#Ms Pac-Man is better than Pac-Mom

[candy-dog55]

Ms Pac-Man remake

I hate Pac-Mom-

[xtrablak674]

History Repeating

Being our third or fourth video call in like a week, I was aware that we were in a new spot. Albeit the diminished energy was still present, mind you these kids dad had just passed I got a strong intuition that this was their baseline and if this was homeostasis, these kids were depressed. Fourteen to twenty the energy should have been more kinetic but it wasn't it was dulled and I don't think this was just the marijuana.

The most disappointing thing for me was the environment a solid colored room with a single bar light bulb on the ceiling, the kind of lighting I wouldn't even consider yet this was their norm. The few glimpses of the room I could see things were placed in a very incidental way with no clear intention. This was familiar, not to my own upbringings but my being in my father's house particularly the one he shared with my brother's mom.

I had to point out to my Floridian nephew that I had never lived in anyone's ghetto. I think my mom was only making a bit above the poverty level and there were roaches in our house, but they never felt oppressive and ever present. The house was relatively clean having three single digit little boys ripping about and tearing around. There were no random piles of indistinguishable items. A place for everything and everything in its place. My god-grandmother's house was worn but still tidy.

My brother's children were living in squalor as far as I was concerned not that different than what you would find in a developing country. This made my nieces blurted out statement, 'its so orderly there' stand out even more starkly. She had only knew disorder her entire life, even in her younger brother's home it wasn't that different. I turned my camera around showing them one wall of my apartment where my Ms. Pac-Man game is also arranged. I told them it was very surprising to me that they had so many bare walls, not even a taped up poster.

This was eye opening, horrifying, upsetting and depressing to me. I could understand why their energy was so diminished their homes literally reflected their disenfranchised disempowered and diminished existence. And not one adult around them knew any better so here they were in this space that said bare necessities, no dreams, no mood boards, no fantasies, no future. It makes it so much clearer that my nephew felt the need to be high all day, when your life seems so bleak there is no where better to escape then into a cloud of smoke...

Things in my head were clicking a bit more, I was so disappointed in their parents when about fifteen years ago I Trading Spaces their studio apartment from just a bed bureau and TV to a full house of furniture, actual decorative aspects and lighting making the space so much more inviting. In my ignorance I thought I could undo decades of oppression, mental health issue compounded by living in destitute situations that didn't need to be so destitute. I was trying to fight a battle that had long been lost before I even existed.

Black people throughout time have had little, but a common theme amongst those of us who had little is that we care for the little we had. You could go into most of these Black households and not find an ounce of dirt. Furniture and clothes may have been worn and thread-bare, but were always clean! That wasn't the case in my nieces and nephews grandmother's house. She had been mentally checked out for decades and basic things like keeping a clean house had passed along the wayside a long time ago.

I had witnessed this personally as a child when I would sit up on the bed in the living room and hear the mice scurrying about on the floor after the sun set. Their grandmother at the time, my father's girlfriend didn't seem in the least bit upset or disturbed by what kind of filth the house must contain to have not only roaches but rodents all throughout the house. I remember even as a child being disgusted by the extreme poverty, blackened floors, holes in ceilings and walls and a general sense of filthiness.

In my own apartment in Peekskill the refrigerator was usually a space free from any pest. But in my dad's fridge bugs were in everything, the butter, milk, juice, fruits and you were probably eating them in the breakfast cereal. As much as I enjoyed spending time with my father, I didn't enjoy having my food tainted with the dead or partially living bodies of pest. This was disgusting!

But you live in squalor long enough this becomes the default. Normally I show off my apartment to those around me, and found myself deliberately holding back sharing the entire thing with these kids. I felt like it would have been inappropriate showing them how well I was living while they lived in squalor, sheet-less beds, dirty floors, bare walls, rooms lit by a single bulb, piles of clothing and random items with no rhyme or reason. It bought me so much cognitive dissonance and such sadness that I wanted so much more for these children still, and how much the adults in their lives had failed them. I am sure they were doing the best they could, but these kids deserved so much better than what they were getting...

[Photo by Brown Estate]

[lilaclovestowrite]

Arcade Chaos (Katsuki x Cheerful!Reader)

“ Bakugo oneshot with cheerful!reader at arcade plz? ”

Type: Request from Quotev

Words: 2556

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Pairing: Katsuki x Reader

Genre: Hint of fluff, lots of Katsuki rage lol, and mainly humor

Summary: Somehow, you’re able to drag your crush, Katsuki Bakugou, to an arcade for the day. Of course, this creates chaos, since the Bakusquad happens to be there as well. But maybe, after all the chaos, you’ll finally be able to confess your true feelings to him!

Warnings:

None

💥💥💥

 “Why the heck are we in this lame place!?” questioned an irritated Katsuki.

“Cuz arcades are fun!” I answered, leading him in by the hand. He was very resistant—but he was no match for my nonexistent strength.

 “Fun? This place is for nerds who live in their mom’s basement. Just like stupid—”

 “Deku, yeah, yeah,” I finished for him with a blasé attitude. “I’ve heard it all before. Why don’t you just focus on something else besides Midoriya?”

 “Pfft, like what?”

 “Uh, something that actually matters. Video games, obviously.”

 “I’m leaving.” Just as he tried to escape, I pulled him back.

 “Get yer hands off me!” He flicked his wrist away from me, and huffed as he scanned the arcade’s interior.

“Come on, please stay with me for just an hour? PLEEEEEAAAASSSEEEEEE~!?” I forcefully smiled, holding my hands together in a purposely pathetic pose.

 “Well, you already kidnapped me so—whatever. And what’s the difference between these games and the ones on my phone? Only geeks play these chunky, 8-bit fossils.”

 “Trust me. You’ll see,” I vaguely left as an answer.

After I dragged Katsuki around the building, I asked him if anything caught his eye. “So, do you know what game you wanna play?”

 “’Nuke the Zombies’ didn’t look too trashy, I guess.”

 I blinked once. “Uhh, how about something more child-friendly?”

 “Fine. How about ’Blow up the Bunny’ then?”

 Why did I ever think this was a good idea?

 “Let’s not.”

But what we didn’t know, is that our other friends happened to be here as well! Eijiro, Denki, Hanta, and Mina approached us all at once.

 “Wow! Hey, guys! Nice to see you here,” Eijiro greeted.

 Hanta laughed. “Didn’t really expect to see you two here. . .specifically, together.”

 “The heck you mean by that!?” Katsuki nearly erupted, but I held him back.

 “Oh, y’know—just figured you’d be at home plotting your revenge for Midoriya or something.”

His response only earned him a snarl from Katsuki. But Mina, on the other hand, decided to push all of Katsuki’s buttons without thinking.

 “Maybe they’re on a date!!” she gasped. “WAIT, ARE YOU—”

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH!! This isn’t a heckin’ date!” Katsuki debunked. “She bugged me nonstop about coming to this trash hole, and finally got on my nerves, so I came.”

 By the smug look on my friend’s faces—they were obviously not buying it. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have minded it if were a date. Considering I’ve always had a thing for Katsuki. People may have thought I was crazy for liking someone so spastic with anger management issues—but there was more to him than just his atrocious personality. He had a lot of admirable qualities like uh, well, I’ll think of some later.

 “Alright then~” Mina giggled.

 “Guys, when can we play some games?” asked Denki.

“Right now!” Eijiro made an immediate beeline for Whac-A-Mole. “Bakugou, you gotta try out this game! I used to play it when I was younger, and it’s so much fun.”

 “The heck is it?”

 Katsuki stormed over and studied the attributes of the vintage game, while Eijiro explained the rules of it to him.

 “And when the mole thing rises up, you just hit it with this mallet!”

 “Pfft, sounds like a baby game. Pass.”

 “Aw, c’mon!” I joined in, trying to convince him to try it out.

 Hanta agreed, “Yeah! Don’t be such a wet blanket, man.”

After all our nagging, he eventually gave in and reluctantly picked up the game mallet. “Gross, a thousand brats probably got their diseased germs all over this thing.”

 “They’re not as diseased as your attitude, that’s for sure—”

 “COME AGAIN, KNOCK-OFF PIKACHU!?!”

 “Hey, hey,” Eijiro tried calming. “Just try one round at least!”

 “Ugh, fine.”

Once the game started, the plastic moles slowly rose up from their holes, and each one was hammered by Katsuki. He displayed his obvious boredom through stance and expression.

 “This game is about as fun as watching paint dry.”

 “Oh, it gets harder,” I snickered.

 “This is about as hard as using Deku as a football.”

But he was soon showed otherwise—as the game’s difficulty increased. The moles now only stayed up for half a second now, and even Katsuki was having a hard time keeping up.

 “C’mon, dude! Whack them!” Eijiro cheered.

“THIS STUPID MALLET ISN’T WORKING!!!” he screeched, causing the rest of the people around us to stare. It was a bit embarrassing. But that’s my penalty for going out in public with Katsuki. “DIE, RATS, DIEEEEEE!!!!” So, he dropped the mallet, and just started exploding the moles with his hands.

 And of course, the result was he melted the arcade machine. All the moles were now nothing but liquefied plastic, which was totally uncalled for compared to the games standards.

 I walked back to my friend’s table with Katsuki by my side.

“Alright, I just called Katsuki’s therapist and he was able to, er—scream out his issues. So, I think we’re good!” I informed with a thumbs up.

 “My therapist can bite rocks.”

 I let out a sigh of disappointment at his rude response.

 “Hey, (Y/N)! Did you see any games that caught your eye?” Hanta wondered.

 I answered with, “Hmm. . .well, I did wanna play Whac-A-Mole. But now it’s melted into the flooring, so. . .”

“It wasn’t even fun,” Katsuki downplayed. “I have more fun beating Deku. Wait—they should make a game called Whac-A-Deku. Now, I’d play that.”

 We only stared at our friend, mildly disturbed.

 Hanta said, “Pac-Man it is, then.”

 After playing a few more games, we headed to the eating area. We ordered some pizza and soda, so we just chatted as we ate.

 “You guys, what do you think is better? Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man?” asked Mina.

 “They’re the same thing, Raccoon Eyes.”

 “NO, PAC-MAN IS A MAN, AND MS. PAC-MAN IS A WOMAN.”

 I awkwardly nibbled on my pizza, watching the conversation between them take a nosedive for the worst.

 “Guys, is butter a carb?” Katsuki asked us.

 Denki replied, “I don’t know—I don’t watch Gordon Ramsey.”

“Whatever, I’m getting cheese fries.” He launched his pizza in the trash can (which he carelessly missed), and headed back to the ordering station.

 Just as Katsuki got out of earshot, Mina immediately began interrogating me.

 “So. . .ya sure you two weren’t on a date~?”

 I went red with total shock and embarrassment. “What? No way! He doesn’t like me like that.”

 Hanta chuckled. “He liked you enough for you to literally drag him here. That’s like, a deathwish for most people.”

 I knew he had a point.

 Eijiro said, “Plus, he needs a girlfriend. He needs someone to keep him fairly sane.”

All their talking had me blushing. Yes, I liked Katsuki a lot—but I never thought it’d go any further than that. However, you never know about these kind of things.

 “So. . .should I ask him out or something?” I hesitantly questioned.

 “Go ahead! I mean, there’s not a line of girls trying to date him, that’s for sure.”

 I took it into consideration. Maybe today, I should try to make a move. I mean, YOLO, amirite?

 “Alright, I’ll try next time I see him,” I gulped.

 They all smiled uncontrollably, but instinctively stopped once Katsuki returned to the table.

 “Why’re you idiots all staring at me like a bunch of idiots?”

“Oh, uh—well. . .” I mentally prepared myself for rejection. I knew all my friends were bursting at the seams, waiting for me to confess my feelings to Katsuki. But it was just so awkward. So, I chickened out. “I uh, wanted to know if you were gonna share your cheese fries with me.”

 “What does share mean?”

 I could hear Eijiro facepalm. So, I ended the awkwardness with, “Nothing! Just eat your fries—”

 Later, we all continued searching for what else to play.

 So, I cleared my throat to get everyone’s attention. “Ahem. How about we do something that’s multiplayer?”

 “You mean like a competition?” Katsuki wondered, a psychotic smile forming on his face once the idea of winning first place entered his mind. Now, we were all scared.

“Uh, you’re smiling like a psycho again—I MEAN, uh, yeah! We just need to find a game that allows two players. . .and one that isn’t taken.” As I examined the room and every one of its consoles, I found one that caught my eye.

 Dance Dance Revolution (DDR).

 “Hmm, I know! That one!” I excitedly pointed to the one I was referring to.

 “OMG, that one is so cool! I used to play it when I was younger!” Mina beamed.

“Oh, great. Dancing? I thought you’d pick something that would actually hold my interest. Like no-scoping zombies or something.”

 I crossed my arms and said the thing I knew would make him do what I wanted. “What? You think you can’t beat me? Think I’m gonna win instead~?”

 “Pfft, in your dreams. I’d beat you at any game at any time of the week. You’re a lame gamer.”

 “You think so, eh? Well, let’s just find out!” I skipped over to the DDR machine and patiently waited for the two children to finish up their round. However, patience wasn’t an idea Katsuki could process in his arrogant brain.

 “Hit the road, punks! I’ve got a game to win!” He shoved the two kids off, and cleared the platforms for both of us. I tried mouthing an apology to the two schoolboys, but they had already escaped to find their parents.

 Katsuki extended his arms and stretched out his fingers. Eijiro and Hanta approached me, asking if I was sure this was a good idea. I knew Katsuki was unhealthily obsessed with winning, but that only made it more fun being his opponent, at least in my opinion! (Plus, seeing him fail was ten-times funnier).

 “Go easy on her, dude,” Denki tried helping out.

“No way, Calamari. I’m not a braindead loser like you.” Finishing up his mini exercise, he stepped onto the dance platform. “What’re you waiting for, girly?” Katsuki snarked at me with a confident smirk.

 I stepped on mine as well, and scrolled through the list of songs to perform. “We could start with easy mode,” I offered.

 “No way. Go for the hardest mode you can find.”

 Someone was going to break their legs, and it wasn’t going to be Midoriya this time around.

 “Oh. . .well, uh—alright!” I landed my finger on this Vocaloid song called The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku, which was apparently the most challenging one on this menu. “Alright, there’s the modes: Beginner, Intermediate, Pro, Master, and uh, Death.”

 “Choose Death then.”

 With a cloud of anxiousness looming over my figure, I pressed that option. I didn’t know what to expect—but I was scared.

 “How bad can it be?” chuckled Eijiro.

 Oh, but it was pain. It was the most torture I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.

When the gameplay started, it wasn’t too hard in the intro of the song. But when the fast part came, it was like we were dancing to save our lives. People in the building came to spectate us and our anguish—but our friends cheered us on the entire time.

 “REEEEEEEEE, END MEEEEEEEEEE!!!” Katsuki screeched as he barely managed to touch the flashing tiles on his platform.

I felt as if I was jumping across a room full of nails sticking straight up. I could barely keep up with the beat of the song, and I was already exhausted. But we weren’t even halfway into it.

 “BEATING ALL FOR ONE IS EASIER THAN THIS TORTURE MACHINE!” roared Katsuki.

 “You’re almost to the beat break!” Hanta reassured.

Finally, the first verse of the song ended. So, our legs could take a break for a few seconds. Katsuki and I were desperately trying to regain oxygen, since it was such a rush. When we looked at our current scores—I saw that I was luckily five points higher than Katsuki.

 “WHAT THE HECK!? HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE!?” he raged.

 “HA.”

 Everyone cheered for me at the moment, but Katsuki wasn’t having it. He was more than determined to beat me now.

When the gameplay resumed, we continued to push ourselves to dance on the correct tiles. Our scores were nearing closer together, and it was only a matter of time before one of us passed each other for good and won.

 “ALMOST THERE,” Katsuki spoke to himself, as he glimpsed at his own score.

But just the moment before it was all over, Denki accidentally activated his Quirk due to the hype building up in his system—and it shot out at the DDR machine, causing it to short-circuit and die.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” Katsuki bellowed out, as he fell on his knees and placed his hands on the now black screen. “I’M GONNA KILL YOU, STUPID PIKACHU!!!”

 However, it was pointless because Denki already fried his brain and went dumb. “Wheyyyy~”

Eijiro couldn’t help but laugh hysterically, along with Hanta and Mina. It only made Katsuki’s blood boil—and frankly, I couldn’t help but giggle too.

 “I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS PAIN.” Katsuki stood up and stalked out of the arcade. Of course, I followed him.

 “Katsuki! Don’t be upset. It’s only a game.”

 “I WAS SO CLOSE TO WINNING!” he fumed. “I COULD HAVE BROKEN THE STUPID RECORD—”

“Shh, just relax! They’ll probably fix it, and we can always come back later.” I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, which he surprisingly didn’t flick off.

 “Hmph. I’m never playing that demon game ever again.”

 I laughed softly. “Well, there’s plenty of other games. But other than the fact Denki shut off the game—did you have fun?”

 He turned his head to me, and for I moment, I swear I saw his eyes soften by a fraction. “Maybe a little—but not that much.”

 I’ll take that as a yes, coming from him.

But now that we were together with no other distractions, I decided to take a risk and slide my hand into his. He widened his eyes—since affection was probably a concept far removed from his unfriendly mentality.

 I looked down at the floor and smiled, saying, “I was thinking, Katsuki. Would you uh, would you consider being my Player Two?”

 I didn’t even care how cheesy I was being at this point.

 “The heck does that mean?”

 Our friends screamed from a distance, “SHE’S ASKING YOU OUT, GENIUS!”

Katsuki stiffened up, since he was struggling to find a riposte to throw back in my face. But it was relentless. Instead, he let out a sigh and told me, “That’s the sappiest and most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard—but sure. You’re not as annoying as the others.”

 I strained my cheeks from smiling so much, and I threw my arms gleefully around Katsuki. The others were probably afraid he’d blow up or something, but thankfully, he didn’t. Instead, he returned the favor by awkwardly rubbing my head.

 “They’re so cute together~” sighed Mina.

 “Yeah, Bakugou better not screw it up,” Eijiro added with a smile.

 “It’s Bakugou, he screws everything up.”

 “True.”

 Maybe coming to this place was a good idea after all~

[xeo-kunsatan]

Behind the bully#3 Shining as Diamonds

Skeebo:.... Sometimes i would like to tell her all her trues,... To show her that i can be good than she want of me... but if i tell her what is she doing with me.. she would just slap me and yell.

Bradley: partly it's okay but.. you can't tell her trues at all because she is your mother and you have to respect her even is she doesn't do it back and even she doesn't deserve your respect.

Quartzy: -w-

Ms Globular:*Behind the Door* Mr Skeebo it's your turn now, please go to the escenary.

Skeebo: so.. what should i do now?

Bradley: Just give the best of you to do the first step.

Skeebo: Y-yes!..and.. can you... please make a Duo with me in this Performance?

Bradley; scared?

Skeebo: No! Urg! Don't ask!

Bradley: ok.... What song do you know to sing?

Skeebo: ehhmm.... Castle of Glass... Fire woman, .. Heart Attack,.. Diamonds

Bradley: dude you're a Culture man..

Skeebo: Shut up!

Bradley: Well, That are also the Songs i know, Diamonds is My Favorite Song

Skeebo: Really?...

Bradley: yes, so we will sing Diamonds right?

Skeebo: yup

Bradley: alright

Both boys goes to the escenary

Ms: Mr Spheros!?

Skeebo: Me and the Emo Freak we will make a duo.

Everyone was shocked

Cedrick: Wait is not the guy who bully Pacman and my cousin?

Stratos: He what!!??

Elli: oh no...

Rotunda: What's his problem with Pac!?

Stratos: Mom... (All this Time... Everytime he arrived to house with wounds... It was for that?.... *Sighs* ... Not again... before was with my brother.. now with my niece?... ).

Elli: Why Bradley would make a duo with that guy?

Cedrick: I guess he knows what's he doing..

???: what the hell he thinks he is doing?...

Bradley: Uhm.. we Will sing the song Diamonds

Skeebo: i was about to said that but whatever.. enyoi our performance.

The music plays and the boys starts singing

Diamonds Male cover

Everyone was shocked again, the Spheros Family was excited except for Rotunda.

A Weird connection was born From that song between them.

Quartzy: (i would like to speak to Tell you how much i'm proud of you... my child but i have to keep my secret for now..)

While the boys were performing, they were watched by the ghosts of the Netherworld.

Betrayus: Son...*sobbing*

Buttler: are you crying sir?

Betrayus: n-no!.. i'm swearing by my eyes of proud....

Buttler: Easy sir *gives him his Bunny plushie*

Betrayus:*hugs his plushie* i'm so proud of him.... Because he is Better! Hah!

Buttler: As you said...

Buttocks: he seems to follow his mother's steps.

Betrayus: yeah -w-..

The performance finished, the pacworlders clapped still shocked as well as the ghosts in the Netherworld wich were about to attack,

People noticed That and ran away scared.

Stratos: let's get outta here.

Cedrick: nuu

Stratos taked his Family to a safe place while Bradley was protecting Skeebo.

Skeebo:*shaking*

Bradley: don't worry.. if you come with me they will not touch you.

Skeebo: H-h-how!?

Bradley: i'm Lord Betrayus's son remember? They respect me and any of my company.

Quartzy:*nods* Arf!.

Skeebo: ugh okay...

Both boys and Quartzy goes running to a safe place while the known yellow hero Pac jumps to defeat them leaving his cousin behind him.

Ryan: Again behind him... hey Hiyu wanna kick ghosts butt at our Style?

Hiyu: Mreww i'm ready~

They jump to the action as well.

Our boys were in the boy Dressing Room again

Bradley: it was so cool

Skeebo: yeah...but i don't think my mother enyoied it

Bradley: the important thing is that you enyoied it..

Skeebo: i guess..

A Male Ghost appears

Skeebo:*yells*

Bradley:*pats Skeebo* it's okay

Kevin: Your Majesty are you okay?

Bradley: we are okay Kevin.

Kevin: any idea?

Bradley: he is attacking in the sky, so what is you attack him from the ground, that would be a surprise attack.

Kevin: Good idea! Thank you Majesty *Leaves*

Bradley: Wanna see that?

Skeebo: Hell yeah!

Both follows the Ghost and watches him attack the yellow one making him fell.

Skeebo:*laughs* Hah! Dude he became a smashed lemonade.

Bradley: i knew you would like it, he is not a good Hero at all, at least his cousin is being more skillful than him but no one in Pacopolis seems to take care of it.

Skeebo: honestly yes.

The attack finished and the yellow Cousins wins as the festival ended.

Anyone Leaves with their childs being proud of Them, Skeebo's Mother lefts Without speak with her son before.

Skeebo: oh man...

Bradley: it's okay... She probably would understand it later..

Skeebo: i hope so.....

Bradley: need company?

Skeebo: yes...

Bradley: okay

Quartzy: uwu

Skeebo: You know Emo freak.. you are not that Bad as i thought... I didn't knew you Well... I'm sorry

Bradley: It's okay.. i'm used to being treated like that...

Skeebo: you are so strong even with all you are living.

Bradley: ...

Skeebo: i would like to know you better.. can i?

Bradley: yes... Honestly i would like to know you better too.

Skeebo:*chuckles* that's a thing

Bradley: *nods and makes a short smile*

Then Bradley and Skeebo went to the Pac burgers to live Together.

Is this the Start of a Friendship and Probably something else too?

To be continued...

[shhh-no-ones-home]

for the record peter maximoff x reader

+++++++++

Apocalypse takes place in 1983 and so does this one shot. That's when both records mentioned came out, the pink Floyd album was released in March and the David Bowie album was released in April.

Song: cat people (putting out the fire) by David Bowie

+++++++++

I paced up to the front door and knocked lightly. I was met with Ms Maximoff, disappointment written all over her face. She swung the storm door open quickly and let me in with a small huff.

"He's in his room but I don't think you'd actually be able to get through to him."

I rubbed my hands together and let one corner of my mouth pull up into a sad smile.

"I'll see what I can do, I'm just glad you called me when you did."

I shuffled quickly down the stairs making them creak under my weight. I hopped off the third step from the bottom with a loud bang into the concrete below me. I stood straight up to see Peter with a liquorice rope hanging out of his slightly open mouth. I decided to play it cool and see where that got me.

"Sup Pete, steal anything cool lately?"

I walked slowly to his Mrs packman game and sat down, pressing the buttons in a timely manner. He zipped next to me in a flash and leaned over my shoulder to see me play the game. I could hear his Shakey breathing as he gnawed on the cherry rope. I lost on purpose and swung myself around to be almost chest to chest with him. He slowly peeled his eyes away from the game to meet my soft gaze.

"Nope."

He stood abruptly and sauntered over to the couch.

"No?"

He looked at me with a questioning look.

"No, I haven't stolen anything cool lately."

I mouthed an 'oh' to him and made my way over to the couch too. I sat next to him but not to close. His record player was playing softly in the background, other than that we sat in silence.

"Did Mom ask you to come over?"

"Would my answer sway your view of me?"

He shrugged and took another bite.

"S'pose not."

"She asked if I'd talked to you but she didn't ask me over, I made that decision all on my own."

He turned his face to see me staring at him.

"Why?"

"Cause I care about you Peter. I'm worried about you, and you won't even tell me what's wrong."

He shrugged again and wiggled further down into his seat. I just threw my hands in the air and slapped my lap.

"Seriously?"

"What?"

"Will you just talk to me?"

"We were talking."

"I don't know what this is but you haven't been yourself Peter. I know you and you would never blow me off like you have been."

He huffed a laugh out.

"I'm not blowing you off, we are talking."

I crossed my arms over my chest and stood, looking down at him sunken into the couch.

"Will you please just tell me what has been bothering you? I promise I won't tell anyone."

I stuck my hand out and extended my pinky. He looked at me for a second and then sat up to link our two fingers together.

"You promise not to tell anyone? Not even my mom?"

I nodded my head yes. He stood up, our fingers still interlocked.

"I know who my dad is."

I gasped loudly but he was quick to step closer and cover my mouth. I pulled his hand away and whispered into the thin air between us.

"Really? Why don't you want to tell your mom, Peter, that's huge."

"I can't tell her, y/n, he's like crazy."

"What do you mean he's crazy?"

He leaned real close to me and whispered,

"He killed the president."

I slapped my hand over my mouth and looked at him with wide eyes.

"I also may have busted him out of the Pentagon."

"Peter!"

I slapped his arm.

"What?! I didn't know he was my dad at the time..."

"But you still busted a murder out of the most highly guarded facility in the country!"

He just shrugged at me and plopped back down on the couch.

"Look I have this friend who really needed his help, he was on the news and everything."

"You mean that metal guy??"

He nodded his head lightly. I turned and sat on the couch, but closer to him this time.

"This is....... A lot to take in at once, now i know why you haven't been talking to anyone."

I sat up abruptly and looked at him.

"You shouldn't have kept this bottled up for so long though! I know you and this will eat you alive, sir."

I poked his chest and he just screwed his eyebrows together at me.

"It will not."

I looked at him in disapproval.

"Don't kid yourself."

I crossed my arms and sat all the way back against the couch, watching him in his position on the edge of his seat.

"Besides who would I tell? It's not like a can go to him."

I knew exactly what he was talking about. It's hard to talk to someone about themselves, besides how do you walk up to someone and tell them that you're their kid. Well, easy, you say 'hey I'm your kid' but then again not so easy. I turned to him with my elbow rested against the couch. I smirked at him once I realized how close my chest was to him.

"Ya know what, we need to get your mind of this for a while, let's go the arcade."

He scooted his upper body a tiny bit away from me but looked at me like I was crazy.

"I have games here?"

I stood up and grabbed his hand, pulling him off the couch.

"That's okay, we can hit the record shop when we're done."

He smiled a little bit at me, grabbed the back of my head, and ran off with me, all the way to the arcade. When we got there he let me go and followed me to the Wizard of Wor game. I looked over to Peter who just looked at me like I was stupid.

"Really? You wanna play this game?"

"Why not? It's just like pac-man and you don't have a problem with that game."

I poked at him a few times before he finally gave in.

"Good! Now let's see how well you are with a change of scenery."

I popped the coins in and hit player one, motioning for him to hit two. He didn't so I did it for him and nudged his side, giving him a playful smirk.

°°°°°°°°°

"NO NO NO!"

"HA I got you now boy!"

We both frantically moved the joy sticks around trying to steer clear of each other. Peter hit something on his side of the screen. The losing music sounded before a ring of winning chimes. He hit the game table before backing up and walking off in a half circle. I laughed in triumph and joined him behind the small group that had gathered around us.

"So Pete, how does it feel to get beat at your own game?"

He turned and looked at me in disbelief.

"You did not beat me at my own game."

I just laughed.

"Do you wanna visit the Mrs? Would that make you feel better?"

I pointed over at the abandoned Mrs pac-man game and watched Peter roll his eyes at me.

"Didn't you say something about going to the record store? We've been here a few hours already."

I just smiled and stepped closer to him.

"I'm ready if you are."

°°°°°°°°°

We zipped through the door before he removed his hand from my arm and head. The sensation was a little dizzying but oh well. I sauntered over to a stack of records on the floor in the back corner of the store and sat down in front of them. I flipped through each in trying to find something new to listen to or even and old favorite I hadn't bought yet. Peter walked around the store for a little bit before joining me on the ground holding the new Floyd album: the final cut. I gave a short laugh before flipping through the last couple of records. When I hit the last one I gasped and pulled it up in front of both our faces.

"THIS ALBUM CANNOT BE OVER HERE IN THE CLEARANCE SECTION.  No this has to be a mistake! It just got released like a week ago!"

Peter looked at me and shrugged.

"Maybe it wound up over here on accident?"

I stood up and took it to the man at the register. I held it up right on the counter in front of me.

"Is this really on clearance? I mean it's brand new."

He looked at the album I was holding a laughed a little before grabbing it from my hand.

"Ah yes Bowie. We got this album on accident and the seller didn't want it back. It wasn't supposed to be on our last shipment so we're trying to get rid of it. It's yours if you want."

"Youre just gonna give me let's dance? Really?"

He shrugged.

"I don't see why not, we weren't even supposed to have it in the first place, if you want it that much it's yours."

He handed it back to me and my mouth hung open.

"That's really cool of you dude thank you so much!"

He just smiled as peter joined me at the counter. The man pointed at the Floyd album.

"That one you do have to pay for."

We both just laughed. Peter handed him the record to be rung up and paid for. When we were done we both stepped outside to leave. Peter placed his hand on the back of my head but I stopped him. He looked really confused for a second before I grabbed his hand.

"Let's walk. Your house isn't that far from here and I just kind want to go for a leisurely stroll."

I swung our interlocked hands as we walked down the sidewalk.

"Ya know y/n I had fun today. I mean you beat me at worlds of Wor but it was still fun."

"Ha! You admitted I beat you! It truly is a victory, a sweet sweet victory."

He just laughed at me.

"Yeah you can do your victory dance later, right now I just want to enjoy going slow for once. I mean this is kinda nice."

I just looked at him and smiled, carefully nudging him with my elbow.

"See it's nice to take it slow sometimes, it's easier to think, or relax, or just enjoy the simple thing's."

He stopped.

"Things like this?"

I nodded yes and smiled up at him. He smiled back at me and squeezed my hand lightly. We stood there for a minute as the wind blew around us. He tucked a small strand of hair behind my ear that had blown out of place. When he ran his hand back down he leaned in and kissed me softly. When he pulled back I grabbed him and kissed him again. When we detached our forehead rested against each other.

"Yeah, peter, things like this."

[abbysplayjournal]

Week 3 -- Classic Arcade Games at Pinballz

This week, I went to Pinballz to play some classic arcade games. I was there for about three hours, and I spent half my time playing classic arcade games, and half my time playing newer style arcade games.

It was overwhelming looking at all the classic arcade cabinets. I didn’t recognize about three quarters of the games, and I gravitated towards games I recognized or had played before. The two arcade games I’ve played the most are Galaga and Ms Pac Man, because I restaurant my family frequented when I was a kid had a combination Galaga/Ms Pac Man machine. My best friend and I spent countless dinners begging our parents for quarters so we could play Ms Pac Man, running back to our moms for more quarters when we died so we could continue our game before the timer ran out.

I’ve never been particularly good at arcade games. My friend was better at Ms Pac Man than me, so I usually watched while she played. I preferred Galaga anyway, but I was even worse at it than Pac Man. My mom, on the other hand, was awesome at Galaga. (Or at least, she was significantly better at it than I was, and as a kid, everything my mom did filled me with awe.) I was thinking about my mom’s Galaga skills when I got to Pinballz, so Galaga was the first machine I went to.

Galaga has all the traits of classic arcade games that Rouse describes in his Centipede article. The game takes place on a single screen, a player could play Galaga forever, there are multiple lives, the game has high scores, the gameplay is simple and easy to learn, and there is no story. I haven’t played Galaga in at least ten years, but I picked up the gameplay again pretty much immediately. I made it to the fourth stage on my first game, and I made it even further on each subsequent try. Galaga also follows many of the same design principles of Centipede. There are multiple types of enemy ships that have unique attack patterns, and they attack the player in turns. As the game goes on, there are new types of ships and more ships that escalate tension with each round. Like Centipede, Galaga also provides “breathing periods” when the player dies and in between rounds, and there are challenge stages where the player’s goal is to destroy all the ships as they pass by, but the enemy ships don’t fire on the player. Galaga is a really well designed game, and it’s unsurprising that it’s remained so popular.

After two rounds of Galaga, my right hand was starting to feel sore from hitting the fire button. I’m left handed, so my left hand is stronger than my right, and I found myself thinking, “if only I could hit the fire button with my left hand, maybe I’d do better.” That’s when I realized: control schemes for arcade games were designed for right handed people. I looked at the machines around me for confirmation. Basically every one had the joystick on the left side and the buttons on the right.

For reference, here’s Galaga’s control panel:

And Donkey Kong’s:

Mario Bros:

Modern arcade control panels that are sold for people playing emulated arcade games also follow the same layout: joystick on left, buttons on right.

For the first time, I realized that maybe I’m not awful at arcade games just because I’m not skilled enough, but because I’m having to use the wrong hands for the controls. I physically cannot smash a button as fast with my right hand as I can with my left, and my right hand doesn’t have the same endurance as my left. Many arcade games require you to hit the buttons repeatedly as quickly as possible, like Galaga.

I thought back to my mom playing Galaga. She’s also left handed, but she’s much closer to being ambidextrous than I am. Basically the only thing she uses her left hand for is writing; in everything else, her right is dominant. She has an inherent advantage over me.

After a few more rounds of Galaga, I decided to try Mario Bros, which I had never played before. I fared a bit better at that, because it didn’t require any button mashing, but I didn’t find it as fun. The way Mario controlled was frustrating to me, and I didn’t like how slippery the whole thing felt. After Mario Bros, I played a round of Gauntlet with a friend, and I was amazed at just how much faster she was able to hit the attack button than me. I didn’t play any games with other control layouts, but I would be interested to try some in the future to see if I have a different experience.

In Coin Operated Americans, Carly Kocurek discusses how society created and enforced the idea that arcade games were for boys and men, excluding other portions of the population that also played video games. My mom and her sister both played a lot of arcade games, but neither of them made the jump to home consoles. (At least, not until the Wii.) However, games themselves can also exclude people from being gamers, because the game mechanics are not designed for them. Different people are affected in different genres and styles of games, but I think arcade games are interesting because their very nature excludes a lot of potential players. I bring up lefties here as an example because it affects me, but game designers almost never accommodate for players with disabilities, even in modern games. Accessibility in gaming is a growing debate, one that game designers are finally starting to take seriously. Hideo Kojima recently announced that his next game Death Stranding will feature a “Very Easy Mode” for people who do not usually play video games but want to play Death Stranding because of the actors in the game.

Most arcade cabinets were designed to be played while standing, which right off the bat excludes wheelchair users or anyone who cannot stand for an extended period of time. Most arcade games feature fast-paced, easy to learn, difficult to master gameplay, designed to keep players pumping quarters into the machine. Many disabilities prevent people from becoming skilled at these games or even playing them. Taking a historical look at arcade games can help us contextualize the current calls for accessibility in video games, and hopefully banish the phrase “git good” from gamers’ vocabularies.

[petty-crush]

“No Small Affair”

-an odd, wonderful, joyous teen comedy that resonates quite well, even over patches of sparseness

-it lingers in the mind due to the strong direction and especially the magnificent, tender cinematography

-no surprise, as the main character is a photographer, and there is a warm blanket of nostalgia by both the writer, director, and cinematographer

-I actually really really enjoyed Jon cryer’s acting here, he plays a earnest vulnerability surrounded by a wall of faux cynical protection

-nice bit with all the frame with a frame as cryer’s character tries to photograph moments of empty space and animals, +he wearily notes how he cannot stand humans

-I can’t tell if his character’s voice over narration was part of the original intent, or a boardroom note. +It comes off as unintentionally clumsy in the first twenty minutes or so (as does the music)

-I laugh as I see cryer’s father figure(really step father) is played by Jeffry tambour. He really filled in that niche early, didn’t he?

-funny bit where cryer talks to his mom about his brother bringing home another fiancé, which leads them to argue about whether or not he is just saying that so he can sleep with them with impunity

-great visual moment where Cryer notices that he accidentally did snap a shot of a human and, more shockingly, he likes her. +He then proceeds to blow up several photos of her, assembling them in his wall like a giant jigsaw piece

-the mysterious woman is played by Demi Moore, who handles the role with good cheer

-I must stress that cryer’s character is 16, and combined with his numbness to his family (and those feelings coming out obtusely) this makes clear why cryer does certain acts but does not condone them

-Tim Robbins plays a wanna be punk dork, and he has his moments

-cryer is getting TV eyed by this nerdy girl who loves arcade games with coke sized glasses, and her thirst is palpable

-personally I think this girl is way more of a catch than Demi moore’s character, but there is no accounting for taste

-the fact that she’s played by Jennifer Tilly at the dawn of her jaw dropping beauty and attitude doesn’t hurt

-ok, now cryer’s brother and his fiancé is revealed and she is played by Elizabeth Daily (“Dottie” from pee wee, the singer of the title song of “Better Off Dead”) +this director has an eye for interesting and stunning women

-Demi Moore is finally found, and she is a singer in a band, reminding me of that early tori amos album where she did all that hair metal/“material girl” stuff that just didn’t suit her

-cryer’s brother is a tall glass of knucklehead with a thin layer of good hearted slobbering dog

-cryer’s awkwardness is like a beacon in the night

-there is an odd subtext of cryer’s character being a minor wandering in strange lands he shouldn’t

-the next day he goes back to the bar and overhears Moore arguing with her guitarists; perplexing moment where the guitarist says he is too old at 28 for bands and if he doesn’t make it young, he’s out the game (I call chickenshit)

-Moore goes to the aquarium to see a tumor fish to calm down

-cryer ingratiates himself to Moore in a bewildering way

-cryer’s brother has a bachelor party where they all buy him an escort; leading him to drolly note “there’s only one room in this apartment; where we gonna do it?”

-so cryer takes a under aged drink (first of many) and suggests they go see Moore sing

-the escort is touched by this tells cryer he can have her

-cryer’s blushing is a thing of beauty

-this is definitely a 70’s vibe where pretty much anything goes,

-cryer is too shy but meekly asks for a hug; the escorts laugh and adds “now that is a first”

- cryer’s mom catches them (they hilariously share a pillow to cover themselves-although cryer is still wearing underwear) and the escort excuses herself + kids in the 80’s got away with everything

-cryer boyishly finds Moore again and tries to connect more

-I don’t believe for a second Moore finds anything of loving value in cryer, but I do believe she loves the attention-the desire to be loved as a icon; in turn he can only appreciate her on a surface level + this disconnected relationship gives the film a unique emotional registry

-Moore follows cryer to school and wants to be photographed again, shocking his classmates

-again, cryer ignores the cauldron of lust that is Jennifer Tilly’s arcade girl, and I just gotta wonder why

-what is tambour even talking about with being a dope smoking kid who grew up? I find this a pretty accurate summation of a certain group of people who can’t accept they aren’t hip anymore. Pretty funny

-I also laugh at the fact the owner of the bar Moore plays at is acted by George Wendt, who did a pretty gotdamn similar role in TV. +I guess bar crawls are a mixed media thing

-this 80’s montage is one of the very, very best I have seen; the great cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmund is texturing every shot in this film with outstanding lighting and angles + it parts the oceans to let the synth music land like a ufo

-funny spot where cryer is trying to take moore’s picture, but a couple asks for a photo of them, so in one long double speed shot cryer runs around and takes twenty shots of them +kinda reminds me of “A Clockwork Orange” or “Benny Hill”

-in one of the best sequences of the whole film, cryer and moore crash a wedding for free food and drink; while she’s in the bathroom cryer is accosted by the father who demands money +his sputtering is a joy to behold

-cryer gets Moore to sing, and she totally slows down his style to do a cover of a old standard, essentially turning into a 80’s Norah jones

-this is where the film really gets cooking, this pause and abstraction shows that even with the robo music, there was a artistic bent to directors in 80’s films if they had the courage to pursue it

-this is definitely one of the most 80’s films I have ever seen; I mean that as a compliment

-in that it is a series of escapades, very loosely connected, but also surprising and varied

-in a move wholly surprising and seemingly out of a young banksy, cryer takes all his money (six grand) and has his photos of her plastered on every cab in the Bay Area

-this leads to my favorite line in the film “I’ve learned that you may be disappointed by people’s humanity, but never by their greed”

-Moore is getting all kinds of sketchy calls, realizes what happens, then freaks out and finds cryer at French class

-the French teaching is both irked and delighted at being told to fuck off in French

-cryer’s reasoning is so perfectly adolescent, and so starkly sad in his inability to differentiate true feelings and obsessions

-so after they part he goes to drink himself to death

-Moore is talked back into singing at her old bar (people are waiting around the block to see her) and she stuns then with her throaty renditions of older songs, perhaps proving people don’t want a new drug, just one in a newer suit

-I’d call bullshit but every five years some other sparkling turd carries on the baton + thus proving “same as it ever was”

-cryer has a trash bag apparel, to die like the garbage he feels he is

-thank gawd “Dottie” is here to take slobbering dog brother to find him, and then slobber bro breaks his foot on the bike

-funny jump cut to said foot

-as cryer finds out that Moore “loves” him he goes back to her apartment (which I neglected to mention is bohemian to the extreme) where she tells him thank you, and now she must go to Los Angeles

-cryer comes off as rather small here for selfishly wanting her, but, again, he is sixteen and has no healthy emotional support

-this clearly didn’t blip as a problem at the time, but now moore’s young twenties character is clearly doing statutory assault

-but I guess it’s love (or something approaching it) so sure why not

-ok, funniest moment of the film, where cryer (in bed next to Moore) calls his mom(in bed next to tambour) and says he won’t be coming home tonight +tambour says to say goodnight and then takes the phone and says “good job, son”

-like he knew without ever seeing it; he just had a hunch

-this is the first time I’ve ever seen a couple naked in bed calling another (let alone older) couple naked in bed + usually it’s a lawyer or some shit

-a long lingering look at each other in a airport, then off forever

-why am I getting recollection of “la la land”?

-so this airport has a arcade

-cryer remembers his brother saying that “love only happens once, but sex washes off” (source?)

-so, finally, (and with one more montage to establish all her past horniness) cryer goes to Tilly’s arcade girl to see if he can gobble her ms pac man fruit

-this is a very kitsch, offbeat teen humored film that is a series of escapades; there is a weird alternatively randy and sentimental vibe that permeates it; it’s also a blast and I can’t recommend it enough

[petermaximoffstories]

Dating Peter Maximoff and being Charles's would include

(I don’t know how to Tumblr. soooooo…… maybe if anyone even sees this give me advice because I suck :P)

I don’t really know when this is set just go with it it’s pretty cool

●You met Peter at a horrible movie which both of you fell asleep in. When the movie finished, an employee had to wake both of you up and since the movie showed at 10 p.m it was already incredibly late and the entire theatre felt abandoned so when you guys had to leave so it was kind of akward but eventually one of you talked of you guys just clicked. By the time both of you had gone outside, your ride had abandoned you, so Peter, even though you hesitated, insisted to take you home.

“Please Peter it’s a pretty long way there” “I swear I can take it” “Fine… where’s your car” “Oh I don’t need a car” he said as he put his hand to your head. “Wai-wha-” you were cut off by Peter speeding you while you yelled to him the directions. “It’s to the lefAHHHahaha and then to the righ-nonono Peter you’re going to drop me” you said along with other things as he just chuckled and kept running. “Wait you’re a mutant too?” He asked when you got to the mansion a.k.a your home. “Yup. Daughter of Charles Xavier who can (power of choice) and basically knows everything that goes down here which leads me to a question, do you go here?” “Nah I don’t….. never could afford it.” “Well I really want you to join us so I’ll talk to my dad about figuring something out alright” “Alrighty bye Y/N” “See ya” you saluted him as he ran off.

● In the time of the friend zone, it mainly consisted of going over to his house on breaks and watching scary shows and movies with the ocasional comedy. And when you finally convinced your dad that Peter would be a great student so that he would let him in for a smaller amount of money it consisted of you studying and him just trying to listen but eventually giving up and sleeping. ●He finally asked you out while school was climbing to its death bed and was ready to end. He sped up to you to ask the question he was longing to for quite a while and it basically went like this: “Hey Y/N” “Yes Peter” “Well you see since summer is starting and I basically have nothing to do could you be my savior or boredom?“he asked running his hand through his hair “So basically your asking if I’ll go out with you” “Yup” he said popping the p “Well then yes” “Oh oh wowowowowowieeee” he celebrated. ●Your first date was at a drive in theatre where you two watched a scary movie because you’re nerds. When you got there it was a little but not outrageously chilly, but unfortunately through half the movie it started to rain forcing people to leave. However, Peter was committed to make this a wonderful first date so he just akwardly wrapped his jacket around you and you two continued screaming and laughing at the movie with the ocasional shivers from Peter being cold with no jacket so you had to (and wanted to tbh) huddle very close to him. ●After that date there was many more to come, including going to that same drive in theatre every friday, spending time at his house listening to music, and he even would take you shopping for new shirts but it was really just so he could eat out with you, but the best thing by far you liked to do with him was go to the amusement park. He would drag you along and take you to every ride in the entire park and you, being the adventurous type would of course tag along. He was just so happy he finally met someone who would always be up for anything. Whenever you arrived at the mansion Charles would just ask “Peter again?” and when you nodded he would just reply with “that’s what I thought” with a smug expression on his face. ●Speaking of Charles the first time him and Peter properly met, which was at dinner in (restraunt of choice) Peter was just so nervous and Charles being the mind reader he is just patted him on the shoulder and said “don’t worry, I know you love her” and you accidentally overheard so you didn’t mean to but the entire time you were just really blushy and flattered. The dinner went great, and they were pratically ignoring you and making jokes about what you used to do as a kid to what you do now and comparing it to what they did and do and it was just so cool. When Peter said bye to you guys outside of the restaurant Charles said, still laughing “Y/N I honestly think he’s the one” before driving you both home. ●The first time meeting his family was an embarrassing story though, as when you walked in to his house you tripped and fell to the ground. His mom just laughed and said “don’t worry now we have a story to tell in future times” and then she introduced herself. She decided to make (favorite food) and it was better than you’ve ever had it before. “Hey Ms. Maximoff this is actually the best (favorite food) I’ve ever had.” you said truthfully. She smiled and said “Yeah I’d knew you would like it Peter said it was your favorite food” “Well he was definitely right”. When his sister decided to come meet you she was dressed in her princess costume and wrapped your arms around your waist repeatedly and forced you and Peter to watch Disney movies (when tbh I wouldn’t be forced I’d just watch them anyways) ●Cuddles all the cuddles There’s days when Peter’s the big spoon, there’s days when you are but you. never. stop. cuddling ●He adores wrapping his arms around your waist and also scaring you cuz why not. ●You getting used to his speed ●Him making mixtapes of you and when you discover them he decides to make you listen to them and tell you exactly why they remind him of you while cuddling you. ●His lil sis basically becoming your lil sis. ●Both of you growing really close to eachothers families. Like when Pete’s mom needs extra help with something she always calls you or when Charles needs help figuring things out at the mansion he calls Peter to help y'all on it. ●When Peter is sad he’ll always call you, no matter what. There is no one he rather see and you almost always know what to tell him. If you don’t he understands and you guys just listen to music or play stupid little board games to make him feel better. ●When your sad, Peter will of course talk to you about it but every time his advice doesn’t help but rather a silly thing he says after does. Like he’ll go on a rant about how you should just ignore what people say or do to you and only care about your future and it’ll put a slight smile on your face but when he says something random like “Enough with this sadness I want pizza” it makes you forget entirely what happened. ●Your first time sleeping over was at Peter’s house when his mom was gone for the weekend and she needed someone to take care of his sister. You had spent the day looking out for her and attempting to entertain her which even though you wouldn’t think it would be, it was a very stressful werkend. Especially the first night when she had a nightmare and came into Peter’s room in the middle of you guys playing pac man. She bust through the door crying and immediately ran to Peter and hugged him. “What’s wrong sweetie?” you asked patting her head. She signaled for Peter to pick her up and he placed her beneath his arms and her legs stradled his waist. “I had a nightmare” she said and she buried her head into Peters shoulders. “Awee I’m sorry” you started as Peter carried her to her room as you followed “Nightmares suck. But they’re just your imagination running wild, which makes you special. I have nightmares too you know, and whenever I get them I actually have to sing myself to sleep to calm myself down” you said and by then she had already been tucked into bed. “Can you sing me to sleep?"she asked cutely. You smiled and agreed. "Breathe breathe in the air….. don’t be afraid to care…. please don’t leave me……. look around choose your own ground” you sang and by the time you had finished she was fast asleep. Peter who had been by his sisters side leaned down and kissed her on her forehead and then went back to his room with you. “You wanna still watch that movie?” he asked and you replied with a “hell yeah” and before you knew it you woke up in the middle of the night on his couch with the TV playing a movie called the black nothingness aka it was literally playing nothing and with your head resting on his shoulder and his arms around yours he looked down at you with tired eyes and carried you to his bed where you curled up together. 💓

[amorremanet]

Lucy for the oc meme if you're still doing it :)

oc profiles meme!

*facepalms @ me* I apparently really suck at remembering to fill in my placeholders before clicking post because I get too excited about clicking “post,” this is the second time that’s happened

Full Name: Lucia Raven Murphy.

Lucy is one of my kids who got stuck having a Significant Name in universe, because unfortunately for her, her parents liked significant names. (Not quite as much as Sebastian’s entire family, but… it’s kinda hard to top them without getting into, “James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna” territory.)

Anyway. Lucy’s parents picked, “Lucia” for Saint Lucia of Syracuse, one of the early Christian female martyrs who went, “Mmm, pass” at the non-Christian dude she was betrothed to because of Jesus reasons and wound up getting killed for it, who is traditionally invoked against blindness and eye disease, but also against, “spiritual blindness” because the Catholic Church loves playing on concepts like that — one of the things I remember from Sunday school basically went, “Saint Lucy lost her sight but it gave her better insight into spiritual matters because of Jesus.”

One of Saint Lucia’s other claims to fame is that Dante invoked her throughout the Divine Comedy, and she was one of the saints in Heaven whom Beatrice went to in search of help to go save Dante’s self-insert from himself. This reference was 500% intentional, on the part of Lucy’s Mom.

And the in-universe significance of, “Raven” is that it was one of her Grandmothers’ middle names, but the meta significance is that I meant to use Mystique’s given name as a placeholder until I found a different middle name for Lucy, but then I really liked how, “Lucia Raven Murphy” rolled off the tongue and had to make up an in-character reason for it because Lucy’s parents were big on significantly significant names.

They named her big brother Damian Alexander Murphy, after one of his grandfathers (Grandpa Alex is one of Damian’s least favorite family members) and the Saint Damian of the brother pair, Saints Cosmas and Damian, the Holy Unmercernaries, who are traditionally invoked by physicians, pharmacists, surgeons, apothecaries, and veterinarians, and for protection against pestilence and plague.

Damian has still not lived down the fact that he got the, “we want our kid to go to medical school” name, but Lucy is the one who actually wanted that, herself. (Not that she wound up going down the med school track, but she did consider it very seriously and for a couple years before deciding that she liked the sound of public health advocacy better.)

Gender and Sexuality: Cis girl. // Lesbian.

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers.

Species/Race & Ethnicity: Human (mutant). // White, and if you ask her, she will claim to have no idea what her background is beyond, “I don’t know? White?”

She does this specifically because it annoys her parents and the one uncle who happens to be a priest. Lucy knows damn well that her family is mostly Irish.

Birthplace and Birthdate: November 21st, 1992. // Baltimore, MD.

Guilty Pleasures: Lucy would tell you that she doesn’t have guilty pleasures because, as part of her project of giving the Catholic church a massive, “Fuck you” for a laundry list of reasons, she does not believe in guilty pleasures. Sadly, and unfortunately for her, the Catholic guilt is not actually that easy to shake, and Lucy definitely has guilty pleasures.

Just, for her, they’re usually guilty pleasures because she feels like she’s supposed to be, “above” this or “better than” this, or she’s not supposed to like these things because she’s an adult now, right? And these are kid stuff things, so she shouldn’t be liking them anymore.

For an incomplete list: the High School Musical movies.

Scooby Doo cartoons. All of them. Even the ones that heavily feature Scrappy Doo. Even A Pup Named Scooby Doo.

Carnival games. Lucy knows damn well that they’re rigged, but they get her almost every time, because dkffjfh, she’s REALLY going to get it this time, okay.

Similarly: skill cranes.

You know the episode of Spongebob where Squidward gets obsessed with playing the skill crane and ends up giving Mr. Krabs everything he has, in exchange for more quarters, so he can play the skill crane, and drives himself into the ground with it?

Yeah, that’s why Lucy isn’t allowed to play skill cranes

Because there is precedent that suggests that she could all too easily end up doing essentially that

The old Gameboy Color that she used to steal from Damian, because it was technically his and it was more fun to play with his than to play with her own, because she got to feel like she was super-sneaky and cool (and because it made her big brother actually pay attention to her, even if it was to go, “brat, that is MY Gameboy, you have your own”).

She still has her own old Gameboy, too, but it’s more fun to play with Damian’s.

Either way, some of her favorite games on it are:

the first and second gen Pokémon games

(because she was the right age to be part of the target audience for Gold/Silver/Crystal, but she also wanted to take Damian’s copies of Red/Blue/Yellow, for the same reason why she took his Gameboy).

The Pokémon TCG for Gameboy thing.

Tetris (which usually involves a lot of yelling wordlessly, but vaguely in tune with the theme music).

Frogger.

Link’s Awakening DX, and the Oracle games.

Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.

Centipede and Millipede, and Space Invaders (the old arcade games that are older than Lucy, put on a Gameboy cartridge because why not).

The Powerpuff Girls trio of games.

and Super Mario Land.

In addition to the whole, “this is kid stuff for children and I’m supposed to be an adult“ thing, Lucy sometimes feels guilty about her Gameboy because when she gets really overwhelmed by ALL THE THINGS, she wants to be doing something, but if she can’t handle doing actual, real-world somethings now, she’ll go zone out with her Gameboy for a while, which will feel better to her than doing nothing…

…right up until she starts berating herself for being okay enough to fight Whitney’s Miltank or get through a few levels of Tetris, but not enough to do something for real

And it’s not a guilty pleasure at all (most of the time), but if the Gameboy coping strategy doesn’t work, then Lucy becomes the person who goes jogging when she’s upset, except for when it kinda stops being, “jogging” and starts being, “running until she feels like she’s going to pass out because she might”

Phobias: Not being good enough (this is one of the big ones for her, and there isn’t really an answer to, “good enough for what or whom, exactly?” because there will be either thousands of answers all at once, or none whatsoever because Lucy is fixated on the general, overall sentiment right now).

Not living life to the fullest or achieving her full potential or doing everything that she wants to do in life

Her Dad — but to be more specific: she’s afraid of letting him down (and kind of hates that she’s afraid of letting him down, because she knows that he’s a homophobic douchebag who may not have been an outright abusive father but certainly has not been exemplary, either, and she knows that she’d probably be better off if she stopped caring what he thought, and she’s kinda tried, but it’s been rough going and she’s gotten a whole lot of nothing for it);

she’s afraid of both what might happen if he finds out that she’s a lesbian, and of the possibility that he might die without knowing, which would mean that she never gets the chance to confront him about it and fight that dragon ever again — and on the off-chance that he didn’t just cut her out of his life (since, sadly, we are talking about a guy for whom, “well, at least he doesn’t believe in reparative therapy anymore”), then she’d end up missing out on the time they could’ve had without that secret hanging over everything;

and she’s afraid of what her Dad means to her and of what it might mean that she can find him reprehensible on several counts, and acknowledge the chance that he could very well turn on his own daughter and erase her from his life, or his conscious daily life anyway, and yet, she does still love him and care what he thinks and want to not let him down

and extraterrestrial life — but not in that she fears an invasion, exactly? Lucy would probably actually welcome an invasion by extraterrestrial aliens, because then she’d be right and they’d be out there for real, and that would be cool…… but in the big picture sense where she doesn’t really deal with it every day but when it does crop up, it derails whatever else she’s doing very easily? She’s afraid of the possibility that aliens are real, but they just don’t want anything to do with humans

Were that the case, Lucy supposes that she could see why and all…… but it would still suck, and think about how much we’d all be missing out on with the aliens, all because we just had to be a bunch of shit-sticks to each other

What They Would Be Famous For: This answer is starting to feel a little bit repetitive, but…… I mean. Lucy’s going to be part of a team of heroes who get together because they just want to do some real good in the world and help people, but then stumble into fighting a shadowy cabal of neo-fascist super-villains (most of whom have their own shiny cool mutant superpowers, though some of them do not and get treated as if they’re, like…… pets, more than people and full team members).

If that hadn’t happened, though, Lucy probably wouldn’t get famous and she’d be okay with that. But if she did get famous without superpowers, it’d probably be due to rabble-rousing in Washington, D.C., or being particularly loud and obnoxious in order to draw people’s attention onto the public health crises and causes that she would’ve thrown herself behind.

She probably would’ve wound up making a lot of enemies, in that way, or at least getting on the bad sides of several people — and to be fair, she’s going to end up on the bad sides of a few choice douchebags anyway — but if she’d stayed on the public health advocacy track instead of the superhero track, she would’ve definitely had a Leslie Knope moment of saying something like, “What I hear, when I’m being yelled at, is people caring loudly at me.”

What They Would Get Arrested For: Breaking and entering, trespassing, unlawful surveillance, assault maybe — basically, a lot of shit that most vigilante superheroes should be getting arrested for (and that Lucy only won’t be getting arrested for because she has a team of people who care about her enough to go, “Sweetie, no. You don’t have your license yet. If you really care about the work and the helping, and not just about running headlong into doing ALL THE THINGS because you’re bored? Then you won’t risk getting arrested just to go out there right now, unlicensed”)

OCs You Ship Them With: Lucy has Sara Grace, her girlfriend, and I don’t know if they’re going to be endgame or not, but if they’re not, then it’s going to be because they’re 22 and 23, and just getting out into the world after going to college, so growing up happens, and it’s not fun, but…… Sometimes, people can love each other and still not work out best for themselves and each other in a romantic relationship (which is pretty much Seb/Todd in a nutshell, too, right down to them having first met each other in college).

But the Lucy/Sara Grace relationship, if it doesn’t go all the way to endgame, is not going to be broken up because one of them died, because that’s rubbish and I’d rather not because it’s more fun for me to write about people who love each other trying to work through difficult times, and maybe coming out of them not loving each other romantically anymore, but without the whole, “bury your lesbians” thing because

I mean

Are we done with that trope, or are we done with that trope

Anyway. If not Sara Grace, then I’ve also been shipping Lucy with Layla, Antoinette (which would be really complicated, in a potentially bad way, because she’s kind of with the villains, for all she’s one of the ones who could be redeemed or at least brought around to work for the non-villainous side, since Annie mostly got dragged into this because of her family… but still), Helena (which would also be complicated, but mostly by virtue of Helena being one of the All-Stars — and no, she’s not one of the big movers and shakers on that team, but she’s still on the team of superheroes who have a reality show and that does tend to complicate things)

aaaaand a little bit with Allison, though that one is more like, “Lucy had a crush on Allison for a while, but pursuing any kind of romantic relationship would’ve been awkward, because first, Allison was one of her big brother’s best friends, and then, Allison was Damian’s girlfriend, and now, Allison and Damian are engaged, soooo…”

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Conrad will probably try, on the grounds that he, “wants to believe in her potential, but then suffers through watching her squander it” (which is his way of saying, “ugh why don’t you just want to give up on doing good things or helping people and come be a super-powered neo-fascist, uggggggggh”), but I already know that he’s not allowed to win that one because I’ve got other plans for both him and Lucy.

And, as with most of the people on the main team, Senator Huntington will want Lucy dead, but he isn’t going to go after her himself. He will send people after her, sure, but he hasn’t done his own dirty work since about 1984, and he has no intentions of starting it up again now.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Science-fiction. All the science-fiction (and probably an ensuing round of, “but do the aliens believe in me” and, “what if aliens ARE real but we haven’t found them because they think we’re a bunch of fuck ups and no one else in the universe wants anything to do with us”).

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliches: Protagonist-centered morality.

Edgy mcedgelord grimdark antiheroes who are all like, “rawr, I am so doing what needs to be done and therefore I am morally justified in acting like a douchebag and doing all of these skeevy-ass things and raaaawr, fuck you that’s why, I think I’m the goddamn Batman, but like all of the stories where Bruce Wayne is at his worst, or maybe like that run in the 90’s where Jean-Paul Valley got to be Batman because Bruce was busy having a broken spine, thanks to Bane.”

Lucy is just kind of averse to people acting like edgy mcedgelords in general

She has been for a long time, like. When Damian was in his early to mid teens, and Lucy was about five to nine, she was right there, getting on her cranky goth trash edgy mcedgelord big brother’s case and being all, “Yeah right, blah blah blah, the darkness in the depth of your soul truly knows no bounds, that’s totally why you turned into a big dumb puddle of mush because Allison’s new cat likes you. Calm down, edgelord.”

There’s a reason why she got, “if i were a drink i’d be a cherry vanilla coke / if you were a drink what would you be / everyone’s like, ‘bleach’ or ‘sewage’ please calm down edgelords” on the textpost meme

And that reason is that Lucy doesn’t have much patience for it when people start acting like edgelords

This can be sort of hypocritical of her, sometimes, but not that often, and if she’s going to have an edgy mcedgelord moment, she’ll usually preface it by going, “At the risk of sounding like I’m trying too hard to be edgy…” or similar

Torture being not only condoned but treated as if it’s actually effective at doing anything but causing pain and traumatizing people into telling you what you want to hear, whether it’s true or not — just…… don’t go there.

Do not try to justify torture to Lucy.

Because she’s done her homework and she knows that it doesn’t actually work, so anyone who engages in torture is just violating human rights and civil liberties for no freaking reason, and excuse you but no. She does not believe that the only way to uphold and protect your ideals and values is to violate them in one of the worst ways that you can possibly violate them.

She may not actually argue her case very well in the heat of the moment, because she is very passionate about this and about how Torture Is Straight-Up Wrong, Period, End of Discussion, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200, and it’s really easy for Lucy to lose track of a logical argument when she’s wound up

But she will, however, tap into pathos pretty well and make an argument that makes people feel bad for even thinking of supporting torture, because for having such a problem with her Catholic upbringing over the entire thing of Catholic guilt? Lucy is pretty good at sending someone on a guilt-trip

While she will acquiesce that he is not a trope, Lucy can’t stand Deadpool. She doesn’t think he’s funny, she doesn’t think that he’s saying anything particularly insightful or constructive or fun, and if you’re going to be a satire of your genre that doesn’t contribute to the discussion but rather mocks the discussion and makes fun of literally everyone having it, then the least you could do is be enjoyable in your pointlessness.

Lucy is annoyed by hipsters, poststructuralism, dada, and Deadpool, who is, to her, the worst possible conflagration of the other three things on that list, except dressed in red spandex and annoying the shit out of her.

(This is really only relevant because: 1. I’m watching Deadpool right now, and 2. at least two of her teammates think Deadpool is cool and fun, and she is judging you so hard right now, Petebastian. Why are you like this. Why.)

And Lucy says that she hates forced love triangles in stories that did not need to have love triangles — she would point at The Hunger Games series as an example — but the reality is less that she objects to the love triangles, and more that she’s just not a fan of the two boys involved, but if the love triangle were between three girls (like, Johanna/Katniss/Madge, in this example), then she’d be all over it.

Talents and/or Powers: Well, non-superpower talents first. Lucy is a go-getter and while her rousing speeches have room to get better (because, y’know… she’s 23, and has more time to learn about the art of the rousing speech), she’s getting good at giving rousing speeches. She’s almost always ready, willing, and eager to get out in the world and try absolutely everything.

If you have her on your team for a competition like, “who can sell the most raffle tickets,” then you stand a good chance of winning, because she has dedication, enthusiasm, and persistence, plus a few of the Gifts of Gab (they aren’t really her strongest suit, but she is pretty good at them).

She’s also good at scavenger hunts, for a few reasons, one of which is the way that she’s totally cool with trying to scale the side of a building, or going and digging around in a muddy field on her hands and knees, or going and bothering strangers at the mall to pose for some ridiculous selfie with her, and so on — like, whatever weird scavenger hunt shit you can throw at her (or weird shit in non-scavenger hunt contexts), Lucy is here for it because that sounds fun and heck yes, she’d love to do it

She does have a problem of needing to learn better from the past and from previous mistakes (whether they’re hers or other people’s), but the flip-side of that problem is that Lucy doesn’t usually let setbacks get her down. She should let them get her down just a little bit more, so that she can learn from them a bit better, but…… well.

When people are yelling at her, she hears them caring loudly at her, and when things go wrong, Lucy will do her damnedest to find some way to turn this messy situation into something useful and constructive, and and then drag it into the realm of Good Things, kicking and screaming if necessary. Also, she’s 23 and she’s learning, and despite having some real world and real life experiences, she’s still naive about a lot of things, so… yeah. She’s learning.

And now for the superpowers

Lucy’s most notable power is hemokinesis — which is the term that I’m using because, “blood-bending” doesn’t really work outside the world of ATLA, where it actually makes sense as a term, but that’s the gist of it.

The ATLA conception of blood-bending is also inaccurate for Lucy because their blood-bending works by having the water-benders manipulate the water in someone’s blood, which is a really neat concept, but as Lucy learns more about how to control her powers, she’s going to learn that she has control over more than just the water in someone’s blood

For example: one of the applications of her hemokinesis that she’s going to rely on a lot is manipulating platelets in order to make smaller wounds scab over quicker. (In the case of larger wounds, she’s going to have to learn how to simulate the outer walls of ruptured blood vessels by directing blood-flow in certain directions, and then how to stimulate the body’s regeneration of the different kinds of blood cells.)

(The latter power is going to make her go, “!!!!!!!” when she learns that she can do it because OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. SHE NEEDS SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE ALLOWED TO DONATE BLOOD AND WILLING TO LET HER DO THIS, COME ON, WE NEED TO GO TO THE RED CROSS RIGHT NOW AND DONATE ALL THE BLOOD, BLOOD BANKS ARE PERPETUALLY IN NEED AND LUCY CAN USE HER POWERS TO GENERATE BLOOD SO COME ON YOU GUYS, SERIOUSLY. SEB, PETE, YOUR TATTOOS AND PIERCINGS ARE OLD ENOUGH TO NOT BE AN ISSUE SO CAN YOU JUST LIE AND PLEASE PRETEND YOU DON’T HAVE SEX WITH GUYS, AND SEB PRETEND THAT YOU’VE BEEN CLEAN FOR AT LEAST A YEAR, FOR THE SAKE OF THIS, IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT.)

(strictly speaking, both of them would do so, since neither of them has hepatitis or HIV, and they agree that this is important… but Lucy’s argument would work better on Seb before he learns that he’s a mutant.

Once he learns that, though, he would need to be sat down and given a thorough powerpoint presentation about how… yes, he has a healing factor, and yes, he would definitely be dead if he didn’t have it, with everything he’s ever done to himself, but it doesn’t actually mean that he’s secretly harboring hepatitis and/or HIV and just not feeling it because of his healing factor. If his tests come up clean, then he’s clean.

And… nb: they’d be having this conversation before the FDA changes the lifetime ban on giving blood for MSM, to, “you must abstain from having sex with other men for a year or you can’t donate blood.”

Seb, however, would still have to lie about the intravenous drug use, since…… yeah, he much preferred getting high without using a needle, because despite having multiple tattoos, he’s really easy to squick with needles — like he’s fainted a few times while watching other people shoot up because needles freak him out — but easily squicked by needles or not, Seb has used IV drugs that were not prescribed by a doctor, much less monitored by one, and he’d need to lie about that.

But Pete would only need to lie about the sex with other guys, and he thinks lying about his sex life in order to donate blood is okay, given that he knows he doesn’t have hepatitis or HIV.)

(This whole thing is just going to get a lot worse when Lucy learns how to regenerate plasma. Just.

She cares so much about this particular application of her powers and YOU GUYS SHE KNOWS THAT IT’S IMPORTANT TO WORK ON TAKING DOWN THE FASCIST MUTANTS BUT CAN WE PLEASE GO DONATE BLOOD COME ON IT’S IMPORTANT.)

Anywho. Some other uses of hemokinesis are going to scare Lucy a lot more, because, for example, she can use this power to heal…… but she could also create a blood clot and give someone a heart attack or stroke, and if she isn’t in control of it, she could do that without necessarily meaning to (e.g., if it happens as a panic response to being attacked by someone else)

And, uh. While it’s kind of cool to be able to generate the blood enough to make a sword, then make it dense, hard, and sharp enough to actually function as one? It’s also… kinda gross? And unless Lucy gets injured and gets her blood from there, her options are ““borrowing”” someone else’s blood — which she’d rather not do because what the fuck, that blood isn’t hers to go turning into a sword just because she can — or self-harming, which?

Even granted that she could get away with just pricking her finger or something, uh.

That’s pretty scary for Lucy, and more so because her girlfriend has dealt with self-harm before and it’s just?? Lucy isn’t sure if her belief in the greater good and getting shit done to benefit everyone would be enough to get her through self-harming in the name of creating a blood weapon when this could end up hurting Sara Grace

If she had no other options that would work, Lucy would probably do it, but…… seriously. Creating a blood weapon is going to be one something she’s only going to pull out if the other options have been exhausted and she’s basically down to, “surrender,” “die,” or, “make the damn blood weapon.”

Tangentially related to her hemokinesis, Lucy is eventually going to be able to tap into different uses of osteokinesis (or bone manipulation).

If she weren’t so excited about science and medicine, she might not make the connection on her own, but… blood is generated in bone marrow (which is why, if you get a bone marrow transplant, your body will generate blood that looks like it belongs to someone else, genetically).

Lucy’s going to have a lot on her mind for a while that’s more immediately pressing and that keeps her from fully making this connection — and getting into manipulating bones and bone marrow in more ways than, “generate ALL THE BLOOD for the Red Cross!!!” and so on, Lucy is going to have a harder time learning to control these powers and making them do what she wants

—but she will get a handle on her osteokinesis eventually, and be able to use it to heal broken bones (and several other things, but healing broken bones will probably be one of her preferred uses because…… no, seriously, a lot of the other uses of bone manipulation are going to freak her out kind of a lot).

(And at the risk of sounding like she’s trying too hard to be edgy, but? Holy shit, why did she have to get a bunch of edgelord powers like she’s just languishing outside a fucking Hot Topic, dressed all in black and complaining about all the goddamn conformists like how dare they listen to Beyoncé and Britney Spears instead of “Wake Me Up Inside” or Korn or whatever the fuck goth kids listen to, UGH.)

(Josie: “……Actually? It’s called, ‘Bring Me To Life.’”

Lucy: “………Huh?”

Josie: “The song that has, ‘wake me up inside’ as part of its chorus. Its actual title is, ‘Bring Me To Life,’ and…… eh? It isn’t not-Goth, but you would find quite a few Goth kids who’d rather not be associated with it because it was too big a hit when it first came out and they feel like this makes it a conformist song.”

Lucy: “…………Okay, question. Did I ask for a lesson about how you used to be a goth kid fairy princess back when you were in high school or whatever?”

Josie: “Okay, that song came out well after I’d finished high school, but who’s counting—”

Lucy: “Or did I ask for someone to please listen to me vent about how my powers are such freaking edgelord trash and it’s annoying?”

Josie: “……Neither, technically. You didn’t ask, you just kind of started venting.”

Lucy: “……*folds arms over her chest and just gives Josie an incredibly unimpressed face*”

Josie: “……I’m sorry. You were venting. Please, go on. I’m listening.”

Lucy: “Nah, I’m gonna go vent to Pete instead, he doesn’t correct me about songs I don’t care about when I’m mid-vent.”

………and then, about two hours later, Margot had to stop Pete and Lucy from going to stake out the nearest Hot Topic because…… no, you two. No. There is nothing untoward happening at Hot Topic.

Margot generally agrees with the grievances that you both have with Hot Topic, but there is not actually anything criminal going on at Hot Topic; you’re both just looking for something to be happening so you can justify wasting time on what is essentially a glorified game of you two hanging around outside Hot Topic, people-watching, and making pointlessly judgmental comments about the people who work or shop there.

Which Margot isn’t actually against, most of the time or in principle — except she is against it when you’re calling it work and wasting time that you’re really supposed to be spending on following up on leads about real supervillain problems.)

Other miscellaneous powers that Lucy has: a healing factor (it’s nigh impossible to find a mutant who doesn’t have one, and hers isn’t as intense as Seb’s, but that’s just because his has been through worse shit and it’s gotten a lot tougher as a result because environment and experiences have an important role in shaping if, how, and/or when the mutations that are coded in someone’s genes fully manifest and what the full extents of these manifestations will end up being)

Heightened senses (which is going to help contribute to Lucy finally finding out that she’s on the autistic spectrum, because the sensory overwhelm Hell is going to finally outstrip her ability to cope with things and make herself seem more or less neurotypical)

Increased stamina (which her healing factor helps with, yeah, but they are technically separate)

Super-strength (……ish. Like, she does end up with enhanced strength, yes, but the things is, she also ends up supplementing it with two things:

1. working out and strength training — and asking Seb to teach her how to fight because he knows how, and he didn’t learn it in any organized martial arts or boxing or whatever blah blah blah, he learned it from an actual need to defend himself and others, which means that he knows how to fight effectively, and come on come on come on, it’s not like Lucy’s asking him to start a Fight Club with her, she just wants to be a good superhero, pleeeeease?;

and 2. temporarily increasing the density and weight of her own blood to make her punches hit harder — which is a very specific way of supplementing her enhanced strength that doesn’t actually translate to most uses of it that don’t involve hitting things, and it may not hurt her as quickly and obviously as, say, trying to punch someone when you don’t know the right way to make a fist, don’t have your knuckles taped and/or can’t prep yourself for the pain that will come if you don’t have your knuckles taped, etc.

…but a couple hours after she does this, Lucy will have to deal side-effects as her blood tries to shift back to its normal density, and as her body tries to catch up with that, and all of it will suck)

And (in Sara Grace’s words), “a super-mutant refusal to give up in the face of things that are terrifying and difficult and might make other people run screaming” and, “the most super-mutant cutest little nose-wrinkle ever in all of the history of the entire planet ever”

Why Someone Might Love Them: …it’s late and I’m tired, so fair warning, we’re getting into, “this is where the crappy answers start up” territory right now but with that being said:

Lucy is enthusiastic, and completely earnest about it. Like, she has some semblance of tact, but it’s really difficult for Lucy to fake being enthused about something when she isn’t, so when she’s all excited and eager and everything? It’s for real, and it can be contagious, because she just believes so much in how cool it is to care about stuff and give them your all and fight for what you believe in and so on, and her energy and enthusiasm rub off on other people

(Which, admittedly, some people don’t like very much, but other people do, so.)

She may not be perfect, but she does always try to be a better person. This is hindered most by how slow she is to learn from past mistakes, and by her eagerness to keep plowing forward and to get up, dust herself up, and get back in the fray as soon as possible — but she’s the member of the main cast who is most likely to give a, “You know, I learned something today!” type of speech about how they can all take the most recent odd miscellaneous misadventures and turn them into practical self-improvement and being better people for real

(One problem that she needs to work on here is that she’s a definite Gryffindor, and she has that Gryffindor tendency to sometimes steamroll over people because she’s made a decision about what the Greater Good is or what’s best for everyone — and to Lucy’s credit, she can be stopped if you’re patient with her and go, “No. Here is what you’re doing, now stop”… but, still. She’s trying to work on the whole steamroller problem, but…… it’s a process for her.)

(Also, she’s not exactly a Pollyanna, but Lucy does believe in trying to find the bright side and the potentially useful aspects of everything, even if it kills her, so she can kinda seem like it, sometimes.)

For all she puts up a front as much as most of the rest of my characters — and Lucy’s front generally tends to be a version of herself that is more competent than she necessarily feels and definitely more self-assured than she feels at any given moment — Lucy is also more comfortable with being genuine and real with people, without it having to be that she’s breaking character or slipping up or something.

Like, her front isn’t one she uses to try and push people away or keep them from seeing her vulnerabilities; she uses it to try and convince people that she’s okay, and she’s got this, and you should take her seriously because she knows what she’s doing and she’s got this and if you don’t believe her, just watch

(Who listens to “Uptown Funk” when she needs a pep talk? Uh, yeah, that would be Lucy.)

So, she’s not one of my characters who’s going to go to ridiculous lengths to try and keep her true self from coming out — aside from: 1. trying to minimize some of her vulnerable spots. specifically the ones that make her; and 2. the balancing act she has with being half-closeted, but that’s not based on trying to push people away; it’s about being genuinely terrified of what her parents would do to her if she came out to them

—and when she wants to get to know someone, then she she’s more comfortable sharing parts of herself with them than most of her teammates

And she’s dedicated. Like, really, really dedicated. She tires not to expect the same level of dedication from other people… but Lucy herself won’t feel good about her efforts on something ‘til she’s given it 5,010% percent of what she has to offer and then tried to give more

Why Someone Might Hate Them: She can be overwhelming to deal with, even when she doesn’t mean to be. Her dedication can be exhausting to deal with, and she sometimes doesn’t really get that seriously, Lucy: it’s okay to chill out a little bit and not try to go charging headlong into absolutely everything. She often doesn’t get that she’s being a steamroller until someone points it out to her, and while she is genuinely sorry for that (most of the time), the whole thing where she doesn’t learn from her mistakes very easily is kind of a problem.

And, on the (usually) less understandable end, some people find her earnestness off-putting, and genuine belief in always doing the best that you can, trying to be the best that you can be, and trying to do the most good in the world that you can possibly do.

Sometimes, this is understandable, because Lucy can do this without being as sensitive as she could be about everything that’s going on in any given situation — most likely because she thinks that she’s right and hasn’t stopped to consider the other perspectives in play right now — and is being a giant, runaway steamroller with no brakes and a lead foot on the gas pedal.

Other times, though, people have gone after her earnestness and her attempts to be a good person, and a hero in her own right, because they’re being cynical dicks and going, “ugh, you are so naive and it’s annoying, stop it”

How They Change: Probably the biggest things that Lucy’s going to deal with as part of her character growth are: 1. learning how to learn from her mistakes, or other people’s mistakes, or the past in general because she really needs a better balance between her, “YEAH LET’S GO FUTURE YAY LET’S WORK FOR THE FUTURE IT’S ALL GOING TO BE SO MUCH COOLER THERE, I DO NOT WANT TO BE CHAINED TO THE PAST BECAUSE IT SUCKED, YAY FOR THE FUTURE” positive view of and approach to life, and the truth at the heart of, “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”;

and 2. her naivete is going to get kicked in the teeth. It’s not as clear-cut as, “the naivete is completely wrong and all of the cynical dicks in her life have been right all along” — it’s more the case that everyone involved in this discussion is being too extreme and/or too absolutist about something in how they approach life, they all have some fair and valid points (some of them more than others), and they all have places where they’re really in need of some changes to better themselves and to do better by the other people in their lives

—but Lucy is still really naive about some pretty important shit, and her naivete is going to get kicked in the teeth, and then her commitment to positivity and finding the bright side of things or a way to make them useful and so on? Yeah, that’s all going to be tested. A lot.

A big part of her development is going to be about finding a balance between her ideals and commitment to trying to be a positive force in the universe, and needing to pay better attention to the practical details and actual reality of what’s going on around her and what she’s sticking her superpowered bunny nose into.

Also, she’s going to learn that she’s on the autistic spectrum and have to deal with that, and like.

Mutant superpowers? She didn’t expect those, but she has thought about what she might do in this kind of situation because she’s grown up in a world where mutants with superpowers are real and fairly well-known and so it’s entirely plausible that she or someone she knows could turn out to be a mutant, so there are some aspects of this that Lucy hasn’t really prepared herself for and wouldn’t have seen coming and so on and so forth, and it’s not like the adjustment will be that easy for her, but it won’t take long to find a groove to settle into

But she really didn’t see being on the autistic spectrum coming and she consequentially has no idea what to make of it when it comes to her awareness

Why You Love Them: 3:11 AM crappy answer time, but… because Lucy is, in a lot of ways, kind of a mess — not as much as some of her teammates, but to be fair here, among the main team and with the exception of Sara Grace, they’re all 7 to 12 years older than Lucy is, so they’ve had more time to get themselves into a ton of shit and make themselves into different kinds of human disasters — but she’s trying and so freaking help her, she’s going to do it all with a positive attitude and a mind to help create good changes in the world wherever and whenever she can. And I admire that dedication in her

[sushigirlali]

Copy and paste the questions, then answer them and tag your gamer friends to compare answers!

Tagging: @casleyislove / @craniumhurricane / @dvrkrey / @amandaanime99​ / @eclinu​ / @nite0wl29​ / @pacificwanderer​ and anyone else who wants to do this!! Feel free to message me about video games anytime XD

1. What's your favorite game of all time? The Last of Us

2. What's a game you thought you'd like but actually hated? The entire Assassin’s Creed franchise. I want to like these games, but I hate how they play ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3. What's a really popular game everyone seems to love but you don't like? Borderlands

4. What's a game you didn't expect to enjoy but ended up liking? Days Gone. This game is so much better than the initial reviews stated

5. What game have you spent the most amount of hours on? Deus Ex: Human Revolution (I played it twice for the plat)

6. If you had to marry the last video game character you played, who would it be? Jessie Blazkowicz (Wolfenstein: Youngblood) 🗡️

7. If you had to live in the world of the last game you played, what world would it be? Nazi controlled Paris during the 1980s (Wolfenstein: Youngblood)

8. Have you ever had a crush on a video game character? Ha. Yes. Lara Croft from Tomb Raider and Sephiroth from FFVII

9. What was the first game you ever remember playing? Super Mario World or Ms. Pac-Man 

10. Have you ever pretended to be sick to get out of something so you could play a game? LOL yes

11. What game did you last complete? God of War (2018)

12. What game are you playing right now? Wolfenstein: Youngblood

13. What game do you want to play next? The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan 

14. In your opinion, what is the best games console? PS4

15. Are PC gamers really superior to console players? No

16. What's your opinion on Fortnite? Blah

17. Have you ever watched a Twitch stream? Yes

18. Have you ever streamed yourself on Twitch or YouTube? Twitch, yes

19. Have you ever used a walkthrough? Yes

20. What's the best weapon you've ever used in a game? Blades of Chaos in God of War or the Gonzo Gun in The Suffering

21. Have you ever had to stop playing a game because it was too scary? Yes. I couldn’t play the Silent Hill or Resident Evil games alone as a kid

22. Has a game's storyline ever made you cry? Yep, quite a few. Story heavy games are my jam!

23. What's your favorite fighting class: warrior, mage, or rogue, and why? Mage. I love magic!

24. What's your favorite game genre? Action-adventure

25. Do you prefer multiplayer games or to go solo? Solo

26. Do you prefer co-op or player vs player? Co-op

27. What is the first console you ever owned? SNES

28. What or who got you into video games in the first place? I played the arcade version of Ms. Pac-Man at daycare and my mom bought me a SNES when I was like six

29. What is the longest amount of time you have sat playing games non-stop? Hmm probably not more than 24 hours, but close

30. If video games didn't exist anymore, what would you do? Cry and buy more board games lol

31. What is your favorite song from a game? The Last of Us Main Theme by Gustavo Santaolalla

32. Have you ever wanted to live in a world from a game? If so, which one and why? Is Horizon Zero Dawn a weird answer? Robot dinosaurs are neat, y’all

33. Which video game character do you most wish you were like? Lara Croft. I’d love to be an aristocratic archaeologist 😆

34. What's a game you've spent the most amount of money on? Umm probably the Stone Mason Edition of God of War (2018). I don’t really play games with microtransactions

35. If you could have one power of any video game character, who would it be? Corvo’s Blink ability in Dishonored

36. Who do you usually choose as your fighter in Super Smash Brothers/Soul Calibur? My girl Princess Peach, though I’m terrible at Smash

37. XBOX or PlayStation? Choose one! P L A Y S T A T I O N

38. What are you hoping for at the next E3? Horizon Zero Dawn 2!!!!!!!!!!!

39. Who is your favorite villain from a video game and why? Andrew Ryan from BioShock (what a great reveal!) or GLaDOS from Portal because she’s terrifying and hysterical

40. What is your favorite game from your childhood? Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!

41. Are there any games you're really bad at? Racing games. I’m terrible at pretend driving lol

42. Have you ever seen somebody get really angry when they lose? Yeah, me 😂😂

43. What's your favorite game series of all time? Uncharted, God of War, Tomb Raider, Dishonored, BioShock...I can’t pick

44. What's more important: action or story? Story 1000%. I can forgive a lot if the story is good

45. Is there a game that is considered to be really bad but is your secret guilty pleasure? Can’t think of one. I like what I like and feel no guilt about it!

46. If you could have any video game character as your best friend, who would it be? Claire Redfield (Resident Evil) or Elena Fischer (Uncharted)

47. If you could marry any game character, who would it be? Chloe Frazer (Uncharted) or my fave grumpy god Kratos. That man needs a partner to balance him out XD

48. Would you rather have loads of time to play games but only be able to buy two games a year, or be able to buy loads of games but never have much time to play them? Option 2 is literally my life, so I guess I’ll stick with the status quo 😅

49. In your opinion, what is the worst game of all time that you've played? Prince of Persia 2008. The art style was cool, but that game sucked hard. Plus, the real ending was only accessible through paid DLC :/

50. Would you give up video games for life and receive $500,000 in cash, or would you refuse the money? No freakin way! Video games are a big part of who I am, so I’d refuse the money

[fardell24b]

Lawndale and Sandi Griffin’s Genie - Chapter 2 Part 3

Daria arrived at Jane’s house and knocked on the door. There was no answer. ‘Maybe she is still asleep,’ she thought. She knew that Jane wasn’t a morning person, often requiring coffee to properly function. She found that the front door was unlocked. ‘figures, Trent forgot to lock the door,’ she thought.

Jane was on level 157 of Pac-Man when Daria entered the room. “Did you and Trent play games all night?” Daria asked.

 A ghost got Jane’s Pac-Man, bringing an end to the game. “Yo Amiga!” Jane said, getting up stiffly and ensuring that she didn’t disturb the sleeping form of Trent (although she knew that wouldn't wake him anyway).

“Of course,” Daria said. To say that Trent Lane fell asleep was practically a tautology.

“So what is this about a genie? And what it has to do with what happened at school yesterday?” Jane asked.

“Mom asked us about what happened at school and Quinn says that she wouldn’t believe it,” Daria said.

“And?”

 “Mom then asked Quinn why wouldn’t she believe it, and Quinn said that the events were totally fantastical, which they were,” Daria began.

“I see,” Jane said.

Daria then repeated everything that Quinn had said. (albiet, with more sardonic commentary).

 Jane then told Daria about Tom and herself running into Sandi and Jean at the bowling alley and her 11th birthday present from Trent.

  Sandi and Jean walked down the stairs to the kitchen, where Sam and Chris were already having their breakfast. Sandi could tell that Sam hadn’t told Chris about the emerald. She then went and grabbed her box of low-carbohydrate cereal from the pantry. Jean put some toast into the toaster. “What is your plan?” She asked.

 “We will go to school and, like, try to stay out of sight,” Sandi said, wondering how it had come to that.

 “Good plan,” Jean said. She could see Linda come down the stairs.

 “Good morning!” Linda said.

  Lawndale Offices of Vitale, Davis, Horowitz, Rhiordan, Shrechter and Shrechter 8:00

Helen looked up from her piles of paperwork to see her boss, Eric Shrechter, walk into her office.

“Helen, you wanted to see me?” he asked.

 “Yes, Eric. Something has come up regarding the High School, and I need some time off this afternoon to talk to some of the other parents about the issue,” Helen said.

 “What sort of issue?” Eric asked, wondering what had come up.

 “That is confidential and on a need to know basis,” Helen said strongly. She didn’t want anyone else in the law firm to know about the genie.

 “Can’t your husband be there?” Eric asked.

 “He could, and he may be, but I need to be there myself. I would like to know more about this issue first hand,” Helen said.

 Eric thought. “It depends on how busy we are today,” he said, finally.

 “Oh, alright,” Helen said as Eric left the office. She immediately went back to work.

  “...In conclusion we agree that Sandi having the genie is a bad thing and that we need to sleep on it,” Stacy finished summarising the notes from their discussion at Tiffany’s the previous afternoon.

 “Very good, Stacy,” Quinn said, encouragingly.

 “So, your sister said that we need to consider the fact that Mrs Griffin or Ms Li may get the emerald?” Stacy asked.

 “Cousin,” Quinn corrected.

 “Oh, Quinn, we know that Daria is your sister,” Stacy said. ‘If this isn’t the time for this, there is otherwise no time,’ she thought.

 “We were just being polite about it,” Tiffany added.

 “Oh,” Quinn said. ‘Of course, there is an obvious resemblance, such as there is between Mom and Aunt Rita,’ she thought. “Thanks. Anyway, Stace, you were saying?”

 “So, Daria suggested that we need to consider the fact that Mrs. Griffin or Ms. Li may get the emerald?” Stacy asked.

 “Yes,” Quinn said.

 “Right, which situation do we consider first, Mrs. Griffin or Ms. Li?” Stacy asked as she took down the notes.

 Quinn thought about it for half a minute.

 “Qui-inn?” Tiffany asked, wondering if she had dozed off.

 “Most likely Ms. Li, because Sandi most likely will go to school today,” Quinn said.

 “Ok, so you think that Jeans mischievous nature will cause her genie nature to come to Ms Li’s attention?” Stacy asked. ‘A likely outcome!’ she thought.

 “Exactly,” Quinn said, although she was sure that she wouldn’t have had put it exactly the way that Stacy had.

 “But there is no way to know what sort of events would happen as a result of Jean’s mischief!” Stacy said, starting to hyperventilate again.

 “I know, we may need to organise some sort of distraction,” Quinn said.

 “Bu-ut what sort of dis-traction?” Tiffany asked, confused. ‘It would have to be a very good distraction,’ she thought.

 “I am sure Daria would have an idea,” Quinn said.

 “But what do you think?” Stacy asked. ‘I am certain that she will come up with something. She does come up with many of ideas in the Fashion Club,’ she thought.

 Quinn thought and came up with an idea. ‘It seems crazy, but it might just work,’ she thought. She then told the other two.

 “But are you sure that would work?” Stacy asked.

 “It would have to, unless Daria and her art friend can think of something else,” Quinn said. ‘I am certain that Daria would help me improve the plan,’ she thought.

 “What if it doesn’t work?” Tiffany asked.

 “Then Ms. Li may find out,” Quinn said.

 “But it must work!” Stacy said.

 “Relax, Stacy, we may come up with something else,” Quinn said. ‘Multiple plans, and contingency plans for all of them. Definitely Daria’s territory or maybe of that tycoon guy on that cartoon about those living statues,’ she thought.

 They continued their discussion.

  “Quite an interesting situation, it would be worthy of a Sick Sad World episode!” Jane said when Daria had finished her commentary.

 “And most viewers would say ‘what the hell are they thinking’,” Daria said.

 “’A genie in a Maryland suburban High School? Magic in the burbs, next on Sick Sad World!” Jane said, imitating the usual SSW announcer.

 “It may work,” Daria said, with a tiny smirk.

 “Told ya,” Jane said.

 “Besides, we need to be going if we are going to meet Quinn, Stacy and Tiffany with sufficient time before homeroom,” Daria said.

 “Whose idea was that again?” Jane asked.

 “Mine.”

 “And Quinn agreed?”

 “Jane, if we’re going to stop this problem before it gets out of control, we need all the help we can get!”

 “True, but the fashion fiends?” Jane asked. ‘Unless they’re growing up somehow,’ she thought.

 “They aren’t as dumb as they appear; at least Quinn and Stacy aren’t,” Daria said.

 “I guess so,” Jane said, unconvinced. Daria noticed the ET game cartridge where Jane had thrown it aside earlier. She picked it up.

 “Isn’t this the worst game of all time?”

 “According to Trent, Wind bought it,”

 “That sort of makes sense. Not only is he a failure at relationships, he is also a failure as a gamer,” Daria said.

 “Yeah,” Jane said as she lead the way out of the room.

 “Do you think it would be safe to leave Trent in your room?”

 “He knows not to mess with my stuff.”

  Lawndale High School 8:40

After arriving early to school Anna Pearce was looking for Jean. She was curious to know why Jean was a genie and curious as to what the emerald could do...

 “Anna? What are you doing?” Her friend, Lisbeth Siobhan ‘Chipmunk’ Ogden, asked as they appeared to be aimlessly wandering the school’s corridors.

  “There was a genie at school yesterday, and I am sure that it will be here today,” Anna said.

 “Maybe,” Chipmunk (Chip for short) said. Whilst she had heard of the rumours the previous day and had seen the extra floor on the science block, she was sceptical.

 “You were here yesterday,” Anna said, as they entered the Industrial Arts Block.

 “It is rather fantastical, even with that extra floor.”

 “Maybe if you went to the library with me after school, instead of going to Track training, you would have better deductive reasoning skills,” Anna said.

 Chip wasn’t sure what Anna was talking about. “But I am good at it!” she said, referring to her position in the Track team.

 “Oh sure,” Anna said, in a teasing tone. Chip rolled her eyes.

  Jeffy Brown’s car pulled into the LHS student parking lot, close to the school. “Thanks for the ride, Jeffy,” Quinn said.

 “Anything for you, Quinn,” Jeffy said, sincerely. Stacy and Tiffany got out of the back seat, Stacy remembered to lock the door, but Tiffany didn’t.

 “Do you know where to meet Daria and Jane?” Stacy asked.

 As if on cue; Trent’s Plymouth coupé, being driven by Jane, pulled in next to Jeffy’s car. Jane turned off the engine and got out. Daria also got out.

 “Oh,” Stacy said.

 “I see that taking Trent’s car was a good idea,” Jane said.

 “Wasting time searching for them would not have been well spent,” Daria said.

 “Hi, Daria, have you and Jane come up with anything?” Quinn asked.

  The Fashionable Trio plus Jeffy and the Amiga Outcasts filled each other in on their discussions as they walked towards the school.

  Daria reached the door first. “That is a good idea, Quinn,” she said. She was going to say something else (with a mixture of encouragement and sarcasm), but she was interrupted by Jane.

 “Quite surprising that you would come up with it,” she said.

 “Well, Jane, this situation is quite shocking. As a result, I have started to re-evaluate what is important,” Quinn said, seriously.

 “Oh!” Jane said, at a loss for words at the (slight) change in Quinn.

 Daria didn’t know what to think about it either. She knew, however, that the changes in Quinn were slight. ‘It is at least a few steps in the right direction,’ she thought.

 “But how are you going to set it into motion, Quinn?” Jeffy asked.

 “We need to find a few others and talk to them about it. The bigger the distraction, the better,” Quinn said.

 “The question is; who would be suitable?” Jane said.

 “Andrea, Jodie, Mack, and though I loath to admit it, Upchuck,” Daria said.

 “Upchuck? Really? Eeeeww!” Quinn said.

 “There are brains in our grade who would do it better than Upchuck!” Stacy offered.

 “Ok, Upchuck as a last resort. That leaves the other 3, and those other ‘brains’ that Stacy mentioned,” Daria said.

 The group turned a corner, heading towards the HSIE block.

 “Now to find one of those people, preferably Jodie and Mack,” Jane said.

 “Joey and Jamie can help as well!” Jeffy said, as he trailed behind. ‘They aren’t as dumb as you think either,’ he thought.

  Whilst Anna and Chip were passing through the Industrial Arts block and the Amiga Outcasts, Fashionable Trio and Jeffy were discussing whom would help them in their planned distraction of Ms. Li from Jean’s nature, Elias exited the library on his own search for Jean. He was sure that she needed a friend. He also wanted to keep an eye on Sandi, to ensure that she wouldn’t make any wishes that would change Lawndale any further.