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#I needed a third guy to be canonically done with his ass for the THREE WEED SMOKING GIRLFRIENDS reference
poorly-drawn-mdzs · 3 months
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Laios's three Boy Best Friends. And yes, they hate him.
#dungeon meshi#laios touden#toshiro nakamoto#chilchuck tims#kabru#BF in this context could be boyfriend or best friend. The line is so blurry.#Chilchuck less so but whatever is going on between Shuro and Laios & Kabru and Laios is giving strong:#“dude if you were a girl I'd date the hell out of you”. And from the genderswap extra's that sentiment is canon for BOTH.#This was made prior to the translation of the Laios & Kabru & Shuro restaurant date comic and honestly I am just feeling vindicated.#I don't even know what to call this dynamic other than a situationship. There is so much going on between all of them.#Even on a purely platonic reading - the miscommunication and male yearning for friendship hurt so bad.#When we got the Big Hug scene in the epilogue arc I was whooping and hollering! Pure catharsis moment!#I also don't like hugs very much so I really felt it went Shuro ('hates being touched') went in for the bear hug.#Do not get me started on the agony of 'always lying' Kabru telling the truth (I just wanted to be friends)#and 'always believes' Laios thinking it's another lie and brushing him off.#I am once again supporting dungeon meshi day by posting art. Please watch dungeon meshi.#obligatory edit because I’m tired: YES. Chilchuck cares for Laios and him admitting it was a huge part of his arc#YES he is more just fed up with him that actually hating him.#I needed a third guy to be canonically done with his ass for the THREE WEED SMOKING GIRLFRIENDS reference
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writeforfandoms · 5 months
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Waking Lions 20
Find the series masterlist
We're changing things up a little this chapter! I felt you guys needed a POV switch to really get a better picture of what's going on.
So, let's check in with Price and see how he's handling this, shall we?
Warnings: swearing, yelling, game typical violence, war crimes probably, Price needs his own warning, canon typical violence against nameless goons.
Word count: 2.3k
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In his defense, Price had a lot on his mind. 
But no. That was no kind of defense. 
Especially not when it came to you. 
He'd sent you away because he had to, because otherwise you'd be too distracting. He had to focus on the task at hand. 
Not on thinking about everything he'd just learned about you. Everything you'd let slip in your fluster. 
He knew you well enough to know that you'd be mortified, later. You kept so many things to yourself that knowing an entire room full of people had heard that would probably send you into hiding. 
From the way Laswell glanced at the door after you left, Price knew that she was thinking the same thing. 
But there would be time later to console you, to apologize for being an ass, to make sure you were alright. 
For now, he had work to do. 
Now that there were three groups involved, it was easier to split up the targets. Easier to send Soap with Alejandro and Rodolfo, to keep Ghost with him and Gaz, to let KorTac keep to themselves. This wasn't the kind of mission he wanted to test by putting together potentially explosive personalities. 
(Price could admit, if only to himself, that he didn't trust himself to work with those three. Not right now, not with the new intel still so close to the surface, not with his own curiosity burning a hole in his stomach.) 
The three targets were, of course, not near each other. 
“I can arrange transport,” Laswell said. It was not an offer for the 141 or the Vaqueros, but it was an offer for KorTac. 
“We've got our own,” Declan said, a relatively gentle refusal. “Timing will be tight.” 
“Just have to coordinate,” Alejandro said, unbothered. “We won't give them a chance to warn each other.” 
“Give me a little time to coordinate the flights,” Laswell said, stepping closer to Declan. It was as close to a dismissal as the rest of them would get. She didn't need them hanging over her shoulder while she worked her magic. 
So Price stepped out of the room, his boys behind him. 
“Think Ace is alright?” Gaz asked softly. He was a smart, perceptive lad. Cared so much still. Probably too much, sometimes. 
“I'll check in on her,” Price murmured. He still had one phone number that worked for you, fortunately. 
It rang through to voice mail. 
Okay. Not to panic. Didn't mean anything. 
Soap and Ghost ran off to get lunch for everyone, since planning was best done on a full stomach. 
Price tried calling again. No answer again. 
It could be a thousand things. You could have your phone on silent. You could be mad at him and ignoring his calls. You could be busy with something else. 
But his paranoia was rearing its head, undeniable and ugly. 
You were right in the middle of all this, of course he was going to be concerned about you. 
So he went on a little walk. To help clear his head. 
He didn't see any sign of you. Every bit of his hard-won paranoia was screaming that something was wrong. That this wasn't like you. 
One more phone call. One more. 
Then he'd move on to more drastic measures. 
The third call also went to voice mail. You weren't picking up. One he could excuse, two was iffy. But three calls?
Something was wrong. 
“Gaz,” he called as he strode back into the building. “Need the laptop.” 
Gaz was quick to produce it, giving Price a curious look. “Need any help, sir?”
“Maybe.” Price pulled up one of the programs Laswell had given him. Normally this kind of work was more up her alley - CIA shit, as Simon more or less affectionately referred to it. But Price wasn't clueless, or useless. 
Gaz behind him, watching over his shoulder. Price didn't discourage him, focused on putting in your number and letting the program do its job. 
Let this be nothing. Let him be paranoid. He could handle your temper, your hiding, your embarrassment. 
So long as you were safe. 
The tracker put your phone in a mostly residential area, well out of the way. Not near the hotel, not near anything the two of you had talked about. 
Something was wrong. 
It didn’t take him long to pull up CCTV in the area, flipping through them. There wasn’t a lot, and his jaw tightened in frustration. 
“Wait,” Gaz said over his shoulder. “Go back one.”
Price obliged, going back to the previous angle. 
“There, in the grass on the far side of the street.” Gaz pointed, shifting closer. 
Price’s heart sank right down to his boots. A cell phone lay in the grass, abandoned. He knew you well enough to know that you wouldn’t just leave your cell phone. Not without reason.
Wordlessly, he backed up the footage until he found you. He paused for a moment, taking in the scene. The car. You, standing back just a little. The man clearly encouraging you in. 
He backed up until you came into frame. 
But you weren’t alone.
“Laswell!” 
The door slammed open and Laswell was at his elbow moments later, leaning over his open shoulder. “Fuck,” she hissed, which was all the confirmation Price needed. 
The man with you was Gray. 
“How did he get her into the car?” Gaz, quiet and reasonable. 
“Threats,” Price grunted. 
“Me,” Laswell added, lips tight, fury in the crease of her brow. “He’s using me against her.” 
Price scowled. Gray needed to be taken out. Immediately. But they couldn’t give up the mission, either. 
“Track the car,” he told Gaz, pushing the laptop to his sergeant instead. “I need to know where they’re going.”
“Sir?” Gaz blinked at him, even as he pulled up the program. 
“I need some supplies.” He looked to Laswell next. 
“I’ll have them for you.” Laswell glanced back at Gaz, putting things together a little faster. “The op?”
“Needs to move forward.” Price shook his head. “I’ll be back in time, or I won’t. Gaz, you and Ghost are still on.” 
Gaz frowned but didn’t object. Good lad. “Car’s left the suburbs,” he reported, a map pulled up on his phone. “Heading south.” 
“We’ll find it again,” Laswell said, nodding to Price. “Here. Go here, take whatever you need.” She handed him an address scribbled on a piece of paper. “I’ll update you when we find the car.”
Price took the note with a nod and strode away. He didn’t wait for the elevator, hitting the door to the stairs hard enough it bounced off the wall of the stairwell. He didn’t slow, even as he hit the front door and just sidestepped running into Soap.
“Captain?” Soap called.
“Ask Laswell!” Price called over his shoulder, car keys in hand. He didn’t have time to stop and explain. 
It took very little time to get to Laswell’s supply stash, and he took what he needed. Fortunately, she was well supplied, and he made a mental note to thank her for it.
But for now, the only thing on his mind was you. 
You’d been gone for hours by now, and from the time stamp on the CCTV, you’d been in the car with Gray at least an hour. 
He stopped at the curb next to where Gaz had spotted your phone, getting out. And there it was, still sitting in the grass. 
Still open to show a new recording. 
Price listened the whole recording, jaw clenched tight, fingers gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white. 
Gray knew more than he should. He had sources, clearly. 
But Price couldn’t bring himself to care much about that. No. 
He cared about the little waver in your voice, the way he could hear you putting up a brave front. 
You were terrified. And he wanted to rip Gray limb from limb for making you so scared. 
Gaz called. Price barely glanced at the phone before he connected the call. 
“We’ve got a location,” Gaz reported, voice even. Almost too even. Price could hear the stress he was hiding. 
“Tell me.” Price didn’t even pause as he memorized the address, just in case. “Picked up Ace’s phone.” 
“Anything?” Gaz tried not to sound hopeful.
“Ace got a recording before she got in the car.” Price had to pause for a moment, clenching his jaw. “He knows too much. Knew about us, said he’s got something planned for Laswell, too.” 
“Fucking hell.” Gaz drew in a deep breath. “Sure you don’t need backup, sir?” 
“I’ll keep you updated.” Price barreled through a yellow light, ignoring everything not an active danger to him. “How are your preparations going?” 
“Laswell’s got the flights arranged,” Gaz said, a little reluctantly. “Timing is coordinated. We’ll be leaving in a few hours.”
“Rog.” Price doubted he’d make it back in time. And if, by some miracle, he did, he didn’t know if he’d be in the correct frame of mind to be on mission. 
“Take the next left.”
Price obeyed without question, only breaking one or two traffic laws. (It was fine, Laswell would clear it up later.) “The others?”
“Up to date,” Gaz reported. “Had to talk Soap out of going after you.”
Price snorted. Surprising - he hadn’t known that sergeant had much fondness for you. Then again, Soap could just be reacting because Price was fond of you. Sometimes that was enough. “I trust Ghost is behaving.”
Gaz huffed. “Define behaving,” he grumbled, overly dramatic. Breaking the tension a bit. 
“He hasn’t killed anyone yet or there’d be a lot more yelling.” Price scowled at the driver ahead of him, who was going exactly the speed limit. 
“Laswell’s on top of everything,” Gaz assured him. “Go right, cut up two streets, and then left.”
Price grunted as he followed Gaz’s directions, pushing his foot down as soon as he was out from behind the slow driver. “How far?”
“Rate you’re going? Fifteen minutes.” 
Price breathed slowly. You’d have been alone with Gray for near two hours by that point. He had no idea what condition he’d find you in. If you’d even be alive. The thought sent pain through his chest, clenching and sharp, but he forced himself not to shy away from it.
It was a possibility, even if it was one he did not want to face. 
If it was true… if you were already gone…
He’d burn Gray alive. 
Price switched from the call to a comm unit he tucked in his ear before he headed out of the car. He’d parked a little ways away, just in case. The abandoned hotel was in clear sight, fortunately no taller than the surrounding buildings. Still too many hiding places, sniper spots. 
That was fine. Price would just clear the entire fucking building room by room until he had you back.  
“Careful, sir. I count six outside.” 
“Together?” Price crept forward, using a parked van as a hiding spot. 
“Spread out. Three teams of two.”
Price’s lips thinned. Time to thin out the herd, then. 
The first two fell so quickly they were almost simultaneous. Price moved around the van, keeping low and creeping towards the next pair, the silenced pistol firm in his grip. This was normal, easier. It was easy to view these people as the enemy, easy to clear them out systematically, coolly, silently. And they were the enemy - they were working for Gray, who had clearly allied himself on the ultranationalists and terrorists.  
Which all meant that Price felt no guilt, no remorse, not even a flicker of hesitation in taking down every single man between him and you. 
“I have no cameras inside,” Gaz told him as Price finally approached the door. 
“Copy,” Price grunted. “Going dark.” He breached the door as quietly as he could, looking around. 
So far, so good.
The ground level of this building was an absolute wreck of furniture, graffiti, and rubble. Dust, dirt, and debris covered most of the floor. The main area was a mess of footprints and an open crate of supplies.
No good hints as to where Gray had taken you.
Price cleared the ground floor methodically, cold rage spurring him on. He didn’t spare any of the bodies that hit the ground a second look.
They were nothing more than obstacles. 
The last door was more than just a room, though. There was a half-open door, with a staircase going down. Maintenance, at a guess. 
And soft voices from down there. 
Too far away to tell if you were down there. But if Price had to bet, he’d guess that you were. Gray would keep you contained and out of danger, at least until he got what he wanted from you. 
“John,” Laswell said over the comm.
Price paused, pulling back from the open doorway, pitching his voice low so it wouldn’t carry. “Laswell.”
“I found some backup for you. You’ll recognize him.” 
Price blinked but didn’t allow himself any other sign of surprise. “Copy that. I’m headed downstairs - room near the back of the building has stair access.”
“I’ll pass that along.” Laswell drew in a breath, and Price waited. “If you can, bring Gray back alive.”
His lips pulled back from his teeth. “No promises.”
“Good hunting, John.” Laswell clicked off the comm. 
Price breathed in deep. Someone would be coming behind him, backup. He just needed to not shoot his backup. And possibly not shoot Gray. 
That would depend entirely on how you were when he found you. 
Price nudged the door open enough to slip through, descending silently. 
The first guard went down silently, and Price dragged the body out of the hallway and into a closet. That would buy him a little time if any other guards came through. 
A double tap through the com got his attention, and Price half-turned to find a familiar face walking down the corridor towards him. 
Price grinned, probably showing a few too many teeth. “Good to see you again,” he murmured. “Let’s get on it, sergeant.”
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so much happened this episode but I'm only gonna focus on the buck eddie and tommy of it all.
my thoughts are still all over the place but we've gotten a lot of hints on buddie and oh man do I hope that's endgame
I am really liking buck and tommy right now though
the date was so sad. buck really put his foot in it but eddie talking him through it at the end and getting him to call him was wonderful
I love these two so much and ohmygod do I hope beyond hope that they actually get together. the buddie hug had me soaring
theyre so fucking supportive of each other and its lovely to see
i loved buck's convo with maddie and eddie's with bobby
at this point I think bobby and maddie both suspect that they have feelings for each other, and i imagine hen, chimney, and athena also suspect. the boys have been so obvious and oblivious that i imagine everyone thinks theyre gonna get together
and both convos have got me really thinking that this season might end with buddie confession at the very least but maybe even buddie established for an episode or two
there are a few interviews that have been going around that have really changed my views/hopes for this season. i at first wanted bucktommy to last the whole season but after Lou's interview I'm okay with a few episodes and then them amicably ending things.
i want tommy and bucky's time together to really help buck become more comfortable with himself and for him to learn more about who is. this side of him that he wasnt entirely aware of
mr evan "I can't stop thinking about him" buck buckley
mr evan "checking out a hot guys ass is normal" buck buckley
this man is fucking adorable
I really want Marisol and Eddie to end. The nun thing was hilarious but her moving in so fast just confirmed how much I don't like them.
mr eddie "overprotective papa bear" diaz would never let someone move in that quickly. you cannot get me to believe he would cuz buck hasnt moved in. besides buck the only other person i could see moving in kinda fast woulda been shannon if they had the chance to reconcile and rekindle their relationship
I honestly miss Shannon. I think besides Buck she really is the only one that seemed to click with Eddie. i think their reconciliation and rekindling couldve been a really beautiful story.
also im fully jumping on the ship that buddie is gonna be a thing by the end of season 7. the interview with lou plus the one with ryan are really making me think this will happen.
i thought they might wait for season 8 but the rollercoaster that was this episode is making me think that we'll end with buddie being official
which would be fucking amazing
what does this mean for bucktommy? i think tommy knows that buck is in love with eddie. the surprise he felt when buck told him he wanted his attention really shows that plus everything that happened this episode. tommy telling buck he wasnt ready had so many layers to it and i think eddie is one of them.
lou saying that tommy could been with either buck or eddie and they just went with buck also tells me that this will never be a serious relationship. im expecting them to be over two thirds the way through the season based on this interview and some kind of end of the buddie slowburn we've been going through
buddie slowburn is my favourite kind of 911 fanfic so im not even mad if the pay off actually pays off
i never thought we would get here with buddie seemingly being endgame in canon
man im so glad abc picked up this show
only complaint, need more ravi, josh, and may. i need the nash-grant plus buck family to have some serious family time.
thoughts are still all over the place. sorry for this long ass mess of a post. im not a coherent writer, cant journal for shit tbh. im gonna go read some buddie fics to settle down and i hope/pray that this actually happens
(low-key though if all three get together i dont think my heart could take it but id be very very very happy. but like it needs to be done well. no one feeling left out. the chemistry between all three of them is off the charts. i can totally see why tommy and eddie were a possible route.)
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i headcannon that benny and reader blast rihanna while closing the gym. it becomes a tradition that they blast music and dance around while closing. it gets to the point that the boys start wondering why benny keeps being late to their hangouts after his work. at some point they catch benny blowing his back out and reader recording and laughing at benny
Benny, Better Have My Money
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Chapter Five | Drabble for the Through the Scope series | Chapter Six
*best read in between chapter 5 & 6*
Rating: IDK ?? everyone ??
Word Count: 1029
TW: tooth rotting friend fluff w/ Benny & some ass throwing ?!?!
Notes: anon, i wish i could kiss that beautiful brain of yours for thinking of this absolutely fucking hilarious scene thats now 100% canon in the through the scope series to me HAHAHA !! i hope i did some justice to your brilliant idea & thank u so so much for submitting it ((: this one is for u ! happy reading <3
*i wrote this w/o looking over it because the idea was just to good so if you see any grammatical errors.. no you dont*
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Closing up after a long shift was never fun. Well, it was never fun until you started working for Benny. After the last guests were ushered out and the doors were locked, you were put in charge of the gyms music. It was only fair since Benny had free reign during operating hours after all. Plus, your taste in music wasn’t exactly family friendly. 
“Alright, what are we feeling this evening? Lady Gaga? Megan Thee Stallion? Doja Cat? Maybe some Rico Nasty? What artist really says ‘I want to clean this whole gym and look hot while doing it’ to you?” 
“The evening song choices are all yours. I’m way too tired to even think about makin’ another decision right now.”
“Well,” You say as you start scrolling through artists on his phone to find one that will bring the energy that both of you need to get this done. “If you’re so tired, why are you going out with the guys after this?” 
“You know that doesn’t count.” He’s currently working his way through cloroxing all the workout benches and weights. “The only decision I have to make when I’m there is if I want another drink or not and that's easy. Of course I want another fuckin’ drink!” 
“Touché,” You laugh as you find the perfect playlist for the evening. “Let’s get this cleaning party started!” 
Rhianna’s Bitch Better Have My Money starts blasting at full volume from the gym's speakers as you make your way over to the basket full of used towels. 
Bitch, better have my money
Y’all should know me well enough
Bitch, better have my money
Please don’t call me on my bluff
Pay me what you owe me
“Oh fuck yeah! I love Rhianna!” He yells as he turns to you. 
You pull out a towel, point to him from across the gym, and start swinging it over your head as you lip sync to the song playing. 
Kamikaze if you think that you gon’ knock me of the top
Shit, your wife in the back seat of my brand new foreign car
Don’t act like you forgot
I call the shot, shot, shots.
Benny makes finger guns and pretends to fire them at you on each beat. “Sing it, girl!”
The two of you run dramatically to each other in the middle of the gym and start dancing like crazed animals. Each of your tasks having been long forgotten as soon as the music started. You both know by now that neither one of you will be leaving anytime soon.
***
“Where the fuck is your brother, Will?” Pope huffs.
Frankie, Pope, and Will have all been waiting at their table for Benny to show up for 45 minutes now. They turned the waitress away three times before they caved and ordered a round for themselves. Hoping that a light buzz would satiate them.
“I’ve been texting him, but he’s not answerin’!” Will explains. “His location says that he’s still at the gym.” He turns his phone screen over to show the others.
“This is the third time this week that he’s been late. He’s never taken this long to close up before.” Frankie adds. 
Pope tips his almost empty beer bottle in his direction and nods. “Fuck this. Finish y’alls drinks and let's go pay him a visit.”
They all do as Pope orders and make their way out of the bar. As they cross the street and enter the gym’s parking lot they see both yours and Benny’s cars in the same spots that they were in this morning. All of the lights in the building are still on as well. 
“Do y’all hear that?” Frankie asks the men walking next to him. “It sounds like -”
“Rhianna?” Pope says curiously. 
All three of them walk up to the gym doors and the sight that greets them will be burned into each and every one of their minds for all eternity. 
***
You’re currently holding onto one of the corner poles from the boxing ring with both hands and trying to explain to Benny how to shake his ass.
“Move your hips to the right, then the left, then shimmy down, and use your knees to help you bring your ass up and down!” You’re winded from both teaching your lesson and singing with Benny for almost an hour straight. It also doesn’t help that you’re trying to yell instructions over Rhianna’s S&M song.
“I think I got it now! Let me try!” 
He helps you down so he can climb up and get into position. You pick up your towel and phone off a nearby workout bench. There is no way that you aren’t going to document this moment.
‘Cause I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it
Sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it
Stick and stone may break my bones
“But chains and whips excite me!” You and Benny sing together.
You are struggling to hold your phone still as you record because you can’t stop laughing. Benny is throwing everything, and you mean everything, into his one man performance on the edge of the boxing ring. He definitely paid attention to what you showed him. Even put his own little twist on it by bringing his right hand back to slap his ass. You can’t help but get swept away in it all and you start hitting him in the ass with your towel as well.
“Let’s go, Benny! Shake that shit for me!” Your lungs threaten to burst from over exhaustion. 
S-S-S&M-M-M
S-S-S&M-M-M
Oh, I love the feeling you bring to me
Oh, you turn me on
***
“Should we tell them we are here?” Will ask hesitantly, still not entirely sure what he’s watching.
“I’m not even sure what we would say if we told them.” Frankie quips as he wishes you would get back up and dance again. “Pope?”
He looks to his left and sees him pulling up your contact information. “Let’s tell them that their audience wants an encore.” Pope presses ‘call’ and puts the phone to his ear with a devious grin.
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{tag list: @cutesyscreenname @rsquared31 @smol-beb @bitchwitch1981 @avastrasposts @hoeslingz @saltybutteredtoast @javicstories @c-justhere @pimosworld @modernperplexity @beboldbebravethings @modernperplexity  @mxtokko  @moonliqhtszn @tanzthompson @megcads @myloveistoolittle @casa-boiardi @jitterbugs927 @partyofone3413 @pedrit0-pascalit0 }
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the-cult-of-russo · 1 year
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Poetic Tragedy (Part 1)
Pairing: Reader X Billy Russo
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Warnings: Cursing, angst, sadness, substance abuse, mental health issues. This one’s a little dark and not really in a violent way (okay, it does have the typical canon violence lmao). Just more the themes explored, I guess? 
A/N: So I legit have like three other Billy multi-chapter stories I’ve come up with since being back and I get like one chapter done and another idea hits me. This one came to me when writing another and I hope you guys like it. I'll be honest, I usually like waiting until my multi-chapter fics are completed before posting them. I have a habit of starting them and then I get stuck or whatever and they get abandoned. But I'm onto my third chapter of this and I figured I'd post it and see what people think. 
Name for this one is from a song of the same name by The Used.
The cup is not half empty as pessimists say
As far as he's sees, nothing's left in the cup
A whole cup full of nothing for him to indulge
Since the voice of ambition has long since been shut up
A singer, a writer, he's not dreaming now of going nowhere
He gave heed to nothing, and all that he was....
Is just a tragedy
So he voyages in circles
Succeeds getting nowhere
And submits to the substance
That first got him there
Then in violent, frustration, he cries out to God or just no one
Is there a point to this madness and all that he was....
Is just a tragedy
—------------------------
“The vigilante duo, The Punisher and Jigsaw, once again took down a crime syndicate last night with the help of their soldiers. We don’t have details right now but the CIA and FBI have said they're looking into it,” the newsreader said gravely and you rolled your eyes, leg bobbing up and down as you waited impatiently on the sofa. Josh came back out from his room then. He’d been on the phone when you got here and told you to wait. He chucked his phone on the dirty coffee table before he licked his lower lip and tilted his head at you. He was skinny, scarily so and his blonde hair looked dull and hung over his eyes.
“It’s gone up, sweet cheeks,” he smirked. It made your skin crawl and you glowered at him.
“What do you mean it’s gone up? It went up last week. Do you think I have money coming out of my ass?” you asked in a snappy tone, your hand sweeping across you and drawing attention to the dirty jeans and the holey, far too large for your frail frame, dark gray sweater. He let out a condescending snort and shrugged his shoulders.
“That's not my problem, Y/N. You’re not my problem. It's gonna be $100,” he smirked. You stood up, hands clenched to fists as they shook. You felt the desperation clawing at you as you grabbed the only money you had out of your pocket, waving it at him.
“I have $50! 50, That we agreed on! It’s all I have!” you yelled, your voice tinged with panic.
“Well it's not $50 anymore, princess,” he grinned darkly. You growled, gritting your teeth so hard they felt like they might shatter.
“Or…. you could give me the 50 and make up for the rest in another way?” he smirked leeringly at you and you recoiled, feeling sick. You’d only ever stooped that low once before and you’d never do it again. It made shame fill every pore of your body to think about.
“Go fuck yourself!” you snarled, stomping to the front door.
“Come back with the money or your pussy or don't come back at all, Y/N!” he called out after you and you slammed his door forcefully. 
That slimy piece of shit. You hated him. Hated that you had to rely on him and hated that he could easily screw you over and there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it. You had about a day before things were about to get really fucking bad for you. You knew the only option was to steal the money you needed. Stealing wasn't exactly new to you, it was how you made most of your money these days. But with the amount so high, you didn't think you’d have enough left over for food too. And with no food in your stomach for 4 days, it made you feel depressed. You knew what you’d pick, what you’d always pick. You heaved a sigh and brought your arms around yourself to stave off the cold. Your sweater wasn't thick and all you had under it was a ratty old black tank top. The same clothes you’d worn for the past 3 years after a local church wanted to help those in need. You didn't believe in god, didn't think he'd bestow the life forced on you if he was real. Still, you were grateful for the good Samaritans that helped in the name of Jesus. Your boots had holes in them and were a size too small. You’d found those in the dumpster a few years back too. You glanced to the sky and you knew it would be dark soon. That's when you’d strike. It was best like that. Less people around to try and intervene. 
By the time darkness blanketed the sky, you were on the prowl. You hadn't come across anyone suitable yet. No one alone and an easy target. You might be desperate but you weren't stupid. A flick to the nose would have you on the floor so you had to be careful. There had been plenty of people, although not half as many as in the daytime. Mostly groups of drunk people having a good time on a Friday night. You scratched your face with a sigh, a hopelessness consuming you as you worried you wouldn't find anyone. But then luck seemed to hit you across the face. A woman was crossing the street, coming over to your side. She was chattering on her cell phone, looking like her head was in the clouds. You eyed her up, noticing her Louboutin heels as they clicked against the sidewalk. You might be broke as shit but it didn't mean you didn't know designer when you saw it. Your eyes lit up gleefully. Maybe you'd be able to get your food too after all. 
You steeled yourself as you walked, the girl walking your way as she yammered on to whoever the poor victim on the phone was. Her purse was dangling precariously off her forearm as she strutted down the sidewalk like it was a runway. You rolled your eyes internally. Didn't she know how dangerous New York was at night? She was lucky you were the one to meet her and no one else. As you walked past her, your hand darted out with the reflex only an experienced thief would have as you snatched her purse.
"Hey!" She squealed at you, but you didn't stick around as you took off running. You knew with those heels, she wouldn't be chasing you. You ran until you got to the alley a block away. Your alley. You finally looked at your goods then. A Gucci purse, figures. You knew it would fetch a pretty penny if you could sell it. Issue was that no self-respecting business would allow you to step foot in their store. Holding no value to you, you opened it, snatching the money from the pocket inside before you tossed the purse to the damp and dirty ground. Your face split into a grin as you counted it. $500. That would be enough for what you needed plus food for days. Maybe even for your next few trips to Josh's. It sent a wave of relief right through you. You'd never managed this much before. It was getting harder and harder to steal here in the city. Maybe since crime rates went up and vigilantes became a thing all over the news. 
You were basking in your accomplishment, too distracted to hear anyone behind you at the mouth of the alley you'd just come from. 
"Didn't your parents ever teach you manners?" A voice rang out, making you whirl around to come face to face with two men. Your eyes darted from one to the other in quick succession. One was shorter than the other, his face unobscured but his chest emblazoned with a skull. The other was wearing a black hoodie, the hood pulled up and a weird white mask with painted cracks on it. He looked like he should be in a horror movie. But you knew looking at them who they were and once your shock wore off, you scoffed and shook your head. The Punisher and fucking Jigsaw. Of course. 
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," you huffed, jaw clenched. No, god really didn't exist. 
"Stealin's wrong, sweetheart. Hand the money over," The Punisher smirked, holding out his hand. Your hand tightened around the money as you gaped at him.
"Don't you have real crime to be dealing with? You know, like rape and murder?" You asked dryly. 
"Stealin’ is a crime," Jigsaw muttered, tilting his head at you. He was far more unsettling than his counterpart, only his dark eyes visible from his mask. He was standing tall and imposing, legs slightly apart and his shoulder squared.
"I'm not giving you the money," you growled, squinting at them both. 
"Yeah, you are," The Punisher smirked. 
"Or what?" You asked defiantly, raising a brow. Jigsaw reached around him, grabbing a handgun from his waistband before cocking it. 
You let out an incredulous laugh as you shook your head for what felt like the millionth time. 
"Are you serious?" You asked, looking half amused and half stunned. 
"As a heart attack," The Punisher answered.
"Did you see who I stole this off? Bitch looked like she has a penthouse with a maid. Fucking Louboutin shoes and a Gucci purse. Meanwhile, I'm over here living in a goddamn alley," you swept your arm behind you where a meager blanket lay near the wall on top of a large piece of cardboard.
"I haven't eaten in four days, but no, I'm sure Miss Penthouse will really miss a few hundred dollars," you seethed. The pair looked at each other, Jigsaw rolling his shoulder a little. The Punisher gave you an uncomfortable look as he stepped forward, making you tense as he held his hand out. You scoffed a mirthless laugh, roughly slapping the money into his hands. 
"And I thought you guys were supposed to be the good guys," you sneered. 
"We are," The Punisher muttered tensely. You snorted at his words. 
"Sure, keep telling yourself that. You go out there trying to rid New York of crime but you don't ever question why stuff like this happens? You really think petty crime is the same shit as murder? You tar all of us with the same brush when some of us do this out of necessity. To survive. But yeah, we're all just criminals. I'll remember that when I'm lay there freezing and starving," you bit out, anger swirling around inside of you before you stomped over to your blanket. 
"Now get the fuck out of my alley!" You bellowed, glaring at them. They exchanged another uncomfortable glance with each other before Jigsaw made a move to grab the Gucci purse from the ground. With that, they left. 
You sat heavily on the cardboard, pulling the blanket around you although it did little to ease the cold. It was turning winter and you dreaded it. Those were always the hardest months here. You couldn't believe those two assholes. Now you had no money for food, no money for… You felt a lump in your throat as the panic clawed at you again. It wasn't like you did it because you liked it. Not anymore. But now you needed it to function and you hated it. You lay down as tears pricked your eyes and you willed yourself to get to sleep. You had no idea what you were supposed to do now.  The idea of having to go and pay Josh that way again made you feel sick but you were starting to think you wouldn’t have a choice.
—------------------------
The next morning, you lay wrapped in your blanket, eyes unfocused and gazing at the opposite wall. You’d been awake for hours but you couldn’t bring yourself to get up. It had started. Withdrawals. Your body was aching like a bitch and you felt colder than you knew you were supposed to. Your head was thumping and you were exhausted, yet unable to sleep. You heard your stomach growl loudly on its fifth day with no food but you tried to ignore it. You didn't want to face the world, didn't want to have to sit there and beg for change. It certainly wouldn't help you right now, give you what you needed. And while you knew you also needed food, the thought made your stomach roll. You still had the $50 burning a hole in your pocket, but you weren’t touching that. That was for something else and you needed to make up the rest of the money and fast. You heard the sound of boots in the alley and struggled to sit up. When you glanced over, there was a figure walking down it. It took you a moment to recognise him without the skull over his chest, but there was The Punisher. He was wearing a dark green hoodie with the hood pulled up, some jeans and boots on. He held something in his hand. You groaned inwardly, not in the mood for his bullshit. Your nerves felt raw already and you didn't want to deal with him after last night.
“I thought I told you to fuck off,” you huffed weakly as he stopped a little in front of you. Your face felt clammy and you leaned back against the brick wall as you sat there looking at him. 
“You did. But I… I brought you breakfast,” he muttered, looking uncomfortable. He held out a styrofoam tray and cup of some kind of hot drink but you made no move to take it.
“Wow, didn’t realize breakfast and a drink cost $500!” you smiled mockingly at him. He shifted on his feet, eyes darting all over the place before back on you. When you didn't take the food, he sighed and placed them on the floor next to you. Despite your salty words, you picked up the drink, not caring what was in it. The heat on your hands felt relieving and you sipped on it gingerly. Coffee. 
“Your little pal Jason not with you?” you quipped hotly after another sip and him just awkwardly watching you. A confused frown graced his face.
“What?” he asked, squinting at you.
“Jason… Friday the 13th?” you asked, raising a brow with a blank look on your face. 
“Look… About last night,” he started, completely ignoring your question.
“Unless you got my $500 in your pocket, I don't care,” you smirked darkly. He raised his eyes heavenward for a moment with a sigh.
“I know shit ain’t black and white, alright? I’m not stupid. But you can’t go around takin’ shit that ain’t yours,” he huffed. You laughed but it wasn't a pleasant sound as you blinked up at him. You felt like shit and you had no patience.
“Listen…” you trailed off, not knowing what to call him. You didn't know his name and calling him The Punisher to his face felt weird.
“Frank,” he supplied. You squinted at him for a moment.
“What?” you asked slowly.
“My name is Frank,” he offered easily, his eyes boring into you. You didn't know what to do with the information. You weren't sure if his name was common knowledge or not or if he’d just willingly given you something that could hurt him. But you didn't really care.
“Listen, Frank. Spare me the lecture on mortality, okay? You're standing there with enough money to buy a random stranger breakfast and a coffee, with your nice warm clean clothes and wherever you are, I bet you have a roof over your head. You have no idea what it’s like living this life, the shit I’ve had to do to just survive. So you don't get to stand there and act like I’m some hardened criminal. Because tell me, Frank, who’s the murderer here?” you asked darkly, raising a brow at him. He swallowed thickly, shifting on his feet as he looked away for a moment. You were glad. He had no right coming here and trying to make you feel bad for doing what you needed to just to live. You lost the guilt you used to carry with you for stealing long ago. 
He was silent for a long moment and you slurped your coffee. You knew you should eat the food but your stomach churned and you knew soon you’d be throwing up and you hated it. After a while of him seemingly not knowing what to say, he looked you over again.
“You feelin’ alright? Look a little… ill,” he muttered. 
“Oh my god. Can you spare me the little sad puppy routine? Stop acting like you care. Thanks for the coffee and everything, but please just go away,” you sighed, closing your eyes for a brief moment. You heard him move and your eyes snapped open to find him digging something out of his jeans pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper before crouching next to you. You instinctively tensed and squinted at him as he held out the piece of paper. There was an address scrawled onto it along with a phone number. You didn't make a move to take it.
“We got a place, alright? You need a warm bed or… or food or whatever. You can just… come to us. Whatever you need,” he murmured, that stupid pitying look on his face. Your jaw ticked as he placed the paper on your lap when you didn't take it from him. You wondered if he was stupid. Wondered if this was their secret lair, the base of their operation that he’d just handed to you. You didn't know much about the pair of vigilantes, it wasn't like you owned a TV to watch the news, but you’d caught snippets whenever you were at Josh’s. You knew it wasn't just the two of them, though they were the leaders. But they had a whole group and the news called them soldiers. You could easily hand this to the police and you both knew it. You wouldn't though. As much as they were assholes to you the night before, you knew they did good on the street. Made it safer. The streets were very unsafe for anyone homeless, especially a girl like you. Especially in your condition. You’d wasted away out here and your little problem hadn't helped that issue any. There was nothing to you anymore and you knew just how cruel these streets could be. The statistics of homeless people murdered each year were sickening, the number of them going missing even worse. Because homeless people weren't viewed with the same lens everyone else was. They weren't seen as people. People thought they could do what they wanted to someone on the street because they had no one to care for them, no people to miss them when they were gone. Not even the police cared. People were conflicted when it came to the vigilantes. Most people thought they were a good thing, getting rid of crime and doing what the police couldn't or wouldn't do. But the NYPD weren't happy with having their toes stepped on, being made to look bad. And they’d called in the CIA and FBI to help catch the crusaders. It could be dangerous. Make other people feel bold enough to turn vigilante themselves and wind up hurting someone innocent or hurting themselves. It got messy when people thought they could take justice into their own hands. You glared at the paper for a moment, not knowing what to say. You didn't want his pity. You needed the money he’d taken from you but you knew you weren't getting it back.
“My number’s on there… if you ever need anything, need help… give it a call,” he sighed when you didn't speak.
“With what? My invisible cell phone?” you snorted derisively. You couldn't help it. He’d annoyed you and now he was trying to help you. No doubt felt he needed to save you or fix you. You were beyond fixing. He gave you a look for a minute before he rummaged in his pocket again, placing 50 cents with the paper on your lap. 
“Use a payphone if you need to. I’m just trying to help,” he murmured sadly. 
“Well I don't need your help, so go away,” you muttered with a frown. He nodded, not looking happy about it but at least doing what you asked as he stood. He gave you one last lingering look before leaving the alley and you felt yourself relax a small amount. As much as your pain-riddled body would allow you. You picked up the paper, recognising the address as an abandoned industrial estate. You knew it because homeless people would once go there. You knew you should throw the paper out, never planning on using it. But something tugged at the back of your brain and you sighed, slipping it with the 50 cents into your pocket. 
A few hours after Frank’s visit, you were lying unmoving, staring at the ceiling as Josh moaned above you. You felt nothing but a hollow emptiness as he rut into you, jostling your body a little. You knew you would end up here out of your desperation. But as your symptoms got worse, you couldn't hold out any longer. You couldn't go through full withdrawals, not again. You’d stupidly tried to get clean two years back. Decided your addiction was costing you far too much and making you ill. But going cold turkey when you're out on the streets is impossible. When you have no one to take care of you, help you through it. No safe space to go through something so traumatic. You hadn't lasted a day until you’d caved. After a large groan, he pulled out of you, taking off the condom and tossing it carelessly into the wastebasket near the bed. He padded off into the bathroom and you sat up, picking up your clothes as you started to dress yourself. You didn't feel upset. Didn't feel shame. No, that would come later. Once you were dressed, he came back in with a sly smirk, holding out the bag to you. As you made a move to grab it, he pulled it away with a wicked smirk.
“What do you say?” he asked with a raised brow, looking smug. You wanted to hit him. Wanted to wipe that smirk right off his face. But you knew what he was like, learned that lesson the hard way and he’d broken your nose for your troubles. You clenched your jaw, right eye twitching.
“Thank you,” you ground out, feeling the prickle of shame start to eat at you. You hated that you’d been reduced to this. All by the shit that was in the bag he was holding. His smirk widened and he let you take the bag. You didn't wait around before you scurried out of his apartment. You’d have enough to last you a week. That's how it usually went. 
You rushed to the shit hole that was your ‘home’, your hands trembling with the need to use. You sat on your makeshift bed, opening the bag quickly. You grabbed the piece of paper Frank had given you before carefully tipping some of the powder onto the back of your hand. You rolled up the paper before snorting it hurriedly. You’d never injected it. Back when Josh first approached you and tried to convince you to use it, how it would make you feel better, you’d told him you didn't want to get addicted. He’d promised you that you wouldn't. You couldn't get addicted if you snorted it. He’d lied. The only real difference between snorting and injecting was the fact it took between 5 to 10 minutes for the high to kick in compared to the instant results of injecting. You felt an instant relief that was more mental than the substance, knowing you finally got what your body needed. You moved to lay down, waiting for it to kick it. It never quite hit the same as when you first started using. You still got high and it helped numb you a bit but you never felt the euphoria you once felt. You’d used for too long, your body had gotten used to it. You’d slowly been having to use more and more as time went on to even feel high at all. You slowly started to feel the effects of the heroin take its hold and you closed your eyes with a breath of relief. At least you’d sleep tonight. 
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krakrac · 3 months
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hiiii time for an OC rant because thoughts have been thought and i need to scream about them into the void 💥💥
i have been thinking for some time now, about yrsk and the fact that he could be read as a DID system; with an emphasis on "could" since i never planned on writing him as a system and i myself dont view him as one and i probably never will (but who knows, he has already changed A LOT since he came into existence).
(had to add read more because god DAMN i will NOT shut UP)
to show what the hell i mean by that: first thing, he goes/went by at least three different names (it used to be just two but some development with the story has been made) and he treats each one of these names as a separate personality of sorts that acts in a certain way. they don't exist simultaneously – two of them are of the past and the third is his current one which would be named "yrsk". sometimes, yrsk does or says things (be they morally questionable or not) that remind him of the way he used to act when he still called himself one of the past names and he tries to avoid responsibility by attributing the "bad" things to one of the past names. basically saying "oh that wasn't me that was this fucking guy" to himself. also he does this more or less subconsciously and only in his mind, he never speaks about this with anyone (this might change as i write more chapters tbh, i can see him talking about it with nyr at some point in a distant future). of course each of these personalities behind the names is still him, the same person, and he is aware of it.
the second thing is how quickly his attitude can change. he could be all chatty and content one second, and harsh, tense and often emotionless the other. which could evoke switching between alters but it's actually just him switching into survival mode. "oh fuck there is danger, enough of shits and giggles i gotta concentrate on keeping my ass alive" kinda deal. since he has been dealing with danger (both short- and long-term) too often, he had to create a defense mechanism for himself at some point to not lose his mind out of sheer fear and stress, which was even reinforced by his mentor as some form of self-control was required by the martial arts he has been teaching yrsk. if you asked nyr, he would definitely agree that yrsk on the run or during a fight feels like a different person and that he could even notice a slight change in his voice.
also, there is this third thing going on with him, which could be a combination of the two points above, or you could very well view it as an actual alter switch (and i honestly wouldn't even be against making it canon because i actually have no idea what da hell was that): yrsk gained an opportunity to finally exact revenge on an enemy who has more or less destroyed a huge part of his life and he took this opportunity without hesitation. in that moment, he was in the survival mode but at the same time one of the "personalities" behind the past names sort of emerged (or possibly both tbh) – the one that wouldn't bat an eye at torture because that was exactly what he did to the enemy. he snapped out of it after the deed was done and needless to say he was horrified by it and infinitely disgusted by himself; it really fucked him up subsequently. hard to say if it was because he was aware it was him doing it, or because he wasn't aware of it.
ik in this case there is this stereotypical "bad and EVIL alter that KILLS people and is VERY fucked up" thing but again it wasnt written with DID in mind.
anyways rant over i guess 🫡🫡 i might've wanted to talk about more stuff but it's almost 3am and im starting to feel tired so i forgor what it was
also im not much more knowledgeable in DID than an average person so i will gladly welcome any thoughts on this rant, if anyone actually read allat lmao
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shima-draws · 4 years
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Me, clapping my hands: SUPPORT COURSE IZUKU! SUPPORT COURSE IZUKU!! ...WITH A PROSTHETIC!!
I’m sure people have had this idea before but I wanted to put my own spin on it!! And now for the info:
-Izuku's been fascinated with heroes since a young age. However, after finding out he was quirkless, he refused to give up, and switched gears to start investing in the support field. He figured if he couldn't be a pro hero he could at least do his best to help them and be a hero in his own way.
-Izuku's an absolute GENIUS when it comes to inventing--he's on par with Hatsume. However, Hatsume focuses more on support items that break convention and are very innovative and unique. Izuku's focus is more on items that actually help heroes on the field and support their bodies, and items that also allow them to use their quirks to their full extent while still being able to control them properly. (Basically, Izuku's gadgets act as a control stick for heroes that go all out i.e. Toshi.) He also makes a lot of gadgets that support disabled heroes, because--
-Izuku has a prosthetic arm! It's his right one. This was the result of a villain attack that he got involved in after meeting All Might. Toshi blames himself for what happened to Izuku because he couldn't get there in time. He and Izuku are very close--Izuku knows the secret behind Toshi's appearance and he knows about One For All. Mirio is the one to inherit OFA in this AU--so Izuku's very close to him as well! Izuku makes support items for both Toshi and Mirio, to support their quirks. Izuku's gadgets have saved Toshi in a pinch a hundred times over, and are designed to support him when he needs that extra push when he's already reached his limit.
There is more ahead~
-After Izuku lost his arm in the villain accident, Bakugou does a total 180 and starts treating him better. From the start their relationship was less strained than in canon bc Izuku went into doing stuff for support early on, and Bakugou didn't see this as much as a threat compared to if Izuku still wanted to be a pro hero despite being quirkless. Nowadays Bakugou is VERY protective of Izuku--and both of them have reached a point where they're genuine friends. Izuku teases Bakugou a lot and easily snarks back at him when he's being a little shit. Bakugou won't ever admit it openly but Izuku is his best friend :') He cares about him  a lot. He used to defend Izuku constantly back in middle school after the accident, but Izuku soon learned to stand up for himself.
-Going off of that, Bakugou taught Izuku how to fight physically, and they try to spar once or twice a week if they can! It's good practice. Izuku was awful at it at first especially since his sense of balance was off due to the weight of the prosthetic, but Bakugou's a good teacher despite all his shouting lmao. Now Izuku can easily hand his ass to him if he gets into it enough. He can handle himself in a fight pretty brilliantly, even against villains, and Class 1-A quickly learns not to underestimate him.
-Bakugou refuses to get support items from anybody else but Izuku. He bitches at Izuku a lot but Izuku always takes his advice--Bakugou usually offers good tips and pointers on how to improve his gauntlets! Baku always says that while Izuku fucks up all the time (false), he at least trusts him enough to get the job done, while he scorns the rest of the support course fnjdsdd
-Since Izuku isn't in Class 1-A in this AU--guess who is? Yeah, it's Shinsou! Besides Baku Shinsou is probably Izuku's other closest friend, along with Hatsume! Shinsou's got a crush on Izuku and probably knows it won't be reciprocated, but he's fine with that. If Shinsou isn't in class he's most likely hanging out in the development studio with Izuku and Hatsume. The three of them are kinda like a mini Big Three haha, they've got a reputation around UA
-Do not put Izuku and Hatsume in the same room together or they'll bounce insane ideas off of each other and create outrageous things. They get each other super fired up LMAO and go to each other for advice when they need it!
-Izuku has the biggest, most obvious and absolutely endearing crush on one (1) Shouto Todoroki. Bakugou teases him about it CONSTANTLY. The reason for this is because they actually met back in middle school, before Izuku lost his arm--and Todoroki just made a really memorable impression on him bc he was the first person to ever treat him really kindly (they bumped into each other on accident because Izuku was getting chased by bullies, Izuku scraped up his hands, Todoroki chased off the bullies and then iced his injuries, and then they had a really deep conversation about heroes and encouraged each other). Todoroki kinda becomes Izuku's first love in that sense;; ofc it's nothing super serious but Izuku definitely feels all floaty and happy about it afterward. When Izuku gets into UA and notices that Todoroki's in the hero course he almost has a stroke because 1. Izuku gave him encouragement to get into UA waaaay back then and he's shocked Todoroki actually took his advice, 2. He finds out that Todoroki is in fact Todoroki bc they never gave each other their names, so Izuku's Shook his "first love" is actually the son of Endeavor, and 3. Todoroki's grown. He was pretty back in middle school but now. He's hot. HE'S HOT OH NO. After that Izuku keeps noticing him and hears rumors that Todoroki is an ice cold prince type character that has no real feelings. Izuku's like "Someone who takes the time out of their day to save you, heal your hands, and encourage you on your path to be a hero can't be that type of person" so Izuku just KNOWS Todo's actually a very kind boy. Izuku keeps watching him and gets super smitten after the Sports Festival ;) But he's like "He's practically famous, he'd never notice somebody like me, he probably doesn’t even remember me from middle school, haha" (so it's a bit like a celebrity crush). Shinsou and Hatsume bug him about his crush just to see him get flustered and it's very cute lol
-The second time Izuku and Todoroki meet is a goddamn mess and technically counts as their first because Todoroki has a shit memory and can't connect Izuku's face to the boy he met in middle school (also that boy definitely had two flesh arms and Izuku only has one). Todoroki walks in right as one of Izuku's gadgets explodes, absolutely showering him in dust and soot. Izuku freaks out and apologizes a lot while he helps him clean up (while Hatsume is teasing in the background). Note that Izuku's only wearing like a tanktop and sweats, and his hair is all messy and swept back especially since he's wearing his trademark goggles, he's covered in sweat and dirt, he has a really cool looking prosthetic (and Todoroki didn't realize he'd have a thing for that but apparently he does), and Izuku's really fucking toned so Todoroki has a big ol Gay Crisis right there in the development studio. Izuku is INCREDIBLY attractive and Todoroki doesn't know what to do with that info. After Izuku cleans up and manages to get an order for a support item out of Todo, Todo leaves and immediately texts Momo saying, "Yaoyorozu, I think I just had my gay awakening" and on the other side of campus, Momo chokes on her drink. Meanwhile back in the studio Izuku is SCREAMING like "Oh my GOD did that really just happen--did Shouto Todoroki walk in, get blasted by one of my inventions going haywire, let me clean him up and TOUCH HIS CHEST, HATSUME, I GOT TO FEEL HIM UP, and THEN HE ASKED ME TO TAKE AN ORDER, I'M GOING INTO CARDIAC ARREST. TELL MY MOTHER AND TOSHI I LOVED THEM AND TELL TODOROKI I'M SORRY FOR GETTING HIS PERFECT BEAUTIFUL HAIR DIRTY" and she's just laughing her ass off LMAOOOO
-It isn't until their third meeting that Izuku realizes Todoroki doesn't seem to remember him at ALL. And it stings, a lot (but he kinda figured this would happen esp since Todo didn’t recognize him the last time they talked), but he's still happy for the chance to know him now, and get to design support items for him!! Meanwhile Todo's like. Starting to catch on that maybe he DOES know Izuku after all? He isn't sure? But he's definitely falling for him. 
I’ve got more headcanons and stuff but yeah this is all the basics!!! I got so excited to flesh this AU out and make designs fnasjkbdnasds it’s definitely gonna be a fun one to play around with!
I want to either call this the Support Course Hero AU or maybe just Support Hero AU would work--what do you guys think?
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softtransbf · 3 years
Text
Fresh Blood, Old Scars Part 1
You'd disappeared 15 years ago without a trace- what's Yancy supposed to do when you walk into Happy Trails Penitentiary and don't recognize him, because he's transitioned? canon compliant trans!yancy/reader
Reader: he/him trans man, no physical description
Rating: T
Warnings: mentions of violence, canonical and parental. deadnaming and misgendering before either of you came out (none by anyone who knows the correct name/pronouns)
Word Count: 2,690
“Hey Yancy, I heard there’s fresh blood comin’ in today for some sorta museum heist.”
“Oh? Know anything else about these guys, so we can give ‘em a proper welcome, Bambam?”
“I know some. The first guy, Mark Iplier, claimed to have been in charge of the whole thing, but from what my sources said, it’s the partner that ran the show- just real quiet-like. I’ve been told that he don’t say a word.”
“Got a name for this, uh, silent partner?” He chuckled at his joke.
“Y/N L/N.” Yancy’s stomach dropped the way it always did when he heard that last name, your last name. Get your shit together. Wrong first name, and Bambam said he and his. Bambam don’t use pronouns other than they/them unless they’re sure. It’s just some guy with the same last name.
“Yance, you okay?” Tiny waved his hand in front of Yancy’s face.
“Yeah, yeah, just, uh, thinkin about how best to greet dese guys. The usual, wit Don’t Wanna Be Free ready just in case?”
“Right off the bat? You really think they’re that high of a flight risk?” Sparkles finally spoke up.
“I, uh, I don’t trust dem silent-types. They’s always schemin’, got somethin goin ahn in their heads.” And if he's anything like- yeah. Gone before you know it.
“Okay, if you say so. I’ll go let the others know.” Yancy didn’t even register who was speaking; he was too lost in memories.
- 15 years earlier-
Yancy knew it wasn’t cool to be excited for the first day of school when you’re a senior in high school, but he didn’t care. He didn’t need or even want to be cool- all he needed was to be your friend. Well, maybe not just friend. You’d been gone for almost the entire summer, and he’d spent the whole time figuring out how to both ask you out and tell you that he’s a guy.
He practically skipped across the street to your house so you can walk to school together, like you had every day since middle school. He knocked- nothing. Rang the doorbell- still nothing. He checked the back door and the spots where you had hidden spare keys over the years- nothing. All the curtains were drawn, too, so he couldn’t see inside. He kept trying as long as he possibly could before he had to sprint to make it to class just barely in time. All day, he kept an eye on the door, waiting for you- the two of you made sure to sign up for the exact same schedule before you went on your vacation. At lunch, he went to the office to see what he could find out.
“Y/DN isn’t a student here anymore- Mr L/N just told us last week.”
“What? Do you know where they went?”
“I’m sorry, hon, I don’t. All I know is that Y/DN is no longer a student here.”
He’d never ditched a class in his life, but that was the last thing on his mind as he ran home, crying. He didn’t stop crying for weeks.
-Present -
He’d never wanted to be wrong more in his life, but there you were. Looking better than he’d ever dreamed, following Mark around silently as he blabbered on about wanting to rally the other inmates to try to break out. No. I lost you once, and it cost me everything. I’m not about to lose you again. He quickly spread the word to skip pleasantries with the new guys and prepare for the song. As he was, you made eye contact with him from across the room. His heart dropped; you didn’t recognize him. You looked right through him, with the same calculating expression you gave everyone else. Of course he wasn’t gonna recognize you, dumbass. You’ve been on hormones for years and have had top surgery. Usually Yancy loved that he couldn’t see anything of the person he used to be in the mirror, but today he hated it more than anything in the world. Stick to the plan, Yance. He doesn’t recognize me, but it might be better this way. This way, I can get him to stay and get to know me as I am now, and he won’t be disappointed that I haven’t become anything like what we dreamed of so long ago.
Yancy couldn’t have planned it better, Mark practically begging Jimmy to punch him through the wall right before the show started, leaving you alone.
The number went great, as always, but then you showed him a picture of your parents. He knew that picture; you took it when the four of you went on a vacation together before you started your freshman year of high school. He also knew that he had once been in the picture, but you’d cut him out. The tape and staples that had been holding his heart together since you left fell away.
He stuck with his usual response to people citing family for wanting to leave, for the most part. No one at Happy Trails knew about you, and he’d killed his parents before they could leave him, so he’d kept his true abandonment issues to himself. Face to face with you after all these years, though, he couldn’t stop himself from adding “they’re always just gonna leave you behind” and a warning about trifling with the past. You flinched a little at both of those, and a spark of hope ignited in his chest- maybe you hadn’t forgotten about him, even if you didn’t recognize him now.
Then you still chose to leave. The rest of the rather single-sided conversation was a blur to him. Later, as he was tending to his injuries in solitary, he remembered calling you handsome and/or beautiful and your blush when he did. And, of course, you knocking him flat on his ass. He’d challenged you to a fight, because he’d always been able to beat you before. The part that truly left him confused, though, was why he offered to help you break out.
All he’d wanted for the last fifteen years was to go back to the day you left and beg you to stay. He’d told himself dozens, maybe hundreds, of times that if he ever saw you again, he’d do everything in his power to keep you with him. On his darker and angrier days, he truly meant everything. But here you are, and he offered to help you leave. This is what you get for even hoping someone might stick around. Let’s just do this. I gotta stop in with the warden first, though…
“Me? Out there? With you?” He chuckled. You had no idea that, with that simple gesture, you offered him everything he’d wanted for so long. Fuck, I don’t deserve him. I still love him, but he deserves someone better than the angry, selfish man I am. The fragments of his heart splintered even more. “I, um. I done a lotta bad things. And, uh.” He made himself brighten up. “This is home! For now, anyway. Maybe next time parole comes up, I’ll, uh” take it and go find you like I should have fifteen years ago. And I’ll spend every minute until then trying to become the kind of man you deserve. “Anyway, I gotta get back to it. You take care now, you hear? And, hey, visitation! Every third Sunday!” You looked down at the box you’d brought with you, and he ran. When he got back to his cell, he cried genuine tears for the first time since that August day when his world turned upside down.
- 2 weeks later, visitation day -
He knew hoping you’d come was a waste of time, and that he was just setting himself up for more pain. He’d learned the hard way that when you were gone, that was that. But still, there he was, looking up every time a guard walked into the room. As expected, they never called his name. The rest of the inmates gave him a wide berth as he went back to his cell for the night, and they were right to. He was itching for an excuse to fight. No one gave him one, though, so he told himself he’d find one tomorrow and got ready for bed.
When he got to his cell, it took him just one second to realize there was someone on his bed, pull them off, and shove them against the wall. It took him three more to process that it was you, and then another five to step back and let you go.
“Sorry for scaring you, Yancy. I didn’t mean to. It’s just… it’s visitation day, but I’m still wanted for the escape you helped me pull off, and I haven’t decided if I want to come back for good or not.” He stood there, frozen. You chuckled nervously. “I get it, your turn to be the quiet one. I’m sorry about that, by the way. There was a lot to process all at once, and I just kinda shut down when I get overwhelmed.”
I know. I remember that you didn’t say a single word our first day of high school, Yancy wanted to say. He wanted to say something, anything, but you being there and so close was just too much.
“Okay, so, honesty time; there’s a specific reason I came back.” You took a deep breath. “I haven’t been able to shake this feeling that I know you, somehow. But I know I’d remember meeting you- no way I’d forget someone like you. Anyway, I'm probably way off base and ridiculous. I guess I just wanted to tell you?” You ran your hand through your hair. “God, that sounds even flimsier than it felt in my head. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It, uh. It means a lot that you came back to say that.”
“Uh, Yancy? What happened to your accent?”
“Shit. Um. C’mere.” He muttered, as he sat down on his bed and pulled you down next to him. He prayed that you couldn’t hear how his heart started racing when he noticed your knees were touching. “No one here knows that the accent isn’t how I always speak. Not even the warden. I’ve been here five years and haven’t dropped it once. Anyone learns about this, and you’re dead, understand?” He knew that the threat was empty, but you seemed to believe it.
“Yeah, yeah, I do, don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me. I gotta ask, though- why fake it? It seems like a lot of effort. You don’t owe me an explanation, of course, but since you’re heart-on-your-sleeve about your parents, it must be one hell of a reason. I bet it’d feel good to let it off your chest. I can promise to leave and never come back if you do- a burden shared is a burden halved, and if I’m gone, you can be 100% sure no one here will know.”
He took a deep breath. “Something flipped my world on its head, and I needed to distance myself from who I was before. That’s an odd phrase, though- ‘a burden shared is a burden halved’. Where’d you pick that up?”
“Oh, um. The mom of someone I loved a long time ago used to say it a lot. It just kinda stuck, I guess.”
“Loved, huh? You break their heart, or did they break yours?” Yancy was surprised he got the words out without his voice shaking or cracking. You were silent for a long time, and Yancy was sure he’d pushed too hard and you would completely shut down or, worse, leave altogether.
“Sorry, I haven’t talked about this… ever." Your voice shook. "I’ve never talked to anyone about this. I don’t know if I was loved back, but if so, I was the heartbreaker. I didn’t mean to be- I couldn’t control having to leave, and I didn’t know I wasn’t coming back until it was too late. I couldn’t say goodbye. I’ve hoped every day for the last fifteen years that my feelings were unrequited, though. I’m happy to have the pain of an unrequited first love if it means she wasn’t heartbroken.” The incorrect pronoun stung a bit, but you didn’t know, and you’d loved him back all those years ago. He was invincible.
“Have you tried reaching out? Even if your feelings were one-sided, I think you owe it to both of you to say them, at least once.” He reached out and took your hands without thinking. You didn't stop him, and he felt like he could fly.
“I tried, actually. About eight years ago, I'd, uh, escaped and was finally an actual person again after everything that was done to and taken from me, so I started looking for her. But it’s like she vanished off the face of the earth five years to the day after we were separated. It’s actually how I met Mark- I got into some deep and shady shit looking. I only gave up last year. Nothing turned up in seven years of searching, so I have to figure that she did something incredibly stupid a decade ago and got herself killed.”
“I didn’t die. Just the name did.” Yancy breathed. A half second later, he realized he’d said it out loud, and his heart stopped. You took your hands out of his and scooted away.
“Yancy. Are you trying to tell me that you’re- that we- oh my god. It is you. I knew I knew you. Everything else is different, but I should have recognized your eyes. I guess some part of me did. But you- I- I thought you were dead.”
“As you can see, I’m not dead, Brain. And for the record, your feelings were definitely not one-sided.” He reached out and cupped your cheek with one hand.
“Shit, Pinky, it really is you.”
Yancy had dreamed about how seeing you again would go in a million different ways. Not a single one of those included you practically jumping into his lap and kissing him with a lifetime's worth of love and want.
He let out an undignified whine when you broke the kiss. “Wait, wait. You knew from the second I walked in here who I was, didn’t you? You tried so hard to stop me from leaving… but then you helped me do just that. You chose to stay here when I asked you to come with me. Then I came back, and you got me to say all those things… And we’re both trans and wound up here? This is all just. So much. I can’t- I can’t do this.” You got off his lap and scooted to the far end of the bed.
“What are you saying, Y/N? That you’re leaving? Again?” He couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice.
You stood up and faced him. “You do not get to play that card. You don’t know how much I went through trying to find a way to tell you I was sorry, that I didn’t know that the trip was a permanent one until we were on the other side of the country. Dad said that I'd never see mom again, and he’d kill me if I tried to get in touch with you or anyone else from back home. He broke my arm to prove he meant it. I can’t stay here to unpack all of this. I have to go. But you can come with me. I mean it even more now than I did last time. I’m not leaving you, I’m leaving here.”
You walked to the cell door and looked back at him with a sigh. “But I know you, and you have a family here. I’ll get you my address- it’s your turn to come to me, when you’re ready. I’ve waited 15 years to be with you again, what’s a little bit longer?” Without giving him a chance to respond, you kissed him again and were gone.
65 notes · View notes
ronsbadidea · 3 years
Note
🧩, Dad!harry headcannons because you know how much of a whore I am for Harry, something sweet and sad because I am in my feels today. And I know I've said this already but CONGRATS!! You totally deserve this and more! Your Harry fics/blurbs, omg *mwuah* chefs kiss. And all the other fics/blurbs you've written for others?- Oh my god, auoghaoeurhvaeproubhv. Anways thank you for sharing your wonderful stories. Love you Nicole - Lyn
this has gotten done so late and i feel so horrible i’m so sorry 😭 but it’s FINALLY here. tysm for your sweet words ilysm!!
dad!harry makes me happy :) very very happy :)
you guys decided back in school you both wanted kids
but obviously with a war impending all thoughts got pushed to the back burner
so after the war when you guys got married you felt like you could breathe again
harry was scared at first when you first said you were pregnant
he never knew his father so how is he supposed to know what to do
you had to remind him that remus, sirius, and arthur are just as much as father figures to him with or without blood
in this canon everyone is alive and well period
after the initial shock he owled remus and sirius and couldn’t stop talking about it
very much had everything ready way before it needed to be done
you guys have 3 kids
2 boys and 1 girl
when you had your first kid he was nervous as hell
scared about the whole process but you both managed perfectly fine
then when you guys had your second kid he wasn’t as nervous but was still scared shitless because
“y/n it’s another tiny human being brought into the world”
when your third child was born, harry had shit down pack
don’t get him wrong he was still cautious and nervous but he’s had plenty of practice and had faith in both of you
time jump let’s get it
your daughter is a daddy’s girl most definitely
but she also has him wrapped around her finger
“daddy open this please”
“kiss daddy”
“hold me daddy :(“
“play princesses with me”
and you bet your ass he played princesses with her
you came home one night when you had to work late and saw your family sitting in a circle in the living room having a tea party
harry had this tiny tiara on and a princess dress that was obviously charmed to be bigger than intended
“y/n you don’t understand the tiara matches the dress”
now with his sons
both are trouble makers in their own beautiful ways
your family refers to them as the twins bc even tho are different in age, both are practically identical
fred and george teach them silly kid pranks to play on their sister to piss her off
yeah you heard me fred ain’t dead bitches
harry teaches them quidditch at a young age
definitely bought them toy brooms and watches them zoom around the house as if they’re flying in the air
your daughter loves quidditch just as much too and definitely takes after you so he’s happy to have three mini quidditch stars in the house
what a powerful family
lazy days are a thing!!
he will literally spend the day with them in pajamas and watch cartoons all day and spend his day off doing exactly that
will team up with them and join them when you have mini wars in the house
“i’m switching sides i’ve been convinced to join the nation”
one day when he was at work you were home with the kids and they stumbled across your old school robes
they begged to see them and it led to them trying on the robes
your daughter claimed yours and harry had multiple robes so each boy had one
so when harry came home that night he was shook when they came running at him with the robes on trailing behind them
he literally started bawling his eyes out
“they’re growing up so fast love”
his heart jumped when they ran over to you to help take the robes off and he just sat and stared at you 4
bc you, the love of his life, gave him something he never thought he’d ever have
a family
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riathedreamer · 3 years
Text
You asked for it: live thoughts from Ria and @creatrixanimi​ watching RvB Zero.
So, after having a movie night the day before (third movie night in a week, actually, we are very productive) watching Neil Breen movies and “Cool Cat”, it was now time to touch upon Zero. Sadly, Zero does not belong in the “so bad it’s good” category, but alas, Ria had to spoil Haley’s innocence.
This is not a proper edited review, but just snippets of our live reaction while watching the thing together. We are not drunk, but this continued way past midnight for Ria, so maybe her brain isn’t fully functioning. Also, Ria is a potty mouth because cursing is easy when it’s not your native language. Enjoy.
Episode 1:
Ria: I can’t figure out if they were trying to do a Grif and Simmons parallel with those two random guards talking outside, the ones with the Wash retconning.
Haley: Their armor doesn’t cover their noses. 
Ria: That’s gotta be cold. Frostbitten noses.
...
Haley: There is no exposition. Like, it feels like the writers had their idea and know what is going on, but we don’t so it just feels weird and random. It feels like a Marvel movie.
Ria: Is that a compliment? I haven’t watched Marvel.
Haley: Not a good one.
 ...
Ria: This episode isn’t that bad in itself. But it’s just there to establish that the OG characters can’t beat this new villain, but the new guys can, and, urgh.
 ...
Episode 2:
[The shot focuses on One’s behind.]
Ria’s dirty mind: Ass.
 ...
Ria: STOP CALLING HIM DAVID.
...
Ria: I like this character, but I don’t remember his name.
Haley: Raymond.
Ria: This is why we need a name system like with the Freelancers and states. Should’ve just been numbers all the way through. Except Eleven, you fucking whore.
 ...
Haley at the sight of Raymond’s phone: It’s so big.
Ria: It’s the future. I can believe it.
 ...
Ria: Here’s the thing driving me crazy. Axel is a normal name in Denmark. But like, only old people use it. I know two Axels and they are both older than eighty. So that’s when I think of when I see Axel.
 ...
[After the whole training montage where we are introduced to the characters, we are still confused.]
Ria: I can’t remember their names.
Haley: Well, they didn’t show all of them. They didn’t show One.
Ria: They did!
Haley: They did?
Ria: Wow. So we got all that tell and no show, and we are still confused.
 ...
Haley: When it comes to genre, it’s actually not that bad with the narrated tell and don’t show. If it wanted to be a cheesy/bad action movie, that’s a trope that’s used relatively frequently in the genre. It’s a bad action movie. But it’s not RvB. It’s kinda like a particularly bad Marvel movie.
Ria: You’re really not selling me on the Marvel movies tonight.
 ...
Ria: I know I’m just a sucker for Joe, but I keep thinking of s15. Like, here they just use the files as a cheap way to introduce the characters. But like, in s15, Dylan just read out loud Grif’s file, and it was not to introduce him, but like, to show the complexity of the characters and go against the files? I don’t know, it just seems way cooler now.
 ...
[After the whole “what’s East’s deal” scene, we were so confused. Literally paused for five minutes trying to figure who was whose dad and why and what. How many daughters did Axel have? And where are they? We were just lost. Future Haley: Him waxing poetic about his daughters while watching the two girls in his team train confused me like I thought he was talking about East and One and couldn’t count sdfghjk. Future Ria: I’d even watched the show before and I was still confused.]
Ria: I can’t figure out if they’re too fast or if we’re just stupid.
Haley: It’s like I’m trying to remember the details but it all slips through my fingers.
Ria: The whole Zero experience is to feel too old for this shit.
 ...
Ria: STOP FUCKING CALLING HIM DAVID
 ...
One: This is how it’s done, grandma.
Ria: Fuck you.
 ...
Episode 3:
Haley: People would like it if they love dumb action shows. It works as a mindless action show.
 ...
Haley: So this is a temple?
Ria: I hate the worldbuilding. Is this the same planet as before? Like, Chorus had temples, but it also had lore about it. Is this the same sort of temples?
Haley: So shouldn’t this temple have its own key? Why do they need to include Tucker? It makes no sense for the temple to require a totally different sword from a different planet.
Ria: So they could beat him up ‘cause OG characters are weak now.
 ...
Haley: I don’t like the training scenes. They are so long and boring.
Ria: This is like the third episode where they are training. Holy shit.
 ...
Haley: It’s not that bad. But if you like Red vs. Blue, it’s not something for you. They aren’t really comparable.
Ria: I just don’t understand what they wanted to continue for Red vs. Blue. Like, it’s not the worldbuilding or the plot or the characters. I just don’t get it.
 ...
Haley: Raymond is the best character.
Ria: I like Raymond.
Haley: He’s RvB. He should be the main character.
 ...
Ria: Did East just use the “I’m not like the other (girls)” line?
Haley: I don’t like her. She’s a brat. Why did Carolina have to apologize? They were just training, this is something she’s gonna have to deal with on a daily basis lmao.
Ria: Didn’t Carolina have a cast on her arm? It’s gone now. I can’t keep up with the timeline. So, she’s healed, but how long was Wash gone? They are so vague about everything. Worldbuilding, timeline, motivations.
 ...
Ria: …Did Carolina just say she’d suit up? While wearing a full armor suit?
 ...
[And this is where the cursed part takes place. To talk, we’d often pause the thing. Here, I randomly paused during the introduction for Starlight Laboratories. There’s a desk in the shot. With a fucking marker on it.]
Tumblr media
Haley: That’s a Crayola marker. That’s a Crayola marker on the table.
Ria: Glad we can appreciate the details by pausing.
[Haley then missed the entire Axel flashback scene because she was too busy looking up pictures of Crayola markers. When this is revealed, Ria lost it for like, three minutes]
Haley: I had that marker as a kid. 
Ria: So 4/5 stars for the marker?
Haley: They were supposed to smell like blueberries or something but they just smelled like chemicals.
Ria: This is the most excited we’ve been about Zero so far.
[Future Haley: I was literally laugh-crying you dont understand. This was the best part of the show.]
...
Episode 4:
Ria: They all have super powers. It’s so weird.
Haley: I keep thinking they are gonna explain stuff. But they don’t. So I’m just confused.
 ...
[Haley has now brought forth all the markers in her room to find a Crayola one. She drops them all on the floor. Ria loses it again.] [Future Haley update: I found a yellow one it smells like lemons :)]
 ...
Ria: They are all glowing and have super powers. It’s weird. Like, I know we had super powered armor before but that was all connected to AIs. I don’t get how all of this works. They don’t have AIs.
 ...
[We both agree that we enjoy Raymond and Tiny. Bless them.]
 ...
Ria: It’s weird. The dialogue is so oblivious, it comments on its own mistakes. Like, Carolina just acknowledged Wash has had a computer in his head before. But they don’t acknowledge the whole canonical lore about his trauma regarding computers in his head and why he’d hate this. Same with the name David. They just noticed that it’s his first name and that’s how they’d show how close Carolina is with him, but they didn’t acknowledge the canon lore that Wash dislikes people using his first name.
 ...
Episode 5:
Haley: Why didn’t they use Locus’ sword instead. It’d make more sense. He’s the one travelling around planets and wanting to help people?? 
Ria: What’s the worldbuilding here? Is Tucker on the same planet? Is this Earth? Chorus?
 ...
Haley: Gotta love it when they make Tucker hit on teenagers.
Ria: Oh god why did they make East 18.
 ...
Haley: They should have done something with the Warthog song, even if that’s a Red Team thing.
Ria: I miss Red Team.
 ...
Ria: Wait, so if these three swords are connected, why can the two first ones move by themselves and they have like super powers connected to them? When Tucker’s sword is just boring? They didn’t even make a joke about how the two new swords are longer than Tucker’s.
 ...
Tucker: I’m fine, I have my sword.
Ria: That line is so tragic in hindsight.
 ...
One: It’s Tucker. He is dead.
Carolina: Oh my god.
Haley: *laughs her ass off*
 ...
Haley: I don’t understand why anyone is doing anything.
Ria: Your brain is still thinking about that fucking marker.
 ...
Episode 6:
Ria: The dialogue did it again! Wash just said “amazing medical tech”. Like, he points out a plot hole. Because that amazing tech can heal brain injuries and bring people back from death, but East had to be tortured for years to heal her vague illness? Like, why couldn’t their amazing tech fix that.
 ...
[While watching the design of the temple.]
Ria: It looks like those are just plates glued to the wall. Dinner is served.
 ...
Haley: There is no logical reason why they brought in Tucker. His sword isn’t even from this planet.
Ria: To lure in fans.
 ...
Haley in a very sad voice: The speech wasn’t good.
 ...
Episode 7:
Ria: Is all of this happening on the same planet? They keep driving. The worldbuilding is so weird. At least earlier RvB made a joke about how they could just drive everywhere. This is like a big desert, a training base, laboratory, city and temples and Tucker’s workplace, and I don’t know if it’s even on the same planet.
 ...
Ria: Diesel is just standing there waiting while they outfit Carolina.
Haley: It’s like a video game.
 ...
Ria: The temple’s walls are filled with runes.
Haley: It feels like a free/bought asset. It doesn’t even look like the temples on Chorus. It looks like something in WoW or something like that.
Ria: It’s driving me mad. I can read runes! Imagine a big boss fight and the freaking alphabet is plastered on the walls. That’s what I’m looking at.
 ...
Haley: Zero is such a boring villain. It’s not interesting when we don’t know what this “power” actually is or what he wants to do with it.
 ...
Ria: That’s the helmet Spencer wore.
Haley: Oh god I forgot about him.
Ria: So did the writers.
Haley: Spencer should have been the real villain.
 ...
Haley: *sees the random model of the temple guardian alien* I miss Santa.
 ...
Episode 8:
Ria: The aliens are just dancing in the background while Carolina is fighting Diesel.
Haley laughing: Oh my god, they are. They are just jumping up and down.
 ...
Ria: So, the villain just turned overpowered, and the solution is that Raymond just flicks a switch we haven’t heard about and now the heroes are overpowered too?
Haley: It just makes them shiny. And like... they don’t even use the “power”, they don’t fight him with their powers which only some of them have, they just shoot their ordinary guns at him while doing unnecessary flips.
Ria: I just remembered Church’s dick switch. That had more dramatic buildup.
 ...
Axel: You’re too cocky for that.
Ria’s dirty brain: Cock.
 ...
Post Zero thoughts:
[Ria returns from bathroom break and Haley is proudly showing off her marker over video cam.]
Haley: There was too much going on so I just focused on the marker.
Ria: So how many stars would you give it?
Haley: It’s really bad.
Ria: How many stars for marker representation?
Haley: Three out of five. It was only there for a second.
 ...
Haley: In the beginning, it wasn’t that bad. It was dumb, but also fun and sorta cool. But then it just went on for too long and they didn’t explain anything properly and it stopped being fun really fast. But I can see why some people might enjoy it. Like, you’d love it for its action but only that. Not for plot and/or the character writing.
Ria: I think my biggest problem is the worldbuilding. They kept everything so vague because they didn’t want to connect, not really. Like, where is this happening? When? Why are Carolina and Wash there? Like, the motivations for all the characters were so vague as well.
 ...
Haley: Raymond was great. He had personality and some good lines. And he felt like RvB. Like, he used his brain and actually got shit done, but he also wasn’t over-powered. He followed a similar character arc to what the Reds and Blues had. He sucks at fighting but he’s efficient and smart in a practical way with his rocket launcher. He does the most and he doesn’t stop being a goofball! Even Zero was focused on stopping him the most at the end. And he didn’t need to do any stupid flips.
 ...
Haley: The borrowed assets annoyed me. It ended up looking stupid, like, the temple felt more like fantasy than science fiction. And nothing like Chorus. And normally, RvB doesn’t have to worry about being cohesive because all of the designs are from Halo so it all makes sense and it’s connected. But this is just so random it feels distracting, I feel like this is a big reason people felt that Zero was so jarring… but on a subconscious level. It just felt off and there was no cohesive design. Also everything looked like it was made for video games and not modified at all for the show.
 ...
Haley: Honestly I was optimistic at first but then I got confused really fast and it kept getting worse because it was so fast. They didn’t explain stuff properly or at all. Like, they made it too big. Should have been smaller. I thought going with the “Starlight Labs is evil and needs to go down” plot would have been A LOT better and would have tied together multiple aspects of the story that the temple plot didn’t.
Ria: If I had the power which I don’t, I dunno, but I if the main point was to introduce new characters, I’d keep them tied to lore and worldbuilding we already know. So we don’t get so confused and it doesn’t feel so disconnected. Like, I’m still in love with the idea that it should have been Carolina on Chorus dealing with these soldiers who have been fighting all their lives and now don’t have to do that anymore. But maybe Chorus still needing an army, and that’s why she is training it. I don’t know, but like, familiar, build on what we know. And then they wouldn’t be superpowered, but like, just competent-ish but normal soldiers and we’d get to know them better, but I just think Zero just wanted them to be these super cool soldiers even better than Carolina so they could pull off all the fight scenes. ‘Cause it’s all Zero has going for it. The fight scenes. It’s its strength and weakness ‘cause they sacrificed everything else to look cool. And it does. But it’s boring and there is nothing else going on.
 ...
Ria: I’m still so annoyed about the temples. Why are they there? Like, on Chorus it was a big thing, also plotwise, but it had lore connected to it and the worldbuilding explained it. So, where are these temples? A different planet, right? Is it the same aliens? Are people just cool with the temples? Why haven’t they been explored before. Chorus made sure to explain all of that.
 ...
Haley: The West and East scene-
Ria: Feast.
Haley: Confused me. ‘cause West didn’t really regret anything. He just said why he did it. And then all of the sudden East forgave him and rejoined the team. It was so weird. He doubled down on the thing she hated him for so much I was like “Wow he’s kinda an asshole” and then all of a sudden she was on his side? What?
 ...
Haley: Zero does its job if you want action and nothing else. And it’s not RvB. Don’t watch it if you like RvB. And I just want to acknowledge that we are nitpicking. Quite a bit. I’ll admit that. But, I wouldn’t nitpick the other RvB seasons the same way because the old RvB never took itself seriously the way Zero did.
Ria: I agree. We are nitpicking. But like, that’s why we have the movie nights.
Haley: But we are also allowed to criticize it. You can do that with any season. And with the other seasons, you could nitpick it and you can find stuff you don’t like, but there are always stuff you do like or that other people like. I just can’t find anything about Zero that I like. Besides Raymond.
Ria: Yeah. Like, I really love 15. And it had so many flaws people pointed out. And when it comes to criticism and Zero, I just don’t see many points about why people like it. They are allowed to do that though. But, like, we could have a movie night where we watch the Chorus seasons and we’d nitpick so much because we both have issues with it, but there is still so much stuff we’d still like.
Haley: I like Raymond though. He’s like Grimmons lovechild.
Ria: No. Fuck you. Don’t put that in my brain.
 ...
Haley: Raymond being in this… I want to say it feels like the Freelancers seasons but if Grif was part of the team or something. But that’s just “Hit and Run”. *laughs*
Ria: NO! That’s cursed. Shut up. Also, the Freelancers were way better written.
Haley: And those seasons made better sense.
Ria: And like, the Freelancer seasons did the thing with change of tone and have these new and super cool characters and fight scenes. But they kept half of the seasons to be around the Reds and Blues so we still had the humor and the dumbasses, and Zero just, it didn’t connect.
 ...
Haley: So, I have some thoughts on Zero.
Ria: I know, you fuck, I had to write them all down by hand.
Haley: I like bad movies, actually, but Zero didn’t stay fun, so no, I didn’t enjoy it.
 ...
Ria: Do you forgive me for making you watch Zero?
Haley: Yeah.
Ria: What should we watch next?
...
Also, Haley dressed up her dog for the event and you all deserve to see her:
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tartrazeen · 3 years
Text
Random HankCon Reverse AU Post
I wrote this on Discord some months back, and very luckily somebody fantastic helped me out by finding it! <3 <3 <3 The context was around the HK series already being a canonical type of android in the game: it's a housekeeper model, like the HK-400 Connor hunts down in his first investigation with Hank. So from that, everyone was discussing a reverse AU where Hank was an HK housekeeper, Connor was an overworked older brother taking care of his younger brother, and one of them was proposing that Connor just rent an HK to help around the house and take the load off. And from that, I came up with this roughly described - but still fun and angsty - concept. Picture reading it as I wrote it: mid-conversation, and butting in to slap this idea onto everyone. :D
Omg - Hank helping out enough in just a few ways by making lunch or something, or dinner for the next night, and Connor actually having time to go to sleep and spend time with both of them. Or Hank activating a Cranky Child Up Past His Bedtime protocol and making Connor go to bed, because the poor guy doesn't have an off-switch when every single case just needs a 'few more minutes' for him to crack it.
Connor having such a rough week that his little brother saves up cash from - pfft, I dunno, what's stupidly diabetically sweet enough for this - recycling beer bottles from around the neighbourhood, purely to rent Hank for Connor's sake AND THEN IT BECOMES LIKE SOME KINDA WEIRD-ASS DATE THAT NEITHER OF THEM SEEM TOO INTERESTED IN ENDING But then - then - they get into a bit of a routine like that. Connor's happy enough to rent Hank when his little brother needs him, but now it's grown into a... "Okay, fine, if I need him too, then that just helps both of us. That's okay." ... And then one day, his little brother's staying at a friend's house or something, and Connor's - just... bored? Lonely? Tired? He's not sure. But he flicks over to a website, sees Hank is available, and decides to rent Hank really just for himself. And it's the first time that's ever happened without a kid in the house or without Connor himself being too exhausted to function, so it officially becomes a weird-ass date of them hanging around. Maybe going outside to get air. Whatever happens. Now here's where I can draw upon some more IRL bullshit: water heater rentals. These things last ten years, you pay $40 a month to rent them, but at the end of the tenth year, you'd still have to pay to buy it out. And that - despite everything you pay - could still cost like $6,000. Even if you bought the thing outright, it would've cost $5,000.
I say that because I imagine Connor getting to the point where he's thinking... he might buy Hank. Whenever rental products go up for sale, there's usually a steep discount, so he thinks it won't cost too much. No one else rents Hank as much as he does anyway, and he's not sure how much he's spent, but surely that would knock the price down. He's still very much trying to think of this as a practical transaction to manage the purchase of a machine, after all. Except Connor is the one asking to buy Hank. The company isn't offering. So the sticker shock at the price is - just... unbelievable. To the point that Connor very much regrets even opening his mouth. And the nanny company says it's that or they throw Hank out, because - just the IRL - they can't be seen selling Hank cheaper or giving him away when they're done with him, or they'd never make any money. "People would just wait until he's thrown out and go dumpster diving." So now we have a ticking clock and Connor has a bill to pay. We could do two things from here: 1) Connor gets the money (spoiler). It isn't easy. He's already doing all the overtime he's allowed because he's volunteered for it - he can't afford to let something like sleep get in the way of catching a murderer - so he's making the most that he can. He doesn't have any vacation or sick days to cash in because he's used them all whenever he's burnt out; that's probably why he looked into getting Hank in the first place. And it's not like he has time to get a second job or anything. It's his little brother that asks, "Do we really need a car?"
So they both start selling everything. They don't really need a crappy couch. This table's been wobbly since day one. A garage full of crap that is coated in dust and grime is just enough to get them over the edge of it. And it's a weird feeling, bringing a nanny-bot back to an almost empty house. Connor might comment on how there'd be a lot less to clean, which is bullshit, but the best he can in defence of it all. So Hank takes it for what it is, slowly appreciating exactly what this meant for all of three of them. It's an empty house that's quickly become a full home. 2) Connor doesn't get the money (yesssssssssssss) Because there's just no way to pay that. It's ridiculous - even if he could afford it, he should still be arresting these people, because this is an obvious robbery. He can't make that last leap to admit this is more than a machine to help around the house, and the company - just... "Okay. You have three days to change your mind if you're interested." His little brother tries to get him to. He asks if Connor can just sell the car. Not only is that a bad idea, because how else is Connor going to get to work, but who's going to pay that much for it anyway? It's not worth it, Hank is a walking piece of plastic programmed to be friendly, and if they need a nanny-bot so bad, they can buy a new one for a third of what the rental company is charging. On the second-last day, his little brother tries the ol' "Rent Hank for Connor's sake" trick. It's a last-ditch effort to get Connor to admit that they would all feel awful losing Hank, machine or not. He's real enough to them, right? Wrong. Plastic. Money. Facts. Connor's more pissed that his little brother wasted more cash that could've gone towards paying a price they would never be able to afford anyway, and walks off to let his little brother hang out with the android for a last night. He doesn't want to draw this out for himself, and Hank had better be gone by the time Connor comes home.
Connor doesn't do much. He mostly just walks around for hours. And for way too long - eventually, he's at a park, and there's Hank emerging from the snow (oh yeah, it's snowing) to gently wait there in silence. That goes on for long enough for Connor to accept that he's going to miss Hank. It's a short conversation, and Hank's used the Cranky Kid protocol for Connor to know to start heading back, but that's all Connor says: "We'll miss you, I guess. Thanks." Hank is gone by the time Connor wakes up. The house is quiet, his little brother has his breakfast, and Connor has his lunch made. And that is what really gets to him. Hank - over and above his programming - once again took care of Connor, too. Those walls that were already dropping finally drop the rest of the way, and knowing perfectly well that he's too late, he calls the rental company up to ask if there's a payment plan or some extension or anything he can do to keep Hank. There is! Fortunately! And if Connor would like to arrange that for any of these other rental androids, the company can certainly help. What about Hank? Well, this is a business. They had a deadline and costs around that deadline, so they couldn't keep waiting around forever in the hopes that some family changed their mind about buying a standard android. It's unfortunate, but yes, Hank was appropriately disposed of. Would Connor like to buy another android that looks like Hank instead? Connor hangs up before they can give him the full sales pitch. His little brother notices. His work notices. Everyone notices that Connor's different lately. He's reached an almost terrifying level of laser focus on his work. He has all the time he wants to catch all the bad guys he feels like, and he does because who's going to stop him, really? And it goes like that while his little brother keeps asking for Connor to rent a different android, or to just buy one that's like Hank. On and on and on and on and on and on and on until Connor finally just loses it, dumps his phone on the ground, tells his brother to do whatever the hell he wants so long as he shuts up, and storms back out. He's out there for hours in the cold, half to spite Hank's memory - that he's become painfully reliant on for reasons he ascribes to guilt - and half because he knows it's not only guilt he's feeling. Everything tingles. His fingers, his nose, his ears, and he's at least considering going home to his car so he can warm up without having to do a walk-of-shame back inside. He's saving that for when his brother's asleep. This is roughly a minute before he notices Hank walking out in the snow. Not Hank. Not exactly. It's another android that looks like Hank, and that jolt in Connor's chest twists into a searing ache again. He's changed his mind and he's out here entirely for spite now, because his little brother must've called his bluff and rented another nanny and sent him to drag Connor home.
He's committed to that until Hank mentions the number of times Connor's tried to fight him on going to bed, and the grand total of zero times that Hank's lost this fight. Hank's very good at this. He's had to deal with a lot of rough families and teenagers. Hank remembers that because each family has a profile saved based on every visit: preferences, schedules, the kids' needs, memories... They've always been backed up. It's a business, after all. It takes Connor a few minutes to get it. He's still trying to decide if this android is real or not, let alone... his Hank. And Hank is perfectly willing to keep coming back to convince him. And he will, every time, for as long as Connor keeps a copy of his memories. ... But it is going to be after Connor is in bed. Connor's never been happier to get dragged away, kicking at this 1.98m cuddle-bear the whole time.
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boop-le-snoot · 3 years
Text
PARTY FAVOURS I A VENOMOUS INTERLUDE
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Did y'all know symbrock is canon? Well, now you do. Reader's favourite deadbeat surrogate uncle is in town and he brought a... Friend. No warnings, just a boatload of crack and fluff, as usual. Reader being mouthy. Takes place a little bit into the future - around after chapter 32: spoiler alert is useless because we already know a tonybrucestrange/reader quartet is the endgame. 💖💝✨
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"What," I had to pause for a second for my brain to catch up with my eyes. "The fuck?!"
It was truly a miracle I could say anything out loud, at all. Words weren't valid enough to describe my shock and confusion. The scene unfolding in front of me resembled and unholy cross between a B-rated horror movies about demonic possession and some deep-sea Eldritch monstrosity.
The eight-feet tall black, oozing dude in front of me? Yes, you, with the teeth. Ctulhu called, he wants his tentacles back.
The creature honest to god rippled, like some nightmare-fuel goth Jell-O, rapidly shrinking in size within seconds. As more of the black tar-like substance receded, a much more human form started to appear under it. Worn jeans, leather jacket, ungroomed beard and the look of a biker gang member coming off a serious bender.
"Uh, Princess?"
"Eddie. Fucking. Brock. Uncle Idiot." I punctuated each word with an increasing widening of my eyes. The world was fucking nuts. Two and two did not compute - Eddie might have looked threatening to some people - like white suburban Karens - even without the... Gooey squid-on-steroids thing he had going on. The man was built like a fucking brick shithouse, but I knew him way too well. Eddie couldn't be that badass to save a life.
"You two know each other?" Tony shrieked indignantly, a coarseness in his voice that indicated only one thing: my boo was well into his third drink. Hell, I didn't blame him - that gaping toothy maw was fucking gnarly.
Hands on my hips, I caught myself slipping into a mute rage, storming over to the 200lbs worth of pure dumbass and knocking him right in the face. "You! Didn't tell! ME!" A black tendril wrapped around my wrist, carefully but firmly securing it and preventing me from causing my non-related uncle any more physical damage. Although I must admit, my knuckles probably were more affected than his jaw. "You! Are! A MUTANT!!! HOW COULD YOU?! How could you NOT tell ME?"
I trusted the man with my soul and most embarrassing drinking stories. Hell, I called Eddie in a stoned haze the very same night I lost my v-card. I just thought we were bros, you know? I saw his whole fucking life implode more than once and personally flew to California to ice his injuries and his hurt ego countless times. I was done dirty in the worst way.
"I'm not-" Eddie's sigh was long-suffering. "I, uh, I have a parasite..." He sounded meek, in the same way he used to describe his drunkenly misconduct when I made our family driver bail out his ass outta jail in the morning.
"TAKE THAT BACK!" A deep gravelly voice thundered, seemingly coming out of his chest?
"Okay, okay," Eddie smiled. It was strangely soft and un-eddie-like. The only person he smiled like that was... used to be Anne. "This is Venom. They're an alien and we're, uh, a thing. It's a recent development." The tentacle unwrapped itself from me as I took an involuntary step back.
Even barring the fact that Eddie was dating an alien, this was way too fucking weird for 3 o'clock on a Sunday. I always knew the reporter was, for the lack of a better word, a little weird but he really took it to new heights. With Thor and Loki looking... Like that, I could see a human dating some sort of a hot alien. But with Ctulhu looking the way he did just minutes ago? Did Eddie seriously let all of those teeth in close proximity of his dick?
I had a "ERROR 404, common sense not found" hanging over me for the longest time. The others were quiet behind me, too, even Tony - one of my boyfriends, the most likely to cause utter chaos, was hanging back and expecting me to do something.
"Venom," I clarified, just to fill the silence with some noise while my brain processors re-synced.
"WE ARE VENOM." The tentacle that was sleek and black now had two completely white eyes and a smaller-scale version of the toothy grin that had drooled all over the common room carpet. Their voice had an interesting effect: it was so deep, the air around them vibrated slightly when they spoke.
I tilted my head examining the appendage. It was considerably less terrifying when it wasn't five times my size. "What are you?" And most importantly, are you a threat to my favourite non-related family member? I left that statement unspoken although it was obvious I was ready to fight it? Them? If need be.
"A SYMBIOTE," They replied, swaying the head-tentacle slowly. "WE LOVE EDDIE AND KEEP HIM ALIVE AND HEALTHY." So, they understood the actual question.
"Which is fucked up because Klyntar usually behave in the opposite way." Hearing Thor swear was, perhaps, even more unsettling than finding out about the symbiote-alien-boyfriend thing my uncle had going on. The thunderer himself was nursing a jug of golden liquid. The good Asgardian stuff, he must've been really fucking bamboozled.
"Okay. So anybody wanna fill me on the details before I beat up my favourite idiot?" I sighed, pointedly looking at Tony.
"I thought I was your favourite idiot!" He immediately retorted, hurt, but nonetheless opened his arms to give me a grounding embrace. We may have sucked face for a few seconds, because why the hell not, Tony was an amazing kisser and his tongue down my throat was very calming.
"Hold up, what the fuck?" Now it was Eddie's turn to act all offended. "Aren't you a little too young for him?"
"You and your most likely carnivorous goth space pudding can fuck right off if you're not going to be supportive of my very inappropriate, very polyamorous relationship with three incredibly hot boomers," I shot back, slipping into some resemblance of normalcy. Me and Eddie go way, way back and shitting on each other's bad life decisions was the founding stone of our bromance. Hell, he was the guy who showed me the wonders of sarcasm at an early age! Wonderbaum!
"There's three of them?" Eddie's voice pitched and he gaped, palming his face.
"SHE HAS A POINT, EDDIE. WE EAT PEOPLE. BEING UNSUPPORTIVE WOULD MAKE US LOOK LIKE AN ASSHOLE." Eddie's buddy stated, sounding almost fed up. So, they were sentient enough to recognize how much of a pain in the ass Eddie could be. I could work with that, disregarding the cannibalism comment, of course. What the fuck was up with that?
"Yes, Eddie, I also periodically bump uglies and trade disgustingly sweet text messages with the Hulk and a badass wizard," I rolled my eyes at the reporter's following gasp and angry muttering. "Venom, I like you."
"WE RETURN THE SENTIMENT. YOUR CHOICE IN MATES IS VERY WISE, CONSIDERING YOU ARE A WEAK MORSEL. THEY CAN PROTECT YOU."
"Shut up, Squid. I'll still kick your motherfucking ass if you hurt Eddie."
The emo space goo laughed, a terse scratching noise, showing way, way too many teeth for me to feel comfortable but I allowed myself to be placed on the couch between Tony and Eddie nonetheless. The initial shock of seeing a talking octopod with fangs passed quickly - I've seen Stephen's "trophies" he brought from his otherworldly journeys and Lovecraftian horrors were, honestly, pretty low on the gross/creepy scale.
"Both of you, explain. For the love of fuck," Tony sighed, emotionally exhausted and drained of his usual bravado.
"Eddie was my dad's friend until he moved to Cali, I've know him for fifteen years, give or take. He taught me how to ride a bike and bake the best pot brownies," I shrugged. There wasn't much to say. "I visited him whenever I could but you know, with school and then you guys, there wasn't that much time to iron out the details." I have Eddie a death glare, pointing to Venom's floaty head with my eyes.
Eddie nodded. "What she said..." And then launched an elaborate tale about some company called Life Foundation, some evil dude named Drake and his own alien pudding named Carnage, who was one ugly motherfucker judging by Eddie's and Venom's combined "ew" face, their aching need for human brains to survive and other, more trivial things, like mental breakdowns in a lobster tank and getting dumped by a fiancé and eating their way through a HYDRA base after being captured and tortured. What a wild fucking ride.
"Sounds like you had a rough year," Everybody's dumbfounded silence was ended by Tony who took a slow swig of his whiskey before speaking.
"Yeah, no shit," Eddie muttered, twisting his black coated fingers in elaborate but frankly pretty shapes. His alien wrapped around his neck like a tube scarf and additional tentacles appeared between Eddie's hands, gently prying them open and enveloping them in a sort of a hug? It was hard to compute, the black mass appeared to be totally amorphous.
"How's your anxiety?" I asked, damn well knowing Eddie's mind tended to run like Tony's: zero to sixty in point five with no clear destination. Having an alien inside of him must've really thrown Eddie for a loop.
"It's, uh, better. Venom helps," The reporter admitted, still staring at his hands but the crease between his brows had disappeared and the expression he wore was kind of fond.
"Good. You know, Venom," I thoughtfully addressed the definitely sentient creature. "Eddie is a bigger dumbass than me, which is saying something. You ought to keep a really close eye on him. If not for me, he'd probably be dead from alcohol poisoning, like, years ago."
"WE ARE AWARE. WE CAN ACCESS EDDIE'S MEMORIES." A head manifested itself on a thicker tentacle, floating over to look me in the face but maintaining a respectful distance and staying out of my personal space bubble. "AND WE ARE THANKFUL. EDDIE IS THE PERFECT HOST. WE LOVE EDDIE."
I felt the corner of my mouth tilt upwards at the alien's proclamation. It was child-like in its blunt honesty but carried a certain weight with it. It told me whoever tries to separate those two in any way would get eaten faster than they could say "SIKE!". And honestly? I would help Venom hide the evidence.
"I literally had you for thirty minutes but I would kill everybody and then myself if you two got hurt. This is too soft, I can't." I snorted, extending a curious hand towards Venom. They looked so shiny. I had to touch them.
And they let me. Venom butted their head into my palm and let me gently run my fingers over their slightly cool, slippery flesh. It felt like putting my hands on a surprisingly sturdy yet bouncy piece of flubber. I purposely avoided the small maw and the endless rows of sharp teeth but managed to accidentally brush against something rough and scratchy - as it turned out, the Symbiote had a very long, very dexterous tongue. And didn't that give me a bunch of interesting mental images.
"Oh my God, NO!" Wanda moaned from somewhere, the voice mortified and disgusted.
"Why are you touching the people-eating alien?" Bruce yelped, entering the room with several people in tow. The scientist looked worried, a little bit green around the edges. The tablet in his hands beeped periodically, signifying the ongoing sciencing bender he was in process of.
"WE WOULD NOT EAT THIS HUMAN. WE ARE FOND OF THE MORSEL." Venom defended, well, venomously. Eddie wisely choose to stay silent, trading a knowing look with Tony.
Stephen Strange sighed, briefly closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with a jagged movement. "One day, Princess, one day you will stop collecting people that are obviously bad for your health and your future. That, or space in the tower will simply run out." With a deeper, calmer sigh, the sorcerer landed in front of me on the floor, sitting cross-legged and subtly begging for a head scratch. Which meant just placing his always neatly trimmed curls under my free hand. His jealousy was about as subtle as a foot in the face.
"I'll just ask Tony to build more floors, duh," I rolled my eyes with force at the obvious solution, giving into Steph's demands, beginning to card through his hair. It was calming both of us, really.
Bruce came over to give me a kiss and my other boyfriends didn't even grumble about the scientist placing himself in my lap, crawling over both Tony and Stephen to get comfortable.
Our dynamic was unconventional and more than a little weird, but it worked for us and the rest of the team most certainly didn't complain about the vast decrease in conflict that came with the territory. Come to think of it, all of us were more tactile than just a group of friends sharing a house and I was very much on board with that. None of us except select few (looking at you, mister doctor) were hugged enough as children and we were making up for it in spades right fucking now.
"Girl has a type," Wanda remarked, like the messy little shit she was. I stuck out my tongue in retaliation.
The Avengers' brain trust began talking about Venom's slightly inconvenient diet that directly resulted in multiple felonies for one Edward Brock, and as much as I tried to follow the flow and make my own, however feeble, contributions to the scientific side of the conversation, the new life form was much more interesting. I asked Venom several questions and they deemed them acceptable enough to answer - which evolved on both of us absolutely geeking out over the differences in our physiology. The space pudding didn't hold back one bit, insulting the inferior human biology with gleeful gusto.
"They need a chemical called phenethylamine," Bruce sighed, having deduced it through discussion since Venom and Eddie both protested aggressively against any kind of invasive testing. "I can synthesize it. No more head-chomping, no more murder."
It made perfect sense. Except it didn't. "Brucie-bear, you're a brilliant fucking scientist but a shit psychologist." I interrupted whatever came next. "Venom is a person, like me and you and, yes, even Hulk. Tell me this: if you found a way to get rid of Hulk, would you stop sciencing in the gamma radiation field?" I looked my boyfriend straight in the eyes, hoping for a spark of common sense. "Do you see my point? You science, Tony engineers, Steve draws and Clint bakes. Venom hunts. It's who they are, you can't give them a pill to make it go away."
The weight of my word landed in the room like lead, heavy. The only source of sound was the TV, playing the news quietly in the background for the longest time. Those few minutes felt like hours until Thor expectantly turned towards Eddie/Venom.
"IT IS SO. WE ARE AFRAID WE CANNOT INFLUENCE OUR INSTINCT TO HUNT PREY. KLYNTAR ARE APEX PREDATORS." The little black goop sounded almost apologetic. It was hard to hear undertones with their voice being so deep and grating. "BUT WE CAN TRY." Okay, I could totally hear the hope. Finding out the Eldritch horror could make puppy eyes was... Terrifying, to be honest, because they fucking worked.
"Got any better ideas?" Tony asked me sarcastically.
"I do, actually." I leveled a look with Natasha. She understood. "HYDRA goons. The aliens that, for some reason, keep invading New York every month or so. Stephen's adventures in Hell. Do I need to continue?"
"Wait, hold on," Steve raised his palms. "We don't kill HYDRA, we deposit them in SHIELD custody."
I snorted at the naïve Captain. "And what do you think happens to them there? Did you honestly think they just let torturing, murdering, world-domination planning psychos back on the streets?"
Steve frowned in confusion. "They go to prison?"
Natasha choose that moment to step up. "It's not uncommon for them to possess certain enhancements to be deemed too dangerous to be released back into society. Some of them are low-tier mutants and inhumans. Trust me, Steve, the lethal injection is a much more humane treatment than solitary life imprisonment in a ultra-high security prison." Romanoff stated with a trace of compassion. "And some mutants, we can't contain for prolonged periods of time." She added quietly, looking away.
Rogers was staring blankly into the wall, mulling over the information in his head. His intensive thought process was plainly visible on his face. I heard about some kind of fiasco with HYDRA agents suicide-bombing a city in Europe few years ago and Steve was there, along with Wanda and Sam.
"Venom is a whole person, and even if they look like they could be the main character in Call of Ctulhu video game, we can't just disregard them like they are some kind of badly behaving pet. They're my honorary uncle's boyf-sorry-significant other, for fuck's sake," I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. "Y'all should know I don't fuck with people who give shit to one of my own. Don't disappoint me like that." I finished, feeling more tired than I had in months. I didn't regret giving into the found family dynamic, however I didn't exactly sign up for hard choices like them vs my long lost uncle, y'know?
Great, now I had a headache and three very concerned boyfriends glaring at me for unknown reasons. The urge to pace always manifested strongly within me as the emotional atmosphere rose in the room. With Bruce dangling off my lap, I couldn't do even that and I felt the restlessness blossom into irritation more and more with each passing second of my existence.
Eddie remained silent, looking down. Venom had mostly receded into the reporter's body, save for a few tentacles tightly wrapped around Eddie's palm.
"Alright," Steve suddenly said. "We can work with that."
"Princess, you look like you're either going to cry or yell any second," Bruce said softly, squeezing my shoulder and pulling me closer.
I immediately hid my face in his chest, taking several deep, shaky breaths. "Eddie is family. Y'all are family. It's terrifying to have to choose between the two." I said, after a brief moment of hesitation.
The reporter made some sort of a choked gasp, quickly masking it with a cough - I knew him way too well to miss the way he was fighting back tears of his own. Bruce understood, he really did understand me - hopped off my lap and let me hug Eddie properly, my happy-sad tears soaking through the collar of his tee.
"You're, uh, welcome to stay. I'll have a guest room prepared." Tony cleared his throat, passing his half-finished glass to Stephen who swallowed the liquid in one gulp. My boyfriends were so fucking emotionally illiterate. Disaster humans.
Huh, I really did have a type.
Later that night, I made the mistake of barging into Eddie's room with a bottle of really fancy whiskey I liberated from Tony's overstocked liquor cabinet. Visiting my uncle and boozing and smoking on the balcony, for old times sake, was my plan and...
I failed the mission successfully.
I didn't bother knocking. As soon as I saw a pair of bare feet, my eyes traveled further up on the couch on their own volition. There were so many tentacles, a writhing, oozing silky black mass and Eddie was making sounds, unmistakable noises-
"UNSEE. UNSEE. OH MY GOD, UNSEE, UNSEE." I stumbled back into the common room shivering.
"What happened, is everything okay?" Bucky stood up as soon as he saw me enter the doorway with my face scrunched in a grimace of regret. I felt like I've gone through the five stages of grief in the shortest time possible for a human being.
Somwhere, I heard Wanda's sudden moan full of pain and misery. "Please, stop THINKING about it!"
"Brain bleach, oh my God," I cringed. "Where's the Clorox?! I have decided I don't need my eyeballs-"
"Oooh," Tony's proverbial lightbulb lit up. The engineer sounded like he was about five seconds away from building a space ship and permanently moving to another planet. "They're together-together..." Tony intercepted me nonetheless, doing the most effective thing to make me stop speaking and thinking bullshit. He kissed me. With lots of tongue.
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THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub ​ @mostly-marvel-musings  @vozit ​ @littlegasps ​ @pilloclock ​ @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads ​ @hermione-grangers-wife ​ @individualistfem ​ @sleep-i-ness @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn @justanotherblonde23 @fanngirl19 @persephonehemingway @softie-socks @schemefrenzy @letsby @cutenessloading @romeo-the-cactus @jelly-fishy-babie @mikariell95
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gubes-sweaters · 3 years
Text
Mind, Body, and Soul 3
Authors Note: This is a Spencer Reid AU inspired by @subspencer​ . This is their original idea and thanks again to them for letting me use this AU. Also, side note I was thinking what type of hair cut Spencer would have in this AU and I’m thinking season 10/11 hair is the most fitting. Just to remind everyone that Lindsey Vaughn, Cat Adams, Spencer Reid, and Penelope Garcia aren’t canon to Criminal Minds, but any other character I mention is.
Content Warning: Drug use (weed), swearing, that’s all I can think of but if there's anything else don’t be afraid to let me know.
Word Count: 3K
You can find part two here
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Chapter 3: Snooping Roommates
I wake up to loud banging on my door, a screaming roommate trying to wake me up, and the dead weight of Spencer’s arm that practically has me in a death grip.
“(y/n) wake up I need my straightener that you borrowed. I need to straighten my hair before class and I don't want to be late!” She’s shouting while banging on my door. I turn over and look at my alarm clock and see that it’s only ten am. Great, I’m only going to get four hours of sleep when I feel like I could sleep for a week. This loud banging isn’t doing any favors for my headache either. Then it suddenly hits me that I need to wake up Spencer and get him to hide in my room somewhere because no doubt my friend Stella will barge in. I mean normally it isn’t a problem we’ve been best friends since kindergarten, but when I’m trying to hide a plug that just spent the night, even though he is practically a stranger to me in my room it’s not an ideal time for her to snoop.
“Sorry, I’m awake just give me a second!” I holler back at her, so she’ll stop banging on the door so loudly. I know I’m not going to make her super late because she doesn’t have class until twelve, but she takes forever to get ready nonetheless. I manage to wiggle out of Spencer's grasp, so I can sit up and wake him up. “How is he still asleep or maybe he’s dead that would get rid of one problem at least.” I think to myself while I’m trying to shake him awake and even though I’m joking for a sliver of a second I think he might actually be dead. It wasn’t until he snored ever so slightly and turned away from me I knew he was actually breathing.
“Spencer, Spencer you need to wake up and get in the closet.” I say to him while shaking him even more aggressively.
“Wow, I haven’t thought about being in the closet in a long time.” He mumbles back to me.
“Spencer this isn’t the time for jokes now get in my closet.” I say as I continue to shake him to make sure he doesn’t go back to sleep.
“Wait, I have to do what now.” He finally sits up and ponders my words for a second.
“You have to get in the closet my friend needs something out of my room, and she’ll never let it go if she sees you in here.” I repeat to him for the third time while pointing at my closet.
“Okay, okay fine.” He says putting his hands up surrendering to my ridiculous request after collecting his stuff off the nightstand and pushing his shoes under my bed.
“Hey is everything okay in there or did you go back to sleep?” Stella asks while pounding on the door once more.
“No, I’m just trying to get dressed. Give me a second to grab the straightener and you probably should stop pounding on the door before we get a noise complaint my dad would murder all three of us.” I say before making sure that Spencer is in the closet with the door closed. I hurry and grab the straightener and do a quick once over of my room to make sure that nothing is out of place. I open my door to one peeved friend with her dark brown curly hair going in every single direction. I hand the straightener to her hoping she’ll take it and leave.
“Thanks, also do you have that book you said I could borrow? I’m going to have two hours to kill between classes and I can’t be bothered to drive back home” She asks right before I was about to close the door.
“Oh yeah, it’s in the drawer of my left nightstand.” I say before making a gesture pointing towards it with my head.
“Okay?” She says probably because of my odd demeanor. I quickly shuffle over to my closet basically guarding it with my life. At the same time, she makes her way over to the nightstand and when she looks at it, she lets out a weird chuckle and picks something up. She turns to me as I’m standing in front of the closet. When she turns around she’s holding up a condom. “Goddammit, Spencer!” I think to myself while I think about excuses for why that would be in my room.
“Did somebody get a boyfriend and not tell their friend. Even more importantly, did somebody lose their virginity and NOT TELL ME!” She says in a more excited manner than upset that I wouldn’t tell her something like that. I mean we’re adults not in grade school anymore so it’s not a huge deal.
“No, I didn’t it must be Raven’s. It’s certainly not mine and even if I did you wouldn’t need to announce it to the world, so can you keep your voice down.” I say while partially whispering in hopes that Spencer didn’t hear any of that because I’m not in the mood to be teased, and I’m especially not in the mood for the million questions I get when people find out.
“Raven come here! We need a family meeting!” She shouts oblivious to the company we have with us. Of course, she’s going to run with this and think it’s hilarious because we’re friends it’s what we do. I know she would never do this if she knew that Spencer or anyone else was here because she wouldn’t want me to be embarrassed. Raven walks into the room with her black hair swinging back and forth in her ponytail in unison with her skirt.
“Yeah what’s up?” She asks quickly peaking her head in the doorway because she has a class at eleven.
“Would this happen to belong to you? We know it’s not mine because I have no need for a condom and I think my GIRLfriend would find it odd that I have any. If it’s not yours there’s only one other person in this house that it could belong to.” She manages to say between her giggles putting an emphasis on the girl part, so I can’t use the excuse that it might be Stella’s for whatever reason.
“Guys fine it’s mine but let it go because no I don’t have a boyfriend and no I didn’t lose…you know...it” I trail off trying to be as quiet as possible.
“There’s no need to be ashamed of being a virgin at twenty, but excuse us if we pick on you because you’re the only one out of us who hasn’t lost their virginity. Don’t even try to use the catholic school excuse anymore. It might’ve worked when we were in high school, but it doesn't anymore.” Raven chimes in clearly also having fun in this awkward situation.
“Okay, thanks mom now get out of my room. I didn’t wake up to play twenty-one questions.” I say trying to get them out of my room as fast a possible because I hear chuckles slowly becoming louder and louder from inside my closet.
“We’re only teasing you because we love you but I still kind of want to know why you have only one sitting on your nightstand.” Stella says while sitting it back down and finally picking up the book before making her way out of the room. She stops at the doorway turning to look at me clearly wanting an explanation. Raven being the snoop she is as well raises her eyebrows wanting an explanation too.
“Okay fine I may or may not have thought I was going home with somebody last night and Penelope practically threw one at me trying to get me to go home with him but last minute I chickened out. Are you guys happy now?” I pull the most bullshit excuse out of my ass, but they seem to believe it because they both give a silent nod while walking out and closing the door behind them. I run to lock the door while Spencer opens the closet with his hand over his mouth trying not to laugh.
“That sounds like the most cliché porn plot possible. A sweet little virgin catholic school girl what do you need me to dress up as a priest?” He says in between deep breaths trying not to bust out laughing.
“Don’t even start I won’t hesitate to kill you. No one knew who you came home with I bet I could get away with it, I’ve watched enough crime shows and I listened to my dad talk about it growing up.” I look at him giving him the stink eye trying to be a little intimidating even though I’m obviously joking, but it just makes him laugh more.
“Okay, we’ll see about that squirt.” He says while trying to control his laughter and lays back on my bed. I roll my eyes at the sudden usage of the nickname.
“I’m going to get ready don’t move and if my friends knock on the door don’t answer it. I can drive you back to your apartment after they leave.” I tell him trying to move on while making my way to my bathroom after grabbing clothes from my closet.
“Yes ma’am.” He says mocking me because I’m talking to him in the same way a mom would scold her toddler. In some ways, Spencer acts like a toddler, so I’m justified in the way I talk to him.
As I finish up taking a shower and running a brush through my hair to not look like I was hit by a truck, I get changed and walk back into my room. I walk out and see that Spencer is once again passed out in my bed. I sigh trying to figure out what to do and for the first time in the past fourteen hours, my prayers have been answered because both of my friends shout their goodbyes as they leave the apartment. As soon as I hear the lock click signaling that they left I open my door checking to see if the coast is clear. Once I make sure I’m safe I walk out to the kitchen and make breakfast. I sit and relax on the island for a second taking in everything that’s happened since last night. I close my eyes and bask in the warm sunlight coming through the window and take in the smell of coffee brewing. I go back to breakfast and I make sure to make enough food for me and Spencer. After I’m done I go to ask him if he wants any food and as I make my way to my room I smell something odd. I can’t place the smell at first over the smell of coffee and pancakes, but as soon as I open my door I immediately recognize the smell. Then I see him laying on my bed smoking a joint.
“Oh hey, you want a hit.” He offers after he seemed surprised to see me as if he wasn’t laying in my bed in my apartment.
“No I don’t smoke sorry, but I made breakfast if you want some.” I say before turning around and making my way back to the kitchen.
“So you don’t smoke, you don't have sex, and you don't really drink or party so what do you do for fun?” He asks while catching up with me. As I plate our food I wonder if I have anything actually interesting to tell him. It’s boring to say “Oh I go to class, then to work, then I study, and sometimes I get more bored than usual, so I knit.” When I figure I don’t have anything remotely fun to talk about I just shrug and give him a plate with pancakes, eggs, and bacon.
“How do you take your coffee?” I ask while pulling two mugs out of the cupboard before grabbing creamer and sugar.
“Like three teaspoons of sugar, but don’t try and change the subject. If you don’t know how to have fun that’s how I’ll make it up to you for helping me out last night. We’ll spend a day, it doesn’t have to be today, but we’ll spend a day where we have a day full of fun.” He says with a proud look on his face, and I can’t help but giggle at the look on his face it’s like he just had the idea of the century. You can tell he’s someone whose smart but is only very book smart because at the same time he has no sense of self-preservation and no common sense whatsoever.
“Okay, well I have to work tonight, but tomorrow I don’t have anything going on. What do you have in mind?” I ask while passing him coffee before joining him at the island with my food and coffee.
“That my dear is a mystery. It’s much more fun when it’s a surprise.” He says while booping my nose before reading what’s on the mug I gave him.
“The BAU? Who do you know that works for the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit or is this just some cute little souvenir?” He asks while looking at me with an eyebrow raised.
“My dad used to work for the BAU but it’s been a while. Right now he’s on a book tour.” I say trying to be brief as possible when talking about my dad.
“So are you super close with your dad is that why he pays for your apartment and gets you gifts like this?” He asks before taking a bite out of the bacon.
“It’s not really an extraordinary gift it’s just a mug first off. Second off how did you know that he pays for my apartment? Were you snooping through my room while I was making breakfast?” I ask genuinely curious how he drew that conclusion. I mean he’s not wrong but still.
“I heard you say and I quote “stop pounding on the door before we get a noise complaint my dad would murder all three of us.” I doubt that you would care what your dad thinks unless he pays for the apartment or this is his apartment, but I’m not sure why your mom and dad would let two other loud ass girls live in this apartment with them.” He says with a smug look on his face as if he cracked a seemingly unsolvable mystery.
“Good detective work Sherlock. I mean yeah you’re right my dad pays the rent for this place, but he and my mom aren’t together anymore, my mom happened to be unlucky wife number four, and to answer your question from earlier no I’m not extremely close with my dad. He was always at work, traveling, or working on his new book I’m pretty sure this apartment is how he chooses to make up for it.” I say very matter-of-factly like it’s nothing I think I’m just numb to it at this point.
“Well, welcome to the absentee fathers club. It’s full of daddy issues and forgotten birthdays.” He says before turning back to his food. Not having a dad around clearly doesn’t bother him, or he’s putting up a pretty good front like it doesn’t bother him.
“Anyway moving away from the subject of childhood trauma let’s move on to our day of fun. I’ll pick you up here at ten am sharp. I will tote you around all day until you learn how to have fun.” He says while doing a horrible impression of Steve Irwin as if we're going on some sort of adventure through the jungle. I just giggle in response as I go to clean up both of our plates.
“I’ll be ready at ten now are you ready for me to take you back home because I have to go to work soon.” I ask turning to face him while I rest my elbows behind me on the counter.
“Yeah let me go get my shoes and I’ll be ready.” He says before hopping off the stool at the kitchen island and makes his way back to my room. I laugh to myself because we just met, yet I get along with him like we’ve known each other for years. I quickly make my way to the laundry room, so I can grab my work shirt out of the dryer and change into it before we leave. I slip off my shirt and slip into my work shirt and tuck it into my jeans, before making my way back out to the living room. As I grab my keys and slip on my vans Spencer makes his way back out to the living room.
“Ready?” I ask him before opening the door. He just nods before slipping a piece of paper into my hand. I didn’t open it at the time. I didn’t even open it until I got off work that night but it was his number.
Me: hey, I just got off work and realized you gave me your number. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Good Night :)
Spencer: i’ll see you then. sweet dreams <3
As I’m sitting in my bed that night I just chuckle to myself before I turn my phone off and turn over trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. As I get comfortable and I’m about to shut my eyes I spot that damn condom on the corner of my nightstand once again. Soon enough I finally shut my eyes and I’m able to get some sleep.
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Taglist: @rexorangecouny @haylaansmi
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amythecinnabunny · 3 years
Note
71 and 100 Julie and Luke
71. Twenty-Four Hours to Live  
100. Accidentally Saving the Day   
You really would like to kill the fandom and me wouldn't you???? I tried so hard to make it jukebox specific but the whole band + Willie are so closely entwined with each other its nearly impossible akxbjsbsbs
So I'm thinking canon-verse? But a year later or less. I think more than a year would get a little awkward as Julie would surpass 17 in a year's time.
All our current problems and issues are resolved by this point. Ray, Carlos and Tia Victoria have met the band. Possibly Carrie too. The Bobby/Trevor debacle is dealt with. Caleb is deslth with (he's not dead(er) he's just keeping to the HGC). Julie and Carrie have since mended their friendship. Jukebox and Williex are official now. Possibly Flarrie too, maybe Kaylie. Maybe Nick/Flynn. Maybe Carricklynn. Maybe Nick/Reggie. Who knows, anything is possible. Julie can see but not touch Willie -- but he others can't see him at all.
The band has made it big by now. They're the latest and greatest. Almost everyone is talking about Julie and the Phantoms. By now, articles and posts refer to them as legends.
Julie's looking at colleges now and it's kinda settling in that Julie's growing up. In a year, she'll be done with high school and going off to college, something the boys never even had the change to do. So that angsty conversation's gonna happen.
But then things start to get weird. Sometimes, Julie will pass through the boys but they won't immediately notice. Or they'll be talking to someone other that Julie and they'll sort of flicker. Not physically or anything its just that to the other person, they're flickering.
Oh yeah, for this, I'm gonna go with the more they play with Julie, the more human-like they get and by the end of the year gap, they're visible full-time, just not always tangible to people other than Julie. They can still do their gimmick cause the whole visible thing is on command. So you can bet your ass Luke vanished on the spot when Ray asked about jukebox.
The strange thing is . . . It's happening with Willie too. Sometimes Willie's hand will go right through Alex's. Sometimes he and Reggie are playing video games with Carlos and then both of them see Reggie flickering and Reggie, of course, doesn't notice
One evening, after a late night gig, Julie and the boys gather on one couch to watch the local 24/7 news together and see them hit the highlights on a recap. The newscaster??? newsreader??? wtf do you call em? anyway the presenter brings them up near midnight and calls them Los Angeles' most beloved legends.
Midnight on the dot, the boys get these circles on their wrists. Like tattoos. A stamp. Just a thick black ring. They're all confused about it and they check Julie's wrist for a ring -- maybe it's a magic band thing? -- but Julie's wrists are free of any black circles.
They're so confused, they spend all night thinking about it. Julie doesn't even sleep. She calls Flynn about it. She calls Carrie about it. She even talks to Carlos until he gets tired. Alex brings Willie over to talk about it. They're all so baffled that they don't notice it changing until dawn-ish.
Willie's the one to notice Alex's. A quarter of the ring is missing. Julie grabs Luke's wrist and compares it to Reggie's before scrambling over each other to put their wrists next to Alex's. All still identical, with about a quarter of it missing.
"It looks like a countdown."
"What happens when it counts down to the end?"
Silence
Willie says he'll ask around the HGC. Yes, Caleb is safe to visit. His ass has been kicked and it's mostly embarrassment that keeps him holed up when he's not performing or practicing.
Reggie shrugs it off, saying he and Carlos have a date with Destiny. Destiny 2, to be specific. Alex also shrugs it aside, he has a Dirty Candy rehearsal to crash and he's not about to miss it. (The running lie is that the boys visit Julie after every gig. Maybe Kayla knows the truth too. Idk it's small details, up to the author that would like to decimate me by writing this)
That leaves Luke and Julie alone together. Julie can't get it out of her mind. If it's a countdown, what's it counting down to? What happens at the end?
Luke tries to take her mind off it with some songwriting after she gets breakfast, maybe practicing a little together. They even write a little bit of a duet together. Luke keeps Julie entertained for a full four hours, amid which Alex returned and chose to go and watch Reggie and Carlos completely lose track of time.
Julie takes an hour-long nap, leaving Luke to stare at the ring on his wrist and wonder why it's nearly a half circle now.
Willie pops into the studio in a frenzied panic, Reggie and Alex in tow. Luke is so startled, he nearly drops the acoustic. The clatter wakes Julie. Willie looks almost apologetic when he notices her.
Julie asks him what he found out as Luke sits next to her and helps her move her hair from her face. Willie struggles to explain. He's half hoping that maybe, if he doesn't say it aloud, it won't be true. He says it's a clock. It's twenty four hours.
Reggie is the one who asks what happens at the final hour. Willie doesn't answer for a long while. He just holds Alex's hand tight.
At the same time, Willie's hand drops as if he hadn't been holding on to anything and Luke's arm passes right through Julie. The boys flicker before Julie and Willie and it lasts nearly ten seconds.
It slowly dawns on them. No one wants to say it.
"They cross over," Julie whispers when the silence gets heavier than the revelation. Willie only nods. The silence in the garage weighs on them almost visibly.
They look at their wrists, almost half circles.
"So we have about twelve hours left," Alex says. "Maybe we can figure out a way to stop it."
Willie reaches for Alex's hand again. "I asked. There's no way to stop it. Once your unfinished business is complete, you have twenty four hours before you're gone from here. Gone for good."
Luke is adamant there's a way to stop it. His arm tightens around Julie, like she's the one leaving. He hates the defeated look in Willie's eyes. He hates that even in the back of his own mind, there's a voice telling him to get his affairs in order before he dies for the second time.
By the time Reggie determinedly states that there has to be a way to stop it and that they will figure it out, the marks have become perfect half-circles. There are only twelve hours left.
I don't wanna think too hard about it because I don't need to cry at 10pm, but there will be a lot of sad but sweet jukebox moments in between it all.
By the time there's only a third of the ring left, they've started losing hope. They haven't found a single ghost who has any idea how to help. The internet has been very unhelpful. There was a group of wiccans who tried to help but they suggested a spell that didn't look very authentic and it also involved sacrificing a goat at midnight and well, they didn't have until midnight. Still, the wiccans were very sympathetic and wished them well.
They didn't know how to tell the rest about this and they didn't have any idea how to say goodbye to each other. It felt like they were trying to say goodbye to a piece of themselves, the the most important part of themselves.
At the three-quarter mark, Reggie quietly tells Alex and Luke that they ought to spend some time alone with Willie and Julie. If Reggie/Nick or Reggie/Flynn is a thing for this, then Reggie would spend some time alone with them. If not, probably Ray and Carlos.
Cue the most heartwrenching conversation you have ever read in your life, ending with the worlds most grief-filled kiss. I'd get into it but like I said up there, I cannot afford to start crying now.
It's a thin black strip when they get together in the studio. Reggie's partner would be there too if he has one. If not, it's just the band + Willie.
Willie hasn't let go of Alex for over an hour, but now, when the mark is a nearly invisible line, he nudges Alex forward, towards Julie and Luke.
"Band circle?" Luke tries to joke. It only makes their tears fall faster.
Reminiscent of the hug they shared when Caleb's stamp lifted, the four of them try as hard as they can to hug each other as tightly as possible. Willie thinks to himself that he feels strange not being the last person to hold Alex, but it feels like for his band to be the last people to hold him.
None of them are very co-ordinated outside of music related things and just like the night a year ago, they tumble to the ground when someone stands on someone's foot and someone leans a little too much in one direction.
Willie can't help the laugh. It's just so them to be so undignified even in their last moments. He can't even see any of their marks anymore. The only reason he knows it must still be there is because the boys are this there. They knock the radio down and it starts playing the last inserted CD. Willie joins them on the ground and lays his head on Alex's chest as Now or Never fills the studio. --like we'll live forever, but live it like it's now or never
Julie, from between Luke and Reggie, reaches over to grab Alex's hoodie, just so she can be holding on to all of them when it happens. "I love you guys so much."
Luke kisses her forehead. There is a chorus of, "I love you too, Julie." Willie and Alex quietly share another set of "I love you"s.
Julie has long since gotten used to laying her head on Luke's chest and hearing nothing, but the silence behind the old song is nearly deafening. It just serves as a reminder than this is the last time she will ever see or touch Luke or Alex or Reggie again. She wraps her other arm around Reggie. It's uncomfortable and is probably bruising some part of her body, but she needs to be able to hold them all before they go.
Julie shuts her eyes and holds tightly to her boys, wishing with all her heart that there was some way to save her boys again. Some way to bring them back properly this time, so they could grow up with her. Some way to make sure Alex and Willie could stay together, that one of then won't ever have to say goodbye.
It only registers that something feels a little strange after the song abruptly cuts. The CD scratches, trying to play the rest of it but there's just a steady clicking sound. It clicks on a steady count. Like a steady drum beat. In time to a pulsing beat.
Like startled stoats, Willie and Julie shoot up and lock eyes over Alex and Luke.
The boys are, rightfully, confused.
Julie and Willie spiderman-meme point at each other, sputtering like an old car on a frozen winter morning.
Still confused and expecting to be long gone, they boys sit up and search their wrists for any traces of the mark, even the thinnest of lines.
Finally, Julie gets a coherent word out. "Heartbeat!"
"Heartbeat!" Willie echoes, nodding vigorously.
They're still jabbing their fingers at each other, having a full conversation with their sputtering sounds.
"Heartbeat?" Reggie echoes, baffled.
Julie and Willie yell at Luke and Alex, "Heartbeat!" It seems to be the only word they can get out. Clicking her tongue, Julie grabs Luke's hand and presses it to his own chest.
Reggie screams suddenly. He's standing suddenly and he's got his fingers at his neck. "P-p-p-pulse!"
He looks at Julie and Willie. "Heartbeat," he says slowly, understanding.
Alex screams. Willie only realises Alex had been holding his wrist when he lets go.
"What?"
Alex reaches out for Willie, as if to cue his face, but instead places his fingers just under Willie's jaw. He screams again, startling Willie, who never expected his boyfriend to look him in the eye and shout like he'd seen a demon. So Willie screams. Which startles Alex. Who screams again.
Luke finally registers what's going on. He screams. Right in Julie's ear. She gets startled. She screams. Startling Luke. Who screams again.
Reggie is still screaming with each place he puts his fingers and feels a steady beat.
There is so much screaming going on in the studio that Ray and Carlos make their way down too. Carri and Flynn, who wanted to be there for Julie after, come barreling in after. The four of them stand there, perplexed, as Julie, Alex, Reggie, Willie and Luke, all standing now, point at each other and scream.
Its pandemonium, honestly. A miracle none of the neighbors have come over to check.
And Julie drops her first curse in front of her dad as she stares at Luke, Reggie and Alex. "WHAT THE FUCK, YOU GUYS????"
Willie, who's never had any qualms cursing when no living adult could ever hear him, stares at Juliie like she's grown a second head. "NO! NO NO NO! NOT THEM WHAT THE FUCK! ME WHAT THE FUCK!!! ME!!!!"
Julie squints at Willie. "What??"
Alex holds up Willie's wrist. "PULSE!!"
Julie's eyebrows shoot up. "PULSE???? WHAT DO YOU MEAN PULSE?!"
"I mean pulse! What do you think??"
"What the hell is going on in here?" Carrie finally mutters.
As one, they all turn to the perplexed group in the doorway. Julie grabs Luke and drags him up to Carrie. She almost throws him at Carrie with the amount of force she uses to thrust his arm at her. "Pulse," she says, pointing to Luke's wrist.
Carrie sighs. "You know you're the only one that can--" Carrie screams when Julie slaps her arm with Luke's hand. Carrie screaming startles Flynn, who let's out a short screech.
"NO MORE SCREAMING!" Ray yells. In the silence, the clicking radio seems to get louder. Not trusting any of the screaming teenagers, Ray turns to his son. "Carlos, can you turn that off, please?"
Carlos rights the radio and presses the pause button. He presses it again. Sunset Curve fills the studio for a second -- dreaming like we'll live forever -- before Carlos manages to get it off.
Later, after they've explained everything and are still trying to wrap their heads around it, Julie crawls onto the couch beside Luke and lays her head on his chest. It's incredibly strange to hear a steady beat where there was once nothing but she can't deny that she loves the sound of it.
"That demo has more magic in it than the entire Hollywood Ghost Club," Alex mutters from the armchair he and Willie are squished into.
"I wonder what'll happen if I listen to any of the other tracks on the demo," Julie jokes.
"We'll probably grow wings," Reggie mutters from under Carlos, who had been so thrilled that Reggie wasn't leaving anytime soon, he had fallen asleep hugging Reggie.
Alex and Luke laugh, sharing an inside joke.
"You think you guys would still be here if Reggie didn't knock the radio over?" Willie asks.
"All hail, my mighty inability to watch where I'm going."
This time, Julie and Willie laugh too.
Julie curls up against Luke and sighs contentedly, listening to Luke's heart pound against his ribcage. In that moment, she can't think if anywhere else she'd rather be, anything else she'd rather listen to.
For the first time since they died, when Julie finally falls asleep, they doze off too.
Willie feels strange. When he yawns, he realizes he hasn't been tired since he first woke up as a ghost. It's nightly inconvenient and annoying, but he hasn't felt this alive since Alex first kissed him. As Willie dozes off, he makes a mental reminder to figure out what included him in the whole thing. He'll forget when he wakes up and they spend the day celebrating their mere alive-ness.
Things get even more interesting when Julie and the Phantoms perform again and Jullie accidentally walks through Luke, but that's a whole other story.
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eepytheartist · 3 years
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TTTE: Magic Beyond the Engine
Greetings guys, gals, nonbinary pals and everyone in between. Welcome to the Information Page of TTTE: Magic Beyond the Engine, where you can get context to whatever the hell I post on here. There’s a lot and much is subject to change, so buckle up butter cups because we’re going for a ride.
Table o’ Contents
1. Basic Story
2. Characters
3. Personal Headcanons
4. Canonical Relationships within TTTE: MBtE
5. Other Notes
6. Link
I) Basic Story
   Several years ago in the year 20XX, a facility located in [REDACTED] was doing experiments involving a mysterious golden substance and what it could do for the human race. Its goal was to eliminate the need for high-maintenance engines to save money. However, much of what was done ended up being a total flop, except for one. A little girl, Madison [REDACTED] was the only successful trial the facility was able to produce. This girl didn’t know why or how she even got here, but knew that her family didn’t want her, and instead gave her up to this [probably very illegal] facility. For years the scientists running the experiment pushed her to her limits, training her to pull lines of cars weighing several tons. They were delighted by what she could do. They had finally compacted the strength and speed of an engine into a human. However, bad luck struck as the facility went belly up, when Madison was 21. News of the facility spread, and so did news about her. Humanity didn’t take her well, and she was labeled an outcast. Though, in the light of things with her negative fame, Sir Topham Hatt found out about her and thought she’d be a wonderful addition to the railway along with the new tank engine he just bought! So she was picked up by this cheeky little shit, and her story working alongside sentient engines unfolded.
II) Characters
   A) Thomas
      The one who picked up Maddy. He was awfully confused by her, but respected her nonetheless. Still his cheeky self that everyone seems to just adore, Thomas quickly became best friends with her, protecting her whenever she needed it. Thomas sometimes gets a little too cheeky, and pushes her off the edge. Pranks ensue and Thomas is usually left bumbling for apologies. Who knew something so small could be so dangerous. He also commonly gets called ‘Tommy’ by the wee lass, something he absolutely despises. It only fuels her need to use it.
         1) When human, Thomas stands at about 5′ 7″ or 170 centimeters. He’s clad in a simple hoodie that matches his paintwork with a big 1 on the back, and plain khakis. He wishes he could have something else, but he doesn’t get paid and his driver and fireman refuse to lend him money. His hair is fluffy and rather short and is a few shades darker than his paintwork. Maddy likes to braid it when she’s bored and he hates it. Her favorite part though, besides honking his bulbous nose like he was a clown like she does with James, is his eyes. They were a beautiful shade of ocean blue. If he wasn’t such a shit, she’d get lost. He can’t brag though, she basks in all the colors her friends have. 
“Why does she get to swear and I don’t? It’s not fair!” ~T
“Maddy’s an adult, Thomas.” ~E
“Well so am I you old fart!” ~T
   B) Maddy
      Little Maddy. Don’t call her Madison, she hates it with a passion and refuses to explain why. She currently stands at the age of 21, but looks much younger. She had overheard at the facility that a side effect of the mystery stuff was that she aged like an engine, so she could be around for hundreds of years if she wasn’t stupid. At just 5′ 3′’ or 160 centimeters, Maddy is the shortest out of all the engines on the railway, even Bill and Ben. Her hair is a medium shade of brown, kind of long, and it mostly covers one of her eyes, which are, as Thomas describes, “As if the sky could make steel.”. Shy when you first meet her, Maddy is quick to come out of her shell and be just as much of a shithead as Thomas and as angry as James, if not worse than the two combined. Her outfit was rather simple, a dark scarlet hoodie with her number on it, and dark grey or black leggings. She liked it that way, she looked good and it was flexible and comfy. When she first arrived with Thomas, she felt something click with James, despite him being an utter jackass to her. After begrudgingly showing her around and having to shunt trucks, the duo became good acquaintances. It wasn’t until after James’ accident that the two became best friends, being asshats together and generally being a happy sight. He’s the one Maddy is generally seen with if she’s not working on her own. Soon enough, though, something started brewing within her heart.
“Ah crumbs, he’s in a mood.” ~T
“James is always in a mood.” ~M
“Fuck both of you.” ~J
   C) Edward
      Ah, Old Iron. He was there when Thomas and Maddy first arrived to the island. Like most that laid eyes on her, his main worry is that she was itty bitty. Usually calm and collected unless something goes majorly wrong, Edward was quick to unknowingly swoop her under his wings. When Thomas started poking fun at him for being fatherly, Edward nearly keeled over. An engine can’t father a human, can they? He guessed they could as soon after Maddy just gave a shrug and accepted the Number 2 as her father, after being given away by her own. It didn’t take long for Edward to actually father her, asking how her day was, sometimes folding her laundry, comforting her, scolding Maddy James, y’know, dad stuff. He earned the name ‘Dadward’ from her, and his heart melts every time she says it.
         1) As a human, Edward looks like a kindly old man and a youngin’ at the same time. He stands just a bit shorter than James at 6′ or 183 centimeters. With short, almost midnight-blue hair, Edward is the perfect gentleman. He even has a small pair of gold glasses that set snuggly on his nose. His eyes are a lovely shade of steel blue, something he gets flustered about when Maddy compliments him. His outfit consists of a white dress shirt with a dark blue tie, a blazer matching his paintwork with his number on his right arm and dark grey dress pants. He’s not usually in his human form, but when he is, Maddy unusually asks for a lot of hugs..
“Will you two leave her be?” -E
“But look how red her face is!” P&T
“FUCK THE LOT OF YOU-” ~M
   D) James
      Ah, James. One half of what his friends call “The Red Disasters”. He’s still his normal, vain ass self. He has a soft side, everyone knows it but virtually no one can get to it. Except Maddy, who can get to it quite easily. Though, when they first met, all he did was make fun of her. Well, they made fun of each other, but still. They had the complete opposite of favorite jobs, they still do and always will. James loves pulling coaches, she hates it. She loves trucks, he despises it and always tries to weasel his way out. It usually doesn’t work. He’s earned many nicknames from her: Jamsey, Jimbo, Buzzy, Buzzy Butt, the list grows. Two of them came from the mistake about telling her the story about the bees, the other.he’s not too sure. What he is sure of, though, is that Jimbo has spread than to more than just her and he hates it. It fuels her though, so he’s gotta be careful. Originally, though, James didn’t know what to think of her. After the accident, his boiler felt all fluttery and he pushed it down to just being ill. He had to learn the hard way about what romantic love was. He knew how to flirt, it got people to love him more! But what that flirting did, though, he was completely foreign to.
         1) At 6′2′’ or 188 centimeters, James stands as the third tallest among the main eight. When he still had his black livery, James’ human form basically had him looking like what I can simply describe as a butler, though he had a vest and a red tie instead of all black. After, though, he had quite the change. His long, black hair now had dyed red tips and his right ear had a cute little heart piercing. Hair covers most of his left eye, which is what Maddy lovingly described as, “You managed to make the color of red rust beautiful.”. He thinks his hair looks cool only according to Maddy. He usually wears a long-sleeve, dark red button-up shirt with three dark grey stripes on both arms and grey pads on his shoulders. His number was sewn onto his left breast. Maddy pokes fun at him for looking like a band geek, but she nonetheless likes it. His outfit is simply finished off with grey pants. Sometimes, though, he’s seen wearing a solid red hoodie that Maddy got him. He won’t admit that it’s his favorite piece of clothing.
“Honey Bee, you’re acting irrational-” ~J
“DON’T MAKE ME GET THE BEES-” ~M
“NOT THE BEES-” ~J
   E) Gordon
      There isn’t much to say about Gordon. He’s his usual, grumpy self. We all know deep down he’s a good engine, though. Gordon’s...rather indifferent about Maddy. He doesn’t dislike her, but he doesn’t see her appeal either. Nonetheless, she’s an awesome part of the team. She does the most important job: listening to James bitch so they don’t have to. Of course, though, like the rest of the team, he’ll defend her if need be. Gordon has a heart, he just doesn’t like to show it.
         1) Gordon’s the tallest, at 6′8′’ or 203 centimeters. Everything about his human form is perfect. His hair is just a tad darker than Edward’s and a teeny bit shorter. He keeps it slicked back most of the time, but it’s hilarious when he has bed head. Maddy got a picture once and sent it to James just in case he forced her to delete it. Just like most of her friends, Gordon’s eyes were her favorite, they were a blue similar to his hair, but a few shades lighter. Maddy remembers a time she complimented them and Gordon puffed away all red in the face. His outfit consists of a three piece suit, in his paintwork color of course, a white shirt and a red tie. His number is on his right breast.
“The Express isn’t that important.” ~M
“Why I’ll tell you-” ~G
“Is her intent just to piss him off?” ~E
“Yes. It’s both of ours.” ~J
   E) Henry
      Maddy’s favorite engine besides James. Thomas is insulted that he isn’t even considered one of her favorites. Henry gushed over her the first time she came. He must protect the small. Love the small. If James suddenly didn’t exist, Henry would be her go-to. She adored puffing through the forest with him, looking at all the trees and wildlife. Maddy would take pictures of flowers she’d find while strolling through and Henry would just ooze over them. Once she showed him a photo of a squirrel holding a wild flower under an oak tree whose leaves were just started to turn different colors, and the big engine cried with joy. He requested she print the picture out so his driver could carry it for him, and she did. It was his absolute favorite.
         1) 6′6″ or 198 centimeters, what a height to be. At second tallest, Henry is the definition of a gentle giant. His resting face looks nervous, but he’s usually not nervous at all. His hair is a forest green, not too short, not too long. Actually, Maddy’s favorite part of him is his chicken-wing bangs. Of course she loves his eyes, which are a lovely jade green, but the bangs take the cake, Whenever they hang out, she likes to play with them when he talks about plants. He finds it comforting. His outfit is literally just a more modest and fancier workman’s outfit, but matching his livery, with his number on his right breast. It made sense, since he was usually one to do heavy work.
“You don’t like the rain either?” ~H
“The last time I went out in the rain I derailed Percy.” ~M
“Why were you even out in the rain!? You’d catch a cold!” ~E
“Fat Man said I was the only one available and told me to suck it up. I did catch a cold. James tried making me soup, remember?” ~M
“What do you mean tried..?” ~H
“He forgot to cook the chicken beforehand. I got salmonella.” ~M
“So that’s why you were bedridden and wouldn’t talk to him for a week after..” ~H
   G) Percy
      Ah, little shit number two. Thomas’ partner in crime. When he first met Maddy when he arrived, he teased her relentlessly for being short-tempered and short in general. After giving him the silent treatment though, Percy was a bit nicer. He and Thomas still tease her plenty enough, but they tease about things she usually won’t kick their asses for. He likes Maddy now. Plain and simple.
         1) Second shortest, 5′5″ or 165 centimeters. He holds those two inches with pride. Percy uses them against Maddy very frequently. Maddy won’t hurt him though. She physically can’t. His little baby face, those big ol’ light green eyes, that short light green hair, his cute little outfit [which consists of a shamrock colored shirt, black suspenders held up by gold buttons, and dark green shorts]. If he was any smaller Maddy would die. James sometimes gets jealous by how much she gushes over Percy, but doesn’t exactly blame her. Percy’s adorable and he damn well knows it.
“Ha, you’re short.” ~P
“You’re short too.” ~M
“I’m taller than you.” ~P
“Won’t be for long when I take your kneecaps.” ~M
   H) Emily
   Ah, Emily. The first girl engine she met. They made damn good friends, too. They gossiped whenever they had a chance. Maddy usually talked about shit James has said, and Emily just gossips about anything and everything. They were will to throw hands for each other, with Emily more willing to for Maddy. Maddy would throw hands just as an excuse to do it. Emily still loves her, though.
         1) Emily currently stands at 5′8″ or 173 centimeters. She isn’t as girly as she looks, either. Her hair is short, with half of it buzzed off. Maddy would describe her as someone punk-ish. Of course Emily’s personality doesn’t reflect that at all, she just chose to look like it. She’s the only other engine besides James to have piercings, usually with two black on on the top of her ears and hoop earrings to pay honor to her engine build. Emily was a little more casual than her friends, usually seen wearing a simple green dress matching her livery. Her eyes were a very dark grey, almost black, with flecks of brass scattered in there. Maddy told her once that she was the prettiest girl she’s every seen and Emily nearly crashed.
“James being a bitch again?” ~Em
“What do you mean again?” ~M
“I can hear you.” ~J
“I know.” ~M
   I) Others
      Other characters consist of secondary characters within the story who do not play as big a role. There are a few who teeter on the edge between primary and secondary characters, such as Duck, Donald, Douglas, Diesel, Diesel 10, and Lady. They play an important role, but not enough so to have their own descriptions. Diesel’s..y’know, Diesel, the twins think of Maddy as their long-lost sister, Duck..well, they like to poke fun at James together when he’s not droning about the Great Western Railway, Diesel 10′s goal is to get her to say something about Lady, and Lady...no one’s really sure yet. Then, as of right now for true secondary characters there is Oliver, Toad, BoCo, Bill, Ben, Mavis, and Salty. There’s more to come, but that’s what I got right now.
III) Personal Headcanons
-The engines can eat and taste in both forms. They don’t know where it goes when they’re engines and don’t feel like finding out.
-James learned to cook for Maddy when she couldn’t for herself.
-For the longest time, James was the only engine with his own phone.
   -He learned hip language and Maddy started regretting every choice in her life.
-Maddy comes to Salty for him to tell her stories when she’s bored.
-Rain is Maddy’s one weakness since she has no way of covering herself.
-She, along with her friends as humans, run with skates that reflect their wheel configuration. The wheels retract when not in use. [I’m thinking about switching to roller blades, we’ll see.]
-Maddy intentionally starts beef with the Scottish Twins because she thinks the fighting is hilarious.
-Thomas will occasionally beg Maddy for a cotton candy sucker. Specifically cotton candy. She doesn’t know why either.
-Thomas initiated a prank war with her once. He lost.
-Gordon once bet her that she couldn’t pull his heavy goods. His driver was out 30 bucks because of him.
-Maddy tortures Duck with duck puns.
-Maddy still trick-or-treats for free candy.
-Emily once convinced Maddy to derail James for the fun of it. She was subsequently chased around the island.
-James is the ultimate flirt and he uses that against Maddy, who flusters very easily. 
-Percy loves Teddy Grahams.
-Edward likes loves to tell others about his daughter. Maddy does not. He is becoming too dad-like.
-The Scottish Twins know damn well that Maddy simps for their accents and they intentionally use it against her if they can.
-Maddy knows about Diesel’s ducklings. It’s the only reason she decides to befriend him.
-James utterly hates Diesel for many many reasons.
-Like many others headcanon, Thomas can’t cook. He fucked up a cup of ramen once and Maddy still refuses to let him live it down.
-Edward refuses to let Thomas and Percy swear. They hate it. James and Maddy know this. They swear more because they can’t.
-James and Maddy are at a tie for worst potty mouths. The twins don’t count. That’s not fair.
-Oliver thought Maddy was an engine for like a month before he met her.
-Maddy dislikes the Mainland. Not the engines there. They’re cool. 
-If Maddy isn’t around, James sleeps in her bed with her hoodie.
-Henry worries for Maddy all the time. More and Edward and James combined. He just doesn’t show it.
-Gordon says he has no opinion on Maddy, but he really does like her.
-No one knows where Maddy’s really from. She won’t tell them either. Not even James or the Fat Man really know.
-Want more? Just ask!
IV) Canon Couples within TTTE: MBtE
~James/Maddy
~Edward/Henry
~Emily/Thomas
~D10/Lady (In the past)
~~We’ll see about others as the story progresses~~
V) Notes
- Lady is the reason the engines have sentience. She is not the reason for their human forms. That will be explained later.
-Maddy is much more resilient than an average human, which is why most accidents don’t just straight up kill her.
-As stated before, Maddy can now live for hundreds of years if she’s careful enough. She won’t age as fast as a normal human, so who knows how long she’ll be baby-faced. Not that she cares, more opportunity to trick-or-treat.
-The engines can get frisky, but no babies. Don’t even think about it.
-Maddy will eventually give in and buy beds for all her friends to give them an opportunity to sleep like she does.
VI) Link
Silly me, I forgot to give a link to my story! Shame on me for making you search, that won’t happen again, here you go!
Sodor’s New Worker
________________________________________________________________
And that’s really it. If you have any questions, please please please please please ask!
UPDATED: August 3, 2021
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When I first saw that Chris Terrio had given an interview “explaining” TROS, I wasn’t going to read it.
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But then, I thought, hey! Let’s see what the corporate spin is on this disaster!
1.  “...it’s about taking the ideas that came from ‘VIII’ and trying to complicate them and develop them and to have some new surprises.”
Umm...the ideas from VIII were plenty complex. They didn’t need to be “complicated”, they needed to be explored. And if you were trying for new surprises, you failed utterly. Everything about this movie was completely predictable to anyone who’d seen the other eight movies. Okay, moving on.
2.  re: Rey Palpatine. Terrio argues that this reveal is in dialogue with “The Last Jedi” rather than just a ret-con of it.  What dialogue? The idea that the Force isn’t tied to bloodlines, that people can be strong no matter their ancestry, was a major theme of TLJ, and it was echoed even at the end, with Broom Boy. Saying that Rey actually did get her powers from her genetic heritage is directly opposed to that theme, not in dialogue with it. Unless, of course, that dialogue is nothing more than a taunt of “In your face, Johnson!” So that statement is some bullcrap. Next one.
3.  Terrio added that anyone who thinks he and Abrams ignored the direction of “The Last Jedi” or countered it rather than developed and deepened it...are “not understanding how writers think.” That’s an interesting statement, since what I’ve seen from this fandom is an enormous amount of creativity and intelligence, including fanfiction that is far superior to many works of published fiction. There are also innumerable meta that explore the story structure of the ST and of the three-trilogy body of work as a whole, written by people who know what they’re talking about. I agree that somebody doesn’t understand how writers think, but I don’t think it’s the fans.
4.  “We wanted to show all the characters growing in some way.“ One of my biggest problems with this movie was the static nature of the characters. They had basically no arcs whatsoever, except for Ben, whose arc has been building from Episode VII and who regresses immensely before making the final push to become Ben Solo again. So you failed at that, dude. Big time.
5.  “ Luke stopping Rey from tossing a saber away....That moment for us was about Luke having learned something and ... he will not let Rey make the same mistake that he did.” Unpopular opinion incoming -- I actually agree with this statement. That’s how I read the whole Luke interaction when I saw TROS. In TLJ, he was still too into his own head, still a bit of the whiny farm boy from Episodes IV and V; here, he actually seems to finally be wise. My issue with this particular Luke segment is simply that it was rushed too quickly (which was no different than the rest of the movie).
6.   “ As J.J. said, that it would almost be weird for Palpatine not to be in some way in this movie.” No, it wouldn’t, because he was canonically dead.Threats to peace can come from anywhere, and there were any number of big bads in the EU that could have been used here, if you didn’t want to go with an original character.
7.  “We probably could have written a whole movie that was just a lead up to Kylo Ren going to get the wayfinders...Where he now is the king, and he had to sort of earn the throne. And now, how will he perform as Supreme Leader?” Innumerable amounts of people would have paid such good money, multiple times, to watch that story, if it were done well (and probably if it were done in a mediocre way, to tell the truth). You left something really interesting in the Idea Trash Can.
8.  “I think Rey has to keep asking herself who she is and keep declaring who she is in the course of this movie, and that changes. At the beginning of the movie, Rey is a different person than she is at the end,” Actually, she’s not (see point #4 above). You may have intended for her to wrestle with her Palpatinian heritage, but then you never gave her time to do so (never even wrote it into the script, apparently). She struck me as frustratingly indifferent about it, to be honest. So, that’s another big fail for you.
9.  “I don’t think we think of it as she’s going to live there,” Terrio said. “We thought of it as just paying her respects and sort of undoing the original sin at the end of the third movie, which is the separation of the twins.“ Then that’s another big fail, because everyone I’ve talked to about that ending believes she is going back to live there. That was the message we got from the way it was written, shot, and edited. It says the exact opposite of what you’re claiming it says. So either a) you’re spouting bullcrap because you realize it was a horrible ending; or b) J.J. Abrams is an utterly incompetent filmmaker.
10. re: Rey Skywalker  “In the end, we thought that the final victory of the Light and the final act of self-affirmation for Rey was to declare that despite her blood she is a Skywalker. At that moment, the Skywalkers truly win the family saga.” Um, you people had a whole-ass actual Skywalker with a complex backstory and a tremendous fan following -- remember him? Yeah, the guy who sacrificed his life to save the woman he loved, the woman who was essentially his parents’ “replacement child” for him. He died and then was never mentioned again, and there is no indication that even his soulmate ever mourned his passing. That is not a win for the Skywalker family, not by any stretch of the imagination.
11. re: the Force Ghosts at the end.  “Spiritually, it’s not a crazy idea that all the Jedi would be standing with them, but it might’ve been a bit of a visual shock to see all these new characters on Tatooine who weren’t part of the story of Leia, Luke and Rey.” The Ben Solo erasure is breathtakingly astounding. I just can’t even with this. AN ENTIRE MAJOR CHARACTER FROM THE FRANCHISE’S MAJOR FAMILY DIES AND IS COMPLETELY IGNORED. It is absolutely shitty storytelling. But then again, I’m probably way off base here, since I “don’t understand how writers think.”
12. re: the specific Force Ghosts they chose.  “But, the twins never got to Tatooine together. So, the idea of seeing the twins together after the sabers are laid to rest felt like it was something that was very moving to me and J.J.” First of all, the twins were on Tatooine together in Episode VI, so jot that down. (Seriously, did these people even watch any of the other movies? Sure doesn’t seem like it, from the amount of canon that got exploded or ignored.) Second, I’m glad it was a moving idea for you and J.J.; how nice that you were able to share those feelings with each other. However, this movie isn’t about you. It’s about the story. And within the context of the story, it made no sense for Rey to go bury the sabers on Tatooine in the first place, no matter how great you all thought that Force Ghost thing felt. That, in short, is what was wrong with the entire movie -- it wasn’t about the actual story, at all. It was about making pretty set pieces and cool-looking battles. It was a shallow veneer that hid a hollow core.
Ugh. Enough. Had to have my say but am going to go write some more positive fanfiction now. Because what we need in the world is hope, not melancholy, and we sure didn’t get it from TROS.
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