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goldenpixel · 3 years

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The scene with Wilbur in Quackity’s latest lore stream made me Think some Thoughts, and I wanted to get all of my SBI family headcanons together in one place, so here’s this post

First thing, this is their age order:

Philza -> Techno/Wilbur -> Tubbo -> Ranboo -> Tommy

- Techno and Wilbur were born on the same day, so most of the family refers to them as “the twins” but they are not blood related

- Philza did not know how old Techno was when they were ruling the Antarctic Empire, he thought that Techno was around 21 when he was actually around 14-16

- this is a fact that haunts Phil to this day, because he committed a massive amount of war crimes with an actual child, and also for reasons that will soon become very clear

Philza and Techno

- they’re married

- they got married with them each thinking that the other was close to their own age (Phil thought Techno was in his early 20’s, Techno thought Phil was in his late teens)

- for more on their marriage, check out this post

- despite Techno and Wilbur being the same age, Techno is mentally much older due to his past and his general status as the Blood God

- Phil did most of the work raising the older kids, but Techno did his fair share, and you can definitely see his influence when you look at the kid’s behaviors

- both of them are immortal

- Techno is a new immortal, the Blood God has only just come into existence, but he isn't leaving anytime soon

- Philza is an old immortal, he was there when the world was born, and he'll be there when it dies

Wilbur

- Wilbur and Philza are the only blood relatives in the whole family

- as much as he loves him, Wilbur has always been a bit bitter towards Techno, because when they were teenagers, Techno was off ruling and adventuring and having fun with Phil during the AE, and Wil was left home with a young Tommy to look after

- Wilbur’s hair is naturally blond, just like Phil and Tommy’s

- no one knows who Wilbur’s mom is (unfortunately mpreg is the norm on this server, so Phil carried him, and he’s got some ideas on who Wil’s mom is, but he honestly doesn’t care enough to look into it)

- Wilbur has wings

- they’re much smaller than Phil’s, he can barely fly with them, but they’re the same color and shape as Phil’s

- because of how fragile his wings are, Wilbur should not technically be able to fly, but he literally sheer force of will-ed it and threw himself off the roof of their house so many times that he can glide when he jumps from high places, and if it’s a really high place, he can get in a few good flaps of his wings to get him some extra distance

- Phil doesn’t learn that Wilbur can semi-fly/glide until one day they’re off adventuring together and Wil is being dramatic and theatrical and walking backwards while he talks, and he falls off a cliff

Tommy

- Tommy has been with them since he was a few days old

- because of his light features, most people assume that he is Phil’s son by blood, and he just didn’t inherit the wings

- (at ages 10 and 16, Tommy and Wilbur did the blood-brothers handshake where they cut their palms and then shook hands, so if you ask them, they’re blood brothers through and through)

- Techno taught Tommy how to sew

- Tommy is a young god, but he hasn’t grown into most of his powers yet

- Tommy is a god of death, the future Death himself, Kristen is his mother

- (this is how Phil comes into possession of him. Phil, being the Angel of Death, was really the only reasonable choice when it came to Death herself finding someone to raise her son)

- Tommy has light features, even though Mumza has dark features, because she purposefully made him out of the light, she wanted him to be good and kind, so she created him from the literal light that you see when you're dying

- because he was born from the actual moment of death, despite Tommy's eyes being blue, they hold the void itself in them

- if you look too closely into Tommy's eyes, it can be easy to lose yourself and fall right in

- sometimes Mumza comes to visit, these are very bittersweet moments for Tommy

- he loves his mom, and he loves seeing her and seeing Phil happy to see her, and she usually takes him along on her next trip, ever so slowly teaching him how to be Death, but he also hates that that is his future

- he doesn't want to be the next Death, he doesn't want to outlive all of his friends and his brother, he just wants to be normal

- because of this, Tommy represses pretty much all of his godly powers, trying to seem as normal as possible, the one he represses the most is his automatic healing, when he gets hurt, he wants to stay hurt

- he represses everything so well that its years before Tubbo finds out that his best friend is a god

Ranboo

- Techno raised Ranboo more than Phil did

- (because of this, he’s the only kid who actually views Techno as his father. Despite him literally being their stepdad, the others see Techno as more of a brother or an uncle)

- Techno found Ranboo when he was around 12 years old on the edge of a warped forest in the nether (if you want some more nether-boys hc’s, check out this post)

- at that age, Ranboo hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet due to malnutrition, so he was much smaller than the average human 12 year old, and everyone thought he was around 8-10 (because of his memory issues, Ranboo thought the same thing until Tommy kept pestering him about when his birthday was and he remembered the year)

- Ranboo is brought into the family when he’s 12, Tommy is 11, and Wilbur and Techno are 17

- as I said before, Techno may have been 17 when he took in Ranboo, but he was definitely a father to this anxious amnesiac preteen

- because of his height, Ranboo is constantly slouching to fit through doorways, inside houses, and to make himself appear smaller, so he grows to need a cane

Tubbo (and Dream)

- street cat

- they fed him once and he just kept coming back

- sometimes he’ll disappear for a few weeks, but he always turns up eventually

- boy’s got some family issues, some real bad family issues

- his dad is Schlatt, who left him and big brother Dream to fend for themselves when he and Dream were 6 and 11

- luckily Dream has an excellent sense of direction and memory, and got them to Aunt Puffy’s current port before she pushed off on her next adventure (but not before getting briefly separated and making some friends)

- (the few weeks they spend separated are when Tubbo first gets found by Wilbur and Tommy and forcibly adopted by Phil, and Bad lures Dream home with food and he meets Sapnap)

- both boys have ram features - floppy ears, horns, etc., Dream also inherited their Aunt Puffy's rainbow hair (he dyes it blonde semi-regularly. It's dyed when he meets sbi, and Wilbur and Techno have the exact same reaction to it when they finally see his natural hair: relentless teasing. Like father like son amiright?)

- Tubbo and Dream are half brothers (same dad, different moms), Tubbo is 1/2 ram and 1/2 human, Dream is 1/2 human, 1/4 ram, and 1/4 what he and Sapnap think is demon (basically Dream had a human-ram hybrid dad, and a human-demon(?) hybrid mom)

- when Tubbo introduces Dream to his new brother-in-law, Dream feels a bit of a kindred spirit, but he quickly brushes it off

- Dream spends most of his time either with Bad, Skeppy, and Sapnap, or on the sea with Puffy, so Tubbo mostly fends for himself

- Tubbo is more than happy to fend for himself, he actually prefers it most of the time. He doesn't like people fussing over him and sheltering him, so whenever his mood switches and he decides that he does, actually, want some family time, he just appears on sbi’s front porch

- Tubbo first meets Ranboo when he comes to visit after a few months away. No one told him that Tommy was with Mumza for the weekend, so when he arrived at 3am, 2 days before he told Phil he’d be there, he just let himself in and threw himself on top of the sleeping figure in Tommy’s bed, only to be met with a startled enderman screech that woke the whole house

- (Ranboo was in Tommy’s bed because he might not be a part of the official Clingy Duo, but the boy is as clingy as they come. He regularly sleeps in his family’s beds, both when they’re home and when they’re away, because his sense of smell is heightened as an enderman and he needs to be surrounded in their scent when he misses them or when he’s feeling sad (especially because these are the only scents he knows, he doesn’t remember any of the scents from before Techno found him))

Big brothers being friends

- one day, after Tubbo’s near-constant raving about how great the Minecraft family is, Dream agrees to visit with him

- this visit happens to fall during the AE, so the only ones home are Wilbur and Tommy

- Dream and Wilbur take one look at each other and their similar situations in raising their chaotic, problem-child little brothers, and never let go

- the four of them live together for a good 5-6 months before Dream gets a letter and he and Tubbo need to leave

- after this visit, Dream and Wilbur stay in contact, and they visit each other even without their brothers around to drag them along

- I know I said that Wilbur makes fun of Dream for dying his hair, but that’s only in public

- in private, Wilbur confesses to Dream that he also dyes his hair, that his hair is naturally blond and he dyes it darker. After this, Dream and Wilbur start dying their hair together, it becomes something scheduled that they both look forward to immensely each month

- the next time Dream and Tubbo visit together, Wilbur is off with a water spirit who stole his heart (I refuse to write about fish Sally, fight me), and Phil is showing Ranboo some cool builds in his current hardcore world, so it's Techno and Tommy who welcome them in

- Techno starts out pretty hesitant of Dream, but Dream almost instantly is like

- "I'm gonna annoy the blood god into being my best friend"

- and whatever Dream sets his mind to, he achieves

- so the visit sort of ends with Dream and Techno making Tommy and Tubbo promise not to burn the house down, and leaving them home alone to go off to cause some chaos together

Father/son relationships

- As I said earlier, Phil primarily raised Wilbur and Tommy, and Techno primarily raised Ranboo, with Tubbo coming in and out like a feral cat

- to Wilbur and Tommy, Techno is more of a cool uncle who brings them valuable trinkets from his adventures, and they want to be like him one day

- Ranboo and Phil’s relationship is almost exactly the same as Wilbur and Tommy’s relationship with Techno

- when Techno brought Ranboo home, Phil pretty much decided that he had his hands full enough with raising his two chaotic boys, and he declared that it was finders-keepers, Techno found Ranboo, so he gets to raise him

- after L’Manburg, Ghostbur and Phil learn sign language, because the explosion blew out Phil’s hearing in his left ear, and Ghostbur’s so soft-spoken that it’s sometimes really difficult for him to hear his son speaking

For more random hc’s I have about these characters and the characters of the smp in general, check out this post

Some quick tags for people who commented on my post asking who wants this post, thanks for the support guys :’) @anotherweirdohere @haveadayasgreatasyou @jupiterjordan

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shipcestuous · 2 years

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Recs

I would like to do a better job of reporting back on things that I watch that might serve as recommendations. I'm cautious about recommending things because I'm extremely particular myself and I don't want anyone to waste their time. We've all got different tastes and nothing is going to universally be considered good or shippable. So I try and give you enough information to judge for yourself.

I happened to watch three movies over the past couple of days that had family relationships worth mentioning. All non-canon. Spoilers for all these movies. But there's not much to spoil.

The first is C'mon C'mon, a new release A24 drama starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny, a man who has to take charge of his nephew, Jesse, for a few weeks while his sister, Viv, tries to help Jesse's father, who is mentally ill and having an episode.

It's a really good movie just all around, but I loved that Johnny, the brother/uncle, was so important to this family and so needed. He's been sort of distant, and he and Jesse grow very close and really get to know each other well, and Johnny understands Viv and her life in a way that he never did before.

I just love it when adult siblings need each other and I love it when aunts/uncles are important figures in the lives of their siblings' children. I don't know if Viv is separated or divorced from Jesse's father – he seemed to have his own apartment and be living on his own. I just love to imagine that Johnny might begin to take a father-like role in that family. Johnny and Viv interact mostly over the phone, so it's more of a situational thing rather than, “whoa, look at that chemistry”. But I just couldn't go on without mentioning it.

The second is Country Life, an Australian film from 1994. Here's the main plot:

Adaptation of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" set in rural Australia in the 1920's. Jack Dickens and his niece Sally run the family farm to support brother-in-law Alexander as a (supposedly brilliant) literary critic in London. Action begins when Alexander returns with his beautiful young wife Deborah, revealing himself as an arrogant failure and wanting to sell the farm out from under Jack.

Sally and her mother's brother, her uncle Jack, live on a farm in Australia where Jack and Sally's mother grew up. When Sally's mother died, Sally's father took off for England to be a part of the literature world. This was when Sally was quite young, perhaps even a baby. She and Jack have lived at the farm and worked it together for her entire life. And it seems somewhat remote, it's not near the city.

When Sally's father visits with his new young wife, Deborah, they all want to impress him but quickly learn he's not that great in any respect. Jack falls in love with Deborah, but she's not interested. Sally, meanwhile, is in love with the local doctor, Max. But Max isn't attracted to her, he's attracted to Deborah, and she feels the same. In the end, Sally's father and Deborah leave and every reverts to exactly as it was. Max knows that Sally has feelings for him, and so it seems clear enough he'll be staying away.

I probably should have mentioned from the start that Jack is not that much older than Sally. I thought he was her husband until she called him Uncle Jack, and I was very confused how they were related because it seemed strange that it was just the two of them, and Jack's elderly mother, I think, living there. The movie does a terrible job of laying out the information of who is who and how they are related to each other, but that's another discussion. Sally is a very sweet girl and she loves Jack very much. He becomes very upset about Sally's father, all the money he has paid him over the years, and the plans for the farm, and his unrequited love for Deborah, and he takes to drinking a lot, which obviously troubles her deeply. He gets so mad he tries to shoot Sally's father and that kind of snaps everything back into place, which was hilarious.

They’re disheartened at the end, but Sally says that the two of them can build a beautiful garden like the one that used to be there, and they’re both encouraged. So they literally have a plan together for the future.

I didn't even realize until the movie was over how much I shipped them and how shippable their situation was. I like to imagine, maybe a couple years later when their hearts have healed, that they begin to realize that they could have what they always wanted with each other if they just opened themselves up to the idea.

Most of this movie moves very slowly but the third act is lively. Overall it's not bad if you like period pieces where not a lot happens.

The last was Clifford The Big Red Dog. I was so excited when I watched the trailer and saw that Emily, Clifford's owner, would be having her big adventure with her uncle.

Emily and her mother Maggie live alone in New York. The father is not mentioned but is clearly not in the picture at all. Maggie's work requires her to be away for a long weekend. Emily doesn't want her uncle Casey to come babysit, but in the end he's the only one that Maggie could find to come do it. We don't learn a lot about Casey, but we know he's been living in his van ever since he broke up with his girlfriend and he can't seem to get his life together. He's not very responsible and all that. He seems to live in New York as well, and while we don't really know one way or another, I would imagine they see each other all the time. We do here reference to things that happened in the past – like he apparently has lost Emily on the subway twice.

The plot of the movie isn't really relevant to what I'm saying – Emily wants a puppy and Casey is responsible for once and won't let her take it home, but it ends up in her backpack anyway. It's a magic dog and grows very big because of how much she loves him. At first they try and figure out what to do with Clifford, like finding the guy who had him originally to see if he can reverse what happened and make Clifford smaller again, but when a corporation wants to get its hands on Clifford, they end up on the run and just trying to save him. Casey mostly doesn't want to get into trouble with Maggie, but eventually has to choose to do the right thing for Emily and Clifford no matter the cost.

Casey says that Maggie basically raised him, and also she has a British accent and grew up long enough there to keep her accent, whereas he was only a baby when the family moved to the U.S. Anyway, he's young, probably late 20's (but could even be mid-20s), and Emily is 12. They remind me a lot of Spencer/Carly – Emily is responsible with a strong moral center and Casey is...not that, exactly.

To sweeten the pot, Casey has no love interest. Emily has a new friend, more of an acquaintance really, who has a crush on her but there's not the least indication from her side that she would consider him like that. There's nothing. So I wouldn't call him a love interest either.

Also, when Casey finds out how rich Emily's friend is, Casey asks if he has an older sister. So the idea of Casey dating someone in Emily's generation is not crazy. And Casey is the only one besides Emily who rides Clifford.

I ship Emily/Casey more than Casey/Maggie. Like maybe she's still in New York for college and she has to swing by one morning to make sure he gets up in time for his important interview or meeting, and she's always doing stuff like that, until they realize there's an attraction, and particularly from her side she's like, “he's not even my type WHAT IS HAPPENING?” He's a slob and his jokes are dumb (even though she laughs against her will sometimes).

Casey/Maggie is an OK ship too, though. She's very pretty and Casey is extremely concerned with Maggie not finding out about everything that's going wrong because he wants her to be pleased with him for once. With no father in the picture, what if Casey moved in, and then it unfolded from there?

Lots to work with.

#nr #commentary #noiv #first post #r: brosis #r: un #nc #clifford the big red dog #country life #c'mon c'mon #jack and sally #jack and sally: commentary #johnny and viv #johnny and viv: commentary #casey and emily #casey and emily: commentary #casey and maggie #casey and maggie: commentary #tw: incest

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suffering-and-happy-about-it · 4 years

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Breezeblocks (Peter Parker's iPod, Part 1.)

Revisioned and revisited: September 2023 🕸️

Description: The blip was hard. Dating Michelle Jones was a daily pleasure in Parker's life. So... It was even harder to swallow when MJ announced to Peter that things weren't working as she wished they would. That happened one month before they starting attending university. Now, Parker is unsure if he can handle falling for yet another amazing girl.

Part Summary: Peter Parker was thrilled about going to university. Too sad he hadn't a girlfriend to share the experience with.

A/N: First off, in this AU we shall be pretending Mysterio didn't bitch out Spider-Man's real identity, and because of that, No Way Home won't happen. Also - each chapter in this story will be named a song Peter could have on his iPod, at least according to me. I do not accept no as an answer (jk). I am not from the USA so I actually have zero idea about how GPU and SAT work and also, let's just assume they're going to an unspecified uni in NY, not MIT because I really want Aunt May to be in this story (I said what I said). Also, excuse my enthusiasm when it comes to May and Peter's relationship. Marisa's version of May is my favorite ever because she actually looks like what I'd imagine an aunt to look like. Ofc, Sally's version blew me out of the water multiple times, but I just think that Marisa and Tom were a match made in heaven when it comes to May/Peter's relationship. There's nothing better than watching her open up a topic and Peter just immediately panicking and shutting it down because he's so awkward. Also, Marisa's version got closest to passing on the Spider-Man principle and I couldn't be happier about it.

Fun fact: In the #15 issue of the Spider-Man comics (1962), it actually isn't Uncle Ben who gives Peter the pep talk. It actually comes in the form of closing narration at the end of the issue and Lee says "With great power, there must also come great responsibility".

Word count: 7K

Tagging: @eridanuswave

Master list: H E R E | Peter Parker's iPod: P L A Y L I S T

Peter Benjamin Parker.

If Peter was standing amongst a crowd of people, there was a great chance that you wouldn't notice the boy. Even if the selection would be narrowed to a singular line, the boy probably wasn't catching anyone's eyes first... At least that was what he thought of himself. Confidence could be a huge issue when it comes to Parker. Everyone who knew him better knew that Peter has a heart of gold and the unbreakable spirit of a golden retriever, that he's also very sweet and shy... But those weren't qualities you'd notice at first glance.

Who even was Peter Parker? How would he describe himself? He'd most likely start by stating that he was born and raised in Queens. Secondly, he'd mention his undying love for memes, legos, and pop culture. Thirdly, he'd mention his enthusiasm for science and his highly valued internship at Stark Industries. Rightfully so, the internship wasn't given to simply anyone; Peter was brilliant enough to earn it on his own, yet he wouldn't admit that in a million years. Then, Peter would trail off and start talking about how he wasn't good with fashion or cooking but loved math and chemistry, his favorite subjects. The boy would definitely admit that he's a dreamer and believer. On the subject of his looks, Peter wouldn't describe himself as attractive in any way. He'd tell you he's just your normal, everyday guy who basically disappears when put amongst a crowd.

Well, if you'd ask MJ about Peter, she'd most likely list a long list of qualities she admired about him. When it comes to Peter's appearance, MJ would most likely grin and flush before stating that Parker was breathtaking when he wasn't paying attention. It was the small moments she found him the hottest. For example... It was the way he bit his lower lip when solving a math problem or the slight furrow as he tried to understand a joke. Parker was admirable when he got flustered, especially when his cheeks reddened and his eyes started to shine. She adored the way Peter looked right after he woke up or when got fully hooked on the movie they were watching and fell in love along the main characters.

At least that was what MJ would say about Peter before it happened. Before she sent Peter a text to meet her in the bistro they frequented, right before she sat down at the box and looked Peter in his eyes. That would be before she told him what was on her mind and that, in her opinion, they'd be better off as friends. From that moment on, Parker would say that's broken-hearted and confused as hell. From his point of view, everything was going great. He loved it when he could simply... Knock on MJ's window after a patrol and snuggle with her in her room until they both fall asleep. He'd usually leave early in the morning, after a horde of hasty kisses and giggles - so her parents wouldn't find him in MJ's room. The boy was over his heels for her, even after the year they spent together.

Just a month ago, he and MJ celebrated their first anniversary. She was seemingly happy and in love as they sat on top of the Brooklyn Bridge, swinging their feet around as they ate the food Peter had prepared for her (even though he was a horrible cook). The boy also asked May for help with picking out the bouquet consisting of MJ's favorite flowers - she bought Peter a very expansive toolbox he was gushing about for months on end. Everything seemed to be filled with happiness... Until it wasn't. Sure, Peter knew that having him as a boyfriend wasn't the biggest win due to his Spider-Man-related responsibilities, but... MJ knew that he'd be busy at times. That there would be days or weeks they won't be able to see each other. And yet, she seemed happy. She had never brought up the topic when they talked about serious stuff. Until now. Until she simply announced Peter she can't do this anymore.

At first, Peter sat there in shock as the waitress brought their order - two milkshakes and french fries. His mouth was hanging wide, his fists deep in the pockets of his hoodie. His brain had trouble deciphering what Michelle just said. MJ, on the other hand, was twitching on the other side of the table, waiting for any reaction. She waited for literally anything Peter would do... Or say... But his brain froze, seemingly. This reaction was making MJ rather worried as she licked her lips and leaned closer to Peter, controlling the boy's breathing. She also measured the time he hadn't blinked for - an impressive minute and thirty-eight seconds.

Parker was well aware that if MJ told him all of this information, she must've been thinking about it for a long time. The girl presented every point as concrete evidence as to why it wasn't working between them. Two months before they were supposed to start attending university, the last summer of real teenage freedom. They both dreamt about this summer, about all the road trips they're about to do as well as other plans about which they talked many, many times. MJ even planned every single detail of said plans. And now, she... Peter knew there was very little he could say or try to change Michelle's mind, but this couldn't be happening, right? This must've been yet another awful nightmare, surely. She didn't... Did she?

"What?" - Peter asked, voice riddled with confusion. His voice cords were cracking as he fought the urge not to cry. MJ was looking all over the booth as she tried to come up with an answer; she shifted her posture multiple times, licked her lips, and rearranged her hair before answering. "Peter... This... I... 'We' simply isn't working for me anymore. I don't know what changed, really, but... The longer we're dating, the less I see you - you have barely texted me in the last three weeks. When we hang out, you're absent, thinking about other stuff that bothers you. Ned has begun to notice it as well. How many times did we meet up in the last week, huh?" - There was undeniable sincerity in her voice as she fought the urge to crack up and cry. Seeing Peter sad and vulnerable always made her emotional. She hated seeing him suffer - but was also tired of her own suffering. This was MJ's way of dealing with important decisions- fast, straight to the chase, no playing games.

"B-But... MJ, I have my responsibilities that can't be thrown away. I-I can't just say 'To hell with it, I'm not Spider-Manning tonight'. That's not how this works." - The boy answered finally, pain and disbelief in his voice were clear as day. MJ took a deep breath, trying to stay calm to guide Peter as well as herself through this confrontation. "That's correct, Pete, but I am... Was your responsibility as well. Of course, not as big as your superhero gig, but still... If you want a working relationship, there need to be two people present in it, right?" "I wasn't present? What?" - The boy chuckled dryly, trying to catch his breath as he held back tears. - "I texted you each time I could, called you whenever it was safe... I dropped during every patrol to kiss you, just to wish you a great day and... And..."

"Listen, I know you tried your best, I really do. We both did. The point is, you shouldn't promise me vows you weren't confident in keeping. It's that simple. I'm unhappy with how things are and can't sit about, watching us both puddle in this mess. And sadly, I realize that if you'd attempt to strain yourself even more just to fix this relationship..." - That was when MJ caught his palm in hers, giving Peter a watery smile. "You're already juggling so much, Peter. There's Spider-Manning, the internship, university, and helping Aunt May in FEAST... You'd go insane. And I don't want you to burn out. Sometimes, things simply... Don't work out the way we planned them. And that's okay." - MJ took a sharp breath in, staring at her milkshake as she took the first sip of it to cool off a bit. "You sound so disappointed in me, MJ. Do... Do you want me to leave now? To just... Disappear out of your life?" - Parker's face was flustered, eyes restless, and the point of his ears were burning hot. All Parker wanted to do was to go home, get in bed, cuddle up into a small ball, and watch movies until he falls asleep. On top of all the chaos inside him, Peter really wanted to cry. To be alone, to take the pain in and let it dissolve. May taught him that he should let the pain breathe at its own pace until one day, it won't be there anymore.

"No!" - She blurted immediately, shaking her head. - "No, I don't want you to leave and I don't want to cut ties with you. At least in perspective. I realize that it will be better for both of us to go off the radar for a bit, to figure our stuff out... But... Eventually, I'd be more than happy to be friends with you again." - She admitted weakly. MJ really struggled when expressing emotions at times, and this was one of those "times". But one thing she knew was that she didn't want Parker out of her life - she just couldn't be in a relationship with him. "I like you, Peter, but not enough to love you anymore. There will always be a place for you in my life - at my table in the uni's canteen, at my flat during study sessions, and any time you need a friend to lean on. If that's what... You'd... Also like, of course." - The girl explained, letting his hand go as Parker tried taking the tension and panic washing over him. He sat up, brought the straw of his milkshake to his lips, and took the first french fry.

"Flat?" - The boy breathed through his mouth because his nose was full from holding the tears back. MJ smiled sheepishly, nodding. "The one you helped pick out, remember? I've talked to the landlord and I'll be moving in after a trip to Washington we planned with Betty." "Are you... Moving in with Betty in the end? Haven't even told me how that turned out." - There was little to no confidence in the question because Peter tried to speak as few words as he could. He was worried his voice would give out any minute. "I talked about this with you two weeks ago, Peter..." - MJ admitted silently, huffing out as Peter just proved her point. Whatever was happening, they were growing more and more distant lately. - "No, I am not moving in with Betty. Turned out there was a different girl who responded to the insertion first. She's interested in the apartment as well, and she's willing to split the expenses in half. The landlord gave me her number, and we met at a coffee shop near the uni. We talked about how we'd imagine living together, what's a no-no and what would we expect from each other. I think we'll get along well, she gave off great vibes."

Then, the long and awkward silence started - the two youngsters sat at the table, sipping on their shakes, slowly getting through the basket of exquisite french fries. They were the reason Peter and MJ chose to frequent the bistro - it was affordable for middle-school students but offered some great food choices as well. "I'll go now, MJ. I don't know if I can talk to you... At the moment." - Parker admitted under his breath, trying to clear his throat without crumbling to pieces. As usual, he pulled out the cash and tucked it under the caster, leaving a generous tip for the waitress. Just as he was about to rush out of the bistro's door, MJ caught his wrist and made him look her in the eyes. "I meant what I said, Peter, okay? I still feel good around you, I do. And I still see you as my best friend. I would hate it if you'd just give up on our friendship after everything we've been through together." - Yes, MJ realized how cliche everything she just admitted was. She realized how horrible and selfish it must've sounded. And yet, her feelings for Peter were still deep. All she wanted for Parker was for him to... Be happy. And to relax a bit. It was simply the wrong place and the wrong time of their lives to start dating.

"Honestly, right now, I don't know if I'd be able to do that, MJ." - Peter admitted and with that, his voice finally cracked. First tears rolled out of his eyes as he stared down at MJ, shaking her palm off. The duo knew each other for the longest time and they've been through so much and yet, Michelle had never seen Peter this distraught. - "As you said, it'll be better to get off the radar and think about... Stuff. Have... Have a nice summer, you deserve it." And with that, Peter left the bistro and walked into heavy summer rain, pulling his hood over his head.

As Peter set on his walk, finally being on his own, he had a lot of things to think through. Everything that MJ accused him of and was unhappy with... It hurt. It was burning Peter alive. She opened a gaping black hole in the middle of his chest, he'd swear that he could feel his heart slowly deteriorating with each step he took forward. To be frank, he hadn't seen their relationship the way she did. And maybe, as he thought about everything on his way home, he started seeing why MJ was so upset about everything. When was the last evening Peter had the time to crash on the sofa and watch movies with Ned or to just buy a whole-ass Lego set and build their hearts out? When was the last time he talked May down to have dinner with him to simply... Chat about nonsense? When was the last time their entire group gathered at their favorite Mexican bistro and had an adventurous night that ended with an awful karaoke session?

Parker was constantly on the run these days - preparation for the SAT and the fuss surrounding their graduation took massive amounts of time off his hands. During the last few weeks, Peter also spent serious loads of time helping May with running FEAST, mainly due to the org being ridiculously understaffed. Rather than seeing May trying to do everything by herself, Peter prompted himself to help her since he hated seeing her tired, working herself to the bone just so she would be able to pay for his university. After the sun settled down, Peter usually put his suit on and patroled about until he felt his eyes were starting to burn or close themselves. This was his life. This cycle was tiring him to death. Sometimes, he even wandered into his small laboratory located in Brooklyn - that was the supposed internship MJ mentioned briefly. Pepper Potts offered him the lab as a safe place where Parker could experiment to his heart's desire; it was one of the last gifts Tony left for Peter and she wasn't going to keep it away from the boy. As he thought about it, he realized how little time he had for his friends and family; sure, they were seeing each other on a daily basis yet there wasn't any real time to sit down and deepen their connections. As his mind wrapped around the fact that he isolated himself due to the massive workload, Peter started to cry even more.

And now with the university semester starting soon, all the tests, studying along with his current obligations... Where will Spider-Man get enough time to also be Peter Parker? If he had to say just one thing about MJ, it would be that although he lost himself to all of his duties, she was his rock. Anytime Peter felt that he wasn't able to press on, he knocked on her window and held her in his arms. Usually, he'd stay the night to have a really good rest. Even though May had never mentioned it, Peter had the feeling that she was well aware of her nephew sneaking out to spend the night with his girlfriend. And God, she was also well aware of how necessary that was for Peter.

There was only one circumstance she asked Peter to abide. It wasn't even a full-on conversation, May simply mentioned it one night as she passed Peter's room. "Can I come in for a moment?" - The woman asked, leaning her shoulder into the doorframe of Peter's room. The boy was just studying, empty cups of hot cocoa and tea laid on the table mixed with chaos consisting of notebooks, pencils, geometry utensils, highlighters, and textbooks. Peter himself was sitting on the chair, resting his eyes for a bit. "Uh-uh?" "I'd like to ask you about something... I didn't know how should I... Open up this topic with you, so I asked my assistant, Corrie, you know Corrie, and she thought an analogy would do wonders."

"Uh-uh?" - Peter nodded, the tone of his voice growing suspicious. May entered the room with a few small steps, sitting on the edge of his bed. The look on her face was making Peter worried. "I know that Michelle is a wonderful young lady..." - May started carefully, alerting Peter almost immediately. Sure, they had their bees and butterflies talk multiple times (which Peter suffered through with his eyes rolling each time), but May couldn't stress it enough. She was simply worried about the young couple as well and she tried showing Peter that... Sex is just a casual part of one's existence. There was nothing more human than to talk about it. And honestly, even if the topic could get a bit iffy at times, she'd be rather if Peter approached and asked for her advice than to do something stupid. - "... And for my sake, I'd like to ask you to... Hm... If you really love her, wear a cover." "MAY!" - Peter squealed in horror, closing the textbook with a loud thud. The boy turned to his aunt with his eyes popped out, staring at her with his mouth open. By the look on her face, she wasn't done with him yet.

"No glove, no love. Don't make a mistake, cover your snake. Cover your stump before you hump..." "I get the message you're trying to get across, May!" - Peter cried, his voice cracking and cheeks flushing. May stopped reciting the slogans. At that moment, Peter was so embarrassed that he hadn't even tried to imagine how many more May memorized before she approached him with the topic. - "I get your point and appreciate your concern and I don't think we have to cover it again!" His aunt was looking at him as if she was searching for something but furrowed a bit, nodded, and stood up. Without saying anything else, she patted Peter's shoulder and left the room - yet just before she closed the door, she turned back to Peter and whispered his name. "Love you, kid." - The woman whispered with sincerity, hoping she'd get a response. Sure, her bond with Peter was close and they told each other these kinds of things often, but there was still a small part of her that got worried every time. "I love you too, May." - Peter answered without hesitation, making May smile contently.

To one extent or another, Peter understood why May tried bringing the topic up multiple times - the sadder he was that he and MJ never... Sure, they kissed and did other... Stuff like heated make-out sessions, undressing to their underwear, sometimes even more... But they never really found the appropriate moment to... He remembered it clear as day when May mentioned that the moment would be right if he felt this subtle click. Not only May mentioned it, he heard multiple times that he should feel it coming, that moment and impulse when he thinks 'fuck it' and just goes for it. And for both his and MJ's sake, Parker really hoped he'd be able to man up soon and... But the click never came for Peter. He was perfectly capable of making the first step and he fully realized that MJ was the most beautiful girl he had ever laid his eyes on, but he never felt ready to snap and just do... That.

Now, it was too late to try taking everything back. All Peter could do was live with the consequences of his actions as well as with all the failures that followed up as the outcomes. Peter lost himself somewhere along the road home. The streets were empty due to the heavy rain and all he recalled was that he stopped on the bridge to take a long breath. He lost all sense of time, watching the river below him. When Peter finally entered their apartment, he noticed May sitting at the kitchen table with a deep furrow, her phone in her palm - clearly, she was trying to reach out to Peter to ask him where he was and when he was coming home. May was also terrified that there's a possibility that Peter got himself into some investigation again, chasing bad guys somewhere. However, due to being Spider-Man for quite some time now, Peter learned better than to leave May in the dark - he usually informed her that he wouldn't be available for a bit and let her know that she better be ready to call the ambulance or the police.

That summer evening, however, couldn't have been different. The moment her eyes landed on Peter, all of that terror and anger left her. Her beloved nephew, her little boy, was looking miserable. His eyes were red, there were huge red spots on his cheeks that came up anytime Peter cried, and the dark circles under his eyes became much more prominent. His usual chaotic and energetic spirit was nowhere to be seen - the boy simply stood at the door like a picture of misery, waiting for May's reaction. In an instant, May put her phone down and walked over to Peter to close the door behind him, hug him tight, and cradle him in her arms, letting out a long sigh. She also took the cloak off his head and kissed his temple, scratching his scalp with her fingers.

"Where were you? I was so worried, Pete." - May whispered, feeling as Peter returned the hug forcefully, bursting into tears once more. His grip was maybe a bit too tight for May's liking, but she didn't say a word. Peter needed her at the moment. She could feel her clothes soaking, but she didn't pull away. "I wanted to be alone for a bit." - Peter admitted silently, trying to wipe his tears. "Okay, that's fine. Would you like to talk about what's going on?" "MJ... She... We..." "Oh, honey." - May whispered into Peter's hair, kissing the top of his motherly. Her own grip around Peter tightened as her other hand started to carefully rub his back.

Neither of them knew for how long they simply stood in the hall and embraced each other. It was long enough for Peter to calm down a bit, take a breath, and finally let May go. Her clothes were soaked with rain water but she still couldn't care less. "Would you like to talk about it? Or is it too soon for you?" - May asked, smoothing his cheek. "I don't really wanna talk about it at all." - Peter answered honestly, letting May nod at his statement. She was well aware that right now, Peter was going through the worst of it - of course, he didn't want to talk about anything. She had a suspicion, though, that Peter would come to her when he was ready. "How about you get into the shower and put some warm clothes on while I prepare you a cup of hot cocoa? I bought some tarts, they're in the fridge, and then... We can watch a movie?" - As made the offer, she was worried that Peter would turn her down, rather go for a patrol than take a day off. Sure, May would partially understand why Peter would want to work all of the stress out, but she also realized how dangerous that could be if it'd became a habit. The relief she felt when he smiled carefully and nodded was very intense. - "That sounds like a great plan, May. I'd love to do that."

The following month seemed to pass by without Peter taking notice. Before he had the time to grasp the fact, he was officially a university student. The boy took everything MJ complained about to heart - he tried his best to take it slow, to savor certain moments and make more time for his friends and family. Sure, he couldn't do much about the patrolling that needed to be done, but spending time with May became his priority. Peter still spent a lot of time helping around FEAST, such as helping with moving shipments in and serving food to those in need, but he also made sure that May got her rest. Peter's way of making May rest consisted of taking her out for dinners, for which Peter even offered to pay if he had the cash on him. Sometimes, they set on a walk through Queens, sitting around the benches in the park, listening to various street musicians playing. There were few instances when the two even got to see a movie in the cinema - which they hadn't done since Uncle Ben died. On the nights neither of them felt like leaving the apartment, they usually baked various sweet goods, cooked or played board games, Scrabble being May's personal favorite.

While making sure he's spending enough Peter time with May, the boy also prioritized spending time with his best friend Ned. Ned Leeds was someone who had been there for Peter since forever. Neither of the boys could precisely date how far back their friendship goes, that's how long they've been friends for. It was much easier to spend time with Ned - both of them shared their excitement for science and robotics, so Peter oftentimes asked Ned to hang out in his secluded Brooklyn lab where they could do whatever they pleased. The lab in Brooklyn was also a very bittersweet gift to Peter. Sure, it was his own small universe where no one could tell him what he should or shouldn't do, but... It reminded him of Anthony Stark each time he entered the code into the notepad and entered it. Calling it a 'lab' was probably exaggerating a bit - it was located on the top of a tenement and consisted of one room and a toilet. There was a small kitchen counter in the room as well as a few technical facilities at which Peter was free to create whatever he pleased, yet more than half of the room was empty. While Stark gave Parker the means to fulfill his basic scientific needs, there was a whole work ahead of Peter as well as space to expand into. A space where he was free to come up with whatever.

It wasn't even properly decorated; the only decoration left behind by Stark was a picture of the duo. It was taken on the day Peter started his so-called 'internship' for Stark Industries. The one where he held the plack upside down and gave Tony rabbit ears. Ever since Peter obtained the code from Pepper Potts, he carried over a few decorations to make the place feel more lived in - a few really cool movie posters, photos of him and his friends, and a few trophies from his American Decathlon contests. The lab also became an ideal hiding spot for all of his outdated Spider-Man tech. Parker felt most serene when he could pick his old utensils apart and modernize them, branching out with new possibilities and prototypes. This was an activity both he and Ned enjoyed endlessly.

Sometimes, the two boys simply ordered a take-out and spent their nights with scientific research. Other times, the two boys just sat at the small round dining table and watched movies or memes until they got tired and called it a day. Slowly, Ned started bringing other stuff over to make the lab even more lived in - there were small Lego Minifigures everywhere on the shelves, inside the cupboards and some even made into the fridge - Peter knew better than to ask Ned about those. Other than Minifigurines, Ned brought over a few Lego models, small colorful carpets his grandma knitted, and a few old books related to science. Peter started to love this small place hidden away from everything and everyone.

To Peter's surprise, MJ stayed true to her word and didn't leave the boy behind. She was the first to break the silence, sending Peter a very funny meme that made him chuckle sourly. Now, with hindsight over the relationship and well-sorted thoughts about all the stuff MJ told him, he didn't even cry upon seeing the meme. He even responded. If anything, MJ's behavior was making him conflicted and confused about the break-up. It felt as if nothing changed, as if they never started dating - she kept on sending him various memes, silly thoughts, stuff that weirded her out, and photos of her surroundings or the stuff she was up to. During that time, MJ mostly hung out with Betty Brant, their mutual friend from high school. The personalities of the two couldn't clash more - while Betty was outspoken, fierce, didn't take no for an answer, and wasn't afraid to ask questions that overstepped every boundary of politeness (it could be seen that she'd be a great journalist one day), MJ preferred to be isolated, observed her surroundings very carefully and loved to talk about existential questions, oftentimes going too far with them. However, despite being different, the duo made their friendship work; which could be seen in many photos MJ shared with Parker - there was a picture of Betty holding an ice-cream cone as MJ's palm held a cone in front of the camera, a photo of them in front of a theatre since they decided to on a play. MJ wasn't shying away from sending Peter a ton of pictures of their trip to Washington.

There was even this one time she texted into the group chat, which hadn't been used since the afternoon the pair broke up, and asked if they'd like to hang out. MJ was testing the waters, waiting to see Peter's reactions - unsurprisingly, while Ned and Betty seemed to be on board with that idea, Peter didn't bring himself to open up the chat. He never answered the text.

When the morning of Peter's first uni day rolled around, their apartments turned into a tangle of chaos. Parker was over the moon while simultaneously worried sick because it was supposed to be the first time he'd officially see MJ since the breakup. May, on the other hand, ran around the flat and made sure Peter had everything he could potentially need. "May, you need to chill a bit." - That was right after she asked Peter if he had money to buy himself lunch for the fifth time. - "It's just the first day of the semester, I'll be fine, I have some change on me." - May put her palms on her waist, watching her nephew for a few. Then she walked closer to kiss the top of his head and ruffle his hair in a motherly gesture. That made Peter snickered as he turned away slightly. "That's the thing, I know you can take care of yourself and you've managed to pack everything... I'm just worried because I still see that little adorable boy who forgot his backpack on his first day of middle school... I'm just worried you won't need me anymore, you know?" "Oh, come on, don't you get sappy on me now." - The boy chuckled, joining May on the couch. First, Peter sat down and then bumped his shoulder into hers. When May returned his gaze, Peter could see the tears in her eyes; May always got extremely sentimental and sappy on occasions such as this one. - "There's no way in the whole universe that I wouldn't need you anymore. I'll always need you, May. You're my aunt, remember?"

"Oh, you!" - May exclaimed softly, sobbing quietly because she wasn't able to hold the tears in. Peter stood up, looking at his phone to see what time it was. Just before he was about to leave the apartment, he raised both his hands and called out to May, making the woman turn in his direction. - "How do I look? Is it too much? Too little? Or somewhere in the middle?" "You're looking like a very promising and good university student who is ready to steal all the ladies' hearts." - May answered, making Peter roll his eyes - that made her giggle. With that, she walked to the apartment door to make sure it was closed after Peter left. - "I'm just kidding, you're looking fine. It's time to leave now though, you promised Ned that you'd stop in that cafeteria for a cup of... Something." "Right. Love you, May!" "Love you too, kiddo! Go get 'em, tiger!"

An hour later, he and Ned entered the campus with cups of coffee in their hands. And the view simply enchanted Peter - the buildings looked beautiful as well as the park surrounding them. Sure, he had walked and swung around this place a million times before, but this was the first official time he'd walked into the campus as a student. The pride, as well as nervosity inside his chest, was making him excited. The boy couldn't wait to start his biophysics major consisting mainly of biomedical and molecular studies. Both he and Ned simply stood on the main plaza and looked around with their mouths hanging open - since it was the first official of the semester, the main plaza was filled to the brim with various stands offering various extracurricular activities, like joining the choir, various sports clubs, and a wide range of scientific activities. Peter had a feeling that Betty would love the debate club (MJ would love it too since she loved arguing with other people about facts) and he also noticed, that the university's newspaper was looking for new blood; ideal for Betty. The way he knew MJ, he would bet that she'd join one of the activist groups and he could even imagine that MJ would be a great addition to the student government. As for Ned, Peter didn't need much more than seeing the expression on his face as he took notice of the science club stand as well as the Science Fiction Society stand. Peter thought about joining some clubs himself too, but there was a lot of very careful planning in order to make his extracurricular activities work along with Spider-Manning and his personal life. Also, the overall feeling of the place was different. At first glance, the students seemed to be way more mature than high schoolers. Both Peter and Ned knew that it was simply the first impression and they sure as hell were as immature as their past schoolmates. As they walked around the plaza and received a million fliers, Ned was telling Peter about this very cool movie he had seen recently. His eyes were wandering all around - taking in a very robust fountain in the middle of the plaza that was overtaken by students sitting around it, and other students sitting under the old trees all over the park. Some were playing cards, and some were just laying about or talking.

Suddenly, the tingle made Peter's head turn over his shoulder as s he watched some girl riding a bike very fast. The problem was that neither her bike's brakes or bell worked, so she yelled as loud as could, asking people to move out of her way. Peter, who noticed her at the last moment, pushed himself and Ned out of her way. As he looked back at the girl, the time seemed to slow down as she looked back at him; mind you, she was riding the bike at a ridiculous speed and yet, she chose to turn her head back to Peter. Parker watched the girl with his mouth open, taking in her flowy white dress with daisies all over it accompanied by a shabby denim jacket and masterfully done, messy hairstyle. Her bag was almost falling off her shoulders, making the girl look almost ridiculously chaotic and disorganized. But there was... Something about her. Something that captivated Peter so much that he wasn't able to look away. While the two boys watched as the rider disappeared into the crowd, still yelling for people to jump out of her way, Parker couldn't help himself and kept on staring in the direction. It was when Ned patted his shoulder when he noticed that he was saying something.

"Thanks, bro, I owe you one. Hadn't got any idea that the university also has a course for illegal street races..." - Ned breathed out, having Peter chuckle at his statement. Both the boys turned to an incoming person who wanted to check if they were alright - MJ was hurrying their way, leaning her palms to her knees and catching her breath when she finally reached the duo. Betty followed behind, waving in the boys' direction. Everything Peter felt just a minute ago was gone - as he looked MJ into her face for the first time in a month, his expression became bland and blank. The gaping hole inside his chest reopened a little and reminded him of the heartbreak, yet he made a lot to fill the hole up. At least he wasn't about to cry while looking MJ in her eyes.

"Hey, guys." - The girl looked at both of her friends with worries, tucking a strand behind her ear. - "Saw that psycho almost running you over. All your parts where they should be?" - She continued, grinning a bit at her own question. Ned was supposedly really glad to see MJ after such a hiatus, hugging her briefly - when MJ wanted to greet Peter, he simply nodded in her direction and took a step away from her, not letting the girl in his personal space. "Peter to the rescue again, we're just fine - but we seriously need to report her to someone, that girl is a public menace." - Ned answered, exchanging a hug with Betty as well. The petite blonde girl didn't hesitate and briefly hugged Peter too, making MJ's heart sting uncomfortably upon the sight.

"Nah, trust me, we don't need to go through all the paperwork and such She's a little headstrong, but I'm sure that after whatever this is, she'll finally take that damn bike for a checkup." - Michelle headbutted as the party of four walked closer to the fountain. - "Betty and I told her a million times not to ride the bike after she almost crashed it under Queensboro bridge last week. Her argument? The bike hadn't fallen apart so far so it doesn't need a checkup." "I'd hope she'll get it checked. Seems that the brakes stopped working altogether." - Betty joined in, sighing tiredly. That was when Peter spoke to MJ for the first time in weeks.

"Do you know her?" - Parker asked immediately, almost too eagerly. MJ was surprised and blushed at his question, but she nodded nonetheless. "Well, she's pretty weird and probably a bit crazy, but that's what makes me gravitate towards her in the first place. I like weird." - MJ stated as a matter-of-factly, making Betty nod in agreement. Yea, both Ned and Peter had to admit that everything MJ said was describing her perfectly. All four of them watched as you got off that old, rusty bike and started to lock it in place as if anyone would attempt to steal that piece of crap. In MJ's opinion, not even the puniest of criminals in Queens would touch that bike with a pole and they'd even pay you to keep it. - "That's Y/N, she's the roommate I told you about, guys."

#peter parker #peter benjamin parker #spider-man #spider-man mcu #ned leeds #michelle MJ jones #michelle jones #mcu #peter parker imagine #betty brant #peter parker x fem!reader #spider-man x fem!reader

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Left Behind - Chapter 43

PART 1 / PART 2 / PART 3

Chapter 37 / Chapter 38 / Chapter 39 / Chapter 40 / Chapter 41 / Chapter 42

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If her leg hadn’t have been killing her, she would have probably been standing and pacing the arc of the circular lounge. Her leg was aching though and Lucy wasn’t sure she was capable of holding herself up.

Not when Eos had said she was on to something.

Not when that something was a signal from deep space.

Not when deep space was where they thought Jeff was.

“Here.” Val murmured as she sat down next to her, “Drink.”

Part of her wished the water was alcohol. Part of her knew that it was one too many chick flicks that made her wish for the cliche.

Her mind was spinning with possibilities though, even if she didn’t dare to think his name for fear of temping some sort of fate.

“I’m not sure I can stomach it,” She whispered, glancing over to Gordon as he returned from possibly the quickest shower she had ever seen.

“Anything?” He asked, russett eyes not leaving the scrolling jumble of data highlighting the room.

“Not yet,” John murmured from his seat, hand gripping tight on to Ridley’s, their argument about the AI apparently forgotten for the moment.

Taking a breath, Lucy looked back to the hologram, suddenly wondering how on earth she was to thank an AI for helping them as Eos was. Not that she had actually done anything yet, but Lucy could see that she was trying, and she knew that had to count for something.

Maybe she really was changed, even if it had only been a matter of days. People were capable of change, she only had to look at herself to know that was true. Computer programs updated and refreshed constantly. Could the same not be true of an AI?

“Scott said you’d found something!” Alan exclaimed as he came screeching to a halt at the edge of the lounge, “What? What is it?”

She held her arm out to him, hoping he would accept the request and take a seat under her arm.

“We don’t know yet.” John told him with a sigh, “Eos detected a signal from the same source as before, she’s trying to decode it now.”

Scott was still frowning as he took a seat on John’s empty side, “She couldn’t decode the last one, how can she decode this one if it’s from the same place?”

“It’s less d-degraded.” Hiram informed them, “R-readings from Thunderbird Five s-suggest that the rem-menants from a solar flare may have b-been enough to disrupt the first signal. It m-may also be why th-this signal is so p-poor.”

“If we waited a month we’d probably get a near perfect signal through.” John added.

Lucy couldn’t help but scoff, “I’m not waiting a damn month.”

Scott nodded in agreement, “How long will we have to wait?”

Virgil was quiet as he cleared his throat, “We shouldn’t get our hopes up.”

Alan tensed under her arm, straightening towards his older brother with a sudden glare.

“What else can it be?” He snapped, “There’s nothing else possibly in deep space!”

Squeezing his shoulder, she shook her head, “We don’t know that Allie,” She swallowed, not liking to think of the possibility, “Nobody has ever been out there. Maybe the Calypso is on its way back, but we have no idea what they might have found out there. For all we know it could be a fault in their comms.”

“It can’t be!” Alan exclaimed, “It has to be something!”

Scott was watching his youngest brother, leant forward with his elbows on his knees and hands braced behind his neck, clearly also afraid of what they might not find.

“It could be anything,” Val murmured from beside Lucy, “For all we know it could be Gaat.”

Lucy froze at the comment, eyes widening in realisation and thought.

“Mom?” Virgil prompted, “What is it?”

She shook her head, “Your Aunt has a point. Gaat did always have a flare for dramatics, especially when…” She trailed off, knowing that the boys knew everything now but telling them still not coming naturally.

“When you dated?” Scott grimaced, “No offence Mom, but he has tried to kill you since then.”

Gordon snorted as he leant back in his seat, “Every bad guy has a theme though Scott, geeze did you never watch the movies?”

Val squeezed her shoulder, offering a tight, sympathetic smile as she shook her head. Lucy leant into her, resting her head against Val’s shoulder as she sighed. Her mind was spinning, full of so many questions of what and how and why. It probably didn’t help that anything even slightly strenuous still took energy from her like water from a leaky bucket.

She knew that not even Sally - sat directly across from her- would scold her for pushing too hard though, not when it was a question of--

I don’t know if anyone may receive this.

The shift of the hologram drew all of their attention, dragging Lucy back upright as she read the words.

But I’m still out here. The ship launched. I’m in deep space.

Lucy swallowed, her hand finding Val’s and gripping tight.

Tracy Island, I could do with a lift home if you get this.

“I believe that this is the entire message,” Eos elaborated, “I have cross referenced it with what I could of the previous message and they seem to match.”

Silence met her, nobody quite able to talk. Nobody sure of what there was to say.

“Thank you.” Lucy whispered, swallowing and looking to the second hologram alongside the first, “Eos, thank you.”

“He’s alive.” Sally croaked, “My boy’s alive.”

Virgil was quick to move to her, wrapping his arm securely around her shoulders and holding onto her tight. As Lucy smiled across to the older woman, she found her own cheeks wet, too many emotions to properly process flooding her at once.

“So,” Alan started, hesitant and soft, “what do we do? We’ve gotta do something, right?”

“And we will Alan,” Scott replied for her, even his voice thick with emotion, “We’ll figure something out.”

Pulling the youngest into her side, Lucy took a long breath, “Orbital alignments aren’t going to be right for years yet, plus we have no way of getting out there.”

She could feel the weight of her words as they settled on the room, everyone's shoulders falling slightly at the thought. They knew he was there, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it.

“Eos, dear,” Sally murmured, “Do you think it might be at all possible to send a message back?”

The circle of lights lit up a soft shade of blue, her voice softer as she replied, “Oh yes, it would be quite easy. I believe that the ship Calypso is in close enough proximity to the true origin of the sign to be used as an amplifier.”

Hiram looked up suddenly, eyes wide as he looked from the hologram to Sally, to Lucy and then back again.

“Mrs Tracy, we can use the Calypso.”

She frowned at him, tilting her head as Sally straightened, beating her to the question, “What?”

The engineer pushed his glasses up his nose before reaching out to the hologram and bringing up a new image. Lucy remembered it from months ago, weeks before her accident had even happened, the assumed coordinates of exactly where the Zero-X had gone.

“This is where we b-believe the Zero-X is. And this,” A pause as a badge was added to the image, “is where we know the Calypso is.”

Alan pulled away from her, “That’s not where the Calypso is meant to be.”

The shift of the great ships flight path was subtle, but Alan was space mad, hooked on anything that related to man’s exploration of the great unknown. She should have known that, out of her whole family, he would pick up on the differences.

“We might have borrowed it, changed the flight plan,” She shrugged, “Just slightly.”

Gordon was grinning, “Ooo Mom playing espionage, I like it.”

“The Calypso is where I traced the signal back to,” Eos informed them, “I would imagine without it we would not have received the message.”

Hiram waved the AI off with his hand and a shake of his head, “What I am t-trying to say is, if we turn the Calypso back, once we get close enough to Mr Tracy’s location, a landing pod could be used to pick him up before the ship returns to Earth.”

“How long would it take?” Scott asked, eyes darting from the hologram to Hiram, “To pick him up?”

His shoulders sunk as he glanced back to Lucy, “The calculations are still in p-progress, most likely m-months.”

She shook her head at him, “It’s the best we’ve got. I’ll have to ask permission from the Calypso’s owners though.”

“I’ll arrange a meeting next week,” Scott nodded eagerly, “When we go over for you to start physio.”

It was hard not to scoff at the thought, physio hardly seemed important in the grand scheme of things. Jeff was out there, he was alive and they had a way of contacting him.

He’d murder her if he found out she wasn’t looking after herself.

“You’re still going to physio.” Val told her in no uncertain terms, “When he gets back I’m not getting blamed for you not looking after yourself.”

When, She swallowed at the thought, When he gets back.

“Meanwhile,” Scott started as he stood, “I think you and Grandma have a message to send, perhaps from your office?”

Lucy looked to her mother-in-law, “What do you say Sal?”

She smiled as she stood, gesturing for Lucy to go first, “I say four years is plenty long enough, let’s not waste another minute.”

#thunderbirds are go #Thunderbirds 2015 #thunderbirds fanfic #Lucy AU #lucy fic #scribbles writes #Scott Tracy #John Tracy #Gordon Tracy #alan tracy #Virgil Tracy #Lucille Tracy #grandma tracy #Aunt Val

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idiot-extraordinaire · 4 years

Text

Date Night, Interrupted

Summary: Brittany and Santana just want a quiet date night at home. Their evenings has other plans.

Part of the Pancakes and Mr Snuggles 'verse.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26035702 https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13677597/1/Date-Night-Interrupted

There are certain things that are just facts of life.

Fact. The earth revolves around the sun.

Fact. A euler brick is a cuboid.

Fact. Friday night is date night.

Both kids are asleep by 8:30 pm. The TV is playing as two glasses of wine sit on the coffee table as “The Proposal” plays on their TV. Brittany’s head rests on Santana’s lap as Sandra Bullock huffs and gets down on one knee in the middle of the street to propose to Ryan Reynolds. Santana rubs circles in Brittany’s back and the blonde hums contentedly.

The blonde pushes her herself up, lifting her head off of Santana’s lap. Santana’s wearing her glasses and Brittany thinks she looks that special combination of super adorable and sexy as hell.

“What?” Santana asks, noticing a glint in her wife’s eye.

“Do you wanna make out?”

She asks it as casually as one would ask someone if they wanted pizza for dinner.

Santana chuckles. “Totally.”

Santana removes her glasses and places them on the coffee table to avoid them getting crushed and pulls Brittany down for a kiss. Brittany’s far too eager to return it and her hands move down south to cop a feel of Santana’s ass through her shorts as the brunette grasps the back of Brittany’s neck to deepen the kiss.

Sometimes it feels like they’re still a couple of horny teenagers.

They’re like that for a while. They remain on the couch, trading kisses as hands and lips roam slowly, like they have all the time in the world.

A phone rings.

Santana whines against the crook of Brittany’s neck in annoyance.

“Is that yours or mine?”

Brittany cranes her neck over to look at the coffee table.

“Mine,” she reaches for the device to see who is interrupting her sweet sweet lady kisses. “It’s Quinn.”

“Call her back, tomorrow.”

Brittany hits the decline button, tosses her phone back on to the table. It made a sound that she’d be more concerned with if she didn’t have more pressing matters to attend to at the moment.

Speaking of which, Santana’s lips are currently pressed against her neck. Brittany’s fingers graze against her bare hipbone, causing Santana to gasp when she hears another ring.

The pair look over and it’s Santana’s phone this time. Brittany leans over again and retrieves the phone.

“It’s Quinn, again.”

Santana huffs in frustration.

“You should pick it up. It might be urgent if she called us both.”

Santana takes the phone from Brittany and accepts the call, as Brittany starts manoeuvring off her wife and back onto the couch.

“What do you want, Fabray?”

“Good evening to you too, Santana,” she hears Quinn greet on the other line.

“Why are you bothering me and Britts on date night?” she cuts straight to the point.

“Look, sorry if I’m interrupting your sexual escapades-’

“You are.”

“But I’ve turned the house upside down trying to find Lucas’ dinosaur. He can’t sleep without it.”

“And?”

“I can’t find it anywhere, but I think he brought it to your place when the kids had their playdate today. Can you check if he left it there? It’s a little red t-rex.”

Santana sighed and relented. She empathized with Quinn and she did love Lucas. She also knew Mike was out of town on business till tomorrow, so the little boy probably really did need his dinosaur.

“I’ll check. If it’s here, one of us will come by and drop it off.”

“Thanks, S. Call me if you find it.”

Santana ended the call and looked back up at Brittany.

“How is it that we’ve been out of high school forever and Quinn is still cock-blocking me?”

------------------

The kids had been playing in Sophia’s room earlier in the day, so Santana tip-toes in, making sure not to wake her daughter and trying not to stub her toe on anything.

The star-shaped night light gave her enough vision to look for the lost dinosaur. Most of the toys were in a little toy chest next to the six and a half foot tall, Mr Snuggles. Santana didn’t have to rummage far to find the little red dinosaur, mixed in amongst the other playthings.

Lucas must have left it there during their playdate this afternoon.

Having finished her mission, Santana proceeded to head back out, before noticing Snoopy on the floor next to the bed. She picked up the lost white dog and carefully tucked it in next to Sophia, who was hugging her unicorn, her dolphin also within arms reach.

“Sleep tight, baby girl,” she whispered, placing a light kiss on the little girl’s head.

-------------------------

Santana texted Quinn a quick update, advising her friend that she’d found the lost dinosaur and Brittany was headed over to drop it off now.

“Tell her this totally makes us even for the lost binky incident,” Santana said.

Brittany chuckled as she patted down her pockets to make sure she had the car keys, when Santana tossed her a sweatshirt.

“It’s chilly outside.”

Brittany unwrapped the balled up item of clothing to find it was Santana’s NYU sweatshirt. Really, it was only fair at this point, given that Santana had stolen her MIT sweatshirt back when they were on tour with Mercedes and basically claimed it as hers ever since.

“I won’t be long.”

Santana gave her a quick peck on the lips. “I’ll be waiting.”

------------------------

Santana takes the time Brittany’s gone to wash up the glasses and tidy the living room. There’s not much, so she finds herself back in front of the TV when she hears footsteps.

“Mama.”

She finds her son, rubbing his eyes, having wandered out into the living room in his PJs.

“Ollie, baby, it’s past your bedtime,” she approaches him and crouches down to meet him at eye-level. “Are you ok?”

“I woke up,” he says. “Can’t go back to sleep.”

“Aww, sweetheart,” she stands up and gestures back to the hallway. “Come on, I’ll tuck you back in.”

The two of them return to his bedroom, the moon-shaped night light still on over the side of his bed. Santana lifts the covers and helps him get back into bed, where he hugs the little yellow duck he’s had since he was a baby. It takes her a moment, she can barely believe he’s six years old already.

“Comfy?” she asks, as she finishes tucking him in, fluffing the pillow and placing a kiss on his forehead.

He nods. “Mama?”

“Yes, Ollie?”

“Can you read me a story?”

“Sure,” she smiles. “Which one do you want?”

He thinks for a moment. “Cat in the Hat.”

Santana moves over to his bookshelf. It doesn’t take her long to find the book in question, sitting amongst his little collection of Dr Seuss books. They’re his favorite, he likes the rhyming. She then makes herself comfortable on the bed, with only the nightlight and the light coming in from the hallway to let her see. Ollie rolls onto his side, so he can face his mother while she reads to him.

Santana turns the first page.

“The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day. I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two. And I said, ‘how I wish we had something to do!’”

------------------------

Quinn and Mike only lived a fifteen minute drive away, so Brittany managed to get there with no problems (ok she may have grazed the neighbour’s mailbox, but that was nothing).

She rang the doorbell to be greeted by a slightly frazzled looking Quinn.

“Looking for someone?” she asked, holding up the dinosaur.

“Oh thank God, I could kiss you,” Quinn said, letting out a huge sigh of relief, taking the toy from her.

“No thanks, Santana’s waiting for me to get home.”

Quinn rolled her eyes. “Well, thanks anyway. He couldn’t sleep without it.”

Brittany looks down, to find a small boy with dark hair and hazel-green eyes materialize next to Quinn.

"Hey, buddy," she grins at him.

“Look who Aunt Brittany found,” Quinn turns to him, holding out the little red dinosaur.

“Rexy!” he grins and hugs the dinosaur tight. He then turns to the woman standing outside the doorway, still clutching his dinosaur, tightly. “Thank you, Aunt Britt.”

Brittany can’t help smile - even if it did interrupt her date night - and affectionately ruffles his hair. “You’re welcome, Lucas. Make sure you don’t forget Rexy next time, okay? Mr Snuggles might decide he wants to adopt him.”

Lucas giggles a little and nods. “Promise.”

“Alright, sweetie, we need to get you back in bed,” Quinn turns to her son. “Say good night, I’ll be in to tuck you in in a minute.”

“Good night, Aunt Britt.”

“Good night, Lucas,” she says, before he wanders off to bed.

“Thanks for bringing it back,” Quinn says standing back up. “ He cried earlier when we couldn’t find Rexy. I think he’s really been missing Mike the last few days.”

“I guess he’s not the only one,” she remarked at her friend’s tone.

Quinn sighed. “Yeah, you could say so.”

“He’ll be home tomorrow, Q. Besides, we try to alternate so the next trip is going to be me.”

“Does that mean I should expect frantic calls from Santana to interrupt my evenings, then?”

Brittany chuckles. “Don’t be surprised. Anyway, she told me to tell you that this officially makes us even for the lost binky incident.”

“Fine, we’ll call it even,” Quinn rolls her eyes, with a laugh. “I’d ask if you wanted to come sit for a while, but I know who’s waiting for you at home.”

“Good call,” Brittany winks, heading back to her car.

------------------------

When Brittany got home, she expected to find Santana waiting for her in bed or perhaps in the living room with another glass of wine.

Instead, she finds both rooms empty, but is guided when she sees the door to Ollie’s room is ajar and peaks in to have a look.

Santana’s sleeping in Ollie’s bed. She’s still in a semi-seated position, with her back against the headboard, still wearing her glasses, Cat in the Hat half open on her lap, but her eyes are closed. One of her arms is wrapped around Ollie, who is fast asleep, clutching his ducky.

The sight of it makes Brittany’s heart melt. It reminds her of the times she’d come home and find Santana asleep with a baby resting on her chest when their kids were infants.

She tiptoes into the room and gently wakes Santana with a kiss on the cheek and a gentle shake.

“Santana, babe,” she whispers.

“Hmmm?” Santana stirs, blinking the sleep out of her eyes and taking in her surroundings and her wife. “You’re back.”

“I am.”

“I must’ve dozed off reading to him.”

“You’re adorable.”

“Adorable wasn’t really what I was going for on date night.”

Brittany wiggles her eyebrows. “Well, you wanna continue what you were going for? Night’s still young.”

Santana grins as she carefully gets out of bed, making sure Ollie doesn’t wake up and placing the book on top of his shelf. She then takes Brittany’s hand as they make their way to their own bedroom.

“Definitely.”

------------------------

Santana’s running her hand under Brittany’s shirt, her fingers grazing past her ribcage, as Brittany leaves kisses on the underside of Santana’s jawline.

“Mmmm, baby,” Brittany lets out a hushed moan, when they both hear a crashing sound from outside and both look up in alarm.

When they hear an echoey meow, Santana is significantly less alarmed and more annoyed, when Brittany sits up and the brunette is forced to move off her wife so that she can get out of bed to investigate.

Santana flops back onto the bed, clearly displeased and stares at the ceiling.

“I hate that cat.”

------------------------

Brittany examines her surroundings and enters the kitchen to find a certain fat cat’s large behind poking out from the kitchen trash can and helps lift him out.

“There’s no tuna in there Tubbs, you should be careful,” she tells the cat, examining him to make sure he’s not been hurt. “You can’t just go sticking your nose into everything. It's dangerous. Besides, it’s date night. Your moms need their lady kisses.”

Tubbs, unharmed, pays little attention to this and waddles off, swishing his tail, while Brittany puts the few pieces of trash that came out during Tubbs’ exploration back in the bin. As she washes her hands in the kitchen sink, she hears a voice sniff.

“Mommy?”

Brittany looks down and finds her three year old daughter, clutching her unicorn and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Soph, what’s wrong, sweetie?” Brittany asks, quickly scooping up the little girl into her arms.

“I had a bad dream,” she whispers into her mom’s ear, not letting go of the unicorn as she wraps her arms around her mother’s neck.

“Oh, sweetie,” Brittany pulls her closer and rubs her back. “It’s ok.”

“Can I sleep with you?”

“Of course, baby girl,” she says, wiping a few tears tracks on her daughter’s face, with her thumb.

Brittany gives Sophia a cup of water to drink before they go to bed. The little girl giggles a little because it’s from her favorite cup, the one with a unicorn holding a soccer ball.

“Someone had a bad dream,” Brittany informs Santana, Sophia still in her arms as they enter through the doorway to the master bedroom.

“Oh no,” Santana pulls back to covers. “Come ‘ere, Princess,” she reaches out her arms as Brittany puts their daughter down on their bed and Sophia scrambles up into the bed to give her mama a hug.

“Do you remember what it was about?” Santana asks, as Brittany climbs back onto her side of the bed.

“No,” Sophia shakes her head and sniffs. “But it was scary.”

“It’s ok, baby girl. You’re safe here,” Brittany kisses Sophia’s cheek, as Santana pulls up the covers so that she’s nestled between her moms.

“All good?”

Sophia nods.

“Try to get some sleep," Santana rubs her back. " Mommy and I are right here.”

They both watch over Sophia as the little girl closes her eyes and seems to have little trouble falling back asleep.

Santana and Brittany share small smiles, though both knowing that date night is definitely over.

“Mike and Quinn are totally babysitting next Friday,” Brittany whispers.

#brittana #brittana fanfic #santana lopez #brittany pierce

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boredout305 · 4 years

Text

Kat Talley Jones (Urinals/100 Flowers)

John Talley-Jones and Kat Talley-Jones, Santa Barbara, California, circa late 1978/1979.

Kat Talley-Jones was an early photographer of The Urinals and 100 Flowers. She is the lyricist of “Ack Ack Ack Ack” and has compiled an impressive 1978 to 1983 gigography of The Urinals and 100 Flowers. Talley-Jones is the wife of the bands’ bassist and vocalist John Talley-Jones.

Professionally, Talley-Jones is an independent exhibit developer and writer. She’s worked on teams that created the Dinosaur Hall and Nature Lab at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and visitor center exhibits at Mammoth Cave National Park, Devils Tower National Monument, Badlands, National Park, Stones River National Battlefield, and Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area among many others.

Talley-Jones is still involved with The Urinals and 100 Flowers, taking photos and contributing in countless other ways, something she’s done since the late 1970s.

Interview by Ryan Leach

This interview originally ran on Razorcake’s website.

Ryan: Where did you meet John (Talley-Jones)?

Kat: Like John, I come from a military background. I was born in Italy. I later lived in Japan, the (Washington) D.C. area and Iran. I met John at the University of Texas at Austin. We gravitated towards the same circle. There were Texans and then there were army brats. We had a different frame of reference than other people did.

John was walking down the hall of the dorm I lived in. I had pulled a picture out of the NME of Kevin Ayers and put it on my door. Kevin Ayers was wearing some blue silk jacket. It was a great photo. I loved Kevin Ayers, The Soft Machine and the Ayers, Cale, Nico, Eno album.

Ryan: That’s a great live record.

Kat: Yeah. My roommate was a lesbian, so we had a nude pinup of a woman on the door too which was very scandalous—we hoped.

Ryan: At that time in Texas it was. Even in Austin.

Kat: Right. John and a friend of his were walking down the hall. They stopped, saw the photos on the door, and wondered, “Who lives here?” I opened the door and there was John, wearing blue eye shadow, black nail polish and a toothbrush around his neck (laughs). We got to know each other after that, running in the same circles. I went out with a guy and John went out with his sister—you know how it is being college aged. Everyone is switching partners.

John left UT. His parents thought—and maybe he did too—that film school would be better at UCLA than at UT. That probably wasn’t the case, but John left for California. My parents had moved from Iran to Redondo Beach. So we got back together again. It’s complicated.

Ryan: John had mentioned that he had moved to San Francisco before attending UCLA.

Kat: He was in San Rafael in Marin County. He lived with his aunt and uncle and worked at a bookstore in San Rafael. That was before he went to UCLA.

My parents went back to Iran. I moved in with my brother in Santa Barbara. I was living in Santa Barbara, John went to UCLA, and then we started going out. I did not see the first Urinals iteration when they played the talent show at UCLA. However, I did see the first three-piece show at UCLA with Kevin (Barrett), Kjehl (Johansen) and John. That was on the fourth floor of Dykstra Hall.

Ryan: Had your parents not moved back to California, would you have likely stayed in Austin?

Kat: Probably not. At that time, there wasn’t really a scene yet. It was sleepy. It was a place where you could get by getting stoned, paying $100 a month for an apartment. I was ambitious, but I didn’t happen to paint or anything. I didn’t love Austin. Just as I was leaving, friends of mine were forming The Huns. We would go to Raul’s and bands like the Skunks were playing. The Ramones and Patti Smith came through there. So there was stuff, but LA felt much more exciting.

Ryan: You mentioned The Huns. So you knew Phil Tolstead and the rest of the band?

Kat: Yes. Phil was an Air Force brat. We had a mutual friend named Victoria (Jones) who Phil went to see the Sex Pistols with in San Antonio. She had lived in London. We were people with a broader background. I can’t say that above everyone in The Huns. I’m still friends with Dan Puckett who played keyboards in the band. I knew their drummer, Tom Huckabee. My boyfriend at the time had a crush on him which was awkward (laughs). I was getting away from that situation too. My parents moving back played a part. But my brother was at UCSB and needed a roommate. I thought, “Well, I’ve got nothing going on in Austin, so I’ll live with him.”

Ryan: You took a lot of early Urinals photos—obviously, for most of their record sleeves. Was photography something you had been pursuing previously?

Kat: Well, I had a camera (laughs). It was just because I was there and I had one. I wasn’t really trying to be expressive. I didn’t take that many photos of shows; the cost of film and developing was expensive. Also, with the low light, the photos often came out horrible.

Ryan: You need an SLR and a lens with a low f-stop. Even then, results aren’t guaranteed.

Kat: I had a Canon FTb camera. I was the beneficiary of trickle down: my dad would get something new, and I’d get the old version of whatever he replaced it with. It was a nice camera that was unfortunately stolen. I didn’t take photographs as a means of self-expression. I just had a camera and I was standing there.

Ryan: If you don’t mind me digressing back a bit, did your parents have to flee Iran when the Shah fell or had they already moved back to the States? I can’t help but think that all of this—you having lived in Iran—played some part in the naming of “Surfin’ with the Shah.”

Kat: Yes, they did. They went on Christmas vacation and never went back.

Ryan: Amazing. I’m glad to hear they got out safely.

Kat: Yeah. My dad was an army officer. He liked that kind of excitement (laughs). I was in Iran and John would write me and send me punk mixtapes. Iran was very much on his mind. I would say that had a lot to do with naming of the song, “Surfin’ with the Shah.” But not the modality or anything.

Ryan: What years were you in Iran?

Kat: I was there when I was in high school, so 1970-1973. I then went to the University of Texas. I was an insane overachiever and graduated UT in three years. My parents moved back to Iran. I went to visit; I thought, “Why go back to the States? I can get a job here.” So I got a job typing repair logs for Bell Helicopter. I came back to the States with something on my resume: “I’ve had a job!” When I moved back to Austin, I was employed by a contractor that worked for the Air Force at what was then Bergstrom Air Force Base.

Urinals practicing at Dykstra Hall (UCLA). Photo by Kat Talley-Jones

Ryan: Going back to the early days of The Urinals, do you recall the first 7” EP (self-titled) coming out?

Kat: Oh, sure.

Ryan: You took the photo for the back cover. I can only imagine being part of a self-released 7” was pretty exciting back in 1978.

Kat: It was very exciting. I had been a prog fan. I loved Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It seemed so out of reach; what ordinary mortal could release a record? To think that you could control the means of production that way was amazing. I can’t remember if that’s the one with the taped piece of Super 8 film on it, but I certainly sat down with Kevin and Kjehl and taped pieces of film on one of the labels. I stuffed the singles too into the plastic bags. I would go around with John and we’d drop the records off to stores on consignment. I was still living in Santa Barbara. I recall going to record stores there. People were often extremely uninterested, because the records were so handmade looking. Not all of the record stores—even the independent ones—were interested in the DIY thing yet.

Ryan: I grew up in Newbury Park, between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. I found it surprising that The Urinals played an early show in Santa Barbara (at George’s on November 4, 1979). The recording was recently released as a live LP, Pin the Needles. You must have been the conduit for that show.

Kat: Yeah. There was a band that was playing up there, The Neighbors, and someone in the group worked at a record store in Goleta. I would go and hang out there and that’s how that connection was made. Santa Barbara doesn’t seem that likely, does it? There wasn’t much going on up there.

Ryan: Nearly zero. You don’t think of Santa Barbara and punk.

Kat: There was a little bit. There was The Rotters.

Ryan: That’s true. Lance Loud was from Santa Barbara.

Kat: But he had moved on.

Ryan: Right. To New York.

Kat: I lived in Isla Vista. The Rotters played a park there and I saw them. I would walk down the street and people would yell, “Hey, punk rock!” Nobody looked like that in Santa Barbara then. There was this club called The Fubar in Goleta. I saw Magazine play there. There were probably 15 people there. It was not a crowd. People didn’t know about them.

John might not frame it this way, but I was also pretty instrumental in setting up the Raul’s shows in Austin (March 27, 1978, and March 28, 1978).

Ryan: That’s interesting.

Kat: Phil Tolstead had been John’s roommate (at UT), so I can’t say that they weren’t close. But I had a connection with the Huns. The Urinals played with the Re-Cords (at Raul’s) which was Tom Huckabee from the Huns’ band. They also played with the Norvells which was Sally Norvell’s band. I don’t have a specific remembrance of setting the Raul’s shows up, but I was always writing letters to (Huns keyboardist) Dan (Puckett), Victoria (Jones) and less to Phil (Tolstead). Phil could hardly manage to write you back. We were in touch a lot. When the Huns had their bust (September 19, 1978), they sent me a T-shirt with the image of Phil being arrested by the police officer. I still have a photo of me wearing it. I think I have the original cover art for their 7”. Victoria painted the cover and sent it to me. I’ll have to look for it. I’ve got boxes filled with stuff.

Ryan: It’s pretty amazing that the first Urinals show outside of UCLA was in Austin at Raul’s. Do you recall trekking out there?

Kat: I think we drove out to Austin in Kjehl’s Chevy Caprice. It was a small Chevy; it wasn’t big. We crammed everyone in there. My particular gift is that I wake up very early. When everyone else can’t drive another moment, I’m starting to wake up. With the four of us we were able to make it to Austin in one shot. I think it was 27 hours. We just brought guitars. Kevin borrowed Tom Huckabee’s drums. We stayed with friends and drank a lot of frozen margaritas. I think those two shows at Raul’s happened over spring break (1978). That was the only time everyone could get together to leave town.

Ryan: That makes sense.

Kat: Yeah. We weren’t in school or working.

Urinals performing at a house party. Photo by Kat Talley-Jones

Ryan: Can you talk about writing “Ack Ack Ack Ack.” As far as I know, it’s your only songwriting credit, but it’s a great one.

Kat: Right. Why not stay on a highpoint? I had heard the news reports about Brenda Spencer, the girl who shot some kids in school. It was the same event that inspired the song “I Don’t Like Mondays” (by the Boomtown Rats). I was thinking about that. When I was a kid, as everyone does, I’d play war with friends. We’d chase each other around and pretend to shoot each other. The boys—I don’t know if it was genetic or what—but they could always make that machine gun sound better than I could. I was always jealous. They could vocalize “Ack Ack Ack Ack” and I couldn’t. It was a word you’d see in comic books. I always liked it as a sound. Why did I name the subject of the song Johnny? Possibly because of John.

Ryan: How did the music come together? You wrote the lyrics and John composed the music?

Kat: I wrote the lyrics. I typed them up. I was still in Isla Vista. I probably mailed them to John. But we saw each other virtually every weekend. I would drive down (to West Los Angeles) and occasionally he’d drive up. But John had an old Volkswagen that couldn’t get over the Conejo Grade.

Ryan: I lived right at the top of the Conejo Grade for years. I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Kat: Yeah. So John would take the Greyhound Bus to Santa Barbara and he’d smell like the bus for a day or two. It’d take a while to get that smell out.

Ryan: Los Angeles to Santa Barbara isn’t too far. Nevertheless, it’s still about a two-hour drive.

Kat: There would be a Urinals or 100 Flowers show. Afterwards, I’d sleep until about 4 AM. And then I’d scoot out when there was no traffic to work. I had a Buick Skyhawk with a V6 engine. It was a terrible car; the clutch cable would always break. I’d drive it straight to work. It’s no wonder why I didn’t get the best performance reviews.

Ryan: Do you recall taking the photo for the Presence of Mind 7” EP? It has a real dada feel to it.

Kat: John came up with the idea. I think it was taken at Kevin’s apartment. I don’t know why it was just John and Kjehl (on the front cover). It feels like Kevin was developing in another direction. He had gotten extremely political. I wrapped them up in newspaper and took the photo. That one turned out nice because the black and white was more saturated. It seemed like the photos for the other albums were washed out. We may have had a rudimentary darkroom; it’s possible we made the prints ourselves. That sounds like something we would’ve done. It’s insane to me that we have so few photos. We just couldn’t afford it at the time.

Ryan: You’ve compiled an amazing Urinals and 100 Flowers gigography. How did you put it together?

Kat: I had these tiny datebooks my dad would get from the USAA. I would get one and he’d keep one. When we lived in Iran, I’d make daily notes. What I was doing in Tehran, the dates I’d been on and other things. I had a habit of making daily notes. Later on, I went back to those little pocket calendars and made that gig list. It’s moderately accurate.

Ryan: It’s an incredible resource. I didn’t realize 100 Flowers played Phoenix with the Meat Puppets (on October 17, 1981). I thought those early shows at Raul’s in Austin was the only time the early incarnation of the band left California.

Kat: We drove in Seabiscuit—the name I gave my horrible Buick Skyhawk. Again, it was Kevin, John, Kjehl and I and we drove straight to Phoenix. We left early. I remember Savage Republic drove out too and played; they might have been called Africa Corps then. I did take some decent photos of that show. It was at a boxing ring (Phoenix Madison Square Gardens). There’s a nice one of John and David Wiley that I took. David was in Human Hands.

Ryan: The Consumers too.

Kat: Right. We stayed at David’s house. Bruce Licher and the other Savage Republic guys stayed with the Meat Puppets at their place. The Savage Republic guys were pretty clean cut, but the Meat Puppets took acid and were playing cowboys and Indians over them all night.

Ryan: That makes sense.

Kat: Yeah (laughs). It was always kind of a blitzkrieg thing. We actually spent one night in Arizona. 100 Flowers played in San Francisco. We drove up for the gig and then drove back home (to Los Angeles) afterwards. It was pretty horrendous.

Ryan: I’ve done Los Angeles to Phoenix and back to see a show. It’s pretty rough.

Kat: It’s doable.

Ryan: I did it in my early twenties. I’d just spring for a motel now.

Kat: Yeah. I mean, if they were playing in San Diego now, we’d stay the night at a hotel. We drove back from a show in San Diego one time. A truck tire bounced over the center divider and hopped over us, hitting the car behind us. That was scary.

Ryan: With the benefit of hindsight, it’s interesting seeing The Urinals evolve. You can hear their musicianship develop on each EP. Eventually, they’d release compilations like Keats Rides a Harley on their own imprint, Happy Squid. I picture The Shaggs evolving like that had they actually wanted to be in a band. There aren’t many similar examples. Maybe The Raincoats? I can’t think of any at the moment from Los Angeles.

Kat: They learned more and more as they went along. I don’t think they initially had aspirations to release, say, Keats Rides a Harley or The Happy Squid Sampler. An LP was unthinkable when they started. I’m sure John and Kjehl have mentioned this, but getting a mentor like Vitus (Mataré) was key. Vitus knew how to do things. Obviously, being in The Last he had a much broader reach. They knew Gary Stewart (The Last’s manager) and people who were more record business savvy. But there was never any aspiration to get picked up by a record label. That was also unthinkable. It wasn’t a political thing: “We’re pure of heart. We’re not going to sign.” But who would’ve signed The Urinals in that era? There was some interaction with Greg Shaw at Bomp! It seemed like it was all a natural progression. It wasn’t aspirational—if that makes sense.

Ryan: It does. The Urinals and 100 Flowers weren’t trying to get on Enigma Records.

Kat: Right. I think it was really satisfying to put out friends’ work. I think about the little Happy Squid Sampler (1980). Getting stuff out by Neef and Phil Bedel (“Bells in Ice” 45, 1980). I’m not going to say it was done out of generosity of spirit; they’d just figured out how to do it. John is extremely thrifty and a monetarily conscious person. Doing things as cheaply as possible resonated with him. They were playing with all of these great bands—Leaving Trains, Meat Puppets, and Gun Club—and they had simply figured out how to get records made. So they did it without being careerist. It was coming from an artistic standpoint.

Ryan: Do you recall the last two 100 Flowers shows at the Anti-Club (January 28 and 29, 1983)? I think that was the only time the band headlined a bill.

Kat: Oh yeah. It was so crazy—it was celebratory, but it was also the end of the band. There was that psychological development: celebrating and mourning at the same time. I don’t know why, but it always seemed like 100 Flowers played when it was raining. That’s true up until the present. I think the Anti-Club shows happened during an El Nino year. It was really wet outside; everyone at the club was wet. It was humid; the walls were dripping. The Minutemen played. It was a lot of fun. I remember thinking, “Why couldn’t it have been like this all the time?” But people didn’t appreciate them until they were ending the band.

The second night was with the Leaving Trains and The Last. I don’t remember that show being as wild as the one where The Minutemen played. But how could it ever be?

Ryan: With the release of the Negative Capability compilation and reunion in 1996, it seemed like folks caught up with the Urinals. It was the same thing with Mission of Burma when they reunited.

Kat: Yes. Honestly, I think some of it had to do with the singles being collectors’ items. They were being bootlegged back in the 1990s. “Oh, that band I paid $100 for their 7” is reforming.” Perhaps I’m wrong on that

Ryan: I think you’re right. I was in New York City two years ago and I went to Almost Ready Records. They had just gotten the first Urinals 7” EP in. I remember saying, “Oh, wow! That’s the first one I’ve seen in the wild.” It has an effect.

Kat: Oh really?

Ryan: Yeah. I’d never seen an original copy of the first 7” before. Those records suck you in. We were talking about Vitus and The Last earlier: I recall seeing a test press of Look Again (1980)—obviously, the record was never released—on the wall at Amoeba for hundreds of dollars in the mid-2000s. It sticks with you. Especially with self-released records like The Urinals 7”s. They had an initial small pressing, limited distribution, and often record labels—with or without a band’s approval—will repress titles once used copies hit a certain price. If you released it and you’re not repressing them, prices go up and they sometimes get pirated.

Kat: It always irritated me. The band never saw any of that money. Like I said, John was very thrifty. I’m sure he wasn’t in the red. But they weren’t sold for much originally. I don’t know how many copies of the first EP we have. I’d be surprised if it was five. You wanted them out in the world.

Ryan: You’re still involved with the Urinals and 100 Flowers. I see you’re still taking photographs. It’s amazing seeing them play places like Belgium and China.

Kat: Yeah. I always thought they were doing interesting things. It wasn’t random. I had mentioned that their records being scarce had some allure, but they were doing something different. They continue to. All of John’s iterations of the band have been good. There are things I’ve liked more than other things. There have been times where I’ve liked the band less than at other times. But they’ve persisted because they have merit. All of the band members have a vision. I believe in it. There have been times where I’ve been busy with my own work and haven’t gone to shows. As I mentioned earlier, I wake up early, so having a set start at midnight isn’t always my favorite thing. But I enjoy watching them play. I think John appreciates that if I think something sucks that I’ll tell him. But not with an axe to grind.

Kat and John today, photo by Pat Aldarete.

#urinals #100flowers #kattalleyjones #johntalleyjones #ackackackack #happysquid

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writingdotcoffee · 5 years

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#94: Writers and Jobs

We all recognise the fantasy. One of these days, you’ll finish your WIP. You bang out a query letter, synopsis and send submissions out to agents. Months later, the responses come in. It’s a bunch of rejections. Not to worry, you think, everybody gets rejected. It’s part of the game. But then, maybe the 12th email comes back with a request for the full manuscript. You send that in and then don’t sleep for a week until you hear back from the agent. She’s delighted and offers you representation.

While you sort out the paperwork, your agent is already warming up editors at the big five to your manuscript. Things remain quiet for a spell until the first offer arrives.

‘Hachette wants to publish my book?’ you’re melting down on the phone to your agent. ‘Where do I sign?’

She tells you to settle down and works her magic for a few more days. Suddenly, all the big publishers want your book. Further editorial meetings ensue. There will be an auction which culminates with a press release in The Bookseller in which Penguin Random House is delighted to announce to have signed on a promising debut author in a multi-six-figure deal. The article will feature a photo of you taken from your abandoned Facebook page in which you’re about 12.

Fast forward to a year later, your book comes out to universal acclaim, dethroning Neil Gaiman’s latest novel from the top of the NY Times bestsellers list. It stays there for many weeks despite Stephen King, James Patterson and Sally Rooney publishing their new books at the same time. You start selling off foreign rights and film options. You’re thinking about what you’ll say in your upcoming interview on Ellen and live happily ever after.

While this has happened in the past, you see how many rather unlikely things have to align to make a writer go from complete obscurity to superstardom in a single novel. For most of us, this isn’t going to be the case.

Most writers that support themselves through fiction alone have a back catalogue of dozens of titles which they’ve built up over many years. And until then, they had a job.

Building a professional career while working on your books is hard. Writing at 5AM before catching a train to the office has none of the perceived glamour of the literary life. It feels like abandoning your dreams, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

J. K. Rowling worked for Amnesty International. Stephen King was an English teacher. James Patterson worked in advertising. T. S. Eliot was a banker. Ernest Hemingway was a journalist. The list could go on and on. Even for the highest earners in the industry, writing fiction was a side-hustle for years. Some traditionally published writers even choose to keep their day jobs to protect themselves from the uncertainties of publishing books.

A monthly paycheck gives you the stability and freedom you need to focus on your creative projects. It gives you the ability to bounce back in case the first or the second book tank. It will help you stay in the game in case Neil Gaiman’s next novel comes out on the same day as yours and takes its place on the best sellers lists.

It’s hard writing novels while working a 9-5. But it’s a great deal harder when you’re on benefits, drowning in debt and getting your meals from the food bank every day, struggling to stay afloat.

Having a job—whatever it may be—while writing enables you to take your time to learn your craft and build an audience. It’s not a cop-out or a plan B. It’s the plan—an integral part of building a successful career as a writer of fiction.

First published on: radek.co

What I Am Reading

I’m still on Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci which I’m enjoying very much. It’s a hefty book which makes it impractical to take with me to read on the tube. Sometimes, I wonder whether I shouldn’t use my Kindle more. The convenience of e-readers is undeniable. You can read almost any book you want anywhere, and if you highlight something, Amazon will save that to a notebook. I love that, but I love paper books way too much to abandon them for a sequence of bytes somewhere in computer memory which, according to Amazon’s terms and conditions, are just lent to me.

I love seeing my shelves filled with books that I’ve read, building my personal library. It isn’t practical at all, but it’s one of those things.

Short Stories

I read the following short stories this week:

A Folklore for My Generation: A Prehistory of Late-Stage Capitalism by Haruki Murakami

Hunting Knife by Haruki Murakami

A Perfect Day for Kangaroos by Haruki Murakami

Dabchick by Haruki Murakami

Man-Eating Cats by Haruki Murakami

Guts by Chuck Palahniuk

A ‘Poor Aunt’ Story by Haruki Murakami

Past Editions

#93: Time Tracking for Writers, June 2019

#92: Decisive Moments, May 2019

#91: Writing and Life, May 2019

#90: Favourites, May 2019

#89: Libraries, May 2019

Want More?

My email subscribers receive a notification when I publish these posts along with a few things I found interesting or helpful on the literary internet every week. Click the link below to join the club.

(I won’t spam you or pass your email to a third party. You can unsubscribe at any time.)

#writing #writers #write #writing tips #writing advice #amwriting #writing life #writeblr #writing update #update #me #personal #writingcoffee #writingdotcoffee

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twitchytyrant · 2 years

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#aunt sally #phew #s/t: aunt sally #1970s #m

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cyberwolfwrites · 5 years

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#26--May 9, 2019

Tony Mirror Kidnapping–Pt. 1

“Hey, Happy, do you think Mr. Stark is feeling alright?” Peter asks suddenly, looking up at Happy. The two are currently on their way to the Compound when the thought to ask Happy about Mr. Stark struck him. Mr. Stark’s been acting a little weird the past few days and he’s even canceled a few of their lab days.

“Why do you say that, kid?” Happy asks, looking back at him through the mirror. Peter just shrugs and looks out the window. They’re on a long road that leads to the Compound. It has no cars on it other than the one that Peter sits in currently.

“It’s just he’s canceled a few of our lab days, that’s all,” Peter says, looking back at the man. “He usually doesn’t do that without telling me or shooting me a message, you know? I think something’s goi–" Peter’s voice cuts off when the back of his neck tingles and flares in warning, making him immediately tense and look around him.

"Kid, what’s–?" Happy’s voice is cut off by the car suddenly flying through the air and rolling. Peter grunts as he’s thrown into the door and grabs the handle on the roof of the car as it rocks back and forth dangerously before stopping upright. Immediately Peter pulls off the seatbelt, absentmindedly noticing that he just broke it instead of unbuckling it. He’s about to get out of the car when Happy’s voice stops him.

"Kid, stay in the car–I mean it!" Without another word, Happy jumps out of the car, gun at the ready. Peter flinches as an explosion goes off nearby, it making his ears ring even more. Peter shakes his head and rips his seatbelt off. He’s Spider-Man. He should be able to protect himself. Another explosion goes off but it’s much closer to him and throws Peter off his feet.

He rolls around onto his stomach before pushing himself up, looking over sharply as Happy groans. The man’s on the ground, half conscious with metal shards piercing his body. Now that he thinks about it, Peter can feel blood pouring out of his body. He looks down at his arms and hands. Small pieces of shrapnel are covering his chest, arms, and hands with blood pouring out of him at an unhealthy rate.

Through the ringing in his ears, Peter can hear footsteps approach him, but before he can do anything, something strikes his head.

When he awakens, Peter can hear the mutterings of people talking and he knows that he should be able to understand them but he can’t. He can barely hear them as it is. It sounds like they’re whispering. When he opens his eyes, he sees a black cloth before the bag is wrenched over his head, making him flinch at the bright lights.

He’s kneeling on the ground and men are holding weapons all around him. All he can think is, This is bad. This is very very bad.

Midtown Tech, 36 Hours Earlier

"You losers better not screw this up,” MJ says, glaring at the team. The team, as in Midtown’s Academic Decathlon Team. “We’re on our own turf so we better not lose. We need this one to get into regionals, so answer as quickly as possible with the correct answer." Everyone’s eyes flit over to Flash, who balks at all of the attention on him.

"What?” he asks, looking at everyone. Ned snickers from beside a smirking Peter. Everyone knows who Eugene ‘Flash’ Thompson loves to answer questions as quickly as possible and almost always ends up getting the questions wrong. And since Betty Brant is at home with the flu, Flash, their normal alternate, has to participate.

MJ continues without acknowledging Flash. “We have three teams going up there that will rotate. Peter, Ned, Cindy, you three are on the Test of Knowledge round for science, math, and economics. Sally, Abe, and I will do literature, art, music, and social sciences. Flash, me, and Charles are doing the speech category while Cindy, Abe, and Sally are on the multiple choice questions. Me, Peter, Sally, and Ned are on sudden death. Everyone know where they’re going?" Everyone nods their heads and Mr. Harrington walks up to them from the side of the stage.

"Okay, everyone!” he says loudly, gathering everyone’s attention. “Who’s ready to win?" They all cheer before the first teams are called out onto the stage.

Peter follows behind Ned and Cindy, his eyes shifting over the sea of people. He smiles as he sees his Aunt and grins when he sees Mr. Stark. He hasn’t seen the man in a few days since he canceled a few of their lab days but he’s glad he’s there. He’s wearing an MIT sweatshirt, jeans, and of course, sunglasses. Peter refocuses his attention and takes his seat.

"Welcome Midtown Tech and Staten Island Tech!” the announcer of the competition says, gaining a lot of cheers and applause from the sea of parents and scouts. “This is competition will determine which of the two schools go onto regionals, so without further ado, begin!”

Questions fly out of the judge's mouth at rapid speeds, the ringing of bells filling the air. The two teams seem matched and Peter pushes himself to ring the bell as quickly as possible. “Vibranium!" "Polychlorinated diphenyl!" "Deoxyribonucleic acid!”

The room gets tenser and tenser as kids get the questions right and wrong and soon enough it’s down to sudden death.

“This question will determine which school goes onto regionals,” the judge says, making the room deadly silent and has the kids on the edge of their seats. “What is the iron man suit made out of?” the judge asks the group. Peter grins and rings the bell with lightning fast reflexes. Peter had been the one to help Mr. Stark write the magazine article on the man’s suits, so of course he knows the answer to this question.

“Nitinol!" The whole room is silent for a second before the judge confirms the answer as correct. Midtown’s side erupts in cheers as Ned shakes Peter, yelling in his ear. Peter’s eyes are on Mr. Stark and May who have the largest grins on their faces. They’re waving at Peter and cheering and Peter waves back as the rest of the team run out on stage, all of them crowding around Peter, except Flash of course.

"I guess your Stark Internship is worth something, isn’t it?” Ned says, elbowing Peter and making Flash glare at them. The guy still refuses to believe that Peter has an internship with Mr. Stark. Peter just rolls his eyes and shoves Ned back as their trophy is handed to Peter. The whole group crowds together around Peter who grins at the camera. There are a few flashes until the parents of the kids come up to get their own pictures.

Peter ends up with the trophy again as his Aunt May and Mr. Stark come up to him. “I’ll get a picture of you two!” May says, nudging Tony forward. “Say cheese!" The two roll their eyes as Tony throws an arm over Peter’s shoulders, throwing a thumb up as they grin.

"Good job, kiddo,” Mr. Stark says with a proud smile, making Peter look over him with an awed grin. The flashing of Tony’s phone, which May grabbed, breaks them out of their little circle. The woman has the decency to grin at their deadpanned expression. Mr. Stark just rolls his eyes and pulls May over to Peter, grabbing her phone off her and taking a picture of the two. The two adults switch phones as Mr. Harrington drops by to grab the trophy.

“Good job out there, Peter,” the man says, taking the trophy from him. “I hope we’ll be seeing you at regionals." Peter ducks his head down sheepishly. He’s had to skip out on a few meets in the past year because he was either in the medbay at the Compound or because Mr. Stark needed him for a mission.

"I’ll be there,” Peter says, grinning at the teacher. The man walks away, leaving Peter with May and Mr. Stark.

“C'mon, kid,” Mr. Stark says, throwing an arm over Peter’s shoulder, “let’s go get some ice cream." Peter cheers as May follows after them with the shake of her head.

Peter wakes up to the sound of his alarm ringing beside his head. Slapping the button, he takes a few minutes to get out of bed and throws on a random pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Yawning, he makes his way into the bathroom. He had to wake up early yesterday since the decathlon match started at seven in the morning. The match had lasted more or less five hours and had taken up most of the day. And since the match was yesterday, Peter didn’t have to go to school. Though, he has to go today. The only relief is that it’s Friday which means that he’s going over to the Compound.

Peter grabs his backpack and heads out into the living room, looking at the note that May left for him: 'I got called into work early. I left a few protein bars on the counter for you to eat. See you on Monday. -May’

Peter grabs the protein bars and tears the first one open as he heads out of the apartment, locking the door behind him. He sends a text to May, telling her that he’s on his way to school as he munches on the protein bars. The walk to the subway seems to take a little longer than normal, but Peter makes it onto the train on time.

"Hey, Ned!” Peter calls out as he approaches his locker.

“Peter!” Ned yells out. “Guess what I got yesterday?" Peter raises an eyebrow at him as he grabs his chemistry book out of his locker. "The new Droid Gunship lego set! My parents got it for me since we won the match yesterday. You wanna come over and build it?”

“That’s so cool!" Peter says, ignoring the mutterings of the people calling him and Ned a loser. "I can’t go, though, sorry. It’s Friday. I–”

“'Go over to the Compound on Fridays.' Yeah, I know, I know,” Ned says, sounding disappointed. “What about on Monday, then?" Peter nods his head.

"I’m not doing anything on Monday. Wanna come over after school?” Peter asks as the two of them make their way to chemistry. Ned nods his head and confirms the date. “So, what did you do yesterday after the match? May and Mr. Stark took me out for ice cream and we watched a movie and got some Thai to congratulate the win.”

“My parents and I went out to dinner,” Ned says as they take their seats next to each other. “Other than that I kinda just spent the day building one of the lego sets I got and watching Star Wars again. Did Mr. Stark–?" Ned’s cut off by the first bell and Peter gives him a glance before paying attention to the teacher. They’ve been given a lot of warnings and the teacher told them that if she caught them speaking in class again, that they’d both get detention.

The day flies by quickly and Peter meets the rest of the decathlon team in the auxiliary gym when the final bell rings. "Okay, guys,” Mr. Harrington says. “This meet shouldn’t take long. I would like to congratulate all of you for winning yesterday’s match. Staten Island is a hard school to go against, especially since their another tech school." Mr. Harrington looks over at MJ. "Michelle, would you like to take over?" MJ stands up from where she was sitting.

"Okay, dweebs, congratulations, we won. But now we’re going to regionals,” MJ starts, glaring at everyone. “That means more meeting and longer meetings if we want to win. We barely won yesterday, so we have got to study harder. That means no skipping out on meetings,” Peter shrinks down as everyone turns to him, “and pay attention during the meetings,” everyone turns to Flash who also shrinks down. “Regionals are our key to winning state. So, I’ve compiled a list of topics that we’re going to study in the next few months.”

MJ grabs a stack of papers, takes one for herself, and passes it to Mr. Harrington. He grabs one and the stack circles around the room until everyone has a list. The list is double sided and has three columns.

“Wait, you expect us to know all of this?” Flash asks, disbelief coloring his voice. MJ just glares at him.

“Of course, I do,” she says. “Regionals are no joke. You saw how hard they were last year. And the list isn’t just for regionals, either. These are some of the topics that we’ll need to know for state." Flash shrinks away from MJ’s glare and she goes over the list.

"Okay, losers,” MJ says, looking up from the list. “That just about covers it for today." Everyone lets out sighs of relief and Peter sends a text to Happy. The man responds saying that he’ll be at the school in ten minutes. Peter shoulders his backpack as everyone heads outside. Some of their parents are already waiting for them, but most people are either walking home, driving, or calling their parents to come pick them up.

"Peter!" Peter stops walking as MJ grabs his arm. "You’re not going to miss any meetings, right? We can’t afford to let your internship get in the way of us winning regionals." MJ had let Peter know not too long ago that she knew all along that he is Spider-Man. Like she said last year, she’s observant.

"Don’t worry, MJ,” Peter assures her as he catches sight of Happy’s black SUV. “I don’t plan on skipping out on meetings if I can help it." MJ stares into his eyes for a few moments before letting go of his arm and nodding her head.

"Okay, loser, see you on Monday." Peter nods his head, flashes a peace sign, before jumping into the back of the SUV.

"Hey, Happy!” Peter says, tossing his backpack to the side and buckling in. Happy just grunts as he pulls away from the curb. “Thanks for coming to pick me up." Peter goes on to describe his day to the man before eventually letting the conversation–if you could call it that–drop.

After a few hours, Peter brings up the topic of Mr. Stark, but before he can continue it properly, the car is rolling, explosions are happening, and he’s knocked out.

#Peter Parker #tony stark #May Parker #Happy from iron man #decathlon #kidnapping #submission

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dweemeister · 5 years

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A list of all films featured in 2019′s 31 Days of Oscar

This is the exhaustive list of all 388 short- and feature-length films featured during this year’s 31 Days of Oscar marathon (up from 296 last year). Best Picture winners and the one (and only) winner for Unique and Artistic Production are in bold. Asterisked (*) films are films I haven’t seen in their entirety as of the publishing of this post.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Two Arabian Knights (1927)*

The Crowd (1928)

Sadie Thompson (1928)*

Speedy (1928)

Street Angel (1928)

A Woman of Affairs (1928)

White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)*

The Broadway Melody (1929)

The Divine Lady (1929)*

Weary River (1929)*

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

The Big House (1930)

The Doorway to Hell (1930)*

Flight Commander (1930)*

The Criminal Code (1931)*

Little Caesar (1931)

The Public Enemy (1931)

Flowers and Trees (1932 short)

Grand Hotel (1932)

What Price Hollywood? (1932)*

42nd Street (1933)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Morning Glory (1933)*

The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)*

Cleopatra (1934)*

Imitation of Life (1934)

It Happened One Night (1934)

Manhattan Melodrama (1934)*

The Thin Man (1934)

Alice Adams (1935)*

Captain Blood (1935)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935)*

Top Hat (1935)

Dodsworth (1936)

Fury (1936)*

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

Libeled Lady (1936)

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Captains Courageous (1937)

Night Must Fall (1937)*

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

A Star Is Born (1937)

Way Out West (1937)*

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Boys Town (1938)

Merrily We Live (1938)*

Pygmalion (1938)

You Can’t Take It with You (1938)

Beau Geste (1939)

Dark Victory (1939)

Gone with the Wind (1939)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Gulliver’s Travels (1939)

Lady of the Tropics (1939)*

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Ninotchka (1939)

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)*

Stagecoach (1939)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Wuthering Heights (1939)*

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

The Great McGinty (1940)

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

Night Train to Munich (1940)*

Our Town (1940)

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Rebecca (1940)

Strike Up the Band (1940)

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Waterloo Bridge (1940)

Dumbo (1941)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Suspicion (1941)

Bambi (1942)

Casablanca (1942)

Johnny Eager (1942)*

Kings Row (1942)*

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Now, Voyager (1942)

Random Harvest (1942)

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

The Desert Song (1943)*

The Human Comedy (1943)*

Lassie Come Home (1943)

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

The Song of Bernadette (1943)

Henry V (1944)*

Lifeboat (1944)

National Velvet (1944)

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

Blithe Spirit (1945)*

Brief Encounter (1945)

The Lost Weekend (1945)

They Were Expendable (1945)*

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

The Harvey Girls (1946)

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

The Stranger (1946)*

First Steps (1947)*

Forever Amber (1947)*

Life with Father (1947)*

The Perils of Pauline (1947)*

Bicycle Thieves (1948, Italy)

Hamlet (1948)

The Naked City (1948)

The Red Shoes (1948)

I Remember Mama (1948)

Romance on the High Seas (1948)*

Adam’s Rib (1949)*

Battleground (1949)

The Heiress (1949)

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)*

Mighty Joe Young (1949)*

On the Town (1949)

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

The Stratton Story (1949)*

The Third Man (1949)

White Heat (1949)

All About Eve (1950)

Broken Arrow (1950)*

Destination Moon (1950)*

Mystery Street (1950)*

Rashômon (1950, Japan)

An American in Paris (1951)

Royal Wedding (1951)

Show Boat (1951)*

Strangers on a Train (1951)

High Noon (1952)

The Quiet Man (1952)

Umberto D. (1952, Italy)

The Band Wagon (1953)

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)*

From Here to Eternity (1953)

Julius Caesar (1953)*

Lili (1953)

Little Fugitive (1953)*

Little Johnny Jet (1953 short)*

Titanic (1953)*

Brigadoon (1954)

La Strada (1954, Italy)

On the Waterfront (1954)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Seven Samurai (1954, Japan)

A Star Is Born (1954)

Blackboard Jungle (1955)

It’s Always Fair Weather (1955)

Marty (1955)

Speedy Gonzales (1955 short)

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

The Bespoke Overcoat (1956 short)*

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Lust for Life (1956)

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)*

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Funny Face (1957)

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

12 Angry Men (1957)

The Defiant Ones (1958)

Gigi (1958)

Mon Oncle (1958, France)

The Young Lions (1958)*

Ben-Hur (1959)

South Pacific (1958)

The 400 Blows (1959, France)

North by Northwest (1959)

Inherit the Wind (1960)

Macario (1960, Mexico)*

The Time Machine (1960)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

The Children’s Hour (1961)*

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

Through a Glass Darkly (1961, Sweden)*

West Side Story (1961)

Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

How the West Was Won (1962)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

The Longest Day (1962)

The Miracle Worker (1962)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Bye Bye Birdie (1963)

Charade (1963)

Cleopatra (1963)

The Leopard (1963, Italy)

Tom Jones (1963)*

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963, Italy)*

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

Mary Poppins (1964)

My Fair Lady (1964)

The Pink Phink (1964 short)*

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, France)

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

A Patch of Blue (1965)*

The Sound of Music (1965)

The Battle of Algiers (1966, Algeria)

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Grand Prix (1966)*

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The Professionals (1966)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Doctor Dolittle (1967)*

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Two for the Road (1967)*

Bullitt (1968)*

Funny Girl (1968)

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968)*

The Lion in Winter (1968)*

Oliver! (1968)

It’s Tough to Be a Bird (1969 short)*

The Magic Machines (1969 short)*

Marooned (1969)*

Midnight Cowboy (1969)*

The Great White Hope (1970)*

I Girasoli (1970, Italy)*

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970, Italy)*

Patton (1970)

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

The French Connection (1971)

The Last Picture Show (1971)*

The Godfather (1972)

Sounder (1972)

Travels with My Aunt (1972)*

The Day of the Dolphin (1973)*

The Way We Were (1973)*

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Nashville (1975)

Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)

Network (1976)

The Slipper and the Rose (1976)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

California Suite (1978)*

Superman (1978)

The Black Hole (1979)

The Black Stallion (1979)

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

A Little Romance (1979)

Every Child (1979 short)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Atlantic City (1980)*

Kagemusha (1980, Japan)

Das Boot (1981, Germany)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Annie (1982)

Tron (1982)

Victor/Victoria (1982)*

Blue Thunder (1983)*

Amadeus (1984)

Dune (1984)*

The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

Agnes of God (1985)*

Back to the Future (1985)

Legend (1985)*

My Life as a Dog (1985, Sweden)

Silverado (1985)*

Hoosiers (1986)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Au revoir les enfants (1987, France)

The Last Emperor (1987)

The Princess Bride (1987)

The Untouchables (1987)*

Stand and Deliver (1988)

Willow (1988)*

Do the Right Thing (1989)

For All Mankind (1989)

Glory (1989)

Henry V (1989)

When Harry Met Sally… (1989)*

Dances with Wolves (1990)

Misery (1990)*

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

The Prince of Tides (1991)*

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

A River Runs Through It (1992)

Toys (1992)*

Unforgiven (1992)

The Age of Innocence (1993)*

Philadelphia (1993)*

The Remains of the Day (1993)

Schindler’s List (1993)

Legends of the Fall (1994)

Three Colors: Red (1994, France/Poland)

Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995)

Hamlet (1996)

Sleepers (1996)*

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Children of Heaven (1997, Iran)

Four Days in September (1997, Brazil)*

Titanic (1997)

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The Sixth Sense (1999)*

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)

Toy Story 2 (1999)

Erin Brokovich (2000)*

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)*

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Monsters Inc. (2001)

Y Tu Mamá También (2001, Mexico)*

Chicago (2002)

Big Fish (2003)*

I, Robot (2004)*

The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

Walk the Line (2005)*

The Danish Poet (2006)*

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, Mexico)

Persepolis (2007, France/Iran)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)*

The Dark Knight (2008)

Frost/Nixon (2008)*

Man on Wire (2008)*

Milk (2008)*

The Reader (2008)*

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

The Wrestler (2008)*

The Secret in Their Eyes (2009, Argentina)*

Biutiful (2010, Mexico)*

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

The Artist (2011, France)

Hugo (2011)

A Separation (2011, Iran)

The Act of Killing (2012, Indonesia/Norway/Denmark)*

Frankenweenie (2012)*

Life of Pi (2012)

Lincoln (2012)

Skyfall (2012)

Ida (2013, Poland)

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

12 Years a Slave (2013)

American Sniper (2014)

Interstellar (2014)

Song of the Sea (2014)

Creed (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

The Revenant (2015)

Spotlight (2015)

We Can’t Live Without Cosmos (2015 short, Russia)

World of Tomorrow (2015 short)

Ennemis intérieurs (2016 short, France)

Fences (2016)

Moonlight (2016)

My Life as a Zucchini (2016, Switzerland)

Pearl (2016 short)

Baby Driver (2017)*

Dunkirk (2017)

Loving Vincent (2017)

The Shape of Water (2017)

At Eternity’s Gate (2018)*

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Cold War (2018, Poland)

Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018)*

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Shoplifters (2018, Japan)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

The eight nominees for Best Picture, including the winner, Green Book (2018)

The fifteen nominees for the short film categories (2018)

#31 Days of Oscar

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eds-gryff · 6 years

Text

Dust (Peter Parker x Reader)

Takes place right after IW. I'm sorry that it's soooo long but I wanted to post it all at once. @jordsie know it's not HP related but still tagging.

You weren't on the trip to MoMA because you had mono, courtesy of kissing Peter. Kidding, you just have really bad period cramps. Though you did kiss Peter (and enjoy it) a lot. A LOT. Especially when he uses his webs- um. Nothing.

You were holed up in your room, groaning and cursing God for this uninvited and unwanted monthly subscription to Satan's waterfall. Frankly, when you were younger the only reason you were even 1% glad about this was because you thought it was a certainty of becoming a mom. But well, now you knew the truth- it's because God hated women from the beginning.

The cramps really were horrible.

You had just managed to get up, tie your (H/C) hair sloppily and stumble for for some medicine. Just make this pain go away!

You were horrified beyond anything you imagined when you saw your father disintegrating in front of your very eyes.

"Dad?" You say, terrified and hold your hand out to touch him but you only feel sand.

"(Y/N)-" My knight in shining armour, the best and earliest protector gasped out before he disintegrated completely into dust.

Cramps? What's that?

What had happened? What, who had killed my father? Who has the audacity to do this?

"Dad-a-Da-" You choke out before you fall on the floor, weeping for your father and hoping that the same fate hadn't befallen your mother and brother or Peter.

Why had you been left, you wanted to know. If it was sins, I should go. If it was anyone ANYTHING, it should've been you. You. You. No one else. You were the worthless one, he was the best person.

Thinking you'd just died, you got up, you had to check on your mom and your younger sibling.

"Mo-mom-" you choked out as soon as you heard her crying voice. She wasn't dust.

"You're okay, you're okay, I'm okay, (Y/sibling/N)'s fine but half my students are just-"

"Dust." You say in a blank horrified silence. What the FUCK was going on?

"Is your father-" She managed to ask before I lost it completely and broke down crying.

~time skip ~

Despite the disintegration business, your mom couldn't come home because she was a teacher and had to look after her kids there.

You were numb, you couldn't bring yourself to care.

You managed to get some of...of your father, you nearly had a seizure as you thought that and carefully put it into the fanciest dish you saw and covered it.

You called Peter. No answer. You died again.

Somehow, still alive, you managed to call Ned.

"(Y/N)?" His voice was nothing special but it was the most beautiful sound just then- a sound of hope.

"Ned-" you croaked in relief. "-who?"

His voice took on a true depressed and cry-ey tone. "MJ, Harry, Sally, Jason, G-"

"Stop!" I yelled out. "I just saw my father, my first love, turn into dust in front of my eyes, I can't ... Can't think of them like that too. But .....Peter?" You ask resolutely when all you wanted to do was crawl into your bed and never wake up again. Or you know, die.

"I don't know." You heard his honest voice and half your would shrivelled away and the other glowed. "There were these donut shaped spaceships outside...he asked me to cause a distraction and leapt out."

"There's a chance he's fine." Your optimistic heart says out loud but the realist in you thinks, 'But he could be dead.'

It isn't until 2 days later, when your already broken spirit, because of your father, God, everytim you closed your eyes you could see him fading and his vulnerable voice, saying my name, oh god, was totally scattered to the wind, just like the dust which had made up your soulmate, Peter Benjamin Parker's body.

****

You hadn't laughed in weeks. Or even smiled.

Your father's last words were your name, pleading, to save him, you would've, you would've given your soul but you couldn't and it was your fault he became dust.

So of course, it was only right (wrong) that Peter's last words were just as heart breaking and wrenching.

"I don't wanna go, Mr. Stark, save me, please, I don't wanna go." As if this wasn't enough to, oh gosh, the thought itself sent you crying, but his actually last words were,"I'm sorry."

Because he thought he disappointed Mr. Stark. Because he thought he'd disappointed Aunt May.

Because he thought he'd disappointed you and Ned and MJ and his true friends. Because he thought he'd disappointed the world.

Because he thought he'd disappointed his parents. Because he thought he'd disappointed his late Uncle Ben.

"Peter, you idiot!" You scream into your pillow and want some to be there for you and then realise how exceptionally sad it was the person you wanted to comfort you was the same person because of why you had to be comforted and who couldn't do it.

Day, you slept, you cried, you screamed, you broke stuff. Night, you sat on the fire escape and thought and were as silent as possible. Your mother needed the sleep and you were so selfish you couldn't comfort her, she'd lost her past and present, but you'd lost your past, present and future. She'd lost her husband and soulmate, and I'd lost my boyfriend, my soulmate and my father. 'I can't believe I'm comparing.'

You'd think about how you once asked your father when you were 8 what a virgin was and he'd choked and panicked and said it was a girl who hadn't been touched by a man but you sensed something was wrong, so you didn't say that then you weren't a virgin either.

That's true now.

You'd think about how Peter had revealed his identity to you, right there, right after you'd kissed each other senseless for the first time.

'I want to kiss him again.' You think.

You thought about begging your father for an Avengers t shirt a couple of years back and he'd ordered something online and you'd given him a hell of a time for buying what he wanted but not what I wanted and then he opened it to show me the tee I'd wanted all along.

He was the greatest. He wasn't perfect but he was to you.

You thought about when Peter had been so wounded from a fight, he refused to tell you who the opponent was but he was so hurt and there was so much blood and thank god for the Internet or he would have died.

It was because of him you had seriously considered a career in nursing for a while before deciding on writing or journalism.

You thought about watching movies and making fun of them with your father.

You thought of reading and geeking out with Peter.

You thought of talking about cars and walking around fancy car dealerships with your father, to stare at the cars. Lamborghini Aventador was your favourite. You thought how extremely similar you were, yet how different yet how much of a father-daughter.

You thought of having sex with Peter. You thought about his lips, his hair, his eyes, his kiss, his touch.

You thought of them and you mourned.

Then as dawn broke, you'd slip back in and lay in your bed and let a nightmare plagued sleep overcome you.

Until one day, Tony Stark randomly showed up at your escape as you were brooding and told you that people were to start returning soon and could you wake your mother and brother and see if they wanted to see your father.

You fell off the fire escape.

Iron Man saved your life.

You didn't care, you were going to see Peter and your father again.

You were flying with the man with the suit made of gold titanium alloy and you asked, "How did you...?"

He must've glared at you.

"Confidential. But we defeated Thanos and got EVERYONE, killed before and after the snap."

He dropped you off in AFRICA??? Your other family had been dropped off by other Iron Men suits here too.

"Oh crap, I forgot his aunt. Stay in school, kid and don't tell her that I forgot. I'm off to get her now." He cursed, warned and jetted off.

You held your mother's hand, for the first time voluntarily in years and your beautiful brother held her other hand and you made up your mind to to spend more time with him. You saw a blonde woman wearing a super suit but you didn't know her. You spotter Captain America hugging a long haired man. You saw a carrot haired woman wearing scarlet, Scarlet Witch kissing a robot...or was it the Android, Vision? Whatever and whoever it was, you were happy for everyone who'd got back their lost loves back.

"Daddy!" Your brother suddenly screamed and ran, forgetting bout you, and no one reprimanded him for it because you were too busy hugging and crying and feeling remorseful at your father's appearance.

"It was my fault, I couldn't save you." You whispered as you hugged your father.

"If this was death, it wasn't too bad. I just felt like I was flying. And we were in some orange place....and what did you say? Your fault? You sound as stupid as Deep Blue Sea's directors." At which point you both laughed and cried.

Someone tapped your shoulder and you were so annoyed because HOW DARE ANYONE INTERRUPT YOUR DADDY DAUGHTER TIME.

Till you turned around and the whole world stopped.

It was Peter. Wearing some more advanced suit instead of the other tech one but you didnt notice that till much later.

"Your period is over, then?" He asked pleasantly as if he hadn't been dead for God knows how long.

Tears still streaming down your face, you tossed your hair, narrowed your eyes and punched him in the nose, taking no notice of your family's muttered surprise about 'Was he Spider-Man?' and your brother's shouts of 'SPIDEY!'

He barely faltered.

"What the hell was that for? Because I didn't bring the notes from the trip? I couldn't, I was in space. Or is it the fact that I smell like I've been dead or like I'd been stuck in a gooey candy world? Maybe because I have been. Dead, I mean, not in the candy world but the sou-"

And then you kissed him so hard and passionately that his words turned into nothingness and he kissed just as hard and furiously, because you'd both missed each other so much and you ignore your father's coughs, you could see him at home later and besides you'd already celebrated his homecoming.

So you backed Peter into a tree. And kissed him until the tree spoke. "I aM gRoOt."

"Maybe I'll ask T'Challa, the King here for one, you talking shrub." Peter said annoyed at the tree, which had eyes and frankly, it looked adorable. Even if it was almost as tall as Peter.

"Um." You interjected.

"Oh, uh, (Y/N), this herb here is Groot, he's a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy who are exactly what they sound as, and Groot, this is my girlfriend."

"I am Groot?" It sounded like a question but you weren't sure.

"No you CANNOT DATE HER, SHE's my GIRLFRIEND!" Peter screams in frustration and he pushes Groot towards a talking raccoon who's taking to a green woman and a woman with antennae. Okay.

"You'll ask who for what?" You decide to ask what seemed to be the most normal thing to ask.

"Black Panther, the King. For a room. Which the bamboo tree suggested."

"Groot wasn't wrong." You nudged him. "We need to catch up. Verbally and physically." You run your fingers through his wavy hair.

He looked like he was about to web away to the King. Then he stopped and asked, "Before I do that, where's May? Tony told me he'd bring her."

You laughed.

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dendrite-lover · 5 years

Text

Life After The Cordon – Part 1/?

Jake Riley x Reader, Jana x Lex

Warnings: Extreme SPOILERS! I don’t think there are any other, but to be safe, 18+

A/N: I recommend reading after you have completed watching at least episode 11, of Containment. Also, this is my first fic ever. Therefore, I totally welcome all constructive criticism, writing tips, etc. Shit, I cannot believe I am actually making this public.

It had been a year since the H7N2 influenza strain had been successfully eradicated after Dr. Cannerts was able to develop a cure that produced the appropriate response level of IFNs needed to kill the virus without causing a hyperimmune response in the patient. In the light of charges against Dr. Cannert being dropped due to the fact that he thought naming Sayid as patient zero would prevent a national outcry instead of creating one, he was nominated the Nobel Prize for Medicine for the following year. After all, when a top government official tells you to do something to protect the nation, you do it. Dr. Lommers was found guilty on several criminal accounts, including the attempt of starting an International war. Those bribed by Dr. Lommers faced similar charges.

*****

Six months after full H7N2 eradication…

Jake awoke like he did for the past several of months. To say he was still traumatized, was an understatement. He hated the neurons responsible for forming the memories. His dreams weren’t always bad ones though. Sometimes there were happy memories playing in his dreams, but last night was not one of those times. Holding Y/N’s dead body in his arms, the pain and fear of sending Quentin with Jana to escape the Cordon, and worrying about the future were visions haunting his dreams every so often for months. Laying pained in his bed, Jake didn’t want to get up. Lately, it had been a chore to even breathe, but he made a promise he would keep moving so that’s what he’s been doing. Remembering that promise, he begun to rise from his bed, allowing the pressure from his tears ducts to be released.

After getting dressed and preparing for the day. Jake walked down the quiet hall of his house until he reached the room he was looking for. Slowly opening the door, he stared at the face lying in the bed for a moment before reluctantly walking over to it. “Hey Q, time to get up buddy, todays the day, remember?” Jake said as he sat on the bed, shaking Quentin awake.

Quentin slowly opened his eyes, smiling widely when he saw Jake. “Yes, I remember, but I’m still sad. I know this is a good thing, it just feels s-so...I don’t know.” Quentin’s eyes were sad and begun to form tears as he stared at Jake.

Jake sighed heavily, trying not to fall apart in front of Quentin. “I kn-, I know, me too, but we said one day at a time. We keep moving, alright.” Quentin nodded in agreement while Jake kissed him on his forehead. “Hey Quentin, I love you.” He said before pulling back and heading out the door. “I love you too Jake.”

Jake stopped at another door down the hall, one only a few steps away from Quentins. Peeking in, he saw a pair of brown eyes looking towards the door he was now walking through.

“How’s my superhero? How’d you sleep?” Jake asked as he sat on the bed.

“Not well, but I’m alright. Is Quentin up yet?” Thomas sat up from his bed. A hopeful twinkle in his eye.

“Yeah he is and you can see him downstairs after you get dressed, but listen. If you ever have trouble sleeping, you come wake me or lay your sleeping bag next to Quentins bed, okay?” Jake gave Thomas a moment to respond, but he said nothing as he busied himself, playing with his fingers. “Hey, I love you, you know that right?” Jake was searching his eyes. The features on his beautiful face were that of concern and sincerity.

Thomas then threw his arms around Jakes neck. Jake responded in kind, holding the boy close. “I love you too.” Thomas said before jumping off the bed as he prepared to get dressed for the day as well, but before Jake walked out the door, Thomas stopped him. “I still get scared of being so close.”

Jake then walked back to Thomas, gently gripping his shoulder. “Hey…hey, none of what happened was your fault. You did nothing wrong. You saved everyone.” Jake looked down and sighed shaking his head. “I know what happened hurts, but you have to stop blaming yourself, T. The virus was responsible, not you. Okay?”

With a half-smile, Thomas nodded. “Okay”

After Zone 6 inside the cordon was back to civilization, it was discovered that Quentins grandma and Aunt Sally were robbed and killed by an escapee. Thomas had been in close contact with his family during the quarantine, therefore unknowingly exposing them to the virus through cuts that he tended to. Jake had known no matter what he wanted to remain in Quentin’s life, but when it was understood that neither boys had a family to go to, Jake immediately went to Lex. Lex had used the perks of his promotion as Chief to ensure Jake was granted custody of both boys with no complications.

In the kitchen, Jake started a pot of coffee and began to work on making pancakes with blueberry smiley faces, scrambled eggs, and breakfast sausages. Immediately after Jake began to plate breakfast, the boys came walking down the stairs to eat, discussing last night’s game. Jake had been wanting to take them to a home game, but being in public was sometimes difficult.

They sat at the kitchen table as they usually did. “I hope you guys are hungry because I over did it this morning.” Jake said with enthusiasm, watching them eat with adoration in his eyes before sitting across from them with his plate and doing the same. “So we have a busy day today and we’ll need to pick up flowers before we head to the cemetery.”

Quentin looked up from his plate. “Mom always loved peonies and lilies.” He said with a faint smile.

“Alright, we’ll see if we can find her some.” Jake said while nodding.

“I wrote her a note, may I give it to her?” Thomas asked.

“Of course you can, she’ll love that.” Jake responded. Looking between both boys, he saw such innocence in their eyes, such hope. He knew that it was now up to him to see them through. To ensure they had a better life than he did, but he had already felt that he failed before he even begun. Jake was away on an assignment when Thomas’s dad showed up to take him out of isolation and was split from Y/N to ditch his gear when she was exposed. He hated the circumstances of it all. “Thomas, Quentin, look I’m trying so hard to be what you both need, okay? I don’t want to fail you. I know it has been rough still, but we will get through this. Together.”

“You won’t. Mom told me you have a good heart. And I heard you when you told her you’ll never run.” Quentin said weakly.

“Yeah. You’ve already done so much. We’ll get through the rest together.” Thomas added with such optimism.

Jake walked over to the other side of the table, scooping them into his arms for a group hug. “My boys are so strong and I love you both so much. With everything that I have. I’ll never run” After several seconds, he released them, sniffling, and flexed both of his arms on either side of his head. “Put ‘em up, huh?” Both boys smiled while repeating the actions of Jake.

“Alright, alright, put them away.”

Jake begun collecting the plates from the table. “You guys go upstairs, finish getting ready, and pack for your sleepover, I’ll clean up down here.”

While cleaning, he replayed what Quentin and Thomas had said. Hearing the words from their mouths, he couldn’t believe how much things in his life had changed. It warmed his heart to hear their words, but he needed to know that Y/N was proud of him. It broke his heart so much, you not being there with him and your family. He swore he would be more and so far, he was off to a great start. He was promoted to detective and was granted six months off with pay, in addition to specialty and overtime pay.

****

With a pair of peonies and lilies in either of the two little boys hand and with the urn containing Y/N’s ashes in Jakes hand, they all followed closely behind the person escorting them to her headstone, where your ashes would now lay. A few minutes later, they were stopped a few paces away from the site.

“Well here you fellas are, the third stone here to the left is where you’ll find what you’re looking for. I’ll leave you all to it.” The escort said, clearing his throat, and excusing himself.

Jake inhaled sharply, as they approached the granite headstone, that read Y/F/N, Y/L/N “Strong, Courageous, Honest” engraved in the center. Two months ago, Jake felt it may be best to finally place Y/N’s ashes to rest. He wanted a place where they could visit her, talk with her, and it is what she deserved. After discussing it with Quentin and Thomas, he started making the necessary arrangements.

Looking between both boys, he asked, “Are we ready to do this?” Quentin and Thomas nodded with gloomy expressions on their face.

“Ok. Let’s lay the ashes first.” Jake whispered as he lifted the lid from the urn and started to pour the ashes into the small grave. After the ashes were laid out in the grave, Jake turned his attention to Thomas. “Do you want to place your letter still?”

Thomas was too hurt to speak, so he gently laid the letter on top of the ashes in the shallow grave.

They all placed the patches of grass over the hole before Thomas and Quentin laid the flowers in their hands over the grave.

“You guys still okay?” Jake asked, trying to hold it together, but when he looked down at them and saw them trying to do the same, he couldn’t help but let out a whine that was quickly followed by tears. “I’m sorry, I know I need to be strong for you.” Regaining composure, he now held a sobbing Thomas and Quentin.

Quentin tightened his grip around Jakes neck.

“It hurts so much, Jake.”

“I miss her.” Thomas added.

“I know. Me too, but you know what?” Jake asked, now facing them, and placing his hands on each of their hearts. “She’ll always be here.”

The remainder of the day went by quickly. Filled with fun activities and learning at the Museum of Health. Jake ensured they were constantly exposed to learning opportunities. He knew it was what Y/N would do if she were here. Every day in the Cordon, despite the uncertainty of a future, she would teach, or give them stimulating tasks like creating board games.

Jake decided to take the boys out for dinner since it had been so long since they’ve been able to. They were usually too heartbroken to be out in public if they didn’t need to be, and it was also difficult to do so because Jakes work while in the Cordon made him very popular. Him, Y/N, Lex, and Leo were seen as heroes for their persistence in uncovering the truth. Luckily tonight, there didn’t seem to be many people out. Dinner was spent talking about only happy memories and Jake noticed the boys were able to eat more than they had in months.

****

Before ringing the doorbell, Jake kneeled to look at the two boys beside him. “Okay listen, I’ll be by tomorrow to pick you guys up, but I need you both to behave for Uncle Lex and Aunt Jana.” Jake said to Quentin and Thomas. “We will.” said Thomas with a smile. “We promise” Quentin added, nodding.

Jake then stood reaching out to ring the doorbell. As soon as the door opened, the boys greeted Lex and Jana, and then went off running up the stairs to the game room.

“Remember, behave!“ Jake called out to them before turning his attention back to the recently engaged couple standing in the doorway. “Hey Lex, Jana, thank you both for agreeing to watch my boys.”

“Your boys, huh? It’s no problem Jake, we’re happy to help.” Jana said, smiling proudly at Jake “Besides, we could use the practice” she said as she rubbed the round of her belly.

“Hey man, you know we are always here for you, that’s what family does.” Lex stated while squeezing Jakes shoulder. “How did it go today?” Lex asked sincerely.

“I kind of fell apart. It is so hard to be strong in front of them. Especially Quentin,” Jake sighed “he reminds me of her so much.”

“How are you sleeping?” Jana had a concerned and pained look on her face.

“Like crap, but I hope having tonight will help.”

Lex pulled Jake in for a hug. “Well go on then, we’ll take good care of your boys.” Jake pulled away, laughing, but it quickly turned into a half whimper.

Jake looked down, trying to keep the tears forming in his eyes from falling before he turned back to Jana and Lex. With a hint of sadness in his voice. “Hey, thanks again. I really need this. See you tomorrow.”

“We know” Lex and Jana whispered to themselves at the same time as they watched him get into his SUV.

Tag List: @heythereelejah @taylordrunkonwhiskey

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