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script-a-world · 3 years

Note

hi, any advice on timeline and era etc stuff? I have dyscalculia so numbers and measurements are meaningless to me and it’s really difficult to figure out how much time should lapse (on a large scale; time periods, millennia, eras, etc, not stuff like in one persons lifespan) between eras and events, especially in regards to political n social n technological etc changes

Feral: That depends. There isn’t one answer. You’re asking for longer time periods than a generation or a lifetime, but for scale, take what’s happening now. How many calamities, major political events, social trends, and changes in technology (and how we interact with it) have happened in the year 2020? Since the year 2016? Since 2008? Since 2001? How are they grouped together or spaced apart? And these are all working on each other. In the USA where I live, the 9/11 attacks absolutely have a direct causal effect with the politics that led to the 2016 election (actually before that a Supreme Court decision in the 2000 election also had an impact on that result), and the results of the 2016 election impacted how COVID has been handled this year. That’s 20 years, so when we’re looking at longer timeframes, we scale up. We see gaps and groupings and there just isn’t a specific “oh every decade/score/century, these types of events happen.”

To quote a particularly relevant introduction on Wikipedia:

This results in descriptive abstractions that provide convenient terms for periods of time with relatively stable characteristics. However, determining the precise beginning and ending to any ‘period’ is often arbitrary, since it has changed over time over the course of history.

To the extent that history is continuous and not generalized, all systems of periodization are more or less arbitrary. Yet without named periods, however clumsy or imprecise, past time would be nothing more than scattered events without a framework to help us understand them.

Eras, of the non-geological or -cosmological sort, or time periods are culturally determined, completely variable in length, and often overlap. For example, the beginning of the Victorian Era, 64 years, (defined by Victoria’s rule of England) of the Anglo-influenced world overlapped with the Antebellum Era, 78 years, (defined by political and social tensions in the lead up to the American Civil War) of the United States, which is also part of the Anglo-influenced world, and then following the end of the Antebellum Era, was the American Civil War, 4 years, and then the Reconstruction Era, 14 years (the first 2 of which are within the Civil War), which are both fully contained within the Victorian Era. Typically, when you are trying to think about eras, think about political rulership, wars, and large scale trends like artistic styles. It may also be helpful to familiarize yourself with the Three-Age System, which can be applied individually on cultures, rather describing trends for the whole world.

What it really comes down to when we think of eras and time periods is almost like a type of pareidolia. People see groupings of like things happening and put this grouping into a bubble of time, which kinda doesn’t actually exist in objective reality and is more or less a group hallucination on a massive scale. It calls to mind what Zeno’s arrow might have actually been trying to describe - not to say that this paradox is infallible, but it’s an interesting thought exercise, especially once you get into the quantum Zeno effect.

Now that I have fully diverged from the question at hand, we’ll get back to it. Let’s look at one technology type and how much time elapses between developments as well as some tie-in technological, social, and political forces that may be acting on the developments or that the developments might be acting on. I’ll also note how this technology traverses the eras of history as I find that looking at one discrete set over time is easier than just trying to look at the big picture. Let’s look at the history of printing.

(With hopes that it will be easier for you to conceptualize, I will use simplified (aka rounded up/down) timeframes written numerically rather than spelled out or via terms like decade or century so at the very least you can compare length of numbers. I’m also going to link as many Wikipedia articles as I can - I like Wikipedia for this because of its incredible cross-indexing and how it strings relevant articles together into a series, often chronologically. If the numbers are still challenging for you, I will summarize without at the end.)

5,520 years ago, the very first form of printing we know about is done with cylinders rolled over wet clay in Sumer in 3500 BCE, the beginning of the Early Bronze Age.

3,700 years later, woodblock printing is developed in China somewhere around 200 CE/AD, just after the end of the Pax Romana in Europe.

700 years later, the next development of printing is movable type, which is developed in China in 1040. 26 years later, on the other side of the world, in 1066 is the Battle of Hastings and the establishment of the Norman Era of rulership in England, in another 20 years, in 1086, the Domesday Book is hand written in 2 volumes: 1 is 764 8”x15” pages, the other 900 8”x11” pages.

400 years later gives us the Gutenburg printing press that is developed in Germany (at the time in the Holy Roman Empire) in 1440. This is during the Renaissance Era; it’s also the Era of Humanism, and often called the Early Modern Period. Martin Luther will write the 95 Theses less than 80 years later and start the Protestant Reformation, largely thanks to the ability for the theses to be easily copied by the printing press and spread quickly.

75 years later we have etching in 1515. 90 years later, the first weekly “true” newspaper, the Relation, begins printing in 1604.

130 years later we have mezzotint in 1642, which is the start of the First English Civil War, which will last for 4 years. Depending on your preference, the Age of Enlightenment either began 5 years before or 40 years later (unless you’re French).

130 years later we have aquatint in 1772. That is right at the beginning of the American Revolution: 2 years after the Boston Massacre; 1 year before the Boston Tea Party; 2 years before the Intolerable Acts and the First Continental Congress; 3 years before Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” Speech (which is printed and shared across the colonies), Paul Revere’s Ride, and the Battle of Lexington & Concord; and finally 4 years before Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is published, the signing of the Declaration of Independence (which is printed and shared across the colonies), Nathan Hale’s execution for treason against the Crown, and Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware.

25 years later lithography is developed in 1796; the year prior Napoleon overthrows le Directoire.

40 years later we have chromolithography in 1837, the year Victoria ascends and the first electric/battery powered locomotive is invented.

5 years later is the rotary press in 1843. The First Industrial Revolution is over.

15 years later is the hectograph in 1860. 1 year later, the American Civil War begins.

15 years later is offset printing in 1875. 1 year before, the first commercial typewriter becomes available. 1 year later is Bell and Watson’s first phone call in 1876.

10 years later is hotmetal typing in 1884.

1 year later is the mimeograph in 1885. 2 years later is Black Monday. 5-10 years later the radio is invented.

20 years later is the photostat and rectigraph in 1907.

4 years later is screen printing in 1911. 3 years later WWI begins in 1914.

10 years later is the spirit duplicator in 1923. The Roaring Twenties.

2 years later is dot matrix printing in 1925. 4 years later is the Great Crash.

10 years later is xerography in 1938, the same year as the first digital computer. 1 year later WWII begins in 1939.

2 years later is spark printing in 1940. 1 year later is the Attack on Pearl Harbor.

9 years later is phototypesetting in 1949. The USSR detonates their first atomic bomb.

1 year later is inkjet printing in 1950. Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb. Apartheid becomes law in South Africa.

7 years later is dye-sublimation in 1957. 6 years later, Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his “I Have a Dream” Speech.

12 years later is laser printing in 1969, the summer of which is known for very Very.

3 years later is thermal printing in 1972. The break-in at the Watergate Office Building is this same year and 2 years later Nixon resigns.

14 years later is 3D printing in 1986, the year Pixar Animation is founded and the year after the beginning of the Iran-Contra Affair.

1 year later is solid ink printing in 1987. 2 years later is the invention of the World Wide Web, and the internet as we know it.

4 years later is digital printing in 1991, the same year the USSR dissolved. 2 years before, the Berlin Wall fell.

There have been no significant developments in the history of printing since 1991.

So, let’s look at some averages to help us consume this data. Printing has a history of 5,520 years. It took 3,700 years for another development to occur, and then another 700 years after that - in other words, in the first 4,400 years of printing, there were 3 developments, equalling to an average of 1 every 1,470 years. In the 400 years between 1440 and 1843, there were 7 developments (average of 1 every 57 years). In the next 100 years between 1860 and 1957, there were 14 developments (average of 1 every 7 years but with 1 year having 2 developments simultaneously). In the next 22 years between 1969 and 1991, there were 5 developments (average of 1 every 4 years).

While the general trend is that the more a technology develops, the faster it develops, a trend is not the whole picture. Consider: in the 90 years of 1796-1885, there were 6 developments, making the average 1 every 15 years. In the 85 years of 1907-1991, there were 15 developments, making the average 1 every 6 years. There has not been a development in the past 30 years! There hasn’t been this large of a gap since 1837, 180 years ago.

In general, without numbers, what I think we can see here is that sometimes a certain development, like the printing press, can usher in a new era, and sometimes reactions to what else is happening in the world can pressure someone into developing something new, but often times, most times, when you look at just one thing under microscope over time, why that thing is produced in this era but not that era has nothing to do with the eras in question. When we create time periods, we’re generally doing it after the fact. No one living under the rule of the Roman Empire in 100 CE was thinking to themselves, “ah yes, the Pax Romana, when we have peace for 200 years!”

So applying all of this to worldbuilding, I see two methods that you can use together, to create a timeline that makes sense and is useful to your storytelling.

Method the first, arbitrarily create time bubbles of various lengths - I recommend the use of index cards for this. Index card A is 7 years; card B is 150 years; card C is 47 years and so on. Then take big ideas and put those onto your cards; use inspiration from real history. “I want the War of the Roses but condensed into 7 years.” “A Mongolian Empire type expansion happens over 150 years.” “There’s a 47 year Renaissance of fascination with Ancient History.” Then take those cards, lay them out into roughly the order in which you want them to occur, maybe overlap them a little, especially if they are happening in different parts of your world. Remember that time is not actually linear and things do not happen in a linear, narrative manner in the real world, so there can be wild leaps; there can be regressions; and you don’t have to follow real world history here - though you may want to the first time as a helpful exercise. It’s also very unlikely that you will ever have to know exactly how many years are between the eras or what the interstitial eras are.

Method the second, list all the major historical events, inventions, etc that you want/need to have happened. Start with what directly impacts your main characters and plot. “MC’s great-grandfather is humiliatingly defeated in battle, casting a pall of embarrassment across the generations following and ultimately putting the MC in the position that she starts in.” “The first great wizard codifies the 10 Laws of the Important Magical Order that the MC is trying to earn her place in.” Put these in an order that makes sense to you, keeping in mind that it’s not going to be a perfect progression. Again, you don’t need to know how many years there are between each event, but if great-grandpa was the last in a very long line of family members allowed to be in the Important Magical Order, then that IMO had to be founded first, and there would probably be some events between these two.

Then, when you have your two timelines, one of era/time periods and one of events, graft them together. You may have to shift some things to make it work, but consider the “feeling” or theme of the eras and what events make sense in relation to those feelings. Additionally would this event be more suited to happening when the era is new and is finding itself or when the era is solidly on course or is it an event that would completely shatter the illusion of the era and usher in a new one? Does it make sense for your great wizard to be codifying her laws in the expansion of an empire, or during a period of relative peace and prosperity in an established empire, or before empires were a thing in this world and few traveled far from home?

Tex: I’ve found that historically important events are caused for roughly two reasons - one, an invention that others capitalize on for an exponential growth into other inventions/social uses, and two, someone got sick of someone else’s crap and did something about it. Natural disasters will happen with enough frequency to be noted (see: the Little Ice Age, the Black Death, and the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa), although there’s little prediction for them because of the lack of observable build up in activity.

To pull from Feral’s timeline of examples, writing is popularly attributed to being invented in Sumer, 5,520 years ago - it’s our oldest found example, at any rate, though I’ve learned to never say never on archaeological discoveries.

What prompted this invention? Things rarely occur out of the blue, and rarely without interaction from other domains - where could writing have come from? Maybe art? What about from the creation of a tool, a reuse of certain skill sets? Something else we haven’t thought of yet?

So that’s one half of the question. But what about the other half - what did people around the inventor (multiple inventors?) think of this new thing? Deliberately associating a particular sound with a particular object - even a 2D object like pressing shapes into a piece of clay - and then standardizing it, is no mean feat. How did this agreement even happen? Were there arguments about how to do these graphemes, how best to shape them? What about which phoneme to each?

I doubt Sumerian cuneiform was created in a day, and likewise I doubt that language popped into existence on a whim. To keep pulling from this example, language composition has a strong effect on how we interact with our environment (University of Missouri-St Louis Libraries), but it conversely is also deeply affected by the environment its users create (Nature).

Because of this, I think it’s easier to work from a different angle - figure out what your major events are, and what eras you’re covering. If these major events also define an era, that’s even better! Working out how long everything each thing takes is ultimately a bunch of minor details, so it’s up to you how much your plot actively needs them, rather than decoration to your story meant to amuse you more than your audience.

#pylons #time #eras #timelines #Anonymous

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janblog · 3 years

Text

Premium Rush: "doing this solo again" edition

THIS WILL HAVE SPOILERS. GO WATCH THE MOVIE. IT'S GOOD.

summary shamelessly stolen from wikipedia:

Premium Rush is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by David Koepp and written by Koepp and John Kamps. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon, Dania Ramirez, and Jamie Chung. It follows a bicycle messenger chased around New York City by a corrupt police officer who wants an envelope the messenger has. It was released on August 24, 2012 by Columbia Pictures.

Premium Rush shows some examples of Social and Political Stratification and Global Inequalities. (precisely why I chose it for this project, totally not because I wanted to watch this movie again)

lets look into that.

article 1: Social Stratification

short summary: social stratification is essentially putting things into groups or classes, socially

A while ago, some dude named Max Weber theorized that class, status, and power are the three components of stratification. This theory is called (surprise!) the Three-Component Theory. In Premium Rush, we can see that the antagonist, Robert Monday (Michael Shannon) uses his power as a police officer to be corrupt. Being that he willingly runs around in a suit (those things are expensive and you willingly choose to SWEAT IN THOSE?), it's safe to say that he would be in the middle class. People usually do what he says because he flaunts his police officer badge as a status symbol. He also uses his being a policeman to employ goons to do his bidding, showing his power in the NYPD.

article 1.5: Social Desirables

I wasn't really sure whether to make this its own article or not, so it's just 1.5 now

Social Desirables, or Social Desirability Bias, is where people do things in order to be desired by people. like when you say you liked a certain boyband just to be friends with a girl. Well, in the movie, there are very little instances of this, so I had to scour the movie for a modicum of social desirability bias. (not that I'm complaining, it's a good movie.)

article 2: social mobility

social mobility is when one person's social status shifts, for better or for worse, or for no positive or negative outcome at all. (it really depends)

In the beginnings of the movie, the protagonist, Wilee (Levitt) is at a relatively low point in his career. His jobs get stolen (he's a bike messenger, delivering stuff from people to other people.) by Manny (Wolé Parks), who has also stolen his girlfriend, Vanessa. He then gets a job to deliver an envelope to somewhere in chinatown. This starts the main storyline of the movie, and in true movie fashion, it only takes a day. He then gets chased around by Monday (Shannon), who needs that ticket to repay his debt to a gambling place. (did I mention the envelope has a ticket that ensures the passage of the son of Vanessa's Roommate, played by Jamie Chung? I'm sure I did.)

On the other side of the field, we have Robert Monday, who figuratively is pretty high on the social mobility ladder. He's a police officer, which sets him high on that ladder as someone who should be respected (or in this case, feared). At the end of the movie, Monday shifts from being figuratively up to literally down. dead. I mean he dies in the end. he gets shot. with a gun. in the ba-

article 2.5/1.5.2: class system

this should have been back in article 1, but this ties in to article 2, trust me.

a Class System is a kind of social stratification wherein a person either is born into a certain class, or gains that class due to circumstance. Now, since the movie is set in real life, the class system is based on Wealth, Power, and Prestige. We've already established that Monday is middle class, with all his suit-running antics and wasting of a perfectly good burrito.

Now, social mobility states that Wilee moves from being in a bad spot, to being essentially the hero of Nima (Chung)'s life, granting her son passage (albeit illegal, but it's in good spirit) to the US. This moves him from the working class, to....

... the working class. He doesn't really move into a different class, but why should he? He likes that job, and biking. He can't stop, nor does he want to.

As for the antagonist, Monday, he moves from middle class to...

...six feet under. he's dead.

article 3: globalization

this is where we actually discuss the plot of the movie

Globalization is the growing interdependence of the world's economies, cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information.

TL;DR: one world one people

This wasn't caused by the events of the movie, but globalization has brought literally everyone to the USA, mainly Chinese people. This is why Chinatown exists.

New York City is home to the largest and most prominent ethnic group of Chinese people outside of Asia. There are 628 thousand Chinese people in NYC alone. Even across the US, there are multiple Chinatowns, like the more known San Francisco Chinatown. Seeing the current state of China, (*cough cough social credit system cough cough*) I'd wager global interactions between countries like the US and China lack the globalization aspect of global interactions, but hopefully soon it'll get better.

article 3.5: global inequalities

The world is an unequal place. It means that not everybody has the same access to the same rights, opportunities, or quality of life.

The entire plot of the movie is driven by the fact that Nima (Chung) is being denied the ability to have her son sent over to the US on her student visa. In order to counter this act of inequality, Nima has to resort to illegal methods, case in point, having her son shipped via shuttle. The ticket that Wilee delivers ensures the passage of her son onto that shuttle. This ticket costs a great deal of money, which is why Monday needs it to settle his debt with multiple Chinese gambling areas. (they're not casinos, but I haven't the slightest on what to call them.)

At the end of the film, Wilee successfully delivers the ticket to Sister Cheng (played by Wai Ching Ho), and her son (and grandmother, presumably) is allowed onto the boat.

This plot brings into light the fact that America (and some other countries as well) are just outright denying and deporting immigrants back from whence they came, even if that place does not exist anymore (like homes, and stuff). Even if someone has the legal right to bring someone along, they might also just deny their rights. Due to this, people have to resort to illegal methods to bring the ones they love to them.

I cannot add anymore images, so I'm going to conclude this review.

Premium Rush is a lovely movie about dangerous biking at fast speeds, migrating to America, and wastefully throwing burritos on the ground. It's got a solid story, well-shot scenes, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (that dude is cool.) The social cues present in the film also brings light onto how some parts of the government are corrupt and will deny people of their rights, leading those people to pursue illegal methods. For a project made in less than a day, at may 15 2021, by a kid listening to drum & bass frantically trying to do all his group projects by himself because no one wants to choose him as a groupmate, its a good movie to talk about. This blog, this post, really shows to the world the fact that no matter what the subject matter is, people can find things that talk about a certain topic, even if the writers and directors did not mean it to be so.

Thanks for reading.

- Jan Anthony Genson.

#premium rush

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hunxi-guilai · 4 years

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Ok hi! 2 completely separate things. 1) You said in the Qu Yuan post China has a thing about doing stuff in 4s, I thought 四/4 was bad luck in Chinese? 2) Do you got anything on f/f relationship in ancient China? Thanks!

hope you don’t mind if I lump your asks together because both of you asked similar questions!

so 1) yeah, China is obsessed with doing things in fours (Four Great Beauties, Four Great Novels, Four Big Holidays, the entire business with four-character idioms/chengyu etc. etc). And four is also mega bad luck in Chinese (the character for four 四 si is homophonous with 死 si death). Do I have any idea why? Absolutely not. Is it still a thing? Yep. Does it baffle me to no end? You bet Jin Guangyao’s hat it does.

2) I am, to my chagrin, much less well-read about f/f relationships in ancient China (not that I’m super well-read on m/m relationships in ancient China to begin with). @treestar (I hope you don’t mind me tagging you!) also contacted me a few weeks ago with a similar question, which is actually how I first heard of the Golden Orchid ladies 金兰会. If you’re interested in more, check out this article/a good Google search will actually get you pretty far.

Most of my knowledge about queerness in pre-modern China comes from reading chapters here and there out of Brett Hinsch’s Passions of the Cut Sleeve: the Male Homosexual Tradition in China. He specifically notes in the introduction that “[b]ecause Chinese literature was almost always written by men for men, very little documentation survives on lesbian life.” He includes an appendix with what he could find, but there isn’t a ton, unfortunately. Rest assured that there are plenty f/f relationships in ancient China, just… not so much documentation. Alas, this is what you get in a literary tradition dominated by men.

Off the top of my head, one of my favorite stories out of Pu Songling’s 聊斋志异 Liaozhaizhiyi, which is a collection of supernatural/weird short stories from late imperial China, has one where a scholar is seduced simultaneously by a ghost girl and a fox-spirit, and they all settle down and live in a happy three-way relationship. After a while the scholar dies, and ghost girl and fox lady still continue to live on in domestic bliss. We love to see it.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: I forgot to include a link to this page which I found while trying to answer this ask, which looks at queer relationships in premodern China with the texts they’re taken from side-by-side! It looks super cool, I’ve bookmarked it to peruse at further leisure.

#ask and ye shall receive #I'm lowkey alarmed that people are taking me as an authority on premodern Chinese history #because there's 3000 years of it and wasn't my focus of study #but like #lowkey not highkey

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mcwriting · 4 years

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starstruck (5)

It’s finally here!!! I’m so sorry this took literally 5ever but it’s here now! Ch 6 is also written but I don’t plan on releasing it until 7 is done. In the meantime, I’ll be releasing some other things I’ve had in the works for a while so be on the lookout for those ;)

Thanks to all who’ve followed me and been reading! I love you!

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9

Fandom: Tommy Holland

Ship: Tom Holland x Reader

Setting: LA in general

Word Count: 2013

Warnings: a little bit of language; general sad time emotions

Rating: K+ still i guess

__________________________________

You had run up the stairs upon entering your house, yelling out a quick “hey I’m home” to your parents to keep from rising suspicion.

You tossed your bag onto your desk chair and went and sat on the big bean bag in the corner of your room, curling up into it under a blanket.

It was nearing 4 o’clock and you knew that the beans would be spilled any moment now.

You were absolutely nauseous.

You refreshed Instagram over and over until a notification came up at the top of your feed.

Tomholland2013 started a live video. Watch it before it ends!

Tears slipped down your cheeks again and you clicked on it, turning up the volume as the obviously anguished face of your worst nightmare appeared on the screen. The way his eyes puffed unnaturally led you to believe he, too, had been crying.

He waited a few seconds for people to join and weakly smiled. It broke your heart to see him in this state, but it pained you even more to know how it had come to this.

“Hey, everyone,” he began quietly, waving to the camera. You recognized the background photos from his hotel room and continued to weep harder.

Comments were rolling in, concerned fans asking Tom if he was okay and what was going on. Even some of his celebrity friends appeared to be confused in the comments.

“I wanted to address some rumors going on about me and the mystery girl. That girl is y/n y/l/n. We met by accident at the premiere last week and snapped a photo together as I’m sure you’ve all seen. Fast forward to only a few days ago, when I helped take her to the hospital.”

He paused. Comments were getting more frequent as the live stream continued, more people joining by the second.

Your breath was caught in your throat and chest was heavy and tight.

Am I having a panic attack? you thought before Tom continued.

“I took y/n to the hospital because she injured her head and I happened to be at the right place at the right time. That’s all that happened. We have only met those two times and I am happy that I was there when she needed help.”

You help back sobs at this point, not wanting to alarm your parents but unable to suppress the emotions you felt about his lying.

“Every other theory or suspicion is false. Those photos were of me driving her to the doctor. Y/n and I have had no contact since the incident, so please don’t bother her any further. I just wanted to come on and say y/n, I hope you’re feeling better and doing well, and to let all of you fans know the truth.”

He looked away from the camera when he said “truth,” and you were angered more.

This wasn’t the truth. This wasn’t okay. This wasn’t the Tom you’d come to know and even consider a friend.

“Finally, thank you all for the support on the movie and I love seeing your reactions. I will resume doing press this weekend when I head to South Korea and then China next week. I’m glad I could share this film with you and once again, I hope you’re feeling better y/n and that we could possibly meet again when you are okay. Thank you all.”

He gave a final wave and slight grin before ending the stream, struggling to tap the button multiple times and swearing a bit as he finally did it.

You wanted to throw your phone across the room and smash it to pieces and simultaneously lock yourself in the closet and never leave. Another part of you yearned to scream the truth over the rooftops and tell the world how horrible Tom was for this.

Now I know why I never liked him you imagined again.

You finally worked up the courage to send one message to b/f/n.

I’m sorry.

You hit send and seconds later another text came through from someone else.

I’m so sorry. It’s done.

Who from?

Clara twinkletoes, of course.

You tossed your phone away from you on the carpet and snuggled further into the bean bag, trying to muffle the sounds of sobs with your blanket.

__________________________________

Your parents called you down for dinner, but food wasn’t on your mind in the slightest.

You probably looked like you’d been hit by a truck as you made your way down the stairs, and your mom and dad noticed immediately.

“Oh my gosh, baby. What happened?” your mother fawned, rushing to you and placing her hands softly on your cheeks.

“Tom Holland,” you mumbled, defeated.

“Is that some boy I need to put in his place?” your dad asked sincerely, brows furrowed.

You shook your head slightly and pulled away from your mother.

“I thought that was the actor boy b/f/n likes but you don’t. Didn’t she go meet him last week?” she inquired.

“Look up his name online, I’m sure you’ll find the fabricated story somewhere.”

You apathetically began building your plate, scooping some lasagna out and grabbing a small bit of salad as your parents scanned the TMZ article that had been published with the help of an “anonymous source.”

“The source says y/l/n has shown previous disdain for the ‘Spider-Man’ star, but is grateful for the help he extended in her dire situation. Her social media is booming as both fans and haters flock to ask about her encounter, but no word has been published by her yet. It’s only a matter of time before the California native makes a statement. Most are calling her lucky, and we don’t blame her,” your mom read aloud.

You thought you had no tears left to cry before, but more slipped down your cheek as you slid into a chair at the dining table.

“What is this?” your mom asked as she and your dad looked up from the article to you.

You started explaining everything over your dinner halfheartedly, trying not to let your emotions continue to get the best of you.

They reacted with both concern and surprise as you told the story from beginning to present, choosing not to leave out the part where Tom had secretly been in the house a few nights previous.

The lie was over, and the only way to move forward was with the truth, no matter how your parents would react.

Upon finishing the tale, you looked up from your barely eaten meal to find both parents eyeing you sympathetically.

“That’s it. That’s everything. Punish me how you see fit. Nothing could be worse than what I’ve already been through today.”

“Honey, we aren’t going to punish you. You’re an adult and you made some decisions that you can’t un-make. The consequences have already presented themselves. What matters now is how you move on from this,” your mom began.

“And we’ll be behind you every step of the way,” your dad finished.

You couldn’t help but smile and stood to hug them, welcoming their warm embraces. While cherishing the moment, you still couldn’t help but fear for b/f/n’s reaction.

“We may have to talk about you being able to sneak a boy into the house under our noses, though,” your father joked as you leaned into their arms.

__________________________________

You readied for bed after spending a few hours curled into the couch watching evening programming.

You hadn’t looked at your phone once since receiving that text from Tom and dreaded looking at it, but decided to do so anyways.

You saw that there was a message from b/f/n but decided to ignore it for now.

Snapchat was filled with snaps from friends and acquaintances who had learned of the incident already.

Leaving them on read was the only feasible option right now.

A quick scan of Instagram and Twitter shot your anxiety through the roof and you refused to make any posts just yet.

The world would just have to wait for your mental health to improve.

Eventually you worked up the nerve to open the text from b/f/n, ignoring all others from family and other close friends.

This isn’t you, it began.

You have a lot of explaining to do if you expect me to understand or forgive you, but I’m not writing you off just yet

Let me know when you’re ready to talk.

You honestly couldn’t believe it.

Sure, you two had been friends for years and been through thick and thin, but you also knew how she could react in anger and be unforgiving for a long time.

It took about 20 minutes of you staring at her texts and pacing the room to think up a reply, and your words still would never make up for all of it.

I really don’t know if I am ready to share, but I swear on my life that you’ll be the first to hear from me when I am. I’ll be in touch soon. Thank you, I love you.

With that, you placed the phone on the charger on do not disturb and you crawled onto the bed.

A certain scent hit you like a truck upon laying down.

You inhaled sharply and tensed.

That damned cologne was still there.

Sleeping like this was not an option, so immediately you got back up, headed out the door, and made your way to the guest room.

That would have to work tonight, and tomorrow you would have to decide between washing or burning your bedsheets.

Those thoughts didn’t make it too far, though, because almost immediately after your head hit the pillow, you were out like a light.

__________________________________

You couldn’t do anything.

All day you had stayed in, afraid to be seen in public and even worse, be confronted about this. You couldn’t even make yourself go to dance in avoidance of your classmates.

Instead, you spent the day managing your anger and sadness through working out for almost two hours and eventually breaking down on the floor of your makeshift home gym.

Your mom had taken off from work to keep watch of you and came in upon hearing you. She sat down on the floor and embraced you, ignoring the sweat covering your body and clothes.

After finally managing to get up, you headed back upstairs and hopped into a long hot bath. Maybe that would cleanse you of all of this.

It didn’t.

Later, you stripped your bed of the sheets and tossed them in the wash, dumping a scoop and a half of laundry detergent in for good measure. You also misted the bare mattress and pillows with linen spray just in case.

You wouldn’t let anything remind you of him.

The day went by too slowly as isolation set in. You couldn’t check social media because your feed was overloaded with inquiries, and you couldn’t talk to your friends because they were just as bad as the fans and haters.

You were now sitting watching youtube videos while your mom watched tv. You weren’t paying attention until you heard the volume go up.

Upon looking up at the screen, you saw that she was watching Entertainment Tonight and they were running a story on you.

It felt like your stomach had dropped to the floor when your name was said by one of the journalists. Even though you knew that what they’d say was false, you couldn’t look away.

They basically recapped everything Tom and the TMZ article had said, but also mentioned that you had been talked about on other talk shows and gossip sites all night and day.

Your mom gave you a sympathetic look, but you chose to ignore it all, rolling your eyes and continuing to try to figure out how to move on.

Eventually you would have to leave the house and talk about it all, but today was necessary for self care and reflection.

__________________________________

That’s it for this one! It’s realllllll dramatic but oh well haha. Thanks for reading and sorry it took so long to put out!

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