#they all nearly cried more than once in this dang movie

[fluffy-flightz]

"Lloyd is such a sad little wet cat in the movie!!"

Duh, where do you think he got it from?

#his whole family is made up of sad wet cats #they all nearly cried more than once in this dang movie #garmadon ACTUALLY DID cry like twice #ninjago #the lego ninjago movie #tlnm #ninjago movie #sillyposting #lloyd garmadon #lord garmadon #koko garmadon

[maybeimamuppet]

you happened

hey darlings!! happy wednesday!!!

let’s get right into it shall we?

tw for

discussion of canon events in mg (outing, etc)

discussion of canon events in the prom (homophobia, etc.)

this was requested by @spidy-nugget like forever ago so thank you for your patience and i hope you enjoy!

—

“Oh!” Cady says, interrupting herself in the middle of a sentence. “I just remembered! My cousin is coming to visit next week, do you guys want to meet her?”

“Emma?” Damian asks excitedly. Cady nods. “Yes! Is she bringing the-her… Broadway friends?”

“I dunno, she didn’t tell me,” Cady giggles. “But probably, she said they usually visit her at some point every summer.”

“I should probably be there to stop him from combusting if they do come,” Janis huffs. “But also, yes, I want to meet her too.”

“She’s an absolute icon,” Damian says happily. “God, her song. Still makes me cry.”

“You cried watching Finding Dory yesterday,” Janis retaliates.

“It’s a sad movie! Sometimes!” Damian defends. “Anyway, tell me all about Emma.”

“Okay,” Cady giggles again. “She’s a year older than us, and she’s my cousin on my mom’s side. Um… you know her whole… prom fiasco. I’ve only met her in person once when I was ten, for Rhys’ funeral. But we were pen pals when we were really little. And now we just text and stuff.”

“Cute,” Damian says. “And is her girlfriend coming?”

“Oh! Yeah,” Cady says around a mouthful of Janis’ milkshake. “Her name is Alyssa, she’s, like, super smart. Did every possible activity in high school, that kind of thing. But she’s been with Emma when we’ve Facetimed and stuff before and she’s super sweet.”

“Aww,” Damian coos. “I can’t wait!”

————-

Luckily for him, Damian doesn’t have to wait too long. Emma and Alyssa arrive the following week in Emma’s pickup. Damian has been pressed against the window all day, like a small child watching for the ice cream truck. He gasps dramatically when four people in matching sequined tracksuits also hop out of the backseat, grumbling about being cramped together for such a long trip.

Cady opens the door to let everyone in, and is quickly swamped by a crowd of people much taller than her. Janis pops up on her tippy toes to try and find her girlfriend to save her, but doesn’t succeed.

Everyone heads into the living room, and Janis laughs when she finds Cady being carried in like a sack of potatoes by one of the men that came with Emma.

“Emma, why didn’t you tell me your cousin was so adorable?” He demands. “Look at this, she’s so small.”

“Please put me down,” Cady squeaks. Janis heads over and reaches for her.

“Can I have my girlfriend back, please?”

“And she’s gay!” The man says happily, passing Cady over like she’s a small dog. Janis holds her close and smoothes her hair back to where it was.

“Bi, actually,” Cady grumbles.

“Well, aren’t you something. Oh, my name is Barry, by the way. As if you haven’t heard of me.”

“Barry, we talked about this,” Emma chides. “They haven’t. Except Damian.”

“And where is this Damian? I want to meet him,” one of the ladies says. “Oh, and my name is Dee Dee.”

Damian enters shyly and gives a little wave. Janis cackles, “Dude, you’re totally starstruck, look at you!”

“Uh-hi,” he stutters. “I’m Damian.”

“Aww!” The other lady says. “Look at your little cheeks, what a sweetheart! I’m Angie.”

Damian blushes violently as he’s cooed over by Angie. Barry hauls her off to get a good look at him.

“I like this,” he says. “It’s like a mini me.”

“Just don’t break him,” Emma pleads. “Damian, can I trust you to babysit for a while?”

That prompts a, ‘Hey!’ from all four adults, and an eager nod from Damian. “I can show them around town.”

“This is not a town, darling,” Dee Dee says gently. “But what is there to see?”

“We have… uh-“

“There’s an IHOP!” Cady chirps. “And the mall. That’s kind of it until you get to Chicago. Or the lake.”

“This is the most precious soul,” Barry says happily.

“Dame, we did it. I never thought I’d see the day we found someone gayer than you,” Janis laughs.

“Oh, I like this one too,” Barry says. “Funky little lesbian. She dresses like Emma but goth.”

“I do love the hair,” Emma agrees. “I’m dressed more like Cady today though.”

They both look down at their almost-matching flannels and jean shorts, then back at each other with a nod.

“Same boots though,” Janis cheers, lifting a foot. Emma laughs and nudges it with one of her own doc martens. “Nice.”

“Precious,” Angie says. “Okay, we’ll leave you gals alone now. Damian, show us the sights.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Damian says, leading the adults to the door.

“Yes, show us to the… hopping eyes,” Dee Dee says, sounding both bored and intrigued at the same time. Damian waves goodbye to Janis excitedly and closes the door after him.

“Well,” Emma chuckles. “Oh, I hope he’ll be okay.”

“I think he’ll be fine,” Alyssa soothes. “He’s in good company, and he’s a theatre kid, he gets their… vibes.”

“Theatre kid is an understatement for that boy,” Janis tuts affectionately.

“True,” Cady giggles. “Anyway, we can hang out in my room, if you want?”

Emma and Alyssa nod, so Cady leads everyone up to her bedroom. Janis flops onto the bed and Cady crawls in behind her, lifting her head onto her lap. Alyssa and Emma look around curiously for a second before joining them.

“Who did these?” Alyssa asks, pointing to the paintings and collages adorning the walls. “They’re incredible, especially this one. It looks just like you guys!”

Janis flushes as she points to the one she won her art contest with, of she and Damian and Cady all together. “I did.”

“Dang,” Emma breathes. “You have some serious talent, Janis.”

“Thanks,” Janis squeaks.

“No, seriously! Do you have stuff here?” Emma insists.

“A few things, yeah,” Janis says confusedly, raising an eyebrow. “Why?”

Emma lifts her guitar case onto the bed and flicks the latches open, pulling out her famous instrument. It’s covered in stickers and little doodles, much like Janis’ jackets.

“Will you do something on this for me?”

Janis’ eyes go wide. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, of course!” Emma chuckles. “There’s room down here if you want it visible, or on the back.”

Janis carefully takes the instrument and assesses the material, trying to put an idea together in her mind. She runs to Cady’s desk when one comes to her, where she keeps a supply of basic colors and brushes in case of emergency. Cady doesn’t mind keeping them, they remind her of her girlfriend.

Cady grins affectionately as Emma and Alyssa cuddle in together. “How did you two meet?”

Her cousin turns to smile at her girlfriend. “I kind of always knew of her from school and stuff, but we didn’t really get close until sophomore year.”

Alyssa nods in agreement. “My mom wanted me to be more creative and have another skill or whatever, so she signed me up for guitar classes. Just so happens she was my teacher.”

“You really sucked,” Emma teases. Alyssa scoffs, aghast, and shoves her so hard she nearly falls off the bed. “Ack! Hey, I was kidding!”

“I know,” Alyssa giggles. “I did suck, I’ve never been much good at artsy stuff.”

“I was never good at art either,” Cady chuckles at their antics. “Jay’s tried to teach me to paint a couple times and it hasn’t gone too well.”

She peeks around the other couple to where her own girlfriend is sitting cross-legged on the ground, tongue poked out to the side as she carefully brushes a stroke of paint onto Emma’s guitar. Janis looks up when she feels her gaze, and grins happily when she sees Cady.

“You have the right instincts, I keep telling you,” she says. “You just get cranky too fast and then start attacking me with it.”

Everyone else bursts out laughing. Emma says, “I don’t blame her, I hated art class. What were we talking about?”

“How we met, dummy,” Alyssa huffs, kissing behind Emma’s ear.

“Oh yeah! So, we started off with actual lessons, but then we started getting to know each other more,” Emma explains. “And then I came out and got kicked out, which… a lot of people heard about, so Lyss figured I was a safe person to tell that she was questioning.”

Cady nods, listening intently to the story.

“I came out to her that summer,” Alyssa says. “And she said she’d had a crush on me all along, and asked me out. So we went on a walk and then got coffee and the rest is history.”

“We forgot to mention the serious gay panic I had during our first lesson,” Emma chuckles. “But that’s the gist of it.”

“How cute,” Cady coos.

“What about you two, how long have you been together?” Alyssa asks kindly, flicking Emma’s ear gently as she aggressively plops down onto her lap.

“Four months,” Janis pipes up immediately.

“Man, you crushed on her for that long without saying anything, Cades?” Emma says, impressed. Janis pops her head up and listens in.

“Oh?”

“She never shut up about you for, like, almost a year,” Emma laughs. Cady flushes scarlet and looks down at her lap with a flustered squeak. “I’m assuming it was you, she never gave a name. But it was always a tall, hot artist with cool hair and nice muscles. And I think she mentioned your butt a few times, she thinks that’s cute.”

Janis cackles as Cady flops facedown onto her bed and groans into a pillow. “How cute, I didn’t know that. But I shouldn’t laugh, I definitely wasn’t any better.”

“How did you get together?” Alyssa asks, patting Cady’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Janis snorts from the ground and Cady gives another groan into her pillow. “What?”

“You tell them,” Cady grumbles, poking her face out just long enough that it’s not muffled.

“Baby, it’s cute,” Janis coos.

“No it’s not!”

“Okay, fine, I’ll tell it in a way that makes me look just as dorky,” Janis compromises. “Caddy came to my school in September from Kenya, and she had these adorable little cargo shorts and socks with sandals on, and-“

“Hold on, what?” Alyssa insists. “Kenya?”

“Cady grew up there, her parents are zoologists,” Emma explains.

“How many conversations have we had with her? And you never thought to tell me she’s from Africa?”

“It never came up! We both had a lot going on the first year and then we just didn’t bring it up,” Emma defends. “And now you know.”

“Sorry,” Alyssa says. “Keep going.”

“It’s all good,” Janis chuckles. “Anyway, I fell for her so bad the first day that I dragged Damian into the bathroom at lunch and made him let her join our group.”

Cady pops her head up and looks to her girlfriend. “You did?”

“Yeah, duh,” Janis says. “We’re not known for socializing with the new kids, I just thought you were cute.”

Cady blushes again, but doesn’t return to her pillow. “Keep going.”

Janis chuckles and continues telling the story as she finishes her small painting on Emma’s guitar. “So we became friends that day, and then had… an ordeal, through the rest of junior year and didn’t really reconnect until spring.”

Cady’s told Emma and Alyssa the whole story, so they both nod at Janis’ quick explanation.

“We got really close over the summer, and apparently we were both crushing on each other. But we didn’t notice, somehow. And then I sorta snapped on her birthday this year and decided to fess up, so I made that,” Janis points to the black and white collage hanging next to one of her paintings on the wall. “But before I could give it to her, this little firecracker got wasted and started crying in my lap about how much she loved me.”

“I wasn’t that drunk!” Cady huffs.

“I found you lying on the ground singing yourself to sleep,” Janis giggles. “And you didn’t recognize me, clearly. Just climbed into my lap and spilled your guts. I was lucky it wasn’t literal.”

“Janis Sarkisian,” Cady grumbles. “Behave.”

“Fine, fine,” Janis chuckles. “Anyway, once she sobered up a little bit we had a chat and realized we both had feelings for each other, so we started dating. And now we’re here.”

“That did not make you sound anywhere near as dorky as me,” Cady huffs. “But yeah, that’s… that’s it.”

Emma snorts once the story is done. “That does sound like Cady. But if that’s what it took, then I guess it was worth it.”

Cady turns to look at Janis again. “It was. But you guys went through a lot more than us, that must have been tough on both of you.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Emma chuckles, trying to sneak a peek at Janis’ work. The angle isn’t quite right, so she gives up before she falls off her girlfriend. “You guys went through a lot. But yeah, it was really tough. I’m so lucky.”

“I’m the lucky one,” Alyssa murmurs back. “You guys know the story?”

“I do,” Cady says. “I think Jay and Damian just know the bare bones. It’s your story to tell, I didn’t want to give too many details away.”

Alyssa gives her a grateful smile, and Cady grins back. “Do you want to hear it?”

“Of course,” Janis pipes up. “I finished, by the way. Um, here.”

“Hey, you stole my idea!” Cady jokingly whines when she sees what Janis has done.

“But it’s so perfect!” Janis defends. Emma takes her guitar to see, and smiles at the new lion with a rainbow mane in the spot they’d picked. “And it’s kind of for both of us.”

“This is awesome,” Emma says. “Oh! I get it, it’s a pride thing! Pride of lions, and then… oh. Clever!”

“It was actually Caddy’s idea, she made me a rock with it at pride last week,” Janis says. “I thought it fit.”

“It does, you’re really talented!” Alyssa says, leaning over her girlfriend’s shoulder to see it. Janis’ text tone goes off, so she pulls her phone out of the pocket of her shorts to check it. Cady peeks over to see what it is too as Janis bursts out laughing. It’s a picture of Damian surrounded by his new friends, now in a matching tracksuit all of his own.

jamian: Sent a picture: JAN LOOKIT

danis: nice outfit

jamian: Thank u it really suits me doesnt it

danis: honestly

danis: yeah kinda

jamian: Sent a picture: Thank u

jamian: Anyway we’re going to ihop next yall should meet us there

danis: kk love u

jamian: Love u too

“I think your little crew adopted Damian,” Janis chuckles at Emma and Alyssa, showing them the photo of a very excited Damian.

“Aww,” Emma chuckles. “I’m glad they didn’t kill him, they can be a lot to handle.”

“He seems fine,” Janis shrugs. “Whose truck are we taking?”

“Oh, is that one in the driveway yours?” Emma says excitedly. Janis nods. “It’s nice!”

“We’ve been in Em’s all day,” Alyssa chuckles. “Probably best to take yours.”

“I call shotgun!” Cady yells, already tugging on her shoes and running downstairs.

“As if I’d let anyone else,” Janis mumbles affectionately under her breath.

————-

The waitstaff at IHOP look more than a little frightened at the size of their group, and especially at the crew in tracksuits.

“Ey, yo!” One of them calls. “Guys, come here! It’s that guy from the thing! That show!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Trent grumbles under his breath. “Why is it always that? I played Hamlet!”

They’re quickly escorted to a large table near the back, and Trent signs a few menus as a little gift to the now very excited waiters.

“Was Juilliard worth it?” He mutters to himself. Angie, who’s sat next to him, nudges him with an elbow to shut him up.

Janis and Emma both order for their girlfriends, and also order themselves the same meal of chicken and waffles. Dee Dee gets french toast, Angie gets an omelet, Trent gets some crepes, and Barry gets the most horrifically sweet looking pancakes anyone’s ever seen. Apparently they’re cupcake flavored.

Alyssa looks very content with her large Belgian waffle, and Cady seems delighted with her chocolate chip pancakes decorated with whipped cream to look like a face. It’s definitely from the children’s menu, but nobody says anything.

“So tell us about you guys,” Dee Dee says once their food gets delivered. She looks eagerly to her friends, as if to say, ‘Look how nice I can be when I want to.’ Barry claps quietly for her.

“What do you want to know?” Damian asks. Dee Dee puts her head in her hands, clearly not knowing how to continue. Trent takes over for her.

“How do you guys know each other?”

“Oh!” Damian says excitedly. “Janis and I have been friends, like, forever. We met in tap dance class when we were three.”

“And you knocked my fucking teeth out in that class when we were five,” Janis grumbles.

“By accident!” Damian defends amidst the giggles of their whole group. “I got really into it. Anyway, so we’ve been friends forever. And then little Caddy happened along in junior year, and we kind of kidnapped her for a while.”

“No, I needed to be kidnapped,” Cady laughs. “I was a total wreck. They actually sort of rescued me from the school bathroom at lunch.”

“You were eating in the bathroom?” Barry asks, sounding both empathetic and disgusted. “Oh, you poor sweet thing.”

“I was the new kid, y’know?” Cady shrugs. “Nobody wanted to eat with the dork from Africa.”

Angie chokes on a bite of her food, and Trent thumps her on the back. “From what now?”

“I’m from Kenya,” Cady giggles. “Well, technically I was born in Oregon. But I lived in Kenya for thirteen years.”

“Just, like, in the wilderness?” Barry asks in shock. “With the lions and tigers and… bears and stuff?”

Cady laughs out loud. “Pretty much. But there’s no tigers or bears.”

“But there were lions?” Trent insists.

“Oh, yeah,” Cady says like it’s entirely normal. “That’s mostly what we were studying. They were kind of my only friends.”

“And they never showed any interest in… consuming you?” Dee Dee asks worriedly. Cady laughs again.

“Lions are just big cats, you know, guys? As long as you’re careful and respect their boundaries they won’t hurt you,” she chuckles. “I got swiped at a few times when I was little, but I never needed more than fifteen stitches.”

“Fifteen?” Angie yelps.

“That is kind of a lot, Cades,” Emma chuckles. “I never had to get more than three as a kid.”

“Oh. Well, I was kind of asking for it, I was playing too rough,” Cady hums.

“With a lion,” Alyssa insists. “Do you have pictures?” Cady nods and passes over her phone for them to scroll through her camera roll.

“Anyway, please keep going,” Angie says, leaning across the table to try to see.

“That’s basically it,” Janis shrugs. “Until you get into the whole mess that happened junior year.”

Cady and Damian nod in agreement. The adults all look very excited at the prospect of some new drama. “Do tell.”

The art freaks all look to one another warily, wondering who should begin. Cady decides to after a second of back and forth.

“Well, um… I sat with these two on my first day,” she begins. “But then just before lunch ended I met these three girls. We called them the Plastics.”

“Why?” Angie asks curiously. Damian shows them all a photo. “Oh. I already don’t like this one.” Janis snorts quietly as she points to Regina.

“Anyway, they said I should sit with them, and Janis and Damian wanted me to so I could spy on them,” Cady says sheepishly. “They have some… personal history.”

“Oh?” Trent asks. Cady looks to Janis, this bit is her story to tell.

“Regina, the one in the middle, outed me in eighth grade,” Janis says. “Carved slurs into my locker, that kinda thing.”

“Oh, honey,” Barry says sadly. “That bitch.”

Janis chuckles weakly. “Yeah. The other two just kind of went along with it. They were just generally bitchy to everyone. But I didn’t have many friends because of her, and I went through a lot of counseling and stuff because of it. Spent some time in the hospital for… reasons, but that’s not… something we need to discuss right now.”

Everyone nods, respecting her privacy. Cady continues telling the story. “So, I pretended to join them and would kind of report back to Janis and Damian. I learned that they had this book, called the Burn Book, where they would write mean things about people from the yearbook and stuff. And at the same time I was crushing for a long time on this boy named Aaron, but he was Regina’s ex. She had dumped him earlier for another guy. And she was actually cheating on him with the other one.”

“Oh, can I tell this bit?” Janis asks. Cady nods and gestures for her to keep going. “So, around Halloween, Cady went to Aaron’s party, and I don’t know exactly what happened, but he basically got back together with Regina.”

“What kind of idiot-“ Trent begins, getting cut off by a stomp on the foot from Dee Dee.

“So poor Caddy came to my house,” Janis says, trying to keep down giggles at the memory. “Fucking slams my basement door open, but Dame and I were watching horror movies. Caddy was dressed as some corpse bride with a knife in her back and everything, and Damian screamed so loud, like, higher than I’ve ever heard. But she was crying, so we helped her and then came up with a revenge plot.”

Dee Dee suddenly looks very interested, leaning forwards slightly and resting her head on her folded hands.

“Caddy had these snack bars from Kenya, they’re… Swedish, I think?” Damian says. Cady nods. “They make you gain weight, like, really quickly. Regina was kind of obsessed with her weight and image and stuff, so we got Caddy to tell her they were actually a diet bar to help lose weight.”

“No,” Angie gasps. Everyone laughs at her reaction.

“Yeah,” Cady laughs. “I don’t think anything major happened until around Christmas. The Plastics did this dance every year at the winter talent show, and we had to wear these skimpy little Santa outfits. But Regina had already gained a fair bit of weight, so her skirt didn’t fit…”

“It fell off in the middle of the routine in front of everyone,” Janis cackles. Emma and Alyssa both look slightly scared of her. “Sorry. Personal vindication. But yeah, that was kind of the beginning of the end for her. Cady kind of… got lost in it, by that point. It was hard to tell if she was pretending or not.”

Cady looks down at her lap in shame, so Janis takes her hand under the table and kisses the side of her head a few times to comfort her. Damian keeps going with the story.

“So, Caddy basically overthrew Regina as Queen Bee of the school. She threw a little party and didn’t invite us or Regina, so she kind of was attacking both fronts. We got pretty mad and stopped associating with her, and Regina was obviously furious,” he says. “And so as revenge for that, Regina photocopied the Burn Book and spread all the pages around the school. I saw, like, seven fights before first period even started that day.”

“But didn’t they know that she had written it?” Trent asks.

“That’s the thing, she put herself in it,” Janis adds, now holding Cady on her lap. “So nobody suspected her. She went to the principal and blamed Gretchen and Karen, they’re the other two, and Cady.”

“I don’t like this story,” Barry whines. “Tell me something good happens.”

“Oh, just wait,” Janis chuckles darkly. “There was an assembly called that day, and they tried to make us apologize to each other and do trust exercises or something like that. I kind of went rogue and only apologized to myself and rallied the rest of the girls in our grade.”

“Go Janis,” Angie says, sounding impressed. “Stick it to the man.”

“Thanks,” Janis laughs. “But it only lasted a few minutes.”

“Damn it,” Barry groans. “What happened?”

“Regina got hit by a bus,” Cady says. Angie spits her mouthful of lemonade over Trent.

“She what?”

“Yeah,” Cady laughs. “So, that time kind of sucked for both of us. She was in the hospital recovering, and everyone was saying that I pushed her in front of it or that she jumped in front of it on purpose because of me.”

“She didn’t die?” Dee Dee clarifies. Everyone is more than a little concerned at the disappointment in her voice.

“No,” Cady chuckles. “Well, she died for, like, fifteen seconds, but she was resuscitated and she’s fine now.”

“And did you push her?” Barry asks. “We’re all friends here, you can tell us.”

“No!” Cady huffs. “I may have been a raging bitch, but I’m not an attempted murderer.”

“You didn’t feed anyone to a lion back in Kenya?” Janis teases gently.

“I’ll do it to you if you’re not careful,” Cady retaliates with a laugh. “Where did we leave off?”

“Regina got hit by a bus and you didn’t push her,” Trent says helpfully, still dabbing some lemonade out of his sweater with a wad of napkins.

“Oh,” Damian says. “Okay, so, I don’t… totally remember what happened in between that and Spring Fling, but it’s really not important.”

“I was suspended for the Book, that’s kind of it,” Cady says, gesturing for him to continue.

“Oh, yeah! Anyway, Spring Fling at our school is basically prom but for underclassmen, prom is just for the seniors. Jan and I were each other’s dates, she decorated our outfits and stuff, we looked killer if I do say so myself.”

Janis rolls her eyes lovingly and whacks him with an elbow.

“And Caddy was banned, so she wasn’t supposed to be there, but she showed up towards the end with the Mathletes,” Damian continues. “And she had been nominated for queen, and she won. So she went up on stage and gave the most beautiful speech I’ve ever heard and broke her crown, and we all got a piece. So now we’re all friends and life is good.”

“Nice ending, Dame,” Janis laughs. “Hasty conclusions. But that it is basically how it happened.”

Everyone blinks at them. Trent says, “That was like being in a war zone. Just one bombshell after another.”

“It kinda was, our math teacher got stabbed in the leg at one point,” Cady hums. “Anyway, what’s your guys’ story? If you want to share.”

“Oh, yeah, I’d like to know more,” Damian says. “Jan and I really only know the bare bones. What was in the news, and stuff.”

“You guys can start,” Emma says, pulling a face as Alyssa gently dabs some syrup off her lip. Alyssa giggles when Emma tries to bite her hand and kisses Emma’s cheek.

“Ooh, okay!” Barry says eagerly. “We were in a show. Well, Dee Dee and I. We were in a delightful little show called Eleanor.”

“As in…” Janis says confusedly.

“Eleanor Roosevelt,” Dee Dee explains. She seems surprised when the kids all nod in understanding. “You’ve heard of her?”

“Yeah?” Cady says, tilting her head. “She’s one of the most famous first ladies of all time, we learned about her in our history class.”

“Not nearly enough,” Janis grumbles. “Gotta make time for the men.”

“Amen sister,” Angie huffs.

“Really…” Dee Dee hums interestedly. “Anyway, it was… not a success. Poor advance sales, and then…”

“We bombed opening night,” Barry grumbles. “Apparently. But it wasn’t the show, it was… it was us. The media panned us as aging narcissists and we had to close.”

“On opening night?” Damian gasps in horror. Dee Dee and Barry both nod sadly.

“Regretfully, yes. So, we had to try to change the narrative,” Dee Dee says. “We decided to find a good cause and do something. So we were going to build houses for Habitat for Humanity.”

“But Barry has a bad back,” Trent pipes up. “So then we thought about, like, recycling or fixing poverty or world hunger.”

“But that was all too much for us to handle,” Angie says. “So I went on Twitter and found-”

“Me!” Emma says. “Apparently that all happened on the same night as the first assembly where the PTA cancelled prom in the first place. I guess we were trending.”

“And they only cancelled it because you two wanted to go together?” Janis asks sadly.

“Yep. Well, nobody knew about Alyssa, but they cancelled it because they knew I wanted to bring my girlfriend,” Emma explains.

“Those bitches,” Janis grumbles. “Sorry.”

“Believe me, we get it,” Emma laughs. “But my bit of the story isn’t quite here yet.”

“Oh, yes!” Dee Dee realizes. “So, we decided to help Emma, but we were completely out of funds and had no way to get all the way to Indiana from New York.”

“But I had just booked a non-equity tour of Godspell,” Trent half-brags. The other half seems rather depressed at that statement. “So we came on the tour bus.”

“Can I start our part?” Alyssa asks. Emma nods and squeezes her hand under the table. “So, they obviously gave no indication that they were coming. Emma and Principal Hawkins had gone to the State’s Attorney by that point and put some legal pressure on the PTA, so we had another assembly to discuss options.”

“We?” Damian asks.

“Oh, my mom was the head of the PTA,” Alyssa says casually. Damian chokes on his drink and Janis nearly drops Cady on the ground.

“Your mom cancelled your prom?” Janis asks in shock. Alyssa nods sadly. “Oh, because you… she didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“It was what it was. She knows now,” Alyssa hums. “Anyway, I was there to speak for student council. I was mid-sentence, and then they come barreling into the gym with signs and yelling at everyone.”

“Educating everyone,” Barry corrects. “Loudly and with signs.”

“Right, educating. Sorry,” Alyssa laughs. “So my mom totally loses her shit. It’s chaos. I think Trent had a cowbell at some point?”

Trent reaches into a messenger bag next to him and pulls out a cowbell, resting it on the table with a quiet thunk.

“You just keep that with you?” Janis chuckles.

“For emergencies,” Trent explains. “You’d be surprised.”

Janis tries to think of what emergencies she’s faced that would either be helped or solved with the addition of a cowbell, and surprisingly, she can think of a few.

“Of course he keeps it all the time,” Emma chuckles. “I don’t remember… most of what happened that time. But after a few days they announced that the prom was back on.”

“Because of you?” Damian asks, looking to the stars.

“No,” they all say at the same time Emma says, “I think so.”

Everyone looks her way. “I told you this at the time, but you guys really scared people! I think you at least had a part.”

“How sweet,” Dee Dee says. “Let’s say we had an ensemble part in getting it back on.”

That gets a chuckle from everyone at the table, before Barry continues with the story.

“I, obviously, had to take Emma shopping,” he says. “She only had one dress and it was… a travesty would be an understatement.”

“I’m honestly not sure where it came from,” Emma chuckles. “Just think Little House on the Prarie but somehow so much worse.”

“So we went to the mall, and found this lovely blue dress and some good shoes,” Barry says. Emma looks like she would disagree with his choice of adjectives, but nods. “Did her hair and makeup all fancy, and bought her a corsage.”

“Aww,” Cady coos. “How sweet.”

“That part was fun,” Emma agrees fondly. “But…”

“When we got there,” Barry says. “Poor thing was so excited, but it was-it was just-“

Dee Dee continues for him, as Barry gets too emotional to keep going. “It was totally empty. Barry took Emma into the gym, and it was just horrific. There were barely any decorations, and they were just thrown up. I would be stunned if they spent more than ten dollars on the whole thing.”

“Oh god,” Damian says sadly. “I heard it was a fake, but I didn’t know it was that bad.”

“It sucked,” Emma chuckles sardonically, trying not to get too heavy in the middle of an IHOP. “More than anything. I didn’t care about the decorations, I just… it was so lonely, you know? I realized then that so many people I thought cared about me just didn’t. So many people I thought were my friends, weren’t. I had never felt more alone.”

“It sounds awful,” Janis says.

“It was,” Emma mumbles. Alyssa takes her hand under the table and gives it a gentle squeeze. Emma looks up and gives her a sad but grateful grin.

“I was at the… other prom. The real one,” Alyssa continues, seeming ashamed. “I had no idea what they had done, everyone on student council and the PTA hid it from me too. Some of my friends had seen us together and realized I was the ‘secret girlfriend’ and were trying to break us up.”

“Which worked,” Emma admits sadly. “I called her to try to get her to come to my own personal prom so I could at least have her there, but her mom was at the real one with her and she couldn’t leave. And I just sort of… lost it. I hung up and we didn’t talk again for a week.”

“I never blamed you for that,” Alyssa murmurs gently. “You were still trying to process everything and I just added to it.”

“No, you didn’t,” Emma insists. “We can talk more later. Anyway. I ran out, obviously. And Angie actually came after me, which was nice. She just let me cry and didn’t make me do anything. Helped me get my makeup off and stuff. She even slept on my bedroom floor in case I needed something. It was kind of like having a mom there, which I really needed.”

“How fucking old-“ Angie begins, but Trent claps a hand over her mouth. Emma laughs and continues.

“And then the rest of them came by the next day even though I yelled at them,” she says.

“With ice cream!” Barry butts in. “That’s an important detail.”

“Oh yeah, they brought me Häagen Dazs,” Emma laughs. “It was cute. Especially because they thought I wouldn’t know what it was.”

“Can you blame us? You live in the most yeehaw hick town in Indiana,” Trent says. “And that’s saying something.”

“It’s not that bad,” Emma tuts. “Anyway, they brought ice cream and were trying to convince me to do something to bring more attention to what was happening. Dee Dee actually got me on a talk show at one point, but I knew I would never be able to do something like that.”

“You still owe me a house,” Dee Dee grumbles under her breath. “But what she wound up doing was much better anyway.”

“The song?” Damian asks. Emma nods.

“I had it sort of in my head for a while, and I managed to piece it together in about a week,” she replies. “I was terrified, but it was just an overnight thing. I woke up the next day and it already had two million views.”

Alyssa squeezes her hand with a proud smile. “Half of them were me.”

“The other half were Damian,” Janis chuckles. “He made me watch it at lunch one day and we both watched it so many times we knew all the words by the next day.”

“Aww,” Emma says. “You guys are so sweet.”

“We try,” Janis and Damian say at the same time, locking eyes and glaring at each other once they notice. Cady giggles at their antics.

“Anyway,” Emma laughs. “I wasn’t expecting even that many, but people just kept watching, and then I started getting all these comments on it that were so precious. All these other queer kids all over the world sharing their stories too. Eventually it got back to Principal Hawkins and all of them, and they helped figure out how to set up an inclusive prom. And funded it, which was very helpful.”

“Yeah, helpful,” Dee Dee grumbles under her breath.

“Once we saw where the money was going it was so worth it,” Barry says, gently kicking Dee Dee under the table. “It was beautiful.”

“It really was,” Emma agrees. “But god, it took forever to set up.”

“God, yeah,” Alyssa says. “Oh, and we got back together, like, as we were setting everything up, we forgot to mention that.”

“Oh yeah,” Emma says. “Her mom came when she heard what we were doing in the gym because we never got PTA approval-“

“So she was mad,” Alyssa butts in.

“Very mad,” Emma chuckles. “But you came with her and told her to stop talking, which was both hilarious and terrifying. And then you told me you loved me in front of everyone. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.”

“Me either,” Alyssa says quietly.

“Aww,” Cady says, even though she’s heard the whole story before. It’s always a good one to repeat. “How sweet.”

“So after that whole thing we finished setting everything up,” Emma continues, smiling at her girlfriend. “And it was beautiful, even I was impressed.”

“You looked so happy when everyone started showing up,” Alyssa says fondly. “I was so proud of you. I still am. You gave so many people an incredible night they wouldn’t have had without you.”

Emma flushes slightly and looks down at her lap. Alyssa squishes her cheeks in her hand to get her to look back up.

“It really was an incredible night,” she says. “And we finally got to dance together, I think that was my favorite part.”

“That was good,” Alyssa nods. “But you’re a terrible dancer.”

“Hey! Just because I didn’t take dance classes for years,” Emma pouts.

“Oh, hush, I’m joking,” Alyssa says, kissing Emma’s cheek.

“You missed,” Emma continues pouting. Alyssa frowns in confusion and kisses her cheek again, but in a different spot. “You missed.”

Alyssa gives her a chaste kiss on the lips this time, and Emma finally smiles. Alyssa rolls her eyes lovingly. “You’re such a dork, goodness gracious.”

“You guys are almost as cute as Caddy and Janis,” Damian says, trying to snap them out of it and get them to remember the presence of the group.

“Almost?” Alyssa says, her competitive side making a slight appearance. “I think you’re biased.”

“Oh, definitely,” Damian agrees. “We don’t really have any unbiased judges though.”

“True. We’ll say it’s a truce for now,” Alyssa says. “Are we all done? I need to get up for a bit. I’m stuffed.”

“I think so,” Cady says, looking around at all the empty plates around. “We could go to the beach for the sunset, if you guys want. It’s not too far a drive.”

“Ooh, yes please,” Emma says excitedly. The adults play rock paper scissors to work out payment, and Dee Dee grumbles under her breath when she loses.

“Hungry kids. Why are pancakes so expensive?”

————-

“Oh, guys, look!” Damian says, pointing to a window of a thrift shop nearby. “We could go try on dresses!”

“We?” Janis chuckles, carrying Cady on her back. “You gonna get into a ballgown, D?”

“Why not?” Damian asks. “I have the figure for it, shut up.”

“I thought we were going to the beach,” Angie says.

“We can do both,” Barry says, seeming strangely excited. “Wear dresses to the beach.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Cady says eagerly, squeezing her legs together a bit to get Janis to go in, as if she’s riding a pony. “Please?”

“I am not paying,” Dee Dee says immediately. Everyone else nods, that’s only fair.

“Fine, fine. Come along,” Trent says, leading them into the shop as their gaggle of children follow like ducklings.

—-

The employees look a bit concerned as all nine of them parade to the discounted gown section and start looking for ones in their sizes. Damian finds his first, a royal purple gown with a high neck and a slit that would reach about to his knee. He takes it off the rack and heads over to the changing room, rapidly followed by Barry with his silver gown.

“How did-“ Emma stutters. “I guess they knew what they were looking for.”

Angie helps Trent find one that would fit him, an emerald green dress with long sleeves and a nice v-neck collar. He shrugs and follows Barry and Damian. Angie then moves on to find one of her own, and picks out a sleek black dress made of lace and with a shorter skirt, about to the knee. Dee Dee follows with one she seems to have grabbed at random, a nice yellow gown complete with a cape.

Alyssa picks a pink dress with a longer train, since she wore a short dress to both of her real proms and wants to experiment a little. Cady picks a yellow one, with longer sleeves and a bow in the back. The skirt is short, which makes her a little nervous, but she decides to give it a go.

Janis and Emma both look a bit lost, staring aimlessly at the racks and flicking through them weakly.

“Jayjay, try this one,” Cady says, offering a long, red, short-sleeved gown that looks like it would have a rather tight fit. Maybe Cady has some selfish motivations here, but she’ll never admit it. Janis raises a slightly suspicious eyebrow, but takes the dress and hauls her girlfriend off to the changing rooms.

“They all look so itchy,” Emma shudders slightly. Alyssa laughs and takes one of her hands.

“If you got one made of something like this it wouldn’t be too bad,” she says, showing Emma one made of an almost satin-like material. “And it’ll only be a couple hours at most. We’re going to the beach, sand is itchy anyway.”

“True,” Emma agrees with a little nod. “I like this one.”

“So try it,” Alyssa chuckles as Emma grabs an amethyst colored ballgown with a big poofy skirt. “Come on.”

Most of their group is waiting outside the rooms, clad in their ill fitting gowns. Trent’s is a bit too big, Barry’s is missing some sequins, and Angie’s has a small hole in the sleeve, but none of them complain.

Cady and Janis open the curtains to their respective rooms, revealing their dresses to one another. Janis is somehow not tall enough to fill her dress out, which makes her look a bit like Morticia Addams, but she doesn’t mind. Cady’s is almost perfect, but the skirt clings to her legs in an odd way.

“You look nice!” Cady says, gently adjusting Janis’ sleeve as Janis tugs at her collar.

“It’s a bit tight,” Janis says, sounding rather choked.

“I can fix that once we buy it,” Barry says, looking at himself in the mirror. Everyone looks at him in concern. “What? I have a stitch kit, I’ll just cut the collar off it.”

“Oh,” everyone says. Alyssa and Emma exit the changing rooms then, prompting coos from everyone.

“Emmy, you look beautiful!” Alyssa says, pulling her girlfriend into a hug. “The color really suits you.”

“Does it?” Emma says, sarcastically striking a pose. “It feels very… purple.”

“I like purple,” Alyssa hums, adjusting Emma’s skirt.

“You look really nice,” Emma replies, looking at Alyssa’s long dress. Hers is the closest to fitting correctly out of everyone’s.

“Thanks!” Alyssa says, putting her hands on her hips and popping out a knee. Emma laughs and kisses her gently.

“Okay, let’s go!” Angie says happily, having been taking pictures of everyone like a proud mom taking photos for her Facebook. Angie, Trent, and Barry split the cost among them, and they unleash their prom-ready selves onto the public.

—————-

“So you guys just graduated, right?” Alyssa asks, strolling down the shore holding hands with Emma. Cady and Janis are also hand in hand walking next to them.

“Yep!” Cady chirps.

“So you must’ve just had your senior prom too, what was yours like?”

“It was so fun! Damian took me shopping and I had the most beautiful dress,” Cady replies eagerly. “And Janis had a suit to match and it was… she looked… so hot.”

“Ooh,” Emma teases. “Scandalous.”

“Hey,” Cady says. “I’m allowed to think she’s hot.”

“Fair enough,” Emma shrugs.

“What about you guys, how are you handling your post-prom fame?” Janis jokes.

“Pretty well,” Emma chuckles. “Or at least I think we are.”

“You certainly are,” Alyssa murmurs.

“Oh yeah, aren’t you starting a nonprofit or something?” Cady asks.

“Wait, what?” Janis asks.

“I’m trying,” Emma laughs again. “Lyss’ mom is actually helping me. And trying to start a charity looks, like, super good on college applications, so that’s nice.”

“I thought your mom started this whole fiasco,” Janis says confusedly.

“Oh, she did,” Alyssa confirms. “But she’s cool with the gays now. She had a lot of questions and stuff, and she’s still having to work pretty hard at it. Changing opinions and thought patterns that were instilled in you from

childhood is tough. But she’s trying.”

“Yeah, she came to pride with us this year,” Emma says. “It was cute, she had a rainbow pantsuit and everything.”

“Go mom,” Janis chuckles. “I’m glad she turned things around.”

“Me too,” Alyssa murmurs quietly.

“Me three,” Emma says, squeezing her hand.

“So what’s this charity you’re getting going?” Cady asks.

“It’s called the Unruly Hearts Foundation,” Emma explains. “It’s a nonprofit that takes donations and stuff to throw other inclusive events around the country. Create safe spaces. And we also donate a fair bit to LGBTQ+ shelters and stuff, too.”

“That’s awesome,” Janis says. “I’m broke but I’ll donate a bit once I get my commissions business going.”

“Thanks, Janis,” Emma chuckles. “You know, we could use some branding. A logo, stuff for our website. If you’re interest-“

“Yes,” Janis interrupts. “I’m interested. Please.”

“Groovy,” Emma laughs. “I’ll be in touch, get Cady to give you my number.”

“You say groovy too?!” Damian asks eagerly as he makes an appearance. “These two always make fun of me for it.”

“Hell yeah I say groovy,” Emma says, giving Damian a fist bump. “Sometimes it’s the only word that fits the vibes, you know?”

“Yes!” Damian says. “See? Emma gets it.”

“I think ‘tits’ is pretty versatile,” Janis says. “You kind of look like Ursula, by the way, Dame.”

“Thanks,” Damian says, swishing his purple skirt around. “I’m gonna take that as a compliment.”

“It was,” Janis huffs. “As if I’d ever insult you.”

“You called me a ‘fucking deplorable kneecap’ on the way here,” Damian retaliates. Emma and Alyssa rode separately and burst out laughing.

“And now I have grown as a person. Developed myself.”

“It was ten minutes ago!”

“And? I’m not the same me I was two minutes ago, let alone ten,” Janis defends.

“Thank god,” Damian grumbles jokingly.

“Hey!” Janis says, breaking away from Cady and running after him. Damian shrieks and holds up his skirts to run away.

“Do we need to intervene here, Cades?” Emma asks with a slight chuckle as Damian and Janis sprint up and down the shoreline in a sort of oval.

“Nah,” Cady shrugs. “They do stuff like this about once a week. Janis knows she needs him, she won’t actually do anything.”

Just as she says that, Damian takes a hard left and runs full tilt into the lake. Janis pauses for a second before shrugging and running after him.

“Or maybe she will.”

“That water must be cold,” Alyssa chuckles in concern.

“Let’s find out!” Emma says boldly, tightening her grip on Alyssa’s hand and running them towards the water as well. Alyssa shrieks as they leap into the lake with a splash. Cady realizes she’s alone and also runs in, managing a cannonball into the water.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Barry yells, walking up on a sort of puddle of teenagers in soaking wet dresses.

“They’re being kids, let them live,” Dee Dee says. “Unrelated, can you swim?”

“Yeah, wh- don’t you dare,” Barry says, turning to face her.

“Oh, I would never,” Dee Dee says, aghast at the mere suggestion. Trent then comes sprinting up and tackles Barry into the lake. “But he would.”

Angie cackles and high fives her. Dee Dee crosses her arms over her chest and smiles down as Barry pops back up with a splutter.

“Dee Dee Allen!” Barry demands. “Get your ass in here.”

“No, I don’t think I will, thank you,” Dee Dee says casually, rocking slightly on the balls of her feet.

“Oh come on,” Angie coaxes. “It’s only fair.”

“I didn’t push him!”

“You had a role.”

Dee Dee ponders this for a moment before she begrudgingly reaches to take Angie’s hand, and they leap in together.

“Yay!” Emma cheers, delighted that all her friends made it into the lake one way or another. Some of them are significantly less happy about this, but everyone is laughing eventually.

“Hey, Caddy,” Janis says. She swims over to her girlfriend and kisses her gently, before booping her nose. “Tag. You’re it.”

Cady laughs as Janis swims away as fast as she can, rapidly followed by the rest of the group. Cady swims around for a second while she ponders her options to decide who to go after. Emma is a strong swimmer, being on her high school swim team and all. Alyssa is okay, but a bit weaker.

Barry seems to be the slowest, and gives her the best chance of success. He looks very anxious as Cady stares him down before lunging for him. He shrieks as Cady manages to snag his skirt and tap his arm under the water before she backstrokes away.

“Damn it,” he puffs. “I’m having elementary school flashbacks.”

“Better than middle school flashbacks,” Angie calls.

“Amen,” Janis says. She screams as Barry goes for her and swims away, huddling behind Damian for protection.

“Hey!” Damian whines, swimming away from her and creating a sort of three-way chase. Janis quickly gives up on Damian’s protection and swims to Cady instead.

“Protect me,” she pleads. Cady smiles as Janis hides behind her, peeking over her shoulder to check where the threat is.

“You’re so cute.”

“No I’m not,” Janis pouts. “I’m being stealthy.”

“Uhhuh,” Cady says as Janis clings to her like a precious little octopus. “If you get me tagged again I’m breaking up with you.”

“That’s fair,” Janis agrees with a shrug. Alyssa suddenly gives a shriek as Barry taps her leg under the water. “Uh oh.”

————-

After an hour or so of tag, the sun begins to set for the day. The water temperature plummets and everyone swims to shore to watch the sky be painted beautiful shades of pink and orange and purple. The adults and Damian head back to the car to go hunt for towels and dry clothes somewhere.

But Cady, Janis, Emma and Alyssa stay behind, deciding they don’t mind so much if they’re in heavy, cold dresses and getting covered in itchy sand. Cady holds Janis on her lap and Alyssa has Emma in hers, all of them staring out over the expanse of the water before them together.

“You guys should visit more often,” Cady says quietly as the first stars begin to make an appearance.

“Absolutely,” Alyssa says, looking down at her girlfriend. “This was an awesome day.”

“And we’ll have more,” Emma says.

Together.

—-

thank you so much for reading! hope you enjoyed!

lots of love,

ezzy

#cadnis #space safari #paint by numbers #cady heron x janis sarkisian #cady x janis #cady heron #janis sarkisian #damian hubbard #greenelan #emma nolan x alyssa greene #emma x alyssa #emma nolan #alyssa greene #barry glickman #dee dee allen #angie dickinson #trent oliver #mean girls #mean girls musical #mean girls broadway #mean girls the musical #mean girls on broadway #the prom #the prom musical #the prom movie #prom #prom musical #prom movie

[intheticklecloset]

Pressure Points (My Hero Academia)

Primary Universe

Happy New Year’s Eve! WE MADE IT THROUGH 2020 EVERYONE!! :D

I have officially caught up on the MHA anime (movies included!) and I am so desperately in love with this show and these characters, I can’t even explain to you how amazing discovering this new fandom has been. I’m PSYCHED for season five in just a few months! In honor of what is definitely the best anime I’ve seen this year - and to celebrate surviving the year of the devil 2020 - I thought it fitting to wrap it all up with yet another MHA tickle fic! (For the record, I counted, and this fic makes the 45th one I’ve posted on this blog in 2020. That’s a crazy number! Haha!) I hope you enjoy, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

~

“Give me your foot.”

The words were so unexpected that for a moment Bakugou just stared at Todoroki, whose eyes were still trained on his textbook.

“What?”

“Give me your foot,” Todoroki repeated, glancing at him. “I need to practice these pressure points.”

“Like heck you do,” Bakugou growled. “Practice on your own dang foot.”

“It’s too difficult to get the right angle on my own.”

“Right angle? What are you talking about?”

Todoroki sighed. “What’s the problem? You have to learn them, too.”

“I am not giving you my foot.”

“Bakugou.” Todoroki tilted his head, watching him with that ever-cool, nonchalant expression. “We’re really behind the others. We’re the only ones who didn’t get our provisional licenses. The only way we won’t fall further behind is to stay on top of the game academically. So again I say: give me your foot. I need to practice.”

Bakugou knew Todoroki was right, and he hated that the half-and-half hero always had to bring it up. But still he growled and trained his eyes back on his own work. “And again I say: like heck you do.”

“Why are you being so stubborn about this?”

“I’m not. I just don’t want you…” Bakugou trailed off, shaking his head. “I just don’t want to.”

“Don’t want me to what? Are you afraid I’ll tickle you?”

Bakugou glared at Todoroki. “I’m not afraid of anything, idiot.”

“Then give me your foot, hothead.” Todoroki smirked. “I promise I’m just practicing pressure points. Nothing more.”

The blonde grumbled, but finally did as he was told and propped his foot up on the couch cushion between them. “Hmph. Hothead. You’re one to talk, Icy-Hot.”

For a solid few minutes Todoroki did exactly what he said he would and only focused on pressure points, gently massaging and kneading into Bakugou’s foot, watching silently as the explosive teen reluctantly relaxed and even sighed once or twice. When he was finally off his guard, Todoroki paused for a moment to scan his textbook, as if searching for something.

Bakugou had returned his own focus to the work he’d been doing, having gotten to the point where it no longer bothered him to have someone touching him in such a vulnerable area. In the next moment, however, he jolted sharply, nearly dropping his workbook from his lap as he tried – and failed – to pull his foot away from Todoroki. “Hey! Back off!”

“I’m not done yet,” the other replied in an even tone, betraying nothing. “I still have a couple more.” Again he swiped a finger from Bakugou’s heel to his toes, and again the blonde jolted.

“Agh! You said you were just doing pressure points,” Bakugou growled, trying to free himself from his classmate’s surprisingly strong grasp.

“I am.” Todoroki lifted his gaze from his textbook, eyes and features as serious as before. “Now I’m testing how much pressure is needed to actually relieve pain rather than…tickle.” He swiped again.

“That’s bullcrap and you know it!” Bakugou shouted, letting his book fall to the floor as he fought against the half-and-half hero. “Let go of me now, or I swear I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” Todoroki asked calmly, scribbling all five fingers into Bakugou’s sole.

“Hrk—hehehey! Stahahahahahahap!” The giggles spilled out of him before he could stop them, his face flushing a deep red within seconds. He tried to tug his foot away but there was no point. Todoroki’s grip was firm; vicelike, even. “Stop! Icy-Hohohohohohohot!”

Todoroki reached down while Bakugou was weakened and distracted to grab his other foot and pull them both closer. Then he swung his own legs over his ankles so the blonde’s feet were pinned down and scribbled his fingers along both soles.

Bakugou shrieked, hating himself for it. He quickly covered his mouth with both hands, writhing on the couch, trying to conceal his growing mirth. “St-Stop, Tohohohohodoroki—stop it, I d-don’t—ahahahahahaha!”

“You don’t what?”

“I don’t like it!” Bakugou yelled, trying desperately to pull his feet from Todoroki’s trap. “Gah! Stahahahahahahap it alreadyhehehehehe!”

Instead, Todoroki dug his fingers into Bakugou’s toes.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAGH NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!” Bakugou cried, tossing his head back with laughter that he couldn’t stop no matter how hard he tried to. His writhing became thrashing and he pounded the couch cushions. “FRICKING—STAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAP!!”

“Interesting,” Todoroki mused, the smallest of grins beginning to tug at his lips. “I applied more pressure, yet this still seems to tickle.”

“CUT IT OUT WIHIHIHIHIHIHITH THAT CRAHAHAHAHAHAHAP!! THIHIHIHIHIS ISN’T FOR SCIEHEHEHEHEHENCE ANYMORE!!” Bakugou howled with laughter, trying to twist out of Todoroki’s grip so hard he ended up toppling off the couch, landing awkwardly on his side with his feet still trapped and tickled. “YOU’RE JUST MOHOHOHOHOHOCKING ME NOHOHOHOW!! QUIHIHIHIHIHIHIT IT!!”

“Mocking you?” Todoroki quirked a brow. “At what point did I ever imply that I think less of you for this? Tell me one thing I’ve said or done to give you that indication.”

Bakugou knew he was blushing furiously, but he couldn’t help it. This was humiliating, being stuck helplessly like this, unable to control the shrieks of laughter that burst from his lungs from the sensations Todoroki was creating. He pounded on the couch desperately, unable to do much else.

“Can’t think of anything?” Todoroki shrugged. “That’s because I’m not mocking you. I’m just helping you lighten up.”

“GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! TH-THAHAHAHAHAHAT’S WHAT THEHEHEHEHEHE OTHERS SAID TOO, DAHAHAHAHAHANG IT!!”

“Others?” Now Todoroki was smiling fully. “I’m not the first to tickle you?”

“SHUT UP!!” Bakugou wanted to remain defiant and angry, but the longer this went on the more he just wanted to get out of it. He started pounding the floor. “STAHAHAHAHAHAHAP!! WHAHAHAHAHAHAT DO I HAHAHAHAHVE TO DO TO GEHEHEHEHEHET YOU TO KNOHOHOHOHOCK IT OFF?!”

Todoroki finally stopped, lifting his legs so Bakugou could free himself and curl into a ball on the floor, gasping for breath. When he’d recovered somewhat, he pushed himself up into a seated position and glanced at the half-and-half hero, who was watching him silently, a small smile on his face.

“Wh-Why’d you stop?” he asked.

Todoroki’s brows shot up. “You wanted more?”

“No!” Bakugou didn’t mean for it to come out as a panicked cry, but it did, and he blushed even harder. “Of course not, idiot! Just…what were you trying to do? Why humiliate me like that? Just for fun? To prove something?”

“No.” Todoroki shrugged. “When you asked what you had to do to make me stop, that’s when I knew you really needed me to. You never beg.”

“I wasn’t begging!”

“No, and I didn’t want you to.”

Bakugou frowned, climbing back up to his seat on the couch. “You’re not making any sense, Icy-Hot.”

“I wanted you to lighten up.” Todoroki looked at him. “You and I are alike in many ways. We both take things seriously. We do our best to make it to the top. But sometimes in the process we forget we’re just people. We need to relax and take breaks just like anyone else.”

“Tch.” Bakugou reached for his fallen textbook, straightening out some of the crumpled pages. “Maybe you do. I’m fine on my own, idiot.”

“My intention truly was just to help you relax with the pressure points,” Todoroki admitted, glancing at the open page that detailed where said points were. “But then I thought about Midoriya, and how he always seems happier after he’s tickled, and I wanted to help you that way, too.” He averted his eyes. “I’m sorry if I went too far.”

Bakugou stared at his classmate, unsure what to say for a moment. He didn’t enjoy being tickled, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel a bit lighter after what had just happened. He growled out a sigh. “I’m nothing like Deku, Icy-Hot. Get that through your head before you try something like that again.” He glared at Todoroki. “And do not breathe a word of this to anyone, you hear me? Not a word!”

Todoroki smiled softly. “Not a word,” he agreed, before adding, “But wait – who else has tickled you, Bakugou?”

Bakugou pulled his textbook up to his face and groaned.

#fanfiction #tickle fic #boko no hero #my hero academia #bnha #mha #bakugou #kacchan #todoroki #shoto #pressure points #foot tickling #ticklish #tickle #tickling

[toujoursmiraculous]

Thoughts and Reaction to Gang of Secrets!

I'm very late today at writing this because life ;-; You know it's a bigger episode when they start off with a problem. Ladybug doesn't want to detransform so she's desperate to find reasons to remain Ladybug. I love how the entire time, Chat Noir knows something's wrong and wants to get her to talk about what it is, but she just tries to pretend she's fine. If anything, Chat Noir would probably be the best person to talk to considering everything he's dealt with too both with Kagami and his responsibility as Chat! She could mention that she was seeing someone but they broke up because of her secret, and she could tell him how much being the Guardian's having an affect on her. All perfectly well and good without exposing any identities or things like that with questions for details asked. Instead she puts up a front with him and pretends she's okay in front of him and it's just so sad. :/ I understand why she doesn't, probably because she doesn't want him to know how much she's struggling. But ugh my heart hurts for her. Chat: I know where we can go where we won't have to talk! Ladybug: Yes, take me there Chat! *in the theater* Ladybug: You lead me into a trap. I MEAN HE'S NOT WRONG THOUGH! Not many places you can go where it's okay or encouraged to not talk without there being an awkward silence. But that cracked me UP. Also that casual attempt to wrap his arm around her lolol still hasn't give up, I see. I also find it simultaneously hilarious and extremely depressing that Ladybug's ranting like that in the theater because of a romance movie. When your heart is broken, that's probably the last thing you want to be doing. And Chat Noir yanking her down asking that she be quiet 😂 Literally just rants her entire love life out for everyone including Chat to hear in that theater. CHAT NOIR, YOU BETTER BE LISTENING BECAUSE SHE'S TALKING ABOUT ADRIEN HERE "She takes a long time to tell him and stutters and blah blah blah" lol sound familiar, sunshine? If anything please have him recall this later and be like, wait, didn't Ladybug say girls stutter around a guy when she likes him? BAM. Then he's off on his path towards Marinette. I can dream. Ladybug: And how do you know if he loves her? IMPOSSIBLE. Adrien: No, Marinette couldn't possibly be in love with me. *eyetwitch* But at the end of the day. This is Marinette ranting to Adrien about how she had to give up on Adrien and then couldn't make things work with Luka because of her secret. Ooof. And poor Chat having to apologize for everyone because Ladybug's disturbing them XDD THE GIRL SAVES EVERYBODY'S LIVES PRACTICALLY EVERY DAY AND THEY'RE PISSED SHE'S RUINING A MOVIE THEY CAN JUST REWATCH? 😂 She's clearly having a hard time right now, c'mon people! Chat can tell she has a broken heart. This boy is so sweet. He wants her to at least admit that and talk about it so she can feel better but you know, Ladybug's stubborn. I WANT TO GO SWIMMING LET'S GO SWIMMING CHAT, WOO HOOOOOO! Ladybug acting like Chat to hide her pain just like how Chat acts like Chat to hide his pain. YOU KNOW WHAT, IT'S FINE. :') It doesn't matter how much pain she's dealing with, those pictures mean too much to her to remove them. x3 Thanks Juleka for showing us how sad Luka is now, that's very helpful. Marinette's been going into the bathroom at school to cry, and then had planned stupid looking glasses to hide her tears so people wouldn't have to know she's cried because wearing a ridiculous pair of glasses that's embarrassing is better than being asked what's wrong. Because the pain I feel for her wasn't already enough. Ugh I adore Trixx. Trixx being the voice of reason when Tikki's not there, trying to help and letting her know that Tikki may need to rest too when she's so upset it doesn't cross her mind. And the tears in her eyes when she apologizes to Tikki for not thinking of her like she should. ;-; SO MUCH PAIN. OH DANG Alya was literally a second away from seeing a detransforming Marinette lol But she did say DETRANSFORMATION or well in the English dub it'll be "Spots

off" I love Rose, she's really sweet. and considerate But she also shouldn't be touching things in others rooms like that. I never liked it when my friends went around my room touching stuff. Also didn't help that a couple of them stole from me... but it's just not a cool thing to do. Would've probably ended up much better had she not had to desperately hide an exposed Miracle Box. But then we wouldn't have had what happens so it's all good c: Marinette saying she doesn't want to be friends with the girls anymore

It hit Alya deep. Everyone else is like *le gasp* but her eyes all shrunken like that, you can tell it really got to her hard.

This entire exchange right here. Alya's glance at her in the first picture is piercing, like I can feel that OOF feeling in my chest when I see it. The new music dramatizes it so well that a lot of people probably didn't pay attention to it the first time around. Can we just appreciate how these animators got all these emotions so right and did such a good job animating everything for us? And those that work on the music too? Everything's so spot on. Marinette's red-rimmed eyes is so well done. "No, it can't end like this!" Awww Alix getting super upset too x3 I honestly think Alix could be the next one.... you know what I mean BUT I'll wait until the end to talk about it. Trixx pulling a Plagg and rescuing Marinette! x3 I seriously love Trixx, I really do. I know the other Kwami's got mad, but if he hadn't done that it would've been disaster, probably. And the episode wouldn't have ended how it did! And Plagg knowing it was Trixx who caused the Eiffel Tower to be all weird xD Why do I get the feeling the relationship between Trixx and Plagg would be like that of Chat Noir and Rena Rouge? And I want to point out, we got 7 whole seconds of Adrien again! Aren't we lucky? The last time we got so little of Adrien in an episode was when we had his parallel episode Lies. I don't think that'll happen this time but I do hope it means more Adrien later on. Ladybug: They're after Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Chat Noir: Okay but remember everybody likes her (so don't go thinking she's a bad person for causing their akumatizations) Yes, I read between the lines. Ladybug being able to get through to Lady Wifi and have her deakumatize herself was absolutely amazing! I know Chloe was the first to fight off being akumatized but once you're akumatized it's obviously extremely hard to break. That says a lot about Alya. "Because you're an incredible friend, Ladybug." One, AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Two, did you notice the little jerk of her head, gesturing to Ladybug like that when she said it?? It's the little details guys that make this so good. 😍 "Chat Noir, nooooo!" Guys, we got our tiny little Marichat scene! It's not actually real, but still! (okay but why do I also get this really weird feeling like something like this may end up being real later?) Alya giving Ladybug that hug 😭 Marinette has such good, supportive friends. I love them all. x.x YES THANK YOU. Alya's finally realizing there are more things going on with her than just boys. One of the things that's always irked me since Chameleon is that any issue Marinette has, be it with Lila or otherwise, she always assumes it has to do with Adrien. Of course, at the time she didn't know she was Ladybug but she should've still listened and realized there's something else up. But now she finally is noticing and I love how she was going to respect her regardless and not push. Pushing has always been one of Alya's characteristics, but she knew whatever it was was something too big and serious to push her on. "Marinette, I'm your best friend, and I always will be." 😭😭😭 This episode brought me so close to tears so many times. Marinette admitting she's keeping secrets, lying to everyone. Admitting that that's why she draws a line between her and Adrien, and why her and Luka didn't work out. Alya saying however heavy it is, they'll carry it together (MY HEART) And then Marinette saying "If I tell you, things between us will never be the same. It's going to destroy everything, change it all." It sounds like this girl is thinking about Chat Blanc and oop there's the sound of my heart breaking again. So much paaaain. "Je suis Ladybug." YESSSSSSS Why they had to leave it off on a cliffhanger But YESSSSSSS First, the expressions she had flash on her face, the gasp 😮, then the expression like she's trying to get her mind to process. Then if you notice, Marinette gives a little nod, as if letting her know that it's true. Then the way her eyebrows furrow and pulls her into the hug as she understands all that she has on her shoulders as that music plays. I'm getting

emotional just writing this. 😭 This episode is just so amazingly good in so many ways, I don't think I can actually cover it all. I'm very impressed. I've loved nearly every episode this show has put out, even those that a lot of people seem to hate. But this one, I don't see how this could actually be hated if you're trying to think of everything that happened from Marinette's point of view, her thoughts, feelings, struggles, depression. I will say, personally I hoped Chat Noir would learn who Ladybug is first. He's been such a good partner, very thoughtful, always putting his life on the line. He's also been dealing with a lot of the same struggles. I felt like he deserved to know first. However, this isn't about who deserves what, it's about what Marinette needs. It's not that she doesn't want to tell him who she is! Don't misunderstand. There are many times throughout the past 3 seasons where she wants to or regrets not being able to. But now, Chat Blanc's in her mind. She knows what could happen if she tells him with Hawk Moth still there, so she can't do it. So instead, she tries to pretend in front of him that she's fine even though talking to him about everything would help and fix so much. In her mind, that's not an option. I just hope that when he finds out she told someone else first, he doesn't think that she doesn't trust him enough to tell him. Next I thought maybe Alix. That way it'd be more understandable to Chat that she'd know, after all future Bunnyx clearly knows and said to Ladybug that she chose her because she's capable of keeping secrets (notice how Alya said that to Ladybug in the alley? I bet Alix will find out in the near future. Maybe not this season, but she'll find out.) But that's for another time. But now Alya knows! Her best friend, the one to have her back and will no doubt have it even more so now! Watch out, Lila. Alya doesn't hold back so I can imagine how vicious she could be to her (and I can't wait). And that brings up a very interesting thought. Alya will realize Adrien has been the only one to have her back in Lila situations. Why would he do that, hmm? When everyone else was so sure Lila's an angel and Marinette must be bad for saying anything negative about her. Journalist Alya, incoming! There's also the matters of Alya bringing up Marinette's feelings for Chat Noir because duh, everybody can see how much she loves him! There are even photos of them kissing, one of which happened in front of Alya's own eyes! Though affected by an akuma, they all know that kiss didn't happen because of it. And of course, Alya has brought up twice in the show so far that Adrien and Chat Noir could be the same person. And last time Alya said that neither of them could be Ladybug and Chat Noir. Except, she's now found out that Marinette is Ladybug. So maybe Adrien could after all be Chat Noir. I look forward to seeing how their new dynamic is. I wonder how this affects their relationship with the other girls. And I'm most curious about how Nino and Adrien may react to this change. I thought during Truth and Lies both that their best friends were going to find out about their breakups. Gang of Secrets was Alya finding out. Even though I feel like another parallel episode is just wishful thinking, I can't help but think it may be a possibility. Nino and the boys are going to wonder what's up with Adrien too. They're going to wonder why he's not with Kagami anymore so suddenly. So what if i the end, Chat Noir ends up telling Nino? I could see it, if this takes place shortly after Gang of Secrets, where she tells Chat that she's confided her identity in a very close friend and somehow they agree that he can tell someone too that he trusts to make it fair. It'd be an amazing way to exercise Ladybug's trust in Chat Noir too. Then we'd have both Alya and Nino in on it, keeping their best friend's secrets for them without knowing about the other one. Oh that'd be so beautiful! And also let them keep their Miraculouses too after the charms are given to them and Alya has the ability to break

free after being akumatized. I adore Rena and Carapace so much I'd be ecstatic if they kept them. 😭 Anyway, so much potential can come out of this episode and I honestly cannot wait until episode 4!!

#ml #miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #ml spoilers #ml season 4 spoilers #ml spoilers season 4 #gang of secrets spoilers #I wrote this late because I've been in a ton of pain today but I hope you enjoy it anyway! #alya cesaire #marinette dupain-cheng #ladybug #rena rouge

[remmushound]

Bay/rise 25!! @brightlotusmoon @errorfreak88 @selfindulgenz

“COWABUNGA!”

That simple cry was all it took for the mutants and the soldiers they were locked in combat with to stop fighting. Their eyes searched a short while until they saw four more figures jumping from the rafters armed with sai, nunchaku, Bo, and odachi.

“My beautiful experiments!” Draxum gasped, then tossed Raph and Donnie aside like toys he was bored with. 

The four mix-matched ninjas landed in a semi-decent formation, more for drama than any useful fighting technique. Cassandra saw Leo’s bewildered expression and took advantage of it to smack him over the head with the wooden part of her weapon before flipping away. 

“Ah— what are you doing here?” Leo growled and rubbed his head.

“Saving you guys!” Leonardo shot back out of impulse, then quickly withdrew with a softer, “Uh— I— I think?”

“Draxum!” 

Michelangelo squeaked and ran over to hug the yokai. Draxum grunted at the tight squeeze and his expression turned into a shamefaced, almost haunting look. He didn't seem to know what to do, not returning the hug but not quite pushing the box turtle away either.

“How’d you get here? You came to help us! Oh! I knew you would!” Michelangelo nuzzled into Draxum’s chest.

“Drax, daaaaaamn.” Leonardo whistled. “Looking Fine ~”

“Where’d you get the cool armor Drax?” Raphael asked excitedly.

“And more importantly, are they still producing them?” Donatello poked out from behind Raphael, “because I am interested!”

“I…” Baron Draxum brought his hands carefully to Michelangelo’s carapace, looking around at the gallery of other turtles and then to Cassandra who looked on with an almost heartbroken expression. Baron then snapped his attention back to Michelangelo, pulling his lips back in a snarl. “Don’t you dare touch me, vile traitor!”

Michelangelo looked up at Baron with wide, confused eyes. Draxum didn't let himself witness the sadness and heartbreak in them as he tossed Michelangelo hard. 

“MIKEY!” The rise brothers all cried out at once.

Michelangelo didn't try to catch himself. He let the impact come full force. The crack of his carapace against stone almost seemed to break Draxum’s heart in two, but he didn’t let it show. His face remained stagnant.

“Now fight, worthless terrapins! Like I made you for!”

“Draxum…?” Michelangelo’s voice was softer than a whisper, mixed with a sniffle as tears fell from his eyes and trailed down his beak. For a few seconds of shock shared between all present, the only sound was heavy breathing and the steady trickle of tears as they fell to the cold stone.

The sound that broke the silence was a roar of pure rage as Raphael brought his fist down hard on Baron Draxum’s cheek and sent the yokai slamming into the far wall, leaving an indent where his body had collided. Draxum, stunned by the blow, could only watch in mounting horror as the snapping turtle roared once more, not unlike a dinosaur from an old movie. His eyes were glossed over white, frothy foam flying out of his mouth as his breaths came heavy and labored. Raphael dug his feet into the floor for a second before charging Draxum at an incredible speed.

Cassandra gasped. “Master!” 

She was on Raphael’s trail the minute he started to charge. Her mind worked faster than a bumble bee, locking onto the bandages wrapped around the turtle's shell and remembering the damage her master had done to him. She angled her naginata to strike him in that same area for optimal damage, but her blade was intercepted by another.

“I got your back, Raph!” Leonardo locked his odachi with her bent naginats so neither of them could go anywhere.

Raph tried to charge back into the fray.

“Wait.” Leo held out his arm to stop Raph, “I wanna see something…”

Raph and Donnie reluctantly stood by their leader and watched the other turtles as they took on the yokai and the human general. Draxum overcame his shock in just enough time to launch himself out of Raphael’s war path. He didn't dare try to take on the snapper in his state— not hand-to-hand anyway. He grabbed the snapper’s legs with his vines to try and hold him back, but they were little more than a nuisance to Raphael who snapped them with ease.

Cassandra finally broke free of the stalemate with Leonardo by dropping suddenly and trying to ankle-swipe, but Leonardo was ready for her and flipped away into a quick recovery.

“Dang girl! You should totally join a circus!” 

Leonardo ducked as Cassandra tried to swing at him, dodging the speeding attack with a slide that came natural to him. He turned his duck into a charge, slamming hard into Cassandra’s stomach to knock her off balance before speeding away from her attempted counterattack.

“You’d be great at the trapeze!”

Cassandra chased after him, trying to corral him into a corner. Leonardo didn't dare stop once he got his momentum going, and when it came time for what should have been an impact, he jumped and flipped off the wall, completely missing Cassandra. Unable to stop in time, Cassandra hit the wall rather hard. Leonardo already knew what was going to happen when he landed, and so he prepared for the ouch as his feet slid out from under him and he slammed into the hard stone.

“Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!” He scrambled to his feet and sped away.

Leo whistled. “Good move on his part. Could improve his landing though.” Some small part of him simmered with jealousy at how easy the slider could manage the soldier that Leo himself could barely land a hit on.

When Cassandra shook off her mistake, she did just as Leonardo had expected and reared her weapon into the air while shouting, “You dare make a mockery of the Foot Clan?!”

Her question gave Donatello enough time to swoop past, while Cassandra’s eyes were still locked in a bloodlust against Leonardo, and he snatched the mystic orb from her belt.

“I’ll take that!”

Cassandra had to do a double take to figure out what had happened before she growled and changed her target to charge at Donatello.

“GIVE THAT BACK!”

Donatello was fast, but not as fast as Leonardo. The slider did a wide turn and zoomed past to side-check Cassandra and make her slip before she could reach his brother. Leonardo snatched the orb from Donatello, circling the warehouse once more.

“HEADS UP!”

He tossed the ball up to the platform where April watched, and the kunoichi dove to catch the speeding artifact, ignoring the pain still radiating through her as it landed safely in her hands.

Donatello was handling Cassandra okay enough, and so Leonardo's next target was his youngest brother.

“Miguel! We could really use your help out here!”

Michelangelo hadn’t moved from his stunned position, his eyes still glazed over with tears. “Draxum…”

Leonardo gave a nervous whine, his eyes shooting every which way to take in the current situation before he grabbed his brother’s hands and yanked him up, forcing him into focus.

“Come on, Mike, you know drill! Let’s knock that renegade out the rafters!”

Leonardo spun quick circles; he gripped Michelangelo hard as his brother's feet left the ground. Leonardo couldn’t get nearly as much force into the toss as Raphael could whenever they played the brother ball technique, so he had to rely on pure speed and luck. And he was the luckiest one out there! Leonardo went through the calculations in his mind, humming the countdown in Spanish until he got to uno and let Michelangelo fly.

“DON! BROTHER BALL!”

Draxum was too focused on the snapping Raphael to notice the speedball headed his way. His hooves found footing easily on the rafters, dancing between the beams with a perfect balance as he angled attacks downward. Michelangelo slammed into Draxum’s back with a solid clang of keratin and metal that sent both falling.

Donatello broke from his spar with Cassandra and ran forward for the recovery, holding the wooden staff high. Michelangelo popped out of his shell when the time was right and grabbed a hold of the staff, Donatello lifting him safely away from impacting the ground. Draxum, however, landed full force.

“Nice save, Don!” Leonardo whistled as he sped past, readying himself to jump right back into the battle.

Draxum knew when to call it quits, and now was the time. His vines pulled from the ground and created a pink rift, which he promptly grabbed Cassandra and heaved her through. Raphael attempted one last charge, but Draxum was already gone and so was the portal.

#BROTHER BALL #Michelangelo is heartbroken #writing this had me in tears 😭 #hope you enjoy!!

[undeadsnorlax]

Can Anybody Tell Me Why I’m Lonely Like a Satellite?

heyyy my first fic for @badthingshappenbingo​. starting things off with my favourite space boy

Ao3 link

Prompt: Loneliness

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy (TV Series)

Warnings: mentions of self-harm, angsty as hell

Wordcount: 2603

A day in the life of Luther on the moon.

***

Wakey-wakey.

“Urgh…” Five more minutes…

Come on. You need to get up.

Luther groaned, rolling onto his back and squinting up at the blank metal ceiling. It took him a few more minutes to open his eyes properly, and a couple more to roll over and check the clock with another groan. 22:47.

“It’s early,” he mumbled, swinging his legs around and rubbing his face down. Well, early in his sense, at least.

Fifteen minutes won’t kill you. Means you could go to bed earlier later tonight, technically.

Luther considered this and nodded, slowly getting to his feet and walking toward the door-

Thunk!

“Every time!” he cried, rubbing his forehead. He’d learn to duck eventually.

He stretched his arms until his fingers brushed the ceiling, then placed a hand at the bottom of his back and arched it, grunting at the dull crunch his spine made.

With a few more stretches, he dragged his feet over to the counter, smiling at the small potted umbrella plant there.

“Evenin’ Ben,” he said softly, large fingers stroking the leaves before picking up the tiny watering can.

Hey Luther.

Luther let out a sigh, tapping one of the radars beeping away on the workstation below the plant.

Something wrong?

“Nah, nothing.”

He shrugged and went about doing his other ‘morning’ chores. Checking the base’s oxygen levels, collecting any trash, seeing if there was any response from home.

Nothing. Of course.

Luther dressed in his space suit, taking the bag of trash out and dumping it with the rest.

He allowed himself a moment of freedom, pure gleeful joy as he bounced light as air across the moon’s surface. He’d been up here two and a half years and this part still never got old. He was in space!

He pushed off from the ground hard, floating a foot higher before landing with a weightless thud. Grinning behind his helmet, he tilted his head to look up at the Earth in front of him.

It was awesome, thinking about how one planet could contain so many billions of people going about, living their lives.

Including four of the ones he’d grown up with. What would they be doing right now? Vanya would definitely be going to bed, and maybe Allison was doing a late night movie shoot. Klaus would probably be partying and Diego doing...whatever he did.

Luther let out a heavy sigh, his grin fading. No use in wondering like that. Just reminded him of how everything fell apart.

He was brought back into focus by his stomach rumbling. He clasped at it for a moment, staring blankly at the stars, before trudging back to base to eat.

Running low on those.

Luther narrowed his eyes as he opened a packet of soy paste, slumping down heavily on the nearest chair.

“I know,” he said quietly, squeezing every last drop into his mouth ravenously.

He also knew this would do nothing but numb his hunger for only a few hours, knew this wouldn’t have been enough food for him even before his accident. For as little as he did physically up here, his body still craved energy, and this shit just didn’t cut it.

You asked Dad for more, right?

“Every time.” Luther glared at the plant. “I’m due more soon, okay? Today or tomorrow…”

He drummed his fingers against his thigh, staring at the empty packet. Reluctantly, he went to the box and got another, pretending it was something more elaborate instead. One of Grace’s amazing dinners, a rich beef casserole in a thick red wine sauce, with potatoes and vegetables, maybe some kind of pie for dessert, with ice cream-

He groaned, swallowing the mouthful of saliva he’d formed at the mere thought.

Not helping?

“I miss real food.” He rubbed his middle, feeling at least a little more full, enough to concentrate on work.

Have you checked your bandages?

Luther licked his lips, before shaking his head, looking away like a naughty schoolboy getting a scolding.

Do that. Please? It’s been a few days.

“Okay, okay.”

He went to the cramped bathroom, looking at himself in the mirror first. He looked rough.

Dismissing that observation, he slowly zipped down his top, careful to not get it stuck on his body hair.

How’s it look?

“Better. Honest.”

The bandage itself, on his right side just above the ribs, looked a little grubby, dried dark brown stains having seeped through. Carefully, he picked at the medical tape keeping it in place, wincing every time it caught a stray hair, but managed to rip it off and inspect the wound underneath.

A laceration done in such a way there was a small chunk of flesh missing, but it was healing nicely.

Luther reached for his first aid kit, pouring out some antiseptic onto a cloth and pressing it down. He winced again, gritting his teeth, but knew it was all worth it to help it get better.

As he prepared clean bandages to patch it up again, Ben chimed in.

It was scary when you did that. You were so scared.

Luther’s gut churned with unease, remembering the frantic, near manic state he went into a few days prior. It wasn’t the first time it had happened either. A sudden burst of wild emotion overwhelmed him, forcing him to his knees as he tried to let it pass, but the feeling inside him just got worse and worse.

Are you okay now?

“I don’t know.”

He bandaged himself up again, before he traced along a similar mark on his stomach, healed now into a bright pink scar.

His fingers curled into a fist, zipping up his top again before he could do more damage to himself. Ignoring the urge hadn’t done much good the last few times, but maybe this time he’d figure out a way to not hurt himself again.

Doubt it…

He went back to sit at a console, rummaging through the mess of paper cluttering the table.

What’re you doing today?

“Going through these.” Luther scratched his chin as he thought, eyes skipping down the page. “Need to arrange them in order, rewrite them neater...pretty boring, right?”

What work isn’t?

Luther chuckled, splitting the paper into small piles. “Got that right.”

And then silence. Luther became engrossed in his work, only moving to either stretch his back or use the bathroom, and even that wasn’t often.

Sure, it was boring but...it was his kind of boring. One of his earliest memories was pouring over a book on the solar system, using it to try and figure out the constellations he could see from his bedroom window. Him and Five raced to have their hand up first during their physics classes.

It became a one man race after he vanished.

Luther tapped his pen against his temple, chewing the inside of his cheek. His mind was drifting, thinking of his siblings again.

He tried not to think of Five too often, but he still wondered what the hell could have happened to him. Sometimes he wondered if his brother had just settled somewhere. Gotten taken in by a nice family who looked after him.

He didn’t like the alternative. The portrait that hung in the living room reminded him every day for over a decade of the alternative.

That’s how he tried to feel about Ben. He was in a better place. He was at peace. Happier, maybe.

Again. Better than any alternative.

He wasn’t even sure he believed in an afterlife.

With a heavy sigh, Luther pressed his head down against the desk, closing his eyes for a second...

Luther…?

He jolted to sit up again, muscles tensing for a moment before he relaxed, picking the piece of paper that had stuck to his forehead. “Wha’?”

Drifted off bud. Not long.

“Ah. Right.”

You have been working hard for a while.

“It’s not that long-“

Luther cut off upon seeing the time. Eight hours had passed since he started. “Oh. Dang.”

You deserve a break.

“No, I’m...I’m nearly done, it’s fine.”

Luther…

“It’s fine.”

He didn’t mean to snap. He flinched the moment he did, putting his head in his hands.

Look, I get it.

“No you don’t. You’re a plant.”

Luther turned on his seat to face said plant, scowling at the thing. “You’re a voice in my head.”

Helps though, doesn’t it?

Luther wrinkled his nose a little, turning away and tapping a finger against the desk.

Helps to have someone to talk to.

“Crazy Luther Hargreeves, all alone on the moon with a plant that sounds like the brother he let die,” he muttered.

You know that’s not true.

“It’s true enough.”

He suddenly became aware of another console that had been letting out several beeps. Luther gritted his teeth and made his way over, reading the screen.

DELIVERY INCOMING

ESTIMATED ARRIVAL 0823

“Told you more food was coming,” he said, going to suit up once more. He’d missed it landing with his quick nap by about ten minutes.

Out on the moon’s surface, Luther tilted his head back, taking a slow deep breath. He could see the pod the package came in at the usual spot, but he desperately needed some quiet.

Inside his base, there was always some kind of noise. Little things, the consoles and monitors gently humming away in the background, the soft drip of a tap he might have left on. Constant.

Even back home in the mansion after everyone left, he grew used to the creak of floorboards, the structure settling around him. Every opening door making him perk up and hope someone was walking through, coming back.

Outside, on the surface, it was silent. It was like he could hear his body working, every thump of his heart that sent blood coursing through his veins.

In space no one can hear you scream…

So he did. He bent his knees, and took a deep breath and screamed at the top of his lungs. Everything contained within his helmet.

Straightening up, he screamed again, a rush of catharsis overwhelming his brain. It felt good to scream. He should do this more often. Better than hurting himself.

His chest ached a little as he caught his breath once more, staring dazed at the ink black sky above him.

So much...nothing. The night skies were never this clear back on Earth and maybe now he was glad because being confronted with such a sheer vast nothingness every day was sure getting to him. Would explain why his plant was talking.

Luther scrunched his eyes tight, and went to get the delivery. He dragged it inside, changing from his suit once more and tearing the box open.

Anything good?

He glanced up, narrowing his eyes, before getting out smaller boxes of soy paste. He sighed, inspecting the writing. They always said they were different flavours, but he mostly got the same soggy muesli or stale bread taste with every packet he consumed.

That…doesn’t look like a lot.

“Shut up, I know…”

Luther set one aside and put the rest in his food cupboard. He didn’t take a chair this time, just slumped down on the floor and gently squeezed the contents through the packet, huffing heavily.

Luther, that’s not going to last.

“I’ll make it last,” he mumbled, unscrewing the top and sucking gently, trying to savour it, “I have to…”

He tried to focus on the gentle hum of the base instead, closing his eyes to help. He wasn’t sure what had happened in recent months that his food packages were becoming less frequent, and less in amount, but it didn’t help anyone to dwell on that. Dad was busy, he had stuff to do…

C’mon big guy. You know that’s bullshit.

Luther glared up at the ceiling. That was new. Hearing Ben’s voice had happened surprisingly quickly, the moment he decided to name his plant after him. He never heard anyone else’s voice, but having Diego’s growling in his brain was almost a welcome change.

Almost.

You really think he’s that concerned for you up here?

“Shut up…”

Should’ve gotten out when you had the chance.

“Shut up!”

Luther slammed his head back against the console, grunting from the quick hit of pain. When Diego’s voice didn’t go away, kept taunting the same message of should have gotten out when you had the chance, he did it again...and again.

Until there was silence.

Too much silence.

Using the counter for support, he got to his feet and went back to his desk, staring at the piles of paper in front of him.

“This mission is of the utmost importance, Number One.”

That’s what his father had told him after explaining he was going to the moon. He’d blankly affirmed, not pointed out how pointless it was to refer to him by his number when it was just him left (because look what happened last time he said that), and gone along with it.

His whole life, Luther had been raised to lead a team and save the world. His team had left one way or another, and the ‘world saving’ work he did was mostly thankless.

But here he was. On the moon. Part of the mission. Everything was part of this lifelong mission. All the data he was collecting, the experiments he ran, they were important for...something.

Luther stared at his hand, the greyed skin and dark fur that kept making him forget it was his hand. This was all part of it too, somehow. It had to be.

Otherwise…

He finished his work. Filed away the pages neatly and made plans to send them out tomorrow.

For a moment, he hesitated by the umbrella plant, reaching to touch it’s delicate leaves.

“...Ben?” he said softly.

Nothing. Of course not.

With a heavy sigh, he dragged himself back to his bedroom, grabbing his personal notebook from the side table. He flicked through the pages until he landed on the poem he’d been struggling with for the last week, tapping his pen against the words.

Constellations are families, each star has their purpose, their name and position.

They work together as something bigger, part of the galaxy’s nightly exhibition.

There must be times where they can do nothing but fight,

When it grows so tiring to always be shining so bright.

Luther clicked his tongue, frowning at the words. Of all the hobbies he could have taken to pass time up here, he never anticipated poetry, but he was really getting into it, having filled pages already, some of which he’d sent back...just in case Dad was curious.

He could just see his plant on the counter through the door. He went to call Ben’s name again, but he cut himself off and shut his eyes, focusing on the hum of the base once more instead.

The voice in his head was never Ben. Ben was dead. Five had gone long ago. Allison, Diego, Klaus and Vanya were back on Earth living their lives. Had been living their lives quite easily without him.

He’d managed by himself. He was exactly where he wanted.

In space. On the moon. Just him.

Number One.

By himself.

Like it had been for years now.

Tomorrow he’d wake up and go through this again. The self-doubt and the spiralling and the focusing on work so hard to forget what was really happening. Maybe his plant would start talking to him again.

But really they know that no matter how much they argue and moan,

Being a family at odds is far better than being one star all alone.

#the umbrella academy #trope: loneliness #tua fic #luther hargreeves #undeadbthb #badthingshappenbingo

[marvella15]

Astaire & Rogers Rewatch Part 8: Carefree

• Ah Carefree. Another film with a lot of weird, extraneous crap in it that detracts from what we’re all actually here for: Astaire and Rogers together and dancing. 

• Surprisingly, this odd movie has a song and dance I especially like, “Change Partners.” It also has the first on-screen romantic kiss between Astaire and Rogers. But we’ll get to that. 

• Our character/actors: Dr. Tony Flagg (Fred Astaire), Amanda (Ginger Rogers), Stephen (Ralph Bellamy), Cora (Luella Gear)

• I’m not up on Ralph Bellamy’s filmography but in every movie I’ve ever seen him in, he’s the guy who loses the girl to the bigger male star. 

• Now I’m no expert but it seems like if your fiancé breaks off your engagement three times, there might be some actual issues in your relationship. And I don’t think those issues boil down to just “the girl I like won’t marry me.”

• For the first time in one of these films, Astaire’s character isn’t a dancer or musician by profession. He’s a psychiatrist… who used to be a dancer. Gotta have some reason why he’s so dang elegant and talented. 

Not a fan of his notes on a patient that indicate she’s a “typical pampered female” who doesn’t need a doctor but rather “a good spanking.” 

Right after this, he describes Amanda, whom he hasn’t met, in very unflattering terms, including that she probably doesn’t have a brain. Here’s a diagnosis, Dr. Flagg. You’re a misogynist. 

Already we can see some issues with Carefree. 1938 may have been a different time but nothing about Astaire’s character is charming, kind, or anything we’d want Rogers to be paired with.

• I do like that as usual Rogers’ character doesn’t stand for any crap. She doesn’t give one single eff about his questions or his attempts to chat with her and then she storms out. 

• Astaire spent two weeks rehearsing the golf solo (aka "Since They Turned 'Loch Lomond' into Swing"), during which he did a thousand swings. The actual number took two and a half days to film. 

Surely it helped that he was an avid golfer already. In addition to horse racing, it was one of his favorites hobbies. 

It goes without saying that he hits a golf ball better in the midst of a dance than I could on a driving range. 

It also probably goes without saying that the only reason Tony does this number is because his ego is insulted by Amanda. 

• Rogers looks particularly fab in her shorts during the bicycle scenes. 

• Amanda begins to warm up to Tony after seeing he has talents besides psychoanalysis and insulting women he hasn’t met. But she only truly starts to like him after he makes an idiot of himself by crashing his bike into a bush. 

• Cora thinks that Tony sent her a gigolo?? And she’s totally on board with it?? And she drinks something this random man (who we know is Tony’s assistant) hands her???

• “I Used to be Color Blind” has a lot of potential that it doesn’t live up to imo. As you might guess by the song and the way the scene is filmed, this sequence was supposed to be in color. But, depending on who you ask, either the studio felt it was too expensive or the color tests looked horrible so it was scrapped. Either way, it’s a shame. Audiences had to wait over ten years to see Astaire and Rogers dancing in color.

• I’m also not wild about the slow motion, which seems a bit goofy. However, it does let us better appreciate the talent and mastery of Astaire and Rogers. For example, when he lifts her in a spin, her feet don’t touch the ground again for a while and they both make it seem effortless. 

• Soooo the Kiss. I know I’ve been banging the kiss kiss kiss drum for a few movies now. But this almost isn’t that satisfying? Now, I would say that this could’ve been intentional on Astaire’s part since he (and maybe his wife?) was the one opposed to any on-screen clinches and preferred the romance and intimacy to be in the dances. But, Astaire wasn’t comfortable with even this finished product, according to both his account and Rogers’. The slow-motion made what was really just a peck on the lips seem like much more, which he felt made up for all of the kisses he hadn’t given her in their previous films. So it seems unlikely he had any hand in intentionally making it unsatisfying. 

More likely, it’s that of all of the scenes, songs, dances, and movies for a kiss to happen, this isn’t the one I would’ve picked. A peck on the lips during “The Continental” would’ve been perfect, or a delicate kiss after “Cheek to Cheek” or a passionate one after “Never Gonna Dance.” Just a few places I wish we’d seen a kiss rather than (or in addition to) here.

All of that said, I will say that there’s something very fitting that in the scene Rogers is the one to lean up and kiss him rather than him being the proactive one. That’s very fitting for their off-screen dynamic too where he was far more shy and reserved. And I do like that it’s clearly an intimate kiss, as evidenced by the way she wraps her arms around his back. 

• Two years before she would win her historic Oscar, Hattie McDaniel appears in Carefree in an uncredited role as a maid.

• When Amanda next meets with Tony, she is conflicted about telling him about her dream where she was very clearly in love with him and not boring old Steve. Her sweater conveys her struggle. It has arrows piercing an embroidered heart over her actual heart. 

• Amanda’s invented dream is insane but who hasn’t made up ridiculous excuses to stay around their crush? But kids, don’t go so far as being put under anesthesia. 

��� The whole period where Amanda is still drugged and acting weird is absolutely something I typically skip, even though Rogers does a good job with the slapstick.

• “The Yam” harkens back to previous numbers like “The Piccolino” or “The Continental.” Even though it feels almost a bit outdated at this point, it’s a fun, upbeat number in an otherwise somewhat dull film. 

• I like that Astaire drops the acting after a few seconds. He’s just himself for most of this dance and looks like he’s having the most fun he has at any point in this movie. Rogers is also all smiles and looks marvelous. 

• I also like that they dance around so much of the lodge and use much of the scenery as part of the number. 

• Some fun lyrics:

“I didn’t come to do the Charleston” - Rogers got her start in entertainment by winning a Charleston contest when she was 14.

“I didn’t come to ball the jack” - Five years later, Judy Garland will perform a superb number called “Ballin’ the Jack” in For Me and My Gal with a promising new musical star: Gene Kelly. 

• Gotta give it up for the EIGHT times they do the move where his leg is up on the table and she leaps over it. 

• She is undoubtedly whispering something to him when they start to slow dance. 

• Rogers is a really wonderful actress. She does a stellar job when Amanda tells Tony she’s actually in love with him.

• Look, I get that Tony’s trying to find a way out of a situation wherein his friend’s fiancé has fallen in love with him and plans to break it off with his friend, but telling Amanda she’s imagining her feelings is pretty crappy of him. Hypnotizing her so she’ll hate him and marry Steve instead is pretty stupid. 

But once again, Rogers does a fab job in this scene. Hypnotized or not, she’s obviously devastated and cries even while pretending to be in a trance. 

• “Kiss her, you dope!” is what I’ve been saying for seven movies. 

• Some light gun violence humor here in 1938.

• I assume it’s an in-joke that the judge’s last name is Travers, which was the last name of Astaire’s character in Gay Divorcee.

• We already knew Steve was hapless trash but refusing to allow Amanda to choose her own future and instead leaving her hypnotized and getting a restraining order against his friend to prevent Tony and Amanda from ever getting together is a new low.

• Unsurprisingly, the most enduring song from this film is “Change Partners,” which was nominated for an Oscar. It’s also one of my favorites and frequently gets stuck in my head. 

• At least Steve’s stupidity is used against him. Tony literally sings exactly what he’s going to do (“I’ll tell the waiter to tell him he’s wanted on the telephone”) and yet Steve still falls for it. 

• For the third(?) time in this film, Rogers must pretend to be in a trance, this time dancing to Astaire’s hypnotic hands. But not long in, she clearly breaks through a bit because she becomes more of a participant. She grabs his hand when it’s on her waist and melts into his arms when they embrace. 

• “Change Partners” as a dance is incredibly intimate. That’s not so unusual for Astaire and Rogers’ romantic duets but it’s a tad unusual in this particular film where, despite that kiss, they’ve hardly had any romantic interactions. And yet in this dance, they are frequently very close together, his lips hover near hers more than once, and it’s all very slow. In fact, they very nearly kiss a few times. To me it’s further proof that as long-awaited as the earlier kiss was, there were and are better places for it, such as right here.

• Amanda really gets a raw deal. Sure she gets to marry the man she actually loves. But in the process, she nearly shoots him and others, gets arrested, is subjected to a variety of psychological experiments, and then gets punched in the face on her wedding day. 

• During this rewatch I’ve been surprised how much I’ve enjoyed certain films I don’t watch as much, like Gay Divorcee, but Carefree is pretty much how I remember it. Very little worth rewatching, except “The Yam” and “Change Partners.”

• Up next is the last RKO production Astaire and Rogers made and the end of their partnership… for now. It’s The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.

#ginger rogers #fred astaire #carefree #classic hollywood #old hollywood #astaire and rogers rewatch

[bran-who-writes-theoretically]

Julie and the Phantoms

~What I want~

-Y’all didn’t ask for this but guess what here are my thoughts anyway. They are based in nothing and are solely what I want. So here’s everything (I hope) in no particular order.

1. Let’s talk about Juke just to get it ~out of the way. TBH I cannot get around the age gap between Madison and Charlie. It’s so hard for me to see past it. I’m only a few months younger than Charlie and I literally could not imagine dating someone who was even in high school at all. I understand they wanted the guys to look the same age through the series so they had to cast older but.... eh. The only way I could really accept Juke would be if they kissed in the series finale just before the guys moved on. But really? I’d love to see them realize that they can’t be together because he’s dead. It would be SO interesting to see that, them having to stomp out the crush because it could only end in hurt for them both. I’d love to see them become super close/best friends. They have a connection, it just doesn’t have to be romantic. Also I’d really like to see her maybe end up with Flynn??? That would be so refreshing. You almost never see queer leads for kids shows and that would be awesome (P.S. even though it’s fine to ship Juke, even though I personally don’t, do NOTTTTTTTTT. I repeat NOT! Ship Madison and Charlie. I’ve seen other actors in older fandoms stop talking to each other because of fans shipping them. Please don’t do this to anyone. Remember he’s 21, and she’s 16).

2. Ghosts. They need to stay ghosts. Trust me, I want them to come back to life as much as y’all, but I don’t think there are any ways that they can bring them back that doesn’t feel like a cheat. Plus, I really really want the heartfelt goodbye from the guys in the last episode before they move on. What can I say? I love my bittersweet endings. Could you imagine the material they could give us? They could even bring Julies mom in to help the boys cross over.

3. I NEED to see more of the guys in the 90’s. I have a ton of questions. Some of which are: was Bobby always kinda to the side? How long was Luke gone? I want to see Reggie and Alex’s life. Who’s house was the studio at? (We can cross out Luke and Reggie, we’ve seen their houses/where they were.) but I have my own theory that it was Alex’s house before Julie’s family solely based on the reason that that’s why the guys were in there and why Alex lingers. But then that poses the reason why did his parents leave the house? Maybe because it was too hard to live there when they lived there with their son? But then that poses the question if they “forgave” him for being gay?

4. Reggie, I know he wasn’t intended to be, especially since I heard the “that was pretty hot!” scene was improvised, but I need him to be bi so bad. I am not sure I’m right, but I only have seen three (?) canonically bisexual characters on screen in my twenty years of life. And that’s Cheryl from Riverdale (😒) and my personal fav, Eleanor from The Good Place, and we also have a sprinkle of Korra in there. I literally cannot think of another. But lookie here! They’re all women, where are my bi guys (if you know any male bi characters? Send them my way👀). But seriously, Reggie has such potential to be great Bi rep! If I had seen a character like him I might have realized and accepted my sexuality way before I did. Because ironically I had a sexuality crisis at seventeen because a guy friend grabbed me by the shoulder and asked for my help not too different from Luke singing to Reggie lol!

5. Hollywood Ghost Club. I would really love to see more about it. I’m pretty sure I know what’s going on, Caleb most likely made a deal with the devil. But I’d love to see the guys and Julie help free all of the other trapped spirits he’s lured into the club. Also, on the topic of ghosts as a whole, I wonder if there’s any negative effects on a ghost staying non earth too long. It happens a lot in movies/books. They almost turn into a wraith, a darker version, only a shadow of themselves. I wonder if it applies here too.

6. Oh dang, CASPER. As per my previous posts as I was writing this, I was backhanded with memories of one of my favorite childhood movies, which I just recently watched again. Above I say maybe Julies mom could help them cross over. But remember how Luke promises to talk to Julies mom once they cross over? What if they do just that. A line that struck a chord while watching the movie was from the mother’s scene when she comes back: “let’s just say you know three crazy ghosts that kept their word.” And y’all, when she said that line not gonna lie I nearly cried thinking about that for the show. She also mentions that because her family loved her so much, she doesn’t have any unfinished business. I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t have any unfinished business either. Casper came out in.... you guessed it.... 1995. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they got some inspiration from it. Not to mention that it’s also a kids movie that has some pretty serious moments that kinda shocked me with how sad they were rewatching as an adult. I guess that’s why I loved it so much.

7. Carrie. I really want to learn more about Carrie and Julies dynamic. We know they were friends (I’m assuming with Flynn too?) and had a falling out. But why? And in the last episode she’s clearly proud of Julie after the performance, so I really want them to make up and have her be part of the group again. And maybe learn the truth about the guys?

8. Willie and Alex, god I want them to be together so bad. Of course, Caleb owns willies soul, so that’s not great, so I’d definitely love that subplot of the group trying to free the ghosts of the HGC. We didn’t see Willie too much this season, so I hope we do get more time with him. Also, I absolutely need a big musical number like Perfect Harmony between Alex and Willie. The only time I’ve ever seen a scene like that between gay characters has been in Rock of Ages (an adult musical) with “can’t fight this feeling” and it was hilarious and I need something like it for this show because it would be super cute 🥺.

9. Not particularly a theory but I’m really wondering how long Caleb is going to be in Nick. Julie has already stated that she’s kinda over him, and that it would be unfair to lead him on... so what happens when he realizes she probably won’t take the bait. Other than that, I really hope Sasha has fun playing Caleb through Nick, it has the potential to be great.

10. I’m not exactly sure what their unfinished business is going to be, but I’m almost certain it has to deal with Julie somehow. But the ending absolutely has to be the guys moving on. The ending has to be big though. They have to play somewhere awesome and then they find out... they’re done here. I’d honestly like a whole episode just dedicated to their goodbye. The way I see it, the second to last episode can end with them smiling after the performance and then that smile fading just a little bit, because that was when they realized. Then the final episode will be then telling Julie (and anyone else who knows about them by then) and finally moving on. Here I’m torn. I’ve mentioned both above but let me get more in depth. Version one: the one I originally came up with. This dealt with when the guys are ready to move on, Julies mom would come and help guide them into crossing over. I really liked this idea for a while, until I watched Casper again. Version two: the one I now like better(?) is the guys moving on, and after they do, Julies mom comes back (where even Ray and Carlos can see her) because “let’s just say you know three crazy ghosts who kept their word.” Could you IMAGINE??? It would absolutely reduce me to bawling I want it right now. The reason I like this one a little more is because we can skip to a little while after everything, and she gets a sign from them (just like her mom sending her the flower in the S1 finale) to show that they are still watching over her. And then we fade to black.

So that’s most of my thoughts on this show, if there’s typos in this I absolutely don’t care at all I wrote this instead of doing college work.

#julie and the phantoms #julie and the himbos #julie molina #luke patterson #alex #reggie #sorry this is so long lol #I have a lot of thoughts and this was originally for myself but why not burden y’all with it

[not-close-to-straight]

Summer Nights (One) (Stony Grease AU)

A commission for @simplynerdy-gal who wanted a Stony twist on Grease!

Note: This doesn’t take place in the 50′s like the movies, but definitely not modern day either. Let’s settle on that magically vague period of late eighties to early nineties when no one had cell phones but everyone had terrible fashion and sprinkle in a few modern day things for the lol factor. 

Also, I don’t follow the movie line for line/scene for scene but rather tried to reference our favorite scenes for nostalgia reasons.

SUMMER NIGHTS MASTERLIST HERE

Enjoy! 

*************

The sunset was gorgeous, filling the clouds with first orange and yellow, and then pink and purples that darkened to a stormy blue as they touched the ocean. The waves crashed loud against the rocks, the sea gulls called as they circled on the evening wind and hidden away on a soft, sandy part of the beach, a summer romance was coming to a close.

 “I’m going back to New York tomorrow.” Steve eased away from a long kiss and sighed. “How am I supposed to say goodbye to you, Tony? This has been the best summer of my life and now it’s ending. It’s not fair. None of this is fair.”

“Don’t talk like that, sweetheart.” Tony leaned in again and coaxed another kiss from Steve’s lips. “Nothin’s gotta end yet, c’mere and let me show you.” 

“Tony.” Steve was helpless against the brunette’s charm, and when their kiss grew heated, he let Tony lay him back into the warm sand, shivering when Tony’s fingers crept under the hem of his swim shorts. “This-- this won’t spoil anything will it?” 

“How could it spoil anything?” Tony flattened his palm to Steve’s stomach and smiled as the blond shuddered beneath the touch. “Just gonna make it better, right? We’ve been in love all summer Steve, ain’t like we’re rushing into this.” 

“I know, I know we aren’t, and I guess I’m ready but--” Steve’s beautifully blue eyes filled with tears and Tony sat up in a hurry, whispering something soft and reassuring as he wiped them away. “This is so stupid, I shouldn’t be crying but Tony, is this the end? Is this the end of us?” 

“Of course not.” Tony was lying and they both knew it, but Steve didn’t argue when Tony pulled him up into a hug and held him close. “Course not, honey. This is only the beginning.” Tony swallowed back his own tears and pressed a kiss to Steve’s blond hair. “M’gonna love you forever, sweetheart. Nothin’s ever gonna be better than this summer with you.” 

“Will you--” Steve clutched at Tony’s side and drew in a deep breath. “Will you call me? Or can I call you? I know summer romances are supposed to end in the fall but I don’t think I’m ready to say goodbye.”

“Oh my god, of course I’m going to call you.” Tony comforted him. “Long distance calls are real expensive, but I’ll get a part time job so I can pay for it. We’ll talk every week and maybe at Christmas you can come see me again or I can come see you or something. We’ll figure it out.” 

“Are you sure?” The words were muffled in Tony’s shirt. “Cos Tony this isn’t-- this isn’t me, you know? I don’t do this sort of thing.” 

“What sort of thing?” Tony combed Steve’s hair back out of his eyes and dotted a kiss to his nose. “What don’t you do?” 

“Kiss strange boys on the beach.” Steve blushed bright red and Tony nearly melted. “Getting adventurous for me usually means not studying before a test, or wearing mismatched socks, not talking to random guys and staying out past my curfew to hang out on the docks and that sort of thing. I’ve never wanted to do this with anyone but you.” 

“I’ve never wanted to do this with anyone but you either.” Tony admitted, his voice hoarse and eyes uncertain. “Steve you make me um-- you make me wanna be different, you know? I’m gonna call you after you leave and I’m gonna do everything I can to see you again and um--” 

He stopped, biting at his lip and Steve whispered, “Tony?” 

“I love you.” Tony framed Steve’s face with both hands and crushed a kiss to his mouth. “Steve, I love you and nothing is ever gonna be better than this summer with you. Nothing could ever be as great as spending a day with you.” 

“‘Cept maybe the summer nights?” Steve fell back onto the sand and dragged Tony with him, wrapping both arms around Tony’s shoulders and kissing him back as hard as he could. “The summer nights with you are pretty amazing.” 

“The summer nights are pretty amazing.” Tony agreed, and in a near inaudible tone, “Tell me you love me, Steve.” 

“I love you.” There were tears again but neither Tony nor Steve were sure who was crying. “I’m never going to forget you.” 

“I’m never going to forget you either.” 

*************

*************

Bucky “Bronco” Barnes hated everything about school. He hated the teachers and the way class started so got-dang early in the morning. He hated how the rooms smelled and that he couldn’t have a smoke in the hall and had to go all the way outside for it. Ugh the homework and ick the pep rallies. 

In fact the only thing that made school worth it were all the pretty people, and as Bucky popped the collar on his leather jacket, lit up his first cigarette of the morning and checked out the talent walking up the way, he grinned to himself. 

Gonna be a good year. 

And then from across the parking lot came an all too familiar yell and Bucky’s cool guy persona slipped just a little when he caught sight of Valkyrie, Sam and Clint all running his way. 

“Bucky!” Clint whooped out loud and launched himself over the carefully trimmed hedges in an attempt to beat Valkyrie to Bucky’s side. He caught his foot on the top branches though and bowled right into the girl, and Valkyrie screamed, taking Sam down to the ground as well as she flailed around for a handhold.

“Damn it!” Sam cried at the same time Valkyrie yelled, “My lunch got squished!” and Clint just barrel rolled out of his sprawl and popped to his feet, the leaves in his hair doing absolutely nothing to distract from how big his grin was for Bucky. 

“Whaddup Bronco!” He held up his hand for a high five and Bucky rolled his eyes and punched the goofy kid right in the thigh. “Ouch! My leg! I’m wounded!” 

Sam shoved a hopping Clint out of the way and socked Bucky in the shoulder. “Bronco! Where you been all summer! We didn’t see you at the arcade or nothing!”

“Had better things to do than hang out with you kids all day.” Bucky made a show of fixing his jacket collar again, smoothing back his already slick hair. “Been haulin’ boxes at the docks to save up money for a car. Whad’ya’think about that?”

“I think it’ll have to be a pretty sweet set of wheels to get the girls to look at you twice.” Valkyrie snorted and Bucky flicked her ear in annoyance. “M’just sayin, you aren’t exactly the best looking outta the group!”

“Speaking of the best looking, where’s Tony, you seen Tony yet?” Clint piped up. “Where’s that boy at?” 

Bucky scowled over the idea that Tony was better looking than him, but he twisted around looking for his best friend anyway, scanning the growing crowd of students for that signature black leather jacket. He hadn’t seen Tony all summer and when he’d called last week to ask after him, Mrs. Stark had said he was out walking the beach which... didn’t seem right at all. Tony didn’t do beaches and he certainly didn’t do long, solo walks as the sunset, so Bucky had figured Tony had lied and snuck off with someone pretty for the night, and promised to call back later. 

Work had gotten busy and Bucky had never called back, so now he grinned when he finally caught sight of Tony, put two fingers to his mouth and whistled sharply, waving impatiently when Tony seemed to hesitate before turning their direction. 

“Tony!” Valkyrie all but tackled the other brunette and Tony oophed under her weight, laughing a little as he shoved her off, only to be taken out by Clint and Sam as well. 

Bucky thought maybe Tony wasn’t laughing at all that time, and his blue eyes narrowed when Tony even back up a few steps from the group, dusting off his jacket and smoothing his hair before shoving his hands in his pockets. 

“How’s it goin’, bud?” Bucky waited a few seconds for Tony to collect himself, then put an arm around his shoulders. “What’d you do all summer, how come I didn’t see ya?” 

“Heya Buck.” Tony was a good two or maybe three inches shorter than Bucky and Sam and just at eye level with Clint, but he tipped his chin up and set a stance like he was taller than all of them, his eyes glinting with determination and more than a healthy amount of cockiness as he answered, “Spent the summer down at the beach, too damn busy gettin’ lucky for all your bullshit.” 

“Yeah?” Bucky’s grin stretched a little wider at the typical-Tony response. “How was the action at the beach?” 

“Oh you know.” Tony huffed a laugh. “As good as it always is. Barely made it out with my pants on.” 

“Yeah.” Clint butted into the conversation. “Must’ve been hard with all them pretty people hanging around you, huh? I sure know how that is.” 

“Only thing that hangs around you are flies.” Sam shoved Clint away and asked, “So what, you just chased tail all summer? Couldn’t call us once?”

“Nah.” Valkyrie decided. “Nah, there was someone special, that’s why he didn’t call us. Look at him blushing like a fuckin’ idiot. Who was it, Tony?” 

“Wait, what?” Bucky peered a little closer at the tell tale red on Tony’s face. “You punk! Holdin’ out on me? What’d you do, go and fall in love?” 

“Yeah right, Tony Stark doesn’t fall in love.” Tony denied quickly, almost too quickly. “I mean, there was this one guy. Blonde, real hot, smokin’ boyd. He was uh--” Tony cleared his throat. “--he was sorta special, I guess.”

“So he put out like a vending machine, gave it up for nickels.” Bucky decided and the other three howled in laughter. “Ain’t that right, Tony?” 

“That all you think about, Buck?” Tony pulled a face and Bucky nodded decisively, “You know th’hell it is!” 

The bell rang, covering whatever Tony said in response but when Bucky caught what looked like sadness in his buddy’s eyes, he grabbed at Tony’s jacket to slow him down before they made it inside.

“Tony, what happened this summer, you gonna tell me or what?” Bucky wanted to know. “You don’t gotta tell me everything, but I wanna know if you found someone good. You’re my best friend, that sorta shit matters.” 

“Tony Stark doesn’t fall in love.” Tony repeated the words a little louder, almost as if he were trying to convince himself like he was trying to convince Bucky. “But if it makes you happy, I’ll give you the dirty details at lunch, you horny bastard.” 

“Oh, do you know the way to my heart.” Bucky clasped a hand over his heart and Tony finally laughed out loud, shoving at his friend and jogging up the steps. “Glad you’re back around, Tony. Senior year, baby!” 

“Senior year!” Tony jumped up to slap the frame of the door, trying to hide the lingering heartbreak over Steve under another shout. “Here we go!” 

“Here. We. Go.” Natasha Romanov unknowingly echoed Tony’s words as she stepped from her car and swung a bright pink jacket around her shoulders. “One more year in this piece of shit place and then we’ll be free.”

“This place is a piece of shit, but at least we’re seniors this year.” Pepper wobbled and nearly fell on sky high heels but managed to save it, balancing rhinestoned sunglasses on her nose and shrugging into her own jacket. “This time we rule the school. Andover High is ours for the taking.” 

“Damn right we rule the school.” Carol tore open a pack of Oreos and licked the frosting from the middle of a cookie before discarding the rest and opening another. “Nobody’s gonna tell us what to do this time around!” 

“Okay maybe not, but still oh my god, stop that!” Pepper smacked Carol with her clutch and tried to knock the cookies away. “That is so adolescent!” 

“Well I mean--” Carol shrugged and destroyed another Oreo. “We’re still here for one more year right? Technically we still are adolescents.” 

“Okay just don’t flaunt it.” Pepper adjusted her bra and Natasha asked, “Stuffing this year, Pep? Gave up on asking Santa for new boobs, huh?”

“For all you know I could have gone up a size this summer! This could really be me!” Pepper cried, and then shrieked when Carol reached over with a “Honka Honka!” and squeezed at the bra. “CAROL!” 

“Definitely stuffing but it sure felt fancy.” Carol’s eyes widened. “Oooh! Are you wearing one of them new WonderBras?” 

“I hate you!” Pepper hissed and Carol tossed her head back and practically cackled with laughter as Pepper tried and failed to run after her in those stupid shoes. “Carol! I hate you!” 

“One more year.” Natasha said to herself, straightening her skirt and lifting her chin. “One more year and then I can get the hell out of here and away from--” 

Pepper was still shrieking in the distance, but that didn’t distract from a few sideways looks as a group of girls passed Natasha, nor did it cover the whispers as they shared no doubt pointless, hurtful gossip about the easiest girl in school.

“--away from all that bullshit.” Natasha sneered at their smirks and tugged her shirt down a little further to show off another inch of cleavage. “Bitches.”

************

Back in New York Steve had spent all his time with a small group of friends who had enough in common to make the school days easier. They had studied together, been wall flowers at dances together, were always in student government and sat at the same table at lunch. They might not have been the most popular kids in school, but they were fun anyway, and as he walked into Andover High for the very first time, Steve would have given just about anything to be back in New York with them again.

It was bad enough moving without any notice at all, he’d had to say goodbye to his friends over the phone while unpacking boxes at the new place. It was even worse that his parents had decided to move without even going back to New York. There had been a new job opportunity for Steve’s Dad and the perfect house opening up at the perfect time and his Ma had been so excited about it all working out--

--neither of his parents had even thought to ask what Steve wanted, when all Steve could think about was how Tony would have called the New York number only to reach a disconnected dial tone. 

Steve was sick to his stomach thinking about how heart broken Tony would be, or worse how angry Tony would be, most likely thinking Steve had given him a fake number. Steve had spent nights tossing and turning trying to come up with ways to track down Tony’s number or maybe even his address so he could write an apology letter or at least explain what happened. Tony probably hated him now and it just wasn’t fair-- it wasn’t fair-- and Steve thought he’d never stop being sad. 

He was pulled at least partially from first day nervousness and soul wrenching melancholy by the presence of his school assigned guide Thor, who was extra big and extra friend and really difficult to stay miserable around. 

Thor swept Steve through the halls of Andover High with wild hand gestures and loud explanations of various teachers, showed Steve the trick to kicking a locker door open if he couldn’t remember the combination, and at lunch, Thor wrapped his giant hand around Steve’s wrist and pulled him through the cafeteria and out to the tables, cheerfully announcing over his shoulder, “My friends are sort of terrible, but I promise you’ll like them anyway! Come on!” 

“Oh, they’re… terrible?” Steve asked, but Thor was already making a beeline for the lunch table on the far end of the yard and Steve knew there was no stopping the massive blond. “Well I mean, I guess I need to make new friends at some point?”

Thor might have been enthused about school and making new friends, but Natasha was already ready to jump out of a window and drop out of Andover entirely and it was only noon on the first day. 

“Hey.” Carol reached over and snatched at Natasha’s dessert before plopping down on the chair next to her. “Tasha, did you check out Tony this morning? He is looking fantastic this year. He’s got some weird, broody thing going on and it’s wonderful.”

“It’s ancient history is what it is.” Natasha muttered, poking at her food. “Stop talking about it.”

“Well sometimes ancient history repeats itself.” Pepper needled, “And Carol’s right, he does have this broody look going on. Nothing’s cuter than a damaged boy, right?” 

“Right, cos that’s what I want. A boy who needs fixed.” Natasha shoved the less than edible food away with a huff. She wasn’t willing to admit how much it had hurt that Tony hadn’t called her once all summer, especially after they’d gone together for a while last year. And Tony did look good this year, older and a little more serious but Natasha was willing to bet good money that it was another line, another play, another attempt by another boy to just be stupid because that’s all they ever were. 

“I barely wanted Tony last spring.” She said calmly. “I certainly don’t want him if he’s going to be high maintenance and need his feelings cared for.” 

Carol and Pepper exchanged a look that Natasha did not appreciate at all, but before she could say anything about it, Thor shouted at them from a little bit away and waved excitedly, so she let it drop.

“Hey girls!” Thor was bigger than most of the boys at the school, bigger than most of the teachers for that matter, over tall and over muscled and just the nicest person in the world, and even though the table shook when he sat and Pepper fussed over losing one of her rhinestones in her food, everyone had a smile for the guy. 

“Thor, that shirt is--.” Carol looked over Thor’s too tight tank top with raised eyebrows, then glanced up at Steve. “-- well your nipples certainly aren’t shy, are they? Anyway, who’s your friend?” 

“This is Steve.” Thor announced proudly, and tugged Steve closer. “He moved here from New York and doesn’t know anyone and I thought he’d fit in just fine with us!” 

“Ladies.” Steve offered a somewhat awkward wave and sat gingerly at the table, smoothing the pleats of his khakis self consciously. “I appreciate you letting me sit with you. This is all very different than what I’m used to.” 

Carol, who had her hair in pigtails and was slurping at a smoothie like it was her last meal, only waggled her eyebrows in apparent approval of Steve while Pepper, who seemed quite a bit more mature than the other girls only sent Steve a coolly appraising glance over her sunglasses. He felt like Natasha immediately didn’t like him, the tiny redhead’s eyes narrowing and arms folding as she asked, “New York? What part? You seem a little small town to be from the Big Apple.” 

“Small town.” Steve repeated, not sure if he’d just been insulted or not. “I um-- I’m actually from Brooklyn but it’s still part of New York City.” 

“Oooh, Brooklyn.” Natasha raised her eyebrows. “That city carries a certain sorta reputation I have a hard time believing you live up to--ow!” she scowled and rubbed at her leg when Thor kicked out at her. “Damn it--”

“Oh yoo hoo!” a voice cutting through the general lunchtime noise and whatever else Natasha was going to say. “Ayoo-ahoo-ahoo! Don’t think you can hide from me, because you can’t!” 

“Who--?” Steve started to ask and Natasha sighed as if the very words pained her as she answered, “Scott Lang. The most obnoxiously, over cheerful, pain in my-- Hi!” she looked up with a smile that was closer to a snarl. “Scott! How are you!” 

“Oh, oh my gosh.” Scott was cute, bubbly and sweet and with a smile at least a mile wide, and entirely oblivious to the layer of hostility at the table. “I love the first day of school don’t you? It’s just the biggest thrill of my life! And oh! You’ll never guess what’s happened!” 

“...Probably not.” Carol said around a mouthful of sandwich. “Gonna tell us anyway though, aren’t you?” 

“The nominations for student council just came in!” Scott’s impossibly wide smile got even wider. “And you’ll never guess who’s up for Vice President!” 

“Surprise us.” Thor said calmly and Steve hid a tiny smile at the giant’s attempt at politeness. 

“Me!” Scott burst out and then laughed out loud. “Isn’t that the most! I mean, to say the least.” 

“The absolute, very least.” Pepper sighed. “So, Scott--” 

“Oh my god, you must think I’m the worst for not introducing myself to your friend!” Scott hustled his way around the table and plopped right down into Steve’s space. “Hello! I’m Scott Lang! You must the new kid because I don’t know you and I know everyone! Where are you from? You sound like you’re from New York, but don’t worry, that terrible accent will fade super quick and you’ll be talking just like us beach bums around here!” 

“Uh--” Steve blinked a few times and Scott rushed on, “You have to come to cheerleader tryouts! I know what you’re thinking, cheerleaders are girls! But no! We have to have someone strong to lift the girls into the stunts right! Say you’ll come! We’ll get to share so many experiences and have so much fun and get to be life long friends!” 

“Life long--” Steve couldn’t quite manage to match Scott’s energy. “I mean-- sure?” 

“Oh my god, leave the poor kid alone.” Pepper said in exasperation and shoved at Scott’s shoulder. “Steve, you don’t have to be a cheerleader. No one except Scott is that peppy.” 

“Nothing wrong with a little pep!” Scott said cheerfully. “What do you think, Steve?” 

“I think being a cheerleader would be a great way to make some friends…” Steve started slowly, but apparently that was enough for Scott, who clapped his hands in excitement and started rattling off try out times and practice locations and oh wouldn’t Steve just love their uniforms, he looked like he was born to wear red white and blue!

“Steve.” Carol took pity on Steve’s slightly glazed expression and reached across the table to tap at his hand. “So what’d you do all summer? Anything fun?” 

“My folks rented a cottage and I was down at the beach every day.” Steve smiled when Thor made an “oooh” sound. “I um-- I met a boy there. We spent the entire summer together.” 

“You hauled your cookies all the way to the beach for a boy?” Natasha took a loud sip of her drink. “Sounds pretty pointless to me.” 

“Well I mean.” Steve rubbed at a spot on his button of shirt, a streak of pink splashing across his cheeks. “He was pretty special.” 

******************

All the way across the football field, Tony sprawled onto the bleachers alongside Bucky, tossing pebbles at Valkyrie and Clint as they arm wrestled and jeering down at the jocks with Sam. It was weird to be back in school after what felt like an endless summer, weird to be back in his leather jacket after living in soft shirts and board shorts and during some wonderful afternoons, no shirts at all, just skin to skin with Steve as they kissed and touched and….

“So hey.” Bucky finished his lunch and tossed the trash away, bumping Tony with his elbow and jostling him from his thoughts. “Tell me about the guy this summer. All that beach action. Was he taller than you?”

“Everyone’s taller than Tony.” Sam joked and when Tony scowled at him, put both hands up and apologized, “Damn man, sorry. Thought the height thing was okay to joke about.” 

“Ignore him.” Bucky kicked Sam’s drink over just to be a jerk and smirked when Sam shouted in protest. “Tell me about him, Tony. Come on.”  

“Nah.” Tony didn’t really want to tell anyone about Steve, he sort of wanted to keep that memory just for himself. 

Besides, it wasn’t like the summer had ended nice or anything. Tony had kissed Steve bye and then waited a week  to call just to make sure the beautiful blond would make it back to New York, and then he’d called twice a day every day for a week and a half before someone had finally picked up. 

But the person on the other end hadn’t been Steve or anyone who knew Steve, just a confused sounding lady telling him, “No one named Steve lives here, honey. You must have the wrong number.” 

Tony had hung up, looked down at the number he had so carefully copied and repeated back to Steve at least a half dozen times so he knew it was right, then tossed the paper in the trash and cried himself to sleep for the first and goddamnit, the last time in his life. 

But now for some reason his leather jacket felt like it fit different and his stiffly styled hair look unnatural in the mirror and Tony knew he had bags under his eyes big enough to pack clothes in, but he hadn’t slept much at all since that day and he was freakin’ miserable. 

So no, the last thing he wanted to do was talk about the sweet blond that had both stolen and broken his heart so, “Nah.” was all he said, and went back to picking at his food. 

“Hey!” Bucky protested loudly. “What’s this bullshit about keeping secrets! Come on! You promised horny details, damn you!” 

“Horny details--” Valkyrie yanked away from the arm wrestling and Clint yelped as he splatted forward onto the bleachers. “Dumb ass! That woudn’a happened if you weren’t putting all your weight into trying to beat me! Tony! Let’s hear horny details!” 

“I’m down for horny.” Clint sniffed loudly and straddled one of the bleachers. “C’mon Stark, don’t hold out on us. I didn’t get lucky once all summer, help me out here.” 

Valkyrie, Sam and Clint were egging him on and Bucky was looking at him like he didn’t understand why Tony wasn’t willing to give up any details, so Tony did the only thing he felt like he could do--

--popped the collar of his jacket, ran his fingers through his hair and tipped his head back with a cocky grin, drawling, “Alright alright alright. You guys wanna know what happened? It started with a blond.” he let his smile slide slow and knowing, hiding the sadness he couldn’t quite seem to shake. “And ended with a--” Tony let his hand hit the bleachers a few times, bang bang bang, and Sam howled out loud as the others erupted into cheers. 

“Yeah that’s right.” It was easier to pretend he was okay so long as he didn’t talk about any feelings, so Tony basically leered as he said. “It was a blast, you feel me? Happened so fast, so damn easy. I met this smoking hot blonde. Real tall, bright blue eyes and a body that just--” he shuddered and Clint whistled. 

“He was crazy for me.” Tony said confidently, and that wasn’t a lie at all. “Just freakin’ crazy for me.” 

“Oh yeah?” Sam tore open the wrapping on a candy bar and shoved half of it into his mouth. “Did you get real far?” 

“Yeah, that’s what I wanna know.” Clint agreed. “Details! Details! Details!” 

“Oh come on, you know how it is.” Tony laughed when Valkyrie and Clint started banging on the bleachers. “Same old, same old.” 

************

“So tell us about him!” Pepper ignored Natasha’s glower and urged Steve, “How did you guys meet? Did he have a car?” 

“Oh well.” Steve didn’t even know if he could talk about Tony without crying, but he gave it a try, managing a nearly heartbroken smile as he answered, “I don’t know about a car, but uh-- we met cos he was trying to show off. He was running down the beach and tried to dive for a football and ended up just kicking a bunch of sand at me.” 

Steve’s smile turned a little more genuine thinking about how Tony had tried so hard to be suave. “He was really cute though, and apologized about sixteen times so I forgave him.”

“How did he make it up to you?” Carol flicked a french fry at Natasha just to make the redhead frown and added, “I mean, boys are generally the worst, so what did he do to make you fall in love with him?” 

“Just the usual things, I suppose. “ Steve’s blush got a little deeper when Scott squealed something excited and propped his chin up in his hands to listen. “We went bowling and he was terrible, and I laughed so hard when he tried to be cool about it that he finally stopped and was just dorky with me.” 

“Oooh he was dorky?” Natasha rolled her eyes theatrically. “Sounds like a keeper.” 

“... he was a keeper.” Steve said sadly. “He was wonderful.”

“Tell us more.” Scott demanded. “I want to know more about your Prince Charming.” 

“Oh I don’t know--” 

“Tell me more! Tell me more!” Scott chanted. “Tell me more!” 

**************

“So we’re both in the water, right?” Tony dropped his sunglasses down over his eyes and affected a casual tone. “He goes swimming by me in these little tiny shorts, little red and blue striped things? Just slutty, I swear. Begging for attention. Then he gets a leg cramp and almost drowns, I’m telling ya, it was a good thing thing I was there.” 

“Uh huh, uh huh.” Bucky crowed. “So you rescued him and he thanked you in all the good ways?!” 

“Don’t you know it.” Tony scrunched his nose and grinned. “He nearly drowned okay? Without me there, the world been have been less one hot blonde. Real shame, that. And oh my god, he was so grateful, you know?” 

“Did you get down doobie down?” Sam wanted to know and Valkyrie hit him in the shoulder with a, “We’re practically adults, Sam! Just call it sex!” 

“Alright fine.” Sam huffed. “Did you get sex, Tony? There, you happy Val? Now I sound like an asshole.” 

“You always sound like an asshole.” Bucky retorted. “Keep goin’ Tony. Tell us more.” 

“We made out under the dock.” Tony said slyly and Sam whistled under his breath. “Sand was warm and the water was cold and he didn’t believe in wearing a shirt so it was just a whole lotta golden skin everywhere. Plus he had this sexy little East Coast accent, something in New York. He’d get all flustered and it would get thick and just--” that was a little too true for comfort and Tony forced out a teasing whistle. “All good things.” 

“Wait.” Clint grabbed at Tony’s leg. “Wait, lover boy was a virgin? If he got all flustered when you’d kiss then--” 

“What can I say, those good boys love me!” Tony laughed out loud and everyone else joined in. 

“Even though for a good boy, he sure kissed real nice.” Tony admitted. “Never met anyone who kissed half as good as he did, and I’ve spent a whole lotta time kissin’ a whole lotta people. He was the best.” 

“The best?” Bucky said skeptically, and Tony’s smile edged towards sad as he repeated,  “Never kissed anyone like that before, and never gonna kiss anyone else like him again. I swear.” 

***************

“Oh my gosh, he was sweet.” Steve sighed a little. “Almost ready to turn nineteen, and he was handsome enough to be a model but then had these dark brown eyes that could get just about anything out of me. Bambi eyes, you know?”

“Just about anything?” Pepper’s pretty lips parted in surprise. “Out of you?” 

“Well not everything.” Steve glanced around the table, from Natasha’s bored expression to Scott’s wide eyed interest. “But there’s nothing more romantic than summer nights, right? Walking under the stars and being on the pier as the sun goes down?” 

“That sounds wonderful, and I absolutely hate that romantic nonsense.” Carol declared. “Tell us more. Did he spend a lot of money on you? That’s real love, when they buy you things.” 

“Preach.” Pepper reached over and high fived Carol. “So Steve? Lots of presents?” 

“He bought me lemonade every day and then we would share it while we wandered along the boardwalk.” Steve said wistfully. “Cotton candy at the Fourth of July fair. I didn't need presents, it was just nice to be with him. He got all friendly wanting to hold my hand and he’s the first boy I ever kissed and it was amazing.” 

“Sounds like a drag.” Natasha fake yawned into her hand and when Pepper sent her a look, she shrugged, “What? It sounds too pure for me. Practically prissy. Call me when the story gets good.” 

“Ignore her.” Thor decided. “Tell me more. Where is he now?” 

*************

“Could he get me a friend?” Clint asked eagerly. “I need someone to kiss.” 

“No one wants to kiss you.” Valkyrie said flatly. “So what Tony? You kissed this guy and then-- I mean, did he make you work for it? Give it up like it was going out of style? What?” 

“He got all sortsa friendly down in the sand.” Vaguely, but meaningful, Tony waggling his eyebrows pointedly. “All sortsa super friendly, alright? Didn’t take much at all. Those summer nights, you guys. Just ice cream, romance and gettin’ lucky. Easiest thing in the world to get lost in all that, over and over.” 

“And over and over and over!” Bucky hollered. “YES, Tony! Was he any good?” 

“I told you he’s the best kisser I ever had.” Tony objected and Clint countered, “Well yeah, but just cos someone kisses like they know what they’re doin’ don’t mean they actually know. Remember the Bruce debacle?”

“He says debacle like he knows what it means.” Sam tossed a pebble at Clint. “He’s got a point, Tony. Bruce walks around kissin’ like he’s tryna fuck you right then and there but you said when you tried to get friendly, he turned you down.” 

“Eh, maybe I’m not his type.” Tony hedged and Bucky argued, “Nah Tony’s everyone’s type. S’just that Bruce is one’a them that only likes kissing but doesn’t like sex, you know?” 

“That just doesn’t seem right at all.” Valkyrie declared. “We call the guy the Hulk for a reason, a damn waste to not use all them inches  for the greater good.” 

“The greater good--” Bucky snorted soda out of his nose and spluttered a few times. “Damn Val, warn a guy before you say something like that!” 

“Anyway.” she rolled her eyes and turned back to Tony. “Alright, so you got lucky with the guy all summer, he was hot and made you feel all shivery and shit. What then? What happened?” 

“It got cold.” Tony tried to shrug as if it didn’t matter but Bucky tipped his head and frowned when he saw a flicker of sadness across Tony’s face. “And summer romances, they gotta end at some point. It got cold, he went back to New York, end of story.” 

“End of story.” Sam repeated. “You don’t call him or anything?” 

“Tony Stark doesn’t do long distance.” Tony cocked an eyebrow like it was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. “Summer fling, don’t mean a thing. I told him we’d still be friends, maybe if he ever came back this way then we could do it all again. That was it.” 

*************

“He told me he’d call and that he wanted to see me at Christmas and try and be together next summer.” Steve sighed, and next to him, Scott sighed as if it were his heart breaking. “Then he told me he loved me, and I told him I loved him, and we promised to never forget each other. That was it.” 

“That was it?” Pepper gathered up her lunch trash and the rest of the table stood to start heading back inside. “You spend all summer with him, fall in love, and the guy didn’t even lay a finger on you?”

“It wasn’t like that.” Steve shrugged, a hand to his stomach as it twisted uncomfortably all over again. Tony must hate me now, oh my gosh. “He was a perfect gentleman and saying I love you was enough. We didn’t need to do-- to do everything else.” 

“Sounds fake.” Carol decided, jumping up onto a table so she could climb onto Thor’s back and get a ride to class. “I don’t see how anyone would spend a summer with a boy who looks like you and not be climbing into your pants.”

“You aren’t ever going to see him again?” Thor wrapped one big hand around Carol’s calf to hold her steady, then hooked his other arm around Steve’s shoulders and clicked his tongue in sympathy. “Didn’t you exchange addresses or phone numbers or anything?” 

“I gave him my number in New York.” Steve’s blue eyes dimmed in distress. “But then my folks decided to stay here and we moved our belongings with a service and never actually went back to the East Coast.” 

“So he thinks you gave him a wrong number?” Natasha cut in. “Wow. He probably hates you now.” 

“He probably does.” Steve sounded so miserable Natasha actually felt bad for her comment, and cursed under her breath before awkwardly comforting, “Well i suppose he probably thinks he wrote it down wrong.. I mean maybe he doesn’t hate you?”

“What was his name?” Carol asked from Thor’s back, peering down at Steve curiously. “Was he local? This isn’t that big of a town, we might recognize the name if he’s one’a them tourists that have a summer home here or whatever. If he comes back every summer, maybe we could help you track him down.” 

“I suppose it can’t hurt.” Steve smoothed his khakis again. “His name was Tony. Tony Stark.”

“TONY STARK—“ Thor stumbled to a stop and and nearly face planted, and Carol screamed as she catapulted over the blond’s shoulders and into the bushes.

“WELL!” Tasha said loudly, smacking Thor’s midsection so he wouldn’t say anything else. “Steve, I think your summer love sounds um— sounds—“

“Peachy keen!” Pepper interrupted. “Just absolutely peachy keen!”

“And you know.” Natasha bared her teeth in a fake smile. “If you believe in true love and um, miracles, I’m sure you’ll see your Prince Charming again.”

“Do you really think so?” Steve absolutely lit up, blue eyes sparkling. “Thor, do you think so?”

“Ummmm.” Thor glanced at the girls helplessly, then reached and hauled Carol from the bushes, brushing the leaves from her hair. “I… I think we should get to class, Steve. Let’s worry about Prince Charming another day.”

Thor hurried Steve away, sending a concerned look over his shoulder as they went, and Carol whirled around on Natasha immediately, nearly screeching, “Tasha! Prissy McGee’s Prince Charming was Tony?? Weren’t you two just playing tonsil tennis and doing the dance with no pants?”

“Oh god, Carol!” Pepper gagged. “Don’t say it like that!”

“Whatever Tony and I were doing was neither tennis nor dancing because both of those things require good hands and stamina and Tony Stark has exactly none of either.” Natasha scoffed. “A Grabby Quickfire is all he is. Steve is welcome to him. I certainly won’t miss those three minutes of grunting and groaning and cleaning up the mess after.”

Pepper sneezed a laugh into her compact and then cursed when the powder flew into her nose. “Oh damn it Tasha. Seriously, though. How the heck does that happen, and what are you going to do about it?”

“What am I going to do about it?” Natasha snatched Peppers compact and carefully reapplied a thick layer of bright red lipstick. “I’m going to make sure our new friend doesn’t get anywhere near Tony for the next week and then re-Introduce them at the pep rally on Saturday. Nothing like a spontaneous reunion to keep things interesting, right?” 

“That seems harsh.” Carol ripped the wrapper off a lollipop and shoved it in her mouth. “Gonna mess Steve up real bad to see how Tony really is.”

“Well, he won’t be the first to be heartbroken, will he?” Natasha clicked the compact shut and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Let’s go ladies.”

*************

SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE CHAPTER! (I love approximately 120931928 things about this AU and I can’t wait to scream about it with you guys!) 

*************

@ships-galore @ceealaina @izziebladez @cwar1864 @hausoffro @lookuplaughing @tonystarkisanangel @multishippinglife @girlnic @iam93percentstardust @water-colouredmemories @paranormalmoonlight5 @igotloki @moosette05 @wayward-student-philosopher @kaz-brekkers-gloves @atomicfandombomb @desitonystark @1fuckingshitup69 @agentlokii @here-for-your-bullshit @livewire28 @flowers-and-honey @bluedreamdino @blackreaders-assemble @pidgist

#ncts fics #stony #grease au #steve rogers #tony stark #bucky barnes #natasha romanoff #pepper potts #thor #carol danvers #clint barton #sam wilson #valkyrie #t-birds #pink ladies

[fanfic-inator795]

Sooooooo I’ve been listening to wayyyyy too many Bridezilla/Disaster Wedding Reddit stories so, to remind myself that not all weddings are expensive timebombs: RotTMNT weddings!!!

Warren and Hypno: Admittedly, Warren is a bit of a Groomzilla, though it’s more nerves than anything else and once he and Hypno have a talk and he assures his worm bf that yes this is for real, Warren becomes a lot more tolerable (though still spends an hour making sure his tux and hair are perfect).  Hypno, naturally, makes all the flowers for the wedding himself. They walk down the aisle together, Warren on Hypno’s shoulder and the two of them holding hands (er, finger). It’s a small wedding with really only the ELoM attending, but it’s special nonetheless and they get it on video so they can watch it over and over. Hypno’s vows are so dang sappy and romantic that it takes Warren a few minutes to calm himself down enough to say his own vows. At the reception and after the first dance, Warren sings a love song to Hypno, wanting to give Hypno a little something extra since their dancing is really just Hypno swaying back and forth with Warren in his hands, and Hypno absolutely loves it, practically falling in love with him all over again on the spot.

Lieutenant and Brute: Neither of them were really expecting to get married, so when they decided that they wanted to be together for the rest of their lives they really had no idea what to do. They ended up just eloping to keep it simple, though it was still intimate and meaningful with lots of candlelight and traditional vows. They spend the rest of the day and night together, just the two of them - no clan work, no Shredder, just them enjoying their new official bond. They continue this tradition each anniversary, seemingly disappearing from their clan for 24 hours and doing whatever they want together - usually lots of kissing and cuddling, looking back on old memories, marathoning movies or lying down and reading together, and going on long peaceful walks. On each century anniversary (one hundred years, two hundred, etc.) they renew their vows to each other and then share a cake. The last cake was a Lou Jitsu themed one that they just loved.

April and Sunita: Their wedding is in the Hidden City so it’s easier for Sunita’s relatives to attend, and of course April thinks a wedding in a mystical realm is just rad so she’s all for it. The ceremony is a mix of Yokai and human traditions, the latter Sunita was VERY excited to learn about. All four of the Turtles are her best man (or rather, men) and Mayhem is the cutest ring bearer ever! They ditch the traditional white wedding dress in order to wear each others colors - April in a slime green suit-dress with a pink tie and sash combo while Sunita wears a yellow gown adorned with tiny green crystals. The reception is, naturally, at Run of the Mill Pizza. April and Sunita share several dances, ranging from slow and romantic to silly and fun - never let Leo be assistant DJ for a wedding, he WILL play meme songs and Mikey has no problem letting him - before they dance with their fathers (or in April’s case, father, turtle brothers and surrogate Rat Dad) or anyone else. They later sneak off from the party to unwind a bit and just snuggle up to each other, hands intertwined as they watch the beautiful NYC nighttime skyline. 

April and Recruit (I like both April pairings, what can I say?): Much like her senseis/surrogate fathers’ wedding, the affair is very small and intimate, only including Lieutenant, Brute, the turtles and Splinter, April’s parents and Mayhem, as well as any of her family that live in the NYC area. April doesn’t mind, and enjoys their small ceremony in Central Park. Speaking of her senseis, they both walk Recruit down the aisle (barely managing to hold it together), as well as providing the ceremony with plenty of beautiful origami flowers and candles. They all then share a meal + cake at April’s parents’ place, a mixture of traditional Japanese dishes and her family’s favorite New York style dishes. Recruit isn’t much for dancing and there really isn’t room for it in an apartment anyway, so the rest of the reception ends up being mostly enthusiastic storytelling - how they met, the battles they fought together, memorable dates and their eventual proposal, as well as fun and/or embarrassing stories about each of them courtesy of their families - and conversation as well as a few party games that the turtles drag out to liven things up. Lots of laughter and good memories, and the two brides happily team up to kick butt at Pictionary. Later on, when they get back to their place, Recruit requests one dance with April. April tells her they don’t have to, Recruit insists that she wants to, nerves and her slightly awkward dancing skills be damned. So April puts on her iPod, and the two dance around their apartment in the dark for what feels like hours, occasionally stealing kisses and whispering promises and I love yous to each other.

I’d write a BaronJitsu wedding bit but @halloweennut already did a great job with that prompt for one of her fic requests, so instead I’ll just focus a bit on the boys. We may not ever get love interests for them in the show, but I feel like at least one of them would get married, SO:

Raph and Mikey both wear traditional montsuki for their weddings - Raph as a nod to his pop’s culture, Mikey cause he just really likes the way it looks - while Leo and Donnie stick to tuxes. Leo’s is a classy and cool looking dark blue while Donnie wears a glamorous purple tux (sorta like his Dynamite Don look but with a black tie and more sparkle/flair) that he insists is NOT tacky, thank you very much! Heaven help whoever his spouse-to-be is, lol

April, naturally, is their Maid of Honor at each of their weddings. Raph also gets Buddy/Frankenfoot to be his Best Man at his wedding while Donnie chooses Shelldon to be both his Best Man and Ring Bearer. With how close they are, Leo and Mikey end up being each other’s Best Man (causing Raph and Donnie to get a bit jealous/feel a bit left out but they get over it quickly)

The ceremony is always in the sewers, but the receptions then get moved up to the surface in Central Park so they can party in the fresh air under the stars. Reception meals are usually pizza and one other main dish (probably chicken or filet mignon) for those who don’t like pizza, and then a few side dishes. Needless to say, Run of the Mill gets a LOT of catering jobs from this family

Raph’s vows end up being a bit rambly and wayyy too long, but they’re so sweet that his fiance can hardly care. He also picks his new spouse up as they/after they kiss, because he’s just so darn happy and because he can. No threshold to carry his spouse over in the sewers, so he just holds them and carries them all the way to the reception. That has to be extra good luck, right?

Donnie sets up small fireworks to go off at his wedding reception, because this boy is Extra. He also has plenty of dances with his spouse - though thankfully he’s more interested in being romantic and making his spouse smile than showing off.

Half of Leo’s vows and toasts are bad wedding puns, and he nearly gets cake thrown at him for it. Later on, Leo and his newlywed spouse end up ditching their reception halfway through, portaling to a private spot for the two of them to cuddle/makeout a little/talk about their wedding day. Leo may like to talk, but he can enjoy quiet moments with the one he loves too

Mikey gets inspired to spray paint an entire wedding mural for him and his fiance, which ends up being a great wedding photos spot. He also tries to cook his own wedding meal/bake his own cake, but the others insist that he sit this one out and just enjoy the food without having to make it.

And, of course, Splinter cries at every single one of his baby boys’ weddings, though always insists it’s just allergies cause of all the flowers. He gets plenty of hugs from his sons anyway.

aaaaand that’s all I got, lol. Anyway, feel free to add onto this with your own ideas/pairings ^v^

#rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #lots of characters and ships #tcest don't interact

[lululawlawlu-writes]

The Hardest Part of Living

notes:This fic is for the LawLu Bang 2018-2019 sponsored by @lawlu-events @mushroom-san created this super cute & sweet art work for part 1.

tags: post-apocalyptic au, mentions of suicidal thoughts, terminal illness, attempts at levity

summary: Law is a descendant of humans who were able to survive nuclear annihilation, but radiation, in addition to other man-made pollutants had been seeping into their underground bunker, slowly poisoning them.  Now Law’s the only one left alive. Although he'd made a promise to his departed sister that he would find a cure and live a full life for the both of them, his future seems bleak.

The day he meets Luffy could turn his life around. Luffy has a secret that could be the key to saving him, but neither he nor Luffy knows it yet.

___________________

Part 1: It’s hard to depart from this life when there’s no exit.

Law wrenches open one side the rusty metal medicine cabinet, grainy orange rust particles powdering his fingers. His eyes skim over the contents—old medicine bottles, a safety razor, and a lighter.

His eyes study his face in the rust-mottled mirror on the closed side of the cabinet. He runs a hand over his stubbly, two-toned face, contemplating a shave. Well, he doesn’t have anyone to impress. There isn’t too much chance that he’ll run into anyone worthwhile in the near future either, but what’s the point in being a survivor in a post apocalyptic wasteland if he can’t go about taking as he pleases and looking damn good while doing it. At the very least, making an effort to look decent helps him feel a little less like he’s falling apart from the inside out. 

His aching fingers absentmindedly wander to his cheek to scratch at the itching patch of white that’s blossomed there, flaking off the irritating blanched skin, leaving a burning sensation beneath his fingertips. Attempting a shave is likely a bad idea—he’d probably just end up peeling off half of his face in the process. This dying slowly shit is so goddamn annoying.

He pockets the lighter anyway. It could be useful. He takes up one of the long cylindrical medicine bottles—prescription pain medication, opioids long past their expiration date. He should probably keep those too because why the hell not. If they’re still potent, they might help his chronic aches and addictive though they may be, he isn’t planning on living long enough for that to take effect. At twenty-six he’s already well outlived nearly everyone he’s ever known.  

Struggling with terminal illness isn't exactly Law's ideal way to live. It’s excruciatingly painful, sure but more than anything, it’s annoying as fuck. What good is being stuck in some cruel joke of a life which keeps him half-alive, while he can practically feel himself rotting away like a goddamn zombie.

Law knows he’s been cursed from the start—born with half a lifespan and not much reason to value it. Thanks to the valiant efforts of his ancestors, humans have survived nuclear holocaust—humans, not necessarily humanity.  He tries twice to get the lid off of the pills before he realizes he’s meant to push down as he turns the lid. He’s already scraped his fingers along the ridges of the cap, lost his skin in the process. The pad of his thumb aches; the soft skin on the side of his forefinger gone hot like it’s on fire, protesting the strain of everyday activity. He places the bottle on the cracked marble countertop next to the sink, leaning into it. A grunt of frustration, a little extra leverage, and losing another layer of skin seems to be just what it takes to finally pop the top—nothing like a little extra pain to help him remember just how much he could use some relief before he meets his inevitable death.   He wouldn’t put it past his dick-bag ancestors to have set him up to die like this. They'd probably consider his poor life tragic and beautiful. They were the same people who made death so romanticized in their movies. If those ancient movies are any indication of how people actually thought back then, with their tragedy and self-sacrifice worship, it's no wonder the world has turned out to be a hollow, burned-out shell of what it once was. Hell, he's sure revering such shallow ideals is what got his community in the bunker wiped off the face of the Earth.

Law shakes the bottle lightly, assessing its contents—a handful of chalky little pills. He tips two of them out into his hand where they camouflage themselves against the splotch of white on his palm, similar even in texture. Both look so pale and lifeless. He contemplates dumping the rest into his mouth. There’s a temptation just to hurry things along and end it all before he ends up bedridden, crippled with pain, wasting away because he hasn’t got the strength even to feed himself. But he’s promised he wouldn’t.

Law is sure he isn't going to have a beautiful or meaningful Hollywood-esque death that would serve to inspire anyone. He sure as hell isn't going to come up with some ‘touching’ last words. He imagines his last words will be something like "Aw, fuck," although even a line like that might be too contrived. At least he has plenty of time to think of something better. On second thought, maybe he would actually try giving that flowery last-words bullshit a shot after all, just for the sake of irony. Dying a slow, painful death might not be without it's merits after all.

It’s not that Law actually wants to languish in pain, waiting for death to come around. He would much rather get it over and done with. He would've even tried to put a bullet in his own brain by now, but lack of ammunition and a naïve promise that he’ll find a cure are the only things holding him back. Poisoning so bad it’s seeped into the core of his DNA structure doesn’t really seem like something he can cure, but in retrospect, how could he have refused his little sister’s dying wish for him to keep going. At least she’ll never know he can’t make it a reality.

“Hey, you in the bathroom, You want something to eat?” calls a voice from the other side of the wall, muffled by layers of cracked plaster and rotting drywall.

Law nearly jumps out of his skin—practically tosses the painkillers across the room. He thought he was alone in this abandoned house, if that’s what you’d call it because a half-torched, roofless structure with two of its external walls missing doesn’t really seem like one anymore. He’d checked for any signs of a possible resident when he came in. He’s usually extremely cautious about such things. It wouldn’t take much more than a five-year-old with a stick to take down his weak ass, and he knows that out here in this wasteland there’s likely to be much worse. Still, he’d checked every room top-to-bottom when he’d arrived and hadn’t heard anyone else come in, so who the hell- “I’m Luffy, by the way.” Ok, so Luffy, apparently. “Who are you?” Luffy speaks again, closer this time, as if a breath’s width away from the door.

Law has no time at all to think before the door is shoved aside and he finds a small, opened tin of ham thrust into his hand. The scrawny guy who’s given it to him casually kicks down the toilet lid, taking a seat backward over the toilet. He releases an armful of provisions, presumably for himself, onto the tank of the toilet like it’s perfectly normal to use a toilet as a makeshift table and chair.

“Cheers!” he cries, clinking a tin of ham against Law’s own. He shoots Law a wide, toothy grin and tosses his head back, shaking the tin over his mouth until the ham slides out with a sick, sucking sound. Pale pink jelly-like substance drips from the can onto his face. It runs down his cheek mimicking the line of a thin scar etched under his left eye.

Law eyes the tin of meat in his own hand. This could be some sort of trap. This person could be an organ trafficker or something. Well, it’s not like Law has a lot to live for anyway, although being murdered by a stranger isn’t really how he wants to go. For a guy who wants to get it over with, he sure is being picky about death.

The mass of ham he’s been given does look a thousand times more interesting than the dried-out, flavourless rations he’s recently had the pleasure of surviving on. Its pinkish hue and marbling is indicative of actual meat, if ancient movies are to be believed. He wouldn’t know from personal experience, but the smell of it—that can’t be normal. It smells awful, pungent, somewhat sulfuric—like farts. And if humans of the past voluntarily ate things that stank like intestinal expulsions, they were a lot more messed up than Law gave them credit for. “Good shit, yeah?” Luffy says, eyebrows raised, beaming up at him from his spot on the toilet lid. Maybe this guy is more messed up than Law gives him credit for. He doesn’t even seem to care about the look of the tinned meat or its flatulent odors. Law watches him toss back a third can. The scent alone is starting to make Law’s stomach turn. He cautiously leans in to place his can of ham on the back of the toilet.

“You never told me your name,” Luffy notes, reaching for the new addition to his personal buffet. He passes Law a long, vacuum-sealed packet of crackers instead. Now this is food he can eat. “I’m Law Trafalgar,” he says. The plastic along the perforated line twists around Law’s fingers but doesn’t tear open.

“You from the underground? Your name sounds weird like underground people.” Luffy muses. “I’m from a PPU if that’s what you mean.” Law turns the packet over, attempting to rip it open from the other side.   “What’s a PPU?” Luffy asks around a mouthful of ham. He takes the packet from Law, breaking off the corner of the crackers as he rips it open. “Population Preservation Unit.” Law specifies, taking back the opened packet offered to him. “That’s underground, isn’t it?” Luffy hums in thought, licks the canned ham lid. “It’s getting dark,” he tells him.  “So let me stay at your cool underground base tonight.”

Law hadn’t been offering and he doesn’t want to think of the dangers that letting outsiders in can cause. This time he can’t make an attempt to assuage his fears with the notion that he’s near-death and has nothing to lose. The PPU is almost more of an embodiment of himself than he is at this point. It holds all that he ever was—his culture, his memories, his last connections to his people and their legacy of death and decay. In a way it’s as precious to him as it is painful. He’d rather keep those hallowed metal halls to himself, though he isn’t sure how to refuse Luffy. The guy has just shared a vital resource with him. “Alright, let’s go,” Luffy tells him, jumping up from his spot. It’s not a question. “Show me your home!” Though Luffy’s tone doesn’t sound threatening, Law knows that the matter is not up for debate.

By the time the bunker comes into view, the sun is dipping low on the horizon, spilling crimson hues into the sky as if it’s impaling itself onto the hills in a last-ditch effort to get free of the world. Law feels like he can relate on some level. He wouldn’t mind being free of it all but being impaled is a pretty slow way to go. Slower than a sunset for sure—look who’s being picky about his death again.

The sun may be fading into the distance but a suffocatingly hot humidity still hangs in the air, heavy, blanketing everything. It never really goes away. Law had given up feeling uncomfortable in the heat a long time ago but it still weighs on him. When he’s walking out here alone in the wasteland his brain sometimes likes to fantasize about the inevitability that he could either drown in his sweat or lose all moisture and shrivel up to nothing, become mummified.

He doesn’t get to indulge in such thoughts today. Today he’s with Luffy, and the inane chit-chat he’s offering is enough pull Law’s attention away from his morbid daydreams.

“You got anything to eat at home?” Luffy asks.

“You just ate,” Law points out.

“It’s weird, but I’m so hungry all the time since the thing happened. You think it’s possible to miss someone so bad it makes you hungry all the time?”

Law wants to ask him what the hell he’s talking about, but  his head is reeling and his mind feels blurry, out of focus. It’s physically hard for him to walk distances. There’s a dull aching behind Law’s knees that makes them feel like they’re ready to give out at any second. He can’t help stumbling.

“Traffy, hey, you okay?” Luffy’s saying, “Let’s get you back to your secret underground base quick.”

Law feels his wrists being grabbed and pulled over Luffy’s shoulders but doesn’t have the strength to protest being picked up. Luffy lifts him up around the hips to carry him piggyback. Although it’s cheesy and embarrassing, and he’d rather die than admit it, it’s kind of nice to ride piggyback like people did in those ancient movies he watched as a kid. Here he is, just like Vanessa being carried by Wade in the classic 2023 film, Deadpool 4.

It’s really, really nice, actually. Law feels more at ease than he’s felt in years. It’s not just a matter of giving up, saying that he’s close to death anyway. It’s almost startling for him to realize he actually feels safe. There’s something about Luffy—something genuine in his actions, something disarming in his smile, that makes Law want to trust him. Law sighs, closing his eyes, resting his head on Luffy’s shoulder. Right about now is when the leading role, Wade, would tell his love, Vanessa, something sweet.

“You smell nice,” Luffy tells him softly, and Law feels his heartbeat pick up, tightness building in his chest that he wishes he could blame on his illness, but then  “-like food.” And the feeling is gone. Law still thinks he appreciates the sentiment though Luffy’s words are nowhere near as romantic as the line in the movie. It’d almost be weird if it was romantic. After all, he’s only just met this guy.

Law swears he only closes his eyes for a second, but when he blinks them open, he’s already in the entryway to the bunker and Luffy’s dropping him from his shoulders.

“How’d you know the code for the door lock?” Law asks. He presses the palms of his hands over his aching eyes. “You didn’t break it did you?”

“What do you mean?” Luffy blinks at him. “It was already open.”

Already open?! That shouldn’t be. Law’s blood turns cold in his veins. His every nerve prickles with the chilling realization that he and Luffy are not alone here.

Sure the bunker is visible from the outside, if you’re really looking for it. But it isn’t easy to get past the security codes or penetrate the layers of protective steel by other means. Besides, as far as Law is aware, most salvagers don’t find it worth the trouble to use their resources for breaking into bunkers. He’s been told the kind of outdated, dysfunctional tech they’d find in a bunker just isn’t that valuable.

Law is almost certain it has to be someone who knows him personally, which just puts him at further unease. He doesn’t have friends.

#lawlu #lawlubb 2018 2019 #lawlu big bang #It's also on ao3 if you want to support me there <3 #lawlu fanfic #my fic

[wintersqueenmab]

Silly, do all the questions you definitely deleted. All of them.

Well, since you asked so nicely, sure. Under the readmore to save dashboard space.

1. how tall are you?

I’m 5 foot, 9 inches tall, or 175 centimeters for those of you using metric units.

2. what is your body type?

Softer than I’d like, but otherwise pretty standard.

3. what is your favorite part about your body?

I do like the color of my eyes, and I think my hands are pretty nice.

4. is your current hair color your natural hair color?

Partially, yes. However, the top of my head is currently a cotton candy riot, so not that part.

5. are you more outgoing or more shy?

I like to pull off the shy -> outgoing combo for maximum damage.

6. are you more femme or butch?

Being AMAB, I’m pretty sure I’m automatically on the butch side. Not where I’d like to keep it, though.

7. are you tol or smol?

I don’t think 5′9″ is very tall, or very small. The middle it is, then.

8. wine mom or vodka aunt?

Definitely vodka aunt.

9. weird habit?

Does eating popcorn seeds count?

10. favorite meme?

I’m a sucker for bass boosting in the middle of otherwise normal videos.

11. do you sing in the shower?

Ironically, that’s one of the only places I don’t sing.

12. ever used a bow and arrow?

A couple times, but never in any seriousness.

13. are/were you a theatre kid?

Not currently, but I definitely was in high school. Would love to go back.

14. have you ever seen a broadway musical?

Nah, son. Shit’s expensive.

15. do you think musicals are cheesy?

Yes, but in a good way.

16. have you ever been a part of a protest or a march?

Sadly not.

17. favorite Cards Against Humanity Card?

“Pac-Man uncontrollably guzzling cum.”

18. last movie you watched?

Spider-Man: Far from Home.

19. behind the camera or in front of it?

In front, definitely. Doing theater has shown me that I love being in the spotlight.

20. favorite tv show?

Toss up between Steven Universe and A:tLA.

21. meaning behind your url

Comes from an old username I had a long time ago. I still use Rydyr for most things online.

22. reason you joined tumblr

Kingdom Hearts fandom, then almost immediately comboed into Homestuck.

23. who’s your closest tumblr friend?

Probably samysticeti.

24. what’s something most people love that you hate?

Lord of the Rings.

25. have you ever taken narcotics?

Nope.

26. have you had sex?

Sure have.

27. have you ever gotten caught sneaking out or doing anything bad?

Yes, several times.

28. worst/funniest lie you’ve ever told?

I once told my dad that my brother had destroyed my writing journal to get out of writing in it for the day. It worked!

29. describe your passion without mentioning it.

Getting to know systems and the best way to exploit them is pretty dang neat.

30. describe your best friend.

Always there for me, even when I don’t want them there. But they know better.

31. give us one thing about you that no one knows.

Now, what makes you think you’ve earned that?

32. how do you feel right now?

Slightly irritated at the amount of formatting work I had to do for this (a lot), but otherwise good. Go listen to Starlight Brigade if you haven’t heard it, it’s fantastic.

33. what is your biggest fear?

Not becoming who I want to be.

34. what’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?

Glory, by Bastille.

35. what is the best decision you’ve made in your life so far?

Being more outgoing has, in general, done a ton for me.

36. have you ever tried your hardest and then been disappointed in the end?

Yeah. That’s life, though.

37. something you fantasize about.

Financial stability, a harem of cuties, being in a harem of cuties. Lots of unattainable goals.

38. last time you cried and why

A while ago, probably over past relationships.

39. what was the last thing that made you laugh?

A dumb play my friend made in a League of Legends match.

40. do you really, truly miss someone right now?

Always.

41. who do you feel most comfortable talking to about anything?

Honestly, nobody. Without sounding like an edgelord, there’s a lot I don’t want people to know because they’d just worry.

42. the last time you felt broken?

Last night.

43. are you starting to realize anything

Many, many things.

44. are you more dominant or more submissive

Depends on the context, obviously. I try to be assertive in everyday life, but I think I’m more submissive in the bedroom.

45. i’ll only date you if _____. (fill in the blank)

I’ll only date you if you treat me with respect.

46. do you prefer to date people the same age as you, younger, or older?

I don’t have any real preference, but I think I’d feel weird if I dated someone significantly younger than myself.

47. describe the person you’re in love with/have a crush on in great detail.

That’s not fair; I have too many crushes to single anyone out. One of the pros/cons of being poly.

48. do you have any kinks?

Look, there’s a whole ass list here. Gotta get more specific.

49. first thing you notice in a person?

Probably their voice if I’m actually interacting with them. If I’m seeing them from afar, it’s their hair.

50. how can someone win your heart?

By being sweet to me.

51. been rejected by a crush?

Of course.

52. have you ever had feelings for someone who didn’t have them back?

Tons of times.

53. would you have sex with the last person you text messaged?

If they were down, yeah.

54. is trust a big issue for you?

Like, do I have trust issues? Not really. Is it a big thing for me in a relationship? Once we hit a certain point, yeah.

55. did you hang out with the person you like recently?

A couple of them, yeah. Not nearly enough, though.

56. is confidence cute?

It’s fucking sexy.

57. what would you say if the person you love/like kissed another girl/boy?

Good for them! They’re living their best life. Fuck jealousy.

58. would you be able to date someone who doesn’t make you laugh?

Probably not. I love being with funny people.

59. does the person you have feelings for right now know you do?

At least one of them does. I try not to make it a big deal.

60. ever embarrass yourself in front of a crush?

I’ve embarrassed myself in front of my partners more times than I care to count.

61. do you want to get married

Not unless the government gets really cool about a lot of things really quickly.

62. worst thing you’ve ever done?

Lied to people that trusted me.

63. three things that turn you on.

Confidence, a nice pair of legs, and the ability to take charge.

64. who do you hate?

Nazis.

65. favorite term of endearment?

Stardust.

66. who was your celebrity/fictional gay awakening?

Probably some fucking Homestuck characters, I dunno.

67. intimidating girls or kind girls?

Both. Both? Both are great.

68. what do you look for in a possible partner?

We gotta like the same stuff. Also want to get freaky in the bedroom the same way.

69. do you tend to like more masculine, feminine, or androgynous girls?

Sixty-nine, eyyyyy. Uh, all of them.

70. are you good at flirting?

Only when I’m unaware I’m doing it.

71. who was the first person you came out to?

My friends in high school.

72. do you have any friends who are wlw?

Yes! Several.

73. is your crush wlw?

Some of them are, yeah.

74. last person to make you reconsider your sexuality?

Pretty much literally any attractive person. I think about it a lot.

75. write a short love poem to your crush/self?

I wish you’d know me

As I’ve gotten to know you

See me as I am

76. do you fall in love easily?

Love, no. Infatuation? Almost pathetically so, yeah.

77. is there something that happened in your past that you hate talking about?

Boy fucking howdy, yeah.

78. are you good at hiding your feelings?

Yep.

79. are you a forgiving person?

Extremely. I just wanna be friends with everyone.

80. what is your “type?”

Kind people that can slam me against a wall and make me thank them for the privilege.

81. fall asleep in her arms or rub her back until she falls asleep in yours?

B O T H

82. tall girls or short girls?

I’d love to be with a girl that just fucking dwarfs me in height.

83. hugs or kisses?

I fucking love hugs. And I’ve had strangers tell me I give great hugs, so I wanna share that with others.

84. twirl her around or get twirled?

Fuck, dude, I’d sure love to get twirled.

85. tummy kisses or thigh kisses?

A tummy kiss that transitions into a big fucking tummy raspberry.

86. hairline kisses or neck kisses?

Neck kisses, hell fucking yeah.

87. play with her hair or stroke her tummy?

Hair, absolutely. Too many people are ticklish.

88. making out or soft kisses?

I don’t understand why I need to choose here. They’re both great in different situations.

89. hugs around the neck or hugs around the waist?

Waist! Easier to pick people up that way.

90. how confident are you in your sexuality?

I’m pretty confident in my ability to be attracted to nearly anyone that’s nice to me.

91. when you like someone do you blush or get butterflies in your stomach?

Butterflies, with blushing only when I get embarrassed around them.

92. have you ever liked a friend as more than a friend? did you tell them?

Yes and yes.

93. how old were you when you realized you were into girls?

Well, being AMAB, this was pretty early. It took me a lot longer to accept being into guys.

94. most embarrassing thing you’ve done in front of a cute girl?

There was this one time I just nerded out about MtG for like ten minutes, and she was just sitting nearby. When I saw her, I almost died.

95. do you have a favorite lesbian ship? is it canon?

Rosemary from Homestuck. It’s so good.

96. what is the most aggravating thing someone has said to you about your sexuality?

“Are you sure you can’t just pick one person and stick to them?”

97. when was the last time a girl made your heart flutter?

Like six hours ago.

98. what is love to you?

Love is caring about another person more than yourself. It’s wanting the best for them at all times. It’s being happy when they’re happy and being sad when they’re sad. It’s seeing the universe in their smile, and glimpsing eternity in how they make you feel.

99. ask me anything.

Well, this sure is awkward. If you read all this, congrats! You know more about me now than my own parents probably do. Have a great night, everyone.

#me #ask meme #99 questions #this was fun to do

[honeylikewords]

what are your favourite marvel villains and why?

That’s a really interesting question, and thank you for asking!

For me, I’m not that into villains. I don’t actually like the whole “grey-moral ‘is he good is he bad’?” schtick. I mean, sometimes it works, but more often than not, it doesn’t. I don’t need to write a whole essay about why I think villain-woobifying can get really gross and not actually develop a deep character but rather just play at the idea of “median zones of morality”, so instead, I’ll just give the best answer I can.

Marvel movies, on the whole, suffer from really objectively one dimensional or illogical villains. For example, Thanos, the super hyped UltraBaddie, is really just… very bland. His reasoning for universal-level genocide isn’t even that well thought out.

Just googling “marvel villain problem” yields nearly ten million results in just 0.49 seconds! Read some of the articles here, if you want! Marvel really has struggled with trying to dimensionalize characters (whether heroes or villains), and sometimes, the efforts just fall flat.

But, of the roster of villains we do have, here are ones that I liked, presented in two categories: objectively interesting and compelling villains, and just rowdy guys who are fun to watch.

Compelling Villains:

1. Erik Killmonger, Black Panther. There’s a LOT to say about Erik Killmonger. Erik is widely regarded as the first (and possibly only) breakout, deep, and complex villain of the MCU. But he still suffers within the narrative form because, in the end, they just… kill him. It just ends abruptly. But the themes he introduced, the concepts, the practical reality of what a person pushed this far by societal hatred and personal suffering can do? It was amazing to watch. 

Obviously, Erik isn’t a good guy. The story didn’t set him up to be redeemable: the writers were conscious of making him aggressively anti-female and violent in a realistic, frightening way. But they also set him up to be sympathetic. One could see how a man brought low by the world would start to think the way he did. 

Erik broke the mold for Marvel, and while I have a lot of feelings (complex and counterintuitive ones) about his arc, he’s far and away the best the MCU has produced in terms of legitimate, fascinating, deeply human villains.

2. Wilson Fisk, specifically in DD s1. Technically, Wilson Fisk is part of the extended television/Netflix MCU, but he still counts, in my opinion. Fisk was the first time I ever found myself actually rooting for the bad guy and wondering “wait… is he… not evil?”

I cried for Wilson Fisk. I ached for his sadness. I wanted him to be happy and to be with Vanessa. I felt awful that he lost Wesley. I felt for him and it confused and scared me, and that’s awesome work on the part of the writers. I’m a firm believer in doing good and being heroic no matter the cost, so I rarely sympathize with villains, but, wow, Fisk caught me off guard.

Seeing the little boy he was and the trauma he went through, the way he actually was just a boy trying to help, save, and protect his mother and, in his later life, the city that raised him, was heartbreaking. Watching him go through the immense tragedy of his life stirred deep sympathy in me.

He was intimately human and so strangely sweet, so honest, so vulnerable, that it became hard for me to see him as a bad man. I wanted him to change, to turn around, to pull out before it was all too late. And that’s what makes him such a hugely fascinating villain.

Maybe it’s because Vincent D’Onofrio, himself, is autistic, and he intentionally played Fisk as also being on the spectrum. Maybe that rang true to me and I felt that connection and tenderness and love and the overwhelming sensation of a world so vicious that you just want to make it quiet and calm by whatever means necessary. But whatever it was, and however the writers accomplished it, that feeling, that intense emotional level of “please, please don’t, I don’t want to see you go astray like this” stays with me long after that season ended.

(Here is a good article talking about the representation of Fisk and why it can be dicey and unsafe to make villains disabled, but why it worked in this situation and why it matters.)

And, now, RowdyBoy Villains Who Are Pretty Fun But Not All That Deep, Really:

1. Ego, The Living Planet, Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Ugh, what a weirdo! But super funny. Ego’s big fight with Peter is both a combination hilarious, pitiful, weird, and legitimately sad. Ego is such a strange bird and seeing Kurt Russell play this freakazoid was a fun, quirky ride. Ego may have been an ass, but he was at least fun to watch being an ass. Plus, my dad likes his beard. Great job, Ego! I guess?

2. Grandmaster, Thor: Ragnarok. Oh my GOD, I unironically love Grandmaster. Everything about Grandmaster is great. Everything. He’s just such a sore thumb and such a wonderful addition to the MCU. Jeff Goldblum in swishy gold pleather with a melting stick, improvising half his lines and just being like that all the time? God, I love Grandmaster. I’d die for Grandmaster. I want more Grandmaster and I want it NOW. Out of all of these, he’s my actual favorite and someone I actually like. Like, oh my god, he’s just such a perfect character. Praise be to Grandmaster.

3. Loki, Thor: Ragnarok. Sorry, gotta say it, but I hated Loki up until Ragnarok. Every single other iteration of Loki skeeves the hell out of me and is just gross to me. The first time we meet Loki in Avengers, he’s a direct N*zi/F*scist parallel. No way, no how, not a chance am I gonna give that kind of creep a shot. I’m sorry, but no, get away from me. Plus, his enormous fanbase of fangirls cooing over him and woobifying him and making him out to be some sorry angel when he was a greasy genocidal maniac was just revolting.

But then came Ragnarok, and, finally, Marvel got Loki right. Or, well, more aptly, Taika Waititi got Loki right. Thank you, Taika, for redeeming the entire MCU by your damn self.

Loki is a trickster god, not a god of death or violence or war. Loki was, in the original myths, just a tricky person who liked to change their gender/sex, their shape, their dang species, all just to have a romp of a time. Loki wasn’t some N*zi affiliate god of bloodthirst. He was just an asshole who played pranks and got pregnant a lot. You heard me. Read all about it right here. And here. And here, too, for good measure.

So when Ragnarok rolled into theatres and presented us with a funny, human, sympathetic (and likely queer-coded) and genuinely appreciable Loki who just was kind of the epitome of “useless Slytherin; desperate to get their way but shite at getting it sneakily”, I finally learned to like the guy.

I don’t love him, don’t get me wrong, and he’s certainly no one I admire, respect, or am attracted to, but at least now I can stand him. I can appreciate him somewhat. I can see good in him that simply wasn’t present before. 

Plus, he’s just actually funny. Like, Tom Hiddleston has really solid comedic timing and great expressions, and once all that ridiculous melodrama was cast aside from the earlier Thor movies and replaced by an attitude of genuine humor, Loki’s snarky, selfish, stupid-ass side finally got the spotlight and I actually enjoyed watching him do his stuff.

Sorry there aren’t many legit villains on here: again, I tend to despise villains and I don’t see much value in pretending they’re “deep” for being monstrous. Sometimes a bad thing is just bad, and we don’t need to pretend it’s more than that. 

Thank you for asking, and I hope this answers your question, or at least gives you more insight into what I like to consume in my media!

#messages #about k #AKA: I HAVE OPINIONS A LOT #Anonymous

[kiminicricket]

85 Questions

Rules: you must answer these 85 statements and tag 20 people

tagged by: @tragically-broken and @courtofpainteddreams Thanks so much guys :) 

tagging: (feel free to disreguard if you have already done one of these, or do it again, it could be fun) @tntwme @elidexlorcan @cresswellvaneck @e-maurie @just-mebeing-me (and anyone else who wants.. hit me up and I will tag you :))

so I decided to put a read more in because I don’t want to clog up your dashes... if you are interested, find out LOTS about be below:

the last …


1. drink: water 

2. phone call: my friend Brittany

3. text message: Mum trying to find each other at the shops yesterday

4. song you listened to: The Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera

5. time you cried: uhm... at a big family gathering and they had one of those nature shows on, and there was a lion cub with an illness or disability or something, and he couldn’t keep up with his pack, and I begged them to turn it off, but they didn't until I actually burst into tears in front of everyone, and they were like, oh, ok she was serious...

6. dated someone twice: not yet............................ DANG THESE FEELINGS 

7. kissed someone and regretted it: yes

8. been cheated on: yes

9. lost someone special: yes

10. been depressed: yep

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: nope

favorite colors

12. Pink

13. yellow

14. forest green

in the last year have you…

15. made new friends: Yes!

16. fallen out of love: no, but I might be falling back in... someone please help!

17. laughed until you cried: hahaha yes! all the time :)

18. found out someone was talking about you: yes, but i’m not sure if I believe it

19. met someone who changed you: I dont think so.

20. found out who your friends are: I always know

21. kissed someone on your facebook list: negative

general

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: most of them

23. do you have any pets: yes :) two kitties (one is technically mums) - Manny and Catniss, and one giant pupper named Ryder

24. do you want to change your name: No I actually really like my name :)

25. what did you do for your last birthday: uuuuuuuuummmmmmm.... i think we went to dinner? it was a pretty chill birthday

26. what time did you wake up: haha like 11:58am

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: Watching the new shadow hunters episode

28. name something you can’t wait for: My bro is getting married in like just over a month! I am hella beyond excited :D :D

29. when was the last time you saw your mom: Yesterday, we went shopping together

31. what are you listening to right now: nothing.. I like silence, which weirds a lot of people out. I just like to be able to think without being distracted

32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: I do believe I knew someone  named Tom

33. something that is getting on your nerves: like right now??? uuuhhhmmm nothing, but on the trip there was an aunt who kept asking “You like that one” about any ‘funny’ phrase she had said and I just about went batty

34. most visited website: this one, facebook, and netflix..

35. hair colour: Natural brown but currently sporting a plum colour

36. long or short hair: short, just got it cut a few weeks ago and LOVING IT

37. do you have a crush on someone: aside from Matthew Daddario? ahem. maybe.

38. what do you like about yourself: My ability to be ‘cool-under-pressure’

39. piercings: ears

40. blood type: yeah I used to know, but I forgot.... MUM WHATS MY BLOOD TYPE.. oh shes at work..

41. nickname:  kim, kimini, kimberelli, kimbersmelly, kimbumberly, kiminiminimini, kiminicricket, oi you, brat, snowflake...

42. relationship status: single with feeeeeeelings haha

43. zodiac: virgo

44. pronouns: she/her

45. favourite tv show: at the moment, shadowhunters. I was hooked on One Tree Hill for the longest time though, and Once Upon a Time, and Chuck, and Mcleods Daughters

46. tattoos: I was thinking about it for a long time, but I have decided that tattoos are not for me. I love them and think they are beautiful, but I just don’t want any for myself

47. right or left handed: Ambidextrous thanks to breaking one of my fingers in middle school and HAVING to use my left hand for pretty much everything for like six weeks

48. surgery: No, but I need to get my wisdom teeth out soon... Please help me I’m scared!!

49. piercing: see answer 39

50. sport: Horse Riding & surfing

51. vacation: Oh I want to travel the world! 

52. pair of trainers: I dont know what this is supposed to mean..

more general

53. eating: my favourite food is Lasagne and chocolate... not together, although if you could make a chocolate lasagne that would probably be my favourite for ever and ever

54. drinking: I am so addicted to vanilla coke it isn’t funny, but I have to try and not drink so much of it because I have to fit into my bridesmaids dress (WHICH IS SO PRETTY)

55. i’m about to: I have literally nothing on my agenda today, so I’m trying to do some writing.. hopefully will have a fic drafted by the end of the day... just a short one :)

56. waiting for: SOMEONE TO TEXT ME

57. want: ah where to start...

58. get married: that is on the bucket list :P

59. career: writer would be nice :)

60. hugs or kisses: BOTH

61. lips or eyes: eyes

62. shorter or taller: in what regard? I am a shorty so most things/people are taller than me naturally

63. older or younger: older….

64. nice arms or nice stomach: Por qué no tanto

65. hook up or relationship: relationshippppppppppppppp

66. troublemaker or hesitant: me? trouble trouble maker yeah thats my middle name :P

67. kissed a stranger: nope

68. drank hard liquor: one tequila two tequila three tequila floor

69. lost glasses/contact lenses: haha a few times.. hey that reminds me, I need to get my eyes re-checked

70. turned someone down: aha not on purpose... so this dude used to come into work and he was pretty friendly... anyway, he comes in this one day, is acting a little strange, but I don’t think too much of it because I am pretty obtuse when it comes to that sort of thing.. anyways, he looks like he wants to say something, but leaves instead, and calls me up not two minutes later. I was all like ‘oh hey did you forget something?’ and he was like ‘no I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink sometime?’ and I nearly fell off my chair in shock, and I didn’t say anything for a minute because like no one had ever straight-up asked me out like a man before so I didn’t know what to do and I ended up nervously laughing and saying something like ‘maybe’ and he got off the phone real quick and upon reflection I decided that yes, I would like to go on a date with this dude, but he never came back in, and he never called back...

71. sex on the first date: sorry but nope

72. broken someone’s heart: maybe the previously mentioned guy? but like I said, I didnt mean to

73. had your heart broken: yeah

74. been arrested: no

75. cried when someone died: yes

76. fallen for a friend: hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

do you believe in …

77. yourself: most of the time

78. miracles: yes I do

79. love at first sight: hmmm.. in Matthew Daddario’s case yes definitely

80. santa clause: nope

81. kiss on the first date: depends ;) but probably not... if it is mr. someone who I am hoping will make a move, well I’ve known him forever, so maybe

82. angels: Yas

other

83. current best friend’s name: Brittany and Bethany

84. eye colour: brown 

85. favourite movie: Ugh to make me choose is so cruel! Anastasia?

#kc answers #tag games #seriously congrats if you read all of that

[time-in-reverse]

I’m alive (on vacation, but still alive)

Tagged by: no one, though I saw @entj-werewolf do it so I thought I’d give it a shot

LAST:

1. Drink: Water 2. Phone call: my dad   3. Text message: my aunt 4. Song you listened to: Pumped up kicks by Foster the People 5. Time you cried: A couple of weeks ago. Reason is embarrassing so I won’t tell. 

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: No. I found out the hard way that my last (and first) ex is a manipulative asshole. Dating him is an experience that I do not want to repeat.   7. Kissed someone and regretted it: Yeah. ^ 8. Been cheated on: Nope 9. Lost someone special: No, although I do wish I’d gotten to know my grandfather from my dad’s side of the family before he died. I would have liked to have gotten his perspective on his and my (narcissistic, unfortunately) grandmother’s divorce. I also think that the divorce deeply impacted my dad (although he doesn’t really talk about it) and I would have liked to see the two have some closure. Unfortunately that’s not possible since he passed away 12 years ago… 10. Been depressed: Yeah, due to loneliness (not clinical depression though, I think that’s an important distinction I need to make).11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: No. I’m underage but have tried alcohol before, don’t like it, and don’t plan on getting drunk any time soon.

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12-14: Blue, Purple, Black

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: No, but I’ve reconnected with some family members (discovered that I got on quite well with my aunt + cousin after a family gathering) 16. Fallen out of love: Yep, although I don’t consider my past relationship “love”, more like “infatuation/idealisation” 17. Laughed until you cried: Yeah. good times man :’) (wish it happened more often, though) 18. Found out someone was talking about you: hahaha… #5. Generally speaking though, my family is very straightforward so whatever they say behind me they say to my face. (Thankfully this has never happened with friends/classmates…) 20. Found out who your friends are: I think I’m in the process of doing that right now. If there’s one good thing that came out of my waste-of-time relationship it’s that it’s given me an opportunity to bond more with my INFJ friend (who went through an eerily similar experience) and my friends from my old school. 21.  Kissed someone on your Facebook list: my ex #regret 

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: all of them. I don’t use Facebook that often though, only to message classmates/friends as I find the constant spamming/ads/people parading their "social lives" annoying 23. Do you have any pets: no, but I hope to have a cat some day :’) 24. Do you want to change your name: I thought about this when I was younger, but nahhh. Brooke fits and is a memorable name IMO  25. What did you do for your last Birthday: I attempted to bake cupcakes without parental supervision but the cupcakes ended up turning into fudge because I forgot to add flour (dang it inferior Se!!). I also ate dinner at Pizza express with my friends.  26. What time do you wake up: Depends. Now that it’s summer I get the luxury of waking up later so 8:30 (school days it’s 6:00 T_T)  27. What were you doing at midnight last night: sleeping.  28. Name something you can’t wait for: to finally settle on a college choice (and leave for college, getting tired of high school)  29. When was the last time you saw your mom? 15 minutes ago. Currently at home typing this and she’s outside on the porch  30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: My outlook on things, since I tend to be quite cynical and find it difficult to tamper it at times. I think that with a better attitude, extraneous factors become less daunting so that’s why I picked something personality related.  31. What are you listening to right now: my parents talking outside, lol  32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: my brother and a former classmate are both called Thomas, so yes.  33. Something that is getting on your nerves: my dang siblings (and to a lesser extent, my parents), also college/academic stuff. for the former, I’m getting tired of them (being stuck with them on vacation for nearly 3 weeks is taking its toll. my siblings are getting bored and keep teasing me while my parents keep nagging me to do more chores >_< I wish they would shut up for once and quit irritating me!) while for the latter I’m feeling the pressure to study so I’ll be prepared for SATs and when I go back to school in a month. 34. Most visited website: Youtube/Tumblr/Reddit  35. Mole/s: Yeaah I have quite a few. They don’t bother me too much though 36. Mark/s: A crescent shaped birthmark on my right arm. I find it kinda cool. Then a scar on my 4th finger from the time an elevator door closed on it. On my left arm I have a scar from the time I scraped it against a bookshelf corner (yikes!) 37. Childhood dream: To become a fiction writer. Hasn’t changed much, lol, though now I read a lot more non fiction (psychology B) so that’s a potential area I may look into  38. Hair color: Dark brown 39. Long or short hair: Medium  40. Do you have a crush on someone: Nope (thank god, also).�� 41. What do you like about yourself: my perceptiveness, sense of humour, and honesty  42. Piercings: Two ear piercings. Unfortunately I got lazy wearing my earrings so the holes have grown in a little.  43. Blood type: A  44. Nicknames? Nope  45. Relationship status: Single 46. Zodiac: Gemini (don’t subscribe to horoscopes so…)  47. Pronouns: She/her  48. Favorite TV Show: Gravity Falls 50. Right or left hand: Right handed all the way! 51. Surgery: …do cavity fillings count? Other than that, nah.  52. Hair dyed in different color: Nope, I like my natural hair color as it is 53. Sport: Basketball/badminton  55. Vacation: Always wanted to go to Scandinavia lol, preferably with friends/alone.  56. Pair of trainers: Stan smiths. the superstar ones. a couple of months ago I decided I’d hop aboard the trend train (these are quite popular atm). these sport a classy look and go well with (almost) any outfit.

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: Not eating anything right now since I had dinner an hour ago.  58. Drinking: Nothing  59. I’m about to: go outside on the porch for some fresh air.  62. Want: a lot of stuff, but right now- some peace and quiet away from my family, also to see my friends again. 63. Get married: Maybe. The way I see it, if someone happens to meet my standards + we’re compatible + they’d be OK without kids then maybe, although it’s not something I’m hellbent on. 64. Career: Writer all the way! 65. Hugs or kisses: in an intimate relationship? hugs/cuddling.  66. Lips or eyes: eyes  67. Shorter or taller: taller.  68. Older or younger: older  70. Nice arms or nice stomach: I don’t really notice this kind of stuff since personality/intelligence is what matters the most to me, but I guess both would be better than without either so both?  71. Sensitive or loud: ehh… I tend to be attracted to ambiverted people so I guess someone in between.  72. Hook up or relationship: Relationship. Would never hook up… I imagine it’d feel cheap and pointless  73. Troublemaker or hesitant: in between

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: hell no 75. Drank hard liquor: Again, am underage and don’t like alcohol 76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: Don’t own either so no 77. Turned someone down: once. my ex actually (long story, but I turned him down a couple of times before we started going out. Should have stuck with my initial decision(s) ) 78. Sex on the first date: No. Never had it, would never do it that early. Plus, it isn't smart either as I’ve read that the hormones released during sex can muddle your perception/judgment of the other person (first date is vital for seeing if the other person is compatible for a relationship). 79. Broken someone’s heart: I hope not, but I also doubt it. Aside from my ex I’ve never had any guys express outright interest in me so I’ve never rejected anyone. 80. Had your heart broken: Nah. 81. Been arrested: No. 82. Cried when someone died: …don’t know anyone personally who died, so no. 83. Fallen for a friend: Don’t have any male friends and am not bi, so no.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84: Yourself: I guess...  85. Miracles: Yeah.  86. Love at first sight: I think it’s possible but rare. So I’m a skeptical believer, I guess? 87. Santa Claus: when I was a kid, yeah. 88. Kiss on the first date: depends. if i’ve known the other person well enough + there’s been attraction/love prior to dating, then maybe. It’s not something I personally care about that much though, plus my one experience with kissing has been unpleasant (didn’t really enjoy it, the “spark” thing is either a myth or my ex was just the wrong person).

OTHER:

90. Current best friend name: … T_T 91. Eye color: Dark brown 92. Favorite movie: Zootopia, probably. That movie made an impression :P

Not tagging anyone unless anyone wants to do this 

#pure boredom #about me #time in reverse things

[cubedcoffeecake]

Poptarts for Thanksgiving

"What is this 'Thanksgiving'?"

Tony jumped, spinning around to face the speaker, holding a pencil like you would a weapon--and realized it was just Loki. Sighing heavily, Tony put down the pencil and went back to what he had been doing.

"Thanksgiving is an annual holiday to commemorate a meal the first settlers in America had with the native Indians. We all eat a lot of turkey, potatoes, and stuffing and go around being thankful for what we have."

"...I do not believe I shall enjoy this holiday."

"No, you probably won't."

Loki had been sentenced to live in Stark Tower without his powers after he tried to take over the world. His punishment was not as severe as everyone was hoping it would be at all. Really, it was just as much a punishment for Tony as it was Loki, since Tony was the demigod's main caretaker.

There were several minutes of silence before Loki spoke again, startling Tony, who had thought he was alone now. "What shall you be doing for this Thanksgiving?"

Pausing, Tony thought about it for a moment before honestly replying, "I haven't really thought about it. Usually I ignore the holiday, but Pepper will probably want dinner."

"Do you not take her to dinner several times each week?"

"Thanksgiving dinner is special. You can't just go out to a restaurant."

"Then how are you going to receive food?"

"...Dang. I'm gonna have to cook it."

The smell of smoke was the first sign that something was wrong. Very wrong. Loki didn't know how the tower even could catch on fire, if it had survived an alien invasion, but he was definitely smelling smoke.

He didn't need to do any more than follow the faint string of curses to locate the source of the smoke--the kitchen.

Walking in, Loki saw the source of the smoke. "Oh dear. It must be that Thanksgiving," Loki said as he wrinkled his nose. Tony didn't deign to answer him as he ran to grab some water to douse the fire he'd started.

Right as Tony dumped the water on the flame, he felt Loki yank on his forearms, throwing him backward as the grease fire burst into a ball of flames when the water hit it.

Because of Loki's superhuman strength, he had been able to pull both Tony and himself out of harm’s way.

"Truly?! Even I know that you do not put out grease fires with water!" the demigod yelled, rushing over to the miraculously still-intact counter that had the lid to the burning dish of stuffing sitting on top of it. Loki covered the flaming pan with the lid and smothered the fire.

"I-I-The turkey!" Tony cried, staring at the burnt oven in horror. "Now I don't have anything for dinner!"

As if on cue, JARVIS suddenly announced, "Ms. Potts has entered the building." All of the color drained from Tony's face. He jumped up and ran out of the kitchen, wiping the various food splatters off his clothes as he headed toward the elevator. It opened just as Tony reached it and Pepper walked out, a smile on her face.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Tony!"

"Uh... Happy Thanksgiving, Pep."

"I came back early so I would have some time to make dinner," she said happily. Relief washed over him. He could just forget he'd ever tried to make dinner... Except he'd destroyed the kitchen.

"No! No! I mean, uh... You don't need to make dinner! 'Cause, uh, I..."

"Anthony is attempting to tell you he has made you dinner. He is simply nervous you will not like it," Loki lied smoothly, walking up to the couple.

"Really?" Pepper asked in surprise, turning to Tony.

His eyes were wide, but Tony stuttered something that resembled 'yes', and Pepper smiled.

"That's so thoughtful of you! Loki, will you be joining us?"

Now it was Loki's turn to gawk. "I-I was going to spend my evening reading, actually. Surely you would appreciate some time alone."

"Oh, we won't mind!"

"Uh, we means both of us." At Pepper’s glare, Tony quickly corrected, "I meant, we'd love to have you join us, Loki!"

Pepper's smile grew, ever so slightly, at Tony's response. "Well, come on! Is it in the kitchen?"

"No!" both Tony and Loki exclaimed together. "We mean," Loki quickly added, "Tony has gone to great effort to set the dining room for you, and the food is already there."

"Oh, all right," she said, turning to her right and walking toward the dining room. Loki and Tony hesitantly followed at a distance.

"Please tell me you used your magic to get us some food."

"How--?"

"You've got loose lips when you're drunk. Kept talking all about how you'd found a way around your magic restraints, but you figured you'd be in better shape if you just stayed here like you were supposed to," Tony replied.

Loki stared at him in horror. "I am never drinking an alcoholic beverage again!" he whisper yelled. Tony smirked.

"Wise choice."

Right then they both heard Pepper's gasp, and stiffened before she burst, "This is amazing Tony!" Their shoulders sagged in relief as they entered the room.

She was right; it looked incredible. The silverware was all done very properly. Loki knew well what order the knives and forks were placed in, being a prince and all. The dishes were crystal and very expensive looking. The food, however, was the best part.

There was a large plate of stuffing, mashed potatoes, what looked like a green bean casserole, buttered rolls, an enormous, glorious turkey... and a very out of place dish of Pop Tarts.

Tony turned to stare at Loki with a shocked expression when he saw the Pop Tarts. "You didn't," he mouthed. Loki ignored him and replied to Pepper's confused expression instead, as she too caught sight of the Pop Tarts. "I do not believe Anthony would have been able to survive a meal without junk food." She appeared to accept that answer, and sat down in one of the chairs. Tony reluctantly sat down in the chair next to Pepper, and Loki in the chair across from Tony.

"Tony? Will you pray for us?" Pepper asked.

"I'm not really the 'prays at the family meal' type, Pep." At her scathing look, he swiftly amended, "But we all make exceptions at Thanksgiving!"

Loki looked extremely uncomfortable with the entire situation, but sat quietly through Tony's prayer. As soon as Tony finished, the food was served. Everyone put a liberal amount of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, rolls, and green beans on their plates. Tony almost choked on his food when he ate his first bite, it was so good. Everything was flavored to perfection. The turkey was even moist.

"This is amazing, Tony!" Pepper gushed.

"Yeah, it really is! I need to cook more!" Tony replied, sounding equally amazed. Loki glared at him when Tony made this remark. Loki was noticeably pale from the strain of using magic through the restraints, and was not planning on teleporting more meals any time soon.

The trio had nearly made it to desert when catastrophe struck.

Tony and Pepper had been doing most of their conversing, but to their surprise, Loki was actually talking every now and then as well. A random comment about how he'd once seen a woman drag her husband away from a tavern by his ear while Pepper was berating Tony about his drinking habits, or a 'That creature sounds eerily like a bilgesnipe.' when Tony was telling Pepper about a monster that had been in a horror movie he had watched over Halloween. It was a vast improvement from his never speaking to them, with the exception of an occasional insult.

Because of Loki's ravenous appetite--using magic always made him hungry--, the turkey was all but gone, there was a large dent in the stuffing, half of the green bean casserole had been eaten, a large number of rolls had been devoured, and the potato dish had a sizable crater in its center. The only plate of food left untouched was that which held the Pop Tarts.

"I need to go to the restroom," Pepper said toward the end of the meal, causing both Loki and Tony to stiffen mid-bite. She stood up and began to walk toward the bathroom--which was located a few doors past the charred kitchen.

"Please--please please please--tell me that you can put an illusion over that door."

"I-Maybe before I teleported all of this food. Now, however..."

"..."

"..."

"Maybe she won't notice?"

"Yes, perhaps."

Both Tony and Loki sat chewing in tense silence as they waited to see what would happen. Their fears were confirmed when they heard a very angry "TONY!" echo from the hallway. Tony glanced at Loki in terror, but Loki kept his gaze fixed on the wall behind Tony, murmuring, "You are courting her, not I."

Reluctantly, Tony stood and followed Pepper. "Look, Pep, it isn't what you think--"

"Have I been eating a Thanksgiving meal purchased from a store?! That is an abomination!" she yelled.

"It is stolen, actually," Loki called from the dining room.

There was an eerie silence for a few moments before Pepper slowly stalked back into the dining room, a wide-eyed Tony silently following her.

"Do you mean to tell me that I have been eating stolen turkey?"

"...Yes."

"I can't eat stolen turkey!"

"It is better than the burnt crisp Tony was going to feed us!"

"Hey!" Tony exclaimed, dramatically hitting his chest. Both Loki and Pepper glared at him, and he quickly shut up.

"You-You ruiner of Thanksgiving!"

"Ruiner is not even a word! I would think that an educated mortal such as you proclaim to be would know such a thing!" Loki yelled, losing his temper.

"How dare you--" Pepper began, but Tony cut him off.

"Okay, that was not good, Loki. Seriously not good."

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it?" Loki challenged him.

"Well, I could fix your magic restraints so that they actually work--"

"WAIT." Both men stiffened, realizing the information they had just divulged. "Do you mean to tell me that the psychopathic murderer I've been allowing to stay on account that he is supposed to be harmless is able to use his magic?!"

"...Only a small amount, Lady Pepper."

"ONLY A SMALL--"

"OR!" Tony interjected, returning to what he had been saying, "I could make you tell me all of the things you're thankful for."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Yes, I believe that's a great idea Tony," Pepper stated.

"I disagree--"

"So! Two against one. Speak," Tony commanded, fighting a grin at Loki's alarmed expression.

"I..." He did not want to risk Tony being able to find a way to build magic restraints that he couldn't undo.

Loki took a deep breath, and thought about what exactly he was thankful for, Pepper and Tony watching him in anticipation.

"I suppose I am thankful that I am alive. And, I suppose, as miserable as this wretched Realm is, it is far more pleasant than the dungeon I would otherwise be held in."

He looked at Tony and Pepper to see if they had accepted his answers.

"What about Thor? Are you even slightly thankful he's your brother?" Tony suggested, grinning at the unfortunate demigod.

"I suppose... he could be worse."

"Loki," Pepper scolded, "You're pointing out silver linings. Come on, tell us something you're actually thankful for. We're not going to turn around and tell Thor."

Tony cocked an eyebrow at her. "We're not?"

"No, Tony," she replied, glaring at her boyfriend, "We're not."

Glancing down at his "magic restraints,” Loki sighed in defeat.

"I suppose I am truly and honestly thankful..." His face took on a pained expression when he said the word 'honestly'. "...that I have you, Anthony and Lady Pepper, to prevent Thor from striking me with Mjolnir when he realizes that it is I who stole his Thanksgiving dinner."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Y'know, that's good enough for me," Tony declared. "So, Loki; did you steal your brother's pies too? 'Cause I want some homemade pie."

"I can't believe," Darcy Lewis moaned, "That we labored all day making that meal, just for it to disappear through an Einstein-Rosy Bridge and become your newest obsession."

"Einstein-Rosen Bridge, Darcy, and I'm pretty sure I spent all day cooking while you played Mario Kart with Thor," Jane replied, not even glancing up from the screen of the machine she was using to scan the tabletop their meal had previously been sitting on.

The table had been dragged outside earlier that afternoon so that there would be more room for Thor, Jane, and Darcy to sit. Now, the once "spacious" dining area was littered with Jane's machinery as she attempted to find the cause of the food-eating wormhole.

Suddenly, one of the machines started loudly beeping, startling Darcy and Thor. Jane jumped up and ran over to look at the screen. "There's--It's--It's opening again!" she exclaimed. As she rushed to reach a small handheld device a few yards away that would measure the conditions of the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, said bridge opened and closed.

"Dang it!" Jane exclaimed as she turned around. The anomaly had already passed. Much to her surprise, however, something had come through the wormhole and was now sitting in the center of the table.

A very familiar plate of Pop Tarts.

#short story #fanfiction #thor #avengers