Vespa Ilkay - Tumblr Posts

i love you master thieves with adhd i love you grumpy nonbinary private eyes i love you eccentric hackers/snackers/besties i love you crime lord lesbians with mechanical organs i love you assassin doctor trans women i love you big guys who drink tea and have dad energy i love you sentient cars that aren't really cars i love you goofy childhood besties i love you childhood besties who fall victim to their own ambition i love you mysterious and unknowable concierges i love you heartfelt guitar music i love you messages that make me want to get up in the morning i love you all <3

“Vespa, I’m not assuming… a kiss, it doesn’t have to mean anything, darling. We’re just going to try this, see if it works, and-”

“Oh save it, Bud.”

SOUND: THEY KISS

day two of @podcastgirlsweek!!! tuesday: this too is yuri... spotlight a f/f ship

my favorite crime wives :]

yeah!!! this was supposed to be for day 6 of @podcastgirlsweek: self-indulgence saturday! make something you’ve really wanted to make but haven’t because you thought it was too self-indulgent, niche, or silly. BUT! i was busy so this is also for day 7: free space!

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: F/F

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Buddy Aurinko/Vespa Ilkay

Characters: Buddy Aurinko, Vespa Ilkay, Juno & Peter are mentioned

Additional Tags: Mild Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Temporary Amnesia, Anesthesia, but it’s fluffy!! it’s fluffy, Podcast Girls Week, fair warning there’s a brief hallucination but it goes away fast

Language: English

As much as I love Juno and Peter they have nothing on Buddy and Vespa when it comes to supreme couple on the Carte Blanche

This TikTok but The Penumbra Podcast

Transcribed for those that either can't or don't want to watch the whole thing:

"Your Honor, my client was simply standing on business" - Juno Steel "Your Honor, my client didn't know that was illegal" - Rita "Your Honor, my client was rapping the lyrics as the artist intended" - Mick Mercury "Your Honor, respectfully, you weren't fucking there" - Vespa Ilkay "Your Honor, my client was hitting them folks" - M'tendere "Your Honor, my client did not do that shit!" - Sasha Wire "Your Honor, my client's the powerhouse of the cell" - The Cure Mother Prime "Your Honor, my client would like to plead Gemini" - Buddy Aurinko "Your Honor, my client was thinking of that one girl from 2019" - Peter Nureyev (for the entirety of season 2) "Your Honor, my client was simply going goblin mode" - Jet Sikuliaq "Your Honor, my client's Mexican, he can say it" - [I literally can't think of one so this one doesn't have one] "Your Honor, my client turned himself into a fucking pickle" - The Ruby 7 "Your Honor, my client thought the Xbox mic was muted" - Cecil Kanagawa "Your Honor, if drinking bathwater is illegal you can lock me up too" - Julian DiMaggio "Your Honor, my client would've gotten away with it too if it wasn't for these meddling kids" - Ramses O'Flaherty "Your Honor, who am I? "Oh, guilty! Guilty!" dumb fuck" - Brock Engstrom "Your Honor, what does convict mean?" - Peter Nureyev *Donald Trump impression* "Your Honor, my client is the most innocent client" "Your Honor, you're a great Honor. You're the best Honor." "Some would say the most innocent. I walked in here and I said "wow, he looks innocent."" - *Former Hyperion City Mayor, Mx. Pilot Pereyra's PR team* [Seriously these people really had their jobs cut out for them cause wtf? homie did so much illegal shit during their candidacy and the whole city just went "that's our mayor"] "Your Honor, that's cap" - Slip Jackson "Your Honor, you're kinda being a d-bag right now" - Alessandra Strong "Uh, Your Honor, what the fuck!?" - Miasma "Your Honor, my client was hittin' the dougie" - Nova Zolotovna

When I tell you making this took me so long, I mean that incredibly literally (fr in the time it took me to write the whole thing and caption the sections on the actual video I listened to an entire TAZ: Balance episode) but I think it's funny so it's worth it

*Kind of vague spoilers for the Juno Steel Finale*

I have way too many thoughts about the end of Juno Steel that it has to be split into 2 posts but you're all going to be subject to hearing them. To start off the development of Juno's attitude about his job and Hyperion City in general is literal art. The way he starts out believing that he's trapped in a city that doesn't care for him or anyone else and a job that never really helps anyone as much as he wants to and ends up realizing that he's not trapped there, in fact, he wants to go back desperately because that city is his home and through his job he can make it better if he tries. When he recites the oath from the PI registry again and he genuinely understands it the second time because he's changed so much as a person that those words actually mean something this time around even though they didn't twenty years ago. Finale Juno does away with the notion that he ruins things for everyone like he's been told all his life, he knows that he can help people and he knows how to do that, and he knows that improving the lives of others is what's important to him. He understands that he can have bad days and not be a bad person, that whatever issues his mother passed to him don't make him a monster the same way they never made her one she was just someone who was extremely ill and unable to get the help she needed in order to be the mother Juno and Benten deserved. Jet's voice in his comms saying "We may look backward only to ensure we have not walked this path before" and Juno navigating a new city with careful avoidance of side streets that would put him back on old roads. Pouring out a bottle of tequila with ease and refusing clients with ties to organized crime groups that only cause harm to others despite his own background in organized crime because it doesn't align with who he is anymore even though he needs the money that they could provide. Buddy's apologies about not getting him and Rita a housewarming gift for the office (even though everything from before was still in the office) except she did provide a gift. It's the confidence that allows Rita to speak up to Juno when he talks down to her, and it's Juno's confidence in himself, his sharpshooting skills, and his job. Vespa showing Juno that mental illness does not define who someone is and just because they struggle with mental health it doesn't mean that they're bad people, it just means that they have some setbacks other people might not have. Buddy and Vespa provide the knowledge that they have family and people who love them and just in case it doesn't work out they have people that they can turn to because Buddy and Vespa and the lighthouse will always be there whenever they're needed. His first case back as a PI being a girl he thinks looks so much like a young Sasha Wire, a friend who betrayed him and one he had to abandon, who Mick sees as looking like a young Juno, a memory from his past and a startling start to the future. A girl he offers encouragement and advice to that season one Juno wouldn't have because season one Juno wouldn't have felt himself wise enough. A girl he chooses to help much more than she hires him to do, and takes much less payment than he typically does because she needs the money to start her own future as well. The fact that Juno's life since his HCPD days has been so driven by romantic love that he never let himself fully experience platonic love and the type of familial love that he should have been given so easily by his mother and Benten was corrupted by mental illness and death, but the type of love the Aurinko's give to him so easily even without the crutch of a romantic connection to Nureyev.

A Juno that has made space for himself and the people he cares about without needing a romantic partner because he has so much love for them that maybe it doesn't matter if he loves someone romantically or not. Maybe he learned that from Rita who expresses her love for everyone and everything so regularly, or maybe from Jet who knows what he wants and knows that it isn't a romantic connection, who is content to live his life doing the things that he loves instead of searching for something he doesn’t need, or maybe from Buddy who spent time with him and trained him and made him feel like a person that was worth something, who despite her reformed connection to Vespa and subsequent engagement still makes time for him and everyone else because her wife may be her whole world but there are other things in that world too, or the Ruby 7 who's found a family and found love in people that are so different from itself but care for it all the same and who it cares for equally, or maybe even Mick who is so dedicated to finding out what he wants to do with his life and what he's good at that romance doesn't seem to matter much to him because he has friends to support him.

The finale provides a Juno Steel that has spent years of his life being driven by romantic love and being driven by Nureyev in particular yet Nureyev doesn't appear in the final chapter of his story, or maybe he does, but either way, it's fine. Juno who spent months chasing Nureyev to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and risking his life just to be there to support him but still sends him away so that Nureyev can spend time finding himself now that he doesn't have to worry about his debts. The way Mick delicately asks about Nureyev and Juno admits easily that he hasn't even thought about Nureyev that day and thar doesn't hurt the way it used to. Maybe Nureyev does show up in the end and they're able to live a life happily together (or like Juno suggests on the resort planet, together but not living together because the lives they created for themselves don't fit into the same space even though there is a space there for the other, visiting and traveling and lounging in Juno's new apartment) or maybe he takes another month or year or ten to discover what he wants to before he returns to Juno, or maybe he never does because it's just not possible for him with the new life he's built for himself but whatever happens it will be okay because Juno is okay and life is okay. Just the idea that you maybe don't have to have your entire life sorted as soon as you graduate, maybe you'll finally figure it out in your 40s after switching jobs multiple times, taking up a life of crime after dedicating your life to solving it, finding a family in the criminals you live with and your secretary of 20 years, traveling the galaxy in a car-shaped alien in search of your missing lover, and almost dying so many times that it's genuinely hard to keep track of. It's okay if you switch your major 10 times in college, or if you decide to change your career down the line, or if you break up with your partner even though you thought they were the one when you were 20. Eventually, you'll figure it all out and even then you'll keep learning from everything and that's okay because life would be boring if it's exactly what you expect it to be.

*Kind of vague spoilers for the Juno Steel Finale*

I have way too many thoughts about the end of Juno Steel that it has to be split into 2 posts but you're all going to be subject to hearing them. To start off the development of Juno's attitude about his job and Hyperion City in general is literal art. The way he starts out believing that he's trapped in a city that doesn't care for him or anyone else and a job that never really helps anyone as much as he wants to and ends up realizing that he's not trapped there, in fact, he wants to go back desperately because that city is his home and through his job he can make it better if he tries. When he recites the oath from the PI registry again and he genuinely understands it the second time because he's changed so much as a person that those words actually mean something this time around even though they didn't twenty years ago. Finale Juno does away with the notion that he ruins things for everyone like he's been told all his life, he knows that he can help people and he knows how to do that, and he knows that improving the lives of others is what's important to him. He understands that he can have bad days and not be a bad person, that whatever issues his mother passed to him don't make him a monster the same way they never made her one she was just someone who was extremely ill and unable to get the help she needed in order to be the mother Juno and Benten deserved. Jet's voice in his comms "We may look backward only to ensure we have not walked this path before" and Juno navigating a new city with careful avoidance of side streets that would put him back on old roads. Pouring out a bottle of tequila with ease and refusing clients with ties to organized crime groups that only cause harm to others despite his own background in organized crime because it doesn't align with who he is anymore even though he needs the money that they could provide. Buddy's apologies about not getting him and Rita a housewarming gift for the office (even though everything from before was still in the office) except she did provide a gift. It's the confidence that allows Rita to speak up to Juno when he talks down to her, and it's Juno's confidence in himself, his sharpshooting skills, and his job. Vespa showing Juno that mental illness does not define who someone is and just because they struggle with mental health it doesn't mean that they're bad people, it just means that they have some setbacks other people might not have. Buddy and Vespa provide the knowledge that they have family and people who love them and just in case it doesn't work out they have people that they can turn to because Buddy and Vespa and the lighthouse will always be there whenever they're needed. His first case back as a PI being a girl he thinks looks so much like a young Sasha Wire, a friend who betrayed him and one he had to abandon, who Mick sees as looking like a young Juno, a memory from his past and a startling start to the future. A girl he offers encouragement and advice to that season one Juno wouldn't have because season one Juno wouldn't have felt himself wise enough. A girl he chooses to help much more than she hires him to do, and takes much less payment than he typically does because she needs the money to start her own future as well. The fact that Juno's life since his HCPD days has been so driven by romantic love that he never let himself fully experience platonic love and the type of familial love that he should have been given so easily by his mother and Benten was corrupted by mental illness and death, but the type of love the Aurinko's give to him so easily even without the crutch of a romantic connection to Nureyev.

I have so many things to say like — I have so many freak outs I wanna have about TMA, TMP, and The Penumbra; BUT DO I HAVE THE PHYSICAL CAPABILITY TO WRITE THEM OUT??? We shall see

Okay, ADDING SUPPORT TO A PREVIOUS POST I MADE —

I’ve made who I think pretty clear, but I wanna see what others think —

“When the Chips are Down” from Hadestown is SUCH a Peter Nureyev song.

While I’m gonna make a separate post linking and also ranting about my Spotify playlist (cause I really like some of my choices lol) — I wanted to rant real quick about this one.

The Fates (for those who don’t know/haven’t listened to Hadestown I shall explain) are played by 3 women who sing (for the most part) in unison, and with harmonies and acapellas. In the context of Nureyev here; this *totally* reminds me of The Executives (or whatever they’re called), all being regarded as, ‘My Associate’ as well as having the same voice and speaking the same way. In “When the Chips are Down”, they’re talking to Eurydice (who is Nureyev in this ex.)

While the whole song gives me vibes, this section gets me quite a lot:

“[FATES]

Life ain’t easy

Life ain’t fair

A girl’s gotta fight for her rightful share

Whatcha gonna do when the Chips are Down Now that the Chips are down (x2)

Help yourself

To hell with the rest

Even the one who loves you best.

Whatcha gonna do when the Chips are Down Now that the Chips are Down (x2)

[EURYDICE]

Oh my aching heart. “

The parts that I put in italics remind me of the S3 finale (Juno Steel: What Lies Beyond Prt. 1-3) specially (for obvious reasons for the ones who knows SPOILERS HERE FOR THOSE WHO DONT) — considering Nureyev had been stressing out, brought down, and feeling cornered by his debt (“help yourself”), leading him to (which was his plan from the start) leave everyone on the Carte Blanche (“to hell with the rest”), including Juno (“even the one who loves you best”). He even references in his journal that while he wanted to be beside Juno while he read it, he knows deep down that he won’t be.

The rest of the song matches as well, having parts including “shooting to kill” before the other person can, and knives in the back. For these reasons the song itself honestly just clicks SO well in my head, thanks for coming to my TED Talk lmao — like I said, linking playlist with other song “matches” later on lol, but this one required a bit more than a little description on my part.

TLDR: the Fates represent The Executives, and Eurydice represents Nureyev. Linked by my brain due to lines matching plot points (S3 especially).

Relistening to the latest Juno’s Birthday special as a way to cope and just — I miss theeeeeeeeeemmmmm 😭😭😭 literally sobbing like Rita over here, I miss the crime familyyyyyyyy — and after the latest episode I *fEAR*—

Friend or family member: Hey! What’s that podcast you like about again?

Me: well, it’s simple,

Just realized I never posted the link to my current magnum opus fic --

"Once Upon a Time there was a Queen.

She was known throughout the farthest reaches of the land, and in the deepest trenches of the sea. To all above the waves, there was none more adored and revered than Queen Andromeda. A warrior seemingly summoned out of thin air in the realm’s greatest time of need. A savior from the very stars themselves."

Juno and his brother Benziten have heard the story of Queen Andromeda, the star's champion, and her defeat of Lord Draco's army of sirens their whole lives. Until she vanished, and took peace with her. Thankfully the legends also spoke of the key to her power, a mystical item called the Eye of Storms. What had been his legendary obsession for years comes to change his life now as an adult, when his brother is kidnapped in the name of finding the Eye by a group of pirates. Juno manages to insert himself into another pirate crew's journey for the Eye, the crew of the Carte Blanche. They're after the Eye, and if the people who took Benten are too then that's where Juno wants to be. Even if certain things make him start to also want to be there for other reasons...like a man he just can't place with a past he's dying to know.

______________________________________________________________

This fic is a WIP!! I have a lot of it planned, and I'm actively working on other parts. I aim to have 2 chapters done (and uploaded together) every 2 months :)

Playlist link in end of chapter notes for the things I vibe to while I brainstorm or write.

Peter Nureyev, the drama queen that you are.

I Hope We Both Die by Horroreyecollective

Fandoms:The Penumbra Podcast

Teen And Up Audiences

Major Character Death

Gen

Complete Work

21 Jun 2024

Tags

Major Character Death Juno Steel & Sasha Wire Rita & Juno Steel Buddy Aurinko & Juno Steel Vespa Ilkay & Juno Steel Jet Sikuliaq & Juno Steel Juno Steel Sasha Wire Rita (Penumbra Podcast) Buddy Aurinko Vespa IlkayJet Sikuliaq Hurt No Comfort Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Explosions Not A Fix-It Character Death Goodbyes What-If Episode: s04e24-25 Juno Steel and the Blank Slate

Summary

Sasha makes a deal with Juno to keep the Aurinko's safe.

Day 9:The Catch

imho but buddy's and vespa's kisses are better that jupiter's kisses (ok i like both)

Sometimes a family is a brilliant criminal who's allergic to food, her knife wife, an aroace car guy with a kill count in the 20s, Rita, a traumatized master thief, said thief's he/him nonbinary PI wife with fucked up blood, and their sentient car

therapy isn't enough I need more aurinko found family content

Can we all agree Juno has the worst sense of style? Like Rita has her whole kid/rainbow core going on, Buddy knows what looks good after being in weird Victorian baby doll clothes for her entire childhood, Vespa has really good punk style, Nureyev is Nureyev and we know he has style, and Jet is a car guy with a leather jacket which automatically makes you cool, Juno wears turtlenecks and a trench coat and thinks he’s cool but isn’t