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fairuzfan · 6 months

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June was working at the Goldie restaurant in Philadelphia on Sunday night when protesters started assembling outside the Israeli-American-owned eatery waving Palestinian flags.

"Goldie, Goldie, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide," they chanted.

The 24-year-old June, who asked to be identified by his first name only, told Middle East Eye that they watched the rally through the window of the restaurant which sells falafel, hummus and other Middle Eastern cuisine. June was shift-leading at the time.

"I remember thinking it was a big crowd, given it had been raining," June said.

"No one inside was bothered. I didn't feel unsafe. There were orthodox Jews taking part in the protest. We even had a customer come into the business," June, who is also Jewish, added.

After a few minutes, the protesters left.

When June went home after the shift, they found social media alight with accusations that the crowd had targeted the restaurant because it was a Jewish establishment.

But June says they knew that this wasn't a case of antisemitism.

"The protesters had assembled outside Goldie because the restaurant owner had sent money to an aid organisation that supported the Israeli military. They had come because two employees at Goldie were fired for expressing support for Palestine," June told MEE.

Outraged by the feverish pace with which the false narrative of a marauding mob intimidating a business on account of their Jewishness was being amplified on the internet and the news media, June posted on social media in support of the protesters.

"If you don't want to be directly funding genocide, stay away from Goldie, Kfar, Federal Donuts, Laser Wolf or Zahav. Goldie's parent company CookNSolo held a fundraiser where sales from all their restaurants went to an org [sic] that gives supplies to the IDF [Israeli military]," June wrote.

On the way to work the next morning, June received a call from the restaurant. They were told that they were no longer needed and they was fired with immediate effect.

That made June the third person at Goldie to be fired on account of their pro-Palestinian advocacy since 7 October when Israel's war on Palestine began.

Since late Sunday, the US media, prominent Jewish Americans, Philadelphia's mayor, several lawmakers, and even the White House have issued statements condemning the protests outside the restaurant.

"This is idiotic and dangerous. Protest outside the Israeli consulate or the offices of your member of Congress, not Jewish or Israeli-owned restaurants," prominent Jewish-American writer Peter Beinart wrote.

Likewise, Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, described the incident as "antisemitic and completely unjustifiable to target restaurants that serve Israeli food over disagreements with Israeli policy".

On Tuesday, US Vice President Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, called Michael Solomonov, the owner of the restaurant group, to express support for his business.

But former employees at Goldie as well as pro-Palestine advocates who either organised or participated in the protest say the outrage was manufactured to distract from both the crimes of the Israeli state and those who have chosen to support it.

"While Goldie was not the goal of our protest, we briefly paused and led chants [outside the restaurant] because the owner, Michael Solomonov, has used proceeds from the restaurant to fund an organisation that works directly with the Israeli Occupational forces," Natalie Abulhawa, a spokesperson from the Philly Palestine Coalition, said.

Abulhalwa said that the group spent only a few minutes outside the restaurant and moved on to other stops before continuing the rally.

"We also stopped at Starbucks for the same reason and then continued to march. Our march was roughly three hours long and we stopped at Goldie's for four minutes, at most," Abulhalwa added.

June, who was at the business at the time, confirmed to MEE that the protesters were only around for a few minutes.

Sophie Hamilton, who worked at Goldie for more than two years, including as a store manager, confirmed to MEE that Solomonov had held a fundraiser in mid-October, where $100,000 was raised for United Hatzalah, an Israeli emergency aid organisation based in Jerusalem.

She said Goldie, part of the CooknSolo company, was not some small-time "mom-and-pop" business, but a sprawling company whose owner was appointed by the Israeli tourism ministry as its culinary ambassador for Israel in 2017. Solomonov is an Israeli chef who owns four restaurants in the Philadelphia area under the CookNSolo banner.

According to a statement released by the Israeli authorities at the time, the role was designed "to champion Israel’s extraordinarily diverse and vibrant culinary landscape".

Hamilton said the company had mischaracterised United Hatzalah to staff as "non-partisan, non-military aligned, like the Red Cross", when a cursory internet search showed that not only did the charity openly collaborate with the Israeli military, they also spoke like an arm of the Israeli state.

"The influx of terrorists infiltrating Israeli territory and the resulting high number of injured individuals also prompted United Hatzalah to provide additional medical supplies and protective equipment to IDF teams on the ground," a statement issued in late October by United Hatzalah, reads.

"Since the beginning of the war, United Hatzalah medical teams have treated over 3,000 soldiers and civilians and provided more than 900 soldiers, civilians, and volunteers with psychological first aid. The organization also delivered over 30 tons of medical supplies and humanitarian aid to the IDF and residents of southern Israel," the statement added.

Hamilton said when she had discovered the information, she refused to take part in the fundraiser because she didn't want to be complicit in the genocide of Palestinians.

However, when she returned to work after the fundraiser, she said she still wanted to show solidarity with Palestinians and decided to wear a pin bearing the Palestinian flag on her shirt.

A few days later, the company came out with a new policy that banned any pin or patch unrelated to the store on their uniforms.

"I wore the pin anyway in defiance of the policy and I was sent home that day," Hamilton says.

When she returned to work, she decided she needed the job and abided by the policy. But when one of her colleagues, Noah Wood, refused to take off his pin, and she wouldn't discipline him as his manager, she was fired. And so was he.

"I would never, as a manager censor someone I work with for showing their heartfelt belief in human rights," Hamilton said.

Wood, who had already resigned from his job on account of the suppression of Palestinian advocacy at the restaurant, was serving his notice period at the time when he was told to stay home.

He told MEE that it appears a customer complaint may have led to his dismissal.

"We've had LGBTQ flags up in the store. They might still be up. And one of the other locations had Black Lives Matter signage, so it wasn't as if it was an entirely politically neutral work environment," Wood said.

"You must remember Sophie and I didn't say anything. We didn't argue with customers. We weren't posting online. We were just wearing Palestine patches and pins and this seemed to make a customer uncomfortable, and this was enough for termination," he added.

Goldie and its parent company, CookNSolo, did not immediately reply to MEE's request for comment.

Activists say they remain appalled by the smear campaigns pitted against Palestinians on a daily basis. The rush to defend a business working with the Israeli army under the mask of an antisemitic attack was in line with the higher echelons of the American state to equate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, they say.

With the devastation in Gaza spiralling and the death toll ever increasing - now upwards of 16,000 Palestinians - organisers say the rapid resort to smear those who dare to raise the plight of Palestinians was the surest sign that officials had run out of excuses to justify the support of Israel.

Activists say the flurry of support for the Israeli-owned business also showed the close ties between the US political establishment and Israel-aligned businesses.

"The hypocrisy of our elected officials is despicable. Within a couple hours of our protest, Pennsylvania's Governor Josh Shapiro and others ran to Twitter to accuse us of antisemitism with absolutely no context and no facts," Abulhalwa, with the Philly Palestine Coalition, said.

"No one from their offices reached out to us to 'investigate'," Abulhalwa added.

Organisers said US politicians were constantly attempting to portray pro-Palestinian protesters as unhinged or violent when it was the US state that was supporting genocide in Gaza and it was Palestinians in the US who have either been killed or physically attacked.

In its report about the call made by Emhoff, the US vice president's husband, to Solomonov, the owner of Goldie, NBC News reported that the duo spoke about "how food was actually supposed to bring people together rather than be a source of division"

Likewise, Pennsylvania's Governor Shapiro, who was among the first to condemn the protests outside Goldie, baked bread with its owner, Solomonov, as recently as September.

"Being an Israeli ambassador is a big part of Solomonov's brand," Leila, a Jewish-American who took part in the protest outside Goldie on Sunday, said.

Leila, who offered only her first name to MEE, said the suggestion that any part of the action outside the restaurant may have been construed as antisemitic was simply absurd.

June, the former employee at Goldie, who had watched the protest from inside the store itself, said the charge of antisemitism was divorced from reality.

"They didn't come to the restaurant simply because it was Jewish-owned. If that was the case, they would've gone to hundreds of restaurants across the city," June said.

Likewise, Abuhalwa said the smears against Palestinians were once more exposing a double standard toward Palestinian life.

"Palestinian protesters being held at gunpoint by a racist, Islamophobe is a hate crime. Palestinians being shot for wearing keffiyehs is a hate crime. A grown man stabbing a little boy for being Muslim is a hate crime. Using your First Amendment rights and peacefully protesting is not a hate crime.

"They accused us of targeting Goldie because it's Jewish-owned, which is far from the truth. Solomonov is not being targeted due to his religious beliefs, but rather his ties to a violent apartheid state that is currently enacting a genocide," Abuhalwa added.

Meanwhile, June, the 24-year-old who lost his job at Goldie for supporting the protesters, says he has no regrets.

"If I could educate more people on how this company feels about Palestinians being killed, I'd gladly do it in a heartbeat," June said.

"I will always advocate and support anyone who advocates for a ceasefire and an end to the occupation of Palestine," they added.

#palestine #bds #lmao #the way people are fully defending corporations #but anyways im sharing this so you know who else to add to your bds list if you need

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henry-fox-biggest-stan · 9 months

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If you are a movie fan and haven't read the book yet, here are some irrelevant details from the book

Henry owns a cardigan

Arthur and Catherine meet on a Henry V play (which they named Henry after), which Catherine went to see and saw Arthur playing. She "shook off her security to disappear into London and dance all night".

Pez listens to kpop, and he got Alex into it

Nora watches drag race and got Henry into it

Henry is an Elton John fan (actually relevant in the book)

Alex is a Hall & Oates fan

Alex wears glasses (actually relevant in the book)

Henry is described by Alex as having lots of moles

Bea is the rockstar girlfriend, at the end of the book she plays on a concert and everything. She plays the guitar and is always wearing a leather jacket. She also has a fat cat called Mr Wobbles. And the queen wanted her to learn violin “since it was more proper” instead of guitar. “Bea was allowed to learn both, but she went to uni for classical violin.”

During the turkey phonecall, Henry is wearing a peely face mask

Amy is trans and has a pansexual wife

(Actually relevant) Catherine was not off in another country the whole story, just battling intense grief for her husband's death, so she wasn't present in her children's life, so they felt as if they lost both parents.

There's no king, she's actually a queen, her name is Mary and she should die (she's so so much worse on the book than the king is on the movie)

David is a service dog

(Actually relevant in the book) June bought a teen magazine at 15 and 13 year old Alex would sneak into her room to stare at the magazine (and the picture of a blonde 14 year old British prince on it).

Bea is the middle kid, Henry is the youngest

Henry is canonically on therapy and on antidepressants (since the start of the book)

I don't remember if they mentioned it on the movie but Arthur was James Bond and died of pancreatic cancer.

Alex’s favorite Olympic sport is rhythmic gymnastics

Bea had an addiction problem when Henry was about 17 (as a way to cope after their father's death) and only got herself into rehab after Henry went to her and started crying about dad was dead and he was gay and scared so she couldn't kill herself. That's how he came out to her

Alex doesn't wanna be president at the end of the book, he starts law school

Henry favourite star wars is Jedi, Alex's is Empire

June is allergic to peanuts

Alex runs and runs to cope and clear his head

He did not know he was bi until after Henry kissed him. Yes, he had a friend with benefits relationship with his high school friend Liam, but he genuinely thought it was perfectly platonic and straight

Also he doesn't keep on touch with Liam after high school (their friendship just slowly fades away, with living so far and Alex being suddenly famous) but they reconnect at the end

Alex and Henry move in together on a brownstone on Brooklyn, eventually they marry (after Henry abdicates) on the lake house, they move to a farmhouse on Austin, they spend their honeymoon unpacking

Pez is lactose intolerant

Bluebonnet is June’s code name, Barracuda is Alex’s

Henry is a big Austen fan, and makes references to her books through the story

Amy knits

Zahra has a sister who recently had a baby

June forced Alex into dresses as a kid

Henry’s favorite food is a cheap falafel stand ten minutes from the palace

Henry really likes sailing

Shaan has a motorbike

Alex is allergic to dust

Henry keeps a copy of Le Monde, the newspaper from the day they were in Paris, on his room

Alex and Nora dated when Alex was 17 and Nora 18 but realized they were definitely better off as friends. When they are bored, they like to create rumors about their relationship

Alex makes tons of lists to organize

Alex wears chinos, and claims kakhis are for white people

Nora is very good at math

Alex grew up catholic

At the end of their e-mails, Alex and Henry quoted historical lgbt love letters

Nora’s one-bedroom is “full of books and plants she tends to with complex spreadsheets of watering schedules.”

Nora is bisexual and on the aro spectrum (not canon on the book than she’s aro, but Casey did mention it somewhere)

Arthur gifted Henry a telescope for his seventh birthday

The karaoke scene happens not while on Texas but in some club full of queer people. The whole group is there, Pez got them matching kimonos. Alex’s says Hoe Dameron, Henry’s says Prince Buttercup. Aside from Henry singing Don’t Stop Me Now, Bea sings Call Me by Blondie, and Pez sings So Emotional by Whitney Houston in a “shockingly flawless falsetto”.

The lakehouse confessions happens while at night

The Kensington fight (after the lakehouse confession) is much more dramatic, they don’t go to the v&a that night, but the next night. That morning Henry got up early, and brought Alex coffee when he woke up. They made up.

Also Alex takes his coffee with cinnamon

Alex, Nora and Henry are gen z, while June is a millennial

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apollos-favorite-child · 3 months

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Hey! It’s Kayla, Apollos favorite child :)

my main acc is @imobsessed123

I saw will and dad joining this app, so I thought I would too!

☀️ Everyone ☀️

Sorry if you’re not tagged I’m too lazy :)

@the-song-of-the-moon loml

@why-did-i-get-acne dad :)

@apollo-god-of-prophecy also dad..?

@the-god-of-sun dad??

@thatoneprophecyguy how many accounts does my father have???

@will-solace-aaaaa My brother!!

@moththecabin7kid my fav sibling

@jason-graceeeeee is dating a brick I think?? Is dating Leo

@percy-jackson-is-a-seaweed-brain main character vibes

@best-dam-huntress Hunts with Auntie :)

@calypso-daughter-of-atlas she deserves better than leo

@leo-valdez-graaa the fire guy

@theonlycoachhedge slightly concerned for him 😬

@nico-the-ghost-king Dating my bro!!

@the-argo-2-matchmaker she’s pretty ngl

@bow-down-to-rara she has the lady Gaga name lol

@lukemessedup …

@the-amazhang-teddybear dating hazel

@grover-eats-cans has a godly digestive system ig

@thrower-of-hairbrushes-official she threw that hairbrush

@everyone-is-a-punk daddy issues

@tyson-the-cyclops really nice!

@silena-styles I thought she was dead??

@magnus-falafelking loves falafel more than his fiance

@that-hijabi-loki-spawn one of the few normal people here

#Kayla Talks #percy jackson #pjo

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weirdly-specific-but-ok · 4 months

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update on the good omens grieving process

Hello hi yes maggots your mascot sacrificial goat here, none of your ominous bloody warnings prepared me for this. On the advice of one of you I took a break from tumblr today so I thought ah, yes, I shall not think about Good Omens during this time. Hahahaha bet. This is a long post, about a series of disturbing good omens moments that haunted me anyway. Proceed with caution.

It was nine hours away, out of which I slept through four.

During the first nap, it became clear how tumblr brainwashed me. You'll never guess what I dreamed of. If you said Good Omens the answer is no.

I dreamed that someone on the television was reading out an audiobook of a nature arts and crafts book I had as a kid. And there were six pages dedicated to praising Neil Gaiman.

So then in the dream I wrote a tumblr post about it saying, "I thought y'all were kidding about the whole Neil being in our falafel thing but goddamn he really is everywhere".

Then, still in the dream, I remembered I wasn't supposed to be on tumblr, so I tried to delete the Neil Gaiman falafel post. Instead tumblr fucking glitched and set the post to 'lo-fi mode'. I kept trying to delete it.

At this point my screen was covered with pop-ups of tumblr yelling at me and a goddamn timer counting down from 41,000 minutes. Tumblr informed me that their 'delete post' function is actually run by BitCoin.

Currently due to their skeleton staff and the fact that this hellsite is held together with washi-tape and queer trauma, they were having negotiations with BitCoin and so I could not delete my post. I tried again anyway and the entire site hung. Then I woke up. This is some @one-time-i-dreamt shit.

The only social interactions I had were with the two irl good omens fans I know, whom I informed that I had finished Good Omens.

One of them sent me an audio clip of him screeching about trauma and six months and children of divorce at the top of his voice.

The other one texted ASMIIII YOU'RE A CHILD OF DIVORCE HOW ARE YOU COPING WITH THE PAIN. Two hours into my tumblr break I was already facing withdrawal and I wanted to sob that's what the maggots call me but that would have led to them saying BECAUSE THAT'S YOUR FUCKING NAME and I didn't wanna descend there yet.

I then went on Amazon and tracked my good omens book package like a creep. I then went on the US Amazon to cry over all the Good Omens merch that I cannot buy and isn't available here.

I then went on Pinterest to look at Good Omens tumblr screenshots. It was all going well until I found a stupid fucking post that said the duration of the song playing in the Bentley during the final fifteen and the duration of the kiss are the same. So he was replaying the kiss in his head before stopping the music.

Naturally, this then made me cry over Crowley. Painfully.

I looked up Good Omens ambiences on Youtube and cleaned a whole half of my desk while an Aziraphale's bookshop ambience played with rain and shit and when the lockdown audio came I smiled again.

And now here I am. Back. In pain.

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seat-safety-switch · 4 months

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Visiting actual civilization is fun. In most cities, things don't start happening until you leave the endless expanse of suburbia and go to the inner city. Downtown haters will tell you not to do it, of course. It's "unsafe," but so is driving a fifty-year-old car without airbags or the ability to turn left. Joke's on them: not only will they use more fuel over the lifetime of their car idling at lights waiting for a green arrow, but they're also going to miss out on my favourite part of downtown, the sausage cart.

Long ago, according to local legend, this sausage cart was opened by a dude from Poland whose name is lost to history. His descendants now own a network of sausage carts all throughout downtown, but this one – the true original – is the only choice of the tube-meat connoisseur. I love to visit, get a smokie and a questionably-branded pop, and be back on the road, before the parking patrol has even twigged to the fact that I left my car in the memorial fountain once again.

Last weekend, I went down there and there was a problem. The operator, whose name will also be lost to history because I ain't no snitch, was worried that his customer base was starting to get pulled away by the falafel cart across the street. This was a valid worry: not only was the falafel cheaper, more flavourful, and more delicious, but they had a guy dressed up as a giant foam gyro breakdancing on the sidewalk. It was a nearly irresistible combo, one that I could only pull myself away from out of blind loyalty to the Sausage King's bravest foot soldier.

Now, I'm not one to get involved in petty squabbles like this normally. I would have just left, but the dude in the gyro suit started chirping at me as I approached my car. My attorney has suggested that I not repeat the words he spoke about my humble Volare, but I assure you that he ate said words, as I set about doing a spiteful, highschooler-grade one-wheel-peel burnout to enshroud their business in tire smoke. Of course, that burnout then resulted in the half-century-old automatic transmission letting go and splashing white-hot Dexron III® all over the cart full of ingredients, but it got results nonetheless. I don't know what they're complaining about, it didn't even taste bad when I helped myself to a free sample after they ran away.

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fuckyeahgoodomens · 10 months

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I... Ixi... Last night, I had a dream about the already loved-and-hated-and-loved-again season 2. I was Upstairs, helping Aziraphale. We were reading angelic files, just to find information and gossip about pre-fall Crowley. And I discovered that his name, as an angel, was 'Falafel'. That's not really a proper question. I just needed to heal myself and share it with someone…

...oh dear. <3

#ask #gos2 #good omens spoilers #gos2spoilers #falafel

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nyaskitten · 8 months

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GUYS! LEGO JUST CALLED ME!! THEY TOLD ME THE NEW DJINN'S NAME!! HIS NAME IS "AHMAD OMAR ABDUL HUMMUS SHAWARMA FALAFEL MOHAMMED YUSUF AL BAQARAH ALIF LAAM MEEM BIN LADEN" !!!!!!!

#hahah get the joke? because i have literally zero faith that ninjago will do any justice to the djinn and all that?#ninjago #ninjago dragons rising #raine's shitposting #'justice' as in ;'not be blatqantly racist'#but seeing as the djinn r meant to play into the trope of arab barbarians #in doubt ill ever see that day

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rizz-penguin · 10 days

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If you're a Zionist please go away I don't like you

Rambling and flag w/o shading or background or anything lol under the cut :D

I saw a recipe for Palestinian falafel and now I want a Palestinian falafel...anyway his name is Arjun! He's part Palestinian and it's strike day so I thought id draw this. 🇵🇸<3

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ohsalome · 5 months

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On that radiant Saturday in July last year, my mom and I were at a small restaurant in Warsaw. He walked up to our table, said hello, and asked if we were enjoying everything. I thanked him and asked if he remembered me. Yes, he did. I used to visit often in the summer of 2022 with my sister. It had been a year since then, and I was about to head back to Kyiv in a few hours. ‘Why?’ he asked. I told him I didn’t want to miss the victory celebration. He then told me he felt the same for six long years in Syria. We were quiet for a moment, looking at each other, when my mom started to cry, and I got goosebumps. He shook my hand, mentioned he had a brother in Berlin, and said it was a great city with good food and lots of refugees. He suggested I should visit. Not right now. We said goodbye with a hug, and I asked for his name. Samir. He used to own an antique shop in Damascus and now ran a vegan restaurant with the best falafel I had ever tasted. There was even a documentary made about him. I promised to come back to Warsaw again soon.

[...]

In the last year, Russians have targeted Kyiv with over 300 various types of cruise missiles, 14 ballistic missiles, and nearly 400 ‘Shahed’ type attack UAVs. In 2023, Kyiv had 302 air raid alerts, with the total time of these alerts adding up to 16 days. You can find all these statistics on a website called Alerts Wrapped, which starkly highlights our new reality. My friends, family, and colleagues face this every day. Those working for international companies often have to keep quiet about these attacks to keep their jobs. They are feeling downhearted, worn out, and uncertain about what the future holds.

It seems like the war won’t end soon. On January 2, 2024, Ukraine faced another widespread attack. We urgently need more weapons to defend our skies and fight on the ground. My friends and I are continuously raising funds for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, knowing this is a marathon, not a sprint. Today, I’m reaching out for your support. Please follow Ukrainian news on social media, share these stories with your followers using #russiaisaterroriststate, and urge your governments to assist Ukraine. United we stand, divided we fall.

#ukraine #russia #war in ukraine #russian invasion of ukraine #russo ukrainian war #this is so congruent with my own experience #syrians get it like nobody else

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ingravinoveritas · 7 months

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Follow-up to this post and a point-by-point recap of last night's events:

- Definitely thought I would be nervous, but as soon as I saw Neil waiting backstage from the vantage of my fourth row seat, all that went away.

- The event was a tribute to Ray Bradbury, with Neil and several actors reading different short stories and Neil talking about them in between. He started off the night by talking about being a TikTok meme ("Neil Gaiman, why are you in my falafel?") and how his time as a meme was almost up.

- There was an after party in the bar following the show, and the ticket I had purchased allowed me to attend. I didn't even realize Neil was there yet because he was so low profile and just chilling while a line began to form at his table.

- When I went up to him, he was very smiley and kind and soft-spoken. I mentioned really enjoying the Bradbury story he read ("The Homecoming") because it felt like an allegory for autism, for an autistic person in a family full of neurotypicals, and it really resonated with me. So we talked Ray Bradbury and writing and it was lovely. - I also mentioned the tweets from a few years ago (here and here) that involved him commenting on a photo of me in a red bikini and me offering to cook him dinner if he came to New Jersey, and he remembered! Haha. He also still seemed very interested in the offer and said, "It's a date" and "We'll do dinner." Oh, Neil... - At the end, I somehow finally remembered to tell him my name and said "I'm Amy" as we shook hands. To which he replied, "It's lovely to meet you, Amy. I'm Neil." - After we took the picture, I wished Neil a good flight (the venue staff said they were trying to hurry up the queue because he had an early flight today) and safe travels, and he said "Thank you!" and was again so sweet and lovely and just a person. - Didn't talk to Neil about anything Good Omens, but I did end up chatting with a woman who knows Rob Wilkins (someone waiting in the queue asked Neil how to get in touch with Rob and he pointed to this woman, so that was how I first became aware of her). Later on in the evening, after Neil left, we were on the other side of the bar and struck up a conversation about all things GO, Terry Pratchett, fandoms, Michael and David's chemistry, and much more. She also told me to follow her on Instagram and message her if I ever needed tips for navigating the overwhelm that is NYCC. A totally unexpected and thoroughly enjoyable conversation overall. - Also got to talk with Yetide Badaki (who was in American Gods and one of the actors who performed last night) and she was beyond lovely. I complimented her performance and said how it was "like Siri, but less creepy" and she burst out laughing and asked if she could put that in her résumé. Haha. The topic of autism came up and she said how it was so important to her and how there needs to be more awareness. I mentioned being a professional speaker and that I've done a TED talk on autism, and she said she wanted to watch it. Again, completely unexpected interaction, but so delightful and so much fun.

My overall thoughts and takeaway from this is that real life is very, very much different and not the same thing at all as online fandom. It was incredibly refreshing to see Neil and talk to him in a non-fandom context, and to see how gracious he was with every person in line (adults, kids, couples, all of it). He signed books, took pictures with people, and hugged fans who seemed to be sharing particularly emotional moments. I feel like the fandom tends to treat Neil like some kind of god, but for me, I truly enjoyed seeing and getting to meet him as a person--charming, intelligent, funny, polite, and just a bit awkward...

#neil gaiman #ray bradbury #symphony space #nyc #selected shorts #good omens #recap post #gentle British flirting #a term coined by the Rob Wilkins lady that i enjoy very much #personal post #thoughts #discourse

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magnus-falafelking · 2 months

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FIERROCHASE WEDDING SUMMARY!!!

wanna know how our special day went? here you go :)

[NOT MY FANFIC]

[MY FRIEND WROTE IT FOR TODAY]

Boston weather was always a coin toss. During the summer months, it could be gloriously warm and sunny, miserably hot and humid, or, especially during the first part of June, even chilly and rainy. Most summers on the back bay were a mixture of all these conditions, plus a splattering of dramatic thunderstorms, just to keep the grass growing.

But today? Today was perfect.

All day, the weather had been clear skies and a cool breeze. Even though Frey wasn’t supposed to make an appearance, Magnus couldn’t help but feel like he had something to do with the strangely favorable turn in the forecast. The sun peeked through the partly cloudy sky to dress the sides of the chase mansion in warm summer sunlight. It was beautiful. For so many years, whenever Magnus looked at this building, he’d felt like some angry god had installed a permanent storm cloud over the roof. It had always been shrouded in an aura of foreboding, always surrounded by darkness, and always made him feel a little uncomfortable. But today, with the sun shining warmly and the breeze rustling the paper streamers and handmade signs the homeless kids at the chase space had insisted on personally designing and hanging from nearly every window, even the gargoyles seemed to look a bit friendlier.

As the sun started to set, there was a vibrant buzz of excitement on the top floor patio as friends, family, and the current residents of the Chase Space milled around in excitement and chatted about the evening’s events. The space had been done up beautifully by Samirah, Mallory, and Annabeth (who had done all the organizing, and most of the arguing about the way things should look) with help from Halfborn, Tj, and Percy (who had mostly broken up said arguments and lifted the heavy objects). It wasn’t extravagant, but there were chairs with little flower bouquets tied to them, and a little raised platform for the two of them to stand on, and Blitzen had personally arranged several extremely expensive looking potted flower arrangements for either side, so they would be framed by lilies and magnolias and roses and other flowers Magnus couldn’t remember the names of as they said their ‘I do's.’

The bedrooms on the third floor had been converted into changing rooms for the event. In the one on the south side of the house, Magnus was unfolding and refolding the paper with his vows on it as he looked out over the stunning view of the back bay.

The day was finally here. He was finally going to marry Alex.

In front of everyone, he was going to say a lot of things about how much he loved Alex, how much Alex meant to him, how much he needed Alex, how he would always be with Alex until the end of the world- literally.

“I think I’m gonna puke.”

Behind him, several heads turned as Magnus gripped the edge of the railing on the little patio he was standing on. Blitzen came up behind him as he leaned over it, patting his back reassuringly as Magnus made sounds much more like someone who had eaten bad falafel than someone who was about to experience the happiest day of their life.

“Hey kid. Let’s back away from the railing before you go headfirst into the bushes. That would not be a good look on your wedding day.” Carefully, Blitzen pulled him back into the room, sitting him down in one of the available chairs and giving him some very fatherly and encouraging pats on the shoulder. He was really putting in the work Frey probably should have been there doing…

Around him, everyone was putting the finishing touches on their outfits. All perfectly tailored, of course, which Blitzen had done much preening about in the hours leading up to now. Despite their extremely varied figures, Tj, Halfborn, Hearthstone, and Blitzen were all dressed in the same suit. It was simple but elegant, a wool suit tailored to fit each of their varying frames, smooth silk shirts, a professional but understated waistcoat, and a pair of brown leather shoes to match their ties. The only differences were that Halfborn and Tj were dressed in shades of brown and green, and Hearthstone and Blitzen were wearing warmer, more sunny but not overbearingly bright colors. Halfborn was also sporting a kilt which was, apparently, the same color as Mallory’s outfit. The pair of them had insisted on matching separately, then found out about each other's request and insisted on NOT matching, then had some kind of argument that had begun with words and ended… well, still with tongues. Magnus hadn’t asked a lot of questions after that, and had just told Blitzen to make an executive decision. Seeing the amount of leg hair on display now, he wondered if Blitzen should be trusted with too many more of those, even if they DID relate to fashion.

Magnus himself was dressed in the same suit, except his was a deep, forest green, his waistcoat was white and had some kind of a subtle metallic shine to it, and his silk shirt was a light, blush pink.

Alex’s colors. He was happy to be wearing them.

His hair was trimmed but still longer, hanging neat and orderly around his anxious face. On the lapel of his suit, he was wearing a pin with the same symbol Alex had tattooed on his neck, the two entwined serpents, the reclaimed symbol of Loki pinned just over his heart.

“Gettin’ cold feet, Magnus?” Halfborn was all smiles and mead-blushed cheeks, standing with one arm on the back of a chair as he worked his way through his second horn of booze this hour. He had insisted it was Norse tradition to get absolutely hammered for the entire ceremony and reception, and when no one had joined him, he’d insisted he’d carry the load alone. “Don’t drop your guts in here. It’s much more romantic if Alex gets to watch.”

Tj sighed, shaking his head as he put a hand on Halfborn’s huge shoulder and patted it a couple times. “Halfborn, I think you’ve had enough to drink until after the ceremony. Magnus is just excited, not getting cold feet. Right, Magnus?” Tj sent him a bright, confident and reassuring smile. His wedding suit was spotless, perfectly fitted and pressed with the care and attentiveness he always gave his regular uniform. For the first time in a long time, he wasn’t carrying his weapon. They were all on the property (just in case) but he looked a bit strange not having it right over his shoulder where it usually was. If it had been in his hands, he thought, Tj would look battle ready even in a wedding tuxedo.

“Right.” Magnus’ voice was shaky. “Totally.”

All four of his wedding party exchanged a look. Each one of them took a seat, and Halfborn even set his drink down in its little stand as he half stumbled onto one of the couches and pinched his face into a decently impressive impression of a sober man.

Hearthstone sat nearest to Magnus, giving his arm a reassuring squeeze before he pulled his attention to sign to him.

‘It’s normal to be nervous. No worries. Big day.’ He exaggerated the gesture for big with an appropriate facial expression, making it clear he understood how nervous Magnus really was.

“I’d be nervous marrying Alex too.” Halfborn agreed. ��The Argr is a bit unpredictable. He might get you up to the altar and-“ Beside him, Tj subtly kicked his leg, causing Halfborn to let out an “ouch” followed by some apologetic muttering.

“Everyone gets nervous on their wedding day.” Blitzen agreed, looking over at Halfborn like he might want a turn. “That’s why there’s alcohol. To take the edge off the jitters. You’re fine, kid. You’ve handled way more difficult things than saying a few words.”

“The last time I said a few words about Alex I embarrassed myself in front of everyone.” Magnus leaned forward, dropping his head into his hands and making another one of those bad-falafel noises. “What if I mess up again? What if my vows suck?” His head shot up as he looked over at Hearth, eyes wide. “What if I lean in to kiss Alex and I puke into the kiss??”

Hearthstone’s expression was a pretty clear don’t-be-ridiculous look (mixed with some disgust as he pictured a vomit-kiss unwillingly), but he still signed it out to reassure him.

‘You will be fine. No puke in mouth. Won’t happen.’

“And if it does happen.” Halfborn assured him, his voice slightly slurred, “I’ll distract everyone by puking with you.”

“If anyone but Magnus throws up on these suits, I will personally drag the responsible party to Helheim and hand them over to the goddess herself.” Blitzen said coolly, eyeing halfborn with a narrowed gaze.

Somehow, that made the tension in Magnus’ stomach settle a little. He even managed a laugh, fiddling with the paper with his vows on it again. “I’m glad you’re all here. I really didn’t know if Alex was going to agree to this or not. I bet they’re having a way easier time getting ready across the hall.” Alex was always so cool and calm and collected. Magnus was pretty sure his finance wasn’t considering which of his uncle’s expensive display vases it would be best to toss his cookies into.

“So, is it time for this then?” Halfborn patted the small, flat green box tied with a black bow he’d been entrusted with earlier that day. It was a decent size, but it looked small in halfborn’s massive hands. Inside was the gift he’d gotten for Alex for their wedding day. It wasn’t a lot, but he’d put a lot of effort into it.

Magnus felt the butterflies that had been making his stomach their home for the last few days make a reappearance. Suppressing them must have pissed them off cause they were fluttering around his insides with a vengeance. “Y-yeah… I guess it’s probably time?”

Halfborn stood with a nod, carrying the box towards the door. “Gotcha. I’ll be delivering the package then!”

———-

Across the hall, the other wedding party was causing so much noise, it was a miracle the boys couldn’t hear it.

“Catch it! Grab her! Don’t let her get to the door!” Furniture was overturned, pillows were torn and weapons were flying as Samirah, Alex, and Mallory chased something around the room.

It had appeared when Alex had been checking the mirror to make sure the wedding suit was sitting right on her (for the fifteenth time in as many minutes) slithering up onto the fabric of the shoulder and whispering in her ear things nobody wanted to hear on any day, much less at their wedding. It had taken her a moment to figure out where the voice was coming from, but had spotted the tip of a little green head just over her shoulder in the mirror.

Alex wasn’t willing to listen to bullshit any day, but especially not today. She’d grabbed and thrown the snake against a wall, the snake had hit the surface and flattened like one of those rubber sticky toys and slid down between the wall and a couch, and that had started a mess of moving things to get at it.

“I know it’s you, mom!” Alex hissed, rolling on the floor and reaching under a chair, nearly missing grabbing the snake’s emerald green tail. “You weren’t invited! What are you doing here?”

The snake slithered over to a bookshelf, lifting up its head to peer at them. “Don’t be ridiculousss, Alexx …” the s sounds on the ends of his words were lengthened by the flicking tongue peeking out between those scaly lips, though it wasn’t clear if it was intentional or something Loki was doing for dramatic effect. “No child of mine will be married without my presenccce. I'm hurt you didn’t invite me. What have I ever done to deserve such disssregard-“

The snake’s speech was interrupted when a glowing spearhead sunk into the wood of the bookcase beside it, forcing Loki to dodge and slither away again.

Samirah scowled, leaping over to retrieve her weapon and spinning around to look for where he had gone. “Nobody is humoring you today, Loki. You know exactly why you’re not welcome here.”

“Sorry, I know you’re family and all,” Mallory chimed in, her twin daggers flashing threateningly as she scanned the room for any sign of movements. “But the guest list is exclusive, and Sam and I are sort of responsible for watchin it. We’re gonna have to remove you if you don’t leave on your own.” Lighting fast, she stabbed her dagger down by a new moving lump in the carpet, nearly missing the worm. She scowled as she tried to land several more jabs in the twisting, contorting shape.

Samirah came to help Alex up off the floor as Mallory attempted to turn the rug in the room into Swiss cheese, straightening out the ruffled edges of the wedding suit. “Mallory is right, Alex. It’s our job to handle things like this. Don’t go jumping around and ruining your outfit.” As she spoke, she picked up her axe from a table beside her, throwing it as the snake came slithering out of the carpet and nearly pinning Loki to the wooden floor. The axe sunk in the old wood floorboards deep, but a few inches too far to the right, letting the snake slither away and under the door into the hallway.

“Oh Hel no.” Alex undid Sif’s garrote from her waist, making towards the door before both of the other women stopped her.

“And just where do you think you’re goin?” Mallory asked, raising one fiery red brow at her. She and Samirah were both dressed in shades of pink, though Mallory’s pink was more of a rose red sort of color. It was a knee length dress, suited to running around a room toppling over furniture, which was pleated and patterned with a traditional Scottish plaid. The plaid pattern extended to a piece of fabric which lay up over one shoulder and went back down her back, and there was a belt cinching the whole operation in at the waist. Beneath the plaid she was wearing a plain white shirt, making her wholly more prepared looking for a fight than really anyone else Alex had seen all day. “I just said I’ll handle it. It’s only one snake, even if it is Loki.” She brandished a knife, wiggling it threateningly. “Think I can’t dissipate a little illusion magic? I swear, I just gotta catch him and you won’t need to worry for the rest of the week. I’ll send whatever piece of him came crawling up here right back where it came.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you will. I just think it’ll go faster if we all handle it together.” Alex pushed out of their hold, heading for the door. Her hands were a little sweaty as she gripped her garrote. Why was Loki here? What did he want? Did he really care that much about this stupid wedding? It was just some words they were saying, it’s not like it was anything super serious. Why had Loki decided to meddle in her life again? She wasn’t sure, but she was 100% sure that the ceremony couldn’t go on if there was a worm wiggling around the Chase Space. No, it was definitely not okay that Loki was here. Loki was the cause of Alex’s anxiety, and Alex was going to stay anxious until she personally sent Loki back to that stupid cave.

And anyways, it was better to be running around than sitting in this damn room counting down the minutes like she had been. Yes, definitely better to be chasing a snake that was actually your mother who is actually a mega-control-freak-shapeshifter than sitting in a stuffy old room staring at yourself in a mirror.

Just as she put a hand on the door, Samirah pulled her back, placing herself between the exit and her sister.

Samirah’s pink ensemble was much different than Mallory’s. Her dress was four or five shades of pink, and all layered organza. The skirt swept to the floor, and the sleeves were a sheer white lace that went all the way to her wrist, framed by loose curtains of the pink organza that fell delicately over her shoulders. With the hijab around her head, she looked a bit like an upside down rose the way the diagonal hanging layers of the dress cascaded around her form.

Sam may have looked nice, but blocking the door was a very dangerous move. Alex had to respect it a bit, but she didn’t have to agree with it.

“Sam, it’s my wedding day and I want to hunt a snake.” Alex’s voice was as tight as her grip on the garrote handles she was brandishing threateningly.

“No, you want to escape dealing with your anxiety by cutting something into a million pieces.” Sam corrected, folding her lace covered arms over her chest. “And while I understand that living in Valhalla has inclined you towards such… violent forms of stress relief, I’m not allowing you to do this today. It’s a little sliver of spirit. Easily dispersed. Loki is still weak and recovering from… last time.” Samirah sighed, taking Alex by the shoulders and forcing her to sit on one of the chairs. When she had finally wrestled the garrote out of her sister’s hands and secured it back around her waist, she knelt in front of her to hold them in her own. “There’s no reason to assume he could show up in any significant form. He didn’t even change shape once, so he must be too weak to manage it. He’s just trying to get in your head and ruin your wedding. You’ve proven over and over that he has no power over you. Don’t give up that control just because you’re nervous about the wedding. Let us handle it and you just stay here and relax.”

“No trouble at all, Fierro.” Mallory assured her, finally un-wedging her knife from the floorboards. “We’ll go deal with this. You wait here and look pretty.”

Alex made some sort of sound that was probably more jaguar than frustrated human, grabbing a pillow and vaulting off the couch to chuck it full speed at the wall. “I’m not going to sit around in this room like a decoration ! If my mom wants a piece of me I’ll give her one!”

“Alex, no!” Samirah grabbed her arm, giving her a stern look. “I know you’re anxious. I promise it will be fine. Really, I swear. Please, let me handle it? And just take a few minutes to calm down, okay?” Samirah put on her best pleading expression, her hold on her arm softening. “I just… I just want you to be happy. I don’t want you to worry about anything today. Please…”

Alex didn’t know what she was feeling. Confused, angry, startled, nauseous… all the emotions were building up all at once. She felt a strange, almost uncontrollable desire to shift. Felt like her skin was itching to change, like maybe if she became something slippery enough she could slide out of this mess, or maybe change into something with a roar loud enough to quiet the buzzing that had been in her head all day. She had almost been happy to see Loki. Not because she wanted to, but because it gave her something to focus on besides how she really felt about this whole wedding situation…

Scared.

After a long, silent stare-down, Alex crossed her arms and turned her head away, hoping she’d withdrawn fast enough to hide the way they were trembling. “Fine. Whatever. Call me when you need my help catching the slippery bastard.”

Samirah let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, nodding with the warmest smile she’d had all day. “We’ll call if we need you. Come on, Mallory.”

————

[Song accompaniment: Wonder by Shawn Mendez]

Magnus had most often found it best to follow the rules. When his mom had been alive, she’d even accused him of being a little too well behaved sometimes, pinched his cheeks and told him he should sneak out or talk back. “Live a little, be a kid” or something like that. It wasn’t like he had a strong inclination towards the law or whatever, it was just usually easier and created less issues to do things the legal, reasonable way.

But, his two years on the streets had taught him a lot of things, and one of those things was that sometimes, breaking the rules was sort of a necessary thing. Like when you hadn’t eaten in three days and there was nothing edible in the dumpster, so you had to swipe a sandwich from a deli.

Or when your whole wedding party suddenly leaves your dressing room to deal with some kind of pest control emergency (since when did the Chase Space have worms?) and left you holding the box that someone else was supposed to deliver to your fiancée.

Magnus stood awkwardly in front of Alex’s dressing room door, lifting and lowering his hand a few times. Should he leave it and run? Should he stay? Did it really matter if they saw each other a little early?

Inside the room, Alex was sitting with her feet up on the couch, knees to her chest and thoughts racing. There was too much to consider. Her eyes settled on a little ship in a bottle on the bookshelf across from her as a storm started brewing in her mind.

Did Mangnus really want to marry her? Why were they getting married anyways? Mallory and halfborn broke up every other month and fought like crazy. What if they started fighting like that in a hundred years and wanted a divorce?

The ship in the bottle seemed to move, swaying on the waves of Alex’s frenzied thoughts.

Why was Loki here? Did he have some sort of plan to mess with her life again? Did he want to stop the marriage so that he could try and force her into another one like he tried to do to Samirah? Like she was almost forced to do when she took samirah’s place?

Her thoughts were so wild and all-encompassing that she didn’t notice the way her hands were shaking, didn’t notice the way her eyes were reddening. The memory of drinking out of the cup after Thrymm at her first wedding returned to her against her will. She’d been forced to do it, and the realization that the ceremony might have actually been completed made her almost as nauseatingly disgusted as the thought of sharing his backwash-wine did. She felt sick. The ship in the bottle seemed like it might capsize-

There was a knock at the door, followed by a familiar voice.

“Uh… hey Alex. It’s me.”

The noise stopped. The sky seemed to clear. Alex blinked, wiping something wet and hot away from her eyes as she looked at the ship on the shelf. It was still.

“I know I’m not supposed to see you yet. Or uh, well, I mean you’re not supposed to see me either. but… there’s no rules about our voices, right?”

On the other side of the door, Magnus was fidgeting anxiously, rolling up onto his toes and back onto his heels like a weird little doll, bobbing back and forth in a way that would have made Alex laugh if she could have seen. “I just came to bring you your gift.”

Alex glanced towards the door, her body uncurling from its little ball before she even thought about it. Her feet moved without her direction, like Magnus was a lighthouse in her little storm guiding her safely to shore. She stopped a foot or so from the door, finding it startlingly easy to level out her voice. “You are breaking the rules, chase.” Her voice was barely shaking. She felt warm. She always felt warm around Magnus.

Magnus felt his lips turn up into one of those stupid goofy smiles that always made Alex blush. He didn’t fight it. “Yeah well, you know, I figured you’d be way more into me if I broke a few rules.”

Alex laughed a little. The sound was genuine, so the edges of the sound were tinged with the lingering fear that Magnus always chased away. “You’re an idiot.”

“Ooh, careful. In a couple hours I’m going to be youridiot. Like, forever. You wouldn’t want to be married to an idiot, would you?”

“Probably not. Not unless he’s really hot. I mean, he’s gotta be really, really hot.”

Magnus’s grin got a little wider as he felt a swell of confidence. “Oh yeah? So you think I’m really really hot? Like really really really -“

“Alright chase, you’re pushing it. Three reallys? That’s crazy.”

By now, both of them were pressed up against the door. If there hadn’t been a piece of wood between them, they would have been forehead to forehead, nose to nose. Magnus swore he could feel Alex’s breath on his cheeks if he closed his eyes.

Alex felt completely calm. The rolling waves in her stomach had changed to a warm, bubbly feeling. Ah, right. What a dummy she’d been. Alex wasn’t marrying Magnus because someone told her to. She wasn’t marrying Magnus because he was strong or cool, or really really really hot.

Alex wanted to marry Magnus because to her, Magnus felt like home. She’s realized recently that Magnus was warm and summery and light, and that just being near him made her feel warm and summery too. Her whole life had been a hurricane of wild misfortune and crazy happenstance, everyone and everything whipping her wildly in every direction all at once.

But whenever Magnus was there, she knew she’d found the eye of the storm, and that was never going to change.

“This is crazy.” The words left her lips before she could stop them, and she felt a momentary pang of guilt and fear, her eyes flicking up to the wood as if she could peer through it to see Magnus's reaction. Crap.

“Yeah. It’s pretty crazy.” Magnus agreed, turning the box in his hands around a few times. “I mean, I never thought I’d get married. And I kind of thought if I did get married, I’d still be alive when it happened.”

“Ghost marriages exist.” Alex ventured, her brain fried from all the emotional ups and downs.

“Yeah, I know. We’re doing one I think.” Magnus pulled his head back from the door, reaching for the handle. “Here. This is for you.” He pulled the door open a crack, just enough to pass the box through. “Tj said I’m supposed to give you a gift before the ceremony? Halfborn was gonna bring it over but I guess we have worms…”

As if on cue, the sound of something crashing came from downstairs, followed by the sound of a berserker shouting at the top of his lungs.

“Must be big worms…”

Alex stepped away from the door and set the box down on a table, carefully untying the ribbon. Her hands started to shake again as she lifted the lid, carefully peeling back the tissue to see what was cradled inside.

After a few moments of terrifying silence from both Alex and the lower levels of the house, Magnus heard the loudest, most ridiculous laugh he’d ever heard come from behind the door. For a moment it made him smile, then his smile faltered slightly when it seemed like Alex was laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe. “What? I did my best!”

Alex was practically rolling over what she’d found in that box. In her hands she held a little clay figurine of (she was pretty sure) an animal, only she couldn’t tell what animal it was supposed to be. It was just big enough to fit in her palm, and seemed to be some kind of cow-goat-giraffe hybrid. It had a neck that was just a bit too long, short stubby little legs that came to strangely sharp points, what appeared to be a cat’s tail, and a lump of clay that was surely supposed to be designed into some kind of face, but Alex couldn’t for the life of her see it as much more than a smushed in thumb with eye holes that was smiling at her in a comically goofy way. The worst part was the little cow-giraffe’s dorky smile kind of looked like Magnus if she squinted. She had to put the figure down in the tissue so she didn’t break it as she nearly collapsed on the floor.

“Mag- Magnus. Please tell me-haha! T-tell me what the Helheim im looking at.”

Magnus was moping on the other side of the door, a serious pout on his face. “… you really can’t tell…?”

“Oh gods. Hahah! Go- go back to your room. Hah! Oh my gods… I’ll see you in an hour. I’m giving you the biggest goddamn kiss when it’s time.”

Alex couldn’t stop the laughs still slipping out of her lips as she picked up and cradled the little clay figurine in her hands like it was some kind of treasure. By the sound of Magnus’ excited little trot back to his side of the hall, it seemed like they were both in much better spirits.

————

[Song accompaniment: Electric Love by BØRNS]

It took the wedding party an hour to deal with the pest control issue, which fortunately meant they were done right on time to walk the aisle.

Unfortunately, that also meant that Mallory was walking the aisle with some kind of ash from an explosion on the left side of her skirt, and blitzen had to do a last minute patch of hearthstone’s sleeve, which had ripped in the scuffle with the worms. The state of them had confused Magnus, but they had all insisted it didn’t matter, and hurried into their places.

They’d definitely looked worse. At least Halfborn was still wearing his shirt.

As the sun set over the horizon, settling a halo of golden hour glow over their reception venue, the ceremony began.

The first down the aisle was the officiant, Jack.

It was really a good thing that most people in attendance could see through the mist, because for the few that couldn’t, he couldn’t imagine what display was replacing a self-levitating talking sword. They had briefly considered using someone else for this role, but upon being rejected, Jack had offered to MC via acapella renditions of all their favorite songs for the whole evening, and had swiftly been returned the offer of officiating. He floated quite impressively to the end of the aisle, then spun to face the crowd in a pretty show-offey flourish. Magnus figured he was probably smiling.

Up next were the boys. Tj walked the Aisle first, proudly taking his position at the side of the groom with a way too excited look on his face. He was followed swiftly by Halfborn, but only after Mallory had cursed him out in Gaelic and taken the mead horn from his hand that he’d been trying to walk down with.

After that it was Magnus’ turn. Gods he was terrified. Alex wasn’t even up there yet and he was terrified!

He took a deep breath, straightening his jacket and trying to settle his stomach as Blitzen and Hearthstone came up on either side of him.

Blitzen adjusted his own jacket, giving him a wink and a confident smile. “We got you, kid. No worries.”

Hearthstone nodded on his other side, signing ‘right beside you.’

Arms interlocked in what had to be a cheesy way, they made their way down the aisle together. Magnus was glad for the handhold, because when he started making eye contact with people, he felt like his knees might give out. He spotted Annabeth and Percy in the crowd, his cousin waving and smiling sweetly at him. Percy looked as cool and calm as ever. How did he do that all the time?

The walk to the altar felt like it took forever. By the time they stopped, Magnus wondered if they’d missed the ceremony altogether.

“Welcome señor! Now that the groom has arrived, it’s time for the ladies~.”

The crowd mercifully turned their attention away from Magnus. Blitzen and Hearthstone stayed beside him, holding his hands and giving him reassuring squeezes as they watched the entrance.

Mallory came first. She’d made a good fuss about it earlier in the day, but she seemed happy now to be filling the role of flower girl. Most of her argument had been they hadn’t needed a flower girl, and if Samirah wanted one so bad how come she didn’t throw the flower then, and of course Alex had enjoyed the little spat and not helped settle it at all by saying she didn’t care either way. In the end, Mallory had agreed to be the “best damn cailín bláthanna anyone had ever seen”, and Magnus had to admit she was doing pretty well. Although it should be said there wasn’t much to throwing flower petals.

When Mallory joined them on the altar, Jack's blade seemed to brighten up a little more, his runes glowing a soft pink as he spoke again. “Señors and señioritas, would you please join me and rise for the presentation of Alex Fierro?”

Eager smiles filled the faces as the door to the top patio of the Chase Mansion opened, and Samirah and Alex stepped out into the light of the setting sun.

And oh, gods, did Magnus nearly fall over.

Alex was dressed in a suit that hugged her body in every proper way. It wasn’t like his, it was… hard to describe. The base color wasn’t too far off the green of his own suit, but it was accented with beautiful shades of pink lining some of the seams and peeking out between the folds of the suit around the neck. Where Magnus's suit had sharp, smart lines that gave him an air of masculinity, Alex’s outfit was soft curves and gentle slopes. The way it moved made it seem like Alex was switching genders with every step. Like she was glowing with the sunset and becoming one with the wind. Like the breeze tossing his hair to the side might have also subtly changed the shape of his nose. Trailing behind him and draping off the back of the coat was a long, elegant train. It was a gradient pink to white, and glittered with the adornment of several hundred tiny crystals. Each one of them glittered a different color depending on the way the light hit them, making the whole thing seem to glitter in the setting sun. It seemed to be attached to the suit jacket in several places, at the shoulders, the waist… When Alex turned to pull the train from the stairs, her silhouette was so completely feminine. The suit seemed to shift fully into a dress, and the dress seemed to curve around her body perfectly. When the train was free and Alex faced front again, the suit came back into view, and the heavy stare that Alex leveled at him combined with the full frontal focus of the suit snapped him straight in the opposite direction so hard he almost fell into Blitzen.

For the first time, his sense of Alex’s gender was a mystery.

Blitzen steadied him, nodding appreciatively. “I know, Magnus.” He patted his pseudo-son on the back, leaving the ‘I outdid myself’ silent.

Alex took Samirah’s arm as the door closed behind them, and the pair of them made their way towards the altar. With every step, Magnus swore he could see Alex shift and change. He was fluid, harmonious, breathtakingly beautiful. As Alex got closer he could see the little bits of makeup she’d put on, and as he came up to the altar, Magnus said a rushed prayer to his dad that he wouldn’t fall over when Blitzen and Hearthstone let him go.

Samirah gave Alex a kiss on the cheek, whispering something in her ear and left to take her spot on the Altar.

Blitzen stepped up to Alex first, somewhat awkwardly reaching out to take her hand and shake it. “Alright, Alex. We’re handing him off. It’s a big responsibility.”

If Alex was nervous, it didn’t show. His expression was confident and maybe a little cocky as he shook Blitzen’s hand. “Yeah, I know.”

“You take care of him properly.”

“I will.”

“Cause if you don’t, you know we can-“

Hearthstone cleared his throat, raising one thin brow when Blitzen turned to him with a scowl. The attending audience laughed politely. “Alright, alright. I get it.”

Hearthstone stepped down to join him, smiling and nodding once before he signed. ‘We are happy to be here. Happy for both of you.’ He turned to Magnus when he signed ‘both’. He reached out his hand towards Alex, who placed her hand in his. He guided Alex up to the altar, then carefully placed his hand in Magnus’ hand, giving them both a little squeeze before he let go.

Magnus wasn’t sure, but he thought he might have seen hearthstone brush away a tear when he and blitz went to sit down.

“Aaaalrighty then, let’s get to it!” Jack said happily, swaying excitedly back and forth as he started in on the ceremony. Since Jack was a minister (for some reason) ordained a long time ago, his ceremony didn’t deviate too far from the one they had attended (and ruined?) before. They each shared a drink out of the same cup of wine, Jack floated sideways and impressively delivered a proper blessing on their rings while using himself as the tool of blessing, and there even seem to be a fairly targeted break in the clouds when they took turns slipping the rings on, filled with the warmth of summer.

“Now that someone is done showing off ,” Jack said with a sour tone as their magical halo of ring-exchanging light dimmed and the sun finally began to dip all the way down. He muttered something that made his runes glow just barely, then brightened up as he floated a little higher again. “Magnus, you may say your vows to your beloved~.”

“Right. Cool.” Magnus smiled, still holding onto Alex’s hand where Hearthstone had joined them. Should he go for the paper with just one hand? Was it okay to let go? Probably not. Best to keep holding on, right? He didn’t want to let Alex go anyways. With one hand, he dug into his pocket for the folded up paper with his vows. Then, still holding his hand, he did his best to unfold them against his leg with his one free hand, smoothing it out clumsily and nearly dropping it.

Could Alex have let him go and helped him out? Absolutely. Was he enjoying this display of genuine awkward lovable idiocy too much to help? Absolutely.

As he watched Magnus finally get a hold of the situation (and the paper), he couldn’t help the snort of laughter that broke out of him. He waved off Magnus’ confused look with his free hand, gesturing for him to read his vows as the crowd giggled with him.

Was he ever going to let go of Magnus’ hand?

Absolutely not.

“Okay, got it.” Magnus smiled sheepishly, hoping the hand Alex was holding wasn’t too clammy. He gave her an apologetic smile as he cleared his throat and glanced at the paper.

“Alex,” the name came out a little awkward, but he smiled through it. “Ever since you came to Valhalla and garroted my head off, I was intrigued by you.” He glanced up to see if Alex was still there, then back down at the paper.

Yep, still there.

“You were mysterious and mesmerizing, but I wanted to know more. I wanted to know you.” The words were coming easier now, but Magnus still felt like if he looked up he might start remembering how he’d felt a few hours before, and he just really didn’t need the thought of bad falafel at this exact moment. “And… through these years we’ve been together, as I’ve come to know you…” he looked up. It mattered this time. He had to look up, and when he met Alex’s eyes, he felt like he might not even need the paper anymore.

Still held on to it though, just in case.

“I think I’ve finally found what I’m looking for.” He smiled, the tension leaving him. For a minute, he felt like maybe they weren’t standing on a stage in front of a bunch of people. Maybe they were somewhere alone, maybe he was just telling Alex these things in private. They were sitting at a campfire, huddled together, things were undefined but Magnus knew what he knew, what he felt, and what he needed to say. “The piece of you that makes me vow to love you and stay by your side forever. And that piece is you, Alex. Who you really are. With all your compassion, courageousness, and with everything you’ve been through, you make me admire you more every day.” He smiled, squeezing the hand he still hadn’t let go of. “I love every part of you, Alex. And I want to stay with you forever, past ragnarok.”

There was a little cheer around the crowd, as well as what seemed like some sniffling sounds emanating from Jack’s blue glowing runestones. “Couldn’t have said it better myself señor.”

Magnus glanced towards Hearth and Blitz, both of whom gave him a thumbs up. Tj patted him on the shoulder, whispering “Great job, Magnus. The hard part is over!” In his ear.

Magnus smiled and nodded, still holding Alex’s hand like a lifeline as he shoved the paper into his pocket, missed, bent to pick it up, tried to shove it in again, missed again-

After watching him struggle, Alex sighed and shook his head, reaching out to take it. He mercifully did not release his hand, using one of his own to fold the sheet back up as the crowd laughed some more.

“Here.” He leaned over, tucking it into Magnus’ pocket. “Try not to lose it.”

“Right.” He nodded, still grinning dumbly as Alex rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Okay Señiorita, it is officially your turn to confess your undying love for Magnus.” Jack directed, floating a little closer to Alex.

“Cool.” Alex nudged the sword back into place with an elbow. “Personal space, please.” For the first time since coming up to the altar she looked nervous. Magnus could tell, even if Alex didn’t want him to tell. It was reassuring, feeling the way Alex’s hand trembled slightly in his own, noticing that Alex was just as eager to hold on. Alex even reached out to take the other hand too, fully facing him.

“Wait, don’t you need to-“

“I memorized it.” Alex said evenly, shrugging. “I’ve got it.” Despite her cool demeanor, her hands were trembling a little, just like his.

She took a breath, focusing both two-toned eyes completely on Magnus and doing her best not to think about how many people were staring directly at them. “Mags.” Her lips twitched into a smile, hands squeezing his. “Beantown. Maggie.” Their audience giggled. Alex dropped her shoulders a half inch, relaxing. “I can’t believe that we’re actually getting married. Honestly, you must be a saint.” She squeezed his hands again, her eyes flickering down to them instead of Mangnus’ stupid perfect sunny face. “I’m flawed and I’m well aware. I know I can be annoying and loud and too flashy…” she trailed off, still not meeting his eyes. He squeezed her hands back, drawing her attention. He was still smiling, but his brow was creased slightly, as if he was saying “what are you talking about, dummy?” He shook his head just slightly.

Alex felt a rush of warmth. Maybe it was a little bit of that weird Frey magic. Maybe it was just Magnus.

She met his eyes again, and all the tension went out of her. “But, in the end, you're my person. And I’m yours, too. And while I may be kinda mean sometimes, I do love you. So much.” She nodded, seeming satisfied with her speech. “So yeah, I do.”

Behind Magnus, Halfborn’s voice broke up the sniffling and “awe”s coming from the audience. “Is that it?”

Mallory bent down and pulled off her shoe, shooting it across the altar and beaning Halfborn in the head. Magnus didn’t even notice.

“Relax the smile, Maggie, your face is gonna get stuck.” Alex whispered, reaching up to pinch his cheek.

Magnus nodded, blinking back tears. His smile didn’t waver.

“If there are no other blessings to be offered, then I will call for the end of the ceremony.” Jack said, wiggling around behind the couple on the altar like he was looking for someone to stand up, then glancing up towards the sky. When no one moved and it didn’t seem like frey was going to descend from the clouds, he bobbed up and down a couple times, glowing a little brighter. “In that case, dudes and dudettes of the assembly, I am totally thrilled to pronounce these two souls bound for life. Or uh… until the end of the world. You may now- oh.”

Alex didn’t wait to be told. As soon as they were given permission, she took a fistful of that expensive suit and swung Magnus around, dipping him dramatically and pressing their lips together.

Magnus wasn’t sure if he was dizzy with excitement or because of how fast Alex had spun him around. He figured that was going to happen a lot from now on.

———-

[Song accompaniment: Paper Rings/New Romantics by Taylor Swift]

The after-ceremony celebration was wild beyond expectations. Actually, it was a miracle upon miracles that no cops were called in for a noise complaint.

It had started off relatively reasonably, with a little bit of magical mead carried over from Valhalla and a few uninvited guests (not wedding crashers really, just friends of friends), and had quickly somersaulted into what was basically an out of control house party.

At first they were just playing music on the roof deck. People were dancing and hanging out, and there were a few volunteer valkyries running for food and drink from Valhalla (courtesy of a new catering service offered by Odin. They had gotten a discount for trying it out.) Of course there was catering from Fadlan’s Falafel as well, managed by Amir personally. Any time magnus came anywhere near him he was offering the new groom a plate of falafel. For once he wondered if he might be able to get sick of it. When some other Enherji had spotted the running Valkyries asked about where they were going, the attendance list of the wedding had started growing, and people had started looking for interesting things to do on the lower floors.

By midnight, from the roof deck to the front lawn, there was music, drinking, and all out revelry. Even those who had abstained from the alcohol seemed to be overtaken by the mood of the celebration. There was an impromptu karaoke room set up in the study, a bowling tournament using some of Randolph’s old statues occurring in the hallway on the second floor, and since the catered food didn’t seem to be satiating them anymore, people had started raiding the kitchen of the Chase space for some kind of cooking operation. When Magnus peeked into the kitchen, he saw a lot of things going into a blender that didn’t seem like they were meant to go together, followed by several large burly guys daring each other to chug a disgustingly thick concoction.

There were no weapons allowed, since many of the guests were Enherji and couldn’t be trusted to mix partying with violence and not end up dead over it, but there were still stick sword fights in the hallways branching out into all out Guerilla warfare. As Magnus moved from room to room defending his new wife, he noticed some of the Einherjar teaching the kids from the Chase Space how to fight, and noticed some of them were pretty good fighters.

That probably wasn’t a great sign for the future conflicts they were going to be dealing with, but whatever. Tonight was a good night. He was married. He didn’t Puke in Alex’s mouth or fall off the stage or embarrass himself, and he even got to look cool in front of the homeless kids, which was great for his ego.

And best of all, Alex was next to him all night. The two of them were practically glued together, and Magnus was over the moon about it. He barely needed a drink of mead to start feeling drunk and giddy. They went from room to room playing games, laughing, and generally causing a bit of chaos. At one point, the play-war happening separated into the living vs the Einherjar, and he and Percy had had a very impressive sword fight in the front yard. He’d been one horn of mead in at the time, and was pretty sure he shouldn’t have been able to beat him, but Percy had taken a somewhat dramatic dive into the river after a good strike, leaving Magnus standing stunned on the bank for a few seconds before everyone exploded in applause. Alex had given him an excited reward kiss and shouted something at Annabeth as she was towing her wet boyfriend out of the river.

Annabeth didn’t seem upset, and Magnus was pretty sure he’d seen her smiling the whole time as she’d given Percy a kiss of his own.

It had been a few years since he’d died, and even though he’d stopped counting, he was pretty sure he was over Valhalla’s legal drinking age, or at least that he had earned it saving the world once or twice. So, after his glorious victory, he’d had a couple more drinks, offered some fighting tips to his eager (and drunk) troops, then wandered off to find somewhere to hide with Alex.

The two of them were hiding for a few hours. No one ever figured out where, or what they had been doing, and they were extremely tight lipped, if very smiley about it, when they came back out to the party. They made a stop in the karaoke office for Magnus to do a frankly impressive performance of Taylor Switf’s ‘Lover’ to a flustered Alex sitting in a chair. He was still singing it when they headed out of the room.

Near the end of the night the two groups of hallway fighters had called for an orderly competition, and they’d settled on a tournament of sorts on the rooftop. The chairs had been pushed aside and a circle had been marked off in the center of the space. It seemed like they were playing a game of King of the Ring, taking turns pushing eachother out of the circle and cheering excitedly when someone won.

When Alex and Magnus had wandered up, the competitors had arranged a sort of throne for the two newlyweds to spectate the ongoing competition from. It was just a couple of chairs pushed together with the flower arrangements from the ceremony next to them and a bunch of pillows, but Magnus did kind of feel like a king every time they cheered and raised their glasses towards him.

Alex came half wobbling over after refilling a plate full of snacks. Tossing her plate down on her seat, she planted herself directly into her new Husband’s lap with a happy wiggle.

Huh. Husband. Weird.

“Make room, mags.” She pushed his arms and legs around a little until she was comfortably sitting sideways on his lap with her feet over the armrest, then reached over to pull the plate of food into her lap.

“Mags?” Magnus was grinning. He'd had something to drink since they came back out. It might have been spiked? He hadn’t asked. Everything seemed kind of warm and funny. He felt a little dizzy, but he wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the smell of whatever Perfume Alex had put on. Alex seemed in a similar state. Maybe that’s why she wasn’t using the mean nicknames. Happily, he wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed.

“Hey, I’m eating!” She elbowed him, steadying her plate of cookies and chips. “Sit still or I’ll get a proper chair.”

“Okay.” He nodded like a dummy, then rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. After a few minutes of shouting, a round of the competition finished, and the whole roof let out a cheer. Magnus smiled, squeezing Alex again.

“‘Mhappy.” He muttered, his voice quiet and next to her ear.

Alex paused, tilting her head towards him and raising a brow. “Better be.”

“Mhm.” He nodded a couple times, his chin bumping her shoulder. “Mmm.”

She offered him a piece of cookie, which he ate obediently. “Magnus.” Her voice was soft, a little slurred.

“Mmm?” He turned to look at her, meeting her eyes and trying to focus.

“I love you.”

The two of them sat there, staring at each other for a few moments. The air was warm, the sky lit up with stars. They were surrounded by a hundred happy people there to celebrate them. Still, the best moments of the day were ones like this. Ones where they felt completely alone, and understood each other completely without saying any words. Magnus’s big dummy smile spread across his lips, and for once, Alex’s drunk mind didn’t bother trying to hide her own in return.

“Yeah.” Magnus nodded. “I know.”

————————————————————————

TAGS: @alex-fierro-pr-nightmare@mallory-keen-to-kill@thomas-jefferson-jr@halfbornhalfdead@lordofsummergodofrizz@deadmomclubattendee@imhotterthanallofyou@that-hijabi-loki-spawn@runest0nes@blitzen-imnot-that-short

#magnus chase #mcga #alex fierro #pjo #fierrochase #rick riordanverse #magnus chase and the gods of asgard #magnus x alex #magnus lives matter

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simspaghetti · 9 months

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Minerva Blossom ♀️

🎲 Traits: Rebellious / Good

Rebellious Sims take special pride in putting it to the man. Causing trouble (and getting out of it) is their speciality! Whether they're out after curfew or telling their boss they've had it, they'll no doubt take extra pleasure for it.

Good Sims go out of their way to help friends and family in need, are charitable with their money and frequently comfort those around them.

Favourites: Indie Music / Falafel / Grey

Minerva is named after the Roman goddess of wisdom, whom Eduardo takes great inspiration from for his inventions.

#TS3 Gameplay #TS3 Legacy #Random Legacy #Sims 3 #TS3 #Simblr #Blossoming Legacy #Blossoming2 #Amy Blossom #Eduardo Blossom #Minerva Blossom

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thiccpettybitch · 10 months

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🕸 Bitter Sweet - Ch. 8 Miguel O’hara x F!Reader 🕸

I already had the idea of a Miguel POV, but an anon ask made me pull through! Please enjoy: a day in the life of Miguel O'Hara – Spiderman.

Warnings: 18+, Smut, Jerkin’ yer gerkin’, Minors DNI!

Ah~ New York at night!

The dark night sky illuminated the city lights, with cars honking as people enjoyed their Friday evening - some heading out for a night on the town, while others were making their way home. Pizza joints lined every other street, and food trucks tempted passersby with fresh falafel and tacos.

Miguel crouched on a rooftop, the aroma of a fresh pizza slice with a side of icy Pepsi making his stomach growl. But alas, he was on the clock, well... kind of.

He leaped off the roof, catching a glimpse of a man running on the pavement, crashing into a woman carrying her groceries, and sending her to the ground, cursing. Landing in front of the man, Miguel made him dig his heels into the ground, but it didn't help much, as the man slammed straight into him and fell on his ass.

"Sp-Spiderman?! Look, man, it's not what it looks like!" he stammered, trying to explain.

"That was rude of you. Why don’t you get up and help that lady back on her feet?" Miguel remarked sternly. The man appeared confused and scared, and Miguel almost felt a twinge of sympathy, almost.

Turning around, he glanced at the woman and her scattered groceries on the pavement, then back at Miguel. The man managed a sheepish smile, slowly getting up and walking over to the woman, his hands trembling slightly.

"I’m sorry, ma’am, m-my bad!" The man apologized, extending his hand. The woman scowled at him, about to smack his hand away, when she saw Spiderman approaching them from behind the man.

"Get your stu- Spiderman!" she exclaimed, swiftly snatching the man's hand and pulling herself up, causing him to stumble and fall forward on his face.

"Oh my god! My son is such a big fan! Do you mind if I get a selfie?" she excitedly asked.

"Of course, ma’am," Miguel answered, wrapping his arm around her and leaning in close to pose for the selfie. "What’s your son's name?"

"Marcus," the woman answered, passing him the phone.

Miguel held the phone up above them, clicking record as he filmed the two of them. He pulled the woman close, causing her to let out a small giggle.

"Hey Marcus! I’m here with your lovely mom; she’s out here helping me fight crime! She’s a real angel, and you're lucky to have such a tough mom! Make sure you tell her how much you love her this week!" he said warmly into the camera.

"And help take out the trash!" she quipped in, smiling up at him.

Miguel chuckled and turned to the camera again, "And the trash, of course! Very important! Stay safe out there!"

Miguel handed her the phone back, making some jokes and small talk while the guy was on the ground, collecting her groceries back into her bags. Once he was finished and once again apologized, she just gave him a dirty look but accepted the apology. Miguel grabbed him by the collar, tossed him up in the air, and webbed him up onto a lamp post, asking the woman to dial 911 as he was a known bag snatcher.

The woman looked on in shock, nodding her head before saying goodbye and thanks as Miguel webbed onto a building and swung away, off to the next one.

On another rooftop, he had a view down at the city below. A group of girls was piling around a food truck, giggling and cheering as they all received some much-needed gyros with extra garlic sauce, judging by the smell of it. Miguel's stomach growled again, and he forced himself to look away, observing a woman pulling a small child along. The girl seemed too excited by a woman with a dog walking past them to keep up with her mom.

Miguel webbed onto another building, swiftly swinging a few blocks, his eyes scanning around for anything out of order. He stopped on another rooftop, an apartment building with air conditioners on every window. Using his hand, he landed near a window, placing a hand on one of the air conditioners to peek down at the local corner shop.

Inside the kitchen of the apartment next to him sat a small girl eating her dinner. She grimaced down at a piece of broccoli, moving it aside with her fork, while her mother stood by the sink doing the dishes. The girl glanced up and did a double-take, her eyes widening with excitement. She pointed at him and was about to turn to her mother when Miguel brought a finger up to his masked face, motioning for her to keep quiet.

She nodded enthusiastically, smiling wide with one of her front teeth missing. Miguel gave her a small wave, pointing at her broccoli and rubbing his stomach. She frowned a bit shaking her head, that was until he brought up his arms, flexing them to show off his muscles, and then pointed at the broccoli again. The girl lit up, nodding and swooping the broccoli up, eating it whole. The little girl flexed her own arm and grinned up at him.

Miguel smiled, waving to her before leaping off the building, webbing onto another one and slowly lowering himself to the ground. Quietly, he opened the door, his hand clutching around the bell that would announce someone entering the building. He maneuvered inside, watching as the cashier held his hands up, a gun pointed at his chest.

"Put the damn money in the damn bag!" the masked man yelled, using his gun to urge the cashier to hurry up.

"Okay, okay! Please don’t-" the cashier stammered, but suddenly froze, staring past the robber, which caused him to flare his gun around again.

"Hey, what did I tell you?! What are you staring at..."

As the robber turned around, his eyes started from Miguel's feet and slowly made their way up to his masked head, watching as he towered over him. Miguel snatched the gun from the man's hand, throwing it behind him, and then grabbed the man by his collar, pulling him close to his face.

"Boo," Miguel said, with a mischievous grin.

---

The cashier waved as Miguel swung past him, off to another rooftop. The robber was webbed onto the store's wall, and sirens in the distance were closing in.

Perched on a tall building, Miguel pulled out his phone and began scrolling, thankful that the touch screen still responded to his touch with the suit on. Sighing quietly, he scrolled through some of his messages – a few selfies from Reilly showing off his gym time, six from Peter B with a request to go out for pizza (more like, "Can we go out to eat, and you pay?"), but he didn't mind.

When there wasn't any commotion or signs of trouble, he continued scrolling, choosing to browse through some social media. Swiping a few times, he chuckled to himself when he saw a Duolingo meme, shaking his head. Maybe he'd show you that tomorrow.

Switching over to his contacts, he swiped through them, stopping when he reached the letter that your name began with. A small frown formed on his face. He turned off his phone and clipped it back under his suit – an uncomfortable but necessary location.

He could have just sent that to you if he had your number.

"Ey! Give me your phone so I can send you a meme," he practiced to himself.

Nope.

"Give me your number so I can send you homework if you’re sick," he contemplated. But you came to class on time and weren't sick often, so it's not like he'd need to check in on you.

No, that's too out of nowhere.

Miguel shook his head, glancing around the city below him. The eyes on his mask narrowed as his eyebrows furrowed.

"May I... have your number?" he practiced, the words slipping out tentatively.

Sliding off the ledge, Miguel began pacing back and forth, speaking to himself, his arms motioning as he spoke.

‘’May i-‘’

Too formal

"May... Can I have your number? Do you want to give me your number?" Miguel muttered, feeling the words coming out awkwardly and forced.

Why did it sound so strange when he said it outloud?

Swinging around and using both hands, he pointed in front of him, trying to inject some confidence into his demeanor. "I'M SPIDERMAN, GIVE ME YOUR NUMBER!"

But it didn't work. He hung his head, dropping his arms to his sides in defeat.

Sigh... why is it so difficult?

Miguel's head whipped around as he heard shouting, jumping up on the ledge and perching, he looked around, trying to focus on the sound. A few buildings away, he honed in on a small takeout place. Miguel could make out a man hunched over a counter with a bloodied brow and a gun pressed against his temple.

Leaping off the building, he webbed his way to the building opposite the shop, scanning the scene. Three men held the man at gunpoint, money already in hand, and they continued shouting at him. Miguel quickly webbed onto a nearby building, swinging and gaining momentum. He took a quick turn, flipping in the air, and shot forward, sliding through the open door at the front, making everyone inside jump.

"Bro, I told you we should have just left!" one of the masked men said, throwing his hands up in the air and stepping back.

"Don’t fucking move, man, we got this!" said another man, the one holding a gun to the owner's head.

The third one just stood there; silently watching everything play out.

"Let’s all relax, no need for anyone to get hurt," Miguel said, raising his arms slightly and motioning for them to calm down.

"Man, don’t fucking move, or I’m popping the old man," the one with the gun warned, pressing it against the owner's temple, causing him to beg for his life in Spanish.

"No need for that. Tell you what? You let the man go, and I’ll let you walk out of here, no problem," Miguel assured, holding his hand up higher.

"Nah, you’ll just follow us. You gotta, like, cuff yourself to the store or something!" the nervous one said, pacing back and forth between the two other masked men.

"Cuff? Bro, he’s Spiderman! He don't got no fucking cuffs!" the one with the gun said, looking over at the nervous one.

"What? You never seen Batman do that? He's got, like, a belt with all doo dats!" the nervous one retorted.

"Bro, first off; it’s not 'doo dats,' it’s his Bat-Arsenal! You know, like gadgets and equipment, and shit! Second, SHUT THE FUCK UP, RICHIE! YOU IDIOT!"

The nervous guy gasped, mouth agape, throwing his hands up in the air and hanging his head back. He walked around the room, looking around in disbelief.

"BRUH! You just used my name in front of Batman!!!" he exclaimed.

"HE'S SPIDERMAN!" the man with the gun yelled back.

The man with the gun spun around, yelling at the nervous guy, who yelled back, both of them about to throw hands. The silent one just looked up at Miguel and shrugged.

Miguel webbed onto the gun, pulling it towards him and catching it. All three of the masked men stopped, slowly turning their heads to Miguel, silently staring at him. He tossed the gun to the owner, who caught it and froze. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

"Heh... uhm, so-" Miguel began, trying to break the awkward silence.

They all charged towards the owner, and Miguel sprung into action, getting to him first and lifting him over the counter to safety. He urged him to call the police before turning to the three masked men. Miguel skillfully dodged two hits from the angry one and the nervous one, retaliating by smacking the angry one in the face and kicking the nervous one into the silent one.

The angry one managed to land a punch, but he was swiftly kicked in the face as Miguel executed a backflip in the air. The nervous one stopped mid-charge, letting out a yelp as he watched Miguel's smooth movements. Miguel capitalized on the opportunity and smacked him in the face, knocking him out. Meanwhile, the silent one charged at Miguel, attempting a punch, but his fist was caught mid-strike. Miguel pulled him in, delivering a powerful smack that sent his face into the counter.

All three of them lay on the floor, groaning in pain. Miguel webbed them together, leaving them incapacitated on the floor.

"¡Muchas gracias, Spiderman! You really saved my ass!" The owner awkwardly stepped over the group, grabbing the sack of money from the floor.

"No problem, sir. Happy to help! Are you sure you're okay? You're bleeding," Miguel said, concern in his voice.

"Huh?" The man reached up and touched the cut, hissing and mumbling in Spanish as he brought his hand down and looked at the blood on his fingers. "Ay... mi mujer me va a matar."

Miguel chuckled and shook his head, "I think she'll just be happy to have you come home."

They both froze, Miguel going rigid with an 'oh shit!' look on his face under the mask.

"¿Eres hispano? ¿Spiderman es hispano?" the man asked excitedly as he made his way over to him.

"I- no… uh- no, I just-"

"No te preocupes, tu secreto está a salvo conmigo, Spiderman."

The man said, clasping his shoulder with a warm smile on his face. Miguel was about to say something when his stomach spoke for him, a loud growl echoing in the quiet room.

After a few minutes, the owner handed him a to-go bag full of some empanadas, the same big smile on his face. Miguel thanked the man and watched speechless as the owner walked over to the three men on the floor, crouching down and feeding them all their own empanadas, scolding them like a father would his naughty children.

"We're sorry…" they all said quietly and shamefully in unison.

"And you!" the man said, pointing up at Miguel, "No more fighting crime on an empty stomach, eh?"

Miguel awkwardly laughed, nodding his head.

"You come back here again, ¿entiendes? Maybe during opening hours though, bring your Pareja, I'll give you a discount!"

Hearing sirens closing in, Miguel saluted the owner, dashing through the door and webbing onto a building, shooting off. The owner chased him out the door, waving him off and yelling after him.

"¡Gracias! Spiderman!"

---

Miguel sat perched on a tall skyscraper, his mask pulled up to his nose as he ate and watched another episode of 'La Reina del Sur.' Reaching into the brown to go bag next to him, he snatched another empanada and eagerly took a big bite, catching some of the juices threatening to spill from the corner of his mouth and licking them up vigorously.

God damn, these are good!

Sirens blared, and Miguel cursed, quickly pausing the video and sliding it under his suit. He awkwardly readjusted it before glancing at the bag with a sad whimper at the last few empanadas left. Then, he leaped off the building, free-falling towards the ground.

Miguel webbed onto a building, swinging through Times Square and landing in the middle of the street just in time to scoop up a woman and leap out of the way of a car speeding through. The woman praised him nonstop, clinging onto him, and he awkwardly had to pry her off. He reassured her that everything was okay as he raced after the car being pursued by several cop cars.

Miguel swiftly webbed onto one of the cop cars as it went by, landing on its roof before using its speed to transition to another one and then another. He peeked down through the passenger window, startling the ride-along, who let out a scream. The captain, who was driving, growled at him, yelling for him not to get involved. However, his tone changed when shots began flying past them.

Both of them stared ahead in shock before Captain Stacy let out a sigh and yelled out, "You mind?" He motioned towards the car, and Miguel nodded, quickly climbing back up onto the car's roof. He smacked his hand against it repeatedly, calling out for them to speed up.

Captain Stacy certainly did. He pushed down on the gas pedal enough that Miguel had to grab onto the roof for stability until they got closer to the car. With a swift motion, Miguel webbed onto a nearby lamppost, letting out a loud "WOOOO!" as he got launched forward and gracefully landed on top of the speeding car.

The man who was halfway out the window aimed his gun at him, but Miguel was too agile and quick to react. With a skillful kick, he knocked the gun out of the man's hand, allowing it to clatter onto the ground, hoping that the approaching police officers would take care of it.

In one fluid motion, he reached in, grabbed the perpetrator by his collar, and effortlessly pulled him out of the car, tossing him to the side. Miguel shot out a web to ensure the man landed safely, and as he glanced up, he witnessed the fugitive being swiftly surrounded and apprehended by the waiting officers.

Miguel gracefully swung himself inside the car through the open window, catching everyone inside off guard. He nodded to the driver through the rearview mirror, flashing a cocky smile behind the mask.

"What the fu-"

"What's up, guys?" The man next to him stared in shock, his head turning between Miguel and the driver, holding a gun in his hand, speechless.

"Yo, you mind if I just-" Miguel swiftly snatched the gun from the man's hand and tossed it into the back, "Yeah, thanks, man! I appreciate it!"

Miguel swiftly incapacitated the guy in the back with one powerful punch, but his triumph was short-lived as the driver suddenly brandished a gun, aiming it at him and pulling the trigger. Thanks to his heightened reflexes, Miguel managed to dodge the bullet just in time, but the deafening gunshot left his ears ringing, reminding him of the danger he was in.

Okay, playtime’s over.

He grabbed the driver's arm and forced it backward, the sickening sound of a bone snapping filling the air as the man screamed in pain. The sudden jolt caused the driver to slam on the brakes, sending both him and Miguel hurtling forward. Miguel crashed through the front windshield, rolling a few feet away from the car, while the driver ended up halfway on the car's hood.

Groaning, Miguel pushed himself up, his hand instinctively going to his side, where he winced in pain.

Wear your seatbelt kiddos.

As he managed to get back on his feet, though still feeling a bit wobbly, Miguel looked up and saw the man sprawled across the car's hood, bloodied and barely conscious. He took a painful step forward, but then another gun was aimed at him, this time by Captain Stacy, who had arrived not far behind.

"Hands up!" the Captain demanded.

Miguel rolled his eyes, shaking his head in both annoyance and disbelief. "Really, Captain? Right now? I just got launched through a window, and that guy—"

"I said hands UP!" Captain Stacy interrupted firmly.

"Captain, this guy needs help!" the ride-along called out from behind them, checking the man's pulse.

Captain Stacy hesitated for a moment, glancing between Miguel and the injured man. Seizing the opportunity, Miguel swiftly webbed onto a nearby building and swung away, making a quick but painful escape. He could hear the Captain swearing after him, but he ignored it, focused on finding a discreet way to get back home without drawing any more attention.

---

He had made it home, carefully pulling his suit off and dropping it on the floor next to his bed. Next, he made his way into the bathroom, wearing only his boxers, and placed a newspaper on the floor before sitting down on the toilet. He grabbed his first aid kit, ignoring the stacks of newspapers in the corner that he used when he shaved his ball-

Not important.

He instead focused on the pieces of glass wedged into his side and forearms, grateful he managed to shield his face from the glass before crashing through it. Using a pair of tweezers, he began picking out the shards of glass and some dirt, hissing as he managed to extract a deep piece, causing his blood to drip down his muscular ribs.

He continued the process, doing the same on his forearm, inspecting himself in the bathroom mirror until he was sure there weren't any shards left. He then jumped into the shower, resting one arm against the shower wall, enjoying the feeling of the water washing over him.

The stinging on his arm and rib had stopped, indicating that he had indeed removed all the glass, and his wounds had started healing on their own. One of the best perks of being Spiderman was his accelerated healing, minimizing the downtime due to injuries.

Rolling his head from side to side, Miguel savored the soothing sensation of warm water cascading down his body, washing away the day's aches and soreness. The comforting flow of the showerhead caressed his chest and streamed down his torso, adding to the relaxing ambiance. As he closed his eyes, a vivid image of you appeared in his mind's eye. You standing there with him, your hair wet and flowing down your shoulders, gazing up at him with rosy cheeks and an enticingly bitten bottom lip.

His eyes shot open, and he was met with an unexpected spray straight to the face, causing him to curse as he frantically rubbed at his eyes, feeling utterly exhausted. Looking down, he allowed the water to cascade down his back, and he directed his gaze towards his hardening dick. A tired expression crossed his face as he contemplated whether the effort was worth it or not. In the end, his dick seemed to make the decision for him, providing a clear answer.

Ooh, yes~

Clasping down around his shaft, he began pumping himself until he was fully hard. He leaned forward, head against the wall, as he continued stroking his cock, eyes closed. He licked his bottom lip as he picked up his phase, imagining you on your knees there, ready to help him out.

He cursed, his eyes screwed shut, as he wrapped his hand around the tip, purposefully tightening his grip as his fingers grazed the underside of his tip, imagining that instead of his fingers, it was your tongue. Miguel's head fell back as he continued stroking himself faster, enjoying the image of you pressed up against the shower wall, ass facing him as he clung on to your hips, fucking you hard and raw as you moaned his name.

His hips involuntary thrust up into his hand, imagining himself smacking your ass as he got close, imagined what you would feel like when you tightened around him, glancing back at him and begging him to cum inside you. His thighs twitched and spasmed as he came into his own hand and the shower wall in front of him, panting loudly he took a moment before he moved, gaining control of his wobbly legs again.

Glancing up at the shower wall, he let out a tired groan, reaching for the shower head to wash away the day's grime. Grabbing the soap, he decided to give himself one final refreshing cleanse, hoping to wash away all the stress and exhaustion.

Miguel flopped down on his bed, emitting a slight groan as he pushed his suit under the bed with one hand while dropping the brown empanada bag on top of it. He chose not to feel ashamed about the fact that he stopped to pick it back up, rationalizing it by not wanting to litter. But, in truth, his fridge was bare, not having enough time on his hands to cook, and being too tired and too exhausted to get something on his way home.

Finishing the last empanada and the episode of La Reina del Sur he was on, Miguel put his phone on charge and fell back against the bed, one arm draped over his face as he enjoyed the soft firmness of his bed. Moving his elbow out of the way, he glanced at his alarm clock and let out a loud groan.

It was 4 am.

He knew he would get, at best, three hours of good sleep. The thought of getting up and getting ready for school made his stomach turn, and he let out another loud groan as if someone would hear it and let him off the hook. After all, he was intelligent enough to get into pretty much any university he wanted to. Besides, he had his eyes on an Alchemax scholarship; that was the only reason he even bothered with school.

Rolling over, his face pressed into the pillow, he let out one final groan before his eyelids felt too heavy for him to keep his eyes open.

Oh well, at least he’d get to see you tomorrow.

----

Translations:

¡Muchas gracias! - Thank you very much!

mi mujer me va a matar - my wife is going to kill me

¿Eres hispano? - Are you Hispanic?

¿Spiderman es hispano? - Is Spiderman Hispanic?

No te preocupes - Don't worry

tu secreto está a salvo conmigo - your secret is safe with me

¿entiendes? - do you understand?

Pareja - partner or significant other

Gracias - Thank you

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