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blazedgraysons · 3 years

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You're No Good - Ch. 2

C.J. Bennett is an overly ambitious student who dreams of shadowing her favorite author, Eli Jennings. The only thing standing in her way: Grayson Dolan.

warnings: this is a rough draft of a series i never finished. i'm posting the finished chapters before leaving this account. 🤍

part 1

If American Lit 1102 was C.J.’s personal hell, her job could at least be considered her own reprieve.

Sunnyside Vintage is an old shop off of Sunset, having been open for the last 30 years. It wasn’t the nicest of thrift stores — the clothes always have a weird mothball smell and everything is old - and not in the trendy way. C.J. loves it. The windows are huge, letting California sunlight wash the stucco walls gold, and the mannequins are always dressed straight out of the 70’s. The pay isn’t always great, but C.J. is allowed to take whatever she wants more than makes up for it in her eyes.

“I just don’t understand. I mean, Stevens has praised me this entire semester. She even told me personally he’s never had a student write as well as me nor pick up on the work as fast as I have. Wouldn’t that be qualities you’d want in an intern, Bea? Even Grayson Dolan would’ve been a better pick.” C.J. turns to her boss, angrily folding flared jeans.

Another reason C.J. loves Sunnyside — her boss, Beatrice “Bea” Walker. Once a glitzy soap star of the ’50’s, she retired with her husband and opened Sunnyside in the late 80’s. Despite being in her late-70s, she still holds on to the same glamour and charm that made her a household name a century prior.

“Maybe there was another reason. It could be something other then your application.” She croaks, lifting a pumpkin to place next to a costumed mannequin. As halloween rapidly approaches, the store was starting to transform to fit the fall season — hoping to draw in customers to purchase unique costumes for the holiday.

Before she can move to help Bea, the doors chime, signaling an entrance. Walking through with seemingly-glowing skin and a symphonic smile was Alexi, C.J.’s best friend and roommate. It’s hard to miss Alexi whenever she walks into a room — from her bleached-blue hair to eclectic style, she’s never been afraid to follow her own path, something C.J. has always admired. She walks straight to C.J., wrapping her in a loving embrace

“Are you okay? James told me what happened.” Alexi leaves an arm around her, and while C.J. knows it’s supposed to be comforting; all she can think about is how much she wants Alexi to leave. It’s one thing to rant to her elderly boss, someone who would love her in spite of her shortcomings and faults. But to know her own friend group has already heard about her misfortune, sending over someone to comfort and soothe, it was all just a little too pitiful for her to handle.

“Theta’s are throwing a party tonight. It’ll be the perfect pick-me-up, and you can forget all about Evans Jensen-“

“Eli Jennings” C.J. corrects.

“Whoever” Alexi rolls her eyes at the interruption, “is missing out on your incredible talent because of an idiotic professor’s incompetence. Everyone’s going and it won’t be the same without you, C.”

“As much as I would love that, Lex, I really just want to be alone tonight. Shitty beer, cheap Indian food, a sad movie so I don’t have to think about how these past four years have been a waste.”

“Not a waste, first of all. Look, I know that you’ve had this whole plan for your life since you popped out the womb, but shit happens, things change. This isn’t a failure, just think of it as a temporary setback. Plus, when life gives you lemons, you…” She trails off, waiting for C.J. to finish.

“Make lemonade?” She sighs.

“Use it to chase tequila.” Alexi giggles.

“I would go, but I have to close. Right, Bea?"

"Don't use me as an excuse. You should go, maybe find a boy to take home." Alexi makes a face at Beatrice's statement and C.J.'s face heats up.

“You’re going - no more buts. Wear something cute. Something that maybe doesn’t make if look like you were alive for Vietnam.” Alexi’s already leaving, kissing Beatrice lightly on the cheek on her way out.

This was how C.J. found herself standing outside the Theta Lambda frat house, October air chilling her through her jacket. She shifts her weight between her feet, surveying the small group around her. Alexi talks animatedly on the phone, asking for whoever to meet them out front.

A random person bumps into her, forcing her to spill the contents of her purse onto the dewey grass. C.J. groans, bending down to pick everything up while mentally thinking to herself all of the other things she could be doing right now.

A pair of dirty air forces steps in front of C.J. and she slowly looks up at the girl standing in front of her. She’s pretty, stunning actually. C.J. recognizes her immediately. Channing Williams - social chair of Rho Xi sorority and the key to all the best parties on campus. Dressed in a black romper and red velvet jacket, she’s everything C.J. isn’t and a quiet twinge of jealousy plucks her heart. ‘I bet she’s never lost out on an internship.’ she thinks bitterly.

“Sorry, do you know anyone?” Channing asks, voice soft and sweet with a clipboard in hand. C.J. looks at Alexi, waiting to hear her answer.

“Not really? I mean we know people, but we aren’t going to be on your clipboard or anything so if you could just let us slide through, I’m sure there’s someone here who could like vouch for us or something?” C.J. wants to slap her — not only did she drag her out in below-freezing weather, but she couldn’t even guarantee them a way inside.

“Well this is a greek-only party so unless you know anyone….” Channing trails off, not openly wanting to kick them out in front of so many people.

“That means no GDI’s.” C.J. didn’t even notice the miniature-sized freshman standing besides Channing. She clearly looks annoyed at the intrusion, keeping her from inside where everyone else is to deal with their little group. C.J. briefly wonders if the upturned stare is a requirement for Rho Xi or if that’s was just especially reserved for her.

“Geed’s?” Alexi repeats, raising an eyebrow.

“Goddamn independents. Y’know, not greek-affiliated.” At this point, C.J. is ready to call the whole night and retire in her bed when she see’s someone appear in between Channing.

“They’re cool, Chan. They’re with me.” Micayla Zhao enters, covered in glitter, sweat and what C.J. is almost sure to be a line of salt from a body shot. C.J. has always considered Micayla the only cool Rho Xi, having had multiple classes with her over the years. Micayla fit right in with their group: smart, beautiful and a wicked sense of humor.

Channing nods, seeming bored and just wanting to get back inside with everyone else. She does a quick finger tap with Micayla (sacred Rho Xi bullshit is what Alexi always calls it) and moving along the line.

“Are your sisters always that charming?” Micayla rolls her eyes, grabbing C.J. to move them through the house to the backyard. A huge bonfire is set up in the middle with a canopy near by for the designated drinking spot. She watches as Micayla confidently moves through the crowd, stopping from time to time to say hey to friends and classmates on the way.

“Most of the time. Look, they’re just possessive over tradition and the Rho-Theta party has always been major exclusive, Channing’s been fighting to make it open to outsiders.” Micayla yells over the thumping bass.

“Yeah, I’m sure they love all the GDI’s.” C.J. exaggerates her voice, pinching her nose to capture the nasally, valley accent Channing is almost famous for. Micayla stops, and had C.J. not been paying attention, she would’ve ran into her.

“Dude, you’re kind of being a bitch right now. Look, I get your bummed about your internship, but Channing wouldn't have let you in if she didn't want to. Would you rather be getting drunk, in your apartment alone?”

“Yeah, actually.” Micayla stares at C.J. for a second, looking like she’s about to bitch her out. As if Alexi can sense the fight forming, she grabs Micayla by the arm.

“Let’s go get a drink, you look like you need a drink in you.” They both walk towards the house, Alexi mouthing ‘Be Nice’ over her shoulder before disappearing completely. C.J. exhales, counting to 3 in her head before walking over to where drinks are set up.She fills up her solo cup, watching as the fizzy liquid moves closer and closer to the top. Before she can take a sip, someone bumps into her spilling half the drink over the side.

“Hey, watch it!” A thick Jersey accent exclaims, and C.J. groans, wondering if this night could get any worse.

“Bennett?”

Grayson appears in front of her, denim jacket over a black t-shirt and black jeans. She takes note of the dark spot growing on the front of his shirt, from where she spilt her drink.

“What’re you doing here?”

She simply shrugs, refilling the missing contents of her cup.“I didn’t know parties were your scene. I always imagined in your free time you’re in like a dark room, crying alone to Sylvia Plath novels.”

“Nice to know you think of me out of class, Grayson” C.J. takes a sip of her beer. She moves to walk away, hoping he would take it as an end of conversation.

"How'd you get in? Isn't this like Rho's only?" He asks, following her to the edge of the bonfire. She looks at him, watching as the light frames the features of his face.

"Couldn't I say the same about you? You're not a Theta." He just stares at her intensely until she relents, "Micayla Zhao got me in. Y'know her?"

"We had history together sophomore year. She helped me cheat on the midterms."

C.J. laughs shortly. "Sounds like her."

Grayson opens his mouth to speak again, but is cut off.

“As much as I’m enjoying this conversation, Grayson, don’t you have someone else to bother? Someone who, y’know, actually likes you?” If that comment bothered him, he didn’t show it, continuing talking to her as if they haven’t pissed each other off continuously for the past four years.

“What do you think about Michael Eichler getting the internship spot?” He asks. As if it wasn’t bad enough that she didn’t get the spot, now she has to sit and rub salt in the wound with her worst enemy.

“What’s there to think about? He got it, I didn’t. Fucking sucks.” He laughs, holding up his own drink.

“Cheers to that.” They both clink cups, and C.J. briefly wonders if the universe is still laughing at her.

"You know, that spot should've gone to one of us." He muses, watching the partygoers continue to stumble around them. He doesn't say anything after that, and she bites.

"Why should it have gone to one of us?"

"Well, think about it. We're both the top of our class, and I know for a fact Stevens has submitted your writing to collegiate magazines. There's no fucking way Michael fucking Eichler should've got that spot over one of us." C.J. pauses. She had known that Stevens appreciated her writing, but not enough to submit it anywhere. If what Grayson was saying was true, why hadn't she gotten the apprenticeship?

"Nothing I can really do about it now. He got the spot, I didn't. I guess I can become a second rate author now." She takes another sip, and Grayson snorts unattractively.

"I'm sure you'll be okay, Bennett. If Stevens like you, I'm sure there's another author dumb enough to want to publish your work too." She glares at him.

"And here I thought we were becoming friends."

"As if you actually would've wanted to become friends with me."

"Oh yeah, that's what I do in between my Sylvia Plath crying sessions. Desperately wish that Grayson Dolan would become my best friend." Sarcasm drips off every word and he looks at her before taking another long sip of his drink.

“You know you’re actually kinda cool, Bennett. When you’re not trying to bite my head off in the middle of lecture”

“Maybe if you didn’t have such shitty takes, I wouldn’t want too.” Whatever retort Grayson was planning falls from his lips when Channing appears by his side, tucking herself underneath his arm.

"Hey, Gray. I got you another drink." Two Coronas hang from her manicured hand, and he whispers inaudibly to her, giggling between the two of them. C.J. begins to feel awkward, and coughs uncomfortably.

“Oh, you’re the GDI from earlier,” Channing looks up at her half-lidded, dark eyelashes framing red-tinged brown eyes.

“Yeah, that’s me.” Channing shifts her weight, biting her lip and feeling like an intruder. "I didn't know you two knew each other?" C.J. supplies, feeling desperate for conversation

"Gray and I had math together freshman year, "They both stare at each other awkwardly, silent tension as they wait for the other to speak.

“So, I’m gonna go." She speaks.

“No, you don’t have to." Channing is already turned back to Grayson, looking like she wouldn't mind C.J.'s exit.

“No it’s fine” Neither Grayson nor Channing seem to protest anymore, and C.J. turns back to see her friends looking at her, both amused and curious at her interaction with the duo. She begins to walk towards them, feet and heart sinking with every step, not feeling any better about her current predicament.

“Hey Bennett,” She turns around to face Grayson. “Think about what I said. About the internship stuff” She just nods, and leaves the pair. The moment she reaches her initial group, Alexi pulls her towards them.

“You and Dolan were just talking and it didn't end in a screaming match. That’s new. What did he want?”

“Nothing. Just typical Grayson Dolan bullshit."Alexi looks like she doesn't believe her, and frankly C.J. doesn't believe herself. She thinks back to what Grayson said, about how they were the only real competition for the apprenticeship. Whatever he meant by that could be handled tomorrow.

"C’mon. Didn’t you say something earlier today about tequila shots?” She asks

“Atta, girl. That’s what I’m talking about.” She lets Alexi drag her away, sparing one last look at Grayson before entering the fraternity house.

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j0hn-deacons-perm · 3 years

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Charcoal Dust

Female reader x Brian May

Word Count ~6,100.

I had this fic sitting in my documents since August and re-reading it, I didn’t hate it. So I guess I’m posting it. A bit of a warning I suppose...it goes get slightly suggestive but not 18+..If you’re sensative to that sort of thing, maybe skip this one my dudes.

With the last flick of your eyeliner, you deem yourself ready to head out to the bar. Freddie wanted to let off some steam with finals and you couldn't help but to join in. The apartment you two share have been littered with projects and materials and he almost strangled you for not cleaning up your charcoal dust. With that being the straw which broke the camel's back, tonight is to just get shit faced and to have fun. At least Fred settled one a bar that isn't too much of a walk so you don't have to worry about driving. Grabbing your coat, you leave the complex and into the cold december night.

***

"Y/N, dearie, you're here! Finally the night can commence!"

Freddie runs to you and wraps his arm around your shoulders.

"The boys are here as well. Can't tell you how much work it took to get John out."

Your eyes settle on Deaky, already a bit drunk and waving at you with a grin. "Evenin' Y/N! How's it going?"

"Not as good as you from the looks of it. But I bet a couple drinks could fix that."

You turn to the bar and order your usual mix drink along with a round of shots for everyone.

"Here's to having a good night amongst friends!"

"Cheers!"

Everyone downs their shot and you finally sit down, taking the empty spot next to Deaky. Roger and Brian seem to be in their own little world talking about something so you don't bother with that can of worms yet.

"Y/N, did you find a new model for your drawing yet?"

"Nope. That fucking Steven kid answered my ad, took my payment then just vanished. Won't answer the phone, haven't seen him around campus..I'm out like 80 quid and nothing to draw for my final."

"Ouch. What does it entail exactly?"

"I need to do a live nude model study."

Roger's ears seem to perk up with the mention of 'nude'.

"I can help you out with that, love."

Brian rolls his eyes and Freddie chuckles.

"So, me buying you a shot doesn't get your attention but mentioning I need to draw a naked person does?"

"Well, yeah. You should know this by now."

"I thought alcohol and nudity were on the same tier of importance to you, Taylor."

"Close..but not quite."

You nod at him with a fake academic-like expression as you rub your chin.

"Right, so if anyone knows someone who would be down to model for me let me know."

"I just said I was!"

"Anyone but Roger."

"Oh! What about Brian, dear? He'd be a great model."

The man in question glares.

"Uh..Fred, I don't think so."

"Why ever the fuck not? I've seen you naked before, May. You'd be fantastic. Plus Y/N gets to see your cute little bottom and huge cock!"

His cheeks turn bright red.

"Absolutely not, Fred."

Freddie looks over to your face, laughing despite blushing profusely. He knows of your small crush on the guitarist and loves to relish in opportunities making you and Brian uncomfortable in hopes you two would actually do something. Much to his, and your disappointment, nothing ever happens.

"Well I would do it but I don't have the time in my schedule considering I'm going to be stuck in the art building working on my own shit. Now come on, don't subject her to Roger."

Brian looks over to you, finding you playing with a hem on your shirt, trying to distract yourself from the awkward conversation.

"Well we both know Bri's not going to do it, so when can I come over, love?"

With a slump of your shoulders, you face the blonde.

"It's not a sexual thing where I draw everything, you know. You're going to be in a pose you can hold for a long period of time while I focus on drawing mainly your prominent body landmarks like ribs, pelvis, and muscles along with bones."

"See, Bri? It's not a personal experience, she's just studying your anatomy. With how lanky you are, it'd be easy to see everything."

"I'll also pay you for your time. Might be a bit before I can get the money but you will be compensated. Also if it's too much for you, you can wear your underwear for most of it until I need to get a certain part."

He looks between you and Freddie, a sigh escapes his lips.

"Fine. I'll do it."

Freddie smirks at you and gives a wink before coming into to whisper in your ear.

"Just a heads up, I've seen him naked and you may have to draw three legs."

You turn bright red but can't help but to cackle at his comment. Brian rolls his eyes and says 'fucker' under his breath.

*** A couple drinks turn to quite a few and talking with Brian ended up with the date, time and place for your drawing session. Now that three days have passed, the time arrives along with four knocks on the door.

"Hey Y/N."

"Hey Bri, thank you so much again for doing this for me."

He looks around the living room and sees you've set up your workspace: an easel, one of the living room chairs and one of the end tables with your box of drawing utensils. He also looks at how it's pointed towards the sofa with a sheet draped on it.

"How would you like me?"

"Comfortable. You'd probably be stuck in that spot for a while. I have pillows if you want 'em."

He nods and sits down on the sofa while you go towards the record player and pop on one of your favorite records.

"I like to work to music so hope you're okay listening to the Beatles for a few hours."

"Why would I complain about good music?"

You chuckle as you sit down in your spot, making any last minute adjustments to the easel's height. Turning your head to the sofa, you see him unbuckling his belt before slipping his shirt off. Back towards you.

Freddie was right, he has a good figure to make this assignment easy for you. Despite trying to stay professional, it's hard to not check out your crush as he strips. When the pants start slipping off, you turn away, too shy to look anymore.

He is your friend, Y/N...he is your friend who is helping you with a project. Don't make this weird..

But then you remember your roll of tape for the sheet so when it's break time, you won't lose the pose.

Shit...

"Hey Bri, once you settle on a pose, would it be okay if I put some tape around you so we don't lose the pose after we take a break?"

"Yeah, that's okay. I also might take you up on that pillow offer."

"Sounds good, I'll be right back."

You smile as you get up and leave for your bedroom to grab him a couple pillows off your bed. When you walk back into the living room, you swear the air has shifted once you see him laying in his underwear on the couch, watching the record spin on the turn table. A knot forms in your stomach..

You're working on your final, you're working on your final, you're working on your final.....

You walk up towards him and hands him the pillows. He promptly adjusts them to fit his pose.

"This alright for your composition, Y/N?"

"Let me check."

You sit down back in your chair and look at what you can see. You can see many of the body's landmarks..ribs, collar bones, muscles, parts of the pelvis...but not the strongest for a good composition.

"The pose is fine but I'm going to move over a bit to get a more interesting angle of ya."

You scoot your set up closer towards the turntable, giving a more dynamic angle of your model.

"Alright, we're looking good. Just need to tape where you're at and we can get started."

Hands slightly shaking on the masking tape roll, you rip pieces off and place them where Brian's posed. It's easy to tell he's tense.

"Bri, you're welcome to chat during this if you want. And whenever you want to take a break to stretch out, do not hesitate to ask."

"Sounds good, love. I guess I'm ready when you are."

He's called you love before but now it seems a bit different...

HE IS JUST HELPING YOU ON YOUR FINAL PROJECT, STOP IT

You rub over your paper pad, sighing and grab your hard charcoal to get the initial lines and shapes in. You can see him closing his eyes once more marks land on your paper. His shoulders also slowly begin to become less tense.

*** Two full albums later, Brian calls break time. You clean your hands off on your pants and set your charcoal back in its box next to you. Having the main structures done and angles correct, you feel good about the progress.

"How's it coming along, love?"

"I think maybe another hour or so and we'll be good."

"Can I sneak a look or is it confidential?"

You nod your head for him to take a look, his presence now behind your back as he analyzes your work. Nerves become more apparent the longer he's silent. You're about to look over your shoulder until you hear him say

"I'm really liking it so far, Y/N. Fred's told us about your work and it's incredibly articulate. However it is odd knowing that's me on your paper."

You blush profusely at his compliment, even more so now that you realize he's extremely close to your body wearing just underwear.

"Well how about I grab you a robe and I'll make us some coffee?"

"Sounds lovely to me, especially since seeing how you're fully clothed, I'm a bit vulnerable."

"I don't mean to make you uncomfortable! Let's get that robe."

"I'm not uncomfortable, just a bit cold maybe."

Leaving for your room once again, you grab your robe. It might be a bit too short for the gentle giant in your living room but it's better than nothing.

"I'm surprised you didn't give me Fred's."

"You don't want it, trust me."

He laughs, tying the belt around his middle and follows you into the small kitchen to grab his favorite mug whenever he visits. The silence grows more comfortable as you hear the coffee drip into the small pot and another cabinet opens to grab the sugar. You open the fridge to grab the milk. Your pour the hot liquid as he adds the sugar to the two mugs, followed by the splash of milk you like in yours. Smiles meet each other and you two sit back in the living room, a new record begging to be played.

"Want more Beatles or how about just some John? I have Plastic Ono Band and Imagine."

"Oh god, that's a decision isn't it?"

"It really is. I'm half tempted to just put Hard Day's Night on."

"Did you see that in theaters? The girls went absolutely mad."

"With that scene with John in the bath? I'm sure I still have hearing issues from that. It got even worse seeing Help."

"George bit?"

"George bit."

Laughs echoed amongst the walls, sharing knowing glances at how loud the shrieking was.

"Have to love sort of shared traumatic experiences. But I'm intrigued, who is your favorite of the four?"

"The Beatles or Queen?"

A slight smirk dances across his lips.

"Beatles? When I was younger, Paul. In more recent years, has to be John. I really respect his political work and his solo albums are so personal and raw."

He nods at your answer, agreeing.

"But with you lot? No one. Don't tell Freddie that, he'll plant something in my bed."

He answers in a hearty laugh.

'It's not like I can say you before we get back to working on a naked drawing of you...'

*** With Lennon playing on the speakers and more charcoal on paper, you're back at it again. Brian somehow managed to get himself back into the same pose with one or two directions from you. Things are now going easier considering the drawing is now just filling in the blanks until you couldn't get one detail right due to it being covered by his underwear. The more you try to remember how the muscles and bone look, the more incorrect it looks to your eyes. The inevitable needs to happen.

"Hey Brian, I'm hating to ask this but uh...I can't get the lower abs to look right with the pelvis. Could you....takeyourunderwearoff."

The last part just rushed past your lips as fast as you could. Your cheeks are bright red, a tell tale sign being how hot your face just became. It's even worse when he arches his brow.

"What was that last part?"

You sigh deeply.

"Could you...take your underwear off so I can get your pelvis a bit better?"

"Oh...uh, yeah."

His cheeks probably match yours but you cover your eyes while he strips the last bit of cloth standing between him being completely exposed in front of you.

"Alright Y/N, you can look now."

His nervous laughter is puntuated with your eyes opening again. While you have a clearer view of the muscles in question, you also have a clearer view of other things.

You now understand why it's called a happy trail.

Correcting his angles once again, you start where you just left off. Only to have the record stop playing, meaning you had to stand up and change the music. Meaning probably a clear view of his, what Freddie called, 'his third leg'. Hands slightly shakey as they remove the vinyl and put it back in its respective sleeve. Fingers lead their way towards Revolver, your go-to homework album. Once the intro of Taxman plays, you make your way back to your seat. During which, your peripheral vision does you dirty.

Fred wasn't entirely kidding. Dear god, Y/N, you're almost done just finish your damn project so Bri can go home and you can take a cold shower...

You sit back down and sigh, taking your charcoal and getting back to work, correcting any inaccuracies caused by his underwear being in the way and adding more to his figure. Side one is over far too soon, causing you to get up and be betrayed by your eyes once again.

At least now it's just adding a bit of definition to the head and small details. Taking the blunt end of your charcoal stick, you begin adding some hair to the drawing. The couple hairs on his chest, a gesture of pubic hair and some messy lines for the curls on top of his head. Staring at his face now, he peeks his eyes open and winks at you then smiles.

"I thought you weren't going to draw my face?"

"Just a little something so it's not just a blank shape."

"Alright. Do you want my eyes open or closed?"

"Do what you want, Bri."

His eyes land on the legs of your easel, moving them around a bit to follow the smudges of paint and charcoal about. Your eyes trace along the angles of his face, adding them to the basic head shape you added during the beginning steps. Browbone, cheeks, nose, eyes, brows, and gesture of his slightly open mouth put down on paper as you mark it done. Looking at the lower right corner of your paper and taking your thin marker, you write your name, class session, semester, and model's first name.

"Alright Bri, I think we're good to go. Want to come take a look?"

Standing up and putting your robe back on, he walks behind the chair. His eyes take in the final composition, from the pillows to his curls all the way down to how to managed to get the angle right on his feet. The sofa, while made of basic abstract shapes, make him look like he's properly weighed out on the cushions.

"It's weird seeing me like that."

"I bet. Talking with some of the models outside of class, they tell me it takes some getting used to seeing shit like this."

"Seeing what others see in your naked body is very...daunting. I think you made me look too good to be honest."

"I just drew what I saw, May."

You look up behind you and catch him blushing, looking down at you while smiling.

"You are incredibly talented, Y/N. If you don't get an A, I'm taking personal offense with your instructor."

You blush hard at the compliment while laughing at his comment.

"Honestly, I would too. You made a beautiful model, Bri. It was an honor to draw you."

Why did I just say that?..

He looks away, face looking shy. He takes compliments almost as bad as you. He sits down back on the sofa, looking at you.

"Now, you did say at the bar that I'd be compensated for my time."

"That I did."

You start to pack away your drawing supplies before digging a can of hairspray out of your backpack. Spraying a light coat over your drawing, you let it dry before packing it away for safe keeping.

His eyes watch you dismantle your workspace, showing him something you've done nearly a hundred times over. Little did you know, seeing you in your element like this made his heart swell. Brian knew you were an art student but never saw you at work. Little did he know, yours did the same when you saw him at practice or on stage. After cleaning up and putting furniture back in their right spots, you sit down in the chair to only find Brian patting the cushion next to him. Giving him a fake glare, you sit next to him.

"I've been thinking of payment and would it just be fine if we ordered some take away and hung out? I'd feel bad taking your money."

"You sure? I'd feel bad not compensating you for your time."

"Y/N, I laid on your couch, chatted with you and listened to my favorite music. Yeah it was a bit weird considering I take a girl out before she sees me naked but hey."

You laugh nervously at his joke, blushing for probably the 53rd time that night.

"I'll get dressed and we'll head out, that good for you?"

"Yeah. I need to change clothes anyway."

"Why? You look cute covered in charcoal."

Your heart nearly jumps out of your chest like a looney toons character. You and the guys are used to calling eachother cute or handsome but something about him being just about naked underneath your robe after drawing him for nearly two hours makes your heart race at a dangerous pace.

"Let's get ready, hmm?"

He stands up, clothes in tow as he walks to the bathroom. The sound of the door closing brings you back to the moment. Grabbing your pillows and sheet off the couch, you leave for your room. The slight smell of him lingering on the fabric fills your nostrils as you throw it towards your laundry basket.

"Goddammit...don't get your hopes up. It's not like this is a date, Y/N..." You whisper under your breath.

Grabbing the clothes you wore earlier today, you get dressed and apply a little extra deodarant and perfume. By the time you've put your shoes on and out of your room, he's slipping his shoes on. Even in mid-December, he's wearing his clogs. He hears your laughter from across the room.

"What's so funny?"

"Bri, it's Christmas in nearly two weeks and you're wearing clogs? If you slip on ice thanks to those things, I’m not helping you up."

"It hasn’t snowed yet, though! Have to wear them while there's still time. Besides, look who's bloody talking wearing canvas sneakers in the cold."

"At least my entire foot is in the shoe."

"That's it, I'm not letting you borrow my scarf if it's still windy. Not with that attitude."

You smack his arm and grab your purse off the coat rack. Locking the door behind you is the last thing before you two leave for any place that is still serving food at this hour.

***

Only getting as far as a corner store, you two buy a couple drinks then enough snacks to constitute a meal. The walk back to the apartment was on the quiet side, Brian looking up to the sky every few blocks in a vain attempt to see any stars that would accompany the moon shining that night. Not much for viewing besides the waxing moon hanging above your heads, hundreds of thousands miles away.

"Hey Bri?"

His features seem almost guilty, being caught in the act but he smiles at you.

"Would it be possible for you to teach me some things about what's up there? Fred's showed me some astrology stuff but it would be kinda cool seeing the constellations and what makes them, y'know?"

"I'd just talk your ear off."

"Can't be too bad, I deal with that already."

You wink as he rolls his eyes.

"But I'm serious, I want to know a little bit about what you study in uni. Especially since we go to different schools, it'd be interesting seeing another side of academics that isn't just color theory or how to mathematically draw cylinders."

"How do you mathematically draw cylinders?"

"It's all about angles and where it sits in space, mostly. Getting that perspective correct. After enough practice I guess you can just sort of see it rather than drawing out all these different grids and lines."

"Does that tie in with drawing people?...That's probably a stupid question of course it does."

"It does but with that, you also need to keep in mind where things in the body are. In our class we also have to do these...sculpting lessons. We're given half a skeleton on a stand and we sculpt the muscles using clay."

He nods, listening to you talk about your coursework and your subject matters from basics to more focused studies. Once back to your apartment, you find Freddie has returned from the art building. The noises of you and Brian taking off shoes and coats made him pop his head around the wall.

"Y/N, lovie, how did your drawing session go?"

"Rather well! Want to see it?"

"Well of course, dear!"

You grab your and Brian's bags from the corner store and place it on the kitchen counter before heading over to your drawing pad, propped up against your chair. Nerves arise as you watch his eyes gaze over your work, the smell of the hairspray you used seal in the charcoal floating to your nostrils.

"Fucking hell, this is brilliant. If you get a bad mark I'm visiting your professor during office hours and giving them a piece of my mind."

He looks down Brian's legs on the paper, your careful contour lines elegantly outlining the muscles.

"I think you forgot a leg, though."

Brian's rolls his eyes as Fred's cackle fills the room. You slap the sketchpad closed and return it to it's spot next to your school bag. A sympathetic look is aimed towards your model.

"Come on you two, lighten up. How about a game of Scrabble, hmm?"

"It is getting a little late, Fred, and Brian has to get back to his place."

"He knows he's welcome to crash on the couch if he wants."

The man in question looks between you two, biting his lip in thought.

"I wouldn't mind crashing here tonight. I'm sure Roger wouldn't mind the flat to himself."

"Then it's settled. You old ladies get your food out of the kitchen and we start this game."

What wasn't expected was Brian winning with such a lead. You could've sworn you've seen Fred's eyes glow red as he told the curly haired man to get out of his home for disrepecting him that severely. He went to bed infuriated as he left you two out in the living room to watch TV.

"You sure you want to spend the rest of your Friday night here?"

"It's technically Saturday morning now."

"Smart ass."

He smiles and slowly leans towards you on the sofa, his warmth sneaking up the arm closest to him.

"Hey Bri?"

He hums in response, eyes not leaving the program painting the screen.

"I never really properly thanked you for helping me with my assignment. You honestly saved my grade modeling for me."

He turns his head to face you, eyes looking at yours illuminated by the screen's light.

"You're more than welcome, love. It was interesting watching you work. You have this little face you make when you're really concentrated."

"Where I don't blink and my mouth is partially open? That's my focusing amphibian look."

He chuckles.

"Roger does the same thing but that's his confused look."

"I thought his confused face was this.."

You imitate the face you've seen many times during your homework sessions with the boys. Also when he tries to understand what Fred wants to do add extra flair to shows or songs.

"No, you're right. That's the one." He laughs.

Comfortable silence floats around the air as you two continue watching telly. Thirty meants turn into 90 as the episodes of various shows play before you. Slight comments here and there said but it wasn't until Brian laid his head on top of your head that something was really spoken.

"I have a question."

"Care to share with the class, May?"

You can feel his cheeks stretch out with a slight smile.

"Would you think less of me if I put my studies on hold when, or even if the band gets bigger? I know we only have one album out at the minute but I've thought about it and..."

Patting his knee, you spoke.

"I could never think less of you for persuing something like that. You and the guys have worked your asses off and if, no, when your hardwork pays off, grab those opportunities. You earned any success that comes your way."

He moves his head to look directly into your eyes.

"Knowing you, you'll eventually get your PhD but sometimes life throws you a curveball and you have to just roll with what it gives you. If it's Queen, then see it through."

Surprise washes over you as he gives you a hug, enveloping you in his arms tightly as his face creates a home in the crook of your neck. This breath along your skin giving away to goosebumps.

"I've been thinking about this for weeks and um...."

"Did you already drop out, Bri?"

"No, no..."

"Uh huh..." You narrow your eyes at him.

"Seriously, Y/N, I haven't dropped out of uni. I've been thinking about...."

You pull away and look at his eyes directly, cheeks flushed even in the low light of the living room.

"What is it?"

He sighs, looking down at his lap.

"You."

Eyes going wide, you look at anything but him. The stray floaty in the air, the reflection of light as a car drives past your flat, the one stray strand of yarn or whatever it is sticking out of the rug on the floor.

"I'm not saying this because you drew me naked and I'm feeling obligated to but tonight made me realize something."

Your eyes finally focusing on your hands, fingernails picking at cuticles.

"If this does become something larger than life, I don't want to leave you behind. When Freddie introduced us to you last year, there was something about you I couldn't shake off. I wasn't sure what it was the chalk pastel dust you were covered in or something else."

You smile at his words but your heart doesn't lighten up the speed at the rate it's beating. When it comes loose, it's going to skyrocket across the English channel.

"But now actually getting to know you over time and tonight made me come to the conclusion that....I certainly have feelings for you and I don't know what you want to do with that information."

Your fingers stop picking at a loose bit of skin on the side of your nail and you swear your heart just stopped in your chest. Eyes wide, you stare at him. Mouth agape, not knowing what to say other than just "Bri..."

"I can see I made you uncomfortable, I'm sorry. Maybe I should head ho-"

As he begins to stand up, you grab his wrist and pull him right back down towards your side.

"Meeting you was one of the most profound days in my life, Bri. You...fuck,...I'm not a wordsmith and I'm nervous as all hell right now."

He smiles ever so slightly but his leg bounces with such vigor you wouldn't be surprised if your downstairs neighbor complained to the landlord tomorrow.

"And now hearing you may have feelings for me? Like...how do I even process this when it's something I've been wanting to hear for almost a year?"

It's now his turn for his eyes to buldge open in shock.

"When you first talked to me about astrophysics and I saw your entire demeanor light up with such passion, my heart damn near stopped. I couldn't focus on anything else but you. Even when you're just relaxed I feel like that. You're breathtaking and I'm pretty sure I went comotose and had a lucid dream seeing you perform with the boys for the first time."

He smiles, eyes looking directly into yours as your mouth just vomits out any word you promised to never let out.

"I've fallen for you so hard. I love your smile and laugh. I love the slope of your nose. I love that you've let your hair be curly because let's be real, you looked real questionable when you straightened it."

He laughs and you can tell his cheeks are heating up.

"I love that little noise you make when you find something interesting in your textbooks and your hums when you're thinking of a new song and your little eyerolls at the boys when they're being dumbasses and your sense of humor and just......fuck, look at you! You're so fucking handsome and that's even with the clogs!"

He grabs your hands, rubbing his thumbs against the knuckles. His smile shining so bright even with the low light from the television that's now taken a backside seat of your conversation. He looks down at your entertwined hands.

"Calling you a friend and wanting to see you has gotten me out of bed so many days Y/N, I've lost count. I can't even imagine if you'd be more than a friend to me but I guess we can find out."

Your smile has extended to lengths you didn't know possible. Letting go of his hands, you wrap your arms around him instead.

"I forgot to say this, but I also love your hugs."

A chuckle escapes his chest and he holds you tighter, a kiss lands on your cheek. Time goes by as shows flash before your eyes, eventually leading to you falling asleep in his arms with him not too far behind.

*** Hours pass before you awake, head laying on his lap and knees tucked in. Sitting up, you find him using the arm rest as his pillow, arms crossed underneath his face. He looks so peaceful and you don't want to take him up but you want to sleep in your bed.

Dare you ask if he wants to join you?

It'll just be us sleeping together in the same bed and maybe cuddles...?

You brush his curls away from his face, tucking what you can behind his ear as you shake him gently.

"Hey Brian..?"

He doesn't stir, contemplating on just his carrying his lanky ass to your room.

"Bri.. wake up, hon. Come on."

You continue rubbing his upper arm until he stirs awake, opening his eyes and squinting at the screen's light.

"...What time is it?"

"Late. Would you want to sleep on the couch or my bed?"

"I'm fine out here, I don't want to take your bed from you."

You smile and chuckly slightly.

"I mean share the bed with me."

He smiles at the idea but eyes are shy.

"I'd like that."

You two stand up, him shutting up the TV and you leading the way to your room with his hand in yours. Navigating the small hallway at night lead to him bumping into you twice, and him saying apologies but you could not care less.

Once in your room and switching on the light, he's greeted to your own personal space. He can see canvases with studio projects painted on them under your bed, posters littering your walls. Some local band shows you've attended, a Queen one catching his interest. His eyes also catch your Beatles poster, the one from their White Album. He also sees the pillow he used earlier that day when he was modeling along with the robe tossed into the corner with the rest of your dirty laundry.

"I think I might have a pair of pants you could wear unless you're not a pants to bed kind of guy."

"No pants is what I normally go for but if you're uncomfortable with that I ca-"

"It's fine with me, just no funny business, May."

"Are cuddles out of the equation?"

"I sure as hell hope not."

He smiles and removes his necklaces, placing them next to your sketchbooks on top of the small desk next to the bed. You change into sleep shorts as he takes his trousers off.

Never thought I'd see that twice today.

Shutting off the light and climbing into bed, he goes first, leaving you in your usual spot. Fluffing up the pillows and adjusting the blankets now done, He wraps you in his arms almost immediately, lips kissing your cheek gently.

"You have enough pillows, Bri?"

"Yes. Thank you, love."

"Want me to grab another blanket?"

He laughs gently, kissing your face one last time.

"I'm more than okay."

You turn around to face him head on, able to make out where his eyes are looking. Fingers playing with one curl, eventually leading to caressing the side of his face. Thumb tracing over one of his cheekbones.

"You're so handsome, Bri."

"Ever look at yourself?"

"Do you always kiss ass?"

"Not until the 3rd date."

You slap his arm, laughing.

"I guess with that comment I won't give you a kiss goodnight."

His face contorts in fake hurt. It's wiped off as soon as you bring your lips to his, fingers gently caressing his jaw as you kiss him. Almost as fast as it happened, it stopped. Smiles painting both your faces.

"Goodnight Y/N."

"Goodnight Bri."

Turning back around, you scoot closer to him. Arms around your waist and face tucked near your shoulder, you two fall asleep.

*** You wake up before him. His arms are still wrapped around your middle and your legs entangled with one anothers. Your bladder urging you out of the warm confines of your bed, you carefully move out of his grasp to not awake him. Mission was successful as you close the door behind you, hearing Freddie in the kitchen as you walk to the bathroom. After giving yourself a pep talk while washing you hands, you face your roommate, face giving you a smirk.

"Y/N....I saw his god awful shoes by the door but he wasn't on the couch. Please tell me the details, darling!"

"Nothing really happened, Fred! We ended up talking after you went to bed and he sort of told me he had feelings for me and we passed out on the couch."

"He finally told you? About fucking time! You have no idea how much Roger got on his case. Even Deaky was begging him to shut up and ask you out. 'Oh how is Y/N doing? Is she free sometime soon, Fred? What should I get her for Christmas? What does she like? Do you think she likes me?'....every practice Y/N..every practice."

"At least I finally got around to it, Freddie."

He wrapped his arms around you, voice heavy with sleep.

"Now I get to annoy you about her even more now that we're dating."

Brian kisses your neck as Freddie pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Please don't subject us to that. We've suffered enough, dear."

***

aaaay, it’s done! Tbh, I got the idea for this fic after looking through some of my life drawing sketches. Also, a tip with charcoal or chalk pastel drawings from an art student...use hair spray. It’s cheaper than fixitive spray, works just as well, doesn’t affect the colors in chalk pastels, and doesn’t harm your lungs with the fumes (not nearly as badly, anyway). Besides that, thank you so much for reading, liking, reblogging, etc 💖💖

#queen #queen band #queen fanfiction #brian may imagine #brian may fanfiction #brian may x reader

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rockthingsbymeg · 4 years

Text

Party of three

Request: first off just wanna say that i love your writing so much. i also wanted to ask if you could write a smut with steven, duff and reader but its fine if not 🖤x

Pairing: Duff Mckagan x reader; Steven Adler x reader

Info: Smut; 1623 words;

A/N: Hey dears💛 . Sorry I’ve been away lately, life’s been weird. I’m slowly getting my motivation to write again, so hopefully I’ll be able to get all the requests out soon

Y/N walked around the club, drink in her hand, eyes scanning the strange faces around her in hopes of finding the one belonging to her friend Duff.

Okay, friendship might not be the word people would use to describe her relationship with him, but it's not like she cared. Friends were there for the good and the bad times. Duff just happened to be in many, many good times...

As her eyes landed on him and two of his bandmates sitting at a table in a corner of the bar, she made her way to them, smiling once her eyes met Slash's.

"Hey Y/N!" He greeted loudly, mostly because of the music playing, but also because his drinks were already affecting him.

"Hey!" She greeted back, sliding on a seat between Steven and Duff. "Hey, guys." She said to them, taking a sip from her drink.

"Hi, Y/N. How're you doing?" Steven spoke happily, drinking from his glass.

"I'm good, Stevie." She answered, and Steven promptly went back to his previous conversation with Slash.

Duff's eyes were on her as she turned her attention to him. He was looking all over her body, glass near his lips but not touching them, and he fixated his gaze on the skin of her thighs, which were practically fully exposed. His eyes wandered further up and stopped on her chest, taking in the low cut of her dress, and then finally he looked at her face, giving her a small smirk.

"How're you, sweets?" He said, finally taking a sip from his drink and leaning back on his chair.

"Good, Duffles." She smirked back, letting her hand fall on top of his leg, fingers caressing the inside of his thigh.

Duff took a quick look around the table, taking in the amount of alcohol consumed by his friends. It was a good lot, even if they haven't been at the bar for a long time, so he wouldn't have to worry about them making comments about what he and Y/N got up to.

Y/N took a quick look around as well, and as soon as she got the confirmation that no one was paying attention to them, her touch got firmer, and she moved it further up.

"Not wasting any time today, I see..." He smirked, leaning back and spreading his legs slightly, giving Y/N more room to work.

Y/N kept her eyes locked with his as she softly snuggled him. Her hand kept its work, teasing the steadily hardening bulge in his pants. "I've been thinking about you all day..." She said by his ear, sweet voice dripping with lust.

Duff groaned lowly at her words, eyes closing slightly as her hand ventured up to his half-hard cock. "What have you been thinking about?" He asked, taking a hand to cup one side of her face while his lips began to work under her ear on the other side.

"Fuck..." She breathed out, losing focus for a brief moment before she pulled herself together. "I wore those jeans today that you love so much... I kept thinking about you showing up during one of my breaks to fuck me in your car..."

Duff's lips had moved to her sweet spot and he bit down on it at her words. She could feel his cock twitch against her palm as she softly squeezed around it and moved clumsily up and down. "Fuck, Y/N..."

The sound of a conversation starting on their table louder than the previous ones captured their attention. The spell around them broke as they looked to the company that had joined them and that Y/N recognized as the drinking buddies the band had made last week.

As the rest of the band told them to sit with them at the table, Y/N took the liberty to simply move herself to Duff's lap and let Steven take her previous seat, so the others didn't have to get more chairs.

Duff's hands immediately moved to her thighs, calloused fingers stroking her skin. His lips attached to the back of her neck, kissing and leaving light hickeys wherever he could reach.

Y/N could feel her underwear getting wetter as his lips continued to move. She needed to do something to get some relief and to tease Duff at the same time, so she just started to discreetly grind on his lap.

"You're trying to get caught?" He chuckled, moving his hands to her hips, trying to slow her down so they wouldn't get caught.

"Trying to get fucked... C'mon Duff, everyone is drunk..." She pleaded, pressing her ass back against him.

Duff reached between them as discreetly as he could and undid his pants, and Y/N helped out by lifting her hips. He slid her underwear to the side and guided her down on him, biting his lip to stop a moan from coming out as her warm walls enveloped him.

"Shit..." Y/N breathed out, taking a couple of seconds to adjust before riding him as best as she could.

Everyone else was pretty drunk and into the conversation, but Steven was sitting right by their side, so it had become pretty difficult to ignore what they were up to. His bright eyes were dark as his pupils were blown with lust, and he could not choose between looking at her face and watch it twist with pleasure or watch her hips work on Duff's lap.

As time went by, her actions got bolder, and so Steven got harder. She had not noticed his constant stares, but Duff had and he leaned forward to encourage Y/N to help Steven out.

"You got Steven hard, Y/N... look at him, nearly drooling over you..." Duff groaned, adjusting his position so he could thrust his hips up slightly.

Y/N's eyes moved to Steven's, being met with almost fully black eyes. She looked down for a few seconds, and that was all it took to notice how hard he was.

With a sultry look and a teasing bite on her lip, Y/N leaned closer to him. "You need some help there, Stevie?" She chuckled lowly at the shy blush that covered his cheeks, but he nodded none the less. "Take your cock out for me..."

Steven obeyed and tried to be discreet, but if anyone looked for more than five seconds, they would have been able to notice the eagerness and lust in his face.

Y/N licked her hand as soon as Steven was done and reached under the table, wrapping her hand around his cock and slowly jerking him off. She spread his precum around and used it as an extra lube, the action working as a way to tease his tip.

"Fuck..." Steven moaned out lowly, covering his own mouth as Y/N picked up her pace to match the one created by her hips.

"Fuck, Steven... you're so fucking hard... wish you could fuck me just like Duff is doing... bet you'd feel so good." She moaned by his ear, trying to hold her quickly approaching orgasm back.

Steven said nothing, for fear that he'd end up being too loud, but Y/N noticed the way his eyes rolled back into his head. Duff had noticed he was hard, but what Duff didn't notice, was that he had been discreetly jerking off over his clothes, so he was just as close as Y/N and Duff were.

"Shit..." Duff groaned, reaching around Y/N's waist to rub her clit.

Her legs shook for a bit, but she quickly pulled herself together, not losing the pace on both of them.

"You close?" Steven asked her, eyes showing the faint embarrassment he felt from being so close, so fast.

"Fuck... yeah..." Y/N moaned out, holding a much louder moan when Steven leaned over to shamelessly kiss at her neck.

The feeling of Duff fucking her while she had Steven kissing her and his cock in her hand was turning her brain into a puddle. She could feel her insides burning and her orgasm right on the edge, but she needed an extra push.

That extra push ended up coming from both Steven and Duff at once. With a half warning, Duff was pulling her flush against his body and coating her insides in his cum. Steven was also cumming, keeping one hand over his cock to catch as much cum as he could, and his free hand was moving to Y/N's clit, keeping up the stimulation that Duff had been providing.

"Come on Y/N, cum for us..." Duff moaned brokenly by her ear, and Y/N obeyed.

She put a hand over her mouth, stopping any accidental moans from coming out, as her orgasm washed over her in strong waves, knocking the air out of her lungs for brief seconds.

The comedown felt weird with so many people around, but she felt so good that it didn't bother her. Duff was pulling out of her and fixing their clothes while Steven used a few abandoned napkins on their table to clean his own hand and Y/N's.

"That was... really fucking good..." Duff breathed out, and she could tell he was smirking behind her.

Steven leaned over a planted a single kiss under her ear, mumbling a soft thank you before focusing back on the conversation Slash was having with the others.

Y/N rested against Duff, doing her best not to moan at the feeling of Duff's cum leaking out of her and thinking about how weird it was that they hadn't got caught.

A few seconds after Steven had joined the conversation, Slash was looking at her with a smirk on his lips. "Do I get a turn too or...?"

"Fuck off." She rolled her eyes with a small chuckle, picking up her abandoned drink.

------

Thank you so much for reading. Likes, reblogs, comments and any kind of way you show me you liked this are endlessly appreciated💛

Requests are closed.

taglist: @curly-hudson @agroupiewhore

Thanks @dustnbones for beta-reading this; check out her fic blog @dustnbonesfics💛

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ubernoxa · 4 years

Text

The Dare: A Guns N’ Roses Fanfiction

Chapter 35: Bring Her Home

(Masterlist)

Pairing: Duff Mckagan/OC

Story Summary: A stupid harmless dare, that’s all it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be something they would do, and never revisit. For Delilah, little did she know that visiting the strip wasn’t going to be a one time thing when she made the choice to accept the dare. Life is full of choices. Some choices can mean absolutely nothing, while others can change your entire world. Delilah had heard many rumors about the Sunset Strip or Devil’s Strip. Teenagers would whisper stories about how the Devil walks the streets of the strips without a care in the world. It was known as a place untouched by God. After years of hearing rumors about the Devil’s Strip, Delilah wants to see it for herself. Thus a Dare was born.

Chapter Summary: Mags finds out Duff and Delilah had sex, and Mark finally gets the nerve to pop the question.

Taglist: @gingerspicetalks @str4nge-haze @queen-crue @dustnbones

It was cold.

Everything was cold.

Even the sunlight that shined through her apartment windows was cold.

Her eyes quickly scanned the room, and the only thing that changed from the night before was that Tonya was most likely in her room, fast asleep. A state Mags envied.

As if Mags was on autopilot, she took a shower and got dressed for the day. She was still mad at her brother, but she still sprinted towards the bus stop not wanting to miss the bus that would take her to her brother’s apartment. Not only did she have some food she wanted to drop off, but she also wanted to check up on Del.

She adjusted her jeans as she sat on the hard plastic seat watching the bus shoot through traffic. Part of her wondering the entire trip how the bus drives didn’t get into an accident. It was borderline impressive.

“Morning Mags,” Mags turned to see a familiar blonde smiling at her.

“Hey, Sasha! What’s up?” Mags would describe Sasha more as an acquaintance than a friend, but Mags always puts on a smiling face. Like her brother says, it’s a lot better to spread happiness than make enemies.

After several minutes of casual small talk, Mags began to get the sense that there was something Sasha wanted to ask. There was something lingering in the girl’s eyes, and when the conversation began to die off, Sasha always kept it going. Mags knew something was up, and hoped it wasn’t about the stupid article. She was in no mood to deal with talking about how the bastard got her pregnant.

But sure enough, only a few moments later, Mags paranoia was proven right.

“So if you want, I’m having a big party...we’ll Christian my...boyfriend...is having a party at his place this Saturday, and I’d love to see you there...unless you know….it might be weird because...of the...whole pregnancy thing,” Mags took a deep breathe as it took every ounce of her sanity to not punch Sasha. Mags wasn’t Axl, she wasn’t him by a long shot. Unlike him she could control her temper, or atleast that is what she told herself.

“The pregnancy thing? Ohh you mean that bullshit article? Girl that was full of lies! What he chose not to mention was that I broke his heart because he wasn’t my type,” Mags let out a fake laugh to try to cover the lie that rolled off her tongue.

Was she going to admit she was pregnant to Sasha? No.

Was she going to admit that Drew, the man who wrote the article, shattered her heart into a million pieces? No.

Why? Because that’s not who Mags Adler was.

“Oh my god! The fucking bastard! I tell ya, the media only wants a story that sells their magazines. It’s despicable that they don’t think about how the lies they are telling are going to affect the people. Like I bet that Stef girl who is dating your brother never said how he wouldn’t make it. And oh that Del girl, I bet she does more than fawn over Duff and be his groupie. Like the girl has to have a life. I should have known this were off when the article framed Trixy as a good person. She is a fucking bitch,” Mags nodded and smiled as Sasha spoke.

The truth was Del really didn’t have much going for her besides the fact that she was in love with Duff. Of course Del had hobbies, but none that paid the bills which was a discussion for another day. Mags tried not to think of it, but Del was turning into a groupie. She quickly reassured herself that Del technically wasn’t a groupie Del wasn’t going around having sex with Duff, but little did she know what Del did last night and into the morning.

Part of Mags wondered if Stef actually said what she said. There were parts of the article that were true, but it was also filled with lies. Did she mean it when she said her brother was going now where? Mags knew with her whole heart that Stef adores Steven, but there was a small pit in her stomach that said otherwise. Mags tried connecting the dots on my Stef had been making excuses and events for Mags to go to that happened to be on the same days as concerts, but there wasn’t any connection. It just didn’t make sense.

“So I’ll see you on Saturday?” Sasha asked, pulling Mags from her train of thought.

“Maybe? My brother is playing a gig, but maybe after?” Mags offered the girl a soft smile as she saw her stop coming,

“Yeah, we will be partying till sunrise! Feel free to bring friends! Chriantian’s place is huge and there will be a live band!” Sasha smiled before Mags pulled the cord asking for the bus driver to stop.

It was only a 10 block walk for Mags, one she had gotten used to over the years. She kept her head high as she took in the peaceful strip. It was weird seeing it like this, but at 8 AM in the morning this was to be expected. Mags would admit that she appreciated the silence over the cat calls. She figured that one of the few benefits of being pregnant was that once she started to show she would get fewer cat calls.

Once inside the apartment, the smell of a cooking kitchen hit her like a truck. Eggs, onion, peppers, and paprika filled her nose causing a smile to grow on Mag’s face. Del was awake!

She froze as she saw the tall blonde over the stove instead of little Del.

“Hey Mags, how’s it going? Are those apples for breakfast?” Duff casually asked as he continued cooking, as if this was a normal occurrence. Mags placed the bag of apples on the table trying to make the confused look that grew on her features.

“What’s wrong Mags? Did you think those were oranges or something?” Mags shot her attention to Izzy who was sitting at the table. Mags wanted to slap the smirk off his face, but she knew that would only get her kicked out of the apartment, and if she was going to be kicked out it was going because she slapped Axl.

“Those are red apples to be exact,” Mags ignored Duff’s comment and placed the apples in the one of the few bowls that was at the apartment. It was a actually her bowl, but after a month of fruits rolling off the table, she figured they needed it more than her.

“Where is Del?” Mags asked quickly looking around the kitchen and their sad excuse for a common area.

“Still sleeping, she had a busy night,” Duff casually said, earning a snicker from Izzy.

Mags froze in place as she heard Duff’s comment.

“Did you fuck my roommate?” Duff was taken aback by Mag’s tone. She seemed agitated. What did she care? They were two consenting adults. Plus he would barely count Del as Mags roommate since she slept with him most nights.

“What does it matter-“ Mags cut Duff off before he could continue talking.

“I asked, did you fuck my roommate? It’s a yes or no question?”

“It’s none of your fucking business what I did between me and my grilfriend. Fun fact Mags, you can’t control everyone. Del isn’t your puppet,” Duff shot back, making sure to keep quiet so he wouldn’t wake Del.

In another room, Del remained frozen in Duff’s bed using his only blanket to hide her naked body. She tried to make sense of the emotions that were currently flowing through her.

Regret wasn’t the right word. She loved Duff, and from what she knew, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

Pride was also wrong. She wasn’t proud of losing her virginity. It was something she was taught her entire life to protect and save until marriage. Having sex was sacred.

It wasn't that she wasn’t happy, but she also wasn’t sad. She possibly felt more content than happiness or sadness.

Shame, was another word that filled her head. Shame was the word that she felt right for her. She was ashamed that she had gotten so tipsy that she lost her virginity to the man she loved.

“Hey, you okay?” Del rolled over towards Slash as he spoke.

“Yeah...just trying to figure out how to get out of this pickle. I feel kinda…..”

“Gross?” Slash finished Del’s sentence earning a nod from the girl.

“I wouldn’t recommend putting your clothes from last night on, they’re probably still wet. I can grab a shirt from Duff’s stuff to help you cover up,” Del nodded at Slash’s kind offer, but before Slash could get up to help Duff walked into the room.

“And this is my cue to leave. I believe Duff has this under control,” Del shot Slash a quick smile as he headed out of the room to enjoy some breakfast. For the first time, Slash was kind to her. Usually he just existed in the room she was in and never truly interacted with her, but now...now he was kind.

Izzy’s words echoed through Duff’s head as he joined Del on his bed. He had to be slow and gentle with her.

“How are you feeling,” Duff played with her hair as he spoke, watching the curls bounce as he dropped them.

“I’m sore, and I feel gross,” this caught Duff off guard as a frown flashed across his face.

“Like you regret it,” Duff let a sigh escape him. Fuck, Izzy was right.

“No, I don’t regret it. I regret the fact that you don’t have a nice shower though,” Del teased back in attempt to make him smile. It worked, and she felt her heart flutter as a smile formed and she guided him gently ontop of her.

“Ohh is someone ready for round two?” A cocky smirk was placed across the bassist’s features as he hovered over Del.

Del let out a soft chuckle before shaking her head no.

“I’m still sore Duffles,” she cupped his chin as she watched a smirk cross his features. This was a view Duff would do anything to see. His small little Del, under him in full view.

“Did you...did you make breakfast?” Del asked, trying to change the scene that had unfolded in front of her.

“Yeah, and Mags brought apples,” Del smiled at the mention of Mags. It was good to hear that she left the apartment.

“How...how tense is it out there?”

“Well Steven is asleep, and Mags came in with a bitchy attitude so pretty tense?” Del was caught off guard by Duff’s tone. Del knew she should have said something, stand up for Mags but she remained silent. Something was wrong, and Del didn’t want to add more fuel to the fire.

“Is everything...okay?” Del asked as Duff climbed off her and dug through his bag and handed her on of his shirts. She knew he wasn’t mad at her, but she still wanted to know why he was pissed.

“Yeah,” Duff’s one world answer irked Del, but she quickly brushed it off.

“Come one Duffles, you can tell me anything,” Del quickly got out of bed and walked over towards Duff. As the words escaped her lips, she laced her fingers into his shoulder length hair.

“Why don’t you go fuck yourself Axl!” Del dropped her hand from Duff’s hair and snapped her attention towards the kitchen. She couldn’t see a thing since the door was closed, but she recognized who the screaming was coming from.

Del turned back towards Duff to see a scowl had formed on his face. In attempt to lighten the mood, she said “Mags knows that there is probably a line of people who are waiting for Axl to go fuck himself.”

This earned a small smile from the blonde and Del quickly got dressed in Duff’s shirt he handed her.

“Duff, can I borrow some shorts too?”

Del froze as Duff's laughter filled the room.

“I love you Delly, but my shorts are going to be a little too big on you,” Duff teased back, earning a playful eye roll from the girl. He wasn’t wrong, Del looked like a twig compared to Duff.

She threw Duff’s shirt on and followed him out to some breakfast. Her stomach rumbled as the smell of a freshly cooked breakfast drowned her senses.

“Good morning lovebirds!” Slash bellowed as Duff guided a slowly moving Del into the kitchen.

Izzy and Slash shared knowing looks as they watched how slowly Del was walking. They were defiantly going to tease Duff about this later, once Del wasn’t in the room.

Duff and Del sat down at the table joining the rest of the band minus Axl. Del figures he was probably in his room either lying on his bed or drawing in attempt to calm himself down. She wished there was something she could do to help, but she wasn’t in the position to do that at the moment.

“Thanks, Izz! It smells amazing,” Del said as Izzy placed a plate of eggs in front of her.

“Hey! I’m the one who made it!” Laughter echoed through the tiny apartment as Duff spoke.

“It tastes delicious,” Del said before kissing him on the cheek.

Axl was the last to join the group. He almost froze as he sat down as he saw Del at the table. Her hair was a curly mess that framed her features perfectly. To Axl, she looked like an angel in his shirt that she was practically swimming in. He had forgotten that he gave that old shirt to Duff a month or so ago, and now after seeing Del wear it part of him wished he had kept it.

Feeling Axl’s stare, and immediately misinterpreting it why he was staring, Del quickly spoke, “Ohh...I can..I can eat in another room..if you guys want to have a band meeting. I can go eat with Mags..wherever she went off to.” Del began to look around left and right to see where her friend went.

“Mags left. She just stopped by to drop off some food,” Del knew that Mags didn’t leave by choice. By the tone in Steven’s voice she knew that Mags was kicked out.

“You’re not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me now..like it or not,” Duff whispered into Del’s ear earning a sweet smile to cross her lips.

——————-

“Come on Beth, we are almost there and then you can take the blindfold off,” Mark said as he guided the blindfolded girl through the church basement. His heart was racing a million miles per a minute, and he couldn’t believe he was going to finally do it. He was going to propose to her. He felt giddy, excited, and nervous all at the same time. He had finally found the right moment to propose to her.

“It smells amazing! Are you sure we are still in the church?” Beth asked as Mark guided her to sit down.

“Yes, and you can take off your blindfold,” Mark couldn’t help, but smile as Beth remained silent as she took in the room.

The first thing she noticed was that the room was illuminated by candles instead of the ugly yellow lights that traditional illuminated the room. The second was the rose petals on the floor. The third wwas photos taped to the wall.

“5,110 days….that’s how long I’ve known you. We met when we were 5 years old. I am going to be honest, but I don’t remember much from back them. This though….this memory I will always remember,” Mark pointed at the first picture that he had tape in the wall only a few hours ago.

Beth let out a giggle as she stared at the photo. It was of Beth and Mark covered in flour. Their smiles were large as they posed for a photo which Beth assumes Mark’s mother took the photo since from what she remembered her own mother wasn’t to pleased with the situation at the time.

“It was in the middle of a small bible study, and we were being read from one of those children’s bibles with the large colorful photos. You wanted some cookies for a snack and after begging…..” Beth began to say.

“I didn’t beg!” Mark playfully shot back.

“No you begged because I remember Delilah teased you for a month about it!” Mark shook his head trying to hide his giggle at Beth’s comment, but she was right.

“Anyway, after you harassed the poor book reader he finally said you could go and grab some cookies from the kitchen, but you couldn’t go alone so I had to go with you. Anyway we ended up in the kitchen, but there were no cookies. So we decided to make some….and….” Beth couldn’t contain her laughter as the memories of how poorly their cooking went filled her head.

“I was grounded for a week,” Mark added smirking.

“A week? I was grounded for two months! Delilah and I couldn’t play because of it,” Beth playfully hit him as he spoke.

“I’m assuming I follow the rose petals?” Beth asked as she followed the rose petals towards the next photo. She smiled at the thought of celebrating her four month anniversary with Mark looking through old photos.

Mark nodded and they walked down the rose petal path looking at photos that ranged from their first day at school to after school activities.

“I still think you look good it Delilah’s hot pink tutu,” Beth said as they looked upon a picture taken from one of the talent shows.

“I think my rendition of the sugar plum fairy gave her cute little dance a run for its money,” Mark smiled as Beth’s laughter filled the room. They were just 12 years old when that photo was taken, and even back then he wore the tutu and jokingly danced around like a fool to make Beth laugh.

“Which one is your favorite?” Beth asked as they walked in front of the 12th photo.

“The last one,” Mark smiled as he purposely focused on the picture. If he looked at her he would cry because the last one was going to be a special memory.

“And which one is that?”

“You’ll have to wait and see,” Mark sneakily replied earning an eye roll from Beth.

The next photo was from their eight grade graduation. Beth, Delilah, Mark, and Matt were posing in front of the church holding their little diplomas in the air with the pride of a college graduates who had just earned their doctorates in advanced medicine.

“Do you remember how much of a fuss you were making because the cap flattened you hair,” Beth smiled as she pointed at the picture.

“Do you know how many photos my mother took that day? My brothers would still be making fun of me if I looked bad in those photos!”

“Ohh Mark...they make fun of you anyway,” Beth teased before she headed towards the next photo. It was from Halloween when they were 15.

“Do you remember when Delilah was told she couldn’t be Tinker Bell because Tinker Bell was inappropriate?” Beth asked as she looked at the photo.

“If I remember right it was because Tinkerbell promotes sin because she was a needy attention hog or something like that?”

“And how Delilah was so busy complaining that she forgot to tell her mother what she actually wanted to be for Halloween, so she went as a princess,” Mark couldn’t help but laugh at the memory of Delilah.

“Then Matt kept telling people she was the princess from the princess and the pea. How would warm the people who handed out candy that Delilah was cranky because she didn’t get a lot of sleep the night prior because of a pea under her mattress,” Mark and Beth’s laughter once again filled the room before heading onto the next photo.

After 20 more minutes of reminiscing on other photos, Mark guided Beth towards a room filled with even more flower petals and a candle. Beth smiled as the smell of roses engulfed the room. The small room had a table and some tables and chairs pushed against the walls with a large mirror in the center. Beth could tell that he tried to hide what the room actually was, but she recognized it. This is the room where Matt, Mark, Delilah, and her would hang out every day.

“Mark, I know you didn’t intend for this to be creepy, but I’m getting horror movie vibes,” Beth half joked as she looked around the room.

“Where is the photo?” Beth added while continuing to look around the room.

“Come,” he held both of Beth’s hands and stood in front of the mirror. Beth was hesitant, but let him guide her out of curiosity.

“Beth, from the moment I met you I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my days with you. Whether it was getting in trouble for attempting to make cookies or just spending time with you on that ugly floral couch, I love spending every moment with you. I feel like I can be my true self when I’m with you,” Mark felt the nerves come back as he spoke.

“I love you too,” Beth smiled as she squeezed his hands tight.

“Beth Marie Jacob,” Beth gasped as she watched him get down on one knee.

“This afternoon we reminisced over some of my favorite memories for every year I have known you,” Mark pauses as he watched tears of happiness slowly flow down Beth’s face.

“Will you make one more memory with me tonight?” Mark pulled out the small box he had kept in his pocket for the past month.

“Will you Beth Marie Jacob marry me?” Mark’s heart stopped as the words escaped his lips. A sliver of fear slipped into his thoughts that she would laugh at him or say no.

“Yes! Ohh God yes, I love you,” The tears now began to stream down her face as Mark put the ring on her finger, and kissed her.

“I love you too!” Mark spun her around causing her to fill the room with her giggles and screams of joy.

Once they let go of each other they turned and stared into the mirror.

“I think this is my favorite memory too,” Beth smiled as she continued to look at her and Mark.

Mark watched as a frown quickly formed on her face.

“What?” Mark pulled Beth in close attempting to comfort her.

“I just...I wish Delilah was here to share this memory with us,” Beth spoke no louder than a whisper.

In that moment, Mark kissed Beth’s forehead and made up his mind. He was going to go to Sunset Strip and bring Delilah home, no matter what.

#the dare fanfic #gnr fanfic #gnr fanfiction #gnr imagine #guns and roses fanfic #guns and roses imagine #guns and roses fanfiction #guns n’ roses imagin #guns n’ roses fanfic #guns n’ roses imagine #guns n’ roses fanfiction #duff mckagan / oc #duff mckagan imagine #duff mckagan fanfic #duff mckagan fanfiction #axl rose fic #axl rose fanfic #axl rose fanfiction #the dare

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pajama-nerd · 4 years

Text

Reading my way through Fazbears Frights, thinking about how none of these protagonists have ever interacted with any kind of horror media.

Reader Beware: Spoilers Ahead

Into the Pit didn’t read like time travel to me. It read more like a particular kind of haunting where the negative energy of all of the bad shit that happened at that location was locked into the one remaining 'feature' of the location: the ball pit. And Pit-Bonnie isn't the ghost of Afton, but rather the entity that was created from the memories of all that bad energy.

And the interesting thing to me about Pit-Bonnie is that - aside from the inherent creepiness of the situation and the fact that he had literally one facial expression (he can’t even blink for cryin’ out loud) - he didn't attempt to harm Oswald until Oswald went back to rescue his dad. Once Pit-Bonnie was away from the negative energy that had spawned him, he did Dad Things™. He did them in the creepiest way possible, granted, but we don't actually know how he feels because of his inability to express.

Maybe he wanted to stay. Maybe he just wanted a break from that place. Maybe that place has a hold on him, and being away from it allowed him a measure of free will.

And the fandom that I’ve seen about the Dashboard has locked onto Pit-Dad-Bonnie because the general attitude of the fandom - as far as I've witnessed - has been 'Oh. A scary thing! Well, now it's friend-shaped.' (or, in this case, Dad shaped) so of course my immediate question is, 'how would the story have changed if Oswald had made a more serious attempt to communicate with Pit-Bonnie?'

The immediate, cynical response is 'well it would have slaughtered him' but that's infinitely less interesting than the possible alternatives.

Perhaps he takes in the fact that Pit-Bonnie can't talk, and proposes an alternate method of communication. I'm talkin construction paper and crayons. And he gets Pit-Bonnie to tell his story a la Nephrite from Steven Universe. About how one day he just was. And how sometime after that, that version of Fazbear's formed around him. And how there were happy, smiling kids laughing in the pizzeria and he was happy, but how every time he tried to be friends with the kids something would happen.

The world would flicker and they would just be in that back room, like that. How he was desperate for some kind of a connection and could never have one because those kids – those memories – were doomed to die by the memory of his hands. How he noticed Oswald because Oswald didn’t fit – he was real – and how he’d wanted Oswald to help him figure out how to change what had happened (or to make it stop), but Oswald had run away. About how he’d tried to fish Oswald out of the ballpit and gotten his dad instead. About deciding to take his dad’s place so that he could get away from that place and how being here with Oswald was nice. Driving him to school was nice. Making him dinner was nice. Cleaning the house with him was nice.

(Imagine Oswald getting less and less afraid as he interprets the story, checking in with PB occasionally to make sure he's getting it right. Getting slightly annoyed tho, because he's not getting rid of this rabbit, is he? But he still needs to rescue his dad, so now what?)

Oswald eventually tells PB that he can stay, which surprises but elates the rabbit. Then Oswald tells him they have to get his dad back.

There's a negotiation. Obviously, they have to get his dad back. Has Pit-Bonnie been going to his dad's job? What about taxes? Things his dad knows how to do? What about Oswald's mom? Is Pit-Bonnie just going to pretend to be his dad around her forever? What if she wants to do...like...parent stuff? With her husband? If you catch my drift (PB does not, in fact).

Eventually PB agrees, and even drives Oswald back to the same block as the pizza place. He doesn't get close to it - definitely doesn't park in the lot - but Oswald just tells him to wait in the car and goes and wakes his dad up from the ball pit. His dad is confused. Disoriented. Way out of it. Let's Oswald lead him back to the car and sits in the back, too out of it to comment on the yellow bunny mascot in the front seat. They return to the house without incident, and his dad passes out on the couch.

Oswald eventually figures out that PB is the one making his dad so loopy - that the connection PB formed so that he could know how to drive the car, how to work the vacuum cleaner, how to make Oswald's meals, is also keeping Oswald's dad borderline comatose. It takes some convincing to get PB to give that up. PB is afraid to give that up - afraid that if he doesn't have an anchor, he'll go back to being an aimless product of rage and murder.

Oswald's solution is to spread the bond out. He'll take part of it. If PB splits his focus, it'll be less of a strain on his dad, and PB will have more than one anchor. This has the added property of giving his dad the ability to see the seven-foot-tall grinning plush rabbit (he doesn't react well. Neither does mom. Oswald has never had to talk so much in his life)

So now Pit-Bonnie is a part of Oswald’s life, and it’s hella weird at first, but everyone gets over it, because eventually you just get numb to weirdness. Except Oswald becomes obsessed with Freddy Fazbears, in an Unsolved Mysteries kind of way. Starts researching the place wherever and however he can.

Pit-Bonnie helps, in his way, after they figure out a way to communicate efficiently (modified Sign Language, because being bonded to Oswald means that Pit-Bonnie knows how to do all the things that Oswald knows how to do. So Oswald learns sign language. Which means that Pit-Bonnie knows how to sign now. He still only has the one facial expression, which makes asking questions a little complicated, but they work it out).

I imagine that Pit-Bonnie is very tuned in to the weirdness/darkness vibe that Freddy’s and its remnants (ha) give off. He starts reading local and then state, and then national newspapers, and whenever he gets the Fazbear vibe, he sets the article aside for Oswald to look at. Also he doesn’t sleep, so in the first week of Oswald’s obsession, he generates a lot of leads for Oswald by going through back issues of...everything.

This is a rambly thing, but my point is that most horror has a solution and most of the time this solution is subverted by having it happen to people who have no experience with horror movies, books, comics, or other mediums, which is…I dunno. Kinda cheap.

‘What if they ever saw Frankenstein and sympathized with the monster enough to have empathy for this thing?’

‘They’re not horror fans. And the ones that are have never seen or read the stories where empathy solves the problem.’

To Be Beautiful (a terrible, one dimensional story with a terrible message about self-image told the way that high school stories in the 80's-90's were told, which wasn't even accurate to how highs schools were in the 80's-90's) could have been solved by literally anyone being more than passively curious about the drastic changes that Sarah was undergoing. (Puberty doesn't work that fast. Her whole freaking face changed). Or by her mom going into her room at some point and asking about the 5 foot robot doll.

Count the Ways has many solutions, although, really? She shoulda chosen starvation. More time to escape or be rescued is always, always, always going to be better than a 'maybe I won't be bifurcated’ any way you slice it (I’m not sorry), but I'm fond of the idea of Oswald coming across an article about ‘theft of proprietary animatronics from a Fazbear Entertainment property’ and it leading him to Milly’s grandfather’s house in time to save her. Along with his seven-foot-tall grinning plush friend who can alter people's perception.

Fetch could have been solved by treating Fetch like a dog. Seriously. He is dog shaped. He is therefore a dog, first and foremost. Dog first, killer animatronic second. Which Greg didn't fundamentally understand (he strikes me as a cat person anyway). But Fetch spent that entire story trying to do what he thought his master wanted, and never got so much as a 'good boy' out of it. He didn't even try to defend himself when Greg went to town on him with a baseball bat because he just wanted to be a good dog for his boy. And even after that, when Greg expressed a desire to see Kimberly, Fetch still wanted to do something to get his master to call him a good boy. Honestly, if - after being warned about Fetch - Kimberly had planted her feet and said 'Sit!' I would bet actual Faz-dollars that Fetch's haunches would have dropped to the pavement out of surprise alone, because it would have been the first time in the story someone treated him like a dog.

Alec was doomed to be a teddy-bear from the moment his parents picked up a ‘how to raise my kids’ book, but he’s still alive. There’s no reason he couldn’t be rescued (by Oswald, who’s on the trail of all the weirdness related to Freddy Fazbear. I’d read that story. I’d write that story. I will probably write that story)

The Plushtrap story...had no flaws. That was the only solution, and good on those boys for making all the right choices except for the initial choices that put them in that situation to begin with. A+. Those teeth, Jesus.

1:35 am could have been solved with an apology. Come on. For a character that was supposedly in the Foster Care system being bounced from home to home, you’d think she could empathize with an entity that didn’t appreciate being thrown away. A sincere apology, a promise to never do it again, and Ella would probably have forgiven her.

I don’t remember where I was going with this. I started writing it before I clocked on for work, but that was eleven hours ago. Who can remember where a train of thought that far back?

#fnaf #fazbear frights #ramble #headcanons #how to change the outcome of a horror story

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toooldforfandom-liveblogs · 4 years

Text

Gravity Falls S02E19 - Weirdmageddon 2: Escape From Reality

Last episode ended in the cruelest cliffhanger with Dipper, Wendy and Soos jumping into the bubble to rescue Mabel. I can't wait to find out what happens so let's do this!

I was thinking "this looks way too calm for Grav–" and then this happened.

I hope that goat is not eating Stan.

Also, "Day 4"? When did a day pass? Was it between Dipper meeting Wendy and Fury Road or between entering the bubble and now?

Deep religion takes

There's no way Gravity Falls has this many people. It's probably like the cheap furniture I have, styrofoam covered with the thinnest plastic laminate they can get away with. But with people.

It's weird that the world hasn't noticed this. At least the TV station should have been received in another town/state, right?

Huh.

Has this bubble always existed? That would explain why all the past (and current) weirdness seems so contained to Gravity Falls. Or was it something Ford did at some point in the past? I guess this explains why the world has no idea what's happening.

A bubble inside a bubble. I'm really curious about why Bill bubbled Mabel instead of just making her part of his throne. Even Ford got petrified, so why is Mabel so special?

Dipper "Did you miss Part I?" Pines

Soos is such a good guy. He may be choking Dipper and Wendy but I don't doubt for a second that he really believes what he is saying here. He'd self-sacrifice in a second if it meant saving his friends. He really deserved more than mostly being the butt of jokes.

Why trap Mabel in a Lotus-Eater machine? Hell, Bill had no issues giving Dipper to his friends to eat, why keep Mabel alive (and happy)?

Can't wait for the ultimate reveal that Mabel is the most powerful of the twins and needs to be contained.

Alternatively the bubble is made of Smile Dip

Aw, she still doesn't want summer to end to the point that in her ideal world is always summer.

Totoro and ducktective!

...what happened to the original Waddles anyway?

mhm

Narrator: they break it

What could it be? Something about Dipper? Something that could make Mabel remember the real world?

I see what you're doing here

Adventure Time, 2010

holy shit

Later on court, "it was self defense! I saw a gun!"

Aw poop. I was hoping it wouldn't going to go this way. But I guess it makes sense, before this Mabel was having a pretty awful day so going full on denial is pretty understandable.

...wow, I have no words.

Who doesn't?

Maybe start explaining the literal apocalypse that's going on outside? Because that attitude is exactly why Mabel had to make Dippy Fresh.

I went back to look at the throne again and I'm pretty sure at least Tambry is there (with Robbie)

Her friends not being real feels weirdly manipulative but I think it's the bubble that summoned them, not Mabel.

Yeah, whoa. That's low. Really low.

Oof.

That makes me wonder if the Mabel that Dipper found is not really Mabel. Just the Mabel that Dipper thought he'd find.

I was a bit suspicious but Wendy mentioning Dipper's "thing" makes it obvious that she's a fantasy. Is this what Dipper really wants?

That's nice.

Okay, I wasn't very enthused about this plot but this is winning me back fast.

I haven't written much because I can't decide if the court is the dumbest or the greatest thing. But showing events from before Gravity Falls is interesting.

oh no

If this is how they start, it wouldn't surprise me if Dipper ends up wanting to stay and Mabel is the one who breaks everyone out.

This is really good _but_ I wish (as it's probably obvious from what I've written) that it was Mabel who rescued/convinced Dipper somehow. Emotional intelligence was her thing and now that Dipper had to step up (last episode and now), where does that leave her? I hope next episode they at least team up again.

I can't deny that these "completed" flashbacks got to me.

something something cancel culture

It _was_ the real waddles!

I _really_ appreciate Mabel saying this. Dipper is probably still going to say no but Mabel acknowledging that Dipper _is_ sacrificing an opportunity for her is a lot better than just assuming it's all good.

Everything in this screenshot is amazing but I can't stop looking at Road Warrior Grenda. And Pacifica is alive! And why is Stan wearing the mayor's sash?

This is the last place I expected to hear about Sartre. What a great joke.

WHEN ONE GETS TRAPPED INSIDE THE PAST

DREAMS CAN TURN TO NIGHTMARES FAST

---

I want to like this episode. It was funny, interesting and the emotional climax was great. But, I'm not sure if I do. Actually, I'd say I like it but I don't love it.

There's something in the execution of the "the bubble is Mabel's dream world" plot that fell flat for me. I can't even say it's because Mabel was out of character because she wasn't, there's a direct line between her behavior here and what happened to her before.

I guess I just wanted more from Mabel rather than her getting rescued from herself.

Other than that, it was a great episode, still creating more questions than answers even though there's only one episode left. For example, who made the bubble? Has it always been there or is it something that Ford made? Or, what do the symbols mean? Why trap Mabel instead of feeding her to one of his friends? And the most important of all questions, how did Waddles get into the bubble with Mabel?

Can't wait for the next episode! It's double-length so I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to post it on Friday, next Wednesday is a surer bet, but who knows? Until next time!

Note from the future: @princezilla reminded me about the deal that Bill made with Mabel, which explains why he bubbled her instead of just killing her and makes a lot of my comments kinda dumb in retrospect but oh well.

PS: She-Ra and Steven Universe Future are coming soon.

#gravity falls #gravity falls liveblog #gf s02e19

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glapplebloom · 4 years

Photo

You see so much negativity about this show, let’s do something positive.

Original Art used before was by AJthePPGfan

The Catalyst

So I was watching Shadow Streak’s review on Save the Date when I notice a comment being upset that the girls are being constantly saved. I said that its only noticeable because the original focused on more action and had more episodes. If you count, you would probably see the girls being saved around the same amount of time. So I did via a speadsheet. This article was going to focus mostly on this before, but then the next review “Can’t Buy Love” happened.

One of Shadow Streak’s biggest complaint is that he doesn’t like the fact a six year old is having romantic feelings when they shouldn’t. I posted that they did show Buttercup give the Professor “something” for his date with the disguised Sedusa. For most people its likely a breath mint but I bet for others its a little more adult. And not mentioned in the comment is when the original had the confirmed 6 year old Buttercup crushing on a guy and said young adult taking advantage of her feelings. Don’t worry, its more about taking over Townsville.

There are plenty of reasons to dislike the show (Donny for example) but I would like the dislike being because of your taste and proper reasons. So while I could sit here and debunk others reasons (at least the ones that can be debunked), I think it would be better to see something more positive. So here are 10 things I like in the Reboot that would have made the original much better.

1 - Buttercup and the Derbytantes

Its no secret Buttercup is my favorite Powerpuff. And looking at the reboot it seems like Buttercup is the favorite there as well since if episodes aren’t focused on her she is doing something to advance the story. And outside some minor changes (like her wanting to make cash being an extension from her Tooth Knocking Out Business from the original), she hasn’t seen significant changes. But a positive to her and the others to a lesser extent is that they have friends beyond one episode or each other.

All thee of them got Barry, Blossom has Jared Shapiro (who is hit and miss) and Bubbles had Donny (who is a constant miss). But I’m making this about the Derbytantes for two reasons: 1- they’re less awful than the two previously. 2- they show Buttercup having interest outside her sisters. She has a group of friends who gets her. Who accepts her even if she is a Math Genius. And who share in her kind of fun her sisters wouldn’t. It makes Buttercup more than just the Tough one of the group.

2 - Blossom

In the original, Blossom was the least interesting to me. She was basically just the leader with your typical “I’m the leader so you should listen to me” attitude when Buttercup wants to go in. You know how many episodes focused on Blossom in the original? Four: ice powers, her stealing clubs, her hair getting ruined and suddenly losing and gaining confidence. Great for action scenes but as a character it makes her really one note.

In the Reboot, they gave her more to do. With Jared it shows she has a crush and how she deals with it. Her ego gets more explored as she has to handle not being in the right or being as good as she thinks she is. And even outside the 12 episodes focused on her, she has a lot more interactions with her sisters that makes them seem like sisters. One of my favorite moments is how Blossom suddenly acts like Rambo when the Daisy Robot takes over the house. To me, Blossom is a much more interesting character in the Reboot than the Original.

3 - Bubbles

While the Reboot feels like it favors Buttercup, the Queen of the Powerpuffs is Bubbles. When it comes to episodes focused on her, she’s the most in both the Reboot and the Original. Even the final episode of the original was a Bubbles focused one. While the Reboot does make her more airheady than the original at times, there’s one addition they made that not only is a great addition in my book but also perfectly extends to her character: her being a programmer.

From the original we know two important things: she’s creative and she knows other languages. Coding is basically another language and you know programmers can do amazing things. The concept of Easter Eggs was born because a programmer wanted to add something and said thing turned out to be a brilliant addition to prove their program was stolen. This is a perfect fit for Bubbles to show that you can be smart in your own way than to just give this to Blossom because she’s the generic smart one.

4 - The Professor

Him being more like the dumb fathers in animation is a justified complaint about the show. I feel its because he became a butt monkey in the end of the original series (having his voice stolen with the blessing of the Girls, acting like a child when they could fly instead of using his buggy, danced pants) and they decided to play it up more here. But there are moments I feel this Professor is a better father than the original.

There are two episodes focused on the Professor learning about the subject his girls are interested in so he can enjoy it alongside them. There’s an episode of a creation he made for the sole purpose of making sure they can’t guilt trip him into allowing them to stay up all night. And my personal favorite, being so angry he single handedly drove down to Townhall as Blossom is mind controlled because she disobeyed her. Even to the point that he won’t even let the other girls out of the car despite being thrown around. It just shows a lot more love than the original.

5 - The Fashionistas

The strongest aspect of the original are the villains. They are arguably the best part of the original. But sadly besides Morbucks they don’t have a strong female villain that can be put on the same pedestal as the likes of Mojo Jojo and HIM. Sedusa is so one note she usually loses to other people besides the Powerpuff Girls. For the reboot, their new villains don’t have the same spark as the old with one exception: the Fashionistas.

Consisting of the Bikini Sisters, Bianca and Barbarus, these two have a clear theme, unique plans and great personalities that can bounce off each other or other characters. Like feel free to hate the Bridezilla episode but I really loved that Bianca’s reason to break up the marriage was because she felt she would be left alone since Barbarus was the Popular one, the Funny one and the Attractive one. Its a nice dynamic that I think would have been great for the original.

6 - Silico

Despite having the most questionable reason since the show does a bad job telling us things like time, Silico is a good take for a villain that hasn’t been done in the original. Instead of being created alongside them, being jealous of them, or just simply being evil, Silico is a villain because of their actions. Since they destroyed his friends, even by complete accident, he’s going to destroy them.

This also was their attempt at an ongoing storyline in a similar vein as Steven Universe or Gravity Falls: have episodes be episodic and self contained but have clues or moments that would lead up to a later episode. Granted, not the best of said attempts but it is an honest effort to try.

7 - Episodes

Its easy to point out Bad episodes and say they’re not as good as the original, but I think people underestimate those moments when the Reboot not only has a good episode but knocks it out of the park. I could highlight these good episodes and compare them to the original’s bad ones but that is not a fair assessment. But what I will do is highlight three episodes that I feel not only are the Reboot’s best episodes but also up there with the best of the original.

Home, Sweet Homesick: the episode where Blossom discovers that you shouldn’t grow up too fast and enjoy your time as a kid. Bubbles the Blue: you can feel sad and that’s okay. And finally the Octi-Father: the rage you see in Bubblevicious sharpened as a knife and even more dangerous. All without actually throwing a punch. That’s how you know you’re intimidating.

8 - More of HIM

One of the biggest flaws of the remake is the lack of using the other villains. Outside HIM, Morbucks and Mojo, the most the others get is an episode of the Amoeba Boys working for Silico and the Gangreen Gang hustling. And while I do enjoy Mojo and Morbucks in the Remake, I know others don’t. But one you have to agree got a major push in a good way is HIM. This series really shows him living up to his one line: “Why destroy when you can torture with tooth decay” The Reboot also explains somethings weird from the original.

Remember the White Lie monster? How he seemingly came from nowhere and just as fast suddenly gone? The Reboot has a Secret Swapper Monster who was defeated in the same way: confessing. But the major difference is we know the Secret Swapper came from HIM, explaining why it suddenly came to be. This series shows how he can be just as devious as the devil people think he is.

9 - Concepts

Its easy to remake something: just update the graphics and fix the problems here and there. But it is hit and miss when you add something to make it a reboot. We’ve seen hits in Ducktales Reboot and we’ve seen fails in both Thundercats reboots. But while some of the ideas the Reboot of Powerpuff Girls presented are misses, there are some good ideas.

Silico I mentioned above. A 4th Powerpuff Girl as a result of a previous attempt at creating the Perfect Little Girl not working out is another interesting concept. Mojo creating a Robot that can match the girls in ways the Rowdyruff Boys couldn’t. Morbucks possibly being turned good. These are very interesting concepts. The Reboot not making it work doesn’t mean these ideas couldn’t been more successful under better hands.

Honorable Mention - Lego

Love Lego. Love Powerpuff Girls. Match made in Heaven. Just got to get Morbucks and Mojo.

10 - Inspiration

The one thing you have to give credit to the Reboot is that it inspired people to make stuff about it. Granted, a lot of it being stuff more in favor of the original but there are some great pieces out there about the old meeting the new. Some even highlighting how the Powerpuff Girls has changed over the years.

You got new, younger fans being introduced to these girls and soon wanting more discovering the originals. You have old fans revisiting the originals to show others how much better these were.You got a reviewer in Shadow Streak looking into each episode of the reboot to give them a fair shot. And be honest, the Powerpuff Girls wouldn’t be discussed as much as it is today if it wasn’t for the reboot.

And that’s my list. I know its easy to dislike the Reboot, but I hope this list helps you understand why it has fans. And hopefully it’ll help you appreciate this when the Live Action Movie of the PPG comes...

#PowerPuff Girls #Ppg review

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grailbot143 · 4 years

Photo

Welcome Back Everyone!

If you would like to submit art work for this week’s episode please do so before Friday when I will post the recap and update the Master List. Just click here to submit! If you would like to ask me anything or comment on my commentary. . . all asks are screened for spoilers. Just click here to send an ask

Yeah. . . I'm not even gonna briefcap that

What did we learn?

I'm not interested in watching Uncle Grandpa

Steven can summon his shield when he wants to protect his family

Amethyst looks uber cool in them sunglasses

** And So On To The List Of Lists **

Consolidated lingering Questions

The Gems:

Where do they come from? I now know they are not from Earth, they are from somewhere in spaceHomeworld, further away than our ocean can get in a 30 foot (10ish meters) diameter cylinder from the ocean floor.

How is power derived from them?

What about the gemmed enemies? the monsters used to be humanoid, how does that work, why??

What are Amethyst's unique Powers? Ball-rolling. Fire attack? Uses shapeshifting more.

During Ocean Gem it is mentioned by Lapis Lazuli that the only thing the Crystal Gems care about is Earth, but Pearl showed her complete disdain for humans on multiple occasions particularly Keep Beach City Weird where she said humans were insignificant. . . . so what about Earth do they care about so much? Pearl, at the very least, doesn't care about humans or Earth. She's only here because she was following Rose. Amethyst was born here.

What’s the deal with Amethyst’s strange relationship with gravity? seriously, did this just go away?

Who all can fuse? Pearl and Amethyst = Opal and Amethyst and Garnet = Sugilite and Garnet and Amethyst and Pearl = Alexandrite and Steven and Connie = Stevonnie

How old are each of them? It’s suggested that they’re centuries millennia old. Amethyst acts a bit like a teenager. Is she that much younger than Pearl? Where does Garnet fall? Pearl and Garnet are more than 5000 years old, probably much older. Why is Steven the only boy? Amethyst is around 4 to 5000 years old. Due to his dad's age and the fact that his dad is human, Steven must be less than 20. Based on his relationship with Connie, I'm gonna put his age at around 12.

How many boy gems are there everywhere?

Why did the Gems destroy the Galaxy Warp? It seemed like Pearl wanted to go home during Space Race, but she obviously can't deal with any possible relations with the other Gems in Warp Tour.

What happened between the Gems from the homeworld and the Crystal Gems? There's gotta be a HUGE backstory here. . . .

Does all that Crystal Gem vs Home Gem battle have anything to do with Rose's decision to create Steven?

The World:

Everything seems to be happening in Beach City. Are there other Gems in other towns? Like every town has a team of Crystal Gems protecting it? Or is this town some center for universal negativity, so the Gems are focused here? It seems pretty obvious that the Crystal Gems are the only ones on Earth. . . They stated no one else on Earth can use the warp pads.

Why on Earth are the Crystal Gems on Earth?

Where did Lion take Steven and Connie for training? To Rose's Armory Is that place, or a similar one, available to all gems? There's been no evidence of other Gems having similar places. Do you need a familiar to take you there? Apparently not. Pearl can take you there. How does Lion know the way? It's pretty obvious that Lion was sent to Steven by his mom. . . but still not understanding his powers and knowledge

Warp Pads. . . . Galaxy Warp. How did the Galaxy warp get here? Why is it here? Why is it broken? The Galaxy Warp is the only warp pad on Earth that leads off Earth. So it's obvious why it is here. I'm thinking the Crystal Gems broke the Galaxy Warp to avoid dealings with the other Gems. . . BUT WHY?

The House on the Beach:

This is more a curiosity, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the fight that took off that statue’s hands. I bet it involved Sugilite.

What is up with the living temple inside the house? Beating hearts, waterfalls, a pool for getting rid of evil spirits, a holodeck run by the imagination, dimensional shenanigans. Need much more history and understanding here.

Townies:

What’s up with Onion and his dad? Are they from some other planet?

Why would you make a place called Fish Stew Pizza?

What would make one believe a potato can provide protection from a multi-dimensional being. .. . also, are the Gems multi-dimensional? I don't see that.

Rose Quartz:

Why does Rose have to die to give Steven his superpowers?

Is Rose even dead? _pretty sure this is answered_ (-doubts-)

What would make her choose that? a prophesy? desire to give Greg a kid? gonna die anyway?

Did she give up her gem to HAVE a kid or to IMBUE a kid with the gem? My current theory is that the gem is a being that creates a physical form, and that Rose stopped being Rose in order to be Steven (sorta) as I think Rose is still part of the gem (not dead). So essentially Rose's physical form is gone, replaced by Steven's physical form.

Would removing the gem from Steven give Rose back her form, leaving Steven as a common human 12-year-old?

Lion:

What all does Lion know? How did he get his powers? He's a creation of Rose's, so she gave him his powers. He might even still be connected to her somehow.

Characters

The Crystal Gems

Pearl

Garnet

Amethyst

(dead?) Rose Quartz

Steven

Other Gems

Lapis Lazuli

Peridot

Fusions

Opal

Sugilite

Alexandrite

Stevonnie

The Townsfolk & Other Humans

Sadie

Lars

FryMan

PeeDee Fryman

Ronaldo Fryman

Greg

Mailman

Barb (not seen)

Nanafua Pizza

Kofi Pizza

Jenny Pizza

Kiki Pizza

Sour Cream

Buck Dewey

Onion

Onion’s Dad

Mr. Smiley

Suitcase Sam?

Mayor Dewey

Connie

Connie's Mom (Dr)

Connie's Dad (Security Guard)

Kevin

The Mayor's 2 bodyguards

Monsters/Creatures

Centipeedles and their mother

Red Eye

(offscreen) A giant bird with a giant polka-dot egg

The Spirit from the painting that possessed Together Breakfast

The Crystal Shrimp

(deceased) Frybo

Steven with Cats

The Eel that liked shiny stuff

Lion

Starfish Drills and their MOM?

Giant Bird from Giant Woman

The Geode Beetles of Heaven and Earth

The carnivorous moss that turns into beautiful flowers

Holo-Pearl

Training Robot from the cavern

Blow/Pufferfish

Blood Polyp (offscreen)

Ice Monster

Gem Shard Animated Body Parts

Invisible Monster

Sneople

Watermelon Stevens

Dogcopter

Peridot's Robots

Bees (They're magic!)

The lighthouse

Prop Bats

Scarecrows

Peridot's bigger robots

The Wind Lizard

Places

Around Town

Big Donut

Beach City Walk Fries

Funland Arcade

the boardwalk

Fish Stew Pizza

Greg’s van

It’s A Wash

the storage facility

the Crystal Gem’s house on the beach

Suitcase Sam’s T-Shirt store

Funland

Dock

Warehouse (Wrestling Arena, Rave, and Mayor Dewey's Campaign HQ)

Movie Theatre (in town?)

Pearl’s favorite tree (deceased)

Under the Ocean

Lars’ House

The Lighthouse

Greg's Aunt and Uncle's Barn

Crab the Shack

Beanch City

Mystical

The Temple with a beating heart

the storage unit? Greg said it was magical

(destroyed) The Lunar Sea Spire

Warp pad in Steven’s living room

The Training Cavern

Upside down Pyramid in the Strawberry Fields

Sand Castles that the Dessert Glass built

The cave in Arcade Mania

The Sky Spire

The Lava place where Garnet retrieved the Geode Beetle of Earth

Deadman’s Mouth

The cloud/Pillar place in Steven The Sword Fighter

Rose’s Room

The Communications Hub

The underwater place the Glass of Time was in

The ice cavern the Shooting Star was in

Rose’s Fountain

The Geode

Galaxy Warp

Tropical Island of Geodes

Inside Lion's Mane

The Kindergarten

Warp Stream

Kindergarten Basement

Other

Space

The Pollen Field Flower Fields

The Train

Connie's House

Things

Gems

Rose Quartz

2 Garnets

Amethyst

Pearl

Centipeedles’ Mothers gem

(pants animating) Gem Shards

(maybe? pretty sure) The Lunar Goddess Statue

Eel’s Gem

Gem from Upside Down Pyramid

Dessert Glass

Starfish Mother Gem

The ROC in Giant Woman

Blowfish Gem

Ice Monster from Monster Buddies

Lapis Lazuli

(Animated Body Part) Gem Shards

Invisible Monster Gem

Unknown Gem from Garnet's Universe

Mr. Gusite (This is only thing I'll include from that episode)

Mystical Items

Summoned Weapons

Laser Light Cannon

Red Eye?

Lunar Goddess Statue

Cursed Painting

Replicator Wand (destroyed)

Button in the Cavern (and all that stuff)

Fire Salt

Glass of Time

Shooting Star

The Mirror

Warp Whistle

Warp Pads

The Protective Potato (according to Ronaldo)

Wailing Stone

Food (as it’s seemingly important to our little hero)

(discontinued) Cookie Cats

Lion Lickers

Fry Bits (Cat Fingers enjoy this too)

Hot Dogs (you wouldn't have them if all Pork Chops were perfect)

Together Breakfast

(offscreen) Pizza

(unmentioned) Cupcakes in jars

(not food) Cheeseburger backpack

Donuts

Fish Stew Pizza <-- Be sure to join the rewards program!

Giant Strawberries

Margarine to slick hair back

Sodas that he threw all over the place in Tiger Millionaire

Coconuts Sandwich Cereal (Arcade Mania)

Steven (for the bird in Giant Woman)

Cake

Aqua Mexico Burrito

Cream Pies (more a prop than food)

Bag of Chips

Burger for Onion’s Dad

Seagull’s banana peel and pizza

Cheeseburger Backpack full of snacks for the movie

Popcorn

Burgers (with a ridiculous amount of buns, lettuce, and silverware)

Creamed Corn

Cloud Donuts

Cloud Fry Bits

Fire Salt

“Special” Fries

Fire Donut

Kamikaze (directly in his mouth)

CHAAAPS

Mi Torta

Durian Juice

Sandwiches

Blow torch Grilled Cheese

Crying Breakfast Friends

Fish (caught by Sadie, Cooked by Lars)

Potatoes

Bread Sticks (Crab the Shack)

Shrimp (Crab the Shack)

Ringo's Onion Rings

Watermelon

Sadie's Lunch Bags

Sandwiches, cut into triangles (the only way a sandwich should be)

Star Shaped Cookie (you could say they're out of this world)

Chess piece for Dogcoptor in Steven's dream

Macaroni 'n nothing

Cheese packet

Moldy Sponges (Amethyst. . . 'nuff said)

Coffee ( how is this so far down on the list? Garnet drinks it for breakfast. . . )

Jar of Mayo sandwich. . . knives are good.

Packed in the bindle

Marshmallows (BONE MARROW)

Breakfast Only Breakfast Specials (hashbrowns)

Rebel Turkey Legs

Caprese Salad

Media

Let Me Drive My Van (Into Your Heart)

Lonely Blade

Dogcopter 3

Golf Quest

Crying Breakfast Friends

Training Video

Keep Beach City Weird

Under The Knife

For Steven

Citchen Calamity

Ninja Squad

New Ninja Squad

No Home Boys

Evil Bear 2: Bearly Alive (Come scream with me tonight.) (Uncut Version)

Li'l Butler

Passions of Xanxor

Unfamiliar Familiar series

Other

Guitar Dad T-Shirt

Vote 4 My Dad T-Shirt

T-Shirt Cannon

Likes and Dislikes So Far

Dislikes

Not a fan of the important role junk food plays in the show not as prevalent as it was before

I don’t relate to Steven much. He mostly annoys me. He's getting a bit more lovable. . . now it's Pearl that just really rubs me the wrong way (Probably because she thinks humans are insignificant).

Why is there not a main antagonist? Possibly Peridot or Homeworld Gems

Season 1: Episode 5 Frybo

Season 1: Episode 6 Cat Fingers

Season 1: Episode 18 Beach Party

Season 1: Episode 27 House Guest

Season 1: Episode 32 Fusion Cuisine

Season 1: Episode 48 Say Uncle

Likes

I like that all the answers to everything are not conveniently packaged in a single episode

I like Garnet…

and sometimes Amethyst…

Steven's constant struggle to figure out how to fit into his place in the Gems and complete lack of struggle to feel right at home with the humans. . .

I like Greg and his super awesome van

I like that it seemed like we landed in the middle of a life, rather than the beginning of a story… this continues to be true through every episode.

I like most of the townspeople and their relationships with Steven

I like Connie a lot. She is funny and smart and a perfect non-super for the story.

I like arcade games…

I like that there are so many details in the background like everywhere…

and it’s obvious the creators are nerds

I like Sour Cream

I like the representation of emotions related to motherhood that each of the Gems go through in their own ways.

I like that the makers of the show know what customer service is like. Either that or they have really disturbing imaginations.

I like that the show encourages people to think critically and discuss large questions.

I like that there is a whole dark seedy side that I’m only just peeking into.

Shh. . . Don't tell anyone. . . I also like Peridot She seems like a misunderstood geek girl just saying

I just want to remind everyone, I write these recaps after having only seen the episode once, a week ago, and often interrupted by my whole blogging thing. I mainly do it for myself to refresh my memory for the next episode, but since I post it, I thought I should ask your forgiveness if it isn’t exactly perfect (or even close). Don’t forget if you have a submission for artwork for today’s episode, submit before Friday using the link above, and I’ll pick one to use as the cover art.

#suliveblogchrono #liveblog #Steven Universe #grailbotliveblogs #Universe048 #Say Uncle #Recap #List of Lists

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kayteewritessteve · 5 years

Text

If Only You Knew - 8/19

Description: You arrive home one day to find a wedding invite for two of your best friends from high school. You knew this day was going to come eventually, but even with that said, you weren’t prepared to return home. At least not after 7 years of avoiding Buckhannon, West Virginia. Or rather, avoiding him; your ex-best friend and the secret love of your life. But maybe it was finally time to face your past, to face him, and everything else that happened on that horrible night. Who would have knew that your prom would end up being a total disaster, and the very last night you’d spend in Buckhannon for the next 7 years? you certainly didn’t. That’s for sure.

Catch up HERE.

Word Count: 3,860 ish.

Pairing: Modern!Steve Rogers x Reader.

Rating: 18+

Warnings: Violence. Drinking. Bad and offensive jokes. Possible triggering thoughts, feelings and emotions. Moments of bullying and harsh name calling. Lots of curse words. And a very sloooow burn.

A/N: I sadly don’t own any of these characters. And no beta reader, so I do proudly own all the errors and this story, so there’s that.

Giving you all a back to back update as I was slacking the last few days in the posting department. So here’s me making up for that! Hahaha. Hope you all enjoy this chapter!!

July 2018 - Present

Steve was sitting in his squad car outside the local coffee shop, the morning had been pretty slow. No more little woman running stop signs because they were ‘reading’ texts. So, that was a good thing, at least. Though, he would have loved to have ran into her again, but maybe not when he’d need to ticket her for it.

Bucky opened the passenger door and slid into the seat, careful not to spill their coffees as he did. “Nat says the bridal shower is going well,” he commented as he handed Steve his coffee.

“Glad to hear that,” he replied with a smile.

“Yeah, and the girls just arrived,” Bucky added as he buckled his seat belt.

“That’s good, must mean Y/N wasn’t the one driving then, as we didn’t get any reckless driving calls,” he smirked then put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb.

Bucky laughed, “Yeah, Hilde drove them over there.”

“That’s probably for the best,” he laughed.

Then Bucky’s phone pinged, and he pulled it out of his pocket to check the message, mumbling a, “well shit,” as he did.

Steve glanced over at his partner, “what happened?”

“Looks like Madi, Kiara and Penelope just arrive at the party,” Bucky scrunched up his nose.

“Shit,” he whispered and shook his head, “that’s probably not going to end well.”

“Yeah, probably not,” Bucky sighed, “but Y/N has Hilde and Wanda with her, they’ll protect her.”

“Let’s hope,” he sighed as well.

“The answer is no,” Bucky said out of nowhere and shook his head firmly, “we are not crashing my fiancée’s bridal shower so you can go protect your girl.”

“Wasn’t thinking that, nor is she ‘my girl’.”

“Ha, please. She has always been, and will always be ‘your girl’. Even if it’s only in your own damn mind,” Bucky paused then smirked. “So, you gonna finally do something about that, punk? Gunna finally make a move?”

“We already talked about this. Now is not the right time.”

Bucky groaned, “that’s what you always say! This is your chance, Steve, don’t miss it again.”

“So where did Nat decide to hold the party anyway?” He asked, attempting to change the subject.

“I’m not telling you shit,” Bucky shook his head. “For all I know, you’ll go limp mode again and we will magically end up outside the damn venue.”

At that Steve shoved Bucky’s shoulder, “I will not.”

“Really?” He glared at him. “Should we test that theory?”

“Fuck off, jerk.”

“My point exactly,” he shook his head. “You can’t resist the urge to protect her,” he paused, “or rescue her for that matter. It’s like ingrained into your soul or some shit,” he grumbled but Steve just ignored him as his mind began to travel back to one of the many times he’d had to rescue her in high school. Or rather, one of the few times he had actually failed to protect her…

January 2010 - 8 years ago.

“Where is she?” He skidded to a stop in front of his friends, “what happened?”

They all looked amongst themselves then Nat pointed across the hall to the girls bathroom door, “Madeleine happened.”

Hilde scoffed, “what’s new?”

He turned to look at the girls washroom then back to his friends, “what the fuck did she do this time?”

“Dumped an entire tray of lunch on her,” Wanda said flatly.

“It’s mac and cheese day,” Clint added as he cringed.

“Fuck,” Steve mumbled then he turned and headed towards the door.

“Dude, you can’t go in there!” Sam yelled but he just ignored him and pushed open the bathroom door. Like a silly rule was going to stop him from getting to her. Ha. Please.

He entered the bathroom and saw that there was luckily only one stall in use, clearly hiding her inside it. He walked over and knocked on the door, “Y/N?” He said quietly.

“Steve?!” She gasped. “What are you doing in here?”

“I’m here to check my makeup out, obviously,” he chuckled. But then a silence fell over them, he was hoping his joke would make her laugh, even just a little, but it clearly hadn’t worked. He quickly cleared this throat then corrected his original statement, “I’m here to check on you.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” she sighed, “and you aren’t supposed to be in here.”

“When have I ever followed the rules?” He asked, and even though he couldn’t see her, he could feel her eye roll through the door.

“Ain’t that the truth,” she mumbled through the door.

“So, you gonna come out, or just hide in that stall all day?”

“Hide in the stall all day,” she answered.

“Y/N,” he shook his head and laughed, “just come out here.”

“No, I’m covered in food, and if you didn’t know it’s—“

He cut in, “Mac and cheese day. Yeah, I know, Clint filled me in.”

“So then you know why I’m refusing to come out,” she sighed again, “this was my favourite shirt to.” Her sad voice caused him to believe she was most likely pouting now. But before he could speak the main bathroom door opened and a couple girls came waltzing into the room, stopping dead in their tracks once they noticed Steve.

“Ah,” one girl started but then another beat her to it. “You can’t be in here, Steve,” she crossed her arms.

He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Yeah, normally I’d agree with you on that buuuuut,” he shrugged. “I kind of have more important things to worry about at the moment,” he pointed at the bathroom stall, hoping that would be explanation enough. It seemed to work as the girls all looked between each other then giggled and turned to leave, once the door closed behind them he focused back on the mission at hand. Getting Y/N out of that damn stall. “Y/N, I bet it’s not even that bad, just come out here and we will get you all cleaned up.”

“No,” she replied like a small child.

He sighed then walked into the stall beside hers, putting the seat down and stepping up onto the toilet. Once he was up there he peered over the stall at her, “see, doesn’t even look that bad at all.”

“Steven!” Her head snapped up and her eyes went wide, “get down you creep!”

He throw his head back and laughed. “Not until you get out of that stall, don’t make me come in there to get you.” He raised a challenging eyebrow at her, as if begging her to try him. She just glared up at him, clearly trying to tell if he was bluffing or not, but then she sighed and unlocked the door. Steve jumped off the toilet with a loud thump and joined her in the main part of the washroom. “See, not that bad,” he pointed to her shirt.

“Liar,” she deadpanned.

“I’d never lie to you, Y/N,” he winked.

“Mm hm,” she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “I’m surprised your giant ass had to stand on the toilet to look over the stall wall. How does it feel to be too short for once?”

He feigned insult and put a hand over his chest, “excuse me?” Then he turned and peered behind himself at his butt, “first off, my ass is NOT that big!” He turned back to her, “and secondly, they make the stall walls that tall for this exact reason.” He gestured to his entire self, “tall people.”

She stared at him for a moment then burst out laughing, “I think you were dropped on your head as a child.”

“Oh probably,” he shrugged, “have you met Tony?”

She shook her head and playfully frowned, “sadly, I have.”

They both laughed and then she looked down at her shirt, pulling it away from her body to examine it. “Still not okay with her ruining my favourite shirt though,” she actually pouted now, or at least he saw it this time.

“I’m sorry, Y/N—“

She cut him off and looked up at him, “Why are you sorry!?”

“You know why,” he sighed.

She shook her head, “Stevie, you can’t control other people, or their actions. This is no ones fault but Madeleines.”

And all he could think was, if only she knew exactly why Madeleine painted a target on her back. It wasn’t just because Madeleine was a bitch, though that was a huge part of it, it was because to every one but Y/N, Steve’s feelings for her were plain as day.

He wasn’t the best at hiding them, minus from her, it was how he looked at her when she wasn’t paying attention. And how he talked about her when she wasn’t around. And how he went out of his way to make sure she was happy and carefree. He did everything in his power to shield her from the bullies and the fuck boys, but sometimes he couldn’t be there every second of the day. And with Y/N being unaware of all of it, that only made it even harder for him to protect her. She would straight up call him out if he just hovered around her all day trying to keep an eye on her. And that would only lead to him being forced to tell her the truth. To tell her how he truly felt and he just wasn’t ready for that. Not yet, at least.

He sighed, “I know, but I feel like she goes after you because we’re friends.”

“Which is so weird because she doesn’t do any of this to Nat, Hilde or Wanda?” She thought out loud as her brows knitted together and she looked down at her shirt again.

“Ah,” he searched around in his head for any excuse to throw out at her, “probably because they were friends with Madi as kids?” He scrunched up his face. That excuse was lame as hell, but he hoped she bought it.

Her deep sigh told him she did. “Yeah, that’s probably it.”

Just then he got an idea, he grabbed the back of his t-shirt and pulled it up and over his head, revealing a white wife beater underneath. Her eyes snapped up to his and widened slightly at the action. “What are you doing?” She whispered quickly.

He held the shirt out to her. “Giving you something to wear for the rest of the day?” He answered, sort of confused as to why she didn’t realize that. She looked at the shirt and then back up at him, she was shifting her weight back and forth on her feet, clearly unsure what to say. He cleared his throat and started to bring his hand back towards his body. “I mean, unless you’d rather wear mac and cheese all day,” he shrugged nonchalantly, though he felt a pang of hurt that she wouldn’t want to wear his shirt.

“No!” she abruptly said as she reached out for his shirt and cleared her throat. “No, I, ah,” she paused then looked down at the floor, “do not want to wear mac and cheese all day.”

His brows knitted together in confusion but before he could say a word the bathroom door opened again and more girls walked in, only to also stop dead in their tracks at the sight of him.

“Steve, you should probably get out of the girls bathroom now,” she pushed him towards the door lightly, though he barely budged. “You know, before more rumours start to circulate about me,” she laughed trying to play it off as a joke, though there was no humour in it. He knew that for a fact, as he knew all of her laughs off by heart. And that one was not a real laugh. “I’ll change then meet you out there.”

He sighed then nodded, “yeah. Okay.”

Then he walked out, squeezing passed the girls in the doorway and heading over towards his friends.

“So, how’d that go?” Sam asked with a smirk.

“Clearly not well since you’re alone,” Hilde crossed her arms.

“Actually, I’ll have you know it went really well. She’ll be out in a second,” he smiled triumphantly at his disbelieving friends. If any of them could get her out if that washroom, it was him, they never should have doubted that, or him. Nat exaggeratedly rolled her eyes then they all laughed.

A few minutes later his friends started to clap and cat call.

“There she is!” Clint hollered, “our girl!”

Steve spun around to see her coming out of the bathroom, wearing his t-shirt and his heart fluttered at the sight. She had taken the bottom and tied it into a knot right above the waistline of her jeans. Most wouldn’t even be able to tell it wasn’t her shirt, but he knew. It was his and she was currently wearing it, and fucking well at that. Their eyes locked and she had clearly caught him checking her out, a small smile broke out on her face before she quickly looked down and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“You look marvellous darling!” Wanda said in an awkward English accent then laughed at herself.

Steve looked away from her, trying to calm the rapid beating of his heart at the sight of her. Then he saw Nat giving him that damn knowing look again, paired with her smug smirk. He just glared at her in response. Like always.

“Have I ever told you all how lucky I am to have you guys in my life?” Y/N said as she entered the small group circle.

“A few times,” Sam mused, “but we’ll never say no to compliments,” he laughed.

“Yes! More compliments!” Clint added with a flourish of his hands, “we need more!”

“Noted,” she smiled and nodded, “I’ll keep that in mind!”

Then they all burst out laughing and made their way towards their lockers. The rest of the day Steve could barely keep his eyes off her, which I guess was normal for him, but there was just something about her wearing his shirt that he could barely handle. He was so close to just giving her every one of his shirts so she could just wear one every damn day. That’s how much he enjoyed the sight of it.

He knew right then and there that he was fucking doomed. He had only known her for 5 months but she already held him in the palm of her hand, and what’s worse is she had no fucking clue about that, at all. No clue at just how head over heels he was for her. This was the day he realized it. Realized that if he didn’t already love her, he was well on his way to that outcome. It was only a matter of time.

July 2018 - Present.

The rest of his shift was just as quiet as the morning, nothing major, just a few random calls and a couple speeding tickets issued. It was nearing the end of his shift when Bucky slowly hissed out a “shit,” while staring at his phone.

“What’s up?” Steve asked as he glanced between the road and his best friend a few times.

“Y/N left the party,” Buck paused and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Okay?” Steve replied, dragging the word out in the hopes it would prompt his friend to continue.

He sighed, “right after Madi approached her.”

“Fuck,” he said quickly as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel and clenched his jaw. “What did she say to her?”

“They don’t know, all they said was Madi talked to her and then she left right after. Not even waiting for Hilde to drive her home.” He shook his head, “so I can only imagine it wasn’t a friendly chat.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to be stuck with that woman for fucking life,” he growled out. “What a fucking nightmare.”

“It won’t be that bad,” Bucky paused then frowned, “nope, that’s a lie. You’re fucking doomed.”

“Don’t I fucking know it,” he groaned.

They finally reached the end of their shift, though the last hour had felt like fucking days for Steve. He dropped Bucky off at home then headed to his place. Once he got there he quickly changed into jeans and a t-shirt then hoped in his truck.

He found himself driving a familiar route, one he had driven many times before. So many times he could have probably done it in his sleep. He pulled up in front of the house, shut off the engine and took a moment to just stare up at it. So many memories running through his mind at the sight of it, but one stood out from the rest. One just begged to be remembered…

February 2010 - 8 years ago.

“Morning Stevie.”

He looked up and around until his eyes landed on her, skipping towards him in the hall, a giant smile plastered on her beautiful face. Which caused a smile to form on his, involuntarily, from the sight. “Morning Y/N.”

“Happy Valentines Day,” she reached up and attempted to wrap her arms around his neck, it didn’t go to well with the height difference. He laughed then leaned down a bit so she could reach. “Zip it, Giant,” she sassed as she squeezed his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek.

“Wasn’t gonna say a word,” he said as he laughed and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tight and resting his face in the crook of her neck as he mumbled “and Happy Valentines Day.”

She giggled happily then released him from the hug and took a step back, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. A nervous tick of hers that he had noticed recently. “Thanks,” she smiled brightly.

He smiled back then turned to close his locker. “Someone’s happy today. You’re a fan of Valentine's Day, I take it?.”

“Not normally, but,” she shrugged, “this one seems to be going okay so far.”

He raised an eyebrow at her as they started to walk towards class, “oh yeah? And why’s that?”

She looked up at him for a second and he saw the red colouring in her cheeks now before she quickly turned to face down and shrugged again, “No reason—”

“I call bullshit,” Bucky’s cocky voice cut in, followed by a hissed out “Ow!”

Steve turned to look back at his 3 approaching friends, seeing the tail end of Nat smacking Bucky’s arm. “What the hell was that for woman?” he asked his girlfriend.

“For being a shit,” she whispered harshly to him before turning to smile sweetly at Steve and Y/N, “Happy Valentines Day you two”

“Yes! Happy V Day to you both!” Wanda said as she approached the group.

“Happy Valentines Day,” they both replied in unison to both girls.

Bucky took a few strategic steps back from Nat then spoke up, “so, Y/N, you gonna tell him or?”

Nat spun and went to smack him again but realized, at that exact second, that he had stepped out of her reach, so she just glared at him instead. Causing him to cringe, knowing that look was a promise that she’d get him back later.

Steve shook his head and stifled a laugh then turned to face Y/N again, noticing her wide eyes as she looked up at him, “tell me what?”

“It’s nothing,” she waved it off.

“It’s not nothing,” Clint corrected, then also hissed out an, “ow!” As Nat had spun to smack him now. Clearly he hadn’t got the memo, to step back before speaking, from Bucky.

“Would you both shut up,” she scolded.

Steve frowned at the fact that obviously everyone knew something he didn’t. “What is it, Y/N?”

She scrunched up her face for a moment then sighed and looked down at the floor. “Someone left a bouquet of roses by my front door last night,” she mumbled.

“Oh yeah?” Steve chuckled then coughed in an attempt to mask it, “that’s awesome, Y/N.”

Her head snapped up to look him in the eyes, her eyebrows damn near reaching her hairline, “it. It is?”

He laughed now, he couldn’t help it, then he looked around at his friends who all had similar expressions on their faces “It is,” he confirmed and shook his head, “it’s Valentine's Day, don’t secret admirers and flowers sort of come with the territory?”

“I guess,” she shrugged and smiled, though this time it seemed forced. “Okay, well I have to get to class, I’ll catch you guys later.” She waved then headed off down the hall.

“You’re actually okay with this?” Bucky whispered as he stepped up beside Steve.

“Aren’t you going to like beat up the flowers for showing up on her porch or something?” Clint asked.

Steve laughed then shook his head again, “nah, I’m not worried about it.”

Nat crossed her arms and looked him over for a few seconds before a smirk broke out on her face, “they were from you.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

He just shrugged, “maybe.”

“You going to tell her?” Wanda asked.

“No, probably not,” he replied.

“What? Why?” Clint asked, “isn’t that the whole point of buying someone flowers?” He looked around for help from his friends on this one.

Wanda patted his shoulder reassuringly, “No, you usually buy flowers to either brighten someone's day or show them someone cares for them.”

Then Nat added, “and both of those you can do without them actually knowing who they were from.”

Clint nodded in understanding but then frowned as he looked at Steve again, “but don’t you want her to know they are from you?”

“Maybe one day,” he shrugged, “but just not today. Let her have her secret admirer.”

“Jesus, pal,” Bucky shook his head, “you got it fucking bad.”

Nat looked at him and questioned, “you’re just realizing this now?”

“Oh no, I’ve know since day one,” he chuckled then jutted his chin towards Steve. “If he was an emoji he’d be the damn heart eyes one.”

Steve burst out laughing, “shut up, jerk.”

“Make me, punk,” Bucky said right back then laughed as well.

“Okay, simmer down, both of you,” Nat rolled her eyes. “We don’t have all day to listen to your marital dispute, we have class.”

They all said their goodbyes then headed off in different directions. Though Steve would never actually end up telling Y/N that the flowers were from him, that would have probably opened up a can of worms that he just wasn’t ready to open yet. If ever.

July 2018 - Present.

He hopped out of his truck, then walked up the path and the stairs, coming to a stop at the front door. He raised his fist up and took a deep breath, then knocked. He heard shuffling footsteps coming towards the door and then it opened, revealing one of the few sights that damn near broke his heart into pieces, instantly.

“Steve?” she sniffled, quickly wiping her cheeks then crossing her arms. “What are you—Why are you here?”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

@hopefulmoonobject @harlequinash @itsstillnotwhatyouthink @tessvillegas @boxofteenageideas @wangdeasang @giggleberts @casuallydarktiger @theonelittleone @agentbadbitch @ratwrites @starrystellars @bandsandanimefreak @rockyroadthepastryarchy @lovvliies @cuffski @icesoccerer @alwaysright4 @lilsthethrills @imdiegohargreeves @zombiepotterfour @mu-mu-rs @ledandan1244 @straightforwardly @badassbeckettswan @denzmallows @xremember-me-notx @gwynethjodie @lollipopdomination

#au fanfiction #fanfiction #long post #long read #marvel au #marvel fanfiction #steve rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x y/n #steve rogers x you #modern!steve rogers x reader #modern!steve #modern!steve rogers #modern au #if only you knew #chapter 8 #no super powers here #alternate universe

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introvertguide · 5 years

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Swing Time (1936); AFI #90

The next film on the AFI list that we watched was the dance classic Swing Time (1936) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The movie was nominated for two Oscars and won Best Song for “The Way You Look Tonight.” The film was rather recently recognized by the US Congress and inducted into the American Film Registry in 2003. The film is mainly known for the dancing and the music, but I want to do a brief overview of the plot:

SPOILER ALERT!!! BTW, these are not even good spoilers because the movie is 80 years old and the plot is a little light. I did my best.

John "Lucky" Garnett (Fred Astaire) is a gambler (apparently a viable profession in the 30s?) and dancer who is engaged to marry a woman named Margaret (Betty Furness), but his friends make him late for the wedding with a rouse about cuffed trousers (I guess...) and the bride’s father phones to call the whole thing off. His friends get the message but don’t pass on the information and instead bet Lucky that he will not be getting married, and he agrees to the bet. Margaret's father tells Lucky that he must earn $25,000 to demonstrate his good intentions. (Why? Not sure. If it was my daughter, I would either accept his apology or tell him to get lost and never return. There would be no bartering over my child’s happiness. Instead, the father makes it into a bidding war and is suddenly OK with this man standing up his daughter because he might have good financial prospects)

Lucky and his friend "Pop" Cardetti (Victor Moore) try to buy train tickets, but his friends take his money due to the rigged bet over the marriage. Lucky and Pop do their best hobo routine and hitch the first freight train to New York. Broke, they wander around the city and eventually run into Penny (Ginger Rogers), a dance school instructor, when Lucky asks for change for a quarter. It's his lucky quarter and Pop feels bad that Lucky had to exchange it. They attempt to get it back, but Penny is in no mood to deal with them. When she drops her things, Pop sneaks the quarter out of her purse, but she blames Lucky. Quick note, there are screwball romantic comedy beats throughout the film because there are constant mistakes and misunderstandings that are “whacky” and simultaneously move the plot along. They are cute but often make no sense.

The two follow Penny back to her work so that Lucky can apologize, but he has to take a dancing lesson from her for an opportunity to talk to her. She's still furious and, after a disastrous lesson, Penny tells him to "save his money" since he will never learn to dance. Her boss, Mr. Gordon (Eric Blore), overhears her comment and fires her. Lucky dances with Penny to "prove" how much she's taught him. The dance that the two are able to do “spontaneously” is blatantly choreographed and perfect in every way. For the purpose of the movie, however, it is meant to be improvised. Not only does Mr. Gordon give Penny her job back, he sets up an audition with the owner of a local venue to showcase his new student and his talented teacher.

Lucky and Pops check into the same hotel where Penny is staying for the audition. Lucky does not have a tuxedo to wear to the audition so he tries to get a tuxedo off a drunk man, but he ends up losing his own clothes instead. Like I said, not everything makes sense so you just have to roll with it sometimes. The pair end up missing their audition and Penny gets mad at Lucky all over again. Lucky is able to arrange another audition then he and Pop picket (literally with sandwich boards) in front of Penny's door until she gives in and forgives him. Also, Penny’s friend Mable and Pops seem to be in a relationship even though they don’t seem to really like each other. Also, Pops always sounds drunk. I don’t know why, it just is.

In the strangest plot twist yet, it turns out that they cannot audition because the club has lost their band leader, Ricardo Romero (Georges Metaxa), to a casino. They go to Club Raymond where Lucky gambles to win enough to get Ricky back. Meanwhile, it turns out that Ricky Romero has been hitting on Penny for a long time and wants to marry her. Lucky is about to win enough to marry Margaret, but he takes his last bet off in time... proving he is no longer interested in her, but in Penny, instead. This is rather strange because there is nothing forcing Lucky to go back if he makes enough money since the father of Margaret never comes back, but it is seems to be a driving force to prove that he loves Penny. He is willing to remain somewhat poor for her. The owner of Club Raymond bets Lucky on a single card cut and the wager is all of Lucky’s winnings versus the contract of the band leader. Upon seeing that the club owner intends to cheat, Pop cheats as well, and Lucky wins the contract. I am not exactly sure how all this happens, but I see why Lucky is a considered a professional gambler since he is consistently betting in an attempt to win people.

Lucky and Penny dance at the club and it is beautiful. They are dancing together all the time, but Lucky does not trust himself around Penny because he feels guilty about not telling her about Margaret. He's avoiding her, which Penny notices, so she and her friend Mabel Anderson (Helen Broderick) conspire to get Lucky and Pop out to the country. There is a most awkward number when Pop lets slip the information about Lucky and Margaret and a very flirty Penny becomes very cold as it seems that the two cannot be in love at the same time.

Mabel basically dares Penny to go in and confess to Lucky that she loves him and they finally have a moment. But as these movies tend to go, Margaret shows up and ruins everything. Penny decides to marry Ricardo and Lucky will go back and marry Margaret. It turns out the Margaret has decided she wants to marry somebody else so Lucky runs out and breaks up the wedding using the same trouser cuff gag that was used on him at the beginning of the movie.

Ricardo is without pants so Penny says that she guesses she is going to marry Lucky and then Ricardo plays a song with his band celebrating Lucky and what a great guy he is. Lucky and Penny finally have an on screen kiss and that is the end of the movie.

It was noted by my parents that the music and dance numbers are not evenly dispersed through the movie, but are instead bunched up in the later two-thirds of the film. It is a good 20-25 minutes before the first song while musicals at the time normally had a big opening number (along the lines of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of Oz). This was apparently due to the first number, ironically named “It’s Not in the Cards,” to be cut from the film as it was judged as being not up to the standard of the other songs.

A cinematography note (or lack of one, really) concerning the dance skill of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, many of the dance sequences have 3-5 minute uncut shots in which the camera barely moves. Astaire famously said on many occasions that he was doing the dancing, not the camera. With his perfectionism and the general toughness of Rogers, the two would do dozens of takes for these complicated dance numbers to the point that the high heels would rub in Ginger’s feet causing them to bleed. Every dance scene is a testament to both actor’s dedication to their art.

The movie was similar to painting a room in that it took much less time to complete the aspect that people would actually see than the time it took to prepare. Months of developing the choreography and rehearsing was filmed over weeks despite the multiple takes insisted on by both director George Stevens and Fred Astaire. Dance director Hermes Pan was a very creative choreographer that developed highly technical and extremely complicated dance numbers and Astaire insisted they were done flawlessly. Ginger was a talented dancer that brought the best out of Fred because she continued on take after take and was able to keep up with Astaire’s almost manic work ethic.

The number that Astaire performs when Margaret shows up to see him in a tribute to Jim “Bojangles” Robinson and involves Lucky being in black face. The number is a little weird and he goes through a good five minutes of shenanigans following the number still in black face. It is just weird. I just kept thinking he needed to wash off his face already, but he deals with both of the club owners and again loses Ricardo’s contract. I has awkward moments with Penny meeting Margaret and it is just so much more so since Lucky is still in black face. It is pretty uncomfortable in today’s society

Although I personally like the simple sound of his voice, Astaire has never been recognized as a very good singer. He also is not known for his acting, especially in his younger years. He was a world recognized phenomenal dancer from age 10 when he danced with his sister to the day he died. He was also not a classically good looking man being oddly proportioned with large facial features (especially the ears). All this being said, he successfully plays a suave gambler, sings beautifully, dances spectacularly, and truly embodies a confident man that makes women swoon. This was a perfect movie for Astaire in that it challenged his dancing skill and he was able to play off Ginger for his acting. He was not given much to sing but a very simple little piece that worked well his voice. He was dressed well with a top hat throughout the film. The film is truly the all around best of Fred Astaire (at least I think so).

So would I recommend the film? Absolutely, but I would mention the Bojangles in Harlem number because the blackface is a little off-putting. I think most people will either just skip it, watch it and not care, or watch it and think the 30s was a very different time. Everybody is different, though, so keep it in mind. Should this film be on the AFI 100 list? I think that the way that Astaire was filmed due to his talent and perfectionism is something that has been lost to film trickery so something like this which highlights the best of Fred Astaire should surely be searched at and ranked as one of the best parts of American cinematic history. A great film that is a lot of fun to watch.

#fred astaire #ginger rogers #swing time #dance #musicals #film critique #AFI movies #introvert #introverts #1930s movies #vintage film #black and white #choreography

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fanofawesomethings · 6 years

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Blue Hands

Another commission for @bixbitesmeepmorps and her delightful Gemsonas.

This fic is connected to the Blue Diamond and Bixbite picture

Bixbite had gotten used to crossing the countryside at high speeds whenever she and Onyx visited Wheat Town or Beach City for Steven. Because Onyx ran at her fastest speed possible, usually to show off to the magenta Gem, Bixbite never really had enough time to admire the scenery as she’d like to, but she’d never tell the impatient Onyx to slow down. But at last Bixbite had all the time to admire the vast plains that surrounded her forest, watch them pass by below her feet. The Lapis carried Bixbite by her arms while the pillars made of water walked great distances with each step like spider legs. As long as she’s known the Lapis, Bixbite remembered the blue Gem prefers walking as her method of traveling rather than flying like the other Lapis she knew. It was slow comparably, to be sure, but the Lapis didn’t say they had a time limit, and Bixbite didn’t mind having the time to watch the land either.

The pillars that supported the two Gems were mighty yet delicate. With such huge legs, able to cross large gaps of land in a single step, Bixbite did not expect to see there was no trail behind them, not even watery footsteps. She looked behind and saw the water touch the ground as though it was air and then absorb the water that touched the ground, leaving not even a single snapped twig behind them.

“How many Gems are going to be there?” Bixbite asked.

The Lapis struggled to speak. Carrying Bixbite and walking with the water, it seemed, occupied most of her concentration and made it hard for her to carry a conversation for very long.

“I’m not sure. Before I left my—Hessonite said we were aiding an escort mission to Earth but she—n-never said how many. Just that it was—extra—important,” said the Lapis. In her paused the pillars of water ruptured as though a stone was thrown into them.

“Who were you escorting? Golly, it must be someone really important to need an escort,” said Bixbite wondering what kind of Gem it might be though she didn’t know much of the Gem hierarchy.

“Someone—who—hoo—needs it,” panted Chest Lapis. “We’re almost there, okay.”

They dipped, falling from their elevation for a split second before returning. Bixbite knew then the Lapis wanted to cut the conversation short.

The two Gems came upon dipping hills over the horizon with the biggest one of them all was being a mountain overlooking the land. Even far away, Bixbite saw something resting at the tip of the mountain and as they got closer she saw a large object, colored blue and glistening against the sunset because of its metallic frame, and the Lapis climbed up the side of the hill, panting with her tongue hanging, Bixbite saw two figures standing outside it. Gems! New Gems, Bixbite exclaimed in her head.

“I’m—I’m here—” The Lapis panted. The pillars collapsed with a splash and she and Bixbite fell to the ground abruptly.

“Welcome back, Lapis,” said an Amethyst. Her muscles and structure matched Onyx’s and so Bixbite was immediately entranced her before the other. Gem on the upper part of her left arm, her hair was long and curled like ocean waves at the ends. Her demeanor read cockiness and ready to find a fight, and when she saw Bixbite trembling shyly like a deer she bulked her muscles. “Who’s this?”

“Oh…hello, I’m Bixbite,” Bixbite waved awkwardly until she got over her enamor. “I’m an old friend of Ches—Lapis.”

“You found another Gem on this planet? There wasn’t supposed to be another one? Oh geez—this wasn’t supposed to happen. Or was it?” The other Gem whose voice cracked from perpetual nervousness was dark green and a particular Gem Bixbite was curious about because she turned her back to the rest of them while she fiddled with a projection screen. Puffs of white were around her collar, under a spherical head and a single green eye. Her Gem was her navel and it matched the greenness of the rest of her skin.

The screen the Gem looked up brought a tiny list that Bixbite read over her shoulder. It detailed by its length but that was sadly all Bixbite could make out—she was illiterate, at least in Gem language; Steven had thought her a bit of English but even that was too much for her sometimes. There were pictures which made it easier but the green Gem soon noticed Bixbite’s nosy eyes and hid the screen.

“Okay…let’s see. Arrive on Earth—check. Scan for possible Gems in the area—check. Meet with the others is the next step. I suppose we did out job by scanning for Gems…but were we supposed to actually find one? I-I thought that was routine,” shivered the Green Gem.

“Calm down, Nephrite. Bixbite was a survey Gem on a drop ship that flies near Pink Diamond’s moonbase. Her ship accidentally left her stranded,” said the Lapis, lying as she said before.

“Yes! Exactly that! I thought I could help you Gems out before I get a ride back,” said Bixbite; she had a harder time lying.

“We could always use another Gem and Bixbite can fight,” said the Lapis.

“Oh? I haven’t had a good fight since we left Homeworld,” said the Amethyst pounding her fists together, the force of their collision Bixbite could almost feel. Bixbite felt scared.

“Remember the mission, F10!” Nephrite squeaked. “We were supposed to meet the rest at the rendezvous point before this planet’s dark cycle!”

“Can it, will you, we’ll get there,” said the Amethyst. She patted Bixbite on the top of her head, as she was taller than the magenta Gem. “We’ll throw down when we get back to Homeworld, cutie.”

Bixbite blushed.

“Who are we meeting at the rendezvous, Nephrite? The entire trip from Homeworld you haven’t told us anything,” said Chest Lapis.

“It’s because I don’t know myself! You think if I knew I’d keep it you myself!? It’s stressful keeping information! And I’ll tell you what’s even more stressful: not being told mission objectives!” The Nephrite blurted out. “I mean, I thought the Diamonds trusted me the most out of all the other Nephrites in my Cabochon…but they didn’t tell me anything! Me!”

The Amethyst and Chest Lapis rolled their eyes. Nephrite folded herself and muttered under her lips, anxious in every sense of the word. Bixbite who felt sympathy for the pathetic Gem put her hand on her shoulder.

“Maybe the Diamonds will be even more impressed when you finish the mission. And it will be better because it’s a mission you don’t know much about! I bet that would be pretty impressive,” said Bixbite.

The Nephrite wiped her single eye, a tear that wet half her face, and she smiled back at the magenta Gem.

“Y-You’re right! This must all be a test! Yes a test! By giving me little information the all-knowing Diamonds put the odds against me but I will prevail and finally rise up the ranking!” Nephrite proclaimed with vigor.

The Amethyst nudged Chest Lapis’ shoulder, whispering to her. “I like this new Gem.”

“Alright, everyone, let’s be off! We weren’t told much but what we were given was a signal. If we follow it we’ll find the Rendezvous, no doubt,” said the Nephrite, a lot cheerier which made Bixbite smile from ear to ear.

Bixbite had only known two Gems ships: the one she was made on and the Gem ship hovering over the mountain. Both varied in size and the ship she entered was yet another variety of ship that challenged her notion that all Gem ships are as massive. Outside the ship was fairly small yet the inside gave even the Amethyst who was the biggest of the group enough room to stretch her legs, and at the far end beneath a wall were the controls; Nephrite pressed a button and the blank wall suddenly showed the outside. If Bixbite hadn’t been watching the window she would not have known the ship began to move—the ship’s take off was nearly silent and impossibly still. With another button pressed the ship was on its way.

Chest Lapis pulled Bixbite to the side.

“You should ask Nephrite about Corruption first. But you have to be sneaky about it,” whispered the Lapis.

“I don’t think I can be sneaky. Can’t you do it?” Bixbite whined.

“They think you’ve been here longer than I have. If I got attacked by a monster I would’ve told them already. Just do the best you can.”

The Amethyst noticed the two Gems in the corner whispering, though they weren’t at all discrete about it.

“Hey, purple, what kind of Gem are you anyway? Don’t think I’ve ever seen a Bixbite like you on Homeworld,” said the Amethyst. “Or a Bixbite at all. What’s a Bixbite?”

Before she could make up one lie, Bixbite suddenly found herself having to make up another lie, on the spot no less.

“I’m a new kind of Gem—an experiment!” Bixbite spat which was true, making it easier on her.

“A new Gem type!? Fascinating! You must let me examine your Gem once the mission is complete!” Nephrite wailed in excitement but not able to look away from the monitor.

“After I was made I was put on that drop ship…but…but…we’re been orbiting the area for a long time so I’ve never been to Homeworld,” said Bixbite, her smile was as timid as the rest of her.

The Amethyst chuckled eyeing Bixbite. “Maybe I’ll get to be the first Amethyst to fuse with a Bixbite,” she whispered.

Bixbite hid how flush her face became at the comment. The Lapis cleared her throat to get her magenta friend back on track which she stumbled to do.

“While I was on this planet something attacked me,” started Bixbite and the Amethyst was immediately interested. “It was like a weird monster and it has a Gem! It was Corrupted.”

“Corruption?! A-Absurd! No one has ever been Corrupted since before Era 1. I-It must’ve been a mistake,” said Nephrite.

“It was! You know about it, Nephrite, is there a way to fix Corruption?” Bixbite inquired.

“Certainly not! A-At least not any I know of. Information like that would be entrusted to Aquamarines or maybe with just the Diamonds. WHOA!” The Nephrite screamed suddenly, startling everyone, especially the Amethyst who nearly jumped out of her Gem. “If I report back to Yellow Diamond about a Corrupted Gem on Earth she’ll definitely give me a merit! She’ll uncorrupt the Gem and gain another one in her court, and I might even get a Pearl!”

“You really think Yellow Diamond can heal a Corrupted?” Bixbite asked.

“Not from Homeworld definitely. The Diamonds can do everything and there isn’t a Gem around who doubts that,” said the Amethyst who had regained her tough exterior. “They’d be shattered if they did.”

“That sounds unfair to shatter someone who doesn’t agree with them,” protested Bixbite and the other crew reacted with a start, but the magenta Gem who knew nothing about the Homeworld was confused as to the strangeness of her words.

“That’s just how things are on Homeworld, Bixbite. But it’s not all bad. The Diamonds keep us safe and they help us win on the planets we go to. Not to mention it’s because of them that we were made,” said Chest Lapis in a royal side to her that Bixbite had not met the last time they were together.

“L-Let’s not talking badly about our SUPREME DIAMONDS RULERS! OH HOW I LOVE TO SERVE UNDER THEM FOR THEY ARE THE WISEST BEINGS IN ALL THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!” Nephrite raised her voice darting her head all around like she was lookin for something that Bixbite couldn’t see.

“You still think the Diamonds listen in on us?” Chest Lapis asked mockingly.

“Better to be safe than shattered,” said the green Gem.

Finally the blinking dot on the controls which up until them remained silent made a noise. And over the horizon above, hidden amongst the clouds of that evening, was something that Bixbite couldn’t see because of its mass at first glance, but as the ship broke through the clouds she saw a gargantuan arm at least a thousand times bigger than the biggest arm Bixbite had ever seen on anything. Her mouth was agape and she quickly grew nervous the closer they got because the arm’s shadow eclipsed their ship.

“That’s the ship we were supposed to meet?” The Amethyst asked, anxious, slamming her hand on the controls to snap Nephrite out of her trance.

“This can’t be right? Why is she here?” Chest Lapis gasped.

The Nephrite couldn’t move or speak.

“What’s wrong?” Bixbite asked without knowing she would soon regret asking, among other decisions she made that day.

“That’s Blue Diamond’s ship,” said Chest Lapis, words that drove a spike in Bixbite and the Nephrite’s Gem. “No one else can use it but her.”

The last Gem Bixbite expected to meet—out of her wildest imaginations of the kinds of Gems she’d meet going with the Lapis—was a Diamond. Bixbite only knew the Diamonds from other’s view of them and thus the image she conjured for them was powerful beings capable of things she could never comprehend; she wasn’t ready to meet one. With all her might she wished the ship would suddenly slow down or that the giant arm would float away from them, or she’d be suddenly thrown off the ship and land safety in Onyx’s arms in her forest, but the ship did not slow down in its approach nor did the arm move away, and Bixbite was very much cemented on the spot she stood on. Chest Lapis saw the dread on her friend and pulled her aside; her face was close to breaking into tears.

“I’m so sorry, Bixbite, I didn’t know this would happen,” sniffled the Lapis. “The Diamonds never come to Earth—I thought we’d be meeting an Aquamarine or something!”

“No it’s okay, I wanted to come here even though I didn’t know what was gonna happen either,” said Bixbite trying to calm both the Lapis and herself. “What are we gonna to do?”

Bixbite had faith her friend would think of something and she did almost instantly which kept her from crying.

“Once we land in the ship you need to separate yourself from us. The ship is huge, plenty of people can get lost if they aren’t thinking. Once you get far enough, find an escape hatch. I’ll tell them you wanted to wait for your manager on your own,” explained the Lapis.

“What about finding out about Corruption?” Bixbite asked remembering her objective.

“I’ll ask anyone I can and then I’ll meet up with you at your forest. Do you think you can find your way back?”

“I think so.” Truthfully Bixbite was unsure, but she had discovered her visor has many uses that are still unknown to her. Perhaps, she thought, one of could be a way to find Onyx.

The ship ascended straight up and Bixbite could feel it all of a sudden, but it was her own overshot nerves tricking her body. Her stomach aching from the anxiety, she closed her eyes and opened them when she heard metal doors closing. The others disembarked but Bixbite found herself rooted. Bixbite swung her hand desperately trying to find Chest Lapis’ to hold; without her friend there, Bixbite doubted she’d even make it the first step outside.

Her first view of the blue inside of the massive ship was an equally massive hallway. An elongated stretch, she couldn’t see the end, it had its own horizon, and the ceiling was miles above her head. Bixbite began to imagine what sort of Gems the Diamonds had to be to have a ship with such high ceilings and long corridors. She had no time to be awestruck; the Lapis pushed Bixbite to the back of the group and then the blue Gem ran to the front.

“What do you think Blue Diamond wants from us?” The Lapis asked as a means to divert attention away from the back.

“It could be anything. No Diamond has returned to Earth since the Gem War,” said the Nephrite, rather sporadically. “But there have been reports of Gem activity on this ‘abandoned’ planet. Perhaps they need us along to help them find the lost Gems!”

“Whatever they want I just hope I get to punch something. I haven’t had a good fight since me and my squad took out all those squishy things on this one planet a while back,” said the Amethyst.

“Oh yeah, you didn’t tell us about that mission. F10. We got some time before we get to Blue Diamond’s control room. How about you tell us what happened to pass the time?” The Lapis asked, signaling to Bixbite.

Bixbite froze before her next step. The Amethyst began her story and she was incredibly loud and detailed about the experience; Bixbite wondered if Chest Lapis knew she was going to tell the story that way. Cautiously and watching the group the entire time, Bixbite walked backwards with her face forward and when a great enough distance had been achieved, she at last started running. Bixbite whipped her head back at the group of Gems which was still within sight and they wouldn’t be for some time, but a turn into another corridor at last gave Bixbite the chance to disappear. She took one last look at the Amethyst and Nephrite to see if they actually didn’t notice her absence, and when they didn’t appear to, she started running full sprint.

Uncertainty loomed everywhere for Bixbite even if the vast hallways she ran through were barren. Periodically she’d stop and listen in on the area for anyone and when she heard nothing she continued, but when she checked again and started running, Bixbite heard the faintest noise and immediately stopped in her tracks. She had all but blocked out the bad memory of her entrapment on Alabaster’s ship and how much she was deathly afraid of being caught there too, but being on a strange ship with who-knows-who around the corner, Bixbite thought she couldn’t be too cautious about anything she heard. But what Bixbite was looking for throughout her running she did not know.

Bixbite came upon a room with blinking machines and boxes. Like all the rooms she had passed before everything inside was blue, except that room came with a window, one large enough for her to squeeze through.

“This is it!” Bixbite proclaimed to herself. She balled her hand, bracing herself, and then punched the window shattering the glass. The shards fell beneath the clouds.

Crouching on the windowsill overlooking a seemingly endless fall, Bixbite was no longer certain about her means of escape. Suddenly she heard something coming, footsteps and they were growing louder; Bixbite had no idea where they came from as she just heard them suddenly when they were only inches from the room. Yet still Bixbite hesitated to jump because she could not see the ground. The steps, faint claps, came closer until finally a Gem strolled by the doorway and saw Bixbite perched on the window. It was a Pearl; blue in all part of her body from her hair which covered her face to the veil skirt around her waist, and when she spotted Bixbite the Gem gave a small gasp.

“What are you doing up there? Who are you?” The Pearl asked, her voice like the quietest sigh.

“I’m…Bixbite,” the magenta Gem answered out of impulse.

“Bixbite?” The Pearl whispered.

The magenta Gem took one last look at the Pearl. “Bye.” Bixbite allowed her body to slip off the windowsill and plummet.

Wind roared in her ears and slapped her face but Bixbite didn’t dare open her eyes to see it all. Any moment she would feel the ground and then the massive pain that would come from falling from a great height, and when it didn’t come fast enough Bixbite thrashed around with anxiety. Once Steven had told her he had the power to slow down his decent and float and in her mind Bixbite wished she had the same power, but she searched herself for any hidden surprises and found nothing of use to her. One minute turned into three and then into five minutes and so on without an end; it almost made Bixbite wish she’d just hit the ground already. But when she at last bumped into something while her eyes were still shut she still gave off a startled yelp.

The next thing Bixbite felt was the ground. Her eyes burst open and she saw the purple and blue setting sky and then she felt grass under her hand. Bixbite never thought she’d be so happy to have grass stuck in her hair, but while she enjoyed the sensation of solid earth, a voice disrupted her relief.

“Ow! What was that?” The voice groaned.

Bixbite stood upright but it wasn’t enough to see the figure in front of her. She needed to tilt her head all the way up an abysmal blue cloak to the hooded head towering above her. The figure turned around; Bixbite was surprised to see tears in the giant’s eyes and a Diamond-shaped Gem on her chest. It was Blue Diamond.

“What are you supposed to be?” Blue Diamond inquired looking down at the Gem who was too dumbfounded to speak.

The one being Bixbite wanted to avoid was standing before her. It was too much for the small Gem who only knew stories of the fearsome Diamonds and was not at all prepared to stand before one so suddenly. Bixbite didn’t know what to say or do but all she knew for certain was she couldn’t run or hide while the Diamond was staring at her.

“I asked you a question. Speak,” said the Diamond impatient without a response. Bixbite got scared.

“B-Bixbite,” she mumbled.

Blue Diamond examined the magenta Gem, paying attention to the single Gem on her hand.

“I’ve never seen a Bixbite before. What are your identifications?” She asked. Bixbite didn’t have the slightest idea what the giant Gem asked for and when she didn’t respond, Blue Diamond drew closer, a step that sent vibrations up and down Bixbite. “What are your identifications?”

Bixbite knew any more stalling would only incur more impatience in the Diamond and could potential bring anger, anger that could lead to her being shattered.

“I…am…an experiment Gem…f-from the Gem War,” said Bixbite and when she started to speak the rest came out more easily. “I was made on a ship without a number…and I’ve been on a cargo ship since the War.”

Blue Diamond scooped Bixbite off the ground like a handful of candy to look at her closely. Bixbite remained still. She became lost in the Diamond’s massive eyes, powerful and deep but also wet from the tears that had not yet completely dried; Bixbite never felt such an overwhelming sensation of subordination whilst meeting her sight to the point where the magenta Gem felt compelled to bow in front of her.

“Another relic from Era 1. When she was—” Blue Diamond trailed off as her voice weakened. She dropped Bixbite, abruptly, and turned back to what she was doing before Bixbite appeared.

All Bixbite saw in front of Blue Diamond, which she guessed was what had her attention, was a bottomless crater. Next to it was another crater only with a bottom, and pipes leaking water and debris as though whatever was once there was picked up suddenly and taken away.

“This leads to it—to the object of this world’s destruction. We’ve come to claim it,” said Blue Diamond to herself but Bixbite thought she spoke to her. “If only her planet could be spared.”

Bixbite heard sorrow in Blue Diamond’s voice and instinctively she approached to comfort her. “Whose planet?” She asked. To her surprised Blue Diamond answered.

“This was before your time. Pink Diamond. She was—shattered—on this world.”

Onyx had once told Bixbite about Pink Diamond though it was very little. Pink Diamond was the lowest of the four Diamonds, comparably, and Onyx had never met her but she heard stories of her. None of Onyx’s stories mentioned Pink Diamond was shattered and it came as a shock to Bixbite; she concluded it must’ve happened after Onyx was poofed.

“I’m sorry. I never met her, what was she like?” Bixbite asked and again she was surprised Blue Diamond responded.

“She was caring and happy. She loved her Gems. But now…she’s gone.” Blue Diamond whimpered. “You should leave this planet.”

“Why?”

“Yellow and I are here to extract the geoweapon in this planet’s center—the Cluster. If you do not wish to be shattered you must leave with me.”

Blue Diamond turned and started towards something that Bixbite had not noticed because she’d been focused on the Diamond. A pristine structure with legs like the Lapis’ water legs—a palanquin.

“Wait,” Bixbite finally spoke, “do you know how to cure Corruption?”

Blue Diamond turned to her. “Corruption?”

“A Gem I found here was a monster. I wanted to know how to cure her.”

“Do not joke with me. No Gem survived the Gem War. Remember your place, your ignorance of Gem culture will not be an excuse to speak so informally to me,” scoffed Blue Diamond.

“F-Forgive me, m-my Diamond?” Bixbite addressed her unsurely and even wondering if what she said was the correct way to speak to a Diamond. “But I’m telling the truth. I saw a monster with a Gem and I wanted to know if I could help her.”

Blue Diamond stopped and turned to Bixbite with a disgusted glare.

“I warned you to not lie. Corruption has been and will always been the punishment we give to maximum offenders. Rose Quartz was one but we obliterated her and her Gem allies here on this planet. Enough talk of this or I will leave you on this planet to get shattered!” Blue Diamond’s voice roared shook the rocks on the ground and every bit of the magenta Gem. Bixbite had never been so frightened by another Gem.

Blue Diamond took a step onto her palanquin, a structure that had enough room for the giant Gem and still had a space for Bixbite to ride in. On the arms of the Diamond’s chair she pressed buttons that caused the legs to lift off and the structure hovered.

“Hurry up,” said Blue Diamond.

Bixbite didn’t want to keep going, the burning determination that first allowed her to go with Chest Lapis without Onyx kept her from obeying or running away. Never did Bixbite think she could meet a Diamond who definitely had all the secrets to Corruption than anyone else in the universe, and when she finally did she fought against her fear to speak. Nothing mattered to Onyx more than healing Plume Agate, a goal that Bixbite shared, and she wasn’t about to let the opportunity to find an answer go.

“I need to know how to heal a Corrupted Gem!” Bixbite shouted.

Blue Diamond rested her hand on the arms of her chair, exhaling to calm her voice.

“Are you questioning my orders?” Blue Diamond inquired.

“I have a Gem that I bubbled. A Plume Agate! I need to know how to cure her! Please!” Bixbite pleaded.

“There hasn’t been a Plume Agate since the War. You’re lying.”

“I’m not! She was the captain of her squad of Off Colors, she needs your help, please!”

“You disobeyed my order to not lie and yet you still do. Goodbye.” Blue Diamond pressed the last button and her palanquin took flight towards the arm in the sky.

“NO! WAIT!” Bixbite cried holding her arms over her head as though she could catch the structure that ascended faster than a hawk, but she couldn’t.

The blue palanquin and the blue Diamond who sat in it disappeared into the clouds. Suddenly the clouds blew apart as though an explosion scattered them to the distance—the explosion was the giant arm taking off and vanishing over the horizon.

The clouds settle like spooked cows after the tremendous force and the sky was still. Bixbite crumbled, paused, distraught, and then she began to cry. She let her tears fall because her hands pounded the ground to release the frustration building in her stomach. Suddenly the fear Bixbite felt towards Blue Diamond became anger, fury, resentment, but she didn’t hold onto it for long. Bixbite wondered what she was going to say to Onyx.

#steven universe #au #steven universe au #gemsona #bixbite #commission #fiction #writing

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love-takes-work · 7 years

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Steven Universe Graphic Novel Too Cool for School (2016) - Outline & Review

We finally have a full-length graphic novel for Steven Universe and it's just lovely! It was so much fun to go to school with Steven, and in this longer format, the authors were able to take their time with it and make it feel almost like it could be an episode of the show.

There are things they could have done better, but overall the enjoyment overshadows the disappointments. The characters we know and love were almost always right on with their characterization, and though the background characters new to the story here were pretty one-dimensional (and sometimes caricaturish), I could deal with it getting to see Steven in a new setting. Some of us had wondered about his school situation, since they never do explicitly state in the show that Steven's been educated at all, and this clears that up if it can be considered canon. The art is cute, with the characters' body language feeling appropriate despite the slight lean off the show model (the characters look sort of lumpier and sketchier), and as always the backgrounds are lovely to look at.

And while I don't quite think the comic will stand on its own for readers who don't watch the show, I think it's fantastic to have a volume like this for those of us who love little in-between snacks. This book contains two full-color stories: The main story is "Too Cool for School," and then there's a little side story at the end called "Yard Sale." I'll examine "Too Cool for School" first and outline what I liked, what I didn't like, and what I thought was notable. What I liked: 1. Steven is so dang melodramatic about no one wanting to entertain him in the beginning. He talks just like this in the show too, infusing everything with drama when he's overwhelmed. It's so Steven. 2. Connie brings Steven to school for show and tell and quickly makes a mess of explaining what Gems are. Her awkwardness was precious. I have personally tried to explain what Gems are to people who ask me about the show and it kinda sometimes goes a little bit like this. And he's so excited and eager to tell the other kids about being a half-Gem and enthusiastically admits he has no idea what exactly he is. He's just cute.

3. Steven starts obsessing over whether the Gems might have seen dinosaurs and it's really nice how the dialogue sounds like what real kids sometimes say. 4. When Connie and Steven get sent to the principal's office, you can just see the weight of Connie's parents' expectations pressing down on her shoulders as she wails about her permanent record. It's very true to her character.

5. Connie's resentment of Steven getting her in trouble evaporates relatively quickly when she sees him all wide-eyed about cafeteria lunch, and it's so perfect that she just can't stay mad at him. It reminds me a bit of their actual dynamic on the show during the episode "Fusion Cuisine." 6. When Connie set out to explain lunch cliques to Steven, I was expecting the sort of trite jocks/nerds/slackers dynamic, but they came up with some pretty unusual groups for the lunchroom. They have social media stars hanging out together, along with some board game enthusiasts, an anti-clique clique, and the Junior Safety Patrol. I figured they'd be portrayed as NERDS but Connie super respects them and isn't dismayed that Steven picks them to sit with (and of course he would; he'd love to be with people who appreciate protecting others!). I'm glad she wasn't like "no Steven they're unpopular," though she's even less popular so it works out. I like their design--I'm not sure what gender a couple of them are being portrayed as (which is nice ambiguity), though I'm sad they don't seem to have names.

7. I just love that Steven's chattering about school during his Gem mission. That's one thing I've always loved about the show: Steven is thrilled to talk about Gem stuff with everyday people, but he's also just as excited about mundane stuff that's new to him. 8. Pearl's comment about how Steven enjoys pummeling children his own age in dodgeball has the Pearl Tone exactly right. The way she humors him has a particular flavor and this nailed it.

9. The bickering between the Gems regarding whether Steven should go to school is just classic. Pearl is in her typical frame of mind--that only Gem education is important and he's already learning what's necessary--while Garnet is firmly on Team Trust Steven, insisting that if he wants to do it then it must be what he needs. And what Garnet says goes, so there. Perf. 10. The very mundane issue of getting a phone call through to contact the Gems when a snail monster started attacking the school was pretty entertaining. 11. I love when Pearl goes full Gem Dork on the principal when she's bragging about how cool her race is. It's accurate to TV Pearl--she loves telling everyone how great Gems are.

12. Steven wants to be called "marsh periwinkle" after a cute snail species. Connie objects but he seems adamant that he deserves this adorable name. YOU BET YOU DESERVE IT STEVEN. YOU ARE A MARSH PERIWINKLE FOR SURE. 13. I think it's cute that Connie feels so honored at being accepted onto the Junior Safety Patrol, and she's happy that some people like her and know her name, but then she finds attention at school overwhelming when everyone's treating her like a hero and happily reclaims her lunch nook in the library. Too many stories like hers have the introvert being saaaaad because she doesn't have friiieeends and then everything is solved when everyone suddenly loves her. But Connie ISN'T happy with that and never wanted it. Respect for introverts is rarely seen in plots like this and I loved seeing Connie withdrawing from the social attention and not being spun as a loser for doing so. What I didn't like: 1. The front cover depicts Steven looking out the classroom window at the Temple. Nothing I've seen in the show suggests a school with that view would be possible, considering where the Temple is. 2. Connie's catching the bus at a stop that is apparently close enough to Steven's house that he happened to run into her. Connie doesn't live in Beach City, so I don't know why she's catching the bus there. She claims her dad's car is busted and that's why she's riding the bus, but then she even continues to ride the bus the following year. Not sure this was actually thought out. 3. I don't like how nobody wanted to hang out with Steven at the beginning but they didn't seem to have a reason. Amethyst literally said she was too bored to do anything and Pearl appeared to be ever so busy with . . . calisthenics? At least Garnet disappeared into her room and she could have been doing something important, but she didn't say what. I wouldn't mind if they volunteered a reason they couldn't pay attention to him right then, but this almost felt mean, and weird. 4. The teacher and the principal talk really cartoonishly (not in a good way); they say stuffy adult things and sometimes speak in ways that sound like a kid wrote what they think grown-ups sound like; they're unreasonable and use unnecessarily complex words in very awkward ways ("None of you are from space! That is highly improbable.").

I also have a pet peeve about "adult who doesn't believe in fantastical story takes care to mock magic children who are telling the truth" tropes, especially if they immediately flip into starry-eyed awe when the proof arrives. The principal especially has some circular, repetitive, tortured-sounding scolding, particularly at the end (e.g., "With accidents of this magnitude disciplinary action is our only course of action"). The background kids are sometimes stuck in a sort of cruel hivemind too. Throwing erasers and paperballs at the new kid because he told a weird story about being a superhero seems exaggerated. 5. When Connie and Steven get called into the principal's office, Steven's dad is summoned but you never see the Maheswaran parents. Don't know why that is. I like that Greg points out that he didn't even know Steven was going to school, though. 6. I'm confused about why the second snail monster appeared. When they hunted down the first one, they found its Gem and bubbled it. Then the Gems said it was fine for Steven to take a snail shell from the site, only to find it turning up as a monster later. In other situations, mother monsters sometimes leave behind parasites after they've been defeated, but those parasites don't have Gems. This one did, so it must have been an identical second monster that the Gems didn't know was still there? I don't really understand how that happened. 7. The principal refers to Pearl as the "legal guardian" of Steven. Which she is not in any way. She's an alien from space with no legal standing of her own. 8. I think the principal deciding not to expel Connie because she got a good exam score is bizarre and nonsensical reasoning. It doesn't seem connected to the principal's reasoning about her endangering students by leading them to fight the snail. 9. Pearl protests the concept of "giving a ship a gender" when Steven's teacher talks about the mothership. She seems completely baffled by this, even though Gems don't have actual genders and THEY do this too. (They have called Gem monsters "mothers" if they spawn clones, and they called Rose Quartz Steven's mother even though she is technically not a woman.) I usually like when the Gems are confused about Earth stuff but this doesn't seem like it should confuse Pearl. 10. I fundamentally do not understand the ending of this story. Connie was almost expelled (and nonsensically saved through her exam score), and she was scolded and her friend kicked off the property. And yet when she returns to school in the fall (and has the same teacher), everyone is wearing glasses like hers to celebrate "Connie Day" and she's praised for "saving the school" (even though the building literally fell down) and Steven is also honored by the principal even as his expulsion is upheld. It just felt like a very strange and nonsensical way to end the story. Notable: 1. The Gems are wearing their latest outfits in this comic! Amethyst has her black stars on her knees. BUT! In the frame when they warp away from fighting the snail monster, Garnet's colors have reverted to her first outfit. Just that one frame. Weird. 2. Pearl is oddly not drawn with blue eyes in "Too Cool for School." Her eyes are actually pretty important to her aesthetic, so it was weird to see her with black filled-in eyes in the first story. She has her blue eyes again in the short! (And in the first story, Sour Cream's blue eyes are filled in blue, so I'm not sure why Pearl's aren't.) 3. In a summer shot of the Cool Kids, Sour Cream is wearing his Pants Become Shorts in shorts mode. Nice callback. And Sadie's maybe flirting with a boy in the Big Donut, and Lars looks jealous! 4. There were unfortunately tons of language errors, punctuation glitches, and misspellings--which is a shame because this is a professional publication but it made me feel a little like I was reading a fan creation online. My list: * Connie asks Steven why he's up so early with no question mark. * The teacher says she'll send Steven to the "principals office," no apostrophe. * Connie misspells her own last name in her talk bubble while discussing her future. * Greg asks about signing something and doesn't get a question mark. * Steven's handwritten sign misspells mustard as "mustart" and leaves a word out of "the fizz some lemon lime soda," which is odd for a kid who aced the final exam at the end. * The coach asks the students to "gather round" with no ending punctuation in his talk bubble. * Pearl refers to "chilren" in one talk bubble instead of "children." * Steven asks about show and tell with a period instead of a question mark. * The principal uses the word "unfortunetly." * The principal utters this inexcusable sentence: "There are an order to things Miss Maheswaran that we must obey." * The principal misspells "receive" as "recieve" in one talk bubble. * And she uses the word "undoutably," spelled like that. * Pearl's dialogue has "?!" at the end of a comment that wasn't in any way a question. * Pearl uses the word "spacefairing." The word is actually "spacefaring." * Pearl talks about Gems having "trancended" rigid structures instead of "transcended." * And she uses the wrong its while talking about Steven's space family. * The principal leaves an article out of this sentence: "Steven is never ever ever come to this school again." * Connie manages to spell the Latin name of littoraria irrorata correctly, but then her talk bubble uses the word "reffered" instead of "referred." * Connie asks a question about what makes Steven think he deserves a cute nickname but she leaves off the question mark.

And then there was the second story (which I may like even more than the main story!): the short "Yard Sale," in which Vidalia has a yard sale and Steven buys something special for each of the Gems, but then he lacks money for an old game system he wants to try. After some failed attempts to barter with Vidalia, they promise her babysitting for Onion, and Steven feels this is terrible because nothing is worth that. Stuff I loved: Amethyst has no idea why anyone would want to sell their stuff because she is a huge hoarder and I love her wanting to buy a purple guitar because it has two "thingies." I CAN'T EVEN DEAL WITH GARNET WANTING THE MOM SQUAD SWEATER. IT IS THE CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD.

The mention of Vidalia knowing Amethyst well enough to know she does NOT want anything in that room was hilarious. And we have Pearl offering car repair and Garnet offering to break the car first. Garnet is just an incredibly special kind of funny and I just love it.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

#steven universe #steven universe comics #myblog

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lifejustgotawkward · 6 years

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365 Day Movie Challenge (2017) - #376: I, Tonya (2017) - dir. Craig Gillespie

Believe the hype: I, Tonya is one of the best movies of 2017. Blending the storytelling styles of fiction and nonfiction filmmaking with multiple perspectives, Craig Gillespie’s biopic of figure skater Tonya Harding forces us to confront several crucial questions: Is there a difference between truth and reality? Where does subjectivity end and objectivity begin? And what role does the media play in shaping celebrity narratives to create easily categorized villains and victims?

To answer these queries, Margot Robbie embodies the “character” of Tonya Harding with complete emotional and physical conviction. The actress is as boldly convincing when engaging in an argument with Harding’s complicated family as she is when stepping onto the ice. Throughout the real Harding’s career, the highly athletic skater was often accused of lacking the requisite “artistry” needed to achieve Olympic glory, but there is no doubt that Robbie brings definitive craftsmanship to her acting performance. Even if Harding was devoid of grace, why did that matter so much to judges when she could accomplish awe-inspiring technical skills on the ice? The film asks us to examine why Tonya Harding was always a misfit among Olympic contenders in her day, always considered lesser than her contemporaries on the American team, Kristi Yamaguchi and Nancy Kerrigan; Harding’s “white trash” background from a broken home in Portland, Oregon could never be completely overlooked, even after she became the first-ever American woman figure skater to successfully execute the extremely difficult triple Axel in competition, landing it at 1991′s Skate America showcase.

I’ll bet that most viewers who watch I, Tonya because of their recollection of the infamous attack on Nancy Kerrigan don’t actually know the whole story. They probably don’t realize the years of physical and psychological abuse experienced by Tonya at the hands of her unforgivably cruel mother, LaVona Golden (Allison Janney; like Robbie, she is sure to get an Oscar nomination), nor would I wager that viewers remember much about the chief architects of the Kerrigan assault, Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan, proving that, like in last year’s dark comedy The Bronze, he’s great at portraying deeply problematic guys), who was Harding’s husband in 1990-1993, and Shawn Eckhardt (Paul Walter Hauser, a hilarious scene-stealer), who was Harding’s so-called bodyguard leading up to the 1994 Winter Olympics. For the most part, the film’s structure leaves it to the viewer to decide whether Tonya was active or passive during certain events in her life (depending on whether they even happened at all), but I, Tonya makes one thing abundantly clear: however much the attack on Nancy Kerrigan made her into a victim, it was also a tragedy that Tonya Harding’s lifetime of hard work, sacrifice and formidable talent ended in scandal and dishonor. She was surrounded by the wrong people at the right time.

High marks also go to Julianne Nicholson as Tonya Harding’s prim and proper coach, Diane Rawlinson, as well as to McKenna Grace, who plays young Tonya, and to Bobby Cannavale, who punctuates a number of scenes with documentary-like talking head appearances as a tabloid TV producer commenting on the history of the Harding/Kerrigan spectacle. I also loved the soundtrack - probably my favorite of the year in cinema so far - which includes Cliff Richard’s “Devil Woman,” ZZ Top’s “Sleeping Bag” (which Tonya Harding really did use in competition), Doris Day’s “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” and Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4,” as well as my all-time favorite Fleetwood Mac song (”The Chain”) and, in the film’s ending credits sequence, my favorite Siouxsie & the Banshees recording (I won’t spoil it for those who have not watched the film, but I’ll just say that the lyrics work on a few different levels).

There are parts of I, Tonya that are tough to watch, particularly when Tonya is on the receiving end of unflinching depictions of domestic violence. Because the film is filled with so much humor, it can sometimes be jarring when the narrative abruptly jumps from a funny moment to a punch in the mouth. On some occasions, as I sat with an audience at the Museum of Modern Art, the audience continued laughing as a scene transitioned from silly to brutal; I’m not surprised since I have found that audiences often react to uncomfortable displays of pain and trauma with laughter, like it’s the only way to respond to that type of tension. And my brother, who was with me at the MoMA screening, reminded me of one of the strangest and saddest reactions from our fellow moviegoers: a bunch of people laughed in the scene near the end of the film when, while preparing to perform at the Lillehammer Olympics, Tonya contours her face with a lot of dark red blush. To me, the application of her makeup was obviously akin to a warrior painting her face before battle - and Margot Robbie’s facial expressions in that scene alone prove how brilliant her acting is in the film - but others just saw the scene as excessive and weird. It was but a brief moment, but that disappointing audience reaction spoke loud and clear to me. I’m just glad that 2017 is a year in which so many actresses have been able to play vibrant and multifaceted female characters, which is why I’m excited to see The Shape of Water, Molly’s Game, Lady Bird, The Post and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as soon as possible.

P.S. If you haven’t heard Sufjan Stevens’ two versions of his new single “Tonya Harding” (one performed in D major and another in E flat major), please do.

#365 day movie challenge 2017 #i tonya #2017 #2010s #craig gillespie #tonya harding #figure skating #olympic figure skating #margot robbie #allison janney #sebastian stan #paul walter hauser #julianne nicholson #mckenna grace #bobby cannavale

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eremika0000 · 7 years

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(Ferriswheelshipping) Awakened Emotions Chapter 17

Hey guys, just wanted to say thanks for all the feedback so far! The reviews/comments, favorites, rates, and follows all mean a lot to me and keep me motivated! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

N and White skip through the sunny meadows hand in hand as wide and cheerful grins are upon their faces. N stops for a moment to watch White as she continues to skip around joyfully, her bright blue eyes shining. He finds himself never wanting to leave this bright meadow filled with flowers and smiles.

N approaches White, taking her in his arms as they embrace intimately. He takes in her delicious scent, which was that of strawberries and pine trees. She nuzzles her face into his chest as he wraps his arms around her slender waist. She looks up at him after a few moments, and he looks down at her. Her cheeks are delicately flushed as he gently tilts her chin up with his fingers, lowering his head and pulling her into a soft kiss. Her lips feel soft and moist against as own as they eagerly move against each other, and they soon return to their warm embrace.

"White, I love you. I love you so much." N whispers as he brushes his lips against her soft fluffy hair. He kisses her again upon the forehead, hoping to hear her words of love as well. Moments pass, and he notices she is shying away from his embrace. He pulls back to look at her in confusion.

His eyes widen as he realizes her wide grin and cheerful expression has turned to one of disgust. His heart feels like it is being broken in two as she pushes him away like he is worth nothing to her. She crosses her arms, looking away. "I don't love you, N. I never could. I would much rather be with someone like Steven. You're just a toy to pass the time to me."

N reaches his arms out desperately in a futile attempt to keep her near, but she turns her back towards him, fleeing the sunny meadow filled with flowers. N cries her name as her figure fades away, and the beautiful meadow fades as well. The last thing he sees is White leaping into the big open arms of Steven Stone. He catches White, his face overjoyed as he holds his love. White is happy as well, and they share an embrace before they both fade to black.

N finds himself awakening from the dream with the feeling of wetness upon his face. He blinks desperately, noticing that his vision was blurred due to an onslaught of tears that streamed down his face. His head was throbbing, he was incredibly dizzy, and his whole body was sore, but it was nothing compared to the ache in his heart after the dream he had. He sniffles, attempting to calm himself as his vision focuses. He looks up, realizing that he was laying down on a bed with the hot spring's hotel ceiling above him.

A sudden voice startles him. "Steven, he's awake! N! Are you fine? How are you feeling?" White rushes to him, her voice incredibly worried and shaken. N notices how she is hobbling towards him with a sort of exhausted limp, and he finds himself become very concerned as to what had happened to her. She didn't seem healthy.

"I'm fine..." N rasps out, his voice not sounding quite right after crying so much. "White… What happened to you? Are you alright?" He prays to himself that nothing bad had happened to her while he was passed out. As he continues to inspect her from his bed with increasing worry, he realizes there was a very large bandage upon the crease between her upper and lower arm.

White nearly trips as she makes her way to N's bedside, but Steven makes his appearance and grabs her shoulders to steady her before she falls. Steven looks over to N. "When that guy pushed you, you fell and got a bad head injury as well as well as lots of other wounds from the rocks. You needed a blood transplant badly, and lots of it. White was the only one compatible with your type. She donated quite a bit of blood for you, more than she should have..." Steven doesn't seem too concerned with N's condition, and is instead still looking worried over White, making sure she wasn't going to fall over again. "She really saved you there, you know. There weren't any hospitals around, and we ended up having to call in a nurse from far away. By the time you got here, you already lost a lot of blood even though we tried to stop the bleeding. You should be grateful." Steven looks at N in annoyance, as if he was blaming N for the mess they had all gotten into.

Another tear slips out of N's eye, caused by the pain of his extensive injuries as well as how much White had done for him. "T-Thank you so much, White." He sniffles again, trying to stop the tears so White wouldn't see his weakness. He found his heart swelling in love for her after all she had done for him. Once again, she had saved him. He never knew how he could repay her endless kindness…

White grabs onto the bedpost for support, shrugging off Steven's supporting arm in order to steady herself on her own. "Oh, Steven makes it seem worse than it really was. Donating some blood for you really wasn't too bad." White attempts a little smile at N, although her dark circles under her eyes and her shaking arms were showing that it wasn't at easy for her as she said it was. She reaches a trembling hand towards N, and pats him lightly on the head like she always does. N smiles up at her, comforted by her kind gesture and closes his eyes as he leans a bit into her soft touch. Steven watches the scene unfold with narrowed eyes, but he doesn't say anything.

Moments pass, and Steven breaks the silence. "I booked us another night for the hotel so you two can rest up a bit. But we're out of food, so I'm going to go grocery shopping now so I can make dinner for us later. There sadly aren't any restaurants around here..." Steven shakes his head in exasperation as he continues. "I'll be heading out now… You two will be alright here, right? I had some pain medications in my bag so I left them on the table for you guys to have if you'd like."

White's lips curl up in a little smile. "Yea, pain medication sounds really nice right now… My arm hurts so bad. I bet N would appreciate some too. Thanks, Steven. You're the best." She makes a weird noise of approval as she climbs gently onto the bed with N, being careful not to brush any of his injuries. "You're really a lifesaver, Steven." She murmurs into her pillow.

Steven chuckles, finding her actions a bit cute. Although he didn't like the idea of them being alone for a while, he felt bad for the two of them being so injured and he wanted to help them in any way he could, just like how they had helped him out in the forest not too long ago. He mostly wanted to help White, though.

"I'll be back in an hour or two, call me on the xtranceiver if you need anything." Steven heads out the hotel door, closing it behind him with a thud, leaving N and White alone together.

White sighs, stretching her arms tiredly as she slowly rises from the bed, heading over to the wooden end table to gather the chewable pain medications Steven had left behind for them. N watches from his bedside as White crawls back into bed with the two small chewable pills for them in hand. She hands one over to N, and he gratefully complies, hoping the pill would provide some relief to the burning and throbbing on his forehead. They both take their medication and White lays down next to N again upon the bed.

N finds himself very comforted by White's presence that was only a few inches away from him. He could feel the heat radiating from her skin, and he finds himself wanting to be closer. He gently turns around on the bed so he is facing her. He then inches towards her, liking how her face was becoming flushed at his close proximity. He pulls her into a soft embrace, nuzzling his head upon her shoulder as she lets out a small puff off hair as he squeezes her a little tighter.

"Thank you again White, for donating your blood and helping me out. How can I ever repay you?" N lightly traces little circles upon her back, hoping to give her some pleasure that might make her happier. She arches her back a little as his fingers trace past a sensitive part of her back between her shoulder blades. N continues to rub her back, despite her little squirms. "I'm really pathetic, aren't I? In the past few weeks, I've been sick, got my arm hurt, and now I injured my head. Really, why do you put up with me?" N chuckles lightly, although he found himself wondering why White even wanted to be with him when he found himself being a nuisance all the time. Some sadness consumes him as he realizes she is probably annoyed that he got himself hurt again, even if it was while trying to protect her from some perverts.

"You're welcome, N. But you don't owe me anything… But if you want to repay me, how about you just keep traveling with me? I really enjoy having you around..." She stares up at the ceiling.

*I enjoy having N around a little too much…*

She continues her sentence. "But you're not pathetic, N. You might get hurt a lot, but it's usually when trying to protect things important to you. I really admire that about you, N. Steven told me about how you tried to fight off those creeps who were trying to look at me in the bath. If anything, I owe you!" White hugs him tighter, a smile growing upon her face. "You always help Pokemon out, too. Like when you got hurt while trying to protect the Dialga from team Plasma at the mountain a little while ago. You're so kind and selfless, you just don't realize it."

A big grin spreads across N's face as he kisses her cheek in affection. He was once again reminded of how she was the first to ever treat him with such kindness, and how she made him feel so many new things.

*I love White so much… I want to tell her… But is this really the best time? White told me that confessions should be made in special places… I want to tell her now…. But perhaps I should wait until Steven has left and we are both healed and I can take her someplace nice with just us? I don't know…*

He decides to wait until he has the perfect moment to tell her his true feelings, even though right now he wanted nothing more than to tell her all his feelings of love an affection he had for her. He wanted to tell her how she made his heart soar for the first time, and how she was the first to ever make him feel so warm and fuzzy inside. There were so many things he wanted to tell her…

*I'll wait for the best moment. Maybe then she might accept my confession…*

As the pain medications begin to kick in, N finds himself quickly slipping to sleep without a single choice in the matter. Meanwhile, White finds herself unable to sleep despite the drowsy effect the medication was having on her. She noticed N had fallen asleep quite a while ago, and she continues to toss and turn hoping that sleep would come to her. She also wondered where Steven was, since it had been more than an hour. As she began to think deeply about random things, a sudden noise interrupts her.

"Ugh… No…." White quickly looks to her side to see that N was sleep talking. In his sleep, his expression seemed twisted and pained. It made her heart ache to see him in such pain.

"White..." White gasps as N mutters her name in his sleep, and blood rushes to her cheeks as she realizes N must be dreaming about her. However, his expression quickly becomes pained again as he scrunches up his eyebrows in what seemed like agony. "Don't go, White." He murmurs.

Her heart aches for N as he continues to toss and turn murmuring her name in what seemed like emotional pain. She wondered what exactly he could be dreaming about. The only clue she had so far was that he didn't want her to leave.

His little murmurs of distress soon turned louder and his expression became more pained, and White decide to intervene out of concern for him. She didn't like him being in such pain, and she hoped she might be able to soothe him so he might fall back asleep to pleasant dreams. She gently shakes N's shoulders. "N, what's wrong? Wake up please."

At her soft and seemingly angelic voice, N slowly rouses from his nightmare. He is greeted with the sight of White nearly a few inches away, and he quickly crushes her into a hug. "White… White… White..." He murmurs, not wanting to let her go ever again.

He had the same nightmare again of the sunny meadow. He had dreamed of his and White's happiness. They were embracing, kissing, and seemingly in love. But when he confessed his feedings, she rejected them in disgust and went to Steven. She had thrown him aside like he were nothing, and N hugged White tighter trying to banish those thoughts of his horrible dream away.

White returns his desperate hug, trying to calm him down. "Did you have a bad dream? What was it about?"

N blushes, not wanting to admit his weaknesses to her, but he knew she would definitely want answers. "I… I dreamed that Steven stole you away from me. I dreamed that you left and forgot about me and went to him..." He turns his head away, ashamed and hoping she wouldn't mock his dream.

Her heart aches for him, and she feels bad that he had such a dream. "Why would I do such a thing? You're very important to me… You always seem to forget that."

N nods, still avoiding her gaze in embarrassment. "I'm sorry about this… The dream really upset me… I'm sorry for bothering you with it."

White shakes her head furiously. "No, it's no trouble! I don't like when you're upset, so I wanted to make it better. Just know that I don't plan on leaving you, N. Definitely not for Steven, either." White chuckles as she thinks of the former champion. She couldn't imagine herself ever abandoning just to travel with Steven.

N smiles, contented with her answer. His heart warms as he inches closer to her, moving as close to her as possible before finally relaxing to sleep again. The two embrace as they both begin to drift to sleep together, except this time N's dreams were much more pleasant.

About an hour later, Steven returns to the hotel room with groceries in hand.

"Well, so much for dinner." Steven murmurs to himself as he sets the bags down. He finds himself staring at the sleeping couple embracing tightly together on the bed, and jealousy consumes him. He wished to be in N's place, to hold and be held by White. He remembered how upset White was when N was hurt, and how desperate she was to do anything she could to help him.

*He doesn't know how lucky he is… She cares so much for him.*

Steven continues to stare at the sleeping pair. *What exactly is their relationship, anyways? N says he loves her, but they don't quite seem to be dating yet… Do I still have a chance? But they sometimes act as if they are in a relationship… But sometimes not. Am I just wasting my time here? But no matter, I'll never give up.*

He clenches his fist in determination, steeling his resolve.

Yay, another chapter done! I hope you guys enjoyed, please review/comment, it means a lot to me and gives me motivation! Anyways, please stay around for the next chapter!

#ferriswheelshipping #pokemon #pokemon black and white #n x touko #trainer touko #touko pokemon #toukowhite #trainer hilda #hilda pokemon #natural harmonia gropius #n pokemon #fanfic #fanfiction #pokemon nintendo

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