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savingcrxws · 10 months

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EYES ON FIRE | just pretend

[ next chap ]

synopsis. you and carmen start off on the wrong foot and richie stirs the pot.

word count. 3.5k

warnings. language, hardly proofread but i tried

authors note. lets goooo, this is based off of this headcanon that i would recommend reading before this chapter(kinda treat it as a prologue)--lets get to part one!

"Richie, you dick."

If you had a dime for everytime Richard Jerimovich managed to inconvenience you, you could probably buy the Bean three times over.

But this, this really takes the cake.

“Well if it isn’t our little college graduate here in good ol’ Orleans Street,” Richie cheers, throwing his hands in the air in fake surprise as a smirk rises slowly onto his face. You feel like if you were to glare at the man any harder, you might actually make his head explode.

“What brings you here, sweetheart?”

You take a minute to try to collect yourself before you absolutely blow up in Richie’s face. Carmen stands directly across from you, just behind the bar, dressed in a dirtied white tee stained in a sauce of some kind. He’s very obviously avoiding eye contact with you, leaning over the bar and seemingly very interested in the walls around you.

“If I recall correctly, you asked me to come here, Richie,” you grit out, gripping the tote bag that hangs over your shoulder tighter. You press your lips together before a choice few words slide from between your teeth.

You see Carmen tense up at what you said, shoulders hunching up before dropping almost as quickly. The dirty blonde brings a hand up to his forehead in what you can only assume to be pure disbelief.

You continue. “You called me literally like, two hours ago.”

“Really, me? You sure it wasn’t another Richie? Maybe a Rick?”

“Richie, please don’t piss me off right now. I swear to God–”

A loud slam interrupts the developing argument and nealyr sends you flying out of your skin.

Your eyes dart over to Carmen, whose hands are splayed flat across the span of the bar. His head is tilted down, curls falling to cover almost all of what you could see of his face. He takes a breath before turning his head to look at the older man behind him.

His face is a bright red, angry flush sinking down past the collar of his shirt.

“Richie, you motherfucker,” he grits out, dragging a hand down his mouth before slamming his fist on the bar counter, rattling the plates and miscellaneous cups that littered across it. Richie tenses up behind him, catching on to the anger almost radiating off of him.

"Why the fuck would you invite her here?" Carmen yells, speaking of you like you weren't only a couple feet away from him. You frown, insulted at his disregard of you.

"Oh believe me, I hardly am jumping to be here myself, Berzatto." You spit.

Richie raises his hands in defense, taking a step back as Carmen bucks up towards him. “Hey, man, don’t shoot the messenger.” He casts a stray hand in your direction and Carmen’s eyes instinctively follow, making eye contact for the first time since you entered the restaurant.

The heat of his stare was strong, something that you could best describe as a blend of anxiety and anger. You notice that his eyes trail up and down your form, not in a "checking you out way" and more of a "I cant believe you're here right now" way.

“Bug usually never responds to my messages! Honestly, how was I supposed to know she would now,” Richie continues, still trying to maintain distance away from Carmen.

Carmen seems overwhelmed, split between jumping at Richie for his fake naivete or running a million miles away from you. He curls his hands into fist, and for a second, you think he's going to throw a punch. Quickly though, Carmen steps away from Richie and casts one more look towards you.

You wait for him to say something to your face, but he doesn't.

“I’m leaving,” Carmen mumbles under his breath, taking in another deep breath before abruptly turning and throwing open the kitchen door. The swinging door flies out and hits the wall, a sudden crack that you are sure would leave a dent later. Almost immediately, you hear the sound of distant bustling and pans clattering around.

A voice yells out in confusion. “What the hell, Jeff?”

You bring a hand to your forehead, feeling a headache incoming. It couldn’t have been more than three minutes and simply being around Carmen had given you more stress than you’ve had in the past week. Casting a glance up at Richie, you give him a final glare. The man simply shrugs his shoulders and gives a charismatic grin. “Well, that was pleasant wasn’t it, bug?”

“Ayo, Richie, what the fuck is up with Jeff,” a voice questions as they walk in from the path of destruction that Carmen left in his behind. The owner of that voice is none other than Tina, and for some reason, seeing her alleviates at least some of the headache you feel pulsating across your skull. Tina casts a confused glance at Richie, who simply points over in your direction. Tina’s eyes follow and when she makes eye contact with you a familiar smile drapes across her lips.

"Oh, well now I understand why Jeff's so pissed off."

"Yeah, and then the asshole has the nerve to act all coy, like he didn't blow my phone up with messages begging me to go down to the restaurant," you complained, throwing your head back to take another gulp of the wine in your cup.

In front of you, Sugar swirled her own glass of sparkling grape juice, shaking her head in disbelief at the absurdity of it all.

Shortly after Tina had walked out, you had left the restaurant (not before flipping Richie the bird) and immediately went to text Sugar for a rant session. Being the absolute angel that she is, she agreed almost immediately, stating that she had some qualms she wanted to rave about as well. Two glasses of Merlot for you and some non-alcoholic beverages for Natalie later, you two were sitting on the two ends of Sugar's couch, the TV playing a rerun of Selling New York as background sound for your current conversation.

"Yeah, Richie is a jerk." You nod in appreciation for her understadning your annoyance.

"And don't even get me started on you-know-who's reaction? He barely even acknowledged my existence!" You throw your free hand in the air. "Speaking about me like I wasn't right there?"

You release an exasperated sigh. "The ego on that guy."

Natalie hums, taking a languid sip of her drink. "Well, that sounds like Carmy alright. A tiny little ball of asshole-ery at any given point of time." The blonde reaches a hand over and places it on your knee. "Sorry my brother is such a dick."

You give a small smile at Sugar, resting your own hand on top of hers. "No need, it's clear you took all the 'sane person' genes in the Berzatto bloodline." Your joke pulls a giggle out of Sugar, the slight truth of her statement not missing between the two of you.

"But enough about me," you place your glass down on her coffee table before continuing. "What's going on in your life Nat?"

You listen as she rants about the stress of preparing for a bringing baby into the home. She talks about how those Al-Anon meetings she regularly attends are going, and how her one coworker Bryson seems to have a vendetta against her.

After a moment, Natalie coughs slightly, eyes darting across the living room in thought before returning back to you. "And well, I hate to keep talking about Carmy but..."

The smile drops quickly off of your face as Sugar trails the last word. "But what, Suge?"

"Buttt, Carmen's trying to rebuild The Beef," Sugar peers down into the contents of her glass as she speaks, "he's rebranding it as The Bear, and I've been trying to help him and the crew get everything sorted before they start tearing the building down."

You press your lips together tight at the mention of the familiar name.

"Personally, Carm, I don't see much wrong with the restaurant now?"

"The place is held together by a roll of duct tape and a dream, bug, I don't think you have to look very hard to see some issues."

You glance up at him from your position on his chest, looking as he gazed up at the ceiling of your bedroom. While his gaze was physically directed at the old glow in the dark stars scattered across the ceiling, you could tell his head was in a total different world.

"So you want to start a new restaurant?" You question, watching as Carmen shakes his head as soon as the words leave your lips.

"Nah, I just want to make it better, ya know? For Mikey, and Sugar, and Ma."

Sugar, noticing you are distracted, stops her sentence and gives a little frown, watching as your gaze drifts off somewhere distant.

Despite the years that have past, she knows that you still have feelings towards her brother. She was there for most of it, watching as you and Carmen went from daily hangouts to a weekly phone call, to a monthly check-in text, to, well, nothing.

She consoled you through most of the grieving phase of a post-breakup, like you had done for her a couple of times before. And after a few weeks of busting into tears anytime his name was mentioned, you began to heal, and focused those strong emotions towards improving yourself.

Natalie let a wistful sigh, pulling you out of your thoughts. Shaking the fog away, you give a remorseful smile at having basically cut Sugar off midway through her spiel. She gives you another small smirk before shaking her head, dismissing your silent apology with a wave of her hand. She draws another sip of her sparkling juice.

"But Carmen has been driving me up the wall with all the shit he wants me to help juggle. If I schedule one more appointment I might pull my hair out."

"Oh no, please don't do that, honey," Pete calls out from the kitchen, very obviously having been listening in on your gossip time from the kitchen table. Sugar gives off slight grimace at Pete's abrupt callout at her obvious exaggeration, shrugging her shoulders and giving a placating call back towards her husband.

Reaching back towards the table, you grab the wine glass from earlier. "Do you have anyone to help you? You know I have some connects who can manage the money and strategy end?" You offer, more than willing to alleviate some of the stress from your friend's shoulders.

"Yeah, can I have that guy who assisted you when you managed La Raison?" Sugar teases. "I have no idea how you managed to help that business go from near bankrupt to one of the best sellers down Michigan Avenue."

"Carter? Yeah, no. That dude was an asshat. He was more useful kissing up to the store owners than actually doing his job," you shake your head at the mention of one of your old employers. Since graduating, you had taken into strategic and financial management for businesses across Chicago. La Raison had been one of your main businesses for a while, the owners soon becoming close friends of yours.

You loved what you did, though business management sounded like a right pain to most, you found joy in being able to rub your braincells together and actually make a difference. Plus, the pay wasn't too bad either.

Sugar chuckles. "Yeah, well, I wish I could just have you as a little angel on my shoulder, giving me all the answers to all of these problems that keep popping up."

Though she was joking, you can see the way her brows furrow simply thinking of all of the things that she has to do. You could only imagine the stress she is under right now. Balancing opening a new restaurant with her ever-present family dilemmas, and a baby on the way?

Natalie was beyond used to extensive stress, so you know she won't verbally express all of her worries. But the thought of Sugar carrying all of that on her shoulders draws a slight frown on your face.

Before you know it, the thoughts are falling from your brain and past your lips.

"What if I helped you manage the place."

You honestly do not know why you offered to help manage this fuckery that is disguised as a restaurant.

Shortly after you had offered to help, it was as if Natalie had died, saw the light, and returned back to Earth. She squealed like a teenage girl and thanked you profusely. While she shaked you and explained all the things that needed to be done, you slowly began to realize the implications of your offer.

You, helping Natalie manage Carmen, your ex-boyfriend's, restaurant. A responsibility that would obviously take months.

And honestly, you were tempted to withdraw your offer despite the happy squeals of relief that Natalie was letting out. That was, until the tears of relief started pouring from her eyes.

Those pregnancy hormones really guilt tripped you.

Now, a week later, you're back at The Beef. Well, you suppose The Beef is gone officially now, the rusting sign pulled down from its former position hanging above the restaurant entrance.

"Why the hell did I sign up for this shit," you question out loud, watching as Manny and Angel pulling out a broken sign from inside the restaurant. Sighing, you reach into your bag and pull out a cigarette box, pulling one out before digging for your lighter in your back pocket.

"Mami, what are you doing here?" You turn around at the voice behind you, cigarette hanging loosely from your lips. Tina stands behind you, a smile stretched across her lips. "Seeing you two weeks in a row? Someone must be dying."

You smile, opening your arms for a hug that Tina reciprocates. "Oh you know, I'm here to save your asses from complete and utter failure." Tina gently pats your back as you pull apart, and it makes you regret not checking in on her and the rest of the crew more often.

"Missed you, T." You mutter, a small grin pulling up on one corner of your mouth.

"Missed you too, mami," Tina pats your arm before wrapping her hand around your elbow. "Now, I'm not trying to step on your toes but...you do know who your helping out right?"

You grimace at her implication, the reality hitting you once again. Behind those glass windows stands the man who took your heart and literally tossed it away like it was nothing. Took all of those years that you had spent together and wasted it away.

Broke up with you over fucking text.

And now, you're about to walk into his restaurant and help Sugar, and, consequently, help him fix this fuck up.

Talk about fate.

"Yeah, T," you start, letting her guide you towards the entrance of the restaurant, where you see Marcus and Fak carrying out some lockers. You wave towards the men, to which Fak responds with such enthusiasm that he drops some of the lockers on the ground, much to Marcus' chagrin.

You grimace before continuing. "Just helping my asshole ex because his sister is my bestie."

Sugar had texted you that Sydney, Carmen's former sous chef and business partner, had been more than happy to hire you as a strategic manager for the business. Although she didn't mention it, you knew that a certain dirty-blonde was not so excited at mention of you coming to help.

"He knows we need the help, no matter how fragile his tiny little ego is," Natalie had told you, a knowing smile on her face.

"Don't lose your head, boss." Tina teases, pushing you first through the doorway. As you finally enter the store, you take note of the pure chaos that is the restaurant.

Plywood and debris scattered across the flower, miscellaneous kitchen supplies and utilities lining the walls. Ebraheim and Sweeps were taking a sledgehammer to some random panels, while Richie was yelling something from the kitchen. As you take in the madness, Tina pats your elbow before heading back towards the kitchen.

"Welcome to The Bear!" Richie calls out as soon as he notices you. Spreading his arms out in what you assume is a hug, you only offer him a solid stare. Richie drops his arms and heads towards you despite your very clear disdain for him at the moment. "Glad you could join the team, bug."

"Richie, why the hell are you covered in black dust?"

"Inconsequential, sweetheart," you roll your eyes at his response before stepping over the debris in front of you.

"Where's Nat, Richard," you question walking behind the bar and towards the office in the back. Richie grumbles something under his breath before shouting out 'office.' Busting through the kitchen door, you note that the kitchen is just as messy as the front of the house. Stepping over black dust on the ground, you tread over to the office.

"Suge? You in there?" You call out, peering over the corner and into the office. The room is unoccupied, filled with nothing but discarded papers with miscellaneous phone numbers and sprawled writings.

You make note of what you know to be Nat's handwriting, eyes trailing over all of her notes for appointments and scheduling. Your eyes also rove over the chicken scratch that you also know to be Carmen's scribbles. Placing your bag down on the desk, you sit down in the rolling chair and decide to wait for Sugar to come in.

You grabbed a random pile of papers and attempted to digest some of the information being presented to you.

Bank statements, IRS requests, insurance, licenses, permits.

Judging by all the shit that needed to get cleared just for the restaurant to legally be open, your surprised that Mikey wasn't being physically chased down by the IRS and thrown into jail.

"Hey, Sugar, Syd and I are going to work on the chaos menu tonight so I'm going to leave the rest up to you, okay?"

Carmen slings around the corner, too focused on pulling his coat on his shoulders to notice who exactly was sitting in the office.

Instinctively, you freeze at his sudden appearance in the doorway, breath caught in your throat. At the lack of response, Carmen finally looks up and makes direct eye contact with you.

His blue eyes widen, clearly not expecting you to be the person in the chair. You rack your brain over the next move to make, the silence continuing as he just stands in the doorway and practically gawks at your existence.

Deciding that staring indefinitely at each other was probably one of the worst things you can currently think of, you clear your throat to break the silence. That seems to break Carmen out of whatever state of shock he seemed to be in; you watch as he awkwardly wrings his hands, like he was at a lost of what to do next.

You're half-expecting him to make a repeat of the last time you saw each other and storm away from you. However, Carmen just stands there, eyes darting from you to random objects in the office then you again on repeat.

Both of you are waiting for the other to say something. To yell, chastise, and start an argument.

Biting the bullet, you start. "Hey, Carmen."

He seems to be taken aback that you even uttered his name, eyes meeting yours once again. You almost forgot how blue his eyes are-so bright that they're almost clear.

He nods in acknowledgement before saying your name to greet you in return.

Awkward silence fills the room once again. While you know that Carmen is hardly a conversationalist, this has to be the most painful quiet you've ever experienced.

Be amicable, you think to yourself. He's your boss/business partner now.

You're doing this for Sugar.

"Umm..," you trail off, eyes scanning the office around you in attempts to find something else to talk about. "I tried to find Nat, but she might have gone A.W.O.L"

Carmen nods his head a couple of times, a soft hmm leaving his lips. You can tell that he wants to say something, the words on the tip of his tongue but sealed behind his lips.

"Yeah, ok-okay, yeah." He nods rapidly, crossing his arms across his chest, lowering his gaze down to your shoes.

"Yep."

God, someone shoot me now.

Carmen clears his throat. "I-I-uuhh, you know, Sugar really appreciates the help."

You nod, licking your lips out of habit. "Yeah, she's told me."

"Yeah?"

"Yep."

Just when you were about to figure out a way to turn invisible or sink into the floor, Sugar rounds the corner and lightly bumps into Carmen's back. She lets out a noise of surprise from her throat and Carmen jerks forward a little.

"Carmy, why the fuck are you standing in the fucking doorwa-" Sugar cuts herself off when she spots you over her brother's shoulder. She makes eye contact with you and you swear you see a little mischief in her eyes. She pushes past Carmen to step inside of the office, crossing her arms over chest to assess the room.

You, sitting in the office chair, papers still grasped tightly in your hands and your lips practically licked dry from your nerves.

Across, Carmen stands angled towards Sugar, almost trying to physically minimize the amount of eye contact you two share.

Natalie surmises that she just saved the both of you from a very awkward moment "Oh, shit. Didn't mean to interrupt."

"No-no, uh, you're good, Sugar," Carmen sputters out, face flushing a bright red. He brings a hand over his mouth to physically stop the word vomit that was about to fall out of it. "Umm, was just gonna tell you that Sydney and I are leaving to work on the new menu."

Sugar's eyes dart over to you again, sitting stiffly in the office chair. She raises her eyebrows in question but you subtly shake your head.

Let's not talk about it right now.

She nods in acknowledgement before turning to fully face Carmen.

"Okay Carmy, you're good to go. Me and Bug here are just gonna get some paperwork sorted." Carmen looks in your direction at the use of the familiar nickname before he hmms again.

He takes a step back and waves his hand in goodbye. "All right, bye Sugar," he's fully outside of the doorway now, but he pauses before leaving you and Sugar's line of sight completely.

He stands there for a beat, running whatever thought across his mind a couple times. Finally, like he settled on an answer, Carmen gulps and raises his head to look at you.

He nods his head and whispers out your name and a goodbye, followed by a swift exit out of the kitchen.

You're practically stuck in the chair, the past five minutes having been a complete whirlwind. The kitchen door whips against the wall in a crack, the squeaking echoing from your place in the office. Your gaze is still focused on where your ex-boyfriend had stood not even a couple of seconds ago.

"Well," Sugar starts, a knowing smile across her face. "That wasn't as violent as I thought it was going to be."

requests to be in the taglist for this fic in the replies below or send me an ask! thank you all for reading!

#carmen berzatto #carmen berzatto x reader #carmy berzatto #carmy berzatto x reader #the bear fanfic #the bear x reader #the bear fx #jeremy allen white x reader #jeremy allen white #carmen berzatto x you #carmy berzatto x you #the bear season 2

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aroaceleovaldez · 3 months

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i hope this doesn't sound like a silly or weird thing to send you, but i'm autistic and have long thought of nico and a handful of other riordanverse characters as autistic and i love your posts about why nico in particular seems intentionally autistic-coded. but i've been thinking, if rick did intend for any of his characters to be autistic, why wouldn't he say so outside of the text at least? i can't think of a good reason why not, when he goes out of his way to be explicit about so many other characters' various marginalized identities and has confirmed things like reyna being asexual outside of the original text. so it gives me this nagging sort of doubt that maybe rick just made nico come off as so extremely autistic coded by accident, somehow. if it wasn't an accident i do kind of wish he'd say so because there's next to zero explicitly stated autistic representation in, like, any media so it'd be nice to have here even if not strictly necessary. either way though, like i said, i love your posts and i agree with you 100% about autistic nico! some others i like to think are autistic are annabeth and leo.

(Most of this is gonna be kind of a tangential ramble to your point and i apologize in advance just bear with me)

This actually touches upon something I've been meaning to do a write-up on recently, which is: depending on the coding, that is our explicit statement. In most coding, actually, that's kind of the point. (Also something something Death of the Author.)

You may have noticed a recent trend across media of characters saying things directly rather than expressing them in a natural way, and often this includes incredibly stilted dialogue of characters explaining things in very politically correct, wikipedia-esque descriptions and terminology that make absolutely no sense for the characters' personalities or mannerisms. This is born out of the idea that if something is not stated in explicit terms, no amount of evidence below an outright direct exact statement will ever count - if two characters of the same gender have an explicit kiss and wedding on-screen, it doesn't matter because they never said the word "gay," etc etc.

In PJO, prior to more recent books, we get plenty of examples of characters explaining parts of their identities without direct statements. Percy never needs to say in outright terms that he has PTSD from Gabe - and it doesn't make sense that he would! He's 12! He's never been diagnosed for that. He probably doesn't even know what PTSD is really. But we, the audience, know without a doubt he has PTSD, because it is clearly expressed to us. That is coding. Tyson is coded as having down syndrome. Nico is coded as being autistic. It doesn't make sense for Nico to turn to the camera and explain that he's autistic and what that means, because he definitely never got diagnosed for it and probably doesn't know what that means cause the diagnosis literally did not exist when he was growing up - and heck, autism terminology was still kind of getting sorted out back in 2007 when TTC was published, so it's unlikely we could have feasibly gotten any exact terminology wink-wink-nudge-nudges short of something like how Percy outright mentions other students called Tyson the r-slur in Sea of Monsters. And in fact we see that same exact style of coding with Nico later on in the series. Nico never turns to the camera and says word-for-word "I am gay, I am mlm, here's me wearing my exact pride flags" (until TOA/TSATS, which... did the exact thing i mentioned about characters speaking like theyre trying to get a good grade in therapy, or giving a powerpoint presentation). But it is never unclear that HoO is telling us outright that Nico is gay. It's not just hinted at. It's there, in your face. But entirely because no one ever outright says "gay" specifically it's technically still only coding. We know he's gay, we know the characters have trauma/ptsd, etc etc. We don't need it spelled out - that's just kind of condescending. It's like if you said describing a character with "eyes like moss" means they were "green-eye coded."

Nico being autistic-coded isn't hidden. It's not a secret. It's very overt. If you know what autism looks like, well, yeah, there he is. Even if you only know very vague 2007 media presentation of autism, Nico in TTC is easily recognizable enough as autistic because that's the point. Tyson is easily recognizable as being coded as having down syndrome and it's very clearly very intentional! It's just never spoon-fed in exact terms to the reader because it's not necessary! You've already been told the information necessary to tell you what is up with this character, so just plainly going "oh they're [x] in exact terms" is very much telling-not-showing and feels redundant. And while there are places for that kind of thing, most of the time it's very unnecessary. Sometimes coding is subtle, sometimes it's obvious, and yeah there are times where writers code characters unintentionally, but the textual evidence is there, and that's the whole point.

And that's what Death of the Author is about - it doesn't matter what the author intended at the end of the day, because if it's in the text it's in the text. You can look at author intent to try and figure out what that text means, but the text is the text. A Separate Peace is a very classic example - author John Knowles denies there being homosexual subtext, and meanwhile one of the protagonists living in 1942 puts on a pink shirt while saying he doesn't mind of people think of him as gay. What the author says after the fact doesn't matter - if it's there, it's there. So Rick saying anything outside of the books is completely irrelevant. And Rick talks about this a lot - he actively tells people that his statements outside of the books are just his own thoughts, but what's in the books is what's in the books, and if the text supports it then that's all the evidence you need.

Nico specifically is a case where yeah, he's clearly autistic-coded. It's very obvious and very obviously intentional when he's younger, and as the books progress it remains a background trait of his but is still notable (except for when it gets forgotten in TOA/TSATS like everything else, including the adhd/dyslexia, but i digress). It's a clear pattern within the first few books that Rick is intentionally including. It doesn't make sense, especially for the year the book was published, for the reader to be directly told in explicit terminology that Nico is autistic, because the reader is already being told that Nico is autistic.

And yeah, Rick doesn't mention Nico being autistic-coded outside of the text, but he also doesn't mention Tyson being coded as having down syndrome. He also said one time that Percy doesn't have PTSD at all, which is very incorrect starting from book 1. Again, Death of the Author. Whatever Rick says outside of the books does not matter, because he already said it in the books. And there's plenty of other stuff in the books that Rick doesn't touch upon, particularly relating to character identity - did you know Leo is Native? Sammy mentions that the Valdez family is Native in Son of Neptune but we don't get any specifics and then it's like never brought up again anywhere. That happens all the time in the series - and outside of the series - Rick can't possibly address every single point to confirm/deny everything from the books. That's what analysis is for! And that's why my blog exists 👍

#pjo #riordanverse #nico di angelo #autistic nico #analysis #ask #Anonymous #long post //#tone indicator just to be sure cause i know i used a lot of italics: this is all non-agressive/not mad i prommy #im just very passionate about this topic (coding & fandom concepts surrounding ''canon'' + death of the author)#also controversial opinion cause i know some people have talked about wanting the use of the r-slur in SoM censored #but i think it should stay because. well. yeah no that was still very commonly used in 2006 #trust me i heard it a lot. i was there. in fact it was commonly used after that point. for awhile.#it wasnt until like a bit into the 2010s iirc that campaigns started to go ''hey maybe. dont use that word.''#like that was RECENT #and yeah! these books are not old! TLT is only just coming up on 20 years. thats not super old for a book!#and yeah! that term was considered a-okay terminology to be used in a middle grade book in 2006! which is startling to think now!#but that's also why it's important to not erase that #because otherwise you forget that up until very recently that word was considered Perfectly Acceptable #and in SoM it's even specifically acknowledged to be used in a hurtful way! Percy is actively condemning it!#like. dont put it in the show or whatever. obviously. replace it with a different indication/coding to explain Tyson's struggles #not that i think Disney would put the r-slur in their show. but like. dont erase it from the book??? from 2006??????#i am frightened to see how the show will handle tyson though. its not gonna go well i can feel it in my bones #anyways man i should post that excerpt from A Separate Peace though #just cause that scene has lived in my brain rent-free for years

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itsgrimeytime · 4 months

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Magnolia in May (Part Twenty Six) || Rick Grimes (TWD) x Greene!f!reader Regency AU

Parts 1-20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25...

Taglist: @loliakeoghan23 @curlycarley @queenie32 @mgparker

rick grimes taglist: @golden-hoax @mgparker

AVAILABLE ON AO3

Inspiration (in honor of Speak Now Taylor's Version): Enchanted by Taylor Swift.

Summary: Your town was small, not the smallest you knew, but anyone of high fortune was the gossip of the week. Predictably, Richard Grimes was a thing of whispers -rumors of a search for marriage among the grassy hills. You weren't one to buy into town gossip, but something about him... just seemed a little too intriguing.

TW: steamy again (what can I say).

[[A/N: Takes place directly after 25. Thanks for reading !!! ]]

You swallowed, a little bit out of anticipation, "Of course."

It wasn't like this wasn't an option, that he would confront you first but still, you hadn't wanted it. What if he was to say he didn't mean it? To say the words were only encouraged because of the press of your lips?

You might very well never kiss him again if such a thing was the case.

It was a slow and rather awkward walk into his office, safe from everyone's prying ears and away from your Father -who did, in fact, have a lot to say on the topic. Part of you just wished to return home, to walk the distance once more (if Mr. Grimes wouldn't ask you to please use a carriage - "I cannot handle if you find yourself sick again, please.")

Something in your demeanor softened, you did love him after all. And perhaps that was why such a thing could hurt so bad.

If he didn't want to marry you? Or if he said those words and didn't mean them?

He should know what a big deal they are, especially to a young lady, and he should know-

"Please, sit," he spoke, extending his hand out -to show you the couch. It was the same place he told you of Judith's upbringing -it felt so far away now.

You sat on the couch, and he stood -leaned against the desk at the hips. He looked particularly handsome then, all shadowed jaw and perfect hair, you weren't sure you could confront such a thing.

What if it scared him away? What if his love had only lasted for so long?

You had no reason to believe it, but now your head was spiraling and you couldn't stop it.

"Did you mean it?"

He opened his mouth, to say something but you couldn't let him, not now. It was your turn to ask, to speak.

"When you-" you started, carefully, "-At the garden, y-you said-"

Mr. Grimes looked at you with big, wide blue eyes -like he hadn't expected this. Your stomach twisted, had he not been thinking about this since he'd said those words? You would have-

"You told me to marry you," you echoed, and something caught in your throat (you weren't going to cry, not today-) "-How am I to interpret that other than what it is?"

"Ms. Greene-" he whispered, leaning forward to touch you in some way but you avoided such things.

Not until you knew. If... If he threw such words around, so be it. But you had to know.

You cleared your throat, dabbing at your eyes, "I asked you a question."

"I'm not-" he started but sighed, falling forward slightly -hands rubbing at your eyes, "-Please, don't cry, darlin'. There's no-"

"There is!" You erupted, "-There is a reason to cry, you asked for my hand without a moment of seriousness. Do you know how such a thing feels? For a man to love you and not mean-"

"I meant it," he spoke abruptly, "-of course, I meant it. I meant every word, but-"

"But?" You echoed, eyes blinking up at him as he held your face -tenderly wiping the tears with the pads of his thumbs. Holding you-

"But, not yet," he hummed, "-I had... I have a whole thing planned for ya, and it's romantic and it's perfect, it wasn't meant to be just in my garden."

"Mr. Grimes-"

"But I said it then," he started, sighing, "-I didn't mean to, but it slipped out. I just- Every time I look at you-"

He looked at you, blue eyes matching yours, and something settled over you.

"It's all I can think about."

"Mr. Grimes," you spoke, voice shaky as your hands reached up to cradle his, "-you don't have to explain yourself further."

"No, I do, I do-" he explained, falling to his knees in front of you, hands still cradling your face, "-I said those words to you and didn't say nothin' about it. I scared you into thinkin' I didn't want this, want you-"

"Mr. Grimes-"

"There's nothin' I've wanted more in my life than you," he spoke, voice broken and tears of his own threatening to fall, "-and I apologize that you ever... ever thought any different."

"Please, don't cry," you repeated in a whisper, rubbing away his tears, "-There's nothing to cry about."

He laughed, just slightly. Your hands still holding him, pushed into his cheeks -your fingers remained. You leaned forward and pressed one kiss to his tear track and one more to the other. His eyes merely followed you like a moth to a flame, skimming across your whole face like he was trying to memorize it. Perhaps, he was.

"I want to marry you," he finished, "-properly."

"When do we ever do anything properly?" You asked, giggling as your fingers dusted along his skin.

"Never," he relented, "-but give me this, will you?"

"I'd give you anything you asked."

"One more thing," he smiled, cheeks lifted in your hands, "-if I must."

"Yes?" You laughed, giddy, happy- He wanted to marry you.

"Kiss me," he spoke, lower than the previous words, "-please."

This was new, you guiding him -you kissing him, instead of his lips pressing to yours. It was your own. Something in your mind grew pleasantly fuzzy at such an idea, to lead and he follows.

"If you wish to-" he started, but you had much decided.

You pulled him forward to meld his lips to yours, a careful press that made your head spin. His hands landed on your knees, still on his from moments before, and something in you only felt more stirred on to kiss, kiss, kiss-

It was just a little taste, just a spare moment so your cheeks wouldn't get rosy and his lips be swollen. But you still ran rather curious, as to how it felt-

You pushed on his jaw, hoping to coax his mouth open, and he did so delicately, eagerly.

You felt him in your fingertips, your control -it felt quite refreshing in a world where men would so vehemently be the leaders of everything.

This could not last long, however, if his lips were to be unbruised. So, you pulled back -eyes lidded and brain running a mile a minute, but he pulled back much slower, eyes closed and heartbeat slow and methodical.

When his eyes finally did open, they were shiny in a new sort of way as you held onto his face -hands still pushed into your knees. Or well, your dress, really.

His voice, low and rumbly, echoed pleasantly through your head, "You are too good at that."

"Too good at what?" You asked him, letting go of his face so he could stand, "-Kissing?"

"Have you been kissed before?"

"What?" You spoke, playfully, "-You don't remember?"

"You know what I mean-"

"I do," you echoed, "-and no, I haven't. My courting history is quite grim, Mr. Grimes, I thought you knew such a thing."

"A surprising fact," he spoke, a bit unbelievable in his tone, "-nonetheless."

"I am the eldest of three," you laughed, "-no one truly looks at the eldest, especially not when your sisters are as stunningly beautiful as they are."

"Don't-" he started but stopped, "-You are stunningly beautiful too, ya know?"

"You're biased," you stated, frankly.

"Sure, sure," he laughed, "-doesn't mean I don't mean it. Or that it isn't true."

"It's just how it is, Mr. Grimes," you spoke, frank again, "-The eldest, after a certain age, is disregarded. Once I reached it, I believe men stopped looking."

"I didn't," he echoed out, "-I found you, wonderfully. Perfectly."

"Biased," you hummed.

"Certainly not," he reiterated, "-If I was in a room with a thousand beautiful women, I find I'd still choose you."

"You say that now because you love me," you said, undeterred, "-presented with me, at my age, you'd at least have some hesitation."

"Not if-" he seemed to figure out what he wished to say, "-Not if- Let's say the basket of berries still happened, you still met Judith. I would choose you out of a room."

"Why?" You asked, "-It's not like I did anything special, I simply returned your child to you."

"With an air of compassion I've never seen before," he spoke, matching your eyes, "-you let my child eat from your own supplies, that's something very special to me."

"You love your children," you echoed, curious, "-suppose someone else helped you that day, would you have fallen in love with them?"

"Unlikely," he hummed, "-you were a beautiful woman caring for my children, instinctively, without much other thought. You are all I ask for, all I'd ever ask for."

You opened your mouth but words couldn't form, speechless.

"Plus," he started, "-you were quite adorable that day too."

You laughed, "Certainly not, I was out in my worst dress and hair untidied. Hardly proper."

"I didn't say proper," he hummed, "-I said adorable."

"Whatever you say, Mr. Grimes," you smiled, just a hair frustrated with such a complimenting brigade -he knew you'd get rather flustered at such things.

"You say that but don't believe me when I compliment you," he spoke, extending his arm to you, "-It's confusing."

"I don't not believe you," you clarified, "-I just- I'm not used to such things being meant."

"And I will fix that," he repeated, rather gently, as you took his arm and began waltzing down the hallway.

"I am certainly looking forward to it," you smirked, squeezing his arm -playfully, and rejoined the group at dinner.

#rick grimes #its griming time #stuff n' thangs #rick grimes x reader #rick grimes x y/n #rick grimes x you #rick grimes x y/n fanfiction #twd #twd rick #rick grimes fanfiction #rick grimes oneshot #magnolia in may

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sadiewayne · 3 months

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i feel like the older and read the books at least 10 years ago percy jackson fans are less likely to be complaining about the show

from what im seeing from the latest episode (ep.6 - we take a zebra to vegas) i'm not seeing as many older fans complain as i am younger, newer fans

and it is not all of them, there are complaints coming from both sides and people loving it regardless from both sides, i personally just seem to see a difference

besides, all of these changes are being made by rick riordan, like y'know, the author

look, let me elaborate, spoilers for ep.6 if you haven't watched it

percy says he is going to santa monica to meet his dad. that isn't how it goes in the books, he is told to go to santa monica, but poseidon isn't meeting him there

‘If my father is so interested in me,’ I said, ‘why isn’t he here? Why doesn’t he speak to me?’ A cold current rose out of the depths. ‘Do not judge the Lord of the Sea too harshly,’ the Nereid told me. ‘He stands at the brink of an unwanted war. He has much to occupy his time. Besides, he is forbidden to help you directly. The gods may not show such favouritism.’ - the book

in the show, poseidon was going to meet percy but because the deadline passed, he had to leave

He waited as long as he could. The summer solstice passed earlier this evening. Zeus's deadline has elapsed. Your father has gone to marshal his forces and prepare for war. He asked that I relay a message. "This is not your fault. You were brave. You were strong. You made your father proud." - the show

like DUDE come on if you are mad he changed it to give us good dad poseidon you are out of whack

also to people saying 4 pearls and not 3, the prophecy is the same, he will fail to save what matters most in the end and that's sally. idk how rick is going to do it but let me tell you i am hyped to see it

(i would insert a comment about critical thinking skills and looking ahead but that feels too mean)

people will disagree with me and my opinion that the show is amazing regardless of the minor changes they made (i personally think the changes were good things that fill plot holes and make it better), and it's ok to disagree

and i want to make it very clear that younger, newer fans are just as valid as older, longer time fans. terms like "OG fan" are part of toxic fan culture that we need to drop bc it's not someone's fault if they didn't know about it or were too young to know about it (like so many newer pjo fans are younger than the book bc the book came out 19 years ago this year)

#percy pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #pjo tv show #percy series #toxic fan culture

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seaweedbraens · 3 months

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To all the show doubters: you CANNOT say the final episode wasn’t absolutely great. Very few major issues, and actually lived up to the books (mostly)!

i obviously have like 16 full length essays in my head but imma spare y’all that for now.

i speak as a show doubter here. i havent watched the show yet because i have a grad review in 2 weeks that i'm supposed to be working on and i simply dont have the TIME to binge an entire show without feeling a truckload of guilt afterwards.

nothing against you, or anyone who enjoys the show! but i accidentally saw a clip from the final episode that INFURIATED me.

it's luke's betrayal, and somehow....annabeth was there. i don't want to comment on anyone's acting because this is just one scene and i don't want to be too harsh. but my issue is that annabeth was there at all.

first off - if she was there, there is no WAYYYYYYYYY annabeth's first instinct would be to attack luke if she overheard him. this is her FAMILY, the one person she truly felt she knew and who she felt knew her. she'd be stunned, man. not defiant in the face of his betrayal. look at the books! she rushes to hold the sky for him, making that decision in the brief moment it causes him pain!

anyway:

annabeth being absent is the POINT. in the books, she doesnt see luke leave, she doesnt know/understand his reasoning, and ON TOP OF ALL THAT she has to wait for like a week for percy to wake up and tell her how things went down. during that week she has to come to terms with the fact that 1. luke's left her and the camp, 2. he attacked percy, 3. he's joined kronos, and 4. he didn't care about her enough to give her an explanation or even say goodbye.

i feel like this DIRECTLY leads into her attitude towards him in EVERY. OTHER. PJO. BOOK following the first one. she is desperate for answers, desperate to believe that there's still some good in him. she wants to hear it from him. she wants to SAVE him. she defends him from percy's judgement MULTIPLE TIMES, tells him percy didn't know him, but she did. she truly believes he's just lost his way. she doesn't understand how he's fallen because she wasn't there to see it. and when she finally does, it's STILL hard for her to process.

i feel like her being there just ruins a lot of that. or maybe i'm just being overly nitpicky. which...that's kinda my thing. wcwsthwas exists because i'm nitpicky.

i don't want to diminish anyone's experience if it's been a positive one, least of all yours because i really do appreciate your inputs! this is just me ranting here because that scene bugged me so much. maybe the rest of the show is great and i'll be eating my words soon enough. i guess we'll have to see!

i'm sorry if this is very harsh - i don't want to offend anyone! i'm ecstatic you like the show, and i don't want to shut anyone down. i know i come off as a rick riordan hater (which i kinda am), but i wouldnt be writing pjo fic if i didn't have a lot of love for the universe he's created. i want to hear all the opinions - the good and the bad. please feel free to share any thoughts in my askbox.

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catsconflictscopicsandchamomile · 3 months

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I'm so proud of this site

for once yall are finally giving a shit and making yourselves heard, (possible, literally i have no proof of this)staff censorship aside.

I can't participate in the strike or be on social media much tonight, but keep strong, this really warms my heart to see.

HOWEVER- though I'm not an authority to speak on Palestine, I am an authority to speak on Tumblr, so here's some advice before I log off and Do My Fucking Homework Already:

-The tags "cats/caturday", "webcomics", "spilled ink/poetry", "kawaii", "art" and "cottagecore" have been trending in the top 3-5 spots a LOT lately, despite not... actually being trending. They seem to do this a lot RIGHT after anything Palestine-related was just taking up those top spots. As I said I have no proof of this- but I've seen it enough that my advice is to treat these tags as the enemy going forward. I really doubt that their popularity rn is organic.

-the Percy Jackson show IS dropping a new ep on Thursday and the fanbase WILL most likely push it to #1. If I can, I will be on tumblr helping w strike efforts that night. I know a lot of you probably have friends in the PJO fandom, and don't want to consider them "bad people", but even if they are pirating it, they are actively promoting and spreading good publicity for both Disney AND Rick Riordan. The strike needs to REALLY show up and come through on Thursday evening/night to yell more and yell louder than the PJO fandom. Whether or not they "intend" it, the weekly PJO trending wave is a huge threat to the strike's presence on tumblr, and it is directly supported by/supporting zionism.

ok I'm off.

#palestine #free palestine #gaza

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staceymcgillicuddy · 9 months

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For the meme: 42. The answer to everything.

Yay, thank you! This one inspired a 5+1 for me, I have no idea why, but here you go! So, like, five times that Eddie was amazed at Chrissy's privileged upbringing + one time she turned the tables.

“What’s that for?” Chrissy asks as they pull into a gas station and up to the air hose.

“What’s what for?” Eddie asks as he cuts the engine and makes to hop out and fill his tires, which are pretty much dry rot and worn rubber at this point, but that doesn’t mean he can’t take care of them until they inevitably send him spiraling across the highway one day.

“The vacuum.”

“It’s not a vacuum. It’s for putting air in the tires.”

“You have to put air in tires?”

“Jesus, Cunningham. How have you survived this long by yourself? Yes, you have to put air in the tires.”

Chrissy fixes him with a pout, but he doesn’t think she’s actually offended. “I don’t know! I don’t have a car!”

“Yeah, well. Pro-tip. Air in the tires when you do.”

“Thanks, Eddie. You’re a pal.”

“No, you have to, like… inhale twice,” Eddie says, holding the burning joint between his fingers as Chrissy makes a face.

“But it tastes gross.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s not the point.”

Chrissy sighs. Leans in. Wraps that perfect pucker of hers around the end of the joint and inhales.

Two minutes later, when she’s finally recovered from her coughing fit, Eddie’s just about stopped laughing.

“You’re so mean to me,” she sighs.

“Yeah, well, I still can’t figure out how you survived this long by yourself, dude.”

“There’s something outside!”

Chrissy’s whisper cuts through the darkness of Eddie’s bedroom like a needle, jabbing him directly in the brain and rousing him from an extremely pleasant dream that also involved Chrissy talking. Only, in his dream, it was less a panicked whisper and more a soothing reassurance that, yeah, his dick really was too big for her.

“Huh?” He blinks just as something crashes outside the trailer. “Oh.”

“Eddie! Someone’s breaking in!”

“Uh, no. That’s a raccoon.”

“A raccoon?” She sits up like he told her aliens had landed on the lawn. “Outside?!”

“No, on the moon. Yes, it’s outside.”

“Can it get in?”

“… do you know how big raccoons are?”

“You’re the one with the bathroom window that won’t close.”

“Sweetheart. The garbage monster can’t get you. Can we please go back to sleep?”

“Can you go and check?”

Eddie sighs. Rolls onto his side and buries his face in the pillow. “You check if you’re so concerned.”

“Please, Eddie?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbles like he’s not already reaching for his boxers and boots. “Seriously, Cunningham. How have you survived this long?”

“You’ve never had a Twinkie?”

“No.”

“Shit, Chrissy. How have you survived this long without eating a Twinkie?”

“I don’t want to do it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t see the bottom.”

“There’s nothing on the bottom! It’s a lake.”

“It looks dirty.”

Eddie pinches the bridge of his nose. “Chrissy…”

“What if there’s an alligator?”

“We’re in Indiana.”

“So?”

“So, there aren’t alligators in Indiana.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“What about sharks?”

“What… lake sharks?”

Eddie almost believes her until he sees the corners of her mouth twitch, and she starts to giggle.

“Fuck off, Cunningham,” he says, grabbing her around the waist and lifting her off Rick’s dock, fully intending to deposit her in the water. “How you survived this long thinking there are lake sharks…”

“Eddie, don’t!”

Eddie does.

Eddie blinks. “You what?”

“I love you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Am I sure? Yes, I’m sure!”

“Oh.”

“Seriously, oh?” Chrissy feigns offense, pushing her sneaker-clad toes into his thigh and reaching for the joint he’s holding. “Thanks a lot.”

“No, uh. I mean. Obviously, I love you, too. Just… I never said that to anyone before.”

Chrissy smiles and takes a long drag, waving the smoke away before speaking. “I know. I’ve honestly been wondering how you survived this long by yourself.”

Other prompts from this meme!

#bsc diaries #aiea3414 #hellcheer #5+1 flash fic #fanfiction #oh the schmaltz!#prompt meme

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borderlinemediocre · 1 year

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My Maynard & Trent Manifesto:

I’ve been wanting to put this all together for a while. Basically, in my mind, there’s a hidden love story between these two and it’s complicated and messy and angsty.

First, they met in the mid-90s when Billy Howerdel introduced them at Trent’s New Orleans studio:

They clearly vibed because they’re both so hard working and technical and not afraid to get their hands dirty. Sweet.

They pretty much immediately started making music together, under the name Tapeworm, along with Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser, and eventually Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder. Although when Maynard talks about the project he only talks about Trent. So that’s a thing.

These Tapeworm pics are from 2002:

They definitely made a lot of music up until 2004 when Trent announced the end of the project. Interestingly that’s also when APC went on a 6 year hiatus. Tapeworm never officially released anything.

Trent says it’s because the music was “mediocre”. He says the whole project was just a distraction to “waste time” because he was afraid to write another NIN record.

Maynard says no one in Tapeworm was “ready” to make music together and that everyone had big egos that “polluted” the project.

So Trent totally abandoned the music they made, but Maynard didn’t. He started to play a Tapeworm track, “Vacant”, live with APC in 2000. Trent was kind of pissy about it, especially since Maynard was extra ballsy and debuted it while on tour with NIN.

Speaking of that tour, before playing 3 Libras in Phoenix, Maynard said that “2 of the 3 Libras are here tonight. If this song sounds bitter, it’s because it is, and I am.” Like??? He’s so directly calling out Trent here and letting it be known that he’s still angry about not getting to be with him. Also makes me think he debuted Vacant to purposely piss Trent off. And 3 Libras is bitter, and sad:

Maynard eventually released a reworked version of Vacant, called “Passive”, with APC in 2004, right before their hiatus.

He also recorded “Potions” with Puscifer and gave it to Trent as a wedding present in 2009 before releasing it on the Puscifer album that year. Which seems like a sweet gesture until you look at the lyrics:

He chose this song to give to him on his wedding day for… reasons, I’m sure. Wholesome friendship reasons.

Then after Trent had his first kid in 2010, Maynard changed the lyrics to “Passive” during a live set (this is the worst sound quality in the world but you get the point) to “Trent just had a baby/ the doctor tells me/ but I just can’t believe him”. So. Upset that Trent is moving on? Or just him being supportive? Who knows? (We know)

Earlier this year, Maynard did an interview with Rick Beato and mentioned Trent’s influence on his music, while dragging him at the same time:

“Trent on The Fragile; he’s stealing shit all over that album, but I’m stealing from his stolen goods.”

“Weak and Powerless is like a metronome right through your head. Again, stolen from Trent. Shh. Don’t tell him. Don’t watch this, Trent. Prick.”

And having Trent on his mind while he wrote this is certainly a thought:

So clearly, 22 years after he said he was bitter, he still is. But, I think he’s done some moving on as well. He just released a reworked version of “Potions” with Puscifer but with one small yet impactful lyric change- instead of “I want you”, it’s “I don’t want you.”

He’s said that he won’t keep singing songs about things he’s moved past (like the song Prison Sex with Tool, that they haven’t played in over 20 years). So when I saw that he rereleased Potions I was like Ohhhh he’s still not over Trent. But with this lyric change, maybe he is? Maybe he wanted to tie up a loose end that’s been hanging out there. Maybe he gave the new version to Trent beforehand.

I want to end with a quote from Maynard himself: “No one is gayer than I am, but some come dangerously close.”

🫡🙏🏻

#thank you to my friends who have had to hear this in pieces #you’re the true heroes #and to my husband who gave me like half this info #the gay we need #trent reznor #maynard james keenan #nine inch nails #tool band

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elpida · 24 days

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🌺🌺 (Eris 😏)

"Oh yeah, big brave Amorello now huh? Do you know she left us for fucking dead?" he tried to shame her, pointing the uncapped bottle her direction but then he took a huge swig of the stuff. "When it all went to shit and the dead were turning left and right, Eris Amorello, this strong fighter she paints herself as, left her parents to die." as he spoke, he was half spitting the words. Slurring and heavily intoxicated. Nothing changed, not a damn thing and Eris.. Eris just stood and stared at him. She felt ashamed of leaving them, but... what would that man have done, but hinder her? What would he do but put Emily at risk?

"She wanted us dead, just wouldn't do it herself, well here I am darling, I'm not going fucking anywhere you lowlife bitch." she continued to stare at the man. He could barely walk straight but you best believe he kept managing to swig at that bottle. "We looked after you, you had clothes on your back didn't you? You got fed." She ate better here, working in an army, than she ever had growing up. Rick had seen it, the way Eris sometimes looked at food, she never complained.. and sometimes, she halved things, like there was this fear she'd be waiting on her next meal, even here. They hadn't looked after her, she'd been that kid embarrassed to have holes in their clothes, washing them in the sink just so they'd be clean.. she was the girl sat with no pack lunch at school, relying on the kindness of classmates sharing with her, or a staff member taking pity on her. Alcohol always had and always would, even at the end of the fucking world, be more important than her. "And what kind of Mother did you turn out to be huh? You think you're so.. so much better than me?!" a muscle in her jaw tensed at the mention of her being a Mother, at the sheer thought of him daring to bring Emily into anything. He didn't even begin to know what a real sacrifice was.

"I'd like him escorted into the cells for holding, water only. Sober him and then we will re-evaluate their status." she didn't speak the words to him, she turned to the guards already making a move at her simple instruction. Re-evaluating meant that Eris wanted him gone and why wouldn't she? It was when she'd turned her head to give instruction that he raised up his hand and launched the bottle directly at her head.

#tw big gif #i never use the big gifs but that issss her dad #eris interactions #answered asks #OHHH THIS WAS SO FUN #THINKING OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES #crm verse

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marypsue · 2 years

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I’m giving s4 another shot because my watch buddies wanted to, and I’ll admit that now that I’m over the hurdle of that initial shot across my bows, I’m not as bitter towards it as I was. (Although I’m 110% certain that’s going to change the instant Brenner shows his bastard face onscreen again. Let me hate his stupid guts in peace.)

I do want to keep a record of my thoughts, but I will also be putting them behind a cut, for reason of them containing a sprinkling of praise but heaps and piles and pillars of salt. Please skip this post if you don’t want to see negativity.

I don’t really want to tag this because I don’t want to put my salt in the fandom tag, but if somebody wants it tagged so they can block it, please let me know! Because I will be reblogging and adding to this post as I go through the season.

As of the end of episode 2:

You can really, really tell that the Duffers want to be done with this and move on to other projects, and I kind of wish they would. I would rather they make something new they’re excited about, focusing on a new cast of characters, than keep making decisions I hate with the crew I got attached to.

It really tells you everything you need to know that they snuck a ‘Rick Sanchez’ into the list of Ricks in the Family Video computer system.

I will admit that, after he ate the fandom whole, I did not want to like Eddie. However. Okay. I get it. And for some reason, past his initial cringeworthy appearance, the over-the-top overdramatics do sorta work for him and are not merely extremely irritating (I am looking directly at Murray, here).

(Maybe because there’s an element of self-awareness and self-deprecation that is sadly missing from the ‘big loud annoying quote-unquote comic relief’ characters the Duffers have tried to bring in? This may be a function of the performance rather than the writing.)

Anyway. This is dangerous theatre-kid propaganda and will lead me to think people actually find those kinds of loud clownish antics endearing. And then. It’s a slippery slope.

Speaking of Eddie, I just recently finished reading Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart Is A Chainsaw, and I haven’t yet fully finished synthesizing my thoughts about that laid alongside the Eddie plot but you bet I’m having some. Will report back with new developments as they arise.

(At the moment, the thought in its entirety is ‘oh so one or more of the Duffers have read this book, huh’.)

(Listen, among all the other, bigger, more conceptual things that are more likely to be coincidentally similar, dramatically broken jaws figure prominently in both. I am just saying.)

(Everybody who got attached to Eddie and/or Chrissy and/or wanted a happy(er) ending AU for them, please go read My Heart Is A Chainsaw. And stan Jade Daniels and Letha Mondragon. Please. I am 99% certain you’ll love them. Also I looked on AO3 and there is no fic for this book, and I don’t want to have to write everything I want to read myself.)

I do have to give the s4 team props for finding a way to put a tabletop game on film like it’s championship sportsball.

I also really liked the callback to Benny’s. A lot of the flashbacks and callbacks are coming across very like that one post said, how early Jurassic Park was about something but later Jurassic Park is about Jurassic Park, and early Stranger Things was about something but later Stranger Things is about Stranger Things, but Benny’s in particular I liked. Please do not ask me to elaborate on the difference.

(Something something, retreading familiar ground vs seeing how time and change has affected the familiar/going away and coming back is not the same as never leaving? I don’t know, I’ll stew on it.)

They’re really wearing their inspirations on their sleeves for this one, huh. Apparently recreating classic movie scenes shot-for-shot was too subtle? Now they have to namedrop Michael Myers, and wave a cardboard cutout of Freddy’s knife-glove in our faces, so we don’t blink and miss what’s happening with the killer nightmare sequences? Also love those Deadite eyes. Can’t beat a classic, I guess, although you can always piggyback off of one.

(I am also just going to come out and say it, because I can’t be the only person who’s thought it. If ‘pretty innocent white woman dies of being invisibly pinned to a ceiling by a demon, kicking off a monster hunt which eventually involves eye-stealing death delivered via invisible undead monster to people with guilty secrets which appear to involve feeling responsibility for a death, if I’m not totally out to lunch about a pretty cheerleader puking in a toilet and having trauma associated with gaining weight being shorthand for One Thing in TV-land’ is not cribbing directly from the Supernatural episode ‘Bloody Mary’, I will eat my hat.)

(And the possibility that the show is referencing Supernatural while in the middle of going full Supernatural is absolutely exquisite.)

I had really high hopes for Max and Lucas’ relationship to be a focal point in this season after that super sweet scene in e1 but?? where is it? Because I haven’t seen any more of it, and it was the one thing that episode offered me that I thought was worth watching more for.

I have been tenderness-baited.

On a slightly more serious note jumping off from that dumb joke, I am never going to stop being pissed off that the Duffers appear to think there is exactly one story for queer characters/people, and it is misery, tragedy, and isolation (unless Joe Keery and Maya Hawke are standing behind them with a gun). With that in mind, I get that this fandom skews young and their experiences are therefore Very Different than mine, but...the idea that it’s some kind of Important Representational Milestone to take a character who has canonically been the butt of vicious homophobic bullying from season 1 on, and whose friends have been rejecting and abandoning him for the last few seasons, and has zero positive associations and multiple negative ones with queerness, and make him Canon Binary Gay, and that if another fan has any kind of problem with that then that fan is the problem and not, say, the showrunners who think that being gay means everything sucks and you’re alone and then you die and that’s just how the world works so get used to it? That sucks. That sucks a fucking fat one, and I wish more fans would stop and think about it for a minute before getting up in arms.

And I’m not giving the dufflebags any fucking Representation Points or whatever for this half-baked mess they’ve cooked up. This shit is just gonna give me salmonella.

I know (though I’m still disappointed) that Kali’s not going to show up again. Because if she did, she would take one look at the El plot and go ‘yeah of course you’re not a monster, every last one of those bitches had it coming’ and she would be right and then the whole business would be over and they’d have to find something else to fill that time.

Like. I genuinely can’t tell if they actually want me to be conflicted about El’s use of force? They went out of their way to show how all her nonviolent options - talk to a responsible adult, try to reason with the bully, etc - were exhausted? Am I actually supposed to be horrified and questioning whether she’s a monster? Because at the moment all I’m getting is that that Angela bitch missed the memo on ‘talk shit, get hit’, and that a bunch of kidnappers and child abusers got murdered by a child they kidnapped and abused, and I literally don’t see the problem here. I do not have either the time or inclination to sit through endless fingerpointing about what a mOoOoOnster El is for taking the violent option when she didn’t have any others.

(Especially after season 1. Jesus.)

(Mike: Yeah it was so cool when El broke Troy’s arm and saved my life! El: Yeah, like when I hit this girl who’s been viciously tormenting me for the last nine months in the face. Mike: Sorry, you WHAT? El: Oh this is not a safe space suddenly?)

(I’m actually just going to have to spend the rest of the season daydreaming about Kali showing up and murdering everybody to death, aren’t I.)

(I did call it about that plotline, though.)

Everything about the Russia plot is exactly as bone-stupid as I’d feared. Poor Winona is doing the absolute most with the material she’s been given, it is not her fault.

But you cannot mail a package from the USSR to California in 1986.

And I still cannot fucking stand Murray.

That’s not how torture works.

No, seriously, that’s not how torture works. Murray, loath as I am to say it, is right. And the fact that they’ve got him in there paying lip service to the fact that people will eventually say literally anything under torture, people will LIE to make the torture stop happening, this is WHY confessions obtained under conditions of torture are inadmissible in a court of law, it is not something you can just shrug off if you’re cool or badass or pure-of-heart enough, that is why they call it TORTURE and then they still walked out that tired old trope about ‘oh but if you’re a Good Guy and you’re Strong you won’t break under -’ fuck off with that. Can we please come back from Cold War Action Flick La La Land for five minutes.

I’d even maybe almost be willing to let it go as genre convention, except for the fact that somehow season 1 got it right! I’d almost say the show is suffering from Anne Rice Editor Syndrome, except for the fact that there are so many more people involved in making a TV show. So. How????

Speaking of which.

Once upon a season 1, the Upside Down was, like, a place. A place that was foreign, alien, scary-looking, and largely unfathomable, yes. But it seemed like a world that could exist almost independently from, if interconnected with, our own. It wasn’t well fleshed-out and most of it was stolen from Alien, yes, but it was clearly implied that it had its own shit going on beyond just being ~creepy~ and ~evil~.

(And wet. But that’s beside the point.)

And once upon a season 1, the monster that came out of the Upside Down was an animal, with a simple, incontrovertible, unstoppable motivation: hunger.

Once upon a season 1, the governments of the world didn’t fixate on Our Heroes, and were more than willing to make them disappear if they got in the way.

Once upon a season 1, the antagonists of this show had internally consistent motivations that didn’t revolve entirely around making life difficult for Our Heroes. The antagonists didn’t care that much about Our Heroes, and it was fucking chilling.

Once upon a season 1, it felt like there was a whole world outside of and around Our Heroes, a real world, that would and could go on without them. Our Heroes felt insignificant, in a way that made their fear and weakness - and their courage and strength - seem all the more real and all the more important. And made it actually seem threatening when their lives and the lives of those they loved were put in danger.

Now Our Heroes are all decked out in plot armour, and the Upside Down is, like, Hell or something and its sole purpose in existence is to cause suffering on this side of things, and the antagonists are cardboard cutouts that only exist to cause trouble for Our Heroes (but not more trouble than they can handle!) because they’re borderline obsessed with Our Heroes, and everything is neatly cut and dried between Good and Evil, and I’m bored.

God, I miss season 1.

Whyyyyy does all the non-supernatural ‘humour’ and drama revolve entirely around aggressively and repeatedly humiliating the characters I came here for. I am in agony.

And I also still can’t handle the costuming.

#also the hair. why does everybody's hair look like they've been washing it in saltwaterand then blowdrying it for the last nine months #is it because hair and costuming are unionized. tell the truth is it because hair and costuming are unionized #thirty mil per episode and they couldn't spring for a little dippity do #anyway eddie munson fans PLEASE read my heart is a chainsaw i will not shut up about this until you all meet jade daniels #yes yes I know I have so much criticism why would you take a recommendation from me: it's because I actually despite myself like your boy #and also I hold no hate in my heart for my fellow fans and I do want y'all to be happy #and ALSO i want someone to come scream with me about how awesome jade is

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morganas-pendragons · 2 years

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TWD 11.17 and 18

These are going to be brutally honest thoughts. I haven't done one of these in a while, and I haven't seen any generally good thoughts about these two episodes so here we go!

DID ANYONE NOTICE THEY ADDED TO THE TITLE CARDS AND THE THEME?

I don't have the slightest clue what happened at the beginning of Episode 17 but I am 100% here for Sleezy Hornsby getting shot by Daryl

Also, speaking of Sleezy -- His actor is A List, he's done a phenomenal job!

For any of you who keep repeatedly saying that Negan doesn't deserve a redemption arc... very kindly? You're wrong. He's had it, it was executed well, and I'm glad he's gotten a decent arc from Season 9 and 10 (I need to rewatch S11 in entirety before I can say it for this season too)

MERCER *insert drooling emoji here*

I kid you not I went "MOM" as soon as carol appeared on screen

AUNT CAROL?????? *CRIES*

Judith is so big it makes me want to die

I love that little character detail about Carol where she's always thinking three steps ahead of the antagonist for that particular season. It really speaks to her life experience how she's always prepared.

YA'LL COME AFTER JUDITH AND RJ AND YOU WILL BE CATCHING THESE HANDS

JDM is so good at the comedic aspect of Negan

I remember years ago that I desperately wanted to see JDM and MMB on screen together because of the dynamic between Carol and Negan -- and how drastically different they are from one another. THIS ONE DOESN'T DISAPPOINT EITHER

Episode 17 definitely gives me the vibes of if Woodbury had gone wrong, how would it have happened?

there's alot of nice callbacks to previous seasons/characters in this episode, which is really nice. I hope the series finale has this same kind of nostalgia.

also. Melissa? blue. her color. I will now associate every shade of blue with Melissa McBride, no questions asked.

I really, really hope Sebastian gets the crap kicked out of him by everyone

I love the candle light vigil and what it means because it makes sense. All these people find out that the Governor's son is responsible for the deaths of multiple civilians from the community, and they're enraged. They're furious and want blood and I don't blame them.

here's the really ironic part of this episode: it once again showed us that not even a community of 50k is safe inside of these walls because the walkers can still get through

AH, TEAR GAS AT A PEACEFUL EVENT. WONDER WHY THAT'S FAMILIAR?

oh lord all the Caryl scenes are in episode 18 I guess I'm staying up to watch both

This got a solid 7/10 and would've been lower if Judith and Carol weren't in it LOL

Episode 18

WHAT LITTLE GIRL IS DOING THESE VOICE OVERS????

Also first impressions: I find it hilariously stupid that Daryl is questioning Carol playing both sides when she's clearly done this like a million other times????

DARYL GETS TO ACTUALLY DROP THE F BOMB??? WOW

go off my guy Hornsby absolutely deserved getting stabbed through the hand with your MASSIVE knife

I really have an issue with the regression of Carol and Daryl's relationship. That opinion might get its own post.

"You take happiness wherever you can get it, and don't ever be sorry for it." Carol honey I love you but please take your own advice

I love how the camera pans directly to Daryl and Judith as SOON as she walks away from Lydia after saying this

DARYL!! HOLDING!!! RICKS!! GUN!!!!

catch me crying at the ''here it's yours'' BYE I MISS RICK SO MUCH

I think it's interesting how some of the side characters are beginning to find themselves again at Commonwealth and that molds their decision as to whether or not they'll stay or return to the Safe Zone.

Also for you guys who are vehemently against CZ: This scene isn't romantic and has zero romantic implications. After all that happened in S9, I cannot see a world where they'd make an effort to go through this again.

You can really tell Cailey Fleming has grown up from where we saw her in S9 to now. She's been a PHENOMENAL little Judith.

And speaking of Judith -- she really is the embodiment of everything Rick and Michonne stood for, and if she doesn't appear in his spin off to reunite with her father I WILL RIOT

uncle daryl and his little niece makes me weep

uhm.... okay this wrestling scene is.. uh... extremely corny

OH OKAY STEPHANIE AND EUGENE I SEE YOU

I FREAKING KNEW THE WALKERS WERE GOING TO GET IN WHEN FAKE STEPHANIE AND HER FRIEND KILLED THAT CREW WHY IS THIS SHOW SO PREDICTABLE

okay but highkey mercer might be the most attractive man in the commonwealth

THE WAY I CHEERED WHEN EUGENE THREW THAT WALKER AT SEBASTIAN GO OFF MY DUDE GO OFF

okay but imo his death might be the most gruesome/tragic one we've had in.. quite a while

this one was alot better then 17 because it again proves that not even a civilization of fifty thousand people is safe inside of these fortified walls where they get to pretend like the world didn't end and try to live the way they did before. I enjoyed this one much more thoroughly, but not enough Carol. 8/10!

bonus: why does episode 19 look better then 18 and 17 combined

#twd spoilers #twd #darylneedscarol #caryl

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juangallojongaro · 1 year

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Best of 2022

Alvvays - “Belinda Says” After five years in the wilderness, Alvvays burst back on the scene with a masterpiece in Blue Rev, the ALBUM OF THE YEAR. Supplementing already deliriously catchy songwriting with a thick shoegazey wall of sound, the Canadian crew put out fourteen songs and forty minutes of pop rock perfection. No better example than “Belinda Says,” an aching short story combining clever lyrics, soaringly sympathetic vocals, and a killer guitar solo where you least expect it. It’s the SONG OF THE YEAR.

Big Thief - “Time Escaping” To my surprise, the inscrutable but incessantly listenable Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You was my most listened to album of 2022. Am I a little pissed because that album title is very stupid? I am. However, I’m very happy with the album as a whole and this song in particular. It’s tempting to write something about how this album’s word puzzle lyrics typified my 2022 and my own problems blah blah blah. Instead, let’s just accept that I like to think about songs with weird lyrics.

Disq - “Cujo Kiddies” Speaking of inscrutable, I saw this weird little band of twelve year olds open for Neko Case. And I got to sit in the ADA section real close ‘cause my wife was wearing a surgical boot!

Future Teens - “BYOB” A song so emotionally raw that I asked the singer at an extremely small show at HEALER if they were doing okay. They said they were! Very great song to scream along to in the car while hungover–big Rick Dalton energy.

LCD Soundsystem - “new body rhumba (from the film White Noise)” Obviously, the best thing to come out of the aforementioned ill-conceived film adaptation. An exchange:

Zach: Is it a really good LCD song or, like, are they just giving us what we like?

Me: Yes.

Megan Thee Stallion (ft. Dua Lipa) - “Sweetest Pie” I am a childish boy (FUN FACT: When my pal David and I traveled to Canada last summer, we introduced ourselves to essentially every Canadian bartender as “just childish boys.” We also 1) almost got in a fight [not our fault!] and 2) ate offal [it was gross!]). I guffaw every time I hear, “More bounce to the ounce/Pick it up, put it down/I wanna put his Nutty Buddy/In my, ah, Fudge Rounds.”

Mitski - “Working for the Knife” Just going to quote the Genius reading of the titular line, “the nature of the knife is that it isn’t just a symbol of oppression that enforces her simultaneous drive and dissatisfaction from a distance; it cuts her down at close range by directly interfering with her life, demanding more of her energy and constant performance. But, as she states, she’s “working for” the knife; she’s doing the knife’s work, cutting herself down as she pushes herself to produce and entertain.” GUH! Mitski! Take a vacation!!!

Pusha T (ft. Jay-Z and Pharell) - “Neck & Wrist” I have nothing clever left to say about Pusha T (PUSH!). He will make a dope song every two to three years, and I will include it in this list. I will copy and paste this caption.

Wet Leg - “Wet Dream” A delightful song off a delightful album whose praises I will not sing more of because I went to see them on my birthday in Louisville and they were very bad. Anyway, here’s the extra dreamy Harry Styles covering. LYRIC OF THE YEAR: “You climb onto the bonnet/And you're licking the windscreen/I've never seen anything so obscene/It's enough to make a girl blush/It's enough, it's enough to make a girl blush.”

Weyes Blood - “Grapevine” A strong contender for Album of the Year, and may eventually get there in hindsight. Lush and luscious Laurel Canyon pop.

If you are not my wife, please move on to the next song: I KNOW IT’S ALL MID-TEMPO BUT THAT’S OKAY BECAUSE THE LYRICS ARE POETRY AND LISTEN TO THAT VOICE THOSE HARMONIES! IT’S NOT BORING!!!

Yung Gravy - “Betty (Get Money)” Speaking of my wife, she introduced me to this song which is so 1) stupid and 2) good that it could only result in litigation. Terrific first four lines: “With your baby mama at the crib I blow her back out/Shawty Filipino and she call me Manny Pacquiao/Alley-oop without the hoop they call me Jerry Stackhouse/Dazing out in public but your mama made me snap out.” Yung Gravy loves MILFS. I would represent him pro bono.

#bestof2022

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itsgrimeytime · 10 months

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Magnolia in May (Part Two) || Rick Grimes (TWD) x Greene!f!reader Regency AU

Part 1...

AVAILABLE ON AO3

Inspiration (in honor of Speak Now Taylor's Version): Enchanted by Taylor Swift

TWS: rumors.

[[ A/N: Also, am I so inspired by this concept that I wrote a second part in a day? Maybe so... 👀👀👀 Anyway, thanks for reading!!! ]]

You realized pretty quickly that you hadn't gotten the man's name, only his daughter's first. It was a bit frustrating, and even more so as your Headmistress continued to ramble on about timeliness and arriving on time.

You knew the lesson, it had been drilled into your head since you'd been late to school once at age six. It only grated on your ears now.

There was a thought there to tell her it was because of a man -she'd be so delighted, her whole rant would be long forgotten. But another part of yourself wished to hold it back -to keep this man and his darling daughter in your brain for no one else to see.

It was a rather selfish thought, but having never seen the two before you assumed they were travelers -they'd be gone soon enough. And without his name, it would be rather difficult to describe to a Headmistress all about social standing. He could be a farmhand for all you knew, an overdressed farmhand, sure, but one no less.

"Y/N," Headmistress pursed her lips -a grainy sort of disgust in her face, "-are you even listening?"

"Yes ma'am," you cleared your throat, moving to cut into your pancake, "-sorry, I was a little distracted, what have you asked?"

Elisa frowned, set deep into her face and you wondered how she'd been so smiley before with how heavily ingrained it looked, "I asked, young lady, what distracted you on your trip? It's not normal for you to take such time! So what happened?"

You paused, quickly eating a bite to buy some time -unsure if you wished to speak the truth. The more you thought about it, you found it rather stupid -the man was surely gone and it wasn't anything to concern them. You were a lady of age, and speaking to a man hardly was anything to talk to your parents about.

"Mrs. Sweets had some new dresses in the window," you lied -carefully dabbing your face with the napkin (you had noticed the new dresses but it had hardly taken any time at all), "-I wanted to look at them closely, and lost track of time, I suppose, I truly apologize."

"Hmm," the Headmistress pursed his lips -seeming to evaluate your words, "-lesson learned, I presume?"

"Very," you replied -simply, wishing for the conversation to navigate elsewhere.

And just as it seemed to (Maggie saying something that the Headmistress just had to dispute), there was a heavy knock on the door.

The room fell abruptly silent, the only noticeable noises being the slight clink of silverware and the creaks of the old chairs. Your father was the first to stand, making his way to the door with a confidence you'd wished you inherited.

The man who stood there was short, a cap situated on his head and a determination in his eyes, "This the Greene residence?"

Your father answered, a little uncertain -blocking the man's eyes from farther into the house, "Yes, I'm Dr. Hershel Greene, is this about work?"

"No sir," he responded -respectful and quite direct before extending a hand forward, a thick piece of paper exchanged between them, "-your family has been invited to the Ball, come next Tuesday. Mr. Grimes personally requested your presence."

Headmistress couldn't hold back a gasp, as Father took the paper -skimming over it with a heavy sort of look, "Personally?"

"Yes, sir. He insisted I bring it to the residence directly."

You thought back to the man, and his insistence on buying you more -just for the lack of one. Poking around the fruit on your plate, you frowned. He was probably married after all, he did have a child -someone as charming as he was most certainly bound to a wife.

Before you could dive further into your sudden despair, your father joined back at the table -slow and sure steps. Opening his mouth to say something, he didn't get very far before the Headmistress snatched the invite out of his hands.

Her lips pressed into a thin line as she skimmed over the words, she seemed to digest it (like it could be a fake).

You furrowed your brows, as she seemed to stall.

"I'll be looking forward to your presence signed Mr. Grimes," the Headmistress read out loud -a grin large and wide, "-he wrote us a note! He must be in search of a wife!"

"Miss Elisa," Father tried to calm her, now sitting back in his spot at the table.

"I'm only thinking optimistically, Hershel," she responded -tone much more controlled but still quite touched in tone, "-wouldn't it be wonderful for the girls to have suitors?"

"I'd rather not discuss speculation," your father leveled with her -eyes set in a certainty that not even the Headmistress could refuse.

And that was where the talk of the invite ended.

Your father was rather stubborn in his restrictions, and starting any sort of rumors about a man he respected was far below his limit. It wasn't even mentioned until that Saturday afternoon at the seamstress.

"Beth, dear," Headmistress hummed -rapting her knuckles on the small room she'd been dressing in, "-how does the blue one fit?"

It was a beautiful blue dress that matched her eyes with pillowing sleeves -layers of fabric heavy on the skirt. The cotton seemed soft to the touch, and you thought it a very good match to your sister -she'd suited it well from what you assumed. Beth hadn't shown the dress to you yet.

"It needs to be tightened," she echoed with a huff -frustrated, "-I can't reach-"

"Alright, alright," your Headmistress responded, her tone calming and direct -as she navigated into the room to help.

With that, you sighed deeply. Rather unamused by the extensive shopping you found yourself currently in, you enjoyed getting new dresses, really. It was just a long process, and for whatever reason, the Headmistress had always focused on you last.

It was rather stuffy in the store, dresses hung up in any corner they could. They were beautiful, truly stunning works of fabric and ribbon -you'd trailed your fingers along some of the layers with keen interest. It was always rather fascinating to study how the dresses were made, each individual stitch had its own purpose and you enjoyed the complexity of it.

Maggie grabbed your attention, motioning to a rather fluffy pink dress -detailed by too many rather large ribbons. She pulled it up to her side, posing like she was prim and proper -a grin biting on her face, "What do you think?"

You smiled, always amused by her antics, "We might need to-"

Your eyes caught on the window framing behind her, and there was someone so familiar there. You'd only seen a glimpse, but it had struck you so intricately, your eyes peered the area looking for whoever you recognized-

And then, you saw him.

He was still rather overdressed, darker button-up detailed by a lovely light blue ascot tied around his neck -it looked satin. Actually, he looked much fancier with a peacoat of a rather deep blue splayed across his shoulders, and hair still a little tussled from the day -brown curls resting still rather perfectly. He seemed content on a bench, Judith not present -as he looked on in front of him, absorbed by something quite heavily. You stilled, he was still here?

With a quick thought, you realized just how close the shop had been to the markets -it was a short walk, and you'd done it often. You had a wonderful view, well... right where he was seated. It was treacherous thought flooding your mind that he might be waiting for you.

"Y/N?" Maggie waved her hands in front of your face, starting to match your eyes towards where yours lay on the window, "What are you looking a-"

She stiffened. You hadn't been quick enough to divert her attention, as her eyes skimmed over the figure without much report. Maggie was a very upfront woman, after all.

"Who-"

"We might need to look elsewhere!" you finished your thought, rather loud and squeaky, as you quickly turned to a few other mannequins, "-what about this one, Maggie? I think the color is exquisite, really-"

"Y/N-" she spoke at full volume before you caught her eyes and made a shush motion -head tilting toward the dressing room.

"Everything alright, girls?" your Headmistress asked, most likely from your tone only a few seconds ago. You'd been thoroughly embarrassed it had even left your lips -so loud and not very graceful.

Maggie, a simple master at her craft, replied -without a flinch, "Yes, ma'am. Y/N just slipped on a skirt."

"Right, yes," you spoke, trying to contain the rather squeaky tone your voice had taken on, "-there are some quite long ones."

Headmistress must've accepted this answer, as she no longer responded -assumedly preoccupied with the dress mechanics, you briefly wondered how it had become so complicated. Before the more pressing matter made itself known.

Maggie was a hair away from jumping up and down right there in the seamstress shop, eager to be in on the loop. She'd gotten that trait from Ms. Elisa, you assumed.

Her voice was much quieter now, "Do you know him?"

"Oh, no-" you answered a little too fast, judging by the mischievous glint in her eyes only gleaming brighter, "-I just think he's rather handsome, that's all."

As if on cue, the man looked in the direction of the window of the shop. You don't know why, maybe the old man on the corner had grabbed his attention or the little boy who was currently chasing a butterfly down the street. It didn't matter, because his eyes neatly settled on you.

As if you were the only one on the street. Your cheeks turned a fantastic crimson at the mere thought-

And then, they shifted -flickering to your side. Where Maggie stood, grinning brightly and waving to the man. You were going to kill her.

With a little questioning look smoothing across his face, he raised his hand and waved back. His right hand, you noticed. (There was no ring.) You bit down the little flutter your stomach had done, bashfully raising your hand to wave as well.

The smile that stretched across his face was incredibly telling.

Maggie grinned even wider, not turning to face you, "You know him, how do you know him?"

"Well-"

Before you could say anything else, the man seemed to falter for a minute -turning to his side and grabbing something you couldn't quite see. He then lifted it, seeming to try and show it to you. It seemed to be a delicately woven basket one with much better craftsmanship than your own. You hadn't known what to expect in it, except-

Oh, he was waiting for you. He had the berries.

Your sister couldn't hold the pose, now fully turning to face you-hands gently taking your arms, "He's got a present."

"It's not quite a present, really-" you started.

Maggie didn't wait, eyes darting to the room where your other sister and Headmistress stayed stationed. Before she seemed to decide something -a familiar determination sparked in her eyes.

"Go," she whispered.

You opened your mouth, "What about-"

"I've got it," she reassured, a sort of warm affection bubbling up her voice, "-I'll lock them in there if I have to."

You rolled your eyes, knowing better than to argue with your sister, "I'll be quick, I promise."

Maggie rolled her eyes and pushed you to the door -scampering off to find whatever distraction she intended on using. God, you truly loved her.

As soon as you exited the shop, the man raised to his feet -almost on instinct. You frantically looked across the street, keeping an eye on oncoming carriages -before hastily making your way to the bench where he now stood.

He was laughing by the time you got there, the sound sent a familiar buzz up your spine, "In a hurry?"

"A bit," you answered -brushing a bit of dirt off your dress at the commotion, "-let's say I'm on borrowed time."

"I could've come to you," he said, so genuinely that you found you had to remember your point of being here. He apparently had a way of making you forget what you were doing.

"You couldn't," you responded, before scrambling to explain, "-wait, that sounded a bit rude. My apologies, it's just my Headmistress would lose it if she saw me so much as speaking to a man. She wants to marry us off, and any living breathing specimen is of enough quality to her."

"I'd hope I was better than a specimen," he smiled, a lilt in his voice that sounded quite close to teasing, "-do you refer to lots of men as specimens, Ms. Greene?"

"Just you," you quipped and he broke out into a sort of laughter -head thrown back, pure joy. You were quite proud of yourself for that one, holding your head slightly higher at the boost -smiling at his contagious one.

"Right, well," he added, clearing his throat to try and regain his composure, "-I'll keep note of 'at. Oh, and before I forget, here's the berries I owe ya."

And then, the basket (which surely was worth more than everything you currently wore) was extended to you. You could already see that it was filled with an assortment of berries, not just the single blueberry Judith had actually eaten.

"Oh, I couldn't, really-"

"I insist," he repeated, familiarly, and you found you couldn't quite fight the man in front of you.

"At least take the basket back, sir," you urged, a bit mesmerized by the handwoven pieces, "-I can't imagine what it's worth."

"Think of it as a gift."

"No," you reiterated, "-this must've cost a fortune. I can't-"

"Ms. Greene," he straightened, blue eyes glazing over your face in a way that almost worsened the crimson stain on your cheeks -something of fond, "-it's a gift, an' I'd be rather honored if ya accepted it."

You sighed, a bit defeated, "Alright, thank you, sir. I have no way of repaying you though-"

"How about a-" he began, fidgetting slightly with his coat -as if he was nervous. Why would he be nervous?

"Y/N," Maggie hissed across the courtyard, a sort of nerves in her eyes -you knew she'd already been cutting it close.

"I'm so sorry," you spoke, trying to genuinely portray it in your voice, "-really. If I see you again, please do approach me. Maybe we can have a complete conversation?"

He smiled, noting before you could leave, "Will do, Ms. Greene, enjoy the fruits. I got quite a wide selection, didn't know what you'd prefer."

"I'm sure they're lovely."

And then, without much of a notice, you rushed back into the seamstress shop -only chancing a look back when you came back inside. When you did, he stood in the same place -eyes intently focused on you, and gently waving his hand.

You laughed, timidly waving back.

Maggie was staring at you as you turned around, the gleam from earlier only sparkling even brighter.

You started, trying to stop the train before it even started, "Maggie-"

"You're telling me everything."

Then, the door creaked open -Beth (still in the dress she came in) as her eyes settled on the basket you held carefully in front of your skirt, and your Headmistress rumbling something about corsets.

"Girls, I think-" she started, before faltering, her own eyes settling on the rather extensive stash of fruit you'd gathered, "Where did you get that?"

The Headmistress was already making her way to you, brushing her fingers over the woven material -much like she had handled the invitation. So delicate as if it was the finest piece of china.

"Just someone repaying a debt," you answered, vaguely.

Ms. Elisa furrowed her brows, glancing at you with a deep, questioning gaze but you refused to break, "An expensive debt, I assume? That craftsmanship could probably pay for three new dresses from scratch, dear."

The Headmistress continued her path to the dresses, calling out to Beth to join her -leaving you stunned in your own path.

"Everything," Maggie reiterated, her tone doused in much of the amazement you'd felt.

"Everything," you agreed.

#rick grimes x reader #its griming time #stuff n' thangs #rick grimes x you #rick grimes x y/n #ricky dicky doo dah grimes #twd #twd rick #rick grimes x y/n fanfiction #rick grimes oneshot #magnolia in may #rick grimes

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harrietvane · 3 years

Text

Advantages of buying hard-copy media instead of just relying on streaming is you sometimes get the Commentary Tracks(TM), and I was today years old when I realised my Blu-ray copy of The Mummy 1999 has a Brendan Fraser only natter track. And it is DELIGHTFUL. BF alone in a booth and so softly spoken. I’m 20 minutes in and so far he’s:

Given pertinent ‘did u know’ historical facts about the 1930s props he’s holding

Identified 3-second shots of stunties and animal wranglers by name with glowing praise. First name, last name, career facts. Introduces every speaking actor as they appear.

Apologised for laughing (and planning to keep laughing) at John Hannah and Rachel Weisz’s comedy performances, but he enjoys them so much

[Rick runs and jumps and falls] ‘oh that didn’t hurt that wasn’t me’ [camera shows it is actually him] ‘oh that was me and it did hurt!’

Explains the sets and onscreen effects of scenes he’s not even in

Talks back at his own character ‘hey! manners!’ when Rick sasses Evie. Talks to Evie like she can hear him. Says ‘ow!’ when people get hit. This is extreme Dad behaviour.

Narrates the prison hanging scene like ‘that part is a stuntman and that part is me and here’s the moment when I actually started suffocating, and then I passed out’.

Later has a giggle fit and has to explain that Kevin J O’Connor ad-libbed the little ‘..someday I might’ line after ‘you don’t have any children’.

Rick awkwardly gives Evie the tools: ‘I think Rick would probably carry her books home from school’

Gently says ‘uh oh!’ anytime something untoward happens. When he’s not giving facts he’s just like directly narrating the story on screen like to a sleepy toddler in between very soft chuckles at his co-stars being cute.

He is engaged with this process. I am CHARMED.

#text post shenanigans #the mummy #brendan fraser

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darkened-writer · 2 years

Text

Rough Around The Edges- (An Adrian Chase x Reader)

[Gif belongs to @vigilantesimp ]

This fic will follow along with the plot of Peacemaker, just with the reader inserted! I will be adding extra random one-shots after this is done, and up until season 2. I hope to be frequent with my postings and hope you all enjoy!

The grip on my gun was sweaty as we all pointed our guns towards, 'Peacemaker'.

"Stay where you are, Smith.."

Harcourt and I moved towards the door of his patriotic trailer, Murn going in first. Peacemaker was cursing profanities, Murn beginning to speak.

"You only served four years of your thirty year sentence.. And you though we were just gonna let you got, scot-free?"

"Yeah... I killed Rick Flag for you people."

"No-one told you to kill Flag." Harcourt rebutted, harshly.

"Waller said 'do whatever' I had to do to make sure those 'Project Starfish' files didn't get out. Made the only choice I could."

"Funny, for you, how often the only choice and killing people coincides."

"What the fuck is he doing?" I turn, nudging Economos in the arm.

'I have low blood sugar, okay? So, I'm dizzy."

Murn interrupts, "You showed you were loyal. You're a born killer with expertise in every weapon known to humankind, and you've had experience in black ops around the globe, so I'm giving you the chance to stay out of prison and work for me."

Smith scoffs, "And you are?"

"Name's Murn."

"Clemson Murn?"

"That's right. I report directly to Amanda Waller... This is Harcourt, who you may know from Waller's team at Belle Reve.."

He shoots her a flirty glance, which she denies gracefully with a middle finger.

"She'll be your handler in the field. John Economos, who you may also know, is tech and tactics."

"Hey, dude, you're eating four-year-old olives out of my fuckin' fridge." Economos gags as I snatch away the olives in disgust, setting it on the counter.

"This is Y/N L/N, who you also know, as field planner and arms expert."

I nod at him, he nods back.

"And this us our new recruit, Leota Adebayo, which means she'll be doing most everything else."

"Glad to be here. Ready to kick sone ass, sir. And really lookin' forward to gettin' to know all of you."

Her motions are awkward,

"Even you, Peacemaker. Uh, even though you're not the best guy in the world. And Economos, you seem like you're very easy to talk to."

He chuckles at her,

"So I look forward to working with you. Harcourt, Y/N, I feel like, because we're the only women here, we have to have each others back. Anything you both need, I got you. And, Mr. Murn, I have to say your outfits are really dapper. I'm really excited to be here, and I promise you're not gonna regret this. I know inside my mind I'm not supposed to be giving a speech, but sometimes my mouth just does what it wants, so... Close mouth. I'm bitin' my tongue right now... Not gonna talk again...I'm done talking."

I keep a laugh under my throat, continuing to listen to the conversation. Smith scoffs at Adebayo,

"What's the op?"

"Domestic situation, known as 'Project Butterfly'."

"As I recall, you guys aren't particularly creative with the case file names. Project Starfish was a giant walkin' starfish. So, what, am I fighting a Mothra now?" He chuckles, Harcourt and I peering at Economos.

"I am? I'm fightin' a Mothra? What the fuck do I fight a Mothra with?"

"That's not what it is." Murn was obviously annoyed when Smith spoke up.

"Can I get a jetpack?"

"No."

"How the fuck am I supposed to fight a Mothra without a jetpack?"

"It's not a Mothra."

"Still, my desire for a jetpack remains, 'cause you got me all excited about it."

"We need you to do contract work."

Smith rolls his eyes, "Kill people?"

"Bad people."

"Whom we call Butterflies."

Smith exhales, "What if I say no?"

"You'll have to return to Bell Reve."

"What's to keep me from splittin'?"

"Still have that bomb in your head to track you with, and if that fails, we'll blow you the hell up."

Peacemakers expression fell grimly in thought as he sighs and nods.

"We'll meet you for dinner tonight. Seven-thirty at-- Where is it?"

We all get up to leave, "Fennel Fields on Manchester Road. And the mozzarella sticks..." She clicks her fingers, "...are dope."

I follow Harcourt closely, listening to hear any of Smith's other remarks.

"Enjoy my food, Dye-Beard."

"It's not dyed."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Hard edge of two-tone gray and Magic Marker brown. That's natural."

Economos laughs awkwardly, "No."

─────────────────────────────────────────

The calm music fills my ears as I sip on the coffee I ordered, eyes on Economos who was spouting about when pigeons filled his home, until Harcourt spoke.

"Are you kidding me?"

"No. There was like ten of 'em, and they shit all over my couch."

"No. This guy."

We all peered outside, seeing Peacemaker in his full get-up and patriotic muscle car.

Economos laughs, "Did this dipshit really show up in full cosplay mode?"

"This is the guy Waller's giving us? I told you she's fucking us."

"She's not fucking us."

"Is that an eagle in the back seat?" Adebayo and I say in almost unison, muffled screeching coming from Smith's car.

Economos laughs again, Murn speaking again.

"She's fucking us."

The bell chimes and he walks in, demeanor confident as people stare at his off appearance, Harcourt sighing in annoyance.

"Hey. Scooch."

He slides in the booth with Murn and Adebayo, grunting as he fully sat.

"Why are you in your costume?"

He scoffs, "Costume? This is a uniform. And it's brand new, so I gotta stretch it out, make it more comfortable before I go on a mission."

I roll my eyes, taking another sip of coffee.

"Maybe I'm stupid, but why would you even wanna wear that on a mission? A bright red shirt and white pants aren't exactly conducive to lurking in the shadows."

"People see this uniform, it strikes fear in their hearts."

"What people? The other people at the Village People tryouts?" Economos and I both laugh.

"Why is there a bald eagle in your car?"

"That's Eagly. You guys ordered without me?" Adebayo shrugs and I side eye Murn over my cup.

""Eagly" is your pet eagle?"

"Yeah."

"Is your dog named Doggy?"

The rouses a laugh out of John and I once again

"All right."

"Do you have a daughter named Daughtery?" He laughs again, myself remaining quiet in respect of Murn.

"Jealous of a guy's pet eagle much?"

Harcourt chuckles, then promptly stops.

"Hey, sweet-cheeks! Can you take my order real quick?"

Harcourt drops her fork and Adedayo looks at him with a disgusted expression, my own coffee cup being set down additionally.

"-Sorry--"

"Hi. Sure thing. What can I get you?"

"Uh, mixed green salad, and we'll do the garlic zoodles."

"Zoodles. Good choice."

"Thank you."

She walks away, Smith muttering 'good choice' under his breath.

We all glare at him, confusion evident on his face.

"Zoodles are zucchini noodles."

"'Sweet Cheeks? Seriously, dude?"

"She had cherubic cheeks. It's a compliment."

"Sweet Cheeks is your butt."

He panics, "No, it's not."

"It is. It's like calling somebody, I don't know, "sugar tits.""

"That's totally inappropriate." He scoffs.

"Her tits are way too big to be sugar tits. Sugar tits are, like, smaller, perkier tits. Like... yours."

Harcourt looks up, "Uh, technically, I think you may have sugar tits, too..." He gestures to Economos, and I stifle in a laugh.

"...but somehow that feels also inappropriate."

Murn speaks up, "All right, Peacemaker. That's enough. You don't have to be happy with this detail, but you do have to treat your fellow soldiers with respect."

"Yeah? Heard plenty of stories about how you treat people with respect, Murn. Plenty." I turn to the right, noticing a busboy staring at Peacemaker, tapping the table for everyone's attention.

"Why is that busboy staring at you?" His gaze shifts to me for just a second before going back to Peacemaker.

His curly hair peeked under his hat, his glasses shining under the florescent lights. He looked... Nerdy. He waves, smiling widely.

"I think that's my friend Gut Chase's younger brother."

He sets down his hand, Smith whispers, "He has mental issues."

He makes a cheering motion, Smith making a peace sign in almost reply.

The server came with Smith's 'Zoodles' and salad, leaving and the busboy now in view again, this time staring at.. Me?

"Thank you. Just the old shell game."

Murn passes the file across the table, "Take this home. Study it."

"What is it?"

"It's the dossier on the first target." Smith opens the file.

"U.S. Senator?!"

"Don't look at it here... Take our word for it, the man's a serious threat to the safety of American citizens."

Smith shuts the file, setting it aside to eat, in which he stabbed and shoved the salad into his mouth, Economos speaking.

"Oh, my god, could you at least take your helmet off? You're gonna get dressing all over it."

"Dressing is easier to get off this helmet than a human lip. That's a fuckin' fact." He pointed aggressively, John rolling his eyes.

"You want to have a dressing-getting-off contest right now, Dye-Beard?"

"Okay, I don't dye my beard. I've always had unusually colored hair-"

I get up with my empty cup, expression amused as I made my way over to the counter to return my cup, watching the creepy busboy go out the back of the place, I laugh to myself. What an odd man.

─────────────────────────────────────────

I bring my jacket to my car as the cold, night air fills my lungs and sends chills up my spine. My eyes catch Leota talking to Peacemaker, my head tilting.

Didn't expect that kind of duo, maybe they'll be friends?

I get into my car and shut the door, sighing and putting the ignition on, turning it and feeling the rumble.

I turned the volume up and the sound of a woman singing filled my speakers.

Finally, peace and quiet.

I pulled out of the parking lot and out towards my motel.

─────────────────────────────────────────

I opened the door of my motel, the humid air reaching my pores. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.

Setting my jacket down on the semi-soft bed, I took a seat at my desk and opened my laptop, pulling up my files to do some work.

My mind wandered as I prepped, remembering the peculiar man who apparently knows Smith, ‘Gut Chase’s brother’. He sure as hell had a staring problem, that’s for damn sure.

‘This Charming Man’ came on the radio, as I nodded my head to the drums and began to type.

It was going to be a long night.

─────────────────────────────────────────

The soft tone of the beginning cords of ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ erupted to my ears, waking me from my slumber, I groggily grabbed my phone and answered.

“Hello..?”

“Come outside, Smith got himself in trouble.”

“Fuck.”

#adrian chase x reader #adrian chase #vigilante x reader #Vigilante #peacemaker #peacemaker x reader #xreader #fanfiction #fanfic

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