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dangan-kagura · 6 months

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Games I No Longer Play Due to Bad Fanbases

So this is a short list (yet long blog) of games that I used to like but no longer play or have any interest in due to issues like bad fanbases. Let me just say that, knowing about just how toxic the Danganronpa fandom can be sometimes, I don’t want to lose my love for that series knowing that some people in the fandom can be untrustworthy or just have different opinions from my own. I’m gonna try my best and explain why I stopped playing these games that I’ll mention.

UPDATE: So a lot of stuff mentioned here isn't really about toxicity in these fandoms, it's more like expression my opinions about these games since I've always had a minority opinion about them, and the fact that no one ever understood how I felt is what caused me to lose interest in them. I hope I didn't confuse anyone.

Devil May Cry and Resident Evil

So the reason I’m mentioning two games first is because this actually regards Capcom. Out of the two games mentioned, one of them is a game that doesn’t really have a bad fanbase, and that’s Devil May Cry. Resident Evil on the other hand has some issues, things like the live-action film series, Resident Evil 6, and a bunch of spinoffs.

The only games in that series I ever did enjoy looking back on them are Resident Evil 4 & 5. However, I stopped playing them since I’ve become fed up with the series popularity and the fact that people were oblivious to things like the badness of the live-action film series. I actually stopped playing Resident Evil right around the time I learned about Resident Evil 6 when it was still being made and could tell just from the trailer that the game didn’t look that good. I’ve been told that there is a lot of hate surrounding that game, but I still don’t have a clear picture as to what it is people hate about it. I just hate it because I remember reading somewhere that Resident Evil 5 was gonna be the series finale and was perfectly fine with it and found it pointless for Capcom to make Resident Evil 6.

Devil May Cry on the other hand, was the series that got me into the beat ‘em up/hack ‘n slash genres in gaming. Despite the very few titles, I still tried to enjoy it while ignoring the toxicity from some of Capcom’s other games. But unfortunately, that toxicity became worse when I started to suspect that Capcom was selling out. It’s hard to try and look back on it, but basically in the last decade, I didn’t like any of the new games Capcom was releasing, and I was becoming fed up with some of the crossover games they were releasing. Examples include:

The crossover with Tekken and Street Fighter

Mega Man’s appearance in Super Smash Bros.

Akuma’s appearance in Tekken 7

The crossover with Ace Attorney and Professor Layton

The appearance of Street Fighter’s Ryu in Super Smash Bros. became the final straw for me as I was dissatisfied with Street Fighter 4 and thought that it was a piece of shit game. Looking back on it, I still didn’t get what the hype was about Street Fighter and thought that compared to my favorite fighting games like Tekken, KOF, and Soul Calibur, everything about Street Fighter 4, from gameplay to opening theme song, just didn’t make me think it was a game worth obsessing, and the upcoming releases for the updated versions (i.e. SSF4 and UST4) just didn’t feel right for me. Basically, since Ryu’s appearance in Smash Bros, I decided to stop playing Devil May Cry because it didn’t feel right to still enjoy it if I wasn’t going to like the other Capcom games the majority was obsessing over, and to this day, I still haven’t played Tekken 7 because I knew that the appearance of Akuma was gonna ruin it for me.

Getting back to Resident Evil, there’s a lot of hate surrounding the film series and although the series is over, it’s unfortunate that the Resident Evil movies don’t have Razzie nominees. I’m of course talking about the Golden Raspberry Awards, that award ceremony that gives awards to the worst movies of the year, pretty much the opposite of the Academy Awards. More to the point, the Resident Evil movies don’t have Razzie nominees, not even for worst sequel. The badness of that film series is somewhere in between the badness of Uwe Boll and Michael Bay movies, and at least their movies get Razzies nominees. So at the time, I found it unfair that Hollywood kept making more Resident Evil movies and the Razzies were more interested in nominating mixed-received movies for categories like worst picture.

Likewise, the popularity and toxicity for Capcom games like Street Fighter and Resident Evil was just too obnoxious for me to handle and it was enough to make me lose interest in Devil May Cry, as well as not play games that have Capcom characters as guest characters (e.g. Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros.). In fact, there’s times where I’m annoyed by the toxicity of memes related to Ace Attorney and the Capcom Vs series. Knowing that my opinion about Street Fighter is negative, these memes are just pretty stupid, because my opinion about Street Fighter 4 is bound to come back to mind.

Guilty Gear

So Guilty Gear used to be one of my favorite anime games and one of my favorite fighting games. There are two big reasons as to why I stopped playing it, one of them has to do with the popularity of some of Arc System Works’ other games, while the other does kinda have to do with the series’ fanbase.

First off, it was bothering me that there were times that Guilty Gear was being treated as underrated compared to not only Blazblue, but also compared to other kinds of popular anime games like Danganronpa. I’m gonna admit that I’m in the minority that prefers Guilty Gear over Blazblue, and it was bothering me that Blazblue was getting all the things games like Danganronpa were getting but Guilty Gear wasn’t, an obvious example is an anime adaptation. Danganronpa aside, other great anime games like Senran Kagura, Neptunia, Persona 5, and Disgaea all have anime adaptations, but Guilty Gear doesn’t and yet Blazblue got one. Let me just say that I didn’t think Blazblue was as cool looking or as interesting compared to Guilty Gear, and it was bothering me that things like Guilty Gear having a lack of an anime adaptation made me think that people saw Guilty Gear as underrated even though it came out before Blazblue.

Here’s something else that makes Guilty Gear look underrated. There’s a Round 1 arcade at a mall I like to go to that has a lineup of 2D Japanese fighting games. Out of the games they have, they have all the Blazblue games, but they don’t have the Guilty Gear Xrd games. In fact, compared to how the arcade also came with games like KOF, Street Fighter, and Persona 4 Arena, I found it unfair that they included Blazblue but they didn’t include Guilty Gear. It almost made me feel sorry for Guilty Gear.

Moreover, the popularity of Granblue Fantasy only made it worse for me. That game also made Guilty Gear look underrated and it too got an anime adaptation, and the fact that it’s an RPG/gacha game and not a fighting game only made it worse for me to hate the game. In truth, I didn’t see anything special about that game and not only thought it was uninteresting, but the title didn’t sound original enough to convince me. Literally, it felt like they put no effort into coming up with a good or original title, Granblue Fantasy fell flat for me. Of course, I stopped playing Guilty Gear years before Granblue Fantasy came out, so I was more upset about Guilty Gear being underrated compared to Blazblue, and the popularity for Granblue Fantasy was enough to actually make me feel sorry for Guilty Gear.

But another thing that got me to stop playing Guilty Gear has to do with fan favorite characters. Not Dizzy, but that cross-dressing nun Bridget. Not only is Bridget overrated, but his popularity just feels really toxic. It was like, whenever I tried searching for Guilty Gear stuff in the fandom, Bridget was a character fans would reference for the majority. It felt like there were times where Bridget fans would ruin the things that Guilty Gear is really all about, things like awesome rock music, awesome stage designs, references to classic rock music, and some of the other more interesting character designs. To me, it felt like Bridget fans were trying to get people to think that he’s what Guilty Gear is all about, and it was just so annoying because not only did I find Bridget uninteresting, but it was more like everyone was obsessing him all because of the fact that he’s a fucking cross-dresser.

You’re free to call me a hypocrite for saying that about Bridget. I will admit that I do like the Danganronpa character Chihiro Fujisaki. I’d rather not admit that I fell for his trap since I found Chihiro to be cute, especially when he blushes, but at the time I got into Danganronpa, I did my best to avoid Chihiro out of concern that he had the same kind of obnoxious fans as Bridget due to being a cross-dressing male. But unlike Bridget, I’m actually over the whole Chihiro gender debate. His reason for dressing like a girl is more emotional since bullying is involved, compared to Bridget’s reason which is more idiotic, not to mention that Chihiro isn’t as overrated compared to characters like Nagito, Ibuki, and Kokichi who have some toxic fans that are almost as toxic as Bridget fans. In fact, Bridget’s popularity is more on par with Astolfo from the Fate series and his fans are equally as annoying.

A minor thing, but it was also bothering me that when it came to seeing Guilty Gear Xrd content, everyone was playing the game in Japanese. No one ever bothered to play the game with the English dub. It bothered me because it gave me the impression that people could think the game doesn’t have an English dub or the game does have an English dub but with terrible voice actors. I will admit that at the time Xrd SIGN came out, I did play the game in Japanese out of concern that the game’s English dub didn’t include professional voice actors, like the ones in Danganronpa. At the time, what came to mind was the spinoff KOF game, KOF: Maximum Impact. That game has a really bad English dub to the point that no one would be familiar with their names. Let me just say that there is some positive reception to that game, but the game's bad English dub and the lack of an option to use the Japanese dub (especially in the PS2 version) makes it almost impossible to play (the Xbox version fixes this by including the option to use the Japanese dub). If I remember right, in IGN’s review of the game, they thought that the game’s English dub was “piss poor”. When I realized that the English dub for Guilty Gear Xrd has professional voice actors, I did try to take more notice of it, but felt left out because everyone played the game in Japanese almost as if they thought the game had a bad English dub.

So to summarize, these are the reasons why I stopped playing Guilty Gear. I thought that Bridget had toxic fans, there were times where Guilty Gear felt underrated compared to Blazblue, and no one played the Xrd games in English. There are actually times where I do miss playing this series, especially with how even more underrated Granblue Fantasy made it, making me feel almost sorry for Guilty Gear. The only thing about Guilty Gear I can’t let go of is it’s awesome music. I think out of the character themes from the Xrd games, the themes for Sol, Millia, and Poketim (I forget how to spell his name) are my favorites and still like to rock out to them. But the other issues here make it impossible for me to try and go back and play the series.

Super Smash Bros.

I have some little info from people who’ve admitted that the Smash Bros fandom is toxic, but let me tell you what got me to stop playing this series. Plain simple, I got fed up with having to see third-party characters take the spotlight. Not only the official ones, but the memes for the unofficial ones made it more annoying for me to handle. The fact that the latest Smash Bros games are focussing more on third-party and not first-party characters felt toxic for me for two reasons. One, they were characters from games I didn’t enjoy, and two, it felt like Smash Bros wasn’t what it used to be back when the series was exclusive to Nintendo only games.

At the time SSB4 came out on the 3DS and Wii U, I did in fact play the game on the 3DS but only for like a week. I stopped due to suspicion that Capcom character Mega Man suddenly became the overrated fan favorite. Let me just say that Mega Man is a Capcom series I’m not into, and out of the SSB4 newcomers when the game came out in 2014, I was more hype about Pac-Man being playable, especially knowing that Namco had some involvement with the game’s development, so I wanted to believe that Pac-Man would make a great guest character. The fact that Capcom games like Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Ace Attorney have toxic fanbases didn’t really give me any hype or interest for Mega Man, and the announcement of Street Fighter’s Ryu as a DLC character only made me want to hate Capcom for selling ou. Worst of all, the announcement of that Cloud guy from Final Fantasy was the last thing I needed to throw my copy of SSB4 in the trash and flame the game. Not only did I not enjoy Final Fantasy 7, but it didn’t feel right for Smash Bros to include that game partly because it came out on the PlayStation, so I’m on the side that believes that Smash Bros should only be limited to characters from games that have an importance to Nintendo’s history. Final Fantasy 7 had no importance with Nintendo’s history, and frankly, I failed to see what made the game so great, and the games popularity especially in online journalism made it so annoying for me to try to ignore it. Seriously, journalists never shut up about that game and the Final Fantasy series in general. I’ve played better.

Even with the release of Super Smash Bros on the Switch, the third-party characters from that game were enough to convince me to delete my save data for the other games in the series because these characters and their fans have destroyed Super Smash Bros for me. Some of them actually are characters from games that I thought were good choices because I admit that I actually like those games better. I would’ve loved to play Super Smash Bros as characters from Castlevania, heck, I wouldn’t mind at all playing Smash Bros with Terry Bogard from KOF. But having to deal with characters from games that I don’t enjoy such as Mega Man, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest is enough to convince me to not play the game at all. And unfortunately, I’ve never met anyone who’s admitted that they’ve done the same thing as me, that they’ve stopped playing Super Smash Bros all because they didn’t like the choice of third-party characters and their popularity in both the fandom and the memes.

Assassin’s Creed

It’s not really the Assassin’s Creed fandom that got me to stop playing this, but it’s the Assassin’s Creed series in general. I’m on the side that says the Assassin’s Creed series just isn’t the same as it was ever since AC Unity came out and yet everyone still enjoys the series. It’s like this, Assassin’s Creed games after Unity just don’t feel like they’re gonna bring back certain things from the Desmond Miles saga. There’s obviously a lot of things about Assassin’s Creed from things like story and gameplay that get me thinking that it’s not the best series to introduce to someone who loves gaming.

It’s hard to put into words really. There’s lots of things about Assassin’s Creed that don’t make it perfect, things like broken gameplay and unexplained story stuff. Yet, everyone loves the series and are just oblivious to all the big flaws. One thing that has been bothering me about this series is that to this day, Ubisoft has yet to announce a game entitled “Assassin’s Creed 5”. The fact that games since Unity don’t have numbers in the title and the lack of references to characters from the Desmond Miles saga gives me the impression that they aren’t official games but are more like spinoffs. I know that the series does have some spinoffs, it just bothers me that Ubisoft isn’t gonna make a game called “Assassin’s Creed 5”.

And don’t even get me started on the Assassin’s Creed movie. I knew just from the trailer that it was gonna be a bad movie and the fact that the film is rated PG-13, as opposed to the series being rated M, only made it worse. Just because Assassin’s Creed has things like open-world gameplay, historical figures as supporting characters, and is a game where you kill people doesn’t mean it’s the best game series. There’s lots of things about this series I feel like people often overlook such as the ancient human race and its moments of broken gameplay. I don’t think the movie mentioned anything about the ancient humans, almost as if they were unimportant.

I’m gonna admit that I actually think that Far Cry is the better series. One other thing about Assassin’s Creed that bothers me is that Ubisoft tries to sell it as if it were a stealth-action game. Compared to the stealth gameplay in Far Cry, as well as Metal Gear Solid, or even Sly Cooper, the stealth gameplay in Assassin’s Creed is sometimes unfair, especially when you’re doing a mission that requires you to not get caught or it’s game over. At least Far Cry makes things fair by letting you play the game as a regular first-person shooter, so stealth is totally optional. Not to mention, Far Cry sequels stay true by including numbers in the titles. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out that they’re gonna make Far Cry 7, just as I wouldn't be surprised that they're not gonna make Assassin's Creed 5.

Overall, the fact that I accepted Far Cry as being better than Assassin’s Creed was the last thing I needed to say to myself that Assassin’s Creed is not the best series ever and is not as good as it used to be. Even if I played the latest installment, I’ll probably think that it’s not as good as the Ezio trilogy, which I’ve already lost interest in. It just bothers me to go online and see sites promoting the next installment in Assassin’s Creed even though I’m gonna be thinking that AC is not the best game series and the new games aren’t gonna be that good and I have no reason to play them. And did I mention that Assassin’s Creed sometimes feels like a broken mess?

In Conclusion

So to go over almost everything:

I stopped playing Devil May Cry because I was fed up with the popularity of Capcom’s other games that I didn’t like

I stopped playing Guilty Gear because people were treating it as underrated, everyone loves Bridget, and people barely played the games in English

I stopped playing Super Smash Bros because third-party characters and their memes ruined the series

I stopped playing Assassin’s Creed because the new games don’t look good to me, I prefer Far Cry, and no one else feels the same as i do

There are times where I’ll admit that I do miss playing them, but because of all of these flaws they have, there’s no point in going back to play them. As a Danganronpa fan, I honestly don’t want something similar to happen with my love for it, even after getting a better understanding just how toxic the fandom can be sometimes. Maybe I’ll blog about what got me into Danganronpa some other time.

#blog #non-danganronpa stuff #devil may cry #resident evil #guilty gear #super smash bros #assassin's creed #games i no longer play #toxic fanbases

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superfanficnatural · 13 hours

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The Son: Chapter 6

Pairing: Poe Dameron x Male!Reader (The Son)

Summary: You’ve finally broken free of the forces controlling you at a great cost, though the cost of doing so was even greater than you thought. Now, you fight for the antithesis of what you had been representing, and have to grapple with finding your own place in the galaxy while grappling with the person trying to find their way into your heart. Will The Son choose the light? Or the dark? Whatever the answer may be, may the force be with us.

A/N: Some exciting things happen this chapter! As always, I hope you enjoy!

Warnings: None

Word Count: 3,845

Italics are your thoughts

Masterpost

“Up and at em!”

You jolted out of bed to see Poe standing at the door, it wide open and his hip resting against it. As you shot up, your blankets slipped down your shoulders and gathered around your hip, your entire nude upper body on display.

Poe’s eyes widened, “OH!” He turned immediately, hiding the blush on his face from you, “I’m so sorry, I-I didn’t think that one through.”

You looked down and back at him confused, “What’s-”

Oh.

Your cheeks were suddenly burning and your body felt a bit uncomfortable as you responded, “T-thank you f-for waking me. I haven’t slept before.”

He stiffened for a moment, “What do you mean you’ve never slept before?”

Your eyes widened as you slipped, “Oh, um, sorry I don’t know what I’m saying I must be really tired.” You rose and put on the clothes that were on your bedside as fast as you could, “All dressed, let me just use the restroom.”

Poe turned back around to face you, hair disheveled, shirt loose, and eyes droopy from sleep and fought the smile that wanted to appear on his face, “Y-yeah, no worries.”

You went and washed your face, brushed your teeth and fixed your hair. Stepping back out into the room, Poe was at your desk inspecting your sabers.

“Do they fascinate you?” you asked, letting him know of your presence.

He jolted like he got caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to and looked up at you, “Yeah, the colors are... impossible? It’s like my eyes can’t comprehend them even though I see it so clearly.”

You gently smiled as you reached over and grabbed the two of them, linking them to the sides of your belt, “Interesting observation.”

He rolled his eyes and turned to the door, “God, you don’t make it easy.”

You followed him with your brows furrowed, “What ‘thing’ am I making more difficult than necessary?”

You heard him laugh over his shoulder as you followed him, “Your secrets!”

You wanted to ask but actually had to focus on keeping up with him through all of the corridors and people running back and forth. Eventually, you reached a small clearing where a few of the ships were landed, yours being one of them.

“We’re gonna run flight battle simulations in your ship today, using recorded battle data from previous resistance fights.”

You already know all of the formations in the resistance as Leia’s memory provided, though seeing it happen and actually doing it are two very different things. You already knew how to pilot though, so how hard could it be?

As you entered your ship, you saw workers standing in the hallways with datapads and wires, “What are they doing?”

Poe turned to you, “They’re assessing your ship for any damage or malfunctions, also analyzing the ship and learning it’s capabilities.”

You nodded slowly and walked up to one of the workers near the room where the random parts you had were, “Hey, have you checked in there?”

He looked up at you from his datapad, “Yeah, there’s a bunch of unassembled droid parts back there, are they malfunctioned or something?”

You finally understood, “Which droids are they? What kind?”

He looked back down at his datapad, “Hm, let me see... it looks like an R2 unit, a medical droid, an A series protocol droid, and three cleaning droids.”

Your eyes widened, “Do you have assembling manuals for those kinds of droids?”

He looked at you questionably, “What, you wanna read a manual and suddenly know how to build a droid?”

You raised your eyebrow, “Yes, that is exactly what I want to do.”

Poe made himself known a bit behind you, “Hey, we got a manual, give it to the man already.”

The worker looked at the Commander and swallowed, looking down at his datapad and pressing the screen a few times before handing it to you. You looked at the datapad and saw the assembly manual for the R2 unit, it was only about 4 pages long as it was extremely detailed and as you connected with the force, you read the manual. As you did so, you opened the door to the room, the light coming on and illuminating the parts laying in the center of the room. Reaching out with your hand, you connected the pages with the adjacent parts and they began to rise. The worker and Poe looked on from the front of the door in awe as you began to assemble the pieces together. It actually wasn’t that difficult as you already understood the systems of a ship, an R2 astromech unit is built to sustain one.

“Hey, can you get me the manual for the next droid?”

The worker and Poe walked into the room to stand behind you and for the next few minutes, the worker and you passed the datapad back and forth as you assembled droid after droid.

Finally, all of the droids were assembled in front of you in a single horizontal line.

“That was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen,” the worker whispered.

Poe was struck as he had heard so much of the fairy tale power called the force, but to actually see it unfold right before his eyes. To make it even better, it was coming from the one person who managed to actually make Poe Dameron nervous.

You turned around to see both of them staring at you, shocked, “Oh, I’m sorry, I have the ability to understand an object after I touch it and connect with the force. I probably should have mentioned that.”

“Don’t apologize for that! You wanna turn them on? I wanna see if they work!” Poe laughed.

You smiled, “Yeah, just give me a moment.”

You walked up to the R2 unit and placed your hand on it, reaching through it and enveloping it. You reached for its memory banks as it was the closest thing to a soul that a droid had, and infused it with your force energy. It wouldn’t do anything special to the droid, but it would connect you with it, so even though it thinks in code, it would still be able to feel you. You did the same for the A series protocol droid, medical droid, and cleaning droids.

After you were finished, you backed away, “Hey, do you think that I could reprogram them? These droids are probably very... old so they might have something wrong.”

The worker seemed excited to help, “Sure! Give me just a minute to grab a few people and a few things that we need.”

You nodded appreciatively and turned back to admire the droids, these were to be a part of your new family.

“You’re incredible, you know that?” Poe came up to you.

You ignored the shiver his words sent down your spine and managed a smile, “And you are very kind.”

He smirked at you, “Nice choice of words, very careful.”

You looked at him in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“Well, you didn’t agree with me so you’re humble, but you also didn’t disagree so you have a good sense of self-esteem. You also threw in a compliment as well, yet you also didn’t actually say anything that told me about who you are, all in just five words.”

You actually managed a smirk back, “Yet, your choice of words seems clumsy. It took you 49 words to tell me you wanted to know more about me. Yet it took me only 22 to correct you.”

His mouth slightly went agape as it turned into a wide grin and he nodded slowly with his lips taut together, “Alright, Y/L/N, you win.”

You laughed as the worker returned with two others, one of them walking front and center to introduce herself, “Lieutenant Connix.” You reached out your hand, “Y/N Y/L/N, it’s a pleasure.”

They greeted your gesture in kind and motioned for the workers to go plug in their cables to the droids, “I coordinate and oversee ship repairs and assessment along with logistics. I got the scan of your ship and the craftsmanship is something I’ve never seen before, who made it?”

You smiled nervously, “I did.”

The workers behind you stopped moving and the lieutenant doubled back, “I’m sorry, you built this ship?”

You nodded, “With the force, I simply crafted it in my image based on my knowledge of ships and what I felt would be satisfactory.”

She looked at you but you knew she was thinking in her own head, “As crazy as that sounds that makes sense, the way the hull is crafted is perfect, there is no inconsistency in the density or elasticity of the parts it was like it wasn’t even crafted in the first place.”

You felt a bit of pride swell in your chest and you grew to enjoy the feeling, “Thank you, I don’t identify as a crafter but I appreciate your praise.”

She laughed a bit and sighed loudly, “Alright, so you wanted to reprogram these droids?”

You nodded, “Indeed, I’m not too familiar with creating programs and directives and such so I assumed you guys would.”

She nods and motions to the two workers looking at their datapads that were now connected to your droids, “These guys can help you get it done. How do you want to program them?”

You thought for a moment, remembering a R2 and C series droid in Leia’s memory, along with the slight information the manual presented you and reached a conclusion, “Well, I want all of the droid's prime directive to be loyal to me. I want it etched so deep, no kind of tampering from another software can mess with it.”

The workers nodded in unison, as if it was not a problem.

“For the R2 unit, program it with knowledge on every ship you guys have in your database, including the scans you’ve taken of my ship. I want it to be able to make any kinds of repairs on any ship wherever I go. The protocol droid I’ll have be the same as C-3PO, program him with every recorded language you can, I want him as a translator, and he can only assist in translations with people that I approve of in addition to all resistance personnel. Additionally, program him with multiple therapeutic programs. Program the medical droid with all the procedures that can fit in its head, and program the cleaning droids to... clean,” you explained thoroughly.

They nodded along with you until the end so you assumed they managed to fulfill all of your requests. After a few more minutes of them tinkering with their datapads, “Alright, we’re all set. Shall we fire them up?”

You nodded excitedly, “Please.”

The workers gave each other a look and a nod and pressed down on their datapads, all of the droids suddenly coming alive. They all made various beeping noises as they accustomed to being conscious before looking around the room. None of them made any more noise or movement as they scanned the room and ultimately came to look directly at you.

“Hello, sir! I am A-3P2, translation protocol droid! I am honored to be in your service!” the silver droid spoke up, its body relatively the same as C-3PO’s but silver instead with blue eyes.

The golden astromech made a few beeping and whirring noises and you understood him to be R2-D4. Interesting, I wonder if that means that he is R2-D2’s successor twice over.

The medical droid spoke next in a garbled voice, “Hello, my name is MD-7, medical droid for the vessel... unknown.”

You looked at one of the workers confused, “Unknown?”

“Are we just gonna ignore the fact that they all immediately knew who in this room Y/N was?” Poe questioned.

“Your ship isn’t registered. To anything. You have no transponder codes and you aren’t in any of the databases, your ship... doesn’t exist,” the worker responded to you.

“Oh, I have to name it,” you muttered as you brought your hand up to your chin in thought. “How about, ‘The Force?’”

The worker smiled, “That’s a perfect name.”

The medical droid spoke once more, “I am a medical droid for the vessel, ‘The Force.’ It is nice to meet you.”

A few chuckles were in the room as the cleaning droids also introduced themselves to you, not actually having names but you could understand their distinct personalities. As soon as they introduced themselves, they immediately scurried off to begin cleaning your ship.

The medical droid also stood, “I will be going to the medical bay and unloading the supplies the resistance has stocked the ship with, if I am needed please call me.”

As he left the room, the Lieutenant spoke up, “Alright, shows over I guess. Let’s get back to it.”

She left with the workers and you were left with Poe, R2-D4, and A-3P2 in the room.

“Alright, well now it looks like you’ve got an astromech! Slight problem though, your ship doesn’t have a slot for one,” Poe turned to you with a painful smile.

You didn’t even have to respond, the droid speaking up for itself in a series of boop’s and beep’s.

“Yeah, I don’t speak droid,” Poe returned.

You understood the droid, “He said that he already knows the ship isn’t fitted with an astromech socket, which is why he’s the gunner for the turbolaser on the top. I have a console for its firing system in the bridge but only a droid can plug in and maneuver it. Plus, he can still do repairs inside of the ship.”

Poe nodded in acknowledgment, “Oh right, forgot about that thing, to think a mid size ship like this is equipped with a damn turbolaser is crazy.”

“While I may not be able to repair the ship, I am always here to offer language translation and to be a friend when you are in need,” A-3P2 chimed into the conversation.

You smiled as Poe sighed, “Thank you, do you mind if I call you A-3 instead? At least when we’re in a rush.”

He raised his hands in a grand gesture, “Of course you may, sir! I thank you for the elegant nickname.”

You turned to the astromech, “I would say I’d call you R2 for short but they already do that with another R2 unit here. How does Ruie sound?”

The R2 unit stood for a moment and spun its top disk before chirping excitedly, telling you that it really liked the name.

You smiled greatly, “I’m so glad that you like it.”

Poe called to you from the door, “Come on, you’ve got training, and we’ve put it off for long enough.”

You rushed over with Ruie and A-3 catching up, “Sorry, I completely forgot.”

Reaching the bridge, Poe sat in the co-pilot position as you sat in the pilot’s position. He tinkered with the main console for a moment and the windshield of the ship suddenly shut and began to display a visual as if you were in space, alongside x wings with First Order transports. Though, the image was frozen.

“Alright, do you recognize this formation?” Poe asked.

You nodded, “I was given a run down of your formations and I... studied them.”

He raised a brow, “You’re a fast learner it seems.”

You chuckled nervously in response.

“Anyways, the mission is to take out the transports and tie fighters before reinforcements arrive and jump to hyperspace, got it?”

You nodded and steeled yourself in your chair, taking the controls into your hands and preparing.

“Launch program,” Poe said aloud.

With no warning, the image began to play and you were soaring through space.

“Woah!” you yelled, rearing the controls to the side to avoid the incoming laser blast.

“You’ll never get a warning in battle. Good reflexes,” he commented.

You managed a ‘thanks’ as you tried desperately to avoid the incoming fire. The ship wasn’t actually moving or taking any damage so you weren’t exactly swaying side to side. Though, you could see on the screen along with the multiple alarms ringing over your head that your shields had taken a big hit.

“Damn, this isn’t easy. I don’t know what to keep track of,” you remarked.

“All of it, you need to prioritize your information intake and act. Firstly, you make sure you have no fighters tailing you down, if you do, you call it out and ask for help. You don’t have any fighters on you? Help anyone else out. While you’re doing all of that? Make sure to complete the objective,” Poe explained, sitting back in his chair while you were actively stressed beside him.

“Understood,” you responded, completely focused on the task.

You checked your scanners to see that there were currently no ships on you and you decided to call out, “I’m making a run at the transport, I’ve got its hyperdrive in my sights.”

You knew no one could hear you but you still wanted to practice, reaching over to toggle the front gunner weapon position and targeting the hyperdrive of the transport. As you did so, Poe stood from his lax position to look at you and back at the monitor, a knowing smirk on his face that you couldn’t see. As you rushed forward to destroy their means of escape, you caught on your scanner from the corner of your eye one of the x wings on your squadron being tailed by two fighters. As you did so, you immediately broke off of your attack and looped around the transport, dodging lasers from their cannons as you catapulted straight towards the fighters.

“Da-” you heard Poe begin before he shut himself up.

You began targeting one of the two ships and fired, managing to knick it in the wing and have it explode, “I’ve got you, targeting the other now.”

As you did, the fighter laid heavy fire on your teammate and he was nearly taken out, but you had struck first, landing a shot straight into the pilot’s seat of the craft and saving the x wing.

“Not bad at all,” Poe stated.

“I had a good teacher,” you responded with a smile.

You spent the next few hours running more training simulations and even brought Ruie in to help in a few situations to give him some experience as well. Overall, it wasn’t absolutely terrible, but the simulations had been giving you a run for your money. You felt like you had beginner's luck when you aced the first simulation but your lack of practical experience flying definitely made your practice difficult. You were good at making quick decisions along with a sharp sense of spatial awareness but struggled with the precise movements which was something you noted to work on.

“I think we can call it, even I’m tired,” Poe said as he ended the simulation and stood up.

You stood as well, “Yes, I’m beginning to get a bit tired myself.”

“Wanna head over to the cantina? I’ll buy you a drink,” Poe smiled hopefully as the two of you began walking out of the room.

You hesitated for a moment before responding, “Sure, that sounds like a good time.”

The two of you walked onwards, eventually reaching an area lit up in the dark where there were workers and soldiers gathered around having drinks. There was a small stall dug in that you recognized as a bar, two workers currently managing it.

“Correlian Ale for me and my friend,” Poe said to the bartender.

“Gotcha,” they responded, moving to prepare your drinks.

The two of you rested against the bar as you turned towards each other, “So, where are you from, Y/N?”

You looked at him for a breath before responding, “I’m from uh... Mortis?”

Shit, I couldn’t lie, but I can’t believe I just told him the truth

He looked confused, “Mortis? I’ve never-”

“Here are your drinks,” the bartender interrupted the two of you by placing them down on the bar in front of you.

You reached for your drink immediately and motioned it towards him, “To a successful day of flight training!”

He looked like he wanted to say something but ultimately dropped it and grabbed his beer to clink it against yours, “Yeah.”

This was the first time you had ever drank alcohol as you neither had any nor would it have any effect on you. You could tell it was alcohol from the slight burning in your throat as you ingested it, though, it actually wasn’t that bad or strong at all. You assumed Poe had gotten a placeholder drink to get started with.

After the two of you took a sip you controlled the conversation immediately, “So, where are you from, Poe?”

“I was born here, on Yavin 4. My parents were also fighters in the resistance,” he responded.

“Oh, wow! So this is your home planet? That must be very comforting.”

He had a faint smile on his face, “Yeah it’s good to have home be our base but... if the trouble we cause comes looking here, I’d be the reason my home planet faces ruin.”

You had a solemn look as you listened to him, “I understand how you feel, the fear that something precious could be destroyed simply because you chose to let it become precious.”

He looked at you intently, “Sounds like you don’t like letting people in.”

You were taken aback by his response as his words held more impact than he knew, “I-... my past isn’t pretty, and I’ve made so many decisions that I regret... every decision... I regret.”

The two of you stood in silence as you struggled with your inner emotions, “I cannot let myself go back to the person that I was, I will not allow it.”

Your hand came to ball up into a fist, unknown to you, but Poe noticed it, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Your eyes snapped to him as the all too familiar feeling of anger coursed through you, “I don’t want!-”

You stopped abruptly and slapped a hand over your mouth, “I am so sorry, I-I need to leave.”

You left your beer on the counter and a conflicted looking Poe behind and rushed back to your room. As you entered, you closed the door and sat yourself down at your table, resting your head over your arm on the cool metal.

“I can’t believe I lost it like that back there, I’m such a child, no control over my own emotions,” you muttered aloud as you reprimanded yourself.

I know that I have to face what I did... but it hurts too much. I’m not ready for that, I- I’m not ready

You stood and undressed, turning off the light and setting the alarm clock to wake you up in the morning. Getting into bed, you heaved a sigh and prepared yourself for the day to come.

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parchmentedpetrichor · 3 years

Text

➳april’s fool ♡

in which fred weasley is in love with y/n l/n, the girl he happens to tease and insult profusely for her attention.

fred weasley x gryffindor!fem!reader

word count: ±4.3k

tw: food, fireworks, pranking, fred being a bully, tad bits of swearing

drop a follow if you wanna see more of this content!!

my masterlist:D

ft. minnie, dumbledore and severus

yeah, your grandmama probably know me

get more bottles, these bottles are lonely

it's a moment when I show up, got 'em sayin', "wow"

april’s fool

“tomorrow is april fools,” dumbledore sighs.

“you know what that means...?” mcgonagall asks, her voice on edge.

“the twins,” snape replies quickly, not even bothered one bit as he sips his dark coffee.

“and their pranks,” dumbledore dramatically rolls over in his armchair.

“okay and?”

“they’re a hazard, severus!” mcgonagall replies.

“that doesn’t stop them.”

“what will stop them?” dumbledore ponders, eyes faint with interest.

“you still have those weird buzzy fireworks right?” snape asks.

“of course.”

“and minnie, you have the cake mix your grandmother gave you?”

“still in my cupboard next to the biscuits.”

“excellent.”

y/n l/n listens from the other side of the door, grinning. she’s been called to mcgonagall’s lavish office for some business she hopes isn’t trouble, but the conversation the three are deeply invested in piques her interest.

she likes fun. the type of continuous laughter and uncontrollable fits of giggles at noon. that’s why she enjoys the pranks the twins play. they’re bold, sharp and reckless and have the undoubtable trademark of fred and george on them.

one too a many times she’s been on the receiving end of them. one time the twins had charmed the library so that she and other studious students could not find any books that they wanted or needed for a whole week.

another time, her hair had been dyed bright pink. she wasn’t a fan of it, but tried her best to rock it. it worked. y/n had received many compliments on her bubblegum pink locks.

she laughed it off a lot. whenever something quite embarrassing happened, it was usually funny.

even the snide remarks the older twin always cast her way.

including the time he called her a blackhead. well, multiple times.

“oi, l/n, looking like a blackhead.”

george had rolled his eyes at his brother before adding kindly, “at least you have nice hair. your tie’s always shiny too.”

she had just laughed, “at least i’ve got the blackhead looks to pull pink hair off, weasley, you can’t even pull off ginger hair, and thanks, georgie. love ya.”

fred had looked taken aback, but y/n still scowls at the memory. she gets she isn’t pretty, but there is a line you don’t cross when trying to insult someone.

he always calls her the most awful nicknames too; body parts that align with her name and random pieces of rubbish she isn’t bothered to remember.

she shakes herself of her thoughts and draws herself up, knocking thrice on the door lightly.

“come in,” mcgonagall’s calm tone beckons.

“good afternoon professors!” she chirps, smiling at all three.

they smile back. even snape. they’re big fans of the girl, who’s studious but mischievous. albus dumbledore has always thought that y/n’s eyes always look like all she’s seen is a beautiful sunset.

“now you must wonder why i called you here,” mcgonagall starts.

“you see, how have you punished the weasley twins when they play all those pranks on you?” dumbledore eagerly asks.

y/n gives a light laugh, “i just prank them back. i won’t get detention for this, right?” she jokes.

they laugh, “of course you will,” snape jokes back and for a second y/n is surprised that severus snape, the ever so cold potions professor, is cracking jokes. especially to her.

“well then, i guess i can’t tell you how i prank them back then,” she drawls dramatically.

“no, no, do tell, we’re, what do you young people say?” mcgonagall pauses, “ahh yes! we’re all ears!”

y/n bursts out laughing, “okay, i usually do something that’s subtle enough but still very noticeable. they need to be anonymous too, or that’ll start prank wars and i’m only looking for short term pleasure really. one time, i dumped a whole bunch of polyjuice potion in both their little goblets. fred became george and george became fred. they were so confused.”

mcgonagall is impressed.

“can you bake?” dumbledore asks and y/n shakes her head for a long time.

“can’t bake for my sanity.”

“awesome. that is what i thought too,” dumbledore answers and y/n smiles.

a single knock sounds. it’s proper and formal.

“come in!” mcgonagall yells.

draco malfoy in all his glory steps into the room, eyes alight with concern, ever so indifferent.

y/n knows him from quidditch. they’ve become relatively good friends, though she thinks he is very busy with his home life. she also knows that there’s more to him than the facade he has.

“afternoon,” he nods and gives a charming smile.

“now, draco, i understand your mother had enrolled you in baking classes,” snape says.

draco nods.

“you must bake a cake,” mcgonagall hands him the cake mix.

she hands y/n the box of fireworks and winks.

“good day professors! make sure to be at breakfast tomorrow!” y/n shouts, dragging draco with her to the kitchens.

soon draco is laughing with y/n, at her atrocious puns and lightly placed jokes, finding himself very much happy. he’s not interested in her romantically, he simply enjoys her company. he’s even sharing some funny stories of his own too.

“...and i told him, to precisely fuck off.”

“so that’s how you deal with him!”

“oh no, he didn’t stop. he kept bugging me.”

“what did you do then?”

“i cast a muffliato charm on him.”

y/n bursts into laughter as they pass the gryffindor common room, quickly hiding the box of fireworks in her cloak as she spots two red heads quietly snickering by the fat lady.

they notice the unlikely pair scurrying down the stairs.

“hey, google eyes!” fred shouts.

y/n doesn’t know fred well enough to decide if that greeting is dedicated to herself, so she continues upon her way.

“weasley,” draco states.

“huh?” y/n fakes oblivion.

draco jerks his head in the way of the twins, where fred is smirking handsomely, leaning against the wall in a model-like fashion.

george is shaking his head in dismay.

“i said googly eyes!” fred shouts again.

y/n won’t lie, she thinks fred has undoubtedly good looks and his ginger hair is cute. he’s just a terrible person. to her, at least. she knows she’s biased, she’s often seen fred comforting ginny after a bad fight with a boyfriend, and from what she’s heard from alicia and angelina and katie, he’s funny too.

she whips out her glasses and stares deadpan at him, before rolling her eyes and running with draco down the stairs, laughing like madmen.

they finish baking late at night, and waving her wand smartly over the cake, y/n produces a charm that will make the fireworks activate as soon as the cake is cut open.

draco smiles as he pipes purple and orange roses, writing a ‘happy bday fred and george’ in chocolate letters.

they add lots of sprinkles, hoping to seem like avid admirers of the twins.

“does miss l/n and misters malfoy need any assistance?” a house elf asks.

draco just about opens his mouth to snap a ‘no’ when y/n gives him a silencing look.

“thank you rosemarie, but that is not needed, you are welcome to watch and talk with us though,” y/n politely answers, giving her a grin.

the house elf sniffles, “miss l/n is too nice! rosemarie will make some hot chocolate for her! pretty hair!”

y/n laughs, “thank you very much, rosemarie. i think mister malfoy would also like some hot chocolate, with a tiny bit of firewhiskey, if that’s alright with you,” she winks at draco who just scoffs in reply.

when they’re finished with the cake and the hot chocolate, y/n enters the gryffindor common room. angelina takes the cake and wraps it up in a box and nice wrapping paper. she sends it flying to the twins’ usual spot on the gryffindor table.

“thanks angie!” y/n smiles, getting up from the cozy spot near the fire in the common room.

“why are you going? we’re staying up till midnight for the twins’ birthday; wanna join?” angelina asks.

y/n shakes her head, “i’m not too close with them, it seems like a rather intimate ceremony,” she keeps her words fluffy and light. really, she would join any birthday celebration, but she didn’t think she could handle the constant insults and annoying comments fred always made about her. and this would have been completely acceptable if she had done something to any one of the weasleys, but she hadn’t. she even regards ginny weasley as a little sister and was invited to one of ginny’s infamous slumber parties. okay, she might have a little crush on him for his joke-ish nature, but it’s nothing she can’t get over. he’s out of her league, for sure, she thinks. and terribly rude. she doesn’t understand why she still harbours those feelings for him. maybe because that time adrian pucey was mocking her for her ‘blood purity’ he stood up for her. or that time she hurt herself at quidditch and fred stayed up with her bandaging her wound. he cared when it mattered, she guesses.

“i’m sure they would love you there.”

“fat chance,” she scoffs, “have a good night!”

she goes to her own dormitory up the stairs. she’s well known in gryffindor house, but for different reasons than the twins may be. although she’s close with angie and alicia, she’s not close with the twins. mainly because she’s always studying, playing quidditch, and doing prefect things.

being on a quidditch team with fred weasley is bearable. mainly because she’s the captain.

she’s stopped by a large hand on her shoulder. the owner of the hand swivels and suddenly a grinning fred is revealed.

“where’re you going?” fred weasley’s annoying voice pronounces.

“the sahara desert,” she snaps back dryly, “you’re in the way of my world exploration.”

“am i, really?”

“‘course,” she reigns her attitude in, “nice night, isn’t it?”

“for you? never.”

she scowls. fred watches in utter amusement as she takes a deep breath and charmingly smiles.

“dearest freddie, will you please allow me to get to my dorm so i can have some sleep?”

fred’s heart skips a little at the nickname but shakes his head.

“what’s the password?”

y/n sighs. “i don’t know. y/n is a blackhead. googly eyes. whatevers.”

fred lets out a loud laugh. y/n finds herself trying hard not to laugh with him.

she turns around, ready to find her hufflepuff friend that has a spare bed in their dormitory, knowing fred is really stubborn.

“that’s not the password.”

“well, good night.” she walks off, before intensely diving in a style harry potter himself would be proud of, onto the stairs and running up the dorms laughing.

fred stands at the bottom of the stairs, dumbfounded, his jaw hanging open.

“close your mouth, flies will be caught,” he heard the giggling voice of y/n.

“close yours and you’ll look better,” he insults back.

“oh shut up. we know i’m the prettier one. and that’s saying something.”

the next morning, fred and george wake up to presents, a rowdy common room, and a nice cake sitting waiting for them on the gryffindor table.

for the first time, y/n takes a seat opposite them, her eyes alight with the familiar mischief they always held. she steals glances at the professors, who were beaming down with interest, as if they shared an inside joke. draco malfoy has an odd smirk on his pale face.

all eyes are on them as they cut open the cake. with a bang, fireworks come flying out of the cake in all directions, sending crumbs and icing flying in the air and leaving soot on the twin’s faces. their ginger hair is covered neatly with white icing and the fireworks continue for a calamitous five minutes. everyone’s too busy laughing and trying to dodge the flying cake to see that y/n l/n and draco malfoy are laughing quietly in a corner together, both with spells like umbrellas.

fred’s eyes, however, are trained on y/n, who’s rolling over in laughter. he quickly casts a scourgify on himself and george, and strides casually over to her and malfoy, the usual lazy smirk on his face as he hears ‘draco ohmygosh that was the best. your cake decos are on point! d’ya think he’ll ever bully me again?’. that confirms his suspicions. she did play this prank on him. and it makes him feel fuzzy inside.

his face then contorts into a frown. she thinks he bullies her?

“i wouldn’t say he bullies you, y/n.”

he smiles. never mind.

“but it isss! i can assure you, there is absolutely nothing nice ‘bout being called a frame!”

fred snorts at the time y/n had been gushing adorably over a picture frame that was embellished with gold and bronze flowers to angelina. he had went over and in an attempt to catch her attention, said ‘you’re a frame’.

sure, he was good at flirting, but not to the girls he really really liked.

“that’s fucking funny,” malfoy laughs.

“oh shut it draco, your face is funny. but yeah, i should probably ask him to start fresh.”

he decides to interrupt their conversation.

“ask who to start fresh?” he butts in.

y/n doesn’t even look surprised, “in fact, you, fred, because i’m not really sure if i’ve done anything wrong to you or anything, and by my memory i don’t think i have and you keep being rude and stuff. if i have, i’m really sorry for it and i’m sorry that i hurt you and all. if we can y’know, start over, and maybe be friends?” she catches the unreadable look in fred’s eyes and hesitates, “or maybe not, that’s okay, we don’t need to!” she gives a small laugh, “er, sorry for ever bringing it up?”

the earnestness of her tone and the wistful look in her eyes makes fred fall a little harder. ever since he saw her nervously fiddling with her robes in first year, he’s been smitten.

there’s a silence. malfoy has slipped off, the sneaky bastard.

fred simply takes y/n’s hand, giving her a look as if to ask for permission.

she swallows and nods.

they’re in the courtyard, which is sunny and light. flowers are blooming everywhere.

“can i kiss you?” fred asks.

y/n’s eyebrows go up. “what?”

“can i kiss you?” fred repeats patiently.

“as in kiss? k-i-s-s?” y/n asks, eyes wide with suspicion and curiosity.

“yep,” he chuckles, “crazy, aren’t i?”

“yeah, you’re crazy.”

“really? can i kiss you?”

“i’ve never really kissed anyone.”

“i guessed that.”

her eyebrows furrowed in hurt, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“i’ll tell you if you let me kiss you.”

“there better be a good reason because i was saving it for someone special.”

“i need a yes, love.”

she huffs, “yes.” she won’t tell him that she has a crush on him, because to be honest, she still isn’t sure if this is a prank or not.

she surprised when fred tilts her head up ever so gently, a smile on his face.

this kiss is short and sweet. he tastes like cinnamon.

when they’ve let go, fred notices the light pink dusted over her cheeks. he smirks.

“you have to tell me why you thought i’ve never kissed anyone,” she said, eyes flashing in deep thought.

“such a beautiful person as you does not deserve kisses from anyone.”

“...”

fred took this as a sign to go on. “the reason i’ve always teased you endlessly is because i want your attention. i didn’t think you’d give it to me any other way. if you haven’t noticed, i’m in love with you. i think you’re absolutely beautiful, both ways. i love it when you frown and get annoyed, even if you rarely do, i love it when you study so hard your face makes this really concentrated look. i love it especially when you laugh and smile and joke and play pranks. even if they’re on me.”

“...” she was studying his movements. inside her brain, a frenzy was going on. part of her brain- the ever so optimistic part, was screaming happily, and the logical part was using body language to analyse whether he was lying or not.

eyes? their honey brown colour was glistening with affection and truth, an expression so dainty on his face.

a quaint little smile was on his lips, a small one, a genuine one. it was different to all the other smiles she’d seen him smile.

he wasn’t acting, she decided. if he was, he should take up a job in broadway.

“y/n?”

her brows were furrowed. she’d never been confessed to as genuinely as this before.

if they started this type of relationship would he still be mean and insult her all the time?

“i-i need time. to figure this out.”

he doesn’t look disappointed, she thinks. instead he looks down at her with... adoration?

“of course, sweetness, anything, i’ll wait for you.”

she smiles, “thank you, freddie.”

☆

it’s been a few days since fred’s confessed to her. she’s still unsure if he was joking or not. why?

at this moment, she’s watching him giggle with angelina johnson. it seems like he’s forgotten everything and anything. he’s gotten closer to her. maybe he’s lost feelings for y/n? she can’t blame angie, she’s a wonderful girl. if he likes her, that’s fine too. suddenly her feelings for him become very clear. she like-likes him. and it’s a bit too late.

but maybe he doesn’t like angie in that way? maybe he’s still into her?

y/n knows molly weasley raises her children with patience. she should trust that fred’s waiting for her.

but then again, she’s never gonna be as special as angie johnson. she’s just a ever so polite and outgoing nerd. someone who’s foolish enough to prank. angie’s smart, confident and funny and terribly patient. and effortlessly beautiful. she’s got the true gryffindor touch. and angie’s been one of fred’s best friends since day one. she’s always gonna be number 1.

that’s ok. she’ll accept it. she likes angie anyway. it was probably a joke anyway.

she couldn’t be jealous, just a bit dismayed that it wasn’t genuine. whatever, she thinks. we can just go back to how we were before. or not.

and it’s relatively easy. they never really saw much of each other anyway. she’ll get over this tiny little liking.

it’ll just be like normal. none of this happened. none of it. she grimaces bitterly, damning fred for his stupid games. should’ve known this was another of his pranks. but his acting though, certainly very good.

she smiles to herself.

“knock it off, y/n, you’re here to learn, not to love.”

and that answer, is satisfactory.

she gets up from her spot on the gryffindor table rather abruptly, saying goodbye to her friends, and makes her way to the kitchens. she knows she won’t be alone, she’ll talk to hansel and gretel, the twins that cook with the house elves every dinner.

they’re cleaning up as she walks in, book in hand.

“hi hans, g!” she calls, as she rolls up the sleeves of her sweater to help them with the dishes.

“y/n!” gretel gives her a hug with soapy arms and y/n giggles.

“how are both of you?” y/n asks.

“good, good, potions though...” hansel trails off and they all laugh.

“potions is always like that,” y/n agrees, “it’s supposed to be really hard for newts, so you can’t really blame the subject.”

“i’m thinking of dropping divination,” gretel says.

“yeah, that’s wise, gretel buns,” hansel teases and gretel scowls.

“divination is an easy subject, gretel, you just need to make random stuff up. i saw this weird bear thing in polly’s tea leaves, it wasn’t in the textbook. i told trelawney it was a symbol that a stranger would come and whip polly off her feet, with a whip the colour of the rarest german emeralds, leaving her absolutely smitten. i got full marks,” y/n laughs.

they laugh too, and soon a light flowing conversation is shared over cups of hot chocolate.

this is repeated for quite a few days and y/n even invites polly, marla and lenox, her best friends, to join. it’s a delicate, nice kind of week, one that suits her current struggles.

when the weekends roll around, hansel and gretel suggest that they all sit at the hufflepuff table. they share jokes and quips over the food, y/n reading a book as she bites happily into apple pie.

“pfft,” her lips upturn ever so slightly at the quote that the character makes.

fred watches her from the gryffindor table, utterly confused. y/n’s been avoiding him. he sees the flashes of hurt that run through her eyes whenever she sees him, and the quick grin that’s far too fake that follows. she’s been reading a lot more and he never sees her anymore.

he wonders what he’s doing wrong. so as he sees her walking with her friends to hogsmeade, he calls for her.

“y/n!”

her friends giggle as they see him, but she gives him a fleeting glance and raises her eyebrows at them, shaking her head, before profusely apologising to each one of them.

she approaches him warily, with all practicality in mind. she leads with her heart, but her head protects her.

fool me once, shame on you.

fool me twice, shame on me.

“you’ve been avoiding me,” he states.

“what would you expect?” she snaps, “isn’t this all a good laugh for you anyway?”

“what’s that supposed to mean?”

“you know what i mean, this was all a joke, wasn’t it? fooling my poor little heart which you know has a crush on you. my head simply won’t allow it. admit it, and we can both move on with our lives,” her tone is sharp and cold, her eyes burning with fury and hurt, “i may seem gullible, and i am,” she gave a short laugh, “but when i notice, don’t even try to lie.”

“this wasn’t a joke, love.”

“don’t call me that, and you and i both know it is. your acting though, absolutely superb!”

“what makes you think this was a prank, y/n? you were the one who asked for time.”

“yes, and the time made me realise that i had feelings for you despite all the teasing AND the fact you couldn’t possibly be genuine!” y/n says exasperatedly, her fury dissolving quickly, “you looked so in place with angie and everyone that it’s so obviously some sort of fun thing you did to try to get back at me!”

“angie?”

“a-and everyone else.”

“angie?” fred’s eyes were amused.

“you know, angelina, as in johnson.”

“angie?”

y/n shrugs, “you did bring her to the yule ball last year.”

“angie??!!!” fred was full on smirking now, as if trying to receive a real response.

“i think you like her, okay?! are we done here? i’d very much like a good book from f&b,” y/n sighs.

“i’ll accompany you to flourish and botts. why would you think i like her? didn’t i just confess to you?”

“yeah but it seemed kinda...” y/n trails off, not wanting her insecurities to come off as compliment fishing, “kinda far-fetched.”

“meaning?” fred knows exactly what she means.

“you know!”

“oh but i don’t,” he smiles innocently.

“well, you’re you!”

“is that supposed to be an insult?” he asks, faking a look of hurt rather well as y/n looks alarmed.

“no, no, as in, you’re nice to look at, and you’ve always insulted me and been so nice and cool to everyone. are you for real?”

“nice to look at?” a cocky grin is on his face now, much more noticeable than the slight blush that was creeping up his face.

“is that the only thing you could pick up?”

“nice to look at? what’s up with me repeating myself today?”

y/n lets out an agitated sigh. he doesn’t know, he’s blunt and straightforward. she likes cushioning her words.

“y’know, handsome? good looking?”

“my middle names.” another smirk to conceal the blushing.

y/n smiles. “of course, everyone knows it.”

it makes fred uncomfortable. her light tone is a bit menacing too.

“only joking.”

“i’m sure everyone does know it, darling.”

y/n is too busy looking at the dog that passes by to hear him, rambling quietly to herself over the cute scottish terrier.

“sorry, what was that?”

“aren’t i cuter than the dog?”

“nup.”

“really?” fred casually slings an arm over y/n’s shoulders, having to stoop a little lower to reach her.

“i think so.”

“well i’ll tell you something love, i think you’re absolutely stunning.”

“some love potion you’re on.”

“uh huh, the love potion is called love, sweetness.”

“so you’re for real?”

“as real as you and me.”

“you’re cheesy. this isn’t a prank right?”

“not at all, i love you.”

“i-i don’t think i love you just yet, but i think it’s possible,” y/n bites her lip, anxiously awaiting his response.

she tilts her head to look at him.

he’s beaming. he looks more handsome than ever, a sweet smile etched on his face as he looks down at her in utter adoration.

“you have a crush on me!” he pulls her into a hug and giggles like a little girl, kissing the top of her head.

she’s engulfed by the smell of burning wood and cinnamon and immediately feels safe in his strong arms.

“how’d you say we go on a date? so i can show how sorry i am for all the times i called you googly eyes and played pranks on you.”

“i’ll check to see if the girls are okay with it,” y/n replies, turning her head to see her friends. they’re gone.

“they are. i asked them to shoo off before i approached you. is that a yes?”

y/n nods, “of course, freddie.”

“i love you.”

she laughs, “you really are april’s fool.”

“i’m your april’s fool.”

he buries his nose in the crook of her neck to stop her from seeing his blushing red face.

#fredweasley #fred weasley x y/n #frederick weasley #fred weasley x reader #gryffindor #hansel and gretel #fanfic #harry potter #hogwarts #hufflepuff #angelina johnson #alicia spinnet #y/n #harrypotter #hogsmeade

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the-gay-trashmouth · 3 years

Text

So I’m the worst. As soon as I started the Newsies Gift Exchange my mental health took a nose dive and my school decided to ramp up the assignments to 100. I never forgot and I have been working on it when I had the time so here it is! I'm so sorry I'm late @annihilatedthenightstalker . I hope you enjoy my very very late gift. I am so sorry.

Prompt- Jack's really scared for some reason and David sees him cry for the first time, its then he finds out just how touch-starved Jack is.

If there was one thing David knew, it was that Jack Kelly would be the death of him. He wasn’t even mad about it, it was just a simple fact of life that he had come to accept.

That's what he thought as Sarah shoved him awake, telling him in no kind words that his Cowboy was at the window and he needed to go take care of it. He yawned before pushing off the bed and making his way to the open window where Jack did, in fact, sit waiting for him.

He leaned out the window, fixing him with an unimpressed look. “What are you doin’ here so late? Don’t ya have a bed waitin’ at the lodge?”

Jack shrugged, but he was shaking like he’d seen a ghost. David’s expression went from annoyed to concerned as Jack spoke.

“Yeah, well, I couldn’t sleep none and I thought- well you like all that star stuff and the skies real clear so-” he gestured shakily, “I thought we could go watch some, may-maybe you could tell me all that stuff you learned about the patterns and stuff.”

David watched him carefully, watched the way he couldn’t sit still, the way he was glancing around like something would pop out to get him any second now. After a moment he sighed, “yeah… yeah okay Jackie. Lemme get dressed and I’ll meet ya on the roof, a’ight?”

Jack nodded quickly, already climbing the ladder. David watched him for a moment, concern twisting in his chest. He turned back to see Sarah watching him with tired eyes.

“That’s not what I meant when I said make him go away,” she said flatly.

David shrugged, “he doesn't look too good, Saz. I can’t just let him go wander the streets like this,” he argued, though Sarah didn’t look convinced. Thankfully, she didn’t push it, just rolled her eyes and laid back down.

“Whatever, don’t complain to me when you're exhausted tomorrow.”

He sighed, tugging a patched sweater over his undershirt and fastening his suspenders to his pants. She had a point, but he wasn’t about to admit it. Besides, he couldn’t just leave Jack to his own devices, not when he’s like this.

When he pulled himself up to the roof, the first thing he saw was Jack, still pacing with his hands still shaking. David tried to shake off his anxiety as he pushed himself to a stand, but the lingering clench of concern twisted around his heart. He didn’t like seeing Jack like this, it hurt too much.

“You’re gonna walk a hole in your shoes if you keep that up,” Jack jumped at his voice, but a shaky grin still found its way onto his face.

“Oh well, you could patch ‘em up for me, couldn’t ya Dave?”

David rolled his eyes, nudging Jack’s shoulder as he passed, “might could, question is would I?” he pulled one of his sheets down from the line before sitting down.

Jack just grinned, taking his place beside him, “‘course ya’ would, what kind a partner wouldn’t?”

He snorted, nudging Jack’s shoulder with his own. He was right, of course, Dave would do anything he could for him- Jack knew damn well he would too. Everyone did.

“Keep tellin’ yourself that, Kelly.”

Jack grinned, nudging him back before leaning on his hands to look at the sky. David followed suit- Jack was right. It was an incredibly clear night. He could see so many stars, he could even make out a few major constellations.

After a moment of silence Jack elbowed him in the ribs, pointing up to the stars, “That one there’s the big dipper, ain’t it?”

David followed his finger, trying to connect the pattern he was seeing. It was a bit difficult because his hands were still shaking. “Yeah, I think so- ya know the big dipper’s just a part of a bigger constellation, Ursa Major. A bear.”

Jack tilted his head, dropping his arm to his side and squinting at the sky, “don’t look like no bear to me.”

The other boy snorted, using his own hand to point out the rest of the pattern, “yeah see- there's the head and the big body, and those little stars make the legs- see? Bear.” Jack just tilted his head farther, blonde hair falling into his face.

“I don’t- hang on, yeah. Yeah I see what you mean, ‘s like one of them stick figures, right?”

“Yeah, basically, I mean it’s really abstract. See, right near it is Leo, it’s supposed to be a lion.”

Jack followed his finger again, watching as he pointed out the stars and traced the lines. Jack squinted at it, “yeah- it just looks like a bunch a dots to me”

David snorted, looking over to see Jack watching him with a soft smile. He tilted his head, nudging Jack’s shoulder again. As much as he would love to go on and on about the stars and the stories behind him, he had to find out what was wrong.

“So, I know ya didn’t come here lookin for a lesson on astronomy. What’s wrong with ya? Somethin’ happen with the boys?”

Jack froze, still staring at the sky. David could see him trying to keep his easy grin but it was forced. Somehow that hurt worse than a frown.

“Nah Dave, nothin’ happened with them…” he trailed off, picking at the concrete beneath him.

“Well what’s wrong? And don’t say nothin- I know when you’re lyin.”

“Aw c’mon, you wound me! I don’t lie-”

David cut him off, rolling his eyes, “fine. ‘Improvin’ the truth’ or whatever- not much of a difference.”

Jack chuckles, leaning forward to rest his chin on his knees. “Yeah, you’se too observant for ya’ own good sometimes.”

“And you’re too stubborn for yours,” he shot back, taking a breath before continuing to speak, voice much softer this time, “what’s eatin’ at ya, Jackie?”

Jack shuddered, face hidden behind his messy bangs. He was quiet for a moment before he muttered something just under his breath.

“I can’t hear ya, Jack,” he said plainly, leaning forward to try and catch his eyes. Jack just looked away,

“My Pa…. he’s… Spots just got news that he got out a’ the pen,” David’s breath caught in his throat as Jack spoke, his words shaking.

“Oh shit,” he breathed. For once, The Walking Mouth had been rendered speechless. Jack laughed, rough and strained.

“Yeah.. oh shit..” he pulled his legs up to his chest and rested his chin on his knees. David set a hand on his shoulder, mind too frantic to linger on the way Jack tensed under his touch.

“Are you okay? He- he don’t know where you’se stayin’ does he? Shit- he can’t- Jackie..” now it was David’s turn to shake, the hand not gripping Jack’s shoulder running through his curly bed head. Jack shrugged, adamantly refusing to look at him. David cut himself off, words dying in his throat.

“Jackie…” he dropped the hand from his hair to his lap, “what are you gonna do?”

Jack shrugged again, but David could feel his shoulders begin to shake. David waited for a moment as Jack sucked in a shaky breath. “I don’t know Dave… I mean I don’t- I don’t think he knows where I’se stayin’ but what if he does?”

David let the hand on his shoulder drop to his back, rubbing small circles into the thin fabric of his shirt like his mama would do when he was in a state. He didn’t know what to say and his mind was racing to come up with something. Something to fix it, something to make it all better.

Nothing came to mind.

Jack was still shaking but he leaned into Davey’s touch, taking in shuddering breaths as he hid his face in his knees. “Dave I- I don’t know what I’m gonna do…”

When he finally looked up, there were tears in his eyes. Davey’s heart clenched as he sucked in a harsh breath. Jack never cried- sure he got upset, angry enough to punch a hole through a wall or anxious to where he couldn’t breathe, but he never cried.

Davey didn’t know what to do with that.

“I’m scared, Dave…”

That was the final straw. David gripped Jack’s shirt with shaking hands and jerked him into his long arms. He wrapped around him, using his height to his advantage as he enveloped Jack in a shaking embrace.

“Oh Jackie…” he buried his nose in his hair, pushing back his own tears.

Jack froze for a moment, just long enough for David to worry he’d gone too far before there were fingers digging into his back and Jack “Cowboy” Kelly was sobbing into his shoulder.

“I- fuck Dave-” David shushed him as he cried, arms tightening around him as the older boy cried his eyes out into his shoulder. He could feel his sleeves soaking through but that was the least of his worries right now. He was too busy trying to comfort the shaking mass of boy in his arms to give a dmn about his stupid shirt.

“It’s okay Jackie- let it all out. It’ll be okay. We’ll figure it out. You can stay with us or- or hell I'm sure Spotty would let ya crash at the Brooklyn Lodge if he shows up in ‘Hattan,” he spoke frantically into Jack’s hair, trying everything to reassure him that there was no way his father would get anywhere near him. Jack just shudder out something between a laugh and a sob.

“Spotty don’t let no one but Racer stay at the lodge,”

“Spotty ain’t gonna leave you on the streets Jackie,” David pulled back just a bit, ignoring the soft whine that came from Jack, “none of us will, for that matter. You’se family, Jackie, an’ family don’t let family suffer.”

Jack blinked at him, tears still flowing from his eyes. When he spoke it was broken and strained, “you’re too good to me, Dave-”

David cut him off, thumbing away his tears, “no- people just ain’t been good enough.”

Jack sniffled, leaning into his palm. “Can I…. shit, can I stay here? Just for tonight. I don’t.. I don’t wanna walk back alone…”

Davey managed a smile, hand still cupping his cheek, “Jackie, you can stay as long as you want.”

#Stari writes #Newsies #javid #canon era #newsies fic #gift exchange #i am so sorry i am so late

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deviliciousdev · 3 years

Text

MBTI✨One Letter's Difference, So Close yet So Far✨

intj (the architect)

intp (the logician)

new friends

(ft. intj x enfp dating)

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

[at intj's private office space]

intp: [feet on the desk throwing skittles up into the air and into their mouth]

intj: [enters from kitchenette with a cup of coffee. pushes intp's feet off of the desk, and goes over to blueprint sketch table]

intp: ahh!

intj: [not looking up from there work] there are skittles on the ground.

intp: oh yeah, poor lil guys. didn't make it. they're the failures...

intj: failures...?

intp: i was doing an experiment to see if one could catch something in their mouth without moving one's head. thusly primarily using only one's hand eye coordination and muscle memory. mostly because i have mastered the normal throw n catch candy game.

intj: [finally looking up] ... and... what did you conclude?

intp: that skittles are surprisingly bouncey on your tacky greyish green carpet. [putting feet back on the desk with a devilish grin] 😁

intj: 😑🙄 [rolls their eyes and keeps working] so, you know enfp and i have been a few dates now...

intp: do you have any juice?

intj: top self of the fridge in the kitchenette.

intp: [gets up and heads to the back] sorry what we're saying, dates enfp, what about it??

intj: enfp wants to set you up with one of their friends

intp: [from back area] me?? why??

intj: well they asked me about your social life...

intp: [coming back in with a juice box🧃] what'd ya tell em?

intj: the truth.

intp: oh... and??

intj: enfp said and i quote: "oh my god...that's so sad" and i said that's your preferred normal, to which enfp said "ok, that's even sadder... i should fix them up with one of my friends, i have some really cute friends they might hit it off with 😊"

intp: mmm... ner... not like any of words... just said... "fix up"... "hit- it- off"?? what does any of that even mean??

intj: i'm not sure, but enfp invited me and "my friends", so you and entp to meet them and their friends at that overpriced whiskey bar on 3rd street, saturday night.

intp: oh no no no no, that sounds like a lot of small talk with people i don't know or care about and having to push past whiskey drinking hipsters who talk about self aggrandizing pedantic quotes they saw on tumblr as if they were this century's greatest philosopher. so, noooo thank you, but you and entp have fun 👍 [plops back into desk chair]

intj: probably, but you're still going.

intp: [throws head back and huffs in a tantrum] ugh! nooooo... whyyyyy...??

intj: [stops working and puts a hand on their hip, holding pencil in hand leaning on sketch table] one. because if i have to go, you have to go. two. you owe me for getting you out of all of your parking tickets by offering to design the judge's new patio and pool area for free. and three... i've... gotten... use to enfp... and i... enjoy their physical attributes and... surprisingly... their company. all of which i intend to continue. [quickly looks back at work, and holds blue print up] so, if you meeting one of their attractive air head friends will aid in that continuation than that's what we're going to do.

intp: mmm... 😒... fine. [sips juice box in pout]

intj: good. now enfp has told me to ask you what your "type" is, to help with their "matchmaking".

intp: type?? i dunno know... [looks back and forth in confusion]... oh um... [snaps] villains.🤓

intj: [stops what they're doing]... villains...??

intp: yeah, i feel like i always have a crush on the villain of the movie or tv show... or video game. but not the grimy gross villains but the rich get-shit-done while saying something bitchy yet remaining classy kinda villains... like when there's scene with a hot villain character in expensive business/dress attire drinking champagne 🥂 while delivering a sassy line... i'm like mmmm... nice... 😏... [looks into distance with a little smile nodding]

intj: [camera looks]... great, i'll tell enfp... [scoffs into chuckle] villains... why do i get the sense you have a bunch of toxic exs...

intp: ok, i don't have that many exs, like 4ish... may be, i think... i delete any memory files attached to terminated associations.

intj: [tapping pencil on chin] and they're probably each a different type of toxic because you get bored easily. i bet if we dug into your past relationships, it'd be like who's who of human garbage and insane asylum patients. 🧐

intp: HOW DARE YOU. THAT IS SO... true.

intj: [laughing a little]

intp: yeah no it's like a horror movie that's set in a landfill, WHICH is why i don't do the whole relationship or dating thing anymore, well not that i've ever intended to do it, more that in the past i had fallen into the traps the horrors set for me in the landfill... but anyway now i stay away from the whole [motions hands in a chaotic fashion] ordeal. also because i absolutely HATE first dates and small talk... and i don't really understand flirting i mean i do in theory but less so in practical use and romantic game playing bores me 🙄😒... as do most people.🙂

intj: [nods] true. on the bright side maybe you'll be so awkward and robotic enfp will never try to set you up ever again. 😊

intp: well we can only hope. [lifts juice box in cheers and crosses legs on desk]

intj: [lets out laugh through their nose and heads towards the back. knocks intp's feet off of the desk as they walk past]

intp: ah!

intj: [from back area] pick up the skittles or i'll tell enfp... [leans into room] to set you up with the preppiest pseudoscience loving hipster they know.

intp: *gasp* 😱 you are ruthless. we're going to get along very well.

[both share an evil little grin] 😈😈

intp: can i have another juice box?

intj: apple or grape?

intp: apple please 😁

intj: you're coming over for a star trek movie marathon tonight right?

intp: but of course.

intj: sweet, i'll order pizza.

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thebibliomancer · 3 years

Text

Essential Avengers: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #7-9

November, 1984

BERSERKER!

The death of an Avenger! The X-Men’s greatest battle! And, introducing the all-new SPIDER-WOMAN!

The cover sure isn’t burying the lede. This comic sure does introduce an All-New (presumably All-Different) Spider-Woman! Jessica Drew, move over! For now. You’ll be the Spider-Woman that endures in the long run.

Last times on Secret Wars: Some amazingly powerful being from Beyond the universe called the Beyonder kidnaps a bunch of heroes, villains, shades thereof, and chunks of random planets to put on a big toy commercial where action figures can bonk off each other.

The X-Men ditched the other heroes to do their own thing, as they’re wont to do. The villains storm the hero base and drop a mountain on them. The heroes take refuge at a small village where Johnny Storm finds a new girlfriend but there’s also a Galactus.

Galactus starts preparing a device to eat Battleworld, which would let him win the toy commercial in one fell swoop.

Oh, and Wasp was kidnapped by Magneto, escaped, crashed her escape ship, found the Lizard, and then got lasered to death by the Wrecking Crew. It was a Bad Time and I am sad, even though we know Wasp will be okay by the time they get back from Battleworld.

This time: Further not burying the lede.

The cover promised a new Spider-Woman and dammit, here’s one right away, first page. Truth in advertising!

Spider-Woman herself wastes no time introducing herself to everyone, that she comes from a chunk of Denver that got raptured by the Beyonder (still want that miniseries), that she came to help when she saw evidence of super fighting, and that she can pick up and throw large rocks so clearly she’d be able to help.

Captain America is hesitant about all this and Spider-Woman assumes that he thinks she’s a spy but as Captain America points out, why would Doom need to mess around with spies when he’s got so much power at his disposal.

Spider-Man is also hesitant at this new character. For different reasons.

Spider-Man: “She tossed that boulder as easily as I could have... at least! I wonder if she sticks to walls, too! And I wonder if I can sue her for infringing on my shticks! I should have gotten a patent or trademark or something...”

Cap tries to settle on the argument that a Secret War is too dangerous but Spider-Woman has the exceptional point “I suspect that it’s no less dangerous for the spectators, Captain America -- I might as well pitch in!”

And then the obvious toy pitch vehicle that the Wrecking Crew was driving in the swamp yesterday drives through the village blowing shit up, restarting the fires that the heroes just put out, and most insultingly of all, throwing Wasp van Dyne’s dead deceased corpse out the hatch before driving off.

Those dicks.

The heroes rush to Wasp and take her to Zsaji. That cool lady tries to heal Wasp but Jan has no pulse and isn’t breathing and might be beyond Cura. This may take Phoenix Down.

But since she went and got herself disintegrated on the Moon, Wasp is clearly dead forever.

-Looks over at Avengers #243- Hush, you!

The assembled heroes want to rush Doombase and kick the shit out of the villains and specifically the Wrecking Crew but Captain America tells them no.

Captain America: “Now, listen to me -- ! While we’re off getting even, what if Galactus starts to use that world-eating machine he’s building up on that mountain? Then every living thing on this world -- including these innocent villagers and all those people from that suburb of Denver will die! We’ve got to stay right here, ready to attack him! We may have only seconds to react when it begins!”

She-Hulk storms off while the other heroes debate the Galactus situation.

I’m sure this is fine.

Meanwhile, on the more volcano-y side of the planet, Xavier orders Cyclops, Rogue, and Wolverine to pursue Doom’s Four villains Molecule Man, Titania, Absorbing Man, and Doctor Octopus to try to capture them before they can return to Doom.

Back over at Doombase, Titania sees that her “little Owie” has been badly hurt and begs Enchantress to help.

Volcana: “Enchantress! You’re a sorceress! You could use your magic to transport me to my Owen!”

Enchantress -busy getting drunk-: “Yes... but why would I, mortal?”

Volcana: “Well... because... because I need you to! I can’t fly a ship! I -- I don’t even have a driver’s license for a car! Ultron won’t help me -- ! He only takes orders from Doom!”

Enchantress: “It takes much energy to transport a body as bloated as yours! I cannot be bothered!”

Wow! You’re a dick!

Volcana catches a lot of fat jokes and she’s not depicted as looking any different from Standard Comic Book Body Type. But also, don’t fatshame at all, Enchantress.

Anyway, Volcana promises anything to Enchantress if she helps.

Enchantress: “Rash words, mortal wench... and later, you shall deeply regret them!”

Its very handy for the villains that Volcana just showed up because their airship almost immediately gets show down by the X-Men. So even with Molecule Man out of commission, their numbers are back to Doom’s Four. And Volcana calls dibs on beating up Wolverine.

The X-Men have numbers but they’re not doing super well. Professor X is on the scene trying to be the field leader but the chaos of the battle and the villains’ minds being blocked by Enchantress’ magic makes it hard for him to coordinate.

Magneto even gets smack-talked by Absorbing Man.

Absorbing Man: “Tell me, Magneto. What’s scum like you doin’ hangin’ around with the X-Men? Sure, they’re outlaws -- but I thought you was big time! You got mass murder raps, manslaughter, terrorism, what else? Probably everything! You’re one of us! On second thought, a creampuff like you belongs with them losers!”

I can’t believe Magneto has to take that from a man who constantly carries a large metal orb with him everywhere.

Wolverine manages to slice off Absorbing Man’s arm, although the guy was made of rock at the time so it wasn’t as gory as it could have been.

Absorbing Man just. Picks up his arm and runs off to hit someone with it.

Amazing.

The villains manage to pin down the heroes with some Volcana blast and then steal one of the X-Men’s ships and get away.

Professor X declares that this is Totally a victory.

Xavier: “We lost nothing, save one of our ships -- which matters little -- and we gained much! We coalesced as a fighting unit passing our greatest test to date and I think we proved ourselves -- beyond a doubt!”

Like, you had a scuffle with some villains that ended inconclusively even though you had the advantage of a sneak attack, the villains stole one of your ships, and there was no major damage to either side.

It was largely pointless. But I guess Xavier has a vested interest in declaring it a huge success since it was his inaugural go at being field commander.

Meanwhile, skulking around Galactus’ ship, DOOM complains about doing that.

Doom: “Doctor Doom - a burglar! Rummaging about in another being’s home, seeking to steal some priceless thing! Bah! What choice do I have? I need a key, a way -- ! My armor’s sensors have led me to prize after prize -- hundreds, thousands of devices which, in the hands of a man as brilliant as myself could provide power to conquer entire galaxies -- ! Yet, all of them combined are not enough to defeat Galactus -- let alone the Beyonder! There must be a way! Doom must be supreme!”

Unfortunately for Doom, despite the volcano distraction making Galactus sigh and have to spend time fixing the planet so he can eat it, he senses something amiss in his house and mentally yeets Doom back to Battleworld.

The villains return back to Doombase but Doctor Octopus can’t help Molecule Man because dammit he’s a nuclear physicist, not a medical doctor! Ultron tells Volcana that there are medical devices that could fix Molecule Man up nicely but since he doesn’t have any relevant orders from Doom, he’s just going to stand here and look pretty. And Enchantress says she could heal him with a wave of her hand but refuses to because Volcana already gave her a blank check.

Absorbing Man returns and reattaches his arm by basically hoping like hell it’ll just be better if he holds it in place when he reverts to skin flesh.

And the Wrecking Crew have to throw the Lizard into a cell because he hasn’t stopped trying to eat their faces for killing Wasp, his new best friend.

The Wrecking Crew doesn’t get a chance to enjoy being back at base because She-Hulk has broken in and beats the crap out of them off-screen.

Titania comes in and starts fighting She-Hulk STARTING AN ENDURING RIVALRY.

Its fun how much got its start in Secret Wars.

The two fight more or less evenly from what I can tell but uh Doctor Octopus joins in as does the Absorbing Man and the Wrecking Crew once they catch their breath.

And She-Hulk is strong but this is a stomp.

In another part of Doombase where the Enchantress is sitting in “sullen reverie” refusing to get involved in the fight she can here, instead thinking about how much she’s going to seduce the crap out of Thor.

Doom arrives at Himbase after being expelled from Galactus’ ship and refuses to explain anything to Enchantress. He just stumbles over to his sweet bed and collapses in it.

Doom: “It is over... Finished...”

Back over at Zsaji’s Village, the heroes realize that She-Hulk took off. Hawkeye figures that she went after the villains and asks to go after her.

Hawkeye: “She can’t take ‘em alone, Cap! She needs us!”

Huh! When the chips are down even though they fought, Clint and Jen sure are coworkers.

Hulk also asks to go after her since she’s his cousin. The acknowledgement of which is what I’ve been wanting all along.

But Cap tells them no.

Hulk: “I don’t suppose you’d consider putting it to a vote?”

Trying to appeal to his love of democracy. How wily.

Captain America: “My heart would vote ‘yes’ in a minute... Too many innocent lives are at stake here, though! Many more than the few people on this planet -- we’ve got a universe depending on what we do here! We can’t allow ourselves the luxury of making decisions with our hearts!”

But Cap receives a psychic skype from Professor X who tells him that the X-Men can take Galactus watching duty for a bit so run along and save your teammate, you scamp.

Cap accepts.

Its fun how the tide of battle has shifted back and forth.

Now the heroes are largely fresh, having been sitting on their ass staring at Galactus, and the villains are bloodied from several fights with the X-Men and She-Hulk. Plus, their big gun Molecule Man got Wolverine’d.

But next issue is something so big that it overshadows basically everything else in Secret Wars.

December, 1984

INVASION!

YEAH ITS VENOM

OR WILL BE

Also, a bunch of other stuff happens. The cover is kind of funny for maybe unintentionally presaging what would happen where the black costume being more remembered than everything else in Secret Wars in general but definitely this issue specifically.

There’s actually a lot of really cool stuff happening in this issue.

Cap(tain America)’s group of heroes storms Doom’s Doombase, lucking out that Doom is too stunned by being expelled from Galactus’ ship to attempt any kind of defense and nobody else on his team has the braincells to be watching out for an attack.

Enchantress hears the heroes breaking in but she’s well and truly drunk by this point.

And bemoans her secret god meeting with Thor. That she was going to try to cast a spell on him to bend him to her will but is aware that she might have flipped good for him instead. And even now wonders what she’ll do if Thor shows up in front of her.

The villains still beating She-Hulk to her death hear the heroes breaking into the base and run off to ambush them, Doc Ock slamming She-Hulk against some wreckage as a coup de grace.

Wrecker gets the jump on Iron Man and Doc Ock dumps a convenient tank of water on Human Torch but Spider-Man jumps in and drops Bulldozer with one punch before he can pulp an extinguished Johnny.

The Thing tries fighting Absorbing Man but wouldn’t you know it, the Thing’s thingness fades at the worst time again, leaving him powerless.

Spider-Woman jumps in to save him.

She didn’t get to really do much in her actual introductory issue, despite being on the cover and splash. She just kinda shows up and goes ‘i can definitely help!’

She makes a much better second impression this time. Almost like she’s aware that she needs to sell herself.

Spider-Woman: “A clean knockout -- ! Of the awesome Absorbing Man -- ! And it’s only the fifth time I’ve ever been in a fight! The new Spider-Woman wins again!”

Marvel really wants you to like this non-Jessica Drew.

Piledriver charges Hawkeye, mocking him for missing with his arrows and gloating that arrows are useless to a guy who’s immune to bullets.

Piledriver: “Hawkeye the Archer! Hah! Boy you gonna need Hawkeye the M.A.S.H. doctor in a minute -- ‘cause I reckon this good ol’ boy is gonna ‘mash’ you!”

Good one, Piledriver. Good banter.

Hawkeye: “Those shots were just warnings, dummy! I don’t want to have to hit you! From my bow, at this range, an arrow hits a lot harder than any bullet! Back off... please...”

We did learn in the Hawkeye mini that Hawkeye’s bow has a ridiculous draw strength.

This is a pretty good Hawkeye moment people don’t really point to a lot.

Also, I do love when an invincible or durable person who isn’t used to getting hurt gets hurt once and goes ‘NOPE! I DO NOT CARE FOR THIS!’

Hulk busts into Enchantress’ drinking room and unfortunately falls for her “I am but a helpless female!” routine. She gets all up in his business, magically puts him to sleep, and then pours herself another drink.

It could have been a good day for Enchantress if Captain America hadn’t come in right after.

Captain America: “What have you done to the Hulk?”

Enchantress: “For the moment, he is merely asleep. Doubtless dreaming dreams of me! But, alas, he can never truly have me, for I am yours, my handsome captain! Am I not beautiful? Come to me...”

Points for audacity but Captain America is a champion of not thinking with his dick. Blah blah willpower is legendary, socked Prometheus in the noggin. You get it.

Anyway, he socks Enchantress in the noggin with his shield and knocks her out.

Hawkeye and unthinged Ben try to find the rest of the heroes but run into Klaw and Lizard, who Klaw let out of his cell because he didn’t like to see anyone imprisoned but also because he liked the way Lizard talks. What an audiophile.

Ben Grimm: “Uh... any ideas, Hawk?”

Hawkeye: “Well... I guess we’ll have to outwit ‘em!”

Ben Grimm: “Us?!”

Hah.

Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, and Mr Fantastic find Volcana and Molecule Man.

Iron Man makes the dubious tactical decision to charge right into Volcana’s plasma burst and burns out his armor.

Mr Fantastic pulls him out of the way and the other heroes try to get through Molecule Man’s fused air molecules invisible shield. They fail until Captain Marvel just lightbeams right through it. Because its transparent.

Love it. Love that her power works like that. Because it should.

Captain Marvel grabbing Molecule Man pulls open his Wolverine wounds and he passes out. Volcana surrenders to spare her boyfriend more pain.

Not that Monica intended that or knew he was wounded. This is still early Monica before Nextwave hardened her outlook. This is the Monica who was horrified when Blackout and Moonstone got pulled through a singularity.

Titania tried to drop a forty-ton beam on the heroes’ heads but is interrupted by Spider-Man thanks to his spectacular spider-sense.

She out-muscles him by a lot but she can’t actually lay a hit on him because he’s got superior spider agility. Maybe if she had more experience it’d be different but she’s basically in the angry flailing stage of her skill tree so far.

Spidey brags “With a little room to operate, no one can lay a glove on me -- not the X-Men, not the Absorbing Man, and not you!”

Titania: “When I get you I’ll -- AGGH!”

Spider-Man: “All you’re going to get is frustrated... and, eventually, trashed!”

Titania: “No! It’s not fair! *UHH!*”

Spider-Man: “But, if we were fighting in a broom closet, that’d be fair, right?”

Titania: “Stop it! Stop it! Stop -- !”

Spider-Man: “You ought to be happy, cuddles! You aspired to be a bully, and, man, you’re a classic! You talk tough and nasty when you’ve got the upper hand -- but when you’re losing -- well, that’s when the whining little wimp-ette inside comes spilling out!”

And then he defenestrates her without a window.

Fun fact: she apparently developed a Spider-Man phobia from this.

Understandably.

Y’know, in terms of embarrassing and traumatizing people, Spider-Man is having a good run in this story.

Captain American and Human Torch find a passed out Piledriver who fainted from blood loss after staggering away. And they find Ultron, standing between them and Doom.

Ultron is an Avengers-tier stomper who takes down entire teams and there’s just two heroes who coincidentally were both portrayed by Chris Evans. And the Human Torch’s fire is ineffective as Ultron gloats.

Ultron: “The core of the hottest star could not melt my adamantium body, human! Nothing can harm me! I am invincible! I am mechanically precise and computer-swift! I am perfect!”

When Ultron grapples Human Torch and starts throttling him, Cap tells him to use his nova-flame. Then hides behind his shield.

The flame melts a good portion of the room and the air being superheated somehow doesn’t make Cap crispy. And when the nova flare of the nova flame fades, Ultron’s chassis is still intact.

But the heat damaged something inside and Ultron is down. Johnny is also down, spent from the nova.

I like that the Fantastic Four would have their own way to deal with Ultron should that ever come up. Has it? You’d think it would.

Captain America proceeds to Doom alone but Doom is non-responsive from being Galactus’d.

And Reed, Spider-Man, and Hulk finds Hawkeye and Ben Grimm, where they have outwitted Klaw and Lizard.

Lizard: “Disssturb our gamess-s and the Lizard will dessstroy you! Once we finissh, we will do as you s-ssay!”

Well, whatever works!

With the fighting done, Captain Marvel finds She-Hulk, barely alive. The heroes jam her into a healing tube saving her in the nick of time.

The heroes also jam the villains into healing tubes because they’re heroes and are nice like that.

Considering the heroes were fighting to take prisoners and the villains very much weren’t, it’s lucky that the heroes won the majority of conflicts and got away from the one they didn’t.

The villains that didn’t need bacta treatments - or whatever is in those tubes - got shoved into cells. Also, Doom, because he might need the healing juice but it would require peeling him out of his armor and its probably booby-trapped.

Hawkeye and Captain Marvel return to the village to bring Wasp’s body to DoomHerobase for a funeral but they’re in for a surprise.

It turns out that Zsaji WAS able to heal Wasp who wasn’t dead just in a laser-induced death-like stasis. AS YA DO. It nearly killed Zsaji to bring Wasp back from such grievous injuries.

Colossus learns this by getting into her exposition drugs while she’s passed out and mind-melding with her.

Of course, it just makes the big lug fall deeper in love with her.

The important takeaway is that Wasp is alive. Just like we knew that she would be. The universe has been set right.

Over at Herobase, Reed Richards fixes the Iron Man armor after Rhodey got it a little melted.

Iron Man, James Rhodes: “I’m curious... were you surprised there was a black man under the metal?”

Reed Richards: “Hmm... No, I never gave it a thought! I knew there was a man under there...”

Its a nice exchange.

Its kinda ruined retroactively by Illuminati revealing that Reed knew Tony was Iron Man and would have known about Tony having to step down due to his alcoholism and likely knew about Rhodey taking over.

Dammit, Illuminati!

Elsewhere in the base, Spider-Man spots Hulk and Thor coming out of a room with Thor sporting a brand new cape and helmet. They tell Spidey that there’s a device in there that will make any clothes you want.

Except Spider-Man doesn’t bother asking which device and they don’t bother specifying so Spidey just picks the likeliest one and gets a black glob.

An important black glob.

To eventually be revealed to be an alien goo symbiote and later eventually tied to a dark god that predates the universe.

But for right now, its a way to incorporate a new costume design that a fan submitted. And Spider-Man handwaves it not looking like his old costume by assuming he was thinking of the new Spider-Woman.

So that’s how it is, Pete? She ‘ripped’ you off so you’re gonna rip her off?

You know whats really funny?

A month before this came out, in Spider-Man’s own book, he had learned that the costume was a living symbiote and had gotten rid of it.

It be like that with Secret Wars but its still funny that we’re finally seeing him get the costume just as he’s getting rid of it.

Anyway, Spider-Man’s new costume buzz is interrupted by the planet shaking and someone yelling in his brain.

Professor X: “CAPTAIN AMERICA! COME AT ONCE! IT HAS BEGUN! GALACTUS IS DEVOURING THE PLANET!”

It’s nice that the crises are waiting their turn.

January, 1985

ASSAULT ON GALACTUS!

The issue titles for this story are all so excited.

The X-Men were left on Galactus watching duty so when the big lug starts trying to eat the planet, the X-Men charge in to attack him.

Hm.

Y’know, I sometimes wonder what iconic storylines would have been like if a different set of characters handled it. This used to be great What If fodder. I know there was one where the Avengers tackled Galactus’ first appearance. And because it was the tone of What If at the time to viciously shoot down any divergence of the 616 timeline, THINGS WENT HORRIBLY WRONG.

Think of it like the Turn Left episode of Doctor Who.

POINT BEING, I wonder how the X-Men would have handled Galactus’ first appearance. Of course, this would be the O5 roster so they’d have their work cut out for them.

Heck, even with Storm on the team, the X-Men are over their heads with Galactus.

She hits him with two massive lightning bolts and Galactus keeps working like he didn’t even notice.

The X-Men seem to realize how out of their depth they are (especially sans Phoenixes, their usual Galactus-fighting go-to) but at Professor Xavier’s command they charge in anyway.

Galactus sends out a defensive drone so he can continue not paying the X-Men any mind and the mutants find themselves completely bogged down in fighting the drone while Galactus does his thing.

And from Zsaji’s sweet village, Captain Marvel, Wasp, and Hawkeye see a massive explosion where the X-Men were.

I guess they’re totally dead forever.

Wasp: “Should we head up there now?”

Hawkeye: “No! We’d better wait for Cap... and strike as a unit!”

Hah.

Its the expression, really. Like Hawkeye thinking to himself ‘oh I want no part of that.’

The non-X-Men assemble at Herobase to rush to the fight.

Mr. Fantastic: “Hurry! No telling how long the X-Men can hold out!”

Spider-Man: “Yeah! Where’s the rest of the alphabet when you need it?”

HAH!

Oh, Spider-Man, you are a delight.

In the airship over, Thor notices that Hulk looks glum and tries to cheer him up.

Thor: “If ‘tis that you do not fit in these chairs that depresses you, count yourself fortunate! They were made, I think, for insect men... or by trolls, for torture! If ‘tis the impending battle troubling thee -- just think! What greater chance for glory has man or god e’er known? More even than Ragnarok, this is the battle I was born millennia ago to fight! You, too, are a warrior born, Hulk! A taste of battle and the berserker battle-lust shall rise in thy soul!”

Hulk: “I doubt it! I lost that when I gained the intelligence of my human side -- Bruce Banner! And now I’m slowly losing that, too! I’m not savage enough... or smart enough to be a relevant factor!”

Well, You Tried, Thor.

Johnny Torch is trying to cheer up Ben Grimm who is as grim as his name over his powers popping in and out as they please.

And then the rocks pop back on just as Ben is dramatically bemoaning that he can’t control them.

The Thing: “Whoopie! I’m the Thing again! I’m so happy, I even like you!”

Human Torch: “Yeow! You lummox! Put me down! Jeez, I can see the headlines -- ‘affectionate hug slays Human Torch en route to battle -- universe destroyed as a result’!’“

This book has some decent lines.

Iron Man ogles Spider-Woman under the pretense of not trusting her but then goes a little ‘I’ll show them all!’

Iron Man: “A lot of guys have worked with Iron Man before -- but that was when Tony Stark was in this suit! I think they’ve started to realize there’s a different guy in here, now... an’ they got their doubts! They’re keepin’ their distance -- don’t quite trust me yet! Don’t matter! As long as I got this armor, I’m one ba-ad dude -- especially since Richards souped it up! As soon as that fight starts, I’ll show ‘em -- show ‘em I’m Iron Man! The real Iron Man! James Rhodes is Iron Man -- now and forever!”

Rhodey pls.

Also meanwhile, because this is a long flight, Spider-Man starts hopping all around the interior of the airship overexcited because he’s just discovered that the totally benign goo suit he got has webshooters!

And he squirts Johnny in the face to prove it because that’s just how Spider-Man is sometimes.

Johnny complains that this webbing is even harder to burn than his old stuff which will turn itself into a bit of a plot hole down the line when its revealed that symbiotes are weak to fire.

Whoops.

Its fine though. Pre-modern Venom has always had sloppy writing around it.

He also demonstrates the goo suit’s ability to change shape.

I can’t believe that Marvel were cowards and never had Peter go around in the Summer Variant suit.

Reed lets himself go down a melancholic musing rabbit hole and starts poking holes in the story logic.

Mr. Fantastic: “At face value, the whole thing is absurd! Why would a being so far removed from us and so powerful as the Beyonder bring us across the universe for a stupid, simplistic ‘good-versus-evil’ gladiatorial contest? Is he a mad god? A cosmic idiot? And why us? Why this odd collection of beings, mostly from Earth? And why Galactus? He doesn’t fit! Human beings and even gods may be tempted, but Galactus is a force of nature -- no more capable of having enemies than a hurricane or an earthquake! Why is he here? There must be more to this... but what possible purpose could there be?”

Credit where its due, these are things I’ve been wondering!

But Reed is so busy pondering this that he runs the airship into the energy discharge from Galactus’ machine and crashes the ship on top of Colossus.

Smooth move, absent minded professor.

With only seconds before the world starts to burn, the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and assorted leap into battle against Galactus.

Iron Man manages to get past Galactus’ defense drones and punch his world eating engine, thanks to the upgrades done to the armor.

But now that they’re being successful, Reed interjects and tells them to stop winning so hard. Yes, really.

Mr. Fantastic: “Ben, we can’t go through with this! At last I see a purpose here -- a meaning to the universe for this insane conflict! WE MUST NOT STOP GALACTUS!’

Then Galactus effortlessly blasts the heroes away.

Which, if nothing else, gives Reed a chance to catch his breath to EXPOSIT MORE.

Mr. Fantastic: “For the first time this whole thing makes seom sense to me! I see a possible purpose in it! This is a chance to rid our universe of the threat of Galactus! All we have to do is let him win this contest! If the Beyonder indeed, grants hsi wish, he’ll be freed of his planet-consuming hunger at long last!”

The Thing: “And if the Beyonder reneges?”

Mr. Fantastic: “Re-energized by consuming this world, Galactuc will attack -- I know it! And force the Beyonder to pay up -- or be destroyed in the attempt. Any way you look at it... the universe wins! Countless billions who would have eventually fallen prey to Galactus -- will live in peace!”

Spider-Man: “Yeah, but why us? Why were we picked to decide the fate of the universe?”

Mr. Fantastic: “Why not us? We picked ourselves, remember? Besides... we beings of Earth seem to have a knack for being pivotal in the cosmic scheme of things.”

Reed, some offense but you’re the last person who should be speaking on this.

Galactus is only alive now because you had a hunch that he had some Big Important Role in the cosmic order and saved his life.

You may remember that because THE ENTIRETY OF SPACE PUT YOU ON TRIAL FOR IT.

Turning around on that because now you have a different hunch that everything will be a-okay if the Beyonder kills Galactus, is just such a classic Reed move.

Anyway, the discussion ends because Galactus raptures Reed and the entire mountaintop his machine was sitting on.

Since the suspects of Reed rapturing were Galactus or the Beyonder, its not very surprising that its Galactus forcibly inviting Reed up to his solar-system sized apartment.

What, you thought that the Beyonder would be more present in this story that it initiated? Fool.

Anyway, Galactus wants to have a friendly talk at Reed. Because Galactus is one of the few people that can talk down at Reed and he just has to sit tight and listen.

Meanwhile, over at the former Doombase, locked in a Doomcell, its Doom. Still in his catatonia OR IS IT?

Doom: “THE WORLD SHIP IS THE WAY! Galactus’s home itself is the way I seek! At last, I see!”

He activates the get-out-of-jail-free button hidden in his ankle which activates a point-singularity power supply that busts the door off his cell.

He ignores all of the other imprisoned villains to free Klaw.

Doom: “You, yourself, Klaw, are a ‘recording’ of sorts, due to the time you spent as a wave of vibratory energy coursing through the walls of Galactus’s homeworld! Come with me!”

Klaw: “Where to? Toodle-oo, toodle-oo!”

Doom: “To the lab! I’m going to dissect you!”

Klaw: “Oh, good!”

If it were anyone else that would read as sarcastic.

Its also revealed that Doom talks to himself because he is constantly recording.

Doom: “Every utterance of Doom must be recorded for posterity!”

How on-brand.

Meanwhile, back over at where the fight was, Cyclops OPTIC BLASTS out of the hole Magneto buried the X-Men in to save them from Galactus’ exploding drone.

Good job, Magneto.

Buuut. The fight is over so the X-Men just vaguely wander over to Zsaji’s village to catch up with Captain America’s group.

Zsaji wakes up from her Wasp-healing coma and runs over... right past Colossus to embrace Johnny. To make Colossus sad in the background.

But Johnny is too worried about Reed being raptured to make out with his new space girlfriend right now.

The heroes debate what to do.

Cap(tain America) wants to just stand ready until Galactus comes back and Cap(tain Marvel) suggests finding some spaceships at former Doombase and mounting an assault on Galactus’ imagination-ruiningly huge homeship.

The Thing offers the daring option of ‘hey Reed said not to fight Galactus and dangit what Reed says goes!’

He’s as bad as the Inhumans, I swear.

Reed reappears right about when Iron Man and the Thing are about to come to blows over the ‘do whatever Reed says’ plan.

The Thing: “Stretch! What happened?”

Mr. Fantastic: “Not much! We had tea...”

NOW I KNOW that Galactus likely has some robot servant or device that makes tea for him. But I can’t get the image out of my head of Galactus holding a tiny teapot and serving Reed tea.

How dare this comic cut away and let that happen off-panel!

Anyway, their big OFF-PANEL talk?

Mr. Fantastic: “He told me that I was a ‘force of the universe’ just as he is -- ! That I’m a ‘universal champion of life’ just as he is an instrument of death!”

Now. Nooooow. Champion slash Avatar of Life is a legitimate thing in Marvel, once filled by, uh, Captain Marvel. The Kree guy version. So the position is open.

I just find it easier to believe that Galactus was saying random nonsense to try to befuddle Reed into doing what Galactus wants rather than it being official.

The Avatar of Life page on marvel wiki doesn’t seem to credit it. It only has two versions of Adam Warlock, Drax, and Cancerverse Mar-Vell.

Anyway.

Mr. Fantastic: “I don’t what to say! I’m more convinced than ever that it’s right to let Galactus do what he must! And if I’m a ‘Champion of Life’ does it not make sense to allow Galactus to slay us so that countless billions will live? Or was he telling me that I must fight to serve even these relatively few lives here? I just don’t know...”

Yeeeeah. More convinced than ever that Galactus was filling Reed’s brain with cognitive chaff so to speak.

But Ben “Thing” Grimm is like ‘hey if Reed tells me I gotta die for the good of the universe then I’m ready to die so we’re not fighting unless Reed says so.’

Hawkeye: “This is a real crock! We’ve got to fight! Quitters! Cowards!”

I rarely say this but I think Hawkeye has a point.

Anyway, Galactus reappears the mountaintop, his machine, and himself to get back to snacking on the planet.

Far be it from me to tell Galactus how to ‘mortals are beneath my notice’ but maybe he’d get better results relocating his machine to the other side of the planet. Get some element of surprise, a head start.

No? Fine.

Captain America: “All right, listen up! I’m going to fight! The rest of you come or not as your conscience dictates!”

Wasp: “We’re with you, Cap!”

Captain America: “Good! But first... I just want to tell you, Professor Xavier, that despite our differences, you and your people did us -- and the universe, as far as I’m concerned -- a great service, earlier!”

Professor Xavier: “It was an honor!”

Captain America: “I hope you, the X-Men... and Magneto will come and fight side by side with us now! No one here will deny you’ve earned that much!”

Think about all the grief that could have been saved if people were willing to give Magneto the benefit of the doubt at the beginning of the story! Womp womp!

Meanwhile at Doombase (because the heroes are all off doing stuff and when the heroes are away Doom gets his base back), Doom observes the battle against Galactus starting AND that the Beyonder has cracked open his portal to watch the fight.

But more importantly, Doom cut Klaw into slices.

Back over at the heroes fighting Galactus, the heroes are fighting Galactus.

As in, directly. No drones.

Its a sign that they’re making some sort of progress.

He’s still batting them around like leaves in the wind.

But the Terrific Three show up to actually help.

Mr. Fantastic: “Galactus used enormous amounts of energy transporting his homeworld here -- and I’m sure he hasn’t fed for months! His power is almost depleted! We can take him!”

Captain America: “Richards, I -- I’m glad you’re here -- but what made you change your mind?”

Mr. Fantastic: “I... thought about what Galactus said -- and I’m still not certain that, in the cosmic scheme of things, what we’re doing is right -- but I realized just how badly I want to see my baby born, Cap! I want that more than anything -- ! And I’m going to fight for it!”

Aww.

He’s going to be waiting a long time for that baby though.

Not because of comic book time but because of intense drama reasons.

The heroes manage to reach the top of the mountain and start trashing Galactus’ machine despite Reed insisting that they ignore it and prevent Galactus from escaping.

And Galactus just animation-cell-slides-up ‘I must return to my homeworld’ style.

And as Reed explains how badly they done fucked up, Galactus takes a last look around his homeworld/spaceship. Because he doesn’t need his machine to eat planets. It just makes the process more efficient. So if the heroes are going to be annoying about him eating Battleworld, he’s just going to eat his own dang home!

Mr. Fantastic: “He’s devouring his own living world -- perhaps the greatest energy source in the universe! Moments after he’s finished, this godforsaken planet will be next! We won’t be able to stop him this time! Then he’ll probably consume the sun too! He’ll want every iota of energy available in case he must do battle with the Beyonder! We’re dead men!”

Wow. Is that the most kirby krackle we’ve ever seen?

But as Galactus converts his home into POWER COSMIC, Doom is ready with his own plan to steal that power, aided by a series of lenses he’s turned Klaw into.

As ya do?

You’ll have to tune in to the last quarter of Secret Wars to see if Doom succeeds in doing that thing that he always tries to do.

My thought is: maybe.

Follow @essential-avengers for the good job I’m doing with these Secret Warses. Like and reblog maybe.

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letsgivethisonemoreshot · 3 years

Text

Real Good Man

Word Count: 1,470

Warnings: Not really much.

Summary: Another song fic. This one to the tune of "Real Good Man" by Tim McGraw. Starring Elias playing in a road side dive bar.

Billie, Peyton, and Elizabeth walked into the little dive bar just after sunset. It was a place that people would go for drinks after work, or grab a burger and catch up with friends. Most nights there as live local music. This Saturday night was no different. A bunch of people, all seemingly knowing each other, crowded around blowing off some steam from the work week. Whoever was playing tonight wasn't there yet so they just had music flowing through the speakers.

Girl, you've never known no one like me,

Up there in your high society,

They might tell you I'm no good,

But girl they need to understand,

Just who I am.

I may be a real bad boy,

But baby I'm a real good man.

The girls had found a small unoccupied table. Elizabeth hurried over to it quickly and sat down before someone else could get it. Peyton sat down slowly while Billie ran her fingers along the top of the table cringing at whatever the sticky substance was that she was feeling.

"What?" Elizabeth asked, seeing her face.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just a little something on the table here." Billie replied, trying to settle back into a normal facial expression. "Maybe we should try and find another one."

"This is the only one that was open. Besides, they're probably all like that. We'll get it cleaned off." Elizabeth replied.

"Even more of a reason why we should leave." Peyton emphasized.

"Guys, it's really busy in here tonight and there's only one girl working. We probably grabbed this right after other people got up and they didn't get a chance to wipe it down yet." Elizabeth tried to ease their minds.

"Right. Like that dirty rag they'd use would actually clean anything off anyway." Peyton rolled her eyes as Billie slowly sat down. "Note to self, don't let Liz pick for ladies night anymore."

"Come on, relax! Let's just get a drink and some wings and have fun!"

Funny how this place was beneath her fancy friends now. However, when they were in high school and this place didn't bat an eye at their fake ID's they'd be in here any chance they got.

"It'll be just like old times."

"What? You mean Billie's going to throw up in the back of a taxi cab on the way home and my phone will get lost forever?"

Billie laughed at Peyton's joke, but I knew she was partially serious. Billie may have been trying, but Peyton wasn't hiding her displeasure at all. I rolled my eyes and looked around for the one poor girl working to see if I could get some water to at least get the table cleaned off. Maybe that would calm them down.

"Ah, now I think I know why Liz drug us out to this crap shack." Billie commented as she looked towards the stage.

Elizabeth and Peyton shifted their eyes to the small stage. The musician had arrived and set his guitar down next to the stool. He was in jeans and boots, the same as just about everyone else in there. Some old worn rock shirt with the sleeves cut off accenting his sculpted arms. He had some bandannas everywhere except on his long brown hair. His hair somewhat flowed into the long beard he had.

I may drink too much and play too loud,

Hang out with a rough and rowdy crowd,

That don't mean I don't respect,

My mama or my Uncle Sam,

Yes sir, yes ma'am,

I may be a real bad boy,

But baby I'm a real good man.

The singer sat atop the stool and rested his acoustic guitar in his lap. He looked in the direction of Elizabeth's table and winked. Elizabeth blushed and a little smile appeared across her lips as he began adjusting the microphone in front of him so he could speak into it.

"Hello I am Elias. Thank you all for coming out tonight. Just as soon as I get Lizzy here all tuned up, we'll be ready to go and hopefully we'll all have a real good time tonight."

Elizabeth didn't take her eyes off of the man on the stage, so she didn't notice the looks Billie and Peyton were exchanging with each other.

"Oh no. No no no. Liz don't tell us you still have a thing for that guy?" Peyton asked.

Elizabeth blushed again. She couldn't deny it. One night she was here and Elias had been playing that night. He hung around after for a few drinks and the two ended up talking. They exchanged numbers by the end of the night. Had talked a lot. She told her friends about him a few months back, and they were disappointed in her taste in men. They thought she could do so much better, so she kept it a secret from them that they had seen each other a few times.

"So what if she does? She's just a little attracted to the bad boy from the other side of the tracks. It's kind of cute." Billie defended.

"Oh yeah, real cute that our Liz could be a groupie for some no name who looks like he hasn't bathed in a week.”

"No one said anything about her being a groupie! It's not like she actually slept with him." Billie stated confidently.

"Oh no?"

"Of course not! She'd have told us!"

“He named the guitar Lizzy!”

“Coincidence? Besides, if she already slept with him I doubt he’d be looking over here giving her those puppy dog eyes. He’d have moved on by now.”

Elizabeth sat and watched her friends as they argued about her life, not giving her any room to input. So she focused her attention back to Elias, biting her lip as she watched him study his guitar. Expertly moving his fingers along the strings and thinking back to their last date.

I might have a reckless streak,

At least a country mile wide,

If you're gonna run with me,

It's gonna be a wild ride,

When it comes to lovin' you,

I've got velvet hands,

I'll show you how a real bad boy,

Can be a real good man.

After finishing up with his guitar, Elias spoke again.

"Alright, now that I'm done with her, I'm gonna head over to the bar and get a drink or three and then we can get this show started! I'll also be taking some requests tonight. Just keep in mind, if they're dirty songs," He paused. "I'm more likely to play 'em."

He winked and stood up as some people in the audience laughed along as they enjoyed their drinks. He set his guitar down and walked over to the bar.

"Ugh. Some people just never grow up." Peyton commented while rolling her eyes.

"You know Liz, it's really not nice of you to come here and tease the poor guy. He's going to get his hopes up thinking he can get someone like you." Billie said to her friend.

"She's right. You don't have to crush two of his dreams in one night."

"Two?" Elizabeth question.

"Well Lord knows his music career isn't going anywhere."

Elias walked across the room back to the stage with a beer bottle in his hand. Finally the waitress had made their way over to their table. She set down some fruity looking drink in front of Elizabeth.

"What can I get you ladies?" She asked in a friendly tone.

"Um, we didn't order this." Billie stated as she pointed at the drink.

"I know. It's from the musician on the stage. He said it was her favorite." She said with a smile.

Elizabeth smiled in return before taking a sip.

"But, how did he know?" Peyton whispered to herself.

The guitar strum startled the girls,and Payton and Billie looked at each other.

"What else can I get you ladies?"

"Hunny, could you give us a minute?" Peyton asked as she looked up at the confused waitress.

She said sure as she stepped back. Elizabeth gave her an apologetic look as she walked away. Both girls looked at Elizabeth, knowing what they wanted to ask but not able to find the words. Elizabeth wasn't sure how the rest of this night would go down after everything that had been said, but at some point she still wanted to formally introduce her oldest friends to her boyfriend.

I'll take all the good times I can get,

I'm too young for growing up just yet,

Ain't much I can promise you,

Except to do the best I can,

I'll be damned,

I may be a real bad boy,

But baby I'm a real good man.

I may be a real bad boy,

Oh but baby I'm a real good man.

Yes I am.

#elias wwe #elias one shot #elisa imagine #elias fanfic #wwe fanfiction #song fic #elias #hello i am elias

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echo-three-one · 3 years

Text

Chapter 24

I should really put effort on summaries, right? Anyways... Enjoy! ❤️

Table of Contents

Going Dark - Part 3

Gary "Roach" Sanderson

MacTavish Residence, Glasgow, Scotland

Roach never would have guessed that MacTavish was a big time. Their 'old' house was already a mansion, complete with guest rooms, extravagant furniture and even an outdoor pool. Roach could stay here forever.

He was laying on a queen sized bed relaxing after a tiring chase earlier when Ghost knocked on his door and let himself in.

"What's wrong mate?" he asked, lifting only his head. Ghost leaned by the door and crossed his arms.

"You know how I got into a little argument with France back in Brazil right? Well, I still regret it ever happening…" he frowned, as shown by the way the fabric of his mask twitched.

"You regret which part? The fighting or the telling her what you feel?" Gary asked, cornering the ever vague Simon. He always does that when it comes to asking for advice.

Ghost ran a hand across his face and groaned.

"Bloody Hell, mate. Why do you have to ask those kinds of things?" he complained.

"So I could be clear as to which one I should recommend you to do." He replied quickly. He was very willing to help, but if Simon refuses to cooperate, then maybe he could handle it on his own.

"There's still one thing… I've been meeting with Alexandra not just for intel… " the tone of his voice was hesitant but he took a sharp inhale and continued.

"... we've also been sleeping together. No strings attached. For her it eases her tension from all the work while I try to forget about my feelings for Francine."

Gary didn't know what to say. Simon wasn't the kind of person to give up easily, and he fully understood the reasons for his latest actions.

"Well, it looks like Francine already made her choice, right?" Gary asked, trying to confirm from Simon that he already lost the battle.

"I'm not quite sure. Everytime I see her, she's physically distancing herself from Soap but later that night, they actually slept beside each other. She's making me confused and it still makes my heart beat for her…" Ghost admitted. As tough as he is on the battlefield, so was his admiration toward Francine. Gary pondered on how to help out his friend in this love triangle situation he caught himself in, but every direction he thought of would result in Ghost actually ending up sad.

The discussion was interrupted when a plane was heard from the distance, as it approached the nearby open area. It looked like the girls made it home.

"Looks like they're here." Roach sounded excited while Ghost looked worried.

It was impressive how they managed to bring most of their stuff from Brazil here in Scotland. It wasn't that much but the idea of packing things for six people in a hurry made Roach impressed.

"How did you bring most of this stuff?" Roach curiously asked Maxine as he helped her carry her stuff.

"Well, Samantha asked for help from his Dad and they immediately flew to Brazil." Maxine replied cheerfully, Roach loved how she managed to see the bright side of everything amidst the panic.

"So will Samantha-"

"No. They had a long talk with his Dad and she felt much safer back here with us. Her Dad wanted to offer help now that the New York Attack was over, but Samantha insisted, especially now that they're out hiding."

"Doesn't he have the power to like, pardon us for being wanted? That would make life much more easier for us."

"I thought of that too… but they're seeing Shepherd differently now. He's gone mad. And they want to corner him. Any action involving him may result in a global cripple. And I just heard all this on the plane ride here." Maxine frowned.

"Then that makes our job of locating him all worth it." Roach smiled giving hope to Maxine.

Maxine just nodded, her face was full of fear and doubt. She just wished all of this was over.

With Soap probably asleep, Roach had the liberty of touring the girls around the house, it was huge and spacious that each of them could occupy a room with about two more rooms to spare.

"Man, I could stay here forever." Roach mused as they walked the halls of the second floor. These four rooms are already occupied, most of the empty rooms are over there…" Gary pointed to the other end of the hall. Maxine looked at France and nodded as they both agreed to stay in one room.

"What about you, Miss Samantha?" Gary asked with sophistication, imitating a butler. Samantha giggled and blushed.

"I'll actually be sleeping with Alex, thanks Mr. Sanderson." she replied, playing along with Roach's role play. For a short moment, Roach felt relaxed. He hasn't felt like this for a while and it was too overwhelming. But while the enemies hid in the shadows, he was sure the team would be up for a tough fight anytime soon.

Despite being tired, Roach couldn't sleep. He felt that there was something or someone else he needed to consult. So, he decided to get up and get himself a glass of water down the kitchen. While he could hear himself gulping down a glass of water, he could also hear faint thumping from the basement. With high alert, he began descending down the stairs to investigate the source of the sound.

It was Simon. He was still up and doing sparring rounds with a red punching bag, each of his punches sent the bag swinging violently.

"You okay?" Gary finally asked, alerting Simon of his presence.

"Can't sleep." he said nonchalantly, giving the punching bag another mighty punch. Roach took a minute to admire the huge gym Soap had, each piece of equipment probably spent a fortune. He slowly paced to the small area filled with equipment and grabbed himself some boxing mitts and a protective helmet.

"So, why don't we resume our little talk?" Gary called as he presented himself to Simon on full boxing coach gear. Simon immediately positioned himself and Gary did the same as they began training with the intention of talking it out.

Simon's punches were heavy, Roach could feel a little emotion on each hit he made and it was starting to make him unstable.

"So, anything you'd want to discuss?" Roach initiated, his hands carefully met his punches as they circled around the area.

"I've been trying to ignore her, Gary. You see me try right? But the more I don't think of her, the more excited I get when I accidentally see her. It's frustrating." He explained in between his punches. There it was, the thing bothering him the most.

"What did she say back in Brazil? She probably said something that kept you from moving on. I can't think of anything else that might cause you to feel this way, unless you're lying." Roach tilted his head so he could see Simon's reaction. His punches stopped coming and he just stood there, his hands dropped to his sides.

"She… she didn't say anything… but she distances herself to John while I'm around."

"John MacTavish or John Price?" Gary interrupted, in an attempt to brighten up the mood, but instead all he got was Simon's 'are-you-kidding-me-right-now?' look.

"But when I'm not around, she finds time to see him…" Simon continued. Gary took off his gloves and tapped his shoulder.

"She… she was being considerate." Simon concluded. It looked like Gary did his job. He could feel Simon's shoulders relax upon realizing what was actually going on.

"Despite all that… she sacrificed a little just to not hurt you." Gary added, he had no intention of making Simon guilty but now that he realized it, he was making an impact toward the relationship that was blooming between Soap and France.

"Thanks, Gary. For being a great friend…" Ghost took off his gloves and walked out of the gym.

"... and the worst therapist." He joked with a grin as he walked up the stairs and left Gary in the gym.

"I hope you find your peace, Simon." Gary muttered.

The following morning, the team was already busy walking around the house. Soap was on the phone with a long list of things the girls ordered for their restock. It was planned that for the time being, the team was to stay in the MacTavish residence while Nero and Shepherd were off the grid.

Price and Jack started their own little command center inside Soap's father's office just by the living room. They began creating connections to their closest contacts to track activity from their enemies. Ghost seemed to be not around at the moment and Gary guessed he's still asleep.

Soap nodded a greeting to Roach as he walked by him on his way to the kitchen. Maxine and France were out opening drawers and anything in the pantry to clear up space for supplies. From the kitchen window, Gary spotted Samantha, Alex and Nikolai in front of a truck. Gary overheard that Nikolai wanted to go back home and he guessed today was the day he'd do so.

"I didn't know what kind of sugar you needed so I kinda ordered a bunch of em." Soap announced to the sisters and they laughed.

"The clerk kept asking me of brown, white, confectioners and some other and honestly I don't know which." he shrugged and scratched his head.

"Hey man, I was just wondering… why did you choose the risky life? When you had everything you ever needed here?" Gary asked the question that has been bothering him since he got here.

"I dunno Roach. It's just that I knew it was calling out to me… You also sound like my Mum when I told her I'm joining the force." he chuckled. Gary just nodded but still didn't understand his logic. But he dismissed the thought as soon as Maxine and France asked for his help reaching something by the cabinets.

The rest of the day was busy. Once supplies arrived, everyone else was preoccupied. Lifting boxes, arranging items, looking for intel. It was like they made their own 141 base inside the house.

By the time they're almost free, Roach and Maxine were already in the kitchen preparing for dinner.

"So, any new dreams lately?" Roach initiated as he sliced through the vegetables they're cooking.

"Piece by piece. Last night I remembered having gum stuck on my hair on picture day. I cried a lot." she giggled. Roach smiled, he was glad she's getting her memories back which made him remember of Samantha's case.

"Ow!" Gary winced as he accidentally cut a short scrape on his thumb. He was so busy staring at Maxine that he forgot he was chopping.

"Don't worry. It's just a small wound." Gary assured as Maxine pulled his thumb close to her mouth and blew air through it, just like when you're a kid and you do that to ease the pain.

Gary couldn't help but smile at her immediate action. She also looked concerned and worried about his welfare.

"Hey Max." he whispered, making the girl turn to him, her face was so beautiful in Gary's eyes.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing… It's just that…"

"What is it? You're making me worried"

"I really really like you, Maxine Winters."

Maxine looked at him in the eye, the eye contact they were doing was starting to make the world fade behind them.

"Guys! I have bad news." Soap interrupted, causing everyone to form a small circle by the living room.

"Ghost left. With a note saying he'll try to gather more information on Shadow Company with Alexandra's help. He says thanks and that he'll see us all soon." Soap summarized the note. The room fell silent.

Next Chapter : Off the Grid

Notification Squad my Beloved

@samatedeansbroccoli @enderio @smokeywhalee @whimsywispsblog @beemybee @ricinbach

#horrayfic #john soap mactavish #codmw #john price #simon ghost riley #alex echo 3 1 #gary roach sanderson #whateverittakes #Hahaha see what I did there

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lyranova · 3 years

Text

A Bright Future

Hi guys~! So here’s the ‘surprise’ OC interaction! Its with @eme-eleff ‘s OC Hikari 💗! Now this is a little different from my others because this takes place in a possible future for Neva 😉 hehe! So I hope i portrayed Hikari correctly and I hope you guys like it 🥺! Also some of this was inspiried by @crazyclownthanos ‘s series White Clover (i forgot to add this oops!)

Word Count: 1,385

Warnings: None

—————

Neva was tired, between getting in real late the previous night and then having to wake up early that morning had exhausted her. She and her husband had flown in from the Spade Kingdom to attend the new Wizard Kings inauguration. Although she knew her husband had greatly wanted to become the Wizard King himself, he had an obligation to the Spade Kingdom and couldn’t just leave them high and dry without a king. But as soon as he watched his best friend and practically brother become the wizard king, they both knew he had made the right decision.

Afterwards there had been a small party to celebrate the occasion. Most of the magic knights and their families were in attendance, and as the King and Queen of the Spade kingdom she and her husband were expected to make the rounds and shake hands. You know, diplomatic stuff. Neva had to admit this was one thing she did not like about being Queen, having people suck up to her and pretend to like her just to either get something out of her or to get close to her husband. ‘I’m a little too tired to be dealing with all of this.’ She thought with a sigh as another noble came up to them.

“ I think I’m going to go sit for a while. If you need me I’ll be right over there.” She told him as she gently squeezed his hand and walked over to a few chairs that were tucked away in the corner, she sat down with a small sigh of relief. ‘Finally. Some peace, maybe I’ll even take a small nap.’ She thought as she closed her eyes. When she heard someone clear their throat Neva’s eyes instantly snapped open and she looked over to her right and saw a young girl, with dark hair, in a dark blue dress. She looked awfully familiar and Neva frowned as she racked her brain trying to think.

“ If you want to sleep you’re probably better off going upstairs. It won’t really look good if a bunch of nobles catch the Queen of the Spade Kingdom asleep in the corner.” The young girl said as she crossed one leg over the other, she appeared to be somewhat bored. Neva let out a bashful laugh as a small blush appeared on her face.

“ You’re right I should be more careful next time.” She said before finally deciding to ask. “ Have we met before? You look familiar.”

“ Ah, you’ve probably met my parents, your Majesty. My name’s Hikari Sukehiro.” The young girl introduced herself with a polite smile, Neva’s eyes widened, that's why she knew the girl! She had met her parents on numerous occasions, and had met the young girl a couple of times herself.

“ Yes I have. They’re amazing mages and even better Captains. You’re the perfect combination of them both.” She complimented with a warm smile before adding. “ Also, you don’t have to use honorifics. You can just call me Neva, and before you argue, I insist.” She noticed Hikari blush before nodding.

“ Thank you, your maj-i mean Neva. That's one of the highest compliments I could ever receive.” Hikari said before they both went silent for a moment, the sound of people chatting and glasses clinking together filled the silence. Neva looked over at Hikari and noticed she had the same look on her face that Neva had many times when she was younger; she was bored and wanted to be somewhere else.

“ You know,” Neva started with a small smirk. “ I don’t think anyone would notice if you decided to sneak out and go hang out with friends or something.” She added and saw a smile tug at Hikari’s lips.

“ My dad would notice. He sees everything, and I really don’t want to make him mad when he’s in such a good mood.” Hikari said with a small laugh as they both looked over and noticed Yami Sukehiro speaking to the new Wizard King, his former pupil, Asta. You could tell, even with his normal scowl in place, that Yami was proud of what Asta had achieved. His wife Charlotte stood next to him, a graceful smile on her face as she watched her husband tell stories about how Asta was when he was younger.

“ Yeah you’re probably right. But I’d at least try and cover for you if you did decide to sneak out.” Neva told her and Hikari gave a small laugh.

“ I really appreciate the offer Neva. But I must decline for now.” She told her before looking back at Neva. “ I’ll probably have to go check on my little sister soon anyway, she’s getting over a cold and my parents and I felt it was best if she stayed home.” She added.

“ I would have to agree, if any of these nobles got sick they’d for sure try to blame it on her.” Neva agreed with a nod before watching a couple of children run past them, giggling as they did. Neva’s warm smile returned at the sight, it was nice to see children be so happy and carefree.

“ Do you have any children Neva?” Hikari asked her suddenly, Neva was taken slightly aback by the question but she quickly recovered and turned toward the young girl.

“ W-Well I-.” Before Neva could answer, a voice cut her off.

“ Hikari! Come check this out!” A young girl shouted, waving Hikari over. She sighed before standing up.

“ I’m sorry your majesty. My friend seemed to forget her manners today.” She said with a bashful laugh before giving Neva a slight bow. “ I’m sorry but I have to go.” Neva waved her apology away.

“ It’s alright. Go, have fun with your friends. It was nice seeing you again and talking with you Hikari.” Neva said as she herself stood up, Hikari nodded before she began to walk away. Then, the young girl suddenly stopped and turned to look back at Neva.

“ May I ask you a question?” Hikari asked somewhat shyly. Neva nodded before Hikari continued. “ Do you think I could become the Wizard Queen? I mean, I know I’m strong and can do anything if I work hard enough and push past my limits...but…” She trailed off as she scratched the back of her neck nervously.

“ You want an unbiased opinion.” Neva guessed before Hikari nodded.

“ Yeah, and I mean, who better to ask than the first female captain of the Golden Dawn.” Hikari said, causing Neva to blush a bit. “ I’ve already asked my mother and my current captain and they gave me their opinions. So I wanted to have another.”

Neva nodded, knowing the girl would probably have asked numerous other people before asking her for her opinion. Neva contemplated what to tell her for a moment, before a smirk came across her face.

“ I honestly think you can. If your goal is to become the Wizard Queen, then I don’t see why anything or anyone could stop you from achieving said goal. You’re strong, you probably have tons of support from your friends and family, so I don’t see why not.” Neva shrugged. “ You’ll be an amazing Wizard Queen one day. I’m sure of it.” She added as her smirk turned into a smile, Hikari blushed and bowed again.

“ Thank you, Neva. That really helped me.” Hikari waved before running over to her friends. Neva was glad she was able to help out the young girl, even if it was only a little bit. She turned slightly as she felt a familiar presence walk over to stand beside her before taking her hand in his.

“ What was that all about?” Yuno asked her as he watched Hikari talk with her friends. Neva shook her head before giving his hand a squeeze.

“ Nothing. She just wanted some advice, plus she kept me company while the nobles held you hostage.” She joked causing Yuno to chuckle.

“ I’m glad she was able to do that. Do you want to go congratulate Asta?” He asked, Neva nodded and the couple walked over toward their old friend to congratulate him.

———-

I hope this was good and you guys like it 🥺! I apologize if I didn’t portray Hikari correctly or if this wasn’t that good! But I hope you guys enjoyed this and if not I apologize and will do better next time 💕! I hope you guys have a good day💗~!

#black clover oc #oc neva #oc interactions #i hope you guys like it #i’m sorry its not very good #marilú💙

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weirdo-with-a-nametag · 3 years

Text

Brain is tv static with random frames interspersed

Think I'm like. Really stressed and jumping between topics to try and find something that helps / feels good

Topics:

Anyone know a good health tracking app for adhd people? I want one that like pops up when you open your phone, maybe? But is unobtrusive. Like maybe you just rate your mood or whatever when you open your phone, and it closes, and you go about your business. I just hate every app and paper method I've tried but really want to track some stuff

Pigeon. ? Pigeon as pet?

Service animals re: cats, pigeons, my cat specifically, and then also ESAs and also what to use as treats while training my cat (he's pretty happy to learn behaviors with praise and pets as reinforcement, but treats would make everything move much faster, but I haven't found something I want to give him so we've just been y'know. Chillin)

Service animals re: what tasks can my pet potentially do that would help me? I don't really know a lot about service animals and there is a Huge range. If anyone has suggestions, or places to read about it, I'd appreciate it! Mostly thinking they may help with anxiety, sensory, and mobility/fatigue related stuff. Not much of a need for medical alerts.

Bioactive enclosures for my snakes, need to research their biomes and make progress on designs and equipment specifications

Also. Hit a seriously hard patch and haven't been handling them much at all this month so that's not great

Casting stuff. Saw jewelry today made of metal casts of claws, skulls, etc, and they were really well done and made me want to do that

Some taxidermy / vulture culture stuff I won't get into right now

Puzzles????

How to organize my room

Need a shower

Need to organize bathroom

So Much Schoolwork

Uhhhhh trying, but not making much headway, to figure out how I want to do my music collection. Also really need to clean my records..

Make?

Food??? Ew.

Dental hygiene ://

Plampts. So many. Houseplants need maintenance, many need repotting. Keep taking in people's problem plants and like, they're doing better, largely, after being trimmed and watered and whatnot, but need repotting. Also need to trim some aquarium plants.

Also need to put water in tanks. And spray nepenthes.

Laundry.

Gotta pick up trash in my room. There's so much. Everywhere. Why.

Schoolwork. I'm so behind. So, so stuck. Kind of feel like I'm dying.

Going on a picnic tomorrow. Have to figure out what still needs doing for that, probably need to go to the store.

Leo needs water. I'm so....ugh, I'm trying so hard, but it feels impossible. I do my best to take good care of my pets, and I think they live pretty good lives most of the time, but sometimes I get like This and completely drop off the face of the earth and then like, wake up or whatever and two weeks have passed by and I have not cleaned a water bowl! That's a serious problem!!!! I do not know how to combat that, really, besides more reminders. Having someone around who is willing to like, help, when things are especially hard, would be great, but I don't live with my partner right now and do not feel like I can ask anyone here for that. But I can't put my animals at risk. I check on them every day, and if their bowls are dirty I do take them out and clean them, but sometimes (like now) i cannot get myself to do it without a pressure like a dirty bowl, or a feeding day. And like, it's really important that they have clean water. I'm talking to myself here but like, if anyone has advice. Please. With the tank redesigns and upgrades, the bowls will be more accessible, which will help because one of them is very heavy at the angle I have to pick it up, and another requires moving a lot of branches and is best to take out while the snake is out (this is Leo) which is fine because I love my boy, but adds time to the process, and makes it harder to start, you know? Maybe if I just got more bowls - I could take the bowl out and immediately replace it, fill the new one, and replace the decor and snake, and then clean the bowl as a separate task? That would be easier for my brain. Currently I have a Specific bowl I prefer to use for each tank, and then everything else is Just In Case, but I mean. Acquiring extras is something I want to do anyway, and it may help with several problems, so. Yeah. I'll try that. But also, any other ideas, guys?

Anxiety: can't stop picking at my face, skin, nails, cuticles, scalp, pretty much everywhere with callouses, also scratched a mole off my face, which is something I've been trying Not to do for a while, so that's...not great. Can't find my earmuffs, and also all of my headphones are painful? Ears are really sensitive lately.

Been playing a lot of Moth Game (flutter: starlight if you wanna be friends say hey I don't know how to do it but would enjoy talking about moths if nothing else. The game is just like, an idle ish collecting game with cutesy versions of different species, and very little actual information, but it's still fun, and if anyone else is on there and also Into Moths like I am, hiiiii) and like it's fun and cute but also greatly impacting my productivity, and raises my stress levels during events, which is most days, so the game has. Not been helping. But I can't stop because then I'll miss Exclusive Moths.

Anyway. Had baklava and two mugs of Thai tea today and the sugar has made me nauseous.

Trying to journal. Hurts to write. Also takes too long. Also my handwriting is very bad. But typing is..not as good

Want to draw. Thinking about drawing cats

Plants again! Want to make seed bombs, have seeds, have most of the other ingredients, just need to put em together, basically.

Really sad :(

Or am I?

Weird noise coming from dining room?

Birds. Spent half an hour at least on the deck tonight listening to a hundred different bird calls (literally) to identify one I was hearing, it was a pine siskin, which I checked early on but the recording was bad and I didn't realize which call was identified. Anyway, cool to put a name to a face, so to speak.

Need to practice for ASL

So much.....to do...

Only had like >3 hours of work this week which was not great because money, but also like I'm really feeling those 3 hours....

My cat is basically refusing to come into my room? Which is very strange and I'm worried something is Off but cannot figure out what. Also means less cuddles which means I'm sad.

It feels strange whenever people follow me, the attention is nice but I have no idea what content y'all are here for. So to everyone: hi, enjoy, hope my random personal posts aren't a surprise to anyone who followed for like. News reblogs and informational stuff.

Do I even have it in me to..be successful in school? Should I drop out of college? I'm struggling really hard and do not feel like I'm building on the skills I need to continue, so like. Uh.

My dad is being. Abrasive.

Mom and grandma are very angry lately

Housemate is also angry, about things i thought we were on good terms about, so I am stressed because like,, are we okay?

Can't find my eye mask :(

Yoga? Like...restorative yoga? Need to track down my PT stuff. And. Do it.

Need to put the stickers on my license plates....oops...

Still haven't found my antidepressants! Yay!

Do I want to store my stuff in open bins, or with lids? Which stuff needs spill protection and stacking capability and which stuff needs easy access?

How to earn money without..chaos

Gotta go to the pet store tomorrow. Have to compile my list of pet store items i need. Uhhhhhhhhhh

Also I have an essay due tomorrow that I've barely started. So. Wooooooo

Kt tape for supporting arches / inner ankles? I keep messing up my ankles, and part of it is walking wrong because I don't have the energy to engage the muscles in my feet/legs right to like, avoid injury, and part of it is I just need new shoes inserts. But i wear slippers a lot and they do not have arch support and it hurts. PT to help with this also but Where Is It

Family can't seem to get dish soap I can use, so I've just been having to avoid washing anything by hand, or being in the general kitchen area while anyone uses the stuff, which has led to more of my dishes sitting out, and more conflict over dishes. Lovely.

How hard is it for parents to learn they have to respect boundaries? Very hard, apparently. And you're supposed to just sort of remind people, and explain, over and over and over but like at this point my self worth is actually pretty good and the lifetime of proof that they do not want to listen? That's making me want to stop trying. Like, if you're not going to respect my boundaries I'm just not going to involve you in my life. I'm not talking to my dad right now because of this. Maybe I'll decide to lay things out to him, again and again and again again, maybe not. And I'm comfortable saying that's on him.

How to drink water

Am I dehydrated or are my hands just completely callous now. My fingertips have such hard skin. Why? It's uncomfortable. This is part of why I've been biting them.

Also testosterone. Been having a lot of trouble doing my shots, because anxiety and physical freakouts, but also not feeling super urgent about it. Which I'm realizing may be a sign i need to look at the effects so far and the possible effects of continuing, and see what they make me feel. It's possible I'm where I want to be as far as T, and don't really want to stay on it. A big thing for me is a deeper voice, so it seems time to take a look at whether I like my voice where it is or want to see if it'll drop any more. Etc etc

Miss my lil sisters

Saw a lot of cool rocks today. Huge (like hand sized) ammonite for $28. May go back and buy one because. Wow.

Want to plant food plants

Also my natives. Whole garden plot standing empty with a bunch of stuff waiting in nursery pots, needing to go in the ground. Because I can't get out of bed. Love that. Stuff is dying out there, I'm dying in here, there's a poetry to it and I do not want to romanticize suffering so I will say this: I brought a Bucket full of moss home a month ago and planted it and now go outside sometimes to drench my moss and it is very rewarding because the stuff is just so green. Incredible. When the rest of my plants are finally in the ground, that feeling will only intensify. But, for now, the moss is very nice.

Made a glow in the dark bead lizard from memory during therapy yesterday, and I love him. Also, still struggling with bringing up autism and psychosis topics with my therapist. Still very worried about. Things. Would like to get a new person? But sometimes she is helpful? And we have a routine. It's very hard to break the routine. Maybe I can set some time aside during the summer, to figure out what to do there.

Term ends in a couple weeks. The task of catching up, of passing, seems impossible. I really need to pass my courses. I'm on academic warning, because my GPA is lower than it should be, and if I can pass all of my classes this term I can get off academic warning but otherwise I'm not sure what will happen to my financial aid.

My phone is playing the same 50-100 songs on shuffle and I don't even particularly like most of them and it is very strange

Got my face wipes! Hooray, i can wash my face again

Been eating too much sugar in general. It's making my joints hurt more, and the nausea

Pet a dog the other day. I miss that. It would be really nice to have a dog in the house again. The exuberance, the cuddles, the tail wagging, the walks... I'd really like that. Maybe once I'm out in my room, tanks and catio built and everyone is situated, I'll look into getting a dog instead of a cat next. Was planning on holding off in case I'm not physically able to take them out on walks and such, but I've been pretty successful at doing this job, and I think that my main hurdle for walking really is motivation. Dog walking is a strong motivator for me. Best to start by fostering, or just do Wag, for a while though. I'm feeling overwhelmed with my current responsibilities, and here I am talking about getting a dog. Good job, me

How do you get wax off of somewhat water soluble rocks? My housemate broke my lava lamp on some of my rock collection and I am not sure how to get some of them clean without damage.

I am...pretty sure there are collared doves nesting over my room but it seems they're less common around here than I thought? But they are..pretty distinctive. Like if I'm wrong, what are those birds. Some very distinctly colored feral pigeons? Who are nesting here, in a tree, without their flock, and who happen to have pretty much the exact same pattern?

Probably should go to the dollar store and get some bins for organizing

Been wanting to keep a bin by the door and stock it with stim/fidget stuff people can just .have ..like extras of some of my favorites and other things i can get ahold of, to offer to my friends who haven't really had the chance to explore the world of stim toys

Hands are really just not doing great the last several weeks. Arthritis type pain cropping up more and more in all the little joints, making it hurt more to write, type, or just use them for whatever. Coordination isn't great because of that distraction, and because my hands/arms are slow to respond and kinda weak. Most people would say I'm not using them enough but I've been doing 15ish hours of manual labor per week, so maybe it's the other direction? More water would help. If only it wasn't so heavy.

I haven't taken a single shower since I started my job. Which was March 29th. That's not great.

Practiced parallel parking today. 10/10 still very bad at it.

Having anxiety that my friends think I'm lying about things, faking, and are watching me to see if I'll slip up. So that sucks. Can either talk about that directly or indirectly, or just shut up about those things until I can get my brain under control again. I'm not sure right now if the reassurance would work as a reality check or make me believe it more, right now, so might hold off on the talking bit for a little while.

Saw, smelled, picked a couple pretty roses. Good times

At this point I'm just trying to list all my thoughts so that maybe I'll be able to sleep and not worry I'll forget

My mom has put her spider plant on the deck, and it has maybe five living leaves. I have no idea how she killed such a well established spider plant, the last time I saw it it was so happy. Did she stick it in a corner and forget to water it? Whatever happened, it is now in the Plant ER, so hopefully I'll be able to...help get it on the up and up again

Leo is such a pretty noodle. He's so pretty. He's posing. Hi, baby boy.

Oh, he saw me moving around and decided to come say hi. Sorry little man, i did not mean to disturb you. Please resume lounging. I can't bring you out right now, I'm trying to sleep.

Also, terrariums. Water features. Need to ask. Someone. The one who was making that super cool garter snake enclosure and blogging the progress? With the lazy river and pool? About maintenance on that kind of setup. My milk snake really enjoys water, and I'd love to put a water feature in his tank. But I'm unclear on how to keep it clean, or honestly where to start. Don't want any huge falls or anything, though it actually may not make the humidity too high if I did maybe a small drip wall into the pool? That seems like something he would enjoy, and a good way to support different types of plants. But like, that's the thing, it's bioactive and I haven't done that before and no amount of research is ever enough.

Oh, Shogun has a dirt hat. How cute. I love when they do that

See, this is the thing. My snakes make me so happy. All three of them are actually hanging out where I can see them from my bed right now, and it's really nice. I want their lives to be the best possible, and I think I have the resources to do that. Which is so exciting. Now if only my brain and body would cooperate. It would hurt quite a lot to have to re-home any of them, but the most important thing is their health and quality of life, you know? If I can't get my act together somewhat, it may be that one or all of them would be better off with another keeper. I don't know. It's just, i talk about all these tank ideas and all this husbandry standards stuff but how much of it actually gets applied to my own animals whose lives are in my hands? How well am I caring for them, really?

Oh!!! My red thread! I thought that was gone forever.

Anyway, please do not worry. My snakes are healthy. I pay attention, and watch for signs of illness, and they're okay. There will always be places to improve, and the water is a big one, but most of the time i change their water out frequently, I'm just worried because of bad depression and fatigue times, you know? I'm working on making the most self sustaining systems i can, in part so that I am sure they'll be okay if I mess up sometimes. Just saying this because I hope you guys don't feel like you need to worry about the welfare of my pets. They're okay, i just always want better for them, is all.

Anyway, the sun is coming up and I should probably go to sleep. So uh, thanks for reading, if you read all of this randomness, and if anyone has thoughts or advice on anything in this post, i would welcome it! Good night!

#mine #long post #snakes #pets #food m #uhhhhhhhhhhhh whatever else needs tagging

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dstarstories · 3 years

Note

1-20 for Steele 21-45 for Cy

Ooookay... I’m going to try this again & hope tumblr doesn’t close it out halfway through...

Steele

1. Who’s the one who’s reckless and always getting into trouble while the other gotta pull em out

You’d think it’s Steele who’s the troublemaker but nope! He’s usually the one who swoops in to save the day (was going to say he’s good at doing the pulling out but... that’s obviously not true seeing as they have all these kids lmao)

2. Who’s the one to send the other “I love my gf/bf” memes

Easton but they both prefer the funny ones over the sappy ones

3. Who’s the one who listens to a music genre the other doesn’t like and how does the other react

Steele has to listen to a lot of different things for work so it’s usually Easton expressing his distaste with groaning & complaining lol

4. Which one spoils the other more and do they ever get competitive to show the other more love

They do compete a bit but Steele is the one who really loves to do the spoiling. Easton spoils him too sometimes but Steele tries hard to be king there

5. How many years did it take to get married or was it just not for them

Years? Ha! Less than a year. Once they fell, it all happened pretty fast from there. Once you know, you know!

6. What was their wedding like

Very small & simple. Only their closest family & best friends. Easton was already pregnant with TJ & being married was all that mattered to them

7. Is their friends/family supportive

Very! They all adore each other & have grown close. Easton’s mom Jude actually has a group text with Archer & Vince because they legit talk all the damn time lol

8. How does one comfort the other when the other is in distress/having a panic attack/crying

They’re both very similar in that they are calm & reassuring. They will hold the other one & sit with them for as long as they need

9. Which one dissociates

Neither very often but both have, especially Easton. Both have trauma from their childhood which lends to this

10. Which one stares at the other’s booty like “damn” and how does the other react when catching them

Steele always stares & usually makes it known that he likes what he sees. Easton will roll his eyes & laugh. If Steele’s real lucky, he’ll get a booty shake or a wiggle out of it

11. When they live together what kinda place do they live in? What does their home look like?

They do live together. Easton moved into Steele’s house a few months into dating. As their family expanded, they did eventually buy a new house together. It’s a decent sized family home with a pool & lots of land because Easton always says that he wants goats one day! Plus it’s lots is space for the kids & the dogs

12. What do their dates look like

They don’t happen often so they tend to be on the romantic side. A nice dinner, maybe a quiet walk to drive. Then home to snuggle & well... ya know... not have to stay so quiet ;)

13. How does each act when getting drunk

Steele is a recovering addict & lives a sober life. Easton is very supportive of this & does as well for the most part. On the very very rare occasion that Easton gets drunk, he’s actually pretty fun lmao. Steele finds him adorable & funny... until he starts throwing up 😂 He’s also more adventurous & has a certain tattoo to prove it

14. Which one rolls over in the morning to wake up the other one just to give kiss them

Typically Steele since he gets up first. He tries to wake up before the kids to start some coffee then get to Oli before Easton wake up so he can let him sleep a little.

15. Have they saved each other’s lives before

Yes! Easton was in a really dark place when they first met & was trying to find himself. He was on the verge of doing something about it. Steele will openly admit that he has Easton to thank for his sobriety. His family agrees, especially Tobias who found his son after an overdose more than once. Easton showed him what happiness was & gave him a reason to live

16. Does one have an interest the other think is weird but wants to listen to it regardless

Not really. Easton did find it a little weird & funny when he found out that Steele was into building robots since he usually hides his need side well

17. Which one uses cropped hentai as reaction images

Neither really but I could see Easton doing it to be funny

18. Does one of them kinkshame the other

Never! They’re into the same things & love enjoying them together ;)

19. Is one of them self conscious about their body? If so how does the other comfort them

Easton. Steele makes sure to tell him that he’s beautiful & show how attracted to him he is. Steele will never not see Easton as the most gorgeous man on the planet

20. Say they were cuddling on the bed while listening to record player playing the background. Which song is playing?

Dizzy on the Comedown

Cyrus

21. What is their song? Like the song that gives them overwhelming feelings?

Chasing Cars

22. What song do they listen to while going on a joyride

Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked

23. What kinda joyrides do they go on? Relaxing ones or wild ones?

Depends on what’s going on really. Usually relaxing because Mateo will be stressed from work & Cy’s moods aren’t good.

24. Where would they vacation for a honeymoon

They’re beach goers & would want to go somewhere super sexy & romantic. They haven’t started planning their wedding & honeymoon yet but I’m thinking Hawaii, Tahiti or Santorini

25. Do people ever get annoyed of their pda

Yeah a little lol. They have no shame & Cy is super clingy

26. Would they live in the city or the country

Between those two options, the city. But they’d rather live on a beach

27. Which ones the red which ones the blue

I... feel like there’s something to this question that I’m missing & just don’t get lmao. Uhh... Cy - red, Mateo - blue

28. Are either of them mentally ill, if so how do they help one another cope

Cy has very bad anxiety & depression. Mateo had learned how to calm him down. Typically he’s very calm & gentle with him but sometimes he’ll tell him sternly not to say negative things about himself. Because Cyrus is so submissive, that works at times when nothing else will.

29. Does one have a spot on them where they would melt when the other kisses them there

Cyrus does, on the back of his neck

30. Do they dance together

Yep!

31. Do they sing together

Yes, usually when they’re being goofy

32. Which one is better at cooking than the other and makes most the dinners

Mateo is probably better at cooking (at least in Cy’s opinion) but Cy cooks most of the meals since Mateo works all day

34. Are they a reckless couple or safe

Depends on the context lol. They’re pretty safe I think

35. What be they kinks and do they try each other’s kinks

They are both always down to try something new in the bedroom... or out of it ;) I mentioned Cy is very submissive with Mateo & that’s also very true in intimate moments. They’re into some bdsm, being bound, pain, spanking, choking, etc. Cyrus also gets some thrills out of being naughty in public.

36. What would their valentines gifts be to each other

They tend to give really practical gifts. This year Cy gave Teo a new Apple Watch & Teo gave him some a bunch of new art supplies including some charcoal pencils that Cy likes to sketch with. Mateo will sometimes plan something really sexy for them too.

37. Do they get into fights often? If so what do they fight over and how do they make up?

No, they don’t fight very often at all. It’s usually the boring, typical relationship/cohabitation kind of stuff lol. Mateo will go drive around & Cy will call Carlin. They’ll both cool down then they’ll talk it out.

38. Which ones top, bottom, verse

Typically Teo - top, Cy - bottom. That’s mostly because of their overall dom/sub dynamic but they’re both technically verse

39. What kinda sex they be having (gentle rough whatever)

Usually rough. They’ll occasionally have that sweet, slow lovemaking type sex but they enjoy it kinda rough, especially Cyrus

40. Who would fight in honor for the other if someone would insult them

Easy - Mateo. He wouldn’t even hesitate. If someone was insulting or mean to Cyrus in front of him, his good boy demeanor would be good when he snapped & did something about it

41. Which one has a favorite movie that they have the other watch with them again and again

Cyrus! He’s a huge movie buff. His favorite is Back to the Future lol

42. How would one react if the other was to die

Either one of them would absolute lose it. They’d both shut down. Cy would question if he could go on. Mateo would probably withdraw & not talk to anyone about it. They’d both only keep going because of Maverick

43. Who dies first

Don’t do this to me 😭😭😭 I have no idea. I’m going to say Cy just because I only think that Mateo would handle it a tiny bit better

44. Do they want kids

Yes! They have one now, a baby son named Maverick. They do want more one day but Cy’s scared they may not since it’s not easy for him to

45. How would they spend their last moments together

Cyrus would be sobbing uncontrollably. Mateo would be reassuring him. They’d both be holding each other tight. It would be a mess & honestly... so the fuck would I!!

Thanks for asking!! I love our boys 💖💖💖

#ohsimtastic #steelexeaston #cyxmateo #Tiberius Hawke #Easton Ford #Mateo Wilder #Cyrus Hawke #character development #sorry no read more #on mobile & apparently don’t know how anymore

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evieveevee · 4 years

Text

What We Lost: Returning to Tumblr in 2020

On December 17th, 2018, Tumblr banned 'adult content' across the site, marking the end of an era. The ban was the result of a cavalcade of issues which reportedly made maintaining NSFW content unfeasible for Tumblr. Now, it's 2020. I'm back on Tumblr, and I can't help but meditate on what we've lost both on Tumblr, and across the globe in 2020.

Part One: Tumblr and Adult Content

*Things we lost to the flame Things we'll never see again All that we've amassed Sits before us, shattered into ash

— Bastille, "Things We Lost In The Fire"*

A bit of personal history: Tumblr was the primary community I used in various forms from 2012 onwards, associating with various fandoms, doing what I could to design interesting things. The various communities I was involved in intersected with social justice communities, and eventually I dug into those further and tried to learn to better myself in the process, starting along the path to becoming the person I did.

Part of that process was also learning to love my own body, a thing I was not particularly good at and still struggle a bit with nowadays. One of the ways I did this was by making 'adult content', or more plainly, pornography. It was a unique opportunity to experiment with femininity and sexuality - something I'd been very closed off from as part of my upbringing - in a supportive, fun environment. Experimenting with my self image first in this way, in semi-private, led to me experimenting more publicly and eventually embracing aspects of that as part of my day to day life. That's right: making pornography was part of what led me down the path to figuring out I was trans and embracing that part of me.

Making porn on Tumblr was a great time; the adult content creators and consumers community on the site was largely supportive of queer people and sexuality, different body types, all manner of things. It was - in my experience - a healthy and fun place to be, and certainly one of the better places you could be on the internet for a visual medium like pornography. Tumblr's format made it easy to share both adult content you made yourself, and stuff you were curating. Vex Ashley wrote that "this sharing was so desperately vital for women and other marginalised people whose sexualities are often overlooked or infantilised in media about sex in preference for the tastes of the traditional porn consumer – the straight white guy" in a eulogy and love letter to Tumblr's adult content communities.

Tumblr's format remains novel to my knowledge as well: the notion of having a large image-focused feed which also allows for easy sharing and curation, gorgeous, high resolution pieces and photos to be uploaded with relatively little compression, custom arrangements of photosets, and personalized theming of your blog. There was, and remains, lots of potential for expression on Tumblr., and its focus remains unique. Twitter and Mastodon's focus is on what's written, Wordpress doesn't have the sort of interlinking of blogs that Tumblr does, and Facebook is... Facebook (read: evil).

I think the novelty of that format is what made the announcement of the ban on 'adult content' so impactful. Even looking back at the framing of it is gross: the post posits that 'adult content' is something which is negative, and says that removing it is working towards a 'more positive' Tumblr. There appears to be an attempt to try and strike a balance in allowing conversation about sexuality and such, but this is the killing blow. A huge portion of the community, including countless queer and furry artists, needed to find a new home online.

3 months after the ban had hit, traffic had reportedly dropped off 20%. Recent data from SimilarWeb, the outfit which published that initial data, shows that visits to the site have dropped off a little bit more, but have stayed otherwise pretty consistent. August 2020's data shows about 317 million visits. [1] In other words: any hope that this move would allow Tumblr was dashed. A massive portion of the userbase deleted their accounts after archiving them; Tumblr and the internet at large had lost a massive, vibrant chunk of community, and it was completely in vain.

I lost contact with a bunch of those folks I was following on Tumblr for years. The mass exodus left both people who wanted to find and share artwork and adult content and the people who made it completely adrift. Years later, some artists are still picking up the pieces. Archaic policy like SESTA/FOSTA being brought into the picture has left very few standing when it comes to adult content, Twitter included. Who knows how long that will last? If something happens to change the way that Twitter handles adult content, for example, what options do casual creators like myself have?

Fortunately, platforms like OnlyFans exist. But even those are at potential risk from legislation like the EARN IT Act, not to mention the danger this poses to Twitter and to the internet at large. OnlyFans and its ilk, as they exist right now, are fantastic for sex workers because they offer pay-gating and a variety of features to make sure sex workers get paid. But they leave those of us who want to be able to curate the content they enjoy or casually create their own content freely without real options, and without real community.

We stand to lose a lot, and as always people in the margins will be the ones most impacted: the queer, the people of color, the disabled; all will suffer greatly if adult content is found without a home. Media dealing with queer themes is enough to be considered "adult content" by some and it's not hard to imagine what we could be staring down the barrel of here.

What have we lost in eliminating platforms like this?

Part Two: 2020 and the World

*These are the things The things we lost The things we lost in the fire, fire, fire.

— Bastille, "Things We Lost In The Fire"*

Meditating on what we have lost seems to be a running theme for the year 2020.

January: New Year's Day. In Aotearoa New Zealand, smoke covers the skies from a fire a literal ocean away. The Australian bush has been on fire, part of one of the most and it has turned the skies of a nation not it's own orange at midday, across thousands of kilometers. What did we lose in those fires? What stories and history? What wildlife, what species? What will remain afterwards? What will grow anew?

April: Aotearoa New Zealand hits the peak of COVID-19 related lockdown with the entire nation moved to Level 4, meaning that nothing except truly essential services, such as roadworks, pharmacies, and supermarkets were open. During that time, I thought a lot about how some of my favorite small shops were doing; the bakery with astonishingly good pies, the charming dollar store which always has a few things that catch my eye, the coffee cart near one of the local parks every morning. As a nation, Aotearoa acted early to deal with COVID-19 with a strong hand, and it was risky for all of those small shops across the country. What would we come out the other side of the lockdowns having lost, both in terms of human cost and cost to the places around us?

May: Following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, massive protests against police brutality, racism, and white supremacy break out across the United States of America. Daily protests have continued to the time of writing in some cities. George Floyd is one of 781 people killed by police in 2020 at the time of writing in the United States alone [2]. 1099 people were killed by police in 2019 [3]. What incredible lives and stories have been lost in the process? Are those stories being told now? How do we prevent this from happening again? (Hint: defunding the police will be a start, and supporting the cause now is a good choice too.)

It is now September: The incompetence of the US Government has allowed COVID-19 to spread beyond control, leaving tens of thousands of deaths in its wake; lives and stories which must be remembered and their stories carried on by others. The western coast of the United States is on fire, blanketed in smoke and ashes. Massive west coast cities like San Francisco gain an apocalyptic feeling as the skies turn orange, like they did for me in January. Friends of friends lose everything in small Oregon towns. The costs of the prolonged fires will be paid by people all up the coast; it's their health outcomes which will suffer. What will we lose as a result of this in the future? What can we do to make things better?

I want to be clear: this is not a comprehensive list, and is centered around the things that me and my social circles have been aware of and talked about. Even with that consideration, we have to reckon with massive, ongoing, and far reaching concerns. The loss felt as a result of all of the above issues is staggering, and far reaching, and we must fight to ensure that loss is not in vain. Voting alone is not going to solve these concerns, and there's more to concern yourself with than any one person should have to cope with. There's not a magic bullet to solve all this stuff though.

Rather than pretend that I have one, I want to propose a couple things to close this out: one bit of advice, and one plea for yourself and others.

The advice: pick your battles carefully. Pick issues you want to focus in on, and fight for those things to make things better where you live, and in your social circles. Choose things to care deeply about first. Keep caring about them.

The plea: think carefully about the questions I've asked throughout this piece, and think about the things in your life and communities that you have lost. Think about how to make sure those losses are taken with you and learned from; to take lessons learned and better yourself and the people around you. Think about the things you don't want to lose, and how to fight like hell for them.

Move forwards to something, and some place better than where we are now. Stand united with the people around you, and press on.

*Do you understand that we will never be the same again? The future's in our hands and we will never be the same again.

— Bastille, "Things We Lost In The Fire"*

If you enjoyed this piece and want to support my work, please contribute to my Ko-fi. If you are interested in re-publishing this piece on another site, please contact me either here or via my business email.

References

[1] Data provided by SimilarWeb; accessed on 15/09/2019 at 5:30am. (https://www.similarweb.com/website/tumblr.com/)

[2] Data provided by Mapping Police Violence (https://mappingpoliceviolence.com); accessed on 15/09/2020 at 4:08am NZT

[3] Data provided by Mapping Police Violence's (https://mappingpoliceviolence.com) database, downloaded on 15/09/2020 at 4:08am NZT. Count obtained using the following formula:

=COUNTIFS($'2013-2020 Police Killings'.F:F,">=1/1/2019",$'2013-2020 Police Killings'.F:F,"<1/1/2020")

#tielwrites

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 4 years

Text

with you [chapter 5]

Summary: Clementine pops the question, Louis has nightmares, Violet can’t let go of the past, Mitch doesn’t know how to handle gross feelings, Ruby’s a goddamn sweetheart, Willy doesn’t ever remember to knock, Aasim can’t dance, and James is here, too.

Nothing like a wedding to bring this family together.

Note: I’m home from my grandmothers. My uncle came back a little early and now I finally get to sleep in my own bed and have internet. It’s been an exhausting two weeks but at least some good came of it. I finished rewriting/editing three chapters of [with you] which is progress. Working on this is what kept my sanity in check tbh haha. I still need some time to unpack and recover before being fully back on here, so I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Also, I’ve updated [with you] on Fanfiction.net and Wattpad, as well. I’ve pretty much given up on them but then I thought that I do have readers on those platforms who have messaged me about [with you] so I might as well update them, too. So yeah. Thanks for reading and for your support for this story. :D

Ch1 | Ch2 | Ch3 | Ch4 | Ch5

Read on: AO3 | FF.net | Wattpad

---

Clementine yanks the basement doors open, only to gag when a nauseating scent of vinegar knocks her in the face.

“What the hell?” she coughs.

“C’mon!” Willy grabs her arm and hurries down the stairs, dragging her with him. “Mitch! Clem’s here!”

Something heavy and metallic drops hard to the cement. “Shit!” Mitch curses. “Told you not to do that, Willy!”

“Sorry!”

She follows the young boy deeper into the basement and finds herself amazed at Mitch’s set up. The work desk is completely covered with drills, hammers, saws, files, batteries, a few of their solar panels, and other machines she didn’t recognize. Flashlights are wired in the air pointing directly at the anvil Mitch sits in front of. There’s a chipped bowl filled with a clear liquid sitting on top.

“Finally,” Mitch says when he sees her. Clementine’s startled by his more than usual unkempt appearance- hair standing in every direction, dirtiness staining his hands, shirt and face, and the weariness lining his eyes.

“Uh, are you okay?” she asks him.

“Yeah, yeah,” he waves dismissively, standing from his stool, yawning heavily as he tosses a dirty rag away.

Willy rushes to help him scoot the various tools aside so Mitch can reach something closest to the wall. It’s a small, brown box.

Clementine approaches the two boys, trying to hide her eagerness as she asks, “Well? Were you able to fix it?”

Mitch scratches at the back of his neck and turns away. “Not exactly,” he says, “It sorta got ruined when I messed around with it.”

Her heart drops.

“Ruined how?”

“I may have broke it.”

“Broke it!?”

Mitch whips around, holding up a hand. “Now, don’t cry about it,” he says quickly, “it was a shitty ring, anyway. Louis would’ve broken it himself if you gave it to him… maybe.” He grabs a small wrench from the table and swings it around on his finger nervously.

“Mitch,” she can’t help that her voice came out so miserably angry. “If you couldn’t fix it then you should’ve left it alone! What am I supposed to do now?”

“Woah, hey, don’t freak out! Just listen for two seconds,” he says. “I didn’t mean to break it. We started messing around with some stuff to try and reshape it but then it snapped and James came wandering down here and the whole thing was a shitshow. There was no saving that thing. Kind of a piece of shit. So,” he looks away as he shoves the brown box towards her, “We did you one better.”

Willy’s practically vibrating with excitement next to them as he motions eagerly to the box. “Open it! Open it!”

Clementine takes the box and pulls the lid off. It takes her a moment to process what she’s seeing.

There’s a clean piece of fabric bunched up at the bottom, and within the folds rests two matching silver bands. Her head snaps up and her jaw drops.

His exhausted, shit-eating grin is enough of a confirmation that what she’s seeing is real.

“Oh my god!” she gasps. “Where did you get these?”

“Made ‘em.”

“What? You-” she blinks up at him in disbelief, “-you made these?”

“Super awesome, huh?” Willy laughs. “I told’ja we had it under control!”

“The smell’ll wear off, too,” Mitch says, “had to polish ‘em with vinegar.”

Clementine carefully lifts the bigger of the two rings out of the box. “How- How did you-?”

“Quarters,” Mitch smirks. “Willy here keeps a pretty impressive coin collection. Took a while to find the right ones, but we got it.”

“Yeah, we made a shit ton of them!” Willy reaches into his pocket and pulls out various different rings, most of them scratched up or disfigured in some way.

“It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it,” Mitch shrugs. “Willy found this old book about sailors overseas making rings for their girlfriends back home. Just gotta hammer them then drill out the middle, do some filing and hammer some more. Once me and James knew what we were doing, we used the measurement I took of your finger and made yours. That one turned out great, so we made Louis’ to complete the set… and it only took us an entire day to do and there were, eh… complications , but they’re done.”

Clementine runs her finger over the smooth surface, “This is-” she stops when she notices something engraved on it. She blinks, but it’s still there scratched into the shiny surface.

C + L

“That part was Mitch’s idea,” Willy points at the tiny letters, “had to use a really sharp nail to get it that clear.”

“We’ve all seen the piano,” Mitch quickly explains, rolling his eyes, “figured it’d be a good finishing touch. No big deal.”

She puts the box on the workbench. Without any warning, she throws herself at Mitch, wrapping her arms around his now tense body.

“Woah, hey, um-!” Mitch panics and sticks his arms out to avoid touching her.

“You guys have no idea what this means to me.”

“Uh-!”

He turns to Willy, bewildered. The young boy begins to laugh as he points at Mitch’s panicked face. Clementine reaches out and yanks Willy forward, pulling him into the hug as well. Even then, he’s still giggling like an amused child.

Then, like the realization that they’re all hugging finally hits him over the head, Mitch jerks back, nearly tripping over his feet when turning back towards the work desk. He clears his throat.

“Said it’s not a big fucking deal, and it’s not like we did all the work, y’know. James helped, too, so just-” he grumbles, fumbling with the wrench, “-... consider it an early wedding present, or whatever.”

Clementine can’t help but laugh at how weirdly cute it is that he’s embarrassed. She picks up the rings again to pull out the smaller one. It fits perfectly on her finger.

“I don’t know if I could ever thank you guys enough for doing this,” she beams, making a note to thank James in the morning. God, the ring fits so perfectly she can’t believe it.

“Yeah, well, y’know,” Mitch nervously scratches his cheek, a rare smile betraying his lips, “whatever.”

”Mitch! Ya still down here!?” Ruby’s voice echoes from the top of the stairs. “Lou’s in the music room! Did’ja find the box of spare candles? We’re gonna need a lot to fill the whole place up!”

“Oh, shit-” Mitch hisses.

“No one’s down here!” Willy jumps into action, dashing towards the stairs and stretching his arms out. “ Do not enter !”

“Gah, Willy, move it!”

Clementine closes the small box and shoves it into her pocket before turning to face Ruby as she pushes Willy to the side. Ruby sets her lantern on the workbench, lighting up the basement enough for Clementine to make out the thrill brightening her eyes.

“Clementine!” she gasps.

It’s Clementine’s turn to receive a surprise hug when Ruby practically tackles her.

“Oh, Clem, I heard the news! Why didn’t ya tell me!? This is so excitin’! Ahh! I can’t believe ya didn’t tell me!” Ruby pulls back to ask the boys, “Did’ja give ‘em to her yet?”

Clementine slowly turns to glare at the two boys.

Willy lowers his head in shame and Mitch fake coughs into his fist. Neither of them answers the question, nor do they dare look Clementine in the eye.

“ Mitch -”

“Before you flip the fuck out,” Mitch holds a finger up to stop her, ”she’s the one who came in here demanding to know what we were doing! She tried to wack me with one of Omar’s wooden spoons! I had to tell her!”

“Oh, no I didn’t! I said I would wack ya with one if ya didn’t explain yerself!” argues Ruby. “I thought ya were makin’ another bomb!”

“I haven’t messed with that shit for, like, weeks!”

Clementine can already see where this is going to go, and the best thing to do is stop it in its tracks.

“Okay, stop!” She raises her voice above theirs. The basement’s quiet again. She takes a deep breath. “I’m not mad.”

“You sound mad,” says Willy.

“I’m not. Ruby, you were going to find out about it anyway, though I can’t say I expected it to go down like this. Does anyone else know?”

“No,” says Ruby and Mitch.

“Uhm, well…” Willy nervously laughs.

“Dude,” Mitch frowns down at the young boy.

“I didn’t mean to! Aasim saw me going through my coin collection earlier! Then he started asking all these questions and it just came out! But, I made him swear on his soul he wouldn’t tell anyone!”

“What?” Ruby asks. “When was this?”

“This morning.”

“And he didn’t say anything to me!”

“Yeah, because Willy asked him not to,” Mitch says. “Keep up.”

Clementine feels the beginnings of a headache coming on.

She trusts Aasim. He's never let her down in the past, and he wouldn’t say anything to Louis, especially if he knows this is a surprise.

“Anyone else?” Clementine asks.

Willy shakes his head.

So, of the people in their group, AJ, James, Mitch, Willy, Ruby, and Aasim all know.

That just leaves Omar, Tenn, and…

And Violet.

She’s about to speak, but Ruby grabs her hand to admire the ring. “Wow, it’s even prettier on,” she gleams. “Gotta say, boys, ya did a real good job.”

Mitch rolls his eyes.

“Well, yeah .”

“How’re ya gonna ask him? James and I were thinkin’ that you do it in the music room, of course, and we’ll help ya decorate it with candles and lanterns, make it real romantic.”

“Gross,” Mitch murmurs.

“Hush,” Ruby warns him. “Or, on the roof, under the pretty stars! Or, we can even decorate yer dorm! Whattya think? Omar can cook ya something special and, oh! I found some real pretty classical records fer ya to play! Ya gotta set the mood, after all.”

“We can make some cool fireworks, too!” Willy exclaims.

“Oh, no you won’t! No bombs, no fireworks!”

“Just a few sparklers? To set the mood?”

“No! Especially if it’s inside! Which I think would be best since ya never know with the damn weather.”

“Wow, Ruby,” Clementine’s astonished at the girl’s excitement. “You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“‘Course! I know I may be buttin’ in a little-” Mitch scoffs “-but I never thought I’d get to witness somethin’ like this after all that’s happened! I mean, a wedding ! It’s like somethin’ outta the fairytales! And, listen, ya don’t hafta take my suggestions. You can ask him any way ya want! Just know that we’re all here to help! Oh, and the wedding !”

“Oh, God,” Mitch groans.

“We’re definitely plannin’ a wedding!”

“Geez, who’s really getting married here?” Mitch asks, irritated. “You or Clem?”

“Oh, shut it! Why can’t ya just be excited?”

“Excited about what? Does nothing for me.”

“Y’know, thinkin’ about someone else fer a change wouldn't kill ya!”

“Okay, please stop arguing,” Clementine interrupts them. “At least let me get through the actual proposal before we start doing anything else.”

“Shit,” Ruby curses herself, “sorry, Clem. Guess I got a little excited.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Willy asks eagerly. “When are we going this?”

Clementine peers down at the ring on her finger, and says, “Now that I have the rings, I’m going to do it tomorrow. In the evening. I like your idea, Ruby, about the candles in the music room.”

“Thought ya would,” Ruby grins. “We keep a bunch of ‘em down here. We’ll all help ya decorate, ‘cept keepin’ Louis outta there might be a task.”

“That’s easy,” Mitch says. “Send him hunting for the day, him and Aasim.”

“My goodness, there’s an idea,” says Ruby, “that way, Aasim can keep an eye on him and make sure he don’t wander back here unannounced.”

“James, too,” Clementine adds. “Just in case Louis doesn’t listen to Aasim, or they get in a tight spot.”

“Right!” Ruby claps her hands. “Oh, I’m gettin’ excited again!”

“Geez, you’re acting more excited than she is,” Mitch jerks his thumb at Clementine.

“Believe me, I don’t think anyone’s as excited as I am,” Clementine smiles, holding up her hand to admire the ring one last time before slipping it back in the box. “It’s just a lot to take in. We just have to be careful now. Louis can’t know anything.”

They all turn to Willy, who hangs his head in shame once more.

“I said it was an accident.”

“I know,” Clementine sighs. “Maybe you should avoid him for now, Willy. Just in case. And, Mitch,” she turns to him, “don’t throw any more shoes at him.”

“Hey, you want him wandering down here? No, you don’t. Thought we established that. ‘Sides, the ring’s done. Nothing left for me to work on.”

“Right, but still, you can’t be acting all suspicious. He’s already worried about you. That’s why he tried to come down here yesterday.”

“Pfft,” Mitch scowls. “Worried…”

“Well, while we know Lou’s in the music room, I’ll gather everyone before they turn in and we can discuss the plan. Don’t worry, we’ll be discreet,” Ruby assures her. “Mitch, yer on candle and match duty. Willy, in the mornin’ I want ya ta go out and pick as many pretty flowers as ya can.”

“Aw,” Willy pouts, “how come I got flower duty?”

“It’s either that or ya gotta help Omar cook. Yer choice.”

Willy doesn’t argue. Omar’s a genuinely nice guy, but he’s also an incredibly particular cook. Willy wasn’t going to willingly put himself into that nightmare.

Soon, they have all the details worked out.

Aasim and James will take Louis far away to go hunting until evening, giving them a few hours to set up.

Ruby will work on setting up a little picnic area for them on the floor and figure out the music. Willy will go around with Tenn and AJ to pick enough flowers for a bouquet, as well as decorate an old vase to put them in. Omar will cook them something extra special, and Mitch will gather all the candles and place them in the safest places around the music room.

As for Clementine herself, she’ll help fix things up in the piano room, but there’s something else she wants to try, as well. Something that she’s been contemplating for the past week.

She hides the box in her jacket with a big, dumb grin stuck on her face. She still can’t believe that Mitch, James, and Willy actually made her a matching set of wedding rings. She tries not to show it, but the very thought of both her and Louis wearing them makes her giddy.

But, there’s still an issue pressing on her mind.

“Ruby?” Clementine’s grin is replaced with a worrying frown. “Are… are you going to tell Violet?”

And, just like that, the room becomes tense.

“Violet?” asks Willy.

“Oh, well, shoot,” Ruby mutters, “didn’t even think of Vi.”

“Don’t fucking bother,” Mitch snaps. “She’s not gonna give a shit, and if she does, she’ll just ruin the whole thing.”

Ruby looks up at Mitch with distraught eyes. “We gotta tell her, Mitch. She’ll feel left out-”

“Oh, don’t start with that bullshit. Why do you anyways try to include her?”

“Because whether you like it or not, she’s one of us. She’s family.”

“Oh, please. She’s an asshole!”

“You bite yer tongue, right now!”

“Well, it’s true!”

“The only reason she’s mean ta you is because yer a jerk ta her first! God, everyone else is decent, why can’t you be?”

A sick feeling comes over her. Clementine can’t quite place what it actually is, but it always boils within her whenever the idea of talking to Violet strikes her.

Over the past two years, she’s tried talking to Violet. Not big things. Saying, “Hello,” or “How are you?” or “Are you okay?”

Every single time, Violet doesn’t mutter a single word. All she gives is a glare and the view of her back as she walks away.

She told Louis how much she missed Violet once.

He watched her suffer after losing Violet as a close friend. There were a few nights just after the delta that Clementine found herself crying, and he was there to hold her, to promise her that Violet would come around, she just needed time.

Louis tried to fix things between her and Violet.

She can still remember that night. He snuck into the darkness of the room. AJ was fast asleep.

Clementine can remember the rage filling her insides when she saw the bruise forming on his face and the tears slipping down his cheeks. She barely made it to the door before Louis grabbed her, begging her not to go after Violet, that she didn’t even know what happened. AJ woke up, and Louis lied about what was wrong. It was only when they were alone in the hallway that he told her what happened.

They’d gotten into an argument, Louis and Violet. An argument about her. Louis defended her and tried to understand Violet’s animosity. She refused to talk. She only cussed and shoved him away.

Louis got too close, and like a reflex, Violet swung.

Violet didn’t come out of her room for almost two weeks after that. She spoke to no one but Tenn when he brought her food.

She didn’t come out until Louis spoke to her again.

And it all happened because of her…

“Don’t worry about it, Ruby,” Clementine speaks up. “I’ll tell her.”

“The fuck you will!” Mitch‘s brow furrows in fury and his fists curl.

“It’s not like she’ll try to stab me just for talking to her,” Clementine argues.

“Oh yeah? Just like how she didn’t try to stab you after the delta, right? For fuck's sake, had Louis and James not stepped in you would’ve had a nice big gash right between your eyes! She attacked you, Clem! And she’s never said sorry or even pretended that she felt guilty about it! She betrayed us! She’s a traitor!”

“Mitch!” Ruby gasps out. “Don’t talk so ugly! Vi’s no such thing! That was years ago and things have changed! Maybe if you put in some more effort-”

“Oh, fucking hell-”

“-then you wouldn’t be so damn quick to be cruel! And y’know, maybe it is time they finally sort this out.”

“Fuck that!”

Clementine straightens herself out and confidently stands up to Mitch.

“I appreciate your concern, but-”

“My concern ?” Mitch glares. “What, my concern that I’ll have to dig your grave when that bitch snaps and puts a fucking cleaver in you?”

“She wouldn’t really do that, right?” Willy says, eyes widening.

“Of course she would! She’s-”

“Mitchell Robert Daymond!” Ruby exclaims, causing all of them to jump, startled. All eyes fall on Ruby’s small, angry form as she points right at Mitch’s face. “That is enough outta you. This ain’t yer choice, and bein’ a prick about it ain’t gonna get yer way! Gah, ya act like Vi’s some sorta- sorta monster and I’m sick of it.”

Mitch opens his mouth to speak, only to have Ruby cut him off.

“ No ,” she demands. “ No more .”

The air becomes uncomfortably heavy as the two glare at one another. Clementine finds herself breathing slower as if a regular breath would be too much for the tension. Glancing over at poor Willy, she finds him standing close behind Mitch, still gripping his arm and looking between the two.

Only when Mitch tears his gaze away to scowl at the floor does Ruby turn back to Clementine.

“If this is somethin’ ya wanna do, then we’re right behind ya,” she says. “Vi’s not gonna be happy about it, that’s fer sure, but she won’t do nothin’ ta hurt ya, either. I know it.”

The tension in her shoulders relax with her sigh as Clementine nods.

“I know, and you’re right. I’m tired of this. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life avoiding her when I can try and make things right. Maybe we won’t ever be friends again, but we can at least be on speaking terms." Clementine looks to her ring once more. “Louis will want her at the wedding, and if she isn’t there because of me…”

“Do what ya can, Clem,” Ruby smiles, placing a comforting hand on Clementine’s shoulder. “Just... promise you’ll be careful?”

“I will.”

“Fucking shit,” Mitch hisses under his breath, rubbing both hands over his face in frustration. “If you’re actually serious, then you’re not going alone. I’ll go with you and make sure she doesn’t pull anything.”

“I don’t think that’s a great idea,” Ruby objects. “Yer not exactly sensitive when it comes to stuff like this.”

“Fuck off, I can be sensitive,” Mitch snaps. “I mean- Not that I’d- ... It’s better if someone goes with her and last I checked, you’re supposed to be on watch with Aasim right now. And don’t you have a plan to share, too?”

Ruby hesitates, turning to Clementine with concern.

Clementine can see why Mitch tagging along wouldn’t be ideal, but she had to admit that having a backup would make her feel a little bit better. Even if he merely escorted her to Violet’s room or made it known that he was only there to keep things from escalating to a boiling point- which, again, Mitch isn’t the ideal candidate for this role- it’d make her feel better.

Then again, Violet might be doubly pissed to see Mitch, as well. If there’s anyone she despises as much as Clementine, it’s Mitch.

“You don’t have to-” Clementine starts, only to have him raise his hand.

“Yeah, I don’t have to do anything,” he frowns. “But, I’m gonna anyway.”

That gets a smile out of her.

“And you won’t threaten her?”

He stares, then lowers his head in defeat.

“I won’t say nothin’ unless I gotta.” Then, he turns to Willy. “You okay to clean this place up yourself?”

“Yeah, no problem,” Willy smiles.

“Well, ehm, guess I’ll get Aasim and James and tell ‘em ‘bout the plan,” says Ruby. “Vi should be in her room. She usually turns in early when she doesn’t have watch.”

Before leaving, Ruby turns to Mitch with one final warning, “Be nice.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

The feeling’s back, twisting in Clementine’s gut and accelerating her heart.

With that, they leave the basement.

---

The music room is filthy.

Usually, Louis doesn’t notice or even pay much attention to the cleanliness of any room within the school due to the fact this everywhere is dirty. It doesn’t matter how much Ruby pushes or how many times Aasim scolds them for leaving messes wherever they go, the school will never match the cleanly standards it had prior to the end of the world.

They have more important things to think about anyway, right?

Or maybe they just can’t be bothered.

Perhaps both.

But when he sat at the piano, fingers playing the keys he knew by heart, he noticed a thick layer of dust settled on the worn wood.

Swiping a finger across the top left him absolutely disgusted. To be honest, he can’t remember the last time he actually cleaned the piano, but given that the layer of dust is thick enough to make actual dust bunnies out of, it’s been a while.

In fact, the music room is kind of a disaster.

And he needs a better distraction anyway.

Sorting through the records he kept, he picks a classic record to play at random and gets to work.

Within an hour, he’s already filled an old cardboard box with the trash that once occupied the floor, the tables, and everywhere else that garbage built up over years. Old soda cans, soiled books, broken shards of glass by the windows- all gone.

Louis wipes down the piano with an old T-shirt he oddly found beneath the couch. Pictures from what looks to be a pirate comic fill the front of the shirt and for the life of him, he can’t remember whose shirt this is. Or was.

He knows he’s seen it before, knows someone wore it… someone not around anymore.

Shit.

Nevermind, he doesn’t want to think about that right now. Pushing that thought out of mind, he continues wiping away the dust. While the piano would always be worn, defaced, and out of tune, he still loved it and should remember to keep better care of it.

So many memories were made sitting here.

Most good, some bad.

Memories of him sitting there with clumsy fingers, young and untrained, awaiting his cue from Minnie as she finished jotting down lyrics to their song.

“Nevermind the darkness, nevermind the storm-”

Memories of him entertaining Tenn when he was scared of a thunderstorm, or playing something silly to make Violet smile.

Memories of him and Clementine the night of the delta attack.

“You are super cute.”

“Cute? Wow, uhm-”

Their first kiss.

Louis runs his finger over their initials encased in a heart, carved by Clementine’s own hand that night right before he opened up to her, thanked her for being with him despite… well, everything.

God, it seems so far away.

Since then, more memories have festered within these walls, here at the piano.

“For once, I don’t think you’ve thought this through.”

“Why?”

Satisfied with his work, Louis tosses the shirt away. He slips off his jacket, setting it over the arm of the couch before placing himself comfortably at the piano once more.

“First of all, it’s going to take us a million years to build all nine-hundred floors. Second, we’re going to need so much paint, and even with all of us helping, it’s going to take us two million years to paint it all! Third, nine-hundred floors means-”

“Nine-hundred and fourteen.”

A deep breath.

“Excuse me, nine-hundred and fourteen floors means this house is going to be high up in the stars- literally in space!- and you yourself said that you hate climbing stairs. Do you know how many sets of stairs we’re going to need to make it to the top?”

“We’ll have an elevator.”

“That goes through the whole place?”

“Yep. Up, down, and sideways.”

“That’s ridiculous. I love it.”

Eyes close.

Clementine laughs, pushing against his shoulder as he shakes his head. Whether his chuckle is due to the madness of Clementine’s floor plan, or because her fingers continue to purposely play the wrong keys, he doesn’t know anymore.

“Then, what about a slide?” she suggests. “A big metal slide that loops around and brings you from top to bottom in seconds.”

“I like it, I like it,” he ponders, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Except, that won’t help us in actually getting to the top.”

The cool air blows in through the open window, flickering the flames of his candles and kissing the warmth of his cheeks.

“What’ll be at the top, anyway?” she asks. “What’ll be worth climbing all those stairs to see?”

“I don’t know, but it has to be something special.” He thinks about it for a moment. “What do you want?”

“Me?” she asks.

Pulling her hand off the keys, holding it in his own, he asks, “What do you want at the top?”

Another deep breath.

“I don’t know.”

“C’mon, Clem,” Louis urges. “Anything you want. Name it.”

She stares down at their linked hand, eyes drift shut as she thinks.

“Well… we have to have that skylight, right?”

“Obviously, but that’s something I wanted, remember?”

“Well, I want one, too. If we’re going to be up in space, I want to see it. Imagine seeing the moon that up close.”

“Maybe we’ll have aliens tapping on our roof.”

“I hope so.”

He kisses her forehead, then her cheek, whispering in her ear, “What do you really want, Clementine?”

Louis’ fingers move effortlessly.

His soft lullaby fills the air.

“A tree,” she says firmly. “An apple tree with bright red Honeycrisps, right in the corner, and it’s roots throughout the floor, and-” she grabs his hand, comparing it to hers by pressing their palms together, “- a piano in the center. Any kind you want.”

Their fingers lace together.

“A glossy, grand piano. Mahogany- the color of leaves in autumn,” he brushes a curl from her face, “unbreakable and always in tune.”

“And you’ll teach me to play?”

“You willing to climb nine-hundred and fourteen floors every day for your lessons?”

“Of course.”

It’s been a long time since he’s thought of their home- rather, their outrageous dream house that was inspired by the depressing story of how his own parents didn’t get to finish building their new home.

A royal purple, nine-hundred and fourteen floor mansion with a treehouse, a skylight, and an apple tree growing on the top floor. Several pools, movie theatres, pizza parlors, bedrooms, bathrooms with hot tubs and full body showers, aquariums, roller parks- and even with all those things, they still have plenty of room left.

Louis knows the possibility of that mansion coming to fruition is lower than low, they both know that, but it doesn’t make it any less fun to imagine.

How many nights did they stay up in bed discussing what kind of statue they wanted for the fountain, or what shade of purple they’d paint their bedroom, or how many dogs they would adopt, or if they were going to make Mitch sleep in the treehouse rather than giving him his own room?

Louis stops playing, chuckling to himself.

It’s been a long time since he’s played by himself happily, or since he’s thought of composing a brand new song. Usually, when he’s down here so late by himself, it’s to calm down after an all-consuming nightmare-

No.

Don’t think about that.

Don’t think.

“An apple tree with bright red Honeycrisps, right in the corner, and it’s roots throughout the floor...”

Maybe he can’t build Clementine an outrageous purple mansion, but he can write her a new song.

As Louis becomes lost in the music, a brief thought runs through his mind.

Finally... a nice night.

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

Text

Survey #306

i’m v talkative today so pardon my jabbering below.

What is the strangest type of candy you have eaten? I think I've had one of those lollipops with a bug in it before as a kid? I don't remember. What would be your most ideal profession? A freelance photographer. But I'm honestly starting to lose hope. Have you tried those coloring books for adults? Yeah; it's funny you mention 'em, 'cuz a family friend got me one for my birthday earlier this month. What is a topic you definitely don't want to talk about with anyone? I don't like talking about my sexual history, doesn't matter who you are. It's just uncomfortable. What was your first gaming console? An Atari. Is there something you're eagerly waiting for? What is it? *SLAMS FISTS ON TABLE* MAY NEEDS TO FUCKIN' HURRY. My tattoo appointment is set then. :''') Do you/have you ever belonged to an organization? If so, which one? I was a Girl Scout when I was young. What is something you're very passionate about? Nature conservation, gay rights (equal rights in general, really), the pro-choice movement, and then there are less "important" things like certain hobbies interests and such. I'm sure there are more big ones that are just slipping my mind right now, considering I feel passionately for a shitload of stuff. What are you studying or what was the last thing you studied? I majored in Art & Design with a focus on Photography in college. But guess who dropped out. What was the last present you gave someone? I don't know... I mention enough that I don't have a source of income where I can really buy anything. I think the last thing I did was a Christmas gift for Mom a year or two back of a drawing I did of our late dog Cali, whom she absolutely adored. Do you enjoy plays? If so, what was the latest one you saw? Not really, no. What was the last thing you achieved? PHP has helped me focus on little victories, so prepare for an underwhelming answer haha, but it's something. I Facebook messaged an old friend I really wanted to catch up with, and everyone in group cheered for me. :') It was really heartwarming. What a shocker that this program is really helping me once again. What is something you would like to achieve at some point in your life? I would love love love to take at least one "famous" or award-winning photograph. It'd be such amazing validation that I'm talented at something I love so much. What is one philosophy you have regarding life/living/purpose? That's... difficult to answer seeing as I'm trying desperately to find my purpose. I do try to live by this old quote a therapist said once: "Deal with life, or life deals with you." I think it holds an incredible amount of depth and meaning in such a short phrase. How would you design the inside of your own home? I don't know the details of it, really, besides that shit is gonna look like a Halloween house year-round. I can imagine wanting black furniture, too, and having loooots of decor expressive of what I love and find comfort in. Gotta make a house feel like a home just for me. What is a band you remember liking from your childhood? Backstreet Boys, duh. Do you ever get mad at people for not having the same opinion as you (i.e. abortion being wrong/right, meat-eating being wrong/right)? Two things: it depends on the topic, and "get mad" is the wrong term for what I feel. It's more disgust; ex., I'm repulsed by anti-gay rights people and want absolutely nothing to do with 'em, but I'm not like, mad at them. Do you edit any of your pictures? In what ways? Oh yeah, and it definitely depends on the raw photograph. I edit depending on the mood it emanates; like if you've seen my roadkill photography versus nature shots, there is an extremely distinct difference in editing style and vibe. I'd say in general though, I tend to like to brighten my photographs and add more vibrance. If you like to take pictures, what is your motivation? God, I could write an essay on this. I just love and am so thankful for the fact we can literally freeze time forever with the click of a button and look back on fantastic sights, beautiful moments, memories... It's just magical to me, and I adore contributing to that art. Would you ever consider living anywhere cold? Well yeah, that's my preference, actually. What is your absolute favorite food? The spicy shrimp fritas from Olive Garden, jfc. Would you ever wear snake-skin pants, or other animal clothing? Fuck to the absolute hell no. What foreign country would you like to go to for a shopping spree? Idk, considering I'm not well-versed in the artistic creations of other countries. Perhaps India? Japan? I dunno. If you met your favorite musician, what would you ask him/her? I'm asking for his fucking autograph and a hug while I smile my face in two AND cry lmao. What do you spend most of your day thinking about? I ain't gonna bullshit nobody, my PTSD. In some way or another, he's lurking in that head of mine through memories, flashbacks, wonders of what could have gone differently... but thank God it's no longer in the forefront of my mind after my first PHP. I've come very, very far, but especially when trying to blank out my mind to fall asleep, parts of PTSD strangle my brain until I'm just finally out. I really hope that changes someday. Where is a busy place you would like to go to? Yikes, nowhere, really. I like to avoid busy locations. Do you think video games cause people to become violent? Absolutely not. You are responsible for the decisions you make; music, games, movies, etc. have no deciding voice in stupid shit you do, and it's bullshit that people blame art and entertainment for such things. Vocabulary: What was the last word you learned? I'm unsure. Have you or could you build your own site? Absolutely not from scratch. The closest I've gotten to that is my photography website, but it was through the assistance of Wix. What's the best thing you can cook yourself? Scrambled eggs, haha. I do make some bomb eggs at least. Are there a lot of graffiti around your neighborhood? No. Do you have a hobby that forces you out of the house? If so, what is it? Nature photography. Would you stop eating meat, if you had to raise and slaughter it yourself? Absolutely. God, I want to go vegetarian again... Besides English, what other languages can you speak? I can speak a very little bit of German. Took four semesters of it in high school and became very good at it, but lack of practice has pretty much ruined that. Besides English, what other languages can you read? I can read German well; as in, I can pronounce most words I see, but that doesn't mean I understand what is written. Do you think you could make it as a chef? Gordon Ramsey would deadass kick me off his show on day one, lmao. What's your favorite kind of tea? It marvels me JUST how many tea and coffee questions are in surveys. Anyway, I don't like tea. I am an embarrassment to NC culture. What thing/person/happening has made you the happiest you've been? lask;dfjal;wekrjwe What's the most freeing thing you've ever done? Stealing my happiness back from someone who had no right to hold it all in its entirety. That shit's mine. Do you think today's kids are really impatient? Most, probably, but in some ways I can understand it - at least, in the sense that with the assistance of modern technology and advancements in satiating our wants so quickly, kids just expect it. I definitely believe that patience is something to try to be deeply instilled in everyone, though. I don't have an ounce of it (in most situations) and wish I did. Have you ever tasted birch sap? No. How about the young buds/shoots of spruce trees? No. Which edible flowers have you tasted? One of my favorite Southern experiences is finding a bunch of honeysuckles and tasting the honey (is it technically even honey??). Tastes amazing. My family's hairdresser lives down a beautiful path that sprouts a massive amount of them, and as kids, my sisters and her two boys would go tasting them while our parents talked for so long, or if we were waiting our turn. Good memories. What has been your worst restaurant experience? I'm not sure, really. What's the most immature, adolescent thing that still makes you laugh? "Inappropriate humor type jokes." <<<< They can get me sometimes, too. Have you ever had a life-threatening condition? If so, what was it? No, thankfully. Have you ever had a custom print done on a shirt? If so, what was it? I don't believe so, no. Besides making a tye-dye one in HS with our school colors. Wasn't my idea and never wore it, haha. Do you ever read other people's survey answers? It depends on the person. If it's a friend, absolutely, because I love learning usually obscure things about them I wouldn't have known otherwise. If it's a user I don't know from wherever I got the survey, sometimes, depending on how short the answer is and my eyes kinda just scroll over it. Do you like daytime or night time better? Why? Daytime, especially mornings. I'm generally happier when there's light around. What's your highest level of education so far? Some college. Describe your ordinary day: My average day is embarrassingly uneventful. It's sitting on the laptop doing shit on various sites, none of which are actually important, and playing WoW, which is also without true substance, save for social interactions with my friends on there. I spray Venus' terrarium everyday multiple times as well to keep the humidity up, and obviously eat and handle that kinda bodily needs stuff. Would you ever have a UV tattoo? Ugh, that'd be so dope. I've seen some awesome ones, but idk if I'd get one, considering when am I actually going to be under UV light?? Like I wanna be able to see my tat. What is the brand and color name of your favorite lipstick? I have one black lipstick, but it comes right off so I don't even like it. I only ever put it on to take pictures. What do you like on your tortilla? Just ham and cheese. How about inside your pita bread? I've never had pita bread, actually. What do you like in your burger? It depends on where I'm getting the burger. My basic is cheese, ketchup, mustard, a bit of mayo, pickles, and a light sprinkle of diced onion, but sometimes I add bacon and take away the onions. How about on your pizza? I have three I tend to pick from: pepperoni, jalapeno, or meat lovers. Do you work better alone or in a group? Alone, definitely. Which body part would you not mind losing? I'ma be extremely honest, with just how horribly weak my legs are, I could live without them, I guess. Not saying I want to by any means, it's just exhausting using them. Ideally, I'd take away something minor, like a finger or something. What common saying people use is absolute BS to you? “'Everything happens for a reason.'” <<<< Fuckin' colossal "same." I won't rag on people who believe it, especially if it gives you courage to keep moving forward, but I don't believe it in the slightest. If it were so, I'd like to talk to whoever is in control of those "reasons," please. What is the most interesting thing you’ve read or seen this week? I had no idea elephants were pregnant for two years, like holy shit, can you imagine. It was in an article I saw on Facebook about a mother and daughter elephant who are both expecting and doing well. Wonderful to hear. What’s the most useless talent you have? Ha, I'm a master in the arts of catastrophizing and jumping to conclusions involving people hating me in one way or another. What’s something everyone looks stupid doing? I'm one of those people who hate dabbing done by anybody, like you look like you're just smelling your armpit. Which kids’ movie scarred you for life? I wouldn't say "scarred me for life" by any means, but when I was little, I was terrified of the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz and even had nightmares about her. It sucked because my little sister was obsessed with that movie, haha. In one sentence, how would you sum up the Internet? A source of incredible knowledge but also hate and misinformation. What would be the most ridiculous thing for the government to make illegal? I literally dread the idea of Roe vs. Wade being reversed. Banning abortion would kill so many people with operational uteruses and cause absolute pandemonium. How many friends do you have on social media and how many of them do you know for real? On Facebook, I have 124 friends, and I'd say I know most of them "in real life." However, having been on the Internet since I was so young and befriending loads of incredible people, a good chunk are "online friends." Hell, I'm more interested in their lives than most "real" ones. Long-distance friendships are so valid. What fact amazes you every time you think of it? Lots of things, generally regarding the stupidity of humanity. What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done? Probably going to the beach w/ my old friend Colleen. We had zero plans of doing it, but she just called me one morning and asked if I wanted to go, and off we went. It was a fun day. What has taken up too much of your life? I'ma be real, WoW. I don't think I'm addicted to it like I once was seeing as I go through spans where I barely want to play it at all and don't, so I truly am capable of not playing it, but rather it's just the most entertaining way to kill time in my life. I just don't like how much time I've invested into a game over six or seven years regardless. Where do you not mind waiting? Uh, nowhere lmao. Is there an app you hate to use, but still use every day? No; why would I use it if that was the case? Who is the funniest person you know? My friend Girt is fucking hysterical. What three words describe you best? Complex, passionate, and creative. What makes you think you’re smart? Lol who says I think I'm smart? Who inspires you? Korean Jesus. Okay on a serious note, not just him, of course, but he's #1 in an entire universe of ways. Do you aspire to be like somebody else? If so, who? No; I want to be my own authentic self. How did you meet your best friend? YouTube, back when it had more social aspects. Which one of your accomplishments are you the most proud of? I want to say my recovery, but like... I wonder a lot if it's "enough" to be proud of with how scarred I still am? I still struggle with a lot and feel like I could be so much better by now if I tried harder. If I'm completely honest with myself, I think it's finishing high school in the top percentile of my graduating class. There was a ceremony for the handful of us and all, and I cherish my plaque probably too much. Reminds me of a time when I knew what the fuck I was doing. What's the strangest thing you ever did as a child? Thinking I had "animal powers" where I could invoke the traits of certain animals at will, like what the actual fuck, Brittany. What did your mother teach you? Christ, a lot. Dad didn't do a lot of the raising, honestly, so much of my core values and whatnot were instilled by my mother. She taught me to care for and be nice to others, respect myself, try my best in everything, and most importantly that she is always there for me and my sisters no matter what and can tell her absolutely anything. She was very serious about us going to college and saving sex for marriage when we were younger, but she diverged from those ideas as absolutely necessary with experience. I'm extremely lucky with who I call my mom, overall. What did your father teach you? Eek... Read above. Not a lot as a kid (save for riding a bike and playing softball); most he's taught me has come following reuniting with him after my parents' divorce. I remember we went to lunch once and talked about my breakup, and he talked to me about sometimes, you just have to let people go in order to be happy, like with him and Mom. He's very serious now about ensuring us girls know that he is always there for us and will help us in any way he's capable. What makes you feel powerful? "Powerful" isn't something I really feel, if I'm being real. What are you ready to let go? It would be inexplicably fantastic if I could let every speck of Jason go in both my head and heart. What is your most bizarre deal-breaker? I don't really find any of my expectations and limits as "bizarre?" They're all valid to me. Well wait, idk if you'd find it strange that I absofuckinglutely would not date someone who hunts, but it's not to me. That's a difference in a very serious value to me. Would you rather be hated or forgotten? Hated. God, I don't want to leave this earth having given just nothing. I can live with some people hating me for whatever reason. What’s the biggest personal change you’ve made? Accepting my bisexuality, probably. That's something that I consider pretty big for two reasons: 1.) I could end up with a woman forever, and especially 2.) I was originally homophobic. I still have difficulty in fathoming how I ever was. What are some of your short-term goals? PHP is finally starting to make me build these again. I want to get better at selfcare, draw, write, and read more, I want to drink a lot more water, exercise way more... Lots of things, really. What is the weirdest thing about you? Uh. I dunno. Probably that I RP meerkats, which is a very obscure RP niche for sure.

#survey #surveys #questions

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hermitcraftheadcanons · 4 years

Text

To Do List:

What's up, my Herd of Nerds?

Anyway, as you can tell, tomorrow is AU Sunday. But, because it's one after a 'my input' one, it's a follower input AU day! Yay!

So, send me your AUs and I'll put all of em in a hat to pick one randomly. The winner is picked and posted and we'll all try and make headcanons about your AU.

Done:

Zombie Apocalypse AU :: (https://hermitcraftheadcanons.tumblr.com/post/618314308275863552/zombie-apocalypse-au-masterpost)

Pirate AU ::

Currently In The Raffle:

-Toy Story AU.

-Ever After High/Descendants/Vaguely 'nex gen priness' AU.

-Eldritch Horror AU :: Or if that's a bit too out there, a more normal Monster AU. I don't care, but in my heart, I know Cleo is some kind of eldritch horror. Zombie is far too easy.

-Eldritch Monster AU! Hermits are all Lovecraftian horrors who all individually decided that they wanted to pretend to be normal and are all trying to hide their otherworldliness. I also feel like Mumbo or X or someone as the one actually "normal" player on the server would work well. Most hermits don't know that everyone else isn't normal either, but some find out about friends maybe.

-Rabid Debate Club AU :: Random weird au idea where it's basic hs/uni au but like two of them try to start a debate club, then invite some friends just so there's enough people; cut to like two months later, it's all the hermits just fighting over whether or not pineapple should go on pizza or not lol it isn't very good i'm sorry but ya know rabid debate club AU.

-Animal/shapeshifting AU :: (Suggested Twice.) Every hermit can shapeshift into one token animal. (If it's something like "dog," they can only turn into one breed and color of dog, EXAMPLE: doc can shift into a black sable belgian malinois, but not anything else.)

-Wedding Planners AU :: Hermits work in various unrelated businesses such as a bakery, flower shop, etc., but see each other semi-often bc they're semi-often called upon to work together by another hermit's wedding planning business (obvs if you couldn't tell i know absolutely nothing abt wedding planning & businesses n shit lol but it's the /concept/ of it yannknow)

-Avatar: The Last Air Bender AU. (Suggested Thrice.)

-Fusion AU :: (Also suggested by Anon.) (Suggested Twice.) What if Hermits could fuse with each other? (Viva and Jumbo fused into MumboJumbo.)

-SCP AU :: The hermits have spooky powers and are kept locked up bc of it (or they have to keep the world safe from monsters and cursed objects!)

-RPG AU :: I feel like someone already thought of that but I am just wondering about it lately :p -🍋

-Adventure Time AU :: The hermits live in a post-apocalyptic world and the Lich (bad guy) is making everything decay. They need to gather all the gems (belt colours) to unlock the Enchiridion (a book) and have one wish each granted from Prismo (multiverse wish granting dude) before the Lich does. Only 4 elements can enter the multiverse: Slime (The Lich & Jevin), Redstone (Tango or Mumbo?), Ice (Stress), and Dirt (Grian, much to his dismay). Only the elementals can see the book. Grian's the protagonist with his sidekick Scar. He originally started collecting the belts because they were shiny but eventually decided to read the book and find out what they were for when Scar said he didn't see it. Doc, False, and Iskall are major obstacles because they don't believe the book exists.</p>

-Total Drama Island AU.

-Magical Girl AU :: Zedaph's the lead magical girl and rounds up a bunch of other magical girl hermits.

-Pokeman AU :: What are the Hermit's roles in this world? Who's the Champion, Elite Four. Are they scientists? Trainers? Do they compete in competitions, do they specialize in types? Who's everyone's starter? Has anyone encountered any legendaries?

-College AU

-High School AU

-Wizard101 AU :: I (🦊) recently got this AU idea and recently started going off somewhere with it in terms of writing, but, like, Hermitcraft meets Wizard101. Tons and tons of magical shenanigans, monster hunting, and idk what else.

-Magic AU

-My Hero Academia AU :: Headcanons can be about which hermits would have what quirks and occupations based on them.

-So I'm writing an AU where there's a second game of Demise but 5 years later. So far the first 2 hermits (Joe and Xisuma) have died, and their dead forms are cracked with an arrow in his chest (Xisuma) and cyborg (Joe). So since it's Saturday, I'm looking for what some skins would look for.

-City AU :: I mean this is really just a normal everyday AU.

-School AU.

-Terraria-Minecraft Fusion AU :: Who chooses what class? what events do each hermit prefer? how to they deal with the world infections? preferred biomes? Favourite NPCS? It has potentiallllll.

-70s/80s Teen Horror AU :: (like Stranger Things, Carreie, The Lost Boys, Halloween, etc.) -🦇

-Demi-God AU :: Sort of like percy jackson (everyone being the children of different gods from all different cultures.)

-Supernatural AU

-Marching Band AU :: Xisuma is the band major and all the show music is the remixes. I need to come up with some ideas for uniforms. Outfits and flags for the colorguard too.

-Different Eras AU :: (Suggested Twice.) All the hermits are from different time periods or eras. Like Wels is from the mediveal/dark era, Mumbo is from 1890-1920's, Iskall is from 2030, TFC is from 2020(?), Cleo is from 2130, etc!!! Like the mobs/animals became feused with humans, is when the mob players came from.

-Star Trek AU :: Like maybe they could be on one ship and each have different roles like engineers or doctors? I don’t know if this has been suggested but hope you enjoy! - 🐦

-House Mates AU :: ApartmentAU but scaled down?

-Atlantis AU :: (Could be merged with Mermaid AU???)

-Fighting Game AU :: Some influences would be Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Ultra Instinct, that kind of stuff.

-Time loop AU :: The hermits each have to deal with their own time loop.

(All those above in red are from our community's lovely Anons!)

-Superhero/superpower AU :: They each have a unique power/powerset that is in some way connected to their personality. (ie Mumbo *could* control electricity because of his love of redstone) Some Hermits may even choose to be "villains" and prank their other servermates. If you need power ideas, I've got a couple. (12u3ie)

-Daycare AU :: The recap peeps are the caretakers :P (-@tikauniverse.)

-Incredibly Long Cross Country Train Ride AU :: they all are in the same train car, telling stories of where they’re going, backstories.)

-Stuck In An Airport AU :: pretty similar to train au but they can be going diff places.

-Doctors AU :: they’re all doctors working at the same hospital.)

-Circus AU (Also suggested by an Anon.) (Suggested Twice.)

-Spy AU (Also suggested by @shadeswiftdraws.) (Suggested Twice.)

-Runaways AU :: The hermits are all teenagers who have run away from home, they all live on the streets until TFC takes them in. Head canons can be about backstories, living on the streets, or when they’re with TFC.

-Criminals and Police Officers AU

(-@lookitsspacekween)

-Dancer AU :: I mean, I already got a list kind of planned out, but headcanons for why specific styles are chosen would be appreciated! :) (usedtobelucythefallenangel)

-Broadway/Musicals Hermits AU :: The hermits are all casts of various musicals and when this newly-built theater opens up they all fight for which musical gets to play in it first (they have a riff-off maybe?) musicals mainly included are Hamilton, BMC, DEH, SiX, Beetlejuice, etc (feel free to add more!) (-@heyitsroby.)

-DnD AU (Also suggested by Anon.) (Suggested twice.)

-Mermaid AU :: In honor of the end of Mermay

-Space exploration AU :: There could be different ships, command centers, aliens.... Maybe someone could even get stranded/crash on a new planet? Who knows, could be fun.

-Paranormal/ghost hunter AU :: A couple Hermits could be the ghost hunters going to haunted locations to prove/disprove their hauntedness, others could be camera crew, owners of haunted buildings, or even the ghosts themselves.

-Camping/Vacation AU.

-Summer Cottage AU :: They all spend summers/weekends along the same shoreline and do different summer activities together. Outdoor fun and shenanigans!

-Space AU :: like star trek or similar.

-I would say evil clone au but I think that's pretty much the entire Hermitcraft tumblr right now lol. (Suggested twice.)

(-@shadeswiftdraws.)

-Magic AU :: Magic exists and all the hermits have powers. They can also summon a weapon but what that weapon is depends on the hermit. I'm thinking it'll take place in a sort-of Demise 2 in S7 with a big war. So far I've got: Grian - Cloning himself to his different personas (each has a different power). Xisuma - Making barriers, teleporting, and transforming into different mobs. Scar - Making mutant plants & boosting other hermits' attack & health. (-@datsaltyperson.)

-Demon AU :: Something enters the overworld and turns into a supernatural style-demon through Dimentional Distortion. Who gets posessed first, who goes crazy, and who actually kills it? Honestly I think that, if anything, Tango would know how to gank it, for obvious reasons. (-@fireflower-dusk.)

-High Street AU :: Everyone owns a different shop on the same street or some run a shop together (-@violets-arepurple.)

-Cat AU :: Either they're were always cats, or Hels turned everyone, including himself, into a cat, and they have to survive and overcome challenges in the Season 7 world. An example of a challenge would be Cub's a Sand Cat(the cats that always look like kittens no matter how old they are and live in deserts), and everyone's not sure if he can actually swim, so they have to find a way for him to get around without involving water. (-@scp10000.)

-How about a secret AU.. Every hermit has their big secrets and when Grian joined. He doesn't really know anything about those secrets even till season 7. Not many hermits talked to him in S6 anyway.. Mumbo was the closest to him so they would have regular chats For Iskall is mostly business related things Grian wants to know why so he set out on a quest to force the others to at least talk to him so he wouldn't be lonely. (-@babylightstudentbiscuit.)

-Hermit Family AU :: Xisuma is very busy dad but when he isnt busy the kids and younger hermits annoying the hell out of him. Grian once asked to use Xisuma's computer and crashed the whole thing trying to download illegal gamesites and get money off the internet. Mumbo and his trains run through the entire house and Xisuma trips on them daily. (-@gamerutx.)

-College AU!! But they are not students. THEY ARE THE TEACHERS (-@ivi-prism.)

Ones I planned to do anyway but Hermitblr Hivemind and all that:

Battle of The Bands AU: i believe u once mentioned a bands/ battle of the bands au... thats my jam... (Anon.)

#hcraft #hermitcraftheadcanons #raffle day #notaheadcanon #masterpost #au to do list

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