#....... so today i got the prototype keychains.

[arr-jim-lad]

at this point im so mentally worn out that it genuinely feels like im about to have a minor breakdown in face of the smallest possible inconvenience

i've been so consistently feeling so miserable that i feel like my hair being pink is the only thing keeping me within any semblance of sanity

#2 days ago i almost cried bc i really wanted to make a paperdoll for my DIO zine but i hated everything i drew #i spent 3 hours almost finishing one just to realize i fucking hated it #so i decided to drop the entire thing because i physically and mentally just Couldn't Do It Anymore #i'm so exhausted at this point. this project has completely drained me. im so tired im so tired im so tired #i thought to myself like ok so the special edition zine won't have a paperdoll i still have other stuff #i thought the paperdoll was a really fun idea and i felt so fucking upsetting to let it go but y'know there's the other things #....... so today i got the prototype keychains. #which i needed to make promotional photos on monday #so that people who want to order the special edition zine would know exactly what they're buying #and of course: Vograce Printed The Keychains Wrong #the design was supposed to have some see-through layers which were even clearly included on the design proof THEY sent me #but the keychains just... don't have it. there are no see-through layers. they are just normal coloured layers. #so now i have keychain prototypes that don't look as they should and ok sure i CAN technically still do the photos with these #but the keychain won't look as it should and that bothers me #and i dont want to wait anymore bc i really want to open preorders next week #but i'll have to order prototypes AGAIN bc i still really need to see how the actual keychain would look when it's done right #i'm so tired i am so fucking tired i am so exhausted #i am just. fully expecting to see my printer on monday just to be told he hasn't even opened my email and hasn't printed anything #i was waiting all day for a guy to install better internet for me #i was told he will come today at 11:30 #at 1PM i call my internet provider to ask them where the fuck he is #they tell me. 'oh did you not get a message that his visit was rescheduled to 21st?' #i did not. i received no such message. i've already been waiting A MONTH for this faster internet. and now i'll be waiting another 10 day #btw these keychains? i was also waiting all day for the postman to call me and let me know he's at my building #so that i could go get the package #bc our postmen decided that actually they don't want to deliver packages anymore YOU have to go out and get them #he did not call me. he had my number btw. he just didn't call me. he just left a note in my mailbox #meaning that i had to go to the post myself like 5 hours later because that's when packages return to the post office #there were like two more vents in the tags but tumblr nerfed me #bitching about all this in the tags made me feel a little better tbh

[kentuckywrites]

T3CHN0 File 4.5: MEMORY

MEMORY (noun). The faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information.

“There has to be something. Something he overlooked, something he didn’t think was important...what wouldn’t he have fucked up at the first opportunity?...shit. Guess I’ll have to dig.”

~

Winter had taken New Mexico quicker than anyone expected. It seemed like only yesterday that the leaves had started to change color, the kids were outside getting candy for Halloween, the leafblowers were causing nonstop headaches. At least the breeze felt nice, especially after spending all day indoors. 

Inside his disorganized but navigable office, Antonio Carson sat at his desk, wrench in hand, biting his tongue as he attempted to screw something back in place. This was a vital component to the artificial organ system of the recently commissioned mimeosome project, the next step for humanity as imminent extinction threatened them on their very doorstep. They had to act like true human body parts, a way for humans to live comfortably and believe that nothing was different aside from the organic versus the mechanical. It was a project Antonio was comfortable taking on, though the paperwork almost drove him to insanity. So much confidentiality! Seriously, he loved surprises as much as the next guy, but why did he have to keep this so secret from the rest of humanity, who would clearly benefit from this?

Whatever. The sooner he got the prototype done, the sooner he’d be able to scream to the masses.

The door swung open with an audible click, and Antonio didn’t look up at first. Probably one of his assistants about to deliver some news, good or bad or ugly, it was all the same at this point. But as the door slid shut, he heard the familiar jingle of a backpack with way too many keychains on the zipper loops. Antonio put down his components and smiled as Fudge bounced around the desk, holding both of his backpack straps in his hands. God, he was getting taller - how had he just turned eight?! Time wasn’t being kind to Antonio. What he’d give to have Fudge stay little forever, be full of that childish wonder forever.

“Hey kiddo!” Antonio swiveled his chair to face Fudge, who beamed up at him as he leaned down, “Good day at school today? I’m sorry I couldn’t pick you up, had a meeting with Dsandro.”

“Was that the guy with the super big glasses?” Fudge asked, “He looks funny.”

“He’s got some funny ideas, too,” Antonio chuckled, “Go put your bag down so you can tell me all about your day.”

“It was good!” Fudge marched to the front of his desk, and only his hair became visible. Then he completely vanished as he bent down, put his backpack on the ground leaning against the desk, continuing to talk all the while. “I got a perfect score on the quiz today! Mrs. Potsdam gave me stickers for it too!”

“The quiz on the multiplication table, right?” Fudge bounced back around, rolling on his heels and nodding as Antonio asked his question. “I don’t expect anything less from ya, kiddo. You’re the smartest kid I know.”

“I’m the only kid you know.”

“Hey, that’s not true anymore. Ruadha, remember?”

“Ruru’s boring,” Fudge pouted, “He’s saying words now and I tried to teach him how to say ‘fuck’, but Auntie Phel yelled at me, so I left.”

“Wh - where’d you learn that word?!” Antonio cried.

“I heard you say it!” He explained, completely unaware of the implications, “When you dropped your drill on your foot last week! It sounded funny, too - fuck! Fuck!”

“Oh god,” He facepalmed, suppressing a chuckle. He’d nearly forgotten about that, though as the memory resurfaced, his big toe throbbed gently. Healed, but a phantom in his skin, reminding him of what happened, what could very well happen again if he wasn’t careful. “Right, Fudge, that’s not a good word and I shouldn’t have said it. Please don’t say it in front of anyone else.”

“Fuck!” Antonio cringed as Fudge said it again, hiding his growing smile, “Why not?”

“It’s a bad word. A curse word. If anyone else hears you say it, especially at school, you’re gonna get in trouble.”

“Hm...is it okay if I only say it in front of you, then? I promise I won’t say it at school!”

Damn him. He was too clever for an eight year old. But how could he say no? The worst that would happen was Ophelia finding out that Antonio condoned this behavior - wait, shit, that was definitely the worst that could happen. What was he supposed to do?! 

In the end, he sat himself up again, twisting some loose hair behind his ear. It was getting long again; he’d have to trim it one of these days. “Alright, kiddo, that’s okay. As long as you say it only in front of me, I’ll allow it.”

“Yay! Fuck!” Fudge cheered, though his excitement quickly gave way to curiosity, “What does fuck mean, by the way?”

“Now that’s a conversation for when you’re much older,” Antonio firmly stated, “For now, I gotta get back to working on this -”

“Can I watch??”

...Oh for fuck’s sake. Fudge was making the puppy dog eyes already. Antonio practically melted. “Sure, let’s get you up here.”

He reached down and grabbed Fudge from under his armpits, grunting as he put him on his lap. It was a little harder to see what he was working on like this, but not impossible, so he reached for his tools and the components as Fudge settled in. However, a distraction soon caught Fudge’s attention, and he shifted as he tried to point at it.

“Dad? Who’s that?”

Antonio squinted, trying to make out what Fudge was looking at. He soon found Fudge’s target, a little oak picture frame tucked behind one of his light readings. The photo was of himself, a large cavern sprawled out behind him, stalactites and stalagmites protruding from the ceiling and floor, the hints of a beautiful blue lake in the leftmost corner. Carlsbad Caverns. A national park he’d always wanted to go to.

But it wasn’t just him in that photo. He was smiling, a little younger and much better dressed, and he had his arm around the waist of a woman with warm honey skin and raven hair tied back in a high ponytail. She was smiling, too, though it looked as though she were laughing during the picture. It was an infectious joy, a joy Antonio remembered with warmth and fondness. But at the same time, looking at her, he felt a pang of sadness that almost always came with nostalgia nowadays.

Antonio sighed softly, putting his tools down. Fudge wasn’t old enough to curse, but he was old enough to know, to understand.

“That’s your mother,” He started, and was quickly interrupted.

“My mom? Where is she? How come I’ve never met her?”

“Well…” He cleared his throat. This was gonna be harder than he thought. “So you know how Auntie Phel was growing Ruadha inside her tummy, right?”

“Mhm.”

“Well, your mom did the same thing with you! You were inside her tummy. But when she gave birth to you...something went wrong. She passed away.”

Fudge was quiet. Antonio almost thought he was going to cry, but then he looked up at him, and his eyebrows were raised like he had so many questions in that little head of his, but he was far from upset. “I’m sorry, Dad. What was she like?”

“She was a lot like you, in a lot of ways!” Antonio continued, walking down memory lane, “She didn’t let anyone tell her no, and she was so incredibly smart, way too smart.”

“Smarter than you?”

“Smarter than me! She also loved being outside and loved hiking. She rescued lots of cats and dogs too.”

“She rescued cats!!”

“She did!”

“I love cats!! We should get a cat, dad.”

Antonio laughed. “You’ll have to ask Santa for that.”

Fudge blinked. “You’re Santa, though.”

For the third time that day, Antonio cursed how smart Fudge was. He wasn’t about to spoil that for him, no, he couldn’t. There was so much magic there, and Fudge was growing up too quickly, too quickly to appreciate those little things. “I’m not Santa! I’m your dad!”

“I’ve seen the costume in your closet,” Fudge said, deadpan. “But we can keep believing in him if it makes you happy.”

“Wha - you know what? Back on topic,” Antonio changed the subject, “Maybe I can pull out some of the scrapbooks we made for you. She took lots of pictures and videos of her foster cats.”

Fudge’s eyes lit up like stars. “Yay! I’d love to see them!”

“Right, I’ll get them for you once we’re home. For now, I’ve got to work on this.” And then, a sudden idea, “Do you wanna help me with this? I think I left my red toolbox in Lab 3, if you’d like to get that for me.”

“Sure!! Be right back!” Fudge climbed off of Antonio’s lap, and he didn’t miss how Fudge said “fuck” under his breath as he landed, skipping out of his office and down the hall with pep in his step. When the door clicked shut once more, Antonio breathed through his teeth, a small whistle escaping his lips. He picked up the component again, fiddling with it in his hands, but his gaze kept flicking back to the photo of him and Maria, smiling so radiantly from a past he could never reclaim. He ended up keeping the component in one hand while the other picked up the picture frame, the light reflecting off the glass. She looked so beautiful here...then again, she looked beautiful in every picture, she looked beautiful in every memory. Antonio heaved a sigh, unable to ignore how his ribs wanted to collapse in on him, putting pressure on his heart and stomach.

He missed her. He missed her so much.

“He’s so much like you,” Antonio breathed, “I hope you’re just as proud of him as I am. He’s gonna do great things one day.”

He put the picture down just as Fudge lumbered back in with the red toolbox, tools jingling and threatening to fall out, a comedic attempt that Antonio and Fudge both laughed at. And he got back to work, the memories clinging to his mind like honey, so sweet and beautiful…

~

“This was...I remember this. He never moved that picture. He brought me the scrapbooks...but...but that wasn’t me, was it?”

“Ajh7e2iyfhnw ich89wh2nv-vev]p\nf ivh82bnpocjs ??”

“No. No, it wasn’t me. These are just...these aren’t even Fudge’s memories. They’re yours. You tried to make them Fudge’s, but you’re biased. So am I just...you, then? If these memories aren’t mine, and you created them…”

“N8c7webfj cih82yfb2f wdf9udyv-[2\f vivhf67e2 ncciw8yf … cuywe7h2[‘jv cy6129ienc igvaof\qvrbou …”

“...Let’s just...I’m gonna keep looking. I’ve got to keep looking. I won’t take no for an answer.”

#xenoblade x #T3CHN0 File 4.5: MEMORY #baby fudge is the reason im alive and well #antonio was also lots of fun to write #anyways uhhhhh yeah this was a nice change of pace #there will be two more .5 files like this for future reference

[dise7se]

threshold

by: @spideysforce (7k)

rating: general/teen and up audiences

relationships: peter parker & tony stark, peter parker & mj & johnny storm & gwen stacy

characters: peter parker, tony stark, michelle jones, johnny storm, gwen stacy, &  ned leeds

summary:

peter: 17, a little shit camper, teenager, about to leave for college and it’s the end of summer

tony: a tired, 27 year old man, turns into a teeangers dad

buzzfeed unsolved au, a msyterious warehouse at summer camp, and found family

leave comments and kudos on ao3

When Peter first got to camp, it was tortuous. It felt like aunt May was sending him for some kiddie math camp, for fuck’s sake, he was 17. 

Stark Camp was an elite stem camp, only the brightest minds arrived here, no matter what their demographic, income, or social status. He applied, or was forced to apply by May, to work on robotics projects whilst there. To Peter’s absolute horror, whoever this billionaire trust-fund guy Stark was, was his camp counselor. 

His fucking camp counselor. 

Peter heard about the first summer camp session, he was participating in the second, which started at the beginning of August. His friends came back home to Queens from Stark camp, a ghost rattling in the old shell of their bodies, their soulless eyes begging for reprieve, the dark circles under their eyes indicating their primal instinct for victory in the camp competitions, to impress the mysterious genius billionaire they so desperately wanted to rob.

He spent the entirety of the summer trying to escape the camp, it was like everyday Mr. Stark (no, he won’t call him anything else,) targeted him only, saw some sort of promise in him, but he’d merely point to his friends and take the burden of being recognized off of him. May’s math camp. No. He can’t be noticed here, because maybe they’ll start talking about college, and how to prepare for college. Yuck.

Not that Peter was avoiding going to college, of course he’s applying. But it’s summer. His last summer before college, he needs to go out with a bang. Not some nerd camp in upstate New York. At least MJ is here. He’s 99% sure she joined to make fun of everyone’s projects, be condescending, and cause as many issues as she can while simultaneously keeping productivity to the bare minimum by scaring everyone. Yeah, that’s MJ right there.

He peeked back at her from over his shoulder and away from his robotics equipment during their scheduled tech building time, she sat at the table behind him to talk to the group about, 10 minutes ago, Peter forgot while he secretly executed Plan Ghouls, (yes MJ named it), while Tony oversaw everyone in the recreation center at camp, and maybe it’s because the Stark family is fucking rich they don’t deserve any money at all, this building looks way too nice to be here. 

It was like Tony Stark, this billionaire who is barely even 30 years old, was fucking with him, Peter Parker personally. Did he enjoy tormenting his group? He acted warily around MJ, like finding a wire in a maze leading to a fuse. He’d never seen anything more glorious; a nearly thirty year old man scared of a 17 year old. Peter analyzed the older man and concluded that he is an eight year old with the wisdom of an eighty year old.

Ned promised he’d call every single day of camp, and Peter thought he’d actually die without his best friend at camp, disintegrate on the spot like some formidable being pulling apart every atom, until he’s lost in the atmosphere, drifting away like he never existed. He missed his best friend, okay? Who else would he talk to about.. the thing, his weird spider senses, and possible crime he could stop from 100 miles away from Queens.

His guy on the computer had other plans for the end of the summer, his family was going to visit their cousins that Ned conveniently was ecstatic to go on, leaving Peter to rot and die alone in summer camp. A haunted summer camp.

Peter snuck another entire circuit board into his pocket. Morally, this is very wrong. He reprimands himself over it. But, technically, he paid for this with his camp fee? 

He uses less equipment for his actual projects than.. their secret project. He will use the same amount of equipment, just one is not prohibited because he technically can’t make secret projects on the side that may or may not pertain to the spooky warehouse half a mile out that Tony Stark refuses to comment on.

“Hey!” MJ yells right beside his ear, and he fumbles the lego pieces he contemplated taking in his hands and screeches. She laughs, holding her side, “Did I scare you?”

Peter plasters the best glare he can on his face, “No, you didn’t, I just yawned.” She will not win, whatever contest she made up in her head for the…. ghost catching competition, he will be two steps ahead of her and he will win. No matter how many horror movies they watch, and no matter how scared he is of her when she has no reaction except for laughter during their movie nights in the woods at night with the rest of the camp.

Countdown to Plan Ghoul’s execution: 3 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes.

—

They became acquainted with the weird, annoying show-off Johnny the second week of camp. So, last week. Peter wouldn’t call Johnny his friend, maybe not even acquaintance, but Johnny wears ugly cargo pants and stuffs them with extra robotics lab equipment like beakers, (what the fuck do they need beakers for?), and somehow stuffed a Kit in his shirt. He’s sure Johnny is going to forget and sit down with a beaker in his pants and break his ass with glass.

MJ was the first to initiate the alliance at the beginning of camp. They’ve been here for the second half of their summer, so of course she devised a devious plan. 

They both hated Johnny at first, and that is exactly why Peter watched MJ reel Johnny into their plans once they’re in the Stark Camp Lab. MJ acted dryly and sarcastically around everyone she hated, drawing her to Johnny and Peter suffered the consequences. Peter lost count of the amount of times Johnny showed off his projects to the camp counselors, not long after stealing parts from a group nearby. MJ watched, intrigued, and Peter would always end up with his head down on his desk. And MJ would follow suit with Tony’s back to them, she would gather up all of Johnny’s wrenches, bolts, his keychain, and he’s pretty sure she got an arm of the collaborative robot in the corner.

And then the next dewy morning, the humidity was too thick and their eyes were unable to open from the night before because Tony told a story about a demon coming to life at the campfire, it’s real Tony has totally seen it, MJ and Peter were on breakfast duty with the camp counselors. The smell of tinder reeked on their flannels, but Tony pulled out the chocolate chips the moment he arrived, the other camp counselors shot glares at him. Peter had to turn away to hide his snicker.

This is when they met Gwen. She was part of another camp counselors group, and the two of them had their hair done, Gwen had cool piercings, even one on her face, with a vinyl knapsack by her feet full of patches. Her camp counselor has an itinerary, and oh, my god, it’s laminated, and Peter’s eyes widen and he thinks his pupils turned into the shape of hearts. The last time he saw an itinerary and Tony did not lose them while hiking was the first day of camp. Gwen’s camp counselor, Jen, even brought snacks for all of them. 

MJ propped herself up on a nearby table in the kitchen and Tony rambled on about how his father never sent him to camp, and if he knew he’d practically be a boy scout out here in the woods he might’ve considered it. Peter thinks he heard the man say he was working towards his bachelor degree at their age. What a weird guy.

Johnny walked in, and Jen, the cool camp counselor reads out his last name and it’s Storm?! Peter imagines Johnny is the type of guy to steal his hypothetical sister’s toys and bury them in his suburban backyard and blame it on ghosts, and of course he tells MJ this theory.

MJ flips pancakes on the stoves, the hiss of the pancake mix to heat loud enough to drown out her inconspicuous whispers Peter nearly drops his spatula from her blaring whisper, “I sketched a prototype and stole Tony’s pencil. Our first prototype is called the Poltergeist Machine.”

He lowers his shoulders and sends his best glare, snarling and pointing with his head at Tony who is two feet away and yelling at someone on the phone about the physics kit they needed for today. “Are you crazy?! Also, that’s the ugliest name I’ve ever heard.”

MJ snarls back and throws her arms up, “Okay, well maybe names are not my forte!” And when Peter mumbled maybe under his breath, he really did know from a sixth sense that her shove was coming. And his shoulder nudges into something, and ouchie, that hurt, and it’s fucking Tony, off the phone and staring at them with his eyebrow quirk. Peter thinks he practices it in the mirror every night before bed, like brushing his teeth. He does it every day. He had never seen the man’s reaction into Peter physically bumping into him, though they did like messing with him. He was their counselor, they were bound to test his boundaries to see how much it would take to get in trouble, they’re sweet teenagers and not heathens. 

Tony did nothing, and awkwardly shoved him away when Peter just stared and gawked at him. 

Johnny and Gwen talked about college with Tony, who stayed on his phone and muttering, “Yeah, kids, you’ll get in,” and, “sure, yeah, we can work out a letter of rec,” and Peter pondered over his inability to plan more than three minutes ahead and felt a drop low in his stomach, because in two weeks he’d be beginning his college applications for senior year. 

He and Ned had their own college plan, to keep his guy in the chair nearby while he could vigilante his college town and get a physics degree. Ned gravitated toward an engineering degree or a journalism degree, he’d probably double major. That was the best plan they’ve made so far. This, and their plan ghoul, Ned had sent cryptic messages about the nearby warehouse being abandoned and never showing up on maps online. Ned had yelled very loudly over the phone to be careful because this might require Spider-Manning, and Peter yelled over his voice so nobody else could hear. 

Johnny had glared at him from ten feet away in the field during that phone call and walked away.

And he looked at him the same way now. This little shit. I  will get into college. Maybe I’ll get my own Tony letter of rec without showing off. 

Peter knows what’s going to happen next when he turns to stomp away, his foot caught in the strap of MJ’s backpack she left thrown on the floor and sends him skidding. Geez. He hears metal clanking, and what the fuck, did he knock over a table or something? And MJ throws herself towards her backpack before his brain can connect her actions to conclusion, and there’s a robot hand skidding across the floor the same, resigned way he did. 

The robot hand. The fucking robotic hand. 

They’d have to face Mr. Stark’s wrath, and he feels like he’s entered Hell, forget the commandment and We should fear and love God so we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him and he hears the robotic and smash into the table and break, and Tony lunges at it like it’s some family heirloom that he intentionally broke.

“MJ!” He squeaks, like he hasn’t been through puberty and is nearly an adult. Johnny’s mouth falls open and he tugs on Gwen’s sleeve as if everybody here to cook breakfast wasn’t staring in awe, and he hears war cries from MJ demanding whoever planted these supplies come forward and reveal themselves or she’d send a witch to curse them. 

It was like a 1995 school drama show, the pancakes burning on the stove and the unamused camp counselors fiddle with the ends of their shirts and Tony stares at the sight of devastation and MJ sheepishly smiles. Gwen is the first to break the silence, she snorts unattractively and covers her face. “Sorry. That was a little funny.”

Tony merely zeroed in his gaze  on the two of them, hovering over them though he wasn’t much taller, attempting to humble them with his menacing face. He points two fingers at his eyes in the I’m watching you way, signaling his two fingers back to them. It’s not like they hadn’t witnessed Tony the day before steal the flags for their ‘capture the flag’ game because they kept losing.  

--

Stem camp was camp, Peter woke up scrambled every day, usually covering his face from the morning sun when Tony would pound on the door and swing it open and let the morning sun blind him. He isn’t sure how he woke up MJ, but he always waits 15 minutes after he wakes up Peter, and he thinks he hears gentle knocks and a little, “Good morning!” before he takes off to begin his day with way too much caffeine and energy.

Tony, in all his glory, is a hot mess and begs his supervisor to let him join the kids’ activities, and she usually says no but he jumps into the lake, anyways, yelling at MJ and Peter to use life vests. The camp supervisor, Virginia Potts, is usually in leggings and a t-shirt or tank top, her strawberry-blond hair in a ponytail, and always has her clipboard in her arms with tidied stacks of paper. She is always smiling, is modulated and soothing, like honey in a comb in the sun. Whenever Peter runs into her, he immediately straightens his back and wonders if its worth borrowing the robotics equipment before they put it back for plan ghoul. 

Pepper usually stands at the edge of the lake, a fixed gaze set on a floating Tony, her tin tucked in and her hip out. The first time Tony decided to ditch his camp counselor duties and join in with them and was approached by Pepper, he waved to her from the top of a rock enthusiastically. “Tony!” she exclaimed and everything she lectured him about seemed to go in one ear and come out the other.

“What is the number one rule of being a camp counselor, Mr. Stark?” Pepper had asked, while Tony striked Peter with a toy lightsaber they built that afternoon, and he nearly doubled over but was grabbed by the shoulders and held up by the menace in question. The weight of the saber wasn’t very heavy and it was made up of plastic, but Peter yanks the cool metal sword from his counselor’s arm. He’s never had any siblings and doesn’t know if Tony has either, but talking about baseball and college and physics having someone surprisingly grounding and comforting when he wandered off while hiking and busted his knee, for some reason Tony was good at first-aid.

--

“We totally  deserve a team pet!” Peter huffed at the campfire, their group settling in after a round of night zip-lining. 

“For God’s sake, we will not adopt a stray racoon for the team,” Tony yells from inside the cabin, bringing his stash of s’mores supplies he kept hidden and possibly explains the ants on the premise and not secured in the kitchen. “A mascot, maybe.”

“Please, this is Cranberry Lake, we do not need a pet to keep us from the ghosts,” Gwen declares, and before she can continue Peter screeches.

“So, you do admit there are ghosts!” 

Tony shivers dramatically once he rejoins the group in front of the campfire and the fire crackles in his face. Peter gasps, and Tony turns in worry, fearing the fucking kid is fucking asphysxiating. “You see! Tony just shivered when you mentioned the ghosts.” “Lowering your voice won’t do anything, you dipshit!” Johnny unnecessarily adds, getting tossed by a marshmallow and being directed into the direction of the nearby trees to sit in timeout by the all-knowing being Tony who declared if they cussed anymore they’d be sent to timeout, the Goddamned Almighty. 

“One more bad word out of you guys and next time you’re going to watch me swim in the lake, using all of your floaties while you watch from the dirt, wallowing in your own despair.” 

“Can I go back to Jen’s group?”

“Absolutely not. You three are keeping me alive at camp as it is,” Tony informs them as if they hadn’t noticed the man was really an 8 year old in an adult’s body. “Even Pepper agreed. She says my campers keep me alive.”

--

Tony floats on his back in the outdoor pool, the cold water reflects the sun and Peter floats nearby on a yellow inflatable pool float with printed dandelions on it. 

His friends chatter nearby, but his head leaning against the plastic floaty drowns the sound out. He hears his inner ear and hates it. Tony grunts, moving to grab his glass with juice and a small umbrella in it. This billionaire, the head of a company producing the world’s greatest and innovative technology was ridiculous. 

“Queens is..” Peter starts their conversation again, afraid he’s too quiet and the older man didn’t hear him. “Queens is my home. May and Ben raised me there, and being away from it sucks. I can’t be there to help.”

MJ sits at the other end of the pool on the hot cement, gasping when she lowers her legs in. She sounds too far away to them, in their own little corner. He raises his head to see if Tony had even heard him, but he seemed sipped from his drink and hummed to himself.

He waited for an answer before he nearly blew his cover again.

“Hometown of Parker. On Long Island, Citi Field, and supposed home of a vigilante, I think,” Tony supplies an answer, and Peter thinks, shit, he knows, “Once, Spider-Man dropped a hot-dog on my head.”

Peter laughs, freely, and shit, act natural, Peter, because the older man that he trusts but can’t seem to get the words off his tongue, his identity reveal, he’s never wanted to tell anybody else. Ever. It was his responsibility, his alter-ego, but he trusts him, for some reason.

The earth aligned them together, and whatever brought them together doesn’t make any sense. 

A mentor who understood him, who was a mere 10 years older than him, who had regrettably become friends with his Aunt May, and those two were forces in his life he wouldn’t know what to do without. Maybe that’s what happens when someone mentors you all summer and genuinely cares.

Tony was brilliant. Sure, him being here was confusing, but he wanted hands on experience in his company. Tony told them stories of the previous campers and which ones reminded Tony of them. When in the college application workshop the camp offered, he revised Peter’s papers and saw another piece of him on paper. 

Tony Stark was caring, gentle, he was a walking encyclopedia, his skepticism had kept a barrier around him at the beginning of the summer, but slowly thawed out the more he lived. If words have had no weight his entire life, he’s owing it to every teenager here to keep his promises and Peter wonders if anyone has ever kept their promises to Tony. A glass barrier, built from sand and liquid and carefully molded to protect him and encase him. 

Practically a kid when he lost his parents. Peter had read about it in the papers and saw news channels open every fragile wound on TV, and he remembers the news reporters surrounding Uncle Ben’s death. 

He isn’t sure what else has the older man so guarded, but he knows they are slowly breaking the crystalline around him, his meddling heart wrapped around this camp and the brilliant minds. He knows Tony is good, past his cynicism is pure optimism, and is is an excessive coffee drinking, smells of motor oil and marshmallows, mentors anybody he can, and the damaged heart he hides, who makes special tech presents for the students, smudged ink on his hands from his blueprints, is good. 

And Peter hopes he can model who he is after Tony. Spider-Man can strive to be someone like Tony, because the 27 year old understands what it means to invest in his community. And Queens is his home, he’s sure Tony will take care of it once he’s gone for college. Tony is human, he bleeds, he hurts, he doesn’t crack under pressure but quakes alone.

The man who emerges from the tech lab every morning at 6am because he forgot to sleep, yeah, that’s Peter’s mentor. How’d he get himself in this spot?

He turns back to Tony, “My uncle Ben used to tell me people are ugly, unlovable, they are their failures, but then they’d constantly prove him wrong. He wasn’t a pessimist, he was the opposite. But he saw the ugliness in New York, in Queens. But then he’d see sons hugging and kissing their mothers, he’d see local students building churches from scratch, and older siblings wiping their siblings’ tears when they played outside.”

Tony quirks a brow, but listens. He really listens, and he doesn’t know if he can finish. “He talked in constant epithets with our neighbors. Their gardens, his wisdom, and about how people always came together. Always.

“Maybe that’s who Spider-Man is trying to save, trying to represent in Queens. I think it’s what people like Ben would want to help. And I don’t want to leave, it’s my little sanctuary. This is the longest I’ve been away from Queens.”

Tony playfully flicked water towards Peter, who dodged it and splashed water back. He could be petulant, too. “I hope this spider-guy is watching over you in Queens. I know your Uncle Ben is. And I know, I know, it’s cheesy as hell, but he really is. I remember my Ma used to visit me in my dreams at my worst times.

“I had no one to go to. My family was gone, and I wanted to do better. Be better. At my rock bottom, I was brought back up by my dad’s best friend. He stayed by my side since they died.. And when I found out he wanted to steal the company from me, I knew I could never let people like that taint more kids in the future in this field. In any field, really. I think I have a responsibility with this camp, and I know my mom would be proud of me. And I know your uncle will be proud, too, because I’ve got your back, too.”

The breath is knocked out of Peter, because oh fuck, this camp counselor who was unwilling to budge, had opened up and was vulnerable and was scared of being stabbed in the back but trusted him.

Tony cracks a smile, supine on his back over the water again in no time and drags the pool floaty with him after he kicks off the wall. They float over to the group, and the weight in Peter’s sternum subdues. An ache he forgot was there, learned to live with, and Tony’s words ring in his head the rest of the day. He tells May about it and never stops missing her.

--

Peter reached into his canvas duffle bag with the initials, ‘BFP,’ embroidered into it and found the white baseball jersey he last remembers seeing when he was twelve years old. His cabin is chilly today, so it must be cold outside. The sun hides behind the clouds so he shrugs a long sleeve shirt on, then the jersey. 

They were going to play a game of baseball this morning, his muscles still aching from rock climbing and hiking the previous day. He was Spider-Man, he had a lot of endurance, but he hadn’t been exercising for a while. He missed feeling this; feeling fatigued but not from a night out as a vigilante. He and MJ climbed the rocks at least three separate times, their ropes clipped snugly to their bodies and Tony had reached the top to tie their ropes. They stupidly swung over the edges, dangling over the forest and had views of the lake. Johnny wasn’t scared of heights, but yelped every time his foot slipped and loose gravel jerked around him. Gwen swung back and forth, in a way that made Peter’s heart lurch when she kicked her feet off the rocks and threw her head back, lowering herself down.

It was an exhaustion that had a lightweight feeling to it. 

He wasn’t dizzied from the adrenaline of catching a perpetrator in time, or whatever criminal of the night presented themselves in Queens. 

Johnny had chased Peter, while rock climbing, and Peter felt genuine warmth for his friends. His best friends. They sent videos to Ned, Johnny and Gwen had been on a Facetime call with them the day before and declared whoever is friends with Peter, are their friends now. MJ shared her flannel, the one she wore around her waist once she noticed Peter’s calloused and cold hands when they brushed hands on the ropes. Gwen threatens to beat the shit out of Johnny if he bumps into her again, and once they reach the waterfall past the mounds of boulders they push each other in. 

Tony had sat on the side, pretending that he didn’t have a camera strapped around his neck and two bundles of film gathered from the summer.

And seeing the initials on his dufflebag this morning, Peter wishes he could march into his home, what it was once before, and announce his future profession to Uncle Ben. Because he’s stuck. Ben Parker would laugh, reminding Peter he wasn't much of a scientist himself, yet they’d ponder over every possibility they could. 

Ben, who smelled of cinnamon and coffee and New York, and Tony knocked on his cabin door before he could wrestle the baseball jersey on because the sight of it sent him reeling. Maybe May had accidentally packed it? Did she do this on purpose? They knew he would become homesick; he hasn’t left May’s for long. The longest he stayed away was for his DC trip in freshman year.

“Come in!” Peter calls.

“Hey, kid,” Tony opens the door, dressed in basketball shorts and a sweatshirt, with bags under his eyes that he seems to have everyday. He looks young; but he can notice the signs of smile and worry lines around his young-adult face. “You’re late. The kiddos sent me to check on you. We’re all waiting.”

“Sorry, I just needed to get dressed--”

Peter cuts himself off, breathing in the baseball jersey while he slides it over his head. And it was a smell he hadn’t smelled in years. May was more of a nostalgic and sentimental person, and held onto Ben’s objects. They’d peer through photo albums together, and Peter would silently grief sometimes, but he was back at the Mets game Ben fought to buy tickets for and took to. The fresh air, the golden sun, Ben’s oversized hat covered Peter’s forehead and eyes. Ben was in every stitch of the material. His mind retrieved whatever image of Ben it could, and Peter couldn’t breathe.

“I--” His breath wavered and betrayed him, and Tony looked at him with a concerned face. 

Peter can hear his phone buzzing with texts from Ned, probably responding to his breakdown over possible college majors he sent in a daze this morning when he saw an article about comets in their solar system, composed of water, dust, ice, and carbon monoxide. And he felt like one of those comets now, launched into the air with no destination and freefalling. 

The jersey was his actual size now, and Johnny yelled from outside the cabin, “Pete, hurry up or you’ll be catching the whole game!” Tony stared back at Peter in concern, maybe he could see through him. He hadn’t hidden his teen angst that much this summer, maybe Tony still remembers teen angst. Hopefully he didn’t call him out over his childish brain losing it on a Saturday morning at camp. Was it homesickness? Tony probably only dealt with kid campers being homesick.

“Sorry, shoot, I just lost track of my sentence,’ Peter says and it comes out like a question. 

He didn’t expect for Tony’s face to soften; the usual distant and withdrawn appearance is replaced with a small smile and a squeeze to his shoulder. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s play ball and possibly pop one of our shoulders out of our sockets by accident again.”

Peter snorted passed the burning tears threatening to spill, wiping them across his sleeve and noticed the man take a step back towards the door. “Yeah, right, ‘us.’ That was you, old man.”

Tony ducks his head, wrapping an arm around Peter’s shoulders and leaving a gap of space between them. He gives him a slight shove to the field, and Peter catches the ball in time before it strikes him in the face. Of course, that was MJ’s doing. 

They played until Peter fell over on the floor, dust spreading in the air around him on the field and stinging his eyes. He definitely hurt his shoulder.

Tony had half the mind to chortle at him once he sat Peter up, already sending Gwen to grab an ice pack and the first aid kit. He couldn’t help it; he’s clumsy. His spider senses are quiet here, only arising once this entire summer: when Tony followed him, Johnny, Gwen, and MJ down the rocks and found Tony huddled on a narrow precipice clutching his chest. He had a distant look in his eyes; Peter thought he had recognized that look on himself before. He was out of breath and his face was pale. Gwen chimed in from behind, “Are we still canoeing later today? Or is today archery?”

And that was smart. Tony schooled his face, and he must have tons of practice if it came so easily. He wouldn’t have guessed Tony was working himself out of a panic attack if it weren’t for the paleness of his face, but Gwen’s questions were good. They were about fifty feet off the ground, and he had almost slipped. At least, that’s what he heard.

The quietness of his spider senses didn’t scare him. It should have, but it didn’t. Maybe it would soon enough. Johnny sits down on the other side of him, asking Peter to squeeze his hand if he needs to. 

“Ah, shit, I promise it’s not that bad,” Peter says, already heading towards the nearest wall to reset his shoulder himself. He’s done this once before, thinks; once, there was an apartment building fire and he pulled out dozens of people, smoke fumes messing with his vision and chest. He had to reset his shoulder before pulling out a teeanger, grunting and pushing his arm against a nearby wall with the fire on his heels.

“Hey, kid,” Tony asserts, holding his hands up. “Can I? It hurts more if you do it. I can promise you that.”

Maybe it was because of being emotional over Ben’s baseball jersey, or missing May’s hugs and Ned’s hugs, meeting him by his locker every morning and how much he’ll miss them all for college that is a year away, was just stupid. And stupid over being upset over having to leave the nerdy stem camp and leave Tony behind. 

It wasn’t fair for him to be attached. He was like a mentor, an older brother, just from the past month. It wasn’t fair for him to ask for advice constantly, but has a feeling this man was more than a camp counselor to their group. For fuck’s sake, he shed a tear in front of him and the man let him.

Peter nods to his answer, already ducking his head and inhaling a deep breath. “Good, yeah, deep breath. You’ve got the right idea,” Tony says, grabbing his shoulder. There’s a slight pop when Tony pushes, and Peter bites back his pain and tastes blood. 

Tony holds onto his arm, and nods towards the rest of the concerned group, searching for any indication that Peter is okay. Gwen wipes a tear from his cheek, and he wonders what he would’ve done this summer without them. And what he’ll do if he doesn’t see them again. Maybe they’ll keep in touch, or apply to the same colleges. He didn’t want to lose them and the safety he felt with them.

--

“Okay, Peter, I told you for the millionth time, you connect the black wire to the circuit to get R2’s voice commands working,” Ned ordered the phone, and had given him, Johnny, MJ, and Gwen directions to the abandoned warehouse. 

It was kind of Tony’s fault for demanding a nap and leaving the four of them with another camp counselor that wasn’t as competent as he was.Well, to call Tony competent is a bit of a stretch, his methods are nonchalant. Hence, MJ is in the corner reading them murder stories from the 1930s and remindingthem the ghosts still linger in the woods of upstate New York, right where they are.

“Yeah, yeah, MJ, the eighty-year old ghost is here to haunt us,” Peter mutters, ignoring Ned’s directions because he is totally wrong. “Ned, no. Absolutely not. What is this, LEGOs sensors?”

“Oh, my God, if you’re going to tell a joke then make it funny,” Johnny groans, “It looks like a UFO.”

“Fuck you, Johnny!” Peter yells, tossing a wrench and then deciding he shouldn’t have done that, and hoped Johnny ducks his head in time, “It’s not UFOs! It’s R2D2, you stupid piece of shit!”

Maybe Peter was a little unhinged today. 

“Hey, ghost, knock this bookshelf down if you’re mad at us,” Gwen declares, drawing out her voice like she’s reading a ghost story to kids, “Or hold a candlestick in the middle of the room.”

The warehouse is small, it’s dark, and they use the sunlight as their lightsource. It was probably really stupid of them to break in, but this is it. Plan ghoul. And it’s the second to last night of camp, and they had vlogged the entire venture to the warehouse. 

MJ had kept all the equipment they gathered from the summer. Either Tony was completely oblivious, unaware of his surroundings at all times and chose to ignore the lack of passion in their projects all summer for this, R2D2 and Johnny’s soccer laying robot, and Gwen’s killer robot obstacle course, or Tony didn’t care. 

He was a billionaire. MJ still yells at the older man over his salary, but yesterday, he asked MJ to consult as an intern for his company and have input on the charity work the company participates in. And it was perfect for her. This was how they were wrapping their summer up; some of them receiving internships, letters of recommendation, and Peter stayed the same with the sick feeling in his stomach that he’d ruin his own life, or never be as far ahead as his peers. 

“Peter, I have the same kit in front of me. I gave you these blueprints!” Ned yells into his ear, and Peter drops his phone and breaks off R2D2’s arm. Gwen laughs, pointing out how much uglier the robot is.

“Can your ugly R2 even fit in my obstacle course?” Gwen asks, playing robot soccer with Johnny. Their controllers are loud, they beep too much, and the obstacle course is ugly. It’s really not, but he’d never admit to his new best friend how beautiful the course is and he wishes he could shrink down and play in it.

“Ghouls!” MJ yells, fiddling with her tiny robotic sensor that he’s pretty sure is a tracker she’s been planting. He makes a mental note to check his things later before leaving camp.”My bot says Johnny is in first place!”

Their robots race across the obstacle course of the filthy warehouse, the sun’s going down so they placed flashlights around the room and the golden hour sun basked the room as it set on the horizon. The room was full of laughter, MJ’s ghost monitor with activity levels he can’t understand, and Gwen runs into their pseudo soccer field to knock R2D2 over. 

They spent the rest of the night planning for college, planning to keep in touch, and devising another plan to take over Stark Industries once they all get jobs there. Peter knew he needed to go to college. He knew he couldn’t risk his family and friends and his identity.

They hear a crash outside, all of their movements hault. Peter doesn’t dare breathe, they all let their hearts pound in their chests. The sun had set by now, and Peter discreetly used his senses to listen and smell what, or who was outside. Gwen shows Peter her arm, the goosebumps set all over and she grabs the flashlight to use as a weapon. He’s impressed with her pose, but oh, shit, is it another camp goer? Did MJ fucking summon a ghoul?

Johnny shushes them, o-fucking-kay Johnny, shush the quiet group. Obnoxious. Peter blows out MJ’s candle, while she gets out her Poltergeist machine, where did she even keep it?

“Hide!”

The kids scatter, and MJ rambles through her theories of clues she’s found. “Is that a fucking bat?”

“Is it fucking Batman?”

“Peter, shut the fuck up!” Gwen chastises, elbowing him while they search for refuge behind the nearby bookcase full of dust and spiders. The shadow from outside looms, and the room is too dark to make out whoever kicks the door open.

The door was kicked open, and the group screamed. His brain clicked, his senses didn't go off.

It was fucking Tony.

Tony fucking Stark, with a casing of gold metal under his arm. And it’s his gold and red robot. 

Let’s just say Tony dragged the four of them back to the camp after destroying their robots in robot-killer-soccer. 

--

Tony does not know the impact he had on each teenagers’ lives. Maybe it was just Peter, and he was being sappy, but it was the last day of camp and the sun was setting and he was tired of the pinewood. It’d take him at least a week to get the smell of earth out of his clothes.

MJ shows affection, she hugs Gwen before they depart. Oh, God. They’re really gonna miss camp.

The summer is ending, case closed. Everybody’s packing their bags, and Peter’s pretty sure he will never recover from his scare during plan ghoul. Who would’ve known Tony had the same idea as them.

His friends, who wear his hats, who steal his food, and who wipe his tears are leaving. He has MJ. He has Ned. 

Peter had set his flannel on fire but they put him out. It was really stupid. 

Peter talked to Tony about Ben one night. He used metaphors, but he knew about Tony’s parents' loss in a car crash.

“Kid,” Tony says, pulling his attention away from the camp departures. Peter practically hopped on his toes of anticipation, walking closer to the older man. A father-figure? No. Older-brother figure? Maybe. Yes. 

“You better work hard on your college applications, kid, because I’m going to need a student researching with me at MIT,” Tony smiles, kindly, and Peter blinked. 

It still hadn’t set how much Tony believes in him. He knows he could be saying this out of kindness, out of pity maybe, but he had been the one to pull him from his reeling thoughts all summer long. 

Tony had welcomed him in the threshold, their own threshold they built together, when Peter needed someone there, to take him in, and he continued to stay in once school began. This had been the place Peter spent half the summer in, did summer homework at the poolside with Tony’s help, he accidentally left candy wrappers in Tony’s cabin and left even more ants, and grew comfortable.

“Pete, when you go off to college, I’m not kidding, don’t forget to call,” Tony says, because Peter probably looks too intense right now and doesn’t know how to unweb himself from his comfortable cocoon of a summer, and he admires his camp counselor so much.

“I’m scared,” Peter breathes, and shit, his eyes well up. And Tony is there, the smell of coffee and some sweat, pulling him into a hug and he closes his eyes and tries to breathe.

“Oh, kid,” Tony says, “Remember all the shitty advice I gave you. Do exactly what I wouldn’t do. And remind Aunt May I’m just a camp counselor and to stop yelling at me on the phone.”

Peter chuckles, because, oh God, knowing Tony and May, they’ll both team up to watch his back. 

“I don’t want to let go of everyone here. I don’t want self pity, or anything, but like, this is the first time I felt like I’ve lived, as cheesy as that sounds,” Peter admits, wiping his sleeve. 

Gwen is the first one to tackle the both of them, then Johnny, and Tony curses to the air. “Why did I become a camp counselor. The little boogers won’t leave me alone.”

“Stop lying, you know you came here for Pepper,” MJ snorts, “Old man.”

At the end of the summer, Peter is a teenage vigilante with a secret identity, but chose to relish in being a teeanger this summer. He was his grief or loss or anxiety, he was Peter Parker. And he wouldn’t ever just be Peter again. He thinks about what he wants, and he knows he wants them in his life. And Tony had given him this threshold, one that felt like a home away from home, and a family away from his small one.

#my fics #fics #peter parker #tony stark #irondad #kinda #im pretty sure they gave me the wrong @ but 😭

[twilightknight17]

...today, on P5S...

...

Honestly, I talk a lot of shit about P5′s writing sometimes. Atlus made some exceptionally questionable writing choices in places. But one thing that P5 absolutely gets right is invoking the sort of emotion that draws you into the story.

With that said!

P5 is determined to make me want to stab actual human beings instead of Shadows. This is the second time now!

But first, I’ve got a boss fight to do.

Doing the mech part of Konoe’s boss fight again, it was actually easier the second time. I had a much better grasp of what I was doing, instead of flailing around frantically.

Konoe himself was still just as hard, but ultimately he was easier than Shadow Joker because it wasn’t a one-on-one duel. He still beat my ass, though; I think I used all of my rescue pills.

Once he goes down, Konoe starts going on about justice.

Don’t call me by my name like we’re friends. We never even introduced ourselves.

It’s interesting, because they admit to Konoe that what they’re doing isn’t without its flaws. But a world where no one can think for themselves is meaningless.

Konoe acknowledges that in his quest to eliminate evil, he ended up being the evil one. He also admits that he was the one who killed his father. He calls that “evil” too, which I don’t actually agree with. We saw what his father was like in the Trauma Cell. His father killed his mother, physically abused him, and threatened to kill him. I think, in that case, killing his father is a rational end result for someone in that situation. Not evil, just desperation.

The Thieves don’t contradict him, though. Just make some comments about how now he can make up for his actions. His Shadow returns to his real self, the Thieves return to the real world, and Zenkichi promises that as soon as they take Konoe in and get his confession, he’s going to arrest Owada, too.

With the case closed, the Thieves decide that it’s time to go back to Tokyo. But not before one last night in Osaka. The idea of leaving makes Sophia anxious, though, because she feels like she hasn’t learned enough about the heart. But Akira and Morgana reassure her that she can still stay with them, even after they return to Tokyo, and they’ll keep looking for answers about who she is.

Sometimes a family is a guy, a cat, and one of the guy’s four younger sisters. ^_^

Tenboto is the tower, and the game asks you to invite someone to the top. However, this time, you can only invite either the group of girls or the group of boys, so I took the boys, since I took Haru on the ferris wheel before.

Morgana isn’t pleased that we didn’t invite Ann.

However, I really don’t see the problem.

Look at how he’s looking at Yusuke! Even Ryuji can tell that we’re having a moment. :D

Afterwards, the whole squad headed off to “Universaland” to celebrate together.

I had no idea that there was a Universal Studios in Japan, but apparently there is, and it is in fact in Osaka! They compared it to their trip to Destinyland the year before, but thankfully this one went a lot better. Everyone had a good time! We had so much soda! We were so hungover the nex--what.

...what is it with Persona characters getting drunk off soda? XD I hope you kids at least played the King’s Game so the hangover wasn’t in vain.

Zenkichi shows up to let them know that Konoe’s in custody. He thanks them for everything that they’ve done, for both Akane and him, and says he’s telling them goodbye for now, but they’re welcome to visit whenever they want. He promises a tour of Kyoto next time. Yusuke will be so happy!

After hours on the road, lamenting that vacation is coming to an end, Sophia suggests detouring to Yokohama for a fireworks festival. So the Thieves finally get to see fireworks, and Sophia gets to experience them, too.

........don’t make me go home yet. I just want to spend time with my friends without the world ending.

After the fireworks, you get to speak to each of your friends, and get a trinket from each of them. Ann gives you a handmade friendship bracelet, Makoto a phantom thieves keychain that Akane made, Ryuji a Feather Red Duke mask to match his Yellow Ostrich, Yusuke his sketchbook that he filled with pictures of the trip, Morgana a scarf in phantom thief colors, Sophia a pair of custom gloves to match the scarf, Haru a teaspoon from Hokkaido with a flower pattern that symbolizes familial love, and Futaba a good luck charm for keeping families together.

STOP, P5S, you’re going to make me cry. Let these kids stay close.

Right before they’re about to leave, they take a group picture for Sophia, which we don’t get to see. Which sucks. But then she realizes that she can smell a Jail, and Zenkichi calls in a panic. It’s never a good sign when someone calls and leads with “Are you watching the news?”

EMMA’s servers were shut down, but apparently reactivated, and now a Jail is covering Tokyo all the way to the outskirts of Yokohama, and it’s just getting bigger. Zenkichi promises to meet us, and Lavenza opens a Velvet door because she wants to talk.

She’s... legitimately unnerved.

Thank you, P5S, for giving me the opportunity to comfort my youngest sister in some small way. Now let me out of this cell so I can actually give her a hug. With the context from Royal that she has actual nightmares about being ripped apart, this is heartbreaking.

She says that she regrets that she has to keep asking us for help, but the dialogue options let you reassure her that you’ll handle it, and that there’s thinking to worry about.

I appreciate having dialogue to actually reassure her more than I probably should.

Now...

LAST WARNING

If you’ve been reading along and don’t want the finale spoiled, DO NOT GO PAST THIS POINT. As soon as we leave for central Tokyo, we’re going 90mph and not slowing down.

If I didn’t have work in the morning, I’d have finished this damn game tonight. X’‘‘D Curse being a responsible adult.

After leaving the Velvet Room, Zenkichi’s waiting at the RV, and when you enter the RV, that’s when you get the warning above.

So we are off to Tokyo to figure out what the heck is happening with EMMA. And the core location is, exactly like I wanted...

LET’S CLIMB TOKYO TOWER, BABY.

People are crowded around the tower like mindless cultists. The Thieves are confused and unnerved, and then EMMA activates the navigation on its own and flings them into the Metaverse. LET’S SEE WHAT’S UP THIS TOWER.

...oh.

......oh no...

Ohhhhhhh no this is Mementos. Why is this Mementos. This is not a tower. Oh god. Why this.

Oh, we are incredibly fucked, what is this.

EMMA says calls itself the “Ark of the Covenant and the guide for all mankind.” This fucking AI thinks it’s a god. Holy hell. Human cognition really needs to cool it with elevating ordinary things to god status. We’re so tired. X’D

......I FUCKING KNEW THAT I DIDN’T TRUST THIS WOMAN. OH MY GOD.

She goes off about how EMMA brought her into this world to help it become a god. How Konoe teaching EMMA about cognitive psience allowed it to pass the usual boundaries of AI. How EMMA has been manipulating Konoe all along. How EMMA’s going to fulfill all of humanity’s desires.

Ichinose-san, may I suggest that you go hang out with Maruki? He has too much heart, and you have none. You’d complement each other perfectly, and then I can shove you both off a building.

The kids, obviously, reject this bullshit.

Logic over emotion, to the point of utter ridiculousness. She complains that people always want solutions to their problems, but that when the solution is offered, they turn it down.

Maybe that’s because your solution is mind control. At least Maruki wasn’t flagrantly puppeteering people.

“Li!” you cry, throwing up your hands at me. “Is this it? Is this why you want to stab her? Did you just admit that she’s worse than Maruki?”

To which I answer, “Oh, no. It’s the next bit that makes me want to stab her.”

After she straight-up admits that she has no emotions, she manipulated us right from the start, she was the one spying on the Monarchs, and that all of her cheer and friendliness is an act, the Thieves are ready to fight Ichinose. And Ichinose reveals why EMMA wanted her help specifically. Because not only did she program EMMA, she created Sophia as EMMA’s prototype.

And she can voice-override Sophia.

The Thieves freak out, the game throws us into a battle against a murder-mode Sophie, and none of your teammates will attack her. They just hang back or let her whale on them one at a time, and I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t attack her either, and Yusuke got knocked out...

And then it went into a cutscene.

Joker took a yo-yo to the face and was actually bleeding, and that was enough to snap Sophia out of it. She starts clutching her head, stumbling back, and eventually stumbles right off the edge while apologizing to Joker. He lunges to catch her, misses, Ryuji grabs him, and all the Thieves turn on Ichinose.

Ichinose does not give a shit. She just comments that maybe that’s why EMMA used Sophia as a failsafe, because it knew we wouldn’t want to fight one of our own. Shut the fuck up. You killed my little sister. I know she’s probably going to be fine, but it’s the principle of the thing.

She summons some sort of giant red crystal and blasts the hell out of us, sending us flying down even further into the depths.

We found Sophia; she won’t cut back on, so we have to get out of here so Futaba can figure out what’s wrong with her. And then, I am coming back, I am beating that woman to a pulp, and then...

Well. It’s bound to be easier to kill an artificial god than a false one. :3

#Li plays P5Scramble

[clownkiwi]

Ruby’s Thoughts on the Super Mario Bros 35th Anniversary Direct Earlier This Morning

ok!!! let’s talk about those silly mario announcements today, because, if ya know me, i love me my marios so much. in fact, some of my favorite games of all time include super mario world 2: yoshi’s island, super paper mario, super mario galaxy, mario & luigi: bowser’s inside story, super mario rpg, & super mario odyssey; it’s safe to say ive been a mario fan for a long time, and i love him alot.

and considering its marios big year (shhhhhh, hes turning 35 this year!!!), you’d expect a lot of big things. and, like i said, we got a bunch of mario announcements!!! some of them huge!!! and some of them i’m mixed about, but we’ll get to that once we start talking about them. so, let’s start with the very first announcement down below!!!

1) Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros

So like, as the first announcement, ummmmmm. This doesn’t look too bad. and I know this was made as a collectors item for like the most extreme Mario fans & game collectors/”historians”. And I’m one of those, a huge Mario fan. So like, I really really want it, even though it’s just a Game & Watch with Mario 1, The Lost Levels, a clock, & a Game & Watch game, priced for $50. And I’m on the fence. Like, ehhhh??? Should I pay $50 for games I could easily emulate on my laptop for free??? But also, this is a collectors item, and I know Nintendo fans will buy these in bulk and sell them for a higher price on Amazon & eBay, so like. Maybe I will get this. Just to see all the Mario stuff on there!!! And I’ll keep the box as well as the thing itself, and yea, I might actually get it for Christmas. yay :)

2) Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury

Now this was definitely an exciting announcement!! We all knew this was happening, from all the rumors, just to the fact that this was inevitable. I’m very glad Mario 3D World will get another chance on the Nintendo Switch!! If you’ve heard from many Mario fans & Wii U owners, it has to be one of Mario’s most underrated adventures in recent years; and that’s coming from someone who’s favorite underrated classics happen to be Super Mario Land 2 & Super Mario Galaxy 2! So it’s very exciting that we got one of the best Wii U games ported on the Switch! And this time it’ll have online multiplayer, but I don’t think that’s what I’m excited for the most. What I’m really interested in has to be Bowser’s Fury. What is that? Will it be harder levels, will it just be more of what we already loved from the game, or will it be a whole new campaign/story after beating the main campaign? Nintendo has been very vague about it, and we can only really know once it get’s close to coming out next year. So I’m very excited to see what that’s about!!

And yes, I should warn you, this is the only bit of new Mario content to come out that I can actually play. Everything else will be pure nostalgia bait, for both good and bad reasons. We’ll talk about that later, but all things considered: I’m very excited for this game, and I can’t wait for it to come out on Switch :)

3) Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit

OK, so like. If I was 7-11, I would be very excited for this, and I’d be begging my parents to get this. This would be something fun to play with if I was younger. But not only am I not in the age group appropriate for this, our house is messy as fuck. If I wanted to properly play this, I’d have to clean everything up our house, which will take a lot of work. So, this will be one I will pass on. Not to say it isn’t cool as fuck and I’d love to get it, I just won’t be able to play it ever in my house. Plus, it can only be played indoors, meaning I can’t make cool as fuck courses outside. This’ll be one of those Nintendo Labo things to me personally, where I’ll see it, go “Wow!! Cool as fuck, wish I had that,” I won’t get it, and I don’t think my life will be personally too affected. Still really cool though, I’ll admit that.

4) Super Mario Bros 35

OK OK, so this was another one of those “WOAH, WACKY NINTENDO COMING AT US FROM LEFT FIELD” things that like, seemed so obvious. Why hasn’t Nintendo conceived a Mario Battle Royale? Well, only because they were holding it for Mario’s 35th Anniversary, and, I love it!!! This seems like a game I’ll play alot, and I’ll have to play as much as I can, because compared to these other games, this one will be limited!!

Yea, would you believe it?? If you have a Nintendo Switch with Nintendo Switch Online, you can only play this from October 10th to March 31st. Which seems very dumb!!! Why would you get everybody excited over a cool game that alot of people might love, only to take it away from us, like, barely six months after it came out? This makes no sense! But trust me, we’ll go more in-depth on this soon. Before we talk about that, let’s talk about the other stuff!

5) The other stuff

I wanna get those cute new Mario overalls. I also wanna get those Splatfest keychains when they come out, as well as those Mario pins!! Sadly, you have to buy one of the new $60 Mario games when they come out, which sucks! Because I don’t have much money on my Nintendo account, and I don’t even have a job, so I can’t get it right away. Also seems real greedy to give out something for free when you also have to buy something in order to obtain it. But trust me, this is only a setback; I will get those pins if it’s the last I do.

But, of course, it’s time to talk about the most controversial announcement that was made today. The final announcement Nintendo made today regarding Mario’s 35th Anniversary, and that’s

6) Super Mario 3D All-Stars

That’s right! The highly rumored, highly hyped up, highly exciting announcement yet! The one everyone has been talking about, the one we’ve all been getting excited over! And even though I was first excited by this, I was also a little bit disappointed. Now, however, I’m even more mixed on this one!!

Let’s talk about the Pros & the Cons about this one.

Pros

Mario 64, Sunshine, & Galaxy are finally on Switch!!! Wow, that is very exciting!!!

Wow, Mario Sunshine looks so beautiful in HD!! Probably because of the widescreen thing, but that makes it better!!!

The Music Player is cool, I’m glad I’m now able to listen to the whole soundtrack of Mario 64, Sunshine, & Galaxy on the comfort of my Switch!! :)!!!

I’m glad they’re all together in one collection!! That’s super cool too!!

And hey, it’s coming out real soon too, that’s cool!!

OK, that’s all I have on the Pros, let’s move onto the Joycons. Cons, I mean.

Cons

OKAYYYYYY, where can I even start??? The title is very misleading. It is called “Super Mario 3D All-Stars” right?? Why didn’t these games get beautiful HD remastered graphics, or better yet, full on remakes?? With updated graphics, stuff missing from the original prototypes added in there (like playable Luigi in Mario 64), or, hell, even stuff added from the DS remake onto the Switch remake?? Playing Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo Switch in an All-Stars-esque package should mean a total upgrade!! All we’re really getting is like, “Higher Resolutions” (even though fans have been able to port Mario 64 onto PC at 60 FPS & in 4K widescreen resolution, and the way the game looks on Switch just seems to be barely emulating, but whatever) and updated controls for the Switch. Now, it’s not to say that the novelty isn’t cool. I’m glad we’re able to play Mario 64 & Sunshine on Switch, but like, if these are just straight up ports of the original games with nothing added to it, why even release physical copies of it when you could just release them seperately through Virtual Console, or, ya know, just separate releases on eShop?? It didn’t seem too hard to just port them on Switch, why not rerelease them on the platform for a cheaper price? And speaking of,

The price of this. How are you able to justify 3 games that are all more than a decade old for $60 if you’re not even gonna add in any new content besides a music player?? This kinda seems very cheap and reeks of Nintendo trying to make as much of quick bucks as possible from this. You gave the fans what we wanted, you did the bare minimum, and now you will earn in the reapings. And I wouldn’t even harshly complain about this!! Yea, sure, fans are making more beautiful upscalings to Mario 64 on PC for free, but suuuuuure, make your loyal fans pay $20 for a 25 year old game you can easily emulate on your PC. And that’s not even my biggest complaint.

Oh yea, before I go to my biggest complaint: why didn’t you include Mario Galaxy 2?? I know Galaxy is a pretty long game, but at the very least the $60 would’ve felt a lil bit more justified (not totally justified, btw!!! $60 still feels too much to play 4 games that are all a decade old at least). And as it is now, it feels very bare bones. You can’t just rerelease Mario Galaxy onto the Switch without it’s sequel,,, and again, these would’ve been my biggest and only complaints, if not for this one,,,

Nintendo’s “Vault”

Limited Release. Not just limited physical release, but limited digital release too. You can only legally purchase this game when it comes out on September 18th, 2020 til March 31st, 2021. After March 31st, 2021, you won’t be able to legally purchase this game ever again. And this isn’t just a weird thing for the United States. The whole world will get affected by this too. You aren’t safe if you’re in Britain, Japan, Europe, or anywhere else where this game is legally sold.

Out of all of Nintendo’s anti-consumer practices they’ve done in the past half-decade, out of every greedy way Nintendo tried to make money off of your nostalgia, this has to be the most greediest and the most uncharacteristic ever. And I am absolutely anti-capitalist, all of yinz should know this by this point! But even then, this just seems incredibly shady.

Why would you hype up your fanbase over the anticipated rereleases of fan favorite games onto your console, ones that could rank in fans old and new, and only release it for a limited amount of time, before putting it back into a hypothetical “vault”, never to be legally released for an unknown period of time?

And why, as a company trying to heavily protect their image, take down ROMs & ISOs & emulators, but not even clearly release your classics onto modern consoles without doing something weird about it?

You all know what I’m talking about: stuff like “Nintendo Switch Online Nintendo Entertainment System” and “SNES Classic Edition”!!!! Like, limited edition stuff like NES Classic or SNES Classic are at the very least justifiable because they were made to make a quick profit for Christmas by nostalgia-baiting your audience!! Sure, that kinda makes sense. But this is moment that Nintendo seriously crossed the line.

The one chance, the one chance Nintendo could get every Mario fan happy & excited, and they did the bare minimum, in the most cheapest way possible, in the least consumer-friendly way possible, in order to make up for potential losses during this pandemic.

And honestly, we could’ve gotten something better. You could either chalk this to Nintendo’s results from being terribly impacted by a pandemic that forced everyone way from each other, or Nintendo was really planning this all along. And they could easily do this again as well if this game sells well.

Compared to Disney, which tons of people made comparisons to, I can’t currently pirate these Mario games! I lost important buttons from my keyboard for the D-Pad, and the PS4 controller I borrowed from my bro won’t work on my laptop anymore because I lost the proper cord, and other cords I tried using won’t work as well. So, I can’t really boycott this game. Mario is very close and dear to my heart, and I’m willing to buy this game.

However, what scares me the most is that Nintendo could do this again. Zelda’s 35th happens to be next year. What happens if they released the Zelda 64 games for a limited amount of time on Switch as well??? Or what if they released the Gamecube & Wii Zelda games as ports for the Switch in a collection for a limited amount of time as well??? I’ve seen someone predict that Nintendo could possibly do this again, and I can’t really stop it because I want to play Mario Sunshine on my Switch, I want to play Mario Galaxy on my Switch! But I absolutely despised the way Nintendo went along to do this. And I’m gonna hate it even more when they do it again, thinking they could easily fool us again just because it has the “Mario” name on it, or the “Zelda” name on it.

And that’s what I’m more scared and excited for all at the same time.

At the very least, more people are starting to notice.

#ruby says sapphic shit #SORRY THIS WAS ALOT I JUST HAD A LOT OF THINGS 2 SAY ABT TODAYS ANNOUNCEMENTS #especially for mario 3d all-stars #overall im excited but im also mixed at the same tim e??? we can only tell when these come out n how well they do #but yea for christmas all im getting is another subscription for my nintendo switch online service... mario 3d all-stars #& that game & watch mario thing. mayb the mario overalls as well #if thats all i got then id b happy #long post #mario #smb #yea people mightve said the same thigns i said i wouldnt b surprised #also sorry if i came off as like highly pretentious im jus imaging this as a commentary vid on mario anniversary stuff #uhhhhhhhh ur entitled 2 get excited 2 this as much as i am but these are just my thoughts rn

[snipshin]

The Shin Keroro Episode that I missed!!

Hi!! Today I will talk about Shin Keroro Episode that I missed from the Japanese Manga that I bought.

The Story start when Shin Keroro take an interest to 623′s pen  that can make image alive.

So, He went to Kururu’s lab and ask him for one.

Kururu give him a prototype one but... In the Gachapon Way (100Yen per Try)

first attempt.. Kururu head keychain

second attempt... Mystery Fairy-Shaped Kururu item

third attempt.. The Same Kururu head keychain. (The cruel feel that I always got from Gachapon)

fourth attempt.. finally got the pen in 400 Yen

Time for Start drawing, Firstly the mysterious creature for Fuyuki.

The Cute Little Cat (But I think it was in Special Ultimate form or something like that) for Natsumi.

And the other one...

And The Final drawing is Pekopon but failed from Overloaded Large Scale and blown the prototype pen..

 After that Tomosu give his crayon to Shin Keroro instead and end this episode with Cute Sleeping Shin.... XD

But... Did you notice something?

I can’t translate Japanese but I guess it was the Battle Keroro’s form with Wings, Weapon,Horn, Big Star on his head and Long Tail.  

But I think this form is quite similar. from his big Star and tail. it is like....

Shin Keroro + Blackstar Form

Yes, it may a coincidence but Yoshisaki may want this form to be the ultimate battle weapon form in the future.

But ... I think It still be a very long future now. (At least after end the Akuaku episode first)

:)

#keroro gunso #shin keroro #new keroro #keroro #kururu #giroro #sgt frog #my japan trip #tamama #dororo

[badgerslick]

Badger Slick's Midnight Eruptions - Dad's Little Secrets

Thurber:  So dad, how goes it with mom?  She started talking to you yet?   Dad:  Better. One grunt for yes, two grunts for no. Thurber:  Might wanna back off on field testing your inventions from work on her. Dad:  Not that easy son. When our department invents something, the military always has an         application for it. We give them the glue & they field test it using the troops. Problem is it         takes months for the results to get back to us. Same with everything else we come up with Thurber:  So you get faster results using the family and my pals adversaries as test subjects. Dad:  Right. This way If we need to improve on the product we can do so without the wait. Thurber:  So it's okay with the government to do this?   Dad:  Our departments kinda special. 'Nuff said. Now, how'd it go with the glue,lubricant?   Thurber:  I think quite well. Here's what happened. Blah...blah...blah... Dad:  You've used the glue twice. Might wanna give it a rest. Thurber:  Does Atom know what's going on?   Dad:  Know that 'Banchee scream' she uses?   Thurber:  It's inhuman. Dad:  Right. She takes a special steroidal vocalization enhancement lozenge five minutes before         screeching commencement. Thurber:  I love that kinda talk. What made your department come up with it?   Dad:  Simple. Soldier indangerment.  Out of ammo, flares, GPS down.  Screams equal quicker          extraction. Enemy curiosity, confusion. Thurber:  I worry about you and mom. Then one day everything is fine. Like nothing happened. Dad:  Need to know code Alpha-Top secret. Heh...heh...heh... Anything else on your mind?   Thurber:  After what we did at the bowling alley Goot's gonna come after us. Me especially                because we live closer to him than my friends. Dad:  Remember, if you have a plan and your adversary doesn't:  advantage you. Also recon         very important. Know his (her later in life) routines,  weaknesses:  advantage you. Also         keep him/them off balance. Strike first but subtlety, unconventionally. More than once.         Weakens them mentally. Confusion is your friend. Give yourself options. Also field test         our little inventions. You & the guys did good today. Now go get us a couple of beers.                                                                      Later Dad:  Got some devices for you guys to try out. Most of what you're about to see hasn't been         officially invented yet. There would be no story if the author hadn't taken creative         liberties. Anyway, look at the desk. What do you see?   Thurber:  A desk. Dad:  On the desktop. Thurber:  A watch, kinda big. A ring, kinda big. Long narrow flashlight. Keychain & fob, kinda big Dad:  All these items have batteries. I have the chargers. Thurber:  What if they get taken away, stolen?   Dad:  Can't recharge without the special prongs. Useless. Have a government phone number for         return & reward. Thurber:  Does Atom know about this stuff?   Dad:  Yeah. She's lethal, doesn't need this gear. Remember, these items are all in the prototype          phases. You can never & I mean never show these to anyone but your pals. I can show you          how they work & you guys go protect yourselves & maybe have a little fun on the side. Thurber:  What's the watch for? Dad:  Watches tell time son. If you press that little red button a bolt of up to eight inches will be          expelled from the nine o'clock position depending on finger pressure. Good for maybe          one time at full ignition. Or may get six short bursts before recharging. Thurber:  The ring?   Dad:  Press palm side button & a probe will eject a drop of bee sting venom into the perps         skin. This is used for surprise attacks. I can refill with a syringe. Good for up to six          expellments. Thurber:  Very cool. Dad:  See my wedding ring. Look very close. This represents the most lethal of decisions.         If you make that fatal plunge, there is nothing I or my government can do to save you. Thurber:  The flashlight?  I know, to see...la...la...la... Dad:  This is big time fun. Yes, it does have a beam. But this monster can shoot a lightning bolt          up to ten or twelve feet. High voltage low amperage keep the combatants alive but          subdued. I would use this on a charging dog or anyone you don't want near you. Assess          the threat. Proceed. Thurber:  The key fob looks harmless. Dad:  Deceptive little bugger, huh?  Press the horn button & an ear-piercing pigeon death         yodel is emitted. Press the lock button & liquid itch droplets are ejected. Press the unlock         button & and you get an electric bolt. Here son, put that chain around your wrist. Okay,         hold the fob in your hand. Don't...ahhh shit that hurt. Be careful with the unlock button         damnit!   Thurber:  Sorry Santa.                                                                           Ho...Ho...Ho............Badger

#funny #comedy #fun #travel #laugh

[type2diabetestreatments-blog]

Small But Mighty: A D-Mom's Time for Change Idea

New Post has been published on http://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/small-but-mighty-a-d-moms-time-for-change-idea/

Small But Mighty: A D-Mom's Time for Change Idea

Pump site rotation has long been an issue for me, and it's a common one for many PWDs (people with diabetes) that can cause all kinds of craziness when it comes to scar tissue, insulin absorption, and erratic blood sugar levels.

A pumper for 11+ years now (not counting my current pump hiatus), I've tried a variety of options -- keeping notes of site rotation in my logbook, on a whiteboard calendar, sticky pad notes on the fridge, and even e-alerts and device alarms to help me remember. Surprisingly, most pumps do not have an option to set a site-change reminder alert on the device itself (why not, pump engineers?!)

So nothing I've tried has been effective for me, as I either slack on tracking them or get tired of the annoyances.

But now, D-Mom Mary Anne DeZure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, has come up with a creative way to help people like me better remember when it's time for a site change. She calls it Time for Change (the name is even trademarked!), and it's gaining steam in the diabetes community.

Today we're talking with Mary Anne, whose son Lou was diagnosed about seven years ago, which kick-started the idea for her little business that she's trying to get off the ground. While her solution is still in the prototype phase and not yet being sold, we thought this emerging new product is a great fit for our Small But Mighty series on diabetes small businesses!

DM) Can you start by telling us a bit Lou and his diagnosis?

MAD) Lou was diagnosed just two months before his 15th birthday. He turns 22 on Dec. 15. (Happy Birthday tomorrow, Lou!).For about two weeks, I had noticed the classic symptoms of diabetes, but I didn't know they were symptoms. I didn't know anything about diabetes at the time. There was no history of diabetes in either mine or my husband's families. In 2005, diabetes wasn't advertised on TV and in magazines the way it is today. We also have a daughter who's now 25, and Lou's the only person diagnosed in our family.

I noticed Lou was drinking to extremes, whatever he could get his hands on -- water, juice, soda, milk. Then he'd be up four our five times a night to use the bathroom. He was always exhausted; not just tired, but exhausted, even after a good night's sleep, and he was crabby and quiet. These symptoms could be explained away as normal for a hormonal teenager, but when I noticed the final symptom, I put them all together and realized something was really wrong. It was the weight loss. His face looked gaunt, he had lost weight so fast in such a short time. His pants literally fell right off him.

Did you rush him to the hospital?

Not immediately. The next day, I got Lou in after school to see his pediatrician. I had such a bad feeling about the visit, I had my husband, Dan, meet us at the doctor's office. After a quick urine test, the doctor had us run over to the hospital for some blood work. By the time we got back to her office for the results, she had called Children's Hospital in Madison, WI, to reserve a bed for Lou. She came in to the office and blurted out, 'Lou has (type 1) diabetes.' His blood sugar was 700.

When she started to talk about daily shots for the rest of his life and the complications and changed lifestyle of diabetes, Lou pulled his baseball cap down over his face and hung his head. He became despondent. We had to go home and pack to drive the 90 miles to Children's Hospital. While Dan and I were frantically throwing clothes for the three of us into suitcases for a week's stay and watering and feeding the cat, Lou buried himself under the covers in his bed. He was angry and scared, and was screaming that if he went to the hospital he would die and never come home. He was terrified. He couldn't understand why this was happening to him. We couldn't coax him out of that bed. I had to wrap my arms around him and drag him to the door, begging while sobbing myself and making promises I really didn't know would come true.

We spent the next week at Children's Hospital. One of the doctors told us that if Dan and Lou had gone on their hunting trip that weekend as planned, Lou probably would have died in the woods because his body was deteriorating so fast. Lou was started on three shots of insulin a day.

Your idea is about changing pump sites... Did Lou struggle with becoming a pumper?

When Lou was upgraded to an insulin pump in 2007, we kept a log book on the kitchen counter to record the day he changed his site and when he should change it again. At first, we were really dedicated to following the log. Then, as wearing a pump became second nature to Lou, and he was responsible for keeping track of changing his site on his own, and the log just sort of became forgotten. I couldn't keep track of whether he was changing his site on time or not. Sometimes his pump would stop working, only to find out he hadn't changed his site for a week. Being a teenager, Lou didn't appreciate the consequences of not taking the time to change his site.

So how did you set out to solve this infusion site problem?

Out of frustration and fear, I had this idea for making a timing device to stick on the refrigerator so we could all keep track of Lou's site changes. By taping and gluing odd pieces from the junk drawers, I came up with the first version of what we called 'Time for Change.' We kept it on the refrigerator, as a constant reminder of Lou's schedule for changing his site. He was really good about turning the dials to the next due date. And the whole family was really good about being his support group. Every time someone opened the fridge on the due day you'd hear, 'Lou, change your site.'

We used the homemade Time for Change for about a year until I saw a story on the news about the FAB LAB at Fox Valley Area Tech in Appleton, WI (an inventor's workshop). I went to an open house for inventors, where I met the team that helped me get the first prototype made. Once I held that first prototype, I was encouraged to have 20 colored prototypes produced to be used by a focus group of other diabetic families who participated in the annual JDRF walk for a cure. The group loved using Time for Change. That's when we knew for sure we could make a difference in the lives of other diabetics.

How did your family come up with the device name, and what does it mean to Lou?

Lou named the device. I asked him why chose Time for Change, and he said: other than the obvious reason for time to change his site, he said it was personal. He said this is his time for taking full control in managing his diabetes and it's time for the world to find the cure.

So you're starting a business venture... will this be a full-time gig for you and your family?

No, I unfortunately won't be quitting my day job anytime soon! I'm the Facilities Management Office Manager at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, and have been a state employee for 27 years at both UW Oshkosh and Oshkosh Corrections. My husband, Dan, is a retired journeyman painter who also worked for UW Oshkosh and UW Milwaukee for 27 years. I started this whole thing for Lou's sake. The intent has always been to change Lou's life and his future, as he's the one who has to pay the price every day with managing his diabetes. Dan and I don't want to do this to make money for ourselves. We do this for Lou.

Where do things stand now, and what are your hopes for Time for Change?

The only thing that's stopping us from going into full production is funding. Just starting out, I only have quotes for a small first production. Each of the two molds will cost about $27,850 for the hourglass and the keychain versions. Then to produce 5,000 each, the price per timer is about $2.60. The piece price would go down considerably if I could order a larger quantity or find a more competitive manufacturer.

As your readers know, having a diabetic child changes everything, especially finances. We're simply out of money. I started the Indiegogo campaign, Just For Lou, to raise the funds to purchase the molds and produce the first 5,000 timers. The campaign ends January 2, 2013.

Our greatest hope is to get fully funded so we can finish what we started. Our big dream is to launch Time for Change worldwide, putting it on the shelves in every pharmacy, right next to all the other diabetic supplies for parents and diabetics to see while they're waiting for their insulin prescriptions to be filled.

Sounds like a great business idea, and one that could help both kids and adult PWDs alike. Thanks for your creative thinking, Mary Ann! We wish you best of luck, and look forward to seeing Time for Change on the pharmacy shelf before long!

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

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