Models of Courtly Elegance

A little touch of 1530s and 1540s Italian Renaissance extravagance, riffing on Titian and Bronzino...and the Elizabeth Taylor "Taming of the Shrew."

Get her look:

Neroli Skin by @nectar-cellar | Blush and Lip Paint by @sehmulated | Hair by The Sims Key (1) | TSM Aris Puffy Sleeves Dress by Eodsy in a TSM pattern by Danjaley and a secret pattern by @simlicious (2) | Invisible Feet by Danjaley | Cabochon Earrings by @ice-creamforbreakfast | Balzo by @joojconverts and Wawa | Pearls by poseidon-sims and Lorandia | Partlet by myself | Pose by danjaley

(1) The braid is really not period, but I love-love-LOVE the sculptural quality at the forehead, so...eh.

(2) She needs fuller sleeves and a fuller skirt, but this outfit is just darling on her, so I give her another pass. At least it's back-laced and plausibly historical.

Get his look:

Outstanding Skin by MamyRocker (3) | Hair by @aprilrainsimblr (unreleased) | Noble Coat Green by Cocomama in more TSM patterns (4) | Invisible Feet by Danjaley | Beta version of Wawa's flat cap conversion for my own personal use (I need more hats) | Scepter by Kaleido | Pose by paranoia-or-drunkard

(3) Plus 100,000 wrinkles to make him look just so. If you recognize a certain devil from a certain fantasy video game...tee hee.

(4) I don't really see where this coat is green. Perhaps I need my monitor checked?

Saw that movie, X, that came out earlier this year and it’s clear they’re going for that retro 70s exploitation movie vibe, and if that’s the only thing they wanted to do with this movie, than it worked, I guess. Problem is there wasn’t anything else to any of these characters. It was all very surfacy. Nothing deeper about these characters, but since It was only an exploitation movie, then I guess I shouldnt expect more? idk. Now knowing they are planning a whole expanded universe with this character, maybe they’ll do more with the person(s) who survive in those other movies? i suppose, (trying not to spoil anything) but on its own, I didn’t get much of anything out of this. I wasn’t bored, but I wasn’t too invested in who these people are.

And the main actress Mia goth was fine. I think she did an ok job, a little flat and one-notey, but I feel like they were going for that. I just didn’t really buy this character living in that time. Like the main thing for me is they shaved her eyebrows off, and they have a lot of blue eye shadow on her, and it just makes her look comical or homicidal. And they never mention it. Like I was waiting for them to say something like, “ok honey were about to film your porn scene, it’s time to draw on your eyebrows, it’s such a shame you can’t grow them yourself” but like... it’s just never mentioned. All that’s mentioned about her is that she REALLY wants to be a star. It’s literally the year 1979, and we’re to believe that a person who watches TV and the movies in 1979 is so motivated to being a big star that would they would just walk around with no eyebrows? No big celebrity in 1979 was in movies or TV with no eyebrows, and to think she would think not having eyebrows was ok, didnt feel true for her character, in that time setting. It was just so distracting. It just didnt ring true to any of these characters in this time in history that no one would mention it either. Especially since they are about to film a scene in a porn movie with her. Like she wasnt trying to be famous in like some sort of underground horror movie scene, where maybe you can get away with no eyebrows, she wanted to be a star star, and it just made no sense why she would not draw on eyebrows. I was so distracted by that lol

It was shot well enough, and had some interesting scenes, like there was one over head view of when maxine was in the pond with the alligator, (Chekhov’s alligator? Lol) to me that built some tension, but overall, I felt there were no stakes for these people because right at the beginning, in the first few frames of the movie, we see there was a bloodbath at the farm. We don’t know who or what, but we know most if not all of the people we will meet will die, and for me I don’t really like that kind of framing. It deflates tension almost immediately.

There was also a couple really cheesy kills, like the one in the barn. It was so obvious what was going to happen, it made it uninteresting and a little eye rolling (no pun intended) to watch. Tho there was a cool shot, right before that kill, when the camera pans all the way on the floor and we see what’s right in front of the person and we know what is about to happen next. That was great bit of leading the audience, and built some tension, and when that thing happened I really got the willies. Cause I felt it too lol

Other than a couple scenes that were kinda good, I really didn’t get much out of the movie. I didn’t find any of these people likable or worth rooting for. It’s not that they were bad or evil people, it’s just they were pretty one dimensional characters. And even the villains were kinda dumb. Like there was an interesting scene at the beginning when maxine is in the house and old photos on the wall are shown to her, there was something there. I was intrigued to know more, but they didnt really build on that, and when they kinda reveal the villains motivations theyre really muddled and kinda weak. I felt a few times watching “why?” and there was no really interesting reason.

I also didn’t really like how much the “age” of the older couple was used as a device to elicit horror and grossness from the audience. The makeup on the old people was really pretty good but it was clear it was makeup and it made me wonder why are they putting old age makeup on people instead of just hiring old people (later found out it was the whole prequel/ sequel thing, I guess) But they go out of their way to illustrate that the old people are gross, and they are gross for having sexuality, or having sexual feelings and eventhough they do horrible things because of it, the mere fact of their sexuality was presented as being gross, which again was more of a distraction and kinda off putting.

Idk, I think they wanted this movie to be like really cutting edge and cool, but its kinda vapid and empty. Like the idea of an exploitation movie lends itself to being sort of one dimensional and empty. (pile on the kills and boobs and nothing else than all is good? no) but it just never went beyond that. Maybe they will with the other movies, idk, but im not sure i care enough to find out.

there are definitely flaws with It's All in the Game but the same is true of even a lot of the best loved classic episodes. I personally find Spielberg's episode overrated because it's a bog-standard murder story, it is a good looking episode but the plot is meh and it's full of the worst murder mystery cliches like the insertion of an incompetent blackmailer who invariably becomes another victim -- a cliche repeated throughout the series

personally I rank It's All in the Game up near the best of the classic series. maybe it's not as good as Prescription Murder, Ransom for a Dead Man, Death Lends a Hand, Short Fuse, or Forgotten Lady, but I'd still put it in my top ten for the entire Columbo canon

(most of those listed above have flaws too, everything does, and a lot is personal taste as to which flaws are the worst ones)

I didn't know he had written it in the 70s, but that does explain why it feels so much more like a classic Columbo episode than most of the other revival episodes felt like to me

also I know they're movies not episodes but. hard habit to break tbh

anyway my biggest problem is the way it ends. imo he should've let them both go, the guy they killed was abusing them and threatened to kill one of them, they had no recourse. go to the cops? cops wouldn't have done a thing and the guy would've retaliated violently. and you know there's no way they'd get a fair trial even if they pled self-defense

Columbo to me has always been like... some mythical good cop, the kind that doesn't exist in real life or would get murdered by his fellow cops if he did. he carries no gun, he's compassionate to murderers he meets, he tells suspects to stop talking & get a lawyer... he sets up one of his fellow cops (who outranks him!) to incriminate himself by trying to frame a crook, that can't have made Columbo very popular with his fellow cops

I just felt like when Columbo knew the whole story he should've helped them both. again, it could be worse, he could've arrested both. but even setting aside my personal morality, it'd be so great to see him let a killer go, even if you didn't agree that it was right -- maybe especially if audiences didn't agree it was the right thing to do. idk

anyway I love the Columbo resurgence. I was lucky to see a bunch of episodes in reruns as a kid when my grandparents had satellite TV, so I've been a fan long before he started to get big again on tumblr -- not that it matters or I'm bragging, just giving context to say it's really great to see people watch old stuff and become new fans of it because it's so good

oh yeah, every columbo has its flaws, it's just a matter of personal taste as to which ones are most egregious.

i do think murder by the book is easy to laugh at now as bog-standard and "overrated", but it was truly groundbreaking when it hit TVs. that's really the beauty of it, anyway--columbo needed to start somewhere and establish a formula.

i do agree that the script for it's all in the game being written in the 70s definitely comes through. the episode itself has some 90s cheesiness to it that i don't think it would have had if actually made in the 70s (and i do wish it was), but underneath is a very real and interesting type of story.

i don't think columbo should've let both of them go as i think that'd cross over into going against the heart of his character--he is a "good cop", but no matter how justified they may have been in their act, they've still ended another person's life. the one time he does let a perp go is only because she has a terminal degenerative brain disease and no longer even remembers the murder.

the man isn't judge judy, nor executioner for that matter. he just gathers enough evidence to prove to everyone that you did you what you did

besides which, if lauren staton can afford good lawyers (she can) and provide proof that her ex boyfriend was a two-timing piece of shit who wanted to kill her (she probably can) then she likely wouldn't have ended up serving that much time anyway. i think columbo knew that, too.

more about this and some of the mcgoohan episodes under the cut since this post is already so long....

i'm not sure where i'd rank it, myself. probably not top 10 all time columbos, but i would certainly rank it amongst the originals simply because it dares to push columbo's character in a way that's high quality, believable, and fun to watch, all while retaining his aura of mystery.

it makes me wonder how that episode would've come out if patrick mcgoohan had directed it. i don't always agree with mcgoohan's interpretations of columbo's character, but he dared to innovate and dared to usher the character into new territory with high-quality technique, and i think that alone is commendable. even last salute to the commodore where columbo is clearly stoned is a commendable entry because it's (at least in my eyes) not a failure of an episode, it's a sharp self-parody of the series as a whole.

take by dawn's early light. we're shown his quarters, which is groundbreaking stuff. hell, link & levinson balked at showing columbo's office in earlier seasons, let alone where he's retiring for the evening.

we may have inferred that columbo would be driven so mad by a case detail that he'd get out of bed in the middle of the night, but we actually get to SEE that here. we get to see him padding around in an undershirt at 3am, kept awake by ballistic detail, then waking up in the morning and washing up. it's not earth-shattering, but it's one of many meaningful peeks into the character's workings hallmarked by the mcgoohan episodes.

plus, i mean. need i say more

in identity crisis, where mcgoohan directs and exerts far greater control over the story, we get to see columbo made really uncomfortable in one of the most masterfully-done cat-and-mouse bouts in the series. agent brenner reads him front to back (NERVOUS? want a CIGAR to CALM DOWN huh lieutenant?? lemme mock you with your wife's favorite song while i take off your protective carapace)

so it makes me wonder how he would've tackled it's all in the game! combined with faye dunaway, i think it would've really elevated things even further. though they were both divas so perhaps the whole thing would've just imploded lmao

BEAUTY AND HER BEAST: Chapter 8

WARNING PLZ READ BEFORE CONTINUING: This fic is rated NSFW and contains graphic depictions of things some people may find disturbing or alarming, including, but not limited to: violence, gore, unhealthy family relationships, Oedipus complexes, gratuitous amount of pornographic literature, ableist language, physical, mental, and emotional abuse, etc. If you are someone who does not enjoy fiction with these elements in them, then I suggest you refrain from reading this, because this fic will have all that, and probably a lot more. So, this is your first and final warning to turn around and go somewhere else if stuff like this just isn't your vibe, because from this point forward, your emotional wellbeing is in your own hands, and I will not be accepting blame if you disregarded my warnings and ended up reading something you didn't like. Idk why I feel compelled to write one of these despite this being Resident Evil fanfic, but I figured I'd cover my ass just in case.

(AO3 Link Below:)

Several days had passed since Salvatore had sought out both his younger sisters, requesting items like jewelry or clothing they’d be willing to part with that Salvatore could gift to Nadine, as a sort of soft and informal introduction to ease the young woman’s mind and prove he meant her no harm.

The plan seems to be going rather well, as far as Salvatore can tell. Nadine found the gifts he’d laid out for her rather easily, and even correctly wondered if the person who lived here had left them for her purposefully. She seemed wary of the items for a time, though she seemed pretty wary of everything in the reservoir at the moment, but eventually she deemed them safe enough to accept, throwing the long white nightgown Salvatore had procured from Donna over her petit azure frame, and strapping the delicate golden locket Alcina had graciously donated around her neck.

Salvatore practically drooled when he first saw Nadine, slightly sheer satin nightgown flowing elegantly in the gentle afternoon breeze and golden chain glittering beautifully against her white speckled, ocean blue skin. She looked like a goddess, a true figure of pure ethereal power and beauty. Even the biting cold of winter wasn’t enough to touch the young woman, shielded and protected by her own glowing radiance.

Despite looking every bit like an other-worldly deity worthy of unending human devotion and worship, Nadine’s face held nothing but fear, anxiety, and loneliness as she aimlessly wandered the seemingly empty docks and windmills surrounding the reservior’s watery interior. An occasional dejected “hello?” still echoes out throughout the reservoir every few hours, growing less and less hopeful with each passing round of silence Salvatore spends hiding away from view.

The disfigured man’s heart twists and stabs in pain every time he cowers away from Nadine’s soft, anxious calls, desperately wanting to comfort the young woman in her moment of confusion and fear, but still so terrified of her inevitable reaction to his appearance that he finds himself unable to do anything but skitter shamefully to his room beneath the surface and try to drown her out with one of his old romance films.

How pitiful.

Salvatore spends much of his time lamenting and pitying himself over his soul crushing loneliness and his intense desire for a love of his own, and yet here he is, taking refuge in an old romance film while he hides himself away from the real woman he could be making his own romance film with, were he not a massive coward and a horrific freak of nature unworthy of anyone’s love and affection, of course. What a cruel irony it is, to have the one thing you want, more than anything else in the world, dangled just inches in front of your face, and yet knowing, before you’ve even tried, that it’ll never be yours.

Salvatore knows that no matter how much of a romance story this whole situation might seem like, Nadine will never be able to love him in the way the gorgeous women in the movies love their tall, dashing, dark-haired lover men. Not only was Salvatore the exact opposite of tall and dashing by literally everyone’s standards, but his patches of dry, greasy dark-hair did little to salvage the violent wreckage that was Salvatore’s whole appearance.

There was absolutely no way Nadine would ever be able to love someone as hideous as Salvatore, so perhaps the best thing to do would be to contact Miranda and inform her that, while he greatly enjoyed his gift, Salvatore didn’t feel he would be able to appreciate her in the way she deserved to be appreciated in all her beauty and wonder, and that perhaps it would be better for Mother Miranda to find better arrangements for her elsewhere.

“I-it’s for the b-best… i-i think… a-after all… Nadine… d-doesn’t want t-to live i-in a d-dingy place… l-like this for… for the r-rest of h-her… l-life… m-much less with… w-with someone l-like me… s-she’d hate th-that… im c-certain” Salvatore laments aloud, dipping his head downward as tears of painful realization and sorrowful acceptance pour down his face like waterfalls of lonely depression, already fully set on contacting Mother Miranda as soon as morning came.

“While it's very kind of you to keep my best interest in mind, I do think I am more than capable of making my own decisions regarding what’s the best place for me, thank you very much” a soft voice responded suddenly, causing Salvatore’s head to whip in the direction the sound was coming from in startled shock. “This place is a little rundown, sure, but the windmills still stand tall and the water is always just the right temperature, so I don’t think this would be the worst place to live, if I had to… so long as I wasn’t alone, at least.”

Even in the dimly lit area located at the end of the hallway, Nadine still looked so gorgeously stunning and elegant. It was incredible how she managed to sound so casual and yet look so ethereal.

In the brief moment before his panic set in, Salvatore couldn’t help but pause and marvel at the spot down the hall where the young woman stood, her gaze locked directly onto him and yet she showed no signs of having seen him. She even went as far as to begin moving about behind the large boards that blocked her from entering the room, clearly trying to get a better look at the room and, more importantly, the person she suspects is in it.

After a surprisingly large jump that launched Nadine all the way up to the ceiling, just narrowly avoiding hitting her head, Salvatore’s eyes grew wide and his mouth hung open in stupefied shock as the sight of Nadine, moving the way she was at the end of the hallway, brought to Salvatore’s mind a scene from one of his favorite romance films. In the particular scene Salvatore is thinking of, the actress’ character is an aspiring prima ballerina, and she’s having a brief moment of bonding with her fellow ballerina’s after a long, but successful performance. Dressed in a nightgown not too unlike the one Nadine is currently wearing, the ballerina is showing the others how to do other kinds of dance, like polka or Irish step dancing, but by the end of the scene the group of ballerinas are all merely jumping about the room excitedly, laughing and cheering while carelessly throwing themselves into the air, only to land gracefully back on their feet.

While not exactly the same obviously, the resemblance between Nadine and the absolutely stunning ballerina in the movie, in both silhouette and style of movement, was almost uncanny.

Stretched out as high as her short legs would allow, strong and gorgeously defined muscles flexed almost instinctually with every rapid twist, curl, bend, and jump of the young woman’s tiny body. Her lucious silhouette was only aided by the feminine aura of the long, sheer nightgown as it trailed after her with every movement. The delicate satin material caresses the sharp ridges of her muscular back and shoulders with the same tenderness and love as it does the weight of her breasts or the pillowy layer of protection atop her midsection. The lower half of the nightgown, cinched just below the breasts, twisted and jerked in whatever direction was necessary to keep up with the speed at which Nadine was fluttering and jumping about upon the tips of her toes. Her legs were hidden by the ferocious speed of her movements, but Salvatore did not need to see her legs to have some idea of what they were, or perhaps merely could be, capable of.

Whether or not Nadine was actually a ballerina herself, or if Salvatore’s delusions were merely that realistic now, the young woman appeared to move with nothing but effortless grace that hides the raw power and physical strength it takes to float as carelessly and as quickly as the young woman was, clearly growing more and more frustrated the longer her search failed to reveal what she was looking for.

Still paralyzed by the sudden presence of Nadine in his personal space, Salvatore could do nothing but hold his breath and hope that the light at the end of the hall didn’t reach far enough to reveal his presence in the room. The TV was still on, but the movie playing on it had finished running long ago, meaning the only thing being displayed now was a static filled screen that proved someone had been here at some point in time, but thankfully wasn’t a dead giveaway from the start.

“Helloooooooo… I heard someone talking on my way in, so I know that someone is down here. Please… just come out, ok… I won’t hurt you… honestly” the raven haired woman begs softly, her movements slowing a bit to allow more of her air to be used for speaking rather than jumping to look over beams over and over again.

Salvatore’s heart ached at Nadine’s desperate tone, knowing all too well what the mutant woman is going through right now, but trying his best to remain strong, since giving in means dooming this perfect young specimen to a life of bitter misery and unending terror, regardless of the best effort he’d try to put in. Whatever short term gain Nadine could get from being with him would only come back to bleed her dry once Salvatore was sufficiently attached, and therefore unable to allow her to leave once she inevitably decides that she’s had enough of pretending to love a disgusting freak of nature.

Salvatore had never been very good at accurately predicting the outcomes of situations, but he knew for certain that Nadine was in no way deserving of the hellish punishment that living in the reservoir with him would undoubtedly become, if it didn’t start out that way from the beginning, that is. Perhaps the young woman could convince herself to accept her situation and play into his affections as a means of survival for a short time, but based on what he’s heard of Nadine thus far, Salvatore doubts such a strongwilled and dangerous woman would allow herself to play wife and sex slave to anyone for very long. If she didn’t somehow successfully murder him in his sleep within the first 48 hours of her “slavery”, it would only be a matter of time before she finally ran out of patience and unleashed... whatever the hell it was she did back in the labs, upon him.

For a brief moment, Salvatore entertains the question of whether Nadine could potentially be strong enough to take him out with a single hit, as well as whether that thought should be something he finds arousing or not. His thoughts are quickly interrupted however, by the sound of shuffling and grunting, and upon turning his head toward the sudden racket, Salvatore is horrified to see Nadine, just small enough to fit her tiny body between the thin cracks of the boarded up wall, attempting to climb through the barrier, and enter the TV room.

Body shaking and voice beginning to tremble slightly, alongside his already labored breathing, Salvatore unsteadily backed his way further into the room, putting his hands out in front of him as if to try and stop Nadine from entering, though he makes no move to physically eject the invading woman himself, oddly enough.

“N-nooo… p-please… don’t come i-in...” Salvatore stutters helplessly, shrinking further in on himself in fear as the young woman effortlessly slips through the wooden boards like a slippery eel, quickly and easily landing on her feet before turning back to the mostly darkened room.

“H-Hello?” Nadine calls out again nervously, taking a tentative step forward, both hands extended outward beside her until her left hand made contact with the wall. Gaining some purchase on the vertical slabs of wood, Nadine slowly turns her head to look about the room, carefully inspecting everything from atop the surface of Salvatore’s messy desk, to the very dark corner in the back right of the room that Salvatore himself was currently shoved as far into as physically possible.

Nadine stuck her arm out in front of her and began slowly walking toward the opposite wall, eyes open, but unfocused, and right hand waving aimlessly in the air for a brief moment, as though trying to feel around for the other wall despite it clearly being right in front of her. The hooded man had no idea how she hadn’t seen him yet, he could practically feel how absolutely ridiculous he looked, his bony, weathered, turtle-esque body hunched as low to the ground as possible with his chin tucked between his knees and hands covering the rest of his face, leaving only the smallest bit of space through which he could observe Nadine’s inevitable reaction to him. And yet, despite the amount of time the young woman spent glancing over Salvatore, back and forth across the room, her bright golden eyes resembling that of a ravenous alligator in their intensity and ferociousness, no scream left her plush lips nor did fear and horror suddenly mar her supple face. In fact, not only had the mutant woman not seen him yet, but it was in that exact moment that the reason why Nadine couldn’t see Salvatore, obviously shoved into the corner, just to her bottom left, became immediately clear to him.

“Y-You’re blind...”

after finishing the 3rd movie i wish it kind of came out later than it’s intended original movie release because i bet if it came out in theaters more people would talk about this movie :( it did get some talk when the trailers first hit and it was probably mostly the memes around keanu reeves but man i wish more people saw this movie i would say this is the least talked about sb movie in the trilogy so far

one complaint i really would say about the movie is the kamp koral stuff kind of felt forced? while it’s very cute and i acknowledge this movie is probably set in an alternate universe considering it ended with everyone getting snails and retconning how spongebob met others and their ages, kamp koral itself felt like it could be removed and only a few things would need tweaking around, but it isn’t terrible though or bad just felt like a force thing just to get the spin off started anyways

i love the animation so much! wish more people talked about it like at first i was hesitant of hearing it was going to be 3d i mainly worried about it either trying way to hard to have very detailed textures where you can see all of spongebob’s pores or just looking really flat and not interesting and while i still prefer spongebob to be in 2d the cgi they use was actually really great and managed to capture the spirit of spongebob, everything was nicely stylized and the movements didn’t feel inflated which i think a lot of cgi suffers from and it felt like a 3d cartoon with smear frames and exaggerated faces and those moments where it does seem like a lower frame count it doesn’t feel cheap and more like trying to tastefully capture limited hand drawn tv animation, the animation crew did a great job considering they were on a lower budget than other bigger studios like disney with their 100 million budgets compared to the movie’s 60 mil, i hope when the 4th movie is out they go with the same style and studio if they go with the cg route again (most likely), the animation itself i feel like is also pretty underrated considering talks now these days with animation studios going more stylized and cartoony than trying to be realistic i feel like the spongebob movie here should be talked about more when discussing stylized cg animation

omg so sorry i went off, i just have so many thoughts in the movie and i loved it! thanks for hearing me!

Yeah I wish it did too. The movie was so much fun to see in theatres! I should know because I saw it in theatres because there was a brief period where they played it in theatres in Canada. Let me tell you, it was STUNNING on the big screen. I think the movie wouldn't have had such a bad rap if it did come out in theatres (its the weakest of the 3 but idk the whole movie going experience enhances your feelings about a movie, or maybe that's just me)

But I get why they gave it a digital release. The movie was delayed so many times. I've been anticipating the 3rd spongebob movie since they announced it back in 2016. They said February of 2019, then spring of 2019, then summer of 2019. Then the spring of 2020. Then the pandemic hit.

They moved the release date how many times???? They couldn't hold it off any longer and honestly there isn't an end in sight for this pandemic anyways. Might as well drop it when people are at home and safe.

I agree that the kamp koral stuff was forced. That's what me and my friend thought when we went to see it. Some people thought it was really cute. I didn't care for it much. But back then I was more super iffy about if it disrespected Hillenburg or not. I was surprised how short the kamp koral stuff was. I feel like if you cut those scenes out then it wouldn't have changed the movie much.

I kinda wished they replaced the kamp koral scenes with actual reanimated scenes from the original show. I still feel like that would've been better. Too bad.

I know the movie suffered from a lot of corporate meddling hence why it feels like a weird mashup of different stuff and why the kamp koral bit feels so forced. Tbh the actual kamp koral mini series could've happened without the movie. As far as we do know. It doesn't necessarily change how Spongebob meets Gary.

By this weird spaghetti plot line. Spongebob met Gary at kamp koral but didn't adopt him. He was friendly to Gary but it wasn't years later where he was put in thr pet shop for spongebob to adopt. In the kamp koral show, Gary is a baby living in a snail colony that the other camp counselors can't stand. I'm assuming he probably got swept up by animal control and put in a pet shop later on. It's just a bunch of uncessary details but eh I don't care much about it now. They couldn't elaborate on all that in the movie so it just felt weird.

The animation for the movie was at least gorgeous. And from what I know, the cgi in the movie was a test to see how cgi would work for kamp koral. Hillenburg was hesitant about cgi but ended up liking how the movie looked. From what I know, kamp koral was meant to be traditionally animated. But tv animation is VERY different from movie animation. And comparing the movie to the tv show, the tv show doesn't look that good and is loaded with animation errors too😭

Its no surprised the movie achieved Hillenburg's expectations tho.

I LOVE 2D animation and I admit I was very hesitant about cgi. Its not bad but every movie wants to be cgi nowadays. And for spongebob, he's a difficult character to translate into cgi to begin with. Kudos to the crew for making it work, and not just work, but look better than a lot of the cg animated movies of today.

I know the 4th movie is a sandy movie. I wonder how the cgi will work? I think Sandy was the one who didn't look very good in sponge on the run. She looked kinda creepy. Her design in sponge out of water where she was cgi looked so much better. I hope they fix this issue before her movie comes out. She deserves to have a stunning movie look ya kno? Though some of the crew members are every protective of sandy so I can imagine they'll definitely fix it.

I don't mind your talk! It was a fun read and you made a lot of good points. The internet trashed sponge on the run so hard mostly because of misinformation. Its nice to see it gets some love. I reaaaally wish the animation was more noted for. It looked gorgeous but everyone was too focused on hating it to notice :(

hi, for the dreamie drabble game; jeno with 4, 8 and 6 please ^^

based off of this post

this is highkey a ficlet because it’s 1.7k words but whatever

okay i wanna expand this and make it a full fic with a lot more detail and timestamps but idk if anyone would ever want that so lmk if you do i guess?

4: college

8: childhood friends

6:  “you used to joke calling me little brother but something changed and now you’re my girl.”

[february of 2019]

after being denied entry at not one but two frat parties (dismissed each time with ‘what kind of freshmen think they’re allowed in?’ and laughter that can only be described as mocking) your friends and you find yourselves back where you pre-gamed: the lobby of your residence hall. your RA has been turning a blind eye for quite some time (you mentally thank johnny for being the chillest person alive), allowing all of you to drink almost completely freely in your dorm’s common areas.

as you settle onto one of the beat up couches in the corner farthest away from the entrance, you can’t help but survey your surroundings. mark is getting his ass absolutely handed to him by donghyuck at the center pool table while renjun discreetly videotapes the debacle. you have a sneaking suspicion that he’ll edit it to death (you can envision it now - the camera zooming in on mark’s face after he accidentally hits the 8 ball in prematurely, colors fading to black and white as wasted swims across the screen in bold, brilliantly red letters) and post it on his growing youtube channel by tomorrow night. jaemin, ryujin, and chaeryeong are parked in front of the sole tv, hollering drunkenly at whatever game replay is flashing across the screen. yeji and chenle are bickering over something or the other - “a yellow hat? with that monstrosity of a jacket? are you out of your damn mind, zhong?” - and jisung, who, like chenle, is definitely still a high schooler, sits on his phone in a corner of the room, likely playing pubg.

even in a room full of the people you love most, however, your gaze ends up naturally falling on the person beside you - jeno, who pauses in whatever he’s doing (moving magazines off of the coffee table so he can put his feet on it) to send you a small smile that makes your heart beat out of your chest. he finishes up, setting his bottle of dos equis down on a haphazard stack of time mags before leaning back onto the couch, throwing one of his arms around you as he does. before you can say anything, he pulls you into his chest, pressing his lips to your temple.

you relax into his arms, knowing it’s exactly where you’re meant to be. frankly, you note, it’s a wonder that it wasn’t always like this.

[june of 2012]

you shift awkwardly on your feet as you wait. you chew on the inside of your cheek, you inspect your nails for dirt not once, not twice, but thrice. the door stays closed, though, and you wonder how long you have to stay before your mother calls you back.

after what feels like a true eternity, you sigh, finally giving up. just as you turn around, however, you hear the door fly open behind you, hitting a wall - or a person, you aren’t sure - with a resounding thwack that makes you wince on impulse. you turn around quickly, only to come face to face with a boy who’s wearing the most sheepish expression of all time.

“hi,” you say once you’ve regathered your wits, stepping forward to reach out your hand. “i’m (name), and i live right next door. i figured i should introduce myself, since you’re new.” a lie. your mom had noticed that your new neighbors seemed to have a kid around your age and had all but forced you to go talk to him. she seemed excited at the prospect of you making a new friend. you? you really couldn’t care less.

the boy smiles, taking your outstretched hand into his. he shakes it once, twice before letting go, and you find yourself smiling back before you can register your own reaction.

“i’m jeno,” he finally says, and a voice in the back of your mind tells you that this moment is important. you push it away. “it was nice to meet you,” he says politely, although not unkindly, and you recognize that neither of you have much else to say to each other. it isn’t an unpleasant end to the conversation, but, and you only realize this much, much later, it’s a reasonably pleasant beginning to the most important friendship of your life.

[april of 2015]

“so i went in and asked for extra credit and, surprisingly, he said y- jeno!” you reach across the table to smack your best friend’s hand away from your basket of french fries, only to hand him one of your precious fries yourself once he pouts at you. your friend felix snorts at your interaction, and you shoot him your best pissed-off glare you can muster.

“i can’t believe mr. kim really gave you extra credit, though. he’s usually kind of a hard ass.” somi brings your attention back to your story, and you nod in agreement.

“maybe he just likes (name),” jeno says, leaning across the food court table to finesse another one of your fries. “after all, who could dislike you?” he directs the last part at you, and you can’t help but roll your eyes even as you smile at him.

“you’re just saying that because you want more of my fries,” you state, pulling your tray towards you. your best friend furrows his brow at the growing space between him and his (your) potatoes, but before he can say anything, hyunjin beats him to it.

“we’ll be late to the movie if you two idiots keep flirting, so let’s get a move on, maybe?”

before you and jeno can protest, the rest of your friends are already getting up to go throw away the remnants of their lunches. you simply share a look with jeno that says everything you need to say before you both toss your trash away and move to join the rest of your” friends. as you all fall into step and chatter with each other, jeno throws his arms easily over your shoulder. you fall into his side embrace naturally.

neither of you notice the glances your friends throw at you from time to time.

[january of 2017]

“are you sure you and jeno aren’t a thing?”

somi has always been fairly blunt, and you suppose you can’t blame her for something that’s so inherent. still, you choke on air, forcing daehwi to smack you repeatedly on the back until your breathing pattern restores itself. 

“god no, not at all,” you force out between wheezes. “he’s like - he’s like a little brother to me.”

“so i guess we live in alabama now-” she starts, but before she can finish her sentence, jeno drops his backpack down onto the seat next to you. 

you turn around to greet him, only to be taken aback by just how pissed off he looks. in that moment, you decide it’s better if you leave him alone, though you do make sure to tell yourself to ask him about what’s bothering him after school. after all, he’s your ride home anyways.

“can you find someone else to drive you home today? i have errands to run.” jeno asks you, abruptly pulling you from your thoughts. his voice is low, slightly gruffer than usual. whatever it is must really, really have upset him.

“sure,” you say, shooting him a smile that’s - you hope - reassuring. he doesn’t return the expression, only nodding curtly before moving to pull his notebook out of his backpack. you turn away from him as well to face the board, although you find it hard for you to focus when the teacher starts to drone on and on about l’hospital’s rule.

you started the class period with no worries, and you’re going to end it with two: is your crush on jeno really that obvious? and, speaking of jeno, what’s bothering him so much? it can’t be you, can it?

[september of 2018]

“so that’s it, then?” 

jeno’s voice is steady but as sharp as a knife, and if you weren’t so angry at him you’d stop pacing to ask him if he’s doing okay. unfortunately for both of you, however, you’re pissed. extremely pissed. at him. 

“what’s it? huh? pray, tell me, what the fuck is it?”

“our friendship. it’s over, right? ever since you started hanging out with that prick yeonjun -”

“- he’s not a prick!”

“ever since you’ve started hanging out with him,” jeno continues. “you’ve had no time for me. none! i don’t care if you don’t like me back, but at the very least it would be cool if you made some goddamn time for me!” he slams his hands onto the frame of his bunk bed to emphasize his last point, but you don’t register the noise.

he likes you? jeno... likes you?

“you like me?” your voice is soft, a direct contrast to how jeno’d been speaking only moments earlier. he whips his head around to stare at you, and you see the realization of what he’s said dawn on him.

“fuck...” he murmurs, stepping back to lean against the ladder that’s build into his bed. you take the opportunity to step forward, your chest heaving as you try to let all of your anger go as you realize why jeno’s been acting the way he has.

“i’m not dating yeonjun, by the way,” you finally say once you’re directly in front of him. “how could i, when it’s always been you?”

[back to february of 2019]

“you know, it’s kind of crazy that we ended up together now, just within the last school year, after being best friends for all these years.” you say, looking up at your boyfriend. he raises an eyebrow back at you before leaning both of you over so he can grab his beer. 

“yeah? and whose fault is that?”

“both of ours? duh?” you respond, though you know he’s only messing with you. still, he just laughs before throwing a reply back at you. 

“you used to joke, calling me little brother, but something changed and now you’re my girl.” he emphasizes ‘something’ with just the right amount of pointedness, and you can’t help but roll your eyes at him.

“yeah, that something was me confessing to you, you idiot.”

“you only confessed because i told you i liked you first!” he exclaims, and you can’t help but giggle at his antics before craning your neck to press a kiss to his cheek. before jeno can capture your lips with his own, however, you hear someone mutter a ‘disgusting’ from somewhere above you.

you both look up only to come face-to-face with renjun’s video camera.

For the OTP questions. Wolfstar and dorlene ❤️❤️

Sorry I took SO long to answer 😅 I’ve been very very busy with classes, and my life right now is pretty much work and school, but I have some free time now so,,,,,,here they are!!

1. Who likes to nuzzle their head into their partner’s chest?

Wolfstar: Sirius, and he likes to fall asleep on Remus while he’s reading, or watching tv, or doing anything in a position where Sirius can use him as a pillow

Dorlene: I haven’t written nearly as much for this ship as I have for wolfstar, and as I write more my answer will probably change, but I’m going to say that it’s both, depending on the day. Whoever’s feeling more cuddly in the moment, really.

2. How many and what colours are the blankets they like to snuggle in?

Wolfstar: I feel like they have one ENORMOUS duvet. It’s just absolutely gigantic, and very warm and lovely. Also a hideous orange colour and they love it dearly. It’s rarely actually on the bed, because whenever Remus gets cold he brings it out to the living room and wraps himself in it. Sirius thinks it’s adorable.

Dorlene: A lot of blankets. A lot. And each one is for a specific area of the house. There's the bed blanket, the couch blankets, and the armchair blankets, and sometimes they get moved around, but not often. They’re a mixture of the fluffy soft blankets you get get at the store and brightly coloured handmade quilts from various family members. Marlene loves to walk around the house wrapped in a quilt, and Dorcas always takes her time setting up a little nest before she sits down to watch tv.

3. Who runs up and hugs their partner and who stands arms wide open to catch their partner?

Wolfstar: They both run at each other because they get very excited when they haven’t seen each other in a while :)))) (“a while” can be anywhere from ten minutes to two months)

Dorlene: I feel like Marlene does a lot of the running, and Dorcas will drop whatever she’s holding to catch her.

4. Who would be more likely to get matching scarves for themselves and their partner?

Wolfstar: REMUS. Idk why, I just really really think he’d do it. It’s a very Remus thing to do.

Dorlene: Dorcas. Again, idk why. She’d just be out somewhere and see two matching scarves and buy them without even thinking about it.

(And of course both Sirius and Marlene love their matching scarves 😊)

5. Would they much rather go on a romantic date or a laid back date? Explain why.

Wolfstar: I feel like they tend to be pretty laid back most of the time. Sirius will sometimes go all out for things like their anniversary or Remus’s birthday, but overall they prefer to just go to some small restaurant or a movie or something.

Dorlene: they like to get dressed up really fancy but then just stay home and eat junk food and watch a movie. I guess you could say it’s both??

6. Who still gets butterflies after years of dating?

EVERYONE BC THEY LOVE EACH OTHER A LOT 🥺🥺

7. Who is the one who makes their partner laugh so much that their face hurts?

Wolfstar: Remus. He tends to be really sarcastic and deadpan and that gets Sirius every time

Dorlene: Marlene, I think. Idk, she just seems like she can be very very silly when she wants to, and Dorcas loves that about her.

8. How would each of them explain how they met?

Wolfstar

Remus: on the hogwarts express when we were 11. Not a very interesting story.

Sirius: Moony, you’re leaving out the best part! *turns to the camera* He was asleep, and the rest of us accidentally woke him up. He wouldn’t talk to us for three days even though we were all roommates.

Dorlene

Marlene: So we had both just got sorted into Gryffindor—exciting stuff, I know—and I sat down next to her, legs shaking, head a million miles away, adrenaline coursing through my body—sorting is scary, ok?—and she introduces herself to me.

Dorcas: *snorts* Tell them what you said Marly, you can’t leave that bit out. It’s an essential part of the story.

Marlene: Yes I know, I’m getting there! So, she tells me her name, says “hello, I’m Dorcas” and, like an idiot, I say “hello Dorcas, I’m Dorcas”!

Dorcas, cackling: I fell in love with her there and then

9. Who accidentally drinks too much caffeine and who has to deal with their partner bouncing off the walls?

Wolfstar: I mean the obvious answer is Sirius. I feel like when Remus drinks too much caffeine, he just gets jittery and starts talking fast, but Sirius needs to take the dog out for a very fast run before he’s at a manageable energy level

Dorlene: I think Dorcas just. Doesn’t have coffee very often, so it’s less a question of “too much” and more a question of “any at all”. Marlene thinks it’s hilarious though. :))

10. Where is a special place they hold close to their hearts? Why is it special?

Wolfstar: Sirius carved their initials into the frame of their hogwarts bed, and they may or may not have stolen that particular part of the bed when they left. It also had carvings of the Marauders in their animagus forms, and they think it looks just wonderful hung up on the wall of their flat.

Dorlene: the shitty muggle restaurant they went to on their first date. It was summer, and Marlene was staying at Dorcas’s house for a bit, and they had just confessed their feelings, and then that night they snuck out and went to a diner in the muggle town nearby. It became a tradition, and even years later, the staff all know them.

WandaVision episode 6

FIRST OFF

Whenever I go back to pause things for clues, and find exactly what I’m looking for, I don’t feel justified, I feel that much more insane:

It’s really hard to make out, but I had an alright look at it on my folks’ QLED, and it’s definitely a flying saucer doing an alien abduction on what looks to be a person inside an old CRT TV (with some kind of robot head/boombox on top???)  There are secret aliens in this show, you guys, the facts don’t lie.

HmmmMMMM I wonder if Agnes is as innocent as she looks:

Also, I didn’t see that she was wearing the brooch in this ep, and I was majorly disappointed in that.

Two things here:

No, that’s not a twins joke.

Another Moonmen Confirmed

I know green is his color or whatever, but that hat is literally 10 years ahead of its time

Also, I took the playing-DDR-at-home scenario at face value, and only on the first rewatch did I realize it was a very pointed turn-of-the-century reference.  I am an Old.

There’s a good, subtle Rule of Threes in this ep.  The Setup:

The Sokovian Halloween flashback works on so many levels.  It’s so funny:

The fact that they went trick-or-treating at all

The “speaking Sokovian”

The treat being a fish

They have to share the fish

The concept that this event gave them an infectious disease

“You probably suppressed a lot of the trauma” -- it’s a good sitcom joke but.  the trauma is the joke.  The joke IS THE TRAUMA!!!

Elizabeth Olson is a dream with all her wonderful faces she has this ep.

Vision’s unsettling passive-aggression-sitcom-cooperation whiplash is WOW, consider me unsettled!!!!!!  “Be. Good.”  UGH.

(Just noticed one here, but there are a number of continuity errors in this episode, enough to be distracting later on, and is this a deliberate choice?  Please let it be deliberate.  I didn’t watch a whole lot of Malcolm in the Middle, is it known for its continuity errors?

)

“It’s their first Halloween.” LOLOLOL they are TEN YEARS OLD and this is their FIRST halloween I LOVE IT

DOUBLE RED HERRING CONFIRRRRRRRRMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agent Jimmy Woo accidentally identifying himself as the sassy best friend added 20 years to my life.

Found.  FOUND.  Not “created,” “manifested,” “willed into being using my insane witch powers.”  Third Party Confirmed.

I like that it’s the 90s and we can swear on TV now.  “Hell” “kick-ass” “damn it” “fu---dge”

I think the most biting part of Vision finding the whacked out folks is that the soundtrack just kind of ... ignores that anything’s wrong.  Yeah, it’s kinda-spooky Halloween music, but it’s still 100% in-world kinda-spooky-sitcom-Halloween-episode music. 

OKAY LET’S TALK ABOUT THE AD:

As a 90s child, let me tell you, this is a blisteringly accurate representation of children’s marketing from the period.  The shark is wearing sunglasses AND he has a surfboard!!!  And he’s selling you yogurt of all things!!!!!  This is the supreme distillation of what being a child in the 90s was like.

How disappointed I am that they went with crab instead of lobster.

Heard it through the grapevine that this is a representative of Wanda’s imprisonment on the Raft.  That happened in Civil War, right?  So the next ad is The Snap?  We’re running out of iconic decades, too. so, hold on, new thought.

90s: Civil War

00s: Infinity War

10s?????: Endgame???? or?????????

??: Whatever happened between Endgame and WandaVision, given that the ads are stepping forward through Wanda’s IRL life events!!

I don’t want to know how many episodes are planned/announced, but I don’t know what to expect from the format after they run out of decades from which to draw.  Maybe there are only one or possibly two “sitcom” episodes left.  Maybe after that it just breaks down and they can pick and choose from the worlds/styles we’ve already established.  That’d be p neat.  A very unique kind of chaos.

god she’s so cute

Okay, somebody explain to me Pietro.  I honestly walked away from last week thinking he was just some townsperson chump, but then I was reminded that this is the Quicksilver actor from all those X-Mans movies I never watched, soooo people are saying Multiverse Confirmed?  But, if this is X-Mans’ Pietro, then why did he die the same as MCU Pietro?  Or is he literally MCU!Pietro’s corpse, given that he looked all dead same as when she saw Vision’s corpse?  If MCU!Pietro, then why different face???

????????????????

Also I found him highly suspicious, what with all the questions he was asking.  But the only sort of person who would truly want to know the answers to those questions would be someone who already had them ... so I think he was just asking on behalf of the audience, and the delivery was all wonked out.

Rule of Threes - The Reference:

Ok, real talk, whenever computers/networks/data/encryption/servers/mainframes et al come up in mainstream media, I just look away.  I don’t need the kind of psychic damage that comes with such egregious mishandling of the topic.

That being said, does Hayward having eyes through the barrier mean that he could possibly be involved in getting it set up?  Because look.  If Hayward-after-Hayward’s-Villianous-Ends is one antagonizing force, then is there really room for the Third Party (Confirmed) antagonizing force that’s lurking in the negative space silhouette of the Inciting Incident?  With Wanda as the Red Herring antagonizing force, that’s just.  There’s just too many villains, alright?  We gotta start merging these plotlines.

(then again, when I just said “eyes” I realize probably understanding the true nature of his new secret “CATARACT” project will clear a lot of things up.  I’ll wait for enlightenment)

Agnes’ license plate in this episode is 0A1-B2C, which I think is a reference to the way reality is getting pared down to bare bones at the edge of town.  Note that this is not the same license plate number as seen last ep.

ALSO, I drove home behind a NJ plate just an hour ago, and was staring at it for a long time, trying to fit it into the puzzle before A) realizing that this was Real Life and not part of the show and B) WTF is a NJ plate doing in front of me in California.  In any case, I can confirm that NJ plates do not appear to have this number-letter repeating format.

So let’s talk Agnes.

Demonstrated knowledge of the situation in ways others haven’t (”There’s the star of the show” “kids, you can’t control ‘em”)

Shows up when needed most (explained as being Wanda’s doing, but is it)

When Wanda was having her babies, though, who was trustworthy enough to be summoned?  Was it Agnes?

Wanted to babysit REAL BAD

Was in the opening credits framed possessively with the twins

Doesn’t appear to have an IRL identity according to Jimmy’s crime board

Keeps talking about her husband but we’ve never seen him.  Highly unlikely that he’s real

Was the one to find Sparky “dead” - internet thinks she was lying to Wanda about how or possibly if he was dead (I’m trying not to read the theories, so idk exactly what the angle is there)

In an episode where everyone is wearing their original comic outfits, Agnes is dressed as (and laughs like!) a witch

She name-drops Wanda as the one controlling everyone; Norm (or the guy playing Norm) only said “she” and “her” -- meaning Agnes?

Naughty

So we’re 99% sure Agnes is Agatha Harkness, right?  I never read no comics, so I’m taking the internet’s word for it, but from what I can tell, I think we must be right.  If that’s the case, then I’m thinking it’s not impossible for her to be pulling some strings around here (giving Wanda a justification for her “that wasn’t me” doorbell ring, for example, and pulling a double red herring on the fact that she shows up whenever the narrative Wanda her nefarious scheme calls for it).

To devil’s advocate myself, though, we also have Monica’s word that it was Wanda in her mind, lessening the impact of Agnes falsely confirming what Norm only implied.  Also she’d have to be acting for Vision’s sake (and ours) and, if so, then what did Vision’s brain-touch really do, and how did she know he’d find her there, and what did she intend as the result of that interaction etc etc.

If Wanda’s (or Wanda + Third Party Confirmed (Agnes??)’s) powers aren’t enough to sustain the simulation of life on the edges of town, how much worse is it going to be now that there is even more area to try to control???

I don’t know if this is strictly an intended read, but the idea of Halloween as a fun, scares-for-entertainment’s sake type holiday, the rounding off the edges of concepts like “skeletons and ghosts are what people are after they die, let’s decorate the town with them and have a good time” kind of is a haunting parallel to the nature of Wanda (et al) covering up the horrible truth of the situation with this happy-go-lucky sitcom glamour.

How much does one hate seeing Vision giving his life for the greater good (the greater good) for the second time?  In other news, I think I’m seeing some specifically Mind Stone type energy-colors coming off of him, and very little Wanda type energy-colors.  Third Party Confirmed.

Also, I was thinking from last week that perhaps Hayward’s Villainous Ends included capturing the reanimated Vision to be one of those Sentient Weapons his organization is all about, but I Do Not Think his reaction to seeing that sought-after prize disintegrate in front of his eyes really matches up with that theory.  Again, will be patiently waiting for Jimmy to check his email to see what CATARACT is all about!

Rule of Threes - The Payoff:

Also, anyone ID the movie playing in the background?

Ok, final thought.  I watched this about four times today, and on the big-ass TV at my parents’ house finally paused and got up close to see what that white shape is in the reflection.  Thought it might be a skull, but, it’s worse.

These caps do not contain enough data to verify my claim, but I PROMISE YOU it’s a TV

A square old thing with a round screen and antenna on top. 

I SWEAR to you, when I looked into the TV, into Wanda’s eyes, only to see the reflection of a TV, of her looking at me looking at her I had a visceral fear reaction.  Like.  LEGIT nauseous skin crawl.

(All the other episodes have ended with our POV as the fourth wall, from the general (or exact!!!) position their household TV is known to be.)

This is my favorite show Of All Time.

Under The Bed / Chapter One, “Josie”

ABOUT: Josie Stephens was having a hard enough time at her mere age of five, having to start Kindergarten and move to a new house. Little did she know that it all would get a lot worse that first night when a monster popped out from under her bed, changing her life forever. Inspired by the 1989 movie, Little Monsters, one of my childhood favorites, I began this story in 2016 and recently fell back in love with it.

->   SERIES MASTERLIST

->   MAIN MASTERLIST

-> READ ON WATTPAD

WARNINGS: None

WORD COUNT: 4k words

TAGLIST: IDK HOW TO DO THESE, BUT IF YOU WANNA BE ADDED SO YOU KNOW WHEN A NEW CHAPTER IS POSTED, JUST LET ME KNOW! :)

@berrynarrybanana​

@wotamelonsugar​

SNEAK PEEK OF COURSE -> 

“He remains quiet, and when his neon green irises dart away from me, I know that something is up. 

He may be a monster, but I can read him better than any human I know. His long pale fingers dotted with those blue freckles picks at a hole in my comforter, head bowed and two little mustard colored horns poking out from his mess of hair with one on the left, and one on the right.“

NOW

/

Leaves ranging every shade of red and orange blow around me and settle on the cracked sidewalk. They crunch under my scuffed and dirty high tops as I walk fast around the corner, waiting for my cream house to come into view. Cars and school buses whiz past me, and I hear a barking dog a few blocks away.

I take two steps at a time up the walkway and then on the stairs to the porch, the porch swing in front of the window swaying slightly in the wind. It suddenly stops as I approach, but I don't give it another thought as I pick up the heavy orange potted plant next to the door to find the plate it sits on. The plain silver key sits there catching the sun's light, where I left it yesterday, because my copy has been missing for months. I only wonder who could have done that. Grabbing it, I stick it into the door and give a twist before placing the key back under the pot, like any other day.

The house is silent and dark when I step inside. I flick on the light and the living room is awash in light as I toe off my shoes, warm sunlight pouring in from the open door until it slams shut suddenly. My head flies up and I look around quickly, taking a deep breath and after a minute, I decide it was just the wind. Dropping my heavy backpack at the end of the stairway around the corner, I walk through the living room and into the kitchen against the back of the house.

/

I push open my ajar bedroom door with my foot, leaving my backpack at the door. The sun peeks into my room from the left, coming in through the hastily pulled drapes above my desk. I choose my steps carefully amidst the mess of clothes flung haphazardly across the floor, and others falling out of the open duffle bag sitting by my desk. Falling onto my bed, I click on the TV and bring my crustless PB&J to my lips. Crumbs litter my lap and covers as I watch the rest of an episode of Bones, a rerun but a good one nonetheless.

After awhile with crumbs clinging to my shirt sleeves and sticky peanut butter fingers, I drag my feet over to my desk and get started on my homework. Music trickles from the bluetooth speaker sat at the corner of my desk. I scribble answers in the blanks on the worksheet, turning it over and groaning at all of the questions waiting for me on the back. Peeling my eyes away from the history worksheet, my eyes lift to the gently open blinds. There’s the sliver of outside visible through them, and what really catches my eye - the sun setting on the horizon. My heart does a jump at the sight of it, and I look over my shoulder before I can stop myself. I automatically look to my bed, and the emptiness and scuffed wooden floor underneath it.

With an impatient sigh, I back to my homework with a sullen face. Skipping the next song, I flip the page of my textbook and move on to the next question. I just want to get this shit done already. Who knew it could take so long to find the answers to questions about The Constitution. Yet, more than anything, I try to stay busy. After awhile and two Vampire Weekend albums later, I stuff every single textbook and mechanical pencil away in my backpack.

"Josie, did you hear me? Dinner's ready, come on!" Dad calls up the stairs to me, and I zip one last zipper before yelling 'coming!' and getting to my feet. Opening the door, I step a foot into the hallway and search for my bedroom light with a wandering hand. Something out of the corner of my eye moves, and I look around until I notice the comforter hanging over my bed flutters upwards again. I flick off the light and the room is sent into darkness, before I head downstairs.

/

Wiping the dot of fudge from my lip, I take my time walking up the stairs. The murmur of my parents voices melts together into a background noise as a soft darkness covers the staircase. When I look up to the top of the landing, something stands out from the dark, and my heart does a somersault. A bar of light peeks out from the bottom of my closed bedroom door, and I hear sounds trickling from my bedroom. When I set my foot down on the next stair, a long creeeeeak peels out and the noises cease. The light flickers off and it's silent once again. I lift my foot off the creaky step and walk up another stair, wanting to take them two at a time, but I don't. I try to slow down, no matter how fast I want to go right now, forgetting the fact that I want to run in there right now.

I push open the door slowly, hearing it's long creak before its little clunk when it hits the wall. My hand runs over the wall until I find the light switch and flip it upwards, bathing the room in light. My backpack still sits open by my desk. My laptop is open, but the screen is dark next to my dormant desk lamp. My bed is a mess of wrinkly covers, albeit a dip in my pillows where I sat earlier. Oddly enough, there's another dip at the head of my bed that pulls my eyebrows down into a question. It also yanks my lips up to pinch my cheeks with a smile.

A scuffle pricks my ears, and I look around, confused. First, to underneath my bed where it sounds like it had come from, but the sound is gone as quick as it had happened. My lips set into a frown as I turn and take another look, and when I'm facing my door a loud 'boo!' almost scares me off my feet. I jump back and feel myself start to fall, and luckily, my bed catches me.

"Ugh! You don't have to do that just because you're a monster!" I huff, sitting up and laying my eyes upon the giggling guy in front of me.

"Wha', why not? 's me favorite, it gets ya every time!" he squeals in excitement, and I have to hold myself back from rolling my eyes. That becomes the least of my worries when everything blurs and I'm pushed onto my back. "Hiiiiiiiya, goose! I thought it was you I heard on da stairs, but had t' make sure. Smelled ya when ya walked in, y’know. I knew it was you cuz ya smell like berries and cream," he says as he lies dead weight on top of me. I laugh and hear his silly one in return.

"You'd think you'd be lighter for being- you know, nonhuman, but you definitely aren't."

"Tha's no way t' greet me afta not seein’ eachuther for days. That was rude, goose. Think ya need t' be shown a lesson, you do,” he scoffs and I watch his lips fall into an exaggerrated pout.

"No no no, please don’t!"

"Oh, yes!" he laughs evilly, and I feel it start. It doesn't look like it, but he's strong. Dammit, is he. "Waitin' up here fer tha last half hour for you, thought I was two sweet seconds from gettin' caught fer tha first time in . . ever, and ya call me fat. Tsk tsk, think ya needa lesson taught t' ya," he says, clucking his tongue in the middle of my shrieks and laughs.

"NOOOOOO, WAIT! YOU’RE GONNA!" I shriek in between laughs and desperate pleas for him to stop. His long and quick fingers continue to poke and prod at my ribs, dancing along my stomach and wandering to my armpits, every now and then. Sweat builds on my brow as I flail and squirm, trying to kick him and hit him, but he's expecting that. He knows.

"Josie! What's going on up there?" the loud voice of my dad booms up the stairs, and his movements come to an abrupt stop. His crazy green irises framed by yellow tinged scleras grow wide and alert before darting around.

"Fuck, no. Not yer parents," he whispers fast, and in a blink, his weight from on top of me is gone. My lungs are spewing tiny thank you's, but when I look around, he's gone. There's that same scuffle again and my bed lifts to fall back down a second later.

The old bead necklaces around my door handle slide back and forth when the door opens. My dad's towering figure stands in the doorway and quickly, his hands fall onto his hips in a question while he looks around my room. "I heard yelling up here, what's going on? Are you okay?" the words fall from his thin lips fast, his brown eyes staring back at me while his frown is hard to see through his thick beard. I swing my legs over the bed and face him with a nervous gulp.

"I'm fine, Dad. I was just uh, watching something on TV and the volume was really loud.I'm sorry."

"Hmmm, I could've sworn . . . ," he begins but he waves his hand, his old gold watch falling down his hand along with his wedding ring catching the light. "You just um, try to keep it down up here, sound good?" he finishes with a little smile.

"Yeah, Dad, of course," I reply, and his gelled back ashy blonde hair moves as he nods. I feel a tug on the bottom of my jeans, and I reply with a kick of my foot.

"Okay, well . . ," my dad trails off with a shrug of his shoulders. He then forces an awkward smile before turning around to leave. There's a sharp pinch on my ankle and I wince before giving another kick, and hearing an 'ouch!' I cough quickly to cover it up, sighing when my dad doesn't turn around and walks down the stairs.

"You idiot!" I exclaim under my breath, jumping off my bed and hurrying across my room to close the door.

"How come 'm tha idiot here? I don' remember bein' tha one screamin' her bloody lungs out, now was I?" I scoff as the door meets the hinges and I turn to watch him sliding out from beneath my bed. His sickly pale hand the lightest shade of blue hangs onto the edge of my bed that’s propped up in the air.

He gets to his feet and it falls back to the floor slowly and without a sound, just like every other time. Only a scuffle. He just smirks, his yellow but perfect teeth showing behind his sly smile. My hair moves with my shaking head as I sit back down on the bed, his tall figure moving towards me out of the corner of my eye.

"I dunno why ya don' enjoy me tickles, they're fun. 'm good at it. Y’know 'm quite givin’, could be loads worse, Jose," he comments matter of factly. His  shoulder knocks against mine, and he pushes me over to make room to sit down next tome. I bump shoulders back, but he hardly moves. Figures. "Jus' be lucky ya don' have tha tickle monster under yer bed 'stead, love."

"Sureee," I say, falling back to lie on my bed. There's a little poof and the mattress bounces when he lands next to me.

"Rememba when ya first put up those stupid plastic stars. Thought ya were a bloody genius, you were," he smirks beside me, our elbows knocking against each others. I feel his right shoe nudge against my foot and I kick it off the bed. "Hell, babe! Wha's yer problemo t’night? Wha', ya not miss me, Jose?" My eyes remain on the ceiling, and on the chipped, peeling glow in the dark stars stuck there in an array of sizes and arrangement. Their opaque white color has turned a slight yellow during their age, but his hand pops right in front of my face to block my view of them. It goes back and forth, and finally, I catch it and push it away.

"C'mon, goose, talk t' me. Hate it when yer quiet, makes this no fun."

"That's just it, Harry!" I retort, sitting up and looking to my right to find him lying there on his side looking up at me, confused. His mussy brown curls are crazy once again and swept over his forehead. A few of his sky blue, oblong freckles that cover his body poke out from his fringe of dark hair.

"Wha's just it? 'm not one o’ them monsters who can read minds, Jose, not some jinn or those bloody bogus fortune tellers you lot put so much worth in," he mutters curtly, tsking quietly, thinking I can't hear it, but he's one of the loudest monsters I know. Possibly the only one, but still.

" . . You didn't come last night."

He remains quiet, and when his neon green irises dart away from me, I know that something is up. 

He may be a monster, but I can read him better than any human I know. His long pale fingers dotted with those blue freckles picks at a hole in my comforter, head bowed and two little mustard colored horns poking out from his mess of hair with one on the left, and one on the right. "I didn't think ya'd be home from yer gram's 'till like, this mornin', like ya said," he reveals with a heavy huff holding a hint of an animal-like sound to it, catching me off guard and tearing away any kind of response I had ready. "But, I popped in 'round quarter afta four, afta gettin' done at Ronny Snooker's house, and found ya all curled up like a toasty lil' burrito. Wanted t’ wake ya, trust me I did, but I knew I shouldn't cuz ya'd get all angry at me fer wakin' you an' I hate it when yer mad at me. Can' handle it."

". . I shouldn't even be talking then," I speak up, and his head of curls lifts, letting me find those magical eyes past those long-ass eyelashes. If every monster has eyelashes those long, I fricken swear.

"No, 's not yer fault, Jose. Jus' a teenie tiny misunderstandin’, 's all."

"I did miss you, though. I mean, I guess."

"Ha! I knew it, just had tha feelin’," Harry smirks, his ghostly lips spreading high and wide, and almost up to his eyes. Dark dimples fall into his chiseled cheeks as he whispers an 'aha!' and then, all of a sudden, his wiry stony arms are around me. "Ya miss me, ya miss me, now ya gotta kiss me!"

"I don't think that's how it goes," I get out in between the middle of tight hugs enclosed in his stiff arms, as his familiar musty smell comes over me. It’s like an old basement.

My favorite smell.

"Sure, it does. I know what 'm talkin' 'bout, gotta respect yer elder, goose," he insists, and when I look up at him, he's still grinning. Soon, it falls into a pensive line, and the nostrils of his big pointy nose flare. And sure enough, he sniffs me. "Wha's that I smell on ya?"

"What the hell, Harry?"

"Ya smell like . . Smell like peanut butter, love. Thought you lot ran out last week, like ya said," he says quickly, the words leaving his devilish lips at light speed.

Oh no.

His thick eyebrows hike up his forehead as he sniffs around me fervently, only making me giggle and giving me a tickle. "Oh, ya think 's so funny, do ya? Don' like it when ya tell me lies, goose, an' you know jus’ how much peanut butta 's me favorite. You silly goose, you." He raises a finger and wiggles it at me, giving me a glimpse of his short dirty nails.

"Okay, Okay, I'm sorry! Mom brought home some the other night, like a big tub from Costco. But, Harry, you can't eat it all this time!"

"An' why bloody not?" he replies, annoyed. His dark unruly eyebrows come together and down in a furrow.

"Because! I got blamed for it the last time, like you always seem to do!" 

"Dunno wha' yer talkin' 'bout. 'd never be such a big meanie an' blame sumthin' on ya like that," he smirks, and I push him off of me, getting up and walking over to the black dresser sat against the wall by my door. "What, 'm I s'posed t' do, Josie? Y’know I got this love for peanut butta I can' control."

"You can say that again," I mutter, opening one of the drawers of my dresser and rifling through my clothes

I hear him tsk tsk from behind me, and a squeak from the mattress follows in suit. When I glance over my shoulder at him, he's lying on the left side with his hands behind his head, getting all comfy. Rolling my eyes, I grab a t-shirt and pajama bottoms at random to change into for the night.

"But, I don't know, Harry. Don't they have peanut butter down there?"

"No, I’ve already told you this how many bloody times?! Ni's allergic or summat, tha bloody weirdo, so he neva let's me within like, a mile radius of it. He’s afraid 'm gonn' kill him or summat, even though tha's impossible. Dunno how he can be allergic t' sumthin' so bleedin' delicious. 's rubbish, 's what it 's," Harry says, shaking his head which I laugh at. His eyes drag over to me and he leers at me before shaking it again with his lips pressed into a disapproving line. "Talk it up, Jose. You try bein' a monster for a day."

"I would, if you'd let me," I say quietly. Walking across the room, I slip into my closet,shutting the door behind me.

"Don' even ge'mme started, you li’l shit. Ya think I dunno what yer gettin' at, d’ya?"

"Hey! Be nice to me, and what ever happened to trying not swearing around me? I thought you said it was 'unbecomin’ o’ me t’ swear ‘round you’ and all that," I yell through the door, turning my back as I slip off my clothes to change into the others sitting at my feet.

"Ya, that lasted 'til you were 'bout I dunno, ten, goosie. 's like me vocabulary, I can' help it. I mean, God, ya should hear Ly’ swear - he curses like a friggin' fairy. But, don't tell him that cuz he'd kick me in tha jewels if he heard me compare him t’ a fairy. I mean, ya wouldn' think they're capable o' cursin' - those fairies with that teeny tiny body o' theirs, but boy, oh boy. do they. ‘m quite envious of his swearin’, tho’, if I do say meself."

"I know, I remember. You taught me my first swear words, my parents were horrified when I said 'shit' for the first time. When was it again? Oh yeah, that day in fourth grade when I fell learning how to roller blade," I giggle in return, sliding on the pair of plaid pajama pants, tying the strings at the waist. "And, how would I tell Ly’ anyways when you won't let me meet him?"

"They should be lucky I didn' start ya sooner, but ya, one o' tha proudest moments o’ me damned life," he sighs happily as I walk out of the closet splaying my caramel blonde hair over my shoulders. I try to ignore that he dodged the second part of my sentence. Now, I'm rolling my eyes as I walk to the door and flick off the light, soon joining him and his fake crying on my bed.

Curling up under the covers, my bedside lamp lights his features as he stares up at the ceiling, thinking. Thinking about what, I don't know, but I'm curious. "What do monsters think about, Harry?"

"Y’know . . I rememba tha first time ya asked me that when ya were- what, five? Jus' came home from yer second or third week o’ school an' asked me it. Suddenly, yer in Kindiegarten and ya think yer such a hoot."

"Well, I don't remember what you said then, considering it was almost thirteen years ago, so please, do enlighten me," I joke, and the single dimple in the middle of each of his cheeks falls down when a smile bends his lips upwards. Who knew a monster could have dimples, or be so cute.

"Okie dokie, smartass, well 's not real different from you humans. Y’know, think 'bout food and things we wanna do," he answers me, turning his head and looking me in the eyes. Yellow smile falling and dimples slowly disappearing. He raises his eyebrows at me, only to wiggle them a second later, making me giggle.

He almost scoffs, biting his tongue as his head of curls goes from side to side. I murmur a dumbfounded 'what,’ earning me a shrug of his bony shoulders in return. "Dunno, missed yer laugh, I guess. Don' hear 'em often when yer not 'round. Well, not happy ones, that is," he tells me, giving me a cheesy smile showing no teeth. I sigh and move closer to him, my forehead just missing his shoulder by a centimeter. His calming musty smell walks up my nose, and I close my eyes with a happy smile.

"What did you do while I was gone?" 

"A whole lotta nothin'," Harry hums in reply, and I feel the hard tips of his fingers on my scalp stroking at my hair. "Jus' went 'round me business scarin' tha other kiddies in town. Ronny, Daisy, the redhead, and the new little tot on Willow Street. They're pretty easy, 'cept Ronny, he's such a li’l shit, ugh. Did I tell ya I took all tha air outta his bike tires, and drank his chocolate milk that was s'posed t' be for lunch tha next day?"

"No," I giggle, moving closer to him and finding his shoulder and the soft holey fabric of his pitch black t-shirt.

"Ah damn, it was a hoot. Wish I coulda been there tha next mornin' t' see his face. Tha li’l devil deserved it, he gave me a right bruise on me shin kickin' me when I popped in tha other night," he huffs, making a funny sound with his lips. “That kid can't grow up soon enough. Hell, 'm almost tempted t; make it seem like 'm a ghost hauntin’ their house, so they'd move tha fook out an' I don' hafta deal with him anymo'."

A chuckle falls from my lips as my eyes remain closed and I breathe in his smell. Oh, how I missed you. "Ya fallin' 'sleep on me already, Jose? 's hardly nine o'clock, 'm disappointed in you."

"I'm tired, and I have school tomorrow," I whine, hiking the covers up my shoulders with a groan when they don't come easily. The bed moves and the comforter goes up smoothly, making me open my eyes to find his nimble, pale hands draping it over me. He gives me a smile before lying back down and replacing his hand in my hair, going back to lulling me to sleep playing with it.

"Oh ya, yer a big ol' senior now, hmph," he clucks, ending it with a final sigh. "Fine, I guess ya can go t' bed. But, we gotta catch up one o' these nights 'bout yer trip t’ yer gram's. Ya betta have saved me some o' her butterscotch cookies, or 'm not gonna be too happy with you, goosie. And, I was searchin' real hard for where I hid yer house key, almost thought 'd found it, but I dunno." I hum a sleepy 'okay' as I close my eyes again, grunting in frustration as I try to find his shoulder again. His lovely giggle touches my ears and I find him not long after with a huff.

"Funny li’l thing, you are. Now go t' bed, ya sleepy bones. An' try not t' snore, will ya? I mean, 's awfully cute, but it interrupts me readin'. Gotta see what you lot are readin' this year an' catch up t' ya," he jests, and I shove him with a small groan.

His squeaky laugh leaves his devilish lips, hanging there for a small second. "Alrighty then, go t’ sleep, you. Have tha sweetest o' dreams, goose. Oh, and don' let tha beddy bugs bite."

I’m in a mood tonight so have me rambling about my music tastes below the cut

Eclectic is a good word for my music tastes like

In theory I like musical theater, in practice I have a few shows I know and like, a few songs that came on a tv radio thing from a musical I have heard nothing else from, and little to no opinion on anything else. Chicago? Great. Sweeney Todd? Haven’t listened in a while, has a couple of no-no songs, pretty good. Little Shop of Horrors? Haven’t found a recording I like for Dentist but the music is great. CATS? 2019 fucked up the music, London cast recording is where it’s at, shame that Growltiger is so racist because the parts that aren’t being racist are great fun (London not Broadway). There are definitely others (Mean Girls is fun, Be More Chill is pretty fun too, I really like the junior version of Seussical’s music, Something Rotten has a lot of fun songs), and while I’m not a Disney stan or anything I do like the style of a lot of the music, especially villain songs, sometimes I want songs that are like Disney villain songs in style but aren’t those songs specifically and it is so hard to figure out how to look that up and it is frustrating. Most things not on that list...I probably haven’t listened to and therefore have no opinion. (Phantom of the Opera is not my vibe though I’m sorry it is important because it’s been running for so long but that is just not my type of music)

I like late 2000s to mid 2010s pop music, that was when my dad got some CDs for a birthday or something and then I ended up listening to them a lot for some reason, also when I liked Just Dance a lot and listened to the radio in the car going places. There are definitely older songs I like and probably a few more recent ones but really that’s the time frame where I liked the most mainstream music. Not that that’s a good or bad thing, it’s just a thing.

Specific artists, when it comes to music that isn’t fan music, Voltaire and Creature Feature are my favorites. Most songs of theirs I’ve listened to, I like.

There are also probably some other artists that I like a lot of their songs but don’t pay enough attention to recognize they’re the same group in those songs, mostly thanks to this one Creepypasta-themed playlist that obviously had a lot of edgy music. Lots of MCR, Set it Off is a group that I’ve heard a number of good songs from, Hollywood Undead (apparently maybe there was some member drama, idk I just like what I’ve heard both pre- and post-whatever happened), probably some other groups with multiple songs.

And then there’s fan content. Random Encounters is my long-term favorite, the tone of the music is generally pretty light, idk they do a slight musical theater style (they call their songs ‘musicals’ so yeah that’s a vibe), and while their members have changed, the music is still really fun. The Stupendium! I found him pretty recently and boy I’m glad I did, he does more rap-style content, like a number of his songs are raps, but don’t let that turn you off before giving it a listen. Even outside of being about the game itself, a few of his songs just slap really hard, a few being very very anti-capitalist or just social commentary because of the source game, and just very very good. The Fine Print is a really really really good one that is also ‘capitalism sucks’, It’s A Joy isn’t really capitalism-related but someone could probably write a thinkpiece about societal stuff with it, I haven’t listened to it as much but A Matter of Factories (not to be confused with the similarly named A Matter of Facts, a rap that is just a bunch of trivia, sparked by a challenge by another channel) is also pretty anti-capitalist and anti-imperialism, another that isn’t exactly anti-capitalist but more an examination of society and stuff is Vault Number 76. I don’t even know much about any of the source games (aside from 76 being a glitchy nightmare lmao) but the songs all still slap. I almost forgot about Nook Line and Sinker, another wonderful anti-capitalism song. (Adding in A Purpose for New London. More social examination. I like the other guy’s ending better on a vocal level, but both are very very good.) (somehow I forgot Doctor! Doctor! which has its humor from the game it’s about but also has bits about how private healthcare is fucked up. The Stupendium is British BTW) If you just want some fun shit, he’s got that too. The Most Fashionable Faction is just a fun TF2 rap, An Impostor Calls is one of the collab songs he did with another guy and it’s pretty fun, I only have heard one ending of the Lego vs Minecraft rap battle but it seems pretty fun, These Hallowed Wings is a lighthearted one, Why Did I Say Okie Doki? is DDLC vibes of course so creepy but also with some upbeat to it (does that even make sense), Losing My Patients is kinda fucked up because Surgeon Simulator but it’s also really fun, What A Fowl Day is a very very good one, Way Deeper Down is good if you like Undertale (it’s also just genuinely good and fun). Honestly the only two I would rather skip when listening to him on shuffle are the two that have him partnering with SquigglyDigg, neither of the songs have anything wrong with them particularly I just. remember Squiggly’s awful takes on Lilo and Stitch and how she is the kind of person that’s like ‘you can call yourself whatever you want but there are only two genders’ and is miffed when people don’t recognize she’s a girl from her (drawn) profile pic like she gets upset about people trying to be polite because she disagrees with them being respectful to nb people or some shit

Also I like lyrics a lot and sometimes I can just go off vibes (like I don’t really like the really really heavy metal stuff like it’s really annoying when I’m like ‘I want a song about a deal with another power’ and all that comes up is either really heavy metal that is just loud and I don’t know what they’re saying (I’M NOT DISSING IT IT JUST ISN’T MY TYPE OF MUSIC) or a type of blues or something that also isn’t usually what I’m after at that time) but I also have a lot of appreciation for good lyrics and lyrics about stuff I like (which led to my friend being weirded out because she doesn’t listen as closely to lyrics as I do so when I tried to share some Stupendium songs she was just listening to the vibes and was like ‘you listen to weird music’) so like what it’s about matters

Also Biggering slaps. That is very tangential but it just slaps, go listen to it. How Bad Can I Be is fine I guess, like it’s catchy and all, but Biggering is just so much better. (The fact that multiple people have written video essays about Biggering and that movie should speak to how good it is. At least go listen once you can look it up on YouTube it’s just really good)

Also mental animatics are a thing. They just are. So that also can affect how I feel about a song.

Oh and The Cog Is Dead has a lot of good songs, how did I forget them

1980s horror film - s.mingi

hello all!!!

it’s been a lot longer than i intended, but a bunch of stuff came up and i both didn’t have time and didn’t feel like writing. this also wasn’t what i initially planned on posting, but life works weirdly and here we are. that being said, i wrote this in a way that is different to how i typically write so i apologise if it sounds/feels weird or awkward. regardless, i hope u enjoy! (also i didn’t realise it was all lower case so please ignore the inconsistency lmao)

//

pairing: song mingi x reader genre: unrequited love?? idk how to tag it oops word count: 1660 this is inspired by a song titled ‘1980s horror film II’ by wallows! 

//

mingi had been waiting for eons to score a date with y/n. way too long. all of his friends (mainly wooyoung), teased him constantly about her, but he had never gathered the courage to do anything about it.

they'd been friends for a long while, even hanging out a few times together at the cinema, or just going out for lunch before mingi realised he had an absolutely huge crush on her.

recently he'd been avoiding her like the plague, using volleyball practice, or band rehearsal with the boys as an excuse not to hang out with her. 

that was, until one sunny saturday afternoon, when she called him out of the blue. he took a few moments to collect himself, staring at the ringing phone in his hand like it was a ticking bomb seconds away from a devastating explosion.

"hey dingus!" y/n called down the phone once he had collected himself enough to answer. "what are you doing?" she asked.

"nothing. why?" 

"i'm bored." she declared. "wanna come over?"

"s-sure!" mingi agreed straight away.

"sweet. see you soon then!" y/n hung up, and mingi was convinced he might pass out.

he'd never been to her house before. maybe she really did like him back? oh god, he was starting to internally panic now; how was he supposed to act? he didn't want to be a creep but he didn't want to be painfully awkward either. oh god. oh god oh god oh god.

"get it together, mingi." he scowled at himself in the mirror, shaking his faded red hair side to side. he couldn’t make a fool of himself in front of her; he absolutely would not allow it. 

this could be his chance, to finally muster enough balls to ask y/n out before it was too late. yes, he'd decided; today would be the day.

-----

half an hour later, an exceptionally nervous song mingi knocked on the door of his highschool crush. he reached up and brushed a shaking hand through his hair, wondering whether his legs were numb from fear or the chilling bite of the surprisingly cold weather. 

a few moments passed, then the door swung open to reveal y/n. she was dressed in her usual style, comfy, stylish, beautiful, very y/n. in truth, she could be wearing a trashbag and mingi would still say she looked gorgeous.

she gave him a wide, toothy grin and stepped aside to let him in.

"welcome to mi casa!" she motioned to the hallway dramatically, one arm sweeping out in front of her and almost bashing her elbow into the kitchen doorframe.

"i wanna watch a movie!" she said, once she had recovered from the near injury. "i've already got the snacks ready, so let's go!"

she began bounding up the stairs, mingi following her before realising where they were headed and freezing abruptly in his tracks.

"we're going upstairs?" he breathed, anxiety flooding him from head to foot.

just what exactly was she expecting from him?

"yeah?" she shrugged. "is that a problem?"

"no!" he replied, perhaps a little too quickly. "no, that's not a problem at all."

-----

he was scared.

bordering on terrified.

y/n's bedroom was dark; having pulled the curtains before mingi's arrival to avoid the sun glaring onto the television.

as the minutes went on, mingi became less and less sure just what she was planning this afternoon.

she paced over to the tv set, opening a dvd case and slotting a disc into the player.

"it's a 1980s horror film," she explained. "i've been wanting to watch it for ages, but i didn't want to watch it alone... you don't mind, do you?"

mingi shook his head quickly. he did in fact mind, not being the biggest fan of the horror genre, but he'd made it this far, and backing out now was definitely not an option. plus, if wooyoung caught wind of mingi chickening out, he would never hear the end of it.

"here," she motioned to her bed; a double, with lilac sheets and an appropriate amount of cushions bundled up by her pillows. "take a seat."

unsure of whether he should, but not wanting to be rude, mingi crawled across her bed, sitting down amidst the cushions and crossing his legs like an obedient, yet timid child. he watched y/n grab her desk chair, dragging it across the room and placing it beside the bed, distanced but still close enough to mingi to completely throw him off his guard.

"don't you want the be-"

"nonsense!" she cut him off before he could even get the words out. "you're my guest, so you get the bed."

mingi was bewildered. never in his life had he expected to be in this situation. it appeared that y/n had absolutely zero intentions of doing anything romantic. which, don't get him wrong, was totally fine, but regardless he was still confused.

all the cheesy high school romance movies he’d watched, and all the young adult fiction novels he had read hinted that when you were invited to your crush’s house, alone, it usually indicated they wanted something romantic. or something more. absolutely nothing had prepared him for, or even suggested that the current circumstances would ever occur in a million years. mingi felt rather cheated, to be honest.

was she making him wait on purpose? deliberately staying away from him in the hopes that he'd just cave in and sweep her off her feet? y/n didn't seem like that kind of girl, but mingi had been wrong about a lot of things when it came to y/n. 

the movie began to play, and they sat surrounded by darkness, mingi decided he would simply go with the flow. he was a nervous wreck, but he wasn't a pervert; he wouldn't do anything unless y/n initiated it. the last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable. 

despite reaching a solution, he couldn't get it out of his mind how close they were in the moment. glancing to his side, he could very much reach out and gently touch her hair. or softly caress her cheek. 

obviously, he wouldn't, because that would be weird. and that was a vibe he was trying to avoid today.

halfway through the movie, y/n jumped up, explaining she had to use the bathroom and scaring the shit out of mingi in the process.

he kept his gaze fixed on the movie playing in front of him, but his mind wandered to other places. he sighed deeply.

he didn't even know what to say to her.

she's always on his mind,

and yet,

he's too afraid to say anything. how long would this pathetic pining go on for? surely it would be better for him to take wooyoung's advice and just go for it? otherwise he'll be playing this game for god knows how long. 

that was it.

he simply couldn't help the way he was feeling; he needed to get it out, to tell her how he truly feels.

and maybe, just maybe, she'd feel the same way too.

y/n comes back, and mingi gears himself up for his confession. digging into the deepest corners of his mind to find the right words to use. deciding to abandon his previous resolution to let y/n initiate, he convinces himself to take charge and follow the lead of every heteronormative teen movie in existence, and sweep the girl off her feet.

until she ditches the chair, motioning for mingi to scooch over and then she lays down right beside him. 

the bed is fairly large, but then again mingi is no regular sized teenage boy, his lanky frame taking up a considerable portion of the bed.. as a result, his right side and her left are pressed flush against each other, and poor mingi thinks he's about to explode.

but still, he inhales deeply, surveying the situation.

the lights are off, 

the mood was right.

perfect.

mingi lets her settle for a short while, which is really him internally psyching himself up, before setting his masterplan into action.

he turns his head slowly to look at y/n, noticing how invested she is in the movie and he pouts a little.

he wants her attention.

she still doesn't notice, so he opts for placing his hand on her cheek as gently as he can and guides her gaze towards him.

her eyebrows furrow together in confusion, but she makes no effort to move away.

frozen anxiety that mingi misinterprets as a green light.

his eyes fall shut, and his upper body leans forward the tiniest amount. he's so close. so close to finally being able to show y/n how he feels. he's seconds away from having a weight lifted off his shoulders. he can't wait to shove it in wooyoung's face either, all the times the younger boy had called him a pussy had pissed mingi off to no end, but look at him now wooyoung, look at him now.

all he needed was for y/n to bridge the gap between them.

but instead, a small hand on mingi's shoulder pushes him back, and his eyes snap open abruptly, and he feels his stomach fall straight through his ass.

"y/n, i-"

the look on her face stops mingi dead in his tracks, because he can't read her expression.

is she mad? is she super pissed that he tried to kiss her? he'd understand if she was, it probably wasn't the best course of action but it was the best he could come up with. is she angry? is she hurt? disappointed? he searches her eyes, burning into his, for answers but comes up short. all he can do is try and guess how she's feeling, but realistically he's no expert, he's no mindreader, how is he suppo-

"mingi, i'm really not that into guys." 

oh.  

Terrain

[Expect a lot of these today, I’m snowed in]’

Have you ever clicked on an ad on the side of your screen by accident? Yepp. When was the last time you were disappointed? Yesterday when my power never came back on and I had to eat stale nachos from 7-11 bc no one else was open. Do you like the smell of rain? Yes. What was the last thing you took a picture of? The lights outside of my mother's house, showing my bf she has power lol Do you know anyone that uses Sprint as their phone carrier? Probably? When you go to McDonalds, what drink do you usually get? Coke. What were you doing today at 2:15 in the afternoon? It's still just 10 am, but I'm sure I'll still just be stuck at my mom's house with nothing to do. What’s the nickname of your home state? Lone Star State. Have you ever thought about your wedding? Sure. What’s the worse type of weather in your opinion? THIS FUCKING COLD ASS SNOWY ASS WEATHER. Do you have a Kindle or iPad or neither? Neither. Would you rather read or write? Read, writing is straining now. When was the last time someone took a picture of you? Someone else?? Idek. Do you own a pair of slippers? Yes. Would you rather see Taylor Swift or Carrie Underwood in concert? If I'm not paying, I'll go to pretty much any concert lol. But if I have to pay, I'm not going to either of these. When someone screws you over, do you get back with revenge? No. Name something negative that you hate about yourself? I'm already pretty fragile mentally right now, I don't feel like picking myself apart today. Is your house currently hot, cold or just right? MY house is freezing, bc it's 7 degrees Fahrenheit and there's no power. Hence why I'm at my mother's. Is there a Dead End road near where you live? I'm sure... Do you roll your eyes often? Yes. All the time. Literally everyone in my life talks about how much I roll my eyes. Growing up, did you see your cousins often? Unfortunately. Where was your first job? Shitty retail job. When’s your birthday? November 2. Is life a party to you? No. Who are you tired of seeing in the news a lot (celebrities)? I don't care. When was the last time you flew a kite? Oh god I have no clue. How long have you had Facebook? Since 2010. Have you ever had to call and complain about a product you bought? No. Name something positive you love about yourself: I'm compassionate. Have you cuddled with someone today? No. Can you smell anything right now? Not really. Have you spoken to a relative on the phone today? I texted my best friend. I know she's not my relative, but she is my kids' aunt, so kinda? Do you use the toilet paper with the colourful designs on it? No. Do you wear your hair up or down most often? It's short, so it is never up. How does alcohol affect you? I'm a recovering alcoholic, so very badly. When was the last time you had a cold or flu? Beginning of January I had a cold. What was the first thing you ate today? Ritz crackers. Do you have anything more important you should be doing right now? Most likely lol. Do you still buy the paper or do you get your news elsewhere? You know, I kind of miss reading the actual newspaper. Have you ever eaten tofu and if so, did you enjoy it? I have. It really just depends on how it's been prepared. I've had it and hated it, and I've had it and loved it. Have you worn make-up today? No. I'm literally stuck inside. Do you ever get dizzy and nauseous when you’re extremely tired? Maybe a little nauseated. Have you ever tried lemon brownies? ...Do you mean lemon bars??? Can you hear anything right now? My niece is watching some stupid YouTube video. What was the last type of meat you ate? Sausage. What colour is your toothpaste? Blue. Have you taken any medication today? Just Tums. Have you ever been suspended from school? Yes. Have you ever inhaled helium? Yes. Have you bought something that was on sale today? I haven't bought anything. Are you a fan of Adam Sandler? I like his old movies. What was the last fruit you ate? Cranberries. Off the top of your head how many aisles are in the supermarket you shop at? No idea, don't care. Have you ever watched Parks and Recreation? Yes. Have you watched a movie this week? Yes. How far away is the closest McDonald’s from your house? Like, a 10 min drive. If that. Have you ever been to a wedding? Yes, a handful. What is your favourite kind of pasta? I like all kinds. Have you set an alarm today? No, I turned off my daily alarms lol Do you keep up-to-date with current news and events? Yes. When was the last time you visited relatives? Do the ones I see on a daily basis count? Because I'm hanging out with my dad, niece, nephew, sister, and step-dad right meow. Have you asked someone for advice today? No. What was the last website you were on, other than this one? My college site. Did you ever play Habbo Hotel? Idk wtf that is. Do you speak any languages other than English? Not fluently. Have you ever been to Hawaii? No thanks. What colour is your shampoo? It's pink. Have you watched more than an hour of TV today? No. Ever wake up early on Saturdays to go Garage Sale shopping? No. When was the last time you got a nose bleed? Like two months ago. How old is the mattress on your bed? It's brand new. Do you have any picture frames without a picture in them? Yes. Do you keep magazines by your toilet? No, but there's a couple books. The last time you got dressed up, where did you go? Out to eat with Justin for V Day. Did the one person who hurt you the most in your life apologize? Yes. Are you proud of who you are? Sometimes. Think of a random person, and give them a message here, no names: No. If you were a waiter/waitress, would you make good tips? I was a waitress ONCE and I made terrible money bc unfortunately my face is very telling when I think someone is an idiot, and I also have an attitude problem. What if there were two of you? Would the world be in trouble? It would just be annoyed. Forget about toppings. What type of CRUST do you like on pizzas? I like crust that has seasoning on it and is soft. I hate bland crust. Have you ever stolen a road sign or traffic barrier? I convinced my high school best friend to steal a construction cone once. Captain Crunch vs. Count Chocula: Who makes the better cereal? Captain Crunch. Would you prefer an ice cream sundae or an ice cream cone? Neither. Is chapstick a necessity for you? Rarely. What are the best kind of Girl Scout cookies? Lemonades or peanut butter sandwiches. If a cop was following you, would it make you paranoid? Yes. Do you watch movies with the subtitles on? Yes, I'm deaf in one ear.

hwang daesung + home!

headcanon / wc: 743

daesung is a believer that everything in your life should reflect something about yourself:  your clothes, your accessories, your demeanor, your social circle, your home. naturally, his apartment is as much of a well-planned but poorly-executed mess as he is. he had the best of intentions when he started living on his own, but every month of boredom has contributed to the slow but sure collection of useless things in his space. he doesn’t spend much time at home, so he doesn’t think it’s a big deal. basically living in a storage unit at this point.

daesung’s apartment is a very strong representation of who he is as a person. however... he’s only been moved in since march ‘19 and while that seems like a long enough time to get his shit together, if he had done it on his own, he’d still have boxes everywhere. had the help of professional movers & an interior designer in getting his place set up. (i say “help”... daesung didn’t lift a finger LOL)

lives in a 2 bedroom apartment, really wanted a roommate, but that’s complicated when you’re an idol and none of his friends agreed and he ended up turning the second bedroom into a home studio even tho he’s def not skilled enough to warrant that. he just thought it’d sound cool to tell people “yeah i have a home studio haha” and also what the fuck else was he gonna do with a whole spare room

his studio is usually the neatest part of his home because that’s where he keeps most of his instruments, his record collection and some other music equipment which he keeps surprisingly organized, so that’s also the only room that he tends to show off <3 if he’s doing a livestream, he’s prob chilling in there. 

as for the rest of his apartment...

it’s hell

always messy. anyone who has visited his place has definitely walked in and been the embodiment of the “damn bitch, you live like this?” meme, so he simply stopped inviting people over. only his best best best friends can come over now

for the most part, it’s just ‘cause he has such a ridiculous amount of shit. he grew up poor and now that he has money, he buys everything that he wants. everything. this results in him not having anywhere to put his belongings, and he ultimately started mounting things on the walls because he has no other space!!!!! you think the shoe racks, guitars and skateboards hanging from his walls are stylistic decisions but really they’re desperate pleas for floor space.

he has a lot of ~nifty~ repurposed amps around his apartment that serve as cabinets. you can never guess what you’re gonna find in there. jewelry? snacks? dirty laundry? nail polish? childhood pictures? his dog’s chew toys? who knows...

one of them serves as a mug cabinet. why is his mug cabinet in the middle of his living room? idk... don’t ask. most of the time, there aren’t any clean mugs in it. they’re all piled on top with thin layers of coffee that he didn’t finish just chillin in ‘em... marinating.. yk

has a lot of random knick-knacks all over the place. weird antique shit he picked up while shopping on tour, little clown figurines, cute tea-light holders, half-dead plants in hand-painted pots, empty coke and beer cans that he keeps for ~sentimental purposes~ (aka he has his blinders turned on and doesn’t see them anymore)

has two tvs, one in the bedroom and one in the living room. has a collection of gaming systems stored in the hall closet (wii, xbox 360, xbox one, ps2, ps3, ps4). his gaming preferences are constantly changing but rn he likes the ps4 the best so that’s what he has hooked up in the living room. has decided that the living room tv is for gaming and the bedroom tv is for watching movies

artwork everywhere. he’s the type of person who sees empty space and immediately thinks about how he can fill it so he’s constantly adding even MORE stuff to the walls as if they aren’t cramped enough already. has some framed album covers, some movie posters, but mainly it’s like. paintings he picked up while on tour or gifts from fans

every drawer is a junk drawer

has a few randomly-placed lava lamps. does he need a lava lamp in the bathroom? probably not. but he thinks it creates a nice ambience

uses diffusers to scent his apartment. mainly prefers bright/fruity scents for cologne but surprisingly he prefers earthy scents for his home. likes palo santo the most

but imagine palo santo mixed with 3-day old takeout because this man never cooks

overall... his apartment isn’t that bad? probably expected if you already know him & it has potential to be really nice actually, but he NEEDS to start getting rid of the stuff he doesn’t use / doesn’t need anymore.

Makeup - P.P

Summary: Free makeover for the Avengers; courtesy of Y/N Stark and Peter Parker

Warnings: maybe cussing and idk shit about makeup so plz don’t hate me lol

Word Count: 1.5k

Tony Stark never really thought he'd be in his current situation. The same could be argued for almost every other situation he's been in, so at this point, he's not sure why he's surprised. Not that it's bad, because this is for anyone and everyone. However, it's not something he actively thought about. Not something he actively sought. In fact, he never even thought this was a possible outcome of anything. But alas, here he is; in his daughter's bed listening to how Peter knows about doing makeup, with his face beat.

Beat in a completely different way than usual.

"So are you feeling a bright flamboyant look or a dark brooding look?" you ask the man. Peter sits diagonally across from him while you sit in front of him. His eyes are set on the giant makeup case you have. Well, one of, at least. His gaze moves back towards you and he looks so concerned.

"A broodingly flamboyant look sounds nice," Tony responds to his daughter. A wide smile grows upon your lips as you jump up. You grab hold of his hand and pull him up. He nearly falls as you drag him to the vanity just a few feet away from your TV. Peter is quick to take off the movie that is currently playing and replaces it with the sound of one of your many playlists. Tony seems a little hesitant as he sees you grab one of the two cases filled with makeup. You open the big rosegold case from the top, showing a hollow top with a mirror.

From the corner of his eye, Tony can see Peter pulling up a chair and sitting at the edge of the vanity. Tony's not so sure why the boy is hooked on watching his daughter work on some makeup, but Peter always seems so intrigued. Ultimately, Tony decides to get comfortable and leans back in the chair. He scrolls through his phone, deciding to figure out how Instagram works. He doesn't see the point in it but ultimately decides on making an account because he wants to be in the loop. Plus, he found your finsta and he gets a laugh at how you explain every Avengers encounter. That or all your stupid rants and Peter's equally stupid comments.

"Alright dad, I'm gonna do some foundation and we're really gonna hit your under eyes with tons of concealer," you begin explaining as you begin pulling out brushes and pallets and plenty of other things, of which Tony does not know the purpose. "Peter, can you please wet the blender, baby?"

Tony mentally awes, but chuckles as Peter eagerly jumps up and does as he's asked. The young man returns with a pink egg-looking thing in his hand. Peter takes his seat as you begin putting makeup on your father. He continues scrolling through Instagram. He'll start laughing at the most random things he sees. You're already a long way into the process. His whole face has been coated with at least one layer of something. You've begun working on his eyes now. His eyebrows are done, eyeshadow applicated, and now you're working on his eyeliner. He's really beginning to look good and Peter is just as shocked as Tony.

"Hey-" Steve begins as he and Nat walk into the room. His brows furrow as he sees Tony in your vanity chair as you hover over him with some makeup in hand. "What's going on?"

"Y/N is doing Tony's makeup and he looks amazing in it!" Peter compliments. You blow him a kiss, which he catches and slaps on his cheek. "Wanna have your makeup done?" Peter asks. Steve chuckles and shakes.

"I don't wear makeup, plus Y/N is busy," Steve responds. Nat is stood there under the door frame and she's stunned into a silence still. She hasn't moved one inch.

"Nonsense, I can do it!" Peter offers excitedly. He doesn't notice the glare you send Steve's way, telling him to just do it. Steve sighs and nods, moving towards the vanity. The song switches from some ACDC song Tony used to sing to you to Bartender by T-Pain.

Peter moves from his seat and lets Steve take over it as Peter looks over at all the makeup. For someone of your skin tone, you have a wide range of colors for foundation. In fact, you have foundation for someone of Loki's complexion -in fact, the only reason you'd bought it was to use it on Loki, he only trusts you with makeup- all the way to someone of Rhodey's complexion. No one really knows why but they don't question it. So Peter grabs a tone to match Steve's complexion as he's much paler than Tony.

As the two young adults work on the two men, the team begins to pile into the room upon Nat's request. She's initially called for Rhodey and Bucky to come in to see their best friends getting their faces beat. However; Vision, Wanda, Sam, and Pepper has all wandered into the room. Neither of you really noticed as they piled on to your bed or sat on the couch on the opposite wall of your room. Not after Steve had asked the question that started the almost two-hour story.

"How does Peter know how to do makeup?"

You'd paused for a few seconds to think of it, remembering the day as if it happened just yesterday once the memories came flooding in. "It was a little over a year ago," you begin as you move to look at all the lipstick colors you own. You'd gone for a black and burgundy look on your dad and it looked amazing. You opted for the burgundy matte lipstick. He's not a lipgloss type of man. "Peter was watching me do my makeup because I was bored, and he started jokingly trying to do his own look," you continue.

"Yeah, and so her makeup came out really good and mine made me look like a clown. She asked if she could do my makeup, to which I agreed," Peter continues. He begins working Steve's eyes, having finished with all the cheek and jaw stuff. "I actually really liked how I looked and it gave me a slight boost in my confidence, so I began to watch how she did her makeup, taking in every step."

Not even a full minute after, Tony was being replaced with Nat as she takes a seat in the vanity chair. "So, one day, I'm over at his apartment and I walk into the restroom and I see all these different makeup products, and I ask Peter if May needs an update on her makeup because it's all very damaged. Luckily, it was all cheap palettes, cheaper but functional makeup," you continue explaining, seeing you only have to work on Nat's contour, highlight, eyes and lips. You started right away on the contour.

Peter continues explaining how he admitted it was his, but while he knew where things went, he didn't know how to properly apply, how much and how to take care of it all. He describes how you brought him back, gave him lessons at least once every weak and how once you knew he had it all down, you took him to buy himself some makeup for whenever he wanted it. He explains how he doesn't do his makeup a lot, only when he really wants a confidence boost or when you go out with friends to gay clubs or something. You both explain how the makeup sessions strengthened your relationship and how it's been a staple to your relationship. All while this story is being told, you manage to finish Nat's makeup, as well as Sam's makeup. Peter managed to do Bucky's and Wanda's. Pepper began to do her own makeup, just touching up on it after you taught her your ways. Now Peter and you are finishing up on Rhodey's makeup, completing the whole team.

However, as you add the finishing touched to Rhodey's look and touching up your father's eyeshadow with a fuck ton of glitter, you're all being warned about a sudden attack on New York. None of you had time to remove your makeup, only enough time to barely suit up. You all run to grab your suits, quickly getting into your suits and heading towards the danger. Upon arrival, you see some space aliens attempting to kill civilians, so you and Wanda team up with Peter and Sam to evacuate. They were all shaken but they followed. While this was happening, Bucky, Steve, Tony, Nat, Vision, and Rhodey are all fighting. The battle takes a good few hours as you all kill these monsters. However, at the end of it all, the heroes are all beaten and tired. They're hungry and thirsty, and every other possible thing. However, you ask for masks off and once all the masks are off -well only five of them, already including you- you snap a quick selfie of everyone staring at you oddly.

"Your makeup, all of yours, it's still intact!" you say excitedly.

"Did we really fight with makeup on?" Steve asks. In record time too, so you might just convince them the makeup made a difference.

Please send in requests and feedback!! Send in asks about anything as well y’all, come talk to me!!

Trio ||| Minhyuk x Reader x Jooheon

Summary: Movie nights with your favourite bickering friends is always an event to behold. Everything is peaceful with your trio of giggles, and that’s the way it would stay. You were sure of it.  Genre: Fluff Warning(s): Oneshot that accidentally gained a plot that may now need a sequel but I’m busy so idk Word Count: 2831 Theme Song: Humph! - Pentagon AN: December 12 prompt, movie night. Credit as usual goes to @songi-writes I’m going to keep tagging I’m sorry I don’t want to be annoying but I feel like a thief otherwise I’m sorryyyy!! Do I call him Jooheon? Joohoney? I do not know ..... i love u bb joo i promise

~~~

The living room was filled to the brim with near-manic giggles that didn’t falter even as you entered the room. Confusedly tilting your body round the door frame, you caught a glimpse of the thick fluffy blanket on the sofa moving as if it had a life of its own.  The amalgamation of pastel blue fluff juddered as another roar of raucous laughter emanated from its depths, its sides flourishing and stretching at random while it snorted unceremoniously.

Quickly grabbing the snacks from the kitchen counter, you hurried into the fray, coming to a halt directly at the side of the beast.

Upon closer inspection, you could see the shapes rippling beneath the blanket reflected one person being held captive by the other, and, going by the sudden convulsions at one end, said captive was being tickled ferociously—leading him to kick wildly in response. 

You didn’t even need to listen in to work out who was the perpetrator here, though deciphering who started it would perhaps be a trickier endeavour. 

Dropping the snacks on the coffee table, you crouched down strategically, aiming to free the victim from his torture.  Tactfully, you leant in at an angle that allowed precision and accuracy, and low enough so to avoid any collateral.

And then, you struck.

Minhyuk took the jab below the ribs with glamorous dignity. And glamorous dignity meant shrieking like a fox.

The manoeuvre gave Jooheon a chance to escape, which he took gladly, knocking the blanket off his head and breathing a huge sigh of relief.

“It’s not over yet soldier!” you exclaimed, swooping in to protect him from recapture, catching Minhyuk’s arms as they swung round to grapple Jooheon back to his body. “Honey, get him!”

 “Oh!” Jooheon was startled, but immediately dug his fingers into his band mate’s sides. Cackling, Minhyuk tried to wriggle free, but found himself laughing too hard. 

“G-guys! Sto-! P... h—yah!” 

“We will never relent!” you declared, letting go of his wrists, deciding he was rendered practically immobile by that point, and joined in on the assault.

Bad move.

Instantly Minhyuk caught you instead, dragging you onto his chest and using his legs—albeit trapped in the end of the blankets—to push Jooheon down onto the two of you. 

Yelping at the sneak attack, you were immediately trapped in Minhyuk’s grip, leaving him free to do whatever he wished, which in this case was unleashing an merciless attack upon your stomach. You were left barely able to breathe between laughter, your body shifting wildly with every jolt of giddiness, while Jooheon was left to collapse on your back, cheek squished against your shoulder as he scolded the perpetrator weakly.

Minhyuk laughed victoriously, his master plan of a cuddle pile coming together neatly, even though he couldn’t really breathe either. 

Suddenly though, there was a high-toned thud that made you all freeze.

“What was that?” Jooheon asked groggily.

You grimaced. “The remote, I think.”

The two turned simultaneously to glare disapprovingly at Minhyuk as you groaned, it no doubt being a consequence of his kicking legs.

“Hey!” he whined, “I didn’t know it was there! Also you were tickling—! You can’t blame me entirely!

Clambering off the sofa, you left him to pick up the blanket as you joined Jooheon in searching for the lost remote.

He had his head hanging down the gap between the sofa, end-table and armchair, attempting to spot the black remote in the shadow there. You rolled your eyes at the slight lack of common sense, leaning over to turn on the lamp on the table. 

The click and sudden ability to see made him jump slightly, but he swung himself a little further down nonetheless. “I can’t see it here!” he called.

You huffed, scowling exaggeratedly at Minhyuk who reciprocated with an even more hyperbolic pout, before laying your hand on Jooheon’s back, indicating for him to stand up.

You felt his body stiffen slightly at your touch, head reappearing to make eye contact with you, bemused. 

“I hope it’s not under the chairs,” you remarked, crouching down onto the carpet, “otherwise Minnie’s in big trouble!”

You heard Jooheon laugh at him and say a teasing comment that you couldn’t quite make out as you pressed your head onto the floor, your phone flashlight on.  Your shoulders slumped as you spotted the remote nearly in the very centre of the space below the armchair.

“Found it,” you sighed, obviously disgruntled, “it’s under there but it’s too far for me to reach and,” you got to your feet, brushing your hands on your shirt, “like hell I’m sticking my hand under there.”

“Why not?” Minhyuk asked, tugging Jooheon’s ear until you pursed your lips at him, to which he smiled, wide and bright, and let him go. “You... scared?”

You protested his accusation. “Uh?! Hyuk? Are you not scared of the under-space? That’s the place where demons live, I’ll have you know.”  

He scoffed, passing Jooheon and patting you on the head. “Well, I’m not scared, I’ll get the remote.”

“Yeah, and because it’s your fault it went missing in the first place, remember! You are totally doing the washing up today.” You chuckled at the huff you heard from the floor.

The other man just laughed. “There’s no such thing as demons, Y/N.”

You looked him dead in the eye, slightly taken aback by how beautiful his eyes were. Fashioned of a gemstone in normal situations, in the lamplight they had become the glittered pools of two galaxies. “Can you be sure?.”

As you perched on the edge of the sofa, you could barely stop the giggle from arising from your throat as you heard Jooheon check with Minhyuk that demons didn’t exist, the laughter gradually dying in his voice. 

And especially when the man on the floor just brightly replied, “If thinking that helps you sleep at night, sure!” 

Jooheon looked back to you, a highly unnerved expression upon his features.  He looked so adorable when he was ever so slightly petrified.

“Oh, Honey, it’s ok they don’t exist, I promise,” you cooed, motioning for him to come and join you on the sofa. He obliged, soft lips set in a trembling pout, taking the space to your left and curling into your chest as soon as you opened your arms for a cuddle. You couldn’t resist squishing his cheek gently, reassuringly holding him close.

“And even if there was, Honey, we’d never let them hurt you,” Minhyuk added, before jumping up victoriously, remote in hand, “I got it!”

You nodded, playfully smushing both of Jooheon’s cheeks so his lips were pursed. “Besides, most demons are nice anyways. They just get a bad rep.”

Minhyuk sent you a quizzical look, but you pointed to the TV, silently asking him to load up the film. “We’ve procrastinated long enough, I think.”

He put his hands on his hips. “The things you make me do, Y/N.”

You pulled an indignant face at him, which he mimicked right back, before turning to the set, opening the box and placing the disk in the tray.

Once it was done, he returned to the sofa, retrieving the blanket and arranged it so it covered you and Jooheon nicely, and then finally climbing under himself.

“Thank you~!” you sang, watching him shuffle and get comfortable, before inclining towards, but not quite against, your free shoulder. You wondered how long it would take for him to give in and sprawl across you, basically making you into a pillow for two tired dorks. 

Not that you minded. They were so warm, and you like being crushed with affection, genuinely. The true remedy for touch-starvation. Besides, it was your choice of film, and though you were interested in it, it wasn’t one that the other two were that fussed about, so you’d foreseen this.

Taking the remote from Minhyuk as he shifted, you held it to Jooheon, for him to press the buttons. After all, though arguments over who got to use the remote was something you had not foreseen the first time, you weren’t about to let that happen again any time soon.

The film menu screen faded into black, and you felt Minhyuk’s arm snake around your waist.

50 minutes, you thought, 50 minutes will be how long it takes before they’re out like lights.

.

.

The film was as enriching as you expected, and you couldn’t help but mentally gush about just how on point the metaphors were, or how the colour schemes helped foreshadow the unfurling events—you realised as you went. And usually it took a lot to distract you from all movies. However, the two things that could distract you the most were situated on either side of you, and they were doing a brilliant job of it by somehow putting in as little effort as possible.

It hadn’t taken long at all for Minhyuk to give into resting his head on your shoulder. He’d started off by nuzzling his nose into your neck, deliberately trying to distract you so you would hold his hand. When you did as he wished, he decided he was happy with his head upon your shoulder, and so there he remained. Eventually, he untwined his fingers from yours in favour of holding you in his arms fully, and so you resorted to threading your fingers through his hair, very carefully easing out any knots you stumbled across. 

That had been what sent him to sleep, you reasoned, with his arms clutching you like a teddy bear. Very occasionally he hummed in his sleep, tiny whines or murmurings of something barely understandable. One time you thought he’d uttered the word ‘love’ but it was hard to tell, with his mumbling coinciding with a swell in the music of the film.

It remained though that you’d no doubt overestimated his willpower by a good 40 minutes. He hadn’t opened a single packet of snacks, nor asked what was going on. It amused you how quick they were to lull into the arms of sleep when warm and coddled. It made you feel good, that they felt secure in your arms enough to drift off whenever.

Meanwhile, it was Jooheon that had proved to be much stronger, willing his heavy eyelids not to droop too low and lull him into a sleep. He was sullenly watching the film, somewhat transfixed by its motions and colours, rather than the messages and dialogue, but he’d stayed awake for a while, even if he hadn’t gotten anywhere near the 50 minute mark.

“Hey Honey, you doing ok?” you whispered, smoothing his shirt sleeve beneath he blanket. 

He nodded once, lacking the energy or the desire to do anymore than that. He was perfectly comfortable where he was, not wanting to move a millimetre if it meant causing even the slightest bit of discomfort. 

“You want any snacks?” you enquired, receiving the tiniest shake of his head. It wasn’t like you could reach them anyway.

You rubbed his back, feeling him press closer into you, if that were even possible. “It’s ok, Honey, you can go to sleep. Heaven knows you need it after the week you’ve had.”

It was if you’d whispered the final command of a hypnotist, as right after the words left your lips, he let his eyes close, nestling his hands to grip your shirt rather than the blanket loosely, and gave into sleep. 

You felt your heart lurch as you felt Jooheon’s breath steady. Glancing across carefully at Minhyuk and admiring how the light of the TV arched across the bridge of his nose, you found no respite as your breath hitched in your throat.

You’d never questioned what you had. You were eternally grateful to have it. You had two people who cared for you so deeply that they immediately travelled to your door from the other side of the city, when all you did was mention that you were a little gloomy that evening. You of course would have done the exact same. But what was it all?

You didn’t let the voices owned by all those unsettled and interrogatory faces into your thoughts that often, because what use was it? But even your obstinate tendencies couldn’t deny that they all did see something, that they all then latched onto like limpets. Constantly asking if one of them was your boyfriend. Acting overtly surprised when you shook your head vividly and asserted ‘no’.  Questioning if you were leading both of them on. And then never letting the idea drop no matter how many times you saw them, no matter how many times you requested them to. 

It was none of their damn business, you were close as friends, a peaceful trio uncomplicated by labels. Friends could be close and touchy and clingy if they wanted to, and you told them that, square to their faces. Only to find them laugh at you strangely. 

That laugh, you’d witnessed in other scenarios, was the one that people always used when they knew something the others didn’t. The laugh people heard when they asked about their favourite character to an older fan, which never indicated their safety. The laugh people uttered under their breath when the movie was paused and they knew something bad was going to happen to one of the characters.

Dramatic irony. 

But you weren’t in love with them, either of them, neither Minhyuk nor Jooheon. No. Well, at least not in that way. At least, you thought.

A particularly loud mumble brought you out of your thoughts, as Minhyuk shifted his weight on your shoulder. 

“Min?” No response. 

You exhaled in a quiet chuckle. From his new position, you could see even less of his face, his lips instead pressed against your neck, his breath tickling your skin. His grip was tight at your side, as if he was afraid you’d leave.

You moved your hand from his hair, and placed it at his waist, caressing the sliver of bare skin you found uncovered there absentmindedly. 

Your thoughts swirled, urging you to pull him closer—both of them closer. Even though they were both practically on top of you, you wanted them closer.

What did that even mean...?

You shook your head, taking a glimpse down at Jooheon, fast asleep. A mistake, as you suddenly felt that rise in your soul again. It wasn’t a new feeling, but you’d never felt it this strong before. You’d always written it off as a protective, almost nurturing feeling.

You forced your eyes to focus upon the film again, but you’d lost track of what was going on. The colours blurred and merely danced in front of you.

You wanted to...

No. That was completely, utterly, wholeheartedly a bad idea.

No matter how inviting the idea was, no matter how close they were.

You were just sappy because it was dark out and you were tired and because they’d been so sweet and funny and endearing. 

But it was too late.

With your conscious miles behind, your body seemed to behave by itself.  It was as if you watched yourself in third person. You supported Minhyuk’s head with a hand, as you leant down and placed a kiss onto Jooheon’s hair. Returning, you did the same for Minhyuk, brushing some loose strands back into place. 

You sat up straight again, eyes naturally returning to the screen, and for a solid five seconds there was utter tranquil. No disturbance of a thought, no incessance of a noise.

And then your consciousness slammed back into your head as you realised what you’d done.  What had you just done?

.

.

Panicking, with your chest heaving, you sought an escape route. 

As smoothly as you could, you slipped out between the two of them. Making sure their heads were supported and their bodies covered with the blanket, you praised all the gods evidently watching over you at that moment that they didn’t wake up. Then, you snuck out of the room, into the bathroom, locking the door behind you. Sitting on the cool floor, focusing on your breath that was ringing in your ears, you interrogated yourself.

What did you do? Why did you do it? What were you going to do about it?

What you did not know was that they didn’t have a clue either.

When they decided to pretend to be asleep, they had expected to pull a ghost prank on you seamlessly. It would end in you screaming, chasing them around the place, and finally more cuddles when the film was over. They’d checked the bed earlier that day, it was certainly big enough for all three, despite what you’d said!

But now they were stuck, eyes flickering over each other’s faces, on opposite sides of the sofa.

“She kissed you?” Jooheon whispered first.

“Yes!” Minhyuk replied. “You too?” 

“On the head, yes!”

“Same!”

Maybe things had just gotten a whole lot more complicated for the three of you. 

~~~

AN: I’m sorry this fic was late, a lot of things got in my way yesterday. I’m really sorry it turned into a character piece too lol. Y/N has many feelings apparently sksksk

This was also not how I imagined this would turn out. I’m always adding plots to my oneshots pls save meeeee

I will fix up the masterlist soon, I promise. 

College is a pain in the ass and coursework is murdering my soul so yeet me.

I’ll write the next part at.... some point.... 

Feedback is always welcome too like, I’m going to try and edit all of these after christmas so if you think something is too long then lmk 

I’ll stop ANing now.  Thank you for reading! 

Masterlist

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Edited: 18th May 2020

I don’t think The Last Jedi was a bad movie.  It might even be a good movie.  It had a lot of solid bits.  It had a lot of good in it.  Some ladies kicked a lot of ass.  As a movie, it was pretty alright.

I finally put my finger on why it makes me sad, though, what about it feels like it just falls that little bit short, and it’s this:  I want Star Wars to be a fairytale.

Star Wars, the original trilogy, isn’t hard scifi.  It’s a fairytale.  It happened once upon a long time ago, in a place far, far away.  As the song says, it’s a story about when there were knights, and they got into fights using sabers of light.

It’s not just that the original trilogy is a fantasy story (which it is, sure, Obi-Wan Kenobi gets called an old wizard, and nobody really knows or defines exactly what the Force can or can’t do, but it’s kind of like magic and that’s just that).  It’s a really specific kind of fantasy story that manages a sort of timeless resonance for a few particular reasons.  

There’s Luke’s archetypal Hero’s Journey, which a million people have talked about in a million different ways, and that’s a big part of it.  There’s even the framing of the story: starting at part 4, hinting at a much longer larger saga that this is just a few chapters of.  (It’s a little bit Tolkein-esque that way.)  But there’s also the simplicity of the original trilogy.

There are only a handful of characters who’re named on screen in the original Star Wars.  There's the main trio, one main bad guy and the Ultimate Boss behind him who barely appears before RotJ, two Wise Mentors who do their part to teach Luke and then die, Lando for about a movie and a half, and the two droids plus Chewbacca who generally act more as sidekicks than plot-movers.  That’s it.  The focus is small.  An entire war is abstracted down to just a few individual people, with the rest of the conflict going on behind them, around them, an inconvenience at most.  A fighter battle rages on but it all comes down to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader because it was always going to be about Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, because this is a story about Good and Evil and being a knight who is simply good.

Is that realistic?  No, not remotely.  Is it effective?  Hell fucking yes.

Star Wars, the original trilogy, what I think of when I think of Star Wars, is a fairytale.  It is not a story meant to tell us that dragons exist, but a story about how dragons can be beaten.  It doesn’t debate resources or socioeconomic structures or political infighting.  It’s a simple, classic story about a farmboy and a princess and a thief who take down an evil king, set against a backdrop so fantastical it had to be put out in space.

The Last Jedi rejects being a fairytale in every way it possibly can.  It wants to have some grit.  It wants us to look at Luke Skywalker as living proof that fairytale endings are false, that no man is or can be an abstracted hero.  The exhausted fleet being pursued by an enemy that can follow them through hyperspace is, I’m pretty sure, lifted straight out of the first season of Battlestar Galactica.

TLJ is a scifi plot about exhaustion, about how people can be on the same side and still at cross-purposes, about all the ways heroes can be wrong, and fallible, and broken, and human.  And right, I want to be very clear: that is a valuable story.  That’s a really interesting and worthwhile story.  It’s a good story to have movies about.  Maybe it was even the right choice for a Star Wars movie.  I don’t know.

What I do know is that I, personally, was sad about it.  I feel like I see a lot of movies and tv shows and stories these days about the ways heroes are imperfect and human.  I don’t see a lot of stories that make me feel the way original trilogy Star Wars does: like the world can be epic, and it doesn’t always have to be so exhaustingly complicated.  And some things are just evil and some things are just good, and you know what?  Sometimes I want a story like that.  Sometimes, in this world of grit and shades of gray and intense moral relativism, it is nice to sit back with a movie where good and bad make sense.

And maybe I kind of hate that the Star Wars franchise feels like it has to apologize for, justify, grit up the fairytale optimism that made it so famous to begin with.  Maybe I want a little of that fairytale optimism in my life right now.

IDK.  I think it was probably a pretty good movie.  I know I enjoyed a lot of it!  I just wanted to put these thoughts out onto the internet for other people to do with as they will.