“What’s With All The Noise, You Okay?”

"...m'course I love you, dude."

Feast or Famine

I'm a day late but happy Black Freiday Starkid!!!

Quadulent thrusters

Chapters: 7/26 Fandom: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Severance (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Mac McDonald/Dennis Reynolds, Charlie Kelly/The Waitress Characters: Dee Reynolds, Dennis Reynolds, Mac McDonald, Charlie Kelly, Frank Reynolds, Bonnie Kelly, The Waitress (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia) Additional Tags: Crossover, Comedy, Other Sunny characters might make an appearance, You're just gonna have to wait and see, multiple POVs, Crack Treated Seriously, forced family, Being an asshole transcends severance, eventual angst, Mac McDonald Has ADHD, Dennis Reynolds Has BPD | Borderline Personality Disorder, Autistic Charlie Kelly, Charlie Kelly Has ADHD Summary:

An AU where the Gang from Always Sunny are working at the severed floor of Lumon. They're trying to make the best of their "half-lives", all the while getting into all sorts of shenanigans and trouble, and perhaps even... romance.

I want a Hatchetfield musical crowd song where Paul is present, he has lines, there’s a very clear space in the choreo that he’s meant to fill, but he just speaks his parts normally and stands perfectly still. When everyone else is dancing across the stage, Paul very calmly walks along to his next mark, turns to the audience, says his line in a deadpan voice then just stands and waits for his turn again

my macdennis animation hi everyone

Omg not the Gordon Ramsey// Dennis parallel 😭😭 I love your mind

I just cannot stop thinking about that video with Gordon Ramsey treating kids vs. adults..... like, everyone sees him as this nasty aggressive guy but then he's just so gentle with kids (bc they're not doing it on purpose and they're not trying to hide their mistakes like the adults often do) and it honestly makes me cry when I think about it agydvbeubue,,,, so when I was writing all those tags I was like damn, Dennis is just like Gordon Ramsey frfr,,, like, he gets that the kids aren't doing it to piss him off, so why should he blow off on them? They don't deserve it.

I need Dennis interacting with kids again like omg I'm so excited for the Abbott cross-over and getting to see more of Dennis in that environment!!

it is so sickening to think about mac's desperation to be loved and how the neediness that radiates from him is ultimately what inhibits him from forming healthy relationships.. the gang is so tired of him constantly questioning his self-worth ("you guys like me, right?") that they've given up on giving him any attention whatsoever ("it's really a cry for [...] attention, [...] ignore those" / "treat it like a baby / "we don't like you either way"). he needs validation but seeks it in a manner that is so off-putting that nobody wants him around. he writers letters to chase utley. he visits his mom and dad, even though they never want to see him. he threatens suicide as a cry for help and is encouraged to follow through. self-worth is in the body, so why doesn't anyone care that he's been working out? he smothers his dog with affection but can't even get it to stay.

I don't think we talk enough about what Mac falling for Johnny means in terms of his perception of love and his relationship to Dennis. I mean, we talk a lot about Dennis catfishing and e-dating him and the sexual component of it —which gives us plenty to unpack about Dennis' psyche, so it's understandable— but my favorite aspect to dissect is Mac's willingness to "fall in love" with a ghost.

In the episode, Dennis mentions there being texts between them so we know Mac wasn't just talking to a wall the whole time, but he's been stood up by Johnny so many times.. yet he keeps at it, keeps going on errands and to motels just in case Johnny decides to actually meet him this time. He's constantly waiting for someone who never shows up for him, and that's reflective of Mac's entire character. He keeps searching for love and validation from his mom, his dad, Dennis.. and when he doesn't get it, he just keeps on pushing, putting in more effort because maybe this time it will be enough. He holds so tightly onto his faith in god, a being he can't even see or hear, but that represents a hope for eternal love if you do everything right and conform nicely to its supposed expectations.

Mac isn't a stranger to loving distant beings, so of course he fell in love with Johnny. He's so desperate for someone to love him back but the only form of "love" he recognizes is a distant kind. That's why he can't give his date from the episode a chance, and why he doesn't want anything to do with uncle Donald. Easy and earnest love isn't something Mac knows. Hell, it isn't even worth it. Love, in his experience, requires work and sacrifice, otherwise what's the point?

This also plays a lot into his dynamic with Dennis, and why Mac will never let go of it. Sure, we saw him kind of trying to move on in 'The Gang Gets Romantic' by fabricating a love story for himself with Greg, and a more genuine attempt in 'Frank vs. Russia' by dating Johnny, but all roads eventually lead back to Dennis. A part of it can be attributed to Dennis not letting him move on —keeping Mac at arm's length while giving him just enough to keep him hooked— but that's not all. At this point I don't think there's anything Dennis could do or not do to put a definitive end to Mac's obsession with him, because he's exactly the type of person Mac craves in his life. As mentioned before, Dennis is someone that makes him earn his love and respect, and Mac can't find that in other potential romantic partners. He already tried looking for it online, where you can meet all kinds of people from all kinds of places, and who did he find? Dennis.

Obviously, the Johnny thing being orchestrated by Dennis means that Mac "found him" on purpose, but the point here is that Mac didn't know that. From his perspective, it was a fresh start with someone completely new, a guy that met his subconscious requirements. It just so happens that his requirements are Dennis. Because as mushy and gooey as it sounds, at the end of the day Mac is irreversably in love with him. He loves Dennis so intrinsically that he falls for him a second time, without even being aware of it. And I suspect he always will, no matter how many times he tries to move on.

Sure, Paul might be Pokey's trophy, as he's the titular guy who didn't like musicals, but Emma is the one Pokey hates the most.

The opening number (and Emma's presence in it) points to the entirety of TGWDLM being an in-universe musical to lure new members to the hive (in the form of us, the audience). So Emma and Paul are only being puppeted to echo their resistances, over and over and over.

Paul is distressed the whole time, but he's also a hero, he tries to save everyone (and fails, of course), while Emma is left to bleed and limp and scream. She's puppeted in a mockery of her fear and agony. Other deaths are bloodier, but hers is drawn out.

And this makes perfect sense for Pokey. What's the main thing we know about him?

He hates any voice that isn't his own.

Paul is outspoken about disliking musicals, but otherwise is a pretty passive guy. He doesn't make waves or stand out, he's too shy to even ask Emma out until the end of the world.

Emma is loud, opinionated, defiant. She has a very distinct voice.

Paul escapes Pokey for so long because he just doesn't like musicals, helping him avoid the traps that probably caught most of the townsfolk early on. If he liked musicals, or even tolerated them, he'd probably have been consumed by the goo pretty quickly.

Emma actively defies the hive. She starts the story in a job where she is literally required to sing and dance, and instead of just going with it she says fuck you and quits. She even clarifies that she could do it if she wanted, but she just doesn't want to.

Pokey has constructed the entire show to lure in new victims and also torture Emma specifically. In this essay I will