more 👏

❤️Cheryl Manson: Weirdly enough, Cheryl gives me these Himiko vibes. She is sweet, innocent, and can be naive at times. She is kind of pure too. She would probably be the ultimate lucky student or ultimate hope.

❤️David Tapp: I know I said his name again, but Shuichi definitely fits in with David Tapp as well. And he would obviously be the ultimate detective.

❤️Quentin Smith: While I was looking through the survivor list and characters, I wanted to see who would fit Quentin the most. Then it hit me. Seiko Kimura. Hear me out: they both have some sort of familiarity with pharmacy and they both kind of focus on healing. With both of these components in mind, it made it easy for me to realize Seiko would definitely fit this state. And Quentin would be the ultimate insomniac.

❤️Laurie Strode: Laurie is definitely Kyoko Kirigiri. She has this detective nature about her that can simply figure out something within seconds. Additionally she acts very calm, and is somewhat hard to track down. She would be the ultimate survivor.

❤️Élodie Rakoto: Like Claudette, finding Élodie’s character was difficult. She would definitely be the ultimate explorer, but the character was difficult to find. I still have no clue who would fit her spot.

🖤The Trapper🖤: The trapper is really fucking basic. If I had to choose, he would be Monokuma. He would definitely be the ultimate lucky student.

🖤The Hillbilly🖤: I probably shouldn’t reuse characters, but Jantaro definitely fits the Hillbilly. For one both of their parents hated their looks, and they were kept away from them due to this form. For his ultimate, he would be the super high school level farmer.

🖤The Nurse🖤: Mikan obviously. She would also be the ultimate nurse lmaoooo.

🖤The Shape🖤: Michael would be the ENBODIMENT OF KOKICHI. Or Nagito. Basically they are both immensely insane, and have their own way of getting what they want. However, Michael is a killer unlike them, so he’d be the ultimate killer.

🖤The Huntress🖤: I feel like the huntress fits Chihiro a lot due to their somewhat feminine features. Additionally they both are somewhat childish and naive since one of them hasn’t grown up yet. I also get a small hint of Himiko as well. She would be the ultimate child caretaker.

🖤The Cannibal🖤: Gonta Gokuhara and ultimate cannibal. That’s all.

🖤The Nightmare🖤: Freddy... Ahh Freddy Krueger... I feel like Freddy would be the ultimate nightmare, obviously, but his character would be Tsumugi. I know it’s just ultimately stupid, no pun intended, considering she’s the ultimate cosplayer. HOWEVER, she is also Junko Enoshima in disguise. To elaborate further, Freddy manipulates your dreams into think it is going to be a simple, wholesome dream, but it becomes your worst nightmare quickly. He’s so filled with despair to the point fear fuels him. He definitely suits this, and will cause the most despair inducing incident on all of man kind! I went a bit far huh...? Sorry-

🖤The Pig🖤: The pig would definitely be Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jack. I say this due to how she may seem nice, soft, gentle at first, but once in full force she’ll gut you till your end. I just love a small contrast between characters such as these due to how they can easily commit anything, and you wouldn’t notice. She would definitely be the ultimate despair. Her code ultimate would be the ultimate puzzle breaker.

🖤The Clown🖤: I was gonna say Kokichi Oma for this one, but Teruteru fits the spot much more. Definitely the ultimate clown.

🖤The Spirit🖤: Rin would definitely be Kirumi. They both are very intelligent, and attempt to do things perfectly in order to satisfy others. She would be the ultimate envy though.

🖤The Legion🖤: The legion are obviously the warriors of hope, (excluding Monaca because she’s awful and we hate her 🤩). For each character, however, Joey would be Masaru, Frank would be Nagisa, Susie would be Kotoko, and Julie would be Jantaro. For their ultimate, they would be the ultimate assassin club.

🖤Ghost Face🖤: This one is kinda difficult to decide.... it’s either Kokichi or Nagito Komeada... fuck it Nagito it is. And Danny would be the ultimate photographer.

🖤The Oni🖤: Peko Pekoyama. Ultimate swordsman/katana wielder. Need I say more?

🖤The Twins🖤: Call me crazy on this one, but they would be the despair sisters. That’s right, Murkuro and Junko Enoshima are these twos components. I had no other choice tbh. Their ultimates would be the ultimate siblings.

#slashers #dbd #dbd art #dbd claudette #dbd dwight #dbd fanart #dbd fanfic #dbd frank #dbd ghostface #dbd killer #danganronpa #dangan kin #muta kokichi #kokichi tag #drv3 kokichi #kokichi icons #danganronpa kokichi #kokichi ouma

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partnersatfazbear · 3 years

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Midnight Motorist - An Essay

I promised this awhile ago, but my thoughts on Midnight Motorist... This mini-game has literally kept me awake for hours on two separate occasions trying to figure it out, lol! So, reading the Updated Freddy Files *suggests, not confirms* that Toy Chica: The High School Years may be how William lured each child. I made notes on this, of course.

Although I listed who was used as a stand in for each, it has no bearing on the actual child killed.

The first, represented by Foxy, is already dead. I assumed this was a stand in for Norman/CC.

Second, represented by Freddy, was lured away with promises to help with homework.

Third, represented by Wolf. Run over their dog. We all know this is referring to Susie/Chica.

Fourth, represented by Toy Bonnie. It was suggested that their house be set on fire and then Chica uses her body to put out the flames. Best I could settle for this one was perhaps pulling a fire alarm at the restaraunt, or something similar.

Fifth, Funtime Foxy. Live hostages. Presumably luring a child away with promises that their friend / missing friend is in the back room.

Sixth, the Puppet. This one is the most interesting and why I'm including it here. Chica says "I'll come over to their house later, maybe break through a window, or set the house on fire and smoke them out [IIRC, I am paraphrasing a little]" The window, in my honest opinion, has to refer to Midnight Motorist. Scott has made a point of adding things in a following game to clarify the game before (starting at least since Sister Location). With the other one referencing Susie and Fruity Maze, I think this theory holds up, although it doesn't really help solve Midnight Motorist I think it's very important to note. (William has as much of an obsession with fire as Henry, huh?)

Lastly, there is Pigpatch. It's implied William would have knocked out a child and told them he rescued them after being "kidnapped". I really like this one.

The number of victims adds up to the number of children: BV, Freddy, Foxy, Bonnie, Chica, Golden Freddy, and Puppet.

Now that that's out of the way, I feel this heavily implies the footprints outside the window in MM are William's. The feet match the Glitchtrap suit, which most of us assume is a prototype for Spring Bonnie. Not only that, but obviously the springlock suits wouldn't work in the rain. Second, if you take some logic to it and see Charlotte as the first victim (no suit, no hiding the body, developing MO) then this killing would be the start of his MO--kind of an "in-between" point where he's evolving. Now, as to who the people in the house are...

In my fic, I kept the general idea that it was William as mustard man (thank you MatPat, this is my fav name for our mysterious fellow). Mostly because despite the evidence listed there is still a ton of evidence supporting it:

Later That Night - this is the name of the game file for MM.

Rain - Due to the in-game rain and this title its heavily implied to be just after Charlotte's death.

Grey Text - Michael is the only one to have the grey text and has similarities to Chair Person. (Note: I think Matpat did point out the color is slightly different, but it's still grey.)

Purple Car - William is the only one seen with a Purple Car back in one of the mini-games (FNAF 2, IIRC). To further support this, the car is also seen as an easter egg in the Dreadbear DLC of Help Wanted (with purple headlights). This is probably the most damning evidence that Mustard Man is William, in my opinion... but then how do the footprints make sense?

In my fic, I explained it away as footprints from the evening before (it was the best I could muster at the time) but this is super weak :V So this kind of brings us to alternative theories. If it is William, the supporting evidence is... good evidence of that. So, the other options are:

A Child Victim's Family - This is my second favorite theory because I think it could possibly work for, say, TOYSNHK [The One You Should Not Have Killed, hereby pronounced Toy-Shnuck] (who I made Cassidy). The problem with this is the child's gender is referred to as male. And there's a huge debate on Cassidy being female in game lore and TOYSNHK/GF being male. It IS a gender neutral name and wouldn't be the first time Scott changed a gender (see: Puppet), BUT it's pretty weak since all the info we have on TOYSNHK is recent. It could be another child that isn't Susie, though, but why show some random child as opposed to an important one? PizzaSim's games all revolve around specifics like Puppet (the first to die overall) and Susie (the first to die of the main five).

Henry is Mustard Man - This is the theory my wife likes. I can sort of see it and I even considered it at one point, but there isn't much evidence to go on. Why is the car purple is the biggest wrench for me. I also have problems with Mustard Man's attitude ("This is MY house", "He'll be sorry") Even if Henry was torn up about Charlotte, I can't see him treating his kids this way. This would also heavily imply the missing window kid to be Sammy, which hasn't been referenced in the game lore at all. He was barely mentioned in the novel trilogy, even. This also makes Gray Text either Aunt Jen or Henry's wife. There's just not enough to support this, in my opinion.

UPDATE 5/28/21 - Please see this post analyzing Fazbear Fright’s story “What We Found” for a more detailed look at what I’m about to explain that supports the Henry theory: Also from the books, CC / Norman is now referred to as Evan.

For this to work, we must assume Henry is an alcoholic after Charlotte’s death. I think the “later that night” evidence becomes somewhat irrelevant, because if this was the night of Charlotte’s death it wouldn’t really make sense. Part of me wondered if it took place after FNAF 2′s Springtrap cutscene, but the footprints don’t match. It has to be Spring Bonnie or Glitchtrap. Also, Evan and Elizabeth have also died by this point because neither are seen in the mini-game in this theory. You also must assume, based on the story evidence, that Henry married / stayed with Mrs. Afton after William either “died” or they divorced--they had to have been together for an x amount of time as for Mrs. Afton to be living with Henry but also the fact that Mrs. Afton kept Michael and the purple car. Henry using William’s car wouldn’t be unheard of if Mrs. Afton kept the car and the house, I just don’t feel Henry would use it unless he had been using the vehicle awhile. This also explains the Bonnie-esque footprints outside since William would want to come get / visit his kid he’s [most likely] no longer allowed to see. He may even be taking Michael back to the FNAF 4 house (implying that the house we see in MM is Henry’s). Speaking of, if we assume William’s intentions are [likely] bad, he’s probably taking Michael back to experiment with the Funtime-Nightmares, if you believe this theory. I think this theory is probably true considering the random grave (which, in this context has no answer except a Twisted animatronic aka a Nightmare) AND because the blueprints in Sister Location SHOW the Nightmares on the display during Funtime Freddy’s repair, implying they are real and not imagined. This is also assumed to be punishment for Michael killing Evan. I think Michael goes WITH William because of his tumultuous relationship with a now mentally ill and drunkard Henry. Henry probably knows that William killed Charlotte and a common theme in some works is a parent seeing their child (or a murderer) in a child aka Michael reminds Henry of William, so he neglects him (which in itself wouldn’t be out of place for Henry, since he already wasn’t a very attentive parent).

The main issue with this theory is that it sort of assumes that CC was Michael and not Evan. I don’t think that’s the case, though.

While we're on this version, I also want to discuss evidence for the MM driver being drunk. Not only are you driving on the opposite side of traffic, the Files book explicitly states "crashing" into the secret road for the mini-game. Not that Henry couldn't be drunk, especially if he just found Charlotte dead, but... for me personally it seems a stretch. And I already mentioned the car.

William's Father - This is an interesting idea, but the foot prints kind of rule it out. At least there's an explanation for the car, though, right? Still, it doesn't explain the foot prints unless you assume maybe his father was more alike Afton than we thought. But then why bother showing us background on our killer so late with no pay off? I easily dismiss this theory.

A new theory, at least one I haven't seen posed yet:

Vanny - That's right. Vanny. What if she survived/lived? Some leaks even suggest she may be related to the Aftons. Mustard Man's color is similar to Princess Quest's heroine. It explains the footprints, but doesn't explain the car. This would make for a nice foreshadowing of Vanny, IMO, but it’s weak at best.

You know when Matpat discusses "that one puzzle peice that we're missing"? That's this entire mess of a mini-game. Don't get me wrong, the music is bawlin and it's fun to talk about, otherwise I wouldn't write about it, but it is undoubtedly FRUSTRATING.

What are your opinions?

I also wanted to point out some other interesting things from the Files book I haven't seen discussed: There is confirmation of two sets of gold suits. Not only is there the FNAF 2 phone call, but the text specifies between Spring Bonnie/Springtrap and Fredbear/Golden Freddy. IE: FNAF 4 suit is Springtrap but the one from Stage 01 is Spring Bonnie. This could be oversight, but... I don't think it is. I'm sure most of the fandom does ASSUME this anyway, but I felt it was worth noting. (In my fic, they are the same suit, but the second sets are upgraded after the original failures).

The poster behind Scraptrap. Nothing really interesting here, but there is an image of a building with two gargoyle (lion?) statues behind him. Presumably this would be a police station or Fazbear Fright. I just thought it was cool since I never noticed this in the image. My initial thought was this might be a reference to the hospital in Man in 1280, but that’s a stretch.

Jr's. This is the random building in Midnight Motorist in which Green Man says "gtfo" to our Mustard Man. I should mention I feel that is good evidence to it being William or Henry, depending what the building is. We can 100% say it is NOT a bar (in my fic, that's what I used, even though it doesn't make sense. I don't see a drunk person driving to a second bar so close to their home when they could have gone there initially, BUT then I am a home-drinker when I do drink, so I don't know the night life). The Files refer to it as simply "a restaraunt". Whether this IS a FNAF location (also referred to as restaraunts) or just some random eatery, it's something to contemplate. I am in the camp that it isn't FNAF 2, at least.

I have some other things from Fazbear Frights' Blackbird I wanna discuss, too, but I'll wait until the book is out to help you all avoid spoilers.

Now, this is all just my thoughts on it. Please don't take anything too seriously (as Scott says don't rack your brain on this, it's not worth it). I just think these are some points that haven't been discussed before.

Also, if you wanna read my theory on why Scraptrap is partly the Golden Freddy suit, I have that theory here.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk? <-- is that a dated reference? Probably.

#fnaf theory #fnaf theories #midnight motorist #updated freddy files #the freddy files #fan theory #fan theories #five nights at freddy's

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i-like-5sos · 3 years

Text

No Idea [Malum Fic]

PAIRING: Calum Hood x Michael Clifford

WORD COUNT: 6428

WARNINGS: Drinking, swearing, and just some angst

SUMMARY: After moving across the country to escape the heartache that high school brings and to begin his first year at University, Michael finds himself face to face with the very person that caused his heartbreak: Calum Hood.

A/N: This was made specifically for Mandie for The Club Fic Gift Exchange ! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written any mxm BUT I’ve missed it and can’t wait to start writing more (if you have any suggestions on how to improve please send them my way, I’ll take all the help I can get).

Fifteen minutes late. I’m fifteen minutes late to my first class as a University student. Great.

I burst out through the doors of the residency building, almost crashing into some blonde girl who’s face leaves my memory as quickly as it entered, and run as fast as I can across the campus to The Arts building. Thankfully I listened to Mom’s advice and looked up a map of the school last night or I’d be fucked right now. Musical Theory. Monday, 8AM. Room 102: Arts Building. I check the room number on my schedule twice before taking a deep breath and opening the door to my classroom.

The door opens to the back of the room and multiple heads spin around to face me. I can feel my face getting hot as I try to disappear into myself and search for a place to sit down. As to be expected, almost every table in the room is full and there’s nowhere to sit… Unless I want to join one of the tables of three and converse in small talk with a group of people that obviously don’t want me to sit with them- and let’s be clear; I don’t want to do that.

I almost settle for a table with two girls seated at it, but then notice the table in the front of the room with only one person there. Thank god. I head toward the dark-haired boy at the table and quietly sit across from him. He doesn’t react as I sit down, his head buried in his folded arms on the table.

I would normally never be caught dead at the front of the room, but here I am, sitting so close to the professor that I can smell his cheap cologne, having to share a table with some random guy who is probably going to hate me for ruining his table of solitude.

As the class continues, I do my best to follow along with the PowerPoint slides on my screen while also trying to focus on what the professor is saying at the front of the room, but I can’t help but glance over to the brunette across from me every chance I get. His head hasn’t left his arms since I’ve sat down, and I’m pretty sure he’s asleep… Maybe I should wake him up. Maybe he’s dead. I begin to picture what would happen if my classmate had died sitting across from me. Would I have to talk to the police? Would I be a suspect? Am I obligated to go to his funeral and give a speech? What would I even say? What if-

“You will have two months to complete this project and it will be worth thirty percent of your final grade. Get to work.”

I turn to face the Professor, and I realize that I may have zoned out for the entire explanation of a project that’s worth almost a third of my final grade… awesome.

Letting out a sigh, I turn back to read through the notes on my screen and, of course, none of them have anything to do with a huge project. There is no way I am going to ask the professor to repeat everything he’d just said.

As my classmates begin to talk amongst themselves about the project that I know nothing about, I glance over to the boy across from me that may or may not be dead and decide that now’s a good a time as any to find out.

“Hey” I say quietly.

No response.

I repeat myself a little louder, “Hey… Uh, my name’s Michael.”

No response again.

“Dude, seriously?” I huff, before picking up my biggest textbook and dropping it onto the table.

It worked! His head shoots up and I notice the headphones in his ears. That explains a lot. I also notice that the boy I’ve been watching all morning sitting across from me is the same boy I’d spent the majority of my high school years watching from across the room. Calum Hood. I haven’t seen him since our high school graduation last June, but he looks about the same. Same dark hair, same brown eyes, same three moles on his cheek, same annoyed and confused look on his face- oh no wait that’s new.

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” He glares at me as he rips the headphones out of his ears.

“I thought you were dead or asleep or something.” I shrug before changing the topic, “I didn’t know you got accepted here.”

“Well, obviously I’m not dead, and if I was sleeping, that was a cruel way to get me to wake up... Remind me never to have you actually wake me up.” He places his headphones into his backpack before continuing. “And um, yeah, I was torn between a few different universities but settled on the one farthest from home… Looks like you did the same?”

I nod and chuckle softly. “Yeah. Fuck that place.”

“How pop punk of you.” He laughs, and it brings me back to being fifteen and pathetically swooning over that very sound, never being the one to have caused it. If only fifteen-year-old me could see me now.

Grounding myself, I quickly try to think of something that isn’t completely embarrassing, and remember the mysterious project that I know mothing about.

“So… did you catch anything the prof was saying about this project worth thirty percent of our grade… cause I might have zoned out the whole time...”

He looks confused for a moment, before directing his attention to his laptop.

“I can’t blame you for not paying attention. Five minutes into his lecture I stopped listening to him and started listing to my music instead. Figured I could just read the Power Point later tonight.” He types something before continuing, “I looked through the material on the class page before the lecture started and I think I saw something about a group project that was worth thirty percent… let me just… Okay yeah, here it is.” He turns his laptop to face me, pointing at the assignment on the screen and showing me how her got there.

I quickly follow his instructions to the page and begin reading about the assignment. It’s a group project for 2-3 people about how emotions and feelings are portrayed through song. We’re all supposed to draw an emotion from the professor -that explains why people keep getting up to talk to him- and write an essay about a song that has made us feel this way. Once we finish our essays, we’re supposed to go back to our partners and make a playlist of 25 songs that combines each the emotions we were individually assigned and talk about how easily these emotions can be portrayed in music. Seems simple enough… Except for the whole partner part.

I look up from my computer screen, and before I can talk myself out of it, I ask Calum if he’d like to partner up for the project. To my surprise, he agrees and before I know it, I’m looking down at the paper I had pulled out of the tin can on my professor’s desk. Longing. What kind of lame-ass emotion is longing? I sit back down at our table and show Calum my paper.

“Longing? That’s going to be so easy to write about! And it’ll go great with love. This is going to be a piece of cake.” He enthusiastically, typing away on his laptop.

“You got love? Are you kidding me? That’s such bullshit. Every song is about love… or sex… or drugs, and I don’t think sex or drugs are emotions… so like that’s not fair.” I look back at my small slip of paper, “How am I even supposed to write about longing?”

He breaks away from his typing long enough to look at me, “Longing is so easy to write about. Haven’t you ever wanted something you couldn’t have? Or missed someone or something like that?”

“I don’t know… maybe.” I pause for a moment, “I don’t know.”

He looks back to his screen and continues to type. “Okay, I looked up the word longing and it says here that ‘Longing is mainly a blend of the primary emotions of love or happiness and sadness or depression’. So there. You can focus on one of those four. It’s not that hard, Michael.”

Hearing Calum say my name takes me back for another brief moment. Even though we went to the same school for four years, I never really knew if he had known my name or not… we never really talked or hung out in the same crowds, so I figured it was safe to assume he didn’t even know I existed.

He shakes his head and looks at his screen again as I try to avoid the thoughts of how smooth my name rolled off his tongue that are currently running wild in my head, to focus on what he had said about the different ways longing could be portrayed and experienced.

Just as I begin to reflect on the last few years of my life for a moment that could stand out as ‘experiencing longing’, I’m interrupted by the sounds of my classmates packing up their belongings. I look to my left and notice Calum suddenly standing next to me.

“Here,” he says, handing me a sticky note with a phone number on it. “text me so we can meet up to work on the project.”

“I uh- thanks.” I stumble over my words as I take the paper from him and stick it to the inside of my laptop.

When I turn back to Calum, he’s already on his way to the door. I quickly pack up my books and pause for a moment to look at the sticky note before shutting my laptop, ignoring the heat on my face and the feeling in my stomach.

. . .

I feel like I may have stepped into an alternate dimension when I entered that classroom two weeks ago, because I’ve somehow found myself in the Calum Hood’s dorm room. By choice. His choice. Who would have thought?

To be honest, I’m kind of surprised at how easily we get along. We both have the same taste in music, the same sense of humor, and the same hobbies. Who knew we were so similar? Had we actually spoken to one another in high school, there would have been no stopping a friendship from forming.

Since texting him the day after our class, we’ve pretty much been inseparable. So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I’m hanging out with Calum in his dorm room… but I kind of am.

“Okay seriously, Calum. How do you already have four pages written out for your essay?” I ask, scrolling through the Word document open on his laptop.

“It’s like you said, love is easy to write about… You know what else is easy to write about?” He spins around on his desk chair, taking a break from his game to face me. “Longing. Have you even started your essay, or were you just planning on taking me down with you when you flunk out?”

I set the laptop down next to me on his bed. “The only one flunking out here is your team in Fifa.”

“That was a shit insult and you know it.”

“You’re a shit insult.”

He shakes his head and laughs. “Mate, for real. Do you need help writing your part?”

“No. I told you, I’ll be fine. I just need some inspiration… Which is what I should have gotten from your essay but the whole damn thing is about your family. It is so boring! Where’s the drama? Weren’t you a ladies’ man in high school? Where’s that Calum?”

With his eyebrows raised he looks taken aback for a moment and bursts out laughing.

“Did you seriously just call fourteen-year-old me a ‘ladies’ man’?” He asks, making air quotes at the last part.

I shrug and he continues laughing.

“Okay fine, you have a point. But like... what even is longing?”

His laughter softens and he rolls his eyes, smiling at me.

“Do you need me to pull up the definition again?”

“Fuck off.” I huff.

“Okay, fine… What about like, leaving town to come here. Didn’t you miss your girlfriend? Or your friends? Or maybe your family?”

“Girlfriend?” I laugh loudly. There’s no way he’s serious right now… “No. Absolutely no girlfriend. As for my family? I honestly couldn’t be happier to be on my own and out of the house... Also, it’s kind of hard to miss your friends when facetime exists.” I lay back on his bed and prop myself up with my elbow. “What else ya got?”

“Okay lone wolf… what about uh… okay I’ve got it. What about longing for like… touch, or affection, or love, or… fucking I don’t know, food?”

“Yeah, cause I’ll definitely get an A writing my essay about craving a Big Mac. Maybe I can get extra credit if I bring one in.”

He glares at me and rolls his eyes again before shaking his head and turning around to focus his attention back to his game. I drop my head onto his pillow and sigh. Watching him play, my mind wanders as I being to think about his words. Touch. Affection. Love. My heart aches for the poor fifteen-year-old boy I once was, longing for those exact things for over a year and never getting them. I remember the emotional shut down I forced myself to do to move on from the brown-eyed boy that occupied my mind daily. I sigh deeply, taking in the musky scent of the room around me, and as much as I don’t want to admit it, I finally know what I’ll be writing about.

. . .

“Are you sure you know where this party is? I’m pretty sure we’re lost.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure they said it’s in this neighborhood… there should be a street coming up soon that starts with an S… or maybe it was a B. Whatever. We’ll start to see people on the street sooner or later and follow the noise to the right house.”

Calum and I continue to walk aimlessly down the suburban streets with houses that all look the same, in search for a party that I’m not even sure exists at this point.

“You’d think, for someone that probably went to every high school party, you’d know to write down an address when it’s given to you.” I grumble as my feet begin to ache.

“You know, you make a lot of assumptions about what I was like in high school. Weren’t you ever told not to assume?” He says, bumping his shoulder against mine.

“You’re really going to tell me that you never went to any parties in high school? I seriously doubt that.”

“Okay… Well, yeah I went to some parties. Didn’t everyone though?”

“What? No.” I scoff. “Dude, not everyone was invited to parties like Mr. Cool Guy over here.”

“Am I supposed to be Mr. Cool Guy? That’s a laugh.”

“Mate. Just admit it. You were one of the cool kids and you know it.” I bump my shoulder back against his.

“Was not.”

“You were to! Everyone knew who you were. Everyone wanted to either date you or be you. You can’t be that oblivious.” I kick a small pebble as we cross yet another unidentifiable street.

“Date me or be me huh? Did you want to be me?”

Fucking hell. Why am I still allowed to have the ability to speak without a filter?

“No.” I focus my gaze on the cracks in the sidewalk, making sure to avoid any possible eye contact.

It’s quiet for a moment as a car drives past us, filling the silence before Calum speaks again.

“Well, you obviously didn’t want to date me. So, your theory is clearly wrong.”

I walk beside him silently as I debate whether to admitting to the fact that I had the biggest crush on him for over a year when we were younger.

“See, I’m right.”

“I did though.” I choke out before I’m able to stop myself. Fuck.

“What?” He stops walking.

Well, this was fun while it lasted… I wonder if our professor will still let me join another group, seeing as Calum isn’t going to want to talk to me ever again.

May as well finish the job then.

“I did want to date you.” I confess softly as I stop in front of him, keeping my eyes on the ground.

“You’re not... gay though.”

I- What? He’s got to be kidding me right now. I’m pretty sure everyone in high school knew I was gay. Hell, I came out to my parents in the fifth grade.

“Are you fucking with me? Calum.” I finally gain the courage to meet my eyes with his and see him shaking his head. “I’m gay as fuck. Always have been.”

“No way. What about Jessica Hunter?”

We’re awkwardly standing in the middle of the sidewalk and I’m completely over-aware of the man walking his dog across the street as Calum continues to stare at me with a dumbstruck look on his face. Well, at least he hasn’t left yet.

“What about Jessica? She and I hang out from time to time and listen to music together. We’re friends.” Oh god. “Wait- are you thinking that her and I? Oh god. Never.” I shake my head to try and get that image out of it.

“No no... She was in love with you! The way she always talked about you, hung around you, and hung off you… You went to Prom together! You were the reason I never even had a chance with her. I spent so many hours thinking about you and why she chose you over me and I…” he tampers off and continues to look utterly confused.

Am I being Punked right now? There must be a hidden camera somewhere. This can’t be real.

“No Calum. Oh my god. Mate. Jessica and I were always together talking about you. She didn’t want me. She wanted you… We both did. We only went to Prom together cause she was still hung up on you and didn’t have the guts to ask you herself. Plus, you did that whole stag Prom thing with Timothy Anderson anyway.”

He continues to stand there, trying to piece together the story he had so wrongly created around himself.

“So… You’re gay.”

“Yup.”

“And you actually used to … like me?”

“Yup”

“And Jessica-“

“Never had a chance with me. Because I’m gay and she had the hots for you anyway… Are we all caught up? Can we please keep walking? I’m getting cold.”

“Man, did I have this whole thing wrong or what…” He shakes his head and starts walking again.

We continue heading to the party that totally doesn’t exist and get about half a block away from where we had previously stopped before Calum stops walking again.

“Dude! Seriously?” I sigh deeply and stop a few feet in front of him.

“You don’t uh… still have feeling for me or anything. Do you?”

“Yes Calum. I’m completely head over heels for you and plan to propose to you when we get to the party in front of everyone.” His mouth drops and I roll my eyes. “Fuck off. No. Cal, I don’t still have feelings for you. That was years ago. Now can we please keep walking? I’m going to fucking die of hypothermia.”

“Okay… you’re right. Sorry.” He mutters, clearly embarrassed and continues to walk again.

At least I’m not the only one that’s embarrassed.

We walk silently for a few minutes and I feel his fingertips brush against mine and my heart flutters softly. Shit.

. . .

“Are you even listening to me Mike?”

I look up from my phone to see Calum glaring at me. He burst into my dorm room about 45 minutes ago insisting we practice our presentation for the millionth time since he finished his essay. Of course, mine’s not finished yet, but at least I have something to write about now. But, without mine to practice, he’s just been reading his on a loop – I personally think he’s trying to annoy me to death. Jokes on him though, he’s got a nice voice.

“I can only hear your essay so many times before my brain starts to block it out to preserve my sanity.”

“You wouldn’t have to hear it so much if we had something else to practice… like, I don’t know- maybe your easy perhaps?”

How subtle. Ever since he finished his essay (overachiever much?), he’s been on my ass about mine. Even if I actually had it finished, there’s no way in Hell I’ll be letting him see this – let alone hear me read it out loud – until I have to.

“Dude. I’ve told you like eighty times now. I hate presenting stuff. I’m not doing it any more than I have to. Being in front of everyone, having them all stare at me- judging me? Fuck that. Once is enough. I don’t need you judging me too.”

“You honestly think I’m going to judge you? I don’t buy it. You’re Michael Clifford. You don’t give a shit about what other people think about you.”

I can’t help but laugh out loud. If only he knew.

“Well, when I’m putting myself out there in front of a whole room of people then yeah, I’m going to give a shit about what they think.”

“Putting yourself out there? Mate, it’s an essay. You sure you’re not just making up excuses to cover up the fact that you haven’t started writing it yet?”

Calum runs his finger through his hair, and I try not to stare. Why did he have to come to my school again, be in my class again, make my heart ache again. I feel like this time is worse. Being this close, not being able to touch him in the ways I want. Is this some horrible karma for complaining about longing? I shake my head at the joke that I call my love life and push past it like I always do.

“Maybe, but I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

He throws a pillow at me and tells me to shut up before beginning to read his presentation yet again.

. . .

As I approach Calum’s door, I look down at the folded mess of papers in my hands and decide to quickly shove them into my backpack to make sure he doesn’t try to take them and read my shitty essay beforehand.

I pull my bag off my back and drop to my knees to put the papers away. I finish zipping it up and throw it over my shoulder as I hear the door open in front of me. I look up and see an eye full of Calum’s junk. My eyes widen and I can feel my cheeks heat up as I quickly look away and stand up. I try not to look at his face and pray that my cheeks aren’t as red as they feel.

“At least buy me dinner first. Damn.” He laughs. The sound melts my worries away. Mostly.

“Fuck off. We’re going to be late.” I give him a shove and begin walking to the exit.

Walking with one another to our classes has become a part of our daily routine. Calum decided so about a month ago when he found out that I tripped and scrapped my elbow and knee open like a child while running to make it on time for one of my 8AM classes. So now he seems to think that I can’t manage walking to class by myself. I mean, I’m not complaining. I’ll take any time that I can get with him until inevitably ruin the best friendship I’ve ever had.

As we walk, Calum is -of course- rehearsing his presentation again. I sigh and think about the essay sitting in my bag and how he’s going to react to hearing it. Maybe he’ll just drop the class and ghost me. God that will hurt... Maybe I should just fake sick, or say I never finished my part of the project, or-

My spiraling thoughts are cut short by Calum opening the classroom door and I admit defeat. The two of us sit at our table still -sadly- located at the front of the room. As we sit down, I watch Calum pull out his papers and read them over as if he didn’t just prove that he’s got it memorized by reciting it on our walk over. I set up my laptop and shove my papers under it, quickly checking back to Calum to make sure he hasn’t noticed. I exhale softly and wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans before opening our Spotify playlist, preparing it for our presentation.

A dread-filed hour and a half passes as I listen to the other groups make their presentations and read through their playlists to try and distract myself.

“Group seven, you’re up.”

My blood goes cold and I feel like I can’t move. I feel Calum swiftly kick my shin under the table.

“That’s us. Get up.” He whispers

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I want to be back at home in my bed. I don’t want this. I don’t want to lose my friend. Why did I have to take this class? Why couldn’t I have been assigned anger. Why didn’t I just sit with those two girls that first day?

“Mike, it’ll be okay. I’ll be up there with you the whole time.” That’s half the problem, Calum.

I sigh deeply and open my eyes. They stay glued to the table as I pick up my laptop and the messy pile of papers underneath it. I walk slowly behind Calum to the front of the room and stop at the podium. I quickly plug my laptop into the screen behind us as he introduces the both of us to the class and begins to talk about the emotions we were assigned before launching into how they relate to one another and briefly talking about our playlist. I feel slightly reassured as he begins to recite the speech that I pretty much have memorized myself at this point. I allow myself to zone out to the sound of his voice as I wait for my cue.

“… and to me that is what love is to me. Family.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I rub my sweaty palms on my jeans again and pick up my papers with trembling hands. Closing my eyes again, I take another deep breath and open them once finished. Here goes everything.

“I- um- I’m Michael and I uh… I was assigned the emotion longing. When I first read the small paper and saw I had longing, I was confused and upset that my partner had such an easy emotion to talk about and I um… I had something as complex as longing…” I look over to Calum and he gives me a reassuring smile and my heart skips a beat. “Until he helped me realize that longing is pretty much the universal emotion. It branches into every emotion you can think of. It powers them and really brings the depth to them. Once I had realized this, the only issue I had was choosing which emotional experience to talk about. This itself seemed to be an impossible choice, so I’ve decided to talk about an experience that, like longing, incorporates every emotion. Heartbreak. My chosen song for this was No Idea by All Time Low. Song number…” I quickly look over at our playlist and count the sounds out to make sure I’m right before continuing, “seven on our playlist.”

I press play and I continue over the quiet music, telling the story of a young Michael who was in love with a boy that never knew he existed. A boy who broke his heart without ever even speaking to him. A boy who he was still desperately in love with, years later. A never-ending tale of longing.

Once the longest five minutes of my life had passed, I quickly unplug my laptop and hurry back to our table, avoiding eye contact with Calum the entire way back. I grab my books and shove them along with my laptop and essay into my bag. I damage my papers even more by doing so, but I could care less.

Throwing my backpack over my shoulder, I leave the room as I hear Calum call out after me. There’s no way he’ll catch up to me. Besides, my Sound Tech class was cancelled today, so even if he does manage to catch up, I won’t be there.

I finally make it back to my room without encountering Calum and I toss my bag onto my chair and dive face first into my bed to wait out the impending consequences for ambushing my best friend in the middle of a room full of people. Why did I do that. Fuck me.

. . .

Calum had been planning a party over the last few weeks to celebrate us finishing our project. I had told him time and time again that ‘finishing a project’ is the lamest reason to throw a party. But yet, here I am, in my room surrounded by the pulsating beats of music blasting down the dorm hall.

I’ve managed to avoid Calum for the past four days since the most embarrassing moment of my life. He’s tried texting and calling me too many times to count, and he even showed up to my dorm room twice. I, of course, pretended to be asleep both times.

So, I know it has to be Calum banging repeatedly on my door, throwing off the steady beats of music.

“Mike, it’s Calum. Can I come in?” I hear him shout through the door over the music.

I get up and turn the light off before returning to my desk to continue trying to focus on the game on my computer and pretending I’m not here.

“Mate! I saw you turn your light off! Michael! Open the door!”

The banging persists and my head sinks lower and lower into my shoulders. Go away. Please. I don’t want to hurt. Not tonight. Please.

“I’m not leaving! Maybe I’ll just ask one of those art kids for a sculpting knife and cut your door down! HA! You couldn’t avoid me if I did that! You wouldn’t even have a door to lock!” He slurs half of his words and it’s becoming clear that he’s drunk, and drunk Calum doesn’t quit.

I drop my head onto the desk and breathe deeply for a minute, listening to him yell at me through the door, before getting up and walking over to the sound. I pause there for a moment and prepare for the worst.

As soon as I open the door, Calum falls backwards onto my floor. How in the Hell…

“What do you want Calum? I’m busy.”

He stumbles back to his feet, swaying softly while he regains his balance in the centre of my dark room.

“You’re busy? You’re busy. That’s why you’ve been avoiding me for a week? Cause you’re busy?! Fuck off Michael.”

I say nothing as I lean against my open door, waiting for him to get this over with, so I can shut it behind him and go back to my self-loathing.

“Answer me!”

Clearly the silent treatment isn’t working here. I glance at the hallway full of people, some who have begun to stare at the two of us. I grit my teeth and shut the door, letting the darkness engulf my room, leaving only the light of my computer screen allowing us to see one another as we stand together in the center of the room.

“What the Hell do you want me to say?!”

“Well for starters, how about you tell me why the fuck you’ve been avoiding me?”

“I haven’t been-“

“Fuck off. You have, and you know it. Now tell me why.”

I shake my head and adjust my weight from foot to foot, shrugging to come up with an excuse.

“Oh. My. God. You’re impossible!” He pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath before I watch his posture soften. “Is this about what you said in your essay?”

I go stiff and remind myself to breathe.

“I knew it! At first, I didn’t think that was it, but it fucking was! Why are you avoiding me? Do you think I’m against your sexuality or some shit? Is that why you won’t talk to me? Cause that’s not true! You never even asked me about what I thought about it. About your feelings for me. How I would feel. About my feelings for- about your sexuality. Your sexuality, yeah... You just never asked me.” His face reddens at the last part, probably from lack of air after that speech.

I listen as he drunkenly rambles at me and try to think of something to say. How can he be right? He can’t be. I shouldn’t have to explain myself or my sexuality to him. Why would it matter what he thought about my sexuality?

“Your opinion of my sexuality isn’t needed Calum.” I say, shaking my head.

He sighs harshly and rubs his temples before stomping his foot. Did he actually just stop his foot? Is he five?

“Michael. That’s not what I’m saying! Listen to me! You’re so busy thinking about yourself and your feelings that you’re missing the bigger picture! You’re not the only person in this situation!”

“Oh, I’m sorry Calum. I’m so sorry my feelings were an inconvenience for you! You wanna talk about it? Let’s talk about it! Have my feelings for you ruined your college experience? Have my feelings for you kept you up every night? Have my feelings for you broken your heart?!”

He is silent for a moment before closing his eyes. His body sways softly as he runs his hands through his hair.

“No-” He sighs deeply before replying quietly, “your feelings for me didn’t do any of those things to me. Mine did.”

He opens his eyes and the light of the computer screen highlights the beautiful features of his skin as his words sink into mine.

I stand there with my jaw dropped, staring at the man in front of me. Did he just say… No. No. This is a sick joke. I feel a lump form in my throat begin to form.

“That’s not funny Calum.” I choke out softly.

“I’m not joking.”

“You’re straight.”

“I’m not! I’m Bisexual.” His cheeks redden softly in the pale blue light.

I stare at him in disbelief. He’s got to be drunk out of his mind to lie like this.

“You’re straight.” I repeat in an attempt to both reassure myself and convince him to stop the lies.

He runs his hands through his hair again and lets out an exasperated groan.

“Michael! Fuck! Why won’t you ever listen! I like you! I’ve been trying to tell you ever since you came out to me on the way to that shitty party. I only stopped myself cause you said you didn’t have feelings for me anymore. I’m bisexual Michael! Why do you think I went to Prom with Timothy?”

“That- that was just a stag thing…”

“I wasn’t ready to come out yet. Neither was he.”

He takes a step closer to me, making me overly aware of how small my dorm room actually is. I can smell his cologne and the alcohol -tequila? Yeah, tequila- wafting off him as the space between our bodies lessens.

“So, you’re… bisexual?”

The relief is visible as it washes over him. He smiles softly and takes another step towards me.

“And you… uh… you like me?”

“You wanna talk about it?” He whispers as his eyes drop to my lips.

“Calum, I-”

Before I can finish whatever stupid thing I was going to say, I feel his hands grab my face and his lips crash into mine. I close my eyes and return the kiss. My hands find their way into his hair as he pushes his body against mine. His hand leaves my cheek and finds its way up the back of my shirt, pulling my body impossibly closer to his.

This is more than I’ve ever dreamt of. Calum Hood. Calum Hood kissing me. His hair is softer than I could have ever imagined. I can taste the tequila on his tongue as it slips ever so slightly in between my lips and I suddenly remember how drunk he is. It takes every part of me to pull away and break the kiss.

“Calum. You’re drunk. I can’t.”

“I can.” He steps towards me with a slightly needy expression in his eyes.

“Calum.” I repeat sternly and step away, my back pressing against the door.

He lets out a defeated sigh as he turns around and walks over to the drawer where I keep my snacks.

“Do you have any bread?”

“I- uh… what?... Maybe, why?”

“I want to sober up so you’ll kiss me again.”

I laugh softly and walk over to help him look.

. . .

I wake up to the feeling of something heavy laying across my face. As I open my eyes and adjust my sights to the room around me, I realize the heavy thing on my face is actually Calum’s arm. The events of last night come back to me like a hurricane. Calum arriving at my dorm room drunk, Calum coming out to me as bisexual and confessing his feelings for me… Calum kissing me, and finally, Calum falling asleep beside me while waiting to sober up… I would say it was a dream, but I now have a red, arm-shaped mark on my face to prove otherwise.

I peel his arm off my head and his eyes shoot open, making me jump a little. I watch as he looks around the room and stops once his eyes meet mine. He smiles sweetly at me.

“Hi.” He says, his voice deep and raspy from just waking up.

“Hey there.” I whisper back.

“Guess what.”

“What.”

He smirks at me as his hand finds its way to my cheek and his body shifts towards mine.

“I think I’m finally sober.”

I exhale as my body relaxes from the tension and worry I didn’t realize I had about last night. I chew on my bottom lip as I wait for him to do something.

His eyes explore my face before slowing down at my lips just as they did last night. He blinks slowly and as his eyes open, I find them looking into mine again. He smiles softly as he closes them once more and leans forward, connecting his lips to mine. His pillowy lips kiss mine softly for the best minute of my life, and when he pulls away, he takes my breath with him. I am utterly awestruck by his beauty and the feeling of his lips on mine.

“How about you and I go on to dinner later and get to know the real us? No more assumptions and no more secrets.”

I nod and smile widely.

“I thought you’d never ask.” I agree as he grins before kissing me again.

#malum #the club gift exchange #for mandie #malum fic rec #soft malum #calum x michael #malum fic #malum one shot #5sos fic #5sos one shot #writings #mine

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manga-and-stuff · 4 years

Text

Interview with Makoto Yukimura, the Mangaka behind Vinland Saga

REALQ: What kind of child were you? Yukimura: I was a laid back kid, who took a very, very long time to come to a decision. I'd be late to dinner because I was thinking about something or other. Once, while I was alternately touching the right and left eyes of a snail, I became aware that night had fallen. I wondered why my group of friends were always in such a hurry. I would focus on something and lose the ability to tell if time was passing quickly or slowly.

REALQ: When did you first encounter manga? Yukimura: I was five-years-old and the manga was Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump. I remember thinking the cover art was cool. When I was little, I used to think that the cover art and the story inside were drawn by different people. [Laughs] But I watched the Dr. Slump anime before I read the manga. Later, someone told me that there was a manga that the anime was based on and I found the weekly magazine where it was serialized. In the beginning, I was dubious. I didn't see why there needed to be both a manga and an anime. Like, why do the same thing twice? How-ever, after I saw them both it made sense because each had its own idiosyncracies. REALQ: Did your parents say anything to you about reading manga? Yukimura: No, they never said anything. They came from a generation who said reading manga made you an idiot, but they didn't say any-thing. They didn't say anything when I told them at 16 that I wanted to draw manga, either.

REALQ: Was there anything that your parents, siblings, or people around you would say to you often?

Yukimura: There certainly must have been various things, but I don't remember because I was probably concentrating on something else at the time and didn't hear them. However, one thing I do remember is being told to watch out for cars. Like, at the very least, try not to die. [Laughs] Nevertheless, I really did get into a traffic accident. Once, on my way to the park to play with my friends, I ran out into the street and got hit on the side by a sedan. I rolled over the top of the car—the hood, wind-shield, top, rear window, then the trunk. Strangely, I wasn't seriously injured and played in the park afterwards. Actually, there was also another incident. My sister and I were riding together in a car. It was just the two of us and as we were going down a hill, a car suddenly appeared and we hit its side. I was sitting in the backseat and was launched forward like a catapult. My sister was so surprised she called out, "Mako, you're flying!" Strangely, I wasn't injured that time either, and we decided not to tell our mother. [Laughs] REALQ: Did your way of thinking change after the accident? Yukimura: I think that if it did change, I wasn't conscious of it. Despite being a near-death experience, it was a miracle I wasn't injured. My mother getting angry at me afterward was more frightening. [Laughs] In terms of my "way of thinking," I'm a little different. Like something in me is lacking. It's often the case that for some reason I don't fully comprehend a conversation even if I'm really trying to concentrate on what the other person is saying. What's the reason? If I'm honest about it, it's because I'll start thinking about something else, even if it's just for a moment. REALQ: Did you also have trouble paying attention during class at school? Yukimura: Yeah. Especially classes that didn't interest me. I continued to have this problem in high school, where I'd often be sitting in class and before I realized it, the bell would ring. However, my notebook would have stuff drawn in it...manga. REALQ: Didn't teachers or friends say anything?

Yukimura: In high school, I didn't have much of a social life, so nobody said anything. I went to reasonably academic schools [REALQ Editor's note: Yukimura graduated from Chuo University and Suginami High School] and my peers studied quite hard. The feeling that I was so different from most of the people around me had a big effect on me. I didn't fit in. I lived in my own world.

REALQ: Did student life give you anxiety? Yukimura: Anxiety was the only thing I really felt. In a way, isn't school a microcosm for society? Despite it being a microcosm, there's this feeling of being left behind. That made me really anxious and sad. But as a result of suffering in this way, I realized that society existed out-side of this microcosm—a kind of society that I had never experienced inside the microcosm of school.

REALQ :What lead you to have this epiphany? Yukimura: It occurred to me out of the blue one day when I was feeling totally devastated. I was 16. One autumn day after school I thought to myself, "I'll finish high school because if I don't, it will make my parents sad. But participating in a society reflected in this kind of microcosm will be impossible." It was just like that moment when a cup is filled to the brim with water and suddenly the surface tension breaks and it overflows. However, thinking this made me feel better. Until that point, the "ruler" for determining success since the first year of high school had been getting good grades, getting into a good college, and then finding a job with a good company. This ruler contained within it a system of values for how one should live their life. When I decided that this was not the ruler I wanted to use to measure my own life, things became a lot easier for me. I used to get burnt out worrying so much about getting decent enough grades that would allow me to get into university. Like, "please let me just graduate!" Realizing that there was another way to live was a lifesaver.

Of course, I think it made my parents nervous. In that era, there was still a deeply rooted notion that one's academic background was im-portant and working for a good company made you a good person. Back then, this was like saying, "Your child is the type of kid who won't find their way in the world." It was like throwing away the most important ruler and replacing it with a new ruler that was a little bent and covered with indecipherable markings. [Laughs] REALQ: Was there anyone from your high school days who had an influence on you? Yukimura: A teacher who taught classical literature. He was apparently a teacher with quite bizarre interpretations of the material. More than anything else, what left the greatest impression on me was when he used class time to talk about how wonderful Michael Ende was [REALQ Editor's note: a German writer of children's fiction]. He introduced me to The Never Ending Story. Once I knew about Michael Ende, he became an influence on me. It was the first book I knew of in which someone wrote a book because he had a sense of obligation and a goal in relation to society and the world. I thought that someone who wrote a book because he felt that it was something he had to do was a rather beautiful thing to wish for. REALQ: Next up... Yukimura discusses the connection between himself and Thorfinn Karlsefni, the protagonist of his Vinland Saga. Is there anything that makes you hesitate when you draw your manuscripts?

Yukimura: For characters, it's probably the hands. Hands take time to do well. The strength of a character's grip on a sword, for example. Male and female hands are hard to differentiate, too. Hands are the most expressive part of a character, after the face.

I've heard that you can tell a person's personality from their hands, so I always look at them. [Laughs] You can fake a facial expression, but your hands will show how hard you work or how hard you don't. If you show the character's life in their hands, you'll get a good result. REALQ: When did you start paying attention to how you drew hands? Yukimura: Since I was young. But I still find it difficult now. When I look at the work of other manga artists, sometimes the faces are well drawn, but the hands are not. To put it bluntly, if I were to choose among artists, I would choose them by how they draw their hands. REALQ: Is there anyone whose work you reference? Yukimura: I'm especially influenced by artists with high amounts of realism. When it comes to hands, it's gotta be Katsuhiro Otomo.

It's not just his hands, though. It's everything. [Laughs]

Also, the young, up-and-coming artists are all quite good. Their hands are pretty, but you can see the structure clearly as well. REALQ: Any thoughts on these hands? [While looking at Sigurd's hands in the manuscript] Yukimura: Yes. These hands are drawn fairly well. In Sigurd's case, de-spite the muscularity, his hands are not rough. That's because he has his underlings do the tough work. In Thorfinn's case, he has many small cuts, and there is more cracked and peeling skin.

REALQ: Are there any scenes in Vinland Saga strongly influenced by your own experience? Yukimura: When Thorfinn is on his knees, apologizing. [Laughs] The part where he says, "Please. I won't ask you to forgive me, but allow me to live a bit longer." I've been drawing manga for 20 years. There's always a shadow of guilt that hangs over me. I'm sorry for being so selfish. So, I feel I have to, at the very least, draw something that readers will love... I'm nothing without that. Thorfinn is a young viking from medieval Europe. Since his teens, he's pillaged, fought in wars, and done many other terrible things. His feelings change as he grows, and he starts to feel guilt for his past actions. The ghosts of those he killed appears in his dreams, and he is ravaged by nightmares. I am only here today because of the care of those around me. I am truly thankful. If anything about Thorfinn comes from my experiences, it has to be this. In his current state, the protagonist has no right to convict anyone else. No matter what kind of scoundrel he meets, Thorfinn always feels that he has done something worse in the past. I think it's good this way.

REALQ: Did you know from the beginning that Thorfinn would become the way he did? Yukimura: Yeah. The story began with the premise that the protagonist is fated to have done many terrible things. He goes from being the oppressor to being the oppressed, and in doing so, he learns many things and becomes an adult. He then departs, saying, "I will go to a new land beyond the sea and build a peaceful country." That is an escape from the values that dominated European society. They do not feel that it is bad to wage war and plunder other countries. And, although their opponents are human beings, they believe they have the right to make the weak into slaves and kill them if they need be. In the society of that time, such things were seen as good things. Thorfinn experiences—and hates—both. But he is powerless to change the system... So he decides to leave. There will be terrible bloodshed if he decides to change the world. So he leaves it to Canute. Because Canute has the power and the shorter path. "I am different," he says. "I will live in a different way." When I put it into words, it seems like a lot of what I think is reflected in my work. [Laughs]

REALQ: From your childhood experiences and your writing process, I get the feeling you are a perfectionist who doesn't com-promise when it comes to goals or ideals. Do the people around you feel the same way?

Yukimura: I think I am a perfectionist. In the past, my seniors and teachers would say, "If 100 points is amazing work and 0 points is nothing, it's easy to get to 80 points. However, each point beyond that is incredibly difficult. Past 90, it's so rough that you'll start spitting blood. And nobody gets to 100." I don't know if, by absolute standards, my work is at 80 points. But, for my own standards, I care a lot about each of those 1 or 2 points beyond 80. I care so much that others see the changes I make and say, "He pushed back the deadline for this? What's changed?" [Laughs] I've even rewritten an entire manuscript before. REALQ: Is it really rough when you have to throw out a whole manuscript? Yukimura: It's sad that to know the work won't produce results, but the worst possible thing for me is to feel regret afterwards. If I can choose to suffer for a brief moment as I draw, then I'll do it. The regrets afterward stay around much longer... REALQ: Are you happy about the reactions of your overseas readers? Yukimura: Yeah. It's encouraging to know they like my work. Especially when I heard some of them were reading Vinland Saga side-by-side with a dictionary. I forgot which language they were translating from and into, though. [Laughs]

REALQ: Let me change the subject: Advice from adults to children... Do you think it's important to emphasize the importance of having dreams? Should we tell kids to have dreams and tell them their dreams will come true? Yukimura: I used to think dreams were just desires. However, I was a good-for-nothing back then, so I think I was being resentful. [Laughs] At the very least, I don't think doing whatever you want to do is a beautiful thing. That's just you doing what you want to do. The truly beautiful things are helping others, volunteering, things like that... Finding a home for a stray dog, or doing things that no other person wants to do—that's beautiful. This includes me, but to do what you want to do is simply selfishness. I received my role in society, but I couldn't carry it out. I wasn't a modest enough person for that. I said such things because I thought I would do what I wanted to do no matter what other people said to me. It's the same for everyone, I think. Those who do what they want and succeed are simply the ones who ended up with a place in society. It's a miracle. After all, what some people want is to carry out meaningless terrorism... But it's the same thing. Both are "dreams." REALQ: If you could give an hour of advice to your younger self, what would you say? Yukimura: I'd say, reflexively, to be 3 times as careful of oncoming traffic. [Laughs] More seriously, I'd say, "You're worried that you're inferior to others. But don't worry." I'd tell myself that there isn't only one ruler to mea-sure yourself by. "Humans come in all sorts," I'd say. "There's not a single number line that we all stand on." Text by Shuta Miura

#Vinland Saga #Makoto Yukimura #behind the scenes #Interview #Manga and Stuff #Manga Cap #Manga #Art

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