#Forced Shopping

[blankdblank]

Poke Pt 6 - Emergency Threads

Storm has passed finally and here is the next chapter of the saga! :) If you guys feel up to it let me know how you’re liking the story so far. 

Ch 6 on ao3

...

Just keeping this post up for picture references :)

[hussyknee]

my disabled ass, after (1)good day: "obviously I am cured. in fact it may have all been in my head. who can say? now to rejoin society!"

me, the next day: "it has come to my attention that i may be chronically ill."

[theminecraftbee]

the more I see of the hermit permits the more I find a very specific thing hysterical: the way it bans mega shops. everyone is going “oh yeah, of course, like the barge or ibuy” about that, which is totally fair. but the thing that is FUNNY about this is that it also technically bans mumbo and iskall from making another ill-conceived redstone department store named after a geographical feature of the planet. they’re depriving my guys a way to lose money creatively by over-complicating everything. they’re depriving my guys of “well okay it doesn’t WORK but in THEORY this should be the one-stop shop for all your shopping needs”. rude, really. now they’re going to have to come up with a new way to be spectacularly bad at capitalism,

[luxaofhesperides]

For ghostlights: baby Ellie + tired Danny + Duke the baby whisperer?

He has no idea how his parents did it. 

Babies are exhausting. Toddlers more so. Any infants in the strange stage in-between? Doubly so. 

Ellie is wonderful and sweet and cute and such a terror that Danny genuinely has no idea how his parents managed to raise not one, but two kids. For all their eccentricities and absent-mindedness, he and Jazz turned out pretty well. Ignoring the whole halfa thing because that’s more his fault than theirs even if Jazz says they shouldn’t have created the dangerous environment in the first place.

That environment is exactly why Danny refuses to let Ellie go to his house in Amity Park. His parents say they’ve disabled all the weapons and ecto-sensors since he’s had to reveal himself as Phantom, but he knows that things slip their minds and if they can’t guarantee that the house is safe, then Ellie isn’t going in there. Simple as that. 

This means that they live somewhere else now. Danny had thought about it, during the hours Ellie was asleep and he was awake, exhausted and worn down to his bones, and took Jazz’s advice to accept Vlad’s offer of buying a house for him. Except he argued Vlad down to an apartment in a city of his choosing where he wouldn’t stand out too much and he would be safe, or as safe as he can be, from anyone trying to hunt down ghosts. 

So here they are. Standing in the empty living room of their new apartment in Gotham. 

Gotham may not be very safe as a city, but it’s good for two ghosts trying to pass as normal. 

Danny sighs yet again, and looks at the space he’ll need to fill. At least Vlad is footing the bill. It’s the least he can do for creating Ellie. Frostbite was the one who was able to stabilize her, though it was almost too late and resulted in her reforming as a baby, just one and a half years old. Jazz is the one who’s choosing most of the furniture, thankfully, so it’s something that Danny doesn’t need to worry about it.

It’s a new start to their lives and it feels so empty. So overwhelming. How did his parents do it? How do any parents do it?

Ellie smacks a small palm against his cheek and babbles lightly.

“I know, Ellie,” Danny says, giving her a tired smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll have this place looking good in no time.”

He adjusts her in his arms, then heads towards the bedroom. It’s the only room that has any furniture, and all that’s there is a bed, a crib, and a bookcase. There are a few boxes on the floor, labeled ‘bedroom’ and ‘clothing’ and ‘books’. Most of it came from his bedroom in Amity Park, but he’s pretty sure he caught Jazz sneaking a few things in before they closed the boxes and loaded them up into the car. 

“Can you be good for five minutes?” he asks Ellie. 

She babbles again and smacks his shoulder.

“I’m taking that as an agreement. Just let me open these boxes and start unpacking before you start causing trouble, okay?”

Ellie makes another sound, but it seems agreeable so Danny carefully lays her down in the crib and gets to peeling off the tape on the boxes. The opens the one labeled ‘bedroom’ first, finding blankets and sheets folded and stacked in vacuum sealed bags. One of them is his old childhood blanket, the one he carried around everywhere that was faded with age, barely blue, with white bunnies decorating it. 

He was so small when he had this. It makes him oddly emotional to unpack it and pass it on to Ellie, draping it over her so her pudgy little hands can grab at it. 

This is no time to cry, though! He forces himself to focus and makes his own bed, shaking out the sheets and fluffing up the pillows. He’ll worry about washing everything later; Vlad made sure to get an apartment with an in-unit washer and dryer, which means he was actually sensible while apartment hunting for Danny. 

He doesn’t mean to flop onto the bed once it’s made, but he ends up there anyways. He’s barely gotten a full six hours of uninterrupted sleep since Frostbite deemed Ellie healthy enough to leave his care. The drive up to Gotham was long and wore him down to his bones.

He doesn’t mean to fall asleep, but he does, drifting off as he wonders, distantly, when Jazz will be back from getting them dinner.

Ellie wakes him up at dawn with a loud cry. Danny jolts awake, heart pounding in his chest as he panics because Ellie isn’t here, she’s supposed to be in his arms, where is she? And then he sees the crib, where Ellie is staring at him through the bars, and he nearly collapses with relief. 

“Morning, El,” he says, voice rough from sleep, as he picks her up. She just stares up at him, then leans forward and rests her head against his shoulder.

It’s quiet moments like these that make his heart melt. Ellie’s had a hard life already; he wants to give her a better one, this time around. 

A quick check of the time on his nearly dead phone shows that it’s barely past six in the morning, and Jazz texted him a few times. All about furniture, saying that she didn’t want to wake them and that food is in the fridge. 

It’s only the mention of food that makes him realize how ravenous he’s feeling. Danny makes a beeline for the kitchen, ignoring everything else, and pulls out the boxes of take-out Jazz left stacked in the fridge. He devours it like he’s been starving for weeks, then gives Ellie her Ecto-Jello, the only food she’s allowed to eat until Frostbite gives the okay for solid, human food. 

Once he’s got her burped and cleaned up, Danny looks out of the kitchen and realizes that Jazz was very productive while he was asleep. The living room isn’t empty anymore; a dark green couch is against the wall, a low, rectangular coffee table made of dark wood in front of it. Two armchairs are on both sides of the couch, and a television has been installed, fixed into the wall. 

Jazz is asleep on the couch. Her legs hang off an armrest and she’s drooling slightly. 

Her phone is charging on the floor, so Danny takes it and snaps a picture of her for later teasing, then sends it to himself and writes a note to her that he’s going out with Ellie to explore the neighborhood.

He’s finally feeling more settled, energized from sleep and food.

In the warm dawn light spilling in through the windows, Danny looks down at Ellie and thinks that they’ll be just fine after all. 

. . .

Four months ago, Danny had hope. He was optimistic. 

Gotham was a fresh start, a new lease of life for Ellie. It is Danny’s attempt to be a single parent, sacrificing college for Ellie, and he’s planning to go out and beat the gangs black and blue if they start anymore shootouts in the next year.

He had just gotten Ellie to sleep. She was actually peacefully taking a nap.

And then a drive by shooter raced down the street, gunshots echoing down the road, and Ellie work up crying. She still hasn’t stopped, despite how Danny rocked her, soothing her as best he could.

They had been outside when Ellie fell asleep, her head on his shoulder. He had been catching up with Sam and Tucker when the car drove by, people ducking and crying out to avoid the bullets. Danny instinctively covered Ellie and made them both intangible, saving them from any stray bullets, but they ruined her nap and he needs to make them pay for that. 

“Shh,” he soothes, “You’re okay. We’re both fine. It’s okay, El, it’s okay.” 

Her little hands clutch at his back, twisting the fabric of his shirt, and she lets out a heartbreaking wail. He pats her back, hurrying down the street to get back to his apartment building, ignoring the looks people were giving them as they passed by. 

“I know it was scary, but you’re alright. You’re always safe with me, El.”

Ellie’s cries down down a little, but they don’t stop. She whimpers, burying her face against his shoulder as he finally reaches their apartment building.

The door’s locked, which wouldn’t be a problem except Danny can’t get his keys from his pocket. He knows he has them! But his pocket refuses to relinquish them and he has to stop every few seconds to pat Ellie’s back, trying in vain to calm her down. 

“We’ll be inside in a second,” he tells her, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice, “as soon as I can get these freaking keys!”

“Hey, you alright?”

Danny startles, whirling around so fast it makes Ellie go quiet, clinging to him so she doesn’t get flung into the air. There’s a guy standing before him in a gray hoodie, looking at him with clear concern. It speaks to Danny’s level of constant exhaustion that he hadn’t clocked someone sneaking up behind him. 

The guy offers an awkward smile. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you or anything. Um, do you need me to open to door? I live here too.”

Danny wonders for a moment if this someone dangerous, someone hoping to hurt Ellie, but she starts to cry again and he steps to the side. “Please. I can’t get my keys.”

“I’m Duke, by the way. I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“Danny,” he replies, watching as Duke pulls out a large key ring, jangling with the amount of keychains on it, and easily opens the door. “I’ve been here a few months, but I’m usually inside. Or walking around in the mornings with this little monster.”

“That would explain it,” Duke says as he holds the door open, letting Danny in first. “I’m usually in classes at GCU, but I decided to take a mental health day after my lab, so here I am.”

Danny walks in and waits for Duke to follow, making sure the door closes properly behind them. “Thanks. How is GCU? What do you study? I was thinking of going there myself once she gets a little older and can go to school.”

“Oh, I’m majoring in English and Human Services.” He goes to say more, but Ellie wails again and Danny winces.

“I’m so sorry. That drive by woke her up and it’s really rattled her.”

“Hey, no need to apologize. I get it, Gotham is rough to kids.”

Danny tries rocking her back and forth, but it doesn’t help. He resigns himself to another hour of her crying before she exhausts herself, and makes for the stairs, going up to the fourth floor. Duke holds open the door again, then follows after them. It makes Danny wonder if Duke is planning to do something to them, then decides he can beat Duke in a fight, so it’s fine.

Duke doesn’t try to hurt them or steal Ellie away. He opens the door to their floor and stops before they do. “I’m in here,” he says, “If you ever need me to open more doors.”

“Thanks. Um, actually, I might need help opening mine?”

Duke just smiles and makes his way back to them, following them farther into the hall until Danny stops in front of his apartment. 

“If I could just get my keys,” he starts.

“Here, let me hold her for a second so you can get them,” Duke offers. Danny wants to insist that it’s fine, but Ellie cries directly into his ear and Danny, at the end of his rope, passes her over. 

Like magic, Ellie settles as soon as she’s in Duke’s arms. She sniffles and hides her face away, clutching to Duke’s hoodie, but she stops crying. They both go still, surprised, and stare down at her. 

“Seriously?” Danny says as he finally pulls out his keys, “Are you trying to say that I’m the problem?”

Ellie babbles lightly, and Duke turns his head to futilely hide his grin.

He grumbles as he unlocks the door and pushes it open. Ellie is acting as if she’s never been upset before a day in her life, making herself at home in Duke’s arms. 

“I can’t believe this. Betrayed by my own blood.”

Duke laughs as he follows Danny into his apartment, lightly patting Ellie’s back. “It’s always the smallest, cutest ones that do this.”

“Yeah? Do you work with a lot of kids or something? Used to being betrayed by the little ones?”

“I don’t work with kids per se,” Duke says, “But my foster family is a hot mess and the youngest of them likes to keep us all on our toes.”

“Family,” Danny says in a tired, fond tone.

“Family,” Duke agrees.

With his door open and Ellie calm, Danny’s ready to just lay face down on the floor for the rest of the day and not deal with anything else. He moves to take Ellie back, holding his arms out, and Duke tries to pass her over.

The key word being tries. 

Ellie tightens her grip and kicks at Danny. She refuses to be taken away from Duke, making him awkwardly try to pry her off his hoodie. Danny really hopes Duke doesn’t notice how she goes slightly intangible to make his hands fall through her arms and legs. It shouldn’t be noticeable, but it’s hard to focus on anything but a kid that clings to you, so Danny holds out for Duke’s goodwill and silence.

“As nice as it is to meet you, you need to go back to your… parent?” Danny nods when Duke looks at him in askance. “You need to go back to your parent. Okay? Come on, kid, he’s waiting for you.”

Ellie shakes her head, makes a frustrated noise, and then turns and reaches out a grabby hand towards Danny. 

She still refuses to be taken from Duke when Danny tries to pick her up again, so he settles with just letting her hold two of his fingers. 

“I’m so sorry about this,” he says to Duke, face burning. This is why he hasn’t been going out and being social since he moved in; Ellie is a handful even on the best days, and Danny doesn’t want someone to judge him as unfit to parent her and have her taken away.

Duke shakes his head, stepping closer. “It’s all good, man. I don’t mind. It’s not like I had any plans today. I’m already skipping my classes, might as well spend it with you two than sleep all day.”

“Are you sure? I’d be happy to invite you in, but I know Ellie can be a lot and not everyone wants to spend their day off with a baby.”

“I’m sure. Besides, I’d just be down the hall anyways. It’s no skin off my back, man.”

“Well,” Danny says, stepping to the side to give Duke full access to his open doorway, “Come on in, then.”

Ellie keeps them connected, one hand in Duke’s hoodie and the other holding Danny’s fingers, and though her cheeks are still red from how hard she had been crying, she’s calm now with her eyes shining with mischief. 

As the door closes behind them, Danny realizes that this is the first time someone he’s not related to has been inside his apartment. Not even Vlad has come in, always choosing to invite Danny and Ellie out for lunch instead. 

It should make him nervous, but Duke is calm and easy going and kind. 

He’s making silly faces at Ellie to make her laugh, completely at ease with her in his arms, as if he’s done this a thousand times before. 

Gotham is a second chance at life for Ellie. It’s a sacrifice for Danny, to be alone and without friends or family around. He’d been ready to give up everything for Ellie, to focus solely on raising her, but with Duke filling his apartment with laughter, he thinks that he can make a life here too.

All he needs to do is take that first step, reach his hand out, ask Duke to stick around.

He can do this.

[iasminomarata]

*・°☆ let's go! *・°☆

[racewinnerlandonorris]

Got a date with Lando in a Chicken Shop this Friday

[casualavocados]

...Nothing.

Chen Bowen as CHEN YI & Chiang Tien as AI DI KISEKI: DEAR TO ME (2023)

[zombvivi]

little shoppa horrors bop sha bop

[rainybyday]

Hedera Helix (For Real this time)

P1 | P2

It ended with a hug. 

For better or worse, Jazz always knew that she would leave her family at one point. One day she will grow up to be an adult who will apply for college and finally leave her hometown away from the craziness that was her parents. Of course, she planned to call Danny more often than her parents, come back to help him with his college journey, and have an open door for him to visit her once she gained a job and an apartment. 

She just never expected him to leave her first. 

As the eldest sibling, there was always the instinctual need to protect her brother. Yes, she would get mad at him, yell at him, or even tease him but she would always drop everything if he is ever in danger. Her responsibility as an elder sibling was more than just blood to her, more than what her parents were to her.

She loves her parents, she truly does, but they weren’t good parents. Yes, they gave her food and clothing, encouraged her hobbies, and paid attention to her academic scores but they weren’t there. They didn’t tell her stories of the tooth fairy but instead of ghost essays and grave markers. They didn’t wait to hear about her new obsession with unicorns before explaining how they would dissect one. She didn’t even get to show off her grades in peace before they praised her intelligence in Science, not remembering how she told them how much she struggled in English class. 

She understood her parent's priorities were never about her but what would become of her. Not Jasmin the girl who made a mommy and daddy friendship bracelet but Jasmin the women who will carry their legacy. 

She didn’t want that for her brother, so she raised him to be someone free. She finger-painted with him on the sidewalk, taught him how to pillow fight, and played astronauts and aliens with him. She made a cardboard rocketship for him for Halloween, woke him up with a happy birthday song first thing in the morning, and caught fireflies with him. She paid attention to every little achievement and hugged him as much as she could. 

Danny was her baby brother, sibling, and her baby boy. He was everything to her, and even as a high schooler stressed with earning money on the side with her college career coming up she still will drop everything for him. 

And the day she found out that he was protecting her instead of the other way around broke something inside of her. 

She failed, in some twisted form of negligence and teenager carelessness she had lost her brother in more ways than one. 

And now she is losing him again, this time, she doesn’t know when she might see him again. 

God she didn’t want to cry, not now. She just needs to hold it in. Just for another minute and then she could cry once he was out of sight. 

Just give her one more minute. 

Only a minute and then she can let go. 

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

It was windy today, a nice breeze on a warm spring day. The echo of windchimes drifted about, and the sound of background chatter, and the rustling of trees greeted her again on this calm Sunday. 

Jazz took a moment to sigh, a heavy thing as the smell of musk and willow wood drew her back to memories she always conflicted with. 

Home, she was home again. The same day, same time as always. 

And as always she carried two baskets with her as she walked down the streets, waiting for the same occurrences that always happened ever since Danny left. 

It didn’t take long before a teenager spotted her with their friends. They waved at her with a smile and Jazz returned it with one of her own. Like clockwork, she greeted them, handing them each a blue petunia before heading off once more.

(Blue petunias, the sign of trust and serenity. A sign of hope that has yet to be lost.)

(Just like him.) 

Taking a cue from this, more people approached her as she handed them all a single petunia each. Adults politely thanked her, children were giddy as they showed their friends their gifts, and teenagers teased each other by tickling each other with soft petals. Whenever someone approached her she always handed them a petunia from the basket on her left. 

The basket on her right was never touched, yet it was noticeable when the flowers started disappearing slowly over time. Jazz didn’t panic, instead, she only smiled and gave well wishes to those who chose not to be seen. 

A long walk later, she finally arrived at her original destination with a hint of relief. As much as she was glad to give out her flowers, it was also exhausting to socialize with so many people. 

As she entered, she noticed how the sound of her footsteps should have been the only sound in the graveyard, but there were also sounds of whispers in the wind, a hum vibrating all around, and the distant prayers of visiting residences. 

To think that this part of town was once empty and eroding into nothing, now transformed into a clean and cherished part of Amity’s history. 

A hum of content passed through her lips as she walked with a purpose. It only took her a moment before she saw the grave she came to visit in the first place. Another moment was used to place the rest of the blue petunias on the grave before the Jazz sat down besides the grave. 

“Hey, Danny,” Jazz greeted. “I’m back! Missed me?”

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

Blue eyes snapped open with a bubble of joy radiating from the boy turned man. Making himself comfortable on the plush chair he sat on the man smiled into the empty air. 

“Hey, Jazz. You know I always miss you.”

P1 | P2

Hi! finally did it! I finally remade Hedera Helix into the direction I wanted! I know many of you were looking forward to have a second part of this story but to be honest, the first additon of it all felt so fourced and I hated it. And i mean HATE. So i decided to redo the whole thing into something I can have fun into making!

And I did! I love it! I hope everyone else is excited for this new remake of Hadera Helix as well as I am because I have never been so happy right about now!

Just-

Also- before I go on I want to address this before anyone might think anything funny.

"Danny was her baby brother, sibling, and her baby boy."

I know the "baby boy" line might make it seem as if Jazz is the one parenting Danny and is seen as a parental figure and it does. Kind of. The situation I am trying to portray is how sometimes when siblings are left without a parental figure majority of their lives they all turn to their elder sibling as a replacement for their parental figure. Not because they believe they may be their new mom or dad but because they need someone to care for them.

This is an actual situation that has happened to many families before and even to mine. I am the eldest of three siblings and once my family hit a financial struggle that forced my dad to work all day and my mom all night, making only 1-3 hours of their time spent on us. So this made me the main figure in my siblings' lives which affected me and them, to the point that they even called me Mom. Thankfully the situation only lasted three years and they no longer call me Mom and see me as their sister only. But sometimes we do slip so their effects linger.

So using my own experiences I used that to create this line as a way to express the negligence that both Danny and Jazz faced in this story. I hope that makes sense.

[jojo-schmo]

[The Forgotten Land Roleswap: Chapter Two 37-39]

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[corruptimles]

Grocery shopping, except one of them is significantly worse about it than the other (I know absolutely nothing about Mob but Reagan looks like he’d be a cringe fail loser at mundane things)

Understandable BUT a fun thing about Reigen is that he's actually really good at mundane things even with the cringefail energy

Mob and Serizawa are more anxious duo, and Serizawa specifically was isolated so he'd probably take a bit to get used to grocery runs

[zombiekitty33]

" the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence / and this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often do / in seemingly the most innocent and unlikely of places "

[angelclouve]

The overworked moms ghouls trio, on their way to go bar-hopping and taste-testing new liquors outside Darkwick :)

(because the dads and the children have stressed them enough today that they decided to hold the drinking session in places faraway from home oops)

Putting the silliness aside... if we only consider the different backgrounds and personalities, these trio are actually quite an unusual housewife friend group 🤔

Not counting the fact they entered Darkwick on the same year and knew each other's name during The Weighing of Souls... when and where they first actually meet and get to know each other? I can only think of them getting assigned to a mission together and it ended with a success, thus a celebratory drink in a bar somewhere outside Darkwick? And maybe as they spent time sharing alcohol and chatting with each other, they eventually also bonded through their similar experiences as people who always end up dealing with troubles happening inside their dorms 💭

(Speaking of "people who always end up dealing with troubles happening inside their dorms", there are two certain vice-captains that also fit this criteria... makes me wonder if they also used to be part of this friend group before The Clash and the whole spy shenanigans fucked up relationships among some ghouls)

[iasminomarata]

hello hello! 🎵⭐️

[weky-woof]

Autumn on PNF-404 brings the cold with it and the Pikmin spend more time inside their leader's strange onions... Louie shares meals with them on the occasion!

[malecaptions]

For those of you who aren't in America: H&M is a chain of clothes stores here. This story is just a little idea I often have when I see it.