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sunflowerhae · 4 years

Note

She plays bass with jaehyun pls!! Also your music taste is *chefs kiss*

| 📣 > > ty! I quite like my music taste as well🥳😌 follow my spotify if u wanna see my playlists lmao (( @coolangelgwen - lowkey hate myself for this one but no regrets, right?!? )) I tried to make a more realistic conversation style, but idk how I feel abt it. Lemme know! Also~~ last thing, I promise - this isn’t proofread lol so sorry if it’s bad

Send in your own requests! 🧚🏻‍♀️🐮

“Hey, won't you call me back? ‘Cause I've been waiting for a text back. It hurts my brain - This chick who plays bass”

“Jesus Jaehyun, simp much?” Jaehyun reluctantly drew his line of sight from the unlit screen of his phone to the eyes of his best friend.

“What? No, what do you mean?” Johnny rolled his eyes and glanced around the coffee shop the two currently sat in, not focusing his attention on anything specific, before returning his gaze back on the hopeless romantic in front of him.

“I know you’re waiting for her to text you.” At the ~truthful~ words thrown across the table in humor, Jaehyun rolled his own eyes with a “psh” - trying to play off the fact that Johnny was unfortunately right.

“Her” was in fact Y/l/n Y/n, a girl he met at the NCT party that his frat held the previous night. Jaehyun didn’t usually enjoy or attend them, but he had a feeling (some unknown feeling) that he should maybe go to this one, so he found a calming spot in a corner, hunkered down with a beer and a bowl of chips, and prayed that the party would end soon. Friends came by and talked to him, girls came by to seduce him, but Jaehyun’s ass stayed firmly cushioned on his seat in that little, calming corner.

The corner just so happened to be near the food table, so people were coming and going; you were not privy to this fact. You - much like Jaehyun - didn’t usually attend these events. It wasn’t that you had anything against them, you just felt there were better ways to spend your nights. However, Haechan - your best friend - practically begged you to come, stating that,

“it’d be nice to have at least one other cool person there!” And when the younger boy used his pouting charms on you, you found yourself agreeing to his request.

It was lame, though. Haechan had been stuck like glue to you the whole night, prancing you around to his frat brothers and with the obnoxious, “see - I told you she was real!”, he enjoyed seeing the fire of joy ignite in his brothers eyes the more they got to know you. Haechan claimed it was because you were quite known on campus for being the cool, quiet skater girl with good fashion, and everyone who had a conversation with you came out better because of it. You would just respond that he was the Leslie to your Ann (which he would just laugh at, joking that he has scrapbooks of your friendship - thus scaring you more). What was lame, was the party. There was no reason or organization, which you didn’t really care about, you just hated the amount of people, thus lessening the amount of air flow. One glance at the food table that had basically no one by it, and you were telling hyuck you were going to get food and heading that way.

When Jaehyun first saw you, his mind immediately registered who you were. Y/n. The girl that skated through campus, and had dyed hair, and always had butterfly clips in. He had always wanted to meet you, but was never courageous enough to act on it. It was funny, girls practically killed for a conversation with him, yet the one girl he actually wanted, never even looked his way.

That was until now.

You turned your body out to the crowd and glanced around; eyes landing on the little, calming corner, and on the boy who was already looking straight at you. You knew him. Jaehyun. A lot of people liked him, but you specifically knew him as a member of this frat.

“Hi!” You smiled, and he looked surprised that you were even talking to him.

“Hey,” he waved back, “y/n, right?”

You moved closer to him, “yeah, Jaehyun, right? You know Haechan.”

“Oh, yeah I do. You know Haechan?”

“He’s my best friend.” You both nodded at this, but Jaehyun looked a bit surprised.

“Wow, how do you know Haechan? Aren’t you older?”

“I mean, yeah. How do you know I’m older?” You had a playful tone, which calmed Jaehyun’s nerves a bit.

“Oh, we have a class together. Environmental Impact on Civilization with Professor Cilinado?” Your eyes went wide, and even with the strobe lights going off, Jaehyun could see the blush that projected itself onto your cheeks.

“Shit, that’s right. Hi!” You both laughed, “um, I don’t know, Haechan just kind of came up to me once and started talking like we’ve known each other for years and I went along with it, and I guess the rest is history.” The memory of meeting your best friend made a smile cross onto your face, and Jaehyun couldn’t help but think you were beautiful.

“Yeah, that seems like him. Weird I’ve never met you, though.”

“Yeah, I don’t really come to this stuff.”

“Same, what do you like to do?”

“Um..listen to music, I like to play my bass, skate, I guess.”

“Wow, you play bass?” Jaehyun’s eyes went wide in surprise, and you laughed at his taken aback expression.

“Yeah, why, do I seem like someone who wouldn’t?” Jaehyun felt idiotic for once more saying something insensitive, but you, again, had a smile on your face.

“No! Yes? I’m not sure, it’s just always cool to hear that someone plays an instrument. And the bass is so cool.”

You start to respond, but turn your head instead at the sound of Haechan calling your name. “Well, can’t keep the devil waiting. Speaking of, if you want you can get my number from Haechan, text me!” Jaehyun eagerly nods, but you’re already walking away; your back turned around.

Johnny has to literally snap his fingers in front of Jaehyuns face to shake him from the memory of last night, and the moment Jaehyun saw Johnnys amused face, he knew he was caught.

“What’d I say - simp.”

“She plays bass, she plays bass. Nothing matters 'cause we're both in space”

Y/n (4:57pm) hey Jaehyun! I’m happy u texted me! Yesssss let’s totally do something together!! What did u have in mind??

And that’s how you and Jaehyun - basically strangers - ended up on the hood of his car at 1 am; eating chicken nuggets from McDonald’s and looking at the stars together.

“Everyone knows the buffalo sauce is the best, Jaehyun!” He laughed at your counter argument, but shook his head none the less.

“No, honey mustard is superior!”

“No, because you could get that anywhere-“

“-you could get buffalo anywhere! And why is it orange, and why does it taste the way it does?” You were both laughing in between arguing your respective sides, and if it weren’t for the slightly uncomfortable position of laying on the hood of a car, this moment would have been picture perfect (but really, it was anyway).

You were thankful that the college you went to wasn’t directly in the city, so when Jaehyun picked you up and drove to a good star gazing place, it was easy to see the night sky.

“Sometimes, I like to close my eyes and imagine I’m floating in space. It feels kind of trippy.” Jaehyun turned his head at the sound of your voice, but you continued staring at the sky.

“How do you do that?” He asked.

“Well, I have to be in a completely dark and silent room. Then, I just unfocus my gaze and I don’t move my body at all. It’s how people become, uh..Jesus what’s the word? When they get like, controlled?-“

“-hypnotized?”

“Yeah! I watched a video where he hypnotized the crowd and the viewers to see their past life - it was crazy.” Through out your small speech, you waved your hands a lot, and Jaehyun took notice of the fact that you spoke with your hands; it was something small, but he tucked it into the back of his head, and kept it to think about for when he needed to smile.

“What was your past life?”

“I lived at an old korean palace - like 19th century. I wasn’t a high position, but I was wealthy. I wore red a lot.”

“Send me the link?” You finally turned to lock eyes with Jaehyun.

“Yes, of course.” You both smiled at each. Nothing was said, but both of you could practically feel yourselves making room for each other in your hearts, the longer you sat on the hood of Jaehyun’s car; staring at the stars.

“How I wish we could just date - So you can teach me how to be more like you”

Jaehyun could feel himself fidgeting slightly while he waited for you to open the door to your apartment. After gazing at the stars, you offered him a tour of your place and a beer or two, and Jaehyun didn’t admit it, but he didn’t care if you said you wanted to kill someone - he would have agreed if it meant spending more time with you.

“Sorry it’s kind of a mess! I was going to clean it on Wed...” your voice continued going, but the farther you walked away, the less Jaehyun heard it, so he just chose to instead look around the main area of your apartment, and what he found left him in awe.

A black bass sat snugly in the corner of your living room, surrounded by plants. Behind your couch framed, vintage movie posters decorated the wall, and fairy lights, records, and books sat on the shelf above your tv.

You came out of the kitchen with a wine bottle and two glasses, and you sat them down on the coffee table while Jaehyun took a seat on your couch. “I like your apartment.”

You looked back at him with a smile while pouring yourselves drinks, and sat down next to him while laughing, “thanks. Like I said, it’s kind of messy,” you paused to take a drink, “But it’s home. Bleh, wine makes me feel old.” Jaehyun nodded while laughing, and the air became thick with quietness, which teetered between awkward and calm leniently. Jaehyun - as slyly as he could - stared at your side profile while you started talking about the movie posters hanging behind you. You had an aura of chill vibes, and it seemed that whatever you talked about, you managed to make interesting. Jaehyun was debating whether he wanted to date you, or be you, until he came to the conclusion that he wanted to date you so he could learn to be like you. Although it was the beginning of what he hoped was a new relationship, Jaehyun already had so much respect for you, and as you joked around with him about whatever the two of you could think of, Jaehyun’s excitement for the the future held only increased more and more.

Past life video

That was my actual past life btw! Lemme know what y’all get 😩 also just go on the website if you get a lot of ads - bc that can fuck w ur hypnotization! It’s not scary, I promise. The dude has a super nice voice. It’s vv trippy. If you’re a skeptic - do it anyway. Worst case scenario, you get a good laugh.

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burning-clutch · 4 years

Text

A Garden Variety Ghost

Category: Gen,

Pairings: Jack/Maddie

Author: @burning-clutch (Team Ghost)

Characters: Danny, Jazz Maddie, Jack

Warnings: Mentions of drugs, and drug like effects

-.-.-.-.-.-

Ding Dong!

The doorbell ringing in the Fenton household was always an event for many different reasons. One main one being that Jack Fenton was like an overly excitable guard dog that could actually open doors to launch out into the streets at the wayward delivery personnel. So when a hapless U-ship worker came with a collection of boxes he was met with the Fenton Foamer and a number of prolific apologies from Maddie.

“So what did you order?” Jazz asked from her spot at the kitchen table, looking up from her book only briefly to eye the cardboard package hoping to discern something from its inconspicuous form.

Maddie placed the box on the table in front of Jazz while Jack bounced excitedly beside her. “We were checking old references in my old Fenton-Nightingale book and we found a few things detailed we wanted to try out!” he boomed excitedly giving a giddy chuckle as Maddie opened the box.

“Okay… and that means what for us exactly? Should I stay at a friend's for a week?” Jazz asked nervously peering into the box only to frown when she saw nothing but packets of cushioning.

“No no. It’s fine.” Maddie said with a wave of her hand pulling out the air cushions to get to the prize. “We’re just looking into the details of ghost plants.”

“Yeah! There were a few in here that said they did stuff to ghosts! And the main one was blood blossoms, but they’re practically extinct, and we weren’t able to get those, but we got all these other ones to experiment with! Now we just gotta catch a ghost and shove them onto it!” Jack said, pulling out a small package of seeds.

“As soon as the plants grow,” Maddie added with a laugh. “I suppose gardening can be fun too,” she mused. “Come on hun, let’s set up a Fenton Grow-op”

“You know how that sounds right?” Jazz sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Seriously it sounds like you guys are getting into illegal ghost drugs or something…”

The Fenton parents exchanged a look before shrugging. “Well if it only affects ghosts it’ll be fine.” Maddie waved off flippantly.

“Yeah Jazzy! It’ll give us a good insight into how they think then! If they think at all!” Jack added, his grin threatening to split his face.

“So you’re going to see if ghosts can trip out?” Jazz asked incredulously.

“For science!” Jack boomed, seeming to disregard his daughter's look of disbelief.

“Well not just that, we don’t really know the full effects these may or may not have. There are plants that attract, repel hurt and soothe ghosts.” Maddie explained gently taking the seeds that Jack was threatening to take off with. “Come on sweetie, let’s get these planted.” Maddie urged her husband to go down to the lab.

Jazz sighed before sending off a quick text to Danny, to avoid the lab for the next few weeks as much as possible.

Of course, that only worked for so long before Danny was told to clean the lab or else his parents would retaliate by taking away his computer for a week... And with the new Doomed update on its way it was a risk, he was willing to take.

He crept down into the lab cautiously, hovering in the doorway for a moment before making note of the potentially dangerous flora that was innocently hanging out beneath a plexiglass barrier and a bright sun lamp.

He double checked the mask on his face, a gas mask he had found in the garage, it had Duel Jack Fenton faces on either side of the filters but if it worked he would suffer from the embarrassment of wearing this stupid thing for a few hours.

If any of those plants were half as potent as the Blood Blossoms were he would be in trouble if even the pollen were to hit his skin… let alone if he were to inhale something like that…

With a shudder, he took a hesitant step into the preverbal lion’s den. “Why do both Sam and Tuck have to be busy today…” he groaned to himself as he finally landed on the lab’s floor.

He crinkled up his nose behind the mask and moved along the wall of the lab, always keeping his eyes on the plants as if they were going to come to life any second and attack him. Though in this household you never know…

When he finally made it to the shelf he pulled down a box of disposable nitrile gloves and snapped on a pair. Next, he reached for a pair of goggles, popping those onto his eyes. "Right," he said aloud to himself, now as protected as he was going to get without opting to wear a hazmat suit, which he hated the feel off on his human skin.

He stared at the plants across the lab a moment before deciding it would be best to start there first. Deal with the area most in danger then work outward.

He frowned in concentration as he began to clean the plexiglass. this was going well so far, good… this will work go-

"Danny boy!" Jack boomed as he entered the lab causing the teen to jolt in surprise. The action caused his arm that was holding the squeegee to be thrown upwards popping the sealed box open and releasing some sort of purple pollen from the container.

Danny winced seeing that, infinitely thankful for the mask he had on.

"Hey, you found the Fenton anti Ecto Gas mask!" Jack boomed, pulling the device free with a wide grin. "I've been looking everywhere for this baby! Now we can have taco nights again! Your mother refused to make them, cuz -a what happens at night after… well, you know how it goes'' He chuckled, giving his son a slap on the back in gratitude.

Danny just stared wide eyed at his father, there were so many reasons why he didn't need to know about his father's nighttime emissions, but moreover, he had just stolen the gasmask! the one thing that was stopping the… the…

"You're doing great Dann-o Just remember the gear isn't to play around with… Now I gotta show Maddie this babyˋs back!” Jack boomed leaving his glassy eyed son to stare off into the void, a dopey smile crossing his face.

What was he so worried about again? Danny blinked slowly as he stared down at the purple pollen. Right that… but why? This was relaxing… it was as if everything just melted away into the background. The scent from the pollen was intoxicating…

Wait… He blinked his eyes rapidly a few times to clear them. "What?" he stared down at the floor again. That had felt incredibly relaxing! and he felt rejuvenated and energized now!

He resolved then to figure out what plant it was that did that. it was like a ghostly energy drink! Maybe his parents had flubbed up again like with the ecto-dejecto? He smiled and looked towards the first flower that he could suspect the purple pollen came from.

The flower looked like some sort of purple pinkie sunflower, with a red tinted centre. Carefully Danny lifted the glass and poked the greenish leaves, before poking the centre of the plant. "Hm…." he stared at it blankly for a moment.

"Nope, nothing…" He mused this flower was a dud it seemed.

Moving on he found something that looked like a deep purple tulip, with blood red leaves. He found himself enraptured with this one even before he opened the glass. it was beautiful and he couldn't think of anything more lovely….

He had to have it.. it was… calling him…

without even thinking he shifted into ghost mode and phased his hand through to pluck the delicate flower from its stem. He stared at it perplexed a moment before stuffing his face into the plant's open petals, breathing deep and savouring its sweet scent.

He felt a bit like a cat when he was finally snapped out of his bliss and found himself rubbing his face all over the petals sticky bits of pollen now covered him.

He wrinkled his nose as he pulled off the sap like pollen onto his glove. It wasn't burning or hurting him so that was something at least… Something that Sam had once told him about plants sparked into his mind. Something about plants attracting certain things for pollinators?

Great, he was reduced to a but brain now… Though it would make sense if these things were probably grown in the ghost zone before having their seeds dispersed through the human realm

He glared at the remainder of what once was the tulip, a moment vaporizing the flower pulp to ash in revenge for his idiocy before moving on to the next one.

Curious now, he opened up the next plant in the line of the trays. This one was a large white flower with a lime green innard and as soon as the teen stuck his head in to examine it he recoiled in disgust.

It smelled awful! "Nope!" he shut the lid in such a hurry on that one.

Next to that was a ball shaped cluster of flowers that just seemed to make him angry more than anything. He shook his head and quickly moved on from that.

On and on he went examining the various plants, with varying degrees of nothing or something with such a small change that he couldn't even really decide if it was really the plant or not.

it was when he came back around to the mushrooms that his parents were growing that things got a little more… Recreational…

When he opened up the container to poke at a weird curling mushroom it exploded it's white and blue spores at him.

Danny grinned brightly a second later and found the world looked as if it suddenly had taken on a deeper saturation, and lights had large star trails following them.

including the ghostly glow that was on his body… That was simply fun to watch. how his fingers curled and flexed, then turned to mist and back to solid again. Why was this so fun? And since when did the lines in the floor turn to water? how did his parents get them to ripple like that?

Danny poked the floor with a toe and giggled as he can see the soundwaves from the clack, incredibly loud on the floor, ripple out in the pond that became of the metal. The portal to the ghost zone spinning became still the longer Danny stared at it, it was lucid and wondrous and well… trippy.

Danny hardly noticed when a grumbling Maddie entered the basement lab holding the infernal Gasmask. The last thing she needed right now was her husband's- "Wh-What's...?" She trailed off, blinking in confusion as she stared at Phantom.

The ghost was logrolling, though staying perfectly still otherwise in the air, all the while staring at the ghost portal.

While the huntress's first instinct was to toss a net at the infernal ghost to catch him, she hesitated upon noticing some of the flowers she had been cultivating had been messed with.

Well, then this was a potential scientific breakthrough that she probably won't get another chance to have… A lucid highly human like, and sapient ghost had taken some of her plants for seemingly recreational purposes….

“Phantom. Why are you here?” Maddie asked in the most authoritative voice she could muster with the smirk pulling at her lips. the Famed and controversial hero, Phantom. high as a kite and spinning madly at the ghost portal like he was trying to find an end to the endless swirls.

The ghost startled at her voice stealing his endless spinning to stare at her upside down. The ghost's pupils were glowing brightly, and the iris had grown wide enough to be seen within the glowing orbs.

"Mom!" he gasped out, mouth falling open in his shock, as he blinked his wide eyes, and clicked his green tinted tongue as if he'd suddenly tasted something utterly foul.

Maddie raised an eyebrow at the comment. There wouldn't be any way Phantom would or should remember his human life to any capacity… It was most likely a result of whatever plant the creature had gotten into… Still…

She figured she could use it to her advantage.

Without disputing or reprimanding the ghost for his claim she simply moved onto more important matters."What on earth did you get into?"

Phantom stilled at that, he stopped his movements and did his best imitation of a statue, somehow, incredibly, it still had some sense that forced him to keep up a compulsion that made it look like he was breathing.

"I- um… I," he stammered staring at her with wide wild eyes. "I'm sorry Mom! I wanted to tell you!" He called, his eyes were starting to water now.

How did she find out?! Did she see him transform? Actually, when did he transform? Why was everything moving? How… How did she…

Maddie tilted her head watching the ghost curiously. He did remember his mother than to some degree it seems…Was he still around only because he was looking to confess to his family?

Actually, now that she was able to see him up close… He really looked like a child… She took a couple of steps forward towards the ghost, who sniffed and wiped his face on his sleeve.

Despite herself, she asked him "Is that the only reason you're still here? because you never got to tell your family you'd died?" What a horrible thought? A child taken and killed, the parents and family left behind not knowing what happened to him.

“Not exactly… I mean I always wanted to tell you guys... But I just… There were so many ghosts attacking… Then you were saying Phantom was no good… And I tried to be as good as I can!” he sniffed. He was very much not in the right headspace for this to be happening right now…

Maddie seemed to shift and shimmer stretch and bend. The teen suddenly found himself tunnelling in on the jumpsuit Maddie was wearing. The teal colour that bled into the black accents. The smooth rubberized feel and slight crinkling as she moved and shifted. It squeaks…. He could just barely make out the zipper under her neck tucked into the collar jostling slightly as she breathes. He remembered being held as a kid and staring up at that zipper… she would cradle him on his back and he would stare up at it and…

“Phantom what-” Maddie never got to finish as the ghost slammed into her. He curled around her. like a dog jumping into her arms. His ghostly tail wrapped around her arm and around her waist, as he looked up at her with bright green eyes, and overly enlarged pupils.

“I- I’m so sorry mum…” Danny sniffled out before burying his face in her shoulder tightly squeezing her as he sobs.

Maddie was trapped by the ghost now, unable to move her arms from the hug, or legs without tripping herself up in his tail. She stares incredulously down at the white mop of hair that was just under her nose… so lifelike and soft, like real human hair…

Though now that she was right up to him like this, she noticed other oddities too. The texture of his suit and the skin that she could see from his face was incredibly detailed. He had freckles even! She could see every individual hair on his head unlike other ghosts that had more of a blanket effect, whispy and fuzzy but not really hair…

The thing that really drew her eye, however, was the jumpsuit. Or more specifically the clasp at the back of the ghost's collar… An emblazoned F a distinct design that she knew all too well. One she herself helped Jack to design… This was undoubtedly at one time a proper Fenton jumpsuit…

Which means this child… this child who was no older than Danny, he was probably one of his friends! In a borrowed jumpsuit no less! But if someone had borrowed a suit and got killed in it somehow surely she’d have noticed…

The ghost shifted allowing her to move and giving her freedom of her one arm. His core seemed to buzz in his chest as he held her ever tightly. “This is .. nice… I … was so worried about how you’d take this all…. I… I was stupid…” he shuddered as he spoke each word coming out with rapid and haggard breaths.

“It’s fine... “ Maddie offered, though her mind was a million miles west as she pondered over the clasps. She needed answers… Reaching over into the plants she pulled out something that looked like a queen's Ann’s lace but with bright blue flowers.

She stuffed Phantom's nose in the flower and watched with mild relief as the ghost’s eyelids drooped and closed. She sighed again as his tail loosened up around her and she slumped against her. “Well, at least I know that one works” She mused aloud.

Not even a second later Phantom sighs deeply and a bright ring flared at his waist, causing Maddie to yelp and drop the ghost on the ground thinking an attack was building.

Instead, she was mildly perplexed as it continued to wash over Phantom, bathing the ghost in light as he changed. Everywhere the light washed over, the colours of the ghost seemed to invert until it passed over his head.

“D-Danny?” Maddie whispered out in surprise. She was thinking of all the experiments she could run but now… her mind stalled as she stared down at the prone form of her son. What happened to make him like this? Was it even really her son or was phantom somehow still awake enough to pull a trick like this? Making her see her Danny instead of…

Instead of Danny Phantom.

“Oh-Oh God…” Maddie gasped and slid next to her son, scooping him up into her lap.

When Danny next woke up it was to a bleary bliss that he wasn’t quite too sure what to make of. “Mum?” He mumbled out as he blinked his glassy blue eyes up at her. Why was his head so fuzzy? It was like he was underwater... “You cryin’?” He asked softly before his eyes widened and he jolted. His core fluttering in his chest. Had something hurt her?

“It’s okay baby, I know you were so scared before but you don’t have to be any longer… I know… I know I’ve made some terrible mistakes against Phantom… against you… but I promise I’ll do what I can to make you feel safe here…” She sniffed and curled her form around his burying her face into his shoulder.

Danny’s muddied thoughts spun out to a halt as his memories caught up with him. That’s right! She knew! she knew! And apparently accepted him!

“Y-You have no idea how much that means to me…” He sniffed too, tucking his chin over her shoulder. And squeezing her tightly just as he had only an hour earlier as Phantom. “I love you so much…”

“I know hun… I love you too… and I promise I’ll make this up to you any way I can.” She responded in kind. Tomorrow she’ll look into the plants that can help to cure her son, but for right now? She would be content to offer the love and comfort they both so dearly craved.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Complete

Word count: 3281

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23457526

#fluff and humor #ghost plants #Danny messed up by plants #phic Phight #Phic Phight 2020 #Team ghost

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cromulentbookreview · 5 years

Text

Bee. Key. Sword. Jackalope.

There is a book reviewer writing a review on a computer.

(The book reviewer is a metaphor for a failed librarian who is also a failed writer who writes reviews of other people’s books because they’ve failed at writing one of their own).

(The computer is definitely a dungeon of some sort. Or a black hole).

The reviewer writes reviews of a review-y nature considered good enough for the likes of the depths of tumblr. No one reads them.

(That last bit isn’t a metaphor, but a literal truth).

By that, I mean: The Starless Sea by Erin Morning Star Morgenstern!

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a grad student studying video games at a perpetually snow-bound university somewhere in Vermont. (Since it’s in Vermont, I figure it’s OK to imagine everyone there has a Bernie Sanders accent). One day during the bleak January term, Zachary is in the library searching for something good to read. He comes across an odd, authorless book in the stacks called Sweet Sorrows.

Quick side note: Morning Star Morgenstern writes that this particular university library in Vermont uses the Dewey Decimal System - since Sweet Sorrows has no author, it’s shelved in the U’s for “Unknown.” It’s strange that a university would use Dewey as most research and academic libraries in the United States utilize Library of Congress. At least, that’s what they taught us in library school. Hey, my MLIS is finally good for something! Anyway, I don’t know if things are done differently in Vermont or what. I do know that Melvil Dewey was a total asshole, though.

Back to The Starless Sea. Sweet Sorrows is a bit of a library mystery: a it’s only ever been scanned into the system once, when it was added to the collection. It has never been checked out. For some reason, the librarians haven’t noticed this and weeded it out of the collection. Anyway, Zachary is drawn to it so he checks it out. Once back in his dorm he starts to read it and is shocked to find that, among some disjointed fairy tales about pirates and tongueless acolytes, is a story recounting, in great detail, like, even down to details concerning his shoelaces, an incident from his own childhood. Something he’s never told anyone about, and had kind of half-forgotten. All laid out in a book that is clearly much, much older than he is.

When Zachary was a kid he found a painted door in an alleyway near his mom’s house. The door was so detailed it almost seemed real. In fact, when he reached out to touch it, the painted door had an actual doorknob. Zachary almost, but ultimately didn’t, open the door. All this is recounted in Sweet Sorrows. Zachary, of course, is freaked out and wants some answers, but the book has no copyright page or publication information in it. However, when Zachary peels off the bar code sticker (my inner librarian winced at that) he finds a clue: three symbols, a bee, a key and a sword.

One Google image search later, Zachary finds a photo of a woman at an annual, literary-themed masquerade party thrown by the Algonquin Hotel. She’s wearing a necklace with, you guessed it, a bee, a key, and a sword. It’s all Zachary has to go with, so he snags a ticket to the upcoming masquerade.

Then things get weird, but in a good way. Zachary is brought into this weird underground library/world/place that is full of stories. It sounds like an introvert’s paradise, full of books and cats and a kitchen that make anything you ask if you just send a note down on the dumbwaiter...but this place isn’t entirely safe. There are people intent on keeping others away from it. In fact, those people have a whole secret society with a headquarters and everything where they hang doorknobs everywhere.

Plus, there’s an ocean made of honey, which sounds super sticky.

I told you, things get weird.

Anyway, Zachary finds himself teaming up with a pink-haired woman called Mirabel, who was born in this underground introvert’s paradise and is determined to protect it. Then there’s the guy whose name may-or-may-not-be Dorian - a gorgeous storyteller to whom Zachary is immediately drawn, but who knows what Dorian’s actual agenda (or name) truly is?

Reading The Starless Sea is like reading a transcript of a memory of a dream you had once that may or may not have been a hallucination from that time you had a 103 degree fever from pneumonia or it could’ve been a memory of a thing you actually did, you have no idea...but all in a good way. Plus a book of strange/relevant fairy tales and myths sprinkled in between. It is definitely a bit confusing at first, but if you stick to it, all the weirdness does eventually coalesce into a cohesive story. It does make sense! Eventually.The Starless Sea is definitely one of those books that would make more sense when read twice, and probably all at once. Not over the course of like, two weeks the way I did. Since I am somehow incapable of reading a 400-or-so-page book in one sitting (how do people manage that, really? I mean, I know I’m a slow reader, but who can read a book that fast?) most of the time reading The Starless Sea I felt like Homer watching Twin Peaks.

Perhaps others might understand the story better the first go around and I just missed something - it wouldn’t surprise me, I am a bit of a moron. No, seriously, for the longest time I thought it was just a coincidence that Joe Hill looked a hell of a lot like Stephen King. It was also quite recently that I realized that Jackalopes weren’t a real thing. Which, I mean, come on, Jackalopes seem like they could be a real thing, right? I’ve lived in and traveled around the American West my whole life and I’ve seen some giant-ass jackrabbits, it definitely seems plausible that there are jackrabbits out there with antlers, namely, Jackalopes, living it up somewhere out in the high desert. That seems possible! I mean, maybe they’re just cousins to your regular old jackrabbit! I mean, have you ever seen a white-tailed jackrabbit?

They’re huge! I mean, I know the Alaskan and Arctic hares are technically larger but those live up North, I’m talking about the giant-ass bunnies I’ve seen around in the Pacific Northwest. They look a little bit like mini kangaroos!

I mean, come on! Look at this black-tailed jackrabbit/mini kangaroo!

So one of those but with antlers seems like something that could be a real thing and it’s not at all dumb to sort-of peripherally believe that they were, indeed, a real thing, they just live in the desert and the desert is the worst and it takes too long to get there...So, OK, Jackalopes are actually a myth and I didn’t figure that out until I was a grown-ass adult. But hey, in fairness to me and my brain, Jackalopes are technically based on a real thing, if you’ve ever seen a rabbit with Shope papilloma virus. So, I mean, I’m not 100% a moron, right? I mean, definitely not a Class-A Moron, maybe like a Class-D or a Class-E Moron...

Where was I before all this?

Oh. Yeah. The Starless Sea. This is still, somehow, technically a book review. Whatever, this blog promises cromulent reviews, not reviews that remain focused and on topic.

Video games play a huge role in the story, as Zachary is a graduate student studying emerging media, focusing on - you guessed it - video games. My knowledge of video games is, er, not great - I used to play with my brother’s old 1989 Game Boy when I was a kid in the early 2000s. All those hours of Tetris really did pay off.

And sometimes I did beat Super Mario Land.

Anyway, the whole novel does have a dreamy, video-game-esque quality to it - there’s a lot of wandering around, acquiring objects, going on quests, that sort of thing. The imagery Morning Star Morgenstern features throughout the book would certainly make a gorgeous, kickass video game, definitely something I’d stand over one of my gamer friend’s shoulders and watch them play. Morning Star Morgenstern is quite good at giving us a whole picture of what the world of the underground library/introvert’s paradise is like - utilizing not just descriptions of what’s there, but descriptions of all the different smells, textures and tastes - plus she manages to do it without making the writing sound clunky or interrupting the flow of the story itself. You can almost feel the stickiness that underground honey sea.

Speaking of which, what would a sea of honey smell like? I don’t imagine it would smell great. Also, sailing a wooden boat on a sea of honey sounds like a nightmare. I mean, you’d spend pretty much all your time cleaning crystallized honey out of the woodwork.

Anyway, if you were a fan of Ms. Morning Star Morgenstern’s previous novel, The Night Circus, it goes without saying that you’ll definitely love The Starless Sea as well.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Fans of The Night Circus, anyone in the mood for a weird, trippy, timey-wimey video-game-esque novel that takes a while to make sense.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone easily confused or looking for a straightforward narrative

RATING: 4/5

RELEASE DATE: November 5, 2019

JACKALOPE:

#the starless sea #erin morgenstern #the night circus #fiction #fantasy #adult books for YA readers #bee #key #sword #crown #heart #feather #wibbly wobbly timey wimey #jackalope #weird fiction #adult fiction #lgbtq fiction

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woildismyerster · 6 years

Note

Hello! I love your writing so much! I was hoping to make a request, because no one makes my heart flutter like Kevin G. I thought maybe Kevin and the reader both have feelings for each other but are oblivious to it, so someone asks the reader to the spring fling and she accepts, and after the mathlete’s competion Kevin goes to the dance and confesses his feelings and just super fluffy? Thank you so much! Love your blog!

Kevin is seriously a Good Boy.

It seemed like a societal flaw to trap members from the world’s most hormonal, unstable people group in a building together for seven hours every day. You weren’t sure that bring in such close proximity brought out everybody’s civilized side, and the current school year had proven that point.

Teenagers are emotional. Teenagers are devious. Teenagers will stab each other in the back for something extreme, like for the greater good, or for something trivial, like to get the last fruit roll up.

That being said, you weren’t one to talk. Your mad crush on Kevin Gnapoor made you as irrational as the rest of them. You didn’t tell people, but these were rapid animals. They could smell it.

Regina had thrown it at you in an offhanded comment while you worked on a group project with the two of them. Kevin shot you a look, as though to tell you that laughing would only make her worse.

Tyler had noticed it right away, and though he didn’t tell anyone, you could feel the way he watched all of your interactions like a soap opera.

Marwan noticed later. He thought that you had terrible taste, but he smiled while he said so.

Norbury reminded you, as sarcastic as ever, that there was a Mathletes competition the night of the dance. She told you that you would fail her class if Kevin ditched to go to the dance with you.

Kevin was probably a whale or something, because he couldn’t smell the smitten on you at all. At. All.

It would have been funny if that didn’t allow you to pretend that you stood a chance.

“I mean, a female Doctor? The feminists are taking over!” Tyler had put on a nasally voice, and none of the rest of you hesitated before joining him. “I’m an adult virgin!”

“If only we’d had developed senses of humor when Vine was alive,” Marwan mourned.

“The world couldn’t have handled all of this,” Kevin said. He spun in leisurely circles in the computer chair.

You snorted. “Right, that’s it. It isn’t that you aren’t funny.”

“I’m hilarious, son.”

“Say something funny.”

Kevin grinned at you, head tilted back so he could see you upside down. “Couldn’t possibly say something that’s funnier than your face, Y/N.”

The others cupped their hands over their mouths. “Ooooooooh.”

“Wow,” you said. “You’re right. That’s totally Vine material. You’d have been rolling in dough by now.”

“I’d be making it rain,” Kevin said dreamily. “The ladies would be going wild.”

“If only you were old enough to hire a prostitute,” you deadpanned.

Tyler laughed. “She got you there, man.”

“I’m tall,” he protested. “And any honey would be willing to bend rules to get with Kevin G.”

“But here you are, single as ever,” you said. You gave the chair an extra boost, sending him spiralling.

Kevin spread his arms, smacking Marwan in the side with every twirl. “I’m not ready to settle down. I’m enjoying my options.”

“It’s a Friday night,” Marwan pointed out. “I’m not seeing any options here, unless you count Y/N.”

The four of you were sitting in Tyler’s basement, with Twilight Zone reruns playing in the background. The boys weren’t so much as texting any girls, let alone wooing them.

“Y/N does not count,” Kevin ceded. “Unless she wants to go up to Tyler’s room.”

“Sure,” you said sweetly. “C’mon, Tyler. Give me a full tour. Show me everything.”

“Ouch.” Kevin stopped the chair to give you a cocky smile. “I think I could give you just as good of a tour, babe. Kevin G can show you what you wanna see.”

“Believe me, you can’t,” you lied. It was an easy lie to give, and it didn’t feel like it costed you much. Tyler’s eye roll, maybe. Marwan’s huff of disbelief.

All Kevin did was put a hand over his heart. “You don’t mean in. You’ll come around.”

“Try again when you’re making it rain.”

“I will,” he promised. “But you’ll come crawling back before then.”

“Fat chance,” you said, and the grin on his face made you wonder if he knew how flimsy the words were.

“Y/N,” he said eagerly. “Y/N, girl, lovely lady -”

“Kevin,” you sighed back. “Kevin, bro, man ho -”

“Woof,” he grinned. “That would be offensive if it wasn’t my dream.”

You closed your English book and gave him your full attention. “What’s up?”

“We should go door to door tonight to collect cans for the food drive. I want that pizza party in homeroom, yo.”

Tyler looked up from his lunch, surprised. “I thought that you and I were -”

“Nope,” Kevin said smoothly. His body jerked, and there was a thump under the table.

Tyler winced, leaning down to rub his foot. “Jesus Christ, fine.”

“Y/N, let’s do this thing,” Kevin said.

You grinned. “Alright, let’s win a pizza party.”

Tyler shot you a pointed look. You pretended not to notice. Kevin was too busy charting a collection route to see the dopey smile on your face.

“Y/N, I swear to God, I’m going to kill someone if you don’t put Kevin out of his misery soon,” Tyler said earnestly.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s driving me insane. He doesn’t talk about anything else, and his raps are sappy, and he’s so busy trying to prove a point to you that he won’t share food with anyone else -”

You snorted. Your class didn’t win the food drive competition, but Kevin bought a pizza to share with you at lunch anyways. When Tyler and Marwan tried to get in on the action, Kevin said that it was only for the people who went collecting.

“You’re being dramatic,” you said. “Kevin’s always weird. It’s why he’s a good friend.”

“He’s too busy being a good boyfriend to the girl he isn’t dating,” Tyler mumbled. “You have to fix it.”

“By doing what?”

“Tell him that you like him. Lie, and tell him that you don’t like him.” Tyler rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t care. But you have to do something.”

“He doesn’t like me,” you said patiently. “You’re being stupid.”

“And you’re being blind.”

You grinned. “Believe me, Kevin would make a move if he felt something. He’s never had any qualms about speaking his mind before.”

Tyler gave a non-committal hum. “Tell him that you like him. He’ll be stoked.”

“Or I won’t tell him, and I won’t be disappointed when he tries to let me down gently.” That seemed like the far superior option.

“Because doing nothing is way better,” Tyler said. “Totally. That’s, like, the epitome of good seduction techniques. Do absolutely nothing and hope that something changes.”

“Yikes.”

“It’s the truth. Either you tell Kevin how you feel, or you try to move on. Waiting hasn’t helped so far,” he pointed out.

That was true. You were as single now as you had been when you first started noticing how incredible Kevin was. Tell him, or move on.

Tell him. You felt sick to your stomach when you imagined the horrified look on Kevin’s face when he realized that there were some decidedly not-friendly feelings mixing in the friendship.

Move on. It didn’t feel any better to picture dating somebody else.

Okay, so both options felt awful. That made things a little easier; you could go all Into The Woods on this and wait for something to decide for you. You would wait for some sort of sign, and let that be the deciding factor.

You waited for a sign, and when it finally arrived, you felt worse than ever.

“If we rap all of our answers at States, the other team will be too intimidated to win,” Kevin insisted.

“Or they’ll answer everything before us,” Marwan counted, “because we’ll be wasting our time trying to freestyle.”

“That’s a personal problem,” Kevin said. “I don’t need time.”

“Y/N, tell Kevin that his idea is dumb AF.” Marwan didn’t bother looking at you, and you didn’t bother giving Kevin an apologetic grin.

“Kevin, that’s a bad plan. Winning will make you cooler than a rap will.”

He deflated for a second, but the smile returned with vengeance. “We’ll be hot stuff when we win,” he agreed. “You’ll have to keep your distance, unless you want to burst into flames on contact.”

“I won’t see you that night.” You sighed, all exaggerated disappointment, in the hopes that they wouldn’t hear the real disappointment that mingled with nerves. “I’ll be at the dance.”

“What?” All three of the boys gaped at you, but Tyler looked the most surprised of all. “I thought you were coming to the competition.”

“I was, but then I got asked to the dance.”

Tyler’s eyes were the size of dinner plates. “You’re going on a date?”

All faces in the room reflected varying degrees of horror, including you. You could only hope that a smile would mask that fact that you really didn’t want to go on this date. “C’mon, guys. It isn’t that crazy that somebody would want to date me.”

“No, not crazy at all,” Kevin said, his face a few shades paler than it had been before. “Who’d you sucker into hanging out with you for the night?”

“Seth Mosakowski,” you said.

Kevin gave a scathing snort. “Dude, he made out with Karen Smith last year. They’re cousins.”

“Good thing I’m not his cousin, then.”

“He’s an idiot,” Marwan said.

“Good thing I’m not, then.”

“You don’t even like him,” Tyler said emphatically.

You looked at your hands. “Good thing he likes me, then.” The words were saturated with bitterness, and it seemed like the mood got to the guys. Smiles were rare for the rest of the afternoon, and they never belonged to Kevin.

Dances were trippy places. It seemed like every moment was blending together, even the moment you were living in. The next morning, you were sure, the entire night would be a messy blur of dim lighting and warm bodies.

You were hoping so, at least, because you weren’t sure that you wanted to remember this date.

Seth was nice, and it wasn’t his fault that this sucked serious balls. It wasn’t his fault that you didn’t like his long, pointless stories. It wasn’t his fault that you didn’t understand the inside jokes he had with his friends, or that you weren’t interested in learning them. The only fault you could see in him was that he wasn’t the person you wanted to be there with.

“So we were in math class,” Seth said.

You hummed in acknowledgement, though he probably couldn’t hear you over the newest Ed Sheeran song.

“Jason was making a bang list for the junior class.”

You glanced back at the gym doors, wondering if it was too early to take your third bathroom break of the night. A tall, dark head of hair was wading through the clumps of students, and everything felt clear for the first time all night.

“He ranked Taylor Wedell over Gretchen, but only when he knew Cady was close enough to hear and report it back to her.”

You waited until Kevin get near enough to hear, and called his name. His head whipped toward you, warm grin plastered on before he even realized it was you. It faltered when he saw you, followed up by something that made you ache. “Looking pretty fly, G. Mathletes jackets are super vogue.”

“Y/N,” Kevin said, a little strangled. “You look amazing.”

“I know, right?” Seth grinned. “How goes it, Gnapoor? You must have missed the memo - we were supposed to look good for this. You wore the wrong outfit.”

Kevin’s smile was back. “Mosakowski. I was surprised to hear that you asked Y/N out; the two of you aren’t related.”

“Seth, can you leave us alone for a second?” You gave him a sweet smile, flicking Kevin an irritated look. Neither one looked pleased, but Kevin had the sense to look nervous. “I have to ask Kevin a question about some homework that’s due Monday.”

“Text me later,” Kevin said. “I’ve got a thing over there.”

“Over where?”

“Anywhere but here,” he mumbled. “Have fun, Y/N. Seth.”

“Not likely,” you mumbled while he brushed past. You felt him pause, surprised, but you didn’t look back.

Kevin: Norbury’s class. five minutes

Y/N: Why?

Kevin: homework

You told Seth that you had to use the bathroom, and he didn’t question it. You couldn’t tell if he truly believed that your bladder was a waterfall, or if he just wanted time away from you too. It hardly mattered.

The classroom door was cracked open, but the light was off. You loitered in front of the door for a minute, wondering if you should go in, until a hand reach out, grabbed your wrist, and yanked you through.

You gave a startled scream, but Kevin’s hand pressed against your lips.

“Jesus God, Y/N. We aren’t supposed to be in here; don’t get us caught.”

“Don’t manhandle me, then,” you snapped back. You had to stifle a grin at the sight of him, even with the irritation fueling you. “If you thought that I had actual homework questions, you are going to be sorely disappointed.”

“If you thought that I was dumb enough to miss the fact that you were lying,” he replied with a wry smile, “you are going to be sorely disappointed.”

You took a few steps back and settled against a desk. The room was too dark, too quiet, for you to stand that close to Kevin without imagining things that probably never happened outside of teen porn. “What’s up?”

“You said that you were having a bad night,” he said, closing the door. “Ya boi is saving you from a bad date.”

You did smile at that. “How sweet. What are you doing at the dance? You had States.”

“We already won, so we thought we should come over.”

“Funny,” you said. “It’s weird that you’d come to a dance, and then lock yourself in a room with me instead of actually dancing.”

“I don’t think it’s weird at all,” he said. In three long strides, he came to your desk, put his hands on your waist, and kissed you.

Moments in the evening had been blurring before, but now everything was perfectly clear. You were aware of everything - the lingering taste of an orange creamsicle that he must have had on the way over, the sound of corny music playing in the distant gym, the scrape of his teeth against your lips, the bite of the desk into your thighs.

If this was the sort of thing that only happened in teen porn, you didn’t want to be living anywhere else.

“Why the hell,” he mumbled against your lips, “would you go to homecoming with Seth Mosakowski?”

You snorted, giving the hair at the base of his neck a sharp tug. “It’s not like I had a better offer.”

“I had a competition today!”

“You still showed up,” you said. You pulled back a little, settling your arms around his neck in a loose hug. Kevin was smiling, bewildered and hopeful.

“Because I knew you were here,” he said.

“You came to the dance, just to watch me on my date?”

“Something like that.”

You looked pointedly between the lack of space between your bodies. “You are a terrible casual observer.”

He kissed you again. “I can’t stand by and watch Hick Central steal my girl.”

“Your girl?”

“I bought you a pizza,” he said, rubbing his nose against yours. “I really thought that we were almost there.”

“You should have asked me out.”

“I thought we were almost there,” he said again. “It was an unspoken thing, Y/N.”

You looked at the ceiling, thoughtful. “I don’t remember agreeing to anything.”

“Babe.”

“Maybe I’ll have you as my classroom hookup, Seth as my dance partner, and a couple other guys on the side -”

“Bruh.”

You beamed. “Hey, if nobody’s asking -”

“I’m asking,” he said. Kevin wiped the smirk away, until the hope was all there was. “Let’s go out on a date. A real date - a spoken thing.”

“Are you sure that you can give up your man ho ways?”

“I can’t,” he teased. “But I’m only a ho for you.”

“Awe, babe,” you said, snorting. “I feel like that was supposed to be romantic, but it somehow wasn’t -”

He kissed you again, all smiles and happy sighs, and you responded in kind.

#mean girls broadway #mean girls musical #mean girls #mean girls fanfic #kevin g #kevin gnapoor #kevin gnapoor x reader #ally writes

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head-and-heart · 6 years

Text

The 100 Highlights - “How We Get To Peace” (5x08)

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait for this highlight post. I was out of town visiting family for a week and didn’t get a chance to rewatch the episode until today. And, unfortunately, I am about to be swapped for the next ten days (at least) so you can probably expect the 5x09 highlight post to be pretty late, too.

... And the 5x10 recap.

But anyway - super excited to get into this episode! Hope you enjoy my thoughts. :)

Feel free to read up on the previous posts in this series here.

“I’ve seen the horrors we inflict on each other in the name of survival, colonel. God knows I’m as guilty as anyone, but we’re on the brink here - on the edge of an abyss I’ve stared into before - and I can tell you, having sacrificed the few to save the many more times than I care to admit, eventually, the few becomes the many. The ends don’t always justify the means and if you don’t know that by now, after everything you’ve been through, then you’re just as bad as Octavia, and we’re already lost.”

At first I was a bit thrown by Kane’s speech here because Charmaine’s move was, objectively, very politically savvy (and it seemed a little out of place, considering Kane was the one who implied that if Charmaine got rid of McCreary she wouldn’t have to be concerned about resistance anymore but whatever) but - in retrospect - I do see the value in it. It seems to reflect what Bellamy and Clarke do later in the episode to Kara Cooper (which was honestly SO fucked up guys, like, holy shit). And the line was well delivered too. Very dramatic.

I kind of like this Vincent guy. Hm. Seems too nice to be a cannibal/serial killer. Speaking of which, are we ever going to see him snap? Maybe in 5x11 ... and that’s when we’ll get Abby telling the story of what happened in The Dark Year. :o I’ve cracked the code fam

Echo suggesting that they kill Zeke made her more familiar to me. Her character arc seems pretty on track (based on this episode) with what I have already speculated and I expect that we’re going to see her facing some issues with her old methods soon (maybe next episode?). I did like how they have set up her character arc in this episode.

I’m really enjoying that they have Indra teaming up with our mains this season. It’s an interesting dynamic, to see her interacting with characters besides Octavia and Kane this season and I am really enjoying it.

LEMME TAKE A MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT ZEKE PUTTING HIS HAND IN FRONT OF RAVEN PROTECTIVELY K

Listen, I know that their relationship has no base to it and they barely know each other and their connection doesn’t even really make sense *realistically* but I really, really LOVE Raven and Zeke’s dynamic. Lindsey and Jordan have fantastic chemistry and they look so good together and Zeke and Raven’s personalities/intellect complement each other so well. Also, this is a television show so lack of development DOESN’T MATTER, especially considering Zeke hasn’t killed Raven’s family or ex boyfriend or anything which - if you ask me - is a definite bonus! I just loved that little detail of him looking out for her, despite being angry (and having every right to be) because he feels protective of her and can’t really explain why just yet.

Also, I am in no way delusional enough to believe that the writers intentionally paralleled Bellarke and Zaven in this episode but this moment was visually extremely reminiscent of Bellamy jumping in front of Clarke in 2x09 ... so that’s a plus.

Everything involving Raven and Abby in this episode was just the most gut-wrenching, fam. Raven’s concern over Abby being threatened by Diyoza and her determination to protect her and Abby lying was just ... a Lot. It shows how far gone Abby is and added some new stakes to her addiction. I think it was important to show how Abby and Raven’s relationship will be affected by this.

“Your mother would be proud, Monty.” I wonder if anyone has told Monty this before, and how much he probably needed to hear it. In all that had happened, I forgot that Kara Cooper and Monty come from the same station on the Ark, and that they have probably even known each other for a long time. I never would have guessed that I would love seeing them interact so much but their scenes in this episode were so cute? Cooper laughing at Monty’s jokes about getting lit was the scene I didn’t know I needed. Leave it to The 100 to humanize the Worst character in the episode they get killed

THE ORIGINAL MURDER TRIO IS BACK AND AT IT AGAIN

I have to admit, in a kind of sick way I liked that we had Monty, Clarke, and Bellamy back at their old shenanigans again? Like, this felt like an indirect callback to Mount Weather, where they all committed mass murder together. This time, they’re trying to prevent that from happening again. It’s weird to see how their old allegiances and perspectives have shifted from that moment - and yet, they all continue to cooperate with each other.

“What’s one more, right? We’re all murderers.” OOF MONTY I FELT THAT

“We’re talking about taking one life to save hundreds.” “Really? Then let’s kill Octavia.” I literally yelled DRAG HIM at my screen when he said this lmao. Monty had ALL the lines in this episode. Like, damn, I love that he is questioning Bellamy and Clarke’s decisions in this, how they just revert so easily back to their same old methods. It’s refreshing to see.

And also, he’s RIGHT. What Bellamy and Clarke are doing is so fucking twisted. They are literally killing someone in the most grotesque manner and framing them for something they didn’t even do all in order to avoid killing someone else - the person who forced her to commit the atrocities she has in the first place. Let’s face it: Cooper is easy to hate but the only reason she is the way she is is because of the system that Octavia created, the game Octavia forced her to play. And yet, they won’t kill Octavia, because of their own selfish wishes. It is absolutely fucked up and I am so glad that Monty called them out on their bullshit.

I really loved Murphy looking at Clarke’s drawing of him and Emori chained to the rocket from 4x08. It was a nice detail (and parallel to Season 4′s corresponding episode) and callback to include. Here’s hoping that we get to see *cough* other characters looking at pictures of themselves that Clarke has drawn. You know ... no one in particular.

“Tell me what we’re looking at.”

“I don’t think we’d see it the same way, but all right. That’s where the trading post will be. And next to it will be a farm, and a workshop, and a mill ... And a real medical center, for Abby. To the south, there’ll be homes dug out of the ground to preserve the trees, and at the center, there’ll be a well, a place for people to gather, talk, debate ideas.”

“And a school with a playground where kids can blow off steam and bitch about their teachers and kiss under the bleachers. My kid.”

LET ME TALK ABOUT THIS SCENE !!! I LOVED THIS SCENE.

I think this is the very first time (with the exception of Briller and the chickens) where any character has explicitly voiced their greatest wishes for the future, how it looks in their mind. And it’s so fucking tragic because you can just visualize it so clearly, but it feels so far away. That future doesn’t seem possible. It’s so melancholy and I love how Ian and Ivana delivered their lines in this scene.

Also, soft!Charmaine is EVERYTHING. Her line about the school and the teenagers “bitching” and making out and doing regular teenage thing was just so ... normal, it was honestly startling to think about. That’s the life that the hundred should have had - that they’ll never get now. I love the baby storyline so much (and I never thought I would like a pregnancy storyline but I do) because it humanizes Diyoza in so many ways.

The music in this scene was gorgeous and matched the tone so well, I honestly started tearing up a little bit don’t @ me. I have a really big feeling that this discussion will come up again - either because we’re going to see this vision completely destroyed, or because we’re going to see it come to fruition. With the space travel theory, I do kind of wonder if we might get an “epilogue” of sorts for the people who stay behind on Eden, where we see Kane and Diyoza’s vision has come true (and maybe they’ll both even be there). It would be like a farewell to the characters who remain on Earth. I think it would be beautiful. (But that’s all assuming that the space travel theory is correct.)

As mildly annoying as it was that Kane literally named Diyoza’s baby for her (wtf Kane???) I did appreciate the symbolic purpose of naming her child “Hope”, especially considering the episode title “Pandora’s Box”, in which hope (aka. Kane/Baby) was the last out of the bunker and then flew away with Eligius. It’s a nice follow up to that little piece of mythology.

In a way, Kane, Abby, and Charmaine are delivering Hope (literally and figuratively) to the people. Which is also why I believe that they may all remain behind in Eden at the end of this season as we see our mains (ie. Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, etc) take off into cryo sleep, officially saying goodbye to all of them forever. (Goddamn I’m already crying and the season finale hasn’t even aired yet? THe fuck)

Also side note to talk about how vindicating it was when Kane was judging Charmaine the entire episode about her damn notebook (”names of the people you killed?” stfu) and it turned out to just be a goddamn list of baby names and defense strategies. Sit the fuck down, Mark.

I present to you: the creepiest fucking shot this show has done. And yet, I really liked it? Showing Cooper’s reactions by shooting through her helmet was a really well done creative choice. It was so trippy and it made her death feel so visceral and real. It honestly kind of sickens me to watch this scene, tbh.

On another note, I cannot BELIEVE how many stomachs Jason has forced me to watch explode this season .. the audacity ...

Emori establishing healthy boundaries is ... EVERYTHING. It’s so important for the writers to have addressed the toxicity in their relationship in this way.

“Trouble in paradise?” I kind of love that McCreary says this to Memori because it is exactly what Murphy said to Clarke and Finn in 5x06 after the massacre. That’s some sweet kind of karma right there

Everything about Raven and Abby in this episode was absolutely devastating. Lindsey and Paige both killed this scene - the emotions were so real. Lindsey did such an amazing job portraying Raven’s hurt and rage - I could feel her emotions so viscerally.

“Don’t you talk to me about pain.” If anyone deserves that line, it is Raven. She has been through hell and back and has had to be so strong for so long. I really liked that line.

CLARKE SITTING ON BELLAMY’S BED IN HIS TENT. Man, I would LOVE to see how that scene went askskqisks

Also, Clarke comforting my poor baby just like old times ... *sigh*

Although I have some reservations with the dialogue in this scene, I do appreciate the sentiment. Despite everything that has happened, Bellamy and Clarke still have such an understanding of each other. They forgive so easily - it’s practically second nature at this point. While I hated how Jason Rothenberg-y Bellamy sounded when he called Clarke a “mama bear” it IS nice that he is acknowledging the role that Madi plays in Clarke’s life. I feel like he finally is starting to understand just how crucial she is to Clarke, and recognizing that he felt the same way about Octavia. It gives them something new to connect over. Also, I’ll never turn down Bellarke being soft with each other.

Plus, have you ever seen a softer smile than Clarke Griffin’s? Cause oh boy am I not over that. She looks so fucking bashful when she looks up at Bellamy I can’t deal gotDAMN

“The worms were already loaded in the rover, so. What was Cooper doing there?” Marie’s delivery in this episode was SO good. God, she’s so creepy and she’s Killing It.

“Careful, big brother, or I’ll think you helped her and we’d have enough prisoners to settle this in the ring.” LISTEN. I WANTED THE EVERLARK AU SO FREAKING BAD CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT NEW MEANING THE WORD “TOGETHER” WOULD HAVE HOLY SHIT

But also, Bellamy’s desperate looks/protests were A Lot in this scene. He really can’t fathom losing Clarke again. His and Clarke’s tragic looks towards each other just really fucking hurt - they’ve been here before. And last time, they didn’t see each other for six years.

“Keep Madi safe. Promise me.” “I promise.”

GOD. CLARKE LITERALLY JUST GAVE HIM FUCKING CUSTODY OF HER CHILD UMMMMM HOW ONE DOES FUNCTION??? She trusts him so much i’mma cry. Also, his called out promise. He sounds so wrecked, but he needs her to know that he will keep Madi safe, needs her to have that comfort, just in case he never sees her again. Don’t Touch Me.

“Did he hurt you?” Protective!Zeke is always a plus but I’d be lying if I said that this scene didn’t immediately remind me of Bellamy asking Clarke the same damn question in 1x10. God, these unintentional Blarke parallels are really coming for my life huh

“Have you ever loved someone so much that no matter what they do to you, or themselves, you take it?” “Mom or dad?” “Mom. Drank herself to death.” I loved that Raven has finally found someone she can open up to. Feels Good, feels Organic. But also this scene came for my LIFE it was so angsty and so good. Raven breaking down absolutely ENDED me (and Zeke comforting her ... someone call 911). I really loved how they made the parallel between Raven’s mom and Abby - it just made the previous scene all the more devastating. So often it feels like the writers on this show forget about these characters backstory and I’m so happy to get these little callbacks every once in awhile.

“The answer is yes.” The fact that Raven and Zeke have this new unexpected thing to relate about is A Lot. I felt this scene deep in my bones.

Plot twist: Abby dies because she is eaten by Vincent, and her withdrawal symptoms are just a red herring to keep us on our feet. ;)

“So much for The 100.” Hello, favourite line of this episode. Y’all have no idea (NO IDEA) how much it means to me to hear a reference to the heart of this show again, especially from Bellamy. He hasn’t forgotten, but it appears that Miller has. Wow. I felt that one.

“I can’t let you kill Clarke, O.” NO YOU CANNOT

“Here we go again. Pleading for the life of a traitor ... who you love.” DO I NEED TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS LINE HONESTLY Y’ALL ALREADY KNOW WHY IT ENDED ME

BELLAMY’S FUCKING FACE JOURNEY HOLY SHIT. THEY FOCUS ON HIS FACE FOR SO LONG AND YOU CAN JUST SEE - YOU CAN SEE - HIS INTERNAL STRUGGLE. GOD.

I totally overlooked this the first time I watched it but I love how Bellamy tells Octavia that HE made a deal with Diyoza. Clarke has already been sentenced to death and still, he’s protecting her. He won’t let Clarke get hurt for the deal she made - instead, he takes the blame. I just love him a lot fam.

Bob and Marie’s acting in that final scene was SO FREAKING GOOD. Both of them killed it. It was so devastating.

“My sister, my responsibility.” While I was predicting before that this line would happen if Bellamy had to kill Octavia, the fact that it came back in the same context (with Bellamy having to protect others from Octavia, rather than the other way around) was so perfect. I love when writers take old lines and give them new meanings and that’s exactly what they did with Bellamy’s old mantra. It was so powerful.

AND HE DID IT ALL FOR CLARKE. HE CHOSE FUCKING CLARKE. I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY???

So.

That was a wild ride.

Hope you enjoyed reading my take on 5x08 and my favourite parts! Looking forward to the next episode in a few days. See ya then!

#the 100 #the 100 highlights series #posts by moi

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dangertronic · 6 years

Text

Not A Monster Chapter 20

Finally.

Sorry guys, I broke a couple of my fingers the other day so typing is actually pretty hard right now and it’s gonna take me a while to type up chapters / post them.

Ao3 Link

Taggity Tags!: @sten-bros @agrimny @areyareddie @soomar-wine @deamontesnothere @jakethezombiehunter @creamy-brown-eyes @trippy-alexissss @thetrashvoid

Twenty

Eddie woke with a start, his breathing laboured as he tried to recall the source of his sleep being disturbed. Pieces of the dream that had woken him slowly came back as he sat up an attempted to steady his breathing, setting into his brain and causing his chest to tighten with each little piece he remembered he remembered.

“Eds?”

A firm hand clamped onto his arm, drawing Eddie’s attention to the source of the voice. He wasn’t sure when Richie had woken up, but there he was, sitting up in the bed with his glasses askew on his nose from his haste to put them on, his hair even more of an unruly mess than usual.

This wasn’t the Richie from his dream who had much shorter hair that he’d learned to tame somehow over the years and had no glasses anywhere in sight. This wasn’t the grime and blood covered Richie that had terrified him into a state of consciousness.

This Richie wasn’t middle-aged.

This was the real Richie.

His Richie.

“Eds? Come on, speak to me.” Richie urged, his grip on Eddie’s arm tightening enough that his fingernails were leaving small indentations in the flesh where they were digging in. “What’s the matter?”

Eddie shoved the hand away from his arm and then threw himself at Richie, arms winding around him and clutching at him as though he thought Richie would vanish at any second. His fingers dug into Richie’s back, clawing at the flesh like he was trying to absorb the boy in front of him, his face pressing roughly into the side of his neck.

Richie felt his heart slow at Eddie’s sudden behaviour. He hadn’t seen Eddie this panicked since the summer they’d encountered Pennywise, and when Eddie began to cry, Richie bit back the smart ass remark he’d been about to spew, curling his arms around his distressed boyfriend and running a hand soothingly through his hair.

“I’m gonna need you to use your words at some point, Eds.” Richie said, pressing light comforting kisses to the side of Eddie’s head.

After what felt like forever, Eddie slowly pulled away from Richie, his eyes red and watery. Richie shifted one of his hands to Eddie’s face, running his thumb gently under his eye.

“You wanna tell me what that was all about?”

“I – it was – bad dream.” Eddie swallowed, waiting for some smart comment from Richie that didn’t come. Richie was watching him very carefully, one hand running through his hair while the thumb of the other continued to stroke comforting circles across his cheek. “I – we were older – we came back here – It was back, Rich.”

Richie furrowed his brow. “It was back? You know that It’s –”

“I know that, Richie!” Eddie hissed, taking in a shaky breath. “But part of me is always thinking… what if it’s not dead? What if it comes back someday? Ben said it himself. It comes back every twenty seven years.”

“You’ve had this dream before, haven’t you?”

“A few times, yeah.” Eddie admitted, sinking his teeth into his lower lip. “It’s always the same.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

Eddie’s fingers gripped at Richie’s sides as he swallowed, running the dream through his head again quickly.

“I – we weren’t together. I had a wife…” Richie snorted here and Eddie smacked his chest. “Shut up asshole. I know that wouldn’t happen it’s just… it was weird. I got a call. It was Mike. He said that It was back and we all came back. Well… Stan didn’t… he died… I don’t know why… and we went back into those sewers.”

Richie hummed, toying with the ends of Eddie’s hair absent-mindedly. “And then what?”

“And then… It was there… and… I can’t remember all of it anymore but I remember you were covered in blood and I was looking up at you and I was in a lot of pain and everything started to go dark and then –”

“And that’s when you woke up.” Richie finished.

Eddie nodded, and Richie placed both of his hands to his face, tilting it in his direction with a comforting smile.

“Hey, look at me, Eds. None of that was real, okay? None of that is ever going to happen to you, to me, to us. We’re gonna finish school soon – two months actually – then we’re getting out of this place. We’re going to the same college, and I’m not about to let some girl take you away and marry you. That’s my job. That thing is dead and the only time we’re ever gonna have to come back here is to see parents at Christmas. Everything’s gonna be fine, because I’m not gonna let anything happen to you – ever.”

Eddie couldn’t hold back the laugh, staring up at Richie’s face. “Did you just tell me we’re going to get married someday?”

Richie groaned, lightly shoving a fist against Eddie’s shoulder. “That’s what you took from all of that?”

“It kinda stood out the most.”

Richie grinned. “Well, then yeah. You’re gonna be Mr Eddie Spaghetti Tozier one day whether you like it or not, Eds.”

“You think I’d be the one taking your name? I can’t even say it half the time.” Eddie protested, shoving Richie playfully.

“Are we really arguing names right now? It’s two in the morning, Eds! I don’t have that kind of energy!”

Eddie glanced back over his shoulder at the digital clock on the nightstand where the large red numbers now read 02:10AM before he turned back to Richie, a grin curving onto lips.

“Good. That means I win.”

Richie rolled his eyes, dropping onto his back and closing his eyes. Eddie shifted on the bed next to him, and Richie could feel his fingers curling around the arms of his glasses before he removed them, leaning over Richie to place them onto the nightstand closest to Richie.

Eddie pressed a quick kiss to Richie’s mouth, resulting in one of Richie’s eyes opening to look up at the blurred Eddie who was currently leaning over him, no doubt with a smile on his face. Richie opened his arms and Eddie settled down into them, nuzzling his face into the side of Richie’s neck which was still somewhat damp from when he’d been crying.

Richie didn’t seem to be bothered by the wet patch of his neck, throwing his arms around Eddie as he closed his eye again and stared to hum softly, the sound vibrating through his throat. Eddie smiled, curling himself more into Richie’s side as he allowed the humming and the heat emanating from Richie to lull him back to sleep.

“Christ Eddie, you look like absolute shit.” Jessica said as Eddie and Richie climbed into the back of her car the following morning.

“Gee, thanks Jess.” Eddie groaned, shoving the back of her seat with his knee. “That’s just what a ‘boyfriend’ wants to hear.”

“Hey man, we’re off the relationship clock right now since we’re not around my parents or your mom.” Jessica defended, grinning and winking at Eddie through her rear-view mirror while Lucille once again fiddled with the radio; brow furrowed. “I can say whatever I want until about seven-thirty tonight when I take you home.”

“The lady has a point Eds!” Richie said, lacing his fingers with Eddie’s.

“Don’t encourage her.” Eddie scolded, smacking Richie’s arm with his free hand.

“Well, your radio is officially dead.” Lucille said, sitting back in the passenger’s seat with a huff as Jessica pulled away from Richie’s house. “Unless you want to listen to nothing but Static FM all the way to the quarry.”

“I’ll take a pass on that.” Jessica said, reaching over and shutting the radio off. “I’ll get a new one next weekend okay?”

“You should get one of those fancy new ones that play those compact discs.” Richie said, tapping his fingers lightly against the back of Eddie’s hand. “They look really nice.”

“And expensive.” Eddie pointed out.

“Then you have to buy the discs to play in them.” Lucille added.

Jessica groaned. “Which are also expensive.”

Richie huffed. “Now you’re just taking the fun out of it.”

Bill, Stan, and Mike were all present when they finally made it to the quarry, seated open some rocks not too far away from the somewhat beat-up truck that belonged to Stan.

“Where’s Haystack?” Richie asked, wasting no time in grabbing one of the soda cans from the cooler at Mike’s feet and throwing it to Eddie who barely managed to catch it since he was caught off guard.

“He said he’s gonna join us later when he’s done helping his mom with some stuff.” Mike said, shooting Richie a disapproving look when he tossed another can; this one at Jessica who was busy talking to Lucille and not paying attention which resulted in the soda can colliding with the back of her head.

“Motherfucker.” Jessica hissed, grabbing at the back of her head with one hand as she bent to pick up the can.

“For fuck sake Richie, try to not give people concussion.” Stan scolded as took out another can and held it over his shoulder towards Lucille.

Richie opened his mouth to retort, but the only sound that made it out was a scream of ‘fuck’ as the can he’d thrown at Jessica suddenly slammed into his face with a sickening sound between a clink and a clang before it hit the ground at his feet and rolled towards Bill.

Eddie choked on the sip he’d been taking from his own can in his attempt to hold back his laugh, Lucille reaching over to pat at his back a few times.

“Dats dot funny.” Richie snapped, voice muffled behind his hands which were clutching at his nose, attempting to glare at his boyfriend through his now slightly watery eyes. “Da fuck you learn dat drow?”

“Softball, eighth grade. I was a monster.” Jessica said, walking over to Richie and prying his hands from his nose. “Come here you big baby, let me have a look.”

“Wow, cause that’s not stereotypical.” Lucille joked, dropping her hand from Eddie’s back. “Gonna be okay now?”

“Y-yeah.” Eddie said, taking in a deep breath to calm himself. “I just didn’t expect her to do that, let alone land the hit. How’s the patient Jess?”

“His pride took a really big hit from the wild soda can but he’s gonna live.” Jessica announced, patting Richie on the shoulder.

“I’d be mad you wasted a can if that throw wasn’t so badass.” Stan said, holding out an intact can towards Jessica.

“Ah-and hilarious.” Bill said.

“Glad you fucks take amusement in pain.” Richie grumbled, wiggling his nose with his forefinger and thumb. “Shit this hurts. For a second there I thought you’d actually broken it.”

“Trust me Rich, if I was gonna break your nose, I’d use something stronger than a can of soda to do it with.” Jessica said, taking the fresh can. “Also I did not waste a can, Staniel.”

Stan sighed heavily, pinching at the bridge of his nose. “If that name sticks I’m murdering you.”

“The can is perfectly fine. It’s just a little dented.” Lucille said, picking up the can and giving it a once over. “Kind of like me.”

“You’re confusing dented with bent, dear.” Jessica pointed out, popping the tab of her can and taking a quick swig. “You’re more like one of those flexible rulers. You know… someone bent you a little bit and you never straightened back out?”

“Ohmygod.” Eddie choked.

“How did you think of that joke but I didn’t?” Richie demanded.

Stan snorted, crushing his now empty can in his hand before tossing it into the trash bag that was set out next to the cooler. “I think you might have broken his brain, Jess.”

“Good, because I’m pretty sure he rattled mine.” Jessica grumbled.

“Are you actually implying it was ever in one piece?” Lucille asked, returning the dented can back to the cooler.

“Ouch Lucille.” Richie said, a look of mock hurt on his face as he placed a hand to his chest. “You really not how to hurt a girl’s feelings.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry, Richie.”

“Hey –”

“You walked into that one on your own, idiot.” Eddie said, hoisting himself onto a rock near Mike.

“It’s amazing how often I do that.”

Lucille snorted, perching herself next to Eddie and parting her legs wide enough for Jessica to sit between them. “Worrying is a more accurate term. So Stan, when were you going to tell us you and Bill are dating?”

Stan choked on his drink, coughing a few ties as he glared at Jessica. “Jess! You promised!”

Jessica held up her hands in defence. “I didn’t say anything! My lips have been sealed this whole time! It’s not my fault you’re coming to classes with hickeys and he’s going back with messy hair and his clothes wrinkled!”

“It’s definitely not her fault you guys are practically undressing each other with your eyes whenever you’re talking or looking at each other.” Mike said, tossing his empty can into the trash bag and grabbing a fresh one.

“And it’s also not her fault that you guys happen to run off at the same time for something or be at each other’s houses when we call one of you.” Eddie added with a smirk. “We’re onto you assholes.”

“Did everyone catch onto this but me?” Richie asked, standing between Eddie’s legs which were draped over the edge of the rock.

Eddie snorted, curling his arms and legs around Richie. “You always seem to catch on last. Are you sure you’re smart?”

“Fine. We’re dating.” Stan said, throwing his hands up in frustration. “We just didn’t want to say anything yet.”

“Wuh-we wanted to make shu-sure we felt something ruh-real. Like you guys.” Bill said, popping open another can.

“Yeah, we figured.” Lucille said, toying with the ends of Jessica’s hair. “That’s why we didn’t say anything.”

“You discussed this?” Richie asked.

Jessica tilted her head back to look up at Lucille. “Where the fuck was I?”

Lucille grinned, pecking at Jessica’s nose. “You were in that detention with Richie for… what was it? Not paying attention in class?”

“Oh yeah.” Jessica mused. “I was trying to tell Richie to shut the fuck up in Literature because he was being distracting. Thanks for fucking helping Stan.”

“You’re welcome.” Stan said, flashing her a smirk.

“Asshole.”

Lucille snorted against Jessica’s shoulder. “If you keep hanging around Richie I’m gonna have to start washing your mouth out with soap once a week.”

Eddie chuckled, tightening his hold on Richie slightly and pressing a kiss against the crook of his neck. “We could just wash Richie’s out for good so he can’t influence her.”

“Come near my mouth with a bar of soap and you’re going to regret it, Eds.” Richie warned.

Eddie rolled his eyes. “You’re forgetting something Richie. I know all your weak points. I can and will use them against you.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Oh Rich… whoever said we had to play fair?”

Richie groaned, tilting his head back until it smacked into Eddie’s shoulder.

#reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #typing is hard right now #leighwritesathing

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babygecko · 6 years

Text

A Work In Progress

So I’m working with a friend for nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month), and we��re doing a thing where I write an entry, they write the follow up, with each new entry a complete surprise to the other, and hopefully the end result will be a weird and wonderful piece of fun. So here is the first part for nanowrimo, with the first sentence that I was given being “The paintings that lined the hall, though full of detail upon closer inspection, blended into the beige of the walls...”

The paintings that lined the hall, though full of detail, upon closer inspection, blended into the beige of the walls.

“Hm?”

AJ held a stationary fingertip so that it just hovered above the intricate design, which had jut seconds ago been the centre pieces for a gallery exhibition, and tried to blink away the illusion. They pressed said fingertip against the painting.

Flat. Utterly smooth, a texture not unlike that of cheap plaster, without so much of a hitch or any sort of indication that anything remotely three dimensional graced the walls.

They dragged their finger to where the painting’s frame should’ve been protruding. Nothing. Completely flat to the touch.

Frowning, AJ retracted their finger, unconsciously rubbing their forefinger and thumb together in what had developed as a nervous tick. “What the fuck,” they mumbled under their breath, briskly backing up to were they’d been standing when they’d first noticed something misplaced. The illusion of flat walls melted away instantly, and once again, there hung impossibly detailed masterpieces.

There it was. The vaguest twitch that catches the eye, or that prick on the back of the neck. Like one of those ‘Spot-the-difference’ games, where a single pixel is changed. Subtle enough not to be glaringly obvious, but enough that the human subconscious picks up something misplaced.

AJ threw a bewildered look over their shoulder. “Is anyone else seeing this shi-”

The hallway was empty. Where once a healthy populated audience and passing strangers had stood around them, silently side-by-side to admire the works in a mutual understanding of privacy, the throbbing neon lighting bleakly illuminated a beige abyss.

Any kind of logical sense had been thrown clean out of the metaphorical window of reason, as the hallway appeared to warp physics itself, and was now stretching out in either direction, glitching over and over and over again with the same damn camouflaging paintings, twisting like a vine. Reality was being blurred with surrealism.

AJ sharply drew in a breath, a reflex that happened so fast it burned the back of their throat.

“Hello?” Their voice simply bounced around the growing pathways, reverberating in a crude echo, twisting their voice so that it contorted to a sloppy caricature of the original. Above, the lighting had started to flicker, blinking painfully bright and pulling AJ’s shadow out into a ghoulish imprint.

They didn’t know what to do. They ran. Couldn’t even remember which way they chose in their desperate blind panic of escaping the freak house playing mind tricks on their psyche, and they ran. It didn’t matter how far they thought they’d gotten, every damn stroke of the place looked identical to the one before it. The swirling detailing of the paintings changed, but, as before, upon closer inspection, they all seemed to melt away into the plaster the closer AJ got to them.

So they kept running.

xxxx

Time passage was tricky to identify. Minutes, hours, days, as soon as AJ felt they had a definite track of what had passed, they slipped out of their mind, and they were stuck, once again, in a trippy dream-like scape, where everything and nothing was real at the same time.

Trying their phone had seemed like an excellent idea, right up until when they turned it on. The screen hadn’t even lit up before the stupid thing had burned red hot in their hand and fried with a theatrical puff of smoke, effectively destroying it. And that was how they found out that technology didn’t work in the gallery. They didn’t risk trying the laptop in their backpack.

The more time (as uncharted as it was) passed, the more and more AJ tried to understand what sort of hellish thing place they were stuck in.

Relative special awareness - Were they in an endless ongoing corridor, or where they stuck in some sort of loop? Pens thankfully didn’t explode when they tried to use them, and they had an abundance of them kicking around in the bottom of their bag. So, selecting the most garish red, they dragged the pen along the wall as they made their way down the hallway. The idea was to essentially draw a large ring, if they were indeed stuck in a loop. The pen ran out of ink before they reached back to where they started. So not a loop, then. Or a stonking great big one.

Food - wasn’t an issue. They never felt hungry or thirsty, and they never seemed to be deteriorating. That was one of the more simple things AJ had learnt during their relative imprisonment in the hellscape. How was that possible? They didn’t particularly care. As long as...whatever it was, was keeping them alive and not starving, they didn’t think about it too much.

Location – right off the bat, they knew it wasn’t a dream (as much as they wanted it to be). Despite nourishment being seemingly taken care of, exhaustion and sleep were in their ball park. And unless the whole thing was a crude impersonation of Inception, with dream within dreams and the like, then what they were living through was actually happening. In some way or another. Aside from that, location they were pretty much stuck on. One phone down, there was no way to use technology to pinpoint where on earth they actually were, and thanks to the lack of landmarks and street maps, where the demonic gallery was, geographically speaking, still remained a mystery.

AJ sighed, and clicked the biro they’d been using to make scribbling notes in a worn down notebook, and shoved the items back into their bag. Above, the ever present industrial lighting buzzed, creating the vaguest hint of something other than deathly silence.

It was probably the isolation that was going to drive them mad first, AJ decided, glumly picking at a loose thread in their skirt. Just never ending loneliness, with nothing but mind bending walls to talk to, and the faint buzzing of the lamps...

AJ sat up straighter like a shot, ears prickling, the most alert they had been for a while. The lighting was creating a soft hum, yes, but underneath that there was something else. They desperately strained their ears, trying to squash down any glimmer of hope that was threatening to build up in their chest.

It’s probably still just the lamps, AJ thought, a tad more eager that they would’ve liked. Its definitely not...

But it was. The lowest frequency possible, but definitely muttering. Coming from where the corridor stretched out, to the left.

Just the prospect that they might not be the singular living soul stuck in the damn hellhole had their legs sprinting faster than they had ran yet. Not even when they were running away from the hallway’s mind tricks when they had first gotten stuck had they ran so fast, and they felt their heart soar.

I’m not alone! AJ thought brightly. I’m-

As they turned a corner, they slammed into a solid body. Both fell to the floor unceremoniously.

“Theo!” A high voice cried as AJ tried to shake the stars out of their eyes.

“Watch it, kid,” a lower voice grumbled. The solid body they had run into was glowering at them, but was nowhere near old enough to be calling them ‘kid’.

“We look around the same age,” AJ replied, picking themselves of the floor, and dusting off their skirt. But they still couldn’t help grinning. “But thank god! I thought I was the only one here!”

“Please don’t cry on us,” the higher voice said weakly, which belonged to a willowy kid with short auburn hair and an unimpressed look.

“And you ran into me, I’ll call you kid as much as I damn like,” the solid body said hotly. “But Ari’s right, don’t cry on us. I don’t have any tissues.”

The auburn haired kid, presumably Ari, stared at AJ. “Are you nonbinary?”

AJ blinked, surprised. “Yeah. Pronouns are they/them. How d’you know?”

Ari shrugged “Well, I thought it was better to ask, but you’ve got stubble and a skirt. There aren’t too many people apart of the binary who would rock that combo without, I dunno, crying.”

“Yeah, I just almost cry at the revelation that I’m not the only person stuck in a hellish gallery, but that’s just me, I guess.”

Ari gave them a sharp look. “Gallery? This is a hotel.”

“What?”

“We still don’t know your name,” interjected the solid kid, clapping a hand on Ari’s back as if to say not now.

“AJ. They/them pronouns, like I said.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Theo, pronouns he/him.” Theo stuck out a hand, and the both of them shook hands.

Ari was still giving AJ a weird look, but all the same followed suit. “Ari. She/her.”

More handshakes.

“Great!” AJ said. “So, now we’re all best buddies, back to what you said; what the fuck do you mean to say that this is a hotel?”

Theo sighed, and scrubbed his face with a free hand. “Listen, as far as I’m concerned, this is a nightmarish hospital-”

“A hospital?”

“So I think it’s fair to say,” Theo continued, glaring at AJ for interrupting him. “That this...place, changes depending on who we are.”

He gestured at Ari. “She was in a hotel corridor when she got stuck here, I was in a hospital, so I’m guessing you were in ... where was it again?”

“A gallery.”

“Right,” Theo agreed. “And we all see impossible shit, right?”

Ari nodded rapidly, her hair flying around her head. “Right. I’m in a corridor with thousands of doors, but none of them open. When I get closer, they blend into the walls and suddenly it’s as though nothing was there in the first place.”

Theo turned to AJ. “And for you?”

“Paintings,” they supplied. “Lots of paintings. And they all seem so incredible detailed, but when I get closer-”

“They blend into the walls?” Theo interrupted.

AJ looked at the nearest wall, the swirling patterns ready just to disappear at the blink of an eye. “Yeah.”

#nanowrimo #national novel writing month #creative writing #story

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onlyryan · 7 years

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Contexts of Game and Play

Things of Beauty: Super Smash Bros. as Spectator Sport

The video discusses the You-tuber Innuendo Studio’s views of sports stating that he has no interest in them as entertainment but instead the systems put in place. A point he brings up with regards to sports versus video games is that we could potentially do anything that isn't explicitly stated in the rules, however with video games we are forced to stay within the constraints of the system. He does go on to use an example of two pro players ‘Digo vs Justin Wong’ where one of them used a skill forcing the other player to block and parry a series of chained skills that was incredibly hard. And though this was not expected, the developers knew it was possible and something the system was designed to do. “What the system was meant to do vs. what the system can’t stop you from doing.” In relation to smash bros. he states there was a mechanic shield dropping that was deliberately implemented, however techniques such as pivoting wave-dashing and desynching were not designed but discovered as ‘accidents’ of the system. Mew2King a professional Smash player goes against Amsa a player from Japan who plays Yoshi - supposedly a character with little viability especially within pro tournaments. The idea is that bringing in a new meta in a sense catches people off guard as people are used to the mainstream ways of a system. When someone does something different (e.g. throws a knuckeball in baseball) its sort of a two way blade in the respect that there is risks to pull it off but its likely the opponent will be considerably unprepared. It wasn’t what Amsa was doing but ‘how’ he was doing it is very unique. “It’s not what you like but why you like it.”

What is ontology? Introduction to the word and the concept

Onto = existence, or being real | Logia = science, or study. The term can be used in both philosophical and a non philosophical way. In a philosophical context it defines the study of existence in general - what is real? The importance of Ontology is the ideas that arise from such a topic that help us to challenge what is and perhaps find what isn’t or what could be, to gather substance out of the concepts that derive from existence and aim to understand the ‘ontological world.’ Two main parts of philosophical ontology - materialism and idealism. Ontological realism is the idea that the human mind and science etc. are exclusive and what exists outside irrespective of what we observe is reality. On the other had ontological idealism prioritizes the human perspective, what we perceive is real, our consciousness. (I feel like things like Virtual reality is something that has been designed and contains the potential to divide and differentiate these two ontological concepts, in a sense we are leaving one realism to escape to another artificial realism that could be so immersive that it becomes idealism). In a non-philosophical context describes what exists in a particular domain, this does not compare and contrast what is more real components or processes in a system. Philosophers in this area tend to categorize the different parts and processes together, they look into the foundations and structures of the context and break it down to see how it affects the components and processes. I think that all aspects of ontology are important to the idea of understanding the ‘what’ but also the ‘why’ things happen and ‘how’ they a determined in a peculiar scenario. Perhaps we could manipulate the core aspects of ontology and make them malleable to the games/experiences we make. I think its fascinating to see how the ontological world can affect an artificial world in the respect that what we apply (socially and whatnot) can be connected to what happens in another. What happens when we move beyond what we know? Fun idea to explore perhaps.

Serenity Now - Crash a Funeral in Winterspring | Serenity Now bombs a World of Warcraft funeral: Negotiating the Morality, Reality and Taste of Online Gaming Practices

I am not surprised by the fact that the Horde guild held a memorial for one of their guild mates who literally passed away. As someone who has played a lot of mmorpgs and spent more time hanging out with people than actually playing the games, its quite easy to get along really well with people despite the fact that they may be on the other side of the world. I felt a few goosebumps by the fact someone actually died at presumably a young age and thought it was nice that they tried to respect their guild mate in a way that was relevant to how they knew her and in a way that the alliance could go to pay their respects. However I guess this is where reality and the digital world clash. People are not going to crash a funeral in real life because they’d ‘get caught in the real world.’ Online there are countless trolls and no rules to stop what happened. To be honest in a PVP zone it was quite likely something was going to happen. The rules don’t cross over from reality to virtual. People will do what they can’t in the real world because they want a thrill, a surge of excitement with no direct consequences. I feel like the only and ‘realistic’ method of them being uninterrupted would be if they did it in a safe zone because they have to abide by the rules of the game where they cannot go and kill other people’s characters. While the guild mates had built rapport, it seems though their rep as a guild wasn’t particularly favorably from a gamer observer point of view. While they posted about it to tell people about what they were doing this had also created opportunity for havoc- and it did. In this sense it would be almost better not to tell people (unless it was a very common zone in game). Socially this event was not acceptable, however nevertheless are there any rules in reality neither real life that was stop people from interrupting in one form or another. The boundaries set by the W.O.W are not designed to stop occurrences like this from happening, in this case- the area was designed for pvp. Therefore morally it is wrong, but from a game system and mechanical point of view it is acceptable. In games we tend to rely on the ‘good will’ of others but there is nothing strict to regulate that, of course actions like profanity are prohibited but it would be hard to argue a person(s) actions in a particular environment meant for another purpose be (illegitimate)? I still remain solidly in the perspective that it would have been nice for the raiders to have been respectful considering someone actually died, however they should have considered the risks in a PvP area at least. Not everyone in the real world and in the virtual world are going to respect others wishes irrespective of the general and expected morale compass, the world has a lot of people who will not abide so it becomes a matter of minimizing risk where we may be highly susceptible. Nevertheless its probably a good idea to encourage positive practices online as they are expressed in the real world.

Set and Setting

These terms define “the context for psychoactive and particularly psychedelic drug experiences.” Set refers to the mental state of one while setting is the physical environment of the experience. Set is further defined by a mental state- mood/emotions, preemptive feelings of which influence the experience while setting the tangible and social environment. It is evident that ‘set’ can be influenced by ‘setting’ say if the person is in a bad mood because something negative had happened that day and its raining it will exaggerate the negativity of the experience, however if the opposite happens and they are comfortably having a good time with lots of happy people around they will have a good experience. There are a lot of factors that may impact on the experience and therefore the importance of context and knowledge prior to an event is essential. This is why communication and knowledge helps us to make informed decisions but also educate us into controlling our emotions/feelings accordingly. Set and setting are but catalysts for experience dependent on each other to form the reality which we so believe.

Year in review

Think ill stop there. Maybe this game may have deeper meaning about keeping afloat in life. You can not stop because when you do stop maintaining momentum you fail (drown). JUST AN IDEA. Maybe how much effort you put in to staying above the water (work and life in general) is how much you got out of it.

Slave of God

This game was super trippy and not suitable for anyone with epilepsy. Feels like your dumped into a game where you’re supposed to ‘feel what you feel’ but not have much control over it. Its set in a club with the music to go with it and I guess its an abstract sort of design to see how people react because a normal setting would be too bland? Could be emulating the feeling of taking too many substances and buzzing out, once your in you can’t do anything but wait until its over. Feels as though you are thrown in to someones shoes and left to run through the extravagant experience. “You’re in a different world when your in the feeling,” things become less focused but instead flash before our eyes as we are not in the mood to pay attention. The visuals of the experience stop us from staring too long. The world is what you make of it.

Cyber Queen

Interactive story telling sort of where you click different parts of the text and it takes you through a particular story line. The story itself was pretty damn weird but the way the story is conveyed is pretty intriguing. There are multiple options a lot of the time and later in the story it seems as though it opens up into more possibilities. Earlier on in the story there is one right path. When the Cyber Queen starts getting involved that is when there are more options in parallel to the grotesque plot.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist

Was an interesting narrated experience (one that i have not been through before) At first I was somewhat confused but after playing it again things begin to fall into places. The light comedic side of it is nice, and the narration definitely adds a huge element to the experience to make it seem more likely. I enjoyed the fact that different objects were interactive as it opened up different parts to the story and revealed things that were not noticed through the first run. There is actually quite a few different things in the ‘15 minute’ experience that make it certainly feel like more.

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