#It's worse because the older kid enjoys the scary games
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hailqiqi · 2 years ago
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Rainbow Friends needs to fucking die
the fact that “hyper-marketable indie horror game aimed at children and youtubers who make videos for children” is like a whole genre now is kinda fucked right like what’s up with that
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its-just-hyper · 8 months ago
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Welp. @th3ratk1ng said they wanted all my opinions for bnha on that ask game( made by @/fintan-pyren) so
♥️the most egregiously mischaracterized character is either Izuku or Uraraka, easily. Many other common mischaracterizations are presented as aus or specified tropes (example: ao3 tags like ‘Bad Teacher Yagi Toshinori | All Might’ or ‘protective Bakugo Katsuki’ however Bakugo is also often overvillianized or oversympathised as well)
But Izuku was hit very very hard by fandomization/underswap!sans treatment/cinnamon roll too pure for this world/smol bean/woobification and while it’s gotten better as internet culture has left that, a lot of the older fandom content is like that. And Uraraka is a woman. So. Of fucking course fandom can’t handle her. (I might be biased cause I fucking love both of them. I feel like mischaracterization is hella common in this fandom in particular)
🧡a popular serious theory I disagree with is that I disagree with is Izuku and Shigaraki being related. I know, those are my blorbos ever, but yeah. I think their story (and purpose as character foils) is more compelling if they are unrelated, emphasizing that Izuku was ‘just some quirkless kid’, not somehow related to That Mess ™. (Trying to be vague for spoilers sake I guess but. Yeah.) I do enjoy the theory that AFO gave Shigaraki his quirk, but I have no stance on if it’s canon or not.
💛a popular ship I just can’t get behind fucking hate so much is fucking. Kaminari/Shinsou. Fuck that ship oh my god I can’t stand it at all. Literally no offense ever at all to shippers I’m not gonna go into y’all’s spaces and shit on your joy but I cannot stand this ship at all. It feels like they’re only shipped for their tropes and the fact that they’re both “leftover” from the shipping and also both boys. Like… I understand the parallels to erasermic but erasermic is so much better and you can just ship shindeku instead COUGH UH—-
💚I’ve already talked about Izuku quite a bit sooooo. Something that everyone else gets wrong about Shigaraki is that he isn’t just one thing. The fandom separates itself into “Shigaraki Tomura is evil and scary and intimidating and a threat” and “Shigaraki Tomura is a loser gamer nerd failure of a villan” and ALL OF THIS IS TRUE!!!!!!!! Let my boy be the contradiction he was made to be. He is intimidating AND immature and tactically smart while being a fucking nerd pleasepleasepleaseplease he is so much better if you let him be both
💙characters that I find not that hot? Dabi is not that hot. Yaourozu is not that hot. Aizawa is not that hot. Bakugo is not that hot. Todoroki Shoto is not that hot. Kai Chisaki is not that hot and has a stupid hairline. Uraraka is not that hot. I don’t think I find any of the characters actually very personally attractive, but that could be the aspec talking.
💜(opposite of above question) see previous.
🤍oh great peaks this is the question of the fandom, huh? “Character that isn’t as morally bad as everyone seems to think”? Well I. Don’t wanna start a fucking grease fire um. Okay this doesn’t really fit the question but. A common trope (especially for fics about Midoriya fix-its and getting justice for our favorite whump protagonist) is making All Might WAY worse than he is. Same with Midoriya Inko. Fics with either of these tropes are fine and good and I actually like a lot of them, but I always find it the best whenever the complexity of the situation is addressed.
Like. Sure, you can punish All Might for being a Quirkist asshole but it’s much more compelling to punish him and let him grow for his Quirkist actions brought up from his own trauma and seeing Midoriya through that lense. Sure you can punish Inko for not believing in her son enough to lie for his sake, or you can have the Midoriyas explore how even though her actions come from love, she hurt her son. Because mother/child relationships are ALWAYS going to be complicated.
🖤Which character isn’t as morally good? Fuck it, ALSO All Might. I don’t like it when All Might’s faults are completely glossed over. (sometimes in response to people doing what I talked about in the above paragraphs, sometimes just for that sweet sweet “Parental Yagi Toshinori | All Might” tag) As is. Probably a noticeable theme, you can put All Might in a good/familial/positive/heroic light while also acknowledging and letting him and Midoriya grow from his faults, and I actually prefer this significantly.
💖im not sure what constitutes as an unpopular opinion that I agree with, as I haven’t interacted with the modern fandom much, but here it goes. Villain!Midoriya Izuku is a very very very compelling idea, BUT most fan interpretations of it are very bad. You don’t need to vastly mischaracterize Midoriya to turn him into a villain, THATS why the idea is so appealing. As I’ve said over and over “pleasepleaseplease have more complexity in your bnha fan content PLEASE stop turning these characters into cardboard cutouts when there is SO. MUCH. POTENTIAL.”
💔Oh this one is hard as fuck, isn’t it. If I absolutely had to remove a major character from the series, it would be Gran Torino. AND SHUT UP I DONT LIKE THIS BUT HEAR ME OUT. Letting Midoriya figure out One for All without Gran Torino’s help would’ve been equally compelling. And shhhhh I’m not sure what constitutes a major or minor character in this show so I just picked someone important.
💕an unpopular ship that I like is Midoriya Izuku/Tokoyami Fumikage. As you might be able to tell, I have a habit of subbing in popular “broody/bubblegum”/“darkness/sunshine” ship dynamics to include Midoriya cause he’s my favorite 1A kid. And also I read a few really good fics for this due to Tokoyami content deprivation.
📖what book I would remove from the series had no answer
🏳️‍🌈again, I don’t really know what characters are commonly headcanoned as queer in the fandom, so here’s my maybe controversial queer bnha Headcanons. You will see a common theme. Arospec Midoriya, aroace Todoroki, gender nonconforming lesbian Yaourozu. Biromantic ace Shinsou, and uh. That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, I don’t usually make gender/sexuality Headcanons since I can’t even make one for myself—-
💀I would kill off Endeavor cause I want him dead, or I would kill off All Might. I wouldn’t LIKE IT, but it’s probably gonna happen eventually and I can see why—-
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ososimilar · 9 months ago
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Chapter 10- Sam
Sam's mind was racing. What the fuck are they doing up there. He didn't have to rub his newfound relationship in my face like that. But it's fine. It's not like I like him. It's just temporary, in a week or two I’ll be over it.
He plopped down on the couch and layed down, staring at the ceiling. He laid there for a few minutes until he heard the rattling of the doorknob.
“Hey.” Sam heard Sebastian's husky soft voice from the doorway.
Sam didn’t look at him and continued looking at the ceiling. “Can I go now?”
”Oh.” There was a tinge of hurt in Seb’s voice that Sam enjoyed hearing. “I figured you would want to play a game.” He could feel the heat from Sebs gaze. “But you can go home if you want.”
San was comfortable laying there for a while longer. “What game?”
”I was thinking maybe...” He hesitated, stammering through his words. “… Junimo Kart would be fun. I wanna get good enough to beat Abby.”
Sam tensed. “Fine, but only because I’m comfy on the couch. You set it up.”
He layed there for a minute and listened to Seb setting up the game. His legs were picked up, held there, then placed back down into Sebs lap.
“Here.” Sam looked up and took the controller from Sebs hand.
The controller was wet. Sweaty. He turned to look at the Tv, ready to focus on the game.
____
They played a few rounds and Sam won every time, but in the end Seb was solidly second place.
“Your’e getting better at this bro. I dont think vincent could beat you anymore.” Sam said through a yawn then gave a soft chuckle.
“I don't know. Vincent can be pretty ruthless.” Seb playfully responded.
“What? You scared of kids?”
“Only the scary ones.”
“My brother’s scary?”
“Well only because he's YOUR brother.”
“What's that supposed to mean? Am I scary? Do I make him scary?” Sam was a little hurt by this. Was this meant to be an attack on him?
“I don't mean it like that, I mean kids are scary when you need them to like you.” He paused to think and Sam watched him lean back into the couch. “And when they have a cool older brother like you they’re harder to impress.” His voice was calm, but there was a touch of frustration.
“Why do you need to impress him? He's just a kid.”
”Because he’s YOUR brother.” He pleaded. “…and kids are mean. UNLESS they like you.”
“You don't need to impress Vincent, he already likes you.” Sam put his hand on Seb’s shoulder and squeezed; Just how his father used to comfort him.
Seb took a deep breath. “Thanks bro.” They sat in silence for a while. “Do you want kids someday?”
Sam was not prepared for this question. “Someday. I think. In the future. When I’m married. Then I’ll have kids. For sure. In the future.”
“I think you’d make a good dad. Just judging on how you are with Vincent.”
“Yeah…” Sams voice trailed off as he thought about having a kid someday. Could I ever do that with Seb? We couldnt have a kid.
Seb let out a yawn. “Its late, I should probably head to bed soon.” He stood up and walked to the closet, tossing a blanket at Sam. “You can sleep there or you can go home, its up to you.”
I shouldnt stay the night. I’m trying to move past these feelings. Staying would only make it worse. “Its fine I’ll go. I have stuff to do in the morning.” Sam put the blanket on the couch, gathered his stuff and walked out the door.
CHAPTER 11- SEB
Sebs stomach rumbled. “God im hungry.” He looked up at the ceiling from his desk then at the time, it was almost dinner and he’d been working all day. He got up, got dinner, then went back to work, and repeated the same thing the next day.
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realcowboysdrinkjuice · 4 months ago
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hello Alexander i hope this message reaches you in good health. in the tags of a recent post you described being able to find roleplay partners when you wanted to even with social anxiety. pray tell how did you do this. thank you for your assistance. warmly, anon y mouse
Hi!!!! first off disclaimer- i haven’t done any roleplay in agessss so hopefully all of this still applies in this age of the internet!
but when i was a lot younger i first started out by roleplaying a ton on my own minecraft server (my dad works with computers so he set one up for me and my sister in like 2011/2012) and i played with a lot of people from school from me or my sisters classes which was nice because we both had a degree of control over it since it was Our server and it was a small group of people. to be fair i was also a child so even though i wasn’t medicated yet i probably had a lot less learned anxiety at the time even if i still had the shit i was born with lmao cause there’s definitely some things i struggle with now that i didn’t as a young kid since i just didn’t think about them as much then.
after that a ton of people moved to skype and we roleplayed a TON there and that was when i was a bit older so it was fandoms and things i was actually interested in whereas in minecraft it was random stuff or our own storylines or someone’s cousin was really into assassins creed and i didn’t (and still don’t) know a single thing about the game but really wanted to roleplay anyway lmao.
honestly after skype i didn’t really roleplay very much after that even though i did it daily as a kid/early teen BUT i was still finding some ways to make friends which can be transferable to this if they also like roleplay :)!! i don’t have many friends currently idk if covid fucked me up that bad or if i’ve just gotten worse at it over time so this feels a slight bit hypocritical since i’m not following my own advice super well at the moment lol but discord is HUGE. obviously you have to be super careful but ive made a lot of online friends by joining discords servers. even when i had to lurk for a day or two before i got comfortable (and i had people encouraging me when i admitted to that) even though i would still be an anxious wreck for a while if i met online folks irl they are still so so important to me and helped me so much, especially since i have an easier time talking online. smaller discords can be good if large groups of people are intimidating but bigger ones are good if you’re worried about being singled out and want to hide in the crowd. irl i feel like the ideal group of people is three cause if i stop talking it’s not awkward since there’s still two other people, but online i don’t really mind how many people there are since it’s a lot easier of a disconnect since im just looking at words on a screen. discord is also where i played dnd for the first time! i was 15 and i barely knew anyone there but i was obsessed w the adventure zone in early high school and really wanted to try it so i pushed through that anxiety. tbh now i think i might prefer just watching (definitely cause of the social anxiety but oh well i think that’s still a valid as hell way to enjoy the game) but im so glad i found an environment where i felt safe enough to try it even though tbh i barely remember the experience so i must have been so nervous holy shit.
i’ve never used them so i can’t attest to how great they are but tons of people roleplay on online forums! i used to use a website called chicken smoothie where you collect pets and trade and shit but they had a HUUUUGGGEEE forum where tons of people were roleplaying there, and since it’s a forum it feels like it would be slower paced even though i was personally a bit nervous about the formality of the ones i saw.
honestly just tl;dr it’s still so scary but i promise you there’s people out there who are also nervous and i think creating a story with real people is just so much rewarding then anything character ai sites can do. and i think making online friends is an invaluable resource for stuff like that, especially since it’s a lot easier to hit the bricks if you get scared, especially since for me personally im selectively mute and that’s not really an issue over text so that’s one less worry i have to deal with. but i really hope you can find those people because i have so many find memories of roleplaying with my friends growing up since that was most of my social experiences (not sure how to phrase that) came from since i was so anxious at school and literally didn’t talk to barely anyone like kids in my class straight up learned to talk to teachers for me cause they knew i wasn’t going to do it so hanging out with people online was so important.
hopefully at least some of this is helpful- i don’t have a ton of experience since im still only 21 and i also spent all the covid years being stagnant so honestly i don’t even feel 21 so i definitely don’t have all the answers but that’s what i found worked for me growing up. a lot of it is just pretending you aren’t as scared as you are and just being honest with people because in my experience they’re usually really understanding about you being nervous cause everyone has been there even if it’s not to the same degree. ALSO second disclaimer- im not in therapy (tried several times but i’ve never been able to talk to the therapist which is kind of an important part of therapy) so take all of this with a grain of salt because i have no clue if any of my coping mechanisms are healthy but i haven’t died yet so i guess im doing something right?
sorry this is so long lmao and i have no clue how helpful it is
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servin-up-surveys · 8 months ago
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survey #207
Would you ever become a fan of a team you hate to please your spouse? I have absolutely zero interest in sports and also lying about my interests to please my partner.
Can you handle scary movies? Yes, I enjoy horror movies.
Once a cheater, always a cheater? No. People grow and change.
What word describes your last relationship? Prior to the one I'm in now? Hm. It sounds bad, but... delusional. I thought then I was in love with her, I really did, but after truly experiencing that with Girt again, I know I wasn't. The sensations I've had for Jason and Girt were very different from what I felt with Sara. There was a lot of lying to myself about her shitty political beliefs, too.
Do you have a fake I.D.? I never have.
Would you date someone 5 years older than you? Yeah.
Have you ever been to California? Did you like it? No.
Does it matter to you if your boyfriend/girlfriend drinks? Yes. I absolutely fucking refuse to date anyone who drinks more than rarely, and I would NEVER date an angry drunk. If they knew they got angry drinking, they better never fucking touch it if they want me around.
Do you like deviled eggs? Hell fucking no.
What is your favorite horror movie? The Blair Witch Project.
Has a little kid ever fallen asleep on your lap before? Yes.
What is the last thing you googled? Why anoles here change colors from brown to green. My mom asked me.
Have you ever jumped off a high dive into a pool? No. As a child I think I got all the way up once but backed down.
What foods can you absolutely not eat? Beans are one of many, many options.
Do you like hot, cold, or lukewarm showers? Between lukewarm and hot. Probably more towards hot.
Have you ever taken part in a threesome? No, not into the idea for me.
Where did your mother and father meet for the first time? Work.
What is your oldest sibling’s middle name? Kathryn.
Have you ever been to Disneyland or Disney World? Disney World, as a child. I'd love to revisit as an adult.
Do you feel bored with your life? My biggest depression symptom is anhedonia, severe anhedonia, take a guess.
Who's someone you miss that you haven't talked to in years? Alex.
What's the most physically painful thing you've ever experienced? Having an infected pilonidal cyst drained. I was given morphine and numbing shots and yet I was still in so much pain that I was screaming and cursing on the top of my lungs. I don't know how scientific this is, but I theorized that they gave me an inadequate dose of the numbing agent, I'm guessing because I'm obese. I wonder if my size just outweighed the effects of the shots. To this day I don't know how I didn't faint, the pain was unfuckingdescribable. It was a bad infection; I delayed going to the ER because initially I didn't even understand what I had going on.
What's the worst level of emotional pain you've ever experienced? A traumatic breakup and its year+-long severe effects.
What was the last thing that made you angry? News about my sister's shitty MIL being a disrespectful and irresponsible twat.
Have you ever been the victim of a crime? Yeah technically, we had a basketball hoop stolen off our property once, when I was a kid. We also had an attempted break-in while my sister was home with only her friend, but I thank whatever powers they may be that their attempt failed. All we know is it the was Bloods gang because they left a flag outside our door.
What is the most beautiful landscape you have ever seen? The mountains driving from NC to Tennessee.
What colour are your brother’s eyes? Blue.
Have you ever played a drinking game? Which ones? No.
How many friends do you have on Facebook? 113. I'm picky with who I add.
Do you regularly check anyone’s profile online? Nope.
Are you any good at drawing? I mean, there are people worse than me. But there are also people leeeaaagues better than I am.
Is there anything unusual about your house? Um, I don't think so. Nothing truly "unusual."
Have you ever met anyone with Multiple Personality Disorder? No, not to my recollection.
What is your favourite type of cookie? Just a nice gooey chocolate chip one is grand.
Have you ever taken care of a newborn baby? No, I do NOT have the confidence for that.
How old were you when you got your ears pierced? I really don't remember.
Do you snore when you sleep? Apparently I do, and I'm very self-conscious of it.
What is your favorite breakfast food? Waffles, probably. With butter and not very crispy. Lots of syrup. Or just nice buttery biscuits that are nice and pillowy.
Who do you (romantically) love? Girt.
Where was the last place you kissed someone? My bed.
Do you work any holidays? I don't work.
What would you say if your parents said you were moving away? I literally cannot envision this with my mother, she would never, in a million years, move away from my sisters and I and Ashley's kids. She's bored it into our heads to never leave each other, so SHE never would. If my dad moved away, I mean honestly it wouldn't affect me much, I barely see him. I'd still be sad though, of course.
Do you wish you could go back and change anything about your childhood? I wish my dad was a better dad. I wish I lived in a safer neighborhood.
Have you ever been overseas? I have not, tragically. I praaaay that changes one day, I want to experience more of the world. I know so little of it.
What would your mom do if you told her you were pregnant? Probably fuckin faint.
Do you think you have nice feet? No; first things first I hate feet, but my feet are also obscenely calloused from when I used to walk all the time, and I've never managed to keep the callouses from growing back, even when I loss fucking muscle mass from NOT moving. My big toe on each foot is the absolute worst.
Where did you get your name? My mom just liked Brittany. "Marie" as a middle name runs in my maternal family.
What are you currently worried about? My colonoscopy prep day. I'm not concerned about the procedure, it's just the damn prep.
What was the last new and exciting experience you’ve had? Uhhhh let's see. New AND exciting? That disqualifies an ambulance ride, I was certainly not excited haha. I suppose my last visit to Girt's could count; he hasn't like me in his room only because he's self-conscious of "the mess" (that he's cleaned up a lot), but this time we chilled in his bed and played a game on his big TV. I got so into it that I didn't realize it was like 9 PM 'til I looked out the window and it's pitch black lmao. Point is, I was happier he seemed more at peace, me being in there and just hangin' out.
What's the most unique or exotic food you've tried? Uh, I suppose some genuine Chinese or Japanese cuisine my entire class tried in the 4th grade. I liked literally nothing but the rice haha, very on brand for picky me.
What change or new experience would you like to have in your life in the next year? A stable job.
When was the last time you were part of a large gathering? Easter. My mom and I joined Girt's family for dinner; Girt made steaks and I'm so proud of him, he wants to learn how to make them like his dad did and he did amazing for a second try. They were too salty, that was everyone's opinion, but they were perfectly edible and to me pretty good, and I'm very picky with steak.
What makes social gathering enjoyable for you? Everyone being welcoming, conversations being friendly and interesting, people including each other, sharing humor, that kinda stuff.
Is there anything/anyone/any place you now actively avoid in order to keep your inner peace? Any of Sara's online accounts. I don't care how curious I may be on how she is, I'm not looking, because I've absolutely learned it in no way benefits me, a person who's trying to learn to love and be kind to herself.
Did the last guy/girl you kissed have any piercings? No.
What is your favorite type of cat? Oriental shorthair.
Are you part Native American? I am not.
Who was your first online friend? I only knew her as Kat.
What’s a condition you have that you haven’t been officially diagnosed with? I am 100% convinced I'm a high-functioning autistic. I did get a legit evaluation, and the conclusion was I very likely am, but apparently a proper diagnosis requires a longer period of examination.
What band has the power to make you cry by splitting up? Rammstein haha, I'll cry when they simply retire.
Would you feel funny if you kissed somebody of the same sex? No, I'm pan and have done it before, so it's not something I'd feel funny about.
Can grills be sexy on a guy? In my own personal opinion, they can't be sexy on anyone.
What’s your favorite comic book/graphic novel? I don't have one.
Who is the lead singer of your favorite band? Till Lindemann. Ozzy is obviously the vocalist of his own band.
Do you expect to be married in the next 2 years? I suppose it's possible, but I doubt it.
Who IMed you on Facebook last? My friend Baylee.
What kind of natural disaster is most common where you live? Hurricanes.
If you’re not straight, who was the first person you came out to? Sara.
Did you enjoy high school? I enjoyed certain parts of it.
Who was your favourite musical artist when you were 15? Do you still listen to them? Ozzy Osbourne. Duh lol
When was the last time you ate at a food court and what did you get? Oh wow that's a really good question, I have no idea.
Were you mean to anyone in high school? No, I was a good kid. I minded my own business.
Who is your favourite coworker? You can tell me about one from your past if you don’t have one right now. I don't work now, and I've never worked long enough previously to have a favorite at past jobs.
Do you know anyone who’s adopted a child? Yes; my sister's husband legally adopted Aubree (her eldest daughter) when she was still very young, because her biological father has absolutely nothing to do with her and he's a worthless bag of shit. Nick IS "Dad" to Aubree; she has no idea that's not her biological dad. Ashley plans on telling her one day, but Nick really doesn't want her to, but I pray Ash doesn't listen to him. Every child deserves to know this stuff.
What was the last video game or board game you purchased? Uhhhh I wanna say it was Amnesia: Rebirth because Girt gifted me a Steam giftcard.
Are any of your siblings taller than you? My brother certainly is, Ashley is, and I think Katie is slightly.
Is there any part of your sexual/romantic history that you have not told your current significant other about or that you will not tell future partners about? No. I think it is very, very important to be very open about your sexual history with your partners.
How many relationships have you been in that actually got sexual? Three-ish.
Who’s the most romantic person you ever went out with? Jason.
Do any of your family members have an upcoming birthday? My dad, towards the end of this month. Also my brother, on Earth Day.
Have you ever changed in front of the last person you kissed? No. I don't care what he's already seen of me, I hate more than the default amount of my body being shown to literally anyone.
How many siblings does your significant other have? One older sister.
What was the last zoo you visited? Aloha Safari Park.
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runawaycarouselhorse · 2 years ago
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#coming to the horrific realization that if I want my kids to have a good life I NEED to make enough money to send them to private schools#where this behavior will be punished and get bastards suspended#Or somehow be in a good enough position to homeschool your kids#if you're poor you're condemning your babies to hell and grooming#children#parenting#oh also no internet somehow yaaaaaaayyyyy
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but seuxal abuse can and does happen even in the ritziest of private schools (Eton has a... storied history of sexual abuse, but perhaps boarding schools are generally a bit worse about that sort of thing, see also the concept of fagging that continued until the 90's where younger boys are treated as servants by the older boys and even as sexual objects. It's downright slavery.)
It's not something completely avoidable, you just have to educate kids before they go to school of any sort. It's not your or their fault if anything happens, it's just the sick world we live in.
Private schools can definitely be better about bullying and such because you're paying and they don't want to lose paying customers, the class sizes are smaller and they can accomodate students more, but it's still something you have to keep in mind.
As for no internet, they can still play games and such on the computer or other devices without internet. Stuff like Jump Start, Reader Rabbit, Living Books (they have been made into modern apps now under the name Wanderful), Big Top games (like Hello Kitty Big Fun Deluxe and their Cartoon Toolbox games that helped me understand animation.)
Also went swimming every other weekend! I think if you can keep kids occupied with sports, nature, playgrounds, hobbies (I loved reading and drawing) like that, it'll help. I had early access to the internet, but it was before a lot of this stuff got really bad and long before social media. There are still some safe/moderated kid's sites, but they're few (Neopets is great once they're around their preteens or early teens!)
I used to play a lot of educational games and some ordinary games (Barbie, My Little Pony, The Sims, etc.) growing up, I've introduced coworkers to the kind of games I played and their kids enjoyed it too! I don't know what folks watch instead of DVDs and casettes these days, but something like that could work in place of YT (besides, You Tube is scary to navigate, too many people tag horrifying, creepy, and overtly sexualized stuff with children's series and characters and YT's not that good at filtering this stuff out).
children are being exposed to so much sexualization and sexualized content nowadays that even elementary students are frightening their teachers with the stuff they're saying even if they don't understand what it means. just the amount of misogyny and porn rot that has trickled down to literal children being exposed to it constantly and thinking its just hilarious and funny is terrifying.
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astaroth1357 · 4 years ago
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More undateables with a demigod hades mc???
By request, have yourself a part two!! 
Demigod MC Series: Hades Pt. 2 (Un)Dateables Edition!
I will ask that y’all please don't ask for continuations of other gods unless I say it’s okay to do again. This series already fills my inbox something fierce and this is a one-off that I allowed for during the request window.  If I have to make ideas for new gods while continuing a bunch of old MCs, it'll burn me out fast...
Demigod MC Series: Intro, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hades, Dionysus, Demeter, Athena, Hades Pt. 2
Diavolo
Oh, he has no problem at all hosting a child of the Underworld, hell he even throws them a welcome banquet when he finds out! Hades is a dear friend - and practically a parental figure to him growing up - so he's more than happy to take in one of his children for a year.
Diavolo is actually one of the few people that the MC can talk to about their home with any kind of fondness. Usually when they bring up things like the comforting wailing of the River Coctyus, the brothers will give them weird looks... but Diavolo knows where they're coming from!
He spent numerous summers in the Underworld growing up doing things like pestering Charon on the River Styx or playing games with Cerberus (the other one) in the Asphodel Meadows... His beach house is actually modeled after his childhood summer home in the Isles of Paradise! Really, it can be a lovely place if the gloom doesn't bother you!
So in the spirit of his fond memories, Diavolo really tried to make their time in the Devildom a fun one!... in his maybe trying a little too hard way…  
Poor MC found themselves offered pretty much everything under the moon… Tickets or exclusive passes to different cultural events/festivals, invitations to gala events, and tours of nearly every inch of Hell by the Prince himself - it was… it was a lot for the poor introverted thing…
It didn’t help that Diavolo would have a hard time gauging if they were having any fun due to their naturally melancholic nature, which only pushed him to try harder… He means well, he does. He’s just not the most in touch with what would make an anti-social doom child happy...
It took Barbatos and Lucifer stepping in for the mortal to actually start getting some much needed space and that improved their experience significantly. Sometimes less is more, Dia… Less is more. But they appreciate his efforts anyway.
Barbatos 
Also has a pretty amicable relationship with the Ruler of the Underworld, though his is much more professional compared to Diavolo’s. He actually has a good deal of appreciation for the man for taking good care of the Prince during his visits, so he sees this as an opportunity to return the favor.
Like Diavolo, he’s rather focused on making sure the MC is having a good stay in the Devildom, but he’s much more subtle about it. He’ll come by the House often to check up on them and make sure everything is to their liking... 
Even the brothers notice that he treats them like anothering visiting Lord/Lady in that way, which he would argue they very much are and should be respected as one. It’s the least the Devildom can offer their father at this point.
His visits may also be an excuse for keeping an eye on the brothers to make sure they don’t do anything to inconvenience their “young guest…” To be honest, the entire House is a little paranoid about that… Nobody wants to know the punishment for hurting MC if Barbs is the one dishing it out...
Apart from watching out for them, Barbatos tries to encourage the MC to accept the Young Lord’s gifts (while also actively advising Diavolo to go easier on them at the same time). It would be so disheartening to him if his Prince feels like he hasn’t offered them the best experience that he could… He’s sure they understand.
Any time that he invites the MC to tea, they usually end up talking about their father in some way. Barbs knows a surprising amount about the god… He’s been around about as long as Chronos - preceding the birth of Aether and Chaos themselves - so he has some stories to tell.
The MC did once ask him why he doesn’t just run everything if he’s really been around for so long... his answer was: “Kings and their kingdoms will rise and fall… Worlds upon worlds are born, then cease to be. But time is what brings about all changes… So, I think I’m perfectly content with the power I possess. Wouldn’t you be?” 
Annnd they never asked Barbs another question like that again… and people think death is scary… 
Simeon 
He was honestly a little worried for their new companion for quite a while… It’s not like there’s never any sadness in the Celestial Realm or anything, but they seem to have something else entirely…
He’s heard stories about the Underworld. He’s never been himself, that’s usually a job for the Seraphim due to the… dreary nature of the place - but he’s heard it would make the Devildom look downright festive…
If he were being honest, he had half expected the MC to be obsessed with skeletons, ghosts, and other elements of darkness but that wasn’t the case. They certainly knew a lot about those things, but they appeared to have a healthy interest in the afterlife in general, so they asked him a lot of questions about the Celestial Realm, angels, and how the souls of the blessed are treated up there… It was surprising to say the least.
Of course he did the same and, frankly, Simeon found it incredibly wasteful that so many Greek followers find themselves just wasting away in a field of nothing for so long… but that’s neither here nor there.
He was also surprised by how gentle of an influence the MC ended up being on Luke as well. He had always suspected that the little angel just needed a bridge between him and Devildom to start finding appreciation for it, and the MC fit that bill perfectly - nothing he was used to, but still approachable enough to make everything less frightening. He thanks them a great deal for that… but...
It’s just that… Well they’re just so… depressing sometimes…! He doesn’t want to blame them because it hardly seems like their fault! They’re a very kind person, it’s just an atmosphere around them… It brings him to tears if he isn’t careful…
He’s invited the MC to Purgatory Hall on multiple occasions to chat and try to make them smile… When they do, the gloom is dispelled - even just a little - and they’re a truly beautiful creature regardless. It’s just so unfortunate that their life brings so much sadness...
Even so, he actually likes the MC enough to consider basing a character on them if he ever wrote another book. Something about a gloomy but sweet protagonist at home in a world of darkness sounds appealing… doesn’t it?
Luke
He didn’t know how to feel about the MC when they met. At first, he actually thought they were just as unhappy as he was to be there due to how depressed they looked but when they told him that wasn't true, he was really confused...
The Devildom is a dark, brutish, and dangerous place. Why would anyone feel at home down here??
But… well… He would spend time with them at RAD between breaks (partially to help scare off their many, many demonic suitors) and it might be weird to say, but they really made the Devildom look beautiful… literally.
The world just looks better when they’re around! It’s really hard to describe because it’s not something you notice much until they leave, but when the MC is around everything looks more vibrant and inviting! The grass gets greener, flowers grow bigger, and butterflies/birds hover around wherever they are like they have their own gravity - the realm loves them!
It started getting hard for Luke to hang onto his disdain for the place when they made it look so appealing… And then they started talking to him about the Underworld and the creatures they’d befriended there… creatures a lot worse than any demons he’d seen there...
Like. If the MC can be good friends with a bunch of rude walking corpses, then he could probably make friends with a demon right? There’s nice ones… kind of… 
Beel. He can make friends with Beel.
Like Simeon, he does feel bad that they seem so sad all the time… but unlike the older angel, he’s a bit more understanding that this is just how they are and enjoys his time with them regardless. (It helps a lot that just being around this little bean of a boy can lift their spirits anyway).
And you know what’s even better for him? When Lord Diavolo gives the MC tickets to things that they don’t want to go to, sometimes they’ll invite him along or give them to him instead! 
He’s gone to the Devil’s Coast with MC and Simeon sooo many times by now and he loves it!! Maybe the Devildom isn’t so bad after all, I mean, it can be a lot of fun when you go to the right places, anyway.
Solomon
Oh, he finds them both deeply fascinating and utterly terrifying - so just his sort of test sub-er, person!
He kids (somewhat), Solomon isn’t that dumb/lacking in self-preservation instinct. Experimenting on a child of death in a land of the dead (even if it’s not their “home turf”) would be asking for trouble. They’d have more than enough ammunition to fight him off and if their father found out? Immortality wouldn’t even begin to save him...
That being said, questions aren’t necessarily experiments… and oh boy, does he have a lot of them.
If the MC isn’t being pestered by Diavolo or the brothers, then they’re probably having to put up with Solomon nipping at their heels trying to get them to use their powers or answer all sorts of “innocent” scientific questions…
“MC, reanimation of Greek dead requires a blood offering, correct? Do you have to sacrifice animals for that process or do you allow them to feast on your own?”
“MC, when you’re controlling a skeleton do you move the body as a whole or do you have to animate each individual bone due to their lack of ligaments?”
“Think fast!! Oh look, you just caught the skull of my good friend, Richard! Could you bring him back from that, or should I fetch the rest of him?” 🙂
They put up with it because, believe it or not, he’s not nearly the weirdest person they’ve ever met (a lot of crazy people drift in and out of the land of the dead…) and well… they’re a pretty lonely person too so it’s not like they have a lot of standards when it comes to friendships anyway.
But the second they breathe a word of this to Barbs or Diavolo, this boy is on his way to a royal restraining order… Where does he even get those skulls…?
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spacecadet-ticklesinspace · 2 years ago
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Hey would should try making like tickle headcannons for the 3 spidermen if you want
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To this Anon, thank you you! I've thought about doing this, I haven't yet so let's get started :) I'm sorry this has taken a while to start ❤️ Let me know if I've forgotten anything! I hope you all enjoy!
Peter 1:
Turns into a little kid when tickled
Like all the kicks, giggles, and squeals you can imagine
His worse areas are his armpits, knees, belly button, shoulder blades (highest tickle intensity)
The rest of his tummy is giggle city
Unless you blow raspberries, then it's squeal city
The palms of his hands can be pretty ticklish and are especially sensitive to things like raspberries and nibbles
His favorite tickle spot his neck, but he won't pass up tummy tickles either
He just loves the silliness of those two areas
Very susceptible to teases and baby talk
Prone to snorting
The older two Peters love using every childish tickle trick they can find on their younger brother
Gets hiccups after intense tickle sessions
Does not get to be the Ler very often with his older brothers, but when he does, he grins and giggles almost as much as the one he is tickling
Loves turning the childish tricks back on his older brothers
He is terrible at teases though
They fluster him too much
A biiiig cuddler after tickles (giving or receiving)
Peter 2:
Don't let his older brother persona trick you
This man is just as ticklish as his younger brothers
Teases of any kind can fluster him just as easily as Peter 1, but baby talk reaaaaally gets him giggling
Never had a raspberry before having brothers
Now gets raspberries all the time
Nuzzling and nibbles can be a very effective approaches to get him laughing
But ticklish kisses are his cryptonite
Worst spots are his ears, necks, shoulder blades, and armpits (highest intensity)
He looooves gentle ear tickles, but he'll never admit it
Definitely a squealer and scrunchy individual when tickled
Will playfully growl and make death threats (that he never means) through his laughter
Has a great laugh even though he hates it
Has the quickest recovery time after being tickled
Rarely gets tickled (which is a shame cause he is adorable when tickled)
He looks 10 years younger
However, he is the one who usually does most of the tickling (he has to as the oldest)
He is the king of raspberries---he gives them scary well for never having received one
Also loves to use ticklish kisses as an effective weapon when tickling
The king of "I will tell you how cute you are when tickled while I tickle you to bits"
He has older brother Ler down pat
Loves giving hugs after tickles (giving or receiving)
Peter 3:
Has the goofiest laugh you will ever hear from someone being tickled
He hates it, but his brothers adore it 😍
The biggest antagonizer when he wants tickles
Like will annoy the other two Peters until they tickle him
Hates chases cause he "somehow" gets caught (pins himself so he'll get caught)
The worst at winning any tickle game
He can never win because he's super sensitive to tickles
Worst spots are hips, rib, armpits, legs/feet, and spots just underneath his shoulder blades and just above his armpit that has him cackling
Feet and ribs are the worst though (highest intensity)
Absolutely loves tummy tickles the most out of the three
Just loves tickles in general ❤️ (it's like a reward for him)
But can never ask for them
Loves being the Lee, but can be a pretty teasy Ler
This man is the king of baby talk teases!
He has perfected the art of turning people into a blushy/giggly mess when he tickles them
Also the king of tickle hugs
Just traps people in a hug and gets them :)
Also the king of tickle chases too
Let's just say, if tickling were a college degree, Peter 3 is going for his Master's
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themonotonysyndrome · 3 years ago
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ABOUT THE QUINN AND ANGEL THING WITH THE AGE PROBLEM, I HAVE AN IDEA
So let’s say Angel was always alone, family was never home and it was just the same boring routine for them. Until they came across Quinn, they eventually get closer and Angel starts seeing him as a brother figure. Something that they always wanted, a family. Everything was going okay, nothing could happen between these siblings, right?
Wrong (lol) they find out that their brother is a crazy vampire who likes to hurt people. This obviously hurt them, how could he go from a lovely older brother to crazy? It’s like if he’s a stranger. Eventually, they distance themselves from him for safety. They hate that they had to leave their only family, but it was for their own good.
Quinn would feel betrayed when he finds out that his little sibling is dating a SHIFTER and an ALPHA TOO not only that but they’re also friends with someone who he used to have a thing with, Darlin.
Imagine how it would turn out if they ever meet again.
(Also angel has never mentioned anything about having a brother to David. Also David and Darlin’s reaction to this. oh my god.)
Ooooh, yeah, that is possible, Anon! Personally, I just love the idea that Angel becomes Quinn's 'Morality Chain' while Darling is his love interest. I would say that Quinn has a good taste in finding amazing people but the fact that he's a danger to both of them, well, makes it all a moot point lol.
Can I tweak your AU a little bit, Anon? You have a great foundation here but I'd just like to add more structure to it!
OK, so, ever since they can remember, Angel grew up with parents that they only see once a week. Most of the time, they live with a Nanny but Little Angel is good at making the most of their situation. They have their friends at school and a loving Nanny to greet them at home.
But it can get a little lonely during birthday parties and school events. It's worse when their parents broke their promises to spend the weekend together because of an emergency at work.
Quinn first stumbles upon Little Angel when the 10-year-old is walking home at night from a friend's house. He was out looking for a victim to feed on and is bewildered that someone left a child at night on the side of a street.
He was so bewildered in fact, that when Little Angel tugs on his pants and sweetly ask him to accompany them back home because it was getting scary, Quinn blurted out:
"Didn't your parents tell you not to speak to a stranger?"
"Uh... no?"
The whole thing was amusing. So Quinn decided to play bodyguard for Little Angel and walk them back home. Ever since then, he unofficially became their aloof, third parent!
Quinn would make sure that he's properly fed before visiting Little Angel. They squeal every time Quinn broke into their house and drop some toys. At Little Angel's insistence, Quinn would have no choice but to entertain the kid and then leave when their Nanny tucked them in.
As Little Angel grew up, Quinn continued to check up on them from time to time. Quinn would never admit it, but... it's nice to have some sort of family to visit and Little Angel loves having a Papa that will always come whenever they ask.
However, when Little Angel becomes a teenager, they begin to understand just how dangerous Quinn is (headcanon that he kept his existence as a Vampire a secret from Angel).
Quinn's strange yet threatening remarks to the bullies that like to hide their belongings at school, his callousness when Angel worries if their parents might have an accident driving during a heavy, late-night storm and so forth starts to make them uncomfortable.
When the school announced that one of Angel's bullies is missing and that night, Quinn has the gentlest smile that Angel has ever since when he said that they can enjoy school like any other teenager should that Angel starts distancing themselves from him.
This hurts Quinn. If Angel wants to ignore him then fine, then two can play at that game.
The last time that Angel saw Quinn was when they were in school.
So many things have happened since then. They graduated. Got into the university of their choice. Landed a job that pays well and found love from David Shaw - everything has been going on amazing for Angel.
Until one day at a Pack meeting, David and Darling are briefing everyone about how dangerous Quinn are and his bloodied history with Darling, someone Angel considered as a friend.
It broke Angel's heart that the man they considered as their second Papa is a monster.
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jadienjaystoriesandart · 4 years ago
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Sander Sides - Coraline AU
So when scrolling through one of my favorite channels on here I saw someone mention Janus as Other Father, and this got my creativity going. I’ll hash out the characters and ideas, then give you a basic idea of what is cooking in my head. However, I’m not sure on how I want things to go in terms of plot. But I do have a general idea of the characters and their roles as well as background.
Other Mother: Logan Sanders
In this idea the Other Mother would have been Patton, but given there are so many sides, I thought he’d fit another role better. Then my sister suggested Logan as Other Mother, and it fits for the basic plot I have in mind. He goes by Logic by the others in the Other World, or as they call it the Alternate World or Pocket World. 
Logan says he’s the eldest one here along with Patton and Janus, and seems to be the head of the ‘family’. He’s a very stoic mother, pushing his kids, which in this case is Roman, Remus, and Virgil, to be smart. Not in a bad way, he’s a silently content mother, and you can tell when he’s proud of you. He cleans mostly and makes sure everything is in place, and enjoys gardening. Mostly he stays in the study or outside. 
In terms of power, Logan is the most powerful of them due to being the oldest person there. And no, he doesn’t turn into a spider being, he actually is a type of bird. Looking alot like harpy when you really tick him off. His buttons are dark blue with silver thread and his skin is warm but overly smooth. 
Other Fathers: Patton and Janus Sanders No one is really sure who is older, they’ve always been with each other. Janus enjoys making music and Patton enjoys cooking for the family. Both are very fatherly and enjoy doting on their kids. Going by the names of Morality and Deceit/Self. When mother dear isn’t around, it’s up to the one of the fathers to sort things out.  Janus is strange, as in he’s the one who gives the hints something isn’t quiet right. Though it’s unknown if these are his actions or not. He seems to like challenging kids that come to the Pocket World to think about what they are seeing and why. Yet does it a very coy way. Then there are days he’ll do a 180 and ask you not to question anything and actively lie about things. His buttons are dark gold with black thread, and he does have scales on his face still. Though, to a kid that’s nothing. Patton is cheerful and bubbly, his dinners are always the best as is his sweets. He’s the one that mostly sticks to Logan the most, and enjoys gardening also. He’s the first to make sure one doesn’t question, easily deflecting odd things, and is great at distracting people. He is Nostalgia after all, his areas when your near him make you feel so happy and get you lost in happy moments. His buttons are light blue with dark blue tread.  Both take on forms of a Frog and Snake when angry, which are terrifying. Their skin is also very rubbery feeling. Other Brother: Virgil Sanders  Virgil here is the youngest, looking like he’s only 15 or 16. He’s been here the shortest... and looks oddly like a kid that went missing back in the early 2000′s. The Family calls his Anxiety, and he’s rather withdrawn. But does enjoy playing video games or board games with Patton, Janus, and Logan.  Soft spoken, sarcastic, and a little emo spiderling, he’s adored by Patton mostly. Who calls him the ‘Dark Strange Son’ alot. Virgil seems rather happy in the Other World. Stating to little Thomas that this world is much better than anything he could dream of. He’s however hesitant to answer questions about things not inside the Other World. Telling Thomas to not think about that, and just be happy. He enjoys his room/the attic, and outside in the front yard. When angry, Virgil is the one with the spider form, taking on a more glass like look and his skin is cold to the touch. His buttons are dark purple with light purple thread. 
Other Twins: Roman and Remus Sanders The two Creativity Rascals, they are slightly older then Virgil, but much younger than Janus and Patton. They can warp reality around them when in their favorite spots, be it the Basement for Remus, or the Woods for Roman. Their rooms are actually in the basement in the door near the left side of the house. While Virgil's is in the attic. They serve as the entertainment, coming up with ideas on the fly to go on adventures, play dragons and knights, or kings and castles. The forest, quiet literally, is their playground. Having their own fort and castle there, and a while bunch of land to cover.  The twins play fight alot, but they get along very well and are rather close to one another. And are like the cool older brothers who have alot of fun, but are happy to let the youngers join them.  Both have tentacles in this one, though Remus is more slimy than his brother. And when they open their extra mouths on their body when angry, it’s very scary. Roman’s buttons are red with green thread, while Remus is green with red thread. And their skin is like plastic almost.  Coraline: Thomas Anderson  He’s about 12 in this one, just moved to the country side in a little blue house on the back dirt roads. This town is dreadfully boring, with dull, muted colors, always over cast and rainy. It’s like all the happiness has been sucked out of it and left to decay.  Thomas is not upset about the move, as he never had many friends, if any, from his old home. He’s mostly upset with the fact he’s just dull, he’s not allowed to be colorful. And to top it off, his parents aren’t always there emotionally for him. Leaving him completely isolated, even more so when he’s a closeted gay in a very religious family.  So when he finds a world where everything is colorful, with three dads, well two and a mom, a family who cares about him, he’s excited. Maybe this move won’t be so bad.
Plot: The idea in my head is that Thomas has moved with his parents to a rather nice when hie father got a promotion. But, like most typical rich families, he’s not really paid attention to. And Thomas feels mostly left out, having no friends to call his own, and just his imagination and books to keep him busy.  When exploring his new house, finding the attic and basement locked, and a small golden key, he finds a little door. It’s been walled off, which is a bummer. That is until the middle of the night, when Thomas follows a shadow to the door. Finding it leads to a world that is perfect. The world represents everything Thomas wants, brothers, Roman, Remus, and Virgil. Fathers, Patton and Janus, and a mother, Logan, who actually cares about him. He isn’t sure if this is some very real dream or not. But he’s not complaining, he feels welcomed instantly byt he family.  Taken on adventures with Roman and Remus, playing games with Virgil and learning knew things from Logan, helping Patton cook, and Janus teaches him music and among other things. But when after a week of this, Thomas starts to see strange cracks in their personalities. And when they one day ask if he wants to stay forever and be part of their family, it meets getting this pink buttons in his eyes. He’s terrified, and now wonders if he’ll ever escape... or even if he wants to. Notes:
So I’m not sure how I want it to be played out. If the Others are truly evil in just that they want to kidnap Thomas just because they are selfish and/or turn him into a doll.  OR if I want it to be well meaning sinister, where they think they are doing Thomas a favor by taking him away from his neglectful family. 
One thing to note is they do really like Thomas, regardless of intentions, they do like him. And either way, they want him to stay forever.
Now, I’m not sure if I want with the Other Father for Patton to be controlling Janus or Janus to be controlling Patton. One of them is well aware of what they are doing, but can’t go against the wishes of their controller or Logan. While they are happy, the idea of luring kids tends to hurt them inside.
The Other World is bigger than Thomas things, he’s just in a small area that belongs to Logan. There are MANY others out there. Who lure people away into their realm, for better or worse. It’s like it’s own reality, only everything is just perfect. It’s like a nostalgic trap, much like Patton’s room only worse.
Logan is the main guy, he’s been at this for a long time, and either Patton or Janus is their partner depending on who is controlling who. He mainly lures kids as he likes the taste of their humanity. It’s what he feeds off of, draining them of their everything, and making them like dolls, only with a semi soul. Any who does this too becomes his kid or helper. Logan is fine with this, he enjoys having a family. And he only has to feed every few decades or so. He’s been around for a long time. Most of his ‘kids’ have grown up, and become true Others who have their own areas. Virgil, Roman, and Remus though are still MUCH too young for such a thing.  Others are NOT human, nor are they ‘aliens’ either. Best thing I can think of are like Fae, only... less magical as we know it. They are creatures who feed off of emotions and the essences that make people human. Which is why they all feel like dolls. 
Others are near immortal should they feed properly, and Others areas tend to just attract people to them. Some go after teens, others kids, some adults, taste is everything. Adults tend to be more fulling, but can be bitter and sour tasting, Teens are half and half depending on situation, and are often spicy tasting. While kids are very sweet, and typically are fulling also depending on how well you’ve gained their trust. If you can get them to agree to being an other, even better.  It’s harder than it sounds though.
Each Other does have a specific power that they use. Which I am still hashing out in my head. 
They rarely get angry, but boy is it scary when they do. 
The key only is Thomas’s interpretation of the entrance way, it can be anything to get into the Other World. It’s all up to the person in how THEY think to get in. It could be walking through two trees making a hole in them, opening a door that is only unlocked on certain days, or even just crawling under your bed. It’s up to the seeker how they wish to get in, which is why the Other World can stay in one spot, no matter the house or thing built on it. 
There is no real moral code for Others, their world is very well hidden. But they are very protective of their charges when they find the right type of feed off of. Logan gets extremely possessive of Thomas when he shows up, not as in he punishes the others, but if Thomas ever thinks about leaving or tries too, Logan would lock him up until Thomas gives into despair. 
If they are being unruly or try to escape, one way to get them ot agree is by isolating them, and cutting them off from happiness. Which makes kids and teens want to stay once they leave their isolation. Logan dislikes doing this, but going without a food source is rather painful, and he’d rather not put himself or his partner through that. So if he must, he will make sure the target stays. Even if it won’t be as filling as if they agreed willingly. 
Also, their areas is often where their power is the strongest.
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So Yeah, there it is, if you guys have any question just let me know. And this goes to @fangirltothefullest who when I mentioned this idea to her really wanted to see this.  I still need more for it, but I like the concept of it, it’s much different from the books, but that’s what makes it interesting. Could easily be Angst with Happy Ending. Could even get more sinister than this. We’ll see. Might post more about this later. And fanart is well loved, I can draw, but not well enough in my mind lol. 
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Text
Common Myths
An excerpt from Memoirs of a Flesh Eater, never published.
Next Excerpt
Everyone knows about ghouls, right? Everyone grows up hearing scary stories about us, from parents telling you to brush your teeth or the ghouls will get you, to your friends on the playground lying about how they saw one with their own two eyes and it was so scary no really even scarier than that, to - eventually, as you get older - news stories about mass murders and human slaughterhouses and graverobbers digging up your grandma and biting open her bones to get what’s left of her marrow.
The stories are terrifying and vivid and mostly sensationalist garbage. It’s kind of a shame, honestly - a lot of them are really well-written. With the best ones, it’s hard to tell sometimes if they were written by a human with an overactive imagination, or by one of us.
Weird, right? You wouldn’t think we’d want to spread stories that make us look even worse to the rest of humanity than they already think we are, but as far as I can tell, we’ve been making up horror stories about ourselves forever. Our records are spotty at best - oral histories don’t always get passed on before the person carrying them dies, and there are none of us who can trace our family line more than a few generations before it gets too muddled by death to trace any farther. And as for physical records, those are even more vulnerable. Those can’t just be lost - they can be stolen. Used against us. As far as I know, there has never been a written record of ghoul lore circulated. Not until this one.
{Editing Note: Too dramatic? Maybe. But I like it. I’ll think about it}
That being said, though, I think we used to tell these stories to enhance our reputation. To keep humans too scared of us to mount a serious resistance when we came hunting. If they believed we couldn’t be beaten, they wouldn’t try as hard. I think we lived more openly back then, back before automatic firearms and high explosives and kevlar body armor and chemical weapons leveled the playing field. Back when those of us who chose to could hunt humans with near impunity.
{Editing Note: I don’t like ending the paragraph there. We weren’t all killers then any more than we are now. But we did kill. We did hunt them, and I think we hunted them more. I need to make them understand us, but how can they understand us if telling them the truth just makes them hate us more? It needs another pass}
Even then, there were a lot more humans than there were of us. That’s basic ecology - there have to be more prey than predators {Editing Note: I need to find a better way to say that. There are gentle ways to be truthful, and there are hard ways. Do better}. Working together, humans could threaten our existence even then. The stories helped, I think. If they were too scared to work together against us, then we had a better chance of surviving another day, another month, another year.
Times are different now. Fear is no longer a tool that helps us. Human fear threatens our existence. But we still make up these stories and spread them. I spread my share on the elementary school playground. Whenever any of the other kids told a scary ghoul story, I could always come up with a better one. Scarlet’s were even better. He’s always been able to make words dance.
He was my best friend growing up. We were the only ghouls in our grade, maybe even in the whole school. I couldn’t tell for sure - we didn’t see the other grades as much. But he was enough. He was someone I could be myself with. I didn’t have to pick all of my words carefully, or make sure that the thing I was telling him was a normal human experience. It was such a relief to truly be me, even if it was only outside of school hours and well out of earshot of anyone nearby. It didn’t hurt that we actually had some common interests, you know, like friends do. We used to play imagination games together. He’d conjure dragons into existence with his words, and he’d help me use mine to slay them.
{Editing Note: My academic advisor would rip this into shreds, but this isn’t a research paper. This can’t be dry. This needs to be full of heart, not just information. They need to understand. But I might have gone overboard a little}
Scarlet’s an aspiring author now. I’ve read a few of his short stories. Horror and romance, always hand in hand {Editing Note: That’s too identifying. Make that less specific}. I asked him why he thought we still told these stories about ourselves, why we still want them to think of us as more terrifying than we are, why we make ourselves seem larger than life.
He told me that it’s because they hate us. Because there is nothing we can do to make them stop hating us, so why not give them something more worthy of their hatred? Why not give them a comically exaggerated monster - one that bears only a passing resemblance to us - to hate instead? This way, we can laugh at them for their foolishness amongst ourselves, laugh at how little they understand us. If what they hated was closer to our truth, we wouldn’t find it as easy to laugh at. It isn’t always easy as it is, to look at the world around you and know that 98% of the people you see burn with hatred at the mere thought of you, and to meet that with laughter. How much harder would it be if what they hated was who we really were, complex and vulnerable and as human as them? How would we ever endure it if they beheld us for all that we were and still called for our annihilation?
Scarlet’s always been good at giving words to truth. I hope that I’m as good at using words to make a new truth. I want to make him wrong. So here is some truth for you. Here is the truth beneath the myths about who and what we are.
Ghouls eat people
This is true, at least in part; we eat human flesh. That isn’t always the same thing. I’ll go deeper on our dietary needs later, but for now, know that we don’t have to kill to eat, most of the time. I’ve never killed a human, and I hope I neve have to.
Ghouls like hurting people
Not as a rule. There are ghouls that like hurting people. There are humans who like hurting people too.
Ghouls don’t feel pain and can heal from anything
Ghouls have two foot long prehensile tongues
I can tell you from experience that this one isn’t true. We feel pain as acutely as any human, I think, though it does take a little more to hurt us. Our skin and bones are tougher, harder to break. Our muscles are a little stronger too. Not enough that the weakest ghoul is stronger than the strongest human, but it’s not an insignificant advantage. I was always one of the best performers in PE, and I’ve never worked out in my life. So we’re harder to injure, and our strength lets us push through some injuries that would incapacitate a human. But we don’t heal any faster than humans do, or any cleaner. 
Contrary to what the politicians said when they passed the Chemical Exterminants Act.
… I think this one started with a human fetish artist, actually. No. We do not.
Ghouls have two sets of teeth
This one is true, although most of the time you’d never know unless you did an autopsy on one of us. Fetish artists, go nuts with this one.
{Editing Note: Do I really want to directly address ghoul fetishists in the book that will redefine the relationship between ghouls and humans that has existed for as long as anyone can remember? Maybe. At least they have a vested interest in keeping us from being wiped out?}
Ghouls can’t eat human food
False, at least in the most literal sense. If we physically couldn’t eat human food, we’d have all been found and killed a long time ago. We can consume things other than human flesh, but they don’t do anything for us nutritionally, and they don’t taste good to us either. That doesn’t always mean they taste bad, though. If we eat too much it will make us sick, however, and some things will make us sicker faster, or make us more sick than other things. Some of us even have allergies. For example, grapes give me hives. A single chicken nugget will trap me in the bathroom for the rest of the day. French fries, on the other hand... I almost manage to enjoy french fries sometimes.
Ghouls have better senses than humans do
This one’s a mixed bag. Our sense of smell is definitely better. That’s how Scarlet and I found each other; we could smell the flesh on each other’s breath. But as for the rest… Some people say our hearing is worse, but I’ve never come across anything conclusive one way or the other. I might just have bad ears. Our sense of taste is definitely different, but I don’t think it’s necessarily better or worse. We’re just adapted to taste different things. I’m pretty positive our sense of touch is the same. As for sight, our night vision is better, but only sometimes. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Ghouls true forms are terrifying and inhuman
Definitely false, but there’s a tiny kernel of truth a little to the left of this one. Most of the time, we look indistinguishable from humans, which is definitely an evolutionary advantage. But we have three traits that help us when we hunt. They mark us as distinctly inhuman, so it’s a good thing that they only come out when we want them to. First, our nails are a lot harder than human nails, and we can cause them to extend, like claws. They can rip through flesh and most cloth without breaking. Second, that second set of teeth I mentioned earlier. They’re sharper, better for tearing flesh. Our mouths have to distend a bit to make room for them, so that’s a dead giveaway when they’re out. Third, our eyes. We can dilate them a lot wider than humans, and we can control their dilation consciously. That’s what I meant about better night vision.
Last one.
Ghouls are monsters. They must be exterminated
Keep reading. Maybe by the end of this book, you can answer that for me.
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yamithediaperdork · 3 years ago
Text
My Little Brothers revenge Part 1
My little brothers revenge
The Hickman's were for the most part a average middle class family. both the parents worked and they had two children.
A 12 year old named Justin who had natural blond hair in a brush cut though he currently had it dyed indigo blue to go with his icy blue eyes. He had a jock's build (well as much as one could have at that age) and wasn't scared to use his physical power to his advantage.
his little brother Alex was short for his age and was always being mistaken for a 6 year old or worse when he was 9 and a half. He had red hair that went down to his shoulders and he kept in a pony tail and his checks were sprinkled with freckles.His slim body meant he was last to be picked for any sports though unlike his brother he was a strait A student and actually sometimes had to help his older brother with his homework, a fact that neither of them enjoyed.
It was their mother Anne (who Alex took after in appearance) who insisted that he help his big brother and it always ended with Justin pissed off and Alex hanging from a bed post by his sponge bob underoo's.
Their father who Justin took after in appearance refused to believe his little all star could be such a bully and so it was usually left to Alex to figure out a way to hold his own or go and whine to their mother, getting him labeled a mama's boy.
Still all brothers fight, it was just a fact of life and it might of all just gone this way with them being a semi happy family till the day the bully of a big brother took things a step too far and Alex decided that Justin had to be put in his place once and for all.
Alex had been hanging out with his friends Saturday afternoon, playing video games in the living room and having semi pissed off Justin who had wanted to watch a movie with HIS friends.
But mom and dad made sure that the TV time was shared and that both boys got a block of time and with their parents just down the block, Justin knew better then to try and strong arm them out.
Said friends were Kyle and Lyle, twins from down the block who had a semi creepy habit of finishing each others sentences and had light caramel skin and black hair in matching mushroom cuts. it was easy enough to tell them apart as by a semi quick of fate Lyle had brown eyes while Kyle had green.
Missing in action because he'd gone fishing with his dad was Max, anther shrimp who had dirty blond hair in a short Mohawk (his attempt to look cool which had backfired) and was so white he looked pale most of the time.
being shrimps themselves they had hit it off well with Alex and had formed a semi losers club of sorts, though Alex wasn't found of the name the twins who loved anything Steven king had insisted and he was out voted 2 to 1 since Max had joined the group after.
the boys were doing a retro gaming session of sorts, playing downloaded old games on a new machine and the game of choice for the moment was Ninja turtles two.
"Man, this game is so bad.." Lyle spoke up, playing as Leonardo.
"That it's almost good!" Kyle finished and was playing as Ralph.
"heh, that the fun part of these old games..you know they were giving it their all but just were limited." Alex said.
all three of them were seated on the hard wood floor of the living room though they had spread out a blanket since despite the chill of the October air his parents had refused to turn on the heat yet.
the twins nodded and Alex went to say something else when he hear the booming footsteps of his brother then a familiar stink hit his nose.
'No way, he wouldn't!' Alex thought.
"Hey Little Alexandra, Didn't mom tell you to toss out your pissy wet diapie when you got changed this morning? It's bad enough your a bed wetter, do you have to leave your soggy huggies around?" Justin asked.
and indeed Justin was holding out a totally soaked Spider-man print diaper in front of him, holding it with just a finger and his thumb and holding his nose.
Behind him were his friend Adam (Nicknamed grizz or grizzly because of his girth and wildly unkempt brown hair) and Rayne, actually a year younger then the other two but a head taller and so very, very much stupider. Rayne kept his head shaved because he thought it made him look more like the pro wrestlers that he so so loved.
"is that-" Lyle asked, pausing the game and turning to look.
"-A diaper?" Kyle finished, raising a eyebrow.
"JUSTIN! Mom told you not show people those! and I DID toss it out!" Alex huffed and whined, his cheeks going crimson then adding. "And DON'T call me Alexandra!"
"Whatever you say pamper pisser. Look, I went to go into our room to get something and was assaulted by the stink of your bed wetter pants." Justin said and then tossed the soggy thing at Alex, hitting him in the face and knocking him over.
the truth was Alex KNEW he'd tossed the diaper out this morning, he wasn't allowed to toss his very much needed bed time diapers out in the house trash because Dad and Justin would raise a fuss about it stinking up the house and he'd had to wait five minutes because the paper boy had stopped to talk to Mr. Johnson next door.
"JUSTIN GROSS!" Alex whined and sat up, whining and now smelling like stale pee.
"Whatever dork, go and toss your diaper out then take a shower..me and the guys are gonna start our movie early. Wonder twins, I'm sure you don't wanna stick around and hang out with a pamper packer like my little brother right?" Justin said.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" Lyle huffed and went to put a supportive hand on Alex's shoulder, but then pulled it back.
he was with his friend but that didn't mean he wanted to get any of the ick on him.
"What he said! Everyone matures differently! Heck, Lyle only just stopped needing a night light this year!" Kyle said, then pout his hands over his mouth as his brother glared at him.
"...Pfffftt BWHAHAHAHAHA!" all three big bullies broke into gut busting laughter.
"I'm not the one who has to suck on a pacifier during thunder storms!" Lyle shot back and blew a raspberry at his twin who huffed and glared.
the bullies naturally were loving it as the twins only dug themselves in deeper and Alex just face palmed.
"Guys, you're NOT helping yourselves." He pointed out.
"Oh my god, it's a group of BABIES! No wonder they all get along!" Grizz laughed, slapping his leg.
"I bet their next sleep over is gonna have them in a crib." Rayne added.
"Alright pamper packers, out of the living room, this movie is PG 13 and I don't want you all blorting your pants when something scary happens. Wonder twins, get your asses home. Alexandra, go take a shower AFTER you toss out your pissy diaper." Justin said, unable to believe just how well all of this had worked out.
"Whatever jerk.." Alex huffed and got up.
he saw his friends off though the twins were still semi huffing and fighting, shoving each other as the walked away and Alex got his wet diaper tossed out without anyone seeing him.
as he went upstairs and got his shower ready one thing was on his mind.
'This means war. I'm gonna make him feel EXACTLY how embarrassing being seen in diapers around your fiends is.' Alex vowed to himself.
Ok, he had no idea HOW he was going to do so, but while Justin may of won the first battle, it was going to be Alex who won the war and prove his Brain's out did his brother brawn.
The movie was going about as well as could be expected since they had to keep pausing it to have anther laugh at just how dorky Alex and his friends were.
Of course Rayne and Grizz had known for awhile (even if Justin technically wasn't suppose to of told them) about Alex being a diaper filler. (and he might of exaggerated what all Alex used his diapers for)
Maybe a SMALL part of Justin had felt sorry for Alex being humiliated like that in front of his friends, but Grizz had actually come up with the idea and he didn't wanna look like a pussy in front of the guys.
Besides with it coming out that the twins were just as big of dorks as his little brother any real guilt had vanished and he toyed with the idea of dragging out Alex's old play pen out of the basement for the next time he had all his dorky friends over.
'heh, get some pacifiers to shut'em up..put them all in Alex's diapers and take lots of pictures. boom, homework and chore bitches till I graduate.' Justin thought with a smirk and chuckled.
"what's so funny? Oooo and I know that look. Someone's had a evil thought." Grizz asked.
"Heh.. How would you guys feel about making some diapered nerds do our homework for us?" Justin asked.
"well, could be funny, but where are we gonna find some?" Rayne asked.
"..." Grizz roiled his eyes
"...Rayne buddy just smile and listen." Justin said semi sweat dropping.
"I can do that!" Rayne said with a big toothy grin.
Shaking his head Justin started to explain his evil plan, and his friends laughed and chuckled, and were MORE then on board.
Getting out of the shower and drying off, Alex got dressed in a pair of black jogging pants and a t-shirt then sat on his bed with his laptop.
He tried different google searches trying to figure out just how to get his brother back in diapers but for the most part it ended up giving him story link's that he bookmarked to look over later and see if there was anything usable.
He did find a forum called little brothers revenge and it had some really wicked ideas for the most part, but only two threads popped up when he searched for diaper.
the first one was clearly bull with it talking about how this kid had pooped in a diaper and hide it in his big brothers room and gotten the big brother in trouble (and even if it wasn't, Alex would hold off crapping himself as a weapon of last resort.)
the other thread was old, and had been posted just before Christmas of last year and had a little brother talk about how he had set his brother up to look like he wanted diapers for Christmas and his dad had fallen for it, and so had the rest of the family.
Of course there was a lot of disbelief in the read over that and one guy commented 'pics or your full of shit!'
As Alex scrolled down, he pretty much thought the same but then his jaw dropped as there was a picture of a sleeping boy, in a t-shirt and thick diapers and sucking on a paci and a younger boy was in frame too, it was a semi selfie and was smirking and giving the peace sign. the caption under the picture read 'Believe me now bitches?'
"Hoooly shitttttt." Alex said, this guy was his hero!
he didn't seem to be activate on the forum anymore though, there were a bout a dozen replies and a few more comments from the guy but then he vanished.
his user profile did have a e-mail attached to it and so Alex snagged it and went to write the guy a e-mail.
Subject: DUDE YOUR MY HERO!
Hey just wanted to say, I saw your post on Little brothers revenge and wanted to say how awesome that was and also I was wondering if you had any advice or tips on getting a big brother in padding. mine's being a total butt hole lately and just ugggghhh @_@
I had one idea about maybe like peeing on his bed after he gets up to frame him for bed wetting, what do you think? hope to hear from you soon!
E-mail written Alex clicked send and then went to kill some time play a few games online, never once suspecting that while he was trying to plot his big brother diaper doom, he was likewise plotting out Alex's downstairs.
It was a hour latter when Alex heard the ding that told him he'd gotten a reply and he switched tabs to go and take a look.
Subject: Re:DUDE YOUR MY HERO
Heh, thanks for the high praise though I gotta warn you, first of all this is something you've gotta be reallllly careful with. Diaper humiliation is a double edged sword, trust me. Had a friend named Ken who tried this and now he's in diapers.
Anyways just taking a leak on your big bro's bed is dumb, you'll get busted for sure! what I'd recommend is making use of laxatives and pee pills in increasing doses till he's wetting his pants all the time and blorting them too. It's a longer game but better results.
what made you wanna get his butt back in diapers anyways, and FYI i expect 'baby pictures' when your plan works.
Alex thought about that for a second and couldn't help but wonder if maybe this 'ken' was really Ben, but pushed that thought out of his head as he started to write his reply.
Subject: Re:Re:DUDE YOUR MY HERO!
Oh well, I'm a bed wetter and the butt hole went and fished one of my soggy diapers out of the trash and threw it at me while I was hanging out with my friends, trying to say i never tossed it out. so trust me, he totes has this coming.
I really got nothing to lose if I get busted since I'm in huggies every night so I'll try out your plan. it works out because he likes to make me get him drinks and snacks.
as for the picture of him once he's back in huggies heh, sure. thanks for the advice and I'll let you know when the plan starts to work.
E-mail sent Alex closed his e-mail and his game tab then went searching online for the best med's to get to reduce his brother to a helpless pants wetting stinker, only to pause after a few minutes recalling that Max had gotten in trouble awhile back for causing a series of messy accidents around school.
'nggggh..no way he'll be back yet though. I'll go and talk to him tomorrow.' Alex thought and set his laptop aside and laid back on his bed, thinking about just how much fun he was gonna have and ended up conking out.
which was unfortunate as he hadn't put on one of his spider-man diapers and with in ten minutes a wet patch was starting to grow on the front of his jogging pants, which while the dark color would hide it, the tan covered blanket he was laying on wouldn't.
"So when do you think we can do this?" Grizz asked.
the movie was basically forgotten but had been kept on to cover up their voices on the off chance Alex came downstairs (Small chance of that) or if their parents came back early.
"Welll that's the tricky part. I have to have all four of the dweebs here AND have my parents gone. they're going on a weekend trip in about 2 weeks though so I'll try and convince the dweeb to get the loser's club all over here." Justin said.
Rayne, who had just shut his mouth like he'd been told to raised his hand like he was in class.
"heh, Yes Rayne?" Justin asked.
"Aren't they into that dice game, Dragons and prison or whatever?" he asked.
"..Dungeons and dragons, yeah." Justin chuckled.
"Same difference. anyways, say you've been reading up on it and wanna try your hand at hosting a game, but just want them over before you embarrasses yourself in front of us.Most nerds I know love to play and will jump at the chance." Rayne said and smiled.
"Sweet fucking cthulhu. Rayne had a good idea." Grizz chuckled and to patted the bigger boys head. "good boy!"
Rayne beamed and was clearly proud of himself and Justin chuckled.
"Ok, I'll just have to learn enough about this nerd stuff to fake it and get them over. you guys will have to be ready to help though, I don't wanna risk one of the losers getting away." Justin said nodding.
"Hey, as long as I don't have to change any shitty asses I'm in." Grizz said.
"Wait, your gonna make them USE the diapers?" Rayne said and then laughed lots. "Gross!"
"Heh, well the best blackmail is a sobbing little brat in a stinky diaper blackmail. no way the dweeb will risk him in all his smelly glory ending up ALL over town."
"Man, I am glad your not MY big brother." Rayne said, never mind the fact Justin was pretty sure if he tried anything on the semi giant he'd be the one in huggies.
"Eh, No worries. you'd be a awesome little bro. Now all we need to do is go and pick the perfect pampers for them."
"Oh, I got it! There's this discount store my mom drags me to because they have her cream of wheat and other junk she likes cheap, but they got in a shipment of over night diapers for big kids, boys and girls. the boys has rockets and stars on them and are blue." Grizz said, setting up the best part.
"Oh, this is gonna be good." Justin smirked.
"the girls has unicorns and rainbows and are pink!" Grizz finished and cackled.
Plans set for his brother's diapered humiliation, the boys finally turned they're attention back to the movie.
After the movie it was getting late and so Justin sent the guys home as technically speaking they weren't suppose to be over, only him or Alex could have friends over for the most part if mom and dad weren't home. (Weekend vacations were the exception, though their folks made it clear the house had been be clean when they got back)
Whoever had their friends over was also suppose to clean up after them and after a chip fight in the living room Justin smirked, knowing he could get Alex to clean the mess up, since it would be Alex and his friend getting blamed for the mess.
Of course Justin usually made Alex clean up after him and his friends anyways but that always took a little bit more effort in the form of using the dorks undies to bounce him like a yo yo if he didn't listen.
He toyed with leaving Alex sulking in their room where he been since the shower and just letting the dweeb get in trouble but since it was Justin's turn to start dinner so it'd be ready and he didn't feel like cooking, he had to get Alex downstairs anyways to be a good little chore bitch.
"This will be SO much easier once I have the blackmail on him." Justin sighed to himself as he made his way up the stairs to the boys shared bedroom.
Opening the door he went to go and say something but was hit by the stench of piss and a quick look confirmed the little bed soaker had gone night night without a pamper on.
"Hey dork face! wake up! you pissed the bed!" Justin said in a loud voice.
"Ngggh a gigi boo..Five more minutes mommy.." the still mostly asleep dweeb said, trying to shoo Justin away.
"heh, baby talk? really? Wow, just when I think you can't lower the bar any more Little bro.. ALEXANDRA! WAKE UP!" Justin said then cupped a hand to his mouth and yelled.
Alex jumped sort in bed then sat up, eyes wide and panting, looking around.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" He growled once he locked eyes on Justin."ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK?!"
"No, but you had a wetting attack dork." Justin said and pointed.
Alex went to say something then looked down and went from pissed off to blushing and tried to cover himself up.
"Ah crap crap crap crap!" Alex whined and got up off the bed.
this was NOT good. not good at ALL! Dad was already riding him on the bed wetting and if he found out Alex had soaked the bed from a little nap he would NOT hear the end of it, or worse, dad would make him wear ALL day tomorrow!
"Ah..ah..Justin big brother who I love ever so much.." Alex started, swallowing and trying to put on his best 'I'm so cute help me' faces.
"Save it dweeb. I'll keep my mouth shut about your little..well BIG accident as long as you go and be a good little chore bitch and get the living room cleaned up and start supper." Justin said and leaned on the door frame, a evil smirk on his face.
Considering his options Alex just hung is head and then did a small nod.
"Butttt to show you I'm not totally heartless..I got some clothes that need to be washed so you can do them and wash your sheet at the same time as a cover up. I know, my kindness knows no bounds. just be thankful mom got you that rubber sheet or you'd be going to sleep in a soggy bed tonight." Justin said and laughed.
'gee he's all heart. letting me do his landry and clean up AND cook.. ' Alex thought but it WAS better then trying to explain the sheet alone.
"Yeah ok.." He said finally and went to strip stripping the bed.
"ah ah ah, what do you say to your kind and wonderful brother for helping you out?" Justin said, milking this for all it was worth.
'He has to be..ok no, I know him better then that.. just keep digging your grave jerk.' Alex thought then took a deep calming breath.
"Thank you for letting me do your landry big brother." he said, clenching a fist.
"Anytime dork. not get to it, you don't have a whole lotta time. my clothes are in the hamper in the bathroom." Justin said and started to walk away, then poked his head back in. "Oh and dweeb? next time don't forget to put on your diapies when your going for your afternoon nap."
and with that he walked off laughing.
"...I'm SO going to enjoy getting him in diapers." Alex huffed.
Changing into a pair of clean spider-man shorts and a captain America t-shirt, Alex got the load of landry started and then went to work cleaning up the living room while keeping a eye on the time.
the chips were everywhere and every time he though he was done he'd spot some more and wondered how much the three bullies had actually managed to get in their stupid fat mouths.
Between the cleaning and getting landry switched over he didn't have time to make anything too special so he went with the old stand by of making macaroni and cheese with hot dogs as it was quick and simple and his parents never really expected Justin to go all out when he was cooking anyways.
Dinner was ready and the landry was finished by the time their parents got home, Alex just had to go and get it out of the dryer but he figured he'd have time to do it stealthy after eating.
"So, what did you boys do for fun today?" Dad asked as they were sitting at the dinner table, a small grimace on his face at the prospect of eating the old stand by.
"Oh well-" Alex started by Justin cut him off.
"It was pretty much same old same old for me, went out and played some football with the guys and had fun. Came back though and I think The twins brought over some super sugar loaded snacks or something because Alex and them where have a chip fight and trashed the living room. it was cute though." Justin said and smirked, winking at Alex who's jaw hung open.
"Alex, you didn't!" Mom signed and shook her head. "After supper you'll be cleaning up the living room!"
"Oh don't worry about it mom, I know little guys like him just need to get it out of their systems. after the twins went home he was super pooped though, think it was a sugar crash so let him go and take a nap and I cleaned up the living room." Justin lied.
"Well that was was nice of you Justin, but in the future leave the cleaning for Alex to do." Dad said and shook his head at Alex. "Alex, we've talked about this."
Alex for his part was stuttering now, trying to think of a way to prove his innocence without getting scolded but first shots had been fired by Justin and there was nothing he could do now.
"Alex did you say thank you to Justin for cleaning up after you?" Mom asked and her tone made it clear if he hadn't she expected him to now, but again Justin spoke up.
"Oh, he's already thanked me for something else. see somebody was just SO sleepy when he went for his nap that he forgot to get his bed wetter pants on and well, Let's just say it's a good thing I had to do a load of landry anyways." Justin said as Alex,'s jaw dropped.
"Y-You said..you.." Alex stammered.
"Alex! what have I told you about not going to sleep without one of your diapers on?" Dad asked in a sharp tone.
"N-Not to do it again or..or.." Alex whined, looking down and feeling ready to cry.
this wasn't fair! he'd done everything Justin had asked him too and he was still gonna get punished!
"Or you'll be spending the next day in your diapers all day. Now I was hoping NOT to have to use that punishment but clearly you've left me no choice. you can still use the potty of course, in fact I encourage it, but you WILL be in diapers all day tomorrow." Dad said.
His tone left no room for argument and feeling hot tears start to slid down his cheeks Alex looked down at his bowl of food and sniffled.
"Yes sir."
After supper Justin offered to do the dishes if Alex would go and get the landry out of the dryer, but mom said since Justin had already cleaned up after Alex, made supper and did the landry for the most part he could go and relax and watch TV with their dad while Alex got the landry out and folded it.
Justin smiled and kissed his mom's cheek and asked if she was sure, but she insisted and so he went and plopped down on the couch, ready to watch some hockey with his dad and giving Alex a shit eating grin as the huffy and tear stained cheek dork started to stomp his way up the steps till dad called for him to knock it off unless he wanted to go to bed early.
'Oh my god. this worked out even better then I could of hoped! Mom and Dad are just too easy!' Justin thought, having to bite his tongue every so often to keep from laughing.
the dweeb had done all the work and yet here he was sipping on pop and munching on chips with their dad while the dork was off folding his undies and was gonna be a crinkle butt the next day.
'It'll be a nice little preview of whats to come.' Justin thought and let out a little chuckle despite himself.
"what's so funny?" Dad asked.
"Oh, just thinking of how silly Alex and his friends looked this after noon. they were like sugar crazed toddlers." Justin lied.
"heh, Next time you should try and get a video of it, I bet it looked cute." Dad chuckled.
Upstairs Alex was mentally cursing up a storm, pissed off and fuming like crazy as he folded pair after pair of his brothers skid marked undies.
'Son of a bitch! son of a bisket eating bitch! I'm not just gonna get him in diapers, I'm gonna make him the biggest dumbest big baby loser of all time! I'm gonna have him in the halls of his school in nothing but huggies and a bib and bonnet!'
of course a small part of Alex knew that going that far likely wasn't gonna be possible, it was a warm thought that helped him keep from just having a melt down fit that would of gotten his bun's blistered and him put to bed before it was even 8 pm.
He should of know better then to think that Justin was gonna hold up his end of the deal, or he should of spoken up about getting the landry done but nope. He'd trusted his big brother and was paying the price for it now in spades.
'And now I have to wear a diaper all day tomorrow..Maybe I'll wait till Monday to go and talk with Max.' Alex thought.
it would mean putting his plans on hold for a bit but he really didn't wanna waddle the block and a half over to Max's with pampers on under his pants.
Finishing up the folding and putting the clothes away Alex checked to make sure that his rubber sheet was dry and tugged in his blanket he'd hung out the window to dry (as it would of taken up too much room in the machines to do Justin's landry too) and with it dry he started to make his bed.
'God, what did I ever do to deserve a asshole like him for a big brother.' Alex whined mentally and finished making his bed, looking it over and then jumping and letting out a girlish shriek as a hand came on his shoulder.
"heh, Relax sweetie, it's mommy." Came his mother voice, sounding a little amused.
"That's ok, I didn't need that heart." Alex huffed, blushing and turning around to face his smirking mother. "what's up mom?"
"Well I wanted to come up and check on how the folding was going and to help you get ready for bed." She said with a smile.
"...Mom it's not even 8 yet, and it's a Saturday night.." Alex said, not liking where this was going.
"Oh You can stay up and everything till 11 like normal, but I just wanna make sure you don't conk out with your 'special armor' on." she said, using finger quotes.
"Mom I think I'm quite capable of putting my own diaper on." Alex huffed, feeling a hot blush cover his face.
"And yet you soaked your bed earlier." She cheerfully pointed out.
"T-That was different, I was just all tired and didn't realize I'd be conking out!" Alex whined, sounding more like a fussy toddler the the big kid he was trying to be.
"I know sweetie, but it kinda goes with my point. what if you just conk out again tonight? do you really wanna have to go to school on Monday in a diaper?" She asked, and the ruffled his hair.
The mental image of it stopped Alex's whining in it's tracks, picturing himself in a bib and spider-man diaper and sucking on a paci in the halls.
"No way! I'd Dieeeee!" Alex whined and shook his head no A LOT.
"well then let mommy help you out. And also if your gonna keep being so tired maybe we'll lower your bedtime for awhile." She added, then smirked and winced at the glare Alex gave her. "Now now, no using your super pouty powers on family."
"Moooom!" Alex huffed but resigned himself to his fate, when she got like this there was no getting her to back down.
He reached under his bed and pulled out his pack of spider-man diapers and noted that he was running low, and started to tug down his shorts when mom spoke up.
"Oh Alex, before we get your in your bed time diaper, do you have to use the potty?"
"mom, I know I wet the bed but I THINK I would know if had to take a leak or a dump you kn-" Alex started and then there was a loud 10 second poot out of his bottom and his tummy was gurgling.
"You were saying?" Mom asked, holding her nose but smirking."
"I-I'll be back.." Alex said in a small voice, blushing SO bad as he went past her he was shocked his hair hadn't caught on fire.
As she watched him go and had to fight the urge laugh, the little guy's undies had a fresh skid mark appearing on the back.
'Maybe I should look into getting him some of those washable training pants.' She mused.
One trip to the potty later and with Alex realizing what's he'd almost done in his undies, and the fight was all out of the little guy at least for the moment.
Zero fight was put up as he let his mom take his shorts and briefs and then proceed to diaper him, numbly just going along with her requests of butt up and the like.
"Are you sure your feeling alright? Maybe I should of checked your temperature before getting the diaper on." Mom asked, putting a hand to Alex's forehead.
"N-No I'm fine..just I dunno, Tired." Alex said, wincing.
he had to be the only boy his age to still get his temperature checked via the back door and it's wasn't that fun of a experience.
"Hmmm I think somebody better lay off of the sweets for awhile if it leaves you JUST drained after." Mom said and then started to tug Alex's blanket up on him.
"M-Mom what are you doing?" Alex whined, looking at the clock, it was 7:51 PM!
"I think you've had a big day, and your just not feeling that good. it would explain all the huffing and whining too. if you be a good boy and go night night for me now I'll see what I can do to get your father to back off with the all day diaper punishment tomorrow. I have to take you shopping for more diapers anyways with you almost being out and you get embarrassed enough as is when your in your undies."
Alex whined and whimpered a little but after a few seconds just signed and nodded.
"Good boy." She said and leaned down, kissing his forehead and then went and got one of his stuffie style Avengers from their display shelf and handed him Thor.
Lacking the energy to fight back Alex just took the offered stuffie and snuggled into it as his mom turned off the lights in the room and paused at the doorway.
"Night night little guy. Mommy will leave the door open a crack for you so you don't get scared. Love you and see you in the morning." She coo'ed/
"..Love you too mommy." Alex said, blushing.
He hadn't been scared of the door in like ages but somehow mom had the impression he still was and the only reason he wouldn't accept a night light was Justin would complain.
She left the little guy to go to sleep and Alex listened to her footsteps.
'This is bull shit. I'm not some little baby! I bet I don't even fall asleep till 11 anyways.' He huffed, crinkling and squirming in his bed.
Five minutes later he was snoring softly around his thumb as he sucked it in his sleep.
"So did Alex give you much of a fight?" Justin asked as Mom came downstairs.
"Just a token one, he's already gone to bed. I don't think he's feeling well and I think that should excuse him for needing his punishment tomorrow." Anne said, though the last part was more directed at her husband.
"Look, rules are rules, and if we start g-" Jackson started but was cut off.
"Excuse me, but who's idea was the rule that a D or worse meant no TV or computer time, and yet Justin who got a D on his last English test is watching the game with you?" She asked sweetly.
Justin gulped now and turned to his dad.
"Uh..you know..I think mom's right, we can't punish Alex if he had his accident because he's sick!" Justin chimed in.
"Heh, Nice try buddy but your mother is right in a way. I can't really punish your brother and not punish you. "Jackson said
"Soooo Alex isn't wearing a diaper tomorrow?" Justin asked hopefully.
"try again buddy, but do it in anther room so I can finish watching the game." Jackson chuckled and ruffled his sons hair as the 12 year old pouted.
"Finnne, I'll just go to my room an-." he started to huff and went to get up.
"ahhh nope. First of all I know you well enough you'll just go on your laptop." Anne said. "and second of all your brother is sleeping. Don't worry though, we have LOTS of board games you can play with me."
"Geee, spending Saturday night playing board games with my mom. aren't I lucky." Justin groaned
One mind numbing night of games later and Justin went to bed, taking note of the fact that Alex had semi drenched his pillow in drool and was still sucking his thumb.
'Heh, He's kinda cute...Still gonna make him a big dumb diaper nerd chore boy..but he's cute.' Justin thought before going and climbing into his bed.
as he went to go to sleep he had the most wonderful evil idea that could at the same time be played off as just being a nice big brother and help get 'revenge' on Alex for making him miss the end of the game.
'Hehehehe damn I'm so smart!' Justin chuckled and dropped off to sleep.
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oumaheroes · 3 years ago
Text
Earthbound: Gabriel’s Story
Written for @needcake, whose wonderful and ongoing encouragement has spurred me to explore new directions.
Context: Hundreds of years after the fall of Earth, mankind is slowly starting to return. Some people have a stronger urge to return than others, confused by fragments of memories from a life already lived.
Word Count: 3570
Characters: Portugal
Arthur’s story can be found here.
Matthew’s story can be found here.
---
Gabriel is six.  He’s at the doctor’s, which he doesn’t think that he deserves, and to protest this offense he does not answer when he is spoken to.
‘Gabriel? Can you answer some questions for me?’
The lady doctor looks nice enough; she doesn’t look scary but that’s not the point and Gabriel presses his lips together and picks up a plastic shape. It’s solid and brightly coloured and he has some like this at home. He likes to build with them, usually, when he can get them from the other kids for long enough, and on the rare occasions he’s left alone with them undisturbed he builds high high towers and pretends they’re castles.
He turns this one, red and smooth, over in his hands and lays it on the small plastic table he is knelt in front of with finality. It will be a part of a dungeon.
‘He’s always like this,’ His foster mummy Anita speaks from behind him, over his head, ‘he has these funny moods where he won’t speak at all, and then when he’s not eating it just gets worse. Never had a kid like him.’
Gabriel feels his presence swallowed softly underneath her words as the conversation passes over and around him as if he were not there. He picks up another shape. This one is round at the edges and is blue. It can go at the top.
The Doctor gently taps the table by his elbow. He turns to find her crouched next to him; eyes slightly too wide behind large glasses. She smiles, ‘What are you building?’
He shrugs.
‘Ah,’ She ponders the beginnings of his construction with interest, ‘Well, the biggest I’ve seen someone build with these is about this big,’ she gestures with her hands to her chest and Gabriel is forced to look at her.
That is quite high.
‘I can go bigger.’
The doctor raises an eyebrow sceptically, ‘I don’t know,’ she says, ‘the girl who built it didn’t have to go home for dinner.’
‘I don’t have to go home for dinner,’ Gabriel retorts, immediately. Mummy Anita scoffs and Gabriel flushes, looking away.
‘Do you not like dinner?’ the doctor prompts, softly.
Gabriel shrugs again.
‘I don’t like Option 3,’ the doctor says. She reaches under the table and picks up another shape -yellow, a triangle- and puts it near him.  Might be a good turret ceiling, if they leave him alone to build high enough, ‘that’s what I hate. But my favourite is Option 17.’
‘I don’t like any of them.’
‘No? You must like one of them, there are so many!’
Gabriel shakes his head and continues to stack shapes, ‘they all taste funny.’
‘Funny?’ the doctor glances at Mummy Anita who shrugs.
‘None of the other kids say that. We’ve had the machine checked out- I eat from it. It’s fine. Even tried him on other machines but he says they all taste funny.’
The doctor looks back at him and he tries to look unbothered by their discussion, ‘Why do you think food from meal machines tastes funny? What’s strange about the food?’
It’s an easy enough question, but one that Gabriel can’t really answer- not even to himself.
The best way he can describe it is that food from machines just tastes wrong.
All meals come from food machines. They’re in every home and school and all taste the same; a catalogue copy of meals for everyone to have. But there’s a dryness to everything, something that sticks bland and metallic in his mouth and no matter which out of the many hundreds of options he tries, Gabriel hates them all. There’s something wrong about them, he thinks, something unnatural that he never wants to taste, no matter how used to it he knows he should be. Food from machines is all he’s ever eaten.
They don’t grow things on his colony; vegetables or fruits or grain. There’s no room in the towering stacks of buildings, stretching into the dusty orange sky. The colony is a jumble of things, a jungle bleached colourless and lifeless despite the scattering of people that scrabbled through its warrens.
There is no room for fields here. No farms for cattle to roam. The machines feed them: food materialised from the collective memory of humanity. Gabriel has heard in the playground at school that other human colonies, the ones further off into space where their communications cannot reach, make their own food from scratch, like the people of the olden times of Earth. This seems bizarre to him. What difference would it make, if you made a meal from things instead of a machine? All of their neighbouring colonies do the same as they do and this is all anyone of them have ever known.
Either way, the taste is lifeless and empty so Gabriel avoids eating as much as possible, giving in only when his tummy hurts with an ache that needs to be filled with something, anything, before it will think of going away.
He doesn’t know how to put this into words, so he turns away and adds another block to his tower, hoping that the adults will leave him alone. The doctor on his side sighs and taps something into her e-tab, looking back over at Mummy Anita.
The conversation begins again, over his head, and Gabriel slips away.
When Gabriel is thirteen when he realises that something about him isn’t quite right. It’s not his problem with food, although that has never improved, things taste as stilted now as they ever have done. No matter what meal option he tries, and no matter from which machine, there is the same blandness to everything, a cotton covering that prevents him from tasting what everyone else says he should.
But lack of taste is the least of his concerns.
The word most used to describe him by adults is ‘unfocused.’
This isn’t something he thinks is fair, but he understands how they think that, he supposes. He can often be found staring out of a window or escaping off into space, eyes glassy and face slack. He doesn’t agree with the term ‘unfocused’ because Gabriel is very focused on doing just that.
Escaping.
It is easy. So very, very easy. Like a quick breath in, he can switch off today effortlessly and take himself away somewhere, mind’s eye overlaying reality to wash his surrounds bright and true and better. He can take himself to a place so perfect it can only exist in his mind- soft sandy beaches in front of scrubby mountainsides that soar and roll up and down in sharp curves, all under a sky so blue it burns. Cyan rivers wend down corridors and curl around the legs of his classmates, a cliff face leans out of the drop of a window, a dark cupboard hides the maw of the unknown- damp caves that drip drip drip with depth and cool his older, sun-burnt skin.
If he closes his eyes and truly does focus, he can go even further- bite down and taste Brazilian gold, hard and cold as it hits his teeth to send shivers of warning up his spine. A dropped pencil or a creak of a floorboard snaps into the crackle of a fire, hot and close and his mouth waters with the promise of flame kissed meat and the smell of woodsmoke.
As much as he enjoys this, he realises it is a problem because it is not something that anyone else does. Not anymore, at least, and never as well. Children used to play pretend, of course, when they were younger- it was normal. Gabriel always seemed to be the best at it, somehow, better able to call to mind a place for their games with a vivacity no one else could hope to compare to and it was fun- something he excelled in. He made all of their games, a playmaker in setting the stage and lifting another world to blanket the dusty playground and wrap them all in colours.
But his friends have grown out of such things. Their thirst for the imaginary cooled and then tapered off entirely whilst Gabriel’s hunger for it only grew and grew until he could travel miles in the blink of an eye, drumming fingers playing a marching song to set the pace and propel him onwards.
Why be here when he can be elsewhere? Why would he ever choose otherwise, when elsewhere was a paradise unlike any other. Any colour, any texture, any smell or taste, and all blended and whirled together to spill a storm of yearning through his waking days.
Maybe he could write, he thinks. He is sixteen and thinks that, maybe this is why he does this. Maybe this is something that is normal after all, if he can put what he is feeling to paper and share it with others. If it is productive, it is good, after all. If it creates something tangible, if it is something that others can use and enjoy then it is something worthy; it has value. When it is just for him, it is strange; adults watching with dark and wary eyes, muttering condemnations that shackle him with labels.
It is the way of things.
But writing is harder than it looks. Words only describe so much and are too flat, too rigid to encompass the entirety of what he feels and sees. On paper, the world of his daydreams regresses to shapes like the coloured blocks he used to love as a child- useful for building something, yes, but ultimately something controlled and solid, changeable but unmoving and limited. Gabriel’s imagination isn’t like this, it is constantly new and fluid, forever showing him more and more and more with a detail words can never capture, never truly express.
He dreams of orchards, of fruit so orange and full and clear to him that he can see the speckles of dust in the dips of its skin, the dew that sits on the leaves in the morning. He feels himself, brown, large hand scarred with mistakes and history, close about it and pull; feels the tension as it resists on the branch before a gasp of a break. The leaves of the tree swing back and the fruit is full and firm and he can taste it, taste how full it will be when he peels back the skin and bites down to flood his mouth with sweetness.
He feels air that is cool and tastes of salt, wind that pushes and tugs at his clothes, of a floor of wood that moves and bucks in angry waters of grey and blue. Unknown jungles where the air is thick and hot, arid plains where the sun scorches the rocks, and damp misty hills that whistle ancient secrets across the miles and twist his heart until it breaks.
What is that.
Why is that.
He doesn’t know.
When Gabriel is eighteen, the foster home he is in releases him.
‘You can stay, if you want,’ Anita gives him a measured look, up and down, from beneath her eyelashes, ‘but you’ll need to start paying rent. Benefits stop for you now so I can’t keep you about for free.’
Gabriel blinks at her, ‘But, I don’t have a job.’
Anita’s face remains impassive, ‘Then you’ll have to find one.’
‘How?’ he is angry, all of a sudden. Older children had never stuck about after their eighteenth birthday but he always imagined that they had left of their own accord, that they couldn’t wait to leave. Now he wonders how many of them were forced out, where they went, ‘I’ve never had one before.’
‘Your school should do something about helping you find one. Or, here,’ she reaches into her desk drawer and pulls out her e-tab. The paint of the old thing is chipped but it still works; the screen flashes bright and the contrast with the dark office room washes her face flat and white in the glow. After a moment, she holds out the tab to him, ‘there are some programmes about. Take a look at them and sign up to some.’
Gabriel doesn’t take it and her arm hangs there, suspended and stiff between them. Eventually, she sets down the tab and pushes it towards him, ‘I’ll give you two months, if you want to stay. You should be able to find something in that time.’
‘What do I do if I can’t find anything?’ there is a tightness in his chest. He does not like it here, does not really even like her but the taste of betrayal is thick on his tongue and catches in the back of his throat to prick at his lungs, ‘what do I do? This isn’t fair.’
Anita looks at him, hard and cold, ‘Life isn’t fair. The quicker you learn that, the better off you’ll be.’ With that she motions with her head towards the door behind him and tabs on her computer, bringing it back to life.
The conversation is over.
Gabriel clenches his jaw, spins about and opens the door. The e-tab he leaves on her desk.
He moves his way through the house and out to the street. Night has fallen and the glow from their fat, orange sun hangs warm and faded behind the horizon. It looks like a painting; abstract- not real. The cut of the skyline is wrong, too sharp and small and alien all at once and he hurts with the urge to close his eyes and drift away on the tide of his dreams to somewhere better.
He can’t. He needs to do something, needs to go somewhere, needs to eat. Food machines are everywhere, but they cost money that he doesn’t have and the fear of hunger for the tasteless pushes him into the tangle of streets.
Gabriel is twenty-two. He found a job, eventually. It was the spur of the moment, out of desperation, but it’s not all that bad, in the end. He is a builder.
The monotony of manual work allows him to loosen his mind, lift himself out of his body as he lays dun-coloured bricks down in careful order, one by one by one. He builds a home under his hands but his mind is away, far far into grasses so tall they tickle his cheeks and he reconstructs himself into a reality he can control.  
This brick can be the dungeon. This brick can be a turret. Gabriel can be elsewhere.
This is enough. It is enough, he tells himself. It is more than enough; if he gets better, he can actually do that, actually build the castles of his dreams. Maybe he could be an artist, or an architect, maybe he can design a whole new colony that has fancy machines to replicate wind or bodies of water to recreate a sea deep and blue enough to have come straight from the Earth itself.
When he thinks about this too deeply, it hurts.
The ancient planet sings to him from the files of history, a stunning colourful thing that hangs suspended in time. Oh, what he would give to be there. To see the oceans and feel the grasses of fields that are somehow so very green. What he would give for the possibility see it, just once. Any part of it.
The pictures he’s seen, the videos and the stories that are collected into binary are the only things left of humanity’s original home- something so colourful and incredible that it is hauntingly impossible. Gabriel’s dreams must be modelled on it, he knows, they must have a grain of truth in them because only his imagination can compare to the flat, coded remains of Earth. Nothing man-made can be so beautiful, nothing built by mortal hands produce such unkempt beauty.
Gabriel feels like he was born in the wrong time, made and moulded to explore something older and wilder where he can go and go and go and always see something new, unending and natural. This lost opportunity, this missed moment and incorrect assignment whips a storm in his heart and brings tears to his eyes but passes, eventually. He is not a man for regret, not a man to dwell on what he cannot have and he consoles himself with the idea that maybe, one day, he can help to build a new world that rivals the one in his dreams.
When Gabriel is twenty-four, one of the human colonies fails. As the colony collapses, life systems screaming into the vacuum, the population spills into the sky, desperate to get away however they can. As one of their closest neighbours, despite the distance, Gabriel’s planet catches a lot of them.
They arrive in huge patchwork ships- cobbled together with speed, not precision. They’re falling apart and can barely cling on and the people they contain are scared, panicked things; exhausted by the constant and very near threat of death they press beseechingly into their new home. His planet is full, really, too full to take on so many but they have nowhere else to go, no place else to stop and so they flock into streets and public buildings, cawing for food and water and housing.
As a builder, Gabriel is in high demand and is immediately put to work. Hastily constructed houses spring up, growing the towns outwards and into the desert. There are no domes here- Gabriel’s planet can sustain itself and for the new arrivals this is bewildering.
Gabriel begins to talk to one of them. She is old, feather light skin wrinkled and soft, and she flutters like a bird about the building site, eager to offer help in any way she can. It’s sweet and Gabriel softens to her instantly, sensing she feels a displacement similar to what he does. A kinship of the unbelonging.
Every afternoon she arrives and as soon as his shift ends, he lowers himself to the ground and goes in search of her. They take tea together in the shade and talk existence to rights.
‘You remind me of my grandson,’ she says one day. Gabriel avoids talking about her planet or her family, or anything to do with what brought her here. He does not know what parts of it will cause her pain and he has no wish to do that to her. She must feel enough when she is alone, he knows, when she has time to mourn what she has lost and it is not his place to bring that sadness to other aspects of her day. She never offers anything and so the subject lies between them, an elephant in the void of space.
When she says this, then, he is surprised and curious, ‘Oh? How so?’
She smiles, ‘He’s a dreamer too. Always thinking of things when he should be focusing. He makes a similar face to the one you do.’
Gabriel blushes, ashamed to have been caught drifting off whilst in her company.
She sees his embarrassment and laughs, ‘Oh no, don’t worry- it’s fine. I used to love watching him float away somewhere. I used to say he was going off to Neverland.’
‘That’s a nice description for it,’ it’s an old Earthen story Gabriel was fond of growing up- a tale of a journey to somewhere else, ‘What was his name?’
‘Is,’ she corrects firmly and Gabriel nods apologetically, ‘Is. His name is Peter.’
‘Peter,’ the name fits a fellow daydreamer. The boy who never grew up. Gabriel decides to ask, tentatively, ‘Where is he?’
The old lady looks wistful, ‘Earth,’ she says with a sigh, ‘He and his parents managed to get passage to Earth but I wasn’t able to. We’re too far out to send any communication- I don’t want to think about what they believe became of me.’
Gabriel blinks once. Twice. Tries to speak, ‘Earth?’
She frowns at him, ‘Yes, don’t you know?’ Realisation hits and she shakes her head, ‘Oh, I forget that you don’t hear much this far out. Earth was declared habitable a few months ago. They’re starting a founding colony there to see if humans can survive there again.’
‘Wh- what?’
She looks at him, concerned, ‘Are you alright? You’ve gone awfully pale.’
Gabriel can’t really understand her, her voice feels like its coming from one end of an endless tunnel and his heart is hammering too loudly in his chest to focus on her. He stands, shaky, and she clutches at his shirt hem, ‘Gabriel? Gabriel, what’s wrong?’
‘I don’t know,’ his heart pounds canon fire, a boom boom boom that disorientates him. He smells smoke, smells fire, smells death, ‘I thought- I thought it was gone, Earth was gone.’
‘It was, but they travelled to investigate about a decade ago and they’ve been researching it- dear please sit down.’
She tugs at him but he shakes his head, a ghost of understanding in his mind that slips away like silk, ‘Can we go? Who can go- can I go?’
She looks scared, ‘Yes, but there’s a waiting list, you need to get your name down- Gabriel!’
---
He doesn’t wait for her to finish. He takes off into the centre of town to the public buildings, pushing his way through crowds to get there faster. He won’t waste one second more, will grab hold of what acutely feels like a delicate second chance with both hands and won't dare to let go.
AN:
This was my first time writing Portugal as a character with a voice and it was both challenging and very fun to do. There are so many amazing Portugal writers out there to inspire me and I hope I have done him justice for any of you who read this!
The full fic can be found here on A03. It doesn’t include Portugal, but explores this AU a whole lot more with a different cast of characters.
Thanks for reading!
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ronnie-azumane · 3 years ago
Text
Flower Rings
Hello everyone! I'm here with another Anisylum collab! This is the first time writing for my OG anime husband, so please go easy on me. But yeah! I hope y'all enjoy and check out the other works from the other creators participating!
CW: Abuse/beating, fluffy hurt/comfort, ATTACK ON TITAN MANGA SPOILERS, mentions of trauma, suicide, and death.
Life in the ghetto wasn’t a walk in the park. Sure, life could be worse, (Y/N) could be going hungry at night, slowly turning into skin and bones. (Y/N) could be shivering the night away in a flimsy tent with a single blanket to keep warm.
Although it’s a little hard to be grateful for what you have when it feels like the oppressor is always watching your every move.
It doesn’t take a genius to see the lack of justice in these ghettos provided by the Marleyan regime, however, young (Y/N) didn’t pay attention to her oppressors as much, they’re only a child after all. Why would they even want to be concerned about politics when the neighbors are playing a game of kickball?
Almost like clockwork, every week at precisely 5pm, the children born in the ghetto would gather in a courtyard and play kickball, with the ball being an old ball accidentally thrown over the fence years ago and the bases marked by old linens.
Kids of all ages gathered as usual at the court yard to divide out the teams and begin their game of ball. (Y/N) wasn’t the youngest there, but at seven years old, they were still young and scrawny, so it was no surprise that (Y/N) was one of the last ones picked.
(Y/N) sighed in relief, however, when they saw that Reiner was on their team. Reiner was three years older than (Y/N), and pretty much tied to their hip. Since both their mothers were friends growing up, they always had playdates together, playing with various figures and creating these elaborate plots to go along with them.
“We’re on the same team? Yes!” Reiner celebrates, jumping around excitedly as any ten year old would.
“You’re only celebrating because you’re too chicken to face me,” (Y/N) teased, sticking their tongue out.
A succession of ‘am not’s and ‘am to’s was promptly stopped when one of the older kids shouted that the game was about to start. Team Black would be kicking first while Team White would pitch.
(Y/N)’s favorite part of the game was kicking, so finding out that the Black Team was kicking first was music to their ears. They ran to the line, getting as close to the front as they could. Reiner held back, as he preferred catching the ball and running fast to get someone out.
(Y/N) was finally up to kick. Team Black had an out and kids on second and third base. If they scored, their team would get their first point.
The ball bounced a slight bit as it made its way toward (Y/N). (Y/N) wound back their leg and hit the ball back, aiming in between the second and third base. The ball flew and (Y/N) sprinted to first base.
What (Y/N) failed to realize was that Jameson, the eight year old boy that had a personal goal of making every day miserable for (Y/N), was waiting by first base.
As they ran toward the base, Jameson positioned himself to where his foot would ‘accidently’ get in the way of (Y/N)’s footing. Sure enough, (Y/N) stepped on his foot, causing them to lose their balance and fall to the ground before hitting the base.
“What the hell, (Y/N), you stepped on my foot!” Jameson shouted, landing a kick in (Y/N)’s side. (Y/N) yelped in pain as they curled into themself.
“You put your foot there on purpose,” (Y/N) sniffled as pain-filled tears leaked from their eyes.
“So what if I did? You still should have avoided it,” Jameson landed another kick to their side.
Reiner, who was zoned out looking at a bee buzzing around, snapped back to reality when he heard (Y/N) yelp in pain in the distance. Before he could think, he found himself running over to the two and punching Jameson square in the face.
Before Jameson could retaliate, Reiner picked up (Y/N) from the ground and ran away from the game, carrying them on his back. Deciding it was not worth the effort, Jameson let them run off as he got back to his game, but not before the team captain of the day switched him to outfield as punishment.
With (Y/N) on his back, Reiner ran to their self proclaimed happy place, if you could call anywhere in the ghetto happy. Near the entrance gate, there was a patch of grass where wildflowers grow, giving them a taste of the natural world that was unknown to them within the walls of the ghetto. He set them down and plopped next to their shuttering frame.
“How are you feeling, (Y/N), are you hurt? Do we need to go to the doctor?” Reiner asked.
“I’m hurt, but I don’t want to go to the doctor.”
“Are you still afraid that the doctor is going to give you a shot?” Reiner teased.
“Shut up! Needles are scary!” (Y/N) whined, causing Reiner to giggle.
Soon enough, the pain in (Y/N)’s side began to fade, and they focused themselves on making a flower crown while Reiner watched the Marleyan soldiers outside the gate train.
“My mama wants me to be a warrior, but I’m not too sure that's what I want to do,” Reiner sighed, lying all the way back on his back.
“How come? Isn’t becoming a warrior one of the best things an Eldian can do for Marley?” (Y/N) asked.
“Yeah, but that would mean I would have to work really hard, while buttheads like Jameson would get to play and make fun of you. It wouldn’t be fair!”
“Why are boys like Jameson so mean anyway? My mommy told me that it just meant that he liked me, but why would someone be mean to someone they liked?” (Y/N) asked.
“Is that a thing?” Reiner asks.
“That’s what mommy says,” (Y/N) finished their flower crown and unceremoniously flopped it onto Reiner’s head, earning a giggle from him. “I wouldn’t want to marry a guy like Jameson, I would want to marry a guy like you, Reiner, who’s nice to me.”
“Then how about we make a promise?” Reiner asked.
“A promise?”
“Yeah, like, we promise to marry each other now, and once we get big we actually do it?” Reiner’s cheeks were now bright red.
“Yeah! I like that! I promise to marry you, Reiner,” (Y/N) extended a pinky out.
Reiner crudely plucked a flower from the ground and tied the stem around (Y/N)’s finger. Reiner’s fingers were chubby and unskilled, so the flower ring didn’t turn out as pretty as the crown, yet (Y/N) still stared at it.
“And I promise to marry you, (Y/N).”
XXX
Reiner ended up joining the Warriors a few years later, to the dismay of (Y/N). The flower ring had since shriveled up beyond repair, but (Y/N) refused to let go of their promise, thinking that if the flower stayed in their possession, it would guarantee Reiner’s safe return home.
However, the mission that was estimated to take the four warriors a year or two to complete turned into a major failure with rumors stating that only one of them was making it home. However, (Y/N) didn’t have the time to mourn her lost friend, Marley was still causing conflict in both the battle front and the home front.
It wouldn’t be until after the Rumbling ended when (Y/N) would meet up with Reiner again. He was in the area negotiating peace with some other nations, and decided a late lunch and catch-up session with his childhood friend was in order.
“So, how was going through puberty like on an island without modern medicine?” (Y/N) asked shamelessly.
“What happened to hello?” Reiner asked, causing (Y/N) to erupt in laughter.
“I’m just sad I didn’t get to witness voice-crack Reiner,” (Y/N) wiped a tear from their eye, causing Reiner to groan.
They then began to catch up, retelling all their experiences from the past thirteen years. Reiner went into detail as to what it was like training with the man who almost killed all of humanity, his trauma, and even his suicide attempt while (Y/N) retold moments of agony in the ghetto, their dad getting drafted for one of the countless wars, and even confessed that they and Jameson dated at one point.
“You! And him!” Reiner stuttered.
“Apparently my mom was right, Jameson pretended he hated me because he couldn’t decipher his own feelings. Dumped his ass a while ago though, he started spending all his money on alcohol.”
“So I’m assuming you’re not seeing anyone?” Reiner asked.
“Not at the moment, why do you ask?”
“Well, (Y/N), I may have had ulterior motives to this lunch,” Reiner pulled out a small box from his pocket and set it on the table, inviting (Y/N) to open it up. Inside was a ring, with the centerpiece shaped as the flower that he tied onto (Y/N)’s finger all those years ago.
“What is this?” (Y/N) stuttered.
“You probably don’t remember, but one day, I gave you a flower ring with a promise. I’m sure it’s long gone by now.”
“Yeah, lost it in the rumbling. Are you really proposing to me right now?”
“No no no! This is just a reminder of that promise we made that afternoon. That promise helped me push through all the hardships I faced,” Reiner flailed his arms a bit, getting slightly flustered.
“So, a promise ring?”
“I promised I’d marry you, didn’t I?” Reiner asked as he pulled out his pinky. Smiling, (Y/N) slipped on the ring and interlocked their pinky with his.
“You did, Reiner, you did.”
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friggsdc · 4 years ago
Text
Title: little delinquent pt ii
part i | part ii | part iii
Warnings: Female!reader (bat!sis), mostly family fluff, AU, hurt/comfort, language
word count: 4000~
It had Bruce and Dick sharing a look for a moment before the latter spoke up, “It’s not like I’m against continuing to expand the family, but…” he eyed the child you held nervously, “please don’t start bringing home every child you find…” he tilted his head, “he’s bad enough.” Bruce settled a light glare at his first son (that definitely wasn’t what Bruce was thinking), though Dick was stilled by the way your eyes narrowed at him instead.
“His name is Terrence,” that was all you said, brushing past as they were suddenly on guard at the inherited Wayne-scowl on your face.
-
a/n:  still no jaybird lmao I’m sorry, but I brought in mamabat duke, because he’s the best at being a mamabat without smothering you like your other siblings. Steph too because she’s your sweet bean partner in crime u v u)9 For my sanity, Metropolis is in Deleware across the bay from Jersey (tho Gotham is still north of Atlantic City).
-
He wasn’t certain if he should be proud or upset at how quickly you’d turned Tim against him, the two of you now working in unison, playing ‘keep away from big papa Bruce.’ No matter when he tried to approach you, something always seemed to happen or come up, and it was actually starting to get on his nerves. Worse was Damian seemed to be joining in, his rebellious nature being nurtured by the influence of both Tim and yourself.
He knew it would be difficult to deal with you and your ability to hide anything, just like you could hide yourself, but… Now he had to deal with more than just you, and Tim wasn’t going to make it any easier for him. Oh no, this was going to be a headache with you two. And Damian… He couldn’t trust that his son wouldn’t give away anything he did to you, his loyalties giving out to the growing childish nature he was developing. Bruce was again at a loss, should he be happy Damian was acting his age, or upset that he was more interested in working with the ‘opposition?.’ 
“It’s not a mission,” Damian had commented, so it was “fair game.”
He rested his head in his hands, fingers lightly massaging his temples as his elbows supported him, propping him up on the ornate desk in his study.  Fucking hell, he had to outsmart both the tech sleuth and the stealth agent of the family. Information was literally their game. Rather than giving into the growing frustration in his stomach, he stood up, now a bat on a mission as he quickly headed down to the cave. He thanked his moody bat heart that it was just two of his kids (he wasn’t certain of Damian yet, the wild card), and not… more…
The League computers would definitely come in handy right about now.
He was gonna go full fucking vigilante detective bat mode on his kids.
Again.
He groaned.
-
[bigR] Dad took off for the League, bet you can guess why.
Flipping your personal phone closed with a light snort, you refocused your attention on buckling the toddler into the hand-me-down car seat. You’d definitely have to get him a new one on your shopping trip, you just hoped Duke’s car could fit everything…
Damian was securing his sword between him and the kid before he crawled in, closing the door and putting on his safety belt. You grinned at him as he avoided your smile, looking away instead, “hurry up.” Shaking your head, you leaned in to rub your nose against Terrence’s own, his chubby fingers coming up to grab at your face, hair, clothes, ears, and earrings ohgodstop. Having cooed at him enough, and having been assaulted by his little nails, scratches now on your chin, you leaned back and out of his reach, closing the door softly.
“Are you sure it’s okay to shirk off for the day? You’re the one usually patrolling at this time…” you headed to the passenger side, “Big guy said it was fine, besides…” Duke smiled and nodded his head towards the car with a wink, “wouldn’t want to leave you alone with a bunch of kids.” It’s not like he was wrong, but you were skilled enough to handle your brother and… son… ah… that was going to get some getting used to. A smile and spread on your face with a light laugh as you climbed in, settling, and closed the door behind you, “ready to get going?” Damian glared at you before refocusing his attention on Terrence, ignoring your obviously dumb question, “Pennyworth mentioned Todd having finally gotten back before I left.”
Duke had started up the car and checked over everything before heading down the manor drive, now officially on the road. Meanwhile, you hummed happily, “guess I’ll have to go see him when we get back.” Damian made a face, “gross.” You rolled your eyes in amusement, “you knew what my reaction was gonna be.”
The two were ridiculous in how they treated each other, honestly.
“It’s still gross.”
The ride down the ocean side drive was calming, the windows lowered to let the cool ocean breeze in. Damian was back to his “poking the toddler’s nose” game, having gotten used to the sound of a baby, and no longer acting like it wasn’t his fault when he made the toddler laugh.
Meanwhile,
“So, who made you the baby-sitter?” Duke kept his eyes on the road, the ever-responsible budding adult that he was, “Bruce, actually.” He grinned at the way you looked at him, catching sight from the corner of his eye, “surprising, I know. Woulda thunk Tim’d have asked, huh?”
Nodding, you leaned back, “well, I mean, yeah. He’s been pretty upset since the other day, he won’t leave Terrence and I alone at the manor. He’s been staying over...” You might have felt bad for lying to Duke, but the truth was that you were lying to everyone but Tim at this point. Not that it was the first time you’d lied to them. You told the truth so often that they took you at your word, never catching on when you did fib, but you were pretty certain this would blow up in your face.
They’d catch you eventually.
This wasn’t one of those easy to digest lies either, that was the complicated part. It terrified you how they’d react once they learned the truth.
Then…
Before that happened, you made the silent determination that you’d make your… son a part of the family. They won’t be able to decide anything for him then, they’d be in too deep, you’d make certain.
Yeah, you could be a little… manipulative sometimes.
Probably something you got from your father.
“What’s up?”
“Oh, sorry, nothing. My mind was just wandering,” Duke frowned a little, flipping on his blinker while coming to a slow crawl, “not believing you.”
Turning your head to him, your grin was a bit scary, “okay, so, I was just thinking about if your car can fit everything I’m going to want to buy.” It was enough to distract him, a groan finding its way out as he pulled into the ticketing line for the ferry.
“If..??”
Now, to really drive it home, you pulled something from your purse and waved it at him, “Is… is that…” he eyed it nervously. “Yes, yes it is, dear brother.” His ears burned as he turned his eyes from you, hand now outstretched in your direction.
“You’re paying the ferry, then…” he muttered.
You put your dad’s credit card on his palm,
“Rich little daddy’s girl.”
This time the snort came from the back seat, “I have one as well, Thomas. You need only ask father.”
Duke sputtered and refused to acknowledge either of you till after having crossed the Deleware Bay.
Rich kids. Honestly.
-
Metropolis always amazed you, honestly, the bright skies overhead and the amount of people without a care in the world was enviable. Still, it just wasn’t… home. By now you’d developed some serious Stockholm for the cesspit that is Gotham. Even so, you preferred to go shopping here, their selection of high-quality stores mixed with less people recognizing you, and your family, were boons.
As you stared up at the towering high rise in front of you, Damian having disappeared inside minutes before, there was one other reason for coming to Metropolis…
“You’re always so slow! I told you to hurry up!!”
“Who’s slow?! You’re the slow one!!”
“Boys, please—”
The loud sound of twin crashes echo’d out the opened lobby door, the two boys in question bounding out with plenty of energy and two very red chins. “That… looks painful…” you smiled, walking over to check Damian’s face for actual injury.
“Tt, I’m fine.” He smacked your hand away, glaring at the super next to him, rubbing his own, already healing chin. “Hey Jon, enjoying Metropolis?” The bright-eyed boy, sans cape, grinned at you from ear to ear, “There’s so much to do here!” he almost lifted off the ground in his excitement, “but I miss the farm.” A chuckle came from the entrance to the building, deep and warm and just as kind as the child now sticking his tongue out at your youngest brother. On the man’s broad shoulder was an overnight bag, and a sheepish smile on his face as if he felt guilty. 
He probably did, the two boys were a handful.
Duke was leaning against the roof of the car with a huge dopey smile on his face, waving at the man approaching, “Hello, you must be the chaperone, Duke Thomas?” your newest brother nodded enthusiastically, almost at a loss for words, “Yup! I-I mean y-yes, it’s nice to meet you, sir!” Clark only chuckled, far too used to such formalities, “Clark is fine, our families are… close, after all.” He watched the boys pull at each other’s faces in mock battle.
“Ah, Clark! It’s been a while!” the older male smiled as he stopped a few feet from you and the car, hands resting on his hips, “Miss Wayne.” Near immediately, his eyes shifted to the backseat of the car and he leaned against the door, looking in.
“Bruce has another kid? He looks like how I always imagined him to look as a kid, suspiciously innocent,” you froze, and he would have laughed at the thought of Bruce with more secret kids, but he straightened. Looking at you in concern instead, he started, “I know he’s not… the most affectionate father, but…” you quickly shook your head, attempting damage control. “It… no, he’s not dad’s…” You laughed nervously at the look on his face, his hand raising to point at you as his mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to process.
“Yup. He’s… His name is Terrence, and he’s… my… son…” your tone turned warm and kind, and your eyes settled on the babe in the car with all the grace of a mother, just like Lois when Jon had been born, the older super nodded thoughtfully. “I’m glad it’s you, then. If anyone in that family can raise a good kid, it’ll be you.” The two of you shared an understanding smile, though yours was accompanied by a twitch or two, swearing he enjoyed his little joke, before he turned his head painfully in surprise, as if an enemy had suddenly appeared.
Following his sight, you had to laugh at the dark glare on Damian’s face directed at Clark, “well, I think it’s time I take my leave, then.” He scratched the back of his head, avoiding the kid’s gaze. He wanted to inquire more about the new addition to the family, but it would have to wait. Jon gave his dad a huge hug, getting his hair ruffled in the process as Clark waved at Duke, chucking the overnight bag into the car.
With a last good-bye to you, he turned high-tail and ran, as if he were almost eager to get away. Watching him jog slowly inside the building, you almost swore his steps were far lighter than his build, “probably prefers to float…” looking away, you missed him trip.
“Alright, c’mon you two. Get in.” when you’d opened the door, the two boys stared in horror, “I’m not sitting in the middle.” Damian ground out before Jon pushed him with more force than Damian could resist, “HE’S YOUR BROTHER!!! YOU SIT IN THE MIDDLE!”
“STUPID! HE’S MY NEPHEW!”
“Still, you sit next to him…” Jon pouted, and combined with your stare, Damian crawled in with a grumble, “Stupid super.” Jon ignored him without issue, and you’d have to ask Damian about it later, curious as to why his best friend was so used to his insults like it was a common occurrence? Then he climbed in after, shutting the door behind him.
“Nerves of steel, that one,” you mumbled, getting back in the car as Duke laughed lightly, starting the car up before heading a bit further into the city. After a few minutes and a few stop lights, Duke gave in to the side-glances you kept giving him, having caught them from the corner of his own eyes, “what now?” The growing devious grin on your face had him on edge, “speaking of nerves of steel…” a shiver hit the back of his neck, “please don’t.” His begging stopped nothing, “fanboy,” but of course you would, and he did his best to pay attention to the road, “don’t make me ignore you all day.”
“I thought it was cute though? Haha, Izzy would be jealous.”
“It’s… I mean, he was…” his ears were burning, especially at the mention of Isabella’s name, and he pouted worse than Jon had.
“I know, but still. You know you’ve met him before, right?” Duke looked like he wanted to disappear in his seat, “just… in costume…” you hummed in amusement.
It didn’t take long for Duke to pull into the parking lot at one of the high-end furniture stores, resting his head on the steering wheel for a moment after parking. The two boys were already out of the car, bickering and racing into the store, “you have no taste! It’s all dark! You can’t put a baby in a depressing room!”
“YOU WANT TO BLIND HIM WITH BRIGHT COLORS!”
“YOU WANT TO SCARE HIM WITH DOOM AND GLOOM!”
The two were practically racing at this point, shoving each other back and forth, though Jon often made Damian stumble through raw strength, and Damian often made Jon trip through dirty tricks.
“Aaaaand there they go.” You were already out of the car as you said it, heading to the driver’s backside door. Duke stepped out before stilling, his face falling at the straps in your hand, outstretched towards him, “you have got to be kidding.”
“Nope, you’re the babysitter today, Papa Duke.”
He took the child carrier from you, strapping the pack on with a depressed aura of resignation, “this so doesn’t look cool.” You snickered as you transferred Terrence over to the pack on Duke’s front, “yeah, but people won’t mess with a big guy like you. Besides, I can handle Damian better than you, can you take care of our son?” you teased him.
“Yeah, I can take care of… him…” Duke eyed the child looking around at everything he could, taking in every sight with silent baby contemplation skills, thumb in his mouth.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Izzy about us,” you thought for a moment as he ignored your comments, switching tactics. Eyeing him before patting him on the shoulder, you began heading after the two boys, “when you get back, tell Izzy you think she looks like a piece of candy.”
He had a confused look as he followed after you, catching up in a speed walk, “what’s that supposed to mean?”
Not only did his ears turn red, but his entire face and neck burned hot at the suggestive smile on your face, “Oh… wait, w-why out of nowhere though?!”
“You forget, I live with nothing but men. Harper’s not around often and Steph is the only female I see on a regular basis.”
“Get some friends,” he groaned.
“That’s what family is for.”
Ugh.
-
Shopping actually went a lot better than expected, and you were able to get a new car seat at the behest of Damian, “no way you’re using a hand-me-down,” he all but threatened. There were some smaller things you could easily fit into the car, a few boxes, one for a mobile, one for a few bed sets, a giant pregnancy pillow -- regardless that you weren’t pregnant, you wanted the giant horseshoe pillow. Jon was jealous of it, now wanting one of his own, as you picked up some non-essentials.
The bigger things would have to be shipped, a crib for a few months till he was big enough, small bed with side bars so he wouldn’t fall out when ready to swap out the crib. They even had a huge rocking chair! It was probably one of the most comfortable things you had ever sat in, its ability to “rock” you back and forth on its slides without losing much momentum was heaven.
And you could curl up in it.
Somewhere in all the chaos, just as expected, you’d gone and lost both the boys. Or, well, more like they lost you. Duke was still dutiful with Terrence, and he was also really amazing at looking at details and knowing what item was better than the next. Sure, you’d been taught the same skills, but you were preoccupied with Damian and Jon (until you weren’t).
“Hum… hey, I’m gonna go check out next door, okay?” Duke turned to you from the different curtains in his hand, having taken to looking at a few general things for the room; curtains, bookshelves, a desk or two.
Unlike your father and most of your family, you had far more free time to do these small things yourself, never needing to hire an assistant to do all the work. You only needed some help with moving things, of course. It was something you’d picked up from both Alfred and the Kents, the equally uneasy and comforting feeling of being humble.
“Sure, which one?”
“The clothing store, I think there’s a dedicated kid store a bit further down the mall strip, I’ll probably make my way towards that.” Duke pouted, “leaving me alone with the kids?”
“Just one.” To emphasis your point, Terrence decided to start pulling on the same curtain as Duke, though Duke swatted his hands away quickly. A one-sided glaring contest began as the kid kept his frown on Duke, not looking away.
Duke looked around ignoring him, “that’s… true…”
“Thanks Papa Duke!” you gave him a hug, burying your face in Terrence’s and pelting him with kisses, pulling back only when his laughter echoed around the three of you. Duke refused to look at you as you cooed at the child strapped to his chest, awkward, “I hate you.”
“You love me.”
He snorted and went back to picking out curtains, “and don’t you forget it.”
“You have my card still, right?” He nodded, not even bothering to ask if you needed it. He knew you didn’t carry paper notes around, having seen you use your phone to pay for things physically too often.
Taking that as your cue, you turned to leave, “text if you need anything, and keep an eye out for the boys, I’ll… look, too,” and a moment later you were outside the store, stretching in the sun with a big breath of fresh air. Dang you loved Gotham, but also? Dang you loved Metropolis, too.
-
[steph] hey, herd u like
[steph] have a baby now???!
[steph] ;)))))
The buzzing of your personal phone caught your attention,
[you] tim? also, switching over for a bit.
You switched recipients,
[you] ready.
Turning the phone off and flipping it closed, you began walking in the opposite direction that Duke had been told, popping the back of the case off and pulling out the battery.
You’d asked Tim to redirect a dummy signal for your phone, keeping it within a five-foot radius of Duke for the next forty minutes or so. He’d given you the thumbs up, your telling him everything when you got back being his payment for helping.
He was very curious as to why you were breaking in to the LexCorp building.
The rather fast-paced walk (almost a light jog) to the building wasn’t that long, you’d made certain the stores you chose were close on purpose. Taking out your business phone, you opened it to another text as you started up a rather… illegal app. Your phone’d been rooted from the moment you had it, and it was hooked up to a very specific closed network.
This outing was one of the only chances you’d get, having lucked out with the more lenient Duke, as your other siblings were far more vigilant. Damian meanwhile was distracted by Jon, the two acting more like brawling siblings than best friends. Though Damian preferred the term rivals, but Jon was just happy to have a close friend he could be himself with.
[splr] he couldn’t contain himself
[splr] was vibin’ like flash lol
There were very few people who had access to this phone, and unfortunately for Tim, it was a hazard for both of you to have any kind of connection to him on your work phone. Stephanie however was one of the very few people who got to have that privilege.
[you] remind me to thank him for stealing my thundr
The family had the Bat-computer, Batman had the League’s Womb mainframe, the Robins had their Nest, and you? You had access to something older, reborn too many times, and set up and now maintained by some genius mastermind you’d never heard of. 
It was a mostly defunct information network by this point.
You’d met some really interesting people when you used to tail your father, and through repeated encounters, you’d met even more interesting uh... “friends.” Eventually you weren’t stalking your dad, instead, you were learning to do what you did best: Spy-games and recon.
And you’d impressed the wrong people.
But you didn’t mind, you liked the constant link to “their” information hubs.
[splr] lol
[splr] coffee tmrrw?
The Society’s Networks.
You knew your dad suspected some of your activities, but he never approached you about them. Probably because Batman enjoyed your access to these networks often when they were online, having come to you on multiple occasions to see if you could help with his detective work. 
You were playing double agent, compiling what you could from the chatter picked up from specific phones hooked into the closed channels. Sure, they weren’t always active and so sometimes you had to go with information from recon, but you did what you could, your bias for your bats, and birds, too strong. For your family.
[you] the same-same
[splr] c u tmrw then ;)
[splr] don’t forget the kid lol
Not that you’d ever shown him, if Batman knew what kind of information the Society had in their databases, well… you were pretty certain the world would burn. 
He once said it was best he didn’t know, something about helping to keep a balance between the good and the bad, causing both sides to stay in check.
The database’s app held all kinds of information, and as you downloaded the LexCorp building plans (sans recent modifications), you stared at the towering complex in front of you. Before you went further, you made certain the matrix encryption program was running, after all, “no reason to let anyone know I’m here.”
“Done this tons of times, can totally do this again,” but LexCorp was terrifying, Lex Luthor was terrifying, almost as much as Wayne Enterprises. Here’s to hoping your dad’s technology and Tim’s brain were smarter than anything Lex could cook up.
Besides, wasn’t he under house arrest right now?
It did nothing to calm your nerves.
“Nerves of steel, totally.”
You had to be fast.
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Text
Young Sheldon Rant (kinda long sorry also probably a whole bunch of spoilers)
Don't mind me I just spent the last 4 hours crying over Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory/Young Sheldon.
I have been trying to watch Young Sheldon recently but it's near impossible to watch season 4 anywhere in Australia for some reason.
I just keep thinking....that poor kid. He is clearly mentally ill and there is nothing wrong with that i mean I am for pete's sakes, but the way his family treats it is heartbreaking.
I know its set before the 2000's so the stigma towards mental illness was even worse than what it is now but for fuck's sakes he clearly needs help. In fact his family makes it worse.
One moment they are treating him like an adult, letting him get a job, go to college stuff like that.
But the very next moment they treat him like he is 5. His mother mainly does this and while I can understand it, the level of neglect her other 2 children must feel is scary.
Georgie (His older brother if anyone reading didnt know) even states it in the original show, So much was sacrificed just to make Sheldon happy and again.....it's his mum that does this. She accommodates him almost all the time, she treats him like a toddler despite him pretty much being 13 by season 4/5.
(Random fun fact my pet conure is named Georgie, not after him but after a pineapple duck character Moriah Elisabeth on youtube made)
In the main show it makes us believe that Sheldon's dad is the quote on quote *Bad Parent* while his mum was the good one. Honestly I think it's the reverse. Now don't get me wrong, neither of them are abusive or cruel. I am just saying that when grown up Sheldon talks about his father it's almost always about something bad. His alcoholism, the time he caught his father cheating on his mother, the constant fights the parents would have all the time (Often about money or himself).
Actually now that I think about it, Sheldon did say something that makes it sound like his dad hit him or at least threatened to. It was along the lines of "Stop crying or I will give you something to cry about" which I have heard plenty of stories from real people that talked about being hit. I highly doubt that he went through with the threat, he never gave off that vibe during the show and it's like the only time Sheldon brings it up to my knowledge.
His mother on the other hand oh ho ho (why did I type that?) was just all over the place. 1 moment she was the perfect Christian mother doing her best with a *ehm* "Gifted" son. The next she would be picking fights with neighbors, hiding money from her husband though this could be somewhat justified and refusing to let Sheldon grow up normally.
Now remember, I have seen next to nothing of season 4 and have only had what appear to be glimpses into his fathers' death/infidelity so forgive me if I have some facts wrong.
(Ha this was meant to be about Sheldon but I am mainly talking about his family....sorry)
Missy is also very similar to her adult counterpart but again less mature since she would be the only 1 of the 3 kids to not be in highschool. I love how they gave her a real personality and didn't just make her the stereotypical sister who loves girly things and boys and stuff. She is honestly very funny, has a wide range of emotions, likes to set fires and gets annoyed when Sheldon is being well...Sheldon. Now I am not sure if this was someone's headcanon or something the show actually implied and that I missed because I watched all 12 seasons of BBT in less than 2 weeks but I remember reading somewhere that she grows up to have a unhealthy relationship with alcohol just like their dad and I hope it's not true. I loved it when Mee Maw makes the Baseball coach give her a chance at playing and how despite her reason for joining was to get close to a guy Missy ends up really enjoying the game and it opened up bonding moments with the dad.
Mee Maw (aka grandma) was fine I guess. We only saw her once in the original show and other then being protective of her grandson we knew nothing else about her. So it would not be that hard to give her a personality and they gave her a great one. She treated all the kids the same and helped them whenever possible but she had a life outside of her family. My favorite scene with her though is when she tells Missy that the reason why her mum was so religious was because something went wrong when she was born and her mum promised to be the perfect christen if god would let Missy live and it worked (in her mind anyway.) It was so heartwarming and was such a good way to explain way the mum was so devoted to her faith. The whole "She dates someone with a lot of similar querks to Sheldon" thing seemed odd to me (All romance is odd to me lets be honest) I did enjoy his character.
Speaking of John Sturgis I honestly did not expect his character to get as dark as it did. Not dark as in "He was bad man that did bad things" I mean dark as in he had a mental illness (Dementia I think? correct me if I am wrong) that was affecting him so badly that he had to be placed into a hospital for a while. I am sad that Sheldon never brought him up in BBT and I assume it's because he didn't exist yet. He basically became Sheldon's second Grandfather figure since his bio one died when he was....I want to say between 4 to 6. After season 2 though he wasn't really in it as often anymore. In fact Mee Maw was dating a different man.
(Speaking of the second man is he dying? The most recent episode I saw which was the S3 final showed him acting super weird and suddenly becoming more religious so I think this is the case. I don't care about spoilers so please tell me.)
Also I just thought that I should say I resonate with Sheldon to a alarming degree. We have very similar quirks, we annoy anyone that talks to us, had complicated relationships with our fathers and overall were just the weird kids that nobody liked. The big difference being that Sheldon is a genius while I cried so hard during a maths quiz that I was cut from not only that class but my biology one as well, also I got put into a lower level english class. I passed by the skin of my teeth i'll tell you that much.
This is long as sin so I shall do a part 2 of just Young Sheldon himself.
If anyone actually cares please give me your opinions, any corrections I may need to make and tell me if you want me to talk about the minor characters as well.
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