#every time i try to come out to my mom it gets weirder | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

weebsinstash · 9 months

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My yandere Invincible posts have been getting notes recently now that season 2 is starting and there's a specific idea I have in my head for platonic yandere dad Nolan x daughter Reader because of a scene from the first episode, the scene from Mark's past where (small spoiler I guess) Nolan visibly heavily contemplates killing Mark and Debbie (because Mark might not get his powers and, he doesnt want to fail his mission) but quickly stops himself and is clearly ashamed for what he almost did

I keep thinking of a specific scenario. Reader is his second-born daughter who is a couple years younger than Mark and you're his little princess and you're just, outside playing while your parents occasionally peek out at you through the glass door/window to the backyard and, you're like 5 or 6 when things just, suddenly change, it hits you like lightning. Things look differently, they smell different, the sun on your skin feels different, the toys in your hands feel lighter and weirder than before, and when you start to slowly squeeze them, they start to break, but, you're smart and fast enough to stop.

But it's not JUST your body. It's your MIND. Suddenly you're remembering all those cartoons you've ever watched, practically every memory you have, every experience, every fact.

Temporarily, ever so briefly, you start to float, and you easily figure out how to put yourself down.

You're so excited you can't even make a sound-- you've got your powers like Dad!-- and you go to tell your parents, and you see then talking inside. You don't want to interrupt and wait outside patiently, deciding you'll go in when they're done talking even ss you're bouncing in excitement. And, you see everything from Ducktape Man to Mom and Dad talking to that menacing movement your father made, where some animalistic instinct inside of you knew it was HOSTILE and, in just a few moments, you're putting it all together, like either some gullible kid who believes everything in cartoons, or, perhaps, someone who just became a lot, lot smarter: you start hypothesizing that Nolan must be evil and has some hidden ulterior motive. Why would Nolan be so mad at Mark not having powers to the point of violence, murder? Oh, because if Mark didn't have powers, he wouldn't be like dad, he'd be a human? Does dad not like humans? Does dad want to hurt humans? Is there any other reason Dad seems to almost NEED his offspring to be Viltrumites too?

Oh, is Dad a bad alien who wants his children to leave Earth and human culture behind for their roots? And if he doesn't succeed, he'll snap? Is it like in those cartoons where the evil father tries to bring his kid to the darkside and the hero has to fight and defeat them even if it hurts?

The whole theory and coming into your powers is surreal, it's inhuman, but it's the new you, the new Viltrumite you. You burst into tears as you become overwhelmed and stressed at the idea you might have to fight your evil dad, lying to your father, no, Nolan, that you were crying because you broke your toy on accident and he has to shush you as he promises you a new one but your chubby little kid arms aren't squeezing him as tight as they used to

You start keeping secrets. You start watching him all the time, the things he does, the things he says, and the more and more, you become convinced. He never stops treating you as his little angel, and you even notice, he's, for some reason, gentler with you than Mark and, as you grow older, you realize it's because you're a girl and for whatever reason he's falling into the very stereotypical role of, treating both you and Mark very well overall, but, also being more lenient with you, telling Mark he has to be a good brother and protect his baby sister, Nolan always trying to buy you little sweets, but, after you saw what you did, your behavior towards him immediately shifts. You try to act the same to avoid arousing suspicion but you aren't nearly as affectionate and, as you get older, you take advantage of using puberty and needing independence as an excuse to put emotional walls up and distance yourself from him, even as he constantly tries to engage and spend time with you

Your family is worried what's wrong with you when you start calling him Nolan instead of dad, you suddenly don't want to spend time with him, your mom, and even your brother. You start working the second you're legally old enough, but, despite how bright and inquisitive you were as a kid, your grades are. Average. As in, deliberately average. You can never let Nolan know what you are. As you age and hear more and more of his comments where you can tell he's insulting not just anyone in particular, but the entire human race, you steel yourself, because you know, you know this man cannot be your father anymore, and you may even have to kill him. But you're so overly cautious about him and anyone else not finding out that you're limited at training options. You can't just fly anywhere, you can't just practice martial arts against normal humans, but, you find ways to make it work. You work manual labor jobs your father scoffs at, you wait until night and/or you know he's off planet to practice flying in one single field where you can see for miles all around you and see any witnesses or planes coming

You are a daughter with every intention of either abandoning her family and leaving the planet, or killing her father. Once you realized that you were an alien, unlike Mark and unbeknownst to Nolan, you're more like your father than you realize. You become more apathetic to humanity, more nonchalant about where you are in life. Suddenly you don't have to worry about your grades or college or things like that because, well, what good will earth stuff do you in outer space? Maybe you'll pick up some more practical knowledge but, really, the only reason you don't leave the planet once you start getting older is literally just that, one you're still attached to Mark and Debbie, and two, you don't have a flight suit and know your clothes will burn up and. You wanna get out of here but you don't want to be naked in space!!

Like picture this. Mark has just gotten his powers and you're heartbroken because, over the last decade your father started spending significantly more focus on Mark instead of you, inviting him to things he doesn't even mention to you, finally shifting almost his exclusive attention to his son, and, now Mark is "just like dad", already starting to get full of himself because hes stronger and "better", which worries you because, you eventually deduce Nolan is some kind of invader who is having kids to be soldiers. Like imagine sitting at the dinner table and Mark is all "don't worry sis, I bet you're a late bloomer too :) youll get your powers soon" and Nolan pipes in like "yeah and then we can all go out flying together" and you just look him dead in the eyes and don't reply. You're constantly having to temper your anger and keep up your ruse because if you're too openly hostile, he'll figure it out, and you have literally not a single doubt in your mind that he'll kill you for his mission, which is funny because you've actually adapted a lot of the "don't care I'm an alien" mindset that he wanted Mark to have

Nolan has no idea why you clearly hate him, why you fake smiles, why you stopped spending time with him. He still remembers when you were a toddler and you were running around, skinning your knees all the time and picking yourself up with little sniffles like nothing happened because you just wanted to keep running and exploring and playing SO bad. You used to be so bright. He had such high hopes for you. Honestly he always thought you would potentially outmatch Mark and be his strongest child, but. Here you are, a straight C student, working manual labor jobs, completely average, and refusing to bond with him in any way. He can tell you're keeping some sort of secret from him, but whenever he goes to confront you about it, you're... surprisingly scared, but, not as scared as you should be, in the nuanced ways one would shrink away as a child being scolded by their parent. It's almost like... you're holding some sort of grudge against him

I couldn't decide which version I prefer in terms of Reader finally being exposed. Maybe you don't realize Mark is trailing you and he finds out and tells Nolan behind your back under the mistaken impression you recently got your powers and was training in secret to make it a surprise. Or there's some sort of attack or disaster or accident where you're shot by a robber or they attempt to stab you and it just, dents against your skin. Or even, you start disrespecting Debbie because you're frustrated about being an alien that can't die and she let this man into her bed without truly knowing who or what he was and you're resenting her for it and you make a really awful comment and get in an argument with her and in anger she moves to slap you and fractures her hand against your invulnerable face, or you have to catch her wrist so she doesn't hurt herself and Nolan can tell by your reflexes that you're not fully human

I also just like the idea of. You're 18 and you make it very extremely clear you're moving out and your family is like, REFUSING but they technically can't stop you (although the idea of Omniman going full yandere dad and physically locking you up so his baby girl doesn't leave the nest certainly IS a nice thought) and they notice, instead of packing your things, you're donating them, getting rid of them. The day of your move happens and you're standing there with only a backpack and you haven't told them Any details about where you're going or, just, ANYTHING, and Nolan is looking at you like a big sad hound dog "can't I at least drive you 🥺" and you're like " :) no that's OK, I've got my own ride" AND JUST FLYING AWAY. I just think it'd be extremely relatable and hilarious if you keep up the ruse for so many years and you finally blow your cover because you lose your temper or because you've been hurt emotionally. Nolan tries to ground you, "March upstairs right now young lady!" and you're just like "march?" As you start levitating away just to spite him and he's picking his jaw off the floor. Mark sees you acting out one day "You're just jealous because dad likes spending time with me over you and you don't have any powers" and youre so hurt at seeing your big brother who you've been wanting to protect all this time become a pawn of your father that you just start hovering in the air right then and there, "you can have dad. You can have everything. I'm not even staying on this planet anymore"

I dunno, I kinda like the idea of Reader being this kind of, you know, still kind and all that, but a really almost, inhuman figure in the sense that your specific alien genetics or mutation causes you to kind of snap onto Genius Mode and you become sort of this calculating detached figure who pretends to be human and is openly hateful to your entire family because, as you see it, you're on your own and don't need or want them, you're different than them, your mental abilities are different even from Nolan's, and, meanwhile, said superhero is desperate to find out why his little girl hates her Daddy so much. He's still, you know, got that Viltrum in him, but Debbie and Earth has drawn out more of his humanity and he does love you, he does want you in his life, and it HURTS for you to reject him

But then he finds out about your powers and. Suddenly you're just supposed to magically forget how he started pushing you away too as he wants to bond with you again, teach you, train you. He has no idea he's proving your years of theories right as, he is overjoyed at discovering you have powers, like, you very clearly detect the "oh thank GOD you're not ACTUALLY a lowly human" energy oozing off of him and you realize you were right all along, you really were never more than just an extension of this narcissistic man from his freak species of savages, that he came to Earth with ulterior motives and it's dangerous for you to continue to be around him

You can try to pull away from him all you want, but even if he never found out about your powers, Nolan won't ever let you slip through his fingers. He knows how heartless and cruel this galaxy can be, and, if you're really truly such a fragile little eggshell of a human, then, clearly you need your doting dad looking after you until you're a little old lady passing away of old age while he looks exactly the same as the day you were born. But. That's not what's going to happen because even if that scenario came to pass he would quickly see that you aren't aging. There's no way you can fake that.

I just imagine a Reader who hardens herself into a true soldier and starts planning for the day you kill your father. You lure him out one day into a certain area and you jump him with like Homura vs Walpurgisnacht levels of preparation, hurling all sorts of materials and chemicals and objects at him, testing what works yet nothing does, coming at him with all sorts of different attacks and techniques you've had to teach yourself and pick up on your own, but, he's older than you, FAR older, and much more experienced, and he finally has to do something he hates and punches you in the gut so hard it makes you collapse and start throwing up but, he's just. POSITIVELY EUPHORIC. you just tried to kill your own father at like 17, 18, 20 years old and he's standing here "I KNEW IT, I knew you were special! Did you plan all this? Wow! you even tried to pierce my heart! where did you even get explosives from, did you make these?" Like he's THRILLED at the absolute sheer brutality, like, you just tried to KILL HIM kill him and he's like "Awwww I'm so proud 🥰🥰🥰 my little baby girl is a true viltrumite" and now YOU'RE FUCKED because now he loves you more than ever and, he was lowkey becoming massively depressed at the idea of outliving you, losing you, having to see you die, and now he doesn't have to, so. Now he can have both of his kids for rhe next hundreds and thousands of years 🥰 he has so many things he wants to show and teach you, so, now that he's seen how truly capable you are, it's time to start your training, but also, making up for all that lost bonding time you spent pushing dear old dad away ❤️

#yandere invicible #yandere nolan grayson #yandere x reader #yandere stuff #sinprompts #also. ok. kind of this same concept but. anon was right. this same concept but like miguels daughter realizing hes an imposter #hes scary hot. hes like. kidnap you and force you to be the mother of hia children scary hot

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simplydannie · 7 days

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Fanfic about Velvet and Veneer as kids???

You got it :3

Together

“Veneer open the door!” Velvet demanded. She banged and banged on his door. The moment he came home, he ran straight into his room.

“No!” He screamed from inside.

“Open it now Veneer!” Velvet shouted again.

“Go away!”

They were nine. After school their dad brought them straight home while their mother took Veneer to her office: her dental office. A few hours later they had come home, but Veneer ran straight to his room.

“We have to practice for our presentation in class tomorrow Vennie!” Silence from the other side. “If you don’t open the door, I’m going to tell our teacher I did all the work!” Velvet could hear commotion coming from the other side. She finally heard his door unlock, he opened it slowly, half his face covered by the door.

“Let me in!” She demanded. Veneer was silent for a moment.

“You have to promise not to laugh…” He murmured. Was that a lisp she heard?

“Why are you talking weird? Well, weirder.” Velvet shoved her way past him and into his room.

“You didn’t promise!” He demanded.

“Shut up and tell me!”

Veneer carefully removed his hands from his mouth; he gave her a toothy smile, the metal along his mouth flashing her eyes.

“You got braces!” Velvet rushed over and forced his mouth open for a better look.

“Ow! Stop it! It’s still soar.” He begged. The braces obviously made his lisp more known.

“What’s so bad about braces?”

“They’re going to make fun of me! They already do anyways, and now, it’s going to be worse.” Veneer sat himself on the floor hugging his knees.

“Well why didn’t you tell mom no thank you.”

“She said I needed them. My little snaggle tooth was pushing my teeths.” He lisped.

Velvet wasn’t one for offering much words of wisdoms or comfort. She knew the kids at school bullied her brother, but she never knew why. He’s always try to be friendly, always tried to make friends, but it didn’t come easy to him. Actually, it never came easy for both of them… Velvet wasn’t good in making friends either. But neither one seemed to mind because they always had each other. Of course, they wouldn’t mention it to their parents, they didn’t want them to worry. Velvet huffed and tossed their project at his feet. Veneer looked up at her.

“Come one. Let’s practice.”

So far, so good, Veneer thought to himself the following day at school. He managed to avoid anyone noticing his new braces. No one had came up to pick on him… yet. Most of the morning was spent doing the project presentations.

“Velvet and Veneer. You two are next.” Their teacher called out. The twins made their way in front of the class. It was decided Velvet would do most of the talking.

“For our career presentation, we wanted to talk about dentistry.” Velvet began. Everything was running smoothly, Veneer controlled the slide show, showed off the board they made while Velvet spoke. One particular boy in class noticed how he wasn’t speaking, this boy had it out for Veneer….he was one of his bullies.

“Ms. B!” He called out. “Veneer isn’t talking. I thought you said every single person in the group has to talk.”

“Fair enough. Velvet would you mind allowing your brother a few words.”

“H-he’s, not feeling good.” She lied.

“Oh is he? I didn’t get any not from your parents. Should the full credit go to you then?”

Velvet shook her head. She eyed her brother, signaling him up to the front. “It’s now or never Vennie.” She whispered to him. Veneer shifted weight on his feet. He began to speak softly, head turned away and hidden from the class.

“I’m sorry Mr. Montegue, we cannot hear you. Facing the class please.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat. Now or never, he thought. He faced the class and spoke louder.

“Brace face!” The boy shouted. The rest of the class laughed.

“Shut up! Or punch your stupid face!” Velvet yelled.

“Ms. Montegue! Five minute of your recess time! Everyone else quiet down!”

Velvet spent the first five minutes of recess outside the classroom bench. Veneer attempted to wait for her but he was shooed outside with the rest of the class.

“Stupid boy.” She exclaimed. Mrs. B peeked outside the classroom door to address Velvet.

“Watch your tongue next time Ms. Montegue. You may go.”

Velvet hopped off the bench and ran out to the playground to look for her brother. She ran towards a far off swing set they would normally meet at. When she saw he wasn’t there she then went to the jungle gym: no luck.

“Vennie!” She called out. Velvet scanned the sea of children. She looked and looked until… there, she saw it, a green swoop of green hair…but something wasn’t right. A few of the other kids surrounded him, pushing towards the sandbox.

“Hey!” She called from faraway. Velvet took off running.

“Brace face! Brace face!” The kids taunted Veneer. He tried to ignore them hoping they would leave, but this time they pursued. The kicked sand in his face and pushed him to the ground.

“Leave me alone.” He said. But again it only made it worse.

“Brace face! Brace face!” They taunted and taunted. The boy in his class filled a bucket of sand and dumped it over Veneers head. Everyone around them laughed…until…

THUD!

He was tackled to the ground and Velvet ran into him.

CRACK!

His face hit the edge of the sand box. He held his mouth over his hand and started crying…. Blood seeping through his fingers. All the other kids gaped and backed away.

“I’m telling the teacher!” He cried and left. The group of kids dispersed before anyone could get in trouble, leaving the twins alone. Velver knelt down and started wiping sand off her brothers clothes and hair.

“Vels! You’re going to get in trouble.” He said standing up.

“I don’t care. He’s stupid. He deserves it.” She scoffed.

“But…”

“Didn’t you get in trouble that one time because you were defending me.” She stated.

“Yes. But…”

“Want to go play super stars?” She asked.

Veneer smiled, “Okay.”

The twins took off to the jungle jump. It wasn’t long before their teacher came screaming Velvets name. She rolled her eyes as she was sent to the principals office. But Veneer was right there next to her. Whatever punishment she’d face he’d be willing to face it with her, together.

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karma-creations · 6 months

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My favorite bits/lines from every Secret Life session after watching all POVs

Session 1

tango trying to ask multiple questions at a time to get scar talking for a little while and scar outright telling him to shut up so he can infodump

joel’s response to lizzie, his ACTUAL WIFE, saying "I love you": "oh thank you"

joel: "hey bdubs your house is upside down" bdubs: "YES I KNOW IT'S UPSIDE DOWN- i'm sorry. i'm sorry"

bdubs not-so-subtly begging mumbo not to build a house inspired by his and mumbo straight up going going "uh huh" before suggesting a house inspired by bdubs's

cleo catching etho with the bed shrine

mumbo: "it could be like the alps, but bad. like, much worse."

martyn: "we can do a bit of, uh, tankin' and spankin'" gem: "……bit of what?"

skizz: "all of us are pretty old, maybe our island's called heart problems"

tango: "well, i'll be honest, skizz… everybody's teamed up, so… you're all that's left, we're gonna have to shack up" skizz: "well! it’s like a giant hug!"

Session 2

everyone going "OOOOHHhhhhhhhhhh…….." after skizz's creeper got put in a boat

mumbo: "I'm happy to be in whatever group you guys- oh hey bdubs"

bdubs: "I DON'T NEED NO MOM, I'M A GROWN MAN!" cleo: "really? how do you explain the everything?"

cleo (to bdubs): "you're just a horse girl at heart, aren’t you?"

skizz going "BREAK IT UP BREAK IT UP" at the same time as tango chanting "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT"

scar: "was this your idea, pearl?" pearl: "no" scar: "this is amazing, only you would have come up with something like this"

martyn: "that's right, I'm a yellow life, and I've come to KILL you" bigb: "….wow, dude"

grian: "I've had the weirdest interactions whenever I see you" bigb: "y'know, I hope they get weirder"

everyone singing happy birthday off-key and out of sync

mumbo: "is there anything that I can help with? I come with no resources and very little talent"

bdubs: "I know how to crit punch, so it's gonna hurt you more than it hurts me!" gem: "..I also know how to crit punch" bdubs: "oh"

scar: "can I give you a ride, bdubs, wherever you're going?" bdubs: "freaking no, not on that thing! you kidding me?" scar: "aw. well I was just offering!" bdubs: "…all right, fine."

Session 3

*joel and lizzie arguing* grian: "aren't you guys married"

grian saying "I don't like what this has become" then immediately joining in the chanting when it’s joel's turn to fail

grian: "I love you, etho" etho: "……thank you?"

mumbo: "right, show me the gear knob on that camel" grian: "I’d rather not"

cleo: "yes, tango, the thing that I know about you is you don't know how minecraft works"

cleo's constant ethubs jokes

etho waterboarding everyone

scar: "losers will be beaten with my beatin' stick"

joel: "you are a FAILURE!!" martyn: "wow that was whole chest" joel: "sorry I’ve had a really rough episode"

bigb accidentally picking up torchy and tango being DEVASTATED

cleo: "why are we coming out this way?" bigb: "so no one can hear!" cleo: "well impulse is right there" impulse: "who?"

torchy out for blood the entire time

Session 4

cleo accidentally hitting etho with her sword and etho's immediate response: "I'LL DO THE DISHES I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT"

cleo: "hey grian" grian: "🎶hellooo theeeere🎶" cleo: "hello, are you singing?" grian: "🎶absolutely not, I would never sing🎶"

mumbo: "what's your favorite welsh town" grian: "……….🎶let me googleee🎶"

grian: "I don't know what to do with myself now, cleo, what do we do?" cleo: "I don't know, I think we should burn things down"

grian: "ignore the stairs, they wouldn’t burn"

scar: "you guys are still here? I went and stole a bunch of stuff and you guys are still yapping over here"

jimmy: "I'll go in BigB's hole" scott: "you're gonna do WHAT????" cleo: "I always knew there was something about you two"

scar singing back at grian with no hesitation

grian and scar spotting martyn hiding behind the tree

jimmy: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING" scott: "hi, I’m just making the path connect-" jimmy: "STOP CRYIN' AND TELL US WHAT YOU'RE DOIN'" scott: "I'm making the path connect like lizzie did"

joel: "anyway, just came over here to ruin your day"

bdubs: "okay, you count us in" bigb: "okay. seven"

mumbo: "what do I win?" bdubs: "uhh- you win.. eight baked potatoes!" mumbo: "YEEEEESSS!!!!!"

bdubs: "you can't hit me! I can say and do whatever I want! okay, going to the house real quick though, to lock myself in"

people gaslighting jimmy and martyn (mostly jimmy) into thinking there’s a zombie/skeleton horse spawner somewhere

bdubs: "hey, hey! I consider you a friend! apparently it’s not reciprocated." gem: "it’s not. what do you want?"

jimmy: "martyn I think he can see you-" *beat* martyn: "WELL HE DIDN’T UNTIL YOU SAID THAT YOU IDIOT"

martyn: "oh yeah, wait! why are you wearin’ that?" scar: *incoherent cop sounds* (/ref)

jimmy: "he'll come back like nothing's happened now" mumbo: "hey guys 😀"

skizz: "here's the thing, I'm not too bossy, I- Boppers, go home for a second, I gotta talk to these guys"

#secret life #life series #traffic smp #I'll reblog with future sessions #for now enjoy

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jomiddlemarch · 6 months

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Reality has no place in our world

“Mom, stop. You can’t do this,” Rory said. She didn’t fold her arms in front of her chest or glare, two gestures Lorelai herself might have chosen to accompany giving an order, but then Rory was a better person that Lorelai would ever be and also, not nearly as accomplished at glaring; unlike Lorelai, she hadn’t spent the formative years of her facial expression life under the tutelage of Emily Gilmore and neither Luke nor Michel every gave Rory a hard time.

Rory didn’t look angry or exasperated or impatient. She looked a little frustrated, a little tired, and mostly, disappointed. Christ, it was so early, the sky still the dull dark of the moonless hour before dawn, and she’d already made Rory give her that look, the one that wasn’t a glare, and speak in that tone.

“Do what? The cha-cha?” Lorelai shuffled a bit, shimmying a lot more. “Wake up before my alarm—check. Face the future without fear? On it—”

“You can’t leave Max. You can’t run away the day before your wedding,” Rory said. “You can’t do that to him.”

“No?” Lorelai said, as if she was going to add Try me or watch me or you’re not the boss of me, when it came out sounding like a real question and she was open to alternate suggestions, which as she said it she realized was, in fact, the truth.

“No. You can’t. Whatever’s going on inside your head, you can’t be that mean to him, to just leave. You can’t be cruel because you’re freaking out,” Rory said. “You’re freaking out, right?”

“So, I’m mean and cruel? Did you forget nasty?” Lorelai said, crossing her own arms in front of her. Someone ought to and it didn’t seem like Rory was going to. She carefully avoided answering the freak-out question, though it didn’t take a world-class genius to raise the hypothesis.

“I didn’t say any of that and you know it. This isn’t some cute rom-com, where you can ditch the guy at the altar and then there’s some montage of a roadtrip or a bunch of zany, over-caffeinated high-jinks,” Rory said.

“That sounds better than this,” Lorelai said. “A lot better. What’s the soundtrack?”

“It’s not. It’s not real,” Rory replied, ignoring her attempt at deflection. “You have to call Max. You have to talk to him, before you decide to do whatever you decide to do.”

“I do?” They both heard the reference to wedding vows and Lorelai raised an eyebrow. Rory frowned.

“Don’t make this weirder, Mom. Call Max. I’ll get the phone,” Rory said.

“Okay. Fine. You’re obviously not going to let this go,” Lorelai said. Was she a little relieved that Rory had called out her imminent scarpering? Around 23% seemed fair.

“I’m not,” Rory agreed. “You’ll thank me for it.”

“Don’t press your luck, kiddo—"

She called.

Max answered on the second ring, his voice the kind of growly that meant she’d woken him, which wasn’t a huge surprise because it was still hovering around 5 am. They didn’t talk for long. She asked him to come over and he said he’d be there in 20 min without asking any questions why, which was big of him given the time and date and she knew she herself would have expected some kind of explanation and probably would have taken more like 40 min to get to his apartment, because she damn well would have made a travel-mug of coffee even if she was heading over in yesterday’s jeans and the first tee-shirt she could put her hands on.

With only 20 min, she made a pot of coffee and put on fresh jeans. She didn’t change her tee-shirt. The coffee had been Rory’s idea. Lorelai recognized Rory was looking for other ways to keep her from bolting besides guilt and that coffee, naturally, was the best available approach. Lorelai sat at the kitchen table and waited for Max, letting Rory be the one to open the front door and then take herself off to Babette’s, since it was too early for anywhere else to be open.

“What’s wrong?” Max said, sitting across from her, a mug of coffee in front of him, untouched. Lorelai herself was also untouched, Max forgoing a hug or a kiss or even his hand on her shoulder or pushing back the loose hair by her cheek. She couldn’t be bitter about it, but she was, a little, even though she knew she was being unreasonable.

“Why do you think something’s wrong?” she countered, as if this would be some kind of ordinary sparring, like whether Al’s food could ever truly be called Chinese or if Brandy was a good name for a dog.

“Why do I—it’s 5:23, you called and asked me to come right over. There’s no good news you deliver that way,” he said, pretty calmly given that he could well be deeply frustrated, annoyed or outright enraged at her dancing around. He hadn’t even gotten to see her cha-cha.

“Maybe I do, maybe that’s something you don’t know about me—”

“Lora, enough,” he interrupted and she couldn’t have said whether it was hearing the nickname only he ever used or the brevity, just two words, or the tenderness in his voice, in his tired, dark eyes, but something in her broke.

“I don’t think I can marry you,” she said.

“Okay,” he said. “Why couldn’t you wait to tell me?”

“Okay? Okay?!” she repeated, screeching if she were being honest with herself, which is what this whole thing has been supposed to be about.

“I didn’t mean I was happy to hear you say it. It was an acknowledgement, nor approval. Why couldn’t you wait until actual morning?” he said.

“I wasn’t planning this.” She took a sip of her coffee. It wasn’t as good as Luke’s but that was nothing new.

“You weren’t planning this—” he paused, looking at her with a degree of acuity that made her want to flee. Or squirm. She gripped the handle of the mug and hoped it wouldn’t break off in her hand. They sat there for like forever or 47 seconds, she couldn’t be sure. “This wasn’t your idea. This was Rory’s idea, us talking, she’s the only person you’d do this for—”

“I’d do it for you—”

“No, you wouldn’t,” he said. “You were going to leave. You were going to leave me a day before the wedding.”

Well, she’d known he was intelligent and good at reading her and quick, so fucking quick, that was why she’d fallen in love with him—

“Were you going to write a note? Call?” he asked. Lorelai sat, feeling lumpish and pathetic and all betrayal-y, and didn’t say a word. Max closed his eyes for a moment and let out a breath. “You weren’t going to do anything. You were going to run away and someone else was going to have to tell me. To deal with everything.”

“Sookie would’ve called you,” Lorelai said. She tried not to mumble, though she really felt like mumbling, more than she’d ever want to mumble in her whole life.

“You’d have called her from wherever you went,” Max said. “She’s making the wedding cake.”

“Five tiers,” Lorelai said. “All buttercream frosting. She has a thing against fondant.”

“It tastes like shit,” he said. It was quiet between them, so quiet a bird could have twittered or sung its cute little morning song so they could share a smile or the eye-part that went with a smile without actually moving their lips, but it was quiet and she wondered if Max would get up and walk out.

“What’s wrong, Lora?” he said softly, which was a far cry from stomping out or shouting or making a snide, sarcastic remark about her, which were all the responses she would have expected from the other men in her life, Luke, her father, and Christopher respectively, and for the first time, she felt her eyes fill with tears.

“I don’t think I can do it. I’m not—you won’t want, I, I didn’t look at my dress every night,” she said in a rush.

“Is that a thing? Looking at your dress every night?” he said.

“My mother says it is.”

“But you think she’s wrong about almost everything,” he said. He made a good point.

“She said she wanted to, that’s how she knew she wanted to get married,” Lorelai said.

“Maybe that’s not how you’d know,” Max said. “In fact, I would bet good money that it’s not how you’d know, because I know you like your dress but it’s not even a distant second to coffee in your regard.”

“I don’t deserve you,” Lorelai said.

“Have you ever thought you don’t have to? That we don’t care about each other because it’s something we deserve, but because I want you and you want me?” he said.

“You don’t want me,” she said, before she could think twice, could stop herself or figure out something that would come after, some explanation about how there was a much better woman out there for him and he shouldn’t get derailed by her. She didn’t want to be his trainwreck.

“Don’t tell me what I want,” he snapped, then rubbed his face with his hand. “I’m sorry, this is hard. But I know what you expect. You expect me to walk out, plus or minus lashing out at you first.”

“What—”

“It’s what Christopher does. He leaves. It’s what Luke does. He walks away, he shuts down. It’s what you father does. He scolds you and he stalks out,” Max said. “Lora, I’m not going to do that.”

“But why?” she said. “Why not?”

“Because I love you. Because if loving you, I need to leave you, I’m not leaving like that,” he said.

“I was going to,” she said, almost under her breath.

“I know. But you listened to Rory and she wouldn’t let you,” he said and then he scrunched up his forehead in a way that was unfairly adorable. “She’s very insightful. And not here—is she next door at Babette’s?”

Lorelai could count on one hand the number of times Christopher had ever expressed concern about where Rory was, who was looking after her, or uttered a smidgen of praise that wasn’t of the generic “so pretty so smart” variety.

“Yeah, she’s next door,” Lorelai said. “I still don’t think we should get married.”

“I know about Luke,” Max said. Lorelai suddenly understood the expression knocked over with a feather, though she didn’t know who was keeping feathers around for such a purpose. She felt herself goggle at Max and knew it was not her most attractive look, but needs must.

“What do you mean, you know about Luke?”

“He hand-carved a chuppah for you to get married beneath. I can recognize when someone else cares about you. You never asked, but he must have,” Max said.

“Must have asked what?”

“He knows you’re not Jewish. He found out I am and he built a chuppah for you,” he said. “It sure as hell wasn’t for me.”

“You’re Jewish?”

“Yeah,” he said. “My mother’s side. The side that counts. She was a Cohen before she married my father.”

“I had no idea—”

“I didn’t fall in love with you for your astonishing attention to detail and detective skills,” Max said. “I’m in love with you and I know Luke loves you and you love him, but are you going to throw away what we have when I’m not asking you to give him up?”

“What are you saying, Max?” Lorelai shook her head. “Despite what my mother thinks of me, I’m not…kinky.”

“Wow, that is a whole other conversation,” he said, laughing, which was not something she’d had on her bingo card for the discussion about breaking an engagement at the last minute. “I meant, you don’t have to stop caring about Luke, I don’t expect that. I don’t expect him to stop loving you—if there’s anything I can understand, it’s loving you. But not as a husband. Not as Rory’s stepfather—I want that and he doesn’t—”

“How do you know he doesn’t?” Lorelai said. It was the second time this night-into-morning that she’d said something that was intended as a challenge and realized she’d just asked a question of someone she trusted more than herself.

“Because you’ve lived here for over ten years and he’s never said anything, for all the breakfast, lunches and dinners he’s made for you. He’s never asked you out on a date or stayed for pizza or Al’s. He’s never been the one who ran out to the pharmacy to get Tylenol when Rory spiked a fever or needed posterboard for a school project at the last minute,” Max said.

“Rory has never needed a school supply at the last minute,” Lorelai said.

“He’s never made the cupcakes for the bake sale. Sookie did that and she still does,” Max said. He pushed his coffee mug away and left his right hand palm up on the table top. She’d held that hand, felt it cupped around her cheek, pressed against the small of her back and the curve of her ass. It was unclear whether she’d ever touch him again and she wished she could read the future in the creases and lines being picked out by the early morning sunlight.

“Look, I’m not telling you you have to marry me and it’s not a contest and it’s not a guilt-trip. I’m only saying that I love you and I think you love me and what you’re worried about, about needing to choose, about not caring in the right way, the right amount, I think it’s bullshit. It’s partly your mother’s fucking bullshit and some of it is societal expectations and some is your own stuff going back to Christopher and the teenage rebellion that turned into being a teen mom. I want you to be happy, to do what makes you happy, but I want you to know where I stand. What I can live with. You’ll never stop loving Luke and Christopher will always be Rory’s father and I am okay with that, with all of that. Because I fucking love you, Lora.”

“I love you too,” she said. “But maybe, I don’t know if it’s the right way—”

“When has doing anything the right way ever mattered to you?” he replied and she had to laugh because it was true and because he understood her enough to know it and say it.

“I’m not sure it’s enough,” she said.

“What is enough? Is a thousand yellow daisies enough? Is agreeing to call me at 4:53 enough?” he pushed. “This isn’t a rom-com, it’s real life. And we’re not both sixteen, we’re adults. Let me ask you, why did you call me today? I know if was Rory’s idea but you did it, you could have refused, you could be driving to God knows where right now—”

“I wanted to,” she said. “I wanted to hear your voice. I didn’t call because I felt like I owed it to you. I’m not that good a person.”

“I want to talk to you first thing in the morning,” Max said. “I don’t ever want it to be too early.”

“What about too late?” Lorelai said. She’d done a fair job of royally fucking things up for all his protestations to the contrary. The caffeine and sun might be hitting him, he might think twice about sticking around.

“No such thing,” he said. He didn’t move, so she let go of her coffee and put her hand in his. “But maybe you want a new dress?”

“I can’t get a new dress the day before the wedding, Max,” she said, already thinking of that sweet little number she’d seen in a consignment store window in Hartford, all nipped in waist and Givenchy New Look attitude and the look Max would give her if she were walking toward him in it. She thought of Max watching her come closer and Luke watching her walk away until she was in the shadow of the chuppah he’d built. She thought it was impossible and that she’d heard worse ideas and not just from Kirk on any topic.

“Says who?”

She wore the new, second-hand dress.

Max stomped a glass wrapped in a cloth napkin in lieu of a rabbi.

She didn’t take his name. In the receiving line, Luke kissed her cheek and called her Lorelai. Cutting Sookie’s masterpiece (Every tier a different flavor! Homemade quince preserves! Candied white violets!), she didn’t notice the weight of her wedding ring, but she couldn’t look away from the gold band on Max’s hand.

When she woke in the night from a dream full of dread, regret, the terrible mixture of mistake and failure, that hand lay gently on her hip and when she grew too tense, he murmured what’s wrong, Lora and then she could go back to sleep.

#gilmore girls #gilmore girls AU fic #lorelai gilmore/max medina #romance #angst #rory to the rescue #sookie st james #christopher hayden #luke danes #early morning conversations #there is coffee of course #domestic #fix-it fic #wedding dresses #max lays it on the line

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baura-bear · 1 year

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can u pls talk some more about ryan kopel’s davey i am Begging (thank u for all the posts about uksies it is keeping me sane)

um. i wrote a lot.

"For me I think he's just gotten weirder and weirder as time goes on um, just, yeah, all his quirks and everything have started to come out much more than they were in December. Hopefully he will just continue to get even stranger" -Ryan Kopel about how Davey has changed as time goes on (from Wednesday's Q&A)

Thought that quote was fitting to start off with. Like I said, I saw the show in March so I definitely got a "weirder" version of Davey than I might have if I'd gone in December. I've listened to audio boots from pre-March and I can tell just from his line delivery how much his character has changed and it's incredible. (I would like to say I am interpreting "weird" as autistic because I say so). He is constantly stimming and his acting is so physical he's always bouncing around, limbs flailing about in such a cartoony way it's amazing. Rocks back and forth on his feet a lot, hugs papers, fiddles with strap of paper bag, taps thumbs together and wipes hands on front of his pants regularly. He also has a habit of clasping his hands together in front or behind him and it makes him look really sweet.

Even his growth from act 1 to act 2 is so fun to watch. When he first meets the newsies they ALL seem skeptical of him, Crutchie gives him BOMBASTIC side eye and Race is very snarky with him. You can see him get more comfortable with them, but there's still a bit of that hesitance which is so interesting to watch. He also gets much more comfortable around Jack which comes across in Watch What Happens (Reprise) and Jack's betrayal scene.

He also is very good at making Davey gay in a 1800s closeted young queer boy sort of way. Javey is strong in this production (if you hadn't figured that out from the numerous backstage pictures). Lot's of the lines he delivers towards Jack are very much Boy-Who-Is-In-Love-But-Very-Bad-At-Hiding-It. He gets SUPER embarrassed about Les looking at the bowery beauties and when he sees Jack's backdrop he very eagerly jumps forward and says "Thats!!- I mean. Uh. that's... really good."

Les and Davey's sibling bond is also so sweet, it's just as strong with every Les (I saw 3/4 of the original Les's). He's always got a hand on his shoulder or his arms wrapped around Les from the back. 99% of the show is Davey looking at Les with absolute astonishment at what he's doing "Buy a pape from a poor orphan boy?" "Oh- no he's not an orphan!" *cue Jack pulling Davey away*

Speaking of which. When Davey's trying to hawk his paper it's to the audience and the last thing he says before Jack cuts in is "Paper? anyone? Not for you"

There are so many good moments in act 2 good lord. I love Watch What Happens (reprise) because Ryan's version isn't so much that David is trying to convince Jack of anything, but rather that Davey already knows he's won the argument and he's being so cocky about it. ALSO THE WAY HE DELIVERS "we are INEVITABLE" is amazing.

I have so many thoughts about the stike rally. First of all when Davey goes up while everyone's chanting for Jack his reaction to the crowd is very much "Oh my god there are so many people here what do I do" rather than Ben Fankhauser's take of a more confident Davey. Multiple times Davey goes over to Medda like a proud little kid showing their mom what they did. When Jack enters (and starts suggesting they disband the union) Davey asks Medda if she knows what's going on and she looks so confused and heart broken by Jack's actions she just shakes her head at Davey. While everyone is yelling at Jack Davey tries multiple to get him to stop by stepping forward and touching his arm or shoulder and even saying "Jack, stop, please Jack stop?" and he actually tries so hard to be understanding. Of course all hell breaks loose and Jack ends up pushing Les to the ground which is what finally breaks Davey he says "What are you doing Jack?" and gestures to Les on the ground before helping him up and running off stage.

Before they print the Newsie Banner Katherine hands her notebook to Davey and he reads it over and writes something in her notebook before handing it back so they can print it.

"People like Joe don't talk to nobodies like us" Davey and Jack both smile sweetly and lean their heads together

I hope this was sufficient :)))))) it was very fun to write. If you made it this far I have one more message: go Listen to Ryan Kopel on Spotify

#inevitably i'm going to remember something later and curse myself for not including it #newsies #newsies uk #uksies #david jacobs #ryan kopel #jack kelly #asks

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our-lesbian-experience · 2 months

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I suggested inviting a newer male friend (who I’m worried may be kinda into me because he looks at me a lot — I have good peripheral vision and in the environment we’re usually sitting where I can see him — and like always helps me and it’s kinda just a vibe mixed with those things) to the movies if my original friend I invited couldn’t make it and my mom reacted like. like “ohhhhhhh okay” like. Like it was romantic. And I’ve told her I’m not into him. And I was so so uncomfortable by this and it made me kinda anxious and like not wanna invite him anymore because it seems too flirtatious. And I feel like in the past (I’ve had stuff like this happen a lot) I would have thought oh no am I into him because of that reaction but since learning more about comphet…I think it might just be comphet. Which is scary as hell tbh because have I not been attracted to guys this whole time??? On the other hand if i haven’t and I do like girls and the possibility of me being a lesbian gets easier and less heavy on my shoulders (I’m hoping so hard it’ll be like how when I first came out of religion it sucked but now I’m very much at peace with it and glad overall) it’ll be kinda reliving I’m not. Idk. Someone who gets feelings and then backs out because I’m scared of commitment. I’ve always worried I’m like that. I’m starting to think maybe I have a reason (and also…those aren’t Feelings)

My mom has shipped me with my male friends all my life, and while I would have had it anyway probably, I think it really hasn’t helped the comphet. I can think of three examples — all boys — that she liked for me when I was 5 💀 and I didn’t reallyyyy mind it but if I told her it made me uncomfortable she kept doing it

At one point when I was twelve or so she kept mentioning this one boy I played games with pretty often and I told her (not angrily, but sorta passionately? ) to stop because that made me uncomfortable and it’s weird and she asked if I thought it was weird for the boy too (he would not have known my mom shipped us but his mom did) and I said yeah probably (although idk if he did — I found out shortly thereafter he had a crush on me and then I started talking to him significantly less and even missed his birthday party, even though I had been to every one since we met prior to that point, because it made me really anxious. And I thought maybe that was attraction. And I was bad for avoiding it.)

now that I’m allowing myself to maybe not be into men im more and more thjnkng j might not be. which is only making the shipping weirder, because like. you (my mom) migjttttt be missing a piece of the puzzle here

it really is wierd thi that the more I allow myself to be removed from being attracted to men the more I realize…idk if I even wanna date one? anyways yeah sorry this is all over the place I was kinda just wondering if you could relate or had any advice? and i’m sorry it got so long.

the comphet realization rollercoaster is so real. and the mom thing too, I still haven't come out to my mom and sometimes she brings up my "crushes" from when I was really little and it makes me uncomfortable but idk what to do :/

I can't really help you about the mom part but i can try to help w the comphet! try to do some introspection on what happens/happened when you feel attracted towards a man (like are you just attracted and notice or do you see a man, think that he is objectively attractive, and decide you're attracted? That might be a little 'severe' for the lack of a better word but it's kind of how I experienced it)

Also hypothetical scenarios are helpful. idk how old you are or if you've had a relationship yet so i'm just going to assume you haven't for the sake of simplicity. When I imagine a relationship with a woman, it's a lot different than imagining a relationship with a man. Sapphic relationships feel more real and something about it just feels more right. when i imagine being in a relationship with a man, it feels very theoretical and out of place, almost as if i'm imagining a caricature of myself or me in an alternate reality. Trying to imagine relationships with different genders can def help with figuring out if you'd want a relationship with a certain gender

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muzzlemouths · 1 year

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@doofnoof STORYTIME

SO! My mom and I have moved around a lot for many (mostly depressing) reasons and could hardly find so much as a one bedroom apartment to share most years, so when we were offered a four bedroom, two bathroom, ENORMOUS backyard full house for a measly amount of rent, we jumped at the chance without really wasting time to question it. The house had a weird feeling from the start but we chalked that up to "just moved" anxiety and shrugged it off.

I don't want to call this a "warning sign", but a weird occurrence I noticed upon moving in was the distinct lack of animals. This was way out in the country, so there were animals galore all around, but none of them — not even birds — would come within a few yards of the house. (cw for animal death) I even adopted a little chick to raise out there, but it did in fact pass away within hours of being inside.

There was a master bedroom with three smaller bedrooms. The master bedroom had a Bad Vibe to it which sounds silly when I say it out loud, but I cannot express just how much being in this room sucked. You'd always feel a little uncomfortable in the house as a whole, but the second you walked into this one room it felt like the entire earth's weight was on your chest. It felt like someone was standing directly behind you at all times. It felt like you smoked three packs of cigarettes and then did jumping jacks. On multiple occasions I became physically sick after being in it for too long.

The room smelled HEAVILY of smoke. Despite there not being any visible fire damage, it always had a scent like there was something burning. We had the wiring checked, the vents checked, the outlets checked, everything. Anybody who came over could smell it but no one knew where it was coming from, because if you got up to the walls and carpets the smell didn't increase any, it was just always there.

My mother chose to sleep in this room because it was the biggest. Now, I want to emphasize here that my mother is in no way superstitious, and she waved off any and all of my anxieties concerning this house/that room in particular, but even she only lasted about a month in that room before she moved into a smaller room. She would have nightmares every. single. night, and that's if she could fall asleep at all. She would wake up feeling sick, rush to the bathroom to throw up, but then suddenly feel fine before she even got there once she was past the doorway. I remember her telling me that what finally did it was trying to leave the room one day and the door not opening. It didn't have a lock on it. She finally got it "unstuck" after a while of struggling, but the situation frustrated her so much — along with the smell — that she decided it best to move next to my room instead (to my unending relief).

Everything was normal after that, aside from the weird tension the house always had and the cold issue we could never figure out (wherein the house was always FREEZING, no matter how high we had the heat. We bundled up in sweaters and blankets during the day to stay warm. Again, we had the wiring checked, the heater, everything. There was no logical explanation for this one.)

That normalcy remained for about a week. After that, stuff started to get weirder. The tension and "pressure" when inside the house was so crushing that we would spend a lot of the time outside if we could just to get away from it. Doors began to swing on their own without a draft, and we did have one (1) instance of the classic Door Slams Shut. Sometimes the doors would be "locked" (again, no locks) and we would just have to leave the room alone for a while and come back to it later. My dog hated being inside and more than once I had to physically pick him up and carry him in because he refused to go. I would constantly feel like someone was walking behind me or running after me even if I was just walking around in broad daylight.

At one point, the door issue got so intense that I moved my mattress into the living-room and slept out there. It was a big open space (which didn't exactly make me any more comfortable) with the master bedroom to the left and the kitchen to the right, and in the direction of where my feet would be was the house's looooong hallway, where all three remaining rooms were located.

I slept like this for a few days longer before just not being able to sleep at all because I would feel like I was in fight or flight mode 24/7. I eventually called my partner and asked them to come stay with me for a few days, just so I could get some sleep. My partner came over and set up a spot next to mine and I conked out almost instantly.

The first night was fine. I had a nightmare, my partner witnessed one of the doorknobs shaking, and that was the end of it. The second night, they woke me up at 3:01am on the dot (I remember because we had a clock on the wall and I was wondering what they wanted so late at night) and I remember feeling this AWFUL feeling, just the worst, most sickening, bone chilling feeling I've ever experienced in my life, and I was going to get up and puke, but before I could my partner shook me again and pointed down the dark hallway and said "Look, look!" and I kid you fucking not, there was a man coming down that hallway. Real tall, big hat, no clear expression on his face but the kind of look that makes your stomach clench and tear itself apart.

He stopped at the end of the hallway right where it would have lead to the livingroom. I couldn't get myself to scream or say anything and neither could my partner, we both just huddled together and watched as the thing stood there for literal hours. At one point we must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember is waking up closer to 6am with my mom getting ready for work.

I woke my partner up to double check that I hadn't just dreamed it, and after getting confirmation I just...broke down. Went to my mother as a grown adult just a sobbing wreck, begging her to leave because I couldn't take it anymore.

She knew we couldn't because if we left before a certain date we'd have to pay the deposit, and that was a lot of money when your options were this and being homeless. But I couldn't stay in that house for any longer. I just couldn't. As much as it pained (and worried) me, I left my mom alone in that house to live with my partner and their family instead. I just wasn't strong enough to last even one more night there.

A little under two weeks later, my mom tells me she paid the deposit and will live in her car until we can find another place to go. I'm not sure what changed her mind, and to this day she refuses to tell me what happened in that house after I left, but I can only imagine it was nothing fucking good.

We found out later that the house had many, many deaths inside its walls, and the last tenant before us was a drug house gone wrong where every person involved was killed, multiple of them in traumatic ways. I don't know if that influenced the house or was a result of it, but either way, it's not the prettiest of histories.

The house's owner couldn't find anyone to rent it to after us, and my mom stopped asking after about a year, so I have no idea if it still lies dormant now, but I can tell you I am never going back.

I've never told anyone but a couple friends about this because all of it sounds laughable if you didn't experience it yourself, but I promise you, every word of it is true and still freaks me out to this day.

#man FUCK that house #I wanted to burn it to the ground #hat man. let's not meet #(again)

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cassi-misc-art · 4 months

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Weakness

It's not quite clear what force it is that has offered these powers to humanity. People who have received their powers while standing together will give different accounts of what happened - one will say a terrifying apparition materialized in front of them, while the other will say it was a shimmering ring of feathers with a silver rose in the center. The one shared experience is that, regardless of what power they receive, they must choose a weakness.

Most of the supers I know chose things like ice, steel, or the full moon. I, being the sort who overthinks everything, had chosen a weakness months ahead of time and fine-tuned it in the following weeks. When I declared it to the crystalline statuette, the subtle hum cut off with the screech of a child getting their hands on an untuned violin. But after several moments of silence, the statuette dissolved into stardust without complaint, and I assumed that it meant my weakness had been approved.

I became known as The Invincible. Admittedly, the name I'd chosen for myself wasn't very creative either - Shadowfire - but it was mine and I wished they would call me that. Not to mention, I wasn't invincible, not in "civilian form." I've been shot several times (I'm still trying to figure out WHY someone would be wielding a crossbow in Des Moine), not to mention the stabbings, one of which nearly cost me a kidney.

Most supers earn themselves a nemesis or two, and Redhollow even had a whole gang she stood up against, but I never seemed to really find one of my own. I took up a life of motorcycles and motels, roaming the country in search of a super, a villain or even just an antihero who went too far, that I could call nemesis. People began referring to me by the title I'd given myself, so at least there was that.

I took down a few villains, got the better of some antiheros, and foiled crimes ranging from pickpocketing to human trafficking rings. Every so often I got in the way of sting operations by the local uniforms, much to their annoyance and my embarrassment. I began swinging by the local police station for most towns first (to be honest, it was usually a diner and THEN the police). Sometimes the local supers would turn me away personally - there were "almost too many" in most major cities, or the villains and antiheroes themselves would come to say hello and buy me lunch before sending me on my way for whichever reason they didn't need me around. One small-town villain asked me for advice on how to avoid retribution from the county Villain's Association without giving up villainy completely. It was one of the weirder pep talks I've given, but they were a flashy villain, not a dangerous one, so I did my best to provide advice on keeping safe first and foremost, and THEN on their mischief. Last I heard, they'd taken to fighting any super that came their way, villain and hero alike, just to see how many they can confuse into submission (last I heard - seven).

Through all of this, I never earned myself a nemesis. But I stopped caring so much. My motorcycle and meeting new supers became my life, and it was a good one. Foil some bank robberies, compare the local villains to the ones I'd met elsewhere, and try to avoid women who thought a one-night stand meant that we were In Love. To be honest, that was the closest I ever came to earning a nemesis after all! I've got two of sons now - who I visit, support, and love, thank you very much. One's mom is a small-time "villain" who uses her power for pranks more than anything, and an unpowered rocket scientist.

… I haven't told you my actual power yet, have I. I can turn into a mildly corrosive black mist, which gives me extreme maneuverability to strike from behind or avoid hits, as well as usually causing some level of damage in actual mist form. No super out there has unlimited energy, but most of us have some level of durability built into us aside from our actual powers. And the reason people back home called me The Invincible was because my durability is through the roof.

And then I fought Bullet. His power is… uh, lemme figure out how to explain it. Basically, he snaps his fingers and points, and it sends a nasty, super focused blasts of air at whatever he was pointing at. It had come to light that he named themselves after the pistol shrimp and so any super more powerful than him called him Shrimp instead.

And I should have been more powerful than him.

Bullet was a high-ranking violent super. He'd killed civilians and supers alike, with massive collateral damage from any attack that missed its target. It was this ability that made him near impossible to contain, as he could explode or kill his way out of almost any situation. Because of my reputation for being nigh-invulnerable in battle, I was called in to deal with him personally. Despite the power of his attack, he had extremely low durability.

I was able to lure him away from the city, but cars and storefronts were destroyed along the way. Our battle took place on a deserted highway, but without other targets to demolish, he suddenly became much more accurate in his attacks. I was able to get several hits in, but when I materialized he was able to knock me a far distance with his attacks. But I knew I was winning.

Until I fell.

As I pulled myself back up, we stared at each other in shock. Instead of mist, I had turned to sand, piling on the road and rising out of it.

Bullet pointed at me.

The force nearly ripped my arm off. He was clearly as stunned as I was, walking forward hesitantly. The next attack went through my thigh, and the next tore off my right hand. It dissolved into sand right there, and in desperation I let myself pile on top of it. Bullet shot me again when I was in that form, but - thank God - the entire pile of sand was blasted back despite the precision of his attacks. I pulled myself back to human shape with my wounds healed, only to take more and more near-fatal attacks each time.

Finally, Bullet stood over me, pointing directly at my forehead. Neither of us knew if a headshot really would kill me, but I could tell that he thought so, and he could tell that I thought so too.

He stepped back. Despite our mutual confidence in his ability to kill me, he was still as pale as I felt, still shivering the way I could feel myself shiver.

He stepped away from me, and began walking down the road, away from the city. Nobody has seen or heard from him since, despite several supers with the power of prophecy / truth / etc have confirmed that he's still alive.

As I heard him walking away, I slowly began to breathe more regularly. I stood shakily, still not sure that he wasn't going to attack from behind. As I headed back to the city, I noticed things I hadn't on the way out. There was a jacket and a single near-new sneaker of a notoriously expensive brand by where our battle had taken place, and a bit further on, the matching sneaker. I suppose they'd fallen out of a truck. Soggy fast-food trash lay in a ditch, which a crow stood over possessively. A few small boulders had been painted on, with the colors and mascot of the city high school.

I was almost back to the city when the realization struck me. My weakness. I'd almost forgotten I even had one. Despite my exhaustion, I ran as fast as I could. When I reached the jacket I pulled it off the ground, jamming my hand into the pocket. I stabbed myself in the hand with an unlatched safety pin, and after extricating it, I turned my hand up, unclenching my white-knuckled fingers.

A handful of change. Some quarters, one of which was Canadian, some nickels that had all been printed the same year but were in various states of wear, a dime that had been willfully defaced. And my weakness.

I sat there for a while, and eventually realized I had been laughing.

There, in my hand, sat a counterfeit wheat penny.

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kindestegg · 1 year

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what's yr fav hidden gem horror game thats been wiped off the net

the fishermen and the worm :( i first heard it got gone when i randomly got a dm on reddit of all places bc once upon a time i commented on a post recommending it as a creepy game that doesnt look like horror at first, n the person basically went 'yeah hey do u still have the files for this bc turns out its gone from the net' n im like AGH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bc i lost those in between moving computers many times

iirc the only surviving proof of it existing is an incomplete lets play series on youtube n also some screenshots i took revisiting the ending location to show my bf a long time ago.

it was a very neat little game n it makes me sad the creator wanted it gone but i guess i sort of can understand it bc sometimes as an artist ur gonna get embarrassed of ur old art n want to move on from it n see it gone off the net, i know ive done that with like, p much all my old devart profiles (i have none atm)

you might be wondering what it was about... to give a summary, its about these two little guys who are dubiously in love or maybe just besties who live in like this cartoony paradise in a hole n call themselves fishermen but then theyre like. hey why do we call ourselves that if weve never fished. so they go to their elder and are like HEY WHERE THE FUCK IS ALL THE WATER n hes like FUCK YOU THERES NO WATER HERE ITS ON THE SURFACE YOU STUPID FUCK. so they go to the surface n they meet this worm bug lady whos rly nice n sort of a mother figure to them, shes like rly old, shes been told by her moms (<3) to wait for these two guys for thousands of years in that very same spot. theyre like can u show us water n shes like yeah n points to a speck on the horizon n theyre like wtf we meant to fish in n shes like ohhh okay. yeah we gotta go to a different place for that.

AND THEN. THE REAL GAME BEGINS. you see bc every place in this world is called an 'age', n the more you traverse it, the weirder n often times creepier it gets n the more u get the feeling this is kind of telling the story of someones life? but you cant figure out who. not yet at least. without spoiling too much though, i rly like all the diff visual n style changes for every age, the next age you encoutner right after you move away from the worms spot is genuinely really fucking creepy n with this genuinely NASTY looking grit to it n it only gets more fucked up the more u play through it. thats around the point where i realized OH. oh ive been tricked. this ISNT a silly goofy haha rpgmaker game thats short n sweet! THIS IS A SCARY GAME!

but as ive said every age has a diff look to it, one other is psychedelic, another almost looks like a dr seuss book... so on. eventually, everything starts coming together, n what i rly like about this game is that it doesnt just give u dead ends, it expects you to be smart to figure it out, yes, but it also gives you PLENTY of evidence to figure it out n flat out tells you some stuff n by the end youre probably gonna just naturally know what happened.

i will also say looking back on it i rly appreciate the underlying theme of being gay n growing up gay n how the world aorund you affects you, theres like, SOME REALLY DARK fucking themes when you really get down to it and actually study the full on implications of what its trying to tell you. it rly gets dark with like, how bad homophobia can get n how heartbreaking n desolate sometimes the experience of being a gay kid can be when u have no one who you think you can trust n then growing up into a gay adult whos just getting more confused n worried about the future n sometimes even getting taken advantage of.

but despite all the horror n darkness... its a game that knows when to give you plenty of breathers, the three main characters are so charming they just shine naturally, they combat all the darkness by just being themselves. theyre not the ones who lived through all this horrible crap, theyre just bright little cartoon guys who want to go fish! n by god(s, in this games case) theyre gonna do it!!! n in the end... they may just decide to make things better for everyone else. the game has a good ending. its good guys. the game is good.

#Commander's answers #if left alone i could ramble about this game for us. it is truly something special #im unsure if there will ever be anything quite like. i think only undertale has maybe made me feel this way

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i-used-to-wear-the-fedora · 2 years

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Cheerleader Eddie AU, Oh Chrissy You're So Fine

"You can't do this to me, it's the second time-"

"I'm sorry Mr. Munson but if you want to graduate this year you need an athletic credit." Eddie hated getting called up to the school counselor's office. It always meant there was something wrong with his grades or some kid ratted him out for smoking under the bleachers.

"Come on, I took gym last year."

"And you failed. Twice." The man said and Eddie rolled his eyes. So he didn't show up to run a few laps. Who cared? Well apparently the school did. "Now I know you're not a fan of gym-"

"You could say that."

"-so maybe you could try out for one of our teams. It might be easier for you." Hawkins Highschool only had a budget to support three sports teams. Basketball, tennis and cheerleading. All of which Eddie couldn't be less interested in.

"The basketball team hates me."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"Jason Carver regular writes such clever comments like 'Die Fag' on my locker every day while his buddies watch." The counselor's nose wrinkled at the comment. Eddie knew he didn't believe him because their school's golden boy could do no wrong in any of the faculty's minds.

"What about tennis?"

"They meet the same days as the Hellfire club."

"Ah right your little roleplaying game." The man leaned back in his chair. "Well it seems you have a choice to make Mr. Munson. Why don't you think it over?"

This was how Eddie found himself in the gymnasium after school on Thursday night in front of Chrissy Cunningham and the rest of the cheer squad. Trying his best not to squirm under their gazes as the girls stared him down.

"Is he serious?" He heard one of the girls whisper.

"The freak wants to join the cheer squad?"

"Maybe what Jason said about him was true. Why else would he be here?" Another girl giggled but Chrissy shushed them.

"Come on guys, give him a chance." Chrissy turned back to him with a grin on her face. "We're an equal opportunity team." The girl pulled out the boom box from the stage behind them. "Alright, I'll play a song and you'll have to perform a routine to the rhythm. You have a routine ready, right?"

"Ugh, yeah. Of course." Eddie nodded. He in fact, did not.

"Great! Okay, we have a few tapes to choose from. Any preferences?"

"You got Metallica?" The girl stared at him. "Or maybe White Snake?"

"Um, we have Joan Jett!"

"Okay, yeah that'll work." Eddie knew he probably shouldn't be surprised but he could work with Joan Jett. The red haired girl out the tape in and Eddie tapped his foot nervously-fuck why was he so nervous? He did weirder shit in front of people on a regular basis. Maybe he didn't want to make an ass of himself in front of the entire cheer squad...or maybe it was just Chrissy. Wait why Chrissy?

The highschooler didn't have much time to think as the tape started and Cherry Bomb began to play.

'Can't stay at home, Can't stay at school.'

Eddie's shoulders shook in time with the music, his feet following soon after. Jerking his arms out with the drum beat on school.

'Old folks say, you poor little fool.'

Thrusting his his hips out on fool, Eddie tried not to pay attention to the way the girls stared at him.

'Down the street, I'm the girl next door. I'm the fox you've been waiting for.'

His movements getting faster as the guitar picked up and the woman's voice raised.

'Hello Daddy, Hello Mom. I'm you're Ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!'

He spread his body out with a jump, landing on the floor in front of the girls. Eddie had been so caught up in the heat of the song, he hadn't noticed Chrissy hit stop on the boom box. All the girls were giving him strange looks and he quickly scrambled up from the gym floor.

"Sorry."

"No that was great!" Chrissy beamed. "I've never seen a guy dance so openly like that!"

"Did...did I get on the team?" Chrissy gestured for the other girls to come over, huddling together in a circle as they discussed him.

"He was good right?"

"He was alright."

"You can't be serious, there's no way we can let the freak join."

"Sarah!"

"Come on, we're already short two people. Vanessa has mono and Jesse failed out. Besides he's big. He'll make a good support." Eddie could barely here Chrissy argue in favor of him. Watching your girls scramble for a moment before the huddle broke and they turned to Eddie. "Great news! You're in!"

"But you'll have to practice if you're going to keep up with us." The blonde girl to Chrissy's right said.

"I'll help teach you the routines." Chrissy added. "Tomorrow night, after your Hellfire club meeting?"

"Ugh....yeah." Eddie was kind of surprised she remembered his club. "I can do that."

"You're also going to need a uniform." One of the other girls snickered. "I don't think we have skirts in your size."

"Jeanie!"

"What? It's true." Chrissy frowned but didn't say anything further.

"I think we'll break for today." The girls separated, all making their way to the door as Chrissy called out. "Remember! We're meeting Saturday in the park!"

Eddie stood in front of the girl waiting until they were only ones left in the gym before he spoke.

"Thanks Chrissy." Eddie felt the weight of the other girls judgements lift when he spoke. "Kind of felt like a piece of meat in a lion's den."

"Come on, they're not that bad." Chrissy giggled. "They're just as scared of you as you are of them."

"I thought that was bears." Eddie watched her snort before quickly covering her face.

"Pretend you didn't see that."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Eddie grinned. "Man, it's been years since we've hung out like this."

"Years? We've hung out before?" Eddie fell back like being hit by something.

"You wound me Chrissy. His could you not remember?"

"I'm sorry."

"Nah it's fine. I wouldn't remember me either." Eddie shrugged. "Middle school talent show. You were doing your thing. Y'know, the cheer thing." He gestured to her uniform. "It was actually really cool. And I was there. With my band."

"Oh! Corroded Coffin!"

"Wait, you remember?"

"Well yeah, I mean it's kind of hard to forget a name like that. You guys still play right?"

"Yeah! Man..." He ran a hand through his hair. "It's been way too long."

"Yeah....it really has."

"What happened?" As if to answer Eddie's question the doors to the gymnasium opened and in strutted Jason Carver.

"Hey, babe, you ready?" The teen's face fell when he noticed the person she was talking to. "What's with the freak?"

"Jason! Hey! You've met Eddie." Chrissy approached the boy staring Eddie down.

"You could say that." Eddie knew damn well who this guy was. Whether it was when his locker was getting vandalized or when he got the crap beaten out of him for making fun of the guy at a game. But who'd believe the freak over the basketball star over this kind of thing?

"He just joined the cheerleading squad!" This made Jason audibly laugh.

"Holy shit, really?" Jason leaned over to face Eddie. "I always knew you were a weirdo but damn."

"Jason." Chrissy said sternly. "Come on, be nice."

"Sorry babe." Jason kissed her on the head before wrapping one of his arms around her waist. "Come on, let's head over to my place."

"Yeah." Chrissy nodded along, turning to wave goodbye to Eddie. "See you Saturday?"

"Yeah. Saturday." Eddie grinned, completely ignoring the death glare Jason was sending his way. Today had been surprisingly good, everything considered.

#stranger things au #stranger things #eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #eddissy #hellcheer #eddie x chrissy #fanfiction #cheerleader eddie munson #cheerleader au

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the-storyteller-and-her-soldiers · 8 months

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So I Worked Myself Sick... And Recovery

Either that or my usual fall cold has really accurate timing. No matter the reason though I didn't wanna listen and tried to do more chores despite feeling like death. It got to the point I apologized to my mom for not doing more and she instead demanded I take some meds and go lay down. (She rarely gets like this unless she thinks I legit look like death...)

It's nothing bad, just my head in a vice, nausea, scratchy throat that hurts if I open my mouth for any reason, and congestion that eats like 5 boxes of tissues. The usual...

But that got me thinking since even on the verge of me falling over I was like "No, I need to do more, you need to rest... I'm sorry I haven't done more..." I'd totally go into the Spider Society totally ill but brunting through the symptoms like I have many times prior.

A lot of people are sympathetic thinking Miguel drug me in. But when I go to see him, he stops me mid-briefing and demands I go rest. I try to insist I'm fine and I'm going to do the job he gave me since I know I'm not contagious and I need to earn my keep.

Basically reciting crap that he hasn't said about me in years. So what does he do? He webs me up like he did to Miles and takes me back to his apartment. If I'm not going to at least act like I'll listen and get rest, then he's gonna ensure it.

I'm laid up in his bed, cold meds and a warm drink on the nightstand, a bowl of soup still steaming on the other. Miguel wishes that he could stay and do it all himself, but LYLA has it covered. Besides, he did bring me a few home comforts like my laptop and a few plushies. I can't be so restless if I'm buried in blankets and other soft crap. He even lets me log in to YouTube on his TV so that I'm not staring at such a close screen for so long, and he's only used it like 20 times in the years of having the place.

So when he's sure I'm not gonna leave, he heads back to work. He makes sure to tell me and LYLA to keep him updated if I need anything. We agree and it's not too long before I pass out, while LYLA gives updates every half hour like he asked.

Even with all this, he can't help but keep returning to check in on me himself. I'm usually asleep or playing Stardew with some documentary of true crime or a TV show or Book analysis on the TV. It calms him slightly but seeing me cough in pain or bring the trash can to my face causes him to ache.

Y'all can't tell me this man wouldn't be holding some internal guilt for pushing me so hard before, even after I explain this IS most likely all my own doing. So whenever he is back at the main Spider Society Hub, he can't disguise his curt behavior and shorter temper. Not to those who know him well, anyway. Newer recruits just think that's how he is...

But they can't help from wondering where I am, since I've developed a reputation of being the soothing balm he craves. Soon enough rumors started going around that we got into a fight and he sent me packing. But when some people catch him not being in his office multiple times for more than 20 minutes a time, they get worried. Their natural curiosity mixed with Miguel's weirder behavior and LYLA's secrecy would get the better of them and a few Spiders begin to follow Miguel.

When they come across Miguel's apartment, they sneak inside. They then find me, in his bed, in nothing but an oversized top, buried beneath blankets and plushies. The pills are scattered and nearly empty while cough syrup lies without a lid. The soup bowl is now on the floor. To top it all off, I do not appear to be breathing.

SPOILER ALERT! I am, I just am a real heavy sleeper in that regard so even my own mother will wake me up since she fears the worst. Well, even though Miguel had just left, LYLA had informed him of his freaked-out visitors. So he rushes back and he's PISSED since not only are they trespassing, but if they wake me and make me feel bad for resting, he's gonna lose it.

So he surprises these Spider-people from behind and begins lecturing them. But these Spider-people are resistant to his reasoning, considering how he behaved with others who didn't follow his rules like Gwen and Miles.

That's when I wake up, grumpy and groggy because owww... why are people here? But when Miguel sees this, his tone and behavior take a 180. This freaks out the intruding Spider-people even more and they begin getting frantic. I simply pat my throat, and when Miguel scolds me for talking when it hurts, I smile, pat my throat, and shake my head.

I froggily explain what really happened and that Miguel was just taking care of me since I refused to do it myself. I'm not kidnapped, I'm not fired or broken up with him. If anything I'm grateful someone, once again, knocked some sense into me since I have a history of not caring for my own health when it got bad but other people had problems.

This eases the newer Spider-people and everything seems okay as he escorts them out of his place and orders LYLA for another soup delivery... Though I may have helped calm the situation and shown them a much softer side to Miguel that not many have seen since long before the incident with his alt world...

Nothing's gonna help them with the thrashing they get back in the office, but that's not my concern...

#selfshipdom #selfship community #self shipping #self insert #self insert community #selfship #self indulgent stuff #fo community #ship: a different web to weave

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weirdthoughtsandideas · 8 months

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I talked about this like... 2-3 years ago, but in Glee, we've had 4 people who have been actually pregnant (Quinn, Sue, Emma and Rachel) and two who have thought to be pregnant but weren't (Brittany and Rachel).

Now, I had this idea... what if both Brittany and Rachel actually turned out to be pregnant those times it turned out their were not?

I'm thinking this scenario where the show tackles three unplanned pregnancies with teens, and they all have different outcomes.

Quinn ends up pregnant, and puts her baby up for adoption.

If Brittany turned out to actually be pregnant, I think she'd be the one to keep the baby to raise.

And if Rachel turned out to actually be pregnant, she'd have an abortion.

I know for a fact that just with Sue's daughter, Brittany's child would possibly just disappear and not be mentioned for longer periods of times. That's Glee for you. However, Brittany still lives at home and thus we can assume that while she's at school, maybe her parents are helping to take care of her baby, or the baby is at daycare. Or Lord Tubbington is the babysitter.

Either how, Brittany being pregnant could also cause some drama. Artie would most likely be the father, and it could cause a lot of arguments between them. Also, Santana wants to be with Brittany obviously, and if I know my girl, Santana would be like "Brittany, you and me run away, we raise this baby together, let's go". The baby would be born sometime in early S3; and it is another reason to Brittany having to repeat senior year, because during S3, even if the baby is not present in every episode, they are mentioned constantly. Brittany is tired, she's a new mom, and she will absolutely make the most odd comments about it because she is Brittany. I think, just like how she treats Artie later in the show, she also this time legit forgets they ever dated. I think that he's sort of an absent father, but occasionally he checks in. Maybe he uses their kid in one of his short films, or is seen cuddling with them on occasion. However, I honestly believe that Santana has decided to be a self-proclaimed second mother to this child. I bet she's even actively trying to convince them from birth that Brittany got pregnant by her and not a boy. I imagine shortly after the baby is born, Artie is sort of wanting to at least connect with them a little bit. He's not into Brittany anymore but yk, he wants to at least see the little one. And then this happens:

Artie, rolling up to Brittany and Santana: Where are you going now? Brittany: Oh, to my house. Why? Artie: Can I come with you? Santana: We're gonna be kinda busy, four-eyes. We have a child waiting for us at home that we need to take care of. Artie: Yes, that's why I wanted to come along. I want to see my child. Brittany: But... you said you weren't ready to be a father. Artie: I know, but... I still want to spend some time with them. Santana: Sorry, but you're too late. This child doesn't have a father. They have two moms now. Artie: But- Brittany, shrugging: Sorry, Artie, Santana called dibs. - The girls walk away - Santana, in the distance: I should get a breast pump so I can breastfeed, too. Brittany: Good idea!

Now, this sounds absolutely ridiculous, I know. But remember that this is Glee, where weirder things have happened, so if this happened, it could absolutely have been played out like this. I also think that in later seasons, her kid sometimes just hangs out in her room, maybe is included randomly next to Lord Tubbington during Fondue for two, and maybe is seen dancing at the wedding in S6.

But... while that storyline would be all funky, a bit weird but also a bit wholesome, if Rachel turned out to be pregnant in S4, I am a bit eerie how well they would have made an abortion storyline. Cause to me, that's the road I felt like they were heading on if she had turned out to be pregnant. And Glee, while it can be absolutely insane, can also at times tackle serious subjects. It's just the question if they always can tackle it well. Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't.

I think, for Rachel's character, an abortion storyline could be a good character progression for her. But knowing the show, what could happen would be that they had a good episode of her struggling, having lots of emotional moments and talks about it, and then end the episode of her going to have the abortion, probably with some very touching song sung in the background. But then they'd just forget about it in the next episode, acting like nothing happened. Or they would totally screw it up. Actually, maybe it was good that they never tackled it...

Now, these were just ideas I had on what could happen if the two characters who thought they were pregnant but weren't actually were, and how I think that would have gone.

Also I don't count Bree thinking she was pregnant in that one episode because Bree is a very uninteresting character to begin with.

#glee #rachel berry #brittany s. pierce

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invisibleraven · 2 years

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Soft prompts! ❤️ ❛ you got me flowers? ❜ with Reggie saying it to Julie?

Julie is pretty used to her ghosts acting kind of strange. She figures that it can be excused to the whole getting used to being ghosts and transported twenty five years into the future thing. Yet as July winds closer and closer to an end, they get even weirder.

Alex spends most of his time with Willie, stuck in deep discussion that comes to an abrupt halt when Julie walks into the room. They paint false smiles on their faces, but Julie lets it go, she knows she would also try to play it off if her romantic moments got interrupted, though she has none of those to speak of.

Luke is all but haunting his parents, following their every moment with sad eyes, grief painting his features. She followed him once, but seeing Emily and Mitch looking more and more despondent as well, doesn't want to intrude. She simply leaves a batch of cookies, knocks on the door and runs. If Luke hugs her extra tight that night, well Julie just hugs him back all the tighter.

It's Reggie that she can't figure out. He disappears for hours on end, and when she asks where he was, he gives a noncommittal shrug, quickly changing the topic. She even ropes in her dad to see if he can suss out what her bassist has been up to, but Ray says that Reggie will talk when he's ready.

She doesn't figure it out until she pulls out her phone one evening, re-reading the article that details the tragic end of her band mates. Noting the date; July 22, 1995. The day they died, over twenty five years ago, and consequently, tomorrow. Suddenly everything makes sense. She does a bit more research, and then resolves to hug all three of them as hard as she can when the day arrives.

Julie awakes early, grabbing her purse, and heads out after kissing her papi goodbye. All too soon she's arriving at Forest Heights Cemetery, strolling through lines of gravestones, finally finding the three monuments that she had been searching for, and a lone figure sitting atop one, familiar red flannel wrapped around his waist.

Julie lets him be for now, as he hasn't seemed to notice her yet. She lays a single pink carnation on Alex's plot, sitting next to a fresh little fern that she's sure his sister had left earlier. Next she lays a small bundle of purple hyacinth next to a bouquet of forget me nots on Luke's plot, noting the fresh tear stains on the stone, and resolves to go visit Emily later the week, when the grief isn't so fresh.

"Hey Julie," Reggie whispers, finally looking up at her with red rimmed eyes, a face stained with tear tracks. "Whatcha doing here?"

"Seemed like the day to leave some flowers to remember my favourite band," Julie replied, pulling out her last bundle. A set of deep red roses, a single lighter red one in the middle, laying it at Reggie's feet, and she has to choke back a sob at the fact that hers is the only arrangement there.

"You got me flowers?" Reggie asks.

"Of course I did Reg, you all deserve them." Julie smiles, extending her hand to him, helping him down off the stone baring his name, and they sit on the ground in silence, staring at the names before them.

"It's weird to think that we're all here, our bodies, six feet underneath us when we're here with you," Reggie finally says. "I don't feel dead, not with you Julie. None of us do. You make us alive in so many ways."

"It's only fair, you guys brought me back to life after mom passed," Julie comments, leaning against Reggie, resting her head on his shoulder.

Reggie fingers the fragrant blooms in front of him, smiling a little. "I love roses, you know."

"I figured you would, you have such a romantic soul," Julie says, nudging him a little, making a weak smile burst forth on his face. "I chose all the flowers for a reason. Pink carnations for remembrance, purple hyacinth for sorrow and regret."

"And the roses?"

Julie hesitates for a moment, not looking at him. "Dark roses for grief and sorrow. The lighter one... symbolizes enduring love for the departed."

"Me?" Reggie squeaks.

"You Reggie, you know I love you. After everything imploded with Luke... well I figured I was done falling for ghosts. But it seems my heart had other plans," Julie admitted, biting her lip as she finally glanced up at Reggie. "I understand if you don't feel the same but..."

Whatever else she had planned to say was cut off by his lips, a sweet kiss that made her tingle down to her toes. Her hands landed on his chest as she let her lips play over his, smiling into the kiss.

Neither of them noticed the subtle glow surrounding them, not until Julie felt the steady beat below her palms, finally breaking the kiss to pull back and stare at Reggie, bringing his hand down to lay under hers, a delighted smile lighting up both of their faces as they rushed off to see if either of their band mates were in a similar state.

But when they reached the gate, Reggie held up a finger, rushing back to his grave and snagged the single light red rose, smiling brightly at Julie, hands clasped in hers as they raced off into a uncertain but bright future.

#filled prompts #ficlet #rulie #julie and the phantoms #happy death day to sunset curve please enjoy some fluff

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rookie-critic · 1 year

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023, dir. Aaron Horvath & Michael Jelenic) - review by Rookie-Critic

We no longer live in a world where video game adaptations can be written off as soon as they're introduced. Modern adaptations like Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog films or HBO's The Last of Us series have started to change the landscape and the expectation for what these adaptations can do and how good they can be. So, when Illumination announced they had partnered with Nintendo to put a new Super Mario Bros. film project into production, naturally hackles went up. The Mario franchise does house one of the most classic examples of a video game film adaptation gone bad, but there were also a fair number of people who wanted to wait and see what happened. I, at this point, was unsure. I was excited at the prospect of a new film starring some of my favorite video game characters, but at the same time Illumination doesn't have a fantastic track record with me. I love the first Despicable Me film, and I think the second one is ok, but since then I almost actively despise the Minions as a thing that exists and think a lot of Illumination's other films have this really cheap and obvious humor that only children and middle-aged moms would find funny. I also get that this is the exact audience they're trying to please, but I could easily point to animation studios like DreamWorks and a film like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish that manage to be naturally hilarious without ever feeling forced or cringey. Regardless, I was worried. My uncertainty was only deepened when the cast list was announced and I saw that Chris Pratt would be voicing Mario. The plucky, Italian plumber was going to be voiced by Star-Lord, but the rest of the cast looked perfect, so I still held out hope. Then the trailer dropped and my whole outlook changed. It looked good. Really good. Now, after having watched it, I'll come out and say that it was... just fine.

My worry about Illumination injecting their sense of humor into it was well-placed, because they absolutely packed the film with it. Characters deliver one-liners that are neither funny nor clever in places where it completely disrupts the flow of the scene (seriously, sometimes it almost felt like they paused to wait for the laughter they assumed they would get), and there's even a Luma (a little star creature that was first introduced in the Super Mario Galaxy games) that is, in my opinion, a really poor and unnecessary attempt at edgy dark humor that I immediately hated. This thing gets a massive amount of screen time for something that actively detracted from the film's quality (in its defense, I will say I've talked to a handful of people that thought that Luma was the best part of the movie, so maybe it's just a me thing), and every time it showed up to say some really cringey line about the only escape from suffering being death or whatever, I would audibly groan. A lot of the film has an air of an Illumination film that just happens to have Mario characters in it as opposed to a true blue (or red, rather) Mario film. To me, nothing makes this more apparent than the incessant use of licensed songs throughout the film. With a library of music as vast as the Mario franchise's, why would I ever need to hear "Thunderstruck" or "Holding Out for a Hero?" What's weirder is that they do a very good job of working classic themes and music from the games into the film's score already. Why even bother with the licensed music when you clearly are adept at doing it the better way, anyway?

So far, I'm making it seem like I hated it, but that really isn't true at all. I can almost forgive a lot of the very blatant cheap humor because the film is incredibly fun. For fans of the games, it throws a ton of references at the screen, so you're never at a loss for a good dose of nostalgia. Between a fun play on the classic "The princess is in another castle" line, to taking a shortcut on Rainbow Road, to the ringtone on Luigi's phone, to a massively meme'd rap song about a certain red-tie-wearing gorilla, you're being bombarded with beautiful callbacks and hilarious references. The playful ribbing at the fact that Bowser is hopelessly in love with Princess Peach while also constantly in an attempt to take over the kingdom she rules over was very cute and fun, and, while the film's story is very formulaic, the characters feel dynamic and fully realized. The loving, brotherly relationship between Mario and Luigi is very touching, and I loved that they took the baseline personalities the games give the brothers and molded them into this loving sibling unit that always has each other's backs. It's the sibling dynamic I've always wanted out of the duo, and I love that this film gave it to me (even if there could have been way more Luigi, but I feel that way about most Mario properties).

The last two compliments I'll give the Mario movie before I wrap up this incredibly long-winded review are these: the animation is gorgeous. They brought so many set pieces from the games to wondrous, big-budget animation life and it was great to see all these locations and characters that I've grown up with on the big screen. Lastly, the voice acting in the film is impeccable. Chris Pratt did better than I thought he was going to (my main concern was that it would just sound like Chris Pratt coming out of Mario's mouth, which it didn't), and Charlie Day, Jack Black, and Seth Rogen steal every single second of screen time they get. I really do hope they give Luigi a larger role in the sequel, because Charlie Day needs to be this character more. Ultimately, I'm glad that The Super Mario Bros. Movie exists. Sure, it has its flaws, but for fans of the games and fans of Illumination's films in general, this is a fun time. However, if you're not a fan of Illumination or Mario, this isn't going to convert you.

Score: 7/10

Currently only in theaters.

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arithecreatorsstuff · 1 year

Text

Bad Call

I board the derelict planet cracker, and already... I have a really bad need to be elsewhere. The ship is wrecked, blood, guts, organic sludge on every single surface. Yeah... whatever the Ishimura was up to... it went bad fast. Which is the speed I should be heading back to my ship with. I hear a groaning in the overhead vent, and I'm groaning to myself. But... I have a job to do: salvage what I can, and survive. Doesn't look like I can save much here. Come to think of it, several tons of heavy explosives would make quite an improvement. Maybe a miniature black hole generator? Meh. Like my asshole captain wouldn't just shoot me for that crap. Stupid fucking rockhugger. I'm starting to hate Unitology.

I get on with it, making my way through the twisted carcass of the ship. And lo... my first useful bit of salvage, a plasma cutter. No rounds, though. Bound to be some around here someplace, it used to be a mining ship after all. I try looking in a storage locker, only to have a weird, pissed off blob leap at my helmet. I catch it and fling it to the floor, then stomp it. Ew. I hate this place already. I continue on with my search, and... jackpot! A full plasma clip. Yay! I can shoot stuff now. And what's this? More kinesis? Yes, please. Ooh, stasis mod? Don't mind if I do! Wait a minute... this is too convenient. I'm a pirate, I'm more used to sneaking about, conking people on their head, then looting them. I should be way more alarmed about this. Especially with the medkits strewn about. None are used, I'm nowhere near medical... this may be a very bad omen. The area now devoid of any useful items, I head onward.

Wow... so many dead bodies. I... I... should not be here. They're all over, none of them look like they died peacefully, some are half gone, others started to change. One of them now has literal shoulder blades. I shoot the limbs off that one, not taking chances on it playing possum. The first shriek tells me that was the smart monkey option. It never gets to emit a second. I pause to breathe... and hear something big, pounding on the door. Shit. Time to leg it, I do not want to know what the hell that was. I bolt deeper into the ship. I'm running blind, not good.

After several confusingly similar corridors, a few encounters with stabby undead freaks, a long fall off a shorter than expected ledge, a whole lot of swearing, and one too many weird noises above me... I find the mining deck. What a surprise, another bloodbath. And look here, more stabby things. I shoot first, decide apologies are useless, and bolt. And run right into the first actual human I've seen since boarding. Whomever they are, they wisely kept their helmet up.

"Uh, hi? I honestly was not expecting any survivors. I'm Winter Rose."

"Isaac. Nice to meet you, now get out of here. It's not safe."

"Yeah... can we put that in a shipwide memo, call it 'Things We Already Know?'. Besides, it's not safe here for... well, anyone. Safety in numbers and all."

Our little chat is interrupted by a big, angry dead brute. I start shooting. Huh. Isaac's armed too, he knows these things are dangerous... why isn't he shooting? Never mind. Shooting it just made it mad. Time to go. I grab my new sort of friend by the elbow and run. We wind up in another endless grey hallway. But, it's mercifully stabby undead freakless.

"Isaac?"

"Yeah, Winter?"

"What the hell is going on?"

"Let's just say the planet crack didn't go as planned."

"No kidding." I sigh. "We're gonna die here, aren't we?"

"Maybe."

"Not filling me with a lot of confidence, Isaac."

"Don't have a lot to spare. Frankly, I'm not even sure you're real."

"According to my Riglink, I must be. Can't seem to pick up yours, though." I was going to question him further about that, when I get hit with a migraine. Ouch. I'm nearly crying from pain. Weirder still, I can hear my mother. She's been dead for 10 years. Aneurysm.

"Winter Rose, you need to leave." No kidding, Not-Mom. How?

"Take the tram to the Executive Flight deck, there's a shuttle. Go now, or it will be too late." Another wave of searing ouch, then a cacophony of voices.

"Make. Us. Whole." My blood suddenly turns to ice.

Isaac is shaking me out of it. "Winter? You with me?" I nod. "We should go." We run for it. We make it to the Executive Flight deck... but there's no shuttle. I slump to the floor, defeated.

"It's not here. I'm gonna die on this godsforsaken hunk of space junk because for once in my life, I listened to my mother. Well, it sounded like her." I stand up. I think I know the truth, at least about Isaac. He's not real either, most likely. I'm not only going to die, but I'm going to go mad first. And, if by some miracle I do survive, first thing I'm going to do is punch my captain in the balls. I tell Isaac this. For a potential hallucination, he's got a laugh I can listen to forever.

"Hey. Isaac? I know we just met, and there's a chance you're not real, but... can I give you a hug? Don't know about you, but I could use one." He sighs.

"Sure. C'mere." We embrace as a klaxion starts blaring. Ship's gonna blow. Don't care. I knew I was dead when I stepped aboard. I rest my head on his shoulder, and wait for the big kaboom. The last thing I'll ever experience, I guess. Beats dealing with the undead stabby things, or worse. At least Isaac was okay. And, for a hallucination a very good hugger.

#dead space #dead space oc #one shot

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